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How Do You Beautify Your Deeds?
English Bayan, 64 mins
11th November, 2021

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How to Beautify your Deeds

Allah subhana wa ta'ala always confers His special mercy upon His servants, no matter what type of people they are, whether they are sinful, or disobedient, or don’t follow or listen to Allah ta’ala’s commands. Allah ta’ala always sends down His blessings and Ni’mahs, and there is no moment and no period of time that elapses when a person is devoid of Allah’s Nimahs and Rahmah. There are so many favours of Allah - { لَا تُحۡصُوهَا} – that if you were to try to count Allah’s blessings, you would not be able to do so. If you reflect on this, there are so many favours and blessings of Allah – eating, drinking, water, and systems that Allah ta’ala has given us in our body like digestion, and we have organs such as the eye with all its functions, and all the arteries and very thin veins, and these all perform a job. When we pick up a morsel of food, the enjoyment lasts for just a few seconds in our mouth – the pleasure doesn’t last any longer than that, does it? But Allah ta’ala has given us taste on the tongue, without which you wouldn’t know if you were eating soil or food. Allah ta’ala has given us so many senses, and the tongue is so sensitive to taste that when a person is ill and the sense of taste leaves, a person says ‘I can’t taste the food, so I don’t know what I am eating.’
These are Allah ta’ala’s blessings on His servants, on human beings. If we think about these Ni’mahs and ponder over them, then we will automatically become grateful servants of Allah. But, sad to say, if we get just a little bit of difficulty alongside all the Ni’mahs, we think more about that and place more weight upon that. We forget all the blessings of Allah and just emphasise the difficulty or the burden, saying ‘Oh, I have a big difficulty – an issue has arisen which is a big worry to me’, and then we don’t mention all the other Ni’mahs and the blessings. ‘No, I have got this issue – why has this happened to me?’ It is not all about this one issue – think about what else is going on around us. Think about the blessings that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has mentioned, and the Hikmah of Allah is even found in having nothing at all, for His every decision has some principle or lesson of the world instilled within it.
In this way, an individual is always benefitting from the blessings of the world; but there is something bigger, a greater Ni’mah than these. Blessings of the world include having a car or a house or having food or good health and so on, but these blessings are restricted to the world. They are finite and they will end. You become happy when you get a son, and he grows up and up and slowly he becomes old, and he will also go into the grave. Nothing will remain here, no item will last, nothing is Baqi, everlasting; nothing is forever in this world. In the same way that Allah ta’ala has bestowed His Fadhl and Grace through the Ni’mahs of the world, He also gives permanent treasures and Ni’mahs that last forever, and these are the blessings of the Hereafter - and these are amazing. If somebody attains a treasure of the Hereafter, there is no limit to the extent to which a person should be grateful for those blessings of the Akhirah. How can the Ni’mahs of this world compete with or compare to the Ni’mahs of the Akhirah?
Let us look at just one example of a Ni’mah of the Hereafter, which is to say ‘SubhanAllah’ - which we might call a small thing. Everybody say ‘SubhanAllah’ – SubhanAllah. How great is this? Tell me. Take the entire world and all that it contains and put it on one side. Put to one side the whole world and whatever you might think of as its biggest assets – kingdoms, lands and everything you might desire – and consider that the time will come when you will say ‘Take all of this from me, oh Allah, and in exchange just let me say ‘SubhanAllah’ once, just once!’ Why? Because at that time, you will be able to see the reality of its value. It is not that we have not been told the value of these things now, but we will see the reality on that day. What is the issue? It is that our Yaqeen is very low. We look at money or a business or a shop or an asset that we acquire, and we buy things according to our desires, but we should have greater Yaqeen on those things that Allah ta’ala is mentioning to us; we should have more Yaqeen on these things. Yes?
You can be deceived by many things that you see with your eyes – magic can trick you, like the example of Musa alayhi salam. The magicians stood around him and threw down their sticks – what happened? The sticks became like serpents, didn’t they? This was nothing but an illusion, but then Allah’s Nabi threw reality. He threw down his staff, and because it was connected to the Hereafter, it consumed everything around it. The magicians understood the difference because they had wisdom and understanding, and they said ‘Oh, this must be the real thing because it has consumed and surpassed the magical things.’
So what is in front of us is all a deception. And what wisdom can there be in the fact that Allah ta’ala is explaining what is the genuine, real matter that we should be worrying about. We should not worry if we need to leave the Dunya for the sake of an Amal in Allah’s Deen – just leave it. When it is time for Salah, for example, then close your shops, SubhanAllah. Say SubhanAllah. Allah ta’ala is making you open the eye within, as if to say ‘Oh foolish people, it is the same value now as before.’ And what you will see in the Hereafter is that these A’maal that we do today have great, great value attached to them. And it is not that you won’t get anything here, for you will get the enjoyment from that here as well when you sacrifice the pleasures of the world and run to answer the call ‘Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah, Hayya ‘ala-l-Falah’, ending your beautiful sleep and leaving your mattress.
Why? Why is Fajr Salah in the morning? Tell me. Why did Allah ta’ala put Fajr Salah in the morning? This is from the Hikmah of Allah, and we cannot reach the wisdom behind this decision. It could have been said ‘Pray the morning prayer after you have woken up and had breakfast. Drink your tea, and then, when you feel like it, come to the Masjid - or pray at home of you feel like it.’ Allah could have said that, for He owns the world, but He wanted us to prostrate – say SubhanAllah; Allah wanted us to prostrate at this time. Allah could have said ‘You can prostrate five times during the day whenever you want – just make sure you complete the five prayers at some time during the day.’ If Allah had given an open playing field in this way, then everyone would have done it, if it was just the prostration that Allah ta’ala needed. But Allah ta’ala does not need anything from us – say SubhanAllah. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘There is also My Hikmah in this. You can do what you want during the day, but I want to see who really loves Me.’ A person can say that he really loves you, but that passion of love and Muhabbat is only visible when they give some sacrifice for the sake of their beloved, such a sacrifice that what you give up is the most beloved thing to you at that time.
For example, if someone says ‘Oh, I love you’, and then, when they consider what to give as a gift, they think ‘Let me look for something cheap, maybe a second-hand watch or some older brand or model’ - who is this gift for? The person who you claim to love a lot, yet you give them something cheap, a cheap bottle of perfume or a second-hand gift. You say that person is your beloved and you think you are an Ashiq of that person, but look at your Hal and what you are giving to that person. This is our standard in respect of love in the world.
So, my brothers, this is how Allah ta’ala tests us. Allah is saying ‘You say you want to be My Ashiq, My beloved, but you cannot be My Ashiq unless you follow certain principles.’ If you pray Salah and say ‘Oh Allah, I am Your Ashiq’, you cannot present your prayers according your own timetable. Allah says ‘No, no, I will present you with the timetable of Salah, and based on that, I will see how much you love Me’ - say SubhanAllah. So look at the times of prayers. One, Dhuhr, is the prime time when business is running, and customers are coming, and buying and selling is happening. Money is coming in, coins are chinking and being counted, and Allah says ‘Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah’ – SubhanAllah. Allah says ‘Come, My servant – leave everything. Close your till and stop counting the money of the Dunya. Forget all your customers now, follow ‘Amana wa Sadaqna’ and come to My call, to My announcement.’ This is when Ishq and love are measured.
I remember an event with me, broken-down person that I am, which occurred at a time when I was working in the Arndale Centre where I had a shop. At this particular time, I think it was Christmas time, it was very busy and there were some youngsters working with me – they are probably listening to what I am saying now. I am talking here about a broken-down, weak person like me, and you, MashaAllah, are pious people, but the reason I could do this was that I had an attachment to the Friend of Allah and his beloved statement was in my heart. He had told me ‘Farooqui Sahib, never leave Salah – it doesn’t matter what happens.’ This was the order that he gave me, and his other Hukm was that I should not leave working with my hands. In other words, he said I should work, but also not leave Salah. This was my Pir, my Sheikh, and he was a real Murshid, of the sort who creates true students and takes you to the right path. I could have said ‘Oh, it’s okay, I can pray Salah later – I have to run my shop. How will I earn enough to give Sadqah otherwise?’ No – no excuses. He said that you have to work, and you have to bring up your children properly, and that you shouldn’t sign up for social security hand-outs and sit around at home. Don’t make excuses and say ‘Oh, I am doing the work of the Deen and money can come from here and there.’ He said ‘This is not the Deen. This is not our Deen and this is not Islam.’
Whatever country that Allah ta’ala sends you to, the law and principle of the Shari’ah will stay the same – say SubhanAllah. Wherever your shop is - Makkah, Madina, Pakistan, here, Gujerat, Surat, Bharouch, Manchester, Bolton, whether it is a big shop or a small shop, big business, small business, in a marketplace, inside, outside, office – it doesn’t matter, the law is the same, whether customers are coming or not. When the call for the Salah comes, even before Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah has been heard, you should have departed already. If we do this, then when Allah makes the call in the Akhirah ‘Where are My beloveds?’ then we will get up as the beloveds. But we say ‘Oh no, no, no, I can leave Salah and pray later – it doesn’t matter. Customers have come – this is Fardh as well. Moulana Sahib said that I can leave Salah so that I can run my business. He said that it doesn’t matter because you have to fight for yourself.’ But what Jihad is it that you say you’re doing if you are not struggling to pray Salah? Allah has made the times for Salah as if to say ‘I want to see you, oh My beloved servants – I want to see who comes at those times.’
Of these, the time of Fajr is the hardest – say SubhanAllah. The bed feels very sweet at that time, and if you are in a hot country like India or Pakistan, the mosquitoes bite all night long, but at that time in the morning there is a cool wind. You feel as if you are experiencing Jannah as the cool breeze blows and all the mosquitoes who pestered you all night long have flown away. You struggle to sleep all night long, and the Adhan of ‘Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah comes just when a cool blows in at the time of Fajr in the morning. Sleep at that time is so beautiful, after a whole night of mosquitoes biting you as you tossed and turned restlessly – have you ever experienced that? It is very difficult. I am talking about how it is in the villages out in the wilderness when the Adhan comes, and you feel like saying ‘Oh leave it - it is too hard to get up and leave my sleep.’ This is the reality. Here, it might be cold or snowing and the water may be cold, and yet the announcement comes ‘Come – it is time to pray Salah.’ It is difficult to get up, to leave the mattress and the bed. And even today, a person doesn’t get up, even though it is the holidays. He stays in bed, saying to himself ‘Oh no, today is a rest day’ - and then on the workdays, he says ‘Oh no, today I have to go to work!’ So what about the Day of Qiyamah? Will that be the day you pray Salah, on Qiyamah Day? Say SubhanAllah. What days will you come, then, if you don’t pray on your workdays, and you can’t pray on your days off? What day will you come?
So understand that Allah ta’ala has allotted the time of Fajr for Salah because the Nafs is big at that time and it is very difficult to come. Also, the time sometimes goes back very early, such that you have to get up at 2am or 1.30am, and at other times it gets very late, and you have to get to work. If you ask ‘Where do you pray?’, they say ‘Oh, I pray at home – I sleep afterwards and then go straight to work.’ No way is this acceptable at all – you cannot pray at home; go straight to the Masjid. And if you don’t go to the Masjid, ask yourself why Allah ta’ala created and caused so many Masjids to be constructed in Bolton. Why did Allah make all these Masjids? Did the committees make these Masjids? No – Allah made these Masjids - Allah! You can find a Masjid on every corner. Can anyone imagine that here, where you would think it would be hard to make one Sajdah, a Masjid is being constructed in every street? Alhamdulillah - yes?
Allah ta’ala prepares for us and gives us the means so that we cannot make excuses. We will not be able to say ‘Oh Allah, there were no Masjids, so I couldn’t go to the Masjid for Salah.’ No, there are no excuses. Young men are sleeping, children are sleeping, the wives are snoring – nobody cares. They get up in the morning and complain ‘Oh, there is no Barakah at home, and we keep arguing and fighting and quarreling. Our children are off-track, and we have problems at home in our family.’ Why? What about Salah? When you remind them about Salah, they say ‘Oh no - I do pray Salah when I get time. Sometimes my eyes open, sometimes not. I have too many problems, so why are you telling me about Salah?’ Then problems keep coming back. Oh servant of Allah, have Yaqeen on Alla - who does everything come from? Allah subhana wa ta'ala controls all aspects of life – money, health, everything.
Have courage and determination, for connection with Allah is the important thing, and Allah is saying ‘Come, pray five times Salah in My home’ - but we don’t even obey that. No, we follow our own whims and desires. Allah has given the times – at Dhuhr time, you leave the Dunya and go to Dhuhr Salah; in the morning, you leave your sleep and go to the house of Allah; and, Allahu Akbar, at Maghrib time you have to leave your food and go to the Masjid, SubhanAllah. At Isha time, you have to leave your gossiping, because when Isha time comes around, people have relaxed and start chit-chatting, and they have a cup of tea in front of them after eating, and in that chit-chat, gossip comes out and shaytan gets involved, saying ‘It’s okay, there’s a match coming one’, so you switch on the set. But Allah is saying ‘Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah – leave the Dunya.’ Allah ta’ala has ordained these times when a person’s Nafs is asleep in order to test that person. And the rewards that Allah reserves for going are also great, and they are permanent rewards. These were the Ni’mahs of the Dunya, and what brings the blessings of the Akhirah? That you leave everything, with the Fadhl of Allah, and that you step forward for the sake of Allah. If such a person is not an Ashiq, then what else is he? Tell me. What is the definition of an Ashiq? It is that you leave something – you have to give something up.
So this is a Majlis of Dhikr, alhamdulillah, a gathering to remember Allah, and such a Majlis is a big gathering – a person cannot imagine how great this Majlis of Dhikr is. Look at the individuals, the Ghafileen; we have left our homes, and someone has come from Blackburn, and someone has come from another town or vicinity - and who has given us this determination? We don’t look at the cost of the petrol or the wife and children who are at home, but rather, from Asr to Maghrib we ask people if they are going today – and we say this as well. ‘Are you coming today to the Majlis of Dhikr?’ ‘Yes, yes, inshaAllah I will be going today.’ ‘Okay, inshaAllah we will meet there. Are you coming as well, my friend? Are you coming brother?’ When these discussions start, then Allah ta’ala’s angels immediately start arriving to say ‘This person has arrived in Paradise’ – SubhanAllah. You start preparing well in advance, hours before actually – and what is this push and this pull? Allah ta’ala has made their hearts fall in love, so that they say ‘The Majlis is coming – come and attain the reward!’
Is there a greater reward than this? Tell me. The reward is such that you cannot get the like of it all life-long. What will you get? Allah’s angels surround the gathering – SubhanAllah. Allah’s angels surround the gathering, Allah’s Rahmah surrounds and covers that gathering. From all four sides, Allah’s angels surround and cover that individual, and Allah’s Rahmah envelops that person, and from the top, from the ‘Arsh, Sakeenah and satisfaction and peace descend into the hearts. Allah says {أَلَا بِذِڪۡرِ ٱللَّهِ تَطۡمَٮِٕنُّ ٱلۡقُلُوبُ} - Allah says ‘The hearts find contentment through the Dhikr of Allah.’ And it doesn’t end there. Further, Allah says that amongst a special, select Jamah of angels, Allah ta’ala mentions and praises those who attend the gathering. Can there be a greater reward than this? Tell me. So what will that person who did Dhikr in the Majlis attain after death? This is what you call a permanent reward.
What about a person who gets up in the morning, with passion, and goes to the Masjid for Salah, and then says ‘No, that is not enough.’ Allah says to him ‘Don’t go back home, for this is the time to remember Allah’ – SubhanAllah. A person may ask ‘Oh Allah ta’ala, what should I do? Should I read Qur’an or do this or that?’ Allah ta’ala says ‘No, no, no – at this time after Fajr, purely and simply recite My Name.’ Close other things – you can recite your Juz sometime during the rest of the day. Allah ta’ala is saying that there are other times for Qur’an, for at this time after Fajr, the most beloved action after you have prayed two Rakahs Salah is to stay in your place and not leave the Masjid - say SubhanAllah. Allah says ‘Stay there, don’t leave, and don’t do anything else apart from reciting My Name - keep on remembering My Name. Keep remembering My Name, close your eyes, and just remember My Name in your heart – not even on your tongue. I like this – and don’t do this on your own. Do it in a gathering’ – SubhanAllah.
Allah ta’ala is explaining this. How long does this scene last? Tell me. For one hour, this action plays out, and to complete that hour, many hurdles will present themselves in your way. Why? Because that person is doing a good action – that is why hurdles and barriers come up. Some people don’t even get the good fortune to sit and do Dhikr in the morning once in their lives. After they have prayed Salah, they run off. They have prayed Salah but have never tasted this enjoyment and have gone into their graves without this experience; on the other hand, there are those who have never missed this gathering and action once in their life. Look at the difference between the two. So who is the Ashiq, the lover of Allah? Tell me. If a person neglects Dhikr of Allah due to his love for the Dunya, thinking ‘I have prayed Salah, so I am free now’, has he prayed Salah just to become free after that? No, Allah is saying ‘No, sit down, alhamdulillah, just for half an hour.’ What difference does it make? If you open the shop thirty minutes later, the shop that Allah has given to you, what is the problem with that? Who will grab me and question me if I do that? Tell me.
Throughout my life, I never opened my shop at the same time. Sometimes I would go and there would be a notice on the shutter saying ‘You don’t open your shop on time, so we are going to close it down’, so I would just put the notice in my pocket. Who could make me close it down? I would do my Mu’amulaat with ease and then I would open my shop later, and if Rizq was due to come, it would come – say SubhanAllah. It is nothing to be worried or distressed about – Allah ta’ala will give Rizq. So Allah ta’ala sends us to sit down, and the Jamat sits down to do Dhikr, leaving everything of the Dunya behind. Yes? You have selected that schedule and action that Allah ta’ala likes. You could have done some other action after Fajr, some good deed, but Allah ta’ala is saying ‘No, the time for Fajr is just for Fajr, and the time for Dhikr is just for Dhikr – there is no alternative action.’ That’s it, so sit down, MashaAllah. The ocean of blessings is running, and you just sit down and acquire all the blessings and benefits that are mentioned in Hadith – there are many, many Hadith about the benefits of Dhikr after Fajr.
So you do Dhikr, and when you are free from Dhikr, which doesn’t even last an hour, before you have even left the door of the gathering, the envelope is delivered from the angels which records the rewards they have written. Why have they written rewards? Because Allah ta’ala is happy with you for giving a sacrifice from your Nafs, so SubhanAllah, open the envelope and see what rewards Allah ta’ala has given you; quickly, open the envelope. It’s as if someone gave a person an envelope giving the news that they had won the lottery, saying ‘Here’s the money – you’ve won the lottery!’ They would open that envelope quickly, wouldn’t they? They would be mad if they waited to see how many notes and cheques would come out of that envelope; they would open it so quickly – they would rush to open that envelope. So before you even get to your car, you should open up that envelope to see what rewards you have been given. As soon as you finish the gathering, you receive that illuminated envelope containing one Hajj and one Umrah – Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said this three times in the Hadith, not just once – he repeated it three times. This lover, this servant says that this means the reward is worth three Hajj and three Umrahs, because he said it thrice – I say this. It may be that when Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said it once, then it would happen once, and since he said it twice and three times, it will happen again and then again. So my love says that three Hajj and three Umrahs are recorded.
Another point comes here, SubhanAllah. Allah ta’ala is saying that His Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam announced one Hajj and one Umrah reward, and since he said this three times in total to his Ummah, because he said this Dua three times, it was accepted three times. Will the Dua of Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam not be accepted? This is a point to consider – do you like it? In that case, how foolish and stupid is that human being who spends that time in the morning in any way that does not attain that reward of three Hajj and three Umrahs, while there is a river flowing next to his home? He says ‘No, I don’t want to do this’ – is this not a reason for great sadness? These are permanent rewards, these Akhirah rewards and blessings.
Now I will come to the real topic that I had in my mind to discuss with you. What came before were just words that came out spontaneously, but now I will turn to what I wanted to discuss. Look at what a difference there is between the blessings of the world and the blessings of the Hereafter – now the real subject of today is coming, so pay attention to this. The point here is that there is a great difference between the blessings of the world and the blessings of the Hereafter. The difference is that if you get a Ni’mah of this world, like a car, then you will drive it around, steer it here and there, a new petrol car, say, a brand new, very nice car which you will walk around and admire, and if a birds poos on it, then you will cry out in horror and clean it and polish it because you want to keep it pristine. Or say you get a house; as you walk through you will start cleaning it and you will tidy the garden, for this will make your heart feel good. Why? Because it is a Ni’mah that Allah ta’ala has given, an asset, and you will be happy with your property. These are the Ni’mahs of the world.
So what about the value of the Ni’mahs of the Hereafter? If Allah ta’ala gives you the Ni’mah of Salah, look at how great a Ni’mah Salah is – I have told you the reward, haven’t I? So how do we treat the Ni’mahs of the Hereafter? The subject is coming now. How do we look after them? A person says ‘Oh, I have just prayed Salah.’ Is that it? Which verses did you recite? How did you recite them? What actions did you perform? There are so many actions in Salah, SubhanAllah, and every action is so valuable. Do you know that when we are stood in Salah, we are not stood here; we are stood in front of Allah at Salah time – remember this. Why? Because when we say ‘Allahu Akbar’, I have put everything away from me; I have left everything, and I am leaving the Dunya. I fold my hands and I become a human being as I stand there. Where are we stood? We have rejected everything of the Dunya, and who are we stood in front of? Our Rabb, Our Lord. When you are stood in front of your Lord, what does Allah ta’ala say? Allah ta’ala has given so many actions in Salah, and Allah likes this so much. Allah is saying ‘Don’t just keep standing there in the same position, do some bowing and prostrating and all the different positions of Salah, for I love this action of Salah.’
He gives so many actions – sometimes your face is here, sometimes it is down, sometimes your hands are folded, then you go into prostration, then you sit between the prostrations and then go into prostration again, and then you stand and then you sit, and then Durood and then Salam, and then this verse from this portion of the Qur’an, and then you praise Allah and then you glorify Allah. What is all this? What is this? This is Salah – say SubhanAllah. Who has given us this? Allah has given us this. And who gave us the ability to do this? Allah gave this ability to me and you - and what are these blessings? These are the blessings of the Akhirah, and you cannot count the blessings of the Akhirah; they are infinite. The Ni’mahs of this world will go into the soil, into the earth, while the Ni’mahs of the Akhirah will float permanently in the heavens, forever. The Salah that you pray here will depart from here as soon as you have prayed – and where will that Salah go? Say SubhanAllah. Where will the Salah go? What will happen to the car that you buy? It will go into the garage, into the workshop to have the puncture mended, but as for the Salah, as soon as you are free, it doesn’t stay here in the world; it departs. It doesn’t stay here on the earth, in the world; as soon as you finish the Salah, where does it go? To the heavens! It goes high up to the heavens. Salah is such a thing that it doesn’t stop; it goes up to the Court of Allah and presents itself there in the Court of Allah. And those Salahs keep on accumulating and accumulating in the Hereafter, and all of that Salah will come back in Jannah. Jannah will be decorated with your Salah; your Salah is such a great asset – remember this.
Salah has such great properties. Every action has a form, an image, and Salah has an image, as does every good righteous deed. Fasting has an image, and Dhikr has an image, and recitation of Qur’an has an image; they have forms and pictures and appearances. They come with an appearance, and they are present in the Hereafter, each one with its separate form - this is the case when we recite the Kalimaat in Dhikr. The example of technology proves the same thing, where the words that you say on the phone can take the form of recordings and the written word. In the same way, your Ibadaat and righteous deeds do not just evaporate. When you pray Salah, that Salah is an existent thing afterwards; that Amal has left you, a created thing that has a beautiful form and image.
So what we need to see – now pay attention to this point that I am making - is that we think that when we pray Salah, that’s it. We just keep coming to pray Salah, and then we disappear. We come, and afterwards we say ‘I’ve prayed.’ We mumble quickly through the prayer, and then, if someone asks, we say ‘Yes, I’ve prayed Salah.’ Some people don’t even know what they are praying, and sometimes they only pray half absent-mindedly. And after Salah, there is no Dua and no Tasbeeh; they fulfil the Hukm of Sajdah, and that’s it. They do the bare minimum that is acceptable and then say ‘I have prayed Salah.’ Okay, that’s fine – in Punjabi we say ‘I have got it off the top of my head’, meaning that we just want to get shot of that action and be done with it. If you ask about Hajj, they say ‘Yes - done that.’ They don’t worry about the level of intensity or what content was there – this is the point.
Is this how our Ibadah should be? No. Our thinking should be firstly, that of all the Ni’mahs of the world, this Salah is the greatest Ni’mah of Allah ta’ala. Allah ta’ala has sent me to His home, to the Masjid, so think ‘Where would I be otherwise?’ And what about those who don’t even come, who haven’t come perhaps because they are stood at their shop or somewhere else? Think ‘Oh Allah, this is such a great goodness that You have given to me! After today, whatever Salahs You may send me to until Qiyamah, this time will not come back again, the time for this Salah.’ Will that Salah come again? No – it has gone. You may be able to pray Qadha, yes, but the correct time has gone, never to return until Qiyamah. That Salah is such a great Ni’mah that you will never get the chance to do it again in your life. The Fajr that you did not pray has gone; it has disappeared. Tell me! You can regret and beat your heads if you left Fajr Salah this morning, but that Fajr time will not come back again. It has gone, it has evaporated, disappeared.
What a big loss is incurred by those who do not pray their Salah in the time. If a person has a car accident, what do they do? They say ‘No problem – I will get another car.’ You say this, don’t you? Or if something breaks or is lost, you say ‘Oh, I will get a replacement.’ But who can give a guarantee now that the Salah time will come back? No, there is no guarantee; the Salah that has gone, has gone, and it will not come back. It has disappeared. How many Salahs does a person waste? Tell me. And yet this is a Ni’mah that will never return; it will never come back. That Ni’mah is when we come, and Allah ta’ala sits us down in His home, and then we fulfil the deed, but we do not think about how great this Ni’mah is that Allah ta’ala is giving to us. We haven’t thought about the fact that the Salah that we have just prayed will not just stay here; it will be sent forward. And where will it go? It will go in front of our Rabb, Allah. Astaghfirullah, we should think ‘How will my Salah be when it reaches Allah? What state and condition will it be in?’
And remember also that there is not an unlimited number of Salahs that we will perform – no, no, no. Whatever number is in your destiny to pray, you will not be able to pray one more Salah than that. Has it not happened that a person prays Isha, and then he dies before Fajr the next day? Or he goes for Dhuhr but does not come back for Asr; or he goes to Asr but does not come back for Maghrib. That turns out to have been his final Salah, but he doesn’t know that he is not going to return. It’s not the case that you pray unlimited numbers of Salahs. No, they are counted, stamped and sealed so that you have set number of Salahs in your life. Whether or not you pray them, your destiny determines how much Salah you have the chance to pray, so at least complete the amount that Allah ta’ala has put into your Kismet while you are alive.
So don’t just run to Salah and then say ‘Oh, I have completed Salah; I prayed it quickly’- no. There are two factors for Salah - remember this. There are two factors for all good deeds. To complete an Amal, a deed, the first factor is the Ahkam of Shari’ah that pertain to that action; any righteous deed that we perform must be according to the Shari’ah – that is factor number one. Any action that you do according to the Shari’ah is a blessed action – like Salah. We can take the example of Salah – and all the other deeds are the same. If you pray and complete your Salah according to the Shari’ah, then it is a blessed and respected deed which is then classified as Salah. The time in which you pray, the manner in which you pray, the method, how to bow, what actions to do, when to read Durood – all this is the procedure of Salah, and if you pray in a manner not in accordance with that procedure, then it is away from the Shari’ah. If you read something else when you are sitting, or read something else when you are standing, or are praying the verses of Qur’an in the wrong order or in the wrong part of the prayer, will your Salah be complete? No; then it would not be classified as Salah. If you pray four Raka’aat and recite verses from the Qur’an, you have to perform that Amal according to Shari’ah.
So a deed will count as a good deed if it is implemented according to Shari’ah. The way in which the Shari’ah orders that a deed should be performed is the way to be in accordance with the Shari’ah; then it is classified as Shari’ah, and then it is a respected and honourable deed. So factor number one is to ask yourself ‘Is the Salah and the Amal that I am doing in accordance with the Shari’ah?’ Do you understand? Yes? ‘Or is my deed contrary to the Shari’ah?’ No? Then it is honourable and respected and counts as a good deed.
So what is the second factor when you do a good deed? How should you present your Salah? So it is one thing to pray Salah, which is good, but which Salah will go to the Court of Allah and be classified as Husn? What is a good Salah, a beautiful Salah, a decorated Salah? How do we achieve this? Remember that I said to you that every deed has a form and image, so it can become beautiful when presented to Allah – and Allah ta’ala will give that deed back to you. Do we try to attain that level? This is the point that we need to be careful about, otherwise we will regret it in the Hereafter; we will regret it immensely in the Hereafter.
So first, factor number one, is that when you do a good deed, it has to be in accordance with the rules and principles of the Shari’ah; then it is accepted, and you have completed that deed. But then you need to make it beautiful so that it has a good reception in the Hereafter. And what is the method for doing this? What is the second factor that you need to do to make your deeds beautiful? This applies to every good deed, not just to Salah. What do you have to do to make that deed beautiful and accepted? It has to be in accordance with the Sunnah – say SubhanAllah. The more you instill and decorate a deed with the actions of the Sunnah, the more beautiful it will become. It will attain beauty beyond beauty and will go to Allah subhana wa ta'ala like that. That is why Allah ta’ala has said to imitate His Beloved sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Allah ta’ala says ‘I order you to pray Salah’, but who should you imitate and follow in Salah? {لَّقَدۡ كَانَ لَكُمۡ فِى رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ أُسۡوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ۬} Yes? Whatever the Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam says you should take, then take that, and whatever he says you should leave, then leave that, and whatever he says you should do, then do that.
So in order for us to make Salah beautiful, it is essential for us to observe Salah according to the Sunnah. Pay attention to the Sunnah details, like where you should put your hands, where you should focus your mind, where you should direct your eyesight, how you should stand up, how you should fold your hands – but we don’t pay attention to any of this. Don’t reject the Salah in this way, for Allah ta’ala has not called us to Salah so that we can just bop up and down however we want. Allah has given us a great Ni’mah, so are we just discarding and rejecting this? That is why the effects of Salah don’t come into us; the Noor of Salah and the effects of Salah do not come into us. So what do we need to do? We need to make our Salah beautiful by observing the Sunnah. If we do not follow the Tariqah of the Sunnah in Salah, then our Salah is, at least, completed, for the Muftis have ruled that this is the case if you pray it according to the Shari’ah, for it is Ja’iz even if prayed against the Sunnah and can at least be said to be valid, but that Salah is nevertheless defective.
It has defects within it. Take the example of someone who goes to buy some cloth. If one roll of cloth is fine and pure and good, and another has defects in it, which one will you buy? Tell me. You may observe that they are both from the same company, and are of the same brand and are made with the same weave, but if one has stains and cuts and tears in it, will you buy it? The defects will direct you not to buy it; even if you are offered it at a cheap price, you will still not buy it. So your Salah may be accepted, but it will contain defects if it is against the Sunnah. And the more Sunnah that you discard and leave, the more defects will be present in that prayer – SubhanAllah; there will be more stains and blots upon that Salah. What will the condition of that Salah be in that case? How will it be presented in the Court of Allah? How will that Salah be received if completed in this way? You have not done justice to the Salah in that case. If you get up in the morning and come to Fajr after making Wudhu, and then pray Salah like this, then that is a wasted Salah. So how do we need to pray our Salah? We need to pray and implement Salah according to the Sunnah and make it absolutely beautiful in accordance with the Sunnah.
I would like to share an event with you at this point. There was one person who went to a Sheikh to take Bai’ah, and after taking Bai’ah, he established a deep connection between himself and the Sheikh. This connection between the Sheikh and the Mureed is a sacred connection that benefits until the Akhirah, and the Qur’an itself tells us to find a Sheikh, to find a teacher and to do Tawbah at the hand of that teacher. It is Sunnah to do Tawbah at the hand of a teacher, a great Sunnah; Allah ta’ala says that it is a condition that you should do Tawbah at the hand of a teacher. Why is this? Why is Allah telling us to find a teacher? Because he will be your guide – there is no other reason. It is not about Pir and Mureed and culture and tradition. No, he is your guide in the Deen, and a person who doesn’t have a guide and a teacher will say ‘What is all this rubbish? What Salah are you talking about? I don’t need to know about Salah – don’t tell me what to do.’ So then if he puts his hands too high or too low and you tell him that this is not how you pray Salah, he will say ‘Oh, go away! Don’t tell me how to pray Salah – I have prayed’ – and then he’s gone; he makes a joke of Salah. But I will tell you now about a person who had a teacher, a Sheikh; I am telling you about his event. You should definitely make a connection with a friend of Allah, a Sheikh, a teacher – I am telling you. Without this, a human being’s life is incomplete.
Such great people like Hadhrat Ghawth Pak, Abdul Qadir Jilani rahmatullah alayh, did they not have a Sheikh? Yes! He said ‘I could not have become a Ghawth if I had not had a Sheikh.’ Hadhrat Abdul Qadir Jilani rahmatullah alayh, Hadhrat Mohiuddin Chishti rahmatullah alayh - did they not have a Sheikh? Yes! He said ‘That is how I became Chishti’ – SubhanAllah. Take Hadhrat Data Ganj Bakhsh Ajmeri rahmatullah alayh – SubhanAllah, what a great Sheikh he was. Did he not have a Sheikh? So then, are we human beings born from a different breed? Those great people, those great Walis of Allah, needed the guidance of a teacher, of a Sheikh, of a guide. There is so much Barakah and blessings in that connection. When you take this guidance and go to a Sheikh and make him your friend and establish a friendship and a relationship, even if you cannot be with him, his Barakaat will continue. This has occurred so many times. For instance, when shaytan wants to misguide you, then immediately the Sheikh comes into your dream and stops that, saying ‘What are you about to do?’- so then he stops. This is the connection – I could share many such stories with you.
This is the connection you get because you are living your life according to Allah’s Hukm and according to the Shari’ah. This is living your life according to the Shari’ah under the guidance of the Sheikh, whereas a person without this is living according to his Nafs and according to his desires. Yes? These are the Khutuwaat-e-shaytan, and such a person is at shaytan’s feet; there is nobody to stop him. This is just like when there is a child, and you are controlling him and looking after him and guiding him, then he will have caution. But if there is another child that is not cared for, which one will be more susceptible to shaytan? The second child, whose father does not give him attention or care about him, will think ‘I can smoke – who will question me if I do? I can smoke when I want and go out when I like, whether in the day or the night; he doesn’t care about me or ask where I am.’ The other child will be prevented from harm and would not dare to come home late; he will have to get up on time to pray Salah. What is the difference between the two children? Tell me. Is this not how it is?
This is the same case as that human being that Allah ta’ala has given as a teacher and a guide – it is Allah who sends the teacher and the guide, whether to a woman or to a man. If he is sent to guide a woman, it is done from behind the screen of Purdah, while the man can come in front of him. Such a teacher is not just for men. The Hukm to take a guide comes in Surah al-Mumtahana, and that order was for the believing women. Allah ta’ala said ‘Oh My beloved Nabi, womenfolk will come to you, so accept the pledge of allegiance from believing women.’ So, SubhanAllah, women can also have this connection to the teacher – why should they not get the Faidh and the blessings of the friend of Allah? There is a difference in approach, absolutely, because the Sheikh will not go in front of her physically, face to face; he won’t be able to be in front of her in the same room. In earlier generations, the pledge to the teacher and the Tawbah would be made behind a screen; this is how our forefathers would do this in the Khanqahs in the days before modern technology. There would be a curtain to ensure Purdah, and the Sheikh would be on the other side of the curtain and he would give Bai’ah to them across the curtain.
Nowadays, however, we have the technology that enables a woman to take Bai’ah on the phone, but all you want for your womenfolk is that they make chapattis and food so you can eat meat and pumpkin! You get home and complain ‘Didn’t you make any fruit relish? Did you do all the shopping?’ If all you want to do is to send your womenfolk to the marketplace, then how will they get to sit on the other side of the curtain near the Sheikh? The husband says ‘I am getting ready to go to my Sheikh’, and when she says ‘What about me?’ he says ‘You just stay here at home.’ So that poor soul ends up doing shaytani actions; shaytan comes and urges her to do this and that, after which comes quarrels and divorce – and why? Because you have taken her off the track of the Deen. You may have the chance to have a Sheikh and a teacher, so why should she not have that, the poor soul? What fault prevents her from that? You should say ‘I am going to Dhikr, so you should also put the Dhikr on here via the receiver or the phone, so that you can get the same Faidh that I get while you are sitting at home.’
But no, you have discarded and rejected your wives, and tomorrow you will realise your error when Allah asks you, and says ‘Oh menfolk, you were big-headed Choudhury Sahibs, so why did you not introduce the females in your family to the Faidh and the Barakah of the teacher?’ Was there a greater Purdah than that mentioned in the Qur’an, when Allah ta’ala gave Hukm in Surah al-Mumtahana, saying ‘Oh My beloved Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam, I will send the womenfolk to you for guidance.’ So can womenfolk not have the introduction to and the connection with the teacher? And if she does come, it is not the husband who is bringing her, rather it is Allah ta’ala who is giving Fadhl and blessings, through which thousands of defects will come out of her and she will do Dhikr at home. She will also do Tasbeehs and fill in her sheets in the record system; she will listen to the Majlis on the phone and for the Sake of Allah, she will have love for the friend of Allah; she will also do Dua. But no, you don’t think of this.
Now some menfolk are very good. Before they even get married, they want their future wife to be introduced to their teacher so that she can get Bai’ah. Some men actually get their wives to take Bai’ah before they are married so that their homes can become good. The discussion has diverted a little, but this is all Islah, because these are things that Allah will ask us about tomorrow. We have totally destroyed the lives of our mothers and sisters by keeping them detached and by not concentrating or focusing on their Deen. Allah has given us technology by means of which this Majlis is going all over the world. Over one thousand individuals are listening to this Majlis all over the world, many of whom are womenfolk who have taken Bai’ah. Some are in Africa, others in different countries, and they sit regularly and attain great Maqams, alhamdulillah - they have attained great rank and status. You just sit here and leave, but MashaAllah, they listen to the audio and then they do Amal on it. Some say ‘No, no, no, we only accept a Pir whose Dua will give us a child, a son, and through whom our business will flourish.’ What is this? Tell me. These are our conditions and are not the correct objective.
Anyway, the incident of that student and the point related to that has come back to my mind. So he wanted a connection with a friend of Allah and he said ‘I will go to see a teacher, a friend of Allah’, and then he went and made Bai’ah and did Tawbah. At this point, the relationship between Sheikh and student started, and this is how our Tarbiyyah is delivered also. The Sheikh immediately gives a sheet to the student, saying ‘Please fill in this tracking sheet to analyze how your performance of deeds is progressing.’ This does not involve any stories of Layla and this and that, it is just ‘Did you pray Salah? Did you complete your Dhikr? Did you attend the Majlis? Did you recite a daily portion of Qur’an? Did you commit any sins?’ What great Tarbiyyah and improvement takes place in this way – say SubhnaAllah. Those people are serious students; they have got a true guide now - have they not taken hold of the Sheikh? The Sheikh instructs the sister to give a report after forty days, and what a connection is attained through that report. The Sheikh raises his hands for her at Tahajjud time, saying ‘Oh Allah, this Mureed is weak, so please grant Your blessings to her. This woman is not right, and that man is not right, for anger is not going away and this is not happening and that is not working.’ The Sheikh makes Dua, and that Dua in absence is accepted; you have no need to make the request, for Allah has guaranteed that a Dua that you make behind someone’s back, without the person being present, is accepted first and foremost – and Allah ta’ala further says that He will accept the other Duas of the person who makes such a Dua as well, SubhanAllah – say SubhanAllah.
So should we not bring our womenfolk towards this path as well? What are you afraid of? Why don’t you introduce them? She will lay bare your issues and will say ‘Oh, my husband doesn’t pray’ when the two sets of sheets come. She will be the one who prays Tahajjud while he remains an empty box whose state goes up and down. He may think ‘My wife will complain about me’, but the fact is that everyone has their own individual sheets, and nobody should look at anyone else’s sheets on their phones or on other devices. So will we do this action or not? Tell me. People will say ‘Oh no, we can’t do this – we want our wives to just cook food and make chapattis.’ They tell her ‘Make a meat Korma today with a lot of spices, and if you don’t put enough spices in, I won’t eat it’ – what nonsense and rubbish we say to our wives. No, no, no. What a beautiful Hadith there is about the greatness of that relationship between these two during the night, describing how when the wife is sleeping and the husband awakes at Fajr time and gently sprinkles water on her face, saying ‘Get up now for it is time for Fajr’ - or it may be the wife who wakes up the sleeping husband. This is such a partnership that they are both attaining Paradise in this way, SubhanAllah; and all day long, the Rahmah and Mercy of Allah will descend upon them.
As for us, we wake each other up in the morning by beating each other with slippers, saying ‘Your Mum is this, and your Dad is that, and your father was this before’ - and so on. Shaytan is in the house, and she swears at the father and there is fighting and quarreling and shouts of ‘Your father is like this’ or ‘Your sister is like this; she is horrible’ – astaghfirullah ta’ala min kulli Dhanbi-w-Atubu ilayh. We ourselves have destroyed our own homes; we have brought shaytan and his pillars into our homes ourselves.
So the student went to his Sheikh and said ‘Hadhrat, will you give me Tarbiyyah and Islah and improve me.’ And the biggest element of Islah is Salah – having Khushu’, concentration, focus, and it is the same in the Majlis. What else is there to take away from the Majlis? Nothing else. See what great words about Salah are coming out today. So the Sheikh taught Salah to his student, showing him how to attain Khushu’, focus and beauty in his Salah, as well as attention and concentration, because Hadhrat taught him the Sunnah. When the Sheikh is a lover of the Sunnah, then he makes his Mureed a lover of the Sunnah as well.
Has the Kitab ‘The Sunnah Ways’ not come to you? Have you received your copy of the book? Then read it! I wrote that book for you people; I wrote that book for my students. It was not a business idea, but it is now sold out I am told – all eight hundred books have gone. I asked whether all my colleagues have received their copies, and when I was told that they have, I said ‘Close it there then.’ I don’t need to sell it to the public. I am looking out for those people for whom I am responsible. If somebody else gets it through their Barakah and blessings, then that’s fine. We printed a set amount and have now given them all out - and what does this mean? It means that tomorrow, when I pass away, then at least you will do Dua for me - won’t you? Yes? If I am getting punishments – may Allah ta’ala not allow that to happen – then at least you will do Dua for me, because I am a broken-down person and I am desperate for your Duas and hope that you will do Dua for me. At least read the Kitab, and you will see the section on Salah with all the Hadiths; beautiful Hadiths about Salah will come in front of you, and this is what I have come to teach you. I will make you perform such a beautiful Salah that when the Hoors come in front of you, you will call out ‘Where are you Hadhrat Sahib? The reward for my Salah is so great, so where are you?’ Your Salah will become so beautiful and will become decorated with Noor – say SubhanAllah.
So the Salah of that student became very good and he realized that his Salah had become excellent. One night, he stood in Salah – this is the Mureed Sahib that we were mentioning. You know, the student listens and the Sheikh instructs and gives him the prescription and then he does Amal on it. So the student said ‘SubhanAllah, my Salah was so great today! I had such great enjoyment in the Tasbeehaat and all the actions that I did according to the Sunnah’ – but remember, it is not necessary that you feel that satisfaction; this is not necessary. Don’t judge by feelings; rather, assess whether it is good according to the physical actions. So the student then did an action, because he was a man of wisdom. He said ‘Oh Allah, I want something now. I have prayed a beautiful Salah according to the Sunnah, and what I desire now is that You show me how beautiful my Salah is.’ Allahu Akbar. His Sheikh told him that whatever Dua he made, Allah would accept it, so he said ‘Oh Allah, please show me the form of my Salah today. Show me how beautiful and excellent is the Salah that I have just prayed.’ So then whilst he was sleeping, he saw a beautiful, Jamil female, SubhanAllah – say SubhanAllah. She had long hair and beautiful looks and adornment; SubhanAllah, I am a poet, so I could write a Ghazal about this. In her adornment and in her beauty and in her complexion, there was no defect at all, so he said ‘Oh – this is my Salah! This is what I will attain - SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah.’ So then he approached nearer and saw that she had very beautiful eyes, but there was no light in them - a defect became apparent. He became quiet and thought ‘What has happened here?’ He saw that she had such beautiful eyes, but yet she could not see.
At this point, his eyes suddenly opened - it was morning. So then he went to his Sheikh, presented himself and shared the whole event. He said ‘Hadhrat Sahib, I prayed just as you advised, and then I saw this woman in my dream.’ His Sheikh was a Kamil Sheikh, so he asked him to describe what he had seen. He said ‘I saw a beautiful female, but there was no light in her eyes, so she could not see.’ The Sheikh said ‘Hmm – did you pray your Salah according to the Sunnah?’ He replied ‘Yes, totally.’ The Sheikh then asked ‘Were your eyes closed or open as you prayed?’ Say SubhanAllah – the Sheikh took hold of him and homed in on this action. He said ‘I closed my eyes because I feel more concentration that way.’ Remember that Khushu’ is not the same as focus and concentration – don’t run after focus and concentration. You have to ask yourself ‘Is it in accordance to the Sunnah?’ because shaytan can trick and deceive a person in this matter – remember this. Yes? He can trick you and deceive you.
Shall I tell you another story before continuing? Remember this and don’t forget it, for this is another action that will come in handy. There was a Sheikh, a great Sheikh – I can’t remember his name now - and he had a Mureed with whom he kept company, and they had a good relationship. The time came when the Sheikh gave him Ijaza to go and teach, to go and do the work of the Deen. When a student is given such work, he should do it to the extent that he has been told and no more – remember this. If the Sheikh instructs you to do something, then when Allah ta’ala gives you such a responsibility, that doesn’t mean that you can go beyond that, or that you have become a Pir or a Sheikh or a teacher. No, he has given you a particular responsibility. For example, if I say to you ‘From tomorrow, I want you to make my tea’, or ‘You can do this for me’ or some other responsibility that a person may get, then alhamdulillah, he should fulfil that responsibility. If it starts to pinch your heart, then leave it; don’t force yourself. But if you do it with love, then complete it, thinking ‘This is my Sheikh’s work, so I should do it for him. I am fortunate and so lucky that he has given me this opportunity to gain promotion.’ Those whose hearts are pinched think ‘Oh no, it’s too hard – this is difficult.’ No, no – Allah ta’ala tests a person in this way. This is your Tarbiyyah, remember this.
So when somebody gets a responsibility to do some work, then he should do the amount that the Sheikh has told him to do – do this much Dhikr, do Muraqabah and so on. But what do they do? They take shortcuts, thinking ‘Hadhrat Sahib does this, so I will do that as well.’ A person loses out when he does this and everything he is doing is going to waste. So he was also in this position, the poor soul, because he was given a responsibility by the teacher and then fell into the traps of the Nafs. Nafs and shaytan will never leave you until the grave, until death. That is why my Hadhrat Sahib said ‘You will be in need of your teacher until the grave. No matter how high you go in status, don’t leave your teacher, otherwise you will go off track.’ Yes? So do as much as your Sheikh tells you, and not more than that, otherwise you will go off track, whatever Maqam you have attained. If you fall into the hands of shaytan and Nafs, you are gone – game over.
So that student went off track a bit; he left his responsibility and did not do what his Sheikh had prescribed for him in the manner he had been told. After a while, he stopped coming and became a Pir himself, thinking he had the capacity to be a teacher. He disappeared from the teacher’s company and stopped meeting him and did not attend the gatherings. So the teacher enquired, saying to one of his Mureeds ‘Where has that man gone? He was a good man – make enquiries about him. Find out what has happened to him and where he has gone.’ So the Mureed went to the student and said ‘Hadhrat, are you not going to come anymore? Hadhrat Sahib is remembering you.’ He replied ‘Oh, I’m very busy now because I have got Mureeds of my own. It is his Faidh, but I have achieved this status now.’ In reality though, shaytan had tricked him and he didn’t accept that it was the Faidh of his teacher, since people were coming to him and accepting him and giving him titles. So he said ‘Anyway, it doesn’t matter - I don’t need to go back. Allah has given me a Maqam and I have achieved in my own right now.’ When the Mureed asked him what he meant, he said ‘Oh, in the night, as soon as I close my eyes, angels come and take me for a journey in Jannah, alhamdulillah.’ The Mureed who was sent to look for him said ‘Is that so?’ ‘Yes’, he replied, ‘So tell Hadhrat that I have this status now that every night I wander around in Jannah, and though it is all his Faidh, I don’t need him anymore.’
So he went back and told the Sheikh ‘He says that he spends his nights in Paradise and sees this and that, and he says people are coming to him and giving him acclaim and titles and respect.’ The Sheikh said ‘Okay, go back and tell him that tonight, when he goes to Jannah, he should recite La Hawla three times and then let me know how he feels when he does this.’ So the Mureed went back to him and said ‘Our teacher asked me to give you this message that when you go into Paradise today, recite this three times and then us how you feel after that.’ That night, he recited La Hawla as soon as he went into Jannah, and when he did so, his eyes opened and felt himself dropping down until he fell into a heap of rubbish and excrement! In the morning, he said ‘What has happened here? What is this game? Where has Jannah gone?’ Then he understood that his Nafs had deceived him, and he felt ashamed, and he cried and ran back to his teacher and sought forgiveness. He told the Sheikh what had happened, at which the Sheikh said ‘Oh foolish student, Nafs and shaytan trapped you and deceived you. That shaytan would come to you every day in the guise of an angel, and the Jannah that you saw was a Jannah that he had made up and which he presented to you. Remember that this is a minor matter for shaytan - he can do such things in minutes in order to trick you. This was his Jannah, and he had one sole objective with this which was to link up with your Nafs in order to cut your connection with your teacher – and he succeeded! If I was not telling you this today, then never mind Jannah, the doors of Jahannam would have been opened and you would have fallen through them just as you fell into that pile of filth. That example is the same situation that you have experienced.’
So the student should never do such an action - this is the importance of this connection, this Rabtah with the Sheikh. Nafs and shaytan will take you away from that, but you should strengthen it, and that is why it is stated that you should always maintain and strengthen the relationship with your teacher.
Coming back to the original event I was relating, Hadhrat Sahib asked the Mureed how he had prayed the Salah that had preceded the dream. He said ‘I prayed with my eyes closed, Hadhrat, because I feel more focus and concentration that way.’ The Sheikh said ‘You followed your way, but what is the Sunnah? The Sunnah method is to keep your eyes open while praying, not to close your eyes.’ This is the Sunnah of Nabi-al-Karim sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So the Mureed found enjoyment in focus, but his Sheikh said ‘Don’t close your eyes; rather, pray your Salah according to the Sunnah.’ So Nafs took that student in such a way that his Salah took on the form of a woman who couldn’t see – that one defect in his Salah caused this to occur.
So all the A’maal-as-Salihah that we practice – Dhikr, Tilawah of the Qur’an, fasting, going on Umrah or on Hajj – all these righteous deeds that Allah ta’ala has given us as Ni’mahs, we have to ask ourselves ‘Am I doing these deeds according to the Sunnah?’ Yes? This is the Fikr and concern that I would like to generate and develop in you today. Whatever Amal you do, whatever good deed you do, it should be in accordance with both Shari’ah and Sunnah. What does Shari’ah mean? It means that the action should match physically with the Shari’ah. The Shari’ah says that we should recite Qur’an, fine, and Shari’ah says that we should keep the fast in a certain way, and do Hajj like this, and pray Salah like this. So factor number one is to do those deeds according to the Shari’ah. And factor number two is that we need to make that deed beautiful, and to do so, it has to be in accordance with the Sunnah.
May Allah ta’ala give the ability to practice all our deeds like this. Don’t think ‘I have done it, so that is finished. I have done Hajj; I have prayed Salah; I have kept the fasts’ – no. We have to think ‘How many Sunnahs have I left out and discarded and rejected in performing this deed? How should I be completing this deed? How should I wake up in the morning?’ That is the reason for the Sunnah Ways Kitab – read it. If you are going to pray Salah, find out what you need to do beforehand, and once you have practiced that for three days, it will become your habit, alhamdulillah. Think ‘After praying Salah, which Dua should I recite? What should I do after Salah? How should I sit after Salah?’ Do all actions in the manner that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam prescribed for us. Every woman and man should do this, and inshaAllah, you will see that your Salah will be beautiful and decorated in this Dunya, and you will feel the enjoyment in it. You will feel enjoyment and taste in every deed. Whatever good deed you do, if you do it in accordance with the Sunnah, you will see its result.
Look, Nabi-al-Karim sallallahu alayhi wasallam would pray Salah when he came to the Masjid, so what did he do? He would regularly wear the Imamah Sharif – the blessed turban was his regular attire, and only very rarely would he not wear it. You cannot find a Hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is described as praying without a turban or at least a cap – no. There is no such Hadith where he prayed bare-headed– the respected scholars have said this – and so this is the example of the noble Companions and the Awliya-e-Kiram. The Walis of Allah do this, so what about us? Why don’t we do this? We say ‘Oh no, no, no – it’s only Sunnah.’ Maybe the deed will be accepted, but the Husn, the beauty, will not come into that deed. You will be devoid of that big Husn, whereas if you do practice it, the Husn will come. If you pray and do deeds in accordance with the Sunnah, the Husn will definitely come; automatically it will come.
In addition, you will get three things on top of that. Number one, the Thawab will reach to the heights; Thawab will multiply higher and higher. Bonus number two: “من احب سنتى فقد احبنى” – the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘When you do this deed according to my Sunnah, I love you!’ Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said this. The third bonus { قُلۡ إِن كُنتُمۡ تُحِبُّونَ ٱللَّهَ فَٱتَّبِعُونِى يُحۡبِبۡكُمُ ٱللَّهُ} – SubhanAllah! Allah is saying and announcing ‘You imitated My Habeeb, you copied My beloved Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam, so I now make you My beloved’ – SubhanAllah. What great benefits can accrue from just one action.
Number one – the deed becomes beautiful and accepted; number two – the love of Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam; number three – Allah says ‘I have made you My beloved.’ Then tell me – what has that human being become? What has he become? One of the AwliyAllah, one of the Walis of Allah. It is not me who is saying he is a Wali of Allah, but rather the Qur’an is saying that he is a Wali of Allah. And it is not that a Wali of Allah will get cars, and angels will descend, and there will be horns on his head. No, Walis of Allah are just like normal human beings, and if you want to tell how strong someone’s Wilayat with Allah is, look at how strongly his deeds match the Sunnah. If you want to measure someone, don’t do so on the basis of people’s acclaim. Wait for their death, for Wilayat means that a person will wake up as a Wali of Allah. He is the Wali – what else is a Wali? Allah says ‘I keep My friends like this. People with Iman and such deeds are My Walis; they are My friends.’ Every human being becomes a Wali if this is the case.
It may be that Allah ta’ala makes someone apparent and takes the work of the Deen from them or shows Karamaat and miracles, but this does not mean that only those who have Karamaat are the Walis of Allah, and it does not mean that only those who do Tableegh and the work of the Deen are the Walis of Allah, or that only those who have Mureeds are the Walis of Allah – this is not the case at all. Rather, there are people who are hidden and concealed who are higher-grade Walis of Allah – and I have seen them. There are people who are running Khanqahs and doing work of the Deen and Mureeds and so on, but there are many other Walis of Allah present whose grade is higher than these. There are living Walis of Allah who are present, whose grades are higher than theirs such that you could never reach their rank and status, but Allah ta’ala has not made them visible and apparent; Allah ta’ala has not shown them in the world. Allah is saying ‘I have no need to make them apparent.’ These people say ‘I have no need for acclaim and recognition in the world; I have no need of Mureeds and Bai’ah and of doing this and that. I don’t need to get enmeshed in these things – I have attained Allah and Allah ta’ala has given me His friendship.’
So don’t run after the game of thinking ‘Oh, I am not a Wali of Allah yet.’ You became a Wali of Allah at the time you took Bai’ah at the hand of a Wali of Allah. You became a Wali on that day. I swear by Allah, the journey of Wilayat started for you on that day. At that moment when you arrived in the company of the Wali of Allah and took his hand with the Niyyah that you wanted to be rectified and to become a friend of Allah, I swear by Allah that you immediately attained the rank of a Wali of Allah. For every woman and every man, the journey starts then. Now it is your job to strive for beauty and to decorate your deeds with beauty and thereby raise your status on this journey higher. You have done the deed and are a Wali of Allah, so now difficulties will come in the running of your shop or in sickness or in not getting married and so on - and these are your problems. Allah says that these are not related to Wilayat, but rather these are the worries and problems of the Dunya, and they come and go. They come and go to enable you reach a higher status, so you should be grateful to Allah and have Sabr. Whether you are crying or laughing, always keep on remembering Allah. If you become sick or distressed, or down or up, or if an accident befalls you, none of these problems of the world have any relation with you being a Wali of Allah. You attained Wilayat when you took the Bai’ah at the hand of the Wali of Allah – say SubhanAllah.
Come, let’s do Dhikr of Allah now for a little while. The words we discussed today were very beneficial, so may Allah ta’ala give me and also all of you the Tawfeeq and the ability to do Amal and practice on this. Ameen
8th Feb, 2022
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