بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
Actions refer to physical movements or movements of the heart. The shapes are the qualities which the mind fixes. The life-breath (ruh) and the secret are lodged in living creatures. Here it refers to that by which perfection is achieved in actions. Sincerity is when the heart is devoted to the worship of the Lord as well as its secret and core. That is the truthfulness designated by being free of strength and might since it is only complete by it, even if it is sound without it since sincerity negates showing-off and hidden shirk. Its secret negates pride. Self-regard and showing off detract from the soundness of the action, while pride detracts only from its perfection.
All actions are forms and bodies. Their life-breath is the existence of sincerity in them. As forms can only abide with spirits since otherwise they are dead and fallen-down, so actions of the body and heart only abide by the existence of sincerity in them. Otherwise they are propped-up shapes and empty forms of no consideration Allah Almighty says, "They were only ordered to worship Allah, making their deen sincerely His, as people of pure natural faith," (98:5) and "Worship Allah, making your deen sincerely His." (39:2) The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, reported that Allah says, "I am the furthest removed from what is associated with Me." The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "That which I most fear for my community is hidden shirk. It is showing off." In one version, "Fear this hidden shirk, It creeps like an ant." They asked, "What is hidden shirk?" "Showing off," he replied.
In a hadith, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked about sincerity and said, "Not until I ask Jibril." When he asked him, he said, "Not until I ask the Lord of Might." When he asked Him, he told him, "It is one of My secrets which I have entrusted in the hearts of those of My slaves who loves Me. No angel sees it so that he records it and no shaytan sees it so that he can corrupt it" One of them said, "This is station of ihsan: that you worship Allah as if you were seeing Him."
Sincerity has three levels: the level of the common, the level of the elite, and the level of the elite of the elite. The sincerity of the common is to remove creation from dealings with Allah while seeking the portions of this world and the Next, like preservation of the body, money, expanded provision, castles and houris. The sincerity of the elite is to seek the portions of the Next world rather than this world. The sincerity of the elite of the elite to seek to remove all portions. So their worship is to fully realise slavedom and to undertake the requirements of the Lord, or love and yearning for His vision, as Ibn al-Farid said:
My request is not for bliss of the Garden. I only desire to see You.
Another said:
All of them worship out of fear of the Fire and see salvation as a generous portion,
Or seek to dwell in the Garden and to relax in meadows and drink of Salsabil.
I have no opinion of Gardens or Fire. I do not seek any recompense for my love.
Shaykh Abu Talib said, "Sincerity with the sincere is to remove creatures from one's dealings with the Real. The first of creatures is the self. Sincerity among the lovers is not to do an action for the sake of the self. Otherwise it is affected by looking for recompense or inclining to the portion of the self. For the unifiers, sincerity is to remove creatures from dealings with of the Real by not seeing them in actions and not relying and relaxing with them in states."
One of the shaykhs said, "Make your actions sound with sincerity and make your sincerity sound by being free from strength and power." One of the gnostics said, "Sincerity is not achieved until people do not see and until he fails to think of people." That is why another said, "Whenever you fall in people's eyes, you become great in Allah's eyes. Whenever you become great in the eyes of people, you fall in Allah's eye." This is when you take note of them and are watchful of them.
I heard our shaykh say, "As long as the slave continues to watch people and have awe of them, his sincerity will never be fully realised." He also said, "Your watching Allah will never be combined with watching creation because it is impossible that you see Him and see other-than-Him with Him." The upshot is that it is not possible to ever leave the self and to be purified of subtle showing-off without a Shaykh. Allah knows best.
So obscurity is part of sincerity. Indeed, it is usually only achieved by it since the self has no portion in it.
May Allah grant us sincerity. Ameen.
Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam
Showing posts with label virtues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virtues. Show all posts
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Speech
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
I pray that you are well.
Of the most virtuous traits of the believer is silence.
It is reported that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Whoever is silent is safe.” Jabir ibn Samura, Allah be well pleased with him, was asked, “Did you used to sit with the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace?” to which he replied, “Yes. He had long silences and seldom laughed. His companions would mention poetry and their business and they would laugh and he might smile.”
Whoever wishes to speak, then choose words of remembrance of Allah, or commanding the good, or forbidding the evil; and he must avoid words that do not concern him.
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Whoever believes in Allah and the last day, then let him say the good or remain silent.”
It is said that nine-tenths of well being are in silence and that tribulations are connected to speech. One of the righteous said, “I imposed on myself to pray two cycles of prayer for every word that doesn’t concern me, but that proved easy for me, so then I imposed on myself to fast a day for every word that doesn’t concern me, but that proved easy for me and I didn’t desist, so then I imposed on myself to give one silver coin in charity for every word that doesn’t concern me, and I found that tough.”
Imam al-Ghazali mentions, “The definition of speech that does not concern you is that you say words that had you been silent instead you would neither sin, nor suffer in your state or wealth. An example of this is that you sit with a people and mention to them of your travels and what you saw in them of mountains and rivers and what circumstance you experienced, and what you enjoyed of food and clothing, and those Shaykhs and incidents that impressed you – these are all matters that had you been silent instead, you would neither sin nor suffer. Even if you exerted yourself to not mix this account with falsehood from addition or subtraction, nor praising yourself through boasting of the tremendous matters that you experienced, nor backbiting or speaking ill of something Allah created, you have still wasting your time – and how on earth can you be safe from the sins that we have mentioned?”
Avoid talking too much, as plentiful speech is not free from mistakes. Excessive speech, beyond what is needed, is considered speech that doesn’t concern a person as is asking questions about what is not important. He shouldn’t deem his words of no consequence, even if they be few. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, said, “Verily the slave says a word of the pleasure of Allah Might and Majestic, to which he does not ascribe any importance, but Allah raises him whole degrees by it; and verily the slave says a word of the anger of Allah to which he does not ascribe any importance, but he plunges by virtue of it into Hell.”
A person should speak in small, measured words. The speech of the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, was clear, whoever heard it understood it; if someone wanted to count his words they could.
A person should be soft spoken, and not raise his voice unnecessarily. In the Qur’an, Luqman says to his son, “lower your voice; surely the most hateful of voices is braying of the asses.” Qur’an 31:19
May Allah purify our tongues and grant us beautiful speech. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
I pray that you are well.
Of the most virtuous traits of the believer is silence.
It is reported that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Whoever is silent is safe.” Jabir ibn Samura, Allah be well pleased with him, was asked, “Did you used to sit with the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace?” to which he replied, “Yes. He had long silences and seldom laughed. His companions would mention poetry and their business and they would laugh and he might smile.”
Whoever wishes to speak, then choose words of remembrance of Allah, or commanding the good, or forbidding the evil; and he must avoid words that do not concern him.
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Whoever believes in Allah and the last day, then let him say the good or remain silent.”
It is said that nine-tenths of well being are in silence and that tribulations are connected to speech. One of the righteous said, “I imposed on myself to pray two cycles of prayer for every word that doesn’t concern me, but that proved easy for me, so then I imposed on myself to fast a day for every word that doesn’t concern me, but that proved easy for me and I didn’t desist, so then I imposed on myself to give one silver coin in charity for every word that doesn’t concern me, and I found that tough.”
Imam al-Ghazali mentions, “The definition of speech that does not concern you is that you say words that had you been silent instead you would neither sin, nor suffer in your state or wealth. An example of this is that you sit with a people and mention to them of your travels and what you saw in them of mountains and rivers and what circumstance you experienced, and what you enjoyed of food and clothing, and those Shaykhs and incidents that impressed you – these are all matters that had you been silent instead, you would neither sin nor suffer. Even if you exerted yourself to not mix this account with falsehood from addition or subtraction, nor praising yourself through boasting of the tremendous matters that you experienced, nor backbiting or speaking ill of something Allah created, you have still wasting your time – and how on earth can you be safe from the sins that we have mentioned?”
Avoid talking too much, as plentiful speech is not free from mistakes. Excessive speech, beyond what is needed, is considered speech that doesn’t concern a person as is asking questions about what is not important. He shouldn’t deem his words of no consequence, even if they be few. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, said, “Verily the slave says a word of the pleasure of Allah Might and Majestic, to which he does not ascribe any importance, but Allah raises him whole degrees by it; and verily the slave says a word of the anger of Allah to which he does not ascribe any importance, but he plunges by virtue of it into Hell.”
A person should speak in small, measured words. The speech of the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, was clear, whoever heard it understood it; if someone wanted to count his words they could.
A person should be soft spoken, and not raise his voice unnecessarily. In the Qur’an, Luqman says to his son, “lower your voice; surely the most hateful of voices is braying of the asses.” Qur’an 31:19
May Allah purify our tongues and grant us beautiful speech. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Happiness is not worldly comfort
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
I pray that you are well.
My brother and I had the opportunity to visit China, the land of our maternal ancestors. This was several years ago. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, China was not in the list of places I wanted to visit but this one hadith always play in my mind since I was little (Seek knowledge even if you have to travel to China--not sure if this is a real hadith but we grew up with this hadith) and alas it sparked my curiosity about China so I made that trip.
Once I was there I was pleasantly surprised by the place and the Chinese warm hospitality. People were very pleasant despite the poverty. And it was among the most safest place that I had been so far. I felt right at home. SubhanAllah. What was so incredible was people walking around with black plastic bags and I wondered what that was.
One day my brother and I went to the bank to collect some money. The teller gave us 2 big black grocery bags. In it were packs of money! I said to my brother in disbelief: Don't expect me to carry the money around like this! Everybody would know what's inside since we came out of a bank. My brother was bewildered as well but then he said: In Rome do as Romans do, by extrapolation, in China do as the Chinese do! Tawakkal ala Allah Subhanahu! We saw around us people carrying black grocery bags walking nonchalantly.
I learned a lot from this trip about the Chinese. They have many great virtues. Chinese were among the most hardworking people and family is central to their lives. They work together as a family--I could see this in action. One time I saw a skinny man riding a trishaw with a heavy load of things on a hilly road and his wife was helping pushing the trishaw up. While in state of much physical exertion, they could still cast a big friendly smile at me. It was a sight that would make any heart sink. And truly, happiness lies in the heart--not in the worldly comfort and material things!
We went again a few years ago and things hadn't changed but it was a great reflection of the mercy of Allah and a good boost of our Iman. Alhamdulillah. If you have the resource, China would be a good place to visit. Bring with you some Islamic literature for the Muslims there as they are quite deprived of this due to some governmental censure.
May Allah bless your day with your loved ones. Ameen. Please don't forget me in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
I pray that you are well.
My brother and I had the opportunity to visit China, the land of our maternal ancestors. This was several years ago. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, China was not in the list of places I wanted to visit but this one hadith always play in my mind since I was little (Seek knowledge even if you have to travel to China--not sure if this is a real hadith but we grew up with this hadith) and alas it sparked my curiosity about China so I made that trip.
Once I was there I was pleasantly surprised by the place and the Chinese warm hospitality. People were very pleasant despite the poverty. And it was among the most safest place that I had been so far. I felt right at home. SubhanAllah. What was so incredible was people walking around with black plastic bags and I wondered what that was.
One day my brother and I went to the bank to collect some money. The teller gave us 2 big black grocery bags. In it were packs of money! I said to my brother in disbelief: Don't expect me to carry the money around like this! Everybody would know what's inside since we came out of a bank. My brother was bewildered as well but then he said: In Rome do as Romans do, by extrapolation, in China do as the Chinese do! Tawakkal ala Allah Subhanahu! We saw around us people carrying black grocery bags walking nonchalantly.
I learned a lot from this trip about the Chinese. They have many great virtues. Chinese were among the most hardworking people and family is central to their lives. They work together as a family--I could see this in action. One time I saw a skinny man riding a trishaw with a heavy load of things on a hilly road and his wife was helping pushing the trishaw up. While in state of much physical exertion, they could still cast a big friendly smile at me. It was a sight that would make any heart sink. And truly, happiness lies in the heart--not in the worldly comfort and material things!
We went again a few years ago and things hadn't changed but it was a great reflection of the mercy of Allah and a good boost of our Iman. Alhamdulillah. If you have the resource, China would be a good place to visit. Bring with you some Islamic literature for the Muslims there as they are quite deprived of this due to some governmental censure.
May Allah bless your day with your loved ones. Ameen. Please don't forget me in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
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