Rabita as a Communication Tool

The second part is about communication. How can so many people, especially educated ones, not be able to communicate with each other?

Did you miss the first part of this series? You can catch up here…

PRIMARY RULE OF COMMUNICATION: LISTEN

Or do you (O Muhammad) think that most of them listen or use their sense? They are like cattle. Actually, they are farther away (than that) from the path (to Allah). (Al Furqan:44)

What is the first rule of communication? Yes, listen. How hard is it to listen? Make the intention to listen, listen with your ears, brain and heart. You can also listen with your eyes. But everything starts with your intention. Listen carefully and make no assumptions.

Therefore, give good news to My devotees, the ones who listen to advice and follow the best they can. Such are those whom Allah guides, and such are ulul albab. (Al Zumar:17-18)

Rabita, the essence of communication

Make rabita to the person to be able to get the message. Carrying one message from one brain to another is very hard because the conceptions and experiences are not the same. For example, if I say this is sweet, but what is ‘sweet’? It is different for everybody. When I say ‘sweet’, a certain area of my brain lights up. When I say ‘baklava’, another area lights up.

When you make rabita, you increase the magnitude of communication because rabita can give pictures in your mind about what he/she is thinking. Get out of the way and just be. For example, you can make rabita to a bird. Get your own thoughts out.

And Sulaiman was Daud’s heir, and he said, “O human beings, truly we have been taught the language of the birds, and have been given (mastery) over all things. This is really a clear favor.” (Al Naml:16)

Examples of Communication via Rabita

In California, I was experimenting rabita to animals. So there is this fountain which squirts water ten metres high and the birds would fly and drink water in flight at the water that is ten metres high. I made rabita and told them to come back and go back. But I was skeptical, was I really talking to the birds? So I told them to go through the water instead of drinking the top of the water and the birds went straight through the water. It is because your skeptic brain never wants to believe; it says, “I am probably just imagining it, how do I know it is true?” I am seeking the truth, so being skeptical is good. Are you a skeptic? That is good. Be one with the bird. You want to be one so you can understand.

I did not know how it was happening or the process.

Look at the clock, communicate with the clock, be one with the clock, you are one with the clock, feel the tick, feel the gears. It is saying that it needs some oiling.

You can make rabita to the car and see what is wrong.

So communication is important for us. We only need better communication.

This is an edited excerpt of the Online Saturday Sohbet given on November 24, 2007 by Murshid Shaykh Taner Vargonen Ansari and published on sufiview.com on May 17, 2021. The translation of the Qur’an verses are also from Murshid Shaykh Taner Vargonen Ansari.

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