Signs on the Horizons by Michael Sugich

Author:Michael Sugich [Sugich, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780989364010
Published: 2014-01-21T04:30:00+00:00

“They are the skilful physicians whom God has assisted with a spirit from Him, so that they treated the diseases of hearts with wisdom, and poured guidance into pleasant and permissible moulds in order to take the ordinary people along the road of their desires to the desired truth…”

Al-Habib Ahmad Mashhur Al-Haddad*

MAJESTY

His presence was majestic. His face was inexpressive. I never once saw him smile, although I’m sure he must have. He seldom betrayed emotions except when he made supplication to God. His extended supplications following a night of invocation drove his listeners to tears. His heartrending cry to the Lord of All Being for help and succor swept his audience along like a flood tide. Devotees would converge on gatherings just to hear his supplications seal an evening.

Habib Abdul Qadir Al-Saqqaf would often attend gatherings with my shaykh Habib Ahmed Mashhur Al-Haddad, his spiritual brother. Together they seemed to form a delicate balance. Al-Saqqaf embodied Majesty (Al-Jalal) while Al-Haddad embodied Beauty (Al-Jamal). Gatherings with these men were suffused with blessing.

He was a spiritual lord who commanded enormous influence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against all odds, for Sufism was banned and supressed by the religious authorities and Al-Saqqaf was one of the world's preeminent Sufi masters.

One day my shaykh Sayyid Omar Abdullah returned from a visit to Al-Saqqaf at his home in Jeddah. His visit had produced an unveiling. "I realized," he said with grave certainty, "that Al-Saqqaf has reached the station of baqa (subsistence in God). He has been completed.” Sayyid Omar rarely discussed the spiritual stations of his peers. The supreme stations of knowledge (ma’rifa) on the Sufi path are fana and baqa, referred to in Sura Rahman (55:26-27):

"All that is on the earth shall pass away (faan)

And the Face of your Lord will abide forever (yabqa),

full of Majesty and Generosity.”

The twin doctrines of fana and baqa were first articulated by the 9th century Baghdadi saint Abu Sa’id Al-Kharraz who wrote, "Fana is annihilation of consciousness of ‘ubudiyyat, (human individuality as a servant of the Lord) and baqa is subsistence in the contemplation of ilahiyyat (divinity). According to 'Ali bin Uthman Al Hujwiri in Kashf Al Mahjub, this means that "it is an imperfection to be conscious in one’s actions that one is a man, and one attains real manhood when one is not conscious of them, but is annihilated so as to not see them, and becomes subsistent through beholding the action of Allah… Abú Ya’qúb Nahrajúrí says: A man’s true ‘ubúdiyyat (servitude) lies in fana and baqa’…”*

To an ordinary person these exalted stations are incomprehensible. Yet, through observation, through subtle indications, one might sense the marks of attainment.

At one point I had reached a crisis regarding my residency in Saudi Arabia. I tried to solve the problem through ordinary channels but without success. I had reached a bureaucratic impasse. I mentioned this to Sayyid Omar and he immediately suggested that we refer this problem to Al-Saqqaf. The idea of approaching this great saint with

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