musaafir-e dasht

Just read this reminder on Facebook posted by Timelenders' Yameenuddin Ahmed: Beware! Our qualification should help us recognize our ultimate purpose. If it isn't doing so then we are at a new heights of ignorance. Isn't this frightening? The fear of losing one's ultimate purpose while one moves up the ladder of educational qualification. What are all these certificates worth if they cannot help me remember my ultimate purpose in this life? In that case, they are only certificates of ignorance.

A friend just shared this wonderful quote by Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah . Words surely have great potential to melt hearts... Had Allah lifted the veil for his slave and shown him how He handles his affairs for him, and how Allah is more keen for the benefit of the slave than his own self, his heart would have melted out of the love for Allah and would have been torn to pieces out of thankfulness to Allah.  Therefore if the pains of this world tire you, do not grieve. For it may be that Allah wishes to hear your voice by way of duaa. So pour out your desires in prostration and forget about it and know; that verily Allah does not forget it.  Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah  

Imagine: you listlessly go and sit in the company of a pious friend of Allah (SWT). You have no idea what awaits you. You simply go and sit with adab  waiting for the Shaykh to speak. You yourself do not know what is it that you seek. No specific questions. Just utter confusion caused by the rust that corrodes the heart... The Shaykh begins to speak and the first thing he says strikes a chord. You are jerked out of your listless state because that is exactly what you unconsciously wanted to hear in those moments. Those specific answers to unspecified questions... Blessed, indeed, are those moments. It is nothing but Allah's Mercy that He clarifies things for us and brings us back to the focus, to Him! Had this not been the case, we would always be continuing with our lives listlessly... 

There is no better way to start your day than rising up early, offering fajr prayers on time (in the Mosque congregation, especially for males), reciting some Qur’an unhurriedly with reflection, doing some exercise/jogging and eating a healthy breakfast – even if its Sunday Morning! The key to all of this, of course, is going to bed early! -  Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam al-Kawthari I realised the truth in this statement today. May Allah SWT help all of us follow a routine that pleases Him SWT. This inconsiderable surely needs to review her daily routine!

Back here after such a long time. The mind is so jumbled. Not enough clarity so as to be able to write something organised. Major changes in life. Happy about folks. Missing old times. Looking nostalgically at the trees while walking the road that leads to the department. Once friends used to walk that road with me. Then I started traversing it alone. Eventually I will stop walking it in a few days' time (literally, I mean. Metaphorically the road has been taken, alhamdulillah). So many little things to write about. I keep on listing them in my mind all day long and then end up writing absolutely nothing... At the moment what occupies my mind is the conversation I had with a dearest friend yesterday. Years younger than myself, and about to get married, this little friend shared such valuable advice regarding marriage and life in general. She made me realise how blessed we were. Her talk contained such precious reminders that I felt the mist clearing off my mind. Alhamdulillah. S...

Answers to the questions that keep bugging our minds come from strange places. I have been a little worried about certain things lately, and today I stumbled upon these verses by Imam al-Shafa'i rahimahullah on this blog . The verses have left me speechless. They clarify many confusions and pave way for some clarity, at least, at this point in time. Alhamdulillah. “The intelligent and refined find no rest in dwelling in one place, So leave your homeland and travel far away! Travel and you will meet new people replacing those left behind, And tire yourself out, because it makes life worth living! I have seen that water stagnates when it stands still, Yet when it runs it is sweet and pure. And if the lion left not its land, it would not catch its prey And if the arrow left not the bow, it would not hit its aim And if the sun moved not across the horizon, People the world over would have tired of the sky.” - Imam Shafi

Ramadan 14, 1433 AH Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish, How could I seek the empty world again? - Emily Bronte I set out for the university at around 7.30 am this morning. One of the most pleasant morns in this Ramadan. Alhamdulillah. When I got on to the bus, I was reminded of the book on which I had spent around twenty minutes last night in order to convert and clean up its format to suit my kindle - The Embattled Innocence: Recollections of a Muslim Relief Worker by Suleman Ahmer. After paying my fare to the conductor, I pulled out my kindle from my handbag and started reading the preface and went on to read the first chapter, at the end of which, I was so moved to tears, that I had to shut my reading device off and give myself some time to think, and rethink. By this time, I saw the huge gates of the NED University passing by on my left hand side. I prepared myself to get off at the next stop - my university. In a dazed state of mind, I alighted the bus...

Some students, in the last week's session of History of Ideas, were tempted to chalk out comparisons between certain philosophical ideas propounded by the Greeks and some teachings of Islam. Dr Shafi, however, asked us to be on our guard against making such comparisons. He said that we need to keep the two traditions apart as they were essentially different from each other as far as their epistemological sources were concerned. Here, what he meant was that one tradition originated in human reason, and the source of the other was wahi (revelation). Conflating the two could lead to serious error of judgement and thought. The most beautiful thought that he put across was that our tradition was regulated by the paradigm of muhabbah (Love). Being lovers, we do not question the Beloved with a 'why' of inquiry. All we have to do is to carry out the command of the Beloved ... I wonder how our problems would have vanished altogether had we realised this seemingly simple p...

After the History of Ideas session today, we gathered in Iftikhar Saheb's office for some post-session chit chat, which usually involves gems of wisdom coming from a teacher who we all hold in great esteem. Today, alhamdulillah, he looked elated at the success of these sessions being held. He was happy that  finally the department was displaying some signs of liveliness and intellectual vigour. He said that paraphernalia was not as important as the presence of (good) people around. Further, there was always a possibility of finding good and sincere people even in dilapidated environments (such as that of our department =D)! Then he recited the following couplet by Ahmad Faraz, ڈھونڈ اجڑے ہوئے لوگوں میں وفا کے موتی یہ خزانے تجھے ممکن ہیں خرابوں میں ملیں   What an apt saying to motivate people like us, who tend to lose heart when faced with even the minutest of difficulties! Then he recounted his first journey on which he was accompanied by another teacher of mine to Ha...

  Posted at An Noor Once my Shaykh Hazrat Shah Abdul Ghani Phoolpuri (RA) said to me, “Hakeem Akhtar [DB], when you are able to cry during your supplication then realize that your prayers have been accepted.  These tears are a receipt of the acceptance of your prayers. It's such an amazing coincidence that I mentioned this very quote by Hakeem Akhtar Sahab da'mat barakaatuhum to someone yesterday only when I myself was feeling low about something. Seeing it posted on An-Noor today made me instantly say SubhaanAllah! Allah has His ways of reminding us of things we become heedless of. May Allah bless our akaabireen with the best of duniya and aakhirah.

Just read this excellent defining of the difference between 'needs' and 'desires' here Allah (Most Exalted) says; ‘whereas for the one who feared to stand before his Lord, and restrained his self from the (evil) desire,[79:40] the Paradise will be the abode.[79:41] So, have you seen him who has taken his desires as his god, and Allah has let him go astray, despite having knowledge, and has sealed his ear and his heart, and put a cover on his eye? Now who will guide him after Allah? Still, do you not take lesson? (45:23) ———————————————————————- A need is something that is necessary for an individual to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from desires because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death. Desire is a sense of longing for a person or object or hoping for an outcome. ————————————————————————— These desires may be permissible or impermissible. The Shariah decides these limits and their rulings. ...

Just came across this post on the Thus Spake Hazrat Shaykh blog: Miskeen is the one with a broken heart. Today we have reduced this thing to a mere proverb.  (Sitting (Majlis) on Wednesday, July 6, 2011) The words of the pious mend hearts.

My imagination recreates the scene for me. Mawlana Ali Miyan Nadwi (Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, may Allah sanctify his secret) is invited to meet King Faisal (may Allah have mercy on him). The guards show Mawlana Ali Miyan in, and he enters the meeting area in the palace to meet the king. Mawlana looks around, not cursorily, but closely, as if in wonderment. The king inquires as to why he was looking around with such amazement. Mawlana answers, "We too once had a king who ruled over the (present) India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal and other places, and out of the fifty-two years of his rule he spent twenty on the horseback. Muslims, in his time, enjoyed freedom and happiness. Life was easy for them. Yet, the king was such that he wore patched clothes. He scribed the Qur'an and knitted caps to earn his living, and used to stand crying before his Lord in night vigils. Those were the times when simplicity and poverty characterised the lives of the rulers, and content...

An inspiring account of Mawlana's daily management of his routine tasks. Excerpted from suhbate ba awliya - malfuzat e hazrat Shaykh ul Hadith Mawlana Zakariyya Kandhelvi (rahimahullah)  

Abbaji, my paternal grandfather, Hakeem Muhammad Idrees Khan, passed away on 24 Ziqa’ad, 1432 AH (October 23, 2011). He was 88 years old - the last grandparent I had. He studied at the famous Tibyya College , Delhi, and remained a practicing Hakeem throughout his life. Allah had blessed him with so much shifa in his medicine that people used to come from far away places to get themselves treated. He lived an extremely humble life in a small town, Kaloor Kot, situated at approximately 4-5 hours drive from Multan. He was a disciple of his father-in-law, who we all lovingly remember as nanaji – another pious friend of God, Hafiz Abdul Ghafoor rahimahullah, who was given the khilafat by Hazrat Shah Abdul Raheem Raipuri, Hazrat Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri, and Hazrat Munshi Rahmat Ali Jaalandhari (May Allah have mercy on all of them). Towards the end of Abbaji’s life, we often used to ask him if he was also given the khilafat by his Shaykh ( nanaji ) and he always evaded the question… It w...

I had my research meeting with my supervisor today. While commenting on the writing I had submitted to him earlier on, he made a very point which, I hope, will stay with me forever. While asking me to remove certain generalised claims and statements I had made in my paper, he quoted Maulana Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri (may Allah have mercy on him). Hazrat once said about tasawwuf that according to his knowledge , it was the way through which people have always been reaching Allah. He said he wondered what people think taswwuf was! It was simply a path that led to Allah SWT and His servants have always been treading it to find Him. He further said that he, at least, did not know of any other way that could help one reach Allah SWT. If there was one, he too would have wanted to know about it! The point my supervisor was trying to make was that one should learn humbleness form our elders – he didn’t say this explicitly; this is my understanding of his quoting Hazrat Raipuri’s example at ...

A friend of mine was generous enough to lend her ‘Islamic Studies’ reading pack, which she had got from her teacher who was a student of Shaykh Kamaluddin at LUMS a couple of years back. It is probably one of the best assortments of writings that I have ever laid my hands on. Feel blessed. Alhamdulillah. Here I wish to refer to an excerpt in that pack from Imam Al Haddad’s book Knowledge and Wisdom , translated by Mostafa al-Badawi, entitled, ‘Structuring Time’. This excerpt further refers to a very moving excerpt from Imam al Ghazzali’s Bidaayat al Hidaaya (The Beginning of Guidance), which I want to share with the readers of this blog. I personally found it to be an extremely useful reminder. Imam al Ghazzali rahimahullah says, You should not neglect your time or use it haphazardly; on the contrary, you should bring yourself to account, structure your litanies and other practices during each day and night, and assign to each period a fixed and specific function. This is how you...

Excellent advice by Mr Suleman Ahmer, CEO, Timelenders. I so wish we paid heed! By Suleman Ahmer, 24 January 2010 Addressing the energy crisis of Pakistan through modifying the national behavior Pakistan is facing a severe energy crisis the negative impact of which is being felt at all levels of the society whether it is economic, social or unfortunately on the level of the national integrity by contributing to the elements that fuel terrorism like unemployment and severe financial deprivation. The government has embarked on an awareness campaign which I believe will have only limited success as it hinges a lot on legal enforcement like clamping down on late marriage events in Karachi to forcing businesses to shut down by 8:00 pm. The issue of legal enforcement in Pakistan is marred by the presence of massive corruption in our legal and enforcement frameworks and the high ingenuity of Pakistanis to find creative ways to go around laws which they believe are hurdles. The alternative ...

A small part of the last message I received from one of my teachers-cum-mentors: P.S. Copyrights Notice: The title of this post has also been extracted from one of his audio lectures.

Image Source ... life should be all about being able to prioritise - 'to put first things first'. P.S. Inspired by something I read yesterday in a friend's autograph book!