The Language of the Future
Sufi Terminology
by Murshid F.A. Ali ElSenossi

karb
Distress

(Karb) is that metaphysical state of pressure and yearning for release which occurs for non-existent entities just before their creation. It is the divine sigh of the Nafas ar-Rahman, the Breath of the All Merciful, which brings relief and removes the distress by bestowing the entities with existence. This situation is somewhat reversed for the knower and lover of Allah who has been annihilated in the Source and sent back to the creation to fulfil his duty as Viceregent. It is said that the Sufi is uncreated, and while striving to fulfil his responsibilities towards the creation, he nonetheless experiences the distress (karb) of pressure and yearning for release to return, eternally, to Allah. He spends all of his moments trying to get back to where and how he was before he was!


See also: Beautiful Model Friends of Allah Inviting ecstasy Knowers of Allah Purified One Spiritual Concert Servitude Slave The Sufi is uncreated Trust Viceregent
(Uswa hasana). The Holy Prophet Muhammad al Mustapha (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace) is the beautiful model. Through his perfect example man is given the means of drawing closer, and yet closer, to Allah. The degrees of such nearness depend upon the manner and attitude in which one follows the beautiful model. Those who love Allah and His Messenger more than anything, more than life itself, are the slaves who follow Muhammad al Mustapha in their outer lives and in their inner realities. To approach Allah, the slave must first meet the Holy Prophet Muhammad. This meeting is a Mystery. The Holy Prophet Muhammad, the beautiful model, becomes the slave's inner reality through the unveiling of the Reality of Muhammad. The hadith says, "Who has seen me has seen Allah".
(Awliya). The friends of Allah. These are His Saints. Their knowledge is not derived from reflection. Allah has purified them of that type of knowledge. They possess the opening of unveiling through Allah, the Real, Himself. The awliya are those with unbroken awareness of Allah. These Perfect Men have attained to the highest of all human degrees.
(Tawajud). Inviting ecstasy or 'rushing out to meet ecstasy half way'. The spiritual concert is one of the most powerful means through which ecstasy may be invited. The lover of Allah always contains an inner movement of yearning towards Allah. When Allah keeps His lover at a distance, this inner movement may be very slight. In his longing to be with his Beloved the lover of Allah will use all the available means to 'find' Allah again. This is tawajud. The hadith says, "Weep, and if ye weep not, then try to weep".
(Al 'Arifin/'Urufa). They see and recognize Allah wherever they look. The knowers are bewildered. But this is not the bewilderment of being lost, rather it is the bewilderment of having found Allah. They know that He cannot be known. The knowers are nothing because they are everything.
(Sama'). The spiritual concert or 'audition' or 'listening'. This term refers specifically to the Sufi gatherings where music and song are employed as a means of opening the heart to inrushes of knowledge and awareness. During the spritual concert, the listener may experience ecstasy and find Allah, The Real within that ecstasy. However, before true ecstasy can be experienced the listener must be spiritually mature, having been prepared through discipline and perpetual Remembrance of Allah. Without this initial contraction of spiritual endeavour the expansion of ecstasy will not be real. The Spiritual Concert is not suitable for the novice. True Sama' is a bird which flies from Allah to Allah. Allah is the singer and Allah is the hearer. At this Divine Feast the singer and the hearer become One.
('Ubada). Servitude and bondage. This is the fulfilment and consummation of slavehood ('ubudiyya) when the slave loses himself in the Will of his Lord. 'Ubada is 'the Nearness of obligatory works' which is one of the four stations of Perfection. To realize 'ubuda is to be gifted with a very high degree of Knowledge of Allah. To know that 'the slave is the slave and the Lord is the Lord' is the supreme form of spiritual courtesy towards Allah. The Holy Prophet Muhammad al Mustapha (May the Salutations of Allah be upon him and Peace) is the Beloved of Allah and His Chosen One. No one is more perfect than him. No one can attain to his Knowledge. Yet Allah says in The Qur'an, "Glory be to Him Who carried His slave by night" (17:1). The slave is in bondage ('ubuda). Bondage is Perfection. Bondage is Knowledge.
('Abd). The slave (and worshipper) is the one who is in a state of total and utter submission to the Will of Allah. After having been annihilated in Allah where all duality vanished and distinctions were erased, he returns to creation with perfect courtesy and with the Truth of Certainty that 'the Lord is the Lord and the slave is the slave'. When 'abd is translated as 'servant' it carries the implication that the servant can leave the service of his Master, if he so desires. However, the 'slave' is in total bondage, being utterly dependent upon his Master. All buying and selling transactions have been terminated. The slave belongs to Allah, completely, perfectly and unconditionally.
(Amanat). The Trust was offered to the heavens and the earth, but they refused to carry it, but mankind accepted the Trust. The Trust is to act as a locus of manifestation of the All-Comprehensive Name 'Allah'. The Perfect Man is the one who fulfills this Trust and in so doing becomes worthy of being Allah's representative on this earth.
(Al Khalifah). The viceregent of Allah is the perfected human being who has fulfilled his reason for being. He has carried the Trust which Allah offered to him, the Trust of being the locus of manifestation for the Name 'Allah'. The viceregent is the Perfect Man in whom Allah contemplates His own Name-derived Perfection. No one is called khalifah except through the perfection of the Divine Form within him. It is through His khalifah that Allah enters the world.

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