Sunday, February 4, 2018

Inner Peace in A Troubled World

The State of Man in Our Times

The world is developing at breakneck speed. It is constantly modernizing, becoming smaller and less life-size, becoming closer to people like a round table where the whole world can reunite and communicate and share their ideas and lives. But with the race for power and wealth, the rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer. And the world continues to exist until the One Creator decides otherwise.

Rich or poor, everyone tries to live in their own way. But how many of us ponder over what health, recreation, food, and tranquillity cost to the inhabitants of a country? But above all, how much of their precious time do they devote in remembrance of the Creator through prayer. The rich have almost no problem in living their lives quietly. The poor, on the other hand, have to work harder to try to make ends meet. This class of population of any country will always remain in poverty with its multiple problems - famine, sickness, housing, unemployment.

However, people, whatever their situation, live. They try to live. Maybe some people want death because they are crushed by poverty and misery. But life or death does not depend on us. It is the exclusive prerogative of Allah Ta’ala.

But then why so much worries, so many misfortunes? ... Does Allah Ta’ala, the Unique Creator, Who knows and controls everything, not love us? Does He not appreciate our way of life, our way of doing things? Not really, according to a Hadith of our beloved prophet Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh). It is rather that we humans, especially those of the Ummah forget too quickly our obligations to the Creator. So everything turns upside down. When the situation changes, life becomes destabilized. Stress, anxiety, anger, worry, doubt take place.

A World of Dizzying Inequality 

So why the vast majority of the world’s population lives in poverty and a very small percentage, being extremely rich controls everything in this temporal world? Some who feel that they are so powerful because of their fortune, think they are half-gods. But let it be clear. Rich or poor we always live in the same fear, the same anguish, the same anxiety.

We live today in the 21st century, a time of confusion where materialism (i.e. people with materialistic minds) prevails everywhere, including within the Ummah. Material comfort is only useful to us here on earth. What have we prepared for the afterlife? Are we preparing enough for it? Here on earth, it is total confusion leading to wounded hearts, broken with the weakened soul.

We only have to follow the medical news - to get information about the world of medicines (pharmaceutical drugs). Scientists only produce drugs of all kinds to combat stress - the disease of the modern world, to combat anxiety, anger, nervousness, etc. The medications prescribed which are used in high doses sometimes have side effects. The situation gets complicated. Whether he is rich or poor, whether he gets treatment at the private clinic or the public hospital, the patient does not find the desired happiness or if he gets it, it is very precarious. He then turn to diabolical, satanic treatments that only worsen the situation, while there is only an effective remedy, very effective indeed, freely offered but neglected, forgotten, cast aside: a CALL TO ALLAH TA’ALA.

Turn to Your Creator

Yes, turn to HIM, The Saviour, The Healer, The Protector, The Merciful. He offers all the remedies. Without fees. Without an appointment. He only asks us one thing: to think of HIM at all times. He is here to listen to us. All we sick people have to do is to have unreserved faith and piety. Believe in Him, in His remedies, in His miracles. Are we ready for this?

Saturday, February 3, 2018

On the 'Super Blue Blood Moon' 2018

'Super Blue Blood Moon', an extraordinary lunar event, dazzled millions of sky-watchers around the world on the night of Wednesday, 31 January 2018. Extracted below are the special remarks on this Heavenly Sign by Muhyi-ud-Din Al Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) of Mauritius

A Rare Heavenly Sign

"The world has witnessed an extraordinary celestial sign Wednesday, 31 January 2018. This sign is a Super Blue Blood Moon. What exactly is this super blue blood moon? It is the conjunction of three lunar peculiarities. 

To give a simplified explanation of this phenomenon (or rather divine sign), it is when the natural satellite is at the same time relatively close to the Earth (which gives us a Super Moon), it is also the 2nd full Moon in a month (a Blue Moon) and there is at the same time an eclipse of the moon (a Blood Moon). So it's a super-moon combined with a blue moon and with an eclipse of the moon that was total in some parts of the world and that we call, a blood moon. 

All three phenomena were visible only in certain parts of the earth, in this case in America (after 152 years) and in the countries of Asia and Australia and so on. But for the countries of Europe, like France etc., this phenomenon, this celestial sign was not visible (but was visible in 1982). But here in Mauritius after 152 years, we witnessed this, but only with a partial eclipse of the moon that lasted only a few minutes. (Inset: Seagulls and the blue moon in Portobello, Edinburgh, taken by Matthew Corney, (c) BBC).

Heavenly Signs in the Later Days

This phenomenon/ sign became subject of conversations, with everyone speculating on its meaning. There are those who say that it is an indicator of the approach of the end of the world and that the Saviour will appear soon. But the truth is that we are living the days of the end of the world and the Saviour that everyone is waiting for is already among you. When you see such divine heavenly signs, these are signs in support of the coming of a Messenger of Allah. 

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Life @ 40: A Spiritual Gaze

‘Moses! 
I am your Lord. Take off your sandals: you are in the sacred valley of Tuwa.
I have chosen you, so listen to what is being revealed. 
I am Allah; there is no god but Me, so worship Me and keep up the prayer so that you remember Me'. (20: 12-15)

These verses in the Holy Qur’an allude to a time when Allah (swt) directly spoke to a servant of His, intimating him about the great Divine Mission that lies ahead of him; urging him to be detached from the personal relations that come in the way of  remaining engrossed in Divine Remembrance through fervent prayers and other devote supplications. In mystical commentaries of the aforesaid verses, the idea of "taking off the sandals" certainly points to the same: in being asked to remove his sandals, Hadhrat Musa (as) was being asked to cast aside this world by turning his face towards the Ocean of Divine Presence alone, dedicating oneself solely to Allah (swt). In a famous poem by  that medieval polymath Sheikh-ul-Akbar Muhyi-ud-Din Ibn Arabi, the imagery is explained eloquently: 

"Take off the sandals if you come
to this valley, for therein is Our Holiness.
Of the two worlds divest yourself,
and lift the veils of in-betweenness"

It is indeed a perennial practice of the Divine, a Sunnat Allah-according to the Qur’an- that He raises His Elects at places and times of His choice. Allah knows best where to place His Message’. (6:125)  One of the interesting facts about the present Divine Manifestation in Mauritius is this. When Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) began to be a recipient of Divine communications and other messages of an exquisite spiritual variety, the messages from the Unseen reminded him about the need for holding a lot of patience and to ‘forget’ this world and to devote his time in much remembrance of the Divine through prayer and other supplications: the same kind of Divine messages that were revealed to Hadhrat Musa (as) in that sacred valley of Tuwa almost three millennium ago and preserved in the Holy Qur’an for all times! Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

'The Days of Noah are Coming...!'

A Difficult Time in Mauritius

We never punish (a people) until we have sent a messenger. (Al-Isra, 17: 16).

My brothers and sisters, reflect well. 

From the beginning of this year 2018, Mauritius is going through a difficult situation. When you think that from the first day of the New Year (01 January 2018) a great accident happened where two brothers died, and then the next day an ex-husband killed his ex-wife with a revolver (when she came to visit her child in the home of the ex-husband) and then killed himself.

Since the 1st of January, the rain has not stopped falling; heavy downpours except on Sunday 07 January 2018. At the beginning of the school activities for the new year, on 08 January 2018, heavy rainfall continued to flood, destroying the agricultural fields (fruits and vegetables) and amenities of thousands of houses and cars. Then a dangerous cyclone, named Berguita, came to make matters worse since Tuesday 16 January until 18 January 2018 and for the first time in Mauritius (after many years) more than five thousand people, men, women and children have gone to seek refuge in the shelter centers, leaving their homes and all their furniture, food and other amenities, taking only their own persons and their family members to shelter from the cyclone. Social workers and even the government only distributed biscuits and bottled water to support all those people.

After the passage of Berguita, vegetables and fruits have almost disappeared from the shelves of the markets and for the fruits and vegetables remaining, prices have skyrocketed and it has become very difficult for the Mauritian nation given the rise in prices at all levels. These torrential rains, lightning and cyclone Berguita caused quite a lot of damage nationwide, blocking drains/ canals, flooding the streets and destroying cars too. Afterwards we saw a lull in the density of the rains in some parts of the country, but in other regions the rain did not cease to cause misfortunes.

The situation became alarming when on Wednesday and Thursday, 24 & 25 January respectively, the notice/ warning of heavy rain forces the government and the organizations concerned to close schools, universities and even some workplaces. The panic was felt here in Mauritius with the rising waters and the continual torrential rain. Given the situation, the Ministry of Health advised people to boil water before drinking to stay healthy and avoid diseases such as gastroenteritis and other health problems. Despite the precautions many have also caught conjunctivitis.

It is impossible for me to list all the problems that Mauritius is facing because our little island is consecutively going through trials.