MIFTAH AL-WIRD* The Key to the Source (The Wird of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib)

[Note. The comments in red on the wird were done by Dr. Yasin Dutton]

[*The word wird comes from a root meaning "to go down to the watering-place, to drink.]

This is our noble Wird for whoever wishes it and seeks it. Its recital guarantees every good and repels every evil.

If the slave perseveres in it with idhn* of the Shaykh, or from a muqaddam who has idhn of the Shaykh, Allah will unite the Shari'a and Haqiqa for him.


[*Idhn means "permission", usually in the special sense of "permission of the shaykh". The Shari'a or "road" is the outward, path, i.e. the outward legal requirements of the deen. The Haqiqa is the "reality", or inward truth of things.]


MIFTAH AL-WIRD
O Allah bless our master Muhammad, Your slave and Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, and his family and Companions and grant them peace, as great as the number of Your creations and Your pleasure and the weight of Your Throne and the ink of Your words.


[The prayer on the Prophet is commanded by Surat al-Ahzab (33:56) "Inna llaha wa mala'ikatahu yusalluna 'ala'n-nabi. Ya ayyuha lladhina amanu sallu 'alayhi wa sallimu taslima." "Allah and His angels call down blessings on the Prophet. O you who believe! Call down blessings on him and ask for complete peace and safety for him."]

I take refuge with Allah, the Hearer, the Wise, from the accursed shaytan. In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful. There is no power and no strength but through Allah, the High, the Great.


[Allah says, "Fa idha qara'ta'l-qur'ana fasta'idh billahi minash-shaytani'r-rajim." "Whenever you recite the Qur'an, seek refuge with Allah from the cursed Shaytan." (16:98 ) and also, "wa imma yanzaghannaka minash-shaytani nazghun fa'sta'idh billah, innahu sami'un 'alim." "If an evil impulse from Shaytan provokes you, seek refuge in Allah. He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing." (7:200)
I ask forgiveness of Allah. (3)


[Allah says: "was-taghfiru'llah, inna llaha ghafirun rahim." "And seek forgiveness from Allah. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (73:20)]

O Allah, bless our master Muhammad, Your slave and Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, and his family and Companions and grant them peace. (3)

There is no god except Allah alone, without association. The kingdom and the praise belong to Him, and He has power over all things. (3)


[The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The best hing that I and the Prophets before me have said is 'La ilaha illa'llahu wahdahu la sharika lah.'" (Muwatta.)
The last part of this dhikr, 'lahu'l-mulku wa lahu'l-hamd wa huwa 'ala kulli shay'in qadir" occurs in Surat at-Taghabun (64:1)]


Glory be to Allah and praise belongs to Allah. There is no god except Allah. Allah is greater. There is no power and no strength but through Allah, the High, the Great. (3)

Glory be to Allah, by His praise, Glory be to Allah, the Great. (3)


[The last hadith in Imam al-Bukhari's collection is the following: "There are two phrases which are loved by the Rahman, light on the tongue and heavy in the balance: 'Subhanallahi wa bi-hamdihi' and 'Subhanallahi'l-'azim'.]

Praise is due to Allah and thanks be to Allah. (3)

A Messenger has come to you from among yourselves. Your suffering is distressing to him; he is deeply concerned for you; he is gentle and merciful to the muminun. (1)


[Surat at-Tawba (9:128)]

But if they turn away, say, 'Allah is enough for me. There is no god but Him. I have put my trust in Him. He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne.' (3)


[Surat at-Tawba (9:129)]

In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful. Say: 'He is Allah, Absolute Oneness, Allah, the Everlasting Sustainer of all. He has not given birth and was not born. And no one is comparable to Him.' (3)


[Surat al-Ikhlas (112) It is stated in the hadith that this sura is worth a third of the Qur'an (see Muwatta')]
Blessed is Allah. (3)


[Cf. Surat al-A'raf (7:54): "tabaraka'llahu rabbu'l-'alamin." Also Surat al-Mu'minin (23:14) and Surat Ghafir (40:64)]

In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful, the King of the Day of Judgment. You alone we worship. You alone we ask for help. Guide us on the Straight Path, the Path of those whom You have blessed, not of those with anger on them, nor of the misguided. Amin. (3)


[Cf. Surat al-Fatiha (1)]

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above all that they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers, and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. (1)


[This common ending for du'a's is in fact the last three ayats of Surat as-Saffat (37:180-182).]

O Allah, bless our master Muhammad, Your slave, Prophet and Messenger, the unlettered Prophet and his family and Companions and grant them peace by the measure of the sublimity of Your Essence at every time and in every age. Amin. Amin. Amin. (3)

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above all that they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers, and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. (1)

O Allah! We ask You for sound Islam accompanied by submission to Your orders and prohibitions and for pure Iman, firmly established, enduring, protected from all the ambiguities and dangers, and for Ihsan that will drive us into the presence of the Unseen. May we be purified by it from every kind of negligence and defect. We ask for the certainty which will reveal to us the presences of the Names and Attributes by which we will be carried into the witnessing of the lights of the tajalliyati adh-dhat, and for useful knowledge through which we may understand how to conduct ourselves in Your presence and how to confide in You in prayer. Fill our hearts with the lights of Your maírifa so that we may witness Your All-Sustaining Gatheredness flowing in all created things. Let us be among the circle of Your bounty, beloved in Your presence and among the firmly grounded and enduring in tawakkul and sidq of dependence on You. Realise our hope with the answer to all that we ask, O Generous, O Giving! O Master do not let us rely on any other than You in stillness or in action. You have accustomed us to Your Ihsan before we even asked for it while we were in our mothers' wombs. You have raised us with the Latif of Your lordship over existence in a manner far beyond the perception of illuminated intellects.

We ask You, O Allah, by Your Prophet, whom You have preferred above all other Prophets and Messengers, and by Your Messenger whose message You made universal and a mercy to all creation, to bless him and his family and grant them a peace by which we may attain his love and follow him in words, deeds, in muraqaba, mushahada, adab, akhlaq and ahwal.

We ask You, O Master, by his rank, to grant us that useful knowledge through which every listener may profit and every heart may be made humble, and at which the skin may thrill and the tears flow. You are the All-Powerful, the Transformer, the Knowing, the Living, the Vast.

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above all that they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers, and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

Then you pray the prayer called the Treasury of Truths in the prayer on the most noble of creatures from whom I received it, the Chosen One, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

O Allah, bless and grant peace to our lord and master Muhammad, the first of the lights emanating from the oceans of the sublimity of the Essence, with every one of Your perfections in all Your self-manifestations. In the two worlds - the hidden and the seen - he realised the meanings of the Names and Attributes. He is the first to give praise and worship with every kind of adoration and good action. He is the helper of all created beings in the world of forms and the world of spirits. And blessings be upon his family and Companions with a blessing that will lift the veil from his noble face for us in visions and in the waking state and will acquaint us with You and with him in all ranks and presences.

Be gracious to us, O Mawlana, by his rank, in movement and in stillness, in looks and in thoughts. (3)

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above all that they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers, and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Shaytan: Those to whom people said, 'The people have gathered against you, so fear them. But that merely increased their Iman and they said:

Allah is enough for us and the Best of Guardians. (10)

So they returned with blessings and bounty from Allah, and no evil touched them. (3)

They pursued the pleasure of Allah. Allah's favour is indeed immense. (3)


[Surat Ali 'Imran (3:173-174) These ayats came down about the second expedition to Badr, in the year 4 AH, when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in accordance with the promise he had given Abu Sufyan after the Battle of Uhud, set out to meet him and the Makkans (the second 'people' in the ayat). Abu Sufyan, however, tried to weaken the resolve of the Muslims by sending some of the tribe of 'Abd Qays (or, according to other reports, a man called Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud al-Ashja'i) (the first 'people' in the ayat) to cast fear into the hearts of the Muslims by telling them of the great numbers of Makkans ranged against them. In fact, it was the Makkans who were afraid and failed to present themselves at Badr, while the Muslims, putting their trust in Allah, went out and returned without suffering either harm or loss, and with the added gain that theymade considerable profit from trading at the market of Badr.]
And if they intend to deceive you, Allah is enough for you. It is He Who supported you with His help, and with the muminun, and unified their hearts. Even if you had spent everything on the earth, you could not have unified their hearts. But Allah has unified them. He is the Almighty, All-Wise. O Prophet! Allah is enough for you, and for the muminun who follow you. (3)


[Surat al-Anfal (8:62-64) The last phrase is normally taken to mean "Allah and those believers who follow you are enough for you" (Ibn Juzayy, Jalalayn), but according to some it means "Allah is enough for you and for those believers who follow you" (e.g. az-Zamakhshari in Ibn Juzayy)

Ya Latifu, ya Latifu, the lutf is Yours!

You are the Latif, and from You the lutf engulfs us.

Ya Latifu, ya Latifu, I beg You by Your lutf - be the lutf to me -

and the lutf has descended!

Ya Latifu, we have hidden in Your lutf -

we have gone into the centre of lutf - and the lutf has descended.

We have been freed by the lutf of Allah, the Possessor of lutf,

Latifu, Latifu, His lutf is always that.

Ya Hafidhu, ya Hafidhu, the hifdh is Yours!

You are the Hafidh, and from You the hifdh engulfs us.

Ya Hafidhu, ya Hafidhu, I beg you by Your hifdh -

be the hifdh to me - and the hifdh has descended.

Ya Hafidhu, we have hidden in Your hifdh - we have gone

into the centre of hifdh - and the hifdh has descended.

We have been freed by the hifdh of Allah, the Possessor of hifdh.

Hafidhu, Hafidhu, His hifdh is always that.

By the rank of the Imam of the Messengers, Muhammad,

were he not the source of the hifdh, then it would not have descended.

Blessings be upon him as long as there is one who chants:

'Ya Hafidhu, ya Hafidhu, the hifdh is Yours!'


LA ILAHA ILA'LLAH (10)


No god - except Allah; our Master Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace. O Lord, make us firm by its recital, O Mawlana, give us results from its invocation. Let us enter into the fortress of its protection - let us be among its people - and let us say it and know it at the time of death. Gather us into the company of our lord and master Muhammad, may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace, and his Companions and all the believing slaves of Allah. Amin. Amin. Amin.


[There is a hadith qudsi to the effect that "La ilaha illa'llah' is My fortress, and whoever enters My fortress will be safe from My torment." (Ibn an-Najjar from Anas In Jam'al-Jawami' (I, 599]

And peace be upon the Prophets and the Messengers, (3)

- And on all the Saliheen.

The last of our prayer is: Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. There is no power and no strength but through Allah, the Mighty, the Great.


[Cf Surat Yunus (10:10): "wa'akhiru da'wahuma ani'l-hamdu lillahi rabbi'l-'alamin" "The end of their call is: 'Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds!'"]

My help is only with Allah. In Him I have put my trust – and to Him I turn in renewal. Praise belongs to Allah for the blessing of Islam, and it is blessing enough.


[These words form part of Shu'ayb's words his people (the people of Madyan) in Surat Hud (11:88)]

O First! O Last! O Manifest! O Hidden!

Hear my cry as you heard the cry of Your slave, our master Zakariah, peace be upon him. Give me victory through You - for You.

Support me through You - for You. Join me to You - separate me from other-than-You.


[Cf. Surat al-Hadid (57:3): "Huwa'l-Awwalu wa'l-Akhiru wa'z-Zahiru wa'l-Batin"
For the story of Zakariyya who, despite his old age, asked for a child and was granted the Prophet Yahya as a son, see Surat Ali 'Imran (3:38-41)]

ALLAH (10)


Here ends the Greater Wird.


THE LESSER WIRD



In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful

O Allah, we ask You by the secret of the Essence and by the Essence of the secret. He is You and You are He. I have veiled myself with the light of Allah and the light of the Throne of Allah and all the Names of Allah from my enemies and the enemies of Allah. With one thousand 'no power, no strength but through Allah'. I have set a seal upon my self and my Deen and upon everything given to me by Allah with the seal of Allah with which He has sealed the Heavens and the earth. Allah is enough for us** and He is the best guardian, the best protector, the best helper.*** The blessings of Allah be upon our lord and master Muhammad, and upon all his family and Companions and great peace. Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.***


[*Surat Ali 'Imran (3:173)
**Surat a;-Afal (8:40) and Surat al-Hajj (22:78).

***Surat as-Saffar (37:182).]


O Lover! (3)

O Possessor of the glorious Throne! (3)

O You who Originate, O You who bring back to life. (3)

O He Who does whatever He wills! (3)


[This and the preceding three du'a's reflect Surat al-Buruj (85:13:16): "Innahu huwa yubdi'u wa yu'id, wa huwa'-ghafuru'l-wadudu dhu'l-'arsh, al-majidu fa''allul li-ma yurid."]
I ask You by the light of Your face that fills every corner of Your Throne - (3)

And I ask You by the power You exercise over Your creation (3)

And by Your mercy that encompasses all things - (3)


[Cf. Surat al-A'raf (7:156): "wa rahmati wasi'at kulla shay'".]

No god but You - O Rescuer - rescue us. (3)

Allah is Latif with His slaves. He gives wealth to whom He chooses, and He is the Strong, the Inestimably Precious. (10)


[Cf. Surat ash-Shura (42:19)]

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above all that they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. (1)


[Cf. Surat al-Hadid (57:3)]

THE WIRD OF FAJR


There is no divinity except Allah and Allah is greater. Glory be to Allah and by His praise: and I seek forgiveness from Allah: and there is no strength nor power except by Allah. He is the First and the Last and the Outwardly Manifest and the Inwardly Hidden. Good is in His hand, He makes to live and makes to die, and He has power over everything. (10)


[Cf. Sura Ali 'Imran (3:26): "bi-yadika'l-khayr, Innaka 'ala kulli shay'in qadir" and in Surat al-Hadid (57:2): "lahu mulku's-samawati wa'l-ardi yuhyi wa yamit, wa huwa 'ala kulli shay'in qadir."]

And blessings of Allah upon our lord and master, Muhammad, and upon his family and Companions, let there be perfect peace, as great as the number of Your creations and Your pleasure and the weight of Your Throne and the ink of Your words. (1)

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

Glory be to Allah and praise be to Allah and there is no divinity except Allah and Allah is greater. There is no strength nor power except by Allah, the High, the Great, in quantity as great as what He knows and the weight of what He knows and the quantity of what He knows. (3)

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

THE SEAL OF THE WIRD


O Allah, open our inner eyes to Your watching and contemplation through Your generosity and overflowing, and illuminate our secrets to the tajalliyat of Your Names and Attributes through Your gentleness and nobility, and annihilate us to our metaphorical existence in Your real existence through Your forbearance and favour. And make us have baqa' by You, not by us, preserving Your Shari'a and the Sunna of Your Prophet. You have power over everything and answering becomes You.

By a secret and a blessing -

In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful, the King of the Day of Judgment. You alone we worship. You alone we ask for help. Guide us on the Straight Path, the Path of those whom You have blessed, not of those with anger on them, nor of the misguided.


Then pray for yourselves and your parents and all the Muslims and for the Shaykh of your age in particular. Then say:


O Allah, bless our master Muhammad and the family of Muhammad with a blessing by which You will save us from every fear and harm. Supply us with all our needs by it, and purify us from all evils by it, and raise us to the highest degrees by it. Through it let us attain the furthest goal of the good in life and after death. O Allah, in this hour send down some of Your good and Your baraka on us as You sent it down on Your perfect ones - send us what is kept for Your lovers. Let us taste the coolness of Your pardon and the sweetness of Your forgiveness. Spread over us Your compassion which encompasses all things. Sustain us with Your love, Your acceptance, our renewal in You, Your counsel, Your response to our asking, forgiveness, and well-being, taking in the present and the absent, the living and the dead in Your mercy.

O Most Merciful of the merciful, Lord of the worlds. (3)

O Allah, do not disappoint us in what we ask of You, nor deny us what we hope for from You. Protect us. Protect us. Protect us - in life and in death. You are the Answerer of prayers.

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

O Allah, I ask You for the blessing of knowing You, and I ask for strength through Your power. I ask You for some of Your great and sublime fullness. You have power and I do not. You know and I do not. You are the Knower of the Unseen.

O Allah, if You know that my situation – my movement and stillness, apparent and hidden, in speech, deeds, character and state, in spiritual work and daily life, as regards myself and others, in this day or night and those after it, and all the rest of my life – is good for me in my Deen, and my worldly existence, in this life and my next life, and my final end, be it sooner or later, then decree it for me and make it easy for me and bless me in it.

But if You know that my situation - all my movement and stillness, apparent and hidden, in speech, deeds, character and state, in spiritual work and daily life, as regards myself and others in this day or night and those after it, and all the rest of my life - is evil for me in my Deen, and my worldly existence, in this life and my next life, and my final end, be it sooner or later, then divert it from me and divert me from it, and destine the good for me wherever it may be and accept it from me. You have power over all things.

O Allah, provision us with fear of You that may come between us and acts of disobedience against You, and grant us obedience to You that will bring us to Your Garden and grant us certainty that will make the misfortunes of this world easy for us.

O Allah, let us enjoy our hearing and vision and strength for as long as You grant us life and make it our legacy. Avenge us on those who have wronged us and give us victory over those who have attacked us, and do not give us misfortune in our Deen. Do not let this world be the greatest of our cares, nor the scope of our knowledge, nor the object of our desire, and do not let our homecoming be the Fire. Do not place over us because of our wrong actions those who have no fear of You and will not show mercy to us.

O Most Merciful of the merciful. (3)

O Allah! O Lord, by the rank of Your chosen Prophet and approved Messenger, purify our hearts of every attribute that might separate us from Your contemplation and love. Let us die in the Sunna and the community and in yearning for Your encounter.

O Lord of majesty and generosity.

So glory be to Allah both in your evening hour and in your morning hour. Praise belongs to Him in the heavens and the earth, alike at the setting of the sun and in your noontide hour. He brings forth the living from the dead, even so you shall be brought forth.

O Allah, we ask You for Your pleasure and the Garden and what brings one near to them from speech and action: and we take refuge with You from Your wrath and the Fire and what brings one near to them from speech and action.

O Allah, O Abundant in blessing, O Repeller of adversities, O One Who frees us from troubles and Who lifts up the darkness, and O Most Just of those who judge, O Reckoner of those who are unjust, and O Protector of those who are wronged!

On You Who have a name without a kunya, free us and all the muslims from the state they are in -

By the secret of Your Name - the Guarded, the Hidden, the Blessed, the Pure, the Purified, the Wholly Pure. You are Powerful over all things and fitted to answer our prayers.

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe, and peace be upon the Messengers and praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.


MIFTAH AL-WIRD - The Key to the Source

The Wird of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib

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Preface to the Diwan of Shaykh Ibn al-Habib
by Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi

[This is a very old preface to the Diwan, written around 1970.]


The Way

The great Qutb, our master, Shaykh Muhammad ibn al-Habib says of himself in the introduction to his renowned Diwan here presented in English, 'Allah the Exalted has destined for this noble Path in every age one who sets right its deviations and manifests its secrets and lights. He is the Shaykh who unites the Reality and the Road (the Shari'a and the Haqiqa), with the permission of Allah and His Messenger, and all the perfected of Allah. He is the Unique Man of Muhammad of whom there is only one in every age. If there are numerous Shaykhs in his age, he rules over them all, whether they are aware of it or not.' He also said, 'By Allah, none has come to me who was not beloved.'


Our Master had tens of thousands of fuqara'. He worked ceaselessly until his death in calling the people to remembrance of Allah. Wherever he went Islam revived and hearts stirred to life and were awakened. He was renowned as the sultan of the 'ulama' of his time. Indeed, such a great scholar of outward learning was he that it caused a sensation when he turned his back on the gifts of reputation which awaited him as a young man to take the path of the Sufis. Nevertheless, within his long life, centred as it was in Meknes and Fes, his vast erudition coupled with his exemplary character and illuminated state, brought many of Islam's scholars to follow his way and take the Sufic method of direct experience over information in accordance with the well-known hadith which declares witnessing to be higher than information.


As he lived for over one hundred years, his life spanned the many troubles of French occupation and persecution of Islam, to be followed by the persecutions of the nationalists who in turn attacked the Sufis who stood in the way of their newly acquired power. With the irony of this world's ways, the Shaykh was first harassed by the French governors, and then, later, by the ambitious politicians who wanted to take the very position that the French had held before them of elitist control. At one point all his fuqara' were under attack and went in danger of their lives. The French governor begged him simply to order them to stop wearing the green turban of the Darqawi fuqara' and they would be left alone. He refused, saying, "In my life I have seen many winds blow. Yours is just another one.' As he had indicated, that wind passed and the French left after a bloody persecution of the Darqawi Tariq, especially the Badawiyya branch to which Shaykh ibn al-Habib belonged. Its zawiyyas were bombed and the families of the fuqara' massacred, tombs were desecrated, and whole libraries shipped to Paris under the supervision of catholic priests. These widespread colonialist crimes do not appear in the contemporary historical record perhaps because these records come from France and a Morocco which wants to eradicate the evidence of this great Sufic order's struggle for Islam. It should also be noted that Shaykh al-Kattani who temporarily deposed the French puppet sultan was also a Darqawi master.


Following the departure of the French came the involvement with western political method and pretence. The attacks on the Darqawa were renewed. Green turbaned men were attacked on the street and beaten up, armed groups barred the way to the Sufic meeting places. That phase in turn passed. Within his lifetime there were deep changes within the discipline of the Tariq also. When he had taken the wird as a young man from desert Shaykh, Sidi al-'Arabi al-Huwari, the Darqawa fuqara' were held to strict and difficult obligations. They wore the muraqqa', the patched robe or jellaba and that only as far as just below the knees. Their tasbih-beads were large and heavy wooden balls, so that the whole tasbih hung below the waist. Many went barefoot and carried the staff, some, even, the begging bowl. Under Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Ali of Marrakech the fuqara' were permitted to wear the muraqqa' longer in the bitter winters of the desert. They still recited the two hour long wird of Shaykh Muhammad al-'Arbi, the Master who followed the great khalif of Shaykh ad-Darqawi, Shaykh al-Badawi. When the permission came to Shaykh ibn al-Habib, he changed everything. Breaking with the tradition as the traditional culture itself broke up which supported these things, he issued new obligations. Instead of the muraqqa', he ordered his fuqara' to wear the best clothes their station in life permitted. He rescinded the long wird and replaced it with his own wird, a short but profound and beautiful recitation imbued with his own deep scholarship and gnostic insights. He declared, 'I have received three barakat from Allah: to wear beautiful clothes, to eat beautiful food, and to perform beautiful dhikr.'


There was a vastness in his action and in his pronouncement that affected all who came in contact with him and which altered all who knew him. 'Ulama' bitterly opposed to the Sufis went up the stairs to his small tower room at the top of his great zawiyya in Meknes, fuming with imprecations of innovation and shirk, only to descend, sobbing and transformed, filled with a sense of the majesty of Allah. All this we saw with our eyes, again and again. Throughout all these exchanges he remained the same, serene, humble, eyes lowered, immersed in profound reflective awareness of the Divine Presence. Occasionally from the depths of his being the Great Name would emerge, resonant and deep, Every faqir who served him has experiences to recount, and for each that one can recount there are other deeper ones on which our lips are forever sealed. As the Sufis say, he was an ocean without a shore. He was the great one, and the proof of his greatness double.


The first proof is the perfection of his state in every situation, his balance, deep wisdom, and continual trust in Allah. Everything turned around him, but he in the centre of all the activity that surrounded him, turned only around his own heart, glorifying Allah with every breath. His secrets, his states, and his transmission were subtle and unsurpassed in the whole history of Sufism. He said of himself, referring to his early years as a Sufi when he taught Arabic at the Qarawiyyin in Fez: 'My station when I taught at the Qarawiyyin was equal to the station of Moulay 'Abdalqadir al-Jilani.' When one considers his achievement in reviving the Darqawi Way and steering it through the difficult years of occupation and modernisation that were to follow that period, one realises what a vital figure he was in the history of Islam. Someone came to him once asking for difficult spiritual tasks, dhikrs and retreats and so on, to reach illumination. He told them it was not necessary. They begged to be given some taxing spiritual duty. He answered, saying, 'No. You have seen me. That is enough.' The depths of this Sufi reply is the core of Sufism and the meaning of transmission, and it is not magic.


The second proof of his great place in Sufism is his Diwan. The Darqawi Way has become the Way of the Diwan. As well as celebrating the great Diwan of Ibn al-Farid, the Darqawa in their circle have always loved to sing the beautiful songs of ash-Shushtari, the Andalus Master. Shaykh al-Harraq, whose master was ad-Darqawi, wrote a Diwan that is a remarkable poetic and Sufic achievement. Shaykh al-'Alawi too wrote a Diwan. The Harraqi Diwan declares the haqiqat - the reality of the quest for Allah. It speaks of the secret. The 'Alawi Diwan tells of the man who has the secret, and so in a sense speaks only of the gnostic and not of anything else. What it says is true, but it can be misleading for people who read it. The great achievement of Shaykh ibn al-Habib was that in his Diwan he combined two elements. Firstly, he wrote the work in the flawless and noble Arabic of a great Qur'anic scholar. Secondly, he combined the delight in the inner secret with suluk – clear guidance and counsel for the seeker on his path to Allah. There was no Diwan like it before, and there has been none like it since.


From this Diwan a new element was introduced into the practice of the Sufis. Where before the Diwans were only sung at the gathering of sama', now it became the practice of the Habibiyyin Darqawa to sing some qasa'id at any gathering in which they met, even if it was only to take tea.


The Diwan has become so renowned and loved beyond the circle of the Darwaqa that it is now sung by Sufis all round the world. We have heard it sung in Makka, to the music of the gamalang from Indonesia, in Western America as well as in England.


The Shaykh


A Tijani faqir came to Shaykh Ibn al-Habib once while we sat with him. He informed the Shaykh that in the Tijani tariqa they did not have a Shaykh and that they did not consider one necessary. It was enought to follow the guidance of Sidi Ahmad Tijani. Our Master was silent for a while before he spoke. Then he raised his eyes and looked at the young man. 'A dead midwife,' he told him, 'cannot deliver a live child.' the faqir turned pale and then buried his head in his hands and wept from the depth of his being.


This kind of exchange we were witness to, and ourselves, experienced, many times, as were all the Shaykh's murids. The counsel was direct, and hit the target, but in every case, the heart was turned over. In his presence hearts were overwhelmed. He did nothing. He spoke in the calm and considered phrasing of the scholar. His voice had gravity and his speech was wisdom. Occasionally a rich bubbling mirth rose up and flooded his features in a smile that filled us all with delight. He never spoke against anybody, even in the direct face of the evidence, yet, at the same time, he would not yield to any wrong action or permit any deviation from the Shari'a of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He did not cease to perform the obligatory acts of 'ibada to the full until the moment of his death, allowing no excuse or laxity which he could have done due to his great age and sometimes weakness, although his last year was illuminated by a vitality and youthful energy that was a triumph of inwardness over the frail and aged outwardness that remained to him.


He maintained this condition throughout that last year and made preparations to go on hajj from his zawiyya in Meknes, Morocco. Refusing advice to fly, he insisted on travelling, as he loved to do, by car from zawiyya to zawiyya across North Africa. In the last days before leaving Meknes for the last time he alarmed his four wives by continually descending into the zawiyya and handing to the masakin and fuqara' first a jellaba and then a ha'ik, until, by the time he reached the city of Blida in Algeria where he was destined to die, his clothes had all been given away. He arrived there in apparently good health, walked into his zawiyya, struck the ground with his stick and turned to his muqaddam, saying, 'You will bury me here.' Shocked, his muqaddam denied that such a thing could happen.


Three days later he was to die, having held a night of dhikr at which he delivered a discourse on the Light Ayat of the Qur'an. Without waiting for permission – for it was known that he had declared his desire to be buried at the Meknes zawiyya – his muqaddam had him buried in the night. The Shaykh was buried on the spot that he had indicated with his stick when he first entered the zawiyya. His body was later exhumed and he now rests in the great zawiyya in Meknes.


We personally know of various karamat by his hand, but we will not speak of them here for we recall that when these things happened he hid them and his own perception of them. His fear of Allah was complete and without flaw. He maintained the position of helpless slave in every matter while he ruled a large supra-national community from California to Makka and beyond. When summoned to appear before Muhammad V in his palace at Rabat he refused, saying that if the King wanted to see him he would have to come to him in Meknes. He acknowledged only al-Malik (the King), the Lord of the Universe.


His company contained the poorest of the poor and the leaders of the community, the scholars and the common people. He travelled thousands of miles, using a car a year, annually traversing the southern desert of Morocco and also crossing nothern Morocco to visist his many zawiyyas in Algeria. The great event was his Moussem, held every year seven days following the birthday of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Fuqara' came from all over the world to attend this noble gathering. It was noted for the sobriety of its atmosphere, in contrast to the emotional and festive gatherings that passed elsewhere in Morocco for Moussems honouring the great Sufis. At his Moussem for three days all that happened was the recitation of Qur'an, constantly, the rich and sublime Andalusian singing of the Diwans of the Masters, the Sufic dance, the hadra, and long and complex discourses on the Qur'an and the Path to gnosis of Allah, the Exalted. In fact, this Moussem is still celebrated, but since it is devoid of marching in the streets and primitive superstitious practices it blessedly avoids the commendation and support of the Ministry of Tourism.


The Shaykh said to one of his murids, 'All the awliya' have miracles, but the great awliya's miracles come after their deaths. Wait and you will see.' One of the miracles of the Shaykh has been that directly by his teaching and patience and supplication to Allah, Islam has spread dramatically in England, Spain and the United States so that in these countries there are settled and unified Muslim communities which adhere to the Sufic path. Another is certainly the spread in renown of this unique diwan.



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(The Arabic Diwan is available from Bookwork:-

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The new edition of the English translation should be available very soon, insha'allah.)

salam alaikum

Does anyone know where an audio of the arabic wird can be found?

Assalam
Does any one know if there is still a living Cheik heir of sidi Mohammad ibn al-Habib guiding mourids on the path of Allah in his great Zaouiya in Meknes, Morocco. And if you know the whereabout of this Zaouiya in Meknes please let me know.
Fakir