The Fifth Station of the Heart

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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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5. As-Sidq: The Station of Righteousness The right religion is special from Whom, to where and for what? Why do you want the religion? The religion is from God to God, to know the truth of Him, and to know yourself, and to know how you are with the face of Allah. This is a short explanation. The guide of the love says, “What God wants is to teach the religion to anyone who wants. He will give what He wants to give from His special religion. What Allah wants from me, I give. He speaks of good and gives only what is good in the special religion. He gave me the order to give you this special religion and I put it in your heart. I am the servant, and He made me polite. After that He taught me everything I needed from the special religion. The truth is the essence of God. It speaks of the subject of the self and the subject of the soul, and of how to know yourself. Then He told me to teach you this subject of the truth of God because He loves you.”Allah gathers the believers from everywhere to teach them how to live with Him when they walk in the way. Before you sit with Him, you must understand what He says. Listen to every word when He speaks because you are from Him. Then He takes your hand and changes you from station to station, from surrender to belief to divine insight (al-islam to al-iman to al-ihsan).

If He had not given you the right religion, you would not know why you are in this world. He made you to carry the holy message. Give the message of mercy and love to all those who want to change themselves from the darkness to the light. Do not forbid anyone who wants to sit near you because you live in the garden and he has lived in darkness. You are better than the angels, and the angels pray for you. But know the secret. You will not know if you do not follow every order in the holy books, and every order from all the prophets. Change every quality to be like the qualities of God. If you do not do this, then the order only lives on the outside. The orders of Allah carry many, many meanings.

Prayer is an outside order, also fasting in Ramadan and giving charity (az-zakat) are outside orders. But there is a deeper meaning in these orders. The deep meaning in the right religion and the special religion is surrender (al-islam), to give everything for God. This is an inside meaning. It means to go beyond all that you have been and be special for God. Remember His name, and remember that there is no god but He. This is the first station in which you walk and say, “I am a Muslim.” But He needs you to obey His order. When you clean all the qualities in your body, this is al-islam. Do not steal. Be truthful. Be good to people, and help everyone to walk in the way, and be polite when you walk. This is what He wants from you in every quality. Leave everything outside, and refuse all the qualities that are not from the truth. He wants you to stand facing Him in every prayer. Be sincere and empty yourself of everything but God. Speak only His words, and do only what He wants. There is nothing, only He. Leave everything that is not useful and walk in the way. If you change everything, then you are the holy book, and you are the message. Send the message to everyone. Be the message, and give of yourself, and make yourself Him because first He wanted you, and He loved you first.

Then He will take you and put you in the holy garden of the soul. This garden is different from the first garden. It is holy and full of meaning and wisdom. In this station, you can say, “I am running to You, leaving everything I have known before, to be in Your presence. Keep me with You all the time, and help me to give Your holy mercy to anyone who needs it. Please help me my Lord, for there is no life without Your mercy.” These are holy words spoken by the believer, the one who wants to give everything to God. There is no one who can feel this unless he lives in this life. Say, “I ask You, my God, to change every quality, to take me from station to station, and to teach me the holy meaning because I am nothing without You. I am like a camel lost in the desert who has not had a drink for many days. When he finds water, he drinks and drinks until his thirst is quenched. I am like the camel because I have found water in the garden.” Then He gives you the water to help you clean yourself of all unnecessary qualities. The only thing you must do is to pray and to open your heart. He wants you to believe in every order He sends, and He wants you to be certain in your heart when you are with this order.

This is the first order, al-islam. The second order, which is the way of the heart and is special for the heart, is al-iman. O my brother, listen to every word. Every order is from your God to help you to reach Him. If you do not follow what He has sent you, you will not reach Him, and you will live outside His garden. You must leave all the unnecessary qualities of the human being outside, and put in their place special qualities for the soul. You need the real politeness to be with God and the prophets, with your guide and with your brothers and sisters. The picture of the guide is the picture of your brothers and sisters. The picture of the guide is the picture of the prophets, and the picture of the prophets is the picture of God.

Know what I am saying. If you are not polite, you will not reach. I would like you to sit on the holy carpet, but understand what I mean. This is the voice of Allah to you, and you must follow it if you want to have knowledge of Allah. Empty yourself of everything from your past and die to be in the Day of Judgment now. Then you are born again. Break your tomb and wake up from your sleep because you are the jewel, and you are the secret inside the jewel. You cannot know the secret if you do not break this jewel. You are priceless because He wants you. You are also very holy, if you know. You cannot reach until you break the glass inside you, and put everything outside except Allah. After that you can continue, if you are able, and I think you are because He would not have put you in this place if He did not want you. Give your self and your soul and everything that you have to God if you believe in what I say. In this way, you need to be a believer all the time. This is the real station and a very deep station. If anyone does not believe in the truth, he will not reach, and Allah will put him outside and discharge him from the holy garden. This is the fifth station of the heart, as-sidq, the righteousness.