This is love

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”- Jalaluddin Rumi

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That trust is now my shield

My Lord, my trust in all Your purposes is strong, That trust is now my shield; I’m safe, and undeceived.

– Ali bin Husayn al-Habshi

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How to attain Ikhlas

How to attain Ikhlas

Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyyah (rahimahullah)

Ikhlas (sincerity) cannot be combined in the heart together with the love of being praised and the greed for what other people have, except in the way that water and fire are combined.

So if your conscious tells you to seek ikhlaas, then turn to greed firstly, and slaughter it with the knife of despair [1], then turn to the love of being praised and abandon it like how those who adore the life of this world abandon the hereafter. If you are successful in slaughtering greed and in abandoning the love of being praised, then ikhlaas will be easy for you.

And if you ask:

“And what will make slaughtering greed and abandoning the love of being praised easy for me?”

I reply: As for slaughtering greed, then what will facilitate this for you is your knowledge with certainty that there is nothing whatsoever that is desired, except that with Allaah alone are its treasures, none posses them except Him, and the slave is given nothing from them except by Him.

And as for abandoning the love of being praised, then what will facilitate this for you, is your knowledge that no one’s praise benefits and adorns, and no ones dispraise harms and makes one ugly, except the praise and dispraise of Allaah alone. One bedouin said to the messenger of Allaah صلى الله عليه و سلم:

“Indeed whoever I praise is adorned, and whoever I dispraise is unadorned.”

So he صلى الله عليه و سلم said:

“That is [for] Allaah ‘az wa jal [alone].”

So abandon the praise of he whose praise does not adorn you and he whose dispraise does not make you any worse. And seek the praise of He whose praise has all the adornment and He whose dispraise has all the ugliness. And it is not possible to achieve this except with patience and surety, and whenever you lose patience and surety, you become like one who wants to travel across the oceans without a boat.”

Allaah the glorified said:

{So be patient (O Muhammad). Verily, the promise of Allaah is true, and don’t let those who have no certainty of faith discourage you from conveying Allaah’s message (which you are obliged to convey).} [Surah: 30/60].

And He, The most high, said:

{And We made from amongst them (Children of Israel), leaders, giving guidance under Our command, when they were patient and used to believe with certainty in Our ayat.} [Surah: 32/24]

[1] Give up hope in worldly belongings.

ref:al Fawaid p221

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Generosity and Gratitude

Allah’s Generosity is connected to gratitude, and gratitude is linked to increase in His generosity. The generosity of Allah will not stop increasing unless the gratitude of the servant ceases.

[Ali ibn Abu Talib]

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Don’t speak of your suffering — He is speaking.

Don’t speak of your suffering — He is speaking.
Don’t look for Him everywhere — He’s looking for you.

An ant’s foot touches a leaf, He senses it;
A pebble shifts in a streambed, He knows it.

If there’s a worm hidden deep in a rock,
He’ll know its body, tinier than an atom,

The sound of its praise, its secret ecstasy –
All this He knows by divine knowing.

He has given the tiniest worm its food;
He has opened to you the Way of the Holy Ones.

-Hakim Sana’i Ghaznawi

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Trust

The word trust contains an ocean of meaning, but underneath it all is the sense of responsibility, the sense of having to appear before Allah and to account for one’s actions.

[Muhammad al Ghazali]

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Part from the days where you used to do as you wish

دَعِ الأَيَّامَ تَفْعَل مَا تَشَاءُ	وطب نفساً إذا حكمَ القضاءُ
وَلا تَجْزَعْ لنازلة الليالي	فما لحوادثِ الدنيا بقاءُ
وكنْ رجلاً على الأهوالِ جلداً	وشيمتكَ السماحة ُ والوفاءُ
وإنْ كثرتْ عيوبكَ في البرايا	وسَركَ أَنْ يَكُونَ لَها غِطَاءُ
تَسَتَّرْ بِالسَّخَاء فَكُلُّ عَيْب	يغطيه كما قيلَ السَّخاءُ
ولا تر للأعادي قط ذلا	فإن شماتة الأعدا بلاء
ولا ترجُ السماحة ََ من بخيلٍ	فَما فِي النَّارِ لِلظْمآنِ مَاءُ
وَرِزْقُكَ لَيْسَ يُنْقِصُهُ التَأَنِّي	وليسَ يزيدُ في الرزقِ العناءُ
وَلا حُزْنٌ يَدُومُ وَلا سُرورٌ	ولا بؤسٌ عليكَ ولا رخاءُ
وَمَنْ نَزَلَتْ بِسَاحَتِهِ الْمَنَايَا	فلا أرضٌ تقيهِ ولا سماءُ
وأرضُ الله واسعة ً ولكن	إذا نزلَ القضا ضاقَ الفضاءُ
دَعِ الأَيَّامَ تَغْدِرُ كُلَّ حِينٍ	فما يغني عن الموت الدواءُ

Part from the days where you used to do as you wish
And restrain your soul when the decree of Allah is ordained
And don’t despair over the events of the past
Fore none of the events of the dunya were ever meant to remain
And be a man who is firm upon his affairs
And whose character is that of pardoning and nobility
And there is sadness or happiness that is continuous
Just as there is there is no comfort or pain
If you are a person who is satisfied with what he has
Then you and the owner of all possessions are equal
And upon he whose open valley death descends upon
Then there is no earth or sky to protect you from it
And the earth of Allah is vast but
When the ordainment of Allah descends even the open valley congests.

[Imam Shafi]

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The foundations of all that is beneficial

Repentance, awareness of God, and uprightness are the foundations of all that is beneficial. Know that repentance is a key, God consciousness (taqwa) is vast, and uprightness is the source of rectification.

[Shaykh Ahmad al Zarruq]

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