Uns means-'Spiritual Love'

and it’s through Spiritual Love we are helping

to heal broken souls and hearts

Sufi Course of Self-development and Purification

A Guide to the 1st steps of Sufism and Realization
Collated by Muhammad Sajad Ali
Copyright © 2016

Sufi Webmaster of Deenislam.co.uk

Instructor and Founder of "Sufi Synergy Healing Approach"
Contact: Muhammad Sajad Ali: 07960-85-85-42 - (UK)

Muhammad Sajad Ali is a Sufi webmaster and Instructor known for this well-known website
www.deenislam.co.uk and has a two comprehensive Sufi blogs and his latest is the Sufi Synergy
Healing Blog. He is always keeping up to date with on-going studies in healing has created a new
method of healing by combining Herbal healing, Essential Oils, Meridian Psychotherapy and
Energy Healing into a new Sufi Synergy Healing Course Method and the Founder of the Sadaqah
service Uns Foundation UK.

Has completed Trauma Healing courses and is a qualified Energy Practitioner of Trauma and
Energy Healing and qualified Adult Teacher and has helped many Muslims that need help from
abuse and taboo issues and has also taught Sufi Mediation Therapy Exercises and has authored
many Sufi articles and is known for this unique way of teaching through His Sufi Mind Mapping
technique approach.

1
 Copyright © 2016 by Muhammad Sajad Ali
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

First Edition

2
Contents
About the author - Some experiences and dreams ........................................................................................... 4
Overview of Muhasabah - Self-Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State .......................................................... 9
Assessing One's Spiritual State - Imam Al-Haddad and Muhasabah ...............................................................12
Haram-forbidden and Suspect Food from Imam Haddad ...............................................................................13
Veiling spiritual growth through four daily ways of consuming Haram-forbidden foods. ..............................13
Imam Hadadad says mentions that: Haram-prohibited and Suspect Food .....................................................13
Muhasabah-self auditing ourselves and leaving zaan-suspicion ....................................................................14
Muhasabah-self auditing and leaving faults of others. ...................................................................................15
So how can we do this in the Modern Day to Asses ones Spiritual state for progress? ..................................16
An evaluation of one’s own abilities and failings.............................................................................................17
Muhasabah-self Auditing on being honest with oneself .................................................................................17
Muhasabah –Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State ....................................................................................19
Analysing your Self Auditing ............................................................................................................................21
Muhasabah Self-Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State Ghibah -1 ..............................................................21
Do Not Backbite One Another .........................................................................................................................22
There are 5 levels of Ghiba-backbiting ............................................................................................................22
Muhasabah-Self Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State Anger-Ghadab - 2 .................................................23
Muhasabah-Self-Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State ..............................................................................26
Ghill – Grudge - 3 .............................................................................................................................................26
What Stops Our Duas-prays and Mercy is Ghill-grudges .................................................................................28
There are four exceptions who will not be forgiven in the month of Ramadhan ...........................................28
Make a Dua-pray against holding a Grudge.....................................................................................................29
Prohibition of Nursing Grudges .......................................................................................................................29
Cures for Gill-Grudge .......................................................................................................................................29
Hadith of Gifts ..................................................................................................................................................30
Muhasabah - Self-Auditing - Assessing One's Spiritual State ..........................................................................31
Abridged 'The Sufi Science of Self-realization..................................................................................................34
‘A guide to the Seventeen Ruinous Traits from by Shaykh Hisham Kabbani. ..................................................34
The Secrets of Muraqaba–the Sufi Science or technique of Meditation.........................................................43
Introduction to understanding Muraqaba .......................................................................................................45
Muraqba in Islamic history ..............................................................................................................................47
The Actual Method of Muraqaba - Technique for Visualizing the Shaykh ......................................................49
The technique of breathing -Inhale and Exhale ...............................................................................................50

3
Lengthening the Pronunciation of La-e-laha ill-lal-lah -'Erases 4,000 Grave Sins' ...........................................51
Learn and Say:- La-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah [Shahada : Testimony to the Unity] Meaning:- There is no divinity
But(Except) God ...............................................................................................................................................53
If your searching for Islam or finding out is Islam is for you, the n the following practice May help you, Or
you want to Strength your Faith in God. .........................................................................................................55
The Shahada has 24 Letters making 7 words each letter forgives every hour of each day, and the 7 words is
for each for the 7 organs -forgiving the 7 ways one sins each closing one of 7 doors of hell when recited .58
Tawba - repentance .................................................................................................................................59
Introduction to Practical Guide of Asking Forgiveness of Wrong Actions .......................................................63
A Practical Guide of asking Forgiveness of Wrong Actions - Tawba-repentance from Book of the Healing of
the Sickness and Pains by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Kittani al-Hasani ...............................................66
Never Despair in the Mercy of Allah - Forgiveness: Islamic Perspective .........................................................72
The 100 Levels of Allah Almighty's Mercy .......................................................................................................74
Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim section on Sabr-Patience ...............................................................................................77
Secrets of Allah's Mercy in forgiving sins though Sickness and Hardship........................................................78
Hardships Benefit the Believer ........................................................................................................................79
Reward of Sins and Sign of Allah's Love ...........................................................................................................79
Retaining Rewards for Deeds Before Sickness .................................................................................................81
20 Harms of the Tongue by Imam Ghazali's Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din- Revival of Religious Science ........................82

About the author - Some experiences and dreams

I know that the main audience that will be reading this are main Mawlana Shaykh Nazim mureeds
so I will share those dreams that will help explain more about myself and some of ijazas.

Recently a someone I know a Mureeda-female disciple which I give Naseeha-good advice and
have helped with spiritual progression had a dream of me telling me that in the dream she saw me
with my book it was my Islamic website and Sufic knowledge but all as a book I was there
surrounded by people all busy rushing round all wanted to buy a copy to read it, as my book was
filled with gems of Sufi secrets or understanding. She said after that I must write a book about my
knowledge and Sufism.

A few years ago I used to arrange global khatm was given ‘ijaza for Khatm of 70,000 plus kalima
and salawat from Mawlana Shaykh Nazim from this another Mureeda-female disciple that I know

4
and bought her into the Naqshbandi-Haqqani tariqah after she wanted to know who her Shaykh
was so I wrote a dua–pray and made her read it. (Dua for Finding your Spiritual Shaykh in dreams)
the dua–pray is now a link on my webpage and many have tried and tested and have found it
successful. That Mureeda-female disciple tells me she says a dream and there is a big banquet
with food and tables all are busy decorating this very big hall and there Mawlana Shaykh Nazim is
honouring me. I said it means that Mawlana Shaykh Nazim is please with the Khatm of 70,000 we
are doing I remember in one of the years we did a 1 million kalima of Shaykh Abdullah Faiz
Daghastani.

When I went to Ummrah-less hajj which I have been there three times I travelled with Mawlana
Shaykh Nazim mureeds, the journey would been in the month of Ramadhan we would visit and go
to Damascus and visit all the holy Maqams-tombs of saints and that of all the holy Maqams-
tombs of saints of the Naqshband-Haqqani Sufi Masters and then after go to Ummrah-less hajj,
while on n the noble and holy city of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) I met the Great Qutb
of Medina Shareef Shaykh Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Bukhari Naqshbandi who gave me the full
'ijaza for Dalalil khayrat and giving 'ijaza for Dalalil khayrat. The Great Qutb Shaykh Muhammad
Zakariya Naqshbandi was over the age of 120 years when I meet him and he taught Mawlana
Shaykh Nazim who was one of his students.

Then later in a dream this of 'ijaza-permission of Dalalil khayrat was stamped as in the dream I
meet the blessed Grand-shaykh Abdullah Faiz Daghastani (the Shaykh of Shaykh Nazim) who was
talking or confirming to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim about my 'ijaza of Dalalil khayrat and Shaykh
Abdullah Faiz Daghastani was pointing to me said saying has the 'ijaza of Dalalil khayrat, has the
'ijaza of Dalalil khayrat, has the 'ijaza of Dalalil khayrat! I then turned my head and I see the
Noble Prophet of Allah peace be upon him looking at me pleased it felt as though it was being
sealed and was stamped Allahuakhbar. Late when I meet Habib Kazim Jafar Muhammad al-
Saqqaf he added his of ‘ijaza Dalal il khayrat and gave Burdah - 'ijaza too. And Qadiri Masters
of Nigeria gave 'ijaza of Al-Fuyudat al-Rabbaniyya-Emanations of Lordly Grace of Shaykh Abdqal
Jilani’s which contain all of the his Awrad-daily Sufi prays.

Sometime later I related this dream to (Qari Abdal Qadir Naqshbandi-Mujaddid ) a family
member of Naqshbandi-Mujaddid Kareemi Tariqah Eid Gah Shareef and from Qari Abdal Qadir
Naqshbandi-Mujaddid Kareemi, who after heading this dream was so overjoyed in a Hal- state he

5
took my hand suddenly and said I give full ‘ijaza in all Naqshbandi, Chisti, Qadiri, Suhrawardiyya
and Shadhili tariqahs to you.

When I meet Shaykh Hisham Kabbani he gave me 'ijaza in Murqabah-visual meditation which I
was first given from the Qadiri-Noshahi Sufi Masters. I have taught Murqabah to Mawlana
Shaykh Nazim mureeds-disciples that cannot connect with Mawlana Shaykh Nazim and that have
been mureeds for years.

One story I was talking to a Haqqani mureed over the internet live while talking giving a lesson
how to attain and connection he was never able to before to connect or understanding the secrets
of Muraqabah-visual meditation. So within 5 minutes he was connected and felt Mawlana
Shaykh Nazim inside him and asked who I was how was and was I a Shaykh and so many other
questions, all to which I didn’t answer him out of humbleness. I simply explained the Sufi Science
of Murqabah - Sufi science of Muraqabah-visual meditation. It’s more like visualisation/image
practice based on the Name of Allah or the deep visualisation or watching of the Sufi Master’s
face. The Sufi Term Fana fil Shaykh – ‘annihilation in the Shaykh’ or trying to attaining to this
level will be explain later.

While studying I came across the largest salawat book compiled and written its 5 huge volumes in
size written of a period of 12 years called Majmu'ah salawat ur-Rasul by Khwaja 'Abdur Rahman
Chohravi Qadiri. The book is intertwined with salawat and ancient Aramaic the language of
Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) and was dictated from the unseen world of ilm Ladduni –
knowledge directly from Allah or knowledge of Khidr this knowledge cannot be learned through
normal methods of teaching. The Grandson of the Shaykh who hand wrote the whole book at the
time of by Khwaja 'Abdur Rahman Chohravi Qadiri gave me ‘ijaza and Sanad-Sufi Chain
Transmission through him the grandson is Shaykh Muhammad Tayyib-ur-Rehman Qadri. The day
I was given that ‘ijaza I had a dream were Mawlana Shaykh Nazim got of this blessed chair made
me sit in his chair and said to me instruct to teach Shaykh Hisham Kabbani the book Majmu'ah
salawat ur-Rasul. Once while reading the book I had a dream meet Shaykh Tahir Alauddin Al-
Gilani who is from the purest descendents of Shaykh Abdul Qadir Al-Gilani he was teaching me
from a golden Quran secrets after secrets.

I will end it there with this abridge version my dreams and experiences, please note: some may
ask or say as why I have shared this experience or think I’m trying to show-off. I am simply sharing
6
this experience as a point of reference to those who are interested as such experiences are not
shared as this deep and personal level also i would like to direct the reader to the experience that
'The Qutb Ibn 'Ajiba, the Darqawi Sufi Shaykh wrote in his "fahrasa," or autobiography, not for
the pleasure of talking about himself but "to celebrate God's kindness'. I’m hoping to do this also
but to inspire the readers and nothing else.
Bismillahi Babuna
Overview - Sufi Course of Self-development and Purification

A bit about the Sufi Course it will be taken various sources, such as the Shadhili-darqawi, Qadiri
from Imam Haddad an understanding about Muhasabah-self auditing as well as an abridged
version of 'The Sufi Science of Self-realization' by Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, with accompanying
Sufi Mind map diagrams linking the text and a Muhasabah-self auditing Sufi Matrix sheet to use
as a measure and see your progression. Then explains Muraqabah-Sufi visual meditation and the
following topic does into detail about the Kalima-affirmation of Gods ones as a source of Sufi
meditation. After that borrowing from the ‘Book of the Healing of the Sickness and Pains’ by
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Kittani al-Hasani explaining from this book the ‘Practical guide of
asking Forgiveness of Wrong Actions’ and from Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim about Sabr-Patience and
finally going through the ‘20 Harms of the Tongue’ by Imam Ghazali's taken from his Ihya' 'Ulum
al-Din- Revival of Religious Science.

This Course will be looking into the science of Muhasabah-self auditing yourself which is about
learning how to self-auditing or assessing one’s spiritual state and learn how to self-evaluate
ones faults for spiritual progress. Many of us that are part of a Sufi path that joined years ago
maybe thinking or have thought why I’m I in a spiritual stagnation (stillness no motion or
movement spiritually). And where is my spiritual progress since I’ve joined this path? Maybe the
thought has never crossed your mind yet and maybe it needs to be addressed now.

I would say many of us suffer or have spiritual retrogression. (Retrogression means the process
of returning to an earlier state, typically a worse one) That is we go two steps forward with dhikr
- remembrance of Allah or some may call it Sufi meditation and then go three steps back due to
lack of Adab-manners or faults or slips or sins that we will fall into through our untrained Nafs-
ego which is our enemy and weakness.

7
It is the enemy of the Ruh-soul, The Soul only wants peace and tranquilly which can only happen
through dhikr-remembrance of Allah as the Quran says "Only in remembrance of Allah will your
heart find peace" (Quran 13: 28) and this can only be given by Allah, but the enemies and there
are four in number of the soul don’t want peace and tranquilly for our soul.

How can we fight our Nafs-ego or weaknesses when don’t know what its tricks and traps are and
who are other enemies that lie and make close allies to the Nafs-ego, they are Hawa-desires,
Dunya-worldliness and Shaytan-satan. You can only truly face your enemy by first training and
preparing to win and this can only happen if you stop and face yourself in the mirror and stop
lying to yourself and are honest and humble otherwise you will always be in denial and we get no
way.

So the purpose of Muhasabah-self auditing is open a new stage of spiritual development and
arrive giving your soul nourishment and allowing movement from Spiritual stagnation and
Spiritual Retrogression. Know the body is made up of more than 75% water so inwardly if we don’t
move we soon become sick too.

To be stagnant means; “not circulating or flowing; dead air; dead water; not growing or changing;
without force or vitality, Lacking freshness, motion, flow, progress, or change; stale; motionless;
still. Whose growth and development has stopped or due to being block”. And this is where many
of us are on this Sufi Path, the key word is path a path means a way or track laid down for walking
or journey but how can we say we are on a path when the road is blocked and we are only going
round in circles that is the actual reality was what is happening to us. So it’s time we start digging
at our inward at our egos and learn what is blocking our Sufi path so we can journey.

As for adab-manners "he that has the most in adab - manners has the most in Sufism for this is the
first Golden Rule of Sufism" and that "the whole of Sufism is adab-manners". The one with adab-
manners is he who has constant and perfect awareness of Allah. His heart is always connected to
his Lord, at all times and in all situations. That is Perfect adab-manners. The Holy Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "I was sent to complete the noble (beautiful) character
traits of humanity"; and Allah says in the Qur'an, regarding the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him) "And you are on an exalted standard of character." (68:4).

8
We will also be covering in detail the Sufi science of Muraqabah-visual meditation. It’s more like
visualisation/image practice based on the Name of Allah or the deep visualisation or watching of
the Sufi Master’s face. The Sufi Term Fana fil Shaykh-‘annihilation in the Shaykh’ or trying to
attaining to this level will be explain later.

Overview of Muhasabah - Self-Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State

Understanding what Muhasabah-self auditing is in the Sufic context and how it applies it to
oneself. This is a classical Sufic evaluation which I will create a modern Sufi Mind Map and
Muhasabah-self auditing Sufi Matrix sheet for the modern Muslim to understand. Based on the
sayings or hadith about 'account before you are accounted'- that is accounted on the 'Yawm
Hisab - Day of Accounts' Example of Muhasabah-self auditing- ask yourself do you have Ghill -
(holding a grudge, ill-will, spite - rancour, resentment, malice towards anyone? Even if they are
wrong and you are right. What the level of Ghibah-backbiting you are surrounded by are you
doing Ghibah-backbiting too?

So here is a overview of the process make Niyyah-Intention for 'actions are by intentions', this is
an important part of all the Spiritual exercises (and is the other golden rule of Sufism learn Niyyah
– Intention there is more it then just saying the words this is needs to be addressed such as one
third of all knowledge is Niyyah-Intention I have spoken about this subject in detail in my other
article “Spiritual Power of Niyyah-Intention; Understanding the Psychological Impact in Dua-pray
and Energy Healing Power”.

And take a Outward Bath – Water of Tawbah-Wudhu meaning with water that is make Wudhu,
make intention to clean your body from all sins every commented with 1. eyes, 2. ears, 3. tongue,
4. hands, 5. feet, 6. tongue and 7. Private parts these are all the 7 ways we sin to our hearts.

Know that Wudhu washes away sins and it’s very important you make Wudhu with presence and
you don’t talk and you take care of it, for only when you make Wudhu with presence and make
Wudhu as if its Ibadah-worship will Khushu in Salah–awe or humbleness, or taste the sweetness
of prayer appear, know when you wear Wudhu on your bodies that Wudhu is Nur-illumination
and illumination means; light up, throw light on, make brighter, shine on, decorate with lights.
Wudhu, thus wear your Wudhu for Nur-Light can burn darkens of Sins.

9
Then the Inward Bath - Water of Tawbah-repentance from your heart wash away all your Ghill-
(Hatred, holding a grudge, rancour, resentment, malice) towards anyone? Even if they are wrong
and you are right. How much Ghibah-backbiting have you have done? As for Ghill-holding a
grudge - just breathe deeply take a few times breaths and say ‘for the sake of Allah and his
beloved Holy Prophet –peace be upon him, I forgive all those that have caused me issues, Oh
Allah the affair is with you now’.

Then we pay attention lastly and more the most difficult one that being Gadab-anger and our
issues relating what makes us set the fire of anger in ourselves it’s the lack of Sabr-patience which
is mentioned in the holy Quran 90 times by name.

The above needs to be measured through a Muhasabah-self auditing Sufi matrix sheet which are
based following rules and are recorded daily on a Sufi matrix sheet and from this may result in
having dreams or spiritual experiences these all need to recorded via dairy over a period of 40
days and this is important to only through this can we analysis ones progress.

Some people may and will find this difficult but remember this, Allah has put in your Qadr-
destiny, Good and bad or bitterness that has happened in your life was written to happen the fact
it has happen means its Qadr-destiny and you can’t cry or moan about that at, Allah wants you be
grow spiritually When Allah loves you he breaks your heart, Allah says I’m with the Broken
hearted, so if you’re broken hearted it means you have a heart that is alive and not dead and that
only Allah can fix your heart through his dhikr-remembrance of Allah. His remembrance
sometimes means he wants you to do Khidma-serving helping others. Know that spiritual process
doesn’t end with the physical death of the body, no for the journey continues in Jannah-heaven
there is still spiritual progression it doesn’t stop in this dunya-worldliness its continues and
continues in Janna-heaven too.

Let me give you an example how to effectively use Muhasabah-self auditing with Ghibah-
backbiting. Now Ghibah-backbiting is like getting your good deeds such as dhikr-remembrance of
Allah and giving them all away for free and in return picking their sins and putting them on your
neck and burdening your soul, just stop and think about that for a moment giving away for free
your hard earned dhikr-remembrance of Allah hours and weeks and months of dhikr-
remembrance of Allah just with a one word you start to give it all away.

10
Would you work for months and months or even years and years and with a few silly pointless
words give all your money away, you would never even think for doing that as you know its
madness. But here we are unaware or really unconscious not even paying attention half the time
to what we are saying, we are untrained and don’t realise the affects and impact to our Spiritual
progression or our case retrogression it really having to our souls.

Yet here we are complaining that our dhik-remembrance of Allah is not getting us spiritually far,
yes because we’re not really moving, we going in circles until we learn STOP doing the dhikr –
remember of Ghibah-backbiting and Gill-holding a grudge and Ghadab-anger. As for Ghiba -
backbiting people don’t realise they are doing Ghibah-backbiting most of the time so until one is
made aware only then will they know the damage they are causing their hearts and good deeds.

We will get no way and never have any Spiritual progression in any tariqah–path it doesn’t
matter which Sufi Master you go to here or there or travel the world which is a big circle all you
would have achieved is travelling a big circle in all your years maybe 20 years or 10 years less of
your life and still move no way, in Sufism we sit and travel inside with our hearts first they need to
travel and move.

The people of Sufi Tariqah are always turning their Tasibah-pray beads but are their hearts
always don’t turn too. We need to remember the Sunnah Dua of; “Oh Turner of the Hearts keep
our Hearts firm on Your Religion - Yaa muqallibal quloob Thabbit qalbi ‘ala deenik.” And need to
know the first steps and turn our hearts through Tawba–repentance. The meaning of Tawbah -
repentance means a U Turn from going the wrong way.

One of the Sunnah Naseeah–advise about Ghibah–backbiting is simply if you can’t find something
nice to say about someone say nothing all’ keep your mouth close and busy yourself with the
dhikr–remembrance of Allah that has been given to you or find a positive thing to say so say
please I don’t want to listen to your Ghibah–backbiting about so and so if you are listening and if
they don’t change the subject leave the room.

So the 1st step without which there can be No Journey to Allah is Tawba-repentance. But what
have we not repented from and have not realized what needs repentance? And what is blocking
our spiritual progress? By using Muhasabah-self-auditing or taking oneself to account does this

11
allow you to identify every sin one commits and needs to stop and reflect or contemplate about
these sins, weakness, slips of bad Adab-manner, mistakes ..etc

See the Muhasabah-self auditing Sufi matrix sheet to measure yourself every night! If you pass
this test then you have indeed travelled or have made spiritual progress otherwise you are in
loss.

Assessing One's Spiritual State - Imam Al-Haddad and Muhasabah

In the diagram 2 Muhasabah mind map I’ve added in the ‘the Golden Mean’. This needs to be
known and understood as part of applying Muhasabah-self-auditing on one’s self is to have
moderation, deliberation and good manners over wise you can and will overdo it and fail
completely. The Golden Mean is taken from ‘Knowledge and Wisdom’ by Imam Al-Haddad. Know
that moderation and steering a middle course are required in all affairs and must be maintained. It
has been handed down that “the best of the things are the middle ones”. And, “Moderation,
deliberation, and graceful manners are one of twenty-five parts of prophet-hood.”

Should a man wish to know whether he is rising or falling in religious terms, he should look at how
his state and conduct had been a month or a year ago? If he finds that they were better than his
present state and conduct, he should know that he is descending into degradation; whereas if he
finds that his present state and conduct are better, he should know that he is rising and improving.

It has been handed down that "he who finds that his day resembles the previous day has been
cheated, and he who finds that his day is worse than the previous day is accursed." Accursed here
means remote from a particular and specially accorded to mercy. He who is not increasing is
diminishing.

To explain, if when thinking about previous days, you feel that you then had no desire for the
world, were eager for the Hereafter, scrupulously avoided doubtful things, were quick to good
actions, quick to obedience, remote from transgressions, and by comparison are now no better or
are to any extent worse, then know that you are going down, deteriorating in religion, in your
aspiration for God, and in striving for the Hereafter. You should then feel apprehensive and fearful
and then begin to show resolution and exert effort.

12
If, on the other hand, you find that you have more aspiration and eagerness than before, then
thank God the Exalted even more, remember His gifts and graciousness, and be ever attentive to
them. You should not feel pleased with yourself, nor think that it is due to your own ability and
power, for as God the Exalted has said, Had it not been for the favour upon God upon you, and His
mercy, not one of you would ever have grown pure; but God purifies whom He wills, and God is
all-hearing, all-knowing (24:21) by Imam 'Abdallah ibn 'Alawi al-Haddad, Knowledge and Wisdom
(Fusus al-'ilmiyah wa-al-usul al-hikamiyah)

Haram-forbidden and Suspect Food from Imam Haddad

Veiling spiritual growth through four daily ways of consuming Haram-forbidden foods.

So how do are we blocking or veiling our spiritual growth progress? Through four daily ways of
consuming Haram-forbidden foods and I don’t been just eating food, as consuming means to take
in, completely filling one's mind and attention; by absorbing and here we mean; Stomach-Food,
Tongue Food Ghibah-backbiting this goes via the ears and into the heart as we consume by eating
the dead flesh of our brother as it says, lying (and think of all the other 20 different sins of Tongue
see end section of this book for all 20 sins of the tongue), Ears Food Music (not all), eyes Food-
gazing at the forbidden. Know that there are only 7 ways the heart can be effected or can
consumed by Haram-forbidden 4 have been mentioned. Bad actions or falling into forbidden
actions also blocks and veils and so the heart is darken. So no Nur-light will be to travel into the
heart.

Imam Hadadad says mentions that: Haram-prohibited and Suspect Food

Consuming illicit and doubtful food inevitably hinders obedience and invites to transgression. The
Messenger of God (may God bless him and grant him peace) is reported to have said, "He who eats
halal-permissible, his members obey, whether he wishes it or not; but he who eats haram-
forbidden food, his members sin, whether he wishes it or not." And, "Eat what you will, for that is
how you will act." And a certain Gnostic once said, "People are severed from the truth and
excluded from the circle of sainthood only because they do not scrutinize what they eat."

He whose food is illicit or suspect, even when he acts in obedience, his acts are unacceptable to
God, for God the Exalted says, "God only accepts (deeds) from those who fear Him" (5:27). God is
13
good and accepts only what is good. From Imam ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Alawi al-Haddad, Two Treatises
(Mutual Reminding & Good Manners) of Imam al-Haddad.

So lack of spiritual growth and out of control sexual desires comes from eating haram-forbidden
Food, that is food of stomach, food of the tongue, and food of ears and food of the eyes and all
they can consume will effective us and our thoughts and this leads if they are haram-forbidden if
they are not blocked they will certainly block our hearts and minds and lead to out of control
sexual desires. haram-forbidden food of stomach also includes eating with haram-forbidden
earnings: fraud money and Not giving Zakat-charity too. Eating haram-forbidden earnings is the
same as eating swine.

As for out of control sexual desires they can also be linked with eating the wrong halal food too
that will increase your sexual desires, foods such as too much meat or too much ginger if you’re
male (or female), single and young as the energy is these foods will build up in sexual desire that
needs to be release through marriage. So it’s more effective and much more than better that one
learns about eating in moderation and even abstaining, fasting from some foods even if they are
halal as they may increase your sexual drive for some people it’s more than fasting its learning to
fast from those foods that can and will increase in sexual desires that then lead to out of control
sexual desires. Haram-forbidden foods and all the ways we can consume haram-forbidden into
the body will affect the heart basically it will put a full or partial block to any spiritual openings.
Also acts of ibadah-worship became invalid for 40 days when you actually eat Haram-forbidden
foods too.

Muhasabah-self auditing ourselves and leaving zaan-suspicion

Another form of spiritual backbiting that goes into the hearts is Khayal-negative thoughts (see
section about Muraqabah and the 70,000 thoughts we have every day) about other people we
think nothing of them, such as zaan-suspicions or having bad opinions based on only zaan-
suspicion about a good person this is not allowed and this is linked to Ghibatal Qalb-Backbiting of
the Heart. As we are feeding our hearts thoughts as Quran says: ‘O you who believe, avoid most of
suspicion, for surely suspicion in some cases is a sinful, and do not spy nor let some of you
backbite others. Does one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? But you abhor it; and be
careful of (your duty to) Allah, surely Allah is Oft-returning (to mercy), Merciful. 49.12

14
We need proof, if someone has proof about a person then bring your evidence before giving
claims about a person’s name and honour. We are ordered to avoid suspicion in most cases. This
signifies that at times suspicion may be in order. As the Quran says: "Believers, if an evil-doer
brings you a piece of news, inquire first into its truth, lest you should wrong others unwittingly and
then regret your action." (49:6)

When we hear information about other people, we must not jump to conclusions. We must first
make sure of the truth of what we have heard. The information is kept in the balance until it is
proven to be true. Tradition "Be careful of suspicion, for it is the most mistaken of all speech. Do
not spy on others, compete among yourselves, envy one another, or despise one another. Rather,
be servants of Allah and brothers!" There is nothing wrong with healthy competition, particularly
in doing good deeds. This hadith refers to competition that destroys team play and equality, etc.

Muhasabah-self auditing and leaving faults of others.

Today with computers and laptops and mobiles people are always on Facebook busy, they are
making comments about other people, criticism, mocking and finding faults. If not with each other
then with the football teams they support. If the not on facebook then maybe on forums insulting
and mocking and fighting each other and then later they go pray salah and then think I feel good
about myself now what a great action have done. Amazing not even realising such behaviour
needs to be accounted for such wastage nothing but playing with their own Nafs-ego. Why don’t
they make those remarks about themselves too proud.

Tradition “A believer is not a fault-finder and is not abusive, obscene, or course." “If you wish to
mention the faults of your friend, mention your own faults first” if your brother does something
you don't like, you should find 70 excuses for him. Yes 70! Before you run out of good reasons to
give him and start blaming him. There is a tradition that says: ‘Whoever covers the faults of a
believer, Allah will cover his faults on the Day of Arising'. So consider that and think about that for
a moment and if you want Allah’s Mercy be merciful to others, otherwise what goes around
comes around, this is the law of leaving traces behind as mentioned in Quran in surah Yasin
Atharun-traces left behind.

The Quran says: “Nor defame one another" (49:11), "Do not spend your time finding fault with
one another. Tradition “If you love someone, do not quarrel with him and do not annoy him. Do

15
not ask others about him, for the one you ask might be his enemy and thus tell you things about
him that are not true and thus break you apart.”

We need to be busy with ourselves and learn to “mind our own business” this will save us a lot of
problems such as opening the door to backbiting and causing arguments. It says the famous
hadith collector Abu Dawud learnt half million hadith and he said from all that I have learnt it’s
enough to know 4 hadith from all that I have learnt only 4 and act on them.

1. innamaal a'mal bil niyya –“Actions are by Intentions” - Hadith

2. “Mind your own business” - Hadith and From the Beautiful Islam of a person is to mind this
own business. "To speak about Allah without Knowledge is worse than Shirk-polytheism" Part of
Shirk-polytheism is speaking about Allah what you don't know. So Mind your business if you not
an ‘ailm-scholar.

3. “A man is not a true believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” Hadith

(His brother) this includes also non Muslims too, anther hadith - you will not believe unto you
have Mercy amount yourselves; again this is not about Mercy with Muslims or friends but the non
Muslims. Meaning showing Love a Universal Mercy to all.

4. That which is Halaal is clear and that which is Haram is clear, and between the two of them are
mutashabihat-ambiguous or unclear matters about which many people do not know. Thus he who
avoids a ambiguous or unclear matters clears himself in regard to his religion and his honour.

People are too busy trying to take out the splitters from other people’s eyes when they really to
stop and take out the log from their own eye, how busy they are removing a grudge from
another's heart while making no attempt to remove grudges from their own heart. So let’s stop
and evaluate ourselves through the process of Muhasabah-self auditing.

So how can we do this in the Modern Day to Asses ones Spiritual state for progress?

The tradition of “Die before you die” The first death is referring to the Nafs-ego, meaning kill it!
Before your actually die, as when you die it’s too late. Know that purging and cleaning the Nafs -

16
ego in this world is less painless and is done with water and Ibadah-worship, but cleaning the
Nafs-ego in the next world is only done with the Fire.

There is another tradition which sayiduna `Umar said, “Hold yourself accountable before you are
held accountable, weigh yourselves before you are weighed, and be prepared for the biggest
gathering before He Whose knowledge encompasses your deeds.” That is because we will be
accounted on Qaywmul-hisab-The days of Accounts or Reckoning.

It’s said, the wise person is he who reckons himself and works for his life after death, meaning, he
holds himself accountable. Because many of us are not self-aware, but reactionary, we don’t truly
cultivate our character or battle our inner demons. Instead, we look to others for our affirmation,
hence the cycle of expectations, entitlement, and ego.

Many of us do not reflect at the end of the day, thinking about why something made us angry or
sad. Nor do we question why we do things that are hurtful to either ourselves or someone around
us. Rarely do we look at our motivations for certain actions; therefore we hardly ever check our
intentions. And that is a dangerous thing because actions are but by intention. This is why we
need to constantly assess ourselves.

An evaluation of one’s own abilities and failings

Muhasabah-self Auditing on being honest with oneself

Muhasabah-self Auditing seems like a fairly straightforward concept. The activity that makes it
possible, however-namely, honesty with oneself is exceedingly hard to come by, for it requires
admission of our wrongdoings whenever such actions escape us. It means acknowledgement
within ourselves that we have committed a sin, whether against our own souls or others, be it our
Creator or anyone or anything in creation. For most of us, such a confession is an incredibly tough
thing to do.

I think this is really helpful, but only focusing on our wrongs can be demoralizing. I have used self-
assessments in the classroom and often they focus on finding strengths. In fact, there are many
kinds of self assessments and personal inventories. The most common ones we will find are career
and personal interest inventories and the second most common are those we find in motivation
literature.

17
There are two aspects of Muhasabah-self auditing, taking an assessment of our character flaws
and acknowledging our wrongs and mistakes. Only through acknowledgement of our wrongs, can
we perform true tawbah-repentance and make changes.

But, in many ways our sins are merely symptoms of an illness. And since most of us don’t have a
guide or the ones that do find it difficult to visit or spend much time with them. We have to do
some serious self diagnosis. This is where we can use tools to do a real Muhasabah-self auditing.
The most powerful tool a believer has in the path to Ihsan-Perfecting Faith is Muhasabah-self
auditing. It is important to remember a few principles when it comes to Muhasabah-self auditing
or taking account of oneself:

1. Honesty- we must be fully honest and not delude ourselves when we are taking self inventory.
We cannot make excuses for our actions or try to sugar coat things.

2. Faith- while acknowledging our flaws, we should have faith that our Lord will forgive our sins
and shortcomings always I will send an article about the Mercy of Allah.

3. Hope- We have to accept that we are human and these shortcomings are part of our nature,
yet we can overcome them with help from Allah.

Our sins are merely symptoms of illness or sicknesses of the heart or mind, we will start with some
of these, see the list below we will looked at sicknesses as a travel guide on our journey to
discovering ourselves.

Ghibah- Backbiting
Ghadab- Anger
Ghill -Grudge hatred

Namimah - Tale-Bearing
Al-Hammaz refers to (slander) by speech
Al-Lammaz refers to (slander) by action

Khayal - Negative Thoughts

Zaan - Suspicion, doubt
Hasad - Jealously/Envy

‘Ujb –proud - Vanity/Proud

18
Kibr – Arrogance
Riya’ – Ostentation Showing off

Bukhl- Miser – stinginess

Tama’ - Greed for Wealth – Avarice
Hubb ad-dunya- Love of this World

Jubn –Coward
Ghamm -depression
Hamm - Anxiety – Worry develops from Heedless
Ghawaba wal -kasala -Heedlessness- – if laziness is killed so too is heedless’
Batala- Indolence - Habitual laziness

Muhasabah –Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State

It is recorded by Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi, that during the early centuries of Islam, righteous
people would either write down or memorize their daily actions, thoughts, and words, and then
analyze and criticize themselves for any evil or sin they had committed.

They did this to protect themselves from the storms of vanity and the whirls of self-pride. They
would ask God's forgiveness after this self-analysis and Muhasabah-self auditing. And would
repent sincerely so that they might be protected against future error and mistakes. Then they
would prostrate in thankfulness to God for the meritorious deeds or words that the Allah had
created through them

It is necessary for an individual to pause at the end of each day that has passed, in order to check
himself and run through his achievements:

 What has he done in the course of the day?

 Why has he done it.?
 What has he omitted?
 Why has he omitted it?

The idea to make Muhasabah-self auditing before one goes to bed. This period of Muhasabah-
self auditing g and appraisal should certainly be counted among man's moments of progress; it is
a moment when man impartially sits as a judge over himself and reviews his yearnings and
inclinations, his instincts and motivations. It is a moment when the believer appoints, out of his

19
conviction, a policeman to watch over himself, an investigator to probe him, and a judge to
condemn or acquit him. Before this is all done in front of the Real Judge Al-‘Adil –The Just Allah.

In this way he progresses from the state of "the soul that incites to evil" to the state of "the self-
reproaching soul" which reproaches its owner whenever he plunges into sin, or falls short of
expectation. Tradition "It’s necessary any sane person to have four periods of time" and one of
the four periods is "a period in which he engages Muhasabah-self auditing."

Muhasabah-self auditing may also be described as seeking and discovering one's inner and
spiritual depth, and exerting the necessary spiritual and intellectual effort to acquire true human
values and to develop the sentiments that encourage and nourish them. This is how one
distinguishes between good and bad, beneficial and harmful, and how one maintains an upright
heart. Furthermore, it enables a believer to evaluate the present and prepare for the future. And
Muhasabah-self auditing enables a believer to make amends for past mistakes and be absolved in
the sight of God, for it provides a constant realization of self-renewal in one's inner world.

So the technique in the modern world today is as Shaykh lbn 'Arabi has said to write down all of
one’s mistakes and lack of Adab-manners through a diary and going through the process check list
of the Muhasabah-self auditing Sufi matrix sheet to further give guidance to what questions we
need to be asking ourselves each night and day.

So this step involves Self Auditing yourself by keeping a journal of our deeds, much in the same
way as the Recording Angels are doing. Once you begin noting down the wrong actions that you
do throughout the day, you will end up with a journal full of negative issues that need to be
addressed.

As for those who do not take themselves to account they cannot repent or progress effectively. So
how do they know they have done anything wrong? When you audit yourself, you will see your
wrongdoing. Anyone who fails to stop his wrong action is an oppressor to his own soul. Of course
we are all is doing something wrong, but only those who fail to repent because we don’t know
what to repent from. When you have gone through the check list do not just say at the end of the
day, "O God, I committed many mistakes today, forgive me." Rather you must write them down
and repent for each mistake in turn.

20
 Analysing your Self Auditing

Then turn the page for the next day. The next day you make mistakes, and you write them down.
Then you correlate them to see if they are new ones or the same. In this way, you enter a period
of self-discovery, identifying all kinds of bad manners and harmful traits that you never actually
realized that you had.

These bad characteristics and slips of Adab-manners then become known to you, and so you must
repent from them. Allah will in kind remove you from his “list of oppressors." Continue to record
your bad characteristics and slips of Adab-manners every day. In three to six months, you will
have found 200 to 300 bad characteristics.

When you eliminate these, you will be ready to set sail to reach Allah on the journey or Tariqah -
Path as a Mureed-disciple. And it is only after you decide to repent, and you begin to self audit
and observer your base desires, that your real journey begins. In yourself audit, you will discover
what you have done wrong.

Then you must repent from your bad actions and mistakes of the limbs and mind and from the
soul, write down every forbidden act you have committed and decide for yourself whether you
will do that act again, or move forward and improve. From the major ones here we will cover
three in detail, Ghibah-backbiting and its levels being 5 Ghill-holding a grudge and Ghadab-
anger.

Muhasabah Self-Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State

Ghibah -1

People of no Muhasabah-self auditing and just dhikr-remembrance of Allah many of them have
no real spiritual progress and thus fall short in of Spiritual Retrogression which we have already
mentioned one step forward and three steps backwards each time they do duas-prays and dhikr
remembrance of Allah, yet thinking they are doing a great job with their Dhikr. That why the
biggest dhikr-remembrance of Allah is learning what is causing this such as the 20 Sins of the
tongues and doing Muhasabah-self auditing on them and then the rest of their organs after this.
Those who do this practise will see immense benefits from dhikr-remembrance of Allah

21
immediately after this and feel the Nur-Light of ibadah-worship enter their hearts and Fath –
Spiritual openings will start to happen too from this Nur-light.

Do Not Backbite One Another

‘O you who believe! avoid most of suspicion, for surely suspicion in some cases is a sinful, and do
not spy nor let some of you backbite others. Does one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead
brother? But you abhor it; and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, surely Allah is Oft-returning (to
mercy), Merciful. 49.12 Quran. As for Ghiba-backbiting people don’t realise they are doing
Ghiba-backbiting most of the time so until one is made aware only then will they know the
damage they are causing their hearts and good deeds.

There are 5 levels of Ghiba-backbiting

1. To say sometime to offends behind someone’s back

2. To listen something that offends behind someone’s back
3. To make a sign with ones hands or limb that that offends behind someone’s back
4. To write that offends behind someone’s back
5. is Ghibatul Qalb – Is back biting from your heart, which is very hard to purge in the beginning.

Ghiba-backbiting – is light on the tongue but heavy on removing the Good actions.
Ghiba-backbiting – is such a major Sin it is worse than fornication and is linked to Namimah-
gossiping which linked to Grave Punishment.

Ghiba-backbiting: Know there are numerous warnings in Shariah–Islamic law regarding back-
biting. Many people are accustomed to Ghiba-backbiting and very few men are free from it. The
Quran says: Don't back-bite one another. Do you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Rather
you abhor it 49:12.

Back-biting has been likened to eating a dead animal.

‘Beware of back-biting as it is a more heinous sin than fornication'.
If a man commits fornication and makes repentance, God may accept his repentance, but the
repentance of back-biting is not accepted till the back-bited man pardons him.

22
Know that it says: ‘O people don't back-bite the Muslims - those who have brought faith by tongue
but not by heart. Don't enquire into their secret things, because God will follow the secrets of a
Muslim who enquires into the secrets of his brother Muslim, God dishonours one in his own house
in whose secrets God enquires'.

Muhasabah-Self Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State

Anger-Ghadab - 2

Controlling one’s anger, It the Art of War-(a 2000 year old text) one of the rules is to simply anger
you opponent and you will have the advantage over him in battle because he will make an
irrational move in anger and thus you can win. This is what Shaytan-Satan does to us, as there are
only 3 doors that Shaytan-Satan enters into our souls and getting us angry is the easiest door for
Shaytan-Satan to play his games and enter into our blood stream and make us boil.

“Anger-Ghadab is a poison that contaminates the blood. It diminishes the stored up Spiritual
Energy within you. You will never be able to become spiritual unless you overcome Anger-Ghadab
and Ghill-holding a grudge – (resentment, rancour, malice)” from Sufi Master Khwaja Shamsuddin
Azeemi.

Anger-Ghadab from the book 'The Sufi Science of Self-realization'- A Guide to the Seventeen
Ruinous Traits, by Shaykh Hisham Kabbani it mentions that Anger is worst of the 17 traits. As it
gives non-rational thinking and makes you drunk with rage- thus in a moment of heat (Anger=Heat
of Hell) people say things they don’t really mean thus stupid behaviour, and even remarks of Kufr -
disbelief or words like Divorce.

In Anger-Ghadab in this state of madness one can’t listen or think as Shaytan-Satan enters their
blood, thus the term making your blood boil as it is from heat, we need to calm down and it’s a
form of Kufr-disbelief and Poison worse than Cancer which kills the light of Iman-faith and has
mentioned which needs to repeated many times one of the 3 doors which Shaytan-Satan enters
the heart and Iman-faith Leaves.

Anger is like of Shaytan-Satan controlling you and one remedy or cure is fighting it with silence
reply with being silence thus the term “silence is golden” and stop and take deep breaths or
starting Allahu, Allahu, Allahu, or when there is a fire in this case within you it starts, it says from

23
tradition that if you see a fire you should say; “Allahuakbar- Allah is great” to the fire and
Inshallah-God willing it will calm down and even turn off, for only Allah is great as fire has the
attribute of growing up and getting big think itself as great and by saying Allahuakbar with long
deep breaths telling the fiery Shaytan-Satan inside you NO that you are not great only Allah is
and always will be forever. So you must take very deep breaths and release them very slowly.

When we get Angry-Ghadab the hard part is to forgive those who are unjust to you! La taghtab-
don’t get angry is the advice given to us in tradition. The strong one is he that can wrester this
anger. Not to get angry at anyone because anger kills the light of dhikr-remembrance of Allah,
and to refrain from debating and argumentative discussions with students of `ilm-Islamic
knowledge because debating hardens the hearts and results in forgetfulness of dhikr-
remembrance of Allah and impurities of the heart and soul. If one gets angry or into argues with
anybody, he needs to asks Allah for forgiveness and asks that person to excuse him even if he is
right and they are wrong, for it is worth selling your heart and the lights of dhikr-remembrance of
Allah for an argument and getting Kibr-pride enter instead.

Learn not to despise anybody, but whoever you see, assumes they one among Awliyah-Saints of
Allah, as mentioned in a hadith the poorly dressed man, pushed away from doors, no one giving
heed to him, but if he asks Allah by swearing an oath to Him, Allah will answer him. Anger will
close the door or connection to your Shaykh which leads to closing the door to the Noble Prophet
peace and blessings be upon! ‘Beware of anger, which begins from madness, and ends with
repentance’.

Note: Anger arises Hatred – arises Envy-arises – malice – arises worry – arises depression –arises
black magic.

Look at the dangers of an angry intention let alone the action: the Killer and killed are the same in
the fire. Why the victim is also in hell because both had intention to kill. One will be punished one
more that the other. This is why we are taught from our tradition to say to our souls:
La taghdab! - Don’t get angry, La taghdab - don’t get angry, La taghdab! - Don’t get angry

Ghiba-backbiting can lead to Ghill-holding a grudge which can also lead to Ghadab-anger and
when one has Ghadab-anger they no longer have control as Shaytan-Satan controls them and
enters them as for the 3 doors of shaytan-Satan he robs through three doors;
24
1. Hawa-Lust & Desires
2. Ghafalah -Forgetfulness
3. Ghadab—Anger

Lack of sabr causes Shaytan Shaytan Door is from your back:

to attack or enter you waswas-il-khannas - 114:4

Shaytan robs through three doors

Ghafalah- Forgetfulness Hawa - Lust & Desires Ghadab- Anger

Even the faithful he robs in a moment Gives non-rational thinking, when

of inattention or carelessness Angered or lust enters the brain or heart

25
 Muhasabah-Self-Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State
Ghill – Grudge - 3

Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith and put not in our hearts grudge
toward those who have believed. Our Lord, indeed You are Kind and Merciful."
Rabba-nagh-fir-lana wali-ikhwani nallatheena sabaquna bil-emani wala taj-'al fi qulubina ghill
lila-theena amanu rabbanaa innaka ra'ufur-rahim 59:10

There is a saying that "Holding a grudge against someone is like drinking poison and expecting
the other person to die". It’s called Ghill-holding a grudge or rancour and it stops the blessings of
Ibadah-worship and stops all spiritual progress until you don't let go of ALL grudges you will never
travel the path to Allah you with only have dry and baseless Ibadah–worship which I will explain
from a hadith later.

Nor will you benefit from the secrets of dhikr-remembrance of Allah or benefit from any of the
blessings of month of Ramadhan or taste any Fath-spiritual openings, for how can you receive
Fath-spiritual opening when your heart is full of Ghill-grudge and hatred. Ghill-holding a grudge
takes root slowly in your heart for someone, were as Ghadab-anger is a quick release from the
heart and is more severe hatred for someone. Were as Ghadab-anger is said to be actual poison
for the heart and your Iman-faith.

Let’s look the meaning of Ghill-grudge:

Malicious resentfulness or hostility; spite, a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will, a feeling of
sulky resentment, a resentment strong enough to justify retaliation; "holding a grudge"; "settling a
score" The deepest malignity or spite; deep-seated enmity or malice; resentment: a feeling of deep
and bitter anger and ill-will. Rancour is that degree of malice which preys upon the possessor.
Enmity and rancour both describe hostile feelings; but enmity may be generous and open, while
rancour implies personal malice of the worst and most enduring nature, and is the strongest word
in our language to express hostile feelings. Reluctant to abandon a grudge and stubbornly
unwilling to accept the restoration of good relations with anyone who has offended him.

Ghill-holding a grudge, hatred, rancour is having the intention to harm others within your heart,
so look with love to your brother to remove malice, as hatred feeds of Kufr-disbelief. As for Ghill-

26
holding a grudge and Ghadab-anger they are both forms of heat that cause the heart major
physical sickness, anger is known to increase heart attacks and spiritually block or limit the Nur -
light from entering the heart. Question for you, how you expect Mercy from Allah and Allah to
look or gaze at you with Rahma-Mercy when there is no Rahma-Mercy in your own heart for
others? This is why in our tradition of learning the first hadith they teach is Hadith of Rahma-
Mercy: Show mercy to those on the earth; The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon
him, said, “Those who are merciful will be shown mercy by the Merciful. Be merciful to those on
the earth and the One above the heavens will have mercy upon you. The womb is derived from
the Merciful, so whoever keeps relations with his family then Allah will keep relations with him,
and whoever abandons his family then Allah will abandon him." This tradition or hadith-report is
the first hadith that scholars teach their students even today this is taught, but we seem to being
learning like parrots or learning but are not digesting correctly why is it that we can’t digest and
learn how to apply what we are learning today we is our Rahma-Mercy for others gone.?

I say for the sake of Allah forgive others and allow grudges to leave your heart otherwise you will
be like a car stuck in a pit, the wheels are moving but you’re going nowhere or as I have
mentioned already the tasibh-pray beads are turning but the heart isn’t this is why. This course
is about you finding Salam-peace within your heart and until you learn to release all that you
attached to in the way of Ghill-grudges you will never move, regardless if you are in the right and
they are wrong. For that is the whole point you are here to learn to forgive all especially the ones
that have pained you with words of insults or anything else for that matter and move on for the
sake of Allah forgive them as what happened part of your Qadr-destiny and you need to see that
clearly.

Leave this wronged affair between them and Allah and not between my heart and them for this is
the best process, Allah is testing just leave the affair with him take a deep breath and do your task
is dhikr-remembrance of Allah your job or task isn’t dhikr-remembrance of Allah or hatred or
instead feel pity for those souls that carry hatred around like luggage around there necks don’t do
that yourselves. However If someone has any emotional issues and cannot move on, then we
need to some practical sessions through my Sufi Synergy Healing therapy and help you to release
those problems or traumatic states that are causing so much pain that you find it difficult to let go
and find closure. So please email or contact me if you find it hard to move on from any grudge you
are holding against someone that has wronged you severally.

27
 What Stops Our Duas-prays and Mercy is Ghill-grudges
There are four exceptions who will not be forgiven in the month of Ramadhan

There are many that fast by the day and get nothing but hunger and thirst and by the night spend
it in qiyam layla-night vigil pray and get nothing but insomnia. Why?

1. Those who harbour Ghill-grudges.

2. Disobedient and disrespectful or mistreating ones parents,
3. Severe bonds of kinship or breaking family ties
4. Drinking Alcohol
Excerpts from Al-Ghunya li-Talibi Tariq al-Haqq Vol.3 by Shaykh ‘Abdul Qadir Jilani

He that is seeking Allah’s Gaze of Rahma-Mercy, yet that is one of the qualities that would
prevent us from this blessed gaze (and from many other opportunities for forgiveness) is Ghill-
holding a grudge. The Prophet, May Allah bless him and grant him peace, taught us of that on
Laylatul-Qadr-Night of Power(better than 1000 months of worship) and on Layal al Bara’ah-night
of decree 15th Night of Sha’ban that those who have Ghill-hold a grudge, mistreat parents,
severe bonds of kinship or drink are prevented from Allah’s merciful gaze.

The above are prevented from Allah’s Merciful gaze, that is it stops Duas-prays or makes them
limited. Do we want Allah to look at you with his Merciful gaze on the first night of Ramadan or
are we happy that Allah overlooks us with His Merciful gaze because we are too busy gazing at
other people in our hearts by Ghill-hold a grudge. Is whatever anyone has done to hurt us so
important that we can not overlook it in exchange for an opportunity for Allah’s Mercy? What
about all of those whom we have wronged? Do we not need Allah’s pardon as well as theirs? The
Prophet, peace and mercy be upon him, said, “There are five nights in which dua-prays is not
rejected:

1. the eve of Rajab,

2. the 15th night of Sha’aban,
3. the eve of Friday,
4-5.on the eve of Eid Al-Fitr, and on the eve of Eid Al-Adha.” (Al-Suyuti in his Al-Jami).

28
 Make a Dua-pray against holding a Grudge

This is a verse from the Quran: Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith and
put not in our hearts grudge toward those who have believed. Our Lord, indeed You are Kind and
Merciful." Rabba-nagh-fir-lana wali-ikhwani nallatheena sabaquna bil-emani wala taj-'al fi
qulubina ghill lila-theena amanu rabbanaa innaka ra'ufur-rahim 59:10

Prohibition of Nursing Grudges

The gates of Paradise are not opened but on two days, Monday and Thursday, and then every
servant of Allah is granted pardon who does not associate anything with Allah except the person
in whose (heart) there is Ghill-holding a grudge against his brother. And it would be said: Look
towards both of them until there is reconciliation; look toward both of them until there is
reconciliation; look towards both of them until there is reconciliation. Another tradition says
“Those would not be granted pardon) who boycott each other.”(Sahih Muslim)

This tradition underlines the prohibition of nursing Ghill-holding a grudge against one’s brother.
Nursing rancour breaks family and social relationship. It affects the very foundations on which a
family or society is expected to run harmoniously. It is such a great sin that due to this Allah the
Exalted would not grant His pardon to one who commits this sin. However Allah is Most Forgiving;
He can pardon a sinner if he mends his ways and seeks his forgiveness.

Also the importance of Monday and Thursday. It is on these two days when Allah the Exalted
keeps the gate of the Paradise open and forgives His servants who do not associate someone with
Him in His powers and attributes except those who indulge in nursing Ghill-holding a grudge
against each other or, in the words of another tradition, boycott each other. Instead of nursing
rancour against someone, the believers should love their fellow brothers just with the intention of
winning the pleasure of Allah.

Cures for Gill-Grudge

Imam Malik's Muwatta: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,
“Shake hands and Ghill-holding a grudge will disappear. Give presents to each other and love each
other and enmity will disappear.”

29
 Hadith of Gifts

From another traditions; The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, said: "Give gifts to
one another, for gifts take away Grudges." And from another tradition "There is nothing that is
swallowed greater with Allah in reward than a slave of Allah who swallows and contains his
grudge out of desire for the pleasure of Allah."

From and will known tradition it says: "Do not sever relation. Do not indulge in mutual enmity. Do
not entertain Ghill-holding a grudge and jealousy against one another, and do not be jealous of
others. Be brethren among yourselves and become Allah's slaves It is not permissible for a man to
have severed his relations with any of his brethren for more than three days." (Bukhari)

It is mentioned in the tradition: “A Muslim brother apologizes to another Muslim, and the latter
does not accept his apology, then on him will be the same sin as is on the person who collects a
tax which is not due' (Ibn Maja). And from another tradition it says: "If a person pleads his
innocence to the other, and the other one rejects it, then he will not be brought to the water
tank."(Tibrani). By this clear guidance for the two opposing parties, Islam fights Ghill-holding a
grudge and hatred, and destroys its germs at the outset. In this way it brings the Muslim society
on the high level of a life full of love, friendship and Justice.

In a tradition it says: “May I not show you the sign of the wicked people?” The people said: "If you
are pleased, you may tell us." He said: "The most wicked person among you is he who keeps
himself aloof, is harsh on his slave, and does not give any gifts to others. May I not tell you of
another person more wicked than this?” The people said: Definitely, O Messenger of Allah ! If you
are pleased." He said: "He who has grudge against the people and the people have grudge against
him." Then he asked: "May I not tell you of a more wicked person than this?" The people said:
'Definitely, O Messenger of Allah ! If you are pleased."

He said: "He who does not pardon the errors of others, does not accept their apologies, and does
not forgive their crime." Again he asked: "May I not tell you of a more wicked person than this?"
The people said: "Definitely, O Messenger of Allah! If you are pleased." He said: "He from whom
no good may be expected, and from whose wickedness there may not be security."(Tibrani)

30
The wicked tendencies covered by this hadith are the different stages of grudge and hatred, which
occur in proportion to the defect and disease. This is not a strange thing, because from the olden
times the people knew about them. Even in the Jahiliyah pre-Islam days grudge was considered to
be the lowest stage of the wicked conduct, and decent people always avoided it.

I’ve mentioned in detail three;

Ghadab-anger – This will burn and poison your Iman-faith and good deeds of Dhikr
Ghibah-backbiting - This is giving away your good deeds and taking on their sins
Gill-holding a grudge – This stops you in your track and makes your worship dry

Muhasabah - Self-Auditing - Assessing One's Spiritual State

Looking at the diagram, you have to start with tawbah-repent or to U-turn. But what are you
making tawbah-repent of? Now look the Muhasabah-self-auditing mind map and let’s identify
some sins, mistakes, slips or short comings we make. Let’s look at Gadab–anger, it gives non-
rational thinking – it’s a form of Kufr-disbelief and spreads like cancer which kills the light of Iman-
faith. Anger is lack of Sabr-patience and is one of the 3 doors which Shaytan-Satan enters ones
heart.

Ghill-holding a grudge as its looking with intention to Harm so look with love to your brother to
remove grudge, as hatred feeds of Kufr-disbelief. Know that Ghibah-backbiting it’s one of the
major sin! Its mentioned there are 20 sins of the of the tongue and most of us don’t even know
we commit them and so we never ask for forgiveness and so we fall into peril in the next world
and this world and have no spiritual progress.

Question for yourself and please be honest with yourself otherwise it doesn’t work;
Do you sleep with holding any grudges in your heart for anyone?
Do you sleep with and Gadab–anger issues against someone?
Do you sleep with having Ghibah-back biting against someone?

Ask these questions to yourself and the answer is mostly YES! At some degree and as long we hold
onto these dark negative thoughts our hearts are full of pain, angry, hatred, bitterness and
resentment. Now ask yourself if your heart is a jug full of these thoughts at different levels or
degree how can it allow or enter or have room for Allah to enter or Nur-Light of Dhikr –

31
remembrance of Allah to enter and be seated and have an impact to your hearts if they are
always full.

Until we empty the jug of darkness or can slowly move towards that only then will it that Nur –
Lights of Dhikr-remembrance of Allah be allowed in to filled the heart and with positive healing
thoughts of Love and Mercy of Allah. Until then we are stuck and any dhikr we do will have limited
effect not the full 100% we hope.

So for the Sake of Allah and finding that sakeena--tranquillity in ones heart release all tension
within you, take a brave deep breath and say Allaaaaah make it long and do this we few times
and now think of any hatred or grudges you have agilest anyone weather your right in this issue
or isn’t the issue, you have make peace with your heart and soul and need to empty these pains.
the more you hold on to them the harder you will find any peace within you or have effective
duas-prays affect you, so do it for the sake of Allah and his beloved (peace be upon him) and
please repeat that in your heart.

So, say aloud I’m freeing myself as I’m whole and completely and don’t have any hatred or
grudges against anyone that has wronged me for the sake of Allah and his beloved prophet (peace
be upon him). Repeat this a few times let it just flow out, again the same goes with Angry too.

Now as for backbiting if maybe difficult to ask peoples forgives if it causes fitna-tribulation then
don’t, its best that you do and donate sadaqah-charity in on their behalf need or grow a plant on
their behalf or do a something and offer to them the reward. Even giving sadaqah-charity 5p
from ones heart sincerely is a good action.

It’s not the size or the amount it’s the colour of your Sidq-sincerity thoughts in your heart that
matters when you do this action and again allow yourself to be released as you give the sadaqah-
charity. So the weight stops burdening your soul, each of these negative traits are heavy for the
soul. When each weight is lifted of Ghill-holding a grudge, Gadab-anger, and Ghibah-backbiting
you feel light and this allows your heart to breathe again. And you will have a sigh of relive and
any dhikr-remembrance of Allah done will make you soon shed tears as you heart will empty
enough for the Nur-light to enter and have its effect on you in a short time.

32
This is maybe very difficult for someone to do or handle thus perform this tawbah-repentance
slowly and with caution and from your heart and be sincere otherwise you only kidding yourself,
without self-honesty, there is no Muhasabah-self auditing. There is a proverb that’s says "A fault
denied is twice committed." or like the female Sufi Saint Rabia Basira says; your tawbah-
repentance is in need of tawbah-repentance, meaning your insincere tawbah-repentance is a sin
and you need to make proper sincere tawbah-repentance to Allah.

If people find these exercise difficult there are ways to resolve this problem because honestly it’s
a easy task and you may have to slowly learn to release and forgive or forget so healing of any
pain may start. I will touch more about pain and healing thorough my Sufi Synergy Healing Course
so contact me if you needed more details or guidance. There are healing properties in Roses and
there connection to Salawat ala rasul-sending blessings to the prophet (peace be upon him) and
the use of Hadra-Sufi dance for healing through its Resonance or Vibrational Healing for the Soul.

The Hadra-Sufi dance a somatic experience that heals and cures ‘traumatic states' that the
modern world and its people have given our poor souls. We are all traumatized in some degree
and so need a 'sufic somatic experience' to help in wee are suffering. Soma refers to the body and
somatic refers to the body experienced 'from the inside' and includes thoughts, emotions, and
sensations, it’s about being 'in the moment' and by focusing on sensations, tensions, finding
relaxation, using breath, movement, inner wisdom can come to the surface.(all this and more is
experienced in the Hadra-Sufi dance)

As some people have very bad backbiting we need to learn to calm is down and then learn to
slowly stop or limit it until we learn to stop or avoid backbiting this is a big topic and we will touch
on backbiting as a topic of its own. Question to one’s self are who makes you angry? Why how
could you have avoided it, what can do to resolve this issue? But one needs to stop and reflect or
Contemplate about the sins or weakness if not ask for some guidance were they are going wrong
in that aspect.

There many people of tariqah-Sufi path that follow a Sufi Shaykh that actually have never really
been taught at the beginning about why they are not progressing and even if they have its all too
vague the words such have Adab-manner , it’s your Nafs-Ego so control it, that is all easily said
what isn’t addressed are all the pitfalls and traps and how to deal with them in practical sense that
is know you’re enemy and learn the subtle games that will easily makes you fall and how not to
33
get caught every time but instead learn and progress to the next level of spiritual understandings
and all this can be learnt through Muhasabah-self auditing so let’s now simply stop and reflect
or Taffakur-deep Contemplation on one’s own personal state and negative thoughts and feelings
that are in the heart. We will now move to abridgement of the book by Shaykh Hisham called the
The Sufi Science of Self-realisation and have snap-shot look as the 17 bad traits that need to
addressed and slowly controlled and with some purged altogether from the soul.

Abridged 'The Sufi Science of Self-realization

‘A guide to the Seventeen Ruinous Traits from by Shaykh Hisham Kabbani.

This is an abridgement of the from the book 'The Sufi Science of Self-realization'- A Guide to the
Seventeen Ruinous Traits, by Shaykh Hisham Kabbani with accompany Sufi Mind mapping
diagrams to make things more easier to follow

1. Anger – Ghadab As for this we have covered it already but from Shaykh Hisham Kabbani’s book
it mentions that Anger is worst of the 17 traits. Note: look at the dangers an angry intention: the
Killer and killed are the same in the fire! Why the victim is also in hell because both had intention
to kill. One will be punished one more that the other.

2. Love of this World – Hubb ad-dunya (worldliness or being Materialistic)

‘Love of this world is the root of every sin’ – it gives of a bad smell as this world is nothing but a
rotten piece of flesh – either you love this world or the next, if you love this world Jannat is
forbidden for you and if you the next world hellfire is forbidden for you! The heart cannot love
two things only one so you choose! What confirms you love is which do you do more for, this
world or the next? Cure: remember when you die, you take nothing of this world save the two
pieces of cloth that will cover your body! When you purchase anything don’t let it pass from your
hand not into your heart. This will cause of love of Dunya-worldliness everything has an ajar-Time
period before it dies; the cup in the kitchen and your souls too.

3. Malice-Hiqd: As for malice means having Ill-will toward others; intention to harm and
destruction. Love of this world leads to hatred- Malice grows from having lust for what some else
has and then moves to hatred so it takes time to build (malice) to get at this stage. So its Moved
by hatred- hatred feeds of Kufr and disobedience which increases forgetfulness in the Heart of
Allah’s Wisdom and we thinking we know more (on how to deal with tyrants and harmful people
with harm) Many people have this trait it can start from hatred towards ones boss at work or as
big as even tyrants. Know Allah is testing us or cleansing us with them -don’t hate them but
34
surrender to Allah and don’t fight destiny instead be positive and do dua’s of love. You must
replace malice-hatred with kindness.

There was a sahabah–companion who was pointed out as going out to go paradise: - sayyid Umar
wanted to know why, so asked the sahabah–companion who said; ‘Before I sleep I forgive all those
who harm me’. Cure: -look with love to your brother to remove Malice- Don’t have malice for one
another; ‘Give gifts to one another, for gifts take away malice’,- tradition

4. Jealously-Envy Hasad: As for Hasad-envy burns deeds like fire burns wood – envious ones don’t
want happiness for anyone – ‘The envier is the enemy of My blessing’ (Allah). People became
jealous of things they don’t have; all is from the blessing of Allah! Thus challenging Allah’s decree!
(which of your Lords favours do you deny? Surah Rahman) The Envious ones are only fighting with
the Decree of Allah! – and the worst way to destroy is through black magic because of Envy!

Jealousy, envy, hate and deceit stem from the lack of respect, mercy and love for others. A jealous
person does not like to see others happy, successful and prosperous. Very often jealousy and envy
lead to hate, deceit and violence. The best treatment is to have positive envy by competing with
others in acts of goodness and use this as an incentive to achieve more and better.

It is worth noting that the word hasad expressing envy also signifies the evil eye, al-‘Ayn. The belief
in its bad effect is primeval and universal. In the Muslim tradition, envy and the evil eye are the
same. The Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) says that the evil eye can put
a camel in the cooking-pot and a boy into the grave. The evil eye can make the animal sicken and
die, can put a blight on a crop, make a cow lose her milk, make an accident happen, all because an
object has been spitefully and malignantly looked at by someone.

1st sin in Heaven was pride. 1st shortcoming of Adam – Greed in Heaven.- 1st sin on earth Envy that
lead to murder.

It is said that the effect of envy becomes visible in you before it becomes visible in your enemy. -
One of the marks of the envier is that he will flatter someone when he is present, slander him
when he is absent and gloat over misfortune when it befalls.

35
‘Religion is good counsel’-ad-Deenu-naseeha.- so give good advise, the absence of good counsel-
advise is indicated by the presence of envy of the favours God has given other Muslims. The origin
of such envy is that you find it intolerable that God has granted one of His servants a good thing,
whether of religion or of the world.

The envier is enraged at people who do not sin and miserly about what he does not possess. -
Beware of exhausting yourself seeking the affection of one who envies you, for he will never
accept your gift Its only good to have jealously for good actions like praying 500 nafil or giving
large amounts of Sadaqah and saying I wish I could also these actions; without wish to take that
blessing away from them!

Cure:- to eliminate envy is through salaat Najat- this pray is done before Fajr and after the salaam
read ‘O my Lord jealousy is consuming my good deeds like fire burns wood , so remove it from
me’. Know your Rizq-provisions – Death- marriage are written so stop complaining and be content
and happy with what others have!

Surah Falaq protective- God Most High said, “Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of Daybreak from the
evil of what He has created.” After this, He said, “and from the evil of the envious one when he
envies” (113:1,5). So He ended the surah that He made a protection with the mention of envy.

Vanity/Proud- ‘Ujb –proud= feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act, possession, quality, or
relationship by which one measures one's stature or self-worth. Being Proud was the sin that Ilbis
commit first!

‘Allah loves not the Proud’! -Allah doesn’t look at the Proud- Hellfire is made for the Proud-Proud
people don’t taken Shahada- proud people say they are lazy and don’t Pray, salah-pray is the
greatness sign of humblest –thus proud-ness cannot accept of being low in any form- its makes
one reject advise due to arrogance of thinking themselves to clever.

Vanity is the quality or condition of being vain=Lacking value or substance-useless/worthless

Vanity is excessive pride in one's appearance or accomplishments-

Conceit is an excessively high opinion of one's own abilities or worth.

36
vanity creates conceit and arrogances - Proud is someone who is overly convinced of one's own
superiority and importance. (but they have none or very little)

Allah says Pride is my Cloak and greatness who ever competes (with Allah) will be throw in hell!
Only Allah as only Allah has true and real Value and is important and superior to all (Allahu-akbar-
Only Allah is Great)

Beware of pride, for God does not like the proud. Those who humble themselves are raised up by
God, and those who are proud are abased by Him.

The Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him, has said: 'The man in whose heart is an
atom's weight of pride will not enter the Garden.' And: 'The man who looks at himself with
admiration and at others with disdain is proud.' There are signs which distinguish the humble from
the proud; that God may separate the vile from the good. Quran

A man inquired about a person who likes to wear beautiful clothes and fine shoes, and he
answered: Allah is beautiful and likes beauty. Then he explained pride means rejecting the truth
because of self-esteem and looking down on other people.

Signs of humility include a liking for obscurity, a dislike of fame, to accept truth whether it be from
a man of high or low birth, to love the poor, associate with them and keep their company, to fulfill
the rights people have upon you as completely as you can, thank those of them who fulfill their
duties to you, and excuse those who are careless in attending to duty.

Signs of pride include a liking for sitting in the positions of most dignity when in company or in a
public gathering, praising oneself, speaking in a pompous manner, openly displaying haughtiness
and arrogance, strutting, neglecting the rights your brothers have upon you while at the same time
demanding the rights you have upon them.

Sickness of Today’s pride claims are with many asians its I’m this caste and you are that caste
which is a sickness of hindus, with arabs; it’s were arabs. All are equal expect the one with Taqwa-
An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a
black has no superiority over white, nor a white has any superiority over black, except by piety and
good action (Taqwa). Indeed the best among you is the one with the best character (Taqwa).
37
‘Let people stop boasting about their ancestors. One is only a pious believer or a miserable sinner.
All men are sons of Adam, and Adam came from dust’ – tradition

6. Bukhl- Miser – stinginess - Bukhl is haraam-the least is not smiling – misers don’t read salawat-
Durood–the expression of generosity is saying Sayyduna – lack of dhikr is miserly we give to ego
but not to Allah - to remove harm on a road is Sadaqah to ignore harm is stingy - miserliness is sign
a person cannot be a leader-chief - they are the enemy of Allah.! - Zakat is waste matter of your
wealth, it purifies your wealth you must give it or you’ll be eating filth – defecation)- hoarding
wealth is fear of poverty! – stinginess – hoarding leads to Greed the next disease! The opposite is
that Saints take sins and give barakah. Were as the most stingy ones prevent attaining Allah’s
mercy!

They get double punishment one in dunya by depriving them selves, they don’t benefit from their
wealth and two in akhira, they are punished.! Bukhl is considered low in Islam as karam-
(generosity-noble) is one of the highest qualities.

There are two aspects to bukhl one is for shari'ah-Law - refusal to give what is necessary that is
Zakat and support of one's dependants-( a man who is not giving support for his wife and children
because men are maintainers and caretakers of women and children) and similar rights due to
others, such as relieving one in distress.) “In their wealth there's a haqq (right) to the beggar and
to the one who doesn't have money so his needs are taken care of." The miser is the one who does
not take care of people even though he is able to do so.

The second is muru’ah =means virtuous merit and lack of this is Bukhl and this doesn’t concern
shariah or is haraam its more to do with behaviour!

muru’ah-virtuous character:-is not giving people a hard time over some small matter or
abandoning nitpicking over trivialities and insignificant matters. And avoiding matters is even more
important towards ones neighbour, relative, or when hosting guests.

Not having bukhl by standards of muru’ah -virtuous merit; has to do with not constricting people
or making matters difficult for them. And who fulfils his obligations by spending from the least of
what he possesses.
38
Some examples are purchasing a cheap funeral shroud and haggling over the price is inappropriate
because the funeral shroud should remind you of death. Or buying a sacrificial animal or
purchasing something one wants to donate to the needy.

It could be someone owes you £5.00 are you really in need of that? Couldn’t you just waive that
small debt! Are you in need money. you have a right to that money by shari'a, but by muru'ah,
such an attitude is despicable. and refraining from such an attitude is even more important when
dealing with a neighbour or a relative.

And when sacrificing an animal for Allah, you should want to get a good animal and not say, "No,
no; that’s too much." And try to look for bargains! And when you wish to donate to the needy
(sadaqah), you should desire to give something that is good and not cheap as this is a miserly act
(weather your buying or giving)! Ask yourself who are you doing this for and why are you giving all
your cheap bargains as an offering to Allah! Again this is not haraam but in lacks in virtue of
Merit!

Similarly, if you are hosting a guest, and your guest spills something on the carpet, you should not
say, "Can't you watch yourself a little bit? No you should try to keep them from feeling bad, saying
such things as, "Don't worry about it. I love tea on my carpet. The point is that you don’t show
more concern for you carpet than for your guest. Simply ‘not crying over split milk’ ! remember it
was written that way in destiny for that to spill or tea cup break! No one must think ah think cup of
tea wasn’t write for me maybe the next is for is in my destiny!

Furthermore, it is even worse to lack virtuous merit if you are wealthy because a wealthy person
should have a type of generosity that allows one to say, "don't worry about it" to others.

Look at Hatim Tai – he was known as the generous man.

The Cause of Miserliness is love of the world, if you did not love it, then giving it up would be
easy and generosity is a consequence of zuhd-doing without so give it up! The disease of hubb ad-
dunya (love of the world) is treated as you treat bukhl. The two diseases are related as we have
already see.

39
In order to cure oneself of the disease of miserliness, one must force oneself to be generous and
liberal, even if such generosity be completely artificial; and this must be continued until generosity
becomes one's second nature.

7. Greed for Wealth –Tama’ – Avarice - Excessive desire for more than one needs or deserves.
Having no limit to what one hoards of possessions!

8. Jubn –Coward – A coward runs from difficult situations- they are weak and fooling themselves
with no back bone –be brave against our 4 enemies dunya, nafs, hawa & shaytan -today people
are cowards in giving sadaqah-its cowardice that makes us love dunya which is easy we don’t fight
but rather run! The path of tariqah is covered in many difficulties which must be fought with
patience and determination in the face of 4 enemies. It is through this that a person character is
built!

9. Indolence-Batala -Habitual laziness - inactivity resulting from a dislike of (Tariqah) work -

Procrastination is the thief of time (and the thief is Shaytan)- it tells you nafs its painful,
overwhelming, difficult, tedious, uncomfortable, boring, unenjoyable; and if made into a habit
makes you stressful and ill. ‘I dislike a man who is useless’…- tradition. Work for Allah not for
Shaytan. Its leaving employment in the path of Tariqah! Many people are today busy inviting
people to dhikr gathers, why is it left to only one or two people in the community to organise
activities. Ask yourself what work can I do now and get involved, you need to by a servant offering
your service and quickly running towards prompt Tariqah! How else do you think you’ll get a
promotion in this job, a spiritual pay rise of secrets and barakah!

10. Arrogance-Kibr- is regarding yourself higher than others – iblis didn’t do sajdah due to kibr-
Allah curses the arrogant proud ones – they don’t sit with people of lower class and only want to
be seen with the higher society this can seen with some brothers that only want to be seen with
Shaykhs and stop others doing so! - like big titles they want to masters (leaders) not salves -
generates denial –they don’t accept ideas, suggestions, opinions- common beliefs or common
concerns from others- in state of rejection- no respect for anyone- the Arrogant ones to strut
about!

40
Don’t think you are something you are nothing and you must say this to yourself every time, else
your ego will kid you think are special and big like a shaykh or ‘ilm no say I’m a slave and this is the
highest one can be! It blinds them to see anyone above them as they see themselves the highest,
the best, the cleverest most beauty and so no!

Arrogance/Pride in ankle-length refers to those who wear the bottoms of their trousers cut short
or long and strut with pride! The sin does not consist in the length of the cloth but in the hidden
pride it fosters! Because in the old days it was a fashion or vogue of that time!

Cure :- Stop and think maybe I’m wrong maybe some can give me some advise with this
task/matter and humble yourself. Remember fasting is a humbling experience of the stomach,
zakah and sadaqah should remind you maybe one day you may be in need. The sajdah should
remind you that you’re only a salve and the highest and noblest part of your body bows and goes
down into prostration thus lowering yourself to the lowest part the floor so being in surrender!

11. Showing off –Riya’ – Ostentation –acts are invalid if they have rjya’ in them- it’s a form of
hidden Shirk as they worshipping themselves and not Allah (like I gave this cure & I gave that
money) – show offs are proud they want to be see and known by all, they like public plaques–
they forget it their talent & money came by Allah’s power!

12. Attachment – Hirs – attachment refers to love of the world – such anxiety for wealth and long
life

13. Superiority –Adhama – calming greatness – Shay’tan – Satan claimed it – its cure sajdah to
humble oneself Allahuakbar-Allah is great. Thinking your better because you do ibadah-Worship
than even from an drunkard or a sinner is showing Adhama.

14. Heedlessness-Ghawaba wal-kasala – if laziness is killed so too is heedless’ heedless is careless-

laziness is inner self & heedless outer body- No care for anyone even if he can help and stop fitna
because action is involved.

15 Anxiety–Hamm - Worry develops from Heedless- understand Allah is Razzaq the provider so
stop worrying! And submit and be content with Allah. Worry will then lead to depression! So work
and make an effort in Deen and Dunya! – thoughtless/careless of Islam and the next world will
41
only lead to excessive worry which will lead to depression. So people to submit and have a very
high opinion of Allah Mercy and generosity! Submit your worries to the one that like hear
complaints Allah.

16 depression–Ghamm – Allah created ease and comfort in contentment and certainly and
depression - and fear in doubt and discontent- time feels longer – goes into veins & heart –
prefers loneliness –sleep all day & find pointless things to pass time at night. Do not waste share
time and good health!

17:- To eliminate the 16 bad traits = makes it easy to avoid indulging in the 800 forbidden acts
(477 Big Ones ) Also -There are 500 acts we are ordered to do and 800 forbidden acts not to do.

Dua’s "O Allah, I seek refuge in you from disability and laziness; from cowardice and avarice; from
decrepitude and harshness; from negligence and impoverishment, from lowness and humiliation.
And I seek refuge in You from poverty and disbelief; from sinfulness, disunity and hypocrisy; from
notability and Riya (showing off)..."

This is far better than doing 500 obligations. Leaving one forbidden thing is more valuable to God
because it is stepping on your ego and leaving a sin for His sake. It is very difficult to leave
something that you desire, that the ego wants, yet this is what we need to do.

Do not leave dhikr; but also work every day to eliminate your sins. For each one that you have
counted, you have to say, Astaghfirullah repent and I am not going to repeat that sin." That is the
level of auditing. That is the level of reaching the point where every soul must check what it has
provided for its future.

The other interesting subject matter mentioned in the book by shaykh Hisham is in Chapter 17.
Imam Qushayri noted in total 800 forbidden acts. And there are 500 acts we are ordered to do and
800 forbidden acts not to do. There are 17 bad character traits of the 800 forbidden acts – 477 are
grave ones, and if a can eliminate the 16 bad characterises as explained in the text, it becomes
easy to avoid indulging in remaining forbidden acts.

The two golden rules of Sufism are Niyyah-Intention and Adab-Good Manners. These are the
main two wisdoms one must learn is for we will only be judged on the day of judgement by our
42
Niyyah-Intention and not our actions. As our tradition says: As actions are by Intentions. Also
Adaab-Good Manners, the heaviest deeds on the scales will be our manners. Whoever
understands these two points, will be able to travel on the path very quickly.

The Secrets of Muraqaba–the Sufi Science or technique of Meditation

Bismillah –in the Name of Allah

This article is aimed at non-Muslims as well as Muslims
who are new to Sufism and interested in Sufi Meditation
In a nutshell
Muraqaba is the Science of Sufi Meditation. It’s more like visualisation/image practice based on
the Name of Allah or the deep visualisation or watching of the Sufi Master’s face. The Word
means observe, guard or control or vigilance or being aware, in this context referring to
controlling and guarding one's thoughts and desires. Muraqaba or visualisation is setting aside
some private time to sit and reflect on Allah meaning-( al-the ilah-God Allah is a proper noun ,
there is only One and Unique Allah it is the ancient Semitic name that has been used by all
Prophets from the beginning of time to call upon the Lord of universes, but the word God
references many things and can cause confusions).

The exercise the seeker strives is to empty the heart of all thoughts and images and allow
blessings and mercy of Allah to enter the heart by erasing its darkness. As if in gratitude to being
cleansed of darkness, the heart joyfully calls out the Supreme Name-Allah or the formula Kamila-
testimony of unity - La-e-laha ill-lallah -(there is nothing to worship but Allah) over and over again.
Muraqab-visualisation is keeping an image of the shaykh’s face in your heart, mind and thoughts
while repeating the invocation of the Supreme Name Allah or testimony of unity- La-e-laha ill-
lallah with deep contemplation and stillness until the falling away of attributes and the secrets are
revealed. The secret of Muraqaba- visualisation or watching is mushahada-witnessing (That is, the
secret of watching is witnessing.) (The secrets of saying the Kalima Testimony to the Unity:-La-e-
lahaa ill-lal-lah below)

Before explaining Muraqaba in full

Before explaining the full secrets Muraqaba-visualisation, I want to share show thoughts and
points that we all may have had experienced and do already but just don’t realise. And this will
make understanding Muraqaba- visualisation more simpler to some degree.

43
If you’re female (even some males), but mainly females will have had this experience, you’re
sitting down in class or lecture or somewhere in a public place and suddenly you feel the sense
that someone is looking at you, you turn your head and your eyes lock on that person straight
away, you will feel heat on your upper back and neck and the feeling being watched your soul will
feel that person, what happens is their Aura is touching your Aura. Now nobody told you who it
was, if the room was full of say 20, 50 maybe 100 people or more, how did you know who to look
at, who told you it was that person, think about that for a moment.

Also have you ever walked into a room when people are talking and they suddenly stop and
change the subject when they catch sight of you, and you can Feel they were talking about you
and when you look at them, they look all shifty. Again who told you they were talking about you,
yet you can feel it in the room and similarly when you walk into a room and the people there
don’t like you and you can feel they don’t like you, nobody has to speak it’s in the air, ‘ you can cut
the atmosphere with a knife’, is the expression it means it’s a very tense and difficult atmosphere.

Nobody has taught you any of these feelings, you didn’t read it in a book or learnt it from school.
So how do you know about these moments when they happen? Simple, we all have an Aura and
that has a basic defence shield when we are in trouble it will turn on more, it says the Aura can
travel about 12-20 feet in a straight line and about 6 feet in a round circle. We subconsciously turn
it on, when the aura feels threaten or disturbed, our subconscious or the automatic mental
process of reactions takes effect or simply kicks in.

So in modern terms our Aura’s can network or connect with each other, This can be trained and
enhanced to open up at different levels, so consciously we are aware or in the mode of
Muraqaba. This happens with the help of visualisation (of the shaykh) meditation which opens the
doors to the Spiritual Heart-Basirah and it has eyes, ears and a brain-( the heart has 40,000
neurons-nerve cells which scientist discovered) ( Basirah is the ‘eye of the heart’ a term that is
used in the Quran)

The Spiritual Heart, when trained can network and access others just like the internet someone
from one part of the world can make contact or connect with someone from another side of the
world or any were else that allows the connection. The connection is made through the telephone
to connect to the internet. The spiritual heart when connected or even looking for a signal is like
44
that it can send and receive messages. Just like email the heart receives 70,000 Khawatir-
thoughts or messages a day which are of four categories either;
1. Satanic thoughts or whispers into the heart.
2 Ego –desires or thoughts
3. Angelic thoughts
4. Lordly thoughts

(Most of these thoughts are the same thoughts we have through the day or days that go past) the
same way we get emails which are either useful from friends and get junk emails or messages. The
Heart is the same we need to learn how to filter and delete junk mail thoughts from real mail
thoughts and images. (Please see below links about 70,000 thoughts and NLP-Neuro Linguistic
Programming, in NLP they teach you about visualisation and how to achieve your goals
successfully through visualisation, it has dramatically changed many people’s lives and habits and
mental problems too)

Introduction to understanding Muraqaba

Muraqaba is the most powerful method of spiritual contemplation through which man is able to
Gain the primordial knowledge of his Ego, Self, or Soul. After gaining that knowledge, anyone can
Gain Access to his Ego or Soul. The main objective of Muraqaba is to understand the spiritual
mysteries of the Self, Universe and to experience an eternal life in union with God.

"One hour of meditation-muraqaba is better than 70 years of worship." – Hadith-Tradition

Muraqaba improves human memory, mental concentration in and boost spiritual energy in
individual. You will experience well being and glow by the spiritual enlightenment of Muraqaba.
Muraqaba can help you to develop paranormal abilities like extrasensory perception and
clairvoyance as well, this happens by focusing and tuning on the spiritual teacher (which is the
actual method of Muraqaba) to make the transfer of spiritual knowledge possible from master to
student, focus of mind on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to make the transfer of
private spiritual knowledge from the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to student possible
and above all focus on the Mind of God by following the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him). Thus there are 3 levels to Muraqaba.

1st stage Fana fil Shaykh – attaining ‘annihilation in the Shaykh’

45
2nd stage Fana fil Rasul – attaining ‘annihilation in the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).’
3rd stage Fana Fillah – attaining ‘annihilation in Allah-God’

And so the goal and purpose of Sufi Meditation is to manifest Hadra-(perpetual presence) in the
reality of the Shaykh-the Sufi master. The more one keeps to this vital practice, the more its
benefits will manifest in ones daily life to the point that he reaches fana’ fil-shaykh-(the state of
annihilation in the Shaykh) the first stage.

One must know that the Shaykh is the bridge between illusion-(The World) and reality-(Allah-God)
and he remains in this world only for this purpose. The Shaykh is thus a unique rope like the Quran
says ‘And hold fast, all of you together to the Rope of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves’
(3:103).

The Shaykh is the rope to any who seek freedom from this world, he is the link between this world
and the Divine Presence. To be annihilated in the presence and reality of the Shaykh is to be ( Fana
Fillah)-(annihilated in reality, in Allah-God), in the Presence of the Divine, for this is precisely
where the Shaykh is, in the court of the Divine.

Although the principal goal of visualization is establishing and maintaining a connection with
Allah-God, for the seeker to begin he starts with the form of the shaykh’s appears or face, by
placing it in their heart to assist the seeker. Later, the shaykh’s heart spurs or pushes the seeker’s
heart leading to the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) presence or the 2nd stage Fana fil
Fasul-attaining ‘annihilation in the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The novice, having the picture of his shaykh’s face in his heart at the point, is assisted by the Holy
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to arrive at Allah-God. Divine grace is then transmitted
from the Prophet’s heart (pece be upon him) via the Sufi master at the seeker’s heart. The last
stage is the Seeker becomes blessed and now is covered in saintly energy and not many can reach
the 3rd stage Fana Fillah - attaining ‘annihilation in Allah-God’ and if they do, they reach real
sainthood. For many the 1 st stage is enough to aim for and try to perfect to some level or
another.

46
 Muraqba in Islamic history

The description of muraqaba is taken from a certain hadith-tradition. When the angel Gabriel
came to visit the Prophet, peace be upon him, he asked him about Islam-Surrender, Iman-Faith,
Ihsan-excellence. This is part of the answer concerning Ihsan- excellence, that we should worship
Allah as if we saw Him, because if we do not see Him, He sees us. This is the practice of Ihsan-
Excellence. All of tasawwuf -(Sufism) is contained in this description of Ihsan-excellence. In a
certain way, tasawwuf can be seen as the practice of Ihsan- excellence.

That makes tasawwuf nothing special outside of religion, but it rather is one particular level of
practicing in our religion. It is the highest. For this level of practice Allah has the greatest Reality.
What is that Reality? To worship Him as if you see Him and if you do not see Him He sees you. To
be always aware that although you do not see Him, He sees you.

Contained in this hadith -tradition there are two names. These names are the description of two
main practices: Mushahada-witnessing, to be as if you see Him, and if Allah grants it, it may
actually be as if we actually see Him. You must always try to be as if you saw Him. This is not
easy. It requires constant discipline and reminding. This is witnessing or mushahada. Muraqaba
refers to the second part: to always be aware that He sees you. It comes from the word al-Raqib-
The Watchful, from an ayat-Signs in the Qur’an.

God Said: “And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have
enjoined upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through praying or doing extra
deeds besides what is obligatory till I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he
hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with
which he walks.” – In a Holy Tradition

In the time of Prophet Yusuf ibn Ya’qub- Joseph son of Jacob , there was a time of seven years of
plentiful food and seven years of starvation and this was seen in a dream, ‘The king dreamt that
seven lean cows were eating seven fat ones and that there were seven green ears of corn and
seven dry ones. He asked the nobles to tell him the meaning of his dream if they were able to. They
replied “it is a confused dream and we do not know the meaning of such dreams.” - Quran Surah
Yusuf 12:43, 44

47
In the years of starvation or famine, people for other areas came for food and there was not
enough food for them. One of the main secrets of Prophet Yusuf-Joseph, was his great beauty, it
says that he was blessed with 9/10th of all beauty . He had to wear a Niqab-face veil. When
people were in starvation they had to stand in front of him, he would lift his face veil, the beauty
from his face would fulfil their hunger. They just had to look at his face .

Looking at the face of Sayyiduna Ali is Ibadah-worship, looking the your Parents is Ibadah-
worship and looking at the Holy Ka’baah-the House of God is Ibadah-worship. This from Hadith-
Tradition

So looking at the face of Sayyiduna Ali is Ibadah-worship, - Thus his title is –( Karam Allah Wajhu-
may Allah ennoble his face). Sayyiduna Ali by blood lineage is 1st cousin to the Holy Prophet
(peace be upn him) and also his Son-in-law and the 4th Islamic Khalifah. He was born inside the
Holy Ka’baah-the House of God, and didn’t open his eyes for three days until the Holy Prophet
(peace be upon him) held him and only then did he open his eyes and the first glance he gave was
to the face of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), it says that he also never looked at this part
privates ever.

Sayyiduna Ali also has the title of Babu ul ‘ilm- Gate of knowledge. The Holy Prophet (peace be
upon him) said: "I am the city of knowledge and `Ali is its gate.’ When you teach someone
Knowledge even if it’s one letter of Quran or some Islamic knowledge the shaykh gives birth to
your spiritual journey to your Lord, through their teachings you’re nourished and grow and so the
shaykh gains the same respect and honour that due to one parents. And so the shaykh becomes
your spiritual father and must be honoured like your worldly father.

As for looking at the faces of your parents, it says; "If a person looks with love at his parents, Allah-
God writes in his favour the reward equal to the performance of one Hajj." – Hadith-tradition.
Someone asked, "Will this promise be good if one looks at his parents one hundred times a day?"
The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him ) replied, "even if one does so a hundred thousand times a
day, Allah-God gives the reward accordingly."

When the Muslims conquered Mecca, Bilal was told to stand on top of the Holy Ka’baah-the
House of Allah-God and give the call for pray. He asked the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him)
which way should I look, for when one calls people to pray you have to Face the Holy Ka’baah-the
48
House of Allah-God, which is called Qibla-direction. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) told
Bilal to look at his Face . So from this we have the saying the Ka’baah of the Ka’baah is the face of
the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).

So looking at the face of Sayyiduna Ali has the reward of worship (for he has holy blood and has
been blessed by God and so have his descendants who are from the daughter of the Holy Prophet
(peace be upon him) ) and looking at the holy face of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) is
looking at the holiest of the holy. It is know that all Holy saints of Islam or Sufi Masters have this
secret for this secret is part of what is given to them by the holy Prophet’s (peace be upn him)
Nur-Light. And more the Holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him) companions were around him and
showed him love and honour by following him the more they drank this Light which has come
down from Sufi master to Sufi Master to this present day.

The Actual Method of Muraqaba - Technique for Visualizing the Shaykh

(If you have a shaykh already then use your shaykh’s picture otherwise use the Name Allah in
Arabic or use the picture of Madina Shareef or Ka’baa - the House of Allah. )

First find an empty quiet room, ideally start off with the lighting being dim. Sit in the position
either crossed legged or in the sitting on your knees and your hands on your thighs.

Precondition -(that is before you start): Make sure you have had a bath and are wearing clean
clothing, or the least is to be in ( Wudu-Ablution- how to make wudu-WikiHow ) also see this flash
video guide to Wudu and clothing ) as the proverb says ‘ Cleanness is next to godliness’. One
needs to be clean outwardly so they can clean inwardly.

As you sit in the empty room, empty your mind of all thoughts and breathe slowly. Relax and keep
your mind clear, look and focus on the picture of the Shaykh, focus your mind on this face, now
close your eyes and see his face in your mind.

Do this for a few seconds or more, if you cannot see his face in your mind keep focusing on the
picture and again close your eyes and focus on his face until you can see his face in your mind.
Practise this for a few seconds or minutes. (Remember to breathe slowly). As soon as the mind is
focused, the spiritual eye of the heart starts to be activated. The conscious mind is not used to see

49
through the spiritual eye of the heart, so concentration comes and goes. Gradually, the mind gets
used to these kinds of visions and the mental focus is continuous.

Now begin to gaze at the point between the shaykh’s eyes, this is the holy area of Wisdom and
Light. Why, when you prostate yourself in pray to Allah-God, there are 7 parts of the body that
must touch the ground; 2 feet 2 knees 2 hands and 7 th the forehead and ridge of nose.

Now when in prostate this is the most humbling position man is to his Lord, When man is in Sajda-
prostate, he is surrendering himself to his Lord and is the highest position spiritually. And when in
prostration, man is at the court of his Lords presence and in that presence all the spiritual energy
from Heaven is transferred to the forehead the Taj-Crown of Man.

This is why when you look at the face of the shaykh concentrate on the looking at the point
between the shaykh’s eyes, keep focusing there. If this is difficult than just the face. Now, try
placing the picture of the Shaykh into your heart, this can take time for some people to practise, if
your thoughts wonder off refocus your thoughts and only see the face of the Shaykh. Open your
eyes if you lose the image and look at the photo until you can transfer the image into your mind
and then your heart. (if you have problems placing the picture into your heart, then the least is to
make sure you can see the image – picture is firmly placed into your mind and that you can see it
too.

The technique of breathing -Inhale and Exhale

Now start by inhaling from the right nostril consciously, slowly and deeply breath and slowly pull
as if you’re pulling the energy from your right toe, breath and push it up until you can feel it reach
your forehead, hold it for second or more and release from the left nostril again consciously,
slowly and deeply breath out and as if you’re pushing if your into your left toe, keep your mind
and heart at ease and keep the picture of the Shaykh in your mind and especially in your Heart, do
this for a minutes or short while.

Now you may Inhale and Exhale the Sufi meditation formula of remembrance:
La-e-laha ill-lal-lah
Once you can see the shaykh in your mind and Heart then start to read the dhikr-remembrance ,
formula, which is split into two halves ;

50
La-e-laha and slowly releasing out ill-lal-lah as explained above.
Read like this breath in Laa-e-laahaaaaa and exhale; ill-lal-laaaaaaah and keeping in mind the
picture of the shaykh. (Prolong the second part of ill-lal-laaaaaaah, see note below) Read this for a
few minutes . Start breathing more slowing and deeply the words need to come from inside do
not open your mouth and say the words.

Lengthening the Pronunciation of La-e-laha ill-lal-lah -'Erases 4,000 Grave Sins'

"No god except God" and lengthens his pronunciation intending thereby to magnify God, God will
forgive for him Four thousand grave sins with it, and if he did not commit Four thousand, God will
forgive the difference for his family and neighbours. -hadith-tradition It is related in the hadith:
"Whoever says "No god except God" and lengthens his pronunciation intending thereby to
magnify God, Four thousand of his sins are astruck thereby from the register of his sins." hadith-
tradition

Whoever says "No god except God" in astonishment at something, God creates from each letter of
his utterance a tree with as many leaves as the days of this world, each leaf asking forgiveness for
him and praising God on his behalf until the Day of judgment."... It has been related that this
phrase has on the side of Iblis-(the Satan) the effect which a gangrenous sore would have on the
side of a human being.

God has created a pillar made of ruby and light whose foundation is the pillar beneath the seventh
earth and whose top winds around the base of God's throne. Every time a servant of God says:
"There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God," the earth, the whale, and the
throne move, and God says: "Be still!" and the throne replies, "By Thy might, not until you forgive
the one who said "La ilaha illallah."" But God says: "Be still, for I have made a covenant with
Myself before I created My creation, whereby I shall not cause it to be spoken by the tongue of a
servant of Mine except that I have forgiven him even before he says it.".... Taken from Shahada
has 24 Letters and 7 words each letter forgives every hour of each day. See below for more)

Once you feel like ending the Sufi meditation session , just stop saying the words and breathe
normally, keep your eyes shut and feel the moment you’re in and taste that moment. (Once you

51
are strong enough you may move into a mixed room of people if you want or stay in an empty
room to do this.)

A general scientific principle states that whenever a vacuum (vacuum is a volume of space that is
essentially ' empty' of matter, the word comes from the Latin term for ‘empty’) is created,
something comes into fill it and therefore the vacuum does not stay as is. Similarly when we sit
and strive to remove all thoughts from our heart the aim is to create a void-(a clearing out) that
will hopefully be filled with thoughts of God and the Shaykh.

Darkness and light cannot coexist in the same space. Hence the more we strive to rid our hearts of
filth, the hope is that divine light, goodness and blessing will enter to replace the darkness that
was there. This is why it is extremely important to do muraqaba in abundance. Wherever in the
Holy Quran we find the command to practice dhikr-remembrance, the word is accompanied with
the adjective signifying abundance, thus dhikr kathir-abundance of remembrance.

A tradition says ‘If your hearts were always in the state that they are in during dhikr, the angels
would come to see you to the point that they would greet you in the middle of the road.’(Sahih
Muslim). Commenting on this tradition Imam Nawawi says: "This kind of sight is shown to
someone who persists in meditation (muraqaba), reflection (fikr), and anticipation (iqbal) of the
next world".

The experiences that may happen.

In the beginning the experience’s can vary from person to person, some people can feel a
connection happen straight away. As soon as they put the picture into their minds consciously,
they feel the energy of the Shaykh come into them. For some this experience can be
overwhelming and even startling.

Some of the first feelings will be that you’ll feel the face of the shaykh transfer onto your face, you
will feel the shaykh is inside you, you’ll feel connected with his presence. You’ll feel his light is
covering you; it will enter from all sides. You’ll feel a spiritual electric energy pass through you,
you may start to make movements like the shaykh like blinking, yawning smiling, talking etc.

52
One of the interesting experiences, is that of the unseen world of dreams, some people after a
muraqaba session will start to experience dreams and this is where some will connect and
communicate with the Sufi master.

(Some people will see and meet the shaykh in dreams by either watching a video or going to a
lecture others will get affected by meeting the followers-Mureeds of the Sufi master. The Sufi
master is like a spiritual magnet and we are like raw metal whoever touches or goes near will
became spiritually magnetised some more than others, so sometimes he will communicate
through a follower-Mureed to get a message across too).

Some people may feel their (inner eye of the heart-Basirah) unlocking which will allow the window
of extrasensory perception to open or some level of clairvoyance or 6th sense of readying
thoughts, or feeling of inspiration-ilham coming from the Sufi master ilham- inspiration is a type of
way the Sufi master is talking through you or to you as well. The aim is to connect with the Sufi
master to have a conversation or to feel this presence with you, which will take time to do and
reach, practice this method every day in all you sufi dhikr-remembrances, do it daily for just like
medication, it must be taken on a daily basis to have any effect.

And finally NLP-Neuro Linguistic Programming is about having positive thoughts with image
therapy it helps those who are traumatised or emotionally having worldly problems. Were
muraqaba is more than that is the highest level of Sufi therapy were one nourishes the Soul, Mind,
emotions and Heart they are drinking from a divine heavenly source, the Sufi Masters Nur-Light
energy

Learn and Say:- La-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah [Shahada : Testimony to the Unity]

Meaning:- There is no divinity But(Except) God

First will I explain from the past books, to make any sense for the present statement, in Judaism
you have "Hear O Israel, the Lord our Lord is ONE Lord", and in Christianity you have "…I believe in
ONE God"[john 17.3] Thus one can see the affirmation of Unity made from the past.

la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah :- The formula is called (shahada)-a Witness of Unification, a Testimony of

Unity – (a contract), the witness (saying of it witness-bearing). The shahada-or Testimony of Unity
is a covenant in which Gods part will be to give salvation in the next life, or it is deposit, laid up

53
with god, to be repaid with the interest of a reward in the next life. It (the Shahada) will
accompany its utterer on the Resurrection Day, and God most High will say. "I have a covenant
with this servant of Mine and I am true to the fulfilment of covenants. Let My servant enter
Paradise".

The Testimony of Unity has two halves; its first a Negation (-) of any divinity apart from God that
is; ‘There is no divinity (Gods)’ - la-e-lahaa ’and the second is an Affirmation, a Positive (+) of
divinity of God that is; ‘but God’ ill-lal-lah. When a Negative and Positive are joined they make a
spark, a spark that turns to a light, a light that becomes a flame, a flame burning and illuminating
your heart with Faith– Imaan in arabic, God Willing.

Who ever reflects deeply will find all creatures affirm the Oneness of God Most High, for example I
work with computers, and I was thinking about the simple language a computer is programmed in,
and its called Binary, Binary is actually Zeros and ones or Plus’s (0) and Negatives (1) or you can
say - +, Negation and Affirmation.

When negation followed by the affirmation is uttered by someone who puts no other Divinity
(God-head, Creator worthy of Worshipping to) except God – [ Allah in arabic His proper name] this
means that he has denied and refused the illusion of polytheists (believing in more than one God [
Shirk in Arabic ]), and also means that the essence of Unification that his heart contains will be
reinforced.

For it is actively strengthened by the repetition of this noble Formula of – Oneness. As in the
saying "Renew your faith [Imaan] by la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah." we will explain this more in terms as an
Invocation (prayer) Later on. As means of Protection God Most High says:- la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah is
My fortress, and he who enters my fortress is safe from My Chastisement. You will banish evil of
Wanderers of night and day by means of:- la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah.

I am protected from haunting spirits and demons and magic and (demonic) mates of evil and all
the hosts of Iblis - [arabic name for Satan] by means of ; la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah. When Moses Asked
God for the Best Invocation (prayer) to Remember him continually, he was given la-e-lahaa ill-lal-
lah, every prophet of God was given this Formula to remember God with and By.

54
As a means of Forgiveness when a worshipper says ‘la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah’, a pillar of light goes up
from his mouth and stands before God Most High. And God Most High says to the light, "Go to My
Throne"; and it says, "Nay, by Thy might I will not go till Thou hast forgiven the one who uttered
me." Then God says, "By My Might and Majesty, it was I who moved his tongue to say thee, have I
not already forgiven his sins?".

The Testimony of Unity:- ‘la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah’ when recited Continually for example 100 times, it
is called in Arabic (Dhikr) - Remembrance of God. Because what you are doing is making you
tongue busy with this remembrance of God. As God says ‘if you remember Me I will Remember
you’. This is the practice of the Prophets of God. as mentioned above. The Method one Conducts
the Invocation (prayer) of la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah. Will be explained.

Remembrance of God is a fire which does not stay or spread – so if it enters a house saying, "Me
and nothing other than me," which is one of the meanings of ‘la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah’ (There is no
god [divinity] but [God] Allah), and there is firewood in the house, it burns it up and it becomes
fire. If there is darkness in the house, it becomes light. If there is light in the house, it becomes
'light upon light'.

Remembrance of God expels from the body impure substances produced by excess in eating or
from the consumption of unlawful food. As for food which is lawful, it does not touch it. So the
harmful components are burned up and the good components remain. And Whosoever does an
atom’s weight of good will see it and Whosoever does an evil atom’s weight will see it.

Actions produce effects on the heart. Just as the effect of an atoms weight of food or drink or
medicine is not lost on the body, so too the effect of an atom’s weight of goodness or evil is not
lost either drawing near to Gods door or in separation from Him. But what is the way to come
close to God you may be asking, we will now explain.

If your searching for Islam or finding out is Islam is for you, the n the following practice May
help you, Or you want to Strength your Faith in God.

On the rules of Conduct for the invocation (prayer):- la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah Testimony of Unity

55
Among the rules of conduct are wearing of proper, Clean ( i.e. clothes not stained with urine or its
like) sweet-smelling clothes and maintaining purity of body (Cleanliness is next to Godliness ) also
you need to clean the Outside [body] (by have a bath and one MUST Make an Intention to coming
close to God) before one can to attempt to Clean the inside [Heart]. Thus Ritual (Purity (bathing)
implies the Negation of uncleanness and the Affirmation of Ritual Purity. In Almsgiving, there is
negation of love of money and affirmation of love of God.

And purity of stomach by eating lawful food. Although the invocation of :- la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah,
expels the parts arising from unlawful good, nevertheless, when the stomach is empty of unlawful
food or whatever is doubtful, the benefit of the invocation is in a greater or more lasting
illumination of the heart. When there is unlawful food in the stomach, the invocation washes it
out and purifies the stomach. Consequently, at such times its benefit in illuminating the heart is
weaker.

Do you not see that if you wash solid things in water, it removes the dirt, but they are not very
clean? For that reason, it is preferable to wash them a second or a third time. However, if an area
to be washed is already free of dirt, it increases in beauty and radiance from the first laundering.
When the invocation descends into the heart, if there is darkness within, it illuminates it; and if
there is already light, the invocation increase the light and intensifies it.

The rules of conduct associated with the invocation are sincerity, perfuming the place of invoking
with sweet fragrance for sake of the angels, sitting cross-legged facing the direction of prayer
(that’s east). Close one’s eyes and face straight ahead.

The novice should invoke with perfect force and respectful veneration. There is no divinity But
Go:- ‘la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah ’ should rise from above his navel. By the phrase ‘There is no divinity’
(la-e-lahaa ) he should intend excluding from the heart what is other-than-God. By the phrase ‘but
God’ (ill-lal-lah), he should intend uniting the formula in the heart so to fix ill-lal-lah firmly in the
heart and let it flow throughout all the members of the body, casing the meaning of the
invocation to be present in his heart at every instant.

The lengthening of the vowel a in La-e-laha , is done by saying Laa-e-laaha is considered good,
during the time of elongation, the invoker can visualise in his mind all opposites and contraries
and expel them, (No I don’t believe or Worship, in the god of money or film/pop stars, son of god,
56
god of sun? or of moon, god of cow or tree or goddess or any other man made created gods of
any kind ) That is followed by ill-lal-lah (but God – Allah is the proper for god ), and that is closer
to sincerity because it is acknowledgement of the Divinity. First one Negates His essence with la-e-
la-ha, he nevertheless affirms His Being with ill-lal-lah. Indeed, ill-la (except) is a light placed in
the heart, illuminating it.

Invoking Causes God’s remembrance of the servant, which is the great honour and loftiest
distinction. Through the invocation of la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah, the heart of man lives just as the seed
lives through the downpour of rain. The invocation is the nourishment of the soul just as food is
the nourishment of the body. Invoking polishes the heart of its rust, which is forgetfulness
(Ghaflah) into the pursuit of worldly passion.

The Testimony of Unity:- ‘la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah’ should be recited Continually for 100 or times for
40 day or more (if you like repeat it for 5 to 10mins with your Eyes closed and you Hearts Open)
After Washing ,as described above. This is best done in the Evening just before going to Bed. For
results will be seen in dreams this way. God Willing.

It is to mediation like a lamp that guides one in the dark towards an open road. It thwarts sinful
actions: ‘…Verily, good deeds annul bad deeds…’ invoking puts an end to the separation that
occurs between the Lord and the forgetful servant.

Its forgetfulness of God that has made the servants to forget their souls and that is the extreme of
corruption. Leading to confusing and darkness, invoking is a light for the servant in the world and
the next, his grave, his resurrection and his assembling with others on the Day of Judgement. it is
the fundamental principle and the door to spiritual growth. It’s the sign of authority whereby it
assails the ego and passionate desires. When invocation of la-e-lahaa ill-lal-lah, is firmly rooted in
the heart and drops down in it and the tongue becomes subordinate to it, the invoker is in need of
nothing; so he progresses and ascends.

As for the forgetful man, even if he be wealthy, he is in reality poor, and if he be powerful he is
actually base. From the results of this practice, you will see in your dreams or by inner
understanding of overwhelming. That Faith will be Deposited within your Heart. This of course is
the blessing of the God Almighty, May you be Guided to the Truth.

57
Finally say a supplication:- O Lord (Ya Rab-bi) for the sake of you Beloved (Habib), and for the sake
all your Prophets, Saints and Martyrs. And for the sake for you Greatest Hidden Name (Ism-al-
Azaam). I Beg for you Guidance (He-day-yah).
References:-
Gift for the Seek by Imam Abdallah ibn Alawi Al-Haddad
The Key to Salvation by Ibn Ata Allah Al-Iskandari
Muslims devotions, a study of Prayer-Manual in Common Use by Constance E. Padwick

The Shahada has 24 Letters making 7 words each letter forgives every hour of each day,
and the 7 words is for each for the 7 organs -forgiving the 7 ways one sins
each closing one of 7 doors of hell when recited

The hours of the day and night are of the same number. It is as if it were said, "Every sin which I
have committed, whether great or small, secretly or openly, accidentally or intentionally, by word
or by deed during these hours is pardoned by these words",' La ilaha illa'llah, Muhammad
rasulu'llah consists of seven words. The servant has seven organs and hellfire has seven doors.
Each of these seven words closes one of the seven doors to one of the seven organs. It is said that
the phrase La ilaha illa'llah consists of twelve letters; so inevitably twelve obligations are enjoined-
-six outward and six inward.

As for the outward ones, they include ritual purity, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, the pilgrimage, and
holy war. As for the inward, they include trust in God, commitment, patience, contentment,
asceticism, and repentance. References from -'Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Iskandari, The Key to Salvation &
the Lamp of Souls; A Sufi Manual of Invocation (Miftah al-Falah wa Misbah al-Arwah)

Remember Haraam-(forbidden acts/sins) are worse than poison as they are to harmful and
injurious to your spiritual growth, the Shadaha is the means to cure and purity one from sins and
needs to be recited 70,000 times to generate an effective result for the heart and soul.

'La ilaha illa'llah, Muhammad rasulu'llah (There is no divinity but God, Muhammad is the
Messenger of God) consists of twenty-four letters; the hours of the day and night are of the same
number. It is as if it were said, "Every sin which I have committed, whether great or small, secretly
or openly, accidentally or intentionally, by word or by deed during these hours is pardoned by
these words",'
58
Also the phrase La ilaha illa'llah, Muhammad rasulu'llah consists of seven words. The servant has
seven organs and hellfire has seven doors. Each of these seven words closes one of the seven
doors to one of the seven organs.

"La ilaha illallah" possesses secrets among which are the following: - All its letters are palatal
(hurufuha jawfiyya), which is a subtle indication that to utter it is an act that proceeds from one's
innermost, which is the heart. - None of its letters is dotted, a subtle indication of its freedom
from any deity other than God. - It has twelve letters (l-a-i-la-ha-i-ll-a-a-l-la-h), which is the
number of the months of the year, four of which are sacred, and that is the Name of Majesty (a-l-
la-h). One letter stands alone (a), three are connected (l-la-h), and the four together are the best
of the twelve, just as the sacred months are the best of the year: dhu al-Qi`da, dhu al-Hijja, al-
Muharram, and Rajab (three of them consecutive, and Rajab standing alone).

Therefore whoever says it sincerely, his sins for the entire year are forgiven. - The night and the
day are twenty-four hours, and the two Phrases of Witnessing are twenty-four letters:

l - a i - la - ha i - ll - a a - l - la - h
mu - ha - mma - dun ra - s - u - l u - l - la - h
Each letter thus forgives the sins of an hour. - They are seven words in all, and the entrances to
heaven are seven: each word thus blocks one entrance for the person who utters them.
Lengthening the Pronounciation of LA ILAHA ILLALLAH

Ibn `Abbas said - may God be well pleased with him and his father - that the Prophet said: "The
day God created the heavens and the earth He created an angel and ordered him to say: "There is
no god except God alone" (LA ILAHA ILLALLAH). The angel lengthens his delivery as he utters it
and will not rest from this until the trumpet is blown."

Tawba-repentance See diagram

"Turn towards Allah, O believers, every one of you, so that you may be successful." [24:31] Qur'an
"Ask your Lord for forgiveness and then turn in repentance to Him," [11:3] Qur'an
"O you who believe! Turn in sincere repentance to Allah." [66:8] Qur'an
Ask forgiveness of your sin, and for believing men and women. [47:19] Qur'an
59
And: That God may forgive you your former and subsequent sin. [48:2] Qur'an
In fact, He loves to pardon and forgive, ‘Allah loves those who do repentance ‘Tawba' [2:222]
Qur'an

Allahumma innaka Afuwun Tuhibbul Afwa Fa'afu Anna.

A loving pray of forgiveness , 'O Allah you are Forgiving and love forgiveness so forgive me' Allah
accept the repentance of those who do evil in ignorance and repent soon afterwards; to them will
Allah turn in mercy: For Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom. 4:17

Tawba-repentance is wajib – a Must from ones sins. Tawba is the act of returning to Allah after
we have severed our ties to Allah by committing a sins, so Tawba- repentance actually reconnects
us back to Allah after we have sinned. The word Tawba literally means return.

If a person who has fallen into zunub-sin and ghafla-forgetfulness does Tawba-repentance, he or
she is asking Allah for forgiveness. Tawba-repentance is the act of returning back to the state of
Dhikr- remembrance and obedience of Allah. And through the act of returning, one's sins are
forgiven because Allah is Ghafoor-forgiving.

Allah does not expect perfection from us. What is expected of us is that when we make mistakes
we move from the state of disobedience and ghafla-forgetfulness and return to Allah in
repentance and seek refuge in the cover of mercy that He's provided for us. If we take too long
and not seek refuge in the mercy of Allah and don't ask for forgiveness, our souls become used to
the sins and even ruined by them.

Scholars say that if we stop the sin, and if we truly regret it – and Allah knows our hearts – and we
have a firm resolve never to repeat that sin but due to weakness if we happen to fall in sin again,
then our Tawba-repentance is still accepted–sincere. Ideally, we will not fall into that sin again if
our taqwa-fear is strong and we have done everything in our power to stop from that sin.

We have to consciously stop sin, have sincere remorse over it and ensure that we take action to
remove ourselves from situations where we could fall into sin. For instance, if we are in the
company of people who are drinking, we have to make an effort to get out of there. All of
children of Adam commit sins, and the best of those who sin are those who turn in repentance to
Allah. It is in the nature of human beings to fall short of the mark and make mistakes.
60
Tradition “The best of you is the one who do repentance ‘Tawba-repentance' immediately after
committing a sin.” The biggest sins are disbelief, hypocrisy, and losing one's faith or apostasy
(Irtidad). Tradition He who seeks repentance (from the Lord) before the rising of the sun from the
west (before the Day of Resurrection), Allah turns to him with Mercy.

Tradition " Allah opens his hand at night for the sinner of the day in order for that person to
repent, and He opens his hand in the day time for the sinner of the night in order for him to
repent until the sun comes out from the west (The day of judgement)."

One of the scholars said: the true Tawba-repentance is to ask for forgiveness with your tongue
and to feel sorry within your heart, and to withhold your body from committing sins. Tradition "
Whoever does any bad deed and he got the punishment for it in this life this would be the only
punishment he gets and he will not be punished for it in the hereafter." Tradition "Allah is more
pleased with the repentance of His slave than anyone of you is pleased with finding his camel
which he had lost in the desert."

Tradition 'The one who repents from sin is like the one who never sinned.'

Tradition ‘Regret is repentance (al-nadam tawba)

Tradition “O people, repent to your Lord, for verily I seek forgiveness from Allah and repent to him
more than seventy times in a day”. Allah is pure and only accepts pure things. For the repentance
to be true and sincere, 3 conditions must be fulfilled, if the sin is between the person and Allah:

1-we must stop that sin

2-we must truly regret and have remorse - nadam
3-we must have a firm resolve never to repeat that sin again
(If it relates to the rights of another person, then to
4. Return the rights or property one wrongly took. [Riyadh al-Salihin

If the sin involves another person, there is a 4th condition for the repentance before we can
achieve Sincere Repentance- Tawba Nasuh which is explained further down- the person who has
sinned must fix the wrong that he or she has done to someone. If we have said bad things,

61
slandered someone or backbit someone or stolen from or hurt another in any way, we have to ask
the person who is wronged for forgiveness if possible, or somehow reverse the harm.

Sins are two kinds :

One is between Allah and his servants ( like drinking, not fasting...) and Tawba-repentance.
The second type is a bad deed you commit against another person for example: back biting,
stealing,.. and repenting from such deeds requires the same previous condition in addition to ask
for forgiveness of the person you hurt or to let him get even with you.

“Allah would forgive a person even before he makes ‘Istigfar' if he commits a sin and then feels
sorry for the sin,” and “Even if your sin is so much to reach to the skies, when you repent, Allah
will accept your repentance.” This is for those repentances which do not involve violating others'
rights.

Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani in this book Secrets of Secrets, gives the definition of Tassawuf, the first
letter t (ta), symbolize the word Tawba or tawwab, repentance. He says that: “It's the fist step to
take in the path. One must take a step inside and one outside. The one towards the outside in the
repentance, is done with words, actions, feelings: to place our life away from sin, of bad actions
and to turn towards obedience; to run away from revolt and conflict to search agreement and
harmony. The one towards the inside in the repentance is done with the heart. This is the
cleansing of the heart from materials desires that are conflicting and for the heart to assert total
desire for the divinity”.

Thus in Sufism the first step on the path is Tawba which means turning and also repentance,
turning or Tawba toward a new way in life. Aba is to come back from ‘Aba coming back and
‘Anaba coming back many times.

Remorse, and seeking forgiveness

Again to stress on this point Remorse-nadam is the turning of the heart, in sorrow and regret,
away from something which the servant has committed, and which angers God the Exalted, such
as sins or the neglect of obligatory acts. It may also occur following an excessive involvement in
permissible pleasures or the neglect of supererogatory devotions. A sincere remorse is one which
leads to persevering in earnest, and avoiding be neglectful. When sound, it includes nearly all the
62
conditions of Tawba-repentance which is why the Prophet has said, may blessings and peace be
upon him: 'Remorse is repentance'.

Those who are remorseful about their misbehaviour, but still persist in it, are only jesting, and
their remorse will not avail them. Seeking istighfar-forgiveness means asking God to forgive,
which in turn means His concealing the misdeed [from the eyes of others] .When God, by His
grace, forgives a sin, he neither exposes its doer to shame, nor punishes him for it, whether in this
world or in the next. The highest kind of forgiveness is for God to place a veil, a barrier, between
the servant and sins, until it is as though he were free of them.

Sincere Repentance- Tawba Nasuh

O you who believe! Turn in sincere repentance to Allah." [66:8]
What is Sincere Repentance? How do you know if you are truly repentant?
God accepts repentance if it is sincere (If he includes regret (nadam) for what was done and
resolve (‘azm) not to do it again.
Omar ibn Al-khatab said: the true repentance is that the servant of Allah repent from the sin and
never do it again in the same way the milk can't get back to the breast of the sheep.

So, what is true/ sincere repentance?

1. "To sin and then never to return to it."
2. To hate the sin, and the seek forgiveness for it every time it occurs to one.
3. "To be genuine and truthful in one's repentance," which is what Imam Bukhari chose as the
definition of true repentance in his chapter heading.
4. To have sincerity in one's repentance.
5. To be concerned about one's repentance not being accepted.
6. To be such that it does not need another repentance after it.
7. To be made out of fear and hope, and be accompanied by consistency in worship.
8. Like the seventh, but with the added condition that one desert those who assisted one in sin.
9. That one's sin be between one's eyes. [That is, one does not forget it.]

Introduction to Practical Guide of Asking Forgiveness of Wrong Actions

section of Tawba-repentance

63
 Allahumma innaka Afuwun Tuhibbul Afwa Fa'afu Anna.
A loving pray of forgiveness, 'O Allah you are Forgiving and love forgiveness so forgive me'
Firstly a very brief summary recap from other articles about the Need for Tawba. Remember there
are three conditions to Tawba repentance for its to be accepted .

1-we must stop that sin –as we have Four witnesses against us.
2-we must truly regret and have remorse - nadam
3-we must have a firm resolve never to repeat that sin again
4. (If it relates to the rights of another person, then to Return the rights or property one wrongly
took. [Riyadh al-Salihin

Four witnesses are established against us when committing Sin .

a) The place we did the crime (i.e., scene of the crime/ sin). "On that day, the earth will reveal all
its secrets." (99:4)

b) The organ or limb we used to commit the crime. "When their ears, their eyes, their skin will
testify against them." (41:21) "That day we seal up mouths, and hands speak out and feet bear
witness to all that they did." (36:65)

c) The Angels who record the deeds (Kiraman Katebeen). "The honoured writers know what you
do." (82:11)

d) Allah's Records "We record that which they send before them, and their footprints, and all
things we have kept in a clear register." (36:12)

With four such strong witnesses, how can we present ourselves to Allah? So He through His mercy
removes all the witnesses against those whose repentance has been accepted, so that we present
ourselves with a clean record. Tradition "When Allah accepts repentance and forgives His servant,
then recording angels erase their records, organs lose their memories, and earth removes its
stains of evidence so that when that person appears before Allah, there is no one to be a witness
against him.

Understand that Sin is like bacteria in the way it silently and stealthily invades the body. At first
you are entirely unaware of its presence. It feeds on and grows stronger because of our ignorance
64
and negligence. The victim of the infection becomes aware of the disease much later when the
first symptoms appear. He will then have to subject himself to the sometimes unpleasant
treatment of a Doctor.

Know that the harm of sin to the heart is like the harm done by poison to the body according to
the various degrees of damage done by each (finally a death). And nothing in this world nor the
hereafter is evil or bad except that its cause is sin and transgression.

Effects of Sin attracts poverty, destroys the bounties given to us by Allah, good deeds become
difficult if not altogether impossible to practice and sin removes the barakah-blessing. And that
continuous sin weakens the body and the heart, and shortness one’s life, because like any
diseases and or poison that goes into the body the effect is physical death of the body finally.

Thus Sins are poisonous, and injurious to your spiritual growth. So the need of a remedy is urgent
before it's too late for the soul and heart, and what is this? You may have read that one needs to
do Tawba-repentance, but now the question needs to be asked. What are the prescribed
methods of Medicines for this Tawba-repentance in Islam? So once sins have stopped, regret and
remorse have moved the heart the next stage is the cure. The cure is ibaadah-Worship and
making repayment of missed obligations acts. For this is the means of seeking forgiveness.

Remember, asking for forgiveness is not just for our sins, but also for our needs as well. And I have
said! Seek forgiveness from your Lord. Lo! He is oft-forgiving (if you ask for forgiveness). He will
give you plenty of rain, He will give you wealth and sons, and assign you Heaven and Rivers in the
Heaven. (Surah Nuh: 10-12)

So after repenting and asking for forgiveness, we must mend our ways and not go back to
heedlessness and sin and fall prey to the tactics of Satan (Iblis) again. While we expect Allah to be
kind and merciful and forgive our major and minor sins, we are unforgiving towards our fellow
human beings and this is a short coming on our part and lacks one in spiritual growth of the soul.

Feeling that one's sins are too great to be forgiven by Allah stems from a number of factors:
1. The absence of certain faith on the part of the slave in the vastness of Allah's mercy
2. A lack of faith in the ability of Allah to forgive all sins
3. Weakness in one aspect of the heart's action, namely hope
65
4. Failure to understand the effect of repentance in wiping out sins

O My slaves who have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins)!
Despair not of the Mercy of Allah, verily Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most
Merciful. And turn in repentance and in obedience with true faith to your Lord and submit to
Him." [al-Zumar 39:53-54].

O son of Adam, if you were to come to Me with sins nearly the size of the earth, and you were to
meet Me not associating anything with Me, then I would bring you forgiveness nearly the size of
(the earth)in the case of bribery too, are exceptions. Where one is not able to escape the
oppressions and injustice of an oppressor, but by giving a bribe, it will not be sinful to give a bribe
in such circumstances, but it will always remain not permissible (haram) for one to accept a bribe

A Practical Guide of asking Forgiveness of Wrong Actions - Tawba-repentance

from Book of the Healing of the Sickness and Pains
by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Kittani al-Hasani
Translated by Aisha Bewley

Allahumma innaka Afuwun Tuhibbul Afwa Fa'afu Anna.

A loving pray of forgiveness, 'O Allah you are Forgiving and love forgiveness so forgive me'
Follow up a bad deed with a good deed, to cancel it out. "Most of the sins committed by the son
of Adam are sins of the tongue."

1.Wudu-Ablution The first practice is to do wudu- Ablution thoroughly, reaching all its defined
places and washing each limb fully. Essential Du'as / Supplications Extracted from Al Hisnul Hasin
by Allamah Muhammed Al-Jazri

Tradition "When a servant washes his face, every sin he contemplated with his eyes will be
washed away along with the last drop of water; when he washes his hands, every sin they
committed will be washed off from his hands with the last drop of water; and when he washes his
feet, every sin towards which his feet have walked will be washed away with the last drop of
water. So that he comes out pure from sin."

66
2. Fard -Salat – Obligation Pray " When the time for a prescribed prayer arrives and a Muslim
performs Wudû well and humbly offers prayers with proper bowing, it will be an expiation for his
past sins as long as they are not major sins, and that is for all times."

3. saying Ameen- I Believe - Having the "Amen" of the person praying behind the Imam after he
finishes the Fatiha-Open chapter of Quran, coincide with that of the angels in word and time, as
stated in the Sahih collection.

4A. Jumah-Friday to Jumah"If anyone performs Wudû well, then comes to the Friday prayer,
listens and keeps silent, his sins between then and the next Jumu'ah plus those of three extra days
will be forgiven. But he who plays with pebbles has caused an interruption."

Durin g the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wasallam) time the floor of the Masjid was
gravel. One who plays with the stones during the Friday sermon (Khutbah) distracts himself and
possibly others with his idle actions, or with the sound made by the clicking of the stones. The
Prophet (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wasallam) equated it with idle talk which he forbade saying:
"One should be quiet when the Imam is speaking ”
Muslims are required to listen attentively to the Friday sermon and remain silent throughout, so
much so, that even telling others to be quiet is not allowed. Abu Hurayrah reported Allâh's
Messenger (Sallallâhu Alayhi Wasallam) as saying:
"If one of you tells his brother to be silent while the Imâm is giving the sermon, he is guilty of idle
talk."

4B. Dua after Jumah-Friday Salat pray - After the final salam (movement to close the salat-pray)
in Jumu'a -(Friday pray) reciting the Fatiha , Surat al-Ikhlas and the last two suras of refuge
(112,113,114 of Quran) seven times each before moving from his place and speaking.

5. Praying the Duha prayer with faith and expectation of the reward promised for it, or out of the
desire to pray it with sincerity in it, without any showing-off or wanting to heard or seen, or to
store up a reward with Allah. ( Duha -supererogatory morning prayer) its reward tradition “ In the
morning every single joint of yours must pay a sadaqa. Every tasbih is a sadaqa, every tahmid is a
sadaqa, every tahlil is a sadaqa, every takbir is a sadaqa, every commanding good is a sadaqa, and
every forbidding evil is a sadaqa, and all this is accomplished through two rak`ats one can pray in

67
Duha." Tradition “There are three hundred and sixty joints in a human being, and he must* pay a
sadaqa for each one of them”.

This is the huge merit of the Duha prayer as they indicate that it fulfills the performance of three
hundred and sixty charities. “Whoever regularly prays the two rak`ats of Duha, his sins are
forgiven even if they are as numerous as the foam of the sea.”

6. The Glorification prayer which is well-known . Salâtul khairi or Salâtul Tasbee

... shall I not give you, shall I not present you, shall I not tell you, shall I not produce in you ten
things, by your doing which God will forgive you your sin, first and last, old and new, involuntary
and voluntary, small and great, secret and open?
You should pray four rak`as reciting in each one Fâtihat al-Kitâb and a sûra, and when you finish
the recitation in the first rak`a you should say: fifteen times while standing, 'Glory be to God.
Praise be to God. There is no god but God. God is most great.'
( subHâna-LLhâh, al-Hamdulli-LLhâh, la-ilâha illa-LLhâh, Allâhu akbar ).
Then you should bow and say it ten times while bowing. Then you should raise your head after
bowing and say it ten times. Then you should get down in prostration and say it ten times while
prostrating yourself. Then you should raise your head after prostrating yourself and say it ten
times. Then you should prostrate yourself and say it ten times then raise your head and say it ten
times.
That is, seventy-five times in every rak`a. You should do that in four rak`as. If you can observe it
once daily do so; if not, then, once weekly; if not, then once a month; if not, then once a year , if
not, then once in your lifetime.
7. The funeral prayer . -
8 . Fasting Ramadan with faith and expectation of the reward.
"All the previous of any one who fasts the month of Ramadan out of faith and seeking his reward
from the Lord, will be forgiven."
70,000 unveiled when breaking the Fast and the Vision of the Divine Beauty When Ramadhan
Begins the gates of paradise are Opened
9. Praying at night in Ramadan and performing other acts worship and devotion during it with
faith and expectation of the reward.
10. Staying up to pray in the last ten nights of Ramadan.
11. Layla tul Qadr - Staying up the Night of Power. – odd night of last 10 nights of Ramadan - Layla
tul Qadr-Dua's fot this night
68
"All the previous sins of any one who gets up for prayer during the Night of Power (Laylatul-Qadr)
out of faith and seeking his reward from the Lord, will be forgiven."
12. Fasting the Day of 'Arafa.
Fasting on the day of ‘Arafa and on ‘Ashura' expiate for minor sins only “It expiates for all minor
sins, i.e., it brings forgiveness of all sins except major sins.
Fasting the day of ‘Arafa expiates for two years, and the day of ‘Ashura' expiates for one year.
The deceived rely too much on things like fasting on ‘Ashura' or the day of ‘Arafa
13. Going into ihram -(wearing two pieces of cloth) for the hajj or 'umra from the Masjid al-Aqsa
in Jerusalem.
14. Going on hajj to Makka for the sake of Allah Almighty and to obey His command.
15. Performing the practices of hajj and ' umra in full while other Muslims are safe from his limbs
and tongue.
“Whoever makes pilgrimage to his House (Ka'bah) and does not have sexual relations with his wife
nor commit sins (during the Hajj) will return (sinless) the way his mother bore him."
16. The prayer of the two rak'ats at the station of Ibrahim after the tawaf .
17. Standing at 'Arafa and the Mash'ar al-Haram in the hajj . –these are some of the rituals of Hajj.
18. Looking at the Ka'ba with faith and expectation of the reward. -
19. Reciting the end of Surat al-Hashr (59: 22-24 )
Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
Huwallaa-hullazi Laaa-'illaaha 'illaa Huu: -'Aalimul-gaybi wash-shahaadah; Huwar-Rahmaanur-
Rahiim.
Huwallaa hullazii Laaa 'illaaha 'illaa Huu: Al-Malikul Qudduusus Salaamul Mu'minul Muhay-minul
'Aziizul Jabbaarul Mutakabbir: Subhaanallaahi 'ammaa yushrikuun. (59:23)
Huwal laahul Khaaliqul Baari 'ul Musawwiru lahul 'Asmaa-'ul-Husnaa : yusabbihu lahuu maa fis-
samaawaati wal-'arz: wa Huwal-'Aziizul-Hakim. (59:24)
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
(59:22) He is Allah, than Whom there is no other Allah, the Knower of the Invisible and the Visible.
He is the Beneficent, Merciful. (59:22)
Allah from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him). (59:23)
He is Allah, than Whom there is no other Allah, the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One, Peace, the
Keeper of Faith, the Guardian, the Majestic, the Compeller, the Superb. Glorified beHe is Allah, the
Creator, the Shaper out of naught, the Fashioner. His are the most beautiful names . All that is in
the heavens and the earth glorifieth Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise. (59:24)

69
Whoever reads Above Verses of Hashr reads this in the morning, seventy thousand angels shall
seek forgiveness for him till the evening and whoever so reads it in the evening then seventy
thousand angels shall seek forgiveness for him till the morning and if he passes away then his
death shall be recorded as that of a martyr.

20. Teaching one's child the Qur'an.

21. Saying "Subhanallah wa'l-hamdu lillah wa Allahu akbar " (Glory be to Allah. Praise belongs to
Allah and Allah is greater) 1000 times.
22. Saying the words, "Glory be to the One Who possesses the Kingdom and the Domain. Glory be
to the One who possesses Might and the Jabarut. Glory to the Living who does not die, All-Perfect,
All-Pure, the Lord of the angels and the Ruh," ( Subhana dhi'l-Mulki wa'l-Malakut. Subhana dhi'l-
'izzati wa'l-Jabarut. Subhana'l-Hayy allahi la yamut, Subbuh, Quddus, Rabbi'l-mala'ikati wa'r-Ruh ).
If anyone says once a day or once a month or once a year or once in a lifetime, Allah will forgive
him his past and future wrong actions.

23. Saying "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah" with sincerity.
24. Counting forty waves in the sea while saying " Allahu akbar ".
25. Manning the frontiers of the Muslims.
26. Hurrying to fulfil a need of a Muslim whether it is fulfilled or not.
27. Removing thorns from the road.
28. Illness while in exile.
29. Shaking hands with Muslims who love one another for Allah with the prayer on the Prophet.
30-31. When eating food or putting on a new garment saying, "Praise belongs to Allah who fed me
this food," or "Praise be to Allah who clothed me in this garment and provided for me without and
strength or power on my part."
32. Guiding a blind person for forty steps.
33. A man reaching the age of ninety while a Muslim.
34. Saying the supplication of al-Khidr with sincerity and humility: It is: "O Allah, I ask Your
forgiveness for every sin and I turn to You from it. Then I return to you and I ask Your forgiveness
for all that my self promised You and did not fulfil, and I ask Your forgiveness for every action I
intended to do for Your sake and then others became mixed in it for me. I ask Your forgiveness for
every blessing You gave to me which I then used to help disobey You. I ask Your forgiveness, O
Knower of the Unseen and Visible worlds, from every sin I have committed by the light of day or in
the darkness of the night, in a group or alone, secretly and openly, O Forbearing."
70
35. Dua-prayer in the Adhan (the call to pray )-When someone hears the adhan-call to Pray, and
hears the shahada- testimony to faith, in it, he should say, "I am pleased with Allah as a Lord, Islam
as a deen Religion , and our master Muhammad as a Prophet and Messenger."

In addition these practices, there are some reported to Free someone from the hell-Fire:
1. Saying "La ilaha illa'llah" 70,000 times.
No god except God" and lengthens his pronunciation intending thereby to magnify God, God will
forgive for him Four thousand grave sins with it, and if he did not commit Four thousand, God will
forgive the difference for his family and neighbours.

It is related in the hadith: "Whoever says "No god except God" and lengthens his pronunciation
intending thereby to magnify God, Four thousand of his sins are astruck thereby from the register
of his sins."

2. Saying "Subhanallah wa bi-hamdihi" 1000 times after Subh.

he Prophet has said, may blessings and peace be upon him: ' AI-Hamdu li'llah fills the Scales, and
Subhan Allah wa'I-hamdu li'llah fills the distance which is between heaven and earth. '
3. Reciting Surat al-Ikhlas with the basmala every time or once at the beginning 100 times, or 1000
times, or 100,000 times.
4. Saying "La ilaha illa'llah wa Allahu akbar " 4 times.
5. Saying "O Allah, I testify to you and to the Bearers of Your Throne, Your angels, and all Your
creation that there is no god but You alone with no partner, and that Muhammad is Your slave
and Messenger" 4 times.
6. Reciting the Fatiha with the basmala .
7. Reciting 100 or 1000 prayers on the Prophet using any of the expressions related from him.
8. Reciting the basmala 12,000 times
9. Saying " al-hamdu lillah " 1000 times after the Subh prayer.
10. Saying " Ya Latif " 16,641 times.
Scholars disagree about what is meant by what is mentioned in the Book and Sunna about the
expiation and forgiveness of wrong actions through certain righteous deeds

25 Rabbana Dua's from Holy Quran

It is said that what is meant by "wrong actions" are both major wrong actions and minor ones,
according to the literal meaning of the ayat and many of the hadiths which state that major wrong
71
actions can be expiated through certain righteous actions and that the bounty of Allah is vast -
except for those things which are connected to the rights of people like unlawful usurpation of
property, slander, backbiting and the like. Those are only removed by restoration and the victim
putting the perpetrator in the lawful if possible.

"Do not be deluded and commit a lot of bad actions based on the assumption that prayer will
expiate them, The prayer which expiates sins is the one which Allah accepts. How will the slave of
Allah know that?" - From Book of the Healing of the Sickness and Pains by Muhammad ibn Ja'far
al-Kittani al-Hasani translated by Aisha Bewley.

Never Despair in the Mercy of Allah - Forgiveness: Islamic Perspective

'When Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His Book which is with Him on His Throne, 'My
Mercy overpowers My Anger.'

Allah’s Forgiveness:
Allah is the most Forgiving. There are many names of Allah given in the Qur’an. Some of these
names are related to His mercy and forgiveness. Let me mention some of these names.

al-Ghafoor: The most Forgiving

This name occurs in the Qur’an more than seventy times. There are other names from the same
root, such as Ghafir and Ghaffar. The meaning of the “ghafara” is to cover, to hide and from it
comes the meaning “to excuse”, “to pardon”, “to remit” and “to forgive”. Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala does all these things. In the Qur’an, it is mentioned that Allah does not forgive shirk
(without repentance) but He may forgive every other sin for whomsoever He wills. (al-Nisa’ 4:116)
We must turn to Allah to seek His forgiveness.

al-’Afuw: This is another aspect of forgiveness

This name occurs in the Qur’an five times. Literally the word ‘Afw means “to release” “to heal”,
“to restore”, “to remit”. Thus in relation to Allah it means “to release us from the burden of
punishment due to our sins and mistakes”, “to restore our honor after we have dishonored
ourselves by committing sins and making mistakes.” Sometimes in the Qur’an both names: ‘Afuw
and Ghafoor come together.

72
al-Tawwab: The Acceptor of repentance
This name of Allah is mentioned in the Qur’an about 11 times. Allah accepts the repentance of
those who sincerely repent and turn to him. The word “tawwab” gives the sense of “oft-returning”
which means that Allah again and again accepts the repentance. We make sins and mistakes then
we repent, He accepts our repentance. Then again we commit sins and make mistakes and when
we repent, He again very kindly accept us and gives us another chance.

al-Haleem: The Clement

This name is mentioned fifteen times in the Qur’an. This means that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is
not quick to judgment. He gives time. He forebears and is patient to see His servant to return to
Him.

al-Rahman and al-Rahim: The most Merciful and Compassionate

These names are the most frequently mentioned in the Qur’an. Al-Rahman is mentioned 57 times
and al-Raheem is mentioned 115 times. al-Rahman indicates that Allah’s mercy is abundant and
plenty and al-Raheem indicates that this is always the case with Allah. He is full of love and mercy
and He is ever Merciful.

The Qur’an teaches that Allah is a Judge and He also punishes, but Allah is not bound to punish.
The justice of Allah, according to Qur’an is that Allah does not and will not inflict undue
punishment on any person. He will not ignore the good of any person. But if He wishes to forgive
any sinner, He has full freedom to do that. His mercy is unlimited and His love is infinite.

There are many verses in the Qur’an and sayings of the Prophet -peace be upon him- on the love,
mercy and forgiveness of Allah. In one of the prayers that the Prophet taught, he said, “O Allah,
You are most Forgiving One, You love to forgive, so forgive me.” . We need Allah’s mercy and
forgiveness all the time. It is wrong to assume at any time that one will find eternal salvation
without the forgiveness of Allah.

Human Forgiveness in Islam

Just as it is important to believe in the mercy and forgiveness of Allah, it is also necessary to base
human relations on forgiveness. We cannot expect Allah’s forgiveness unless we also forgive those
who do wrong to us. Forgiving each other, even forgiving one’s enemies is one of the most
important Islamic teaching. In the Qur’an Allah has described the Believers as “those who avoid
73
major sins and acts of indecencies and when they are angry they forgive.” (42:37) Later in the
same Sûrah Allah says, “The reward of the evil is the evil thereof, but whosoever forgives and
makes amends, his reward is upon Allah.” (al-Shura 42:40) In another place the Qur’an says, “If
you punish, then punish with the like of that wherewith you were afflicted. But if you endure
patiently, indeed it is better for the patient. Endure you patiently. Your patience is not except
through the help of Allah." (16:126-127)

Remember what the Quran says ‘ Don't give up/despair from the Mercy of Allah.
Just reflect on the above story of the Killer, and how Allah forgive him, and ask yourself what are
my sins to his, he never asked forgiveness, but only had the intention, I'm pleading to my Lord
Allahumma-O Allah, forgive me, do it with Sincere-ness and regret. In'shallah Allah will forgiven all
sins Big or small (sex before marriage, gambling, Killing, stealing not praying, …) but its up to you
to ask for this Mercy. Note: Allah says ‘I Don't get tired of forgiving you my slave, you get tried
asking of my forgivingness. More something to those words.

There are other stories I know about Allah Mercy, but I don't want bore you too much, its enough
to know the wisdom in them to encourage people never to have a bad opinion of people and be
too judgemental and mainly I use them to encourage people to Pray, its never too late to Pray
Salat to Allah even if you've left it for 20-40 years. There is famous story of people going into Hell
but stop and say ‘ O Allah you say your Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem, by these forgive me' , and they will
enter Jannah.

The 100 Levels of Allah Almighty's Mercy

Verily, there are one hundred (parts of) mercy for Allah, and it is one part of this mercy by virtue
of which there is mutual love between the people and ninety-nine reserved for the Day of
Resurrection.

So we can only see 1/100 th of Allah Mercy on Earth but on the day of Judgment we will see 100
Parts of his Mercy. We read every Bis-millah-nir-Rahman nir-Raheem. 112 in the Quran it is
Mentioned. Rahman is for this World. Raheem is for the Next World. 'Allah will not be Merciful to
those who are not Merciful to mankind' So as Muslims we need to always be polite, humble,
patient, loving and well mannered when he/she deals with others, whether they were Muslims or
non-Muslims.

74
Repentance wipes out previous sins
Someone may say: I would like to repent, but what's the certainty that I'll be forgiven? I would like
to change my ways but my mind is invaded by uncertainties. Were I to be sure of being forgiven
surely I would repent. The Answer is, this thought is nothing new. It used to worry even the
Companions of the Prophet, on whom be peace. Here are two instances.

The first is related by Imam Muslim, may Allah have mercy on him, the story of 'Amr b. al-'As .
narrated by himself. Says he: "When Islam had taken root in my heart I went to the Prophet , on
whom be peace, and said: 'Spread out your hand so that I may take pledge.' He thrust forward his
right hand and I held it in mine (without taking the oath). He asked, 'What's the matter with you
'Amr?' I said, 'Well. I would like to make it conditional.' 'And what's the condition?' he asked. I
said, 'That I be forgiven.' He said, 'Don't you know 'Amr that Islam wipes out previous sins... that
hijrah wipes out previous sins... and that Hajj wipes out previous sins?' "

The second has also been preserved by Imam Muslim. He reports Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased
with him, as saying that some people of the pagans had committed many murders and had
indulged in excessive adultery in the days of ignorance (that is prior to the appearance of the
Prophet ). They came to the Prophet and said: 'What you offer, and call us to is quite appealing.
But if you could only let us know if there is the possibility of atonement for our previous sins'.
Allah, glorified be He, then revealed the verse "(The true servants of Allah are those) who do not
call upon another god with Allah, who do not slay the soul Allah has forbidden, save by right, and
do not adulterate. And whosoever does that, he shall(surely) meet the price of sin." (Al-
Furqan:68). Allah also revealed: "Tell them, O My slaves who have wronged their souls: 'Do not
despair of Allah's mercy.' " (Al-Zumar:53).

Will Allah forgive me?

Sometimes a man asks: I would like to repent, but I have such a huge collection, and such a wide
variety of evil deeds in my account that I do not know if Allah will forgive me. Let me tell you in
reply, my brother, that this is not your specific problem but that of many a young man who wants
to repent his sins. Let me give you the example of a young man. He started his career of sin at a
very early age. By the time he had reached seventeen years of his there was not a sin - major or
minor - that he had not committed teaming up with people of all sorts - young and old. He had
even committed indecencies with a little girl adding to the list of thefts committed on various
75
occasions. Then he repented, began to do his tahajjud, fast every Monday and Thursday, and read
the Qur'an after every morning Prayer. But, he used to ask, is this repentance acceptable (to
Allah)?

Our Answer to him and to every sinner is that we should always turn to the Qur'an and sunnah to
find out what they have to say about the problem at hand, and what is the cure and solution they
offer. When we refer to the qur'an in this regard we find that Allah, glorified be He, tells us: "Tell
them (O Muhammad ): 'O My slaves who have wronged their souls, do not despair of Allah's
mercy, for Allah will forgive all the sins. He is indeed very Forgiving, very Compassionate, Turn to
Him then, and obey Him (in all your affairs).'" (Al-Zumar:53,54). This then is the Answer which
does not need further elucidation.

As for the thought that the sins are so numerous that Allah may not forgive them, it arises, first of
all, from a lack of faith and knowledge of the magnitude of Allah's mercy. Secondly, it is because of
the lack of appreciation of Allah's capability to forgive any number of sins. Thirdly, it indicates
failure on the part of the penitent to come up with another important deed of the heart viz.,
"hope". And fourthly, it is lack of appreciation of the way in which repentance can wipe out sins.
we shall therefore, discuss each of these points a little more in detail.

As for the first, it should be enough to quote Allah Himself who says: "My mercy has encompassed
everything." (Al-A'raf:56) As for the second, a hadith qudsi should be enough to quote. Said the
Prophet on whom be peace: "Says Allah, 'He who knows (and believes) that I forgive all sins, then
I do forgive all his sins, and do not care - so long as he does not suggest partners unto Me." And
the rule will be applied (continues the Prophet ) in the Hereafter."

As for the third, another hadith should offer the cure. The Prophet quotes Allah as having said:
"Son of Adam! If your sins were to reach the limits of the sky, and then you seek My forgiveness, I
shall forgive you, and I do not care. Son of Adam! If you will bring sins equal in volume to the earth
and then you meet Me (on the day of Judgment) in the state that you would not have suggested
partners unto Me, I shall give you in return forgiveness equal to the volume of the earth." And, as
for the fourth, another hadith of the Prophet should be enough for the purpose. Said he: "He who
repented is like him who has no sin on him."

76
 Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim section on Sabr-Patience

Patience is the first weapon for the believer to use when facing hardship. Patience has been
mentioned in the Noble Qur'an more than 90 times. Also it was mentioned many times in
authentic Ahadith of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). All of these verses and
Ahadith talk about the importance of patience in the lives of the believers. All of the messengers
of Allah suffered great hardships in their lives, yet all of them practiced patience. Therefore, Allah
alleviated their hardship and promised them great rewards in the hereafter.

What is the Definition of Patience:

Patience is when a person restrains himself from being fearful during hard times. Also, a person
who is patient restrains himself from doing prohibited acts and does what is obligated and
righteous. Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim said, “There are three types of patience: Firstly, practicing patience
to fulfill the obligations and to do righteous. Secondly, abstaining from evil and prohibited acts.
And thirdly, practicing patience during times of hardship without complaints.”

We will go over The Three Types of Patience with more detail

The first type of patience is when a person works constantly to fulfill obligations and to do
righteous deeds. With that said, Allah commands His servants in the Noble Qur'an what could be
translated as, “Lord of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, so worship Him
and be constant and patient in His worship.” (Verse 65) Surat Maryam. Similarly, Allah says in the
Noble Qur'an what could be translated as, “And enjoin prayer on your family, and be patient in
offering them.” (Verse 132) Surat Taha. The messengers of Allah needed great patience in order to
fulfill their obligations of conveying the message and fixing the conditions of individuals and
society. Without this patience, they could not succeed in their tasks.

The second type of patience is when a person abstains from prohibited acts and from evil.
Abstaining from prohibited acts requires a great struggle against one's desires, and takes much
patience in refraining from the evil influences of Satan among man and Satan among Jinn.
Therefore, Allah will give great rewards on the Day of Judgment to those who patiently abstained
from evil.

The third type of patience is when a person practices patience during times of hardship without
complaints. One must not complain because Allah predestines their hardship. This is the fruit of

77
believing in predestination. Predestination is one of the pillars of faith. Allah said in the Noble
Qur'an what could be translated as, “No calamity befalls, but with the leave (decision and Qadar
(Divine Preordainment) of Allah.” (Verse 11) Surat At-Taghabun.

People who are trying to be patient during hardship should not just sit around and do nothing to
help out their bad conditions. Instead, a Muslim must be patient, yet ease his hardship by all
lawful means. There are some tools that Allah has made lawful for us to use to fight against
hardship. Therefore, we should make use of these means to relieve ourselves from these
hardships. – Taken from Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim section on Sabr-Patience

Secrets of Allah's Mercy in forgiving sins though Sickness and Hardship

A person's life goes through alternating periods of happiness and dismay, strength and weakness,
wealth and poverty, health and sickness, etc. A true believer is one who maintains a clear level of
Iman-faith throughout the worldly fluctuation. He continues to remember Allah and ascribe the
bounties to Him; and he turns to Him in submission, asking for relief from his affliction.

This is described in a tradition "Indeed amazing are the affairs of a believer ! They are all for his
benefit; If he is granted ease of living he is thankful; and this is best for him. And if he is afflicted
with a hardship, he perseveres; and this is best for him."

"Certainly, We shall test you with fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits; but give glad tidings
to the patient - those who, when afflicted with calamity say, "Truly to Allah we belong, and truly
to Him shall we return." it is those who will be awarded blessings and mercy from their Lord; and
it is those who are the guided ones." [2:155-157]

Holy saying of Allah‘ Oh Son of Adam if you are patient and sacrificed for Allah's reward when you
receive the first shock of an affliction I wouldn't accept less than Paradise for you as a reward for
you. So a believer needs to display patience and submission during sickness and hardships,
hunger, or other afflictions. And shows gratitude and thankfulness for all the wonderful blessings
that Allah grants him.

78
Prophet Ayoub (Job) told his wife when she asked him to ask Allah for a relief from his sickness,
I'm shy from my God to ask him because I haven't spent in this difficult situation except a short
time if compared to the time I was in good.

Hardships Benefit the Believer

Allah has decreed that, in this life, hardships and disasters strike both believers and non-believers.
For a non-believer, they are inconveniences that hinder him from proceeding with his normal
involvement in the worldly life. For a believer, on the other hand, they are instances of rest and
remembrance, tests that promise great rewards, and indications of atonement and
expiation/pardoning of sins. Regardless of how little is the harm that strikes a believer, it carries
with it good news of forgiveness and elevated rank in heaven. The righteous predecessors used to
be pleased when a hardship afflicted them, seeing it as a token of Allah's forgiveness and
benevolence. “Verily with every difficult situation there is a relief. 94:6”.

Reward of Sins and Sign of Allah's Love

Some traditions say ‘Hardships continue to befall a believing man and woman in their body,
family, and property, until they meet Allah burdened with no sins.' The amount of reward is in
accordance with the amount of suffering. When Allah loves some people, He tries them with
affliction. He who then is content with Allah's decree has achieved the acceptance of Allah, and he
who is dissatisfied (with Allah's decree) will attain the anger of Allah. Whenever Allah wills good
for a person, He subjects him to adversity. Tradition “The parable of a believer is that of a fresh
and moist plant; the wind tilts it this way and that way; and so is the believer; he continues to be
subject to affliction. And the parable of a hypocrite is that of a firm cedar tree; it does not shake -
until it is uprooted all at once."

Trial:
Trial is not disliked in itself but the result of it is disliked. If one is patient and tolerant under trial
then he succeeded in this trial. This is what's liked in Trials. Allah almighty knows all our
characteristics before he put us under Trials but these tests are for people to test and take
example from one another.

Now, as for man, when his Lord trials him, giving him honours and gifts, then he says, (puffed up),
"My Lord has honoured me. "But when he trials him, restricting his subsistence for him, then he
says (in despair), "My Lord hath humiliated me!" 89:15-16
79
What are Allah's blessings
Blessing wouldn't be considered an honouring from Allah to His servant unless Allah gives him the
ability to behave wisely in it. Allah's right in the blessing is for us to praise Him for it.

Affliction are by Ranks of Righteousness

The prophets and righteous people are afflicted the most, and their rewards are the highest.
Tradition "The most in their suffering among the people are the prophets, then the best, then the
(next) best, one is afflicted in accordance with his Deen-religion . If his deen-religion is firm his
affliction is hard, and if his deen-religion is weak, his affliction is light. Indeed, one would be so
much subjected to adversity until he walks among the people without any sins." Tradition "When
Allah wills good for a servant of His, He speeds up his punishment in this life; and when He wills
retribution for a servant of His, He holds his sins for Him to judge him by them on the Day of
Resurrection."

Rewards for Sickness

One should not look to sickness as a gloomy episode, but should remember the great good in it. It
is one form of affliction with which Allah tests His servants, giving them a chance to acquire
rewards.

Removal of Sins and Elevation in Ranks

Tradition "Whenever a Muslim is afflicted by harm from sickness or other matters, Allah will drop
his sins because of that, like a tree drops its leaves." Tradition "Expect good because Allah makes
a believers sickness amends (for his sins) and a period of rest. However, when a disbeliever falls
sick, he is like a camel whose owner ties it then lets it loose - it does not understand why it was
tied nor why it was freed."

once some pain afflicted the Prophet (peace be upon him) causing him to suffer and turn about in
his bed. His blessed wife said: "Had one of us done this, you would have blamed him." He peace
be upon him replied: "An ailment is intensified for the righteous. whenever a believer is afflicted
by a hardship, either it is a thorn or more, a sin is taken off from him because of it, and he is
elevated by one rank in heaven )."

80
Retaining Rewards for Deeds Before Sickness
Usually, when a believer falls sick, he would not be able to do the same amount of good (prayer,
fasting, helping Muslims, etc) that he used to do when he was well. But Allah out of His great
mercy, continues to record for him the good deeds that he was forced to stop because of his
sickness.

Tradition "For a travelling or sick person, his deeds will be recorded in accordance with what he
used to do when he was resident or well." Tradition "No (believing) person gets sick, but (his
deeds) will be recorded for him in accordance with what he used to do when he was well."
Tradition "No Muslims body is afflicted by Allah, but He will record (his deeds) for him in
accordance with what he used to do when he was well - as long as he is sick. Thus, if He takes his
life, He forgives him; and if He cures him, He washes him (from sins)." Tradition "Each days deeds
are sealed with it. thus, when a believer gets sick, the angels say, "Our lord! Your servant such and
such, You have restrained him (from doing good this day)."And the lord replies, "Seal his day in
accordance with his (usual) deeds, until he is cured or dies".

Tradition ‘whatever harms a believer even if it was a thorn or more, Allah would elevate the
believer with this difficulty a degree higher or might forgive one of the sins he made.' One needs
to be patient and submits to Allah's will, if they want to be rewarded for both the submission and
the sickness, otherwise, he would not be rewarded at all; because he resented Allah's decree. The
traditions are clear in that the rewards are recorded once affliction strikes a Muslim. as for
patience and acceptance, they are virtues for which a person may get additional rewards over
those for the affliction.

The reasons that lead for being tolerant when hardships happen:
1. To believe it is from Allah and people have nothing to do with it.
Now await in patience the Command of they Lord: for verily the art in Our eyes: and celebrate the
praises of they Lord the while thou stands forth. 52:48
2. To lean on Allah and return things to Him.
And He provides for him from (sources) he never could imagine. And if anyone puts his trust in
Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him. For Allah will surely accomplish His purpose: verily, for all things
has Allah appointed a due proportion. 56:3
Every soul shall have a taste of death: and We test you by evil and by good by way of trial. To Us
must ye return. 21:35
81
3. To know that Allah chose you for this test.
Those who patiently persevere will truly receive a reward without measure!" ‘For Allah is with
those who are patient.'
4. Allah's knowledge of your conditions.
5. To know that it's given from Allah.
6. Allah after testing you with hardships would ease them on you because you would return to
Him with prayers and asking.
Tradition ‘If some body faced difficulties in life let him say - we are for Allah and to him we will
return. In you I content myself in this difficulty, oh Allah give me refuge from it and replace me
better than it.'
7. Patience inherit satisfaction.
8. To feel closeness to Allah at times of hardship.
‘Or, who listens to the (soul) distressed when it calls on Him, and who relieves its suffering, and
makes you (mankind) inheritors of the earth? (Can there be another) god besides Allah? Little it is
that ye heed! 27:62
9. To know that you have gained good rewards for this patience.
10. To know that comfort and ease come along with hardships and difficulties.
‘Verily with every difficult situation there is a relief. 94:6
If a servant understands these matters then he would be the most patient. And one of Allah's 99
names is As-Sabur O Patience.

Ya Saburu -O Patience one!-relief from troubles or confusion, to be read 3000 times!

And be patient in hardship: for, verily,
God is with those who are patient in hardship. Al-Anfal 8:46
If you are completely perplexed and in straits,
have patience, for patience is the key to joy.
Rumi, Mathnawi

20 Harms of the Tongue by Imam Ghazali's Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din- Revival of Religious Science

These are the 20 Harms of the Tongue that will take to hell if, Tawba isn't don’t and they need to
be put under control from Ghazali’s section Harms of Tongue from this Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din-
Revival of Religious Science. When man wakes up in the morning each day, all parts of the body
warn the tongue saying, ‘Fear Allah as regards us for we are at your mercy; if you are upright, we

82
will be upright and if you are crooked, we become crooked.” The dangers and harms of tongue are
many and there is no rescue, from them except silent 'Silence is a rule and few people can observe
it'.

1. Unnecessary talk-: The best condition is to save the tongue from back-biting, falsehood, show,
quarrels, disputes etc. There are such words, therein which are not beneficial and which do harm
to others. If you hold useless talk, you lose time and you shall have to render accounts for useless
talks. If you are engaged in thoughts about God by giving up useless talks, God's inspiration may
suddenly come in your soul. Shall I not give clue to you to such an action which is light for body
but heavy in the Balance ? I said : Yes, 0 Prophet of God. He said : Silence, good conduct and giving
up unnecessary things.

2. Excessive. talk - This means to utter such words as are of no use and to hold such talks as are
of no use. Necessary talks can he held in short. If one sentence is sufficient, second sentence is
unnecessary, thought it has got no sin.

3. Unless talk - -This is useless talk in untrue matters and to spend talks in actions of sins : for
instance to state the beauties of a woman, to tell about assembly of drinking wine, to praise the
sinners, to discuss the some forts of the rich.

4. Quarrels and disputes which are unlawful. --'God does not misguide a people after they are
guided except for quarrels and disputes' Don't dispute with the learned. If there is dispute with
anybody, it is compensated by two rak'ats of prayer

5. Disputes about properties-- The greatest object of hatred to God is he who holds greatest
disputes

6. Ornamentation in talks--Beware, those who make exaggeration in talks are ruined

7. Obscene and verbal abuse - give up obscene talks, as God does not love obscene and excessive
talks. heaven is forbidden for who utters foul language, and they will appear as shape of a dog on
the day of judgement.

83
8. Cursing-- anything, be it an animal or a man or a lifeless thing. It is condemned. 'A believer does
not curse another.' 'If anybody curses a land, it says: Curse of God be upon the person who is the
greatest sinner among us.' 'The cursers will not be intercessors or witnesses on the Resurrection
Day'

9. Songs and poetries--good poetry is good and the bad of poetry is bad, unlawful if it does not
contain evil or indecent, there is wisdom in some poetry.

10. Laugh and jokes:--Basically are not harmful within limits, excessive jokes and continued jokes
are unlawful, Excessive jokes give rise to excessive laughters, excessive laughter makes the heart
dead and sometimes creates hatred and destroys gravity and fear. He who commits sin laughing
will enter Hell weeping

11. Ridiculing : Ridicule is unlawful as it gives pain to the heart of another and thus he becomes
sorry. God says: 0 believers, no people shall ridicule another people. Perchance the latter may be
better than the former. No woman shall ridicule another woman. Perchance the latter may be
better than the former. Ridicule means to neglect or hold in contempt another and to show his
defects. It may be expressed in words and actions and also by wings and gestures. If it is done in
one's absence, it amounts to back-biting. 'If a man accuses his brother for a sin from which he
repented, he will not die till he commits that sin'. So if any man ridicules one with regard to his
figure, conduct, writing, action etc, it will be unlawful.

12. Disclosing secret--To disclose secret talks is unlawful as it gives pain to the mind of another.It
is a breach of trust if you disclose the secret talks to others also its one of the four trait of a
hypocrite.

13 False Promise:-To make promise in haste but it does not become possible to fulfil it always. As
a result, it is broken. God says: 0 believers, fulfil promise. The Prophet said: Promise is like a
parent. He said: Promise is a kind of debt or greater than that. He in whom there are three traits is
a hypocrite even though he prays, fasts and thinks that he is a Muslim till he gives it up.

(1) When he speaks, he speaks lies.

(2) When he promises, he breaks it

84
(3) When he is entrusted, he breaks it.
(4) When he disputes over properties, he rebukes

14. Lying and false oath. These are great sins and heinous faults. Be careful of lying as it is the
companion of the sinners and both will be in Hell. Lying is a door of hypocrisy. Lying reduces Rizq-
provision. When a man lies his companion angel goes one mile away from him. A Muslim may
commit other faults but there cannot be in him cheating and falsehood. I asked: O Prophet of God,
(peace be upon him) can a believer be a liar? He said: No. Then he recited the following verse: “It
is only those who believe not in God’s verses who fabricate falsehood, and (only) they are the liars
16:105 Lying is is lawful in some cases .

15. Back-biting-Ghibah: We have mentioned Ghibah-Backbiting in detail already known that is

Haram, it is one of the major sins and repentance must be sought for this sin.

Meaning of back-biting and its limits: Back-biting means to say anything to another about your
brother in his absence which he does not like. This refers to physique, pedigree, dress, house,
religion, behaviours and conduct and character. Back-biting by means other than tongue: back-
biting can be done not only by tongue but also by signs, gestures, hints, movements of body and
writings. Every kind of back-biting is unlawful. Causes of back-biting: Medicine to restrain tongue
from back-bite: .Back-biting by mind: Six causes were make back-biting lawful Penitence of back-
biting: Exemptions from Backbiting

16. Hypocrisy--It is to go to two enemies and introduce to each of them as friend and to hold one
opinion with each of them. He who has got two tongues in the world will have two tongues in the
next world. You will see on the resurrection day the worst man near God with two faces. He will
come to one party with one thing and to another party with another thing.

On the Resurrection Day, the worst men to God will be the liars, the proud, and those men who
entertained hatred in the need of their friends. When they met his friends, they hated them.
When they were called towards God and His Prophet, they came late and when they were called
towards the Satan, they came hurriedly.

17. Tale-Bearing Namimah and slander – Hammaz. God says in verse 68 :11-12 quran -A
slanderer, going about will calumnies, hindering all good, transgressing beyond bounds etc.
85
slander-Hammaz means an illegitimate issue who does not keep words secret. This shows that he
who does not keep words secret and roams about giving news to ears is like an illegitimate son
God says in verse 104:1 Qur’an - Woe to every scandal-monger and backbiter. A slanderer will not
enter Paradise. Scandal monger will not enter Paradise. Tale-bearing, (namimah) is defined as
spreading words among believers with the purpose of stirring up enmity and problems between
them This matter is forbidden.

18. Praise. In some cases, praise is unlawful." There are six harms of praise, out of which four
harms fall on the praiser and two harms fall on the hearer of praise.

19. Carelessness:- carelessness or inattention in words, especially when they are uttered in
connection with religious affairs. Let none among you say-what God wishes, and what you wish,
rather say-what God wishes and then what you wish. One man came to the Prophet and said in
the midst of his talk-what God wishes and you wish. The Prophet said : Have you made me equal
to God ? Rather say : What the Almighty God wishes. Never call a great sinner-My chief-Sayyidi,
because if he becomes your chief, you will incur displeasure of your Lord.

20 Questions of ordinary men about God;. about His attributes, His words and His tongue. These
attributes of God are of two kinds-uncreated and created. It is the duty of ordinary men to follow
what is in the Quran about commands and prohibitions. To understand the Quran is difficult to
many.
O refrain from vain talks.
To stop spreading rumors.
To verify any news spread to us.
To correct the news from any source.
To stop all types of backbiting against one another.
To lower our voices, and speak softly and gently.
Not to be ashamed saying : "I don't know" for any question that you don't know its answer.
To take the initiative and make da'wah for the love of Allah. Be sure you say the truth about Islam.
Try to read more about Islam mainly the Qur'an, Hadith, Fiqh, Seerah, etc. To keep busy in doing
something good to you and to others.

86
87
 Notes to “Threes Signs to happiness” (Diagram 1)

Twenty-20- Harms of the Tongue- that will take one to hell

if Tawba isn't done and measures to control the tongue.

Restrain when Angered Restrain tongue Restrain Limbs from

with Divine decree from complaints beating oneself

Tawba nasuh - turn in sincere Repentance &

Regret is repentance (al-nadam tawba) The very
2. When Affliction/Trials to test ones first step to take in Sufism is Tawba repentance.
Sabr-Patience - based on 3 conditions

Three signs to happiness

1. When Blessed - Give thanks Shukr-Gratitude 3. Tawba-Repentance from sins

based on 3 conditions based on 3 conditions

Inward recognitions Outward recognitions Actions & use that Leaving/stop sin Regret & Remorse ‘Azm Resolving
of blessings with thank mentioning pleases Allah for sins- Nadam not to do it again

We are always in these three conditions and always shifting from one to another of theses states Our 4 enemies 7 organs to
1.Dunya- world heart
2.Shaytan -Satan 1. Eyes
3.Nafs –Ego 2. Ears
4.Hawa - Passions/Lusts 3. Tongue
Lack of Sabr causes shaytan to attack 4. Stomach
5. Feet
6. Hands
7. Private parts
Even the faithful he robs in a Forgetfulness Passions & Lusts Anger
moment of Inattention and Ghafalah Hawa ghadab Shadaha-(Testimony of faith) consists of 24 letters each letter
carelessness forgives sins every hour of each day. The 24 letters are 7 words
– for the 7 organs - Each closes one of 7 doors of hell when
recited or Heaven protect them from the 4 Enemies

Shaytan Robs through Three doors

 Muhasabah-Self-Auditing Assessing One's Spiritual State - Notes to Ghadab-Anger (Diagram 2)

Ghiba-Backbiting can lead to Ghill which can also lead to Ghadab and when one has Ghadab he/she no longer has control as shaytan controls them and
enters them; Shaytan robs through three doors 1. Hawa 2. Ghafalah 3. Ghadab

7 Organs or Gates/Doors
to Heart:
Lack of sabr causes Shaytan Shaytan’s Door he enters from your back into 1. Eyes
to attack or enter you Your Heart: 2. Ears
waswas-il-khannas - 114:4 3. Tongue
4. Stomach
5. Feet
Shaytan robs through three doors 6. Hands
7. Private parts

Ghafalah- Forgetfulness Ghadab- Anger Hawa - Lust & Desires Four Enemies
1. Dunya-World
2. Shaytan-Devil
3. Nafs-Ego
4. Hawa- Lust & Desires
Even the faithful he robs in a Gives non-rational thinking, when
moment of inattention or Angered or lust enters the brain or
carelessness heart -2 Big Intellects Shadaha-(Testimony of faith) consists of 24 letters each letter
forgives sins every hour of each day. The 24 letters are 7 words – for
the 7 organs - Each closes one of 7 doors of hell when recited or
Heaven protect them from the 4 Enemies

Ibadah is Rizq for Soul; Halal Food linked to good Actions. Sins are
Poison for Soul; Haram food linked to Bad Actions/thoughts will block 2 Big Intellects (Brain and Heart both together at the top of
Spiritual connection making no difference with waas-waas & body.
inspirations-ilham. Shame-Haya’ is taken away with Haram food.
Ibadaah invalid for 40 days. You are what you eat! 2 Big Egos (stomach and private parts at bottom of body)

-- 4 ways of consuming Haram Food for the 2 Big Egos

- 1 Stomach food;
- 2 Tongue –lying ;
- 3 Eyes-lustful look;
- 4 Ears listening to ghiba
 Notes to Sabr-Patience (Diagram 3)

2. Affliction/Trials to test ones

Sabr -Patience - based on 3 conditions

Restrain when Angered Restrain tongue Restrain Limbs from

with Divine decree from complaints beating oneself

Secrets of Allah's Mercy in

forgiving sins though Sickness
and Hardship Prevention Of Anger
Anger Management -
Anger one of three Its Treatment Twenty-20- Harms of the
ns though Sickness and doors to Shaytan La taghdab-do not get angry
Tongue- that will take one to hell
Hardship if Tawba isn't done and
measures to control the tongue
Indeed only through afflictions (Hardship)
are ranks distinguishes and their stations
determined. Everything is in Levels or Shaytan Robs through Three Lack of Sabr -Patience
Ranks and we’re all on some scale in
regards to that! doors causes shaytan to
attack

Ghadab-Anger Hawa-Lust & Desires Ghafalah -Forgetfulness

 Notes to Tawba-Repentance (Diagram 4)

1st step for the Salik-(traveller/mureed) in Tariqah-(path) of Sufism

Tawba nasuh–Turning with Sincerity
Repentance is the very first step in the path of Sufism

3. Tawba-Repentance from sins based on 3 conditions

‘Azm-Resolving Nadam -Regret & Remorse

Leaving/stop sin not to do it again for sins

Introduction to a Practical guide of Practical guide of asking Never Despair in the Mercy of Allah
asking Forgiveness from Forgiveness from turn to him in Tawba - repentance
Wrong Actions –Sins Wrong Actions –Sins

So the 1st step without which there can be No Journey to Allah is repentance. But what have you not repented from or have not realized what needs
repentance? And what is blocking your spiritual progress! By using Muhasabah–Self-Audit or Taking Account of Oneself this allows you to identify every
sin one commits and needs to stop and reflect or Contemplate about these sins, weakness, slips of adab-manners, mistakes..etc See the Muhasabah Matrix
Guide and notes to measure yourself every night! If you pass this test then you have indeed travelled or have made spiritual progress.
 'The Sufi Science of Self-realization'- A Guide to the Seventeen Ruinous Traits,
17 Ruinous Traits - that must be eliminated (Diagram 5)

1. Anger –Ghadab – Worst of the 17 traits. Gives non-rational 6.Miser – Bukl – Two types 1.shari'a- giving Zakat) 11.Showing off –Riya’ – Ostentation –acts are invalid if they
thinking – form of Kufr – Poison like Cancer which kills the light have rjya’ in them- it’s a form of hidden Shirk as they
2.muru’ah (virtuous merit).
of Iman. Anger is lack of Sabr and is one of the 3 doors which worshipping themselves and not Allah (like I gave this cure & I
Shaytan enters the heart and Iman Leaves - Anger=Heat of Hell – Love of this World – Hubb ad-dunya and Bukhl are related ! gave that money) – show offs are proud they want to be see
Control anger with Silence don’t reply . La taghtab=Don’t get and known by all, they like public plaques– they forget it their
angry talent & money came by Allah’s power!

7. Greed for Wealth –Tama’ – Avarice - Excessive desire for

more than one needs or deserves. - Having no limit to what one
2. Love of this World – Hubb ad-dunya hoards of possessions! - removes wisdom from the hearts of 12.Attachment – Hirs – attachment refers to love of the world –
‘Love of this world is the root of every sin’ – it gives of a bad smell ‘ilms – eyes never satisfied and looks at others haqq. such anxiety for wealth and long life -
– either you love this world or the next -

8. Jubn –Coward runs from difficult situations so is weak –be

3.Malice-Hiqd – Malice means having hatred Ill-will; moved by brave against our 4 enemies dunya, nafs, hawa-desires & 13.Superiority –Adhama – claming greatness – satan claimed
hatred; intention to Harm.- shaytan -today people are cowards in giving sadaqah-cowardice it – its cure sajdah to humble oneself Allahuakbar (Allah is
look with love to your brother to remove Malice- that makes us love dunya which is easy - we don’t fight but rather great) - thinking your better (because you do ibaadah) than
hatred feeds of Kufr - run even drunkard or a sinner is Adhama!

4 Jealously/Envy Hasad :- envy burns deeds like fire burns 9. Indolence-Batala -Habitual laziness - inactivity resulting from
wood – envy also signifies the evil eye, al-‘Ayn.- envious dislike of ( Tariqah )work –Procrastination (delaying) is the thief of 14.Heedlessness-Ghawaba wal -kasala – if laziness is killed
ones don’t want happiness for anyone – cure salaat Najat - Surah time- nafs says its painful, difficult, boring it causes stress if made so too is heedless’ heedless is careless- laziness is inner self &
Falaq protective into habit.-I dislike a man who is useless..’- tradition- work for heedless outer body- No care for anyone even if he can help
Allah not shaytan. and stop fitna because action is involved.

5.Vanity- conceit-Proud - ‘Ujb–Being Proud was the sin that Ilbis

commit first- vanity creates conceit and arrogances-' an atom's
weight of pride in the heart will stop you entering jannat.- Allah 10. Arrogance-Kibr- regarding yourself higher than others – iblis 15 Anxiety –Hamm - Worry develops from Heedless-
love not the Proud’! -Allah doesn’t look at the Proud. didn’t do sajdah due to kibr- curses on arrogant proud ones & understand Allah is Razzaq the provider so stop worrying! And
they strut about – generates denial –they don’t accept ideas, submit and be content with Allah. Worry will then lead to
suggestions, opinions-in state of rejection- no respect for anyone- depression! So work and make an effort in Deen and Dunya!
16 depression –Ghamm – Allah created ease and comfort in like big titles- blind
contentment and certainly and depression - and fear in doubt and
discontent- time feels longer – goes into veins & heart – prefers
loneliness –sleep all day & find pointless things to pass time at 17:- To eliminate the 16 bad traits = makes it easy to avoid indulging in the 800 forbidden acts (477 Big Ones ).
night. Also -There are 500 acts we are ordered to do and 800 forbidden acts not to do.
 Learn how to take 1st Steps to repentance and Muhasabah- Self-Accounting – (Diagram 6) Ghadab - Anger – Worst of the 17 traits. Gives non-rational
thinking – form of Kufr – Poison like Cancer which kills the light
of Iman. Anger is lack of Sabr and is one of the 3 doors which
Shaytan enters the heart and Iman Leaves - Anger=Heat of Hell
1. Keep personal Diary/Journal of all Sins & bad – Control anger with Silence don’t reply .
manners and of all good actions & dreams.
2. Evaluating journal making positive changes of Tawbah -Repentance La taghtab=Don’t get angry
negative actions of ego I.e. Looking with hindsight I Repent through Wasila-Intercession Ghill – Grudge hatred Ill-will; intention to Harm.-
could have done this and not that. Only with a & God’s forgiveness. look with love to your brother to remove Malice-
hatred feeds of Kufr
checklist can you make change!
1st step without which there can be No
Journey to Allah is repentance.
Ghibah- Backbiting it’s a major sin ! its mention there are
Formula for balancing the self & Spiritual progress 20 sins of the of the tongue

Nafil - extra Ibadah with Love

Muhasabah –Self-Audit or Taking
= Spiritual progress Account of Oneself
Muhasabah –Self-Audit There are 3 conditions to Tawbah –Repentance
Allows to identifies every sin one
commits, but one needs to stop and 1-we must stop that sin
Minus Love = Robot Ibadah
reflect or Contemplate about the sins or 2-we must truly regret and have remorse - nadam
-Minus Muhasabah = no or limited Spiritual progress weakness
3-we must have a firm resolve never to repeat that sin again,
regardless if you slip and fall and do it again.

Blocking/ veiling Spiritual growth process; this

happens with the consumption of Haram food you eat; Taffakur-deep Contemplation
Anger- arises hatred
Stomach House of all Illness Ghibah- Backbiting Hatred arises envy
Heart House of all Spiritual Illness Envy arises Malice
The cure Fasting-diet the Ego/Nafs. Malice arises worry
Nafs Loves more give opposite fast from desires.
1 hour deep of Contemplation Is 70 years Ghadab- Anger Worry arises
Eat with Wara’ – rigorously Investigating the food depression
source, staying in Golden mean! don’t overdo it! of Ibadah Muraqabah-Sufi Meditation
Ghill Grudge Depression arises
– see The Golden Mean by Imam Haddad Black magic

Though Self-Accounting-Muhasaba and Vigil-

-- 4 ways of consuming Haram Food Ibadah is Rizq for Soul; Halal Food linked to good Actions. Sins are Poison
-- 1 Stomach food; for Soul; Haram food linked to Bad Actions/thoughts will block Spiritual Muraqabah and through Meditation-Tafakkur of
-- 2 Tongue –lying ; connection making no difference with waas-waas & inspirations-ilham. remembrance of Death-Dhikr al-Mawt
-- 3 Eyes-lustful look; Shame-Haya’ is taken away with Haram food. Ibadaah invalid for 40 days.
-- 4 Ears listening to ghibah You are what you eat!
 Muhasabah-self auditing Sufi Matrix sheet (Diagram 7)
Have prayed or missed salah Y/N Y N

Salah Fardh S M T W T F S Ghiba have 5 levels S M T W T F S Did you make any silly comments about
someone on Facebook or on forums any?
Salah Fajr Backbiting-1 Tongue Did you mock their football team
Did you have and debates today?
Salah Dhuhr Backbiting- 2 Ears did you listen
Did you ridicule anyone even as a joke?
Salah Asr Backbiting- 3 writing /typing Bukhl- Miser - put Sadaqah in the jar today?
Salah Maghrib Backbiting- 4 signs or hand gesture If married did your wife/husband moan today
did you reply rudely or have rude thoughts or
Salah Isha Backbiting - 5 in heart angry thoughts about replying back?
Salah Nafil Ghill-holding a grudge Did you cover someone’s mistakes today find
them 70 excuses.
Salah Ishraq Who do have a grudge with someone Find faults with yourself not others.
at work /member family or friends?
Salah Duha How do you know you avoid them Leave what does not concern you.
Did you mind your own business today?
Salah Awwbin Did you think about someone Batala are you Habitual Lazy with doing things
that don’t really like day like Salah, or Ibadah? or being asked to clean
Salah Tahajjuh Did you show any bad manners the house and chores and put it off?
towards anyone today Arrogance-Kibr did you show any today
With any mistakes 2 rakah salah Tawba- Repentance Ghadab –Anger Showing off –Riya’ – did you show off today
Did you spend 1 or 2 hours watching movies Y N Do you give useful constructive Hirs - are you attached to worldly things?
feedback/comments or are you
Have you learnt any nugget of knowledge negative and belittling with remarks? Superiority –Adhama do you think you’re
special or better than those because you have a
Have you learnt any hadith today Did you look at someone today that beard or hijab and you look down on them?
you shouldn’t with your eyes? Did you
Have you read any Quran today Gaze with Hasad-Envy/ Jealously Anxiety–Hamm - are you worried about Rizq-
provision you or marriage or other worries?
Have you read Salawat today Eating – did you check the food Was depression–Ghamm are you sad ask why
Halal or was it doubtful food? As
Have you read Asthaghrifullah 100 times doubtful food must not be eaten. Have you complained today about anything?
Have read your Wird have today Khayal-Thoughts – did you have any Today have you made any Unnecessary ,
thoughts that you would call Excessive , Unless talking - (texting/typing is a
If you have family members Fantasizing about women, car? form of talking so think about you mobile usage
did any of them irritate you such as
your kids or other family members? Having any Zaan-Suspicion, doubt Did you use obscene or verbal abuse language
about someone today some is a sin. today? Wash mouth with 100 astaghfirullah
Disclosing secret or making False Promise to Did you lie today even a small one? Cursing- Damn it! Bloody thing! They are
others today putting curses not blessings in things stop.
Questions from common men were is God? Did someone get you angry even Tale-Bearing or gossiping-Namimah- think grave
And other questions for scholars not for a little, maybe your kids or wife punishment! Woe to all slanderers-Hammaz
common folk to discuss Are you ‘Ujb – Proud of your job, car stop as Quran warns with distressed to those
or of your mobile or clothes things?