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Titus Burckhardt
Source: Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 12, No. 1 & 2. (Winter-Spring, 1978). World Wisdom, Inc. www.studiesincomparativereligion.com
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THE Moroccan Sufi Abd as-Salam ibn Mashsh[1] , the master of Abu l-Hasan ash-Shdhilfounder of the Shdhil orderwas the spiritual pole (qutb ) of his age. He died in the year 1228 of the Christian era, in his hermitage on Mount al-Alam, in the Rif mountains; his tomb on the summit of this mountain is one of the most venerated places of pilgrimage in the whole of the Maghrib. Only one text by him remains, the famous prayer on the Prophet, which is recited in all the brotherhoods of Shdhil filiation, and which is as it were a summary of the Sufi doctrine of Universal Man (al- insn al-kmil).We give here a translation of this prayer, followed by a commentary on all the difficult passages. It should be recalled that every prayer on the Prophet refers implicitly to the Quranic injunction: God and His angels bless the Prophet; O ye who believe, bless him and wish him peace (33:56).
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The Arabic verb salla, which we translate here as to bless, also means to pray; the word salt, from the same root, means prayer, more particularly the ritual prayer, if the action comes from man, and at the same time it means blessing or effusion of grace, if the action comes from God.[2] * * *
O my God (Allhumma), bless him from whom derive the secrets and from whom gush forth the lights, and in whom rise up the realities, and into whom descended the sciences of Adam, so that he hath made powerless all creatures, and so that understandings are diminished in his regard, and no one amongst us, neither predecessor nor successor, can grasp him. The gardens of the spiritual world (al-malakt) are adorned with the flower of his beauty, and the pools of the world of omnipotence (aljab art) overflow with the outpouring of his lights. There existeth nothing that is not linked to him, even as it was said: Were there no mediator, everything that dependeth on him would disappear! (Bless him, O my God), by a blessing such as returneth to him through Thee from Thee, according to his due.
O my God, he is Thine integral secret, that demonstrateth Thee, and Thy supreme veil, raised up before Thee. O my God, join me to his posterity[3] and justify me by Thy reckoning of him. Let me know him with a knowledge that saveth me from the wells of ignorance and quencheth my thirst at the wells of virtue. Carry me on his way, surrounded by Thine aid, towards Thy presence. Strike through me at vanity, so that I may destroy it. Plunge me in the oceans of Oneness (al-ahadyah), pull me back from the sloughs of tawhd, and drown me in the pure source of the ocean of Unity (al-wahdah), so that I neither see nor hear nor am conscious nor feel except through it. And make of the Supreme Veil the life of my spirit, and of his spirit the secret of my reality, and of his reality all my worlds, by the realization of the First Truth. O First, O Last, O Outward, O Inward, hear my petition, even as Thou heardest the petition of Thy servant Zachariah; succour me through Thee unto Thee, support me through Thee unto Thee, unite me with Thee, and come in between me and other-than Thee: Allah, Allah, Allah! Verily He who hath imposed on thee the Quan for a law, will bring thee back to the promised end (Qurn, 28:85). Our Lord, grant us mercy from Thy presence, and shape for us right conduct in our plight (Qurn, 18:10). Verily God and His angels bless the Prophet; O ye who believe, bless him and wish him peace (Qurn, 33:56). May the graces (salawt) of God, His peace, His salutations, His mercy and His blessings (b arakt) be on our Lord Muhammad, Thy servant, Thy prophet and Thy messenger, the un-lettered prophet, and on his family and on his companions, (graces) as numerous as the even and the odd and as the perfect and blessed words of our Lord. Glorified be thy Lord, the Lord of Glory, beyond what they attribute unto Him, and peace be on the Messengers. Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds (Qurn, 37:180182). * * *
O my God (Allhumma), b less him from whom derive the secrets and from whom gush forth the lights.
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O my God, join me to his posterity[11] and justify me b y Thy reckoning of him. Let me know
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NOTES
[1] There also exists the form Ibn Bashsh (son of a man w ith a serene countenance), w hich indeed seems to be the original Arabic form of this patronymic, the mm of ibn Mashsh (or ben Mashsh) being explained by the assimilationtypically Maghribof the b to the preceding nn, or simply by the easy change from one labial to another. Mecca, originally Becca, is a w ell-know n example. [2] On the general meaning of the prayer on the Prophet, see: Frithjof Schuon, Understanding Islam (Allen and Unw in Mandala Books, London, 1976; Penguin Books Inc., Baltimore, U.S.A., 1972). [3] See note 11. [4] See on this subject: Muhyid-dn ibn Arab, La Sagesse des Prophtes ( Fuss al-Hikam), translated by Titus Burckhardt (Albin Michel, Paris, 1955), chapter on Seth. For an English version of this French translation see The Wisdom of the Prophets (Beshara Publication, 1975).
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Original editorial inclusion that followed the essay in Studies: We must not attrib ute our losses, misfortunes, sufferings and humiliations to the evil spirit or to man; b ut to their true author, God. Alphonsus Liguori.
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