Sahl ibn Abd Allah al-Tustari said,
“One doesn’t attain unto the reality of faith until one has four traits:
(1) Fulfilling one’s obligations, in accordance with the sunna
(2) Eating the halal, with scrupulousness
(3) Avoiding prohibitions, both outward and inward
(4) Remaining steadfast on this, until one’s death.”

[Ghazali, Ihya `Ulum al-Din, 2.91]

وقال سهل التسترى لا يبلغ
العبد حقيقة الإيمان حتى يكون فيه أربع خصال أداء الفرائض بالسنة وأكل الحلال
بالورع واجتناب النهي من الظاهر و الباطن و الصبر على ذلك إلى الموت

Koonj: Shabana’s blog » Blog Archive » There is no “I” in parenthood

Hazrat Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan (RA) had a bad-tempered wife who was always scolding him. This same Hz Mirza was extremely sensitive by temperament. Someone asked him why he lived with this badtempered woman. He said that it was because of this same woman and her temper that God had been so generous to him.

(BTW I’d like this to be cited more often when it comes to talk of “rights and responsibilities” and “marriage in Islam”….

The Most Beautiful Names of Allah

The Most Beautiful Names of Allah, with quotes from the Qur’an and from the words of Mawlana Rumi

Hadra dhikr with Shaykh Abd al-Rahman Shaghouri - Google Video

Shadhili hadra with the late Shaykh Abd al-Rahman Shaghouri. This video was shot in Damascus in 2002, two years before the shaykh passed away.

A Whirling Sufi Revival With Unclear Implications - New York Times

…. This is a zikr, the mystical Sufi dance of the Caucasus and a ritual near the center of Chechen Islam.

Here inside Chechnya, where Russia has spent six years trying to contain the second Chechen war since the Soviet Union collapsed, traditional forms of religious expression are returning to public life. It is a revival laden with meaning, and with implications that are unclear.

Ibnat Battuta: The Principles of the Spiritual Path - part I

Sheikh Ahmad ibn Ahmad Zarruq (Allah be well pleased with him) said: In the name of Allah Most Merciful and Compassionate: All praise be to Allah;

The basic principles of our order consist in five things: having godfearingness privately and publicly, following the sunna in word and deed, indifference to whether others accept or reject one, satisfaction with Allah in scarcity and plenty, and turning to Allah in happiness or affliction.

Godfearingness is attained by scrupulousness and uprightness.

Following the sunna is attained by caution and good character.

Indifference to others’ acceptance or rejection is attained by patience and trust in Allah.

Satisfaction in Allah is attained by contentment with what one has and submission to the will of Allah.

And turning to Allah Most High is attained by praise and thanks to Him in happiness and taking refuge with Him in affliction.

The foundations of all these consist of five things: high aspiration, maintaining due respect, giving goodly service, carrying out one’s spiritual resolutions, and venerating Allah’s blessings.

Whoever’s aspiration is high, his rank rises. Whoever maintains respect for what Allah honors, his own respect is upheld. Whoever gives goodly service is necessarily shown generousity. Whoever carries out his spiritual resolutions continues to have guidance. Whoever sees Allah’s blessings as great gives thanks for them, and whoever gives thanks for them has necessitated their increase by the Bestower of Blessings, by virtue of His true promise.

[Source: Invocations of the Shadhili Order, Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller)

Rumi on Heaven, Hell, and Allah

“Without You
even Heaven is Hell

If You are near
Then Hell becomes Heaven

O Beloved!”

copenhagen interpretation: Labbayk

And so the day nears
thou wondrous
bring back all I thought lost

not one day without prayer

I want for naught nor miss
thy kindness
thy humble warmth, my Yemeni
[read more: copenhagen interpretation: Labbayk]

BBC NEWS | Middle East | New Abu Ghraib images broadcast

An Australian TV channel has broadcast previously unpublished images showing apparent US abuse of prisoners in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail in 2003.

la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah

copenhagen interpretation: Bird Talk

Greetings hoopoe, be the guide
truly, herald of every valley
you, your flight to far Sheba a feat sung
your speech a joy to Solomon
you, master of his secret
boast a crown
a double row of pale orange plumes
tipped black, like dawn rising
behind the passing storm’s down
fetter the devil and cage him
be Solomon’s confidant
that done you might join him on the carpet

Bravo, dove of Moses, rise!
coo in realization of the Divine [read more]

Traditionalist - Islam, Law, & Spirituality

When half a thousand years and more
Had passed, and men allegiance swore
To the Arab Prophet, beneath the tree,
My willing hand was still not free
From bonds of time and space to be
Between his hands in fealty.
[read more]

copenhagen interpretation: The Gift

You don’t know how hard it’s been,

to find you a gift.

Nothing fit.

[read more]

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah,

You may notice a few changes to www.SeekersDigest.org :

(1) Rotating banner images
(2) Added some links (like Akram’s Razor, Contemplating Chishti, Copenhagen Interpretation….)
(3) Announcement about the SunniPath Academy.
(4) Changed the font… and a few other little things.

copenhagen interpretation: Muraqaba - von Goethe

Foolish that each does in his case
His own particular opinion praise!
If Islam means submission to God,
In Islam we all live and pass away.
 Islam we all live and pass away.

Tumba Ibn Mashish.jpg (JPEG Image, 700×487 pixels)

(Click to enlarge)

Ibn Mashish was the spiritual guide of Abu’l Hasan al-Shadhili.

Sidi Abu’l Hasan al-Shadhili said:

My beloved [namely, Ibn Mashish] counselled me,

Abu’l Hasan: Don’t take a single step except where you expect Allah’s reward. Don’t sit except where you’re safe from Allah’s disobedience. Don’t keep the company of other than one who assists you in obedience of Allah. Don’t choose as an intimate companion other than one who increases you in certainty (yaqain)–and how few they are!

An Intimate Calling
from the Wird Book of Imam Ashraf Ali al-Tahanawi

O Messenger of Allah, I come to you seeking refuge
May my Lord’s blessings be upon you and all peace

I come distressed, seeking assistance and succor
For a soul that wrongs despite not having been wronged

O Messenger of Allah, I come to you seeking your protection
And your Lord grants you protection and you can’t be let down

O Messenger of Allah, I come to you as a guest
And the rights of guests are known to those noble

I come to you indigent and needy
With a soul possessing only tremendous sins

A stranger who has come from a strange land
Without any companions or partners

…..

Help me, O Messenger of Allah, for I
Am at a loss, and despair has reached my very bones

Grant mercy, O Son of Aminah, grant mercy
For in sin have I been nursed and grown

It is your intercession I seek in distress and ease
And your healing when sickness befalls me

You are my support when darkness befalls
And in struggles you are my sure sword

If you seek forgiveness for me, O Master, even once
I’ll be of those upright on religion

Every limb of mine obeys you as if a slave
And in my heart love for you is constant

O God grant me success throughout my life
To pray weeping while others are asleep.

[Source: Munajat-e-Maqbool, 234-238, Idara-e-Islamiyat, Lahore, 1995]

Ask Imam :: Fatwa on the Prohibition of “Ya Rasul Allah Madad”

The Question: i just wanted to get one thing more cleared up. The folks at sunnipath,
seem to give the impression that permissibility of using words like
“Yarasoolullah madad” is the view of majority of ummah

The Answer:

It is important to understand a fundamental issue
regarding substantiations in Shari’ah. The order and sequence of
substantiations is as follows: a) Qur’aan, b) Hadith, c) Ijmaa and, d)
Qiyaas (analogy)

Majority ruling as a substantiation follows far beyond the four
fundamental substantiations. It is only when there are no
substantiations preceding that and there are differences of opinion
among contemporary Ulama. The issue in reference, saying ‘Yaa Rasoolullah’ and seeking help from Rasoolullah [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] is clear. Only Allah is Omnipresent and we seek the help of Allah Alone. It is obsolutely incorrect to regard Rasulullah [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] as Omnipresent and address him as ‘Yaa Rasoolullah’ with that belief. It is also incorrect to seek the assistance of Rasoolullah [sallallaahu alayhi wasallam] and address him as ‘Yaa Madad’. The prohibition of these two issues are clearly in the very first source of substantiations – the Qur’aan. There is no need to consider the issue from an angle of majority view. Consider this – Allah condemns Kufr whereas the majority of the world is in Kufr. Will that make Kufr correct?

Comment: How does that make one different from Salafis?

Imam Taqi al-Din Subki makes clear that tawassul (seeking means) and istighatha (calling upon others) are conceptually the very same, and that they were both permitted by the imams of early and late Islamic scholarship, without noteworthy disagreement until Ibn Taymiyya came along in the 7th Islamic Century.

Imam Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari wrote a brilliant treatise, Mahq al-Taqawwul fi Mas’alat al-Tawassul (see Arabic text), explaining how the permissibility of tawassul is entailed by sound Sunni understanding of Divine Oneness and the difference between means and effects.

Imam Kawthari (Allah have mercy on him) is regarded as an Imam in the Islamic Sciences and the “Sword of Ahl al-Sunna” by the ulema across the Muslim lands was because he truly had [a] mastery right across the Islamic sciences; [b] very wide reading built on that mastery; [c] clear understanding of the way of Ahl al-Sunna; [d] commitment to that way.

As for Istighatha [calling upon the dead], see:
Istighatha: Calling Someone Other Than
Allah for Help
Calling on Other than Allah?

Related answers:

Sunni Saint Worshippers? - Shaykh Nuh Keller

Istighatha: Calling Someone Other Than
Allah for Help - Shaykh Muhammad ibn Adam

Tawassul Through the Awliya

Tawassul through the pious

Making tawassul through one’s actions

Tawassul of `Umar through al-`Abbas

Al-Shafi`i’s Tawassul with Abu Hanifa

Calling on Other than Allah?

We need to understand are a few issues:

a) It is a fundamental belief of Muslims that only Allah benefits or harms; that only Allah gives and takes;

b) It is also a fundamental belief of Muslims that Allah has created means for humans to take;

c) However, the relationship between these created means and their effects is only normative: it is Allah who creates the means, and Allah who creates the results.

This is why Shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri (Allah have mercy on him), the great spiritual guide and master of the sciences of faith (aqida) from Damascus, explained,

“Taking means is necessary, and denying that they are effective is
necessary. Whoever negates means is denying the Wisdom of Allah, and
whoever relies upon means is associating others with Allah.”

This is the understanding upon which Muslims ‘call upon other than Allah.’

It is no different from taking medicine when sick, or going to a mechanic when your car is giving trouble: if you think that the medicine itself creates the healing, or that the mechanic is the one himself creates the fixing, then you have serious innovation in belief. It is conceptually the same as asking another Muslim in person to make dua for us–we do so understanding that their dua for us is a means, and that it is Allah alone who gives.
The sound understanding is that Allah creates the healing when you use the medicine, and He creates the fixing when the mechanic does their job: we affirm these means, but also affirm that it is Allah who created both the means and the resultant effect.

This is pure affirmation of Divine Oneness. How can it ‘smack of shirk’?

A few nice songs:

Ya Imam al-Rusli - Ustadh Mahmoud Faris

Ya Rasul Allahi Ya Sanadi - Maghribi

al-Wadhifa al-Shadhiliyya - Recited by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed. The Wadhifa contains a high understanding of the spiritual reality of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).

Madad Ya Rasul Allah - Khalid Belrhouzi

Traditionalist - Islam, Law, & Spirituality » Love for Allah - Translation of Maktubat Faqir - Written by Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad

Love for Allah is the English edition of the Shaykh’s famous book, “Ishq Ilahi.” The book discusses basic principles of our love for Allah based on the Quran, Sunnah, and the noble tradition of our great scholars. Of note are the dozens of poems translated from Arabic and Urdu, which highlight the concepts discussed. [read more]

DeenPort Lesson: Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jaylani
His lineage, background, and early years
by Shaykh Abdal Aziz Ahmed

Abdul Qadir al-Jaylani was one of the most prestigious offspring of the
Messenger of Allah, upon him be peace – a gem from the source of all
spiritual treasures. An intellectual and spiritual giant, his life is
an inspiration and guide for us all.

Traditionalist - Islam, Law, & Spirituality » Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani - Biography, Life, and Works - al-Baz.com

Poems by Rumi - The True Sufi

What makes the Sufi? Purity of heart;

Not the patched mantle and the lust perverse

Of those vile earth-bound men who steal his name.

He in all dregs discerns the essence pure:

In hardship ease, in tribulation joy.

The phantom sentries, who with batons drawn

Guard Beauty’s place-gate and curtained bower,

Give way before him, unafraid he passes,

And showing the King’s arrow, enters in.

R. A. Nicholson

‘Persian
Poems‘, an Anthology of verse translations
edited by A.J.Arberry, Everyman’s Library, 1972

Audio: Allah’s Blessings Be Upon You, O Light! [download]
by Shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi
source: www.Tasawuf.ws