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Extracts of Ayn al-Qut Hamadns Letters1

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O chivalrous one! Do you imagine that you have ever read even one single letter of the
Qurn? No way! You have simply been content with an ornamented habit. The path of
those men who have torn into pieces the idols of habit is different from the path of the
neutered ones and those braggers whose object of worship is the idol of habit as in
They said, We serve idols, and continue cleaving to them (26:71) We found our
fathers upon a community, and we are guided upon their traces (43:22). If following the
path of ones father was necessary and true, then Ibrhm would follow the path of
zar. Beware, beware! The ignorant should follow the community of the wise one and
the people of earth should follow in the footsteps of those from heaven, such that
Ibrhm told his father: Father, there has come to me knowledge such as came not to
thee; so follow me, and I will guide thee on a level path (19:43).
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All references are to the one and only edition of the Maktbt published and edited by Aff Usayrn and Alnaq

Munzaw.

O chivalrous one! Knowledge is the legacy of taking the journey of spiritual quest
(sulk), not the legacy of ones father or mother: And whosoever fears God, He will
appoint for him a way out, and He will provide for him from whence he never
reckoned (65:2-3). If this will provide for him had to do with ones stomach, then it
would not depend on fearing God (taqw). The sustenance for the stomach of Ab Jahl
was much more, but the Prophets sustenance was a heavenly one not an earthly one as
He is the one who provides you out of heaven and earth (10:31). The heavenly
sustenance is knowledge, and knowledge is born out of fearing God (taqw); hence,
And fear God; God teaches you (2:282); Had they believed and been godfearing, We
would have opened upon them blessings from heaven and earth; but they cried lies, and
so We seized them for what they earned (7:96)
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And now prayer (namz)... it is the greatest of all pillars as there is nothing between
faith and heresy but forsaking prayers (tark al-alt) and prayer is the pillar of religion

and whosever forsakes prayer would become a heretic. Struggle so that your name may
be inscribed in the record of the people of prayer. Even if your name appears on the
margins it will again be abundant good (khayr kathr). What have you imagined? That
prayer is an easy task? Rising by habit, bowing by habit and prostrating by habit? Did
you ever, while facing the qibla, see I am going to my Lord? Did you ever, while saying
Allah is great (Allh-u akbar) see the elimination of the earthly and heavenly realms
(mulk and malakt)? Did you ever see consolidation (ithbt) after elimination (maw)
in the kabran (great)? Did you ever express your gratitude on the gift of consolidation
after elimination while saying alamdu li Allh kathran (Abundant thanks to Allah)?
Did you ever, upon saying subn Allh (Glory be to Allh) see that he does not even
need your thanks? Did you ever see the beginning of mankind in the bukratan (at
dawn)? And did you ever see the eventual end of men in wa alan (in the evening)?
Then the So glory be to God both in your evening hour and in your morning hour
(30:17) would tell you what God makes the night to enter into the day and makes the
day to enter into the night (31:29) is. After all this, did you ever take the consecration
of I have turned my face to Him (6:79)? Did you ever see the my in my face? Were
you then ever drowned in the ocean of towards who (lilladh)? Did you ever find
yourself lost in the originated (faara)? Did you ever see the No! I swear by that you
see (69:38) in the who originated the heavens and the earth (6:79)? Did you ever see
the nation of the Khall (Ibrhm) in a man of pure faith (anfan) who said I am the
first of those that surrender (6:163)? Do you know what the Prophet was told Then
We revealed to thee: 'Follow thou the creed of Abraham, a man of pure faith (16:123)?
Did you ever repent from whatever you had said in uttering the one who surrenders
(musliman)? Did you see this verse?
My beloved wishes me to come forth for sacrifice
Let me rise and leave so that He could come down and rest!

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Did you ever see yourself in the I am not of the idolaters (6:79) where He struck his
?hand against the existence of those injured by Him such that they were eliminated
Then he would be truthful in of idolaters, so O idol! How long will you keep striking
the one you do not see to exist? When he is annihilated in the I am not, how can an
idolater even exist here? Here, All that dwells upon the earth is perishing (55:26), so
what does an idolater even mean here? Then, you saw that the My prayer, my ritual
sacrifice, my living, my dying - all belongs to God, the Lord of all Being. (6:162) speaks
of the truth of your moment. Then your tongue will be required to speak. So, when you
say the Lord of all Being without imitation, you will see that the No associate has He
(6:163) will speak the meaning of this story for you, if you have ears and listen. And at
the end of this, did you ever see the so I have been commanded? And and I am the
first of those that surrender tells you to hail the faith of the disabled ones (alaykum bi
dn al-ajiz). Then, it is at this station where it would be correct to say I take refuge
with God...
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Alas, you shall never understand any of these meanings and I fear that even if the
author himself read these words at another time, he might be no different from you.
Why? Because the Master of the Day of Doom (1:4) and that day the Command shall
belong unto God (82:19) have no place in this world after all. Since the author was in
the hereafter (kihrat) while writing these and his heart was before Allh (wa qalbuh
bayna yaday Allh) and while reading these he was in the world, so he would
understand from it as much as others would. When someone drank wine from a chalice
and became intoxicated at that moment, if that chalice is then given to him, would you
say that he would behave like a drunken person? No way! By God that if you ever drank
the pure draught (sharban ahr) from the hand of the cup-bearer of and their Lord
shall give them, then you might comprehend what I wrote and I hope that you may.
Then when you become sober, you will fasten the belt of service in the Thee only we
serve (1:4). If you remember the past moments, then the to Thee alone we pray for
succour. (1:5) will come spoken itself. Then you will yearn to see grace and generosity
and you would say Guide us in the straight path (1:6). Then, you shall remember those
comrades who drink this blessed wine with you and you say, the path of those whom
Thou hast blessed (1:7). You would then see the ones deprived standing outside the
door like the door-knob and you are sitting inside, so you would say, not of those
against whom Thou art wrathful, nor of those who are astray. (1:7). And it is here that
you will be drowned in the ocean of fear and glory. (I/262-265)