The Message of Rabi -Ul-Awwal
Alhamdulillah, with the grace and mercy and blessings of Allah subhana wa ta'ala, on this night of Jumu’ah, Allah ta’ala has assembled us again in His home. And on this special night of Jumu’ah, which has such a unique quality, with Allah’s Fadhl tonight is the first night of Jumu’ah of Rabi-ul-Awwal – it is the first night. All months are blessed and honourable, with Allah’s grace, but Allah ta’ala has instilled very special qualities within certain months; and the special quality of this month is that the birth of the Master of the Universe, the Beloved of Allah, the Imam of the Ambiya, the leader of the Prophets, the Final Prophet, Nabi-al-Karim, the gracious Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam took place in this blessed month of Rabi-ul-Awwal. So we can just imagine for ourselves the Barakaat of this month –there will be so many and they will be so unique in this month. This is a great night and a beautiful night, so today, in the beginning of this month, the right of this occasion is that we should share and deliver the special message of our beloved Master sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Abdullah bin Masood radhiAllahu anh, a great and noble Companion, reports in a Hadith contained in Tirmidhi that the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated that a believer is not someone who criticises and mocks other people; a person of faith is not someone who curses other people; a Mu’min is not someone who commits indecency or allows dirty language to come upon his tongue. This is a great Hadith of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and if we reflect on this for a little while, a massive message is delivered through this Hadith through which a very big veil is removed from our eyes, because the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has mentioned the qualities of a Mu’min here. Tomorrow on the Day of Judgement, when a human being is presented in the Court of Allah, there will be such regret due to the shame of having committed such actions, and Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam wants to save his Ummah from this outcome.
My brothers, it is so sad if we live our lives in deception and delusion and darkness, isn’t it? It is like the example of feeling something in the dark which feels soft and nice and good, but when the light comes on, you find that you have a snake in your hand – that is what you were feeling in the darkness. How would you feel then? Our situation is the same, because in the darkness that surrounds us in this generation, in this era, we do things that take us far from the right path, and the Sunnah and Shari’ah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam take us away from that darkness, and it is only through the Sunnah and Shari’ah that a person can move away from a life of delusion. There are big deceptions for a person of Iman, so we should think about this and worry about this.
These three sins that were mentioned by the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam – criticising and mocking, cursing people, speaking foul language to someone when angry – these are common traits and habits in this day and age. These actions are commonly found among human beings. We are in such a strange circumstances today that everyone is wrapped up in this. Shaytan and Nafs, who are the biggest enemies of human beings, present wrong actions to us as if they are nice warm Jilebis for us to eat! We do these things and do not even think they are bad. If someone says that it is a sin, we say ‘Oh no, no, no, I have just come back from Hajj.’ He is being praised as a Hajji, and his mind cannot even grasp what nonsense he talks about at home, that the language he uses with his children is wrong. ‘I was just explaining to them,’ he says, and yet he used five filthy words when telling them that they cannot go out. When the character of a human being becomes like this, Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has explained that this cannot be a Mu’min.
In other words, the understanding of these deceptions has gone, even though Ibadaat are there, alhamdulillah. The A’maal, which are undoubtedly necessary, are all there, but the Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has taught us about this reality, and all the Ambiya alayhimus salam came with this message – this was the objective for which they were sent; they had no other special objective, just this and no other. All the Prophets that came, from Hadhrat Adam alayhi salam to the Holy Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam had one objective. What was that objective? It was Tazkiyah, it was Islah, the improvement of the ego, of the inner self.
And they had this objective because we have not been created to live in this world. No, we are supposed to live in Paradise. Our destination is Paradise – that is where we have to reach and that is where we are supposed to reside. Our father was there, and then he was sent down here into the world along with our mother, so we are originally Jannatis, people who come from Paradise - and such people are not impure, are they? No, Jannatis are pure and clean; they are naturally good. In His Wisdom, Allah sent us down into this world, and this world is undeniably opposite to Jannah, being full of dirt and impurities. Whatever impurities you can think of can be found in this world. So a man is sent by Allah from Jannah to this dirty place, to the earth, and this is from the Hikmah of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. He sent us here, but He wants to save us from the dirt, which is why, alhamdulillah, Allah has made completely adequate and comprehensive arrangements for our purification. While you are living in the world, if you want to cleanse yourself and wash yourself, then the resources are here. Allah ta’ala says ‘I will keep on sending the Prophets one after another, and when the Prophets finish, then My Awliya will continuously be sent to maintain this good work.’ This process is Mutawaatir, ongoing and consistent, so that the objective of the Ambiya can continue to be fulfilled.
That is why it is stated that the Mashaykh, the Walis of Allah, are here with a mission, and this is the same mission as the Prophets of Allah. In reality, the Walis of Allah are deputies of the Rasools. They are doing the work of the Deen and fulfilling the objective for which all the Ambiya came to this earth. There is no other reason for them, because the biggest issue that confronts the human being in the world is the dirt. If we do not clean the dirt from within us, then every action that a human being does is a waste. However beautiful and handsome you may be, if you put filth on your body, no-one will come near you. Why? Because cleanliness is very important. If you have bad smells and stench coming from you, other people will say ‘Don’t go near him. I don’t care what sort of a person he is, or what his face is like – he smells.’ If a person’s breath smells bad, people run away from him – no-one wants to come near him. That is why the filth of this world destroys and eliminates all of a human being’s Ibadaat.
So it is very important to understand this topic that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam taught us, for a deficiency of us human beings is being exposed here. We are getting ever further away from the generation of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and it used to be that when somebody sinned, a person would accept the sin and regret it and remind himself not to sin again. Today, by contrast, when a person sins and starts backbiting about someone, others come and join him! If someone starts swearing about another person, two or three others will join him, saying ‘Yes, you’re right, and he also has this and that deficiency as well.’ Criticism and mockery is so common today, despite the fact that this is such a dirty action. Such comments tear a person up inside, and they are worse than an attack by a sword. When you criticise and mock someone, the inner self of that person feels very bad, and if you do so in a group setting, you cannot imagine how bad he feels. Does this not happen in our communities today? Why? We make the excuse that we are giving that person a Nasiha through this criticism and mockery and showing him up in front of that whole gathering. This is the method that we use today, when committing this weird action that we do not even admit is a sin.
No, everything should be done correctly, in an orderly fashion, according to the right method – and how do we learn that? There is only one source - we learn it from following the Sunnah of Nabi al-Karim sallallahu alayhi wasallam; when we take his Tariqa, then we will learn. But we do not take the Sunnah to be important in our lives. There is no importance given to the Sunnah in this day and age. So brothers, this is the beginning of Rabi-ul-Awwal, and the thought came to my mind that today, that on this first day of Rabi-ul-Awwal, what we should do is revise that objective for which Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came into the world. We should remind each other – of what? What is the message and what is the reality of his teaching?
It is like this: imagine you are walking on your way to somewhere – or let’s say you have left home to go shopping and are driving somewhere – and somebody waves and shouts ‘Stop the car – open the window!’ I look at him and wonder if I have done something wrong, and think ‘Is he going to do something to me?’ I lower the window slowly, thinking that he may do something wrong to me, and then he says ‘You have got a flat tyre.’ So then I put the window up and deal with it. Now was that person’s advice good or bad? Tell me. He gave me good advice, so will I say something bad to him or something good? Good, surely, because he has told me something valuable, namely that my tyre is flat. That is why he stopped me while I was driving. Should I be grateful to him and thank him, or should I be upset with him? Say SubhanAllah. And we don’t stop here, because when he tells me, a certain Fikr arises within me. When he tells me that my tyre is low and it may be punctured, a second stage comes over me. What is that stage? I think ‘Oh dear- my tyre is punctured, so what should I do now?’ Say SubhanAllah. ‘Can I get home with this tyre, or should I stop someone, or should I call a breakdown assistance like the RAC?’ This thinking comes into my mind because I realise that I need to repair this tyre so that my car can drive effectively. I am just giving you an everyday example from the world here.
So our Master sallallahu alayhi wasallam, in giving this great message to the Ummah, has favoured us hugely. This is a massive favour, because through it, everyone has been awoken. Tomorrow, when you are bringing your Salah and your Hajj and your big Ibadaat and worship, don’t be of those who regret at that time. Don’t find that because you were committing actions such as these, your name cannot be recorded as a Mu’min; it is so important that we don’t do these things alongside our good deeds. The man who finds that his tyre is low gets concerned and thinks about how he can correct it, so here too, we people of Iman should be generating this concern as well. Say SubhanAllah. It’s not just about learning Hadith and ‘Ilm and analyzing and doing Tahqeeq and establishing points from the grammar and so on – no. Understand the message of the Hadith. This is the style of Qur’an and Hadith, and this is the miracle of the Qur’an and Hadith, that even a minor human being, who has no great intellect or knowledge, can understand Islam very easily from these same Hadith.
But we have made it hard. You can make it as hard as you want, and go into points of jurisprudence and Fiqh, but we can’t get to that level of knowledge. The Ulema-e-Kiram analyse and say that this came due to this, and this grammar means that, and these are the possible meanings etc –they uncover an ocean of knowledge. And of course, every Hadith contains an ocean of knowledge, and every verse of the Qur’an contains an ocean of knowledge – no doubt. You can keep doing Tafseer – there are Tafseers after Tafseers of just one verse, from many Imams; Imam Razi says this, Mulla Ali Qari says that – so many great scholars have come to the world. There are scholars upon scholars, but Allah ta’ala is saying ‘What about that normal human being in the world? He also has to learn from that same Qur’an and Hadith.’ Say SubhanAllah. Whoever a person is and whatever he is in the world, the Qur’an will touch him, and he will suddenly get a message from Qur’an or from Hadith in a way that he can understand and implement.
Here, it is very simple – the Hadith is giving us a very important message. It is saying ‘The tyre of your car is punctured, so it will not make it to your destination, and you will be left sitting there, stuck on the road.’ You may say ‘I have got a nice big car and my shopping is safely in the boot’ – okay, fine. In the same way, you may be carrying a great weight of good deeds with you, but what will happen when this point that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us about today is revealed on the Day of Judgement? This is not a minor point. The Imam of the Ambiya is telling us this today, the head of the Prophets! And this Hadith will be mentioned and shared until Qiyamah – it cannot stop, because he came to teach the Ummah that our tyres are punctured and the air is coming out, so repair them now before it is too late. So our reaction should be the same, and we should not just make Dua and leave after this, as if we have not understood anything.
The one who has listened properly is he who will worry over this inside himself and reflects on this Hadith. Say SubhanAllah. Why? Because anyone who is listening right now, man or woman – and the speaker is included also – will not be free of sins. In this generation, so many sins have penetrated society today – they are all around us. If we criticise and mock someone, we don’t even know, and then we wonder ‘Why is my Dua not being accepted? Why are bad things happening, and why am I not succeeding?’ Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given us a system and has taught us pure ways that keep us clean. He has told us to keep ourselves pure and clean, which is why these actions are not befitting of a Mu’min. A Mu’min should keep himself pure and clean in every second. Why? He should be clean and pure so that he is always able to receive the Rahmahs of Allah that are continually descending from the heavens onto those who are pure. Why should a Mu’min be dirty? The only people who should be dirty are those with no Iman. A Mu’min should remain alert and awake at very second of the day, because there is no second in the day that is devoid of Allah’s Mercy.
Allah’s Jamal and His Jalal, and His mercies and blessings, and His Sha’n and His Glory, descend every second of the day, and the body of the Mu’min should be absorbing and drawing on Allah’s Rahmah at every second of the Day; he should be ready for this. And that is why it is stated that he should remain pure and clean, because Allah is saying ‘My Mercy comes to pure people.’ Allah is pure and He loves purity. Allah’s Rahmah does not come to dirty people – be sure that Allah’s Magnificance has not ended. The heavens are full to the brim – they are top-full with Rahmah, and if I start speaking about this, you will be amazed. The verses of the Qur’an that we recite tell us that at every second, Allah’s Tajalliaat and His Magnificence and His Glory are descending – so what have we been doing for forty or fifty years, apart from eating chickens and quarrelling and fighting, or joking and mocking and divorcing, and wrangling and fighting and quarrelling over money. Whether in the morning or at night, have you ever stopped to think ‘How much of Allah’s Mercy have I drawn into my body today?’ Have you ever thought like this? Ask a Wali of Allah how much he has done this.
What makes a Sheikh a Wali of Allah? He is a Wali of Allah because he has such a strong connection with Allah subhana wa ta'ala that every second of the day, he is drawing on Allah’s Rahmah, SubhanAllah. The focal point of this, the pivot of this, is his heart, and he is pulling on Allah’s Rahmah all day long, and that is why he is a Wali of Allah. The Qur’an tells us this, but we don’t even realise this. And there is a condition, which is there should be no Waswasah, no shaytani behaviour, no nonsense talk and no contamination of his thoughts. But we don’t accept this, and we don’t understand this, and we just trust our deeds and think that is enough. Fine – that is good, alhamdulillah. But don’t you think that your external deeds require purity? What has Allah said about touching the Qur’an? Allah has said ‘Don’t touch the Qur’an unless you are pure.’ What about the Masjid? Allah has stated ‘How dare you enter the House of Allah without Wudhu?’ What about Salah? Allah says ‘Don’t you dare to pray Salah without Wudhu.’ Allah is saying this regarding external worship, and this applies to the rest of our actions also.
Purity is very important, very important indeed. So without purity, how can you think that the deeds that you are doing are accepted? It is not just a matter of external purity – Allah ta’ala is saying ‘If you wany My nearness and acceptance of your deeds, I want you to attain internal purity.’ Do you understand what I am saying? This is the case, isn’t it? We have forgotten this today; we have forgotten these messages, so Allah ta’ala is reminding us, saying ‘You are a Mu’min, but your Salah, your Zakah, the Kalimaat that you recite and your Hajj – what are all these things? They are just physical actions.’ So the message today is be careful! Be careful, and don’t be neglectful, and don’t be ignorant – keep yourself pure. And what is the meaning of purity? The other word for this is Tazkiyah – purification. Don’t be Ghafil and ignorant, otherwise you will come out of the fold and will stray far away. And whatever is instructed for us to do can never be hard; whatever Allah ta’ala instructs us to do can never be hard – remember this.
So the essence of what I am trying to say is that a big message is being given to us. The reason that we criticise other people, speak nonsense and rubbish and curse people is that we are impure. If goodness doesn’t come onto our tongues, then we are impure. These traits are not included in the list of the qualities if a Mu’min - these traits are in opposition to the qualities of a Mu’min. How can you say you are a Mu’min if you are wandering around like this in the world? Why are you running around in darkness?
So think for yourselves and analyze. Reflect on how much of this applies to you. We should be concerned about this, shouldn’t we? We should be thinking ‘My tyre is punctured, and the air is escaping; it is getting low.’ After today, how many people will think ‘This is very important – we need to do something so that we can be saved from these sins.’ Say SubhanAllah. This Niyyah should be the next step – ‘I need to do something so that I can be saved from these sins. If I have got these sins inside me, then I am cut off from Allah. I thought that I was very good, because I pray Tahajjud and think of myself as a pious, high-level person. But I have never thought about what is within me. What do I do? What do I think? What do I say? How will I stand in front of Rab-ul-Alameen with all this dirt?’ When this Fikr and concern arises, I will be worrying ‘Oh no – all of the efforts I have made in my journey of life may go to waste.’
So this Hadith is fantastic! It is Rabi-ul-Awwal, so let’s celebrate this Rabi-ul-Awwal – say SubhanAllah. Do you want to know how to celebrate Rabi-ul-Awwal? Let’s celebrate and commemorate this great month from the beginning by promising Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam ‘Oh beloved Nabi of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, we have understood today that our tyre has got a hole in it and the air is escaping. We can surely repair it because you are such a great personality and if you are telling us that there is a puncture, then you will surely have told us how to repair it as well.’ Say SubhanAllah. When someone calls to me, I just wind my window up and carry on driving, but Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam does not shut his window to our pleas. He doesn’t just close the door and drive off. No, he sends his deputies to the world and tells us ‘Go to my Wali and you will be corrected inshaAllah.’ And how will someone like you know where to go? Allah is saying ‘You just need to have the desire, and then I will allow you to go to that place!’
SubhanAllah – what a great favour Allah ta’ala is conferring on us. Just make a true and honest desire in your heart that you want to reform yourself, saying ‘Oh Allah, I want to be good!’ I swear by Allah as I sit here in the Masjid, that whoever has a true and honest desire in his heart to be a good person, then it will not even take a minute. Allah ta’ala will make the arrangements for you to be corrected and to come onto the right path. I swear this by Allah because I have experienced this in people’s lives; I have seen this in my own life. And the stronger the conviction that he does this with, the better - he has to think ‘Oh, I am a really bad person.’ Look, you find stealing and banditry in this world all around us. We are not in Jannah at the moment, are we? But inshaAllah, we will go back to our houses there, because our house is there in Jannah. That is where we have come from, from Paradise, isn’t it? So back to home we are going to go, SubhanAllah, because Jannah is our real home.
You know how people say ‘Where are you from originally? What country do you come from?’ The reply should be ‘I am from Jannah!’ The other person says ‘No, no, I mean from which country?’ so he says ‘Oh, I don’t know which town or city, but my father came from Jannah.’ This is what to tell people – give them this reply: ‘I am from Jannah. I don’t know about where my recent forefathers came from, but my true forefather is from there.’ Do you understand what I am saying? We are from Jannah, so when people ask you where you come from, what we usually think of are just dreams. Say SubhanAllah. The reality is that we have come from Jannah, pure and clean. We have come from there to the dirt of this world, so what we should do is keep ourselves protected and saved from contamination by this dirt. We shouldn’t think ‘Oh, I am dirty and impure - I am a sinner,’ and then lose hope. No, no – Allah is saying ‘Don’t worry.’ Allah ta’ala has given us such beautiful soap and detergent, and He is saying ‘Clean yourselves and purify yourselves.’ There are such beautiful soaps and detergents for us, but we just use shampoo and perfume.
Nothing can compare to the fragrance that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given to us. From your heart, say ‘La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi’llah’ - say this just once from your heart. La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi’llah is such a great soap that ninety nine percent of diseases are cured with this statement. This contains such Hikmah from Allah - but we will talk about this Kalimah on another day inshaAllah, because if I start explaining this to you now, then I will be diverted from the message that I am trying to convey today. We have been given such a great detergent in the form of La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi’llah, but you must say it from your heart, not from your tongue. From the tongue, people say ‘Oh Allah, I want to be good - I want to pray Salah and I want to keep the beard and I want to follow the Sunnah’ or ‘I want to wear a Burkah’ and so on, but Allah is saying ‘You are just saying this from the outside.’ We need to call from the depths of the heart, with regret, saying ‘Oh Allah, I am stuck in hell, and the fire is burning me. Oh Allah, the grave is in front of me, but my life is a drama. My Salah is nothing, my Dua is nothing, my Qur’an is nothing because I am living the life of a dirty man. Dirt is in my body, and although the people of the world say that I am good, the reality is something else. Oh Allah, You know my reality, so just this once, Allah, please save me.’
Speak to Allah honestly, because Allah wants His servants to speak to Him honestly. We run away from Allah, but He is so Raheem and Kareem, so Merciful and Generous. Allah says that we should begin everything with ‘Bismillah’ – SubhanAllah. Everything we do in the world should start with what? With Allah, with Allah’s Name. And when Allah is praised, then we are saying with every action that ‘Oh Allah, You are Rahman and Raheem, You are extremely Merciful. You are the One who has sent us to this great world!’ Allah is telling us not to worry and not to be scared of our Rabb. The one with the attribute of Rahman is telling us ‘Don’t be worried or scared, for even if you are drowning in sins, Allah’s Rahmah will embrace you; it will come back to you’ - SubhanAllah.
That’s it – but we are monkeys and donkeys and do not understand this point. We are just running after false actions and false hopes, and telling ourselves ‘Oh, I have read this much Qur’an and have performed Hajj this many times.’ My brothers, who are you trying to lie to? Who are you trying to convince? Look inside your yourselves and see the wretchedness and the dirt and the impurities, because you are living in this world. We are living in this world, and if we don’t go into the shower cubicle, then how can we say that we are clean, even though we smell and dirt is all over us? How can we say this if we don’t even go into the bathroom or the shower room? If this is the case, only a madman will declare ‘I am clean’; only he will say ‘I haven’t had a bath for a month, but I am clean.’ Some people say ‘Oh, I only have a bath on Eid’ – some people are like that – and yet they say they are clean from top to toe. Who can say that? How can he say he is clean if he hasn’t even had a bath or a wash?
How can he be clean? Say SubhanAllah, because this is the very same example. How can a person say ‘I am totally clean and pure inside, because I do this action and I do that Amal; I do this worship and that Ibadah’? This is just like the man who says ‘Look, I have put these clean clothes on and have applied perfume on my body. Okay, I haven’t had a bath, but I have put perfume on my body’ – say SubhanAllah. This is the same example, isn’t it? This is a very simple example to understand. If this is the case, then our Ibadaat become veils between us and reality; Ibadah becomes a veil. It is nice clothing to wear, but if you don’t wash, then you are spoiling those clothes of Ibadah that you are wearing. You spoil the smell of those good clean clothes because you are dirty. It is not the fault of those clothes, of your worship; rather, it is the fault of your dirty body that is contaminating your clothes. No blame attaches to the A’maal; they are good, just like the nice clean clothes that you put on; but you are spoiling your Salah because you are dirty inside. You are impure within, but when we look in the mirror, we don’t see ourselves as dirty, even though we are. We say ‘MashaAllah, MashaAllah.’
So the message of Rabi-ul-Awwal is making us realise that the tyre is punctured and the air is seeping out. Can you see now that your tyre is punctured and that the air pressure is slowly decreasing? So what should we do? We need to have a bath, to clean ourselves and make our Batin clean. If we don’t do this, Allah ta’ala is saying ‘You are not a Mu’min! Forget about A’maal, you are not even a Mu’min.’ So the biggest action and the first action for every Mu’min is this, that he attains purity, that he cleans the Nafs, that he does Tazkiyah of the ego, of the inner self, of the base desires. This is the first action of the Mu’min. And when you want to have a bath or a shower, what is the first thing to look for? Tell me. It is the bathroom. Or do you stand in front of the kitchen sink when you want a bath? Will you go to the bedroom when you want to take a bath? Where will you go? Will you go to the marketplace or the shopping centre and look around for a shower or a bath? Where will you go? No, if you want to clean yourself, go to that place about which Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has said ‘Look for them, seek them out’ – what are those places? SubhanAllah. Allah says in the Qur’an { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين} - so if you want to be purified, then go to the company of the Wali of Allah. That is the right place for this bathing, for there is Shifa in seeing him, and Shifa in speaking to him – his company is a Shifa. You will get all of this, for when you sit next to a Wali of Allah, you will not be dirty at that time; you will not be impure at that time.
But the Niyyah should be correct, for the person should desire to attain purity. Nothing can correct a person, not the Qur’an or anything else, unless first the desire to become clean and pure is there. We should have this concern today and say ‘Oh Allah, my tyre is punctured, and the air is escaping, so how can I correct myself? How can I get rid of lying and backbiting, and showing off, and pride, and foul language, and actions that are a waste of time, and Zina of the eyes, and sins with the hands? Oh Allah, I want the Adab and the Akhlaq that You have taught us so that I can have the right Adab with my elders, and the right manners with my family and the people in my household and with my relatives.’ How do we fulfil the rights of the husband and the rights of the wife? All of this is included in the complete syllabus of how to live in the world, so don’t think it is just about praying Salah and then thinking that you are forgiven and that you are a Muttaqi. Don’t live in the darkness, brothers, don’t live in the darkness. These deceptions are evaporated in the Khanqahs. You don’t go there and get given good news and told that you are good boy. You don’t get a pat on the back if you are praying Tahajjud and told that this makes you a Muttaqi. No, this doesn’t happen in a Khanqah. What do you get told in a Khanqah? The scan is performed there, and you are reminded that tomorrow you will have to be presented in the Court of Allah, where an utterly comprehensive scan will take place. Every one of your deeds will be put into the scale and measured – every single one of your actions. Say SubhanAllah.
Is this a strict subject we are discussing today? This is the message of Rabi-ul-Awwal, brothers, so I am sharing it with you. This is Rabi-ul-Awwal’s message. Yes, it is a time of love, and there should be a lot of love and Muhabbah inside a person of faith, but the rights of that love need to be fulfilled. What beautiful points Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has taught us today. We have been shown that our tyre has been punctured and that we should have concern for this and not just keep on driving with a flat tyre. No, we need to go and repair that tyre. The tyre is punctured, and this deficiency is within us, so we have to clean and purify ourselves from those sins by doing Tazkiyah, so that we can keep our inner selves clean, pure and transparent. You will not attain any success if impurities are present. Yes? So every Mu’min, every believer, must undertake this mission of running towards Tazkiyah, towards purification. It is essential for every Mu’min to remove his impurities, so take the company of a Sheikh, of a friend of Allah, of a Wali of Allah. Take hold of his company, and your Ibadaat will improve.
What is company? What do we think company is? Listen to this as well. This doesn’t mean you just have to go and sit down there and then you have acquired his company. No, no, no – that is not the company of the teacher. The company of the Wali of Allah means that inside you have this worry and concern, and that you desire to become a good human being. You desire to live your life right, firstly by making your face according to Shari’ah, by living your life according to the Sunnah, and you want to cease doing any Haram activities – and to do all of this is not in your power. You can’t do these things by yourself – it is very difficult in this day and age. Think about all the sins within you – this and that, and listening to music and songs – and desire to leave all of these things. Say ‘Oh Allah, I want to leave all of this and detach myself from this wrongdoing.’ Say SubhanAllah – the first thing is to have this Niyyah.
So where should you run to? The Qur’an has prescribed – {كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين}. Go to the Majlis of the Sheikh and enter his company - say SubhanAllah. When you do so, you have reached the bathroom, the place where cleaning takes place. All the dirt is inside you, and without this route, there is no way of getting rid of it. You cannot just leave this on your own and become a good human being. Yes? So then you reach the company of the teacher – and what is true company? What is the real meaning of this Sohbat? It is that when your hand goes into his hand, then you come onto the path of light and the way becomes easy – even the wind direction itself changes. When you take the hand of the Sheikh with the intention of rectifying yourself, then the direction of everything changes, and the student will only do what the teacher says – and this is called friendship. This comes with the Fikr and the concern that you want to repair the tyre permanently. You don’t come and sit in front of the Sheikh, and after listening, go away and do the opposite to what he says. If you do this, then what was the point of coming into his company? Say SubhanAllah.
If a person says ‘Oh, it’s too hard,’ is it harder than hellfire? The teacher is saving you from hellfire and from the punishment of the grave. Do you think the punishments of the grave will be easier than following the teacher’s guidance? Will what you get for lying and for consuming Haram and for shaving your beard be easier for you? Will the consequence for not observing Purdah be easier for you? Will the consequence of listening to musical instruments be easier for you? Will the result of all these sins be easier for you? The teacher wants you to have a good result, so say ‘Yes – I hear, and I accept, and I will do what I am hearing and being advised to do. That is why I came, and however hard it is, I will do it.’ When you make this statement, then everything will become easy for you to do; it will be easy for you to leave the sins, and nothing will be hard. Allah’s Rahmah will enshroud you immediately, and whether you succeed in leaving everything or not, Allah will say ‘No – he was working hard. He was trying and making an effort and he had the intention. He went there, and he was trying. Sometimes he couldn’t manage to leave – sometimes he went up, sometimes he went down, and sometimes he was shaken, but he tried. He kept on trying, so write his name in the list of those people who succeeded.’ So where is the failure then? Tell me – where is the failure?
This is the methodology of repairing the punctured tyre – run straight to the puncture repair shop and ask if they can repair your tyre. And what should the Mu’min do if the tyre repair man says ‘This is not a puncture’? Will you not listen to him? You will say ‘Okay, fine – if you can’t repair the puncture, then can you supply me with a new tyre?’ Whatever the man who runs that shop says, you will listen to him and do it. So if you want to improve yourself, then whatever the teacher says, whatever the Wali of Allah says, just keep on following that guidance and instruction. ‘Oh my son, do this Nafl; oh my son, recite this; oh my son, do this action.’ Whatever he tells you to do, keep implementing that. If you don’t and you just go and sit there to listen and then run away afterwards, then you will be the same because you are discarding everything he says. What sort of a Tariqa is that if you discard what he says? And will you be happy after that? No. So real Sohbat is when the effects of that company can be seen; the colour should be seen. Have you just come here to listen to a message? As soon as you hear the message, act on it.
We gave a message last week in the same way, so which people did Amal upon that? Who has implemented the message from the previous gathering? Tell me. Have you forgotten what the discussion was about? You have probably forgotten everything - although, SubhanAllah, Allah’s law is such that He creates very beautiful people. You know when work of the Deen is happening, especially Tasawwuf, then Allah ta’ala creates and selects such people and such a Jamat that, alhamdulillah, you can acquire all of this knowledge from the website. And the lovers do not go to sleep until they have listened to the message again. They say ‘Oh, there was a new message today,’ and those womenfolk and menfolk listen to it and make notes. SubhanAllah, such people are successful – they will never fail in their lives.
If we have only come here for Dhikr, what does it mean to come for Dhikr? It means we have come for Thawab, and is Thawab sufficient justification for coming here? The objective for coming here is not Thawab – is that why you came? Tell me. If so, this is a very small objective that you have in mind. Dhikr is greater than just the Thawab. { فَٱذۡكُرُونِىٓ أَذۡكُرۡكُمۡ } – Dhikr purifies you and connects you to Allah. Dhikr will take you to the Qurb of Allah, so why are you just running around looking for Thawab? Don’t think ‘I will go there and get so much Thawab’ – this is not the case. Dhikr cleans a human being, so you should think to yourself ‘I have come to purify myself.’ Think to yourself ‘How much purity have I attained? How much dirt has come out of me? It seems much easier for me to leave sins now.’ Say SubhanAllah.
Before I came, I was thinking about what to say today. I tell you the truth, I had no strength to speak today, so what we see today is itself a testimony to the Barakah of this Majlis. By Allah, I had no energy or power today, and I was feeling so low and unwell that I thought ‘How will I be able to get the words out? How will I be able to sit there? How will I be able to reach there? I have nothing to say, so I can’t go there.’ I can’t tell you how so down and unwell I was feeling, but as soon as I had made Wudhu and reached here, I felt as fresh and awake as you see me sitting in front of you now. SubhanAllah – tell me, is this not a miracle from Allah that I am speaking? I don’t even feel sick at all. Maybe when I leave, then I will go back to how I was – make Dua for me. I felt so low and unwell, but with the Barakaat of Dhikr, I feel so fresh, and I am sat here in front of you speaking now. SubhanAllah, I was feeling cold and shivery, and my body was sweating – I had a fever and was in a bad situation prior to the Majlis. But now I feel completely fine as if nothing is wrong – SubhanAllah. There is a lesson in this, for Allah is telling us ‘If you have Sabr and determination, My Rahmah will be with you.’ I could have started to shake at that time.
Allahu Akbar, my Hadhrat Sahib rahmatullah alayh came to his last night of Jumu’ah - and people would always come on Jumu’ah, and the gathering would take place and Hadhrat Sahib would sit in front of them. According to his habit, he sat down and gave a beautiful Bayan about Tazkiyah. He gave a beautiful Bayan unlike any heard before, which included Tazkiyah and so many points – it was a comprehensive Bayan, containing the essence of Tasawwuf. Hadhrat Sahib delivered that condensed, beautiful Bayan in about fifteen or twenty minutes on that night of Jumu’ah, and then they sat in Muraqabah. The following morning, according to his habit, without assistance from anyone, took a rickshaw to Gadai Sharif – and Dera Ghazi Khan to Gadai Sharif is quite a long journey. Imagine - he was weak, but he travelled alone in the rickshaw. He could have asked for help, and had he done so, obviously the Khadims would have been there for him. But no, he got the rickshaw himself and went to Gadai Sharif, which was his root, his initial Khanqah. That Khanqah had been there for a hundred years, and it was where Hadhrat Saharanpuri himself rahmatullah alayh used to come, where Hadhrat Fazal Ali Shah Quraishi rahmatullah alayh used to come, where Muraqabaat would take place. I am talking about Hadhrat Saharanpuri rahmatullah alayh, our great elder; in the days when India and Pakistan were one, he would come to Gadai Sharif to visit Hadhrat Sahib’s father in that same Khanqah.
So in that Khanqah, after Jumu’ah, Hadhrat Sahib did Muraqabah according to his habit, and throngs of people were there, for everyone would come to do Muraqabah after Jumu’ah - just as we do here. But the difference is that here, we don’t appreciate and value these opportunities. And yet it is that same branch and the same Barakaat, alhamdulillah. You may not realise this, but it is as if you have an account with bank, HSBC or whatever. Then, if you go to any branch, you can withdraw your money, can’t you. SubhanAllah – why? Whichever bank, whether you go to the headquarters or to a small branch, you will be able to take out the same notes; the small branch will provide you with the same money as the big branch. This is not a big branch or a big department, but in reality, you can acquire the same Barakaat here at Jumu’ah that you would get from Gadai Sharif at that time. The people who want to benefit from this are looting that wealth every week – and tomorrow there will be regret beyond regret for missing out on this. Don’t look at my face, brothers. I have not come here to earn Dunya – money is not my objective. Alhamdulillah, thumm-alhamdulillah, due to the Barakah of my teacher, I sit with you, and I just want to do Dhikr with you. That’s it – that’s my objective. There is no other reason or objective. We will meet tomorrow on the Day of Judgement, and you will remember what I said, and you will say ‘This man spoke the truth, but I wasted that time because I thought he was trying to make a big group or a sect.’ No, nothing of the sort! The branch of that tree is here, and today I am with you people who have gathered here, and I am going to enjoy it with that same enjoyment that I got when I sat with my Sheikh and did Dhikr in Gadai Sharif on the day of Jumu’ah.
So Hadhrat Sahib led Jumu’ah in Gadai Sharif, and then did Muraqabah after Jumu’ah, and then after Jumu’ah, he went back to his Khanqah in Dera Ghazi Khan. There he led the sitting from Asr until Maghrib, because Hadhrat Sahib had also established a session after Asr. Others were present and Hadhrat Sahib did silent Dhikr with them – those were also beautiful gatherings. Before Maghrib, he started to feel a bit unwell, so doctors came and advised him to return home. There he prayed Maghrib and Isha in Jamat, and after that, in the morning, he departed to Allah. So was his routine interrupted? Did he have to go to hospital or have a heart operation? No – after fulfilling his duty completely, the Wali of Allah went back to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, SubhanAllah.
What a great fact this is, alhamdulillah - so have courage and determination and don’t give up. Don’t run to your bed straightaway – first ask Allah for help. It is Allah’s decision, and yes, if He writes in your destiny that this is your situation, then accept that and don’t quarrel and fight. Say ‘Amana wa sadaqna – I accept this, and I am happy with whatever You determine, so I will take to my bed and lie on my mattress due to this illness.’ Say SubhanAllah. Every place is Allah’s, so if Allah gives you health, that is Allah’s pleasure, and if He gives you illness, then that is Allah’s Pleasure. Learn to accept everything that comes from Allah, but don’t lose courage and determination. If I had not had courage and determination today, I could have lain down on my bed with a hot water bottle and this and that. Yes, I did have a Shari’i excuse, most definitely, but I tested myself to see where Allah’s Pleasure lay, whether in this or in that. If Allah’s Pleasure had dictated, then I would definitely have returned home due to illness, but as soon as I came, Allah ta’ala made clear that this was His Radha, saying ‘I will take you from your house and deliver you to the Masjid, and now you speak. Speak!’ SubhanAllah – there is no sweat here and no shivering here and I feel totally fit alhamdulillah. Make Dua that Allah ta’ala keeps me like this until Jumu’ah, alhamdulillah.
So what I am trying to explain by this example is that you have to have courage and determination. Don’t just say ‘Oh, it’s too hard’ – no! Go towards the place where the solution to the hardship is to be found. If you want to attain goodness, then Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Go to that place where sins are extracted – go there for the purpose of extracting your sins’ - say SubhanAllah. Go there thinking ‘I am a liar and a fraudster – I backbite, I oppress my children and my wife, and I am unjust and do wrong to other people. It is not in Islam that I should be like this.’ Think about everything that you do wrong, and then go and sit in the Majlis. Automatically, words that penetrate your heart will come out of the mouth of that Wali of Allah. Yes? Your solutions will be delivered automatically. One person will say ‘This Bayan was for me,’ and someone else will say ‘This Bayan was for me – did you say these words specifically for me today?’ Allah says that it is not for any specific person; Allah made it suit each and every one of you so that your issues can be solved. Whoever’s heart feels that the Byan was for them, then they should consider that they have succeeded in the gathering. It has been written that the connection with Allah was made and that person has been accepted. So leave your dramas and leave your fake life. Do you understand what I am saying? Yes.
So let us come to the Tariqa and the methodology of how to extract the sins. I will share a beautiful point with you. Remember - when an illness comes, what is the solution? If you look back a hundred years ago, Coronavirus was not present at that time, and no one spoke about cancer or many of today’s diseases. So what would people do at that time? As sicknesses increase, so knowledge about illness has increased, and at that time Tibb and herbal medicine was present. Now there is homeopathy and allopathic medicine, and everywhere research is taking place in the field of medicine, and according to the circumstances in each era, medicines are improved, and solutions are developed. According to the people’s needs, vaccinations are researched and developed to deal with the prevalent sicknesses of that time. In the same way, the Batini sicknesses also change over time – they evolve. Shaytan used to trap people a hundred or two hundred years ago, but today shaytan attacks people more than before, and just as doctors research effective medicines, the Walis of Allah research as well, and their cures and prescriptions evolve. If you compare what was offered in the Khanqahs one hundred years ago with what is offered today, you will see that the solutions have evolved.
Hadhrat Fazal Ali Shah Quraishi rahmatullah alayh took up the Tasbeeh – say SubhanAllah – and until today people criticise his method. I am not going to listen to the reaction of people’s brains, because the solution has evolved, and the Tariqa of Dhikr has changed. The basics – the Shari’ah, the Sunnah and the Hadith – that is the foundation, but just as the physical prescription is set to match the condition of the people in the world, Dhikr is the same. At that time, Dhikr was taught in such a way as to give the required effect to the people, but these prescriptions are never against the Shari’ah and the Sunnah. They won’t be innovations. Why? Because just as science and research and medicine evolve and improve so that the patient can be given the right solution, in the same way, the Walis of Allah sometimes change the direction of the Dhikr. Sometimes they may host it one way, or they may prescribe this much, or tell the students to add something, and so on. Dimming the lights, for example, is not Sunnah or Mustahabb – it is nothing, but it is done for the reason that today, focus and attention gets lost very easily, and by dimming the light, the focus increases. In the Khanqahs where Naqshbandi Dhikr takes place, as soon as Dhikr starts, people put their blankets or their sheets on top of their heads – and it is not Sunnah to do this. I am not claiming that it is Mustahabb, but it stops people from looking around at who is tapping their Tasbeehs and so on. Dhahiri people don’t know what Tasawwuf is or what Tazkiyah is. Hadhrat Fazal Ali Shah Quraishi rahmatullah alayh took hold of the Tasbeeh and started to tap the beads – that is where this Tasbeeh Dhikr came from.
And another point that I would like to share is that when a Wali of Allah, a Sheikh, researches a cure and then releases it, in the same way that medical cures are researched and developed and then released to the world, it should be remembered that the prescription of the Wali of Allah is greater than medicine because his prescription comes to him from Ilham, from divine inspiration from Allah to his Qalb. Allah ta’ala gives him inspiration in the form of Kashf. In the same way, Hadhrat Bahauddin Naqshband rahmatullah alayh developed this Tariqa many centuries ago. At that time, they did not do this Dhikr of the heart, but he was given Ilham that in the days and centuries to come, this would be the way to teach Dhikr. After seven days, Ilham came to his Qalb and this method was shown to him, the one that is taught in Silsila Naqshbandia. Do you understand what I am saying? I try to teach Tasawwuf as well in these gatherings.
So today, people may criticise the method of Hadhrat Fazal Ali Shah Quraishi rahmatullah alayh in the tapping of the beads, but what was this a cure for? Alhamdulillah, when you are given this Dhikr, as soon as a person sits and focuses on their heart and taps the beads, the tapping of the beads has the effect of bringing the heart to life. This comes from the tapping of the beads, and it is not Sunnah or Wajib or Fardh. It is just a prescription through Ilham that has been given to the people of this day and age – but there are conditions that accompany this practice. When a Sheikh prescribes this Dhikr, he tells the student the pre-conditions, such as not to tap the Tasbeeh in the Masjid, or not near the time of Salah, so as not to disturb people who are praying Salah, and not to tap it in the gathering either, because this is an individual practice, to be done when sitting on your own. When there is no one in the Masjid, yes, it can be done, but not in I’tikaf – don’t start tapping it loudly then, for it will disturb people. No, no, don’t do that. No Sheikh will tell you that you can sit in the Masjid knocking the Tasbeeh loudly when others are present reading Qur’an and praying Nafl and so on – no. This Tasbeeh is a Dhikr to be done alone, and Noor will come into you if you do it properly. Do you understand the words I am saying today and the explanations I am giving?
So these are the cures that people are given according to the treatments that the Walis of Allah develop. So shall I tell you how a person can be cured in this day and age? Shall I present that in your service? Okay, I will do so. This is a very simple prescription, and this is for today’s generation. Do we want to cure ourselves of backbiting and to eliminate our sins and to stop cursing people and to save ourselves from sins? Okay, fine. Research took place and the Walis of Allah brought out a unique solution – and it is in line with Qur’an and Hadith. These cures are not detached from Qur’an and Hadith. Do just this one action every day, my brothers – listen to the cure attentively. Whoever wants to repair his punctured tyre will understand this prescription, while those who are people of show, fake people, will leave here and remain the same as before. Remember this. This gathering is not for people who do drama and play games – they are just sitting here for the sake of it. Do this one action if you are sincere. Whoever has the feeling in his heart that ‘Oh Allah, I am very weak. I want to do this and to be corrected,’ then this will be a very easy cure for him.
We go to sleep every day, don’t we brothers? And Allah ta’ala puts us to sleep nicely, so nicely – yes? So what is sleep, in reality? It is a practice - it is a brilliant practice. When we awake, we say ‘Alhamdulillah alladhi ayhaana ba’ada ma amatana.’ And when you sleep, it is as if you die, for your Ruh comes out, your mouth drops open, and you don’t know where you are. And then in the morning, you wake up when Allah shakes you, otherwise we are gone. We don’t know. One night we see a dream when we are running after someone, or scorpions and serpents are coming, or someone is hitting you and you are fighting, and at that time you are out; the Ruh has gone while you are sleeping. So then what happens is that Allah brings us back to life again – ‘ahyaana ba’da ma amatana wa ilayhin-Nushoor.’ We say ‘Oh Allah, You have brought me back to life again, so should I behave like an animal again as I did yesterday?’ Allah says ‘No – you passed away and I have brought back to life again, and when you were dying during the time you slept, if I had kept you dead, then you would have been punished for this sin and for that sin that you committed in the drama of your life. But it is My great favour upon you that I considered that I should bring you back to life so that you can go and run to the shop again.’ And we are happy about this – say SubhanAllah.
When we go to sleep and Allah gets us up the next day, is this so we can go and repeat the same actions again? We say ‘Alhamdulillah, I am awake again,’ and then we start those same bad actions again straightaway. Allah is saying ‘No! I have given your life again so that you can show regret for yesterday’s life.’ You should think ‘If I carry on in the same way, if I had died last night, then I would have been punished - and that punishment would surely have come. Oh Allah, You give me a new lease of life each morning when You wake me up.’ Think like this, in a positive way, and be grateful. Think ‘Oh Allah, through Your Karam, You have given me a new lease of life this morning. I am saved, saved in a big way, and You have given me another beautiful opportunity - otherwise I would have been lost if my breath had come out while I was sleeping. I was dead while lying down in my bed, and I would have slept even if I had wanted not to sleep.’ People who don’t feel sleepy take sleeping tablets, SubhanAllah, because they want to go to sleep; they want to pass away. Look at this. Allah ta’ala says ‘You died when you went to sleep last night,’ and this is what happens every day when we go to sleep. We practice this every day, so death is not a new thing. Yes? So don’t you see the next world? What is the Hal at that time? A person reaches the Barzakh, the phase of the grave – this is the reality. So you have died, and when we go to sleep tonight, we will pass away again, and Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Why I have I given you this favour again? It is not so that you can have food and eat chicken.’
So when you wake up, say ‘I promise You this today, oh Allah’ – SubhanAllah, the cure is starting. Don’t get out of bed and rub your eyes and run into the Dunya like monkeys and apes after reciting the Dua – no. Sit up – and this is a great action for health. InshaAllah the Sunnah Ways book will soon arrive, so keep it next to you and read two pages of it every day. Recite it to your children and inshaAllah, light upon light will come into your life. Don’t waste the effort that has been made – the book will be on the market very soon inshaAllah. It will reach you, so be sure to keep it near you. So this is the best method to practice when a person wakes up, because at that time, the whole body of a human being is exhausted - and this has been proven medically – so that if a person jumps straight out of bed, then many illnesses can be brought on in this way. So what is the Tariqa? How did Rasoolulah sallallahu alayhi wasallam wake up? He would sit up in his bed and read the Dua after rubbing his eyes seven times with his knuckles. It has been established medically that by rubbing your eyes seven times, the whole system of your brain opens up. It becomes refreshed in this way and any depression leaves the head. When a person rubs his eyes seven times with his hands, he immediately gets a refreshed feeling. So rub the eyes seven times, and then recite the Dua, and then sit comfortably and make a promise, make a pact. With whom? With your Nafs. Yes? Speak to the Nafs, for it is alive, isn’t it? The internal self is there, so say ‘Oh, you have played a lot of tricks before today, and have made me do a lot of wrong things, but today, Allah ta’ala has given me a new lease of life, so I am speaking to you right now.’
Speak to your Nafs – I am telling you the cure, so do it! Only by doing it will you get the result, so don’t jump straight off your bed. Sit there on your bed and say ‘I am speaking to you, oh my Nafs – we are chatting now. You are my enemy, my true enemy, and if I had died before now, you would have been the cause of my destruction. So I am telling you, oh Nafs, that we have a new lease of life today, and I am not going to listen to you!’ What are the words of the Nafs? They are the promptings of the desires, saying ‘Oh, just do this, it won’t make any difference; it’s okay – oh, it will all be the same even if you do this or say that. It doesn’t matter, you can still pray Salah after that. Moulana Sahib said that you can just do Tawbah after you do a sin, so you will be fine.’ Don’t listen to one single piece of such advice from the Nafs. Say ‘I am not going to listen to you from now on’ – say SubhanAllah. Say ‘You can try your best, Nafs, but I am not going to listen to you. Me and you are not going to work together from now on, because I am not going to listen to you.’
Do you understand what I am saying? Yes? This is the cure of the Khanqah that I am prescribing for you. This is how the Walis of Allah were made. This is the cure for small people like us. No hard work is needed, and your health will be improved at the same time! You will attain the cure in three minutes, just by pledging to ignore whatever the Nafs says. What does the Nafs say? It tells us to lie, to eat Haram, to look at some girl, to listen to music, and all the while it says ‘Oh, we will pray Salah afterwards - you will pray in Jama’ah and all your sins will be removed’ – but then it will destroy your Jama’ah as well. The Nafs destroys all of your actions, so first of all, say ‘Me and you have got a quarrel, oh Nafs, and I am not going to listen to you today.’ Say SubhanAllah. ‘Me and you are in a battle, oh Nafs, so you can give me your intoxicating suggestions, but I am not going to listen to you.’ That’s it! Speak to the Nafs and say ‘Today, I am not going to obey you, oh Nafs. Who will I obey? The words of my Rabb!’ SubhanAllah. ‘I have your Mashwara on one side, oh Nafs, and I have Allah’s Mashwara on the other, so I am going to follow Allah’s advice and not yours, oh Nafs. I am not going to listen to you.’ This should be the first discussion that you have; make this the first action of your day.
And after you say this, the Nafs will reply ‘So you think you are powerful, do you? Okay - show me. After all, you said this yesterday as well!’ When you get this thought, then immediately understand this point and say ‘Oh Nafs, yes, I am very weak and I am engaged in a fight with a big enemy, and no one can save me in this battle, so come now, let us ask Allah for help.’ SubhanAllah – this is the second action to perform - say SubhanAllah. Say ‘Oh Allah ta’ala, I have made a big statement just now and have declared war on a strong opponent. Now I am stuck, so You need to take me out of this trap. I have made a big statement and have clashed with my Nafs, but I am very weak as a man. You know how weak I am, my Moula, my Lord, so come and help me! Help me here, because I am very weak in the face of this Nafs upon whom I have declared war.’ Allah’s Rahmah will immediately be activated by this, and Allah will say ‘Don’t worry – My Rahmah will go with you. {إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلۡمُحۡسِنِينَ}.’ So make this second promise with Allah – and that’s it. Then you can go into the Dunya.
And what is the third action you must do? You must protect your gaze. Will the Nafs win, or will you win? You have to protect yourself and be aware of what you are doing. You have opposed the Nafs and asked Allah for help, and then you must fight with the Nafs. For twenty-four hours a day, watch yourself. If you start thinking about doing something, say ‘No, I promised that I would not speak rubbish, so I am not going to do this action.’ See how Allah’s Rahmah will save you. If Nafs says ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter, just do this action today and then stop afterwards,’ say ‘No, no, no, I am not going to do this.’ All the things that Allah dislikes will leave you because Allah’s Rahmah comes to the help of such a person. For this, you need to fight the Nafs all day long, saying ‘No, I am not listening to you, I am not listening to you, I am not listening to you.’
And if you fall down and slip somewhere, if Nafs makes you fall down and slip, then come back – to where? Towards death. You are going to return again to death when you go to your bed, aren’t you? So in the evening, when you sit down on the mattress – don’t lie down until you have done this – say ‘Let me look at my balance sheet today. What have I done? Ya Allah, today my Nafs made me do this dirty action.’ This is the fourth part of the cure here. ‘Say due to all of these bad actions I did today, I will now punish my Nafs’ – say SubhanAllah. What should you do? If you looked at a woman, say ‘For this first sin of looking at a woman, this is the punishment that I will give to my Nafs. I will give this much money as Sadqah, or I will pray this many Nafl Raka’ahs, or I will keep this many fasts.’ Give a real punishment so that it knocks the Nafs - punish the Nafs for every sin. And inshaAllah, it will be so shaken by this, that within a week, you will see that you become strong. How long will you give Sadqah for? How long will you fast for? Be honest and sincere with yourself – that’s it. Just for a short while, perhaps for forty days, you will be fighting and clashing and quarrelling with the Nafs, and in this manner, SubhanAllah, all the illnesses will be extracted, with the Fadhl of Allah.
And the fifth point? The fight is going on and you want to be successful, so in the meantime you can do another action as well. What is that? {وَٱذۡڪُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ڪَثِيرً۬ا لَّعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ} - SubhanAllah, if you take the assistance of Dhikr alongside this, then Dhikr will help you repel shaytan. Dhikr says ‘I will help you.’ How? Allah says ‘Do Dhikr in the morning and the evening.’ Sit down with your Sheikh every morning and evening – you should have a Sheikh – so do Dhikr every morning and do Dhikr every evening, after which you can recite Qur’an or do Tableegh or teach Hadith and Fiqh and give Bayans. Do whatever you want, but do this Amal without fail. What should you do in the morning? Do Dhikr, and then you can read Qur’an as much as you want – read until Dhuhr if you like. Say SubhanAllah. Read Tafseer, and you will find that the light of understanding will increase, but only if you start the way Allah ta’ala wants. How should you start? The way that Allah ta’ala wants. Teach, give Duroos on Hadith, and do Tableegh – no problem. Allah says we should start each day with Dhikr in the morning and then go to our occupation, and then every action of ours in that occupation will be improved because we have done what Allah ta’ala requests. So you have made the promise to fight the Nafs, and you have protected yourself during the day, and have kept Dhikr ongoing, and so, with Allah’s Fadhl, there will be no need to suffer punishment. Wherever and whenever you have an issue, start Dhikr of Allah.
So, my brothers, these are the methods, and this is the message of Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He has given a warning to those who lie, and those who criticize people and mock people, and those who curse people and use foul language – three things. If you do these things, then the way to absolve yourself is to warn yourself and come out of those sins by means of Tazkiyah. If you keep sitting there, bone idle, then this is not the quality of a Mu’min, and you will not be raised as a Mu’min tomorrow. Yes - and if you start working hard and yet you are still weak, Allah ta’ala says ‘Even if this is the case, My Rahmah will extract you and take you to Jannah.’
May Allah ta’ala give us all the courage and determination to physically act in this way, and let us celebrate and commemorate Rabi-ul-Awwal correctly so that Allah ta’ala gives us the Tawfeeq to earn the Fuyudh and Barakaat of this month. Ameen
Recite Durood Sharif.
Alhamdulillah, with the grace and mercy and blessings of Allah subhana wa ta'ala, on this night of Jumu’ah, Allah ta’ala has assembled us again in His home. And on this special night of Jumu’ah, which has such a unique quality, with Allah’s Fadhl tonight is the first night of Jumu’ah of Rabi-ul-Awwal – it is the first night. All months are blessed and honourable, with Allah’s grace, but Allah ta’ala has instilled very special qualities within certain months; and the special quality of this month is that the birth of the Master of the Universe, the Beloved of Allah, the Imam of the Ambiya, the leader of the Prophets, the Final Prophet, Nabi-al-Karim, the gracious Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam took place in this blessed month of Rabi-ul-Awwal. So we can just imagine for ourselves the Barakaat of this month –there will be so many and they will be so unique in this month. This is a great night and a beautiful night, so today, in the beginning of this month, the right of this occasion is that we should share and deliver the special message of our beloved Master sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Abdullah bin Masood radhiAllahu anh, a great and noble Companion, reports in a Hadith contained in Tirmidhi that the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated that a believer is not someone who criticises and mocks other people; a person of faith is not someone who curses other people; a Mu’min is not someone who commits indecency or allows dirty language to come upon his tongue. This is a great Hadith of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and if we reflect on this for a little while, a massive message is delivered through this Hadith through which a very big veil is removed from our eyes, because the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has mentioned the qualities of a Mu’min here. Tomorrow on the Day of Judgement, when a human being is presented in the Court of Allah, there will be such regret due to the shame of having committed such actions, and Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam wants to save his Ummah from this outcome.
My brothers, it is so sad if we live our lives in deception and delusion and darkness, isn’t it? It is like the example of feeling something in the dark which feels soft and nice and good, but when the light comes on, you find that you have a snake in your hand – that is what you were feeling in the darkness. How would you feel then? Our situation is the same, because in the darkness that surrounds us in this generation, in this era, we do things that take us far from the right path, and the Sunnah and Shari’ah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam take us away from that darkness, and it is only through the Sunnah and Shari’ah that a person can move away from a life of delusion. There are big deceptions for a person of Iman, so we should think about this and worry about this.
These three sins that were mentioned by the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam – criticising and mocking, cursing people, speaking foul language to someone when angry – these are common traits and habits in this day and age. These actions are commonly found among human beings. We are in such a strange circumstances today that everyone is wrapped up in this. Shaytan and Nafs, who are the biggest enemies of human beings, present wrong actions to us as if they are nice warm Jilebis for us to eat! We do these things and do not even think they are bad. If someone says that it is a sin, we say ‘Oh no, no, no, I have just come back from Hajj.’ He is being praised as a Hajji, and his mind cannot even grasp what nonsense he talks about at home, that the language he uses with his children is wrong. ‘I was just explaining to them,’ he says, and yet he used five filthy words when telling them that they cannot go out. When the character of a human being becomes like this, Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has explained that this cannot be a Mu’min.
In other words, the understanding of these deceptions has gone, even though Ibadaat are there, alhamdulillah. The A’maal, which are undoubtedly necessary, are all there, but the Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has taught us about this reality, and all the Ambiya alayhimus salam came with this message – this was the objective for which they were sent; they had no other special objective, just this and no other. All the Prophets that came, from Hadhrat Adam alayhi salam to the Holy Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam had one objective. What was that objective? It was Tazkiyah, it was Islah, the improvement of the ego, of the inner self.
And they had this objective because we have not been created to live in this world. No, we are supposed to live in Paradise. Our destination is Paradise – that is where we have to reach and that is where we are supposed to reside. Our father was there, and then he was sent down here into the world along with our mother, so we are originally Jannatis, people who come from Paradise - and such people are not impure, are they? No, Jannatis are pure and clean; they are naturally good. In His Wisdom, Allah sent us down into this world, and this world is undeniably opposite to Jannah, being full of dirt and impurities. Whatever impurities you can think of can be found in this world. So a man is sent by Allah from Jannah to this dirty place, to the earth, and this is from the Hikmah of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. He sent us here, but He wants to save us from the dirt, which is why, alhamdulillah, Allah has made completely adequate and comprehensive arrangements for our purification. While you are living in the world, if you want to cleanse yourself and wash yourself, then the resources are here. Allah ta’ala says ‘I will keep on sending the Prophets one after another, and when the Prophets finish, then My Awliya will continuously be sent to maintain this good work.’ This process is Mutawaatir, ongoing and consistent, so that the objective of the Ambiya can continue to be fulfilled.
That is why it is stated that the Mashaykh, the Walis of Allah, are here with a mission, and this is the same mission as the Prophets of Allah. In reality, the Walis of Allah are deputies of the Rasools. They are doing the work of the Deen and fulfilling the objective for which all the Ambiya came to this earth. There is no other reason for them, because the biggest issue that confronts the human being in the world is the dirt. If we do not clean the dirt from within us, then every action that a human being does is a waste. However beautiful and handsome you may be, if you put filth on your body, no-one will come near you. Why? Because cleanliness is very important. If you have bad smells and stench coming from you, other people will say ‘Don’t go near him. I don’t care what sort of a person he is, or what his face is like – he smells.’ If a person’s breath smells bad, people run away from him – no-one wants to come near him. That is why the filth of this world destroys and eliminates all of a human being’s Ibadaat.
So it is very important to understand this topic that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam taught us, for a deficiency of us human beings is being exposed here. We are getting ever further away from the generation of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and it used to be that when somebody sinned, a person would accept the sin and regret it and remind himself not to sin again. Today, by contrast, when a person sins and starts backbiting about someone, others come and join him! If someone starts swearing about another person, two or three others will join him, saying ‘Yes, you’re right, and he also has this and that deficiency as well.’ Criticism and mockery is so common today, despite the fact that this is such a dirty action. Such comments tear a person up inside, and they are worse than an attack by a sword. When you criticise and mock someone, the inner self of that person feels very bad, and if you do so in a group setting, you cannot imagine how bad he feels. Does this not happen in our communities today? Why? We make the excuse that we are giving that person a Nasiha through this criticism and mockery and showing him up in front of that whole gathering. This is the method that we use today, when committing this weird action that we do not even admit is a sin.
No, everything should be done correctly, in an orderly fashion, according to the right method – and how do we learn that? There is only one source - we learn it from following the Sunnah of Nabi al-Karim sallallahu alayhi wasallam; when we take his Tariqa, then we will learn. But we do not take the Sunnah to be important in our lives. There is no importance given to the Sunnah in this day and age. So brothers, this is the beginning of Rabi-ul-Awwal, and the thought came to my mind that today, that on this first day of Rabi-ul-Awwal, what we should do is revise that objective for which Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came into the world. We should remind each other – of what? What is the message and what is the reality of his teaching?
It is like this: imagine you are walking on your way to somewhere – or let’s say you have left home to go shopping and are driving somewhere – and somebody waves and shouts ‘Stop the car – open the window!’ I look at him and wonder if I have done something wrong, and think ‘Is he going to do something to me?’ I lower the window slowly, thinking that he may do something wrong to me, and then he says ‘You have got a flat tyre.’ So then I put the window up and deal with it. Now was that person’s advice good or bad? Tell me. He gave me good advice, so will I say something bad to him or something good? Good, surely, because he has told me something valuable, namely that my tyre is flat. That is why he stopped me while I was driving. Should I be grateful to him and thank him, or should I be upset with him? Say SubhanAllah. And we don’t stop here, because when he tells me, a certain Fikr arises within me. When he tells me that my tyre is low and it may be punctured, a second stage comes over me. What is that stage? I think ‘Oh dear- my tyre is punctured, so what should I do now?’ Say SubhanAllah. ‘Can I get home with this tyre, or should I stop someone, or should I call a breakdown assistance like the RAC?’ This thinking comes into my mind because I realise that I need to repair this tyre so that my car can drive effectively. I am just giving you an everyday example from the world here.
So our Master sallallahu alayhi wasallam, in giving this great message to the Ummah, has favoured us hugely. This is a massive favour, because through it, everyone has been awoken. Tomorrow, when you are bringing your Salah and your Hajj and your big Ibadaat and worship, don’t be of those who regret at that time. Don’t find that because you were committing actions such as these, your name cannot be recorded as a Mu’min; it is so important that we don’t do these things alongside our good deeds. The man who finds that his tyre is low gets concerned and thinks about how he can correct it, so here too, we people of Iman should be generating this concern as well. Say SubhanAllah. It’s not just about learning Hadith and ‘Ilm and analyzing and doing Tahqeeq and establishing points from the grammar and so on – no. Understand the message of the Hadith. This is the style of Qur’an and Hadith, and this is the miracle of the Qur’an and Hadith, that even a minor human being, who has no great intellect or knowledge, can understand Islam very easily from these same Hadith.
But we have made it hard. You can make it as hard as you want, and go into points of jurisprudence and Fiqh, but we can’t get to that level of knowledge. The Ulema-e-Kiram analyse and say that this came due to this, and this grammar means that, and these are the possible meanings etc –they uncover an ocean of knowledge. And of course, every Hadith contains an ocean of knowledge, and every verse of the Qur’an contains an ocean of knowledge – no doubt. You can keep doing Tafseer – there are Tafseers after Tafseers of just one verse, from many Imams; Imam Razi says this, Mulla Ali Qari says that – so many great scholars have come to the world. There are scholars upon scholars, but Allah ta’ala is saying ‘What about that normal human being in the world? He also has to learn from that same Qur’an and Hadith.’ Say SubhanAllah. Whoever a person is and whatever he is in the world, the Qur’an will touch him, and he will suddenly get a message from Qur’an or from Hadith in a way that he can understand and implement.
Here, it is very simple – the Hadith is giving us a very important message. It is saying ‘The tyre of your car is punctured, so it will not make it to your destination, and you will be left sitting there, stuck on the road.’ You may say ‘I have got a nice big car and my shopping is safely in the boot’ – okay, fine. In the same way, you may be carrying a great weight of good deeds with you, but what will happen when this point that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us about today is revealed on the Day of Judgement? This is not a minor point. The Imam of the Ambiya is telling us this today, the head of the Prophets! And this Hadith will be mentioned and shared until Qiyamah – it cannot stop, because he came to teach the Ummah that our tyres are punctured and the air is coming out, so repair them now before it is too late. So our reaction should be the same, and we should not just make Dua and leave after this, as if we have not understood anything.
The one who has listened properly is he who will worry over this inside himself and reflects on this Hadith. Say SubhanAllah. Why? Because anyone who is listening right now, man or woman – and the speaker is included also – will not be free of sins. In this generation, so many sins have penetrated society today – they are all around us. If we criticise and mock someone, we don’t even know, and then we wonder ‘Why is my Dua not being accepted? Why are bad things happening, and why am I not succeeding?’ Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given us a system and has taught us pure ways that keep us clean. He has told us to keep ourselves pure and clean, which is why these actions are not befitting of a Mu’min. A Mu’min should keep himself pure and clean in every second. Why? He should be clean and pure so that he is always able to receive the Rahmahs of Allah that are continually descending from the heavens onto those who are pure. Why should a Mu’min be dirty? The only people who should be dirty are those with no Iman. A Mu’min should remain alert and awake at very second of the day, because there is no second in the day that is devoid of Allah’s Mercy.
Allah’s Jamal and His Jalal, and His mercies and blessings, and His Sha’n and His Glory, descend every second of the day, and the body of the Mu’min should be absorbing and drawing on Allah’s Rahmah at every second of the Day; he should be ready for this. And that is why it is stated that he should remain pure and clean, because Allah is saying ‘My Mercy comes to pure people.’ Allah is pure and He loves purity. Allah’s Rahmah does not come to dirty people – be sure that Allah’s Magnificance has not ended. The heavens are full to the brim – they are top-full with Rahmah, and if I start speaking about this, you will be amazed. The verses of the Qur’an that we recite tell us that at every second, Allah’s Tajalliaat and His Magnificence and His Glory are descending – so what have we been doing for forty or fifty years, apart from eating chickens and quarrelling and fighting, or joking and mocking and divorcing, and wrangling and fighting and quarrelling over money. Whether in the morning or at night, have you ever stopped to think ‘How much of Allah’s Mercy have I drawn into my body today?’ Have you ever thought like this? Ask a Wali of Allah how much he has done this.
What makes a Sheikh a Wali of Allah? He is a Wali of Allah because he has such a strong connection with Allah subhana wa ta'ala that every second of the day, he is drawing on Allah’s Rahmah, SubhanAllah. The focal point of this, the pivot of this, is his heart, and he is pulling on Allah’s Rahmah all day long, and that is why he is a Wali of Allah. The Qur’an tells us this, but we don’t even realise this. And there is a condition, which is there should be no Waswasah, no shaytani behaviour, no nonsense talk and no contamination of his thoughts. But we don’t accept this, and we don’t understand this, and we just trust our deeds and think that is enough. Fine – that is good, alhamdulillah. But don’t you think that your external deeds require purity? What has Allah said about touching the Qur’an? Allah has said ‘Don’t touch the Qur’an unless you are pure.’ What about the Masjid? Allah has stated ‘How dare you enter the House of Allah without Wudhu?’ What about Salah? Allah says ‘Don’t you dare to pray Salah without Wudhu.’ Allah is saying this regarding external worship, and this applies to the rest of our actions also.
Purity is very important, very important indeed. So without purity, how can you think that the deeds that you are doing are accepted? It is not just a matter of external purity – Allah ta’ala is saying ‘If you wany My nearness and acceptance of your deeds, I want you to attain internal purity.’ Do you understand what I am saying? This is the case, isn’t it? We have forgotten this today; we have forgotten these messages, so Allah ta’ala is reminding us, saying ‘You are a Mu’min, but your Salah, your Zakah, the Kalimaat that you recite and your Hajj – what are all these things? They are just physical actions.’ So the message today is be careful! Be careful, and don’t be neglectful, and don’t be ignorant – keep yourself pure. And what is the meaning of purity? The other word for this is Tazkiyah – purification. Don’t be Ghafil and ignorant, otherwise you will come out of the fold and will stray far away. And whatever is instructed for us to do can never be hard; whatever Allah ta’ala instructs us to do can never be hard – remember this.
So the essence of what I am trying to say is that a big message is being given to us. The reason that we criticise other people, speak nonsense and rubbish and curse people is that we are impure. If goodness doesn’t come onto our tongues, then we are impure. These traits are not included in the list of the qualities if a Mu’min - these traits are in opposition to the qualities of a Mu’min. How can you say you are a Mu’min if you are wandering around like this in the world? Why are you running around in darkness?
So think for yourselves and analyze. Reflect on how much of this applies to you. We should be concerned about this, shouldn’t we? We should be thinking ‘My tyre is punctured, and the air is escaping; it is getting low.’ After today, how many people will think ‘This is very important – we need to do something so that we can be saved from these sins.’ Say SubhanAllah. This Niyyah should be the next step – ‘I need to do something so that I can be saved from these sins. If I have got these sins inside me, then I am cut off from Allah. I thought that I was very good, because I pray Tahajjud and think of myself as a pious, high-level person. But I have never thought about what is within me. What do I do? What do I think? What do I say? How will I stand in front of Rab-ul-Alameen with all this dirt?’ When this Fikr and concern arises, I will be worrying ‘Oh no – all of the efforts I have made in my journey of life may go to waste.’
So this Hadith is fantastic! It is Rabi-ul-Awwal, so let’s celebrate this Rabi-ul-Awwal – say SubhanAllah. Do you want to know how to celebrate Rabi-ul-Awwal? Let’s celebrate and commemorate this great month from the beginning by promising Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam ‘Oh beloved Nabi of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, we have understood today that our tyre has got a hole in it and the air is escaping. We can surely repair it because you are such a great personality and if you are telling us that there is a puncture, then you will surely have told us how to repair it as well.’ Say SubhanAllah. When someone calls to me, I just wind my window up and carry on driving, but Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam does not shut his window to our pleas. He doesn’t just close the door and drive off. No, he sends his deputies to the world and tells us ‘Go to my Wali and you will be corrected inshaAllah.’ And how will someone like you know where to go? Allah is saying ‘You just need to have the desire, and then I will allow you to go to that place!’
SubhanAllah – what a great favour Allah ta’ala is conferring on us. Just make a true and honest desire in your heart that you want to reform yourself, saying ‘Oh Allah, I want to be good!’ I swear by Allah as I sit here in the Masjid, that whoever has a true and honest desire in his heart to be a good person, then it will not even take a minute. Allah ta’ala will make the arrangements for you to be corrected and to come onto the right path. I swear this by Allah because I have experienced this in people’s lives; I have seen this in my own life. And the stronger the conviction that he does this with, the better - he has to think ‘Oh, I am a really bad person.’ Look, you find stealing and banditry in this world all around us. We are not in Jannah at the moment, are we? But inshaAllah, we will go back to our houses there, because our house is there in Jannah. That is where we have come from, from Paradise, isn’t it? So back to home we are going to go, SubhanAllah, because Jannah is our real home.
You know how people say ‘Where are you from originally? What country do you come from?’ The reply should be ‘I am from Jannah!’ The other person says ‘No, no, I mean from which country?’ so he says ‘Oh, I don’t know which town or city, but my father came from Jannah.’ This is what to tell people – give them this reply: ‘I am from Jannah. I don’t know about where my recent forefathers came from, but my true forefather is from there.’ Do you understand what I am saying? We are from Jannah, so when people ask you where you come from, what we usually think of are just dreams. Say SubhanAllah. The reality is that we have come from Jannah, pure and clean. We have come from there to the dirt of this world, so what we should do is keep ourselves protected and saved from contamination by this dirt. We shouldn’t think ‘Oh, I am dirty and impure - I am a sinner,’ and then lose hope. No, no – Allah is saying ‘Don’t worry.’ Allah ta’ala has given us such beautiful soap and detergent, and He is saying ‘Clean yourselves and purify yourselves.’ There are such beautiful soaps and detergents for us, but we just use shampoo and perfume.
Nothing can compare to the fragrance that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given to us. From your heart, say ‘La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi’llah’ - say this just once from your heart. La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi’llah is such a great soap that ninety nine percent of diseases are cured with this statement. This contains such Hikmah from Allah - but we will talk about this Kalimah on another day inshaAllah, because if I start explaining this to you now, then I will be diverted from the message that I am trying to convey today. We have been given such a great detergent in the form of La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi’llah, but you must say it from your heart, not from your tongue. From the tongue, people say ‘Oh Allah, I want to be good - I want to pray Salah and I want to keep the beard and I want to follow the Sunnah’ or ‘I want to wear a Burkah’ and so on, but Allah is saying ‘You are just saying this from the outside.’ We need to call from the depths of the heart, with regret, saying ‘Oh Allah, I am stuck in hell, and the fire is burning me. Oh Allah, the grave is in front of me, but my life is a drama. My Salah is nothing, my Dua is nothing, my Qur’an is nothing because I am living the life of a dirty man. Dirt is in my body, and although the people of the world say that I am good, the reality is something else. Oh Allah, You know my reality, so just this once, Allah, please save me.’
Speak to Allah honestly, because Allah wants His servants to speak to Him honestly. We run away from Allah, but He is so Raheem and Kareem, so Merciful and Generous. Allah says that we should begin everything with ‘Bismillah’ – SubhanAllah. Everything we do in the world should start with what? With Allah, with Allah’s Name. And when Allah is praised, then we are saying with every action that ‘Oh Allah, You are Rahman and Raheem, You are extremely Merciful. You are the One who has sent us to this great world!’ Allah is telling us not to worry and not to be scared of our Rabb. The one with the attribute of Rahman is telling us ‘Don’t be worried or scared, for even if you are drowning in sins, Allah’s Rahmah will embrace you; it will come back to you’ - SubhanAllah.
That’s it – but we are monkeys and donkeys and do not understand this point. We are just running after false actions and false hopes, and telling ourselves ‘Oh, I have read this much Qur’an and have performed Hajj this many times.’ My brothers, who are you trying to lie to? Who are you trying to convince? Look inside your yourselves and see the wretchedness and the dirt and the impurities, because you are living in this world. We are living in this world, and if we don’t go into the shower cubicle, then how can we say that we are clean, even though we smell and dirt is all over us? How can we say this if we don’t even go into the bathroom or the shower room? If this is the case, only a madman will declare ‘I am clean’; only he will say ‘I haven’t had a bath for a month, but I am clean.’ Some people say ‘Oh, I only have a bath on Eid’ – some people are like that – and yet they say they are clean from top to toe. Who can say that? How can he say he is clean if he hasn’t even had a bath or a wash?
How can he be clean? Say SubhanAllah, because this is the very same example. How can a person say ‘I am totally clean and pure inside, because I do this action and I do that Amal; I do this worship and that Ibadah’? This is just like the man who says ‘Look, I have put these clean clothes on and have applied perfume on my body. Okay, I haven’t had a bath, but I have put perfume on my body’ – say SubhanAllah. This is the same example, isn’t it? This is a very simple example to understand. If this is the case, then our Ibadaat become veils between us and reality; Ibadah becomes a veil. It is nice clothing to wear, but if you don’t wash, then you are spoiling those clothes of Ibadah that you are wearing. You spoil the smell of those good clean clothes because you are dirty. It is not the fault of those clothes, of your worship; rather, it is the fault of your dirty body that is contaminating your clothes. No blame attaches to the A’maal; they are good, just like the nice clean clothes that you put on; but you are spoiling your Salah because you are dirty inside. You are impure within, but when we look in the mirror, we don’t see ourselves as dirty, even though we are. We say ‘MashaAllah, MashaAllah.’
So the message of Rabi-ul-Awwal is making us realise that the tyre is punctured and the air is seeping out. Can you see now that your tyre is punctured and that the air pressure is slowly decreasing? So what should we do? We need to have a bath, to clean ourselves and make our Batin clean. If we don’t do this, Allah ta’ala is saying ‘You are not a Mu’min! Forget about A’maal, you are not even a Mu’min.’ So the biggest action and the first action for every Mu’min is this, that he attains purity, that he cleans the Nafs, that he does Tazkiyah of the ego, of the inner self, of the base desires. This is the first action of the Mu’min. And when you want to have a bath or a shower, what is the first thing to look for? Tell me. It is the bathroom. Or do you stand in front of the kitchen sink when you want a bath? Will you go to the bedroom when you want to take a bath? Where will you go? Will you go to the marketplace or the shopping centre and look around for a shower or a bath? Where will you go? No, if you want to clean yourself, go to that place about which Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has said ‘Look for them, seek them out’ – what are those places? SubhanAllah. Allah says in the Qur’an { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين} - so if you want to be purified, then go to the company of the Wali of Allah. That is the right place for this bathing, for there is Shifa in seeing him, and Shifa in speaking to him – his company is a Shifa. You will get all of this, for when you sit next to a Wali of Allah, you will not be dirty at that time; you will not be impure at that time.
But the Niyyah should be correct, for the person should desire to attain purity. Nothing can correct a person, not the Qur’an or anything else, unless first the desire to become clean and pure is there. We should have this concern today and say ‘Oh Allah, my tyre is punctured, and the air is escaping, so how can I correct myself? How can I get rid of lying and backbiting, and showing off, and pride, and foul language, and actions that are a waste of time, and Zina of the eyes, and sins with the hands? Oh Allah, I want the Adab and the Akhlaq that You have taught us so that I can have the right Adab with my elders, and the right manners with my family and the people in my household and with my relatives.’ How do we fulfil the rights of the husband and the rights of the wife? All of this is included in the complete syllabus of how to live in the world, so don’t think it is just about praying Salah and then thinking that you are forgiven and that you are a Muttaqi. Don’t live in the darkness, brothers, don’t live in the darkness. These deceptions are evaporated in the Khanqahs. You don’t go there and get given good news and told that you are good boy. You don’t get a pat on the back if you are praying Tahajjud and told that this makes you a Muttaqi. No, this doesn’t happen in a Khanqah. What do you get told in a Khanqah? The scan is performed there, and you are reminded that tomorrow you will have to be presented in the Court of Allah, where an utterly comprehensive scan will take place. Every one of your deeds will be put into the scale and measured – every single one of your actions. Say SubhanAllah.
Is this a strict subject we are discussing today? This is the message of Rabi-ul-Awwal, brothers, so I am sharing it with you. This is Rabi-ul-Awwal’s message. Yes, it is a time of love, and there should be a lot of love and Muhabbah inside a person of faith, but the rights of that love need to be fulfilled. What beautiful points Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has taught us today. We have been shown that our tyre has been punctured and that we should have concern for this and not just keep on driving with a flat tyre. No, we need to go and repair that tyre. The tyre is punctured, and this deficiency is within us, so we have to clean and purify ourselves from those sins by doing Tazkiyah, so that we can keep our inner selves clean, pure and transparent. You will not attain any success if impurities are present. Yes? So every Mu’min, every believer, must undertake this mission of running towards Tazkiyah, towards purification. It is essential for every Mu’min to remove his impurities, so take the company of a Sheikh, of a friend of Allah, of a Wali of Allah. Take hold of his company, and your Ibadaat will improve.
What is company? What do we think company is? Listen to this as well. This doesn’t mean you just have to go and sit down there and then you have acquired his company. No, no, no – that is not the company of the teacher. The company of the Wali of Allah means that inside you have this worry and concern, and that you desire to become a good human being. You desire to live your life right, firstly by making your face according to Shari’ah, by living your life according to the Sunnah, and you want to cease doing any Haram activities – and to do all of this is not in your power. You can’t do these things by yourself – it is very difficult in this day and age. Think about all the sins within you – this and that, and listening to music and songs – and desire to leave all of these things. Say ‘Oh Allah, I want to leave all of this and detach myself from this wrongdoing.’ Say SubhanAllah – the first thing is to have this Niyyah.
So where should you run to? The Qur’an has prescribed – {كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين}. Go to the Majlis of the Sheikh and enter his company - say SubhanAllah. When you do so, you have reached the bathroom, the place where cleaning takes place. All the dirt is inside you, and without this route, there is no way of getting rid of it. You cannot just leave this on your own and become a good human being. Yes? So then you reach the company of the teacher – and what is true company? What is the real meaning of this Sohbat? It is that when your hand goes into his hand, then you come onto the path of light and the way becomes easy – even the wind direction itself changes. When you take the hand of the Sheikh with the intention of rectifying yourself, then the direction of everything changes, and the student will only do what the teacher says – and this is called friendship. This comes with the Fikr and the concern that you want to repair the tyre permanently. You don’t come and sit in front of the Sheikh, and after listening, go away and do the opposite to what he says. If you do this, then what was the point of coming into his company? Say SubhanAllah.
If a person says ‘Oh, it’s too hard,’ is it harder than hellfire? The teacher is saving you from hellfire and from the punishment of the grave. Do you think the punishments of the grave will be easier than following the teacher’s guidance? Will what you get for lying and for consuming Haram and for shaving your beard be easier for you? Will the consequence for not observing Purdah be easier for you? Will the consequence of listening to musical instruments be easier for you? Will the result of all these sins be easier for you? The teacher wants you to have a good result, so say ‘Yes – I hear, and I accept, and I will do what I am hearing and being advised to do. That is why I came, and however hard it is, I will do it.’ When you make this statement, then everything will become easy for you to do; it will be easy for you to leave the sins, and nothing will be hard. Allah’s Rahmah will enshroud you immediately, and whether you succeed in leaving everything or not, Allah will say ‘No – he was working hard. He was trying and making an effort and he had the intention. He went there, and he was trying. Sometimes he couldn’t manage to leave – sometimes he went up, sometimes he went down, and sometimes he was shaken, but he tried. He kept on trying, so write his name in the list of those people who succeeded.’ So where is the failure then? Tell me – where is the failure?
This is the methodology of repairing the punctured tyre – run straight to the puncture repair shop and ask if they can repair your tyre. And what should the Mu’min do if the tyre repair man says ‘This is not a puncture’? Will you not listen to him? You will say ‘Okay, fine – if you can’t repair the puncture, then can you supply me with a new tyre?’ Whatever the man who runs that shop says, you will listen to him and do it. So if you want to improve yourself, then whatever the teacher says, whatever the Wali of Allah says, just keep on following that guidance and instruction. ‘Oh my son, do this Nafl; oh my son, recite this; oh my son, do this action.’ Whatever he tells you to do, keep implementing that. If you don’t and you just go and sit there to listen and then run away afterwards, then you will be the same because you are discarding everything he says. What sort of a Tariqa is that if you discard what he says? And will you be happy after that? No. So real Sohbat is when the effects of that company can be seen; the colour should be seen. Have you just come here to listen to a message? As soon as you hear the message, act on it.
We gave a message last week in the same way, so which people did Amal upon that? Who has implemented the message from the previous gathering? Tell me. Have you forgotten what the discussion was about? You have probably forgotten everything - although, SubhanAllah, Allah’s law is such that He creates very beautiful people. You know when work of the Deen is happening, especially Tasawwuf, then Allah ta’ala creates and selects such people and such a Jamat that, alhamdulillah, you can acquire all of this knowledge from the website. And the lovers do not go to sleep until they have listened to the message again. They say ‘Oh, there was a new message today,’ and those womenfolk and menfolk listen to it and make notes. SubhanAllah, such people are successful – they will never fail in their lives.
If we have only come here for Dhikr, what does it mean to come for Dhikr? It means we have come for Thawab, and is Thawab sufficient justification for coming here? The objective for coming here is not Thawab – is that why you came? Tell me. If so, this is a very small objective that you have in mind. Dhikr is greater than just the Thawab. { فَٱذۡكُرُونِىٓ أَذۡكُرۡكُمۡ } – Dhikr purifies you and connects you to Allah. Dhikr will take you to the Qurb of Allah, so why are you just running around looking for Thawab? Don’t think ‘I will go there and get so much Thawab’ – this is not the case. Dhikr cleans a human being, so you should think to yourself ‘I have come to purify myself.’ Think to yourself ‘How much purity have I attained? How much dirt has come out of me? It seems much easier for me to leave sins now.’ Say SubhanAllah.
Before I came, I was thinking about what to say today. I tell you the truth, I had no strength to speak today, so what we see today is itself a testimony to the Barakah of this Majlis. By Allah, I had no energy or power today, and I was feeling so low and unwell that I thought ‘How will I be able to get the words out? How will I be able to sit there? How will I be able to reach there? I have nothing to say, so I can’t go there.’ I can’t tell you how so down and unwell I was feeling, but as soon as I had made Wudhu and reached here, I felt as fresh and awake as you see me sitting in front of you now. SubhanAllah – tell me, is this not a miracle from Allah that I am speaking? I don’t even feel sick at all. Maybe when I leave, then I will go back to how I was – make Dua for me. I felt so low and unwell, but with the Barakaat of Dhikr, I feel so fresh, and I am sat here in front of you speaking now. SubhanAllah, I was feeling cold and shivery, and my body was sweating – I had a fever and was in a bad situation prior to the Majlis. But now I feel completely fine as if nothing is wrong – SubhanAllah. There is a lesson in this, for Allah is telling us ‘If you have Sabr and determination, My Rahmah will be with you.’ I could have started to shake at that time.
Allahu Akbar, my Hadhrat Sahib rahmatullah alayh came to his last night of Jumu’ah - and people would always come on Jumu’ah, and the gathering would take place and Hadhrat Sahib would sit in front of them. According to his habit, he sat down and gave a beautiful Bayan about Tazkiyah. He gave a beautiful Bayan unlike any heard before, which included Tazkiyah and so many points – it was a comprehensive Bayan, containing the essence of Tasawwuf. Hadhrat Sahib delivered that condensed, beautiful Bayan in about fifteen or twenty minutes on that night of Jumu’ah, and then they sat in Muraqabah. The following morning, according to his habit, without assistance from anyone, took a rickshaw to Gadai Sharif – and Dera Ghazi Khan to Gadai Sharif is quite a long journey. Imagine - he was weak, but he travelled alone in the rickshaw. He could have asked for help, and had he done so, obviously the Khadims would have been there for him. But no, he got the rickshaw himself and went to Gadai Sharif, which was his root, his initial Khanqah. That Khanqah had been there for a hundred years, and it was where Hadhrat Saharanpuri himself rahmatullah alayh used to come, where Hadhrat Fazal Ali Shah Quraishi rahmatullah alayh used to come, where Muraqabaat would take place. I am talking about Hadhrat Saharanpuri rahmatullah alayh, our great elder; in the days when India and Pakistan were one, he would come to Gadai Sharif to visit Hadhrat Sahib’s father in that same Khanqah.
So in that Khanqah, after Jumu’ah, Hadhrat Sahib did Muraqabah according to his habit, and throngs of people were there, for everyone would come to do Muraqabah after Jumu’ah - just as we do here. But the difference is that here, we don’t appreciate and value these opportunities. And yet it is that same branch and the same Barakaat, alhamdulillah. You may not realise this, but it is as if you have an account with bank, HSBC or whatever. Then, if you go to any branch, you can withdraw your money, can’t you. SubhanAllah – why? Whichever bank, whether you go to the headquarters or to a small branch, you will be able to take out the same notes; the small branch will provide you with the same money as the big branch. This is not a big branch or a big department, but in reality, you can acquire the same Barakaat here at Jumu’ah that you would get from Gadai Sharif at that time. The people who want to benefit from this are looting that wealth every week – and tomorrow there will be regret beyond regret for missing out on this. Don’t look at my face, brothers. I have not come here to earn Dunya – money is not my objective. Alhamdulillah, thumm-alhamdulillah, due to the Barakah of my teacher, I sit with you, and I just want to do Dhikr with you. That’s it – that’s my objective. There is no other reason or objective. We will meet tomorrow on the Day of Judgement, and you will remember what I said, and you will say ‘This man spoke the truth, but I wasted that time because I thought he was trying to make a big group or a sect.’ No, nothing of the sort! The branch of that tree is here, and today I am with you people who have gathered here, and I am going to enjoy it with that same enjoyment that I got when I sat with my Sheikh and did Dhikr in Gadai Sharif on the day of Jumu’ah.
So Hadhrat Sahib led Jumu’ah in Gadai Sharif, and then did Muraqabah after Jumu’ah, and then after Jumu’ah, he went back to his Khanqah in Dera Ghazi Khan. There he led the sitting from Asr until Maghrib, because Hadhrat Sahib had also established a session after Asr. Others were present and Hadhrat Sahib did silent Dhikr with them – those were also beautiful gatherings. Before Maghrib, he started to feel a bit unwell, so doctors came and advised him to return home. There he prayed Maghrib and Isha in Jamat, and after that, in the morning, he departed to Allah. So was his routine interrupted? Did he have to go to hospital or have a heart operation? No – after fulfilling his duty completely, the Wali of Allah went back to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, SubhanAllah.
What a great fact this is, alhamdulillah - so have courage and determination and don’t give up. Don’t run to your bed straightaway – first ask Allah for help. It is Allah’s decision, and yes, if He writes in your destiny that this is your situation, then accept that and don’t quarrel and fight. Say ‘Amana wa sadaqna – I accept this, and I am happy with whatever You determine, so I will take to my bed and lie on my mattress due to this illness.’ Say SubhanAllah. Every place is Allah’s, so if Allah gives you health, that is Allah’s pleasure, and if He gives you illness, then that is Allah’s Pleasure. Learn to accept everything that comes from Allah, but don’t lose courage and determination. If I had not had courage and determination today, I could have lain down on my bed with a hot water bottle and this and that. Yes, I did have a Shari’i excuse, most definitely, but I tested myself to see where Allah’s Pleasure lay, whether in this or in that. If Allah’s Pleasure had dictated, then I would definitely have returned home due to illness, but as soon as I came, Allah ta’ala made clear that this was His Radha, saying ‘I will take you from your house and deliver you to the Masjid, and now you speak. Speak!’ SubhanAllah – there is no sweat here and no shivering here and I feel totally fit alhamdulillah. Make Dua that Allah ta’ala keeps me like this until Jumu’ah, alhamdulillah.
So what I am trying to explain by this example is that you have to have courage and determination. Don’t just say ‘Oh, it’s too hard’ – no! Go towards the place where the solution to the hardship is to be found. If you want to attain goodness, then Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Go to that place where sins are extracted – go there for the purpose of extracting your sins’ - say SubhanAllah. Go there thinking ‘I am a liar and a fraudster – I backbite, I oppress my children and my wife, and I am unjust and do wrong to other people. It is not in Islam that I should be like this.’ Think about everything that you do wrong, and then go and sit in the Majlis. Automatically, words that penetrate your heart will come out of the mouth of that Wali of Allah. Yes? Your solutions will be delivered automatically. One person will say ‘This Bayan was for me,’ and someone else will say ‘This Bayan was for me – did you say these words specifically for me today?’ Allah says that it is not for any specific person; Allah made it suit each and every one of you so that your issues can be solved. Whoever’s heart feels that the Byan was for them, then they should consider that they have succeeded in the gathering. It has been written that the connection with Allah was made and that person has been accepted. So leave your dramas and leave your fake life. Do you understand what I am saying? Yes.
So let us come to the Tariqa and the methodology of how to extract the sins. I will share a beautiful point with you. Remember - when an illness comes, what is the solution? If you look back a hundred years ago, Coronavirus was not present at that time, and no one spoke about cancer or many of today’s diseases. So what would people do at that time? As sicknesses increase, so knowledge about illness has increased, and at that time Tibb and herbal medicine was present. Now there is homeopathy and allopathic medicine, and everywhere research is taking place in the field of medicine, and according to the circumstances in each era, medicines are improved, and solutions are developed. According to the people’s needs, vaccinations are researched and developed to deal with the prevalent sicknesses of that time. In the same way, the Batini sicknesses also change over time – they evolve. Shaytan used to trap people a hundred or two hundred years ago, but today shaytan attacks people more than before, and just as doctors research effective medicines, the Walis of Allah research as well, and their cures and prescriptions evolve. If you compare what was offered in the Khanqahs one hundred years ago with what is offered today, you will see that the solutions have evolved.
Hadhrat Fazal Ali Shah Quraishi rahmatullah alayh took up the Tasbeeh – say SubhanAllah – and until today people criticise his method. I am not going to listen to the reaction of people’s brains, because the solution has evolved, and the Tariqa of Dhikr has changed. The basics – the Shari’ah, the Sunnah and the Hadith – that is the foundation, but just as the physical prescription is set to match the condition of the people in the world, Dhikr is the same. At that time, Dhikr was taught in such a way as to give the required effect to the people, but these prescriptions are never against the Shari’ah and the Sunnah. They won’t be innovations. Why? Because just as science and research and medicine evolve and improve so that the patient can be given the right solution, in the same way, the Walis of Allah sometimes change the direction of the Dhikr. Sometimes they may host it one way, or they may prescribe this much, or tell the students to add something, and so on. Dimming the lights, for example, is not Sunnah or Mustahabb – it is nothing, but it is done for the reason that today, focus and attention gets lost very easily, and by dimming the light, the focus increases. In the Khanqahs where Naqshbandi Dhikr takes place, as soon as Dhikr starts, people put their blankets or their sheets on top of their heads – and it is not Sunnah to do this. I am not claiming that it is Mustahabb, but it stops people from looking around at who is tapping their Tasbeehs and so on. Dhahiri people don’t know what Tasawwuf is or what Tazkiyah is. Hadhrat Fazal Ali Shah Quraishi rahmatullah alayh took hold of the Tasbeeh and started to tap the beads – that is where this Tasbeeh Dhikr came from.
And another point that I would like to share is that when a Wali of Allah, a Sheikh, researches a cure and then releases it, in the same way that medical cures are researched and developed and then released to the world, it should be remembered that the prescription of the Wali of Allah is greater than medicine because his prescription comes to him from Ilham, from divine inspiration from Allah to his Qalb. Allah ta’ala gives him inspiration in the form of Kashf. In the same way, Hadhrat Bahauddin Naqshband rahmatullah alayh developed this Tariqa many centuries ago. At that time, they did not do this Dhikr of the heart, but he was given Ilham that in the days and centuries to come, this would be the way to teach Dhikr. After seven days, Ilham came to his Qalb and this method was shown to him, the one that is taught in Silsila Naqshbandia. Do you understand what I am saying? I try to teach Tasawwuf as well in these gatherings.
So today, people may criticise the method of Hadhrat Fazal Ali Shah Quraishi rahmatullah alayh in the tapping of the beads, but what was this a cure for? Alhamdulillah, when you are given this Dhikr, as soon as a person sits and focuses on their heart and taps the beads, the tapping of the beads has the effect of bringing the heart to life. This comes from the tapping of the beads, and it is not Sunnah or Wajib or Fardh. It is just a prescription through Ilham that has been given to the people of this day and age – but there are conditions that accompany this practice. When a Sheikh prescribes this Dhikr, he tells the student the pre-conditions, such as not to tap the Tasbeeh in the Masjid, or not near the time of Salah, so as not to disturb people who are praying Salah, and not to tap it in the gathering either, because this is an individual practice, to be done when sitting on your own. When there is no one in the Masjid, yes, it can be done, but not in I’tikaf – don’t start tapping it loudly then, for it will disturb people. No, no, don’t do that. No Sheikh will tell you that you can sit in the Masjid knocking the Tasbeeh loudly when others are present reading Qur’an and praying Nafl and so on – no. This Tasbeeh is a Dhikr to be done alone, and Noor will come into you if you do it properly. Do you understand the words I am saying today and the explanations I am giving?
So these are the cures that people are given according to the treatments that the Walis of Allah develop. So shall I tell you how a person can be cured in this day and age? Shall I present that in your service? Okay, I will do so. This is a very simple prescription, and this is for today’s generation. Do we want to cure ourselves of backbiting and to eliminate our sins and to stop cursing people and to save ourselves from sins? Okay, fine. Research took place and the Walis of Allah brought out a unique solution – and it is in line with Qur’an and Hadith. These cures are not detached from Qur’an and Hadith. Do just this one action every day, my brothers – listen to the cure attentively. Whoever wants to repair his punctured tyre will understand this prescription, while those who are people of show, fake people, will leave here and remain the same as before. Remember this. This gathering is not for people who do drama and play games – they are just sitting here for the sake of it. Do this one action if you are sincere. Whoever has the feeling in his heart that ‘Oh Allah, I am very weak. I want to do this and to be corrected,’ then this will be a very easy cure for him.
We go to sleep every day, don’t we brothers? And Allah ta’ala puts us to sleep nicely, so nicely – yes? So what is sleep, in reality? It is a practice - it is a brilliant practice. When we awake, we say ‘Alhamdulillah alladhi ayhaana ba’ada ma amatana.’ And when you sleep, it is as if you die, for your Ruh comes out, your mouth drops open, and you don’t know where you are. And then in the morning, you wake up when Allah shakes you, otherwise we are gone. We don’t know. One night we see a dream when we are running after someone, or scorpions and serpents are coming, or someone is hitting you and you are fighting, and at that time you are out; the Ruh has gone while you are sleeping. So then what happens is that Allah brings us back to life again – ‘ahyaana ba’da ma amatana wa ilayhin-Nushoor.’ We say ‘Oh Allah, You have brought me back to life again, so should I behave like an animal again as I did yesterday?’ Allah says ‘No – you passed away and I have brought back to life again, and when you were dying during the time you slept, if I had kept you dead, then you would have been punished for this sin and for that sin that you committed in the drama of your life. But it is My great favour upon you that I considered that I should bring you back to life so that you can go and run to the shop again.’ And we are happy about this – say SubhanAllah.
When we go to sleep and Allah gets us up the next day, is this so we can go and repeat the same actions again? We say ‘Alhamdulillah, I am awake again,’ and then we start those same bad actions again straightaway. Allah is saying ‘No! I have given your life again so that you can show regret for yesterday’s life.’ You should think ‘If I carry on in the same way, if I had died last night, then I would have been punished - and that punishment would surely have come. Oh Allah, You give me a new lease of life each morning when You wake me up.’ Think like this, in a positive way, and be grateful. Think ‘Oh Allah, through Your Karam, You have given me a new lease of life this morning. I am saved, saved in a big way, and You have given me another beautiful opportunity - otherwise I would have been lost if my breath had come out while I was sleeping. I was dead while lying down in my bed, and I would have slept even if I had wanted not to sleep.’ People who don’t feel sleepy take sleeping tablets, SubhanAllah, because they want to go to sleep; they want to pass away. Look at this. Allah ta’ala says ‘You died when you went to sleep last night,’ and this is what happens every day when we go to sleep. We practice this every day, so death is not a new thing. Yes? So don’t you see the next world? What is the Hal at that time? A person reaches the Barzakh, the phase of the grave – this is the reality. So you have died, and when we go to sleep tonight, we will pass away again, and Allah ta’ala is saying ‘Why I have I given you this favour again? It is not so that you can have food and eat chicken.’
So when you wake up, say ‘I promise You this today, oh Allah’ – SubhanAllah, the cure is starting. Don’t get out of bed and rub your eyes and run into the Dunya like monkeys and apes after reciting the Dua – no. Sit up – and this is a great action for health. InshaAllah the Sunnah Ways book will soon arrive, so keep it next to you and read two pages of it every day. Recite it to your children and inshaAllah, light upon light will come into your life. Don’t waste the effort that has been made – the book will be on the market very soon inshaAllah. It will reach you, so be sure to keep it near you. So this is the best method to practice when a person wakes up, because at that time, the whole body of a human being is exhausted - and this has been proven medically – so that if a person jumps straight out of bed, then many illnesses can be brought on in this way. So what is the Tariqa? How did Rasoolulah sallallahu alayhi wasallam wake up? He would sit up in his bed and read the Dua after rubbing his eyes seven times with his knuckles. It has been established medically that by rubbing your eyes seven times, the whole system of your brain opens up. It becomes refreshed in this way and any depression leaves the head. When a person rubs his eyes seven times with his hands, he immediately gets a refreshed feeling. So rub the eyes seven times, and then recite the Dua, and then sit comfortably and make a promise, make a pact. With whom? With your Nafs. Yes? Speak to the Nafs, for it is alive, isn’t it? The internal self is there, so say ‘Oh, you have played a lot of tricks before today, and have made me do a lot of wrong things, but today, Allah ta’ala has given me a new lease of life, so I am speaking to you right now.’
Speak to your Nafs – I am telling you the cure, so do it! Only by doing it will you get the result, so don’t jump straight off your bed. Sit there on your bed and say ‘I am speaking to you, oh my Nafs – we are chatting now. You are my enemy, my true enemy, and if I had died before now, you would have been the cause of my destruction. So I am telling you, oh Nafs, that we have a new lease of life today, and I am not going to listen to you!’ What are the words of the Nafs? They are the promptings of the desires, saying ‘Oh, just do this, it won’t make any difference; it’s okay – oh, it will all be the same even if you do this or say that. It doesn’t matter, you can still pray Salah after that. Moulana Sahib said that you can just do Tawbah after you do a sin, so you will be fine.’ Don’t listen to one single piece of such advice from the Nafs. Say ‘I am not going to listen to you from now on’ – say SubhanAllah. Say ‘You can try your best, Nafs, but I am not going to listen to you. Me and you are not going to work together from now on, because I am not going to listen to you.’
Do you understand what I am saying? Yes? This is the cure of the Khanqah that I am prescribing for you. This is how the Walis of Allah were made. This is the cure for small people like us. No hard work is needed, and your health will be improved at the same time! You will attain the cure in three minutes, just by pledging to ignore whatever the Nafs says. What does the Nafs say? It tells us to lie, to eat Haram, to look at some girl, to listen to music, and all the while it says ‘Oh, we will pray Salah afterwards - you will pray in Jama’ah and all your sins will be removed’ – but then it will destroy your Jama’ah as well. The Nafs destroys all of your actions, so first of all, say ‘Me and you have got a quarrel, oh Nafs, and I am not going to listen to you today.’ Say SubhanAllah. ‘Me and you are in a battle, oh Nafs, so you can give me your intoxicating suggestions, but I am not going to listen to you.’ That’s it! Speak to the Nafs and say ‘Today, I am not going to obey you, oh Nafs. Who will I obey? The words of my Rabb!’ SubhanAllah. ‘I have your Mashwara on one side, oh Nafs, and I have Allah’s Mashwara on the other, so I am going to follow Allah’s advice and not yours, oh Nafs. I am not going to listen to you.’ This should be the first discussion that you have; make this the first action of your day.
And after you say this, the Nafs will reply ‘So you think you are powerful, do you? Okay - show me. After all, you said this yesterday as well!’ When you get this thought, then immediately understand this point and say ‘Oh Nafs, yes, I am very weak and I am engaged in a fight with a big enemy, and no one can save me in this battle, so come now, let us ask Allah for help.’ SubhanAllah – this is the second action to perform - say SubhanAllah. Say ‘Oh Allah ta’ala, I have made a big statement just now and have declared war on a strong opponent. Now I am stuck, so You need to take me out of this trap. I have made a big statement and have clashed with my Nafs, but I am very weak as a man. You know how weak I am, my Moula, my Lord, so come and help me! Help me here, because I am very weak in the face of this Nafs upon whom I have declared war.’ Allah’s Rahmah will immediately be activated by this, and Allah will say ‘Don’t worry – My Rahmah will go with you. {إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَمَعَ ٱلۡمُحۡسِنِينَ}.’ So make this second promise with Allah – and that’s it. Then you can go into the Dunya.
And what is the third action you must do? You must protect your gaze. Will the Nafs win, or will you win? You have to protect yourself and be aware of what you are doing. You have opposed the Nafs and asked Allah for help, and then you must fight with the Nafs. For twenty-four hours a day, watch yourself. If you start thinking about doing something, say ‘No, I promised that I would not speak rubbish, so I am not going to do this action.’ See how Allah’s Rahmah will save you. If Nafs says ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter, just do this action today and then stop afterwards,’ say ‘No, no, no, I am not going to do this.’ All the things that Allah dislikes will leave you because Allah’s Rahmah comes to the help of such a person. For this, you need to fight the Nafs all day long, saying ‘No, I am not listening to you, I am not listening to you, I am not listening to you.’
And if you fall down and slip somewhere, if Nafs makes you fall down and slip, then come back – to where? Towards death. You are going to return again to death when you go to your bed, aren’t you? So in the evening, when you sit down on the mattress – don’t lie down until you have done this – say ‘Let me look at my balance sheet today. What have I done? Ya Allah, today my Nafs made me do this dirty action.’ This is the fourth part of the cure here. ‘Say due to all of these bad actions I did today, I will now punish my Nafs’ – say SubhanAllah. What should you do? If you looked at a woman, say ‘For this first sin of looking at a woman, this is the punishment that I will give to my Nafs. I will give this much money as Sadqah, or I will pray this many Nafl Raka’ahs, or I will keep this many fasts.’ Give a real punishment so that it knocks the Nafs - punish the Nafs for every sin. And inshaAllah, it will be so shaken by this, that within a week, you will see that you become strong. How long will you give Sadqah for? How long will you fast for? Be honest and sincere with yourself – that’s it. Just for a short while, perhaps for forty days, you will be fighting and clashing and quarrelling with the Nafs, and in this manner, SubhanAllah, all the illnesses will be extracted, with the Fadhl of Allah.
And the fifth point? The fight is going on and you want to be successful, so in the meantime you can do another action as well. What is that? {وَٱذۡڪُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ڪَثِيرً۬ا لَّعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ} - SubhanAllah, if you take the assistance of Dhikr alongside this, then Dhikr will help you repel shaytan. Dhikr says ‘I will help you.’ How? Allah says ‘Do Dhikr in the morning and the evening.’ Sit down with your Sheikh every morning and evening – you should have a Sheikh – so do Dhikr every morning and do Dhikr every evening, after which you can recite Qur’an or do Tableegh or teach Hadith and Fiqh and give Bayans. Do whatever you want, but do this Amal without fail. What should you do in the morning? Do Dhikr, and then you can read Qur’an as much as you want – read until Dhuhr if you like. Say SubhanAllah. Read Tafseer, and you will find that the light of understanding will increase, but only if you start the way Allah ta’ala wants. How should you start? The way that Allah ta’ala wants. Teach, give Duroos on Hadith, and do Tableegh – no problem. Allah says we should start each day with Dhikr in the morning and then go to our occupation, and then every action of ours in that occupation will be improved because we have done what Allah ta’ala requests. So you have made the promise to fight the Nafs, and you have protected yourself during the day, and have kept Dhikr ongoing, and so, with Allah’s Fadhl, there will be no need to suffer punishment. Wherever and whenever you have an issue, start Dhikr of Allah.
So, my brothers, these are the methods, and this is the message of Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He has given a warning to those who lie, and those who criticize people and mock people, and those who curse people and use foul language – three things. If you do these things, then the way to absolve yourself is to warn yourself and come out of those sins by means of Tazkiyah. If you keep sitting there, bone idle, then this is not the quality of a Mu’min, and you will not be raised as a Mu’min tomorrow. Yes - and if you start working hard and yet you are still weak, Allah ta’ala says ‘Even if this is the case, My Rahmah will extract you and take you to Jannah.’
May Allah ta’ala give us all the courage and determination to physically act in this way, and let us celebrate and commemorate Rabi-ul-Awwal correctly so that Allah ta’ala gives us the Tawfeeq to earn the Fuyudh and Barakaat of this month. Ameen
Recite Durood Sharif.