A rare human- Sheikh Shukri Luhafi

A friend of mine posted this:
About the blessed visit to Shaykh Shukri al-Luhafi :

''Last month while I was in Syria and subhanAllah words cannot describe him, he truly is an ABDAAL, most humble, gentle and generous, caring, and much much more and he never said no to anything he is sooo beautiful. I learnt so much and i could not contain my tears. 

He is very poor yet so content with his life? Due to age he had difficulties trying to stand up yet for us he went all the way to the shops to buy us food.

If you want to know what a true servant is just look at him. Going to his house was so humbling and neither have i met a great awliya like him !

so simple his house, life, yet he is a beloved of Allah and he is an ABDAAL one state lower than the state of Qadir Al Jilani ? .

I saw so much just by being in his house and company yet he had nothing
He is so amazing May Allah bless him and protect him and provide for him always . Ameen .

Departing from him and his wife was soo difficult because they truly truly touched my heart . When you are in his house you are in heaven?..

He was in another state far beyond ours you can just see by looking at him how deattached to dunya he was and even though he is in his old age he was able to read from a book hizbul bahr for us . '

Islamic Spirituality - The Forgotten Revolution

A very good article by a Cambridge university lecturer:
http://spl.qibla.com/Articles/AR00000138.aspx

"'Blood is no argument', as Shakespeare observed. Sadly, Muslim ranks are today swollen with those who disagree. The World Trade Centre, yesterday's symbol of global finance, has today become a monument to the failure of global Islam to control those who believe that the West can be bullied into changing its wayward ways towards the East. There is no real excuse to hand. It is simply not enough to clamour, as many have done, about 'chickens coming home to roost', and to protest that Washington's acquiescence in Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing is the inevitable generator of such hate. It is of course true - as Shabbir Akhtar has noted - that powerlessness can corrupt as insistently as does power. But to comprehend is not to sanction or even to empathize. To take innocent life to achieve a goal is the hallmark of the most extreme secular utilitarian ethic, and stands at the opposite pole of the absolute moral constraints required by religion.  "

Basis of Inner Peace

Taken from Qur'anic PsychiatryBy Shaykh Syed Mubarak Ali al-Jilani al-Qadiri

"Know that in the thikr of Allah (also following the guidance in the Holy Qur'an) lies the peace of quloob (heart)."

In this ayaat the Creator of the physical and non-physical bodies, Allah Ta'ala, has declared the very basis of the immutable law governing a person's health.

Therefore, the very structure of spiritual health rests on "peace of heart." If this does not exist many psychological disorders, such as nervousness leading to neurosis, and other similar disorders will develop.

The meaning of Islam is peace or total surrender , meaning thereby surrendering one's own will before the Will of the Almighty. The foundation for inner peace rests on the following:

1. One must acknowledge that he has a Creator who has created him for some purpose in this earthly life.
2. One must follow the manual of the Creator which the Almighty sent for His creatures-the guidance in the shape of the revealed books, i.e. the Holy Qur'an, and earlier books (now no longer valid).
3. One must acknowledge that the Creator has been sending guidance and Messengers (peace be upon them) to lead mankind towards physical and spiritual prosperity and the life hereafter.
4. One must believe that the Almighty has created many other intelligent beings such as angels and jinnbeings.
5. One must believe that his/her earthly life is very short, so much so that it has been compared with a short nap which one traveler might take under the shadow of a tree while traveling on the road and then goes on his way.
6. One must believe that this worldly life is full of tests and trials. All these hardships must be borne with patience, steadfastness, taking all calamities, losses, adversities from the Almighty as a test of his Iman (belief). Therefore, he should not grieve over losses or show joy over any gain.
7. One must not believe in any man or deity as his/her creator. Nor should he deny the existence of the Creator. No one can deny Allah without first affirming Him. By saying "I don't believe in Allah" can only mean that Allah does indeed exists, but one refuses to believe in Him. It also amounts to saying "I don't believe in the sun" --though the sun is there. Therefore all such persons can be compared with bats whose eyes don't open before the sun.

Denial of the Creator takes away peace, and the light of reason and intellect from the heart of a person and fills it with doubt. This is the worst disease of the qalb (heart), which causes every imaginable psychiatric (spiritual) malady.

Those who doubt the existence of the Almighty Creator will manifest all or some of the following characteristics: arrogance, anger, cruelty, cowardliness, miserliness, jealousy, hatred, hypocrisy, greed, ignorance, stubbornness, dissension, sloth, lying, selfishness, ill manners, despair, mischievousness, craftiness, lewdness (lack of modesty) perversion, and overpowering sexual despairs, etc.

Thus when the qalb is diseased then some, or all, of the aforementioned characteristics will be manifested in the conduct of any individual, depriving him of peace, tranquillity, sleep, and good health. Deprived of peace, a person will try to find solace in drugs, alcoholic drinks, sexual activities, hoarding wealth or getting power. Ultimately, they fall victim to the most horrible physical and psychiatric (non-physical) diseases.

Look at the fate of many of the world's multimillionaires, Hollywood film stars, rulers of the world, and even "psychiatrists." What a miserable end they usually have! As long as people keep doubting the existence of the Almighty there will be no end to their psychiatric diseases. The Almighty will keep on increasing their miseries by subjecting them to the control of the messengers of darkness, ignorance and deniers of the truth-the Freudians, pseudo-psychiatrists, and other atheists.

In order to have inner peace one must believe in the hereafter, raising of the dead, accountability, judgment, hell and paradise, and the eventually meeting with the One and Only Lord Almighty of Hazrats Adam, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, Daood, Sulaiman, 'Isa bin Maryam, and Muhammad the Last and Final Messenger (peace be upon them all!). Even if the non-Muslims follow the Ten Commandments in letter and spirit they will be saved.

The following will give, in a nutshell, the teaching of all the Messengers mentioned above. Those who wish to have perfect physical and spiritual health, as well as those who are suffering and want to be cured of their diseases, will have to follow this code as explained by the Holy Last Messenger, Muhammad :

"You should believe:

1. In Allah, i.e. in His Person and Attributes and
2. The Last Day, and
3. The Angels, and
4. The earlier (Divine) Books (no longer available with original content), and
5. All the Messengers, and
6. The rising after death, and
7. The destiny, i.e., all that is good or bad is from Allah, and
8. That you bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, and
9. That at the time of each salat you establish the salat it is proper time after performing a perfect wudhu. (Perfect Wudhu is one performed with due regard to ever 'adab [due respects] and mustahibbat [desirable action])
10. Pay the zakat (obligatory charity on wealth exceeding a prescribed limit), and
11. Fast during the month of Ramadhan, and
12. Perform Hajj if you have wealth. (The availability of wealth has particularly been mentioned because want of wealth is generally made an excuse for non-performance of Hajj. Otherwise, evidently, the other prerequisites that make the Hajj obligatory should also exist.)
13. You should perform the twelve rak'at sunnat-e-mu'akkadah salat every day. (According to other Hadith, the twelve rak'at are detailed as two rak'at before the two fard (obligatory) rak'at of Fajr Salat, four before and two rak'at after the four fard rak'at of Zuhr, two after the three fard rak'at of Maghrib and two after the four fard rak'at of 'Isha).
14. You should never miss the Witr salat at night, which is wajib (compulsory, but less than fard and more important than sunnat) and is, therefore, specially emphasized.
15. You should ascribe no partners unto Allah.
16. You should not disobey your parents (if they obey the Almighty).
17. You should not devour the property of orphans unjustly. (Unjustly implies that there is no harm in using the belongings of an orphan in a lawful manner as in the case under certain circumstances.)
18. You should not drink wine.
19. You should not commit adultery.
20. You should not indulge in false oaths.
21. You should not give false evidence.
22. You should not yield to your base desires.
23. You should not backbite a Muslim brother.
24. You should not bring a false charge against a chaste woman (or a chaste man).
25. You should not bear ill-will towards your Muslim brethren.
26. You should not indulge in useless amusements.
27. You should not join the idle spectators.
28. You should not call a short-statured person "O, you short-statured one!" with the intention of finding fault in him.
29. You should not indulge in jokes at the cost of others.
30. You should not indulge in slandering others.
31. You should be ever grateful to Allah for His bounties.
32. You should be steadfast in suffering and calamity.
33. You should not sever your ties of kinship with your (believing) relatives.
34. You should discharge your obligations to your relatives.
35. You should not curse any creature of Allah.
36. You should remember and glorify Allah by repeating SubhanAllah (Glory belongs to Allah), Al-Hamdu lil-Lah (All Praises is for Allah), La ilaha il-Lallah (There is no god but Allah), Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest) with frequency.
37. You should not miss the Friday and 'Id salat.
38. You should believe that whatever good or bad lot befalls you was predestined and could not be avoided, and whatever you have missed, you were predestined to do so, and,
39. You should not give up the recitation of the Holy Book under any circumstances."

Source: http://www.geocities.com/~abdulwahid//muslimarticles/peace.html

Meaning of Religion/Din- Syed Naquib Attas

From  the Malaysian genius Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’s book “Islam and Secularism.”

On the connection between deen and madinah.

“It is I think extremely important to discern both the intimate and profoundly significant connection between the concept of din and that of madinah which derives from it, and the role of the Believers individually in relation to the former, and collectively in relation to the latter.

Considerable relevance must be seen in the significance of the change of name of the town once known as Yathrib to al-Madinah: the City – or more precisely Madinatu’l-Nabiy: the City of the Prophet – which occurred soon after the Holy Prophet (may God bless and give him Peace!) made his historic Flight (hijrah) and settled there. The first Community of Believers was formed there at the time, and it was that Flight that marked the New Era in the history of mankind. We must see the fact that al-Madinah was so called and named because it was there that true din became realized for mankind. There the Believers enslaved themselves under the authority and jurisdiction of the Holy Prophet (may God bless and give him Peace!), its dayyan*, there the realization of the debt to God took definite form and the approved manner and method of its repayment began to unfold. The City of the Prophet became the Place where true din was enacted under his authority and jurisdiction. We may further see that the City became, for the Community, the epitome of the socio-political order of Islam; and for the individual Believer it became by analogy, the symbol of the Believer’s body and physical being in which the rational soul, in emulation of him who may God bless and grant Peace!, exercises authority and just government.

*dayyan: judge, ruler, governor

~Syed Muhammed al-Attas, Islam and Secularism, p.53, footnote 42

On the meaning of being in a state of debt

The nature of the debt of creation and existence is so tremendously total that man, the moment he is created and given existence, is already in a state of utter loss, for he possesses really nothing himself, seeking that everything about him and in him and from him is what the Creator owns Who owns everything. And this is the purport of the words in the Holy Quran:

Verily, man is in loss (khusrin). (103:2)

Seeing that he owns absolutely nothing to ‘repay’ his debt except his own consciousness of the fact that he is himself the very substance of the debt, so must he ‘repay’ with himself, so must he ‘return’ himself to Him Who owns him absolutely. He is himself the debt to be returned to the Owner, and ‘returning the debt’ means to give himself up in service or khidmahto his Lord and Master; to abase himself before Him – and so the rightly guided man sincerely and consciously enslaves himself for the sake of God in order to fulfill his Commands and Prohibitions and Ordinances and thus to live out the dictates of His Law. The concept of ‘return’ alluded to above is also evident in the conceptual structure of din, for it can and does mean, as I will elaborate in due course, a ‘return to man’s inherent nature’, the concept ‘nature’ referring to the spiritual and not altogether the physical aspect of man’s being. It must also be pointed out that in the words of the Holy Qu’ran:

‘By the heaven that hath rain’ (86:2)

the word interpreted as ‘rain’ is raj which means literally ‘return’. It is interpreted as rain because God returns it time and again, and it refers to good return in the sense of benefit, profit and gain. Raj is therefore used synonymously in this sense with rabah, meaning gain, which is the opposite of khusr, loss to which reference has already been made above. Now it is appropriate to mention here that one of the basic meanings ofdin which has not been explained above is recurrent rain, rain that returns again and again; and hence we perceive that din here, like such a rain, alludes to benefit and gain (rabah). When we say that in order to ‘repay’ his debt man must ‘return’ himself to God, his Owner, his ‘returning himself’ is like the returning rain, a gain onto him. And this is the meaning of the saying:

He who enslaves himself gains (rabiha whose infinitive noun is: rabah)

The expression ‘enslaves himself’ (dana nafsahu) means ‘gives himself up’ (in service) and hence also ‘returns himself’ (to his Owner) as explained. The same meaning is expressed in the words of the Holy Prophet may God bless him and grant him Peace!:

“The intelligent one is he who enslaves himself (dana nafsahu) and works for that which will be after death.

p.56-59, Islam and Secularism.

On preaching and how to you should be

And beware not to desire praise from them by preaching, or to let such thought cross your heart, or to believe that you have a status above them, or to intend to [indirectly] praise yourself through showing your innocence of the matters against which you are preaching to them. And be sure that if any such thoughts occurred to you, they would be from your enemy, Satan, who wants to trick you in matters you have been lenient about. And know that preaching to people with good advice and teaching is one of the attributes of the Prophets and Messengers.

So observe carefully how you conduct yourself and how you adopt the etiquette of those whom you are representing among his community. This is why it is said, “The knowers (ʿulamāʾ) are the inheritors of the Prophets.” And it is reported that Sahl ibn ‘Abdullāh al-Tustarī had said: “He who wants to see the sessions of the Prophets should observe the sessions of the ʿulamāʾ; so acknowledge that to them.” And beware not to become arrogant because of that towards those who come to you, for this would be at your peril. And know that there is no difference between yourself and those present before you, except that God has created in you what He manifests through you to them in the form of preaching, after He has created in you the power and will to do so. You are, in your entirety, created for God: your choice, your power, and your deed. The credit in that is to God over you, in creating that for you; you have no credit over others except by the rendering of Godmost-high, not by your own merit.

Taken from Imam Abdul Ghani an-Nablusi from: http://www.hayrah.net/2011/07/on-preaching/

Hijab ban and hearts?

Some people think the hijab is oppressive or some Muslims want to remove the hijab or have removed it. Although it is fardh (obligatory) to wear hijab, let these same people look at the hijab (veil) that covers their hearts. This veil is soo thick that it blocks the Divine Lights from penetrating the heart, and so there are many diseases in the hearts of many people.
Remove the veils of greed, arrogance, pride, ignorance and so on from your heart. Gain Islamic knowledge and become more humble and obey Allah Most High.
And these veils over hearts apply to men and women, boys and girls.
Who is more oppressed than one who is caged by her desires and ignorance, such that the person does not worship Allah swt?

Beauty and looks?

"If people put as much effort in purifying their hearts and character as they put in beautifying their external appearances, they would walk on water"

How many people look in the mirror daily and get sad or unhappy over their looks, or check how they look, and change their clothes, or see if their clothes are okay? Yet how many look at their hearts and characters to see if that's okay and if its ugly or beautiful and how they should improve?

If you say you can't see the diseases of the heart, then just count how many times a day you swear, shout/get angry, lie, show pride, look down upon others, backbite, insult others, become jealous of others etc.

These are things to reflect on, since Allah swt said:  [On] a day in which neither wealth nor children will be of benefit, except one who comes to God with a sound heart. (Qur'an 26:88-89) .

‎"The world is a vehicle for you. If you drive it, it will deliver you to your destination. If it drives you, you will be destroyed." Hasan al-Basri (Rahimullah)

Abu Abdallah al-Antaki said: “When even the smallest [particle of] certainty enters one’s heart, it fills the heart with light and expels whatever doubt there is in it. Consequently, the heart becomes filled with gratitude to and fear of God Most High.”

Cohabitation and dating increases divorce- scientific study

• "Couples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to be less satisfied with their marriages — and more likely to divorce — than couples who do not. These negative outcomes are called the cohabitation effect."

  “I spent more time planning my wedding than I spent happily married,” . 

  "Women are more likely to view cohabitation as a step toward marriage, while men are more likely to see it as a way to test a relationship or postpone commitment, and this gender asymmetry is associated with negative interactions and lower levels of commitment even after the relationship progresses to marriage.  "
  

  Alhamdulillah for the wisdom of Islam. I included dating in the title because dating also has a poor record of avoiding divorces and are higher than correct Islamic marriages. Many people who dated for years, yet their marriages only last for a few months or a year, and the factors are similar as in cohabitation. For example this is because people say they date because "we want to know the person more", the same excuse used for cohabitation. Yet as the article and scientific study shows, knowing a person really well by being together so much doesn't decrease the chance of divorce.

  The source of the study and article is:

  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&smid=fb-share

The Caliph and true brotherhood

This is true unity, selflessness care and brotherhood/sisterhood/friendship, where are the real Muslims of today?:

“When Ghulam al-Khalil slandered the Sufis [of Baghdad] before the caliph, he ordered them to be beheaded. Al-Junayd [avoided this trial] by presenting himself as a jurist (faqih), for he indeed issued legal rulings according to the juridical school [named after] Abu Thawr, while others, including al-Shahham, al-Raqqam, and al-Nuri, were arrested. When leather mats were spread for their beheading, al-Nuri stepped forward.

The executioner asked him: ‘Do you know what you are stepping forward for?’ Al-Nuri responded that he did. The executioner then asked him: ‘Then what makes you hurry?’ Al-Nuri answered: ‘I’d rather my companions live another moment.’ The executioner was perplexed and reported the matter to the caliph, who sent the Sufis over to the judge to investigate their affair. The judge posed several legal questions to Abu 'l-Husayn al-Nuri, who answered them all. He then proceeded to say [the following]: ‘God has servants who, when they stand, they stand for the sake of God; when they speak, they speak for the sake of God.’

He said other things as well that made the judge weep. He then sent the following note to the caliph: ‘If these folk are heretics, then there’s not a single [faithful] Muslim on the face of the earth.’ (From the Risala of al-Qushayri) 

Why is the Ummah down?

People talk about why the Muslims declined, and many academic studies have been done, going deep into the issue and often coming up with  abstruse and far-fetched explanations, and many of them miss the mark or don't go to the root.

Allah said: “Truly, God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” (Quran 13:11)

Thus we see that we need to change our state/condition and that is one of the major reasons why the Muslims are and have been in decline.

Yet the way Muslims treat each other, is far from the Prophetic way, and generally indicates selfishness.

The Qur'an said: “They prefer others above themselves, even though poverty be their portion” (al-Hashr, 59.9)

Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “None of you truly believes (in Allah and in His religion) until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” [Bukhari and Muslim]

Who can say that they’ve met a SINGLE Muslim (apart from the Awliya) who has implemented the above Hadith? You get many religious and charitable Muslims, but almost none prefer others to themselves, or at least love for them what they love for themselves. Until we change this attitude, we’re not going to be an Ummah that will get anywhere. We’ll go from one nightmare to another, like Syria’s oppressed Muslims not getting helped because other Muslim states care about themselves more. 

Where are the likes of the Ansar, who when their own families were starving, and the migrant guests needed food too, the Ansar gave the migrants food instead and sheltered them in their own homes?

Go on, prefer others to yourselves. Be fair to people, but don't demand that they be fair to you.

Islam is preserved every generation

The following Hadith serves to prove that the true Islam is taught (obviously by scholars especially) in every generation and century, and that no generation will be free of the true Islam.

 From the Companion Ibrahim b. `Abd al-Rahman al-`Adhari from the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) who said: "From every succeeding generation its upright folk shall carry this knowledge in turn. They shall repeal from it the distortions of the extremists (tahrif al-ghalin), the (mis)interpretations of the ignorant (ta'wil al-jahilin), and the pretenses of the liars (intihal al-mubtilin)."

It is a Sahih Hadith according to Imam Ahmad (as narrated by al-Khallal in his `Ilal per al-Khatib in Sharaf As-hab al-Hadith p. 29) and is narrated by a number of people with various chains. The Arabic text is given below

The Hadith proves the feminists, modernists, "salafis",  and liberal Muslim sects wrong since their teachings are often teachings that only arose in the 19th century and were never held before in the history of Islam and are thus bad innovations. If even 1 generation of Islam didn't have those teachings, then we know that sect is wrong.

Break

Salams all,
I'm taking a break from posting till the 10th of April insha'Allah. Sorry for that, and hope for your duas as I have been quite ill over the past week