Shaykh Ahmad in Ajiba on the Prayer of the Qutb Ibn Mashish

Peace, one and all…

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Ajiba’s commentary on the Salat ibn Mashish is both profound and beautiful. I am sharing this portion now in order to reflect on it later, as Allah wills.

‘Carry me to Your Presence on the back of his way surrounded by Your help’

Then he asks to be taken to the presence of purity and the place of intimacy. The Shaykh means that during his journey he should be borne on the Muhammad an Sunna, not in the sense of being a burden, because anyone conveyed by Divine Concern covers, without being aware of it, a distance in one hour which others could not ravel in years. Someone who is loved is not the same as someone who loves. Someone who travels by attraction is not the same as someone who makes his own way. ‘Allah chooses for Himself anyone He wills and guides to Himself those who turn to Him’ (Quran 42:13). As we find in the Hikam:’If you could only reach Him after the annihilation of your bad qualities and the eradication of your claims, you would never reach Him. But if He wants to bring you to Him, He veils your attribute with His attribute. So reach Him by what comes from Him to you, not by what goes from you to Him’.

‘Presence’ here means the presence of the heart with the Lord or the presence of the the spirit or secret with the Truth. It has three categories: the presence of the heart for the seekers, the presence of the spirit for the wayfarers, and the presence of the secrets for those who have arrived. Or you could say: the presence of hearts for the people of watchfulness, the presence of spirits for the people of witnessing, and the presence of secrets for the people of direct speech. Or you could say: the presence of hearts for the people of evidence, the presence of spirits for the people of eye-witnessing, and the presence of secrets for the people of fixity.

I short, as long as the murid is veiled by witnessing himself, while he is striving for the presence of his heart with his Lord, he is in the presence of hearts. When he has an opening, he withdraws by witnessing his Lord from witnessing himself. Or, you could say that he withdraws by his gathering from his separation, and so he is in the presence of spirits. When he becomes fixed and returns to going-on, so that his gathered less does not veil from his separation nor his separation from his gatheredness, then he is in the presence of secrets.

The wisdom of that is that when the spirit continues to be immersed in heedlessness, it is called a nags and it has not entered the presence at all. When the spirit wakes up or is straight and begins to strive with itself in the Presence, it is called qalb since it turns (taqallaba) from heedlessness to presence and from presence to heedlessness, or it turns from obedience toto disobedience and from disobedience to obedience. When it reaches the station of ihsan and has an opening the station of gnosis, it is called ruh because of its rest (raha) from the toil of the veil and it enters the company of the lovers. When it is taught adab and discipline and the rust of the senses is polished away from the source of the inner eye, it is called a secret since it is concealed from the perception of intellect, or because it’s possessor is concealed from the understanding of people, since the reality of the walk is only recognised by his Great, All-High Master or the one who has entered wilaya with him.

So the Presence is ascribed to the spirit but it has different names at different levels of ascent. It is called the presence of hearts as long as it is a heart, the the presence of spirits as long as it is a spirit, then the presence of secrets as long as it remains a secret. When it moves to the Presence, it is only complete when it is accompanied by help. The Shaykh asks to be surrounded by help on every side. There is no doubt that when the salve is accompanied by help and gnosis on his journey, he will reach the goal and his desire, and delight in the shortest possible time in the Presence of Arrival. How excellent are the lines:

If Allah’s help surrounds a man,
Any help he desires comes speedily to him.
If Allah does not help a man,
Any effort he makes is just a burden for him.

Ahmad Ibn Ajiba, The Prayer of the Qutb Ibn Mashish.

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