Category Archives: D. Acts of Worship

Various acts of devotion to show our servitude

Our purpose

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Shaikh Khawaja Mohammad Ma’soom (Allah have mercy on him) wrote,

‘The purpose of traversing the path (sulook) is not to become a Shaikh and take murids.

The goal is to fulfill the duties of being a slave of Allah without the involvement and resistance of the lower self (nafs).

Moreover, the purpose of this path is to achieve anonymity and ward off rebelliousness of the nafs and being self opinionated. This because the  acquisition of Gnosis (marifa) is dependent on these things.’

Maktoob, quoted via Tofah-tush-Shuyuk, page 49

Signs of love of Allah

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Hakim al-Umma Shaikh Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanawi (Allah have mercy on him) said,

‘The signs of genuine (perfect/kamil) love of Allah are,

1. Facilitation of obedience of Allah

2. Excessive remembrance of Allah

In absence of either of these two signs, the claim of loving Allah is a pretension.’

Waaz Sayyidi wa sanadi Mufti Taqi Usmani (Allah preseve him)

Being attentive of Allah 2

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Shaikh Haji Shakeel Ahmad (Allah preserve him) said,

‘Try to keep your attention towards the recitation of the dhikr you are doing. That is, focusing on what is being recited and contemplating its meanings. At the same time being aware that my Allah is watching me and listening to my recital. I am in front of Him. Keep reminding yourself about these things continuously throughout the day.

This is a lesson for all of us.
We have to repeat it and be reminded about it.

Thanks to your visit we revised it today.’

Medinah al Munawwarah, 3 Muharram 1434/17 November 2012

Controlling sight and tongue

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Shaikh Haji Shakeel Ahmad (Allah preserve him) said,

‘Be totally silent. Develop this habit (of keeping the heart attentive towards Allah), especially here in illuminated Medinah. Remain mute, deaf and blind here. Keep your sight focused to ground. Do not look at anything except for the essential, like way towards the door of blessed mosque.

The sight and speech should not be used without an active intention. If this control is achieved one is bestowed with many blessings from Allah. Our sight and speech are irresponsibly out of control. The sight wanders here and there without any restrictions.

Be vigilant about safeguarding the sight especially in the blessed city of Medinah. This is the least that should be done here. By the evening time there should not be a single image of non-mehram in our mind. This can only be achieved if one actively lowers his gaze. If accidentally something inappropriate is seen then turn to Allah immediately, asking for protection and removal of its bad effects.’

Madinah e munawarrah, 3rd Muharram 1434/17th November 2012, after asr

Develop an attentive heart 1

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Shaikh Haji Shakeel Ahmad (Allah preserve him) said,

‘Keep the heart attentive towards Allah all the time.

Outwardly it appears that the pious people (ahl-Allah) are just sitting idle. That is not the case at all. There is no heedlessness (gaflah) for them. They are totally engrossed in the remembrance of Allah. Although their tongue is silent but their heart is drowned in the remembrance of Allah.

In contrast we have prayer-beads (tasbih) in our hand and repetition of dhikr formulas on our tongue but our hearts is totally inattentive and drowned in heedlessness.’

Madinah e munawarrah, 3rd Muharram 1434/17th November 2012, after asr

Serve parents

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Shaikh Haji Shakeel Ahmad (Allah preserve him) said,

‘I instruct the youth that associated with me for their islah to take special care of their parents. That is, (in addition to be being polite and obedient) they must provide extra care and service to their parent. Like massaging the parents’ legs and feet ( a common practice to sooth tired limbs in subcontinent).

Everyone is eager to massage Shaikh’s feet while they neglect providing this service to their parents. This is absurd. The Shaikh has several people to provide this service whereas your parent’s only have you or few other individuals to do this.

I repeatedly tell them that in hierarchy of Shariah rulings the rights of parents come before those of the Shaikh.

This also reassures the parents about their son’s Shaikh. (That is, they do not feel threatened of being replaced by the Shaikh.)’

Hilton Makkah al mukaramah, 1st Muharram 1434/15th November 2012, after esha.

Clarification: Bayah vs suhba

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Shaikh Mufti Muhammad Shuaibullah Khan (Allah preserve him)  said,

‘It must be very clear to all of us that bayah is not synonymous with keeping pious company (suhba) of a Shaikh.

Lot of people are under the false assumption that they are both the same. They make bayah and become content. They do not  make effort to improve their spiritual condition.

The knowledge and motivation for this effort to improve is derived from the pious company of the Shaikh. One has to ask for guidance and supplications from the Shaikh whenever faced with hardships or laziness in these spiritual efforts.

Moreover, it must be understood that the pious company of the Shaikh must be with the active intention of improving one’s spiritual condition. Without such intention mere pious company is not optimally beneficial in itself. ‘

Invaluable Prescription

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Shaikh Dr Hafez Tanveer Ahmed Khan, a murid of Hakim al Umma Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanawi and khalifa of Masih al Umma Mawlana Masihullah Khan (Allah have mercy on them) said,

‘I inform you of the recipe of alchemy (the mystical process that changes other metals to pure gold).

It is brief and only takes a few minutes.  Perform it at night before going to sleeping. Do it everyday.  By the Grace of Allah it will bring much benefit in one’s life.

Take account of all the days happenings quickly. Then,

  • Make repentance (taubah) for all sinful activities, major or minor. Ask Allah for transformation of heart (‘s priorities) as He (alone) has control over heart. Ask Allah to change these sinful habits into a life of piety as per the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunna of our Beloved Messenger Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace).
  • Do acknowledge (Muhasabah) that all all good deeds performed throughout the day were due to Allah’s benevolence (taufeeq). Ask Allah for their acceptance and the ability to perform more sincere and virtuous deeds in future.
  • Be thankful to Allah (Shukr) for blessings such as faith (eman), being a member of the Ummah of Beloved Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), family, physical health, etc..  Acknowledge not being worthy of any of these blessings and that they are solely the Allah’s benevolence. Ask Allah to continue showering blessings upon you and to make you amongst the thankful (shakireen) servants.

Tahajjud prayers

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The reviver of Sunna Shaikh Mawlana Abrarul Haqq (Allah have mercy on him) said,

‘The tahajjud salah in itself has the property to make an individual righteous, pious and a friend (wali) of Allah.’

‘There are some medicines that have the property of working both at preventing the disease (prophylaxis) and eradicating it (treatment). Similar is the case of tahajjud. It  eradicates the sinful deeds and nurtures the resistance for indulgence in sinful.’

Ma’arif al Abrar ra, page 238

Our main battle front!

‘These days the main battle front for our nafs is in dealings with spouse.

The closer the relationship more are the chances of blameworthy morals to be manifested in behavior and attitude.

One has to take extra-precautions to avoid this from happening.

As rule one has to suspect him/herself to be the culprit, lacking proper adab and try the best to behave.

We should never ever try to do islah of our spouse!

This is the job of their Shaikh.

We have to focus on our own islah all the time.

 

What is islah & how is it done?

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As understood from the teachings of Hakim al-Umma Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanavi (Allah have mercy on him) under Shaikh Mufti Taqi Usmani’s (Allah preserve him) guidance ,

Islah is the betterment or reformation or change of heart (dil badalna) in such a way that the commands of Shariah are followed both in external and internal acts of worship to the best of one’s ability. This is essentially accompanied with acknowledgment of one’s severe short comings in trying to do so.

The real islah is that of the actions of the heart (amal e batini) first and then the outwardly actions that are produced physically are rectified. It is usually not the other way around. This is as mention in the blessed Prophetic saying (hadith of qalb).

The initiating foundation stone of islah is a flash of Divine attraction (jazab) that is bestowed on the selected individual. Its outwardly reason maybe reading something touching, attending a pious individual or place, dua of parents, shaikh etc. In reality it is a kind gift (fadhal o karam) of Allah alone. Everyone of us has to beg for this fadhal e adheem ardently in his/her dua. If the individual is really blessed then he/she will try to safeguard the effects of this Divine attraction by reforming his/her (dhari o batini) actions. If he/she is careless then this will fade away and even might not return ever. Allah save us from this deprivation. Amin!

Tasawwuf provides a frame work for developing this islah. The components of Tasawwuf, like one-to-one mentor-ship, discipline, regular routine, wird, pious gathering and recommended readings all act as catalyst in this growth of islah. However, the real things needed to do the chemical reaction of islah are the firm determination and sincere effort of the salik him/herself.

Catalyst alone can not do the reaction.

Bayah is not essential for islah. It is highly discouraged to be hasty in selecting a Shaikh.

The special nights of Ramadan, Eid, the blessed days of Zil-Hajj, etc.  are ideal for asking for this fadhal e adheem of Allah.

Darul Uloom, Karachi

Hajj advice

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An individual proceeding for Hajj requested for special instructions in this regards.

Sayyidi wa sanadi Shaikh Mawlana Mohammed Taqi Usmani (Allah preserve him & facilitate for us benefiting from him) said,

‘Be vigilant in effectively utilizing your time (in virtuous deeds) during these blessed days.’

7th Zil Hajj 1433, Jeddah-Mina

Hajj = Supplications

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The reviver of Sunna Shaikh Mawlana Abrarul Haqq (Allah have mercy on him) said,

‘Be vigilant in making supplications (dua) at Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifa.

Supplicate excessively. Cry. If you can not cry then make facial expressions of a crying individual.

Learn to ask from children. How they ask for a thing repeatedly and eventually succeed. Learn it from the beggars who plead with tongue and their poor state. They have learned the art of asking. They are confident and content on their asking skills. Whereas, in reality asking from other fellowmen without a genuine reason is a fault.

But asking from Allah is a sign of submission and servitude. And not supplicating to Him is a fault.

So keep knocking on the door. Do not give up.

كھولیں وہ یا نہ كھولیں در، اس پہ ھو كیوں تیری نظر

تو تو بس اپنا كام كر، یعنی صدا لگاے جا

It is in biography of some of the pious predecessors that in Arafat they continuously made supplications from the zawal till sunset.

This is extremely precious time period. Do not waste it.’

Ma’arif al Abrar ra, page 226-7