A Muslim Convert Once Before

Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim ‘Adil al-Haqqani was not given to elaborate philosophical constructions.  He taught in parables.  He said, “Aim to live in this world without allowing the world to live inside you, because when a boat sits on water, it sails, but when water enters the boat, it sinks.” The Analogy A boat on water is a functional instrument.  It sits on the surface of something that would destroy it if it entered.  The integrity of the hull is the only thing between the boat’s purpose and its annihilation.  The moment the water breaches the hull, the boat ceases to be a boat.  It becomes wreckage in the process of sinking. The world — ad-dunya (الدنيا) — is not inherently evil.  The Qur’an does not instruct Muslims to flee the world, deny its existence, or pretend its pleasures are not real.  It instructs them not to be consumed by it.  The distinction is the hull of the boat.  You must be in the world.  You must navigate...

Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim ‘Adil al-Haqqani, the late leader of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order, said, “To achieve dunya is humiliation, and to achieve the next life is honour.  I am amazed at those who prefer humiliation to honour.” Dunya , this worldly life, is not neutral ground in this framing.  Achieving it, in the sense of chasing it as the final prize, is itself the humiliation.  Most people assume the humiliation comes from failing to get the money, the status, the recognition.  Shaykh Nazhim al-Haqqani said the humiliation is baked into the getting.  Achieving dunya without achieving the next life first is humiliation, because the acquisition reveals rather than resolves the underlying condition.  Money without discipline becomes debt with better branding.  Status without substance becomes exposure with a bigger audience.