In the light of this verse which I have read before
you, I am thus continuing my sermon on the Remembrance of Allah. The
Remembrance of Allah (Zikr Allah) is so important that since the creation of this universe, Allah has talked
a lot about it, and both the Holy Qur'an and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) have
stressed a lot on the Remembrance of Allah. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to personally engage himself in the Remembrance of Allah; wherever he went, he
used to remember Allah a lot and he also advised his companions and all the people found in his community and
also humanity at large to engage themselves in the Remembrance of Allah, even
though these people have rejected him, and that they do not believe in Islam,
in the Book of Allah
and His teachings.
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: "Engage yourselves completely in the Remembrance of Allah to such an extent that people consider you mad."
This Hadith is clear enough. When you come to know the
real value of the Remembrance of Allah, and you do not neglect such an act of
worship wherever you may be, be it at work, you do not want to lose this grace
and divine favour. In lieu of singing while doing any work, you would want to
engage yourselves in the Remembrance of Allah. Instead of walking with a 'walkman' and earphones on the street,
and singing, and swaying to the music — be it wherever you are — you should
engage yourselves in
the Remembrance of Allah, for these things are a waste of time and can lead you
all the more in the path
chosen by Satan. Is it not important that you remember your Creator? When you
engage yourselves in His remembrance, you are reassured that Allah will be with
you, and will protect you against all sorts of dangers and moreover, you will
become the beloved of Allah.
If you engage yourselves in the Remembrance of Allah,
people will take you as a madman, but this in fact is a blessing and honour, for
you have become intoxicated (mad) in the Remembrance of Allah and not in such useless things as
singing, listening to music, or becoming mad in the lust of this world and
satanic passion. Instead one must become crazy in the path of Allah. Not all
people obtain these titles. When doing a work or an act of worship only for the pleasure of Allah,
in return you obtain satisfaction, contentment, whereby your face radiates with the light of Allah.
When you read the Holy Qur'an, you will see that Allah the Almighty has
not established anything as obligatory without first fixing a limit, and saying that He is
forgiving, and accepts the repentance of His servants.
But for the Remembrance of Allah, no limit has been
set. As long as one has the faculty of reasoning and is conscious of what he is
doing, like Allah says in Chapter 33 Verse 41: "Remember Allah with much remembrance."
Allah the Almighty has put so much emphasis on His Remembrance that you
would come to think that nothing
is precious in this world (except the Remembrance of Allah). If one abandons
the Remembrance of Allah, this would
be a great loss for him in this life, and Satan would succeed to grip himself
firmly to him and rip him away from remembering Allah, and thus that person
would find Zikr Allah
as a great burden for him.
There are a few people compared to other people, who do such acts of
worship as the five daily prayers, the propagation of Islam, and the
Remembrance of Allah. There are others who fear creatures like themselves, and think that if
they do such acts of worship, this can become an obstacle for them at their workplace, or that their friends
will laugh at them, or if he spreads the message of Islam, his relation with other people of other
religions will be severed. Another possibility is that he is shy to please the Creator and has more fear of
creatures than he should have for the Creator. One must know that when one
leaves a good action for fear of the reaction of people, this is complete
hypocrisy. And if you are doing good actions only for the eyes of creatures,
this is really Shirk (Associating other divinities to Allah).
On the contrary, anywhere that you may be, be it with
your friends or any other people, when the time for prayer has come, you must
not await the reaction of people. You must look after your own person, and
address yourselves to your Creator, for the key of all good actions is the
Remembrance of Allah. Thus you would be under the protection of Allah and Satan
would not be able to turn your attention away from Allah, and would not be able to attract you towards him.
Instead of that, the more you would be engaging yourselves in the Remembrance of Allah,
this action of yours can bring other friends or people to ask questions and this can even touch their
hearts, and enable them to perform good deeds also.
In another way, we can also say that they can be
touched with your actions (acts of worship done only for the pleasure of
Allah), and thus they also would want to do good deeds in return and turn
towards Allah. This makes me recall
a Hadith where the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has said:
"The best amongst you are those when looking at them makes you remember
Allah, when listening to them your
knowledge of religion increase and when seeing their actions, you develop love for the Next World."
The more elevated rank is when one encounters these
two forms of solitude (physical and mental). To better understand this; if you are in a mundane
meeting, and despite that, you succeed in removing from your heart all sorts of thoughts
and think uniquely on Allah and engage yourselves in His Remembrance, to such an extent
that tears rolls down your cheeks, in this case, you have removed from your heart all that which is not-God. Only Allah, the Creator of the universe remains in your heart. At that moment, nothing of this world
would appeal to you, and would not affect you. Wherever you would be, your heart would always be
attracted towards the Remembrance of Allah.
The one, who cries in fear and for the love of Allah,
is indeed a fortunate person whereby he has achieved a great stage of spirituality.
In a Hadith, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) has said that: "The fire of Hell is forbidden for the eyes which have
remained awake in the path of Allah, the eyes which have remained far from forbidden things, and
eyes which have lost themselves in the path of Allah."
Fortunate are the ones who do not miss a single moment of their lives in
engaging themselves in the Remembrance
of Allah. Moreover, the rewards which they will obtain for their acts of
worship (exterior) will be seventy times
more because of the Remembrance of Allah which they used to do at each single moment of their
lives.
It is this which gives Satan lots of worries. One who
engages himself in the Remembrance of Allah with complete sincerity and moreover remains firm in his
concentration on Allah, whereby he cuts himself with all things of this temporal world, there is
nothing more precious than this moment of Remembrance of Allah. This is a means to repel Satan
and weakening him. When engaging yourselves in the Remembrance of Allah, you
would obtain the pleasure of Allah in your hearts, minds and each and every
problem and worry would disappear easily from your body and heart, leaving you in
peace. This thus brings joy, contentment
and even light in your heart and face.
Through the Remembrance of Allah, your personality
change (by the grace of Allah). You begin to develop humility within
yourselves, and all people around you develop respect and show joyfulness when
they look at you. The more you perform Zikr Allah, the more you will come
nearer to Allah. But mind
you, if you neglect the Remembrance of Allah, the more you will become far away
from Allah.
O members of the Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam, Remembrance of Allah is
necessary for the heart like water is vital for the fish.
Think for a moment how a fish would be without water.
The more you will plunge yourselves into the Remembrance of Allah, the more you would be plunging
in divine knowledge. The Remembrance of Allah in itself is a vast subject, just
like Fear of Allah (Taqwah) is a vast subject, whereby we will never stop understanding about its
importance. Even though many sermons have been made on the Remembrance of Allah, still I see
that little has been commented on this subject, from what Allah and His
Messenger (peace be upon him) has taught it from the Qur'an and Hadith on this
subject (the Remembrance of
Allah).
The Remembrance of Allah is food for the heart and
soul. If you deprive your heart and soul of the Remembrance of Allah, even though you are listening to
these sermons, then it is like you deprive your body from food consumption; as
if you are remaining hungry for no real reason. We must not deprive ourselves from remembering Allah,
because with the Remembrance of Allah, the heart is purified, and is prevented from rusting. One must
know that due to the nature of some materials, they take dust or become dirty. Likewise, the heart
also can rust and become dirty if precaution is not taken. The heart can become dirty with mundane
pleasures and negligence (not engaging oneself in the Remembrance of Allah). To purify this heart, the
only means is the Remembrance of Allah which protects us from committing mistakes and all sorts
of sins.
There are people who remember Allah only when they face difficulties. They neglect the Remembrance of Allah. On the contrary one must think of Allah in his good times and then Allah will remember him when he will be in difficulty. When this happens, Allah descends upon him tranquillity and His grace.
By the grace of Allah, due to the blessings found in the Remembrance of Allah, it protects us from evil talks (backbiting), lies, immoral conversations, and unfruitful words.
Experience shows that one who engages himself
regularly in the Remembrance of Allah is usually protected from these evil
actions. As for the one who is not in a habit to engage himself in the Remembrance of Allah, he is more
liable to fall prey to these sins.
It is most unfortunate to see that in the Jamaat of the Promised Messiah
(on him be peace), when the so-called defenders of the Nizam-e-Jamaat
(Administration of the Jamaat) talk on the microphone, they act as politicians, yelling at the
top of their voice. When you look at their children, this gives you an idea how
the atmosphere in their houses is. It is a real shame to see these so-called
devoted children to the cause
of the religion "Waqf-e-Nau" on the internet without shirt and
presenting his finger (in a shameful manner) before his school friend and the latter
showing his tongue. Moreover, walking with 'walkman', and doing dirty
transactions. Their parents think that when they will fix their engagement with
some girl, then the problem will be solved, but these boys and girls have not
yet reached the age of maturity for such serious engagement.
On the contrary, this same effect will lead them
towards their own destruction; like for example a marriage which did not make it
more than one month — the girl returning back to her parents. So why is all these happening? Why?
In these situations, it is not family name, job value,
money and beautiful houses which hold value. The ones who do not have a good
basis of religious teachings, their parents themselves have shown themselves to be without proper
religious values. Instead of looking at their own weaknesses and faults, they have been judging the faith
of others. Now look at the direction which their children have taken. This makes me remember a Hadith,
but Insha-Allah, I will look for its reference well and will cite it to make
you better understand what the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) has said. I
partly have forgotten it
It is somewhat like this: The Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has
said that if you hear a person say that he has changed his habit, then do not
believe him, but you will be more apt to believe if you hear that a mountain has changed its place,
instead of believing that person who said that he has changed his habits (the bad
within him).
On the contrary, you parents, you should have given
the child good religious values, and make him study, not only reading the commandments of Allah
found in the Holy Qur'an, but to study them and analysing them with
concentration. Moreover, you should have encouraged them to remain attach to
the Holy Qur'an and the various acts
of worship. The child should have learnt to be careful of his actions, and attaching himself or herself
more and more with prayer. You as parents should be supplicating for Allah's
guidance through prayer "Istikhaara" before coming with a decision.
Definitely a parent must know his child well enough,
even though not hundred percent. So think well before pairing your child with some girl (through
engagement or wedding). You must think that you are bringing the child (girl) of other
people into your house. Now, when seeing where the world has reached, it has not just
deteriorated, but it has become rotten. That which is happening on the internet
is getting very serious, as reported
to me by my website team, on our meetings every fortnight concerning our website and the internet at large.
When you see the state of the world nowadays; there is
no mutual respect, there is no shame, and something more serious is the state of the Muslim boys and girls — the
life that they are leading. The teachings of Islam have been trampled under the
feet of the so-called scholars or so-called religious persons. They are the ones
responsible of what is happening in the Ummah of our beloved Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
That is why you see that not a single Muslim country is in peace, enjoying tranquillity. Why is
that? This state of things happens because there are no religious values in
them at all! Do you think Allah will leave this situation as it is?
Will Allah send His punishment upon these people who pretend to be
Muslims, but their actions are void of the teachings of Islam?
No! As long as Allah the Almighty does not send His
Warner to give them warnings coming from Him and also to spread the good news
(of the message of Allah) so that they may change themselves (with the help of Allah), and so that
they may turn themselves completely to Allah and repent before Him for their wrongdoings, and ameliorate
their situations, and remain engaged firmly in the Remembrance of Allah, Allah will not punish them.
He will give them time to repent and perfect themselves in righteousness so that He may be
pleased with them and forgive them and reward them for their good initiative.
I end this sermon with a Hadith Qudsi where Allah says: "The one
who remains so much engaged in My remembrance that he does not have time to supplicate (Me for
anything), I will give him a better reward than the one who does supplication."
May Allah gives us the necessary strength and guides
us in the right path and may Allah, Insha-Allah give me the grace and strength
to continue these series of sermons on the Remembrance of Allah for I have not
yet finished explaining on various issues pertaining to the Remembrance of
Allah. Moreover, it must be a lesson of the parents and our children here to
better understand what is good for us, so that we may not stumble into such situations, Insha-Allah.
May Allah save us all from His punishment and the Fire of Hell. Ameen.
---Friday Sermon of 24 April 2009 delivered by Imam-Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam International Hazrat Muhyiuddin Al Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius.