Sufi Secret of Secrets | Abdul Qadir Jilani | Chapter 2

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]The Sirr al Asrar, the secret of secrets.

[00:00:06]Many Sufis today still take Gilani [music] as their living Sheikh, their teacher, their master.

[00:00:18]There are two of you.

[00:00:20]There is the one that has a body, that eats, sleeps, walks through the day, wears clothes, has a name.

[00:00:29]This is your material self.

[00:00:32]In this self, everyone is more or less the same.

[00:00:39]The rules that apply here are general rules. You follow what has been given for everyone to follow.

[00:00:47]And by following, you can begin to [music] rise.

[00:00:53]Then, there is the other one, hidden behind your appearance.

[00:00:58]This is your spiritual self, the Ruh.

[00:01:03]It is different in every person, because no two souls were sent on exactly the same journey.

[00:01:11]The rules for this self are not general.

[00:01:15]They are private, written for you alone.

[00:01:19]The general rules are the rules of Sharia, the path given openly.

[00:01:25]You follow them.

[00:01:27]You rise from level to level.

[00:01:30]You reach the edge where the path enters the realm of wisdom.

[00:01:34]It is said, there is a state in which all and everything is gathered.

[00:01:41]That state is divine wisdom.

[00:01:46]To reach that state, you first have to abandon the false face, the things you [music] do so that others will see you doing them, the things you say so that others will hear you saying them.

[00:02:00]These have to go.

[00:02:03]All of riya, all the showing.

[00:02:08]Then, you set for yourself three goals.

[00:02:13]The three are actually three homes. The first home is Jannat [music] al Mawa, the garden of shelter, the home of security, the earthly paradise, the one you can find while still here.

[00:02:33]It is what comes to the one who follows the path given for everyone.

[00:02:38]It is real.

[00:02:40]It is beautiful.

[00:02:42]It is not the end.

[00:02:45]The second home is Jannat al Naim, the garden of delight, the home of grace, the paradise within the angelic realms.

[00:02:57]It comes to the one who has begun the inner work, who has entered Tariqa, who has begun to undo the multiplicity in himself, to fight the cause of that multiplicity, which is the nafs, the self that thinks it is separate.

[00:03:20]When you fight that self and begin to dissolve it, the second home opens to you.

[00:03:28]The third home is al Firdaus, the heavenly paradise, the home of the souls, of the divine names and the divine attributes in the realm of unity. It comes to the one who reaches marifa, divine wisdom, who comes to know the real.

[00:03:52]Three homes, three levels of what is true.

[00:03:59]The one who walks the path tastes each in turn.

[00:04:04]First, the beauty that comes with following what is given.

[00:04:09]Then, the beauty that comes with undoing the false self.

[00:04:13]Then, the beauty that comes with knowing.

[00:04:17]It is said, with hikma, one learns the truth, which gathers within itself all causes and all good.

[00:04:28]Then, one acts upon the truth.

[00:04:31]One also comes to know falsehood, and one leaves it.

[00:04:39]And show us the truth and make it our lot to follow it.

[00:04:46]Teach us what is false and make it easy for us to avoid it.

[00:04:51]And the one who knows himself and opposes the wrong desires [music] of that self truly, that one comes to know his Lord and follows what his Lord wills.

[00:05:04]These are the general rules for your material self.

[00:05:11]They apply to everyone.

[00:05:15]But, there is another you, the spiritual you, the pure one.

[00:05:22]Its goal [music] is not rising through levels.

[00:05:26]Its goal is qurb, closeness itself.

[00:05:33]It does not need to climb because it was already near before it was sent.

[00:05:41]What it needs is to remember.

[00:05:45]The way to that goal is marifa, [music] the knowledge of the real.

[00:05:52]In the first created realm, in the realm [music] of the absolute being of oneness, this knowledge is called tawhid, unity.

[00:06:07]You can hope to reach this goal in this life.

[00:06:11]In the state I am describing, there is no difference between being awake and being asleep.

[00:06:24]In sleep, the soul can escape to its true home, to the realm of souls, and come back and bring news.

[00:06:36]This is the true dream, the ru'ya sadiqa.

[00:06:41]It can happen partially, as in ordinary dreams.

[00:06:47]It can also happen totally, as in the great ascensions that the prophets were given.

[00:06:53]Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that die not during their sleep.

[00:07:00]Then, the one holds back those on whom the decree of death has been passed, and sends the others back till an appointed term.

[00:07:09]Surely, there are signs in this for a people who reflect.

[00:07:13]It is said, [music] the sleep of the wise is worthier than the worship of the ignorant.

[00:07:19]The wise are those who have received the knowledge that has no letters and no sound.

[00:07:25]That knowledge comes through the continuous repetition of the divine name of unity with the secret tongue.

[00:07:34]The wise are those whose core has been turned to divine light by the light of tawhid.

[00:07:44]In a hadith qudsi, the real speaks through the last of the messengers, "Man is my secret, and I am his secret."

[00:07:56]The inner knowledge of the spiritual essence is a secret of my secrets.

[00:08:03]Only I put this into the heart of my good servant, and none may know his state other than me.

[00:08:13]And I am as my servant knows [music] me.

[00:08:19]When he seeks me and remembers me, I am with him.

[00:08:24]If he seeks me inwardly, I seek him with my essence.

[00:08:30]If he remembers me in good company, I remember him in better company.

[00:08:38]In all of this, there is one instrument that matters, one means.

[00:08:47]And the common person uses it almost never. That instrument is fikr, meditation, contemplation, the turning of the attention inward. It is said, a moment's reflection is worth more than a year of worship.

[00:09:06]A moment's reflection is worth more than 70 years of worship.

[00:09:12]A moment's reflection is worth more than a thousand years of worship.

[00:09:18]Why three different values?

[00:09:22]Because the act of a moment's meditation is not one thing.

[00:09:29]It has levels.

[00:09:34]The one who reflects on an affair, who seeks its cause, who sees that each part has parts of its [music] own, and each of those is the cause of many other things, this reflection is worth a year of worship.

[00:09:55]The one who reflects on his own devotions, who seeks the cause and reason behind them and comes to know them.

[00:10:02]This reflection is worth 70 years of worship.

[00:10:09]The one who reflects on divine wisdom itself with a true wish to know Allah.

[00:10:17]This reflection is worth a thousand years of worship.

[00:10:23]Because this is the true knowledge. This is marifa.

[00:10:31]True knowledge is the state of unity.

[00:10:36]The wise lover unites with the beloved.

[00:10:39]From this material realm on spiritual wings, he soars to the realm of attainment.

[00:10:50]The devout walk to paradise.

[00:10:53]The wise fly to the realms close to their lord.

[00:11:00]Lovers have eyes in their hearts.

[00:11:03][music] They see while others stare blind.

[00:11:08]Such wings they have, not of flesh and blood.

[00:11:14]They fly toward angels, their lord to find.

[00:11:19]This flight happens in the inner world of the wise.

[00:11:23]They receive the honor of being called al-rijal, the true men, the true ones.

[00:11:33]The beloved of Allah, the intimate ones, the brides of the real.

[00:11:41]Bayazid al-Bistami said, [music] "The holders of wisdom are the brides of Allah most high.

[00:11:49]Only the loving possessors of brides know them intimately.

[00:11:54]These wise servants, beautiful inwardly, are covered by the appearance of ordinary men."

[00:12:02]In another Hadith Qudsi, "My intimates are hidden under my domes.

[00:12:08]None can recognize them but me."

[00:12:13]The domes under which the one hides the friends are their undistinguished ordinary appearances.

[00:12:21]When you look at a bride covered by her wedding veil, what can you see but the veil?

[00:12:29]Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi said, [music] "The beloved of Allah are the perfume of Allah upon this world.

[00:12:40]Only the true sincere believers have noses to smell them.

[00:12:46]They smell that perfume.

[00:12:49]They follow it.

[00:12:51]It creates a yearning in their hearts for the lord.

[00:13:01]Each in his own way quickens his pace, >> [music] >> his effort, his devotion.

[00:13:12]The speed of his pace is proportional to how much weight he has shed, how much of the coarse clothing of this world he has taken off.

[00:13:25]Closeness to the truth is in proportion to how much false materiality you have thrown away.

[00:13:33]Giving away your multiplicity brings you closer to the only truth.

[00:13:40]The intimate of Allah is the one who has brought himself to adam, nothingness.

[00:13:45]Only then can he see the existence of the truth.

[00:13:49]There is no will left in him to choose.

[00:13:52]There is no I left, no self other than the only existence, >> [music] >> which is the real.

[00:14:02]Miracles may come through him.

[00:14:05]They have nothing to do with him.

[00:14:09]In his state, there is no divulging of secrets because to divulge the secret of divinity is infidelity.

[00:14:22]It has been written, "All who have miracles flowing through them are veiled from and unconcerned about their states.

[00:14:31]For them, the times when miracles appear are like periods of weakness."

[00:14:41]The friends of Allah must travel through at least a thousand stages, and the first of them is the door of miracles.

[00:14:50]Only those who pass through that door unharmed reach the stages beyond.

[00:14:59]If they become involved with the miracles, they get nowhere.

[00:15:06]That was chapter two of the Sirr al-Asrar, the secret of secrets.

[00:15:12]Chapter three is next.

[00:15:15]If chapter one is still ahead of you, watch it next.

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