The Third Stationof the Soul

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Reprinted from Music of the Soul by Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rifai available at www.sufimaster.org or www.sufigifts.org

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Our guide Sidi, suggests that after reading each station and listening to the audio, that you write each station by hand.

3. Al-Itlaq: The Station of Freedom

 

 

I speak here of the heart, the eye of the nafs, the eye of the soul, and the secret of God. The Muhammadan heart is the eye of the soul, and it contains more of the secret of the soul. If you want to take the truth and to know Allah and His secret, you can only take it in your hand if you know that everything is in the way of the love. This love is different from the love of the body. If you reach the true love, the love of the soul, you reach the love of God because He is the secret love. Sometimes you think that the love comes from your heart, but if you look deep with the eye of your heart, you will find that this is the love of Allah. He is the secret inside the soul.

 

Know, my brother, that your heart is the center of knowledge. Listen to what it says. If you want to know the secret love, understand the meaning of every word and listen quietly to what Allah says. If you do not open your heart and close the door to the outside, how will you know the meaning of the love? When I say that everything is in the heart, I do not mean the heart of the body. The heart of Allah does not know human form. He has put His heart and His soul inside everything. You cannot touch it, yet it is very close to you ­– only a breath away. This is the meaning of inside. It is difficult to understand, but when you walk in the way of love, you can touch every quality with your whole body. But your body must change in everything and begin to walk to be born again, giving birth to a new soul. Then you begin to be clean and alive, and to show your true self. You can listen to the voice of the soul. This voice sings the song of the deep love.

 

What do I mean by voice? This voice speaks the language of the soul. When you reach this station and understand this language, you understand every word of any song because you are the song. The language of the soul knows only the language of the love because it does not speak as we do. This is the language of light.

 

When you reach this station, there is no darkness. If you feel darkness it is different from what you felt before when you lived outside. If you stand near the light but not in it, then there is still darkness, but if you walk closer to be with the light, you see only light. The more you clean your soul, the closer you come to the light, until you live face to face with the light of Allah. This is a different life than you lived before. Now you want to live with God, face to face with His secret because your body, heart, mind, and your self have returned to the unity.

 

He is the secret and you begin to put your hand on the key to open this secret. But then you are the key because the secret is inside you. There is no difference between anything inside you. Your body, heart, mind, soul and your self have all opened to the secret, and you begin to live. If you reach this life and you understand what I mean in this station, you sit on the throne, and this throne is very holy. This is the throne of the truth. You are the truth and you can touch yourself by yourself. In this station you have seven hearts from the heavens, and seven from the earth (an-nafs) and every one of these hearts is different. When you walk in the way, sometimes you are in the garden and sometimes you are in the fire. You have everything, but know that there is no difference between the garden and the fire. When you reach this station and you know the meaning of the love, then you are the king because you are free.

 

I want everyone to be the heart because Allah says, “Neither My heavens nor My earth contain Me, only the heart of My faithful believer contains Me.” In this station your heart walks with God everywhere, yet there is no place you can go but to Him. He lives in every quality and now you live because you do not see anything, only your God. Your heart walks with Him all the time. From this arises a war in your heart between the light of God and the darkness of the devil (ash-shaitan). What is the reason for this? Everyone wants the love, but in their own way. The darkness wants the love in the way of the darkness, but the student of the family of God only wants the love in the way of God, which is from the light. Everyone wants this love. Allah gives it to His family because He has put His love inside the heart of the student, His faithful believer. He has wanted you from the beginning.

 

If you find this love in your heart, thank your God. This is your chance. Send mercy to the people who cannot take the love and cannot understand what Allah wants from them. Be a child around the holy table of Allah, and be from the eye of God, and listen to every order He sends. This is from the love.

Know, my brother, that your mind needs to be clean if you want to know the meaning of the secret of the love. The mind is limited by what it believes, and in the beginning it does not know how to walk. This is a very deep thing. If you want to know this mind, make it quiet and listen only to your heart because everything is from the heart to the heart. Clean your soul, and break your body to wake up from your tomb. Remember the name of God, and do not stand still. Give everything to understand every word. Then your mind will be free to give and to understand and it will be full of the love. Clean everything and change it, until there is no difference between your soul and Him. Allah!

 

Know, my brother, that my heart is from the heart of Allah. He has put every secret inside this heart, and it is a holy place. O, if I could speak of this place! Yet, in reality, He has no place because there is no place that could contain Him. You are not! You have no beginning and no end. You are the heart of Allah.

The words I want to share with you now are about the heart of the guide. He also has a heart like the one I have spoken about, and it contains everything inside it. This heart continues to walk with God all the time. There is no other work except to be with Allah. This heart has an eye and an ear, but they are different from anything you have known before. The guide lives all his time with Allah, and he sees Allah in every quality. He prays to Allah in every picture because he is the truth. Allah!

 

He sees Allah everywhere, when he walks, when he sits, and in everything. He is complete, and he is the clean mirror for Allah. When you stand near this mirror, he knows what is inside your heart. He sees everything because his picture reflects the picture of God, and his heart is from the heart of God. Be quiet and be polite when you sit near him, and listen to what he says because his soul speaks with the voice of God. His truth is from the truth of God.

 

He is the cup and he is the wine, and his cup is never empty. He is the heart, the soul and the mind, and he is the secret. Do not lose any word that he speaks because he knows the meaning of every subject, and he knows what is inside every holy book. You can know after you walk in the way. Do not stand still, but continue because there is no end to this way. Allah!

 

At last, know that there is no difference between the nafs, the mind, the heart, the soul and the secret. All are one. There is nothing, only He. But walk, and after you reach Him the real walking begins. He has put all that I have spoken about inside you, in your tomb, which is like a prison. If you break this prison and you search, you will find the real love; you will find yourself and what you want. After you know and you touch God in your hand, thank Him and pray to Him all the time. Be the mercy and give the mercy to anyone. He has put this quality inside you to make the peace and to be polite with everyone, if you can.

After that, you can reach what you want from God. When you live in this station, you live in the garden of the soul. There is no voice, nothing, only He. Be silent and also be silent in your soul, if you can. This station is very deep. Remember everything that I have said. This is the third station of the soul, the freedom, al-itlaq. This is the freedom of the soul. Here it is freed from its prison. You have broken your tomb and you have woken up. You are free. You will know, if you can reach. Allah!