This letter, written to Muhammad Murād-i Badahshī, says to be careful about the tadīl-i arkān and the tumānīnat in namāz, about putting in order the lines
(of worshippers) in a mosque, about correcting ones intention when going out to fight against
disbelievers, about the namāz of tahajjud (the namāz which is performed after midnight) and about choosing ones food from what is halāl (permitted by Islam):
Thanks be to Allāhu taālā. Salām, solace to those human slaves of His whom He has chosen and loved! Your letter has arrived. It pleases us to know that our friends and those whom we love have not deviated from the right way. May Allāhu taālā increase your being and remaining on the right way! We and our friends have been continuing to do the duty which you assigned to us. We have been performing namāz five times each day in a congregation of fifty to sixty people, you say. May hamd-u thanā be to Allāhu taālā for this! What a great blessing it is when the heart is with Allāhu taālā and the body, together with all the limbs, is embellished with doing the rules of the Sharīat. Recently, most people have been slack in performing namāz. They have been slighting the tumānīnat and the tadīl-i
arkān. For this reason, I have to warn you, my beloved ones, about this matter. Listen well! Our Prophet sallallāhu alaihi wa sallam declared: The worst thief is the person who steals from his own namāz. When he was asked, O Rasūlallah! How can a person steal from his own namāz? he said, By not doing the rukū and sajda of the namāz properly. At some other time he declared: Allāhu taālā does not accept the namāz of a person who does not bring his waist into its proper position and remain so for a while in rukū and sajda. Once, upon seeing a person not doing the rukū and the sajda properly while performing namāz, our Prophet sallallāhu alaihi wa sallam said, Arent
you afraid you may die in some other religion than Hadrat Muhammads alaihissalātu wassalām dīn because you perform your prayers of namāz in this manner? Once again, he said, When performing namāz, if you do not straighten up your body completely after the rukū, if your each limb does not rest at its position for a while when you are standing, your namāz will not be complete. Once again, he said, Unless you sit upright between the two sajdas your namāz will remain incomplete. One day, upon seeing someone not observing the rules and rukns of salāt, not standing upright after the rukū and not sitting between the sajdas, our Prophet sallallāhu alaihi wa sallam said, If you go on performing your prayers of namāz in this manner, on the Day of Resurrection you will not be said to be of my Ummat. At some other
time he said, If you go on in this manner and die, you shall not have died in the religion of Muhammad (alaihissalām). Abū
Hurayra radiyallāhu anh says, The person who has performed all his prayers of namāz for sixty years but whose namāz has never been accepted is the person who has not done the rukū and sajda properly. Zayd ibni Wahab saw someone performing namāz but not doing the rukū and sajda properly. He called him out and asked him, How long have you been performing namāz in this manner? When the latter answered, Forty years, he said, You have not performed namāz for forty years. If you die now you will not die in the Sunnat (Sharīat) of Hadrat Muhammad.
It is said in the book Awsāt by Tabarānī rahmatullāhi taālā aleyh that if a Believer performs his namāz beautifully and does its rukū and sajda properly, the namāz will become happy and will be full of nūr. Angels will take the namāz up to heavens. The namāz will pronounce a benediction on the person who has performed it and will say, As you have protected me against being defective, may Allāhu taālā protect you. If the namāz is not performed well it will become black. Angels will snub that namāz and will not take it up to the heavens. The namāz will curse the person who has performed it and will say, As you have wasted me and put me into a bad position, may Allāhu taālā waste you. Then, we should try to perform our prayers of namāz properly,
observe the tadīl-i arkān, do the rukū, the sajda, the qawma (standing upright after the rukū) and the jalsa (sitting upright between the two sajdas) well. Also, we should warn others if we see them do these defectively. We should help our brothers-in-Islam perform namāz properly. We should be an example in observing the tadīl-i arkān and the tumānīnat. Most Muslims have been depriving themselves of the honour of doing this. This blessing has already been lost. It is very important to revivify this good deed. Our Prophet declared: He who resuscitates any one of my forgotten sunnats will be given the thawāb of a hundred martyrs.
Also, we should bu scrupulous in putting the lines in order when performing namāz in jamāat. We should not stand ahead of or behind the line we belong to. Everybody should try to stand on the same straight line. Our Prophet sallalāhu alaihi wa sallam would first straighten the lines and then begin namāz. Straightening the lines is a part of namāz, he would say. O our Allah! Give us a share from Thine Infinite Treasure of Mercy! Do not let any of us deviate from the right way!
O my lucky, fortunate brother! Deeds and worship will be valid with the intention. When going out for war against
disbelievers one should first check ones intention. After this only will one get the thawāb. Ones purpose in going to war should be to spread and exalt Allahs name, dīn, and to defeat and weaken the enemies of the dīn. [It should be to communicate Allahs dīn to His slaves, to rescue people from disbelief, from ignorance, to make them attain īman, and endless bliss. One should not go out for jihād (holy war) in order to kill or hurt men. Jihād is to rescue disbelievers from disbelief by force.] For, we Muslims have been commanded this, and this is what jihād means. One should not deprive oneself of the thawāb of jihād by intending for other things. The Ghāzīs (fighters for Islam) receiving a salary from the Baytulmāl (treasury of an Islamic State) does not do away with
the jihād or the thawāb for jihād. [All other worships also are acceptable on condition that they be done for Allahs sake and you intend so.] Evil purposes will defile the worship. One should check ones intention, take the salary and go out for the jihād, and then expect the thawāb of ghāzī and shahīd (martyr). I admire you for the state you are in. You have been honoured with your hearts being with Allāhu taālā and your all limbs performing namāz in jamāat and also performing jihād against the enemies of the dīn and disbelievers [and spreading Allahs dīn among disbelievers]. He who comes back from ghazā alive becomes a ghāzi, a mujāhid. He who becomes a martyr gets many thawābs, many blessings. I should repeat, however, that these are only after one has purified ones intention. If pure intention will not come
to your heart, compel yourself to intend so and pray to Allāhu taālā earnestly so that such an intention will be inspired into your heart!
O our Allah! Increase Thine nūr, Thine blessings which Thou hast bestowed on us. Cover our sins, our faults! We have so many faults, sins. Yet Thou art capable of everything. Thou canst do everything!
Another piece of advice which I would like to give my beloved friends being there is that you should perform the namāz of
tahajjud. [That is, you should perform namāz towards the end of the night.] Our superiors always performed this kind of namāz. As I told you when you were here, if you cannot wake up at that time, tell others in the house to wake you. Tell them not to let you remain in the sleep of unawareness. Thus, after practising this getting up for a few nights, you will get used to getting up by yourself easily, and will attain this great fortune.
One more piece of advice is that you should be careful about
the morsels you eat. It is not good for a Muslim to eat anything he finds at any place. He should consider if the morsels are coming to him through the halāl or harām. Man is not so absolute as to do everything he plans, everything which occurs to his mind. We have our Owner, our Creator. There are His commandments and prohibitions. He has informed us of the things He likes and those He dislikes through His Prophets alaihimussalātu wattaslīmāt, who are His compassion for all classes of beings. So unfortunate and miserable is the person who craves for what his Owner reproves. He wants to use everything without his Owners permission. Shame on such people; they do not use anything without asking its transitory owner in this world if they may use it; they observe the rights
of these unreal owners; but, though the real Owner of these things has vehemently and so strictly prohibited the things He reproves and has threatened those who do them with heavy punishments, they take no heed of His word; they just ignore His word. Is this the state of being Muslim, or is it disbelief? One should think seriously! Now the time of death has not come, and the opportunity has not been missed yet. It is possible to rectify, to correct ones past faults. For the hadīth, He who performs tawba (asking for Allahs forgiveness) for his sin becomes as if he did not sin at all, is glad tidings for those who have faults. But if a man commits sins on purpose, tells everybody that he does so, and does not feel ashamed, he becomes a
munāfiq. His false pretence to be a Muslim will not save him from torment. What is the need of saying more words, more offensive words? A signal would do for a wise person.
Let me add that at dreadful places and when facing the enemy you should recite the sūra of Li īlāfī so that you feel safe and comfortable. It has been experienced. Every day and every night you should say it, at least eleven times. A hadīth declares: If a person who arrives at some places says the prayer Aūdhu bikalimātillāhi t-tāmmāti min sharri mā khalaqa nothing will harm him until he leaves the place. [In order to get rid of something dreadful or to get your wish, you should write from the thirty-seventh āyat up to the end of the thirty-ninth āyat of the sūra of Tāhā in ink on a sheet of paper, then wrap it up seven times with some material, and keep it. Its benefit
has been experienced many times.] May Allāhu taālā give safety to those who follow the right way! Âmīn.