I saw God

Author's name: Mustafa Mahmoud

The Gnostic says that he has thrown me into the lights, which is a pure Sufi experience known only to its people, and no one has a foothold in it except the chosen few who have devoted themselves to love, worship, and sincerity for God in word and deed. Among these is the Gnostic Imam, the pole of his time, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Jabbar ibn al-Hasan al-Nafri, whose words I present in this book as a transmission and explanation of his immortal masterpiece, Al-Mawaaqif wa al-Mukhatabat. What I have included in the following pages is what the Imam said verbatim, or an attempt to explain it, understand it, or extract its meanings. The book is a collection of scraps left by the Imam after his death and collected by his followers. The details of the man's life are unknown, and we know little about him except that he lived in the fourth century AH in the town of Nafar in Iraq. He loved seclusion and spent most of his life in worship and contemplation. These scraps contain a number of lofty religious knowledge and delve into many of the secrets of existence. They speak of the soul, the body, and the ego, and explain monotheism, Islam, and the Quran in a language of extreme depth, rich with truths. Its expressions live in the mind and reside in the depths of the heart, and some of them illuminate the darkness of the soul like a revealing lightning bolt. The book is for the elite who love contemplation, live with the letter, and accompany the meanings, not for the common people who read for fleeting pleasure. It is, after all, a drop from the ocean of truths that were poured out to this ascetic worshipper in his immortal masterpiece, Al-Mawaaqif wa Al-Mukhtabat.