In the Mystic Footsteps of Saints, VOLUME 1 (Shaykh Nazim, 153 pages, 4/10)
https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6023
utter and twitter without a care in the world hke sparrows, but we can emulate their ways in the trust of God. He Almighty is the Only One who can guarantee your future: you capnot determine what will happen to you, and yor cantar know what. accidents or misfortunes may befall vou, your spouse, your children, nation or business. Don't put your trust in your job, your power, your knowledge or your beauty, for it may be that none of this wil avail you when you are the must vulnerable. This is an undeniable fact, and somewhere within themselves people kuow this. Therefore, those skeleton smiles, when dropped, revert to the trowns that reflect how the people are really feeling.
But the prophets and the Friends of God have received a guarantee from their Lord, a guarantee of protection and care: and according to the level of your faith you too may attain a guarantee of protection and care, and the serenity that results from such assutatce.
The shadow of worry pursues the “uninsured”, and pust as at aspirin may temporarily alleviate the symptoms of a migraine headache, but not cure its causes, so do te mporary pleasures make people temporarily oblivious of their miseries. The guarantee of ear Lord gives us permanent pleasure, and its source is in our hearts, Whoever has such a fountain in bis heart need not he a consumer in the amusement market. Why should he oced to escape
4z Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
from his house ev ery right te the discotheque, theater or gainbling casino when his heart provides him with all he needs to be happy?
We must aspire to take the keys to our inner treasures, lest all we achieve in our lives is to make ourselves “stimulation addicts”: and ultimately, we must carry responsibility for wasting our lives in such a manner, Those enjoyments are only pam hilers, and you may live for a while on a diet of pain sillers if you wish, but ultunately they will kdl you.
43 Mystic Footsteps
ay Why Depression?
Why are people afflicted with depression? No, sexual relations are not the primary cause of depression — there are other factors, and when these factors are present everything in life feels like a punishment and ceases to function normally, even sex which 1s normally the most enjoyable of activities, When normal relationships are disrupted by the presence of the root causes of depression, sex partners can only be » means for mutual punishment: each one “takes”, thea escapes from the other ~ into depression.
The main cause of depression is the effect of memory upon people. Most people harbor in themselves some very deep regrets about their owt past actions or about what they feel to be wrong decisions of mistakes made through the course of their lives. When we recall such painful events, a fire roars out of control through our hearts. Then we arrive at a gaping hole in our hearts that cattiot be filed, no matter what we try to fll a with - 30 deep are our reprets.
Our present fe becomes a bridge between the past and future, between two terrible visions: haunting memories and ataicty filled anticipation of the funute. Worrying about our future makes us crazy, and all that modern medical science can do about it is to offer people some dangerous drugs specially designed to cloud both memory and anticipation. These are tertible and dangerous \ncthods, for when people regain their wits, their despair will become even more acute. Allah m His wisdom created brain cells non senewable. Those dangerous drugs Mill brain cells, and once they ate killed they ace never replaced.
44 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Hagqani
Since it is impossible to change the past, we oust be patient in the face of painful memories and no one can attam such patience without being a believer —- and not just a believer in nate, but also a persona of deep faith. Those memories will persist as memories, but faith may effectively neutralize their painful effects. He who has been absorbed in the love of God may feel himself to have made a aew beginning and to have left painful memories far behind.
There is a tradition of the holy Propher “Of actions, only the final one counts.” We must know that the only step of real importance in our lives is the last step — was it on the right way of on the path of iniquity? So many saints have once been big sinners, and every mistake we make is an opportunity to realize something walnable about ourselves, and to awaken to the need for iraprovement. The past had best be left behind us. It is a completed chapter, and there ts ne need to harp upon it What is important is to consider where you are headed. Even though you may be nearing the end of your life, don’t be discouraged Hf it seems to have been spent frivolously ~ just make your last step count.
Another cause of depression is hopelessness. We, as servants of a preat God, have no right to be hapeless — ne. The Lord may change everything in a second ~ everything. Ne whose faith is strong will never doubt that his Lord ultimately intends good for him in this life and the next, and he will be patient through adversity, looking for the Lord’s promised respite. Ag for unbelievers, abysmal despair follows on the heels of worldly ambition, as all their hopes are dashed on the rocks of time. But the heart of the believer is a vessel that sails safely through such danger, with the Lord as his puicde, and his faith in the guide keeps his heart afloat through stormy seas, anti at last the goal is attained ~ endless Mercy Oceans. | kaow that my bad actions ate a hindrance between my Lord and myself, but 1 beheve that His Mercy Oceans will engulf my heart and that I will be freed of my bad attributes, and be granted a new pexsonality, suitable for Mercy Oceans.
45 Mystic Footsteps
*g Allah is With the Patient
Whenever we direct our hearts towards our Loed Almighty we are immersed in inner peace, and when we turn away from Him we ace strandce at the bottom of a deep and dark well seething with snakes, scorpions and spiders.
Grandshaykh told me a story of a man who always felt agoravated by his surroundings w ho always felt as if people were disturbing his peace of mind. One day he got so fed up with the society of men that he decided to leave it behind and become a cave dwelling » hermit. So he settled all of his affairs and retired to a remote mountainside. After searching for many days he finally found a cave suitable for his purposes, and occupied it, saying: “There is no one here and no one knows where | am. | am finally in peace.”
Just as he «was saying this to himself, someone passed ia the valley below, looked up at the mountainside and noticed a very beautiful rock fust near that cave. “J must have a piece of that colorful rock,” he said to himself, and began hacking away aé it. tak!
tak! tak!
At this the man ta the cave became really exasperated and said: “Ob my Lord, £ try to escape from people and You send me this! There are so many mountains, why did You have to send him te this one?”
No one can escape discomfort in this life, as the holy Prophet said, “Phere sy ao reat ar ther world.” You may live in a city or a village, even on the side of a mountain — but afl you will discover is that dus life is made of unrest. We have been ordered to be patient m1
46 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
the face of this situation, for, “He who is patient ultimately succeeds.” Allah sends us trials and burdens in accordance with our capacities, but every single persen must carry some burden through this lite. We will be asked to carry burdens in accordance with our faith power. In our times believers will be loaded to their absolute capacities, as spititually blind people have made sure to make the lives of believers as difficult as possible.
47 Mystic Footsteps
By The Conversion of the Magicians
Allah Almiphty rewards people according to there intentions. Ef a person is sincere and has good intentions he will be rewarded by his Lord, no matter what his religion may be. Don’t hold your Lord’s mercy to be atry less than this.
1 once heard a tale about a Zoroastrian living in Baghdad in the ame of the Abbasid Khaliphs. After his death a grandshaykh saw him in a dream amidst the joys of paradise, That shaykh was sueprised and said to him: “E tow is t¢ that you are in paradise when you spent your life worshipping fire?” He repheck “Oh my Lord's servant, there ts only one reason for my being here in paradise. 114s on account of one very simple action that ] never took any notice Of ~ after it happered | forgot about it completely, aud certainly | never expected to be rewarded eternally for it, but so has at come te pass.” When Allah Almighty wants to find a way to redeem His creatures, surely He will find that way. He continued: “One day duting the fasting month of Ramadan, my young son was sitting in front of the house eating a piece of bread. 1 pulled his ear and scolded him saying, “May no one else ever pull your ear like this, here or hereafter! This is a holy month for the Muslims, they are fasting, so how can you show such blatant distespect for cheir customs?’ AHah was pleased with me for my respect of His holy month, and my respect for the feelings of my neighbors, and so here Tam.”
That man was a Zoroastrian and cannot be expected to have fasted mm Ramadan: that is sot his responsibility, he was not Muskim. Secondly, the son was only a small boy, and srnall children are not required to fast tn any case. Bur even though be may aot
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have particepated in the fast, he respected it aod taught his yourg son to do the same.
Let me give you another example of the value of showing cespect to all that pertains to God and his beloved people: when Moses agreed to a showdown wath the magicians. Pharaoh assembled 250,000 wizards to overwhelm Moses with their magical powers, They all arrived at the plain where the competition was to be held, decked out ta such terrifying costutnes that anyone would have been overcome with fear just looking at their numbers and forms. From the opposite direction Moses approached in his simple pastoral outfit, staff in hand. Then the chief magician stepped forward and Moses stood firmly in front of him. Moses looked at him intensely — divine heht penctrated the heart of the wizard, and it melted. He asked Moses humbly: “Will you cast your magic Hest or shall we be the first to casi?” His respectful adéressing of Moses in this manner was a sign that faith had entered his heart. In fact, he had started to receive mspiration when he first saw Moses approach, facing such a fearsome horde alone and unperturbed, Te was thea that he knew that Moses must be a messenger of God, for who else could be so fearless? Once he understood that Moses was not representing himself, but was a divine messenger, he lowered the wing of humility, and this caused the Lord to be pleased with the whole group of magicians, even though the practice of magic is strongly forbidden by divine Commandment.
When Moses told them to go ahead and manifest whatever they had prepared, the seed of faith had already begun to sprout in their hearts, and the miracle he performed only served to put a seal on their farth. They had cast their staffs, and each onc had taken on the appearance of a terrible snake, so that even Moses himself wondered at such a show. But when Moses threw bis staff, Allah caused a huge dragon to appear, a dragea that could swallow all the magicians had produced, a dragon whese mouth was a mile high and a mile wide. Then, when the dragon had devoured all of the snakes, it targed and asked, “Where is Pharaoh?” and airned
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cowards the pavilion front which Pharaoh was witnessing the event, and it appeared to be ready to swallow the whole pavilion.
But it was not God’s intention to kill Pharaoh then and there, but to etve him a bumbling lesson, that haply he might repent and tum towards truth, But the lesson imparted here involved a humbling much more basic and undeniable than the defeat of Pharach’s magicians and ther subsequent conversion to the true religion, a drastic change in Pharaoh’s bowel habits that should have caused Pharaoh to reconsider his spurtous lain to godhead. Prior to this event Pharaoh used to support his claum to divinity by the fact that he had hardly ever moved his bowels ~ only once in forty days. But from the time that the serpent turned and asked: “Where is Pharaohe? Pharaol fad to move his bowels forty times a day, and thereby humble himself by entermg the “house of health” more often than any of his nation.
Yes, Alh humbled him, but he accepted not the robe of hunulity. When the wizards saw the micacle that Moses had wrought they immediatey tree themselves into humble prostration, and at that moment cach of them beheld his place in paradise.
When Pharaoh emerged from the water closet to find that his mapicians had turned from worshipping him to the worship of the One True God, he was furious. “What are you doings! You were all in cahoots with Moses from the beginning. Now it is clear ~ he is your secret cluef, the one who taught vou all of your tricks. 7 shall cut off your hands and feet and crucify you on the trunks of palm treesl Then you wil know who ws powerfull” They replied: “Do what you will, but you can only tortate our physical bodies. Our souls are free, for we now know that we belong to the Lord of the worlds.”
Prom the stories of the conversion of the magicians and that of the Zoroastrian of Baghdad, we can tealize the connection benveen good intentions towards the servants of God and respect of His commands, and the unveiling of deeply hidden faith. We
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must never lose hope thar Allah's all embracing mercy will encompass us, and all His weak servants. Mystic Footsteps
By Is There No Escape?
Ob suffering people, vou may attain peace only through the remembrance of your Lord. Nowadays most people feel themselves to be suffering, to be in misery, and the question most oftes: asked is: “To where may | escape from oy problems?” The coring of such times is predicted in all holy books, and finally, also, in the holy Quran, which describes suffering people who ask. “To where may we escape?” The portrayal of such thnes makes the hearts of belie ers sheink in horror, but as T look at the human beings of our time T sec pain written on their faces and hear them shouting this very question. But no matter where you run, you are bound to find a mountain of troubles even more formidable than the one from which you have escaped.
Now people are all trying to escape from their situations. Orientals flee to the West in search of freedom and wealth, while Westerners flee from a sea of matertalism to the Orient to find a traditional way of life. Peasants can no longer stand to live in the countryside and flee to cities seeking the “civilized” life, and city dwellers, il with chilization’s diseases flock to the countryside to seek a wholesome lifestyle. But so often, even when people manage to escape from one place to another, one culture to another, one climate to another or from one marriage to another, seeking relief from their miseries, they only find themselves faced with another set of miseries, and then they fall inte disillusionment and hopelessness.
‘The present state of affairs is the fulfilment of the prophecy of the holy Prophet im which he predicted that there would come a time when people would pass through cemeteries and say. “Tf only
ae Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
We Were
among you, or f only you could be in our places and we in yours! You are at rest, but we are in torment; oh, how lucky you are to have lived in earlier times and never to have seen these days!”
So where is a shelter from these miseries to be found? Allah Almughiy answers the question of those desperate people, sayinp: “Tlee to your Lord!” The answer is very simple, but our egos rebel against our fleeing m that direction, saying: “Ne, i won’t permit you to flee te anyone but me alone, nor to take another shelter than mince, because T have my own wil, my own knowledpe and my own ideals: they are all we need, so come into my shelter!” But verily the ego’s shelter is full of leaks; it cannot keep out the downpour of tribulation!
Both the Torah and the Quran tell us the story of Noah, peace be upon him, and even now may we derive wisdom and a valuable lesson from the events that occurred during the life of that most ancient prophet Neo event in history shows us more plainly how the only real shelter is with our Lord, and how the shelter created by our minds will be swept away. Noah was sent to his Nation and to all people living at his time. No prophet was ever granted such a miraculous Hfespan ~ nine hundred and fifty years ~ but no prophe: was ever afflicted wah such persistent rejection and persecution either.
Whenever he would arise and exhort his people they would stone him until he was knocked unconscious. The story is well known. Finally, after centuries of vain attempts to guide the people, he prayed: “Ob my Lord, You must net leave on the face of the earth even one household of these hard hearted people, for no child is born to them except that he becomes an even greater tyrant than his parents. Lf You leave them be they ill lead astray even those few people who have believed m You. Oh my Lord, spare and forgive me and my family and those believers who are with
” us.
Then the Lord pranted lis prayer and resolved to destroy the wicked by sending a Hood to cover the earth, aad He commanded Noah to build an ark as a shelter for the few believers and for a
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male and female of each kind of animal. Then Noah set out to budd the Ark, not at the seaside, but tn the mudst of dey land. Some people asked him: “Qh Noah, what are you building?’ “I am building an Ark as a shelter against a great flood that the Lord will send upon the earth.” “Then why don't you build it by the se: instead of on this high ground, for even if it rains as you say tt will, here there will only be wild torrents rushing to the sea, and you may have a tough tide down such a wild nver’, they said sarcastically. “No”, Noah said, “this will be a flood lke no other, a flood that will leave nothing high and dry, and no rivers rushing to the sea: when this rain falls all will be sea. * "They only laughed scotnfully and went off saying: “Such an old, old man, and yet he preaches the same nonsense he always has, along with threats of a flood to scare us into his religion!”
And finally, when Noah had completed the construction of the Ark, he bade his family and all the believers to enter. All of them hastened aboard, except for one of his sons, who had been influenced by the logtc of those who had ridiculed his father, He said, “TI don’t need to board that tickety vessel. Tf it really catns ag you say, I will seek refuge on the top of a mountain, It never floods there, only in valleys. ‘This is a clear natural law, and [ trust my own perception and logic. I know where floods go and where they don’t.” Noah pleaded with him: “Oh my son, you think that you kaow, but you are wrong: come aboard and you will be safcl” But the son stubbornly held to his judgment, a fudgrient that would have been correct in the face of any other Blood the world had ever known, save this one, which inundated the carth up to seventy yards above the peak Noah’s son had clembed, and he perished.
In this tale is contained « lesson for all men who have placed thetr trust in the products of their own minds, and for their sake we are recounting the story of the fate of Naal’s son when he took to the mountain instead of to the Ark. And in our times whole nations are seeking to escape from the ever rising level of the misery flood by adopting solutions that accord with thelr meatal calculations, while not opposing their egos’ dictates — they are climbing mountains instead of boarding the Ark. The proponents
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of such concocted solutions to the world’s problems stand on mountaintops anc call people to their own “high and dry” shelters. Bach one calls out “Come here! Climb this peak, not that one: ours is the safe peakl? Burt slowly, slowly their island peaks shrink in the face of the rising waters, and soon all will be submerged; to drown in the sea of misery is a terrible end.
But the key to redemption is repentance, and therefore, in the sight of Allah even the case of those whe have tun to the mountains instead of the Ark and have fallen into the sea is not hopeless, for Allah heard the prayer of Jonah from the belly of a whale: “Oh my Lord, there is no God beside You. Gloritied be Your Name! Verily, I have been a wrongdoer!’ He turned to his Lord completely, and Allah saved him from that dark and tertible prison. “And this is how we rescue the believers” , says the Lord; and so we must plorify Tim that we may find salety from the flood of sufferings.
One person used to complain bitterly about the croaking of die frogs at night, Angels he shouted at them: “What's all this racket about? Will you please quiet down! Every night you keep me awake with your ‘ral eak! ak? ‘Then the spokesfrog of that pond replied: “Ob son of Adam, | am not lazy kke you, sleeping the whole night through, Tam keeping this nightly vigil and praising my Lord a hundred thousand times. Are you not ashamed to complain that I keep you trom your sleep?”
Yes, we mest fee to our Lord im the face of suffering b engaging ourselves in devotion to Him. If you feel yourself boing overwhelmed by waves of misery, then say: “Subhanallah, Glory to Allah” and those waves will subside. Glorify your Lord and you will be exalted in the Divine Presence, that is our soludon.
The holy Quran observes: “They forget ther Lard, sa He forgat then,”
In reality Fle never forgets anyone, but as a punishment for our forgetfulness, He permits us to feel forgotten, so that we are overwhelmed by misery, Therefore, every day people are coming to
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me, trying to unload a heavy burden of musery and the newspapers are bursting with stories of suffering, and nowadays through the television, we are presented with the highlights of the day’s disasters and misery. Yes, now we must face it all rather than the small sample we would encounter in our evergday lives, and the clisasters we see on televiston would affect even a heart made of iron.
Nowadays, in order to give people an oudet, to enable them to unburden themselves of some of ther pai, a new branch of medicine, psychiatry, has been founded, and those doctors are paid high salaries fust for listening to the details of people’s mental and emotional chaos. And despite the expense involved in consulting such doctors, their offices are now found on every comer, as ercen grocers used to he: that is a sign that mental iimess is on the increase. The hearts of those psychiatrists must be so expansive to be able to listen to such tales of woe aud to try and help their patients, but mostly they too find themselves overwhelmed, and come to me to unload their heavy burdens. My heart sometimes feels as tf it too will sink, as | become affected by the misery of people. Sometimes, | may help put someone on the aight track by pointing out the causes of his misery, and [am seeking my Lord's support and His forgivencss.
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§ Living Simply, Naturally and Avoiding Waste
Mankind ig one extended farnily. We are all related, and, therefore we share faany characteristics, among them a great spiritual power hidden within our being. But or five senses carry us away from ourselves atid ensure that we are constantly engaged in our surroundings. As long as we are the slaves of our senses they will draw us into the perpetual pursuit of insatiable sensual desires, and as long as we follow their dictates we cannot gain control of that spicitual power within us.
Because of this tendency, it is essential that anpoue seeking to retury to himself take fis Gest step on the way of truth by decreasing his desires, by secking to live an uncomplicated life. We wre by nature vain and like to indulge ina lot of self adornment. Lf people bad the financial means, they would wear a aew suit of clothes every few hours. In the old days, most people owned
perhaps twenty suits of clothes through the course of their lives. Nowadays, it would be j impossible for one to be satisfied even with twenty garments at any particilar trae in his life.
The moder economic system of the West is based on quick production and quick. consumption, and that is the epitome of foolishness. Because of the universal peedomimance of such a aystem, people in industetalmed couneies tre quickly and die of weariness — and lifestyle related diseases. The race to produce and consume consumes people, itis a heavy burden on their shoulders.
Th
Link: https://www.nvrislam.net/index.php?j=eng&post=6023
utter and twitter without a care in the world hke sparrows, but we can emulate their ways in the trust of God. He Almighty is the Only One who can guarantee your future: you capnot determine what will happen to you, and yor cantar know what. accidents or misfortunes may befall vou, your spouse, your children, nation or business. Don't put your trust in your job, your power, your knowledge or your beauty, for it may be that none of this wil avail you when you are the must vulnerable. This is an undeniable fact, and somewhere within themselves people kuow this. Therefore, those skeleton smiles, when dropped, revert to the trowns that reflect how the people are really feeling.
But the prophets and the Friends of God have received a guarantee from their Lord, a guarantee of protection and care: and according to the level of your faith you too may attain a guarantee of protection and care, and the serenity that results from such assutatce.
The shadow of worry pursues the “uninsured”, and pust as at aspirin may temporarily alleviate the symptoms of a migraine headache, but not cure its causes, so do te mporary pleasures make people temporarily oblivious of their miseries. The guarantee of ear Lord gives us permanent pleasure, and its source is in our hearts, Whoever has such a fountain in bis heart need not he a consumer in the amusement market. Why should he oced to escape
4z Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
from his house ev ery right te the discotheque, theater or gainbling casino when his heart provides him with all he needs to be happy?
We must aspire to take the keys to our inner treasures, lest all we achieve in our lives is to make ourselves “stimulation addicts”: and ultimately, we must carry responsibility for wasting our lives in such a manner, Those enjoyments are only pam hilers, and you may live for a while on a diet of pain sillers if you wish, but ultunately they will kdl you.
43 Mystic Footsteps
ay Why Depression?
Why are people afflicted with depression? No, sexual relations are not the primary cause of depression — there are other factors, and when these factors are present everything in life feels like a punishment and ceases to function normally, even sex which 1s normally the most enjoyable of activities, When normal relationships are disrupted by the presence of the root causes of depression, sex partners can only be » means for mutual punishment: each one “takes”, thea escapes from the other ~ into depression.
The main cause of depression is the effect of memory upon people. Most people harbor in themselves some very deep regrets about their owt past actions or about what they feel to be wrong decisions of mistakes made through the course of their lives. When we recall such painful events, a fire roars out of control through our hearts. Then we arrive at a gaping hole in our hearts that cattiot be filed, no matter what we try to fll a with - 30 deep are our reprets.
Our present fe becomes a bridge between the past and future, between two terrible visions: haunting memories and ataicty filled anticipation of the funute. Worrying about our future makes us crazy, and all that modern medical science can do about it is to offer people some dangerous drugs specially designed to cloud both memory and anticipation. These are tertible and dangerous \ncthods, for when people regain their wits, their despair will become even more acute. Allah m His wisdom created brain cells non senewable. Those dangerous drugs Mill brain cells, and once they ate killed they ace never replaced.
44 Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Hagqani
Since it is impossible to change the past, we oust be patient in the face of painful memories and no one can attam such patience without being a believer —- and not just a believer in nate, but also a persona of deep faith. Those memories will persist as memories, but faith may effectively neutralize their painful effects. He who has been absorbed in the love of God may feel himself to have made a aew beginning and to have left painful memories far behind.
There is a tradition of the holy Propher “Of actions, only the final one counts.” We must know that the only step of real importance in our lives is the last step — was it on the right way of on the path of iniquity? So many saints have once been big sinners, and every mistake we make is an opportunity to realize something walnable about ourselves, and to awaken to the need for iraprovement. The past had best be left behind us. It is a completed chapter, and there ts ne need to harp upon it What is important is to consider where you are headed. Even though you may be nearing the end of your life, don’t be discouraged Hf it seems to have been spent frivolously ~ just make your last step count.
Another cause of depression is hopelessness. We, as servants of a preat God, have no right to be hapeless — ne. The Lord may change everything in a second ~ everything. Ne whose faith is strong will never doubt that his Lord ultimately intends good for him in this life and the next, and he will be patient through adversity, looking for the Lord’s promised respite. Ag for unbelievers, abysmal despair follows on the heels of worldly ambition, as all their hopes are dashed on the rocks of time. But the heart of the believer is a vessel that sails safely through such danger, with the Lord as his puicde, and his faith in the guide keeps his heart afloat through stormy seas, anti at last the goal is attained ~ endless Mercy Oceans. | kaow that my bad actions ate a hindrance between my Lord and myself, but 1 beheve that His Mercy Oceans will engulf my heart and that I will be freed of my bad attributes, and be granted a new pexsonality, suitable for Mercy Oceans.
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*g Allah is With the Patient
Whenever we direct our hearts towards our Loed Almighty we are immersed in inner peace, and when we turn away from Him we ace strandce at the bottom of a deep and dark well seething with snakes, scorpions and spiders.
Grandshaykh told me a story of a man who always felt agoravated by his surroundings w ho always felt as if people were disturbing his peace of mind. One day he got so fed up with the society of men that he decided to leave it behind and become a cave dwelling » hermit. So he settled all of his affairs and retired to a remote mountainside. After searching for many days he finally found a cave suitable for his purposes, and occupied it, saying: “There is no one here and no one knows where | am. | am finally in peace.”
Just as he «was saying this to himself, someone passed ia the valley below, looked up at the mountainside and noticed a very beautiful rock fust near that cave. “J must have a piece of that colorful rock,” he said to himself, and began hacking away aé it. tak!
tak! tak!
At this the man ta the cave became really exasperated and said: “Ob my Lord, £ try to escape from people and You send me this! There are so many mountains, why did You have to send him te this one?”
No one can escape discomfort in this life, as the holy Prophet said, “Phere sy ao reat ar ther world.” You may live in a city or a village, even on the side of a mountain — but afl you will discover is that dus life is made of unrest. We have been ordered to be patient m1
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the face of this situation, for, “He who is patient ultimately succeeds.” Allah sends us trials and burdens in accordance with our capacities, but every single persen must carry some burden through this lite. We will be asked to carry burdens in accordance with our faith power. In our times believers will be loaded to their absolute capacities, as spititually blind people have made sure to make the lives of believers as difficult as possible.
47 Mystic Footsteps
By The Conversion of the Magicians
Allah Almiphty rewards people according to there intentions. Ef a person is sincere and has good intentions he will be rewarded by his Lord, no matter what his religion may be. Don’t hold your Lord’s mercy to be atry less than this.
1 once heard a tale about a Zoroastrian living in Baghdad in the ame of the Abbasid Khaliphs. After his death a grandshaykh saw him in a dream amidst the joys of paradise, That shaykh was sueprised and said to him: “E tow is t¢ that you are in paradise when you spent your life worshipping fire?” He repheck “Oh my Lord's servant, there ts only one reason for my being here in paradise. 114s on account of one very simple action that ] never took any notice Of ~ after it happered | forgot about it completely, aud certainly | never expected to be rewarded eternally for it, but so has at come te pass.” When Allah Almighty wants to find a way to redeem His creatures, surely He will find that way. He continued: “One day duting the fasting month of Ramadan, my young son was sitting in front of the house eating a piece of bread. 1 pulled his ear and scolded him saying, “May no one else ever pull your ear like this, here or hereafter! This is a holy month for the Muslims, they are fasting, so how can you show such blatant distespect for cheir customs?’ AHah was pleased with me for my respect of His holy month, and my respect for the feelings of my neighbors, and so here Tam.”
That man was a Zoroastrian and cannot be expected to have fasted mm Ramadan: that is sot his responsibility, he was not Muskim. Secondly, the son was only a small boy, and srnall children are not required to fast tn any case. Bur even though be may aot
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have particepated in the fast, he respected it aod taught his yourg son to do the same.
Let me give you another example of the value of showing cespect to all that pertains to God and his beloved people: when Moses agreed to a showdown wath the magicians. Pharaoh assembled 250,000 wizards to overwhelm Moses with their magical powers, They all arrived at the plain where the competition was to be held, decked out ta such terrifying costutnes that anyone would have been overcome with fear just looking at their numbers and forms. From the opposite direction Moses approached in his simple pastoral outfit, staff in hand. Then the chief magician stepped forward and Moses stood firmly in front of him. Moses looked at him intensely — divine heht penctrated the heart of the wizard, and it melted. He asked Moses humbly: “Will you cast your magic Hest or shall we be the first to casi?” His respectful adéressing of Moses in this manner was a sign that faith had entered his heart. In fact, he had started to receive mspiration when he first saw Moses approach, facing such a fearsome horde alone and unperturbed, Te was thea that he knew that Moses must be a messenger of God, for who else could be so fearless? Once he understood that Moses was not representing himself, but was a divine messenger, he lowered the wing of humility, and this caused the Lord to be pleased with the whole group of magicians, even though the practice of magic is strongly forbidden by divine Commandment.
When Moses told them to go ahead and manifest whatever they had prepared, the seed of faith had already begun to sprout in their hearts, and the miracle he performed only served to put a seal on their farth. They had cast their staffs, and each onc had taken on the appearance of a terrible snake, so that even Moses himself wondered at such a show. But when Moses threw bis staff, Allah caused a huge dragon to appear, a dragea that could swallow all the magicians had produced, a dragon whese mouth was a mile high and a mile wide. Then, when the dragon had devoured all of the snakes, it targed and asked, “Where is Pharaoh?” and airned
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cowards the pavilion front which Pharaoh was witnessing the event, and it appeared to be ready to swallow the whole pavilion.
But it was not God’s intention to kill Pharaoh then and there, but to etve him a bumbling lesson, that haply he might repent and tum towards truth, But the lesson imparted here involved a humbling much more basic and undeniable than the defeat of Pharach’s magicians and ther subsequent conversion to the true religion, a drastic change in Pharaoh’s bowel habits that should have caused Pharaoh to reconsider his spurtous lain to godhead. Prior to this event Pharaoh used to support his claum to divinity by the fact that he had hardly ever moved his bowels ~ only once in forty days. But from the time that the serpent turned and asked: “Where is Pharaohe? Pharaol fad to move his bowels forty times a day, and thereby humble himself by entermg the “house of health” more often than any of his nation.
Yes, Alh humbled him, but he accepted not the robe of hunulity. When the wizards saw the micacle that Moses had wrought they immediatey tree themselves into humble prostration, and at that moment cach of them beheld his place in paradise.
When Pharaoh emerged from the water closet to find that his mapicians had turned from worshipping him to the worship of the One True God, he was furious. “What are you doings! You were all in cahoots with Moses from the beginning. Now it is clear ~ he is your secret cluef, the one who taught vou all of your tricks. 7 shall cut off your hands and feet and crucify you on the trunks of palm treesl Then you wil know who ws powerfull” They replied: “Do what you will, but you can only tortate our physical bodies. Our souls are free, for we now know that we belong to the Lord of the worlds.”
Prom the stories of the conversion of the magicians and that of the Zoroastrian of Baghdad, we can tealize the connection benveen good intentions towards the servants of God and respect of His commands, and the unveiling of deeply hidden faith. We
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must never lose hope thar Allah's all embracing mercy will encompass us, and all His weak servants. Mystic Footsteps
By Is There No Escape?
Ob suffering people, vou may attain peace only through the remembrance of your Lord. Nowadays most people feel themselves to be suffering, to be in misery, and the question most oftes: asked is: “To where may | escape from oy problems?” The coring of such times is predicted in all holy books, and finally, also, in the holy Quran, which describes suffering people who ask. “To where may we escape?” The portrayal of such thnes makes the hearts of belie ers sheink in horror, but as T look at the human beings of our time T sec pain written on their faces and hear them shouting this very question. But no matter where you run, you are bound to find a mountain of troubles even more formidable than the one from which you have escaped.
Now people are all trying to escape from their situations. Orientals flee to the West in search of freedom and wealth, while Westerners flee from a sea of matertalism to the Orient to find a traditional way of life. Peasants can no longer stand to live in the countryside and flee to cities seeking the “civilized” life, and city dwellers, il with chilization’s diseases flock to the countryside to seek a wholesome lifestyle. But so often, even when people manage to escape from one place to another, one culture to another, one climate to another or from one marriage to another, seeking relief from their miseries, they only find themselves faced with another set of miseries, and then they fall inte disillusionment and hopelessness.
‘The present state of affairs is the fulfilment of the prophecy of the holy Prophet im which he predicted that there would come a time when people would pass through cemeteries and say. “Tf only
ae Shaykh Nazim Adil Al Haqqani
We Were
among you, or f only you could be in our places and we in yours! You are at rest, but we are in torment; oh, how lucky you are to have lived in earlier times and never to have seen these days!”
So where is a shelter from these miseries to be found? Allah Almughiy answers the question of those desperate people, sayinp: “Tlee to your Lord!” The answer is very simple, but our egos rebel against our fleeing m that direction, saying: “Ne, i won’t permit you to flee te anyone but me alone, nor to take another shelter than mince, because T have my own wil, my own knowledpe and my own ideals: they are all we need, so come into my shelter!” But verily the ego’s shelter is full of leaks; it cannot keep out the downpour of tribulation!
Both the Torah and the Quran tell us the story of Noah, peace be upon him, and even now may we derive wisdom and a valuable lesson from the events that occurred during the life of that most ancient prophet Neo event in history shows us more plainly how the only real shelter is with our Lord, and how the shelter created by our minds will be swept away. Noah was sent to his Nation and to all people living at his time. No prophet was ever granted such a miraculous Hfespan ~ nine hundred and fifty years ~ but no prophe: was ever afflicted wah such persistent rejection and persecution either.
Whenever he would arise and exhort his people they would stone him until he was knocked unconscious. The story is well known. Finally, after centuries of vain attempts to guide the people, he prayed: “Ob my Lord, You must net leave on the face of the earth even one household of these hard hearted people, for no child is born to them except that he becomes an even greater tyrant than his parents. Lf You leave them be they ill lead astray even those few people who have believed m You. Oh my Lord, spare and forgive me and my family and those believers who are with
” us.
Then the Lord pranted lis prayer and resolved to destroy the wicked by sending a Hood to cover the earth, aad He commanded Noah to build an ark as a shelter for the few believers and for a
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male and female of each kind of animal. Then Noah set out to budd the Ark, not at the seaside, but tn the mudst of dey land. Some people asked him: “Qh Noah, what are you building?’ “I am building an Ark as a shelter against a great flood that the Lord will send upon the earth.” “Then why don't you build it by the se: instead of on this high ground, for even if it rains as you say tt will, here there will only be wild torrents rushing to the sea, and you may have a tough tide down such a wild nver’, they said sarcastically. “No”, Noah said, “this will be a flood lke no other, a flood that will leave nothing high and dry, and no rivers rushing to the sea: when this rain falls all will be sea. * "They only laughed scotnfully and went off saying: “Such an old, old man, and yet he preaches the same nonsense he always has, along with threats of a flood to scare us into his religion!”
And finally, when Noah had completed the construction of the Ark, he bade his family and all the believers to enter. All of them hastened aboard, except for one of his sons, who had been influenced by the logtc of those who had ridiculed his father, He said, “TI don’t need to board that tickety vessel. Tf it really catns ag you say, I will seek refuge on the top of a mountain, It never floods there, only in valleys. ‘This is a clear natural law, and [ trust my own perception and logic. I know where floods go and where they don’t.” Noah pleaded with him: “Oh my son, you think that you kaow, but you are wrong: come aboard and you will be safcl” But the son stubbornly held to his judgment, a fudgrient that would have been correct in the face of any other Blood the world had ever known, save this one, which inundated the carth up to seventy yards above the peak Noah’s son had clembed, and he perished.
In this tale is contained « lesson for all men who have placed thetr trust in the products of their own minds, and for their sake we are recounting the story of the fate of Naal’s son when he took to the mountain instead of to the Ark. And in our times whole nations are seeking to escape from the ever rising level of the misery flood by adopting solutions that accord with thelr meatal calculations, while not opposing their egos’ dictates — they are climbing mountains instead of boarding the Ark. The proponents
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of such concocted solutions to the world’s problems stand on mountaintops anc call people to their own “high and dry” shelters. Bach one calls out “Come here! Climb this peak, not that one: ours is the safe peakl? Burt slowly, slowly their island peaks shrink in the face of the rising waters, and soon all will be submerged; to drown in the sea of misery is a terrible end.
But the key to redemption is repentance, and therefore, in the sight of Allah even the case of those whe have tun to the mountains instead of the Ark and have fallen into the sea is not hopeless, for Allah heard the prayer of Jonah from the belly of a whale: “Oh my Lord, there is no God beside You. Gloritied be Your Name! Verily, I have been a wrongdoer!’ He turned to his Lord completely, and Allah saved him from that dark and tertible prison. “And this is how we rescue the believers” , says the Lord; and so we must plorify Tim that we may find salety from the flood of sufferings.
One person used to complain bitterly about the croaking of die frogs at night, Angels he shouted at them: “What's all this racket about? Will you please quiet down! Every night you keep me awake with your ‘ral eak! ak? ‘Then the spokesfrog of that pond replied: “Ob son of Adam, | am not lazy kke you, sleeping the whole night through, Tam keeping this nightly vigil and praising my Lord a hundred thousand times. Are you not ashamed to complain that I keep you trom your sleep?”
Yes, we mest fee to our Lord im the face of suffering b engaging ourselves in devotion to Him. If you feel yourself boing overwhelmed by waves of misery, then say: “Subhanallah, Glory to Allah” and those waves will subside. Glorify your Lord and you will be exalted in the Divine Presence, that is our soludon.
The holy Quran observes: “They forget ther Lard, sa He forgat then,”
In reality Fle never forgets anyone, but as a punishment for our forgetfulness, He permits us to feel forgotten, so that we are overwhelmed by misery, Therefore, every day people are coming to
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me, trying to unload a heavy burden of musery and the newspapers are bursting with stories of suffering, and nowadays through the television, we are presented with the highlights of the day’s disasters and misery. Yes, now we must face it all rather than the small sample we would encounter in our evergday lives, and the clisasters we see on televiston would affect even a heart made of iron.
Nowadays, in order to give people an oudet, to enable them to unburden themselves of some of ther pai, a new branch of medicine, psychiatry, has been founded, and those doctors are paid high salaries fust for listening to the details of people’s mental and emotional chaos. And despite the expense involved in consulting such doctors, their offices are now found on every comer, as ercen grocers used to he: that is a sign that mental iimess is on the increase. The hearts of those psychiatrists must be so expansive to be able to listen to such tales of woe aud to try and help their patients, but mostly they too find themselves overwhelmed, and come to me to unload their heavy burdens. My heart sometimes feels as tf it too will sink, as | become affected by the misery of people. Sometimes, | may help put someone on the aight track by pointing out the causes of his misery, and [am seeking my Lord's support and His forgivencss.
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§ Living Simply, Naturally and Avoiding Waste
Mankind ig one extended farnily. We are all related, and, therefore we share faany characteristics, among them a great spiritual power hidden within our being. But or five senses carry us away from ourselves atid ensure that we are constantly engaged in our surroundings. As long as we are the slaves of our senses they will draw us into the perpetual pursuit of insatiable sensual desires, and as long as we follow their dictates we cannot gain control of that spicitual power within us.
Because of this tendency, it is essential that anpoue seeking to retury to himself take fis Gest step on the way of truth by decreasing his desires, by secking to live an uncomplicated life. We wre by nature vain and like to indulge ina lot of self adornment. Lf people bad the financial means, they would wear a aew suit of clothes every few hours. In the old days, most people owned
perhaps twenty suits of clothes through the course of their lives. Nowadays, it would be j impossible for one to be satisfied even with twenty garments at any particilar trae in his life.
The moder economic system of the West is based on quick production and quick. consumption, and that is the epitome of foolishness. Because of the universal peedomimance of such a aystem, people in industetalmed couneies tre quickly and die of weariness — and lifestyle related diseases. The race to produce and consume consumes people, itis a heavy burden on their shoulders.
Th
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