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| Excerpts From Kashf-al Mahjub |
| Trans.
R. A. Nicholson |
| Ali b. Uthaman Al Hajwary |
| Lower-soul and Self-mortification |
| Qur�an reads: � And for such as had entertained the fear of standing before their Lord's (tribunal) and had restrained (their) soul from lower desires. Their abode will be the Garden.� (79:20-21) |
| Pages (196-210) |
| Mortification is approved by men of all religions of all sects, and is observed and practiced by the Sufis in particular. It is followed that self-mortification practiced with the aid of God, is the direct cause of union with God. According to Sahl it is so vital as diction and composition are necessary for the elucidation of ideas. (p. 202) |
| Self-Mortification |
| The object of mortification is to correct the vices of lower-soul, not to attain real proximity; mortification is the most referred to man while contemplation is the most referred to God. Sahl has quoted Qur�an: �And those who strive in Our (cause), We will certainly guide them to our Paths: For verily Allah is with those who do right.� (29:69) |
| According to the Ttradition from Hazrat Muhammad (SAW):
�when God wishes well unto his servant He causes him to see the faults of his soul� and �God said to David, �O David! Hate thy soul, for my love depends on thy hatred of it.� |
| Man is guided to mortification by a flash of the Divine Beauty, and in as much as that flash is the cause of existence of mortification, Divine Guidance precedes mortification.
According to some scholars Failure to affirm mortification involves the denial of all the religious ordinances which have come down in books revealed to the Prophets. |
| True Nature of Passion (hawa) |
| According to the opinion of some passion is a term applied to attributes of Lower-soul, but according to others, a term denoting the natural volition whereby the lower-soul is controlled and directed just as spirit is controlled by intelligence. Every spirit that is devoid of the faculty of intelligence is imperfect, and similarly every lower-soul that is devoid of the faculty of passion is imperfect. |
| Man is continually being called by intelligence and passion in contrary ways. |
| If he obeys the call of intelligence he attains to faith, but if he obeys the call of passion he arrives at error and infidelity. Therefore, passion is a veil and a false guide, and man is commanded to resist it. Passion is of two kinds:
1. Desire of pleasure & lust, 2. Desire of worldly honor and authority. |
| He who follows pleasures haunts taverns, and mankind is safe from his mischief, but who desires honor and authority has lost his way and leads others to errors. One whose every act depends upon passion is far from God, though standing next to you in a mosque. Who has renounced it is close to God though he may be standing in a church.
A monk in Rum has guided Ibrahim Khawwas: �How long you will seek men? Go and seek yourself, and when found keep a watch over yourself, for this passion clothes itself everyday in 365 diverse garments of godhead and leads man astray.� |
| Shaykh Abu Ali Siyah of Merv has said, my lower-soul called me to say, �I am God�s Army: You cannot reduce me to naught�.
Muhammad b. Ulayn of Nassa has related, �my lower-soul appeared before me as fox, I cast it under my feet, kicked it, but it grew bigger and bigger at every blow.� It then explained to me, �it is so because I was created perverse: that which is pain to other things is pleasure to me, and their pleasure is my pain.� (p.206) |
| Lower-soul cannot be destructed |
| Mortification is a Divine gift |
| Mortification involves bringing out best qualities in you. The mortification of those whom God loves is the work of God in them without choice on their part: it overwhelms and melts them away; but the mortification of ignorant men is the work of themselves in themselves by their own choice: it perturbs and distresses them, and distress is due to evil. (p.205) |
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| Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) has said, �The Mujahid is he who struggles with all his might against himself (jahhada nafasahu) for God�s sake.� later he had added, �We�ve returned from the lesser war (al jihad-ul Asghar) to a greater war (al-jehad-ul-Akbar). He has pronounced jehad-e-Akbar as the struggle against one�s self (mujahidat al-nafs). (p.203) |