Tasawwuf and Character Building
SECTION 1
CHAPTER 4
THE THIRD LATIFA SIRRI
O my Rabb! Truly I am in (desperate) need of any good that You send me. (28:24)
In the last two chapters the topic discussed is, in short, as follows. A salik is required to move forward on the spiritual path, and the journey will be termed as being progressive only when the stations he has reached will start affecting his practical life. If, on the other hand, there is no positive change in his everyday life, his character, his day-to-day dealings with others, then it is evident that he is burdening himself with extra responsibilities and is ignorant of the fact that one day he will be answerable to ALLAH. The two lataif have been explained in the previous chapters. The third latifa is called Sirri. When a person is practising Zikr on this latifa, it is said, “under the feet of Hadhrat Musa
”. The meaning of this phrase must be understood by now that the blessings of the Holy Prophet
reach the salik through Hadhrat Musa.
There are a few traits in Hadhrat Musa’s character which are more outstanding than others. The first is Hadhrat Musa had been commanded by ALLAH:
Go both of you to Pharaoh. For he has indeed transgressed (the bounds). But speak to him mildly. (20:43-44)
Hadhrat Musa possessed much anger in his nature and the king, Pharaoh, was extremely proud and arrogant, but the command of ALLAH was to be patient and soft. The reason for this is as ALLAH explains:
Perchance he may take warning or fear. ( 20:44)
Just imagine how difficult this task was. The fact is that Hadhrat Musa was brought up in the king’s house and it is but natural that a person should not annoy someone who has been very good to him. Then again Hadhrat Musa belonged to a nation which was under Pharaoh’s rule, and leading a life of slavery and helplessness. They could not dare to raise a voice against him even when thousands of their innocent children were killed every year at his behest. But the duties of a Prophet and his ways of thinking are different. The best way to return all the favours of the king was by saving him from ALLAH’s wrath and hell. Then again Hadhrat Musa was to explain something which the arrogant ruler was neither ready to hear nor accept, and that too without any weapons or arms to defend himself in case he was attacked. Without any material support, he did go unarmed with his brother Harun. Why was it so? The reason being that ALLAH had commanded him, and the duty of a servant is to just obey the orders without any questioning.
Let us visualise the whole incident. Hadhrat Musa approaches the Pharaoh and invites him towards ALLAH. The king’s answer is as expected. He reminds Hadhrat Musa of all the favours he had enjoyed:
Did we not cherish you as a child among us, and didn’t you stay among us many years of your life? (26:18)
The Pharaoh again says sarcastically:
And you did a deed of yours which you did, and you are an ungrateful. (26:19)
It is obvious that Pharaoh is trying to make Hadhrat Musa’s invitation towards ALLAH look unimportant by distracting him. First he reminds him of his favours and then tries to scare him by threatening to impose the punishment of murder. Hadhrat Musa answers both these allegations by telling him:
I did it then, when I was in error. (26:20)
As far as the favour of the Pharaoh were concerned, isn’t it enough of a favour, that Pharaoh had engaged the entire nation in worshipping him instead of the One ALLAH?
At his point the Pharaoh pauses and asks about the Creator towards whom he is being invited. Hadhrat Musa answers by praising ALLAH and describing his attributes. Now the Pharaoh makes a political move and asks a question to exploit the feelings of the public. He questions:
What then is the condition of the previous generations? ( 20:51)
It is evident that if Hadhrat Musa had said that they had died in ignorance, then the public would have turned against him. But the Prophetic way of preaching is very special. Hadhrat Musa answered this question by saying, “Whoever shall be punished or whoever shall be blessed is up to the Divine Will as ALLAH is always right.” This conversation proves that a person should invite others towards ALLAH with all sincerity and nothing should distract him from this duty, whether it is wealth, fear of persecution, sarcasm or mockery. Whatever it is, a person should care only about his duty towards ALLAH and keep in mind the principles of preaching wisely. If the person who is being addressed starts to get annoyed, then it may be possible to defeat him by logical arguments, but a feeling of withdrawal and anger may arise in him, which cannot in any way be cured.
A salik usually comes across three types of people when inviting towards ALLAH’s Zikr. The first kind is of those who want to listen and understand with sincerity, they should be approached with love and concern. The second type are those who just want to argue for the sake of argument, the conversation with them should be logical, but the aim should be to make the point as clear as possible, rather than imposing our opinion on them, and as a result annoying them. The third type are those who are experts in absurd reasoning and irregular arguments and want to show off this capability. It is better not to involve oneself too deeply with these types, the best way to deal with them is to just say that I think ALLAH’s Zikr must be practised, if you agree with me it is fine, but if you do not, I shall not force you:
You are absolved of what I do and I am free of what you do. ( 10:41)
The second problem which Hadhrat Musa had encountered was that, the people whom he had delivered from years of slavery, and had trained and instructed to acquire excellence, started to complain and cause hindrances in his mission. For example, when Hadhrat Musa was taking them out of Egypt, and the soldiers of the Pharaoh were in pursuit, they started complaining:
We have had nothing but trouble, both before and after you came. (7:129)
They really meant to say that they had been leading lives of misery before he rescued them and now they felt even more insecure. As the danger approached them, they did not see any way of being at peace. They felt that before they were at least living, even if it was in torture but now they feared that Hadhrat Musa will definitely be a cause of their death. You can see for yourself that despite their most annoying attitude, Hadhrat Musa calmed them down in a very loving way.
Yet again when they were passing through a country where people worshipped idols, they demanded: “O Musa! Look at these people who have such beautiful gods. Please make us a similar god who shall be as beautiful as theirs.” Hadhrat Musa felt very angry but still controlled the situation with prophetic wisdom. When they were given prepared food by ALLAH during their journey, they started to complain by saying, “We are fed up of the same food everyday. Please pray to your Creator to grow colourful vegetables for us from the earth like lentils, onions, and garlic, as our tongues want to change the taste of food.” Hadhrat Musa explained to them very patiently, that this demand was unreasonable, but they persisted, and Hadhrat Musa finally prayed for their demands to be fulfilled then again they started to complain: “We are dying of thirst in this desert, please supply us with water.” Hadhrat Musa according to the Divine instructions smote a rock (or stone) with his staff since he knew the nature of his men, he must have prayed accordingly. Therefore, twelve springs sprung out so that the people who were divided into twelve tribes each had a spring of their own to quench their thirst.
When Hadhrat Musa was summoned to mount Tur to receive the Torah, his people started worshipping a calf in his absence. Hadhrat Musa, on his return could no longer control his anger as he could not bear to see that these idiots had violated the basic belief and faith in the Unity of ALLAH. They had crossed their limits and this could not be tolerated. Then Hadhrat Musa ordered them to attack a village to rescue ALLAH’s slaves from the persecution and tyranny of their cruel ruler, and they answered, “O Musa, you and your Creator should go and fight. We shall not move from here.” There are many other such situations which Hadhrat Musa had to face at the hands of his people. Thus, we come to learn from these incidents that a salik should always be patient and considerate with his friends, if he faces such situations. But if it is beyond his control, then he should leave the matter to ALLAH. At this point, Hadhrat Musa had finally prayed to ALLAH: “O ALLAH! Please create a separation between us and the people who are disobedient.” According to the status of a Prophet, he is endowed with powers to perceive the facts. A Prophet is endowed with special insight and vision. The duty of a salik, in such circumstances, is to pray and ask for the help of ALLAH, as He is All-Knowing and Wise and will, change things for the better at His Pleasure.
Preaching and inviting towards ALLAH is a difficult and sensitive task, and you will surely come across hindrances, and may well commit blunders unknowingly. For example, a friend of ours was asked about something, and, he answered, saying it is forbidden which made matters worse. If a scholar had come across such a situation, he would have controlled it by proving his point logically, but since our friend was not a scholar and had announced his verdict without thinking about the result, he had landed himself into trouble. Since most of us are not scholars, it is safer to confine our preachings to the following four topics:
• Be regular in the obligatory worships, especially the congregational Salah.
• Remember ALLAH at all times, especially in the morning and evening.
• Keep away from the forbidden.
• Avoid lies.
Apart from this if anyone asks you a question, just answer, “I am not a scholar, It is better if you consult some scholar about it.”
Let me tell you a joke. I am calling this incident a joke because, though it is a simple question, it is very interesting. Otherwise this is not a joke but a fact. Once a person asked me a question saying what do you think of the act of kissing the thumbs on hearing the Azan (Call to Prayers)? In return I asked him why has this become necessary? If you do kiss your thumbs then you must have proof for this act, and now since you are asking my opinion it shows that you are not very sure of this act. He answered “I notice that some people kiss their thumbs and some do not.” I agreed with him on this point. He then asked about those who do kiss and wanted to know the reason. I answered that they kiss out of love. He again questioned for those who do not. I answered, “It is again out of love.” This perplexed him and he said, “If both perform such an act out of love, then why do their actions differ?” I answered, “The reason for this is that people differ in nature. There are people who feel that the person who has commanded us to love has also taught us the ways to display our love, therefore, the best way to show one’s love should be according to his teachings. Others although know that the command to love is there, no doubt, but they want to display their feelings according to their own wishes and it is obvious that our feelings may differ from the Divine commands. That is why we come to see different faces of love around us. Now it is up to the person to decide, whether the commands of the beloved are more important or whatever he feels is more important.” My friend understood this explanation and I thanked ALLAH and prayed to Him to bless all of us with the knowledge of the religion Islam, and always guide us onto the right path. Ameen.