This letter, written to Khân-i Khânân’s son Mirzâ Dârâb, informs that to
thank Allâhu ta’âlâ is to follow Islam.
May Allâhu ta’âlâ increase your energy and
help you! Both reason and the Sharî’at confirm that he who does favours
should be thanked. The degree of the thanks is dependent upon the amount of
the blessing coming. The greater the blessing, the greater the necessity to
express gratitude. As it is seen, the rich should be more thankful than the
poor, depending on the degree of wealth. It is for this reason that the poor
ones of this Ummat will go into Paradise five hundred years before the rich.
To thank Allâhu ta’âlâ, it is necessary to
have a belief compatible with what the savants of Ahl as-sunnat taught. For,
it is only this group who will be saved from Hell. After correcting the
belief, it is necessary to act compatibly with the Sharî’at. The Sharî’at
should be learned from the books of the mujtahids of this group. [It should
not be learned from a muftî who is a reformer, who knows nothing of the dîn,
from an ignorant hâfiz, or from the misguiding writings of irreligious
people, which are written in newspapers under the pretence of praising the
dîn in order to deceive young people.] Then the turn comes to tasfiya and
tazkiya on the way shown by great Sunnite men of tasawwuf.
There are great benefits in this third
stage of thanks, though it is not obligatory. But the first two stages are
obligatory. For, these two are the base, the essence of Islam. Islam
perfects and matures an individual by means of the third stage. Everything
outside these three stages, which are the belief of Ahl as-sunnat, the
commandments of the Sharî’at, and the way of great men of tasawwuf, is
nothing but sinning, disobedience and ingratitude, including troublesome
mortifications and vehement struggles.
Ancient Indian Brahmins and Greek
philosophers engaged in great acts of mortification. Yet, because they did
not adapt themselves to Prophets ‘alaihimussalâm’, all their practices were
sins rather than acts of thanksgiving to Allâhu ta’âlâ. None of them were
accepted. In the next world they will not be saved from Hell. Then, hold
fast to the way of our Sayyid, of our Master, of our Saviour, of our
Intercessor for the forgiveness of our sins, of our Specialist who cures our
hearts and souls, that is, of our Master Muhammad Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wa ’alâ âlihi wa sallam’, and to the way of his four Khalîfas! His
four Khalîfas ‘ridwânullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în’ are the guides to the
way of salvation, who will conduct you to happiness. Allâhu ta’âlâ will
bless those who walk on this way.
[To say, “May Allah bless you,” does not
mean to say that He will bless you even though you are in this state. It
means to say, “May He correct your morals and deeds and change you into a
state by which He will bless you!”]