In his book Hilyat al-Abdaal, Ibn Arabi mentions that there are four cornerstones to the spiritual path: Seclusion, Silence, Hunger, and Wakefulness.

In his book Asraar al-Siyam (The Secrets of Fasting), the Azhari imam, Shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari, writes:

“They have mentioned that the Abdaal have four characteristics: Silence, Hunger, Seclusion, and Wakefulness. Now Silence is brought about by Hunger, and so is Wakefulness. And what remains is Seclusion, which is its fruit, because it is brought about by the lights of dhikr, for they cause one to find intimacy and comfort in the company of Allah (al-uns billah) and alienation in the company of all other than Him (al-wahsha ‘an siwah).

So Hunger is the basis for the (other) three, and it happens while Fasting.”

Someone visited a shaykh and found him crying. “What makes you weep?”
The shaykh replied, “I am hungry.”
“And someone like you cries out of hunger?!”
“Be silent! Don’t you know that what He wants from my hunger is that I cry?”

- Al-Qushayri’s Risala, the chapter on Hunger and the Abandonment of Lust

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The shaykh was not crying out of hunger. Rather, it is because of his hunger that he was able to cry.

“What is this copious sleep? As if you were created for food and sleep? If you do not fast, then who is it that fasts? And if you do not stay up at night, then who is it that stays up? … Is it the highway robbers that stay up at night? And the people in night clubs?”

- Shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari (r.a.)

The sacred month of Rajab began a couple days ago. The word Rajab comes from the word “tarjeeb“, which means glorification, so this is a month that people glorify. It’s one of the four sacred months, and it is followed by Sha’ban then Ramadan.

The Light of the Worlds, Sayyidna Muhammad, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam said,

“Rajab is Allah’s month, Sha’ban is my month, and Ramadan is the month of my Ummah.”

That is why, according to Abu Hurayra, the Prophet didn’t fast entire months beside Ramadan except Rajab and Sha’ban.

It is said,

* Rajab is the month for those who race ahead, Sha’ban is the month for those who do some extra good deeds, and Ramadan is the month for the sinners.

* Rajab is the month of sanctity, Sha’ban is the month of service, and Ramadan the month of blessings.

* Rajab is for leaving our forgetfulness and coldness, Sha’ban is for work and devotion, and Ramadan is for sincerity and purity.

* Rajab for  Allah’s forgiveness, Sha’ban for intercession of the Messenger, and Ramadan for the amplification of reward, the descent of mercy, and the Night of Power.

And the in words of Dhul Nun al-Misri:

“Rajab is for leaving wrongdoing, Sha’ban for obedience and good works, and Ramadan for waiting for blessings and gifts from Allah.”

He also said, “Rajab is the month of planting, Sha’ban is the month of watering, and Ramadan is the month of harvest.”

There are many hadiths on the benefits of fasting at least one day in Rajab, and preferably three, for each good deed is rewarded as ten, and so it is as if you have fasted the entire month.

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The above information comes from Al-Ghunya of Shaykh al-Islam Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (r.a.).

فنازعت أقدار الحق بالحق للحق، والرجل من يكون منازعاً للقدر، لا من يكون موافقاً للقدر‏

“I have fought against what was destined by al-Haqq, with al-Haqq, for al-Haqq. Men are those who battle against fate, not those who go along with it.” - Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (r.a.)

Ibn Taymiyya said,

“What the Shaykh - may Allah’s mercy be upon him- said, is what Allah and His Messenger commanded, but many men have erred, for they might see what was destined for someone from sins and wrong acts, even of disbelief, and see that this goes according to the will of Allah, and that what He ordains and destines comes from the fact of His Lordship and the fact that what He wills must happen. So they think that surrendering to that, going along with it, and accepting it, is a way (deen), a path (tariq), and an act of worship (ibada). In this they become like the mushrikeen who said, “Had Allah willed, we had not ascribed (unto Him) partners neither had our fathers, nor had we forbidden aught (of what He made lawful)” and they said “Shall we then feed those whom, if Allah had so willed, He would have fed, (Himself)?” and they said, “Had Al-Rahman so wanted, we would not have worshiped them.“

Had they been guided, they would have known that we were commanded to accept destiny and have patience when a calamity happens, like poverty, illness, or fear. He Most High said, “No calamity befalleth save by Allah’s leave. And whosoever believeth in Allah, He guideth his heart.” As one of our pious predecessors said, “He is the man who is afflicted with an affliction and knows that it is from Allah so he accepts it and resigns to it.” And He Most High said, “Naught of disaster befalleth in the earth or in yourselves but it is in a Book before we bring it into being - Lo! that is easy for Allah - That ye grieve not for the sake of that which hath escaped you, nor yet exult because of that which hath been given.“

As for sins, a servant may not sin, and if he sinned, he must ask Allah’s forgiveness and repent, for one must repent from fault and have patience with calamities…. And so it is with the sins of (other people). The servant must command that which is good and forbid that which is evil- according to his ability- and to struggle against the kuffar and hypocrites in the cause of Allah, to support the awliya of Allah and to take as enemies the enemies of Allah, to love in Allah and hate in Allah…

…They must struggle in order to uphold His Deen, asking His help in that, removing with that that which was destined of bad things… just as man removes the present hunger with food, and keeps away with it future hunger, and likewise, if the time of cold weather comes, he keeps the cold away through clothing, and likewise all that man wants is used to keep away something that man does not want. As they said to the Prophet (pbuh), “Oh Messenger of Allah, you see the medicines that we take, the recitations that we use for healing, and precautions with which we protect ourselves, do they keep away anything that Allah has destined?” So he said, “they are part of what Allah has destined.” And among the hadith: “Supplication and affliction will meet and fight between the Sky and the Earth.” This is the state of those who believe in Allah and His Messenger, and all that is part of worship.

[Summarized, and translated, from Ibn Taymiyyah’s Fatawa, vol 10: www.al-eman.com/islamlib/viewchp.asp?BID=252&CID=191#s1]

Power is necessary and should be developed; but when man is anxious to develop power, either of body or of mind, he ought to remember that the will power is behind it all; that if the will is developed, the physical and mental power can easily be developed. The will power governs the body and the mind.  - Hazrat Inayat Khan, Mastery, p. 211

In the East I have seen a man lifting a heavy stone on one finger. One might wonder how that can be possible, but it is the power of the will alone which sustains the heavy stone; the finger is only an excuse. - Ibid, p. 170

Love, hate, make enemies and friends, according to what pleases Allah, for you do not acquire Allah’s wilaya except through that. And no man will taste the sweetness of faith, no matter how much he prays or fasts, until he is like that. Today, people’s friendships are about the affairs of this world, and that will count for nothing on the Day of Judgment. - Ibn Abbas (r.a.)

You must dare to disassociate yourself from those who would delay your journey… Leave, depart, if not physically, then mentally. Go your own way, quietly, undramatically, and venture toward trueness at last.—Vernon Howard

For the past two weeks I’ve been missing the Fajr (aka Subh) prayers because my Nokia’s alarm wasn’t waking me up anymore. But two days ago I read something that inspired me to fix the problem right away. I was reading a collection of the khutbas that my shaykh, may Allah preserve him and give him good health, gave more than 15 years ago as an imam in the Sudan, and he was talking about how important time was. Here is what inspired me,

“The day in the life of the individual and the ummah is a precious treasure with which you could progress steps and steps, and it is a sort of treason toward Allah and His messenger for it to be wasted without expending energy in it supporting a force, doing something required of you, offering a service, acquiring knowledge, or doubling productivity….

And Islam encourages starting one’s work early, and that the Muslim seizes his day with a leap of determination, and that is why the Fajr prayer is the beginning of the Muslim’s day.”

How true: Time wasted is treason to Allah and His messenger! I had never thought of it that way! Instead of working for the betterment of the ummah, which requires of all of us to do our best, I sleep! And so within 24 hours my problem of waking up for Fajr has been solved! Here’s how:

The body takes its cues for sleeping and waking up from sunlight. As the sky gradually brightens, the body realizes that it’s time to wake up, and as the sky dims, the body starts to get sleepy. Now when I lived in Canada for a couple years, I bought this small side lamp that had a timer on it: you tell it when to wake you up, so it starts to gradually increase in light until the desired time (when it can also ring an alarm to make sure you wake up). And you tell it when you want to sleep, so half an hour before that it starts to dim slowly. By mimicking the sun, it was meant to help you wake up and sleep better, and in a more natural way, than from alarm clocks. But that lamp was too weak.

Here in Jordan I had to buy a normal light and then hook it up to a timer. I installed a pair of neon light tubes above my bed, and then installed an industrial timer that companies might use to control when their lights/electricity turn on or off. Both were pretty cheap. There’s no dimming or gradual lighting effect, but that’s ok. I set it up to turn on every morning at 5 then turn off again one hour later. It’s much easier to program than the digital timer that was on my side lamp because you just push down the pins for the hours you want it to be on. I also have it turn on again at 8 in the morning for another half hour, just in case I fell back asleep after Subh prayer.

This makes it MUCH easier for your body to wake up. If it doesn’t wake you up by itself, then it will make the alarm wake you up easier. And once you’re up it will make it really hard for you to try to fall back asleep without praying (astaghfirullah).

So there you go, problem solved. I hope writing this will help someone else out there wake up on the right time.

The next step is to change the light bulbs in my room and get the really bright energy-saving ones. This is because the body also gets its cue of how long it has been awake from the amount of light that it takes in. If you stay indoors with dim lighting, the body never gets enough lighting to say to the body: you’ve had a full day out working and now you should sleep. So you don’t get sleepy until very late and don’t have a good deep sleep. If your indoor environment is very brightly lit, your body takes in a lot of light, and at the end of the day it’s ready for a good long deep refreshing sleep.

[The great shaykh Ibn Ajiba, in his large commentary on the Fatiha says,]

Know that Allah’s beautiful names are all suitable for ta’alluq (attachment, relationship), takhalluq (adoption, appropriation, cultivation), and tahaqquq (realization).

As for ta’alluq: it is seeking for that name’s meaning to happen.

As for takhalluq: it is striving in the works that bring about this meaning.

And tahaqquq: is its happening and taking root in the heart until it takes hold of it, and does not leave it most of the times.

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AL-MU’MIN

It has been said, “the musaddiq (verifier of the truthfulness) of His messenges with miracles”, and it has been said, “the One who secures His servants from the Great Fright, or His placing in them a sense of security and reassurance.”

And the Proof of Islam [Abu Hamid al-Ghazali] said: No security in the world comes except through causes that He alone creates and guides to their use, therefore He is the Absolute cause of safety.

And ta’alluq to it, according to the first meaning: To ask Him to give you belief in Him, and in His promises and threats, and His prophets and messengers, and His awliya.

And according to the second meaning: To ask from Him safety from His dissatisfaction by the achievement of true repentance, and correct manners, by conformity to the Sunna, and the abandonment of innovations.

And takhalluq according to it: is for your truthfulness to increase, for your faith to strength so that no doubts mix with it, or false beliefs, and that no worry or comes to it, and that all of creation feel safe from you, for his saying, peace be upon him, “I swear by Allah that he does not believe…he from whom his neighbor feels no security,” and to believe all those who want to give you advice and tell you that in which you will find your righteousness and right guidance.

And tahaqquq with it:  that the light of certainty shines in your heart, so that the hereafter is too close to you for you to leave for it, and to see this world with the eclipse of perishing apparent on it, and that which was unseen to you becomes witnessed, and that which was to come becomes now, and that your sidq (honesty) is so great that you believe in what is normally impossible.

It has been related that sayyidna Isa , upon our prophet and upon him be peace and blessings, saw a man stealing, so he said, “you have stolen, oh so-and-so?”, so he said, “No, by Allah I did not steal, oh spirit of Allah”, so Isa peace be upon him said, “I believe in Allah and disbelieve in my eyes.”

So if your honesty is realized, and you are firmly established in it,  you are written down with Allah as one of the siddiqeen (the verifiers), the muqarrabeen (those brought near), may Allah raise us among them (on the Day of Judgment), Amen.

[the end]
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Note: sidq means truthfulness, honesty, sincerity, and faithfulness. Thus it carries a meaning that goes both ways: it is both the quality of being truthful and of believing in the truthfulness of others. A siddique is someone who is both truthful and verifies the truth of something (the prophet, Allah, etc). Thus the name al-Mu’min is closely tied to the word sidq, because he who has the quality of mu’min is truthful,has faith in Allah, and believes those who give him good counsel or advice. That is why the first meaning mentioned above for Allah’s name al-Mu’min is al-musaddiq for His messengers with miracles, meaning: the one who show their truthfulness. That is why Ibn Ajiba says that he who has great honesty will more easily believe what may sound miraculous or impossible, as if both qualities come from the same essence.

إلهي أذقني حلاوة الإيمان، حتى أشهد أني نلت خير نعمة بالفضل والإحسان، واحفظني بفضلك من الشيطان، فهو يحاربني في هذا الكنز المصون، إلهي… تجلّ لي بنور اسمك المؤمن، حتى آنس بك في سري وعلني، في ظاهري وباطني، فإن كل نعمة نورانية هي قبس من تجلي اسمك المؤمن، فكل أمن وأمان هو منك موهوب، وإليك يرجع الأمر كله يا علام الغيوب، فنور إيماني من تجليك، ونور أذكاري من هدايتك وعنايتك، وحالي غير خاف عليك، فاحفظ علينا الإيمان، وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم

The book from which I got this dua says that it comes from a book called Al-Anwar al-Qudsiyya, and that it is by a shaykh called Al-Aqqad.