'Duah': Invocations to Allah- XV

By His grace, Allah (swt) has given me again the opportunity, and blessed grace, to continue on the subject of my sermon on the duahs revealed at the beginning of the Divine Manifestation. It will not be possible for me to present each of them, mentioning the day, date, time of the revelation in question, as well as the circumstances in which they were revealed to me because the sermon will become too long and it will take months and months since I’m giving a series of sermons on the subject. So I will only share with you a few of these invocations.

Allah has certainly revealed [all these invocations] to me and I will not be able to present them all [at once] for Allah, by His grace and mercy continues to reveal to me - His Khalifatullah - these duahs, as well as other revelations. He is not a God Who gives revelations for a limited time and then stops speaking (giving revelations). When He raises His chosen servant, each time He sends down messages to His Messenger and also to show that He is always there, present and that He will not forsake the Messenger He raised. He gives him messages, duahs, shows him His signs. He is more caring [and affectionate] than a parent who has just received a newborn into his home. Allah does everything for us. He is more devoted than a [human] parent to his child, especially when He sends His Messenger and [this affection and security that Allah gives him makes] enable this Messenger also not to have any fear of creatures, and he does not care of what they say and plot. These people laugh at him, call him a liar, a fool, a madman and say that he takes (Psychotropic) drugs, antidepressants - they blame the Messenger of Allah in different ways and in great quantity, but Allah is present everywhere with His angels who write what these fools say and do; each of their deeds is noted and therefore the time will come when Allah will take them in hand, whether on earth but also in the Hereafter and certainly the punishment of the Hereafter will be more painful.

A Messenger of Allah also has no need to fear what these evildoers are doing against him, for his provisions, honour, dignity, and even his mission are not in the hands of these fools. On the contrary, the more they slander the Messenger of Allah and persecute him, the more Allah will raise his rank, like a ball which, when struck, bounces and rises in the air. It is these kinds of trials, persecutions and boycotts that prove the veracity of a Messenger of Allah. So if the Creator of the Universe has sent His Messenger, why do we have to worry about what these evildoers are doing, when we know full well that their stay here on earth is temporary, and they will have to show up in the court of Allah? Each of them will be accountable for what they have done (on earth).

'Duah': Invocations to Allah- XIV

Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Allah, I continue today the 14th part of my series of sermons on the subject of “duahs” (invocations to Allah). Today I present before you the duahs which Allah revealed to me before and after He raised me as His chosen one, when I was still in the Jamaat Ahmadiyya and also when I was expelled from the Nizam-e-Jamaat on the 1st January 2001. That fateful unforgettable year, on the 7th of January I reached the age of forty, and all that occurred in the realm of spirituality, along with all the persecutions and mockeries were life-changing.

Important Dream at the Beginning of the new Islamic Era

This reminds me of a great dream I had at the beginning of the new 15th Century Hijri, one year later in November 1981. At that time, I was quite young and was clueless about the Hijri Calendar and that a new century was opening for me, as a blessing but also as a lifelong struggle for the sake of Allah. 

I dreamt that four great personalities in white, being very handsome with beautiful beards and illuminating faces came to my parental house, and sat on the sofas which were of different colours. They came with very important news about my life, what shall happen to me in the future, but what I clearly remember after all these years [for I did not keep any written records of my dreams back then] is that they foretold about the great hurdles that I would have to go through in my life but that I must not worry because Allah will remove all these hurdles and be with me. Since I had seen that dream, I was very shaken and panicked and I was hesitant to relate this to anybody. After finally relating it to a good and well-respected Muslim neighbour of mine who had deep affection for me, the latter was awestruck by what I told him and considered this as a great dream and that I was one of the favoured people of Allah. He told me that was why he liked me very much. He encouraged me to relate that dream to my parents. Being worried by what I told her, my mother told me to give away a Sadqua, and to pray [which I did]. As for my father, upon hearing about the dream, he smiled at me, and gave me such comfort that all my worries flew away instantly. He told me that it was indeed a great dream that I had seen, but why must I worry because had not these personalities [i.e. the angels] say that Allah will always be with me? 

So, this was one of the most important dream I had in my youth, prior to being raised as God’s Servant. And Allah kept giving me true dreams and visions, which at that time I could not understand, but little by little when His Divine Manifestation touched me in a way like never before, when I was nearing the age of forty, Allah showed great love and helped me in great ways just like He promised, despite the attacks on my honour and dignity as a Caller to Allah [Dai-Illallah], as a worker and missionary of Islam Ahmadiyyat. During these hard times with the evil plots of a so-called [now ex] Amir along with the people around him, Allah revealed to me many duahs as a comfort to my soul.

'Sirat Allah' and Women

Two distinct strands are visible in male attitudes towards women in different cultures before Islam. At one end of this spectrum, in idolatrous nations, in the rituals of religion, we see the celebration of women as daughters of God, making them deities and goddesses on a lofty pedestal. On the other end, in real life, women face discrimination and injustice and ‘glass ceilings’ everywhere. This glaring contradiction in religious outlook and social practice abounds, on a much larger scale, in the traditional patriarchal frameworks of our societies: the male elites claim to respect and 'worship' women deities, yet they relegate their women to an inferior position- ignoring their dignity and identity, and denying them their interests and rights on an equal footing. 

Islam emerged in an Arabian social order that was already grappling with these broad trends on the status of women. In the pre-Islamic Arabia, many people worshipped female deities and goddesses as well as angels with female names such as al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat, etc. In spite of such religious practices, like many other patriarchal societies around the world at that time and later, in pre-Islamic Arabia, the dominant male gaze betrayed a contempt for women- reflective in their preference for male progeny and regarding daughters as no more than a necessary evil. While the gender of the child should make no difference in the flow of parental love, it is the decadent social order that hinders the true appreciation of, and gratitude towards God, for the miracle of life in their midst. Indeed, to expound on its progressive outlook on women’s role and function in the social order of the believers, the Qur’an condemns the manifest contradictions in the pre-Islamic Arab attitudes on the question of women: 

‘They ascribe daughters unto God, who is limitless in His glory- whereas for themselves (they would choose, if they could , only) what they desire (male issue): for, whenever any of them is given the glad tiding of (the birth of) a girl, his face darkens, and he is filled with suppressed anger, avoiding all people because of the (alleged) evil of the glad tiding which he has received (and debating within himself:) Shall he keep this (child) despite the contempt (which he feels for it)- or shall he bury it in the dust? Oh, evil indeed is whatever they decide!’ (16: 58-60). 

‘Why for yourselves (you would choose only) male offspring, whereas to Him (you assign) female: that, lo and behold, is an unfair division!’ (53: 22-23). 

Hence, the Qur’an utterly condemns the pre-Islamic male attitudes towards the suppression of women. Female infanticide and foeticide are among the evil practices that continue to exist even in our times. The pre-Islamic practice of burying girls alive may or may not be happening on a larger scale now. However, its modern equivalents such as denying girls’ access to opportunities for developing their qualities and potentials continue to be a bane of several societies. For instance, it was only recently that the Taliban regime wanted to close down women’s education in Afghanistan. It is ironic that Muslim communities privilege pre-Islamic practices that ignore or evade or seek to bend Islamic teachings to suit their social conservatism. In the name of religion and customary practices, women are being denied ‘an equal sky’. 

'Duah': Invocations to Allah- XIII

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah, Allah by His grace, mercy and kindness has once again given me the opportunity to continue on the subject of my sermon on the duahs, more specifically the duahs which are found in the Holy Quran.

By the grace of Allah - I do not know how to thank Him for the blessed opportunities He has granted me to speak on this important subject and at the same time to take the opportunity to recite these duahs to you, and for your good and mine also. 

Certainly, all of this is the result of the Spirit [i.e. the Holy Spirit], which has been caused to descend like a flame upon me and which will intoxicate you with the love of God which flows through my heart. Caught in this state, I spend my time remembering God, not to complete some formalities or to appear so, but because God is going to make my spiritual life, which I love, dependent on this food which is the remembrance of God, just as he made the bodily life of man dependent on physical food. Just as he would swallow an unpleasant-tasting medicine to cure himself, in the same way, it is important that man persevere in his practice of Salat (prayers), and continue to beg God even if he does not derive any pleasure from it.

Faced with such a situation, we, the human race, believers in the Unique God, will have to, through the following supplication, seek pleasure and joy in our Salat, in our supplications to God. This pleasure will come little by little and that too in an illuminating way. We must pray for the mercy of Allah [Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim]:

Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa il-lam taghfir lana wa tarhamna la-na-kunanna minal-khaasirin.

Our Lord, we have acted unjustly towards ourselves! If You don’t forgive us and if You don’t have mercy on us, we will certainly be among the losers!

When you desire victory, success, and divine judgment in difficult situations, call upon God as follows:

Rabbanaftah baynana wa bayna qawmina bil-haqqi wa anta khayrul-faatihin.

Our Lord, make a decision between us and our people. You are the best of judges/ arbitrators!

Rabbana afrigh ‘alayna sabran wa tawaffana muslimin.

Our Lord, pour endurance on us and grant us death in complete submission to You!

Rumi's Poem: 'When I Die'

'I know that the day will come 

when my sight of this earth shall be lost, 

and life will take its leave in silence, 

drawing the last curtain over my eyes.

Yet stars will watch at night,

and morning rise as before,

and hours heave like sea waves 

casting up pleasures and pains.' 

                                          -------Tagore, 'Last Curtain'.

“We have indeed decreed that death shall be ever-present among you: but there is nothing to prevent Us from changing the nature of your existence and bringing you into being anew in a manner as yet unknown to you.”--- (HQ, 56: 61)

Born on 30 September 1207 and died on 17 December 1273, Hazrat Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (ra) is among the greatest saints of medieval Islam. One of the finest minds of the last millennium, Rumi’s works have truly travelled far: from the Persian-Islamic world, finding its admirers among human communes around the world,the writings are widely-read  today. Rumi means many things to many different people, and attempts are also being made to ‘secularize’ Rumi by declaring him a ‘new age poet’ in the West today; yet the fact remains that Rumi famously counselled everyone to ‘sacrifice your intellect at the feet of the Prophet.’  

His greatest work, the ‘Masnavi’ is, in many ways, a commentary to the Qur’an in the Persian language; explicitly  acknowledging at the very beginning that the Book is an exploration into the heart of Faith- in terms of unveiling the mysteries of attainment to the Truth and of certainty. Almost eight centuries after his lifetime, Rumi continues to speak to every generation through his spiritually-infused writings and poems, reminding us about the human condition through the parables and images of everyday life. Indeed Rumi’s words are quintessentially rooted in Zikrullah, in order for us to remember God and to reform our individual and social morals, and to benefit from the Divine promises for the truly devout in the life to come.

Reproduced Below is a poem from The Dîwân-é Kabîr (also known as "Kulliyat-é Shams" and "Dîwân-é Shams-é Tabrîz"; Ghazal 911):

When I Die

when my coffin

is being taken out

you must never think

I am missing this world

don't shed any tears

don't lament or feel sorry

I'm not falling

into a monster's abyss

when you see

my corpse is being carried

don't cry for my leaving

I'm not leaving

I'm arriving at eternal love

'Duah': Invocations to Allah- XII

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah - By the Grace of Allah, it is the twelfth week today since I have been speaking to you about “duahs” (invocations or supplications to Allah, The Unique God) in my Friday sermons. Today I present to you some “duahs” that are found in the Holy Quran. All the movements in prayers [be it in Salat & duahs] express the deepest humility before God. The tongue and heart, body and soul come together to sing the praises of God and to praise His Glory and Greatness, and to express verbally and concretely the most complete state of weakness and humility of man. In the Holy Quran Allah (swt) has shown us many duahs through His Messengers. Now I present to you these few Quranic duahs. 

To seek the good of this world and the hereafter:

Rabbana aatina fid-dunya hasanataww wa fil ‘akhirati hasanataww waqina ‘azaaban-naar. Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the hereafter, and save us from the chastisement of the fire!  

Rabbana hablana min azwaajina wa zurriy-yatina, qurrata ayuniww-wa-jalna lil-muttaqeena Imaama. Our Lord! Grant unto us wives and offspring who will be the comfort of our eyes, and give us (the grace) to lead the righteous. 

Rabbi innii limaa anzalta ilayya min khayrin faqiir. My Lord, I am in great need of whatever good You bestow on me.  

'Duah': Invocations to Allah- XI

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah I continue on the series of sermons on “duahs” (invocations). Today, we shall hear the invocations which the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) used to pray. He gave importance to Salat (prayer) and how to beautify our Salat with duahs (invocations) and praises of Allah and His Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh).

The Promised Messiah (as) says: Salat is very important and it is the apex of the spiritual exaltation of the true believer. Salat is the best medium of interacting with God in prayer.  

Salat is nothing but presenting oneself before God Almighty, and it is a combination of praising God and an attempt at the expiration of one’s sins. One who does not keep these purposes in view, derives no benefit from Salat. Therefore, you must perform Salat in the best possible manner. When you are in the standing posture, your whole appearance must reflect the fact that you are standing before God in all humility. When you bow before Him in Salat, it must be a reflection of the bowing of your heart. When you fall prostrate, your manner must be that of a man who is inspired by fear of God. And pray a lot for your spiritual as well as material uplift. (Al-Hakam, 31 May 1903).