Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
1088 Fulton Street
San Francisco, CA
25 August, 1963
Honorable Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti,
It was a real spiritual pleasure and happiness for me to meet Khawar Khan in my last trip to Lahore and through her to learn something about you. Thank you also for your kind letter. The fraternity of Islam to which that of faqr or tasawwuf is added travels over the greatest distances embracing all of those who follow the path toward Allah or who have reached the goal in a single community. I hope, inshallah, to have the honor of seeing you some time whether it be here in the East or in America.
What is really called Iranian culture belongs to all of the people of the eastern lands of Islam. A Persian coming to Pakistan or India feels this point very strongly. Persian literature, especially poetry, became as much of a vehicle for the Sufi saints and sages of the Indian subcontinent as it has been for the Persians themselves.
During this last visit to Lahore with Khawar Khan we visited the tomb of Hujwiri with whom you are so close. The great saint whose Persian Kashf al-Mahjub has always been so close to my heart penetrated my heart at that time in another way and much grace was received through the visit.
I usually reside in Tehran (being a professor at the Faculty of Letters of Tehran University) and would be happy to meet any of your friends who come by. Meanwhile I pray Allah’s benediction and peace be upon you and ask for your prayers as well. May you prosper in your task,
Wa-salaam Aleikhum
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Jan. 27, 1965
Dear Friend,
Forgive me for not answering your letter of November until now. My duties here have been extremely heavy leaving little time. It was a joy for me to read of your many spiritual experiences which Allah has bestowed upon you. His ways and Grace knows no bounds. The way you came into contact with Sufism is especially of interest. You mentioned the wonderful works of Titus Burkhardt, a European who has also tasted Sufism from within. I wonder if you know the works of Fritjof Schuon, especially his Understanding Islam which has a long chapter on tasawwuf.
It was very kind of you to spend your time reading my two humble books. If you write any review of them kindly send me a copy. A third book called Science and Civilization in Islam will also be coming out of the Harvard U. Press.
I hope to be spending a week in Pakistan during the month of March during which I certainly hope to visit Khawar Khan. She writes often if you.
Also during this coming summer I have been invited to attend the Congress of World Religions in Claremont, California, from Sept. 5-11 and hope that, however short it may be, we can meet at that time.
May His Peace Be Upon You,
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
1966?
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Samuel Lewis
772 Clementina Street
San Francisco, Calif.
Dear Friend,
I have wanted for a long time to write to answer your wonderful letter of last Oct. but different things have prevented me. It is very fortunate that you are able for the first time to speak to people of the fruit of that one experiment which modern man, who boasts so much of experimenting, never makes. May Allah give you success in this undertaking.
For some time I have not been able to go to Pakistan to see Miss Khawar Khan but have news of her. She wrote that she was expecting you in Pakistan soon. It would be wonderful if I could come there at the same time to meet you. Also some time ago I had a letter from Ajmir from Mr. Begg about the biography of Hazrat Moin-ud-din Chisti and a brochure announcing it. I have not received a copy of the text itself as yet.
As for my own work, two books appeared recently, one called Islamic Studies published by Literaire du Tehran, Beirut and the other Ideals and Realities of Islam published by Allen & Unwin of London. Both contain several sections devoted to Sufism.
I want to ask your help in a matter that I know will be of interest to you. For years there was a journal named “Tomorrow” published in England and devoted to para-psychology. Then the editor Clive-Ross became a Sufi (let this remain between us) and changed the nature of the journal. It is now called “Studies in Comparative Religion” and is devoted to the great spiritual traditions of mankind with a special accent on Sufism. Of course he lost his old clientele and support and is now in a very difficult financial situation. There are articles in it by F. Shuon, M. Pallis, T. Burkhardt, etc. and I write for them occasionally. You will receive a brochure concerning it soon. If you know any individuals or organizations who would be interested in lending it a hand until it can stand on its own feet please write to Clive-Ross from whom you should hear soon. Also perhaps your friends could subscribe to the journal. Your help in this very important matter, namely the sustenance of the only journal in the English language devoted to God and the spiritual life in its authentic form, is most appreciated.
Wa-salaam aleikhum
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
772 Clementina St.
San Francisco 3, Calif.
17th October, 1966
Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Department of Islamic Studies
Tehran University
Tehran, Iran
Bismillah Er-Rahman Er-Rahim a greeting is sent to you and prayers for your well-being. And one hopes, inshallah, that this letter reaches you in good time for one is called upon now to submit a paper on “Real Mysticism versus Pseudo-Mysticism” to the Department of Philosophy, University of California.
One encounters a difficulty that only too often the great Saints and Sages are men and women of the distant past. Which like wines, are supposed to improve with age. And against this is the true teaching that the Light of Allah is neither of the East nor the West, neither alone of the future or past or present, and though we may say: Ya Haya Khaiyum, to try to illustrate it is considered the height of impertinence and braggadocio.
In our scientific culture we are supposed to keep quiet unless we have participated in experiments and their accompanying knowledge. It would be considered quite wrong to speak on scientific subjects if we had not participated in some of the disciplines. But when it comes to the science of Sciences, that is those which are related to our life in Allah, even to propose that you have participated in that life is often regarded as self-sufficient evidence that you have not. And so the exclusive lovers dominate over the inclusive lovers and perhaps it has always been so.
But now I have met this teacher who willingly reviews any real experiences in real mysticism. And besides he was a friend of one of my spiritual colleagues who died of a broken heart trying to make experience a part of his religion. The time has come now to have some standards in the spiritual sciences the same as some standards in the “material” sciences. Besides Imam-Al-Ghazzali said, “Tasawwuf consist of experiences and not syllogisms.” And this letter was written only after visitation with the Imam, the subject being Dauk. And while the Imam may so say, and all true Gnostics confirm it, it will now be the first time that an American is being offered the opportunity to report on mystical experiences as he has been permitted to report on horticultural and chemical experiences.
For in the West there are two classes of people, at bitter war with each other, that dominate the science: (a) the translators of books who definitely dominate the teaching. You have met some of them (as Prof. Gibb and his colleagues) who are very adamant against any idea that a modern Western man could possibly have similar experiences to those about whom they are writing; (b) and preach and who are mostly “exclusive.”
The search for Truth is marred everywhere by personalisms and personalities. People in California are very much like Indians, they select some personality, elevate that person to be in some way a Divine Messenger and confine all wisdom to him. The result is a number of conflicting cults all claiming to accept the Brotherhood of Man and all rejecting each other.
This is complicated by the invasion of three types of pseudo Sufism (In the paper it is called “pseudo-mysticism” although this applies to all faiths.) One group of these follows a man named Gurdjieff who did study under real Sufis and then changed the doctrines from love to will, from the eccentricity to egocentricity and from Kashf to sensual development. Another concentrated on psychic powers. The third on a personality who is called god-man, but has given no evidence whatsoever of mercy, compassion or love and who certainly has made a multitude of false predictions.
Now the young feel that this is all wrong and the great rush of the young is to drugs. It can be easily demonstrated that certain herbs make one conscious of other worlds, and they do reach the lower facets of Malakut and think they know the Cosmos. Only their Joy is quite limited and they are dependent on externals. This is contradiction to the elders who want a person and the drugs can not provide any love, mercy and compassion which is not already in the heart.
Nearly every day now some young woman has been coming here alone or with a man and it is very easy to trace the psychological and social difficulties through the most superficial examination. The Christian Bible (but not Christianity) teaches: “There are three witnesses on earth:, water, and breath and blood.” One can easily find, without questions, by the way people breathe and how the blood flows what is wrong. This is Kashf and there is no way for egocentrics to combat the truth of Kashf and it answers all questions, all needs.
Thus one comes quickly to the heart of the difficulties in others and then gives them some simple remedy. But all these remedies appear to work showing despite Muslims that Allah is closer than the neck-vein and this can be learned by everybody because it is true.
All these women have failed in the recognition of love. Love is not important in our culture, sex is. They have not had the love of mother or father or spouse and it shows in everything.
Sufis teach the value of Music for the young and the attainment of hal. All these people have had Psychedelic drugs and have found them wanting. The psychedelics prove that there is a vast universe not taught or revealed by traditional religionists nor by the cults which have their special leaders not yet obtainable chemically. The Sidi said one thing and the audience believed otherwise, but the Baraka can be transmitted, the life can be aroused in people and one suddenly finds oneself a sort of “spiritual Pied Piper.”
The marvelous thing about it is that it is in one’s own home town, where one was born and where one has been rejected all one’s life with the instructions to remain until this was broken down.
One introduced last night both the Dervish Dance and the Zikr (which ended the meeting) and one had to impart Joy and Love as well as knowledge. This Friday one will open up the “secrets” of the teaching of Moses and the Doctrine of Light. It is all of a sudden different and one does not know how to proceed. But as one depends on Allah so Allah answers. Only one does not know how to find time to type.
One is going to check over the “rags” given by Sufi Barkat Allah and either present them as tokens of Baraka or otherwise.
There is one favor you may do, and that is to send more Tasbihs. They are hard to get here,
although one may find them in New York City. All but two have been given away, one of those
being a 300 bead string which is to be reserved.
My love and blessings to everybody.
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
772 Clementina St.
San Francisco 3, Calif. 94103
11th March, 1967
Nasr, Sehmiran, Amaniyah,
Pahlavi Ave., 25 Farkhar St.,
Tehran, Iran
My dear Brother in Allah:
As-salaam aleikhum. The other day just before receiving your letter I got off at a wrong corner from the tram (street car) and before realizing saw an Iranian Bazaar which had just been established. There was a lady in charge, born in San Francisco but she had married one of your fellow Tehranis and said her husband knew you.
She is at the same disadvantage as any native is, that no matter how deep their knowledge of holy things are, they can never be equal to those who are born Muslims and she had had the same treatment as the rest of us, no matter how learned or wise or holy, we have to work apart from the Islamic community. I have since returned presenting her a copy of “Hadith of Hazrat Ali” because I felt that that was the best way to introduce her to Islamics at any level. It proved to be exactly what she wanted, and could not get. For this country is full of Islamic missionaries who not only want absolute agreement in the end, but absolute agreement in how they got there. So there is no from for the Grace of Allah.
There is a universal system here that all religionists infer self-praise. They may say “Praise to Allah” or they may have strange beliefs but all end in inferred self-praise. The result is that the young are more and more deserting all religion and at the moment they are coming to this house in increasing numbers. So much so that tomorrow night, inshallah, I shall be extending Bayat to a whole group, those who seek God and God-consciousness and believe I can help them, My own chief merit is rejections.
Now, my Brother, I have known for many years that I should have to follow in the path of Hafiz-i-Shiraz, to be rejected by my fellow citizens and after I am gone to be highly respected by them or more. I have known this by Kashf and direct sight, but these things are as foreign to “Islam” as they are to other faiths, and any experience of and from Allah is regarded as a sign of queerness.
The next thing that happened during the week is the inheritance of a library from a lady with some wealth who had a “queer”—in America this is very “queer” that one could learn more Asian philosophies from Asians than from Europeans and Englishmen. Why even the local Islamic Center selected an Englishman who was not a Muslim to teach, (??) Qur’an, compelling me and some others to resign. But whatever a “Muslim” does is correct, inshallah or no inshallah. And I guess I am scandalizing them, as Abu Said ibn Abi’l-Khayr scandalized his contemporaries.
For instead of praying about science and religion I gave to each of them any and all names of God they choose to repeat and the vast majority found by their own efforts that the words Allah was more efficacious than any other word. They tried it themselves and found this out. For although the Prophet—and I hope I am extending peace to him, said there should be no compulsion in “Islam” that is the biggest international joke in existence for the vast majority of zealots insist on compulsion and fall while this person will allow no compulsion and praise to Allah, is succeeding. Already one is winning the young, if not to “Islam” then to Kalama and Zikr.
For although it is said that every child born a Muslim, no child is born with a complex relation to legal codes and folk-lore which in so many parts of the world are called “Islam” and in so many parts of the world differ from each other so that the “Islam” of one peoples is quite different from the “Islam” of other peoples.
Now the signs are that I must cooperate. Only patience is needed. I am at the moment engaged in litigation. Our father left a substantial sum which has increased enormously since his death and neither my brother nor I benefit much from it. We are getting ready to bring suit. For I live in poverty and he due to illness and accidents cannot pay his bills and the principal in the estate has increased so much that there is no way for us to touch it no matter how much we want. And on top of that he has been ill and so many of my friends have been ill that I am held up. At the same time I have had the sign to go to England and after this sign my mother’s estate was probated leaving me the money for this trip but no more.
In the library just inherited one finds the works of M. Pallis. As for Titus Burkhardt, he is the one European who had the audacity to be honest and say one cannot learn tasawwuf without undergoing the proper disciplines from the proper teachers. This is not generally held. You have been to Harvard University. England is still worse. I was speaking to one of my teachers in Anthropology. “I studied Islamics at Harvard University.” “Then you don’t know anything about Islam.” “No, I did not learn anything about Islam there.” This holds pretty much for the whole country. Although there are breaks now. The important name is always more important that that the important wisdom.
I have also had the sign to begin on “Six Interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan.” This would include my report on the meeting with Hazrat Khawaja Khizr; the Mursaleen and Mecca Shereef. But such knowledge is rejected by our community until…. And having the grace of Allah excludes one from most religious communities (vide Hafiz).
Now I have the complete Ryazat of Hazrat Inayat Khan and I have placed in the hands of a friend a whole pile of materiel on Ryazat from many sources, not published to and in the Western world. One outer sign comes this morning. I am awaiting a professional athlete. I have shown him how to climb steep hills using variously Kalama, Zikr and Wazifas and he has found they work, they are real, they are operative. They are also “unislamic” for to practice that Allah is closer than the neck-vein is not done. When I teach the Zikr I require talibs to be aware of their neck-vein and they find it very beneficial, and even tonight I have I have been invited to another group of young people to whom I shall show how to chant Allahu: This attracts them to what may be called “the religion.” There is no theology at all, just “Allah” and the sciences of Allah which would end in Ism-i-Azam. So one no longer cares whether one’s community accepts for the Allah is the Day Of Judgment.
Therefore although there is the caution of patience I am to take everything you have written into deep consideration and will also see my bookstore about your works those I do not have.
Now I have already seen by Kashf and Shahud the need to establish a Khankah here. But besides this my legal counselor has proposed it and a new type of Americans who have the extrasensory faculties and they have independently sought for they have recognized my position and relation to the Auliya (in the broad sense).
It thus becomes peculiar that the Islamic community does not recognize this—all my articles on tasawwuf so far have been rejected—but those who have the keen sight are helping spiritually if not physically.
The next step is obvious, if and when I go to England to contact anybody with whom you are in contract. So I am to wait for any communication from Clive Ross.
Actually my position is this: my brother cannot obtain moneys unless I have an equal claim and so far my claim is largely based on the need of funds to help with further research. At this moment I have telephoned my brother who is ill and he is quite favorable to your request. Having lived in poverty (for an American) so long, any large sum coming to these hands must be used for the cause of Allah. The cause of Allah is not a person.
Wednesday, allamdulillah, for the first time a representative of an important magazine sought this person for an interview for an article on “Sufism” and he suggested further interviews. All those things together form signs, even without prayer, meditation, Kashf or shahud.
Last week a letter was received from Prof. Huston Smith of MIT. Did you meet him? He is regarded as the chief authority on Comparative Religions in the whole country. At the Psychedelic conference everybody leaned on Prof. Sydney Cohen who leaned on Prof. Smith who was amazed what I told him personally—things that others reject on the grounds of “egotism.” So I sent him my “True Mysticism versus pseudo-mysticism” and he wants to see me and it had been my program to go to Massachusetts anyhow—for this money has been reserved before the contact. No “Muslim” can stop kashf or shahud. Allah reveals to whom he would reveal when he would reveal, or the “8/7 of Qur’an” as the afore-mentioned Abu Said taught.
Copy of this is also going to Khalifa Saadia Khawar Khan and to the Islamic community here. I do not belong to this community but to the Canadian American Islamic Assn. based on the universities and working with the Imams. At least the Imams did recognize my being a human person who has traveled far and wide and studied much.
My prayers and wishes are for you and we shall see what Allah permits.
Peace and blessings from
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
(Samuel L. Lewis)
P.S. Have regular correspondence with Ajmir.
410 Precita
19th April, 1969
Seyyed Hussein Nasr
Department of Islamics University of Tehran,
Tehran, Iran.
Beloved One of Allah:
As-Salaam aleikhum. I have before me your “Ideals and Realities of Islam” and also your address “The Pertinence of Islam to the Modern World.”
One agrees thoroughly and absolutely with the latter and it is this very agreement which produces some differences or misunderstandings. I do not accept that Mohammed is the Seal of the Prophets from those who do not accept his teachings. The whole emphasis is on personality and neither on Ilm nor Tawhid. Mohammed is to me, Seal of the Prophets, when we accept the other prophets, not only those whom you have named in your book but all who have attained a certain degree of illumination and wisdom whether they are mentioned in scriptures or not. (For instance we have had some “prophets” in early American cultures.)
I do not believe there has been a single serious advance in either civilization or culture without Allah’s permission. I also agree with Mohammed and contrary to “Islam” that my words cannot abrogate the words of Allah but the words of Allah can abrogate my words.” I should like some examples.
I agree with you entirely and absolutely in your remarks on Peace and in all your other remarks in this address. But I also find absolute agreement, excepting on rare instances where there is relative agreement (not differences) with your European colleagues to whom you kindly gave me the proper introduction. I think they are wonderful.
There is no place in books by so-called “Muslims” for a Feringhi to whom the messenger appeared long before he studied Holy Qur’an. And neither a place in “Islamics” at all to a Feringhi who never met an Imam until he was well over fifty years of age: So this being so the teachings one gives do not follow traditions at all, but may follow (Allah knows best) the type of “revelation” suited to Americans. It is overlooked—a “good Muslim” may overlook anything—that Holy Qur’an distinctly says it was given in Arabic so that the immediate audience could understand.
A copy of a letter to a friend in Pakistan will explain what is being done. Evidently Allah approves, and if so, whatever man says will not affect or effect.
With all love and blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif.
June 30, 1969
Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr
C/o Center for Religious Studies, Harvard, University,
Cambridge 02138
Dear Prof. Nasr:
As-Salaam Aleikhum. We have just had a delightful visit from God-daughter. Khalifa Saadia Khawar Khan. Although the time was short she met several mureeds in this home and more mureeds and friends at the Khankah in Novato, some thirty miles to the North.
She put on a fashion display which won the admiration of all and today the first steps were taken to putting another on, a real one, when she returns. In turn we did a number of dervish dances and some chants which follow in principle the Chisti ideals and methods.
Khawar told me you are in this country for a short visit and may come out here. Such a visit would be most welcome. The Department of Near East Languages on the Berkeley University of California has long been the recipient of materials sent from Tehran University through me, etc. Of course I do not know whether you would want to meet people here or go to bazaars or just meeting the young.
Today I have a large and growing following coming from a program started at the Psychedelic Conference here a few years back, “Joy without Drugs.” We are demonstrating the teachings of Imam Ghazzali that tasawwuf is based on experience and not premises. (This is seeping very slowly into our culture.) I am also lecturing occasionally to the “Hippies” on Rumi, and reading from him (Nicholson).
We today have several motor cars at our disposal and would be glad to cooperate in any way you desire, especially if we have some information as to dates. The Sufi Pir Vilayat Khan, who was present at the conference of The Temple of Understanding at Calcutta, is expected tomorrow.
Love and blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
July 11th, 1969
Dear Sufi Ahmed Murad Chishti,
Thanks you for your letter of invitation to come to San Francisco and also several previous letters. Alas, I will not be coming to the West Coast during my present journey and so will not be able to see you and also Miss Khan whom I expected to see during this visit. I shall be returning to Iran in a couple of weeks.
I am glad to see that more and more people are being attracted to Sufism but the trouble is that most of the young refuse to accept discipline and so, although they begin with a search for the Truth, their changing whims and fancies soon force them to leave the path they have chosen. That is why Sufism can never be taught onside of the Shariah on an enduring basis. The Shariah is the protective code for the fire of Tasawwuf and no period has needed this protection more than now. One hopes so much that in this present turmoil of the youth true religion and spirituality and means of attaining them can be [placed at their disposal for they are desperately in search of something to hang on to. I pray for your success in making better known the way of Allah. I read the article in “Playboy” on “Cultsville” and its reference to you.
Please give my salaam to Miss Khan to whom I hope to write soon.
As salaam aleikhum
Seyyed Hussein Nasr
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
July 27, 1969
Dr. S. H. Nasr
42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, Mass.
Beloved One of Allah:
As-salaam aleikhum. One is living in a world which is rapidly changing. Allah, to whom be all Praise, has chosen at His times and convenience to lift the veils of this person, and he is totally indifferent whether others accept this or not. A rigorous defense letter has been destroyed.
Infants may be born “Muslims” (I have come to seriously doubt it), but hardly acquainted with Shariah. Infants are born with faculties and qualities which are removed by the forces of Nufsaniat and even though the people of Nufsaniat call themselves “Muslims” it is hardly in the sense that all infants are born “Muslims.” The two are not equal, much less identical.
Pakistan became an “Islamic Republic” and after many years a committee was formed to determine what these words mean. To live in surrender to Allah is one thing; to accept customs and traditions is something else. And I personally differ on certain points and on these points will gladly accept the judgment of Allah whom I always thought was Master of the Day of Judgment although it appears quite different—many people live by judging.
One of these points is that Allah is closer than the neck-vein. I dare to make young people accept this and give them practices so they are aware first of the neck-vein and then of Allah. No doubt this is very “un-Islamic” and I so accept it.
Another is that Allah loves his creation more than a mother loves her offspring. On this point I will not bulge no matter the future. I accept the judgment of Allah though he lift me to heaven or makes me walk through the valley of the shadow of death, or worse. I accept this judgment and will continue to offer my praise to Allah, not to my fellow-believer or unbeliever; not to judges, kinds, prelates, landlords and important people.
Looking upon the young as actual or potential loved ones of Allah, I so behave, so live and the time is coming and it may not be far off when we shall chant and dance for Allah and for Mohammed the Khatimal Mursaleen.
I never met an Imam until I was over fifty years of age. But Allah to whom be all praise, chose to lift veils and one was blessed by the manifestation first of Khizr and then of Mohammed, as well as many representatives of Allah in all capacities and functions.
Traveling around the world one was met by or met many of high rank in the spiritual life and all had one sit by their sides, in one tarik after another, in one country after another. And now by the Grace of Allah one gets Americans to repeat Kalama, to sing 75% of the time praises of Allah and 25% praises of Mohammed, and they are loving it and doing it. There is more love, more joy and in the last two weeks more assistance than one has seen in a long life.
It has pleased Allah—though it may not please “believers” to give one a long life, a life of vitality, health and mental prowess; to which are being added love and consideration for one’s fellow-creatures. I am egoist enough to believe, like Hafiz, though a sinner I may land in paradise.
The address you gave to the people at the conference for The Temple of Understanding was excellent. I do not recall but do not believe you demanded Shariah from them. Besides we are not having peace and understanding through traditions and need more—love, compassion, insight and vision. I do not believe any of these are excluded.
I find great joy in accepting the works of Burckhardt, Pallis, Sehuon and others and have kept on very good terms with Mr. Clive-Ross. I shall continue, inshallah.
Miss Saadia Khawar Khan has been in this vicinity and I should be seeing her again shortly.
There is nothing to stop missionaries and prelates but if they do not succeed whose fault is it? One has absolute trust in Allah, absolute, and no need to shudder when political and other events do not please one’s ego. One should prefer to accept what appears in “The Arabian Nights”—there is no power nor might save in Allah.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti*
*So named by at least one great Sufi and confirmed by other.
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco, Calif.
August 6th,1969
Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr,
c/o Center for Religious Studies Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass. 02138
Beloved One of Allah:
As-salaam aleikhum. One is again writing you for two “reasons” or events which occurred at the same time. Visiting one’s favorite bookstore one found a bundle of these brochures. There was no time then to stop and discuss anything but there is no question that a very large segment of my people, i.e. Californians, are now being drawn to this outlook, not only the young people who are in protest-revolts, but older persons who are dissatisfied with all partial outlooks.
The other is that Miss Khawar Khan (Saadia) feels, and I think she is right, that I myself, protesting against dualisms, may have become over-dualistic myself. This is not a way out for anything. But in discussing the matter of La Illaha El Il Allah, while logically it is clear, psychologically it is anything but clear. In men’s minds, indeed in the minds of a lot of men, there are “thought-partners” to God. Among the Jews it is race; among the Christians it is doctrines; among the Muslims it is most often something very vague called Shariah, something also vague called “consensus,” and something not so vague, i.e. the historical, the very historical personally called “Mohammed” (on whom be peace).
While no doubt there have been objections and very rational objections to some of the stands one person has taken, it has also been necessary to reject a lot of conclusions of editors and writers of so-called “Islamic literature.” One of these has been the attacks on science and the logic of these attacks would end in regarding many of your writings as invalid. I have refused to do this. But there is also a behavior pattern among many “Muslims” (so-called) that if a “Muslim” says it is right and if a non-Muslim says it is wrong, ipse facto. And this psychological peculiarity has not been faced and will not be faced until theologians and so-called “logicians” face each other in public debates where subterfuge would be impossible.
I do not know what “Shariah” means. I do not know what “Act as if in the Presence of Allah, and remember, if you do not see him, verily He sees you.” But this does not make a man a “Muslim”—far from it!
Kindness and generally do not mean that a person must become emptily negative. And fineness and positivity does not infer ill-will in the slightest. Confusion is not clarified by counter-confusion, and Love is not clarified by any form of thought, whatsoever. The mind which is powerful does not thereby have the wisdom and the heart that is powerful there by often has the wisdom and also perception (Kashf).
Today one has a class in Mushahida and our good friend, Saadia Khawar will be present and learn directly from the person whom she regards as a Murshid. This is a real method, a real outlook which opens up real facets of the real inner personality without any lucid or confusing metaphysics. It definitely exemplifies La Illaha El Il Allah, and makes it practical for those who have risen to the heights of direct perception.
With all love and blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif.
Sept. 26, 1969
Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr
Department of Islamic Studies
Tehran University
Tehran, Iran
Dear Prof. Nasr:
As-Salaam aleikhum.
I would seen now that this person is to attend the forthcoming sessions of The Temple of Understanding. This is clearly indicate by kashf and let us say Mushahida. And certainly Allah, to whom be all praise, is quite willing to approve of the Hadith: “In that day will the sun rise in the west and all men seeing, will believe.”
The news is indicated in the copies of letters enclosed. As there is a possibility of the group connected with the Temple going on to Tehran, I am also considering this possibility but have no real interested in visiting lands marked by hatred and war, no matter what the circumstances and factors are.
There is also a class going on here on “Arabic Art” broadly interested to cover mostly of Islamic art and for the Asian countries—last spring it covered North Africa and the Mediterranean. As usual there is complete apathy on the part of the so-called Islamic community to such studies. But there is a plan for a great tour in 1971-2, and of I do not go personally, Allah, to whom be all praise, is making it possible for at least one or more disciples to enroll.
A carbon of this is being sent to Miss Khawar Khan (Saadia) who was very well received here and we both agree that the Hadith should be used more to bring the devotees of various faiths closer together.
Love and blessings.
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
London,
April 7, 1970
Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr
Tehran University
Tehran, Iran
Beloved One of Allah,
Asalaam aleikhum! One believes a great step forward has been made in the mere fact that persons of diverse outlooks have come together in amity. To me this itself is so wonderful that it requires one to keep I almost perpetual praise of Allah. Indeed, there is some question as to whether I get more personal or cosmic satisfaction from the conference. I mean by personal satisfaction that I have not only met you but also splendid personalities, not only those whom I have always wished to meet and those whose books I have read and in a few instances, some of whom I have not heard. And it may be more than a coincidence that the board selected consisted almost entirely and almost exclusively whom I might have handpicked myself had I such power and authority.
There is some question whether it is my American heritage or my natural nervousness or my nufs or even my divine vision that wishes the conference to go on in the direction of achievement. But I would not even dare to make any statements here were it not for the fact that I have studied every religion, partly at the bequest of Dr. Henry Atkinson of the World Church Peace Union, partly at my own inclination, and—here we enter in new territory—partly as instigated by what I believe is cosmic vision and more particularly of Prophet Mohammed Himself. The evidence of the latter is in my poetry. Why, nearly everybody expects others to accomplish, the Sufi expects of himself.
There were two elements of what looks like negative items. They are not negative items, but they are shadows which enhance the light. One of these is that when certain things were not known to themselves personally, sometimes it was assured that they were not known at all. I refer to worldly knowledge, not to anything mysterious, but just to available information. I have written about this elsewhere.
The other was concern on the part of various leaders that my failure to adhere each to their particular orthodoxies or heterodoxies would sooner or later lead me to doom, rather than to salvation. Each had a different measuring stick. And one wonders what they each mean by God, or Salvation, or anything, if they are so minded.
In his greeting, the mayor of Geneva referred to the Moghul emperor Akbar. This man has been declared a heretic by leaders and followers of so many different faiths. I have been to Fatehpur Sikri, twice, and on each occasion I met the Sheikh there of the family of Salem Chisti. I have read at least cursorily the Ain-i-Akbari. I have read many times the “Dabistan,” perhaps the first book on comparative religion, which came out of that court, and I am moved far more by universal respect then by any glib tongue love, no matter how sincere.
The last thing one wished to do was to impose one’s own age. Age might not mean wisdom, but it can easily involve a larger accumulation of intellectual knowledge, especially in a person who was already reading the Bible for the first time at the turn of the century.
There is a far cry between self-proud Muslims who quote the Messengers: “Seek knowledge, even unto China” and the actual seeker or even the obtainer of such knowledge. Certainly I made no stronger friendship than the entirely new one with Dr. Tsao. The brevity of speeches, the manifestation of an occam’s razor, so to speak, has come out of this Chinese discipline. Heresy hunting Muslims and heresy hunters in general quote that which they do not wish to see manifested.
Visions for a Temple, in principle, like the Temple of Understanding came to me separately—one in spiritual conferences with the late Hazrat Inayat Khan, father of Pir Vilayat Khan. The conferences with this great man and the reports thereof were refused by his followers east and west, other than by the family of the late Hasan Nizami of Delhi. To me, it is a vast mistake to assume that a divine impetus or vision or inspiration is confined necessarily to a single person.
The other come out of an interview with the late Dr. Henry Atkinson of the World Church Peace Union concerning a conference of the different faiths. The meeting took place in 1928 and the vision came in the next two years and was put down in writing. Copy of this are in the hands of my secretary Mansur.
There are actual principles in actual scriptures which support Judith’s vision. For example, the Shinkiniah-temple episodes of the Hebrew Bible. I discussed this with the Rabbis present and found total agreement somewhat to my surprise. Then there is in the Bible also the Ezekiel-John pre-visions which apparently are still to come. But I personally feel that the architect has caught the modern spirit for these visions, and we cannot preclude some of the advances in mathematics and architecture, especially where these advances could cut down considerably on cost of reconstruction.
There were some persons, including quite a few women, who are opposed to the construction of such an edifice. One wonders why they appear at such a conference. They often appear largely because it gives their ego (nufs) an opportunity to express itself before a conference of considerate and open-hearted fellow humans. One cannot help smile, not so much at their opposition to a structure, as to their inability to comprehend human brotherhood from the standpoint of the awakened heart.
There were several persons who expressed doubt about my views. None of them got up and expressed anything when those of greater prowess expressed opinions contrary to their own. There is a defeat in certain religions, when they permit a very great man like Dr. Radhakrishnan to express his outlook and receive it either with applause or silence, and when a man of lesser renown says exactly the same thing, they look upon him with dismay. This is one of the reasons and it is a very important reason, why youth is not attracted to many aspects of traditional religion—too much personalism and personality and not enough impersonal devotion.
I have found a vast gap between the Hadiths of Mohammed on knowledge and wisdom and the practicing traditions which have fomented narrow orthodoxies all of them a defiance of rahmat. Mohammed has said, “Allah loves his creation more than a mother loves her off-spring.” When this gets to be an actuality, the practitioner is regarded as worse than a heretic. There is a mystical attitude—and it is found in several religions, that there is a relation between Allah and Adam similar to the relation between the whole body and the cells and atoms thereof. Words like “Tauhid” and “Wahdat” lose their effectiveness when they are confined to speculative metaphysics.
A divine vision is not divine when it is restricted. One can talk forever about “hal” and “makam’—or if you like it about “urim” and “thummin,” the Biblical parallels—but if they are not fortified by being a part of human experience, they do not mean so much. Wm. James has written on “The meaning of God in human experience” and followers of every faith react to this each in their own manner.
In the writings of Inayat Khan unpublished, there are 7 grades of interpretations of La Illaha El Il Allah. A Hadiths says, “Qur’an was sent down in 7 dialects, and each has its inner and outer meaning.” We have it variously that Hazrat Ali and again Imam Al-Ghazzali, “Say Allah and Allah thou Shalt become.” In the scientific spirit one might try this; in the orthodox spirit one accepts it on faith and does not try it, so true science leads to illumination, while orthodoxies restrict. Righteousness may follow, but not wisdom and enlightenment. And of course self-righteousness does follow.
I find the sheets issued by the Temple of Understand as “Guidelines for a world body of religions” excellent; the question is merely how to implement and, to use an American expression, how to semantize. Thus under purpose C. “To bring our mutual spiritual forces to bear on the problems of the human race;” now what are “spiritual forces?” If one uses such words as pneumatikos,
ruhaniyat and parallel Sanskrit terms, one arrives at a series of super-values and not just values; one is beyond analysis, and to subvert the word “spiritual” as merely another intellectual, analytical term, is to destroy it.
Although in a sense I have been trained under quite different disciplines from those of our good friend Swami Ranganathananda, the dividing line between our series of efforts has long since disappeared. When the celebrated writer E.G. Browne visited the tomb of Shah Nimatula, the guardian Wali said to him, “Among the Gnostics, there is no differentiation of sects.” This has prayed on my mind for many, many years, but as if it were a notion of honey, not of diversive efforts. And as “Purpose C” also says, “so that intelligent and loving relationships may be established,” these correspond to the vijnana-vada and ananda-vada of Vedanta.
On the purely private side, it was most edifying to find that this man whom I love perhaps even more than anybody on earth, including my own Pir-o-Murshid, should have given personal evaluation which may actually characterize my place in the universe. Unlike especially the orators of minority groups, I could not and would not present any ego-centrism beyond which was done at the conference. Not only long study and discipline, but conferences with many wise men of Islam, I have a clear picture, inshallah, of nufs-i-alima and nufs-i-salima. These have become as real to me as the highest Vedantic terms have become real to Indians and are now becoming real to a great man intelligent men of the West. So I adhere to the Wali’s words, “Among the Gnostics, there is no differentiation of sect.”
At the same time, there are two series of accomplishments—and I mean accomplishments—the one is the poetry; until 1967 I was a poor man. In that year for the first time in my life, I was confined to a hospital and the voice of Allah came to me when I was flat on my back, “I make you spiritual leader of the hippies.” This was followed by a series of visions, all of which have come true down to details. Several Muslims reply “Iblis!” To them Allah is anything but the manifestation of Allah. I have been working for some time now on “Dances of Universal Peace.” In the face of the ever-repeated: “Malika Yaum-i-Din” and in the face of Arberry’s horrible mistranslation of this, I find too many devotees, Islamic and non-Islamic, making themselves judges of the world. Added to this the actual rejection of Qur’anic passages that there is none like Allah and that he alone super-comprehends and super-apprehends this universe, the extension of past directives as if they were externalities blocks the way to progress. In actuality, regardless of interpretations and mis-interpretations, Allah is neither of the East or of the West, nor of the past or present or future—all of these being projections and derivatives of his infinite is-ness.
I do not know when it will be possible to have my “Saladin” published; it will be published along with “The Day of the Lord Cometh,” its Jewish forerunner, and independently I shall send Dr. Ditzen “What Christ? what Peace?” the Christian epic written immediately after the “Day of the Lord Cometh.” All of them have been rejected, but now between slowly but constantly increasing income; a definitely rise and apparently rapidly growing rise; and a miraculously increasing income to and for my closest mureeds, the doors seem to be opening to and for a new world. So there is no pessimism in earlier rejections, none at all.
In the last few years, there has been a stupendous serge towards spirituality in the States, and this is also reflected in the rising number of university and college professors who have not only much broader outlooks but who have even absorbed greater wisdom. Some of these you know personally already. It is this rising tide of broader outlooks which seems to be part of cosmic evolution, and I think you rightfully referred to it in your speech.
We hope to go to the British Museum while we are here, but with many doors opening we cannot be assured of as many accomplishments as others would like. Our next immediate step is to seek a Pakistani restaurant near here, and then perhaps visit the mosque later. But this is only one small item in a limited visit filled with many projects. But all of these projects synchronize and integrate into The Temple of Understanding.
We have to make three different preparations:
a. the integration of African culture
b. the integration of youth
c. the furthering of real peace proposals, between real people, of the real Near East, bearing in mind always the devotional and spiritual elements without overlooking economic necessities.
I can assure you that all the statements above have been implemented by the accumulation of factual knowledge from very down to earth sources, along with, as Allah knows, the increase of response to divine wisdom. It is now 50 years since the first reading of Kashf Al-Mahjub and over 50 years since the first reading of the Upanishads. Etc.
To refer to Buddhist sources, this means emptiness and fullness, sunyata and asunyata, together. but I do not wish to impose or overawe or dominate. This earth is held together by feldspar, not by the dominant minerals. Forces of adhesion and cohesion hold together mineral and vegetable and animal bodies. True love holds the humanity together.
Love and Blessings
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
Samuel L. Lewis
410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif.
April 24, 1970
Prof. Seyyed Hussein Nasr
Department of Islamic Studies
Tehran University
Tehran, Iran
Dear Prof. Nasr:
As-Salaam aleikhum.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds, of the seen and unseen, of the known and unknown, of the past and the present and the future.
Secretary Mansur and the writer are now packing to return to San Francisco. Many things we have done will not satisfy others. But everything we have tried to do, and many things we did not even have to try to do, have been successful. The pursuit of divine guidance may result in pleasure and satisfaction (riza) to and from Allah; it may not always bring pleasure and satisfaction to and from peoples of diverse beliefs, orthodox and heterodox, who do not always appreciate the points of view of others.
Our visit to London was heightened and lightened by our meetings with your good friends who are now our good friends, Mr. Clive-Ross and The Imam Raja at the London mosque on park road. As events have transpired, it would appear, inshallah, that one’s income is increasing considerably. Both the heart of the Imam and the present unfortunate real prosecution of Pakistanis in London make one feel that one’s zakat or part of it should go to the Raja.
Very few Muslims, it would seem agree with the Messenger who said: “Act as if in the presence of Allah, and remember, though you do not see him, verily He sees you.”There is a moral law, ant it is always operating. It does not always please some people. They may ignore or discountenance this moral law, but they can never avoid or escape. The constant harping of the Pakistani papers about the persecution of Muslims in India and elsewhere is now followed by the actual persecution of Pakistanis in a great city of a great empire. It is the old story of “Wolf” from Aesop’s fables, that when the actual wolf manifests it is not always easy to arouse the sympathy of those who have been listening to the cry, “wolf, wolf.”
From the English point of view the gangsters who are tormenting Pakistanis are of the same type as those who used to torment Jesus and others. You do not hear any UN anguish over this.
You do not read tear-jerking editorials. “Everybody” is so concerned over the real or fanciful wars in Vietnam and the Near East, or else so concerned with the astronauts that a little bloodshed does not matter, so long as it is not their blood.
Actually this whole trip has been nothing but the outward manifestation of the accomplishment of the four Daroods assigned by Sufi Barkat Ali. They are in objective existence. Not the least of the reasons for having a traveling companion has been to have an eye-witness to various “miracles” and strange incidents. This has become almost the norm and one can tell endless stories.
We also met Marco Pallis and Martin Lings in London and called on my old acquaintance Bernard Lewis at the University of London. These were all splendid encounters.
In further evidence. We are the guests here of one, Richard Harvey, whose whole life is dedicated to bring East and West together. He also owns and operates a bookstore called The Sphinx. On our very first visit to this store, we found a 4 volume edition of Al-Hadis in English and purchased it immediately. We also found The Encounter of Man and Nature, your latest which you have mentioned. As a start we have purchased 3 copies and will be reading it on the plane tomorrow, inshallah, when we return to San Francisco. There is no doubt that further copies will be purchased and, I hope, also to see it in certain university libraries.
It is very strange and even a wonder at my age that everything is turning out marvelously excellent, Alhamdulillah. This makes one even more cautions and attentive to Zikr.
At this writing our colleague Pir Vilayat Khan is not well. We are hoping and praying he will become more cautious and follow in his father’s footsteps instead of constantly traveling and being in realms of excitement.
The dervish and spiritual dances have really taken on here, and we hope, inshallah, to return to the eastern states later in the year. This must also be discussed with Khawar to whom we shall write on our return, especially to answer any letters from her. If Allah wills, it may be that this person will be working consciously toward the objectification of “In that day will the sun rise in the West and all men seeing will believe.”
Sincerely and faithfully,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
May 6, 1970
910 Railroad Ave.
Novato, Calif. 94947 USA
Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr
University of Tehran
Tehran, Iran
Beloved One of Allah: Asalaam-aleikhum!
Mansur and I are home again, but not for long. There may be a vast difference between man self-proclaiming to be a Muslim and the actual surrender to the living God in the daily life, a point which will be discussed below. In general I find men making the remark, “Muslims will not approve of what you are doing,” to which I answer, “It is not a question of Muslims approving of what I am doing; it is a question of whether Allah approves of what I am doing.” And there are too many examples of quite recent vintage where it would seem the will of Allah and the will of Muslims are quite separate.
The books which we purchased in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have not yet arrived. We were not then in a hurry, but now I am forced to write without the copy of your latest work before me. Personally, I have found Tauhid to be absolutely operative. I have found persons who believed this to be so, but there seem to be few on earth, and may be it doesn’t matter, that have alike mystical, philosophical, and scientific backgrounds. I find there are universal men in an absolute sense, (following Jili) and there are also universal men in another sense; and I cannot over-praise your dedicating your work to Marco Pallis. I think you know what I mean; this is a heart communication and not a superficial, mental evaluation.
Changes in my financial status warrant the establishment of scholarship for the department of Near East Languages at the University of California. I do not know my financial status, but kashf has been so operative and so steady and so perfect one dare not operate otherwise. I have still to contact Dr. Brynner, head of the department, personally, but while everybody else has ideas one may have also ears that operate on all planes of the universe. Superficially, Dr. Brynner knows I am concerned both with peace in the Near East and the support of certain students enrolled in his department, but behind this are series of events about which he will learn for the first time when he reads this letter.
We had in San Francisco, previously, a so-called American Academy of Asian Studies. Just before its demise a rival California Academy of Asian Studies was established. They had considerable popular support, or shall I say, “establishment” support. I am not a university graduate, and due to the hard fact that neither Mohammed (on whom be peace) nor Emperor Akbar nor for that matter the greatest English 19th century scientist, Darwin and Faraday, were over-endowed with degrees makes me feel that these are not necessary always. The University of California and to some extent the local San Francisco State College have overlooked this, but the above private schools purportedly devoted to spiritual studies have refused adamantly and absolutely to accept anything from me which did not come out of an academy, while accepting the prowess of Jain teachers and questionable characters like the so-called Maharshi.
These private schools absolutely refused to permit me to speak on Sufism; nevertheless, I enrolled and they were very glad to take my money. I submitted a paper on the parallels between samkaya and the Kabala: it was a huge undertaking. I submitted to another professor, highly honored socially, a paper on the possible identity of the Arabic afrit and the Indian preta. I do not know which snub was the worst. I took each of these papers to professors under Dr. Brynner and was told that I could register at the University of California and get a PhD degree! I have never forgotten this and feel deeply obligated to those academicians who do not turn a peasant down because he has not certain credentials.
While I was doing certain experiments, and I mean laboratory experiments and not philosophical speculations, I found the key to the Jemal and the Jelal processes in the plant world followed by a clear picture of the Purusha and Prakrit processes in the whole biological universe. I am not going into that here, but either in writing a comment on your work or later would be glad to do this. There is a rough parallel between the division of processes in the chemical and then petrological and then biological worlds. This may open many doors which in the end will prove to be doors of vision, not of speculation. Or as one of your sages has said, “adventure” is the sign of the wise and quotation of the ignorant.”
Of much more personal importance to me is the concern over Alchemy. I have felt that the true Alchemy was a continuance of the divine and mystical knowledge known to the Egyptians, carried on chiefly by Muslims. I personally find the elongated and obtuse works of Dr. Jung quite misleading. I cannot, of course, comment on Chinese metaphysics, Tibetan outlooks, or “oneirology, “ etc. from knowledge of chemistry, some knowledge of biology, and perhaps considerable knowledge of operative mysticism warrant these remarks.
I have been offering teachings here concerning the 5 elements. Indeed one of my disciples is being trained to be a Hakim, studying now The Anatomy of Melancholy and next to be given a thorough course in Avicenna. There is a certain egotistical side in me no doubt which claims to unite in the personality the outlooks of Abu Sa’id and Avicenna. But when we returned to the Khankah, we found the disciples in an uproar. What should be done?
At this point there is a presumable change in subject. It may not satisfy the orthodox that a mystic may be practicing perpetual Zikr. My Blessed first teacher, Hazrat Inayat Khan, taught me considerably concerning nufs selima and nufs alima. This knowledge was corroborated when I met in Cairo a PhD scientist who claimed to be an agent of Ktub. All evidence is in that favor, though this would take us far afield. People who lecture on the unusual are often the first to reject the unusual when it manifests.
Faced with an actually, it became necessary to efface the ego, to enter into a state of consciousness when nufs had to be completely obliterated. Then rising above distinctions and differences, practicing tauhid or fana-fi-lillah, one found oneself solving and dissolving the complexities but without any idea of any ego interposition. That is to say, the true Alchemy may involve the spirit of the universe itself, bringing into manifestation operations and forces from the divine life.
Since that hour the solutions of complexities and problems brought by disciples has been comparatively easy. It is one thing to proclaim La Illaha El Il Allah, it is another thing to adopt this truth as truth and not truism and apply it in the daily life. I believe this is being done and I am no longer concerned with the ego-reactions or operations of anyone. We find our harmonies in Allah himself and from Allah.
To summarize the events of the past month: A. the death of my brother has increased my monthly allotment somewhat; B. the welcome received from and by the young in London and Boston means a return to those respective places and others as Allah wills; C. my chief colleague in a certain sense, Dr. Richard Alpert, now known as Baba Ram Dass, is preparing to leave this country to become a disciple in tasawwuf; D. I have a summer school all waiting for me, money, enrolled students and everything and all I have to do is to function as a Murshid—no questions asked. No doubt there is more, but there certainly is a procession of manifestations of divine karamat.
Much more astounding has been the work of some of my women students and still more of my choral master who are deriving, chiefly from Kalama and Zikr, all sorts of musical inspirations which in turn are most effective. It is particularly astounding because in my form of Islam which is not what is generally known as Islam, there is absolutely no compassion of any kind. Added to that the procession of infants whose first words are Allah. This might even be comprehensible when they are the children of disciples; but it is more incomprehensible and certainly karamat when they are the children of friends who are not disciples. Therefore it is no wonder that I see a certain interpretation of the Hadiths. “In that day will the sun rise in the West and all men seeing will believe.”
This is, of course, a very rapidly written letter by a person who is busy every day in the week and almost every hour in the day.
Love and Blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
cc Cantwell Smith
cc Department Near East Languages, Berkeley cc Khawar Khan
May 20, 1970
Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr
Tehran University
Tehran, Iran
Beloved One of Allah: Asalaam-aleikhum.
This is a sort or prolegomena to a review of your book, The Encounter of Man and Nature. I thought it would be wise to reread, or re-review, some of your other books before attempting this, to me, most serious undertaking. I am no longer concerned with the rejections or refusals of anybody. I am far more concerned that today young people are often turning to me, not because of merits, but because of rejections and refusals, nearly always a priori, on the part of their seniors.
I remember years ago. I was studying with a Jewish Kabbalist. This Jewish Kabbalist was rejected by the synagogues because he had married a Christian. These same synagogue accepted without question a local rabbi who went to Germany and came back praising Hitler on the ground that he was saving Europe from communism. This is a peculiar behavior pattern of the past.
This same Kabbalist said he was looking for somebody who could reconcile the teachings of the Upanishads with the Jewish Kabbalah. He refused absolutely and adamantly that this person could possibly be the one. He was followed by practically every European professor of any form of Asian study. Then I met an Indian connected with the Department of Near East Languages at the University of California at Berkeley and he offered me a PhD degree for a single thesis.
I am not going over this ground here. Secretary Mansur to whom I am dictating this letter, heard firsthand the evaluation given by our good friend, Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj.
In going over your writings, one is rather empathetic toward both the sages and their teachings. It is evident to me that there is a form of consciousness of this world. That there may be forms of consciousness of other worlds is accepted—in theory. But as soon as someone comes forth and tries to offer or explain the operations of such conscious states, he is either spurned or measured by fixed standards which cannot possibly apply. To begin with, I see a form of consciousness that can be applied to this world in the sciences in the broadest aspect of their terms.
Then there is another state of consciousness, or more than one, wherein states and stages that apply to the knowledge of Malakut operate. This is transcendental to the former. It integrates without refuting or refusing. It operates from a higher dimension, using this term “dimension” more as it is in mathematics than to some current philosophies or psychologies. I do not wish to go into this here, but it will become part of the background when The Encounter of Man and Nature is reviewed.
Then there is another consciousness as far transcending Malakut as Malakut transcends Nasut. This is what is called Jabrut. When one goes deep into the consciousness, into the heart, and especially when one practices Mushahida the whole outlook is trans-transcended. I do not wish to go into that here. In efforts to remain orthodox at certain levels, some of the Islamic writers of the past failed. They could not reconcile orthodoxies with deeper experiences. It is on this point I find myself differing from a number of commentators on sage Ibnu’l Arabi, etc. Or, to use something derived from Bertrand Russell, there is “confusion of types when matrixes of one level or another are wrongly applied to other levels.”
Of course, beyond these are the variations of cosmic consciousness for which also Sufis and some Islamic philosophers have turned.
When I am accused of not being a Muslim I say, “It is true; I am not a Muslim; I am an Inshallahist.” I then comment that to be a Muslim one must accept all kinds of traditions and practices at lower levels. By “lower levels” I mean any and all states not in accord with Akhlak Allah.
When I started to present dervish dances, criticism came from several Muslims. They said, “Muslims will not accept this.” I replied, “No doubt this is true. The question is: does Allah accept?” It is evident to me that Allah does accept the repetition of his name. More and more Americans are doing this—even the infants here. I am not concerned with any charge of heresy when there is no authority for such charges other than the conclusions of an unselected community. The question is whether Allah accepts?
I think this is also true concerning The Temple of Understanding. The question to me is—does God-Allah accept? It is certain that in the last few days more and more young people are coming to accept despite certain criticisms. It is certain that in the last few days people born in various parts of Africa are finding their way to my doors. It is certain that one of the national television organizations is seriously considering the efforts of Pir Vilayat Khan, which include all aspects of my present endeavors, which include the integration of these efforts in and toward the consummation of Judith Hollister’s dream of The Temple of Understanding.
Thus endeth the prolegomena.
Love and Blessings,
Samuel L. Lewis
May 25, 1970
Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr
Shemiran, Amarmyah
Pahlavi Avenue, 25 Parkhar 58
Teheran, Iran
Beloved One of Allah: In re The Encounter of Man and Nature.
Although I have been here only a short while and must again travel, I have read this book three times. Ordinarily, an analytical account would be in order. But this is just what I am protesting. I am protesting against all analytical and dialectical points of view which arise out of the nufs of man, setting person against person and making a travesty of cosmic mind. One can hardly with justification uphold the functional existence of cosmic mind and at the same time operate in contradictory manners. The second reading made me see areas of harmony. The third reading increased those harmonies almost to the degree of making a commentary useless. But I do not wish it to be said that an agreement has been sought for the sake of agreement. Nor am I the least bit remiss about either agreement or difference. I am not one of the dialecticians nor so-called Muslims who would surrender their positions because of the prominence of a second party.
The way Hazrat Inayat Khan presented Sufism, Allah is the perfection of love, harmony, and Beauty. Also the Sufi is one who seeks harmony with another. Without hypocritically trying to follow these premises, something must and does operate in the mind of man which most naturally increases the operations of harmony without pretense or pretext. So in the third reading I found a tremendous amount to admire: the various references, the listing of facts and factors, and perhaps most of all the type of argument and discourse contained in the second chapter on Intellectual and Historical Causes.
If there are to be differences, even strong differences, they might arise in the later parts of the work; for instance I have some approaches to nature not entirely in second, or perhaps exceedingly in accord, with the use of the term in the hands of philosophers and metaphysicians.
I have lived in the woods, on the seashore, on the mountain tops. I have done laboratory research, and at this moment there is a sort of synthesis of these in my work in organic gardening. In fact I am about ready leave here to conduct a summer school with emphasis both on Sufism and organic gardening. I feel and find a living Nature, nothing subjective, one in which both the mystic and the poet might accept. I do not wish to press this point too far, to assume a perfection in my outlook which would prevent those under my influence from seeing the Universe as a whole scientifically and mystically.
I differ profoundly from nearly all Americans in a respect for Oswald Spangler and again for Arnold Toynbee. I do not find you mentioning either of these men. I don’t know whether it is relevant.
Once I was visiting the Forestry College in Dehradun in India. I asked my host what his religion was. He said. “I am a devotee of Sri Krishna.” “All right,” I said, “Show me Shiva and Shakti in that tree.” He said, “I do not understand you.” I said, “Have you studied plant physiology?” He replied, “I am considered India’s greatest plant physiologist.” I replied, “O no, you either have not studied plant physiology or you have failed in your devotional meditations.” He asked me to explain. I did so on his terms. He kissed the dust at my feet.
As to Tauhid. I certainly have not been able to find 2 Allahs. I certainly have not been able to find divisions and contradictions which have kept men and movements apart. I am not concerned with their prominence. I am concerned with ultimates. I was struck by the fact that the chemical elements, whether in their purest state or in their activities, physical, chemical, and psychological, seem to be bound by the very laws which are pronounced in deeper aspects of Islamic philosophy and metaphysics.
Now I must tell you here, I never met an Imam until I was 50 years of age. I am therefor not bound by many of the premises of Muslims, and often am accused, rightly or wrongly, because my logistics and approaches are not the same as those of people learned and unlearned with different ancestries. This seemed to bring to some extent a fresh approach. Although I read in one Islamic publication, “Adventure is the sign of the wise, and quotation of the ignorant,” in practice this is far from so, very far from so. So I began to discover in research work mostly I the laboratory, and somewhat in the field, the operations especially of Jemal and Jelal in Nature. I must go so far as to say that the woody structures in botanical processes are Jelal and the vegetative processes are Jemal. I went further. I found that on the surface the operations of Nitrogen and to some extent Carbon promote the Jemal or leaf activities, while the operations of Potassium and to some extent Calcium promote the Jelal or stem activities. And so on. I think this could be extended indefinitely. I do not wish to do so here.
There is another aspect of scientific research and that is I always felt the Divine Presence in the laboratory, the Divine Guidance; the Universal Mind acts through the ego. This may be a rarity but I had the good fortune to meet in Cairo a plant physiologist who was both a disciple in Sufism and a graduate of my own University of California. Harmonies were easy and automatic.
I think here I have made enough “revolutionary” comments. These do not, I hope, upset in the least your thee or your efforts.
Love and Blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
PS. Hafiz, though an unbeliever, will enter Paradise.
11/16/1970
Dr. Seyyed Hussein Nasr
Tehran University
Tehran, Iran
Beloved One of Allah:
Asalaam-aleikhum! There is before me a copy of “Religious Studies” with your article “Shi’ism and Sufism: Their Relationship in Essence and in History.” One is sending a carbon copy of this letter to “Religious Studies” of Cambridge University Press. But this article is written on the assumption that Allah is, and with some doubt of the efficacies of human minds or personality-importance. Indeed, one is also writing to you knowing that either a carbon of this letter will be published, or an article based on the teaching of your fellow countryman Imam Al-Ghazzali that Sufism is based on experience and not on premises. This basic definition has been denied by practically all groups intellectually devoted to the examination (superficially) or to the study (externally) of the religions of the world.
When our good friend Dr. Huston Smith was lecturing in this region he said he could recommend but one book on Zen, vis.: The Three Pillars of Zen by Phillip Kapleau. This person, despite his age and presumable dignity, rose in a large audience at the University of California and yelled out loud, Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!” This person agrees with Imam Al-Ghazzali. He does not agree with either superficial or deep intellectual considerations of mystical experiences by non-mystics.
Two weeks ago the writer met a Dr. Samuel Weiser in new York City. this man both owns a bookstore and publishes. He told Mr. Weiser that if he wanted to learn something about Zen he would have to get rid of all the books. But one added he was not anxious to have the whole world converted to Zen and was pleased to see Mr. Weiser was making satisfactory profits. But then he turned and saw on the opposite shelf, devoted to Sufism, copy of L’Awarifu Ma’arif. One asked Mr. Weiser how he came to have a copy of this rare work. he said, “I have re-published it myself and intend to re-publish other mystical works by mystics.”
I would agree that both Shi’ism and Sufism are in some senses integral parts of Islamic revelation. I must confess I do not know exactly what is meant, or what you mean by, “Islamic revelation.” The Holy Prophet of Mecca neither pursued the path of Shariat not other restrictions since introduced into the world, and he had the audacity (which very few Muslims can possibly accept) to say, “I am a man like you.” He also had the audacity not just to say but to believe in Messengers of God that manifested on earth before him, and according to the records must have been an extreme reprobate heretic, for he said, “My words can never abrogate the words of Allah, but the words of Allah can abrogate my words.” Any so-called Muslim that would dare follow this would be considered guilty of heresy at once.
Either Allah or Mohammed, or both, must be tried for heresy. Perhaps like Uwais they have had the effrontery to manifest to this person long, long before he met an Imam, or even before he had seriously considered reading Holy Qur’an. This was a long, long time ago, and the story of it will soon be published when one writes: “Six Interview with Hazrat Inayat Khan.” Why did Hazrat Inayat Khan constantly send for this person? Who was he, a constantly rejected nobody, that a Pir-o-Murshid of Sufism would insistently summon him?
As I shall be glad so send you either in typed or printed form—it is going to be printed—Six Interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan—In shall relate another episode. In the year 1930 I visited the White Memorial Library in Cleveland, Ohio, and there found The Lives of the Adapts by Efleki. In those days I could read French and was amazed to find I had had all kinds of inner experiences practically identical with those related in this voluminous work. It did not do much good. Indeed it did not do any good with one single exception. That occurred in 1945 when, representing some Sufis of Hyderabad-Decca I called on the first Embassy of India. They challenged me on Ibnu ‘l Arabi. After I had satisfactorily answered them, I said, “Ibnu ‘l Arabi and Shankara are one.” The secretary of the ambassador was amazed and embraced me.
(The secretary of the ambassador may have been amazed, but the British, European and especially German experts on Asia philosophy were not. And many of them have deliberately gone out of their way to see that my person could not attend conferences. However, that day is gone, and I have won the approbation of Dr. Milton Singer of Chicago—and other American—not European—experts on Asian philosophies. Indeed, until I met Dr. Benz at Geneva, I don’t think I ever won any satisfaction from any German or European expert on Asian philosophy, with the important exception of our colleagues who are working with Mr. Clive-Ross.)
I do remember another occasion when I attended a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They had invited the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. I went to this session, which was a brawl. When it was over I whispered something to the chairman and he said, “Why you had the answer, why didn’t you speak?” So I was severely taken to task by half a dozen celebrities and sent each of them the answer, what they called the answer, and that was the end of that. The formerly usual, but now passé, “Christian-Judeo Ethic.”
A number of years later I was told a spiritual teacher was coming to San Francisco. He was from North Africa. That is all the information I was given. But I had the confounded impertinence to believe and to practice that the Kashf of the Sufi and the Prajna of the Hindus and Buddhists are the same. So I went to the meeting, put on my Dervish robe, and showed the stranger the picture in A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century. (I have since met Martin Lings.) and the interpreter said, “Why that is a picture of his Pir-o-Murshid; how did you know?”
The Sidi, Sidi Abu Salem al-Alawi gave three talks, and by some weird karamat I began translating directly from his Arabic. I don’t know how it was done, but it was done. The audience thought I was impertinent as it always has in the past, and the Shaykh and his retinue all embraced me while the Americans gawked. This sort of experience has happened so may many time in my life that I have been asked to write my autobiography, or pieces of it.
While it is true I have now L’Awarifu ma’arif of grand Shaykh Shahabuddin Sohrawardi, I also found on my return, purchased from Ashraf, The Saint of Jilan and Maxims of Ali. I have read and studied both of these books, and the supreme Allah, in his duplicity and heterodoxy, has lifted veils from these eyes to show He is creator of all and benefactor of all.
It is quite evident that the Universal Allah has had some rather heterodox views. Apparently the “good” Muslims do not always have their way on the earth. Allah does not seem to follow the dotted line. While we were at Geneva, my brother died, leaving me in quite satisfactory financial circumstances. This greeting by money—so important in the daily life—has been followed by greetings from the young. The young seem to accept Al-Ghazzali, that Sufism is based on experiences rather than premises. It is even possible that Allah Himself accepts this. For I returned to find my teachings presented and for credit at the University of California at Berkeley.
Quite apart from this is that the Voice of Allah—or what I should call the Voice of Allah—told me to establish a peace scholarship for the Department of Near East Studies at the aforesaid University of California in Berkeley. And quite apart from that my own disciples and the disciples of my colleague Pir Vilayat Khan have joined in promoting a program to bring Israelis, Arabs, and Christians together. this has been astonishingly successful.
Apart from that, and in the face of all the “good” Muslims of the world, I have written a paper, and would be glad to write it again, affirming what the Apostle said, “All children are born Muslims.” It is curious in the last year that every single child born to my disciples has said, “Allah” before saying “Mama” or “Papa.” I still believe in Allah, and I am not sure whether human minds can fathom Him.
Sheikh Sidi Abu Salem Al-Alawi declared that this person was endowed with Baraka. he stood pretty much alone until later events. And when I arrived in Egypt it seems that a lot of Sheikhs also agreed, but it was not publicly called either a Murshid of a Sufi until it was demonstrated that tow of my disciples, one of whom you know quite well, had had the Divine Experiences and Divine Grace. If I wish to be personal, and I am going to be personal just for the moment, that Abdul Kadiri Jilani, whom some Sufis call Ghaus-i-Azam, has appeared to both Saadia Khawar Khan and myself, and in one grand mystical experience, to us jointly, which seemed to mean that we were on the path of the orthodox, but I would certainly not proclaim this. To me it simply means that the Grace of Allah is the Grace of Allah is the Grace of Allah. Men’s intellect will continue to promote premises (despite Al-Ghazzali) but like Phillip Kapleau, I am hoping to do for Tasawwuf what he did for Zen—promote and bring out in the open experience as the basis for mysticism and not premises.
I do not know how much you know of Lord Snow and his “two cultures.” Every article I have written on pollution to a scientist has been acknowledged and even accepted; not a single article written on pollution to a non-scientist has even been acknowledged. This demonstrates our two cultures. Both may be needed, but they may even be incomprehensible one to the other.
In any event, by what I call kashf, to me the wise Allah, has been promoting my material career, along with others, in the building up of very successful vegetable gardens, etc., and this program is going on, Alhamdulillah!, very successfully, with a number of other programs mentioned or inferred here.
I would not dare write to you in this fashion, as if dualistic, were it not for Divine guidance. The basic reason for “Six Interviews with Hazrat Inayat Khan” was the manifestation in turn of Khizr and Mohammed to me long before I met any Imams. I had gone into the wilderness to die, carrying with me only Hafiz’ poetry and writings about Hafiz, nothing else. Then Khizr manifested—he had to come three times because I thought it was imagination—and he offered me poetry or music. I chose poetry (this proved to be what we call a Hobsonian choice—I now have dances also—a very successful career which now subjectivists-dialecticians can foresay).
This manifestation of Khizr is demonstrable. It is demonstrable first that now in my mid-seventies I have the intellectual and physical vigor of a person thirty years younger. (Above you notice I mention I went away into the wilderness to die, meaning just that and it is due to Divine Grace and baraka alone that one is still here. And if you want more evidence based on human experience and not based on dialectics and premises, you and the world may have it. It is time that mystics speak on mysticism as Kapleau and Yasutani have spoken on Zen. And, as mentioned above, the writer has had a scientific career both in disciplines and operations.)
The first absolute demonstration of the Divine poetry came in what is called “The Day of the Lord Cometh.” This is based on the real Hebraic Kabbalah; not words; not doctrines; not traditions; but the actual manifestation of something akin to baraka, only based on the Hebrew mysteries. This was written as a spiritual answer to Hitler, but there was no question both the orthodox and liberal Jews turned it down absolutely. So there followed, written during the darkness of the war, “What Christ? What Peace?” This is filled with predictions and admonitions, and every single prediction came true. But it is a question of who turned it down more emphatically, the so-called psychics or the various Christian churches. Every single prediction came absolutely true. And our good friend Rev. Lowell Ditzen was amazed at this.
Now the Sufism of experience is based on fana: fana-fi-Sheikh, Fana-fi-Rassoul, Fana-fi-Lillah. I am not going to relate the experiences. They are very much like traditional myths and stories and Efleki. My spiritual initiation into Fana-fi-Rassoul was followed immediately by the epic poem “Saladin” which itself is basically founded on Meraj. It also was rejected by the “good” Muslims just as the “good” Christians and “good” Jews rejected the other poetry. So be it. This will become history.
In 1962 I revisited Nizam-ud-din Auliya in Delhi with my good friend Pir-o-Murshid Hasan Sani Nizami. When we came to the tomb of Amr Khusrau. I had the same vision in broad daylight of a robe, the same robe earlier invested by Khizr and Moin-ud-din Chisti. Amr Khusrua said, “I appoint you as successor to Mohammed Iqbal in the school of Jelal-ud-din Rumi.” Oh yes, this is fine imaginary hallucination. It is imaginary, of course, and it is hallucination, of course. But when I returned to Pakistan my present Pir, Sufi Barkat Ali, whom you know personally, had that robe, gave it to me in public investiture and I now wear it before my own disciples.
The three poems, Hebraic, Christian, and Islamic, may be published together, inshallah.
About the same time one began writing “Rassoul Gita” which bears the same relation to fana-fi-Lillah, as the afore-mentioned poems have to Fana-fi-Rassoul. It is based on a supreme understanding both of Dharma and Din. I do not know whether you were in the dining room in Geneva when our good friend Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj gave this one a eulogy.
I have been very much influenced by Emperor Akhbar and see the need for world outlooks, but I still hold that Mohammed was and is Katimal Mursaleen. My chief sin of course is that my grandfather wasn’t a Muslim. If I were to become a Hindu I could wash my sins away???? But I have been very unsuccessful with Islamic communities, because apparently all orthodoxies agree that flesh and blood inherit the kingdom of heaven. It is only the heretical Christ that differs from them on this point, but apparently Allah is on the side of the heretic, for he is bringing multitudes of new humanity into manifestation who have more universal outlooks.
I regret in writing this there seems to be a dualistic connotation, but in re-reading your article I notice the footnote under Khidr. Apparently if you theorize on this it is beautiful, but if it is an actuality! On the other hand, both in UAR and in Pakistan, the actual leaders in Sufism seem to have accepted it was an actuality in my personal life, and some day I hope we shall have a more scientific and less dialectic intellectualism, and work with the premises of Al-Ghazzali. (I have found more and more recent writings of Al-Ghazzali translated into English and I do not ask to be excused for being over-enamored by this great genius of your land.)
Hazrat Inayat Khan, my first teacher in Tasawwuf, said that a Sufi was one who could see from the point of view of others, as well as of himself. I do not ask to be excused if I have failed to live up to that standard; indeed I welcome replies or criticisms. But first and foremost I personally am so overwhelmed by La Illaha El Il Allah that nothing else matters.
Love and Blessings,
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti.