Reflection

The following are excerpts taken from Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad's 'Key to the Garden':

Chapter 34--Reflection (Fikr)

Reflection is the kohl of the inner eye...the roaming of the heart in the meanings of things in order to reach its goal. It is with reflection that one dives for the pearls of higher realities [haqiqa]. If one's reflection is free from flaws, it will attain to the sources of Realization [tahqiq]. It is said that it is the 'lamp of the heart, which renders visible the good and evil which it contains, and what may benefit it or bring it harm.' This is because a heart devoid of reflection is as devoid of light as a dark house, and a heart devoid of light will contain nothing but ignorance, pride and beguilement.

Ibn 'Abbas and Abu'l Darda (may Allah be pleased with them) said, "An hour's reflection is better than a whole night spent in worship."

Al-Hasan ibn Abi'l Hasan said, "Reflection is the mirror of the believer, in which he looks at his works, evil and good."

Ibn 'Atiyya wrote in his commentary on the Quran that his father had been told the following story by one of the scholars of the eastern regions:

I once spent the night in a mosque in Egypt. After I had said the Night Prayer, I noticed a man lying down wrapped in his mantle. We remained awake, however, and prayed through the night. When the adhan was given for the Morning Prayer, the man stood up and [immediately] prayed with the others. I was disgusted by his audacity to pray without wudu. So when the Prayer was finished and the man departed, I went after him to admonish him. But when I drew near to him, I overheard him saying:

A body full up, both absent and present
A heart that's alert, silent in dhikr;
Constricted to others, expanded within
thus is the state of gnosis and fikr.
Spending his nights in reflection
ever asleep, and always awake.

So I left him alone, thinking, "He must be one of those who worship God through reflection."