Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The true nature of things

Whoever desires Paradise, proceeds towards goodness; whoever fears Hell, refrains from the impulses of passions; whoever believes firmly in death, detests worldy life; and whoever recognizes the wordly life, the trials and tribulations [of life] become slight for him. -Ali ibn Abu Talib (RA)

some Ibn al-Qayyim quotes

There is no joy for someone who has no sorrow. 
There is no pleasure for the one who has no patience.
No bliss for someone with no misery.
and no rest for the one with no fatigue.
When someone is a little tired, he has a long rest.
When he endures the difficulty of steadfastness for a time that leads him to eternal life.
All that the people of eternal bliss are in is steadfastness for a time
-Ibn al -Qayyim

 Yearning for Allah and His meeting is like the gentle breeze blowing upon the heart, extinguishing the blaze of the Dunya. Whosoever caused his heart to settle with his Lord shall be in a state, calm and tranquility and whosoever sent it amongst the people shall be disturbed and excessively perturbed. -Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

 The heart becomes sick as the body becomes sick and its remedy is al-Tawbah and protection [from transgression] It becomes rusty as a mirror becomes rusty and its clarity is obtained by remembrance It becomes naked as the body becomes naked and its beautification is al-Taqwa It becomes hungry and thirsty as the body becomes hungry and its food and drink are knowledge love, dependence, repentance, and servitude. -Ibn al-Qayyim

Sufi path of love

Quotes from the Book The Sufi Path of Love:
The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi By William C. Chittick 

 Man is called a "rational animal." So man is two things: the food of his animality in this world is this sensual passions and desires. But that which is his quintessence--its food is knowledge, wisdom, and the vision of God. Man's animality is fleeing God while his humanity is fleeing the world. In your one existence, two persons are warring. - Rumi

 He should never fear the trials and tribulations of the spiritual path, which represent so many deaths in relation to the false life of this world and the ego. For the death of one thing is always the rebirth of something better and higher. -Chittick

 God has made nonexistence appear existent and respectable; He has made Existence appear in the guise of nonexistence. He has hidden the Sea and made the foam visible. He has concealed the Wind and shown you the dust. -Rumi

 Rumi uses "poverty" synonymously with annihilation. The dervish is "poor" because he has nothing of "his own" and is totally empty of selfhood. -Chittick

 Poverty will yeild pride in the next world. -Rumi

 What is love? Perfect thirst- So let me explain the Water of Life. -Rumi

 Fear is not even a hair before Love; in the Religion of Love, all things are sacrificed. Love is an attribute of God, but fear is an attribute of the servant afflicted by lust and gluttony. -Rumi

 Love gives birth to a thousand forms; this world is full of its paintings -Rumi

 "The thirst in our souls is the attraction of this Water. We belong to It and It belongs to us." -Rumi

 God is the only object worthy of our love, for He is the True Beloved; every other object of love veils His face. -Chittick

 Look not at your own vileness and weakness look at your aspiration..[..]..seeking is your key to your objects of desire, it is your army and the victory of your banners. -Rumi

 Any hardship or suffering the world inflicts is only a shadow of our separation from God. -Chittick

 The more man suffers, the more he desires to be free of the source of his suffering, his self existence, attachment to himself and the world. The only way to flee from suffering is to seek refuge from ones own ego with God. -Chittick

 Between God and His servant are just two veils; all other veils become manifests from these two: health and wealth. He who is healthy says, "Where is God? I don't know and I don't see." As soon as he begins to suffer, he says, "Oh God! Oh God!" and he begins sharing his secrets with Him and talking to Him. So you see that health was his veil and God was hidden under his pain. So long as man has riches, he gathers together all the means of achieving his desires. Night and day he busies himself with them. But as soon as he loses his wealth, his ego weakens and he turns round about God. -Rumi

 Whenever you turn your heart toward something, His severity will detach you from it--fix not your heart on any place, do not persist. -Rumi

Life without Him is my death, glory without Him is my shame! -Rumi

 O Thou who art our Benefactor, "make firm our feet" [II 250]--Without Thee ease is tribulation and health is sickness. -Rumi

 Union with this world is separation from that world. The health of this body is the sickness of the spirit -Rumi

 Love is a rosegarden--take nourishment from it. The tree of poverty fills the inward garden with fruit. -Rumi

 ..for those self interested motives are like veils upon the eye, twisted around the vision like blindfolds. -Rumi

one of my favorite quotes

i looked at all friends, and did not find a better friend than safeguarding the tongue. i thought about all dresses, but did not find a better dress than piety. I thought about all types of wealth, but did not find a better wealth than contentment in little. i thought about all types of good deeds, but did not find a better deed than offering good advice. i looked at all types of sustenance, but did not find a better sustenance than patience -Umar (RA)

on patience

The Prophet (SAWS) said in the sahih hadith: "Whoever abstains from asking others, Allah will make him contented, and whoever tries to make himself self-sufficient, Allah will make him self-sufficient. And whoever remains patient, Allah will make him patient. No one has ever been given a bestowal better and more extensive than patience." (Related by alBukhari (3/265)

Friday, August 9, 2013

foolish

How strange and foolish is man. He loses his health in gaining wealth. Then to regain health he wastes his wealth. He ruins his present while worrying about his future, but weeps in the future by recalling his past. He lives as though death shall never come to him but he dies in a way as if he were never born.

- Ali ibn Abi Talib

when one door closes ...

As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better. You must convince your heart that whatever Allah has decreed is most appropriate and most beneficial to you."

-Imam al-Ghazali

Monday, August 5, 2013

Reliance on God: Living a Guilt-Free Life

“No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future. Go easy on yourself for the outcome of all affairs is determined by God’s Decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come on your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from you it cannot flee.”
- Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him)

Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Ten Benefits of Hunger

Imam Ghazalis 10 benefits of Hunger -

1. The first is the purification of the heart, the illumination of the natural dispostion and the sharpening of one`s insight.(According to Ghazali satiety(overeating) engenders stupidity and blindness in the heart).

2. The second benefit is a softness and purity of the heart, by which it is readied to attain the delight of intimate discourse with God and to be affected by His remembrance.

3. The third benefit lies in mortification and abasement, and the removal of exultation, rejoicing and exuberance, which comprise the beginning of rebellion and heedlessness.

4. The fourth benefit is that one comes never to forget God`s trials and torments, or those who are afflicted by them. For the man sated is liable to forget those people who are hungry, and to forget hunger itself.

5. The fifth and greatest benefit lies in the breaking of all one`s desires for sin and in achieving mastery over the soul which commands evil. According to Ghazali all sins originate in one`s desires and strength and when the source of that strength is cut off meaning one starts eating less then the desires become weak.

6. The sixth benefit consists in the repulsion of sleep and acquiring the ability to remain awake for long periods. A man who eats his fill will drink abundantly and whoever drinks abundantly will sleep abundantly also.

7. The seventh benefit is that lengthy acts of worship are made easier. (He goes on to explain how food makes one lazy and the time that is taken in eating and preparing the food can be spent in worshipping much more)

8. The eight benefit is the bodily health which results from eating little. Again simple and something we over-look way too much on how eating less is much healthier etc etc and saves us from various diseases.

9. The ninth benefit lies in reduced expenditure. Whoever becomes used to eating little will find a modest income sufficent, whereas a man who is habituated to eating his fill will find that his belly becomes a creditor impossible to shake off, who seizes him by the throat every day saying `What will you eat today`.

10. The tenth benefit is that the aspirant is enabled to put others before himself and to give in charity to the orphans and the poor that which is surplus to his wants.

He goes on to explain each benefit in length giving some great narrations as always to back his points up. Just summarized these so I dont forget them.

Source - Disciplining The Soul and Breaking The Two Desires. (facebook post)

Friday, August 2, 2013

the prayer of Taif

"O Allah! I complain to You of my weakness, my scarcity of resources and the humiliation I have been subjected to by the people. O Most Merciful of those who are merciful. O Lord of the weak and my Lord too. To whom have you entrusted me? To a distant person who receives me with hostility? Or to an enemy to whom you have granted authority over my affair? So long as You are not angry with me, I do not care. Your favor is of a more expansive relief to me. I seek refuge in the light of Your Face by which all darkness is dispelled and every affair of this world and the next is set right, lest Your anger or Your displeasure descends upon me. I desire Your pleasure and satisfaction until You are pleased.
There is no power and no might except by You."

tribulations of the best of mankind

excerpt from Purification of the Heart, translation and commentary by Hamza Yusuf

It is important to look at the life of the Prophet SAWS and know that no one faced greater tribulation. The Prophet SAWS lived to see all of his children buried, except for Fatima. How many people experience that in a lifetime? Out of six children, he saw five of them perish. His father died before his birth. His  mother died when he was just a boy. His guardian grandfather then died. When he received his calling, he saw his people turn against him with vehemence and brutality. People who had once honored him now slandered him, calling him a madman, liar, and sorcerer. They stalked him and threw stones at him until he bled. They boycotted him and composed stinging invectives against him. He lost his closer friends and relatives, like Hamza, who was killed on the battlefield. His beloved wife Khadija after 25 years of blissful marriage died during the Prophet's most difficult moment. Abu Talib, his protecting uncle also died. The Prophet SAWS was also the target of 13 assassination attempts. How many people have faced all that? Not once in a single hadith is there a complaint from him--except when beseeching his Lord. 

reality of death

excerpts from Imam Ghazali's book on The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife

-
A philosopher once wrote to one of his brethren as follows, 'oh my brother ! Beware of death in this life before you travel to an abode in which you long for death but find it not'

- Safiya (may God be pleased with her ) told of an old woman who once complained to Aisha RA of the hardness of her heart. 'Remember death frequently' she told her ' and your heart will be softened'

-The world is nothing but a shadow which is shrinking and vanishing away. And while the son of Adamn competes in the world in great happiness, God summons him through his fate and impales him with the arrow of his demise, stripping him of his chattels and his worldly good so that other men come to possess what he has made and gained. In truth, the world does not delight as much as it causes harm; rather it gives little joy and long melancholy. - Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz.

- Nothing remains of this world save a time proportionate to that which remains of this day.

- Said Ibn Masud (RA), Rasulullah (SAWS) once recited "and whosoever God wills to guide, He opens his breath to islam" and said "when light enters into a heart it opens it up. Upon being asked "oh Rasulullah is there a sign whereby this may be recognized? " he said "Yes: turning aside from the abode of beguilement to the abode of eternity, and preparing for death before it comes"


bismillah...

Oh Allah, when I lose my hopes and plans, help me remember that Your love for me is greater than my dissapointment and Your plans for me are better than my dreams.

-Ali RA