Niffari: Mawqif al-Bahr ( Pause at the Sea) & Surat Hud 11:41

{ وَقَالَ ٱرْكَبُواْ فِيهَا بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ مَجْريٰهَا وَمُرْسَاهَا إِنَّ رَبِّي لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ }

" And he said : "Embark therein. In the name of Allah is its run and its anchoring. Indeed my Sustainer is incessantly and comprehensively forgiving and merciful". " Surat Hud : 11:41"

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The Stop-over or Pause is a step between two stations of the Path according to Ibn 'Arabi.

This Mawqif is considered to be addressed to those in the beginning of Suluk (walk on the Path). It concerns primarily the central issue of maintaining a correct Intention on the Path and what the Salik encounters of the fruits of his attempts. The Sea is understood to be what the Salek must cross and within which he must travel during his walk on the Path.

موقف البحر

أوقفني في البحر فرأيت المراكب تغرق والألواح تسلم، ثم غرقت الألواح، وقال لي لا يسلم من ركب.

وقال لي خاطر من ألقى نفسه ولم يركب.

وقال لي هلك من ركب وما خاطر.

وقال لي في المخاطرة جزء من النجاة، وجاء الموج ورفع ما تحته وساح على الساحل.

وقال لي ظاهر البحر ضوء لا يبلغ، وقعرة ظلمه لا تمكن، وبينهما حيتان لا تستأمن.

وقال لي لا تركب البحر فأحجبك بالآلة، ولا تلق نفسك فيه فأحجبك به.

وقال لي في البحر حدود أيها يقلك.

وقال لي إذا وهبت نفسك للبحر فغرقت فيه كنت كدابة من دوابه.

وقال لي غششتك إن دللتك على سواي.

وقال لي إن هلكت في سواي كنت لما هلكت فيه.

وقال لي الدنيا لمن صرفته عنها وصرفتها عنه، والآخرة لمن أقبلت بها إليه وأقبلت به علي.

Stop-over at the Sea

He stopped me at the Sea:

I saw the vessels sink and the planks remain afloat; eventually, the planks did also sink.

He said to me:

"He who rides (a vessel) is not safe. He who throws himself [in the sea] and does not ride a vessel is taking a risk. He who rides and does not take a risk will reach perdition"

He said to me:

"A part of Salvation lies in the taking of risk. The waves come, lift what lies underneath them and spread it and themselves openly on the shore".

He said to me:

" The surface of the Sea is Luminosity the source of which cannot be reached; the bottom of the Sea is Darkness, indomitable. Between Luminosity and Darkness live the beasts of the sea which cannot be trusted/with whom there is no safety"

He said to me:

" Do not ride (a vessel) in the sea, I would then veil you from Me through its instrument/mean, and do not throw yourself in the sea, I would then veil you from Me through the sea itself."

He said to me:

" If you give yourself to the sea and drown in it then you are nothing but another one of the beasts of the sea."

He said to me:

" I would be cheating you if I were ever to direct you/show you evidence for other than Me."

He said to me:

" If you reach perdition in the pursuit of other than Me, you will be delivered to what you reached perdition for"

He said to me:

" This world ( al-Dunyah) belongs to the one whom I distracted from it; the afterworld (al-Akhira) belongs to the one I approached through it and brought him to Myself"

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Further reading: 

1. Sharh Mawaqef al Niffari ( Explanation of the Pauses of Niffari) by al 'Aref billah al-Tilmasani (d. 690 H)

2. Tajrid al-Tawhid Lil Niffari (Divestment in the Tawhid of Niffari) Dr. Jamal Ahmad Marzuqi

Shaykh Ahmad al Rifai : Himma (Spiritual Aspiration)

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem.

"You are bound to die"

Brothers,

The secret of the Absolute Reality ( Haqiqa) is apparent, the banner of Divine Knowledge
(Ma'arifat) is raised and the door to the Divine Nexus(Wasl) is open. It is only that, you have become veiled from the vision (Ru'yat) of these noble values through your love of this world
(al-dunya) and your forgetfulness of death.

How amazing it is that, one who knows that he will die (one day) should forget death! How amazing it is that, one who knows that he will be leaving al-dunya should throw himself on it and spend his days loving it! How amazing it is that, one who knows that he will return to Allah should deviate from Him and turn towards anOther.!

By Allah ! this heedlessness of yours is a grave matter! There is no transformation or strength except through Allah the High, the Almighty !
( La Hawla wa la quwata illa bi-llahi al'alii al-azeem) .

Lies attract you, in the gardens of ignorance you meander and in matters of earnings you invent artful machinations, all the while you feel safe from (future) penalties as if you never read :
"Did ye then think that We had created you in jest, and that ye would not be brought back to Us (for account)?" ( Surat al- Mu'minoon 23 :115)
and you never heard :
"I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me. No provisions do I require of them, nor do I require that they should feed Me." ( Surat al-Dharyat 51:56-57).

He has guaranteed your provision yet you busy (yourselves) with its devices; while He has NOT guaranteed anyone of you Al-Jannah (Paradise), yet you act as if you were given the glad tidings thereof.

You have lost precious moments with fun and forgetfulness and passed the days with heedlessness and disobedience. Your jokes are the jokes of those who are assured they will have no (future) regrets and your fun is the fun of those who have not heard of the Day of Resurrection. It is as if you never looked at the graves and never got an instructive example from their
dwellers.
Where are your fathers and your ancestors who passed before you?
Where are those who have accumulated more possessions than you have ? And those who carried more ignorance than you do ?
Do you disbelieve in Allah? Or is it arrogance that you display towards Allah ?

Brothers,

Whosoever knows that his Self will be annihilated and knows that Allah alone is Everlasting, turns his Self away from al-Dunya. Allah Almighty has stated: " But unto him who stood in fear of his Sustainer's Presence, and held back his inner Self from base desires, Paradise will truly be the abode!"
( Surat al-Nazi'aat 79: 40-41).
He spoke to His Prophet ...and said: "Yet, verily, You are bound to die, [O Muhammad,] and, verily, they, too, are bound to die" ( Surat al-Zummar 39: 30).

Gather then your spiritual aspiration (Himma) in order to reach the lofty ranks of those who have preceded you, so that you do not fall under His statement :"Yet they were succeeded by generations [of people] who lost all [thought of prayer and followed [but] their own lusts; and these will, in time, meet with utter disillusion " ( Surat Maryam 19:59).

Knock on the Noble door with the hand of poverty and necessity, and approach Him from the door of humbleness and subservience; for there is no escape from my and your move towards the dwelling of the Afterlife and there is no way out of my descent and yours in the revolving graves.

" Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it! And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it" ( Surat al-Zalzalat 99:7-8).

And the one who shall be saved will be the one who dealt with Allah with his God-consciousness (Taqwa) and feared Him while still in this life.

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From "al-Burhan Al-Mu'ayyid" (The Supportive Evidence)

Death by the Qur'an

Abu Ishaq al Ta'alabi, never known as a Mystic, rather a Shafe'i Qur'an commentator, a traditionalist and the author of a well-known edifying History of the Prophets, wrote a small book about 19 people, almost all from the early Islamic centuries ( 2nd-3rd centuries of Hijra) which were already significantly under the influence of asceticism, who were so affected by Qur'anic recitation that they died on the spot. Their behavior and their utterances make them recognizable as Sufis or at least as forerunner of the Sufis.

The places of these occurrences are most often Basra, Kufa or Nishapur which were centers of the ascetic movement of early Islam, and in the case of the first two cities, renowned for their masterly Qur'an recitators.

Of the 19 stories, most relate death as resulting from terror due to listening to Qur'anic verses describing the Day of Judgment or the torments of Hell. The 14th story is different:

"It is related that a relative of the Ummayad Governor Muhallab ibn abi Sufyan ( d.702) was on his way home to Basra after a business trip accompanied by 2 servants, a male and a female. While traveling by boat on the Tigris River, he saw a man dressed in ascetic clothes on the shore of the river. He felt compassion for him and invited him to travel on his boat. During the trip, the host offered the Ascetic food which the latter accepted only after long insistence.The host wanted to give further pleasure to his guest and asked his female servant to sing accompanied by the 'Oud. (a string instrument)

Following that, the host asked the ascetic: "Can you do anything so beautiful"? The ascetic answered:" Yes, I can. I can do something far more beautiful" and started reciting with a "beautiful voice"


from Surat al-Nisa' 4: 77-78

"Have you not turned your vision to those who were told to hold back their hands (from fight) but establish regular prayers and spend in regular charity? When (at length) the order for fighting was issued to them, behold! a section of them feared men as - or even more than - they should have feared Allah: They said: "Our Lord! Why have You ordered us to fight? Would You not Grant us respite to our (natural) term, near (enough)?"Say: "Short is the enjoyment of this world: the Hereafter is the best for those who do right: Never will you be dealt with unjustly in the very least! Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, though you should be in raised-up towers. And if a good thing visits them, they say, 'This is from God'; but if an evil thing visits them, they say, 'This is from you.' Say:'Everything is from God.' How is it with this people? They scarcely understand any tiding. "

At this, the host threw the goblet he held in his hand in the river and said: "I confess that, this is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. Is there anything else like it?"

The young man recited from Surat al-Kahf, 18: 29
 "Say, "The truth is from your Lord": Let him who will believe, and let him who will, reject (it): for the wrong-doers We have prepared a Fire whose (smoke and flames), like the walls and roof of a tent, will hem them in: if they implore relief they will be granted water like melted brass that will scald their faces, how dreadful the drink! How uncomfortable a couch to recline on!"

Those words left a deep impression in the heart of the host, he threw the pot in the water and broke the Oud, then asked: "Young man, do you have anything that could also make one feel happy?"

The ascetic recited from Surat al-Zummar 39: 53:
"Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful".


The host let out a loud cry and fell unconscious, by the time they reached him, Death had overtaken him. "

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Translated from : Navid Kermani " Gott ist schön, Das ästhetische Erleben des Korans"-and–
al-Ta'alabi, Abu Ishaq Ahmad ibn Muhammad:" Kitab Mubarak yudhkar fihi qatla al Qur'an al-'Azim alladhina sami'u al-Qur'an wa matu bi sama'hi"