Martin Lings > Quotes

“- The Azan story -

The five daily ritual prayers were regularly performed in congregation, and when the time for each prayer came the people would assemble at the site where the Mosque was being built. Everyone judged of the time by the position of the sun in the sky, or by the first signs of its light on the eastern horizon or by the dimming of its glow in the west after sunset; but opinions could differ, and the Prophet felt the need for a means of summoning the people to prayer when the right time had come. At first he thought of appointing a man to blow a horn like that of the Jews, but later he decided on a wooden clapper, ndqiis, such as the Oriental Christians used at that time, and two pieces of wood were fashioned together for that purpose. But they were never destined to be used; for one night a man of Khazraj, 'Abd Allah ibn Zayd, who had been at the Second 'Aqabah, had a dream whieh the next day he recounted to the Prophet: "There passed by me a man wearing two green garments and he carried in his hand a ndqiis, so I said unto him: "0 slave of God, wilt thou sell me that naqusi" "What wilt thou do with it?" he said. "We will summon the people to prayer with it," I answered. "Shall I not show thee a better way?" he said. "What way is that?" I asked, and he answered: "That thou shouldst say: God is most Great, Alldhu Akbar." The man in green repeated this magnification four times, then each of the following twice: I testify that there is no god but God; I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God; come unto the prayer; come unto salvation; God is most Great; and then once again there is no god but God.
The Prophet said that this was a true vision, and he told him to go to Bilal, who had an excellent voice, and teach him the words exactly as he had heard them in his sleep. The highest house in the neighbourhood of the Mosque belonged to a woman of the clan of Najjar, and Bilal would come there before every dawn and would sit on the roof waiting for the daybreak. When he saw the first faint light in the east he would stretch out his arms and say in supplication: "0 God I praise Thee, and I ask Thy Help for Quraysh, that they may accept Thy religion." Then he would stand and utter the call to prayer.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“In after-years he would tell of an incident that took place at one of their encampments: "We were with the Prophet when a Companion brought in a fledgling that he had caught, and one of the parent birds came and threw itself into the hands of him who had taken its young. I saw men's faces full of wonderment, and the Prophet said: 'Do ye wonder at this bird? Ye have taken its young, and it hath thrown itself down in merciful tenderness unto its young. Yet I swear by God, Your Lord is more merciful unto you than is this bird unto its fledgling. And he told the man to put back the young bird where he had found it.

He also said: "God hath a hundred mercies,and one of them hath He sent down amongst jinn and men and cattle and beasts of prey. Thereby they are kind and merciful unto one another, and thereby the wild creature inclineth in tenderness unto her offspring. And ninety-nine mercies hath God reserved unto Himself, that therewith He may show mercy unto His slaves on the day of the Resurrection.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“whereas the Arabs were in favour of the man but against the message, the Jews were in favour of the message but against the man. For how could God send a Prophet who was not one of the chosen people? None the less, when the pilgrims brought news of the Prophet to Yathrib, the Jews were interested despite themselves and eagerly questioned them for more details; and when the Arabs of the oasis sensed this eagerness, and when they saw how the monotheistic nature of the message increased the interest of the rabbis tenfold, they could not fail to be impressed, as were the bearers of the tidings themselves.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Hadist riwayat Abu Bakar menyatakan bahwa Nabi bersabda, “Allah mengangkat derajatmu bukan melalui banyaknya salat dan berpuasa, namun berdasarkan kebaikan hatimu.”
― Martin Lings

“Mengenai kebutaan hati dan cara penyembuhannya, Nabi berkata, “segala sesuatu yang berkarat ada pengkilapnya, dan pengkilap hati adalah mengingat Allah.”
― Martin Lings

“Equipped as he is by his very nature for worship, man cannot not worship ; and if his outlook is cut off from the spiritual plane, he will find a “god” to worship at some lower level, thus endowing something relative with what belongs only to the Absolute. Hence the existence today of so many “words to conjure with” like “freedom”, “equality”, “literacy”, “science”, “civilization”, words at the utterance of which a multitude of souls fall prostrate in sub-mental adoration.”
― Martin Lings, Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions

“A’ishah knew well that she could not have the Prophet for herself alone. She was one woman, and he was as twenty men. The revelation had said of him: ‘Verily of an immense magnitude is thy nature.’ It was as if he were a whole world in himself, comparable to the outer world and in some ways mysteriously one with it. She had often noticed that if there was a roll of thunder, even in the distance, his face would change colour; the sound of a powerful gust of wind would likewise visibly move him; and on at least one occasion when there was a downpour of rain he bared his head and shoulders and breast and went out into the open so that he might share the delight of the earth in receiving the bounty of heaven directly upon his skin.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Exoterism is a precarious thing by reason of its limits or its exclusions; there comes a moment in history when all kinds of experiences oblige it to modify its claims to exclusiveness, and it is then driven to a choice: escape from these limitations by the upward path, in esoterism, or by the downward path, in a worldly and suicidal liberalism. As one might have expected, the civilizationist exoterism of the West has chosen the downward path, while combining this incidentally with a few esoteric notions which in such conditions remain inoperative.4”
― Martin Lings, The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy

“Active and Passive Perfection are the Taoist equivalent of the sufi terms Majesty and Beauty.”
― Martin Lings, What is Sufism?

“Umar said: “One day when we were sitting with the Messenger of God there came unto us a man whose clothes were of exceeding whiteness and whose hair was of exceeding blackness, nor were there any signs of travel upon him, although none of us knew him. He sat down knee unto knee opposite the Prophet, upon whose thighs he placed the palms of his hands, saying: “O Muhammad, tell me what is the surrender (islam)’. The Messenger of God answered him saying: ‘The surrender is to testify that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is God’s Messenger, to perform the prayer, bestow the alms, fast Ramadan and make, if thou canst, the pilgrimage to the Holy House.’ He said: ‘Thou hast spoken truly,’ and we were amazed that having questioned him he should corroborate him. Then he said: ‘Tell me what is faith (iman).’ He answered: ‘To believe in God and His Angels and His Books and His Messengers and the Last Day, and to believe that no good or evil cometh but by His Providence.’ ‘Thou hast spoken truly,’ he said, and then: ‘Tell me what is excellence (ihsan).’ He answered: ‘To worship God as if thou sawest Him, for if thou seest Him not, yet seeth He thee.’ ‘Thou hast spoken truly,’ he said, and then: ‘Tell me of the Hour.’ He answered: ‘The questioned thereof knoweth no better than the questioner.’ He said: ‘Then tell me of its signs.’ He answered: ‘That the slave-girl shall give birth to her mistress; and that those who were but barefoot naked needy herdsmen shall build buildings ever higher and higher.’ Then the stranger went away, and I stayed a while after he had gone; and the Prophet said to me: ‘O ‘Umar, knowest thou the questioner, who he was?’ I said: ‘God and His Messenger know best.’ He said: ‘It was Gabriel. He came unto you to teach you your religion.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Few of the Arabs could read, but beauty of speech was a virtue which all Arab parents desired for their children. A man's worth was largely assessed by his eloquence, and the crown of eloquence was poetry.”
― Martin Lings, MUHAMMAD: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Atheism or agnosticism can be the revolt of a virtual mystic against the limitations of exoterism; for a man may have in himself, undeveloped, the qualifications for following a spiritual path even in the fullest sense and yet at the same time — and this is more than ever possible in the modem world — he may be ignorant of the existence of religion’s mystical dimension. His atheism or agnosticism may be based on the false assumption that religion coincides exactly with the outward and shallow conception of it that many of its so-called ‘authorities’ exclusively profess. There are souls which are prepared to give either everything or nothing. The inexorable exactingness of Sufism has been known to save those who could be saved by no other means: it has saved them from giving nothing by demanding that they shall give everything.”
― Martin Lings, What is Sufism?

“Degrees of superiority are also implied by the Revelation in its mention of the heart. In speaking of the majority, it says: ‘Not blind are the eyes, but blind are the hearts within the breasts.’ The Prophet on the other hand, like Prophets before him, said that his heart was awake, which means that its eye was open; and the Koran indicates that this possibility can be shared, if only in some measure, by others also, for it sometimes addresses itself directly to ‘those who have hearts.’ It is reported that of Abu Bakr the Prophet said: “He surpasseth you not through much fasting and prayer but he surpasseth you in virtue of something that is fixed in his heart.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Fixed settlements were perhaps inevitable, but they were dangerous. Their ancestors' way of life had been the nobler one, the life of tent-dwellers, often on the move. Nobility and freedom were inseparable, and the nomad was free. In the desert a man was concious of being the lord of the space, and in virtue of that lordship he escaped in a sense from the domination of time. By striking camp he sloughed off his yesterdays; and tomorrow seemed less of a fatality if its where as well as its when had yet to come. But the townsman was a prisoner; and to be fixed in one place, - yesterday, today, tomorrow - was to be a target of time, the ruiner of all things. Towns were places of corruption. Sloth and slovenliness lurked in the shadow of their walls, ready to take an edge off a man's alertness and vigilance. Everything decayed there, even language, one of man's most precious possessions.   ”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Nobility and freedom were inseparable, and the nomad was free. In the desert a man was conscious of being the lord of space, and in virtue of that lordship he escaped in a sense from the domination of time. By striking camp he sloughed off his yesterdays; and tomorrow seemed less of a fatality if its where as well as its when had yet to
come. But the townsman was a prisoner; and to be fixed in one place, ­ yesterday, today, tomorrow - was to be a target for time, the ruiner of all things.”
― Martin Lings

“the Prophet spoke of the pleasures of the senses and of prayer in the same context: "It hath been given me to love perfume and women, and coolness hath been brought to mine eyes in the prayer." 2”
― Martin Lings, MUHAMMAD: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“To Fatimah he said: “Thou art the highest of the women of the people of Paradise, excepting only the Virgin Mary, daughter of ‘Imran.” In prediction of the great part to be played by ‘Ali as one of the chief transmitters of his wisdom to future generations, he said: “I am the city of knowledge, and ‘Ali is its gate”; and he said in general: “My Companions are even as the stars: whichsoever of them ye follow, ye shall be rightly guided.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“In considering what the religions teach, it is essential to remember that the outside world is as a reflection of the soul of man [...] The state of the outer world does not merely correspond to the general state of men’s souls; it also in a sense depends on that state, since man himself is the pontiff of the outer world. Thus the corruption of man must necessarily affect the whole.”
― Martin Lings, The Book of Certainty: The Sufi Doctrine of Faith, Vision and Gnosis

“Just as he loved sweet scents and fragrance in general, so also he was exceedingly sensitive to the slightest unpleasantness of odour, especially in the breath, in himself and in others.”
― Martin Lings, MUHAMMAD: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Le monde d’aujourd’hui est un chaos d’opinions et d’aspirations désordonnées : le soi-disant « monde libre » est un chaos fluide ; la partie totalitaire du monde moderne est un chaos rigide. Par opposition, le monde ancien constituait toujours un ordre, c’est-à-dire une hiérarchie de concepts, chacun au niveau qui lui est propre. Le chaos a été provoqué, nous l’avons vu, par le « télescopage » humaniste de la hiérarchie jusqu’au niveau psychique, et par l’intrusion, dans les considérations terrestres, d’aspirations vers l’autre monde, frustrées et perverties.

L’homme, en raison de sa véritable nature, ne peut pas ne pas adorer ; si sa perspective est coupée du plan spirituel, il trouvera un « dieu » à adorer à un niveau inférieur, dotant ainsi quelque chose de relatif ce qui seul appartient à l’Absolu. D’où l’existence aujourd’hui de tant de « mots tout-puissants » comme « liberté », « égalité », « instruction », « science », « civilisation », mots qu’il suffit de prononcer pour qu’une multitude d’âmes se prosterne en une adoration infra-rationnelle.

Les superstitions de la liberté et de l’égalité ne sont pas seulement le résultat mais aussi, en partie, la cause du désordre général, car chacune, à sa manière, est une révolte contre la hiérarchie ; et elles sont d’autant plus pernicieuses qu’elles sont des perversions de deux des élans les plus élevés de l’homme. Corruptio optimi pessima, la corruption du meilleur est la pire ; mais il suffit de rétablir l’ordre ancien, et les deux idoles en question s’évanouiront de ce monde (laissant ainsi la place aux aspirations terrestres légitimes vers la liberté et l’égalité) et, transformées, reprendront leur place au sommet même de la hiérarchie.

Le désir de liberté est avant tout désir de Dieu, la Liberté Absolue étant un aspect essentiel de la Divinité. Ainsi, dans l’Hindouisme, l’état spirituel suprême qui marque la fin de la voie mystique est désigné par le terme de délivrance (moksha), car c’est un état d’union (yoga) avec l’Absolu, l’Infini et l’Éternel, qui permet l’affranchissement des liens de la relativité. C’est évidemment, avant tout, cet affranchissement auquel le Christ faisait référence lorsqu’il disait : « Recherchez la connaissance, car la connaissance vous rendra libre », étant donné que la connaissance directe, la Gnose, signifie l’union avec l’objet de la connaissance, c’est-à-dire avec Dieu. (pp. 59-60)”
― Martin Lings, Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions

“One day ‘Umar rebuked his wife for something and she sharply answered him back: and when he expostulated with her she replied that the wives of the Prophet were in the habit of answering him back so why should she not do the same. “And there is one of them,” she added, meaning their daughter, “who speaketh unto him her mind unabashed from morn till night.” Greatly troubled by this, ‘Umar went to Hafsah, who did not deny that what her mother had said was true. “Thou hast neither the grace of ‘A’ishah nor the beauty of Zaynab,” he said, hoping to shake her self-confidence; and when these words seemed to have no effect, he added: “Art thou so sure that if thou angerest the Prophet, God will not destroy thee in His anger?” Then he went to his cousin Umm Salamah and said: “Is it true that ye speak your minds unto God’s Messenger and answer him without respect?” “By all that is wonderful,” said Umm Salamah, “what call hast thou to come between God’s Messenger and his wives? Yea, by God, we speak unto him our minds, and if he suffer us to do so that is his affair, and if he forbid us he will find us more obedient unto him than we are unto thee.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“among the Arabs a gifted poet was like a multitude of men, for his verses were repeated from mouth to mouth. If good, he was a power for good; if evil, a power for evil,”
― Martin Lings, MUHAMMAD: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Not one of you has faith until I am dearer to him than his son and his father and all men together.” But this utterance of the Prophet was not so much a demand as a confirmation of the rightness of a love that had already been given - a love which found its expression so often in the words: “May my father and my mother be thy ransom.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“There was no question of ‘Umar’s keeping his Islam secret. He wished to tell everyone, in particular those who were most hostile to the Prophet. In after years he used to say “When I entered Islam that night, I thought to myself: Which of the people in Mecca is the most violent in enmity against God’s Messenger, that I may go to him and tell him I have become a Muslim? My answer was: Abu Jahl. So the next morning I went and knocked at his door, and Abu Jahl came out and said: “The best of welcomes to my sister’s son! What hath brought thee here?” I answered: “I came to tell thee that I believe in God and in His Messenger Muhammad; and I testify to the truth of that which he hath brought.” “God curse thee!” he said, “and may His curse be on the tidings thou hast brought!” Then he slammed the door in my face.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“A symbol is not something arbitrarily chosen by man to illustrate a higher reality; it does so precisely because it is rooted in that reality, which has projected it, like a shadow or a reflection, onto the plane of earth.”
― Martin Lings, The Eleventh Hour: The spiritual crisis of the modern world in the light of tradition and prophecy

“But work was in danger of invading the Prophet’s whole life, because no voice in all Medina could compare with his for solving a problem or answering a question or settling a dispute. Even those who did not believe him to be a Prophet would seek his help if need be, unless they were too proud...Those who were with him were always loathe to leave him. Nor could they have been blamed if they stayed, for when he spoke to anyone he would turn to him so fully and make him so amply the object of his attention that the man might well imagine himself to be privileged enough for liberties which others dared not take; and when he took a man’s hand he was never the first to relinquish his hold.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Umar came one morning to the house of the Messenger, and as he approached he heard the sound of women’s voices raised to a pitch which he considered unseemly in the prophetic presence. The women were moreover of Quraysh, that is, of the Emigrants, which confirmed his opinion that they were learning bad ways from the women of Medina who for generations had been less restrained and more self-assertive than the women of Mecca. The Prophet hated to refuse a request, as well they knew, and they were now asking him with some insistence to give them various garments which had come to him as part of his fifth in the spoils of war. There was a curtain spread across part of the room, and when ‘Umar’s voice was heard asking permission to enter there was a sudden total silence and the women hid themselves behind the curtain with such speed that he entered to find the Prophet speechless with laughter. “May God fill thy life with laughter, O Messenger of God,” he said. “Wondrous it was,” said the Prophet, “how these women who were with me even now - how speedily upon hearing thy voice they were gone behind that curtain!” “It is rather thy right, not mine, that they should stand in awe of thee, not of me,” said ‘Umar. Then, addressing the women, he said “O enemies of yourselves, fear ye me, and fear ye not God’s Messenger?” “It is even so,” they said, “for thou art rougher and harsher than God’s Messenger.” “That is true, O son of Khattab,” said the Prophet. Then he added: “By Him in whose hand is my soul, if Satan found that thou wert travelling upon a certain path, he would choose to go himself by any other path but thine.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“[...] Pourtant, s’il n’existe pas de moyen infaillible pour permettre au futur disciple d’identifier un Maître authentique par une procédure mentale uniquement, il existe néanmoins cette maxime ésotérique universelle (127) que tout aspirant trouvera un guide authentique s’il le mérite. De même que cette autre maxime qu’en réalité, et en dépit des apparences, ce n’est pas celui qui cherche qui choisit la voie, mais la voie qui le choisit. En d’autres termes, puisque le Maître incarne la voie, il a, mystérieusement et providentiellement, une fonction active à l’égard de celui qui cherche, avant même que l’initiation établisse la relation maître-disciple. Ce qui permet de comprendre l’anecdote suivante, racontée par le Shaykh marocain al-’Arabî ad-Darqâwî (mort en 1823), l’un des plus grands Maîtres soufis de ces derniers siècles. Au moment en question, il était un jeune homme, mais qui représentait déjà son propre Shaykh, ’Alî al-Jamal, à qui il se plaignit un jour de devoir aller dans tel endroit où il craignait de ne trouver aucune compagnie spirituelle. Son Shaykh lui coupa la parole : « Engendre celui qu’il te faut! » Et un peu plus tard, il lui réitéra le même ordre, au pluriel : « Engendre-les! »(128) Nous avons vu que le premier pas dans la voie spirituelle est de « renaître »; et toutes ces considérations laissent entendre que nul ne « mérite » un Maître sans avoir éprouvé une certaine conscience d’« inexistence » ou de vide, avant-goût de la pauvreté spirituelle (faqr) d’où le faqîr tire son nom. La porte ouverte est une image de cet état, et le Shaykh ad-Darqâwî déclare que l’un des moyens les plus puissants pour obtenir la solution à un problème spirituel est de tenir ouverte « la porte de la nécessité »(129) et de prendre garde qu’elle ne se referme. On peut ainsi en déduire que ce « mérite » se mesurera au degré d’acuité du sens de la nécessité chez celui qui cherche un Maître, ou au degré de vacuité de son âme, qui doit être en effet suffisamment vide pour précipiter l’avènement de ce qui lui est nécessaire. Et soulignons pour terminer que cette « passivité » n’est pas incompatible avec l’attitude plus active prescrite par le Christ : « Cherchez et vous trouverez; frappez et l’on vous ouvrira », puisque la manière la plus efficace de « frapper » est de prier, et que supplier est la preuve d’un vide et l’aveu d’un dénuement, d’une « nécessité » justement. En un mot, le futur disciple a, aussi bien que le Maître, des qualifications à actualiser.

127. Voir, dans le Treasury of Traditional Wisdom de Whitall Perry, à la section réservée au Maître spirituel, pp. 288-95, les citations sur ce point particulier, de même que sur d’autres en rapport avec cet appendice.
128. Lettres d'un Maître soufi, pp. 27-28.
129. Ibid., p. 20. - Le texte dit : « porte de la droiture », erreur de traduction corrigée par l’auteur, le terme arabe ayant bien le sens de « nécessité », et même de « besoin urgent ». (NdT)”
― Martin Lings, The Eleventh Hour: The spiritual crisis of the modern world in the light of tradition and prophecy

“A’ishah was at that time in her sixteenth year, old for her age in some respects but not in others. Her feelings were always clear from her face, and nearly always from her tongue. On one occasion the Prophet said to her: “O ‘A’ishah, it is not hidden from me when thou art angered against me, nor yet when thou art pleased.” “O dearer than my father and my mother,” she said, “how knowest thou that?” “When thou art pleased,” he said, “thou sayest in swearing ‘Nay, by the Lord of Muhammad’, but when thou art angered it is ‘Nay, by the Lord of Abraham’.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

“Jealousy was inevitable in the Prophet’s household, and he did his best to make light of it. Once he came into a room where his wives and others of his family were assembled, and in his hand was an onyx necklace which had just been given to him. Holding it out to them he said: “I shall give this unto her whom I love best of all.” Some of the wives began to whisper wryly to each other: “He will give it to the daughter of Abu Bakr.” But when he had kept them long enough in suspense, he called his little granddaughter Umamah to him and clasped it round her neck.”
― Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources