When You Hear Hoof-Beats Think of a Zebra by Shemsudin Friedlander
In the Name of Allah, the First
Islamic books have no contention to the Un-Islamic ones. It is written for the betterment of earthlings. You may peruse it, with the intention of leisure and adornment of knowledge in company, and by the Grace of the Almighty, He would still bestow you with the beneficial from it. And Alhamdolilah, beginning with a desire to extradite the errant from your manner, and empower your knowledge with good, it would be if the Almighty Wills, gather your deeds. Sufism was once a reality without a name. Now, it is a name without a reality.
The book delves into how we’re alive in a semi-sleep. It has that special light, the one that inspires you to read further, and more imperatively, practice on the author’s annotations. Islam asks of us a simple thing, to submit. And we, to do that, should hold water on easy aspects; truthfulness, gratefulness, humbleness. The essence of living a fulfilling life; is to never forget our eminent death.
As the humble slave of Allah, I think the book is not drowning into a sea of unknown aspects of Sufism but paints a picture of how to live your life in the simplest of manners, with the bounty of reward. It greets you with sincerity. Lessons are taught, telling tales and parables of people that lived before, with the authors’ continuous commentary and manners on how to trust ourselves unto our Creator.
There are two doubts I wish to express, one;
The author tells of a Sufi sect, called the Rufai, somewhere in Iraq, where the men have the ability of being burnt, cut or whipped, but without getting a smidgen of hurt and nor feeling the pain. Not only can they do this, but they can also stab somebody with a hundred swords and nothing at all will happen to him. This entire process is reportedly said to have been an inherited gift and too, most especially, they do this by repeating the Glorious Name of Allah, Al-Hayy.
I have heard about this somewhere before, where humans can transport their minds to other realms in other not to be affected by the torture they go through in this world. There are also so many, who do incomprehensible doings, because of adrenaline rush, or to show off. In the case of these Sufis, they actually induce forms of mistreatment of their very own selves. Like, as mentioned in the book, the old dervish walked on a bed of hot coals and licked a hot white poker and continued to so, while seemingly getting younger and younger. I do not understand why one would do such a thing, and what advantage it would do to his book of deeds. Allahu Alim, He is the All-Knower and we are only here to worship Him.
And why is it, that the Effendi who past away, had a gold turban placed on his bier?
The book delves into how we’re alive in a semi-sleep. It has that special light, the one that inspires you to read further, and more imperatively, practice on the author’s annotations. Islam asks of us a simple thing, to submit. And we, to do that, should hold water on easy aspects; truthfulness, gratefulness, humbleness. The essence of living a fulfilling life; is to never forget our eminent death.
As the humble slave of Allah, I think the book is not drowning into a sea of unknown aspects of Sufism but paints a picture of how to live your life in the simplest of manners, with the bounty of reward. It greets you with sincerity. Lessons are taught, telling tales and parables of people that lived before, with the authors’ continuous commentary and manners on how to trust ourselves unto our Creator.
There are two doubts I wish to express, one;
The author tells of a Sufi sect, called the Rufai, somewhere in Iraq, where the men have the ability of being burnt, cut or whipped, but without getting a smidgen of hurt and nor feeling the pain. Not only can they do this, but they can also stab somebody with a hundred swords and nothing at all will happen to him. This entire process is reportedly said to have been an inherited gift and too, most especially, they do this by repeating the Glorious Name of Allah, Al-Hayy.
I have heard about this somewhere before, where humans can transport their minds to other realms in other not to be affected by the torture they go through in this world. There are also so many, who do incomprehensible doings, because of adrenaline rush, or to show off. In the case of these Sufis, they actually induce forms of mistreatment of their very own selves. Like, as mentioned in the book, the old dervish walked on a bed of hot coals and licked a hot white poker and continued to so, while seemingly getting younger and younger. I do not understand why one would do such a thing, and what advantage it would do to his book of deeds. Allahu Alim, He is the All-Knower and we are only here to worship Him.
And why is it, that the Effendi who past away, had a gold turban placed on his bier?
Allahu Alim
2 comments:
assalamu alaikum
[i did this before but it got deleted :@]
i've never personally heard of self-induced torture, Allahu'alim regarding its truth. but if it does exist, i don't think anyone would do it just for show - rather to achieve something through it. for example, i once heard a story that someone [i can't remember names, dates or places right now, sorry!] was so afraid that their arrogance would take them to the hell-fire, they used to sit for days on a rubbish dump to subdue their ego. ofcourse, the method is extreme and demeaning one's self is disliked in islam, but there's a moral, d'you see?
it's quite different from harming yourself, which to my knowledge is completely haram but the goal might be similar. a person's niyah is their's alone after all. i can only assume that the method stems from ignorance.
that's my two cents.
anyhow, your blog is cool, sorry for the long rant though! inshaAllah i want to read this book one day.
'Sufism was once a reality without a name. Now, it is a name without a reality.'
ya haqq!
[by the by, i linked to you from 7cg - in case you were wondering]
ramadhan kareem! mubarak alaykum al-shahr :)
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