Sayings of Sidi Hamza on the path and spiritual practices
Counsel and sayings of Sidi Hamza on the practice of the path, reported by his disciples. A larger collection can be read on the sayings page.
« Our path is a middle path. »
« The path is like a cow that feeds its disciples with its milk. »
« The dhikr is the food of the heart. »
The dhikr, provided it is practised regularly, gradually clears away desires and impure thoughts. Like animals fleeing hunters and leaving the place: the hunters go into the forest, fire their guns, and all the frightened animals flee at the sound of the shots, then come back a little later in the day. But when the hunters return every day, the animals end up leaving and changing their home for good.
Do not let negative suggestions into your heart, or it will grow impure and dirty, like a stable that is not looked after. Keep your inside clean and pure: the dhikr will bring out whatever impurity remains.
Observing the prescriptions of the divine Law plays the same part as the wax of the cork that stops the liquid spilling out of the bottle. A vessel may be filled with water, but if it is badly stoppered the liquid will escape; you may try to fill it again, it will not keep. That image shows the state of the disciple who practises the dhikr without applying the divine Law.
Applying the prescriptions of Islam is demanding and difficult, but the dhikr makes it easy: the dhakir (the one who invokes) no longer feels its constraint.
It is important to work in the world, for the divine Law requires that one provide for one’s family. It is also important to look after one’s family, one’s husband or wife, one’s children; and one must also attend to the work of the path (the dhikr, the spirit of service…). You have to reconcile these three domains, which are the landmarks of your life; little by little, through the practice of the dhikr, you will sense what is to be done in each situation.
Some of you find it hard to put yourselves at the service of others; if you make the effort to do so all the same, you will gradually free yourselves from the ties that fetter your soul.
The two royal gates giving access to God are invocation (dhikr) and generosity.
The happy man in this world is the one who is turned towards God and who invokes God. The dhakir is happy, for everything that happens to him is dictated by God; everything he does, he does in God’s name. And God does only what is good.
We perceive the outside of things, but the inside is hidden from us and veiled. The body is in this world, but inwardness lies in another dimension, another realm. Gaining access to that inwardness is the whole of the path.
Invocation is the means by which the spiritual bond between the guide and the disciple is established.