Obedience and the 3 States of Matter (part 1)

  

NurMuhammad

SufiMeditationCenter

Obedience and the 3 States of Matter
From The Teachings of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Qabbani

3 Levels of Obedience:

The Divine asks us to

“...enter houses through their proper doors” (2:189).

 

 

For every door there is a key, and the key for unlocking the door to the heart is through obedience to the Divine will.

“Obey God, obey the Prophet (s) and obey those charged

with authority over you.” (4:59)

We are asking, and always Mawlana Shaykh is teaching us, to be under the shade of these three trees of authority. They are like mighty oaks which protect us from the storms and floods of this life. In times of natural disasters, when floods and tsunamis are washing everything away, what remains are the trees. And you see many times on the news that people who are able to reach and hold on to the trunk of a tree are able to survive the flood. Mawlana is teaching us that if we hold to these three mighty trees we will quickly reach to our Lord’s satisfaction.

As Prophet Jesus [as] taught in the Lord’s prayer,

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

 

For the gnostic and the knower of these Heavenly realities, this supplication encompasses the entire spiritual path, which is to surrender our will back to God. This comes through obedience to the Divine, and obedience opens servant hood, because a servant must obey their Master. But what is standing in our way is our ego. Therefore, tariqat/Sufism  teaches that the highest level to achieve is not a PhD or a lawyer or an engineer. The highest level is to become a servant. It is most difficult on the ego and it is most pleasing in Divine Presence. God is saying, “I gave you free will. Now give it back to me,” and that is the test of our life, to give back our free will out of love for the Creator.

 

This concept, “obedience to God's will”, is the religion that all Prophets brought to humanity. That is why all Prophets were saying, “Samina wa atana” (2:285), which means “we hear and we obey”.

 

Who do we obey?
“Obey God, obey the Prophet (s) and obey those charged with authority over you.” (4:59)
 

These three levels of obedience teach us a great deal about the Sufi path because God’s first command is to obey Him, and Sufism comes and teaches us to step back and humble ourselves and realize that we can never truly obey God. That is why Sufism is a way of humbleness. It comes against pride and it comes against arrogance by pointing out to us that we are in need of support, and by teaching us that there is an etiquette in how we approach the Divine Presence.

 

We must “...enter houses through their proper doors” (2:189). Don’t think that you can obey God’s command so easily. That was a station for the Prophets, not for us. They were hearing and speaking with the Divine, and we are not hearing and speaking with the Divine. But the ego is so quick to say, “I don’t need to listen to anyone. I don’t need anyone else’s advice. I can connect directly to God.”
God knows that we are a weak creation, constantly sinning and making mistakes. If we had to obey Him directly all of us would be in grave danger because we are not obeying. Therefore, we must show some humbleness in our approach. We are not Prophets, and we do not take our orders directly from the Divine, therefore we must seek to obey those who do.
 

“O ye who believe! Do your duty to God,

seek the means of approach unto Him” (5:35).

Don't approach God directly saying “I am who I am!” Don’t overstep your authority and ask to connect directly to God. That is ok in the beginning, but not when you are seeking to advance. Satan also wanted a direct connection and he was very advanced! He didn’t accept Adam’s authority and so he refused to bow, and for that he was thrown out of Paradise even though for 70,000 years he was in complete worship of the Divine.

 

The Divine is teaching you that there is an etiquette involved in dealing with the King. You can’t just walk up and start speaking. There is a particular way to approach the thrown. You must keep your eyes down. You may have to drop to your knees, and if the King appoints someone to represent him and vests authority in that person, you can’t say, “No, I don’t accept.” If that is the protocol for Kings in this world, what about the owner of the throne in Paradise?
So Mawlana is saying, “lower yourself. Don’t place yourself on the level of Prophets. That is very dangerous.” Then God gives us another way by asking us to obey the Messenger (s), and He also says,

“He who obeys the Messenger obeys Me.” (4:80).
 

God is saying “look to the Messenger (s). I have sent him to you to teach you how to obey Me.” Prophet (s) is in complete submission to the Divine – he has no will of his own.

 

Therefore, he acts as a mirror reflecting the Divine Presence towards creation. However, Prophet (s) is not with us, so how can we imitate his perfection? By obeying those charged with authority over us. That means spiritual and temporal authority. You must obey the police, the Mayor, the Governor, the Prime Minister and anyone who has been placed in a position of authority because who gave them that authority? The Divine! If it was not written and destined for that person to have that job, how could it happen?

 

Tariqa comes to perfect our faith and learn to accept God’s will.

That opens the spiritual reality, because there is a spiritual government just like there is a government in this material world. So if you must obey material authority, it means you must also obey spiritual authority, and there are Saints with different ranks and stations in that spiritual government who are inheriting from the Prophets. If you find them and follow them you will be in safety because they are on authority and that authority is coming directly from Divine presence.

 

As Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal said,
“O my son, you have to sit with the Sufis because they are like a fountain of knowledge. They recite the remembrance of God in their hearts. They are the ascetics, and they have the most spiritual power. I do not know any people better than them.”

Saints are inheriting from the perfection of Prophet (s). Through spiritual training and constant remembrance of God, they have purified their hearts of all imperfections in character and in worship. It means that their hearts have become like mirrors.

“Hold tight to the rope of God and do not separate.” (3:103)

 

Whereas Prophet (s) is a mirror reflecting the Divine Light towards the Saints, the Saints in-turn are receiving the light of Prophet (s) and reflecting it towards humanity in our time. The Saints of the Naqshbandi Golden Chain are inheriting that light from Prophet (s) through the lineage of 40 Grandshaykhs, beginning with Sayedena Abu Bakr (r) and reaching us today with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and His Deputies Shaykh Hisham and Shaykh Adnan. That lineage is like a rope reaching seekers in the 21st century and guiding them on their journey towards the Divine.