Here is an excellent short video I came across on youtube.  It captures correctly the struggles and distractions we face on daily basis which keep us away from getting closer to our Rabb and vulnerable to the whispers of Shaytaan. The means by which Shaytaan enters into the human heart is through the blameworthy qualities (sifaat al-madhmuuma), which are innumerous and one of such are the corrupt passions (as-Shahwaa). Whoever follows after his corrupt passions, Shaytan then enters upon his heart and makes these passions seem fair seeming to him until the person is eventually destroyed.

The Veil by Fahad Shaikh

A man finds beauty in the most unlikely of circumstances and follows his heart to become a victim of life’s biggest deception.

Verily the shaitaan is an enemy to you all, so take him as an enemy.
He only calls his followers to be the people of a blazing fire” (Sura Faatir 35, Ayat 6)

Please share your views.

If you are lonely at night or any time, know that the creation are more important in your life than your Creator.

The study and practice of “Tazkiyah Nafs” or “Purification of the Heart” is the process of purifying the heart such that it can see the path that leads to Allah and thus happiness and to hold our Lord as our aim in Life.

“Gabriel (peace be upon him) came to the Prophet (Allah bless him and his family, and grant them peace) and said:

“O Muhammad,

Live as long as you will -

you will die,

Love whom you will -

you will one day leave them,

And do what you want, will -

you will be rewarded accordingly,

And know that the honor of a Muslim/Mu’min -

is in the Night Qiyaam,

And that his dignity -

is in his internal feeling of sufficiency from people.”

It has been reported by Tabarani and Hakim, who said it was sound (sahih), and Dhahabi agreed, while Albani graded it fair (hasan).

i’ve started to learn about sufism back in 2004. but the progress of learning was so little and some time even stopped for other business. but it never milt away from my heart. i love sufism not only to learn and know but to practice and purify myself to..

but its not as easy as other thousands things are.. practice of sufism in current age when i am living a modern life.. its too tough.. even if i want, but the environment beside me is an obstacle to. but i’ve learned not to give up. i can start with baby steps but i should not stop. Allah is almighty and no one knows how he will do things.. so i’ve to start.

The Quran refers to “the Nafs commanding to evil” ([Qur'an 12:53]). In its primitive stage, the ego tells one to commit evil. This is what Sufis refer to when they speak of fighting Nafs. The prophet Muhammad said after returning from a war, “We now return from the small struggle (Jihad Asghar) to the big struggle (Jihad Akbar)“. His companions asked, “Oh prophet of God, what is the big struggle?”. He replied, “The struggle against Nafs“.

Nafs has seven heads that must be defeated:
1. False Pride (Takabbur): i must identify what are the false pride in me and i’ve to keep me away from them..

2. Greed (Hirs): greed is the very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of money, wealth, and power but not only limited on this three things. as an ordinary human i’ve all of this.. i dont know how shell i keep me away from this.. but i must start walk away of this things..

3. Envy (Hasad): Its the pain caused by the good fortune of others. its defined as an emotion that “occurs when a person lacks another’s (perceived) superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it“.

i think in some point i am injured very much by envy.. i must be stay happy with what i have (?), who i am (height, status, job, beauty) and never should compare with other. it fully does not mean i should never try to be better but it means i should not be frustrated watching other who have it. I must try my own.
i must kill the other me who is living inside me.. need help from Allah.. O Allah help me please.

4. Lust (Shahwah): Lust … am I? yes.. i need to stay away from all the stimuli (girls, dirty talks, jokes, dirty chats) and also need to stop saying all this with friends.. i need to teach others about this which might give me an environment to purify myself

5. Back Biting (Gheebah): The definition of Backbiting & Slander

Prophet Muhammad said :”Do you know what backbiting is?” They said, “God and His Messenger know best.” He then said, “It is to say something about your brother that he would dislike.” Someone asked him, “But what if what I say is true?” The Messenger of God said, “If what you say about him is true, you are backbiting him, but if it is not true then you have slandered him.” (Muslim) (assuming the person is not in front of him whom about they talking)

Al Quran: O you who believe! Avoid much suspicion, in deeds some suspicions are sins. And spy not neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear God, verily, God is the one who accepts repentance, Most Merciful. (49: 12)
ohh I always tried to stay away of it.. but I think i am still not good enough… i must always remember this issue when talking and sent me an alarm when I start it..

reference: Backbiting & Slander – an Islamic perspective

6. Stinginess (Bokhl): i must be more open to share my knowledge i know, good deeds i do, good resource i’ve. i must be open to humankind, not only to muslims or hindu or cristian or buddist. i must be open to my family, friends, known, unknown and even enemy.
Allah shell be saving me if I fall in any trouble.

7. Malice (Keena): i think Allah have saved me a lot from this sin.. though still I am human and some time I cant control. I shell never feel to see some other living thing suffering of anything and if i see, I must help as much I can. at least I should pray to Allah for the suffer to be saved.

I took a great help from wikipedia for this post

I wrote this letter in response to a beautiful description of the two  marathons and one race that this young muslim woman ran after fajr several cities away from hers, and did very well Alhamdollilah.

Dublin narathon: Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/michalo/283653500/in/photostream/

My dear N,

It was a pleasure to read your inspiring account of your marathons, your prayers and your jihad with your Nafs, and your early morning travels. Thank you for sharing them with me.

Inshallah this Jihad e Nafs will be successful if the goal is eventually to be directed to the Path of Happiness, which is the Path of Allah Subhanawataala

Prophet Muhammad said pick one good thing and do it consistently and then pick a second. Alhamdollillah in all these years of running and your self-discipline to prepare for it, you have demonstrated consistency.

In reading your narration of your early am departures to another city to join a marathon, I am reminded that not many women in the world can travel independently at 3 am in the morning, leave alone run unaccompanied or unchaperoned by family in a strange and new city, and remain unmolested and without being accosted by the bad elements of society. You are truly blessed!

This in my opinion is not only a blessing of where Allah Subhanawataala has placed you geographically but also that He has given you personal protection in a place where a woman is violated every minute of the day (as per American statistics on rape).

So my prayer of thanks to Allah Subhanawataala is for protecting you wherever you go and may he provide the Angels for your safety in all you do.

Many times children are successful in their worldly affairs and feel that it is only by the dint of their own effort. Most certainly what you have done is by the consistent strengthening of your inner self against your Nafs (The Nafs basically wants you to while away your life in eating, sleeping and the hedonistic pursuits of life) and thus Allah Subhanawataala has helped you every step of the way and more when you became obedient to him in remembering not only one salaah but all five.

He (Subhanawataala) says if you take one step towards Him He will take ten towards you.

My prayer of thanks to Him for blessing you with success in your goals of running.

Prophet Muhammad pbuh said that one of the most potent prayers and one that is immediately given audience and granted at the optimum time is: the prayer of the parent, the prayer of the traveler and the prayer of the oppressed.

So when you travel to these marathon sites, please keep my family and me in your prayers.

There are so many women who aspire for the position you have attained, and they may have same or even better attributes than you but have not fulfilled the goals that you have Alhamdollillah!……….I am told the difference is Dua.

Your father tells me that he prays on a regular basis for his children. Thus I observe that all three of you are doing well in this world and have been protected from any major physical or mental catastrophe. I am confidant that your mother also prays for you all and perhaps it is their prayers that have warded off the “Bala’s “ from your life, some that you may not even be aware of.

So I would love for you to pray for your parents and be respectful and obedient to them unless they ask you to leave your Deen or distract you from it. For that is surely the most harmonious path in this world and brings the promise of the Gardens in the Hereafter.

MashaAllah your idea of running for a cause is wonderful, and is a sadaqa of your body as well as a sadaqa e jariya with what you raise. Prophet Muhammad pbuh said that we should give sadaqa of each joint every day; this can be done by acts of kindness, words and deeds.

I know that politics is your thing, but politics change with time, the one thing that does not change and every human being and living thing craves is the feeling of peace.

Thus even before we wish joy for a loved one, we first wish for peace, because joy is not lasting without peace.

So the exhilaration, love, happiness and joy that you feel when you run and when you accomplish your goal, do share that in your everyday life with others, and make dua for them that they too get the peace they crave.

Muslims shower peace on each other just by uttering their salutation of “Asalaam o alaikum” May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon you” What a lovely gift you can give to others and receive effortlessly so many times a day.

You can share the essence of peace easily with everyone you meet, see and exchange words with. You will see the world change around you as you do this consistently.

You drive the airport bus and people from all over the world come to ride with you. The weary, the irritated the disgusted the exhausted, and the sad, you can bring a moment of peace to them too.

Give them a smile, a mint, a salaam and perhaps if you have the guts, wear hijab to work and give the nonverbal message of peace, just with your sweet smile, politeness and consideration. Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said, “Smile is a charity” what an easy charity to give!

Contrary to what the American media says, in my polling new hijabis, when a woman dons hijab, people actually become sympathetic, kind, chivalrous and polite. They feel the aggressor is the Muslim man who is making this “poor woman” wear hijab.

Allah Subhanawataala has given the Muslim women of America a special window of time where they can open the door of dawah by donning the hijab and as an American man or woman opens the door for her out of respect, pity or chivalry, give them the message of Allah verbally or non verbally just by smiling and reflecting harmony and peace in your demeanor.

Finally I pray that :

Allah Subhanawataala give you peace, health, safety, happiness and a focus towards His path for that is where true happiness lies.

May He reward you for your efforts of dawah and for fulfilling His rights and being grateful for all that He has given you and protected you from overtly or covertly.

Thank you for sharing your inspiring moments in, before and after the marathons and races, I wish I were there with you.

With lots of love,

Your Aunt A

Know that the outward form passes away,

but the world of reality remains forever.

How long will you play at loving the shape of the jug?

Leave the jug; go, seek the water!

Mathnawi II:1020-1021

Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski

“Rumi: Daylight”

Threshold Books, 1994

By Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim

We start right at the beginning, trying to make a definition of nafs in its totality. So the first thing to understand is that inner science in the Sufic science of the self, and we must grasp Ibn ‘Arabi’s statement that nobody knows the nafs except the sufis. No one understands the nafs except the sufis – no one is able to understand and there is no way they can understand – except the sufis.

Now, it is terribly important in our technical vocabulary that we have no fixed terms. For example, one shaykh says, “There are a hundred stages to Allah,” and designates what the hundred stages are, and another shaykh says, “There are a thousand stages to Allah,” and has written down what the thousand stages are. Shaykh al-Ansari has written what the thousand stages are. Another shaykh has said there are ten thousand stages to Allah and every one of them divides into a hundred recognisable stages, depending on his insights and recognitions. All this is not poetry because they specify what they’re talking about. Having said that, you must realise that each of these is true. They are by perception different ways of seeing, but they are all true, and you can take any of these ways and you will go through it step by step and recognises everything in it. Our terms are interchangeable.

The other thing is that we are quite happy to allow one term to plane into another term in talking about the self. We can be talking about the self and you can go out of the room and come back and we have not changed the subject and it has become qalb, the heart. So we are talking about the heart and you go out of the room and come back and we are talking about the ruh and we have not changed the subject of conversation. We changed the viewpoint. We’re talking about it in another way. You go out of the room another time and we’re talking about ‘aql, intellect. We have not changed the subject of conversation each time. We are looking at the same reality from a different aspect or from a different function.

Now we say nafs, then again someone might say embattled nafs, rebellious nafs, tranquil nafs – the three nafs of Imam al-Ghazali’s system. The nafs that is wild, the nafs that is rebellious, and then is quiescent. It is fighting, and then it accepts. It is in process. The first nafs is the wild horse on the hill; the second nafs is the one with a bit in the mouth and you jump on it and it throws you off. The third nafs is saddle, bridle and rider. These are the three stages of the nafs.

In another way, we take nafs, leaving out the top one, the highest one. We take two and say that is nafs. Then we go from nafs to qalb, from nafs to heart. We then make two separate things. We jump from one to the other depending on what we are dealing with. If we are dealing with nafs in the active, nafs in the passive, nafs in the historic, nafs in the developing, nafs in the situation whatever.

Another thing we say is the nafs and the ruh. The ruh is the spirit, pure light. The ruh and the nafs are fighting over qalb, the heart. The heart is the Beloved and they are two suitors, two lovers trying to have possession of the heart. The light of the Ruh wants the heart and the darkness of the nafs wants the heart. The heart is, in that sense, an arena that these two are trying to take over. You see, all of these depends on what you want to indicate. These are descriptive terms.

We now go on and say when we talk of nafs in its lower senses, in its embattled sense, in the wild sense. We say that nafs does not exist at all. It is not there. We are talking about a non-existent. An identifiable non-existent. It does not exist. It seems to exist, but I mean it not in a mad way and not in an esoteric way, not in a kind of Hindu way. I mean it in the sense that the physicist tells me that the wall is not there: it’s space, ripples in space from the binding of the nucleus of the atom. That the atom is the Albert Hall and there is one chair in it – this is the solid matter. And that is a ripple, an impulse, a charge of energy. So the whole thing is energy charge in vast space, emptiness. So when looked at from the viewpoint of the Khayal – now this is where you must hang on and fasten your safety belts. We are coming to some bitter turbulence.

The Khayal is turbulent. The Khayal is a faculty in us that solidifies objects. What the physicist tells us is not there in some other funny realm. It is there. That there is a solid wall. That there are solid objects is entirely due to a divinely designed apparent flaw that does not let us see that is the secret of existence. We will come to the Khayal later.

The objects are not solid, the faculty of the khayal solidifies them. This is a most important thing in understanding the nafs. So the nafs is a non-existent that we talk about while, let us say because there is a wall and there is a stage and this awful play goes on and we’re all in this play… I want a million dollars; I want four wives; I want to be President and I want to conquer that country over there, and I want to kill that one and get my own back on that one. This is the play. This is the Shakespeare. It is Aeschylus, Thomas Mann, George Lucas, horrible. Because this is apparently urgently real to people.

All people dealing with the nafs as of this minute in the dominant culture will only consider the nafs within the framework of the existing theatre. They are not prepared to look, and this is where we immediately jump back to the principle under which the IWF is created. They are not prepared to look at the biological principle underlying the self. They are not prepared to look at the physicist’s description of the same arena. The people dealing with the self as experts will not look at its biological character. Those who have been challenged to look at its biological character in a crude mechanistic way are not prepared to in a deep genetic way. They are not prepared to look at it in terms of physics. They are simply not prepared to square the two pictures.

The physicist is not prepared to look at the physical matter as he has grasped its constituent parts to be in terms of his own nafs within the sense of the arena. Do you follow? When I said that to Frithjof Capra, who is the level below the Nobel Prize, “But, Frithjof, my argument with you is that Heisenberg said there is a relationship between the observer and the observed. The observer is in the experiment. So I am not satisfied with your mathematical statement of matter because it does not include in it that when Zulaikha’s apple pie arrived on the table, a glazed look came over the eyes of this rational, brilliant scientist – a film passed over his face of sheer intoxicating enchantment. His two hands plunged forward, picked up the apple pie and wiped it off the face of the earth and everybody had a little piece and he had about four. And he didn’t even know. He said, “Emm -ahh-emm” and his eyes were glazed and shining, and he ate all the apple pie. “Emm, yum yum, good apple pie.” All the intellectual conversation finished – everything – atoms, nuclear black holes, everything.

I said, “Now I want that in your picture of the nature of man, Otherwise you have non’t got a complete picture.” It is the apple pie scoffer who smashing the atoms in the Cerne Laboratory at 60 million dollars a go. It is this one who doing this with the atoms. A nursery, and out of due season. In the nursery it is beautiful. In you it is horrific. I am frightened of you, Really frightened of you. I am frightened of the way you ate that pie. Do you understand?

So obviously apart from the inside, you have to allow the scientist – in the same way you have to allow each individual science to plane in to the meeting point which is man, on this side, and plane out to the divine Creator of the forms at that source. So if you are speaking from separation, you still have to connect with the scientists to the science to the sciences. If you’re speaking from gatheredness, you have to connect the manifestation to the manifester … the one who manifests. Do you understand it?

We jump back now to the nafs. First we’ll take the three terms -the wild nafs, the nafs in conflict , and the nafs serene. That is easy to understand because it has a certain ethical case. So we will get it out of the way first. That is simply that these three terms are from the subject’s own point of view. According to us, it is the human experience of the one who desires knowledge.

We are not talking about the savages unless they take this in question, which is why the sick person in that society is more interesting than the healthy person because he has put himself in question. The one who comes to a psychologist is a higher being than the one who is sitting governing a place, saying everything is fine. He is the madman. The real mad people don’t get locked up in an asylum. They get locked up in history. They get locked up in history because history is fantasy in process. Rumi said this. Rumi said the whole existence in culture is based on forgetfulness. Wherever you find remembrance, all that is gone. You simplify your architecture. You simply your social project, and inwardness dominates outwardness. Health dominates sickness, inwardly. Sickness dominates health outwardly but the science of healing dominates ignorance to deal with it.

So then there are three terms – one of them and then another. We will now look at these three terms. Let us say that there is the person in motion and the person asleep. The person who is static and the person is dynamic. So we will drop all these categories because we’ve already put our lolly on the person who says they are on the moon: who comes along to the Muslim psychologist rather than the heads of the corporation in terms of potential. We put our money on him because he is moving and this one is stuck.

The man who gave this doctrine got to this doctrine because he was the head of the corporation and he flipped. Imam al-Ghazali was the greatest ‘alim. He was like the dean of the faculty of theology at Yale University. And he got more and more in crisis. He said, “What does this mean? It all means nothing. What is this thing? I’m not anything. I don’t believe any of it. I’m not the dean of this. I don’t want to have dinner with the sultan and I don’t believe in any of it. What am I talking about? Why am I teaching these people when I know nothing?” And he got up to speak one day and he could not speak. He had 2000 students in front of him every day and he got up and said, “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim,” and ran out the door, He went home, packed his bags, handed out the money to his servants, called his family, gave out the money for the running of his family affairs and went to the desert to find the Sufis.” To find the doctor of the heart.

And from him comes this theory, this description of the three nafs. What we find out about existence gives him regret at leaving it. What we find out about existence gives us desire to pass to the next stage of it. So this first thing is really simple: we will find it so simple that there is no difficulty with it.

This describes the person who has a path as opposed to the person who has no path in terms of knowledge. Although everyone has a path, we are talking about those who know it. And that first stage of knowing has to be not knowing, So there are some people, although they’re destined for knowing, they have to be given naturally a not-knowing.

So you have the kafir beginning – you have outward wildness. And the one who is in outward wildness has no constraint. “I can do what I like.” It is, to the Sufis, the maqam of the child. Not only does it do what it likes but it does not know that it is doing it. The child pees and shits. It does not know. It is time. It is not, “I am doing this thing” that we have to clean up. It is time. There is this stuff and then it goes. It does not know it’s doing it. It only finds out by this fuss that goes on every time it does it.

So it is that maqam in the adult about existence. Total ignorance is to do wrong and not know you are doing it. Not so anything, Why shouldn’t I do it? I’m totally gratified. Total gratification: Do what I want. Real wildness is a wonder thing. The wild horse is wonderful, Wild nafs is not wonderful because it is out of due season.

The kafir society encourages the wild adult and punishes the wild child. Punishes the child who defecates and pees instead of learning to stop it before even the biological structure of the body and the sphincter muscle is working to stop. So it is inhibited and punished when it should be wild and free. The training of the body should come with the biological growth of the body. Leave them uncovered, let them drop everything and hose it down afterwards. That is the traditional Muslim way. So then the deep underpinning of the self are based on that and not on guilt about this. This is the traditional Islam, Now, of course, we have modern Egyptians, Muslims who are very proud of the fact that they know how to use the lavatory. They are proud of it.

So this wild nafs is out of due season. This adult doing what it wants, this person who says “I”. You know the little boy or girl who shows its belly. Everybody laughs – it is beautiful. When you see adults doing it in Golden Gate Park, when you see them expressing an abandon – it wearies people. Why? Because it’s out of due season, It’s not that maqam. That maqam is there and they did not have it there and they are doing it and it is too late. It is too late. It’s gone. When you had no teeth you drank liquids. When the teeth came .. are you going to eat pop always? Are you going to be this person or are you going to find out what the next is? The four year old, the three year old or the two year old sees a stair, climbs it once it knows there’s a stair -hump, hump, hump. How thrilling!

And they are not at that maqam. They see the staircase of knowledge and meanings and it’s awful because there’s no beauty. Their beauty is elsewhere. There is a beauty but it is not there. If we’re talking about knowledges, then we see people who are out of harmony with existence. The wild nafs first of all does not know it is wild. Then there is a wild nafs which does it knowing that is not it. Too wild. There is a wild nafs which does it knowing that it is not it. To them the party is no longer fun. The yields of the society are no longer gratifying. The goals are no longer satisfying. And this immediately expresses itself, of course, in that the pleasures are not pleasurable. And put alongside that the bitternesses are intolerable. Until you turn into a battle with them.

We move into this second realm which is the embattled nafs. They start to wrestle with themselves. They are discontented with themselves. This is the gift of Allah. This is the most wonderful thing. This is the ploughing of the field. It is a knife that cuts, but that knife turns over new soil. This trouble is wonderful. It is the most wonderful thing that can happen.

Out of this comes flight, turning over. Rejection, contrariness, doing the opposite in any sphere of action. Punk. It’s punk rock. It is a high mental plane in relation to the directors of Coca Cola. It is a high mental activity in relation to the Prime Minister of England the President of France: a high, high mental plane. Punk rock is Shakespeare, Aeschylus, genius in relation to them because they have tried to get at the meaning by the secret of the law of existence which is that everything is hidden in its opposite. Only there is no one to explain to them they have done it. So in the kafir society, so beauty-ugliness is to cut their face down like that. One half is one thing, one is the other. They have a razor blade down there, a safety pin in there and everyone says it’s horrible. It is ugly. It is beautiful. It’s outwardly ugly because they want a meaning that is beautiful. A spiritual search. Every age, that is why we go back to the park.

Every age expresses that in a different way because this search among people has to happen and no society can censure it unless they actually alter their hypothalamus which they are prepared to do to the already so-called sane person. You would not use the term sane. We say there is a complete person, structurally. You put them in any situation, then they could be the free one. Once, of course, you put in the chemicals, then they are in the shopping mall forever.

These are the people whose nafs is in trouble. This trouble is a gift of Allah. Now I am not yet talking about repair. I am talking about the sign of life, the sign that there is actually something happening. I’m not talking about what is the way this is healed. We will come to that later. If this person is not destroyed by the act of going to the opposite. Because it is dangerous. It can shatter the personality. It can destroy it beyond help by the action or by the station of shame, of disgrace to which they arrive. If they, in their search, by their intention for self over beauty of the ugliness, break through, then that person will begin precisely to try to discover the meaning of existence. The meaning of existence is discovered inside the self and this is achieved by your conquering you. The enemy is you! In the rebellion you think that the enemy is society, the classÉ

However, the language of the culture has described it, the king, the president, women, men, everybody. The creation, existence itself, The way is recognition that existence is perfect, flawless. The flaw is in the eye You cannot see. You are seeing trouble. From where is the trouble? Is it out there? No, because this is a mirror. What a horrible mirror! It has got a nose and it has got ears. It is you. Can’t smash the mirror. It is you. There is nothing wrong. Everything that is wrong is here. It is fascinating, is it not? It is enthralling that human beings could participate in this, not 100%, but 99.99999%. I mean everybody is participating in this lie. Society is built on it. History is built on it.

I am looking at this object and what’s wrong with it? The biologists say that the bird could not survive. There i’s something wrong with it, so it died. What is this? It’s complete, absolute lunacy. These law of forms have to be swept aside by natural selection in the calm march to higher forms. It ended with me. It is extraordinary. He is a bag of worms. He is a virus of typhoid and he got all this waster and stuff inside him, blood and phlegm.

What is this? It is in the eye that cannot see. It is like the television. I must give you this physical picture because we all forget just how mad the world has become. The children were on the television and they had this popular sportsman interviewing the children, this idiot. He had this little boy who collected beetles. He had a collection of these black things with these pincers and they were all crawling about and this awful lout was trying to emphasise with this child. He said, “Oh, but aren’t you frightened of the beetles. I mean, don’t you find them ugly?” He was using this sort of child talk, “Don’t you find them all very creepy, crawlyÉ ugh, don’t like beetles.” And the boy looked at him like he was demented. He said, “But they’re beautiful. Beetles are beautiful.” And he said, “They may be to you, but they give me the creeps.” And you saw him like the beetle. Isn’t it wonderful? Allah ta’ala says in Qur’an, “You will not find any flaw in creation.”

So back to where we were. The nafs sees creation by its station. You see creation by your station. Sitting with the Salihun and the awliya’ is the science of the Sufis because you want to see with their eye. You want to see with a clear eye. If I walk with him, he will show me this plant and that plant in the dhahir because he knows them, If I want to know meanings, I sit with the people of meanings and they show the meaning, And then I see with an inner eye. My eye is trained and then I will do what they do and practise what they practise and so it is my eye.

But you understand I have taken it from them. All meaning is hidden. I take it from you. If I Am in your company, I can take from you and I do not then, in the end, need words to be spoken. The murid wills peak the wisdom of the shaykh from things he has not been told by the shaykh. He will take it from it. In one glance volumes are transmitted, and this is not metaphor. This has been categorically demonstrated. You speak of the sciences of the shaykh because he has transmitted everything to you in one glance, in one instant. These knowledges do not take time to transmit. You put a camera in front and click, that is enough. You have got the picture. We are camera. We go click and we are finished, done. IBM is child’s play. Computers are cake mixers to this knowledge, child’s play in relation to it.

So now we come to repair our friend, the troubled nafs. We assuming that the creature wants out of this dilemma and wants to arrive, and now sees that the goal of the nafs is not total abandon, not total outward freedom, but complete inner freedom, serenity, tranquillity. And so not serenity in serenity, serenity in serenity and serenity in turbulence. Stillness in movement and movement in stillness. Outwardly still, inwardly moving. Outwardly moving and inwardly still. This is the goal of perfection; the ikhlas of liberation.

Now we come to what is the repair job. Now this is so enthralling I have to do a commercial for it. It is so intriguing. You see how stupid people can be and what a nuisance the Christian mess of theology has brought and the bother it has been to true teaching. They use words like sin and repentance. The words are so dishonoured by false transaction. Do you understand? Let us take the words sin and repentance. These terms have been poisoned by the Christian mess. Why? Because it is not based on tawhid, it’s based only on the arena. It is supposed to be a religion, but its only reality is the theatre arena of the middle self, of actions, the psychodrama. So then they say, imposing from this higher sphere that you can’t get into… “We have this information that it’s wrong for you to do that.” So you go, “Ooh, you see, I’ve done this terrible thing. I don’t know what to do.” They go, “Repent, repent.” So you go and calm it down, put a layer of cement over it, put a wreath on it, lots of flowers, have a fiesta, light some candles, then you go on and there you go again, la même chose.

So naturally we, all people of ‘aql, have kicked this out, but they have all ended up in the park showing their bellies. That sin and rebellion and they’re back to these idiots. Now here is the ironic (depending on how you look it) extraordinary, ravishing fact: that, in these two terms, in fact, should be understood in their reality not as ethics at all, but as basic biology of the function of the human self in the arena of it species is how the self develops and transforms.

We jump back to my discourse on the oneness of the action of Allah and how action adheres to self. Do you follow? We said in that discourse that action adheres to the self. It sticks to the self.

So let us now jump to bring in another term – the heart. Let us call the heart that inner arena in which all these impressions and experiences are impacted, are recorded, are held. They go in there and they come out from there. So the heart makes wrong action, so the nafs makes wrong action, and it is recorded, it is imprinted, it is rusted onto the heart. Now the ethical way, both of these Christian shaytans and the humanists – the christian shaytans are the same as the humanists because it’s a false transaction. It is a lie, nothing has happened You have just repressed it, as the analysts will say. In both of these instances you have held on to the previous acts, they are still in there. They say repress – it is there, it is written, it is stuck on you. The rust is there. Do you see what I am taking you to?

Therefore they say then you do it. You are still this one, you are still that one – only you are now on tour. You were in the capital and now you’re in the provinces. But it is the same play, the same dialogue, with a different touring cast. You are the great actor and they are all your extras. Strindberg drama. It happens here. They all go away and thus person ages and finds a new lot and does it all again. The basis of modern psychiatry is in that situation. Even my looking at the script, my looking at the parts does not remove it. I’m still carrying it. So it’s not a knowledge to know if the psychodrama reveals the oedipal pattern you’re still carrying, imprinting, and the event of the previous traumatic experience inside you.

Now, Sufiyya says turn to Allah. Allah is the Ever-Returning. We are not dealing with Allah, Allah is dealing with us. We are not dealing with the process called creation, the process is dealing with us. Whose? By Allah’s process.

So there comes into the heart of this seeker, recognising the wrong action that he is given an indication of how to be free of it, which is tawba. Tawba means to turns back, turn around, turn away. So you turn away, you turn away from the wrong action to the source of all action. If I do not see where the action comes from, I am weighed down because it all comes from me and I cannot deal with it. If I know that the action comes from Allah then the decree of Allah has been. “You are in wrong action.” If you are the fly, you are the filth.

At this point in comes only this one dimension in which everything matters, which is awareness. Which says, “If that is a fly, I do not want to be a fly. I would rather be a bee. I would like to carry pollen on my legs and make honey. I do not want to carry filth and make infection and sickness. It is not interesting.” Some people do and find it rather nice. “I like dirt, filth and bzzz.” But some people say, “I do not like it. I really rather like these flowers over there. I’d like to have these legs with pollen on them and make honey in the honeycomb.” If you are a bee you will be a bee. You will not be a fly. You are just a bee that gone over the filth and buzzed past it. It is already decided. You do not suddenly turn from a fly into a bee. You were a bee in the wrong place. And you say, “Bzzz, I don’t want that.”

The Sufis say that the bees scent the honey, scent the nectar and they arrive at it. They get there. The bees get to the flowers. You will only be who you are designed to be. The horse is not going to be a fish. Excuse me giving you this surprising information.

But it is the same with the self. It is under the decree. But it is constantly volatile, discovering who you are. If you say, “I am a reptile,” you see, and you slither along in the mud. He must look like a reptile and he is certainly behaving like one. He does not look like it but he is certainly behaving like it. Maybe he is. I guess he is. Look, he has got fangs, and, in fact, you were and we had not noticed. If the man says, “I am reptile and I am disgusting,” and a voice of creation which is him says, “No, you are a lover of Allah,” he says, “That sounds nice.”

It is what I told you about earlier, “There’s a wali on the mountain.” But you will not be unless you go. Whatever you want. You have possibilities and you will actualise them. Qur’an, the whole Book of Qur’an: “It is for those who spend of what We have given them.” Your potentialities, your capacities. If you use them this book is for you. Then you cannot stop. Wisdom on wisdom on wisdom. And power on power from Allah.

How is it that the modern child knows how to clean its teeth every day in order that it can go on putting food into its belly in a satisfactory manner? It is not taught every day to make tawba in preparation for being an adult when it is of use because it is no use to him as a child. But he knows how to clean his teeth as a child so he always does it. If you didn’t learn as a child, you have to be very strong to teach yourself to clean your teeth.

Why can you not clean your heart? If you make tawba the heart is clean. You do not change, you discover you. You do not change yourself. You cannot change yourself. You discover who you’ve always been from the beginning. If you take someone in the night and kidnap them and fling them into a dark place and it is all cold and they are huddling on the floor, they think, “I’m in a cellar. How terrible. I’ve been flung into a cellar. I’ve been kidnapped.” If that passes, “I must know my position. I must know why,” and they put on the light and they are in a palace. Do you understand?

Rumi says this knowledge is like a peasant and his wife living in rags, covered with lice, and all the creepy crawly things that we were talking about; living in degradation, eating bits of crusts and roots of radishes and drinking brackish water in a hovel with the spiders coming and earth falling on their heads while they sleep. And a man, a traveller, comes and says, “You do not need to live like this. Over these mountains is Baghdad. There are mosques with tiles and mosaics and every house has water running through it. There is work for everybody. There are beautiful clothes. There are silks. There is a whole life there, beautiful food, fresh vegetables and meat for everybody. Come with me. I am going.” and they say, “No, I do not believe. I’m staying here.”

We call this the kafir. The mumin says, “I believe you. I trust you. Why should you lie to me? You have nothing. You cannot. There’s nothing to take from us. There is no gain in it for you. It must be true. I trust you. I am mumin. I trust you.” The Messenger comes and gives you this news … I trust you.

The unseen reality is more terrible and more wonderful than the visible reality. The world is the hovel. The experiential zone of phenomenal existence is that hovel. The cosmos is that hovel. The Baghdad of that picture is ‘alam al-mithal, ‘alam al-Malakut, ‘alam al-Jabarut. The world of the Unseen and the world of the Lights from the Essence of Allah.

So any doctrine of the self has to take in everything in the hovel to everything in the Jabarut. Do you understand? Because we have only looked at the lower self. We are now at the bottom bit of this troubled self. And already we’re into unseen dimensions, Already we are into another element of the self. We have not got to the third thing at all. We are still dealing with the sick, troubled self.

Only I insist that the sick one is not the one who would go to the doctor. It is the one who is ruling in the world, highly placed in the world and honoured by the world. All your professors. All your leaders of industry. All your military. All your paraphernalia of society. All these turned upside down. In the realm of knowledge everything is turned upside down.

So we are still in the embattled nafs and I say the first step to this transformation is by your wanting it, but you later discover that it is not you wanting it. It is Allah wanting it. Because you are not the willer. Allah is the willer. But we have not got to attributes yet. We are trapped in action, I am in wrong action. I do not know about attributes yet. I do not seen know that I am doing it by the decree of Allah and even by the power of Allah. The hand that strikes is Allah striking. And the one who gets struck, it is Allah who had them struck by my wrong action, In truth, in reality, in Haqiqa. By Shari’a, I have to answer for everything I do.

Do you follow? So we’re still in the zone of action. Tawba, therefore, I say, is the first step to the transformation of the self. There is no other first step. There is no other means to transformation of the self except, first, to act of tawba. This is the basis therapy that you must teach people to transform them and you will find a very interesting thing. There will be one person who goes away and one person who draws near. The medicine of Tawba is for the mumin, not for the kafir. And you will not get them to take that medicine. They will not take it. You do not feed a fish with the food of a land creature. Its food is its wrong action.

We had a public meeting, You must allow another one of these crude vulgar examples. We had a public meeting in London two years ago in Hampstead and a man came to me and he had all these theological questions all about why in the world of suffering. How can there be an absolute if there is so much suffering in the world? What you do at school in the debating society. All these theological questions – Why this? Why that? I said, “I have one question, why are you here? Why did you come here?” He said, “Ah, because I want to know God.” “Please now, answer me, may I ask you one more question?” “Yes.” I said, “I do not believe that. What do you really want?” He said, “What I really want is to own a lot of real estate. I want to own Centre Point. I want to be a rich man. I want to let it out to people and make massive amounts of money. I want to have big ears and I want very beautiful women. And to buy them jewels and hang them on their necks and go to all the discotheques in London and have a good time.” This is wonderful,” I said. “Now,” I said, “I am so glad you came. Go out tomorrow. Get it.” And I said, “Get it. Get every single one of these things. And when you are sitting at the top of Centre Point in the penthouse with your car down below and your beautiful woman with her Cartier diamonds and you are sipping your champagne and they say, ‘How did you do it?’ say, ‘All this is from the Sufis.’ And you will have what you want and we will have want we want. Leave us alone and go. You are in the wrong place.” Now I guarantee you that he will get it.

So one patient you will send to his goal once you’ve given him the news – you have to give him the news. The good news is that if you take the way of Allah you will have a garden in the unseen. If you go against the way of Allah, you will be on fire in the unseen. I gave you that example because there are two people who will come to you with the same complaint. One person you can help and one person you cannot help, and if you try to give them that medicine you will kill them. One person will come and if you gave it to them you would make them mad, majnun. And if you gave it to the other person you would make them wali. So you have to know who to give this medicine to and who not to give it to. It is not the same for everybody. There must be some medicine that should do it but it would destroy the person. The same with the nafs. One person you can give it to. The same condition, but a different decree on them, a different seal on them, and you have travelled enough to know when to speak and when to say, “Go and get your dunya, Don’t worry us.” This is the question.

So we were examining the stage of tawba. This is the first stage. And I say it is the necessary first stage of transformation of the self. Let me give you the definition of tawba according to the elite and according to the elect of the elite. According to the elite, tawba is to say, “I have made wrong action,” and to not let yourself get away with it. Do you understand? But keep remembering it. “Now I have done it. I have got to watch.” So you hold down the self.

This is not our way, The Junaydi way is not to make tawba with remembering, but to make tawba with forgetfulness. In other words, you say sincerely to Allah, “I am tired of it. I am finished with it. Help me. Return, come back, give me mercy. I am tired of it, I am finished with it.” Having done that you get up. “Allahu Allahu, Hayy, Hayy,” and you have a good time, clear in the conviction that it will be removed from you and that you will not return to it. Because you know the operation works.

These are the two ways. The first way we do not accept – it is too difficult. Only great men can do it. We are rubbish, extras, mere walk-ons. So we do this other way. So naive, childish, and it works. It works and it takes the person to the source, the Forgiver, the Lover. And you are the beloved. Who is forgiven but the beloved, not the lover? The beloved is forgiven.

So the second element after tawba. Then, of course, life becomes interesting. Tawba is difficult, and after hardship comes ease, and there is the true fact of the matter: that for the Sufi is the transformation of the self is easy. And it’s sweet.

But the thing that everyone else has this terrible struggle. These awful Christians trying to do good works from a solid based nafs. This is disgusting, obscene. “I am doing good” – you spit it out, vomit it out. You see, like some of our brothers in Islam who say “I am greeting you because you are my brother.” You say, “Oh, don’t be. Be my enemy. You’re so good at it!” Do you understand? It is not that. It is from here. It;’s telling people it’s sunna to do this – we are brothers, we are all the same. Like when I was in the mosque in London and one of the Imams came to me and said, “I’d like you to come and meet someone to show you that in Islam we are all brothers. We are all the same, there’s no difference between the common person (looking at me) and the great rulers of society.” He said, “We are all one. All the same. And I’d to present to you the mufti of Sudan,” and the man punched him with his elbow and said “the grand mufti.” But it is so beautiful, it is so charming how strong they are. It is so wonderful. That is putting right action without tawba underneath it.

The next stage is to replace bad qualities with good qualities. That’s not difficult, is it? To replace bad qualities with good qualities. It’s not difficult if it’s preceded by tawba. The tawba is difficult. But if you’ve made tawba, it is fine. You were mean, now be generous. You ate too much, now eat little, You envied people, why should you? You are on a path to Allah. Who could be better than you? You’re going to your goal. How can you envy anybody anything? You are the highest. Move from it whatever it is.

You become angry now. You know what, you must replace anger with sweetness. “Anger is fire,” the Prophet said, and it is put out by water. If you are angry, do wudu’. He said, “Have you not seen the anger when veins stand out on the neck and temples? This is fire. Do wudu’ and you put out the fire.” And the meaning of the act of wudu’ is purification. And you do wudu’ and it is a tawba and the anger is gone.

What a wonderful thing. You see, anger is not to be removed from you. It must not leave. It must be under your control. If you did not have these volatile energies you would be dead. If you do not have the sexual drive, if you do not have the drive of anger, if you do not have all these energies, there would be no creation. But they must be in their place. You are arriving not at some kind of emptied shell – we are arriving at a balanced being. We are bringing everything to the middle. We bring appetite to the middle; belly appetite, sex appetite, possession appetite, reputation appetite. We bring everything to middle.

Now we look at the middle zone of the nafs. We will jump to three new terms, which is what is going on in this thing: Nafs, Hawa, Shaytan. Let us now look at what these three terms are in the arena of action. This is very interesting and will help a lot in your understanding of the process of behaviour. What is the experiencing self? It’s very simple. It’s you experiencing what’s there. So someone comes in. Wrong action. Nafs. Something appears, appetite, you take it. Hawa. What is front of you. It’s yours. You acquire what is there. You are acquisitive. You take what is yours. The belly, sex, head, reputation, study, being a scholar. You take, you acquire. You are possessed by appetites.

Now shaytan, shaytan with a tail and a samsonite briefcase. Shaytan has form. Shaytan has the form of many things. It changes form. Shaytan is a subtle energy of jinn in the unseen and he has a job to do. He is like the man who does the swamp cooler. When it breaks down, he turns up. When the nafs leaves a crack, he can come. He answers the call. We say, “Please come, the swamp cooler has broken down,” and the swamp cooler man comes and fixes it. Shaytan: whenever your nafs gets something wrong, there’s a crack in it, he’s got a complete service. He gets the message on his CB and he’s out the door. “Right, here I am.” Now shaytan is the volative activator at your already existent wrong action. Shaytan is when the creation comes back to inviting you. Suddenly your wrong action from you that was passive becomes active where the creation calls you to it. This is the meeting with shaytan. This is what is called shaytan. This is the identity of Iblis. That is why one day he is tall and thin, the next day he is small and fat, depending on what the situation is. In other words, if passively your intention is bad, then from intention to action, he is the action dimension of the wrong intention.

But you are judged. His job is that. Like the other man’s job is to clean the … He is under strict orders from Allah. You have wrong intention now, then give them up. You see. He says, “I will.” In Qur’an shaytan says, “I will not cease to try men until the last day.” That energy is persistent in man. When he has wrong intention, shaytan then comes in on his jet plane. “Come on, do this. There’s the trouble, make that one.” He pauses for breath. You jump in with the interrogation. Shaytan. The attack. The Shaytan. From the passive to the active. Nafs to shaytan through our old friend Hawa. Nafs, shaytan, hawa. Got that? So to cheer people up because they think, “How awful, what a mess. Allah, what a mess.”

We now look at it another way to cheer us – give us himma, yearning to get past it. We now take three more pictures: the dog, the pig and the sage. These are the three elements of nafs from another picture of what’s in there. Here are three creatures. Inside is a dog. This is nafs. What is nafs? Nafs and hawa.

How now, we are now going to look at it in another way. As a dog. One of the characteristics of the dog is this picture. In this picture it is the dog returns to its brother. You do it and you still do it. You go back to it. The dog plays a double game with the master, wagging tail, but it is not all friendly. Friendly, friendly, and then you go and cringe, tail shuddering, it’s awful. The dog chases round the side when it is terrified. There is all that cringing and slobbering. You are this you. You are this to you.

And what is the other characteristic of the dog? It is that the dog is treacherous to its own master. The dog will defend you as much as you defend yourself against the world. But at a certain point, you turn around and you savage yourself. Like the person we were talking about the other day. That has to happen. They will turn on themselves and savage themselves. They will do everything against their own interest – to the edge of suicide. And, of course, some people are torn to shreds.

The pig is appetite. What is this aspect of appetite? The aspect of appetite is if you allow it, if you feed it, it won’t stop feeding. The pig will not stop the feed. What is interesting is that the pig is abhorred in Islam and the dog is technically abhorred except as a hunter when you use its high qualities and ignore its low qualities. The dog in Islam is not allowed in the house because we will get all that and pick it up from it. It would rule us. But its higher qualities are something else. It hunts and guards.

The pig is haram because the character of the pig is appetite itself and if you feed it, it won’t stop feeding until it kills itself. It stuffs. Appetite feeds, “Grows by what it feeds on,” Shakespeare said. Appetite grows by what it feeds on. It keeps on and on and on. So it is a pig. And it gets fatter and fatter and fatter until it even will cannibalise. It will eat its own. Appetite will eventually eat its own, Devour everything, en famille. The child will devour the parent. The parents will devour the children and so on and so on. Devour by appetite.

These are two aspects of the nafs. Now, the Sufis say: if you kill these two the sage will die. We have not come to the sage yet. If you kill them the sage will die. They are these medieval chairs. When you sit on a chair and there are beasts under the chair that hold it up. In Spain they have wooden chairs that have an animal underneath and it’s sitting on it. This is their proper place, You do not kill them. If you kill them, you’re finished. The zahid may kill them and lose the day. The one who is an ascetic may destroy everything. We are not ascetic in this way. We say you subdue the pig, but you need the nourishment. You need the appetite. You need eating, but you subdue it. If you give the pig enough, it is all right.

The other aspect of the pig, its negative qualities is that it wallows in its own dirt. Its filth becomes its scent. It turns in on itself and wallows. Subdue the appetite, and it will carry you. Control the dog and it will guard you. You will get from it what its task it. It will guard you It will hunt for you. It will retrieve for you. It’s used for that in its place. If these two are subdued, they are, as it were, the chariot on which rides the sage. The sage is the raw insaniyya in its highest level. Then the true high aspect of the nafs emerges. These two are necessary in their place and onto this comes the sage, the man of wisdom, the creature of knowledge. He rides on a conquered appetite and a subdued anger and all the dog in us. Another picture of man.

So now we say that this, we come back to the first thing of the middle nafs. The embattled nafs is then busily involved in replacing wrong action with right action. This is, as it were, this middle part of the journey, once you get past its first stage from tawba, has two stages to go on to the third one. The first stage is to remove wrong action. The next stage is to acquire qualities.

The first of these qualities has to be – otherwise the journey cannot be made – sabr. Sabr means patience. But it means something more in Arabic. It’s a wonderful language. Sabr means something much more than this. Let us say it is an aspect of patience. Sabr is also strength in Arabic, fortitude, being able to deal with, staying power. That when you get knocked down, you do not go to pieces. Sabr means that you have staying power, that when the first hit comes, the first negative signal, the first trouble, you do not go to pieces. You just keep going. You have power. Sabr is the first thing to acquire.

Sabr, the Sufis say, is patience. It is a medicine. All of its taste is bitter and all of its results are sweet. It is wonderful. This is the position of the elite. Sabr, patience, is a medicine which is bitter, the results of which are sweet. This is why, seen from the view of the elite, the elect of the elite, patience has to be that in bitterness and sweetness are the same to them. So when al-Junayd was asked, “What is patience?” he said something tremendous. He said, “Patience is being patient with patience.” So its bitterness is sweet, and its sweetness is sweet. This is beautiful.

Do you see? They are the same to the man who has achieved, they are both the same. And this is the man of perfection who, remember, is a man of action. The one who has arrived is the one of action. Because action follows knowledge. Knowledge is the journey. Action is the proof. So this is the stage where this sabr becomes this – what a wonderful thing! It is the most interesting thing.

And the thing is we know everything about the nafs. So the first news of the Sufi is that there is nothing to be afraid about in the nafs. You see in the current way of looking at the nafs it actually quite frightening, because they bring these myths, like the Oedipal myth and these great Greek myths to dramatise this little arena which they are all so worried about. It is frightening. People see themselves pitted against these vast destructive figures. It is awful. They cringe before it.

Now the Sufi view is not this. The self. First of all, it’s very reassuring. There isn’t any aspect of the self that we do not know. You cannot bring a mystery self to the Sufi. You bring one you cannot do anything with, but never one that you do not know what it is. It is totally plotted, it is all as clear as daylight. It is very simple. It is all within the parameters that I have described. Even before I came among the Sufis I used to say to people, “Well, you can only do what a human being can do.” Because one of things of the nafs is to say, “You do not realise the un-nameable, unspeakable things that I have in my heart.” They make themselves into dreadful kings. They make themselves into these mythological figures. They say, “You do not realise. It may be all very well for you if you do not know the terrible things that there are, these serpents that all squishing around in me. A’udhu billah min ash-shaytan ar-rajim. Really you can only do what a human being can do, What is there else that you can do? The worst you can do is to destroy everything and everything, yourself included. It is quite human. There is nothing unexpected in it. So again the attitude if the Sufis to the nafs is not that it is a sickness, not as this dreadful thing. But that we are, it is a simply necessary ingredient of the recipe of what may turn out to be a very good dish, a very good cake, a very good morsel of nourishment for everybody. Of course, if you botched it, you can burn the cakes. But it’s basically the ingredients from which something tremendous can be made.

"If you are thankful, surely I will bestow abundance upon you" (Quran 14:7)

Snaking through my mind are the seeds of the culture of the diseases of the heart, one or all of them. They are all linked in their DNA. If one enters my cell lines they multiply at the speed of light.

I am at Eid prayer, away from my hometown, in a lovely coastal city. The mosque is new and I only know one family there who greet me warmly and affectionately.

This makes me a spectator and I think to myself an objective spectator. Before salaah the Brother announces that the Khutbah is a part of the prayer so each person must stay put and listen if he or she is to complete the prayer.

As soon as the salaah finishes and people sit down, I notice that some of the overweight though young Arab women sit down on the benches provided for disabled people and begin to talk.

An admirable piece of organization is that there are two women volunteers with lanyards announcing their status and who periodically shush the people by placing the finger on their lips with a smile. However these two over weight women continue to talk and also try to dominate the volunteer and eventually with a mixture of cajolery, making fun with sarcasm, they make her sit down.

I am by this point sitting in the judges seat, back ramrod straight with extreme disgust. As I raise the gavel to condemn their inappropriate ignorant and crude behavior, something makes me freeze……………the seed of arrogance, superiority of knowledge of etiquette and a sneaking opinion of being overweight by overeating and thus the inability to sit on the carpet, creeps into my head and begins to make way towards my heart. It is this sneaky movement that alerts me in and I stop!

Fortunately I catch myself in time, fling off the judges robe, throw away the gavel and pay attention to what I am doing? Am I listening to the Khutbah?

And thus in my first duel with my Nafs I make out okay, I think,  just in time, but not without a tussle and the terror that I could be overcome so easily by the diseases of the heart which were snaking via my mind enroute to my heart.

Has the Jihad been won for the moment or just put in abeyance? I don’t know. Time will tell!

No one changes unless they want to……………..and it is in Allah’s hands when each person will be placed in a circumstance of want.  When their time comes, they will not only want but will beg for the change in their spiritual status with Allah Subhanawataala.

Meanwhile I must put away the judge’s robe and gavel and beg for my own change and not worry about others, for I have a long way to go!

Sometimes, says Umm Raiyaan, it’s your own self that needs a good talking to!

You are a part of me and I am a part of you. It is utterly bizarre to think of you as someone separate, but I have come to the realisation that that is what I am obliged to do. You see, I now understand why it is that I seem to weaken in my faith time and time again. It is not because of my arch enemy, Iblis, and his offspring, but it is because of my own enemy within and I now know that that enemy is you.

People call you ‘nafs’ but I prefer to give you a name. Thus, I shall address you as Lola. So Lola, there is no need for introductions as we have been acquaintances for a considerable amount of time. You were blown into my body whilst I was within the womb of my mother. You have been calling me, whispering, trying to delude me into thinking that you are the best thing going! Desperately, you try to make me believe that you are the most significant aspect of my life and that nothing else really matters. You want to be satisfied in every sense. Hungry, you entice me to greedily eat more. Tired, you coax me into sleeping past the hours during which you know full well, that our Lord awaits for His servants at the lowest heaven. Bored, you persuade me to do fruitless acts that will make ‘you’ happy, make ‘you’ feel excited, great and fulfilled. And you do know what those things are as they were the same things that made you feel fantastic all those years ago.

‘We had a wonderful time, you and I’, you repeatedly tell me. Therefore, you strive to take me back to that time and create a barrierbetween myself and acts of worship that will distance me from those jahil memories.

You see, I know what you are trying to do. Years ago, after I embraced Islam you kept reminding me of those days when I ‘looked good’. You produced a movie of myself dancing the night away, ‘living it up!’ But I was strong back then. My Qu’ran, my adhkar and my dua put you right in your place Lola. And I could tell you were miserable and unhappy.

I know that you love me. Actually, you adore me and wish that I perceive you to be my one true beloved. Oh my gosh! That’s it! I’ve got it! I finally understand: This is why you create obstacles in my path; it infuriates you to know that I am trying to build a relationship with the Only True Beloved. You cannot bear to see me in love with someone else. You want me to love you, to only have room in my heart for you and only you. This is the reason I’ve been so tired lately, just when I’ve just made the intention to wake up for Qiyam-ul-layl. This is why my stomach has been yearning for food when I want to seek my Beloved’s love through the nawafil fasts.

It all makes sense now! You impregnate my mind with thoughts of others, because the remembrance of my Lord is the one act of worship you know will make me forget you. You take every opportunity you can! I remember the time sister R made a comment about my jilbab. And you told me, “Who does she think is?!” You created dissention in my heart towards her and then put your plan into action. Losing her friendship and sisterhood cut me deep! And through that you took me away from the remembrance of Allah I and filled my thoughts with her and you. How she had wronged ‘us’. So, again, you drugged me and I became addicted to your own tyranny.

But now it seems you have changed your game tactics Lola. Is it because you are older and think you are wiser? You no longer remind me of my past, but instead force me to mull over the future!

‘What will happen if your husband loses his job?’ ‘You never have enough money.’ ‘Tomorrow… Tomorrow… Tomorrow.’

Terrified in case I were to become one of the true believers who only worries about what she gives to Allah SWT today, you make me infatuated with the unknown. You know that if I were to think about today, I would pray my prayers as though they were my last. I would walk with humility. I would try and uphold the best of characters. But by consuming me with thoughts of the future, you make me lose myself.

Girl, have I got news for you! I’m ready. This is my jihad. Lola, I don’t love you. In fact I abhor you. I am trying to journey and you are preventing me from boarding the plane. But girl, I am going to board that plane and I am going to make the difficult voyage to my Lord. I know that this hurts you and pains you, but it has to end here. No more!

I left many of your ideals years ago and you have worked arduously to turn your ideals into my very own. You have succeeded too much and I cannot take it anymore. I will not allow you to take me away from my purpose. And that is why the fight shall commence. Every time you whisper to me, ‘There’s time. Don’t worry, you can memorise that ayah tomorrow’ I will emphatically pronounce, ‘No there isn’t. I will memorise it right now.’ Every time you insinuate that a sister is out to get me, I will make a special effort to be kind and generous to her. Every time you gladly inform me, ‘You are the best!’ I will rub dirt in my face and prostrate to Allah SWT, placing my bones in that very position to remind myself that it is He SWT who is the Greatest and that I am not even a speck of dust in comparison.

By the will of Allah SWT, I am going to undertake this journey. Although you have worked against me for so long, I realise that I need to take you with me because we are connected. But, Lola, I can only take you with me if you do one thing. It isn’t going to be easy but to tell you the truth, I am going to do my very best to help you. Lola, you need to submit. You need to prostrate yourself to the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth. If you want to truly experience love, by Him in whose hands is ‘us’, I cannot fulfil you with my love. It is only through being close to Him, loving Him and placing Him at the centre of our lives that you will be fully satisfied and complete. I won’t ask if you are ready because actually you don’t have a choice. It is time to submit Lola. So let us make the dua the Prophet S made:

“Oh Allah! Give me love of you, love of the people who love You, and love of every action which draws me nearer to Your love” (Tirmidhi).

Lola, when you join me in my aspiration to be beloved to my Lord, you and I will benefit in two ways. Firstly, you will experience a love like no other. Finally, instead of living a life wherein we struggle against each other, we can finally become one and enjoy a wonderful union of submission to Our creator both in this life and in the next. And insha Allah we will hear these words:

“(To the righteous soul it will be said): O soul, in (complete) rest and satisfaction, come back to your Lord, well pleased (yourself) and well-pleasing unto Him. Enter among my servants. Yes, enter into My heaven” (Al Fajr; 27-30).

Sounds good? I’m ready… let’s submit!

RELATED ARTICLE: REFLECTIONS FROM THE QURAN

www.buysisters.com

www.zaytuna.org

“The way to create love for Allāh ta’ala is to worship and obey Him despite not wanting to. The inner self (nafs) needs to be compelled to obey Allāh ta’ala until it becomes a habit.

Once that happens, love for Allāh ta’ala will start being felt and inclination towards the sunan and nawāfil will develop.

Eventually, through the nawāfil (while maintaining absolute observance of the farā’idh and sunan), love for Allāh ta’ala will accelerate.”

Humanitarian from Pakistan known for her care of orphans

Surah Ibrahim ayah 18

18              مَّثَلُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ  أَعْمَالُهُمْ كَرَمَادٍ اشْتَدَّتْ بِهِ الرِّيحُ فِي يَوْمٍ عَاصِفٍ  لَّا يَقْدِرُونَ مِمَّا كَسَبُوا عَلَى شَيْءٍ  ذَ‌لِكَ هُوَ الضَّلَالُ الْبَعِيدُ

Transliteration 18:   Mathalu allatheena kafaroo birabbihim aAAmaluhum karamadin ishtaddat bihi alrreehu fee yawmin AAasifin la yaqdiroona mimma kasaboo AAala shayin thalika huwa alddalalu albaAAeedu

Yusuf Ali 18 The parable of those who reject their Lord is that their works are as ashes, on which the wind blows furiously on a tempestuous day: No power have they over aught that they have earned: that is the straying far, far (from the goal).

The following is my understanding of this ayah after listening to Dr.Farhat Hashmi’s tafseer, all mistakes are from me and every thing good and correct is from Allah Subhanawataala.

GOOD DEEDS: WITH OR WITHOUT TAWHEED?

Why do we do good deeds? There are so many people in the world Muslim and non-Muslim doing beautiful work for humanity, green activism, social work, and standing up for the rights of others.

Why are they doing it?

The answer to that question actually lies in depths of their hearts. Analytically speaking a person does a good deed for three overt reasons:

1. For himself or herself, meaning doing it makes him or her” feel good” that feeling of goodness can be teased out into subcategories of he feels satisfied and vindicated that what he felt was right has been accomplished, his desire to do good has been successfully accomplished.                             In this his intention is to please himself i.e. His or her Nafs, which then means that the sorts of rewards that would satisfy him would be a feeling of self aggrandizement, and a development of a holier than thou attitude, examples of this are found in CEOs of large companies who excel in their work, human rights workers who lie down in the streets and stop traffic and people who picket for a cause.These good acts satisfy their egos, their Nafs and self satisfaction sets in.
2. The second reason is to do good deeds to show others and thus reap rewards from others, excelling in social work, community service and collecting accolades from people, and being elevated to a higher status. If I was to guess, Gandhi and Sister Teresa belong to the first two groups, but only Allah knows the state of the hearts.
3. The only intention for doing good is neither to show other people, nor to satisfy ones own Nafs is to do it for the sake of Allah and only Allah alone. The precursor of this is emaan and the action of doing good deeds is one of the component of emaan.

WHAT IS THE DEFINATION OF EMAAN?

Unflinching belief of Tawheed in the heart

Declaration of Tawheed by the tongue

Confirmation of Tawheed by ones action.

What is tawheed?

Continuous sincere affirmation of the Oneness of God.

The act of good deed done with the intention of purely pleasing our Creator falls under the third subgroup of emaan.

THE SOURCES FOR REAPING REWARDS

Thus the reward reaped will be from three different sources dependant on the intention with which we performed the good deed.

If we performed the good deed because we “felt” it was the right thing to do and it felt good to support that cause then we seek the reward from feeding our Nafs with more of it and it spills into the second group sometimes when we get accolades from others for doing it.

If we perform the good deed to bring the attention of the world or a loved one towards us and get into the good books of someone then we should expect rewards from those whose attention we sought and those for whose attention we performed the good deed

Allah Subhanawataala states in this ayah that those who have done good works for others will feel deep regret)” hasarat” on the Day of Judgment because there will be no reward for them on the Day of Judgment. One gets reward from the person for who one performs the task, not someone else.

We need to do some serious soul searching for each action that we do. Is it the confirmation of our Tawheed or is for the other two reasons mentioned above and then be ready to be accountable on the Day of Judgment.

Allah knows Best!

The Prophet (SallAllaahu `Alayhi Wa Sallam) said, “Seven people will be shaded by Allah under His shade on the day when there will be no shade except His. They are:

(1) a just ruler;

(2) a young man who has been brought up in the worship of Allah, (i.e. worship Allah (Alone) sincerely from his childhood),

(3) a man whose heart is attached to the mosque (who offers the five compulsory congregational prayers in the mosque);

(4) two persons who love each other only for Allah’s sake and they meet and part in Allah’s cause only;

(5) a man who refuses the call of a charming woman of noble birth for an illegal ual intercourse with her and says: I am afraid of Allah;

(6) a person who practices charity so secretly that his left hand does not know what his right hand has given (i.e. nobody knows how much he has given in charity).

(7) a person who remembers Allah in seclusion and his eyes get flooded with tears.”

When its summer time in Chicago I barely go out. If I do have to go outside I travel in ac and I stay in cool places. I cant tolerate the humidity we get here, it gets soo hot! Many people complain of how hot it gets and how they cant wait for it to cool down.

It makes me wonder though that if I cant tolerate the heat here, if I cant tolerate this humidity then how will I tolerate the intense heat on the day of judgement? On the day of judgement the sun will be very close to people, it will be so hot that people will be drowning in their sweat! On that day, seven special people will be given a shade under the Arsh (throne) of Allah swt. Amazing. Imagine how magnificent the throne of Allah swt is? We see a brand new car at the auto show and we get so amazed and take pictures and dream of one day buying it and whatnot, imagine how amazing the throne of Allah swt looks!

So these seven types of people will be fortunate, vip’s, who will be gathered under Allah’s arsh. For the intelligent person it doesnt take too long to make a decision about what course of action he should take to bring immense benefit to his being. In the hadith these seven people have been mentioned and we can definitely be amongst them. I will give one example today.

(7) a person who remembers Allah in seclusion and his eyes get flooded with tears.”

The seventh type of person is the person who remembers Allah in seclusion and his eyes get flooded with tears. Such a person will enjoy under the arsh of Allah swt while the rest of mankind is running around looking for a sanctuary. It is possible for us to attain this quality.

When no one is looking, when you are in your office, when you are alone in your room, the door is closed and it is only you and the four walls, when you are laying in bed and you have your blanket over you and no one can see you but your Creator, think of all of the blessings of Allah swt upon you. Start with your birth then slowely go through the years and all of the help Allah swt gave you, all of the food He provided, all of the money and clothes He provided, all of the enjoyments of the dunya He provided, the family He gave, the parents He gave, the house He gave, think of all those people who have NOTHING, think of all that you have, then think to yourself, SINCERELY ask yourself if you are deserving of all those blessings.

Think of all of the sins you have comitted, think of the IDEAL life that Allah swt wants from us, think of the lifestyle Allah swt wants us to live, think of how far we are from that lifestyle, think of how beneficient Allah swt has been to us and how ungrateful we have been.

Insha’Allah this type of thinking will be enough to bring tears to any person. No one is looking, tears are in your eyes out of the fear or out of the love for Allah swt, insha’Allah you will attain the seventh quality of the people who will be under the throne of Allah swt on the day of judgement.

May Allah swt grant my shaikh Hazrath Mufti Navalur Rahman sahib (db) a long healthy life and preserve him and extend his shadow, ameen.

If an ocean has unlimited boundaries, it goes on for infinity, then even if a person traverses a million miles in the ocean it is still considered nothing as compared to the unlimited size of the ocean…similarly Allah’s (swt) mercy is unlimited so even if a person has committed a million sins its still nothing compared to the unlimited size of the mercy of Allah (swt), they are forgiven easily on the condition the person makes tawbah

Growing up in Pakistan, as a child, Sunnah was something a mullah, uneducated villagers and servants practiced. They did so by hitching up their shalwaars and sporting beards. And women wore burqas, and did not make eye contact.

(I  noticed recently from the fashions in Pakistan that the women wear hitched up pajamas showing their ankles and men wear droopy pants that cover theirs)

In beginning to studying the tafseer of the Quran and the life of the Prophet peace be upon him, I realize, that I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg of what is the Sunnah leave alone attempt to practice it in its entirety. I will need a long lifetime and dedicated study to do so.

The question was asked by a sister in a halaqa which set my mind searching:

“Prophet Muhammad used to go to Hajj on a camel, why don’t we do that? Isn’t it a Sunnah?

In teasing out the information for my own use, I have come to the following conclusion. if it is incorrect, please correct me.

Dua:  May Allah Subhanawataala forgive me and correct my mistakes through increased ilm and expert compassionate mentors:

From my understanding of what I have read: Sunnah means

“The actions and methods of doing things as was done by our beloved Prophet Muhammad pbuh

The question is what are these “things”?

In my mind from my review, I understand that there are three types of sunnahs:

1. Sunnahs of Ibadah
2. Sunnahs of daily living and interaction with people, business transactions, social interactions, personal life, principles of character and behavior.
3. Sunnahs of logistics, use of conveyance, e.g. camels, horses etc for conveyance,  material used for buildings, use of stones to make fire etc.

1. SUNNAH OF IBADAH

The first Sunnah i.e. the Sunnah of Ibadah is an absolute Sunnah, it came directly from God to Prophet Muhammad and he transmitted it to us to teach it to all future generations.

This includes the obligatory fulfillment of the pillars of Islam, the method of the nafila prayers, and fasts and the essence of comportment while doing so. Changing or modulating these Sunnahs amounts to “innovation” or “inventing “ Deen, which is prohibited and comes under “Bidah”.

Allah Subhanawataala says in the Quran that” Obey Allah and His Rasool”

These sunnahs are clearly delineated with well-referenced lines of isnad, i.e. documentation by linear references of scholars whose work and character has been well researched for authenticity and honesty.

On a side note I  realize how gullible and unquestioning we are in that we will firmly believe in an email or a you tube clip as a fact but have no idea where it originated and who is the author leave alone the authenticity and character of the author.  Sometimes even if one asks for the author or origin we are not aware of the source. Yet the very same otherwise gullible people question the well-researched “Sahih “ i.e. authentic Sunnah by reputable scholars.

2. THE SUNNAH OF DAILY LIVING

The Sunnah of daily living is an example of Prophetic behavior:  Hazrat Aisha RA described Prophet Muhammad as “the living Quran”.

Thus if one cannot read or understand the Quran due to some learning deficiency we can follow Prophet Muhammad pbuh’s behavior and we would end up living as Allah Subhanawataala has commanded in the Quran for us to do so. We will become closer to What Allah Subhanawataala likes.  Therefore the Sahabah followed it to a T.

FREEDOM OF CHOICE

Here we have a choice, we can either want to be liked and loved by Allah Subhanawataala by obeying the Rasool and following his manner, etiquette and way of life or we can choose to go with our Nafs and indulge in the desires dictated by it. (I am not saying making that choice is easy though it may appear to be so untill it is applied to our personal lives. I have not reached the point of always choosing the pleasure of Allah, but I will inshallah! Please make dua for me).

THE LIVING GUIDEBOOK FOR EMOTIONS AND ACTIONS

Allah Subhanawataala has given us a guiding light in this world with the example of a man who eats, breathes sleeps just like us, he is not super human, nor is he an angel.

He, like us, has emotions of grief, love, happiness, sadness and disappointment and by observing his reaction to these emotions and emulating them we can find peace and comfort.

LIFE IN SCRUTINY

We have been awarded a living guidebook from Allah in the person of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. His life and movements even his personal habits have been documented in great detail by several authentic scholars, and to this day he remains the most well described man in the history of the world. Perhaps no other human being would stand up to such scrutiny.

RESOLUTION OF ISSUES TO FIND PEACE & HARMONY

We can use his example to resolve issues, respond to feelings of despondency or ecstasy and power or powerlessness; in a manner that we know is pleasing to Allah. We know this because this is how it was done by His  (Subhanawataaala’s) beloved Messenger Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him.

Thus by responding to challenges as he (pbuh) did we remain within the circle of approval with Allah Subhanawataala.

HOW TO DO IT?

In order to respond to adversarial circumstances in the manner that Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him did, we have to develop a character like him. If we eat, sleep, pray and behave like him then when we are faced with a major challenge in life, we will by default respond to it like him. Only because we have absorbed those attributes of strength and consistency within us and will thus be able to absorb the shock and yet survive in a graceful and thankful manner.

HOW TO PLEASE ALLAH?

The more we emulate Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him,  the more we please Allah. The proof is in the answer to: Did  he (pbuh) not please Allah with his behavior?  We know that for a fact because Allah Subhanawataala validates that in the Quran, by saying “Obey Allah and his Rasool”

3. THE SUNNAH OF LOGISTICS

The third type of Sunnah is logistics of materials of the “asbaab” or means. This could also be called Seerah rather than Sunnah but it does fall under “things” that Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, used.

For example we have to get to Muzdalifa from Arafat in a fixed time period, then we have to come up with a logistical means to do so. The only fixed point in this equation is the time as to when we have to reach Muzdalifa, not “how”

Thus using camel, cars, airplanes or futuristic conveyances do not interfere with the Sunnahs that will develop our character, our strength and our faith.

As long as the means used are halal and are obtained with halal earnings we are within the realm of the Sunnah.

THE ORDER OF IMPLEMENTING THE SUNNAH IN MY LIFE

My efforts are to first learn and practice the sunnahs of ibadah, and here and there add the Sunnah of daily living (such as eating and sleeping habits) , progressively immersing myself in these as these facilitate my ibadah.

Inshallah this will give me strength to go to the next and higher levelof “obeying Allah and His Rasool“

This is how I understand the Sunnah.

Please feel free to comment, add with references or refute with references.

Allah knows best!

O Allah increase my knowledge: courtesy: www.flickr.com/dua

سورة الرعد Sura Ar Ra’ad #13 | Makkah

18              لِلَّذِينَ اسْتَجَابُوا لِرَبِّهِمُ الْحُسْنَى  وَالَّذِينَ لَمْ يَسْتَجِيبُوا لَهُ لَوْ أَنَّ لَهُم مَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا وَمِثْلَهُ مَعَهُ لَافْتَدَوْا بِهِ  أُولَـئِكَ لَهُمْ سُوءُ الْحِسَابِ وَمَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ  وَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ

Transliteration 18:   Lillatheena istajaboo lirabbihimu alhusna waallatheena lam yastajeeboo lahu law anna lahum ma fee alardi jameeAAan wamithlahu maAAahu laiftadaw bihi olaika lahum sooo alhisabi wamawahum jahannamu wabisa almihadu

Yusuf Ali 18:             For those who respond to their Lord, are (all) good things. But those who respond not to Him,- Even if they had all that is in the heavens and on earth, and as much more, (in vain) would they offer it for ransom. For them will the reckoning be terrible: their abode will be Hell,- what a bed of misery!

Urdu 18:             جنہو ں نے اپنے رب کا حکم مانا ان کے واسطے بھلائی ہے اور جنہوں نے اس کا حکم نہ مانا اگر ان کے پاس سارا ہو جو کچھ زمین میں ہے اور اس کے ساتھ اتنا ہی او رہو تو سب جرمانہ میں دینا قبول کریں گے ان لوگو ں کے لیے برا حساب ہے اور ان کا ٹھکانا دوزخ ہے اوروہ برا ٹھکانا ہے

19               أَفَمَن يَعْلَمُ أَنَّمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ الْحَقُّ كَمَنْ هُوَ أَعْمَى  إِنَّمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ

Transliteration 19:             Afaman yaAAlamu annama onzila ilayka min rabbika alhaqqu kaman huwa aAAma innama yatathakkaru oloo alalbabi

Yusuf Ali 19:             Is then one who doth know that that which hath been revealed unto thee from thy Lord is the Truth, like one who is blind? It is those who are endued with understanding that receive admonition;-

Urdu 19:             بھلا جو شخص جانتا ہے کہ تیرے رب سے تجھ پر جو کچھ اترا ہے حق ہے اس کےبرابر ہو سکتا ہے جو اندھا ہے سمجھتے تو عقل والے ہی ہیں

20 الَّذِينَ يُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَنقُضُونَ الْمِيثَاقَ

Transliteration 20:             Allatheena yoofoona biAAahdi Allahi wala yanqudoona almeethaqa

Yusuf Ali 20:             Those who fulfil the covenant of Allah and fail not in their plighted word;

Urdu 20:             وہ لوگ جو الله کے عہد کو پوراکرتے ہیں اور اس عہد کو نہیں توڑتے

21 وَالَّذِينَ يَصِلُونَ مَا أَمَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ أَن يُوصَلَ وَيَخْشَوْنَ رَبَّهُمْ وَيَخَافُونَ سُوءَ الْحِسَابِ

Transliteration 21:             Waallatheena yasiloona ma amara Allahu bihi an yoosala wayakhshawna rabbahum wayakhafoona sooa alhisabi

Yusuf Ali 21: Those who join together those things which Allah hath commanded to be joined, hold their Lord in awe, and fear the terrible reckoning;

Urdu 21:             اور وہ لوگ جو ملاتے ہیں جس کے ملانے کو الله نے فرمایا ہے اور اپنے رب سے ڈرتے ہیں اور برے حساب کا خوف رکھتے ہیں

22 وَالَّذِينَ صَبَرُوا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِمْ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَأَنفَقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةً وَيَدْرَءُونَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ السَّيِّئَةَ أُولَـئِكَ لَهُمْ عُقْبَى الدَّارِ

Transliteration 22:             Waallatheena sabaroo ibtighaa wajhi rabbihim waaqamoo alssalata waanfaqoo mimma razaqnahum sirran waAAalaniyatan wayadraoona bialhasanati alssayyiata olaika lahum AAuqba alddari

Yusuf Ali 22:             Those who patiently persevere, seeking the countenance of their Lord; Establish regular prayers; spend, out of (the gifts) We have bestowed for their sustenance, secretly and openly; and turn off Evil with good: for such there is the final attainment of the (eternal) home,-

Urdu 22:

وہ جنہوں نے اپنے رب کی رضا مندی کے لیے صبر کیا اور نماز قائم کی اور ہمارے دیئے ہوئے میں سے پوشیدہ اور ظاہر خرچ کیا اور برائی کے مقابلے میں بھلائی کرتے ہیں انہیں کے لیے آخرت کا گھر ہے

TAFSEER BY DR. FARHAT HASHMI

DEFINATION:

What does Oolul- Albaab mean: This term defines those people of good aqal (intellect with deductive reasoning) who are blessed with an excellent mind and recognize the truth, these people are promised Jannah!

How does one recognize these people (Oulul Albaab)?

Allah Subhanawataala describes that they have twelve characteristics:

1. They hold to the covenant made with Allah.

2. They hold on to the covenant made with people

3. They keep the connections that Allah has commanded to keep. The relationships based on Deen and emaaan (the Ummah)

Hadith: The Ummah is like a body, when one part of the body hurts the whole body hurts.

Emaan and love fisabillallah holds the Ummah together. If one part of the body ails and the rest of the body does not attempt to help and heal it then the body is unable to perform its function in the service of Allah, due to its sick part.

In Surah tawbah, Allah Subhanawataala describes Momin men and women as “helpers and friends (awliya)” of each other.

4. Fear of Allah: Knowledge creates in a person the fear of Allah and he or she continuously checks on oneself regarding ones status in relationship to the Day of Judgment

5. They are afraid of the Accountability, which will be done by Allah in The Final Day and are afraid of a bad conclusion

6.  SABR: They are saabir in face of difficulty at its onset, understanding that it is the will of Allah that they are faced with calamity.

7. They remain in obedience of Allah, control themselves from ones desires (Nafs) and why do they do it? Only because they wish to please their Lord.

8. They do not leave the path of moderation.

9.  To please their Lord their effort is more than average.

10. They guard their salaat

11.  They give Charity in the name of Allah.  Charity which is hidden (in order to protect their intention to prevent riya) and they give zakat, which is obligatory, and sometimes they give it openly to set a good example to onlookers.

12. They erase their mistakes, bad acts with goodness in a good, kind and gentle (Ma’aroof) manner. (hasanaat remove saya’at) When they make a mistake they do a good deed to remove it. (E.g. giving sadaqa to remove the bad deed) Bad deeds cannot be removed with bad deeds)

Hadith: follow a bad deed with a good deed, which erases the bad deed.

Everyone makes mistakes, we should correct the mistake, the effort made to correct it Allah is happy with that. When something bad happens, or dhulm oppression happens, then one should correct it with a good deed.

What does Shaytaan do? He does not allow one to erase the mistake or clear it. He instills sadness, regret, guilt, rumination, humiliation and keeps one steeped in depression, which eventually paralyses the person and prevents him or her from erasing the mistake.

If someone else has done dhulm (oppression) on you or has been excessive, what does one do? The example of RasoolAllah (pbuh) is to follows it with something good.

Hadith: RasoolAllah (pbuh) said:

1. One who leaves me I get close to him

2. One who does badly to me I do good to him

Allah Subhanwataala says in the Quran, Surah Al Furqan ayah 63:

63 وَعِبَادُ الرَّحْمَـنِ الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ هَوْنًا وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ الْجَاهِلُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا

Transliteration 63:   WaAAibadu alrrahmani allatheena yamshoona AAala alardi hawnan waitha khatabahumu aljahiloona qaloo salaman

Yusuf Ali 63:             And the servants of ((Allah)) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, “Peace!”;

French 63:             Les serviteurs du Tout Miséricordieux sont ceux qui marchent humblement sur terre, qui, lorsque les ignorants s’adressent à eux, disent: ‹Paix›,

Spanish 63:             Los siervos del Compasivo son los que van por la tierra humildemente y que, cuando los ignorantes les dirigen la palabra, dicen: “¡Paz!”

Indonesian 63:             Dan hamba-hamba Tuhan Yang Maha Penyayang itu (ialah) orang-orang yang berjalan di atas bumi dengan rendah hati dan apabila orang-orang jahil menyapa mereka, mereka mengucapkan kata-kata yang baik

Melayu 63:             Dan hamba-hamba (Allah) Ar-Rahman (yang diredhaiNya), ialah mereka yang berjalan di bumi dengan sopan santun dan apabila orang-orang yang berkelakuan kurang adab, hadapkan kata-kata kepada mereka, mereka menjawab dengan perkataan yang selamat dari perkara yang tidak diingini;

German 63:             Und die Diener des Allerbarmers sind diejenigen, die sanftmütig auf der Erde schreiten; und wenn die Unwissenden sie anreden, sprechen sie friedlich (zu ihnen) ;

Russian 63:             А рабами Милостивого являются те, которые ступают по земле смиренно, а когда невежды обращаются к ним, они говорят благие слова.

Bosnian 63:             A robovi Milostivoga su oni koji po Zemlji mirno hodaju, a kada ih bestidnici oslove, odgovaraju: “Mir vama!”,

Urdu 63:             اور رحمنٰ کے بندے وہ ہیں جو زمین پردبے پاؤں چلتے ہیں اورجب ان سے بے سمجھ لوگ بات کریں تو کہتے ہیں سلام ہے

Allah Subhanwataala states in Surah Furqan (25)  ayah 72

72 وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَشْهَدُونَ الزُّورَ وَإِذَا مَرُّوا بِاللَّغْوِ مَرُّوا كِرَامًا

Transliteration 72:             Waallatheena la yashhadoona alzzoora waitha marroo biallaghwi marroo kirama

Yusuf Ali 72:             Those who witness no falsehood, and, if they pass by futility, they pass by it with honourable (avoidance)

French 72:             Ceux qui ne donnent pas de faux témoignages; et qui, lorsqu’ils passent auprès d’une frivolité, s’en écartent noblement;

Spanish 72:             No prestan falso testimonio y, cuando pasan y oyen vaniloquio, prosiguen la marcha dígnamente.

Indonesian 72:             Dan orang-orang yang tidak memberikan persaksian palsu, dan apabila mereka bertemu dengan (orang-orang) yang mengerjakan perbuatan-perbuatan yang tidak berfaedah, mereka lalui (saja) dengan menjaga kehormatan dirinya.

Melayu 72:             Dan mereka (yang diredhai Allah itu ialah orang-orang) yang tidak menghadiri tempat-tempat melakukan perkara-perkara yang dilarang dan apabila mereka bertembung dengan sesuatu yang sia-sia, mereka melaluinya dengan cara membersihkan diri daripadanya.

German 72:             Und diejenigen, die nichts Falsches bezeugen, und die, wenn sie unterwegs leeres Gerede hören, mit Würde (daran) vorbeigehen

Russian 72:             Они не свидетельствуют лживо (или не присутствуют при лживых разговорах), а когда проходят мимо праздного, то проходят с достоинством.

Bosnian 72:             i oni koji ne svjedoče lažno, i koji, prolazeći pored onoga što ih se ne tiče, prolaze dostojanstveno

Urdu 72:             اور جو بے ہودہ باتوں میں شامل نہیں ہوتے اور جب بیہودہ باتوں کے پاس سے گزریں تو شریفانہ طور سے گزرتے ہی

Allah knows best!

Supplication: May Allah Subhanawataala make us of the Oulool Albaab! Ameen!

Es wurde gesagt:

„Jener, der seinen Mangel zugibt, der wird immer gelobt und den eigenen Mangel zuzugeben, ist ein Zeichen der Akzeptanz (durch Allah).“

___________

Es wurde gesagt:

„Undankbarkeit für Segen ist Schande und die Begleitung eines Narren ist ein Unglück.“

___________

Man sagte:

„Jener, der seinen Mangel zugibt, der wird immer gelobt und den eigenen Mangel zuzugeben, ist ein Zeichen der Akzeptanz (durch Allah).“

________

Es wurde überliefert, dass ein Man von Bani Isra’il aufbrach um Wissen zu suchen und ihr Prophet bekam dies mit. Er rief den Man zu sich und sagte zu ihm:

„Oh junger Mann! Ich werde dir von drei Dingen berichten, in welchen Wissen von all denen die vor uns kamen und noch kommen werden – fürchte Allah im Verborgenen und öffentlich, achte auf deine Zunge was die Leute angeht und spreche nicht von ihnen außer in Gutem und versichere, dass das Essen, das du isst halal ist.“

Nachdem er dies hörte, ließ er es bleiben aufzubrechen (um nach Wissen zu suchen).

_________

Es wurde überliefert, dass ein Mann von Bani Isra’il achtzig Kisten voll mit Schriften und Büchern des Wissens sammelte, aber nicht von seinem Wissen profitierte. Allah der Erhabene offenbarte ihrem Propheten der Person (die die Schriften sammelte) zu sagen:

„Selbst wenn du eine große Menge an Wissen gesammelt hast, wird es dir nicht nutzen, außer wenn du drei Dinge tust – liebe nicht die Dunya, denn sie ist keine Zuhause für die Gläubigen; sei nicht der Freund des Satans, denn er ist kein Gefährte der Gläubigen; und verletze niemanden, denn dies ist nicht der Weg der Gläubigen.“

___________

Ein Poet sagte:

Siehst du nicht, wie zwei immer Wiederkehrende (Nacht und Tag)
Uns alt werden lassen, während wir scherzen im Geheimen und im Offenen?
Vertraue nicht auf diese Welt und ihre Freuden
Denn ihre Heimstätten sind keine wahren Heimstätten
Und arbeite für dein Wohl vor deinem Tod
Und sei nicht getäuscht von der Menge an Freunden und Brüdern

__________

Es wurde gesagt:

„Wenn Allah Gutes für Seinen Diener will, gibt Er ihm das Verständnis des Dins (der Religion), verringert seine Zuneigung zur Dunya und gewährt ihm das Bewusstsein über seine Fehler.“

_________

Ein Asket nahm vier Lehrsätze aus den vier offenbarten Büchern

– aus der Thora:

„Jener, der zufrieden ist mit dem was Allah ihm gegeben hat, wird Ruhe finden in dieser Welt und in der nächsten“;

aus dem Evangelium:

„Jener, der seine Untugend vernichtet, wird geehrt sein in dieser Welt und in der nächsten“;

aus den Psalmen:

„Jener, der sich von den Leuten weit isoliert, wird Erlösung finden in dieser Welt und in der nächsten“;

und aus dem Qur’an:

„Jener, der seine Zunge schützt, wird sicher sein in dieser Welt und in der nächsten“.

_________

Ein Poet sagte:

Oh du, der um die Hand der Dunya zur Heirat hält! Wisse, dass sie einen neuen Liebhaber hat, jeden Tag
Sie nimmt sich einen Ehemann, jetzt – jedoch gibt sie sich zur selben Zeit einem anderen sonst wo
Sie akzeptiert Liebhaber nur um sie in ihrem Schoß zu vernichten, einen nach dem anderen
Ich wurde getäuscht und der Kummer verbreitet sich in meinem Körper, Schritt für Schritt
Bereite dich vor und nehme dir Vorrat für den Tod, denn der Bote hat gerufen, „Es ist die Zeit zu gehen, es ist Zeit zu gehen!“

_________

Während einiger seiner Gebete und Bitten, sagte ein Gläubiger:

„Oh mein Herr! Der Gedanke, dass meine Lebenszeit lang wäre, hat mich getäuscht; Liebe zur Dunya hat mich zerstört; Satan hat mich irregeführt; die Nafs, die zum Schlechten neigt, hat mich davon abgehalten an der Wahrheit festzuhalten; mein boshafter Geselle half mir im Ungehorsam; so rette mich, oh Helfer derer die um Hilfe rufen! Wenn Du keine Gnade für mich hast, wer dann?“

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My shaikh Hazrath Mufti Navalur Rahman sahib (db) said many times that a Muslim should have a deep attachment and love for the Quran. He should be regular in reading the Quran.

The Quran is the direct SPEECH of Allah (swt) and IS NOT considered a part of the creation.

The Quran is not considered part of the creation it is the quality of the Creator! The Quran shows how Allah (swt) communicates, it is His direct speech to us. We are discussing just simply reciting the Arabic Quran, we are not talking about reading the commentary or the translation or anything like that, I am discussing just simply reading the Quran. It is Allah (swt) direct speech and communication to us, what He is telling us to do and not do is another subject, but the speech itself is His direct way of talking to us. Just ponder over that…the speech of the Creator and we have the chance to read this speech, to make communication with our Creator. This is truly a GREAT favor and gift of Allah (swt) upon us that He allows us to read His speech. Who are we? We are just created beings. Our tongues are so filthy and dirty from sin, yet, Allah (swt) still allows us to read His speech….amazing.

A Muslim should have a deep attachment and love for this kalaam, this speech of Allah (swt). A Muslim should be regular and punctual about reciting the Quran. But how does a person who works and goes to school and has family and all these activities going on stay punctual and regular in reciting Quran? Its amazing that we are so punctual and regular in our day to day activities, we never miss work, we are punctual on time at work, we are in class BEFORE class starts, we are so regular with activities with our families, we are so regular about following our favorite tv shows, we cant miss the first 5 minutes of Greys Anatomy, we cant miss a single episode of Seinfeld, we are so regular and punctual about our wordly affairs but when it comes to reading the speech of our Creator, when it comes to communicating with Allah (swt) we are lazy and negligent. If you remember, the Sahabah (ra) used to recite one manzil per day! They would finish one Quran every week. We finish one Quran in a good year, may Allah (swt) forgive us.

So the way to do it, as advised by my shaikh Hazrath Mufti Navalur Rahman sahib (db), is to read three pages of Quran per day. Thats all. How long does 3 pages of Quran take? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 15 minutes? Simply set aside 10-15 minutes from your day to day activities and spend that time only in the recitation of Quran. We can spend hours watching tv but we cant spend 10-15 minutes reading Quran? We can talk to our friends via phone/text/email/chat for HOURS on end but we cant communicate with Allah (swt) for 10 minutes? This is a very easy way to develope a good habit of reading the Quran. All we have to do is recite three pages of Quran per day.

Lets turn off our tvs, cell phones, email, turn off our blackberrys for 10-15 minutes per day and spend that time reading the kalaam of Allah (swt). May Allah (swt) grant me the tawfiq to do amal on this first and grant the reader the same…ameen, with izzat a’fiyat fadhl and karam.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Friday, January 4, 2008 (Dhul Hijja 26, 1428)

Sheyh Efendi talks about the nafs that is pleased with its Lord and when the Lord is pleased with that nafs … Prophets taught how to take the nur from the nar, take the spirit from the fire. How to move from dunya to ahirat … Run for the title of ’servant,’ and make every day better than the day before. Safety not assured until what happens at last breath.

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