يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ (٢١)
Oh Mankind, worship your Lord who has created you and those before you, so that you may ward off evil (prevent sin).
Surah al-Baqarah v21
In the previous verses, Allah ta’ala has told us the categories of people in respect of Deen. Allah ta’ala went into detail regarding the signs of each of the categories: those who don’t believe and who have no faith; those who have faith, Iman; and the Munafiqeen, the hypocrites. Allah has clearly explained in detail, right at the beginning of the Qur’an, the signs and qualities of these three categories of people. Those who have no Iman are those who do not believe at all; those who have Iman are those who accept; and the Munafiqeen are those in-between - they believe and they don’t believe. In various ways, Allah ta’ala has mentioned them as people who run after gain. If they see gain, they will be there. If they see benefit in Islam, they will embrace it; and where they see no benefit and gain, they will go to the other side and mingle with the others because they are hovering in the realm of Nifaq, hypocrisy. They are neither here nor there, and the punishment for the Munafiqeen is severe. This Nifaq is not a Madhhab or a Deen or a religion. Rather, it comes from Iman when a person falls prey to shaytan and Nafs, his base desires, and he thereby spoils and contaminates the Deen by following those desires. He himself doesn’t know what he is doing; he doesn’t know what he should do. He seeks simplicity so that he can fulfil his passions and base desires, and so he mingles completely with the people of the Dunya, until he comes into consciousness and says ‘Oh, what has happened here?’ and then he goes back towards the Deen. Nifaq is a very dangerous state.
SubhanAllah – look at the style of the Qur’an. How it teaches us! In the verse I have just read, Allah ta’ala makes the following address { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ}. Now here, Allah is not addressing those people who have no Iman, nor is Allah directly addressing the Mu’mineen, and nor is Allah addressing the Munafiqeen. Rather, Allah is saying, ‘Oh people, oh Mankind!’ – everyone is included. Those who don’t have faith, those who believe, and the Munafiqeen - all are being addressed. In Tafseer, Ibn Abbas and other commentators have written that when Allah ta’ala says ‘Oh Mankind’, who are these people? This is not restricted to any day or age or time period. Rather, from the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam until Qiyamah, all people are being addressed by the Qur’an.
So what we learn here is that all three categories will continue until Qiyamah – those with no Iman, the believers, and the Munafiqeen. So that is who the Qur’an is addressing, because the Qur’an is such that it will continue until Qiyamah, and since all three groups will continue until Qiyamah, the Qur’an is addressing all three categories of people. Munafiqeen will be present until Qiyamah, as will the people of Iman, and also the disbelievers will continue, Allahu Akbar. So Allah ta’ala is addressing all three categories of people.
And what Allah ta’ala is saying further is: { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى} – SubhanAllah. ‘Oh Mankind, worship! Do Ibadah!’ Now, Allah ta’ala is telling all three categories of people to do Ibadah, to observe worship, to come into submission, into servanthood of Allah. If you have understood what your condition is from these verses, what the state of affairs is between the servant and his Lord, it is impossible that a person would not be able to save himself from the negative signs that have been explained in the Qur’an. He is definitely able to see his deficiencies from the description of the Qur’an. Allah is explaining clearly, so that somebody who has no Iman can see that he has no faith, and the person with Iman can see that he has got faith, and the Munafiq realizes and can see that he is a Munafiq. All the signs are mentioned in the Qur’an in the Kalam of Allah. How could a person not understand, when the Qur’an is telling us?
So here, people are split into two classes, you could say. One class are like the example of one who stands in front of a mirror, and thereby sees his deficiencies – his Amamah is not straight, or something is not right - and when he sees it, he rectifies it. If he sees something is not correct, he fixes it. In the same way, if a person stands and analyses himself in front of the mirror of the verses of the Qur’an as the signs are explained, he sees that these deficiencies are within and, if he is from this group, he immediately accepts and say ‘Ya Allah forgive me! Oh Allah, I have got no belief – I need Iman.’ And the same for the person of Iman, and the same for the Munafiq. That is one class – they recognize that they have a deficiency, a lack, and they accept this. The other class, who are a cross-section from among all three categories, are stubborn. They say ‘Oh no, there is nothing wrong here.’ They don’t even accept.
You will have seen that many people are like this, in one group or the other. Some start reading the Qur’an - maybe they were disbelievers - and then they recognize that they were on the wrong path. I have seen various Hindus become Muslim, many Christians become Muslim, and many people from different faiths have come to Islam. How? They say ‘We read the Qur’an, and we saw that this was truth, that this was honesty’, and so they accepted the message. There is an event concerning a woman who was a disbeliever. She said ‘Let me see what this Qur’an is.’ She picked up the Qur’an al-Hakeem, and she realized that she was reading a translation. So she explains in her story that she felt that perhaps the translation was not rendering the meaning faithfully, and so she wanted to read it in its original language so that she could appreciate it in its pure form. She was a staunch Cristian, but she went to a Middle Eastern country for two years and learnt classical Arabic, and then picked up the Qur’an and started to read. SubhanAllah! As soon as she started reading, she called out ‘Ash-hadu an la ilaha illa’llahu, wahdahu la sharika lahu, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Abduhu wa Rasooluh’. She said ‘What king of a foolish, mad person could read the Qur’an and then not believe? How could a person deny the existence of Allah, and not affirm that He is our Lord, and the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is the Final Prophet? How could somebody reject this? The Qur’an is telling us this.’ She became a Muslim, and she is still alive today.
So the Qur’an is honesty, it is truth. If we are reading the verses and it is telling us that we are Munafiqs, then how could we not understand that we are Munafiqs? There is no need to ask anyone else. One group of people who were disbelievers read the Qur’an and have become Muslims - but the Muslims of today don’t become Mu’mins! They remain staunch and stubborn – that’s the problem. The problem today is that the Muslims have difficulty; they don’t want to accept their defects and mistakes. They make faces and start sulking and say ‘Why are you telling us?’ But it is the Qur’an that is speaking! The Qur’an is in front of you. Why should somebody bother you and pester you? The Qur’an is telling you the reality. Why don’t we accept? We don’t want to accept!
The other class of people is like the non-Muslims for example, who find Iman, and those who have Iman already but who are weak and who find their Iman strengthened. And sometimes a Munafiq will also say ‘Yes, I have got this deficiency within me.’ Yesterday I was speaking to a person, and he said to me ‘Yes, you are totally right, I have got Nifaq inside me – I accept this. How can I deny the existence of these deficiencies within me?’ So that is one class of people – they accept. But the other class, they say ‘Oh, has everyone become Kafirs and Munafiqs now? Is the whole Dunya Munafiq? Is that the Deen?’ They just cannot accept, never. They remain standing, stubbornly, wasting their time talking. This is Allah’s Ihsan and favour that He is allowing us to hear the Qur’an, so what kind of a person doesn’t accept? Stubbornly, he says ‘Is it just us left then? You are criticizing the Ulema, the respected scholars and dishonouring them.’ Astaghfirullah. Have you not seen what is happening with Corona around us? Proud people, submit! The Qur’an is telling us. The Kalam of Allah, the Kitab of Allah is telling us. The Sahaba-e-Karam used to say that when you read the Qur’an, you should believe that Allah is talking to you. So if you have these deficiencies and the Qur’an is saying that these are the signs of Nifaq, then accept.
So the Qur’an here is addressing the disbelievers and the believers and the Munafiqeen. Listen to the Qur’an: { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُوا} Allah says ‘Oh People!’ – Muslims, Kafirs, Munafiqs, all are included. Allah is addressing everyone, all three sectors. ‘Do Ibadah! Serve! Worship! Accept! Accept these verses that I have sent to you. If you are a disbeliever, come into Iman – accept that you are wrong. If you have Iman, then accept that you are a Munafiq. And if you are a Munafiq, then get rid of your stubbornness and turn to Me. Worship Me. Get rid of your stubbornness - rather, be grateful that Allah ta’ala is telling you your defects and do Tawbah. Repent!’
Now the disbeliever is being told to worship, and the Mu’min is being told to worship, and the Munafiq is being told to worship – this verse has been revealed for everybody, all three groups. So what is the worship of the disbeliever? His Ibadah is that he should start to believe - say SubhanAllah! That will be his Ibadah. The Qur’an says { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ}. If he does not have belief, he should accept and say ‘Ok, fine!’ and then immediately recite the Kalima Shahada. That becomes his worship - say SubhanAllah! What is the Ibadah of the person who has Iman? He is also being told to worship his Lord. The worship of the Mu’min, who already has Iman, concerns ‘Are you steadfast on your belief? Are you firm-footed on your belief? Are you doing right after Iman?’ The benefit of Iman comes for the person who establishes his Deen strongly, not going here and there, up and down, doubting. The biggest thing after having Iman is what? Istaqamat, steadfastness.
Hadhrat Anas radhiAllahu anh relates the following Hadith: “قَالَ: كَانَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم يُكْثِرُ أَنْ يَقُولَ: اللَّهُمَّ يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ، ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ” Hadhrat Anas radhiAllahu anh stated that the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam would regularly recite this Dua – this was his habit. He was saying ‘Oh Allah, You have given us the path of Your Deen, we have come onto the path of Iman and You have taken us away from Kufr, but oh Allah, please make me stick to this and adhere to this. Give me steadfastness.’ So if I pray Salah, then make me regular and steadfast in Jama’ah. If Ramadhan comes, then I should be fasting during Ramadhan. I should remain steadfast on the Deen that You have given. I shouldn’t be swayed by Nafs and shaytan, so that sometimes I leave Salah, or sometimes I pray in congregation and sometimes not, or sometimes I am passionate and strong, and sometimes I step back and go away from the Deen.’
Here is the difference between a sinful Mu’min and a Munafiq, which I have explained recently. The former has Yaqeen on what he is supposed to do. He doesn’t doubt or reject sins – he knows that he is sinning. The Munafiq, however, rejects and is stubborn, saying ‘No, this is not necessary. Why should we have to do this in this day and age? Why should we observe Purdah? Why can we not go in front of them? Where is written that we can’t go outside and work in the office? We are also Muslimeen, so why do we have to do this? What happens to our womenfolk?’ These are the Munafiqs, not like the sinful person, who accepts and says ‘I am sinning - oh Allah forgive me! I am wrong.’ He is always afraid and fears Allah. So there is a difference between Munafiqs and sinful people.
So what is the Ibadah of the person with Iman? Allah says { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ} The disbeliever’s Ibadah is that he should come into belief; the person who has Iman already should become steadfast, have Istaqamat, become firm on his Ibadah, not up and down, left and right, or dodging and evading. So what is the Ibadah of the Munafiq? Allah says ‘Your Ibadah is to shun this hypocrisy. That becomes Ibadah for you. Leave your hypocrisy, become a true Mu’min, and enter into Islam wholeheartedly.’ So each category has their separate worships. Allah says to each ‘Change yourself, improve yourself. These are the signs that I have given to you, so come back to what is right.’
So, my brothers, alhamdulillah we are not people without faith. We have Iman and may Allah ta’ala not allow us to be in the group of Munafiqs. If we are up and down, and pulled by Nafs, and if there is no steadfastness in our lives and we are not firm on the Deen, then the Qur’an is saying ‘Leave that path and come onto the right way.’ That will be your Ibadah. The Qur’an says { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُوا} – worship your Lord. If you leave this wrongdoing, this will be the starting point. This will be Ibadah number one. Change, first and foremost. Worship - come back to what is right.
Then Allah ta’ala says further {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى}. Here, Allah has not said to do Ibadah of ‘Allah’. The Name ‘Allah’ is not used here. Allah ta’ala says ‘Worship your Lord, your Rabb, the one who sustains you. It doesn’t say ‘Allah’, but ‘your Lord’, your sustainer, the one who brings you up, who looks after you. And Allah ta’ala has mentioned two qualities. {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ} SubhanAllah – “who created you” – {وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ}. Allah ta’ala says ‘It is Me who has created you. Where did you come from? Did you just drop from the sky? Can even a person who doesn’t have belief reject, and say that he wasn’t born or created? Nobody can. Everyone has been created. It is clear where a person has been born from. If you go to the hospital, you can see where the child gets born! It doesn’t come out from the ground, does it. A human being doesn’t fall from a tree – it’s not a fruit, is it. Obviously there is a system; in the whole world people come into being in the same way. Apples fall from trees, and all around the world, apples fall from trees. Wherever a child is born into the world, Allah says {خَلَقَكُمۡ} - Allah creates! Allah says ‘I have created you.’ When a child is born, it will be born from the womb. Say SubhanAllah if you understand what I am saying.
So the first point is that Allah ta’ala has said {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ} – “worship your Lord who has created you”. This is the quality that Allah has said: { رَبَّكُمُ } meaning ‘I am your Lord who sustains you, creates you nurtures you. I haven’t created you in a jungle nor in a tree. Your creation is so unique – look how you get born and where you come from. You are born into the world and I created you. { رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى} So not only are you born into this world and created, but then I create all of the systems to sustain you and bring you up. I give you wind and sun and water and fruits and foodstuffs. And the most important thing is that when you did not have consciousness, I gave you a mother.’ Allah gave you a mother – Allah made all our mothers. If Allah had not created our mothers, then we would be born like animals and thrown here and there. But Allah created the Hubb in motherhood. Allah ta’ala created love in the bosom of the mother – in reality, it is not the mother bringing up the child. Allah says { رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى} – ‘It is Me, your Lord, who is bringing you up. It is Me, for within a minute, I could take that love out of the bosom of the mother.’ Then she would pick you up and throw you into a river, saying ‘Oh he’s pestering me! Get away from here. He keeps on going Wah, wah, wah – why should I clean his urine and wash his dirt?’ But she doesn’t say that!
Allah says { رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِىۡ}. It is Allah, Your Lord, who brings you up and sustains you. The tree is not giving you the fruit - Allah is giving you the fruit. You are not catching the fish in the sea - Allah is allowing you to catch it. You are not manufacturing the honey - Allah is manufacturing it; He creates the honey through the bee. Allah says { رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِىۡ} – ‘I have created everything for you in the world. It goes beyond being created and born into the world; alongside this, I have made all the systems in the world to provide for you, because you have come into the world for a special objective and function. You are not like an animal, born and then eat and drink and then thrown to the side and die, or the trees that grow and then wither and die, or birds who are born and then die. Allah says ‘No, you have an objective, oh man! You have a supreme, high-level objective for which you were created. I did not create you without a clear purpose – you have been created with a purpose, with a mission. Oh foolish people, you have not come into the world to eat and drink. I have created you for an objective, so realise what that is and learn it. I have given you all of these arrangements in the world and all of the animals in creation are serving you - there is an objective behind this!’
What is the objective? No one else in the Universe can fulfil this role! Allah says ‘I have given you the capacity, the Ma’arifah of Allah, so that you can recognize Me and come near to Me.’ Allahu Akbar! Say SubhnaAllah! Put aside all of the other creations in the whole Universe – it is only Insan, the human beings, who have the highest level and can attain the highest rank with regards to the Ma’arifah of Allah, the Nearness of Allah, the knowledge of Allah. How high can a person reach? Allah ta’ala has mentioned that the person who came to teach you the Deen will explain to you how high you can go, where your status can reach. On one night, in Me’raj, Allah ta’ala took the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam from one Haram to another, and allowed him to travel up through the heavens to Sidrat-al-Muntaha, where Gibreel alayhi salam said ‘I cannot go beyond this!’ And then Allah ta’ala beckoned, and invited His Nabi, and stood him in front of Himself and said “السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكَ أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ” – SubhanAllah! So here we are shown the heights that the servant can reach – you can meet your Lord! SubhanAllah, Allah ta’ala has given great praise. The birds are left behind and all other animals, and the angels step back, and the servant who can attain the highest Ma’arifah, and can reach closest to Allah, the one to who Allah has give the ‘Irfan of Allah, the knowledge of Allah, is out in front.
Oh foolish people, after being given such a high Maqam, your condition is that some are disbelievers, some are believers and some are Munafiqs. And no one is steadfast, and we are like donkeys, with no Istaqamat, no steadfastness. Allah ta’ala says ‘Is this your situation?’ What a beautiful point Allah ta’ala has mentioned. Allah says ‘The objective of your creation is Ma’arifah of Allah. Nobody has this status, so submit yourself and lower your head so that you can get to Allah’s nearness and remembrance and closeness.’ And Allah says ‘I have put signs inside you, and given you capacity and energy to attain Ma’arifah.’ We think we just have a stomach and physical organs inside us, but Allah ta’ala has put the treasures of Ma’arifah within us, in our bodies, which is called Muraqabah. What is Muraqabah? SubhanAllah – the human being has been given so much power that Allah ta’ala says ‘If you are serious, then focus upon Me, disconnect from everything else around you and focus on your Ka’abah, which is your heart.’
The heart is the Ka’abah of a human being. Allah ta’ala has put His Magnificence and His Majesty that can be seen when we look at the Ka’abah into the heart of the human being. Nobody prostrates to the stones or the building of the Ka’abah, or else we would be idol worshippers, wouldn’t we? Allah ta’ala says that we are facing the Tajaliyyat ar-Rabbani, His splendours, brilliance and lustre – and that is what we are worshipping. And Allah ta’ala has put this into our hearts. The disbeliever has rejected and has reduced the capacity of his heart to nil, while the Munafiq has gone into hypocrisy and has left Allah’s Deen and left the Shari’ah and run after the Dunya, saying this and that is acceptable because he is in the Dunya, and those wretched people have come to that position and have thus crushed their capacity and ability. Look at Allah’s Ma’ari’fah! Those people who attain Allah’s nearness and Ma’arifah, the Mu’min who holds fast to Shari'ah and Sunnah, if he bows his head to his heart, SubhanAllah, then his Iman strengthens and rises more than if he were in front of several Ka’abahs! The intensity of his Iman and his Maqam becomes such that he has no need to go to the Ka’abah. Rather, the Ka’abah comes to him!
Though the Munafiqeen do not accept this, Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh had a desire to go there from where he lived in Sarhand Sharif. He said ‘Oh Allah, I have a desire to go to Your House – if only I could see the Ka’abah!’ Allah ta’ala said ‘My beloved Mujaddid, why do you worry? I will send the Ka’abah to you! And it won’t just come to Sarhand, all of its qualities will be absorbed!’ This is Sarhand Sharif that beautiful, honourable land. This was the desire and the request of that Sheikh whose life was based on Sunnah and Shari'ah, and he was steadfast, so Allah gave him this Maqam, this status. Allah ta’ala says {ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ} – ‘I created you for this purpose, for My Ma’arifah, for My nearness.’
So one group went towards Kufr, disbelief, another followed their desires and became Munafiqs, saying ‘Oh, it’s too hard. We have to live in the world. In this generation we need material things and luxuries as well.’ For this a woman leaves her home and Allah says ‘You have gone towards hypocrisy!’ Allah ta’ala is reminding us. Do you understand what I am saying or not? Let us go further and see what the Qur’an says.
{يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ}
Allahu Akbar, Allah is the greatest! Look at what Allah is saying – Allah ta’ala is giving the order to worship your Lord, and Allah concludes the verse with what? { تَتَّقُون} The verse starts with the command to worship, then goes into the description and explanation, and at the end Allah ta’ala says { تَتَّقُونَ}. Allahu Akbar. Allah is saying ‘When you stand in worship of Me, remember this order I have given to you. When you do so, that will become your worship. Without this, you cannot do your Ibadah.’ Without what? { تَتَّقُونَ} The Ibadah that you have been given is that you rid yourself of sins, and ward off evil, prevent evil and exercise caution. You must do worship that is free from sin, not praying Salah but swearing also, not praying Salah and then going out and consuming people’s wealth, not going for Hajj while cutting your beards. Sins on top of worship? Tell me – is this Ibadah? Allah says ‘This is not Ibadah! In My definition, Ibadah is worship which does not have sins included.’
For example, when Ramadhan comes, that time when we think we will become solid Muslims, that is the time when Taqwa should be present and no sins committed. We think ‘Oh no, I pray Salah, so I am pious.’ My brothers, this is not the be all and end all. { لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ} Allah says ‘I gave you Ibadah so that you fear Me, and only then will that Ibadah be classified as Ibadah. Your bowing will be accepted as bowing, your prostration will be accepted as prostration, and your Hajj and Tawaf will be accepted if there is no sin, no contamination. So when you do My Ibadah, then be careful that you ward off sin, that you leave sin. If you leave sin and worship Me, then that is Ibadah, but if you sin and then worship Me, that is not Ibadah.’ What does this mean? Allah says ‘I want that worship which has no sin running alongside it – that is what I want.’
How will we attain this Ibadah which has no sin mixed in with it? The Qur’an has given us an invitation to do Ibadah which has no sin included, which is pure. What will you need to do? Tazkiyyah – purification. Say SubhanAllah – say it loudly! So we have come now to Tazkiyyah, spiritual purification of the heart. This is very important. After praising and defining in these verses we have read - which have been about 20 ayahs until now, where Allah ta’ala has defined Islam, Deen, people, status, qualities, categories, this group is here, that group is there, and signs are given to recognize this - after that, Allah ta’ala has mentioned Ibadah. Worship comes after. And then after mentioning Ibadah, Allah ta’ala condenses and summarises, saying that if Allah ta’ala gives you Tawfeeq, and you leave sins and come towards Iman and become a steadfast Muslim, and you shun hypocrisy, and become a Kamil Mu’min, then after that when you worship, there is another condition, which is that alongside that Ibadah, there should be no sins.
So after having the right Iman and the right belief, when you turn your back on disbelief and become a Mu’min, and then you shun hypocrisy with steadfastness, so that the hypocrite becomes a Mu’min, then after that, step number two is that you need to do worship. How? Cleanly, purely, via Tazkiyyah and Tasfiyyah so that your Ibadah can become free from sin. Why? Because the standard of Ibadah that Allah ta’ala demands, which comes in Hadith, is that there should be worship in which there is no sin in parallel. There should be no sins in your life. Allah ta’ala has given the basis, the quality, that there are no sins in your life.
So when you pray Salah, or in whatever Ibadah that you do, then all that worship should be done as if you know that Allah is watching you. SubhanAllah. You must feel this, at least, as a minimum level of concentration. The first level of Ibadah is to feel as if you are seeing Allah; this is the first position, the best position, that when you are worshipping, you should feel in your contemplation and in your emotion that you are seeing Allah. So you should feel in your worship that Allah is in front of you as you face towards the Ka’abah. We say we are praying when we face the Ka’abah, but the owner of the Ka’abah should be there in our visualization, in our prayer, in our contemplation and focus. Allah says ‘Pray as if you can see Me.’ If you cannot contemplate that or feel that you are seeing Allah, then the second position is that at least your Ibadah should be at the standard that you have total belief that Allah is watching you.
If you are not at this Maqam, at this status, then know that this is the Maqam that Allah ta’ala wants. So how will you get that status where you worship and do Ibadah as if you are seeing Allah? This is acquired by Tazkiyyah Qalb, purification of the heart, and Tasfiyyah Nafs, cleansing of the soul. When you clean your heart and wash it through the Dhikr of Allah, and go into the company of the WaliAllah, which Allah ta’ala has mentioned when He says { كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ} - Allah ta’ala tells us to seek and find the company of the WaliAllah - then benefit from his company, purify your heart through his words, his Sohbat, through the Dhikr he teaches you, and through the Muraqabaat that the Naqshbandi Sheikhs teach. The person who is doing Tazkiyyah, and Tasfiyyah alongside that, the colour of his Ibadah will be such that the more his heart is cleaned through Tazkiyyah and Tasfiyyah, then where will his Ibadah take him? The Maqam will come when you are worshipping as if you are seeing Allah, and if not, you will know that Allah is watching you. This is the definition that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam gave us. And those people’s Ibadah is according to the Shari'ah and the Sunnah, SubhanAllah, and they measure their deeds according to the Shari'ah and Sunnah.
Ok, fine, so from Kufr we came towards Deen, and we became Muslim and we left Nifaq and started to practice and become Mu’min, but even then we need to gauge. And what is the measurement gauge to understand and to analyse our Ibadah? We have to do Tazkiyyah and Tasfiyyah, purification of the heart, cleansing of the heart. Sit with a Kamil Sheikh, a complete Sheikh, so that the heart gets clean. And when the Nafs gets clean and you become pure, then when you come to worship, it is as if you are seeing Allah. Tell me brothers, when you get to this Maqam, then will you sin? Say SubhanAllah! What will happen then? When you feel that you can see Allah, then there will be Taqwa and prevention of sin. Sin will be shunned and you will have caution. All your Ibadah will be based on caution alhamdulillah. Whatever action, whatever worship you do, you will feel as if Allah is watching you. And if you feel that Allah is watching you, then will you lie, or do Zina of the eyes, or swear at anybody? Will you abuse anybody or think badly of anybody, or take somebody’s wealth wrongfully? Never! All wrong will automatically cease.
Why do we do wrong? We do wrong and then we worship, we pray Salah and then we do sins, we listen to music and play instruments, all because we have not done Tazkiyyah. We haven’t cleaned and purified ourselves; we haven’t striven and made effort on ourselves. Do you understand what I am saying, my brothers? So what a beautiful way Allah ta’ala has explained His Deen to us in this verse. Everything has been explained to us here - what a beautiful method Allah ta’ala has explained.
{ يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ}
‘Oh People, oh Mankind, worship your Lord, your Rabb, your Creator, who has made you and those who came before you, so that you can prevent sin and ward off evil.’
This is the definition of the successful people. Let us pray to Allah that we are given the ability to spend our lives according to this verse that we have read, according to whatever we have heard and understood today. The main point today is that we should understand our condition that the Qur’an has explained in the previous verses in this Surah, and we should learn from that and improve ourselves, rather than being stubborn and saying ‘Oh I am not like this. How can you say I am like this? Has everyone in the world got no faith?’ Allah says ‘Stop your nonsense talk! Change yourself, improve yourself, do Tawbah and repent. And after repenting, then do My Ibadah, and do Tazkiyyah and Tasfiyyah, because I want that pure clean Ibadah. Speak to a Friend of Allah – meet him, take hold of his company, survey yourself, scan yourself, then strive for that rank of Ibadah. You should attain that status where you feel as if you are seeing Allah, and if not, then you should feel that Allah is watching you, and then it becomes guaranteed that your Ibadah will be classed as worship. Obviously, then there will be no sin and you will be exercising caution.’ { لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ} Allah ta’ala says ‘This is what I want from your Ibadah so that you can become a Muttaqi.’
May Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq to understand and to implement this. Ameen
وَءَاخِرُ دَعۡوَٮٰهُمۡ أَنِ ٱلۡحَمۡدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ
يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ (٢١)
Oh Mankind, worship your Lord who has created you and those before you, so that you may ward off evil (prevent sin).
Surah al-Baqarah v21
In the previous verses, Allah ta’ala has told us the categories of people in respect of Deen. Allah ta’ala went into detail regarding the signs of each of the categories: those who don’t believe and who have no faith; those who have faith, Iman; and the Munafiqeen, the hypocrites. Allah has clearly explained in detail, right at the beginning of the Qur’an, the signs and qualities of these three categories of people. Those who have no Iman are those who do not believe at all; those who have Iman are those who accept; and the Munafiqeen are those in-between - they believe and they don’t believe. In various ways, Allah ta’ala has mentioned them as people who run after gain. If they see gain, they will be there. If they see benefit in Islam, they will embrace it; and where they see no benefit and gain, they will go to the other side and mingle with the others because they are hovering in the realm of Nifaq, hypocrisy. They are neither here nor there, and the punishment for the Munafiqeen is severe. This Nifaq is not a Madhhab or a Deen or a religion. Rather, it comes from Iman when a person falls prey to shaytan and Nafs, his base desires, and he thereby spoils and contaminates the Deen by following those desires. He himself doesn’t know what he is doing; he doesn’t know what he should do. He seeks simplicity so that he can fulfil his passions and base desires, and so he mingles completely with the people of the Dunya, until he comes into consciousness and says ‘Oh, what has happened here?’ and then he goes back towards the Deen. Nifaq is a very dangerous state.
SubhanAllah – look at the style of the Qur’an. How it teaches us! In the verse I have just read, Allah ta’ala makes the following address { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ}. Now here, Allah is not addressing those people who have no Iman, nor is Allah directly addressing the Mu’mineen, and nor is Allah addressing the Munafiqeen. Rather, Allah is saying, ‘Oh people, oh Mankind!’ – everyone is included. Those who don’t have faith, those who believe, and the Munafiqeen - all are being addressed. In Tafseer, Ibn Abbas and other commentators have written that when Allah ta’ala says ‘Oh Mankind’, who are these people? This is not restricted to any day or age or time period. Rather, from the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam until Qiyamah, all people are being addressed by the Qur’an.
So what we learn here is that all three categories will continue until Qiyamah – those with no Iman, the believers, and the Munafiqeen. So that is who the Qur’an is addressing, because the Qur’an is such that it will continue until Qiyamah, and since all three groups will continue until Qiyamah, the Qur’an is addressing all three categories of people. Munafiqeen will be present until Qiyamah, as will the people of Iman, and also the disbelievers will continue, Allahu Akbar. So Allah ta’ala is addressing all three categories of people.
And what Allah ta’ala is saying further is: { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى} – SubhanAllah. ‘Oh Mankind, worship! Do Ibadah!’ Now, Allah ta’ala is telling all three categories of people to do Ibadah, to observe worship, to come into submission, into servanthood of Allah. If you have understood what your condition is from these verses, what the state of affairs is between the servant and his Lord, it is impossible that a person would not be able to save himself from the negative signs that have been explained in the Qur’an. He is definitely able to see his deficiencies from the description of the Qur’an. Allah is explaining clearly, so that somebody who has no Iman can see that he has no faith, and the person with Iman can see that he has got faith, and the Munafiq realizes and can see that he is a Munafiq. All the signs are mentioned in the Qur’an in the Kalam of Allah. How could a person not understand, when the Qur’an is telling us?
So here, people are split into two classes, you could say. One class are like the example of one who stands in front of a mirror, and thereby sees his deficiencies – his Amamah is not straight, or something is not right - and when he sees it, he rectifies it. If he sees something is not correct, he fixes it. In the same way, if a person stands and analyses himself in front of the mirror of the verses of the Qur’an as the signs are explained, he sees that these deficiencies are within and, if he is from this group, he immediately accepts and say ‘Ya Allah forgive me! Oh Allah, I have got no belief – I need Iman.’ And the same for the person of Iman, and the same for the Munafiq. That is one class – they recognize that they have a deficiency, a lack, and they accept this. The other class, who are a cross-section from among all three categories, are stubborn. They say ‘Oh no, there is nothing wrong here.’ They don’t even accept.
You will have seen that many people are like this, in one group or the other. Some start reading the Qur’an - maybe they were disbelievers - and then they recognize that they were on the wrong path. I have seen various Hindus become Muslim, many Christians become Muslim, and many people from different faiths have come to Islam. How? They say ‘We read the Qur’an, and we saw that this was truth, that this was honesty’, and so they accepted the message. There is an event concerning a woman who was a disbeliever. She said ‘Let me see what this Qur’an is.’ She picked up the Qur’an al-Hakeem, and she realized that she was reading a translation. So she explains in her story that she felt that perhaps the translation was not rendering the meaning faithfully, and so she wanted to read it in its original language so that she could appreciate it in its pure form. She was a staunch Cristian, but she went to a Middle Eastern country for two years and learnt classical Arabic, and then picked up the Qur’an and started to read. SubhanAllah! As soon as she started reading, she called out ‘Ash-hadu an la ilaha illa’llahu, wahdahu la sharika lahu, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Abduhu wa Rasooluh’. She said ‘What king of a foolish, mad person could read the Qur’an and then not believe? How could a person deny the existence of Allah, and not affirm that He is our Lord, and the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is the Final Prophet? How could somebody reject this? The Qur’an is telling us this.’ She became a Muslim, and she is still alive today.
So the Qur’an is honesty, it is truth. If we are reading the verses and it is telling us that we are Munafiqs, then how could we not understand that we are Munafiqs? There is no need to ask anyone else. One group of people who were disbelievers read the Qur’an and have become Muslims - but the Muslims of today don’t become Mu’mins! They remain staunch and stubborn – that’s the problem. The problem today is that the Muslims have difficulty; they don’t want to accept their defects and mistakes. They make faces and start sulking and say ‘Why are you telling us?’ But it is the Qur’an that is speaking! The Qur’an is in front of you. Why should somebody bother you and pester you? The Qur’an is telling you the reality. Why don’t we accept? We don’t want to accept!
The other class of people is like the non-Muslims for example, who find Iman, and those who have Iman already but who are weak and who find their Iman strengthened. And sometimes a Munafiq will also say ‘Yes, I have got this deficiency within me.’ Yesterday I was speaking to a person, and he said to me ‘Yes, you are totally right, I have got Nifaq inside me – I accept this. How can I deny the existence of these deficiencies within me?’ So that is one class of people – they accept. But the other class, they say ‘Oh, has everyone become Kafirs and Munafiqs now? Is the whole Dunya Munafiq? Is that the Deen?’ They just cannot accept, never. They remain standing, stubbornly, wasting their time talking. This is Allah’s Ihsan and favour that He is allowing us to hear the Qur’an, so what kind of a person doesn’t accept? Stubbornly, he says ‘Is it just us left then? You are criticizing the Ulema, the respected scholars and dishonouring them.’ Astaghfirullah. Have you not seen what is happening with Corona around us? Proud people, submit! The Qur’an is telling us. The Kalam of Allah, the Kitab of Allah is telling us. The Sahaba-e-Karam used to say that when you read the Qur’an, you should believe that Allah is talking to you. So if you have these deficiencies and the Qur’an is saying that these are the signs of Nifaq, then accept.
So the Qur’an here is addressing the disbelievers and the believers and the Munafiqeen. Listen to the Qur’an: { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُوا} Allah says ‘Oh People!’ – Muslims, Kafirs, Munafiqs, all are included. Allah is addressing everyone, all three sectors. ‘Do Ibadah! Serve! Worship! Accept! Accept these verses that I have sent to you. If you are a disbeliever, come into Iman – accept that you are wrong. If you have Iman, then accept that you are a Munafiq. And if you are a Munafiq, then get rid of your stubbornness and turn to Me. Worship Me. Get rid of your stubbornness - rather, be grateful that Allah ta’ala is telling you your defects and do Tawbah. Repent!’
Now the disbeliever is being told to worship, and the Mu’min is being told to worship, and the Munafiq is being told to worship – this verse has been revealed for everybody, all three groups. So what is the worship of the disbeliever? His Ibadah is that he should start to believe - say SubhanAllah! That will be his Ibadah. The Qur’an says { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ}. If he does not have belief, he should accept and say ‘Ok, fine!’ and then immediately recite the Kalima Shahada. That becomes his worship - say SubhanAllah! What is the Ibadah of the person who has Iman? He is also being told to worship his Lord. The worship of the Mu’min, who already has Iman, concerns ‘Are you steadfast on your belief? Are you firm-footed on your belief? Are you doing right after Iman?’ The benefit of Iman comes for the person who establishes his Deen strongly, not going here and there, up and down, doubting. The biggest thing after having Iman is what? Istaqamat, steadfastness.
Hadhrat Anas radhiAllahu anh relates the following Hadith: “قَالَ: كَانَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم يُكْثِرُ أَنْ يَقُولَ: اللَّهُمَّ يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ، ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ” Hadhrat Anas radhiAllahu anh stated that the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam would regularly recite this Dua – this was his habit. He was saying ‘Oh Allah, You have given us the path of Your Deen, we have come onto the path of Iman and You have taken us away from Kufr, but oh Allah, please make me stick to this and adhere to this. Give me steadfastness.’ So if I pray Salah, then make me regular and steadfast in Jama’ah. If Ramadhan comes, then I should be fasting during Ramadhan. I should remain steadfast on the Deen that You have given. I shouldn’t be swayed by Nafs and shaytan, so that sometimes I leave Salah, or sometimes I pray in congregation and sometimes not, or sometimes I am passionate and strong, and sometimes I step back and go away from the Deen.’
Here is the difference between a sinful Mu’min and a Munafiq, which I have explained recently. The former has Yaqeen on what he is supposed to do. He doesn’t doubt or reject sins – he knows that he is sinning. The Munafiq, however, rejects and is stubborn, saying ‘No, this is not necessary. Why should we have to do this in this day and age? Why should we observe Purdah? Why can we not go in front of them? Where is written that we can’t go outside and work in the office? We are also Muslimeen, so why do we have to do this? What happens to our womenfolk?’ These are the Munafiqs, not like the sinful person, who accepts and says ‘I am sinning - oh Allah forgive me! I am wrong.’ He is always afraid and fears Allah. So there is a difference between Munafiqs and sinful people.
So what is the Ibadah of the person with Iman? Allah says { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ} The disbeliever’s Ibadah is that he should come into belief; the person who has Iman already should become steadfast, have Istaqamat, become firm on his Ibadah, not up and down, left and right, or dodging and evading. So what is the Ibadah of the Munafiq? Allah says ‘Your Ibadah is to shun this hypocrisy. That becomes Ibadah for you. Leave your hypocrisy, become a true Mu’min, and enter into Islam wholeheartedly.’ So each category has their separate worships. Allah says to each ‘Change yourself, improve yourself. These are the signs that I have given to you, so come back to what is right.’
So, my brothers, alhamdulillah we are not people without faith. We have Iman and may Allah ta’ala not allow us to be in the group of Munafiqs. If we are up and down, and pulled by Nafs, and if there is no steadfastness in our lives and we are not firm on the Deen, then the Qur’an is saying ‘Leave that path and come onto the right way.’ That will be your Ibadah. The Qur’an says { يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُوا} – worship your Lord. If you leave this wrongdoing, this will be the starting point. This will be Ibadah number one. Change, first and foremost. Worship - come back to what is right.
Then Allah ta’ala says further {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى}. Here, Allah has not said to do Ibadah of ‘Allah’. The Name ‘Allah’ is not used here. Allah ta’ala says ‘Worship your Lord, your Rabb, the one who sustains you. It doesn’t say ‘Allah’, but ‘your Lord’, your sustainer, the one who brings you up, who looks after you. And Allah ta’ala has mentioned two qualities. {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ} SubhanAllah – “who created you” – {وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ}. Allah ta’ala says ‘It is Me who has created you. Where did you come from? Did you just drop from the sky? Can even a person who doesn’t have belief reject, and say that he wasn’t born or created? Nobody can. Everyone has been created. It is clear where a person has been born from. If you go to the hospital, you can see where the child gets born! It doesn’t come out from the ground, does it. A human being doesn’t fall from a tree – it’s not a fruit, is it. Obviously there is a system; in the whole world people come into being in the same way. Apples fall from trees, and all around the world, apples fall from trees. Wherever a child is born into the world, Allah says {خَلَقَكُمۡ} - Allah creates! Allah says ‘I have created you.’ When a child is born, it will be born from the womb. Say SubhanAllah if you understand what I am saying.
So the first point is that Allah ta’ala has said {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ} – “worship your Lord who has created you”. This is the quality that Allah has said: { رَبَّكُمُ } meaning ‘I am your Lord who sustains you, creates you nurtures you. I haven’t created you in a jungle nor in a tree. Your creation is so unique – look how you get born and where you come from. You are born into the world and I created you. { رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى} So not only are you born into this world and created, but then I create all of the systems to sustain you and bring you up. I give you wind and sun and water and fruits and foodstuffs. And the most important thing is that when you did not have consciousness, I gave you a mother.’ Allah gave you a mother – Allah made all our mothers. If Allah had not created our mothers, then we would be born like animals and thrown here and there. But Allah created the Hubb in motherhood. Allah ta’ala created love in the bosom of the mother – in reality, it is not the mother bringing up the child. Allah says { رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى} – ‘It is Me, your Lord, who is bringing you up. It is Me, for within a minute, I could take that love out of the bosom of the mother.’ Then she would pick you up and throw you into a river, saying ‘Oh he’s pestering me! Get away from here. He keeps on going Wah, wah, wah – why should I clean his urine and wash his dirt?’ But she doesn’t say that!
Allah says { رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِىۡ}. It is Allah, Your Lord, who brings you up and sustains you. The tree is not giving you the fruit - Allah is giving you the fruit. You are not catching the fish in the sea - Allah is allowing you to catch it. You are not manufacturing the honey - Allah is manufacturing it; He creates the honey through the bee. Allah says { رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِىۡ} – ‘I have created everything for you in the world. It goes beyond being created and born into the world; alongside this, I have made all the systems in the world to provide for you, because you have come into the world for a special objective and function. You are not like an animal, born and then eat and drink and then thrown to the side and die, or the trees that grow and then wither and die, or birds who are born and then die. Allah says ‘No, you have an objective, oh man! You have a supreme, high-level objective for which you were created. I did not create you without a clear purpose – you have been created with a purpose, with a mission. Oh foolish people, you have not come into the world to eat and drink. I have created you for an objective, so realise what that is and learn it. I have given you all of these arrangements in the world and all of the animals in creation are serving you - there is an objective behind this!’
What is the objective? No one else in the Universe can fulfil this role! Allah says ‘I have given you the capacity, the Ma’arifah of Allah, so that you can recognize Me and come near to Me.’ Allahu Akbar! Say SubhnaAllah! Put aside all of the other creations in the whole Universe – it is only Insan, the human beings, who have the highest level and can attain the highest rank with regards to the Ma’arifah of Allah, the Nearness of Allah, the knowledge of Allah. How high can a person reach? Allah ta’ala has mentioned that the person who came to teach you the Deen will explain to you how high you can go, where your status can reach. On one night, in Me’raj, Allah ta’ala took the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam from one Haram to another, and allowed him to travel up through the heavens to Sidrat-al-Muntaha, where Gibreel alayhi salam said ‘I cannot go beyond this!’ And then Allah ta’ala beckoned, and invited His Nabi, and stood him in front of Himself and said “السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكَ أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ” – SubhanAllah! So here we are shown the heights that the servant can reach – you can meet your Lord! SubhanAllah, Allah ta’ala has given great praise. The birds are left behind and all other animals, and the angels step back, and the servant who can attain the highest Ma’arifah, and can reach closest to Allah, the one to who Allah has give the ‘Irfan of Allah, the knowledge of Allah, is out in front.
Oh foolish people, after being given such a high Maqam, your condition is that some are disbelievers, some are believers and some are Munafiqs. And no one is steadfast, and we are like donkeys, with no Istaqamat, no steadfastness. Allah ta’ala says ‘Is this your situation?’ What a beautiful point Allah ta’ala has mentioned. Allah says ‘The objective of your creation is Ma’arifah of Allah. Nobody has this status, so submit yourself and lower your head so that you can get to Allah’s nearness and remembrance and closeness.’ And Allah says ‘I have put signs inside you, and given you capacity and energy to attain Ma’arifah.’ We think we just have a stomach and physical organs inside us, but Allah ta’ala has put the treasures of Ma’arifah within us, in our bodies, which is called Muraqabah. What is Muraqabah? SubhanAllah – the human being has been given so much power that Allah ta’ala says ‘If you are serious, then focus upon Me, disconnect from everything else around you and focus on your Ka’abah, which is your heart.’
The heart is the Ka’abah of a human being. Allah ta’ala has put His Magnificence and His Majesty that can be seen when we look at the Ka’abah into the heart of the human being. Nobody prostrates to the stones or the building of the Ka’abah, or else we would be idol worshippers, wouldn’t we? Allah ta’ala says that we are facing the Tajaliyyat ar-Rabbani, His splendours, brilliance and lustre – and that is what we are worshipping. And Allah ta’ala has put this into our hearts. The disbeliever has rejected and has reduced the capacity of his heart to nil, while the Munafiq has gone into hypocrisy and has left Allah’s Deen and left the Shari’ah and run after the Dunya, saying this and that is acceptable because he is in the Dunya, and those wretched people have come to that position and have thus crushed their capacity and ability. Look at Allah’s Ma’ari’fah! Those people who attain Allah’s nearness and Ma’arifah, the Mu’min who holds fast to Shari'ah and Sunnah, if he bows his head to his heart, SubhanAllah, then his Iman strengthens and rises more than if he were in front of several Ka’abahs! The intensity of his Iman and his Maqam becomes such that he has no need to go to the Ka’abah. Rather, the Ka’abah comes to him!
Though the Munafiqeen do not accept this, Hadhrat Mujaddid Alf Thani rahmatullah alayh had a desire to go there from where he lived in Sarhand Sharif. He said ‘Oh Allah, I have a desire to go to Your House – if only I could see the Ka’abah!’ Allah ta’ala said ‘My beloved Mujaddid, why do you worry? I will send the Ka’abah to you! And it won’t just come to Sarhand, all of its qualities will be absorbed!’ This is Sarhand Sharif that beautiful, honourable land. This was the desire and the request of that Sheikh whose life was based on Sunnah and Shari'ah, and he was steadfast, so Allah gave him this Maqam, this status. Allah ta’ala says {ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ} – ‘I created you for this purpose, for My Ma’arifah, for My nearness.’
So one group went towards Kufr, disbelief, another followed their desires and became Munafiqs, saying ‘Oh, it’s too hard. We have to live in the world. In this generation we need material things and luxuries as well.’ For this a woman leaves her home and Allah says ‘You have gone towards hypocrisy!’ Allah ta’ala is reminding us. Do you understand what I am saying or not? Let us go further and see what the Qur’an says.
{يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ}
Allahu Akbar, Allah is the greatest! Look at what Allah is saying – Allah ta’ala is giving the order to worship your Lord, and Allah concludes the verse with what? { تَتَّقُون} The verse starts with the command to worship, then goes into the description and explanation, and at the end Allah ta’ala says { تَتَّقُونَ}. Allahu Akbar. Allah is saying ‘When you stand in worship of Me, remember this order I have given to you. When you do so, that will become your worship. Without this, you cannot do your Ibadah.’ Without what? { تَتَّقُونَ} The Ibadah that you have been given is that you rid yourself of sins, and ward off evil, prevent evil and exercise caution. You must do worship that is free from sin, not praying Salah but swearing also, not praying Salah and then going out and consuming people’s wealth, not going for Hajj while cutting your beards. Sins on top of worship? Tell me – is this Ibadah? Allah says ‘This is not Ibadah! In My definition, Ibadah is worship which does not have sins included.’
For example, when Ramadhan comes, that time when we think we will become solid Muslims, that is the time when Taqwa should be present and no sins committed. We think ‘Oh no, I pray Salah, so I am pious.’ My brothers, this is not the be all and end all. { لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ} Allah says ‘I gave you Ibadah so that you fear Me, and only then will that Ibadah be classified as Ibadah. Your bowing will be accepted as bowing, your prostration will be accepted as prostration, and your Hajj and Tawaf will be accepted if there is no sin, no contamination. So when you do My Ibadah, then be careful that you ward off sin, that you leave sin. If you leave sin and worship Me, then that is Ibadah, but if you sin and then worship Me, that is not Ibadah.’ What does this mean? Allah says ‘I want that worship which has no sin running alongside it – that is what I want.’
How will we attain this Ibadah which has no sin mixed in with it? The Qur’an has given us an invitation to do Ibadah which has no sin included, which is pure. What will you need to do? Tazkiyyah – purification. Say SubhanAllah – say it loudly! So we have come now to Tazkiyyah, spiritual purification of the heart. This is very important. After praising and defining in these verses we have read - which have been about 20 ayahs until now, where Allah ta’ala has defined Islam, Deen, people, status, qualities, categories, this group is here, that group is there, and signs are given to recognize this - after that, Allah ta’ala has mentioned Ibadah. Worship comes after. And then after mentioning Ibadah, Allah ta’ala condenses and summarises, saying that if Allah ta’ala gives you Tawfeeq, and you leave sins and come towards Iman and become a steadfast Muslim, and you shun hypocrisy, and become a Kamil Mu’min, then after that when you worship, there is another condition, which is that alongside that Ibadah, there should be no sins.
So after having the right Iman and the right belief, when you turn your back on disbelief and become a Mu’min, and then you shun hypocrisy with steadfastness, so that the hypocrite becomes a Mu’min, then after that, step number two is that you need to do worship. How? Cleanly, purely, via Tazkiyyah and Tasfiyyah so that your Ibadah can become free from sin. Why? Because the standard of Ibadah that Allah ta’ala demands, which comes in Hadith, is that there should be worship in which there is no sin in parallel. There should be no sins in your life. Allah ta’ala has given the basis, the quality, that there are no sins in your life.
So when you pray Salah, or in whatever Ibadah that you do, then all that worship should be done as if you know that Allah is watching you. SubhanAllah. You must feel this, at least, as a minimum level of concentration. The first level of Ibadah is to feel as if you are seeing Allah; this is the first position, the best position, that when you are worshipping, you should feel in your contemplation and in your emotion that you are seeing Allah. So you should feel in your worship that Allah is in front of you as you face towards the Ka’abah. We say we are praying when we face the Ka’abah, but the owner of the Ka’abah should be there in our visualization, in our prayer, in our contemplation and focus. Allah says ‘Pray as if you can see Me.’ If you cannot contemplate that or feel that you are seeing Allah, then the second position is that at least your Ibadah should be at the standard that you have total belief that Allah is watching you.
If you are not at this Maqam, at this status, then know that this is the Maqam that Allah ta’ala wants. So how will you get that status where you worship and do Ibadah as if you are seeing Allah? This is acquired by Tazkiyyah Qalb, purification of the heart, and Tasfiyyah Nafs, cleansing of the soul. When you clean your heart and wash it through the Dhikr of Allah, and go into the company of the WaliAllah, which Allah ta’ala has mentioned when He says { كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ} - Allah ta’ala tells us to seek and find the company of the WaliAllah - then benefit from his company, purify your heart through his words, his Sohbat, through the Dhikr he teaches you, and through the Muraqabaat that the Naqshbandi Sheikhs teach. The person who is doing Tazkiyyah, and Tasfiyyah alongside that, the colour of his Ibadah will be such that the more his heart is cleaned through Tazkiyyah and Tasfiyyah, then where will his Ibadah take him? The Maqam will come when you are worshipping as if you are seeing Allah, and if not, you will know that Allah is watching you. This is the definition that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam gave us. And those people’s Ibadah is according to the Shari'ah and the Sunnah, SubhanAllah, and they measure their deeds according to the Shari'ah and Sunnah.
Ok, fine, so from Kufr we came towards Deen, and we became Muslim and we left Nifaq and started to practice and become Mu’min, but even then we need to gauge. And what is the measurement gauge to understand and to analyse our Ibadah? We have to do Tazkiyyah and Tasfiyyah, purification of the heart, cleansing of the heart. Sit with a Kamil Sheikh, a complete Sheikh, so that the heart gets clean. And when the Nafs gets clean and you become pure, then when you come to worship, it is as if you are seeing Allah. Tell me brothers, when you get to this Maqam, then will you sin? Say SubhanAllah! What will happen then? When you feel that you can see Allah, then there will be Taqwa and prevention of sin. Sin will be shunned and you will have caution. All your Ibadah will be based on caution alhamdulillah. Whatever action, whatever worship you do, you will feel as if Allah is watching you. And if you feel that Allah is watching you, then will you lie, or do Zina of the eyes, or swear at anybody? Will you abuse anybody or think badly of anybody, or take somebody’s wealth wrongfully? Never! All wrong will automatically cease.
Why do we do wrong? We do wrong and then we worship, we pray Salah and then we do sins, we listen to music and play instruments, all because we have not done Tazkiyyah. We haven’t cleaned and purified ourselves; we haven’t striven and made effort on ourselves. Do you understand what I am saying, my brothers? So what a beautiful way Allah ta’ala has explained His Deen to us in this verse. Everything has been explained to us here - what a beautiful method Allah ta’ala has explained.
{ يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱعۡبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُمۡ وَٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِكُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ}
‘Oh People, oh Mankind, worship your Lord, your Rabb, your Creator, who has made you and those who came before you, so that you can prevent sin and ward off evil.’
This is the definition of the successful people. Let us pray to Allah that we are given the ability to spend our lives according to this verse that we have read, according to whatever we have heard and understood today. The main point today is that we should understand our condition that the Qur’an has explained in the previous verses in this Surah, and we should learn from that and improve ourselves, rather than being stubborn and saying ‘Oh I am not like this. How can you say I am like this? Has everyone in the world got no faith?’ Allah says ‘Stop your nonsense talk! Change yourself, improve yourself, do Tawbah and repent. And after repenting, then do My Ibadah, and do Tazkiyyah and Tasfiyyah, because I want that pure clean Ibadah. Speak to a Friend of Allah – meet him, take hold of his company, survey yourself, scan yourself, then strive for that rank of Ibadah. You should attain that status where you feel as if you are seeing Allah, and if not, then you should feel that Allah is watching you, and then it becomes guaranteed that your Ibadah will be classed as worship. Obviously, then there will be no sin and you will be exercising caution.’ { لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ} Allah ta’ala says ‘This is what I want from your Ibadah so that you can become a Muttaqi.’
May Allah ta’ala give us all the Tawfeeq to understand and to implement this. Ameen
وَءَاخِرُ دَعۡوَٮٰهُمۡ أَنِ ٱلۡحَمۡدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ