musaafir-e dasht

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...

Just came across this excerpt from a book A Sense of Seige: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West   here , about the pseudo intellectuals, which sadly Pakistan is rife with: This is a real tragedy. These intellectuals are unable to question their positions and their assumed mission because they have no intellectual, academic or informative resource other than the West to rely on. Western sources are their only assets; and once their link to these sources is lost, they will be abandoned in the middle of a desert. Sadly, these intellectuals are unable to find the spiritual energy and intellectual courage necessary to save themselves and their countries, to preserve their roots, because that would mean denial of what has become their identity. In this case, “the decisive hour,” as defined by Marx -- a concept that evolved into “class suicide” -- takes place, when a part of the ruling class separates itself and joins the revolutionary class. These intellectuals ultimately expect th...

An excellent elucidation of the matter by Shaykh al Islam, Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani (May Allah preserve him) posted at ashrafiya.com  - thought-provoking and clarifying many misconceptions regarding Sufism. I would warn the younger Muslim generation about the wrong interpretation of Sufism. It has been widely propagated in the Western world by non-Muslims. They coined the term Sufism. They praise Sufism. They preach sufism. They propagate Sufism. One may think that they do this in service to Islam. However, the reality is that the Sufism propagated by Western writers is quite contradictory to the Shariah. It is quite contradictory to the real essence of Tasawwuf and tariqat. A high ranking western offical visited the Darul Uloom, Karachi. After having a detailed tour observing the teaching activities he commented that he did not see anything about Sufism being taught. It was inquired that what did he mean by Sufism. He replied that Sufism is something relate...

I remember somebody once told me that when he was a child, his mother - a woman from a village in Pakistan - used to remain extremely worried about him, as he was a physically challenged child. Imagine the fate of this blessed child of hers! First, Allah made him a daa'i e Qur'an , and then made him immortal by granting him shahaadat . And we, the unlucky ones, left behind... Only to recognise the merit and stature of our Ulama when we are deprived of them... Maulana would be happy for he is united with his Lord now. We are left behind as grieving souls on this earth. Someone very rightly put it today: "the enemy knows (who) our valuable people (are) ... a lot more than we ourselves do!"

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...

  Source An 'anonymous' reader has posed a question in a comment which s/he did not want me to publish on my blog. This post is a response to their query (although I do not find myself in the least capable of answering such questions) and, therefore, might evade the understanding of the general readers of the blog as they remain unaware of the context in which it is being written. My apologies for that. The only way to repent for any kind of sin (irrespective of it being big or small) is to do sincere tawba . Just ask Allah subhaanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness keeping His greatness in view. Ask for it in your heart. Ask for it while sitting, standing or reclining. Ask for it after salaah . Beseech Him through the tears that have a language of their own. Implore Him in the solitude of the night when all else are asleep. Speak to Him while being conscious of the fact that He is Sam'i al Baseer (the One who listens and the One who sees!). When you do this, just ...

  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. ...

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)  

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 ...

  May Allah forgive our sins and purify our hearts in this blessed month that has dawned upon us. aameen

Another one of our dear akaabireen unites with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala . The news brought with an overwhelming sense of grief when it reached me through a text message this morning from someone who I call my 'khanqah friend' ... Although I never used to listen to Mawlana regularly (my own weakness and shortcomings kept me from doing so!), but yesterday only I was thinking of an incident that took place years ago... I was going through a trying period in life back then. On a hot afternoon while travelling to home from the university, I switched on my mp3 player and started listening to one of Mawlana Patel sb rahimahullah's bayaans. During the dua at the end of it, he prayed to Allah to delete all the files of our sins just as we delete files from our computer. I am rephrasing his thought here and not quoting them verbatim because I am unable to recall his exact words. This mere thought was so inspiring that it stuck to my memory even after the passage of so many ye...

Now here is something for which the Urdu expression, lamha e fikriya, suits best! Please visit THIS extremely thought-provoking post at Al-Miskeenah .

From Ashrafiya Shaykh Shah Wasiullah Allahabadi (Allah have mercy on him) said that, ‘The author of Ruh al-Ma’ani has explained the meaning of ‘good of this world’ as sound health and serenity (‘afiyet).’ What is ‘afiyet? Our master Shaykh Ahmad Kabir Rifai (Allah have mercy on him) said, ‘Be considerate of the blessing of serenity. The reality of which is that the process of breathing continues without discomfort, the daily sustains is achieved without (much) hardship and the good actions are done without ostentation.” Mujmua e talifat e Muslih al-ummat ra, volume 2, page 12-13

SOURCE So today I am writing my blog at 8.15 am! Wow! Now, such a relaxed state of mind is definitely a result of something. Yes, I am done with exams. ALHAMDULILLAH! The night before the last seemed like a never-ending one. While gulping down coffee and biscuits at short intervals (and also feeling guilty for doing so! Sigh), I felt my anxiety levels being pushed to the limits! At one moment, I just had to STOP writing (typing, that is) and get myself on the jaae-namaaz . Could hardly take it any longer. After spending almost a good half an hour there, I resumed work. Pretty calm this time. So very calm that after listening to the recording of the interview, on which my assignment was to be based, for the one last time, I was badly yawning at around 4.30 am. "I think I should go to sleep," told myself. Further reassured myself that with such a tired state of mind I would take far more time than required to complete the work that I could otherwise do in just two hours. Even ...

I read about the following inspirational encounter between Mawlana Madni and Mawlana Ilyaas (rahimahumullah) in today's newspaper . It is so heartening to read about such incidents which reflect such purity of muhabbah  - love for Love's sake! subhaanAllah, indeed! SOURCE

SubhaanAllah! I just read a wonderful faith-reviving article on Noor of Nobility . It answers so many of our 'modern concerns' - Concerns that always act as a hindrance in our practise of Deen. Read The Ten Comments You Will Hear Before Pursuing Your Deen...