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What is the Spirit of Dhikr?
English Bayan, 26 mins
11th June, 2020

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What is the Spirit of Dhikr?
With His Grace, and special mercies and blessings, Allah subhana wa ta'ala has brought us to this night of Jumuah, which is a very blessed night, full of blessings and mercies and virtues. It is a very blessed night that comes just once in the whole week - the Sayyid-ul-Ayyam; and this night is attached to the next day, which is also a great day, the day of Jumuah. The pious predecessors have stated that this night of Jumuah is the Laylat-ul-Qadr for the week, due to the virtues that Allah ta’ala has placed in this night. On such a night, Allah ta’ala has gathered us and has given us the Tawfeeq to do a special, unique worship.
Now obviously, the worship that we have gathered to do is called Dhikr; and this is a Majlis of Dhikr, a gathering of Dhikr. But this Ibadah is greater than this, because it is the soul of Dhikr, the real objective; it is the real foundation of Dhikr, the platform of Dhikr, which Allah ta’ala, through His bounty and favours and Fadhl, has given us the ability to perform. This is the Ruh of Dhikr. If you don’t have the Ruh of Dhikr, it won’t be Dhikr. And Dhikr is established and it is there due to the Ruh; and the Ruh of this worship is Dua. The whole gathering of Dhikr is a collection of Duas. If you take the Ruh out, the soul out, then you can’t meet the objective. So the objective of this gathering is Dua. And what is Dua? Asking from Allah, supplicating to Allah. With His special Grace, whoever Allah gives the ability to, whoever He gives the understanding to, whoever He gives His Mercy to, whoever His mercies descend upon, Allah gives that person the Tawfeeq to do Dua, the ability to do Dua.
Our biggest enemy as regards making Dua is shaytan, the accursed shaytan. He injects evil and negative thoughts into us. In regard to Dua, Allah ta’ala has said ‘Ask Me – I will accept. Ask Me.’ This is a free of charge transaction, a bargain, and shaytan wants to inject into our hearts the feeling that ‘Oh, it’s a waste of time doing Dua; Allah ta’ala is not going to accept your Dua.’ He puts excuses and negative thoughts into our minds and hearts, such as ‘There’s no point in you making Dua and supplication.’ Yet this is the biggest weapon for a Mu’min, a great tool. It is so unfortunate for a person for whom Allah has opened the door of Paradise if he says ‘No, I refuse to enter.’
My brothers, when the hands are raised for Dua, then in reality, the doors of Paradise are opened for that person, and that individual becomes very close to his Rabb, to his Lord. How close? Imagine for example that you go to someone and they listen to you – well here, the one listening is Allah! He is very close to Allah. And Allah ta’ala likes this making Dua so much, that Allah says ‘Ask Me – I will give to you!’ How much will Allah ta’ala give? There is no comparison, no limit! There is no limit. What a great Hadith. Allah ta’ala says ‘Even if your laces break, ask Me for the solution. Don’t look around. If you ask Me for laces, I will give you shoes to go with them!’ SubhanAllah. ‘You need laces to go with the shoes, so I will give you shoes as well.’ And with the shoes, Allah ta’ala says ‘I will protect your body. You asked for laces, and I will protect you whole body through that. There will be no pain in your legs or feet.’ SubhanAllah!
Allah is Kareem, Allah is Gracious and Merciful. He says ‘Present to me your needs!’ But the shaytan injects Waswasa into our hearts and minds – may Allah a’ala protect us from this. When Waswasa comes to a person making Dua, unfortunate is he who then stops asking from Allah. My brothers, never ever lack hope. Never despair and lose hope when you are doing Dua.
So Allah ta’ala has arranged this night, and He has given double enjoyment! Allah says ‘Ask Me, and also remember Me!’ Say SubhanAllah! People only attain this who are beloved to Allah. Are there only this many men and women who are able to do Dhikr of Allah? But we are ungrateful. Don’t be ungrateful, thinking ‘Oh, our desires are not being fulfilled. Why should we do this or that?’ This is shaytan’s trickery – don’t fall into the trap of shaytan. May Allah prevent us from falling into the trap of shaytan. Whenever you have negative thoughts, then crush those thoughts. Say ‘Shaytan, you are wretched, accursed! My Rabb has said that if I raise my hands, He will give to me. Whatever I ask from Allah, He will give to me.’
So tonight, Allah ta’ala has gathered us together. For what purpose? To make Dua! Allah says that everything that you will recite during Dhikr, the Kalimaat, the Duas, they are great Duas, not minor Duas. These are the Duas that the Prophets of Allah alayhimus Salam made. And the Sayyid-ul-Mursaleen, the Rahmatu-lil-Alameen, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam himself vocalized and recited these Duas. These are not small Duas – they are valuable, extremely valuable. If one of these Duas that came onto the blessed tongue of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is recited and accepted, then we have excelled! We have reached the highest peaks!
That is Dhikr. What else is Dhikr? That is the reality of Dhikr. Allah ta’ala has seated us, and He says ‘Come now, recite those verses that My beloved Nabi, the greatest Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam recited, and that previous Prophets recited, like ‘La ilaha illa anta Subhanaka inni kuntu min-adh-dhalimeen’ or ‘Rabbi la tadharni fardan wa anta Khair-ul-Waritheen.’ The previous Nabis recited these Duas. ‘Rabbana dhalamna anfusana’ – different Duas. ‘Ya Hayyu ya Qayyum bi-Rahmatika astagheeth.’ The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam recited these verses. ‘HasbunAllahu wa ni’ma-l-Wakeel.’ Tell me: is this not good fortune? These Duas have been recited by the Prophets, and on this night, the greatest night of the week, Allah ta’ala is enabling us to recite them.
Some people are running around here, dossing there, someone is sitting elsewhere, some woman is doing something, somebody else is doing something else – so many different actions! But imagine, Allah ta’ala has sat us down and assembled us to recite these Duas! So, brothers, alhamdulillah, if we recite one Dua today that any Prophet of Allah alayhi salam recited, then Allah will accept inshaAllah.
So here, I would like to present a point in your company. We are assembled to make Dua, and we are prepared to make Dua, those many Duas that we depend on Allah to answer, for which we require His assistance – we need this, we need X,Y and Z, as well as A,B and C. What is there that we don’t need, or that we are not desperate for? When we raise up our hands, then we will start asking Allah for everything. ‘Oh Allah, give me a house, a shop, a business. Oh Allah, give me health and give to my children and relatives, to my sister and my brother.’ Everybody will present the whole list of requirements that is in front of them. This is the case, isn’t it? But there is something about which I would like to advise you, which the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated and recommended. We should ask for a complete solution that will definitely be accepted, and that we will attain as well. In other words, we should make such a supplication, that when we make it, we will get whatever we ask for. Say SubhanAllah! This is the one thing that we should ask from our Lord, from Allah. And then all the Duas that we put forward will be accepted as well.
Let me explain about acceptance in respect of all the Duas we make. For example, if I say ‘Oh Allah, give me a house.’ I like some house, for example, so I make Dua for it. What is in this now? It is the principle of Dua, and the Sunnah of Dua, that Allah gives with His wisdom, with His decision, with His selection. When we ask Allah, then Allah ta’ala responds with Hikmah and with wisdom - with His choice. What Allah wants to give, He gives. He knows what a person needs and when. If I ask Allah ta’ala for a house, it may be that Allah knows that this is not good for me. But because I am asking, Allah ta’ala will give me something better than that. This is the Sunnah of Allah. So whatever we ask of Allah, this is the Tariqa, the methodology behind it. Allah subhana wa ta'ala gives with His Hikmah. Allah ta’ala says that when shaytan puts Waswasa in our minds, and we think ‘Oh, it’s taking a long time; my Duas are not accepted. I’m wasting time - what’s the point of this?’ That’s when he is injecting negative thoughts into our minds. But Allah ta’ala says ‘This is My Hikmah, My wisdom. Sometimes, I want to give you something better than what you are asking for. Sometimes I don’t give what you ask for.’
So if I ask for a house, or an asset, and Allah ta’ala doesn’t give it, then shaytan says ‘Oh, you asked for a house and Allah ta’ala didn’t give it to you. What’s the point?’ But Allah ta’ala is saying ‘I want to give you something better than this, because I know! I am your Rabb. I could have given you the house, but this would not have been a good solution for you. The car you asked for would not have been good for you. The woman you wanted to marry would not have been good for you.’ So Allah says that He wants to give something better than that. In Allah’s wisdom and Allah’s Hikmah, sometimes things can be delayed or we don’t get what we wanted, and then the Waswasa of shaytan comes and we think ‘Oh, I’m not getting what I want.’ But this Dua that Allah ta’ala has mentioned, SubhanAllah, is such a Dua, that Allah ta’ala in His wisdom and Hikmah says ‘I will give you better than this!’ At the time we ask, we think that there is nothing better for us than what we are asking for in our Dua; but if there was nothing better than this, then Allah ta’ala would give it straightaway. For example, if there was nothing better than the house, it would come straightaway. We think ‘Oh, there is nothing better than this – I need this; I am desperate!’
But Allah says ‘Whatever Dua you make, there is a better Dua than this.’ What is that Dua? SubhanAllah. It is a very great Dua, which has been mentioned to us in the blessed statement of Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He has told us about this Dua. What is that thing, through which everything will immediately be attained? It is the best thing to ask for – there is nothing better than this that Allah ta’ala can give us. There can be a house better than the first house, or another car better than the first car, but there is nothing better than this thing that we should ask for. And what is that? ‘Oh Allah, give us the Deen!’
Say SubhanAllah! SubhanAllah - this is the best thing to ask for. And when we ask for this, when we make Dua on this, the night of Laylat-ul-Qadr, the great night of Jumuah, when we know that our Duas will be accepted today, then we should make a list. Compile a list. There are very few people today who say ‘Oh Allah, give me Deen! Give me Deen.’ And ‘Give me Deen’ is such a great Dua that Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam has taught us this Dua. The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has taught us what to ask for. ‘Oh Allah, look after my Deen; give me the Deen, because every one of my actions is related to the Deen and to the safety of my Deen. All of the success of my life in this world is related to the Deen. When I get the Deen, the complete way of life, then I will have everything that I need.’ And this is the reality; this is the truth. Whoever attains Deen has attained everything.
So this is what we should ask for - but we never ask for this. What has the person attained who asks Allah for Deen? SubhanAllah. We will get Salah, which is the pillar of Deen, the foundation of Deen, the greatest part of Deen, the rock-solid foundation of Deen. If you ask for Deen, then Allah ta’ala will make you a person who prays Salah. And if you start to pray Salah, then due to the Barakah and mercies of Salah, you will pray Salah all the time – if you ask for Deen. If you ask for Deen, then you will get not just Salah , but you will also get the soul of Salah, through which it is accepted, through the ranks are attained when you are presented in Allah’s Court. And what is that? Sunnat-e-Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. His blessed footsteps take us onto the path of Paradise – the Sunnah ways introduce us and take us to Allah. So when you ask for Deen, then you are asking for the blessed Sunnah, the blessed lifestyle of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. When you get the lifestyle of the Sunnah, the method of the Sunnah, then you will get acceptance of every act of worship that you do, every Ibadah that you do, because of the Sunnah.
Is this not the one thing to ask for? Tell me! So that person who has Salah will have Salah accepted, because it will be in the style of the Sunnah, won’t it? Your fasting, your worshipping, your Tableegh, your propagation of Deen, your speaking – everything you do will be according to the lifestyle, technique and mannerism of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. If we ask for Deen, then the first thing that Allah ta’ala will give us is what? The Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He will give us the ability to practice the Sunnah, because Deen is practice via the Sunnah. When I say ‘Oh Allah, give me the Deen’, the first pillar of the Deen that I will receive is the pillar and the soul of all acts of worship. Allah ta’ala will say ‘Oh, he has asked for Deen. Ok, let me give him the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, because then I will love that person.’ As soon as I start to practice the Sunnah, with the Fadhl of Allah, everything will become nice and brilliant.
So apart from making other Duas and asking for other things, Allah says that all the other Duas are reliant on this. Salah will fulfil all your requirements; recitation of the Qur’an will fulfil your requirements. Is this not the case? So this is a complete Dua that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has told us with his blessed statement. What a beautiful method, what a beautiful statement is this Dua: ‘Oh Allah, give me the Deen! Give me the way of life! I don’t need anything else. Just give me the Deen; make me practice the Deen. I ask You for the Deen, because I know that all of my success hinges on this. Here, and wherever I may be, my Dunya will be made with Deen. I don’t have the solution for the Dunya. It is all quarrels and disputes – house, shop, business.’
Whatever I attain, if there is no Deen, then I swear by Allah that it is dust, it is soil! It is worth nothing - nothing. It is totally dust. Children, houses, shops – if there is no Deen, then it is totally dust, a mirage, a dream that can collapse at any time. Just like the dry leaves on the tree that are hanging from the branches, as soon as a gust of wind comes, all of the leaves will fall to the ground, and the ground will become yellow and brown. So the house, and the wealth, and the money, and the shops, and the business, and the children – all of them are like the dry leaves. With one gust of wind, they will all fall onto the ground and get crushed.
Look, Corona has sealed everything. It has closed down businesses, and airports are closed, and planes are grounded, and you can’t go out. Masjids are closed, and the Haram Sharif has been closed, Madina is closed – everything! Just one gust of an illness, and like the dry leaves, everything has fallen. It looks like this – I don’t know. It was a strong gust of wind, Allahu Akbar. If this wasn’t a strong message from Allah, why would our Masjids be closed, why would our institutes be closed? They were weak. They were weak like the dry leaves on the tree which the wind blows away. But the leaves on the tree which are green and full of vigour, even if a strong wind comes, they continue to sway, they remain attached. They don’t drop. They don’t fall. Our Deen is dry like the dry leaves. There is no Sunnah in it, there is no Tariqa in it, there is no methodology, so it is dry.
So the Deen is what we should ask for; we should ask for the religious way of life. If Deen comes into our life, then everything in our life will be solid and robust. Our wealth that we think is everything is nothing! A mere breeze and a gust, and it has gone. Where are all the warehouses? Everything is shut. Shops are closed, and people with stock and shops in big shopping centres – they are all closed, shut down, empty, idle. We see this. This is such a gust that we can’t even see it, so Waswasa comes, and some people say ‘Oh, it’s a conspiracy’, or they say ‘It’s a game or a trick’, and some people say that it is all to put our Deen down. Whatever it is – even if it is a conspiracy, and somebody has done it, Allah ta’ala has enabled it to be done. When Allah ta’ala’s Adhab comes, He can send it via people who are against the Deen if He likes. Allah ta’ala is the Enabler of everything. It doesn’t matter who has done it, how it has happened, why it has happened etc. Sometimes, Allah ta’ala sends destruction via people who are opposed. Allah ta’ala can set free those people who are opposed, and then losses to the Deen follow. Adhab can also come in that form – we cannot say.
What I am saying is that the best thing for a person’s Dunya and Hereafter is Deen. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated that if you are going to ask Allah, what should you ask for? Deen. Ask for the complete, religious way of life. The Deen will come if our Duas are accepted tonight – and I mentioned that this night is the night of acceptance of Duas. ‘Allah, give me Deen, allow me to practice Deen.’ If the Deen comes, then even this mud hut that I live in, and the dry bread that I eat will be enough. It doesn’t matter. If a breeze comes, if a wind comes and a storm comes and houses collapse, my mud hut, my flimsy home will not go down. SubhanAllah. We have heard events and have seen that when storms and floods come, and you see big houses collapsing, sometimes the houses of devotees and people who are beloved to Allah remain standing, with their rooves intact, because they are not standing due to the solidity of their materials, but rather upon ‘HasbunAllahu wa ni’mal Wakeel’, on ‘La Hawla wa la Quwwata illa bi’llah’ – upon Dhikr of Allah! So how can water leak through their rooves and cause their homes to collapse? Their homes are very strong. SubhanAllah, the angels construct the walls of their homes. We think that they are made of mud, or that the bricks and mortar are weak and not solid, but Allah says that the angels construct those houses. Why? Because they are living in homes that are founded upon Deen.
So what should we ask from Allah? Deen! We should ask for Deen, my brothers. In that home where there is no Deen, it doesn’t matter how hard he tries; he can push as much as he wants, but nothing will be attained. We have to get success by obeying and implementing the Sunnah of Rasooullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam and by obeying Allah. May Allah ta’ala give us the Tawfeeq to recite this Dua on this night. And what is in this Dua? When you ask Allah for Deen, Allah will give you the Sunnah. So if you ask for a house, there are better houses out there in the world, but there is nothing better than the Sunnah. Allah will not hold back from giving you the Sunnah. There is no greater gift than the Sunnah.
Allah ta’ala says ‘I will give you something better than the things you ask for!’ When we ask Allah for Deen, Allah will make us pray Salah, establish Salah. And is there anything better than Salah? Some people say ‘Wait, don’t buy this house – there is another house, so wait for that.’ When we ask for Deen, Salah will come immediately – the Dua will be accepted. When you ask for Deen, Allah ta’ala will give you Sunnah. Your Duas will be accepted – there is nothing better than this. Allah will say ‘There is nothing better than this – take it right now. No delay, no need to wait.’ Allah says ‘There is no need for Me to delay. You aren’t asking for material things – there is nothing better than Deen.’ Salah and Dhikr and recitation of Qur’an – take it all now. No need to wait.’ There is nothing better than this.
So may Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq that tonight, and every night, and whenever we make Dua, we should start by asking for Deen. {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ} ‘Oh Allah, guide me! Guide me to obedience to Your orders, and to obedience to the Shari'ah and Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’
As we have discussed in the last few days, it is not just reading the Qur’an that is the Deen. You cannot do Amal without practicing – the words alone are not enough unless you attach yourself to the methodology of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. We have discussed this a few times in the last few days. You can’t just take the Qur’an and walk around with it. You will have the Qur’an in your hand, but nothing else – no success will be attained. You will only get success when you implement the Qur’an in the way of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam’s blessed method, lifestyle and technique. Do you understand what I am saying? This is the objective.
So this is what we should ask from Allah: ‘Oh Allah, my Mawla, my Lord, {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ} – Allah! Show us the Straight Path; guide us to the Straight Path!’ What is the Straight Path? The Qur’an and the Shari'ah and Sunnah. This is the meaning of {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}. It is not just the Qur’an. ‘Oh, I have got the Qur’an; I read the Qur’an and I practice the Qur’an.’ Until today, nobody has been able to practice on just the Qur’an. If he says he does, he is a liar; he is speaking nonsense and rubbish. If he says ‘I don’t need Hadith and I implement Qur’an’, he is lying. It is nonsense and he is a Kaddhab. Shaytan has overwhelmed that person. The Qur’an has not just come on its own. It has come with a practical method. Allah ta’ala says ‘I have given you the Qur’an, but you can’t follow the Qur’an unless you follow the Tariqa of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’ How can a person say ‘I am practicing Qur’an, and I don’t need Hadith’? He is speaking nonsense, and he is a liar. ‘I don’t need the Suunah, I don’t need the Hadith – the Qur’an is enough for me’ – there is no bigger shaytan than that person. Look at how weak is the practice of those who say this. He will pray only two daily Salah instead of five. Instead of thirty days fasting, he will say ‘Oh no, there is no fasting. The Qur’an doesn’t mean that you have to fast physically.’ They say ‘The beard is not mentioned in the Qur’an, so I don’t need to keep a beard. There is no order in the Qur’an to do this. The Qur’an doesn’t say that you can’t drink this sort of alcohol – I can drink it.’ So they just follow the literal words of the Qur’an. May Allah forgive, may Allah forgive. Their Deen is just punishment beyond punishment for such a person, because he has left the Shari'ah and Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam and only has the Qur’an. The punishment of such a person is that he will become wretched, for doing wrong Amal on the Deen after taking Allah’s Name.
So I will conclude what I am saying. We need to ask Allah, to supplicate to Allah. And which Dua should we make? The best Dua on this night and generally is what? Say it loudly! What Dua?
‘Oh Allah, give me the Straight Path! {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}. Allahumma ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ.’
SubhanAllah. Recite Darood Sharif.
30th Jun, 2020
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