وَعَجِلْتُ إِلَيْكَ رَبِّ لِتَرْضَىٰ
Al Hadhra: Presence
Sirr: Secret essence
Muraqaba: Self-observation.. standing watch at the gates of your heart cleaning it's entrance admitting in what is pleasing to Allah, turning away from what is not.
Mushahada: Bearing witness to divine secrets and meanings and subtle intricacies that are not accessed unless God wills it.
Mukalama: Engaging with the divine secrets as Allah wills.
Ghafla: Being unaware, losing the battle of Muraqaba.
Al Hadhra is the presence of the heart with Allah and is in three parts:
Presence of Heart – Hadhrat Al Quluub
Presence of Spirit – Hadhrat Al Arwah
Presence of Sirr – Hadhrat Al Asrar
Thus the presence of hearts is the domain of those engaged in Muraqaba. The presence of spirits is the domain of those engaged in Mushahada. The presence of the Sirr is the domain of those who engage in Mukalama.
The secret behind this is that as long as the heart keeps turning between Ghafla and Hadhra, then it remains largely in the Hadhra of Quluub [hearts]. Yet if the spirit reclines in its connection to the Hadhra then it is elevated to the presence of Ruuh. And once God-willing the spirit becomes abled and purified and is made a secret of Allah's many secrets, it is called a Sirr and in the Hadhra of Asrar.
Imam Al-Qushaiyri says: And the relatives of Hadhra rank according to their kind tidings of belonging in the breeze of closeness, of which no detailing can describe nor phrase, and no symbol can attain nor signify. There are those ho witness and see it once every week, and those who are never absent from the Hadra for an instant. For they are joined in viewing and vary in terms of each's entitlement. And not each one that views it views it with the same eye that his companion views it with.
And from it comes that which takes the worshipping slave from the circumference of his own senses and drowns him in the sea of divine Hadhra, where he hears and witnesses what minds can barely bear to begin to understand.
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On the manners of Hadhra, speaks Sheikh Abu Ali Al-Daqqaq: Jesus PBUH replied when adressing Allah “if I said it then You knew it” - [Surat Al Ma'idda : 116], he did not say “I said it not” in his minding the mannerisms of divine Hadhra.
As Sheikh Shihabuddin Sahrawardi says: Allah in His Dearest Sublimation says: “neither did the vision waver, nor trespass” - [Surat Al Najm : 17] in keeping with the manners of Hadhra. And this remains a mystery of the mysteries of mannerisms that he was personally-specified for. Thus Allah informed us of the balance of his sanctified heart between turning away and turning towards; turning away from everything but Allah and turning to Allah, leaving behind the earth and swift world with its favors, as well as the heavens and the lasting world with its favors, and did not glance at what he turned away from, nor regret what he may have missed in his turning away.
Sheikh Abul-Hassan Al-Shazli says: The manners of Hadhra are three; constant viewing, listening and making a home for what is received of wisdoms.
Entering the Hadhra:
As the Hadhra is sacred, unblemished and ascended, it is not entered other than by those who have been purified. Thus it is forbidden to the impure to enter the worship-place of Hadhra. The impurity of a heart is it's distraction away from its True Lord. The Most-High has said: “You who have believed do not approach salaat when you are inebriated until you know what you speak, neither in your impurity except in passing until you are cleansed” meaning do not approach the connection/worship of Hadhra while still drunk with the love of dunya [the lower, swift world] and the observation of what is other and less, until you are hightened in awareness and in control of what you speak in the presence of The King. For if the heart takes leave from the home of his desires and is purified from the soils of distractions it arrives at the presence of its Lord and is blessed with witnessing His closeness.
Sheikh Juneid Al-Baghdadi says: It has passed in Allah's old knowledge, that none would enter His Presence except at the hands of one of his slave-worshippers.
Sheikh Ahmad Ibn-Ajiiba says: The will to connect to the Hadhra is for those who are able to dissociate and strong .of dedication.
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Islam Safiyyudin Mohamed