Musings on Marriage..

Assalamu Alaikum,

The story of Adam and Eve sheds a lot of light into the basic human nature. When Allah created Adam (A), Allah gave him the highest status. He was given the highest amount of knowledge which even the angels could not understand. And heaven was made the home for him. Due the knowledge bestowed on him, Allah even asked the angels to prostrate to him. (Quran 2:30-34)

If we think about it in spiritual or material sense, there was nothing more one could ask for. He had achieved all the knowledge and he was in heaven. Naturally he should have been happy and content. But Adam(A) was not.. There was something missing which all the knowledge and wealth could not fulfill. It was then that Allah created Eve out of Adam’s own part. When Adam opened his eyes he saw the beautiful face of a woman gazing down at him.  She revealed that she was to ease his loneliness and bring tranquility to him.

It has to be noted that how high was the stature of their relationship in the eyes of Allah:

When they were sent to Earth, they landed in different places. They searched for each other 100 years and finally met in Mecca. The location where they met is known as Jabal Rahma (mountain of  blessing), Arafa. Arafa is so important a place that Allah says he will forgive everything for a servant who stays for a shortwhile there. Standing in Arafa is the most important part of Hajj that Prophet emphasised “Hajj is Arafa”.

Jabal-Rahmah

The story of Adam and Eve is the first and original love story. All others are repetition of the same. Allah created everything in pairs and  Adam and Eve are symbolic of all men and women. . For every Adam, there is an Eve and their hearts are not at rest until they meet.

Just like Adam and Eve landed up in different places and yearned for each other, every man and his woman are born at different places and they seek each other. Marriage is the culmination of that ultimate search in this world.

Mercy Manifested..

Assalamu Alaikum,

A female leopard hunts a pregnant female baboon. While the leopard was dragging the baboon, the baboon delivers a baby. Leopard leaves the hunted mother and starts taking care of the newborn baboon. Watch this amazing video from National geographic.

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah  (Choicest blessing and peace be upon him) said, “Allah has divided mercy into one hundred parts; and He retained with Him ninety-nine parts, and sent down to earth one part. Through this one part creatures deal with one another with compassion, so much so that an animal lifts its hoof over its young lest it should hurt it”.

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Ya Rahman, we are all blessed with your Mercy.

The Bestower of Grace

If Allah touches you with a hardship, none can relieve it except He. And when He blesses you, no force can prevent His grace. He bestows it upon whomever He chooses from among His servants. He is the Forgiver, Most Merciful.

-Qur’an 10:107

Honesty and Hypocrisy

Assalamu Alaikum,

This is a part of an article I had come across in http://www.tasawwuf.org some years back. The lesson impressed me instantly and made me appreciate the profound thinking of the great Masters of tasawwuf. You can read the full article here

Maulana Jami on the Path (of Tasawwuf)

It is recorded in the tradition of the Shaykhs that Jami once said, when asked about hypocrisy and honesty:

“How wonderful is honesty and how strange hypocrisy! I wandered to Mecca and to Baghdad, and I made a trial of the behavior of men.

When I asked them to be honest, they always treated me with respect, because they had been taught that good men always speak thus, and they had learned that they must have their eyes downcast when people speak of honesty.

When I told them to shun hypocrisy, they all agreed with me.

But they did not know that when I said ‘truth’, I knew that they did not know what truth was, and that therefore both they and I were then being hypocrites.

They did not know that when I told them not to be hypocrites they were being hypocrites in not asking me the method. They did not know that I was being a hypocrite in merely saying, ‘Do not be hypocrites’, because words do not convey the message by themselves.

They respected me, therefore, when I was acting hypocritically. They had been taught to do this. They respected themselves while they were thinking hypocritically; for it is hypocrisy to think that one is being improved simply by thinking that it is bad to be a hypocrite.

The Path (of Tasuwwuf) leads beyond: to the practice and the understanding where there can be no hypocrisy, where honesty is there and not something which is man’s aim.

It cannot be any more relevant in this era of  ‘spirituality’ fad where everyone knows what to speak to get clapping from the audience.

May Allah make our hearts sincere in our approach unto Him.

Regards,

Abdul Muneer P.K.

You are burning in the flame

Assalamu Alaikum,

From nothing you become sad,
From nothing you become happy,
You are burning in the flame,
But I will not let you out
Until you are fully baked,
Fully wise, and fully yourself.

—Rumi(R.A.)

Purification, Allah, it is never easy. Allah,  make it easy for this weakling..

An understanding about Deen..

Today an interesting definition of Deen occured to me. Eventhough actually it is nothing original or new, it still is a fresh understanding for me.

Deen is not about any ritual or observations, although they form a part of it at the external layer.. Deen is the way you think- about yourself, about the world outside, about God. Deen is the way your thoughts form on every moment, on every breath. and on every response to the inputs from the world outside. Deen lies not on your body and costumes, it lies on your thouhts. If that is right for you, all your actions will fall in place, otherwise everything will go in vain and nothing will go right.

may Allah bless all with the right understanding..

On humanity and being religious..

Salaams to dear readers, This post forms part of an email conversation between me and one of my friends. After typing a reply, I thought it could be a good reading for everyone. So I am pasting it directly here..

“I am more of a spiritual person than a religious person.” – nowadays the term ‘religious’ has become a misnomer which people can take in any way.. “Spiritual” is the right word. I have read a similar reply from A.R.Rehman in one of his interviews in The Hindu. When he was asked if he was a religious person, he told he would describe himself as spiritual rather than religious as that word has come to have wrong implications these days.

But in the true sense what is religion other than the connection we have with Almighty? What is it other than the bondage and relationship enjoyed between Almighty and His friends. And how are we going to experience it if we put aside the world we live in?

take away your face which gives you your identity to the world
take away your body which always works for you as your most loyal servant
take away your heart which always beats so that you may live take away your parents through whom you came and grew up
take away your friends who fill your life with joy and comfort
take away your job through which you earn your bread

take away the air you breath and the water you drink
take away the rivers, the mountains and the seas which controls the weather
take away the earth, the sky and all the heavenly bodies

take away all that you got from creations
take away all the creations together
If you do so, then where is the connection left between you and God?

Allah says in Qur’an, “East and the West belongs to Allah”. Again He says “wherever you turn your eyes, you will see My Face”. We should be able to see His face on any one regardless of he is a Muslim or a Hindu. We should be able to see his face on all that you can see and percieve.

Ahmad Kabir Rifai(May Allah be pleased with him) was a great saint of Islam. Once while walking with his disciples he heard a cry of a dog. When looked back he saw a badly wounded dog fighting with its infections. One of the disciples had thrown a stone or something and that was what made it cry at that time. He stopped there and asked his disciples to proceed. He took the dog with his hands (notice that dogs are considered dirty, but that doesn’t stop you from helping it) and walked back to his home. He cleaned it, applied medicines and took care. Once it regained its health, he took it and dropped at the place where he had originally found it, as that was the most familiar place for it and it would be more comfortable there.

Ahmad Kabir Rifai(May Allah be pleased with him) did this out of his love towards Allah, not out of any fascination for the dogs. The verses from Qur’an that were mentioned above had got into his life. He loved Allah so much so that all His creations became his too. May Allah make us too like such great people.

But the majority is not like that. Allah says, “they have eyes but they see not, they have hearts but they percieve not”. Islam lets you see that which we see not. If u had truly understood the beauty of islam, u wouldn’t have said “My religion is Humanity first and then Islam“. You would have found that the latter is more than enough a word for the former.

Like a hawk stealing a bird..(Rumi!)

Assalamu Alaikum,

Note:Treat it as mail without address. This will make sense only to the intented recepient..

Let me know if you are the one!!

Few days back my friend was talking about the path of a salik. He said we can’t traverse that alone as the route is unknown to us. But once we get a guide, the guide take us through all the nuances which we can’t foresee or negotiate. All we need to be is to be open to a Shaikh. “Therefore”, he said,”our path, in effect, is from our nafs to our shaikh. Thereafter we start seeing things through the eyes of our Shaikh”.

That is the essence of the Sufi Path. But I asked,”It’s right that we cannot traverse alone. We will start journeying with Shaikh once reach our Shaikh. But then, how will one travel the path from his nafs to the Shaikh?”

My personal experience has been (and is) that they come down to our level and starts interacting just like us and lift us away. Or more precisely, like a kingfisher coming down to a pond and going up with a fish in it’s beaks.

And a while back , while going through our great forefather Rumi (R.A) , this poems was there to receive me first.

At the twilight, a moon appeared in the sky;

Then it landed on earth to look at me.

Like a hawk stealing a bird at the time of prey;

That moon stole me and rushed back into the sky.

I looked at myself, I did not see me anymore;

For in that moon, my body turned as fine as soul.

The nine spheres disappeared in that moon;

The ship of my existence drowned in that sea.

Love,

Abdul Muneer

You and I

Assalamu Alaikum,

You and I

You are Beautiful
You are Perfect
You are Kind
You are my first, and my last,
And inside, and outside.

And I love You for You being so.

My Helper, my Friend
My Guardian, my Guide
My Musician, my Light
My Hope, my Support
My This, That and Whatever Else.

And I love You for You being so.

Beauty I am not, kindness I am not
Guide I am not, light I am not
You are everything and I am nothing
When You love me-it is not for any reason
Allah, Your love is for me, not for my adjectives

And You love me with such a Love that is known only to You.

Love,

Abdul Muneer

ISLAM / Ahl-u-Sunnath val Jama’ath..3

 

Assalamu Alaikum,

Allah says

Didn’t You see one who belies his religion?
That is he who repels the orphan
And urges not feeding the needy (107:1-3)

Subhanallah..

It is to be noted that even if one happens to miss one of the compulsory prayers, he doesn’t go out of the religion. It attracts displeasure from Allah and he makes himself at a loss. But those who repel the orphans and turn away from needy people are out of Islam itself..

If they are out, who cares about their ‘worships’?

Notice that Allah addresses them as ‘they/that is he’ in the second verse, indicating the separation.

All the compulsory prayers, and other actions are applicable only for those who satisfy the more basic condition of being kind towards the creations of Allah.

This is Allah’s Love towards His creations.

This is the Real Islam.. This is the way of our leader prophet Muhammed(SAW) and His followers.

Alhamdulillah (All Praise to Allah).

Love,

Abdul Muneer