Understanding without reason

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

When Allah gives us a message in the Holy Qur’an the common practice of a lot of people is to put a meaning to it; what they think is right, and confine it to that alone.  What we need to understand is that the Qur’anic meanings of each verse are so comprehensive that it is actually impossible for us to completely understand them.  The translation alone is not the complete message because each word has so many dimensions of meanings associated with it. 

For example Allah says in the Qur’an; 

‘Take note that amongst you is the Messenger of Allah’.  (49:7)

Some people interpret this to mean that the Sunnah or the way of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pboh) will always be with us; therefore we can get guidance from it.  However don’t you think that if Allah meant the Sunnah of His beloved (pboh) He would have specified that ‘his sunnah is with us’?

Instead He says that the Messenger is with us.  What then does it mean?  This is something that is difficult to understand through scientific reasoning and logic.  From a spiritual point of view the Prophet (pboh) has a special connection with the believers in a way we cannot logically comprehend; even though he left this physical dimension.

Take for example standing in front of his blessed tomb; he is reported to have said “no one sends salaams on me except Allah has returned my soul to me so that I can return his salam”.

So if you were to physically stand in front of the room that contains his blessed body and engage in sending peace and blessings on him Allah causes his soul to reunite with his physical body so that he can respond to your greeting.  And if you look at live footage of Madinah you will see that night and day visitors to his Holy Masjid are continuously standing in front of his tomb sending salaams on him.  Is it then that his soul is continuously in his body?  Because we know that the bodies of all the Messengers never decay as he is reported to have said “the earth has been prohibited by Allah to eat the bodies of the Prophets”.

What about those who are not directly in front his blessed tomb.  He is reported to have said that “Allah has appointed an angel to my grave; whosoever sends darood upon me, until the Day of Judgment his darood is presented to me along with his name and his father's name”.

This process of him replying to our salutations is something which we really cannot conceive through rational thinking.  Only Allah knows.  What we need to do is try to establish a lasting connection with him and in so doing we will want to attach ourselves to him through sheer love.  Either through the following of his sunnah or through gaining more and more knowledge of him; in whatever way you choose you will not want to break your attachment from him. 

To take it a step further, the human personality contains things that we know are existing yet we cannot see them.  Such an important dimension of the human personality is with us; i.e. the soul but we know little of it?  Have you seen the soul and what do we know about it?  Allah says concerning the soul ‘We have not given you much knowledge of it’.

So if we have such an important dimension of our personality and know so little of it; how then can we really comprehend the true personality of Prophet Muhammad (pboh) and all his capabilities and capacities?  So when Allah says he is amongst you know that the Prophet (pboh) is with you.  How?  Only Allah knows but one thing we understand is that Allah has given us all a special dimension in our personalities through which we can understand things which cannot be experienced through reason and logic. 

It is only through the non-physical element of the human personality that one can gain religious experiences.  And that is what Islamic spirituality is all about; when you concentrate and meditate using the internal sense.  Through this effort you will in fact be activating that capacity in you that enables you to have knowledge of the unseen.  If you can activate the qalb you will get experiences that would make this world and all it contains seem so very insignificant.

Perhaps this is why Prophet Muhammad (pboh) is reported to have said “fear the vision of the true believer, for he sees with the light of Allah”.

Why did he not mention all believers?  This should equip your mind as to the reality of Islamic Spirituality.

Let us all make a conscious effort to work at activating and culturing the non-physical element of our personalities.  May Allah make it easy for us and keep us rightly devoted to this struggle.  May He bless us all, guide us and take care of all our affairs in this world and the next.

Transcript of discourse delivered by

Maulana Dr. Waffie Mohammed

Sight through the heart

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

Believe and do good

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

When we look at the messages contained in the Holy Qur’an you will notice three basic things.  One is that the messages contained tell us about Allah; The Creature of the universe; The One True God.  The second is the rewards associated with doing good and the third is the consequences for doing evil.  Basically, that is the message Allah gave to mankind all throughout history. 

Prophet Muhammad (pboh) was special because as Allah says in the Qur’an;

We have not sent thee but as a universal (Messenger) to men.  (34:28)

And the message that he gave was of glad tidings and warnings.  He was able to successfully transmit the message that Allah gave to the believers and also convey a special consolation to man.  This is at the end of Surah Hadid;

O ye that believe! fear Allah, and believe In His Messenger, and He will bestow on you a double portion of His mercy: He will provide for you a light by which ye shall walk (straight in your Path), and He will forgive you (your past): for Allah is Oft- forgiving, Most Merciful.  (57:28)

Belief is more than just uttering it with the lips.  We must keep faith firm in the heart because whatever is in there is between you and your Lord.  No one else can see the contents of one’s heart.  Those who really believe in Allah and His Messenger (pboh); Allah says that He will give them twice amount of blessings and a light by which to guide you.

From the very beginning of the Holy Qur’an Allah has mentioned all that in it.  Firstly, Surah Fatiha describes Allah in His True Form.  We also affirm that we need Him to take care of us and we recognise the kind of grouping with which we would like to be associated; those who will be guided on the straight path.

In our opening prayer we highlight all these things and this makes us slightly above the previous nations with regards to our understanding and actions.  We have everything before us and we also know of the consequences of everything because Prophet Muhammad (pboh) saw with firsthand knowledge the results of mans actions.  And he was able to narrate as the revelations came because he had certain knowledge of it.

Sometimes we may ask why God did all this.  Why were His messengers subjected to all those hardships for example?  We really cannot understand the working of Allah; but we understand one thing; that if we conform, the end result will be assured for us to be good, and if we deviate we will just be another statistic, and that is the message that Islam gave to the world.  To believe and do good. 

We are special because Allah says He will bestow upon us a light if you follow dedicatedly.  Our mission is to strive to attain that light and keep it on the onward journey of life.

May Allah bless all the believers with this special light and may He continuously take care of our affairs.

Transcript of discourse delivered by

Maulana Dr. Waffie Mohammed

The enemy

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

Allah has given Satan the capacity and capability to enter the human body just as an x-ray light can pass through the body without you being able to see or feel it.  So too Satan can enter because he is a kind of light. 

He has the capacity either to play on our emotions, desires, egos and our passions because they all come from the heart.  He doesn’t work on the mind because our control mechanism is the heart and these characteristics come from your heart.  He therefore uses these to divert your focus from the straight path. 

So he will work on these qualities just as how he played on the emotions of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He never whispered in Adam’s ear because as the tradition goes when Allah created the body of Adam He left him in the Garden; Satan entered into Adam’s shell to scrutinized and found that inside Adam’s chest was hollow and could therefore be a weak spot. 

He will create intense passion for us because Allah says Satan looks at you from places you cannot see.  He has his men well trained to work on your weaknesses such as passion, anger, etc.  Allah allows them to do this.  It is us who have to resist.  This is why when Satan made the vow to attack the children of Adam Allah told him except those who are on the straight path.

That is why when tempted we are encouraged to say auzubillah minashaitan nirajeem.  Another way of protecting ourselves is by making wudu  properly.  It is recommended whilst performing your wudu you recite the following dua during the performance;

1.       While washing the hands before performing Wudhu, one should say:

Alla hummaj alni minat tawwabina waj alni minal mutatah hireen.

O Lord! Make me of those who repent and purify themselves.

2.       While rinsing the mouth one should say:

Alla Humma laq qini hujjati yawma alqaka wa atliq lisani bizikrika.

O Lord! Dictate to me the principles of faith on the Day I meet You, and make my tongue fluent with Your remembrance.

3.       While washing the nose one should say:

Alla humma la tuharrim 'alaya rihal jannati waj 'alni mim man yashummu riha ha wa rawha ha wa tiba ha.

O Lord! Do not deprive me of the fragrance of Paradise, and make me of those who smell its fragrance and per fume.

4.       While washing the face, one should say:

Alla humma bayyiz wajhi yawma taswaddufihil wujuh wala tusawwid waj hi yawma tabyazzul wujuh.

O Lord! Make my face bright on the Day when the faces will turn dark. Do not darken my face on the Day when the faces are bright.

5.       While pouring water over the right elbow, one should say:

Alla humma a'tini kitabi bi yamini wal khulda fil jinani bi yasari wa hasibni hisaban yasira.

O Lord! Give my book of deeds in my right hand, and a permanent stay in Paradise on my left, and make my reckoning an easy one.

6.       While pouring water over the left elbow, one should say:

Alla humma la tutini kitabi bishimali wala min wara'i zahri wala taj alha maghlu latan ila unuqi wa a'uzu bika min muqat ta'atin niran.

O Lord! Do not give my book of deeds in my left hand, nor from behind my back, nor chain it to my neck. I seek refuge in You from the Hell-fire.

7.       While performing the wiping of the head, one should say:

Alla humma ghashshini bi rahmatika wa barakatika wa 'afwika.

O Lord! Cover me with Your Mercy, Blessings and Forgiveness.

8.       While performing the wiping of the feet, one should say:

Alla humma thabbitni ala sirati yawma tazillu fihil aqdam. Waj'al sa'yi fi ma yurzika 'anni ya zal jalali wal ikram.

O Lord! Keep me firm on the Bridge (to Paradise) on the Day when the feet will slip, and help me in my efforts to do things which will please You, O' Glorious and Mighty!

Satan is indeed very clever and we should at all times be on guard and protect ourselves from his whispering.  If the wudu is made properly, he will be unable to interfere with the person who is standing before his Lord in worship; otherwise he can come and cause our minds to waver by indulging in all types of thoughts instead of thinking only about Allah.

May Allah make it easy for us and protect us.  May He enable us to ward off the temptations of the because of the weaknesses of our personalities.

Transcript of discourse delivered by

Maulana Dr. Waffie Mohammed

Vicegerency: A divine gift

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

After Allah created the entire universe and He had perfected the earth, then He created man, with the capability and capacity of becoming His representative on earth.  Because of the fact that man was a new species in creation, the angels and jinn were unable to assess his capacity and capability.  When it was announced to them that Adam was to be Allah’s representative on earth, they were shocked and surprised.

Adam was specially blessed by Allah in many ways.  On one hand, he was to manifest the Divine Attributes in the dealing with the rest of the creatures; and on the other hand, he was given some knowledge which was unknown to the others.

In addition to all these blessings, it was made possible for him and his progeny to meet his Lord as a human being with both body and soul.  This was made evident by Prophet Muhammad (pboh) on the night of Miraj.

Although the names of all created things were impressed in the knowledge of Adam it is left for his progeny to discover and use them as they see fit.  Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why it is believed that science discovers names of things as each name gives a concept of something that is existence.

New discoveries of things in nature confirm the Message of the Qur’anic verse in which Allah says that every day He is manifesting Himself in some form of Glory (55:29).

At the beginning Adam was not fully aware of the effect that prohibited things were to have on a person.  It was only when he tasted the tree that he realized the reason for remembering the Commands to uphold the do’s and avoid the don’ts.

With the coming of Prophet Muhammad (pboh) Allah gave clear and complete guidance regarding believers’ indulgence in permissible and avoidance of prohibited.  Allah re-enforced the message with examples of events, etc. of bygone times to help us comprehend the message in a more meaningful way.

Satan does not like the status of man in the universe and his capability of ascent back to the Creator.  As a result, he vowed to prevent this from happening by making man forget the commands, and by decorating the evil in order to divert him from the Right Way.

As indulgence in evil creates a weight on the doer of the act, he or she will not be able to rise up on the way to the Lord. Such actions will also restrict the penetration of the light of the soul in the cells of the body, so that the person will be resurrected without any light in the body and will ultimately be confined to hell.

 

Transcript of discourse delivered by

Maulana Dr. Waffie Mohammed