The Great Sufis From The Land of Afghanistan

Afghan : Born of the Sun
"Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields,
See how these names are fêted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre.
Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun
And left the vivid air signed with their honour."
...........Stephen Spender

Hakim Sanai of Ghazna

The Master, Hakim Sanai lived during the eleventh and twelvth centuries, and is reckoned to be the earliest Afghan teacher to use the love-motive in Sufism. Maulana Jalal-ud-din Rumi(born in Balkh, Afghanistan) acknowledged him as one of his inspirations. Attempts were made by religious fanatics to brand him an apostate from Islam, but they did not succeed. Characteristically, his words have regularly been employed since then by the spiritual descendants of these narrow clerics to bolster their own pretensions. By a quite familiar process, when Sufi terminology and organization had been adopted by religious enthusiasts to the extent that the distinction between the Sufis and these superficialists had been blurred, the fanatics tried more than once to claim that Sanai was not a Sufi at all. The reason for this was that his thoughts could not be easily reconciled with narrow religiosity.

The Walled Garden of Truth, one of Sanai's most important works, is composed in such a manner as to give several readings for many passages. This effects a shift in the perceptions which is analogous to a change of focus on one and the same object. If one series of interpretation-methods is used with this book, a most interesting framwork of instructional material, almost a system, is revealed.

Sanai is also known for his Parliament of the Birds, which is on the surface an allegory of the human quest for higher enlightment. His Dervish Songs represents the lyrical presentation of Sufi experience.

Follow The Path
"Do not speak of your heartache-for He is speaking.
Do not seek Him - for He is seeking.
He feels even the touch of an ant's foot;
If a stone moves under water-He knows it.
If there is a worm in a rock
He knows its body, smaller than an atom.
The sound of its praise, and its hidden perception,
He knows by His divine knowledge.
He has given the worm its substance;
He has shown you the path of the Teaching."

Hakim Jami Of Herat

Jami(1414-92) Born in Herat, Afghanistanwas a genius and knew it, which made ecclesiastics and literary men of his time acutely uncomfortable, since the convention was that no man was great unless he appeared intensely humble. In his Alexandrian Book Of Wisdom, Jami shows that the Sufi esteric transmission link of the Asian Khajagan ('Masters') was the same as that used by Western mystical writers. He cites as teachers in the Sufi transmission such names as Plato, Hippocrates, Pythagoras and Hermes Trismegistos.

Jami was a disciple of Sadedin Kashgari, the chief of the Naqshbandis, whome he succeeded in the direction of the Herat area of AFGHANISTAN. His higher allegiance was to Khja Obaidullah Ahrar, General of the order. One of Jami's succinct sayings illustrates the problem of all Sufi teachers who refuse to accept students on their own valuation of themselves:
"Seekers there are plenty,
But they are almmost all
Seekers of personal advantage.
I can find so very few Seekers after Truth."

Nor was this his only concern. Certain religious enthusiasts in Baghdad, trying to discredit him, misquoted a passage from his Chain Of Gold, and created a rumpus which was only stilled after a ridiculous and trivial debate in public. Most of all Jami lamented that such things could happen at all in the community called human.

Jami's writtings and teachings in the end made him so celebrated that contemporary monarchs, from the Sultan of Turkey downwards, were constantly irritating him with offers of enormous amounts of gold and other presents, and appeals to adorn their courts. His acclaim by the public annoyed him, too, to the mystification of pupulace, who could not understand that he wanted them to adopt him as a hero but to do something about themselves. He never tired of pointing out that many people who tried to overcome pride were doing so because in this way they would be able to inflate themselves with such a victory.

Unity
"Love becomes perfect only
When it transcends itself
Becoming One with its object;
Producing Unity of Being."

Love
"Ordinary human love is capable of
Raising man to the experience of real love."

The State
"Justice and fairness, not religion or atheism,
Are needful for the protection of the State."

Pir Of Herat Khwaja Abdullah Ansari

One of the greatest sufis of Afghanistan, born and buried in the hitorical city of Herat.

"From the unmanifest I came,
And piched my tent, in the Forst of Material existence.
I passed through mineral and vegetable kingdoms,
Then my mental equipment carried me into the animal kingdom;
Having reached there I crossed beyond it;
Then in the crystal clear shell of human heart
I nursed the drop of self in a Pearl,
And in association with good men
Wandered round the Prayer House,
And having experienced that, crossed beyond it;
Then I took the road that leads to Him,
And became a slave at His gate;
Then the duality disappeared
And I became absorbed in Him."

---

Daqiqi of Balkh

"O my idol! A cloud from Paradise
Has bestowed an emerald gown on the earth.
Deserts are like blood-stained silk
And the sky has the fragrrance of musk.
With a mixture of musk and red wine
An artist has drawn an image of my love on the desert.
The world has becom peaceful
For both the tiger and the deer.
For such occastions. we need a sun-faced idol,
And a moon. leaning on a cushion of sun.
We must have an idol with cheeks like rubies,
And red wine to match the cheeks.
The world has become a peacock,
With roughness here and smoothness here.
Mud smells of roses,
As though kneaded with rose water."

From among all the good and bad things of the world, Daqiqi has chosen four:
1. Ruby-red lips
2. The wail of the flute
3. Blood-colored wine
4. The Zoroastrian religion.

Rabia Of Balkh
"I am caught in love's web so deceitful
None of my endeavours turned fruitful.
I knew not when I rode the high-blooded steed
The harder I pulled its reins the less it would heed.
Love is an ocean with such a vast space
No wise man can swim it in any place.
A true lover should be faithful till the end
And face life's reprobated trend.
When you see things hideous, fancy them neat,
Eat poison, but taste sugar sweet."

Bhitai's Journey Towards The Truth

Sufism And Love : One And The Same