Love of Allah by Shyakh ul Islam

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The love of the Beloved
must be unconditionally returned.

If you claim love
yet oppose the Beloved,
then your love is but a pretence.
You love the enemies of your Beloved
and still seek love in return.

You fight the beloved of your Beloved.
Is this Love or the following of shaytaan?

True devotion is nothing
but total submission of body and soul
to One Love.

We have seen humans claim to submit,
yet their loyalties are many.

They put their trust here, and their hope there,
and their love is without consequence.

-- Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah
Excerpted from An-Nooniyyah Quoted in "Al-Walaa wal-Baraa" of Muhammad Saeed al-Qahtani.

Ya 'Aabidah...

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

A servant should overcome her soul;
And be continuous in the remembrance of her Lord;
Establishing the Rights of her Lord;
Focusing upon Him with her heart;
The late of fear setting a blaze upon her heart;
Whilst drinking from the vessel of True Love;
And certain realities become unveiled to her;
So when she talks, it is due to Allah;
When she speaks, it is from Allah;
When she moves, it is by the command of Allah;
And when she is serene, then it is from Allah;

She belongs to Allah, is for Allah, and is with Allah

"What indeed can the one who has found Him be said to have lost?"

--Ibn Qayyim Al Jawzy Rahimahullah

Times of affliction

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Every human being have their own way of coping with hardships and problems. We say – what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger. Some people on the other hand asks – why me? Some accept it as a decree of Allah (swt). Times of difficulty in our life is a normal phase – that every human being encounters in different forms. When times of calamity befall on us we are agitated and we act in ways that seems inconsistent with our words. Subhanallah! We forget that it is actually the time of opportunity to get closer to Allah (swt) if we choose to be patient and be content with His decree and turn to Him and Him only for His help and guidance. We need not forget that times of tribulations are golden opportunities given to us to prove our beloved that whatever He has decreed I’m not giving up my hope since I know He has something better waiting for me. We need to remind ourselves that it was Allah (swt) who chose to afflict me with this and He will save me from this – whatever be the outcome I’ll be content. Righteous people say that if that’s the attitude during such times – then Allah (swt) have put that bala (affliction) to raise the person in rank; however, some complains in times of difficulty and complains to such an extent that they say that they are being punished and they are agitated. In this case – probably the affliction was meant as a punishment. We get what we perceive and how we perceive after all!
During times of hardships, we need to be patient since its my time to show my Lord that nothing in this world can move my qalb and no calamity can change my love for Him(swt). The bursting amount of love and longing I had for Him at times of ease – I have to have the same at this time of affliction, since, I know nobody except Him, who can save me out of this.

Moreover, this is also my chance to purify and cleanse my heart. This is my chance to remove all that’s in my heart and to cleanse it from all the filth and dirt – until it’s only Him. We burden our heart so much – with so much unnecessary pressures of this world. In the midst of it all we forget and we ignore the purpose behind all that we were doing. Why are we burdening our heart so much? Is it helping us getting any closer to Allah (swt)? Is it helping me in any way get closer to my Lord? Is this helping me have a better and safer place on the Day of Judgment? Is it helping me gain a better maqamat with Allah (swt)? Am i being a better slave to my master? Would this help me serve Him any better? We often ignore these questions and just go along with doing things! Verily! We wrong our souls beyond its need. When I reflect on the state of my qalb I feel so so sad and so pitiful that it has so much in it! And it’s so hard to let go of this dunya – so hard to be in true state of Islam. It's so hard to clean the layered heart that i have. May Allah (swt) forgive me and help me through my struggle to purify my heart for His sake alone.

Times of hardship, difficulty, burden, suffering, trials, adversity, tribulations - whatever we may call it, are times when we are chosen by Allah (swt) to give our test. Just like in order to be promoted in this dunya (be in a job, class etc) we are to be tested – the same way it works with the rules and regulations of this deen. Each one of us are tried and afflicted in accordance to our level of deen. The higher the level of a persons deen – the higher the level of bala’ would be. We complain so much with such little matters! Subhanallah! What hardships have we faced? Our prophet (saw) faced trials in his life more than any human can ever possibly think of – from loosing children, leaving his own land, being rejected by his own people and what not – yet he (saw) was so grateful to Allah (swt) and he would spend the nights in salaah to the extent that his feet would swell. Where do we stand with our level of gratitude? The small matters of this life matters so much to us that we claim to be in times of test and we say that we know what pain is! Subhanallah!

Mawlana Rumi said, “I wonder at the seeker of purity (those who seeks pure heart). When time for polishing comes, they complain from hard treatment. My son, when one beats the rug it is not intended to beat the rug but to beat the dust inside the rug.” Thus, we need to understand and remember that when afflication befalls on us – it’s not intended to treat our heart – but to treat the ills that we have in our heart. The stains and the rust that we have gathered upon our heart and burdened it with. I love the analogy of precious metals that Shaykh Mokhtar mentioned in this aspect. He said, in order to cleanse and purify precious metals when we first extract them from rocks, we need to remove the dust and the rocks in order to get the gold. However, in order to get the purest of the gold we need to heat the gold to such an extent that it looses its shape and that it’s ready to be shaped in any desired shape to get the most pure of gold. So, as long as we are struggling for Allah (swt) in His obedience with truthfulness – the trials are intended to beat the dust off our heart – to melt our nafs, and to get the qalb reshaped in the desired way. Bala weakens our lower self and strengthens our qalb. and indeed without bala there's no sabr and without sabr there's no cleanliness. So, for some bala can be such a reward - such a delight! May Allah (swt) make us one such ibaads.

May Allah (swt) give us patience and help us attain sidq’ in all aspect. May He (swt) help us attain that level where we can’t bear to stay distant from Him so that when bala is afflicted upon us we see it to be way of us drawing closer to Him and helping us establishing a better connection with Him azza wa jal. May we be of those who feel more loved by Allah (swt) when times of affliction befall on us- which is the ultimate feeling of all freedoms and the most peaceful state of all state.

The noises inside us

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Have you ever considered shutting yourself out from all the noises around you? No interaction with any human being, no listening to music, no walking down the streets to enjoy the stores or watch people, no phone conversation, no TV, radio - whatsoever? People are constantly listening to lectures, tapes, music, watching TV or involved with some type of conversation be it one way or the other. The point is: a lot of us who do not get much time with themself - they prefer not to be with their ownself and are scared to face their inner being. A lot of us are scared to be alone - to face the ultimate reality of their true inner voice. Some people turn up the music very high thinking that it might be bringing some serenity to the heart but they do not realize that such high music could be distracting some worshippers who prefer some quietness and moments of solitude with their Lord. There are people who are constantly looking to be around people - for them the type of gathering doesn't matter much - all they care about is just to have a company. Do we ever wonder why? What might be preventing some of us to face ourselves? Are we afraid to hear ourselves? Is there so much darkness and so much noise inside of us that its unbearable to face?
For some, the noise inside is so loud that in order to turn it down or to refrain from listening to it - they turn up the sound around them very high & loud thinking it would supress their inner chaos. They are afraid to face the truth - afraid to hear their own voice. Subhanallah! This is what we are getting used to more these days - noise, loudness, gatherings ; and we think of those people who prefer isolation to be mad!

Today we live in a soceity where information intake is considered to be a positive thing. where isolation is considered to be an act of introvert or backward thinking. However, isolation/seclusion or Khalwa (as may be said in arabic) can be very beneficial if applied with a correct understandng and there are a lot of positive effects to it. I would like to share some excerpts on Isolation and its positive effects from a book authored by 'Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni:
~~
Ibn Taymiyah said:
"At times, it is necessary for the worshipper to be isolated from others in order to pray, remember Allah, recite the Qur'an, and evaluate himself and his deeds. Also isolation allows one to supplicate, seek forgiveness, stay away from evil, and so on."

Ibn al-Jawzi said:
"I have not seen or heard of anything that brings repose, honor, and dignity as much as selcusion does. It helps one to stay away from evil, it protects one's honor, and it saves time. It keeps one away from the jealous minded and those who take pleasure in your affliction. It promotes the remembrance of the Hereafter, and it allows one to reflect on the meeting with Allah. In times of seclusion, one's thought may roam in that which is beneficial, in that which contains wisdom..."

Only Allah knows the full benefits of seclusion, for in seclusion, one's mind develops, views are ripened, the heart finds repose, and one finds himself to be in an ideal atmosphere for worship. By remaining isolated at times, one distances himself from trials, from flattering the person who deserves no praise, and from the eyes of jealous and envious persons. One is saved from the haughtiness of the proud and the follies of the idiot. In isolation, one's faults, deeds, and sayings are all secluded behind a veil.

During periods of isolation, one is able to delve deep into a sea of ideas and concepts. In such a state, the mind is free to form its opinions. Isolated from the company of others, the soul is free to achieve a state of rapture and to hunt for the stimulating thought. When alone one does nothing for show or ostentation, since none but Allah sees him, and since none but Allah hears him. ~~

So, khalwa is intended to generate spiritual fruit - and possibly removing all the stains that too much socialization - saying too much, asking too much, listening too much, seeing too much puts in our hearts. Therefore, although it might be hard (initially) to let ourselves be in solitude practising seclusion can bring a lot of benefit to us. Sometimes we do not realize that a lot of information that enters within us through the different channels may not actually have any beneficial or positive impact on our heart. So, one way we can filter out such polluted/unwanted information from within our system is by constantly keeping us under survellience and by reminding ourselves of Allah (swt)'s constant observation over us.

May Allah (swt) give us the tawfiq to have a clean heart - a heart free from all the stains and a heart free from everything except Him (swt). May He grant us a pure heart, may He make all the vices to achieve such a pure heart easier on us, and may He accept our struggle to seek a better station near Him. Ameen...