ALL Sufis trace their spiritual source to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The excessive veneration, love and light (Nur) of the Prophet is a remarkable characteristic and central theme of Sufi thought and thinking. Holy Quran refers to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as a shining lamp (Sirajun Munir) Another verse reads, “There came to you from God a light and a clear book.” (Sura 5:15)
Rumi is known as the offspring of the soul of the Prophet. Attar and Rumi call him ‘Nabi al Umi’ maternal Prophet. He is the Prophet that loves you more than your mother. Attar narrates a story, “A woman is carrying her child by the river in gushing water and at one point she slips and baby falls in the river. She looks at the child with agony, as she doesn’t know how to swim. The same stream is actually heading towards a stone mill. If the child doesn’t drown, he is going to get crushed under the stone mill. She jumps and manages to rescue the child and finds herself on the shore utterly distraught. She takes her breast and puts it in the mouth of the baby and suckles her.” Here Attar switches from the narrative of women and child to Nabi al Umi, the Muslim community addressing the Prophet, “Ya Rasul Allah, we are drowning in the ocean of sin, suckle us and nourish us from the breast of kindness, of compassion, of generosity.” This is a tender loving maternal relationship, which we have with our Prophet.
Rumi says, “From the beginning of my life, I have been looking for your face, but today I have seen it. Today I have seen the charm, the beauty, the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for. I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty and wish to see you with a hundred eyes. Your fragrant breath like the morning breeze has come to the stillness of the garden. Every fibre of my being is in love with you. You have made radiant for me the earth and sky. My arrow of love has arrived at the target. I am in the house of mercy and my heart is a place of prayer.”
Divine Light. Sufis thinkers think of Prophet as a divine light and not merely transmitting it, as the orthodox Muslims believe it to be. The orthodox Muslims felt uncomfortable with the Sufis elevating the Prophet to the stature of an essence – a luminosity that existed prior to the creation and was considered the fountainhead (light of all lights) of all Prophetic activity. This was tantamount to conferring divinity, while in their belief he was seal of all the Prophets, but only as God’s messenger (Rasul) and His servant (Abaduhu). This is one of the areas, in which different perceptions exist between orthodox Islam and Sufism. He was given the most exalted character for Muslims to emulate as Quran says, “Verily you have in Messenger of God an excellent exemplar for him, who looks to God and the Last Day and remembers God often.” He is perfect what the Mystics of Islam call (al-Insan al- kamal) universal man. Rumi says, “I am the dust on the path of Muhammad (PBUH) the chosen one. If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings, I part with him and am outraged by these words.”
A reflection of Quran. On one occasion after the death of Muhammad (PBUH) when his favourite wife Ayasha was asked, what was he like? She replied, “His nature was as the Quran.” This meant that from her intense and intimate experience of the Prophet she formed the impression that he was as an incarnation of the revealed Book. Her answer is not surprising in view of the analogy between the Message and the Messenger for the Messenger (Rasul) is not only the recipient of the Revealed Message, but he is also like the Revelation. That is what Rasul means to this world from beyond.
Our Prophet (PBUH) is the Sweetest. Maulana Rumi talks of the Prophets and says, “The Prophets are like sweet apple tree. All the Prophets grew on the same tree and the Prophets were picked from the tree of Prophethood at different times, Adam was first, then Noah, Ibrahim, Moses, Christ and then our Prophet. Our Prophet stayed on the tree the longest that is why he is the sweetest. He says, “When you go to the garden see the Cypress tree, which stands tall and holds its head high, but do not have any sweet fruit to offer you, but a fruit tree with sweet succulent fruit its branches are even lying on the ground. The sweeter the fruit, the dustier the branches and no one was dustier than our Prophet as he was the sweetest.”
The way to God is clearly following the Beloved Prophet. Abu Yazid asked, “O lord with my egoism, I cannot attain thee and I cannot escape from myself, what am I to do?” God spoke, “Oh Abu Yazid, Thou must win release from Thy Thouness by following my beloved Prophet, smear thine eyes with the dust of his feet and follow him continually.”
The Prophet (PBUH) said, “Ardaalayayaamalu Kum. I see your actions in the grave. Wa Arawajatukharan Hamad Allah waasa Wajtu Sahurun Aghfartu la kum. ‘If I see good, I praise God that these are my people, I taught them to do good and they are doing good and if I see you doing wrong, I ask forgiveness from God.” He does not curse us for doing wrong, but asks God for forgiveness for us. This is the beauty of our Prophet, who came as mercy to the world and to the entire cosmos. Assalamu’alaikum wa rahmatullahi wabarakatuh. ‘May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah Subhanwa Tallah be with you Ya Rasul Allah.’
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi.
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