Part 18

O you, the best guide to show you the right way is your heart (.e. intellect), and the most ignorant of guides is your desires. So, walk as per the directions of your heart, and pay no heed to where

your desires try to direct you.

O you whose endeavors are high, mount the back of strong

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

will, no matter how long the journey is, It is a propitious sign to tear apart the chains of lassitude, and the sign of failure is to be in the company of wishful thoughts.

Your self-desites urge you to seek immediate gratification, but as soon as the knight of your determination closes in, the devil makes his escape, thwarted. O you in love with this worldly life: your value is only that of what you love; if your endeavors were truly high, you would have taken no notice of this worldly life! O you who claim to have achieved the status of a devoted friend [khaleel], do not claim what you are not, because you always favout even the least of your desires over your Lord, and were it

not for LAGS RRAPTOA 4 CCTURSA EIA OSG aah oye “And We will surely test you until We make evident those who strive among you [for the cause of Allah]

and the patient, and We will test your affairs,” [Muhammad 47:31]

The coin of your deeds would have been concealed. As one poet said:

It is during the times of displeasure, not happiness, that those who love you can be distinguished from those who dislike you

Yout heart is ina state of oblivion, due to your over-indulgence in the pleasures of this worldly life! There is no longer any use in talking to you; when the target itself has fallen, then the arrows ate of no use. You have used the inebriation of your desires to block the gate to your heart; therefore even the torrent of exhot-

tations and sermons cannot reach it! You left the prosperity afforded to you by piety and ended up falling in an impoverished state due to your errors.

How long have you been resolving to repent and do good? Do not you know that to discipline and correct yourself at an old age is nothing but a burden! Why can’t you sight the light of repentance?! You spend the night in devotion as if you were Uwais [alQarni], but when the day commences you turn into the likes of Qays, undoing the bonds of your strong will, link by link; indeed evety person whose death is due to his desires is the companion of ‘Urwah!, and you have buried many of those whom you love, but would Kathir ever stop loving his beloved; ‘Azza ?!?

1 This is one of the most famous emotional platonic love stories of the 1*- 2" century after hijrah. He was deeply in love with ‘Afri who was wed to someone else upon which he got too sick until he died. It is said that he is the first lover who died because of his love.

2 ‘The story of Kathir and ‘Azza is another famous platonic love story similar to the story of Qais and Layla,

pleases you, outwardly. Use the feathers of sincerity in the

atrow of your deeds, and you shall certainly hit the target that you aspire for. I wonder at you, how will you ever achieve your goal, when your bow is broken because of your sins, and its string is cut due to your laziness? If you want to climb up to reach the high ranks, then you should take the stairs of piety, and if you want to achieve glory, then you ought to prostrate the forehead of humility, and if you desire authority then you should build up the pillars of sincerity, because - by Allah - you can never achieve any of that just by idly wishing!

B E TRUTHFUL INWARDLY and that shall reflect on what

If you step off the mount of sincerity, you will walk on a bumpy road that will hurt your feet, and worse, it shall never take you to yout final destination. Indeed, flaunting [one’s deeds] is the origin of hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of the hypocrites is what made a place of worship [i.e. Magid al-Dirdr| turn into a filthy place; therefore Allah ordered [His Prophet (48)]

ea Ed Vala aa

“Do not stand [for prayer] within it - ever” [al Taubah 9: 108]

Whereas, on the other hand, the sincerity of the truly devoted can elevate the status of one whose outet appearance might be dirty and disheveled [as long as he is sincere]; as the Prophet (3g) said “Perhaps there is a person with unkempt, dusty hair who people will hold in low esteem, but if he were to swear by Allah, Allah would fulfill his oath’

The stormy winds of hypocrisy cannot dislodge the tree of sincetity, because its root is deeply established in the ground, whereas the tree of ostentation is completely uprooted, upon the arrival of the breeze of

“And We will regard what they have done of deeds and make them as dust dispersed.” [al-Furgan 25: 23]

Do not look at the ascendancy of falsehood because it is only temporary; instead, await the establishment of the sovereign state of the truth. If you see a hypocrite having followers, then remember that in the time to come there shall be a Daijjal [i.e. False Messiah] who too will have amassed followers, just as in the past there was the Samiri’ who also had a following. The latter there-

) Reported by Muslim (2622). 2 He is the man who invented the cow for Bani Istacl to worship after they

have ctossed the sea with Prophet Misa (‘a/ayhi as-salami). He was punished by making his skin cannot bear the touch of anything,

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

fore was punished with

RACAN AR Fi Aya g “It is [decreed] for you in [this] life to say, ‘No contact.

While the former shall suffer a worse fate.

The pine tree takes thirty years to grow while it takes the pumpkin only two weeks to grow. “You need thirty years to do what I succeed to do in just two weeks, yet people still put us on the same footing, calling us both “trees!” the pumpkin plant said to the pine tree sarcastically. The pine tree replies: “Do not be hasty in your pronouncement; wait till the wind of autumn arrives [then let’s see who shall survive].”

How many are those who simulate the righteous in their clothing and humility while, in fact, the mouths of hearts are repulsed by their bitter taste. They are those about whom Allah has said,

nea ean orn on

“(They are] those whose =. is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work.”

Upon the fall of darkness, during late night, men and trees look like each other, and cannot be distinguished [as men stand still all night praying without moving] but as drawn breaks the difference between them can be made out. At noon time, the mirage looks like water, but as soon as one gets closer to it, he finds nothing!

How unfortunate it is to find plenty of imposters! They outwardly appear [sturdy] like palm trees, but are fragile and empty on the inside.

O pretentious one, the heart of one for whose sake you pretend is in the Hand of Who you disobey. Do not engrave the name of the King on a spurious coin; you should know that not every black piece is a date, not is the fat better when the meat is swollen.

gtievers; among the attendants you will find those who

weep over the sins they committed, others who mourn their shortcomings, some who cry for not achieving their aims, and others who are in grief over not being accepted by their beloved five. Allah].

TE: HE ASSEMBLY OF REPENTANCE is a gathering of

Do you know why they [who sit there repenting] mourned and wept? Do you know what evoked their feeling of gtief? They remembered a vow they had made, and whose putity they had strived to maintain, but then the vow had gotten tainted, and so their state of heart had changed accordingly.

Whoever hears the cooing of doves may think that they sing because they possess beautiful voices; what they do not realise is that they sing because they remember life that has gone past. Indeed the sinner will cry over the house he built up with piety only to be ruined by sins!

O you once who had a bond with his Lord which he himself undid, O you who became perplexed regarding what he was ordained to do and stopped counting his bad deeds: weep for the days in which you were in contact with your Lord, for such days indeed warrant being cried over, Indeed, the remnants of the beloved engender in the heart nothing but sorrowful memories and concern.

O sinner, time marches along quickly, therefore hasten your repentance. The One who calls people to return and rejoin ties with their Lord says

R53 A ING Seykay oath SA BYG25cat “And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden as wide as the heavens and earth, prepared for the

righteous” [AL Troran 3: 133]

O you who has a heart, where has your heart gone? Will you ever recover?

If it seems as if your heart has gone missing, do not despair that it exists.

Walk in the valley of seeking your Lord, while requesting His aid with your tongue [in His remembrance]. Bid farewell to your covetous natute, and prepare yourself for the journey of repentance, Bring along the divine legislation to be your companion, seek all means and press forward with haste so that you may catch up those ahead of you, prepate yourself to enter the state of Ihram

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

before you stand on the mountain of ‘Arafah, send the troops of yearning to Mind so that you may receive a letter of love from the Lord of the Ka‘bah, before reaching your destination, Indeed, the pious devotees yearn to meet their Lord, thus the answer comes to them declaring that Allah longs to meet them even more than their longing to meet him.

O NOT BE IMPRESSED with the outward image of

worship, but rather pay attention to the actual purpose

of this worship, for indeed not all those who pray are worshippers, nor are all who fast ascetics, nor all weepers devotees, nor are all who associate themselves to Stifism, pute.