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کیا گناہ چھوٹی چیز ہے؟
Urdu Bayan, 46 mins
21st January, 2021

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​Is Sin a Small Thing?
​There is a Hadith in Ibn Majah in which Hadhrat Salman radhiAllahu anh narrates that the gracious Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stated that a person who commits sins is lost and devoid of Rizq. His sins cause him to become bereft and at a loss. The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given a very important message to the Ummah here about the impact of sin on a person’s life.
Shaytan, who is our confirmed and biggest enemy, runs after us throughout our lives doing many acts, with the aim that somehow or other, we human beings should not escape the hellfire. Until the last moment, until death comes, shaytan keeps attacking a person so that one way or another he might not go into Jannah, but instead would go into hell. This is his mission and his objective, and his followers and minions work all day and night to this end, running after the people of Iman. Now shaytan knows, obviously, that sin is what will take a person to Jahannam, so this is his most important task. Every sin takes a person closer to the doors of Hell, and every good deed, of whatever size, takes a person closer to Paradise – that is what defines the two. So the mission of shaytan is that somehow or other he should stop people from doing actions that take them closer to Paradise, and somehow or other he should drag them towards evil actions. He whispers in the ear, befriends people, and creates desires and fantasies within them so that they commit sins which take them towards hell.
This is the lesson of today that we need to learn and revise, because Allah ta’ala said in the Qur’an al-Hakim that shaytan is {عَدُوٌّ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬} - an open and confirmed enemy to us. In many places in the Qur’an, Allah ta’ala has warned us about shaytan and told us to save ourselves from him. What is the sign? Shaytan is behind any encouragement towards sin, whether from a friend, a family member, or your internal feelings and passion. Consider that this is shaytan. Whoever is encouraging you cannot be Mukhlis and he is not a true friend who offers such sugar-coated tablets, telling you that it is sweet and saying ‘Eat it! Oh brother, take some interest – you can do great business with interest, with Riba. Forget going to the Masjid for Salah in Jamah, let’s make Jamah here. We don’t have to go to the Masjid – Islam is not that strict. Your daughter doesn’t have to do Purdah – we have come to this world.’ Such words are all falsehoods and deceptions.
Take one solid lesson from today, because this is a gathering of Islah, of rectification, which has been given to us from the pious predecessors. I am just the Khadim. I was given the instruction to do this whether anyone comes or not, and my task and duty was that on Thursday nights, on the night of Jumu’ah, I should give Da’wah towards Islah and speak about rectification, SubhanAllah. I am just doing my work; this is my work. It is the task that I have been given, and I have been following this objective and duty for sixty or seventy years in the manner in which it was assigned to me. So in this Majlis of rectification, the message of this Hadith is that everyone should be careful of sin, and do their utmost to save themselves from sin.
What a great Hadith this is, for it has massive implications about the effects of sin. And it is not only big sins that will have a negative impact. Shaytan shows the extent of his enmity by making all sins seem minor to us. That is his biggest trick. He makes the sin seem as small in scale as a dot on a page - and that is why we don’t care about it. This is the reason our society is immersed in sin, because we don’t consider many sins to be important. A common example is backbiting. We need to remind ourselves what Allah ta’ala has said in the Qur’an in respect of the punishment for backbiting. Look at the punishment that the Qur’an has defined for backbiting, which applies to every man and woman, namely that when you backbite you are devouring your brother’s flesh. The Qur’an is not wrong, is it. Is the Qur’an wrong? You are eating your actual brother’s Haram flesh when you are backbiting somebody. But today, in any gathering, wherever it is, outside or inside, wherever three men or more sit together - even in the Masjid - nobody saves himself from backbiting. There is no man who has not engaged in backbiting.
Let’s move on to lying. Lying is such a big sin that it is a sign of a Munafiq. If a person lies, he has displayed one of the signs of Nifaq, of hypocrisy – that is how big a sin it is. And there is not even any benefit to lying, so why do we lie? For instance, the telephone rings in your home, and you tell your child to say that you are not at home. The child looks at you, thinking ‘How can I say he is not here?’ We make our children tell people we are not at home from a very young age. Is this not how our society is today? Who has done this to us? Shaytan has influenced us and made the sin seem very small to us.
And what are the consequences of these sins? The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that when a person commits a sin, he loses his provision, his Rizq, due to that sin. These are the words of the Hadith. Now there are two types of provision, two types of Rizq: one is physical Rizq in the world, and the other is spiritual Rizq. We are made of two parts, and we need spiritual provision for our Ruh, and physical provision for our bodies. Both types are referred to here. You lose the provision that consists of food and drink, which lose their Barakah, and you can’t fulfil your needs and go around crying in the Dunya; and your Ruhani Rizq, your spiritual nourishment is lost as well. In other words, the Ni’mahs that we are given, for instance Salah, recitation of Qur’an, and connection to the Qur’an, and many other Ni’mahs that Allah gives to us, we do not feel like doing these deeds. We say ‘Oh, I don’t feel like praying Salah. How can I recite Qur’an, I just don’t have time.’ In other words, there is no attraction and no passion. Allah has given us such beautiful paths in the Deen, but we lose the passion for them while being influenced and attracted to sin instead.
What is the reason for this? We make up our own excuses, such as ‘My shop is not running well; my business is not flourishing because I bought the wrong stock and couldn’t sell it’ – we cite other reasons for our businesses failing or not progressing. Likewise, we think of reasons for our children being disobedient and say ‘Oh, we are in a bad generation now. These are bad times.’ We are always finding excuses. If there is a quarrel it is due to this reason or that reason, and when a bad situation or stress arises, we put forward this reason or that reason. But first and foremost, a human being has to realise that it is not these secondary and tertiary factors. The real issue is that Allah is displeased with us. That is it.
The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam made such a big statement here, which explains why there is no Rizq in our homes, why we have no spiritual nourishment, why our children are disobedient, why there is no Barakah at home, why our situation is bad. The first thing a man should do is reflect and question himself. Have you made a mistake? Have you disobeyed Allah somehow?
Look, there was great pious elder, Hadhrat Bayazid al-Bistami rahmatullah alayh, whose name everyone knows. He has a great rank and status, mashaAllah. This is a gathering of the Naqshbandi Silsila, and he is the fifth generation of Shaykhs from the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He is a very important individual in the Naqshbandi Silsila – he is the fifth on the list of the Mashaykh of our Shajarah, if you are familiar with it. Before him was the pious elder Hadhrat Ja’far rahmatullah alayh, and before him was Hadhrat Qasim radhiAllahu anh, and before him was Hadhrat Salman radhiAllahu anh, and before him Hadhrat Abu Bakr as-Siddique radhiAllahu anh, and before him the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. This is the Shajarah, the blessed tree, and he is the fifth on the list, close to the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He was a great pious elder – just imagine his status and his Karamaat, his achievements and his statements. This was Hadhrat Bayazid al-Bistami rahmatullah alayh.
Once, he came home from the Masjid and after entering his house, he said to his wife ‘Can you bring me some water, please?’ This was a normal request, but his wife replied ‘I am busy just now, so why don’t you go and get the water for yourself.’ How common a scenario this is nowadays – think about it. On hearing this, Hadhrat Bayazid al-Bistami froze. After a while, he stood up and went straight back to the Masjid, to his Khanqah, where all his Mureeds were still sitting. He wrapped a blanket around himself and sat down, overwhelmed with fear and humility. His Mureeds were worried, thinking ‘What has happened to Hadhrat, to our teacher?’ When he stopped crying and trembling and regained some of his composure, they approached him to question him about the reason for his condition and to ask whether everything was ok at home. Was there sickness or some other problem that might have caused this powerful effect? He said ‘No, this is not the reason.’
Then he explained to his Mureeds what had happened and how he had requested some water from his wife on returning home. He said ‘I have lived with my wife for thirty years, and I have never seen disobedience from her at all.’ She was a great person herself, the wife of an outstanding Wali of Allah. He said ‘The reason that I am upset is that I am thinking about how it could come to pass that she would tell me to get the water for myself. What could be the reason? This is what has made me worried.’ So he knew that it was not an issue with his wife. He said ‘My Fikr is that I must certainly have committed a sin, for this is what the Mubarak Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam explains. I have definitely committed some sin, and due to Allah being unhappy with me, she has not responded to my request for water.’ So Allah ta’ala inspired Hadhrat Bayazid rahmatullah alayh to understand the situation, and he thought deeply, asking himself ‘What sin have I committed?’ And then the sin became apparent – listen to what his sin was.
These are not stories or folk tales - these are lessons for us to ponder over. We should think deeply about messages such as these. The journey to the Hereafter is not easy, my friends, because death and the grave is not easy. We think that Deen is cheap and a bargain and that we will easily attain success. We think that we will get everything we want easily, and that through the standard we have set for ourselves in life, and through our words, we will succeed. All these matters that we are discussing now – the Hadith and this example and so on – are all integral to our Deen, so pay attention. Words such as these are only considered and mulled over in the Khanqahs. The company of the Awliya causes a person’s mind to turn upside down, enabling him to dive deep and analyse, and through his remembrance and Adhkar, the knots of his heart start to come loose. His chest expands and he acquires Fikr for the Akhirah; understanding and consciousness come into him. This is what consciousness of Iman is – but we have buried this today. We don’t have Dhikr in our lives, we don’t learn Adhkar, and so these concerns are suppressed and buried, and they disappear. But when a person wakes up internally, his Iman becomes elevated and the light of his faith shines brightly. He has the passion and the desire within. Where does this come from? From Sohbat-e-Sheikh and Dhikrullah - Dhikr and the company of the teacher. This is the practical result that occurs when a human being who is worse than an animal goes into the company of a Wali of Allah. I tell you this truly.
We consist of two parts, one of which is the Dhahir, the exterior self that others see, and the other is my Batin, what is inside me. My Batin always pulls me and drags me towards what is bad and gives me messages pulling me towards what is negative. Such bad thoughts are aroused in a person, and I’m talking about a Muttaqi person here, whose Taqwa is attested to by others. Internally, however, negative and dark thoughts come to that person, inviting him to do Zina, to drink alcohol or do this or that action, and those whose Iman is weak, who don’t have the company of the Sheikh, who don’t do Dhikrullah, then in the darkness they actually commit such sins when they are alone.
I hear of these things, and we read Ajeeb stories in the papers or from internet sources. A person who is a high-ranking Mufti – I don’t know his name – came out with such immodest words, which obviously reflect what is within him. Remember, Insan has two parts to his life. One is the internal darkness that a person is immersed in, and he cannot take himself out of that darkness, no matter if he does Sujud, prostrations, Tilawat of the Qur’an, Umrah. Such a person does Umrah and bows in front of the Ka’abah, but inside he is thinking about women and Shahawaat and passions. Thousands of people are like this. Mureeds - patients, in other words – after doing Tawaf, say things like ‘Hadhrat, I don’t know what’s happening – my Shahawat and my negative passions are not disappearing. My eyes are wandering around looking at the females.’
What is the reason for this? This is not some minor thing that is not present. We have certain Fitra conditions inside, but Allah ta’ala has given us protection against this. Allah ta’ala has told us the way to save ourselves – we can definitely be saved from these feelings. These things happen inside a person, but Allah ta’ala has given us the methodology to control this. The feelings arise within that make a person feel forced to do a sin, and a person can become a thief or a bandit or a gangster even while externally, people respect him because he presents as a person who practices Deen. Why does this happen? Because there are two parts to our Deen. To be saved from the negative internal urges, Allah says that the solution is Sohbat-e-Sheikh and Dhikrullah. SubhanAllah! This is not a worldly matter where you go to a Wali of Allah, take Bai’ah with him and learn Dhikr. Do you think this is some custom or tradition of the world, or that you are doing a favour to somebody? This is a massive protection that Allah is giving to us, and we are rejecting it! If you reject this solution, I swear by Allah, no human being can resolve these issues or improve himself if he doesn’t take hold of this path and this solution.
I tell you, my brothers, a person’s internal Batin can never be cleaned and polished, never. It doesn’t matter what A’maal and worships he does, inside he will feel that power urging him towards sin. That person is so weak internally that he trembles as he finds himself forced to commit the sin. He thinks to himself, ‘Externally I am doing good deeds, so how did I do Zina? I have destroyed my life with my hands.’ This is a common story among youngsters. People think ‘Oh, he is a Pir, so let’s just go to the Wali of Allah and ask him to do Dua.’ Oh servants of Allah, this is a big door of Jannah! Allah is giving you a solution. This will protect your Deen. Sohbat and Dhikrullah will protect your Deen and your Qur’an and your Hifdh and your Imamat and your Taqwa and your Hadith and your knowledge. All these things will be protected. Otherwise, you may go towards success in the Dunya, but internally you are wretched. You will come across a normal woman and you will be changed in minutes. The colour of your practice will change and the Dunya will overwhelm you, and dirtiness and wretchedness will grow inside you.
All these things are present inside a person, but you can’t eliminate them. I tell you this – these things cannot be eliminated. The Qur’an tells us this. Until death comes, you have to continue this fight against negative urges and influences. Until the last second comes, we need to maintain our link with our Sheikh. This is called Tasawwur-e-Sheikh. It is about working hard and making an effort – it is not some minor or secondary action. I am telling you about the facts of my life here, what I have learned. Alhamdulillah, if I had not met my Hadhrat Sheikh in my life, then this Insan would never be what you see. Insan is worse than an animal, constantly going off track and heading off in the wrong direction. You can have a Tasbeeh in your hand doing Dhikr, and at the same time shaytan is giving you Waswasah inside. But the Hukm is that you don’t have to worry about shaytan’s Waswasah – don’t worry. Waswasah will continue to come and will keep on coming, and shaytan will keep on inviting you, but if you keep to your Tasbeeh steadfastly, your Dhikr is being accepted. You will not just get normal Thawab, but rather extra Thawab on top of that when you have to struggle and make effort. But you say ‘Oh Yar, I am doing Dhikr but shaytan is pestering me. I am thinking about women and about alcohol and Zina, so forget Dhikr. What’s the point of going to Hadhrat Sahib’s Majlis every day and sitting in Dhikr?’ In this way, shaytan slowly extracts a person.
Hakim-ul-Ummah Hadhrat Asqilani rahmatullah alayh said ‘Beware! Allah has given you a path. In your Salah, you used to ask for a path, and Allah has given you this Mercy. This is the door of Jannah that Allah has given to you.’ The Sheikh helps you with your Deen, and you won’t realise how you are being protected and how your love for goodness is being revived and your inclinations to evil are being controlled – otherwise, you would have committed those sins. A person screams and says ‘Oh Allah, I have committed this sin’, and he laments and cries because he hasn’t kept the connection with the solution that Allah has mentioned in the Qur’an.
Allah says {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ} What a great statement that Allah ta’ala makes! Allah has said and has given Hukm that you cannot attain Taqwa from Salah, from fasting or from Hajj. Taqwa cannot be obtained from these things. You can only attain Taqwa from a transfer from a pious chest into your chest and heart. You have to work hard, very hard, with a sincere Niyyah. I tell you that while my Hadhrat was alive, I put my greatest effort into keeping myself attached to my Sheikh for every second, whether I was with them or in this country. When I realised this point, I made it my mission not to be detached from my Sheikh for even a second or a moment, understanding that detachment from my Sheikh was the route to Jahannam. When Allah ta’ala gives you this path, don’t consider it minor. The connection with the Sheikh is a huge, momentous matter, so we should never fail to take his assistance; take hold of his cloak and never leave the side of the Sheikh. If thoughts come, it doesn’t matter.
Allah’s Wali has mercy and concern. If somebody doesn’t come, the Sheikh doesn’t need to ask, but if he does, then shaytan puts more Waswasah into the mind of the student, such as ‘Oh, your Sheikh has greed. He wants something from you, and that’s why he keeps inviting you. Maybe he has less Mureeds now and that is why he is calling you.’ I swear by Allah, the Walis of Allah have no desire for Mureeds or a large following or group. I have seen times when thousands of people have come to Dhikr, and times when there are four or five brothers gathered around – there is no difference in the feeling at either of these two extremes. Why should there be? There is only one objective. This path is very precious, my brothers!
The discussion has gone somewhat off the original topic. Maybe Allah wanted us to discuss this fantastic topic, even if my intention was to say something else. But we do what Allah desires – the Majlis is Allah’s! We are His guests and we have come here because Allah ta’ala wants to do our Islah. So Allah ta’ala suppressed my thoughts and diverted the direction of my thought to another route. This is a very important point and I am now thinking about it myself. Many people fall into this trap because they don’t understand what Tasawwuf is. We are all sat here, and some people think ‘Look at these people sat here. What is in this Majlis? This is a Dhikr Jamat sat here – they just do Dhikr all the time.’
But what is behind this? Seventy or eighty years ago, such a unique Wali of Allah was on this earth, and he revived the people and Allah’s Rahmah came into the world. And he prepared a man, a western man who was not on the right path. He didn’t send a Molvi or a Mufti or an Alim, rather he took a dirty spider from that dirty place and revived him and told him to explain to people in his own words what Dhikrullah is, in terms that those people could understand. Allahu Akbar! Imagine this extraordinary scenario. People say ‘Oh, he’s not a Mufti or a Muhaddith.’ When Mufti sahib comes to give Tableegh, people understand that. But this person came from this environment, and he studied here and wandered around the streets here. His background was here, and he spent Christmases here and saw all the different facets of life. He had a lot of money and a colourful life and came from a family of high status. He had everything you could want in the world. This is Allah’s selection, and nothing can be better than the selection of Allah. Allah selects whoever He wants to do His work. This is the Sunnah of Allah, which is to send an individual who can have an impact. Which sin is Allah ta’ala not aware of? There is no question - Allah ta’ala knows everything. But He sends a person who himself knows about the prevalent sins.
I am telling you about the practical experience of my life. We human beings have two parts to our lives, and we can only be saved through one route. I tried to save myself from sins by going to speeches and conferences, but nothing affected me positively, nothing. But Allah hears the Dua that comes from the heart, and He gives the solution when that shriek comes from the depths of the servant’s heart in isolation. ‘Oh Allah, I am sick of sins! Call me to Yourself! I can’t see You, I can’t find You – oh Allah, I am immersed in the Dunya and I can’t find Your nearness! Oh Allah, guide me!’ And then Allah ta’ala sent me on a journey to my Hadhrat Sahib, SubhanAllah. Allah accepts those Duas that are made from the depths of the heart. Look, who is closer to us than Allah? Allah is closer to us than our jugular vein. Allah says ‘At least ask from Me! Ask from Me!’
I once went to the Masjid to pray Salah – this incident happened long, long ago – and a person was sat there at Dhuhr Salah, Asr Salah, Maghrib Salah. He was a young, handsome-looking man, and eventually I spoke to him, saying ‘I have seen you sitting here all day – what are you doing?’ He said ‘I have come from another country, and I am in a distressed condition.’ I said ‘What are you upset about?’ He said ‘There are so many sins within me, so I have been making Dua since this morning, begging Allah to send me to someone or some place where I can be saved from my sins, where I can save myself!’ Allahu Akbar. So I took my card out of my pocket and gave it to him, saying ‘There is a Khanqah nearby of a pious person. Go there this evening.’ SubhanAllah, that man’s life changed – I saw it with my eyes. Allah ta’ala invites, and through His Karam and Mercy, Allah ta’ala prepared the solution and the path for him.
But we don’t ask – we are afraid of asking. We think ‘If I ask, then I will have to leave the sins, stop watching TV, leave the bad things I do on my phone, leave my vices. Oh Allah, give me something so I can have Dunya and the Hereafter.’ Such weird solutions we seek nowadays. ‘Oh Allah, give me Dunya and Akhirah as well. No, don’t go to that man – he’s too strict. He will make you leave the Dunya.’ People say this, worried that this path will remove the attractions of the Dunya from their lives. But this is what brings Allah’s nearness! There are two choices, so you have to leave one of them! If you want Allah, then implement one path - bring the Sibgatullah, the colour of Allah, into your life, and take the rest out of your life. Stop holding on to two opposite paths and being two-faced. So if somebody gets this path, then he should stick to it and never leave it, because it is the greatest path.
To return to the Hadith that I was explaining earlier, there are two solutions for leaving sins: Sohbat of the Sheikh and Dhikrullah. There is no other way. Take hold of these two solutions and stick to the path, however much shaytan may pester you. Don’t leave the path. Remember how Yusuf alayhi salam had a dream, and after many years, the interpretation was made clear to him? And Yunus alayhi salam, a great Prophet, was sent into the darkness of the stomach of the whale. He stayed there saying ‘La ilaha illa anta, Subhanaka! Inni kuntu min adh-Dhalimeen’, and eventually he was brought out. But how many days did he stay there, a Prophet, reciting that Dua in the darkness? Why did Allah show us these examples? What is being explained to us here? Allah is telling us not to be in a rush. You are asking from Allah, who is not miserly and stingy. He will give to you at the right time according to His Hikmah, to His wisdom. Don’t try to force the issue.
Does the treasure chest of Allah lack anything? If you ask for Hidayah, do you think that Allah will not give it to you? If you ask from an honest, sincere heart and say ‘Oh Allah! Please, make me like the person in whose company I am sitting!’ then Allah will make you like him. The colour will come onto you. This is called {كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ}. When you go into the company of a Wali of Allah, say ‘Oh Allah, allow his colour to overwhelm me!’ But we think ‘Oh no, he will be too strict. Don’t go to his gathering because he will make you leave so many things.’ Can a person succeed this way? You can’t even succeed in this life with this way of thinking. Shaytan will continue to trick you and will strengthen your dirty desires. He will make you do Shirk because this is Shirk! He will keep on making you worship the idols inside you. You will continue to worship them.
So I was telling you about how sins proliferate in the heart, and how shaytan makes big sins seem minor. Now think: what sin do you think Bayazid al-Bistami rahmatullah alayh might have committed to have earned that punishment? He said ‘The sin came to me’ – say SubhanAllah! Listen to the sin. He said ‘The sin I had committed to deserve this big punishment came in front of me – I couldn’t even imagine this.’ What was the sin? He said ‘It happened today when I left the Masjid in the morning.’
SubhanAllah – remember, shaytan’s mission continues, no matter how great a Wali of Allah may be. Remember one point. We think that the Walis of Allah are free from any worries and that they have no issues. No, a person with the most concerns and distress is actually the biggest Wali of Allah. The biggest sign of a Wali of Allah is that he has more fear than anyone. If Adhab comes down upon a village in which a Wali of Allah is living, he will say ‘This punishment is due to me!’ He will take the blame on his own shoulders, feeling that he is the biggest sinner. He won’t go saying that this or that person is a sinner; he won’t point the finger at anyone else. The Wali of Allah has so much fear that he cries during the night due to his worry about his faults. This is the status and sign of a Wali of Allah, even if he has hundreds and thousands of Mureeds. Look at the great personal example of the Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. If he attended any gathering, he would recite Astaghfar seventy to one hundred times before leaving the gathering. What was this factor, tell me? Hadhrat Aisha as-Siddiqua said to him ‘You are forgiven! You are the Prophet of Allah – what has happened to you? Why do you cry so humbly such that the ground is soaked by your tears?’ SubhanAllah!
This is a sign of closeness to Allah, and you should write down this point to embed it within yourselves. MashaAllah, you are with me, and you are thousands of times better than me and you have great status – I am just an impure spider. But reflect deeply on this point: when me and you do Tasbeeh and do Dhikr of Allah in the company of the Sheikh, then what change should come over us? The fear of Allah should come into us. Think ‘How much fear of Allah has come into me?’ The more fear of Allah comes, the more you will have the signs of friendship with Allah. Remember, Wilayah and its Maqams and ranks are not shown here. I swear by Allah, it is when a person goes into the grave that he will find out. He will be shocked and say ‘Ya Allah, is this the status that You gave me in the world? Was this my level?’ When you are received in the grave, you will be surprised to see your Maqams and levels. Allahu Akbar.
What is the sign of this? It is not some outward sign like Hifdh or Qiraat or titles like Hadhrat Sahib. The only sign of closeness to Allah is that a person is extremely fearful of Allah subhana wa ta'ala, SubhanAllah. If someone says something bad to him, then he will cry all night long, thinking ‘Ya Allah, I have made a big mistake. What did I do to provoke this person? In what way have I infringed upon his rights? In what way was I unreasonable to my wife today?’ He will also be the same in respect to his children, feeling great remorse if he had to discipline them in a way that upset them. He will go over it in his mind, thinking about how he could have approached it in another way. He has so much fear of Allah inside him that he trembles about every action he does, and prays ‘Ya Allah, please don’t punish me for this.’
Now Hadhrat Bayazid al-Bistami rahmatullah alayh is that great personality who is linked by this Silsila to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and whose Faidh is spreading to all of the Dunya, all around the world. Imagine his status! What did he say? He said ‘Oh! What happened was that in the morning, when I left the Masjid, I made a mistake.’ Look at his analysis - this is what great Walis of Allah do. He said ‘The mistake that I made was that today, I did not put on my shoes according to the Sunnah. Allah has shown me that this was my error.’ Allahu Akbar! So what is the Tariqa of putting on shoes and leaving the Masjid, my brothers? When you leave the Masjid, which foot should leave the Masjid first? Listen carefully now. Which foot should step out first when you leave? The left foot. And when you put on shoes, which shoe do you put on first? The right shoe. So what is the method you should adopt when leaving the Masjid? If you put down your shoes and step into your right shoe first, then which foot has left the Masjid first? Tell me, Sufis! So what is the Sunnah in this situation?
The Sunnah in this situation is what I learned from my Sheikh rahmatullah alayh, from my teacher in his Khanqah – not from a Kitab. Hadhrat Sahib would put on his shoes in this manner. When he would leave the Masjid, one of the Khadims would put the shoes down for him outside the door of the Masjid - and I was there as well alhamdulillah. So when the shoes are put down, you leave the Masjid with the left foot and place it on top of the left shoe, and then you put the right foot inside the right shoe, following which you put your left foot into the left shoe. SubhanAllah, this is the method. Do you understand the Tariqa? This is the way to do it. Leave the Masjid with the left foot and place the left foot on top of the left shoe, then put on the right shoe. Now shaytan got in the way, although, SubhanAllah, he was a great Sheikh. For whatever reason, Allah ta’ala used him as an example in this matter and made him understand that ‘Oh Bayazid, today you rejected the obedience to My Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and so I made your wife disobedient to you!’ Allahu Akbar! This is the effect of sin on a human being – his wife became disobedient immediately.
Now look at our own obedience to the Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Imagine the extent of disobedience in our lives! The Deen is the same Deen, and we are human beings as well, and we have the same Qur’an, and the Sunnah is the same. Nothing can change. Nothing is different – the Deen is the same. If we look at ourselves today, which doors are open for us today? But we don’t work hard and we don’t make an effort and we don’t sit with the good people where we can learn these principles of the Deen. Today it seems as if we have a different colour of Deen altogether. It is the Sunnah to put on shoes in this way. Look at the importance of Sunnah in our lives. By rejecting just one Sunnah, his wife became disobedient, so what of those who reject Sunnah throughout their lives? Who will be obedient to such a person? His children? His wife? The people of his house? His relatives? No! Such an individual is burned down like a burned-out village. We are burned down people with nothing to our name. Who listens to us or wants to know us apart from shaytan and Jinn? Nobody is our friend. Where is the Sunnah in our lives? It is nowhere.
I remember another event of a pious elder. If I remember rightly, his name was Abdul Ahad bin Zaid rahmatullah alayh, and he had a great status, like Hadhrat Bayazid al-Bistami. He was a great Sheikh from among our Akabireen. This has suddenly come into my mind so I would like to share it with you. He was a unique Sheikh with many Karamaat and miracles and a very high status – you will probably have heard of him. He made a unique Dua - every Pious elder has his own particular style and every person has a unique quality. He would make this Dua after his Mujahidah and hard work, saying ‘Oh Allah, I would like to make a request to you.’ This is the Wali of Allah talking to his Rabb - imagine his Dua! This is the sort of connection that is needed to clean yourself and become close to Allah. What was his Dua? He said ‘Oh Allah, I ask that You show me the woman that will be with me in Paradise.’ SubhanAllah, he had this wish to know. ‘Can I please see the woman who will be my partner in Paradise?’ The time came when Allah ta’ala said ‘Yes, you can see her. In Kufa, there is a woman called Maimoona Sauda. She is a black woman of Habishi descent, a poor woman. This Maimoona Sauda is to be your partner in Paradise. If you want to see her, go and find her.’
This is the friendship with Allah – look how Allah ta’ala opens the doors and uncovers the roots, SubhanAllah. And everyone can become a friend of Allah like this – everybody. That is why we have come here. We can all be Walis of Allah – that is why we are here. Look at how much fear of Allah is in the heart, how much our hands tremble when we commit a sin, when we say something bad to someone. How much fear is inside us after we do Dhikr? We should think about this and analyse this. Either we have this concern, or we are Munafiqs and have come into this Order to waste time, and we don’t want to make any effort and don’t have any intention to work hard. Whatever stories we tell ourselves internally, there are only two things: either we are playing games, or it is real. If it is real, then assess how much fear there is inside you, because we have come here to develop fear of Allah. Dhikrullah is the path to develop fear of Allah.
So he made this Dua to be shown the woman who was to be his partner in Paradise, because he wanted to see who she was – and Allah told him where to find her. Who was the Paradise wife of this great Wali of Allah? A poor Habishi woman with nothing to her name in a low state in the world. So he was told her name and got permission to go and see her; and he was thinking that she must be very beautiful and so on. He made the journey, with the permission of Allah, to a small village near Kufa, and when he arrived, he asked the whereabouts of Maimoona Sauda. He was thinking that she must be very beautiful and elegant as the future wife of a Wali in Jannah. They said ‘Yes, there is a woman of that name. She is a poor woman who owns a few goats. She will have gone out to graze them – she is not often in the village.’ So he searched and found her sitting on the bank of a stream with her goats nearby, and he saw that there were wolves wandering around as well. And then he saw that the wolves and the goats were drinking from the stream side by side and grazing together! He said ‘Are you Maimoona Sauda al-Habishi?’ She said ‘Yes, that’s me. But why have you come here to see me? We were supposed to meet each other in the Akhirah.’ SubhanAllah! She said ‘Why have you come here ahead of time?’ He said ‘The One who informed you has also sent me! Otherwise, I would not have come. I was told to come and see my wife-to-be.’ She said ‘Be gone with you! Me and you are to meet in the Akhirah. You can look at me then. All the Hoors will be humble in front of me because Taqwa is made apparent in the Hereafter!’
In marriage, we look for beautiful women, but we should look for a woman of Iman, whatever her complexion. Say SubhanAllah! If you are looking for a wife, don’t look at exterior beauty; rather, look for inner beauty, for Taqwa. Taqwa is what you want in a wife. Don’t look at worldly titles, look at Taqwa. We think ‘She’s this, she’s that, she’s beautiful, good-looking, elegant’ – no! The most important trait to look for when you are searching for a partner is how much fear of Allah she has, how much Taqwa. If she has this, then even if she is ugly, make her your wife, SubhanAllah.
So she said to him ‘We will meet in the Hereafter – why have you come here to look at me now?’ He replied ‘Yes, you are right. I will go - but answer one question for me.’ She said ‘Ask your question and then be gone. If you want to see goodness, wait until the Hereafter and then you can gaze upon me. Ask your question quickly.’ He said ‘What I want to ask concerns what I am seeing here. These are your goats, and I see that wolves are here also. Wolves never spare goats, so how is it that they are friends and live side by side, eating together and drinking together? What is the secret behind this?’ She said ‘I will tell you. There is only one secret behind this: when I made friendship with Allah, then Allah made friendship between the goats and the wolves.’ SubhanAllah!
My brothers, this is the greatest secret to success. We should make friendship with Allah, make a settlement with Allah; we should make up with Allah and make a bond with Allah. How do we do this? Allah is upset with us due to our sins – this is not some small displeasure. The desires will arise within, but don’t implement them! Control those desires by means of Dhikrullah and Sohbat-e-Sheikh. Take a strong hold of Dhikrullah and connection to a teacher, and the more negative thoughts come, keep running to your Sheikh. Do Tasawwur-e-Sheikh – think about your teacher and put the words of your Sheikh into practice. Neagative thoughts will come, and sins as well, but they can become gold for you if you run to this solution. Allah has given you the path.
There is a wonderful point that we need to consider here. What a beautiful path of Islah Allah ta’ala has given to us. Ok, sins are committed, you have done something wrong, you have lied or done something or said something wrong which has made you shake and tremble – at least, you should shake and tremble! When you say something wrong, you should regret it immediately and think ‘How come I did this?’ And the simple way to compensate for this, which is so easy and makes you clean and polished, is to do Astaghfar to Allah subhana wa ta'ala immediately after you do a sin. This will make you polished and clean straightaway. Do Astaghfar without delay, saying ‘Oh Allah, forgive me! I looked at this girl – forgive me, Allah. This wrongful feeling was within me.’ By doing this, you will gain control of the wrongful passions that arise and which are within us naturally. There is nothing wrong with them in themselves, but you can learn to enjoy controlling them and suppressing them.
Allah ta’ala has given us a chance now. You can get a high status of Paradise right now just by controlling the sins. And where does the power to control sins come from? From the company of the Sheikh, SubhanAllah. That is where you will get this from. As soon as the urge arises, do Tasawwur-e-Sheikh, focus your thoughts on the Sheikh. You will be able to choose: is the face of your Sheikh beautiful, or is the face of this woman beautiful? Dislike of the sin will arise instantly, and you will not allow yourself to put the face of your Sheikh behind you. You will say ‘I cannot look at this sin’ after which you should say Astaghfar three times. At this, shaytan will get fed up. He has power, but he melts when you have the company of the Sheikh. He may put very small whispers into you, but he says ‘This person has become so strong – he is stronger than me now.’ Shaytan knows this.
So this is my request to you. Sin is a massive issue; it is a big force, and it has an effect for sure. However, there is nothing that can destroy you, for there is a root cause of all destruction and loss, as the Hadith tells us. When we lose out, the reason is that we have committed a sin, and the effect of the sin is that our children are disobedient, or that we experience some pain or such like. Whatever loss comes to us in our life, there is a reason – and the root cause is sin. So then immediately think and work out what that sin was, and then go to your Rabb and say ‘Allah, I have committed this sin and I seek forgiveness. Oh Allah, give me the power not to do this again, for You have the Power and I am Your servant. InshaAllah I will not commit this sin again.’ Then Allah will say ‘Go, I forgive you! You are now as clean and pure as you were before.’
May Allah ta’ala give all of us the Tawfeeq. Ameen
Recite Durood Sharif.
26th Jan, 2021
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