Anecdotes Of Junaid

Once Junaid’s eye pained him, and he sent for the doctor.“If your eye is throbbing, do not let any water get to it,” the doctor advised.

When he had gone, Junaid performed his ablutions and prayed, and then went to sleep. When he awoke, his eye was well again. He heard a voice saying, “Junaid forsook his eye to gain Our good pleasure. If with the same intention he had begged of Us all the inhabitants of Hell, his petition would have been granted.”

The physician called and saw that his eye was healed.“What did you do?” he asked.“I performed the ablutions for prayer,” Junaid answered.

Thereupon the physician, who was a Christian, declared his conversion.

“This is the Creator’s cure, not the creature’s,” he commented. “It was my eye that was sick, not yours. You were the physician, not I.”

-Farid al-Din Attar
Tadhkirat al-Awliya'

"I'm contained by true hearts"

The Prophet said that Allah has said,

"I cannot be contained in hallowed places.

Heaven and earth cannot hold Me.

But I am contained by true hearts.

If you seek Me, search in those hearts."

-Rumi

In the hour or grief...

In the hour of grief you turn to Him;

when grief departs you transgress.

In adversity you moan entreating Him;

when ease returns you turn away.

Those who know Allah remain steady,

but those who doubt exult at times

and become despondent at others.

-Rumi

Liberate yourself

Liberate yourself from the fetters of the ego
and surrender yourself before God.
Let the Lord be your shepherd,
allow Him to attend to all your cares,
and do not allow temptations to entice you.
Aspirations of this world are the cause of all concern.
Aspire to God and obtain freedom.

-Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani

In God's eyes

I surrender myself to no other god but God.

If He desires my bloodshed,

then so be it! I have no fear.

I may be disgraced in your world;

before God honor will be mine.

A laughing stock in the eyes of the world,

in God's eyes cherished and acclaimed.

-Rumi

The Key to Success

On Dhikr

Dhikr is a fire which does not stay or spread – so if it enters a house saying, "Me and nothing other than me," which is one of the meanings of "la ilaha illa'llah' (There is no god but Allah), and there is firewood in the house, it burns it up and it becomes fire. If there is darkness in the house, it becomes light. If there is light in the house, it becomes 'light upon light'.

Dhikr expels from the body impure substances produced by excess in eating or from the consumption of unlawful food. As for food which is lawful, it does not touch it. So the harmful components are burned up and the good components remain.

Dhikr is heard by every part as if it were blowing on a trumpet. When dhikr first occurs in the head, the sound of trumpets and cymbals is experienced there. Dhikr is a sultan – when it descends in a place, it descends with its trumpets and cymbals because dhikr is opposed to all that is other than the Truth. When it descends in a place, it occupies itself with negating what is contrary to the Truth, as we find in the union of water and fire. After these sounds, different sounds are heard: like the ripple of water, the sound of the wind, the sound of fire when it is kindled, the sounds of galloping of horses, and the sound of leaves of the trees rustling in the wind.

This is because man is a combination of every noble and low substance: dust, water, fire, air and earth, and heaven and earth and what is between them: these sounds issue from every source and element of these substances. Whoever has heard these sounds in dhikr praises Allah and glorifies Him with his entire tongue. This is the result of the dhikr with the tongue with the force of complete absorption. Perhaps the worshipper will reach the state where, if he falls silent from dhikr, the heart will stir in his breast, like the movement of the child in the womb, seeking dhikr.

Some say that he heart is like 'Isa, the son of Mary, peace be upon him, and dhikr is its milk. When it grows and becomes strong, longing for the Truth audibly springs from it and pangs of yearning craving for dhikr and the One invoked. The dhikr of the heart is like the sound of the bee, neither a confused high noise nor a very low hidden sound. When the One invoked takes possession of the heart and the dhikr is obliterated and vanishes, and the invoker does not pay attention to the dhikr nor to the heart. If during this, he notices the dhikr or the heart, that is a distracting veil.

This is state is annihilation (fana') – and it is that man is annihilated in respect to his self (nafs), and he feels nothing in his limbs nor things outside of him or things inside of him. If, during that, it occurs to him that he is totally annihilated in respect to himself, that then is a blemish and turbidity. Perfection is that he be annihilated to himself and to annihilation, and the annihilation of annihilation is the goal of annihilation. Annihilation is the earliest of the Path (Tariq) since it is travelling towards Allah Almighty, and then guidance follows. By guidance I mean the guidance of Allah as the Prophet Ibrahim said, "I am going to my Lord, and He will guide me." (37:99)
This absorption is seldom stable and rarely continues. If the invoker continues, it becomes a fixed habit and a permanent state by which he may ascend to the celestial world. Then the purest real Being emerges and he is imprinted with nature of the invisible world (malakut) and the holiness of Divinity (lahut) is manifested to him. The first thing manifested to him from that world are the essences of the angels and the spirits of the Prophets and saints in beautiful forms through which some of the realities overflow onto him. That is the beginning. This continues until his degree is higher than forms and he encounters the Truth in everything with clarity.
This is the fruit of the core of dhikr. Its beginning is only the dhikr of the tongue; and then the dhikr of the heart is stimulated. Then the dhikr becomes natural; and then the One invoked takes possession and the invoker is obliterated. This is the inner secret of the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: "Whoever wish to abide in the Garden of Paradise should invoke Allah much" and the secret of his words "Hidden dhikr is seventy times preferable to dhikr which is heard by listeners."

The sign of dhikr moving to the inner conscience (sirr) is the absence of the invoker from dhikr and the One invoked, and the dhikr of the inner conscience is frantic thirst and drowning in it.
Among its signs is that when you ceasing doing dhikr, it does not leave you, and the ascendancy of dhikr in you stirs you from absence to presence.

Among its signs is that dhikr presses against your heads and limbs so that they seem as if they were bound with shackles and chains.

Among its signs is that its fires do not abate and its light does not depart. Rather you always see its lights rising and descending while the fires around you are pure, aflame and brightly burning. When dhikr reaches the inner conscience when the invoker falls silent from dhikr, it is as if needles had been thrust through his tongue or as if his entire face were a tongue invoking, light pouring from it.

- Ibn 'Ata'llah al-Iskandari

From Miftah al-Falah (The Key to Success)

The Chapter on Dhikr

Encouragement to remember Allah often, secretly and openly, and to presevere in it; what is reported about someone who does not remember Allah often

1. Abu Huryara reported that the Messenger of Allah said, "Allah Almighty says, 'I am in My slave's opinion of Me and I am with Him when He remembers Me. When he remembers Me in himself, I mention him in Myself. If he mentions Me in an assembly, I mention him in a better assembly than them.' If he comes near Me by a handspan, I come near him a cubit. If he comes near Me by a cubit, I come near a fathom. When he comes to walking, I come to him running."
(Muslim and al-Bukhari, Ahmad has at the end of it, Qatada said, "Allah is quicker to forgive.")

2. 'Abdullah ibn Busr reported a man said, "Messenger of Allah, the laws of Islam are too much for me. Tell me something I can cling to." He said, "Your tongue should remain moist with the remembrance of Allah." (at-Tirmidhi)

3. Abu'd-Darda' reported that the Messenger of Allah said, "Shall I inform you of the best of your actions and the purest of your property and the highest of your degrees and what is better for you than spending gold and silver and better for you than encountering the enemy and striking their necks and their striking your necks?" They said, "Yes, indeed!" He said, "Remembrance of Allah Almighty." MuÔadh ibn Jabal said, "There is nothing which saves from the punishment of Allah more than remembrance of Allah." (Ahmad, Ibn Abi'd-Dunya, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah)

4. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri reported that the Messenger of Allah said, "Do a lot of remembrance of Allah until they say, 'He is mad.'" (Ahmad, Abu Ya'la and Ibn Hibban)

5. Abu Musa reported that the Messenger of Allah said, "If one man has some dirhams in his possession which he divides and another remembers Allah, the one who remembers Allah is better." One variant has, "There is no sadaqa better than remembrance of Allah." (at-Tabarani)
6. Umm Anas reported that she said, "Messenger of Allah, command me." He said, "Avoid acts of disobedience: that is the best jihad. Do a lot of invoking Allah. You do not bring Allah anything he loves more than a lot of remembrance." (at-Tabarani. In one variant, "Remember Allah a lot. It is the action which Allah loves most to reveive." At-Tabarani notes that Umm Anas is not the mother of Anas ibn Malik.)

Encouraging attending gatherings of dhikr and meeting together to remember Allah

7. Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah said, "Allah Almighty has angels who travel the highways and by-ways seeking out the people of dhikr. When they find people remembering Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, they call out to one another, 'Come to what you hunger for!' and they enfold them with their wings stretching up to the lowest heaven. Their Lord - who knows them better - asks them, 'What are My slaves saying?' They say, 'They are glorifying You, proclaiming Your greatness, praising You and magnifying You.' He says, 'Have they seen Me?' They say, 'No, by Allah, they have not seen You.' He says, 'How would it be if they were to see Me?' [extra 'He said's deleted] They say, 'If they were to see You, they would worship You even more intensely and magnify You even more intensely and glorify You even more intensely.' He says, 'What are they asking Me for?'They say, 'They are asking You for the Garden.' He says, 'Have they seen it?' They say, 'No, by Allah, they have not seen it.'" He says, 'How would it be if they were to see it?' They say, 'If they were to see it, they would yearn for it even more strongly and seek it even more assiduously and would have an even greater desire for it.' He says, 'What are they seeking refuge from?' 'They are seeking refuge from the Fire.' He says, 'Have they seen it?' He says, 'How would it be if they were to see it?' They say, 'If they were to see it, they would flee from it even harder and have an even greater fear of it.' He says, 'I testify to you that I have forgiven them.' One of angels says, 'Among them is so-and-so who is not one of them. He came to get something he needed.' He says, 'They are sitting and the one sitting with them will not be wretched.'" (al-Bukhari)

8. ÔAbdullah ibn 'Umar reported: "I asked, 'Messenger of Allah, what is the booty of the assemblies of dhikr?' He replied, 'The booty of the asemblies of dhikr is the Garden.'" (Ahmad)

9. Anas ibn Malik reported that the Messenger of Allah said, "When you come upon the meadows of the Garden, graze in them." He was asked, "What are the meadows of the Garden?" "Circles of dhikr." he replied. (at-Tirmidhi)

10. 'Amr ibn ÔAbasa said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah say about the right hand of the All-Merciful, 'Both His hands are right hands. There are men who are not Prophets or martyrs the whiteness of whose faces overpowers the sight of those who look. The Prophets and martyrs envy their seat and proximity to Allah Almighty.' He was asked, 'Messenger of Allah, who are they?' He replied, 'A mixture of isolated people from the tribes who meet to remember Allah and select the best words as someone who eats dates selects the best ones.'" (at-Tabarani)

-Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani
from at-Targhib wa at-Tarhib

Inner Wakefulness

This place is a dream
only a sleeper considers it real
then death comes like dawn
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought
was your grief

A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived
and he dreams
he's living in another town
in the dream he doesn't remember
the town he's sleeping in his bed in
he believes the reality
of the dream town
the world is that kind of sleep

Humankind is being led
along an evolving course,
through this migration
of intelligences
and though we seem
to be sleeping
there is an inner wakefulness,
that directs the dream
and that will eventually
startle us back
to the truth of
who we are

-from The Essential Rumi

A Discourse on Sexual Desire

Know that man has been made subject to sexual desire for two beneficial reasons. The first of these is that by knowing its delight he is able to draw an analogy which suggests to him what the delight of the Afterlife must be like. For the delight of the sexual act, were it to last, would be the greatest pleasure of the body, just as the pain of a burn is the body’s greatest agony. Encouragement and deterrence [al-targhib wa’l-tarhib], which drive people towards their saving happiness, can only be brought about by means palpable pain and pleasure, since what cannot be perceived through experience will never be greatly desired. The second reason is that it allows the human race to continue and the world [‘alam] to abide. Such are its benefits.

However, sexual desire also contains evil which may destroy both religion and the world if it is not controlled and subjugated, and restored to a state of equilibrium. It has been said that His word (Exalted is He!), O our Lord! Burden us not with more that we can bear! [II:286] refers, when correctly interpreted, to powerful lust. And Ibn ‘Abbas understood His word (Exalted is He!), wa-min sharri ghasiqin idha waqab [CXIII:3] to refer to ‘the erection of the male member’.


It is told that Moses (upon whom be peace) was once sitting in company when Satan came up to him wearing a cloak in which he assumed many colours [yatalawwanu fihi alwan]. When he drew near to him he took this off and set it aside. Then he said, ‘Peace be upon you Moses!’ Moses ask him who he was and he replied, ‘I am Satan’. ‘God slay you!’ Moses said. ‘What brings you here?’ And he answered, ‘I have come to greet you in view of your great rank in the sight of God’. ‘What was it that I saw you wearing?’ he asked, and he replied, ‘A cloak with which I snatch away the hearts of the descendants of Adam’. ‘What is it then,’ Moses asked, ‘that a man does which enables you to prevail over them?’ And he replied, ‘He becomes pleased with himself, and considers that he has many good deeds to his credit, and forgets his sins. Now, I would warn you against three things! Never be alone with a woman who is not lawful for you, for never does a man do so without having me, not my companions, as his companion, so that I tempt them both with one another. Never make a vow to God without fulfilling it. And never prepare something to give as charity and then fail to give it, for never does a man do so without having me, not my companions, as his companion, so that I prevent him from giving it [at a later time]’. Then he went away, crying, ‘Woe is me! Moses has learnt something against which to warn the descendants of Adam!’

Sa’id ibn al-Musayyib once said, ‘Satan never despaired of destroying any previous prophet by means of women. In my opinion they are to be feared more than anything else. I do not enter a single house in Medina – apart from my own and that of my daughter, which I take a bath in on Fridays and then leave’ (Abu Nu'aym).

Someone once said, ‘The devil says to women: “You are half my army! You are my arrow with which I do not miss! You are my confidante! You are my messenger with whom I achieve my wants!” Thus half his army is desire, the other half being anger.’

The desire for women, which the greatest of all desires, is susceptible to excess, defect, and equilibrium. Excess obtains when the intellect is overcome, so that a man’s concern is so distracted towards the enjoyment of women and slavegirls that he is unable to tread the path of the Afterlife; or it may overcome a man’s religion, so that he is drawn into obscene activities. This may become so extreme in some cases that two foul habits are acquired. Firstly, he may partake of something which makes him desire to have intercourse more often, just as some people take certain drugs which strengthen the stomach and allow them to eat more of the things which they desire. This resembles nothing so much as a man tormented by savage beasts and snakes which sleep from time to time, but which he finds methods of awakening and arousing, and then has to make his peace with. For the desires for food and intercourse are in reality pains, which a man would rather be free of so as to gain another form of delight. Should you object that it has been narrated in a gharib (A hadith which contains unusual lexis, or which is related by only one chain of authorities. (Jurjani)) Tradition that the Emissary of God (may God bless him and grant him peace) said, ‘I complained to Gabriel that I would like more strength when having intercourse with my wives, and he instructed me to eat harisa,’ (Tabarani, Tabarsi) then you should know that he had (may God bless him and grant him peace) nine wives, and that he was obliged to satisfy them all, and that no-one was permitted to marry them after his death, or even if he divorced them: his request for strength was therefore for this, and not for enjoyment.

The second thing is that in the case of some misguided people this desire may end in amorous passion [‘ishq], which constitutes utter ignorance of the intended purpose of sexual congress, and a descent to a level lower than that of the animals. For such people are not content merely to gratify their lust, which is the unsightliest of all desires and the one of which a man should most be embarrassed, but instead believe that their lust can only be satisfied by one person. An animal finds it enough to satisfy its lust anywhere it can, whereas these people will only be satisfied by one person in particular, which thing heaps abasement upon abasement, and enslavement upon enslavement, until their intellects are subordinated to the service of their cravings, even though the intellect has been created to be obeyed, not to obey desires and devise means of gratifying them. Amorous passion is nothing but a wellspring of excessive sexual desire, and is the disease of an empty and unconcerned heart. One should be one’s guard against its preliminaries by abstaining from repeated glances and thoughts. Otherwise, it will take firm hold of one and be difficult to shake off. In this it resembles the passion which certain people harbour for wealth, status, land and children, or even for playing with birds, lutes, backgammon, or chess, all of which may posses them to such a degree that their religious and worldly lives are adulterated and they are unable ever to abstain from them. To break the power of amorous passion in its early stages is like pulling at the reins of a riding-beast when it heads for a gate it would like to enter: to rein it back is a very easy thing, whereas to treat such a passion after it has taken hold of one is like letting the beast go in, and then catching it by its tail and pulling it from behind: a much more difficult task. One should therefore take precautions at the onset of these things, for later they can only be treated with an effort so intense as almost to lead to death.

Excess in the matter of sexual desire, then, causes the intellect to be overcome to this degree, which is very much to be condemned. Insufficient sexual desire, however, leads to an indifference to women, or to giving them insufficient pleasure, which is also to be condemned. Sexual desire is praiseworthy thing when it stands in a state of equilibrium, obedient to the intellect and the Law in all its movements. Whenever it becomes excessive, it should be broken with hunger and marriage. The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) said: ‘O young men! You should marry, and whosoever cannot should fast, for fasting is a form of castration.’ (Bukhari)

-Hujjatul Islam, Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Breaking The Two Desires (Kitab Kasr al-Shahwatayn); Book XXIII of The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din)

Invoking blessings on the Prophet (peace & blessings be upon him)

the above transliteration is :-

Allahumma salli ' wa sallim was baarik ala Sayyidina Muhammadil
nil-fatihi lima Ughliqa wal khatimi lima sabaqa wan-naa-siril-haqqi
bil-haqqi wal-hadi ila Sirati-kal-mustaqima sal-lal-lahu 'alayhi
wa 'ala alihi wa-ashaabihi haqqa qadrihi wa-miq-da rihil-'azim.

the above translation is:-

O God bless our Master Muhammad (pbuh) who opened what had been closed, and who is the Seal of what had gone before, he who makes the Truth Victorious by the Truth, the guide to thy straight path, and bless his household as is the due of his immense position and grandeur.

I am sure you have heard the fact that there is no such thing as invoking too much salawat on the Prophet and that we should stay clear of anyone who makes such a claim. We will only mention here some evidence on this topic by way of a reminder.

Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet said: "If people sit in an gathering in which they do not remember Allah nor invoke a blessing on the Prophet, it will be a cause of grief for them on the Day of Judgment." (Narrated by Tirmidhi, who graded it hasan.)

The author of Fath al-`allam said: "This hadith proves that it is incumbent on one to remember Allah and invoke blessings on the Prophet while sitting in an gathering, for whether we take the words "cause of grief" to mean torment of fire or any other punishment, obviously a punishment is incurred only when an obligatory act is neglected or a forbidden act is committed, and here it is both the remembrance of Allah and the invoking of blessings on His Prophet that are apparently incumbent."

Dua For Relief Of Debt

Once a Sahaba (radhiallahu anhu) came to the Beloved Rasool (peace & blessings be upon him) and complained that the world has turned its back on him (referring to poverty). Sayyiduna Rasoolullah (peace & blessings be upon him) said to him, “Do you not know that Tasbeeh which is also the Tasbeeh of the Angles of sustenance? It is due to this Tasbeeh that Allah (peace & blessings be upon him) gives sustenance. The needs of this Duniya will come to you in abundance. Recite this Tasbeeh 100 times daily at the rise of early morning (just after Sobho-Saadiq). This is the sacred Tasbeeh of the Angels,

سبحان الله و بحمده سبحان الله العظيم و بحمده استغفر الله

Seven days passed and the Sahaba(radhiallahu anhu) returned to the Holy Prophet (peace & blessings be upon him) and said: “Ya Rasoolullah (peace & blessings be upon him)! The Duniya (wealth) is coming to me so abundantly that I do not know how to carry it or where to put it. I am absolutely amazed and astonished as to what to do with it.”

-Fath al-Bari narrated by umm al-mu'minin Sayyidah A'iesha (radhiallahu anha)