One of the interesting things of the forms of worship that Allah (ﷻ) has sent us is their variety. Our worship takes various forms; such as praying, paying Zakah, fasting, Hajj, making dhikr, reciting Qur’an, supplications, and most probably others also. Thus, one is able to approach one’s Lord through any individual form of worship or through combinations of such forms. Sometimes some forms have built in requirements of other forms. In the salah itself for example, we recite Qur’an and make dhikr. The salah itself is referred to as supplication and consists of a combination of movements accompanied by adhkar. All very interesting! Hajj especially, its rights and ceremonies take different forms. And so all of these forms of worship or aspects of them, indicate the variety of approaches to our Creator. Perhaps the one that stands out as very special because it consists of primarily one feature is

When little Crystal Abrahams died from a bullet wound in the road outside her home in Ocean View in 2002, some of us cringed when we read the report. This is perhaps because some of us have worked with children most of our lives, or we have our own children. There was no reaction, as far as we know, from any of the many organizations in our community or from individuals. We only know of a lecture that was delivered in Goodwood Masjid on the matter. Nobody from our community heard her final moans and the screams from her mother. The community remained silent. When children are shot in the Cape Peninsula, for one or other reason, it appears that we “go about our work”. It is not our business. Crystal was shot accidently (sic) in a shoot-out between gangsters and members of PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs). A

Many of us have gone through long periods of very weak faith brought about by a variety of factors, especially schooling. The schools in this country or rather many of them, especially the senior secondary ones, have encouraged the students to move away from religion. In many of these schools, the philosophies that operated were based on the materialistic understanding of the world. In this understanding, there is no God. The overall impact of this was that large numbers of young students, at very impressionable ages, and with a very weak understanding of Divine Revelation, were taken away from religion, both Islam and Christianity. This happens, we suppose, still today in many of our senior secondary schools and also universities. Education is primarily secular, and by this is meant a system of teaching and learning that excludes God. Factors operating in educational systems pulled many of our young people out

The road that we are walking is the same road that most of our forefathers also walked. Islam was established in this country when Allah (ﷻ) sent three Qadiri shaykhs to our shores. They were Tuangs Abdurahman, Mahmud and Matarin. I sometimes think back to the nature of the Decree that Allah (ﷻ) made for this country at “the beginning of time.” Allah (ﷻ) decreed that three shaykhs of a Tasawwuf Order would come here to establish His religion. Perhaps unknown to them, they were involved in a historical process in which Islam was going to be allowed to spread from Sumatra (that is so far from us) to the Cape. They were sent in exile, thousands of kilometres from their homes, their families, and their social structures. Their hearts were different from the hearts of so many others. In their hearts beat the dhikr of Allah (ﷻ) and it

Someone said to al Hasan ibn Ali, “Abu Dharr says, ‘Poverty is more beloved to me than wealth, and illness more beloved to me than health.’” He said, “May Allah (ﷻ) show mercy to Abu Dharr. As for me, I say, Whosoever is absolutely dependant on the goodness of Allah’s (ﷻ) choosing for him, does not wish to be in any state other than the one which Allah (ﷻ) has chosen for him”. Abu Dharr (r.a.) was considered one of the most ascetic of the Companions (r.a.). Sayyiduna Hasan (r.a.) was the son of Sayyiduna Ali (r.a.) and Sayyidatuna Fatimah (r.a.), and the grandson of Nabi Muhammad (ﷺ). These two very pious people commented on the same matter in different ways, because each one was speaking from a different spiritual station. Each one’s understanding flows from the nature of his station. And so, what appears to be differences are in

Perhaps one of the difficulties that I face almost on a daily basis is how I can keep contact with the murids and their work throughout the country. Mawlana Shaykh Nazim has given me this responsibility and I have accepted it with all the enthusiasm at my disposal. I have, during the cause of our work, become critically aware of the importance of being for Allah (ﷻ) and of working in His Cause. I have never had this kind of awareness before. It has come to me in this Tariqah. And especially in this period of history, our responsibility to bring people into Mainstream Islam, has increased tremendously. Other groupings in Islam, especially those who oppose us, refer to us in different ways. But the question always arose: “What is it that makes us so special? What evidence is there to show in fact that we are on the right

Sometimes in life, one comes across an individual, or special circumstances, which one finds difficult to explain or assess. This is especially true in the case of individuals. We are not always prepared to see Allah’s (ﷻ) “Hand” at work. If we understand that, then we will understand why individuals sometimes act in certain ways and why sometimes there are certain circumstances that we cannot explain. Last Sunday, 16th January 2011, we went to a dhikr in Driftsands. At the end of the dhikr, the Imam mentioned to us that there was a young boy, perhaps between six and eight years of age, who a year ago embraced Islam with his parents’ permission. The little boy attends mosque five times a day, and for Fajr, he is there normally half an hour before the time. One morning, he did not come for Fajr and the Imam confronted him. He said:

One of the problems faced by many people especially those who do a little bit of thinking, is: What is the correct interpretation of Islam? Or, to put it another way: From what interpretation of Islam can one draw the maximum benefit for one’s passage to the Hereafter? This is very important because if one chooses the wrong path or interpretation then one might find oneself in a very disadvantageous position in the Hereafter. Many of us have struggled with this because there are so many different groups, paths or interpretations. In many cases, one follows the path of the family in which you grew up or the mosque one attends or the religious teacher at whose feet one sits. As individuals, we must be sure that the path we have chosen is a correct one by Allah (ﷻ) and His Messenger (ﷺ). On this there cannot be any difference

Sometimes one searches for a phrase with which to celebrate the praises of Allah, then Allah (ﷻ) places a phrase in one’s heart with which to remember Him. The phrases of remembrance are countless, but not for us. We sometimes feel that we have done enough and that there are no more additional phrases to remember Allah (ﷻ) by. It is because of Allah’s (ﷻ) wish that we should remember Him, that He places a special phrase in our hearts. In most cases, if not in all cases, that phrase solves a spiritual need that one has in one’s heart. This is always very strange. Perhaps it is more strange, because there is the realization in one that Allah (ﷻ) is always busy with one in one way or another or through one person or the other. The other day I was looking for such a phrase and in my

Sometimes I feel that I want to write about repentance all the time. Perhaps this is because I am in my senior years and I see my further existence on earth as being a very short one. Perhaps also, I want to write about it, because I am also writing to myself as a constant reminder of the need for all of us to be constantly, or as much as possible, in a state of repentance. I cannot stress this enough, because of my realization that this is a very important door to spiritual change and growth. That is why many of the pious people have said that the path on which one is, has repentance at its beginning (and here I want to change things a little bit), repentance along its course (and not in the middle as they say), and repentance at its end. It appears from this,