21 Usool of Mamulaat – II

[Continuation of the Part I: 21 Usool of Mamulaat]

11. Absolutely essential for the murideen to pray their fardh salah in jama’ in the Masjid

–     Pray it with takbir-e-oola – catch the first rakah

–     That person who does not give honor to the ma’mul of the faraidh, how will Allah enable him to do justice to the daily azkaar and mamulaat

–      Some Ullema say that praying Salah in congregation is fardh, Shaykh mufi taqi usmani[db] says its Sunnah-e-muaqqada; whatever its sharii ruling is, it’s a very important thing

–     Shaykh says if a person does not succeed in improving the quality of  his salah how will he succeed in improving the quality of his ma’mul [Shaykh has written an entire book on how to fix the quality of our salah – click here]

12. Be regular in adopting Tahajjud

–          A murid should view Tahajjud mandatory upon himself

–     There is no success on this path without tahajjud.

–     It was the greatest Sunnah mamul that RasulAllah[saw] practiced by which  he got the qurb of Allah[swt]

–     Shaykh says that we must practice this Sunnah mamul of getting close to Allah these extra mamulaat aren’t going to benefit us fully. Because we are slave to the Sunnah

–    Shaykh uses an incredible example from nature i.e. if you look at a tree, it has two major components: First – Its trunk and branches that grow upward and are apparent and second – Its roots that are hidden and grow downward. We know that every tree is as strong as its roots – the stronger and deeper its roots in the ground, the higher it will grow. Science teaches us that a tree’s roots grow during night time in the dark and its branches sprout in the daytime.

–      Just like that we have to give life to the worship of the night because when we do that we are strengthening and deepening our roots. And if we deepen our roots at night, then Allah [swt] will enable our trunk and branches to grow during the day.

–     It’s essential for us to view the Sunnah practice of Tahajjud at night as our roots and our mamulaat as our leaves and branches that will sprout from this Sunnah.

–     It’s part of our tariqah to view Tahajjud as mandatory. [May Allah enable all of us, the one reading and the one typing to be regular in our Tahajjud salah, Ameen]

–     Allah[swt] revealed upon Prophet Dawood[as] that If a person claims to be my lover/muhib and sleeps all night then he is not truthful in his claim because every lover wants to be alone with their beloved and night prayer is the perfect time to do that and the dua and istighfar at the time of Tahajjud.

13. It’s essential for a salik to guard his/her gaze

–      Shaykh once said a salik who misdirects his gaze by looking at something prohibited can destroy months of ibadah – it is such a lethal sickness. Sometimes we might experience this ourselves  that we look at something we weren’t supposed to look at and that gaze is like a vacuum sucking the nur out of our heart and we become so sad afterwards…[We should pray to Allah[swt] to let us see the effects our sins, open up the reality and how much damage we cause ourselves by doing sins like misdirecting our gaze etc]

–    So, misdirecting our gaze is a deadly disease. One of the cures for it that Shaykh has mentioned is: That when we have a greedy desire for something like a man has for some women, he should consider it a scorpion in of himself and try to fight that desire  in his heart first and then it would become easy to lower his gaze

–     We misunderstand hifazat-e-nazar as being that if we look at something prohibited we should then lower our gaze. We think that it’s reactive, but actually it’s proactive. We should do hifazat-e-qalb first so we can do hifazat-e-nazar. i.e. we should save our heart from that greedy desire only then our nazar would be saved. It doesn’t mean that you look around freely and if during that you look at something impermissible only then you look down.

–      Shaykh mentions in his book ‘haya-o-pak damni’ that lowering the gaze means that one should always look down. In Farsi it is called – nazar bar qadam, it’s a whole philosophy and way of life. Our shuookh practice this…[Traffic signal example, flight example]

–      Shaykh mentions that one fraction of a second of can destroy years of ibadah

–       He explains that the young man today has an incredible imaginative power, if you cast that first look that picture is implanted in your heart and then you can imagine all the things about that picture. Therefore, that first glance is poisonous for us.

–      If we save ourselves from this danger inshaAllah, Allah [swt] will save us from other sins.

14. That person who is unmarried should fast

–      She/he should adopt the Sunnah fasts: Monday & Thursdays, the 13, 14 & 15^th of every month etc…

–      Some young men complain that even when they fast it doesn’t help. The reason behind this is that: They destroy the essence of their fast by eating a lot or eat outside food at iftaar.

–      Many of our mashaikh have explained that our nafs is very powerful when our stomach is full. The way to maximize from our fasting is to eat less at iftar and keep a bit of hunger with us. Keep your nafs chained through the leash of hunger

15. Those salikeen who are married should fulfill the responsibilities of their spouse.

–      If we’re not good to our family, spouse and children then Allah [swt] might take away the barakah of our daily zikr and mamulaat.

–     That person who fails to preserve huqooq-ul-ibad, it will block their progress in sulook.

16. We should not hurt the heart of another person

–     We should not do or say or even have an expression on our face that would hurt or break anybody’s heart. This is also harmful for our progress in sulook

–     Shaykh says ‘dil-e-maghmoom ko masroor ker de – take my hurt heart and make it happy’ so when we are doing these mamulaat to make our heart happy and make this dua to Allah that Ya Allah take my broken heart and make it happy…how can we go and break somebody’s heart?

–     If we want Allah [swt] to put happiness in our broken heart it’s not possible that we put sadness in other people’s hearts.

–     Shaykh wrote in his book that the greatest crime after shirk is to break the heart of another person.

17. We should view that everything is from Allah and we should turn to Allah [swt] in every situation

–     It means that we should know that every benefit is from Allah i.e. if Allah [swt] does not wish to benefit us, the whole of creation can gather and they won’t be able to benefit us one bit but if Allah [swt] wishes to benefit us then even if the whole of creation gathers to harm us they won’t be able to harm us a bit.

–      One of the diseases that people have specially here in Pakistan that when people have a worry in their life they go to amils and ask them to recite something give them amulets or they ask them to do counter magic etc…Shaykh has often negated this. He mentions that our grand Shaykh – Shaykh Ghulam habib rahimullah used to say that ‘Don’t try to become an amil, try to become a kamil’ i.e. don’t try to become a practitioner of black magic or a capturer of jinns…you should try to become kamil i.e. a perfect momin in the eyes of Allah[swt]

–     When we try to become perfect momineen then Allah [swt] puts us in his hifazah. When we’re in His Hifazah then Allah [swt] is the greatest amil/protector/warder from all evil.

–     E.g. If a person wakes up one day finds that his wife is not home then after sometime returns from the neighbors’ place and says that I went to get so n so. You would say that when I was here, I provide for all your needs why did you even need to go to anyone else. Similarly when Allah[swt]

18. We should adopt taqwa

 

 

–    Wilaya is based on iman and taqwa and both of these things are found in the heart. Using our mamulaat we are trying to beautify our heart but it is not going to be beautified unless it has ima n and unless we adorn it with taqwa.

–     If a person is standing in the middle of a garbage dump, even if he applies a whole bottle of itr/perfume he wouldn’t become fragrant, but if he goes out of the garbage dump, even a drop of itr would be sufficient to make him fragrant. Just like that, if we adopt taqwa and leave all sins, once we stay away from sins even these few daily mamulaat will be enough for us to attain the fragrance of wilaya, inshaAllah.

19. Along with doing the mamulaat, we also have to do some mujahaddaat: Eat less. Sleep less. Talk less. Socialize less.

 

–    Eating less is beneficial for our zikr: you can try to compare your state of zikr when you’re fasting to the state after you have iftar. In our silsila, Shaykh says that we should do ittibah-e-sunnah in eating: Eat one-third, chew a lot when you eat, stop when you’re a little hungry. Stop snacking in between. Eat only 2-3 times a day.

–    Sleep less: Shaykh has said that Allah [swt] has created the night for rest so we should try to go to sleep shortly after praying Isha, the quality of that sleep is very high even if we only sleep for 4 hours at that time. Earlier we sleep, easier it will be for us to get up early.

–   Talk & Socialize less: Shaykh said that we should stress on this. It doesn’t mean that leave people all together, but that we reduce the extra things. The futile conversations. The wasteful time that we spend with others, and instead spend that time in doing zikr.

20. When a person does these mamulaat, they will experience two different kaifiyaat called: Qabz and wasf[expansion of the heart]

–   Qabz: Sometimes you will feel nothing in your muraqaba. Zero. Even a lack of feeling is from Allah, you will no longer desire to do murqaba. You will shorten it or skip it: Four solutions:

1. Kasrat-e-istighfaar: we should think that it must be something we must’ve done because of which we are not able to do our zikr. It is absolutely the haqq of Allah that we never feel anything, its Allah [swt] mercy that He has Rehma on us and grants us these moments of happiness in zikr.

2. Sohbat-e-Shaykh: you should let your Shaykh know your condition so that he sends his spiritual attention [tawajjuh] towards you. Sometimes our heart becomes so dead that we need a stronger heart to jumpstart our heart. You can get this tawajjuh via phone/mail in anyway. You should make a lot of dua to Allah [swt] that Ya Allah let the Shaykh remember me wherever he is, and let him know my sins; my haqeeqat. Let him make dua for me. If you make dua to Allah [swt], Allah [swt] will make the Shaykh remember you.

3. We should present ourselves like true ibad and continue our mamulaat even if we don’t want to: we should force ourselves/chain ourselves to the musallah for 20/30minutes. Sometimes Allah [swt] just wants to see our uboodiyah, our humility.

4.  Keep the spirit of our heart alive. Maintain our umeed; do not despair of the Mercy of Allah [swt] – that same Rehman Who bestowed that state upon us can restore it to us.

– Wasf: If a person is feeling some kaifyaat of ecstasy;happiness etc during his zikr. Then he should do shukr and increase in his zikr. Most importantly a salik should safeguard himself from ujub;   there are 3 illnesses: kibr, takabbur and ujub you should safeguard yourselves from them. Kibr means that you think yourself as being better than someone else. Takabbur means that you act on that kibr – e.g. you cut someone in a line, thinking that you should go first. You think that you’re better and so you mistreat someone based on that. Ujub is the highest – last disease to leave our heart is ujub: its vanity; self praise; we enjoy our own qualities.

Talk ends here (unfortunately).

Download original talks: Part I, Part II

[This has been extracted from two talks delivered by Shaykh Kamaluddin on 18-10-2006, 19-10-2006 labeled: “Durood and Usool of Mamulaat 1 & 2”]