Junayd Of Baghdad
“My eyes did not see his like. Writers came to hear him for his linguistic mastery, philosophers for the sharpness of his speech, poets for his eloquence, and kalam scholars for the contents of his speech.”
Mu`tazili al-Ka`bi
Dear Readers,
Please find below our weekly pearls of wisdom from Sufi Master; Junayd al Baghdadi. Junayd of Baghdad (Persian: جنید بغدادی) was one of the most famous of the early Persian Muslim ascetics originally from the city of Nahawand in Persia. He lived and died in the city of Baghdad. We hope you’ll find his deep meaningful words helpful in your journey to healing and recovery. Face each day with courage and fortitude and embrace whatever life brings to you.
When he was seven years old, his maternal uncle and spiritual guide Sari took him to the pilgrimage of Hajj with himself. In the mosque of Sanctuary (Masjid al-Haram), among four hundred Sheikhs the question of thankfulness was being discussed. Sari said: O Junaid you also say something. He lowered his head for a few moments and said:
Thankfulness is this, the favors that God has bestowed on you, you should not be disobedient to that favor nor make His favor a means of disobedience.
Junayd al Baghdadi
What is Calamity?
Junayd: Calamity is Heedlessness of the cause of calamity.
What are the things, bestowal from God without any action from the servant.
Junayd : Action is also bestowal from God.
Junayd al Baghdadi on Tasawwuf
“Not the profusion of prayer and fasting, but wholeness of the breast and selflessness.”
“Tasawwuf means that Allah causes you to die to your self and gives you life in Him.”
“It means that you be solely with Allah with no attachments.”
“It is a war in which there is no peace.”
“It is supplication together with inward concentration, ecstasy together with attentive hearing, and action combined with compliance [with the Sunnah].”
“It is the upholding of every high manner and the repudiation of every low one.”
The journey from this world to the next (to give up worldly things for spiritual things) is easy for the believer. The journey from the creatures to the Creator is hard. The journey from the self to God is very hard. And to be able to abide in God is harder still.
Junayd al Baghdadi
“Whoever knows God is only made happy by Him.”
Junayd al Baghdadi
Allah did not bring out a single science on earth accessible to people except he gave me a share in its knowledge.
Our madhhab is the singling out of the pre-eternal from the contingent, the desertion of human brotherhood and homes, and obliviousness to past and future.
The least [peril]that lies within kalam is the elimination of Allah’s awe from the heart. And when the heart is left devoid of Allah’s awe, it becomes devoid of belief.
Al-Junayd defined the Knower (al-`arif) as “He who addresses your secret although you are silent.
About the Sufis al-Junayd said:
“They are the members of a single household that none other than they can enter.”
“The Sufi is like the earth: every kind of abomination is thrown upon it, but naught but every kind of goodness grows from it.”
“The Sufi is like the earth: both the righteous and the sinners walk upon it. He is like the clouds: they give shade to all things. He is like the raindrop: it waters all things.”
“If you see a Sufi caring for his outer appearance, then know that his inward being is corrupt.”
“The truthful seeker (al-murid al-sadiq) has no need for the scholars of knowledge” and: “When Allah desires great goodness for the seeker, He makes him flock to the Sufis and prevents him from accompanying those who read books (al-qurra’).
“We did not take tasawwuf from what So-and-So said and what So-and-So-said, but from hunger, abandonment of the world, and severance of comforts.”
“Among the marks of Allah’s wrath against a servant is that He makes him busy with that which is of no concern to him.”
Ibn al-Qayyim in al-Fawa’id asserts the superiority of the struggle against the ego (jihad al-nafs) over all other struggles and quotes al-Junayd:
Allah said: Those who have striven for Our sake, We guide them to Our ways (29:96). He has thereby made guidance dependent on jihad. Therefore, the most perfect of people are those of them who struggle the most for His sake, and the most obligatory of jihads (afrad al-jihad) are the jihad against the ego, the jihad against desires, the jihad against the devil, and the jihad against the lower world. Whoever struggles against these four, Allah will guide them to the ways of His good pleasure which lead to His Paradise, and whoever leaves jihad, then he leaves guidance in proportion to his leaving jihad.
Al-Junayd said: “[The verse means] Those who have striven against their desires and repented for our sake, we shall guide them to the ways of sincerity. And one cannot struggle against his enemy outwardly except he who struggles against these enemies inwardly. Then whoever is given victory over them will be victorious over his enemy. And whoever is defeated by them, his enemy defeats him.”
A Sufi is like the earth; even if impurities are thrown on it, it will flourish with lush greenery.
