TO SIT IN THE SHADE OR THE SUNLIGHT
( SECRET OF YIN-YANG)
-A First Part Diary of Masako San
Monday 27 November 2006 at 1.30pm at Miyazaki Tea Hut, eastern lake of Putrajaya Precint Eelven we had 5 unexpected guests from Penang today. Dr Hakimi, Dr.Norizan, Mahamad, Ismail and Sakinah. Subject of our conversation suddenly take a dig at Sidi Ali Jamal�s magnum opus of the Darqawi Path written about 200 years ago -The Meaning of Man. Yes, until now we still stuck at one sentence as below:
�The reality of wilaya (wali) is :
Than when you sit in the sunlight, you dont desire to sit in the shade. When you are In the shade, you dont desire to sit in the sunlight.�
They kindly requested if an commentary by Abu Zhulixin which they heard do exist two years ago delivered to a small group of UIA Gombak students can be retold and put in writing ? Here are the remnants of the discourse that Masako San, the petit attendant of Master Izi Anqaravi able to jolt down in her blue diary:
Flash Back One:
After more than 20 years studying and keeping company with an old Shaykh in Marrakech, a group of fuqara asked their Shaykh to reveal and expound on the reality of wilaya after they had finished the Hikam of Ibn Athaillah and Minhajul Abidin of Imam Ghazali. The Shaykh says,� go back to your zawiya quarters and come back tomorrow, I will tell you what is all about �. The fuqara are really excited and cannot slept that night.
Commentary :
Just excited to know and hear some beautiful or strange words about a wali�s secrets does not make you better off. It might trap you in another illusion. So we say ; what is the reality of the sunlight ? What is the secret metaphor behind the shade ? Why a faqir or wali have to sit in sunlight ? Why he did not choose being in the cool shade ? Can you feel the hot sunlights now ? How long you has been reading The Meaning of Man ? Do we still argue about the opposites meanings, gain and loss, good and evil, light and ignorance ? Dialectics.
For us the common guys, we fall victims to hot and cold because we think we has freedom to move about here and there ? Can the Shaykh really expose the secret of wilaya in words ? What kind of person who contented and happy to sit in the sunlight ? What and how many layers of metaphor for sunlights to the fuqara imagination ? Now we have to employ the 8 Matrixes to decode what Sidi Ali Jamal trying to ask his reader to think beyond forms and images.
Metaphor of Sunlight
Sunlight can means hardship, struggle, lot of zikr and ibada, travelling, meeting people and seeking employment and works to survive, to marry and raise up children...it is endless..In another word - the realm/maqam of separation or farq. Fulfillment of Shariat duties and rules, if you go wrong will get punished. Who can forever hide him/herself from the truth/haqiqat of the burning, live giving and powerful sunlight that causes water and land to dry ? To melt the snow and mountains of ices, to dried up lakes and rivers ? Sunlight can mean you must teach people and transmit this jewel/wisdom for the right people and at ripe time. So a wali can sit forever in the sunlight without being burn by your ignorance ! Now if you fuqara are so smart, tell me what is the meaning of � sitting � ? My notes here get blurred...sitting .means...real sitting !
Sitting Comfortably
A famous Zen Master when wanted to impart subtle dharma teachings at the assembly hall of Miyazaki Institute at Kenjizuro Village to about 8 young novice monks , he says � � Please sit comfortably...fold your hand, pull your legs together, form a sutra position, close you eyes...or the bird of meanings will fly away ! �. O fuqara ! How long you had been sitting in our Darqawi Tea Hut ? How many times or days you missed the �sitting� of zikr, wird, diwan, hadra, ismul azim and teaching/discourse by your esteemed muqaddim ?
How many fuqara had really reached, enter and �sit� with you, suprised at your big/small, sparse/beautiful house or banglo ? To �sit� with a faqir is half of the Path. To �run and hide� from a faqir is losing half of the Path. To open your humble Tea Hut to visitors, ask you wife or daughter to serve the classic Shushien Tea with Korean pottery , means you are an accomplished traveller from our Zawiya Institute of Bandung Orchid Farm managed by Sidi Muqaddim Malik. To sit under the sunlight of a Perfect Teacher means this faqir got the Izin of Sunburning Path. Beware of this unique Path. Beware of the Wali piercing sunlight ! Each faqir actually build his own Path of deceits or Path of �sitting and forgeting� the Past Empire and Sultanates. Sidi Baoxin got another Path�s izin when he briefly Shadowed by a wali.
Got Frozen
If a faqir is comfortable �sitting� among the Noble Fuqara and Salihun, one day he has to be tested by �sitting in the shade of exile, banishment and solitary khalwa�. Some got frozen while climbing the Mount Sumeru*. Why this can happen ? Because he sit in the shade too long, too lazy to join the Tea Circle at another Mountain just about 40 km away where hot drinks and cakes are served non-stop. Even the Titiwangsa Mountains Range turned blue when no fuqara sang the Diwan and recite the rich Miftah al-Wird for several months due to some guerilla war games at the foothills. Dr Abdad ar-Rauwi was granted Izin to sing the Mathnawi of Rumi under the shade of Master Izi 80 years old Cypress Pine Tree.
The Shade of Arasy
The Shaykh further tested his fuqara after the eveining tea session � � Do you want me to expound further about the �reality of the Shade of Allah� ? Who can answer on my behalf ? Sidi Zuigan, please stand up and speak ! Where is Sidi Ikrami last Saturday when he was supposed to teach surah al-Rahman and Surah Luqman to the 30 wonderful boy orphans of Aman House in Shah Alam ? Sidi Zuigan says; � Those seven people loved by Allah because of their sincere/pure hearts, selfless actions, honoring the poors and woman, saying just words and doing ibadah/zikr until tears flowed, love to be in the mosque/being in sajada...they will be shaded by the Arasy of Allah Taala in the Terror/Hot Day of Masyar where the sun will very near and hot above their heads. Open the Kitab Muwwata of Imam Malik, this unique hadith was related by Abu Huraira and Abu Said al-Khudri, r.a.
The Shadow and Smiles of Zuigan
Now dont assume this commentary is nearly finished. We had not yet commented on the secrets of the �Time� , �Place� and �Command or Order� being addressed to the �wali� to �Move or Change� his position from sitting in the sunlight to sitting in the shadow ! Or to get out from the �Shadow*� to sitting in �Sunlight* ! This second * Shadow and Sunlight are totally different from the first sunlight and shadow, how ? Tell us oh Sidi Shaykh, is this reality of wali beyond words now ? So the Shaykh again wispers to the ear of Sidi Zuigan...., he smiles and then closed his eyes. What ...only we can hear from him.!
This Shadow* now is the shadow of the wali�s Shaykh. He is no longer permitted to stay in the shadow of obscurity after being illuminated and his seeds* bears fruits of marifa and furqan. He must set out, expand and build his own Tea House and invite new friends and strangers to taste the Tea of Khawja Yusuf al-Hamadhani ! Do you want the seed*, the tea*,the pottery*, the smiles of Zuigan* or sit in your house ? Guess Yin or Yang fengshui ?
------------- abuzuhri shin
|