بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
و الصلاة و السلام على أشرف المرسلين
و على اله و اصحابه أجمعين
By walking along the White Way (al-mahajjat al-bayda’), the path is moving towards the realization of the Faith, the ultimate fulfillment of which is found in the Word “la ilâha illa Allah” but this is of course accessible That after having cleared the way of all that was there of cumbersome … that is to say after having cleared its nafs of all the defects preventing its elevation to the state of mind.
In this sense, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ says:
“Faith is made up of sixty, or seventy and some branches. The best of these is the Word “la ilâha illa Allah”, and the lowest is to rid the path of what obstructs it. And modesty is a branch of faith.”
[Sahih Muslim]
So that the door of the heaven of the Spirit may be opened to them, the believers will have to put their souls into the hands of a Shaykh educator … a Shaykh who will transmit a Light indicating the way to follow: “and by stars [the people] are guided” [s16.v16]. The Shaykh is the one who will educate the disciple and allow him to remove the defects of his nafs encumbering his way to Truth.
Allâh ﷻ says:
“Those who deny Our signs and depart from pride, the gates of heaven will not be opened to them, and they will enter Paradise only when the camel (jamal) penetrates into the eye of the needle.”
[S7.v40]
The word jamal (جمل) / camel is written in Arabic with three letters:
Jîm (ج), whose numerical value is 3
Mîm (م), whose numerological value is 40
Lâm (ل), whose numerological value is 30.
We obtain a total value of 73 for the word jamal, which refers us to the above-mentioned Hadith informing us that the Faith consists of seventy and some branches.
And in his tafseer, sayidi Najm ad-Din Kubra (radiallahu ‘anhu) explains this verse by saying:
““Those who treat lies Our Signs”: these are the good Sunnahs descended and established by the Prophets, as well as what Allah ﷻ made appear through His Saints as prodigies and as Sciences … wonders And of the sciences which these denigrate. “And who depart from pride”: who have prided themselves to the point of not accepting and believing in these signs. “The gates of heaven shall not be opened unto them”: the gates of the heavens of the heart, which lead to the divine Presence. “And they will not enter paradise” the Paradise of Proximity “only when the camel (jamal)”: the camel of the ego swollen with pride “will penetrate into the eye of the needle” From the entrance into the Way leading to the education and purification of the nafs that enjoins evil until it becomes peaceful and deserves to be addressed in these terms: “Return to thy Lord” [s89.v28].
This means that the nafs is so impressive that it is compared to the camel, so that it can not enter Paradise, or in other words can not immerse itself in the Haqiqa, except after having been purified by The rules of the Shari’a and the propriety of the Way … until, through the education received, it loses its bad characteristics and is cut off from all attachment to other than Allah … and becomes A thousand times finer than a hair. Then she will enter the eye of the needle of the fana (annihilation in Allah) and will be introduced into the Paradise of the baqa (persistence by Allah).”
[At-ta’wilate an-Najmiya fi tafsir al-Ichâriy as-Sufiy]
Concerning the verse: “They will not enter Paradise until the camel (jamal) enters the eye of the needle”. Ibn Abbas, Ikrima and ibn Jubayr (radiAllahu anhum) read: “… that when the big rope (jummal) penetrates into the eye of the needle.”
In the Arabic language, al-jummal refers to the assembly of several strings to form a larger and stronger one, used on boats, or to climb the date-trees.
[See tafsir al-hidaya ila boulough an- Nihaya – Makkiy ibn Abi Tâlib]
We had seen in the preceding quotation that, in order to plunge into the ocean spiritual and esoteric realities, the soul of the individual was to become, a thousand times finer than a hair. Then she will penetrate into the eye of the needle of the fana and be introduced into the Paradise of the baqa.
It will be a matter for the pathant to ensure that his soul melts and disappears completely, until his being is no more than a subtle flow, manifested in a thread finer than a hair. This is only accessible through the gate of the Samadiya, that is to say the exclusive and absolute surrender in Allah -ta’ala-. And the man knocks at this door through the fasting, which consists according to the Haqiqa in the fact of abstaining from the vision of any other than Him.
Allah ﷻ said: “On the night of fasting you were permitted to have intercourse with your wives, they were a garment for you and you were a garment for them. And so on, and so on and so forth” [S2.v187]. Now therefore, cohabit with them, and seek what. “I do not cohabit with them while you are in ritual retreat in the mosques.”
In his tafsir, sayiduna ibn ‘Arabi (quddisa sirruh)
““On the night of fasting you were permitted”: in the time of recklessness that earns you, while you are immersed in the divine Presence “to have relations with your wives”: to lower yourself to the attendance of Your nafs and your pleasures, for you would not be able to wait and get rid of it completely. They are for you a garment, and you a garment for them, by virtue of an inescapable bond. “Allah knows that you have clandestinely interacted with your wives” by taking away some of the realities of your nafs during your periods devoted to the journey, the spiritual efforts and the divine Presence. He forgave you and pardoned you. Now, then, that is, in the time of full realization of righteousness (istiqma) and in the state of baqa (persistence by Allah) following that of the fana (annihilation in Allah): “cohabit them” During periods of recklessness. “And seek what Allah has commanded in your favor” in terms of reverential fear (taqwa) and domination of these characteristics of the nafs, so that you can fully discharge all the duties of righteousness (istiqāma) As well as divine injunctions relating to servitude and the call to Him. “Eat and drink”: be in their company “until you distinguish, for you, the white thread of the dawn of the black thread of the night”: until the beginning of the The state of Presence and the accompanying brilliances, and that its effects and its Enlightenment cover the obscurity of carelessness and its darkness. Then be determined all the time in the presence of truth, until the time of carelessness comes. Without this (alternation), it would not have been possible to accomplish his daily occupations. And do not approach them (your nafs) during your states of full consecration and divine presence, in the mosques of your hearts, in which case your time would be troubled.”
[Tafsir al-Qur’an – ibn ‘Arabi]
The goal of the path in the way is the realization of Unity, symbolized in the representation of the Alif, which in Arabic is a letter written in the same way as the number One. And in order to reach the Alif of Tawhid, The entity of the path which at the beginning is a big rope (jummal) will have to diminish until it is no more than a breath, fluent in the air of its nonexistence, in the image of the thread of dawn: A subtle sweetness, an isthmus between day and night, between light and darkness.
And according to the teaching of our Shaykh sidi Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari (quddisa sirruh), so that the soul of man, that is to say the camel (jamal – جمل) plunges and extinguishes in the Alif of the Tawhid, he must see only the manifestations of the Divine Beauty (jamal – جمال = jamal with an Alif) around him. Either, in other words, he tastes the Beauty of the Creator, absolute and unlimited, manifested in all things … but this from his body, his mind and his means of perception, knowing that these are created and therefore limited. And it is only when the aspirant manages to contemplate the infinitely great in the infinitely small that the string of his soul can penetrate into the eye of the Alif at-Tawhid.
And whatever happens, man will sooner or later be compelled to realize this vision of the infinitely great in the infinitely small … For once dead, the one who had achieved this realization in this world will see his grave And he shall be opened to him a gate leading to Paradise, according to the different Hadith treating the question. From his grave, that is to say, from a very narrow and confined space, man will contemplate the vast expanses of Paradise, which is infinitely great.
As for the one who in this world had refused to do this and had not attained to the realization of contempt for himself and the esteem of others, to the point that the big string of his nafs (jummal ) Becomes such a subtle sweetness of the thread of the dawn and can penetrate into the eye of Alif at-Tawhid … then he will be obliged to accomplish the impossible: to see the infinitely great in the infinitely small. His senses, his reason, his soul and all his being being incapable of such a thing, the grave of this individual will close on him to the point that his ribs intersect. And in the Hadith, describing the state of these people, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ showed his fingers and intertwined them, before adding, “Allah put seventy snakes under his charge, One of them blowing on the earth, it would not grow anything until the end of the world. They will bite and scratch it until it happens on the day of judgement.”
[Reported by at-Tirmidhiy]
In the Sufi symbolism, the serpent designates the nafs of the individual, as an obstacle to the Truth. Therefore the people who have not completed their faith by “la ilâha illa Allâh”, by ridding all that obstructs the path leading to this realization, will be punished by seventy serpents, among the seventy branches of the faith (Cf Hadith quoted at the beginning of the article) that they had not realized in this world.
In the Reading of the Name “Allah” the Alif at-Tawhîd is only accessible after crossing the Split between Alif and lâm al-ma’rifa. Now, according to the teaching of our Shaykh (quddisa sirruh), when one considers the numerical values of Alif (ا) and of lâm (ل), one obtains:
Lâm (لم) = lam + mîm
= 30 + 40
= 70
As for the Alif (ا), it is written in the same way as the word alf (ألف), which in Arabic means 1000.
By multiplying these two results we get 70,000, and this is how we understand the word of the beloved ﷺ: “Allah ﷻ is” hidden “by 70,000 Light and darkness, and there is no nafs that approaches any of these sails without perishing.”
[At-Tabarâniy in his Mu’jam al-kabîr]
In other words, it is not a fiber of the big rope of the human soul (jummal) which does not pass through these veils without being completely destroyed. And when the thread of the soul becomes 1000 times finer than a hair, it will penetrate the eye of the Alif mouqaddar … Then the murid can gather and mend the scattered pieces of his consideration of the tanzih of the Spirit, changing his consideration Of the divine inaccessible into a mouraqqa’a of tachbîh, a concrete and palpable nafs. This mouraqqa’a will no longer consist of squares assembled together, according to the quadrilateral Basmala, physically manifested in the present form of the Ka’ba … but rather, the new coat will be made of triangles, in accordance with To the triangular consideration of Basmala, as explained in the introduction.
