For Women only!!!

Ya Ilaahi - once again.

I committed a big sin,
And I am inside my sadness a captive,

Chained by the sin O my Rabb,
Does the sinner deserve forgiveness, O my Ilaah?

I admit my sins, O my Ilaah
You are the one who created, mercied and blessed me,
All the time you were with me, O my Rabb.

However, I went far away from you and forgot your rights,
And waked on my way, O my Ilaah.

And today O my Rabb,
I come back from a darkness beyond the boundaries,
The heart is broken and my sight is confused.
And I am sinking and see no one but you to rescue me,
No help except you,
O my Ilaah, O my Ilaah

Zulm - II

lied, lied and lied again
lie over lie and lie again
all your niceties and charm go down the drain
when the tongue knows no restraint


then the going gets tough
and no one trusts you anymore
you must shut out your gang of girls
you must take the plunge after you soar


it's time to retrace steps and take back all the tales
the gossip, the slander, the lies, the chit-chats, the mails
it's time to pay the price of all the fun the tongue had
you have been struck with the very words you forged into a fad

your tongue is hesitating to do taubah
look how venomous your ego brought it up as
you must bow your head, you must bend your back
in that humbling posture you must sag
your heart must melt
your heart must beat again
your eyes shall see
your tears shall revive your dead skin


and when your lips will move in that sajdah
as your nose rubs against the mat
your tongue will break loose
and submit to Him Who Doesn't Refuse


time to do taubah to The Tawwaab
it's time to silently remember Him
amidst the slow rhythm of the heart
beating against your ear drum
your tongue will be humbled to see
itself and the qalb succumb

Zulm - I

we make simple things complex
then make that complex our lifestyle
then we encounter the same simple things again
which seem to us to be complex

this is one of the many illustrations of the zulm that we do on our ownselves.

My little burger paté experience

as the series of my lessons continue for practical life ahead, today was my day out grocery-shopping and murghi-buying. as i made way through the plethora of flies and entered khalid sahab's chicken "shaap", i knew this was going to be one good experience for life. i could hear the puk-puk of chickens from above me, from my left and right sides too. so many white murghis had jam packed behind the black bars against a wall with a sign that told us they are 115 rupees per kg. for today only.

my father asked the butcher - a man with an orange shirt, red hands amd no gloves - to prepare 1.5 kg chick for us. as he held, put back and repeated the exercise to find the "perfect" one from them white ones for us, i started my own guesswork on who it shall be that will be my burger paté. the one who got chosen was then taken out of the cage, khalid sahab weighed her, and that's the last i saw of the murghi.alive. i shut my eyes and heard bismiLLAHI Allahu Akbar! i turned my head the other way..eyes still tightly shut.

Allahu Akbar! how important is this statement for some. for many of us it's something inserted in place of commas and full stops in our daily conversations. for some, its the last thing they get to hear before reaching that Allah Who is Akbar.

RASOOLULLAH صلى الله عليه وسلم

salaam us  صلى الله عليه وسلم par keh jis ne khoon ke pyaason ko dawai dee

salaam us (s.w) par keh jis ne gaaliyaan sun kar duain dee

salaam us (s.w) par keh jis ne fazal ke moti bikhere hain

salaam us (s.w) par buron ko jis ne farmaya keh "meray hain"

back to the basics

sometimes all you need is a plain background, a bit of blue, a clear mind, and a simple life. maybe all the time.

Remembrance of Allah - Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed - October 15, 2011

Link to download Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed's beautiful talk on

Dhikr - Remembrance of Allah Ta'ala
 
dated 15th October 2011.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10399817/Dhikr%20-%20Shaykh%20Kamaluddin%20Ahmed%20-%2015.10.2011.wma

don't miss the beautiful dua in the end.

AllahuAkbar.

the most difficult thing for a man to do, and my Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did it: Realise the truth and act accordingly.

interesting article with a video from Madinah Munawwarah
http://beliefinunseen.blogspot.com/2011/10/maghrib-prayer-in-madina-and-discipline.html

The Most Important Question

The most important question in our lives. Something i wrote in 2010. Involves shariati, tolstoy, frankl, ghazali (r.a), a bit of hajj, suffering, pain, love. life. past. desires. centre. submission. time and space. a bit of all that, and a bit more.

This paper aims to discuss the most important question a human being needs to answer, as posed by Tolstoy and Shariati and other thinkers such as al-Ghazali and Frankl . It will compare and discuss the answers found in the lives of ordinary people, as Shariati and Tolstoy propose, and contrast these with the answers given by science and art, which the two thinkers reject as unsatisfactory. It then moves on to discuss how the acts of Hajj make one return to the primary identity of an ordinary man and answer the essential question and other questions that follow. I will conclude by proposing that though the question discussed throughout the paper seems inescapable, there is still one force that can render it (and then in fact any question) irrelevant, making the insights offered by Shariati and Tolstoy to be as futile as they are helpful.

First off, what is it that every person would want to have an answer for? This question, which cannot be ignored or suppressed by man, as it could not be by the authors under discussion, pertains to the self. It can be put into one word in its broadest sense: “Why?”. While “how” asks about the steps, procedures, stages of development and process of a phenomenon, and “what” calls for its definition and description, “why” demands an explanation of its meaning. It asks for a reason, a motivation or a purpose, and if a human being keeps asking it for any and everything he does, he regresses back to asking ‘why the self?’. So while the most important question can be put in a generic word “why”, it can put in a sentence as Tolstoy puts it: “what is the meaning of life?”(Briggs ed. 130). This is the most important question, for in knowing the meaning of life lies knowing the meaning of death, of a higher cause, of a transcendental ideal, and of man’s relation with space and time, finite and the infinite. There are many ways of asking this same question, such as why does man live, what is the purpose of life, what is achieved by some actions or intentions. All of these boil down to one question that both Tolstoy and Shariati consider as inevitable, although they diverge with respect to their approach towards the queries it further sets and directs.

Tolstoy, when he asks for a reason underlying his actions, values, worth and eventually life, directs his efforts in pursuit of knowing the meaning of life as well as death, seemingly suggesting that if one understands the meaning of death, one can understand life . This is from where he brings in the notion of infinite and finite: while man lives for a finite amount of time, he dies for an apparently infinite period. Similarly, while reason – measurable and applicable – is finitely possessed by man, it cannot be used to explain the infinite phenomenon of man’s existence. Man’s life is finite, bound by space and time, which are whole and infinite. Thus, the next pressing question for Tolstoy is that what is the relationship between the finite and the infinite; in other words, what is the position of man in the universe of existence, cause, time and space? This question becomes important as another way of asking the meaning of life.

Shariati, however, chooses to ask a different set of questions supplementary to the question about the meaning of life. He concerns himself more with the purpose and end outcome of actions – whether or not they have been successful in achieving the intent and aim of the actor. For Shariati, another way of asking the meaning of life is how closely has it been lived to its purpose. The question “for whom?” is life being lived runs parallel to the question of “why is life lived?”. Hence, we see that Shariati, unlike Tolstoy, starts with a basic first assumption that there is a centre, an unmoving, unchanging cause, who is True, Good and Beautiful at the same time; this centre is not open to man to set in anything. Asking the meaning of life is actually asking the proximity of one’s life – in word, action or intent – to this centre – God. While Tolstoy’s question is about the meaning of life as a whole, Shariati’s question is about the meaning of the same life as an aggregate sum of actions, behaviors and intentions. This is indicative in Shariati’s notion of life as a constant movement and approach towards the centre . Tolstoy’s treatment of the question of life suggests life to be the centre, capable of having a position of its own and a relation with other phenomena, whereas Shariati would argue that the question asks about the meaning of life vis-à-vis a centre external to the self. For Shariati, the tool for measuring the meaning or value of life is already present. When Tolstoy says, “To know God and to live is one and the same thing. God is life” (161), he brings the meaning of life along with the meaning of something else, which is external to it: God. To ask the meaning of life therefore necessitates asking the meaning of God too. Shariati would be far from questioning in the same manner, for while he would ask the meaning of life, he would foreclose questioning the meaning of the centre that is external to it.

Frankl approaches the question on meaning of life on the premise that man has to find the meaning himself (Frankl 133), and this meaning can be found in multiple sources – sometimes in suffering, sometimes in the past, at other times in the future. This suggests that for Frankl, the most important question gets different answers at different points in life, as meanings and their sources can change. The idea that meaning of life can be set at an individual’s own discretion and can (and inevitably does) change implies that life is a sum of actions and knowing the meaning of life means knowing the meaning of these actions and decisions at various, separate stages in life. This makes Frankl’s approach similar to Shariati’s, except with the fine difference that the centre – the true, good and beautiful – can keep changing for Frankl, while for Shariati, it is fixed. Interestingly, we can find traces of al-Ghazali’s approach towards the question of the meaning of life in Tolstoy's position, demanding a more abstract and fixed answer. Al-Ghazali knew his actions and intentions, but he himself could not place meanings in them separately, piece by piece, before he could find a broader meaning of knowledge and life (al-Ghazali 20). Like Tolstoy, he held it necessary that life be treated as a whole and meaning first has to be found in the whole to then be extracted and applied to separate actions such as worship, seclusion, resuming teaching and so on.

Despite their differences on direction and approach towards the same question on the meaning of life, both Tolstoy and Shariati agree on finding the answers in the lives of the ordinary people. These people are described by Tolstoy as simple, uneducated poor, who have neither the wisdom or insights of Solomon, Sakya Muni (Buddha), Schopenhauer, or Socrates, nor the rational knowledge or reason that education can instill in one. These people do not have anything to be vain about, and to Tolstoy’s surprise, nothing to be sad about either, though their lifestyles were those which the elite would consider as tough luck, misfortune, and deplorable. This category of ‘others’ is pushed to the margin by rationality, aesthetics, objectivity and education, and ignored when the society seeks the meaning of life from the hard sciences and liberal arts.

Hard sciences – at the extreme of which is mathematics – understands everything to be dictated by the universal laws of nature which capture all that there ever was, is and will be. The enormous predicting power that these laws afford to man leads to tendency to give clear-cut answers to everything – from meaning of a particular life to meaning of life in general. However, while laws of mutation can help explain ‘how’ we live and ‘what’ makes us live, they do not suffice to answer ‘why’ these laws exist in the first place to enable us to keep living. This inadequacy of science, masked by the label of objectivity and rationality, causes a world of binaries to exist, with science, rationality, objectivity and predictive power on one side, and abstraction, emotions and essence of being on the other side. According to Tolstoy, science attempts to fit life into a general standard model of cause and effect (135), but in its efforts, science violates the essence or meaning of being before reaching it. When Tolstoy says that ‘there could be no law of endless development’ (133), he seems to have realized that science treats laws as something greater and superior to life, and life cannot and will not mean anything outside of these laws. It is a lose-lose situation: science tells us that meaning is to be found in the meaning of the laws, but laws tell us only the ‘how’ about life, so we do not get any substantial answer on the “why”. At the same time, advocates of science claim that life is not only definitely nothing and meaningless, but it is not even an actuality outside the universal laws or ‘truths’. In either case, it alludes us to the meaninglessness of life.

This is a disquieting conclusion that science offers, but Tolstoy and Shariati do not dismiss it for this uneasy belittling of life. It is rather due to the inherent flaws in definition and attitude towards science that the two thinkers confess it to be unworthy of providing the meaning of life. Firstly, we have discussed that science’s task is to discover the already present truths and laws; it does not go into the metaphysical ‘why’ of anything. This forecloses for us science as a potential source of answer. Nevertheless, one still looks for answers in science because of the attitude that one tries “to know truth by men, and not of men by the truth”, as al-Ghazali suggests (al-Ghazali 38). By this, I mean that when one witnesses the great inventions, scientism, logic and rationality applied by the human mind, one is likely to consider reason to be the great sole instrument of knowledge and truth. The general attitude then becomes that if the scientific mind has discovered the laws of nature, then it must be capable of truly identifying the meaning of life also, notwithstanding multiple faculties such as heart, nature or the lower self – that may have a role to play in finding the meaning of life. Such an approach leads one to rely on science to confirm truth claims and values rather than values and truth assessing the conclusions drawn by science. This is what Tolstoy had a problem with when he says that experimental science “displays the greatness of the human mind when it does not introduce into its investigations the question of an ultimate cause” (135). The laws hailed by science are held in abstract like a matter of pure chance, but if regression is done all the way to the first cause, science’s inherent problem is exposed because it cannot explain anything about this cause. This overlook of regression to a first cause forms another problem with science.

Liberal arts are also not free from providing unsatisfactory answers. Abstract science and liberal arts, concerned with the ideals that all humanity should uphold, claim the meaning of life to be found in those ideals. However, the first basic problem that arises is the ability of humanity to find such ideals; do any universal ideals exist at all in the first place? All man knows is his particular life and specific life experiences, so how does he know and experience which of the ideals are felt by all across the worlds? Liberal arts run the risk of generalizing the particular. As Tolstoy belonged to the educated elite and had in the past promoted culture in the name of the ideal of ‘progress’, he understood this problem like no other. The educated tend to generalize their particular beliefs and ideals across humanity, being oblivious that what may be good for the majority nevertheless is not so for the minority, however small it may be, yet the majority tries to generalize by claiming to represent all. If we have take notice of this problem, the second problem remains, viz. there are mutual contradictions embedded when we put together various ideologies within the liberal arts. If meaning of life has to be found in the liberal arts theories or ideologies, then how does one decide amongst the competing ideas? How does one establish who is wrong, who is right, and then who is most right of the right? Tolstoy realizes that if what liberal arts generally offer – that man is part of the whole and to understand the whole humanity means to understand life – he should have satiated his queries much earlier, given that he was from the field of abstract sciences and arts. Yet this was not the case, rather the meaninglessness of life was exposed. Furthermore, there are tendencies found within the discipline to give abstract and vague answers; resultantly nothing substantial can be derived to find the meaning of life.

None of this is a problem when one looks at the lives of ordinary people, for they do not rely on reason alone (as hard science does), and they do not remain vague either about the meaning of life (like liberal arts would tend to do so). Their distinguishing characteristic is that they are ordinary: there is nothing that makes them rise above or think differently from others. This mediocrity leads one to immediately find a fall in ego amongst these people, leading them to rely less on the rational self and drawing attention to other faculties ignored by sciences, such as the heart. It is through the convictions of the heart that ordinary people find the meaning of life.

What Tolstoy finds as a marked feature of these people is their irrationality called ‘faith’ firmly held in heart. Faith is an anti-thesis to ego and reliance on the self. It makes one realize that not all questions are answered by the finite ability to reason, and meaning doesn’t have to be processed and consciously determined through rationality either. Faith is manifested in many areas of the daily life – in being content with ups and downs that come one’s way, in enduring and laboring quietly, in accepting the realities without complaining or challenging fate, and most importantly, dying a peaceful death. It would be false to assume that such lifestyle stems from the inability to fight the society’s norms, or to be stupid to not have found ways to make more money and fame; it is in fact faith in that which the ordinary man holds as true, good and beautiful – God – that he learns to know his existence as it is. Faith gives a poor, unsophisticated milliard’s finite sufferings an infinite meaning. Shariati would understand this faith as ‘submission’ of man to God, in the form of him shedding his false, man-made identity and joining the league of ordinary people to be once again only the man of God. The command of God to submit is in fact a call to return to true identity precisely because it is inherent in man to submit to the cause of its existence. This inherent relationship with God is discovered by man by means of what Tolstoy calls “some despised pseudo knowledge” (148). He realized that the ordinary people, by virtue of their simplicity, seem to have discovered and unveiled this pseudo-knowledge, which is otherwise hidden to man due to vanity, love for wealth, and obsession with rationality, wrong pursuits and evil desires. This pseudo knowledge uncovers man’s chief identity of being the slave of God and is called faith by Tolstoy, while for Shariati it comprises knowledge, consciousness and love, all of which rituals performed in Hajj manifest. Whether it is called faith or submission, derived consciously or unconsciously, the fact remains that the ordinary man is not self-centered. He dies peacefully and does not look down upon anyone because he doesn’t regard the self to be the most powerful, most intelligent or the best of planners. He endures hardships because he does not consider himself to be the most deserving, most evolved of mankind. The reason why he performs Hajj as God has commanded is that he is not loyal to the self, but to God. His attitude is that of self-negation, as illustrated by Tolstoy when he says …

Ordinary people seem to have resolved the dichotomy between reason and heart, science and emotions, through the rituals performed at Hajj. Right from the very start of the Hajj, there are attempts to return to the life of an ordinary man, first by changing clothes that create distinction between humans, then by donning those clothes that symbolize uniformity. A hajji intends to go to the House of Allah, which Shariati correctly recognizes as the “House of the People”, thereby implying that in order to get close to God, one necessarily has to become more and more like one of the masses. One’s ability to reason, one’s sharp mindedness and intelligence make one distinguished, so none of that is required to reach out to God and find the meaning of life. Instead of reason, one relies on the emotions of the heart, chief of which is faith. One has faith in his mediocrity and more than that on God that He will value whatever this poor, uneducated, simple laborer has to offer Him, just the way God accepted Hajar – a black Ethiopian slave woman who completely submitted to god’s will and whose grave is next to Kabah (the House of God). The lowest of the lowly – Hajar - was valued and exalted by God all because of her complete faith in Him. In her faith lies the answer to the question of the meaning of life. Life’s meaning can neither be found in man-made ideals that liberal arts propose, nor in man’s greatness of being rational, but in something beyond that- something in man that transcends worldly standards and excellence. When the Hajji prays in Miqaat, he adopts his chief identity, dismissing man-made identities such as being an artist, scientist, Marxist, feminist, conservative, post-modernist and so on. At Miqaat, he pledges to have faith in his identity as the slave of God, which will be enough to lead him to happiness, contentment and meaning. In the state of Ihram, one keeps on returning to this identity of being one of the million slaves of God, by not looking in the mirror, not fighting with anyone, basically not doing anything that would make one’s own logic, rationality and ego come in.

Faith is most strongly reflected in Tawaf (circumambulation), wherein one moves in a circle around Kabah seven times. The meaning of life gets clear as moving in a circle symbolizes one’s life to revolve around God, Who is the centre; moving in a group reflects the importance of being one of many, of having no highlighting features, but completely submitting to God with belief that He is the true reason worthy living and dying for. In the discipline that one needs to maintain in Tawaf, lies the answer to Tolstoy’s question of man’s relation with time and space. While everything is moving and changing, we need not stop the change to reach a static meaning of life. Discipline entails handling change in the proper way and in this propriety lies the meaning of life. If meaning of life is having faith in God, as Tolstoy experienced and Shariati elucidated, then by having faith the proper way, through obedience and submission, one find the purpose of living, dying, caring, suffering, worshipping and each and every other activity. As Shariati points out that God Himself recognized that Ibrahim was not a perfect Prophet, a perfect slave until he had perfect obedience (Behzadnia, Denny trans. 35). God too, in a way, disciplined Ibrahim’s submission through commanding him to sacrifice his beloved son Ismail. If God disciplined a Prophet to the point of complete submission, then the rest of humanity is obligated to submit as well for its own salvation. Discipline tells us that things are not randomly organized, neither is man. Man’s existence means something beyond particles and atoms, and he is not born out of mere chance. There is an arrangement present in the universe and he is arranged in a Master-save relationship with God. It is faith in this relationship that positions man with respect to God, Who is the centre, joins the finite (man) with the Infinite (God), and explains the purpose of life. But first man has to realize and admit his finiteness and for that he has to become an ordinary person with a simple life, heart and mind. The spirit of exertion and struggle in performing Say’ explain the hope that ordinary people have in the worst of situations. If Hajar, faced with hopelessness regarding her and her son’s survival, lived on, toiled around the mountains, and had hope, then the elite, the privileged facing void in their lives have no case for hopelessness. They too should move on, live on, take initiative and action, but all of this should be done by taking cues from the ordinary lowly person like Hajar, who endured and worked hard with hope and faith alive in the heart.

This orientation is possible in every man through the pseudo-knowledge. For Shariati, knowledge, consciousness and love in the rituals done at Arafat, Mashar and Mina respectively reflect this primordial nature. A Hajji goes to Arafat (knowledge) first, indicating that man naturally knows the meaning of life, before he is even aware of it. Knowledge coming before consciousness also means that one need not deliberately find a reason for living, or happiness in actions. Just like happiness is not something to be pursued, “it must ensue”, as Frankl rightly puts it (162), meaning of life also evades our minds but is always present in the heart in the form of knowledge, consciousness or love. One can find a similar relationship between Tawaf and Say’: an ordinary man must have faith and the ability to submit first, and then hope and optimism in rough times are possible. The last of three stages of Hajj is Mina (love), where one’s act of throwing pebbles at the Satan and celebrating victory (in the event of ‘Id) both take place. This signifies that in man’s primordial essence or nature is love – which is the ultimate state of the heart. Faith, submission and hope are imperfect and incomplete in understanding the lives of the ordinary people is love is not taken into account. While faith can give meaning to life, love makes life easier to live and meaning easier to remember at all times. Love for God allows one to suffer any how, endure any suffering, and find meaning in any endurance. It is like a weapon that allows the ordinary man to feel distinct, like Shariati mentions the impact that being in Mina among thousands of soldiers of God have on the self. This is interesting since Shariati calls Mina as the “battlefront” (29) yet the ordinary person is immersed in love because it stems not from his whims but faith, submission, knowledge and awareness of a higher purpose and cause. Hence he can fight, because for Shariati, “For the sake of truth and out of love, anything can be sacrificed” (42). Of all the things, love is surely one thing not reserved to those rational, objective or those indulged in high ideals, culture and development. It is specifically one aspect absent from the realm of science, as vividly explained by Nietzsche . Obsession with objectivity makes the scientific man unable to bear, beget, love or hate, all of which are defining features of the ordinary man and the Hajji. For Shariati, Hajj encompasses the three elements present in the heart, which suffice to bring a man to meaning in life, through the process of being one of the thousands of ordinary people at one place.

The insights offered by Shariati and Tolstoy into the features of ordinary people sheds light on the need to be active in life actions and decisions in order to save the self from episodes of anomie, meaninglessness and disenchantment, or worse: apathy. The texts call for caution against the potential apathy guised in ‘objectivity’ and science, and against the tendency to overdo the search for the true, good and the beautiful in the domain of liberal arts. One has to feel like an ordinary person to allow meaning to ensue like happiness, if one starts with the assumption that meaning is out there – regardless of whether it is native in the self or acquired. The perceptions of the two authors have been helpful to the extent of stimulating my mind to consciously make decisions. They made me realize that the seemingly “objective” reasons for which I took to take this course – to fulfill course requirements, to learn a new discipline – regress to the overarching meaning I hold of life, as a production and reflection of the favors and expectations from God, to which I must come up to by way of the means I have at my disposal. There is no decision, even as mundane as picking an elective course, that doesn’t reflect the underlying meaning applied to life. As it was discussed in the earliest sessions of the course, no matter what we are doing, what emotions we are feeling, our actions and decisions are an answer to what we conceive as the true, the good and the beautiful.

However, there is one thing that can render all of this exercise futile, and that is being trapped in the desirous lower self. The lower self – which I would define as a bunch of whims and desires, such as greed, lust – is not even bothered with the question pertaining to the meaning of life, for the lower self lives in the moment only and the true, good and the beautiful is indulgence in the moment only. If the notion of time is excluded, the meaning of life doesn’t even arise, and any level of discussion and insight offered by Shariati, Tolstoy, a man of science, a man from the liberal arts or an ordinary man makes no difference, for the first principle of “having a life” is denied by the lower self that just believes in living the moment. If the human being is trapped in gratifying lower self, then the most important question on the meaning of life completely ceases to be a question at all, but then we also need to ask whether the human being remains human anymore.

WORKS CITED

Frankl, Viktor E. Man's Search for Meaning. Pocket Books, 1984.

Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Al Munqidh min al-Dalal, translated as Deliverance From Error by R.K McCarthy, Louiseille, KY: Fons vitae, 2000.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. “We Scholars” from Beyond Good and Evil.

Shariati, Ali. Hajj, translated as The Pilgrimage by Ali A. Behzadnia, M.D. & Najla Denny. Jubilee Press.

Tolstoy, Lev. A Confession, edited by A.D.P Briggs, Everyman.

I am a graduate ...?

Taken from Haq Islam.org.

A Message to University Graduates

Aug 4th, 2006

by Amatullah.

 

Earlier this week I was part of a group that was invited to attend a University Graduation ceremony. Someone dear to me will also be graduating soon and some very good general advice was given at the ceremony I attended, so I decided to write this little message up to Muslim University Graduates.
Graduation day is the culmination of 3-5 years of studying a particular subject in depth at degree level. You have spent these years studying because you realise that education is a means to attaining a good career and perceive it to lead to a better way of life.

At this significant stage in your life, you are experiencing the transition from being a student through to a professional who will soon be working in the ‘real’ world. With this transition comes the need to prepare yourself in dealing with issues that may arise in the workplace, not due to trivialities such as race etc but mainly because of your religion.

Whilst many undergraduates become closer to their deen at university thanks to the efforts of ISOCs and associations, for those of us who will be going out into the workplace where their will be a minority muslim workforce or where contact with fellow muslims will be limited, it is especially vital for us to hold on to our deen; That is YOUR ISLAM.

If during your university days, you were unable to ‘get involved’ with the Muslim community, make this the starting point of change in your life.

“The one who treads a path seeking therein knowledge, Allah eases his path to the Garden.” [Sahih Muslim]

We must fully realise that our ultimate purpose in this dunya is to serve Allah Ta’ala and that our ultimate goal is to reach Jannah in the akhira (hereafter). Therefore your focus should now, be on adopting the means to achieve this eternal goal, i.e. adopting the teachings of Islam and following the Sunnah of our beloved messenger Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

This does not mean that you have to become a hermit and retreat to some remote jungle to spend the rest of your days engaged in ibaadah. In fact we must live in the dunya but work for the akhira. What does this mean? This means that we must attempt to the best of our ability to seek deeni knowledge into at least the basic fundamentals of our religion. For example start from the basic fiqh of cleanliness and prayer and then move onto more advanced areas of the shariah such as the etiquettes of trading and business, especially for the field of work that you will soon enter into. You may also decide to study the fiqh of Nikaah and Talaaq because sooner or later if not already you will be approaching the stage where you will marry and eventually settle down with a family. These are just suggestions that hope to serve as an example of how YOU can tread that path to bring you closer to your Lord Allah Ta’ala and how you can balance the work of this world with the work of the akhira, Inshallah Ta’ala.

Whilst we have covered the importance of learning about our religion to benefit us in the hereafter, it is also necessary to learn about Islam so that we may be in a position to answer any questions that non-Muslim work colleagues may pose to us genuinely or out of curiosity.

Islam is in the spotlight; the media reports and the people see. Hence situations are bound to arise where you will be asked questions about Islam. It is therefore important that we should be equipped with the correct answers and teachings of Islam rather than substituting it with your own logic. Using your own logic in most cases will mean that you won’t be sharing the ‘true’ teachings and views of Islam and instead could be causing confusion and misinterpretation of our beautiful deen. Remember, what you say/ utter is what most people will think of Islam; so think before you speak.

Graduation also means that you have acquired a certain status in society as well as now being able to place certain letters after your name. One should, however, remember that in Islam there is no superiority of one over another except through taqwa.

“…Verily, the most honourable of you with Allah is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa. …” [Surah Hujurat V13]

Also, never look down upon anyone or let pride set into your heart as a result of your education. Any status we can obtain in the world is of no value whatsoever if Allah is displeased with us. Remember we should look at the people below us in the dunya, so that we may make shukr for what Allah Ta’ala has given us, and we should compete with the people above us in the matters of deen so that we may become closer to Allah Ta’ala.

After graduation some of you may return to your home town/ city whilst others remain living away from home to continue studies or work. We should reflect on how we travelled away from home to acquire our worldly education and if need be we must prepared to travel to acquire ‘deeni education’ and benefit also. We are aware of how our pious predecessors would travel years and years to obtain deeni knowledge, but that was a sacrifice that they were willing to make. We have vast arrays of modern technology to aid us, not only that; we have Masjids and Khanqahs where we can learn from the pious. Make the most of the means and resources that Allah Ta’ala has blessed you with.

I pray Allah Ta’ala fills our working lives with blessings and they are not a distraction to us from striving to achieve taqwa and, ultimately, jannah in the hereafter.

Jazakallah to Sister Mujahidah for her help in putting together this article.

Good Night

In Your Name o Lord I lay to sleep
to rise in the morning by Your Leave
if you take my soul from me as i rest,
please forgive me
and if i wake in the morning again,
to a new and bright day
then i pray You Will always Guide me
upon the straight way

La ilaaha illa-LLAH
laa ilaaha illa-LLAH
subhaanAllah
alhumduliLLAH
Allahu Akbar

La ilaaha illa-LLAH

laa ilaaha illa-LLAH
subhaanAllah
alhumduliLLAH
Allahu Akbar

                       - Dawud Wharnsby

ProductiveMuslim Sleep Routine

by ProductiveMuslim on March 13, 2011

Posted on Sunday, March 13, 2011

 

If you’ve started waking up early and working in those early hours of the day as we recommend at ProductiveMuslim.com, you’ll find that it’s pretty hard to be consistent each and every day with this routine. And when you search for the reasons for this inconsistency, you’ll realise that it’s mainly because it’s hard to regulate your sleep; one day you sleep well, so you wake up early and can work hard. Other days, you don’t sleep so well and those early hours are pretty difficult to maintain.

Sleep, as any other activity we do as humans, can be optimized by planning well in advance and following a particular routine each night. You might think: “Dude, I just crash and sleep”. Well, that’s one way of doing it, but here’s another routine. Try it out and tell me if sleep doesn’t become a rewarding, spiritual and fulfilling experience for you after this.

The following sleep routine requires you to prepare for it at least 90 minutes BEFORE you actually sleep. And it’s basically dividing those 90 minutes into 3 parts:

One third for Your Lord

One third for Your Self

One third for Your Sleep

1. One third for Your Lord:

This starts with you making wudhu, brushing your teeth, putting on nice clothes and perfume and praying Tahajjud and Witr for Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) (Note: If you prefer to wake up before Fajr to pray these night prayers then definitely go with that. However, if you can’t trust yourself to wake up that early, it’s better that you pray Tahajjud and Witr Salah BEFORE you sleep). This is my favourite part of the sleep routine and favourite part of the day!

It’s such a calming experience after going through a long hard day, to stand in front of your Lord, recite His verses, supplicate to Him and ask Him of whatever you desire in this world and the Next. Do this for a couple of nights and you wouldn’t want to give up doing it! In fact, throughout your day, you’ll be anticipating this moment and looking forward to it!

2. One third for Your Self:

This is where you prepare yourself for sleep by putting on your pyjamas, getting into bed and reading a good book for at least 30 minutes. If you’re like me, ideas and thoughts will keep popping into your head as you read, and you will want to save them for later. For these, I have a plain notebook and pen/pencil next to me to scribble anything (and I mean anything) that pops in my head! You’ll be surprised how many great ideas originate from these 30 minutes.

Alternatively, instead of reading, you may spend these 30 minutes brainstorming on a plain notebook any ideas,plans, and projects you have in mind. You don’t have to come up with the ‘perfect’ idea/solution, but simply brainstorm as much as you can then literally “sleep on it” (as the saying goes). In the morning, you’ll be surprised at what your sub-conscious mind brings forth for you.

3. One third for Your Sleep:

I’ve said that this is a third for your sleep, but truly this is a third for your Lord to bless your sleep, and basically this involves going through the duas and verses that one should recite before sleeping as per the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). These include reciting Surah Al-Mulk and Surah Al-Sajdah and other supplications recommended before sleeping. For me, this last part of the routine is like the cherry on top of the cake! Nothing fills you with more tranquility than to sleep having uttered the words of Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala).

So there you have it, the ProductiveMuslim routine for Sleep. You may think it’s lengthy, but there has been no day that I’ve followed it, except that I’ve slept peacefully and woken up peacefully.

Hope it works well for you and that you have a productive sleep – Sweet dreams!

taken from ProductiveMuslim.com

Summer 2011: Lessons Learnt

and relearnt:

1. there is no place like home
2. one should never ever take advantage of somebody's sharafat
3. he who remains silent is saved
4. it is possible to "gain" a loss in the long run
5. the most valuable asset of a mumin is his Imaan
6. what matters at the end of any interaction with any non-muslim is shahadah
أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمد (صلي الله عليه وسلم) رسول الله
7. bottomline of any dialogue is that Allah Is Great. الله أكبر
8. your suhbat can make or break your peace of mind and heart
9. i can never get tired of having roti
10. ghaza in need is chicken saalan indeed, always
11. seafood is marvellous
12. we can never truly appreciate the merit, impact and importance of adhan in our lives
13. Allahu Wali-yul-mumineen
14. a major cause of american mediocrity is tv.
15. the fazeelat of Sunnah is enormous, regardless of who's following it.
16. Allah Takes Care
17. Allah's Way Works
18. a lot of things start working positively and automatically if trust is put in the right place
19. my failure to do something good is a combination of lack of ability, acceptance and confidence
20. a smile and good manners can do wonders
21. personal, private, public plans should be happily dismissed in front of providential Will.
22. arrogance is the scariest and worst thing
23. i am afraid to even think about the consequences of he who is insolent towards the Deen of Islam
24. every muslim has a home: masjid
25. i do not miss LUMS as much as i thought i would
26. dinky is cool
27. i will always enjoy race games
28. sunlight, sunshine and sunray, all mark the start of my happy day
29. Allah is Wayyyyy Above and Beyond what we humans can think, imagine or perceive

to be continued as and when more lessons will be recollected

HAJJ

Taken from tasawwuf.org
Download pdf from here:

From the Discourses of Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad (db)

The Blessed House

Hajj is a blessed pillar from among the noble pillars of Islam. Allah honored a specific place on Earth by choosing it for His special blessings and ordered His House to be built there. To the naked eye this place in Makkah in Arabia is just a cube of rock and stone, but is the focal point for Allah’s special tajalliyat (blessings and mercy). The important concentration and descent of Allah’s blessings on this place is what earn it the name Bait Ullah, the House of Allah.



Bait Ullah is not the name of just that cube in the desert but the holy location that is the target of Allah’s blessings. The location would still be termed Bait Ullah regardless of whether the brick structure that is known as the Kaaba was there or not.



All mankind is commanded to face this location in prayer to Allah. Every believer is attracted to this place because it is an absorption point for Allah’s love and blessings. People from all walks of life come here for homage out of love because Bait Ullah is a magnet for people’s hearts. The poorest of the poor who do not have enough to eat or to clothe themselves will surely have a desire to see the House of Allah. This is a fascinating attraction that is not limited to the rich but applies to all people, regardless of whether they have the means or not. This attraction does not fade when someone just reaches the Haram (the Grand Mosque) but gets stronger until it pulls people to the Kaaba itself so that they hug its draped cloth just like iron hugs its magnet.



Tests for the Claimants

Lovers who boast claims of love are usually tested by their beloved to test the strength of their claim. Allah tests us in the same way to determine our worthiness. The first test is one of wealth that Allah takes from us in the months of Rajab and Shaban. Believers are commanded to give zakat (alms) out of their earnings in the Name of Allah because parting with one’s hard-earned wealth is always trying.



Once successful in this test Allah tests our resolve by ordering us to fast from dawn to dusk in the holy month of Ramadan. Believers are ordered to refrain from food and drink and other necessities in the daylight hours of this month. Once successful in these two tests believers prove that they are willing to do anything to prove their love for Allah and now they are rewarded with an invitation to the House of Allah.



Muslims ready themselves and are pulled to this House from all corners of the globe in their intense love for Allah, and this is why Hajj is a journey not of obligation but of love. These are fortunate people who have been allowed to come to Bait Ullah after countless days and nights of prayer and supplication. All the lovers of Allah converge upon His House for the blessed pilgrimage in the first days of Zulhijja.



The First Hajj

Hajj became obligatory upon the Muslims in the ninth year of the Migration, and the Messenger of Allah appointed Hadrat Abu Bakr as the leader of the first Hajj group. The verses of Sura al Baraa were revealed after this caravan of three hundred left for Hajj, and the Prophet dispatched Hadrat Ali after the group with a special message. This message included the Divine proclamation that no unbeliever would be allowed into Makkah after the revelation because the honor of Hajj was only for those with the light of faith in their breasts.



Greatness of Hadrat Abu Bakr

Prayer and Hajj are two of the four commanded acts of worship that are congregational, while fasting and zakat are both individual acts. A noteworthy point here is that Hadrat Abu Bakr was appointed the leadership of both congregational acts in the lifetime of RasulAllah a, further illustrating that he was the natural leader after the Prophet.



Hadrat Abu Bakr was always present alongside the Messenger of Allah - he was present among the ranks of Badr; among the wounded of Uhud; among the defenders of the Battle of the Ditch, and was the Prophet’s companion in the Cave of Thaur. He was foremost in giving his wealth for the cause of Islam and foremost in sacrificing all for the Messenger of Allah, such that he is buried alongside the Prophet in Madinah. He is known as Thani Athnain (the second of the two) because he would always be the second behind the Prophet in every situation.



A Journey of Trial

Hajj is not a luxury tour or vacation, and Allah has made hardship a necessary factor in Hajj. Those who depart with the mindset that Hajj is supposed to be easy get impatient and start complaining at the slightest inconvenience. Hence pilgrims need to begin their journey with the knowledge and intention that Hajj is a journey of trials and not one of luxury. We are lovers and not the beloved but yet we expect our every need to be catered to just like we were the beloved. This is a journey only for lovers, and whoever wants to travel as if he is the beloved will find that he will never get the opportunity for this grand journey.



Hadrat Ghulam Habib i used to say that he and the pilgrims would depart for Hajj by ship and reach Arabia after a grueling month’s journey. Once reaching Jeddah the ship would remain at port for three days while immigration and immunization status would be verified. Today this same process does not even take a full three hours let alone three days. Advances in technology such as the aircraft have nullified the trials and tribulations that existed in those times and made travel easy for us but people still complain. Today the luxury exists for us to complete the entire Hajj trip in twenty days or less. The pilgrim should not be desirous of hardship but nevertheless be steadfast and prepared for it.



Correcting our Outlook

The lifestyle that we have become accustomed to has spoiled us and we except a limousine to be waiting at the airport to whisk us away and drop us right outside the Haram. There is a system to everything that we must realize and we must be prepared to allow it to run its own course. We need to realize that we are servants whom the Master is allowing to come visit His House and not the other way around.



Presidents and kings of this worthless and temporary world make their visitors wait for hours without explanation and we expect the Master of the universe to cater to our every need. To be allowed to come to Hajj is indeed a blessing for which we should be ready to bear double if not triple the usual burden.



Hajj is a journey and act of worship and there is always trial in worship no matter what form. If people desire luxury and comfort they are welcome to stay in their beds because no one is forcing them to go to Hajj. However, people must be prepared for hardship if they have already taken the first steps toward anything.



Invaluable Advice

Pilgrims must make sure that they are never verbally critical of anything on this sacred journey. Hadrat Ghulam Habib once told a story about a pilgrim who was shopping in the market in Madinah for groceries. A vendor suggested that he also buy some yogurt but the man declined saying that the yogurt in Madinah is sour. He proceeded about his day and that night the Messenger of Allah appeared to him in a dream. The Prophet was angry and said, “You say the yogurt in my town is sour? Get out of Madinah!”



This pilgrim woke up very distressed and approached the local scholars (ulama) as to what he might do. Some of the ulama advised him to go to the noble burial site of Hadrat Hamza and pray to Allah for mercy and a possible solution. This man did exactly this and presented himself at Hadrat Hamza’s tomb where he cried and begged forgiveness for his reckless speech.



That night Hadrat Hamza appeared in this pilgrim’s dream and acknowledged the latter’s profuse supplications but put them aside. Hadrat Hamza said sternly, “Once the beloved of Allah has told you to leave you no longer have permission to stay. Leave now or you will be in danger of losing your faith.” Hence this person had no avenue but to leave.



Correcting our Intention

The above is a very poignant reason for keeping our complaining tongue in check for the few days that we are at Hajj. Wherever there is great benefit there will undoubtedly be shortcomings of many kinds because Hajj demands a monumental task of preparation in every field from transportation to sleeping arrangements for the pilgrims.



We need to keep focused on the purpose of this sacred journey and consider every shortcoming and trial as a blessing for us. Allah is allowing filthy sinners like us to come to His House and so there is no need to make any comments about anything. There have been countless people much more pious than us who have not been fortunate enough to see Bait Ullah. This is a journey of trials and not the luxury that we have unfortunately become accustomed to.



For a sincere and pious worshipper these complaints are only for not seeing the House of Allah and disappear immediately once he or she looks upon the Kaaba. The House of Allah has such a brilliant magnetism and awe that one does not consider a hardship as a hardship anymore because a believer realizes true peace and security in the House of Allah just as a child finds security and love in its mother’s arms. Furthermore, Hadrat Ashraf Ali Thanvi i writes that the righteous find peace upon seeing Bait Ullah just as the believers will find peace when they enter Paradise. Here they forget all past worries and trials.



Sincerity and Sacrifice

The next important thing that pilgrims need to evaluate is sincerity. Undoubtedly sincerity is an essential requirement of every act of worship, but this requirement is given more emphasis here for the auspicious worship of Hajj. The simple reasoning for this is that Hajj is an act that is required only once a lifetime. A worship such as prayer is observed five times a day so if one prayer was offered without sincerity the person can try harder for the next prayer, but Hajj is a special occasion that only comes once a lifetime for most. Hence people need to be extra careful about what might seem to be the smallest issues.



Disputes and arguments are a very normal part of life, which may intensify because Hajj is a long journey that people have to undertake together. Arguments may increase between friends or between family and relatives because unfortunately people do not want to listen but want to lead. We need to keep in mind that this journey is sacred and cannot easily be repeated and so there is no need for any kind of argument or dispute whatsoever.



We are Muslims and only temporary travelers in this life, so it is not always necessary that we absolutely have to have the best seat on the bus or the best room in the hotel. We should try and make sure that others in our party are more comfortable than we are rather than inconveniencing them so that we are more at ease. This is a journey of trials and we need to learn to compromise.



Purity of Means

The most important thing that pilgrims need to be absolutely sure of is the purity of the finances that are spent for Hajj. There should be no doubt whatsoever that the money for every aspect of the journey from travel to lodging arrangements is legally permissible (halal), with not the slightest hint of being prohibited (haram). Hajj will only be accepted if the means used for it are halal.



A hadith in relation to this states that a man was crying to Allah as he clutched the draperies of the Kaaba but his supplication was not accepted. This was because his earning was haram, which made his food and clothing haram. Supplication (dua) will never be accepted here because the very means used to come there are haram, and hence the finances used for Hajj need to be absolutely pure. Someone in doubt about the lawfulness of his earnings should discuss the issue with the local ulama in his city.



The great ulama of Islam have dedicated their whole lives to the Holy Quran and sunnah and therefore have the knowledge to solve every potential situation. For example in this case of doubt regarding earnings, they have said that such an individual is permitted to complete his Hajj with a loan. Hajj would thus be completed with halal finances and whatever means he uses to pay back the loan is another matter.



Points to Ponder

The Messenger of Allah said that among the signs of the Endtime would be that the wealthy among the Muslims will go to Hajj for vacation; the poor will go to beg; and the ulama will go to boast of their superiority over the other Muslims.



In light of this hadith the hujjaj (pilgrims) must make it a point to never boast of their Hajj to others. They not only risk having it invalidated but Allah may never give them another chance because of their arrogance.



On the other hand others may try to justify not going or make the excuse of limited financial resources. These people should keep in mind that the Messenger of Allah said that Allah increases the livelihood and economic means (rizq) of those who perform Hajj and Umra. Allah will also increase His blessings for those who have little but save methodically with the sincere intentions and desire of performing Hajj.



The Lover’s Destination

Every journey has a destination and the destination of Hajj is the pleasure of Allah. There are two kinds of hujjaj: those who are fortunate to see (ziyarah) Bait Ullah and those still more fortunate who are able to see the Creator of Bait Ullah.



This is why the tawaf (circumambulation) that is performed after the gathering of Arafat is called Tawaf-e-Ziyarah. Those who have worked hard against their evil desires and lower self (nafs) are able to see the bounties of Allah in all their glory, and those who have not obviously cannot partake in this experience. Thus it is essential to have a righteous alim or shaykh in one’s company so that he may guide at every point.



Hajj is a journey of love and desire, and upon close examination love is found to be the paramount force in every action within Hajj. As a general rule lovers whose purpose is a specific beloved pursue their quest single mindedly and ignore all else. They make no attempt to beautify themselves like a wife might do for a husband because the one purpose of getting to the beloved overpowers all other desires or concerns.



The rites and rituals of Hajj personify this intense desire of the lover. From the beginning of the journey the lover is told to shed all outer décor and don the ihram, two simple and unstitched sheets of white cloth. For the duration of the journey and Hajj itself this lover is not allowed to apply any sort of scent, nor is the lover allowed to trim the hair or nails.



Lovers maddened with love and desire usually not only speak of their love but publicize it loudly in chants or poetry. Hence when the lover of Allah starts on this quest he is also commanded to raise his voice and shout that he is coming to his beloved: Labbaik Allahumma labbaik!



Our elders who have gone before us understood and practiced the meaning of this cry, and hundreds would receive guidance because of their efforts. Today we go physically but fail to effect any change within ourselves and return exactly as we were and return to our same heedless lives.



A lovesick boy stands outside the window or door of his beloved hoping for a sign of recognition. The lover of Allah circles the House of Allah with the same maddened desire like a moth circles a flame.



Moths to A Flame

Tawaf is the only ritual within Islam that men and women are commanded to perform in the same vicinity, whereas there is separation in all other situations. Men and women are separated in prayer with a partition to cite just one example. This may seem strange because Islam is very strict in terms of male and female interaction but the ulama have written a fascinating explanation for this:



The lovers of Allah journey tirelessly for the chance of worshipping at Bait Ullah, and once they reach this magnificent shrine men lose all sense of their masculinity and women likewise lose heed of their femininity, and in maddened desire they focus only on Bait Ullah. Allah wanted to establish for all mankind that His lovers lose all sense of themselves and relinquish all other loves when coming to worship Him.



Allah wanted to further establish the reality that His love is paramount and superior to all other loves that may exist. This is truly the case because even husbands and wives focus only on Allah instead of themselves. It is the only occasion when men and women worship and cry in the same vicinity with no thought to one another.



Recognizing the Enemy

The lover would hate anyone who tried to keep him away from his beloved or hindered his quest to attain nearness to the same. Satan tries to create a rift between mankind and Allah and so the hujjaj stone the devil at the stone throwing ritual at the Jumurat.



Lovers always shower their beloved with gifts as an outpouring of their love and labor hard to be noticed. Likewise the pilgrims also present a sacrifice to Allah at the conclusion of Hajj.



Most Generous of Hosts

The hujjaj are guests of Allah at Hajj, as He commanded Hadrat Ibrahim e to announce an open invitation to all to come worship at His House. Allah is the Supreme Host, and takes great care of His guests even more than we honor someone who may come to our house.



The Messenger of Allah said that even the person who sits and looks upon Bait Ullah is a recipient of Allah’s countless blessings. We are unfortunate in that we do not recognize His supreme hospitality, otherwise we would be in Paradise on Earth.



Being such an understanding and kind host, Allah has not put any insurmountable difficulty in Hajj. Hajj is not a short prayer that old people would miss because they are slower in performing their ablution or slower to form ranks. Moreover, if this were the case the majority of ladies might miss out on this grand occasion, having spent hundreds to reach there and only to be in their menses and unable to pray at the assigned time.



This reasoning is why the only requirement for the pilgrim on the plain of Arafat between the Dhuhr and Isha prayers is just to stay focused and attentive to Allah (wuquf). In wuquf the person may offer prayers or supplicate to Allah for anything and for as long as he wants, for Allah has placed no limitations on this wuquf. In this and countless other ways Allah has made Hajj very easy upon the people by allowing for different circumstances and needs rather than restricting their worship to one or few specific acts.



Mercy of Allah

The Messenger of Allah said there is a special and blessed location between Rukn-e-Yamani and Hajr-e-Aswad where seventy thousand angels stay constantly attentive and say “Ameen” in unison to the supplications of the pilgrims performing tawaf. Such people are tremendously fortunate to have Allah’s angels saying “ameen” to their desires and needs.



This is a journey of intense desire and love in which the beloved gives much more than the lover deserves, for this Beloved has infinite treasures. We might pay a worker in our home his earned wages and nothing more, but Allah listens to our every need and desire and gives us even more than the wages that we may have earned. In this journey of love and desire the individual will receive what he had yearned and worked for. The devotee runs out of requests but the Beloved’s treasures never diminish for His treasures are infinite. This is a stream from which everyone can drink from because it never dries.



Vast Knowledge of Our Elders

Hadrat Ghulam Habib i once related that at one Hajj he would read the Holy Quran and supplicate to Allah at the completion of every verse depending on whether the verse inspired love or fear. He completed the entire Holy Quran in this fashion, having offered more than a hundred supplications. These people were indeed fortunate because they understood the realities of Allah’s infinite bounties. It is obvious that we are the losers because we do not understand such things because we do not even know how to ask.



Acceptance of Dua

We may not know the exact times at which duas are accepted, but hadith has told us that there are seventeen key locations at Hajj where duas are accepted. Hujjaj should make a point of learning these key locations so they may be able to offer prayers here and beg from Allah. No one knows the blessed moment when Allah may accept a particular dua or prostration from his servant.



The difference between the Hajj of the righteous beings of Allah and that of common people is that of night and day.



Various Conveyances

Hadrat Ibrahim bin Adham  was on his way to Hajj on foot when someone asked him his destination. He answered that he was going to Hajj and so the man was surprised because on foot this would be an insurmountable journey and said, “But you need transportation for Hajj.” Hadrat Ibrahim bin Adham replied that he not only had a means of transportation but also had many such means.



The man was perplexed by this reply because he could not see any such mode of transport and asked Hadrat to show him. Hadrat Ibrahim bin Adham i said:



“When in difficulty I will rely on patience as my transportation, and when I am blessed I will use gratitude as my transport. During sorrow I will rely on inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’oon to carry me, and on La hawla wa la quwatta illa billa to carry me whenever combating nafs and Satan. If I encounter any circumstances of sin I have the vehicle of tawba to see me through. If someone bigger confronts me I will use the vehicle of Allahu Akbar, and I shall complete my Hajj using these different means at every point.”



The Insight of a Believer

A seeker studying under Hadrat Shibli i appeared at a gathering after being absent for some time. Hadrat Shibli i asked where he had been and so this young man answered that he had just returned from Hajj. The following is the conversation that ensued.



Hadrat Shibli : “When you took off your clothes in order to don the ihram, did you also make intention of stripping the clothes of sin from your body?”



Student : “No I did not make such an intention.”



Hadrat Shibli : “Did you make intention to present your whole body and soul in front of Allah when you said Labbaik?”



Student : “No I did not make such an intention.”



Hadrat Shibli : “During tawaf did you realize that you were touching the Right Hand of Allah when you greeted Hajr-e-Aswad with your salams?”



Student : “No I did not realize any such thing.”



Hadrat Shibli : “Did you feel that you were hugging the Messenger of Allah when you hugged the draperies of the Kaaba?”



Student : “No I did not feel that.”



Hadrat Shibli : “When you passed by the door of the Kaaba did you beseech your Lord like a beggar beseeches a king?



Student : “No I did not beseech Him like that.”



Hadrat Shibli : “Did you make intention for total and sincere repentance from all your sins no matter how small when you were at Arafat?”



Student : “No I did not make such a strong intention.”



Hadrat Shibli : “Did you make firm intention to make Satan your mortal enemy when you stoned the devils?”



Student : “No I did not make an intention like that.”



Hadrat Shibli : “Did you make intention to sacrifice your nafs and desires for the sake of Allah when you performed the animal sacrifice?”



Student : “No I did not make an intention like that. I only sacrificed the animal.”



Hadrat Shibli : “Did you see the Beloved when you performed the Tawaf-e-Ziyarah?”



Student : “No I did not see anything like that.”



Closing this discussion Hadrat Shibli said to the young man, “My dear child, you have not performed Hajj. You should don the ihram anew next year as if you are going for the first time and perform Hajj exactly as I have taught you.”



These are just some examples of the vast difference between the Hajj of the common man and that of the auliyaa (Friends of Allah). We should all learn lessons from the lives of these magnanimous people and try to implement these ways in our lives.



Signs of the Acceptance of Hajj

The mashaikh have written that there are many signs that Allah has accepted the pilgrim’s Hajj. Hadrat Ashraf Ali Thanvi i writes that the first of these signs is that upon leaving this sacred land the pilgrim has an intense desire in his heart to return for another Hajj. Such people are fortunate because Allah accepts their deed and ignites a flame of desire in their hearts that will keep them yearning for Makkah.



In contrast there are those unfortunate wretches who leave with nothing but complaints and vow not to return because they had such a bad experience. Such people return empty handed because their Hajj is not accepted.



The Inner Self Revealed

Bait Ullah has such an incredible effect on people that a person’s true inner condition becomes exposed whenever he comes in front of it and sends his greetings upon Hajr-e-Aswad.



A person might be a habitual backbiter and slanderer. Hence when he appears before Bait Ullah his heart will burst open exposing his true nature for all to see. Thus such a person will become obsessed with slandering others despite being in the blessed House of Allah. He will not be able to stop himself from slandering others even in this sacred location because the power of Bait Ullah will have exposed him for what he truly is.



Consequently the same applies to the righteous servants of Allah whose condition is purified even more because they are righteous and grateful. Such people will tolerate all difficulties presented at Hajj for the sake of Allah and count them as blessings.



This is the reason why some people return cleansed of their sins and rectified whereas others return worse than they were before. The difference is that the Hajj of the former party is accepted whilst the Hajj of the others is not, and so the latter continue down the path of wretchedness.



Acceptance of our Hajj is the biggest reason why we must cry and beg to Allah on this sacred journey. We must cry so much that Allah accepts us if only out of pity. Our righteous elders would weep and beg for years so Allah would accept their Hajj and turn their lives around.



Acceptance through Humility

A righteous man had completed seventy Hajj, and was now leaving for his last Hajj together with his son. Both of them donned the ihram but when they proclaimed “Labbaik!” they heard a voice that said “La Labbaik!” meaning that their Labbaik was not accepted.



Hearing this voice the son said to his father, “What is the use of continuing if our Labbaik is not accepted? Take off the ihram.”



The father turned to his son and said, “My son, I heard the same voice when I performed my first Hajj and now am hearing it again on my seventieth Hajj. Tell me if there is anywhere else we can go or any other door where we can beg from other than that of Allah? I have to come here again and again whether He accepts or not because there is no other door at which I can ask.”



Allah accepted these words from his servant and inspired him thus: “We have accepted all your past Hajj because of your humility today.”



Love and Desire

Hajj is truly a fascinating journey of love. Some people become deluded and think that it is only about finances and that only sufficient money can take them there. There are countless wealthy people who have left this world without being able to see Bait Ullah, and consequently there are countless people who cannot afford clothes on their back but they find themselves at Bait Ullah. This is a journey of desire.



Keeping this in mind Hadrat Ghulam Habib i related a very compelling story. He said that he performed Hajj once during the 1930s when oil had not yet been discovered in Arabia. The land was gripped in so much poverty that children in the street would fight over the melon rinds that the pilgrims would discard.



Hadrat related that an old man approached their caravan one day and motioned to his stomach indicating that he was very hungry. Hadrat requested his wife to bake some bread for him and so his wife took out some flour and water to prepare the bread.



The old man stepped forward as she was about to light the stove and helped himself to some of the uncooked flour in a glass. He then mixed some water and ate his concoction. He turned to Hadrat and said that he was so hungry that his stomach was aching terribly but now he could wait because he had eaten some of the uncooked flour. This was the height of poverty and hunger in Arabia at that time.



Soon after Hadrat and his wife reached Bait Ullah. Here they would occasionally encounter a poor little boy whom they would feed and give money to. Hadrat’s wife developed a fondness for the boy and invited him to return with them. She highlighted all the advantages of living in comfort in his new home with a new family whereas he had nothing but poverty and loneliness to look forward to in his current condition.



The little boy listened with keen interest and beaming eyes as Hadrat’s wife finished telling him everything he would have in their home. He thought for a moment and then pointed to Bait Ullah and said, “Will this also be there?” When Hadrat’s wife apologetically said no then the boy said that he had no reason to go because Bait Ullah was not there.



Bait Ullah’s amazing attraction even in the depths of poverty baffles the mind. In this example this little boy is not willing to leave his poverty and hunger stricken life despite all the advantages a new family life would bring because it would mean parting with Bait Ullah.



This proves the fascinating fact that this journey is not reserved just for the wealthy. The poor have nothing but their intense love for the House of Allah and so the mercy of Allah pulls them to this sacred place. They complete this fantastic journey because their intense loves writes it in their destiny.



A Fascinating Account of Love

Hadrat Mufti Jamil Ahmed i of Jamia Ashrafia Lahore used to relate a story about a cowhand outside of Lahore whose only work was raising and milking cows. He developed an intense desire to see Bait Ullah but naturally was very poor and had no means.



After continuously asking people how he could go to Hajj someone finally told him that he could not go from Lahore but that pilgrims leave on ships from Karachi. Hence this cowhand boarded a train and reached Karachi. He asked the same questions of people at the station and was told that pilgrims left after gathering at the Haji Camp at the seaport.



The Haji Camp was far but fortunately some people who were going by that way offered him a ride and left him at the camp. Now this cowhand observed pilgrims boarding and leaving on ships for many days and wondered what he could do since he neither had proper documentation nor any money for the journey.



He observed porters boarding and leaving the ships after helping the pilgrims with their luggage and was determined to somehow board one of the ships. One of the porters told him that he could only board the ship if he was wearing a porter uniform, and so he talked the porter into lending him a jacket which he would send back with some of the luggage being brought off the ship. This porter agreed and so this cowhand managed to smuggle himself onboard one of the ships bound for Jeddah.



The ship got underway and he asked a pilgrim named Abdullah to let him know when Jeddah was near. The ship neared Jeddah at nightfall and so this person let the cowhand know that Jeddah’s lights were visible and the captain had announced they would be docking soon. This cowhand mounted the ship’s railing and dived off the edge into the sea. Abdullah was shocked and ran to the edge to see if he would come up but it was dark and so Abdullah feared that the cowhand must surely have drowned.



As Abdullah performed Hajj and was leaving after the Tawaf-e-Ziyarah he noticed the same cowhand he had met on the ship dressed in fine white robes. They met enthusiastically and Abdullah asked what had happened to him. His friend invited him to his house so they could talk at leisure.



Once outside the Haram, Abdullah saw the cowhand get into a brand new limousine with a driver in front. He was perplexed and asked what was going on. The cowhand said that the car and driver were his and he would explain everything at home.



Abdullah was even more at a loss when the limousine pulled up in front of a beautiful mansion and so asked his friend to tell him everything that had happened. Thus the cowhand started explaining.



He explained to Abdullah that he neither had paperwork nor money but a desperate desire to perform Hajj so he had jumped overboard. He did not know how to swim but half-drowned he reached the shores of Jeddah.



He laid half-conscious until dawn when he searched of a way out of the port and noticed a house. There he saw that two men were trying to milk a cow but the cow was not cooperating because the men obviously did not know the technique required.



After observing their unsuccessful efforts for some time, he motioned to these men that he could milk the cow if they would let him. The men agreed and so the cowhand situated himself next to the cow. Being a specialist at handling cows he was able to milk enough to fill not only one but two pails for the men.



By the grace of Allah the owner of this house was the superintendent in charge of the port, and his wife wanted milk for her children. They had been very unsuccessful at handling their cow and so their children would remain hungry. The wife was so glad at having so much milk for the children that her husband said they would hire the cowhand permanently to milk their cow.



The cowhand explained his situation and the superintendent forgave him for not having his paperwork and would arrange everything if only he would stay and milk the cow. This cowhand was a simple man and insisted that he only wanted to perform Hajj. The superintendent said he would arrange this too.



It so happened that the superintendent’s father-in-law had a dairy farm on which he kept one to two hundred cows, and he too was having difficulty finding a specialist at milking his cows. The wife was so impressed that she called her father and boasted about their new cowhand and how beneficial he could be for the diary farm.



They sent their new employee to the dairy farm where he very easily and efficiently milked many cows. The owner was very impressed and saw the solution to his problems. He offered the cowhand a job at the dairy farm but all the cowhand said he wanted to do was perform Hajj after which he had to return to his family.



The dairy farm owner was naturally very rich and was not about to see his new discovery get away. Hence he said that he would not only provide the cowhand a house and car by which he could go to Hajj and also Umra every day if he wanted to, but would also arrange the necessary paperwork to have the cowhand’s family brought over to live on the farm.



The cowhand concluded his story saying that everything was now his whereas all he had set out to accomplish was see the House of Allah.

Within Everyone’s Grasp

Hadrat Mufti Jamil Ahmed i said upon relating this story that such a story proves that everyone can perform Hajj if a poor cowhand with no means can do it. Hajj is a tremendous journey that demands money, but this story proves that love and desire are much more a factor in that journey’s completion.



The only shortcoming preventing us from this fabulous journey is the desire that is evident from this story. We as Muslims need to not only develop this love and desire within us but supplicate tirelessly to Allah to grant us this so that we may get the ability to see His House again and again.