Why we don’t have visions of Rasoolullaah (saws)…

Compliments of: http://damascusdreams.wordpress.com/ 

A Persian poet relates the story of a young man who was devoted to worship and who sincerely loved the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa salam). This young man wished to see the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa salam) in his dreams. But, night after night, even though he prayed and hoped for it, he was not blessed with this vision. He decided to visit a wise shaykh he had heard mention of who lived on the far reaches of town and seek his advice.

He made his way to his home one evening, and the shaykh invited him in for discussion and tea. After explaining his situation to him, the shaykh nodded sagely and said, “Be my guest for tonight, and tomorrow morning I will give you some advice.”

That night, the shaykh served the young man dinner. Everything in the simple meal was covered with salt or was dry. Salty fish, dry, hard bread… and not a drop to drink. The young man craved water, but was offered none. His parched throat made him yearn to ask the shaykh for something to drink, but his manners kept him quiet. He ate the food without complaint, his thirst increasing with each bite.

After the Isha prayers the shaykh unfolded a mat, offered it to the young man for his night’s rest, and bade him good night.

That night, the young man dreamed of nothing but water. Cascading fountains, gushing rivers and streams, oceans full of pure, delicious, thirst-quenching water. He dreamed of it until he felt he was swimming in it, drinking huge gulps, until it filled his every pore. He woke before daybreak, one word croaking from his lips: ‘Water….’

The next morning the shaykh asked him if he rested well. The young man then told him about his thirst and his dreams.

The shaykh smiled. He said, “When you begin to have thirst and desire for the Prophet, salAllahu alayhi wa salam, the way you had thirst for water last night, then you will be blessed with his vision.”

On the Moon Sighting Issue – Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui

Assalamu alaykum wa Rahmatullaah,

This is totally worth a read. It is a very important issue to the integrity of our deen.

An Islamic Legal Analysis of the Astronomical Determination of the Begining of Ramadan

Summary of the above Article

Both are authored by Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui. They should be available at www. zawiyah.net shortly, inshaa’Allaah.

Do not forget him and his family in your prayers.

Qabd and Bast

“Observe the qualities of expansion and contraction
in the fingers of your hand:
surely after the closing of the fist comes the opening.
If the fingers were always closed or always opened,
the owner would be crippled.
Your movement is governed by these two qualities:
They are as necessary to you
as two wings are to a bird”

~ Rumi ~

Maqaasid ul-Sharee’ah – The Objectives of Sharee’ah

Bismillaah.

 Shaykh Mokhtar on the Maqaasid (objectives) of Sharee’ah… definitely worth listening to… free, good quality video cast: http://almishkatinstitute.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=43

Enjoy!

The Qur’aan

“Before you begin, make a huge intention of seeking Allah
through the recitation; of making your recitation an act of standing before your Creator; of seeking closeness and love; of expressing thanks; of increasing in submission and slavehood; of acting on Divine Guidance. With that, be aware that when you recite the Qur’an it is actually Allah who is addressing you. Reflect on the tremendousness of this meaning.”

(Shaykh Faraz Rabbani)

On Du’aa as the means to everything…

 (Based on a lecture by Shaykh Mokhtar Maghraoui)  

Please note, translations in parantheses are mine. I did my best to represent the Shaykh’s words to the best of my abilities, but I am certain I did not do them justice. If anything is not clear/understood/incorrect, please let me know.

Du’aa is the most powerful means to achieve what we desire of khayr. It is sa‘yy to Allaah swt. It is one of the most powerful acts of sa‘yy as we obey Allaah (swt) in what He commands us. He promised us ma’iyyah with Him through du’aa“And your Lord says: “Call on Me; I will answer your (Prayer): but those who are too arrogant to serve me will surely find themselves In Hell – In humiliation!””  

The more we engage in du’aa, the less kibr (arrogance) we have. The less du’aa, the more kibr. Rasoolullaah (saws) said: Al-du’aa huwwa al-‘ibaadah (Du’aa, it is ‘ibaadah). The huwwa here is for emphasis. Trying to connect to Allaah (swt) without du’aa, is missing the waseelah to Allaah; our ladder, our intercessor, our umbilical cord to Allaah as infants in our desire and pursuit. Breaking that cord is spiritual death. Never lose hope in it, and never belittle it.

From a qalb seeking Allaah swt, du’aa is always answered; sometimes in ways we don’t perceive. Rasoolullaah (saws) taught that when we make du’aa, one of three things occur as the answer to our du‘aa. Allaah (swt) introduces all of the variables in our life, of our future etc. to determine how to best answer that du’aa. How many variables do we take into account? On account of His infinite knowledge and wisdom, He may or may not give us what we ask.     The first way He (swt) answers is by giving us what we ask.

The second way is by keeping harm away from us. Such an event is not a coincidence; nothing is outside His Ruboobiyyah. He always gives, but do we always see? Are we always ready to receive? All around us are His blessings, yet our hearts are busy with other things.

Ibn‘Ataa’Illaah (ra) says in his hikam:

Rubbamaa waradat ‘alayka al-anwaarFawajadat il-qalbu mahshuwan bil-aathaar

Fartahalat min haythu nazalat                       

“Perhaps illuminations (ma’rifah…) passed by you and found your qalb filled, buried, occupied with the vestiges of creation. So it took off from whence it had come.”   

The third way that our du’aa is answered is that it is kept for us until the Day of Judgment. On the Day of Judgment, we will inquire as to where these gifts came from. We will be told that they are from the du’aa that we had made in dunyaa that Allaah (swt) had kept for us. Which would you prefer? The answer to this question will depend on the state of our qalb. Some ask Allaah (swt) for nothing of dunyaa; they only ask Him for His nearness, His knowledge and for what He asks from them.    

One of the signs of the sa’yy and that Allaah (swt) intends to give the ‘abd and that He (swt) is pleased with Him is that the ‘abd finds du’aa easy and insists in that du’aa and feels inshiraah (inner-expansions) in it. This is being given without being given. That intimacy, security and joy experienced in that du’aa is being given. Sometimes He teaches us by not giving us what we ask so that we will come back to learn this lesson. Allaahumma ghufraanak. That experience was the answer, and it was there, but my qalb was not allowing itself to experience that.   

Al-Hikam al-’Ataa’Iyyah – Commentary on No.3

Commentary on al-Hikam al-’Ataa’Iyya – No. 1

MMV © N. Keller

Hikma #3: The mightiest ambitions cannot breach the walls of destiny 

The Sufi way exists to know the incommensurability of the Divine. To do so the self must relinquish its position as the greatest thing in existence. Belief in the inevitability of destiny anticipates this in principle before one realizes it in the fullness of one’s path. The context of this maxim is personal transformation from spiritual hypocrisy to spiritual sincerity. Masters of the path are unanimous that to accomplish the change the aspirant must have high ambition (himma ‘aliyya), but it must be sublimated so that it becomes second nature; practiced and not thought about; there, but never looked at or depended upon.   Our own will is one of the plainest components of consciousness, and the desire to ascend to the Divine in a moment is probably native to every heart that has ever set out for Him. But the distance of the path lies precisely in realizing the ontological relation between our own contingent being and the necessary being of Allah, and if reaching God were subject to our will, it would not be subject to His, which is the opposite of illumination. The spiritual way must purify the traveller, by its very turns and length, of the illusion of being “master of his fate and captain of his soul,” in order to allow him to directly experience the divine omnipotence. Allah says in a hadith qudsi,“Man offends Me: he reviles Time, though I am Time; the command is in My hand, I turn over the nights and days.”[1]  The celebrated mystic Abu Madyan described the hand of destiny in his first encounter with his own master by saying:  I was an orphan in Andalusia, and my brothers made me herd their flocks. When I would see someone at prayer or reciting the Qur’an, I admired him and went up to him, finding a sadness within me that I didn’t know any Qur’an or how to pray. My resolve grew to run away, so I could learn how to recite and to pray. I fled, but my brother caught up with me with a stabbing spear in his hand, and said, “By God, if you don’t come back I’ll kill you.”   So I went back and stayed a while, the decision to flee by night growing within me. I set out one night by another route, and my brother found me after daybreak. He raised his sword and said, “By God, I’m going to kill you to relieve myself of you,” and he brought it down on me, but I parried it with a stick I had in my hand, which the sword shattered against and flew into pieces. When he saw this, he said, “Brother, go wherever you will.”I went to the sea, crossed to Tangiers, then went to
Ceuta, working as a hand for some fishermen. I proceeded to Marrakesh, which I entered, and joined the Andalusian soldiery, who used to eat my rations and only give me a little. I was told, “If you want to devote time to religion, you should go to Fez.” So I set out for Fez, and stayed in its great mosque, learning ablution and the prayer, and sitting at the circles of the jurists and preachers, though without retaining anything of their words, until I sat with a sheikh who words stayed in my heart. Asking who he was, I was told he was Abul Hasan ibn Hirzihim. I told him that I could not remember anything besides what I heard from him alone, and he said to me: “Those others speak from the tips of their tongues, so their words reach no further than the ears. I intend Allah by my words, which because they come from the heart, go into hearts.” I later heard people speak of the miracles of Abu Ya‘za, so I went with a group who were going to visit him. When we reached Mount Ayrojan, we dropped in on Abu Ya‘za, who received everyone cordially except me. When he served food, he stopped me from eating any, and I drew apart into a corner of the courtyard. Every time he brought food and I stood up, he would drive me away.  

The Turban Tradition in Islam

 From SunniPath Q & A: http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?id=14264&hd=7&cate=0&t=rss

Very interesting…

The turban tradition in Islam
Answered by Shaykh Gibril F Haddad
The turban tradition in Islam

ALLAHUMMA salli ‘ala sahibi al-taj, goes a famous Yemeni prayer _ “Our Lord, bless the Owner of the Crown!” The “crown” is the turban, and its owner is the Holy Prophet Muhammad, upon him blessings and peace.

‘Imama, the turban, has been the most distinctive vestimentary sunnah _ “way of life” _ of Islam since the beginnings of the Religion. ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar said: “The Prophet used to wind the turban around his head and tuck it in behind him, letting its extremity hang down between his shoulders.”

Turbans were worn even before Islam and signified a man’s honour. An Arab saying goes, “Turbans are the crowns of the Arabs”. This was explained to mean that although the pristine Arabs were too proud to accept a king’s rule over them, and therefore had no crowns other than their turbans.

The early Muslim way of wearing the turban consisted in two pieces of headdress: the qalansuwa or borderless hat of varying thickness, and the ‘imama, the actual turban cloth wound around the qalansuwa. Abu Dawud mentioned in his Sunan that the Prophet is related to have said, “The difference between us and the pagans is that we wear the ‘imama on top of the qalansuwa.” Thus, wearing either exclusively of the other was originally a foreign practice.

The material of the turban is ideally white muslin, a very fine cotton. The colours and length of the turban vary. In the chapters on the Prophet’s turban in the books of the “Prophetic Characteristics” known as Shama’il, the authorities have mentioned seven and 10 yard lengths as the two standards. However, as long as one can at least wind the turban around once, its length suffices, while great Shaykhs of the past have
been known to wear large and heavy turbans exceeding 10 yard-lengths by far.

All of the founding Imams of the four schools of Ahl al-Sunnah
wal-Jama’ah wore the turban. In their biographies of the founder of the Hanafi School, Imam Abu Hanifah _ famous for his awesome analytical mind _ al-Suyuti and al-Haytami relate that he owned seven turbans, perhaps one for each day of the week.

The Hanafis, such as Subcontinent and other Asian Muslims from the Chinese to the Turks, are particularly strict about never praying bareheaded. A famous manual of law according to the four Sunni Schools states, “According to the Hanafi school it is abominable to pray bareheaded out of laziness. But praying bareheaded out of humbleness and a feeling of submission is permitted.”

The founder of the Maliki School _ which dominates most of Africa today _ Imam Malik ibn Anas always wore beautiful clothes, especially white, and he “passed the turban under his chin (a style known as tahannuk), letting its extremity hang behind his back, and he wore musk and other scents,” said one of his students.

Malik stressed the wearing of the turban, particularly for the learned. “The turbans should not be neglected,” he said. “I wore the turban with nary a hair on my face. When I asked permission from my mother to pursue the scholarly life she said: ‘First, wear the garb of the scholars’; she took me and dressed me in short-hemmed (mushammara) garments, placed a tall headcover on my head and tied a turban around it then she said, ‘Now go and write the Science’.

“I saw over 30 men wearing the turban in my teacher Rabi’a’s circle. He would not put it down before the Pleiades rose (late at night) and he used to say: ‘I swear it strengthens wit!”‘

Baring the head in Islam was the sign of a man of low condition and is listed in many a manual among the “acts which betray lack of self-respect” (khawarim al-muru’a). A scholar relates that as a young man, one day, he entered the mosque in Madinah without anything on his head whereupon his father scolded him to no end. “How dare you enter the mosque bare-headed?”

Thinking of studying overseas?

This is required reading: http://damascusdreams.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/the-reality-of-the-experience/

Remix: The tortoise and the hare =)

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he’d sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise, plodding on, overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The hare woke up and realized that he’d lost the race. 

The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we’ve all grown up with. But recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story. It continues:  The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he’d lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So hechallenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.The moral of the story? Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. But the story doesn’t end here. The tortoise did some thinking this time and realized that there’s no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare  agreed.They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundledalong, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency. The story still hasn’t ended.