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| Excrepts from KASHF-AL MAHJUB The oldest persian treatise on Sufism |
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| by
Ali B. Uthman Al-Jullabi Al Hujwary (Popularly known as Hazrat Data Gunj Baksh) |
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| Translated by Reynold A. Nicholson |
| Intoxication is of two kinds:
1. With the wine of affection (mawaddat) aroused by realizing the �benefit�, object oriented, tends to subside. 2. With the cup of Love (mahabbat) recognition in awe of the �benefactor�, it�s a cognitive state so subsists. Sobriety is also of two kinds: 1. Sobriety in heedlessness (ghaflat)�. its greatest of veils�intoxication in one�s own thoughts & desires 2. Sobriety in Love (mahabbat)�it�s the greatest of revelations�. Realization of The Truth�Intoxication. |
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| Mansur al- Hallaj the Classic Case |
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| This website has been created and maintained by Seema Arif |
| INTOXICATION & SOBRIETY |
| As quoted in Kashaf-al-Mahjub �Intoxication� and �rapture� are terms used by spiritualists to denote the rapture of Love for God, while the �sobriety� expresses the attainment of what is desired � the union. (p.185) Intoxication reflects excess of longing and extremity of Love, while sobriety indicates soundness of one�s spiritual state in relation to God.(p189) |
| A person overcome with rapture (ghalabat) may not have the power of expressing himself correctly; besides, the meaning of the expression may be difficult to comprehend, so that people mistake the speaker / writer�s intention, and repudiate, not his real meaning, but a notion which they have formed for themselves. (P.152) They may be rejected vehemently by the audience as lunatics or heretics. |
| Hazrat Ali Hujwary has declared, ��Perfection of the state of the intoxicated man is sobriety� (p.185). He has argued, �Intoxication is to fancy one�s self annihilated while the attributes really subsist; and this is a veil. Sobriety, on the other hand, is the vision of subsistence while the attributes are annihilated; and this is actual revelation.� (p.187) |
| It is promotion of passivity of man and killing the initiative in him, disbanding human reason and logic completely. |
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| Sobriety and intoxication are two attributes of Man, and man is veiled from his Lord until his attributes are annihilated. |
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| Mansur al-Hallaj had a strong ecstasy and a lofty spirit. His high intellect would say things incomprehensible to the common, and his vagrant soul would take him from one door to another in insatiable quest for learning. He had been unable to satisfy, either his own self, or the common or intellectuals of his time, and his end was bitter. He is an icon of intoxicated votary of Sufism. He was all but intoxication, spiritually, intellectually and emotionally. Shibli has said, �Hallaj and I are of one belief, but my madness saved me, while his intelligence destroyed him�. (P.151) |
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| Abu Yazid (ra) and his followers have preferred intoxication (sukr) to sobriety. They have argued that sobriety involves equilibrium and fixation to certain human attributes, and human attributes are the greatest veils between man and God.
According to him �intoxication involves destruction of human attributes, like foresight and choice, and the annihilation of a man�s self-control in God, so that only those faculties survive in him that do not belong to the human genus; and they are the most complete and perfect�. (p. 185) |
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