Adab
The first half of the Shahadah indicates 'there is no reality but
God'. Indeed, every locus of manifestation, irrespective of the
labels which we humans may assign to such loci, gives
expression to the Names and Attributes of Divinity in various
combinations.
Notwithstanding the importance of the foregoing theme, there are a
variety of other issues which arise in conjunction with accepting the
idea that everything in existence shows or reflects a Face of God. For
example, if God is the only reality, then, why even bother with a
second half of the Shahadah? Why are distinctions being made?
If God is everything, then, who is Muhammad (peace be upon him). Is
Muhammad (peace be upon him) God?
Well, perhaps, an answer to the above is to say: yes and no. That is,
there is a sense in which there is something of the Divine which makes
Muhammad (peace be upon him) possible and to which the life of
Muhammad (peace be upon him) gives expression, but, at the same time,
one cannot equate the created with the Creator. In essence, Muhammad
(peace be upon him) may be Divine, but he is not Divinity in Essence.
Among Sufi masters, the notion of 'ayn al-thabita' is mentioned as a
way of referring to the realm of fixed forms which constitute the
created capacities of different facets of creation, including human
creation. An individual's spiritual capacity is a function of such a
fixed form creation.
Understanding, light, will, consciousness, and love are among the
potentials of one's fixed form. These are primordial currents flowing
through that capacity, and how one exercises intention or choice with
respect to such currents has an impact on how things flow, in what
direction, and to what extent.
Someone once asked a spiritual guide to characterize what it meant to
be a Sufi. The teacher reflected on the matter briefly and responded
with: "adab".
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said:
"Surely, your soul has a right against you, and your wife has a right
against you. so, give to each one who possesses a right against you."
All of creation, every Face of the Creator has a right over us, and at
the heart of 'adab' are acts of doing justice ... of giving everything
its due.
Every fixed form has its potential. Being cognizant of that potential
is not enough. One also needs to understand how to interact, or
whether to interact, with that potential.
A cobra is one of the modes of Divine manifestation. This does not
mean that one acts in relation with a cobra as one would act in relation
to a baby - although each is owed a duty of care, the nature of which
is shaped by the character of the potential with which one is confronted
at a given time.
Consider the following Hadiths:
(1) You will not enter Paradise until you have faith, and you will not
complete your faith until you love one another.
(2) Assist any person who is oppressed - whether Muslim or non-Muslim.
(3) By no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend
benevolently out of what you love.
(4) If you love your Creator, then, love your fellow beings first.
(5) This life is but a tillage for the next, therefore, do good deeds
here that you may reap benefits there - for, striving is the ordinance
of God, and whatever God has ordained can be attained only by
striving.
(6) The root of all prayers is renunciation of the world, and love of
the world is the root of all mischief.
(7) Deal gently with people and be not harsh; cheer them and do not
condemn them.
(8) Creation is like God's family, for its sustenance is from Allah.
Therefore, the most beloved unto God is the individual who does good
to God's family.
(9) Shall I not inform you about a better act than fasting, charity,
and prayer? -- making peace between one another. Enmity and malice
tear up heavenly rewards by the roots.
(10) What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human
being; to feed the hungry; to help the afflicted; to lighten the
sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the wrongs of the injured.
(11) Every person who rises in the morning either does that which will
be the means of one's redemption or one's spiritual ruin.
(12) One's knowledge calls to be acted upon. If not satisfied, it will
depart.
One could go on almost indefinitely along the foregoing lines. And,
one of the commonalities shared by all of the above mentioned
teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is
that each principle revolves around the realm of action.
Therefore, to whatever degree (according to one's fixed form
capacity) one understands the idea that there is no reality
but Divinity, unless such an understanding involves not just
action but the right kind of action, then, such an
understanding is deficient . Knowing and understanding
how to do justice or observe adab with respect to the
various facets of that manifested Reality is needed.
It is possible to be a traveler of the path without having experienced
fana and/or baqa. It is possible to be a traveler on the path without
having experienced kashf (unveilings) or mystical states and stations.
However, it is not possible to be in suluk (making spiritual progress
through incorporating and acting upon the experiential lessons of the
Sufi path) without adab – that is, without seeking to find ways to
understand how to do justice to each and every locus of manifestation
which is, simultaneously, rooted in the Names and Attributes of
Divinity, as well as the fixed form potential of a given aspect of
creation.
A spiritual charlatan is one of the loci of manifestation which gives
expression to Divine Himma or purpose. However, one does not act
toward a spiritual charlatan in the same way one would act toward an
authentic, spiritual guide -- although each requires that one give what
is due to each locus of manifestation of Divine purpose ... as a matter
of justice, as a matter of adab.
Similarly, one does not act toward a cobra as one would act in
conjunction with a milk snake, even though both are snakes.
Distinctions are called for, and inherent in these distinctions are an
array of duties of care with respect to God, snakes, others, and
oneself.
Everything and everyone has something to teach us. But, everything and
everyone does not necessarily give expression to the same life lessons.
Someone has once described insanity as doing the same thing over and
over again but expecting a different result. To expect a cobra to be
and act differently than it is and does, may border on being out of
touch with the distinctions which are inherent in Creation. To expect
a spiritual charlatan to be other than who and what she or he is, is
to lose touch with important distinctions concerning the manner in
which Divinity is manifested as well as the life lessons God may wish
one to derive from such distinctions.
Of course, one can pray that God will come into the life of a
spiritual charlatan, or a pedophile, or a serial killer, or a tyrant,
and, as a result, such a person's life will change toward a more
constructive, adab-based form of dynamic and interaction with the
world. Moreover, the fact that someone is a spiritual fraud,
pedophile, serial killer, or tyrant does not entitle one to transgress
boundaries of appropriate adab even in the context of such
manifestations, but, nonetheless, one should try, God willing, to
establish what those boundaries are and to maintain propriety with
respect to such boundaries.
Notwithstanding the former considerations, it is entirely appropriate
to exercise certain degrees of caution and discretion in conjunction
with those who may be inclined toward acting as a spiritual fraud,
serial killer, pedophile, or oppressive tyrant. To ignore such ‘facts’
is to fail to do justice to one’s knowledge, to one’s soul, to God,
to one’s family, to one fellow human beings, and to creation in
genera.l.
Although there is a great deal of similarity between the form of the
Shahadah and the first article of faith, some people seem to have
difficulty answering the question: what is the difference between the
two. As the bedouins of the desert were informed by Allah, there is a
difference between submission and faith.
Faith is not a matter of belief. Faith gives expression to a potential
for action which is rooted in an understanding of how things are.
The deeper that understanding is, the more informed, so to speak, is
the dynamic which may arise out of such understanding. Adab - which
gives expression to action or behaviors - is rooted in a knowledge and
understanding of how to go about giving everything its due ... of how
to go about and treat each manifestation in an appropriate fashion.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said:
"Should the day come wherein I increase not in knowledge wherewith to
draw nearer to God, let the dawn of that day be accursed."
Knowledge is important, but the uses to which such knowledge is
applied is also extremely important. To do suluk, to be engaged in
spiritual travel, involves more than, God willing, attaining certain
stations of knowledge and understanding.
One seeks knowledge in order to learn how to use all of the potential
of one's fixed form as a harmonious instrument of worship - that act
for which human beings and jinn were created. In this respect, the
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: "I have
been given all the Names and have been sent to perfect good behavior."
Good behavior, or adab, is not only knowing what is due but doing what
is known to be so. The Prophet is reported to have said: "Do not
attend the circle of a learned person unless that individual asks you
to give up five things in favor of accepting five other things:
- doubt in favor of faith;
- hypocrisy in favor of sincerity;
- worldliness in favor of asceticism;
- pride in favor of humility;
- enmity in favor of love.
Some people today - -even some who are called spiritual guides -- may
give lip service to the foregoing, but may not give expression to this
teaching in their own lives. We are drawn to people like the Prophet
(peace be upon him) because, among other things, they lived what
they taught.
The Prophet did not teach: do as I say, not as I do. Indeed, the way
he lived his life established the standards of, among other things,
proper adab.
If the Prophet indicated that people should be kind to one another,
he practiced what he advocated. If he indicated that as much as
possible one should refrain from such things as anger, hatred,
and jealousy, again, he acted in accordance with what he was
seeking to instill in others.
Back in the days when Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were
helping to unravel a presidency, they were allegedly told by
their anonymous government source ‘Deep Throat’ to follow
the money, and by doing so, they would discover some important
truths about, among other things, the sleazy politics being practiced
by various ‘leaders’ within the Republican party. Somewhat
analogously, if one wishes to learn about people, follow their
behavior, not their words.
Spiritual charlatans, sociopaths, tyrants, pedophiles, abusive
spouses, demagogues, and many political leaders use language
to misdirect attention and understanding away from their
actual behavior. Such individuals are very good at inducing
others to accept as true, a particular way of framing reality that
serves the interests of the charlatan, tyrant, political leader,
and so on, but not the interests of the individual or individuals
who are being exploited or misled.
Real adab is largely absent from the lives of spiritual frauds,
sociopaths, tyrants, pedophiles, abusive spouses, and all too
many political leaders. In fact, such people often use the
sense of adab which other people may have as a weapon
against the latter and, as a result, exploit various principles
of adab like kindness, compassion, empathy, friendliness,
and fairness as a means of manipulating people.
Unfortunately, discernment takes time. Despite what some people claim,
the sort of discernment which enlivens the realization of, and
commitment to, adab is not a conceptual exercise. Rather, it is an
existential exercise which cannot be learned at a distance from life
but only by struggling with the varied modalities of Divine manifestation
and seeking to arrive at an understanding through which behavior
might be informed in a manner which will do appropriate justice to
the distinctions which Divinity is making through varied manifestations.
The distinction between the lesser jihad and the greater jihad is not
necessarily a matter of the struggle which goes on within us versus the
battles which are fought in the world -- and the Prophet understood this
even as he was making the distinction between the two kinds of jihad.
The greater jihad is always a matter of seeking to give everything its
due, whether in relation to one's own soul, or in conjunction with the
souls associated with all other fixed forms of created being.
As such, there is always both an inward dimension, as well as an
outward dimension to the greater jihad. This is the nature of adab,
and this is the nature of justice.
Some people have distorted the Prophetic teaching concerning the
different kinds of jihad. As a result, such individuals have tried to
suggest that the Prophet was saying the greater jihad is only about a
person’s internal struggle with his or her soul, and this struggle
carries few, if any, ramifications for interacting with the external
world. The Prophet’s entire life serves as a rebuttal to such an
interpretation.
Grasping the basic idea of the first part of the Shahadah – namely, that
there is no reality but God, is relatively simple. Realizing the truth of
that principle through the essence of one’s fixed form capacity is quite
another matter.
Understanding the second half of the Shahadah - namely, that
Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the Rasul or Messenger
of Allah, is, on the surface, fairly straightforward. Incorporating
the adab which is inherent in the second part of the Shahadah
as well as living in accordance with the many principles entailed
by such adab is, unfortunately, a far less traveled road.
Some people wish to restrict Shari’ah to observance of the
five pillars, along with paying lip service to the six articles
of faith. Of the more than 6,000 verses which comprise the
Qur’an, only about 500, or so, verses deal directly with
different aspects of those four pillars of Islam with which
many autocratic and rigid proponents of Shari’ah are concerned.
The remainder of the Qur’an - -that is, 11/12ths of the entire
Revelation -- focuses on issues of history, understanding,
knowledge, wisdom, remembrance, faith, duty, discernment,
as well as the Names and Attributes of Divinity ... all of which
revolve around, or carry essential ramifications for, matters
of adab and doing justice to both God and creation.
All manner of spiritual abuse is being perpetrated by groups like
al-Qaida, the Taliban, fundamentalists, terrorists, as well as oppressive,
theocratic governments from: Saudi Arabia, to: Khomeni’s Iran which claim
to be Islamic but almost entirely misunderstand those aspects of
the spiritual tradition which are rooted in matters of adab. All manner
of spiritual abuse is being perpetrated by those theologians, mullahs,
imams, and teachers who appear to wish to teach Shari’ah in the
absence of the whole realm of adab.
In fact, the reason why, ultimately, so many so-called Islamic
governments fail, and the reason why so many ‘back to basics’
Islamic movements fail, and the reason why so many Wahhabi,
and salafi-like attempts to ‘purify’ the faith fail, is because,
for the most part, none of these governments, movements,
theologians, and ‘leaders’ have any insight into the dynamic
role which adab must play in the observance of Shari’ah. They
have failed to come to terms with the fact that Shari’ah, as
they understand it, deals with only 1/12th of the Qur’an and,
furthermore, they do not appreciate the fact that no form of
Shari’ah which marginalizes the other 11/12ths of the Qur’an
will flourish.
Earlier, 12 simple hadiths of the Prophet were given. These
were but a small sampling of a much larger set of hadiths
which could have been given.
One of the amazing facets of those aforementioned hadiths
is that they could be understood as having relevance and
significance to living a spiritual life quite independently
of the formal requirements of, say, observing fasting, prayer,
zakat, and hajj. In fact, one of the hadiths previously mentioned
indicated: “Shall I not inform you about a better act than fasting,
charity, and prayer? -- making peace between one another. Enmity
and malice tear up heavenly rewards by the roots.”
The principles of adab are meant to shape, color, and inform
how one goes about observing the basic pillars of Islam.
However, all too many mullahs, imams, teachers,
theologians, and would-be leaders of revolutionary
movements tend to ignore adab and focus on only a
restricted, impoverished form of Islam ... an Islam
which is missing the dimensions of adab that do not
pertain to a totalitarian imposition of the basic
pillars and articles of faith upon people – a form of
understanding which seems to have forgotten the
Quranic injunction that there can be no compulsion
in matters of Deen – a form of understanding which
demands that there be religious police ensuring
that everyone does things in accordance with such
an understanding and quite apart from what God
may actually want from human beings.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is
reported to have said: “Many are there among you who
fast and, yet, gain nothing from it except hunger and
thirst, and many are there among you who pray
throughout the night and, yet, gain nothing from it
except wakefulness.”
There is an adab to fasting which has more to do with
niyat or intention than it has to do with the outer
formalities, although the latter are not without their
importance. There is an adab to praying which has more
to do with niyat or intention than it has to do with the
outer form of prayer, although the latter is not without its
importance.
In addition, there is an adab or set of spiritual principles
with respect to engaging all of life which has to do with more
than just observing the basic pillars of Islam. Such adab is
not only meant to shape, color, and inform observance of the
basic pillars, but it is meant to influence one’s entire manner
of interacting with others. We ignore this adab at our own
peril - not only spiritually, but socially, politically, and
economically as well.
It is not just people like Osama bin Laden and the suicide
bombers who have failed to understand the nature of
adab. The sad fact is that most of the governments of the
world -- both Muslim and non-Muslim -- also have failed
in this respect ... they have failed to grasp the fact that
adab is more important than government policy ... that how
one treats people, how one behaves toward others, can
undermine and corrupt whatever noble cause one may
purport to be pursuing which has the effect of destroying,
oppressing, exploiting, manipulating, corrupting, and abusing the lives
of ordinary people who have become the pawns in a government's
self-serving game of tyranny – a game in which words,
rhetoric, propaganda, indoctrination, the media, and
education are used to camouflage intentions and behaviors
which are devoid of adab.
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