I showed you, to treasury this is
the short cut,
You may reach it, even though we have not.
Khwâja-i Ahrâr [Ubeydullâh-i Tashkendî] ‘quddisa sirruh’ said, “If I became a shaykh, no other shaykh would find a murid (disciple) at any place. But I was assigned to do another task. This task is to spread the Sharî’at and strengthen Islâm.” For this reason, he used to visit sultans [presidents, members of parliament] and give them advice. Through his persuasive words, he brought all of them around to the right course. Through them he used to spread the sharî’at. Allahu ta’âlâ, for the sake of your love and respect towards our superiors, has blessed your words with effectiveness and has represented your affection for the religion as majestic. Then, at least, I request that you strive for the abolition of disbelievers’ customs [feasts, Christmas Eves, dances, balls, men and women’s coming and being together] that have spread among the Muslims and that have become their customs. I also request that you protect Muslim children against loathsome things of this sort that are peculiar to disbelievers. May Allahu ta’âlâ give you plenty of rewards through us and through all Muslims. During the time of the previous government there was an unrestrained enmity against Islâm. There is no such visible enmity, grudge or obstinacy now. There are some mistakes. Yet they are not because of obstinacy, but because they are not known. Today, Muslims, like disbelievers, can talk freely and have the freedom which disbelievers have. Let us pray and wake up lest disbelievers will win, lest the chronic grudge and enmity will bring harm upon us, and lest Muslims relapse into persecution and torment.
Shaking like a leaf for they attacked my îmân.
May Allahu ta’âlâ not let you and us deviate from the way of the Sayyed of Prophets (Muhammad) ’alaihi wa ’alâ âlihi-s-salawât’! Faqîr [this poor person-I myself] came here on an unexpected trip. I did not want to leave here without letting you know, without writing and leaving a few souvenirs, and without letting you know of the love I have for you. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ declared, “If a person loves his Muslim brother, he should let him know!” I send my salâms to you and to all of those on the right path!
One look of an ’âlim is a treasure
hardly attainable;
One sohbat with him a library for years inexhaustible.
33 – FIRST VOLUME, 79th LETTER
This letter, written to Jabbârî Khân, says that this brilliant Dîn has brought all the past Dîn together and that to obey this Dîn means to obey all the previous Dîn.
May Allahu ta’âlâ bless us with the lot of obeying the brilliant Sharî’at brought by Hadrat Muhammad (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam), making of progress on this righteous way, thus attaining His consent and love! Allahu ta’âlâ has accumulated all of the most mature and superior (shadows) of His Names and Attributes in Hadrat Muhammad (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam), who is His most beloved born servant and His Messenger. All these superior traits appear in him in such a manner as to suit a born servant. The book revealed to him, the Qur’ân, is the essence of all the books that were sent down to all other Prophets. What was declared in all of them exist in it too. The Sharî’at that was given to this great Prophet is like the cream extracted from all the past Sharî’ats. Every action declared by this true and righteous Sharî’at has been selected and derived from the actions and deeds that were declared in the previous Sharî’ats. Moreover, there are deeds selected or derived from angels’ behaviors. For example, a group of angels were commanded to do rukû’[51]. Many of them were commanded to prostrate, and some others were commanded to perform qiyâm, that is, to worship by standing. Likewise, some of the past Ummats were commanded only to perform the morning prayer. Others were commanded to do the prayers of other times. What was filtered and selected out of the worships and deeds of the past Ummats and of the angels closer to Allahu ta’âlâ was incorporated into this Dîn. For this reason, to confirm, to believe in this Dîn and to obey the commands of this Dîn will mean to confirm and obey all the past Dîn. This means to say that those who conform to this Dîn will be the most beneficent and the best of Ummats. And he who disbelieves and dislikes this Dîn and who is reluctant to obey it will have believed in and obeyed none of the previous Dîns. By the same token, a person who disbelieves Hadrat Muhammad (sall Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) and who speaks ill of that great Prophet, who is the highest of all people and the elect of the good, will have disbelieved the perfectness and the superiority of Allahu ta’âlâ’s Names and Attributes. To believe Rasûlullah ‘alaihi-s-salâtu wa-s-salâm’, to realize his superiority will mean to realize and to believe in all the superior traits. This means to say that a person who disbelieves this exalted Prophet and who dislike the Dîn, which he brought, is the worst, the basest of ummats and people. It was declared in the ninety-eighth âyat of Sûrat-ul-Tawba: “The disbelief and irreligiousness of the illiterate is more vehement than that of others.”
The meaning of two Persian couplets:
Muhammad (’alaihi’s-salâm), born
in Arabia,
He is the dearest here and the Hereafter!
Let them be underground, crushed, ruined
If not wish being the dust and soil of his door!
Thanks be to Allahu ta’âlâ, who sends all blessings and favours, for it is seen that you like and thoroughly believe in this Sharî’at and its Messenger (Hadrat Muhammad), and that you repent for your unsuitable behaviour. May Allahu ta’âlâ increase this awareness of yours! Amîn.
Thanks be to Allâhu ta’âlâ that a very good belief and thought for Islâm and for its owner (alaihissalâtu wassalâmu wattahiyya) is seen on you very easily, and a continuous repentance for your unsuitable deeds falls into your lot. May Allahu ta’âlâ grant you more.
Secondly, I would like to add that Shaikh Mustafa, who has brought this letter to you, comes from the family of Qâdi Sharîh. The children of that pure family have been endeared and respected in this country. Materially, they have led a simple life. Shaikh Mustafa, the above-mentioned, has not a salary. For this reason, he is on his way towards being a soldier. He has the necessary official papers with him. It is hoped that he will get rid of this problem with your help and obtain inner peace. Let me not give you a headache by writing more. Tell the Grand Vizier his problem exactly and request him to solve it so that he will get rid of this discordance and have inner peace. Wassalâm wal iqrâm.
34 – THIRD VOLUME, 22nd LETTERS
This letter, written to Molla Maqsûd Alî Tabrîzî, says that the uncleanliness of the disbelievers refers to the unclean moral state of their souls, of their creed. Their bodies, their limbs may not be unclean.
Every kind of thanks belongs to Allahu ta’âlâ by right. I send my salâms to the pure people whom He has chosen. My merciful Sir! We can not understand why you sent us Tafsîr-i-Husainî. This interpretation, in explaining the twenty-ninth âyat of Sûrat-ut-Tawba, says, “Since disbelievers’ souls and beliefs are filthy, they are certainly filthy.” Also, savants of the Hanafî Madhhab explained it in this manner. That is, they said that the reason why Allahu ta’âlâ declared “Disbelievers are filthy” is because their hearts, their creeds are filthy. It is written in Tafsîr-i Husainî that some savants said, “Since disbelievers do not perform a ghusl (ritual washing) or abstain from najâsat[52], they are foul.” Yet it is not suitable to interpret it in this manner, for the majority of the Muslims in India today do not avoid najâsat. Some ignorant Muslims, too, like disbelievers, slight cleanliness. If not avoiding najâsat caused one to be foul, the life would become very difficult for Muslims. But, it was declared: “There is no hardship in Islâm.” Though it is written in Tafsîr-i Husainî “Abdullah Ibni Abbâs ‘radiy-Allâhu anhumâ’ said that disbelievers’ bodies are foul like dogs” great men of religion have received much information such as this which does not conform with what the majority of the other savants think, and which is not like what everybody understands. Such expressions should be somehow adapted to what is generally accepted. How can the skin and the bodies of disbelievers be foul in light of the fact that our Prophet ate a meal in a Jew’s home? He cleaned himself with a disbeliever’s water container. Also, Hadrat ’Umar (Radiyallahu anh) cleaned himself with a Christian woman’s container. If one claims that these might have been done before the âyat was revealed, one will have based this statement on sheer supposition; it should be proven that the âyat came afterwards. If it can be proven, it still does not prove that they are foul, dirty or that the things which they touch will be foul and harâm. At most, it shows that their creed is foul. A prophet never does something that was harâm or that would be harâm in his own Sharî’at or in other Sharî’ats. That is, he does not use something that will be harâm later though it is currently halâl (permitted). For example, formerly it had been halâl to drink wine. Later it became harâm. No Prophet drank wine at any time. If it were to be declared afterwards that disbelievers’ bodies were foul like dogs, Hadrat Muhammad, who is the darling of Allahu ta’âlâ, would have never touched their containers. Then in this case, would it ever be possible for him to drink their water or eat their food? Moreover, when something is foul, it is always foul. It cannot be thought of as foul one time and clean at some other time. If disbelievers’ bodies were foul, they would always be foul, and Hadrat Muhammad would have never touched them. Nonetheless for drinking their water and eating their food. Moreover, when something itself is foul, it will always be foul. It will never be permissible, neither beforehand, nor afterwards. If disbelievers themselves were foul, they would have been so formerly, too, and Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ would have acted upon this principle. Since this major premise does not exist, how can the minor premise exist? Furthermore, it imposes great difficulty on Muslims to think of their bodies as foul. May Allahu ta’âlâ give infinite goodness to the savants of Hanafî madhhab because they made the life of a Muslim easier. They rescued them from committing the harâm. How could it ever be a righteous act to speak ill of these great savants and to censure the accurate interpretations they wrote, instead of thanking them? Can anything be said against the mujtahids? They will also be given rewards for their wrong deductions. Muslims who act according to the wrong findings [of a mujtahîd] will be rescued from torment. If disbelievers are foul, the things which they touch and do will be foul and harâm. Those who describe disbelievers as foul will have said harâm about the meals and sherbets which they make. In such a case, people cannot protect themselves againts this harâm. It is next to impossible, especially for Muslims in India, to protect themselves. Because Muslims are in contact with disbelievers everywhere, it is better to give the fatwâ[53] which is the easiest. Even if it is not compatible with one’s own madhahb, the easy fatwâ in another madhhab should be given to him. The hundred and eighty-sixth âyat of Sûrat-ul-Baqara declares: “Allahu ta’âlâ wants to have you do the things that are easy. He does not want what is difficult.” It is declared in the twenty-eighth âyat of Sûrat-un-Nisâ: “Allahu ta’âlâ wants your worships to be light, easy. Man was created weak, frail.” It is harâm to oppress or hurt Muslims, and it is something which Allahu ta’âlâ dislikes. Shâfi’î savants submitted a fatwâ that gave permission for the things that were difficult in their madhhab to be done according to Hanafî madhhab. Thus, they facilitated the life of a Muslim. For example, according to Shâfi’î Madhhab, zakât[54] should be given to each of the eight classes of people declared in the sixtieth âyat of Sûrat-ut-tawba. Out of these eight classes, the classes of disbelievers whom one must please [and the class of officials who collect the zakât and the class of debtors that must be rescued from slavery] do not exist today. Since it has become impossible to find them, Shafi’î savants (rahmatullahi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în) issued a fatwâ sanctioning giving zakât according to Hanafî madhhab; in Hanafî madhhab it is permissible to give to any one of these classes.
[Likewise, in performing a ghusl (ritual bathing), it is fard in the Hanafî madhhab to rinse the mouth, to wash between the teeth and the tooth sockets. Since water cannot penetrate into crownings and fillings, the ghusl of those who have them is not accepted, and they remain in a state of impurity. But in the Shâfi’î madhhab it is not fard to rinse the mouth. If a person in the Hanafî madhhab has his teeth crowned or filled for some necessity, he says through his heart when performing a ghusl, “O my Allah! I am performing a ghusl ablution according to the Shâfi’î madhhab,” then his ghusl ablution will be accepted, and he can perform namâz in a clean state. It is written on the seven hundred and ninth page of the book Hadîqa, “It is permissible to imitate another madhhab in abdast (ritual ablution) or in ghusl. For doing this, the principles of the madhhab imitated must be observed. If all its principles are not observed, it will not be permissible to imitate it. It is permissible to imitate another madhhab even after having done the action that does not conform with one’s own madhhab. For instance, Hadrat Abû Yûsuf, after having performed a Friday prayer, was told that a dead mouse was seen in the well where he had performed his ablution. He said, ‘Our ghusl is acceptable according to the Shâfi’î madhhab. It was declared in a hadîth that when something foul gets mixed with water that amounts to a qullatayn, it is not foul unless one of its three peculiarities is changed.’ A qullatayn is two hundred and twenty kilograms of water. The book al-Barîqa, explaining this point, says that it is permissible to imitate another madhhab when necessity for it arises. The book Durr-ul Mukhtâr says at the end of its chapter on ‘Prayer Times,’ “When there is darûrat (compulsion, strict necessity), another madhhab is imitated.” While explaining this, the book Ibni Âbidîn says, “One of the two inferences (qaul) is written here. According to the second inference (qaul), when there is harâj, hardship, one of the other three madhhabs is imitated, no matter whether there is darûrat or not. This is the preferrable inference. When there is difficulty in doing something, if your own madhhab shows a way of making it easy, or if it is excused, there will be no need to imitate any other madhhab. Quoting from the book Husn-ut-tanabbuh Fit-tashabbuh, it is writen in the two hundred and eleventh page of the book Hadîqa: “When someone’s nafs does not want to do what is easy, then it is useful for him to act according to a rukhsat by leaving the azîmats (difficulties). But this should not lead one to search for rukhsats because collecting the easier parts of madhhabs, which is called Talfiq, is harâm and an act of obeying the nafs and shaytân (satan).”]
If disbelievers themselves were foul, necessarily they wouldn’t be clean after accepting îmân. Then, calling them foul is intended to declare that their hearts are foul. When they accept îmân, this foulness dissappears and they become clean. That their beliefs and their hearts are foul does not mean that their bodies are foul. These âyats declare that disbelievers are foul. These facts do not change. Changes can be made in commands and prohibitions. Changes cannot be made in the fact of how something is. [The book Hadîqa, in explaining the disasters incurred by the tongues says, “Allahu ta’âlâ has made alternations, changes in twenty âyats that communicate His commandments and prohibitions.” He has not made any alterations in qisas (facts about ancient people) and facts.] Since facts do not change, disbelievers must be always foul. This is the foulness of disbelief and of creed. Thus, the interpretation made will be compatible with the original information. Thus teachings will not contradict each other. It will not be harâm to touch disbelievers and their possessions. One day, while explaining this, I recited part of the fifth âyat of Sûrat-ul-Mâida: “It is halâl [permitted] for you to eat what the men with holy books, that is, Jews and Christians, cook and slaughter”; and you said that it was wheat, chick-pea and lentil which was permitted. Today, if one of the Muslims under these conditions likes this word of yours, I cannot say anything against it. But, to be reasonable, the right word is obvious. Then, pitying Muslims, we should not look upon disbelievers as foul, nor should we deem dirty the Muslims who have relations and trade with disbelievers. We should not abstain from the food and drinks of such Muslims by assuming that they have become dirty; we should not deviate into the way of abstaining or parting from Muslims. This state is not a precaution. It is a precaution to get rid of this state. Let me not cause your head to ache any longer. My salâms be upon you.
A couplet:
Saying little, I paid attention
not to break your heart
A lot to tell you but I feared breaking the heart.
35 – ANSWER TO A UNIVERSITY STUDENT
The following is the simplified translation of a letter written as an answer to a university student by ’Abdulhakîm-i Arwâsî (quddisa sirruh) while he was the senior professor of tasawwuf at the Madrasat al-mutahassisîn (the Faculty of Theology), which was located in the garden of the Sultân Selîm Mosque in Istanbul during the declining years of the Ottoman Empire.
Go out of the area of the omnipotence of Allâhu ta’âlâ with all your strength, if you can! But you cannot. Outside of this area is nonexistence. And the realm of nonexistence is also under His omnipotence!
On an occasion, somebody asked [the great Walî] Ibrâhim ibn Ad’ham (quddisa sirruh) for advice. He said:
“If you accept six things, nothing you do will harm you. These six things are:
“1) When you mean to commit a sin, do not eat the food He gives! Does it befit you to eat His food and to disobey Him?
“2) When you want to rebel against Him, go out of His Domain! Does it befit you to be in His Domain and to be in rebellion against Him?
“3) When you want to disobey Him, do not sin where He sees you! Sin where He does not see you! It simply is unbecoming to be in His Domain, to eat His food and then to sin where He sees you!
“4) When the Angel of Death comes to take away your soul, ask him to wait till you repent! You cannot turn that angel back! Repent before he comes, while you are able, and you have the chance at this very hour, for the Angel of Death comes unexpectantly!
“5) When the two angels Munker and Nakîr come to question you in the grave turn them back! Do not let them test you!”
“It is impossible,” said the person who asked for his advice.
Shaikh Ibrâhîm said, “Then prepare your answers now!
“6) On the Day of Resurrection, when Allâhu ta’âlâ orders: ‘Sinners, go to Hell!’say that you will not!”
The person said, “Nobody will listen to me,” and then repented, and he did not break his repentance till death. There is Divine Effect in the words of Awliyâ’.
Ibrâhîm ibn Ad’ham (quddisa sirruh) was asked, “Allâhu ta’âlâ declares, ‘O My human creatures! Ask Me! I will accept, I will give’ However, we ask but He does not give?” Hadrat Ibrâhîm said:
“You entreat Allâhu ta’âlâ, but you do not obey Him. You know His Prophet (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa salam), but you do not follow him. You read the Qur’ân al-karîm, but you do not follow the way it shows. You utilize Allâhu ta’âlâ’s blessings, but you do not thank Him. You know that Paradise is for those who worship, but you do not make preparations for it. You know that He has created Hell for the disobedient, but you do not fear it. You see what happened to your fathers and grandfathers, but you do not take warning. You do not see your own defects, and you search for defects in others. Such people must be thankful because it does not rain stones on them, because they do not sink into the earth, and because it does not rain fire from the sky! What else could they want? Would not this suffice as a recompense for their prayers?”
Let’s come to the point:
As you have not come out of nonexistence to this world of existence by yourself, so you cannot go there by yourself. The eyes with which you see, the ears with which you hear, the organs with which you perceive, the intellect with which you think, the hands and feet which you use, all the roads you will pass, all the places you will be, in short, all the members and systems connected with your body and soul, all of them, are Allâhu ta’âlâ’s possessions and creatures. You cannot misappropriate anything from Him! He is Hayy and Qayyûm, that is, He sees, knows and hears, and every moment He keeps in existence everything that exists. Even for a moment, He is never unaware of the state of all things, nor does He ever fail to control all of them. He does not let anybody steal His property. He is never incapable of punishing those who disobey His commands. It would not make any difference if, for instance, He had not created any human being on this globe, as He did not on the moon, on Mars or on other planets; His greatnes would not have diminished for this reason.
A hadîth qudsî says, “If [all of] your ancestors and descendants, the young and the old, the alive and the dead, human beings and genies, were like My most devoted, Most obedient human creature (’alaihi’s-salâm), My Greatness would not be increased. Conversely, if you all were like My enemy, who opposes Me and despises My Prophets, My Greatness would not ever decrease. Allâhu ta’âlâ is free from needing you; He needs none of you. As for you, in order that you might exist and keep on existing and in everything you do, you always need Him.”
He sends light and heat by means of the sun. He makes the moon reflect waves of light. Out of black soil, He creates many vivid-coloured, sweet-scented flowers and beautiful appearance. From the breeze, He pours out the breath which gives relief to hearts. From the stars that are at a distance of many years’ way, He makes it rain haloes on the earth, out of which you came about and under which you will be buried in the end. Through many vibrations, He creates effectivity in particles. [On the one hand, by turning dirt, which you dislike and are disgusted with, into soil by means of His smallest, most trifling creatures (germs), He turns this soil, which you tread on, into a white-of-egg-like substance, protein, the constructive matter of your body, through the factory of plants. On the other hand, by combining the water in the earth with the suffocating gases in the air, again in the factory of plants and by storing in them the energy which He sends from the sky, He creates starchy and sugary substances and oils, the source of energy, that will operate the machine of your body.] Thus, in plants, which He causes to grow in fields, deserts, mountains, in rills, and in animals, that He enables to live on the earth and under the seas, He prepares food which will go into your stomach and nourish you. By establishing chemistry laboratories in your lungs, He isolates poison from your blood and puts the useful matter of oxygen in its place. By establishing physics laboratories in your brain, the information coming from your organs of perception, through your nerves, are taken there and, as He has placed a magnetic power into the stone of iron, so with the effect of intelligence, which He has placed into your brain and other immaterial powers, which He has placed into your heart, various plans, commands and actions are prepared simultaneously through His creation. By making your heart work through very complex mechanisms, which you consider very extraordinary, He makes rivers of blood flow in your blood vessels. He weaves many a dumbfounding net of roads through your nerves. He conceals stocks in your muscles. By means of many other phenomena, He equips and completes your body. He establishes and fits all of these in an order and harmony to which you give such names as the laws of physics, chemical reactions or biological events. He places centers of power within you. He projects the necessary precautions into your soul and conscience. He also gifts a treasure called the intellect, a gauge named reason, a means named thought, and a key which you call will. In order that you might use each of these correctly, He gives you sweet enticements and bitter warnings, hints, inclinations and goals. And as a greater blessing, He clearly sends instructions through faithful and dependable prophets (’alaihimu’s-salâm). In conclusion, operating the machine of your body and giving you the necessary instructions, He hands it over to you so that you may use and utilize it conveniently. He does all these things not because He needs you, your will or help but to make you happy by giving you a distinguished position and authority among His creatures. If instead of leaving it to your hands, your feet and all of your limbs, which you can use according to your wish, He used them without you knowing it, as is the case with the beating of your heart, the expansion of your lungs and the circulation of your blood, if He controlled you by force, with reflex actions, with paralysed hands or feet, if each of your actions was a vibration and every movement was a twitch, could you claim to possess yourself and the things He has lent you? If He made you move under the influence of external powers, like the lifeless or irrational and senseless exterior and interior powers like pack animals, and if He put into your mouth a morsel of the blessings – which you take in large amounts to your houses now –, could you take and eat that morsel?
Do you think of your state before and after you were born? Where were you, in what were you, during the creation of this globe, on which you live, eat and drink, go about, amuse and divert yourself. On this planet, you have discovered the means that are remedies for your diseases and the ways of defending yourself against the attacks of your enemies and the harms of wild and poisonous animals. Where were you while the stones and soil of this globe were being baked on fires in the ovens of creation and while its water and air were being distilled in the chemistry laboratories of the Omnipotence? Have you ever thought: Where were you while the lands, which you claim to be yours today, were gliding away from the seas, while mountains, rivers, plateaus and hills were being laid down? Where and how were you while, with Allâhu ta’âlâ’s omnipotence, the salty waters of the seas evaporated and formed clouds in the sky, while the rains, falling from those clouds, took substances [of nourishment prepared by lightning and waves of power and energy in the sky] into the motes of burnt, dried soil, and while these substances, stirred [by the influence of the rays of light and heat], vibrated and nourished the cells of life?
Today, they say that you have descended from monkeys, and you believe it. When they say that Allâhu ta’âlâ created you, gave you life, will cause you to die and that He alone makes everything, you don’t want to believe!
O man! What are you? What were you in the veins of your father? At one time, in the veins of your father, whom you insult with such terms as imbecile, old-fashion and retrogressive, you used to make him feel uncomfortable. Who made you move then, and why did you disturb him? If he had wished, he could have thrown you into a rubbish-heap, but he did not. He hid you like a deposit. While he was so kind as to entrust you to a chaste woman, where you would be nourished unsparingly, and struggled to protect you for a long time, why do you insult your father by holding him responsible for your inconveniences, instead of reserving a share of thanks for him and your Creator for the blessings you were given? Moreover, why do you throw your own deposit into the rubbish-heaps dirtied by everybody?
When people around you follow your wishes and desires you believe that you are creating everything with your intellect, knowledge, science, power and strength, and that you are inventing all accomplishments. You forget about the task w