What is Deen?
At the beginning of this discussion, I will start with a question. If an individual gives the name of a few things and then he asks people what object he is talking about, how quickly do you think people will answer him? The questioner may say that the object has tyres and a steering wheel and a seat and an engine and lights and wipers and windows on each side, and then he asks ‘If you put all these together, what is the object described?’ You will all have the answer to this in mind straightaway – it’s not difficult, is it? Even a child will tell you the answer to this. There are two reasons to this. In the past, say two hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago, if this question was asked, people would have thought ‘What is he talking about?’ because this item was not common. No one would have known what he was talking about. But if you ask this question today, even a very young child will laugh and say ‘What kind of question is this? This is too easy!’ They would, wouldn’t they? What has tyres and an engine and wipers and seats and a steering wheel? Put all of these together and you have a car. Easy question, easy answer, because this is common today. Everyone knows what a car is because every home has two, three or four cars parked outside. Cars are so common that they make the registration plates match their children’s names. Two hundred years ago, however, who would have known this? They wouldn’t have been able to answer; it would have too hard for them – they would have been lost.
In the same vein, I will put another question to you. This time, the questioner lists personal affairs, societal matters, good character, manners, worship – what do you get if you put all of these together? This may be very difficult for some people to answer perhaps. The elements of a car were listed and in the same way, these elements are listed – and only the Mu’min can give the answer. Even in this day and age, he will say ‘It is very easy to say what all of these elements make when put together. What do they make? They make Deen.’ All of these elements together make up Deen, just like the component parts of a car, such as the steering wheel and the tyres and the engine, are put together to make a car. If you are asked in the same way about personal life, life in society, manners, character, worship and habits, what do all of these form when combined? They make up Deen – say SubhanAllah.
Let’s go back to the car. Why does a person keep a car? He keeps a vehicle because he wants to be able to get from A to B, from one place to another. If I want to go to Blackburn, what will I use? A bed? Something else? No, I will go towards the car straightaway because this will deliver me to my destination. If I want to go to Piccadilly, I will get into the car, because it will take me there. So what is the objective of the car? It takes you to your destination – say SubhanAllah. Let us keep praising our Rabb for how Allah is explaining this to us in a beautiful way. Allah is explaining Deen to us in a simple way, isn’t He? We have understood clearly that the objective of a car is that it gets you to your destination – SubhanAllah.
So now, in the same way and by applying the same principle, if you put all these components of Mua’sharah, life in society, character, Ibadaat and habits together, they make up the Deen. So what is the objective of the Deen? The objective of the Deen is the same as that of the car. Just as the car gets you to your destination, Deen will also take you to your destination – say SubhanAllah. Do you understand the example? These small examples are given to try to explain the Deen. Even a child can understand this. I need a car to take me to my destination, and it is only Deen that will take me to the destination of the Hereafter. Only a car can take me to the places I want to travel to, and only the Deen can take me to the destination of the Hereafter, nothing else. If someone claims today that they can go on foot to get to the places they need to go to, it will take them far too long and it would be very hard. And if someone claims today that they can reach Jannah without Deen, or that they can attain the nearness to Allah without Deen, would anyone believe him? But people do say this today. They say ‘Oh, leave it out – why are you talking about Salah? Forget about Salah – Allah is Raheem and Kareem, He is Merciful, so what is the point in chatting about this? Just do a few little things and you will be fine.’ Have you heard this sort of thing? This is called shaytan’s deception. Yes? Death is true, my friends, so understand these points. Who is that individual trying to deceive? Who is he trying to fool? We deceive ourselves every day. How can we make possible something that is impossible? Tell me. You are answering yourselves – even the children are giving the same answer.
Okay, so listen again. You have a car that can take you to your destination, and it has a steering wheel and the windscreen wipers and the engine and the headlights and the seats – all the components are there – so you sit down in the car. All these things have come together to make a car that can take you to your destination – say SubhanAllah. Now if just one of these elements is missing from the car, it will not pass its MOT. If you take it to the MOT centre and they say ‘This is worn out, the wipers are worn out, the tyres are worn out, that needs renewing, this is wrong’ will they give you the MOT certificate? No. And if they don’t issue you with an MOT, then that car cannot go onto the road. I myself once took my car to someone I knew in order to get the MOT done, and he said ‘Okay – put it onto the ramp.’ Then he went through the list, saying ‘Pass, pass, pass’ until he stopped and said ‘I can’t give you the MOT.’ I asked why, and he said ‘We need to fix the wipers.’ I asked how much, and he said that it would cost forty pounds. I said ‘The wipers don’t matter much – the car is running fine,’ but he said ‘No, the car can’t pass the MOT with wipers like this.’ So my whole car became useless - due to what? Due to just that one wiper, I could not get the MOT pass for my car. The wiper may not seem to have much significance, but it is a necessary part of the car – say SubhanAllah.
Keep listening to what I am saying, and you will understand easily. If you want to practice Deen, then you will understand what I am saying, because these are the paths of Jannah that we are discussing. Remember this. What we are discussing today is not a drama, my brothers – I am telling you about today’s environment. I asked you a question, didn’t I, to which everyone would answer, even a child, that what was described was a car. But when it come to the elements of Deen, nobody can answer – why? Because we are in this age, which is similar to the old days when nobody understood what a car was; in this day and age, we don’t recognise Deen. No-one can tell you that these things make up Deen. In the old days, even a child would have stood up and said ‘This is Deen, this is Deen!’ He would have known, because Deen was common at that time.
Now due to one faulty wiper my car is deemed not to be roadworthy, and it cannot get its MOT, and the law says that if you drive, you will get caught. If the wiper is fixed, then you can drive the car, otherwise not, even though everything else is working. For just one small component, a headlight not working, for instance, and the car cannot pass the test. No matter if it is a nice, stylish Mercedes or some other brand, it will not be allowed on the road because it is missing a small component. And that small component turns out to be very important because it allows the car to be driven and thereby the destination can be reached. Hence that component is very, very important for us - none of these components is minor, because without them, we cannot get to our destination.
So, my brothers, all the parts of the Deen that I presented in your service – Mua’malaat, Akhlaqiyaat, Mua’sharaat, A’daat, Ibadaat – if you put all of this together, this is Deen. And if any of these elements is shaking or is loose, then will the MOT of your Deen pass? If any one of these parts fail, then the MOT will not be passed, and anyone whose MOT does not pass will not be able to travel along the road. Which road? The road that is the Path to Allah, the road that will take you to the Akhirah. I am using a very simple example to explain this to you, SubhanAllah. Say SubhanAllah – a person cannot reject this. All these component parts of the Deen must be kept at the required standard in order for you to drive the car, so that you can sit in the vehicle of the Deen and travel to the destination of the Akhirah and attain success.
But this is not happening today. Ask someone, and he will say ‘What is this Mua’asharaat that you are talking about? What are the A’daat, the personal habits of a believer? What is this Akhlaqiyaat and conduct and character about which you are speaking? No, no – I just know about Hajj. I’ve been on Hajj, and that’s all I’ve been told. Praying Salah is all I know about Deen.’ Ibadaat are just one part of Deen – say SubhanAllah. Worship is only one component of the Deen, and you cannot get to the destination with worship alone. If you think that you can, you are deceiving yourselves, oh people. This is not what Deen is, and no Kitab will tell you that it is – remember this. It is a part of the Deen, and an important part, but every element is important because no MOT test can be passed if one element is faulty. My car failed the MOT just because the wiper failed, and if we hide away these other very big parts of the Deen, then how will be able to get to Allah? How will we attain the success of Jannah? Tell me. Say SubhanAllah.
Have you understood what I am saying up to now, my brothers? Is what I am saying clear? If it is, then we would be monkeys not to practice on this – only a monkey would do such a thing as understand but not practice. Human beings don’t do that, and someone who is a human being is a great person indeed, very great; Allah says in the Qur’an that Insan is {أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬}. This refers to a true human being, who understands and then does Amal upon his understanding. A person who does not do Amal is a monkey, an ape. So regarding the things we discussed last time, how many people did Amal upon them? Those who did not, they are monkeys; they cannot be human beings, for human beings are { أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬}, and to act in this way is not the attribute of a human being. A person is ignorant who understands and yet when he leaves, he does not do Amal on what he has understood – there is no bigger monkey than that person. I am using polite words here – these are not dirty words. Even a monkey has a lot of understanding – a monkey is not a stupid animal. If you go to the zoo, you will see how the monkeys jump on your car and play games – they have got brains, and they know everything about us.
So how sad this is - how can such a person be { أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬}? That is why I ask you to say SubhanAllah, so that by doing so, you confirm that you have understood. That is why you say SubhanAllah, isn’t it? Otherwise, you should say ‘Sorry – I have not understood, so what am I praising Allah for here? Please tell me.’ If you say SubhanAllah, then that is the stamp to say that the monkey has understood, and if he does not then do Amal on this, then he remains a monkey and is not a human being. He cannot be { أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬} It is one thing for a person to say that he is ignorant and is not aware, but when you say that you understand by saying SubhanAllah, and yet you don’t follow up with Amal, then how sad that is. That is a bad thing. So have you understood up to now? We have explained that all parts of the Deen are important, and that if you just rely on one part, you are wrong and are deceiving yourself.
Do you understand what I am saying? Deen consists of all the elements combined together, so to bring Deen into being, all of them have to be brought together. If somebody’s Akhlaq is not good, or if his interaction with society is not good, or if his personal habits and lifestyle are not good, or if his worship is not good, then he is not practicing Deen. Beware - he should beware, because he is in big danger; he is sitting on a mound of punishment, and he cannot be successful. If he says ‘I want a good and an easy death so that I can get to my destination in the Hereafter,’ then what he needs to do is take hold of all the elements of the Deen and bring them together. He needs to work hard on everything, just as he does when on Hajj and in his Ibadah when praying Nafl and reading Qur’an – we do work hard on these things. In the same way, he must work hard on his Akhlaq and resolve not to lie or take anybody’s rights; he must work hard on his personal habits and on his Mua’malaat in society. He must correct it if he finds that he has not paid back loans that are given to him, and if he fails to fulfil the promises that he makes, or if he does not distinguish between Halal and Haram, or if he does not know about the laws relating to running a business or keeping a shop, or how the Usool of Islam apply to these matters, or if he does not know what to be aware of as an employee, or which jobs are suitable and which unsuitable, or what are acceptable ways of earning money.
Nowadays people say ‘Everything is Halal - all you have to do is pray Salah, and everything else is Halal. Just go on Umrah and everything will be fine.’ Alhamdulillah, pray and make those journeys without restriction, but if you are only working hard on one part of Deen, then shaytan has deceived you. I am not saying this – let us look at the Qur’an to understand this inshaAllah. The Qur’an will explain to us. Do you understand what I am saying? Those who focus solely on Ibadah and do not pay attention to the other parts of Deen are totally wasteful and foolish people. They do not understand Deen, and they do not want to understand Deen; they have no understanding of what the Deen is. They just listen to a few things that they find in their traditions and cultures, celebrating this or the other day – that’s it. They write the dates into their calendars so that they can celebrate those days, and then they make big Duas on those days and spread the news that everyone who does the same is going to Paradise. May Allah take us all to Jannah, but this is not what my Qur’an says; my Rabb does not say this. Our Rabb says other things.
Say SubhanAllah – inshaAllah that means you have understood. Not everyone is saying it though – maybe only fifty percent. I will only accept it when everyone says it, so say SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah – you have understood, yes, for only those who have understood will say it. So let us move forward.
What we realise then is that all parts of the Deen are important, and to practice the whole Deen, you have to practice every component part. This is what we have understood up until this point. And you have to work equally hard on all of the elements. Call people to the Deen by means of Qur’an, or by Hadith or by Tableegh or by Dhikr – we should include all the parts of the Deen in our lives, not just one. Yes? That is how we give Da’wah. It is not just Dhikr to which we invite people; my Fikr should be to invite to the whole of Islam. That is how it should be. It is not just about inviting to Dhikr, rather we should have concern for the whole of the Deen. If you invite someone to pray Salah, you should have the intention at that time that you are inviting them to the whole Deen, not just Salah – SubhanAllah. If you are just inviting to one thing, or if I were to invite only to Dhikr and did not have Fikr for anything else, then that is not Da’wah. That would be to invite for just a selected task, and such a person might only be inviting that person towards himself. To just restrict oneself to one objective - like if you just say ‘Qur’an, Qur’an, Qur’an,’ - that is not Da’wah in its entirety. You should have a wider objective behind it, and until and unless you have this, it is not real Da’wah. Da’wah means having Fikr for all five or six aspects of the Deen, and your concern for each one of those parts should be as great as for all the others.
But what do we do? Don’t we do this? Along with Dhikr, we invite to all the other parts of the Deen, do we not? If we do, say SubhanAllah – then our Da’wah is accepted. That is what we do here, isn’t it? We don’t just invite to one aspect – we invite to everything. So the colour and the effect should be to invite to all aspects, whatever your mode of giving Da’wah. If you open the Qur’an, for example, say ‘Alhamdulillah, this is the Qur’an, and through the Qur’an, I want to invite people towards the whole Deen; I have Fikr for the whole Deen.’ I have sat to do Dhikr, and Dhikr is the main topic, the root, of this event, and what that means is that when I invite people towards Dhikr, I am inviting them towards the entirety of Deen; I should have concern for each pillar of the Deen. Where this is apparent, where you find this, then that is the place to which you have to go today. Say SubhanAllah – you have to sit there. If you sit in a place where you don’t get this, then you are wasting your time. If you are just dragging yourself again and again to one aspect only, and making effort on just one part, then on the Day of Judgement, Allahu Akbar, you will be asked about lying, backbiting, Mua’malaat, the rights of the wife, the rights of the son and the rights of the father and the mother, as well as business, eating, drinking, employees, employment – every single thing. Deen covers all of these factors, remember; and this is the glory of Deen-ul-Islam - say SubhanAllah.
The glory of Islam, my brothers, is that it covers all facets of life. People say ‘No, no, - I do this action and that action, and I don’t know why, but I keep feeling down and depressed.’ Nowadays we have made magicians prosperous - those who say ‘Oh, just do this and recite that and say this.’ If you find that one part of your Deen is correct, for instance if you are praying Salah five times a day and Tahajjud also, okay, that’s fine, but even then, you complain and say ‘I have no contentment – there is still no Sakeenah. This has happened to me, and I still have this problem.’ Don’t blame the Deen for this. Instead, think ‘How weak am I on the other four or five aspects of the Deen? How am I doing on them?’ Think about where the leakage is occurring. What do we do? If we just focus on Salah, what then happens is a person says ‘Oh, there’s no point in praying Salah then.’ What we don’t see is that it is not the fault of your Salah. You may be praying Salah regularly, but though you pray Salah, you are not paying attention to the other four or five aspects of the Deen – so what good can the poor Salah do for you? Instead of blaming the Deen and Salah, look at how you are doing in the other parts of the Deen. Ask yourself ‘Am I practising in these areas? Am I making mistakes in my Mua’sharaat, in my dealings with society, in my business or in my job or employment? Am I making mistakes here at home, in the rights of my family? Am I breaking those rights? Is it the case that I am not on good terms with my friends?’ When you look at all these things, then SubhanAllah, you will see the answers to your problems, and if you keep mending these holes and patching them up, then Noor will come into your Salah. Yes? And in this way, your complaint about your Salah will be eliminated.
We are having an Ajeeb Bayan today – Ajeeb words are coming out, MashaAllah; this is an Ajeeb discussion. Are these not good points? Do you understand what I am saying? Good. A person acquires so much strength when he comes onto the right path, and that is why Allah ta’ala says, time and time again, {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}, {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}, {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}. Up until today, we have not even understood this one verse. What is {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}? It is the true path, the path of the Prophets. The greatest strength of this one Nabi was that all the parts of his Deen would shine and sparkle; this Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam gave everything to you. He was just, and he would explain matters from every angle, and that is why he was saying {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}.
So now your deception has gone, hasn’t it? It is not just about Salah and Ibadah – and yes, I am saying this time and time again, because today, shaytan has deceived us and has made us run after just one aspect of Islam, just one. Some people do Hajj year after year after year, and some people do Umrah and after Umrah – they become lovers, which is good. But Islam teaches balance, so we must do Hisab of the other elements of the Deen as well, including looking after your children. Keep your life balanced and don’t just run after one thing. Who has told you that success consists in just doing Hajj and nothing else? So many Hajjis will go into Jahannam that we will lose count – why? Because their Mua’malaat are spoiled - their daily lives are spoiled. It sounds weird to hear that Hajjis will go into Jahannam, doesn’t it, and you think ‘This doesn’t sound right’ – shaytan overcomes you; he deceives and overwhelms the brain of that person.
You need to look at so many aspects and take care to understand the Fiqh of Mua’malaat – whether lying in your personal life, or in business. So many people carry on regardless and think ‘No, no, no – don’t concern yourself with this.’ So many people who run shops don’t know how run their business according to the standard of Islam. We don’t know how to buy stock, how to sell stock, how to conducts purchases, how to return stock, or when stock can be returned – we have no idea whatsoever, and hence, we cannot account for our mistakes. We don’t know how much profit we should retain, or how to spend those profits, or how we should keep accounts – nothing at all. We just think ‘Whatever comes in is all mine, whether it is his wealth or mine – I do Dhikr after all.’ When the question arises, they think ‘It’s okay - I do Dhikr’, or the Hajji will say ‘It’s okay - I go on Hajj regularly’, and the one who keeps fasts will tell himself ‘It’s okay – I’m always fasting.’ But, sad to say, everything will be accounted for on the Day of Judgement. We will be questioned about every one of the five or six parts of the Deen that I have explained about.
Listen to these points two or three times again if you want to get Jannah based on Deen – I am telling you this now. And then do Dua, because we are weak, but at least you can say ‘I have understood.’ InshaAllah, Allah will make us implement this as well. At least become serious for once in our lives; at least become serious, for in that way, gradually the weaknesses will evaporate. At least stand in front of the mirror and say ‘I accept that I am wrong.’ A person whose nose is crooked cannot lie when standing in front of the mirror. You cannot deny the shade of your complexion or the reality of your looks, even if others tell you that you are handsome because they want to get money out of you. The mirror will you show you your face as it is, and you will say ‘Is this my face?’ The truth is laid bare – you can’t lie in front of the mirror. You have to trust in the mirror, otherwise Jannah will never come to us. You have to be honest.
I remember a couplet – how does it go? Yes:
‘Without Amal, a person cannot attain Rahmah; and through Duas alone, you cannot get Jannah.
What is achieved by this effort? Physical appearance only – not the destination.’
Take note of this couplet as well – write it down. We don’t know about character and all we worry about is our physical appearance – but physical appearance alone will not bring success. If a person has no Amal, he will not find his way out of this; a person who does not practice will never attain success, not in this world, nor in the Hereafter. The successful one is only that person who practices all the parts of the Deen; it is about Amal – practice. Jannah is not achieved just through Dua. People say ‘Do Dua for me, make a pious Dua for me’, but you cannot get Jannah through Duas alone; Jannah is acquired through physical practice.
So brothers, I am emphasising that all the aspects of the Deen need to be practiced in order to get success. Let us go back to the example of the car. Let’s say that you go to buy a car – what do you get when you buy it? The person who sells you the car – the garage owner or whoever – will also give you a manual for that car, a handbook, that explains and describes all of its features. It is an instruction manual, telling you how to put oil and water into the car, and how often to service it and so on. Every car comes with one of these manuals explaining to you what to do, doesn’t it? Well, our Maula, our Rabb, has also done this. When He gave us the vehicle of the Deen, He also gave us a Kitab to go with it in order to explain all the features. As soon as a person says ‘La ilaha illa’llah’, whether he was previously a Hindu, a non-believer, a Sikh, a Christian, when he recites this Kalima, he gets the instruction manual from Allah ta’ala. Allah is saying ‘Now that you have bought this car of Deen, you have to drive it according to this instruction manual.’ Allah ta’ala has announced the nature of this in the Qur’an, saying {قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}. Does the Qur’an not say this?
In order to explain these five parts of the Deen, Allah is saying ‘I have given an instruction manual if you want to practice the Deen – a Book. Which Book? {قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬} This Kitab has been provided for this Deen, because who is the Owner of the garage from which this Deen comes? Allah! He is the Owner of the garage. We have accepted the Deen of Allah, and so Allah says ‘You have bought the car of Islam from Me, and you want to reach My destination of Paradise, so in order to manage this, I will give you an instruction manual, a Book, which you have to follow. What is the name of that Book? {قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}.’ SubhanAllah. Who is saying this? Allah is saying this. Allah is saying ‘I am giving two things to you: one is Kitabun Mubeen.’ This is not just a Kitab, but rather a Kitabun Mubeen – what a beautiful statement. It is Mubeen. What does Mubeen mean? It means that it will be such a clear Kitab that it gives an explanation of all of the parts of the Deen.
Now Allah ta’ala has praised and explained this Kitab. This Kitab, which is called the Qur’an-e-Hakeem, the Noble Qur’an, is from Allah, and the main objective of this Kitab is what? It is an instruction book to explain how you should practice the Deen – and what is Deen? Mua’malaat, Mua’sharaat, A’daat, Akhlaqiyaat, Ibadaat – where will you get the instructions of how to practice these things from? From Kitabun Mubeen. Where? Say it loudly! Kitabun Mubeen. This Kitab that Allah ta’ala has given us is not for kissing, and not for Khatams, and not for Taraweeh, and not for reading, and not for Naats, and not for Hifdh, and not for hugging to your chest, and not to use for Wazeefahs – the Qur’an was given not for any of these actions. The pious predecessors have said this - it is not me who is saying this. You don’t need to do any of these actions, and in the Hereafter, on the Day of Judgement, you won’t be asked about those things. You won’t be asked ‘Why did you not become a Hafidh? Why did you not become a Mufassir?’ You will not be asked anything of the sort, because the objective of the Qur’an is one – and what is that? It is that you understand the Deen – you must understand it. Am I wrong? Moulana Sahibs are sitting here – you can ask them. These other actions are all secondary actions.
The Qur’an is such a beautiful book - it is a fantastic book, not a minor book – and everything connected to the Qur’an is Noor. Tilawat is Noor, kissing it is Noor, looking at it is Noor, to love it is Noor, taking Shifa from it is Noor – all these things are Noor, but they are not the objective of the Qur’an. But what have we done? We have hidden the real objective and instead we run after the secondary things, and in doing so, we have fallen down. We have taken a tumble, and the storms that have brewed today are connected to this. It may be that the points that I am making today sound weird, but I am teaching you the true, correct Deen. In fact, I am not teaching you, but rather the pious predecessors at whose feet I sat told me this, and I am now passing this message to you, SubhanAllah. All my hair turned white while I was sitting at their feet – I learned the Deen from them, and now I am teaching you. Astaghfirullah, who am I to sit in front of you and explain the Deen? They said ‘Speak’, so I said ‘But I can’t speak.’ He replied ‘I will enable you – you go and speak. You will go and speak!’ SubhanAllah. I said ‘Who will listen to me?’ He said ‘People will come and listen to you in Bolton. People will come.’
Did anyone know me when I came to Bolton? Did you know me? Did you? Did anyone know me at the time I came here? Nobody knew me when I came to live here. No one knew then, but now everybody knows me. Why? Because of that hand, that pat on the back – say SubhanAllah. If I had sat of my own volition, I would have been a thief, calling you and inviting you to myself, saying ‘Come – I am this and that, so give me the titles.’ There is no need for any of that, for I just talk about one thing – Kitabullah wa Sunnat-e-Rasoolillah, and Da’wah through Dhikrullah. Say SubhanAllah. That is what I was instructed to do – ‘Don’t go beyond this’ they said. ‘Don’t go into this or that Masa’il or talk about Shia and Sunni issues or Barelwis or this or that – this is not your job. Leave that to other people; Allah ta’ala has created other people to do that work. As far as you are concerned, you should not care who sits in front of you, whether Shia, Sunni, Ahl-e-Hadith, Barelwi or Ghair Muqallad.’ That is why everybody comes to my gatherings. Yes? I don’t say ‘He is wrong’ or ‘He is correct’ – it is not my job to tell people; that is a job for others to carry out. I was told ‘Whoever comes, whether a stone or a diamond, your job is to give him Da’wah to the Kitab of Allah and the Sunnat-e-Rasoolillah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’
Is this not the Da’wah that I give, my brothers? Do I say ‘This or that person is a Barelwi so he shouldn’t come, and that person is Deobandi so accept him, or he is Ahl-e-Hadith, or he is Ghair Muqallad, or he is a Shia so go and rob his house or set his house on fire – do I say this? Do I tell you to reject this or that person or to reject those from this or that country? No, no, no. Often people try to involve me in these things, but - Allahu Wahdahu la Sharika lah – He knows that I am not like that and so He enabled me to pass all such tests. People tried their hardest to distract me in the Dunya – maybe there are spies sat here now. They can try their hardest, but SubhanAllah, if a man is honest, then he can never fail; he can never lose. Wherever he is, even in jail in front of the people who are there, he will say ‘Do Dhikrullah! Come into Islam – why are you playing games? Islam is the correct path.’ He even gives Da’wah there - and they hear and realise that man is right. They understood and were quiet – why? Because the company of the Walis of Allah is indeed the greatest company.
Don’t have the desire to become a Pir or a Shaykh; whoever Allah makes into a Pir or Shaykh, he is the right person for the job. Yes? So correct yourself in the right manner. Look at the value of such a person – one man in a corner of a village in Pakistan gave me the instruction to go and teach the Deen to the people of Bolton and make them proper Muslims. He said ‘Give them Iman and embrace the non-believers also; teach them the Kalimah. Teach this Kalimah to Hindus and Jews and Christians’ – and with the Fadhl of Allah, I have educated them. I didn’t teach anyone to do wrong things – this is not my function. I don’t know how to do wrong. I don’t know about politics, and I don’t know what is happening in foreign countries, and who is arguing and quarrelling or fighting, or where bombs are dropping, or where people have been imprisoned, and which country is attacking which country – I know nothing about these affairs. I just know one thing: to stand up and teach everyone Dhikr of Allah. That is my function; that is what I teach.
So, my brothers, I was requesting that – is it getting late? Are we late, or shall we carry on? You don’t need to leave do you? Okay, keep sitting and keep listening. That is why doing Dhikr after Isha is very good – and this is Rabi-ul-Awwal. If we don’t understand the words of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam in this month, when will we understand them? We are not one of those people who speak about other things – you will not hear words that are out of place here. This is the way to celebrate Rabi-ul-Awwal. Today, you will say ‘Yes, the Barakaat of Rabi-ul-Awwal are here.’ So let’s continue, SubhanAllah.
So what I was saying was that Allah ta’ala has given us a Book along with the Deen, and this is how we get to the destination. This is just like a car, which has an instruction manual which explains how to use the car. And what is in this Book, this Qur’an that Allah ta’ala has given to us? Noorun wa Kitabun Mubeen. Allah says ‘I have given you a Kitab, a clear Kitab, and I have explained the objective of the Qur’an, which is one – Ta’leem. Attain the education and then do Amal – it will teach you to practice.’ The rest of it is secondary. On the Day of Judgement, when you are asked about the Qur’an, you will only be asked one question, namely ‘Did you practice the Qur’an?’ This is in a Hadith in Mishkat. This Kitab of the Qur’an teaches you Halal and Haram; it tells you what is lawful and what is unlawful, what is right and what is wrong. The whole Deen - Akhlaq, conduct, everything – is Mubeen, clear. It will tell you every single thing, so there is no need to touch the Torah or the Injeel or any other Kitab. Allah says ‘I give you such a Kitab through My beloved Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam that My Ummah has no need to go to anybody else for guidance.’ That is how complete the Qur’an is.
And as the days and years pass, it will be printed very nicely, with coloured ink and decorated printing, and it will reach all corners of the world. The whole world will be illuminated, and the bookshelves of Masjids and homes will be filled with copies of the Qur’an. Think back to the era of the Sahaba-e-Kiram – they used to write the Qur’an on pieces of leather and stones! Sometimes they didn’t even write it and instead they absorbed it directly into their hearts, but today we have Qur’ans everywhere. Books upon books are printed, red ones, green ones, blue ones, yellow ones, copies from the Taj Company, from this printer and that publisher. Why? Allah ta’ala said ‘I gave you this Kitab for one reason, so don’t leave it. Print it here and there and then read it. Where you have a matter that makes you shake, then take the answer from the Qur’an.’
It is Mubeen, and the pious predecessors say that Mubeen also has another meaning; it hints at something else, which is that it is not only clear but also easy. The Qur’an is very easy to understand. No Daleel is needed apart from the Qur’an. If you have the right Niyyah, the Qur’an will immediately tell you whether something is Halal or Haram. Don’t close your eyes and try to avoid the matter – it will tell you ‘This is Halal, and that is Haram.’ The Qur’an will tell you. But another question arises. Before mentioning the Kitab, what else did Allah ta’ala says? He mentioned the Noor – the light. SubhanAllah – say SubhanAllah. A beautiful point comes here, so say SubhanAllah before the point comes. The understanding of Rabi-ul-Awwal is coming. Why did Allah ta’ala say this before mentioning Kitab? Allah ta’ala said { نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}. In a sense, this is like needing Wudhu before you pray Salah – if your Wudhu is not right, then you can’t pray Salah. Say SubhanAllah. Yes? You can pray Salah, but if your Wudhu is not correct, then your Salah is not correct. Allah ta’ala says Noor before Kitabun Mubeen, so the importance of this Kitab is within the light, the illumination, this Noor. All of the success of this Kitab, of the Qur’an, is due to this light and this illumination. Allah ta’ala says ‘I mention light first, because if you don’t have the light, then you can’t get the benefit of the Qur’an.’ Say SubhanAllah. These are beautiful points – understand them. Yes? Today, the understanding is coming.
So you cannot get the benefit of this Kitab of the Qur’an without the light – the light came first. {قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬} First Allah ta’ala mentioned the Noor, the light, the illumination, and this comes before the Kitab – understand what I am saying carefully. Without the Noor, you cannot get the benefit of the Kitab. There will be complications in your Deen, and you will not understand the answers – you will not understand Islam. You will go off track – an Ajeeb word is found in the Qur’an to describe those people. So, brothers, what has Allah said? { قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬}. What is this light? Why has Allah termed it light? Why has Allah said Noor? Because you cannot read anything in the dark – you cannot read any book in the dark. You need light in order that you can see. Can you read a book in the dark? Now there are two types of light: one is physical light, and one is the light of the heart – the light of the eyes and the light of the heart. So we need light in order to read the Qur’an; we need this illumination, otherwise the Qur’an will remain sitting there. That is why all these Kitabs that we have are just sitting there unread – you are not shining any light onto them. You do not touch the Qur’an with light – yes, you touch it with the light of your eyes, but you don’t touch it with the light of your heart that Allah ta’ala has given you. Say SubhanAllah. That is why the Kitabs just sit there on the shelves. We may read them, but they have no effect – the Qur’an has no effect. In fact, that same Qur’an that we read, we practice against it day and night. In those places where the Kitabs are stuck on the shelves, there is deviation and disputation and arguments; you will see stacks of sins in that very same place.
What is the reason for this? Tell me. It is because we are not using the light that Allah ta’ala is mentioning here, that light referred to in { نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}. If we do not use that light, we cannot understand the Qur’an, and if we do not understand the Kitab, we cannot bring the Deen into our lives, and if the Deen does not come into our lives, then we cannot get near to Allah, and we will not even be able to smell the fragrance of Jannah. So success depends entirely upon that light; that light comes first and foremost – am I right or am I wrong? Tell me, Moulana Sahib. What I am saying is totally right, isn’t it? Yes. I am delivering straightforward points to you, my brothers, which are not complicated or hard to understand. These are not lengthy technical points, but rather this is a straightforward explanation so that we can become proper Muslims. Allah has told us about this light in the Qur’an, and we can only take in the Qur’an if we read it with that light.
So remember this, my brothers: don’t read the Qur’an with the light of the eyes, rather, read it with this light that Allah is mentioning. I am inviting you to practice on this point. Don’t read the Qur’an with the light of the sun or the moon or the lamp – remember this. If you want to read the Qur’an, then read it with that light that Allah has given along with the Qur’an. So what is that light, that illumination? La ilaha illa’llah, Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah. Recite the Kalima of belief in Allah, but alongside that, acknowledge that Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah. This is the light that Allah ta’ala Himself explains by joining this statement with the Kalima of Tawhid. Allah says { قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬} and that light is Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, who came to the world in this month, MashaAllah - say SubhanAllah. Imagine for yourselves how great was this light that came in this month.
Allah ta’ala is saying that success is based entirely upon this light – and what does this mean? It means that if you want to understand the Qur’an, if you want to read the Qur’an, then you must study the Qur’an under the light of obedience to Allah’s Nabi, under the light of imitation and adoption of the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam; then you will understand the Qur’an. Allah is announcing that by following our Master sallallahu alayhi wasallam, by reading the Qur’an in the light of the Sunnah, you will understand the verses of the Qur’an, and then you will practice the whole of the Deen and implement all its parts equally – and then you will be a practicing believer. Say SubhanAllah.
So has Allah ta’ala explained? What is the most valuable and precious thing? The Sunnat-e-Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Without the Sunnah of Rasooullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, nobody can practice the Deen – nobody. All the pillars of the Deen, the five, six or seven component parts of the Deen, the Mua’malaat, Mua’sharaat, Ibadaat and all the others, in order to understand these, who do we have to imitate? The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. You have to imitate him, and you have to seek understanding through his Sunnahs. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to the world for this very reason, so that he could demonstrate the Deen to us practically.
If you read and study the Deen through the light of the Ittiba of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, what happens? There were more than one hundred thousand Sahaba, and Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘My Companions are like the stars in the sky; they sparkle and glow like stars in the sky, and if you follow any one of them, then you will be guided.’ Why? How did they all become stars? They became stars under the light of the Sunnah, and when they became stars under the light of the Sunnah, they sparkled and shone so much that each one of them could guide others with that light – SubhanAllah.
So, my brothers, tell me now – without the Sunnah, how can you understand the Deen? Does this make sense? Tell me. Does it make sense to reject the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam? We do not eat according to the Sunnah, we do not dress according to the Sunnah, we do not run our businesses according to the Sunnah, our appearance is not in line with the Sunnah – nothing is according to the Sunnah. And yet all success is achieved through the Sunnah - imitation of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is essential to success. You have to learn his Akhlaq – and where can you learn this? From Qur’an? No, from the Sunnah of Rasooullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, by finding out how he said to do this and that in the Tariqa of the Sunnah. That is why Allah ta’ala created the Imams and the Fuqaha and the scholars, those select people, so that until Qiyamah, alhamdulillah, people could continue to attain the Faidh of the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam – SubhanAllah.
Without Sunnah, nothing can be attained – nothing. Whatever a human being can attain in this world is from this light – that is the clear message that Allah ta’ala has given in the Qur’an. If we say that we are attached to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, then everything goes through him. If we want to practice the Deen, my brothers, every single thing has to be practiced – do you understand what I am saying? Your Akhlaq and character should be according to the Sunnah, your worship, your character, your manners, your habits, your social interactions – all these aspects should be balanced. And what is the method by which to learn this? It is very simple – and it is not by means of the Qur’an. You won’t learn this from the Qur’an, so where will you learn this? From Ittiba Rasoolillah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, from obedience to Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, through his Sunnah. No, you cannot run after the Qur’an to learn these things. The Qur’an teaches the principles, but it won’t explain the details. For this, we have been given an example by Allah ta’ala – {لَّقَدۡ كَانَ لَكُمۡ فِى رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ أُسۡوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ۬}. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘That is why I sent you an example, so that through him, you can understand the Qur’an. Through him, you will understand everything. He is the example – and what does that mean? That you can’t understand by yourself or truly grasp the principles, so just stick to the example that he gave. Just keep on imitating the example.’
So what is Allah ta’ala looking at? At how Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam did this, from A to B to C. How did he say this? For example, if I want to change something in my life, one person might say to do this, while someone else will say to do that – change this aspect of your clothing, keep this sort of a beard and so on. Just leave everybody else – come, let us and ask Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam; let’s go to his court – he will explain to us. And this guidance is not just found in one place, not just in Bukhari Sharif, but also in Imam Malik’s Muwwatta, and in Mishkat Sharif and in stacks of other Kitabs. Go, seek, and you will start learning all the Sunnahs of his life. This is how Allah’s lovers were created. And if it is hard for you to understand in this way, then Allah says ‘Then go to My Ashiq if it is hard for you to study, for every aspect of his life will be according to the Sunnah.’ If you cannot learn from Kitabs, then go and learn from the one who demonstrates physically, the Wali of Allah. Only one who demonstrates the Sunnah can be a Wali of Allah – if not, he cannot be a Wali of Allah. Never. And if someone goes to him and still doesn’t understand his words or copy his way, then can there be a bigger monkey that that person? A person who rejects and doesn’t want this can only be an Abu Jahl-type person.
There is a difference, isn’t there, between the Siddique who went to Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam and Abu Jahl. Both went, and they both met him, and both saw him, and both spoke to him. They both used to live near him, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, but Abu Bakr as-Siddique radhiAllahu anh embraced him and said ‘I will copy you’, while Abu Jahl rejected and refused to imitate him. One became Abu Jahl and the other became as-Siddique – both lived in the same period of time. So I need to go to a Wali of Allah today if I find it too hard to study Bukhari and the Muwwatta of Imam Malik. Allah says straightforwardly ‘Go – { َكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين} – this is a very simple method, very simple indeed. Go to the Wali of Allah, go to My Masha’ikh, and don’t start complaining there or trying to follow your desires. Just keep copying him. Keep imitating the Wali of Allah, for this is why you went to him. You didn’t go to the Wali of Allah to learn Salah; no, you went to learn Deen. How? Not through Kitabs, but rather through his Sohbat, through his physical demonstration.’
Now do you think that I studied in a Dar-ul-Uloom to learn these points that I am telling you? Tell me. Did I go to Madaris? No. Where did I go? To that Madrasah towards which Allah ta’ala instructed { َكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين}. I said ‘I don’t have time.’ I was at university, undertaking a Masters degree, then a PhD; I was in the Dunya and I didn’t have time to study ‘Ilm, but I said to Allah ‘I want to become Your friend.’ He said ‘Don’t worry, I have a standard for people like you. Not everybody goes towards Kitabs and becomes an Alim and goes to a Madrasah, so go to this village and visit My friend.’ Allah guided me because my Niyyah was correct – I wanted to attain Allah’s nearness. So I arrived there, and my Sheikh said ‘Why have you come?’ I said ‘Because I want to leave the Dunya and attain Allah’s nearness.’ Then he said ‘Sit here and look at me carefully – become just like what you see.’ I said ‘I will become just like that!’ and I put on a Dhoti and a Chaadar, and then he said ‘You must wear this attire in Europe. Go there and be like this wherever you go.’ He took my hand and said ‘You have followed { َكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين}, so you are from the Sadiqeen, and Allah ta’ala has testified that you will attain your Rabb through this company. You will attain the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam from this education, and you will learn Akhlaq.’ I learned what Akhlaq was from my Sheikh – how to meet people, how to feed people. I learned from him how to live in my home, and I learned Mua’malaat and Mua’sharaat. First, he taught Mua’sharaat, telling me ‘Now, this is how you must run your business. In business, you must do this, and you must do that. Beware of taking interest and beware of consuming anyone else’s wealth. If you have little money, be content with that, and if you are hungry and thirsty, don’t ask from anyone.’ I swear by Allah, I did Amal on that, and until today, I have not been hungry, SubhanAllah. I learned the Deen from his footsteps, from his feet, from imitating him.
And yet we continue to act like monkeys and apes - ten years go by and we can’t even lengthen our beards or correct our businesses! Oh children of human beings, then what have you come here to learn? Have you come just to waste my time? I did all of this in my time, and just like this, you should say ‘You are Sadiq, my teacher, you are honest – Allah ta’ala has sent you as a guide, so wherever you are, you will teach me the Deen. I want to learn from you, my Sheikh, not from Bukhari.’ SubhanAllah, my Sheikh said ‘If you learn from me, then you will learn Bukhari as well, and your books will be printed. People will learn Sunnah from you because you have come to this Dar-ul-Uloom; you are being educated here. People go to Dar-ul-Uloom for six years, but you will be studying with me for seventy years.’ So how can you compare six years with seventy years? Tell me. Is there not a difference? In Dar-ul-Uloom, you study four hours or six hours per day, but here, we study with the Sheikh from morning to evening – SubhanAllah. I would go in the morning, and next thing, it would be night. I didn’t even know the difference between morning and night – Sohbat went on and on. So which class was longer, this one or that one? Tell me. Say SubhanAllah.
Do you understand my points? Are they right or are they wrong? I have told you, have I not? I may be a little bit emotional as I am speaking, so speak up if you think something is wrong, or if you think ‘What is he saying here?’ Have I said anything incorrect up until now? Is there something wrong with anything that I have said? Then say SubhanAllah. At least learn something here. If you haven’t learned the Deen in Dar-ul-Uloom, then at least learn in this Dar-ul-Uloom. If it was not in your destiny to go to Dar-ul-Uloom and so on, then at least go to a Wali of Allah or a Sheikh or a teacher. When you go to a WaliAllah or a Sheikh, if you don’t want to learn Deen from there, then where will you learn Deen? Tell me. Where will you learn Deen? Do you just come to listen to speeches? You can hear speeches on Jumu’ah and attend Duroos – listen to those instead. Why have you come here for that? I don’t give speeches – I don’t even know how to speak. Go to good Moulanas and scholars and Jumu’ah Bayans, where you can hear the stories of Yusuf alyahi salam and of Zulaikha, and see what ‘Ilm they teach you, MashaAllah. They will tell you about Yunus alayhi salam and how he went into the whale – they will tell you stories, MashaAllah. As for me, I don’t tell stories. If you have come here to correct yourselves, then take on my style – say SubhanAllah.
Oh, what beautiful points come out – this is Deen. I have explained the Tariqa of learning the Deen, and I have explained about Dar-ul-Ulooms as well, so now it is our job to practice, isn’t it? This is Deen, my brothers - this is the definition of Deen. { قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬} – Allah ta’ala has said this, and I have explained what this Noor is, have I not? It is not a Noor to cause arguments, or to make quarrels over statements like ‘He was Noor’ or ‘He was Bashar’ – Astaghfirullah. In that case, we haven’t understood the Kitab of the Qur’an. Where have we taken the Deen today? We have groups and sects today who quarrel and argue, saying ‘He is Noor’, and ‘He is not Noor, he is Bashar’, but the Qur’an explains why Allah has said Noor and what this Noor is. Every Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was Noor. Yes? Some say that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is Noor – I say that his every action is Noor, that every Sahabi was Noor. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that every Companion of his was Noor and that they glow in the sky, and we are stuck on ‘He is Noor’, and ‘No, he is Bashar, he is a human.’
I don’t understand what kind of Qawm has been created today – it is confusing. Who do we belong to? We are trying to bring out technical points and say that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was this, or that he was not this, and this is the right belief and Aqidah, and he was this, that or the other. Astaghfirullah, we don’t even know about ourselves, and yet we are talking about the final Prophet and saying that he was this or that and arguing to the point of saying ‘You are a disbeliever’, and ‘He is a Kafir’. About whom is this argument? Even as-Siddique radhiAllahu anh could not understand, and nor could Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha understand, but what they did understand was that only Allah knew what Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was. But we argue about him today – say SubhanAllah. Me and you start arguing, saying that he was Noor, and he was Bashar, and he was this and he was that. Do you understand what Noor is now? We are so stupid – never get involved in arguments about these technical points. Just say ‘Go away, you madman – I don’t want to argue with you. Step back.’ Yes? Talk about something useful. People’s brains have veils upon them today, veils and nothing else - just quarrelling and shaytan.
So I would just like to summarise with a few points. After this, Allah ta’ala said something else that is very good: {ٱدۡخُلُواْ فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} So the point is coming now that I would like to explain in conclusion – say SubhanAllah. This point can be explained to you in a good way. Sometimes I have a point to explain, but I cannot speak and do not know how to articulate it, so I get a bit worried as to how I can explain it to you, so I say ‘Say SubhanAllah’, and when you say SubhanAllah, then I can explain it to you. I am not a Moulana, am I, brothers? I am just your friend. You have come here, so how do I explain this to you? I have a Fikr, a concern, in this regard. Allah says { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} in the Qur’an, and everything in the Qur’an is guidance.
Allah ta’ala is saying ‘If you do not follow the ways of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, then listen to what will happen.’ { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} – the Hukm comes now, which is that we must enter totally, one hundred percent, into the Deen. How? All the parts of the Deen that I have been explaining to you – Mua’malaat, Mua’sharaat, Akhlaqiyaat, Ibadaat – all these components comprise Islam, and you have to practice all of this. { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} Don’t just take one element, for you cannot drive a car which has just one wheel – how will you steer it? If everything is correct, then the car will take you to the destination. If your Mua’malaat are right and your Mua’sharaat are right and your Ibadaat are right and your Akhlaqiyaat are right, then your wife will be happy, and your relatives will be happy, and your business will be correct. If your business and your relationships and everything is according to the Qur’an, then this is what Allah has said - { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬}. Allah ta’ala tells us ‘Enter the Deen totally and comprehensively!’
As for a person who does not adopt the Deen completely, then Allah says ‘You are following and practicing the path of shaytan – {خُطُوَٲتِ ٱلشَّيۡطَـٰنِۚ}’. If you are not practicing the path and the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, the path of {أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬}, then what path are you following? If you don’t keep the beard, whose path are you following? If you pray Salah like that, then whose path are you following? Say it out loud – I am not saying this, the Qur’an is saying this – these are the {خُطُوَٲتِ ٱلشَّيۡطَـٰنِۚ} - it is shaytan who is praying. Remember this and think ‘My Rabb says this.’ If you are practicing your life in a manner that is away from the Sunnah, that is opposite to the Sunnah, and you are saying that you are on the path of the Deen, then listen to what Allah says about a life that is not according to the Sunnah. It doesn’t matter how pious people think you are and how much people praise you, and it doesn’t matter what status you have in the world, and how many titles you are given, nor how much glory you have, nor how many Bayanaat and speeches you have made. If you are practicing just one action against the Sunnah, even one – remember this – whether in Mua’sharaat, where you have to treat people equally and nicely, or if your Akhlaq is poor, or if your home life is not right, in all matters and in every sphere, if you are not living your life according to the Sunnah in some aspect, if your decisions are not based on the Sunnah, then what are you? It doesn’t matter what Maqam you have in the world, what are you doing? You are practicing shaytan’s path.
The Qur’an has explained a big point. { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} – if you practice the Deen totally in accordance with Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, whether you are a small man or a big man, a minor or a major figure, that person will be termed as one who is practicing the Deen correctly – and this is { ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}. Do you understand the point today?
So there are two aspects: our external lives must be in accordance to the Sunnah – look at your face, look outside, at your house, at your family, and look also at death. But we all just look at one thing, saying ‘I pray Jumu’ah, I pray five times Salah and Tahajjud, so my Deen is complete.’ Is it complete, my brothers? Say it out loud – is it? We are wrong when we say this, aren’t we? No, Deen is not this. Allah ta’ala has rejected all of them; Allah ta’ala has rejected people who are regarded as big shots. All of our actions should be { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} – Deen should be with you totally and comprehensively. All aspects of your life should be Ittiba-ar-Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam – your house, family, business, occupation, travelling, friends, relatives, maintaining good relations; all this should be in accordance with what? The Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And if there are any defects or cracks in that, then those are the {خُطُوَٲتِ ٱلشَّيۡطَـٰنِۚ} – that person is on the path of shaytan. Allah is saying ‘If that is the case, then you can keep your Hajj and your fasts.’
So what a great personality is the Wali of Allah who Allah ta’ala sends to the community. Every aspect of his life is in accordance with the Sunnah, and through him, people learn. It is not that he is an angel. He is not an angel, for he makes mistakes, but what does he do after making a mistake? Immediately thereafter, he does Ibadah all night long, seeking forgiveness from Allah. It is not that he is Ma’soom, innocent like a Nabi. He is not innocent – even if he is the Qutb or the Ghawth. It doesn’t matter who he is - why? It is because he mistakes and does Astaghfar – this is why Allah ta’ala elevates his status and his Maqamaat are raised. So don’t think ‘Oh, I thought he was a Wali of Allah, but he is making a mistake – he did a sin’, because you will see mistakes sometimes. But at least see how he asks for forgiveness from Allah, and how he makes Allah pleased after having made the mistake. Yes? Look at that as well, at the compensation he offers, at how he crushes his Nafs. When the Wali of Allah makes a mistake, then he punishes his Nafs so much that the Nafs complains.
So don’t think that the Wali of Allah cannot make mistakes, that a Ghawth or a Qutb or a Mujaddid cannot make mistakes – no, that is wrong. Allah ta’ala says that they will make mistakes, but that after they make mistakes, they ask for forgiveness, upon which Allah ta’ala elevates their status because Allah loves the way they seek for forgiveness. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘You should not be worrying about whether he is making mistakes and what he is doing. You just have to go there, take his company and imitate him.’
What else are we taught in this regard? That, for example, if you see that there is pride, even their pride is Ibadah – SubhanAllah. Don’t look here and there to see what mistakes your Sheikh is making – don’t fall into that trap. You don’t know how he does Tawbah after that and how he gets Allah ta’ala to be pleased with him, so even if you see Riya, or what you take to be Riya, then Allah ta’ala says that even that can take a person towards Ibadah. You don’t know why he seems to be displaying Riya; you don’t know the reason - there is a method, a way, and a system. When he does Riya, he does so because he wants to invite the Makhluq towards Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Anyway, going back to the point, the hint that Allah ta’ala has made here is that you should not be worried about secondary things. You should accept that your teacher is a Sadiq, and follow him, imitate him and take his guidance. Don’t look at his errors and his deficiencies – he knows, and Allah knows about his deficiencies – leave that to Allah. I am explaining Tasawwuf to you here. We come just a couple of times and then think ‘What is Hadhrat Sahib doing? Where is Hadhrat Sahib going? Hadhrat Sahib is doing this and that action.’ We are seeking deficiencies in our own teacher. They say ‘Look at his Salah – why does he do this? He makes mistakes in his life.’ I am telling you this openly – people do this with their teacher. When they go to a Wali of Allah, to a Sheikh, they first look at his personal life, thinking ‘What is he doing? What is he saying? Has he taken money from someone, and has he done such and such to that person, and has he said this to that person?’ SubhanAllah – you are wasting your time then. You are saying to Allah ‘Oh Allah, I am going to Your Sadiq’, and then you are looking for defects in the Sadiq. Remember the Niyyah with which you are going – Allah ta’ala is looking at your Niyyah. You have no need to seek out his defects and enquire about what he says and does; Allah knows – his Rabb knows. You have to accept him as a Sadiq – just close your eyes and start following him. Allah is saying ‘You just follow My Wali, and then leave it to Me to make you a Wali - leave it to Me. One day, I will make it clear to you that these were not his defects – rather, they were his Ibadaat.’
Do you understand me? I think today’s Dars is enough for us, MashaAllah. We have travelled, and we have covered a lot of points. You don’t even have time, but those poor souls who work hard, the team in the background, by the time you get home, they will put up a link to this Bayan, along with a translation into English - indeed people are listening to the translation right now in their headphones. The translation into English will be put up on the site along with the Urdu, and through the many processes involved, they will be available to hear before you even get home. The Bayan will be in Urdu and English according to your preferred language – I don’t even know because I am not doing this myself.
So I return again to the point: don’t look at my defects - rather, look at Allah’s Mercy in the way that Deen is being transmitted and delivered. I went to pray Salah recently, and a person who I didn’t even know, who was weak, came to me and said ‘Assalamu alaykum Hadhrat Sahib’. ‘Wa alaykum Assalam – how are you?’ I replied – it is my custom to meet people with love. He was an administrator of a Masjid here in Bolton – this happened a few days ago - and he said ‘MashaAllah, I listen to your Bayans every Thursday night, and my life has changed and been transformed.’ He spoke in Gujerati, and I listened to him and then said ‘Really? You listen to my Bayans?’ He said ‘Yes, Hadhrat Sahib, they are amazing. A person sends me the link to the Bayans, MashaAllah’ and then the brother started making Dua for me! I thought ‘There are other people who come here to me, and yet they are still monkeys because they don’t listen, either here or at home.’ Some people, as soon as they leave, put music on in their cars, saying ‘Listen to this music, and look at this video on this screen.’ My brothers, don’t listen to those Naats – listen to my Naats. Listen to these Naats, not the useless ones for which the reciters take money and then run away. They will make you foolish because they are not Ashiqs - rather, they earn money from their melodious voices. Naats are those which are straightforward, and which take you to the destination.
Do you understand what I am saying? Listen carefully and have fear of Allah, for death is very close to the human being, after which you will regret and think ‘If only I had practiced properly in my life. Why did I waste my time?’ My brothers, you will get both this world and the Akhirah through Deen. Do Amal on all the internal and external factors, on all the five or six elements of the Deen. When you wake up in the morning, don’t just think about Salah, and at the end of the day, think ‘How was my Salah today, and what sins did I commit when I was in society, and how was my Akhlaq and my conduct and my manners?’ You have got sheets for this purpose, and through the sheets, you can ask all these questions. So complete the sheets, fill them in, and keep the connection with your Sheikh, alhamdulillah.
And company is not about talking - if you want to have Sohbat, then go into Muraqabah in our Majalis every morning and evening, and you will meet with me. Company is not about talking to each other, but rather about connection between the hearts. Yes? It’s not about ‘How are you? How is it going? How is your business?’ It may be that I have not met a brother for one year or two years – in fact, there is one brother who I have not met for three or four years, but we meet every day. How? SubhanAllah – how? We meet spiritually, and it seems as if we are meeting regularly. If you want to meet me physically, then just play my Bayans and you will meet me. Listen to the Bayans and you will meet me. If you want to be closer, then come to the Majlis of Dhikr, and you will come closer to me still. When you are sat in the Majlis, the hearts embrace each other spiritually. People say ‘What is this? I want to meet physically and chat and gossip’ – we don’t have time for this, my brothers. Naqshbandis don’t have time for that. Naqshbandis meet every second through Dhikr of Allah; they meet through Dhikrullah - say SubhanAllah.
Okay – recite Durood Sharif. Let us start our work of Dhikr.
23rd Nov, 2021
بے عمل کو راحتیں نہیں ملتی
صرف دعاؤں سے جنتیں نہیں ملتی
ایسی کوشش سے کیا حاصل
صورتیں ملتی ہیں سیرتیں نہیں ملتی
سبحان اللہ ❤
19th Oct, 2021
Subhanallah great bayan and the ending is Beautiful
16th Oct, 2021
May Allah guide us all on the right path of Deen and grant us forgiveness Ameen.
At the beginning of this discussion, I will start with a question. If an individual gives the name of a few things and then he asks people what object he is talking about, how quickly do you think people will answer him? The questioner may say that the object has tyres and a steering wheel and a seat and an engine and lights and wipers and windows on each side, and then he asks ‘If you put all these together, what is the object described?’ You will all have the answer to this in mind straightaway – it’s not difficult, is it? Even a child will tell you the answer to this. There are two reasons to this. In the past, say two hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago, if this question was asked, people would have thought ‘What is he talking about?’ because this item was not common. No one would have known what he was talking about. But if you ask this question today, even a very young child will laugh and say ‘What kind of question is this? This is too easy!’ They would, wouldn’t they? What has tyres and an engine and wipers and seats and a steering wheel? Put all of these together and you have a car. Easy question, easy answer, because this is common today. Everyone knows what a car is because every home has two, three or four cars parked outside. Cars are so common that they make the registration plates match their children’s names. Two hundred years ago, however, who would have known this? They wouldn’t have been able to answer; it would have too hard for them – they would have been lost.
In the same vein, I will put another question to you. This time, the questioner lists personal affairs, societal matters, good character, manners, worship – what do you get if you put all of these together? This may be very difficult for some people to answer perhaps. The elements of a car were listed and in the same way, these elements are listed – and only the Mu’min can give the answer. Even in this day and age, he will say ‘It is very easy to say what all of these elements make when put together. What do they make? They make Deen.’ All of these elements together make up Deen, just like the component parts of a car, such as the steering wheel and the tyres and the engine, are put together to make a car. If you are asked in the same way about personal life, life in society, manners, character, worship and habits, what do all of these form when combined? They make up Deen – say SubhanAllah.
Let’s go back to the car. Why does a person keep a car? He keeps a vehicle because he wants to be able to get from A to B, from one place to another. If I want to go to Blackburn, what will I use? A bed? Something else? No, I will go towards the car straightaway because this will deliver me to my destination. If I want to go to Piccadilly, I will get into the car, because it will take me there. So what is the objective of the car? It takes you to your destination – say SubhanAllah. Let us keep praising our Rabb for how Allah is explaining this to us in a beautiful way. Allah is explaining Deen to us in a simple way, isn’t He? We have understood clearly that the objective of a car is that it gets you to your destination – SubhanAllah.
So now, in the same way and by applying the same principle, if you put all these components of Mua’sharah, life in society, character, Ibadaat and habits together, they make up the Deen. So what is the objective of the Deen? The objective of the Deen is the same as that of the car. Just as the car gets you to your destination, Deen will also take you to your destination – say SubhanAllah. Do you understand the example? These small examples are given to try to explain the Deen. Even a child can understand this. I need a car to take me to my destination, and it is only Deen that will take me to the destination of the Hereafter. Only a car can take me to the places I want to travel to, and only the Deen can take me to the destination of the Hereafter, nothing else. If someone claims today that they can go on foot to get to the places they need to go to, it will take them far too long and it would be very hard. And if someone claims today that they can reach Jannah without Deen, or that they can attain the nearness to Allah without Deen, would anyone believe him? But people do say this today. They say ‘Oh, leave it out – why are you talking about Salah? Forget about Salah – Allah is Raheem and Kareem, He is Merciful, so what is the point in chatting about this? Just do a few little things and you will be fine.’ Have you heard this sort of thing? This is called shaytan’s deception. Yes? Death is true, my friends, so understand these points. Who is that individual trying to deceive? Who is he trying to fool? We deceive ourselves every day. How can we make possible something that is impossible? Tell me. You are answering yourselves – even the children are giving the same answer.
Okay, so listen again. You have a car that can take you to your destination, and it has a steering wheel and the windscreen wipers and the engine and the headlights and the seats – all the components are there – so you sit down in the car. All these things have come together to make a car that can take you to your destination – say SubhanAllah. Now if just one of these elements is missing from the car, it will not pass its MOT. If you take it to the MOT centre and they say ‘This is worn out, the wipers are worn out, the tyres are worn out, that needs renewing, this is wrong’ will they give you the MOT certificate? No. And if they don’t issue you with an MOT, then that car cannot go onto the road. I myself once took my car to someone I knew in order to get the MOT done, and he said ‘Okay – put it onto the ramp.’ Then he went through the list, saying ‘Pass, pass, pass’ until he stopped and said ‘I can’t give you the MOT.’ I asked why, and he said ‘We need to fix the wipers.’ I asked how much, and he said that it would cost forty pounds. I said ‘The wipers don’t matter much – the car is running fine,’ but he said ‘No, the car can’t pass the MOT with wipers like this.’ So my whole car became useless - due to what? Due to just that one wiper, I could not get the MOT pass for my car. The wiper may not seem to have much significance, but it is a necessary part of the car – say SubhanAllah.
Keep listening to what I am saying, and you will understand easily. If you want to practice Deen, then you will understand what I am saying, because these are the paths of Jannah that we are discussing. Remember this. What we are discussing today is not a drama, my brothers – I am telling you about today’s environment. I asked you a question, didn’t I, to which everyone would answer, even a child, that what was described was a car. But when it come to the elements of Deen, nobody can answer – why? Because we are in this age, which is similar to the old days when nobody understood what a car was; in this day and age, we don’t recognise Deen. No-one can tell you that these things make up Deen. In the old days, even a child would have stood up and said ‘This is Deen, this is Deen!’ He would have known, because Deen was common at that time.
Now due to one faulty wiper my car is deemed not to be roadworthy, and it cannot get its MOT, and the law says that if you drive, you will get caught. If the wiper is fixed, then you can drive the car, otherwise not, even though everything else is working. For just one small component, a headlight not working, for instance, and the car cannot pass the test. No matter if it is a nice, stylish Mercedes or some other brand, it will not be allowed on the road because it is missing a small component. And that small component turns out to be very important because it allows the car to be driven and thereby the destination can be reached. Hence that component is very, very important for us - none of these components is minor, because without them, we cannot get to our destination.
So, my brothers, all the parts of the Deen that I presented in your service – Mua’malaat, Akhlaqiyaat, Mua’sharaat, A’daat, Ibadaat – if you put all of this together, this is Deen. And if any of these elements is shaking or is loose, then will the MOT of your Deen pass? If any one of these parts fail, then the MOT will not be passed, and anyone whose MOT does not pass will not be able to travel along the road. Which road? The road that is the Path to Allah, the road that will take you to the Akhirah. I am using a very simple example to explain this to you, SubhanAllah. Say SubhanAllah – a person cannot reject this. All these component parts of the Deen must be kept at the required standard in order for you to drive the car, so that you can sit in the vehicle of the Deen and travel to the destination of the Akhirah and attain success.
But this is not happening today. Ask someone, and he will say ‘What is this Mua’asharaat that you are talking about? What are the A’daat, the personal habits of a believer? What is this Akhlaqiyaat and conduct and character about which you are speaking? No, no – I just know about Hajj. I’ve been on Hajj, and that’s all I’ve been told. Praying Salah is all I know about Deen.’ Ibadaat are just one part of Deen – say SubhanAllah. Worship is only one component of the Deen, and you cannot get to the destination with worship alone. If you think that you can, you are deceiving yourselves, oh people. This is not what Deen is, and no Kitab will tell you that it is – remember this. It is a part of the Deen, and an important part, but every element is important because no MOT test can be passed if one element is faulty. My car failed the MOT just because the wiper failed, and if we hide away these other very big parts of the Deen, then how will be able to get to Allah? How will we attain the success of Jannah? Tell me. Say SubhanAllah.
Have you understood what I am saying up to now, my brothers? Is what I am saying clear? If it is, then we would be monkeys not to practice on this – only a monkey would do such a thing as understand but not practice. Human beings don’t do that, and someone who is a human being is a great person indeed, very great; Allah says in the Qur’an that Insan is {أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬}. This refers to a true human being, who understands and then does Amal upon his understanding. A person who does not do Amal is a monkey, an ape. So regarding the things we discussed last time, how many people did Amal upon them? Those who did not, they are monkeys; they cannot be human beings, for human beings are { أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬}, and to act in this way is not the attribute of a human being. A person is ignorant who understands and yet when he leaves, he does not do Amal on what he has understood – there is no bigger monkey than that person. I am using polite words here – these are not dirty words. Even a monkey has a lot of understanding – a monkey is not a stupid animal. If you go to the zoo, you will see how the monkeys jump on your car and play games – they have got brains, and they know everything about us.
So how sad this is - how can such a person be { أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬}? That is why I ask you to say SubhanAllah, so that by doing so, you confirm that you have understood. That is why you say SubhanAllah, isn’t it? Otherwise, you should say ‘Sorry – I have not understood, so what am I praising Allah for here? Please tell me.’ If you say SubhanAllah, then that is the stamp to say that the monkey has understood, and if he does not then do Amal on this, then he remains a monkey and is not a human being. He cannot be { أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬} It is one thing for a person to say that he is ignorant and is not aware, but when you say that you understand by saying SubhanAllah, and yet you don’t follow up with Amal, then how sad that is. That is a bad thing. So have you understood up to now? We have explained that all parts of the Deen are important, and that if you just rely on one part, you are wrong and are deceiving yourself.
Do you understand what I am saying? Deen consists of all the elements combined together, so to bring Deen into being, all of them have to be brought together. If somebody’s Akhlaq is not good, or if his interaction with society is not good, or if his personal habits and lifestyle are not good, or if his worship is not good, then he is not practicing Deen. Beware - he should beware, because he is in big danger; he is sitting on a mound of punishment, and he cannot be successful. If he says ‘I want a good and an easy death so that I can get to my destination in the Hereafter,’ then what he needs to do is take hold of all the elements of the Deen and bring them together. He needs to work hard on everything, just as he does when on Hajj and in his Ibadah when praying Nafl and reading Qur’an – we do work hard on these things. In the same way, he must work hard on his Akhlaq and resolve not to lie or take anybody’s rights; he must work hard on his personal habits and on his Mua’malaat in society. He must correct it if he finds that he has not paid back loans that are given to him, and if he fails to fulfil the promises that he makes, or if he does not distinguish between Halal and Haram, or if he does not know about the laws relating to running a business or keeping a shop, or how the Usool of Islam apply to these matters, or if he does not know what to be aware of as an employee, or which jobs are suitable and which unsuitable, or what are acceptable ways of earning money.
Nowadays people say ‘Everything is Halal - all you have to do is pray Salah, and everything else is Halal. Just go on Umrah and everything will be fine.’ Alhamdulillah, pray and make those journeys without restriction, but if you are only working hard on one part of Deen, then shaytan has deceived you. I am not saying this – let us look at the Qur’an to understand this inshaAllah. The Qur’an will explain to us. Do you understand what I am saying? Those who focus solely on Ibadah and do not pay attention to the other parts of Deen are totally wasteful and foolish people. They do not understand Deen, and they do not want to understand Deen; they have no understanding of what the Deen is. They just listen to a few things that they find in their traditions and cultures, celebrating this or the other day – that’s it. They write the dates into their calendars so that they can celebrate those days, and then they make big Duas on those days and spread the news that everyone who does the same is going to Paradise. May Allah take us all to Jannah, but this is not what my Qur’an says; my Rabb does not say this. Our Rabb says other things.
Say SubhanAllah – inshaAllah that means you have understood. Not everyone is saying it though – maybe only fifty percent. I will only accept it when everyone says it, so say SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah – you have understood, yes, for only those who have understood will say it. So let us move forward.
What we realise then is that all parts of the Deen are important, and to practice the whole Deen, you have to practice every component part. This is what we have understood up until this point. And you have to work equally hard on all of the elements. Call people to the Deen by means of Qur’an, or by Hadith or by Tableegh or by Dhikr – we should include all the parts of the Deen in our lives, not just one. Yes? That is how we give Da’wah. It is not just Dhikr to which we invite people; my Fikr should be to invite to the whole of Islam. That is how it should be. It is not just about inviting to Dhikr, rather we should have concern for the whole of the Deen. If you invite someone to pray Salah, you should have the intention at that time that you are inviting them to the whole Deen, not just Salah – SubhanAllah. If you are just inviting to one thing, or if I were to invite only to Dhikr and did not have Fikr for anything else, then that is not Da’wah. That would be to invite for just a selected task, and such a person might only be inviting that person towards himself. To just restrict oneself to one objective - like if you just say ‘Qur’an, Qur’an, Qur’an,’ - that is not Da’wah in its entirety. You should have a wider objective behind it, and until and unless you have this, it is not real Da’wah. Da’wah means having Fikr for all five or six aspects of the Deen, and your concern for each one of those parts should be as great as for all the others.
But what do we do? Don’t we do this? Along with Dhikr, we invite to all the other parts of the Deen, do we not? If we do, say SubhanAllah – then our Da’wah is accepted. That is what we do here, isn’t it? We don’t just invite to one aspect – we invite to everything. So the colour and the effect should be to invite to all aspects, whatever your mode of giving Da’wah. If you open the Qur’an, for example, say ‘Alhamdulillah, this is the Qur’an, and through the Qur’an, I want to invite people towards the whole Deen; I have Fikr for the whole Deen.’ I have sat to do Dhikr, and Dhikr is the main topic, the root, of this event, and what that means is that when I invite people towards Dhikr, I am inviting them towards the entirety of Deen; I should have concern for each pillar of the Deen. Where this is apparent, where you find this, then that is the place to which you have to go today. Say SubhanAllah – you have to sit there. If you sit in a place where you don’t get this, then you are wasting your time. If you are just dragging yourself again and again to one aspect only, and making effort on just one part, then on the Day of Judgement, Allahu Akbar, you will be asked about lying, backbiting, Mua’malaat, the rights of the wife, the rights of the son and the rights of the father and the mother, as well as business, eating, drinking, employees, employment – every single thing. Deen covers all of these factors, remember; and this is the glory of Deen-ul-Islam - say SubhanAllah.
The glory of Islam, my brothers, is that it covers all facets of life. People say ‘No, no, - I do this action and that action, and I don’t know why, but I keep feeling down and depressed.’ Nowadays we have made magicians prosperous - those who say ‘Oh, just do this and recite that and say this.’ If you find that one part of your Deen is correct, for instance if you are praying Salah five times a day and Tahajjud also, okay, that’s fine, but even then, you complain and say ‘I have no contentment – there is still no Sakeenah. This has happened to me, and I still have this problem.’ Don’t blame the Deen for this. Instead, think ‘How weak am I on the other four or five aspects of the Deen? How am I doing on them?’ Think about where the leakage is occurring. What do we do? If we just focus on Salah, what then happens is a person says ‘Oh, there’s no point in praying Salah then.’ What we don’t see is that it is not the fault of your Salah. You may be praying Salah regularly, but though you pray Salah, you are not paying attention to the other four or five aspects of the Deen – so what good can the poor Salah do for you? Instead of blaming the Deen and Salah, look at how you are doing in the other parts of the Deen. Ask yourself ‘Am I practising in these areas? Am I making mistakes in my Mua’sharaat, in my dealings with society, in my business or in my job or employment? Am I making mistakes here at home, in the rights of my family? Am I breaking those rights? Is it the case that I am not on good terms with my friends?’ When you look at all these things, then SubhanAllah, you will see the answers to your problems, and if you keep mending these holes and patching them up, then Noor will come into your Salah. Yes? And in this way, your complaint about your Salah will be eliminated.
We are having an Ajeeb Bayan today – Ajeeb words are coming out, MashaAllah; this is an Ajeeb discussion. Are these not good points? Do you understand what I am saying? Good. A person acquires so much strength when he comes onto the right path, and that is why Allah ta’ala says, time and time again, {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}, {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}, {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}. Up until today, we have not even understood this one verse. What is {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}? It is the true path, the path of the Prophets. The greatest strength of this one Nabi was that all the parts of his Deen would shine and sparkle; this Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam gave everything to you. He was just, and he would explain matters from every angle, and that is why he was saying {ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}.
So now your deception has gone, hasn’t it? It is not just about Salah and Ibadah – and yes, I am saying this time and time again, because today, shaytan has deceived us and has made us run after just one aspect of Islam, just one. Some people do Hajj year after year after year, and some people do Umrah and after Umrah – they become lovers, which is good. But Islam teaches balance, so we must do Hisab of the other elements of the Deen as well, including looking after your children. Keep your life balanced and don’t just run after one thing. Who has told you that success consists in just doing Hajj and nothing else? So many Hajjis will go into Jahannam that we will lose count – why? Because their Mua’malaat are spoiled - their daily lives are spoiled. It sounds weird to hear that Hajjis will go into Jahannam, doesn’t it, and you think ‘This doesn’t sound right’ – shaytan overcomes you; he deceives and overwhelms the brain of that person.
You need to look at so many aspects and take care to understand the Fiqh of Mua’malaat – whether lying in your personal life, or in business. So many people carry on regardless and think ‘No, no, no – don’t concern yourself with this.’ So many people who run shops don’t know how run their business according to the standard of Islam. We don’t know how to buy stock, how to sell stock, how to conducts purchases, how to return stock, or when stock can be returned – we have no idea whatsoever, and hence, we cannot account for our mistakes. We don’t know how much profit we should retain, or how to spend those profits, or how we should keep accounts – nothing at all. We just think ‘Whatever comes in is all mine, whether it is his wealth or mine – I do Dhikr after all.’ When the question arises, they think ‘It’s okay - I do Dhikr’, or the Hajji will say ‘It’s okay - I go on Hajj regularly’, and the one who keeps fasts will tell himself ‘It’s okay – I’m always fasting.’ But, sad to say, everything will be accounted for on the Day of Judgement. We will be questioned about every one of the five or six parts of the Deen that I have explained about.
Listen to these points two or three times again if you want to get Jannah based on Deen – I am telling you this now. And then do Dua, because we are weak, but at least you can say ‘I have understood.’ InshaAllah, Allah will make us implement this as well. At least become serious for once in our lives; at least become serious, for in that way, gradually the weaknesses will evaporate. At least stand in front of the mirror and say ‘I accept that I am wrong.’ A person whose nose is crooked cannot lie when standing in front of the mirror. You cannot deny the shade of your complexion or the reality of your looks, even if others tell you that you are handsome because they want to get money out of you. The mirror will you show you your face as it is, and you will say ‘Is this my face?’ The truth is laid bare – you can’t lie in front of the mirror. You have to trust in the mirror, otherwise Jannah will never come to us. You have to be honest.
I remember a couplet – how does it go? Yes:
‘Without Amal, a person cannot attain Rahmah; and through Duas alone, you cannot get Jannah.
What is achieved by this effort? Physical appearance only – not the destination.’
Take note of this couplet as well – write it down. We don’t know about character and all we worry about is our physical appearance – but physical appearance alone will not bring success. If a person has no Amal, he will not find his way out of this; a person who does not practice will never attain success, not in this world, nor in the Hereafter. The successful one is only that person who practices all the parts of the Deen; it is about Amal – practice. Jannah is not achieved just through Dua. People say ‘Do Dua for me, make a pious Dua for me’, but you cannot get Jannah through Duas alone; Jannah is acquired through physical practice.
So brothers, I am emphasising that all the aspects of the Deen need to be practiced in order to get success. Let us go back to the example of the car. Let’s say that you go to buy a car – what do you get when you buy it? The person who sells you the car – the garage owner or whoever – will also give you a manual for that car, a handbook, that explains and describes all of its features. It is an instruction manual, telling you how to put oil and water into the car, and how often to service it and so on. Every car comes with one of these manuals explaining to you what to do, doesn’t it? Well, our Maula, our Rabb, has also done this. When He gave us the vehicle of the Deen, He also gave us a Kitab to go with it in order to explain all the features. As soon as a person says ‘La ilaha illa’llah’, whether he was previously a Hindu, a non-believer, a Sikh, a Christian, when he recites this Kalima, he gets the instruction manual from Allah ta’ala. Allah is saying ‘Now that you have bought this car of Deen, you have to drive it according to this instruction manual.’ Allah ta’ala has announced the nature of this in the Qur’an, saying {قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}. Does the Qur’an not say this?
In order to explain these five parts of the Deen, Allah is saying ‘I have given an instruction manual if you want to practice the Deen – a Book. Which Book? {قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬} This Kitab has been provided for this Deen, because who is the Owner of the garage from which this Deen comes? Allah! He is the Owner of the garage. We have accepted the Deen of Allah, and so Allah says ‘You have bought the car of Islam from Me, and you want to reach My destination of Paradise, so in order to manage this, I will give you an instruction manual, a Book, which you have to follow. What is the name of that Book? {قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}.’ SubhanAllah. Who is saying this? Allah is saying this. Allah is saying ‘I am giving two things to you: one is Kitabun Mubeen.’ This is not just a Kitab, but rather a Kitabun Mubeen – what a beautiful statement. It is Mubeen. What does Mubeen mean? It means that it will be such a clear Kitab that it gives an explanation of all of the parts of the Deen.
Now Allah ta’ala has praised and explained this Kitab. This Kitab, which is called the Qur’an-e-Hakeem, the Noble Qur’an, is from Allah, and the main objective of this Kitab is what? It is an instruction book to explain how you should practice the Deen – and what is Deen? Mua’malaat, Mua’sharaat, A’daat, Akhlaqiyaat, Ibadaat – where will you get the instructions of how to practice these things from? From Kitabun Mubeen. Where? Say it loudly! Kitabun Mubeen. This Kitab that Allah ta’ala has given us is not for kissing, and not for Khatams, and not for Taraweeh, and not for reading, and not for Naats, and not for Hifdh, and not for hugging to your chest, and not to use for Wazeefahs – the Qur’an was given not for any of these actions. The pious predecessors have said this - it is not me who is saying this. You don’t need to do any of these actions, and in the Hereafter, on the Day of Judgement, you won’t be asked about those things. You won’t be asked ‘Why did you not become a Hafidh? Why did you not become a Mufassir?’ You will not be asked anything of the sort, because the objective of the Qur’an is one – and what is that? It is that you understand the Deen – you must understand it. Am I wrong? Moulana Sahibs are sitting here – you can ask them. These other actions are all secondary actions.
The Qur’an is such a beautiful book - it is a fantastic book, not a minor book – and everything connected to the Qur’an is Noor. Tilawat is Noor, kissing it is Noor, looking at it is Noor, to love it is Noor, taking Shifa from it is Noor – all these things are Noor, but they are not the objective of the Qur’an. But what have we done? We have hidden the real objective and instead we run after the secondary things, and in doing so, we have fallen down. We have taken a tumble, and the storms that have brewed today are connected to this. It may be that the points that I am making today sound weird, but I am teaching you the true, correct Deen. In fact, I am not teaching you, but rather the pious predecessors at whose feet I sat told me this, and I am now passing this message to you, SubhanAllah. All my hair turned white while I was sitting at their feet – I learned the Deen from them, and now I am teaching you. Astaghfirullah, who am I to sit in front of you and explain the Deen? They said ‘Speak’, so I said ‘But I can’t speak.’ He replied ‘I will enable you – you go and speak. You will go and speak!’ SubhanAllah. I said ‘Who will listen to me?’ He said ‘People will come and listen to you in Bolton. People will come.’
Did anyone know me when I came to Bolton? Did you know me? Did you? Did anyone know me at the time I came here? Nobody knew me when I came to live here. No one knew then, but now everybody knows me. Why? Because of that hand, that pat on the back – say SubhanAllah. If I had sat of my own volition, I would have been a thief, calling you and inviting you to myself, saying ‘Come – I am this and that, so give me the titles.’ There is no need for any of that, for I just talk about one thing – Kitabullah wa Sunnat-e-Rasoolillah, and Da’wah through Dhikrullah. Say SubhanAllah. That is what I was instructed to do – ‘Don’t go beyond this’ they said. ‘Don’t go into this or that Masa’il or talk about Shia and Sunni issues or Barelwis or this or that – this is not your job. Leave that to other people; Allah ta’ala has created other people to do that work. As far as you are concerned, you should not care who sits in front of you, whether Shia, Sunni, Ahl-e-Hadith, Barelwi or Ghair Muqallad.’ That is why everybody comes to my gatherings. Yes? I don’t say ‘He is wrong’ or ‘He is correct’ – it is not my job to tell people; that is a job for others to carry out. I was told ‘Whoever comes, whether a stone or a diamond, your job is to give him Da’wah to the Kitab of Allah and the Sunnat-e-Rasoolillah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.’
Is this not the Da’wah that I give, my brothers? Do I say ‘This or that person is a Barelwi so he shouldn’t come, and that person is Deobandi so accept him, or he is Ahl-e-Hadith, or he is Ghair Muqallad, or he is a Shia so go and rob his house or set his house on fire – do I say this? Do I tell you to reject this or that person or to reject those from this or that country? No, no, no. Often people try to involve me in these things, but - Allahu Wahdahu la Sharika lah – He knows that I am not like that and so He enabled me to pass all such tests. People tried their hardest to distract me in the Dunya – maybe there are spies sat here now. They can try their hardest, but SubhanAllah, if a man is honest, then he can never fail; he can never lose. Wherever he is, even in jail in front of the people who are there, he will say ‘Do Dhikrullah! Come into Islam – why are you playing games? Islam is the correct path.’ He even gives Da’wah there - and they hear and realise that man is right. They understood and were quiet – why? Because the company of the Walis of Allah is indeed the greatest company.
Don’t have the desire to become a Pir or a Shaykh; whoever Allah makes into a Pir or Shaykh, he is the right person for the job. Yes? So correct yourself in the right manner. Look at the value of such a person – one man in a corner of a village in Pakistan gave me the instruction to go and teach the Deen to the people of Bolton and make them proper Muslims. He said ‘Give them Iman and embrace the non-believers also; teach them the Kalimah. Teach this Kalimah to Hindus and Jews and Christians’ – and with the Fadhl of Allah, I have educated them. I didn’t teach anyone to do wrong things – this is not my function. I don’t know how to do wrong. I don’t know about politics, and I don’t know what is happening in foreign countries, and who is arguing and quarrelling or fighting, or where bombs are dropping, or where people have been imprisoned, and which country is attacking which country – I know nothing about these affairs. I just know one thing: to stand up and teach everyone Dhikr of Allah. That is my function; that is what I teach.
So, my brothers, I was requesting that – is it getting late? Are we late, or shall we carry on? You don’t need to leave do you? Okay, keep sitting and keep listening. That is why doing Dhikr after Isha is very good – and this is Rabi-ul-Awwal. If we don’t understand the words of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam in this month, when will we understand them? We are not one of those people who speak about other things – you will not hear words that are out of place here. This is the way to celebrate Rabi-ul-Awwal. Today, you will say ‘Yes, the Barakaat of Rabi-ul-Awwal are here.’ So let’s continue, SubhanAllah.
So what I was saying was that Allah ta’ala has given us a Book along with the Deen, and this is how we get to the destination. This is just like a car, which has an instruction manual which explains how to use the car. And what is in this Book, this Qur’an that Allah ta’ala has given to us? Noorun wa Kitabun Mubeen. Allah says ‘I have given you a Kitab, a clear Kitab, and I have explained the objective of the Qur’an, which is one – Ta’leem. Attain the education and then do Amal – it will teach you to practice.’ The rest of it is secondary. On the Day of Judgement, when you are asked about the Qur’an, you will only be asked one question, namely ‘Did you practice the Qur’an?’ This is in a Hadith in Mishkat. This Kitab of the Qur’an teaches you Halal and Haram; it tells you what is lawful and what is unlawful, what is right and what is wrong. The whole Deen - Akhlaq, conduct, everything – is Mubeen, clear. It will tell you every single thing, so there is no need to touch the Torah or the Injeel or any other Kitab. Allah says ‘I give you such a Kitab through My beloved Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam that My Ummah has no need to go to anybody else for guidance.’ That is how complete the Qur’an is.
And as the days and years pass, it will be printed very nicely, with coloured ink and decorated printing, and it will reach all corners of the world. The whole world will be illuminated, and the bookshelves of Masjids and homes will be filled with copies of the Qur’an. Think back to the era of the Sahaba-e-Kiram – they used to write the Qur’an on pieces of leather and stones! Sometimes they didn’t even write it and instead they absorbed it directly into their hearts, but today we have Qur’ans everywhere. Books upon books are printed, red ones, green ones, blue ones, yellow ones, copies from the Taj Company, from this printer and that publisher. Why? Allah ta’ala said ‘I gave you this Kitab for one reason, so don’t leave it. Print it here and there and then read it. Where you have a matter that makes you shake, then take the answer from the Qur’an.’
It is Mubeen, and the pious predecessors say that Mubeen also has another meaning; it hints at something else, which is that it is not only clear but also easy. The Qur’an is very easy to understand. No Daleel is needed apart from the Qur’an. If you have the right Niyyah, the Qur’an will immediately tell you whether something is Halal or Haram. Don’t close your eyes and try to avoid the matter – it will tell you ‘This is Halal, and that is Haram.’ The Qur’an will tell you. But another question arises. Before mentioning the Kitab, what else did Allah ta’ala says? He mentioned the Noor – the light. SubhanAllah – say SubhanAllah. A beautiful point comes here, so say SubhanAllah before the point comes. The understanding of Rabi-ul-Awwal is coming. Why did Allah ta’ala say this before mentioning Kitab? Allah ta’ala said { نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}. In a sense, this is like needing Wudhu before you pray Salah – if your Wudhu is not right, then you can’t pray Salah. Say SubhanAllah. Yes? You can pray Salah, but if your Wudhu is not correct, then your Salah is not correct. Allah ta’ala says Noor before Kitabun Mubeen, so the importance of this Kitab is within the light, the illumination, this Noor. All of the success of this Kitab, of the Qur’an, is due to this light and this illumination. Allah ta’ala says ‘I mention light first, because if you don’t have the light, then you can’t get the benefit of the Qur’an.’ Say SubhanAllah. These are beautiful points – understand them. Yes? Today, the understanding is coming.
So you cannot get the benefit of this Kitab of the Qur’an without the light – the light came first. {قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬} First Allah ta’ala mentioned the Noor, the light, the illumination, and this comes before the Kitab – understand what I am saying carefully. Without the Noor, you cannot get the benefit of the Kitab. There will be complications in your Deen, and you will not understand the answers – you will not understand Islam. You will go off track – an Ajeeb word is found in the Qur’an to describe those people. So, brothers, what has Allah said? { قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬}. What is this light? Why has Allah termed it light? Why has Allah said Noor? Because you cannot read anything in the dark – you cannot read any book in the dark. You need light in order that you can see. Can you read a book in the dark? Now there are two types of light: one is physical light, and one is the light of the heart – the light of the eyes and the light of the heart. So we need light in order to read the Qur’an; we need this illumination, otherwise the Qur’an will remain sitting there. That is why all these Kitabs that we have are just sitting there unread – you are not shining any light onto them. You do not touch the Qur’an with light – yes, you touch it with the light of your eyes, but you don’t touch it with the light of your heart that Allah ta’ala has given you. Say SubhanAllah. That is why the Kitabs just sit there on the shelves. We may read them, but they have no effect – the Qur’an has no effect. In fact, that same Qur’an that we read, we practice against it day and night. In those places where the Kitabs are stuck on the shelves, there is deviation and disputation and arguments; you will see stacks of sins in that very same place.
What is the reason for this? Tell me. It is because we are not using the light that Allah ta’ala is mentioning here, that light referred to in { نُورٌ۬ وَڪِتَـٰبٌ۬ مُّبِينٌ۬}. If we do not use that light, we cannot understand the Qur’an, and if we do not understand the Kitab, we cannot bring the Deen into our lives, and if the Deen does not come into our lives, then we cannot get near to Allah, and we will not even be able to smell the fragrance of Jannah. So success depends entirely upon that light; that light comes first and foremost – am I right or am I wrong? Tell me, Moulana Sahib. What I am saying is totally right, isn’t it? Yes. I am delivering straightforward points to you, my brothers, which are not complicated or hard to understand. These are not lengthy technical points, but rather this is a straightforward explanation so that we can become proper Muslims. Allah has told us about this light in the Qur’an, and we can only take in the Qur’an if we read it with that light.
So remember this, my brothers: don’t read the Qur’an with the light of the eyes, rather, read it with this light that Allah is mentioning. I am inviting you to practice on this point. Don’t read the Qur’an with the light of the sun or the moon or the lamp – remember this. If you want to read the Qur’an, then read it with that light that Allah has given along with the Qur’an. So what is that light, that illumination? La ilaha illa’llah, Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah. Recite the Kalima of belief in Allah, but alongside that, acknowledge that Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah. This is the light that Allah ta’ala Himself explains by joining this statement with the Kalima of Tawhid. Allah says { قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬} and that light is Muhammad-ar-Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, who came to the world in this month, MashaAllah - say SubhanAllah. Imagine for yourselves how great was this light that came in this month.
Allah ta’ala is saying that success is based entirely upon this light – and what does this mean? It means that if you want to understand the Qur’an, if you want to read the Qur’an, then you must study the Qur’an under the light of obedience to Allah’s Nabi, under the light of imitation and adoption of the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam; then you will understand the Qur’an. Allah is announcing that by following our Master sallallahu alayhi wasallam, by reading the Qur’an in the light of the Sunnah, you will understand the verses of the Qur’an, and then you will practice the whole of the Deen and implement all its parts equally – and then you will be a practicing believer. Say SubhanAllah.
So has Allah ta’ala explained? What is the most valuable and precious thing? The Sunnat-e-Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Without the Sunnah of Rasooullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, nobody can practice the Deen – nobody. All the pillars of the Deen, the five, six or seven component parts of the Deen, the Mua’malaat, Mua’sharaat, Ibadaat and all the others, in order to understand these, who do we have to imitate? The Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. You have to imitate him, and you have to seek understanding through his Sunnahs. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam came to the world for this very reason, so that he could demonstrate the Deen to us practically.
If you read and study the Deen through the light of the Ittiba of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, what happens? There were more than one hundred thousand Sahaba, and Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said ‘My Companions are like the stars in the sky; they sparkle and glow like stars in the sky, and if you follow any one of them, then you will be guided.’ Why? How did they all become stars? They became stars under the light of the Sunnah, and when they became stars under the light of the Sunnah, they sparkled and shone so much that each one of them could guide others with that light – SubhanAllah.
So, my brothers, tell me now – without the Sunnah, how can you understand the Deen? Does this make sense? Tell me. Does it make sense to reject the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam? We do not eat according to the Sunnah, we do not dress according to the Sunnah, we do not run our businesses according to the Sunnah, our appearance is not in line with the Sunnah – nothing is according to the Sunnah. And yet all success is achieved through the Sunnah - imitation of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is essential to success. You have to learn his Akhlaq – and where can you learn this? From Qur’an? No, from the Sunnah of Rasooullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, by finding out how he said to do this and that in the Tariqa of the Sunnah. That is why Allah ta’ala created the Imams and the Fuqaha and the scholars, those select people, so that until Qiyamah, alhamdulillah, people could continue to attain the Faidh of the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam – SubhanAllah.
Without Sunnah, nothing can be attained – nothing. Whatever a human being can attain in this world is from this light – that is the clear message that Allah ta’ala has given in the Qur’an. If we say that we are attached to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, then everything goes through him. If we want to practice the Deen, my brothers, every single thing has to be practiced – do you understand what I am saying? Your Akhlaq and character should be according to the Sunnah, your worship, your character, your manners, your habits, your social interactions – all these aspects should be balanced. And what is the method by which to learn this? It is very simple – and it is not by means of the Qur’an. You won’t learn this from the Qur’an, so where will you learn this? From Ittiba Rasoolillah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, from obedience to Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, through his Sunnah. No, you cannot run after the Qur’an to learn these things. The Qur’an teaches the principles, but it won’t explain the details. For this, we have been given an example by Allah ta’ala – {لَّقَدۡ كَانَ لَكُمۡ فِى رَسُولِ ٱللَّهِ أُسۡوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ۬}. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘That is why I sent you an example, so that through him, you can understand the Qur’an. Through him, you will understand everything. He is the example – and what does that mean? That you can’t understand by yourself or truly grasp the principles, so just stick to the example that he gave. Just keep on imitating the example.’
So what is Allah ta’ala looking at? At how Allah’s Nabi sallallahu alayhi wasallam did this, from A to B to C. How did he say this? For example, if I want to change something in my life, one person might say to do this, while someone else will say to do that – change this aspect of your clothing, keep this sort of a beard and so on. Just leave everybody else – come, let us and ask Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam; let’s go to his court – he will explain to us. And this guidance is not just found in one place, not just in Bukhari Sharif, but also in Imam Malik’s Muwwatta, and in Mishkat Sharif and in stacks of other Kitabs. Go, seek, and you will start learning all the Sunnahs of his life. This is how Allah’s lovers were created. And if it is hard for you to understand in this way, then Allah says ‘Then go to My Ashiq if it is hard for you to study, for every aspect of his life will be according to the Sunnah.’ If you cannot learn from Kitabs, then go and learn from the one who demonstrates physically, the Wali of Allah. Only one who demonstrates the Sunnah can be a Wali of Allah – if not, he cannot be a Wali of Allah. Never. And if someone goes to him and still doesn’t understand his words or copy his way, then can there be a bigger monkey that that person? A person who rejects and doesn’t want this can only be an Abu Jahl-type person.
There is a difference, isn’t there, between the Siddique who went to Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam and Abu Jahl. Both went, and they both met him, and both saw him, and both spoke to him. They both used to live near him, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, but Abu Bakr as-Siddique radhiAllahu anh embraced him and said ‘I will copy you’, while Abu Jahl rejected and refused to imitate him. One became Abu Jahl and the other became as-Siddique – both lived in the same period of time. So I need to go to a Wali of Allah today if I find it too hard to study Bukhari and the Muwwatta of Imam Malik. Allah says straightforwardly ‘Go – { َكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين} – this is a very simple method, very simple indeed. Go to the Wali of Allah, go to My Masha’ikh, and don’t start complaining there or trying to follow your desires. Just keep copying him. Keep imitating the Wali of Allah, for this is why you went to him. You didn’t go to the Wali of Allah to learn Salah; no, you went to learn Deen. How? Not through Kitabs, but rather through his Sohbat, through his physical demonstration.’
Now do you think that I studied in a Dar-ul-Uloom to learn these points that I am telling you? Tell me. Did I go to Madaris? No. Where did I go? To that Madrasah towards which Allah ta’ala instructed { َكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين}. I said ‘I don’t have time.’ I was at university, undertaking a Masters degree, then a PhD; I was in the Dunya and I didn’t have time to study ‘Ilm, but I said to Allah ‘I want to become Your friend.’ He said ‘Don’t worry, I have a standard for people like you. Not everybody goes towards Kitabs and becomes an Alim and goes to a Madrasah, so go to this village and visit My friend.’ Allah guided me because my Niyyah was correct – I wanted to attain Allah’s nearness. So I arrived there, and my Sheikh said ‘Why have you come?’ I said ‘Because I want to leave the Dunya and attain Allah’s nearness.’ Then he said ‘Sit here and look at me carefully – become just like what you see.’ I said ‘I will become just like that!’ and I put on a Dhoti and a Chaadar, and then he said ‘You must wear this attire in Europe. Go there and be like this wherever you go.’ He took my hand and said ‘You have followed { َكُونُواْ مَعَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِين}, so you are from the Sadiqeen, and Allah ta’ala has testified that you will attain your Rabb through this company. You will attain the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam from this education, and you will learn Akhlaq.’ I learned what Akhlaq was from my Sheikh – how to meet people, how to feed people. I learned from him how to live in my home, and I learned Mua’malaat and Mua’sharaat. First, he taught Mua’sharaat, telling me ‘Now, this is how you must run your business. In business, you must do this, and you must do that. Beware of taking interest and beware of consuming anyone else’s wealth. If you have little money, be content with that, and if you are hungry and thirsty, don’t ask from anyone.’ I swear by Allah, I did Amal on that, and until today, I have not been hungry, SubhanAllah. I learned the Deen from his footsteps, from his feet, from imitating him.
And yet we continue to act like monkeys and apes - ten years go by and we can’t even lengthen our beards or correct our businesses! Oh children of human beings, then what have you come here to learn? Have you come just to waste my time? I did all of this in my time, and just like this, you should say ‘You are Sadiq, my teacher, you are honest – Allah ta’ala has sent you as a guide, so wherever you are, you will teach me the Deen. I want to learn from you, my Sheikh, not from Bukhari.’ SubhanAllah, my Sheikh said ‘If you learn from me, then you will learn Bukhari as well, and your books will be printed. People will learn Sunnah from you because you have come to this Dar-ul-Uloom; you are being educated here. People go to Dar-ul-Uloom for six years, but you will be studying with me for seventy years.’ So how can you compare six years with seventy years? Tell me. Is there not a difference? In Dar-ul-Uloom, you study four hours or six hours per day, but here, we study with the Sheikh from morning to evening – SubhanAllah. I would go in the morning, and next thing, it would be night. I didn’t even know the difference between morning and night – Sohbat went on and on. So which class was longer, this one or that one? Tell me. Say SubhanAllah.
Do you understand my points? Are they right or are they wrong? I have told you, have I not? I may be a little bit emotional as I am speaking, so speak up if you think something is wrong, or if you think ‘What is he saying here?’ Have I said anything incorrect up until now? Is there something wrong with anything that I have said? Then say SubhanAllah. At least learn something here. If you haven’t learned the Deen in Dar-ul-Uloom, then at least learn in this Dar-ul-Uloom. If it was not in your destiny to go to Dar-ul-Uloom and so on, then at least go to a Wali of Allah or a Sheikh or a teacher. When you go to a WaliAllah or a Sheikh, if you don’t want to learn Deen from there, then where will you learn Deen? Tell me. Where will you learn Deen? Do you just come to listen to speeches? You can hear speeches on Jumu’ah and attend Duroos – listen to those instead. Why have you come here for that? I don’t give speeches – I don’t even know how to speak. Go to good Moulanas and scholars and Jumu’ah Bayans, where you can hear the stories of Yusuf alyahi salam and of Zulaikha, and see what ‘Ilm they teach you, MashaAllah. They will tell you about Yunus alayhi salam and how he went into the whale – they will tell you stories, MashaAllah. As for me, I don’t tell stories. If you have come here to correct yourselves, then take on my style – say SubhanAllah.
Oh, what beautiful points come out – this is Deen. I have explained the Tariqa of learning the Deen, and I have explained about Dar-ul-Ulooms as well, so now it is our job to practice, isn’t it? This is Deen, my brothers - this is the definition of Deen. { قَدۡ جَآءَڪُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌ۬} – Allah ta’ala has said this, and I have explained what this Noor is, have I not? It is not a Noor to cause arguments, or to make quarrels over statements like ‘He was Noor’ or ‘He was Bashar’ – Astaghfirullah. In that case, we haven’t understood the Kitab of the Qur’an. Where have we taken the Deen today? We have groups and sects today who quarrel and argue, saying ‘He is Noor’, and ‘He is not Noor, he is Bashar’, but the Qur’an explains why Allah has said Noor and what this Noor is. Every Sunnah of the Holy Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was Noor. Yes? Some say that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam is Noor – I say that his every action is Noor, that every Sahabi was Noor. Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that every Companion of his was Noor and that they glow in the sky, and we are stuck on ‘He is Noor’, and ‘No, he is Bashar, he is a human.’
I don’t understand what kind of Qawm has been created today – it is confusing. Who do we belong to? We are trying to bring out technical points and say that Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was this, or that he was not this, and this is the right belief and Aqidah, and he was this, that or the other. Astaghfirullah, we don’t even know about ourselves, and yet we are talking about the final Prophet and saying that he was this or that and arguing to the point of saying ‘You are a disbeliever’, and ‘He is a Kafir’. About whom is this argument? Even as-Siddique radhiAllahu anh could not understand, and nor could Aisha Siddiqua radhiAllahu anha understand, but what they did understand was that only Allah knew what Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam was. But we argue about him today – say SubhanAllah. Me and you start arguing, saying that he was Noor, and he was Bashar, and he was this and he was that. Do you understand what Noor is now? We are so stupid – never get involved in arguments about these technical points. Just say ‘Go away, you madman – I don’t want to argue with you. Step back.’ Yes? Talk about something useful. People’s brains have veils upon them today, veils and nothing else - just quarrelling and shaytan.
So I would just like to summarise with a few points. After this, Allah ta’ala said something else that is very good: {ٱدۡخُلُواْ فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} So the point is coming now that I would like to explain in conclusion – say SubhanAllah. This point can be explained to you in a good way. Sometimes I have a point to explain, but I cannot speak and do not know how to articulate it, so I get a bit worried as to how I can explain it to you, so I say ‘Say SubhanAllah’, and when you say SubhanAllah, then I can explain it to you. I am not a Moulana, am I, brothers? I am just your friend. You have come here, so how do I explain this to you? I have a Fikr, a concern, in this regard. Allah says { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} in the Qur’an, and everything in the Qur’an is guidance.
Allah ta’ala is saying ‘If you do not follow the ways of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, then listen to what will happen.’ { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} – the Hukm comes now, which is that we must enter totally, one hundred percent, into the Deen. How? All the parts of the Deen that I have been explaining to you – Mua’malaat, Mua’sharaat, Akhlaqiyaat, Ibadaat – all these components comprise Islam, and you have to practice all of this. { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} Don’t just take one element, for you cannot drive a car which has just one wheel – how will you steer it? If everything is correct, then the car will take you to the destination. If your Mua’malaat are right and your Mua’sharaat are right and your Ibadaat are right and your Akhlaqiyaat are right, then your wife will be happy, and your relatives will be happy, and your business will be correct. If your business and your relationships and everything is according to the Qur’an, then this is what Allah has said - { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬}. Allah ta’ala tells us ‘Enter the Deen totally and comprehensively!’
As for a person who does not adopt the Deen completely, then Allah says ‘You are following and practicing the path of shaytan – {خُطُوَٲتِ ٱلشَّيۡطَـٰنِۚ}’. If you are not practicing the path and the Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, the path of {أَحۡسَنِ تَقۡوِيمٍ۬}, then what path are you following? If you don’t keep the beard, whose path are you following? If you pray Salah like that, then whose path are you following? Say it out loud – I am not saying this, the Qur’an is saying this – these are the {خُطُوَٲتِ ٱلشَّيۡطَـٰنِۚ} - it is shaytan who is praying. Remember this and think ‘My Rabb says this.’ If you are practicing your life in a manner that is away from the Sunnah, that is opposite to the Sunnah, and you are saying that you are on the path of the Deen, then listen to what Allah says about a life that is not according to the Sunnah. It doesn’t matter how pious people think you are and how much people praise you, and it doesn’t matter what status you have in the world, and how many titles you are given, nor how much glory you have, nor how many Bayanaat and speeches you have made. If you are practicing just one action against the Sunnah, even one – remember this – whether in Mua’sharaat, where you have to treat people equally and nicely, or if your Akhlaq is poor, or if your home life is not right, in all matters and in every sphere, if you are not living your life according to the Sunnah in some aspect, if your decisions are not based on the Sunnah, then what are you? It doesn’t matter what Maqam you have in the world, what are you doing? You are practicing shaytan’s path.
The Qur’an has explained a big point. { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} – if you practice the Deen totally in accordance with Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam, whether you are a small man or a big man, a minor or a major figure, that person will be termed as one who is practicing the Deen correctly – and this is { ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ}. Do you understand the point today?
So there are two aspects: our external lives must be in accordance to the Sunnah – look at your face, look outside, at your house, at your family, and look also at death. But we all just look at one thing, saying ‘I pray Jumu’ah, I pray five times Salah and Tahajjud, so my Deen is complete.’ Is it complete, my brothers? Say it out loud – is it? We are wrong when we say this, aren’t we? No, Deen is not this. Allah ta’ala has rejected all of them; Allah ta’ala has rejected people who are regarded as big shots. All of our actions should be { فِى ٱلسِّلۡمِ ڪَآفَّةً۬} – Deen should be with you totally and comprehensively. All aspects of your life should be Ittiba-ar-Rasool sallallahu alayhi wasallam – your house, family, business, occupation, travelling, friends, relatives, maintaining good relations; all this should be in accordance with what? The Sunnah of Rasoolullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And if there are any defects or cracks in that, then those are the {خُطُوَٲتِ ٱلشَّيۡطَـٰنِۚ} – that person is on the path of shaytan. Allah is saying ‘If that is the case, then you can keep your Hajj and your fasts.’
So what a great personality is the Wali of Allah who Allah ta’ala sends to the community. Every aspect of his life is in accordance with the Sunnah, and through him, people learn. It is not that he is an angel. He is not an angel, for he makes mistakes, but what does he do after making a mistake? Immediately thereafter, he does Ibadah all night long, seeking forgiveness from Allah. It is not that he is Ma’soom, innocent like a Nabi. He is not innocent – even if he is the Qutb or the Ghawth. It doesn’t matter who he is - why? It is because he mistakes and does Astaghfar – this is why Allah ta’ala elevates his status and his Maqamaat are raised. So don’t think ‘Oh, I thought he was a Wali of Allah, but he is making a mistake – he did a sin’, because you will see mistakes sometimes. But at least see how he asks for forgiveness from Allah, and how he makes Allah pleased after having made the mistake. Yes? Look at that as well, at the compensation he offers, at how he crushes his Nafs. When the Wali of Allah makes a mistake, then he punishes his Nafs so much that the Nafs complains.
So don’t think that the Wali of Allah cannot make mistakes, that a Ghawth or a Qutb or a Mujaddid cannot make mistakes – no, that is wrong. Allah ta’ala says that they will make mistakes, but that after they make mistakes, they ask for forgiveness, upon which Allah ta’ala elevates their status because Allah loves the way they seek for forgiveness. Allah ta’ala is saying ‘You should not be worrying about whether he is making mistakes and what he is doing. You just have to go there, take his company and imitate him.’
What else are we taught in this regard? That, for example, if you see that there is pride, even their pride is Ibadah – SubhanAllah. Don’t look here and there to see what mistakes your Sheikh is making – don’t fall into that trap. You don’t know how he does Tawbah after that and how he gets Allah ta’ala to be pleased with him, so even if you see Riya, or what you take to be Riya, then Allah ta’ala says that even that can take a person towards Ibadah. You don’t know why he seems to be displaying Riya; you don’t know the reason - there is a method, a way, and a system. When he does Riya, he does so because he wants to invite the Makhluq towards Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Anyway, going back to the point, the hint that Allah ta’ala has made here is that you should not be worried about secondary things. You should accept that your teacher is a Sadiq, and follow him, imitate him and take his guidance. Don’t look at his errors and his deficiencies – he knows, and Allah knows about his deficiencies – leave that to Allah. I am explaining Tasawwuf to you here. We come just a couple of times and then think ‘What is Hadhrat Sahib doing? Where is Hadhrat Sahib going? Hadhrat Sahib is doing this and that action.’ We are seeking deficiencies in our own teacher. They say ‘Look at his Salah – why does he do this? He makes mistakes in his life.’ I am telling you this openly – people do this with their teacher. When they go to a Wali of Allah, to a Sheikh, they first look at his personal life, thinking ‘What is he doing? What is he saying? Has he taken money from someone, and has he done such and such to that person, and has he said this to that person?’ SubhanAllah – you are wasting your time then. You are saying to Allah ‘Oh Allah, I am going to Your Sadiq’, and then you are looking for defects in the Sadiq. Remember the Niyyah with which you are going – Allah ta’ala is looking at your Niyyah. You have no need to seek out his defects and enquire about what he says and does; Allah knows – his Rabb knows. You have to accept him as a Sadiq – just close your eyes and start following him. Allah is saying ‘You just follow My Wali, and then leave it to Me to make you a Wali - leave it to Me. One day, I will make it clear to you that these were not his defects – rather, they were his Ibadaat.’
Do you understand me? I think today’s Dars is enough for us, MashaAllah. We have travelled, and we have covered a lot of points. You don’t even have time, but those poor souls who work hard, the team in the background, by the time you get home, they will put up a link to this Bayan, along with a translation into English - indeed people are listening to the translation right now in their headphones. The translation into English will be put up on the site along with the Urdu, and through the many processes involved, they will be available to hear before you even get home. The Bayan will be in Urdu and English according to your preferred language – I don’t even know because I am not doing this myself.
So I return again to the point: don’t look at my defects - rather, look at Allah’s Mercy in the way that Deen is being transmitted and delivered. I went to pray Salah recently, and a person who I didn’t even know, who was weak, came to me and said ‘Assalamu alaykum Hadhrat Sahib’. ‘Wa alaykum Assalam – how are you?’ I replied – it is my custom to meet people with love. He was an administrator of a Masjid here in Bolton – this happened a few days ago - and he said ‘MashaAllah, I listen to your Bayans every Thursday night, and my life has changed and been transformed.’ He spoke in Gujerati, and I listened to him and then said ‘Really? You listen to my Bayans?’ He said ‘Yes, Hadhrat Sahib, they are amazing. A person sends me the link to the Bayans, MashaAllah’ and then the brother started making Dua for me! I thought ‘There are other people who come here to me, and yet they are still monkeys because they don’t listen, either here or at home.’ Some people, as soon as they leave, put music on in their cars, saying ‘Listen to this music, and look at this video on this screen.’ My brothers, don’t listen to those Naats – listen to my Naats. Listen to these Naats, not the useless ones for which the reciters take money and then run away. They will make you foolish because they are not Ashiqs - rather, they earn money from their melodious voices. Naats are those which are straightforward, and which take you to the destination.
Do you understand what I am saying? Listen carefully and have fear of Allah, for death is very close to the human being, after which you will regret and think ‘If only I had practiced properly in my life. Why did I waste my time?’ My brothers, you will get both this world and the Akhirah through Deen. Do Amal on all the internal and external factors, on all the five or six elements of the Deen. When you wake up in the morning, don’t just think about Salah, and at the end of the day, think ‘How was my Salah today, and what sins did I commit when I was in society, and how was my Akhlaq and my conduct and my manners?’ You have got sheets for this purpose, and through the sheets, you can ask all these questions. So complete the sheets, fill them in, and keep the connection with your Sheikh, alhamdulillah.
And company is not about talking - if you want to have Sohbat, then go into Muraqabah in our Majalis every morning and evening, and you will meet with me. Company is not about talking to each other, but rather about connection between the hearts. Yes? It’s not about ‘How are you? How is it going? How is your business?’ It may be that I have not met a brother for one year or two years – in fact, there is one brother who I have not met for three or four years, but we meet every day. How? SubhanAllah – how? We meet spiritually, and it seems as if we are meeting regularly. If you want to meet me physically, then just play my Bayans and you will meet me. Listen to the Bayans and you will meet me. If you want to be closer, then come to the Majlis of Dhikr, and you will come closer to me still. When you are sat in the Majlis, the hearts embrace each other spiritually. People say ‘What is this? I want to meet physically and chat and gossip’ – we don’t have time for this, my brothers. Naqshbandis don’t have time for that. Naqshbandis meet every second through Dhikr of Allah; they meet through Dhikrullah - say SubhanAllah.
Okay – recite Durood Sharif. Let us start our work of Dhikr.