The Magic of Softness
We are present today on this beautiful night, and we are passing through the Days of Tashriq in Dhul Hijjah, which Allah ta’ala has made special and beautified for us with Dhikrullah; and today, Allah ta’ala has given us the Tawfeeq to perform Dhikrullah. We do not have energy and power to demonstrate sufficient gratitude for this Ni’mah, so we pray that Allah accepts our efforts.
Every Hadith and statement of the gracious Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is so valuable, beautiful and excellent that if a servant takes one statement of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam with an honest heart and does Amal upon it, his whole life becomes reformed and realigned correctly; we must have Yaqeen on this and practice upon it. To be successful in life and to make our lives right, we do not require a lot of knowledge. Rather, with Allah’s Fadhl and Karam, if a person accepts and implements just one Hadith in his life and practices upon it, then all the paths of life open up.
Now, as I said, every Hadith is present and available, but at this moment in time, Allah ta’ala has given me the Tawfeeq to speak, so I would like to present one Hadith in your service. As to the effect and the consequences of this Hadith, I can say this much, that I pray Allah ta’ala gives us the understanding of this Hadith and that due to it, our homes become vibrant, and arguments end; if the wife is unhappy with her husband, then alhamdulillah, she will become happy with him, and if the husband is unhappy with his wife, then he will become happy with her; and the children will be corrected and the businesses will flourish, and mercy and love will spread; and the children will become obedient, and it will become easy to follow the Deen, and Jannah will draw close; and Allah will become pleased, and difficulties and issues will retreat into the distance, and people will be saved from innovations and will start to follow the straight path. What a great reward! And from how many Hadiths? Just from one Hadith, just one Hadith.
In the Hadith collection of Sahih Muslim, a Hadith is narrated by Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha, who is the Habeeb of Allah’s Habeeb, and the meaning of the Hadith is something that is very easy for us to do. She narrates that the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated that if there is softness and gentleness within any matter, then beauty and Husn will arise and develop as a result. If this attribute of gentleness and tenderness or softness is attached to anything, then Husn and beauty will come into it. By contrast, if that gentleness is removed, then hardship will follow; without this attribute, there will be many deficiencies and faults that arise.
So what a great Hadith we see here. Will society not be improved through this? The message that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given to us here is that the status and glory of a Mu’min depends on him adopting gentleness in all his affairs; he should approach things in a calm and gentle manner. So how do our affairs become spoiled? For example, if Allah ta’ala increases somebody’s provision in some way and expands and multiplies it, then a weird feeling happens within that person, which is that he falls into sternness more quickly. He says ‘I am a father, and I am bigger in relation to my child, so while I could be gentle when explaining things, sternness comes more easily.’ I have seen myself that this is mostly the case, so very commonly a mother will shriek ‘Don’t do that!’ at the children if she wants to stop them doing something. She tries to give them a bit of a fright.
It is in the Fitrah of a human being that when he gets a bit of power, he thinks ‘I can do what I want now and can control it however I want.’ In the real world, when a husband gets a wife, he often feels that he has a bit of power in that situation and hence adopts a style of sternness and strictness, and since she is a human being who has feelings, this causes problems. It can also happen that the woman is stern and hard in her manner, in which case the husband gets the wrong impression, and this causes divorces and damage to the children and to the wider society as well. So many relationships get broken due to the lack of this one thing that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam liked. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is telling us ‘If you don’t do Amal on this one thing, then your home will be broken; this is what will happen if you are stern and strict with your children.’
I have seen many children who make this complaint, saying ‘My mother is strict with me,’ or ‘My father is strict with me. My parents don’t explain things to me in a loving manner.’ This is the situation in 99% of our homes – the mother and father adopt a strict and stern manner towards their children. The parent may think is it okay because they are trying to prevent wrongdoing from occurring, but Rasoolulah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has explained an alternative method. And we see that the Deen has gone far from us, and we have left the practice of the Sunnah; and our hearts, from where tenderness should arise, are spoiled. Where does tenderness come from? From the heart - but we have stopped doing Islah of the heart. So what is the consequence? Society is spoiled and destruction has occurred; negative results have come about. And then Allah gives the punishment, saying ‘You have gone against the Sunnah of My Nabi’ sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Shaytan gives Waswasah, and you think that someone has done magic on you, that some enemy of yours from India or Pakistan has done black magic on you, so you phone someone whose advert you have seen to seek a solution – and that person earns good money. In reality, there is no magic, but rather just one thing is wrong – we have discarded the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. All of the solutions for humanity are based on the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam – if only we were to understand this point. When you seek a solution to any problem, don’t look at anything else, just ask ‘What is the solution of the Holy Prophet for this predicament?’ If you want to mend broken ties and make good relationships with your relatives, there is just one way. When you initiate the effort with gentleness, then the guarantee of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is that definitely there will be Zeenat and beauty in the result, and this will overwhelm the problem. That same wife will become obedient to you, that same husband will become obedient to you, those same children will start to obey you and to listen to you – they will understand.
If somebody adopts gentleness in the home, a soft approach, then that home improves; if you adopt gentleness, then your business will improve. If a person’s words and manners are good, then the customers will want to go to that shop. If somebody says to me ‘Why do you buy meat from this shop and not from that one?’ I have one answer: ‘I go to him because he meets his customers with good Akhlaq and love, and the owner has good manners, and he doesn’t speak nonsense’ – so of course you will go there with such a reference. But if you go to a place and the owner is rude and has no manners, and he treats people differently according to whether they are younger or older than him or have status, and has no manners towards those he looks down on, then what will happen? Those customers will not return there. In other words, this Hadith applies to every sector of society; if this lesson is applied, then banditry will end, and criminality will end, and relationships will strengthen, and our children will improve. Is this not the case?
But the situation today is exemplified by a clip that someone showed me which amazed me. Some people were interviewed and asked ‘Do you do Qurbani?’ and they said ‘Yes.’ So then they were asked ‘Whose Sunnah is this practice?’ and they went quiet. One said this Prophet, and another said that Prophet – they didn’t even know what this action is! Look how much our society has degraded today - we are so far from Islam, and this is due to this reason. There is so much Fasaad and disorder – Fasaad is everywhere; there is nothing that is free from Fasaad.
This is the Karam of Allah that we have established and attended a gathering such as this, where we can sit, and we hear. These are not minor gatherings; this is a Baatini gathering for the improvement of the internal state and is therefore very valuable and precious. Today, in this society in which these conditions surround us, somebody is sitting and listening and getting the message about the Sunnah Sharifah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He has come with the Niyyah for this and intends to do Amal on what he hears so that he can become successful. The matter is explained in full, alhamdulillah, and he doesn’t just take one thing away, but Salah will be established in his life, or he will start going to the Masjid, or he will start learning how to recite Qur’an, for this is all part of the Deen.
Remember – the whole of the Deen is based upon Akhlaq. Salah, fasting and Hajj make up just a small portion of Islam, and even these aspects of worship are dependant upon Akhlaq. These parts of the Deen are dependant upon Islam because Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘I was sent to the world for just one thing – to perfect Akhlaq. I was not just sent to teach you how to fast and pray Salah, rather I was sent to teach you that fasting and Hajj and Salah will be accepted by Allah when offered with that ‘Ilm that I have brought. This is how your A’maal will be accepted; otherwise these deeds cannot be successful and they will go to waste.’ What is that ‘Ilm that Allah’s Nabi came with? What did he bring? He came with the ‘Ilm of Akhlaq, the ‘Ilm of Tazkiyah, the ‘Ilm of reformation, ‘Ilm-e-Ludni. If we have covered this up and hidden it and removed it and made it insignificant and decreased its importance, then remember: whatever you do and however hard you try, employing different methods and these alternative solutions that we elevate, you will not succeed.
Look at the situation today. Were there as many Masjids in previous generations, and were as many editions of the Qur’an printed, and were as many gatherings convened? And yet look how much more elevated the Deen was before. Why? Because they had the Ruh, the soul of the Deen; in previous eras of history, they understood Akhlaq. They would work hard upon this and engage with Tazkiyah in order to attain rectification. As for us, we have come to consider Tazkiyah as a minor thing, but the whole Deen is based on Tazkiyah. The whole message from Allah is that we need to reform ourselves, and this is how society will improve. Look, before Rasoolulah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came, what was the condition of the Arabs? And once Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came, what factor changed within those people? Most of all, it was that their Akhlaq improved. The Akhlaq of those nomads and villagers, who did not know anything, improved so much that they reformed the whole world. The announcement came that you don’t need to look at and imitate just this Sahabi or that Sahabi – there were 124,000 noble Companions, and Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘I did so much Tarbiyah of my blessed companions that whichever of them you follow in his words or deeds, then you will practice my Deen comprehensively.’
What a broad, open playing field - there were 124,000 Companions! So how sad it is that we neither follow their example nor accept the Hadith of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. If we want to become true, honest and sincere Muslims then we should look into our lives, and from today onwards, what should we find there? Softness and gentleness. Whoever you speak to, whether you are lecturing about the Deen or just speaking, if you speak with tenderness and softness and gentleness, you will win over the hearts of your listeners. If you deliver a message with harshness and sternness, saying ‘You should be ashamed of yourself – why don’t you keep a beard? You will go to hellfire!’ then what will happen? Dislike will arise in the listeners through this approach.
These are two contrasting things, so if you want to explain things to your son, adopt gentleness and speak to him in a caring manner, with love; when talking to a student, explain to him with softness and love; if a relative has made a mistake and is speaking angrily to you, remind yourself to adopt gentleness and speak in a soft and caring manner in your reply. Don’t think ‘I am this and he is that – I am better than him.’ Allah is saying ‘Okay, maybe you are higher in status, but if I have given you some height, then lower yourself and be soft and gentle.’ If you adopt a caring attitude, Sukoon will come into your homes. If somebody, whether your son or daughter or wife, has made a mistake, then don’t explain the right path with a stick. How should you explain? In a gentle manner, giving examples.
This is such a great Hadith for our society. If we have Sukoon and peace in our homes, then when we come to the Masjid, we will feel peace as well when we do Sajdah. But if you were fighting at home before you came, you will not know what you prayed; if you come after an argument, you won’t know what you are praying or appreciate your Sujood, and when you return, the argument will start again. ‘You said this to me, didn’t you?’ He said this and she said that. It is surprising to say that this happens to very good people of understanding.
I will give you a practical example here. If a husband and wife are sat together, even though there is a lot of love between the two of them, if he says something and she contradicts him, the next thing he says is ‘Divorce.’ Then she says ‘What? Are you okay mentally? What have I said wrong?’ - and he replies with a second declaration of divorce! The second divorce comes, and then it escalates further, and within that sitting, he gives three declarations of divorce. Tell me! This is a true example I am giving you; our societal manners are so harsh and hard. So what do they do then? They start looking for Fatwas and excuses and they come back together, but their whole relationship is Haram after that because the three divorces have taken place. What big problems we fall into – and why? Because we have gone far from the solution of the Deen.
So the path is to adopt softness and gentleness by learning the ‘Ilm that is called Tazkiyah. I am explaining a Hadith from Sahih Muslim here, narrated by Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha. What does Allah say? Inna’llaha Rafiqun, meaning ‘I am your Rabb, your Lord; I am the greatest and the highest; I am al-Qadir and there is no one more powerful than the King of kings. You are all in My creation. Inna-llaha Rafiqun – look at Me. In everything I do, I adopt the manner of softness and gentleness.’ Firawn was disobedient, but Allah was not stern; rather Allah said to His Nabi ‘Go to Firawn and give him the message and the understanding.’ His Nabi was given strength and was given the miracles of the staff and the hand, but Allah said to him ‘Remember Musa, whilst you are on this mission, be soft and gentle in your approach; don’t be stern and hard.’ SubhanAllah.
So what is higher? He had Nabuwat, he was a Prophet and had all the power, but what Ta’leem did Allah ta’ala give to him? That despite having all the power and authority, he would succeed through gentleness and softness. He was told ‘Your stick will not work, your miracles will not work – nothing will work. Firawn is also My creation; all of Creation is Mine. They are My servants, and I give them food to eat and water to drink.’ If Allah ta’ala were to act harshly towards us, then we wouldn’t even be sat here, since from morning to evening we disobey. Tell me, how many people here failed to attend Fajr Salah in the morning? Will Allah be happy with us? Allah’s Nabi described this and explained the status of Salah. A person who rejects one Salah is like a person whose entire home and family has been destroyed – that is the extent of Allah’s displeasure with that person. SubhanAllah – Allah gives him health and energy and food, and that person went to sleep in the evening nicely, so can he not go a few footsteps to attend Fajr Salah in Allah’s home? Tell me - what kind of a human being is that? The animals and birds are better. Every morning at dawn, the birds start chirping and doing the Dhikr of Allah, so they are better. They give the Hamd, but we run away from the Dhikr of Allah. The sparrows and other birds have this understanding that Allah has given them the morning, and Qiyamah hasn’t come yet, and they have no disease or difficulty. ‘What is this Corona?’ they say.
This Corona disease has come due to our A’maal. Yes? People cover their faces and mouths and get the injection, but why don’t we adopt the straightforward solution by going to Allah’s Court to do Tawbah, to ask for forgiveness for our sins? Allah says ‘As soon as you do so, I will immediately rain down the solutions upon you. The solutions will come from the earth and the sky, and your children will become pious as a result’ – but we can’t do this. We don’t want to learn how to remember Allah and how to submit and bow to Allah. We will put vaccines and medicines into our bodies, but we won’t go to Allah, our Rabb, and bow and submit.
My brothers, what a great Hadith we are learning today. The whole of ‘Ilm has been sealed in this message from Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Look, the most ignorant of ignorant people can understand this – who would not be able to understand this Hadith? Even an ignorant person can understand, no matter what language or style you present this; even nomads and simple country folk can understand that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has said that if gentleness and softness are adopted, all issues and problems will fall into place. Will they not understand? And if he says ‘Yes, I understand – this is the truth, and I am not going to be stern anymore after today’ then I swear that he has become successful. He has understood the Qur’an, he has understood Bukhari, he has understood the Muwatta, he has passed the Dar-ul-Uloom graduation and has reached a high status, because he has understood the reality that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to this world to convey. It was to deliver this that he did Mujahidah and strove, saying ‘I aligned all the tribes of Arabs through one thing – through my Akhlaq-e-Husna. I did not come just to give you ‘Ilm.’ And where did that start from? From Allah’s remembrance, for Allah’s Dhikr.
Look how Allah ta’ala reforms a person with His Mercy. Allah gave us Ramadhan – yes? And what did we do in Ramadhan above all? What did we place particular emphasis on? It was the Qur’an. Yes? For morning to evening, it was Qur’an, Qur’an, Qur’an – is this not the case? Everyone in the world ran after the Qur’an, reading it all the time, completing so many Khatams, praying Qur’an in Tarawih, reading Qur’an; the fragrance of the Qur’an spread for thirty days. Allah ta’ala made us immersed in the Qur’an; and the Qur’an is great; without the Qur’an, we cannot succeed. And now, two months later, Allah ta’ala is also doing our Tarbiyah, and in this month Allah ta’ala is giving other great and Atheem A’maal. Each has its time in which Allah ta’ala revives them, so that we can understand, correct ourselves, attain these deeds and correct our lives. So now we are in the month of Dhul Hijjah, about which it is said that there is no greater deed in these days of Dhul Hijjah. Ramadhan has gone, and Allah ta’ala is saying ‘In Ramadhan, there was one Laylat-ul-Qadr, but there are ten Laylat-ul-Qadrs in Dhul Hijjah!’ The rewards have multiplied so much, and Allah ta’ala says that it does not end after ten. You can continue thereafter until the thirteenth day, and we are sat here in those Days of Tashriq.
What is Allah ta’ala teaching us here? Allah ta’ala is giving another message, and what is that? That the real, genuine article underpinning the Qur’an that we read in Ramadhan, the deed that enables us to do Amal on the Qur’an, without which no Amal will succeed is what? The Dhikr of Allah; Allah’s remembrance. What did you do after Salah just now? Dhikr of Allah – and we did it loudly. Allah ta’ala says that the louder we recite, the better. Allah is saying ‘Elevate My glory – glorify Me, praise Me and mention My greatness.’ This is Dhikr, so when we do Dhikr, this is what we do. We mention Allah’s attributes and characteristics so that they become embedded in our hearts, and we realise that there is nobody apart from Allah, and that Allah is the greatest. Whoever is the greatest, that is who we put trust in and believe in. It is the same in our homes; if someone questions you, asking ‘Who told you to do this action?’ – say your mother asks you ‘Who told you to move this table?’ - if you reply ‘He told me to do it’ and you indicate a child, then you will get a slap; but if you say ‘My honourable father told me to move it,’ then she will say ‘Okay, that’s fine.’ The children won’t argue with the action, because the father is the authority, and if the father’s permission comes, then the other children will step back and say ‘Okay, okay,’ because the father is the highest authority in the home.
So Allah is saying ‘I am the greatest in the entire universe. Put My remembrance into your heart; seat My remembrance in your heart; My Hikmah will run; My words will run; My authority will run. If I say ‘Come to Salah,’ come to Salah; if I say ‘Sleep,’ go to sleep. Do whatever I tell you to do in the Dunya, and how dare anybody go against My Hukum? If you believe and accept someone else, then you don’t accept Me as greater; and if you don’t accept Me as greater, then the abode for that person is Jahannam and nowhere else.’ This is what Dhikr teaches a person – say SubhanAllah.
This is all from one this one Hadith that I am telling you about; this is a great statement and a great point and a great subject. Allah says ‘What is the greatest action in Dhul Hijjah? Dhikr of Allah!’ Dhikr, Dhikr, Dhikr - Arafat Dhikr, Muzdalifah Dhikr, Mina Dhikr – Dhikr in every place. Is there any other action? When the Hajjis leave home, they recite ‘Labaik Allahumma Labaik, Labaik la Sharika Labaik’ – they do Dhikr of Allah, and they continue to do Dhikrullah. When he takes his clothes off – Dhikr; sleeping – Dhikr; walking – Dhikr. There is no other action, no third action or Ibadah during the days of Hajj. Say SubhanAllah. On all of the days of Hajj, there is no other Ibadah apart from Takbir. We have to keep remembering Allah so much, more than you have remembered anyone else in the whole world – this is what Allah is telling us. So what else is Dhikr? It is A’la and Oola. Allah says ‘Everything that exists must elevate Me, glorify Me and praise Me. Just as I elevated the Qur’an, now I am elevating Dhikr.’ And when you combine the two, Qur’an and Dhikr – SubhanAllah. Take the Qur’an and purify your body with Dhikr so that the Qur’an can come into your heart, and you can start to practice the Qur’an.
Do you understand what I am saying? Look at the combination that Allah has given to us – Qur’an and Dhikr. There is no other action to do in these ten days – this is Afdhal. There are ten Laylat-ul-Qadrs in which to do this, and also in the days as well as the nights. The days are great, and the nights are great. One fast will give you two years’ reward and the other days will give you one year’s reward, SubhanAllah; and they will compensate for one year’s worth of sins, and Allah ta’ala has given this reward on every one of these days – so there is earning as well in parallel. But Allah ta’ala says ‘Be careful to do the greatest action that has been explained to you’ – and what is that? Dhikrullah.
If you take Dhikr out of Hajj, there is no Hajj left; nothing remains. There is no Arafah, there is no Mina, there is no Muzdalifah, there is no Qurbani. Allah tells us to keep reciting the Takbir wherever we go. As you keep moving, keep remembering Allah subhana wa ta'ala; keep doing Dhikr for as long as you are in Ihram. When the ten days end, even then keep remembering Allah until the thirteenth day – but we don’t even remember in our normal lives. We don’t like sitting in the Majlis, and we think Dhikr is a waste of time - we think that it has no value. But Allah has given us a Hukm. “Inna-llaha Rafiqun” – this is a Muslim Hadith. Allah is saying ‘I am Allah, and I am greater than anyone and My Hukm goes, so adopt gentleness and softness in your approach. Have I been stern with you? Don’t you know about Me? I know about you, I could be stern with you due to what you are, but instead I give you food in the hope that you might do Tawbah. Maybe he will correct himself; maybe he will come to My Dhikr, maybe he will become a human being; maybe he will start to practice Islam. I give you chance after chance every day – I am not stern with you. Inna-llaha Rafiqun. I am Rafiq!’ SubhanAllah – Allah says ‘If I am Rafiq, and if I am soft, tender, caring and gentle, then I love he who is also gentle and soft.’
There two types of husband: one is stern and strict, saying ‘Begone with you - get out! I have no link with you,’ while the other type is gentle and caring. To him, Allah says ‘I have a connection with you so I will give you a reward. I will make your children pious, and I will put Barakaat in your life, and I will make your situation such that there will Barakah in your Rizq; and I will keep you close and prevent divorces, because you followed My advice. I have given you softness and tenderness and gentleness, and you have done the same after I treated you softly, so I will treat you in the same way.’ Do you understand this point? This is a Hadith, and what I am trying to explain here is that we need to apply this to our own lives. Yes? If I say to you that your nose shouldn’t be like this, but rather it should be like that, remember that it is Allah ta’ala who has given you status, so don’t be big-nosed and haughty and proud. If you acquire status and power, then utilise that power and authority in a soft way. Meet people with love and meet people nicely. You should say to them ‘You know better than me – I don’t know about this.’ Say SubhanAllah. ‘You know better than me - I don’t know anything about this. You’re better than me – I am not a good person.’ Yes? Elevate that person and don’t let them feel any difference.
When people would come to the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, when a person from the village areas or from rural areas would come, the person would come so close, and he wouldn’t even know the difference and realise that he was a Nabi. The Sahaba were amazed that the stranger would come and go so close to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam when speaking to him – this was his Maqam of love and mercy. The Sahaba-e-Kiram would say ‘We were afraid and we didn’t want to ask ourselves, so we would pray to Allah that someone would be sent from the rural areas to ask questions frankly, so that our predicament could be explained and our questions could be answered.’
This is what Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to give us, not just Salah and Sujud, which are a very small part of the Deen. And those actions of Ibadah are themselves dependent upon our Akhlaq. We think in a big-headed way, saying ‘I pray five times Salah and no one is better than me, and I am going to Jannah. No one is better than me, without doubt.’ We say these things to ourselves, but this is external beauty. This is like when a person says ‘I want to leave home and I want to be clean and pure,’ but are you like this when you are sat at home? When you go outside, you will dress up and wear your Kameez, but when you are at home, you will wear casual clothing and maybe not even a Topi. When you go out, however, you put an Imamah on or a Topi and change your clothes for neater and cleaner garments, so that you leave home with Husn and Zeenat and people who see you will say ‘Oh, he is clean and nice and well-kept, and he smells nice,’ and they will tell other people this as well. The womenfolk, in particular, carefully select and wear talcum powder and foundation and make-up so that they can show other people that they look nice. When she goes to a gathering - and when you go - after a while, when you start talking, the people realise that there is no one worse, because what you say is bad and there is no Husn in it. When you start speaking, they say ‘How strange – we thought that he was good.’ We realise from this that there is a Dhahiri beauty and elegance, and there is also a Batini beauty and elegance – say SubhanAllah.
One thing is Dhahiri beauty, and the other is Batini beauty – and Dhahiri beauty is useless! You can make yourself look good and nice, but this will fizzle away and disappear, and actually you are deceiving people with your external dress; and that is what happens with Dhahiri Ibadah. But Husn, true beauty, is connected to your soul within. So your deeds are connected to your Batin, and if your Batin is beautiful, then your external deeds will be good, and this should be your Niyyah. People complain that they have seen many people with beards who pray Salah, but they are thieves who have no manners and do not know how to talk to people, The reason for this is that they are spoiling their own Deen because they have not cultivated real beauty within themselves; they adopt nice clothes externally and then think that they have achieved a big result. They regard themselves as very pious and think they have got somewhere.
Obviously, alhamdulillah, if a Dhahiri Amal has come to you and you are performing it, then value it, but Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha has said that the success of every action is connected to gentleness and softness, and this is what will bring beauty into it. So if you have prayed and done Hajj and given Zakat and have fasted, then shape your Akhlaq in such a way that there is softness and tenderness and a beautiful approach, and in this way, Husn will come into your Salah, into your Ibadah, into your speaking, into your lectures, into your ‘Ilm, into your knowledge. But if you do not have Akhlaq, then you will just go downhill and will be destroyed. So what a great Hadith it is where Allah says “Inna-llaha yuhibbu-l-Rafiq” – ‘I like and I prefer this quality, and I don’t leave those who I love empty-handed; rather, I give him reward upon reward.’
May Allah ta’ala give us good Akhlaq and the ability to make effort to improve our Akhlaq, and I invite you to Dhikr of Allah for this purpose. This is what this Majlis is for, so do not consider Dhikr of Allah to be a minor deed. Do good deeds - pray Salah, give Tableegh, deliver lectures and all of these things, but to make all of this beautiful - say SubhanAllah – and to instil elegance and Husn as Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha said, then establish Akhlaq as well and make an effort on this through Tazkiyah. And what does Tazkiyah start with? With Dhikrullah, with remembrance of Allah. Don’t remove Dhikr from your actions; don’t remove it from your Qur’an, or from your Salah, or from your Hajj. Rather, by means of Dhikr, develop beauty in your actions, so that when you recite Qur’an, it becomes accepted, and so that the Salah that you pray becomes accepted.
It should not be that we prostrate and then we backbite or speak badly about someone or get angry, and if someone comes and stands next to you, you shout at him, saying ‘Can’t you give me some space? Why don’t you find room elsewhere in the Masjid?’ And yet that person thinks to himself ‘I pray a lot of Salah and I have reached the heights’ and he stays all day in the Masjid or does Tawaf all the time or some other action regularly. Allah ta’ala is saying that you should not let this condition overtake you. Rather, let someone praise you and say that you have nice Akhlaq and that you speak softly and take a gentle approach, for then your Qur’an will be accepted, and your Salah will be accepted. When a third party talks about you when you are not there, and says that when he sits next to you, he does not want to leave your company, then this is the glory of the friends of Allah.
I would sit next to Hadhrat Sahib for hours. Believe me, one sitting would last for hours when I used to sit with my Hadhrat Sahib, and obviously, you cannot go against Adab when in the presence of the Wali of Allah, so I would sit next to Hadhrat Sahib with my head bowed - but Wallahi, I did not feel like leaving their company when I was sat with them. My family would call and beckon me from home, saying that it was time for food and that I should come home quickly, but I would carry on doing my work and focussing on my work. I told them ‘You eat your food – I will come soon.’ Yes? And although they were waiting for me because I had come from far, I did not feel like leaving and departing because I got so much peace and contentment in my heart in the company of the Wali of Allah. And this is because the Walis of Allah adopt gentleness and have a soft approach and have beautiful Akhlaq.
So don’t be dry - you know that external, dry style? No, adopt a soft approach instead when you enter your home, and then your children and your wife will be happy when you arrive home. Don’t be such that they say ‘Oh no, he’s back again. Get ready – stop everything,’ and then they pretend to be pure when he walks in. This is the reception – ‘Oh, your father has come, so close that,’ because when the father comes home, it is as if an inspector has walked into the house. The household gets destroyed in this way, and afterwards people start saying ‘Oh, someone has done black magic on us,’ ‘Mama Gee has done this’ – and thus other sins pile on top.
May Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq to do Dhikr. My brothers, do Dhikr – the Dhikr store is open, so benefit from the store and learn Qalbi Dhikr so that your heart becomes alive. You don’t need to pay anything or spend any money, so don’t be ashamed to come. A person who is ashamed to step forward will remain wretched always. How long will you stay ashamed? How can you be ashamed of learning your Deen through this ‘Ilm that I am teaching? This is your Deen, this ‘Ilm-e-Ludni - and this Dhikr of the heart is such a great ‘Ilm; it is a very great thing, for this whole ‘Ilm comes into you when you do this action. So have belief and faith in the Qur’an and Hadith, and take the prescription for this.
Don’t waste time, for we have no guarantee that another Covid won’t come tomorrow. What will you do then? Corona has not gone – it is spreading. Whether you remove your masks or wear them or start standing close together inside and outside, the Adhab is still there. Allah’s Adhab is stll here; it has not gone. When it goes, it will go, but right now it has surrounded us. We are surrounded by this Adhab. I tell you now, Allah is unhappy with us. All of this leaving lockdown and saying lockdown has gone is just a big drama. After a few days, you will see that lockdown will come again. All of these dramas, like being told ‘Take masks off now, and shake hands now, and come close together now because social distancing has gone now and we can all be closer together again,’ this all makes no difference at all to the fact that Allah continues to be unhappy. Remember this. The sickness is still present – it has not receded even one inch. Go and look at today’s report – it confirms that it is increasing. There has been an 18% increase in infection; it went down, and now it has increased again by 18 or 20%. Look, this is what has happened over the last few days. The total is up according to the data, and to look at data is part of Deen. It is important to have information and data and to make an analysis as to where Corona is going and what the trend is. Allah is still unhappy with us, for up to now, no one has done true Tawbah. Nobody has asked Allah truly for forgiveness.
So this disease is here, my brothers, and let us accept that we are in this situation; let us go towards Islah and ask Allah for forgiveness and do Tawbah. What an Atheem ten days have passed, but how many people made Tawbah? How many people have kept beards? How many women have adopted Purdah? How many people have given up music and singing and removed this from their homes? How many people adopted gentleness with their relatives and started praying Salah? Instead, we have that Fitnah, and it is just that same old man who comes, coughing and spluttering when arriving at the Masjid - and also when he leaves, the poor soul. What else can he do? He is going to come to the Masjid anyway, isn’t he? Tell me. Is this how many people live in Bolton? Tell me. One full Saff is barely completed, so will Allah’s Adhab not come? Tell me now. Is Islam just for Jumu’ah and not for Fajr? A person cannot imagine the status of Fajr Salah – say SubhanAllah - so come in the morning of Jumu’ah. Tonight is the night of Jumu’ah, and tomorrow is the last day of the days of Tashriq. This will end tomorrow, my brothers, so do Dhikr of Allah and do Tawbah in the morning. My sisters and mothers, wear your Burkhas; obey Allah and cover your bodies. Bring Haya into your bodies – otherwise, I swear by Allah, this flood will sweep us away like twigs. Nothing will be left in its wake. Like twigs and branches, this whole generation is slowly being cleaned up.
We must understand what Allah is saying and what the Qur’an is saying and realise where we are stood. Immodesty is a flood within us - a flood. We read Qur’an, and afterwards we reject that Qur’an; we recite Qur’an, and then we practice against the Qur’an; we kiss the Qur’an and touch it, and then we practice against the Qur’an, openly and flagrantly. The Qur’an says something to us, and we say ‘Oh, we’re not going to do that. We will read you, oh Qur’an, but we will not accept you.’ I have explained one Hadith to you today, and is the whole Deen not encompassed by this? Is Islah attained or not? Just one blessed statement of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is so precious – so very precious. How precious is just one Sunnah? Tell me. The cure for the whole world is found in the Sunnah.
May Allah give us all the Tawfeeq. Ameen
30th Jul, 2021
subhanallah
23rd Jul, 2021
We think that if we pray 5 times salah, that's it. We're the best of people and we are destined for jannah.
If you don't have inner beauty, your outer beauty is nothing.
Rendered futile.
Good character brings beauty to your actions and your knowledge. But if you don't have good character, you're nothing.
You should be in awe of a person whose good character is praised by others.
This is the beauty of sitting in the company of Awliyah for hours and hours on end. When I was with my shaikh, Wallahi I wouldn't feel like going. Food would be served and I wouldn't want to leave my shaykh. Because he had softness and good character.
Allow fragrance of good character to spread around your home. Dont be harsh with your children that they wish not to be next to you.
Become a true father not a Policeman.
We are stuck amongst this calamity of corona. Allah isnt happy with us. Nothing will be rectified until Allah is happy with us.
Check the statistics, the virus is spreading.
23rd Jul, 2021
You should be in awe of a person whose good character is praised by others.
This is the beauty of sitting in the company of Awliyah for hours and hours on end. When I was with my shaikh, Wallahi I wouldn't feel like going. Food would be served and I wouldn't want to leave my shaykh. Because he had softness and good character.
Allow fragrance of good character to spread around your home. Dont be harsh with your children that they wish not to be next to you.
Become a true father not a Policeman.
We are stuck amongst this calamity of corona. Allah isnt happy with us. Nothing will be rectified until Allah is happy with us.
Check the statistics, the virus is spreading.
We are present today on this beautiful night, and we are passing through the Days of Tashriq in Dhul Hijjah, which Allah ta’ala has made special and beautified for us with Dhikrullah; and today, Allah ta’ala has given us the Tawfeeq to perform Dhikrullah. We do not have energy and power to demonstrate sufficient gratitude for this Ni’mah, so we pray that Allah accepts our efforts.
Every Hadith and statement of the gracious Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is so valuable, beautiful and excellent that if a servant takes one statement of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam with an honest heart and does Amal upon it, his whole life becomes reformed and realigned correctly; we must have Yaqeen on this and practice upon it. To be successful in life and to make our lives right, we do not require a lot of knowledge. Rather, with Allah’s Fadhl and Karam, if a person accepts and implements just one Hadith in his life and practices upon it, then all the paths of life open up.
Now, as I said, every Hadith is present and available, but at this moment in time, Allah ta’ala has given me the Tawfeeq to speak, so I would like to present one Hadith in your service. As to the effect and the consequences of this Hadith, I can say this much, that I pray Allah ta’ala gives us the understanding of this Hadith and that due to it, our homes become vibrant, and arguments end; if the wife is unhappy with her husband, then alhamdulillah, she will become happy with him, and if the husband is unhappy with his wife, then he will become happy with her; and the children will be corrected and the businesses will flourish, and mercy and love will spread; and the children will become obedient, and it will become easy to follow the Deen, and Jannah will draw close; and Allah will become pleased, and difficulties and issues will retreat into the distance, and people will be saved from innovations and will start to follow the straight path. What a great reward! And from how many Hadiths? Just from one Hadith, just one Hadith.
In the Hadith collection of Sahih Muslim, a Hadith is narrated by Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha, who is the Habeeb of Allah’s Habeeb, and the meaning of the Hadith is something that is very easy for us to do. She narrates that the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated that if there is softness and gentleness within any matter, then beauty and Husn will arise and develop as a result. If this attribute of gentleness and tenderness or softness is attached to anything, then Husn and beauty will come into it. By contrast, if that gentleness is removed, then hardship will follow; without this attribute, there will be many deficiencies and faults that arise.
So what a great Hadith we see here. Will society not be improved through this? The message that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given to us here is that the status and glory of a Mu’min depends on him adopting gentleness in all his affairs; he should approach things in a calm and gentle manner. So how do our affairs become spoiled? For example, if Allah ta’ala increases somebody’s provision in some way and expands and multiplies it, then a weird feeling happens within that person, which is that he falls into sternness more quickly. He says ‘I am a father, and I am bigger in relation to my child, so while I could be gentle when explaining things, sternness comes more easily.’ I have seen myself that this is mostly the case, so very commonly a mother will shriek ‘Don’t do that!’ at the children if she wants to stop them doing something. She tries to give them a bit of a fright.
It is in the Fitrah of a human being that when he gets a bit of power, he thinks ‘I can do what I want now and can control it however I want.’ In the real world, when a husband gets a wife, he often feels that he has a bit of power in that situation and hence adopts a style of sternness and strictness, and since she is a human being who has feelings, this causes problems. It can also happen that the woman is stern and hard in her manner, in which case the husband gets the wrong impression, and this causes divorces and damage to the children and to the wider society as well. So many relationships get broken due to the lack of this one thing that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam liked. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is telling us ‘If you don’t do Amal on this one thing, then your home will be broken; this is what will happen if you are stern and strict with your children.’
I have seen many children who make this complaint, saying ‘My mother is strict with me,’ or ‘My father is strict with me. My parents don’t explain things to me in a loving manner.’ This is the situation in 99% of our homes – the mother and father adopt a strict and stern manner towards their children. The parent may think is it okay because they are trying to prevent wrongdoing from occurring, but Rasoolulah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has explained an alternative method. And we see that the Deen has gone far from us, and we have left the practice of the Sunnah; and our hearts, from where tenderness should arise, are spoiled. Where does tenderness come from? From the heart - but we have stopped doing Islah of the heart. So what is the consequence? Society is spoiled and destruction has occurred; negative results have come about. And then Allah gives the punishment, saying ‘You have gone against the Sunnah of My Nabi’ sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Shaytan gives Waswasah, and you think that someone has done magic on you, that some enemy of yours from India or Pakistan has done black magic on you, so you phone someone whose advert you have seen to seek a solution – and that person earns good money. In reality, there is no magic, but rather just one thing is wrong – we have discarded the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. All of the solutions for humanity are based on the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam – if only we were to understand this point. When you seek a solution to any problem, don’t look at anything else, just ask ‘What is the solution of the Holy Prophet for this predicament?’ If you want to mend broken ties and make good relationships with your relatives, there is just one way. When you initiate the effort with gentleness, then the guarantee of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is that definitely there will be Zeenat and beauty in the result, and this will overwhelm the problem. That same wife will become obedient to you, that same husband will become obedient to you, those same children will start to obey you and to listen to you – they will understand.
If somebody adopts gentleness in the home, a soft approach, then that home improves; if you adopt gentleness, then your business will improve. If a person’s words and manners are good, then the customers will want to go to that shop. If somebody says to me ‘Why do you buy meat from this shop and not from that one?’ I have one answer: ‘I go to him because he meets his customers with good Akhlaq and love, and the owner has good manners, and he doesn’t speak nonsense’ – so of course you will go there with such a reference. But if you go to a place and the owner is rude and has no manners, and he treats people differently according to whether they are younger or older than him or have status, and has no manners towards those he looks down on, then what will happen? Those customers will not return there. In other words, this Hadith applies to every sector of society; if this lesson is applied, then banditry will end, and criminality will end, and relationships will strengthen, and our children will improve. Is this not the case?
But the situation today is exemplified by a clip that someone showed me which amazed me. Some people were interviewed and asked ‘Do you do Qurbani?’ and they said ‘Yes.’ So then they were asked ‘Whose Sunnah is this practice?’ and they went quiet. One said this Prophet, and another said that Prophet – they didn’t even know what this action is! Look how much our society has degraded today - we are so far from Islam, and this is due to this reason. There is so much Fasaad and disorder – Fasaad is everywhere; there is nothing that is free from Fasaad.
This is the Karam of Allah that we have established and attended a gathering such as this, where we can sit, and we hear. These are not minor gatherings; this is a Baatini gathering for the improvement of the internal state and is therefore very valuable and precious. Today, in this society in which these conditions surround us, somebody is sitting and listening and getting the message about the Sunnah Sharifah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He has come with the Niyyah for this and intends to do Amal on what he hears so that he can become successful. The matter is explained in full, alhamdulillah, and he doesn’t just take one thing away, but Salah will be established in his life, or he will start going to the Masjid, or he will start learning how to recite Qur’an, for this is all part of the Deen.
Remember – the whole of the Deen is based upon Akhlaq. Salah, fasting and Hajj make up just a small portion of Islam, and even these aspects of worship are dependant upon Akhlaq. These parts of the Deen are dependant upon Islam because Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘I was sent to the world for just one thing – to perfect Akhlaq. I was not just sent to teach you how to fast and pray Salah, rather I was sent to teach you that fasting and Hajj and Salah will be accepted by Allah when offered with that ‘Ilm that I have brought. This is how your A’maal will be accepted; otherwise these deeds cannot be successful and they will go to waste.’ What is that ‘Ilm that Allah’s Nabi came with? What did he bring? He came with the ‘Ilm of Akhlaq, the ‘Ilm of Tazkiyah, the ‘Ilm of reformation, ‘Ilm-e-Ludni. If we have covered this up and hidden it and removed it and made it insignificant and decreased its importance, then remember: whatever you do and however hard you try, employing different methods and these alternative solutions that we elevate, you will not succeed.
Look at the situation today. Were there as many Masjids in previous generations, and were as many editions of the Qur’an printed, and were as many gatherings convened? And yet look how much more elevated the Deen was before. Why? Because they had the Ruh, the soul of the Deen; in previous eras of history, they understood Akhlaq. They would work hard upon this and engage with Tazkiyah in order to attain rectification. As for us, we have come to consider Tazkiyah as a minor thing, but the whole Deen is based on Tazkiyah. The whole message from Allah is that we need to reform ourselves, and this is how society will improve. Look, before Rasoolulah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came, what was the condition of the Arabs? And once Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came, what factor changed within those people? Most of all, it was that their Akhlaq improved. The Akhlaq of those nomads and villagers, who did not know anything, improved so much that they reformed the whole world. The announcement came that you don’t need to look at and imitate just this Sahabi or that Sahabi – there were 124,000 noble Companions, and Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘I did so much Tarbiyah of my blessed companions that whichever of them you follow in his words or deeds, then you will practice my Deen comprehensively.’
What a broad, open playing field - there were 124,000 Companions! So how sad it is that we neither follow their example nor accept the Hadith of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. If we want to become true, honest and sincere Muslims then we should look into our lives, and from today onwards, what should we find there? Softness and gentleness. Whoever you speak to, whether you are lecturing about the Deen or just speaking, if you speak with tenderness and softness and gentleness, you will win over the hearts of your listeners. If you deliver a message with harshness and sternness, saying ‘You should be ashamed of yourself – why don’t you keep a beard? You will go to hellfire!’ then what will happen? Dislike will arise in the listeners through this approach.
These are two contrasting things, so if you want to explain things to your son, adopt gentleness and speak to him in a caring manner, with love; when talking to a student, explain to him with softness and love; if a relative has made a mistake and is speaking angrily to you, remind yourself to adopt gentleness and speak in a soft and caring manner in your reply. Don’t think ‘I am this and he is that – I am better than him.’ Allah is saying ‘Okay, maybe you are higher in status, but if I have given you some height, then lower yourself and be soft and gentle.’ If you adopt a caring attitude, Sukoon will come into your homes. If somebody, whether your son or daughter or wife, has made a mistake, then don’t explain the right path with a stick. How should you explain? In a gentle manner, giving examples.
This is such a great Hadith for our society. If we have Sukoon and peace in our homes, then when we come to the Masjid, we will feel peace as well when we do Sajdah. But if you were fighting at home before you came, you will not know what you prayed; if you come after an argument, you won’t know what you are praying or appreciate your Sujood, and when you return, the argument will start again. ‘You said this to me, didn’t you?’ He said this and she said that. It is surprising to say that this happens to very good people of understanding.
I will give you a practical example here. If a husband and wife are sat together, even though there is a lot of love between the two of them, if he says something and she contradicts him, the next thing he says is ‘Divorce.’ Then she says ‘What? Are you okay mentally? What have I said wrong?’ - and he replies with a second declaration of divorce! The second divorce comes, and then it escalates further, and within that sitting, he gives three declarations of divorce. Tell me! This is a true example I am giving you; our societal manners are so harsh and hard. So what do they do then? They start looking for Fatwas and excuses and they come back together, but their whole relationship is Haram after that because the three divorces have taken place. What big problems we fall into – and why? Because we have gone far from the solution of the Deen.
So the path is to adopt softness and gentleness by learning the ‘Ilm that is called Tazkiyah. I am explaining a Hadith from Sahih Muslim here, narrated by Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha. What does Allah say? Inna’llaha Rafiqun, meaning ‘I am your Rabb, your Lord; I am the greatest and the highest; I am al-Qadir and there is no one more powerful than the King of kings. You are all in My creation. Inna-llaha Rafiqun – look at Me. In everything I do, I adopt the manner of softness and gentleness.’ Firawn was disobedient, but Allah was not stern; rather Allah said to His Nabi ‘Go to Firawn and give him the message and the understanding.’ His Nabi was given strength and was given the miracles of the staff and the hand, but Allah said to him ‘Remember Musa, whilst you are on this mission, be soft and gentle in your approach; don’t be stern and hard.’ SubhanAllah.
So what is higher? He had Nabuwat, he was a Prophet and had all the power, but what Ta’leem did Allah ta’ala give to him? That despite having all the power and authority, he would succeed through gentleness and softness. He was told ‘Your stick will not work, your miracles will not work – nothing will work. Firawn is also My creation; all of Creation is Mine. They are My servants, and I give them food to eat and water to drink.’ If Allah ta’ala were to act harshly towards us, then we wouldn’t even be sat here, since from morning to evening we disobey. Tell me, how many people here failed to attend Fajr Salah in the morning? Will Allah be happy with us? Allah’s Nabi described this and explained the status of Salah. A person who rejects one Salah is like a person whose entire home and family has been destroyed – that is the extent of Allah’s displeasure with that person. SubhanAllah – Allah gives him health and energy and food, and that person went to sleep in the evening nicely, so can he not go a few footsteps to attend Fajr Salah in Allah’s home? Tell me - what kind of a human being is that? The animals and birds are better. Every morning at dawn, the birds start chirping and doing the Dhikr of Allah, so they are better. They give the Hamd, but we run away from the Dhikr of Allah. The sparrows and other birds have this understanding that Allah has given them the morning, and Qiyamah hasn’t come yet, and they have no disease or difficulty. ‘What is this Corona?’ they say.
This Corona disease has come due to our A’maal. Yes? People cover their faces and mouths and get the injection, but why don’t we adopt the straightforward solution by going to Allah’s Court to do Tawbah, to ask for forgiveness for our sins? Allah says ‘As soon as you do so, I will immediately rain down the solutions upon you. The solutions will come from the earth and the sky, and your children will become pious as a result’ – but we can’t do this. We don’t want to learn how to remember Allah and how to submit and bow to Allah. We will put vaccines and medicines into our bodies, but we won’t go to Allah, our Rabb, and bow and submit.
My brothers, what a great Hadith we are learning today. The whole of ‘Ilm has been sealed in this message from Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Look, the most ignorant of ignorant people can understand this – who would not be able to understand this Hadith? Even an ignorant person can understand, no matter what language or style you present this; even nomads and simple country folk can understand that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has said that if gentleness and softness are adopted, all issues and problems will fall into place. Will they not understand? And if he says ‘Yes, I understand – this is the truth, and I am not going to be stern anymore after today’ then I swear that he has become successful. He has understood the Qur’an, he has understood Bukhari, he has understood the Muwatta, he has passed the Dar-ul-Uloom graduation and has reached a high status, because he has understood the reality that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to this world to convey. It was to deliver this that he did Mujahidah and strove, saying ‘I aligned all the tribes of Arabs through one thing – through my Akhlaq-e-Husna. I did not come just to give you ‘Ilm.’ And where did that start from? From Allah’s remembrance, for Allah’s Dhikr.
Look how Allah ta’ala reforms a person with His Mercy. Allah gave us Ramadhan – yes? And what did we do in Ramadhan above all? What did we place particular emphasis on? It was the Qur’an. Yes? For morning to evening, it was Qur’an, Qur’an, Qur’an – is this not the case? Everyone in the world ran after the Qur’an, reading it all the time, completing so many Khatams, praying Qur’an in Tarawih, reading Qur’an; the fragrance of the Qur’an spread for thirty days. Allah ta’ala made us immersed in the Qur’an; and the Qur’an is great; without the Qur’an, we cannot succeed. And now, two months later, Allah ta’ala is also doing our Tarbiyah, and in this month Allah ta’ala is giving other great and Atheem A’maal. Each has its time in which Allah ta’ala revives them, so that we can understand, correct ourselves, attain these deeds and correct our lives. So now we are in the month of Dhul Hijjah, about which it is said that there is no greater deed in these days of Dhul Hijjah. Ramadhan has gone, and Allah ta’ala is saying ‘In Ramadhan, there was one Laylat-ul-Qadr, but there are ten Laylat-ul-Qadrs in Dhul Hijjah!’ The rewards have multiplied so much, and Allah ta’ala says that it does not end after ten. You can continue thereafter until the thirteenth day, and we are sat here in those Days of Tashriq.
What is Allah ta’ala teaching us here? Allah ta’ala is giving another message, and what is that? That the real, genuine article underpinning the Qur’an that we read in Ramadhan, the deed that enables us to do Amal on the Qur’an, without which no Amal will succeed is what? The Dhikr of Allah; Allah’s remembrance. What did you do after Salah just now? Dhikr of Allah – and we did it loudly. Allah ta’ala says that the louder we recite, the better. Allah is saying ‘Elevate My glory – glorify Me, praise Me and mention My greatness.’ This is Dhikr, so when we do Dhikr, this is what we do. We mention Allah’s attributes and characteristics so that they become embedded in our hearts, and we realise that there is nobody apart from Allah, and that Allah is the greatest. Whoever is the greatest, that is who we put trust in and believe in. It is the same in our homes; if someone questions you, asking ‘Who told you to do this action?’ – say your mother asks you ‘Who told you to move this table?’ - if you reply ‘He told me to do it’ and you indicate a child, then you will get a slap; but if you say ‘My honourable father told me to move it,’ then she will say ‘Okay, that’s fine.’ The children won’t argue with the action, because the father is the authority, and if the father’s permission comes, then the other children will step back and say ‘Okay, okay,’ because the father is the highest authority in the home.
So Allah is saying ‘I am the greatest in the entire universe. Put My remembrance into your heart; seat My remembrance in your heart; My Hikmah will run; My words will run; My authority will run. If I say ‘Come to Salah,’ come to Salah; if I say ‘Sleep,’ go to sleep. Do whatever I tell you to do in the Dunya, and how dare anybody go against My Hukum? If you believe and accept someone else, then you don’t accept Me as greater; and if you don’t accept Me as greater, then the abode for that person is Jahannam and nowhere else.’ This is what Dhikr teaches a person – say SubhanAllah.
This is all from one this one Hadith that I am telling you about; this is a great statement and a great point and a great subject. Allah says ‘What is the greatest action in Dhul Hijjah? Dhikr of Allah!’ Dhikr, Dhikr, Dhikr - Arafat Dhikr, Muzdalifah Dhikr, Mina Dhikr – Dhikr in every place. Is there any other action? When the Hajjis leave home, they recite ‘Labaik Allahumma Labaik, Labaik la Sharika Labaik’ – they do Dhikr of Allah, and they continue to do Dhikrullah. When he takes his clothes off – Dhikr; sleeping – Dhikr; walking – Dhikr. There is no other action, no third action or Ibadah during the days of Hajj. Say SubhanAllah. On all of the days of Hajj, there is no other Ibadah apart from Takbir. We have to keep remembering Allah so much, more than you have remembered anyone else in the whole world – this is what Allah is telling us. So what else is Dhikr? It is A’la and Oola. Allah says ‘Everything that exists must elevate Me, glorify Me and praise Me. Just as I elevated the Qur’an, now I am elevating Dhikr.’ And when you combine the two, Qur’an and Dhikr – SubhanAllah. Take the Qur’an and purify your body with Dhikr so that the Qur’an can come into your heart, and you can start to practice the Qur’an.
Do you understand what I am saying? Look at the combination that Allah has given to us – Qur’an and Dhikr. There is no other action to do in these ten days – this is Afdhal. There are ten Laylat-ul-Qadrs in which to do this, and also in the days as well as the nights. The days are great, and the nights are great. One fast will give you two years’ reward and the other days will give you one year’s reward, SubhanAllah; and they will compensate for one year’s worth of sins, and Allah ta’ala has given this reward on every one of these days – so there is earning as well in parallel. But Allah ta’ala says ‘Be careful to do the greatest action that has been explained to you’ – and what is that? Dhikrullah.
If you take Dhikr out of Hajj, there is no Hajj left; nothing remains. There is no Arafah, there is no Mina, there is no Muzdalifah, there is no Qurbani. Allah tells us to keep reciting the Takbir wherever we go. As you keep moving, keep remembering Allah subhana wa ta'ala; keep doing Dhikr for as long as you are in Ihram. When the ten days end, even then keep remembering Allah until the thirteenth day – but we don’t even remember in our normal lives. We don’t like sitting in the Majlis, and we think Dhikr is a waste of time - we think that it has no value. But Allah has given us a Hukm. “Inna-llaha Rafiqun” – this is a Muslim Hadith. Allah is saying ‘I am Allah, and I am greater than anyone and My Hukm goes, so adopt gentleness and softness in your approach. Have I been stern with you? Don’t you know about Me? I know about you, I could be stern with you due to what you are, but instead I give you food in the hope that you might do Tawbah. Maybe he will correct himself; maybe he will come to My Dhikr, maybe he will become a human being; maybe he will start to practice Islam. I give you chance after chance every day – I am not stern with you. Inna-llaha Rafiqun. I am Rafiq!’ SubhanAllah – Allah says ‘If I am Rafiq, and if I am soft, tender, caring and gentle, then I love he who is also gentle and soft.’
There two types of husband: one is stern and strict, saying ‘Begone with you - get out! I have no link with you,’ while the other type is gentle and caring. To him, Allah says ‘I have a connection with you so I will give you a reward. I will make your children pious, and I will put Barakaat in your life, and I will make your situation such that there will Barakah in your Rizq; and I will keep you close and prevent divorces, because you followed My advice. I have given you softness and tenderness and gentleness, and you have done the same after I treated you softly, so I will treat you in the same way.’ Do you understand this point? This is a Hadith, and what I am trying to explain here is that we need to apply this to our own lives. Yes? If I say to you that your nose shouldn’t be like this, but rather it should be like that, remember that it is Allah ta’ala who has given you status, so don’t be big-nosed and haughty and proud. If you acquire status and power, then utilise that power and authority in a soft way. Meet people with love and meet people nicely. You should say to them ‘You know better than me – I don’t know about this.’ Say SubhanAllah. ‘You know better than me - I don’t know anything about this. You’re better than me – I am not a good person.’ Yes? Elevate that person and don’t let them feel any difference.
When people would come to the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, when a person from the village areas or from rural areas would come, the person would come so close, and he wouldn’t even know the difference and realise that he was a Nabi. The Sahaba were amazed that the stranger would come and go so close to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam when speaking to him – this was his Maqam of love and mercy. The Sahaba-e-Kiram would say ‘We were afraid and we didn’t want to ask ourselves, so we would pray to Allah that someone would be sent from the rural areas to ask questions frankly, so that our predicament could be explained and our questions could be answered.’
This is what Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to give us, not just Salah and Sujud, which are a very small part of the Deen. And those actions of Ibadah are themselves dependent upon our Akhlaq. We think in a big-headed way, saying ‘I pray five times Salah and no one is better than me, and I am going to Jannah. No one is better than me, without doubt.’ We say these things to ourselves, but this is external beauty. This is like when a person says ‘I want to leave home and I want to be clean and pure,’ but are you like this when you are sat at home? When you go outside, you will dress up and wear your Kameez, but when you are at home, you will wear casual clothing and maybe not even a Topi. When you go out, however, you put an Imamah on or a Topi and change your clothes for neater and cleaner garments, so that you leave home with Husn and Zeenat and people who see you will say ‘Oh, he is clean and nice and well-kept, and he smells nice,’ and they will tell other people this as well. The womenfolk, in particular, carefully select and wear talcum powder and foundation and make-up so that they can show other people that they look nice. When she goes to a gathering - and when you go - after a while, when you start talking, the people realise that there is no one worse, because what you say is bad and there is no Husn in it. When you start speaking, they say ‘How strange – we thought that he was good.’ We realise from this that there is a Dhahiri beauty and elegance, and there is also a Batini beauty and elegance – say SubhanAllah.
One thing is Dhahiri beauty, and the other is Batini beauty – and Dhahiri beauty is useless! You can make yourself look good and nice, but this will fizzle away and disappear, and actually you are deceiving people with your external dress; and that is what happens with Dhahiri Ibadah. But Husn, true beauty, is connected to your soul within. So your deeds are connected to your Batin, and if your Batin is beautiful, then your external deeds will be good, and this should be your Niyyah. People complain that they have seen many people with beards who pray Salah, but they are thieves who have no manners and do not know how to talk to people, The reason for this is that they are spoiling their own Deen because they have not cultivated real beauty within themselves; they adopt nice clothes externally and then think that they have achieved a big result. They regard themselves as very pious and think they have got somewhere.
Obviously, alhamdulillah, if a Dhahiri Amal has come to you and you are performing it, then value it, but Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha has said that the success of every action is connected to gentleness and softness, and this is what will bring beauty into it. So if you have prayed and done Hajj and given Zakat and have fasted, then shape your Akhlaq in such a way that there is softness and tenderness and a beautiful approach, and in this way, Husn will come into your Salah, into your Ibadah, into your speaking, into your lectures, into your ‘Ilm, into your knowledge. But if you do not have Akhlaq, then you will just go downhill and will be destroyed. So what a great Hadith it is where Allah says “Inna-llaha yuhibbu-l-Rafiq” – ‘I like and I prefer this quality, and I don’t leave those who I love empty-handed; rather, I give him reward upon reward.’
May Allah ta’ala give us good Akhlaq and the ability to make effort to improve our Akhlaq, and I invite you to Dhikr of Allah for this purpose. This is what this Majlis is for, so do not consider Dhikr of Allah to be a minor deed. Do good deeds - pray Salah, give Tableegh, deliver lectures and all of these things, but to make all of this beautiful - say SubhanAllah – and to instil elegance and Husn as Hadhrat Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha said, then establish Akhlaq as well and make an effort on this through Tazkiyah. And what does Tazkiyah start with? With Dhikrullah, with remembrance of Allah. Don’t remove Dhikr from your actions; don’t remove it from your Qur’an, or from your Salah, or from your Hajj. Rather, by means of Dhikr, develop beauty in your actions, so that when you recite Qur’an, it becomes accepted, and so that the Salah that you pray becomes accepted.
It should not be that we prostrate and then we backbite or speak badly about someone or get angry, and if someone comes and stands next to you, you shout at him, saying ‘Can’t you give me some space? Why don’t you find room elsewhere in the Masjid?’ And yet that person thinks to himself ‘I pray a lot of Salah and I have reached the heights’ and he stays all day in the Masjid or does Tawaf all the time or some other action regularly. Allah ta’ala is saying that you should not let this condition overtake you. Rather, let someone praise you and say that you have nice Akhlaq and that you speak softly and take a gentle approach, for then your Qur’an will be accepted, and your Salah will be accepted. When a third party talks about you when you are not there, and says that when he sits next to you, he does not want to leave your company, then this is the glory of the friends of Allah.
I would sit next to Hadhrat Sahib for hours. Believe me, one sitting would last for hours when I used to sit with my Hadhrat Sahib, and obviously, you cannot go against Adab when in the presence of the Wali of Allah, so I would sit next to Hadhrat Sahib with my head bowed - but Wallahi, I did not feel like leaving their company when I was sat with them. My family would call and beckon me from home, saying that it was time for food and that I should come home quickly, but I would carry on doing my work and focussing on my work. I told them ‘You eat your food – I will come soon.’ Yes? And although they were waiting for me because I had come from far, I did not feel like leaving and departing because I got so much peace and contentment in my heart in the company of the Wali of Allah. And this is because the Walis of Allah adopt gentleness and have a soft approach and have beautiful Akhlaq.
So don’t be dry - you know that external, dry style? No, adopt a soft approach instead when you enter your home, and then your children and your wife will be happy when you arrive home. Don’t be such that they say ‘Oh no, he’s back again. Get ready – stop everything,’ and then they pretend to be pure when he walks in. This is the reception – ‘Oh, your father has come, so close that,’ because when the father comes home, it is as if an inspector has walked into the house. The household gets destroyed in this way, and afterwards people start saying ‘Oh, someone has done black magic on us,’ ‘Mama Gee has done this’ – and thus other sins pile on top.
May Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq to do Dhikr. My brothers, do Dhikr – the Dhikr store is open, so benefit from the store and learn Qalbi Dhikr so that your heart becomes alive. You don’t need to pay anything or spend any money, so don’t be ashamed to come. A person who is ashamed to step forward will remain wretched always. How long will you stay ashamed? How can you be ashamed of learning your Deen through this ‘Ilm that I am teaching? This is your Deen, this ‘Ilm-e-Ludni - and this Dhikr of the heart is such a great ‘Ilm; it is a very great thing, for this whole ‘Ilm comes into you when you do this action. So have belief and faith in the Qur’an and Hadith, and take the prescription for this.
Don’t waste time, for we have no guarantee that another Covid won’t come tomorrow. What will you do then? Corona has not gone – it is spreading. Whether you remove your masks or wear them or start standing close together inside and outside, the Adhab is still there. Allah’s Adhab is stll here; it has not gone. When it goes, it will go, but right now it has surrounded us. We are surrounded by this Adhab. I tell you now, Allah is unhappy with us. All of this leaving lockdown and saying lockdown has gone is just a big drama. After a few days, you will see that lockdown will come again. All of these dramas, like being told ‘Take masks off now, and shake hands now, and come close together now because social distancing has gone now and we can all be closer together again,’ this all makes no difference at all to the fact that Allah continues to be unhappy. Remember this. The sickness is still present – it has not receded even one inch. Go and look at today’s report – it confirms that it is increasing. There has been an 18% increase in infection; it went down, and now it has increased again by 18 or 20%. Look, this is what has happened over the last few days. The total is up according to the data, and to look at data is part of Deen. It is important to have information and data and to make an analysis as to where Corona is going and what the trend is. Allah is still unhappy with us, for up to now, no one has done true Tawbah. Nobody has asked Allah truly for forgiveness.
So this disease is here, my brothers, and let us accept that we are in this situation; let us go towards Islah and ask Allah for forgiveness and do Tawbah. What an Atheem ten days have passed, but how many people made Tawbah? How many people have kept beards? How many women have adopted Purdah? How many people have given up music and singing and removed this from their homes? How many people adopted gentleness with their relatives and started praying Salah? Instead, we have that Fitnah, and it is just that same old man who comes, coughing and spluttering when arriving at the Masjid - and also when he leaves, the poor soul. What else can he do? He is going to come to the Masjid anyway, isn’t he? Tell me. Is this how many people live in Bolton? Tell me. One full Saff is barely completed, so will Allah’s Adhab not come? Tell me now. Is Islam just for Jumu’ah and not for Fajr? A person cannot imagine the status of Fajr Salah – say SubhanAllah - so come in the morning of Jumu’ah. Tonight is the night of Jumu’ah, and tomorrow is the last day of the days of Tashriq. This will end tomorrow, my brothers, so do Dhikr of Allah and do Tawbah in the morning. My sisters and mothers, wear your Burkhas; obey Allah and cover your bodies. Bring Haya into your bodies – otherwise, I swear by Allah, this flood will sweep us away like twigs. Nothing will be left in its wake. Like twigs and branches, this whole generation is slowly being cleaned up.
We must understand what Allah is saying and what the Qur’an is saying and realise where we are stood. Immodesty is a flood within us - a flood. We read Qur’an, and afterwards we reject that Qur’an; we recite Qur’an, and then we practice against the Qur’an; we kiss the Qur’an and touch it, and then we practice against the Qur’an, openly and flagrantly. The Qur’an says something to us, and we say ‘Oh, we’re not going to do that. We will read you, oh Qur’an, but we will not accept you.’ I have explained one Hadith to you today, and is the whole Deen not encompassed by this? Is Islah attained or not? Just one blessed statement of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is so precious – so very precious. How precious is just one Sunnah? Tell me. The cure for the whole world is found in the Sunnah.
May Allah give us all the Tawfeeq. Ameen