Adab: Imam Haddad’s Al
Wasiya
Manners: Imam Haddad’s Poem
Al Wasiya
The testimony of faith;
لا اله الا
الله
La ilaha illa Allah.
This testimony should become alive absorbed ones
heart and be manifested in our actions,
When we have hope, it should lie only with
Allah
because He is the only one who can fulfil
our hopes.
If you have this rajaa (hope) associated and
attached to Allah
you'll find that Allah will fulfil all your needs
that you are seeking from Him.
When asking Habib Umar,
what do we do to not lose the bounties Allah
bestows upon us,
like spiritual favours?
how do we protect that?
He replied with:
kad kafani ilm rabb
-an excerpt from the poem of Imam Al-Haddad,
"sufficient for me is knowledge of my
Lord".
Remain always at the door of Allah
constantly,
hoping Allah will bestow His Mercy upon you
Simply because
you are standing at His Door.
Imam Haddad said I learnt how to
stand at the door of Allah through observing a child!
He was walking in the streets one day
when he saw that a mother had spanked her child and kicked him out of the
house,
He said I saw this little boy turn
around and stand at her door step
crying and begging
his mother to open the door for him,
Nothing could console him.
His entire attention was directed to
his mother in the house,
and he cried to her
oblivious to everything else around
him
He cried and cried and cried at her
door
until she relented
and opened the door for him.
We need to focus our attention on Allah
and we need to seek
none other than Him
we need to ask
none other than Him
and we should stand
at no other Door
than His
Stand how a beggar would stand.
Beggars are relentless
you push them aside,
ignore them,
tell them to go away
Run away from them
anything
but they're not hearing you,
They're not letting go
theyre sticking by you
relentlessly
Until you give in and give them what they want
and reward their persistence,
And if you knock and persist
at the door of the One who is Most
Generous,
He will open for you.
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بسم الله
الرحمن الرحيم
"In the name of Allah the Most
Gracious, the Most Merciful"
Never despair in the Mercy of Allah
Allah wants us to know Him through this quality of
Mercy,
through His two attributes-
Al Rahman,
Al Rahim,
this is what we recite in the beginning of every
chapter in the Quran
and when you begin any task,
We begin in the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful
We begin with the remembrance of Allah,
Of the 99 names He wants you to know Him
through these two,
Al-Rahman
Al-Rahim,
We are incessantly reminded of those two names
Over and over again
In the Name of Allah
Al-Rahman,
Al-Rahim
Over and over again
In the Name of Allah
Al-Rahman,
Al-Rahim.
Imam hadad says concerning these two names,
turjal illah alathi turja marahimahu-
marahimahu
translates as "His Mercies"
it’s pluralised,
drawing attention to fact that within the Mercy of
Allah
lies hidden innumerable Mercies.
It has been related in prophetic
tradition,
that the Messenger of Allah,
may the peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him
said:
Allah created 100 parts to His Mercy,
but that's not the limit of it,
its more expansive than that
As we'll see...
One of those parts is that which
Allah descended upon the earth,
with which people show mercy towards
one another,
and from this one part the entire
universe draws mercy towards one another
and this has been so from beginning
of creation and continues until the end of creation
It is from that one Mercy you find
that an animal would lift its hoof from the ground out of fear of possibly
injuring its baby.
The rest
The 99
are reserved for the Day of Rising
So The Most-Merciful
can bestow it upon His servants.
The two titles,
Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim,
Come from the root words
Rahma and Rahima,
However the mercy associated to Al-Rahman
is very different
to the mercy associated to the name of Al-Rahim,
Rahman is that type of mercy that only Allah
has
and only Allah can express,
However Rahim
that is a type of mercy that people too, can
express.
You can say about a man that he is
Rahim bi ahlih- Merciful towards his family or
Rahim bi 'ibadih- Merciful towards his servants
The name of Allah, Al-Rahman is a wider,
all encompassing form of Mercy
the type Allah refers to when he says
"waRahmati wasi3at- kul shay2"
"And My Mercy overwhelms/encompasses all
things"
So that we find that the mercy of Allah is pouring
upon a disbeliever,
upon an athiest,
upon a tyrant, etc.
This is unlimited
unconditional
Mercy.
It overwhelms all his creation regardless of who or
what they are,
It is impossible for humans to be able to express
this sort of mercy,
We are incapable of showing mercy towards a tyrant
for instance or towards unjust people.
(for a more extensive read on the difference refer to the post of September 2011)
On the Day of Rising shaytan will see
these remaining 99 abundant Mercies
And although he is doomed,
just through merely seeing these
abundant Mercies of Allah,
he thinks perhaps I too can have a
share in this!
- he does not lose hope in the Mercy
of Allah
But he won't have it because he's outcast
and doomed to eternity
And there is nothing he can do to
return back
As for everyone else,
its fair game.
If Allah says,
“wa Rahmati
wasi3at kul shay2”,
“And My Mercy overwhelms/encompasses all things”
He's talking about His attribute of: Al-Rahman,
However when he specifies where His Mercy is going
for instance:
I've decreed My Mercy for the mutaqeen- those with
taqwa (reverant fear),
Or the muhsineen (Muslims who strive with
excellence)
then that kind of Mercy is associated to His
attribute of : Al-Rahim,
thats the difference between the two
If we understand this attribute of Allah, and we
connect to these names,
We should be people who guide others and connect
them to Allah through this essential quality.
Don't be a person, who makes another despair of the
abundant Mercy of Allah,
Woe upon a person who makes one despair in the
abundant Mercy of Allah!
and woe upon them again and again and again!
The Messenger of Allah- May Allah
send peace and blessings upon him,
heard two men arguing,
he said he heard one man say
"How will it be that Allah will
forgive you?!"
To which Allah's Messenger said:
"manth allathi yata2a 'ala
Allah?"
"Who dares to put themselves
above Allah!?"
The messenger of Allah informed this
man
that he had lost all his good deeds
through saying such a thing.
through being a means of making one of Allah's
servants
despair
in Allah's abundant and incessant Mercy.
Yet again we have another tradition,
that relates to Bani Israeel ( the
children of Israel)
When a pious rahib (monk) had a
brother
- Allah knows best if he was a blood
brother or a brother in faith-
who was a sinner
One day the sinner had seen that his
hair had turned grey,
he was no longer young, youthful and
full of energy
and time was quickly passing him by
he decided to turn back to Allah.
He had felt very sorry for the many
years he spent in disobedience to Allah
and he was now seeking
and desiring
the Mercy of Allah
He wanted to be in the presence of
this rahib (monk) so that
perhaps! Part of Allah's Mercy
that is descending upon him,
would descend upon him too...
So he went to the monk and sat with
him,
and the monk had mocked him
He said,
"After 40 years of disobedience,
how would Allah accept you?"
To which sayyiduna Musa informed this
rahib upon hearing him say such a thing
That in that instance
he had lost all his good deeds
Because of these words he had
uttered,
because he dared create despair in
one of Allah's repenting servants
in the abundant incessant Mercy of
Allah!
And he further informed them that,
the sinner had all his sins forgiven!
Then sayyiduna Musa said
Allah said to both of you,
Now, you can both start from scratch.
During the time of the Messenger of
Allah,
A rough Bedouin came to him in his
mosque in Medina where he and his companions were
and behaved and spoke to him in an
insolent manner
saying
"Give him from bayt al maal!
food that you have that doesn't
belong
to you or
your mother or
your father!"
SayyidunaUmar was standing next to
the messenger of Allah and they report that his eyes rolled with anger!
Thinking how dare he speak with such
insolence in the presence of the Messenger of God
in his mosque like that!
To which Allah's Apostle had calmed
sayyiduna Umar down
and the other companions who were
also in a state of shock
then he took the Bedouin brother
aside in his room
and gave him from bayt al maal and
asked him
"Are you satisfied O
brother?"
To which he replied "No".
So the Messenger of Allah gave him of
his own personal food stores
which were sparse anyway
and he asked him again
"Are you happy O brother?"
To which the Bedouin replied
"Yes I am. Indeed! You are a
generous man son of a generous man!"
As the Bedouin was leaving the
mosque,
he saw the companions standing in their
anger,
and he lifted his hands up and
supplicated to Allah
"O Allah! Bestow your mercy upon
me and Muhammad and no one else besides us!"
To which the Messenger said
"Ya akh al arab (O my Bedouin
brother!),
why did you restrict that which is
extremely expansive?
Rather say
“O Allah bestow Your Mercy upon me
and Muhammad
and everyone else”".
This is how Allah wants us to know
him.
Were approaching Ramadan take note of this.
If people are sinning sometimes and performing good
deeds other times,
do not make them despair in the Mercy of Allah,
or think their good deeds are pointless because
they are sinning.
Perhaps it may be that Allah will bestow upon them
His Favours
through that door of good deeds
and through it correct their sinning behaviour!
It has been related in prophetic
tradition
that the companions said to the
Messenger of Allah
"O Rasulullah! There is a man
among us who prays with us by day
but at night he steals!"
To which the best of creation replied
with
"That salah will eventually stop
him from sinning"
and it was exactly as Rasullulah,
peace be upon him, had said.
Allah says in the Quran:
"innal salata tanha 3anil munkar
wal fahshaa2"
“Indeed the prayer restrains shameful
and unjust deeds"
Allah showers every person in His Mercy constantly
Some will be affected and they will find their way
to Allah
others will remain oblivious and not recognise the
Mercies of Allah
But, regardless
He will continue to bestow it upon them.
Don't let anyone despair
Allah's Mercy is there for them until
their soul reaches their throat
And they gargle as their soul leaves
their body.
If a person at that point will turn
towards Allah
He will forgive all the sins of the
past
and that person will die with no sins
upon them
at all.
Allah said to sayyiduna Dawood,
"Love me and make my creation love Me",
He said, "I can love you but how do I make
Your creation love You?"
He said, "Mention My favours and My
bounties upon them".
Abu Hurairah said,
"I know a man who will enter Jannah
and he hasn't prayed a single rak3ah (unit of prayer) in his life!”
The other companions asked "how
can that be? Who is he?" :/
He said "Al Usayrim".
With Usayrim, his entire tribe
entered Islam
but he refused
During one of the battles between the
Muslimeen and the Kuffar
he was out hunting while his tribe
were fighting with the Messenger of Allah
And when he came back to his tribe,
He didn’t find a single member in the
settlement
He asked around where they were
And they replied that they were on a
campaign,
So he goes with his spear and arrows
and he starts fighting with them.
They said stand aside Usayrim, this
is serious, and your’ not a Muslim
Don’t interfere right now we have no
time for this
He continued to fight with them and
when he was wounded and on his death bed,
he said something had entered into my
heart when I had returned and found you were all gone
and that's when the kalmia (testimony
of faith) entered my heart.
Thats why he picked up his weapons
and went to fight with his people.
He said shahada on his death bed,
And after, Rasulullah said,
"Usayrim is a man of Jannah!"
Allah's Mercy is extremely vast!
And we need not look further than the story of
Wahshey
to see truly
how beyond our imagination
it really is.
Within this story is a great lesson
about how much Allah relents to His servants,
In the Haddith Qudsi Allah says:
"I have created you for Jannah
(Paradise)
and Jannah was created for you
and I have created Jahamnam
(Hellfire)
and made it haram (forbidden) upon
you"
The story of wahshey,
is a beautiful story
about how Allah constantly leaves His door of Rahma
open for people.
Wahshey killed the uncle of Rasulullah
salallahualayhiwasalam
Sayyiduna (our master) Hamza
it pained him so much
that even till his death
he cried over him,
It may be hard for one to understand the connection
And why it was that Rasulullah loved Hamza so much
Their mothers were cousins
Their fathers were father and son
They were breast fed by the same nursing mother;
Halima
They were childhood and household friends
The age gap between them was a few months (or up to
2 years?)
We have best friends, but this is a whole other
level.
When our Master Hamza was killed in battle,
Rasulullah salallahualayhiwasalam performed salatul
janaza over him
70 times.
Whenever they prayed janaza over one of the martyrs
of Badr
Rasulullah included sayyiduna Hamza in that janaza
70 times
He was so greatly pained by his death,
Initially the Mesenger of Allah made
Wahsheys blood halal for anyone who finds him
But later he lifted it and sent him a
message asking him to enter the fold of Islam
Saying Islam, teslam- become Muslim
and you will find peace
So Wahshey writes back saying, how
can I enter into Islam when you say
Allah says: (a verse to the effect
of)
Whoever does not worship anyone other
than Allah and does not kill a soul unjustly except in the requirement of
Justice and does not commit fornication they will find Allah most merciful and
if they do, then they will face severe punishment doubled and they will remain
in Hellfire abased.
He said I have done all three, why
should I enter Islam when I am going to receive such a punishment?
So Rasulullah sallalahulayhiwasalam
sent him another message to which Allah had revealed a response to Wahshey,
(that such a punsishment as stated
above will fall upon people) Except those who repent and performed salatul
Tawbah (prayer of forgiveness) and does good deeds thereafter.
So Wahshey responds, saying but there
are three conditions here... Those who
1.
Repent
2.
Perform
salatul tawbah
3.
Do good
deeds thereafter
I may not be able to do all three,
what if I'm only able to do one or two of them? That means I'm still not
exempted from punishment. There is no certainty here, give me something else.
So Allah revealed:
“Inna Allah laa yaghfir man yushrik
bihi wahyaghfir men duni dhalika liman yashaa.”
“Indeed Allah does not forgive those
who take partners unto him, and He forgives besides that to whomever He
Wishes”.
And so Wahshey again, said,
“to whomever He wishes! That may not
be me!”
So again The Most-Merciful revealed
in surat al Zumur the beautiful response:
“Qul ya 'ibaada aladhi asrafu ala
anfushim, la taqnatu min rahmatillah, inna Allah yaghfir al dhunuba jami'an,
inna huwal ghafooror Rahim”.
“Say O My slaves that have wronged
themselves, do not despair from the Mercy of Allah, indeed Allah forgives all
sins, indeed He is the Oft-Forgiving, The Merciful”.
When Wahshey received this, he said,
“As for this; then yes”.
Allah is addressing this aya to those who have
transgressed and who have disobeyed Him.
Can you hear the Mercy of Allah in these words,
Ya 'ibaadi!
The i in the end of 'ibaadi means
possession, that is, you are Mine!
Despite that they have transgressed, they are still
Mine.
Who else do you turn to?
Who else do you return to?
Who do we come from and who are we going back to?
Recognise your beginning and end and it will tell
you how to conduct yourself in between.
and even after Wahshey accepted and became Muslim
Rasulullah salallahualayhiwasalam accepted his
Islam
He didnt outcast him or reject him
but told him not to appear in front of him.
because every time he would see him, he would
remember the image of his beloved uncle.
In the haddith Qudsi Allah says:
“He created us for Him
and He created Jannah for us
and He created Jahannam
and He made it forbidden for us”.
Allah will always send you a means to find
your way back
And He will keep doing that for you
Until you meet Him
To have hope in Allah's Mercy, remain constantly at
the Door of Allah
In hope
And the Generous who when you stand at His door,
He will open for you
And give you
Worship Allah out of gratitude,
Without His guidance where would you be tonight?
We are constantly immersed in the Mercy of Allah
Be overwhelmed with gratitude
That’s how He wants you to know Him
and He wants you to approach Him
So approach Him.
