by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
Text of a speech to a Sufi gathering
Submission means giving yourself to God unconditionally, wholeheartedly, and without seeking anything in return. It means you do not allow yourself to be disturbed by whatever God sends you; rather, you always maintain a cheerful countenance.
Only when the Sufi submits to God’s will is he worthy of God’s special attention and favor. The person who has not surrendered to God is like a non-conductive body which blocks the in-flow of energy emanating from God’s special mercy. When, however, he submits he becomes a conductive body, which receives endless blessings from the source of the power of God’s help.
‘Submission’ means eagerly and gladly welcoming whatever hardship and affliction God sends you, because it is His Will.
‘Submission’ means not questioning anything involving created beings, assuming that whatever seems wrong to you is due to your own ignorance; and being certain that no movement occurs in God’s creation which is not according to His Will, that God is nothing but Absolute Goodness, and that whatever He does is good and right.
‘Submission’ to the Master is the same as ‘submission’ to God, for the Master is God’s representative. The secret of submission to the master, in the beginning, is to practice the etiquette of submission, so that, ultimately you may truly submit to God. When you submit to the Master, the Master is obliged to instruct you in such a way that you may gradually come to submit to God, where the self which stands between you and God disappears.
Once Jonayd was informed that Nuri had been standing in one place in his house for three days and nights, wailing without stopping. Jonayd went over to see him, and said to him, “If you are sure that wailing is beneficial, then tell me why, so that I may share it with you. But if you do not believe that it is beneficial, then submit your heart, so that it may be glad.” Nuri stopped crying and exclaimed, “What a good teacher Jonayd is for us!”
In the words of ‘Ayno’l-Qodhāt Hamadāni:
Those who have been slain
by the dagger of submission
Every moment receive
new life from the Unseen.
The intellect cannot know
from where this mystery comes,
For this group of people
speaks a different tongue.