[undated]
My Dearest Friend Sufi Sahib,
Islamu Alaikum….
Today I am celebrating a Historical function in memory of Majidded Sahib the greatest scholar of Islam; during the course of ceremony I get your message which pleases me very much indeed. I was overjoyed to read it. Many friends who really love you were present and all felt as you were actually here especially you friend Majzoob.
A few if not none surrender, all the rest survive which is the main cause of spiritual failure. If one surrenders he survives and none surrender until and unless he surrenders. I am very lucky God (The great and best Merciful) has forced me to surrender in full and also thanks that you too and many others as well surrender and submit.
I am introducing to you a very shining “Star” who is at present very intimately studying Humanity Science and Religion in U.K. His address is as below:
Mr. Mohammad Ilyas
5 Lancaster Place
Blackburn Lancashire England
I hope you would write him too. He may be employed and where he is Sufi, a young worked for God, and his Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him). He will convey you and your God’s message in full Insha Allah. Ask any thing you will get a reply and I am sure that you will get object asked for as well. I have suggested a local medicine for Miss Khawar and hope it would be a hopeful addition to your holy prayers. Last month I visited Data Sahib thence to Miss Khawar. I sat in Bhalla House where you oftenly used to sit whilst in Lahore. Mr. Sukhere met me in Lahore; he was doing well in all respects. Shamush was happy and both wishing you good luck. Having prays which we always do here are as follows. If you do this in U.S.A I hope it would be a success.
Re Ism Azam (Please carry on).
(Ya Haleemo Ya Kareem-U-Shfe) here say sick man’s name….
Please read this Ism Azam only seven times. (i.e. Ya Haleemo Kareem-U-Shfe…. Name of any sick man). I am your own and always wishing you every good thing success from God. I afraid. I am not hearing anything from Major Sadiq since man months.
Wish Best Wishes Your Own Cheerio,
Barkat Ali
Salarwala
June 14, 1961
My Blessed Pir-O-Murshid:
There are times when one has unusual experiences and these are tests, no doubt, of one’s spiritual and personal ability. Jesus said: “Let us not into temptation” and I do not know whether what I am facing is temptation or not. I have met a Khalandar and I see him almost every day, even several times a day. He is Al-Faqir Zuhl faqir Ali Shah Nastan and he claims to have many followers including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He is planning to go to America and no doubt he will go to America. He wishes, or is guided, to bring the message of spiritualism to my country and to other countries. He has given me many evidences of his powers and what he calls “kashf” but what he calls “kashf” is not the same as what I call “kashf.” Which does not mean that I am right and he is wrong. Only his kashf seems to be concerned with seeing and an ability to escape from the body, to function in “heavens,” to meet saints, and to have grand faculties.
All this is excellent but to me it is not Tauhid. When I was in Japan I was taken to the Third Secretary at the Pakistani Embassy. “Why do you bring this man here. It is an insult. It is an insult to him and an insult to me. You do not know this man. Only the Ambassador is fit to talk to him and then only maybe.” This was rather a surprise because my host, James Otoichi Kinoshita, had already accompanied me to many sacred and holy places in Japan where foreigners do not go.
On the last day I was in Japan I had tea at noon with the Ambassador of Pakistan. He told me the story of Farid, how Farid practiced austerities and even made a flock of birds die and become re-born to fly away. He came to the house of a lady and demanded food. She was very slow. Finally he grew impatient and seemed to threaten her. She said to him: “Do not treat me as a flock of birds that you can cause to die and be reborn.” This amazed him and he asked her the story which she gave him. It is a well-known story.
Now I am receiving instruction from the Khalandar and he believes he is one of the most powerful men in the world, and maybe he is one of the most powerful men in the world. He knows much about sacred phrases, he undoubtedly goes into heavens and he may have miraculous faculties. Maybe he is one of the few who has them and maybe many have them. He says he has 38,000 followers and they will help him to travel. I have no follower. I am going over the globe a second time. I have crossed the United States many times. I crossed the United States without having 50 rupees at any time and yet lived in fine homes and hotels as well as in poor places. I had nobody but Allah and He showed me. This was a different kind of kashf.
The Khalandar asked me to ask Mohammed where he belonged in the assemblage. I am only in the rear rank of the assemblage. I have not been allowed to see many there, only Isa (Jesus). But I told him I could not ask Mohammed because I had already asked Allah. He did not seem to realize that if I could ask Allah this might be higher than asking Mohammed.
I told him he was greater than I in all but one thing—I could be a greater pupil than he. I could learn from him, I could listen to him but he could not listen and learn from me and although in Rubuyyat and kashf and shuyukhuyat he was far above me, I was a greater mureed. This rather surprised him.
In some things I cannot agree with him. He places Ali above everybody and then far above the saints, Abdul Kadiri Gilani. I have only had two visits from Ali in my life and have never seen him. I am not concerned with persons, I am concerned with duties. I cannot believe that Haqiqat and Marifat are stages that the human mind can fathom. I have not often been in assemblages under Mohammed. I have been in one assemblage under Mohammed as Abdullah. In this assemblage are many persons and I am only in a rear rank. I have seen him many many times clearing and cleaning a great Mosque. He does not use any magic; he does not use any power. He uses love and humility and I cannot compare the love and humility of anybody to that love and humility. It is as if everybody were a baby and he had to look after everybody and with love and sweetness.
He is not exactly assisted by Jesus. Jesus washes the feet and looks after the shoes of the devotees that come to this Mosque and does other very simple things. I have seen this many times. Mohammed says this is his work as Abdallah. It is not his work as Rassoul-lillah.
I have seen him in two other assemblages too and they may be called—although this is not exactly correct, the assemblages of the Nabis and the assemblages of the Rassouls or Pagambars or Avatars. The assemblages of the Nabis are all of men mentioned in Holy Qur’an. The other Assemblage consists of some not mentioned in Qur’an. These are described in my poem “Saladin.” In “Saladin” I was shown a Meraj, not exactly as it appears in the record but he told me he wished to reconcile Qur’an with Bible and I had to write it that way. Also in the highest assemblage he made me write what I have not believed and I do not think many Muslims believe.
“Saladin” has long been finished but extra copies were given to Ansar Nasri and Quadrullah Shahab to be translated into Urdu and published. I have an extra copy which you may read.
But now I am receiving another poem called “Rassoul Gita.” It is to be, inshallah, the Islamic answer to “Bhagavat Gita.” It is a very deep poem and it requires me to be in stages and states of receptivity. I have to listen, not see, and to feel and feel more in the heart. There are many things given to me which I have either not believed or not known.
The poem is divided into two parts:
La Ellaha which deals with fana, the Kingdom of the Cipher and the Conquest of India—meaning every sort of “other” worship.
El Il Allah deals with baqa, the Kingdom of the One (Tauhid), the Conquest of Pakistan and the Resurrection of Pakistan.
It is based on Nimaz and then on. My interpretation of Kalama has caused some dismay and opposition but I do what God wishes. Anybody who has studied the sciences, inner and outer, knows there are certain principles found, not certain personalities. The whole poem is based on principles. It is also based on fana-fi-Rassoul.
People here are unhappy, uncertain and do not have enough food. I have been sent here as a servant of Mohammed, Abdullah and he wants me to follow him as Abdullah. People call him “Rassoul-lillah” and go contrary to Hadith where he says he did not want a lot of titles like the Christians gave Jesus. If one says that Mohammed has all power, is the greatest of the great and then is concerned with Kashmir, he is a liar. I have seen greater problems than Kashmir settled. And in the poem Mohammed says the problem is Kashmir versus Kashf-mir. If this country insists on Kashmir it will go down and if it insists on Kashf-mir it will go up.
People here are concerned with Kashmir and Mohammed is concerned with Islam. People use the word “Islam” and they know nothing about submission; they only know insistence and insistence is the enemy of submission. Besides there is no peace and though I have met quite a few who know more and believe better it is fortunate when they understand by their behavior, nufs-mutmaina.
The explanations of nufs in UAR are more complete than here and they give seven stages, four in manifestation and two beyond and the last is not nufs but comes in fana-i-baqa. There is another stage between lauwama and mutmaina wherein the imagination is active and this is the usual stage of the artists and creative scientists. Anyhow I am preparing my lectures on “Islamic Philosophy and Modern Science.” Evidently this is right because some Murshids are coming here—not only to Abbottabad but very close to my residences, who are scientists. This will facilitate the reconciliation of Islamic philosophy and modern knowledge.
I have run into some opposition to Tauhid especially from some who say if Ifnu’l-Arabi was correct than Ahmed Ghulam Kadian was correct. This is nonsense. I have read the Ahmadiyya literature on nufs which is very good but very, very incomplete. I am not interested in such discussions and human logic cannot be applied to spiritual knowledge. This is one of my sub-topics in “Islamic Philosophy and Modern Logics.” The modern logics know much better than the traditional logics which Al-Ghazzali had to overthrow. They do not fit into the spiritual realm.
“Rassoul Gita” is being written in the hope that it will help spread the Messages of Mohammed through the world. The divines can take care of Rassoul-lillah and they will succeed or not in so far as they follow the will of Allah and not their own wills. But I have to show Mustapha, Ahmed and Abdullah and this involves a lot of things people here cannot accept.
There is an Australian here. He gave up lucrative work and does nothing but keep the chief Mosque clean. This is acceptance of Abdullah. No talk accepts Abdullah, you do not teach, you do not command anybody and you have to learn love and reverence. This is not easy.
When I left the Khalandar yesterday convinced of his great power, a flock of little boys followed me. I danced for them and finally bought each one a sweet. I have been showing little boys games. I am nearly 65 but when I function Abdullah I do not feel any age. Indeed I was surprised in looking into the mirror the other day that I am looking younger. This has happened before. I have died before death and my vigor and looks is the best answer I have to that dehvil-shereef or whatever he is called at ‘pindi. This to me is a real demonstration of the Baraka of Khidr. Also my poetry. The success of my poetry ends his claims and his false school forever because they demonstrate nothing, only claim. I claim nothing, only demonstrate, inshallah.
I have asked the Khalandar to answer me two questions:
Why is there starvation in West Pakistan?
Why is there unhappiness in West Pakistan?
He claims Abdul Kadiri-Gilani is the greatest of the great. I claim nothing. He knows Mushahida and disclaims Murakkabah. I try to practice Murakkabah in the way you showed me in the writings of Abdul Kadiri-Gilani. I keep on succeeding even when I have no faculty for success.
I have met three Chisti Murshids. One does not seem to have any power at all. But all of them had love, plenty of love. You should see the way they cherish their mureeds. They belong to each other. It was the Pir-O-Murshid of Ansar Nasri who gave me the “push” which started “Rassoul Gita” and it is you who have given me the push to continue it. Whether I gain faculties or insight is a matter of secondary importance.
The great questions here outside my ego are those of starvation and unhappiness here (and maybe elsewhere) and the need of having the real teachings of Mohammed broadcast. By “real” teachings I mean that even a few lessons from Holy Qur’an or Hadith be explained and exemplified, not by metaphysics or even spiritualism, but right here. Jesus prayed: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in the heavens.”
It is no use claiming Islam can solve all problems when the problems remain. But if even one problem can be faced and removed that is something. Claims are to me noises, and sometimes dangerous noises. I have seen prayer work miracles and I have seen multitudes pray and nothing happens.
Today I have to meet the Khalandar again. He sees in all three worlds, so to speak. I have not even got good sight in this world. But seeing in all worlds and functioning with full mind and full heart are different.
There are those places in this universe above assemblages, even above faculties, which are the well-springs of all blessings. I may be just sipping through one little straw from these well-springs but if I sip truly then I may be fulfilling the purpose of my life. It is exceedingly difficult to be compelled or impelled to take teachings about Mohammed from others and have these different from and often contrary to Hadith. I am not concerned with titles, I am concerned with functions.
I am today to learn about Abdullah and Ahmed. Those who proclaim Mohammedar-Rassoul lillah let them prove it by radiating love, peace, justice, tranquility and every sort of healing. I am still in the stage of learning. I was never told I should be or become a Murshid. I even like my spiritual duties and do not seek any others until it is so ordered by Pir-O-Murshid or Rassoul or Allah. I have seen no such signs but now I am not seeing any signs excepting what is communicated here.
I received no word about coming to Lahore and think this may be because of the heat. It reached 100 degrees hers but excepting for the numbers of visitors I receive and so cannot rest, the heat has not bothered me. Then we have had more rain and so moderate weather than usual.
As you instructed me to learn about Khalandars, I accept. I shall even receive powers if Allah wills. But my interpretation of kashf is so different and my attitude toward Murakkabah and ryazat so different.
I knew the private secretary of Prime Minister Mosadegh. He is now home in his native village, drawing water and taking it to the people on the hills. This is ryazat, this is Abdullah. This does solve some problems.
Faithfully,
Ahmed Murad Chisti
[undated]
My dearest Chishti,
A salam o Alaikum
What a joy to remember you this morning.
I hope you would have reached your destination safely and might be enjoying well.
Sakhura came here yesterday. He was asking your address—I gave him. He would be very glad to write to you.
Salams from Khan Khahah the Majzoob I am your,
Barkat Ali
Salarwala
Dist. Lyallpur
W. Pakistan
Salarwala
20 September [year?]
My dearest Soofi Sahib.
Aslamo Alaikum,
I got your letter yesterday which gave me very much pleasure
in deed. I am afraid I am not writing you regularly. This is due to my
ever rising tide of work. I am wholly devoted to
Hadis-E-Rasool-i-Ilah, which keeps me busy always with no break and no
rest and no holiday. I indeed oftenly keep you in my mind and hope you
know it. I am being advised and to communicate this very sacred
teaching of Islam. I hope this would answer innumerable if not all the
questions and queries. It will assist you a lot throughout. This I hope
would guide you in all aspects of life. I cannot find suitable English
words to translate this holy verse.
Recite These Four Daroods Fourteen Times Daily
Allah-Humma Salle Ala Badrittamame
(Means fullnight moon)
Allah-Humma Salle Ala Nooruzzullame
(Noor for All sorts of darkness worldly and spiritually)
Allah Humma Salle Ala Miftahe Darassalame
(Opener of all Peace paths and means of universal peace.)
Allah Humma Salle Ala Shafiefi Jamiilaname
(Representative to God for humanity’s forgiveness)
Please recite these 4 darood sharif facing Mecca with Madina’s Tasawwar.
Major Sadiq visited me other. He is sick in hospital and very likely to be recommended to stay in Lahore and unlikely to be posted anywhere. Anyway he was feeling all right. Miss Khawar is also doing well. May God bless her.
Apologize for misprints etc. owing to poor condition of the typewriter. With best wishes from me my friends. Everybody here love you my dear—
I would like to hear early on working of these Daroods—Very Sacred Service Indeed.)
I wish you every good thing for you—
Barkat Ali
Salarwala Lyallpur
W. Pakistan
2 Nov 1962
My dear Sufi Ahmad Murad Chisti, Aslam-o-Alaikum
What a joy to remember you this morning. I was spiritually busy or else I would have replied you earlier. I hope you would be kind enough to forgive me. It is no exaggeration to say that I have never met a man to touch you.
Your devotion to Islam is very highly appreciated here. The message of our Pir-o-Murshid Sufi Inayat Khan Chisti is of course a real message of Islam.
Love to humanity, unconditional and unrestricted love to humanity irrespective of black and white. Your love to humanity is the real worship of God. If you love humanity means your love God. Very few Sufis know this.
People here always talk about your love, your familiarity. I very earnestly pray to God our heavenly father to bring you back.
Major Sadiq is still Kohat and cannot forecast when he is likely to be back in Lahore. He will be back when God wishes him to be back.
I conveyed your salaams to Sukhera. He met me the other day and was feeling quite happy. He requested me to convey his salaams to you in my this post.
I would be glad enough to preach this Ism-Azam (the greatest name of God, the great i.e
Ya Hayyo-Ya Qayyoom—111 times to 300 times daily
Ya Zul Jalal-e-Walikram—111 times to 300 times daily
These two names are the greatest names of Allah and may be recited at any time preferably before bed.
Your faith and efforts will bring fruit no doubt. We do not sometimes care for any delay, may it be long. May God enlighten your Mind-Qalb-Rooh-Nufs so that you can find the real paths of peace in this world.
Sufi Sahib I have prayed to my God—may God enlighten your Qalb-Nufs-Rooh—Ameen.
My friends here are very humbly submitting their salaams, love and good-will to you and your friends.
Today is Friday and I am not going to mosque for prayers. With best wishes from us all—Cheerio
I am,
yours very sincerely,
Barkat Ali
Salarwala
District-Lyallpur, West Pakistan
[Ed—This is likely a part of a letter]
5/7/63
I am asking my Sheikh to frame a historical Qadrin Sanad for you with connected things. I also request Pir-o-Murshid Sufi Inayat Khan Rahmattullah Ilah to accept and confirm this Nisbat with additions etc.
I myself am wholly devoted in revising Nisab Tariqat—i.e. revision of existing syllabus of all Holy Kalmat Sharif and to rearrange them in chronological order and in such a way that over seventy percentage of all may be recited daily.
Major Sadiq in in Kohat. We do not and never criticize Nature and follow all with no ifs and buts. No man can understand Nature. Best men are those who do not criticize and do not sit idle. Idleness is a sort of death. I am really very happy to find and feel these things in you.
This is an Amal for you this would increase your Kashf
Sit facing Mecca and Recite
Right—Subboohun
Left—Quddoosun
Upwards—Rabbul-Malaekate
On Heart—Wa-Rooh
You can start from ten with daily weekly or monthly increments until you reach a higher standard.
This Amal will itself guide you and you would see and meet any Rooh you need or like.
It is nor Maghrab sunset and I wish you Cheerio,
I am yours
Barkat Ali
(handwritten notes)
Your letter of 1st was received on 5th—the day of Eid. Proceeded to Salarwala by 1.30 train on 6th reaching there at 14:30. Baba Sahib went through your letter and the excerpts and sent for a type machine. Started typing out straight and this is the valued document.
Please acknowledge direct to Salarwala. I will write again after further study and the showing-around of your letter. Yours ever, S.A. 7.5.63
17th November, 1963
Beloved Pir-O-Murshid:
It is with all Praise to Allah that greetings are sent. For your Mureed has now completed copy of such of the teachings for Murshid’s that came from Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan and are in his hands in the regular order. The teachings out of the regular order will take some time to compile for they come also from many notes left by Hazrat Inayat Khan, and also from “Irfan” which was the source of inspiration for Major Sadiq and from the teachings of Waris of Lucknow and from other inner and outer sources.
These teachings have never been followed by anybody. They are connected with other writings which are presumed to be known and with experiences also which are presumed to be known. Originally the constitution of the Sufi Order called for twelve grades based on Initiation and this was shown by the progress in Zikr. But then it was changed to accord with hal and makam by methods other than Zikr.
These were divided between some left in San Francisco with the late Murshid Rabia Ada Martin and those left in Europe. Each of these were in turn divided and the divisions continued so that the whole body of literature not only did not come into one hand but each secreted what papers he had.
In the West the teachings left with Rabia Martin were in part lost because secreted away; in part destroyed in a fire and in part left in several hands. In the European groups, also some papers were destroyed in the war and the rest divided into four places which have not been on mutual terms. And although the lesser teachings have been and are being published in England, the amount of writings left by Hazrat Inayat Khan are voluminous. And when even with those that have come to these hands, plus other materials, also this is a voluminous body of teachings to be shown to humanity.
It is doubtful whether any mureeds of Hazrat Inayat Khan were able to sustain fana-fi-Sheikh and tasawwur. This reached such a state that the Secretary of the Sufi Order in one place denounced these very teachings and experiences and his denunciations were accepted by at least two of the gentlemen—maybe more, who have toured some parts of the world as Pir-O-Murshid, or Shaikh-ul-Mashaikh. And of these one perversely and egotistically (nufs) transgressed the personal instructions left him by Hazrat Inayat Khan who had been his cousin and friend, but who had never ordained him as a spiritual teacher.
The result has been everywhere confusion, division and an almost unanimous agreement not to adopt any of the actual methods used by him such as Kashf, Murakkabah, mysticism, etc. into which one need not go.
Now from the very beginning I was selected to go on the path which may be call abdal, although it is not necessarily abdal, but Americans insisted I wished to be a Murshid. Neither Allah nor Rassoul-lillah nor Hazrat Inayat Khan has ever said that I ought to be a Murshid. And it as only in Lahore, that I was challenged by little old Abdul Latif, who is to be the Voice of Allah in the most unlikely form.
The inner experiences of Abdul Latif were followed almost exactly by those of Khalifa Khawar Khan, both in principle and detail and need not be repeated. But the “silent teacher” which is affirmed toward the end of these papers came first in Calcutta at the tomb of Dadajan and then in Ajmir at the cell of Bakhtiar Khaki and then most of all on each visit to the Dirgah Nizam-ed-din Auliya and highest of all at the ruins of the Khankah Nizam-ud-din Auliya (1956) and now at many places in Pakistan but chiefly around Lahore.
The instruction left by Hazrat Inayat Khan was never to teach what one does not know. But in addition to confirming on me the path of “Abdul,” he also wanted me to go before the intellectuals. This was barred by practically everybody and made studying harder. Only today while still rejected by the clergy, the metaphysical people, the press there has been a greater and greater receptivity by the intellectuals. This has been for some time from the natural scientists, but now since the latest Darood instructions from the social scientists and from intellectuals generally—there is a new day. Only it is amusing now to see one accepted where there is indifference and not accepted where there is interest. Allah knows best and this is exactly what Hazrat Inayat Khan wanted from the beginning and all of the above splinter groups rejected—to what end one does not know. For there have never been any claims to Murshidship or leadership in the West. And if one manifests openly or secretly it will be in spite of man and because of Allah, to Whom be all Praise. For never once has Allah inspired or prompted contrary to the sayings and writings of anybody from Rassoul-lillah to the least servant of his teachings.
Pakistan. There comes regular correspondence from and with Major Sadiq, Khalifa Saadia Khawar and Shams-ed-din Ahmed, and this keeps the hearts and minds together. Only at this end the voluminous writing keeps one busy, plus the need to mingle with humanity and perform proper duties.
England. Mohammed Ilyas not only writes regularly but he has brought me into contact with a friend who happens to be a Khalif of the Kadiri Orders and the letter, of which copy was sent to you, has not yet been acknowledged but Ilyas keeps on writing. It would seem that the Divine Message must find roots in all parts of the world.
Sufism in Europe. When the followers of Hazrat Inayat Khan failed to follow his teachings and while the French were exploiting the peoples of North Africa, representatives of the Dervish Orders sent missionaries to France and Switzerland and made many converts even wrong prominent people. So now the tasawwuf in Europe prospers but through other schools. Someday, Inshallah, as a Mureed of the Rifa’i’ and Shadhili Orders one may be able to proceed in those directions also. In other words, the quantity of needed effort is the same as always, but the qualities today are all bright, shining, cheerful and ominous.
Garden of Inayat: In 1926 Hazrat Inayat Khan told me he had only about three faithful mureeds. This was not believed. When under his guidance (Tasawwuri Murshid) the “Garden of Inayat” was conceived and written; it was universally rejected and finally a fire destroyed the Khankah, Kaaba Allah in a near-by town. (Inshallah, I shall take Major Sadiq to the place when he comes.)
The Garden of Allah. Now under the tutelage, so to speak, of Data Sahib, the Madzub and your good self, the same principles have been ended and there is a plan to cover the whole earth from Delhi to the Atlantic Ocean. And strange to say, or allamdu lillah, nobody has rejected this and every person talked to at all levels think it wonderful. Only the quantitative preparatory work is huge. And were it not that it integrated all the personal efforts in every direction, spiritual, scientific and aesthetic, it would not be held. But now one is now so much in Tasawwuri Murshid as Akhlak Allah and one cannot let go. Or if one were to make a pun out of it, one is both an abdal and abdallah although the Arabic derivation of these two words is very different indeed despite their seeming; outward resemblance.
There may be a paper soon on “The Garden of Allah” for “Pakistan Review” and if so, a carbon will be sent to Shamseddin Ahmed. One has been asked for programs covering two portions of Pakistan but “The Garden of Allah” provides for both though it covers a much larger portion of the world.
Major Sadiq’s visit will harmonize thoroughly and absolutely with “The Garden of Allah” and his own plans for his place will, Inshallah, become an example and model.
Recently there have been some lectures on Humza and it is remarkable that not only the methods of Humza are not pursued in other parts of Pakistan, they are hardly known. This is the example of the difference between Ilm and something called “Islam” which has no meaning whatsoever. The guidance is always there and is seldom followed and people remain unhappy. Therefore examples will be needed most.
Bismillah. These teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan throw considerable light on these opening words of Invocation which are taken so much for granted. One can, of course, write endlessly on the Invocation or Kalama or Zikr and some of this will be done, forthwith, Inshallah.
Further News. Appointments have been made to discuss “The Garden of Allah” within the month and Inshallah, sometimes will come thereof and therefrom.
As-salaam aleikhum. My love and blessings to everyone,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
My dear Sufi Sahib,
Your letter of the 17th November [1963—Ed] breathes of the spirit that Allah placed in Adam so that man can know Him. Praise be to Allah that you are proving His existence by deeds and not mere words; and not only by deeds, but by experiences. A Sufi is he who tries to manifest the qualities which reached their perfection in our Holy Prophet. He succeeds best who surrenders the most—surrenders body, mind and soul. Hard it is to bring the body under the sway of the mind, and make both subservient to the spirit. But our tarikat calls for it, and you have achieved it —alhamdu lillah. By the power of Zikr all these three act as one because they all have the same single aim—to sing only the praises of Allah. Whether you walk, or talk, or pray, you are perpetually worshipping Him. And are we not born only to worship Him?
You live in a difficult land at a difficult time—so strong and yet powerless—so wealthy and yet so friendless—so advanced and yet ignorant. In such hard soil you are sowing divine seeds, and in some cases, a harvest is being already reaped. Inshallah the Light that was flashed on in Arabia more than 13 centuries ago will prevail in the New World also, and Sufis like you are in the vanguard of this momentous struggle. Can any battle compare with this tussle? With the sacrifices so gladly made, the loneliness self-imposed, love countering hate, the Kalama triumphant when presented with faith and inspiration. The greatest jihad is the battle for souls, and only a chosen few can wage and win it.
At Salarwala here, the Will of Allah rules, and my constant prayer is that all those who come within its orbit should receive the Baraka—that invisible shield of protection that Allah bestows when His lieutenants beseech Him. This proud world thinks that name and form and mind is all that exists, and that all progress is solely a product of the intellect. Little do they know that it is the ceaseless chanting of Allah’s Kalams every minute of every day by purified souls that causes the Creator to nourish His creation. When this spiritual symphony ceases, the Day of Judgment will have dawned. Intellect will then avail them naught, and those who worshipped at its shrine will be aghast.
This body knows little rest, but with the heart resigned to His Will, and the nufs rendered ineffective by Zikr, no tiredness is felt. Eighteen years of effort have culminated in the completion of the “Tarthib Sharif,” a compilation and commentary on the Hadith. It will run into 1100 pages, and will be distributed free. Printing has begun in Lahore and copies should be out after two months. Thus will be fulfilled the task entrusted by Sabri Sahib of Kalyar Sharif.
I write to you with joy and abundance of good-will. The details you have given are a precious record of mystic achievement. The experiences are valid and conform to the highest tradition of our glorious heritage—it is the life blood of Sufi realization, unseen but vital, subtle but real, spiritual and everlasting. Its fragrance takes one to Him and through Him we are linked in this happy bond. On this note I end with love and every good thought.
Ali.
15th Feb. 1964
Beloved Pir-O-Murshid;
As-salaam aleikhum, Preparing for Bayat to be given to Shems-ed-din Ahmed of Lahore, there are some more pages of “The Way of Illumination” of Hazrat Inayat Khan. It is probable also that some of those lessons will be sent to my God-son in Rawalpindi who is a very close associate of Major Sadiq and now spiritual stepbrother also to Begum Sadiq so there is a close relationship all around. But still waiting for my definite words from Major Sadiq who seems to be moving from place to place too rapidly to write. And although there is peacefulness within, there is not exact assurance of outer behavior.
But I am also writing because of two “miracles” which took place recently. On the first occasion a notable was speaking on education in Asia and I challenged him that neither universities nor the State (Foreign Affairs) Department answered inquiries of any sort. He said, “You have been writing to the wrong people. “Who are the right people?” He had to seek an answer and a man sitting in front of me gave me his card and inshallah, I shall content him next week both in regard to Miss Khawar’s coming and the University of Islamabad.
Then on another day I took Khalifs Khawar’s book on Urdu to the University of California. The office clerk said, “I am sorry, Professor Gompertz who must decide the matter is on sabbatical leave and we don’t know whether he will be in for three months at least.” Then the door opened and Prof. Gompertz came in and I gave him Khalifa’s book and we are to see each other Monday after which appointment and the appointment mentioned above I shall write in full to Khalifa.
This shows how much we work, or must work with inshallah and that there is always the divine guidance.
After going to post I got to a book stare to pick up a work on I’bn Sina for Khalifa. It contains a good deal on Miraj and in a sense Miraj is the central theme of my personal (Is there such a thing?) Islam. People celebrate Eid festivals and talk about the “Grand Night” but it is apart from their lives. Rassoul-lillah said, “I am a man like you,” and the bible says that Adam was created in the Divine Image, and as you have with you Madzub Sahib you have an example of a man who lives perpetually in the “Grand Night.”
The book, The Sufis recently published has much to say about Khwaja Khizr and Data Sahib and this will be of great value to me personally. I do not know what will come out of the meeting on Arab culture to take place soon. There is an awkward situation because both Muslim and non-Muslims place the glory of Din in the past, and do not see that Allah is operating every moment, every breath. Our Zikrs are too much of history, too little of Allah.
faithfully,
Sufi Ahmed Murad-Chisti
772 Clementina St.,
San Francisco 3, Calif.
March 1, 1965
Beloved Pir-O-Murshid:
As-salaam-aleikhum. One writes not knowing whether one is reporting or seeking advice. One writes because there is a sort of “psychic” climax which may or may not be important. One writes knowing the extreme difference which may be between actual surrender to Al-Hayy and something private called “Islam” which may or may not have meaning.
When a mureed is put on spiritual practices, especially the Daroods which you so graciously presented, there are bound to be effects without one knowing whether these effects are the direct results of one’s devotion or the effects of Grace which do not necessarily depend upon fervor or ardor Contrariwise, if the repetition of Wazifas or Daroods does not change the personality, the circumstances, the inner and outer life of a person, then there is either something wrong with ryazat or the devotee.
It is now some time since my return from Pakistan and the total fruit of effort in relations between that country and the personal self have not been very much. True, money and time have been spent even to the limits of one’s capacity. But the major persons in your country for whom apparently these efforts were put forth have either failed to appreciate what was being attempted, or have failed in their own private lives.
If they have failed in their private lives they are very foolish, for Allah is not a man, does not mentalize as men do, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. There is a word kham which has its psychological effect and cannot be measured. But to hide the head does not mean that thoughts are hidden or efforts are hidden. Failure is man’s reaction to something and such failures may mean nothing in the worlds beyond—Malakut, Djabrut, Lahut. In turn one feels ashamed that people who consider themselves “Muslims” are looking at human reactions, human opinions and human failures or successes.
Part II of “Saladin” is just finished retyping. This is a tremendous effort on the part of one who has little sleep or rest ever excepting to proceed with the next step. But “Saladin” though concerned with Islam, Allah and Mohammed is not particularly concerned with Pakistan.
Now suddenly or gradually personality relations with large segments of this earth have changed.* When one is on the path of the Auliya, life may go in one of several directions. One direction is to be more concerned than ever with religion, its edifices, its rituals, its teaching. Another is to be concerned with an area as if Allah has entrusted you with the guardianship of an area. Another may be to become mast. Another is to pioneer in awakening mankind where man has been asleep, and this has to do with the evolution of the whole race. Or one may be sent out with a particular message, a sort of Rassoul without being in anyway a Nabi. And others.
This person has been entrusted with two general duties in life, one concerned with the sciences and food production; the other with the awakening of hearts. Both of these will come to a climax this year in California, especially in Southern California.
There will be a scientific gathering in July and this will bring to a head all the materials for “Project: The Garden of Allah” but [?] geographical applications may change which is the subject for [?]. And in September one will be on the panel at another gathering in which the audience will be scientists but the speakers will be those versed in the great religions. It is then one must come forward as a champion of tasawwuf.
The personality relations in many parts of the world changing, the prospects for peace or otherwise in two distinct parts of the Orient have come to this person’s attention. Whether anything will result of a personal nature one does not know. One of these is non-Islamic (in the general sense). In the other instance Pakistan and Japan have been asked to intervene between Indonesia and Malaysia.
But it is in the Islamic parts of the world with which there is now concern. In the last communication mention was made of a Sufi movement in Ceylon which is trying to reach other parts of the world. Evidently the leaders are educated, certainly more educated than the “missionaries” from Pakistan who make practically no converts—one exception to be mentioned below. Their publications are in excellent English, take notice of the culture of the day, realize that one can reach the educated by appealing to the higher side of man’s nature and their printed forms are the best I have seen from any section of Asia. Now my notice has been called to their efforts in Pakistan itself and here there is a peculiar situation:
Many Pakistanis take the wrongful dualistic attitude that “Muslims” are right and non-Muslims wrong in any situation. Wicked Muslims are defended and not so wicked non-Muslims are accused. The Muslims may break all the commandments of Qur’an and Hadith and they will be defended.
But now come some Muslims who are not provincial, who have the world outlook and these same ignorant Pakistanis dare not criticize them because they are always “praising” Muslims—they don’t praise Allah so much. And thus they are caught because the universal Ceylonese and other Muslims increase both the heart and head.
The coming into my life of Hassan Hashim from Sudan has totally changed the feelings of being a sort of exile. True, almost every group which “logically” should have welcomed me has done everything but listen. But now one does not care, and as one does not care, there is growing attention from truth-seekers of various kinds.
Hashim has discovered that this person is not only versed in many sciences and branches of culture more than the average man, but also in many branches of Islamics. But most of all this person knows about the Mahdi and dervishes of his land who have been very important in history a while back and are now coming out again.
This is the first person he has met who knows these things. Also who is acquainted with the Swahili Islamic culture of Africa which your countrymen largely ignore. This has led to very serious consideration of visiting several parts of Africa. Hashim knows nearly all the lands of northern and central Africa.
But now he is urging me to go to Nigeria. His father established a large school at Kano in inland Nigeria and became the teacher of many prominent men who are playing large parts in the affairs of that new country. He also has told me about the devotion and wisdom of the men of Tarikat there and what is more important, that is one place where instructions in Tarikat are in English. For many of the men who speak otherwise Arabic, Berber, Hausa, Fulani, Mandingo, etc. converse in English and English is the language of all the schools of higher education including the religious ones.
Lagos is the capital of Nigeria and its chief imam is a very close friend of mine who once lived in San Francisco and with whom I stayed from time to time in ‘pindi. He has been most successful in winning converts to Islam but not in any of the manners set forth by various schools of Tablighi found in both East and West Pakistan. These people have the zeal to convert themselves and no outward appeal that would convince others. But my Imam friend is entirely outward and successful, and has an excellent knowledge of English.
All of this seems new were it not for the fact that my first Pir-O-Murshid wished the spiritual teachings to be brought to all lands and he has his writings in English. Whether anything will come of this is, of course, uncertain. The calling of those conferences in July (on science) and September (on tasawwuf) make it foolish to look ahead.
Today I receive little from Pakistan other than from Shamseddin Ahmed of Lahore. How one can help persons or a country without literary courtesy is very difficult. My personal will has been to visit Thailand, India and Pakistan, and possibly visit Ceylon but the personal will should not determine one’s future.
Inwardly, while recopying “Saladin” at last there has come a sign as to the literary form of my memoirs and an inner assurance that this is right. But this will take some more time and the publishers have to be satisfied. One can only work with faith and assurance, and prayer.
Hashim has come to some conclusions about this person which one does not like to repeat, but they are in harmony with what you have sent. One does not like to measure oneself. It is very hard to get any audience here; or rather one gets most favorable responses where one does not seek commendation—from business men and scientists; and one gets little response from metaphysical and religious persons who are too self-centered. Perhaps this is as Allah wills. But now one no longer feels lonely. It has been this person’s prayer to meet somebody from Sudan. The prayer has been granted, alhamdu lillah, and granted in a very simple, easy, and beautiful way.
Love and blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad-Chisti
* The whole story brings out the meaning of the Sabri School.
26th April, 1966
Dear Pir-o-Murshid Sufi Sahib:
As-salaam aleikhum. Greeting to your good self, to Madzou Sahib and all the brethren. Praise to Allah who has seen it fit to lift some of the burdens from this person and now to open the door so that inquires into Truth now come to his doors.
The main obstacle to leaving this land is a legal family problem involving considerable funds. It would seem proper to have such matters settled before leaving, unless either there will be a legal delay or some unforeseen factor. The plans have been to settle and then leave for Pakistan and other places, either as Allah sees fit or as advice may come.
In the last month there have been signs that this person may function to spread the Divine Message and also to answer the problem of people who are spiritually starving. By Divine Grace, a young man who came for advice has since been most successful in all his undertaking and gives present to Sufi Ahmed Murad.
The result has been a slow but growing number of inquires. The young people of America are seeking a religion based on experiences as Hazrat Al-Ghazzali taught. They are not finding the deep experience on deep wisdom from other sources.
One dare not argue that one religion is better than another, but one can easily point out that deep experience is more valid than anything else. There is also an acceptance of Human Brotherhood, which is not taught by other faiths, or if taught not practiced. Our young people are quite free from prejudice but equally caught in uncertainties. If a person has had the experience of Hal and Makam, this sooner or later impresses young inquires. This is a scientific age and just as experience is requisite for and in and outer sciences, so it is felt than experience is requisite for and in the inner sciences. [is requisite for and in the outer sciences, so it is felt that experience is requisite for and in the inner sciences?]
The subject of Pakistan has come up in several classes and when it was discovered that this person adopted Sir Richard Burton as model, first the teachers, then the students began to pay respect and one of the first things the spiritual Islam needs here is respect. If society does not give it, the universities do, more and more.
Today one went on an errand for the University of Tehran and found that the new Consul-General of Iran is the son of Arif and he was very happy to meet an American versed in tasawwuf . In addition to that one may report that the new Poet Laureate of this State (California) has been a student of Sufi poetry and especially admires Hafiz and Amir Khusrau.
Two months ago, a young man in difficulties came to Sufi Ahmed Murad and presented his problems to him. Weeks passed by and the man reported that he had found clothing but sudden success in all directions. One uses such occasions to implant the seeds of prayer, devotion and spiritually, and this is also one of the few occasions in which an American has trusted Sufi Ahmed Murad.
In the city of Los Angeles one has met his goddaughter after 27 years, and found she has grown very spiritually. She was taken to the home of one Miss Ruth St. Denis who originally brought Hazrat Inayat Khan to this country and is regarded as one of the most spiritual of Americans. She has asked Sufi Ahmed Murad to join her poetry group.
Immediately after, a very serious proposal was made to open a new school for spiritual training. The parties involved in Los Angeles was [as?] well as young people here have found that although there are many schools and cults and teachers, there is very little evidence of spiritual statement. People are heart hungry and God hungry.
Relatives of Hazrat Inayat Khan have been here and come here. While one may affirm with Isa that flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of Allah, it is also true that in some instances there have been families whose representatives have shown every sign of high spiritually. Indeed there is a descendent of Maulana Roum in this city who is one’s closest friend.
This person has found the Divine light underlying all the phenomena which our scientists are studying, which affirms the last wishes of Hazrat Inayat Khan; to bring the knowledge of East and West together. One cannot completion [?] anybody the practices of Zikr and Akhlak Allah, but one has to face constantly movements which call themselves “Sufi” which teach other than constant Zikr, Akhlak Allah and Hikmat. One has to extend a sort of distant compassion which may manifest (to them) otherwise. It is awkward, but no doubt necessary to see “Sufism” in the west in forms of personality philosophies and organizations, and “Islam” which confuse the meanings of Islam, Selim, etc. But the young want honesty, integrity and sincerity and this one hopes to convey whether he draws people to this orbit or not.
The day will come, inshallah, when the inner sciences are taken as seriously as the outer sciences and when that comes, reports may be different. So it remains open when and why this one will return to Pakistan, and when and why other steps are taken.
The Pakistani leaders here express nothing but the most profound reference [reverence?] and respect for this person, bearing in mind he is an American and as such does not always agree (without necessarily differing) on some of the problems of the day.
Love and blessing,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
772 Clementina St.
San Francisco 3, Calif.
13th July, 1966
Dear Pir-o-Murshid Sufi Sahib:
As salaam aleikhum. This is a different greeting because today one feels there may come some changes in the outer as well as in the inner life. In the writings Hazrat Inayat Khan taught about the soul being between Joy and Peace and it is notable that at the moment, whether one turns in the one direction or another, there has been the beginning of a movement, mostly of young people, to come to this place. And it is notable that they all come much earlier than the appointed hour and run up the stairs but walk down slowly at the end. There has not been this in the life of this person before.
It started very simply when a man came here with a problem and presented it and disappeared. After a long time he telephoned and said that one had saved his life and also he has suddenly began to earn much more money. So he began sending others here and for this there will be the explanations of “Joy” and “Peace.”
This is a great, prosperous and strong Nation filled with unhappiness and dissatisfaction. And to meet this dissatisfaction people not only go to the religious meetings but they now go to other groups which are not in accord with traditional religions. Some of those are called “cults” and some are philosophical but particularly here in California, but spreading in this country, the seeker looks for a sort of personal Messiah. There are all kinds of them and the situation in California resembles India more than anywhere else. Only one does not find any people who have deep experiences excepting last week this one met a Christian mystic about whom a story may be told below.
Joy. The search for joy takes two directions: one the seeking of a person who may lead to Joy and the other the search for a drug. And people go to persons and cultures which give them false types of ryazat and instead of finding joy they often become unbalanced mentally and there is more of that. And when one questions these people about their disciplines, one finds no sound basis for them, or else they are copied from spiritual and mystical methods but only up to a point.
When it comes to Drugs you have some parallels in hashish and [?] about which one does not know much. And here are three types:
These which come from Asia.
These used by the natives both in North and South America.
Those manufactured chemically.
Scientists have been investigating and it is notable that the natives both of North and South America say: “You people speak about Christ, we speak to him.” So the Christian missionaries are not always so successful, and sometimes instead the “white” people are converted to the “natives’” religion. They take the vegetables offered and experience what they have not experienced before. In other words, they enter into hal, or even wujud.
And some chemists have discovered products which give the same effects and are easily made and the young are taking them, and thus experience “God” at their own levels of understanding.
In the year 1945 this person was asked to perform some errands for the brotherhood in Hyderabad, Deccan. To get credentials he was examined by the cultural diplomat of the then undivided India. The subject was “Ibnu l-‘Arabi” and when this person submitted as answer: “The Identity of Ibnu ’l-’Arabi and Sankara” the attaché embraced him. But when he tried to bring this matter up before certain of the innumerable European professors of Asian philosophies, he was so strongly rebuked that the matter has been dormant. Although in reading your own remarks on the subject one is very much assured.
Therefore as courtesy or report one is advising that although one will report on his own experiences in fana and hal because our university requires necessary liberal references, one wishes, and inshallah will quote your good self, and occasionally others who are in this world; and only a minimum of the writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan.
Inasmuch as one met Hazrat Inayat Khan in the world of universal spirit before one met him in the flesh, it established a relationship in the eternity. And the rejection of this by those who took Bayat has produced some curious situations. But as one is going to be criticized anyhow one is not afraid of the Malamati disciplines. One is going to write at some length and will send a copy to our good sister, Miss Saadia Khwaja Khan who is before Allah, “my” Khalifa.
It must be added that one’s own reception in Hyderabad, Deccan, was in marked contrast to any and all receptions in the Western world, or by Westerners. But instead of reacting one realizes that sooner or later the Hadith: “And in that day the sun will rise in the West and all men seeing, will believe.” One will not compromise with nufs, either his own or that of others.
Recently a leading scientist of India wrote a long paper with the goal of uniting scientists and mystics. He claimed nufs-mutmaina, and he was right. But in answering one presented nufs-salima, for in that is Strength of upsize only knew it. And now another colleague has written on “Cosmic Humanism” and this will further open the door to the presentation of the “Living God” and “The Meaning of God in Human Experience.” So one tires of rejections from little people who reject each other anyhow, and will place before the world, inshallah, mystical and love experience which happened, telling where they happened, how than happened, but not necessarily “why” they happened.
For the intellectual cannot accept the teachings of Kashf-al-Mahjub and the explanation, very simple, that makam is the result of human endeavor; and hal cometh by Grace. So Grace is beyond intellection.
And now on my 70th birthday I can attribute the strength, the energy, and even the prowess retained as the result of Grace, and the blessings received from Khwaja Khizr in 1923. And these experienced blessings were accepted in full by Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan but generally rejected by those who claim some sort of “Sufic” knowledge from him.
On March 21, 1925 at exactly noon, in the broad daylight, following a ritual imparted by the aforesaid Khwaja Khizr, I saw with these physical eyes many of great Messengers of Allah, and then double (the others came singly) Mecca Shereef Grand Being.
In 1927, Hazrat Inayat Khan left this world. In celebration thereof in Khilvat, in 1930 he appeared to this one and also before the physical eyes, sat with him in meditation and showed him the fana which does not need any more the physical eyes or ego mind. At that time one had with him ‘Awarif al-Ma’arif learned this teaching, but years later all one’s books and records were destroyed in a fire. In the fire these things are destroyed, in the “ether” they are not destroyed and people who demand physical things will not accept them anyhow.
In 1946 in Khilvat came a humorous complex: the loss of a book (very significant) and the disappearance of Hazrat Inayat Khan and the appearance of the Seal of the Prophets, the reality of which took final form in the poem, “Saladin” which our good friend Miss Saadia Khawar has read.
This must not be such an autobiographical report. It is now, alhamdulillah, that one has found an American teacher in contrast to Europeans, who is willing to accept mystical reports on the same bases as the receipt, or rejection, of scientific reports. And it is time for a mystic who has had the mystical experiences to speak out.
Our subject last week was S. Augustine and this person can vouchsafe the Crucifixion experience in a manner very similar to those reported by Christian mystics, plus a Resume Resurrection experience which, added to the restore through Khwaja Khizr further increase or preserve or restore the vitality in personality. But one holds that those people who accept only the experiences of the distant past and will not examine, much less accept, the experiences of the present are themselves guilty of fraud, egotism and obscurantism.
There was once a lady here who calls herself a Sufi teacher and who has denounced this person no end, and being socially acceptable has succeeded. But in the higher realms we were tested and she went as far as she could. But when it came to fana-fi-Adam, a form of effacement in the whole of humanity, she dropped back to individuality and this person was able to absorb her but the other was not true. And this illustrates other people.
It was also my privilege, after visiting Agra, to have been received at Ajmir in a miraculous manner, and to have seen the workshop where the artisans were trained for either duties at Agra, themselves being required not only to work with marble, but to work with the awakened heart, so that they were in hal as much as could be convenient while doing physical tasks.
21st December, 1966
Beloved Pir-o-Murshid:
As-salaam aleikhum. This letter is written in not only the most pleasant circumstances since one’s return in 1962 but under some of the most pleasant circumstances in the whole life. The first time one heard of the Messenger of God was in a folk maxim here. “If the mountain cannot come to Mohammad, then Mohammad must come to the mountain.” But with Sufi Ahmed Murad, it has been that the mountain came to Mohammad, so to speak.
I do not remember whether I told all the circumstances of the coming of Sidi Abusalem Al-Alawi of Marrakesh, Morocco, but it will bear repeating so all can be known. Last month this person came for a single night and one was asked to bring credentials. But by the Kashf of Allah to whom all praise, one took the picture of the Pir-o-Murshid of the Saint and his followers, and there was instant recognition.
One asked if he knew a former companion, one Ted Reindollar and to one’s surprise this man, now dead, lived in his zawouia (Khan Agha). Then one performed one’s own Zikr, Ya Mohammed Abdullah, and afterwards the saint said that Sufi Ahmed Murad had all the Baraka necessary to give the divine teachings to the world, something Americans do not want; they always want a strange person or a person with strange teachings.
But it is evident that the Saint bestowed Baraka too in this one. For the next day one began giving an instruction in Christian mysticism to a group of young men and class is doing very well, with increased inner and outer light on all there, and there is more joy and love than one has even had in one’s own city.
Then one received back from one’s teacher at the university a paper on which he said, “Too bad. What can I say? I have to give you an A” (highest mark). The paper was on “True Mysticism versus Pseudo-mysticism.” This was written hurriedly and two imperfect copies were made, one purportedly for Khalifa Khawar Khan. But circumstances have been better, alhamdulillah, so my present companion, one William Hathaway, is going to make some suitable copies and one will go to Khalifa and one to each of two universities.
This immediately brings up the question of “innovations.” For without progress even tasawwuf becomes stilted, as we say. Yet an innovation may be questioned, so I place two innovations before you.
a) fana-fi-Wali. This is a stage between fana-fi-Sheikh and fana-fi-Rassoul, wherein one is under guidance of a Wali or a saint of earlier times. This fana and its correspondence tasawwur would be completed either with Hazrat Ali or Ghaus-i-Azam. It is clearly beyond fana-fi-Sheikh or clearly below fana-fi-Rassoul. The details may be sent later. It certainly covers the visits to Nizam-ed Din Auliya and to a lesser degree Ajmir, and in Pakistan to Data Sahib and Mian Mir (other saints may or may not be included).
b) Ya Mohammed Abdullah. This is the Zikr of social revolution. It comes from the Divine Messenger himself in explaining the words of Isa, “I am the first and the last.” I am very, very happy over your work on Hadith for it has been made to clear that the Holy One of Mecca worked hard all his life and only used servants where absolutely necessary and never scolded them. But it also comes with a realization which will be referred to below.
Secret of Permanent Happiness. This is a book just received from Ajmir and it shows the conniving of Iblis. It was sent by a Mr. W.D. Begg of Amir and says, “Who has written for the first time biographies of several great Sufis saints of India in English.” As it was this Mr. Begg who urged me to buy this book and as the Khadim at Ajmir also recommended it, it was amazing to find a book so built around nufs being recommended. It is a duty to reply in full, notify the Khadim, and also my good friend Pir-o-Murad Hasan Sani at Nizam-ed-Din in New Delhi. But I am even more concerned because Khalifa Khawar has been engaged in writing about the great Chisti saints. A copy of the letter will also be sent to our good friend, Shams-ed-Din.
False Sufis. One is now receiving young people who have been misled by false versions of Sufism. This was due to a man named Gurdjieff, born in the Caucasus Mountains, who studied under several Pirs and wrote books, winning a huge following and changing the teachings as he saw fit. In both Gurdjieff and the above book there is practically no mention of Allah, and if Rassoul-Lillah is inferred, it is done symbolically and not direct.
The disciples of these false Sufis are all misled; most of them have taken psychedelic drugs and are in confusion. A close but increasing number now come to these doors, and they find there are numerous spiritual sciences but which they know nothing.
In reading “The Teachers of Gurdjieff,” one finds a marked degree of difference between the teachings given to him and the teachings given out by him. And his teachers generally agree that he could not hold the Baraka.
Now with increase of age, due to Divine Grace, this person seems to be both holding and transmitting more Baraka and his state at the moment is exceedingly encouraging. No doubt Allah does not wish one to spend time and energy with older people who are thoroughly either self-centered or self-satisfied. Mostly if they find a person called “spiritual,” they want to teach him, each wants to make the teacher his or her disciple. This is an American pattern.
Now my letter to Ranjeet Mal Mehta of Ajmir will begin.
I am the offal of the Ajmir Shereef. The sputum of Nizam-ed-Din Auliya. Sweat…. The sweat of hard working Rassoul–Lillah. And the menstruation of Goddess Kali. The companionships of Madzubs is my delight.
And the welcome of the Masts alone pleases me. There is no secret of permanent happiness. For without Ishvara-Allah there is no Sat-Chit-Ananda. Fool who would dictate to the Auliya, who in the name of the Rishis deigns to teach the Rishis. Your very absence from Happiness [?] the need of Happiness. I would give you the kingdoms of words and maxims. And hold to the Super Empire of Silence, but Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate bids me write. And I ask no repentance for my sins. For doing the assigned work of the One-All-Only causes one to sacrifice even happiness for happiness.
Every letter one must write, “Act as if in the presence of Allah and remember, if you do not see him, verily He sees you.”
The Six Interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan.
These will now be written. The substance of these interviews has been rejected by nearly all who stem from him. They begin with the report on the visitation from Khwaja Khizr. The above poetry, the truth of such occurrences and the “karma” of refusal on the part of those who think they are mureeds but who do not work in the service of Allah is most unfortunate.
But this is written because in his first days in the West, Hazrat Inayat Khan paid particular homage to the Hadith. His family and his early associates throughout all these teachings and although I do not know where there are copies on record, they are in the heart and these foolish, self-misled people do not know the secret of the “ether” or the “sphere,” which is also called Akasha.
My chief Sheikh in Cairo, Abusalem Amria, gave his whole life to the Hadith and was exceedingly versed. And while I do not feel the absence of such people, this Sufi Love is of a different order which people here do not understand.
Very gradually Kalama and Zikr and Fikr are imparted. These are successful because everybody who comes to these doors today is ill.
With all love and blessings,
Salarwala
Idul-Zoha
My Dearest Sufi Sahib
Asalam-o-Alaikum.
What a joy to remember you after a good long period. Last Idulfitter I was permitted to write a love letter with Id greetings. Also to include yourself in Qadri Nisbat. I was dictated a very good message for you. Luckily not unluckily it was lost, or mislaid somewhere.
At this state of life (manzil) this is no difference between a jungle and a palace or king and a slave. Also indeed no difference in Far and Near. This long silence is also based on some Hikmat.
I was to explain to you a few things, namely greatness of God our heavenly father. Everybody say that God is Great but nobody believes in him at all. We love objects not God, similarly we I am given to understand, pray purposes not God. There are a few men in the whole world who really love God and who really worships him. People just say they love and worship God but really nobody loves and or worships God. God is everything great and kindest of all. If anybody really loves him—how he would not love him.
I love people and hope this would be the cause of my love for or to God someday. I very firmly hold that with God’s blessing you love him and he loves you. I pray and believe your mission would be a certain success. May you shine with Islam and your Tabligh may be universal.
Ya Hayyo—Ya Qayyoom-o-Ya Zul Jalal-i-Wal Ikram is the Isam-i-Azam. I hope you would continue this regularly daily.
I am requesting my Pir-i-Faiz Makhdoom Sabar Sahib Piran Kallar Sharif—for so many things for your future—Sabar Sahib is not only my Peer-i-Faiz but a very kind father. I can ask him anything and everything at every time irrespective of time and day. Normally one cannot dare to repeat a thing or a request when once decided but I with his gracious can ask repeat and repeat the same object from Dargarh Sharif Sabar Sahib undoubtedly is my holy father and is as kind to me as anybody—I am requesting my holy father for so many things for you and I feel certain all I have requested have been accepted.
This is being felt and told frequently that your holy preaching will surely be a success and your leading factor is love humanity and spread love amongst humanity. This love someday will please your God. Love creature of God and God will love you in turn. This is what I am being told during the course of this typing. Also I beg apologies for this misprinting, wrong spellings for I am writing and typing this after about 21 years.
I have also prayed for a life-mate. I and my friend Majzoob are feeling well and oftenly remember you, your life and manners and devotion.
My dear Sufi Sahib I have tried to disclose so many points and cannot say anymore except a goodwill message salaams from all of my friends here and all who know and love you. With best wishes, from me, from Sabar Sahib
I am, yours intimate….
[to Barkat Ali, undated]
This person met recently a Christian mystic who has had the same social rejections. But he has a meeting place and he wants this one to lecture at his place on Peace and the world religions which, inshallah, may be done.
Now Hazrat Inayat Khan taught that Peace in the world depended on the acceptance of the Hierarchy (Kutub, Ghaus, Auliya, etc.) He left a whole ceremony for this purpose but the meaning was not accepted and the practices (Mujahida, Mushahida) are hardly known at all. So instead of having peace we have turmoil.
Last week this one performed for the first time the tawajjeh of Khalif Usman, and gave the feeling of Peace to all. No doubt superficially or otherwise it is like some forms of Darshan in India but the way this person has seen Darshan, it has often been a ceremony but when this person had the tawajjeh of Hazrat Inayat Khan, (he had it in two ways) it was transforming. This also is harmony with the Darood practices.
It is only now for the first time in San Francisco that help has been offered and one has to consider a similar offer in Hollywood when one can go there. In one sense, one has not been prepared to be a Murshid on a large scale. One inherited, so to speak, a Buzurg training from Murshida of working when there are so few spiritual people in a vast country. And one is always aware that Divine Grace is beyond all personal and personality efforts.
Love. This is the final of these three subjects. In the purer sense there is little of that here. We have passion, we have infatuation, we have much good will and Americans are by nature always kindly toward children. But having heard and met so many of our leaders, there is little deep understanding. Only now there is a change and one is unable even to lay down a program for himself because of both the needs of others and their seeking.
You will appreciate, dear Murshid, that one is always busy and now for the first time Alhamdulillah, there may be some help of a nature badly needed, for a spiritual brother is moving here who can be entrusted with typing and so help prepare lessons. And the amount of lesson material that has come, come from all nations, is very great and unorganized, and if published, the meanings remain unknown. So one is satisfied and Allah has given the strength and courage to continue at an age when my companions have become feeble and worn out. And here again is the testimony that one’s spiritual practices, Wazifas and Daroods are effective, they are operative through the person and preserve, increase and encourage his vitality.
With love and blessing to all,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
[undated]
My dear Sufi Sahib,
The preaching of Islam depends on the inherent virtues of truthfulness (honesty) and piety and whatever one might say about this latter virtue, it is intrinsically a gift of God and cannot be acquired.
Greatness or glory and the working of miracles is born of piety and unless God endows a person with this virtue, he cannot work in the ways of God and whosoever does so, he is selected by God for this noble work but piety is an essential condition.
I pray that God might grant you and your friends and myself the requisite capability and piety to preach His religion.
I humbly present my mind and soul and all that I possess and ask for His help in granting them (mind and soul) harmony and balance and the light to work in His ways.
The greatest preacher of India, Hazrat Khawja Gharib Nawaz of Ajmir was the elect of God and he entered India alone and converted that country to Islam.
Nowadays many preachers go forth of their own accord ostensibly to preach but in reality for mundane glory and honor and therefore they fail in their mission and come back discomfited, whereas, if they had gone out at God’s behests, they would have met with success.
Whatever may be my attainments, I present myself to God to be used in His way and this Urge in itself emanates only from His and you should believe likewise.
The first great religion of the world is Islam. May God employ us all in the service of His religion and also all of you and my children—sons and daughters, so that the whole of this caravan marches in His ways and expires in His service till our dead bodies also start treading the path of righteousness in His ways.
This world was considered so valueless and wretched by the great prophet of Islam, how can I like it. People are all so taken in by mundane things but they have no lure for me.
Wherever we emerged, we killed all our desires and burnt the very shop of our being and entered nothingness with the result that we issued a coinage of our own wherever we went and even if I have to go to China, I will go like this. All that is needed in this wise is an experienced “Guide,” who can show the way and who has trod it himself and has seen its intricacies and whose experience in this line has become a law unto himself. If you ever get such a man who has drunk of this Cup or fortunately you stumble on him, then enter his fold and stick to him for he is like a crane, which is a bird in Asia and which lays eggs in the hills in summer and migrates to the plains in winter yet it concentrates on the eggs which it has laid in the far off mountains and it hatches them in his mind and the young ones appear and if it forgets a particular egg, it rots and becomes useless. Your Shamsuddin Ahmed must become a disciple (do his Bayat). He is a very pious Mussalmen.
The men of God on His earth issue His Commandments under His orders and all God’s creation is always anxious to hear their Commands. People are always ready to obey them and none can ever do them any harm or stand in their way, so much that even the angels become their helpers and spread their wings in their way for their tread. My dear man, those who issue God’s orders are absolutely unafraid, they are never overawed or terrified by anything. The great Hazrat Ganj Shakar of Pak Pattan set a wonderful example of a missionary e.g. he was a saint of very few words. He just appeared before his audience from his cell, cast a glance over them and affected a complete change in all of them for the better and the unbelievers learnt religion by his mere look. You might consult me about this problem some other time.
To work out things in a miraculous manner is a “must” in case of a religious preacher or a missionary and he can work out wonderful things, whenever he has any need for them, His very talk, as a matter of fact his tongue itself is capable of performing miracles for all that he says is the order of God Himself and will never go waste. His utterance is the word of God and it is like an arrow shot from the bow which must hit the target and his planning in this respect is likened to Fate itself, which can never go awry.
The religion of Islam, its culture and social manners, and customs as a matter of fact everything connected with it is universally acceptable because it preaches equality and is based on simplicity, which is the very nature of man. Simplicity is an asset and gorgeousness, a curse and many so called big Persons will like to relinquish a life of Pomp and Show and adopt simplicity; only they have not got the courage to give it up because it has become the very breath of life for them and it is a hallmark of their Society, however much they might dislike it.
The Qur’an is such a permanent code of life that it is applicable to men, women and children of all ages and climes and religion of the world and it will remain so till Resurrection and no other book can make such a claim. The Islamic Culture is the best in the world and it is mainly so because its pivot is “Nature” and its highest water mark consists in its canons of morality and its code of living together and one main argument for Islam being the only true religion, can be gauged from the fact that it accepts all the old religious as emanating from God.
Ever since the Qur’an has descended from above, all other heavenly books have become secondary in position. It seems as if God has collected them all and stored them away in His treasure as no original Copy of any one of them is now available. And then the question arises “are these books the same in their text as they were originally revealed to the Prophets, Jesus, Moses and David and called the New and old Testaments including the Psalms of David. Yet it is a fact that not a single infinitesimal change can be affected in the Qur’an nor would a second Qur’an ever descend from above.
That the great Prophet of Islam was the last and the greatest of the prophets is proved by the fact that many saints of Islam (friends of God) have appeared amongst his followers, who performed miracles like the Prophets of old and their deeds and reminiscences are talked about by all good peoples till the Judgment Day. Can any religion produce a man who has lain on fire, has kept standing for 12 years or has been skinned alive, has brought the dead back to life again etc, etc. It is the torchbearer, of this religion alone whose stories abound in books and deeds of this type adorn numberless pages, quite unlike the great followers of other religions.
If we are good for nothing, it does not mean that Islam is nothing, Islam continues the same but we are worthless, May God wake us up and open our eyes to the real perspective. Amen.
Salarwala
Dear Sufi Sahib,
As-salam-Aleikum, O’Rahmatullah o Barakatuhu.
I hope you have received my previous letter. I am head and heart engrossed in writing the Hadiths of our most beloved and Holy Prophet Mohammed (Peace and blessings of Allah be on him) and didn’t get any time to answer all your letters. Otherwise I would have replied each and every letter of yours. Please forgive me for not answering all your letters.
Your ideas about Preaching (Tableegh) Islam in America are excellent and praise-worthy, Alhamdulillah. Allah blesses your efforts and fulfils your hopes.
As I wrote to you before that for propagating Islam one neither needs Kashf, nor Karamat and the like. The servants and preachers of Islam need only one thing and that is that they should be righteous and pious and true. Their Nufs should be pure of all internal and external evils. As long as the preachers don’t possess these gifts they ca n never be successful in their goals. For preaching Islam just verbalism in the form of Philosophy and the like are not sufficient. For bringing out and explaining the truths of Islam, righteousness and sincerity is needed. Truthfulness and sincerity are collective adjectives for many good qualities.
Islam always required examples and Tableeghs failed till examples were given.
Islam in every age and to every nation presents its own examples. The greatest example is stirring my mind right now and I am over and over reminded of this great ample, and that is to walk on blazing fire if you or anybody else ever need or are asked to walk on blazing fire to prove the truth of Islam. You may freely present me on your behalf to take the Examination, and by Allah, in whose hands is my very life, I am ever ready to walk on blazing fire for the sake of the truth of Islam.
I have nothing more in hand. In this connection I have seen many aspects and scenes, one scene which I witnessed with my own eyes is that when that youth (self came into the field, he left and gave away all that he possessed. He brought nothing with him. After giving away each and every thing and having abandoned all wishes to possess them again, he entered a new field of life.
The world chased this youth. I still remember its remarks and it always echoes in my ears. “Oh wretched creature you just stop here. Neither I’ll let you come in and nor I’ll let you return. You just keep standing here with hands folded. I’ll pull your face-wise.”
After this the youth got absorbed in his mission to the extent that even silence and peace itself failed to match its absorption in his work.
More next time
Sufi Barkat Ali Salarwala
Pir-o-Murshid, Note: Sufi Barkat Ali wrote to you a letter in Urdu and asked translate it for you. The above is the translation of the letter by him for you. Khawar. [Ed—hand-written letter]
772 Clementina St.
San Francisco 3, Calif.
January 30, 1967
My dear Pir-o-Murshid, Sufi Sahib:
All Praise is to Allah, who clarifies the paths in life when it is to Universal Wisdom and human benefit to do so. And while we may not see into the future in time, we often can see into the Wisdom which is outside of time.
In 1956, just before leaving India, one took respects to Pir-o-Murshid Hasan Sani Nizami and he brought me to the ruins of the Khankah Nizam-ud-din Auliya, with hopes that the place might be restored. He showed me a staircase: “That is where the Saint performed Shagal.” There, I climbed the staircase and also performed the Shagal.
The Saint immediately appeared and told me I would return to that place (The Khankah, not the Dargah) three times more; once with three people, then with a large entourage and finally alone, before I left this world. I would now seem to prepare to bring three people to that place, inshallah, and there are a number of different factors operating.
The most evident are the streams of good will coming since the visit of Sidi Abusalam from Marrakech. Most outstanding is the complete reversal of my own flesh-and-blood brother’s attitude, who is now fighting for me as he has been against me previously and trying to make it up in every way. Our father left a considerable fortune, or rather, what he left is now a considerable fortune. We are both getting on in years and he does not give himself a long time, and yet we are not benefiting from it.
So, it is going to be necessary to resort to legal procedure unless the trustees fulfill the terms of the will. In the past, by playing us off against each other, they denied us all petitions for relief. But now we have joined forces and any sort of compromise would enable one to travel freely.
In the meanwhile Khalifa Saadia Khawar is preparing to come to the United States. If one’s Kashf is correct, one is to go ahead with plans to visit England this summer and then return in time to help her reach her destination in the State of Oklahoma. It will be rather easy to do this, although this is a very large country. Still, Oklahoma is about half-way between New York or Washington and California.
Another thing which seems to be in accord with the will of Allah and that is, to prepare for some success in the above and then make some rupee dollar arrangement with Khawar. And this, too, seems clear in the spirit, the only uncertain thing being the date of settlement.
Then there are events in the lives of the two oldest mureeds from the standpoint of Bayat.
When the fighting took place between India and Pakistan over Kashmir I asked Allah. Sufis have practices such as Murakkabah and Mushahida and Mujahida; and Akhlak Allah and they know Allah is closer than the neck-vein; and they often possess Kashf. And Allah said that whomsoever would win Kashmir would have the worst famine. So I did not please my Islamic friends and they said I was into politics. But fortunately, you have a Consul-General here from Pakistan who listened (“Muslims” don’t have to listen to anybody,) and the prediction came true; that India won Kashmir and famine and the end is not yet. And this is called “being in politics,” to listen to Allah instead of to man or one’s own nufs.
When the Saint was here, he let me speak. “Muslims” here have never let me speak, but the saint let me speak. He was explaining the five grades of Nufs and even the translator would not explain in English. So this person explained and the Saint and his entourage thanked him.
In Cairo, one was a guest of honor at Mosque and Shrine; and in Pakistan, one spoke to 100,000 people in audiences and met an equal number, otherwise. That is possible in the lands of Islam, but it is not possible here. All they wish to share here is money, not wisdom. This is called “Islam” here; I am a brother when money is wanted. I am not a brother, otherwise. So have sent my first Zakat payment to Ajmir and now will probably sent the next to Nizam-ud-din Auliya, but save some money for Lahore.
That audience had already heard a Sufi, a Sufi whom they respect as a Sufi! A Sufi who has been showing them how to actualize the God (Allah,) and who has made for them realities of what they consider theology. A Sufi can explain nufs and ruh and such terms when others cannot and also help them to awaken in their hearts.
Now, they sometimes come to these rooms. So many are coming and now Allah says not to give any money to any Mosque here, but to save it for a Khankah where people can learn the realities beyond religious forms, when they can learn the “secrets of self,” not in poetry, but in their own lives. Even for today, one expects an ever-growing number of young people. They have tried religion, they have tried LSD, they have tried Yoga and they do not find God. They come here and they find the joy, the Realities beyond forms. Their questions are answered, be they personal or hypothetic or philosophical. The questions are answered because Allah is the answer to every question.
One has to type over one’s paper on “Real Mysticism versus Pseudo-Mysticism,” which has been accepted by the universities, but not by the public. This is based on the experiences of fana-fi-Sheikh, fana-fi-Rassoul and fana-fi-Lillah and also on something that will not be read of in books, fana-fi-Pir.
This person holds, with Al-Ghazzali, that Tasawwuf consists of experiences, not syllogisms. It consists of the recognition of the Living God. We use the neck-vein in our repetitions of Zikr to make us realize the nearness of the neck-vein and then of Allah. This is experience.
One has not been prepared for the young coming, but now knows one must teach the young and let those who are fixed in their ideas go on. “Praise Allah and leave them to their devices.”
One can teach all forms of Tasawwuf, because one has been trained in all forms of Tasawwuf; and recognized from East Pakistan through North Africa and also locally and abroad by the Indonesians. But their kind of Brotherhood is not the kind of “Brotherhood” we have in America, where so many cities have Mosques and leaders who do not recognize each other. I am now a member of the Canadian American Islamic Students organization and recognize the Imams, not because I recognize the Imams, but because Brotherhood requires recognizing the Imams.
I teach, “There is no Power save in Allah.” Not only is it taught, it is demonstrated. There are all sorts of ways of demonstrating it.
I study those things which the Messenger of God (on whom be
Peace) wanted, wisdom as far as China; early cultures, to find what
kind of Messenger and Message they had and all the things suggested by
Hadith. I do not accept wastrels and bounders, just because they happen
to be
“Muslims.”
You were right in “Rab Alamin,” but it is used even now to call all people “Beloved Ones of Allah.” I challenge any and all of your colleagues to lecture on Sajda. They would not dare. People in Sajda know the nothingness of ego and they can be fed and comforted. But I have no time for sermons; but to help the young who come to these doors. One is coming shortly so I must close.
Love and blessing,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti (Samuel L. Lewis)
Salarwala, Lyallpur, West Pakistan
28 Jamadiulawwal
1387 Hijri
Sept. 3, 1967
Tabligh-U-Islam
My dear Sufi Sahib.
Assalam-o-Alaikum
I am very joy full to acknowledge receipt of a copy of letter to my daughter Khawar for which I am thankful to you. Please read these few lines with a peace of mind and try to understand it.
The only path of peace to reach Allah, and the only mean to please Allah is to obey and follow Dos and Don’ts of Islam or else nobody on earth can claim to be Believer or Beloved of Allah, at all.
Allah loves those who love Rassoul-ullah. How one can claim this Love until he wholly surrenders himself to Rassoul-ullah. We (all) human beings are helpless in all respects and cannot understand any mystery Hikmat of Allah: and have no other way but to obey and follow Islamic principles in full with no exception and no “if” and “but’. From day of creation to today all Sufis conveyed the Message of Allah to People and delivered to them through his Holy Messengers (Rassouls).
Allah’s message is always full in all respects and is never subject to alterations in any form.
This is all I know and preach about Allah and Islam. Our knowledge is very limited and cannot dare to alter any Islamic Doctrine in any form.
We have no other way but to surrender ourselves to Allah and Rassoul-ullah and cannot even guess any variation or difference in Allah and Islam.
Please for Allah’s sake reset your mind according to these lines and regard them as lines of honors of Islam. We preach Islam in all corners of the world and to every human being and cannot separate Islam from Allah, in any science or form. Ya Hayyo Ya Qayyoom. Islam demand equality in Zahar and Battan both. May I please emphasize to wear beard and be punctual to Namaz and seek and search peace in Islam.
Iblis misled and misleads Sufis in all ages of Sufi-ism and nobody can consider himself safe from Iblis at any time. It is as difficult to understand Iblis as Allah, and Islam is the only fort where one can shelter and defend himself from Iblis.
Please read these few lines with Love and do not criticize, I pray may Allah, Rahmah, Rahim, Hayyi, Qayyoom, Zul Jalale Wal Ikram, bless you and keep you safe and sound from Iblis and show you his righteous path and also apologize for any literal error or mistake if any, Ya hayyo ya qayyoom.
My best wishes and blessings to your followers and friends also please pray for me and my friends.
with best love and blessings I am,
yours well-wisher,
Barkat Ali
410 Precita Ave.
March 31, 1969
Pir Barkat Ali
Salarwala, Lyallpur District
West Pakistan
Dear Sufi Sahib:
As-salaam-aleikhum. There has been no particular time to step to write. At the moment there is a courtesy to send a letter to Shamseddin Ahmed who is now on his way back to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia and Hajj.
One does not know what the supreme practices of a devotee should be. There is an almost constant Zikr, the practice of Akhlak Allah, and the conscious realization of the noble Daroods which by grace of Allah you assigned to me. The shortest report would be to say one is in much better financial circumstances, one has a large and growing following, and the health is remarkable due entirely to the grace of Allah to Whom be all praise. This is not empty devotion. It is almost two years since one was on his back in a hospital. The Voice of Allah manifested with grace and direction and what was communicated at that time has come into manifestation.
Sometimes one has felt like Allah’s Messenger in The
Cave. This is not only a very different land, but a land of
great wealth and still greater confusion. It is almost as described in
certain Hadiths. Everybody expects others to accomplish what they
internally wish. I have no doubt that Allah wishes humankind to become
more aware of His Presence. There have been new discussions on “God is
Dead.” One of my closest associates, also born in California, has
written “God is Dead.
Allah is very much alive.”
It has been necessary to find out how to communicate with my fellow Americans. They do not accept any more the religious institutions. To reach the hearts of the young it has been found profitable to use both traditional and new methods. The new methods, of course, will be condemned as innovation. One is very well aware of that. The question is, “Can we get mankind to accept that Allah is closer then the neck-vein.” In giving Zikr instructions, for example, one tells the devotees to become aware of the neck-vein. It is very successful. One now has many Americans repeating Kalama and Zikr.
The great innovation that this person has introduced are the Dervish Dances. They are compilations of the Mevlevi, Rifa’i and Bedawi practices. Having been a guest of these various dervishes at times, before Allah, there is no reason not to use these methods. However, one practiced Walking for over three years before starting in this direction. The walks were derived partly from Naqshibandi practices and partly from the instructions of Hazrat Inayat Khan on tasawwuri. To this should be added some traditional practices on a word which can easily be misunderstood. It was originally spelled hagg in Hebrew and hajj in Arabic, and included walking, both in a straight line and circumambulation. This is always done along with the repetition of some sacred practice.
The number of Americans in this region now repeating Allah is growing. The next step is to get some acceptance of Mohammed in any capacity. It may surprise you to be told that the life and wisdom of Khatimal Mursaleen is hardly ever discussed in Mosques in this land. It may also surprise you that one’s last two instructors at the University of California have come out fully for the divine teachings, Holy Qur’an, and Islam in general. How they reached such conclusions I do not know; that they have reached such conclusions I can report. And in one class two disciples have been registered to learn about the spiritual traditions of the Mediterranean area and we were more than agreeable surprised to be told in a classroom in a University that the culmination of spiritual mysteries was in Mohammed and not Jesus!
It is now nearly half a century since my first studies in Kashf-Al Mahjub. In this important work the subjects of intoxication and sobriety were discussed. In those days the divine wisdom was chiefly for older people. Intoxication was considered legitimate for the young, but as a means, not as a goal. We now have a whole generation of young Americans who resort to wajud or sukr. This is the trend of the times. In 1965 one spoke on “Joy Without Drugs.” While it was not very successful then, the very thought is in the atmosphere. No doubt the soul seeks joy while nufs seizes on any method without regard to an ultimate goal. Millions of young Americans are giving up traditions; they are as lost sheep. Traditional religions do not meet them. And it is rather surprising to find how easy it is, how willing they are to repeat the names of Allah, to join in devotion, and to follow methods new to them but heretofore buried in our culture.
Whatever its merits, Islamics is not taught in this country by Muslims but by scholars. These scholars are seldom devotees. Unfortunately most of the Muslim who come here discard rationality so their work is not effective. However, when one practices Akhlak Allah, things to happen. Nor can we cast aside the faculty and facets of Kashf. I do teach certain traditions found in the Bible such as that Allah created mankind in His Image and that humankind is perfectable. As there is no standard nor example before me, the methods are valuable in the sense that they are effective.
As many Americans are now repeating Wazifas; as many Americans are accepting disciplines handed down by Sufis, it is also remarkable to find that many Americans accept the prowess of Mohammed and sometimes merely because older people have looked askance at Islamics. This very prejudicial rejection of Islam has made it welcome to many of the young who are seeking excuses to go contrary to traditions. This of itself is negative. Among many groups of Negroes it is used for political and selfish purposes. But among the whites and some Negroes it is used as a means towards joy and wisdom.
One has written poetry of a presumable lofty nature. Up until recently it was always rejected, but now there are a number of favorable circumstances which may change the whole picture. The next question was if spirituality can be presented through poetry why can’t it also be presented through dances and ceremonies. The other day this person gave what he calls his own Zikr which runs
“Ya Mohammad Abdul La”
“Ya Mohammad Abdul La”
“Muhammedar Rassoul Allah”
“Ya Mohammad Abdul La”
This is based on Hadiths. It has been repeated in joy and love knowing that it belongs to the classification of fana-fi-Rassoul rather than fana-fi-lillah! It also came at the time when the professors above referred to came out wholeheartedly in a direction not previously encountered in this land. Sometimes one does not know oneself why one says or does things.
Our blessed daughter, Miss Saadia Khawar Khan, is now in this country. She hopes, inshallah, to be here in the late spring. This is easy. We have now a Khankah in a city 30 miles to the North. Several of us met at one time to consider the possibilities of a Khankah. We did not have to meet a second time; we now have the Khankah, alhamdu lillah. We wish others could learn also how to practice the Divine Presence and accept the Divine Will. The place is by no means completed. All kinds of things have been happening, too long to relate here, but mostly very wonderful things.
When Daughter Khalifa is here we shall discuss both a further visit by this person or the possibility inshallah of taking a small group. You must understand that Americans have not had Islamic traditions, there is no operative Imam here, we have no relation to politics of any kind, and that God-seeking is becoming an order of the day in an ever-growing number of young people. There is always a question as to how far what one is doing pleases Allah or otherwise. The Messenger himself said that those who die repeating Kalama will surely not go to hell. I am satisfied in view of the multiple confusions of the day that we are both being guided and being guided on a Right Path. One has not written as regularly as one might. One still has before one the long instructions of one’s first Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan. The pursuit of these duties has gives one vitality and inner assurance; perhaps calmness and peace. Certainly a growing acceptance by an ever larger number of young people. One cannot repeat too often that the Darood comes into both inner and outer manifestation and that one is learning many things both traditional and eternal which one hopes will be in accord with the Divine Will.
All love and blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calf
July 1, 1969
Sufi Barkat Ali, Salarwala
Lyallpur District, West Pakistan
Beloved Pir-O-Murshid:
As-salaam aleikhum. One sends you greetings of love and also lets you know that Khawar has been here for a few hours. She has gone to the city of Los Angeles for some weeks. We are sending our housekeeper, Zeynab, to stay with her a while and show her around.
She showed the lady mem-sahibs her clothing and dressed them for a while. They all loved her person and admired the clothing. We then took her to the Khankah which is thirty miles north and performed Dervish dancing and chanting for her. We were all very happy.
Yesterday one visited the Consulate to prepare for an affair when she returns.
You will find enclosed a picture of this person cut out from a local publication. I am sorry I have no proper ones here but will back this up with Mansur, one of my secretaries, who is also a photographer.
This year it has pleased Allah to increase my following. We are very unorthodox as we spend much time chanting and dancing to phrases from the Zikr or Wazifas or what would be regarded as Khawals, excepting they are either English or Arabic sacred phrase. There has been no difficulty about Mohammed (on whom be peace.) Why we even have many people of Jewish backgrounds chanting Mohammedar Rassoul Lillah, or Ya Mohammed Abdullah!
At the present moment there is a strange complex over the affairs of the descendents of Hazrat Inayat Khan with various claimants to spiritual leadership, as if man could decide such things. We have just gotten over the strange “Sufism Reoriented” based on the Parsi Meher Baba who claimed to be Avatar (whatever that means). No kindness, no consideration, no heart but just words and surface matters. There are so many ways of chanting Ya Illaha El Il Allah, etc.; they are all successful in awakening the hearts of the young people here, very slowly but more and more all the time.
Also financial matters are well in hand and my sick brother has agreed that should he predecease me the moneys will be used to bring young people to Pakistan, Ajmir and Nizam-ed-din Auliya.
With all love and blessings to the Brethren,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
TELEGRAM
SEP 9 69
LAHORE
SOOFI AHMED MURAD CHISHTI 410 PRECITA AVENUE
SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA 94110
WAIT FURTHER DETAILS REGARDING KHAWARS MARRIAGE LETTER FOLLOWS
SOOFI BARKAT ALI SALARWALA
Sept. 23, 1969
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
Sufi Barkat Ali Salarwala,
West Pakistan
Beloved Pir-O-Murshid;
As-salaam aleikhum. The cablegram of September 9 reached here just after Secretary Mansur Johnson and I went on a vacation. We had no special address or way in which to be reached. And on return there were so many pressing matters. But the vacation brought much needed rest, praise to Allah.
Now on the matter of Khawar’s marriage, this person has no views. He is trying to keep his mind clear, realizing that he might even benefit materially and otherwise from such an event. The only belief one has is that Saadia be permitted to complete her schooling, and, inshallah, obtain the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (or some variant) for which she has been working so hard.
There are some side issues but these would not affect any marriage. It has become clear that this person must attend the next parliament of the world’s religions. There is an effort being made to establish The Temple of Understanding in Washington, in this land, where as the Bible teaches, “My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.” The earlier conventions were inconclusive and there is to be another gathering, scheduled for Turkey, early next year, but details are not yet forthcoming.
This was the last thing discussed with Khawar who left shortly after we did. By Kashf one sees and feels what maybe done. The Dervish dances have been most successful. On our last night together Khawar had a display of Pakistani costumes and this person lead about 150 (maybe more) young people in reciting “Allah,” something that has perhaps never been done in this land before. And the program of Dervish dances is making considerable headway.
On the legal side we are now tied up with the Chistis of Ajmir but this also can be varied if necessary. Slowly but definitely the number of mureeds has been increasing and one always has more business to attend to than one can handle—and the problems which arise in the lives of young people, which are many and often quite complicated.
Khawar gave lessons on Hadith and one is amazed to find, with all the books on tasawwuf, the lack of recognition that the inner sciences are all derived from Hadith. This was the original teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan also, but his original teachings have been suppressed and there have been some changes in the reissuing of his earlier works. And with all this material available, neither Muslims nor non-Muslims have made proper use of it.
My own belief is that every Messenger of Allah is a Universal Man and an Insaan-i-kemal, but the evidence is internal based on the Hadith themselves and not on any personality reaction to them. Over-praise of Mohammed (on whom be peace), has been just as misleading as neglect of sources readily available. Here we utter all-out praise to Allah which does not stop us from mentioning Mohammed in our dances and chants. Only never on an equal footing.
Ya Haya Wa—Khayyum. There is no nonsense in this. In a few days there will be the celebration of my being 73 years old and the body has changed very little in vitality, vigor or health. The mind, on the contrary, continues to grow and to enter into states of consciousness much more universal than personal. And this is also being presented to disciples and others in teachings, exercises and Baraka.
Today the class on Islamic Art begins. Last spring it was Arabic art and this term it will be the direct and indirect influences of these arts. One has been studying the latest works on Persian literature and runs into some very impressive translations. One also has a work on Junaid, also very impressive.
There are now a number of movements in the West calling themselves “Sufi.” Three are mere corporations building up personalities with hints of secret esoteric practices, very, very secret, although not one of them that I have heard of which cannot be found in books—such as the one on Persian Literature alluded to and l’Awarufu-Maarif and others. But without the Baraka all the practices are of little avail.
We also practice tasawwur which reaches its highest aspect (so far discovered) in Tasawwuri Mohammed. This is the Perfect Walk and leads also to Perfect Behavior.
With all love aid blessings,
21st April 1970
My dear Sufi Sahib,
I wonder if you remember your visits to my place in Lahore once with Mr. Shamsuddin Ahmed and another time with the Army officer who has healing powers. I somehow cannot recollect his name right now, although I know him very well. Ever since my arrival in United States I have been looking forward to meeting you. I will be reaching San Francisco on 4th May, inshallah, and leave for New Year on 7th morning. I will be staying in some hotel. Please let me have your telephone number so that I may be able to contact you on my arrival there. Kindly write to me at the following address:
I.A. Khan c/o Mr. John Barker
University of Southern California.
IPAC. Los Angeles.
A few days ago I received a letter from Salarwala. I have written to Baba seeking guidance from him and requested him to reply to me at your address.
I will be in Los Angeles from 29th April upto 4th May. 2nd and 3rd of May being Saturday and Sunday I will not be able to collect letters from Mr. Barker on those days. I will, therefore, request you to kindly drop me a line at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Iftikhar Ahmed Adani
May 18, 1970
Sufi Barkat Ali
Salarwala, Lyallpur District
West Pakistan
Dear Sufi Sahib: As-salaam-aleikhum!!
With the end of this month a sort of cycle ends that one’s activities will not be confined any longer to this immediate geographical area. Sooner or later it was pointed out by so many seers, especially in Pakistan, that one would be working on a grand scale. I do not believe this would be possible if Allah did not vouchsafe it. Many things happened, and perhaps will happen which may be in accord with the will of Allah, but not always necessarily in accord with the desires and hopes of others. It is easy to say “Act as if in the presence of Allah, and remember though you do not see Him, verily He sees you.” Or “Surrender to Allah, in times of adversity, and praise Him in times of prosperity.” The words are one thing, the practices something else.
We have worked for years under adverse conditions, all sorts of adverse conditions, and now there are tremendous changes: 1. we have been successful in getting a number of Americans to repeat Allah; further than that we have been able to get a number to repeat Kalama. We do not have any opposition about repeating formula. This has displeased many Muslim. These Muslims have not been successful in reaching people in the Western world. Indeed they have not been successful. Their failures would indicate another power in this universe—you can call this power Iblis, you can call it technology, you can call it anything, but such words, such proposals, such attitudes, such ideas, suggest that there is another power other than Allah. This we refuse to accept. We refuse to accept it in theory; we refuse to accept it in practice. The pre-eminence of Allah is supreme, and if it displeases human beings that this person teaches Irfan without teaching Holy Qur’an, then it displeases them. As I tell everybody, it is not a question of pleasing Muslims, it is a question of pleasing Allah. 2. Our trust in Allah has brought us a form of prosperity, a growing form of prosperity at a time when there is a presumable recession in this land. We are not facing that recession. We are receiving Divine Guidance all the time. We are following in the footsteps of that Divine Guidance. We are benefiting in and from all aspects of life. This is not any theory. It is what is going on. And we see no break in it. 3. The Dervish Dances which were instituted here are slowing drawing more people. They are drawing more people. They are bringing more people to repeat the term Allah. Incidentally, quite incidentally, very incidentally, these young people also repeat phrases concerning Mohamed, on Whom be peace. I am not going to analyze these phrases. The approaches may be new, they may not be new. Several disciples claim to have had manifestations from Ghaus-i-Azam. I believe these were real manifestations. The whole of life in all aspects support that it is so. The luster of the eyes, the tenor of the voices, the beauty of personality, and all such signs manifest Divine Favor. 4. One will know shortly what one’s increase will be in his monthly financial receipts. This is increasing. It is constantly increasing. It is increasing from the family estate, from one’s own endeavors, and from all sources. These to me are examples of the Divine favor, of the Divine grace.
When we arrived in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first thing this person saw was his own picture on the wall. The next thing one saw was a copy of Mishakat. This to me also was a sign of the favor of Allah, of the Divine grace. We are therefore preparing to study Hadiths, but we are going to make this study with fresh minds, with minds, attitudes, and ardour, in accord with the spirit of the day, in accord with what is going on with, among, and amid the present day living humanity. Problems are not being solved. Empty formulas do not solve problems. Surrender to the Living Allah always will solve problems. There is no change in that. All the young people come here repeat “Ya Hayy, Ya Haqq.” They not only repeat it, they are drawing the vitality out of the universe. They are drawing vigor, they are drawing holiness, and they are drawing joy. One is no longer concerned over the reactions of others. If there are any two men in history to whom we look, or rather who may be looking on us, they are Ghaus-I-Azam and Moin-ud-din Chisti. But we are living these things, not theorizing. And if Allah wills, if Allah wills, we shall continue to operate thus. We may be happy, we may be fortunate, but certainly things are happening.
One’s appearance before the leading divines of the world has brought one considerable good will from those who were strangers. This rise of good will can mean much greater good will on the whole earth, Inshallah.
Today for the first time, for the first time Sufi Sahib, a Rabbi has consented to grant an interview. It seems that wars are preferred to cordiality and good will. Everybody has a lot of empty words which cannot be demonstrated. Just words. I believe we are demonstrating the existence of the Living Allah. I believe it.
There was an Islamic magazine received sometime back in which a Persian sage was quoted, “Adventure is the sign of the wise, and quotation of the ignorant.” I believe it. Indeed I can almost insist on it, and will gladly face the Day of Judgment with such an attitude.
Secretary Mansur and I took two little brochures with us on our trip. One was a small edition of Hadiths. The other was a copy of the Tao Te Ching. Mecca Sherif may have said, “Seek wisdom, even unto China,” but woe to the Muslims who does it; he will he accused all over of heresy. This means that although the word “Islam” is used it does not mean submission to anything, it comes to mean conformity, and maybe it should, but what is gained? We have sought wisdom from. China to the extent that many local Chinese are pleased with us, who are not pleased with others. This is also in my poem “Saladin.”
Now there are movements on earth to promote this poetry, both
poetry written and poetry not written. When I visited the tomb of Amir
Khusrau in company with Hasan Sani Nizami, the spirit of the poet
appeared to me. He bestowed a robe on me and said, “I appoint you as
successor to
Mohamed Iqbal in the school of Jelal-ud-din Rumi.” It was you yourself
that had this robe waiting when I returned; the same robe; the same
robe of Baraka; the same robe of investiture; the same robe of divine
favor.
Whatever is going on in the world, whatever disturbances there are, here we are feeling the Divine Grace; here we are filled with hope, and re-echo in praise. This is going on constantly. Finally, not long ago a daughter was born to Khalif Moineddin and his wife Fatima. This child is not yet speaking. But this child is already repeating La Illaha El Il Allah; all day long this child is doing just that. I think this is enough Sufi Sahib, to indicate that whatever we may be doing, it may have the good will of Allah. It is certainly in accord with the life (and death) of Hafiz-i-Shirazi.
Love and Blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
September 10, 1970
Sufi Barkat Ali
Salarwala,
Lyallpur District
West Pakistan
Beloved Pir-O-Murshid,
As-salaamileakhum. This person was sent to the United States to bring a message of Allah with directives and inspirations from at least six Pirs and Walis of Tasawwuf. Many of the things he has done will not be approved no doubt by man. Although Salat distinctly says that Allah is the judge of the universe ignorant multitudes consider themselves capable of fulfilling this capacity while differing from each other in all other respects.
There is now a Naqshibandi teacher in South America who is attracting numbers of people who speak English or Spanish. He Is not teaching Shariat. He is not even teaching Holy Qur’an. He is meeting the Western people with a book they accept called “The Thousand and One Nights.” This has been very badly translated into English by several respected scholars and also in an unexpurgated form by the late Sir Richard Burton who was also at one time at least a Kadiri Talib. The Sheikh is using this version.
He is using this version because it teaches over and over again “there is no power, no might, save in Allah.” Nor does this person believe there is any power or might save in Allah. That Sheikh and this person believe Allah created everybody and that He loves his creation more than a mother loves her offspring. He also accepts many items in the Hadith which are repugnant to very many bigoted and ignorant so-called Muslims, although in their bigotry and ignorance they are still better than the bigoted and ignorant of other faiths or no faith.
Evidently Allah is approving of this person. More and more people are coming. The dances with which Allah has inspired him have resulted in Pakistani saying “Muslims will not approve of it.” Thus the Pakistanis. This person responded. The question is not whether Muslims will respond to them, but whether Allah will approve of them. It Is certain that the Arabs, Iranians and Indonesians do approve and the young Americans who are called hippies also approve.
It is an awkward world when so-called Muslims accept what is written in publications which themselves are financed by the liquor industry. It is the liquor industry who are fighting the so-called hippies and consumers of marijuana, etc. Yet all those in power all over the world without investigating are accepting the reports of these liars and scoundrels.
The most beautiful report at the present time comes from a number of disciples who have what this person calls Divine Vision. Those who have seen illuminated crescents alone are very large in number. The invitations to lecture on spiritual Islam increase and increase and increase and this at a time when one's chief khalif has long been confined to a hospital, when the housekeeper in a hospital, and two of the three chief secretaries have very well paying jobs and are helping their Murshid financially and otherwise. The first replacement secretary is also ill.
The other secretary is accomplishing wonders. This person was commissioned by heaven itself years ago to bring peace to the Near East. Only one man, a Mr. Gunnar Jarring approved except for one's own colleagues. We travelled together and he thought the plan was wonderful. At that tine the Israelis, Saudians and Egyptians accepted it, and of course all the U.N. officials, but the Americans turned it down, especially the religious and peace organizations, so-called. But this person did not win.
Allah has relieved his financial worries and this year he was received by the great ones of the world, and highly respected. Chief among these was Dr. Seyyed Hussein of Teheran, whom you probably know. Now many religious leaders of all faiths are cooperating. We have been successful. Allamdo lilah in promoting joint Israeli-Christian-Arab dinners. It is only the Pakistanis who stay away. The Arabs are wonderful. This is the work of the other secretary Wali Ali.
Now reports come from Jerusalem of joint Sufi-Jewish meetings attended by disciple Phillip Davenport who published the article on Spiritual Brotherhood of which you have seen a portion. Godson Ralph Silver has become converted to the spiritual side of Islam. So have many other people of Jewish ancestry but not Jewish religion.. Even the infants around us are chanting "Allah" and Arabic sacred phrases. Years ago one wrote that the little child Nathan Johnson aid a Sahjda the first time he met this person. One feels in all things the approval of Allah and His approval.
During all trials the help has been wonderful. Now one is receiving financial support. Now one is reaching larger audiences and universities. Ninety-percent of our work is on La Illaha El Il Allah and the rest on Rahmat Muhammad and the sifat-i-Allah. Or as one says following. Sheikh Al Hujwari (Data Ganj Buksh) “The true Riza is for Allah and not for man.”
Love and Blessings
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Sufi Barkat Ali
Salarwala, Lyallpur District
West Pakistan
October 29, 1970
Beloved Murshid:
As-salaam aleikhum. Praise be to Allah who makes it possible to extend his own will into manifestation through the agencies of mankind. No doubt this is not in accord with many who believe that if we just sit by and do nothing, the will of Allah will be made manifest. But how about those Muslims who hold to such a point of view with regard to the affairs of the Near East? Are the affairs in the Near East working out in accord with the will of Allah, or is there some other will operating in the universe? If there is such a will, what is the effectiveness of Allah ho Akbar?
Last night some of us went to Dacca Restaurant in this city and began our chants. When we started this work, some Muslims came and said, “Muslims will not approve of what you are doing.” This person answered, “It is not a question of whether Muslims approve, it is a question of whether Allah approves.” People of the Jewish faith have substituted Adonai for Jehovah and Muslims repeat Islam instead of Allah. No doubt followers of Mahdoudi will adhere strictly to Islam-ism, but we are adhering (inshallah) to Allah-ism. We can call Allah-ism Islam or otherwise. For instance, this person differs from the Muslims and will continue to differ, for he says, “Mohammed from whom be peace,” and not Mohammed on whom be peace.” That is a state of consciousness and his wisdom or lack of it. But so far he has not found it to fail in a single instance.
Christians pray, “Thy will be done on earth,” but the majority of both Muslims and Christians seem to have replaced the will of Allah with their own private will. Mohammed, from whom be peace, said: “My words can never abrogate the words of Allah, but the words of Allah can abrogate my words.” This person has stopped arguing with so-called Muslims because whatever one says, the “good” Muslims will say weak Hadith. As every Hadith at every level has come from some Muslim of greater or lesser inspiration, and as the oppositions and criticisms come from men of nufs, this person has become very stubborn and the stubbornness has increased because of recent successes in every direction. Alhamdulillah. A good Muslim does not have to say Alhamdulillah; this person and his followers always do that.
At least five Pirs of Sufism gave the same predictions to this person that he would return to the United States and ultimately convert fifty thousand people. No Imam, no Tablighi has come anywhere near that. On the day before leaving San Francisco, one directed a dance in a large park with a thousand young people chanting Allah. This has never occurred before. One had to wait years and years, re-experiencing The Cave. And now one is out of the cave. The Chrysalis has become a butterfly. One is becoming welcome more and more and more. The late Hazrat Inayat Khan, who gave the original bayat, commissioned this person to reconcile science, intellectualism, and mysticism. None of his followers accepted these instructions or appointments. Each one wanted to have his own appointments and privileges confirmed and approved of, but they did not act as the great Founder of the Sohrawardi movement said: “Consideration consists of extending consideration to others and never expecting consideration from others.” Now everything is moving on a grand scale beyond one’s capacity but not beyond one’s receptivity to divine grace and kashf.
We have already sent out a team of technicians who have been most successful in filming and recording the endeavors of the Sufis of Iran and at Ajmer. They were given every sort of help by our good friend, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. The films are now being properly processed by my former secretary Mansur, who is exceedingly busy in his own vocation, and with some success, praise to Allah. These films should be ready next year, inshallah, and they will place Sufism on the proper standing as against the true or false teachings of other faiths.
This person has also been successful due to the operation of the grace of Allah, and not from his own personal efforts, in winning the good will of a rather wealthy man who is also a publisher. This man was looking for Sufis, and by an almost miraculous event, ran into one Philip Davenport, one of my mureeds who seems destined to follow the same sort of career. This man whose name is Walter Bowart wishes to publish the writings and biography of Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti. While in England he dared to invade the office of Idries Shah, the man who is giving to the world all sorts of literature labeled as Sufism. He challenged this man in his private office and demanded to know why he did not recognize actual Sufis working in the world of 1970 C.E. The news is that Idries Shah has surrendered. We hope so.
In the meanwhile, our endeavors to promote peace in the Near East by joint Israeli-Arab-dinners and other activities has been very successful, Alhamdulillah, to the point that we are getting some recognition from the radio stations and others. In the meanwhile, the aforesaid Philip Davenport was last heard of in India, and he may be going soon to Pakistan. We have given him an introduction to Ansar Nasri of Radio Pakistan and Dr. Alauddin Siddiqui at Lahore. He has already met Khalifa Khawar, who is now home, and you may be hearing from either or both of them.
Yesterday we were graced with over an hour’s interview from one of the top officials of the Columbia Broadcasting Company. They are interested in filming the meditations of Pir Vilayat Khan and the dances of Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti. These dances are spreading so rapidly that it has become beyond my personal capacity to handle the matters. This situation is also aggravated because no matter how much one does, others keep on expecting more. But then, look at the Near East! Look at Vietnam! Look at the emotional problems so prevalent especially in India and the United States. All we get is words or false personalities misleading the public.
One was able to present to the broadcasting representative a whole series of very solid facts which the press and publications have chosen to ignore. Today this very situation has increased one’s popularity, because when one tells the young people his experiences have been rejected, that alone gains popularity and very quickly. So we are planning to return to San Francisco around November 9, inshallah.
In the meanwhile our efforts toward peace on a spiritual basis have made considerable progress, and people of types who refused us interviews previously are now opening their doors.
It was Allah, and not mankind, who directed this person to teach spiritual dancing. And it is Allah and not mankind which has brought the success. Why, we even have a class at the University of California at Berkeley. This is in extreme contrast to the situation of previous years where, due to the machinations of Europeans and Englishmen, this person’s very presence was barred, when Dr. Nasr asked why, this person named the culprits—non-American, non-Muslim “experts.”
Praise to Allah, that day is over. One is being received with more and more consideration from and by the universities and the public. As a result, the instruction which seem so impossible to get fifty thousand Americans to say Allah is coming very close. This releases this person from having to remain in this land or any place; but the need of helping Americans is so great and never more than at this time that one feels for the cause of Allah one should remain here.
Our good friend, Mr. Chaudhuri, of the Pakistani consulate here has discussed many of these matters. He is concerned over the rise of Indian influences. Yes, multitudes of young Americans are giving Hindu chants. This person has no objection to Hindu chants, but does not see any wonders arising therefrom. Centuries ago, Buddha challenged such methods, and Isa (Jesus) also warned the people of his time not to indulge in vain repetitions. But there are so many strange events going on that one prefers to follow Mohammed (from whom be peace) and “say Allah and leave them to their devices.”’
Behind all this is that strength which comes in practicing the Daroods, which you felt were fundamental for this person’s higher development. Pragmatically, this has been so. These Daroods have been most effective, and this brings up the central theme of one’s own life: how far to present those inner sciences which belong to tasawwuf and beyond to a type of humanity which, for practical purposes, is new to the world.
One is not here facing Arab nomads whose main occupation is fighting each other. One is facing very well educated and often noble but misled young people who are seeking for wisdom and enlightenment. If some methods succeeded, that would not matter. It seems everybody has words for other people. I personally reject and deplore the abrogation of teachings of Mohammed, from whom be peace, by self-centered authorities on a religion given to the world without any formal body of clerics. Allah loves his creation more than a mother loves her children. One means and practices just that. Mohammed placed both knowledge and wisdom on a very high level. It is possible to bring this out into the open. One has, of course, very copies of Hadiths, only small sections and Mishkat. But there is another method, and a method which Sufis call fana-fi-Rassoul. This is embodied in the poem called Saladin, rejected of course by the “good” people of Islam just as its predecessors by the “good” peoples of other faiths. But the strength is there. And one also has the elements of a majestic poem, “Rassoul Gita” written from the standpoint of fana-fi-lillah.
In the meanwhile, there is too much to do. One seldom has any rest, and often during the hours of so-called sleep constant visions which become dances. And these dances are spreading, bringing multitudes of young to repeat the divine names. Opening the doors so one can now teach Zikrs in ways they were never taught before to promote moral and psychic upliftments for the benefit of mankind. There is, of course, much much more, and this is just a single person, keeping in a stage of permanent Zikr. With all love and blessings to my Pir-o-Murshid Sufi Barkat Ali from his devoted mureed Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti.
The Garden of Inayat
910 Railroad Ave.
Novato, Calif.
19th November, 1970
Most Honored and Loved Sufi Sahib:
As-salaam aleikum.
Say: “If the ocean were ink (wherewith to write out) the words of my Lord, sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the words of my Lord, even if we added another ocean like it, for its aid.”
—Sura XVIII, 109, Yusuf Ali.
Recently a letter was written to our good friend, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr of Tehran, and now circumstances necessitate a sequel. Despite Imam Al-Ghazzali that Sufism is based on experiences and not an premises, there are so many books purporting to be on tasawwuf and not based on human experiences, and sometimes very much on premises that one has, in a certain sense, to declare war. But just as one had to experience, let us say, outwardly, so many of the vicissitudes of The Cave, so now one is fighting a sort of Jihad. But it is very difficult to verbalize because especially in the Western world, but not entirely so, there are a great many “experts” and authorities accepted by scholars to the degree that even if the “experts” and authorities were to concede, their followers would not. But one has no time to reply to the people of nufs no matter how learned, or even wise.
One has before him at this writing Yusuf Ali’s The Holy Qur’an and Maxims of Ali and the Awarifu-l-Ma’Arif and “Futuh Al-Ghaib”—the materials on and of Moineddin Chisti are at my San Francisco office. One no longer is concerned with the rejection of mystics by the intellectuals because alhamdu lillah we have a publisher who is anxious to get out all the Sufic materials he can have and he has begged this person to write. Besides, inshallah, next month one shall be calling on him in person.
One hardly see the need to write commentaries on Holy Qur’an, because a commentary on the above and also on “Nur” could keep one busy all the time. There are so many ignorant bigoted orthodox who say that Holy Qur’an has one meaning when in the Hadith one reads: “Holy Qur’an was sent down in seven dialects and each has an inner and outer meaning.” Nor is one going to waste time with bigots who yell “weak hadith!” whenever you quote what they do not like. For this person believes that the weakest Hadith has more authenticity than the utterances of the people of nufsaniat.
The publisher in Arizona has asked for everything from this person and one will probably begin with “Six Interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan.” These interviews are based on the direct experiences in 1925 in turn with Khidr, the Prophets-in-Chain, Mohammed and Elijah, the last bestowing for the first time that robe which one had from your hands and which one is wearing at this time. This is a New Age and now a mystic may speak and write despite all the presumably learned scholars who have never had veils lifted.
For a long time one only had The Sufi Message of Spiritual Liberty of Hazrat Inayat Khan; and Kashf-i-Mahjub. But after the death of Inayat Khan his nominal successor, Murshida Rabia Martin sent this person into Khilvat with Awarifu-l-Ma’Arif. It would be unfair to write a report before that of the Six Interviews is completed.
When the veils are lifted by Divine Grace there is an insight which often operates as perfect. Long experience has corroborated that. A few weeks ago one was directed, so to speak, to give public lectures on “initiation” in San Francisco and on the spiritual hierarchy in Marin County which is to the north of San Francisco. The audiences are large and growing. The responses are beautiful. There is not a cloud on the horizon at this time, alhamdu lillah.
While one has been ready to lecture on the spiritual hierarchy from the viewpoint of Hearst Inayat Khan, the arrival of Futuh Al-Ghaib made one realize that the directive of kashf was correct. Only to me the work of Hazrat Inayat Khan is perfected so far as literary forms are concerned in these writings of the greatest of his predecessors Hazrat Ali, Ghaus-I-Azam, the Grand Sheikh Suhrawardi and Moineddin Chisti.
The great difficulty of the day is of a totally different order. One is constantly being taken up into hal. Sometime ago one gave a rose dance which seemed to be in honor of Abdul Qadir Gilani. The participants are in four circles each chanting a phase of Zikr. It had a grand effect upon both the participants and audiences and will be continued Inshallah. But today one perfected a different kind of rose dance for a small group of women who illustrate the opening of the rosebud and chant “Allah Hu.” These chants and dances are attracting more and more young people.
Due to the long illness of the chief khalif the work done on Thursday nights has been interrupted and one has been directed, so to speak, to Futuh al-Ghaib. Coming upon the Seventy-Eighth Discourse one has found such perfect teaching that it is time to give it to the world and stop all this nonsense of ignorant people and bigots. But this stopping will be done strictly in accord with Ghaus-i-Azam himself using the moral instructions.
Monday night as if Divinely directed one put into practice what one has written about before the use of the Sifat-I-Allah either in Wazifa or simple form to correct moral and psychic aberrations. This is not theory. Four or more persons felt that they had had a correction of their own ills and sins without any sermons without any other directive. It was like a miracle. One has long felt this should be done.
Everybody is hearing about the hippy revolution in America. Some people are hearing about the rise of the Hare Krishna movement. But we believe we shall be able to have these directives known to the world. For alhamdu lillah a disciple who is a professor at the University of California has not only introduced our work for credit but has arranged two evenings for this person in the near future.
It is very difficult to keep a perfect balance after one has been spurned by so many and find now that Allah, so to speak, is coming to his help both in the literature now available and in the actual lifting of the veils covering the consciousness.
One has long held before him the Hadith “in that day shall the sun rise in the West and all men seeing, believe.” Beloved Pir-o-Murshid, you may realize that in addition to having to face orthodoxies one also has to face the new “Hare Krishna” and other movements. These seem to touch the inner consciousness of the young and undoubtedly elevate them. But one does not know a single case of spiritual awakening through such methods.
The great Buddha in his time challenged a number of methods of Indian people because they did not work. Jesus Christ also warned against “vain repetitions as do the heathen.” But one cannot directly cope with ignorant emotional people. Besides wisdom must be something more than a blind word to be hurled as a directive. To me wisdom without Rahmat is useless. One has to learn to be gentle and kind but never to the extent of abandoning wisdom. One does not go forth merely to make friends like a politician. One must go forth hoping to awaken the souls of humanity. And one finds that if one is sincere and determinative results follow.
One now has a large number of disciples; a fair number of applicants; invitations to visit many parts of the United States; requests for articles; and the expansion of Dervish dancing on a scale which at the moment is beyond his ability. For this work alone requires time, need to put the dances into literary forms, and many other aspects. It is not for fun; it is not for pleasure; it is to raise the devotional spirit of the young. Fortunately many of the young are most interested in this approach and this in turn means one has to be busy all the time.
Praise to Allah one has excellent help. One is in fine mental condition and one hopes he is devoting himself along the lines of spiritual instruction especially at the moment as laid down by Hazrat Inayat Khan and Abdul Qadir Gilani and all the Sufis in chain.
Love and Blessing,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Dec. 23, 1970
Sufi Barkat Ali
Salarwala
Lyallpur District, West Pakistan
Beloved Pir-O-Murshid:
As-salaam-aleikhum! It is very necessary to make some reports. One did not write sooner because one has been overworked and had problems on the material plane, nearly all of which were given as tests for the personality. Arising out of these problems has been a nervous disorder which put one under the doctor’s care, but if people are foolish to react about this? If one were to summarize everything it would be the pursuit and, inshallah, the fulfillment of the Chisti-Kadiri-Sabri Order.
One does not know where to begin. Some very wise disciples have secured the best works available in English of the founders of the Chisti, Kadiri, and Sohrawardi Orders. At least two disciples and this person were reading Futuh al-Ghaib when the disaster struck East Pakistan. We all felt independently that an attitude which could be called Kadiri-Sabri was the best. But that has not stopped us from sewing longees which may soon be sent to East Pakistan, inshallah.
In their Murshid’s absence a number of disciples planned a Dervish Bazaar. This was originally to help promote peace in the Near East, but has changed in order to raise funds and get other assistance for the unfortunate humanity of East Pakistan. Evidently Allah was with us, for the first time the news-papers and radio stations took some interest in our work.
There is a young woman disciple here named Basira. She saw the Bazaar attended by hundreds and hundreds of people—and this proved to be so. Then she was blessed by the appearance to her of the Apostle of Mecca, from whom be peace, giving his blessing, and this proved to be so. Indeed a vice-consul from Pakistan attended the affair.
We had mostly Near East food, Dervish Dancing and Choral singing. These chorales are based chiefly on Wazifas. They have attracted so much attention that money has been allotted for tapes and phonograph records. And we all agree these should be put on the market to help the poor people of Bengal.
In the meanwhile this person who seems to have an ear attuned to the Divine Voice, completed his writings on Fana-fi-Sheikh. Hs asked Allah, “Why not more?” and Allah said, “Enough.” Now my chief disciple, Wali Ali, has just reported a beautiful manifestation to his of Ghaus-i-Azam, and this brought the message, in accord with the above, that this person would be known to the brethren of the future for his literary work on Fana-fi-Pir, which will come in between in a sense, Fana-fi-Sheikh, and Fana-fi-Rassoul. (In the meanwhile, the commentary work on Kashf, based on the writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, has been completed. Work on Mushahida keeps one busy from time to time.)
We are now getting hundreds and hundreds of Americans to say Allah, and when you get 300 “unbelievers” to join in singing “La illaha el allahu, Mohammeda Rassoul Lillah,” this is something no tablighi group has ever accomplished. Muslims have said to me, “Muslims will not approve.” I said to them, and I say again, “It is not whether Muslims approve, it is whether Allah approves.”
Other than the disturbance alluded to in the first paragraph, the health and strength are not being recognized. We are also working on “Six Interviews With Hazrat Inayat Khan” which grew out of the original Khizr experience, which Hazrat Inayat Khan accepted and his followers almost unanimously rejected (excepting Mr. Paul Reps, a fairly well-known writer).
One is now being received by the Universities and at least two professors are going over my poetry. In the month of January, perhaps late in the month, one expects, inshallah, to visit the state of Arizona, both to present spiritual teachings and to have my manuscripts examined for probable publication. Regardless of what Muslims, so-called, think, Holy Qur’an teaches that the Divine Light is neither of the East nor the West. Allah has made all people, and there is even the possibility of our reaching some of the top Zionists. One cannot convince ignorant Muslims that Zionists are not religious synagogue Jews. Some have no religion at all, and many are accepting Indian teachings! But we stick to La Illaha el il Allah.
The number of disciples is growing. The attendance at meetings is growing. The Christian year, coming to a close, has brought love, blessing and work. Maybe this is as Allah wishes. All our activities are expanding.
It was noticeable at the Bazaar there were also represented Jewish people of mystical outlook; three different esoteric Buddhist groups; the chief subordinate of the most successful Yoga teacher in this country, and many seekers of maw kinds.
All love and blessing,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Jan. 2, 1971
Praise be to Allah!
This has been a glorious exit, and one which will go down in history, a sign of all the beauty, truth and goodness in the universe.
One has been truly saved from the jaws of death and adversity, and may live on indefinitely as God wills. It is the sign of all symbol and goodness, and the establishment of God’s Message in the Western world forever, praise be to Allah!
For I am the first one born in the West to have received the Divine Message, and believe to have representatives in all the purity and goodness of which Allah is capable and which will now be presumed done forever….
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti