Allah (pemberi) cahaya (kepada) langit dan bumi.
Perumpamaan cahaya-Nya, seperti sebuah lubang yang tidak tembus yang didalamnya ada pelita besar. Pelita itu di dalam tabung kaca, (dan) tabung kaca itu bagaikan bintang yang berkilauan, yang dinyalakan dengan minyak dari pohon yang diberkahi, (iaitu) pohon zaitun yang tumbuh tidak di timur dan tidak pula di barat, yang minyaknya (saja) hampir-hampir menerangi, walaupun tidak di sentuh api.
Cahaya di atas cahaya (berlapis-lapis), Allah memberi petunjuk kepada cahaya-Nya bagi orang yang Dia kehendaki, dan Allah membuat perumpamaan-perumpamaan bagi manusia.
Dan Allah Maha Mengetahui segala sesuatu.
(35 : An Nur)
Read it. =)
When few drops of water fall on iron, the iron being a heavy metal full of strength, gets rusted, changes its color and loses the inner strength. Our minor sins and bad company is like this water. It first changes our outer, we leave behind the sunnah of our beloved Prophet SAW, like removing beard, hijab, showing laziness in salah and finally abandoning it and committing all the forbidden acts like smoking, drinking, disobedience and rebellious to parents and all sort of immoral activities. The west changed our outer color, causing rust on our hearts and weakened our inner strength.
Its not that we cant get back our strength but that needs two steps: first, the rust has to be removed from iron by polishing it and second we should paint the iron, so it wont get rusted again when water falls on it. The rust of hearts should be removed by making true repentance to Allah SWT. Most of the time we dont get rid of all our sins. We leave few sins and hold on to some and this takes istiqamat (steadfastedness) of our deen. When we dont remove the rust but just paint the iron, the paint wont stick to the iron protecting its strength. If we want to be firm on our deen, we should fist repent to Allah SWT sincerely and take resolution we will lead sin free life seeking Allah SWT’s help and submit to Him SWT completely. Then the paint has to be applied which is the righteous company. Being in pious company will inspire us to pratice sunnah of Prophet SAW and motivate us to more and more good deeds and thus help us shine from inner and outer. Today when we are surrounded by fitna and bad environment be it school, colleges or work place, it is obvious, we will get rusted. Thus we need to polish our heart and paint our heart with righteous company so the environment doesnt weaken us.
If we take the pot that was just made and the mud is raw and when we add water to it, the mud will dissolve in the water and the water will cause hole in the pot. Now when the mud is strengthened and not raw anymore and we add water to it, the water gets cold and yes the very mud which gets dissolved in it when raw, now not just retains water without getting hole in it but makes the water cold. When we become strengthened like the mud, the friends who come to us too will become righteous. When the friends can influence us with their bad akhlaq, why cant we influence them with righteousness. The key here is that we should be strong.
When we paint our heart with Allah SWT’s love, fear, the evils wont affect us. Our beloved Prophet SAW has said just like iron our hearts get rusted and to polish it, we need to think of death often which will make our heart soft. Today we see that when it comes to worldly studies, we go for expensive schools and colleges and it becomes our status but when it comes to deen, either we abandon it completely or look for a teacher who will teach us Qur’an for very less money. We least look for the quality of our deeni education.
When we perform salah with khushu, we get noor in our heart. When we involve in useless talks, this noor is taken away and that is why Allah SWT in surah Al-Muminun, talks about the believers who will succeed, He SWT after mentioning about salah, brings about those who keep away from vain talks.
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
Successful indeed are the believers.
الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ
Those who offer their Salat (prayers) with all solemnity and full submissiveness.
وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ
And those who turn away from Al-Laghw (dirty, false, evil vain talk, falsehood, and all that Allah has forbidden).
Imam Ghazzali Rahimahullah said when we recite Quran, perform nafil salah and some other good acts and look into our hearts and if we dont see any improvement, that indicates that our heart has disease. When we get cold, our nose cannot sense the fragrance. When we have disease in our heart, we wont sense the noor of the righteous acts. There is some sin in our heart that prevents from sensing the noor or else its impossible that we can sense a flower but not the noor that has more fragrance than any worldly things. When unnecessary talks can take the noor of the heart, then we can think of sins. Aforetime, about 1200 muslims used to come to masjid of Sheikh Maulana Zakarriya Rahimahullah for itikaf, the main instruction given by the sheikh was that they could eat, sleep but he should never see anyone engaging in talks in which case he will send them out as that destroys all the effort spent in ibadah, taking all the noor of heart.
When we have tank full of water and when we open the hole at the bottom of the tank, its obvious the water will be gone through that. We fill our hearts with noor with recitation of Quran, nafil salah but when we open our mouth for vain talks, we lose all the noor from our hearts like the opening of the hole that make the tank empty of water. After every salah, we should ponder on our talks and if we know that we spoke unncessarily or anything wrong, we should seek forgiveness and we should make the habit of remaining silence unless we are obliged to speak when its necessary. Its important to gain noor and its more important to preserve the noor.
A man asked a sheikh that there is a driving center and whoever enters that training center comes out as an excellent driver while many of us enter good deeni majlis, but only few percent turn out to be good. Why do we have the difference? Teh sheikh replied the deeni majlis demands a person’s concentration and accepting the advise and then do jihad, striving to his level best when he will succeed. Many of us dont do mujahida (striving) or we dont accept all the advise and thatswhy we dont get benefitted as we should. Purification demands mujahida. A sheikh advised a student if he had an evil sight, he should immediately pray four units of salah. Its this mujahida we lack. The more we strive, the more we will get benefitted.
A man complained to a sheikh that he took bribe of six lakh rupees and he wants to purify himself. The sheikh asked him to give it back by any means and the student said he just has a house of 7 lakh rupees, the sheikh asked him to sell that and give the money back to the rightful owners. He took the courage and followed the advise of the sheikh which is not that simple. The result is Allah SWT made him a haafiz of Quran and this was when he was old. He did hajj and on his return, the sheikh made him to write a book which earned him so much money that sufficed him till the end of his life. We see that when we take advise and at the same time, strive hard, Allah SWT will help us and suffice us and bless us. Today we have talks but no acts. We say rizq comes from Allah SWT and at the same time, we indulge in haram acts to get the money. Our words are not reflected in our acts and we turn out liars. We might earn money through haram means but we will end up giving to doctors and lawyers. We might have children and money that can be used by generation after generation but Allah SWT will make us poor by heart in terms of money and children while a person earning halal income will be made rich in heart eventhough his income is less and he will find coolness in his children. He will be so peaceful and calm that it would reflect on his face and life. Let Allah SWT help us to accept His SWT advise and act on that advise. Ameen
