Informs about how to hold fast to the Sharî’at and about the importance of namâz:
The letter has arrived, which you, remembering this man forgotten in some nook, sent through my brother Mawlânâ Muhammad Hanîf Kâbilî. Reading it, we were very much pleased. And reading about your attachment to Allâhu ta’âlâ, who has no partner or likeness, and about the fact that you have been burning with the fire of His love, we rejoiced all the more. What a great blessing it is if Allâhu ta’âlâ places His love into the heart of a slave of His and burns him with separation from Him, especially
during the fitna and zulmat of this latest time! He should appreciate the blessing and be thankful. Incessantly, he should struggle to augment it and hope that the divine love will reach its summit. He should not attach his heart to anything but the real desired One, nor should he busy with useless things. The fire of love burning up the curtain of egoism and self-respect, which originates from the excessiveness and overrunning of the nafs-i ammâra, the heart should be illuminated with the sacred lights of that perfection which is eternal in the past as well as in the future. “If you are thankful for My blessings I shall increase them,” He has declared in an âyat.
O my lucky, fortunate brother! Since you have been desiring to walk on the way of Allah’s beloved slaves, you should observe the conditions and adabs of the way! First of all, it is necessary to hold fast to the Sunnat-i saniyya and avoid bid’ats. For, these two are the essence of the way that makes one attain Allah’s love. You should adapt your deeds, words and moral qualities to the words and books of those pious slaves who know and love Islam. You should be like the pious slaves and love them. Your sleeping, your eating, your talking should be temperate rather than excessive. You should strive to get up by the time of sahar [at the end of each night before imsâk]. You should know it as a great chance to say istighfâr, to weep, to beg Allâhu ta’âlâ at such times. You should long to keep company
with the pious. Do not forget the saying: “One’s faith is like one’s friend’s faith!” Be it known that those who want the next world [endless bliss] should not be fond of mundane flavours.
If you cannot cease from those flavours which are mubâh (permitted), avoid, at least, the forbidden and dubious ones so that your salvation in the Hereafter may be hoped for. However, it is necessary to pay the zakât of every kind of gold and silver property, of those animals grazing in fields, of commercial goods, and the ’ushr of the crops obtained from land, from fields and from trees. The amounts that are to be given out of them are explained in books of fiqh.
You should pay zakât and fitra willingly to the people prescribed by the Sharî’at. You should visit your relatives, or please their hearts by writing to them. You should observe the rights of your neighbours. You should be charitable to the poor, to those who want to borrow money. You should not spend your property, your money on anything prohibited by the Sharî’at, nor should you waste it on anything permitted. [You should abstain
from interest (money charged or paid for the use of money), from any kind of games of chance whether gambling or not. You should not spend your money on games, on harâms, on musical instruments, on adorning yourself, on ostentation, on boasting, or on stocking property.] When these are well cared for, your property will be protected against harm, and what is worldly will be for the Hereafter. And maybe they will no longer be called worldly.
Know that namâz is the pillar of the dîn. A person who performs namâz has put his dîn right. The dîn of a person who does not perform namâz will be demolished. You should perform your prayers of namâz at their mustahab times, suitably with their conditions and adabs. These are explained in books of fiqh. You should perform the prayers of namâz in jamâ’at, try to say the first takbîr together with the imâm, and find a place in the first line. [It is not permissible, if one has come to the mosque rather late, to annoy the assembly by breaking one’s way through the lines in order to go up to the first line.] In case you have not observed one of these, you should mourn. When a mature Muslim begins to perform namâz, he sort of goes out of the world. For, very little of the blessing of approaching
Allâhu ta’âlâ is attainable in the world. It is, if any, an approaching to the zil, to the shade, to the vision. But the Hereafter is the place for being close to the essence. So, in namâz one goes to the Hereafter and enjoys one’s share from the great felicity there. Those who have been thirsty burning with the fire of separation can cool and assuage themselves only with the life-giving water from the fountain of namâz. Only under the tent-flaps of the bride of namâz can those who are paralysed in the sahara of the greatness of the Supreme Being perceive the astounding smell of approaching the beloved one. The Messenger of Allâhu ta’âlâ said, “When a Believer begins to perform namâz the gates of Paradise will open for him. The curtains between his Allah and him will go up. The hûru’în of
Paradise will meet him. This state will go on until the namâz is over.”
Until you find one of the great leaders of this way, utilize your time by reading the Qur’ân, worshipping and reciting the prayers and tasbîhs prescribed in valuable books and hadîths. This faqîr (Hadrat Muhammad Ma’thûm means himself) had gathered some of these prayers, tasbîhs and worships. Mawlânâ Muhammad Hanîf borrowed them. Spend most of your time saying the word ‘lâ ilâha illâ-Allah.’ It is so effective in purifying the heart. It will
be good if you keep saying it for a while each day. It can be said without an ablution as well as with an ablution. Deem it as a capital for happiness to love the great leaders of this way. Know that this love is the strongest means for making progress on this way. Translation of a Persian couplet:
I give you the key to the treasure you’ve been looking for!
Maybe some day you’ll get there, though we haven’t heretofore!
May Allâhu ta’âlâ give you and the other travellers of the right way safety and facilities!
[The book Dürr-i yektâ Şerhi says that the word salât which is commanded in many âyats of the Qur’ân al-kerîm is the prayers which is performed five times a day by doing the specific acts which are commonly known. Our Prophet ‘sallallâhu alaihi wa sallam’ stated that salât meant to do some particular acts and to recite some particular prayers, and he himself did so, too. The fact that this is so was taught to the Tabi’în by Ashab-i kirâm; then they taught it to Taba’i tabi’în, and thus these teachings reached us by way of tawâtur through an unbroken chain of scholars throughout the centuries. (Tawâtur means the transmission of a message from mouth to mouth. These tawâtur teachings have
spread throughout the world through books written by Ahl as-sunna scholars.) If some heretics and atheists who claim to be shaikhs of mystic orders say to uneducated Muslims, “I have disenthralled you from performing salât. Don’t do that from now on,” or “The salât commanded by Allâhu ta’âlâ is not getting up and down or reciting particular things. It means to repeat the names of Allâhu ta’âlâ and to think of His greatness,” this denial of theirs may mislead Muslims. In this case, it will be a must to kill them by the court’s verdict. Once under arrest, the tawba they make will not be valid. A person who denies the salât, that is, who does not believe that salât is a duty, is called a disbeliever. A person who believes that salât is a duty but does not perform it because of indolence is called a fâsiq (sinner). That
is, he will have committed a grave sin. He is kept in prison until he begins to perform salât. It will be necessary for him to perform the salâts he has omitted and also make tawba (repentance). The citation from the book Dürr-i yektâ ends here.
We should learn how to perform namâz, how to perform the omitted namâz and all other Islamic information from books written by Ahl as-sunnat savants. We should not believe the falsely adorned articles and sweet words of the insidious enemies
Islam had its shaikh-ul-Islâms, that is, chiefs of religious affairs, and Islamic muftîs. There were also times when there were state officials called muftîs. We should not mistake Islamic muftîs and the officials called muftîs for each other. Islamic muftîs were scholars who communicated the commands and prohibitions of Allâhu ta’âlâ, that is, the Sharî’at. But the officials called muftîs did not themselves know the Sharî’at. When something prohibited by Allâhu ta’âlâ was commanded by the laws they would not say that it was not permissible to do it. If the laws prohibited something commanded by Allâhu ta’âlâ they would not say it was necessary to do it. They would either keep quiet or say something to the contrary. Thus, they themselves would go out of Islam, misguiding Muslims towards sins
and disbelief. During those times when the soldiers of Jenghis spread over Muslim countries, ruined mosques and massacred Muslims, during the time of Fâtimîs and Rasûlîs, even during the time of Abbâsîs, such state officials called muftîs said ‘permissible’ about harâms. They even said that the Qur’ân was a creature. Whereas these state officials called muftîs gave such false fatwâs and caused Islam to be demolished, those who followed books of fiqh and ilmihâl remained on the right way, thus saving their faith.
Fatwâ means to inform if something is suitable with the Sharî’at. It would not be fatwâ to say only that it is ‘suitable’ or ‘not permissible.’ It is necessary also to give reference to the book of fiqh wherefrom the answer has been derived, including the concerned part of the book. Those fatwâs which are not suitable with the books of fiqh are wrong. It is not permissible to depend on them. Those who read âyats and hadîths without learning, knowing Islamic teachings and who interpret them in accordance with their own mental capacities and points of view are not called Islamic savants. They may be Arabic-knowing interpreters, like priests in Beirut. No matter how well, ornamentedly and brightly they speak and write, they are no good. Allâhu ta’âlâ does not like or accept words and writings
which disagree with rules inferred by Ahl as-sunnat savants or with the books of fiqh written by them.
Ibni Âbidîn, while explaining qâdîs, that is, judges, on the three hundred and first page of its fourth volume, writes, “It is unsuitable for a sinner to be a muftî. Fatwâs given by him are not to be relied on. For, it is one of the matters of the dîn to give fatwâ. A sinner’s words in the matters of the dîn are not
acceptable. It is so according to the other three Madhhabs, too. It is not permissible to ask such muftîs anything. According to the unanimity [of savants], it is a condition that a muftî should be a Muslim and discreet. A fatwâ given by a just, pious woman or by a dumb person is acceptable. A muftî or a judge should give fatwâs in accordance with Imâm-i azam Abû Hanîfa’s word. If he does not find in his words what he has been looking up, he should follow Imâm-i Abû Yûsuf’s word. If he does not find it in his words, he should follow Imâm-i Muhammad Shaybânî’s word. Next to his comes Imâm-i Zufar’s word to be followed, and then comes Hasan bin Ziyâd’s word. Those muftîs who are mujtahids in the Madhhab, that is, those who are ashâb-i tarjih,
will choose the ones with strong evidences among the ijtihâds. Those who are not mujtahids will follow the judgement preferred by the former. Judgements of the muftîs and judges who do not do so are not acceptable. This means to say that on those matters in which the ashâb-i tarjih have not made a choice it is necessary to follow Imâm-i a’zâm’s word. As it is seen, a muftî should be a mujtahid in a Madhhab. He who is not so is not called a muftî but he is called a conveyor, a narrator, he who conveys a fatwâ. The conveyors take the fatwâs from well-known books. These books have the same value as well-known, mutawâtir reports. It is written at the end of the madhbata (protocol) in the preface to Majalla, “When there are various ijtihâds for a matter that is not reported clearly
by a Nass and how to do which is inferred by ijtihâd, in doing it it is wâjib to follow the ijtihâd which Hadrat Imâm ul-muslimîn commands (us) to follow.”]
It is written in the book Radd-i Wahhâbî that the meaning of the âyat, “If you cannot come to an agreement on some matter, learn the truth of that matter from Allah and from Rasûlullah,” is, “If you cannot come to an agreement on how to do something, the learned ones [’ulamâ] among you must learn how to do it from Allah’s book and from Rasûlullah’s Sunnat. And the unlearned ones must do it by following the learned ones’ inference.” As it is seen, this âyat-i kerîma commands us to imitate the imâms of Madhhabs. Ibni Humâm says in the book Fat’h-ul-Qadîr, “A muftî has to be a mujtahid. A man of the dîn who is not an ’âlim in the grade of ijtihâd cannot be a muftî. If a non-mujtahid
man of the dîn is appointed a muftî, he will have to read and learn and quote the mujtahids’ statements.” The book Kifâya says in the subject of fasting, “When a non-mujtahid man of the dîn hears a hadîth, he cannot act upon his own inference
from the hadîth. He has to act upon the fatwâ which the mujtahids gave after learning the matter from âyats and hadîths. If he does not do so he will have disobeyed the wâjib.” The same is written in the book Taqrîr.