All the attributes of
Allâhu ta’âlâ manifest themselves in every creature, in the tiniest vestiges.
For instance, as His attributes of mercy and kindness manifest themselves, so
do His attributes of wrath, dudgeon and tormenting appear. He creates uses and
harms in every substance, in everything. Man presumes luscious, pleasurable
things to be useful at the same time, and this presumtion misleads him. Allâhu
ta’âlâ, who is very compassionate, has sent Prophets, announced the uses and
the harms in everything, commanded doing what is useful and prohibited doing
what is harmful. He has termed these commandments Fard (Farz) and the
prohibitions Harâm or Dunyâ (World). These commandments
and prohibitions as a whole are expressed with the term Sharî’at. The meaning
of the interdiction, “Avoid the world!” is, “Avoid (committing) harâms!”
Another meaning of the word “Dunyâ” is “Life before death”. None of the worldly
pleasures and flavours is harâm (forbidden). What is prohibited is using them
in a harmful way. It is either farz or sunnat to use them in a useful way.
Different organs of the body enjoy and take pleasure from different things, and
so is the case with the heart and the nafs.
All man’s limbs are under
the heart’s command. This heart, which we term ‘qalb’, is not something
visible. It is a sort of power embodied
in the piece of flesh that we (also) call ‘heart’.
The nafs enjoys
committing harâms. The devil and the nasf on the one hand and the evil company
on the other, which subsumes not only misleading words and writings by harmful
friends but also deluding radio and television broadcast, are prone to beguile
man and tempt the heart to committing harâms.
A person who has Îmân in his heart, i.e. who
believes in the fact that Muhammed ‘alaihis-salâm’ is the Prophet, is called
a Muslim. A Muslim
has to adapt all his actions to the Sharî’at of Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ and
learn this Sharî’at from books written by those true scholars whom we call Ahl
as-sunna. He should not read religious books
written by people without a Madh-hab. As he adapts himself to the
Sharî’at, he will gradually take a dislike to the world , that is, to harâms.
Once the heart is emptied of the desire to commit harâms, love of Allah will
pour into it. It is like that when a bottle is emptied of the water it has been
containing air will immediately take the water’s place. Senses unknown to us
will develop in such a heart. It will begin
to perceive the entire
world, even life in the grave. It will hear a sound wherever it is. Wherever
there is a sound it will hear it. All his worships and prayers will be
accepted. He will lead a peaceful and happy life.