On the few occasions that I have seen individuals about to pass into the Akhirah, I have always wondered what their final thoughts were about. Of course, we might never know. As we approach our final destination, we struggle between fear of punishment, or whatever the case might be, and the hope that our Lord would be satisfied with us. We can understand how the fear operates, because it is something that accompanies us throughout our lives, especially if we are Muslims who are very conscious of our futures. The reason why many of us are deeply concerned about our religious behaviour and that such behaviour should be in obedience of our Lord, is perhaps the major factor for us worrying about what is going to happen to us once we close our eyes permanently. This is very common. Despite these fears, there is also in one the hope that

There are categories of people throughout the long course of human history, whom we have very little understanding of. The only people who may understand them are possibly those at the same or more superior stations. These are people who have reached such stations by virtue of their acquisition of sacred knowledge, their working tirelessly in His Cause, their involvement in the variety of religious services and their working for the purification of their personalities, or whatever the case might be. To each one of them, it has been a minute by minute struggle at the different levels of their personalities to attain certain graces from their Lord. To them, most of the time, the awareness of wanting to attain these graces is not part of their general consciousness. So this is a strange thing to say but in the many cases that we have come across, we have found

Allah Almighty is All-Forgiving. This means that He is also the Most Forgiving. It is through the functioning of this Attribute that Allah Almighty forgives all sins. There is not a single sin, and it does not matter how devastating or how great that sin is, that Allah Almighty does not have forgiveness for. About this matter, He says in the Quran: لاَ تَقْنَطُوا مِنْ رَّحْمَةِ اللهِ إِنَّ اللهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوْبَ جَمِيْعًا Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins (xxxix: 53). What this means is that one cannot compare Divine Forgiveness with the forgiveness of one human being to another. This is because one cannot understand the functioning of the Attributes of Allah Almighty especially if one considers each one in isolation. It is for this reason that the All-Encompassing Forgiveness of our Lord is also generated by His All-Encompassing Generosity. His Forgiveness is “All”

On Sunday, 24 June 2012, we had our first assembly of dhikr in the Du Noon mosque. It was a very momentous occasion. This is the first mosque in the area and Allah’s (ﷻ) Name was called for the first time in the way we do in that structure. I think that all of us who were present there felt a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation to our Lord for having been involved in the building of another mosque. The fact that we are building these mosques and jamaat khanas in the poorest of areas, adds greater gratitude and appreciation. In our own small way, we are following an important Prophetic Practice, and that is to work amongst the very poor. I sometimes think that being able to do things for the poor, even in very small ways, is a very special honour for all of us who were

I have always wondered about the nature of Tasawwuf in Islam, especially after Mawlana Fazlur Rahman Ansari remarked in one of his talks that over 90% of the Sufi Orders in the world are on the wrong path. I have always wondered what this is. In most countries today, the teachings of Tasawwuf, which have to do with the sciences of the Hereafter and the attainment of spiritual stations, have been reduced to making a congregational dhikr on a Thursday and one or two urses during the year. This is even the case in South Africa. I have to tell you very humbly that this is not the case with the Naqshbandis. What makes us so different from other Sufi Orders and the target of the enemies of Tasawwuf? You see, whichever way you wish to look at it, the Naqshbandi Order is the closest one to carrying out the

We have just come out of the month of Rajab [2012] and many of us must be feeling spiritually good for what we have achieved during this month. It was not always easy. It was very cold. It was also very early. But part of our personal spiritual sacrifice is to be able to overcome these elements of weather or of time so that we can serve our Lord. I am sure, just by talking to some of you, that many of you covered the full monthly programme. And you did this not for yourselves. If it had to be for yourselves, you would have remained in bed. I think now how each one of you took a major step forward in your striving. Every morning an additional step, every morning mention has been made to your Lord, although He knows about it, about His servants who, despite the temperature

During the time of the Khilafah of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (r.a.), perhaps his greatest military strategist was Khalid ibn Walid (r.a.). Of course, Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (r.a.) was referred to as the Khalifah of Nabi Muhammad (ﷺ). That was his title. Khalid ibn Walid (r.a.) was the same Khalid that fought against the Muslims at the battle of Uhud. I am mentioning his name to you because when he spoke to the enemy about his soldiers, he would say: “They prefer death like you prefer life”. He was speaking about the Muslim men whose preference during these wars was for death and martyrdom. It was not a game they played, because wars at that time was hand-to-hand combat. They were prepared to sacrifice their lives for Islam; not their time or their energy or their money. They also had wives and children and occupations. When it came to Islam and

When one is deeply concerned with one’s religious growth and achievements, one should be very careful about the impact that certain people have on one’s religious behaviour; especially people who are not in Tariqah or who are in Tariqah but with other agendas. Sometimes we decide to act in certain ways according to what we are told by others when the rule is: “listen to your shaykh or his representative”. In Tasawwuf, the shaykh plays a central role in the direction we go in working towards our goals, and all other aspects of our religious behaviour. In a certain sense, the only person whose advice we take with regard to all the things that we must do as Muslims, and as Muslims in Tariqah; if one can make this kind of differentiation, is our shaykh. I must repeat this statement because of its importance. What we do in our structures,

Sometimes we are deeply concerned about the nature of our hearts, little realizing that those hearts are in a constant state of remembrance of our Lord. It is difficult for us to fathom this, because there is no consciousness of it. We are not aware that the heart, as part of Allah Almighty’s creation, is in a constant state of glorification of its Lord. This is one aspect, but it is not the aspect we are concerned about. We are concerned about the extent that our hearts are instruments of our Lord’s remembrance. It is the heart’s role as an instrument that concerns us, because we know that its glorification of its Lord is inherent in it, and we also know that to become an instrument of remembrance is a long road on which that heart is involved with different forms of ibadat. Allah Almighty mentions in the Holy Qur’an: