"I want not to want except what He (Allah) wants." - Tayfur bin 'Isa Abu Yazid al-Bistami q.s.

Bayazid al-Bistami was among one of the greatest Sufis of all time. Bayazid's grandfather was a Zoroastrian and had high position in Bastam (north eastern Persia). Bayazid was among the shatta Sufis. Shatta Sufis are those who are enraptured by the Divine love and are annihilated in the Truth. Bistami said: It takes more than two hundred years until a flower such as I grows in the garden of the universe. Abu Saiid, another Sufi of ninth century, said: The world is enraptured by Bayazid, and Bayazid sees nothing except the Divine. Bayazid made a detailed study of the statutes of Islamic law (shari'a) and practiced a strict regimen of self-denial (zuhd). All his life he was assiduous in the practice of his religious obligations and in observing voluntary worship. He urged his students (murids) to put their affairs in the hands of Allah and he encouraged them to accept sincerely the pure doctrine of tawhid (the Oneness of God). This doctrine consisted of five essentials: to keep the obligations according to the Qur'an and Sunnah, to always speak the truth, to keep the heart free from hatred, to avoid forbidden food and to shun innovations (bid'a). He traveled around the world and served more than one hundred teachers and masters, and learned from them all. It is said he took over twelve years for his pilgrim to Mecca. He performed two prayers in every small village and in every stop he made to the house of God. He said: The house of God is not like a king's palace that you can enter whenever you wish and enter fast. When he arrived Mecca, again he performed many prayers.

He said: I stood with the pious and I didn't find any progress with them. I stood with the warriors in the cause and I didn't find a single step of progress with them. I stood with those who pray excessively and those who fast excessively and I didn't make a footstep of progress. Then I said, O Allah, what is the way to You? and Allah said, Leave yourself and come. Bayazid said: I have come to know Allah through Allah, and I have come to know what is other than Allah with the light of Allah. He said: Allah has granted his servants favors for the purpose of bringing them closer to Him. Instead they are fascinated with the favors and are drifting farther from Him. And Bayazid prayed to Allah: O Allah, You have created this creation without their knowledge and You have placed on them a trust without their will. If You don't help them who will help them? A man asked Bayazid: Show me a deed by which I will approach my Lord. Bayazid replied: Love the friends of Allah in order that they will love you. Love his saints until they love you. Because Allah looks at the hearts of His saints and He will see your name engraved (Naqsh) in the heart of His saints and He will forgive you." Many Muslim scholars in his time, and many after his time, said that Bayazid al-Bistami was the first one to spread the reality of Annihilation (fana'). Even that strictest of scholars, Ibn Taymiyya, who came in the 7th Century A.H., admired Bayazid for this and considered him to be one of his masters. Ibn Taymiyya said about him: There are two categories of fana': one is for the

perfect Prophets and saints, and one is for seekers from among the saints and pious people (saliheen). Bayazid al-Bistami is from the first category of those who experience fana', which means the complete renunciation of anything other than God. He accepts none except God. He worships none except Him, and he asks from none except Him. And Ibn Taymiyya continues, quoting Bayazid saying: I want not to want except what He wants. Dhul Nun (Zunun) al-Misri had sent one of his students to Bayazid saying: You sleep, you rest, be aware that caravan will pass you by. Bayazid said: It takes someone like me who sleeps at night but arrives at the destination, before dawn, and before the arrival of the caravan. Upon hearing this Dhul Nun (Zunun) cried saying: we are not at the same level as Bayzid. Bayazid said: Whatever I was searching to find in my purification, mortification, striving, servitude I found in serving my mother. One night my mother woke up and asked me for a glass of water. I hurried to bring her some water. I searched around the house and there was no water in the container nor in the bucket. It was a cold night. I went outside to the spring to get some water. When I came back my mother was sleep. So I stayed beside her bed, with the glass of water. Near dawn she woke up and upon hearing the story she took the water, drunk, and prayed for me. In that morning, I found whatever I was looking for. He said: I made four mistakes in my preliminary steps in this way: I thought that I remember Him and I know Him and I love Him and I seek Him, but when I reached Him I saw that His remembering of me preceded my remembrance of Him,

and His knowledge about me preceded my knowledge of Him and His love towards me was more ancient than my love towards Him, and He sought me in order that I would begin to seek Him. Adh-Dhahabi quoted him in many great matters, among which were: Praise to Me, for My greatest Glory! And: There is nothing in this robe I am wearing except Allah. Adh-Dhahabi's teacher Ibn Taymiyya explained: He didn't see himself as existing any longer, but only saw the existence of Allah, due to his self-denial. Adh-Dhahabi further relates: He said, O Allah, what is your Fire, it is nothing. Let me be the one person to go into your Fire and everyone else will be saved. And what is your Paradise? It is a toy for children. And who are those unbelievers who you want to torture? They are your servants. Forgive them. A prayer remained from Bayazid: Oh, Allah, how long this "you" and "I" remain between You and I. Take this "I" from me so all that remains is "You". Oh, Allah, when I am with You I am greater than all; when I am without You I am nothing. Oh, Allah, my poverty took me to you and Your blessings protected my poverty. One of the followers of Dhul Nun al-Misri was following Bayazid. Bayazid asked him: Who do you want? He replied: I want Bayazid. Bayazid replied: O my son, Bayazid is wanting Bayazid for forty years and is still not finding him. That murid of Dhul Nun then went to him and narrated this incident to him. On hearing it Dhul Nun fainted. He explained later saying: My master Bayazid has lost himself in Allah's love. That causes him to try to find himself again.

Ibn Hajar said, in reference to Bayazid's famous utterances: Allah knows the secret and Allah knows the heart. Whatever Aba Yazid spoke from the Knowledge of Realities the people of his time did not understand. They condemned him and exiled him seven times from his city. Every time he was exiled, terrible afflictions would strike the city until the people would call him back, pledge allegiance to him, and accept him as a real saint. Attar and Arusi relate that Bayazid said, when he was exiled from his city: O Blessed city, whose refuse is Bayazid! Bayazid said: I became like an iron master for twelve years. I put my nafs and ego in the stove of discipline, and prepare it with the fire of striving, mold it on the platform of remorse, hammer it with regret until my nafs became my mirror. I was my own mirror for five years. Until one day when I thought I was the greatest among great learned. As soon as this thought came to my mind, I packed up and went to Khorasan. I stayed in a shelter and promised myself that I would not leave this place unless I receive a message from Allah. On the fourth day I saw a camel rider coming towards me. A thought passed my mind that I could stop that camel right there. The rider looked at me and said: Do not make me to destroy Bastam and Bayazid altogether. I lost my senses. When my senses came back to me I asked him: Where are you coming from? he said: From the side where your promise is kept. Then he said: Bayazid, keep and protect your heart; then he left. It is said after this incident whatever passed through Bayazid's mind would appear in front of him. There is no written book left from Bayzid and we can read about him and his words in Tazkerat-al Olia by Shaykh Faridd'udin Athar q.s.

One time Bayazid said: Allah the Most Just called me into His Presence and said to me: O Bayazid how did you arrive in My Presence? I replied: Through zuhd, by renouncing the world. He said: The value of the lower world is like the wing of a mosquito. What kind of renunciation have you come with? I said: O Allah, forgive me. Then I said: O Allah, I came to you through tawakkul, by dependence on You. Then He said: Did I ever betray the trust which I promised you? I said: O Allah forgive me. Then I said: O Allah, I came to you through You. At that time Allah said: Now We accept you. Every time he had a Divine revelation, he fasten a zunar (a Sufi belt) and he had over seventy zunar. When the time of his passing was close, he went to the altar, put on one zunar, an old reversed rob, backward hat and said: Oh, Allah, this is how I see myself. I am not offering You my life's mortification, my constant prayers, my day and night fasting, You know that nothing will take me from You. I confess that I am shameful, I have nothing, You are the One who has given me all this fortune. I witness that there is no god but You. Your have accepted me. Purify me from my errors, forgive my faults, wash away my shortcomings. Bayazid used to repeat: Allah, Allah and when he was dying he was repeating Allah and said: Oh, Allah, I remembered You only as if I was an ignorant, now that I am dying, I am negligent of worshipping You, and I do not know when I again be at Your presence. It is said he was repeating the zikr of Allah when he died. Abu Musa, one of his disciple, was not there when Bayazid passed away.

He said: I had a dream that I was carrying the universe on my shoulder. I woke up and went to Bayazid to tell him my dream when I found he passed away; and on that morning I was one of the people carrying Bayazid body on our shoulders. I forgot that dream but at night I saw in my dream who said: the universe that you were carrying on your shoulder was my body. Bayazid died in the year of 260 hijrat (881). From Wiyoso Hadi al-Jawi's quotes/poems: What a truth/ Some servants speak about Al-Haqq (the Truth), but they don't even understand Bayazid/Some servants speak about Bayazid, but they don't even know Al-Haqq/ Whoever really knows Al-Haqq, will understand Bayazid/ Whoever really understands Bayazid, will know Al-Haqq/ Allahu Allah. From Tazkerat-al-Olia, we also read the following: Once someone asked Bayazid, "How did you become such a great, learned Sufi?" Bayazid replied, "One night, when I was a child, I left the city to go to the desert. The moon was shining and the world was at peace. Suddenly I had a vision; I saw an illuminated silhouette. The image was so bright that the light of the sun looked like a pale image compared to this illumination. I fell into a state of rapture and a deep feeling of joy came over me. I whispered to myself, 'Oh, Allah, such a beautiful gate, yet empty, such an almighty realm, yet lonesome!' I heard a voice saying, 'The doorstep is empty, not because no one comes, rather no one is admitted to come. This is not the realm of the impure; not many have the honor for admittance.'I thought, from whom in the creation could I call upon to intercede for my admittance and I remembered that the only one

to intercede was the Prophet Mohammad, salute to Him, and I should not call upon anyone but wait for Him to give me permission to enter. It was then that I received a message saying, "Because of such politeness I will raise your name so you will be remembered as Sultan of the Sufis, Bayazid.'" Bayazid said: The voice of revelation echoes in my chest saying: my treasure box is filled with honest servitude and praiseworthy devotion. Offer Me what I do not have. And I say: I offer You my need, my longing and my broken heart. Bayazid said: As long as the servant thinks that there is among the Believers someone lower than himself, that servant still has pride. Bayazid said: In my life of service and devotion to Allah, I ought to have performed a prayer worthy of Him, I thought. So many mornings and nights I performed prayers and every time I thought that this was only worthy of Bayazid and not Allah, so one day I cried and I begged: Oh, Allah, I have tried to worship You as You deserve and pray a prayer worthy of You and I have failed, so there are many among the people of the world who do not pray; take me as one of them. (translator's note: Abu Turab Nakhshabi, Shaghigh Balkhi, Raee, Yaha Muab-i-Razi, were among the accompanies of Bayazid). Munawi related that one day, Bayazid attended the class of a faqih (jurisprudent) who was explaining the laws of inheritance: When a man dies and leaves such-and-such, his son will have such-and-such, etc. Bayazid exclaimed: O faqih, O faqih! What would you say of a man who died leaving nothing but God? People began to cry, and Bayazid continued: The slave possesses nothing; when

he dies, he leaves nothing but his own master. He is such as Allah created him in the beginning. And he recited: You shall return to us alone, as we created you the first time [6:94]. Sahl at-Tustari sent a letter to Bayazid which read: Here is a man who drank a drink which leaves him forever refreshed. Bayazid replied: Here is a man who has drunk all existences, but whose mouth is dry and burn with thirst. Ibrahim Khawwas said: The way that Allah showed to him, with the most delicate word and the simplest explanation, was to 'leave your self-interest in the two worlds, the dunya and the Hereafter, leave everything other than Me behind.' That is the best and easiest way to come to Allah Almighty and Exalted, the most perfect and highest state of affirming Oneness, not to accept anything or anyone except Allah the Most High. Excerpts from: - History and Guidebook of the Saints of the Golden Chain by As-Sayyid Shaykh MH Kabbani - Al-Momenon: The Faithful by MahTalat Etemad-Moghadam Angha - Hadi al-Jawi (Hadi from Java)'s quotes/poems from received e-mails