A Muslim Convert Once More

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ If the Knowledge of God were like an ocean without shore and without a floor, then the knowledge of Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w. ) would be like a twig in that ocean.  And the knowledge of all Creation would be a drop at the end of the twig from that ocean.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Far too many people waste time deciding who amongst them deserve titles and stations without realising that the Owner Who Bestows these does not need their consultation.   All of us are born with the gem of Divine Love.   Few recognise it.   Fewer still recognise its worth.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Khwaja Mu’in ad-Din Hasan Shishty ( q.s. ) said, “ Swalah is like a trust Committed to human care by God, and as such it should be zealously guarded.   Swalah is the climax, or destination, of the faithful.   And lastly, swalah is a secret relationship existing between the worshipper and the Worshipped.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller said, “Whoever is with Allah ( s.w.t. ) during the night, they will find Allah ( s.w.t. ) with them during the day.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Every convert is just a step away from leaving Islam.  Or perhaps half a step.  Because sometimes when we see the other side, the grass looks truly greener, and we wonder what keeps us Muslim.  And it better be God, because everything else will fail us eventually.   Spiritual journeys are meant to have mountains and valleys.  A person born a Muslim may feel that the religion is difficult, and wonder what it is like to leave.  Ultimately, human are creatures of comfort and familiarity.  They have their family, and their culture to hold them back.  But a convert is someone who knows what it was like in his previous faith.  He has a social network waiting for him.  Where the Muslims are a pull factor for the former, they are a push factor for the latter.  And it is because the ummah does not understand that, they push converts to leave Islam.  Many do.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Publius Ovidius Naso wrote, “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force, but through persistence.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) said, “How will you know the difficulties of being human, if you are always flying off to blue perfection?   Where will you plant your grief seeds?   Workers need ground to scrape and hoe, not the sky of unspecified desire.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd ibn Muhammad al-Baghdadi ( q.s. ) said, “Patience is to swallow bitterness without frowning.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu Muhammad ibn Abu Swalih ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani ( q.s. ) said, “You should spend some time in places set aside for private retreat, in which you can perform your ‘ibadah , and do so with sincere devotion.   Loneliness is better than bad company.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde said, “Most people are other people.   Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Baruch Spinoza said, “Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Sayyidina Abu Hafsw ‘Umar ibn al-Khaththab al-Faruq ( r.a. ) said, “He who does not live in the way of his beliefs, starts to believe in the way he lives.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani ( q.s. ) said, in a swuhbah , “Allah ( s.w.t. ) did not send the whole shari’ah in one day.  It was completed within twenty-three years.  It shows us that the followers of Muhammad ( s.a.w. ) were improving their prayers step by step.  First, they were only praying two raka’ah .  After the mi’raj , Allah ( s.w.t. ) Commanded them to pray five times.  We, too, must try to make the way easy for new Muslims.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali ( r.a. ) cautioned, “The tongue is very small and light, but it can take you to the greatest heights, and it can put you in the lowest depths.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ajibah ( q.s. ) wrote: “When a time of need knocks at my door, I open to it the door of joy and happiness. I tell it, ‘Welcome and welcome again! Your time with me is more beneficial than the Night of Power!’”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus said, “Nothing that is unjust can be good, and everything that is just is bound to be good.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Abu al-Fath Ghiyats ad-Din ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyami an-Nishaburi ( q.s. ) wrote: “These fools, by dint of ignorance most crass, Think they in wisdom all mankind surpass; And glibly do they damn as infidel, Each one who is not, like themselves, an ass.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Regarding da’wah , our duty as Muslims is only to call.   Regardless of whether they come or not, is irrelevant; that is His Will.   Regardless of our state, since we will always be inadequate compared to Perfection.   Regardless of our knowledge, since we possess not one drop in His Oceans of Knowing.   We are only here to pass the Message and invite.   Perhaps the one that heeds is our very soul.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde said, “If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali ( r.a. ) said, “Be happy at this moment in which you exist.   Do justice to it, for even this you will not find again.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde said, “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus said, “It is certainly no part of religion to compel religion.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Gaius Julius Caesar observed, “Men are quick to believe what they want to be true.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Baruch Spinoza said, “All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Aristotle said, “Those who educate children well are more to be honoured than they who produce them; for these only gave life, those the art of living well.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Fr. Meister Eckhart wrote, “Spirituality is not to be learned by running away from things, by living alone and being apart from the world.   Rather, we must find for ourselves an inner solitude wherever we are and whomever we are with.   We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Sayyidina Abu Bakr ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Utsman asw-Swiddiq ( r.a. ) said, “True generosity is to remove the burdens of Creation and place it upon one’s own shoulders.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Epictetus said, “You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali ( r.a. ) said, “The mere physical scientist is like an ant who, crawling on a sheet of paper and observing black letters spreading over it, refers the cause to the pen alone.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Sayyid ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman ash-Shaghuwri ( q.s. ) said, “Who does Allah Prefer?   The one who prefers Him.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Marcus Tullius Cicero said, “Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Sayyidina Abu Bakr ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Utsman asw-Swiddiq ( r.a. ) said, “He who prays five times a day is in the Protection of God, and he who is Protected by God cannot be harmed by anyone.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh ‘Abdullah ibn Mahfuzh ibn Bayyah said, “My sincere advice, especially to the youth, is to understand this religion, do positive things wherever you are, and help restore the glory of this community.   That glory is to be witnesses of truth, virtue and uprightness.   I say this out of care and concern for all of you.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato said, “Death is not the worst thing that can happen to a man.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Thomas Paine said, “Belief in a cruel god makes a cruel man.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Baqir ( q.s. ) said, “To recognise the world as insignificant is the highest stage of certainty in faith.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche observed, “It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde asked, “Who, being loved, is poor?”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w. ) said, “Whoever wants to know what Allah ( s.w.t. ) has Prepared for him, should look to what he has prepared for Allah ( s.w.t. ).”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi ( q.s. ) wrote, “The ignorant does not see his ignorance as he basks in its darkness; nor does the learned see his own knowledge, for he basks in its light.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali ( r.a. ) said, “Knowledge which does not remove you from sins today, and does not convert you to obedience, will not remove you from the Hellfire tomorrow.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Sigmund Schlomo Freud said, “Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Fadhl ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuthi ( q.s. ) wrote, in his al-Jami’ asw-Swaghir , “Fast is a hidden form of worship; no one can come to know about your fast until you tell it to others yourself.   Allah ( s.w.t. ) Likes hidden worship more.   A blessed hadits says, ‘Fasting is the door of worship.’”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu Muhammad Sahl ibn ‘Abdullah at-Tustari ( q.s. ) said, “Life is of four kinds: the life of angels consists of obedience; the life of prophets consists of knowledge and the anticipation of Revelation; the life of the swiddiqin consists of following guidance; and the life of the remainder of the people – whether knowledgeable, ignorant, ascetic, or devoted to worship – consists of eating and drinking.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato said, “Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ( r.a. ) said, “A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Shams ad-Din Muhammad at-Tabriz ( q.s. ) said, “The whole universe is summed up in the human being.   The Devil is not a monster waiting to trap us.   He is a voice inside.   Look for your Devil in yourself, not in others.   Do not forget that the one who knows his Devil, knows his God.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde said, “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”