Read to learn - short posts.

 

The value of nafila (supererogatory) worships as compared to fard (obligatory) worships is less than a drop of water in an ocean. 

Imâm-i Rabbânî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’

When a person greets me, Allâhu ta’âlâ gives my soul to my body and I hear his greeting. 

Hadîth-i-sherîf

Man is created to worship Allah. The point and the essence of ’ibâdat (worship) is to make the qalb (heart) become aware of Allâhu ta’âlâ at all times. 

Ubaydullah-i Ahrâr ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’

The harm of the ambition of property and fame to man is more than the harm of two hungry wolves that have run among a flock of sheep.

Hadîth-i sherîf

In the hereafter every person would be right next to the one who he have loved in this world !! 

Hadith-i sherif

A good companion is great bliss for both worlds.

Ahmad Namiqî Jâmî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’

“Each disease has its medicine. Death, only, is an end with no way out.”

Hadith-i sherif

The nafs is the most idiotic creature. Everything it wishes for is something against it and harmful to it. 

Husain Hilmi bin Sa`id Ishik 

'rahmatullahi aleih'

There is only one way that will lead one to endless bliss: to keep within the footsteps of Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).

Junaid al-Baghdadi 'rahmetullahi ta'ala alaih'

Embracing the comfort and beauty of the world!

Muslims try to learn, teach and do the things which Allâhu ta’âlâ commands. They search for knowledge even if it is possessed by disbelievers. It has always been so in the course of history; those who could not think of mankind as a superior being have borne hostility against the Islamic religion, have tried to deceive youngsters and, at a time they did not expect at all, they themselves died, leaving their worldly pleasures, which they had been clasping so tightly, and went to Hell. The names of many of them have been forgotten, with no fame, no sign of them having remained behind them, whereas the Islamic sun has continued to spread its light all over the world.

Disbelievers embrace the comfort and beauty of the world which is sweet outwardly but bitter inwardly, sequinned outside but poisonous inside, pleasing in the beginning but unworthy in the end. Muslims should embrace the commandments of the Qur’ân, which is the way of our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’, and should ceaselessly struggle to improve in this way. They should beware from bid’ats, which have appeared later in Islam and have been concocted by enemies of the Islam,by Islam’s reformers, and by ignorant, stupid people.

When any person says "I", they mean "Their Nafs" !

Man’s nafs-i-ammâra refuses to have îmân (belief) and to adapt itself to the sûrat of Islam. This refusal is inherent in its creation. Therefore the îmân (belief) of people who have adapted themselves to the sûrat (outward appearance) of Islam is the sûrat (outward appearance) of îmân. In other words, it is îmân in appearance. The acts of worship that they perform, such as namâz, fasting, and all the others, are the sûrats of the (true) acts of worship. That is, they are worship in appearance. For, when the word ‘man’ is used ‘man’s nafs’ is meant. When any person says, “I,” they mean ‘their nafs’. As a person performs an act of worship, their nafs is in a state of kufr (denial of Islam). Their nafs denies the fact that what they have doing is a proper act. Can such a person have true and proper îmân and perform their acts of worship properly? Allâhu ta’âlâ, being so merciful and compassionate, kindly accepts the sûrats, appearances of îmân and worship as if they were true îmân and proper worship. He promises and gives the glad tidings that He will put such slaves of His into Paradise. Allâhu ta’âlâ loves Paradise and His slaves who are in Paradise. He is pleased with them. Because Allâhu ta’âlâ has endless kindness, He has accepted only the heart’s confirmation and belief as îmân. He has not enjoined that the nafs also should understand and have îmân. Be that as it may, Paradise also has an outer appearance as well as a haqîqat (true inner essence). Those who have attained only the sûrat of Islam in the world will attain and enjoy only the sûrat of Paradise in the Hereafter. People who have attained the haqîqat of Islam in the world will also attain the haqîqat of Paradise in the Hereafter.
.....
People who attain only the sûrat and (those who attain) only the haqîqat of Paradise will be relishing different flavors although they will be eating the same fruit in its Garden.
.....
A Muslim who progresses in one of those paths is called a sâlik. The sâlik’s nafs slowly frees itself from being a nafs-i-ammâra and attains itmi’nân and ease. Its state of excessive rebelliousness evanesces. It should be known well that a sâlik who endeavors to attain the Wilâyat-i-khâssa has to be in a constant state of obedience to the sûrat of Islam. The Dhikr-iilâhî, the most important duty throughout the progress in Tasawwuf, is one of Islam’s commandments. Also necessary during the course is to avoid Islam’s prohibitions. Performing the (acts of worship that are) farz will facilitate the sâlik’s progress. Islam commands to look for a guide, a scholar who knows Tasawwuf well, so that he will lead the sâlik by the hand. For, it is declared in Mâida Sûra: “Look for a means for attaining Him!”
__________________________________
Paragraphs taken from 2nd volume / 15th letter "Mektubat" - Imam Rabbani 'rahmetullahi aleih'
________
Read the whole letter @:
http://www.hakikatkitabevi.net/book.php?bookCode=030
Page 311

Imam Rabbani / Maktubat - "the wickedness of the nafs-i ammâra" - (1st volume, 52nd letter)

FIRST VOLUME, 52nd LETTER
(This letter, written to Sayyid Shaikh Ferîd, explains the wickedness of the nafs-i ammâra, the illness peculiar to it, and its medicine)


We have been honoured with reading your blessed letter, which you mercifully offered to your inferiors who pray for you. May Allâhu ta’âlâ, for the sake of your great ancestor (Muhammad) ‘’alaihis-salâm’, increase your rewards, heighten your degree, enlarge your chest, which is a source of knowledge, and facilitate your work! May Allâhu ta’âlâ keep our body and soul in His way and forgive (the sins of) those who say “Âmîn” after our prayer! Âmîn. 


You complain about the existence of evil-spirited people who want to sow discord and arouse instigation among your officials. My dear son! Man’s nafs-i ammâra has the ambition to seize a post, to come to the fore. Its only desire is to be the chief so that everybody will bow their heads before it. It does not like to need anybody or to be under someone else’s command. These desires of the nafs mean that it wants to be a god, an idol, so that everybody will worship it. It wants to be a partner with Allâhu ta’âlâ. Even more, the nafs is so base that it does not like partnership but wants to be the only ruler, commander, with everybody under its command. Allâhu ta’âlâ declares in a hadîth-i qudsî: “Bear hostility against your nafs! For, your nafs is My enemy.” This means to say that to strengthen the nafs, to gratify its desires to obtain property, positions, ranks, to be superior to everybody and to abhor everybody, would mean to help and strengthen this enemy of Allâhu ta’âlâ; it should be realized what a terrible, horrible felony this is. Allâhu ta’âlâ declares in a hadîth-i qudsî: “Greatness, superiority are peculiar to Me. He who wants to be My partner in these two is My great enemy. Without pitying him, I shall fling him into Hell fire.” [As is seen, such worldly wealths as property, rank, post, commandership and leadership should be desired not for following the nafs but for doing and practising Allah’s commands, for serving people and Muslims. It will be a great act of worship to desire them with this intention and to do them.]

The reason why Allâhu ta’âlâ is hostile against the world, why the world is so base, is because it causes the nafs to get its desires and because it strengthens the nafs. He who helps the nafs, which is Allah’s enemy, will certainly be Allah’s enemy. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ praised being poor, for poverty will not allow the nafs to obtain its desires. It will not listen to it. It will take its conceit out of it. The sending of Prophets, Islam’s commands and prohibitions are all intended to break the nafs, to crush it, and to prevent its excessive activities. The more Islam is obeyed, the fewer desires will the nafs have. It is for this reason that doing one command of Islam is more effective in annihilating the desires of the nafs than thousands of years of riyâzat and mujâhada done on one’s own.

[Riyâzat means not to do the desires of the nafs. Mujâhada means to struggle against the nafs, to do what the nafs dislikes.] In fact, those riyâzats and mujâhadas that are not suitable with Islam augment the desires of the nafs. They cause it to become inordinate. The Brahmin priests in India and the magicians called jukiyya went quite far into riyâzat and mujâhada; yet all their endeavours proved useless. In fact, they made their nafs even more thoroughgoing and outrageous.
[Irreligious people in India call the highest of the four spiritual classes Brahmin, which means the chief of the Hindu priestly caste of Brahmin. Jûkî is the name given to the dervishes of Hindu disbelievers.]

For example, paying one cent of zakât, which Islam commands, to people prescribed by Islam, destroys the nafs very much more than giving thousands of gold coins as alms or by doing favours on one’s own. On the day of Bayram (’Iyd), eating and drinking instead of fasting, because Islam commands us to do so, is more useful than fasting for years. Performing the two rak’ats of morning prayer in jamâ’at is better than performing supererogatory prayers all night till morning and then (falling asleep and) not performing morning prayer in jamâ’at.
In short, unless the nafs is purified and wakes up from the dream of being a chief or being superior, it is impossible to escape perdition. Before going to endless death, it is necessary to consider saving the nafs from this illness. The blessed word Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah dispels all the mendacious idols inside and outside of man, and so it is the most useful, the most effective medicine for purifying the nafs. Great men of Tasawwuf chose this word for the purification of the nafs. Translation of a Persian couplet:

Unless the road is cleaned with the broom of Lâ,
You will not attain the palace of il-l-Allah!

If the nafs goes astray and becomes obstinate, it is necessary to refresh the îmân by expressing this word. Our Prophet ‘sallAllâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “Renew your îmân by saying Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah!” It is always necessary to say it, for the nafs-i ammâre is always filthy. The following hadîth-i-sherîf states the virtues of this beautiful word of tawhîd: “If they put the earth and the heaven on one scale of the balance and this word of tawhîd on the other scale, certainly the scale on which this word is laid will weigh heavier.”
Salâms to those who are on the right way and to those who follow the footsteps of Muhammad Mustafâ ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’!

_______________
Seâdet-i Ebediyye Endless Bliss Second Fascicle / p. 143
http://www.hakikatkitabevi.net/book.php?bookCode=026

Read more Maktubat / Imam Rabbani "rahmetullahi alaih" @
Endless bliss - http://www.hakikatkitabevi.net/?HKLanguage=en

Hypocrisy ... ?!?

Do not try to divulge a Muslim’s faults, and do not pry into anyone’s private affairs! Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “On the night of Mi’râj I saw some people inflicting sheer, sadistic torture on themselves. I asked Jebrâ’îl ‘’alaihissalâm’: ‘Yâ Jebrâ’îl! What sin did these people commit? Why are they tormenting themselves?’ Jebrâ’îl ‘alaihis-salâm’ said: ‘These are the people who divulged other people’s (private) faults.’ ” Mûsâ (Moses) ‘’alaihis-salâm’ asked Haqq ta’âlâ on the Tûr-iSînâ (Mount Sinai): “Yâ Rabbî! What punishment awaits people who divulge others’ secret faults?” Haqq ta’âlâ declared: “Hell is their destination if they expire without (having made) tawba.”

Imâm Ghâzâlî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaihi bârî’ states that there are three gravest sins. They are: 1– Being bahîl. 2– Jealousy. 3– Hypocrisy.

Bahîl means miserly, close-fisted. You would be bahîl if, say, someone needed you for something and you felt too jealous to teach them what they needed. [The worst close-fisted people are those who do not perform emr-i-ma’rûf and nahy-i-munker to Muslims. They are people who do not teach Islam to them. Or, they are people who teach them wrongly.] Our Prophet ‘’alaihissalâm’ states: “Bahîl people cannot enter Paradise no matter how zâhid they are.” (Zâhid is the adjectival form of zuhd, which in turn means (Islamic) asceticism.)

As for jealousy: Supposing a certain person has something useful, such as an occupation, a house, property, knowledge; it will be jealousy if you wish these benefits to desert him and come to you. [It will not be jealousy to wish these benefits to be yours as well without deserting that person. This wish means envy, apetite, which is not something sinful.]
The Sultân-ul-Enbiyâ ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “Jealousy will consume your hasenât [good deeds], like fire’s consuming wood.”
Hypocrisy means to perform good deeds such as namâz, fasting, almsgiving, building roads and mosques so that people will see and admire you. All deeds performed with motivations of this sort are within the scope of hypocrisy (riyâ). Hypocrisy is a minor version of shirk (polytheism, attributing a partner to Allâhu ta’âlâ). Unless a tawba is made, it will never be forgiven (by Allâhu ta’âlâ). Not to act compatibly with your knowledge, not to have salâh and ikhlâs in your deeds, and not to attach value to Islamic scholars, to worshippers, to the Azân (Adhân), and to sacred days are signs of shaqâwat.


___________


"O Son" Hakikat kitabevi


http://www.hakikatkitabevi.net/book.php?bookCode=191