musaafir-e dasht

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

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!

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 had my second last exam today. Couldn't do very well. At least that is how I would appraise my performance. It was one of those subjects in which I thought I would be able to do well. But Allah SWT has His ways of showing us various signs of His! Two days back I fell ill and was almost unable to revise anything at all. Consequently I had to sit for the exam with almost no revision at all. All that I remembered and tried to recollect during the exam was from my previous readings of various texts that were a part of this course ... So today's exam was not really that good an experience as I had expected it to be. And today I also realised, yet again, how helpless a human being is before the Divine Will and plans. The challenge is not to whine over things that bring a sense of displeasure to us but to consider them from Allah SWT and despite feeling down, still being able to put one's trust in Him and Him alone. hasbiyallah! P.S. This post is a reassurance to myself!

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

The semester has ended. Today I conducted my last exam and it is always sad to see the students go their own ways ... We spend time with them for an entire semester and then suddenly and abruptly everything comes to an end. I realised this when one of my students walked up to me after submitting his answer script and thanked me. I was obviously touched. Not every student comes up to you and thanks you for merely having taught them three days a week for an entire semester. He had always been a very good student and at times also used to pass some witty comments in the class to lighten up the mood. The best thing about him was that despite being witty and intelligent he was never disrespectful and that is why I used to let him have his opportunities ... And today, after thanking me he also apologised for those witticisms. I just asked him to always do his best in life because not everyone is able to do so! It is extremely difficult to practise ehsaan  - excellence - in one's life. Th...