[For a beatific and
beautiful beginning, Mawlânâ Khâlid Baghdâdî (quddisa sirruh) commences his
book by quoting the 17th letter of the third volume of the book Maktûbât by al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî
Ahmad al-Fâruqî as-Shirhindî[1] (‘rahmatullâhi ’aleyh’. Imâm-i Rabbânî ‘quddisa
sirruh’ states as follows in that letter)].
I begin my letter with
the Basmala. Infinite glory and thanks be to Allâhu ta’âlâ who bestowed upon us
all kinds of favours and honoured us by making us Muslims and valued us by
making us the Umma of Rasûlullah Muhammad (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa
sallam), which is the highest blessing.
We should meditate and
realize that Allâhu ta’âlâ alone blesses every favour upon everybody. He alone
creates everything. He alone is the One who keeps every being in existence.
Superior and good qualities of men are all His blessings and favours. Our life,
reason, knowledge, strength, sense of hearing and speech are all from Him. He
always is the One who sends innumerable blessings and favours. He is the One
who rescues human beings from trouble and distress, who accepts prayers and
keeps away grief and disaster. Only He creates sustenances and causes them to
reach us. His blessing is so bountiful that He does not cut off the sustenance
of those who commit sins. His covering sins is so great that He does not
disgrace or hold up to scorn or tear the honesty veil of those who do not obey
His commands or abstain from His prohibions. He is so forgiving, so merciful
that He does not hurry in punishing those who deserve punishment and torture
(’adhâb). He scatters His blessings and favours upon both those whom He likes
and His enemies. He does not spare anything from anybody. And as the highest,
the most precious of His benefactions, He points out the right path to
happiness and salvation. He warns us not to go astray, so that we go to
Paradise. And He orders us to adapt ourselves to His beloved Prophet
(sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) in order that we may attain all the
infinite blessings, endless and inexhaustible pleasures in Paradise, and His
own approval and love. Thus, Allâhu ta’âlâ’s blessings are as obvious as the
sun. The favours which come from others, in fact, come from Him. He, again, is
the One who makes others intermediaries and gives wish, power and strength to
do favours. For this reason,
---------------------------------
[1] Imâm-i
Rabbânî passed away in 1034 [1624 A.D.].
He is always the One who
sends all the blessings that come through all places and all people. To expect
favours from anybody but Him is like asking for something from the custodian or
asking for alms from the poor. The ignorant as well as the educated, and
blockheads as well as the intelligent and the keen know that what we say here
is right and to the point, for, everything said is obvious facts. It is not
necessary even to think them over.
He who does favours is to
be thanked and respected. Therefore, it is a human duty for every man to thank
Allâhu ta’âlâ, who has bestowed these favours. It is a debt, a duty which
wisdom commands. But it is not easy to carry out this thanksgiving due to Him,
for men, having been originally created out of nothing, are weak, indigent,
faulty and defective. As for Allâhu ta’âlâ, He always and eternally exists. He
is quite remote from defectiveness. Every kind of superiority belongs to Him
only. Men have by no means any similarity or proximity to Allâhu ta’âlâ. Can
men, who are so inferior, thank such a high being as Allâhu ta’âlâ in a manner
worthy of His Dignity? There are so many things that men consider beautiful and
precious, but He knows that they are evil and dislikes them. Things which we
consider to be reverence or thanks may be common things not liked at all. For
this reason, men, with their own defective minds and short sights, cannot
discern the things that express thanks and veneration to Allâhu ta’âlâ. Unless
the ways of thanking and respecting Allâhu ta’âlâ are shown by Him, acts that
are considered as praising may be slander.
So, the gratitude to be
shown and the human duties to be done for Allâhu ta’âlâ with the heart, tongue
and body were defined by Allâhu ta’âlâ and communicated by His beloved Prophet
(sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam)! The human duties which Allâhu ta’âlâ
showed and ordered are called Islam. One thanks Him by following the way His Prophet
taught. Allâhu ta’âlâ does not accept or like any thanks, any worship
incompatible with or outside this way, because there are many things which men
consider beautiful but which Islam disapproves of and regards as ugly.
Hence, in thanking Allâhu
ta’âlâ, people who have reason should adapt themselves to Hadrat Muhammad
(’alaihi ’s-salâm). His path is called Islam. The person following
Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm) is called a Muslim. Thanking Allâhu ta’âlâ,
that is, following Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm), is called ’ibâda (worship). Teachings of
Islam are of two parts: religious and
scientific. The former
has two branches: 1) Teachings that must be believed through the heart and are
called the teachings of usûl ad-dîn or îmân; 2) Teachings of ’ibâdât that are to be done
through the body or the heart and are called the teachings of furû’ ad-dîn,
ah’kâm al-Islâmiyya or the Sharî’a.
[The religious teachings
revealed by Islam are the teachings that are written in the books of the
scholars of Ahl as-Sunna. A person becomes a kâfir (disbeliever) if he does not believe, among the
teachings of îmân and the Sharî’a that have been reported by the scholars of
Ahl as-Sunna, even one of the nasses (âyats or hadîths) with explicit meaning.
If he keeps his disbelief secret, he is called a munâfiq. If not only he keeps it
secret but also he tries to deceive Muslims by passing himself off as a Muslim,
he is called a zindîq. If he makes ta’wîl of the nasses with e;plicit meaning
without knowing, that is, gives wrong meaning to them and believes wrongly, he
again becomes a disbeliever and is called a mulhid. If he believes wrongly by
making ta’wîl of the nasses with inexplicit meaning, he does not become a disbeliever
but, because he has departed from the right path of the Ahl as-Sunna, will go
to Hell. Since he believes in the nasses with explicit meaning, he will not
remain in Hell eternally but will be taken into Paradise. Such people are
called ahl al-bid’a or heretical groups. There are seventy-two
heretical groups. None of their ’ibâdât is acceptable. Muslims whose faith is
correct are called Ahl as-Sunnat wa ’l-Jamâ’a or Sunnîs. In relation to ’ibâdât,
the Sunnîs belong to four different madhhabs. Those who follow one of these
madhhabs acknowledge that the followers of the other three also belong to Ahl
as-Sunna, and they love one another. A person who does not follow any of these
madhhabs does not belong to Ahl as-Sunna. Further, “He who does not belong to
Ahl as-Sunna is either a disbeliever or a man of bid’a.”[1]
If a person who carries
out his ’ibâdât according to one of the four madhhabs commits sins, or if he
makes any mistakes in his ’ibâdât, Allâhu ta’âlâ will forgive him and will
never put him into Hell, if He wishes. He will torture him as much as his sins,
if He
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[1] In the letters of Imâm-ý Rabbânî,
especially in the 286th letter of the first volume and in at- Tahtâwî’s
commentary to Durr al-mukhtâr (in section “Zabâyih”) and Mawlânâ
Hamd-Allâh ad- Dâjwî’s Al-Basâ’ir li-munkîr-it-tawassuli bi ahl al-maqâbir. Both
books are in Arabic. The latter was written and printed in India and was
reproduced in Istanbul in 1395 (1975).
wishes, but later he will
be released from torture. Those who do not believe even one of the clear facts
that must be believed in Islam, that is, that are heard even by ignoramuses, are
called kâfirs (disbelievers) and will be subjected to eternal torture in
Hell. There are two types of kâfirs: The kâfir with a holy book, and the kâfir
without a holy book. If a Muslim abandons his religion, he is called a “murtadd” (renegade, apostate). Ibn
’Âbidîn (rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ) wrote in the subject on ‘people not to be
married due to polytheism’: “Renegades, mulhids, zindîqs, fireworshippers,
those members of one of the seventy-two groups who are as excessive as to
become disbelievers, people called [Brahmins, Buddhists,] Bâtinîs, Ibâhatîs and
Durzîs (Druzes), idolaters, the ancient Greek philosophers and munâfiqs are all
disbelievers without holy books.” Communists and the freemasons also are
disbelievers without holy books. Christians and Jews, who believe in revealed
books which were later interpolated, are disbelievers with books.
If a disbeliever, with a
holy book or without one, embraces Islam, he will escape going to Hell. He will
become a sinless, innocent Muslim. But he has to become a Sunnî Muslim, that
is, to read and learn the book of one of the ’ulamâ’ of Ahl as-Sunna and adapt
his îmân, acts and words to what he thus learns. In the world it is understood
from a person’s clear words and actions said and done without darûra (strong necessity
or compulsion) if he is a Muslim or not. It becomes definite at a person’s last
breath if he has gone to the next world with îmân. If a Muslim with grave sins
repents for them, he or she will surely be forgiven and become a sinless, pure
Muslim. It is explained in detail in ’ilm al-hâl books, for example, the book Endless Bliss,
what
repentance is and how it will be done.]