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Two Ways on the Sufi Path(Tuesday, 17 January 2006) - Contributed by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi - Last Updated ()

Together with being very easy, the way of sainthood is very difficult. And together with being very short, it is very long.And in addition to being most valuable, it is very dangerous. And together with being very broad, it is very narrow. It isbecause of this that some of those who journey on the path sometimes drown, sometimes become harmful, andsometimes return and lead others away from the path.I n S h o r t : There are two ways on the Sufi path, known by the terms of inner journeying andouter journeying.

The Inner Way starts from the self, and drawing the eyes away from the outer world, it looks at the heart. It piercesegotism, opens up a way from the heart, and finds reality. Then it enters the outer world. The outer world now looksluminous. It completes the journey quickly. The reality it sees in the inner world, it sees on a large scale in the outerworld. Most of the paths which practise silent recollection take this way. The most important basis of this is to break theego, give up desires of the flesh, and kill the evil-commanding soul.

The Second Way starts from the outer world; it gazes on the reflections of the Divine Names and attributes in their placesof manifestation in that greater sphere, then it enters the inner world. It observes those lights on a small scale in thesphere of the heart and opens up the closest way in them. It sees that the heart is the mirror of the Eternally BesoughtedOne, and becomes united with the goal it was seeking. Thus, if people who travel on the first way are not successful inkilling the evil-commanding soul, and if they cannot give up desires of the flesh, and break the ego, they fall from the rankof thanks to that of pride, then from pride to conceit. If such a person experiences a captivation arising from love, and a

sort of intoxication arising from the captivation, he will pour forth high-flown claims far exceeding his mark, called ecstaticutterances (shatahat). This is harmful both for himself and for others.For example, if a lieutenant becomes conceited out of pleasure at his position of command, he will suppose himself to bea field marshal, and confuse his small sphere with the universal one. He will become the cause of a sun which appears ina small mirror being confused with the sun whose manifestation is seen in all its splendour on the surface of the sea, dueto their similarity in one respect. In just the same way, as with the degree of difference between a fly and a peacock,there are many people of sainthood who see themselves greater than those who in reality are greater than them to thesame degree; they observe it thus, and consider themselves to be right.I myself even saw someone whose heart had just been awakened and had faintly perceived in himself the mystery ofsainthood; he supposed himself to be the supreme spiritual pole and assumed airs accordingly. I said to him: Mybrother, just as the law of sovereignty has particular and universal manifestations from the office of Prime Minister to thatof District Officer, so sainthood and the rank of spiritual pole have varying spheres and manifestations. Each station hasmany shades and shadows. You have evidently seen the manifestation of the rank of supreme spiritual pole, the

equivalent of Prime Minister, in your own sphere, which is like that of a District Officer, and you have been deceived.What you saw was right, but your judgement of it was wrong. To a fly, a cup of water is a small sea.The person came to his senses, God willing, as a result of this answer of mine, and was saved from that abyss. I havealso seen many people who thought themselves to be a sort of Mahdi, and they said that they were going to be theMahdi. These people are not liars and deceivers, they are deceived. They suppose what they see to be reality. As theDivine Names have manifestations from the sphere of the Sublime Throne down to an atom, and the places ofmanifestation differ in that relation, so the degrees of sainthood, which consist of manifesting the Names, differ in thesame way. The most important reason for the confusion is this:In some of the stations of the saints, the characteristics of the Mahdis function are found, or there is a specialrelation with the Supreme Spiritual Pole, or with Khidr; there are certain stations which are connected with certain famouspersons. In fact, the stations are called the station of Khidr, the station of Uvays, orthe station of the Mahdi. As a consequence of this, those who attain to these stations, or to minorsamples or shadows of them, suppose themselves to be the famous persons related with the station. They supposethemselves to be Khidr, or the Mahdi, or the Supreme Spiritual Pole. If such a person has no ego which seeks rank orposition, then he is not condemned to that state. His excessive high-flown claims are considered to be ecstaticutterances; he is probably not responsible for them. But if his ego is secretly set on acquiring rank and position, and if hedefeated by his ego, and leaves off thanks and becomes proud, from there he will gradually fall into conceit, or else fall tothe depths of madness, or deviate from the path of truth. For he reckons the great saints to be like himself and his goodopinion of them is destroyed.Because however arrogant a soul is, it still perceives its own faults. Comparing those great saints with himself, heimagines them to be at fault. His respect towards the prophets even lessens. It is necessary for those afflicted with thisstate to hold fast to the balance of the Sharia, and take for themselves the rules of the scholars of the principlesof religion, and to take as their guides the instructions of the authoritative scholars from among the saints like ImamGhazali and Imam-i Rabbani. They should constantly accuse their own souls, and attribute nothing to their souls otherthan fault, impotence, and want. The ecstatic utterances in this way arise from love of self, because the eye of love sees

no faults.Since such a person loves his self, he supposes that faulty, unworthy fragment of glass to be a brilliant or a diamond.The most dangerous fault among these is this, that he imagines the partial meanings which occur to his heart in the formof inspiration to be Gods Word, and his calling them verses. This is disrespecttowards Revelation and its most holy and exalted degree. Yes, all the inspirations from the inspirations of bees andanimals to those of ordinary people and the elite among men, and from the inspirations of ordinary angels to those of thehttp://mlife.org - mlife.org - The Meaning of Life Generated: 20 October, 2006, 05:59

7/27/2019 Two Ways on the Sufi Path

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