A Dialogue I Had with Myself to Discipline it

"Are you–O Self!–then able to trample on the hand of attachment to other than Allah Most High in order to cast it aside? Or on some money in order to snatch it away, that a poor person is better entitled to and whose greed is holding you back from Allah Most High? Or on a lustful gaze in order to tear it away, which is clouding your heart, keeping the lights of intimacy from being imprinted in its mirror, and preventing the seeds of reverential awe and watchfulness from sprouting in its field? Or on that look of self-admiration in order to wrest it away, which is poisoned with arrogance, veiling the self from its true state of indigence and need and making it heedless of the innumerable gifts that it has been given?”

by Shaykh Hamza Karamali

Read the complete article at http://blog.sunnipath.com/2008/08/27/a-dialogue-i-had-with-myself-to-discipline-it/

Of men and saints

Of men and saints some are like the sun
they clear the horizon and make everything lucid

you approach them with minds filled with nothingness
and they fill you with Him and His path

so strange is their aura
stranger yet are their words

you see them and then Him
suddenly He is so palpably close, as if closer than the jugular vein
and even closer

we sat at the feet of such a man
just a few days ago, who took us miles ahead of ourselves
and even beyond
to Him

may Allah SWT preserve him and all his people

Anger

This is a quote of the Sheikh.

"Whatever begins with anger ends in shame."

Ending

"If it were not for the ending you wouldn`t long for the beginning."



Someone said this to me once and it is so relevant today.

Ten days in Japan

Maulana Mufti Taqi Usmani [May Allah preserve him] writes about his stay in Japan.

Link : http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jul2008-daily/23-07-2008/col8.htm


[PS.This article is in Urdu]

Beware of credit cards and borrowing

1.Given a Shovel, Americans Dig Deeper Into Debt

Link : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/business/20debt.html?em&ex=1216785600&en=b1d6623c5fbc4ded&ei=5087%0A#

2.Uncomfortable Answers to Questions on the Economy

Link : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/economy/19econ.html?em&ex=1216785600&en=a540e2f83564df17&ei=5087%0A

Taqwa

The Sheikh says :

Ibn-Omar [may Allah be well pleased with him] said,"Taqwa consists in not seeing yourself as better than anyone."

"The Women Worshippers" from The Wake-Up Call of the Deluded

The following audio file is a translation and commentary of a small excerpt from the famous book called The Wake-Up Call of the Deluded at the End of the 10th Century Hijrah, Concerning That In Which They Have Differed from Their Pure Predecessors, by Imam Abul-Mawahib 'Abdul-Wahhab bin Ahmed al-Shafi'i al-Sha'rani (d. 973 AH).

Download Wake-Up_Call_Excerpt.mp3


Source : http://www.reflectonthis.com/blog/audio_lessons/index.html by Sidi Khalil Abu Asmaa .


May Allah SWT bless Sidi Khalil for such a beautiful blog.Alhamdulilah.

Causes of the Expansion and Constriction of the Heart

Quran : "Whoever Allah SWT wishes to guide He expands his heart to Islam.And whoever He wills to leave astray He makes his chest tight and constricted as if he is going up into the sky."[Al-An`am, 125]

Ibn Qayyim Al- Jawzi[may Allah have mercy on him] says:

From the causes of the expansion of the heart is this light that Allah SWT thrusts into the heart of the servant and it is the light of faith [iman], for verily when this light comes into the heart it expands the chest , it makes it wide and it brings joy and happiness to the heart. And if this light is devoid from the heart of the slave then it becomes tight and constricted and it becomes as if in the most tightest and confined prison and the most difficult.

The Prophet [Allah bless him and give him peace]said that when this light comes into the heart it expands and it gets wider .The Sahaba [May Allah be well pleased with them] asked the Prophet [Allah bless him and give him peace], "what is the sign of that?"

The Prophet[Allah bless him and give him peace] said , "The sign of such is constant turning and yearning towards the abode of eternity and indifference to the abode of delusions and preparation for death before it arrives".

Causes of constriction of the heart :

1.Turning away from Allah [Doing what is displeasing to Allah, not doing what Allah SWT wants you to do at that particular time and place]
2.The attachment of the heart to other than Him
3.Being heedless from His remembrance
4.Loving other than Him.[For verily whoever loves something other than Allah he is punished by it (i.e it bites you) and his heart is imprisoned in the love of that thing.]



Source : Khutbah at Medina Center on May 23, 2008 , by Sidi Khalil Abu Asmaa

Link to the audio :http://reflectonthis.blogs.com/

5 Years of all-things-SunniPath

Insh`Allah, SunniPath is celebrating it`s fifth anniversary online this weekend.

A live session with a number of senior SunniPath members is scheduled for Sunday , 25/05/08 at 6pm GMT.

Please try and register for the session.

Link : http://www.sunnipath.com/Outreach/2008-Summer/0805135YearAnniversary.html

SeekersMedia : Two Online Courses with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

In the Name of Allah, the Benevolent, the Merciful


SeekersMedia Presents :


Two download-based courses with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

1. Mukhtar Dars: Mastering Fiqh (Worship)

2. Kharida Dars: Understanding Islamic Beliefs


For further details please visit http://seekersmedia.com/

This is a unique opportunity for those who want to learn and benefit from our beautiful teacher, Shaykh Faraz Rabbani. These are online courses and hence you can learn , revise and discuss things from the comfort of your home and at the time of your convinience.

May Allah SWT make it easy for us to seek knowledge and learn from the blessed scholars.

The beautiful ways of Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

In the last Live Session for Living Islam Shaykh Faraz narrated the following :

One of the duas that the Prophet [Allah bless him and give him peace] taught Sayidina Mu`adh ibn Jabal [may Allah be well pleased with him] was, "O Mu`adh by Allah I love you and I counsel you O Mu`adh do not leave saying after each prayer `O Allah assist me in remembering you and to be thankful to you and to worship you most beautifully' ".

[This summarizes the deen]

Sayyidna Mu`adh transmitted this to others in the same way saying that"O so-and-so I love you by Allah and I counsel you O so-and-so do not leave saying after each prayer `O Allah assist me in remembering you and to be thankful to you and to worship you most beautifully'."

And this hadith has come to us continuously in the same way, in each chain of transmission the narrator is telling those he is narrating it to specifically that "O so-and-so I love you by Allah I counsel you O so-and-so do not leave saying after each prayer `O Allah assist me in remembering you and to be thankful to you and to worship you most beautifully'."

Shaykh Faraz then named all those present in his class and said "Ya [naming all students individually], by Allah I love you and I counsel you not to leave saying after each prayer `O Allah assist me in remembering you and in being thankful to you and in worshipping you with excellence' ."

SubhanAllah this was so beautiful and as one recites the dua after the prayer one is somehow reminded of the teacher that taught one and also the manner in which he taught.

A recent SunniPath blog entry by Shaykh Ashraf said that Shaykh Faraz has left SunniPath. The news left quite a few students in tears. Shaykh Faraz was my first teacher at SunniPath and he pratically taught me most of whatever little I know of Islam. From correcting one`s wudu and teaching one prayer , to almost every aspect of fiqh that one can think of he was always there to guide and help us. His live sessions were always special. When one was burdened with the fiqhi details he would bring in some wit into the class room and help us all relax.

His caring ,sensitive and focussed approach helped a lot of us. Most importantly he taught so many of us to say 'I don`t know' when faced with a question one isn`t sure of.We will surely miss him at SunniPath....I hope there is a way he can still come back and do some classes there.

The canadians are so lucky to have him there.

Know Your Enemy

Imam Ahmad b, Sahl, May God have Mercy on him, mentioned, “Your enemies are four: The World, whose weapon is the people, and whose prison is isolation; Satan, whose weapon is satiation, and whose prison is hunger; The undisciplined soul, whose weapon is sleep, and whose prison is night vigil; and vain inclinations, whose weapon is speech, and whose prison is silence.”

By Imam Zaid Shakir


Source : http://www.newislamicdirections.com/nid/notes/know_your_enemy/

Illness, food and drink

Hadith Qudsi 18:

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Allah (mighty and sublime be He) will say on the Day of Resurrection: ‘O son of Adam, I fell ill and you visited Me not.’ He will say: ‘O Lord, and how should I visit You when You are the Lord of the worlds?’ He will say: ‘Did you not know that My servant So-and-so had fallen ill and you visited him not? Did you not know that had you visited him you would have found Me with him? O son of Adam, I asked you for food and you fed Me not.’ He will say: ‘O Lord, and how should I feed You when You are the Lord of the worlds?’ He will say: ‘Did you not know that My servant So-and-so asked you for food and you fed him not? Did you not know that had you fed him you would surely have found that (the reward for doing so) with Me? O son of Adam, I asked you to give Me to drink and you gave Me not to drink.’ He will say: ‘O Lord, how should I give You to drink when You are the Lord of the worlds?’ He will say: ‘My servant So-and-so asked you to give him to drink and you gave him not to drink. Had you given him to drink you would have surely found that with Me.’"


It was related by Muslim.


Source: http://www.sunnipath.com/library/Hadith/H0005P0000.aspx

Time

Hadith Qudsi 4:

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Allah said: ‘Sons of Adam inveigh against [the vicissitudes of] Time, and I am Time, in My hand is the night and the day.’" (1)

(1) As the Almighty is the Ordainer of all things, to inveigh against misfortunes that are part of Time is tantamount to inveighing against Him.

Source: http://www.sunnipath.com/library/Hadith/H0005P0000.aspx

Who or what is a Salafi?

What I am trying to say is that there is a large fictional element involved when someone comes to the Muslims and says, "No one has understood Islam properly except the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and early Muslims, and our sheikh". This is not valid, for the enduring works of first-rank Imams of hadith, jurisprudence, Qur'anic exegesis, and other shari'a disciplines impose upon Muslims the obligation to know and understand their work, in the same way that serious comprehension of any other scholarly field obliges one to have studied the works of its major scholars who have dealt with its issues and solved its questions. Without such study, one is doomed to repeat mistakes already made and rebutted in the past.

Most of us have acquaintances among this Umma who hardly acknowledge another scholar on the face of the earth besides the Imam of their madhhab, the Sheikh of their Islam, or some contemporary scholar or other. And this sort of enthusiasm is understandable, even acceptable (at a human level) in a non-scholar. But only to the degree that it does not become ta'assub or bigotry, meaning that one believes one may put down Muslims who follow other qualified scholars. At that point it is haram, because it is part of the sectarianism (tafarruq) among Muslims that Islam condemns.


by Sheikh Nuh Keller


Source : http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/salafi.htm

Incessant salaam giving

Read SunniPath answer at: http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?id=18763&hd=7&cate=0&t=rss

:)

Hundred Colours of Rainbow at SunniPath

A master speaks from his zawiya,up on the hills
he brings to life aphorisms of ages by-gone
and brings one closer to the author and his Author
the silent audience is awe-struck , humbled and hopeful
Near the end of the session,
you ask what you ask for everyone`s welcomed
and then make a note of the answers

Perhaps not raised as well as we could have been
and arabic was praised but never taught
and so one took the 101 for starters
it really is for starters
those early morning sessions
differentiating the howa from the hiya
certaining go a long way in ridding oneself of the
hawa

Had doubts all along as to when and how to pray
Is this the right way?
the one who taught me
seemed unsure himself
so one learns it all at fiqh sessions with a splendid teacher
he doesn`t take one to task
and welcomes questions all along
and yes there are lovely examples quoted all along
a few smiles along the way as well

Dear lovely SunniPath people
thank you for letting us in and
marvel at the rainbow

When Hearts Change

Sometimes the Shaykh banishes the novice both inwardly and outwardly, such that he drives him out of his house and shuts his door on him. Sometimes the Shaykh banishes the novice inwardly. This is more harmful to the novice for, in this case, the latter is not aware that he has been banished or that he deserves expulsion. This state of banishment will remain until the novice hearkens to his Shaykh: repentant, remorseful, meek and heartbroken.

Al-Suhrawardi then says about the same theme:
One of the students of Junayd asked the latter a question, but when Junayd answered, this student objected. Quoting a Qur'anic verse, Junayd said: But if you believe me not, go you apart from me! [44: 23]

Source : http://shadhiliteachings.com/

The ordinary muslim with broken shoes

Not from the mighty and definitely not the majestic
just the common folk with broken soles and broken words


not a scholar by far,not a student by much
with coarse hands , just mending our ways
I notice your smile,whenever we meet
a jest , a laughfor everything goes


you ask so muchwhile I evade when possible
those open-ended, unending questions

why must you know,
and why must you ask?
I so often wondered , but now I know


our broken shoes, small rooms with nothing
unwittingly draw your attention
and so you ask
while we listen
to the unending
woes and miseries of
our life
with silence
it must be interesting
putting our scattered
pieces
together and
sighing in
wonderment,

thank you.