Post by Mohammed IbRaHim on Jan 25, 2014 19:47:50 GMT 5.5
Hazrat Bayazid Bustami alaih rehman
Bismillahir Rehmanir Raheem
"Whoever is initiated by Us and follows Us and loves Us,
whether he is near or far, wherever he is,
even if he is in the East and We are in the West,
We nourish from the stream of love and give him light in his daily life." Hazrat Bahauddin Naqshband (RA) on the Awliya Allah
Birth Name: Abu Yazid Bistami or Tayfur Abu Yazid al-Bustami
Born in: Bostam, Iran
A long time ago there was a young boy named Bayazid Bustami. He was born in Persia, an ancient land of plains, mountains and poetry.
Being the only son of a poor, widowed mother, he was the light of her eyes and she rested all her hopes for the future on him. She dedicated her life to giving him the best she could, but because she was poor, she couldn't afford much.
As the small boy grew older, she scraped together what money she could and sent him to the local school where he could learn to read and write. While he was there, he would study the Qur'an, Shar'iah, math, Arabic and poetry. He turned out to be an excellent student and he learned quickly.
One day, while he was reading the Qur'an he came across an ayah in which Allah said, "Be thankful to Me and be thankful to your parents."
Hazrat Bayazid read this ayah a second time and then thought about what it meant. He closed the book and immediately ran back to his mother.
Now because he came home early from school, his mother became worried. She asked him, "What's wrong, my son? Did you run away from school? Is there something that happened?"
"No, mother," Hazrat Bayazid answered. "I read an ayah from the Holy Qur'an today that said we have to be thankful to Allah and to our parents. This made me a little worried. I'm not real strong so how can I serve two masters? Mother, either keep me in your service or give me up in the service of Allah."
His mother paused for a second and smiled. Then she immediately grasped his hands in hers and said, "My son, I dedicate you to the service of Allah. To me, if you serve Allah you're serving me, too."
Hazrat Bayazid smiled and returned to school with a new heart for his studies and a new attitude. Everyone noticed the change in him, and his teachers marveled over how he seemed to pour himself into his studies from that day forward.
He began to come to school early to read and left long after all the other students had gone. When his teacher asked him what happened, why he had become so motivated to study and learn, Hazrat Bayazid explained how his mother had released him to serve only Allah. The teacher smiled and hugged the boy firmly.
In time, after he had become a young man, Hazrat Bayazid went out on the road in search of more advanced learning. He traveled all over the Muslim world and attended different colleges and studied with different teachers. He earned many degrees along the way.
After a few more years he settled in the city of Baghdad, which at that time, was the most important city in the Muslim world.
He taught in a small school and went to college at night and never left his desire to master everything he could to be a truly thankful servant of Allah.
One late night he was on his way home when he encountered a rowdy band of drunks on the street. One of them had a guitar and was playing it in a sloppy, annoying way. Hazrat Bayazid wanted to avoid them but they were harassing everyone who passed by. As Hazrat Bayazid walked by them, the leader of the bunch started insulting him in a very nasty way, calling him names and taunting him.
Hazrat Bayazid told the man to stop his foolish talk but this made the drunken man even more angry.
The drunk picked up his guitar, lifted it high over his head and then brought it down, smashing it over Hazrat Bayazid's head. The guitar shattered into a dozen pieces and blood streamed down Hazrat Bayazid's blessed forehead. The rest of the drunks paused for a minute and then started yelling and laughing again.
Hazrat Bayazid didn't say a word and went home in silence, wiping the blood off his head with a handkerchief.
The next day, Hazrat Bayazid gave a basket of candy and a few dollars to his servant and directed him to go to the leader of the drunks and tell him the following words:
"Last night my head was responsible for breaking your guitar. Please buy a new one with this money. And also I found that your tongue was very sour last night. Please remove the sourness of your tongue by eating these sweet candies."
When the drunken man received the gifts, he was so filled with shame and repentance that he brought his entire rowdy group to Bayazid and begged for forgiveness. He gave up drinking and became a righteous Muslim from that moment onward.
After a few more years in Baghdad, Hazrat Bayazid again took to the road and travelled in many lands where the people were not yet Muslims. He traveled all over India and brought thousands of people to Islam. News of his spiritual insight and wisdom reached far and wide.
Years passed and when he was a middle-aged man, Hazrat Bayazid received a note from his first teacher, his teacher from the school when he was a boy. It said, "Come to me."
So Hazrat Bayazid immediately sold everything he had in India and began the long journey back home to Persia. Along the way, huge crowds of people gathered in every town and village he passed through. Everyone wanted to get a glimpse of the famous scholar they had heard so much about.
Then, after a month of traveling, Hazrat Bayazid finally reached the small village school where he had first learned to love knowledge.
His teacher, who was very old by now, told Hazrat Bayazid to sit down in front of him. He paused a moment and then he said, "Hazrat Bayazid, you have fulfilled your promise to Allah. Now go and serve your mother."
When he heard his mother being mentioned, a rush of feelings overwhelmed his heart and he was filled with an unstoppable desire to see her again.
But he knew a huge crowd was gathering in the center of town in anticipation of seeing him, put on a dark robe with a hood and waited until night had fallen. Then he snuck out of the teacher's house through a back door and made his way to his mother's cottage.
Before he could knock on the door, he heard her praying inside. She was saying, "Merciful Allah. I have dedicated my son to your path. It is for You to love him and for You to take care of him."
Hazrat Bayazid couldn't hold his sorrow in a moment longer. He burst out in uncontrollable tears and sobbing.
His mother heard someone crying outside the door and she called out, "Have you come back, my son?"
Hazrat Bayazid replied in a choked voice, "Yes, mother, I have returned. Please, open the door and see your son again."
The door was opened after a moment and Hazrat Bayazid threw himself at his mother's feet and cried. She carefully bent down and pulled him up while passing her hands over his head and face. She then said, "I've wished for nothing more than to see your face again, my son, but, alas, you have come too late. For I can see no more."
His mother had become blind. She would never again be able to look upon the face of her long lost son, the one she gave to Allah so many years before. From that moment forward, Hazrat Bayazid vowed to be thankful to his mother for the rest of his life and for as long as she lived, he never left her side.
Bayzaeed Bustami (Rahmatullahi Allaih) and his mother-1
Ba Yazid mother sent him to school. He learned the Qur’an. One day his teacher was explaining the meaning of the verse in Sura Loqman, Be thankful to Me, and to your parents. These words changed Ba Yazid’s mind.
Sir, please permit me to go home and say something to my mother. The master gave him leave, and Ba Yazid went home.
Why, Taifur,†cried his mother, “why have you come home? Did they give you a present, or is it some special occasion?
“No,†Ba Yazid replied. “I reached the verse where God commands me to serve Him and you. I cannot manage in two houses at the same time. This verse stung me to the quick. Either you ask for me from God, so that I may be yours entirely, or apprentice me to God, so that I may dwell wholly with Him.â€
“My son, I resign you to God, and exempt you from your duty to me,†said his mother. “Go and be God “The task I supposed to be the hindmost of all tasks proved to be the foremost,†Ba Yazid later recalled. “That was to please my mother. In pleasing my mother, I attained all that I sought in my many acts of self-discipline and service."
Bayazeed Bustami (Rahmatullahi Allaih) and his mother-2
After his mother had resigned him to God, Ba Yazid left Bestam and for thirty years wandered from land to land, disciplining himself with continuous vigil and hunger. His mother in the meantime had grown ailing and old with the back bent double owing to grief.
After Ba Yazid had visited Medina, he received the order to return and care for his mother. Accordingly, he set out for Bestam, accompanied by a throng. The news spread through the city, and the people of Bestam came out to welcome him a good way from the town. Ba Yazid was likely to be so preoccupied with their attentions that he would be detained from God. As they approached him, he drew a loaf out of his sleeve. Now it was the month of Holy Ramazan; yet he stood and ate the loaf. As soon as the people of Bestam saw this, they turned away from him.
“Did you not see?†Ba Yazid addressed his companions. “I obeyed an ordinance of the sacred Law, and all the people rejected me.â€
He waited patiently until nightfall. At midnight he entered Bestam and, coming to his mother’s house, he stood listening for a while. He heard his mother performing her ablutions and praying.
“O Lord, care well for our exile. Incline the hearts of the Shaikhs towards him, and vouchsafe him to do all things well.â€
Ba Yazid wept when he heard these words. Then he knocked the door.
“Who is there?†cried his mother.
Your exile,†he replied.
Weeping, his mother opened the door. Her sight was dimmed.
Hazrat BaYazeed Bustami radiallaho ta'ala anhu service to his Mother
Auzubillahi Minashshaitaa Nirrajeem
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim ; Allah - Beginning With The Name Of - The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.
Swallallaaho Allanabiyil Ummi wa aalehi Swallalaho Alaihi Wassallam Swalato Wa salaaman Alaik Rasool Allah
Hazrat BaYazeed Bustami radiallaho ta'ala anhu states that on a cold winter night his mother requested water. When he brought water his beloved mother had fallen asleep. He felt it disrespectful to wake his mother and stood there waiting for her to wake up by herself. When she woke up she again asked for water. He presented the glass. One drop of water had fallen on my finger and had frozen due to the extreme cold. When I tried to remove it a piece of skin came off and started to bleed. My mother asked me what had happened. I explained the whole incident to her and she started to make dua. She said, "O Allah, I am happy with him, You also be pleased with him." When he was in the womb of his mother she never ate any foods that were doubtful (in terms of where they had come from, halaal etc).
Hazrat BaYazeed further states that when he was twenty years old his mother was lying down. He put his arm under his mother's head as a pillow. The hand went numb, but out of respect and not wanting to spoil his mother's sleep he did not remove his hand. At that time I kept reciting Surah Ikhlaas up to the point that I recited "Qul Huwal Laaho Ahad" ten thousand times. Due to the service of my mother I lost the use of my arm. (Due to lack of blood circulation that arm became paralysed).
After he had passed away, a friend saw him in a dream. Hazrat BaYazeed was walking very happily in Paradise and was busy in the remembrance of Allah Ta'ala. The friend asked, "How did you get this status?" Hazrat BaYazeed replied, "Treating my parents well, serving them, and being patient when they used stern words has given me this status because Rasool Allah sallalaho alaihe wasallam has said "Whoever is obedient to his parents and obedient to Allah Ta'ala, his status will be greatly elevated."
(Nuzhatul Majaalis)
Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu gave him some money and sweets and told him to go .
One night Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu was passing through a cemetery in Bastam when he came across a young nobleman playing a lute. Upon seeing the youth, Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu exclaimed, "There is no power and force in the world other than Allah's." Thinking that Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu was criticizing him for playing music in the cemetery, the young man hit Bayazid on the head with his lute thereby breaking both Hz Bayazid's Radi Allahu anhu head and his own musical instrument.
Upon returning to his quarters, Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu summoned one of his disciples and gave him some money and sweets and told him to go to the young man's house and tell him tile following: "Bayazid asks your forgiveness for what happened last night and requests that you use this money to buy another lute and then eat this sweet to remove from your heart the sorrow over the lute's being broken." When he heard this message, the young man realized what he had done and went to Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu to apologize (Adapted from 'Attar 1976, p. 117).
Explanation of the incident :
To return an act of aggression with kindness is to go against the ego. Our ego wants revenge or at least some kind of compensation when we are wronged. But for Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu, to seek compensation is to play into the hands of the ego, thereby becoming further removed from Allah.
The second major way to overcome the ego for Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu is to attract other people's blame and to disgrace oneself in the eyes of society. This may sound pretty silly to us now. Why would anyone want to disgrace himself? In our contemporary western culture, the emphasis is on the promotion and glorification of the ego, not its demise. But first, let's examine an example of what Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhumeans by attracting the blame of others
Hz Bayazid Bastami : I saw God in a dream & asked what is the path towards You?
Short History About Hz Bayazid Bastami Radi Allahu anhu
Sufism has always been presented as a practical, yet at the same time, transcendental school: 'practical' in the sense that it deals with disciplines that lead to enlightenment and 'transcendental' in the sense that it transcends the outward aspects of any given religion. In no Sufi more than Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu are these two qualities manifested. Among the early Sufis of Islam, Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu(d. 875 AD) played a pivotal role in the formation of Sufi doctrines and practices which were later adopted and expanded by Sufis such as 'Attar Radi Allahu anhu and Rumi Radi Allahu anhu.
Little is known of Hz Bayazid's Radi Allahu anhu life. He lived most of his life in Bastam, a city in the northeastern part of Iran. He is said to have spent thirty years wandering, during which he completed the Sufi Path, but very little has been recorded of this period. Though he left little if any writing behind, there are many stories and anecdotal sayings attributed to him in Sufi literature, particularly in such classical texts as Hz Data Ali Hujwiri's Radi Allahu anhu The Unveiling of the Hidden (Kashf al-mahjub) and 'Attar's Radi Allahu anhu Memorial of the Saints (Tadhkirat al-awliya).
Religious beliefs and rituals, by and large, do not play an important role in our contemporary western culture. Most of us go through our daily routine without thinking about religion or being affected by any aspect of it. But it is important to remember that the situation was very different in Hz Bayazid's Radi Allahu anhu time. A person's life then was, to a large extent, determined and governed by religious beliefs and rituals, and one's main purpose and preoccupation in life was to be attuned with the divine either for its own sake, or at a lower level, in order to satisfy worldly or mundane desires.
Let's begin with Hz Bayazid's Radi Allahu anhu understanding of Allah. The following story appears in Hz Data Ali Hujwiri's Kashf al-mahjub, the oldest Persian treatise on Sufism:
It is related that Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu said: "I went to Makkah and saw a House standing apart. I said, 'My pilgrimage is not accepted, for I have seen many stones of this sort.' I went again, and saw the House and also the Lord of the House. I said, 'This is not yet real unity.' I went a third time, and saw only the Lord of the House. A voice in my heart whispered, 'O Bayazid, if you did not see yourself, you would not have been an idol-worshipper even though you saw the whole universe, but since you see yourself, you are an idol-worshipper blind to the whole universe.
'Thereupon I repented, and once more I repented of my repentance, and yet once more I repented of seeing my own existence' (Adapted from Hujwiri 1976, p. 108).
Explanation of the above incident :
Hajj is a sacred ritual that all Moslems are obligated to perform at least once in their lifetime. At the time of Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu tills was perhaps the ultimate goal in life. The journey was extremely harsh and, in fact, most pilgrims didn't know if they would ever come back. Like everyone else, Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu takes up this journey with eagerness. But unlike almost everyone else, he also approaches it with utmost seriousness. Since he is going to the house of God, it is only natural for him to expect that he will see Allah. Anything short of seeing Allah s not good enough for him. But he arrives only to see an ordinary house built with stones and mud. He is clearly dissatisfied. He makes a vow to himself that he will continue making the pilgrimage to Makkah until he sees Allah. At this point he has probably immersed himself completely in all sorts of litanies, remembrances, recitations, prayers and anything else that will make him forget the house — the world in other words — and bring him closer to Allah. After his third trip, he finally sees the Lord, or at least thinks that he has seen the Lord. He is joyous and content at this point, but clearly the Lord is not. God tells Bayazid that He doesn't care if he sees the world or not. He only cares if HzBayazid Radi Allahu anhu doesn't see himself. And it's only when he ceases to see himself that Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu can truly say that he has seen Allah.
Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu repents first from thinking he has seen Allah, and second he repents from that repentance for this is just another manifestation of his being; finally, he repents from seeing his own existence altogether.
Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu comes to understand the difference between the god of one's imagination and the Real Allah. The former is constructed perhaps by immersing oneself in meditation and contemplation of the divine to the point that one becomes completely oblivious to me rest of the world. Clearly, this is not satisfactory, for the simple reason that one's imagination is self-serving. It constructs a god out of one's psychological need or possibly as a projection of one's ideals. But ultimately it is constructed for one's own sake. Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu sees this flaw in his own pursuit of God. The Real God is not self-serving. He is independent of one's wishful thinking and imagination. To make sure that he will not be wrapped up again in his foolish imagination, God lays down the condition for Bayazid's encounter with the Real: Do not see yourself. In another place, Hz Bayazid Radi Allahu anhu
says: "I saw God in a dream and asked Him what is the path towards You? He replied, Abandon yourself and you are already there." (Attar 1976)