Foundation Course Week 9 Texts

Foundation Course Week 9 Texts
1) From The Holy Spirit in the Counselling of the Soul
I am, as you know my friend, one of those who asserts that the self is existent
(mawjūdan) and it is never permissible in my opinion to say that it can die in relation to
its qualities because of my knowledge concerning its realities and its place.
2) From The Meccan Revelations
The Prophet said that there is no path to the knowledge of God except through
knowledge of the self (nafs), saying: “The person who knows their self knows their Lord
(rabb)”. He also said: “The better you know your self, the better you know your Lord”. So
He made your knowledge of your self a guide or sign to your knowledge of God.
This is either because He has attributed to you the same essence and qualities which He
has attributed to Himself and has made you His vicegerent and deputy on earth. Or it is
because you have poverty and need for Him in your being (wujūd). Or it is, inevitably, the
two things together.
3) From ‘Kitāb al-Wasāʾil’ by Ismaʾil Ibn Sawdakin
I entrust to you a bequest and I wish with all my heart that you may safeguard it. It is my
way with God most High and it is that you should never, ever, abandon your servanthood
(ʿubūdiyya) and that there should never be in your soul a longing for any existent thing…
The nafs is an ocean which has no shore. There is no end to the contemplation of it in this
world or the next, for it is the closest sign (or proof) (dalāl) of your Lord. The more you
contemplate it, the more your knowledge of it increases, and the more your knowledge
of it increases, the more your knowledge of your Lord increases.
5) From Ringstones of Wisdom
How good is the saying of the Prophet (SA): “Shall I tell you what is better and more
beneficial for you than engaging your enemies and attacking them, and them attacking
you? Remembrance (dhikr) of God”. That is because only the person who remembers
God in the way required of them knows the true value of humanity and the nature of the
human being. For God is the companion of the one who remembers Him, and the
companion is witnessed by the one who remembers Him.
Remembrance is a divine qualification. It is done either interiorly, in oneself (nafsī), or in

company, by the Real or by the creation. At the same time as being a divine qualification,
it is a reward for an act of remembrance by the creation, for it says in the Qurʾān: “If you
remember Me, I will remember you.” [Q 2:152] So He makes the existence of His
remembrance derive from our remembrance of Him. And it is the same with the state in
which remembrance takes place, for He says: “If someone remembers Me in their self, I
will remember them in Myself, and if they remember Me in company, I will remember
them in a better company.” So remembrance produces remembrance, and the state
produces the state…
7) From Ringstones of Wisdom
As for the person who performs the act of remembrance only with their tongue, at that
moment the Real will be the companion of the tongue. So the tongue will see Him, but
the human being [as a whole] will not see Him… So understand this secret about the
remembrance of the person who is unaware; that part of the unaware person which
remembers invokes Him without doubt, and the One who is remembered is its
companion and it sees Him. But the unaware person, inasmuch as they are unaware, is
not a rememberer, and He is not the companion of that person…
The remembrance of God runs through the whole of the [true] worshipper (ʿabd) [ i.e.
through all their faculties]
Nunah Fatima Bint Ibn Al-Muthanna
She lived in Seville. When I met her she was in her 90s and only ate the scraps left by
people at their doors. Although she was so old and ate so little, I was almost ashamed to
look at her face when I sat with her, it was so rosy and soft. Her own special chapter of
the Qurʿān was ‘The Opening’. She once said to me: “I was given ‘The Opening’ and I can
wield its power in any matter I wish.
I together with two of my companions built a hut of reeds for her to live in. She used to
say: “Of those who come to see me, I admire none more than Ibn ʿArabī. On being asked
for the reason for this, she replied: “The rest of you come to me with part of yourselves,
leaving the other part of you occupied with your other concerns, while Ibn ʿArabi is a
consolation to me, for he comes to me with all of himself. When he rises up it is with all
of himself and when he sits it is with his whole self, leaving nothing of himself elsewhere.
That is how it should be on the Way.”
Her devotion to God was profound. Looking at her in a purely superficial way one might
have thought she was a simpleton, to which she would have replied that he who does not
know his Lord is the real simpleton.
Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad Ibn Qassūm
O God, cause us to hear and see that which is good, and bless us with well-being, and
make it continue for us. May He make our hearts concentrate on awareness of Him
and direct us to that which He loves and finds pleasing.

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Foundation Course Week 9 Texts

1) From The Holy Spirit in the Counselling of the Soul

2) From The Meccan Revelations

3) From ‘Kitāb al-Wasāʾil’ by Ismaʾil Ibn Sawdakin

4) From The Meccan Revelations

5) From Ringstones of Wisdom

6) From The Meccan Revelations

Remembrance is a divine qualification. It is done either interiorly, in oneself (nafsī), or in

7) From Ringstones of Wisdom

8) From The Holy Spirit in the Counselling of the Soul

Nunah Fatima Bint Ibn Al-Muthanna

Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad Ibn Qassūm

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