Path of God's Bondsmen Quotes

“This world’s good fortune is indeed pleasant, But do not give it your heart—it kills all its lovers.

Whomever it caresses like a king, it will cast down like a pawn. This world with its good fortune is like a mirage—It entices you on, then gives you no water.

Many a king and a minister the heavens have made, Given them kingship and treasure, a crown and a throne; Then arranged all things at their pleasure, And humbled all mankind before them. Thus they became as rich as Nemrod, And each was the pharaoh of his own age. They sucked the blood of the poor, And drew out the brains of the wretched. All were busy with months and with years, All deceived by their pomp and their wealth.

Suddenly the hurricane of wrath began blowing, And pulled them from the throne onto the bier.It delivered their bodies to festering clay, And their kingdom into the hands of the enemy. Their burden of guilt they bore off to the hereafter, While their wealth remained here, for others to feast on. But he whom God caressed with His favor, Who discerned good and evil in God-given light, He knew the difference between the light and the fire, And gave not his heart to this abode of deceit. He perceived what in this life has lasting effect And hastened to righteousness for the sake of the next.

His concern was this: How from this stage Might he move forward in joy and contentment? All that he had—kingship, treasure,

and throne—With him he took and left not an atom behind. When it was time to depart, then he departed, Aided by a hundred thousand supports.”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“The cure for this evil is that whenever the king’s peacocklike soul gazes upon its wings of kingship and monarchy and, taking pleasure in them, desires to fly off to the realm of arrogance and tyranny, he should look at his black feet of helplessness and impermanence and recall his own origins: “Did We not create you from a vile liquid?”

He will see that in the beginning he was a lowly drop of liquid, and in the end will be a lowly handful of dust, and that meanwhile he is prisoner to a mouthful of food and a drop of water, without any control of how these pass through him, so that if they are blocked up within him he will be content to renounce the kingship of both worlds for the sake of relief. And with all this, each moment he anticipates the coming of fate’s flood totally to destroy the ruined traces of life’s house, from which the rotation of the heavens, with the succession of night and day, has been removing one brick after the other. What cause is there for pride in such a state, and what reliance can be placed on such fortune?”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“It is not worth harming an ant for the sake of this whole faithless world; why then should the intelligent offend God and men for the sake of it?”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“The manner of this is the following: When the soul becomes assured, gains
mastery over the two attributes of passion and anger, and experiences the taste of
the summons “return,”²⁶ it will cause passion and anger to turn away from the
lower to the higher world, so that the object of their desire will be nearness to God
Almighty, not the pleasures of the animal and bestial world. When passion desires
to ascend, it becomes all love and affection; and when anger strives upward, it be-
comes all zeal and high aspiration. The soul turns to the Divine Presence with love
and affection, and in its zeal and high aspiration refuses to stop at any station or to
pay attention to aught but the Almighty Presence. These two instruments, passion
and anger, thus become the most complete means for the spirit’s union with the
Presence.”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“If the attribute of anger passes the bounds of equilibrium, evilness of temper,
arrogance, hostility, irritability, violence of disposition, obstinacy, tyranny, insta-
bility, mendacity, pride, boastfulness, self-exaltation, and rebelliousness will arise.
And if anger cannot be expressed, rancor will appear in man’s inner being. If the at-
tribute of anger is, on the other hand, deficient and subjugated ab initio, lack of
zeal, pride and honor, sloth, lowliness, and impotence will result. And if the at-
tributes of passion and anger are both dominant, envy will emerge, because by
virtue of the dominance of passion one will desire anything likable he sees in the
possession of another, and by virtue of the dominance of anger he will not wish
that person to enjoy its possession. Envy means that you desire to have what an-
other possesses, and do not desire him to possess it.”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“The two attributes of passion and anger must then be maintained in a state of
equilibrium, to avoid descent to the animal and bestial station, and to prevent the
emergence of other reprehensible attributes. For if passion crosses the boundary
of equilibrium, cupidity, greed, expectation, vileness, abjection, lust, miserliness,
and treachery will appear. Equilibrium of passion consists in exercising the prop-
erty of attracting benefit only to the extent of essential need, and only at the time of
need. For if the soul desires more than it needs, cupidity will emerge; and if it
desires before the time of need, greed will arise. If it desires to provide for the fu-
ture, expectation will appear. If it desires something lowly and abominable, vile-
ness and abjection will result. If it desires something elevated and pleasurable, lust
will arise. If it desires to preserve something, miserliness will result. All this be-
longs to the category of profligacy, and “Truly He loves not the profligate.”¹⁶ And if
the soul fears that spending may cause it to suffer poverty, cowardice will arise. If
the attribute of passion is, by contrast, deficient and subjugated in man’s original
disposition, effeminacy, neutrality, and lowliness will result.”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“Indeed, the refinement and training of the
soul consists in restoring the attributes of anger and passion to a state of equi-
librium, and the balance in which they are to be weighed is the code of the Law, ob-
served in all matters. Then both soul and body will remain healthy, and intellect
and faith will advance; and each of these will be used in its proper place, according
to the command of the Law. In obedience to the Law, man should earnestly fear
God, and not strive to seek dispensation,¹⁵ for the Law and the fear of God are a
balance which maintain the attributes in a state of equilibrium, preventing some
from prevailing over others. Disequilibrium would be the state of animals and
beasts of prey, for in animals the attribute of passion prevails over that of anger,
and in beasts of prey the attribute of anger prevails over that of passion. Of neces-
sity, animals are therefore given to greed and lust, and beasts of prey to conquest,
wrath, and dominance, to killing and hunting.”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“Passion is a downward inclination and tendency, and thus God says, “by the star when it declines,”¹⁴ that is,
“when it descends.” It is also said that this verse refers to the return of the Prophet,
upon whom be peace, from his ascension, and his descent to the lower from the
higher world. This downward inclination and tendency is a property of water and
earth. Anger, by contrast, is self-exaltation, arrogance, and dominance, these being
the attributes of wind and fire. The two essential attributes of passion and anger
are, then, inherited by the soul from its mother. They are also the substance of
which hellfire is made and from them are derived the degrees of hell. Nonetheless,
they must of necessity be present in the soul so that through passion it may attract
benefit and through anger repel harm. Thus its being survives and is nurtured in
the world of generation and corruption.”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“The perfection of human happiness lies in the refinement of the soul, and the completion of man’s wretchedness lies in abandoning the soul to the demands of instinctual nature. Hence God Almighty said, after invoking a multiple oath: “Truly he
prospers who refines it, and he fails who corrupts it.” For the refinement and training of the soul yields knowledge of the soul, and knowledge of the soul leads to
knowledge of God: “He who knows his soul knows his Lord.”⁴ This knowledge is
the summit of all felicity. Here a subtle point arises: Until you know the soul, you
cannot train it, but until you bring the soul to perfection, you cannot gain that true
knowledge of it which results in the knowledge of God. A complete explanation
would fill numerous books, but here some useful indication will be given, clear and
concise, if God, Unique and Almighty, so wills.”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return

“Know that the soul is an enemy with the appearance of a friend. Its guile and de-
ceit are unbounded, and to repel its evil and subjugate it is the most important of
tasks. For it is the most hostile of all enemies, more so than demons, infidels, and
the life of this world. It has been said that “there is no believer without four
enemies,”³ and of the four the soul is the greatest enemy. Hence the Prophet said:
“Your most hostile enemy is your soul, enclosed between your two sides.”
― Najm Razi, Path of God's Bondsmen: From Origin to Return