'Knowledge of God' by Shaykh Ahmad Ibn Mustafa ibn al-‘Alawi
A Sufi commentary on the poem al Murshid al-Mu'in of Ibn al-‘Ashir

Section : Book of Fasting-Maliki Fiqh

Intro:- Shaykh al-‘Alawi has taken a traditional verse poem that is learned by muslims, especially in north Africa, to give a them a summary knowledge of the deen of Islam. By learning it they have the necessary basis in tawid, fiqh and tasawwuf.

When he has finished speaking about the tax and its branches, and it is the third root of Islam, he begins to speak about the fourth root, which is fasting, and he says, may Allah be pleased with him,

Book of Fasting

Fasting in language is to refrain. In the language of the People, it is to refrain from everything except their Beloved. For this station there are obligations, conditions, that which is forbidden, and that which is recommended, as the author explains.

Fasting is obligatory in the month of Ramadan, and fasting is permissible in Rajab and Sha'ban and upon the ninth of Dhu'l Hijja, and also the last of Dhu'l Hijja, also in Muharram on the tenth.

We have seen what the meaning of fasting among the People is, and one of them has said, may Allah be pleased with him,

Fasting is to refrain from seeing otherness My breaking the fast is to return to You.

And another has said,

Through my fast my self has become isolated from other-than-me My tax, by the generosity of overflowing was purified from me.

When the gnostics refrain from other-than-Allah, it is in a special presence, and it is the presence of the essence. This is also expressed as the presence of the kingdom of power. There is no witnessing of the essence in the presence of acts, or names, or attributes. That is why refraining is permissible in this situation. The man of this station is not in a state of gatheredness in most cases, because of disturbances from the waves of names and attributes. These disturbances interfere with the attempt to refrain from other-than-Allah. On the contrary, the Presence of Oneness is exalted above the interference of other matters. Even if the one of this station intends to see otherness, he cannot, because the reality of that Presence does not permit it. If other-than-Allah crosses his heart, he leaves this Presence, and his fast is void. The Sultan of the Lovers has said in this meaning,

If desire of other-than-You crosses my heart from forgetfulness,

I judge myself out of Islam.

This is how the man of this Presence should be, but in the other presences the murid is veiled by the appearance of names and attributes, in which case the witnessing of the essence is recommended to him, if he can. The author said, 'In Sha'ban, it is permissible to fast.' Then he said, may Allah be pleased with him,

Ramadan is confirmed by sighting the crescent or by thirty days before its completion. The obligations of fasting are intention at night, no sexual intercourse or drinking or eating, no vomiting and nothing reaching the stomach from ear, eye or nose, these take effect from the rising of the dawn to sunset. And being sane at the beginning of it is an obligatory condition. And the one who loses any of it should make it up. The time of menses prohibits fasting and the obligations of the fast must be made up after menses stop.

Since the People have decided on abstinence, and it is obligatory to abstain from other-than-Allah, the self wants to know what the time of obligation is. Then the author says that it is from the time of seeing the crescent. It is as if he were saying,

Whoever of you witnesses the crescent should fast the month.

It is then obligatory on him to refrain from what will break his fast. Know that this vision does not take place on this earth of solidities but in the sky of subtleties. The one who does not raise his head to see outside does not see the hidden kingdom of the heavens and the earth. In most cases, the yearning of the murid is not gathered in the sensory - because it is the cause of changing the heart so that it does not witness the Lord.

In conclusion, this is contrary to the meaning, and that is why the author, may Allah be pleased with him, asked the murid to leave everything that may come to him from the five senses when he says 'no sexual intercourse or drinking or eating. No vomiting and nothing reaching the stomach from ear, eye, or nose.'

Everything that reaches the stomach breaks the fast, and the meaning of stomach is the cave of manifestations of the Lord. This is also expressed as the depth of the heart, and this is also what is called the inner sight, because it changes very quickly, so the murid must protect it as much as he can. This is why you find murids often entering upon Allah by shutting their eyes and gathering their sensory when remembering. That is one of the great means in the path because the yearning of the murid is not gathered except when the sensory is cut off. The sensory is overpowering in the outward. Moulay al'Arabi ad-Darqawi, may Allah be pleased with him, said, 'the sensory sucks up the meaning, even if it belongs to Abu'1 Hasan ash-Shadhili.' Everything that comes through the sensory to the meaning at the time of annihilation nullifies the abstinence - except if the sensory becomes the source of meaning. This is why the author has brought our attention to this state, and it is rare. The intellect does not arrive at it, but one must have an intellect at its beginning, because he said, 'And being sane at the beginning of it is an obligatory condition.' In its middle and in its end, not being conscious of the intellect is its condition. To arrive at this station is beyond intellects. If the self of the murid is struck by a matter that cuts it off like the blood of menses or of afterbirth, then this matter prohibits the continuation of what the self was doing. The veil is lowered over it because of what stopped it. The self has many things which block it. As soon as a blockage is removed, the murid is obliged to catch up with what he lost at an appropriate time, as the author has mentioned. I ask Allah the Exalted to come between us and obstacles - He is capable of anything He wants. Then he said, may Allah be pleased with him

And touching women is undesirable, and imagining as long as these do not bring liquid out of you, if it does come out, these are forbidden.

The author mentions here what is undesirable for the murid - and that is that something of the sensory should cross his inner eye, fearing that it might be imprinted in his heart and cut him off from his Lord. The author of the Hikam said, 'How can a heart be enlightened when the shape of the cosmos is imprinted on it?' The smallest matter influences the heart. This is why the murid must not be lazy in that matter, rather he should be a guardian by the door of his heart. He should do as one of the People have done, 'I stood guardian by the door of my heart for forty years. Whenever something other-than-Allah crossed it, I threw it out.' This is how the murid should be. Then he said, may Allah be pleased with him,

And undesirable is tasting from a pot, and idle talk, and vomiting if it overpowers, and flies - these are forgiven. The dust of a craftsman, or from a road, and cleaning the mouth with dry siwak, and to rise in the morning in need of the ghusl.

The author here mentions things that are undesirable for the murid, and things that are forgiven if they happen to him without intention. If he intends them, then they are undesirable. If he stops with them, then they become forbidden - as we have previously seen. Whatever comes out of the sensory goes to the meaning. Certain sensory things come before the murid on his path. If he leaves them, then there is no harm. But if he pays the slightest attention to them, then they are undesirable.

If he stops with them, then they are forbidden. We have seen before that the sensory is opposed to the meaning. The murid wants to leave everything. If he stops with something then it cuts him off from Allah. It is enough to see what the author has said, expressed as flies or dust of the path. It has reached us that one of the Shaykhs ordered his students to leave the sensory, meaning to strip away. The murid left everything that he owned except what he needed to cover himself, and one needle with which to repair his clothes. Opening did not come to him. Then he asked his Shaykh why that was. The Shaykh replied, 'if one needle is left to the murid, it bars him from Allah.' The murid flung it away and received the opening instantly. This is an example in the stripping away of the sensory. Alongside it is the stripping away of the meaning. The one who has the least of things imprinted on his heart, even if it is a hair from his body, that hair becomes tremendous and it veils him from his Lord. O Allah! Gather us to You and come between us and other-than-You. Amin. Then he said, may Allah be pleased with him,

One intention is enough, because of its succession except if it is broken by a matter that breaks the fast.

 

This means that there are many things that cut one off. We cannot limit them. Nor can we leave these things one by one. Even if one wants to do so, they come one after another, as the author has mentioned. From this we understand that one single intention is enough for the murid to gather with in it the whole of the universe and what is in it, and to leave it by his heart. This is the one of the easiest paths to Allah. As one of the People has said,

Say: Allah! And leave existence and what it contains. If you desire to reach perfection.

Everything that comes upon the murid which breaks his fast, is within the Throne - outside it he finds nothing which breaks his fast. Even if he intends the sensory, he finds no substance for it, because the place is a place of disconnection. The Sultan of the Lovers has said, may Allah be pleased with him,

Purity, and no water. Subtlety, and no air.

Light and no fire. Spirit and no body.

Breaking the fast is impossible as long as the sensory is absent, unless he returns by himself. If he returns by his Lord, then that is what was required of him, and is expressed as the festival. Breaking the fast then is obligatory - to return to the sensory and to look at it. One only leaves it because it nullifies the obligation. Once it becomes obligatory, we must fulfill the obligatory, wherever we find it. We observe Allah wherever we know Him. The murid comes out of the sensory fearing to touch it and to take pleasure from it, lest he be veiled from his Lord. But if the sensory is the source of the meaning, or we would say, the screen of manifestation, then he should not leave it. The sensory becomes to him like the mountain of Musa, upon whom be peace. He finds it in intimacy. Musa, upon whom be peace, asked for the vision of disconnection before the one of connection, which is the one of the sensory. And, Allah the Exalted said,

Look at the mountain. If it remains in its place, you will see Me.

When it was realised in the sensory, or we can say in the world of connection, he became independent by that from the meaning. Or, we say, from the world of disconnection. He said that in the sensory and the meaning, and in connection and disconnection, wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah.

One of our brothers has said, 'I opened the outward and I found the inward. I realised the inward and it is the outward. There is no inwardness to what is inward and no outwardness to what is outward. I found it, taken from His saying, the Exalted,

I am the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward.'

When the murid becomes realised in this meaning, that is, annihilation in His name, the Inward - until he finds that He is the source of the outward, then he must return to this facet immediately. If he does not return to it immediately - for example he knows Him in disconnection and he does not know him in connection, or, we say, he knows Him in the meaning and not in the senses - then he is defining place and direction and does not know it. The author said,

It is permitted to hurry the breaking of the fast, and it follows, to delay the meal before beginning the fast.

The benefit for the murid is in leaving the world completely - that is where he used to witness it as existent in itself. When he finds out that the world is attributed neither with existence nor non-existence, he finds himself veiled from Allah by something that does not exist.

Ibn 'Ata'lllah, may Allah be pleased with him, said 'What proves to you the existence of His overpowering, praise belongs to Him, is that He veiled you from Him with that which does not exist with Him.' This is why you find most of the gnostics at their end being intimate with creation, as they used to reject it at the beginning, and to be intimate only with the retreat, until all of existence becomes a retreat to them. There is nothing in existence except the One - and that One is the goal in essence. I have said in this meaning,

I used to think before today that my goal was distant. He is with me in creation, and I am slow.

We see the earth, the heaven, everything as slaves,

We see the light - and also darkness, and the veil is sharp.

I have left Him in the outward and sought increase While I thought my opinion was to the point.

In conclusion, the murid is required to return to the sensory as soon as he knows, in the same way that he was required to leave the sensory at the beginning. He left it because of the existence of the illness - and sickness is with the one who is ill, whether he exists or not. This is why Sidi Muhyid-din has said, may Allah be pleased with him,

The essence is not grasped in any other way

Even if man-is destroyed from so much watchfulness.

Then the author said, may Allah be pleased with him,

The one who has eaten during the obligatory fast should make it up and add to it a fast of two months without stopping or to feed sixty poor people, if he intentionally broke his fast in Ramadan - by eating or drinking, or by releasing sperm - even if only through imagining or to refuse what was established.

Here he mentions the one returning to creation, before one is drowned in the witnessing of the Real. He confirmed them, after abstinence from them -meaning he broke his contract and his fast after declaring that he would not return to creation except if he returns to creation by Allah, but he returns by himself. This is why the author has said, The one who has eaten during the obligatory fast should make it up and add to it.'

This means that it is obligatory upon him in the shari'a of the People to fast two months without stopping or to feed sixty people - he must abstain again from whatever disobedience had occurred that broke the contract. He must leave the sensory and drown in the meaning completely. He must not return to creation except if he is certain that it is hidden and veiled, and he knows with certainty from himself that he will not return to it, and that everything has clearly been removed from his heart, to such an extent that it does not even cross his intellect, as the author has said, 'even if only through imagining, or to refuse what was established', meaning he rejects what he established intentionally.

Such a one does what we have mentioned, if he returns to the cosmos and confirms it without any hurried resolution. But if he returns by himself, he has made a hurried resolution. He thinks he has arrived at the goal. But the contrary is proven. There is no harm, but he should return to what he was doing, and he must not make a resolution like this again. The knowledge of the People is built upon certainty which has been double-checked. It is not based upon imaginings, whether by hurried or slow resolutions. When he has finished speaking about this, and has shown us how the law applies to the one who returns from obligatory abstinence, he shows us the law about one who breaks a recommended abstinence, and he says,

And to intentionally break a nafila fast without sickness is forbidden and one must repay it. He should repay it by fasting two months in succession or free a slave who is muslim. And it is preferable to feed sixty poor people a dry measure of about 20 kilos to each from the most abundant foodstuff.

We have seen before that for the murid to abstain from other-than-Allah in a presence that is connected with names and attributes is difficult in most cases. The witnessing of the essence is not obligatory on him in this world before his knowledge of its root, because of the multiplicity of manifestations of names and attributes. If it happens that he becomes confirmed in witnessing in this world before leaving it, then that is what is needed, and he must abstain from seeing otherness and remain that way even though abstinence is not obligatory for him.

It is not necessary that he leave what he is doing to be occupied with another matter so that he exchanges what is less for what is better. Allah the Blessed and Exalted has drawn attention to this, in relation to the one who is not satisfied with one type of food, meaning the unity of the essence, and wants other than that of created beings. He said, the Exalted,

Would you exchange what is higher for what is lower? Go down to Egypt, thus you shall get what you demand.

What we understand from 'Egypt' is the seat of the self, and of what is in it of hidden desires and manifest desires, which Allah the Exalted indicated by His saying,

Of that which the earth grows, of its herbs and its cucumbers and its corn and its lentils and its onions.

All the desires of the self are connected with the existence of humiliation. This is why Allah senttothem degradation and poverty and they gained only the anger of Allah. There is no degradation except with the existence of the self.

There is no might except with the existence of intimacy. This is why it is said that if you want might without end, do not display might that ends. As for the saying of the author 'and pay it up by fasting two months', we have already spoken of this matter. It is desirable for the murid to return to Allah so as to repair the damage, and hurry to find something that will heal his brokennesssothat he does not fall in the opinion of Allah because he broke the contract of Allah in the Presence of Allah. The damage that the murid did before entering the Presence of Allah usually does not harm him because he was distant from Allah, contrary to the one on the carpet - expansion is feared for him, that is, that he should become casual. Know then, that if the murid falls into this and breaks the contract with Allah and nullifies his fast, then he must return immediately to Allah the Blessed and Exalted with a heart that hands over. He must ask Him through the means of His beloved ones whose hearts are sound, noble and generous.

He must tell them about his state and weep. He must ask them to return him to his station. He must be generous to them and feed them as much as he can because they are the ambassadors of Allah, as the author puts it 'it is preferable to feed sixty poor. . .' meaning that if he gathers from his brothers who know of his state, sixty, there is bound to be one among them who is accepted by Allah. And if he asks Allah, He will answer him, and this brother will take him to Allah, and his brokenness will be repaired. The one who belongs to Allah, Allah is on his side.

A lucid and profound exposition of the gnostic science that lies at the heart of Sufism. A Guidebook to Khalwa, spiritual retreat, preparing the murid by the doctrine of Unity for the experiences that will befall him in the self-shattering annihilation he desires.   Shaykh al-'Alawi has taken ibn al-'Ashir's verse poem, itself a summation of Islamic teachings, and made it a vehicle for making plain the unitary knowledge, the hidden doctrine, that lies beneath every phenomenon of outer wisdom.   Thus he is able to unveil from even the lowest functions of cleaning the body an exalted meaning which indicates the Oneness of his Lord. Above all, this is a book of action constantly returning the gnostic traveller to slavehood, covering over his secrets and concealing the intoxicating knowledge that he gained. It confirms the simple qualities of correct moral behaviour that are the hallmark of the great