An Alim mentioned to his Shaykh, ” Hadhrat, these days I experience no joy in making Zikr.” The Shaykh recognized by his speech and actions that he had succumbed to pride. The Ahlullah have a knack of diagnosing spiritual diseases by peoples outward activities, mannerisms and reactions. The Shaykh diagnosed and informed the Alim Sahib of the appropriate cure with these words: “Maulana! You have developed a severe case of pride which has to be cured.” The Alim replied, “Hadhrat, whatever treatment you deem fit, I am ready to act upon.” He was absolutely sincere, but Shaytaan had created a delusion of grandeur within the Alim. Due to this bloated feeling of self importance, he became distanced from the mercy of Allah resulting in the absence of enjoyment in his Zikr.

The Shaykh instructed him, “Do this, go and buy five kilos of walnuts, place them in a basket and go to such a locality where there are many children. Make an announcement there, that whichever child gives me a slap on the head I will give him five walnuts.”

No sooner did the Maulana, wearing his magnificent turban, sit down and make this announcement, his turban flew off his head. He was receiving slap afer slap, slap, dash, bang. The children were extremely thrilled at being able to receive five walnuts with the bonus of slapping the Maulana in the bargain. They were thus jumping with joy and taking great relish in delivering the continuous rain of slaps and receiving walnuts in return.

All this occurred while the Maulana was silently sitting, head lowered in obedience to the Shaykhs command. How sincere this person was. This must have caused quite a stir amongst the angels in the heavens. They must have been enviously admiring such a great Alim whose turban went flying off his head. He was, in order to acquire the pleasure of Allah, tolerating this temporary disgrace. In a short while the basket was empty of walnuts and his head was empty of pride. After this he sat down to make zikr. Uttering “Allah-Allah“, the very heavens and earth, were filled with spiritual effulgence. The heavens and earth were overflowing with honey. The sweetness of Allah’s name was coursing through his every nerve and fiber. He then thanked his Shaykh with these words, “JazakAllah, you have given me an extremely bitter draught to drink in lieu of which I have found Allah.”

If, my beloved friends, by giving up and leaving aside the pebbles and stones of sin, one finds Allah, it is indeed a bargain in the making. Verily sins are no more than pebbles and stones. One must gladly give them up so that one finds Allah. A sage says, “I have given up a few pebbles and stones of sin and have found Allah. Alhamdulillah, Allah has been acquired very cheaply.” Shah Abdul Ghani Sahib relates that a saint asked, “O Allah what is your price, that I may offer it and thereby acquire You?” The reply was heard from a voice in the heavens, “Give up both the worlds.” To this he replied, “

O Allah, as both worlds have you fixed as your price.
Increase your price for the price is too meager to purchase You.

Today we find it difficult to bear the slightest inconvenience. We say it is very difficult to protect our eyesight. How is it possible to protect one’s sight without experiencing and bearing the pain and anguish of lowering the gaze? How will we acquire Allah Ta’ala without the courage to bear this sorrow? If only we realize what a great bounty and treasure this sorrow truly is. On the Day of Qiyaamah one will at least be able to say, “O Allah, I have borne great sorrow treading Your Path in preparation for today.”

- Manaazil e Sulook; pages 57-58

Nawab Qaysar Sahib (DB) who is one of the last of Hazrat Thanwi’s (RA) living mureeds, mentioned in one of Hazratwala’s (DB) majalis that Khwajah Sahib (RA) once asked Hazrat Hakim ul Ummat (RA) as to how the love of Allah is attained…?

Commenting on this Hazratwala (DB) said:

In other words, (when we talk about love of Allah Ta`ala, we mean): so much love should enter our hearts that we make a sincere effort to implement all the commandments of Allah Ta`ala; especially adhering to the Sunnah by growing our beards a fist-length, and by keeping our garments above the ankles, safeguarding the eyes from lustful glances, and guarding our hearts and minds from evil thoughts. Also, the greatness and majesty of Allah Ta`ala should be embedded into our hearts and the value of the creation and worldly things should be eliminated.

People endowed with intelligence know that one must obey authority and those of power. To oppose them is actually inviting trouble. Take the example of the King of the Jungle: the lion. The lion is one and the foxes, baboons, and hyenas are of the thousands. Logically they should be controlling the jungle because they are in the majority.

(Just on a lighter note) if the baboons were to have an election to take over control of the jungle, the lion would simply laugh and say, “Have a thousand elections, but the moment I let out one roar, you will all be so terrified that you will not even have the strength to vote…”

So if there is so much power in a simple creation of Allah such as a lion, then what does your imagination tell you about the Creator of that lion? Thus, even logically, we have understood that obedience to Allah is absolutely necessary, because He is the possessor of Absolute Power. (And it is the demand of intelligence that one should but obey Him.)

But the question still remains as to why people still disobey Him?  The reason for that is the lack of love for Him in the heart.

So returning to the topic which was initially being discussed, Khwajah Sahib asked Hakim ul Ummat as to how we can acquire that essential love for Allah Ta`ala in our hearts. Hazrat Thanwi replied: “Those who have acquired this love, you should humble yourself before them, and acquire their company. In other words, annihilate your nafs before them. Don’t remember your accomplishments and status in front of them. Forget about your potentials and achievements and through this humbleness, you will acquire popularity and love amongst people.”

But don’t humble yourself for this intention. Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) has said, “He who humbles himself for the sake of Allah then Allah will elevate him.” Thus we understand that this humbleness must be for the sake of Allah. How can you consider the one who humbles himself for the sake of popularity to be for Allah? This is humbleness is for the sake of dunya, not for the sake of Allah.

Humble yourself for the sake of Allah before your Shaikh in hope of acquiring the love of Allah.

Lower yourself before a “man of Allah.”

Therefore, lower yourself before a Shaikh-e-kaamil. What he tells you to do, do it… but this is on the condition, that the Shaikh is a strict adherent of the Shari’ah and Sunnah, and has the fear of Allah in his heart.  Not some “peer” or “fake shaykh” who tells his female mureeds, “There is no hijab between the teacher and student! Come and sit in front of me! Why are you hiding behind the curtain?! If you are going to make hijab from me, then how will I recognize you on the Day of Judgment, and then how will I intercede on your behalf before Allah, when I don’t know what you look like?”

This is no peer or Shaykh! This is a wretched and cursed, deceptive imposter! The Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) who was free from all sins, (major and minor, past, present and future) would take care from intermingling with ghayr mahram women. Have these people surpassed even the prophet that they don’t take care in guarding themselves from ghayr mahram women?

Understand that such a “peer” or Shaykh is a shaytaan and he is rejected. Stay far away from such a person.

At the end of the majlis Hazrat said: “This is why I always say don’t attach your heart to these beautiful and attractive faces. Now you will spend all your life and wealth for this person but look ahead as to what that person will become. That young and attractive girl that you were ready to sacrifice everything for, when she becomes a grandma of 4 then you will run away from her. What happened to all that love and romance now? From this it is understood that this was not true love, rather it was lust, and the intention was to have illicit sexual intercourse, nothing else.

Just like this, that handsome young man when he becomes an old and feeble grandpa, would you still want to have love and romance with him? If you really “loved” him as you say then why are you now running away from him? I say there is no greater deceptive and lying fool than a person who is involved on an illicit and haram relationship with a man or woman.

If someone had committed illicit sexual intercourse with another person when they were young and later in life one of them became very religious and pious and people even go and get dua’s from him… how can that person who had committed lustful actions with him ever face him after that? You will never even want to encounter such a person out of fear of the shameful act that you had done to him/her in your youth. You might even be afraid that the curse of Allah will descend upon you for doing such evil actions to one who is now a friend of Allah. Therefore why should you do such shameful and evil actions that you will regret later on in life?

My health is not well but in spite of this I have said a few words… May Allah Ta’ala accept it and make it beneficial.

–Aameen–

[Notes from the Sunday Majlis that took place on August 31, 2008]

Alhamdulillah, we are all blessed once again to see the arrival of the great month of Ramadan. The next 29 or 30 days are very precious. One needs to try their best to make the most of this blessed month. To do that, here are fifteen points that one can keep in mind for this month…

1. Remove any and all distractions that distract one from worshipping Allah, so that one can worship Allah properly.

2. Learn the fiqh of fasting. One should know what does break and what doesn’t break ones’ fast etc.

3. Whatever bad habits that you have, get rid of them and do not develop new ones. In order to make this work one should inflict pain on their nafs. So for example, the nafs is greedy and it loves money. For every sin you commit, give a certain amount of money in sadaqah. Do not inflict physical pain on your body, but rather, inflict pain on your nafs.

4. Extra Salah – Pray however many nawafil (optional) prayers that you can pray. Before this make qada of all your previously missed prayers. Qada takes precedence over nafl prayers. Tahajjud also falls under the category of nafl. You can pray both the qada and tahajjud.

5. Minimum at least one Qu’ran should be recited in Ramadan.

6. Give a lot of Sadaqah. It can be any form of Sadaqah, not necessarily financial.

7. Try to earn the reward of more than one fast. The question may come to one’s mind as to how this can be done, simple… Become a means of someone else’s iftaar. This does not mean that one should have iftaar parties etc. Iftaar is to simply break ones’ fast. So, one can give dates to other fasting people around them, or a glass of water or milk, it doesn’t matter what it is as long as that is what the person breaks their fast with.

8. Du’a before iftaar. Take out time to make du’a before iftaar because this is one of the times when dua’s are accepted. Preferably one should seek Jannah and seek protection from Jahannum constantly. So the following du’a should be read in abundance: “Allahumma inni as’aluka al-jannata wa ‘aoozubika min an-nar”.

9. Complete twenty rak’ats of taraweeh should be prayed.

10. Have suhoor in the morning because it is a sunnah. Try not to skip it completely. The meal does not have to be lavish, a glass of milk and a couple dates would suffice. Just have something.

11. Make Miswaak

12. I’tikaaf – For men, the sunnah I’tikaaf of ten days is preferred, but if one is not able to do that for some reason then one can make the nafl I’tikaaf. Females can also make the nafl I’tikaaf. Try to spend some time in seclusion.

13. Serving others – Being in the khidmat of people will get one really far whether the act may be big or small.

14. Make a lot of du’a and a lot of Azkaar. For dua’s, the dua’s of the Prophet (S) are preferred, those dua’s that are mentioned in the Ahadith. Qur’an is the best form of zikr. When one makes tilawat of the Qur’an, Allah is speaking to that person. When one makes their own zikr, like tasbeehaat etc. one is speaking to Allah. Time should be made for both.

15. Try to develop the environment of Ramadan in one’s own homes.

Ramadan is the time when people can press the reset button. Rasulullah (S) cursed three types of people and from amongst those one of them is the following: “The person who finds Ramadan, but isn’t forgiven”.

“Ramadan is the time for less words and more deeds”