Al Ihsan

Posted on February 1st, 2008 by Ihsan Buxsoo.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Nafs - The Self

Hazrat Sufi Sarwar  Saheb 

In this instance (malfooz) Hazrat Thanvi (rahmatullah alayh) addressed an explanation regarding the nafs. 

On average, the two entities that persuade mankind into sin are the nafs and Shaytaan.  Of these two, the trickery of the nafs is greater.  Man sins more due to the nafs than due to Shaytaan.  The reality of the nafs is the conjunction of two desires.  What exactly is this nafs that pulls us towards sin?  Firstly, when some incident occurs against our temperament, the desire to rid ourselves of this incident is generated by the nafs.  Or we could say it is the desire to remove the person causing us this discomfort.  The desire to cause him/her some difficulty in return, to cause him some problems, or try to have him ultimately destroyed.  This natural persuasion is present within our nafs.   That incident which occurs against our temperament, which causes us to feel discomfort, we crave to destroy its source or destroy the one who is the cause of this discomfort; to give him some punishment, to cause him pain or speak badly about him.  This is also called anger; halat-e-ghazabia, quwat-e-ghazabia. So, this is one desire existent within the human-being.

The second desire in man is as follows. The things that are according to our temperament, we attempt to and we want to acquire those things.  Whether they are food, drink, or matters related to marriage.  The things which we like, we want to acquire those things.  So, the desire to rid oneself of the things we don’t like, and the desire to acquire the things which we do like, the name of the conjunction of these two desires is labeled as the nafs.  Due to this, mankind commits a lot of sin.  Not to mention, Shaytaan who is busy dropping thoughts (wasaawas) into our hearts.  That is the larger Shaytaan. 

Additionally, there is a Shaytaan attached with each person.  There are even some Shayateen who are constantly amongst us ‘running’ around. That creation, which causes us to sin, is generally a jinn, a Shar’e jinn.  He is defined as the one who imposes a great attack.

 The being which is attached to every individual is called a jinn, or hum-zaat.  There is also an angel affixed with every person. Accompanying the self-control that that Allah Ta’ala has given every man is two advisers; to persuade in the usage of this control.  On one side the Shaytaan gives advice, and on the other side, the angel gives advice.  The final decision is made by man alone. Shaytaan will always give bad advice and the angel will always give good advice.  Do this, don’t do this, do this, and don’t do this. The thoughts that enter our hearts every moment sometimes come from the angel and sometimes come from the Shaytaan.  Beyond this, man has full control whether or not he should perform this action or not.  So, with the usage of his intellect and by putting into usage his ability to think and reason about the result of his actions, he is to decide for himself whether or not he is to perform this action.  The actual relationship is as I have just explained.

All aspects of Shariat are within control.  The totality of sins is within our control, either we perform them or we do not.  The totality of pious deeds is within our control, either we perform them or we do not.  The things that are outside of man’s control, man isn’t even responsible for.  The things that are beyond our control, for example, one becomes severely ill and cannot attend the masjid. That is an acceptable excuse and as a result the obligation of going to the masjid is waived; he can read namaaz (prayer) at home.  If he is unable to stand, he can read namaaz in the sitting posture.  Further, if he cannot read namaaz in the sitting posture, he can even read namaaz lying down.  If he cannot perform wudhu, he can perform tayammum and read namaaz.  These are the conveniences in our Deen.   If you can’t keep a fast, you can keep it qada (late) and observe it later.  If one has become extremely old and does not have any hope of regaining strength, and he is weak and cannot maintain a fast, then he can give fidyah (compensation). So, in this way there many leniencies and comforts in Deen. 

The work that man cannot do, Allah has not even given the command for it.  That which he can do, however, he must use his conscience. If it is good, then go through with it, if not, stay away from it. It’s that simple.  Everything is within our control.  To ponder over the factors of Goodness and Evil, you need knowledge, power and strength.  He must gain knowledge and using his power and strength, perform good deeds and protect himself from evil deeds. 

To sharpen this strength and reasoning, however, there are sources.  There is a relationship with a sheikh, the reading of the lectures of Saints, finding out about necessary masa’il (conditions); Ayaat (verses of the Qur’an), Aahadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu alayhi wasallam), advisement and warnings.  One needs support as well as chastisement accordingly side by side. All these things serve to reinforce and sturdy this strength to refrain from sin.  If ones strength is strong, then man easily leaves sin and performs pious deeds.  If there is weakness in this strength and greed for this world, or if he is constantly obsessing over the desires in this world, or he has become the slave of his nafs, then it is obvious, that the nafs is the cause to sin. 

Shaytaan also causes us to sin; the nafs also causes us to sin.  It is necessary to safeguard ourselves from both types of sin.  How can we find out if this pull is from Shaytaan or the nafs? First and foremost, it is not necessary to find out, if it is a sin, then we must leave it.  If it is a wrong action then leave it, if it is against Shariat, the leave it.  But in terms of its cure and under those certain occasions where it is necessary at times to ponder over the method of reformation; for example, if some sin is recurring over and over again, then a cure should be meted out so that it will be easy to leave this recurring sin in the future.  In terms of cure, it is necessary to do this sort of evaluation.  So, the evaluating principle is as follows; if the pull towards one particular sin occurs repeatedly over and over again, this is from the nafs.  The nafs wants to fulfill its desire.  Whether it is for food and drink, marriage, or if it is in the face of anger and one wants to rid himself of something and someone causing him harm, these are all desires.  The nafs wants to fulfill its desire, so it continuously poses an attraction to the same sin, ‘do this, do this, definitely do this, just do it’.

 If it is from Shaytaan, the aim of Shaytaan is to just commit some sin from you.   If you get out of one sin safely, he puts the thought of another into your mind. Once that leaves, a third enters, once that leaves a fourth enters.  Its aim is solely to commit a sin from you.  There is not particular desire or plan in mind, just to commit a sin in whatever shape or form it may be and become distant from Allah Ta’ala.  Just as he himself is distant from Allah, and the Shayateen in his circle are distant, he wants mankind to also become distant from Allah and become His enemy. 

 ‘Shaytaan is your open enemy; treat him as your enemy.’

Allah is explaining to us.  Consider Shaytaan your enemy, don’t consider him to be your friend, don’t consider him to be your friend, don’t consider him to be your friend!  This is why we should think and ponder intelligently before acting on every step and at every opportunity.  If there is an opportunity for sin or an opportunity for piety, we should think before stepping. It is completely within our control.  No sin occurs without the interference of our self-control and reason.  No sin is done without our control.  No pious deed happens out of our control.  It is wrong when some say, ‘I can’t leave this sin, I can’t leave this sin.’  There is just a bit of courage needed.  If you leave it one time, it becomes easier to leave it the second time, and even easier the third and fourth time.  It does indeed become easier.  This is why you have to be strong and attempt to leave sin, and perform pious deeds.  May Allah give us strength.  Ameen.

0 comments.

How to rectify yourself

Posted on January 26th, 2008 by Ihsan Buxsoo.
Categories: Uncategorized.

How to rectify yourself.

As you know, Tasawwuf is a science, the science of self-purification. It is a branch of Islam just as valid as the other branches such as Tafsir (science of explaining the Quran) and Fiqh (science of extracting rulings).

According to Maulana Thanvi, there were two theories as to how self-purification should come about. What method should we use that will make us pious and righteous Muslims? One was to concentrate on letting go of the sins that we are accustomed to commiting, and once that is achieved, we should then work on improving and increasing our good deeds and worship. The other way was to start loads of zikr, worship and good deeds immediately and the sins would then slink away themselves. Though both methods are good and beneficial, the first method was more preferred by the Chishti’s whilst the latter by the Naqshbandi’s (this makes it clear why there are different Tariqa’s, they differ in methodology but the goal is the same).

In the first instance, the priority is given to shunning his sins since they argue that this is the most important for a Muslim and supercedes nafl worship (as the Prophet [peace be upon him] said: If you guard against the forbidden things, you will be the most devout of men’ Ahmad, Tirmidhi). Maulana Thanvi says that it is like when doctors want to give medicine to remedy the disease and then concentrate on strengthening the patient but the downside is that the person may while his life away in this battle and not gather many good deeds and dhikr in the time - he may even lose hope and give up.

The second group says that the person should immerse himself in zikr and ibadah, and this should itself help to erode the bad habits he has (Allah says ‘establish regular Prayer: for Prayer restrains from shameful and unjust deeds [29:45]). The danger with this is that the person may become complacent, thinking that since he does so much worship, one sin here and there won’t really matter. Maulana Thanvi compares it to feeding a person strengthening potions when he is ill - it’ll probably just strengthen the persons illness, making it worse. (Maulana was a doctor specialising in herbal medicine).

The great Maulana then comes to his own conclusion, which I will detail insha Allah in the next post.

Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi (rahmatullahi alaihi) says:

The best opinion, however, is to perform both of these things simultaneously. That is, to work on letting go of sins and displeasing acts whilst increasing your worship, zikr and connection with Allah. The realised (muhaqiq) Shaykhs are all in favour of this method, though the main thrust is always on what the seeker himself feels more attuned to.

Our Shaykhs always used to find out the temperament of the seeker before guiding him. Once, Maulana Muneer Nanotwi came to Haji sahab (Haji Imdadullah) and asked to be taken in for guidance. Haji sahab asked him ‘Tell me, if there is a field with much weeds and dereliction, would you first clean it all up and root out the weeds and thistles, thereafter planting seed or would you first plant seed and clean it after?’ Maulana answered ‘I would plant the seed first - at least something will be there to reap, the cleaning could be later. We don’t know how long the weeding might take and the season might be over by that time’ Haji sahab laughed at that answer and decided the Naqshbandi method was best for him.

As I was saying, seeing the lack of free time, inclination, the short lifespans of the people at present, it was decided that the best method was to take both ways side by side - to clean and weed the terrain and plant the seeds as you clear it up.

There is not a more obvious example of this than in the prescribed practices of shar’iah. Where one is encouraged to sleep little (sleeping too much being displeasing) he is also told to worship Allah in that time in Tahajjud and Taraweeh. Similarly, one is not told to simply silence his tongue from lying and gossiping and idle talk, but also to recite the Quran and remember Allah at the same time.

In this method, there is a great benefit to be gained. The reason being that a lot of seekers of the pleasure of Allah fall prey to a mistake in this regard. That is that they exert themselves in trying to shun all relations and things around them, thinking that once I am free from these distractions I will be able to turn solely in attention to Allah. This is in itself a good intention, but sometimes he does not go about it the right way.

When he is cutting out from his life these ‘wordly’ things, he does not simultaneously fill his heart up with Allah’s love and devotion. The result is that there comes a time when his heart is completely empty, since he did not actively engage his heart in connecting with Allah - or he aimed to but did not perform much effort in this regard, especially since connecting with Allah is actually connecting with an unseen thing which is difficult to immerse yourself in fully without due striving.

So, he has emptied his heart from all other things, but has not matched it with attaching himself to Allah’s love, and his empty heart becomes easy prey for Shaytan.

So, to protect yourself from this danger, extricate yourselves from your wrong habits but at the same time fill in the vacuum with love for Allah, by increasing your good deeds and remembrance.

(Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Taqleel-ul-kalaam, pg 200-201, Published Maktaba Thanvi, Karachi. )

0 comments.

Advices

Posted on January 24th, 2008 by Ihsan Buxsoo.
Categories: Uncategorized.

• Advices
• When you see a drunk man, take care of your own nafs. Fear for its transformation and corruption so that you may not be overtaken by a similar calamity.
• He who reflects on the lives of the illustrious predecessors (the Auliya of former times) will understand his own deficiencies and how far behind he lags from attaining the lofty ranks of the Men of Allah.
• Do not reveal such deeds of others, which you love to be concealed if you had committed them.
• Rizq which suffices for you, is drawn to you without effort and toil. Toil/effort is in (the pursuit of) excess (i.e. what is in excess of your needs).
• The Salf (Saaliheen) spoke for the honour of Islam; for salvation from the nafs and for the pleasure of Ar-Rahmaan. We speak for the honour of our nafs; for the search of the dunya and for the pleasure of people.
• When Iblees and his armies assemble, nothing gives them greater pleasure than three persons: A Mu’min who kil ls another Mu’min. A man who dies a kaafir. A heart in which there is fear of poverty.
• As long as you do not recognize your own faults, you remain barricaded (from all goodness).
• He who is diverted from the Aakhirah by the quest for the world, will be disgraced in this world and the Aakhirah.

0 comments.

Ihsan Buxsoo

Posted on January 24th, 2008 by Ihsan Buxsoo.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I like to become a good human,love Allahu Taala , love to obey Him and depend only on Him . I like simplicity , humility ,sincerity , good manners and love to put the Sunnah of Rasulullah (s)in my life . I hate arrogance , anger , fame , search for position , jelousy , T.V , music and film etc…. being , to obey my Creator . There is no peace in disobedience to Allah . We may collect all the wealth of the world but we will not find peace in that.Look the people of the world (those who make effort only for wealth and position ) . They have unlimited wealth,the best education possible and all door to pleasure wide open. Inspite of that they need tranquilisers and sleeping pills to find some rest . They lack peace of heart . They cannot sleep because peace cannot be found in sin and disobedience . Peace lies only in the obedience of Allah and His messenger (s) .Allah give peace only to those who love Him , whose heart remember Him.Although they live a life of worry ,their hearts are at peace .

1 comment.