Spiritual Insight 05
“The Spiritual Child,
And The Name of Our Spiritual Guardian”
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Written by: Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler)
on March 3, 2000
Wisdom Point: The Name “Bawa” Gives Us
Is The Name Of Our Spiritual Guardian,
Not Our Name
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Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. Al-salam 'alaykum. May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon all of us.
My love you (anbu), my dearest brothers and sisters - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen
(Louie Beutler).
After being with Bawa for about 6 years I was once again at the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in Philadelphia, and Bawa was again in Ceylon. I was doing prayers in front of the Light Box that Bawa put up at the Fellowship, the Light Box that is over the chair that Bawa sat in when He talked formally to large groups of people, usually every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday evening, when His health would permit.
I was sitting down on the floor in front of the stage upon which Bawa's chair was sitting, when all of a sudden Bawa shook me very hard by the shoulders, like He was directly behind me, and said very clearly,
"Come to Ceylon!"
Then He repeated it twice.
"Come to Ceylon! Come to Ceylon!"
After recovering from the shock of receiving such a miraculous invitation, and briefly reflecting upon it, I said,
Bawa, "How can I come to Ceylon? I have no money, and I have no vacation time
let from my job".
This was about the 10th of December and I was working at Burroughs Corporation in Philadelphia as a Computer Systems-Programmer.
And Bawa said to me again, very clearly and sternly,
"Come to Ceylon!"
And then I said,
"Yes Bawa, I will come".
In two weeks the money came, in the form of a bank loan, and a 3 week vacation period came, in the form of the Christmas holidays, and 2 weeks of vacation stolen from the next calendar year, and on Christmas morning, December 25th , I walked into Bawa's room in Ceylon.
Such is the grace of God, and the love of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him).
The three weeks with Bawa in Ceylon was miraculous, to say the least, and again my life changed forever. By this time Bawa had started the 5 times of prayer in Ceylon, the traditional Salat in Islam, and I was given the job to give the call to prayers at each time of prayer.
Life was so much better wrapped around the 5 times of prayer, and living in a community were everyone did the prayers, and valued and looked forward to the call to prayer. The girls were especially appreciative of my efforts because I had a strong loud voice and they told me that it helped them get up in the morning.
Al-hamdu lillah. All praise and praising belongs to Allah alone, to God, the One of limitless grace and incomparable love.
When I first got to Ceylon most of the boys had gone to Jafna, the northern part of Ceylon, to paint the Mosque or House of God, that Bawa had finished building in Jafna when the American children first came to Ceylon in 1972. He had started this House of God at the request of the Virgin Mary (A.S.) who had come out of the ocean and requested that Bawa built such a structure over the top of Her grave site. But Bawa had stopped construction at a certain point, saying, We must wait for those who can truly pray to come and finish the building of this House of God.
When I got to Ceylon Bawa was living in Colombo, the Capital of Ceylon, where He had come at the invitation of some members of the Islamic community in Colombo, to teach them about God. Prior to that, Bawa lived in Jafna for many years. He had a Ashram in Jafna where He lived with His Spiritual Children, maintaining a farm near by, and daily feeding and caring for hundreds of people from the Jafna area.
The people in Jafna were mainly Tamil speaking Hindus. It was they who had found Bawa in the southern jungles of Ceylon while on Spiritual Pilgrimage, and had invited Bawa to come to their village in Jafna and teach them about God. In the same way, the Children in America, hearing about Bawa from one of His Spiritual Children, invited Bawa to Philadelphia to teach them about God. Such is the duty of our Father, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him).
As part of sending the boys to Jafna to paint the House of God, Bawa gave all of the boys an Arabic name, saying, they should have an Arabic name if they were going to work on the Mosque in Jafna.
Now I was faced with a problem, that would shape the rest of my life, and how it was solved would shape how I solved all problems in the future. Here was the problem. Bawa had given all the boys an Arabic name, and I was now assigned the job of giving the call to Islamic prayers. So an Arabic name for this child seemed to be natural. However, I had not come to Ceylon nor did I stay with Bawa for an Arabic name.
On one level I didn't want an Arabic name. I already had a name. But now everyone around me had an Arabic name and were enjoying using them, and addressing each other in them, and that was nice. But on another level, I didn't care whether I had an Arabic name or not. If that was part of the path, that was ok by me.
But the problem was that I did not know what to do. So, through the grace of God, I did the one right thing. I did nothing, and I gave the problem to Bawa within my heart. I knew that He knew. By this time I knew that He knew everything about me. And I knew that He knew that I knew. So it was His problem not mine. This clarity is firm now, at the writing of this letter, but at the time, I was not so clear. So I kept handing the problem to Bawa in my heart, looking for the right thing to do.
After being with Bawa for two weeks in Colombo He sent me to Jafna, to visit the House of God that He had finished building with the Children from America, and which the boys had just finished re-painting. I went on this journey with two other American children and with one of the Colombo children, Kamil, as our guide. We went by rail to Jafna, and after staying in the Ashram in Jafna overnight, and getting up for morning prayers, we then went for the day to the House of God.
The House of God, which is called Monkubon, is built right on the ocean, about 100 feet from the ocean, with a man made causeway taking you from the main town of Jafna out to this beautiful sight. We drove up as the sun rose, and we left as the sun set.
It was a Friday, which is the traditional Islamic day of prayer, and its was the Mauloud or celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of God be upon Him), which was celebrated in the afternoon at the House of God by hundreds of people from Jafna, who all loved and adored Bawa, as their Spiritual Father.
In this incredible setting of prayers and celebration, of love and unity like I had never before experienced, after actually swimming in the ocean like a pearl diver, and drinking from the well that Bawa dug right next to the House of God, which Bawa said is the same water that comes up in Mecca, known as the Zum Zum water, the pure water of God, and after wanting to never leave, but being forced to leave with my brothers and sisters at the end of the day, Bawa had answered my prayer, what should I do about an Arabic name?
And the answer was so very simple. I should leave it up to Him. I should ask Bawa “If it was appropriate for me to have an Arabic name?”
If it was, that's fine. And if it wasn't, that also was fine. I should transcend my desire for being named, for having a name, and let God give me any name He wants. And taking this understanding to completion, I should transcend all of my desires and all of my connection to the world, in order to learn about Islam, in order to learn about the purity of God, the radiance of God that is reflected from the pure Heart of a True Man.
That is Islam, my dearest loving brothers and sisters, the Light of God reflected in the mirror of our heart. And that is what Bawa is always inviting us to experience. That is why He called me to Ceylon. That was the test that I had to pass, that we all have to pass in the School of God that we have come to. Please think about this.
Please join with Bawa to end your desires for the world and your connections to this world. Only that will liberate your soul, only that will liberate Jesus (A.S.) from the cross of your elemental body, and allow your soul to join with wisdom, and the light of wisdom, the Nur, and obtain eternal life. Only then will your life be successful.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh Ruler of all the Universes.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh The Mercy of all the Universes.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh The Compassion of all the Universes.
Al-hamdu lillah - all praise and praising belong to Allah alone,
to God, the One of limitless grace and incomparable love.
Allahu Akbar - only God is great.
The rest of my life is history. After returning from Jafna, I asked Bawa “if it was appropriate for me to have an Arabic name?
And He said, “Yes”, and proceeded to give this child the name of Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.).
But before Bawa gave me that exalted name He did something that it has taken me many years to begin to understand and appreciate.
When I asked Bawa my question He was sitting on the balcony in His room in Colombo, and after He said, “Yes”, that it was appropriate for me to have an Arabic name, but before He gave me the name of Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.), He looked out over the balcony, where there was only air, and started to talk to people who were not there, at least were not there for us to see.
It was as if He had gathered a large group of people together and were negotiating with them over this child, and He was pleading my case, using the evidence collected to justify a certain action. And the result of that pleading on one level was the name of Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.).
But what I have begun to realize over the years since this occurred was that His pleading to the group was not to give me the name of Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.), but rather for someone within that exalted group to take me on as their child, for someone in that exalted group to become the Spiritual Guardian for this child, to look after this child, and pull this child up to their level, if I cooperated, if I let go of everything that they had let go of, of everything that God had discarded.
And the end result of these negotiations, for reasons only known by God, that Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) accepted this child as His responsibility, as a child under His care, as a child under His guardianship. It is certainly not the other way around.
Such is the true significance of the names that His Holiness has given us, they are the names of our Spiritual Guardians, not our names. And if our Spiritual Guardians are successful in pulling us out of our desires and our attachments to the world, if they are successful in ending our dreams of separation and differences, if they are successful in ending our lives of arrogance, karma, and illusion, then and only then will we become one with them, will we become those names.
May God grant us the grace to join with our Father, who is all of those Spiritual Guardians, and join with the specific Spiritual Guardian that has accepted us under their wing, to become worthy of their trust and their efforts, and put down all that is separating us from God. Amen. May God complete this intention.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rabil Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh Ruler of all the Universes.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rahman Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh The Mercy of all the Universes.
Amen, Amen, Ya Rahim Alameen -
So be it, So be it, Oh The Compassion of all the Universes.
Al-hamdu lillah - all praise and praising belong to God alone.
Allahu Akbar - only God is great.
Al-salam 'alaykum wa-rahmat Allah wa-barakatuhu kulluh -
May all the peace, the beneficence, and the blessings of God be upon you.
My love you (anbu) - Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Louie Beutler).
“The End”
of “Page 08” - Spiritual Insight 05,
of “The Spiritual Child,
And The Name of Our Spiritual Guardian”
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