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.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Getting Rid of the Need to Obtain Peoples Approval

"O' disciple, strive to purify your heart both from the fear of people and from putting your hopes in them, for this would make you remain silent when faced with falsehood, compromise your religion, and neglect enjoining good and forbidding evil. This would be ample humiliation. A believer is strong by his Lord; he feels no fear nor hope except with regard to Him.

When one of your Muslim brothers offers you something by way of showing affection, take it if you need it, but thank God, for He is the real giver, and thank the one whom God has chosen to deliver it to you. If you do not need it, see whether it would be better for your heart to take it or refuse it. If you refuse, do it tactfully so as not to hurt the heart of the giver, for the feelings of a Muslim are of consequence to God.

Beware of refusing for the sake of acquiring a reputation, or of accepting for your appetites. However, to accept for your appetites is better than turning something down to acquire a reputation of asceticism and of turning away from the world. The truthful will not be confused, for his Lord gives him a light in his heart by which he knows what is required of him. "

-Imam Alawi al-Haddad