‘Ataa and Wafaa’

Maulana Rumi (RA) asks Allah, that O Allah! You are full of Generosity and you love to give (ba ‘ataa) and you are also very loyal and very loving (ba wafaa’). Now the questions arises that what does one have to do with the other? So the answer to that is the reason behind every ‘ataa is wafaa’ and mahabbah. The innumerable gifts and bounties that are bestowed upon us by Allah are out of His love and loyalty to His servants. All the generous and loyal people of this world at one stage or another come to a point where they are majboor (forced) due to wafaa’ but ma’zoor (incapacitated) when it comes to ‘ataa. For example, someone has a very close friend who is in need of some financial aid, and he would like to help his friend out but he himself does not have the sufficient amount needed by his friend so he would fall short when it would come to ‘ataa (giving). Another example is that you see a close friend getting beat up by a bunch of people. You jump in to help your friend and instead you both are outnumbered and both of you get beat up. So despite being loyal, you still fall short when it comes to giving what is needed. So Maulana Rumi (RA) continues his dua’ by saying that O Allah! Only Your Being is such that nothing can be a preventative in Your giving because You are ‘Azeez i.e. One of Great Power. The meaning of ‘Azeez is that Being that has power over everything, and nothing incapacitates Him in executing His power. That is why Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) made the following dua’: “O Allah, there is no preventative for that which You give, and none can give for that which You prevent.” This negation in the mentioned dua’ is a total and complete negation. This means that O Allah, there is nothing of any type or sort from any thing or being, that when You want to give, that thing or being can prevent You. If You want to deprive someone or something, then there is no thing nor is there any being that can give at that time. When Yunus (Alaihis Salaam) was swallowed by the whale, he was under three different types of darkness. The first darkness is of the night, the second of the sea or ocean, and the third of being in the stomach of the whale. He felt very uneasy and uncomfortable. There was no one who would have been there to deliver Your prophet from this test, but there is nothing to prevent Your giving, and in the depths of the sea, he called out saying, “There is no deity except You. You are free from all blemishes, and indeed it was I that was from amongst the wrong-doers.” (Laa Ilaaha Illaa Anta Subhaanaka Inni Kuntu Min adh-dhaalimeen). In the term Subhaanaka, there is an indication that even when the whale had swallowed me, then too You were and are free from any form of oppression because You are not an oppressor. I am the one who oppressed myself. You are so giving, loving, and loyal, that You cause Your mercy to descend upon seven to ten generations onwards of those servants of Yours who lived their lives being loyal towards You. As Allah has mentioned Surah Al-Kahf regarding the wall that belonged to the two orphans. It is narrated is some narrations that the pious father was not their real father but a forefather seven to ten generations upwards. Aaah! How loyal You are O Allah, that whoever becomes Yours, You take care of their seven to ten generations and descend mercy upon them. Allah alone will be with us in this world, in the grave, on the plain of resurrection, and on the bridge of Siraat. Our Master is the Master of both worlds, and only He is the One with Who possesses true loyalty to His servants.

Even if the generous kings of this world decide to forgive criminals, their records are still kept and maintained so that in the future that criminal may not commit the crime again. If he does commit a crime, then the previous records are brought forth as evidence against the criminal. But O Allah! You are so generous and gracious, that whoever You decide to forgive, their slate is wiped clean and no record is kept of their previous wrongdoings, so that Your servant is not embarrassed and put to shame on the Day of Judgment. It is narrated that when a servant of Allah seeks repentance, then Allah causes the Angels who record the deeds to forget, and He causes the limbs of the body to forget, and He causes the places on earth where the sins were committed to forget, and He erases it from their book of deeds, so that when this servant meets Allah, he is in a condition that there is no one to testify against him of any sin.

Maulana Rumi (RA) continues by saying that O Allah! You are so generous and loyal and we are so ungrateful and treacherous. Therefore, O Allah, do not look at our treacheries, and our sins. You are Kareem i.e. very generous and noble. Please have mercy on the life that we have spent in sin.

Maulana Rumi (RA) continues by saying that O Allah! You have given us such a life, that no one knows and understands the value of one day of this life. In one breath, a person can go from being a disbeliever to a believer, a sinner to a pious person, a person on their way to hell to a person on their way to paradise. If the value of this life is not recognized and understood, and this life is wasted, then at the time of death, we will feel remorse and regret. Aah! That moment that we could have spent by pleasing Allah and attaining eternal paradise, we have wasted that moment chasing the fleeing, and temporary enjoyments of this world, and now at the door of death, time has run out.

Allah will never give anyone a chance to prolong their life when their time is up in this world. At this moment the true value of one breath will flash in front of us. If a king were to offer up his whole kingdom to the angel of death to give him just one moment to repent to Allah and please Him, the angel will not be able to, and will not offer the king the much needed moment. This is how valuable this life is. Therefore, O Allah, grant us the ability that we are able to remember You, and please You, and that we are able to derive the maximum benefit from the remainder of our lives thereby earning eternal success. O Allah, I have blown away this valuable life of mine in the pursuit of fun and fantasies.

–Fughaan-e-Rumi pg. 5-10

By: Hazrat Maulana Shah Hakeem Muhammad Akhtar Sahib (DB)

 

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