THE SHIRK OF SELF - sharing or associating blame to something or someone other than me

Yesterday's sunset

The Shirk of Self & Blameworthiness

Between yesterday's sunset

And today's sunrise,

I have learnt of

The Shirk of Self and 

The Shirk of Blameworthiness;

When for the longest time I have associated

My self to something or someone other than me

By associating my sins and mistakes to something or someone other than me.

So lest I forget, let me declare that I bear witness that

There is none more blameworthy than me

In all that I do or fail to do!

........................................................................

What is shirk? At its basic as taught to me all those many years ago, shirk is the act of associating or making a partner to God Almighty, or in another way, by associating or partnering God to other things or deities. 

The Shirk of Self and Blameworthiness is a form of shirk where the sinner associates his sins, his neglect and errors to something or someone other than himself. It is running away from the oneness of his blameworthiness, and the veiling of his sins from himself. This is spiritual poison as.. 

...we must accept the blame, and let blame call us by our own name...

Because the alternative is impossible. The alternative path is the path of rejecting one of the beautiful divine attributes of Allah (s.w.t.) when He Himself said in a hadith (oral tradition) of our majestic Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), 

"O' My servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another."

Oppression has a very wide meaning and would include being unfair, and placing blame unfairly. Were we to blame something else or (even worse) someone else for our own folly and misdeeds, we have not only oppressed that something else or someone else, but we would have also denied God's absolute utter Fairness and Rightness by claiming, "How can I be blamed? It was him, it was her! It was the weather, it was the hunger, it was the Sun, it was the Moon, it was time! It was the lack of time! It was too much time! It was my work, it was my parents who failed to bring me up well! It was the day, it was the night! It was everything and everyone else... I cannot be blamed. I am not to be blamed! There speaks the ego of Mankind through the ages.

Acceptance of blame is the acceptance of the power of Allah the Changer of People, Things and Circumstances. Ya Allah... I am to be blamed! I am the blameworthy one! You are the One that cannot be blamed for any wrong! So in Your Rightness, right me! In your Absolute Utter Correctness, correct me! Guide me and leave me not a moment alone to the whispers of my ego and the Accursed one! O' Thou Who art the Only Owner of Absolute Fairness, Place me amongst the Nation of Muhammad, upon whom shines a Lamp Fair and Wonderous beyond the contemplation of mortal men!

Phew. 

Hi there, sunshine. What are you doing here today, reading the ramblings of this sinner? There must be some purpose... come to my life and help me, for I am ever in need of those that Allah (s.w.t.) and the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) has sent to guide me to goodness, away from the ego-centric deception of my shirk of myself. 

Today's sunrise.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Lexicon of Love and the Journey in the Meaning of Words - I met a nun once...

Life is...

A Journey in the meaning of words.

..............

The Power of Words. Thus was a prose recorded a couple of years back. It is a simple idea with both beautiful and terrible consequences. People have been saved by words, inspired to do good by words, to help his fellowmen, to preserve the environment and treat all of creation with the respect and love that it deserves. On the other hand, words have led to assaults, murders, thievery, rape and bloody wars ranged between mighty nations on earth. So it is important to have a clear idea as to the meaning of words. For they can bring you both goodness and evil.

Happy meaning. I am happy when I come across happy souls who can teach me the meaning of words. Because contented people have an outlook towards life that glimmers with the light of love. They may be not-well-to-do, living in an desolate ghetto, or they may be staying in a suburban paradise, but their optimistic, never-say-die attitude enlivens the very words that they use. The word 'God' becomes this mind-bendingly awesome Divine Personality of incredible Wisdom, Mercy and Compassion. And for Muslims, the word 'Love' and 'Muhammad'(pbuh) becomes this wonderful avenue through which God approaches mankind, and by which we are called to approach His Divine Presence.

We are all heretics. In a 2010 posting, Katherine, who writes the Nun Tuck's Almanac wrote an interesting piece entitled 'TEN RELIGIOUS WORDS THAT THE SPINDOCTORS DOCTORED.' She is a Christian and I often found her writing admirable and worthy of praise. Here is one of the ten words...

"9. HERETIC- The Roman Catholic church has, over the centuries, given this word a new definition. Its current definition means those who hold unorthodox or controversial beliefs or opinions which differ from that of the official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. However, in its original form, the word, from its Greek roots “hairetikos” to its Latin and early English and French derivations, simply means ”able to choose”. SO, A HERETIC, IS ONE WHO IS ABLE TO CHOOSE WHAT HE OR SHE BELIEVES. A wonderfully democratic term turned slander."

.............. (Click Here to go to the blog post)

If we were to apply the original meaning of 'heretic' I guess we can then say that all of mankind (and Djinn) are therefore heretics. For that is the distinctive nature that God has imbued into Adam and Eve... the ability to choose - To elect whether to do good or bad. A power (for it is a power, actually) and a trust that no one and nothing else in creation were willing to accept. This was the divine offer and promise transacted between God and each soul in the Day of Promises.

When it comes to religion and spirituality, the wise always says that it is the inside that counts, not the form or appearance. I think if we can practice and nurture this simple ideal, there is no challenge we cannot face down even in this often troubled and divisive times. Together, you and I, sunshine, we can continue this journey in the meaning of words, and complete our Lexicon of Love.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Celebrating the Prophet's Birthday. Nuts to the Naysayers & Deniers!

9. The Preachers

Oh, preachers, reflect!

What have you made me to be?

A malignant messenger-boy?

Cursing, cursory and desultory?

Dropping the Criterion on your laps,

Saying, “Well, okay then, must hurry!”?

What foul impressions have you wrought?

Why have my story you cut short?

Cease your endless prattle,

And lay not your salutary wreath on Muhammad’s tomb.

I am sent by my Lord

As a herald of Mercy, not doom.

And yet strangely, this pleases you not!

There is a part of the Muslim congregation with strange unworldly views. For the longest time they have preached what they believe to be tawhid, the sacrosanct Oneness of God, monotheism at its strictest. And in doing so they have often railed against other Muslims for their apparent breach, accusing such Muslims of apostasy and heresy for simply loving the Prophet Muhammad, the man who reignited monotheism in the hearts of the Arabs and the world. There is an infamous name associated to this group, but I like to refer to them as the Naysayers and Deniers.

Mika at the Maulid ur Rasul celebration at the zawiya last night.

The Naysayers and Deniers are absolutely against Muslim visitations to the graves, and had they the political will, no doubt they would prohibit Muslims from paying their respects not only to the tomb of the Prophet (the holy Raudah), but to the graves of his Family, the Companions, the Saints and even our own deceased kin. They would judge me foolish and perhaps even heretical for visiting my own mother's resting place. For they are saying, "What good can you do? Heaven or Hell is by their past deeds, you cannot help your mother!" And they will also say, "What good have you to pray by their graves? Not even the Prophet can help you now that he is dead. Instead of asking help from God, you are asking for intercessions from the Prophet. He is only a dead man. Why, my walking stick here does more good for me than the Prophet, for it helps me to walk... the Prophet cannot do that!"

Now that is what I call a hat!

And in their rigid dogma they are even against the celebration of the Prophet's birthday, the Maulid ur Rasul, which we Malaysians and other Muslims take part in. An infamous few has said that our processions on the Prophet's birthday is copying the traditions of the Christians in their processional festivities of the birth of Jesus, Mary and the Saints. To which, I say, even if it is true, So What?

Celebrations of birthdays, and visitations to our honoured ancestors and holy persons are all a part of our cultural and religious traditions. But more than that, it is an expression of thanksgiving to our Lord and the Prophet, and the paying of respects to those who had laid their lives in the service of God and his fellowman. To take all this away is to try and break the connection between us and our roots. To fling us into a historical void, where for these reckless preachers, their word becomes the sole law and power over us. That is their hidden purposes.

Well you know what I will say to all this nonsense - Nuts! If my sainted mother can be alive in my heart, what more Muhammad, the Beloved of God.

Have a memorable day, sunshine. Remember some beautiful memories...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

A Cup of Heresy from a Cellar of Wine - Prose of Ramadhan Part 74

The Cup of Heresy (Ramadhan Verses #39)

We sip heavy from the cup of heresy

That men call theology.

We pray on a premise of faith,

And men think high of the words

Which we recite like holy spells -

When they desire candy,

We give them candy.

When they desire wizardry,

We give them wizardry.

And when they desire an idea of the divine,

Verily, we give them our cellar of wine.

Lo, if only they had asked for servanthood!

Lo, if only they had sought patience,

We would not offer them such meager rations.

The Magpie and Ibn Arabi, Wahdatul Wujud and Wahdatul Shuhud

MAGPIE. I am the Magpie of Stories. Welcome to my nest. Here you shall find an assortment of stories, parables and whimsical thoughts and feelings that I collect on a daily basis. Like all magpies, I have an eye for the shiny bling-bling. But to quote J.R.R. Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings trilogy (Book 1, Fellowship of the Ring)...

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

VALUABLE? I therefore cannot guarantee the quality of my writings, some may be worthy of my weight in gold of about 2.75 million Pound Sterling (My writing isn't that good, I am just fat), while some compositions tend to be fluffy white marshmallows - You know, like clouds in the sky. Interesting, but distant and intangible.

KNOWLEDGE OR PERCEPTION? Driving this morning, one of those cloudy thoughts strayed into my head. The world really is based on perception. Good and bad luck, misfortune or a cosmic lottery, sweetness and bitterness, all these values by which we judge our lives are essentially based on perception. In as far as we say we know something (or even someone), we are akin to a stranger, standing at the edge of a huge sea, saying, “Yea, I know you.” We don’t really. We say we ‘know’ but when you go to the root of what is truly being said, what you actually mean is “Yea, I perceive you.”

SNOW WHITE AND THE APPLE. If you notice in the previous sentence, the word ‘perceive’ begins with the word ‘I’. For the mystical aspirant, ‘I’ is a poison – the accursed apple offered to Snow White by the wicked Queen! The saints say that ‘I’ is intended only for God. Only He is the true ‘I’, the One, the Eternal and Absolute (Ahad and Samad). Therefore the ‘I’ in me is the human ego, which desires to be the master, and in its almost infinite disguises, it will claim credit in everything that I do, think and desire. It is the Bitter Enemy to the first wing of the Muslim declaration of faith - “I bear witness that there is no god but God.”

WHAT?! Hehehe. Yes, smarty-pants, you noticed the contradiction in my story above. After all, if the ‘I’ in you cannot exist, then how will you ever go about witnessing anything, what more God? The state of witnessing which some refer to as ‘Wahdatul Shuhud’ (State / Unity of Witnessing) exists – but only as a necessary condition to bear witness on the Almighty Beautiful and Absolute nature of God. We are like mirrors. And we are suppose to reflect the infinite loveliness of our Creator. And this analogy goes bouncing back to the Sufi fans of old Ibn Arabi who says that the entire reason for Creation was given when God said that...

“I am a Hidden Jewel and I wanted to be known”.

IBN ARABI. The poor old Andalusian Saint. He was much criticized for what he taught and wrote in his life time. Even nowadays, there are many people who just don't get him*. The wise and learned says that his exposition on the mirror image of Wahdatul Shuhud, which is called Wahdatul Wujud (State /Unity of Creation or Oneness) is an aberration, an innovation (read heresy) of traditional Islamic lore. They say that the poor guy got all messed up in his head reading the totally 'unIslamic' tomes and manuscripts of Greek knowledge, reintroduced back to Europe by the Andalusian Umayad Caliphate – via Arabic translations of Greek books in Baghdad (capital of the co-existing Abbasid Caliphate), then transported thousands of miles back to Europe through Andalusia and Cordoba. I suspect however, that his critics are not so much concerned by the theological aspect of his pronouncements, but rather the practical implications. People will get confused, they say. Anything can be proven right and wrong. Good and evil loses all meaning, and everyone can have a one-way ticket into the asylum. In a manner of speaking, they are right. But that doesn’t mean that Ibn Arabi was wrong. Oh no.

BACK TO THE MAGPIE. I am told by a saint that dear Ibn Arabi got a lot of grief simply because he was talking about stuff not intended for his time. You know, he’s that kid in school, who wants to share (or show off) his profound understanding of applied physics that you will only learn when (and if) you are smart enough to apply into rocket science college. And Ibn Arabi was not just studying the rocket science of God, but he is right up there sitting on the pointy end of the rocket cone! Is it then a wonder that scholars of his time were scratching their head at the sight of him flying into the stratosphere and breaking away from the earth’s orbit, while muttering “What the…!?”

Ibn Arabi and the ‘I’ in the Sky
O’ seekers!
O’ aspirants of the divine!
If I have become like a bird
With the sky, the stars and the moon
As my constant companions,
Do not then wonder and ask of me
What I perceive.
For what I am looking at is the same thing
That you all are looking at,
But my view and perception is
Very different!
For I do not see with the eye in my body,
I have seen the ‘I’ in Truth, Love and Mercy.

WHATEVER... Well, that’s it, my friends. I started this posting with a magpie who changed into Aragorn son of Arathon, thereafter amending into ol’ Arabi and then transmogrified into the ‘I’ in the Sky. Is it transcendental wisdom? Or is it simply a fairy tale widowed of any sense of reality? All I can tell you is "Nuts, I am hungry!’"... Ah, so much for Wahdatul Wujud. Back to being the regular ol’ witness. And no operatic audience of the Divine, just acknowledging that I am just me as another hungry magpie in a world of hungry magpies.

Have a nice day, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa.

Footnotes:-
Related Posting – Please see Wahdatul-Wujud (Click Here) and Ground Zero Mosque and the Ornament of the World (Click Here)
Caveat - * I am not saying I get Ibn Arabi. I don’t get him at all. But as a magpie I spied him to be a shiny golden ring on the dressing table of Saints. And as per my nature, I stole him away and flew him back here to my nest. I am sure I am not supposed to be stealing, but I cannot deny my nature - I am a thieving old magpie!
Poems – Ibnu Arabi and the ‘I’ in the Sky is freshly recorded today.

Toons - The swag carrying magpie is from sbritt!