That person is drowned when... - Part 2 of 2
July 9, 2014
Absorption is such that whoever enters it is no longer there. They make no more efforts, they cease to act and move. They are immersed in the water. No action is their action; it is the action of the water. But if they flail about in the water with their hands and feet, they are not truly submerged. If they utter a cry, “I am drowning,” this too is not absorption.
Take the famous utterance, “I am Allaah.” Some people think this is a great pretension, but “I am Allaah” is in fact a great humility. Those who say, instead, “I am a servant of Allaah” believe that two exist, themselves and Allaah. But those who say, “I am Allaah” have become nothing and have cast themselves to the winds. They say, “I am Allaah” meaning, “I am not, Allaah is all. There is no existence but Allaah. I have lost all separation. I am nothing.” In this the humility is greater.
This is what ordinary people don’t understand. When they render service in honor of Allaah’s glory, their servanthood is still present. Even though it is for the sake of Allaah, they still see themselves and their own actions as well as Allaah -- they are not drowned in the water. That person is drowned when no movement, nor any action belongs to them, all their movements spring from the movement of the water.
(adapted from Fihi Ma Fihi,
translated by A.J. Arberry, p. 83 - 84)
***
We continue with the phrase, “I am Allaah.” Remember, in Arabic Allaah is considered the greatest name of the Beloved, the Absolute. In Sufi circles, the phrase “I am Allah” is often a reference to the mystic Mansur Al-Hallaj who was martyred for uttering this.
Mansur Al-Hallaj was born in 858 AD (244 AH). Unlike many Sufis of his time, he taught openly regarding the Sufi way despite the danger of this leading to “ordinary people” misunderstanding mystical matters. As tradition relates, one day while he was in an ecstatic state he boldly declared: Anal Haqq, “I am (Absolute) Truth.” Haqq is one of the traditional ninety-nine names of Allaah, so contextually in Islam this is the same as saying “I am Allaah.” Proclaiming such in an Islamic society is regarded as blasphemy and could be punished by death. Mansur was imprisoned and, after refusing to ask forgiveness for his “crime,” he was executed. Even as he was being dismembered during the execution, he held firm to his innocence. Some versions of his story say he even continued to say Anal Haqq as his arms and legs were cut off. He was martyred in 922 BC (309 AH).
Certainly one based in the ego can make this proclamation from a place of great pretension, but this is not the case with Mansur Al-Hallaj. For him, this is s person drowning all one regards one’s self to be into the water of the Beloved, a surrender of great humility. It is not the ego being the determining and motivating force of one’s life, as addressed in Part 1, but something deeper. Yet, for many of us who approach this state, we do so through surrendering the ego to Allaah: the ego making the determination to surrender through restraint. This can lead to confusion among ordinary people because most who reach the station of “I am Allaah” do so through the station of “I am a servant of Allaah.”
What does it mean to be a servant of Allaah? This term is sometimes translated as being “a slave of Allaah,” but the practice of slavery in Arab culture had significant differences than European and American applications. The Arab slave, in a traditional context, was a status of bondage yet did not undercut the dignity of those enslaved. One often became a slave by basis of debt, financial or morally (such as amends for committing a crime), or being a prisoner of war. In some instances a person voluntarily agreed to be a slave because they lacked the means to provide for one’s self. Yet one was not denied citizenship by virtue of being a slave, as in Europe and America. By virtue of being a citizen, slaves were protected by legal rights: such as the right to marry freely, to own property, to engage in business and trade, to vote and participate in government, etc. Those the slaves served also had a duty to provide certain things to the slave: for example a “master” would be obligated to provide adequate housing, clothing, and food if a slave could not provide such for one’s self. Also, the term of slavery was clearly set, either to a determined length of time (such as a number of years) or how long it took to work off what was owed. The Arab approach to slavery is more similar to the European practice of indentured servitude, which is why I prefer to use the word servant.
There are some noted themes in how early Muslims surrendered to be servants of Allaah. They acknowledged that all humans have a continuing debt to the Beloved, who not only creates but sustains all of creation. Since one cannot repay this debt, Muslims surrender to be servants of Allaah. Some also hold since humans commit sins and engage in pursuits other than the purpose of our creation as another reason to surrender to servitude. But being a servant means we are also endowed with certain rights: such as the right to be provided guidance from the Beloved as well as the means to provide for our basic needs. Also among such rights is free will, which is why traditional emphasis holds heavily to the edict that there is no compulsion in Islam. The term of such servitude is also clearly set: from birth to death. Islam holds that after death, souls rest until the Day of Resurrection when faithful servants will be granted freedom and the reward of Paradise. As for unfaithful servants, they will be punished for not fulfilling the conditions of servitude.
There is an irony in being a servant of Allaah: the Beloved accepts us in such servitude to groom us to be free. For many, that freedom is the indescribable beauty of Paradise after death. But for the mystic, the ultimate freedom is the Beloved Itself, which can be realized even in this life. It is the station of “I am Allaah.” Here, there is only the Oneness of Allaah. In the station of “I am a servant of Allaah,” there is the ego and Allaah -- even if the ego render[s] service in honor of Allaah’s glory. Through the conditions of servitude, particularly following the commands of Allaah as given (no changes), the motions of the ego are restrained and directed so that the veils that cover and distort the Oneness of Allaah are dissolved through fulfilling the Master’s commands. By fulfilling these commands with discipline, commitment, sincerity, faith, and other virtues, the motions of the ego are dissolved until eventually, when there is no motion of the ego, the ego dissolves itself.
I stress that this path of dissolution occurs through the performance of servitude, not the effort (motions) of the ego although the ego engages its motions in service. And when the ego is no more there is nothing to get in the way of Allaah being. At this point, the servant disappears into the service which is guided and moved by the water of Allaah. We can literally remove the words “a servant of” from the phrase “I am a servant of Allaah.” All that is left is: “I am Allaah” meaning, “I am not, Allaah is all. There is no existence but Allaah. I have lost all separation. I am nothing.” In this the humility is greater. This is so, in part, because the humility of the Master who frees the servant is greater than the most perfect servant who serves with the best of service.
There is nothing greater than Allaah, the Ultimate Truth, the Ultimate Reality, the Most Patient. It is for the sake of grooming us to realize and be Oneness with this that the wise surrender to be servants of the Absolute. That which is the Ultimate Cause, which all conditions serve. Through the perfection of service, the lover becomes the best lover who dissolves into the Love of the Beloved, the only Reality that is. This is the water we are invited to drown within...
Thus it is that eternal life is gained by utter
abandonment of one's own life. When Allaah appears
to Its ardent lover the lover is absorbed in It, and not
so much as a hair of the lover remains. True lovers
are as shadows, and when the sun, As-Shams, shines
in glory the shadows vanish away.
(adapted from E.H. Whinfield, M.A.’s translation of
Masnavi i Ma’navi: Teachings of Rumi, p. 230)
