A Droplet of Rain

Many a scholar has written a lot about spiritualism and pantheism. One school of thought is of the view that as saints often used to wear wooly dresses therefore people would call them sufis. Wool is called sauf in Arabic. They used to wear such a dress, for it had been the habit of many a prophet, saints and pious people. According to some people, as they have been associated with the Ashaab-e-suffa that is why they are called sufis; whereas according to yet another school of thought the word sufi is linked with suf a.... but all these explanations are not satisfactory.

In fact, the terminological meaning of Sufi'ism (tasawaf) is self­ cleansing. It is the name of a true spirit that is related to conscience and the light of conscience is always inherent. A sufi always thinks in the context of Allah. His talk moves around Allah. He lives with Allah and dies in the name of Allah. He recites His words and always praises Him and remains enmeshed in His love. He sacrifices everything in order to see and meet Allah.

A sufi sees Allah everywhere in the phenomena of nature, in peace and tumult of sea, and both in his front and his rear...

In every period of history, philosophers have been discussing....those philosophers who believe in Allah consider Allah to be the Lord Creator of this universe but at the same time they also say that no creation can contact Allah. Allah never directly talks to any man.

 It means that there is not a clear difference between the viewpoints of a scientist and a philosopher. A scientist says that Allah is not visible so that His existence needs a logical justification and no man has any logic to prove that Allah is seeable.

It is a conviction of science that this universe is a manifestation of an incident. However a scientist considers electron to be the unit of creation. It is not visible and has never been seen. The foundation of science and philosophy lies in rationale whereas it could not be clearly explained in hundreds and thousands of years. Unlike science and philosophy, religion says that the basis of true belief is revelation and hallucination and both have got nothing to do with rationale.

Tasawaf means to be a sufi and a sufi means a person who cares more for soul than for his body. He is a person who relates himself to Allah in isolation. He has got the capability of having superior sincerity and understanding of rights. A Sufi believes that Allah reveals His message onto a person and a man is in contact with Him.

Allah says in Quran:

1.      It is not fitting for a man that Allah should speak to him except by inspiration, or from behind a veil, or by the sending of a messenger to reveal, with Allah's permission, what Allah wills: for He is Most High, Most Wise

(Surah Al-Shura: Verse 51)

2.      If you call I will respond.

3.      You ask for and I will give you. ·

4.      I am nearer to you than your vein of life.

5.      I am within you, why don't you see?

6.      If you obey Me I will repay you and if you disobey Me you will deserve punishment.

7.      If you love Me I will love you and that love will make My attributes dominant within your personality and you will see Me through your getting closer to Me.

The people who were dominated by wisdom considered obedience to Allah sufficient and they made paradise as their destination, but those people who were dominated by love considered relationship with Allah necessary besides obeying Him and they made witnessing Allah to be their destination.

Spiritualism or pantheism (tasawaf) is the passion of meeting with the spirit of man. It is the knowledge of looking for one's own ego.

Tasawaf is the acquisition of secret of life by diving deep into the sea of self. Spiritual knowledge dawns reality on us that every soul has seen Allah in the beginning. The souls have acknowledged the Lordship of Allah by responding Qalu bala' after listening to His Voice. Sufi says 'if my soul does not know Allah then Allah will never ask me to love Him.' Sufi comes to know the secrets. Sufi comes to know that a soul wants to love an Entity that is its Creator and is the most beautiful Entity of the universe. Sufi firmly believes that Allah loves him and his soul also loves Allah.

 A spiritual man, in the pursuit of Allah, through intense concentration becomes aware of the supreme reality (haqeeqat­ ul-haqeeqat) as long as he gets engrossed.

Sane men ask why a non-sufi does not go through the observation that a sufi, proclaims. The basic reason for it is that a lay man does not want to meet with his soul and when he does not want to be aware of his ego that is his soul, so the reality of soul proves to be a secret for him.

A man spends all his wealth and energy to acquire material and worldly knowledge. A man in order to do matriculation spends 35,600 hours and a lot of wealth but he does not afford to concentrate for twenty minutes a day and night to achieve the knowledge of his soul. The worldly man becomes too dull to think about going towards Allah whereas he loves to enjoy every blessing gifted by Allah to him.

Every individual knows that the time of death is predestined. Unlike common people a sufi happily waits for this time to meet Allah.

The basic purpose of writing this book Ihsan-o-Tasawaf is to make aware the human beings in general and Muslims in particular about the reality of his birth, life and death, and about his seat of khilafat on earth. It is also to make him aware that every creation in this universe is full of knowledge. But man is the only knowledgeable creature who comes to know Who has created him, why he was born, where to he goes after death and what are the days and nights of life hereafter.

Thousands of books have been written on tasawaf Every book presents a new dimension of the same picture. People have raised a numerous objections on tasawaf and also some have acknowledged the importance of tasawaf Amidst this heap of criticism and appreciation, tasawaf has been considered to be a very complex enigma. Someone says that tasawaf is the cult of lazy and stoic people only. Someone has said that it is the favourite pastime of gaddi-nasheen families and it is the best way in their hands to receive service from their followers.

Someone has told that it is mesmerism, hypnotism and the game of seers. It is also heard that the ideology of tasawaf is a good way of singing and dancing.

The persons with vision and feelings have described in a graceful and confident way and also with the grandeur of truth that tasawaf is the name of spiritual feelings and cordial observations. Every beat of a sufi's heart is associated with Allah. Hazrat Khawaja Ghareeb Nawaz says:

"Yar dum bad'am da bar bar ,ne ayad"

Men of knowledge and wisdom have made tasawaf so much complicated through their philosophical explanations, logical and rational justifications that it has become the knowledge of Chasten. They have dressed this knowledge in the garb of Jewism, Christianity, Vedant and Budhaism.

The nation-loving and sincere men and women have created bright examples of trust (tawakal), contentment and detachment (istaghna by adopting the superior genre of tasawaf They have practically proved that tasawaf is such a path that leads a man to every success in life here and hereafter.

The followers and practitioners of tasawaf are not recluse; rather they work hard to earn their livelihood, fulfill human rights and bow before Allah after waking up at midnights.

According to my limited knowledge tasawaf can be defined as: Tasawaf is a school of thought that teaches man as per the prophets'          way of        knowledge...A man after completing education when goes out of the school, he becomes superior human being to Adam and he reflects the last Prophet (Khatim - u-Nabeean) in his way of thinking and knowledge. He calls upon Allah in every affair of the life and desires to see and get nearer to Allah.

Allah says that the purpose of the creation of man is to be aware of his own self and achieve Allah's Love.

May Allah enable us to know our real self that is our soul. (Amin!)

Let's endeavor to achieve Allah's proximity and we may get nearer to Allah the way Allah wants.

Khawja Shams-ud-din Azeemi

Khanuwada silsala'Azeemia

12 Rabi-ul-Awal 1424 Hijri

Markazi Maraqiba Hall

Surjani Town, Karachi