Sharaf al-Din Ahmad ibn Yahya Maniri

“ It is Knowledge that unfastens the gate of good luck. It is Knowledge that can comprehend the greatness of Islâm, the mysteries thereof, the glorious character of the Prophets, the sublimity of Their mission, the different stages of the advanced souls, the secret of the human constitution, the evil in the wicked, the respect due to Faith and the faithful, the injunctions and prohibitions of religions. Tread zealously the Path of Knowledge till you get rid of ignorance. Knowledge is the shortest way to God; and ignorance is the densest veil between thee and Him. ”

“ When the Sun of Divine Knowledge rises, all modes of knowledge become ignorance; when Divine aspiration appears, all desires melt away....
Whoever is bound to his exterior—his turban, his robe, the size and colour of his garment—is still attached to the personality and a worshipper thereof. Thou canst serve either personality or the Law: two contraries cannot unite. So long as you hanker after approbation and dignity, so long as you become angry at an insult, you are with your old genius and self-conceit, and have not been accepted by the Law. ”

“ The privilege of Devotion is not granted to every man, nor does every man deserve it. He who deserves it is worthy of his God; he who does not deserve it is unworthy of Him. A Devotee alone can appreciate the value of Devotion. A vast multitude seek after heaven, while very few seek after Devotion; for heaven is the lot of the desire-nature, while Devotion is the lot of the Soul.
Get rid of the notion of selfhood, and give up thy self to Devotion. When thou hast done so, thou hast reached the Goal. ”

“ In short, when the Disciple realises the Greatness of God, feels the pangs of His seeking, knows that "Who gains Him gains all, who loses Him loses all," and finds that he can dispense with all save Him,—he then overcomes his old habits and unfolds the vision, "I am from God and for God." Life and death, acceptance and rejection, praise and blame, are thenceforth equal in his eyes. Heaven and earth find no place in his heart. He bows to none for food, clothes or money. His Goal being the Divine Sanctuary, he longs for naught save God.—Letter 62. ”

“ The pilgrim may pass, on the way, through certain spiritual conditions, and the soul may put off the physical garment, catch the reflection of the Divine Light, display superhuman powers as a Divine agent during the continuance of the experiences, taste the relish of "I am God, the Holy One," and become proud of having reached the goal. The pilgrim cannot understand this intellectually: but if the soul, during the continuance of these experiences, is not helped by a mighty Master, he may, it is feared, lose faith, and fall a victim to a false notion of unity. ”

“ A disciple lacking in magnanimity makes no progress at all. One whose aspiration does not go beyond heaven, is not fit for this battle. The Wise hold that the desire to have everything in the world according to one's own wishes, befits a woman, not a man.... In short, a magnanimous disciple should first of all tread upon his own life, and try his sword on his own desire-nature, not on an infidel. For the infidel can only hurt the body, and plunder earthly possessions; whereas the desire-nature injures the very root of religion and destroys faith.... ”

“ Knowledge is the key to all virtues, as ignorance is the key to all vices. Knowledge ushers in liberation, ignorance brings in destruction. The celestial ranks and abnormal sacred powers spring from knowledge; chastisements in the various grades of hell result from ignorance. So the faithful should shun ignorance and the ignorant in the same way as vice and infidelity. "A wise man is my friend, and a fool is my foe." As ignorance and the ignorant are to be avoided, so is it obligatory to seek knowledge and the company of the wise—not worldly knowledge, but the moral ”

“ God has created doubt interfering with conviction, the lower nature veiling the face of Truth, duality warring with monotheism, the alloy claiming the place of the genuine coin, a thousand foes arrayed against each friend, a temple of idols facing every mosque, a suffering balancing each blessing. "He does all this; but man, awe-stricken, cannot breathe a sigh: for His Face is like a mirror, and a mirror is clouded by breathing."—Letter 61. ”

“ A cry resounds: "Let neither sky nor earth, heaven nor hell, hinder the Path of My Seekers, for they seek Me, and I am their Goal." These are the steps on the ladder of human progress. Each pilgrim has his own stage, according to his aspiration.
The vigilant Seeker should kill out self-conceit and self-respect with asceticism and purification, transcend both the worlds, and be ready to lose his life. It is unlawful for him to aspire after anything [Pg 60] in the universe. "One does not unite with the All, unless one parts with all." ”

“ Avoid as much as possible the thought of personality and its activities, and never follow the promptings of the desire-nature. It is thy existence that veils Thee. Had there been the veil of a single activity, it could be uplifted by another opposite activity. But the whole of thyself being a veil, thou canst not be fit for the Divine Vision, unless and until thou vanish completely. It should not be forgotten in this connection that the discipline of the desire-nature means the transmutation of its qualities, not the destruction of its essential nature—for that is impossible. ”

“ So it is said: "When God seeks the welfare of a man, He shows his defects to him," that he may change from a temple of idols into a mosque.
Rest assured that thou hast nothing but good to expect, once self has been stripped off from thee. So long as thy self lies before thee, thou canst but swell in self-respect. A Satan in very truth is he that respects self, whether in the guise of angel or of man, whether on earth, in heaven or in hell. Self-respect consists in not transcending self. "Endless as the veils are, none is thicker than self-conceit. ”

“ Religion is for the desire-nature; the Path, for the heart; Truth for the Soul. Religion leads the desire-nature from Nâsût to Malakût, and transmutes it into Heart. The Path leads the Heart from Malakût to Jabarût, and transmutes it into Soul. Truth leads the Soul from Jabarût to the Divine Sanctuary. The real work is to transmute the desire-nature into Heart, the Heart into Soul, and to unify the three into one. "The Lover, the Beloved and Love are essentially ONE." This is absolute monotheism.... ”

“ When a man calls himself a disciple, he ought to justify the title to the fullest extent and firmly tread the straight Path. He should constantly use the collyrium of turning back (Taubâh) , put on the robe of detachment from connexions and from self, drink the wine of Seeking out of the cup of Purity, draw the sword of Magnanimity from the sheath of Religion, dismiss the cravings of the infidel Desire, practise absorption, and not care for the higher or the lower worlds. ”

“ When a sincere pilgrim, impelled by his aspiration, turns from the lower nature to follow the Law, and begins to tread the Path under the protection of a Teacher, he unfolds an eye for each of the veils uplifted by him, to observe the conditions of the world before him. First, he unfolds the eye of intellect and comprehends the intellectual mysteries to the extent of the uplifting of the veil. This is called the Intellectual unveiling, and should not be depended on. Most of the philosophers are at this stage and take it as the final goal. ”

“ The value of a disciple's act lies in his motive. The motive is to the act as life is to the body and light to the eye. As the body without life or the eye without light is useless, so the acts of a disciple without a pure motive are mere forms. With the Seers, forms are denial and destruction, not faith and salvation. A valid motive arises from purity, as rays from the sun and sparks from the flame. When the motive is not biassed by worldly attractions, it is called ascetic purity by the Sûfîs. ”

“ Devotion is born of the Light of the Presence of the Eternal Beloved. It is like a flash of lightning, illuminating the eye of the Devotee, speaking to his ear, enlivening his movements, and alienating him from all the world—so that his acts are not for self nor for others, but are works of impersonal Devotion to the Beloved.
Devotion is beyond words, intellect, and astral perception. "I am Devotion, beyond this world and the next; I conquer all without arrow or bow; I shine as the sun in every atom, yet my presence for its very brightness is unperceived ”

“ Divine Knowledge is the essence of the faithful soul. One destitute of it does not really exist. The Knowledge of the Creator follows from the knowledge of created objects, and leads to the safety and permanence of the knower.
One way to the Divine Knowledge is to see the whole universe as subject to the Divine Will, to sever connection from all, and to realize the Unity of God and the Eternity of His Nature and Attributes. ”

“ This is beyond the comprehension of intellect. Sometimes, when the purity of the heart is complete, the Seer sees the True One within him, if he looks within, the True One without him, if he looks to the universe. When the Divine [Pg 25] Light is reflected in the light of the soul, the vision gives bliss. When the Divine Light shines without the media of the soul and the heart, the vision manifests formlessness and infinity, uniqueness and harmony, the basis and support of all existence. ”

“ The gate to the Path is Knowledge and Wisdom. He who avoids this gate has to plod on his way through an endless forest infested by demons, and ends by losing his life and faith....
Eternal Life is the life in Spirit without a body. It is attained by Love, not by obedience. Servants wait for an order and seek remedies for their ailments; Lovers are impelled by Love and invite ailments without asking for a remedy. The Beloved ever cries, "Stay at a distance lest thou shouldst perish." ”

“ Any work whatsoever, without this purity, is but a ceremony or tradition on the lines of the forefathers, but is not Islâm.
Know God as your constant guardian. Living under His ever-watchful Eye, one ought to be modest and feel ashamed to bring one's transgressions to His notice.
As prayers cannot be duly performed without the outer purity, so the Divine Knowledge is impossible without the inner purity. As fresh water—not water already used—is necessary for the one, so pure Monotheism—not mixed—is necessary for the other. ”

“ If you go to heaven, each day of the heavenly life will open up new vistas of Divine Knowledge. An endless work is this, may it never end!
When God loves a man, He inflicts troubles on him and takes away his wealth, wife and children, so that he may be bound to naught, and estranged from all save Him. If he suffers patiently, he receives boons without toil. If he endures cheerfully, he is purified of all evils.
Again, God's love for a man makes him aware of the defects of his desire-nature, so that he becomes its instructor and censor. ”

“ I work for God and do not receive anything save what comes from Him. As I worship Him and Him alone, I cannot receive what is not Himself and comes from other than Himself." Having spoken thus, she vanished. Such is to be the ideal of the aspirant.
Working for God alone is the test of true devotion. Some think they work for Him, but they work for Themselves. They have conquered the desires of this world, but they seek for fruits in a higher world. ”

“ Self-Toleration.
He who is on good terms with the self is dead, though apparently living; he whose life is in God is really living, though apparently dead. Death is not of the body alone: the inner man may die in the same way as the outer. Men are perishing in the sea of desires. Their Saviours are the Prophets who help them to cross the sea of desires and merge in the Divine Unity.... The ungodly live in the form only and are dead in the spirit, since true life consists in human nature responding to the Divine Life. ”

“ Do all your works for His Service, not in the hope of gaining heaven or shunning hell....
He who aspires to work in His Service should be careful of the purity of his motives, which is a function of the heart. An act without pure motive cannot soar from the region of sham to the sphere of Service.... A prayer worth the name is one performed with the fervour of the heart, and not with the lips only. The motto of monotheism, "There is no God save Allâh," if repeated as a talk at moments of sale and purchase, can not be regarded as a declaration of Divine Unity.... ”

“ Some see as far as Heaven, some as far as the Divine Throne. A few have the perfect insight which pierces through all Creation to the Creator.
The end of contemplation is the advancement of knowledge and the acquisition of wisdom. When the heart develops knowledge and wisdom, there is a change in its condition. With that change, there comes a change in conduct as well, and the man turns. With the turning, he begins to tread the Path. Treading attracts him to God. Then a current of Divine attraction may carry him to a stage inaccessible to men and genii by exertion and asceticism.... ”

“ He said: "Intellect is a failure, it cannot lead save to what is a failure like itself." Intellect can only look upon an entity either as body, essence or accident; or in Space and Time. It cannot go beyond those limitations. If it fixes any of those limitations on God, it sinks to infidelity. If, bewildered, it exclaims: "I do not find any existence save with these properties. So, God being without any of these properties, is perhaps naught,"—it is still dragged down to infidelity.... In short, [Pg 54] Divine Knowledge depends upon Divine illumination alone. ”