Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Habib Umar's Advise

I was home re-shelving books yesterday when this old note fell down. On 16th February 2008 Habib Umar bin Hafiz came from Hadramaut, Yemen to Subang Jaya in celebration of Maulud Nabi (saw) and gave his discourse. Habib Ali Zainal Abidin translated for us.

Tariqah Sufiyyah

(After the customary hamdalah and salawat to Rasulullah s.a.w)

Allah had destined us to gather here today. He had our names written in His Attendance List even before we got here. There are people out there who are unmindful of the maulud. But think not you are superior over them. Keep yourself low - this is the manners of Islam.

There are no man-made laws that you can compare with laws brought to us by the prophets. Recommendations made by men cannot solve problems that we do not see.

Moses (as) was sent to the Pharaoh to correct his ways. Remember that Pharaoh at that time was strong, and had solid hold over his sovereignty. Moses asked him: “don’t you need to cleanse your heart?” There’s something we can learn from this story.

In surah TaHa, Allah said: “go to Pharaoh, indeed he has transgressed”. But Allah ordered Moses to go with courtesy, not with military force.

The people of tasawwuf –the Sufis – take care to preserve good manners (akhlaq) as shown by Moses. Said Junaid al-Baghdadi (rh): “Akhlaq is tasawwuf. Increase in akhlaq means increase in tasawwuf”. Nothing weighs the mizan heavier than akhlaq. Only those with akhlaq can come near to Rasulullah (saw).

Among the characteristics of sufis are tawaddhu’ and ikhlas. Tawaddhu’ is humility, where you do not want to stand out among those around you. Hasan Basri (rh) said he would never backbite because he cannot stand giving away his own rewards (to those he backbites).

A man from the Israelites worshipped Allah relentlessly for 60 years. He supplicated for some favor but Allah rejected. He criticized himself “if only you had worshipped more, surely Allah would have fulfilled your supplication”. Allah sent a prophet to this man saying “The moment you criticized yourself, Allah values more, than the whole 60 years of your worship. Now supplicate to Allah and ask whatever you want”.

Ikhlas is sincerity. Saidina ‘Ali (ra) brought down an enemy in combat, but stopped short of killing him, being afraid his killing due more to personal revenge than to divine causes. On our part, we should be afraid to commit sin, as much as we are afraid of being thrown into the hellfire.

We are living in an era of fitnah, therefore stay away from useless debates. Remind ourselves that we are being tried with prevalent pseudo-da’wah, breakup of ummah, and digression from sunnah.

Part of a hadith qudsi: “How many of Allah’s servants who take sins lightly, yet those small sins are the cause for him to get su’ul khatimah”.

Wallahu a'lam

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