Seeing a garden is evidence of a Gardener.

Bismi'llah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim...for the sake of Prophet Muhammad saws and Sheikh Nazim may Allah protect his secret.

Just putting this on from my scribblings over at Blog Ladder. (Maybe be it is more appropriate here, but there, it is a kind of dawa ... I hope !)


20th July 2005. La Herradura Granada Spain.08.53.

Hrs.Bismi'llah arRahman arRahim.

For the sake of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and Sheikh Nazim (qs).

(May we increase in our knowledge and love of Allah through them and learn true sincerity in our worship.)

"We will show you Our signs on the horizons and in yourselves." (Koran)

Two snippets from internet gleanings were connected in my mind this morning.The first is from Annabanana from a comment on my blog, the second from the Holy Prophet (saws).
I had said something about the contemplation of nature as an antidote for the effects of too much internet and computer world which was reflected in a poem I found, and, in a comment, I mentioned how, on her blog, Anna managed to make the personal universally applicable. Annabanana said this;
" i'm utterly interested in the deeply subjective. hearing other people's experiences has been a life raft at times for me. not in a vampirical sort of way, but because they make me feel less alone. when i rediscovered poetry as an adult, hoo boy, i felt like i found a friend in humanity. experience tends to defy description, but poetry can come pretty close to evoking it.
the other thing i didn't say in my comment above, but that i thought of later, is that this sickening and saddening of my soul is so quiet and gentle itself, for me, that it can be easy to ignore as well. this is what seems like The Illusion to me (now that i think about it). not that cherry trees and grass and concrete don't really "exist" and are maya, but that they sing to us of their nature and experience and we won't hear it. and this perception of separateness from all things turns us into selfish meanies.
at least, looking at the little ornamental apple outside my bedroom window bobbing in the breeze in front of the darkening sky is making me think this. in sofar as i *can* think with a pounding head full of goo."

I think the first paragraph is important in a discussion of the benefits of poetry (and also, blogs by the way) but, here I am concerned with the second paragraph and how it reminded me of the following;

"True worship does not lie in engaging oneself constantly in supererogatory prayers or in fasting copiously, but in contemplation of the creation (and seeking to know the Creator through His works)."

This is purportedly a hadith (authenticated saying of the Prophet (pbuh) .

Recently I have put "Opera" as an alternative search engine on my lappie.It is surprising what a lot of different stuff it will throw up, when compared to say Google, for the same search word, e.g. "Sufism" (!) That hadith came from an article I would never have normally accessed.
There is always a lot of discussion amongst Muslims about hadith and their authenticity.This gets used a lot in attacks on sufism as a way to undermine its wisdom by saying that a certain hadith that has been used has a weak chain of transmitters.Sheikh Nazim on the other hand goes to apparently the other extreme and says that if someone tells you an hadith to simply believe it.
At first sight Muslims will tend to be surprised by that point of view, finding it less than rigorous in shariat (outer law) terms. However it is very rigorous in sufi training terms because what the Sheikh is saying is.. recognise that everything that is coming to you is coming from Allah and if something comes to you as wisdom in the name of the Prophet (pbuh) .. know that this has been sent to you by Allah and accept it.
As an example he quotes the instance of a trainee sufi who was told by a little boy in the street that his Sheikh had sent him a message to go to Mecca.The person concerned had no doubts from whence the message had really come, though borne by a little boy, and immediately turned on his heel and went off to Mecca in compliance with the "Divine Command" without even waiting to inform his wife.(!)
So .. all of that is to say that, though I'm not sure of the collection from which that hadith comes (as it was not cited in the article) and have not heard it before, we will assume that it is authentic on the basis of the Sheikh's wisdom, and juxtaposition it once more with Anna's comment.

"True worship does not lie in engaging oneself constantly in supererogatory prayers or in fasting copiously, but in contemplation of the creation (and seeking to know the Creator through His works)."

" this sickening and saddening of my soul is so quiet and gentle itself, for me, that it can be easy to ignore as well. this is what seems like The Illusion to me (now that i think about it). not that cherry trees and grass and concrete don't really "exist" and are maya, but that they sing to us of their nature and experience and we won't hear it. and this perception of separateness from all things turns us into selfish meanies.at least, looking at the little ornamental apple outside my bedroom window bobbing in the breeze in front of the darkening sky is making me think this."

I think (and hope) that there is no explanation needed, that the two pieces together, one from a Prophet "annihilated in Allah" and one from sincere personal experience touching the universal, speak for themselves.