The Practice

of Intent
 The Practice of Intent: Salat, Meditation & Journaling
As outlined by Shaykh Ebrahim Schuitema
By Saleem McGroarty

Introduction
This matter of ours is about freedom. It is a freedom of such magnitude, that its price is everything
in existence and its prize is the whole of existence. There is no higher aspiration and it is therefore
worthy of utterly single-minded commitment. In the face of this quest all other pursuits are trivial.

By me having accepted the role of a shaykh the first thing you should understand is that there is
very little I can do for you. There is also not a lot you can do for yourself, other than to cast yourself
into practice with single minded intent.

In this pursuit you will discover that success lies on the other side of failure and it is always brought
to you by a design which is utterly inexplicable and completely outside of your ingenuity. You have
to have expended all of your own resources first, though, before you can really say in your heart of
hearts 'I give up, I submit'. In other words, 'I am in the state of Islam'. To be graced by this
patterning of intent is to encapsulate the whole of existence in the Totality of the Self. Not to
discover this, is to spend a life in terror from the inevitable crushing by the Totality of the Other.

This journey is about the cultivation and polishing of intent. In this process the first thing one needs
to do is take the flying carpet called the musallah (prayer mat) off the wall as an object of worship
and stand on it. The deen of Islam is a technology of transformation, and it is ruined in the hands of
the sanctimonious who seek to turn it into a cultural identity. As a technology of transformation it is
staggeringly powerful. So, a good place to start is with the basics. If you are not praying regularly
then do so, five times a day, also maintain all the other pillars of Islam, fasting, paying alms, etc.

Beyond this I recommend that you start keeping a daily journal or diary (any voyage of discovery
has a ship's log). The effect of this is to deliberately pull you out of the minutiae of day to day
events and to see things from an increasingly higher perspective. I would also recommended a daily
meditative practice to help silence inner dialogue and to facilitate a change in that dialogue from an
ambience of resentment to an ambience of gratitude.

We do not exist as individuals. Acting in the best interest of the other is acting in your own highest
interest. This is the key to the world that we are going into. The epoch of competitive self interest
has brought us to the brink of catastrophe. We either act consistently with the highest possibility of
our own intent or we are done for. That said the key issue with practice is that it is about individuals
and not about collectives, the idea running alongside this is that there is only so much that we can
do as individuals. A healthy society can only be created when its members are sound individuals.
We are living in critical times and these times demand that everybody becomes the authority. If you
find any of the following practices useful it is imperative that you pass them on to others as this
matter is about the survival of our planet.

We must try to get as many people as possible to give up their own agenda and to learn how to be
receptive so that they can see what Allah is bringing to them. Islam or submission means that you
forego what you are focussing on and your own agenda and you allow or open up your attention to
see what Allah is bringing to you. Our position can be summarised as the cultivation of receptivity
and gratitude, illustrated with the simple formulae: “We are here to give, not to get”, “We are here
to serve Other not Self.” This is essence of our journey and the purpose of the following practices.

Shaykh Ebrahim Schuitema

 Salat (the formal prayer)
“What is life but the five daily prayers and waiting for death.”

Method

When you walk onto the musallah become present by bringing your attention into the room. Look
around the room and visually identify three things in the room, then identify three sounds, rest your
attention on both. Then look down, identify three points on your prayer mat, rest your attention on
them. After you have done this say your takbir.

Explanation

The essence of the salat is in the postures. If we execute the postures mindfully we cultivate
awareness. A persons salat is accepted, accepted meaning transformative and useful to them, if they
do the postures deliberately, because the postures say something to you entire being. Ruku is saying
something to your entire Being, sajdah is saying something to your entire Being.

Where we are trying to get to, is a place where our awareness functions super-rationally, on an
absolutely intuitive level of seeing. That place is not to be found on the other end of a rational
discourse. This seeing essentially begins to operate when you stop thinking. The Arabic recitation in
the salat cultivates this effect.

The reason why we put our attention into the room is in order to become present. Being present is
being present in the room, in the place where you are. The salat is only meaningful if the person
doing the salat is actually present doing the salat. If you are not present, then the person performing
the salat is absent, so what does that salat mean? It has no meaning. With this method you will
notice a profound effect that it will have on your salat, by making sure that your attention is on the
musallah before you say you takbir, it becomes a totally transformative salat. You can use the
shortest surah’s that you like, do it minimalistically and you will find that it will be of more benefit
than the way that you were performing it before.

In terms of the Arabic I would suggest a little experiment. Find a recording of some well recited
Arabic Quran and listen to it alone for maybe 15 or 20 minutes. Don't try to understand it or read
anything at the same time. Just sit comfortably, keep your eyes closed and rest your attention on the
recitation. Let it flow through your being without interrogating it, judging it or seeking to
understand it. Do this twice a day for a few days and reflect on how you feel afterwards.

What I would also suggest is that you work with a very limited set of surah’s at the outset (Fatiha
and the three Quls, for example) and learn what the Arabic means so that you can muse reflectively
on the meaning while you are reciting in Arabic. Use these for a number of months until the
meanings become absolutely intuitive and second nature. After having done that add one more to
your repertoire. Only recite those surah’s that you have included in your being understood category
for your salat.

You can also recite the following Wird once or twice a day:

Astaghfir Ullah x 33 Surah Ikhlas x 3

Masha Allah x 33 Surah Falaq x 1
Subhaan Allah x 33 Surah Nas x 1
Hasbun Allah wa Ni’mal wakil x 33 Surah Fatiha x 1
La Illaha il allah x 100 Dua for whatever you wish,
Salawat x 10 your shaykh & all the Darqawi shaykh’s
 Meditation
“Deliberately pull yourself out of the minutiae of day to day events to see things from an
increasingly higher perspective.” Shaykh Ebrahim.

Method

Make sure that you are sitting comfortably, sit on a pillow if you like, cross your legs and keep your
back straight. Look around the room and visually identify three things in the room (they can be
red/black/green), then close your eyes and identify three sounds, the furthest away first, then bring
them closer.

Close your mouth and rest your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Breath deep from the belly
through the nose. Scan the body for any tension, if you find any let it go, after this process finally
bring your attention to your breathing. Then breath in with the syllable “Al” and breath out with
“llah”, thus forming the full word “Allah”. Don’t articulate the name with your tongue. It is as if
you are hearing it being whispered on your breath. When your attention wanders to something else,
bring it back to your breath. Try to slow down your heart rate and relax, try to quieten your mind.
Sit for minimum 20 min’s, ideally 40 min’s. Take a minute or so to come out. The ideal time for
this is just before of after the Fajr salat.

Explanation

This practice seeks to achieve two things: (1) silence internal dialogue, (2) change the nature of
whatever internal dialogue is left into something benign.

The key to meditation is ‘resting your attention’ and not focussing. When you rest your attention on
the three sounds don’t focus on them we are ‘listening’ rather than ‘looking’ at the sounds. If we
liken this to computer programs we want to have the three programmes ‘running in the back-
ground’, not being used, but still present. Then we rest our attention on the sound of our body. We
listen to what our body is telling us, its present story. This conversation takes the form of sensations
in the body.

We are focussing in order to let go, in order to develop a ‘receptive’ way of using our attention.
When your attention wanders in the meditation just bring it back and this is in the spirit of, “when
you forget, remember”, because “when you forget, remember” has no judgement in it, you are not a
‘bad’ person if this happens, just pull it back and get back in the saddle again. Through this process
we are putting a bridle on an animal that has never been ridden before. Very few people try to ride
their attention in this manner, so it will resist you, it will try to buck you and it will be a long period
of befriending, domesticating and breaking in this wild horse.

The aim of the meditative practice is to learn to silence or find the dimmer switch of your internal
dialogue. We want to turn the volume of; our senses right up, our inner dialogue right down, to then
rest in the silence of Being. This is in order learn how to completely withdraw all attention from
thought, so that we can give full attention to what Allah is putting in front of us in the moment that
we are in. This should give an eloquence and skill working with your attention which can then be
applied to all aspects of your life, especially your Islamic practices like salat, dhikr, fasting etc.

It is also recommended at this time to engage in some kind of bodily activity e.g. Martial Arts or
Yoga, but with as little text running around our mind as possible. When we commit to ‘process’
instead of ‘results’ its by-product is the effect of quietening us down, as it roots our attention in the
present and this affects the quality of our consciousness in a positive and transformative way.
 Keeping a Journal
“Your day is a letter of correspondence from Allah to you, the moments are his words and the flow
of the day is His grammar.” Shaykh Ebrahim.

Method

At the end of each day try to make an entry into a journal or diary for as long as feels right for you
about what happened to you that day or what was significant to you. To write a little consistently is
better than writing a great deal inconsistently. At the end of the week read what you wrote
everyday, then write a summary of that week. Every month read the 4 weekly summaries and write
a summary of that month. Then every quarter read the three monthly summaries and summarise
them and every year you read the four quarterly summaries and summarise the year.

Explanation

The basic assumption that lies behind the intention of keeping a journal of your life experience is
that your life is a conversation with Allah. The other that He presents to you in the moment you are
in are the words He uses and Time is the grammar or syntax. So when you walk through life assume
nothing that happens to you is arbitrary (determined by chance, based or subject to individual will
or judgement). There is a conversation going on between you and your Rabb (Lord.) We are
constantly walking through patterns of meaning, everything around us is meaningful at any given
time. The world is God’s text to be read and learn from.

So what the journaling does is it gives us the opportunity to abstract, to literally pull ourselves
‘back’ from day to day events, it allows us to pull back further and further in order to see the much
bigger picture. Most of us can’t see the wood for the trees because we are stuck with our faces
pressed up to the glass of the events and experiences of our lives. With the journaling we are trying
to learn to see the wood and the trees.

Another outcome of journaling, similar to the meditation, is to try and change the nature of our
internal dialogue from having any resentment or ill feeling into that of a feeling of gratitude. Its by-
product is to see the blessing that is always present. Journaling over a period of time colours the
register of internal dialogue from an ambience of resentment, which is the nature of 21st century
man, to an ambience of gratitude.
 Attention

“He who flows [attentive] with the changes that come upon him is free, whereas he who is
reliant [focused] on things is their servant and existence owns him.” Shaykh ‘Ali al Jamal.

The following is applicable and relevant to all of the practices described above.

The phrase “rest your attention” used above was very deliberate, because when we focus on
something it is very difficult to keep our attention on anything else. The moment that we focus,
many things suddenly appear and clamour for our attention. One of the effects of this is that we
notice how much of a competition there is going on for our attention.

We can only focus on one thing at a time, whereas we can give our attention to many things at the
same time. When we focus on one thing we have to fight to keep other things out, but we can ‘rest
our attention’ on many things at the same time.

Therefore attention and focus are not the same thing. For example you can focus on one thing but
also but also pay attention to something in your peripheral vision. In other words you can give
attention to something you are focussed on or something in your periphery vision.

When it comes to attention it can be used it in two different ways, ‘receptive’ or ‘predatory’. To
understand the difference between the two let us look at the following two statements:

“He is listening to me.” and “He is looking at me.”

They are classed as follows:

Receptive Predatory
“He is listening to me” “He is looking at me”

When we use our attention in a predatory way we principally use our eyes. When we use our
attention in a receptive way we use all of our other senses, as they are principally geared to be
receivers rather than senders or penetrators.

The nature of the way attention works can be illustrated with the following scenarios:

Q: When he (other) is looking at you (self) who is penetrating who?

A: Other is penetrating self, or they are penetrating you.

For example when somebody is looking at you from across the street it feels slightly predatory
because other is penetrating self. When we use focussed vision we are using our predatory sense.

Q: When he (other) is listening to you (self), who penetrates who?

A: Self is penetrating other, or you are penetrating them.

If he is listening to you he is letting you in, his attention is ‘receptive’.

We live in world where the predatory use of attention is overused. As a result we get completely
concerned with what we are trying to get rather than what is coming to us, what Allah is presenting
to us, the blessing that is constantly present. So if we want to start to understand what Allah is
showing to us we have to understand and explore the receptive way of using our attention.
It is like learning to give attention to what is in our peripheral vision rather than what you are
looking at or focussed on.

Many people have had the experience of walking into a glass door, this happens not because we did
not see the door, but because our attention was trapped behind our eyeballs, trapped in the discourse
that we were having with ourselves. You cannot see what Allah is putting in front of you when you
are caught up in your own internal dialogue. So we need to learn how to find the volume dial of our
internal dialogue and turn it right down. If we have noise in our heads try to make it compassionate,
learn how to completely withdraw all attention from thought in the moment so that we can give full
attention to what Allah is putting in front of us.

For most people their assemblage point of attention is behind their eyeballs, therefore they are using
their predatory sense of attention most of the time, but when our attention is working in a receptive
way we function from behind our solar plexus (the area just below your sternum.)

We have three main areas of concentration of neural tissue, the first is in the head, the second is in
the cardial sack that holds your heart and the third is in your viscera, in your guts. This
concentration of neural tissue implies the ability to think not just in our heads but from these other
areas as well. Consequently we have three sites where our attention can work from: The head, the
heart (behind the chest) and lastly the stomach. The balance you are aiming for on this path is for
your attention to function from behind your chest.

We can see this has a physiological parallel in nature. If we look at a Lions eyes they are in the front
of its head as they are designed to see what it is trying to ‘get’, its ‘goal’. Deer on the other hand,
their eyes are on the side of their head. So for the deer it is not about what it can ‘get’ but what is
‘coming’ to it, i.e. the lion.

Postscript
Describing his form of practice Shaykh Mawlay al Arabi Ad Darqawi, the student of Shaykh ‘Ali
Al Jamal said:

“Whoever does Dhikr as we have prescribed and pays close attention to its conditions as we have
said, Allah will lift the veil between Himself and them in three weeks or less. Whoever does this
dhikr as we have described and does it for more than seven weeks and Allah has still not lifted the
veil between Himself and them, they have no intention, no true sincerity, no love, no resolution and
no certainty and Allah is the authority for what we say.” - The Darqawi Way.

What this implies about practice is that you should see immediate and transformative effects. It is
not something that we need to study for years in a traditional environment, it is as simple as just
having the right intention. This path is about ease, not imposition. It is not about acquiring
information but attaining transformation. It is about the arrival not the journey. May you have an
easy journey and a swift arrival.

May Allah grant us success on His Path

May Allah grant us nearness to Him
May Allah grant us Annihilation in Him
May Allah grant us death before we die.
May Allah grant peace and blessings on our Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), Ameen.

For a more detailed exposition of these ideas please see Shaykh Ebrahims book “Intent”
Read ‘Intent’ online or download it here: http://www.zawiaebrahim.googlepages.com/intent