At the core of Islam, and at the core of Sufism, Tasawwuf, is the idea of unity. On the one hand we have illusion and on the other hand we have haqq. Now, illusion is incapable of being unified because it’s illusory and it’s duplicitous. Satan is the hallmark of duplicity. Satan does his work which is creating separation. Satan does his work which is to bring you away from haqq and towards illusion, and to get you involved in illusion, to get you trying to mold illusion to try and make it into your concept of the way things should be.
In haqq, in reality, in haqqiqat, in the higher realm of things there is only one reality which is Allah’s reality. And once you understand that reality belongs to Allah, and it is one of His names, Haqq, Haqq means God, it means reality, it means truth, then you understand that you can’t shape it; you can only move towards it and try to integrate within it. So what happens when this concept becomes clear to you that you can’t shape reality, you begin to change. And all of the qualities within you that try to alter reality, which the way you see it when you’re trying to alter it is illusion, begin to fade away because you realize the futile nature of that. You realize that in that act of trying to alter and shape illusion, you are committing an act violative of unity.
Now, what is unity, and how do we move towards unity, and how do we move away from unity? Let’s use some examples of what the sheikh and the religion have told us are forbidden. Gossip is forbidden, and the Prophet was once asked, “What is gossip?”
And he responded, “It’s talking about other people.”
And the person who asked the question said, “But what if it’s true?”
He said, “If it’s true, it’s gossip. If it’s false, it’s gossip and slander.”
So, there’s a lot of teaching in that hadith, and a big part of it is: keep other peoples’ names out of your mouth. Don’t talk about them. Why, for whose sake? It harms your unity. If you talk about others it harms your unity. How? You’ve created a separation: them and me. There is now duplicity. There is now an outside of you and you. And in Allah’s reality we are all one. Now, if we are all one, then there is a difference between duplicity and unity that we begin and should understand.
The interesting thing is that unity exists at all times. The question is: are you within the circle of unity, or have you excluded yourself from unity? Because if you act in a non-unified way then you’ve excluded yourself from unity, and who is the proponent of this exclusion? Satan. His whispers are constantly gossip and slander, and his proclamation is: get involved in it. And why should you get involved in it? Because you will save the world by letting everyone know what’s going on that they don’t know yet. You are the proclaimer of that which is the truth. You are trying to elevate yourself at the expense of others, believing that somehow your glow increases and their glow decreases. In truth, it’s like swallowing poison and believing it’s going to affect the other person…
