A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Sayyidina ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib ( k.w. ) came to Baswra, and entered a mosque.   He found storytellers telling stories.   He made them get up until he came to Shaykh Abu Sa’id ibn Abu al-Hasan Yasar al-Baswri ( q.s. ).   He said, “Lad, I will ask you about something, If you answer it, I will let you stay.   Otherwise I will remove you as I removed your companions.”   He saw that he possessed proper behaviour and guidance.   Shaykh al-Hasan al-Baswri ( q.s. ) replied, “Ask whatever you wish.”   Sayyidina ‘Ali ( k.w. ) asked, “What is the basic foundation of the diyn ?”   “Scrupulousness,” he replied.   He asked, “What is the corruption of the diyn ?”   “Greed,” he replied.   Sayyidina ‘Ali ( k.w. ) said, “Sit.   Someone like you can speak to people.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Shahab ad-Din Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn ‘Umar al-Mursi ( q.s. ) said, “At the beginning of the business, I was in Alexandria and went to someone who knew me.   I bought something I needed from him for half a dirham .   I said to myself, ‘Perhaps he will not take it from me.’   An invisible voice said to me, ‘Safety in the diyn lies in abandoning greed for creatures.’   I also heard him say, ‘Someone with greed will never be full.   Do you not see that all its letters are hollow: ta’ , mim and ‘ayn ?’”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ) said, “I have despaired of myself benefiting myself, so how should I not despair of other than me benefiting it?   I have hopes of Allah for others besides me, so how can I not have hope for myself?   This is the alchemy and the elixir by which one obtains wealth with no poverty in it and might with no abasement in it and spending which does not run out.   It is the alchemy of the people of understanding of Allah.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Imam Abu Muhammad Sahl ibn ‘Abdullah at-Tustari ( q.s. ) said, “The person who does not love the world is given the like of the reward of the scholars and worshipers together; then, the rest of the believers have the likes of only a portion of what he got.   No one on Resurrection Day will be in a better state than the scrupulous scholar who did not love the world.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykh Shams ad-Din Muhammad at-Tabriz ( q.s. ) wrote:   “Everyone, sober or drunk, is seeking a beloved, Everywhere, mosque or synagogue, is the house of love.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Brother James Harris posted the following quote, on The Sharing Group, on the 5 th March 2015: “Ustadz Sa’id Ukur Nursi (r.a.) wrote, in his 28 th Letter, on the dangers of ahadits interpretation attempts by the layman., ;It is not permissible to discuss ambiguous ahadits among the ordinary people, and to show off and justify oneself like a lawyer, and to rely on egotism to support one ’ s arguments rather than on truth and right.   The question being broached and argued about is having an adverse effect on the minds of the poor ordinary people.   They cannot comprehend obscure allegorical ahadits like these, and if they deny them, it opens the terrifying door to their also denying definite, unambiguous ahadits that they cannot understand with their limited intelligences.   If they take the hadits on face value and accept the literal meaning and they spread it around, it paves the way for the people of misguidance to object t...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The follow is the Hizb al-Wiqayah , “Litany of Protection”, by the philosopher’s stone, greatest teacher and magnanimous guide, Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi ( q.a. ).   In the Name of Allah, the Universally Merciful, the Singularly Compassionate  . O Allah, O Ever-Living, O Self-Subsisting; with You I have taken Refuge, so Protect me with the protection of the safekeeping of the fulfillment of the reality of the proof of the preservation of the security of: “In the Name of Allah.”   Admit me, O First, O Last, to the hidden secret of the mystery of the sphere of the treasure of: “Whatever Allah Wills!   There is no strength but with Allah! (18:39)”   Drape over me, O All-Forbearing, O All-Shielding, the wing of the screen of the veil of the preservation of the salvation of: “And hold fast, all of you together, to the Lifeline of Allah.   (3:103)”   Construct, O All-...