Hazrat Amir Khusro R.A. and Shaykh Sa'adi R.A.

Among the sufi poets of the subcontinent, Hazrat Amir Khusro hold a distinct place for his extraordinaire lyrical abilities in Persian, the lingua franca during Muslim rule. Allama Iqbal's praises Soaz-e-Khusro (Burning and Lamentation of Khusro) is his own poetry.

Nami Danam che manzil bood is one of the finest couplets of Hazrat Amir Khusrow, which describes a divine conference of lovers, presided by God himself, with Prophet Muhammad being the Shamah (Lamp) of this Mehfil (spirtual gathering). The masnavi is persian is below, which is one of the best in terms of colourful imagery:















The translation is:

I wonder what was the place where I was last night,
All around me were half-slaughtered victims of love,
tossing about in agony.
There was a nymph-like beloved with cypress-like form
and tulip-like face,
Ruthlessly playing havoc with the hearts of the lovers.
God himself was the master of ceremonies in that heavenly court,
oh Khusrau, where (the face of) the Prophet too was shedding light
like a candle.

(Tranlation courtesy of Mr. Yousuf Saeed)

Nami Danam performed by Sabri brothers is available at www.thesufi.com/sufimusic . Also visit to listen to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's version.

It is narrated that once Hazrat Amir Khusro claimed about Balaghal Ula Be Kamalehi, the most famous Na'at couplets by Shaykh Saa'di in glory of Prophet SAW, that he can create better verse than these.

Hazrat Amir Khusro had a dream later on in which he saw the Prophet SAW's blessed gathering and Shaykh Saa'di reciting the verses in presence of the Prophet. Hazrat Amir Khusro apologised for his earlier thought and accepted Shaykh Saa'di simple verses of eulogy as unmatchable.

Balaghal Ula Be Kamalehi, performed by Sabri brothers again is available at www.thesufi.com/sufimusic.

All things are One,

Our view of everything depends upon altitude of our view; which depends how elevated we are.

At ground level, everyone seems different, all faces, all appearances, all beliefs. No two are the same.

Raising 100 feet higher, all faces seem the same, though I can still see difference appearances; recognize a beggar from a city banker.

As the Hot Air Balloon takes me higher and higher, all appearances starting blurring also. All appearances become One also. But I can still see the difference in beliefs. A library is distinctly different from the building of a church.

Going higher and higher, one reaches a point of elevation, where all differences blur and everything becomes One.

It simply depends upon how elevated one is.

Praising the Creator

If I praise how good a software is, am I not indirectly praising the person who wrote the software?

The praise for any creation is the praise for its creator.

And everything in the universe is His creation.

Praising the sunrise, praising someone beauty and admiring the laws maintaining the equilibrium of our universe are all His praise.

Doesn’t it make sense when He begins Quran with 'Alhamo Lilaa he Rab 'll Aalimeen'?

“All glory is for him”. None, but Him.

Attributes of God

Man is the most superior creation of God and is a reflection of the divine attributes.

As we know God by His attribute Al-Rahim, man is also capable to show this attribute towards other creations. However, he also can be qahaar, a compelling subduer, as this is also a divine attribute (Al-Qahaar).

However, as I understand, while man can show some divine attributes, he is incapable or partially incapable of showing others.

Man cannot be Al-Samad (a complex attribute meaning The Self Sufficient, The Impregnable,
and The Eternally Besought of All). He has to rely upon food for energy and can never be self sufficient in complete sense.

He cannot be Al-Khaaliq (The Creator). He may have created the wheel but the creation of matter and energy that drives the wheel is not his creation.

He can give food the beggar, but the true source of food is again God (Al-Razaaq- The All Provider), since he grew the food, but did not create it.

The true greatness of Allah is so immense; beyond all attributes we know and beyond every word we have.

As narrated in Quran, when Moses (p.b.u.h) pleaded God to show him a little glimpse of Himself, God remarked 'Lan Tirani', which means 'you are incapable of it'. Upon Moses' insistence, God asked him to come to the Mount of Toor and as He revealed a slight glimpse of his Greatness, Moses was shattered to unconsciousness and upon wakening was too weak to narrate the Greatness of His Glory.

No wonder when Prophet Muhammad went to Mairaj, he remarked to God that he wish to present to him something which even He does not possess. Prophet presented his humility to Allah.

Most certainly His Glory is too Great to be humble. Subhan-Rabiyall-Aala.

Information and Knowledge

I met a wise one recently who in a discussion revealed something that stuck into my mind. According to the signs of the day of judgment, there will be abundance of information in the world and a severe scarcity of knowledge.

Let me explain the difference. Information is what you get searching on google and wikipedia. Knowledge as in Ilm is more related to word of wisdom learned from the sage, gained via Allah mercý or divine revelation and learned from experience also. Information is related more to intellect where knowledge relates to wisdom.

Where information is certainly not a bad thing, it is knowledge which should be our ultimate goal.

A Sufi is not a man of information; rather a man of knowledge.

May the Aalim, or the All-Knower, grants us knoweldge; for He knows all, and we not.

Quest for God.

Hakim Sinai, the revered Sufi declared, "No human will ever be able to comprehend truly, the real supreme entity whom he refers by the word 'God' " .

God is merely a word to express the Supreme Being. All His names whether The Merciful (Al Rehman) or The All Compelling Subduer (Al Qahaar) are merely his attributes.

We try to understand His Being via His attributes. But the identity of 'God' is unimaginable and incomprehensible due to limited senses we have.

Imagine if God grants you the freedom to create a sense of your own, something besides 5 senses of smell, touch, sight, taste and sound. Our mind will not be able to create the unknown sense. Just as someone deaf from birth cannot truly understand the secrets of what we know as sound.

Our understanding of God is limited to what he has granted us. It is the 'Ilm-ul-Qalaam' , as he revealed in the first Surah (Surah Alkhalaq), 'I taught man what he knew not'.

The Sufi is the man of God, a man of the true path, who is on his way to seek the Supreme Being through senses beyond the five senses as known to us. His 'spiritual degree' is what God has granted him, by His divine mercy and favour. And as he climbs the ladder of divine truth, he also understands the secrets of the self (Khudi, as referred by the great sufi poet, Allama Iqbal).

www.thesufi.com

All things return to Him.

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