Lights of Fear and Hope
    Posted by: "Zohra Moosa" zohra@mobileemail.vodafonesa.co.za poetess_sa
    Date: Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:05 pm

In the Name of Almighty Allah Most Beneficent, Most Merciful

Alhamdu Lillaahi Rabbil 'Aalameen was Salaatu was
Salaamu 'alaa Ashrafil Ambiyaa'e wal Mursaleen.

Allah-hummah Barik lana fie Rajab wa Sha'baan Wa Baliegna Ramadan

"O Allah, make the months of Rajab and Sha'ban blessed for us, and
let us reach the month of Ramadan (i.e. prolong our life up to Ramadan,
so that we may benefit from its merits and blessings)."

"Oo see kum Ibad'allah Bi Taqwa'llah"  Wa Ba'd

O Ummatul Muslimeen! Human beings are like stars. There are some who generate their own light while there are others who reflect the light they receive. The world today is riddled with human beings who form the second category. They lack initiative and their knowledge is derivative. They go through life wearing blinkers with eyes half shut, with dull ears and with dormant thoughts. It is an age of the transmitters of light, people who merely transmit knowledge and do not generate it. It is an age of fact-collectors who have no aim beyond their facts. They are 'one-story men'. Some of them are smarter than others; they are 'two-story men' who compare reason and generalize; they use their own labour and the labour of the fact-collectors. But they remain essentially bogged down by their incurable obsession with facts.

Almighty Allah Most Exalted has blessed us with knowledge, guidance and eloquence to steer the rocking world of Islam through the tempestuous billows of strife and dissension and to put it back on the rollers to make it self-reliant and self-sustaining. Almighty Allah has chosen the Ummah of His Beloved Nabee Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam for a specific Divine mission, which is of course the restoration of the pristine glory of Islam and the reawakening of our nation from our slumber induced by our love for the glitter and glamour of this egotistical world of delirium. Faith is the spirit's defensive weapon. It is one of the more important factors that can reach deep into the soul, it organizes our deeds and conduct with precise order. Faith also re-establishes the sense of individual and social responsibility, warns us against the influence of social corruption, and guides society to righteousness and truth.

People of Imaan! It is said that "there is no believer who does not have two lights in his or her heart: the light of fear and the light of hope. Were one of these to be measured, it would not exceed the other, and were the other one to be measured, it would not exceed this one. This means that the fear of Almighty Allah Most Exalted and hope in Him should be at the highest degree. Despairing of Divine Mercy and considering oneself secure from Almighty Allah's devising [makr] is totally prohibited as explicitly stated in the Most Noble and Glorious Qur'an.  When the Imaan of a Muh'min is strengthened, he or she sees the Exalted and magnanimous Creator Whose bequests are purely due to His care and compassion, the Exalted Lord of all Kings Who bestows without asking and prior to the receiver's capacity. Almighty Allah Jallah Wa'ala informs us in verse 79 of Surah An-Nisaa:

"Whatever good visits thee is from Allah: whatever evil visits thee is of  thyself."

And it is regarding the first station that Almighty Allah Subhanahu Wata'ala
declares in the very same verse above: Say [O Muhammad]:

"Everything is from Allah."

O you who believe! Hence, should it be that when tomorrow when we enter the majestic court of our Most Exalted Creator and Maker and stand  in the presence of His Compassion and Mercy, we should be able to say: "O Almighty Allah Rabbul Ala'meen, Who clothed us with the robes of existence and provided us all the means of our life and comfort, over and above the perception of perceivers. It is You O Allah, Who showed to us all the paths of guidance leading to the Path of Seerathal Mustaqeem - all these of Your Bounty were for our own good and in order to benefit us further from the vast store of Your Muhabbat and Favours".

"O Allah! Now that we stand in Your Glorious and magnanimous
presence, we have come with the sins of the two worlds.

Yet the sins of the sinners have not created any defect in the order of Your Dominion, nor diminished the infinitude of Your Mercy. What will You have for this handful of dust, that has no significance in the presence of Your Greatness, except pity and compassion? Can anything except, pity, compassion and forgiveness be hoped from You - Ya Allah? As true Muslims' we should and we must always be moving back and forth between these two views: we must never close our eyes to our defects and shortcomings in fulfilling our duties as true Muh'mins', nor should we ever take our eyes off the expansive and all-encompassing Mercy, Muhabbat, and Compassion of Almighty Allah Subhanahu Wa ta'ala. What can we, blindfolded sinners that we are, have to say about Your Majesty Ya Allah - except declaring with the inconsequent oscillations of our tongues:

"Our hope lies with Your Mercy and our reliance in Your Forgiveness,
and our trust in the generosity and magnanimity of Your Holy Essence.

Ibad Allah! Our Beloved Nabi Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam reported that Almighty Allah, the Sublime and Blessed said: "The workers (of deeds) for My sake should not, for My reward, trust the works they have done; for verily, should they labour and toil for all their lives in My Service and worship, they would fall short in their worship and will not attain to the reality of My service in what they seek with Me of My magnanimity and bounty, My paradise and the high stations in My proximity. They should rather rely upon my Mercy and put hope in My favour and be contented of their good opinion of Me. Verily, therein My mercy will reach them, My good pleasure will go forth to them; and My forgiveness shall envelope them. For, indeed, I am Allah, the Beneficent and the Merciful, and I have been named so on that account."

The opening of the gates of Ibadah and service is one of the greatest of bounties, for which the creatures owe their deepest gratitude, although it is a favour for which we can never ever offer our adequate thanks, for each expression of gratitude is itself the key that opens a further door to sublimity. When we attain the knowledge [Ma'rifah] of this fountainhead and our hearts become familiar with it, we confess to our own shortcomings, and even if we are able to enter into the Majestic Court of Almighty Allah Rabbul Ala'meen with a record of service and Ibadah equal to that of the Ibadah and service of all mankind, Jinn, and the Mala'eeka near to Almighty Allah, we would still be fearful and conscious of inadequacy.

Ummatal Qur'an! The servants of Almighty Allah on whom the sacred doors of providence have been opened and whose hearts have been illuminated by the light of Ma'rifah - their hearts are so full of dread and trembling that even if all the excellences were accessible to them, and were all the keys to the treasures of Divine Knowledge be given them, and should their hearts be filled with Divine irradiation, that would not reduce their fear by an atom's weight nor diminish the trembling of their quaking hearts. Hence, one of them says:

"All are afraid of the End, and I am dreadful of the beginning".

       "Subhanallahi wala hawla wala quwatta illa billahi?

May Glory be to Almighty Allah Subhanahu Wata'ala. There is no power or might which is not by Allah! I seek refuge in Almighty Allah! Allah knows these words tear a person's heart to pieces. They make our hearts melt, and take away our wits. But Alas! How negligent are we! All our obedience and worship are for the sake of selfish aims motivated by self-love. In reality, it is abstinence from the world for the sake of the rewards of the Aghirah [Hereafter] - which, nevertheless, for free men, is abstinence from the world for worldly rewards. Hence, were we to come to our Most Exalted Creator and Sustainer with the Ibadah of the two worlds, we would not deserve anything except expulsion from the Divine Proximity. That is because Almighty Allah Jallah Wa'ala has invited us into His Sacred Proximity and Muhabbat by declaring:

"I have created thee for Myself".

Fa ya Ayyuhan nas! This means that Almighty Allah Subhanahu Wata'ala has made the knowledge of Him the end of creation and shown us the paths of knowledge and servitude. Despite it, all that we are occupied with is catering to our belly, our carnal lusts, amassing worldly wealth, chasing after name and fame, with no purpose in view except self-seeking and self-love. What a great pity! What have we to rely upon? Why shouldn't the fear of Almighty Allah's Might unsettle us and make our hearts bleed? Do we have anything else to rely upon? Do we rely upon our works and trust our deeds? If that be so, woe to us and to our estimation of ourselves! And woe to us for our estimation of the Master of all Masters! However, should our reliance and trust be upon the Bounty of Almighty Allah Most Exalted and Merciful, His expansive compassion and the all-inclusive love of the Sacred Essence, then we say Alhamdulillah, for then our reliance is indeed well placed and we will have relied upon and sought a firm refuge.

O Almighty Allah Rabbul Aalameen! You Who are Gafooroor Raheem! Conveyor of hearts. Creator and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth! Our hands are empty, and we know that we are imperfect and insignificant. We have nothing that is worthy of Thy Sacred Court. We are sinners from head to foot, and we are full of defects. Our inward and outward being is soaked in self-love. We pursue earthly wealth for we are lovers of the glitter and glamour that this world of delirium has to offer. How can I thank Thee with this dumb tongue of mine? Ya Allah! You have mentioned in verse 53 of Surah Al Zumar of Your Mercy and Forgiveness:

Say: "O My servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins  For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

Verily, Almighty Allah Subhanahu Wata'ala shall forgive all sins and immense all in the ocean of His Mercy and Beneficence. It is impossible that Almighty Allah should break His promise, although it is possible that He may withdraw His threats, and how often He does that. So gladden your hearts with the hope of His Mercy and Forgiveness, for Almighty Allah declares in verse 156 of Surah Al-A'raf:

".........My Mercy extends to all things."

And all Praise belongs to Almighty Allah Rabbul Ala'meen, for His Majesty, His Beauty, His Glory, His Greatness, His Muhabbat and His Beneficence. May His benedictions be upon our beloved Nabee Muhammad Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam, his family, the illustrious Sahaba Ridwanullahi Ta'ala Alayhim Ajma'een, the Ambiya Alayhim Salaam and the Mala'eeka. Ameen - Thuma Ameen Ya Rabbal Ala'meen.

And Almighty Allah knows best.

Baarak Allaahu Feekum wa-sal Allaahu wa-Sallam 'alaa
Nabiyyinaa Muhammad Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam.

May Almighty Allah's peace and blessings be upon all of you
and upon your loved one's on this Mubarak Day of Jummah.

Was Salamualaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu

Abdul Hamid "Happiness is the key to the foundation of satisfaction, contentment and acceptance" …Zohra Moosa
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