Holy Scriptures

Lectures and Teachings

Letter Alif
Nirtan/Talas
Dua-Yasin

1. The Mysticism of the Letter Alif

Alif is the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. A part of the occult Islamic sciences is al-Simiyya, which is translated as Letter Magic. Ibn Arabi and al-Buni have been proponents of the Science of the Secret of Letters. Every letter of the Arabic alphabet is a living reality for it is an expression of Divine Speech. The Beautiful Names of God , al- ‘asma al Ilahiyya, are formed of letters which are imbued with the Divine Spirit/ Breath. The Cosmos is an expression of the Divine, an articulation of His speech. All created things carry the living spirit of the Divine expression in the form of the letters of the Names in which they have originated.
Each soul is an expression of a Divine Name or Quality through the agency of which it has come into being. The Name is the Divine Intention which brings a being into existence and it is the root of the individual destiny that must be realised through a soul’s terrestrial journey. Ibn Arabi says the Name is the Father of the being and the ayn al thabita (immutable entity) its Mother.
Elif Lam Mim
The letter Alif stands for the Divine Dhat, Ipsiety and Transcendence. All the other letters ensue from this primary letter. While Alif is Independent and free of any contingency, every other letter that follows after it is a letter because of the Alif. The Alif is the letter of Ulfa (harmonious conjugation) and Talif (bringing together). The letter Alif stands in vertical self-reliance and independent will while all other letters are in obedience to the Divine command of bending according to the direction of Its Will. The Unity of God has produced multiplicity yet it remains untouched by it. The secret of the letter Alif is in its own etymology: Alif Lam Fa, the three letters comprising the world Alif indicate A for Alif, Lam for al, Fa for Fard, (Alif al Fard) Alif is the Individual Singularity.

The Punjabi Mystic Poet, Bulleh Shah writes his verse on the mystery of the Alif:

  • Alif Allah Nal Ratta Dil Mera
  • Menu Bey Di Khabr Na Kai
  • Bey Parhdiyan Menu Samajh Na Avey
  • Lazzat Alif Di Ayee
  • Ayn tey Ghayn Nu Samajh Na Jana
  • Gal Alif Samjhaee
  • Bullehya Qawl Alif dey pooray
  • Jerhay Dil Di Karan Safaee
  • With the Alif of Allah’s Name my heart is robust
  • I have no clue of the letter Bey
  • Reading Bey I understand nothing
  • I am lost in the ecstasy of Alif
  • ‘Ayn’ and ‘Ghayn’, the letters I don’t comprehend
  • It is only Alif that I understand
  • Oh Bulleh! The speech of Alif is comprehensive
  • For it cleanses the heart, illuminating it.
– By Murshida Amat-Un-Nur. 15-12-2022

2. The Dua-Yasin

Ya Allah Ya Qadir Ya Allah Ya Rahman Ya Allah Ya Wadud Ya Allah Ya Muqtadir Ya Allah Ya Razzaq Ya Allah Ya Raqib.
Make the Yasin the wedding dress of my soul wearing which I come to you on the night of my return. Make the Yasin my bracelet which will be the sign of my bridal state. Make the Yasin my veil which will save me from the gaze of the na-mehram. Honour me with the robe of Yasin.
Make it my khimar which protects me during my exile away from home. Make the Yasin my sword which defends me from Shaytan. Make the Yasin the kohl of my eyes by which my sight of You is sharpened. Make the Yasin my heart through which the Muhammadan Light circulates like blood. Make the Yasin my dining spread on which the Food of Your sustenance brings the satisfaction of my hunger. Make the Yasin the Key of Quranic Knowledge for me through which I gain Quranic wisdom. Make the Yasin my mantle to cover my shame. Make the Yasin the beauty of my soul and my external form by which all eyes are dazzled.
Grant me the secret of Yasin by which the sick are healed and the distressed are relieved. Aman al Aman Ya Sahib al Burhan Syed al Mursalin wa Shaf’i al Muznibin Adrikni Ba Haqqi Yasin wa Bi Jahi Siirihi wa Hirzihi Amin Ya Munzil al Quran il Hakim. Refuge O Refuge O Possessor of the Proof Chief of the Messengers and Mediator of the Sinners Help me by the right of Yasin and by the exalted rank of its secret and its safeguard Amin, O the One Who sent down the Wise Quran.
– By Murshida Amat-un-Nur 10th April 2023

3. From the Nirtan/Talas of Murshid Inayat Khan

“Impulse is intoxicating; action is absorbing; but it is the result of every deed that leads man to realization.”

The Baghavad Gita is a Hindu Holy text comprising some 700 verses. Its central theme is the discussion on the philosophy of Dharma or Sacred Duty. It teaches the nature of desire; the need for dharma-inspired action; and the final condition of liberation.
The lesson taught Arjun by Krishna is that the former’s duty lies in doing, the latter’s in determining the results. Murshid Inayat Khan in his trademark ability to express the most complex in the simplest and finest of ways, imparts to the seeker the concept of the three degrees of will in operation within our lives. These are impulse (the will of desire), action (will of performance), goal-orientation ( will of achievement). He indicates, however, that all three wills are not working for themselves and in themselves alone but serving a fourth implicate degree called realization. Impulse is born of the desire to do and achieve something via that doing. The doing is a result of the aspiration to attain a certain result. Impulse intoxicates because it runs like a fire in the blood-stream demanding of every limb and faculty a surrender to its wish. When a particular impulse takes over our senses we lose awareness of everything else, immersed in the savour of the dream it has bedecked to our taste.
The act of following and embodying an impulse is all-captivating and draws us in by the power it exercises over our senses. We are absorbed in the carrying out of an impulse by all our senses and faculties serving the desire fulfillment. It is however neither the impulse nor the action that delivers us to the degree of realization. It is the result of the deed that becomes a portal to the station of realizing the impulse in its truest and purest form. The Sufi Path is a path of paradoxes. What appears to be a defeat can aver itself to be a victory and vice versa. This involves the higher discipline of the mind and soul to keep room for what lies behind the surface and all that might be peering out at us from in between the lines of a certain personal script we are playing out. The nature of action in the world of matter is such that it is geared towards goal-attainment, otherwise it would be seen as futile. This ties an impulse immediately to the result.
A dominant characteristic of humanity is haste. We can see that in this world of quick processing and dispensing that we have created and are living in today. We do not have left the ability to purely desire anymore. Our desires and impulses are engineered by the results they would produce dictated by our self-constructed realities. The other factor is the acquired conditioning of control that affects are impulse towards action and reaping results. We have been duped by the virtual world of human construction into the belief that our impulses directed towards certain goals will ensure specific results. We have forgotten the silent factor called Divine Will or Providence. Tasawwuf opens us to a higher possibility of becoming aligned to the fourth factor of Divine Will, suspending bondage to the three determinants operative in our destinies: Desire, Action, Result. We know that every human being has the aspiration to live a good life. This ‘good life’ is a question mark. What qualifies a good life? And could it be that what we consider good today might not be good for us tomorrow? What is the level of permanency or incorruptibility of the imagined ‘good’?
The Baghavad Gita therefore gives the lesson of embracing an impulse and carrying out an action without remaining tied to its fruit. This is only possible if we have transcended the trap pf duality and escaped the hold of personal preferential choice. When we follow the dictates of the ego-mind linking something to desirable and undesirable, we fall into a constricted playing-field of our resource-utilization. I am in the soccer field. I have a ball at my disposal. There is a goal-post where I must hit the ball to score. I, however, choose to play by my preference rather than the rules of the game. Having the resources I would still be restricted in my application of them due to an unconscious choice-selection governing my steps on the playing field.
If I rise above the impulse to succeed or fail and focus on following the rules of the game, liberated from the fear of defeat and the exhilaration of victory, I begin to serve the implicate factor of being a player in the Game of a Higher Will, which does not demand of us a losing or winning but a mere offering of ourself in sacrifice to His commanding.
Realization is in living the truth of every impulse without being drawn in by its intoxication and remaining free of action by being unbound to its result of good or bad. The value is in the doing while we carry out an act; the worth is in having the impulse towards it while we feel the desire, and the relevance of both is predicated upon the shift they bring on the arc of our evolutionary degree. Sometimes success is beneficial and at other times defeat can catapult us to a higher degree on our evolutionary scale. Result is not just the good or bad, success or defeat that we pursued through our impulse and action; it is also the change wrought in us by the desiring and the doing leading to a result that was perhaps not of our prescription in the first place.
  • Dear to me is the man who hates no one, who feels for all creatures, who has shed ‘I’ and ‘mine’, who is not excited by sorrow or joy, who is patient, serene, steadfast and subdued.
  • Dear to me is the man who neither annoys nor gets annoyed, who is free from passion, jealousy, fear and worry.
  • Dear to me is the man who is self-sufficient, chaste, indifferent, determined and decisive. 
  • Dear to me is the man neither regretful nor passionate, who forsakes the fruits of deeds, renounces purity and impurity, and is devoted.
  • Dear to me is the man alike to friend and foe, alike in fame and infamy, in heat and cold, in joy and sorrow; unattached.
  • Equal-minded in blame or praise, silent, satisfied, undisturbed, single-minded in devotion. He is dear to me. 
  • Dear to me are those who walk along this deathless dharma, follow me with Shraddha. 
    They are my devotees and I love them.  Baghavad Gita (xii:13-20)
– By Murshida Amat un Nur 25th December 2022.