Sharafuddin Maneri, Hundred Letters-Context Of Letters

By Staff

Tuesday, December 23, 2008, 12:03

The then governor of Chausa, Bihar (Northeast India), Qazi Shamsuddin frequently petitioned the spiritual master Sharafuddin Maneri to send him written instructions for his spiritual advancement; as the governor job and his many responsibilities prevented him from attending the audiences to the saint. Sharafuddin compiled with Qazi's request, writing him a number of letters on various spiritual topics throughout a year around 1346, 1347. They were later copied by Zain Badr Arabi. Soon 'The Hundred Letters' gained fame beyond as well as within the Sufi circles of Bihar.

The English translation done by 'Paul Jackson of the Hundred Letters' are a wonderful read. The quality of the letters in terms of their subject matter and the art of transmitting spiritual advice/ insight are quite extra-ordinary. Dr. Bruce Lawrence in his Foreword says of the letters, "they are unrivaled ... and cannot be surpassed .. as an invitation to experience the Sufi Way as a Sufi Master experienced and described it, to join him in the endless struggle which has been ordained for man alone in the whole created order, to seek perfection while clinging to the pain of love."

This book is by no means just abstraction and talking about ideas but infused with valuable guidelines, insights, well laid out examples that unveils many mysteries with simple parables and recommendations for every seekers of Truth in the Sufi path, the path of purification and love.

I quote portions from few letters and this is an injustice because each letters can only be tasted in its fullness as well as in their flow; one letter sometime carries over the previous ones, yet each has its greatness by its own. These quotes are just a random taste of this great treasure house which this book is.

From Letter # 1: Belief in the Unity of God

..... In the fourth stage (of the belief in the Unity of God), such a surfeit of the dazzling divine light becomes manifest to the pilgrim that every single existing particle that lies within his vision becomes concealed in the very luster of that light just as particles in the air are lost to sight on account of the brightness of the light emanating from the sun. This occurs not because the particles have ceased to exist but rather because the intensity of the sunlight makes it impossible that anything other than this concealment should exist. In the same say, it is not true that a person becomes God - for God is infinitely greater than any man - nor has the person really cease to exist, for ceasing to exist is one thing, and becoming lost to view quite another!

Before your Unique Being, their is neither old nor new: Everything is nothing, nothing at all! Yet He is what He is.How then can we remain separate from You!

When "I" and the "You" have passed away, God alone will remain!

When you look into a mirror you do not see the mirror for the simple reason that your attention has become riveted on your own handsome reflection. You would not, however, go on to say that the mirror has ceased to exist, or that it has become beautiful, or that beauty has become a mirror. In a similar fashion, one can contemplate at God's almighty power in the whole gamut of creation, without any distinction. Sufis describe this state that of being entirely lost to oneself in contemplating of the Unique Being!

A person who attains such a blessed state says: "His very brilliance blinds me to whatever descends!"

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