The 21 Usool of Mamulaat – I

These usool are mentioned in Hadhrat gee’s book. These are certain principles that if we follow we would be able to benefit more from our mamulaat and to preserve and maintain those blessings that are obtained from doing the mamulaat. Maulana gee has explained them as follows:

1. Always do tahsi-un-niyyah – have the correct intention.

–   That we’re doing this only to attain the rida/pleasure of Allah[swt].

–   Keep renewing our intention;  Always  make a fresh intention before doing the mamulaat [everyday]

–    Our intention is not to ‘feel’ anything; but it is servant hood/slave hood – just the desire to attain the pleasure of our Rabb.

2. Maintain a state of wudoo all the time

–    Allah[swt] has made it compulsory to be in a state of wudoo for the most important of ibadahs i.e. Salah, Tawaaf and Tillawah so know that means that  there must  be something about wudoo that heightens our spiritual awareness, increases our ability to make dhikr of Allah[swt]

–   Because the salik wants to do wuqoof-e-qalbi to be in a state of remembrance throughout the day, he should make use of this booster/helper in remembering Allah. So we should try to be in a state of wudoo all the time, but particularly at least when we are doing the mamulaat.

–   It’s not a necessary condition, but it’s part of the adaab/etiquettes i.e. if we do it we’d be able to benefit more from istighfar

–    But if we’re not in a state of wudoo, that shouldn’t keep us from doing istighfar/etc. i.e. it should not keep us from doing the mamul, or even let us delay in doing the mamul for too long

–    If we’re so careful about our zahiri taharah, Insha’Allah Allah [swt[ will give us regularity/constancy in our inward taharah/purity.

3. We should do our daily azkaar/mamulaat on the pattern of our elders i.e. with the same zauq and shauq that they did it with.

–    Simply put: we should do them with feeling like we mean them.

–    We should say istighfar/salawaat as if we truly mean it.

–     Truly meaning and feeling it is what gives the real benefit

–    The thing that benefits in Istighfar is truly asking Allah [swt]’s forgiveness for our sins and feeling remorseful.

–    Similarly, the thing that benefits in salawaat is the feeling of love for the Prophet[saw], that feeling of being indebted to him/ being grateful to him

–    So we should consciously try to make sure that the feeling is alive each and every time we do it.

4. Few minutes before doing any mamul, we should pause and reflect i.e. to  put ourselves in a certain state of mind in preparation for the zikr

–   Shaykh has mentioned a couple of things we can reflect on:

• Death: because zikr-e-maut softens our heart, puts us in a state that we want to worship Allah [swt], so for just a few moments we should think about death.
• Think about the temporary/fleeting nature of this dunya
• Think about your Shaykh – the love that you have for your Shaykh i.e. you can think about the ta’luq/heart-heart relationship that you have with your Shaykh, the love and respect you have for him that would make you want to do more, to try harder and be focused [thinking that my Shaykh wants me to succeed so I should try harder and do my mamulaat with feeling and concentration etc, so out of love for the Shaykh you would want to exert more effort to please your Shaykh] (E.g. Shaykh’s personal exam-story :])

–    General message was to pause a little bit, free your mind, gather your thoughts, get some focus [just like when you have to bake something , you always preheat the oven and then when it’s hot you put the food in, similarly think of this as a preheating exercise to prepare you for the Muraqaba etc.]

5. Keep in mind that any type of feeling that we have is not a sign of progress rather it is the increase in our love and practice of Shar’iah and Sunnah that measures our Success

–    Its human nature that we want signs of progress in anything that we’re doing to ensure whether we’re doing it the right way or not: just like that the salik needs some sort of yardstick to measure his success.

–    So, the Shaykh mentions that you can gauge your success by looking at your love and practice of Shar’iah and Sunnah whether it has increased or not.

–    If our love and practice of Shar’iah and Sunnah has increased then that’s also the sign of Qubooliat, that Allah [swt] has accepted us. Sign of qubooliat is that Allah [swt] increases us in our Deen, Shar’iah Sunnah and love n practice for it and for students of knowledge also an increase in the understanding of it.

–    The sign is not any feeling/kaifiat that we experienced during our mamul [some feeling of ecstasy in your heart etc.]

6. Do not chase dreams i.e. do not be preoccupied with any type of dream that you saw, or didn’t see or  someone else saw and you wonder when you’d see such a dream

–     Do not show any interest/desire in dreams, forget entirely dreams i.e. they are irrelevant

–    Only sometimes a dream is a message of truth but most of the times it is a product of our own psyche/thought process i.e. If you’re thinking about something all night you might see some dream about it etc

–    Our desire should not be to see dreams, because again dreams are not the basis or criteria of our success/progress that is the extent to which we love and practice the Shar’iah and Sunnah.

7. We should memorize the masnun dua’s n Sunnah ‘amaal & use them at their proper time and place.

–    We should sprinkle/adorn/beautify our day with the Sunnah duas [Hazrat Shaykh has written a book on it called:’Pyare Rasool ki pyari duaein’ ]

–    Secondly, the different Sunnah ‘amaal that are mentioned in ahadith [Hazrat Shaykh has mentioned 40 of them in the beginning of Shajrah?]

–    Remember that the Sunnah dua’s are more important that those Sunnah ‘amaal

–    So firstly be regular in your mamulaat, secondly try to memorize the Sunnah dua’s, thirdly try to do the azkaar mentioned in hadith if you have extra time i.e. when you’re done with your mamulaat then you can do that it will be nur upon nur  but you should be more strict and regular about doing your mamulaat

8. You should have a strong Raabta with the Shaykh

 

–   This entails:

• Muhabbat-e-Shaykh
• Suhbat-e-Shaykh
• Khidmat-e-shaykh
• itebah-e-shaykh
• Adaab-e-Shaykh

–     A person should keep this in mind that lack of adab of Shaykh or doubt of Shaykh is something that is lethal.

–    Shaykh-ul-hadith Maulana Zakariya rahimahullah used to tell the murideen that many things might happen to you i.e. you might fall into sins etc, you should hasten to Allah’s forgiveness but there’s one thing that if it happens to you, you should cry and think that something devastating has happened to you and i.e. that in your heart you feel a decrease in the muhabbat for your Shaykh or you feel some doubt about your Shaykh if in your heart you did some lack of adab for your Shaykh…he mentions that if this happens you should just start crying, you should throw yourself at the door of Allah[swt] i.e. it is extremely lethal and dangerous even if you just feel a decrease in the muhabbah for the Shaykh

–    That is why this is a very important usool. We have to maintain this love through suhbat, khidmat, adab, itbah of the Shaykh and by doing that inshaAllah we would retain the blessings from the mamulaat

9. To adhere firmly and be steadfast on Sunnah i.e. itbah-e-sunnah

–   Shaykh used to say that there are 3 foundations of our tariqah:

• Kasrat-e-zikr/Abundant remembrance
• Suhbat/rabta-e-shaykh
• Following of Sunnah

–     Itbah-e-Sunnah is one of the hallmarks of our silsila that’s why whenever you see any of our tariqah’s Shaykh you will notice that down to the last detail he tries to follow the Sunnah – even the Sunnah-e-ghair muaqqada like the Sunnah of  imamah.

–    The reality is that our mashaikh have followed the Sunnah so closely that in exchange for it Allah[swt] -has not only granted them the sunnan-e-nabi but He[swt] has also granted them the adaat-e-nabi i.e. the mannerisms of RasulAllah[saw]: the way he walked, talked, smiled etc[For e.g. It comes in hadith that RasulAllah[saw] was so kind and loving towards the sahabah that teach of them felt that he was a favorite of the Prophet[saw], you will find it in the murideen that each of them who gets to spend time with the Shaykh views himself that he’s a favorite of Hazrat Shaykh in a positive way like every child feels he is a favorite of his mother]

–     So because of following the Sunnah Allah[swt] has blessed these senior mashaikh[like Hazrat sahab] with the mannerisms and personality of RasulAllah[swt] [ E.g. One of the greatest Sunnah which has almost finished now is the Sunnah of intezam i.e. his administrative capacity or human resources management: he[saw] recognized that ubay ibn kaab is perfect for qiraat, Khalid ibn walid is perfect for commanding, Abdullah ibn abbas is perfect for tafsir etc i.e. he managed the resources of sahabah and put each sahaba on a duty that was most suited for that sahabah’s personality…that is something Hazrat sahab also has – can be seen when he gives different tasks to different murids in the khanqah n elsewhere so Allah[swt] has blessed him with this Sunnah-e-nabi.

–   Some zahiri sunnahs that our mashaikh do ihtimam of include:

• Wearing Imamah/turban: now, technically speaking wearing an imamah is a Sunnah-e-ghair muaqqada or has not been emphasized that much and is not one of the Sunnahs that you have to absolutely do but this is the level of a lover  that he doesn’t distinguish between muaqqada and ghair muaqqada and  this was also the practice of the sahabah. It comes in hadith that there was one sahaba who was habashi and he had curly hair when he saw that RasulAllah[saw] used to part his hair in the middle but he couldn’t do that with his hair so after trying hard to comb his hair like that but in vain, its mentioned that that habashi got an idea at which he became very happy…he took something maybe a type of string/coil and heated it in the fire and burnt his hair from the middle so that the hair won’t grow back there…then he would happily look at himself and tell people that I also follow this line of Sunnah, so that was the pattern of our sahabah. So it is not extreme that our mashaikh do, it’s just ishq-e-rasool that they wear the imamah all the time.
• Hankerchief/scarf – a piece of cloth that RasulAllah[saw] kept on his shoulders
• Color of the Imamah – white is the afzal/preferred color for the imamah
• Clothing – All our mashaikh wear a particular type of clothing. Different mashaikh have understood the Sunnah of libas in different ways and our belief is that the libas of the sulaha[pious predecessors] is Sunnah, there are differences among their practices too like some wore 3 buttoned jubbah, some wore one buttoned etc. So we don’t think that the clothing that we wear is the only type of Sunnah and the rest are not Sunnah, our mashaikh found out when they researched on the most preferred libas of Sunnah that there were differences in the sahaba but there was a slight preference for one buttoned jubbah so they adopted that. [When imam an-nawwawi r.a. died he had only one jubbah and that jubbah had only one button] We follow Hazrat Shaykh in this because of 2 things: Firstly love for the Shaykh that Ya Allah [swt] I’m not able to adorn myself with the level of zikr that the Shaykh has so maybe Allah, I can dress myself in the clothing that Shaykh has i.e. maybe I can do naql and Allah [swt] out of your mercy you will put the reality inside of it. Secondly, everybody has to make a decision of what type of Sunnah clothing to wear so we can either simply wear what our Shaykh wears and by doing that we’l put our nafs totally out of the equation or we can decide from among the Sunnah libas ‘ourselves’ which type to wear and in that it’s possible that our nafs or personal inclination may come in.

–    The reality is that we have failed to adorn ourselves with the inner Sunnahs…and when a person has some failure he tries to maximize his success. i.e why we should do our best to practice the outer Sunnahs to compensate for our failure in the inner Sunnah[E.g. the love for Allah[swt] that the prophet[saw] had in his heart – Sunnah love for Allah[swt], similarly the Sunnah fear of Allah[saw], the Sunnah concentration in Salah…].

–    So, maybe if we maximize our practice of the outer Sunnahs we can make this dua to Allah[swt] that ‘Ya Allah we have adopted the likeness/image…we’re counterfeit bill, but ya Allah we made the counterfeit so good that ya Allah consider it as if its real, ya Allah put the spirit into this body…we did naqal, please give us the asal, we copied… give us the reality

10. Ensure that our rizq or the means of sustenance are both halal and tayyab

–   Halal means that it is absolutely lawful, opposite of haram i.e. there is nothing impermissible or prohibited in it.

–   Tayyab is one higher level, it means that there is nothing even doubtful it it i.e. of the permissible things, we have that which is the purest.

–   RasulAllah[saw] said in a hadith that ‘That which is halal is clear and manifest and that which is haram is clear and manifest and between the two are certain matters that are ambiguous/doubtful’ – it befits a salik to stay away from those that are doubtful.

–   If there’s even one poisoned candy in a jar of 100 candies, would we be willing to eat from it? So, if we can’t take even a 1% chance with our physical health, we should not want to take even a 1% chance for our spiritual health.

–   When we’re sacrificing so much time for our mamulaat, doing mujahaddah with ourselves…why should we ruin all the effort by taking some chance?

–   In order to derive maximum benefit from our mamulaat we need to stay away from all that is doubtful and confine ourselves to those things that are halal and tayyab – purest and noblest forms of wealth. E.g.  tight jeans for women store owner/seller.

–    You have to adopt these changes gradually in your life, constantly making dua to Allah[swt] and Allah[swt] will open up ways, inshaAllah. Allah [swt] is always willing to bring us from one level to the next, it’s just that we have to have the desire, intention and make dua dua.

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”]

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