Attaching One’s Heart to Allah Alone

Only the being of Allah is worthy of love. His beauty and glamour has no limit. In fact, it has a different splendor every moment. It is impossible for the attributes of Allah to be separate from His being. On the contrary, the glamour of attractive people in this world is always on the decline. These bodies are going to enter the grave. The black hair is going to either fall off or turn gray. People’s backs will start to slouch. Dirt will flow from the eyes. Darkness will be emitted from their faces. Where are you destroying your lives? If a person keeps the result of beauty in mind, then striving for the sake of Allah becomes easier.

The muraqabah (meditation) of the temporal nature of beauty is meant to curb the desires so that it does not become inclined to such temporary things. However, to abstain from beauty because it is perishable is a very low grade of servitude. This means that if beauty of people were not temporary, then Allah forbid, we would have attached our hearts to those people. Thus, the highest form of servitude, in this regard, is to say, “O Allah, the right of Your love, honor, and favors upon us is so great that even if the glamour of these beautiful people lasts till the day of judgment and does not perish at all, then too we will not glance at them because the pleasure which brings about Your displeasure is in reality cursed.”

Thousands of problems and different forms of grief are concealed in the slight moment of enjoyment of a sin. The starting point of the intention to sin is the starting point of distancing one’s self from Allah, and His wrath, after which one cannot even dream of peace and contentment. This is because a corpse came into the heart and thus the heart too became a corpse. These attractive people are going to die one day. Although they are alive now, but when they enter the heart, they enter with the effect of perishing because they are perishable. Such a heart cannot contain the sweetness and joy of a bond with Allah. For example, while you are eating delicious in a room, and then someone brings a janazah (a dead body) in the same room, will you be able to enjoy that food then? Similarly, when a corpse enters the heart, then the joy of a connection with Allah cannot remain in it. The feeling of the presence of Allah does not enter a heart, which contains the foul impure stench of other beings besides Allah. Therefore, the Ahlullah keep guard over their all the time. The nafs should not derive any haram pleasures from anywhere. They do not allow such forms and figures to come close to them. The nafs does experience some pain and grief due to this because of which Allah causes the Ahlullah to feel intoxicated with the proximity of Allah.

When the sun rises, the entire eastern horizon becomes red. This is a sign that the sun is about rise. Similarly, the one who makes the horizon of his heart red by sacrificing his desires, the sun of Allah’s proximity rises in that heart. On the contrary, those who do not protect their gazes become destroyed by eventually slipping into the trap of love affairs. The lover himself knows how much grief and distress he has to experience in this world. In the end, how many people have taken the name of the one they love instead of taking the name of Allah before death? They were deprived of reciting the kalimah before death. Therefore, the mashaaikh have stated that women or beardless boys who resemble women are poison for the salik (note: the same can be said for women in regards to men). When Shaytaan loses hope in misguiding the saalikeen, he tries to trap them by getting them involved with the opposite gender. This weapon of Shaytaan is so powerful that whoever is trapped by it is killed because other sins do not take one so far away from Allah as this sin does. For example, if a person spoke a lie, he backbites, or he has discarded salah with congregation, then he has turned away forty degrees. If he repents, his heart is once again turned back towards Allah. However, if he is involved in some love affair, then his heart turns 180 degrees away from Allah. The qiblah of his heart has now changed. When he is standing in salah, his lover is in front of him. When he is reciting Quran, the beloved comes to his mind. When he makes zikr, the same attractive forms and figures haunt him. The heart is turned away from Allah towards a soon-to-be decaying corpse. When Shaytaan sees a person progressing fast in the path of Allah, he sees him abstaining from every sin; Shaytaan then involves him in some love affair and deprives him of Allah completely.

No matter how beautiful a figure may come in front of you, do not look at it even with the corner of your eye. At that time, become blind. Although you have sight, give it a rest at that moment. Will Allah, the most Merciful of those that show mercy, not love his servant who uses the amanah that Allah has placed with him (i.e. his sight) correctly? He only looks where Allah is pleased and does not look where Allah might be displeased. He is sacrificing his desires solely to please Allah. He causes grief to enter his heart for the sake of Allah. Therefore, Allah will now begin to love this person. Allah enters such a desolate broken down heart, and He will flood it with happiness.

-Bad Nigaahi Wa ‘Ishq-e-Majaazi ke Tabaah Kaariyaan Aur Unka ‘Ilaaj

(Evil Glances and Illicit Love: Harms and Cure)

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