Sunday, April 29, 2012

Time Planning is an Islamic Virtue


In his Friday Sermon of April 27, 2012, Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib of Mauritius (atba) continued his discourse on the significance of leading a full life in this world. Good deeds form half of the Faith. Believers are to diligently pursue their noble objectives on every single day of their lives. One must rank one’s priorities and set objectives in terms of importance and try to accomplish each of these tasks in the required time. The main duty or sacred duty (Farz deed) must be fulfilled before performing a supererogatory one, and this is equally valid for other cases. Exploit (your) time fairly and effectively’ and ‘not be among the thoughtless and forgetful’, exhorts the Messenger of Allah of our times.

Read the Extracts from the Sermon:

“...There is no favour to any particular person where time is concerned. This is because the latter is split equally between men. But some have more merit in how to manage, operate and profit from it. Allah (swt), who evaluated time, and shared it among His servants, distinguished some moments that are better than others.

In terms of ritual actions, Allah (swt) has spared some time for the seasons where expected rewards are increased, as the month of Ramadan and the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah. Other moments are more favourable to the fulfillment of prayers, as the last third of every night, every Friday afternoon, the breaking of the fast for the faster, and the sacred night (Laila-tul-Qadr) in the month of Ramadan!

Every day you have before you a moment in the morning, a moment in the evening and another at dawn, where you can raise your pure mind to the heavens to win both favours of this world and the hereafter. Before you, there are the seasons of the submission, the days of meditation and nights of sacrifices, to which you refer to the Holy Book (the Quran) and the teaching of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). Try then to be among those who remember and call on their Lord, and not be among the thoughtless and forgetful. Be those who act, not of those who laze. Enjoy your time, time is like the sword, and neglect procrastination because there is nothing more harmful.

Monday, April 23, 2012

What Ails Islam Today ?


Enjoining good and forbidding evil is one of the primary obligations of the believers in Islam. It is indeed a very firm pillar of Islam upon which the branches of faith are held. Yet today, the different groups within the Ummah have turned this pillar of faith on its head. They viciously compete among themselves for forbidding good and enjoining evil. They leave a trail of blood of fellow Muslim brothers murdered in the streets and even in the MosquesIn his Friday Sermon of April 13, 2012 Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius continued his magisterial survey on the spiritual ailments that afflict the Islamic world today. True Muslims have become rare’, observes the Messenger of Allah. Drawing upon the sacred traditions of the Holy Prophet (sa), the Khalifatullah shows how the Ahmadiyya Community and the wider Islamic world have drifted away from the quintessential spirit of the religion.  

Read the Extracts from the Sermon:

“...I shall put before you a Hadith reported by Hazrat Aisha (ra): 

The Messenger of Allah (sa) came (home) and from the expression on his blessed face, I understood that something was wrong. He did not utter any word. After performing his ablution, he went directly to the Mosque. I (Aisha) also went near the wall of the Mosque to listen to what he had to say. The Messenger of Allah (sa) stood up on the pulpit and after praising Allah, said: 

O Muslims, Allah has ordered you to enjoin good and forbid evil, otherwise a time shall come when you shall invoke (Allah), and He (Allah) shall not respond, you shall ask a favour of Him (Allah) and He shall not give you and you shall seek help from Him and He shall refuse.” (Targhib)

In another Hadith, Hazrat Abu Huraira narrated that the Messenger of Allah has said: “When my community shall begin to give much more importance to this (temporal) world over the next world, and consider it as a source of honour, fear (of God) and the value of Islam shall disappear from their hearts. When you shall stop enjoining good and forbid evil, you shall be deprived from the blessings of revelation, and when each shall criticise one another, you shall fall into disgrace in the sight of Allah.” (Hakim)

Therefore, from these two Hadiths which I have put before you, it is clear that when you leave this message which is to be put into practice, that is “Amr bil Ma’ruf wa nahi anil Munkar” (Enjoin good and forbid evil), it is a fact that this is the primary reason which has brought about the wrath, displeasure and curse of Allah (on Muslims).

Sunday, April 22, 2012

The Decline of Muslim Spirituality- II


The task of real spirituality is to restore the sublime faith in Allah the Almighty and to reflect the Divine attributes through the moulding of purified individuals. Islam perfected and preserved in itself the purpose of all religions which preceded it by recognizing the divine revelations of the past. Further, it channelized the continuity of Divine revelations through itself for all times to come. Leading the world on spiritual purification was the heavy responsibility cast on the shoulders of the Muslim Ummah by the Creator of the Universe. Contemporary Muslim leaders have failed to recognize the extraordinary magnitude of the task, nor could they preserve the solid faith of the early Muslims.

In his Friday Sermon of April 06, 2012 Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius continued his discourse on the ways in which true faith has deserted the present day Muslims. Drawing upon the prescient prophecies of the Holy Prophet (sa), he sketches the causes of spiritual decline. The preservation of the true faith and real spirituality is a Divine Promise engraved upon the Holy Qur’an by Allah the Almighty Himself. At a time when the sectarian divisions have proliferated among Muslims and the spirit of Islam has gone away from the life of Muslims, the raising of a Khalifa by Allah- Khalifatullah- is in tune with the enduring Divine practice.

Read the Extracts from the Sermon:

“By time, indeed, mankind is in loss, Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.” (103: 1-4)

Like I explained in my sermon last Friday, history has proved that the first Muslims reached the highest degrees of honour and glory whereas Muslims today have taken the opposite route. It is clear according to these verses that the first Muslims reached such a dignified status in life because their faith was solid and they had excellent character.

In contrast, today the situation of the Muslims has become deplorable because there is lots of weakness in our faith and character. It is the opposite of what was found in the first Muslims. Therefore it would not be untrue to say that nowadays, we have just preserved our names as Muslims! In the same context, the truthful Messenger of Allah the Almighty, Hazrat Muhammad (sa) foretold: “There shall be a time soon when Islam shall exist in name only, and the Quran shall exist only in writing.”