Shaykh Kamaluddin DB - Main Prog
10/07/2015
'Zaharul fasadi fil behri wa barri'
Quran: Fasad/calamity has manifested itself all over the sea and land - humanity due to their own hands.
Dont look for political explanations, its all because of our sins. Its not necessary that the sins of some people will strike calamity in their own city, it can be that our sin is being manifested in some other part of the world.
'bima kasabat' -what you do will
have consequences. What we do in our hearts and amaal.
Good - good
Bad - bad
Its our choice. Every person will make a choice every day either to obey or disobey Allah swt.
There are punishments for sins in a person's life also. Life itself will pay you back for the sins that you commit.
Lighter verse
1. If only they did what was adviced it would have been better for them
2. Indeed We will surely take vengeance on those who wrong Him.
When we commit a sin:
a. Zulm on ourself
b. Jurm against Allah swt
Allah swt has no need, no want to punish.
We have only our own selves to blame.
One simple way to save ourself: Ittiba e Sunnah
Quran: If all of you obeyed him (sws) you would have been on Hidaya.
Meaning you would have been those who are on hidaya, who follow hidaya.
Allah swt has given every single thing to us to stay away from sin but still we chose to sin.
Stubborn sinners, persistent sinners, die-heart sinners
The ahwaal of a person will be according to the amaal of the person on the DoJ.
Quran: mayn ya'mal soo'an yujza bihi
Whoever does any bad deed will be given recompense for it.
Somehow deep in our psyche we keep thinking that we will get away with it. No one can run away from this.
Deep down those who sin have no sukoon. Its never possible that a person who does sin will be in sukoon. Their whole life will be tossing and turning.
Muttaqi will fall asleep peacefully even on a mountain/boulder.
Shaykh Ashraf Ali Thanvi ra -
Jaza ul Amaal
Consequences of sin in this world:
1. Loose ilm of deen
Ilm ke buht naaz nakre hain. Yeh waise kisi ke dil mein nahi rehta.
a. Forgets it
b. Converts from ilm to malumaat/information
Azalla - Allah swt is Al-Hadi. He doesn't misguide people however when people become stubborn on sins Allah swt takes away hidaya.
Even though we know that we should not smoke. Its an absolutely shameful act. Still we do it.
Ask yourself whether Nabi sws could ever do this.
Leave everything you know that he sws would never do.
2. Rizq is reduced. Rizq e halal is reduced and inc in rizq e haram
3. Heart becomes bitter and sour. They start blaming Allah swt. They dont want to pray. Sometimes they stubbornly dont pray in rebellion.
4. They get bitter with people. These people die a lonely death.
5. Doors of success are closed.
When they were not sinning, Allah swt was taking care of everything. When he sins, Allah swt turns away from them.
They think its magic. Dont be deluded. Its our sins!
Shaytan used to flee from Sayyidina Umar ra. Similarly shaytan has wehshat from sahib e nisbat wali of Allah swt.
Quran: We distribute the wealth among you.
How can some amil do something that can disrupt the distribution of Allah swt?
- Sweetness of ibadah is snatched away
6. Face sours - chehra sarh jata hai
Muttaqi people - you want to gaze at them
7. They find ibadat difficult. Praying the salah is a weighty burden except for those who are Khashieen.
8. Physically weak. No longer dynamic. Lazy. Oversleeping. Unable to perform. Low productivity.
9. No longer able to listen and obey. They listen but they are not able to follow or obey
10. A sin leads to other sins. All other sins come closer to us.
11. Tawfeeq of tauba is snatched away.
The person doesnt make taubah because they deliberately delay taubah because they want to do the sin again.
12. Stops feeling the embarassment and filth of the sin
13. Deprive of imaan
Hadith: whosoever adopts the likeness of a disbeliever becomes one of them. (mafhoom)
15. Allah swt no longer values that person
16. A person's judgement becomes flawed. Wrong
decisions. They lack hikmah, wisdom.
16. No modesty, no self-respect, dignity. They dont even value themselves.
When you loose your haya in pvt you're on your way to loose it in public.
17. Tragedies, calamities will befall you
18. Shaytan glues himself to the sinner
19. Allah swt puts hatred in the hearts of creation for the sinner
20. Nabi sws sent curse on certain types of sinners e.g. Person who deals with interest, creates corruption on land, those who break family ties, those who support unbelievers as opposed to believers
Accursed - they dont get the duas of the Angels.
21. They will be deprived of sukoon
22. Deprived of Allah's Mercy
23. Deprived of kalima at time of death. Less than 10% died with kalima (a doc in emergency)
When does our sinning hit us?
1. Difficulty as a wake up call
2. Takheer - no difficulty comes. Allah Ta'ala catching up with them later.
3. Difficult death
Lessons:
1. You can't hurt Allah swt by sinning against him. You will only
hurt yourself.
2. You try to hurt/plot/envy someone it will come back to you. Dont deprive anyone of deen.
3. Make taubah
Monday, 27 July 2015
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB 7 July 2015
Bismillahir-Rahmaanir-Raheem
Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db
7/7/15 Night Bayaan
- Taubah (intention for itikaaf)
- Nights to seek laylatul Qadr: if a person seeks LQ on the 5 odd nights they are guranteed LQ. Imagine if the first night of itikaaf is LQ. We should show our thirst to Allah swt by praying and supplicating.
- Very few people left on earth who can say they follow the entire sunnah and shariah. Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم left an entire community who were on sunnah and shariah entirely (sahabah). We are in a time of fitnah, for Allah swt bless us in itikaaf is a tremendous bounty of Allah swt, He bestows it upon whosoever He wills. It is a great Mercy of Allah swt.
- Very few people are entirely Allah's. One shaykh said to His students tell me what Tawheed means. They said many things but finally said you tell us, Shaykh. 'It is to live your life entirely for the sake of that One, that is true Tawheed' many of us live for other things, pleasure, careers etc. Tawheed means those people live for Allah swt.
- We want to spend every second and moment in true taweheed, I want my eating to be for Him, my sleeping for Him, all my time for Him. This is another intention for itikaaf.
- Free oneself for the zthikr of Allah swt 'only in the zthikr of Allah swt will hearts find peace' beg Allah swt, ya Allah give me so much sulook in these next ten days and nights that it's enough to bring me into itminaan in jannah. Ya Allah you allowed me to come in itikaaf for 10days/nights ya Allah enter me into your jannah. If a person can enter into jahannam after going into a club or pub, can't a person, after entering the masjid enter into jannah?
- Imaan = heartfelt feeling for Allah swt. Even our imaan is something we need to work on during itikaaf. To work on our manners, attributes etc. Make duaa ya Allah swt make me a person with tawakkul, sabr, shukr, make me a better ummati, make me a better slave, make me a better mother, daughter etc. Every niyyah should be made, not just itikaaf. Think of anything and everything you have heard in Deen and seerah and make duaa for that in these nights! He wants to give everything, so why not ask for everything?
- 'The most honoured of you in the sight of Allah swt are those who have the most/best taqwa' ya Allah I want the most & best hayaa, the most concentration in salaah, the best zthikr, zero ghaflah. Why have this hope? Because Allah swt is the best! The most, best treasures, He wants to bestow all of it on His believers. We must yearn.
- In these days and nights you may also tire yourself out. Nothing wrong in exerting yourself such that you become TIRED! How many students spent nights studying for exams? How much have you tired yourself for dunya? When will we tire ourselves for Allah swt? Push yourself. You don't know how much you can do if you haven't tried!
- Ya Allah grant me the strength and power because I want to use it for you!
- Some of us will want and try, we may live our lives like that but inshaaAllah Allah swt will forgive us for that yearning and wanting.
- Allah swt has given us 10 pages of gold, write what you want on it.
- People are like ice, you either make use of it or let it melt away.
- BY's shaykhs Shaykh Shaykh was a farmer, would plough and harvest the land. Someone asked how much zthikr do you do? He said 70,000 times ALLAH, whilst doing harvesting. However, even salikeen can't do ONE tasbeeh! Strange. These are salikeen! Make tasbeehs regularly, make durood regularly, make istighfaar regularly, make sunnah masnoon duaas regularly, let them become ingrained in your heart, don't slack! Maybe some of you already slacked, how many of you said the azthaan duaa? If you forget, replay your day and say them all at night.
- Salikeen should be doing one juz Quran a day and one hour muraqabah. Zthikr qalbi + Quran go hand in hand. Get the hidayah of the muttaqeen. You have to make this ibadah of Allah swt.
- Time is passing away, the clock has started ticking.
- Dont talk too much. Owais Qarni - in madinah, he couldn't wait too long, came to see Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم but he wasn't there. So owais went back to attend to his ill mother. Umar r.a. went to see owais, Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم told him to take a shirt and make duaa for the ummah. So sahabah went to search owais. Owais travelled from qarn to madinah seeking Allah, deen. We also sunnah mutakifeen travelled seeking Deen. Owais waited as long as he could then had to go back. Some of you are in that situation, you came here but have to go back. you came with thirst, Allah swt honours these things. When sahabah met him all he said was jazakAllah Khair, we both have an aakhirah to work for.
- Work on salaah these next few days, FEEL it! Someone said to a shaykh I want to pray like sahabah prayed. At tahajjud time, my shaykh said go make wudhu for Allah. This had an effect on him, he did wudhu with such khushoo. Then he came and shaykh said pray for Allah. This also had an effect on him, he prayed many rakaats, then shaykh said this is the salaah of sahabah. So work on your wudhu and salaah!
- If a person tries their whole life to befriend Allah swt, Allah swt will never raise that person as His enemy on the day of judegemnt! So we've come here to try! Our sins warranted that we should have been punished and deprived of the Mercy of the month but still Allah swt allowed us to fast and pray and sit in itikaaf. Allah swt doesn't want us to go away empty handed, so wish for ourselves we want to fill our hearts with no or of zthikr.
May Allah swt make this a means of being steadfast on Deen. Aameen ya rabbal aa'lameen
Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db
7/7/15 Night Bayaan
- Taubah (intention for itikaaf)
- Nights to seek laylatul Qadr: if a person seeks LQ on the 5 odd nights they are guranteed LQ. Imagine if the first night of itikaaf is LQ. We should show our thirst to Allah swt by praying and supplicating.
- Very few people left on earth who can say they follow the entire sunnah and shariah. Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم left an entire community who were on sunnah and shariah entirely (sahabah). We are in a time of fitnah, for Allah swt bless us in itikaaf is a tremendous bounty of Allah swt, He bestows it upon whosoever He wills. It is a great Mercy of Allah swt.
- Very few people are entirely Allah's. One shaykh said to His students tell me what Tawheed means. They said many things but finally said you tell us, Shaykh. 'It is to live your life entirely for the sake of that One, that is true Tawheed' many of us live for other things, pleasure, careers etc. Tawheed means those people live for Allah swt.
- We want to spend every second and moment in true taweheed, I want my eating to be for Him, my sleeping for Him, all my time for Him. This is another intention for itikaaf.
- Free oneself for the zthikr of Allah swt 'only in the zthikr of Allah swt will hearts find peace' beg Allah swt, ya Allah give me so much sulook in these next ten days and nights that it's enough to bring me into itminaan in jannah. Ya Allah you allowed me to come in itikaaf for 10days/nights ya Allah enter me into your jannah. If a person can enter into jahannam after going into a club or pub, can't a person, after entering the masjid enter into jannah?
- Imaan = heartfelt feeling for Allah swt. Even our imaan is something we need to work on during itikaaf. To work on our manners, attributes etc. Make duaa ya Allah swt make me a person with tawakkul, sabr, shukr, make me a better ummati, make me a better slave, make me a better mother, daughter etc. Every niyyah should be made, not just itikaaf. Think of anything and everything you have heard in Deen and seerah and make duaa for that in these nights! He wants to give everything, so why not ask for everything?
- 'The most honoured of you in the sight of Allah swt are those who have the most/best taqwa' ya Allah I want the most & best hayaa, the most concentration in salaah, the best zthikr, zero ghaflah. Why have this hope? Because Allah swt is the best! The most, best treasures, He wants to bestow all of it on His believers. We must yearn.
- In these days and nights you may also tire yourself out. Nothing wrong in exerting yourself such that you become TIRED! How many students spent nights studying for exams? How much have you tired yourself for dunya? When will we tire ourselves for Allah swt? Push yourself. You don't know how much you can do if you haven't tried!
- Ya Allah grant me the strength and power because I want to use it for you!
- Some of us will want and try, we may live our lives like that but inshaaAllah Allah swt will forgive us for that yearning and wanting.
- Allah swt has given us 10 pages of gold, write what you want on it.
- People are like ice, you either make use of it or let it melt away.
- BY's shaykhs Shaykh Shaykh was a farmer, would plough and harvest the land. Someone asked how much zthikr do you do? He said 70,000 times ALLAH, whilst doing harvesting. However, even salikeen can't do ONE tasbeeh! Strange. These are salikeen! Make tasbeehs regularly, make durood regularly, make istighfaar regularly, make sunnah masnoon duaas regularly, let them become ingrained in your heart, don't slack! Maybe some of you already slacked, how many of you said the azthaan duaa? If you forget, replay your day and say them all at night.
- Salikeen should be doing one juz Quran a day and one hour muraqabah. Zthikr qalbi + Quran go hand in hand. Get the hidayah of the muttaqeen. You have to make this ibadah of Allah swt.
- Time is passing away, the clock has started ticking.
- Dont talk too much. Owais Qarni - in madinah, he couldn't wait too long, came to see Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم but he wasn't there. So owais went back to attend to his ill mother. Umar r.a. went to see owais, Nabi صلى الله عليه وسلم told him to take a shirt and make duaa for the ummah. So sahabah went to search owais. Owais travelled from qarn to madinah seeking Allah, deen. We also sunnah mutakifeen travelled seeking Deen. Owais waited as long as he could then had to go back. Some of you are in that situation, you came here but have to go back. you came with thirst, Allah swt honours these things. When sahabah met him all he said was jazakAllah Khair, we both have an aakhirah to work for.
- Work on salaah these next few days, FEEL it! Someone said to a shaykh I want to pray like sahabah prayed. At tahajjud time, my shaykh said go make wudhu for Allah. This had an effect on him, he did wudhu with such khushoo. Then he came and shaykh said pray for Allah. This also had an effect on him, he prayed many rakaats, then shaykh said this is the salaah of sahabah. So work on your wudhu and salaah!
- If a person tries their whole life to befriend Allah swt, Allah swt will never raise that person as His enemy on the day of judegemnt! So we've come here to try! Our sins warranted that we should have been punished and deprived of the Mercy of the month but still Allah swt allowed us to fast and pray and sit in itikaaf. Allah swt doesn't want us to go away empty handed, so wish for ourselves we want to fill our hearts with no or of zthikr.
May Allah swt make this a means of being steadfast on Deen. Aameen ya rabbal aa'lameen
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB 27 July 2015
Mayfair Women [by Shaykh Mufti Kamaluddin db] 27/07/15
For women to continue spirit of Ramadan and to become from Swalihaat Mu'minat-
1. To stay away from ghafla. Things that will take her far from rememberance of Allah. Eg. Idle chats, Tv etc
2. Do istighfar.
3. Make alot of zikr of wuquf e qalbi. To keep heart parmanently paused in zikr of Allah.
4. Pray salah with khushoo
5. Recite durood abundantly with love and compassion.
6. Preserve your hayaa/chastity.
7. Recite Qur'an Shareef daily.
How a woman can become from Zaakiraat;
1. she should convert her whole house decorated with reminders of Allah's reminders not only one room. It can be subtle reminders not necessarily huge ones.
2. Make food while making zikr and in state of wudhu feeling love for Allah.
3. She make sure she reads Qur'an, sunnah duas and hadiths daily with love because these are also types of zikr. Make zikr of wuquf e qalbi and to have dedicated time for special zikr of Allah.
4. On free time make murakaba.
5. Connect to a shaikh who will help you to make zikr.
For women to continue spirit of Ramadan and to become from Swalihaat Mu'minat-
1. To stay away from ghafla. Things that will take her far from rememberance of Allah. Eg. Idle chats, Tv etc
2. Do istighfar.
3. Make alot of zikr of wuquf e qalbi. To keep heart parmanently paused in zikr of Allah.
4. Pray salah with khushoo
5. Recite durood abundantly with love and compassion.
6. Preserve your hayaa/chastity.
7. Recite Qur'an Shareef daily.
How a woman can become from Zaakiraat;
1. she should convert her whole house decorated with reminders of Allah's reminders not only one room. It can be subtle reminders not necessarily huge ones.
2. Make food while making zikr and in state of wudhu feeling love for Allah.
3. She make sure she reads Qur'an, sunnah duas and hadiths daily with love because these are also types of zikr. Make zikr of wuquf e qalbi and to have dedicated time for special zikr of Allah.
4. On free time make murakaba.
5. Connect to a shaikh who will help you to make zikr.
Sunday, 26 July 2015
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB 19 Ramadhan
Talk by shaykh kamaluddin
19 Ramadan
Use the last ten days like it is your last .
Most n best taqwa . Use these two words for your Deen , sabr, Adaab , akhlaaq. So try to be the best to design your heart in this month. Adorning your life with the most sunnah in your life.
Ramadan is month of Quran . Revealed in this month. Recite more . Feel more Quran , understand it. Not only more Quran on your tongue . Feel Quran more , most. How? Pick some sentences and try to understand it. Read it over again. So wen you read the Arabic , you feel it. How we are like that with Surah Fatiha , we need to familiarize ourselves with the Quran .
Look few verses before and after a specific vs , so wen you read it , you feel it. Then you use it in your salaah. Get new passages for your salaah. Once you read n understand it n read it in salaah, you will enjoy this new recitation.
Try to see in your recitation, how much you can read. How far you go, before you start getting enjoyment from the recitation . How long can I read Quran or salaah for ? Try in these ten nights to see .
Sahabah used to recite particular verses in sadness , joy etc . Whatt do you plan for thetuhajjud of the odd nites? How many Rakaat? Which Surah? Etc. no answer ?
What about your fav clothing ? So increase your connection with the Quran !
Take names of Allah! Asma Ul Husna . Call upon Allah , cry out to Allah using the names ! Learn the names ! Wat about Rahman n Raheem . Do you know the meanings ? About the sifaat of Allah. Gaffar and gafoor. When your happy, which name of Allah do you call upon?
Learn , feel , explore ! Esp in this month.
Allah rolls the wave of his mercy upon his believers on these last ten nites. U feel the most of the coming wave in Rajab n Shaban
In anticipation of the wave of Ramadan. U have to get into the zone . It's not just about getting hungry . It's about wanting never to disobey , it's about wanting allahs loving gaze . True lover of Allah. Always intending to obey Allah . Ask Allah to let these feeling to continue . How? Get taqwa in this month.in your heart, then Allah will grant u this loving gaze out of Ramadan.
If in front of family men , u cover your face ,
( wat will make Allah love me more? ) if u do not hide the beauty of your face , u leave the door open for non family men to cast a gaze of longing at her .if she covers up, Allah will cast his gaze at her , subhannallah.
Do your best, do your most! To attain the taqwa ! Control anger, have sabr, remove envy n jealousy so allahs gaze can fall lovingly on your heart . Wen u become mutaqqi , then u feel allahs loving gaze on you.
Fasting 12 hours a day, is like doing 12 hours of Ibadah. That's y we feel more in Ramadan . Allah is showing us how it feels to be zaakireen . (One who remembers Allah )
We don't feel as close and don't make dua soo sincerely sometimes out of Ramadan.
Regret over Deen , not dunya . It motivates u to do good . Don't waste tym on haram n futile activities .
Then u will start wanting future for aakhirah . For sun nah , for more Quran , for Tuhujjud out of Ramadan. For jannah .
Relationships with zikr.
Best n most zikr . Become a zaakirah, a waliyah , u have the potential .
Ramadan is not just month of fasting but it is a month of Wilayah. Allah wants us to become auliya of Allah. This should be your mission! For the auliya, no fear in them ever not do they feel any sorrow !(sins are forgiven , so fear, Shaytaan , theirs nafs can't sway them so they have no regret)
Zikr means to forget the dunya and remember Allah !
Dunya means ghairullah . Anything other than Allah at all . So practice this type of prayer in Ramadan . Start this in these days. Try to forget the dunya in your salaah. Understand the Deen. Y we pray 5 times a day? allah wants us to disconnect from dunya 5 times a day, so u can forget everything except Allah . ( don't let your wealth , don't let your children distract u from the remembrance of Allah ) . Anyone who lets the bounties that Allah blessed us with , to forget Allah, Allah says they will be from the losers . Concept of life is opportunity to remember Allah properly .
Salaah supposed to detactch the heart from dunya .
Fast from Ghaflah. I want to always remember Allah for 24. Hours . Allah described them as zaakirat.
Fanaah ( make zikr of the name of your rabb, n focus on that name soo much that u forget everything else) worse case heart, zero percent focus on Allah , u fasted , u stayed away from sin, so now heart starts getting more attached to Allah. So connection with dunya becomes lesser . How ? Though your fasting , Ibadah . Extra effort needs to be made . One hundred percent attached to allahs rememberance and zero to this world .
Wat was rasool saw doing in mountain in cave . He wanted to seclude himself from the dunya . Surah kahf( they tried to remember Allah in a community Secretly. So then they climbed the mountain n went into the cave .)
Limited period for us is last ten days . Rasool saw went into seclusion inside the masjid . He could feel the Incredible mercy of allah that descends in this month. Fanaah is a temp training period . Then the next process is called baqa , where u reconnect with your role in dunya , but u keep the rememberance of Allah even while u are engaged in the world . Engaged fillah , lillah !
Rasool saw was in baqaa all the tym.
Try to get fanaah in this month n then strive for baqaa out of Ramadan. Wish for these , dream for these . Goal for u, aim for this .
Who gets guidance of Allah , those who have a heart.
Wen u make zikr , your heart is ready for the recitation of the Quran . Combine both in these last days of Ramadan . Don't let these feelings leave us after Ramadan .
1. Make Taubah from our over eating , lack of compassion , etc not just from sin .
2. Tazkiya . Do tazkiya of sahaabah . Sahaabah continued these teachings , continuing for generation to generation . The feelings of Quran is always transferred from teacher to student .
Make the niyyah to join this training . Sun nah methods of purification .
Zikr through which we can erase the Ghaflah . Every day make tilawat of Quran .
100 times istigfaar
100 times durood daily.express from the heart.
In your heart always remember Allah n his names n have feeling for him, feel that Allah is close to u . Allah can see u , hear u etc.
Nothing can distract me from there feelings .
Muraaqabah : every day for few minutes , take some tym , make the intention to remember Allah . Close eyes so u can't see the world . Close your mind from yourself n connect to Allah . Forget everything except Allah . How do u remember Allah. Make zikr of 'Allah ' with heart . As if qalb is calling name of Allah .
Just make niyyah now that u want to be lover of Allah , zaakirat,
Bay ah . To express nothing more that commitment that I want to follow sun nah , to learn tazkiya . Taking someone as a guide , hoping that your heart becomes filled with complete rem of Allah.
19 Ramadan
Use the last ten days like it is your last .
Most n best taqwa . Use these two words for your Deen , sabr, Adaab , akhlaaq. So try to be the best to design your heart in this month. Adorning your life with the most sunnah in your life.
Ramadan is month of Quran . Revealed in this month. Recite more . Feel more Quran , understand it. Not only more Quran on your tongue . Feel Quran more , most. How? Pick some sentences and try to understand it. Read it over again. So wen you read the Arabic , you feel it. How we are like that with Surah Fatiha , we need to familiarize ourselves with the Quran .
Look few verses before and after a specific vs , so wen you read it , you feel it. Then you use it in your salaah. Get new passages for your salaah. Once you read n understand it n read it in salaah, you will enjoy this new recitation.
Try to see in your recitation, how much you can read. How far you go, before you start getting enjoyment from the recitation . How long can I read Quran or salaah for ? Try in these ten nights to see .
Sahabah used to recite particular verses in sadness , joy etc . Whatt do you plan for thetuhajjud of the odd nites? How many Rakaat? Which Surah? Etc. no answer ?
What about your fav clothing ? So increase your connection with the Quran !
Take names of Allah! Asma Ul Husna . Call upon Allah , cry out to Allah using the names ! Learn the names ! Wat about Rahman n Raheem . Do you know the meanings ? About the sifaat of Allah. Gaffar and gafoor. When your happy, which name of Allah do you call upon?
Learn , feel , explore ! Esp in this month.
Allah rolls the wave of his mercy upon his believers on these last ten nites. U feel the most of the coming wave in Rajab n Shaban
In anticipation of the wave of Ramadan. U have to get into the zone . It's not just about getting hungry . It's about wanting never to disobey , it's about wanting allahs loving gaze . True lover of Allah. Always intending to obey Allah . Ask Allah to let these feeling to continue . How? Get taqwa in this month.in your heart, then Allah will grant u this loving gaze out of Ramadan.
If in front of family men , u cover your face ,
( wat will make Allah love me more? ) if u do not hide the beauty of your face , u leave the door open for non family men to cast a gaze of longing at her .if she covers up, Allah will cast his gaze at her , subhannallah.
Do your best, do your most! To attain the taqwa ! Control anger, have sabr, remove envy n jealousy so allahs gaze can fall lovingly on your heart . Wen u become mutaqqi , then u feel allahs loving gaze on you.
Fasting 12 hours a day, is like doing 12 hours of Ibadah. That's y we feel more in Ramadan . Allah is showing us how it feels to be zaakireen . (One who remembers Allah )
We don't feel as close and don't make dua soo sincerely sometimes out of Ramadan.
Regret over Deen , not dunya . It motivates u to do good . Don't waste tym on haram n futile activities .
Then u will start wanting future for aakhirah . For sun nah , for more Quran , for Tuhujjud out of Ramadan. For jannah .
Relationships with zikr.
Best n most zikr . Become a zaakirah, a waliyah , u have the potential .
Ramadan is not just month of fasting but it is a month of Wilayah. Allah wants us to become auliya of Allah. This should be your mission! For the auliya, no fear in them ever not do they feel any sorrow !(sins are forgiven , so fear, Shaytaan , theirs nafs can't sway them so they have no regret)
Zikr means to forget the dunya and remember Allah !
Dunya means ghairullah . Anything other than Allah at all . So practice this type of prayer in Ramadan . Start this in these days. Try to forget the dunya in your salaah. Understand the Deen. Y we pray 5 times a day? allah wants us to disconnect from dunya 5 times a day, so u can forget everything except Allah . ( don't let your wealth , don't let your children distract u from the remembrance of Allah ) . Anyone who lets the bounties that Allah blessed us with , to forget Allah, Allah says they will be from the losers . Concept of life is opportunity to remember Allah properly .
Salaah supposed to detactch the heart from dunya .
Fast from Ghaflah. I want to always remember Allah for 24. Hours . Allah described them as zaakirat.
Fanaah ( make zikr of the name of your rabb, n focus on that name soo much that u forget everything else) worse case heart, zero percent focus on Allah , u fasted , u stayed away from sin, so now heart starts getting more attached to Allah. So connection with dunya becomes lesser . How ? Though your fasting , Ibadah . Extra effort needs to be made . One hundred percent attached to allahs rememberance and zero to this world .
Wat was rasool saw doing in mountain in cave . He wanted to seclude himself from the dunya . Surah kahf( they tried to remember Allah in a community Secretly. So then they climbed the mountain n went into the cave .)
Limited period for us is last ten days . Rasool saw went into seclusion inside the masjid . He could feel the Incredible mercy of allah that descends in this month. Fanaah is a temp training period . Then the next process is called baqa , where u reconnect with your role in dunya , but u keep the rememberance of Allah even while u are engaged in the world . Engaged fillah , lillah !
Rasool saw was in baqaa all the tym.
Try to get fanaah in this month n then strive for baqaa out of Ramadan. Wish for these , dream for these . Goal for u, aim for this .
Who gets guidance of Allah , those who have a heart.
Wen u make zikr , your heart is ready for the recitation of the Quran . Combine both in these last days of Ramadan . Don't let these feelings leave us after Ramadan .
1. Make Taubah from our over eating , lack of compassion , etc not just from sin .
2. Tazkiya . Do tazkiya of sahaabah . Sahaabah continued these teachings , continuing for generation to generation . The feelings of Quran is always transferred from teacher to student .
Make the niyyah to join this training . Sun nah methods of purification .
Zikr through which we can erase the Ghaflah . Every day make tilawat of Quran .
100 times istigfaar
100 times durood daily.express from the heart.
In your heart always remember Allah n his names n have feeling for him, feel that Allah is close to u . Allah can see u , hear u etc.
Nothing can distract me from there feelings .
Muraaqabah : every day for few minutes , take some tym , make the intention to remember Allah . Close eyes so u can't see the world . Close your mind from yourself n connect to Allah . Forget everything except Allah . How do u remember Allah. Make zikr of 'Allah ' with heart . As if qalb is calling name of Allah .
Just make niyyah now that u want to be lover of Allah , zaakirat,
Bay ah . To express nothing more that commitment that I want to follow sun nah , to learn tazkiya . Taking someone as a guide , hoping that your heart becomes filled with complete rem of Allah.
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB 6 July 2015
Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm
6th July 2015 - Shaykh Kamaluddin db
The worst kind of ‘ujub is the ‘ujub people have in dīn - we are meant to be asking Allāh swt forgiveness in this month, not feel happy just because we fast and pray tarāwīh.
People get very sensitive. You should be highly sensitised by your own sins. If your one knee feels one second of pain whilst climbing steps, you would think oh ho, something has happened to me. When are we going to be sensitive for our spiritual health? How many times are we going to slip and lapse? People won’t be able to cry when they have ‘ujub. A few people cannot shed the physical tears, but they cry from the heart. This is what Allāh swt likes. Some people can cry, but not from the heart. It is not easy to be deceptive to one's Lord.
Inna akramakum ‘indallāhi atqākum - the most honoured to Allāh swt are the ones with the MOST and BEST taqwa. We want the best and most of everything - in Ramadān, we should apply these two words. We should want the best and most adab, the best and most akhlāq, the best and most hayā. The professionals know what I’m talking about - they have spent years upon years to get the best and most they can get from the dunyā - not just ten days. Ramadān was a reminder, a wake up call - He swt gives us a taste and a feeling to show us what it is like. He gives us better and more - we remember Allāh swt more and better! We are making dhikr whilst we are fasting - He swt makes us experience what it is likely to be dhākirīn - so we can worship longer, we wake up for suhūr, we pray tahajjud - it is a trial run. Almost everyone of you who fasts, you will definitely feel this that I am better in Ramadān. This is the karam of Allāh. This is the feeling we should have; this is the drive we should have; this is the passion we should have. This happens due to His mercy. Now in the last ten days, we are meant to try to get the BEST and MOST.
We are lucky to be alive in this month. Hadrat zulfiqar db says that there is so much nūr and faydh in Ramadān that even the non-muslims are touched - they will have some inkling that there is a Supreme Being. If they cannot go untouched, then we should never be untouched by this barakah in Ramadān. Allāh swt grants special hidāyah to those who are thirsty - wallathīna jāhadū fīnā lanahdiyannahum subulanā - whoever strives to come towards us, we will guide them to our many ways. You have to try one way, Allāh swt will guide you in many ways.
In atāni yamshī, ataytuhu harwala - if they come walking, my Mercy will come to them running. There is not better days to strive than these last ten days and last ten nights.
May Allāh swt make this a heart changing Ramadān for us. Aameen ya rabbal aa'lameen
6th July 2015 - Shaykh Kamaluddin db
The worst kind of ‘ujub is the ‘ujub people have in dīn - we are meant to be asking Allāh swt forgiveness in this month, not feel happy just because we fast and pray tarāwīh.
People get very sensitive. You should be highly sensitised by your own sins. If your one knee feels one second of pain whilst climbing steps, you would think oh ho, something has happened to me. When are we going to be sensitive for our spiritual health? How many times are we going to slip and lapse? People won’t be able to cry when they have ‘ujub. A few people cannot shed the physical tears, but they cry from the heart. This is what Allāh swt likes. Some people can cry, but not from the heart. It is not easy to be deceptive to one's Lord.
Inna akramakum ‘indallāhi atqākum - the most honoured to Allāh swt are the ones with the MOST and BEST taqwa. We want the best and most of everything - in Ramadān, we should apply these two words. We should want the best and most adab, the best and most akhlāq, the best and most hayā. The professionals know what I’m talking about - they have spent years upon years to get the best and most they can get from the dunyā - not just ten days. Ramadān was a reminder, a wake up call - He swt gives us a taste and a feeling to show us what it is like. He gives us better and more - we remember Allāh swt more and better! We are making dhikr whilst we are fasting - He swt makes us experience what it is likely to be dhākirīn - so we can worship longer, we wake up for suhūr, we pray tahajjud - it is a trial run. Almost everyone of you who fasts, you will definitely feel this that I am better in Ramadān. This is the karam of Allāh. This is the feeling we should have; this is the drive we should have; this is the passion we should have. This happens due to His mercy. Now in the last ten days, we are meant to try to get the BEST and MOST.
We are lucky to be alive in this month. Hadrat zulfiqar db says that there is so much nūr and faydh in Ramadān that even the non-muslims are touched - they will have some inkling that there is a Supreme Being. If they cannot go untouched, then we should never be untouched by this barakah in Ramadān. Allāh swt grants special hidāyah to those who are thirsty - wallathīna jāhadū fīnā lanahdiyannahum subulanā - whoever strives to come towards us, we will guide them to our many ways. You have to try one way, Allāh swt will guide you in many ways.
In atāni yamshī, ataytuhu harwala - if they come walking, my Mercy will come to them running. There is not better days to strive than these last ten days and last ten nights.
May Allāh swt make this a heart changing Ramadān for us. Aameen ya rabbal aa'lameen
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB 4 July 2015
Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm
4th July 2015 - Shaykh Kamaluddin db (Jo’burg)
We have to fix it! We must leave aside our own temperament, our own inclination, our tabīát. Imagine how hard hearted that person is who every single aspect changes, but they don’t fulfil the huqūqul ‘ibād!
These middle ten days are for MAGHFIRAH. Nabi (saw) said that be merciful towards others - what is mercy? It means to waive your rights from someone even if you are angry with them within your right. In the same way, we ask Allāh swt to have mercy on us though we are deserving of the hellfire. Forgive people. Huqūqul íbād isn’t a court of law where you prove to someone that you were wronged - okay, they may have wronged you, but still forgive them. What if Allāh swt acted like that with us - He swt forgives us anyway because he is Arhamar-Rāhimīn!
We make a mistake that we only forgive someone if they didn’t wrong you - or else, we would have a life long grudge. Remember, we are nothing.
Sayyidinā Anas (ra) - when he was ten years old, his mother came to Nabi (saw) and presented him to Nabi (saw) and said he is your khādim. SubhānAllāh. What kind of mother is this? How amazingly and wonderfully must she have raised him? I think she must have made this intention since before he was born. Nabi (saw) accepted him! For the first ten years, he was in the suhbah and khidmah of Nabi (saw). Hadrat Anas (ra) narrates that Nabi (saw) once asked him if he can do something for him. Anas (ra) obviously said yes. Nabi (saw) said every morning and evening, I want to remove every bad feeling you have for anyone in your heart. This is tarbiyyah - Nabi (saw) knew people would turn to Anas (ra) later. This is from his sunnah ‘ma ahabba sunnatī, faqad ahhabanī, wa man ahhabani, fa qad ma’iya fil-jannah’- this is what Nabi (saw) in this hadīth that whosoever loves my sunnah, loves me. Whosoever loves me will be with me in Jannah! Have you ever tried? Have you done this every day in at suhūr and iftār - I have never met a person who makes dua every suhūr and iftār that remove these ill-feelings from me. This is an aspect of taqwa.
Start talking in a nicer tone to your wife and children - speak softly. Mashāikh train their students by looking at their mannerisms and every tone. Don’t be lax about this - don’t adopt this slang! You may disguise it as jolliness, but they are actually immature. People in their 50s behave like they are in their 20s. They are physically 50, but 20 spiritually. Hadrat Anas (ra) was physically 20, but aged 50 spiritually. Ramadān is where you mature spiritually - it is like an incubator. Fasting is the least feature - it is the enabling act to get this taqwa. Its like the bumper on the car. We need to make our heart like his heart; it’s not enough to just fast.
One Shaykh says - make your outward virtuous; make your inner virtuous, and spend the rest of your life making your inner more virtuous than your outer! SubhānAllāh.
Allāh is Zāhir and Bātin. Nabi (saw) had an outer sunnah (his outward beauty, kindness, gentleness and compassion) and one was the inner reality of his heart which also should be inherited by this ummah. The greatest part of his 'uswatan hasanah’ is his qalb, is his heart. We need to try and be like this - otherwise, Ramadān will end and we will be the exact same.
Ramadān is the month where we work on our heart!
Where to start?
1 - Mercy and forgiveness (huqūqul ‘ibād) - make up, reconcile with people. Whatever you want from Allāh swt, be like that with others. You want mercy and maghfirah - have mercy and forgive others.
2 - Wallathīna āmanū ashhadu hubbal-lillāh. Those who believe are extremely intense and intensely extreme in their love for Allāh swt.
Pray out of love, fast out of love, make du'ā out of love- let it linger. Dwell upon it! Sahabā Kirām would keep repeating the same āyah the whole night! That is called love. Ponder, reflect and enjoy. This isn’t a month of express ‘ibādah - its a month of love. A person who is rushing, eats very fast. But those who enjoy the food, they enjoy the food, they enjoy the after taste. We must enjoy the ‘ibādah. Every word of Qur’ān has a nūr! When I prayed salāh in Pakistan - it was hot, we were melting praying in a non-ac masjid - but we enjoyed it!
Sayyidinā Fātima (ra) prayed all night and then she made du’ā oh Allāh, that your night is too short for your Fātima. Imitate this love. Pray like the lover; recite like a lover; make du'ā like a lover. Adopt the outer form, Allāh swt will grant you the inner! Make slow pondering lingering dhikr. Don’t think this is beyond your reach - don’t think its a special sufī thing! Wallathīna āmanū ashhadu hubbal-lillāh - BASIC bare minimum imān - basic entry believer - they are extremely intense in their love for Allāh swt. Taste this. How sad would it be that we fast and pray tarāwīh and you don’t get this love. Feel thirsty for it! May Allāh swt make us steadfast muminīn! Aameen ya rabbal aa'lameen
4th July 2015 - Shaykh Kamaluddin db (Jo’burg)
We have to fix it! We must leave aside our own temperament, our own inclination, our tabīát. Imagine how hard hearted that person is who every single aspect changes, but they don’t fulfil the huqūqul ‘ibād!
These middle ten days are for MAGHFIRAH. Nabi (saw) said that be merciful towards others - what is mercy? It means to waive your rights from someone even if you are angry with them within your right. In the same way, we ask Allāh swt to have mercy on us though we are deserving of the hellfire. Forgive people. Huqūqul íbād isn’t a court of law where you prove to someone that you were wronged - okay, they may have wronged you, but still forgive them. What if Allāh swt acted like that with us - He swt forgives us anyway because he is Arhamar-Rāhimīn!
We make a mistake that we only forgive someone if they didn’t wrong you - or else, we would have a life long grudge. Remember, we are nothing.
Sayyidinā Anas (ra) - when he was ten years old, his mother came to Nabi (saw) and presented him to Nabi (saw) and said he is your khādim. SubhānAllāh. What kind of mother is this? How amazingly and wonderfully must she have raised him? I think she must have made this intention since before he was born. Nabi (saw) accepted him! For the first ten years, he was in the suhbah and khidmah of Nabi (saw). Hadrat Anas (ra) narrates that Nabi (saw) once asked him if he can do something for him. Anas (ra) obviously said yes. Nabi (saw) said every morning and evening, I want to remove every bad feeling you have for anyone in your heart. This is tarbiyyah - Nabi (saw) knew people would turn to Anas (ra) later. This is from his sunnah ‘ma ahabba sunnatī, faqad ahhabanī, wa man ahhabani, fa qad ma’iya fil-jannah’- this is what Nabi (saw) in this hadīth that whosoever loves my sunnah, loves me. Whosoever loves me will be with me in Jannah! Have you ever tried? Have you done this every day in at suhūr and iftār - I have never met a person who makes dua every suhūr and iftār that remove these ill-feelings from me. This is an aspect of taqwa.
Start talking in a nicer tone to your wife and children - speak softly. Mashāikh train their students by looking at their mannerisms and every tone. Don’t be lax about this - don’t adopt this slang! You may disguise it as jolliness, but they are actually immature. People in their 50s behave like they are in their 20s. They are physically 50, but 20 spiritually. Hadrat Anas (ra) was physically 20, but aged 50 spiritually. Ramadān is where you mature spiritually - it is like an incubator. Fasting is the least feature - it is the enabling act to get this taqwa. Its like the bumper on the car. We need to make our heart like his heart; it’s not enough to just fast.
One Shaykh says - make your outward virtuous; make your inner virtuous, and spend the rest of your life making your inner more virtuous than your outer! SubhānAllāh.
Allāh is Zāhir and Bātin. Nabi (saw) had an outer sunnah (his outward beauty, kindness, gentleness and compassion) and one was the inner reality of his heart which also should be inherited by this ummah. The greatest part of his 'uswatan hasanah’ is his qalb, is his heart. We need to try and be like this - otherwise, Ramadān will end and we will be the exact same.
Ramadān is the month where we work on our heart!
Where to start?
1 - Mercy and forgiveness (huqūqul ‘ibād) - make up, reconcile with people. Whatever you want from Allāh swt, be like that with others. You want mercy and maghfirah - have mercy and forgive others.
2 - Wallathīna āmanū ashhadu hubbal-lillāh. Those who believe are extremely intense and intensely extreme in their love for Allāh swt.
Pray out of love, fast out of love, make du'ā out of love- let it linger. Dwell upon it! Sahabā Kirām would keep repeating the same āyah the whole night! That is called love. Ponder, reflect and enjoy. This isn’t a month of express ‘ibādah - its a month of love. A person who is rushing, eats very fast. But those who enjoy the food, they enjoy the food, they enjoy the after taste. We must enjoy the ‘ibādah. Every word of Qur’ān has a nūr! When I prayed salāh in Pakistan - it was hot, we were melting praying in a non-ac masjid - but we enjoyed it!
Sayyidinā Fātima (ra) prayed all night and then she made du’ā oh Allāh, that your night is too short for your Fātima. Imitate this love. Pray like the lover; recite like a lover; make du'ā like a lover. Adopt the outer form, Allāh swt will grant you the inner! Make slow pondering lingering dhikr. Don’t think this is beyond your reach - don’t think its a special sufī thing! Wallathīna āmanū ashhadu hubbal-lillāh - BASIC bare minimum imān - basic entry believer - they are extremely intense in their love for Allāh swt. Taste this. How sad would it be that we fast and pray tarāwīh and you don’t get this love. Feel thirsty for it! May Allāh swt make us steadfast muminīn! Aameen ya rabbal aa'lameen
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB lenesia
Bismillahir- Rahmanir- Rahim
South Africa - Rainbow Masjid Lenasia - Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed DB
Some people committed major sins – some committed minor sins. Some were destined to go to Jahannam but they too had heard about this month and also decided to pray and fast. You see this all over the world. He prayed and fasted for 20 days – even though he sinned for maybe 40 years.. Allah takes his name out of the list of people going into Jahannam and puts him into Jannat. Allauakbar! Tell me if Allah takes him out is there any power on this earth that can take him out?
You ask people about anything in deen they say its not 100 percent. You ask about salaah its not 100% you ask about zakaat its not 100% you ask them about ramadhan and they have fasted every single day! You wont find any thing else in deen that is followed so well than Ramadhan.
It may be the only single thing left in deen that’s fully alive - the love and great care with which people fast is amazing!
Middle ten days are the maghfirah of Allah. One type of fast is to fast from food and drink and marital relations. Another fast can be called the fast of saalikeen. Ie fasting from ghafla. Should want that no second of my day or night is empty of the zikr of allah. A lot of people slip in the middle ten days. When ramadhan came people left over eating sleeping and reading newspapers and surfing. in the middle ten days people can slip back into it. We need to fast this fast of ghaflat for Allah.
‘don’t you dare let yourself be of those people who forget Allah’
This is our problem. We have taken this lightly. We forget Allah all the time! this is the barakat Allah gives us all the time in ramadhan. When you’re fasting for example 12 hours that’s 12 hours of zikr you’re doing. Even If you’re in Madinah munawwarah in masjid e nabi you wont pray 1 and a half rakaats of nafil. Very few people pray hours of nafil salaah in masjid e nabi. But you do this in ramadhan. The dhaakireen recite more quran ; you also recite more quran, the dhaakireen find it difficult to sin, you also find it harder to sin. The same boy who says I cant stop I find it too difficult to leave the sin – he is able to leave it in ramadhan.
In ramadhan Allah lets us feel like muttaqeen. What is taqwa? You obey Allah completely you’re not even tempted to sin. People don’t want to cheat the command of Allah even one drop – people are so careful about the fast and safeguard it so well that they call a mufti if they forget they are fasting and swallow a gulp.
You put water into your mouth for wudhu you don’t even have the temptation to drink it – that’s taqwa.
We actually get a taste of what it’s like to be muttaqeen dhaakireen in this month. All the feelings we get in this ramadhan is because Allah made us like muttaqeen dhaakireen.
When ramadhan ends fasting and taraweeh and suhoor iftar will end. We should want the feelings to stay. In previous years we weren’t able to do this we went back to who we were. This year make ramadhan different. How do we make it different? - Fast from ghaflah.
We are experts of fasting from hunger and thirst and praying taraweeh. We need to fast from ghaflat.
How can you fast from ghaflat? Make sure your heart always has feelings for Allah swt. Zikr isn’t always what you recite from your tongue. Make sure you feel feelings for Allah in your heart. Find feelings for Allah that will continue after Ramadhan
In addition to reciting Quran and praying taraweeh you need to get extra feelings for Allah in your heart.
1. Take a small surah or a small paragraph of Quran. If you have more hifz and memory then choose 3 or 4 paragraphs. Keep reading and memorising and know the meaning of those verses. Keep working on that passage of Quran until you are so connected to the passage - so much so that any time you read it melts your heart and makes you connected to Quran.
Even 3 ayahs - even one slightly long ayah. Pick one verse even and work on it. Use it in your prayer and you will see more feelings. You need to recite new ayahs to get new feelings. Whenever you recite this passage in salaah then you will get more feelings for Allah in salaah.
For huffaz pick 10 15 passages like this. ‘those who have imaan are intense for your love for Allah’
Look in the Quran and pick some verse you may like or has moved you and make a small paragraph and make it something you can recite yourself in salaah.
2. Increase in sunnah feelings. Add at least one sunnah feeling. Eg maybe sunnah kindness. Nabi saw was the most kind human being. Increase humility. Make our heart more like the sunnah heart of nabi saw.
3. Masnoon duas –learn its meaning really well and feel it. Every time you pray adhan dua feel that ya allah you have called us to this beautiful prayer and grant nabi sws maqame mahmood which you have promised him. Try and get one passionate feeling for a masnoon dua.
4. Take some name of Allah - if you’re novice start with one and if you want more then choose more names. Try and feel the feelings you should have for Allah eg Ar razaq- every second feel allah is feeding me. When you sleep feel that Allah gave me a roof over my head. Allah is clothing me. Keep doing this until you have more love for Allah and feel that Allah is MY razzaq. Keep practising until you become abdul razzq. Al –sattar – Allah is hiding my sins .. should think if my husband could see my sins he wouldn’t want to be my husband any more if people could see my sins they wouldn’t want to sit next to me. Keep doing this until you feel Abdul Sattar.
Keep concentrating on the feelings.. The month will go away but you want the feelings to stay.
May Allah make this ramadhan the best ramadhan of our life.
For last 10 days try and sit in sunnah iikaaf. Free yourself up from the dunya for 10 days. Nabi SWS could see how much mercy allah was sending in ramadhan – byt the time it came to last ten days even nabi became so thirsty for the noor and rahmah that he wanted to leave everything else and sit in masjid and do ibaadah of Allah and also invited his sahabah to sit with him. If you want to complete the mission and maximise ramadhan you should sit in itikaaf. In dunya we talk about getting the full package and the full experience – so the completion of ramadhan lies in sitting sunnah itikaaf. Postpone and reschedule worldly affairs and try and sit in sunnah itikaaf. You can immerse yourself deeply.
If you cant sit the full 10 days – try and spend as much time as you can and make the intention of nafil itikaaf. Allah will see he is doing as much as he can – then Allah SWT will do as much as he can. Don’t let yourself fall and slack. Be strong and steadfast and spend the last 10 days with full energy and effort.
May Allah make this a heart changing ramadhan of our life. May he make It the best Ramadhan of our life. Aameen
South Africa - Rainbow Masjid Lenasia - Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed DB
Some people committed major sins – some committed minor sins. Some were destined to go to Jahannam but they too had heard about this month and also decided to pray and fast. You see this all over the world. He prayed and fasted for 20 days – even though he sinned for maybe 40 years.. Allah takes his name out of the list of people going into Jahannam and puts him into Jannat. Allauakbar! Tell me if Allah takes him out is there any power on this earth that can take him out?
You ask people about anything in deen they say its not 100 percent. You ask about salaah its not 100% you ask about zakaat its not 100% you ask them about ramadhan and they have fasted every single day! You wont find any thing else in deen that is followed so well than Ramadhan.
It may be the only single thing left in deen that’s fully alive - the love and great care with which people fast is amazing!
Middle ten days are the maghfirah of Allah. One type of fast is to fast from food and drink and marital relations. Another fast can be called the fast of saalikeen. Ie fasting from ghafla. Should want that no second of my day or night is empty of the zikr of allah. A lot of people slip in the middle ten days. When ramadhan came people left over eating sleeping and reading newspapers and surfing. in the middle ten days people can slip back into it. We need to fast this fast of ghaflat for Allah.
‘don’t you dare let yourself be of those people who forget Allah’
This is our problem. We have taken this lightly. We forget Allah all the time! this is the barakat Allah gives us all the time in ramadhan. When you’re fasting for example 12 hours that’s 12 hours of zikr you’re doing. Even If you’re in Madinah munawwarah in masjid e nabi you wont pray 1 and a half rakaats of nafil. Very few people pray hours of nafil salaah in masjid e nabi. But you do this in ramadhan. The dhaakireen recite more quran ; you also recite more quran, the dhaakireen find it difficult to sin, you also find it harder to sin. The same boy who says I cant stop I find it too difficult to leave the sin – he is able to leave it in ramadhan.
In ramadhan Allah lets us feel like muttaqeen. What is taqwa? You obey Allah completely you’re not even tempted to sin. People don’t want to cheat the command of Allah even one drop – people are so careful about the fast and safeguard it so well that they call a mufti if they forget they are fasting and swallow a gulp.
You put water into your mouth for wudhu you don’t even have the temptation to drink it – that’s taqwa.
We actually get a taste of what it’s like to be muttaqeen dhaakireen in this month. All the feelings we get in this ramadhan is because Allah made us like muttaqeen dhaakireen.
When ramadhan ends fasting and taraweeh and suhoor iftar will end. We should want the feelings to stay. In previous years we weren’t able to do this we went back to who we were. This year make ramadhan different. How do we make it different? - Fast from ghaflah.
We are experts of fasting from hunger and thirst and praying taraweeh. We need to fast from ghaflat.
How can you fast from ghaflat? Make sure your heart always has feelings for Allah swt. Zikr isn’t always what you recite from your tongue. Make sure you feel feelings for Allah in your heart. Find feelings for Allah that will continue after Ramadhan
In addition to reciting Quran and praying taraweeh you need to get extra feelings for Allah in your heart.
1. Take a small surah or a small paragraph of Quran. If you have more hifz and memory then choose 3 or 4 paragraphs. Keep reading and memorising and know the meaning of those verses. Keep working on that passage of Quran until you are so connected to the passage - so much so that any time you read it melts your heart and makes you connected to Quran.
Even 3 ayahs - even one slightly long ayah. Pick one verse even and work on it. Use it in your prayer and you will see more feelings. You need to recite new ayahs to get new feelings. Whenever you recite this passage in salaah then you will get more feelings for Allah in salaah.
For huffaz pick 10 15 passages like this. ‘those who have imaan are intense for your love for Allah’
Look in the Quran and pick some verse you may like or has moved you and make a small paragraph and make it something you can recite yourself in salaah.
2. Increase in sunnah feelings. Add at least one sunnah feeling. Eg maybe sunnah kindness. Nabi saw was the most kind human being. Increase humility. Make our heart more like the sunnah heart of nabi saw.
3. Masnoon duas –learn its meaning really well and feel it. Every time you pray adhan dua feel that ya allah you have called us to this beautiful prayer and grant nabi sws maqame mahmood which you have promised him. Try and get one passionate feeling for a masnoon dua.
4. Take some name of Allah - if you’re novice start with one and if you want more then choose more names. Try and feel the feelings you should have for Allah eg Ar razaq- every second feel allah is feeding me. When you sleep feel that Allah gave me a roof over my head. Allah is clothing me. Keep doing this until you have more love for Allah and feel that Allah is MY razzaq. Keep practising until you become abdul razzq. Al –sattar – Allah is hiding my sins .. should think if my husband could see my sins he wouldn’t want to be my husband any more if people could see my sins they wouldn’t want to sit next to me. Keep doing this until you feel Abdul Sattar.
Keep concentrating on the feelings.. The month will go away but you want the feelings to stay.
May Allah make this ramadhan the best ramadhan of our life.
For last 10 days try and sit in sunnah iikaaf. Free yourself up from the dunya for 10 days. Nabi SWS could see how much mercy allah was sending in ramadhan – byt the time it came to last ten days even nabi became so thirsty for the noor and rahmah that he wanted to leave everything else and sit in masjid and do ibaadah of Allah and also invited his sahabah to sit with him. If you want to complete the mission and maximise ramadhan you should sit in itikaaf. In dunya we talk about getting the full package and the full experience – so the completion of ramadhan lies in sitting sunnah itikaaf. Postpone and reschedule worldly affairs and try and sit in sunnah itikaaf. You can immerse yourself deeply.
If you cant sit the full 10 days – try and spend as much time as you can and make the intention of nafil itikaaf. Allah will see he is doing as much as he can – then Allah SWT will do as much as he can. Don’t let yourself fall and slack. Be strong and steadfast and spend the last 10 days with full energy and effort.
May Allah make this a heart changing ramadhan of our life. May he make It the best Ramadhan of our life. Aameen
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB 29 June 2015
Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm
South Africa - Capetown - Ladies Programme - morning
29/06/15 Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db
'Qad aflaha man zakkāhā’ [91:9]
In order to get taqwa in your heart, you need to go through a process called tazkiyyah - called purification!
In this dīn, awliyā-ullāh (friends of Allāh swt) exist. In the Qur’ān, it says ‘in awliyāuhu illal muttaqūn’ - the friends of Allāh swt are none other than the people of taqwa. This means there are some people who are close and beloved to Allāh swt - they are beloved because they have gone through the purification process and they have the golden attribute called ‘taqwa’. Like Allāh swt says in Qur’ān - ‘inna akramakum ‘inda-llāhi atqākum’ - that indeed, the most honoured of you in Allāh swts regard are those who have the most taqwa. Then Allāh swt bestows a blessing upon them - He swt says in Qur’ān- Alā inna awliyā-allāi, la khawfun ‘alayhim wa la hum yahzanūn! - that indeed, the friendS of Allāh swt have no fear or worry on them.
Allāh swt said in Qur’ān - allathīna āmanū wa kānu yattaqūn - that there are those believers who also have this attribute of taqwa. We are just ordinary 'allathīna āmanū’ and they are ' allathīna āmanū wa kānu yattaqūn’! They are always in the state of taqwa.
So this taqwa is the greatest attribute we need to get. Why don’t we have it? Because sometimes we slip, we fall into sin, we feel lustful inclination - we feel this love for creation that Allāh swt doesn’t allow us to have. There are feelings of love we are allowed to have for e.g. for your parents, but when you love something Allāh swt doesn’t allow you to love, then this unlawful physical love for creation will make u slip - sometimes we will be lazy, we will have pride. Some people just lax as they are lazy - not because they sin.
This Ramadān, we don’t want to just complete the fasts, but we want to successfully become muttaqīn. In a hadīth, one sahāba asked Rasulullāh ﷺ that who are the awliyā-ullāh? Rasulullāh ﷺ replied that they are those who when you gaze upon them, you are reminded of Allāh swt. Imagine how much being with them, listening to them, learning by them and being guided by them will remind you of Allāh swt when just by gazing them, you are reminded. Either we are awliyā-ullāh, or we are ordinary believers, or there is third option that we are ordinary believers who connect ourselves to the chains and paths of the awliyā-ullāh. How do they remind you of Allāh swt - it’s because they themselves remember Allāh swt a lot.
Allāh swt said in Qur’ān - wa-dhākirīnallāha kathīran, wa-dhākirāt - the male and female believers who remember Allāh swt abundantly. This is the real gender equality in Islām that a woman can be as great a walī as a man can be; she can get the same level of Jannat-ulFirdaus a man can have; she can be as great an ālima as great as an ālim. The real great equality is in knowledge and spirituality - the real great equality is in ākhirah! This is different from other religions which teach women are spiritually inferior - and therefore, if a man wants to get high in spirituality, he shouldn’t marry. There is no celibacy in Islām! Our dīn says women are spiritually pure and purifying- that’s why Rasulullāh ﷺ said that nikāh is the completion of īmān - a person is more spiritual when they get married. Obviously, not any women, but those from dhākirāt. Imagine that marriage between someone from the dhākirāt and someone from dhākirīn. This was like the marriage of Sahābas - a marriage between salihāt and salihīn, dhakirāt and dhakirīn! These people make dhikr all the time. Like Allāh swt says in Qur’ān - Rijālun la tulhīhim tijaratun wa lā bay’un and dhikrillāh! Nothing distracts the (not the buying, nor the business) from the dhikr of Allāh swt!
What exactly do we learn from them? We learn a few things: (5 core things)
1 - Tawbah - they inspire us to leave sin and guide us practically to leave sin. We know sins are wrong, but we are unable to leave them, hence we need additional help. ‘I know I’m meant to swallow my anger, I know I’m not meant to feel this attraction, I know I’m not meant to feel this greed - but I can’t help myself’. The crisis isn’t lack of knowledge. They know these things are wrong, but we can’t translate knowledge into reality.
2 - Tazkiyyah means to act upon what we have learnt. It’s not enough to learn the arabic translation, arabic grammar - there were courses, classes, tests - there was a multi faceted process which allowed us to go through this phase, but there is also a second phase which is to practise these teachings! To live those teachings - to feel the feelings of Qur’ān! This also has multiple aspects - suhbat, dhikr, du’ā etc.
3 - Taqwa
4 - Dhikr
5 - Sunnah
When someone has the ‘ilm and tazkiyyah - they will be complete. This was the job of Rasulullāh ﷺ ‘yu’alimuhumul kitāba walhikmata wa yuzakīhim’ - we need both ‘ilm and tasawwuf, both knowledge and tazkiyyah!
There is a hadith to the nearest meaning that angels search out the gatherings of dhikr - and then they call the rest of the fellow angels. The angels surround those people such that the space between them and the lowest sky are filled! All the way onto the frontiers of the universe, covering galaxies and Pluto etc. The Prophet (ﷺ) also said, "If Allah loves a person, He calls Jibrīl saying, 'Allah loves so and-so; O Jibrīl, love him.’ Jibrīl would love him and make an announcement amongst the inhabitants of the Heaven. 'Allah loves so-and-so, therefore you should love him also,' and so all the inhabitants of the Heaven would love him, and then he is granted the pleasure of the people on the earth.”
We need to be in contact (rābita) and under the tutelage of the friends of Allāh swt.
Now specifically, we want to mention a few aspects of this process -
1 - You need to make your individual effort. This is called mujāhida - wallathīna jāhadū fīnā, lanahdiyannahum subulanā - those who strive in our path, we will surely guide them. The way you strive is to leave sin, is to make repentance, is to have better akhlāq, is to do dhikr - this a struggling you have to do. The main effort is yours and the Shaykh will make du’ā for you and guide you. You need someone to reprimand you; otherwise, usually we are surrounded by people who praise us, especially those active in the field of d’awah - it is more critical that you have mashā’ikh as the students, the communities praise you, so you need someone who looks at you like a coach. Imagine a tennis star - all the fans praise her and everyone knows she is the best…but she knows, she need someone who makes her better. She gets a personal coach - the coach sits there and makes her improve. This is her most important relationship. She lets herself be coached by the coach! When you ask her what’s the secret to her being number one? She says i let myself be coached by the coach! She doesn’t care about what the commentators or what the fans are saying, she just wants to improve! I fix it when my coach picks out my flaws. I keep working on the matter until I am free from the flaw. It doesn’t mean she is sitting passively - you need to make your own effort.
A lot of the women in Capetown are not clear about this- connecting yourself isn’t the end, its the beginning. Be regular in listening to the talks. Listen to what is expected from you - how will you fulfil your own role. You must listen to bayān and majlis. Know aboutislamicspirituality.org and listen to the ones that you feel you need the most. It’s your duty to listen with the heart - you must make firm intention to practise what you hear. You will try to adopt your lifestyle accordingly. In trying to practise it, you must have some questions - you have to establish contact. You must try especially to listen to the bayāns we are giving to you in your own city as Allāh swt puts into our heart what to say. We still need some nāsirat (helpers and coordinators), so you need to flourish in your dhikr as all of you are equal right now…so that you can help others. You need to have networks with each other. Connect to our students around the world, to those women especially in UK who have forums where they post these bayāns. There is one forum called the ‘murida forum’ - try to find out and get connected to them. You have to learn and reinforce, and read the notes again! You have to really deeply take this seriously! One is general bayāns, and those we give in Capetown specifically, and SA generally.
Then there are also talks called ‘majālis’ - especially for those sālikāt! Its open to everybody, but the way the talk is presented is different. Certainly, no doubt we give these majālis in Urdu in Pakistan sometimes, but in UK and Europe, we give them in English. You will notice the difference between majālis and bayāns.
Then the other set of bayāns we want you to listen to is the last i’tikāf bayāns, and the live broadcasts from this years i’tikāf. Its up to you to practise.
After listening to bayān and majlis, you must practise this dhikr. The main two types of dhikr are:
1 - Muraqaba
2 - Wuqūf e Qalbī
These are the silent dhikr. However, you also have dhikr of the tongue:
1 - Daily qur’ān recitation - as much as you can, but have a daily habit
2 - Istighfār - 100* a day - astagfirullāha Rabbī min kulli zanbin wa atubū ilay
3 - Durūd/Salawāt - Allāhuma salli ‘alā Sayyidinā Muhammad, wa 'ala āle Sayyidinā Muhammad, wa bārik wa sallim.
But these you need to pray from the heart, with feeling. How can you recite the Qur’ān with feeling? If you understand Arabic, then feel joy and happiness when you read about the mercy of Allāh swt, or when you read about Jannah. Feel a fear and a trembling when you read about the anger and wrath of Allāh swt, or when you read about Jahannam. When you read verses about Sayyidinā Rasūlullāh ﷺ, a joy and love should come into your heart – you should get some feeling. But if some woman says she doesn’t Arabic at all – still when the word Rabb, Allāh, Rahmān comes – it will come on every page. Feel this. Still if she says no, I am unable to keep track – it’s enough feeling for you, for you to remember who gave you this gift. If someone gave you a black scarf as a gift, you would take it – but if they told you, I remembered you when I went to Madinah, and I brought you back this hijab from there – you will look at it differently. You will clasp it to your chest as it is from Madinah! So just like that, the Qur’ān is from Allāh swt – its enough for you to have feeling. ‘Ya Allāh swt, you allowed me to read Your speech back to You!’. Recite it with love. Allāh swt will listen to you intently and gaze at you adoringly.
When you make istighfār, you should have feeling. Think of particular sins, or sinful feelings. For e.g. if you missed Fajr, ask forgiveness from sins you have done which prevented Allāh swt wanting to see your face at Fajr that day! Its like when you do laundry – one is to just put a little detergent, and one is to scrub. When there is a stain, you have to first scrub and rub – this is istighfār. Soemtimes we just roll it off our tongue!
Salawāt – what a tragedy it is that we have to even explain this. People recite things without feeling – this is a global phenomenon. Chanting it doesn’t make it any more accepted! It is not about melody. If we manage to nail the melody, we are diverted by the sweetness of the melody. What sweetness do you want to taste. Imagine we came to your place, and we only had the salad! Melody is the last of its attributes – feel it with the heart. Sometimes do sober, quiet, humble dhikr and strip it off its melody to gain the feeling. We are not concerned by styles, tunes, tones etc. You’re too busy tuned in lovingRasulullāh ﷺ to focus on the tones etc. Would your husband singing to you melt your heart when his heart is empty of feeling? ShowRasulullāh ﷺ you feel it.
Make your life according to the sunnah – make your heart like his heart. That is the greatest sunnah – to have you heart like the heart ofRasulullāh ﷺ.
There is scope for melody to some extent. But you have people who smoke in front of my eyes, then go inside the Masjid, and recite Salawāt melodiously – what type, what kind of sunnah is that?
You have to get real. You cant have this superficial nature to dīn, Dīn is about feelings! Dīn is about heart and realities, not about utterances! So strange. This is something we have hope that you women can revive this sunnah. It’s not about culture. India, Saudi, Malay culture has no basis in Islam. It is not about culturural affiliation – it is about feelings! I was born and raised in a City more cosmopolitan than yours – the only one thing attracted us to our teachers was their feelings. If they had feelings, we loved them- no matter what their cultire! You must sit quietly and try to feel salawāt from your heart. Feel the love forNabī Kareem ﷺ from your heart.
Then another dhikr you must practice is that you must convert your salāh into dhikr. Everytime you pray, every single rak’āh – you have to try! I know you won’t always be able to do it, feel sad about that. The point is you must try - keep trying! Make this an effort for dhikr also. Practise, practice, keep practicing and it will become perfect. We have talks about this on our website.
Try to make the sunnah du’ās – e.g. those before and after eating, entering and leaving home – learn the meanings and try to feel the feelings. Make du’ā that ya Allāh, the same feeling of praise Nabī Kareem ﷺ felt in his heart, I want to feel this.
Then there are two special dhikrs of the heart:
1st one is called Wuqūf e Qalbiī – this means you never want to do ghaflah, never want to be empty of the dhikr of Allāh swt. This doesn’t happen automatically, you will have to enter a new frame a mind, a new state of being, a new perspective – I exist to REMEMBER Allāh swt, I want to be from the dhākirāt – those who ALWAYS remember Allāh swt. Keep watch over your heart that I am forgetting Allāh swt. La tulhikum awladakum wa la amwalakum ‘an dhikrillāh – don’t let your children and wealth distract you from the dhikr of Allāh swt. Wa may-yaf’al dhālik, faulā’ika humul khāsirūn – they are then in a spiritual loss if they do this. Remind yourself Allāh swt is my Razzāq, He swt is my Hannān, my Mannān – He is watching me, watching over me, looking after me – all the time feel these feelings. In the beginning, it will require a lot of effort and you will have to remind yourself dozens of times a day. It’s not okay that we come, and you sit with us then you disappear, then again we come and you come to sit with us then again you disappear – you must make this daily effort. Everyday renew and further this effort! Everyday, you should want to remember Him more – erase the gaps! Keep track of the activities where you forget Allāh swt – then you will understand the spiritually ill effects of TV, music and these types of things etc! You will realise that you give you heart away to make-believe and fiction. Once you keep watch, you will learn many things. Be constantly vigil – and always turn your heart to Allāh swt. Flee from those things which make you forget Allāh swt – you may have to sleep less, eat less, talk less. You can still remain your jolly Capetown selves, but you will need a natural spiritual maturity too. The best way is to stay away from your entertainment and leisure – how many more recipes do you need to research? You were sent to this world to become a master dhakirāt, and ‘ābidāt, not the masterchef of the world! Even if the taste is slightly wrong in what you have made, the next time you make the same dish, you will fix this. Similarly, fix your salāh, it is a recipe. Fix the ingredients. Fix your outlook.
We have a desperate dream that Allāh swt raises dhākirāt and sālihāt amongst you – we don’t want to see you become fan girls! We don’t want you to just listen to talks – we came in the hope and dream that maybe there are some women who want to try to go all the way! You shouldn’t be inhibited by any culture – we’re searching for people who go all the way! Keep track of your time, and remind yourself to remember Allāh swt. Review your day at night. This is a process – it will take years of interaction, years of seeking, learning and practicing – but make the intention to start. You need to desire and want it from your heart.
2nd one is called ‘murāqaba’ – this is the most important dhikr at the beginning. This is your daily seclusion, your daily fanā.There are two words - one is called fanā and the other is called baqā. The worst situation is your heart is 0% connected to Allāh swt and 100% connected to dunyā. Now, they need to go through a process – they should listen to more majlis, more bayāns, get more guidance – you’re on a journey to Allāh swt! They need to do so much for the sake of Allāh swt, lillāh, fillāh…slowly, your heart will get connected to Allāh swt and the connection to the world will go down. Within her circumstances, she feels she has done as much as she can…then what happens is that if possible – they should spend some time in seclusion like I’tikāf, or maybe going for 15-20 days to ‘umrah.
You want to become a 100% attached to Allāh swt, they must spend some time completely disconnected to the dunyā. They might have to spend 10, 20, 30 days etc. First, you must see how much you can connect your heart. Keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing, until you think you cannot do it anymore - then you need to move and completely disconnect. When you completely disconnect from the world, you will get 100% Allāh swt – that is called fanā. Like Allāh swt mentioned in the Qur’an – wa tabattal ilayhi tabtīlā.
Why do you think Rasulullāh ﷺ eent to gār-e-hirā? He went into the mountains and inside a cave to completely disconnect. The fact that the story of Kahf came in shows us it is meant to be guidance for us. They secluded themselves from their society – a society like NY and Capetown. They were pious…and were remembering Allāh swt as much a they could whilst remaining in society. Once they maxed that out, they realised they need to leave and seclude themselves. You need to sometimes connect to Allāh swt 100%. When you go for this retreat, your heart can connect 100%. You will still love your parents, your children - but they will become for the sake of Allāh swt. This is called fanā - 100% connected to Allāh swt. Fanā is not the destination. It’s a purifying process – it’s a transitory process! There is no such thing as being a monk or nun in Islām – this is a temporary phase.
However, Rasulullāh ﷺ also came back from hirā. The ashāb-e-kahf also came out of the cave. You don't have to leave the dunyā; you have to change your outlook towards the dunyā. Now when you go back to the world you will still love your parents etch but you would love them for Allāh swt. This is called baqā. You have 100% dunyā but it is for Allāh swt so you have 100% dunyā and 100% dīn. This is a balance! We are so imbalanced. We have 100% dunyā and dunyā only. Baqā is the ultimate goal…fanā is a phase.
People who have baqā they walk through the mall they are not attracted to it, they are not dazzled by it Haagen Dazs ice cream example - imagine ‘C-town’ had a special brand of its own ice cream. You will love that only until you taste the Haagen Dazs. Once you taste the latter, you will not enjoy the C-town brand ice cream. Similarly, once you connect to Allāh swt, you will not want to connect to anything else.
Qul matā-ud dunyā qalīl. All the stuff is nothing but fluff. Imagine the person who made his own dīn fluffy? Allāhu akbar! You will be impressed by Mercedes, Prada etc, but when you have the substance of dīn, all of this will be fluff. The Sahāba Kirām - dunyā meant nothing to them. They had riches and wealth, but they were uninterested. This however, requires effort.
Some of you women might be thinking ‘but I don’t get these opportunities of fanā’ – then this dhikr murāqaba is what you have to do. Seize the moment of your free time. Its your free time you use to write your whatsapps, email, to read the news etc – everybody has free time. Take some time out of your free time and try to get this fanā!
How do you make this dhikr? It is silent dhikr from your heart – your spiritual heart, not the one that pumps blood. Your qalb is making the dhikr of Allāh swts name – you will simply sit. Anytime you are free, seize the moment.
Firstly, make the intention – I want to forget everything and want to remember You from the heart of my rūh. Im retreating from my own self, I’m going deep into my rūh. After this, make an intention that your qalb is calling out Allāh, Allāh, Allāh! Like with a book, you read silently; similarly, your reading your heart silently – simply by niyyah! In the beginning, sit for 15 mins daily. For those who have been with us longer, then 20-30 mins. We tell some of our students to sit for an hour a day daily in Ramadān. Don’t worry if you’re sleepy, or you’re distracted – just keep sitting. Sometimes you will get restless – take a few weeks to get into practice of sitting. Once you have done the sitting part, then now you will concentrate on the remembering – it’s about focus. You want something golden, hence the process will take time – you have to make daily effort. Regularly, make murāqaba everyday! You will have to force your self sometimes – this is mujāhida!
Recap:
1) Listen to bayāns and majālis
2) Dhikr - practise the dhikr of the tongue. Practise the dhikr of the heart (murāqaba and WQ). Murāqaba is most important. Focus on this first and foremost.
3) The third very important thing is ‘rābita’ – to stay connected, be in correspondence. Number one – you should have some contact with my wife and her academy, Zaynab Academy Online. For those studying at local institutes already, then just do some short courses or one day workshops so you connect to the other women around the world who are seeking the pleasure of Allāh swt. Number two – connect with your co-ordinator who will guide you to the talks and connect you to a forum.
Those of you who have been making murāqaba and majālis,then whatsapp me about the dhikr. The next stage is that the Shaykh will train you in further dhikr – this stage begins only for that woman who is regular listening to bayān and majlis, regular in contact with my wife, the coordinator and ZAO generally and is also practicing the dhikr! A few of you may have reached this stage, but you may not have known that you have to stay in correspondence, you have to stay in touch so we can further guide you deeper in this path.
Generally speaking, women write an update every 2 weeks. You should write even if its one paragraph – even if you’re unable to do dhikr. You must inform and be in touch so the learning and coaching process takes place. For the women, you have to email and whatsapp. Then when we travel, we may meet you in groups or behind the screen.
When my wife is travelling, then I prefer you spend more time with her. It’s up you how much dhikr you do and how much you stay in touch. We are waiting to see which of those women who will be from Capetown who will take that step.
And once a few of you do that, then you can have your own local coordinators who will help and guide you. As you observe it from your other fellow women seekers on ZAO, some of the UK women – then you yourself will get an idea. This process should be natural – it’s your own initiative. Take advantage of the opportunity.
Some of you may be making dhikr but I don’t know who you are cos you never stay in touch! It’s very important to stay in touch. Even if you’re struggling, share that. This is a process that takes time. Join the caravan of love. Be a wayfarer and traveler on this journey – go with the flow to gain the qurb of Allāh swt. Then there will be some movement, some progress – Allāh swt will put barakah.
There will be books coming out this Ramadān:
1 – (already available) – English translation of ma’mūlāt (daily practices)
2 – (coming out) – the path to spiritual elevation. Explains the concept of tasawwuf.
3 – (coming out) ‘essentials of the spiritual path’ or something like that. It will be in a lot of detail.
Once you have this, you will have good manuals. Now then, its up to you – how much effort you make! Alongside the dhikr, it is very important to live your life according to sunnah and sharī’ah! It is not limited to madhāhib (schools of law, epistemology).
5 categories total:
1 - Fardh and Wājib – ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED
2 – Not required by Allāh swt but are pleasing to him – will make you more beloved (sunnah, nafl, mustaHAB, mandūb)
3 – Mubāh (merely permissible – don’t have to do it. Neither prohibited nor mandatory – they are neutral. They aren’t pleasing nor displeasing)
4 – Disliked and displeasing to Allāh swt (makrūh)
5 – Harām – ABSOLUTELY PROHIBITED.
To become sālihat women, you need to do all that is pleasing to Allāh swt and less makrūh. Now sometimes, this scares people because you think you’re still struggling with harām, and now we have to leave makrūh and do the pleasing things – ‘this is too much for me, I don’t know if I’m ready for this right now.’
How would you like if your husband talked to you like that? What if he said I do what I have to (earn) and I stay away from cheating – but beyond that, talking to you, being affectionate, being caring – no oh ho, that’s a bit too much for me. I don’t know if I’m ready for that. You would think what type of husband are you! What kind of relationship is that? Is this some legal relationship that you only do what is strictly required? Is that a relationship – so then, how do you want your relationship to be with Allāh swt. Our whole life is about this relationship. Everything and anything should be changed for the sake of this relationship. Tasawwuf is building this relationship with Allāh swt.
How do you build this relationship? By wearing green and singin nashīds, no!! You do what pleases Him, and leaves what is displeasing Him. It’s fine if you can’t do it right now – it just has to be a LONG TERM goal…that you want be someone who stays away from anything displeasing – this is your intention and wish. All you have to do is wish and want for this – Allāh swt HIMSELF will give you the strength and ability once you want it. It’s not a prerequisite that you msut be able to do it – in fact, in the beginning, you will definitely fall, but the barakah of this connection is that there is a FLOW- you will always pick yourself back up. Start your dhikr again, be inspired again, make the niyyah again! That’s the barakah!
Tasawwuf and tazkiyah are like a washing machine. Why do you put clothes in there? To get them sort of clean or completely sparkling. So how can you be a mu’minah and not want this? How can you not feel like that? It has to be your intention and wish. Sometimes, you put the clothes in the wash and it doesn’t come out completely clean – then we will need stain remover, we will need bleach, and you will have to put it again. It takes time, it’s a process – no problem. Our goal is to be completely clean.
Yawma lā yan’fau mālun wa lā banūn, illā man atallāha biqalbin salīm – except those who have a pure heart, so we have to be clean and pristine! This is a target Allāh swt has given us, so we have to make this our own target.
But then if still a woman asks, how do I know I’m ready? Its very simple. The clothing ready to go in the washing machine has to be dirty, soiled and stained (you have sin in your life, you’re not close to Allāh swt) – that means you’re ready. The second condition is that there must be a wish it should be clean – that is all that is required! Similarly, you need be a sinning person or a desire to become pure! It is just a wish. Ya Allāh swt, this is something I want to do, I’m willing to try and walk through this door. That is all you need! What is harām and fardh may depend on fiqh, but what is pleasing or dipleasing is always agreed upon. Make it your long term goal that overtime, I want to make myself more pleasing to You! I want my hayā, the most hayā, more adab, most adab – this is my dream oh Allāh swt.
The way we express this intention is called ‘bay’ah’ – this simply means to express this intention and make a commitment to Allāh swt. It is a commitment to Allāh swt, with someone! This is a feeling. When a person make this feeling, they express the intention with someone. Why with someone? Because they will be your guide. This is simply enrollment and registration. Like before we had a road atlas (we guided ourselves), now we have a tom-tom/GPS – there is someone guiding us, helping us. You will still be the same person, nothing changes after bay’ah – except, that usually those who do bay’ah make more effort and make more dhikr due to their commitment. Shaykh gives bayāns, gives you dhikr – you will correspond with him, and he will help and guide you to do the pleasing and refrain from the displeasing category. Even with the mubāh, he will guide you and counsel you. For e.g. it is permissible for me to leave all this and ride a Rickshaw in Lahore – this is permissible, but it is the best? So the Shaykh will guide you – this is not binding – his opinion is not binding upon you – it is mashwara, it is advice – ultimately, you make the decision. If what he says is determined by sharī’ah – then this isn’t his opinion, it is a matter of Allāh swt.
You begin at the beginning, you don’t stay at the beginning. A whole new life will begin for you - a life of a dhākirāt. May Allāh select our hearts and the hearts of our families and progeny for the love of dīn. AAMEEN
South Africa - Capetown - Ladies Programme - morning
29/06/15 Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db
'Qad aflaha man zakkāhā’ [91:9]
In order to get taqwa in your heart, you need to go through a process called tazkiyyah - called purification!
In this dīn, awliyā-ullāh (friends of Allāh swt) exist. In the Qur’ān, it says ‘in awliyāuhu illal muttaqūn’ - the friends of Allāh swt are none other than the people of taqwa. This means there are some people who are close and beloved to Allāh swt - they are beloved because they have gone through the purification process and they have the golden attribute called ‘taqwa’. Like Allāh swt says in Qur’ān - ‘inna akramakum ‘inda-llāhi atqākum’ - that indeed, the most honoured of you in Allāh swts regard are those who have the most taqwa. Then Allāh swt bestows a blessing upon them - He swt says in Qur’ān- Alā inna awliyā-allāi, la khawfun ‘alayhim wa la hum yahzanūn! - that indeed, the friendS of Allāh swt have no fear or worry on them.
Allāh swt said in Qur’ān - allathīna āmanū wa kānu yattaqūn - that there are those believers who also have this attribute of taqwa. We are just ordinary 'allathīna āmanū’ and they are ' allathīna āmanū wa kānu yattaqūn’! They are always in the state of taqwa.
So this taqwa is the greatest attribute we need to get. Why don’t we have it? Because sometimes we slip, we fall into sin, we feel lustful inclination - we feel this love for creation that Allāh swt doesn’t allow us to have. There are feelings of love we are allowed to have for e.g. for your parents, but when you love something Allāh swt doesn’t allow you to love, then this unlawful physical love for creation will make u slip - sometimes we will be lazy, we will have pride. Some people just lax as they are lazy - not because they sin.
This Ramadān, we don’t want to just complete the fasts, but we want to successfully become muttaqīn. In a hadīth, one sahāba asked Rasulullāh ﷺ that who are the awliyā-ullāh? Rasulullāh ﷺ replied that they are those who when you gaze upon them, you are reminded of Allāh swt. Imagine how much being with them, listening to them, learning by them and being guided by them will remind you of Allāh swt when just by gazing them, you are reminded. Either we are awliyā-ullāh, or we are ordinary believers, or there is third option that we are ordinary believers who connect ourselves to the chains and paths of the awliyā-ullāh. How do they remind you of Allāh swt - it’s because they themselves remember Allāh swt a lot.
Allāh swt said in Qur’ān - wa-dhākirīnallāha kathīran, wa-dhākirāt - the male and female believers who remember Allāh swt abundantly. This is the real gender equality in Islām that a woman can be as great a walī as a man can be; she can get the same level of Jannat-ulFirdaus a man can have; she can be as great an ālima as great as an ālim. The real great equality is in knowledge and spirituality - the real great equality is in ākhirah! This is different from other religions which teach women are spiritually inferior - and therefore, if a man wants to get high in spirituality, he shouldn’t marry. There is no celibacy in Islām! Our dīn says women are spiritually pure and purifying- that’s why Rasulullāh ﷺ said that nikāh is the completion of īmān - a person is more spiritual when they get married. Obviously, not any women, but those from dhākirāt. Imagine that marriage between someone from the dhākirāt and someone from dhākirīn. This was like the marriage of Sahābas - a marriage between salihāt and salihīn, dhakirāt and dhakirīn! These people make dhikr all the time. Like Allāh swt says in Qur’ān - Rijālun la tulhīhim tijaratun wa lā bay’un and dhikrillāh! Nothing distracts the (not the buying, nor the business) from the dhikr of Allāh swt!
What exactly do we learn from them? We learn a few things: (5 core things)
1 - Tawbah - they inspire us to leave sin and guide us practically to leave sin. We know sins are wrong, but we are unable to leave them, hence we need additional help. ‘I know I’m meant to swallow my anger, I know I’m not meant to feel this attraction, I know I’m not meant to feel this greed - but I can’t help myself’. The crisis isn’t lack of knowledge. They know these things are wrong, but we can’t translate knowledge into reality.
2 - Tazkiyyah means to act upon what we have learnt. It’s not enough to learn the arabic translation, arabic grammar - there were courses, classes, tests - there was a multi faceted process which allowed us to go through this phase, but there is also a second phase which is to practise these teachings! To live those teachings - to feel the feelings of Qur’ān! This also has multiple aspects - suhbat, dhikr, du’ā etc.
3 - Taqwa
4 - Dhikr
5 - Sunnah
When someone has the ‘ilm and tazkiyyah - they will be complete. This was the job of Rasulullāh ﷺ ‘yu’alimuhumul kitāba walhikmata wa yuzakīhim’ - we need both ‘ilm and tasawwuf, both knowledge and tazkiyyah!
There is a hadith to the nearest meaning that angels search out the gatherings of dhikr - and then they call the rest of the fellow angels. The angels surround those people such that the space between them and the lowest sky are filled! All the way onto the frontiers of the universe, covering galaxies and Pluto etc. The Prophet (ﷺ) also said, "If Allah loves a person, He calls Jibrīl saying, 'Allah loves so and-so; O Jibrīl, love him.’ Jibrīl would love him and make an announcement amongst the inhabitants of the Heaven. 'Allah loves so-and-so, therefore you should love him also,' and so all the inhabitants of the Heaven would love him, and then he is granted the pleasure of the people on the earth.”
We need to be in contact (rābita) and under the tutelage of the friends of Allāh swt.
Now specifically, we want to mention a few aspects of this process -
1 - You need to make your individual effort. This is called mujāhida - wallathīna jāhadū fīnā, lanahdiyannahum subulanā - those who strive in our path, we will surely guide them. The way you strive is to leave sin, is to make repentance, is to have better akhlāq, is to do dhikr - this a struggling you have to do. The main effort is yours and the Shaykh will make du’ā for you and guide you. You need someone to reprimand you; otherwise, usually we are surrounded by people who praise us, especially those active in the field of d’awah - it is more critical that you have mashā’ikh as the students, the communities praise you, so you need someone who looks at you like a coach. Imagine a tennis star - all the fans praise her and everyone knows she is the best…but she knows, she need someone who makes her better. She gets a personal coach - the coach sits there and makes her improve. This is her most important relationship. She lets herself be coached by the coach! When you ask her what’s the secret to her being number one? She says i let myself be coached by the coach! She doesn’t care about what the commentators or what the fans are saying, she just wants to improve! I fix it when my coach picks out my flaws. I keep working on the matter until I am free from the flaw. It doesn’t mean she is sitting passively - you need to make your own effort.
A lot of the women in Capetown are not clear about this- connecting yourself isn’t the end, its the beginning. Be regular in listening to the talks. Listen to what is expected from you - how will you fulfil your own role. You must listen to bayān and majlis. Know aboutislamicspirituality.org and listen to the ones that you feel you need the most. It’s your duty to listen with the heart - you must make firm intention to practise what you hear. You will try to adopt your lifestyle accordingly. In trying to practise it, you must have some questions - you have to establish contact. You must try especially to listen to the bayāns we are giving to you in your own city as Allāh swt puts into our heart what to say. We still need some nāsirat (helpers and coordinators), so you need to flourish in your dhikr as all of you are equal right now…so that you can help others. You need to have networks with each other. Connect to our students around the world, to those women especially in UK who have forums where they post these bayāns. There is one forum called the ‘murida forum’ - try to find out and get connected to them. You have to learn and reinforce, and read the notes again! You have to really deeply take this seriously! One is general bayāns, and those we give in Capetown specifically, and SA generally.
Then there are also talks called ‘majālis’ - especially for those sālikāt! Its open to everybody, but the way the talk is presented is different. Certainly, no doubt we give these majālis in Urdu in Pakistan sometimes, but in UK and Europe, we give them in English. You will notice the difference between majālis and bayāns.
Then the other set of bayāns we want you to listen to is the last i’tikāf bayāns, and the live broadcasts from this years i’tikāf. Its up to you to practise.
After listening to bayān and majlis, you must practise this dhikr. The main two types of dhikr are:
1 - Muraqaba
2 - Wuqūf e Qalbī
These are the silent dhikr. However, you also have dhikr of the tongue:
1 - Daily qur’ān recitation - as much as you can, but have a daily habit
2 - Istighfār - 100* a day - astagfirullāha Rabbī min kulli zanbin wa atubū ilay
3 - Durūd/Salawāt - Allāhuma salli ‘alā Sayyidinā Muhammad, wa 'ala āle Sayyidinā Muhammad, wa bārik wa sallim.
But these you need to pray from the heart, with feeling. How can you recite the Qur’ān with feeling? If you understand Arabic, then feel joy and happiness when you read about the mercy of Allāh swt, or when you read about Jannah. Feel a fear and a trembling when you read about the anger and wrath of Allāh swt, or when you read about Jahannam. When you read verses about Sayyidinā Rasūlullāh ﷺ, a joy and love should come into your heart – you should get some feeling. But if some woman says she doesn’t Arabic at all – still when the word Rabb, Allāh, Rahmān comes – it will come on every page. Feel this. Still if she says no, I am unable to keep track – it’s enough feeling for you, for you to remember who gave you this gift. If someone gave you a black scarf as a gift, you would take it – but if they told you, I remembered you when I went to Madinah, and I brought you back this hijab from there – you will look at it differently. You will clasp it to your chest as it is from Madinah! So just like that, the Qur’ān is from Allāh swt – its enough for you to have feeling. ‘Ya Allāh swt, you allowed me to read Your speech back to You!’. Recite it with love. Allāh swt will listen to you intently and gaze at you adoringly.
When you make istighfār, you should have feeling. Think of particular sins, or sinful feelings. For e.g. if you missed Fajr, ask forgiveness from sins you have done which prevented Allāh swt wanting to see your face at Fajr that day! Its like when you do laundry – one is to just put a little detergent, and one is to scrub. When there is a stain, you have to first scrub and rub – this is istighfār. Soemtimes we just roll it off our tongue!
Salawāt – what a tragedy it is that we have to even explain this. People recite things without feeling – this is a global phenomenon. Chanting it doesn’t make it any more accepted! It is not about melody. If we manage to nail the melody, we are diverted by the sweetness of the melody. What sweetness do you want to taste. Imagine we came to your place, and we only had the salad! Melody is the last of its attributes – feel it with the heart. Sometimes do sober, quiet, humble dhikr and strip it off its melody to gain the feeling. We are not concerned by styles, tunes, tones etc. You’re too busy tuned in lovingRasulullāh ﷺ to focus on the tones etc. Would your husband singing to you melt your heart when his heart is empty of feeling? ShowRasulullāh ﷺ you feel it.
Make your life according to the sunnah – make your heart like his heart. That is the greatest sunnah – to have you heart like the heart ofRasulullāh ﷺ.
There is scope for melody to some extent. But you have people who smoke in front of my eyes, then go inside the Masjid, and recite Salawāt melodiously – what type, what kind of sunnah is that?
You have to get real. You cant have this superficial nature to dīn, Dīn is about feelings! Dīn is about heart and realities, not about utterances! So strange. This is something we have hope that you women can revive this sunnah. It’s not about culture. India, Saudi, Malay culture has no basis in Islam. It is not about culturural affiliation – it is about feelings! I was born and raised in a City more cosmopolitan than yours – the only one thing attracted us to our teachers was their feelings. If they had feelings, we loved them- no matter what their cultire! You must sit quietly and try to feel salawāt from your heart. Feel the love forNabī Kareem ﷺ from your heart.
Then another dhikr you must practice is that you must convert your salāh into dhikr. Everytime you pray, every single rak’āh – you have to try! I know you won’t always be able to do it, feel sad about that. The point is you must try - keep trying! Make this an effort for dhikr also. Practise, practice, keep practicing and it will become perfect. We have talks about this on our website.
Try to make the sunnah du’ās – e.g. those before and after eating, entering and leaving home – learn the meanings and try to feel the feelings. Make du’ā that ya Allāh, the same feeling of praise Nabī Kareem ﷺ felt in his heart, I want to feel this.
Then there are two special dhikrs of the heart:
1st one is called Wuqūf e Qalbiī – this means you never want to do ghaflah, never want to be empty of the dhikr of Allāh swt. This doesn’t happen automatically, you will have to enter a new frame a mind, a new state of being, a new perspective – I exist to REMEMBER Allāh swt, I want to be from the dhākirāt – those who ALWAYS remember Allāh swt. Keep watch over your heart that I am forgetting Allāh swt. La tulhikum awladakum wa la amwalakum ‘an dhikrillāh – don’t let your children and wealth distract you from the dhikr of Allāh swt. Wa may-yaf’al dhālik, faulā’ika humul khāsirūn – they are then in a spiritual loss if they do this. Remind yourself Allāh swt is my Razzāq, He swt is my Hannān, my Mannān – He is watching me, watching over me, looking after me – all the time feel these feelings. In the beginning, it will require a lot of effort and you will have to remind yourself dozens of times a day. It’s not okay that we come, and you sit with us then you disappear, then again we come and you come to sit with us then again you disappear – you must make this daily effort. Everyday renew and further this effort! Everyday, you should want to remember Him more – erase the gaps! Keep track of the activities where you forget Allāh swt – then you will understand the spiritually ill effects of TV, music and these types of things etc! You will realise that you give you heart away to make-believe and fiction. Once you keep watch, you will learn many things. Be constantly vigil – and always turn your heart to Allāh swt. Flee from those things which make you forget Allāh swt – you may have to sleep less, eat less, talk less. You can still remain your jolly Capetown selves, but you will need a natural spiritual maturity too. The best way is to stay away from your entertainment and leisure – how many more recipes do you need to research? You were sent to this world to become a master dhakirāt, and ‘ābidāt, not the masterchef of the world! Even if the taste is slightly wrong in what you have made, the next time you make the same dish, you will fix this. Similarly, fix your salāh, it is a recipe. Fix the ingredients. Fix your outlook.
We have a desperate dream that Allāh swt raises dhākirāt and sālihāt amongst you – we don’t want to see you become fan girls! We don’t want you to just listen to talks – we came in the hope and dream that maybe there are some women who want to try to go all the way! You shouldn’t be inhibited by any culture – we’re searching for people who go all the way! Keep track of your time, and remind yourself to remember Allāh swt. Review your day at night. This is a process – it will take years of interaction, years of seeking, learning and practicing – but make the intention to start. You need to desire and want it from your heart.
2nd one is called ‘murāqaba’ – this is the most important dhikr at the beginning. This is your daily seclusion, your daily fanā.There are two words - one is called fanā and the other is called baqā. The worst situation is your heart is 0% connected to Allāh swt and 100% connected to dunyā. Now, they need to go through a process – they should listen to more majlis, more bayāns, get more guidance – you’re on a journey to Allāh swt! They need to do so much for the sake of Allāh swt, lillāh, fillāh…slowly, your heart will get connected to Allāh swt and the connection to the world will go down. Within her circumstances, she feels she has done as much as she can…then what happens is that if possible – they should spend some time in seclusion like I’tikāf, or maybe going for 15-20 days to ‘umrah.
You want to become a 100% attached to Allāh swt, they must spend some time completely disconnected to the dunyā. They might have to spend 10, 20, 30 days etc. First, you must see how much you can connect your heart. Keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing, until you think you cannot do it anymore - then you need to move and completely disconnect. When you completely disconnect from the world, you will get 100% Allāh swt – that is called fanā. Like Allāh swt mentioned in the Qur’an – wa tabattal ilayhi tabtīlā.
Why do you think Rasulullāh ﷺ eent to gār-e-hirā? He went into the mountains and inside a cave to completely disconnect. The fact that the story of Kahf came in shows us it is meant to be guidance for us. They secluded themselves from their society – a society like NY and Capetown. They were pious…and were remembering Allāh swt as much a they could whilst remaining in society. Once they maxed that out, they realised they need to leave and seclude themselves. You need to sometimes connect to Allāh swt 100%. When you go for this retreat, your heart can connect 100%. You will still love your parents, your children - but they will become for the sake of Allāh swt. This is called fanā - 100% connected to Allāh swt. Fanā is not the destination. It’s a purifying process – it’s a transitory process! There is no such thing as being a monk or nun in Islām – this is a temporary phase.
However, Rasulullāh ﷺ also came back from hirā. The ashāb-e-kahf also came out of the cave. You don't have to leave the dunyā; you have to change your outlook towards the dunyā. Now when you go back to the world you will still love your parents etch but you would love them for Allāh swt. This is called baqā. You have 100% dunyā but it is for Allāh swt so you have 100% dunyā and 100% dīn. This is a balance! We are so imbalanced. We have 100% dunyā and dunyā only. Baqā is the ultimate goal…fanā is a phase.
People who have baqā they walk through the mall they are not attracted to it, they are not dazzled by it Haagen Dazs ice cream example - imagine ‘C-town’ had a special brand of its own ice cream. You will love that only until you taste the Haagen Dazs. Once you taste the latter, you will not enjoy the C-town brand ice cream. Similarly, once you connect to Allāh swt, you will not want to connect to anything else.
Qul matā-ud dunyā qalīl. All the stuff is nothing but fluff. Imagine the person who made his own dīn fluffy? Allāhu akbar! You will be impressed by Mercedes, Prada etc, but when you have the substance of dīn, all of this will be fluff. The Sahāba Kirām - dunyā meant nothing to them. They had riches and wealth, but they were uninterested. This however, requires effort.
Some of you women might be thinking ‘but I don’t get these opportunities of fanā’ – then this dhikr murāqaba is what you have to do. Seize the moment of your free time. Its your free time you use to write your whatsapps, email, to read the news etc – everybody has free time. Take some time out of your free time and try to get this fanā!
How do you make this dhikr? It is silent dhikr from your heart – your spiritual heart, not the one that pumps blood. Your qalb is making the dhikr of Allāh swts name – you will simply sit. Anytime you are free, seize the moment.
Firstly, make the intention – I want to forget everything and want to remember You from the heart of my rūh. Im retreating from my own self, I’m going deep into my rūh. After this, make an intention that your qalb is calling out Allāh, Allāh, Allāh! Like with a book, you read silently; similarly, your reading your heart silently – simply by niyyah! In the beginning, sit for 15 mins daily. For those who have been with us longer, then 20-30 mins. We tell some of our students to sit for an hour a day daily in Ramadān. Don’t worry if you’re sleepy, or you’re distracted – just keep sitting. Sometimes you will get restless – take a few weeks to get into practice of sitting. Once you have done the sitting part, then now you will concentrate on the remembering – it’s about focus. You want something golden, hence the process will take time – you have to make daily effort. Regularly, make murāqaba everyday! You will have to force your self sometimes – this is mujāhida!
Recap:
1) Listen to bayāns and majālis
2) Dhikr - practise the dhikr of the tongue. Practise the dhikr of the heart (murāqaba and WQ). Murāqaba is most important. Focus on this first and foremost.
3) The third very important thing is ‘rābita’ – to stay connected, be in correspondence. Number one – you should have some contact with my wife and her academy, Zaynab Academy Online. For those studying at local institutes already, then just do some short courses or one day workshops so you connect to the other women around the world who are seeking the pleasure of Allāh swt. Number two – connect with your co-ordinator who will guide you to the talks and connect you to a forum.
Those of you who have been making murāqaba and majālis,then whatsapp me about the dhikr. The next stage is that the Shaykh will train you in further dhikr – this stage begins only for that woman who is regular listening to bayān and majlis, regular in contact with my wife, the coordinator and ZAO generally and is also practicing the dhikr! A few of you may have reached this stage, but you may not have known that you have to stay in correspondence, you have to stay in touch so we can further guide you deeper in this path.
Generally speaking, women write an update every 2 weeks. You should write even if its one paragraph – even if you’re unable to do dhikr. You must inform and be in touch so the learning and coaching process takes place. For the women, you have to email and whatsapp. Then when we travel, we may meet you in groups or behind the screen.
When my wife is travelling, then I prefer you spend more time with her. It’s up you how much dhikr you do and how much you stay in touch. We are waiting to see which of those women who will be from Capetown who will take that step.
And once a few of you do that, then you can have your own local coordinators who will help and guide you. As you observe it from your other fellow women seekers on ZAO, some of the UK women – then you yourself will get an idea. This process should be natural – it’s your own initiative. Take advantage of the opportunity.
Some of you may be making dhikr but I don’t know who you are cos you never stay in touch! It’s very important to stay in touch. Even if you’re struggling, share that. This is a process that takes time. Join the caravan of love. Be a wayfarer and traveler on this journey – go with the flow to gain the qurb of Allāh swt. Then there will be some movement, some progress – Allāh swt will put barakah.
There will be books coming out this Ramadān:
1 – (already available) – English translation of ma’mūlāt (daily practices)
2 – (coming out) – the path to spiritual elevation. Explains the concept of tasawwuf.
3 – (coming out) ‘essentials of the spiritual path’ or something like that. It will be in a lot of detail.
Once you have this, you will have good manuals. Now then, its up to you – how much effort you make! Alongside the dhikr, it is very important to live your life according to sunnah and sharī’ah! It is not limited to madhāhib (schools of law, epistemology).
5 categories total:
1 - Fardh and Wājib – ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED
2 – Not required by Allāh swt but are pleasing to him – will make you more beloved (sunnah, nafl, mustaHAB, mandūb)
3 – Mubāh (merely permissible – don’t have to do it. Neither prohibited nor mandatory – they are neutral. They aren’t pleasing nor displeasing)
4 – Disliked and displeasing to Allāh swt (makrūh)
5 – Harām – ABSOLUTELY PROHIBITED.
To become sālihat women, you need to do all that is pleasing to Allāh swt and less makrūh. Now sometimes, this scares people because you think you’re still struggling with harām, and now we have to leave makrūh and do the pleasing things – ‘this is too much for me, I don’t know if I’m ready for this right now.’
How would you like if your husband talked to you like that? What if he said I do what I have to (earn) and I stay away from cheating – but beyond that, talking to you, being affectionate, being caring – no oh ho, that’s a bit too much for me. I don’t know if I’m ready for that. You would think what type of husband are you! What kind of relationship is that? Is this some legal relationship that you only do what is strictly required? Is that a relationship – so then, how do you want your relationship to be with Allāh swt. Our whole life is about this relationship. Everything and anything should be changed for the sake of this relationship. Tasawwuf is building this relationship with Allāh swt.
How do you build this relationship? By wearing green and singin nashīds, no!! You do what pleases Him, and leaves what is displeasing Him. It’s fine if you can’t do it right now – it just has to be a LONG TERM goal…that you want be someone who stays away from anything displeasing – this is your intention and wish. All you have to do is wish and want for this – Allāh swt HIMSELF will give you the strength and ability once you want it. It’s not a prerequisite that you msut be able to do it – in fact, in the beginning, you will definitely fall, but the barakah of this connection is that there is a FLOW- you will always pick yourself back up. Start your dhikr again, be inspired again, make the niyyah again! That’s the barakah!
Tasawwuf and tazkiyah are like a washing machine. Why do you put clothes in there? To get them sort of clean or completely sparkling. So how can you be a mu’minah and not want this? How can you not feel like that? It has to be your intention and wish. Sometimes, you put the clothes in the wash and it doesn’t come out completely clean – then we will need stain remover, we will need bleach, and you will have to put it again. It takes time, it’s a process – no problem. Our goal is to be completely clean.
Yawma lā yan’fau mālun wa lā banūn, illā man atallāha biqalbin salīm – except those who have a pure heart, so we have to be clean and pristine! This is a target Allāh swt has given us, so we have to make this our own target.
But then if still a woman asks, how do I know I’m ready? Its very simple. The clothing ready to go in the washing machine has to be dirty, soiled and stained (you have sin in your life, you’re not close to Allāh swt) – that means you’re ready. The second condition is that there must be a wish it should be clean – that is all that is required! Similarly, you need be a sinning person or a desire to become pure! It is just a wish. Ya Allāh swt, this is something I want to do, I’m willing to try and walk through this door. That is all you need! What is harām and fardh may depend on fiqh, but what is pleasing or dipleasing is always agreed upon. Make it your long term goal that overtime, I want to make myself more pleasing to You! I want my hayā, the most hayā, more adab, most adab – this is my dream oh Allāh swt.
The way we express this intention is called ‘bay’ah’ – this simply means to express this intention and make a commitment to Allāh swt. It is a commitment to Allāh swt, with someone! This is a feeling. When a person make this feeling, they express the intention with someone. Why with someone? Because they will be your guide. This is simply enrollment and registration. Like before we had a road atlas (we guided ourselves), now we have a tom-tom/GPS – there is someone guiding us, helping us. You will still be the same person, nothing changes after bay’ah – except, that usually those who do bay’ah make more effort and make more dhikr due to their commitment. Shaykh gives bayāns, gives you dhikr – you will correspond with him, and he will help and guide you to do the pleasing and refrain from the displeasing category. Even with the mubāh, he will guide you and counsel you. For e.g. it is permissible for me to leave all this and ride a Rickshaw in Lahore – this is permissible, but it is the best? So the Shaykh will guide you – this is not binding – his opinion is not binding upon you – it is mashwara, it is advice – ultimately, you make the decision. If what he says is determined by sharī’ah – then this isn’t his opinion, it is a matter of Allāh swt.
You begin at the beginning, you don’t stay at the beginning. A whole new life will begin for you - a life of a dhākirāt. May Allāh select our hearts and the hearts of our families and progeny for the love of dīn. AAMEEN
Shaykh Kamaluddin BD 25 July 2015
Bismillah hirrahmaan nirraheem
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB:
In ramadhan Allah swt gave us a new heart, a new spiritual heart. “la allakum tattaquun” Allah swt gave us a heart with taqwa, and the same way when transplanting a new physical heart into a person the first 72 hours are vital to see whether the body will accept this new heart. The same way with our spiritual heart, the first 72 hours were vital to see whether our new spiritual heart could fit in to our surroundings, whether it would fit into our life or if we would need to put back our old heart. Subhanallah. It doesn’t take long, it takes the first week, for some people the first few days for them to lose this spiritual heart. 30 days of effort, 30 days of fasting all day and praying to Allah swt, crying at night, so much effort, so how can we lose all this?!
When a person has a physical illness, they will reach out to a doctor. One physical weakness is a lack of energy, to feel lazy, sleeping a lot. This physical laziness disturbs them so much that they even go to a doctor for it. So how important is it that a person with a lazy nafs, a person who doesn’t feel like reading Quran after ramadhan, a person with this laziness in deen should go to a shaykh? People will go to a doctor and say they have a lack of physical appetite, this will be such that it won’t make them suffer from complete hunger, they won’t be ill but yet they notice this slight change in appetite and they go to see a doctor. But what about the loss of appetite for tahajjud? For salah? For dua? What about loss of appetite for any form of ibadah, this is a complete loss of appetite. So this also needs curing!
The more intelligent and fortunate a person is in dunya, the more scared they should be. As all this will not come with you in the grave; your PHD, degree, education etc won’t be raised with you on the day of judgement, you will simply be raised as an insaan. The only thing there will be is a book; and this book will only scream how close you were to Allah swt, how much you remembered Allah swt. You don’t want to be there on that day with a book that shows how you forgot Allah swt, how you forgot his remembrance and how you left ibadah. Allahuakbar.
There is one mistake we should never make. And this is the mistake to be overly content with whatever level of Deen you have. You shouldn’t congratulate yourself on whatever state you are in. The same way in dunya you push yourself for a better status, education and job, this same attitude needs to be applied in deen. We need to excel in the pursuit of deen. We need excellence in taqwa, akhlaaq, salaah, in all aspects of deen!
Once a person was worried about his father who doesn’t pray his salaah. But this same father would say with such pride that I have worked for 30 years and I have never missed a day of work! Subhanallah! Even though this is okay and completely halal in deen to do, but just look at how this same person has missed so many salah. He is proud of this accomplishment in dunya but he is making such a spiritual loss in deen.
Sometimes we get delusions of grandeur, and that is why deen teaches us humility. Sometimes you need someone in your life, a humble person to address you and take you down a notch or two. There are too many people who will praise you and compliment you, there are too many of these people, but we need to have someone to make us realise where we are lacking in deen. We are so busy being fulfilled with dunya and creation that we no longer feel the need to be fulfilled by deen. This fulfilment of dunya leaves us neglectful of the need for the fulfilment of deen.
We don’t even have the desire to do such things in order to feel deeply in love with the Quran or the sunnah of rasoolullah saw. We don’t feel the need to pray tahajjud or to sit with the ulema. The reason we don’t feel this need is because we’ve chosen a life in which we gain all our fulfilment from the dunya, but this is a delusion! How can we be so fulfilled by dunya and the relationship with our creator is unfulfilled. And until we have someone to make us realise this delusion and deception we are in, no matter how fulfilled we are in dunya, we need to work on how fulfilled we are in deen; in terms of sabr, yaqeen, tawakkul, ibadah, aklaaq, are we fulfilled in these areas? Are we of benefit to others? Ask yourself am I able to help others, and support them with their deen? We can often provide so many people help with aspects of dunya, but we have not yet learnt how to help people with deen.
A person may come to a doctor on the day of judgement and say to him “Doctor, you cured me of this physical illness which I had, but you were muslim, you had knowledge of the Quran, you knew I had this spiritual illness and you never cured me of that!” People will come up to you in this way on the day of judgement, so when will we reach out and help people? When will we help them work on their ruuh?
The beauty and ease of deen is such that an education/profession can be paralleled with deen, and the way this works is that alongside the aspect on dunya, you also have to pursue the excellence in deen, so you also work hard on your aakihira. This is what is called a balance. To do this, we need to make sacrifices. We did this in ramadhan! In ramadhan we trimmed the dunya, we didn’t waste time socialising, we spent more time doing ibadah, and this was a training to teach us that we can live without these extras.
The beauty of deen is such that when you become a person of taqwa, haya, you become a person that safeguards your gaze, you pray tahajjud, you learn quran and hadith, and you explore this, this deen will affect your dunya and Allah swt puts barakah in your dunya. So whatever job etc you have, Allah swt puts barakah into it. Ontop of that, Allah swt also puts barakah in your relationships, and thirdly Allah swt puts barakah in your khidmat. So whatever you could do for others in your own ability before, now Allah swt opens doors to make this khidmat full of barakah. And there is a huge difference between the khidmat we can do with our own ability and the one in what Allah swt puts his barakah into and makes possible.
We should strive to want every single thing in deen, we shouldn’t even want one thing of deen to not be there due to dunya. But this takes desire, motivation, a vision and striving to be like this. In ramadhan, we became like this for a month. We stopped other things and we did more ibadah, the masjids were full with people. Everyone was doing all they could in order to not be left behind; we were all engaging in tahajjud, men came for jamat and some even sat in itikaaf! The doctors were doing the same acts as the ulema, subhanallah. This shows how much Allah swt has given us all this motivation and drive.
The same vision we use towards the pursuit of dunya, if we put this vision into deen we could get so far! So many people come to sheikhs with the problems of the dunya, but so little people come with problems in deen; so little people come with the problems that they want more taqwa, haya, they want closeness to Allah swt. We need to want these things and we need to make dua for these things.
“There is no harm in pushing ourselves in deen” You can’t get degrees and educational achievements without sacrifice and pushing ourselves, so why can’t we do this for deen?
Depending on the spiritual problem you have; envy, lust etc, we need to work hard to read material to change this, we need to work hard towards taubah. The next thing is tazkiyah; we need to purify our heart of these spiritual illnesses to purify ourselves.
This purification is done by 1) Feelings (love for Allah swt, fear of Allah swt, love for nabi saw, feelings of tawakkul, wilayah, trust in Allah , do this by being with people who have these feelings. We can get all these feelings from being with those who have these feelings. Be with the the tawwabeen, siddeqeen, qashieen; all of these people Allah swt mentions in the Quran, Allah swt mentions them because they are present). The second thing is to practice; 2) Ibadah, so to do lots of ibadah, and the more ibadah you do the more closer you can get to Allah swt. The first thing in ibadah is the quality of it, so we need to improve the quality of our salah. We need to convert our salah into dhikr. We pray salah five times a day, so if those five times a day we strive and struggle to remember Allah swt more in salah, 5 times a day every day , in a few weeks inshaallah this will help make us closer to Allah swt. We need to improve our concentration in salah, to forget dunya completely in our salah. This means to not remember anything other than Allah, even the halal is ghairAllah whilst in salaah.
The second quality is that of our masnoon duas. We need to recite them with feelings. So with the dua before eating we need to feel that with praying this dua, Allah swt is sprinkling baraqah on the food. These are the feelings nabi saw had in his heart when he made these duas. So the sunnah dua is not just complete with the sunnah language, but its complete with the sunnah feelings!
Another is to recite Quran every day. The Quran is a shifaa for the spiritual heart, the daily tonic for spiritual shifaa. Here, even if the quantity is less if you may be busy, the quality should still be there. (Although you can never be too busy to not even read the Quran at all in one day, even if this means a few rukus. Some people will even pick up a call from an unknown number out of ‘curiosity’ , this shows just how much time people have).
Imam Abu Hanifa (RA) says that the bare minimum right of the Quran on the believers is that every day they should open the Quran and cast a look of love on the Quran. This is the bare minimum right.
The next is to recite salawaat upon rasoolullah saw every day, even just 100 times takes about 10 minutes. This reminds us of our identity, I am not just a human being, I am an ummati of nabi saw, he is MY nabi, I am HIS ummati, I am the Ummah of the prophet saw. Every day we need to think of rasoolullah saw and recite durood shareef.
Istigfarr – To repent and make up with Allah swt. We deliberately sin purposefully against our creator, we need to fix this.
Muraqabah – To remember Allah swt in such a way that you forget everything else and only remember Allah. Because we don’t have this feeling in Salah, we need to practice this outside salah. The heart is silently reciting Allahs name. Why? When we make this intention, Allah swt says in Quran “you make dhikr of me, I make dhikr of you” so when you sit with this intention Allah swt makes dhikr of your heart, Allah starts to purify your heart, he starts to fill your heart with the love of Allah. The noor of Allah enters your heart.
Wuquf-e-qalbi – to always have an awareness, thoughts and feelings for Allah swt. Never allow your heart to be completely away from the remembrance of Allah. Allah swt said in the Quran “And don’t you ever ever let yourself be of those people whose hearts are empty of the remembrance of Allah swt” so we need to make an intention for our heart to always be remembering Allah swt.
May Allah swt make us spiritual human beings, and put the noor of his love in our hearts, ameen.
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB:
In ramadhan Allah swt gave us a new heart, a new spiritual heart. “la allakum tattaquun” Allah swt gave us a heart with taqwa, and the same way when transplanting a new physical heart into a person the first 72 hours are vital to see whether the body will accept this new heart. The same way with our spiritual heart, the first 72 hours were vital to see whether our new spiritual heart could fit in to our surroundings, whether it would fit into our life or if we would need to put back our old heart. Subhanallah. It doesn’t take long, it takes the first week, for some people the first few days for them to lose this spiritual heart. 30 days of effort, 30 days of fasting all day and praying to Allah swt, crying at night, so much effort, so how can we lose all this?!
When a person has a physical illness, they will reach out to a doctor. One physical weakness is a lack of energy, to feel lazy, sleeping a lot. This physical laziness disturbs them so much that they even go to a doctor for it. So how important is it that a person with a lazy nafs, a person who doesn’t feel like reading Quran after ramadhan, a person with this laziness in deen should go to a shaykh? People will go to a doctor and say they have a lack of physical appetite, this will be such that it won’t make them suffer from complete hunger, they won’t be ill but yet they notice this slight change in appetite and they go to see a doctor. But what about the loss of appetite for tahajjud? For salah? For dua? What about loss of appetite for any form of ibadah, this is a complete loss of appetite. So this also needs curing!
The more intelligent and fortunate a person is in dunya, the more scared they should be. As all this will not come with you in the grave; your PHD, degree, education etc won’t be raised with you on the day of judgement, you will simply be raised as an insaan. The only thing there will be is a book; and this book will only scream how close you were to Allah swt, how much you remembered Allah swt. You don’t want to be there on that day with a book that shows how you forgot Allah swt, how you forgot his remembrance and how you left ibadah. Allahuakbar.
There is one mistake we should never make. And this is the mistake to be overly content with whatever level of Deen you have. You shouldn’t congratulate yourself on whatever state you are in. The same way in dunya you push yourself for a better status, education and job, this same attitude needs to be applied in deen. We need to excel in the pursuit of deen. We need excellence in taqwa, akhlaaq, salaah, in all aspects of deen!
Once a person was worried about his father who doesn’t pray his salaah. But this same father would say with such pride that I have worked for 30 years and I have never missed a day of work! Subhanallah! Even though this is okay and completely halal in deen to do, but just look at how this same person has missed so many salah. He is proud of this accomplishment in dunya but he is making such a spiritual loss in deen.
Sometimes we get delusions of grandeur, and that is why deen teaches us humility. Sometimes you need someone in your life, a humble person to address you and take you down a notch or two. There are too many people who will praise you and compliment you, there are too many of these people, but we need to have someone to make us realise where we are lacking in deen. We are so busy being fulfilled with dunya and creation that we no longer feel the need to be fulfilled by deen. This fulfilment of dunya leaves us neglectful of the need for the fulfilment of deen.
We don’t even have the desire to do such things in order to feel deeply in love with the Quran or the sunnah of rasoolullah saw. We don’t feel the need to pray tahajjud or to sit with the ulema. The reason we don’t feel this need is because we’ve chosen a life in which we gain all our fulfilment from the dunya, but this is a delusion! How can we be so fulfilled by dunya and the relationship with our creator is unfulfilled. And until we have someone to make us realise this delusion and deception we are in, no matter how fulfilled we are in dunya, we need to work on how fulfilled we are in deen; in terms of sabr, yaqeen, tawakkul, ibadah, aklaaq, are we fulfilled in these areas? Are we of benefit to others? Ask yourself am I able to help others, and support them with their deen? We can often provide so many people help with aspects of dunya, but we have not yet learnt how to help people with deen.
A person may come to a doctor on the day of judgement and say to him “Doctor, you cured me of this physical illness which I had, but you were muslim, you had knowledge of the Quran, you knew I had this spiritual illness and you never cured me of that!” People will come up to you in this way on the day of judgement, so when will we reach out and help people? When will we help them work on their ruuh?
The beauty and ease of deen is such that an education/profession can be paralleled with deen, and the way this works is that alongside the aspect on dunya, you also have to pursue the excellence in deen, so you also work hard on your aakihira. This is what is called a balance. To do this, we need to make sacrifices. We did this in ramadhan! In ramadhan we trimmed the dunya, we didn’t waste time socialising, we spent more time doing ibadah, and this was a training to teach us that we can live without these extras.
The beauty of deen is such that when you become a person of taqwa, haya, you become a person that safeguards your gaze, you pray tahajjud, you learn quran and hadith, and you explore this, this deen will affect your dunya and Allah swt puts barakah in your dunya. So whatever job etc you have, Allah swt puts barakah into it. Ontop of that, Allah swt also puts barakah in your relationships, and thirdly Allah swt puts barakah in your khidmat. So whatever you could do for others in your own ability before, now Allah swt opens doors to make this khidmat full of barakah. And there is a huge difference between the khidmat we can do with our own ability and the one in what Allah swt puts his barakah into and makes possible.
We should strive to want every single thing in deen, we shouldn’t even want one thing of deen to not be there due to dunya. But this takes desire, motivation, a vision and striving to be like this. In ramadhan, we became like this for a month. We stopped other things and we did more ibadah, the masjids were full with people. Everyone was doing all they could in order to not be left behind; we were all engaging in tahajjud, men came for jamat and some even sat in itikaaf! The doctors were doing the same acts as the ulema, subhanallah. This shows how much Allah swt has given us all this motivation and drive.
The same vision we use towards the pursuit of dunya, if we put this vision into deen we could get so far! So many people come to sheikhs with the problems of the dunya, but so little people come with problems in deen; so little people come with the problems that they want more taqwa, haya, they want closeness to Allah swt. We need to want these things and we need to make dua for these things.
“There is no harm in pushing ourselves in deen” You can’t get degrees and educational achievements without sacrifice and pushing ourselves, so why can’t we do this for deen?
Depending on the spiritual problem you have; envy, lust etc, we need to work hard to read material to change this, we need to work hard towards taubah. The next thing is tazkiyah; we need to purify our heart of these spiritual illnesses to purify ourselves.
This purification is done by 1) Feelings (love for Allah swt, fear of Allah swt, love for nabi saw, feelings of tawakkul, wilayah, trust in Allah , do this by being with people who have these feelings. We can get all these feelings from being with those who have these feelings. Be with the the tawwabeen, siddeqeen, qashieen; all of these people Allah swt mentions in the Quran, Allah swt mentions them because they are present). The second thing is to practice; 2) Ibadah, so to do lots of ibadah, and the more ibadah you do the more closer you can get to Allah swt. The first thing in ibadah is the quality of it, so we need to improve the quality of our salah. We need to convert our salah into dhikr. We pray salah five times a day, so if those five times a day we strive and struggle to remember Allah swt more in salah, 5 times a day every day , in a few weeks inshaallah this will help make us closer to Allah swt. We need to improve our concentration in salah, to forget dunya completely in our salah. This means to not remember anything other than Allah, even the halal is ghairAllah whilst in salaah.
The second quality is that of our masnoon duas. We need to recite them with feelings. So with the dua before eating we need to feel that with praying this dua, Allah swt is sprinkling baraqah on the food. These are the feelings nabi saw had in his heart when he made these duas. So the sunnah dua is not just complete with the sunnah language, but its complete with the sunnah feelings!
Another is to recite Quran every day. The Quran is a shifaa for the spiritual heart, the daily tonic for spiritual shifaa. Here, even if the quantity is less if you may be busy, the quality should still be there. (Although you can never be too busy to not even read the Quran at all in one day, even if this means a few rukus. Some people will even pick up a call from an unknown number out of ‘curiosity’ , this shows just how much time people have).
Imam Abu Hanifa (RA) says that the bare minimum right of the Quran on the believers is that every day they should open the Quran and cast a look of love on the Quran. This is the bare minimum right.
The next is to recite salawaat upon rasoolullah saw every day, even just 100 times takes about 10 minutes. This reminds us of our identity, I am not just a human being, I am an ummati of nabi saw, he is MY nabi, I am HIS ummati, I am the Ummah of the prophet saw. Every day we need to think of rasoolullah saw and recite durood shareef.
Istigfarr – To repent and make up with Allah swt. We deliberately sin purposefully against our creator, we need to fix this.
Muraqabah – To remember Allah swt in such a way that you forget everything else and only remember Allah. Because we don’t have this feeling in Salah, we need to practice this outside salah. The heart is silently reciting Allahs name. Why? When we make this intention, Allah swt says in Quran “you make dhikr of me, I make dhikr of you” so when you sit with this intention Allah swt makes dhikr of your heart, Allah starts to purify your heart, he starts to fill your heart with the love of Allah. The noor of Allah enters your heart.
Wuquf-e-qalbi – to always have an awareness, thoughts and feelings for Allah swt. Never allow your heart to be completely away from the remembrance of Allah. Allah swt said in the Quran “And don’t you ever ever let yourself be of those people whose hearts are empty of the remembrance of Allah swt” so we need to make an intention for our heart to always be remembering Allah swt.
May Allah swt make us spiritual human beings, and put the noor of his love in our hearts, ameen.
Saturday, 25 July 2015
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB. 29 June 2015
Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm
South Africa - Capetown - Bayān
29/06/15 Shaykh Kamaluddin db
Who are the 'allathīna āmanū - those who believe?’ - they are ashad hubul-lillāh! They are extremely intense and intensely extreme in their love for Allāh swt. Ramadān shows us that we can do it - we flipped and switched in this month…we started become ashaddu hubul-lillāh. Some of make du’ā, some sitting in i’tikāf, some praying tahajjud - we behave like lovers in this month, but after the month passes, we lose this feeling of love.
How can you keep this love for Allāh swt after Ramadān:
How can you ever lose this love? We lose it when we allow ourselves to fall in love with something else (ghayr mahram). Sometimes a person falls in love with ghayr mahram - and they don’t do this in Ramadān..they fall in love outside Ramadān. Always remember this - whenever you let your heart feel an untrue love, Allāh swt will take away the true love you had for Him. Allāh swt doesn’t accept roommates. This is called Ghayra! When you do this, you will get lost - you will lose the loving feeling! Some men make such a mistake that they allow themselves to feel this love for a complete stranger - someone they met in business or at the shop. Be careful - guard your heart.
Only love Allāh swt, and those you can love for Allāh swt, for the sake of Allāh swt. Some people become materialistic - they lose their love for Allāh swt. ‘Ya Allāh swt, I want to be your lover always’. Sometimes when we say we will live in Jannah forever, they say we shouldn’t be able to stay forever, cos Allāh swt is only forever. Allāh swt wanted this loving relationship forever so he also let us live forever - you fall deeper and deeper in love. Jannah isn’t static that you remain the same - you will love Allāh swt more. But only those who Allāh swt loves actually enter Jannah. Allāh swt will love you more, and even more, and keep on loving you even more, for ever, for all of future - for ever. That Allāh swt who wants us to love Him forever, can we not love that same Allāh swt for 50-60 years of this life?
The Qur’ān is like a love letter to us - take great care in reciting and memorising it. This is the exchange of love. Allāh swts love for you = Qur’an. You love Him back = You recite Qur’an. Like a lover in this world, they wait for the text of their beloved. If they don’t reply, they read the previous message over and over again. Can’t we love Allāhs love message over and over again?This is a dīn of love.
Second way you love Allāh swt is to love Rasūlullāh ﷺ - he is the greatest beloved. ‘Qul in kuntum tuhibbūnallāha, fat’tabiūnī’, yuhbibkumullāhu, wa yaghfir lakum dhunūbakum’ - if you love Allāh swt, follow me - Allāh swt will love you and forgive you for all your sins.
Follow a sunnah this Ramadān. If you put on one side the love Rasūlullāh ﷺ had for Allāh swt, and then on the other, the combined love of all sahāba, awliyā-ullāh, everyone - the love Rasūlullāh ﷺ had would outweigh the combined love. However, if you also put the fear Rasūlullāh ﷺ had on one side, and the combined fear of all sahāba, of all awliyā - the fear Rasūlullāh ﷺ had would outweigh their combined fear. He was the greatest lover; the greatest slave.
Don’t think Ramadān is just about food. That is for 13/14/15 year olds - they are at the beginning. We start at the beginning, not stay at the beginning. The beginning = hunger, thirst + tarāwīh - but now, you have to go deeper and deeper to increase your connection to Rasūlullāh ﷺ.
Third way = dhikr. Remember Allāh swt in your heart (dhikr e qalbī) - when you’re free, sit for 10-15 mins, I want to do nothing else and only remember you ya Allāh. Make intention your remembering Allāh swt from the heart - forget your thoughts, forget your sorrows - I want to only remember you Ya Allāh! How? Just remember His name in your heart ‘wadhkur ismu rabbika’!
Try to make du’ā after suhūr, after iftār - talk to Allāh swt, spill your heart to Him. Then you will enjoy - Ramadān will then have an effect, a long effect, a long lasting after effect.
May Allāh swt change our life this year; may He grant us a heart changing Ramadān, a life-changing Ramadān. May He swt make it such that we graduate with ‘la’alakum tattaqūn' Aameen
South Africa - Capetown - Bayān
29/06/15 Shaykh Kamaluddin db
Who are the 'allathīna āmanū - those who believe?’ - they are ashad hubul-lillāh! They are extremely intense and intensely extreme in their love for Allāh swt. Ramadān shows us that we can do it - we flipped and switched in this month…we started become ashaddu hubul-lillāh. Some of make du’ā, some sitting in i’tikāf, some praying tahajjud - we behave like lovers in this month, but after the month passes, we lose this feeling of love.
How can you keep this love for Allāh swt after Ramadān:
How can you ever lose this love? We lose it when we allow ourselves to fall in love with something else (ghayr mahram). Sometimes a person falls in love with ghayr mahram - and they don’t do this in Ramadān..they fall in love outside Ramadān. Always remember this - whenever you let your heart feel an untrue love, Allāh swt will take away the true love you had for Him. Allāh swt doesn’t accept roommates. This is called Ghayra! When you do this, you will get lost - you will lose the loving feeling! Some men make such a mistake that they allow themselves to feel this love for a complete stranger - someone they met in business or at the shop. Be careful - guard your heart.
Only love Allāh swt, and those you can love for Allāh swt, for the sake of Allāh swt. Some people become materialistic - they lose their love for Allāh swt. ‘Ya Allāh swt, I want to be your lover always’. Sometimes when we say we will live in Jannah forever, they say we shouldn’t be able to stay forever, cos Allāh swt is only forever. Allāh swt wanted this loving relationship forever so he also let us live forever - you fall deeper and deeper in love. Jannah isn’t static that you remain the same - you will love Allāh swt more. But only those who Allāh swt loves actually enter Jannah. Allāh swt will love you more, and even more, and keep on loving you even more, for ever, for all of future - for ever. That Allāh swt who wants us to love Him forever, can we not love that same Allāh swt for 50-60 years of this life?
The Qur’ān is like a love letter to us - take great care in reciting and memorising it. This is the exchange of love. Allāh swts love for you = Qur’an. You love Him back = You recite Qur’an. Like a lover in this world, they wait for the text of their beloved. If they don’t reply, they read the previous message over and over again. Can’t we love Allāhs love message over and over again?This is a dīn of love.
Second way you love Allāh swt is to love Rasūlullāh ﷺ - he is the greatest beloved. ‘Qul in kuntum tuhibbūnallāha, fat’tabiūnī’, yuhbibkumullāhu, wa yaghfir lakum dhunūbakum’ - if you love Allāh swt, follow me - Allāh swt will love you and forgive you for all your sins.
Follow a sunnah this Ramadān. If you put on one side the love Rasūlullāh ﷺ had for Allāh swt, and then on the other, the combined love of all sahāba, awliyā-ullāh, everyone - the love Rasūlullāh ﷺ had would outweigh the combined love. However, if you also put the fear Rasūlullāh ﷺ had on one side, and the combined fear of all sahāba, of all awliyā - the fear Rasūlullāh ﷺ had would outweigh their combined fear. He was the greatest lover; the greatest slave.
Don’t think Ramadān is just about food. That is for 13/14/15 year olds - they are at the beginning. We start at the beginning, not stay at the beginning. The beginning = hunger, thirst + tarāwīh - but now, you have to go deeper and deeper to increase your connection to Rasūlullāh ﷺ.
Third way = dhikr. Remember Allāh swt in your heart (dhikr e qalbī) - when you’re free, sit for 10-15 mins, I want to do nothing else and only remember you ya Allāh. Make intention your remembering Allāh swt from the heart - forget your thoughts, forget your sorrows - I want to only remember you Ya Allāh! How? Just remember His name in your heart ‘wadhkur ismu rabbika’!
Try to make du’ā after suhūr, after iftār - talk to Allāh swt, spill your heart to Him. Then you will enjoy - Ramadān will then have an effect, a long effect, a long lasting after effect.
May Allāh swt change our life this year; may He grant us a heart changing Ramadān, a life-changing Ramadān. May He swt make it such that we graduate with ‘la’alakum tattaqūn' Aameen
Thursday, 23 July 2015
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB 29 June 2015
Bismillahir-Rahmānir-Rahīm
South Africa - Capetown - Mens bayān!
29/06/15 Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db
What does balance mean? Im going to give you a few tips:
There is a difference between a professional who believes in Allāh swt and a professional who doesn’t believe in Allāh swt
1 - We set a limit on how much we can attain dunyā. Perform at the level of excellence at your post, but what is your limit? Is it your dream and necessary ambition to become CEO? Because when you see the CEOs of this world - their job = their life. So let it be for some people, however the muslim professional cannot be like that. Ākhirah is our purpose. Our purpose in this dunyā is functional - purely functional! ‘Rāhatal Qulūb’ - this lies in ‘ibādah. You can feel satisfaction at work, and delivery a presentation. But passion is something different altogether. That should be our relationship with the world - satisfied but not passionate. This is called ‘zuhd’ - love for the dunyā is the root of all sins. You need to identify that line for yourself. In America, we have the ‘GPA' grade average’ where they are graded 1-4. Someone said to MG db that i have 3.7 average. He said I’m doing some islamic courses - he said today i was thinking, if i was only to study dunyā and leave my dīnī work, i could get 3.8 Should i leave my dīnī tasks? I told him no, Islām doesn’t teach you have to leave all other aspect of your human development. Don’t think you can learn later in life to do islamic community services. These workers, some of them, they share stories between themselves to show who works more. SubhānAllāh. A student was telling me he gets depressed when he hears their stories because of their addiction to work.
2 - While they are working, they don’t let that work distract them from the dhikr of Allāh swt. Rijālun la tulhīhim tijaratun wa lā bay’un and dhikrillāh! This is the verse for you - frame it! Remind yourself! Take a five second reminder when you see this āyah. Your real hearts passion should be Allāh swt. Take a few second heart check - this will sell you from selling your heart and soul! Even Americans use this statement - corporate culture can suck you in. This is another line you draw. You have to keep watch. Keep watch over your heart. Is this environment affecting you? Feel the nearness ‘huwa ma'akum ayna mā kuntum.
3 - From rough scan, you seem to be mid career professionals - now, when you are mid career…this is a stage in your life that either you have reached the end of your advancement, or you’re one of those people who are on fast track. There are two sets of you. Either way, whichever one you follow, take a more serious approach to your dīn! Now you need to think, can i find some time how i can development in my dīn. I know how to do so much, but i don’t know the meaning of the Qur’ān. You don’t even know Allāh swts names - lillāhi asmā’ul husnā, fad’ūhu bihā’. There is another personality of yours - your spiritual personality. You have not allowed to come out. Do you prefer to stand longer in salāh or make sajda? Is there a particular surah you like reciting? This is part of your spiritual personality. Do you feel any connection to a certain verse? Your preferences, your flavours, your flair has no come out yet! If i was to ask you which car you like, you will tell me exactly the model, the colour you like. If i ask the women, which colour matches? Why did Allāh swt combine these names, and not the other names? You feel like wearing certain colours in a day? It’s jā’iz - but do you ever think I will call Allāh swt with this name today. Your materialistic personality has developed. You have your fav powerpoint background - so many favourites. You want them to come out in dīn. If you are mid-career, you should think I am in my spiritual infancy. You’re already half way in the grave - one foot is in the grave. You don’t want to meet Allāh swt like that. ‘wa al laysa lil insāni illā ma’ sa’ā’. We wouldn’t be able to function if we weren’t dynamic in dunyā - you need the same dynamism is dīn.
What is the level of your salāh? Can you taste the difference between ‘subhāna rabbiyal adhīm, subhāna rabbiyal a’alā’? We settle with mediocrity in dīn, and go for excellence in dunyā. Allāh swt has prescribed excellence in every single thing he does. If you conducted one meeting and it went bad, you would think how could i fix that.
Take you dīn seriously. Ramadān is a testament that you can do more. We can stay from basic needs for Allāh swt - and we are not even tempted to cheat. So many times you could secretly eat, but its not even in your imagination. We could have swallowed some water during wudhū - but we don’t. This is taqwa. We fast out of taqwa.
Ride on the wave of this fast. What are few things you could do in Ramadān”
1 - Make du’ā - you need to feel a need and dependency for du’ā. Rasūlullāh صلي الله عليه وسلم said, even if your shoelace snaps, still make du’ā to Allāh swt! Every du’ā at the time of suhūr and iftār is accepted - 60 blank cheques. Maximise on these du’ās - max up. Ask Allāh swt for Himself. Ya Allāh swt, as easy you allowed me to fast, as much istiqāmah you give me, grant me the same persistency in the rest of dīn. Ramadān is the month of wilāyah, of love, of being beloved and loving Allāh swt - don’t confine yourself to just the fast. Some people will get nothing except hunger and thirst from their fast - don’t be like that. The problem is we have fasted many many times before; but very few of us change. What if someone said to you they have been on Hajj 30 times, yet they haven’t changed. There are people right here who have spent 20/30 Ramadāns, but have still not changed. How much Qur’ān can you recite without interruption? We don’t even know. But we talk like this - we say I did an all nighter for work! SubhānAllāh
If you tired your body out for this world, can you not tire yourself out for Allāh swt? Experience the high of the last ten days of Ramadān. If i gave you 1000 pay cheques for one night, you’d think I’m the best boss. Allāh swt gave us ‘ khayrun min alfi shahr’ - don’t miss the last 5 odd nights. Better than 83 years of worship!
You’ll be amazed how much barakah Allāh swt has put in Ramadān!
Let me tell you more features regarding Ramadān - you know when you go to somebody’s house, and they want to feed you so much as they don’t know if the guests will come again. Similarly, I know that 90% of you won’t ever see me again so i don’t know what to tell you. I have ten mins to try and feed you as much as I can.
Why can’t you befriend that Allāh swt who has already befriended you? Your day could be for your company, but your nights and weekends for Allāh swt. Your mind for company, your heart and should for Allāh swt - then your work will be counted as dhikr. So make a lot of du’ās
2 - Connect with the Qur’ān - I would love it if you can finish the Qur’ān. Otherwise, if you can’t then take a sūrah, and keep reciting it, keep reciting it. Learn it’s tafsīr, learn it’s meanings - keep doing it until you’ve reached a level of passion and expertise. If you memorise it, it will move you then - use it in your salāh. How long are you going to pray the small sūrahs in salāh that you just roll off your tongue. Take a paragraph of Qur’ān and learn it really well, so when you pray that in salāh, it will melt you. Develop a powerful connection.
3 - Add some sunnahs in your life. Even just one sunnah - add it this Ramadān. Try to put in your heart some sunnah feeling - how did he fear and love Allāh swt, what was his kindness, gentles with others = these are all feelings. This is what it means to be an ummatī - your pattern should be patterned after his heart. Our hearts are very different to his hearts - if people knew our hearts and how different it was, they wouldn’t call us Muslims. I’ll give you an example - take ‘ar-Razzāq’ and feel it in your heart. He swt is the sustainer, provider - every time you eat, think Allāh swt is feeding me, think he is giving you a bed to sleep - feel it! It’s true because Allāh gave you this. How can you be Abdur-Rahmān and Abdur-Rahīm when you don’t know what it mans? How can you be Abdur-Razzāq? Imam Ghazāli has a beautiful book on the names - learn the names.
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Al-Ghazali-Ninety-Nine-Beautiful-Names-God/dp/0946621314]
Connect with Qur’ān, get a sunnah feeling and make du'ā. Just get some success in your dīn - and then keep going, keep going, keep going. May Allāh swt make this the best Ramadān of your life, the life-changing Ramadān of your life. Amīn
South Africa - Capetown - Mens bayān!
29/06/15 Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed db
What does balance mean? Im going to give you a few tips:
There is a difference between a professional who believes in Allāh swt and a professional who doesn’t believe in Allāh swt
1 - We set a limit on how much we can attain dunyā. Perform at the level of excellence at your post, but what is your limit? Is it your dream and necessary ambition to become CEO? Because when you see the CEOs of this world - their job = their life. So let it be for some people, however the muslim professional cannot be like that. Ākhirah is our purpose. Our purpose in this dunyā is functional - purely functional! ‘Rāhatal Qulūb’ - this lies in ‘ibādah. You can feel satisfaction at work, and delivery a presentation. But passion is something different altogether. That should be our relationship with the world - satisfied but not passionate. This is called ‘zuhd’ - love for the dunyā is the root of all sins. You need to identify that line for yourself. In America, we have the ‘GPA' grade average’ where they are graded 1-4. Someone said to MG db that i have 3.7 average. He said I’m doing some islamic courses - he said today i was thinking, if i was only to study dunyā and leave my dīnī work, i could get 3.8 Should i leave my dīnī tasks? I told him no, Islām doesn’t teach you have to leave all other aspect of your human development. Don’t think you can learn later in life to do islamic community services. These workers, some of them, they share stories between themselves to show who works more. SubhānAllāh. A student was telling me he gets depressed when he hears their stories because of their addiction to work.
2 - While they are working, they don’t let that work distract them from the dhikr of Allāh swt. Rijālun la tulhīhim tijaratun wa lā bay’un and dhikrillāh! This is the verse for you - frame it! Remind yourself! Take a five second reminder when you see this āyah. Your real hearts passion should be Allāh swt. Take a few second heart check - this will sell you from selling your heart and soul! Even Americans use this statement - corporate culture can suck you in. This is another line you draw. You have to keep watch. Keep watch over your heart. Is this environment affecting you? Feel the nearness ‘huwa ma'akum ayna mā kuntum.
3 - From rough scan, you seem to be mid career professionals - now, when you are mid career…this is a stage in your life that either you have reached the end of your advancement, or you’re one of those people who are on fast track. There are two sets of you. Either way, whichever one you follow, take a more serious approach to your dīn! Now you need to think, can i find some time how i can development in my dīn. I know how to do so much, but i don’t know the meaning of the Qur’ān. You don’t even know Allāh swts names - lillāhi asmā’ul husnā, fad’ūhu bihā’. There is another personality of yours - your spiritual personality. You have not allowed to come out. Do you prefer to stand longer in salāh or make sajda? Is there a particular surah you like reciting? This is part of your spiritual personality. Do you feel any connection to a certain verse? Your preferences, your flavours, your flair has no come out yet! If i was to ask you which car you like, you will tell me exactly the model, the colour you like. If i ask the women, which colour matches? Why did Allāh swt combine these names, and not the other names? You feel like wearing certain colours in a day? It’s jā’iz - but do you ever think I will call Allāh swt with this name today. Your materialistic personality has developed. You have your fav powerpoint background - so many favourites. You want them to come out in dīn. If you are mid-career, you should think I am in my spiritual infancy. You’re already half way in the grave - one foot is in the grave. You don’t want to meet Allāh swt like that. ‘wa al laysa lil insāni illā ma’ sa’ā’. We wouldn’t be able to function if we weren’t dynamic in dunyā - you need the same dynamism is dīn.
What is the level of your salāh? Can you taste the difference between ‘subhāna rabbiyal adhīm, subhāna rabbiyal a’alā’? We settle with mediocrity in dīn, and go for excellence in dunyā. Allāh swt has prescribed excellence in every single thing he does. If you conducted one meeting and it went bad, you would think how could i fix that.
Take you dīn seriously. Ramadān is a testament that you can do more. We can stay from basic needs for Allāh swt - and we are not even tempted to cheat. So many times you could secretly eat, but its not even in your imagination. We could have swallowed some water during wudhū - but we don’t. This is taqwa. We fast out of taqwa.
Ride on the wave of this fast. What are few things you could do in Ramadān”
1 - Make du’ā - you need to feel a need and dependency for du’ā. Rasūlullāh صلي الله عليه وسلم said, even if your shoelace snaps, still make du’ā to Allāh swt! Every du’ā at the time of suhūr and iftār is accepted - 60 blank cheques. Maximise on these du’ās - max up. Ask Allāh swt for Himself. Ya Allāh swt, as easy you allowed me to fast, as much istiqāmah you give me, grant me the same persistency in the rest of dīn. Ramadān is the month of wilāyah, of love, of being beloved and loving Allāh swt - don’t confine yourself to just the fast. Some people will get nothing except hunger and thirst from their fast - don’t be like that. The problem is we have fasted many many times before; but very few of us change. What if someone said to you they have been on Hajj 30 times, yet they haven’t changed. There are people right here who have spent 20/30 Ramadāns, but have still not changed. How much Qur’ān can you recite without interruption? We don’t even know. But we talk like this - we say I did an all nighter for work! SubhānAllāh
If you tired your body out for this world, can you not tire yourself out for Allāh swt? Experience the high of the last ten days of Ramadān. If i gave you 1000 pay cheques for one night, you’d think I’m the best boss. Allāh swt gave us ‘ khayrun min alfi shahr’ - don’t miss the last 5 odd nights. Better than 83 years of worship!
You’ll be amazed how much barakah Allāh swt has put in Ramadān!
Let me tell you more features regarding Ramadān - you know when you go to somebody’s house, and they want to feed you so much as they don’t know if the guests will come again. Similarly, I know that 90% of you won’t ever see me again so i don’t know what to tell you. I have ten mins to try and feed you as much as I can.
Why can’t you befriend that Allāh swt who has already befriended you? Your day could be for your company, but your nights and weekends for Allāh swt. Your mind for company, your heart and should for Allāh swt - then your work will be counted as dhikr. So make a lot of du’ās
2 - Connect with the Qur’ān - I would love it if you can finish the Qur’ān. Otherwise, if you can’t then take a sūrah, and keep reciting it, keep reciting it. Learn it’s tafsīr, learn it’s meanings - keep doing it until you’ve reached a level of passion and expertise. If you memorise it, it will move you then - use it in your salāh. How long are you going to pray the small sūrahs in salāh that you just roll off your tongue. Take a paragraph of Qur’ān and learn it really well, so when you pray that in salāh, it will melt you. Develop a powerful connection.
3 - Add some sunnahs in your life. Even just one sunnah - add it this Ramadān. Try to put in your heart some sunnah feeling - how did he fear and love Allāh swt, what was his kindness, gentles with others = these are all feelings. This is what it means to be an ummatī - your pattern should be patterned after his heart. Our hearts are very different to his hearts - if people knew our hearts and how different it was, they wouldn’t call us Muslims. I’ll give you an example - take ‘ar-Razzāq’ and feel it in your heart. He swt is the sustainer, provider - every time you eat, think Allāh swt is feeding me, think he is giving you a bed to sleep - feel it! It’s true because Allāh gave you this. How can you be Abdur-Rahmān and Abdur-Rahīm when you don’t know what it mans? How can you be Abdur-Razzāq? Imam Ghazāli has a beautiful book on the names - learn the names.
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Al-Ghazali-Ninety-Nine-Beautiful-Names-God/dp/0946621314]
Connect with Qur’ān, get a sunnah feeling and make du'ā. Just get some success in your dīn - and then keep going, keep going, keep going. May Allāh swt make this the best Ramadān of your life, the life-changing Ramadān of your life. Amīn
Shaykh Kamaluddin DB 29 June 2015
29 Jun shaykh kamaluddin DB
Majlis Cape Town
Wal lazeena jahadu fina lanahdi yannahum subulana
In one sense it means the physical jihad that some exerted themselves physically for Allah swt so much so that they were willing to give up their lives for Allah swt. We are talking about true mujahideen, there are many people these days who are false mujahideen. But at least you can think in terms of mujahideen of the past. Imagine that mujahid takes one last glance at his house, he looks at all the blessings that Allah swt gave him, and he is ready to give all of that up for Allah swt.
Once a shaykh started crying on hearing about the person (wrestler?) that how much he would physically exert himself, then the students also started crying. Then after a while shaykh explained that look how much people exert themselves just for a worldly cause. You can see this exertion in the life of athletes even today. In the life of Ashaab e sufha also this can be seen. They would spend all their time near the wall of Nabi sws so much so that Allah swt told Nabi sws to sit in their company and told Nabi sws to not to lower his gaze from them, why? Because they were making so much mujahida to get raza of Allah swt. This is also a type of mujahida. These are people called allazeena jahadoo.
We are allazeena amanoo. We want deen to fall into our lap. People say oh this is so difficult for me. It doesn't mean that they are not able to do it. It means they just want what is easy and whatever is easily accessible. We only want what falls into our lap. Allazeena amano do the bare minimum.
There's a third option that is to make yourself that allazeena amanoo who connects themselves to those who are allazeena jahadoo. This is tasawwuf that if we cannot be like those people, we chose to sit with these people, we spend time with them, we let ourselves be inspired by them. Allah swt says that don't content yourselves just with the basic Islam. Strive for taqwah. When you make the intention that I don't want to be content with this I want more. But then you look at yourself and you see nothing. So Allah swt tells us what we should do: kunu ma'a sadiqeen - connect yourself to the sadiqeen. That is, become those ordinary believers who come and sit in the company of allazeena jahadoo. When steel is put near a magnet, it completely becomes magnetized. Allah swt has put signs in nature for us to see.
This connection is not just for barakah. If you sit with them, and you don't see yourself changing then there is something wrong with the connection. If you plug in the switch and it doesn't work it means there is something wrong with the connection. The power generation plant does not have the problem. Allah swt also has distribution points connected to the power plant. The master distributor is Nabi sws. Nabi sws said ana qasim - he himself called himself the distributor. Sahaba ra had big hearts so they could directly plug in to Nabi sws. They were the greatest of insan after Prophets. Then tabieen plugged into Sahaba ra. Then it kept continuing until our generation.
In Pakistan you can see it all, the transformers are there, then you have the sockets then you have the adapter to which you can plug your cellphone into. You cannot plug in your charger directly to the transformers or the main power plant because your charger cannot handle it. Our mashaikh are the adapters. They have nisbat, they are connected. And it goes all the way to the master distributor Nabi sws that has power sent by Allah swt. This is the system.
If you want to have more taqwah, if you feel I have wasted so much time, how much surfing and idle things I have done; if a person thinks that I want to lead a life of dhikr and want to leave the sins, it means you are starting to get charged. It is very important that we make this effort of mujahida. Everything in the world has the potential of taking you away from dhikr unless and until you change it. You don't have to leave the dunya; you have to change your outlook towards the dunya. Like Allah swt says that Don't let your wealth and children distract you from the remembrance of Allah swt. Those who get distracted are the ultimate losers.
Our mashaikh use terms called "fana" and "baqa". This is the process. What's the worst situation? That the heart is 100% connected to dunya and 0% connected to Allah swt. This person must now do dhikr, ibadah and sunnah for Allah swt. Then his heart will start getting connected to Allah swt and the percentage will start to increase. Then comes a time like sunnah itikaf and you want your heart to be 100% connected to Allah swt then you will have to spend sometime completely disengaged from the dunya. Maybe for some it's 10 days of itikaf. For some it might be 40 days. But your whole life you cannot live like that.
First you must strive in your own lifestyle along with your studies etc to see how much you can push it. How much can you connect to Allah swt. Keep pushing. Then when you feel I cannot get any more connection, then leave everything for Allah swt for sometime. Why was Nabi sws going to Cave Hira? He sws could have just sat in his room. Allah swt told us the story of Ashaab e kahf because it has a lesson for us i.e. if you live in a corrupt society then you will have to go to some seclusion so that you can get 100% connected to Allah swt. This seclusion is in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah. Then you keep pushing in seclusion and you feel that 100% connection for Allah swt has now entered your heart. Now when you go back to the world you will still love your parents etc but you would love them for Allah swt. This is called baqa.
In our deen fana is just a passing ground - just a phase that you go through during your tazkiyah process. Fana is not sunnah. Nabi sws came back from the cave. You keep reconnecting until you become a 100% fully engaged person in the dunya. You are completely working in the world but your heart is connected to Allah swt completely. You are doing things in the world for the sake of Allah swt. Everything you do will be for the sake of Allah swt so you get 100% connection with Allah swt and 100% connection with the world for Allah swt - this is baqa and this is the ultimate goal. Seclusion is just a phase.
People who have baqa they walk through the mall they are not attracted to it, they are not dazzled by it. They are only attracted by Allah swt. If you have ever had Haagen Dazs (?), you would not be interested in any other ice cream. When you get interested in Allah swt you will get disinterested in the world. Our mashaikh say how can you glance at the world lovingly when Allah swt has never glanced lovingly at it? Allah swt never glanced lovingly at any of these fashion magazines or car magazines. Allah swt says Qul mataud dunya qaleel - Say O my beloved Prophet sws that all of the dunya is but a trifle. It is nothing but fluff. You are not interested in the fluff when you have seen the substance. You have made your deen fluff. You have made Prada and Mercedes your substance. When you make deen your substance all of this world would become fluff for you.
There is some preliminary effort that we have to make in order to become successful in the dhikr of the heart:
1. Be silent. Both from tongue and minds. A lot of people think too much. They think non stop. You won't be able to tell. Apparently they are motionless but their mind is in 5th gear. It is called a scattered mind. When you pick up the newspaper and read so many scattered news from different sections, your mind gets scattered. Then on TV so many images are scattering your minds. In computer language we call it defragging the computer to get rid of all the scattered files to make it run faster. Intishar.
Then the cellphone is the ultimate tool of intishar. Smart phone that's like a computer in your pockets. Sometimes when some boys give us the phone to make a call just the home screen has so many apps. Intishar. We need silence. We have to get rid of the scatter. If you talk less you will feel dhikr e qalbi. People traditionally used to say that women talk a lot. But men talk so much. And men in South Africa take a special award. We do love your jolly friendly nature but not when it affects your dhikr.
Initially in dhikr your will get many thoughts, but you have to ignore them. When you sit in an office and you tell your boss that I cannot work because there are too many cars passing outside the window and I cannot work. You will get fired if you say that! In the beginning when you sit for dhikr you will get thoughts, you job is to just ignore it. Just like the guy sitting in the office ignores the traffic and focuses on the work. You have to focus on the name Allah. You will be better at this when you start avoiding unnecessary speech.
2. Second is less screen time - on your smartphone, iphone etc. You must do all productive and beneficial things on the screen. But you have to stop yourself from the unnecessary. You have to be extremely strict on it. You click one story about the dolphins and read it for 30 seconds, the internet will get you - and you will be stuck for the next 30 minutes. Just look at your history and you would know how long you had been surfing for. Leave the screen. Learn silence and leave the screen. The more silent and screen-less you are, the more you will get dhikr.
Shaykh Baqi billah rah would often be quiet. Nabi sws used to sit after fajr salah and sometimes he sws would just be silent. That's it. It would be a majlis of silence. So once a student said to Shaykh Baqi Billah rah that Shaykh give us some advice so we may benefit. He said that person who cannot get benefit from my silence cannot get benefit from my words.
For the mental development we have silent places called libraries. They should exist. But when will we have places to have silence for our spiritual development?
Nabi sws was always in a state of sorrow and worry for the ummah. He sws would never let himself rest or relax because of his deep sorrow over the condition of the humanity. He had long periods of silence. Once Nabi sws told Sahaba ra just for tarbiyah that if you knew what I knew you would laugh less and cry more. I'm not saying you should become dry people. Keep your natural jolliness but also have your natural seriousness.
The two adhkar of the heart: wuquf e qalbi and muraqaba these two reinforce one another. One is sponge and you submerge it in the water. The more you submerge it in the water, the longer it will last when you take it out of water. This is like muraqaba. This is the daily exercise of fana. There should be some time of the day when you try to disconnect from the world. The deeper you go in the dhikr, it's like submerging your sponge deeper in water.
Wuquf e qalbi is like spraying water - like we have spraying water bottles while ironing that we call fush fush because it sounds nice. When you cannot completely submerge at those times you should spray. All 24 hours in a day should be either be drowning or spraying. Then you will become dhakir.
You know, this is what the ummah needs. We don't want you to leave your profession or studies. But we want you to do all it as dhakireen. We want dhakireen doctors, dhakireen professionals. Maybe you will say my sponge has dried so you will realize you have to either spray more or maybe submerge more. You can only increase in either of these two. The purpose is that try to live your life such that you never forget Allah swt. When you reach that point all other things will become easy; it will be easy to not get angry, it will be easy to lower your gaze. It is only difficult because we don't remember Allah swt.
May Allah swt accept it from us. Ramadan is the best time to work on your dhikr. In our book of deeds we have so many pages about dunya. Now make the intention that I want some pages in my book of deeds that only has Allah swt on the whole page. Maybe Allah swt will take out that page and put it on the Day of Judgement. Maybe that one page would be so heavy on the scale that day.
You must follow up. You must listen to the recordings, you must listen to live talks. We can only follow up with you a couple of times in a year. But you have to put in effort. You have to follow up to get dhikr in your heart.
Majlis Cape Town
Wal lazeena jahadu fina lanahdi yannahum subulana
In one sense it means the physical jihad that some exerted themselves physically for Allah swt so much so that they were willing to give up their lives for Allah swt. We are talking about true mujahideen, there are many people these days who are false mujahideen. But at least you can think in terms of mujahideen of the past. Imagine that mujahid takes one last glance at his house, he looks at all the blessings that Allah swt gave him, and he is ready to give all of that up for Allah swt.
Once a shaykh started crying on hearing about the person (wrestler?) that how much he would physically exert himself, then the students also started crying. Then after a while shaykh explained that look how much people exert themselves just for a worldly cause. You can see this exertion in the life of athletes even today. In the life of Ashaab e sufha also this can be seen. They would spend all their time near the wall of Nabi sws so much so that Allah swt told Nabi sws to sit in their company and told Nabi sws to not to lower his gaze from them, why? Because they were making so much mujahida to get raza of Allah swt. This is also a type of mujahida. These are people called allazeena jahadoo.
We are allazeena amanoo. We want deen to fall into our lap. People say oh this is so difficult for me. It doesn't mean that they are not able to do it. It means they just want what is easy and whatever is easily accessible. We only want what falls into our lap. Allazeena amano do the bare minimum.
There's a third option that is to make yourself that allazeena amanoo who connects themselves to those who are allazeena jahadoo. This is tasawwuf that if we cannot be like those people, we chose to sit with these people, we spend time with them, we let ourselves be inspired by them. Allah swt says that don't content yourselves just with the basic Islam. Strive for taqwah. When you make the intention that I don't want to be content with this I want more. But then you look at yourself and you see nothing. So Allah swt tells us what we should do: kunu ma'a sadiqeen - connect yourself to the sadiqeen. That is, become those ordinary believers who come and sit in the company of allazeena jahadoo. When steel is put near a magnet, it completely becomes magnetized. Allah swt has put signs in nature for us to see.
This connection is not just for barakah. If you sit with them, and you don't see yourself changing then there is something wrong with the connection. If you plug in the switch and it doesn't work it means there is something wrong with the connection. The power generation plant does not have the problem. Allah swt also has distribution points connected to the power plant. The master distributor is Nabi sws. Nabi sws said ana qasim - he himself called himself the distributor. Sahaba ra had big hearts so they could directly plug in to Nabi sws. They were the greatest of insan after Prophets. Then tabieen plugged into Sahaba ra. Then it kept continuing until our generation.
In Pakistan you can see it all, the transformers are there, then you have the sockets then you have the adapter to which you can plug your cellphone into. You cannot plug in your charger directly to the transformers or the main power plant because your charger cannot handle it. Our mashaikh are the adapters. They have nisbat, they are connected. And it goes all the way to the master distributor Nabi sws that has power sent by Allah swt. This is the system.
If you want to have more taqwah, if you feel I have wasted so much time, how much surfing and idle things I have done; if a person thinks that I want to lead a life of dhikr and want to leave the sins, it means you are starting to get charged. It is very important that we make this effort of mujahida. Everything in the world has the potential of taking you away from dhikr unless and until you change it. You don't have to leave the dunya; you have to change your outlook towards the dunya. Like Allah swt says that Don't let your wealth and children distract you from the remembrance of Allah swt. Those who get distracted are the ultimate losers.
Our mashaikh use terms called "fana" and "baqa". This is the process. What's the worst situation? That the heart is 100% connected to dunya and 0% connected to Allah swt. This person must now do dhikr, ibadah and sunnah for Allah swt. Then his heart will start getting connected to Allah swt and the percentage will start to increase. Then comes a time like sunnah itikaf and you want your heart to be 100% connected to Allah swt then you will have to spend sometime completely disengaged from the dunya. Maybe for some it's 10 days of itikaf. For some it might be 40 days. But your whole life you cannot live like that.
First you must strive in your own lifestyle along with your studies etc to see how much you can push it. How much can you connect to Allah swt. Keep pushing. Then when you feel I cannot get any more connection, then leave everything for Allah swt for sometime. Why was Nabi sws going to Cave Hira? He sws could have just sat in his room. Allah swt told us the story of Ashaab e kahf because it has a lesson for us i.e. if you live in a corrupt society then you will have to go to some seclusion so that you can get 100% connected to Allah swt. This seclusion is in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah. Then you keep pushing in seclusion and you feel that 100% connection for Allah swt has now entered your heart. Now when you go back to the world you will still love your parents etc but you would love them for Allah swt. This is called baqa.
In our deen fana is just a passing ground - just a phase that you go through during your tazkiyah process. Fana is not sunnah. Nabi sws came back from the cave. You keep reconnecting until you become a 100% fully engaged person in the dunya. You are completely working in the world but your heart is connected to Allah swt completely. You are doing things in the world for the sake of Allah swt. Everything you do will be for the sake of Allah swt so you get 100% connection with Allah swt and 100% connection with the world for Allah swt - this is baqa and this is the ultimate goal. Seclusion is just a phase.
People who have baqa they walk through the mall they are not attracted to it, they are not dazzled by it. They are only attracted by Allah swt. If you have ever had Haagen Dazs (?), you would not be interested in any other ice cream. When you get interested in Allah swt you will get disinterested in the world. Our mashaikh say how can you glance at the world lovingly when Allah swt has never glanced lovingly at it? Allah swt never glanced lovingly at any of these fashion magazines or car magazines. Allah swt says Qul mataud dunya qaleel - Say O my beloved Prophet sws that all of the dunya is but a trifle. It is nothing but fluff. You are not interested in the fluff when you have seen the substance. You have made your deen fluff. You have made Prada and Mercedes your substance. When you make deen your substance all of this world would become fluff for you.
There is some preliminary effort that we have to make in order to become successful in the dhikr of the heart:
1. Be silent. Both from tongue and minds. A lot of people think too much. They think non stop. You won't be able to tell. Apparently they are motionless but their mind is in 5th gear. It is called a scattered mind. When you pick up the newspaper and read so many scattered news from different sections, your mind gets scattered. Then on TV so many images are scattering your minds. In computer language we call it defragging the computer to get rid of all the scattered files to make it run faster. Intishar.
Then the cellphone is the ultimate tool of intishar. Smart phone that's like a computer in your pockets. Sometimes when some boys give us the phone to make a call just the home screen has so many apps. Intishar. We need silence. We have to get rid of the scatter. If you talk less you will feel dhikr e qalbi. People traditionally used to say that women talk a lot. But men talk so much. And men in South Africa take a special award. We do love your jolly friendly nature but not when it affects your dhikr.
Initially in dhikr your will get many thoughts, but you have to ignore them. When you sit in an office and you tell your boss that I cannot work because there are too many cars passing outside the window and I cannot work. You will get fired if you say that! In the beginning when you sit for dhikr you will get thoughts, you job is to just ignore it. Just like the guy sitting in the office ignores the traffic and focuses on the work. You have to focus on the name Allah. You will be better at this when you start avoiding unnecessary speech.
2. Second is less screen time - on your smartphone, iphone etc. You must do all productive and beneficial things on the screen. But you have to stop yourself from the unnecessary. You have to be extremely strict on it. You click one story about the dolphins and read it for 30 seconds, the internet will get you - and you will be stuck for the next 30 minutes. Just look at your history and you would know how long you had been surfing for. Leave the screen. Learn silence and leave the screen. The more silent and screen-less you are, the more you will get dhikr.
Shaykh Baqi billah rah would often be quiet. Nabi sws used to sit after fajr salah and sometimes he sws would just be silent. That's it. It would be a majlis of silence. So once a student said to Shaykh Baqi Billah rah that Shaykh give us some advice so we may benefit. He said that person who cannot get benefit from my silence cannot get benefit from my words.
For the mental development we have silent places called libraries. They should exist. But when will we have places to have silence for our spiritual development?
Nabi sws was always in a state of sorrow and worry for the ummah. He sws would never let himself rest or relax because of his deep sorrow over the condition of the humanity. He had long periods of silence. Once Nabi sws told Sahaba ra just for tarbiyah that if you knew what I knew you would laugh less and cry more. I'm not saying you should become dry people. Keep your natural jolliness but also have your natural seriousness.
The two adhkar of the heart: wuquf e qalbi and muraqaba these two reinforce one another. One is sponge and you submerge it in the water. The more you submerge it in the water, the longer it will last when you take it out of water. This is like muraqaba. This is the daily exercise of fana. There should be some time of the day when you try to disconnect from the world. The deeper you go in the dhikr, it's like submerging your sponge deeper in water.
Wuquf e qalbi is like spraying water - like we have spraying water bottles while ironing that we call fush fush because it sounds nice. When you cannot completely submerge at those times you should spray. All 24 hours in a day should be either be drowning or spraying. Then you will become dhakir.
You know, this is what the ummah needs. We don't want you to leave your profession or studies. But we want you to do all it as dhakireen. We want dhakireen doctors, dhakireen professionals. Maybe you will say my sponge has dried so you will realize you have to either spray more or maybe submerge more. You can only increase in either of these two. The purpose is that try to live your life such that you never forget Allah swt. When you reach that point all other things will become easy; it will be easy to not get angry, it will be easy to lower your gaze. It is only difficult because we don't remember Allah swt.
May Allah swt accept it from us. Ramadan is the best time to work on your dhikr. In our book of deeds we have so many pages about dunya. Now make the intention that I want some pages in my book of deeds that only has Allah swt on the whole page. Maybe Allah swt will take out that page and put it on the Day of Judgement. Maybe that one page would be so heavy on the scale that day.
You must follow up. You must listen to the recordings, you must listen to live talks. We can only follow up with you a couple of times in a year. But you have to put in effort. You have to follow up to get dhikr in your heart.
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