10 Life Changing Tips Inspired By Mawlana Rumi (Rahimahullah) :

1. Challenge Fear "Run From What’s Comfortable. Forget Safety. Live Where You Fear To Live. Destroy Your Reputation. Be Notorious." 2. Be Bold "Do Not Be Satisfied With The Stories That Come Before You. Unfold Your Own Myth." 3. Have Gratitude "Wear Gratitude Like A Cloak and It Will Feed Every Corner of Your Life." 4. Take Action "Why Should I Stay At The Bottom of A Well, When A Strong Rope is in My Hand?" 5. Have Faith "As you Start To Walk Out On The Way, The Way Appears." 6. Embrace Setbacks "If You are Irritated By Every Rub, How Will You Be Polished?" 7. Look Inside "Your Task is Not To Seek For Love, But Merely To Seek and Find All The Barriers Within Yourself That You Have Built Against It." 8. Learn From Suffering "The Wound is The Place Where The Light Enters You." 9. Don't Be Concerned With What Others Think Of You "I Want To Sing Like The Birds Sing, Not Worrying About Who Hears Or What They Think." 10. Do What You Love "Let Yourself Be Drawn By The Stronger Pull of That Which You Truly Love."

Jamad-ul-Awwal (5th Month of islamic calendar)

Jamad-ul-Awal Fifth month of the lunar calendar ( 5th Month of Islamic Calender ) Literal meaning: Jamad means freezing, Whilst naming the months, this month occured in the season when the water freezes so it was named Jamad-ul-Awal. Events of Jamad-ul-Awal: The Battle "Moota" took place in 8 A.H.- A war against infidels in which Holy prophet Mohammed ( Sal-lal-lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam ) did not participate. The battle is named after a famous city in Syria (Moota). Hadrat Zaid Ibn Haritha (R.A) was the first appointed General by the Holy prophet Mohammed ( Sal-lal-lahu Alaihii Wa Sallam ). In the same Battle Hadrat Khalid ibn Walid (fourth general of the Battle of Moota) was proclaimed by the Holy prophet Hazrat Mohammed (Sal-lal-lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam ) as being "one of the swords of Allah" Matrimonies in Jamad-ul-Awal: The Holy prophet Hazrat Mohammed ( Sal-lal-lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam ) married his first beloved wife Hazrata Sayyida Hadrat Khadijah (R.A) 15 years prior to Prophecy. Wisaals in Jamad-ul-Awal: Hadrat Zaid Ibn Haritha (Radi Allahu Anhu ) met martyrdom in 8 A.H. Hadrat Ja'far Ibn Abi Talib ( Radi Allahu Anhu ) met martyrdom in 8 A.H. Hadrat Abdullah Ibn Rawaahah ( Radi Allahu Anhu ) met martyrdom in 8 A.H. Hadrat Abdullah Ibn Uthman ( Radi Allahu Anhu ) took wisaal. The Holy prophet Hazrat Mohammed ( Sal-lal-lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam ) grandfather Abdul Muttalib passed away. Urs-e-Sharif and Wisaal Mubarak Dates / Days of Awliya Allah / Sufi saints in the month of Jamadi ul Awwal 3rd Jamadi ul Awwal Urs Mubarak of Sarkar Shah-e-Miran Hazrat Pir Miran Saiyed Ali ( Rahmatullah Allaih ) is celebrated every year from 3rd to 9th Jamad-ul-Awal. 8th Urs of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai ( Rahmatullah Allaih ), Pakistan 10th Urs of Hazrat Shaikh Najamuddin Kubra (Rahmathullah Allaih) 19th Urs of Hazrat Syed Abdul Qadri Badshah Chishty ( Rahmatullah Allaih ), Sangi 22nd Urs of Hazrat Syed Ahmed Kabeer Rifaee ( Radi Allahu anhu ) Iraq 24th Wisaal of Hazrat Qasim Bin Muhammad bin Abu Bakr Siddiq ( Radi Allahu anhu ) 26th Wisaal of Hazrat Ibrahim bin Adham ( Radi Allahu anhu ) 29th Wisaal of Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed ( Radi Allahu anhu ) 29th Hazrat Khawaja Allah Bakhsh Taunswi ( Rahmatullah allaih )

Seeking Provisions

It is crucial for us to understand that trusting in God's provision for us should never prevent us from working to earn a living. The Prophet himself implied this when he said, “So stay warily conscious of God and beautify the way you beseech and request.” He implied that it is acceptable to request material support and to seek to earn a living in the world. If relying on God negated the need to request, search and earn, then the Prophet would never have declared it acceptable and admonished us to beautify the way we go about it. The Prophet never said, “Don't request,” but rather said, “Beautify the way you beseech and request.” It is as if he were telling us, “When you seek provision and request it, beautify the way that you seek it. Be polite, courteous and humble in presenting your needs, always turning over final say in every matter to God alone.” With this advice, the Prophet has allowed us to request provision through intermediate means (al-talab min al-ashab). Intermediate means could be supplicating God or working in the world. The Prophet had previously pronounced, “It is allowable for people to live off their rightful earning (kasb al-yamin).” This is just one instance among many when the Prophet showed that working and earning money is allowable as an intermediate means by which we receive our provision. Indeed the Prophet encouraged us to work and struggle to earn and improve our lot. There are many benefits to engaging the world through hard work. The true One knows the weakness of human hearts, acknowledges our inability to clearly see what is apportioned for us, and compensates for our frailty by guaranteeing that we will receive our provision. In divine wisdom, God has allowed us to option of working and relying on intermediate means for earning, as a way of receiving this provision. Through divine benevolence, God has granted this to us as a support for our feeble hearts and repose for our forgetful souls. Working for your living protects you from lowering your dignity by having to beg for support from others. It preserves the luster of faith from the tarnish of having to ask from other people. Whatever God gives to you by means of your work does not come as a gift from others, necessitating some subsequent obligations upon you. If someone hires you for a job or pays you for some service rendered, your boss cannot count it as a gift or charity, for your work helps to further the boss' own goals. You take your livelihood as earnings from the boss, not as charity. You take it as a right and not as a request. As you work to earn a living, you are distracted from sinful pursuits. You are saved from the curse of idle time, which gives you the opportunity to act against God's commands. Just observe how negligent people, when they have vacation from work or periods of unemployment, dispose of their time in sinful pursuits! For such people, working for a living is a form of compassion from God; it keeps them from temptation, trouble and inevitable negative consequences. Further, earning a living allows you to be compassionate with those who do not work. The profits you earn are a means of providing the gift of livelihood to those who dedicate themselves to worship or keep their time unencumbered for meditation. If not for those who work and give their earnings, how could anyone spend time in isolated prayer or dedicated service to God? Indeed God had made earnings a from of service for others who dedicate their lives entirely to God. From another perspective, God desires believers to grow close to each other in relationship of mutual interdependence. This is reflected in Divine Speech, Surely the believers are siblings (ihwa). Earning a living through work causes people of different backgrounds to come together, to get acquainted, to cooperate, and to learn to love each other. For this reason, only a stubbornly ignorant or foolishly heedless person would deny the efficacy of working to earn a livelihood. We have no report of the Prophet Muhammad commanding people to stop working an earning as he called them to live in accord with God. Rather, in calling his followers to divine guidance, he urged them to engage in the kinds of work that are pleasing in the sight of God. The Qur'an and the Prophet's teachings are full of exhortations to work. The poet excelled who exclaimed: God commanded May, in her starvation “Shake the palm tree in your desparation And gather the dates that fall as it leans!” The dates could have fallen, if God had willed, And without a shake her needs could be filled But nothing occurs without intermediate means. How clearly the poet points out the meaning of Divine Speech [as it tells the story of Mary when she was pregnant with Jesus and living in isolation]: Shake the trunk of the date palm so that the dates fall into your gathering arms. Once the Prophet stopped at someone's house and was offered a meal of cucumbers and fresh dates. He pronounced, “This offsets the damage of that,” meaning that the cucumber require hard labor to cultivate while dates come almost freely. However, this is an exaggeration [since cultivating dates, too, takes labor]. When the Prophet said to be like and “wake up hungry in the morning and take rest well-fed in the evening,” he was teaching that working for a livelihood was the established norm in this religious community. The birds, as they wake then rest, are analogous to us in our work. We wake in the morning to earn and acquire; in the evening we return home to rest and enjoy what we earn. There is a maxim that explains this point: working with intermediate means is necessary for rectifying your material being, just as withdrawing from intermediate means is necessary for clarifying your spiritual seeing. God established intermediate means through divine wisdom's subtlety, but do not rely on them fully to acknowledge God's absolute singularity. Shaykh Ibn 'Ata'Allah al-Iskandari The Book of Illumination (Kitab al-Tanwir fi Isqat al-Tadbir)

Counsel Sidi Ahmad Zarrooq (d. 1492 C.E.) (Part 2) By Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Act in accordance with principles and the appropriate legal rulings, and not in accordance with stories and fantasies. Don't even consider stories of how things went with others, except as a tonic to strengthen your resolve. Certainly not as a reference based upon their outward forms, or what they seem to be telling us. In all of this, depend upon a clear path you can refer to, and a foundation that you can depend upon in all of your states. The best of these is the path of Ibn Ata'ullah, given that in it is a clear direction to Allah subhanahu wa t'ala. Do not take from others' words unless it is in accordance with your own path, but submit to their implications if you desire realisation. Avoid all forms of vain and foul speech to your absolute utmost. Put aside anything that you cannot discern its benefit immediately. Beware of being extremely hard on yourself before you've obtained a mastery over it. But also beware of being too lax with it, in anything that concerns sacred rulings. This is so because it is constantly fleeing from moderation in everything, and it inclines towards extremism in both matters of deviance and guidance. Seek out a companion to help you out in your affairs, and take his counsel concerning matters that occur from both your inward states and your outward affairs. If you do indeed take his companionship, then treat him in a manner commensurate with his state and give him of your counsel based upon his inabilities and abilities, because a perfected friend is no longer to be found. Indeed, in these times even a suitable companion who is agreeable rarely lasts!

Counsel Sidi Ahmad Zarrooq (d. 1492 C.E.) (Part 1) By Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Know (may Allah give you and us success, and rectify our worldly and other worldly lives and grant us adherence to way of the truth in our journeys and in our sojourns) that: Repentance is a key. And taqwaa (awareness of Allah subhanahu wa t'ala) is vast and uprightness is the source of rectification. Furthermore a servant is never free of either blunders, or shortcomings, or lassitude. Therefore never be neglectful of tawbah (repentance), and never turn away from the act of returning to Allah subhanahu wa t'ala and never neglect acts that bring you closer to Allah subhanahu wa t'ala. Indeed, every time one of these three occurs, repent and return. Every time that you make a mistake, listen and obey. Any time you display shortcoming or lack of enthusiasm, don't desist in your efforts. Let your main concern be to remove from your outer state anything that is displeasing, and then maintain its outward state from continuous counsel. Continue doing this until you find that your fleeing from anything outwardly displeasing is second nature, and your avoidance of the boundaries of prohibited things is as if it acts like a protective net that is placed before you. At this point, it is time to turn inward, toward your heart's presence, and to its reality with both reflection and remembrance. Don't hasten the end result before you have completed the beginning. But likewise, don't begin without looking toward the end result. This is so because the one who seeks the outset at the end loses providential care; and the one who seeks the end at the outset loses providential guidance. Via-Sacred Text Series

Two matters are necessary for a persons success

Imam al-Haddad (Allah sanctify his secret) said in hisHikam: 84- Two matters are necessary for a person in order to attain success in the next world: First: Guidance(hidayah)andtawfiqfrom Allah, which is like the rain which falls on the earth Second: Striving towards Allah upon the path of uprightness, which is like cultivating the earth and taking care of what it needs from seeds, weeding, protection and warding off that which would harm it etc. Thus cultivating the earth without watering it is stubborness and effort without result, and watering it without cultivating it is a waste. Tawfiq from Allah is like the rain, the servant has no say in it, and this is the reality (haqiqah). The striving and effort which is like the cultivating of the earth and looking after it is for the servant, which is his action regarding which he will be questioned and compensated. And this is the shariah. *** Shaykh Muhammad Hayat al-Sindi (Allah have mercy on him) in his commentary said (commentary in italics below) 84- Two matters are necessary for a person in order to attain success in the next world: First: Guidance (hidayah) -to the path of goodness- and tawfiq -to perform good actions and leave sins are- from Allah,-in whose Hand lies guidance and tawfiq- which is like the rain which falls on the earth –and gives life to it after its death… Second: Striving towards Allah –Who ordered His servants to strive towards Him- upon the path of uprightness,-which is the Muhammadan way, without any shortcomings and deviation in the principles (usul) and branches (furu)- which is like cultivating the earth –which grows crops by the mere falling of rain upon it- and taking care of what it needs from seeds,-which is the material source of cultivation- weeding, protection –from that which harms– and warding off that which would harm it-which will not facilitate growth- etc.-which are required for cultivation. Thus cultivating the earth without it being watered is stubborness and effort without result,-as the earth does not grow crops without water- and watering it without cultivating it is a waste.-as it does not grow without being cultivated. Tawfiq from Allah is like the rain, the servant has no say in it,-rather it is the Generosity of Allah which He grants whom He wills- and this is the reality (haqiqah).-For in reality all matters in the Hand of Allah and the servant has no say.- The striving and effort which is like the cultivating of the earth and looking after it is for the servant, which is his action -The upshot of this is that Allah (Taala) has placed in the heart the power to choose good and adopt the correct belief, and the power to not choose evil and not adopt false beliefs and knowledge.  Likewise He has placed in his body the power to do good and avoid evil and made him responsible for that that which in in his ability to do. Thus he who utilises his power by the guidance and tawfiq of Allah in that which pleases Him issuccessful, and the one unable to do this is blamed.- regarding which he will be questioned –on the day of judgement-and compensated. And this is the shariah.-whose limits and rulings must be observed, thus every haqiqah which conflicts with the shariah is falseâ

Etiquettes For Reading The Burda

A number of conditions are necessary in order for it to be read in the correct manner, and also in order for it to be effective in that which it is recited for. The first of them is to performwudu. Second is to face the direction of prayer (qibla). Third is precision in the correct pronunciation of the words and theirirab. Fourth is that the one reciting is knowledgeable of its meanings, because supplications are not effective if the reciter is not knowledgeable of their meanings, as was indicated to by Ali al-Qari in the introduction to hisHizb al-Azam… Fifth is its recitation is poetic form because it was authored as a poem not prose. Sixth is memorizing it. Seventh is that the reciter has permission to recite it from its people. Eighth is that it is recited with thesalatupon the Prophet (Upon him be peace), but it is necessary that it be with thesalat which was recited by Imam al-Busiri which is: Mawla Ya Salei Wa Sallim DaaeMan Abadan Alaa Habeebika Khayril Khalqe Kullehemi Not other than it, for if not then it will not effective as is reported by Imam al-Ghaznawi, that he would recite this qasidah every night in order to see the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in his sleep. He was not fortunate enough to see this vision, so he complained of this to a complete Shaykh (Shaykh Kamil), and questioned him about its secret. The Shaykh replied that perhaps you do not pay close attention to its conditions. He replied that Ofcourse I pay close attention to them, so the Shaykh contemplated and thereafter said, I have found its secret, and it is that you do not sendsalatwith thesalatwhich was written by Imam al-Busiri, for he would sendsalatupon him (upon him be peace) with his words:

Pearls from Tafsir al-Mazhari from Surah al-Nur

Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guides unto His light whom He will. And Allah speaks to mankind in parables, for Allah is Knower of all things. Qadi Thanaullah in his detailed discussion of this verse “ in the course of citing a number of different commentaries- said the following (6/525 onwards): Al-Baghawi said: The people of knowledge have differed over the meaning of this similitude. Some of them said this similitude is of the light of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace). Ibn Abbas said to Kab al-Ahbar, Tell me about His (Most Highs) words The similitude of His light is as a niche. Kab replied that this likeness was struck by Allah of His Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). The niche (Mishkat) is his chest, the lamp is his heart and the glass in it is Prophethood. The light and matter of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) would almost become manifest to people, even if he did not articulate that he was a Prophet, just as the oil would glow even if it was not touched by light. Light upon light. How wonderful is that which Kab said: Then Qadi Thanaullah after detailing some of the Prophetic miracles returned back to this interpretation of this verse and said the following: Salim related from Ibn Umar regarding this verse: The niche is the inner self of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), the glass is his heart and the lamp is the light which Allah placed in him. Neither East nor West meaning neither Christian nor Jewish. Lit from a blessed tree meaning Ibrahim (Upon whom be peace). Light upon light the light of Ibrahim upon the light of the heart of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace). Muhammad bin Kab al-Qurazi said: The niche is Ibrahim, the glass is Ismail and the lamp is Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace). Allah named him a lamp (Misbah) just as he named him Siraj al-Munir. Lit from a blessed tree which is Ibrahim (Upon him be peace). He was named blessed (mubarak) because the majority of the Prophets are from him. Neither Eastern nor Western meaning Ibrahim was neither Jewish nor Christian, but rather was a an upright (Hanif) Muslim Whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it The excellent qualities of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) would almost become apparent to people before he was given revelation. Light upon light A prophet from the offspring of a Prophet, the light of Muhammad upon the light of Ibrahim (Blessings and peace be upon them both).