Veiled Secrets

Bismillah.

While going through Allah’s name,

اللطيف

there came a sentence which caught my attention and kept me wondering…

الله تبارك وتعالى هو اللطيف، الذي أحاط علمه بالسرائر والخفايا، وأدرك الخبايا والبواطن، الذي لا تخفى عليه خافية، ووصل علمه إلى كل خفي

[Rough translation:] Allah, Blessed and Exalted, He is Al-Lateef (the Subtle), His knowledge encompasses the secrets and private things, and He is aware of concealments and hidden things, on Whom hidden things are not hidden, and His knowledge reaches every hidden thing.

In this excerpt, four different words have been used for secrets. I wanted to know why was that, surely there must be some difference among these words. Specially since Arabic is not like any other language in which synonyms mean exactly the same. After searching here and there, this is the basic difference that I got to know:

السرائر

It means all kinds of hidden acts and secrets. So whatever is concealed from Allah, whether big or small, in heavens or earth, between a few people or more, in the subconscious minds or thoughts, Allah knows it!

الخفايا

It is something that is relatively secret. For example, it could be something that you know of and you haven’t told anyone else so they don’t know. But Allah knows it!

الخبايا

These are concealed things that are negative, not good. There might be some hidden crime or wrongdoing on someone’s part, Allah knows that as well!

البواطن

It means the innate concealed acts. For example, someone might be very generous and does a lot of charity that no one knows about, but it is in Allah’s knowledge!

No matter what kind of hidden thing it is that you think no one would ever know, it is not hidden from Allah! The point I want to establish is that we all have many bad habits and do various bad deeds day and night. If we start thinking about all the bad that is in us, we might start hating ourselves. We do not want anyone to know of our wrongs. If ever anyone gets to know of something bad that we did, we feel embarrassed to face them that now they know.

But Allah, who knows the worst in us more than us, still loves us and forgives us and cares for us. What height of love is that? And we, obstinate as we are, knowing that He knows all the vices in us, still don’t feel embarrassed in front of Him. What height of impudence is that? :(

The Beautiful Story

Bismillah.

One of the names of Allah is

اللطيف

Al-Lateef, which not only means that He is gracious and gentle but also very subtle and precise.

The following excerpt will elaborate His subtleness and precision in His plans and working of the universe.

 وهو سبحانه اللطيف، البر بعباده، الذي يلطف ويرفق بهم من حيث لا يعلمون، ويرزقهم من حيث لا يحتسبون، والذي يلطف بعبده ووليه، فيسوق إليه البر والإحسان من حيث لا يشعر، ويعصمه من الشر من حيث لا يحتسب، ويرقيه إلى أعلى المراتب بأسباب لا تخطر على باله، حتى أنه يذيقه المكاره ليتوصل بها إلى المحاب الجليلة، والمقامات النبيلة

[Rough translation:] And He, Glorified is He, is Al-Lateef, He is benevolent to His slaves, He shows gentleness and leniency to them from ways of which they know not, And He gives them sustenance from where they have not calculated, And He shows gentleness to His slave and to His ally, so He drives towards him goodness and kindness from where he does not sense, And He protects him from evil from where he has not calculated, And He raises him to high ranks through means which have not even crossed his mind, until He makes him taste difficulties so that he reaches through them to the favourable and honourable things and noble statuses.

Doesn’t the above look like a well-written story? When we read a best-seller or watch a blockbuster, we can’t get enough of it, we keep singing praises of the mind behind it. The story grips through its twists and turns and in the end unwinds in a way that amazes us and we go, “oh, that’s what it was all about”.

And yet those authors or script writers cannot be compared with the Creator in any way whatsoever. The human minds borrow their stories from every day lives around them. But our own stories are written by Allah (subhanahu wata’ala) Himself in such an intricate manner, interwoven into each other and yet so smooth at the same time. It’s a plot in which we all seem to be puppets.

There is this great big universe in which we are born and raised. Every day we are provided with food which connects our lives to the workers in food-producing factories, farmers, plants, cattle, fish in the sea, all the creatures and humans that we do not even know of yet we are interdependent on each other. Every day we are saved from big and small accidents, the means of which are made some other humans or things. Other people play a role in our lives and we play different roles in theirs. Allah steers us in different directions, makes us go through trials and tribulations, all for our own ultimate good.

Do you see the finesse and perfection in these real life stories? We take the things that happen to us for-granted, although it’s all part of the plan. It is all for a reason! And the reasons behind those things are not evil because He is not only subtle but also gentle with us. It’s only a matter of realization!

Wassalam.

Right Du’a at the Right Time

Written by Sr. Naheed Sattar

Assalamoalaykum wr wb.

While doing my Fiqh ul Quloob  assignment, I read this du’a several times, kept repeating these words . Every word is a gem and this is what we actually end up doing without realizing at that moment and do not even realize later. But these du’as have opened my eyes and made me think twice before I say or do anything.

“We ask for forgiveness from Him عز و جل from every thing that causes our steps to slip, from every mistake our pen makes or crosses the limits, we ask Him for forgiveness for our words that do not match our actions, we ask forgiveness from Him from that knowledge and those actions through which we wanted to seek His pleasure only but we mixed this intention by showing off others, we ask  forgiveness from Him  سبحانه و تعالى  for every blessing that he granted us, He favored upon us, but we used those blessings in His disobedience, we ask for forgiveness from every thought that invited us towards pretending and showing off in front of people.”

May Allah protect us all from these hidden sins and may He grant us the Tawfeeq and opportunity to ask for His forgiveness sincerely in this month of Ramadan.

Some More Reflections

Rahat Aman:

Previous days with Fiqh ul Qulub were like someone explaining me the condition of my heart, causes of my be-amali, kum-himmati, bechaini…
What is actually lacking in this heart?
It’s the the real Ma’rifat of Allah (swt) which can solve many of my problems, it actually helps me know myself better and people around me.
May Allah (swt) give us and Ustazah the taufeeq and himmat to complete this book with its due expectations.

Nikhat Tanveer:

When I first heard the name of the book ”Encyclopedia of the Fiqh of Quloob”, it seemed intimidating. And then, when I saw the book in Arabic language with no tashkeel, I was even more apprehensive. But the fact that Ustahzah was teaching it and my confidence in her selection of the book and her teaching (that her explanation will make it easy and interesting) made me take it up. I thank Allah who gave me the ability to read this book, to Ustahzah who made it fathomable, to Sr. Taimia to take up this task and guide us.

As I started reading this 35-page preface, I was having a glimpse in the scholarly mind, and persona of the author. The way he had a bird’s view at the condition of the ummah today is remarkable. He keeps mentioning that his book has a collection of Quranic ayahs, hadiths and sayings of pious predecessors, I haven’t reached there yet to taste them, they surely will be truly great, nothing can even come close to it. , I was enchanted with the Arabic language, the author’s choice of words and their proper placement. I learnt a lot from his out-and-out humbleness, never ever taking the credit for doing anything after taking 25 years to pen this book. The way he thanks Allah for all the accomplishments is incredible. And I also learnt from this preface to ask forgiveness on that which I had never thought of before. More than anything else, today when the ummah is divided on the dos and the don’t s of shariah, this author is taking us back to the origin of Iman that is the Heart. It is very essential to understand our hearts to come close to Allah. I am eager to stroll in the garden of his book, and nourish my heart and soul with its fruits. May Allah give us the opportunity and ability to read this book and benefit from it, Ameen.

Naheed Sattar:

The study and understanding of this preface has given me the true understanding of this life… that no event that takes place, no sadness, no pleasure, no pain but it has a purpose and this purpose is something we live for and cannot live without.
And what is this purpose? To free ourselves from the attachments of this life, to empty our heart from all false desires and amusements and to fill in this place with true, pure and sincere love for our Creator.
Once this is nourishment starts coming in, the true meaning of gratitude is understood, then true humility is shown, true meaning of Tawakkal is applied and true worship takes place.
This makes one realize the true greatness of Allah s.w.t, wakes one from the deceptions, and heedlessness and motivates us to do some action..
It is very hard to describe the feeling, you love yourself for the faith you have, you preserve every moment that is passing and you want to sacrifice for the sake of the new reality you discovered., you feel the strength to change the world around you, you want to thank Allah for each and every blessing you have..
Thus this little time spent just doing the introduction has opened my heart to accept the fact that there is only one way to survive in this life and the next…… that is to submit and live only to please my Rabb. So long as there is still a tomorrow, a next moment, there is hope, there is change.
What is lost is not lost forever!

Reflections of a Fiqh-ul-Quloob Student

Written by Sr. Umbreen Qureshi:

Last year i went for umrah. My husband wanted to ask some fiqhi question from the mufti sahib who sits in haram’s office. I asked one question too, he was pleased and asked me how much arabic I know, I told him I learnt word for word translation and tafseer of Quran (tqu), and currently I am a student of bukhari at alhuda. He gave us few booklets and then gave me a thick book of 1166 pages, named.   مختصر الفقه الاسلامي في ضوء القران والسنه

And said ,we give this book only to special people, read it.

I love books more then anything since my childhood, i was happy on one one hand having a book as a gift from Haram, but surprised on the other how would i read it? Standing in the Haram confused, then i prayed to Allah the Almighty please grant me the ability to read and understand this book, as I had to take a step after praying, I gathered my abilties, and courage open the book read 2 pages تبركاً and intended in my heart i will read it one day iA.

We came back, suddenly one day got a news that ustazah has arrived to canada and further to my surprise she taught كيف تنجو من مكاءد الشيطن

And i said there we go, arabic book stuck to my mind.

Thb course ended, I was offered to be the sheppered (CI) for upcoming short arabic course I did istikhara and accepted the offer for FQ.

The course started, went very well and smoothly, muqaddimh was amazing, i was greatly impressed by writer, wanted toread the whole book, and other books of this writer desprately, thinking that now i can read the book mufti sahib gave me, i took out the book, and i cant express my feelings, my body was shaking, hands and feet were cold and i was crying with tears, thanking Him, asking for His forgiveness, praising Him, thinking about His sifatالودود، اللطيف،الخبير،الوهاب،الهادي،الشكور،العليم،الفتاح،العظيم …..and so on.

The mufti sahib gave me the book by the same writer,  the book which writer recommended to read at the end of muqaddimah. I learnt too many lessons, Quranic verses echoing in my mind.

الا يعلم من خلق وهواللطيف الخبير

فباي الاء ربكما تكذبان

وان تعدو نعمة الله لاتحصوها

لءن شكرتم لازيدنكم

My rab accepted many of my duas i prayed repeatedly in haram my fav. Duas,

الهم اني اسءلك حبك…..

I want your marfat, want to know you,

I want guidance, right path,

Purify my heart, remove its diseases……etc.

He showed me the path, guided me, opened the door,lead me to the way of this course, gathered all means for me. Alhamdolillah.

May Allah grant me the ability to gain his marfat, and love,and to get the advantage of all of the means He gathered for me, and to all of the seekers of His love. Aameen.

Although reading the muqaddimah improved my arabic reading and understanding, learnt application of grammer, (current grammer workshop complimented the application and understanding), style and perfectly chosen words express the thought but beside that actual thought and material and content is most important for me. Writer guided us to achieve our goal as Allah’s servent step by step, first how to establish our connection with our rab, know Him, learn the ways how to fulfil our duties toward Him as His slaves, our our ibadat will no more be the rituals, and after that dont go toward rehbaniyat, we have to show His other slaves the same path, His marfat. Specially the second last lecture about daeeyan is eye opening for all of those who work for His cause. Our goal of life in a way that

Main nay jana goya yeh bhi meray dil main hay!!!

للفقيرالي عفو ربها

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