#aishah al bauniyyah

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[2.19]  Mu'adh ibn Jabal, may God be pleased with him, said, “An act requires four things to be safe from hypocrisy: knowledge before beginning it, proper intention at its start, patience during it, and sincerity at its conclusion.”   Someone asked Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi, may God be pleased with him, “When does the servant’s life become sweet?” and he replied, “When he clings to the rank of servanthood.”  They said, “When does he cling to the rank of servanthood and he replied, “When he says sincerely in his heart to God, ‘If You give to me, I will give thanks; if You forbid me, I will accept it; if You call me, I will answer; and if You leave me, I will still serve.

From The Principles of Sufism, A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah (d. 1516-1517), ed. & tr. Th. Emil Homerin (NYU Press, 2014), pg 51.

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و عن ثَوبان رضي الله عنه قال: سمعتُ رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلّم يقول: طُوبَى للمخلصين أولئك مصابيح الهدى ينجلي بهم كلّ فتنة ظلماء.  رواه البيهقي

Thawban, may God be pleased with him, related that the Emissary of God, may God bless and cherish him, said as follows: “Blessed are the sincere ones, for they are the lamps of guidance that dispel all the trials of darkness.”  This is reported by al-Bayhaqi.

 - From The Principles of Sufism, A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah (d. 1516-1517), ed. & tr. Th. Emil Homerin (NYU Press, 2014), pg 41.

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Malik said:

I said to him, "By God, tell me what's happening to you," and he replied, "It has only been good.  God called me with His grace, and I answered Him, and so He gave me all that I sought from Him!"

Then he recited:

When He called me, I said, "Welcome! Come in!"       In union with You, how sweet is Your love, how fresh! By Your reality, You are the goal, the wish, the desire,       and when the blamer blames me for loving You and goes on and on, My heart does not long for the Arak trees of Na'man,       nor for Khayf or Quba's land. If they appeared one day with Su'da or Zaynab,      I would not long for Su'da, no, nor desire Zaynab. For whenever those encampments are recalled, O my masters,      then my goal above all others is she who lives in the tent there.**

Malik said, "Then he went back to his circumnambulation of the Kaaba, and he left, and I never saw him again or heard news of him."

** That is to say, the poet is not enamoured of an earthly beloved, and so remembering the alighting places of the Hajj pilgrimage reminds him only of God.

 - From The Principles of Sufism by A’ishah bint Yusuf al-Ba’uniyyah (d. 1516-1517), ed. and tr. by Th. Emil Homerin (New York University Press, 2014), pg. 29.

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 - From The Principles of Sufism, A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah (d. 1516-1517), ed. & tr. Th. Emil Homerin (NYU Press, 2014), section 4-3 pg. 99.

Al-Qushayri also writes in Commentary on the Divine Names (Sharh asma Allah al-husna) regarding the name “The Fashioner” (al-musawwir) as follows:

  It has been related in lore and tradition that God created six hundred wings for Gabriel, prayers and peace be upon him - inlaid with sapphires, pearls, and golden bells, and suffused with musk.  Each bell has a sublime sound and tone, unlike any other.  When the archangel Israfel begins to sing the praise of God, he interrupts the angelic choir due to the sublime sound and pleasant tone. Similarly, the light of the divine throne, were it to appear, would outshine the light of the sun to the same degree that the sun outshines a lamp.  There are other examples of created things, yet God, may he be praised, never said of such things that they were in the best of forms, not did He say to any of them, “Indeed, I created you <<of the best stature.>>” (at-Tin 95:4)  However, He said that to this human being created <<from an extract of clay.>> (Mu’minun 25:2)  But enough of things in nature.  Let us move on to the exalted saying <<He loves them, and they love him.>>  (Ma’idah 5:54)  Did He ever say something comparable to an attending angel or to some created thing shaped in a beautiful form? Never! This was said of the children of Adam, exclusively.  It was bestowed upon them above all others as a grace from God, as a favor and a benefit with which He graced them in an act of kindness and mercy.  

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 - From The Principles of Sufism, A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah (d. 1516-1517), ed. & tr. Th. Emil Homerin (NYU Press, 2014), pg. 32-3 

[1.33] Know, may God show you mercy, that when God the Exalted wants to befriend one of His servants, He opens the door of repentance for him with His grace, and leads him into the anteroom of renunciation of all but Him.  God raises him up with the ascension of vigilance against any except Him until he ends up in the presence of contemplation, where He seats him on the carpet of proximity with the generosity of attraction, and manifests Himself to him in beauty.  Then what was not, is annihilated, and what always was, abides.  <<There, the protection of God, the True Reality, is the best reward and the greatest success!>>  [Surah al-Kahf 18:44]  When the seed of repentance falls on the ground of the heart, and the breezes of remorse blow, and the clouds of the eyelids pour with the rain of tears, then that earth <<will tremble, sprout, and grow verdant with delightful species>> [Surah al-Hajj 22:5] of the flowers of epiphanies and the harvest of contemplation, from the aromatic plants of union and the fruits of communion, and so on from what is beyond description and expression.

[1.34]  When God turns to a servant with forgiveness, He causes the recording angels to forget what they recorded of the servant’s bad deeds; he exchanges his bad deeds for good, and registers him among His beloved ones.  When the lamentations of His dear servant rise, God boasts about him to the angels.  God’s love is especially for the penitents, as the Exalted has said, <<Truly God loves those who turn in repentance!>> [Surah al-Baqarah 2:222]  Suffice for the penitent the honor that he is God’s beloved.