The Language of the Future
Sufi Terminology
by Murshid F.A. Ali ElSenossi
munajat
Private prayer
(Munajat) is a prayer of intimate conversation between Allah and man during which words of love and affection are exchanged and consolation is found for the afflicted heart.
(Muhadathah). Conversation or address. Muhadathah is an address from Allah to one of His knowers. This address occurs in the visible world, as with the Prophet Musa (Peace be upon him) and the Burning Bush.
(Harf). As a letter of the alphabet, harf symbolises the language or expressions with which the Real One addresses His slave. For language to be used there must be two, a duality. There must be the Lord (Rabb) and His slave (Al Abd). The Great Silence is beyond such duality - it is within the Essence Itself.
(Khalwa). The spiritual retreat and seclusion. Initially seclusion is undertaken by physically withdrawing from those outside disturbances which have the potential of distracting one in his contemplation of Allah's Names and Attributes. Ultimately this withdrawal becomes purely spiritual when the heart is in a state of perpetual presence with Allah . Then the lover of Allah is with his Beloved at all times, regardless of the external conditions within which he is situated. Seclusion is the conversation of one's secret awareness with Allah. This is known as 'Khalwa fi Jalwa' (Seclusion within society) - as you are in a private state of seclusion with Allah while going about your everyday activities.
(Kalam-i-tafsili). To attain to the Great Silence one must travel the Path laid down by the Prophets of Allah. In the early stages of the Spiritual Journey the traveller's tongue is in lively motion, full of words and questions and opinions. As he traverses the states and stations, ascending from the book, through the sentences, the words and the letters, his Kalam-i-tafsili lessens and his silence increases. Ultimately, awe and love and bewilderment make him speechless. From circumference to Centre. From multiplicity to Unity. From noise to Silence. From self to Self. Kalam-i-tafsili is the stage of separation.
(Kalam-i -dhati). This Speech is Allah's Speech. It is the Speech of the Essence Itself. Kalam-i-dhati is the Speech of the Source and the Source is the Great Silence. The People of the Essence, Allah's perfect slaves who are drowned in the Source Itself, speak in a silent and wordless language. Their spiritual affinity is total because each one of them drinks directly from the Fountain of Camphor in Paradise and has become one with the camphor. When the drop enters the Ocean there is no necessity for words to be spoken. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace) said, 'He who knows Allah, his tongue becomes silent'. Kalam-i-dhati is the stage of union. Speech without words (kalam-i-dhati) becomes manifest through Speech with words (kalam-i-tafsili).
(Lisan). The tongue indicates the eloquence or language with which Divine Statements enter the hearing of the Knowers of Allah. During the spiritual concert, when the voice of Allah enters the world on the tongue of the singer, the hearer who is receptive and empty of self hears only words issuing from Allah's tongue. The spiritual concert is a bird flying from Allah to Allah. Allah is the tongue of the singer. Allah is the ear of the hearer.
