Quoted in the Kashiful Ilbas (Removal of Confusion) of Shāykh Al-islam al-Hajj Ibrahim Niasse رضي الله عنه
Translation: Prof Zachary Wright
Via: Anatomy Of Sufism TV
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Concerning the merit of reciting the Qur’ān, our Shaykh al-Tijānī (ra), the Seal of Saints, had this to say in al-Kunnāsh:
"As for the external portion of the hidden, internal degree that being the recitation (tilāwa) of the Qur’ān it relates to the Supreme Assembly, in which there is no ‘where,’ no ‘how,’ and no demarcation. There is only the immersion in the Divine and the Eternal Secret, which cannot be analyzed or known, which no expression captures and no signification realizes. The holder of this degree of the Qur’ān comprehends all remembrance of our Lord, on the tongues all creatures, in the eternal past and eternal future. The means, goal, and end of this degree of recitation are not understood or realized except by its holder, who is the Prophet ﷺ alone.
The reward for reciting the Qur’ān is allotted by degrees according to the ranks of the creation concerned. The degree of the one who is veiled is not the same as the one for whom the secrets of lesser sainthood has been opened.
The degree of this lesser saint (al-walī al-saghīr) is not like that of the gnostic (‘ārif), who has attained the rank of the most truthful (siddīqiyya). And the degree of this gnostic is not like that of the unique and comprehensive saintly pole (qutb). The reward for recitation at each of these degrees reaches a certain limit.
At every degree there is an external reward and an internal reward. As for the external one, it is mentioned in the tradition... As for the degree of the inner aspect, it is beyond definition and likeness. It cannot be measured or quantified, and its essential nature is inaccessible for all eternity to the entirety of created beings.
Even if all the liturgical remembrances were combined, with all the Names, with all the Attributes, with all the good deeds, with all the acts of devotion from the beginning of time till the end, it would fall short of one single letter of the Qur’ān. This is the internal degree."
- Quoted in the Kashiful Ilbas (Removal of Confusion) of Shāykh Al-islam al-Hajj Ibrahim Niasse رضي الله عنه
Translation: Prof Zachary Wright.
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