A Narrative of ʿĪsā (peace be upon him): Unveiling the Reality of the Dunyā
Bismillāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
Ṣalât al-Fâtihi (translated)
O Allah, send blessings upon our master Muhammad,
the Opener of what was closed,
the Seal of what came before,
the Helper of the Truth by the Truth,
and the Guide to Your straight path.
And upon his family,
according to his immense worth and the greatness of his rank.
The Beloved Shaykh Aḥmad Tijānī
— may Allah sanctify his precious secret —
directed hearts toward Allah
and turned his disciples away from the deceptive love of the lower world.
He used to say:
“Love of the lower world is the cause of the severing of one’s bond with Allah.
That is why I do not love it.”
And he also said:
“Wherever you go in this lower world,
in whatever place you may walk,
the Lovers of Allah will find it bitter,
like the taste of the sea.”
For the heart that loves Allah
finds no sweetness
in anything that distances it from Him.
A Narrative of ʿĪsā (peace be upon him)
The Reality of the Dunyā Unveiled
Praise be to Allah,
the One who exists without beginning or end,
without place and without modality;
nothing resembles Him.
And may peace be upon Muhammad ﷺ,
the Seal of the Prophets and the light of hearts.
The Request for Companionship
A man said to our master ʿĪsā (peace be upon him): “O Prophet of Allah, I wish to walk in your company.”
ʿĪsā accepted.
The Three Loaves
They sat by the bank of a river
with three pieces of bread.
They ate two
and left the third aside.
When ʿĪsā returned from the river,
the bread had disappeared.
— “Where is the third loaf?” he asked.
— “I do not know,” the man replied.
The Miracle of the Gazelle
They encountered a gazelle with her young.
ʿĪsā called one of them,
slaughtered it,
and they ate from it.
Then he said: “Rise, by the permission of Allah.”
The young gazelle came back to life
and returned to its mother.
ʿĪsā asked again: “Who took the third loaf?”
Once more, the man said: “I do not know.”
Sand Turned into Gold
In the desert,
ʿĪsā took a handful of sand and said: “Become gold, by the permission of Allah.”
The sand turned into gold.
He divided it into three parts:
One for me,
One for you,
One for the one who took the bread.
The man then confessed: “It was I who took the bread.”
ʿĪsā said: “Take all the gold… and leave me.”
Three Deaths for Useless Gold
Left alone with the gold,
the man saw three bandits approach.
He said to them: “Let us share this gold among us.”
One of them went to buy food.
Satan whispered deceit to him,
and he put poison into the food,
thinking to keep the gold for himself.
Meanwhile,
the other two plotted to kill him upon his return.
They killed him,
then ate the poisoned food
and died in turn.
The gold remained there,
useless and abandoned,
amid three corpses.
The Teaching of ʿĪsā (peace be upon him)
ʿĪsā passed by with his disciples and said:
“This is what the lower world is!
Look at what it has done to them.
Beware of the lower world!”
The dunyā seduces, then destroys.
It attracts, then misleads.
It promises, then kills.
Whoever becomes attached to it
loses the life of this world
and the life of the Hereafter.
Spiritual Conclusion
A lie for a loaf of bread,
murder for a piece of gold,
loss for a desire…
Such is the action of the lower world
upon heedless hearts.
But the Lovers of Allah
find bitter every thing
that distances them from Him.
And that is why the Beloved Shaykh Aḥmad Tijānī
— may Allah sanctify his precious secret —
taught:
“The lower world is the cause of the severing of one’s bond with Allah.
That is why I do not love it.”
The poor servant in Allah
and disciple of Shaykh Aḥmad Tijānī
(may Allah sanctify his precious secret),
Mohammed El Mansour El Mohieddine Tidjani