University of California Press
Berkeley & Los Angeles. 1984. 215 p.
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It is from contemplating
this truth that we come to pity those who refuse to recognize the spiritual ideas
of believers from religions [different from their own], and who deny them a place
in the brotherhood of the one God, the unique and unchanging Creator. For us, with
all due respect to those attached to the letter [of the law], only one thing counts
above all other: to recognize the existence of God and His Oneness.
Thus, brother in God who comes to the threshold of our zawiya, abode of love and
charity, do not provoke the follower of Moses. God has given witness that he said
to his people:
... Seek help in Allah and endure. Lo! the earth is Allah's. He giveth it for an inheritance to whom He will. And lo! the sequel is for those who keep their duty (to Him) (VII, 128).
Neither should you provoke the follower of Jesus. God has said, in speaking of the miraculous child of Mary, the Virgin-Mother:
... and We gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty) and We supported him with the holy Spirit (II, 253).
And as for the other humans? Certainly, let them enter and even greet them fraternally in order to honor in them their inheritance from Adam, of which God has said:
And when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down before him prostrate, … (XXXVIII, 72).
This verse suggests that in each [human] descendant, due to his inheritance from Adam, there is a particle of the spirit of God. How could we dare to scorn a vessel which contains a particle of the spirit of God?
You, who come to us and whom we consider not as a student but as a brother, reflect
and meditate on this verse from the Book of Guidance:
There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct
from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped
a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower (II, 256). (VE,
147-8)
It is only in this place that man might have the right to question the existence
of God. In every other place where one perceives His wonders, the heart, the mind
and the eyes with which we have been endowed must cause us to think upon the author
of such beauty.
You who come to us and whom we consider not as a student but as a brother, reflect.
Before entering the zdwiya where love and knowledge are sought, meditate on the
lights of the verse and benefit from it:
And of His signs is this: He created you of dust, and behold you human beings, ranging widely! (XXX, 20).
(TB, 78; VE, 140-1)
These two groups are diametrically opposed. They form two camps in perpetual combat. What is tragically ridiculous and not to the honor of the human spirit is that the believers in God war among themselves as if they did not say the same thing and attest to the same truth.
As for us, we embrace the doctrine which states that all who believe in the existence
of God form one family united by a single idea. The mutual opposition of various
believers emerges from certain [lower] human causes the origin of which is to be
found in extreme racism, in the diversity of languages, and especially in the egoism
which pushes each to seek to maintain an exclusiveness.
As for you, brother in God, who comes to the threshold of our zâwiya hoping
to find here the tranquility which is lacking in your heart, before allowing any
utterance to leave your mouth, meditate on these verses of the Qur'an:
Turning unto Him [only]; and be careful of your duty unto Him, and establish worship, and be not of those who ascribe partners [unto Him];
Of those who split up their religion and became schismatics, each sect exulting in its tenets (XXX, 31, 32).
(TB, 20)
Adepts, do the same thing on the spiritual level: perfume your breath by means
of the emanations which result from the frequent citation of the divine name in
order to please God, the most faithful and marvellous of lovers.
If you hear me and wish to lighten the material burden of your soul, before entering
our zâwiya, which is a centre for the praising of God, meditate on the following
verses:
So Glory be to Allah when ye enter the night and when ye enter the morning —
Unto Him be praise in the heavens and the earth! — and at the sun's decline and in the noonday (XXX, 17 - 18).
A blanket of thick wool is stamped on with the feet or beaten with a cudgel. A boubou of fine European
cloth is pressed between the hands.
It is the same with human souls. The trials through which they pass in order to
attain the degree where the spirit is constantly occupied with reciting the name
of the Lord are more or less violent in accordance with one's psychic state. But
whatever the nature of the soul, the spoken recitation of the first formula of
faith is recommended: “There is no god but God.”
It is considered the best mental devotion which one can perform in order to please
God, whose primordial attribute is Being-Oneness.
Adept who comes to me, your brother in God and not your Master, as it pleases you
to proclaim it, meditate on the twelve elements of this formula of faith in its
triple division 1. This formula exalts the emanations of the Creative Entity; it
establishes the differentiation of the essence, and plunges the soul into communion
with the Source of all existences in God.
Being is One. The creative Entity is endowed with anteriority, with eternity, with
plenitude and with originality. Differentiation establishes that life, wisdom,
hearing, sight, will, speech and creation belong to the Being-Oneness. Meditate
on the following verses:
He is the First and the Last, and the Outward and the Inward; and He is Knower of all things (LVII, 3).
I do not doubt his assertion, nor does it surprise me. I know that the human mind, drawing upon divine strength as it does, has not yet spoken its last word, nor produced its final work.
This discovery leads me to the following reflection: how can man in future dare
to doubt the divine omnipresence when man himself has been able to create a device
capable of sending messages everywhere at the same moment? Allah, may He be glorified,
was correct about His human creation, against whom He said:
Everything has its origin within it and everything eventually collides with the eternal walls
of this shell and returns to its point of departure. Our actions, good or bad,
once in movement evolve and eventually strike against this barrier. This collision
augments their force and changes their direction; formerly moving from the center
outwards, their movement is reversed. Thus the effects of our actions return to
us like the wave which having struck the shore returns toward the center of the
stream.
Brother in God, who wishes to become an adept in this zdwiya of true communion,
since our actions return to us, pronounce the sacred name 'Allah' ceaselessly day
and night. Pronounce it gently in your heart, inwardly in your spirit, as if your
lungs were filled while blowing the steer's horn trumpet. This name, more than
any other, evokes the essence of divinity. It agitates and brings about the emanations
from the "ether of [God's] attributes" in the form of waves of spiritual
wellbeing. These will rise up and return toward your spirit, the center from which
your invocation originated. Our happiness and our unhappiness depend on our own
actions. God has said, and we must meditate on it:
How is it then that we cannot convince ourselves that the religious way created by God and maintained by His prophets leads to the divine residence? Do not refuse to God what you accord to man created by Him.
Brother in God, at the threshold of the zâwiya of knowledge, observe everything
with the eyes of your profound intelligence and in the light of the law of analogy
which connects the events and elements of the three kingdoms of nature one with
another 3. Once you have discovered this secret mechanism, it will aid you in implanting
within yourself the truth of divine matters which are situated beyond the letter
of the Qur'an. Then you will know the significance of the verse:
[He] Teacheth man that which he knew not (XCVI, 5).
What is true for the temporal shepherd is also useful for the spiritual shepherd.
Each of us is a shepherd for his passions. Certainly it is necessary to master
them. They are just another kind of sheep. We must avoid the possibility that they
will leap over our heads, overrun us and drag us into a moral abyss, a valley where
neither the soul nor the spirit can survive.
(TB, 86; VE, 166)
The fact that God has breathed into us a portion of His spirit gives us a means to orient ourselves. This gift ftom Him renders us somewhat responsible for the consequences of our orientation, good or bad. This truth is exemplified by the following verse, which we submit for the meditation of those of sound judgement:
Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope. For it [is only] that which it hath earned, and against it [only] that which it hath deserved (II, 286).
(TB, 87)
On the contrary, everyone is in agreement in saying that nothing is lost since
everyone has escaped alive.
In what way might this situation from earthly life aid in spiritual advancement?
What is the temporal world if not a burning hut where each individual should only
be concerned with the safety of his soul, abandoning to the flames the trifles
which we call riches, royalty, power and worldly pleasures?
His mother says to him,
—
“I don't want to see you lying like this;
turn the other way.”
The child obeys, but he curls up. His mother intervenes again,
—
“I would like
to see your body extended to full length and not curled up like a small shell.”
The obedient child straightens himself and asks, in his small, innocent voice which
seeks only to please,
—
“Are you happy, mother?”
—
“Yes, my little father,” replies the mother.
—
“Does my mother wish me to go to sleep?”
—
“Of course, my little father,” she says.
The child closes his eyes and sleeps, after having said,
— “My mother, take
care with the lamp, so that it doesn't go out, and watch over me so that the naughty
mice don't come to nibble my toes.”
Brother in God, this story, rather than amusing you, should cause you to reflect.
Be in the hands of God like this child in the hands of his mother. Seek nothing
else but the desire to please God. Don't lose confidence in God. Accept the position
He chooses for you; efface your own will and abandon yourself to His. When and
how He wishes you to change, thus will you change without complaining. Ask Him
to do with you as He pleases.
Ask Him, as evidence of His satisfaction, to keep watch over your sleep and over
the interior light which illuminates you so that material temptations, which are
also kinds of perfidious mice, do not slip among the shadows of laxity and gnaw
on your two big toes: ‘Love and Charity.’
This state only lasted a few seconds. Nonetheless it permitted me to transport myself to the divine plane, to the station which precedes that of “Life in God” where the light bursts suddenly upon the vision of the initiate, flooding his breast and holding him fast, immobile and stupefied.
Thus I was reminded of the light of mystical reality. When it surprises the soul in the shadows of this world, the soul is blinded to the point of being unable to discern men, beasts, buildings or roads. Everything disappears from one's eyes, giving way to the light. The soul becomes incapable of distinguishing one thing from another, and thus attains the stage where one is no longer able to see structures, where one is no longer able to preoccupy oneself with judging anything or anybody.
She had not completed relating her story when her son, a baby of three years who was waiting for her in the court yard entered, holding a board with which he struck
a forceful blow on the head of the poor woman. She looked at the baby, smiling,
— “Oh what a naughty boy who mistreats his mother … !”
— “Why didn't you flare up at your son, you who are so quick-tempered and lament so for yourself?”
— “My son is but an infant — he does not know what he is doing. One cannot get angry with a child of this age.”
— “My good Sotoura,” Cerno said to her, “Go, return to your house. When someone irritates you, think of this board and say to yourself: ‘In spite of his age, this person is acting like a child of three years.’ Be indulgent; you can do it because you have just done so with your son. You will no longer be quick-tempered, and you will live in happiness, cured of your malady. The blessings which will come to you will be far superior to those which you could obtain from me; they will be those from God and the Prophet.
The person who withstands and pardons an offence is like a great tree which the vultures have fouled while resting on its branches. The repugnant appearance lasts only for a part of the year. During each rainy season God sends a series of downpours which wash it from the top to the roots, and He dresses it in new foliage. The love which you have for your child, try to spread it among all of God's creatures. God views His creatures like a father his children. You will be placed on a higher rung of the ladder, where by means of love and charity, the soul sees and weighs up an offence only in order to pardon it better.” (TB, 37-8; VE, 46-7)
The first obscure worm lives continually in God through his thought and spirit. The second spends his time congratulating himself and admiring his residence, which in spite of its sanctity is ephemeral due to its contingent state.
17. One night I was praying in a room which was lit by an oil lamp. Suddenly a
wind entered the window and the light began to flicker. Instead of a clear light,
the room was plunged alternately into semi-darkness and light. This change was
so rapid that I could not even think “light” without seeing darkness,
nor think “darkness” without seeing light. Under the effect of these
regular and rapid combinations of light and darkness, my eyes were no longer able
to discern anything. Due to my loss of concentration, my prayer became disrupted,
first in my mind, then in my physical movements.
This state caused me to meditate on faith, that interior light which illuminates
our soul. I said to myself, “Surely, one whose faith vacillates will find
his soul plunged into the darkness of uncertainty. This darkness penetrates our
soul and hinders the divine light from establishing itself and clearly illuminating
the ‘hut of flesh’ which is our being. We must close our senses to
dark things, which for the light of the spirit of the believer are a perfidious
wind which penetrates through the open windows of our moral lapses, causing the
light of faith within us to flicker.”
From that time I have been able carefully to close the openings of my soul and
of my heart, and especially the gateway of my spirit, to all exterior winds except
those which breathe in me the name of God and [the words] “love” and “charity.”
18. Faith and Truth, in that they are connected with God, are not the prerogatives
of one individual, nor one race, nor even one country. One who believes that these
virtues are the privilege of his family is as foolish as one who might say, “The
sun shines only for my family; the rains fall and the streams flow only for my
people.” One who would like to keep for his own people all good and virtue
will himself be impoverished and become an eternal invalid.
Why an eternal invalid? Because each day he will see appearing on the scene of
life a person foreign to his family, and sometimes of less noble ancestry, who
possesses the privilege he wishes to monopolise. To believe that all creatures
are loved by God is a great step toward goodness and truth. To condemn iffevocably
or dismiss a creature from the possibility of perfection or from the mercy of God
is a giant stride toward the kind of thought which engenders the evil of egoism,
a pitiable and incurable state of mind.
19. Some one told me that
Salli Malal 5, a contemporary of al-Hajj
Umar, contradicted
the Pullo proverb which says: “The advantages which God dispenses unexpectedly
are not held in a closed hand.”
Salli rejoined, “If these advantages were scattered as one says, the blind
would have gathered them all up.”
This retort could only apply to material advantages, and such like. As for spiritual
benefits, the proverb is sound. Certainly God accords his grace to everyone, without
any consideration, neither physical, nor racial, nor continental.
20. Which is the human being who has nothing, will have nothing and will remain with nothing? He is the one who, knowing nothing, pretends to know everything. He will have nothing in the sense that his pride will prevent him from admitting his weakness and from requesting that he be instructed. And he who knows nothing, and who does nothing in order to know, will remain with nothing in the matter of knowledge.
21. Faith, like a capricious bird, escapes from time to time from its celestial nest. It flies down to earth, knocks on one door and another, alights on one roof and another. It finds refuge only in the heart of one who, before going to sleep, piously invokes the name of God. Faith enters the breast of such a man, who will awaken closer to God.
22. In truth, beauty of the body is only partly a favor, while beauty of the spirit
is complete.
Whatever be the form of physical beauty, it erodes or fades with time. The handsome
man of today will tomorrow be a withered old man, shrivelled with wrinkles like
an ape.
Intelligence, one of the forms of spiritual beauty, produces fruits which once
conveyed are perpetuated and transmitted from age to age with a vigor which can
constantly augment their power.
The difference between these two is that material beauty appears on a screen which
is subject to ageing, whereas spiritual beauty etches itself on an imperishable
element which extends over a vast area. One is an allegory of the perishable, and
the other the symbol of real existence: the eternal.
23. Brother in God, who comes to seek our advice, make your personal recitation
of the
name of God your amulet. Leave aside the man who wishes to play tricks with
faith; at the end of the voyage of souls, there will be for him a disagreeable
deception; for he will be frustrated of that which he believes he has gained.
To be sure, female trickery in this life can procure considerable material goods,
but only one day of male trickery suffices to ruin the work of several years of
the first.
The female ruse consists of commerce and of all means, honest or dishonest, employed
to amass material advantage. The male ruse is war. Faith is the one fortune against
which these two ruses, even united, can do nothing. It is the virtue of faith that
it preoccupies common men, pushing them to the point of disputing among themselves,
while leaving the true believer indifferent and serene. Strength of faith permits
one to remain detached both from the army of the poor, who lament over their impoverished
family, and thus rebel, and from the wealthy whose affluence makes them arrogant
and who are poisoned by their [concern for] high rank and their [search for] pleasure.
24. One day Bokar Paté and I found our
friend Kullel, the jovial and well-known
raconteur, not feeling well. He was trembling and groaning.
— “What is the matter?” asked Bokar Paté. “Your
condition suggests that you won't be recounting any stories this evening.”
— “I have a severe stomach upset.”
Bokar Pat6 said to him:
— “One pays dearly for having partaken of so many different dishes
at once.”
Bokar Paté's observation on the material plane has its analogy on the spiritual
level. Those who delude themselves with immoral enjoyments will one day be subject
to an indigestion much more painful than that which gripped Kullel. Moral faults
are like an array of various dishes, one seeming more delicious than the next,
but with the added complication that the more one eats, the more one wants to eat.
One who stuffs his mind with unhealthy ideas constipates his faith and suffers
from indigestion of God's religion. Instead of intensifying the interior flame
which heats and maintains his faith, he will see it extinguished and transformed
into a thick ash which will smother this sacred flame and obliterate its glow.
Would that love and charity for all were your preferred and regularly consumed
dishes; then you would not cease to live in God and for God.
25. Man was created by the power
of God. He is thus composed of a portion of divine
matter which has melted and dissolved within him. The flesh which covers this divine
matter is like a crust pierced with nine or eleven major openings and a multitude
of minor ones.
Thus several blows of the ‘hoe of preaching’ will suffice to provoke
a volcano of religious feelings.
26. Our planet is neither the largest nor the smallest of all those which our Lord has created. Those who inhabit it are therefore unable to escape from this law:
We must believe ourselves neither superior nor inferior to all other beings.
The best creatures among us will be those who are imbued with love and charity and with the proper consideration for their fellow-men. These creatures will be upright and luminous like a sun which rises straight up into the heavens.
(Monod, "Homme," 155)
27. As soon as the object of our physical activities exceeds [the three basic
necessities] of drawing our nourishment from our mother earth and [seeking] the
indispensible materials for the construction of our shelter and the manufacture
of our clothing, then we are infected with a virus of trickery. This state predisposes
us to disguised thievery, which in turn stimulates us toward shameless pillage,
which in turn leads us to an unconscious condition in which one will even kill
provided this will lead to fortune.
But, Brother in God! Ask yourself what one gains in winning only material fortune.
The pure mind motivated by sound reason will tell you that what one gains can never
be securely maintained. Material fortune is like the assorted débris which
the winds of chance have just blown from one place and deposited temporarily in
another. Only a moment later a gust will carry it once again to yet another distant,
unknown place.
28. Who is better acquainted with butter 6 than He who created the animal and vegetable which produce it? When you are to be anointed, brother in God, request that it be God Himself who gives you the required substance. When it is God who gives the material for anointing His servant, the holy odor will persist forever. When this odor is given off into the air, it will attract the favors of superior forces charged with vigilance and protection. In conventional human language these forces are called aid, providence and mercy.
29. To neglect as much as possible the religious education of children, to smile at their lack of preference for study and pious exercises, and at the last moment to confide them to a grasping and poorly instructed teacher, all this will cripple their souls and make them inept in their movement toward God. At the very moment when they seem out of danger, the great wind of perdition will suddenly rise against them, swelling their breasts and dragging them into the vast lake of profligate life where, receiving no mercy, they will sink while fishing for forbidden fish.
30. An old man, in the company of a strong young man, is crossing a slippery plain
7. The young man is full of vigor. Each time he slips he allows himself to slide
along, stopping himself just before he would fall. He manages to right himself
each time and laughs at his athletic prowess. The old man is full of prudence.
When he slips, trembling all over, he invokes the name of God in order not to fall.
He succeeds nonetheless in righting himself after several awkward movements.
The young man says to him: “Here, old man, use me for support and you won't
fall. I am young and vigorous.”
The old man replies: “I won't forsake the name of God which I invoke. He
will serve me as support.”
Two steps further on the young man slips, fails to stop himself and falls sprawling
at full length crying out, “Oh, my ribs!” Whereas the old man who has
slipped at the same time succeeds in keeping himself upright and regaining his
balance. The old man says to the younger, who is sprawled on the ground, “My
good fellow, what would have become of us if I had held on to you for support?”
“We would have fallen on one another like ripe fruit from a tree,” replies
the young man.
The old man adds: “My boy, one must never rely solely on one's own strength.
It may let you down.”
Aspirant who comes to us, fear God and divert yourself from all belief in your
self sufficiency. Don't scorn the correction that God gave to the pretentious young
man in causing his vigor to fail him when at the same time He allowed the old man
to overcome his weakness.
31. When certain misfortunes strike
the world, some people can see, although helpless
against them, the appearance of maleficent attitudes. These can stifle both the
divine law and [ancient] customs which were instituted by a wisdom of which we
are ignorant or which we fall to appreciate because of our inadequate knowledge.
Nowadays honest men who remain devoted to the ideals of good and moral action are
seen by the libertines and the ignorant as people lacking any ability. They are
sometimes accused of being stupid; some only see them as imbeciles, to whom one
must pass some money in order to discharge their duty, and to exact from them some
malleable yellow gold when they have to redeem a debt which they have often contracted
without really knowing how.
Oh brother in God, who comes to us to seek the way which leads toward good, this
is the time of the reign of Satan. He chases the name of God from our memories
and the idea of pity from our thoughts. Nowadays all mouths conjugate the verb “to
want to earn” in the first person, present indicative. “To earn” has
become an imperative duty; the manner of doing this is only a means. One is little
concerned to know if it is legal or not. The overseer of the market plunders the
merchandise; the criminal avoids prison by financial means. He who gives a lot,
even if he steals a lot, will be considered as most pious by religious leaders,
and as the best of subjects by the officials and servants of the temporal chiefs.
This a time when the poor, honest man lives and dies unknown. He will be lucky
if he is not dishonoured by everyone, even by his own family.
This is a time when the aspirant should pray as follows: “Oh God, I am seized
with embarrassment because of my sins and those of my contemporaries. Insure that
Your holy name spreads the light and fills the human hearts with Your divine force.
Only this can divert us from the road of evil and perdition.”
32. “Cerno, how many kinds of faith are
there?”
O, my brother, I do not know precisely how many. One cannot count up the kinds
of faith as one can count domestic animals, nor can one measure it like the distance
between Bandiagara and Mopti, or between Mopti and Sofara. Nor can faith be weighed
like the millet of Bankass or the fruit in the market of Dourou. For me faith
is, in part, the sum total of trust that we have in God, and in part our fidelity
toward our Creator. Faith experiences both moments of elevation and moments of
decline. It varies according to people and their circumstances.
I can only give a general outline of faith, which I would do as follows: There
is sulb or solid faith; there is sâ'il or liquid faith, and finally there
is ghâzî or gaseous faith, the most subtle of all the forms. Numerologically,
faith can be written as 1342 of which the root is 1 + 3 +
4 + 2 = 10. In considering
the constituent elements of 1342, one notes that it is formed by the first four
numbers: 1,2,3,4. The secret of faith is to be found in these numbers, in other
words, in unity, the binary, the triad and the quarternary. A numerological explanation
is not within the grasp of everyone, so we will explain it in another way 8.
The first degree of faith, sulb, is solid faith. It is suitable for the common
man — the masses — and for the teachers who are attached to the letter
[of the law]. This faith is channelled by prescriptions imposed by a law drawn
from revealed texts, be they Jewish, Christian or Islamic. At this level faith
has a precise form. It is subject to a rigorous determination which admits no foreign
element. It is intransigent and hard like the stone from which I draw its name.
There is also another, more mystical, reason: the numerical value of sulb is 92.
Faith at the degree of sulb is heavy and immobile like a mountain. At times it
prescribes armed warfare if this is necessary to gain respect and to assure its
position.
Sâ'il faith is that of men who have worked and successfully faced up to the
trials of sulb, of the rigid law that admits no compromise. They have triumphed
over their faults and have set out on the way which leads to truth. The constituent
elements of this faith derive from understanding. It values truths from wherever
they come, considering neither their origin nor the date of their existence. It
gathers and assembles them in order to make from them a body in perpetual movement.
The parts of this body do not arrange themselves in one particular form. They effect
a flow which is constantly forward, like the flow of the molecules of water which
emerge from the mountain hollows and trickle across varied terrains, flowing together
and increasing in size to streams which finally, as rivers, are thrown into the
ocean of Divine Truth. This faith, due to its subtle, liquid nature, is strong
and undermines the faults of the soul, erodes the rocks of intolerance and spreads
out, taking on a shape which is not fixed as in the case of sulb faith but borrows
the form of its recipient. This faith penetrates individuals according to the accidents
of their moral terrain, never changing its essence and never retreating whatever
detour might be necessary to avoid temptation, an obstacle which Satan places on
its road.
Sâ'il faith manifests itself as gigantic mystical waterfalls, falling from
the mountain into the ravine of active life. It contracts into a sinuous thread
in order to traverse the steep pass which Satan has placed on its route. It expands
into a great flood, playing across a country worn flat by the adoration of God
and made favourable to its full extension. Sâ'il faith disciplines the adept
and makes of him a man of God capable of hearing, listening to and appreciating
the voices of those who speak of God. This faith is vivifying. It is of the middle
degree. It can solidify like hailstones when it must move to the range of souls
of the degree of sulb. Similarly, it can become more subtle and rise as vapour
toward ghâzî faith in the heaven of absolute truth. This faith is that
of men who walk in the straight way which leads to the city of peace where man
and animal live in common and in mutual respect, where the elements of the three
kingdoms live in brotherhood, and the adepts of this faith stand against war. This
faith is the ante-chamber of truth.
Ghâzî faith is the third and final form. It is decidedly more subtle,
and it is the attribute of a specially chosen Elite. Its constituent elements are
so pure that, void of all material weight which would hold them to the earth, they
rise like smoke into the heaven of holy souls, expanding to fill them. The faith
of the sphere of truth emerges entirely from this last form. Those who reach this
faith adore God in truth in the light without colour. On this sublime plane sulb
faith, which has emerged from revelation, and sâ'il faith, which has emerged
in turn from this uncompromising way, both disappear to make a place for one sole
thing, the Divine Truth which flourishes in the fields of Love and Truth.
(TB, 76-8; VE, 137-9)
33. Cerno, what do you say of
those who have given themselves over solely to temporal matters?
One must pray for the safekeeping of these souls. Souls which confine themselves
to material things alone will in the end find themselves vitiated by the noxious
germs of materialist desire. At a given moment they enter a state of moral combustion.
This state impoverishes them in relation to the love of God and enriches them with
the cinders of desire. In order that these souls may not be pushed down this path
toward death, one must not smother the voice in them which speaks of faith. One
must soak such a soul in the vitalising element of love. For this one must open
the soul to charity, so that one's thoughts can be aerated with the meditation
and recitation of the name of God.
(TB, 87)
34. Cerno, is it true that faith
can change?
My habit of observing and reflecting on changes of states permits me to say that
the interior religious heat of man maintains his faith. The factors which cause
this heat to vary are often external. If this heat augments its powe; under the
effect of the enthusiasm of conviction, it heats the liquid sâ'il and renders
it more subtle, which is to say that it transforms it into ghâzî faith.
On the contrary, if the said heat diminishes in power, the faith cools. It congeals,
becomes hard and later sinks.
As for the true essence of faith, we do not agree with those who believe it is
subject to diminution. Certainly it does not vary [in essence], but its temperature
can fall or it can rise so high that it will sublimate. In the latter case, it
is transformed into a spiritual vapour. In our eyes, water, the element which God
has used to give and maintain the lives of all beings, symbolises faith better
than any other element. This is the major reason why our Lord Muhammad frequently
appealed to the symbolism of water when teaching hidden mysteries. Water has neither
colour, odor, taste nor form. It takes on the shape of those objects which contain
it. The same is true of faith.
35. He who has truly seen the
Revealer has seen Him fully in the heaven of great visions. He has seen, and his heart, beating with charity, is not that of the evil
one who refuses to communicate the mysteries to those who are worthy of them.
Enamored of God! Come to us; chase away Satan by stoning him, as Abraham did long
ago. Make ready your soul so that like Isaac it can be offered in sacrifice. Heed
the reply we give to those who, thirsting for God, ask us, “What is the element
which most appropriately symbolises faith? Among the four “mothers” — earth,
fire, air and water — none is better than the last for symbolising religion.
Religion is for the soul what water is for nature.
36. The sharî'a (the law) and mysticism, an initiatic teaching, are two
different matters, but they complement one another and cannot proceed without each
other.
The essential goal of the sharf'a is to deprive the faithful of the excessive liberty
contained in the dissoluteness of iffeligion. The sharî'a thus obliges the
faithful to ameliorate his conduct so as to prevent his falling into the unregulated
life of the humid lowlands which are unfit for spiritual cultivation. Without a
sharî'a, which punishes those exterior moral faults which wound one's sense
of modesty and propriety, some will-less men would fall neglected and at the mercy
of whatever fanatic wanders the streets where depraved morals are born and where
the seed and roots of morality are rotting. The articles of the sharî'a are
thus like “moral drains” whereby the misconduct which hearts imbibe
must flow away.
If one compares the sharî'a to a network of drains, mysticism might be thought
of as an irrigation system. In effect, the role of mysticism consists in imparting
to the human spirit the knowledge of God, which is a sort of subtle water, the
lack of which renders the spirit similar to dry and burning soil. Mysticism is
the consequence of two things:
The first form is an emanation obtained from the source and gathered into well-guarded
and venerated books. In each form of religion these books are like reservoirs in
which one gathers rainwater. These books, like the reservoirs of material water,
must be guarded well in the interest of the very life of the community. The second
form, or the other aspect of mysticism, is comparable to the water which, by his
ingenuity, rnan has gathered by means of dams and canals.
In effect each theologian can draw from the holy books, these wellguarded reservoirs,
the elements of a spiritual teaching, and then they can prepare the necessary diversions
[as canals] which are best adapted to the mentality and evolution of his contemporaries
in order to direct them as necessary in accordance with their development. This
last aspect of mysticism suggests an auxiliary conductor between two points in
a closed circuit.
Before giving out your teaching, brother in God who wishes to work for the propagation
of the idea of God against the disorder of “to-livehowever-you-like,” take
the measure of the people you intend to teach. If they are “flat” with
regard to spiritual ideas you can employ the system which we call “inundation.” Whatever
be the subtlety of your teaching, the people will be penetrated slowly or quickly
according to the difference of their natures, and you are sure to bring them to
the enviable degree of complete submersion. This state prepares the way for ghâzî faith,
which tends to occupy the greatest space possible in rising upwards and always
going higher to the center of all intelligence.
But when you feel your people are spiritually “slight,” instead of
the
“inundation” method of teaching, practice what we call the “trickling” method,
because in this case their spirit will be similar to a sloping terrain. Divide
them up as if digging mystical terraces, each on a different level from the others,
by means of which you divert your lessons. You will change the symbols of your
teaching without changing its essence when passing from a superior terrace to one
immediately below.
Rest assured that in this way your word will penetrate your students without obliging
them to make a steep ascent on which even the most sincere might stumble.
(TB, 74-5; VE, 130-2)
37. The desire of man to acquire divine things is like water exposed to the sun. It evaporates and spreads into the atmosphere of love. It descends to earth again only in the form of vivifying rains. Whereas the desire of man to acquire terrestrial things is like a fog formed in the lower atmosphere. It can never move from its saturation point, the place where the idea of God becomes cool, and where mystical visibility remains always bad. Where does one observe this fog of the [carnal] soul and spirit? On the banks of unre-aulated and Godless lives which run in pernicious rivers and stagnate in filthy ponds, in cabarets, etc.
38. Cerno, how do you explain
that people who do not live in the same place can conceive the same idea?
Men, both good and bad, communicate among themselves by the same means. Those who
have the idea of God as their foundation perceive, in spite of time and distance,
identical ideas of the same grandeur. Those who think evil do the same regardless
of time and space.
39. The religious teaching of
a prophet, or of a person enamored of God, is comparable to pure water. One may drink it without any danger to one's moral health. Such
a teaching will be superior and intelligible. Like pure water, it will contain
nothing of a flavour that could vitiate one's taste for the good. This teaching
matures the spirit and purifies the heart because it contains no impurities which
might obscure the soul and harden the heart. We cannot recommend strongly enough
that one should learn the theology of the revealed religions. They are for everyone,
like drinkable water. But we also counsel that they should be assimilated slowly,
and that one should guard against accepting “murky” theologies, for
they can infest the soul with a kind of moral Guinea worm.
It is commonly recommended that you do not drink cold water when you are perspiring.
We suggest, for our part, that when your soul is in a state of mystical warmth
you do not read just anything. just as it is necessary for our physical health
not to drink muddy water which is swarming with all kinds of little creatures,
for our spiritual health too it is necessary to avoid introducing just any teaching
into our minds.
(TB, 83)
40. If one fills a canoe to the
brim with sand and launches it iipon the Niger, what will happen?
It will sink, of course.
Why?
Because the water will give way under the weight of the sand, and the canoe will
lose one of its essential virtues, buoyancy. The force which keeps the canoe afloat
will be made less powerful than that which pushes it downward. The unavoidable
result of these two forces no longer neutralising one another and thus establishing
an equilibrium will be the sinking of the canoe.
That which is a visible fact for the canoe is also useful for our soul, this great
canoe which God through His power has launched on the Niger River of our existence.
The soul must traverse this river and in so doing run many risks. He who fills
his soul to the brim with the sand of material desire will make it heavier than
the spiritual stream upon which it must navigate. In this case, his effort, instead
of being exercised from the material toward the spiritual — or, in other
words, from the lower toward the higher under the influence of worship — will
be effected in the contrary direction: from the spiritual into the obscurities
of the material. This downward pressure will upset the canoe of the soul which
will capsize in the course of its mystical crossing.
If the overloaded canoe of the soul cannot float and must capsize, I counsel you
not to launch your canoe on the mystical Niger without loading it to a reasonable
degree with material things; due to excessive lightness it would be at the mercy
of the waves of temptation and would capsize in midstream. Reason is aided by dogma
to prescribe judiciously how to load one's canoe in the precise manner necessary
so as to be able to cut through the waves and clear one's way.
41. Cerno, why is it that certain
men, despite their shameless public conduct,
do not fall under the occult law conforming to verses 7 and 8 of Sûra 99
(And whoso doeth good an atom's weight will see it then; And who so doeth ill an
atom's weight will see it then)?
My friend and brother in God, do not doubt a letter of the Holy Book, all the more
so two verses composed of twenty-two letters each. The fact that these two verses
are formed by twenty-two letters is a profound sign to indicate the secret of the
order of harmony they symbolise. Know that God Eternal is not limited; consequently
He has no need to hurry like we do.
The divine law is well-tempered, although inflexible. God caused a rain of passions
to shower upon the original human principle which He planted in our father Adam;
these are estimated to comprise ninetenths of the states of the [carnal] soul.
The Lord, in not punishing us immediately after each misdeed, is taking into account
our weakness resulting from these passions which have been injected into us. In
order that a man shall be publicly punished and put to shame, his hidden bad actions
which escape the reproaches of his fellow-men must attain, analogously speaking,
a weight greater than that of his good actions, both visible and hidden, together
with that of his visible bad actions. When a man is in this state, one says that
the hidden bad actions are heavier than the sum of the hidden and visible good
and the visible bad. Then he will capsize, and the exterior world becomes a witness
to his sinking, or, in other words, his public shame.
42. Cerno, what is your opinion of a defense
attorney? What is his professional activity?
He pleads for justice in return for a salary.
A muhamîn! 9 Here, in truth, we have a person with one foot in paradise and
the other in hell. Heaped up before him he sees the truth and lies, the law and
blasphemy. How he comes out of this situation depends on his retracting one foot
to join it with the other. As for me, I see this profession from several angles.
On the whole it seems rather useless. If it is not useless, it casts a terrible
slur, first on the integrity of the judges in applying the law, and second on the
steadfastness of the law itself. If the judge is truly upright and the law is steadfast
in its application with respect to everyone, the intercession of the lawyer loses
its purpose. The parties should be able to go before a magistrate who will do his
duty equitably and strictly, without failure or prejudice. He should render such
a judgment as is in the interest of public morality, which a steadfast law is charged
with protecting. Such a situation makes the lawyer's role unnecessary.
If, on the other hand, the judge has a soul which is rotten, I believe it is more
expedient to buy the judge, who will settle the matter, rather than to pay a lawyer
who can only seek to influence the judge in favour of his own client. A Pullo proverb
says: “Rather than pay someone to argue a case, better to retain the one
who pronounces sentence.” This second situation makes the lawyer no less
useless.
Cerno, were not the prophets all lawyers, analogously speaking?
O my friend, may God open your intelligence! It is a tempting comparison, which
is not without good sense, but there is a great difference which makes it collapse
under examination: the salary. Here is verse 20 of Sûra XXVIII:
A man came running from the furthest part of the city; he said: “O my people, follow the apostles. Follow those who demand no salary from you and who are guided in the right path.”10
The phrase “who demand no salary from you,” placed in the mouth of a man by God on behalf of the apostles, is explicit. If the prophets intercede like lawyers, they do not do it in consideration of a salary. Another lesson which we can draw from this example is that to resemble something is not the same as being identical to it. Symbolism follows an immutable law which one must not pervert.
43. The soul of a human being, of whatever race, is transformed into the state of mystical diamond from the time that worship crystallizes his spirit. His colour or birth plays no part whatever with regard to the production of the light of faith: no matter what the social conditions or the weight of birth of a person who has reached this degree, no external element will be strong enough to disintegrate or corrupt it. To the adepts who have reached this degree, one has only one recommendation to make: that they should beware of their own dust, that is, of admiring that which comes from them. Admiration of oneself is among the most powerful mystical faults which can pervert the soul of the worshipper, even if he has arrived at the spiritual level called the “diamond,” where the lights of the hidden name appear in colourless rays.
44. Cerno, what do you think of
traditions?
Respect them. They constitute a goodly sum of the spiritual element arising from
the decomposition of the spirit of those who have gone before us and who happily
have not broken with God as we have done. One must meditate on the traditions,
whether they be shorter or longer stories, whether they be more or less important
or didactic, and so on.. One must seek to uncover the secret which is enveloped
within them. One must dig deeply in them as do the seekers for gold in the mines
of Bout& Each story, each vignette, is a gallery, and in their impressive
entirety they form a mine of information which the ancients have bequeathed to
the moderns by region, race, family and often by an individual. Of course, to
work profitably in this mine, to move about there in every direction, one must
have a lamp — or, in plain language, a key or a master. (TB, 91; VE, 184)
45. When the flames of ambition burn in the heart and cause the waters there to boil to the point that they dry up, then man is perverted from his noble nature and he turns only toward that which will procure him what he desires without consideration for the legitimacy of the means, nor the moral consequences of his acquisition.
46. Language is a fruit of which the skin is called chatter, the flesh eloquence, and the seed good sense. Those whose profession it is to flatter the masses 11 know the uses of all these parts, and they employ them in a marvellous fashion.
47. Cerno, I have heard people
speak well of you and of the efficacy of your teaching.
I wish to choose you as my master.
O brother in God. Flattered though I am, before anything else I am a human being,
subject to physical and moral contingencies. I have some advice to give you which
is worth months of fruitful study. A man never conforms exactly to his reputation.
Admirers falsify it by exaggerating his real merits, while antagonists disparage
them whenever possible. To avoid acting according to one of these preconceptions,
it would be good for you, and perhaps for me too, if you would listen to me for
days, examine me for weeks and stay near me for months before deciding to choose
me as your mentor and your brother.
(TB, 39; VE, 48)
48. One day I had a vision of
two young women. They had the same name but were
completely different from one another.
“Who are you?” I said to them.
“We are Deference,” they replied.
“Why do you have the same name although you differ from one another?”
The one who seemed more endowed with good sense said to me, “I am the Deference
born of respect, while my companion is Deference born of fear. We inhabit the same
royal palace …” 12
49. One day I was going to the
fields, accompanied by my faithful dog, guardian
of our farms and sworn enemy of those monkeys who devastate them. It was the time
of the great heat of April. My dog and I were so hot that it was only with great
pain that we were able to breathe properly. I had no doubt that in the end one
of us, perhaps myself, would faint. Thanks to God, we came upon a thicket of clustered
branches, with a thick covering of green leaves. My dog, whimpering slightly, raced
toward the shadow. But when he reached it, he did not stay there, but returned
to me, his tongue hanging out, his lips sagging, his pointed, white teeth bared.
His sides throbbed rapidly making me realise how exhausted he was. I moved toward
the shade, and the dog became happier. But I decided to continue on my way. He
whined plaintively, but nonetheless followed me, his head more bowed, his tail
curled between his legs. He was visibly in despair, but decided to follow me whatever
the consequences.
This faithfulness touched me deeply. I did not know how to appreciate the act of
this animal, ready to follow me to the death without any need of his own, and without
being constrained to do it by anything whatever. He was loyal just because he considered
me his master. He proved his attachment to me by risking his life with the sole
aim of following me and being at my side.
“Lord,” I cried in an outburst of feeling, “cure my troubled
soul. Make my fidelity similar to that of this being whom I disparagingly call
'dog'. Give me, like him, the strength to be able to scorn my life when it is a
question of accomplishing Your will. And give me the strength to follow the road
on which You place me without asking where I am going. I am not the creator of
this dog, and yet he obeys me blindly and follows me docilely at the cost of a
thousand pains which weigh heavily on his life. It is You, Lord, who has endowed
him with this virtue. Give, Lord, to all those who ask You, and to me in particular,
the virtue of love and the courage of charity.”
I retraced my steps and sat down in the shade. My companion, now very happy, lay
down in front of me so that his eyes were turned toward mine as if to have a serious
conversation with me. He extended his two front paws, raised his head up, and while
lying there, kept watch on me so as not to miss any of my movements. A few minutes
later we had no more trace of fatigue.
God has no need of reason nor of human intelligence. He gave them to us for use
in this life. We are not therefore to bring them untouched to the grave, that is,
to live and die without meditating on and drawing spiritual profit from the events
which happen to us and from the things which we ascertain. I began to meditate.
Where am I? I am under a tree with thick foliage. The words “thick foliage” caused
my mind to reflect on verses 13 to 16 of Sûra LXXVIII:
The two last words forcefully hold my attention. They constitute the subject of
my meditation. Since I have been under this thickly foliated tree I have begun
to feel relaxed and restored. When I was in the sun, I was beginning to lose my
sensibility and my capacity for movement and to lapse into a state of faintness,
death's younger brother. I can say as much about it as about my companion.
Why these two states? They are the result of two phenomena. Far from the tree — that
is, in the sun — there is an atmosphere which boils with heat and compresses
the chests of both humans and animals. Under the tree there is a temperate atmosphere
which restores our physical organs to their normal functions. Additional data or
reflection are not required to enable us to realise the existence of two elements.
In the sun there is an element which can kill men or animals by acting against
their organs or respiration. In the shade of the plant there is a vivifying element
which destroys the unbreatheable element spread by the solar heat.
In Fulfulde the first element is called olowere and the second yarara. Olowere
derives from the overheating of breatheable air by the sun's rays. This phenomenon
is identical to what occurs when food is overheated and cannot be consumed without
danger. Similarly, air which is overheated by the sun cannot normally be breathed
without burning the passages of the respiratory organs. Yarara in this case is
inherent in the green leaves of the foliage. Why green? Because (according to my
experience) the tree covered with dead leaves does not provide the same wellbeing.
From all this, I draw the conclusion that green plants contain a vivifying property
with the power to transform an atmosphere that has been overheated by the sun into
breatheable and comforting air. Therefore, in a green plant there is a principle
necessary for the maintenance of the life of men and animals.
This principle which emanates from green plants awoke in me another idea, this
time on the immaterial plane: paradise, as it is metaphysically described in the
Qur'an. In my opinion, the green of paradise is a spiritualisation of the green
plants of the material world. This comparison caused a brilliant flame of comprehension
to spring up in my mind, which allows me to say that paradise, as it is described,
is a symbolic garden of eternal verdure. This eternal verdure attenuates the rays
of divine light which are too strong to be supported by our vision. In this garden,
which is forever green, the elect can look on the Essential Light and assimilate
the emanations of the source of eternal life while listening to the voice of their
Lord with ears purified from all materialism. They thus enter into the state of
beatitude described in verses 10 and 11 of Surâ LXXXVIII: “In a high
Garden/ Where they hear no idle speech.”
Brother in God, while awaiting the opportunity to enter the celestial garden of
tomorrow, respect the present great garden which constitutes the vegetable kingdom.
Refrain from uselessly destroying the least plant, for it is an allegory which
God causes to emerge from the earth for our instruction, our nourishment and our
comfort.
(VE, 162-5)
50. In a vision I saw two cultivators,
sowing and working side by side in two different fields. They were right next to one another at the edge of the fields
without either one paying any attention to his comrade.
What were these two sowers? Two symbolic preparers, one broadcasting his seed on
the material field, the other confiding the seed of divine truth by the handful
to the spiritual field. The seed which they plant, although watered by the same
rain, the word, will produce shoots which bear different fruit. The shoots in the
field of the first sower will bear the “seeds of partiality,” that
is of discord and hatred among those who eat it. The shoots in the other field
will bear the “seeds of sympathy and abnegation,” bringing altruism
and unity to those who eat them.
A luminous being intercedes each time between the two cultivators. It is Sound
Reason, eldest daughter of Providence, who watches over the border in order that
Error, the youngest daughter of Gloom, does not cause the two sowers to plant in
one another's fields. If that occurred, the order of things. would be upset, and
the affairs of God and of the devil would be so confused that the world would enter
into chaos.
51. The physical beauty of women is a trick which Satan constantly employs in order to disguise the trap he sets daily against man. It is one of the great miracles when man is attracted to it but does not get caught.
52. Every believer is able to
ascertain for himself that there are times when
his worship is very alert and others when it is less so, even with the best will
in the world. This is because there is a mystical heat which comes from God through
the multiple citation of His name and penetrates the adept, heating his soul, which,
like an iron being heated in a forge, has its laudatory capacity mystically augmented.
To fail to mention the divine name cools the heat which warms the soul; and the
soul then loses its capacity, just like the iron, when cooled, is reduced in volume.
Mystical cooling and heating are thus produced in us through the number of times
and the manner in which we repeat the divine name and His attributes. Happy
is he who in the course of the day can recite the name Allah 34,500 times at the
most or 960 times at the least.
(VE, 173-4),
53. The light which springs forth from the name Allah when one mentions it augments the power of the mystical spark which God puts in every soul as it comes into the world. To repeat constantly the name Allah or the formula attesting to the unity of the Divinity is a sure way to introduce into ourselves the breath of air which will maintain the mystical heat without which the spiritual ember ignited in us will smother and be transformed into black coal, that is into a bitter material containing enough acid, morally speaking, to poison our entire spiritual organism. (VE, 174)
54. According to some well-informed persons, God, in creating us, placed in the centre of our hearts a black point. Onlyjesus and his mother were not charged with this weighty burden, but the point remains in the rest of us, who are less favoured than them. But God in His mercy has turned it into charcoal, that is into a material capable of becoming red hot. And it is left to us to make it red hot through prayer, love and charity.
55. Cerno, how many kinds of mystical
light are there?
O,
my friend, I am not such as you believe me to be — a man who has seen
all these lights. I will nonetheless speak to you of three symbolic lights, two
material and one spiritual. Their sources are distinct from one another.
The first, and least elevated, is that which we draw from material when we ignite
it. This light is individual; it can heat and illuminate only a strictly limited
space or body. This light coffesponds symbolically to the faith of the mass of
individuals who have not climbed very far up the mystical ladder. At this degree
the adepts are not able to move beyond the imitation of the letter. The gloom of
superstition surrounds them, the cold of incomprehension causes them to shiver.
Frightened and paralysed by so many contingencies, they continue to crouch in a
little corner of the tradition where they move as little as possible. This light
is that which animates the religious persons who are at the degree of law and faith
called sulb.
The second light is that of the sun. It is above the first in the sense that it
is more general and its power is more extensive. It illuminates and heats everything
which exists on earth. This light symbolises the faith of middle degree on the
mystical path. This second mystical light, like the material sun, dissipates all
shadows from the time it comes into contact with them. This dissipation of shadows,
no matter how dense and durable, is not its only characteristic, but it is a vivifying
source for all creatures and has no consideration except to exercise this role.
This light symbolises the light of adepts at the mystical degree of faith called
sd'il. They know that the way is one, like the unity of the sun is one for our
universe.
Like the material sun which illuminates and heats all beings, the adepts who have
achieved the middle degree of light proceed and treat as brothers all those who
live under the sun and receive its light. They do not scorn the first light, because
it plays an indispensible preparatory role. But they are no longer like little
insects who dance around a flame and sometimes inadvertently get burned. The difference
between these two lights is that the first, like the light which it symbolises,
can — according to circumstances — be extinguished and relit. It can
be transported from one place to another, and it can change its form and power.
Whereas the second light, like that of the sun, remains ftxed and immutable in
perpetuity. It will always come from the same source and will remain consistent
throughout the centuries.
The third light is that of the center of all existence — namely God. Who
would dare to describe it? It is a darkness more brilliant than all lights combined.
It is the light of truth. Those who have the good fortune to reach the degree of
this light lose their identity and become like a drop of water which has fallen
into the Niger, or into a sea of infinitely vast extent and depth. At this degree
Jesus became the spirit of God, Moses his interlocutor, Abraham his friend, and
finally Muhammad the Seal of His Messengers 13.
(TB, 75-6; VE, 135-7)
56. The four elements — earth, water, air and fire — also symbolise the human condition. When God created human souls, he distributed them among these materials, and He beamed the rays of divine truth upon them. All souls dominated by matter stopped the pure light due to their opacity; this light could only play upon their surfaces. Souls whose nature was like water, because of their transparency, were easily traversed by this light of truth, whereas souls whose nature was like fire and air became two variable lights, themselves capable of emitting rays which illumine the way leading from the shadows toward the light.
57. When the rays of faith — this light
which comes to us from God — penetrates
the dark interior of our human nature, the laudatory soul awakens 14. But not all
souls awaken in the same manner from the sleep of irreligion. Some are like those
men who in the morning, instead of quickly opening their eyes and spontaneously
getting up, toss and turn on their beds. They do not get up until late, and even
then against their inclination. Whereas others are like the dog, cat and other
wild animals which at the least sensation wake up and in one bound are on their
feet.
Faith is one of the great favours which God, in His kindness, dispenses to human
beings. This gift can come to us in two different ways: through the mediation of
a master's teaching or directly, penetrating us like the rays of the sun when one
partly opens the door on a sunny day. This latter kind of faith is radiant, but
it might be poorly appreciated by others because it is personal. Whereas the first
kind is like a light which we see in a reflective surface, such as water or a mirror.
The difference between these two states of faith is considerable, although the
essence of faith itself remains the same.
58. Initiation places a fundamental importance on one's name. The individual's given name, or the name by which he is customarily known, can be used according to the science of mystkal analogy to situate him in relation to the four elements: water, air, earth, fire. Each of these four elements is composed of other subtler elements, four for earth and two for each of the three other elements.
59. Cerno, what does the sand
teach us?
Sand symbolises a soul which quickly learns to worship but lacks the elements suitable
for longlasting faith. A “sandy” soul can produce a beautiful faith,
even decorated with multi-coloured flowers, but it lasts only a short time.
60. There are souls which are analogous to clayey soil. These souls, when in contact with the rains of preaching, become compact. When the preaching stops for a time, they harden and finally rebel against religious discipline. Before beginning a religious enterprise, one must know the nature of those with whom one is concerned. With a group of an individual whose soul is “clayey,” a “tuberous” form of teaching is required, that is to say, one which is discreet but tenacious and which penetrates to the interior of the soul.
61. The human spirit has the nature
of metals which are more or less oxydisable.
There are men who have a precious splirit, like gold or silver. These are the elect
who can be exposed to the air of material temptations without suffering its oxydising
action. Their senses are obedient to them instead of dragging them along. Those
who have a spirit of the nature of iron must guard against exposing themselves
to the air of material pleasures and especially against burying themselves under
the humid soil of debauchery and intemperance. In these kinds of places an organic
agent will develop which gives birth to the moral rust which will attack their
defenseless spirit. It is not given to everyone to comprehend the mechanism by
which the invisible rust of profligate materialism leads to the moral destruction
of the soul, but everyone can observe and understand the effect of material rust,
this deep red “disease” which attacks iron and progressively destroys
it, silently and unremittingly.
One must combat the rust of the soul. It attacks faith, corrupts morality, perverts
the spirit of nations and thiows them into the atrocious conflicts which makes
them more savage than the carnivores of the forest. This rust distorts men to the
extent that they celebrate and rejoice over having caused many deaths. They go
to the extent of affixing insignia on the chests of those who have been the most
impetuous in the work of destruction so that no one can be unaware of their macabre
exploits.
Notes
1. The first portion of the shahâda, or Muslim formula of faith, Lâ ilah
illâ Allah, is composed of only three different Arabic letters; lam, alif,
ha', the entire phrase consisting of twelve letters:
2. Nickname given to Amadou Hampâté Bâ, meaning “little
Kullel.” Kullel was a well-known raconteur in the household of Hampâté Bâ's
adoptive father. See D. 24 and Hampâté Bâ, L'étrange
Destin de Wangrin, 7-8.
3. The animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.
4. Bakka in the original; I have been unable to discover the meaning of this word
and have translated it contextually.
5. See Henri Gaden, Proverbes et maximes peuls et toucouleurs (Paris, 1931), 91.
6. Butter of traditional West African manufacture is not congealed, but viscous
like vegetable oil.
7. The clayey soil of Masina becomes very slippery when wet.
8. The number 1342 is obtained by totalling the numerical value of the letters
in the words sulb (92), sâ'il (332) and ghâzî (918).
9. Arabic for lawyer. Cerno Bokar's view of the dispensation of justice is an Islamic
one.
10. This Qur'anic reference is very confused. The original text of the discourse
gives the reference of Sûra XXX, verses 19-20. But the passage seems to refer
to Sûra XX-VIII, verse 20, which is as follows: “And a man came from
the uttermost part of the city, running. He said: ‘Moses! Lo! the chiefs
take counsel against thee to slay thee; therefore escape. Lo! I am of those who
give thee good advice.’”
This passage of the Qur'an continues with Moses actually being hired for a set
period of time by a family, although he does not originally demand a wage for his
servkes. In another passage (Sûra XVIII, verse 65) Moses is in the company
of Khidr, to whom he suggests he could have demanded money in return for repairing
a wall. (For Khidr, see Schimmel, 105-6)
11. The reference here is to the griots or praise singer-musicians.
12. The following note appeared after this discourse: “The master was interrupted
by a visitor and, alas, we never heard the rest of the story.”
13. These prophetic attributcs arc all derived from the Qur'an. For a fuller discussion
of them, see Muhyi'd-d7in Ibn 'Arabli, The lVisdom of the Prophets, 1975.
14. Whether Cerno Bokar was here making a reference to a specific transformation
of the soul is not cicar. Sufis designated several different stages through which
the soul progressed in its mystkal path. See Trimingham, The Sufi Orders.
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