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| Tree of forgetfulness |
{ وَلاَ تَكُونُواْ كَٱلَّذِينَ نَسُواْ ٱللَّهَ فَأَنسَاهُمْ أَنفُسَهُمْ أُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَاسِقُونَ }
"Be not as those who forgot Allah, and so He caused them to forget their Selves; those -- they are the ungodly."Sheikh al-'Arifeen Sahl al-Tustari (QAS) ( d.283 H) stated:
" The slave is for Allah ( li-llah) and Allah is for His slave.
Nothing is closer to Allah than the heart of the faithful; if an-"other" comes into it, he ( refers to the "other" or to the heart itself) becomes a veil.
Whosoever looks at Allah with his heart becomes distant from all else; and whosoever seeks His agreement and pleasure pleases Him with his toleration/forbearance ( Hilm); whosoever submits (aSLaMa) his heart to Allah finds that his limbs become free from evil ( (SaLiMat) and that they also stand true...."Their hearts have witnessed as much as they have guarded of their limbs"**.
Attend to your hearts....we are created, and our Creator is with us. Do not become slack in your striving, for Allah is your Witness wherever you are; so lay your needs with Him and die at his door and say: " We are ignorant and the One who know us ( 'Alemuna) is with us; we are weak and the One who strengthens us (Muqawwina) is with us; we are powerless and our All-able ( Qadir) is with us"....it is thus that whoever attends to his heart finds that the air, the water running on the surface of the earth, the earth itself and the heaven are all alike to him."
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** This can be understood in 2 ways: 1) We can deduce from someone's actions how close he is to Allah in his heart 2) The preservation of the limbs from unacceptable actions increases the closeness of the hearts to Allah.
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Source : Translated from the biography in Arabic of "Sheikh al-Areefin al-Imam al-Tustari" - by Dr.Mahmood Jeerat Allah-
Photo credit by Theilr
