evils and misfortunes

7/28/2019 Evils and Misfortunes

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evils and MisfortunesSheikh Maulana Abdus Sattar (DB)

Imam and Khateeb, Masjid Bait-us-Salam, Karachi, Pakistan

Translation: http://theheartopener.wordpress.com/

Our bold claim of purity

A person complained about his problems and worries in a letter to a Hazrat. TheHazrat replied, It is natural for a human to feel distressed but I see you writing inyour letter that you never oppressed anyone or caused any harm to others. Whythen I am facing such troubles? This is our general state. We think we never

betrayed others or oppressed anyone, then why do we face many troubles. Why amI the only one facing all the troubles from the affairs of my daughter to childrenand the business? This is the general thinking that why am I facing all sort ofdistress when I didnt harm anyone. The person too wrote such a thing to theHazrat. The Hazrat replied, There are two things. The first thing is the mandoesnt realize his mistake. Claiming that I never betrayed anyones right or did

any harm to others, I wish Allah makes it so but it is a difficult thing to happen.

Only Allah knows how many times we would have hurt someone but the onewho does mistake doesnt realize his mistakes. Also a person has in his mind the

picture of what is oppression and according to that, he feels he didnt oppressanyone. This is what happens and thus the man doesnt realize his mistakesthinking him to be very pure and free from such evils. So the Hazrat wrote let

Allah make it so that he didnt harm anyone but one should never claim andthink that he is free from evils or shortcomings. One should always keep seeking


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forgiveness and repent from deep heart before Allah for the sins and evils onehave. Never let any waswasa (whispering) or thought that a mistake can neverhappen from me.

The cause of misfortunes

It has been narrated that the Prophet made duaa, O Allah! Forgive me forwhichever Muslim I harmed or abused or beat or cursed and make this in his favora source of mercy, purity and a means of gaining proximity to You. Allahu

Akbar! When Allahs Prophet is making such a duaa and seeking His forgiveness, then how can we say that a mistake never happened from our side and

I never transgressed against anyone? Also though the general rule is that themisfortunes befalling us are due to our own evil deeds as mentioned in the Quran,Wamaa asaabakum min museebatin fabimaa kasabat aydeekum- Whatever

misfortune happens to you, is because of the things your hands have wrought (Al

Quran: 41:30),but the rule is not necessarily be the same for every person that it isalways because of his misdeeds that misfortunes are befalling him. If this is thegeneral rule all the time, then the Prophets (peace be upon all of them) and awliya

of Allah wouldnt have faced poverty and misfortunes because some of them

were innocent and some of them were protected from sins. The Prophet said,The Prophets are the ones who face the worst trials, then those who excel afterthem and so on. People like us should think that the troubles we are facing are dueto our own misdeeds. Even if one is so sure that he didnt commit any sin, eventhen he doesnt have to be distressed for the misfortunes because even the Prophets

(peace be on all of them), the Companions (let Allah be pleased with them) and

the awliya of Allah faced it. So how can one say why he is facing all the

misfortunes when he didnt harm anyone or oppress anyone? A Companion of the

Prophet told the Prophet , Ya Rasoolullah! I love you. The Prophet said, O dear! Watch out what you say? The Sahabi said again, Ya Rasoolullah!

I love you. The Prophet repeated the same and so the Sahabi when the


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Prophet said, Be then ready to face the poverty because the poverty runstowards the person loving me just like water runs from top of the valley towards its

bottom. So thinking that misfortunes are always the cause of our misdeeds is not

correct when the misfortunes can come because of our closeness to Allah . Whatever be the case, the misfortunes are sure to come because this is dunya.

The sign of being close to Allah and the sign of our sinsO honorable ones! Let Allah grant us His kurb (closeness or proximity)

because if the misfortunes befall us based of the kurb, then the sign is our heartwill remain tranquil and if the misfortunes come because of our sins, then our heart

will remain restless and this is its sign. If a man faces trouble because of the kurb,then he will become more close to Allah and if he faces problem because ofmisdeeds, then the complaints come on his tongue and a person abandons doinggood deeds thinking negatively why he is facing troubles when he is doingrighteous deeds. He thinks negatively that he is doing righteous deeds and still thediseases come into his house and thus gives up good deeds. My opinion is that a

person should spend more time in seclusion with Allah and keep making duas

and he should never rely on his plan that it will fetch him success because a plancan result in some means of success but it is only Allah who can make iteffective. You should never rely on your plan. The trust should be placed only on

Allah . The plan is only a means and it is only Allah Who puts effect in it.One should never think that his duaa is not accepted and he should make duaa withcomplete confidence and one should have the faith that the duaa is definitelyaccepted but keep in mind that sometimes a duaa is accepted with a different face.It has been mentioned many times in a hadith that the trials are a part of this dunya.So saying that I didnt oppress anyone or transgressed against anyone, neverearned haram money etc., doesnt make sense though it is a big claim that one

never hurt anyone when only Allah knows how many we hurt day and night.

One should always keep seeking forgiveness from Allah . And whenever an evil


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befalls you, turn towards Allah for forgiveness with deep regret and then seek

Allahs help to save you from the trouble you are facing.

The scale of earning rewardsHaving hatred towards sins is praiseworthy and an excellent quality based on therank and saving oneself from sin in spite of having strong desire for it is excellent

based on the reward. If you worry when you will become buzurg (pious elder) anda single evil thought will never cross your mind, then this will never happen. Butyes if you take courage and save yourself from sin in spite of having a strongaffinity towards it, then inshaaAllah the strength to commit a sin will reduce andthe power that drags you towards the sin will reduce. This will definitely happen

but it wont end completely for there will always be a struggle and more youstruggle, more reward you will earn. So the struggle against committing a sin inspite of having strong affinity is great but so is the reward. A young man savinghimself from an evil glance earns more reward than an old man saving from evilglance because the young man has more affinity towards that sin than the old man.He has the peak of youthfulness, strength and a strong desire and so he gets morereward than the old man when he saves himself from the sin. During young age,the environment of sinning is large; the ability to sin is high with regards to

strength and voracity. That is why the difference between worshipping duringyoung age and old age is like between the weight of gold and iron. And as far asthe old man who was worshipping during his young age and also during his oldage, he will get the reward as when he was young. For him is the weight of goldand not that of iron.

The season of wilaayat

If you take one mun (about 16 kgs) of gold and one mun of iron, both are of

one mun but the difference in value is huge like between the heavens and theearth. Similarly the difference between the prostration of a young man and an oldman is like that of the gold and iron. As far as the old man who kept pleasing Allah

even during his young age, he will have the value like that of the gold and notiron and he wont see the difference when he attains his old age because when


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there is more strength and vigor and the man saves himself from the sin, then hisreward too will be more. And that is why one gets wilaayat (the friendship of Allah

soon during young age. The real season of becoming a wali is in the young ( age as it is attained soon. So let one save from sin taking courage. Definitely therewill be a strong desire but take courage. The more one takes courage the more onewill gain the noor. If one doesnt get a certain thing in a place, then that thing hasmore value in that place. Where one doesnt get mangoes, see how people relishthe mangoes there and how much value it has. Here we get mangoes cheap buthow many places are there on the earth where one wont get mangoes easily and

people yearn for it. I heard that a place doesnt have much grapes and when thejamaat from that place went to Afghanistan, they found grapes much cheaper thanthe meat and so the people kept eating more grapes as they get meat in their place

but not the grapes. Similarly, Allah doesnt have ijz-o-Inkasari(humility) for

He has only greatness and so when ijz-o-Inkasaricomes from a slave towards

Allahs court, it has greater value. There is no ijz-o-Inkasariwith Allah and

no crying and pleading with Him . And when these gifts of crying, pleading and

tears go to Allah , then it has much greater value. This is a rare thing in Allahs

court for He has only greatness and greatness. When the things like thehumility, ijz-o-Inkasari, the broken heart, the painful and regretful heart that a sin

has happened goes to the court of Allah , they have a high value for these arethe rare things of that place.

Know some difference

Frugality differs from miserliness. Once Uthmanwas disturbed about the lamp

burning inside his house in vain. By this time a beggar came to his house andwondered what sort of house he ended up with where people are making issue all

over a lamp. And when he begged in the name of Allah Uthman , cameoutside and gave him 500 gold coins. He was completely astonished and when he


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asked Uthman about this, he said, As far as the lamp issue, I will be

answerable to Allah and it is also only Allah Who will reward me foroffering you. That is why there is frugality and here is liberality. So frugality and

miserliness both are different. Miserliness is to stop oneself from spending in goodacts and frugality is to stop oneself from spending extravagantly and lavishly forones pleasure. Contentment is to remain pleased with whatever one gets and greedis to think if I also get such and such things, it would be nice. Each has its owndefinition. Once a person received a guest and he presented before him the barley

bread with the best of his ability to offer. The guest said if there was salt with thisbread, it would have been nice. The host didnt have the salt and so he took a bowlwith him and bought salt in exchange of that bowl and presented before the guest.

After finishing the meal, the guest said, O Allah! Praise to you for the food andfor granting me the contentment over the food. Hearing this, the host replied, Ifyou had contentment, my bowl would have been sparred. So contentment is toremain content with whatever one gets.

Get the true understanding of deen by reading the lives of

our pious elders

Let Allah grant us the understanding of deen. By reading the lives of the people

of Allah , though without doubt if we cannot become like them, at least we willget the true understanding of deen that how much we lag behind in deen. O thedear ones! At least doesnt this much realization occur in us? Without doubt, those

were great people and let Allah create in us some of their good qualities.Definitely we will get some estimation of the real face of deen that how far we arefrom deen and the idol inside us about our thinking that we have become buzurgsgets removed. We get the feeling of how inferior we are because of which we getthe feeling of regret, shame and guilt and one gets the tawfeeq to repent which is a

great thing. By reading the lives of people of Allah and the Companions,these are the things that will be created in us. It is advised to go to such a deenimajlis (religious gathering) from where we will return with discontentment over


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our deeni state and not from where we think that we have become great buzurgs.Our state is that we want our religiousness to be praised and it is enough ifsomeone makes us happy with that. While the case of the Companions (let Allah

be pleased with them) is so different that they go to such a gathering afterwhich they cry like a Sahabi cried, Hanzalah has become a munaafiq (hypocrite);Hanzalah has become a munaafiq. They used to see such great faces of deen and

picture of deen that when they compare themselves to such a scenario, they thinkthemselves to be nothing. So these are the qualities that will be created in us on

reading the lives of righteous slaves of Allah .

The evil of jealousy

The hasad (jealousy) inclines one towards the lowliest of lowly acts and that iswhy in Surah Falaq, one seeks exclusive protection from hasad. If one becomes ahaasid (jealous), he will even push his own brother into a well. If one becomes a

haasid, we see that one of the sons of Adam killed the other son. Hasad is a

very dangerous thing. Let Allah protect us from jealousy and also protect usfrom jealous people. Jealousy is a big disease and a man can do worst lowly acts

because of this. The more one is inclined towards this dunya, the more one is prone

to jealousy. If Allah preserves one from worldly desires for wealth, praise,fame, honor and if he wishes only to become honored in the sight of Allah in

the akhirat, then Allah will purify his heart from hasad and malice. The hasadis created based on worldly things and not on deeni aspect. As far as deeni aspect,

one doesnt get hasad but only gets gibta that is he desires that Allah has made

so and so righteous and let Allah make him too righteous without wanting

others to lose their blessings. This is something praiseworthy. Hasad is to yearn forsomething that the other has for his own self and even if he doesnt get that thinghe wants the thing to be snatched away from the other person. The mindset is, If Iget it or not, the other person should not have it. It is a very dangerous disease.


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Let Allah protect us all from that. Let Allah remove this disease from our

hearts and also protect us from the jealous people. Let Allah grant us tawfeeq

to act on what we hear, write and read. Ameen

-Morning Tarbiati Majlis (7.7.2013)

evils and misfortunes

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