Tozan's five ranks reflected upon

Tozan's five ranks reflected upon
To appreciate these ranks of enlightenment one ought to rely on his or her own experience. That is what I do.

Once upon time, I dreamed having revisited one of the neighborhoods of Mogadishu that I grew up. I saw a young man whom we have been friends for sometime and I have seen him in dream several times before.

We appear to have similar political persuasion and concerns.

We were doing subac, co-recitation of the holy Quran in traditional form, where one of the group reads part of the verse and the group finishes the rest. I have been listening beautifully recited recitation for weeks at the time. He must have been doing the same, since I posted a link in my Facebook for friends to enjoy the recitation.

In any case, he came to a traditional home in the market, it appeared like a poor persons's house.Before he started to open his house. I asked him this question: You lived in Minneapolis right? I asked. He said yes, I used to live there. He appeared to desire to know more about his past.


Here I was unable to remember a person whom we have been friends for years.

I think this the first rank of Tozan: dreams. The reason being there is memory of some sort but no recognition at the time. When I woke up I knew who he was.