The Most Dangerous Thing
"قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه و سلم "مِنْ حُسْنِ إسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ
Hadhrat Ali Bin al-Hussain radhiAllahu anh reported that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam made a great statement, and with the Barakah of this Ramadhan, alhamdulillah, and with the Barakah of the gathering of Dhikr, Allah ta’ala has given us the Tawfeeq to hear it in these final days and final moments of Ramadhan. This Hadith has been repeated continuously for 1400 years, and today we are in our own age and we have our own lives – one person is this old, someone else is that old – so if we have not heard this Hadith before, what was the issue? The Hadith is present, so what we realise is that to hear the Qur’an and the words of our beloved Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam, something is needed, namely a person needs to have the Niyyah, the intention.
Alhamdulillah, from the depths of my heart, I can say with certainty that we are all sat here with a good intention, and that we all have the Niyyah that Allah ta’ala makes us pious. We don’t think that we are pious and fine and have achieved, and that everything about us is good, and that our eating is good, and our clothes are good - no. We are full of mistakes, but we are totally hopeful in the Rahmah of Allah. Allah al-Karim has given us the Tawfeeq in these moments of Ramadhan to come to this Majlis with Fikr, thinking ‘Oh Allah – correct us!’ So how could Allah ta’ala then leave us empty-handed? We all have this Niyyah – what other Niyyah do we have? Otherwise, we could have prayed Salah and then gone home to do other things; there are thousands of things we could do – open our doors, go out, sit down, enjoy ourselves. There are thousands of paths and routes - chit-chat, gossip and so on. There are many things to do, but no – Allah directs us according to our Niyyah. Hence the importance of developing intention in the heart, because regarding this dusting of Niyyah that we have, this seeking and longing for Allah ta’ala’s nearness and for the Akhirah that we have, then Allah says {وَٱلَّذِينَ جَـٰهَدُواْ فِينَا لَنَہۡدِيَنَّہُمۡ سُبُلَنَاۚ} that not just one or two paths, but so many paths will open up – more paths than you can imagine.
In the light of this understanding, I have presented this Hadith in your service. A great personality, the grandson of Hadhrat Hussain radhiAllahu anh, the son of Hadhrat Ali radhiAllahu anh, is narrating this Hadith from his grandfather sallallahu alayhi wasallam, so imagine the Barakah of the words. He relates how Islam can become beautiful, Kamil, excellent, complete, and better – Husn-al-Islam. So how can it become good and excellent for us? This is the question for us today with regards to Islam and the five pillars. What is the best Islam and the best Iman? And not just the best, but Husn - beautiful Islam. And what is beautiful Islam? It is beautiful Iman. And on another level, it is beautiful Salah, and beautiful fasting and beautiful Hajj and beautiful Zakah. Allah is telling us how to achieve all of these things. What is the factor that we need? The more beautiful and Haseen something is, the more it attracts and is liked, and Allah ta’ala “يُحِبُّ الْجَمَال”- SubhanAllah. So how could Allah ta’ala like us to have things that don’t look good or are not nice? How would Allah like Salah which is not nice, or a fast which is not nice? They have forms – they have an image and an appearance. We can spoil their appearance and we can also make their appearance beautiful – say SubhanAllah.
Regarding the actions that we do and the Salah we pray, you can always strive to make them more beautiful. It’s up to us. You can put on foundation and powder and make-up, and you can decorate them. You can beautify your Salah as much as you want, and when you present it this way, it will become beloved to Allah. “إِنَّ اللَّهَ جَمِيلٌ يُحِبُّ الْجَمَالَ” – ‘Indeed Allah is beautiful, and He loves beautiful things.’ So what beautiful thing did Allah’s beloved Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam say here? He’s saying ‘Why don’t you beautify your Salah and make it good-looking?’ It is the weakness of our Iman that makes us pray Salah without regard for this. If our Iman is not beautiful and if our Iman is ugly, how can we make the pillars of our Iman beautiful? They will also be ugly and neglected. We are in the habit of neglecting our deeds and taking them for granted. If you ask someone if he has prayed his Salah, he says ‘Yes – all done. Prayed it.’ If the father asks his son if he has kept a fast, he says casually ‘Yeah, yeah – I fasted.’ This is common, but Allah’s Nabi is saying ‘No, no – make your actions beautiful. Put Husn into your deeds.’
Our deeds will be presented in the Court of Allah tomorrow, and we want to get rewarded for our actions, so the point is that we should aim to present beautiful deeds – there should be Husn in our actions. We should do beautiful Salah and beautiful Ibadah – the very glory of a Mu’min is that his Iman should be beautiful, his Salah should be beautiful, his fasts should be beautiful, his Zakah should be beautiful. And then what will he become? He will become a very beautiful human being in the Sight of Allah. He will become so beautiful that angels will descend just to see that person. This is why it is said that when you go to the Majalis of the friends of Allah, then Allah’s special mercies descend there. One pious elder was walking in the extreme heat of the day, and he was asked ‘Hadhrat, where are you going in this intense heat? It is mid-afternoon in the desert, and you are going on a journey – where are you going?’ When he mentioned a distant location, they asked again ‘Why are you going all that way?’ So he replied ‘There is a Wali of Allah there who is holding a gathering, and I have heard that Allah’s Rahmahs descend on such a gathering.’ SubhanAllah. He was a person who ate and drank as well – probably less than we do, with our roast chickens and chapatis and wealth and the Ni’mahs of Allah that we consume – but compare their condition to ours. Allah has given us so many Ni’mahs, so we should at least refine and improve our Ibadaat. This is the greatest Shukr.
There are so many of our colleagues who are ill today – our heart breaks when we hear that those who sit with us are not well. May Allah protect everybody – there is no guarantee that any of us stay free of illness. This person is sick, that person is sick – we heard just now about a colleague in Pakistan who has fallen ill suddenly. Poor soul, he is a regular who sits at the front in the Majalis of Dhikr – a real Dervaish, along with his whole family. He is a Dhakir, his father is a Dhakir, his brother is a Dhakir – they are all Dhakirs. Shahid Sahib is his name, a man of little speech, and now the fever has overtaken him, and he is receiving treatment and is struggling. As for you and me, Allah has given us health – what a great Ni’mah. Ask a sick person how great a Ni’mah good health is – say SubhanAllah. There is a couplet which describes the condition of someone who is sick, and when he is offered food, he says ‘No, no – I don’t feel like eating.’ If you offer him pilau rice, he says ‘No – I can’t eat pilau at the moment.’ If you say to him ‘Come out for a little walk,’ he says ‘I can’t come out – I have got a very high fever.’ SubhanAllah. If you say ‘Come – let’s go and pray Salah,’ he says ‘How can I pray Salah? I can’t even get up.’
Today, alhamdulillah, Allah ta’ala has given us food and drink and opportunities and health, so never take these Ni’mahs for granted. We don’t think, brothers - we don’t think. Allah ta’ala has given us such great Ni’mahs, so first and foremost, starting now, we should present actions to Allah ta’ala that are beautiful. Allah has given us health, so we shouldn’t just use it for work and going to the factory and earning money. The first thing you should do when you wake up is say ‘Oh Allah, You have given me good health, so I will perform all of my Salah to a high standard. Never mind my work – You haven’t given me good health for working.’ Say SubhanAllah. ‘You haven’t given me health and wealth for gossiping and chit-chat, or for travelling here and there to events where I can natter and gossip, or to go here and there looking for work. No, You have given me this great Ni’mah of health, and I have no guarantees about tomorrow, so I make a promise to You right now, on this very day, that I will perform the worship You have made compulsory for me at the highest level. Even if I have to leave my worldly activities, I will make that Ibadah as beautiful and excellent as I can. Never mind if I have to leave my shop, my business, my friends, my family – I will leave everything, oh Allah! To show gratitude for my health, I will present my Sajdah in an excellent manner in Your Court.’
Do you understand what I am saying? This is the objective of a human being, and this is how to live your life according to Allah’s desire. Allah has given you health, so you should follow Allah’s desire and worship Him to an excellent standard. This is the function of a Mu’min. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying ‘You ignorant people, don’t you look at your Ibadah? What are you doing? Make your Ibadah beautiful!’ That is why we are all sitting here – the reason we have come to this Majlis is so that we can correct our Ibadaat. The blessed habit of Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam was not to raise a problem and then withdraw. No – he would give a solution at the same time and explain how to do it. Shall I tell you? Will you do it? Will you make your Ibadah beautiful? InshaAllah, from today we will resolve to make the objective of our lives to perform and present our Ibadah in Allah’s Court to an excellent standard. Allah ta’ala has given you health, and after eating, this is the first action in repayment of this favour. We have not got colds and our noses are not running – this is the distribution of Allah. Allah is testing us with health, and Allah is testing us also with the chapattis and pilau that He has given us. Say SubhanAllah. So when Allah ta’ala gives you food in your stomach and health, MashaAllah, when He gives you all this, the first action we should do, not looking left and right at your car or your house or your wife, is make intention ‘Oh Allah, I will do great and excellent Ibadah today in return for what You have given to me.’
This first point is so great that I do not feel like progressing in this discussion. This first point is so vast. Look how Allah ta’ala instils words into my heart. Did I study a Kitab before I spoke to you, or open a Kitab while speaking? By Allah, I am fasting – I tell you that I didn’t appreciate this point myself before today. Even I have realised this today. Why? Because Allah says that if we have pain and concern for others, then He will have pain and concern for us. I didn’t prepare a speech, nor did I come prepared to deliver a lecture – did you think that I came to speak for your sake? No - rather, I am speaking for my own self! SubhanAllah. The point is that Allah ta’ala’s favour is such that He says ‘If you think about others, then I will give to you at the same time.’ SubhanAllah. So when you sit and I sit, and when I attach the microphone and take off my blanket and my mask and turn towards you, I make Dua for beneficial words, and then Allah ta’ala instils these words into my mind and heart. The words start flowing out, and I say these valuable points.
Today, Allah ta’ala has given us such a great recognition and has made us realise. Allah is saying ‘I have given you health - so what are you doing with this health I have given you?’ Let us analyze this today. I would say that ninety-nine percent of people here today, when they wake up in the morning, the first thoughts and concerns that they have are about their shops and their businesses or their children getting a place at some institute or other. Did anyone think and appreciate in their heart that Allah has given them health, and ask what they can do to get closer to Allah and follow His Path and correct themselves? No-one has this Fikr in the morning. InshaAllah, after today, this whole gathering will have this Fikr. Will you have this Fikr or not? At least 1000 to 1500 people will be listening to these words now, both men and women, and with the Fadhl of Allah, everyone will have this concern from today. When we wake up in the morning, the first thought and concern should be ‘Oh Allah ta’ala, You have given us life and good health, and You have kept me healthy despite this sickness that has spread all over the world.’
And this sickness is particularly bad in Bolton at the moment – this town currently has a very high rate of sickness, to the point that they have mentioned specific areas of Bolton where the disease is spreading particularly rapidly. I don’t know what area this Masjid is in – where is Great Lever? Is it close? It is not far from here, is it? Is there anyone sitting here who is from Great Lever? Is there anyone present? If so, you should go home. Yes? They have banned those residents from moving around. But look at the achievement of Dhikr, SubhanAllah. Allah ta’ala says ‘Do Dhikr, and Corona will run away InshaAllah.’ What? We are sitting in Great Lever now? Then I should pray Salah first. Be cautious and keep your masks on – this is also from the Sunnah. Whoever is not wearing a mask should become a human being and put a mask on. I didn’t know that this Masjid falls in the area where this issue is prevalent. Okay – well this is the situation that we are in. Insan should think and analyze.
So from today, we should start thinking based on concern for others, and Allah ta’ala will give rewards and bounties. What reward will Allah give? Listen – today, if we got up and spoke to Allah, saying ‘Oh Allah, I am grateful to You for the health You have given me, and for keeping me free from flu or cough or a runny nose or sneezing. I understand that You have given me health today so that today I can make the Ibadah that I do excellent and great.’ If we say this and make this Dua in the morning, then wait and see the benefit that you will get tomorrow, SubhanAllah. Tomorrow, you will see the benefit. How? Allah ta’ala says ‘Whoever is grateful to Me {لَٮِٕن شَڪَرۡتُمۡ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمۡۖ} – I increase and multiply My favours upon him.’ So if you are grateful for the health you have today, then tomorrow you will wake up with good health as well – look at this point. What a great guarantee Allah gives if we have this factor of gratefulness. We will be saved tomorrow as well if we are grateful today. Shukr is a great Wazifah – it is a great thing to do on a daily basis.
I could go further with point, but now let us come back to the Hadith. What does this Hadith say? Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying ‘Forget the games and the dramas and make the Ibadah that you present to Allah beautiful. Wake up and be conscious, because Allah has given you an opportunity with good health and much more besides.’ So how will the Ibadah become beautiful? The Hadith explains here. I am not educated, but I can read the Hadith, alhamdulillah. I don’t know anything else, but I can read the Qur’an and Hadith, and whatever Allah ta’ala wants me to learn, He makes me remember that. Do you ever see me read Hadith from a Kitab? How many Moulanas are sat here? MashaAllah, you are respected scholars. I look and make Dua to Allah ta’ala and then the Hadith comes into my heart. I just read this Hadith recently, alhamdulillah. Can you memorise a Hadith that quickly? No.
Ali bin al-Hussain narrates: “قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه و سلم "مِنْ حُسْنِ إسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ"” That is the whole Hadith that I have just recited to you. I didn’t go to Dar-ul-Uloom but I did go to the Khanqah – SubhanAllah. So what we realise is that you acquire Ilm from Dar-ul-Ulooms, but you also acquire Ilm from the Khanqahs. The Tariqa in the Dar-ul-Uloom is different from the Tariqa in the Khanqah, but from both, you acquire Ilm. So that means I am an Alim as well! Yes? You got a degree from there and I got a degree from the Khanqah. You have got a certificate from the Dar-ul-Uloom, and I was given a certificate from Hadhrat Ali Murtaza rahmatullah alayh. He said ‘Okay, you have finished now, so go and teach Dhikrullah and give Khutbahs.’ He told me to give Khutbahs, so am I an Alim or not? Tell me. Put your hand up if you accept this. MashaAllah – well done. This is the Yaqeen that you have now - you can become an Alim from both a Khanqah and a Dar-ul-Uloom. SubhanAllah.
So now this is the situation – how did Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam say that you can make your Salah and all your Ibadah beautiful? They can become so beautiful and decorated via this one method that he tells us here. What is that one method? To leave wasteful and nonsensical discussions. We pray Salah, but waste so much time in wasteful talk – there is no limit to the amount of time we waste. This is a sign that we are close to the Day of Judgement, and the biggest Fitnah will come in this era. The biggest Fitnah in this era is that there are so many roots to wasting time. You will lose count if you try to enumerate all the nonsense, needless methods of time-wasting that exist nowadays. But what does Allah ta’ala say? That it is of the greatest of achievements if, in the most difficult of times and the most challenging of eras, you do the actions that Allah likes and you make your Salah beautiful and your Ibadah beautiful and stick to it; if you do this, then Allah says that He will elevate that person and shower Rahmah upon him.
So today, you cannot complain because you are not living in the day and age of the Sahaba or because there are no Walis of Allah here or that you are living in a difficult age – look at the good news. If you are placed in a challenging and difficult era, then Allah says that the Thawab available is greater than for the people of previous times. So do you want Thawab? If not, what else do you want? It could be that if you had been in the era of the Sahaba, you wouldn’t have had Yaqeen – and what would the outcome have been then? Was Jahannam not in existence at that time also? How many people were in the party of Abu Jahl at that time? There were so many, and we could have been in that group – astaghfirullah. It is not a problem or a cause to worry that we are living in a time far away from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam when Qiyamah is closer, because Allah ta’ala has protected us as well. Allah ta’ala has given us protection by means of two things, namely Dhikrullah and the Sohbat of the Awliya’llah - we have been given these two assets. Allah ta’ala has given protection until Qiyamah, and it doesn’t matter how much Fitnah and disorder comes. However many Fitnahs come, even if Fitnah rains down, we have been given these two umbrellas, so pick them up, stay underneath them, and inshaAllah no Fitnah will affect you. SubhanAllah – say SubhanAllah.
The first protective umbrella is Dhikrullah and the second is Sohbat al-Awliya’llah. Allah ta’ala says {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ} - this comes under this definition, so the Qur’an tells us this. And there are so many Hadiths on this subject. So even if we are weak and many lives are immersed in Fitnah, we are sitting under the umbrella of Hadhrat Ali Murtaza rahmatullah alayh – we are protected, alhamdulillah. There are so many Fitnahs outside; someone is obsessed with this matter, someone else wastes all his time on his phone – both women and men waste time so much that you cannot even imagine it. One person is sitting swearing at a person and saying he is this and that, someone else is quarrelling for no reason, someone is chatting endlessly on the phone to people in Pakistan – and all just to pass the time, just to waste time. But SubhanAllah, may I be sacrificed for the benefit of this valuable time that is soon to end, because Allah ta’ala has given us Fikr and concern this Ramadhan and is telling us ‘Go – make your fast beautiful!’ SubhanAllah - whose Barakah is this? {كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ}
So you have understood this point today, and now you know how great the company of the Wali of Allah is. You haven’t attained the company of a Wali of Allah, but you have made that Niyyah, that intention, and perhaps you have considered me to be a Wali of Allah, and Allah ta’ala says that if a person makes a good intention, he is rewarded accordingly. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘No problem – I will give you what you intend.’ So through your good, pious intention, I may be counted as a Wali of Allah – otherwise, how could I be a Wali of Allah? You will get the reward for that, whether or not I am counted as a friend of Allah. Allah ta’ala says ‘I will give you that full Faidh’ – this is the Fadhl of Allah. Don’t look at my deficiencies or at my level of Ilm, rather, look at the Fadhl of Allah and at the grace of Allah. If you take hold of the root to attain Allah’s nearness, then Allah says ‘There is no problem if it is weak – I can make it solid. I will make it stronger for you – I will make it a motorway for you. I can turn a dirt-track into a motorway for you.’ So don’t look critically at me, thinking ‘Oh Hadhrat Sahib is doing this, and Hadhrat Sahib is doing that.’ Don’t look at my defects and my sins, my brothers. Rather than looking at my defects, look at Allah’s Fadhl instead, and be grateful that Allah ta’ala has provided you with a good environment in the shade of a tree. In a dry, desert environment, Allah ta’ala has given you a tree under which you can find shade, as well as a fountain with which to quench your thirst. So don’t complain after today, saying ‘Who are you? What are you?’ – just accept what you have and think ‘My Sheikh knows best.’ Continue on your journey with Yaqeen – all of those here who have Yaqeen, put your hands up. MashaAllah.
So my brothers, Allah ta’ala brings you to the Masjid Himself. We are on that path, and if you come to a broken-down person with the intention of {كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ}, do you think that you will leave empty-handed? Who is empty-handed? We have Dhikr in the morning and Dhikr in the evening and excellent discussions, so don’t be distracted by small mistakes and errors. We are in the shade inshaAllah, so our defects float around outside and do not come in. Shall I explain this point to you as well? This point has just come into my heart – shall I share it with you? What does it mean that they will stay away? It means that they will stay in this Dunya and won’t go into our grave. Those sins will not go into your grave and pester you but will stay in the world. Before you go into the grave, those sins will be eliminated because you have been under the shelter of the umbrella – SubhanAllah.
What great discussions can come out of one Hadith. There are two days left – in two days’ time, we will realise. Look around at this Majlis – this is the Rahmah of Allah. There have been so many changes since last year – Corona has come, people have died, we have had lockdowns and restrictions, we have learned so much terminology related to these things, we are all wearing masks. All of this has happened in one year, so be grateful to Allah that He has given us everything with goodness. Who has any guarantee about what will happen next year, or about what could happen between now and then? We are in the era of Fitnah, so be grateful millions of times over for the moment that we have been given right now, because we don’t know what is going to happen after today. We don’t know. We should have total Yaqeen that Allah ta’ala has given us these moments through His Rahmah, and that we are sitting here through Allah’s Fadhl and grace, and that these moments are so precious that if we were to close our eyes and pass away now, we would go directly to Paradise. Our Yaqeen should be solid that this is the value of the action that we are engaged in as we sit here. I am sharing these points with you in the light of Qur’an and Hadith, and this is called being grateful for Allah’s Ni’mahs. Don’t take a U-turn, my brothers, okay? Don’t take a U-turn.
So what is the cure? If you want to make your Ibadah beautiful, then do one action to combat this generation of Fitnah – run away from wasteful talk; save yourself from wasteful talk – take a U-turn when you come across wasteful talk or gossip-mongering. The more you can save yourself from wasteful discussions, the more your Salah will become beautiful. You will pray Salah in the same way and the Imam will be the same and the carpet will be the same, but what will change? If you do Amal on this Nasiha of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, then you will not engage in wasteful actions.
Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh addressed this issue. I may not be educated, but my mind is drawn to these points while we are talking. I have shared the name of a beautiful personality here – Hadhrat Hakeem-ul-Ummah Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi Farooqui. He is also a Farooqui rahmatullah alayh. He stated that there are three grades of talk or discussion. The best grade is those statements that give benefit in both this world and the Hereafter. Talking and making statements that give benefit in this world and the Hereafter is very beneficial. The worst grade consists of statements that give loss in both this world and the Hereafter – this is wasteful talk and is very dangerous. Today, we are mostly trapped in this kind of talking that brings no benefit in either this world nor the Hereafter, talk which makes it hard for us to sleep properly and to hear properly. This is the case, isn’t it? Are you not getting loss from these actions which are dangerous and have no benefit? Your body is not getting any benefit, and your health is not benefitted, but we are running after discussions like these. Promise that after today, when you pray Salah, you will have the Fikr to make that Salah beautiful and worthy of being presented in the Court of Allah. And best way to do that is to have some self-control and don’t get involved with wasteful discussions. Do not occupy yourself in wasteful discussions or actions or pastimes.
After you have prayed Salah, shaytan will come straightaway. After you have prayed Salah, shaytan will come as you stand around and someone will say ‘How are you? What’s happening?’ and start a wasteful conversation with no objective at all. If you want to save yourself from this, as soon as you have prayed your Fardh Salah, then keep your eyes down and leave straight away. But what do we do? When Salah has finished, we look to the left and right to see if there is someone there who we can have a chat with. ‘How are you?’ they say. ‘What’s happening? If you try to leave, people even grab you and say ‘Why are you not stopping to talk,’ and they pull you over and start talking. Do we not do this? We start talking without doing any other Ibadah or Dhikr or Tasbeeh, and if someone advises us to do so, we say ‘I have just prayed Salah. That’s it – I’ve done it. Why are you saying that I have not prayed?’ This is not the Salah that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given to us.
There are many levels of Salah - this is going to your Rabb, so have a thought for where it is going. There are many ways of giving a gift as well; you could say casually ‘Oh here, have this,’ but is that the way to give a gift? I will give you an example: say someone wants to give you a small gift – a pen or a watch or a toy. He wants to give something, and the more love and esteem he has for the person he is giving to, the more belief in them he has and the more he feels their glory and has respect for them in his heart, then the more care he will take over the presentation of that gift. Is this not the case? Even if, for example, you were giving a receipt to someone, one person might just hand it over and say ‘Here - take it,’ whereas another person would look for an envelope and seal it, thinking ‘It would look bad if I just handed it over.’ Someone might even put perfume on the envelope before they present it. Is there a difference or not? Tell me. Why? It doesn’t make any difference to the person to whom you are giving - rather, who is differentiated by this behaviour? The person giving the gift – it is his Darajaat that are increased. Why? Because you respected him and showed regard. Allah says that if you cook a dish for someone and present it nicely, then the brightness of that Ibadah increases.
If you are giving a gift to the Queen, you won’t just send it as it is - no. You would protect it and wrap it and seal it, and as you do so you would think ‘This is going to reach the hands of the Queen and she will touch it herself.’ This is how we would behave in this worldly example, so how about the Salah that we are sending to the King of kings? Does your Salah not go to the King of kings? It does. It doesn’t just stop here in the world, does it? Yes, your Salah goes, your fasting goes, your Hajj goes, your Zakah goes. Once it has been prayed, your Salah has gone – it has become detached from you. Some Salahs send curses upon the person who prayed them, saying ‘You made me wretched and cursed!’ The Qur’an itself warns of curses upon those who recite it in the wrong manner. Even then, we don’t understand.
So what do we need to do? We need to make our deeds beautiful, to wrap them up and apply fragrance to them. The fragrance has been given and the wrapping paper has been given and the method of beautifying our Salah has been given – what is that? It is that as soon as you pray your Fardh Salah or complete any Ibadah, including fasting, beware and remember that you have to give it beauty - so do not waste your time in wasteful talk and actions. Leave them. Never look at other people as they stand around after Salah or after breaking the fast and start asking how the fast was. Don’t fall into smoking cigarettes and having a chat – you see thousands of people on the road and on the street after Salah. What’s the point of staying there on the pavement? Why are they there? They call ‘Moulana!’ and then they drag that person to their house to talk, the poor soul, with no need to do so at all. Do you understand what I am saying? Do you take this point and accept this Mas’alah? This is a good discussion, isn’t it? So where is our Salah and where are these points? Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that every action and every second is precious for a Mu’min, so if you know that there will be wasteful talk and wasteful actions, then leave that nonsense and time-wasting. Be grateful to Allah that you have prayed Salah and show this by protecting it and making it beautiful through avoidance of backbiting and of speaking badly about people - and don’t look down on anyone.
Now let’s go beyond this – this is a Majlis of the Sufis, so we don’t just stop here. I will promote you inshaAllah and take you further. So let us go forward. Okay, so we have understood the point that we have to protect ourselves from wasteful talk, and if we do this, our Ibadah will become beautiful. So we need to save ourselves and be cautious about what we say and discuss, and if we do so, our Ibadah will become beautiful. The next point is to understand and request insights about how to save ourselves from such wasteful talk and nonsense. Say SubhanAllah. Nafs and shaytan are present – when we come out of the Masjid, people are there waiting, and they try to force our Nafs to take part. You have seen this but now look at where this Faqir takes you – look at the end point. Stopping to talk is also a destination, for people are attracting you as you come out; so many things can pull us in. So tell us, Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, how can we save ourselves? Oh Master of Madina, tell us. The reply comes ‘Don’t worry – you just need to create the love, and I will explain everything to you’ - SubhanAllah. ‘Recite Durood upon me and I will tell you everything – I will reveal everything’ – SubhanAllah.
Look here now and focus in. Do you want to be saved from this? Raise your hands. MashaAllah – excellent, well done. I will tell you the method of being saved from wasteful talk. There was a Dervaish Sahabi, a pious Sahabi – and this is not my assessment, but that of the Sahaba-e-Kiram, who affirmed that this Sahabi was pious. The noble Companions themselves said that he was pious, and the respected scholars will correct me if I say anything wrong. Just correct me if I say something wrong here or there. The Companions themselves mentioned to each other that he was a Dervaish, and they agreed that they should not disturb him due to the fact that he was a pious Dervaish. What was his name? Abu Dharr al-Ghifari radhiAllahu anh - was he not a pious Companion, my brothers? Allah ta’ala gave us these examples in that bunch of flowers that surrounded the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Abu Bakr had his own fragrance, Umar had his fragrance, and Abu Dharr also had his fragrance, SubhanAllah. Today we realise that the fragrance of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari was so beautiful that we are smelling it as we sit here in Bolton. His fragrance emanates from this Hadith that I am reciting to you – what a great cure we are receiving, for it will prevent us from being trapped in wasteful talk. I swear by Allah – that is why I am sharing this with you.
These are the words of Ramadhan – now another point has come into my heart. I had a question as to how this point could be linked to Ramadhan, but I embarked on the discussion with confidence that Allah would make a link between this point and Ramadhan, so that you could understand it in the context of Ramadhan. InshaAllah this point will stay in my mind. In any case, the cure is coming. What is this solution for? Firstly, so that we can make our Ibadah beautiful and acceptable by freeing ourselves from wasteful talk with friends and colleagues. We need to give up saying ‘Oh, aren’t you making tea for me today? I haven’t seen you for many days – how’s it going? What’s going on? What are you saying today? What business are you in nowadays?’ How can we save ourselves from this gossip-mongering? Look at the solution to this problem. That Dervaish, that pious Companion, was mentioned in a Hadith in Mishkat along with another Companion – correct me if I get his name wrong. I learned this Hadith in the Khanqah.
So Hadhrat Imran radhiAllahu anh said that one day he was looking for Abu Dharr in the Masjid, and he found him wrapped in a torn blanket or a sheet, lying in a corner. He asked him ‘O Abu Dharr, what are you doing here lying in the Masjid?’ It was a question a bit like ‘How are you? What’s going on? What’s the latest? What are you doing here with this blanket wrapped around you?’ These were both Companions, remember. So Abu Dharr turned a little bit, he unwrapped his sheet a little – say SubhanAllah. Through my passion and love, it is as if I can see this happening in Madina, SubhanAllah. Yes? When I share a Hadith and discuss a Hadith, in my heart it feels as if I am looking at the scene with my own eyes. So Abu Dharr radhiAllahu anh is lying down and Imran bin Khattam radhiAllahu anh came into the Masjid, which was an old Masjid with dust on the ground. Abu Dharr was lying down in the dust, wrapped in a black sheet – ah, my thoughts are going there as I speak. Hadhrat Imran disturbed him by speaking to him, so he just moved his sheet a little bit, looked at him, and asked ‘What is the issue?’ He said ‘What are you doing lying down here quietly?’ Abu Dharr replied ‘Be quiet – do your own thing.’ It is as if I can see this discussion in front of me, SubhanAllah. All these points come out from the heart, and it is not necessary to see things with your eyes, because with the heart you can see them – at this point, you may be saying that this person is weird and crazy!
So Abu Dharr looked at Hadhrat Imran and said ‘What’s the issue?’ and he replied ‘It’s nothing – I just saw you lying there and wondered what you were doing here.’ So listen to the reaction of this Sahabi: first and foremost, whose reference does he take? He takes the reference of his friend. He wants to reply, but first he delves into his heart for a reference - from whom? From Nabi al-Karim sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He said ‘Why are you asking me? Let me refer you to what Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said to me.’ He has not opened the secret to him at this point, and so he said ‘Shall I tell you?’ he said ‘Yes please tell me.’ So Hadhrat Abu Dharr said ‘Listen, Allah’s Nabi once told me something and I am doing Amal on that statement.’ Hadhrat Imran said ‘What advice are you doing Amal on?’ He said ‘The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that the best friend is solitude and loneliness.’ SubhanAllah! He was saying to him ‘Going out with people and shaking hands and chit-chatting and gossip-mongering and talking is not real friendship. These are not your real friends – rather, they are your enemies.’ SubhanAllah. ‘These people you are standing around chatting with are not your friends – I’ll tell you who your friend is. The friend is the one who the Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam says is a friend. If I am pious today, this is only because I have followed what Allah’s Nabi told me to do. Only if you listen to his guidance can you become good. My Nabi told me who would be my best friend and my best colleague, so why should I go to other people. I want to have the company of the best friend.’ Then he wrapped up his blanket around him again. Say SubhanAllah. Then Hadhrat Imran radhiAllahu anh asked him to complete the point so that he could get the full benefit, so he opened his blanket again – I can see this before me. Abu Dharr radhiAllahu anh is lying down like this, and his colleague is stood next to him. So he said to him ‘The very best colleague is who?’ I am giving you the meaning of the Hadith here. He said ‘The very best friend you can have is loneliness and solitude, and as for talk and discussion that comes onto your tongue’ – listen to what he said here. The second thing he said was that nonsense, pointless, idle talk is the worst thing and is the most destructive form of speech. Idle, wasteful talk that has no objective or underlying reason is the most dangerous and destructive talk. The tongue is the most dangerous thing.
Listen to another Hadith. One Sahabi asked a beautiful question of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He said ‘Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, I have had a thought.’ He was a Sahabi, so what thought was he having? See how they shared and delivered to us every atom’s weight of discussion that they had with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, so that we are benefiting even today. Our brains are blind without their insights. So he said ‘Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, it seems to me as if I am looking again.’ Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘What is it that you are asking me?’ He said ‘Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, tell me please, in your eyes, according to your heart, and as far as you are concerned, what is the most dangerous thing?’ Allahu Akbar – the whole solution has been given to us here. If Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam replies to this, then beyond any snakes or scorpions, this will be the root of all dangers, the most dangerous thing for your Deen, for Islam, for your Iman. This will be the most dangerous thing that will take you to Jahannam and destroy your Salah and destroy your fasts. This is a Hadith that we need to listen to – this is a very beneficial Hadith, so listen to this. This thing will destroy everything, within a minute, within a second. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam stood up straight to give his reply – this Hadith is unique and great and Ajeeb. He gave the answer through his action – he stopped speaking.
The respected scholars are listening, and they will know what action he made – I can see this before me, MashaAllah. What action did he make? He showed his blessed face, and he opened his mouth, grabbed his tongue and said ‘This!’ Allahu Akbar - is this Hadith not in Mishkat? Look at it. He didn’t say anything else, rather he demonstrated with his actions by putting out his tongue, grabbing it and then saying ‘This!’ Allahu Akbar. He was telling us that the most dangerous thing, the thing through which all our Ibadah at night will be destroyed, will be speech that includes backbiting - our whole Hajj can be destroyed and our whole Ramadhan can be destroyed in this way. You can keep all the fasts of Ramadhan, but within seconds your tongue can destroy all of it. If you just utter one statement that Allah ta’ala does not like, will your Ramadhan still be there? Where will the Kalimah come out from? From your ears? Will that testimony of faith be made by your eyes? Where is it going to come from? Say it loudly – from the tongue. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said this – he showed this and demonstrated it physically. He held the tongue and said ‘This!’ He took hold of it.
So what has happened to the Ummah today? Why don’t we understand? We have been given such a straightforward lesson, that the thing which can destroy everything is the tongue. So why don’t we follow this clue? From these two Hadiths, we can understand Salah and the whole basis of Ramadhan. Say SubhanAllah. What a beautiful subject – I feel like extending this discussion. If we meet after Ramadhan, then I will give you three hours on this topic inshaAllah. Just one Hadith will suffice for three hours of discussion – if it is any less, you can complain to me. But you don’t meet me after Ramadhan, do you? It is only in Ramadhan that you are my friends - but I have a lot of time. Come to me and sit down – I have a lot of time. You know, when we were in the Khanqah and Allah’s Kalam was open in front of me, the Majlis used to last two and half or three hours in one sitting, alhamdulillah. Those colleagues who have been with me for many years can confirm this – put your hands up if you were with me in those days. Yes – they know, SubhanAllah.
People would complain and say ‘He’s a fundamentalist, he’s an extremist – grab him.’ What sort of fundamentalist am I, brothers? What have I done? I would explain to the brothers for three hours and tell them not to do bad actions and sins. Are these Hadith telling us to do bad things? They came to grab me, both my own people and strangers! Say SubhanAllah. Even our own people pointed me out and said ‘Don’t let him carry on doing this.’ Tell me - what crime was committed? I share Qala qala Rasoolullahi sallallahu alayhi wasallam and what came out of that blessed mouth. Na-oodhu bi’llah, I could not say something that he did not say. Did he not say to stop these actions? Tell me. I am sharing all these points from Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. We should understand these points as human beings. Never mind strangers, what about our own people? They didn’t appreciate it, and said ‘Oh, get him, hit him, take him out.’ That is why the Ummah has reached the situation in which we find ourselves today. Ask Allah for forgiveness – do Astaghfar. Those who behave like this are in a bad situation – a very bad situation. Those people will end up in the party of Abu Jahl, or of Ubay bin Khalaf who used to stand against Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam in Madina. Today we are those same people – we commit excess with the people who spread the Deen. Do we think we are spreading love?
That person who is spreading love and uniting people and teaching the way to live together is saving society. If you pick up the Bayans over the last sixty years, have I said anything bad? Is it wrong to tell people to pay their taxes? Have I spoken badly of anyone or committed any excess against anyone? I have always told my Mureeds to pay their taxes in full – do I not tell you this? They are saying that I am wrong, but I am just trying to save the society and the environment and the people – and I have been doing this for sixty years. I am not saying this for anyone’s good opinion – I have no need to suck up to anyone. Our Islam says this - that wherever you eat, share with those around you as well. So if you come to their country, then look after them and spread the Deen for them. Teach them and give them Islam – alhamdulillah, have many people not become Muslims? Say SubhanAllah. I am not wrong, my brothers – I only speak what is right.
So what was I saying to you? Let’s go back to that, SubhanAllah. So who did Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam say is the best colleague? Hadhrat Abu Dharr radhiAllahu anh said that the best colleague is isolation, and that the best word and discussion is what? It is the good word that comes from the tongue. So what we realise is that pointless talking is a very dangerous thing. So what is the cure for this? ‘Please tell us,’ you will say. A cure for both issues is coming to us, SubhanAllah. The cure to save yourself from wasteful discussion is coming – say SubhanAllah - and also the way to attain isolation and silence. Ramadhan has taught us this – say SubhanAllah. May I be sacrificed for Ramadhan – what have you taught us? Ramadhan has told us ‘This is the practice that I came to make you do – that is why I have kept this lesson until the end of Ramadhan. Without this, your Deen cannot be complete – a person must have silence in his life. If a person does not have isolation and seclusion in his life, Wa’llahi, his Deen cannot be saved today.’ Say SubhanAllah. That person will not be saved from wasteful talk. Ramadhan says ‘That’s why I have come – to give you this important message. I could have left without telling you, but this is why I came, and that is why I left this message until the end. I have taught you this physically, and that is why I gave you I’tikaf!’ SubhanAllah.
But, sad to say, today you cannot even see these two qualities in I’tikaf. Say SubhanAllah. Tell me. That Ibadah should be developed in I’tikaf, which has come to remove you from the wilderness and seal you in a corner so that you can practice these two things in your life, namely, isolation and silence. You will see the Barakaat of I’tikaf if you spend ten days doing this – I tell you this in the light of the Walis of Allah. I swear by Allah that there were those who spent ten days in this way in Ramadhan and then did Ziyarah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam with their eyes and even spoke to him, SubhanAllah. Through these two things, a person can attain these high Maqams - the Walis of Allah would practice I’tikaf for a whole month to practice this and attain this taste. They used to do I’tikaf for a whole month – that is how great an action it is. And this Ibadah comes from silence and isolation, from seclusion. This seclusion and silence is such a great Ibadah. If a person does not have this, there is no guarantee that his Salah will be saved or that his fast will be saved, because the two big enemies of gossip-mongering and talking will make him lose out. If a person uses his tongue in the wrong way, it is very dangerous – and this is why Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam stood up and told the Sahaba that it was a very dangerous thing. I swear by Allah, if you adopt the right solution, then you will be saved from the destruction of the tongue. Say SubhanAllah.
This is a beautiful discussion, but time is short and the fast will end soon – what time is Iftar today? 8.57? Okay, we will do Dhikr for two minutes. Do you understand brothers? Ramadhan has taught us two things, so don’t leave these actions. When I’tikaf ends, what will we do then? There is so much value to I’tikaf that at any time you come to the Masjid, as soon as you enter, make the Niyyah ‘Nuwaytu usalli I’tikaf’ – make that statement as you enter and remember the lesson of the I’tikaf of Ramadhan. Remember this for your whole life – as you come in, say ‘Oh Allah, I make Niyyah for I’tikaf,’ and Allah will reply ‘Don’t forget this statement now, for I will give you the great reward that I gave you during I’tikaf in Ramadhan.’ SubhanAllah! Why? Because there are two qualities in that Niyyah that you make whenever you come into the Masjid, so don’t talk, and don’t break the bounds of that isolation and seclusion - this is the Ruh of I’tikaf. Am I right or am I wrong, Moulana Sahib?
Is this happening today? Is I’tikaf happening like this today? Don’t take what I am saying badly – is I’tikaf happening like this today? The pious elders said ‘Don’t speak,’ and this didn’t mean that you shouldn’t do Tableegh, but every action that you do should have an objective when you do it. Every action has a Ruh, a soul, and you have to activate that Ruh in parallel with the action; you can’t make Islam up and do what you want. If you are going to do Tableegh, then do Tableegh, and when you set out to give Da’wah, then give Da’wah, and when it is time to sleep, then sleep, and when it is time to submit and bow, then bow, and when it is time to eat, then eat. Fasting has told us ‘Wait – there is a time for eating and for bowing and for breaking fast,’ so if you do your actions at the right time, they become Ibadah for you, SubhanAllah. So I’tikaf is about isolating yourself and becoming a stranger, and when you come out after ten days, you should come out such that everyone who sees you says ‘Oh, he’s different,’ and you should have forgotten who they are and should think ‘Who are these people?’ Your house should look strange, and people should look strange to you when you come out – but for us, sins have been refreshed because we have been fighting and quarrelling and talking. Oh servant of Allah, what did you gain from I’tikaf then? What did you learn from I’tikaf? Either you haven’t understood correctly, or I haven’t understood correctly. Do the Hadith not tell us these things?
What we should get from I’tikaf is silence and seclusion, and then we should practice this for the rest of our lives. If we ask ‘Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam – what should we do?’ he replies ‘Do these two things that I am giving to you, these two actions. And always do this – the Qur’an has given you this advice too: {وَٱذۡڪُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ڪَثِيرً۬ا لَّعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ}’ SubhanAllah - Dhikr of Allah contains all of these things. You won’t be in I’tikaf in every moment of your life, but if you become a Dhakir, both of these things will always be with you. If you are a Dhakir, you will have these two solutions with you all the time. Shall I tell you how? How can you get I’tikaf through Dhikr? How? How can you be saved from wasteful talk and wasteful use of the tongue? How will you get a good friend through Dhikr? How will you get seclusion and silence? How will you get these two things? Yes, you will get these things through Dhikr of Allah. How? Look, when you do Dhikr and remember Allah, saying La ilaha illa-llah, Allah says ‘There is a better Dhikr even than this – I will give you abundant Dhikr. I will give you something even better than that, which is the Dhikr of isolation and seclusion.’ Yes? Allah says ‘There are three levels: one is Dhikr out loud on the tongue, one is silent Dhikr on the tongue, and one is better than that.’ What is that? The Naqshbandi Dhikr, the Muraqabaat – do the Muraqabaat - SubhanAllah.
A person who is used to doing the Muraqabaat will not engage his tongue in wasteful talk, and he will be good at keeping silent. Khwajah Bahauddin Naqshband rahmatullah alayh said ‘He is not a Naqshbandi unless the Name of Allah has been imprinted on his heart.’ When the heart of a person becomes a Dhakir, he becomes immersed in Muraqabaat. He is always doing Muraqabah, and this is a guarantee for that person that if his tongue stops and he engages in Muraqabah, then everything else stops with the Fadhl of Allah. Silence overtakes that person – genuine silence overtakes that person. My brothers, do the Muraqabaat – do Dhikr of Allah, remember Allah. You will attain the whole cure for the issues raised in the Hadith of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam that I shared with you – you will be saved from wasteful talk and from time wasting activities, and you will get silence and seclusion. You will attain all the benefits, and then whatever Amal you do after that we will be beautiful beyond beautiful. That is why Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam explained that the best Salah is the Salah with Dhikr of Allah, and the best fast is that with Dhikr of Allah, and the best Hajj is that with Dhikr of Allah. Is this Hadith or not? Tell me. Why did he say this? Because after doing Dhikr, all of your deeds will be made beautiful, and there will be no wasteful talk and no wasteful use of time, and there will be no lying and bad speech, because whenever a person does Dhikr, his tongue stops.
May Allah ta’ala give all of us the ability to practice this. Ameen.
Okay – how much time is left until we break the fast? Three minutes? Okay, we will do one minute of Muraqabah, and in that one minute we will arrive in Jannah inshaAllah! Close your eyes and do Muraqabah in the way that I have explained to you.
28th May, 2021
MashaAllah
11th May, 2021
MashaAllah
11th May, 2021
Allahumdolilla no one can explain like this so simple ..
11th May, 2021
SubhanAllah as always beautiful. Hadhrat sahib always presents the truth and the real deen Alhamdulillah in a straight forward way. Fortunate to have such guidance and lessons delivered to us Alhamdulillah.
"قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه و سلم "مِنْ حُسْنِ إسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ
Hadhrat Ali Bin al-Hussain radhiAllahu anh reported that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam made a great statement, and with the Barakah of this Ramadhan, alhamdulillah, and with the Barakah of the gathering of Dhikr, Allah ta’ala has given us the Tawfeeq to hear it in these final days and final moments of Ramadhan. This Hadith has been repeated continuously for 1400 years, and today we are in our own age and we have our own lives – one person is this old, someone else is that old – so if we have not heard this Hadith before, what was the issue? The Hadith is present, so what we realise is that to hear the Qur’an and the words of our beloved Habeeb sallallahu alayhi wasallam, something is needed, namely a person needs to have the Niyyah, the intention.
Alhamdulillah, from the depths of my heart, I can say with certainty that we are all sat here with a good intention, and that we all have the Niyyah that Allah ta’ala makes us pious. We don’t think that we are pious and fine and have achieved, and that everything about us is good, and that our eating is good, and our clothes are good - no. We are full of mistakes, but we are totally hopeful in the Rahmah of Allah. Allah al-Karim has given us the Tawfeeq in these moments of Ramadhan to come to this Majlis with Fikr, thinking ‘Oh Allah – correct us!’ So how could Allah ta’ala then leave us empty-handed? We all have this Niyyah – what other Niyyah do we have? Otherwise, we could have prayed Salah and then gone home to do other things; there are thousands of things we could do – open our doors, go out, sit down, enjoy ourselves. There are thousands of paths and routes - chit-chat, gossip and so on. There are many things to do, but no – Allah directs us according to our Niyyah. Hence the importance of developing intention in the heart, because regarding this dusting of Niyyah that we have, this seeking and longing for Allah ta’ala’s nearness and for the Akhirah that we have, then Allah says {وَٱلَّذِينَ جَـٰهَدُواْ فِينَا لَنَہۡدِيَنَّہُمۡ سُبُلَنَاۚ} that not just one or two paths, but so many paths will open up – more paths than you can imagine.
In the light of this understanding, I have presented this Hadith in your service. A great personality, the grandson of Hadhrat Hussain radhiAllahu anh, the son of Hadhrat Ali radhiAllahu anh, is narrating this Hadith from his grandfather sallallahu alayhi wasallam, so imagine the Barakah of the words. He relates how Islam can become beautiful, Kamil, excellent, complete, and better – Husn-al-Islam. So how can it become good and excellent for us? This is the question for us today with regards to Islam and the five pillars. What is the best Islam and the best Iman? And not just the best, but Husn - beautiful Islam. And what is beautiful Islam? It is beautiful Iman. And on another level, it is beautiful Salah, and beautiful fasting and beautiful Hajj and beautiful Zakah. Allah is telling us how to achieve all of these things. What is the factor that we need? The more beautiful and Haseen something is, the more it attracts and is liked, and Allah ta’ala “يُحِبُّ الْجَمَال”- SubhanAllah. So how could Allah ta’ala like us to have things that don’t look good or are not nice? How would Allah like Salah which is not nice, or a fast which is not nice? They have forms – they have an image and an appearance. We can spoil their appearance and we can also make their appearance beautiful – say SubhanAllah.
Regarding the actions that we do and the Salah we pray, you can always strive to make them more beautiful. It’s up to us. You can put on foundation and powder and make-up, and you can decorate them. You can beautify your Salah as much as you want, and when you present it this way, it will become beloved to Allah. “إِنَّ اللَّهَ جَمِيلٌ يُحِبُّ الْجَمَالَ” – ‘Indeed Allah is beautiful, and He loves beautiful things.’ So what beautiful thing did Allah’s beloved Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam say here? He’s saying ‘Why don’t you beautify your Salah and make it good-looking?’ It is the weakness of our Iman that makes us pray Salah without regard for this. If our Iman is not beautiful and if our Iman is ugly, how can we make the pillars of our Iman beautiful? They will also be ugly and neglected. We are in the habit of neglecting our deeds and taking them for granted. If you ask someone if he has prayed his Salah, he says ‘Yes – all done. Prayed it.’ If the father asks his son if he has kept a fast, he says casually ‘Yeah, yeah – I fasted.’ This is common, but Allah’s Nabi is saying ‘No, no – make your actions beautiful. Put Husn into your deeds.’
Our deeds will be presented in the Court of Allah tomorrow, and we want to get rewarded for our actions, so the point is that we should aim to present beautiful deeds – there should be Husn in our actions. We should do beautiful Salah and beautiful Ibadah – the very glory of a Mu’min is that his Iman should be beautiful, his Salah should be beautiful, his fasts should be beautiful, his Zakah should be beautiful. And then what will he become? He will become a very beautiful human being in the Sight of Allah. He will become so beautiful that angels will descend just to see that person. This is why it is said that when you go to the Majalis of the friends of Allah, then Allah’s special mercies descend there. One pious elder was walking in the extreme heat of the day, and he was asked ‘Hadhrat, where are you going in this intense heat? It is mid-afternoon in the desert, and you are going on a journey – where are you going?’ When he mentioned a distant location, they asked again ‘Why are you going all that way?’ So he replied ‘There is a Wali of Allah there who is holding a gathering, and I have heard that Allah’s Rahmahs descend on such a gathering.’ SubhanAllah. He was a person who ate and drank as well – probably less than we do, with our roast chickens and chapatis and wealth and the Ni’mahs of Allah that we consume – but compare their condition to ours. Allah has given us so many Ni’mahs, so we should at least refine and improve our Ibadaat. This is the greatest Shukr.
There are so many of our colleagues who are ill today – our heart breaks when we hear that those who sit with us are not well. May Allah protect everybody – there is no guarantee that any of us stay free of illness. This person is sick, that person is sick – we heard just now about a colleague in Pakistan who has fallen ill suddenly. Poor soul, he is a regular who sits at the front in the Majalis of Dhikr – a real Dervaish, along with his whole family. He is a Dhakir, his father is a Dhakir, his brother is a Dhakir – they are all Dhakirs. Shahid Sahib is his name, a man of little speech, and now the fever has overtaken him, and he is receiving treatment and is struggling. As for you and me, Allah has given us health – what a great Ni’mah. Ask a sick person how great a Ni’mah good health is – say SubhanAllah. There is a couplet which describes the condition of someone who is sick, and when he is offered food, he says ‘No, no – I don’t feel like eating.’ If you offer him pilau rice, he says ‘No – I can’t eat pilau at the moment.’ If you say to him ‘Come out for a little walk,’ he says ‘I can’t come out – I have got a very high fever.’ SubhanAllah. If you say ‘Come – let’s go and pray Salah,’ he says ‘How can I pray Salah? I can’t even get up.’
Today, alhamdulillah, Allah ta’ala has given us food and drink and opportunities and health, so never take these Ni’mahs for granted. We don’t think, brothers - we don’t think. Allah ta’ala has given us such great Ni’mahs, so first and foremost, starting now, we should present actions to Allah ta’ala that are beautiful. Allah has given us health, so we shouldn’t just use it for work and going to the factory and earning money. The first thing you should do when you wake up is say ‘Oh Allah, You have given me good health, so I will perform all of my Salah to a high standard. Never mind my work – You haven’t given me good health for working.’ Say SubhanAllah. ‘You haven’t given me health and wealth for gossiping and chit-chat, or for travelling here and there to events where I can natter and gossip, or to go here and there looking for work. No, You have given me this great Ni’mah of health, and I have no guarantees about tomorrow, so I make a promise to You right now, on this very day, that I will perform the worship You have made compulsory for me at the highest level. Even if I have to leave my worldly activities, I will make that Ibadah as beautiful and excellent as I can. Never mind if I have to leave my shop, my business, my friends, my family – I will leave everything, oh Allah! To show gratitude for my health, I will present my Sajdah in an excellent manner in Your Court.’
Do you understand what I am saying? This is the objective of a human being, and this is how to live your life according to Allah’s desire. Allah has given you health, so you should follow Allah’s desire and worship Him to an excellent standard. This is the function of a Mu’min. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying ‘You ignorant people, don’t you look at your Ibadah? What are you doing? Make your Ibadah beautiful!’ That is why we are all sitting here – the reason we have come to this Majlis is so that we can correct our Ibadaat. The blessed habit of Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam was not to raise a problem and then withdraw. No – he would give a solution at the same time and explain how to do it. Shall I tell you? Will you do it? Will you make your Ibadah beautiful? InshaAllah, from today we will resolve to make the objective of our lives to perform and present our Ibadah in Allah’s Court to an excellent standard. Allah ta’ala has given you health, and after eating, this is the first action in repayment of this favour. We have not got colds and our noses are not running – this is the distribution of Allah. Allah is testing us with health, and Allah is testing us also with the chapattis and pilau that He has given us. Say SubhanAllah. So when Allah ta’ala gives you food in your stomach and health, MashaAllah, when He gives you all this, the first action we should do, not looking left and right at your car or your house or your wife, is make intention ‘Oh Allah, I will do great and excellent Ibadah today in return for what You have given to me.’
This first point is so great that I do not feel like progressing in this discussion. This first point is so vast. Look how Allah ta’ala instils words into my heart. Did I study a Kitab before I spoke to you, or open a Kitab while speaking? By Allah, I am fasting – I tell you that I didn’t appreciate this point myself before today. Even I have realised this today. Why? Because Allah says that if we have pain and concern for others, then He will have pain and concern for us. I didn’t prepare a speech, nor did I come prepared to deliver a lecture – did you think that I came to speak for your sake? No - rather, I am speaking for my own self! SubhanAllah. The point is that Allah ta’ala’s favour is such that He says ‘If you think about others, then I will give to you at the same time.’ SubhanAllah. So when you sit and I sit, and when I attach the microphone and take off my blanket and my mask and turn towards you, I make Dua for beneficial words, and then Allah ta’ala instils these words into my mind and heart. The words start flowing out, and I say these valuable points.
Today, Allah ta’ala has given us such a great recognition and has made us realise. Allah is saying ‘I have given you health - so what are you doing with this health I have given you?’ Let us analyze this today. I would say that ninety-nine percent of people here today, when they wake up in the morning, the first thoughts and concerns that they have are about their shops and their businesses or their children getting a place at some institute or other. Did anyone think and appreciate in their heart that Allah has given them health, and ask what they can do to get closer to Allah and follow His Path and correct themselves? No-one has this Fikr in the morning. InshaAllah, after today, this whole gathering will have this Fikr. Will you have this Fikr or not? At least 1000 to 1500 people will be listening to these words now, both men and women, and with the Fadhl of Allah, everyone will have this concern from today. When we wake up in the morning, the first thought and concern should be ‘Oh Allah ta’ala, You have given us life and good health, and You have kept me healthy despite this sickness that has spread all over the world.’
And this sickness is particularly bad in Bolton at the moment – this town currently has a very high rate of sickness, to the point that they have mentioned specific areas of Bolton where the disease is spreading particularly rapidly. I don’t know what area this Masjid is in – where is Great Lever? Is it close? It is not far from here, is it? Is there anyone sitting here who is from Great Lever? Is there anyone present? If so, you should go home. Yes? They have banned those residents from moving around. But look at the achievement of Dhikr, SubhanAllah. Allah ta’ala says ‘Do Dhikr, and Corona will run away InshaAllah.’ What? We are sitting in Great Lever now? Then I should pray Salah first. Be cautious and keep your masks on – this is also from the Sunnah. Whoever is not wearing a mask should become a human being and put a mask on. I didn’t know that this Masjid falls in the area where this issue is prevalent. Okay – well this is the situation that we are in. Insan should think and analyze.
So from today, we should start thinking based on concern for others, and Allah ta’ala will give rewards and bounties. What reward will Allah give? Listen – today, if we got up and spoke to Allah, saying ‘Oh Allah, I am grateful to You for the health You have given me, and for keeping me free from flu or cough or a runny nose or sneezing. I understand that You have given me health today so that today I can make the Ibadah that I do excellent and great.’ If we say this and make this Dua in the morning, then wait and see the benefit that you will get tomorrow, SubhanAllah. Tomorrow, you will see the benefit. How? Allah ta’ala says ‘Whoever is grateful to Me {لَٮِٕن شَڪَرۡتُمۡ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمۡۖ} – I increase and multiply My favours upon him.’ So if you are grateful for the health you have today, then tomorrow you will wake up with good health as well – look at this point. What a great guarantee Allah gives if we have this factor of gratefulness. We will be saved tomorrow as well if we are grateful today. Shukr is a great Wazifah – it is a great thing to do on a daily basis.
I could go further with point, but now let us come back to the Hadith. What does this Hadith say? Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying ‘Forget the games and the dramas and make the Ibadah that you present to Allah beautiful. Wake up and be conscious, because Allah has given you an opportunity with good health and much more besides.’ So how will the Ibadah become beautiful? The Hadith explains here. I am not educated, but I can read the Hadith, alhamdulillah. I don’t know anything else, but I can read the Qur’an and Hadith, and whatever Allah ta’ala wants me to learn, He makes me remember that. Do you ever see me read Hadith from a Kitab? How many Moulanas are sat here? MashaAllah, you are respected scholars. I look and make Dua to Allah ta’ala and then the Hadith comes into my heart. I just read this Hadith recently, alhamdulillah. Can you memorise a Hadith that quickly? No.
Ali bin al-Hussain narrates: “قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه و سلم "مِنْ حُسْنِ إسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ"” That is the whole Hadith that I have just recited to you. I didn’t go to Dar-ul-Uloom but I did go to the Khanqah – SubhanAllah. So what we realise is that you acquire Ilm from Dar-ul-Ulooms, but you also acquire Ilm from the Khanqahs. The Tariqa in the Dar-ul-Uloom is different from the Tariqa in the Khanqah, but from both, you acquire Ilm. So that means I am an Alim as well! Yes? You got a degree from there and I got a degree from the Khanqah. You have got a certificate from the Dar-ul-Uloom, and I was given a certificate from Hadhrat Ali Murtaza rahmatullah alayh. He said ‘Okay, you have finished now, so go and teach Dhikrullah and give Khutbahs.’ He told me to give Khutbahs, so am I an Alim or not? Tell me. Put your hand up if you accept this. MashaAllah – well done. This is the Yaqeen that you have now - you can become an Alim from both a Khanqah and a Dar-ul-Uloom. SubhanAllah.
So now this is the situation – how did Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam say that you can make your Salah and all your Ibadah beautiful? They can become so beautiful and decorated via this one method that he tells us here. What is that one method? To leave wasteful and nonsensical discussions. We pray Salah, but waste so much time in wasteful talk – there is no limit to the amount of time we waste. This is a sign that we are close to the Day of Judgement, and the biggest Fitnah will come in this era. The biggest Fitnah in this era is that there are so many roots to wasting time. You will lose count if you try to enumerate all the nonsense, needless methods of time-wasting that exist nowadays. But what does Allah ta’ala say? That it is of the greatest of achievements if, in the most difficult of times and the most challenging of eras, you do the actions that Allah likes and you make your Salah beautiful and your Ibadah beautiful and stick to it; if you do this, then Allah says that He will elevate that person and shower Rahmah upon him.
So today, you cannot complain because you are not living in the day and age of the Sahaba or because there are no Walis of Allah here or that you are living in a difficult age – look at the good news. If you are placed in a challenging and difficult era, then Allah says that the Thawab available is greater than for the people of previous times. So do you want Thawab? If not, what else do you want? It could be that if you had been in the era of the Sahaba, you wouldn’t have had Yaqeen – and what would the outcome have been then? Was Jahannam not in existence at that time also? How many people were in the party of Abu Jahl at that time? There were so many, and we could have been in that group – astaghfirullah. It is not a problem or a cause to worry that we are living in a time far away from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam when Qiyamah is closer, because Allah ta’ala has protected us as well. Allah ta’ala has given us protection by means of two things, namely Dhikrullah and the Sohbat of the Awliya’llah - we have been given these two assets. Allah ta’ala has given protection until Qiyamah, and it doesn’t matter how much Fitnah and disorder comes. However many Fitnahs come, even if Fitnah rains down, we have been given these two umbrellas, so pick them up, stay underneath them, and inshaAllah no Fitnah will affect you. SubhanAllah – say SubhanAllah.
The first protective umbrella is Dhikrullah and the second is Sohbat al-Awliya’llah. Allah ta’ala says {يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ} - this comes under this definition, so the Qur’an tells us this. And there are so many Hadiths on this subject. So even if we are weak and many lives are immersed in Fitnah, we are sitting under the umbrella of Hadhrat Ali Murtaza rahmatullah alayh – we are protected, alhamdulillah. There are so many Fitnahs outside; someone is obsessed with this matter, someone else wastes all his time on his phone – both women and men waste time so much that you cannot even imagine it. One person is sitting swearing at a person and saying he is this and that, someone else is quarrelling for no reason, someone is chatting endlessly on the phone to people in Pakistan – and all just to pass the time, just to waste time. But SubhanAllah, may I be sacrificed for the benefit of this valuable time that is soon to end, because Allah ta’ala has given us Fikr and concern this Ramadhan and is telling us ‘Go – make your fast beautiful!’ SubhanAllah - whose Barakah is this? {كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ}
So you have understood this point today, and now you know how great the company of the Wali of Allah is. You haven’t attained the company of a Wali of Allah, but you have made that Niyyah, that intention, and perhaps you have considered me to be a Wali of Allah, and Allah ta’ala says that if a person makes a good intention, he is rewarded accordingly. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘No problem – I will give you what you intend.’ So through your good, pious intention, I may be counted as a Wali of Allah – otherwise, how could I be a Wali of Allah? You will get the reward for that, whether or not I am counted as a friend of Allah. Allah ta’ala says ‘I will give you that full Faidh’ – this is the Fadhl of Allah. Don’t look at my deficiencies or at my level of Ilm, rather, look at the Fadhl of Allah and at the grace of Allah. If you take hold of the root to attain Allah’s nearness, then Allah says ‘There is no problem if it is weak – I can make it solid. I will make it stronger for you – I will make it a motorway for you. I can turn a dirt-track into a motorway for you.’ So don’t look critically at me, thinking ‘Oh Hadhrat Sahib is doing this, and Hadhrat Sahib is doing that.’ Don’t look at my defects and my sins, my brothers. Rather than looking at my defects, look at Allah’s Fadhl instead, and be grateful that Allah ta’ala has provided you with a good environment in the shade of a tree. In a dry, desert environment, Allah ta’ala has given you a tree under which you can find shade, as well as a fountain with which to quench your thirst. So don’t complain after today, saying ‘Who are you? What are you?’ – just accept what you have and think ‘My Sheikh knows best.’ Continue on your journey with Yaqeen – all of those here who have Yaqeen, put your hands up. MashaAllah.
So my brothers, Allah ta’ala brings you to the Masjid Himself. We are on that path, and if you come to a broken-down person with the intention of {كُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ}, do you think that you will leave empty-handed? Who is empty-handed? We have Dhikr in the morning and Dhikr in the evening and excellent discussions, so don’t be distracted by small mistakes and errors. We are in the shade inshaAllah, so our defects float around outside and do not come in. Shall I explain this point to you as well? This point has just come into my heart – shall I share it with you? What does it mean that they will stay away? It means that they will stay in this Dunya and won’t go into our grave. Those sins will not go into your grave and pester you but will stay in the world. Before you go into the grave, those sins will be eliminated because you have been under the shelter of the umbrella – SubhanAllah.
What great discussions can come out of one Hadith. There are two days left – in two days’ time, we will realise. Look around at this Majlis – this is the Rahmah of Allah. There have been so many changes since last year – Corona has come, people have died, we have had lockdowns and restrictions, we have learned so much terminology related to these things, we are all wearing masks. All of this has happened in one year, so be grateful to Allah that He has given us everything with goodness. Who has any guarantee about what will happen next year, or about what could happen between now and then? We are in the era of Fitnah, so be grateful millions of times over for the moment that we have been given right now, because we don’t know what is going to happen after today. We don’t know. We should have total Yaqeen that Allah ta’ala has given us these moments through His Rahmah, and that we are sitting here through Allah’s Fadhl and grace, and that these moments are so precious that if we were to close our eyes and pass away now, we would go directly to Paradise. Our Yaqeen should be solid that this is the value of the action that we are engaged in as we sit here. I am sharing these points with you in the light of Qur’an and Hadith, and this is called being grateful for Allah’s Ni’mahs. Don’t take a U-turn, my brothers, okay? Don’t take a U-turn.
So what is the cure? If you want to make your Ibadah beautiful, then do one action to combat this generation of Fitnah – run away from wasteful talk; save yourself from wasteful talk – take a U-turn when you come across wasteful talk or gossip-mongering. The more you can save yourself from wasteful discussions, the more your Salah will become beautiful. You will pray Salah in the same way and the Imam will be the same and the carpet will be the same, but what will change? If you do Amal on this Nasiha of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, then you will not engage in wasteful actions.
Hadhrat Thanwi Sahib rahmatullah alayh addressed this issue. I may not be educated, but my mind is drawn to these points while we are talking. I have shared the name of a beautiful personality here – Hadhrat Hakeem-ul-Ummah Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi Farooqui. He is also a Farooqui rahmatullah alayh. He stated that there are three grades of talk or discussion. The best grade is those statements that give benefit in both this world and the Hereafter. Talking and making statements that give benefit in this world and the Hereafter is very beneficial. The worst grade consists of statements that give loss in both this world and the Hereafter – this is wasteful talk and is very dangerous. Today, we are mostly trapped in this kind of talking that brings no benefit in either this world nor the Hereafter, talk which makes it hard for us to sleep properly and to hear properly. This is the case, isn’t it? Are you not getting loss from these actions which are dangerous and have no benefit? Your body is not getting any benefit, and your health is not benefitted, but we are running after discussions like these. Promise that after today, when you pray Salah, you will have the Fikr to make that Salah beautiful and worthy of being presented in the Court of Allah. And best way to do that is to have some self-control and don’t get involved with wasteful discussions. Do not occupy yourself in wasteful discussions or actions or pastimes.
After you have prayed Salah, shaytan will come straightaway. After you have prayed Salah, shaytan will come as you stand around and someone will say ‘How are you? What’s happening?’ and start a wasteful conversation with no objective at all. If you want to save yourself from this, as soon as you have prayed your Fardh Salah, then keep your eyes down and leave straight away. But what do we do? When Salah has finished, we look to the left and right to see if there is someone there who we can have a chat with. ‘How are you?’ they say. ‘What’s happening? If you try to leave, people even grab you and say ‘Why are you not stopping to talk,’ and they pull you over and start talking. Do we not do this? We start talking without doing any other Ibadah or Dhikr or Tasbeeh, and if someone advises us to do so, we say ‘I have just prayed Salah. That’s it – I’ve done it. Why are you saying that I have not prayed?’ This is not the Salah that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam has given to us.
There are many levels of Salah - this is going to your Rabb, so have a thought for where it is going. There are many ways of giving a gift as well; you could say casually ‘Oh here, have this,’ but is that the way to give a gift? I will give you an example: say someone wants to give you a small gift – a pen or a watch or a toy. He wants to give something, and the more love and esteem he has for the person he is giving to, the more belief in them he has and the more he feels their glory and has respect for them in his heart, then the more care he will take over the presentation of that gift. Is this not the case? Even if, for example, you were giving a receipt to someone, one person might just hand it over and say ‘Here - take it,’ whereas another person would look for an envelope and seal it, thinking ‘It would look bad if I just handed it over.’ Someone might even put perfume on the envelope before they present it. Is there a difference or not? Tell me. Why? It doesn’t make any difference to the person to whom you are giving - rather, who is differentiated by this behaviour? The person giving the gift – it is his Darajaat that are increased. Why? Because you respected him and showed regard. Allah says that if you cook a dish for someone and present it nicely, then the brightness of that Ibadah increases.
If you are giving a gift to the Queen, you won’t just send it as it is - no. You would protect it and wrap it and seal it, and as you do so you would think ‘This is going to reach the hands of the Queen and she will touch it herself.’ This is how we would behave in this worldly example, so how about the Salah that we are sending to the King of kings? Does your Salah not go to the King of kings? It does. It doesn’t just stop here in the world, does it? Yes, your Salah goes, your fasting goes, your Hajj goes, your Zakah goes. Once it has been prayed, your Salah has gone – it has become detached from you. Some Salahs send curses upon the person who prayed them, saying ‘You made me wretched and cursed!’ The Qur’an itself warns of curses upon those who recite it in the wrong manner. Even then, we don’t understand.
So what do we need to do? We need to make our deeds beautiful, to wrap them up and apply fragrance to them. The fragrance has been given and the wrapping paper has been given and the method of beautifying our Salah has been given – what is that? It is that as soon as you pray your Fardh Salah or complete any Ibadah, including fasting, beware and remember that you have to give it beauty - so do not waste your time in wasteful talk and actions. Leave them. Never look at other people as they stand around after Salah or after breaking the fast and start asking how the fast was. Don’t fall into smoking cigarettes and having a chat – you see thousands of people on the road and on the street after Salah. What’s the point of staying there on the pavement? Why are they there? They call ‘Moulana!’ and then they drag that person to their house to talk, the poor soul, with no need to do so at all. Do you understand what I am saying? Do you take this point and accept this Mas’alah? This is a good discussion, isn’t it? So where is our Salah and where are these points? Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that every action and every second is precious for a Mu’min, so if you know that there will be wasteful talk and wasteful actions, then leave that nonsense and time-wasting. Be grateful to Allah that you have prayed Salah and show this by protecting it and making it beautiful through avoidance of backbiting and of speaking badly about people - and don’t look down on anyone.
Now let’s go beyond this – this is a Majlis of the Sufis, so we don’t just stop here. I will promote you inshaAllah and take you further. So let us go forward. Okay, so we have understood the point that we have to protect ourselves from wasteful talk, and if we do this, our Ibadah will become beautiful. So we need to save ourselves and be cautious about what we say and discuss, and if we do so, our Ibadah will become beautiful. The next point is to understand and request insights about how to save ourselves from such wasteful talk and nonsense. Say SubhanAllah. Nafs and shaytan are present – when we come out of the Masjid, people are there waiting, and they try to force our Nafs to take part. You have seen this but now look at where this Faqir takes you – look at the end point. Stopping to talk is also a destination, for people are attracting you as you come out; so many things can pull us in. So tell us, Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, how can we save ourselves? Oh Master of Madina, tell us. The reply comes ‘Don’t worry – you just need to create the love, and I will explain everything to you’ - SubhanAllah. ‘Recite Durood upon me and I will tell you everything – I will reveal everything’ – SubhanAllah.
Look here now and focus in. Do you want to be saved from this? Raise your hands. MashaAllah – excellent, well done. I will tell you the method of being saved from wasteful talk. There was a Dervaish Sahabi, a pious Sahabi – and this is not my assessment, but that of the Sahaba-e-Kiram, who affirmed that this Sahabi was pious. The noble Companions themselves said that he was pious, and the respected scholars will correct me if I say anything wrong. Just correct me if I say something wrong here or there. The Companions themselves mentioned to each other that he was a Dervaish, and they agreed that they should not disturb him due to the fact that he was a pious Dervaish. What was his name? Abu Dharr al-Ghifari radhiAllahu anh - was he not a pious Companion, my brothers? Allah ta’ala gave us these examples in that bunch of flowers that surrounded the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Abu Bakr had his own fragrance, Umar had his fragrance, and Abu Dharr also had his fragrance, SubhanAllah. Today we realise that the fragrance of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari was so beautiful that we are smelling it as we sit here in Bolton. His fragrance emanates from this Hadith that I am reciting to you – what a great cure we are receiving, for it will prevent us from being trapped in wasteful talk. I swear by Allah – that is why I am sharing this with you.
These are the words of Ramadhan – now another point has come into my heart. I had a question as to how this point could be linked to Ramadhan, but I embarked on the discussion with confidence that Allah would make a link between this point and Ramadhan, so that you could understand it in the context of Ramadhan. InshaAllah this point will stay in my mind. In any case, the cure is coming. What is this solution for? Firstly, so that we can make our Ibadah beautiful and acceptable by freeing ourselves from wasteful talk with friends and colleagues. We need to give up saying ‘Oh, aren’t you making tea for me today? I haven’t seen you for many days – how’s it going? What’s going on? What are you saying today? What business are you in nowadays?’ How can we save ourselves from this gossip-mongering? Look at the solution to this problem. That Dervaish, that pious Companion, was mentioned in a Hadith in Mishkat along with another Companion – correct me if I get his name wrong. I learned this Hadith in the Khanqah.
So Hadhrat Imran radhiAllahu anh said that one day he was looking for Abu Dharr in the Masjid, and he found him wrapped in a torn blanket or a sheet, lying in a corner. He asked him ‘O Abu Dharr, what are you doing here lying in the Masjid?’ It was a question a bit like ‘How are you? What’s going on? What’s the latest? What are you doing here with this blanket wrapped around you?’ These were both Companions, remember. So Abu Dharr turned a little bit, he unwrapped his sheet a little – say SubhanAllah. Through my passion and love, it is as if I can see this happening in Madina, SubhanAllah. Yes? When I share a Hadith and discuss a Hadith, in my heart it feels as if I am looking at the scene with my own eyes. So Abu Dharr radhiAllahu anh is lying down and Imran bin Khattam radhiAllahu anh came into the Masjid, which was an old Masjid with dust on the ground. Abu Dharr was lying down in the dust, wrapped in a black sheet – ah, my thoughts are going there as I speak. Hadhrat Imran disturbed him by speaking to him, so he just moved his sheet a little bit, looked at him, and asked ‘What is the issue?’ He said ‘What are you doing lying down here quietly?’ Abu Dharr replied ‘Be quiet – do your own thing.’ It is as if I can see this discussion in front of me, SubhanAllah. All these points come out from the heart, and it is not necessary to see things with your eyes, because with the heart you can see them – at this point, you may be saying that this person is weird and crazy!
So Abu Dharr looked at Hadhrat Imran and said ‘What’s the issue?’ and he replied ‘It’s nothing – I just saw you lying there and wondered what you were doing here.’ So listen to the reaction of this Sahabi: first and foremost, whose reference does he take? He takes the reference of his friend. He wants to reply, but first he delves into his heart for a reference - from whom? From Nabi al-Karim sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He said ‘Why are you asking me? Let me refer you to what Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said to me.’ He has not opened the secret to him at this point, and so he said ‘Shall I tell you?’ he said ‘Yes please tell me.’ So Hadhrat Abu Dharr said ‘Listen, Allah’s Nabi once told me something and I am doing Amal on that statement.’ Hadhrat Imran said ‘What advice are you doing Amal on?’ He said ‘The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that the best friend is solitude and loneliness.’ SubhanAllah! He was saying to him ‘Going out with people and shaking hands and chit-chatting and gossip-mongering and talking is not real friendship. These are not your real friends – rather, they are your enemies.’ SubhanAllah. ‘These people you are standing around chatting with are not your friends – I’ll tell you who your friend is. The friend is the one who the Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam says is a friend. If I am pious today, this is only because I have followed what Allah’s Nabi told me to do. Only if you listen to his guidance can you become good. My Nabi told me who would be my best friend and my best colleague, so why should I go to other people. I want to have the company of the best friend.’ Then he wrapped up his blanket around him again. Say SubhanAllah. Then Hadhrat Imran radhiAllahu anh asked him to complete the point so that he could get the full benefit, so he opened his blanket again – I can see this before me. Abu Dharr radhiAllahu anh is lying down like this, and his colleague is stood next to him. So he said to him ‘The very best colleague is who?’ I am giving you the meaning of the Hadith here. He said ‘The very best friend you can have is loneliness and solitude, and as for talk and discussion that comes onto your tongue’ – listen to what he said here. The second thing he said was that nonsense, pointless, idle talk is the worst thing and is the most destructive form of speech. Idle, wasteful talk that has no objective or underlying reason is the most dangerous and destructive talk. The tongue is the most dangerous thing.
Listen to another Hadith. One Sahabi asked a beautiful question of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. He said ‘Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, I have had a thought.’ He was a Sahabi, so what thought was he having? See how they shared and delivered to us every atom’s weight of discussion that they had with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, so that we are benefiting even today. Our brains are blind without their insights. So he said ‘Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, it seems to me as if I am looking again.’ Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘What is it that you are asking me?’ He said ‘Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, tell me please, in your eyes, according to your heart, and as far as you are concerned, what is the most dangerous thing?’ Allahu Akbar – the whole solution has been given to us here. If Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam replies to this, then beyond any snakes or scorpions, this will be the root of all dangers, the most dangerous thing for your Deen, for Islam, for your Iman. This will be the most dangerous thing that will take you to Jahannam and destroy your Salah and destroy your fasts. This is a Hadith that we need to listen to – this is a very beneficial Hadith, so listen to this. This thing will destroy everything, within a minute, within a second. Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam stood up straight to give his reply – this Hadith is unique and great and Ajeeb. He gave the answer through his action – he stopped speaking.
The respected scholars are listening, and they will know what action he made – I can see this before me, MashaAllah. What action did he make? He showed his blessed face, and he opened his mouth, grabbed his tongue and said ‘This!’ Allahu Akbar - is this Hadith not in Mishkat? Look at it. He didn’t say anything else, rather he demonstrated with his actions by putting out his tongue, grabbing it and then saying ‘This!’ Allahu Akbar. He was telling us that the most dangerous thing, the thing through which all our Ibadah at night will be destroyed, will be speech that includes backbiting - our whole Hajj can be destroyed and our whole Ramadhan can be destroyed in this way. You can keep all the fasts of Ramadhan, but within seconds your tongue can destroy all of it. If you just utter one statement that Allah ta’ala does not like, will your Ramadhan still be there? Where will the Kalimah come out from? From your ears? Will that testimony of faith be made by your eyes? Where is it going to come from? Say it loudly – from the tongue. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said this – he showed this and demonstrated it physically. He held the tongue and said ‘This!’ He took hold of it.
So what has happened to the Ummah today? Why don’t we understand? We have been given such a straightforward lesson, that the thing which can destroy everything is the tongue. So why don’t we follow this clue? From these two Hadiths, we can understand Salah and the whole basis of Ramadhan. Say SubhanAllah. What a beautiful subject – I feel like extending this discussion. If we meet after Ramadhan, then I will give you three hours on this topic inshaAllah. Just one Hadith will suffice for three hours of discussion – if it is any less, you can complain to me. But you don’t meet me after Ramadhan, do you? It is only in Ramadhan that you are my friends - but I have a lot of time. Come to me and sit down – I have a lot of time. You know, when we were in the Khanqah and Allah’s Kalam was open in front of me, the Majlis used to last two and half or three hours in one sitting, alhamdulillah. Those colleagues who have been with me for many years can confirm this – put your hands up if you were with me in those days. Yes – they know, SubhanAllah.
People would complain and say ‘He’s a fundamentalist, he’s an extremist – grab him.’ What sort of fundamentalist am I, brothers? What have I done? I would explain to the brothers for three hours and tell them not to do bad actions and sins. Are these Hadith telling us to do bad things? They came to grab me, both my own people and strangers! Say SubhanAllah. Even our own people pointed me out and said ‘Don’t let him carry on doing this.’ Tell me - what crime was committed? I share Qala qala Rasoolullahi sallallahu alayhi wasallam and what came out of that blessed mouth. Na-oodhu bi’llah, I could not say something that he did not say. Did he not say to stop these actions? Tell me. I am sharing all these points from Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. We should understand these points as human beings. Never mind strangers, what about our own people? They didn’t appreciate it, and said ‘Oh, get him, hit him, take him out.’ That is why the Ummah has reached the situation in which we find ourselves today. Ask Allah for forgiveness – do Astaghfar. Those who behave like this are in a bad situation – a very bad situation. Those people will end up in the party of Abu Jahl, or of Ubay bin Khalaf who used to stand against Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam in Madina. Today we are those same people – we commit excess with the people who spread the Deen. Do we think we are spreading love?
That person who is spreading love and uniting people and teaching the way to live together is saving society. If you pick up the Bayans over the last sixty years, have I said anything bad? Is it wrong to tell people to pay their taxes? Have I spoken badly of anyone or committed any excess against anyone? I have always told my Mureeds to pay their taxes in full – do I not tell you this? They are saying that I am wrong, but I am just trying to save the society and the environment and the people – and I have been doing this for sixty years. I am not saying this for anyone’s good opinion – I have no need to suck up to anyone. Our Islam says this - that wherever you eat, share with those around you as well. So if you come to their country, then look after them and spread the Deen for them. Teach them and give them Islam – alhamdulillah, have many people not become Muslims? Say SubhanAllah. I am not wrong, my brothers – I only speak what is right.
So what was I saying to you? Let’s go back to that, SubhanAllah. So who did Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam say is the best colleague? Hadhrat Abu Dharr radhiAllahu anh said that the best colleague is isolation, and that the best word and discussion is what? It is the good word that comes from the tongue. So what we realise is that pointless talking is a very dangerous thing. So what is the cure for this? ‘Please tell us,’ you will say. A cure for both issues is coming to us, SubhanAllah. The cure to save yourself from wasteful discussion is coming – say SubhanAllah - and also the way to attain isolation and silence. Ramadhan has taught us this – say SubhanAllah. May I be sacrificed for Ramadhan – what have you taught us? Ramadhan has told us ‘This is the practice that I came to make you do – that is why I have kept this lesson until the end of Ramadhan. Without this, your Deen cannot be complete – a person must have silence in his life. If a person does not have isolation and seclusion in his life, Wa’llahi, his Deen cannot be saved today.’ Say SubhanAllah. That person will not be saved from wasteful talk. Ramadhan says ‘That’s why I have come – to give you this important message. I could have left without telling you, but this is why I came, and that is why I left this message until the end. I have taught you this physically, and that is why I gave you I’tikaf!’ SubhanAllah.
But, sad to say, today you cannot even see these two qualities in I’tikaf. Say SubhanAllah. Tell me. That Ibadah should be developed in I’tikaf, which has come to remove you from the wilderness and seal you in a corner so that you can practice these two things in your life, namely, isolation and silence. You will see the Barakaat of I’tikaf if you spend ten days doing this – I tell you this in the light of the Walis of Allah. I swear by Allah that there were those who spent ten days in this way in Ramadhan and then did Ziyarah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam with their eyes and even spoke to him, SubhanAllah. Through these two things, a person can attain these high Maqams - the Walis of Allah would practice I’tikaf for a whole month to practice this and attain this taste. They used to do I’tikaf for a whole month – that is how great an action it is. And this Ibadah comes from silence and isolation, from seclusion. This seclusion and silence is such a great Ibadah. If a person does not have this, there is no guarantee that his Salah will be saved or that his fast will be saved, because the two big enemies of gossip-mongering and talking will make him lose out. If a person uses his tongue in the wrong way, it is very dangerous – and this is why Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam stood up and told the Sahaba that it was a very dangerous thing. I swear by Allah, if you adopt the right solution, then you will be saved from the destruction of the tongue. Say SubhanAllah.
This is a beautiful discussion, but time is short and the fast will end soon – what time is Iftar today? 8.57? Okay, we will do Dhikr for two minutes. Do you understand brothers? Ramadhan has taught us two things, so don’t leave these actions. When I’tikaf ends, what will we do then? There is so much value to I’tikaf that at any time you come to the Masjid, as soon as you enter, make the Niyyah ‘Nuwaytu usalli I’tikaf’ – make that statement as you enter and remember the lesson of the I’tikaf of Ramadhan. Remember this for your whole life – as you come in, say ‘Oh Allah, I make Niyyah for I’tikaf,’ and Allah will reply ‘Don’t forget this statement now, for I will give you the great reward that I gave you during I’tikaf in Ramadhan.’ SubhanAllah! Why? Because there are two qualities in that Niyyah that you make whenever you come into the Masjid, so don’t talk, and don’t break the bounds of that isolation and seclusion - this is the Ruh of I’tikaf. Am I right or am I wrong, Moulana Sahib?
Is this happening today? Is I’tikaf happening like this today? Don’t take what I am saying badly – is I’tikaf happening like this today? The pious elders said ‘Don’t speak,’ and this didn’t mean that you shouldn’t do Tableegh, but every action that you do should have an objective when you do it. Every action has a Ruh, a soul, and you have to activate that Ruh in parallel with the action; you can’t make Islam up and do what you want. If you are going to do Tableegh, then do Tableegh, and when you set out to give Da’wah, then give Da’wah, and when it is time to sleep, then sleep, and when it is time to submit and bow, then bow, and when it is time to eat, then eat. Fasting has told us ‘Wait – there is a time for eating and for bowing and for breaking fast,’ so if you do your actions at the right time, they become Ibadah for you, SubhanAllah. So I’tikaf is about isolating yourself and becoming a stranger, and when you come out after ten days, you should come out such that everyone who sees you says ‘Oh, he’s different,’ and you should have forgotten who they are and should think ‘Who are these people?’ Your house should look strange, and people should look strange to you when you come out – but for us, sins have been refreshed because we have been fighting and quarrelling and talking. Oh servant of Allah, what did you gain from I’tikaf then? What did you learn from I’tikaf? Either you haven’t understood correctly, or I haven’t understood correctly. Do the Hadith not tell us these things?
What we should get from I’tikaf is silence and seclusion, and then we should practice this for the rest of our lives. If we ask ‘Ya Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam – what should we do?’ he replies ‘Do these two things that I am giving to you, these two actions. And always do this – the Qur’an has given you this advice too: {وَٱذۡڪُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ڪَثِيرً۬ا لَّعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ}’ SubhanAllah - Dhikr of Allah contains all of these things. You won’t be in I’tikaf in every moment of your life, but if you become a Dhakir, both of these things will always be with you. If you are a Dhakir, you will have these two solutions with you all the time. Shall I tell you how? How can you get I’tikaf through Dhikr? How? How can you be saved from wasteful talk and wasteful use of the tongue? How will you get a good friend through Dhikr? How will you get seclusion and silence? How will you get these two things? Yes, you will get these things through Dhikr of Allah. How? Look, when you do Dhikr and remember Allah, saying La ilaha illa-llah, Allah says ‘There is a better Dhikr even than this – I will give you abundant Dhikr. I will give you something even better than that, which is the Dhikr of isolation and seclusion.’ Yes? Allah says ‘There are three levels: one is Dhikr out loud on the tongue, one is silent Dhikr on the tongue, and one is better than that.’ What is that? The Naqshbandi Dhikr, the Muraqabaat – do the Muraqabaat - SubhanAllah.
A person who is used to doing the Muraqabaat will not engage his tongue in wasteful talk, and he will be good at keeping silent. Khwajah Bahauddin Naqshband rahmatullah alayh said ‘He is not a Naqshbandi unless the Name of Allah has been imprinted on his heart.’ When the heart of a person becomes a Dhakir, he becomes immersed in Muraqabaat. He is always doing Muraqabah, and this is a guarantee for that person that if his tongue stops and he engages in Muraqabah, then everything else stops with the Fadhl of Allah. Silence overtakes that person – genuine silence overtakes that person. My brothers, do the Muraqabaat – do Dhikr of Allah, remember Allah. You will attain the whole cure for the issues raised in the Hadith of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam that I shared with you – you will be saved from wasteful talk and from time wasting activities, and you will get silence and seclusion. You will attain all the benefits, and then whatever Amal you do after that we will be beautiful beyond beautiful. That is why Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam explained that the best Salah is the Salah with Dhikr of Allah, and the best fast is that with Dhikr of Allah, and the best Hajj is that with Dhikr of Allah. Is this Hadith or not? Tell me. Why did he say this? Because after doing Dhikr, all of your deeds will be made beautiful, and there will be no wasteful talk and no wasteful use of time, and there will be no lying and bad speech, because whenever a person does Dhikr, his tongue stops.
May Allah ta’ala give all of us the ability to practice this. Ameen.
Okay – how much time is left until we break the fast? Three minutes? Okay, we will do one minute of Muraqabah, and in that one minute we will arrive in Jannah inshaAllah! Close your eyes and do Muraqabah in the way that I have explained to you.