بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ
Today we will
look at a message that Allah has given us in the Qur’an and it is taken from
Surah An`am;
There has come to you enlightenment from your Lord. So whoever will see does so for [the benefit
of] his soul, and whoever is blind [does harm] against it. And [say], "I
am not a guardian over you”. (6:104)
Metaphorically
it is as if the rain is falling and you put a container to collect its water; you
will derive benefit. If not you will
lose out. This is basically what Allah
is trying to teach us. One of the meanings
of enlightenment is to get knowledge
or to be guided. And Allah is the Giver of
knowledge and guidance. Therefore if you
utilize the blessings He has been gracious to bestow upon you you will
benefit. If you don’t utilise it
properly you will definitely lose out in the long run. What we have to do is strike a healthy
balance by paying ample attention to our worldly responsibilities and spiritual
cultivation.
If we cultivate
our personalities we will benefit; just as the torchlight benefits in the times
of darkness. We have a choice and this
is what makes humans special. We can
choose consciously to enlighten ourselves or choose consciously to remain in
the dark. Our choice won’t do good or
harm to Allah; it is for our own benefit.
Allah says: for indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded,
but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts. 22:46
Allah is telling
us that we can decorate our bodies as much as we want; if we don’t decorate the
heart we would have wasted our blessings.
For example, Pharaoh had unimaginable wealth and look at how history
remembers him. And that is the message
of life; how do you manage your time to benefit yourself. Are we only taken up with the material?
Allah says about
Himself that ‘no vision can grasp Him’.
If you have to
weld metal you have to wear a special apparatus. So too, in order to experience the Greatness
of Allah you have to prepare yourself. If
I want to look at my Lord, it is like looking at the sun with the naked eye
multiplied many times over.
And this is
something we should strive to achieve. The
mission of life is to prepare yourself to see your Lord. Why and How?
When the Prophet Muhammad (pboh) went up into the heavens on the night
of the Mir’aj he was blessed with a very special vision. And this was the climax of realisation. About it Allah says ‘and He revealed to His Servant what he revealed and his heart did not
lie [about] what it saw’.
It is said that those
who will enter paradise; after they would have gotten everything, then they
will have vision of Allah, which is described as the greatest of all blessings. And remarkably there are those who are able
to achieve this right here in this life.
It may sound
fanciful, but take for example our Book of Deeds; is it existing or not? Every moment we are adding to it, so
therefore it is existing; so why can’t we read it? It is possible to see it and read it. But how?
Do you think you
can give a vagrant the Qur’an to read? Most
likely not, because he is not clean and prepared, etc. The same rule applies with all of us. We need to cultivate our personalities to
achieve “religious experiences”. That is
why Prophet (pboh) told his Companions “I have returned from the small Jihad
(Jihad Asghar) to the big Jihad (Jihad Akbar)”.
The Sahabas enquired “what is the big Jihad?” Prophet (pboh) said “the Jihad al nafs
(jihad against the inner desires)”.
We need to prepare
our bodies to accommodate the soul and not taint it with dark spots. And this is one of the reasons why we do
zikir; to open our eyes through the light of the heart. And when this is achieved you will really experience
the beauty of the Lord.
Sadly, people
project Allah as a strict Being waiting to punish us for our mistakes. But Allah is so beautiful, loving kind and
tender; that if you can understand that you will never want to leave Him. You will want to stay with Him all the time
because He is so Merciful and Generous.
Dear friends, let
us make it a resolution to culture our personalities to experience the Beauty
and Greatness of our Lord. Begin by
culturing the light of your soul and through that light you continue to grow. Brighten your spiritual sight so that you
will benefit in this world and the next.
Transcript
of discourse delivered by
Maulana
Dr. Waffie Mohammed
