I am in my believers opinion of Me

This was a poem written by Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi and given to me in the zawiyyah in Bristol Gardens, London in the early 1970s, along with a note he wrote, unfortunately lost, which said words to the effect, ‘he who digs a hole for his brother falls into it himself’, referring to sayyidina Yusuf, alayhi sallam.

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I am in my Believer’s opinion of Me

Hadith Qudsi

This contains a great secret

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Your belief about Him

Is the extent of your knowledge of Him

The extent of your knowledge of Him

Is the extent of your own nafs

The nature of your knowledge of Him

Is none other than your own

Knowledge of your nafs

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Your limiting of Him is the

Bounding about of your own limitless nafs

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You Lord is to you what you are to Him

And there is no escaping this

You will not do other than you intend

You will not hold Him to be other than

What He holds you to believe

For you are confined in His confining of you

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So let your belief in Him soar

Out of all association

That He may release you out of all forms

And all worlds

Realise that you know nothing of Him

Till you surrender your nafs to obliteration

And achieve the goal

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عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ: قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : “يَقُولُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى: أَنَا عِنْدَ ظَنِّ عَبْدِي بِي، وَأَنَا مَعَهُ إِذَا ذَكَرَنِي، فَإِنْ ذَكَرَنِي فِي نَفْسِهِ، ذَكَرْتُهُ فِي نَفْسِي، وَإِنْ ذَكَرَنِي فِي مَلَإٍ، ذَكَرْتُهُ فِي مَلَإٍ خَيْرٍ مِنْهُمْ، وَإِنْ تَقَرَّبَ إِلَيَّ بِشِبْرٍ، تَقَرَّبْتُ إِلَيْهِ ذِرَاعًا، وَإِنْ تَقَرَّبَ إِلَيَّ ذِرَاعًا، تَقَرَّبْتُ إِلَيْهِ بَاعًا(1) وَإِنْ أَتَانِي يَمْشِي، أَتَيْتُهُ هَرْوَلَةً”

رواه البخاري (وكذلك مسلم والترمذي وابن ماجه)