O Allah! Confer for ever Your best blessings and ever increasing and never ending favours and Your Purest and Gracious boons on him who is exalted in the realm of the realities of the nature of humans and jinns, and is fully aware of all subtleties of faith, and is the Mount Sinai recieving Divine Illuminations and the place on which descend the mysteries of the All-Beneficent and who is a bridegroom in the Kingdom of the Lord, the centrally placed jewel in the chain of prophets, the first and the foremost in the front line of the army of Messengers, the leader of the caravan of the saints and the truthful, the most graceful of all creation, the bearer of the highest flag of honour, the owner of the keys to the shining gallery, the beholder of the secrets of eternity, the beholder of the pristine glow of Primal Light, the interpreter of the Divine Language, fountain-spring of knowledge, tolerance and wisdom, the manifestation of the existence of the secrets of the whole and its parts, and the person who is the (cause of the) existence of (everything) above and below, the soul in the body of both the worlds (that keeps them alive), the fountain of life of this world and of the world to come, the one who knows the reality of the high rank of servitude of Allah and is created with the highest spiritual stations of morality, the foremost among the friends of Allah and His beloved, highly honoured; our master, our patron, our beloved, Muhammad, son of 'Abdullah, son of 'Abdul Muttalib, Allah's blessings on him, his family and companions, in the number which is in Your Knowledge (O Allah) and as many times as Your Words, whenever You are remembered and he is remembered by those who remember and whenever You are not remembered and he is not remembered by the negligent, and abundant, never ending, complete salutations on him.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

"The Nearest.!"

Jesus alaihi salaam peace be upon him passed by three people whose bodies had become thin and their color changed; so he asked of them: 'What has made you like this?' They answered: fear of hell fire. Jesus said: Allah has obligated upon Himself to diminish your fear. Then he went on his way and came across three more who had become even more thinner and whose color had also changed; so he said to them: 'What has made you like this?' They answered: longing for paradise! He said: 'Allah has obligated upon Himself to give you what you long for.' Then as he traveled on he came across another three who were even more thinner than the previous and whose color had changed. Their faces shone like lights as if they were mirrors so he asked them: 'What has made you like this?' They answered: 'We love Allah, the Mighty, the Glorified', whereupon he replied: 'You are the nearest, the nearest!'


-Imam Al Ghazali, Hujjatul Islam/Proof of Islam,may Allah be well pleased with him

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Who Is The Sufi...

'The Sufi is not the one who is always carrying the prayer rug, nor the one who is wearing patched clothes, nor the one who keeps certain customs and appearances; but the Sufi is the one to whom everyone's focus is drawn, although he is hiding himself.'

Abul Hassan Ali ibn Jafar Al-Kharqani,
the great Naqshbandi Master, may Allah sanctify his soul & bless his secret


Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The Beloveds (PBUH) Physical Attributes


There is absolutely no way to conceal the fact that the Prophet is the worthiest of all mankind, the greatest of them in position and most perfect of them in good qualities and virtue. I am setting out to detail his qualities of perfection in the best way I can, which has filled me with longing to call attention to some of his attributes, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.



Know, may Allah illuminate my heart and yours and increase my love and your love for this noble Prophet! - that if you were to look into all those qualities of perfection which cannot be acquired and which are part of one's constitution, you will find that the Prophet has every one of them - all of the various good qualities without there being any dispute about it among the transmitters of the traditions.



The beauty of his form and the perfect proportion of his limbs are related in numerous sound and famous traditions from 'Ali, Anas ibn Malik, Abu Hurayra, Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib, 'A'isha, Ibn Abi Hala, Abu Juhayfa, Jabir ibn Samura, Umm Ma'bad, Ibn 'Abbas, Mu'arrid ibn Mu'ayqib, Abu't-Tufayl, Al-'Ida' ibn Khalid, Khuraym ibn Fatik, Hakim ibn Hizam and others.



He had the most radiant colouring, deep black eyes which were wide set and had a sort of red tint to them, long eyelashes, a bright complexion, an aquiline nose, and a gap between his fronth teeth. His face was round with a wide brow and he had a thick beard which reached his chest. His chest and abdomen were of equal size. He was broad-chested with broad shoulders. He had large bones, large arms, thick palms and soles, long fingers, fair skin and fine hair from the chest to the navel. He was neither tall nor short, but between the two. In spite of that, no tall person who walked with the Prophet seemed taller than him. His hair was neither curly nor straight. When he laughed and his teeth showed, it was like a flash of lighting or they seemed as white as hailstones. When he spoke, it was like light issuing from between his teeth. He had a well-formed neck, neither broad nor fat. He had a compact body which was not fleshy.



Al-Bara' said, "I did not see anyone with a more beautiful lock of hair resting on a red robe than the Messenger of Allah."



Abu Hurayra said, "I have not seen anything more beautiful than the Messenger of Allah. It was as if the sun was shining in his face. When he laughed, it reflected on the wall."



Jabir ibn Samura was asked, ''Was his face like a sword?" He replied, "No, it was like the sun and the moon. It was round." (In al-Bukhari and Muslim and elsewhere)



In her description, Umm Ma'bad said, "From afar, he was the most beautiful of people, and close up he was the most handsome." (Al-Bayhaqi)



Ibn Abi Hala said, "His face shone like the full moon."



At the end of his description, 'Ali said, "Anyone who saw him suddenly was filled with awe of him. Those who kept his company loved him."



All who described him said they had not see anyone like him either before or since.
There are many famous hadith which describe him. We will not take the time here to give them all. We have restricted ourselves to some aspects of his description and given a summary of them which is enough to serve our purpose.



You will find, Allah willing, that we have concluded these sections with a hadith which combines all these things.


Kitab ash-Shifa bi Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa


Qadi 'Iyad

Every Beat Of My Heart Goes...