The Safety of the Salam

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is adapted from a swuhbah by Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani (q.s.) on the 19^th March 2010. 

It was a great honour for us to have been Given this Gift of a heavenly greeting, “as-Salaamu’Alaykum”.  The salam is a bringer of honour and pleasure to those giving and receiving the greeting.  The miracle in a salam, is that it begets another salam in return; Allah (s.w.t.) Spreads His Gifts.  We all must spread this salam to all we meet, be they strangers or acquaintances, and we must make this the beginning of our interaction with our fellows.  Then we may proceed to use our customary greetings.  There is a hadits that says, “Give salam before starting any conversation,” so let us make this a life-long practice, even in our households and teach it to our children and loved ones.  Since a salam begets another salam, safety and peace is spread within a household and within communities that recite it.  One cannot be safe without reciting the salam.  Whoever leaves the act of reciting and spreading it, will be left bereft and will have no Protection in these times of trial.  We must make it a dedicated practice to give salam regularly for that is a shield. 

People today, are like inmates in an asylum.  When we hear that someone is in such a place, we know that he has likely lost his faculties of reasoning; he is ignorant of the consequences of his actions.  The actions of the heedless are irrational.  We avoid meeting such people like a plaque.  People no longer realise why they are here on earth for.  They have no understanding of their mission and purpose.  They waste their time on meaningless pursuits.  They are just like patients in an asylum.  Therefore, we are in need of Divine Support and Guidance to control ourselves. 

Those who abandon Allah (s.w.t.), Allah (s.w.t.) will Leave them to disappear into Jahannam.  Even if the entire population of the Earth rejected Allah (s.w.t.), it would be of no loss to Him.  It is our eternal loss, not His.  The entirety of Creation is nothing to Him for Allah (s.w.t.) is the Almighty Creator; it is Easy for Him to Create an entire universe of new creatures who will obey Him.  Allah (s.w.t.) is Creating endlessly.  We must  take care to be obedient to Allah (s.w.t.), to submit to Him and to worship Him sincerely.  We are in need of Him; He is not in need of us.  He is not in need of our worship.  It is an honour that He allows us to be His servants.  Servanthood to Him is an honour, slavery to Shaythan is dishonour.  Our lives on earth will end soon.  Some of us will be Elevated to heavenly realms.  And some of us will disappear into the Fire. 

سُوۡرَةُ السَّجدَة

فَذُوقُواْ بِمَا نَسِيتُمۡ لِقَآءَ يَوۡمِكُمۡ هَـٰذَآ إِنَّا نَسِينَـٰڪُمۡ‌ۖ وَذُوقُواْ عَذَابَ ٱلۡخُلۡدِ بِمَا كُنتُمۡ تَعۡمَلُونَ (١٤) 

So taste (the evil of your deeds).  Forasmuch as you forgot the meeting of this your Day, lo!  We Forget you.  Taste the doom of immortality because of what you used to do. (Surah as-Sajdah:14) 

If we desire to be in our Lord’s Presence forever, to be in His Pleasure, then we should say the sweet greeting of “as-Salaamu’Alaykum”.  It brings safety in dunya and in the hereafter.  The cloak of safety and peace Descend on those saying it.  It descends on both their physical and spiritual beings.  We must make an effort to encourage our fellow Muslims to wear this field of safety by spreading the salam. 

People have left this shield of safety when they stopped believing in eternal life.  They have rejected the fact that they have been Created for eternal life.  The Lord of the Heavens Sent prophets to invite us to this eternal life but people are running away from it.  When someone rejects the existence of the hereafter, he is immediately cut off from all Divine Support.  How does one reject such a thing without any proof?  How do they come to a conclusion that there is only this worldly life and no accounting of deeds in the hereafter?  Who is their teacher?  Who guides them to such an understanding?  They are guided by their lusts and desires. 

Did they not know that Adam (a.s.) was the first warner that Allah (s.w.t.) had Sent to mankind?  But Shaythan strives to ensure that we never return to Paradise.  He is teaching people to disbelieve.  And those with sick minds, these mental patients; have their minds on only seeking this worldly life.  They do not seek eternal life.  They are happy to live as animals do.  Such people expand all their energy seeking pleasure for the physical being.  And while our physical beings are animal-like in its needs, our spiritual beings have been Given a Precious Gift from Allah (s.w.t.).  If we follow it, we will eliminate darkness and impurity from our lives and find our way back to our grandfather, Adam (a.s.).  Those who follow Shaythan, will lose their way. 

We have two beings – the physical and the spiritual being.  The physical being has animal-like needs.  If we allow that to dominate us by focusing only on feeding its needs, our spiritual being will be left to starve and it will wither away.  It is this spiritual being that returns to face its Creator.  Such people, with withered souls, will fall from the Swirath.  We are free to choose to either satisfy the animal being in us or to strive for eternal happiness with our spiritual being.  We must remember once we enter the door of eternity, in death, we will never return here again.  We will bear the consequences of our choice.  That is why Shaythan cheats mankind into believing that eternity does not exist.