Sayings of Moulay al-'Arabi al-Darqawi: Sufi quotations
Contents
Moulay al-’Arabi al-Darqawi (d. 1823) renewed Moroccan Sufism by founding the Darqawiyya path, a Shadhili branch from which came many nineteenth-century masters, including al-’Imrani and al-Buzidi, the masters of Ibn ’Ajiba.
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: he does not remember God who does not forget himself
Another brother asked me: “How is the soul (al-nafs) to be healed?” I answered him: “Forget it and hardly think of it; for he does not remember God who does not forget his soul (or who does not forget himself). You cannot conceive that it is not the existence of the world that makes us forget our Lord: what makes us forget Him is the existence of ourselves, of our ego. Nothing veils Him from us except our occupying ourselves, not with existence as such, but with our desires. If we could forget our own existence, we would find the One who is the origin of all existence, and we would see at the same time that we do not exist at all. How can you conceive that a man could lose consciousness of the world without losing that of his ego? That will never happen.”
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: urge them to remembrance (dhikr)
…One day, as I was plunged in an extreme spiritual intoxication and at the same time in an extreme sobriety, I suddenly heard this word spring from the depths of my essence: “Urge them to remembrance, for remembrance profits the believers!” (Qur’an 51, 54)
al-Darqawi: kill your ego (nafs)
One of our brothers complained to us of an oppressor who was persecuting him. We answered him: “If you wish to kill the one who oppresses you, then kill your ego (nafs), for in killing it you will kill all oppressors.”
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi
Invocation does not consist in forever saying “Allah, Allah”, in praying and fasting, then, the moment a misfortune strikes, looking right and left for remedies and despairing of finding any. Among those who have realised the Truth, invocation requires the invoker to conform rigorously to the prescribed laws, the most important of which is the abandonment of what does not concern him.
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: there is no reality apart from Allah
There is no reality (mawjud) apart from God, exalted be He: “Everything is perishable except His face” (Qur’an 28, 88). “All that is on earth is evanescent; only the face of thy Lord subsists, essence of majesty and generosity” (Qur’an 55, 26-27). “Such is God, your Lord; and what remains after the truth but error?” (Qur’an 10, 32). “So it is, because God is the Truth, and what they invoke apart from Him is vanity” (Qur’an 22, 62). “Say: the truth has come and vanity has vanished; truly vanity is doomed to vanish” (Qur’an 17, 81). “Say: Allah; then leave them to amuse themselves in their vain prattle” (Qur’an 6, 91).
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: if you act purely towards your Creator
Our master (may God be pleased with him) used to say: when your heart empties of beings, it fills with the Being, and from then on love is born between you and others. If you act purely with your Creator, all creatures will show you their benevolence.
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: for God there is no substitute
Whoever contents himself, in exchange, with anyone or anything other than You, perishes. Whoever inclines towards what is far from You is lost. Everything you leave can be replaced, but for God, if you leave Him, there is no substitute.
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: mention people only for good
I also said to a certain brother: strike neither Jew, nor Christian, nor Muslim, but strike your own soul (nafs) and do not stop striking it until it dies… and mention people only for good, for “he has no gratitude towards God who has no gratitude towards men”, as the Prophet (pbuh) said.
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: the heart emptied of all love of the world
Busy yourselves then (may God be merciful to you) with what kills your ego and quickens your heart. The root of all the virtues, as virtue, is that the heart be emptied of all love of the world, just as the root of every vice, as vice, is the love of the world filling the heart.
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: what a strange thing the heart is…
Do not nourish everything that is born in your heart; cast it far from you and do not concern yourself with raising it, forgetting your Lord as most people do, so that they wander and stray and lose themselves in a mirage. If they understood, they would say: what a strange thing the heart is! In an instant it gives birth to innumerable sons, some legitimate, some illegitimate, and others whose nature no one knows. How then could someone busy nourishing all these sons be available for his Lord? What a pitiful thing, this son of Adam! He effaces the cosmos until no trace of it remains. The cosmos will efface him in turn until no trace of him remains, save a little scent fading in a brief lapse of time.
al-’Arabi al-Darqawi: say “Allah” and you will see marvels
One of our brothers said to me: I am nothing. I answered him: do not say “I am nothing”, and do not say either “I am something”. Do not say “I need such and such”, and do not say either “I need nothing”. But say: Allah! and you will see marvels.