Taste Of Qur'an :By Shaykh Syed Salih Al-Jafri rahimahumullah

"Do you not see the orange? Do you know an orange? When you eat an orange you find that it is sweet. Likewise, every verse of the Qur’ān does the same to the spirit! There is no doubt that your body will feel pleasure along with your spirit from this verse." Sheikh Sayyid Sālih al-Ja'fari )may Allah be pleased with him(

Visit of Imam Syed Salih Jafri(rahimahumullah)

}It )the Qur'an( is clear verses, in the chests of those who have been given knowledge{ )Qur'an 29:49( ***** Before I came to al-Azhar, someone from town brought a volume of al-Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim, so I borrowed it from him and began to study it. I saw )i.e. in a dream vision( my master Abd al-Aali al-Idrisi sitting on a chair, and with him his travel belongings, and I heard someone saying, "The sayyid wants to travel to Egypt, to al-Azhar." I went and greeted him and kissed his hand, and he said to me sharply: "Knowledge is taken from the chests of men, not from books!" And he repeated it. I woke up from my sleep and was inspired by my Lord to travel to al-Azhar. When I first reached it I found the hadith scholar Shaykh Muhammad Ibrahim al-Samaluti teaching al-Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim! - Shaykh Salih al-Ja'fari )may Allah be pleased with him(, Imam of the Azhar ]from Reassurance for the Seeker[

See The Lights Of Prayer

' Were you to see to see the lights of prayer, or smell the perfumes of prayer, or see the angels that surround you, you wouldn't leave the prayer for an hour! But he hid that from you so that you could be tested. "So that Allah knows who fears Him in secret )even though they cannot see Him( ." )Quran 5.94( ' Sheikh Sayyid Sālih al-Ja'fari )may Allah be pleased with him( ~ Jummu'ah Durus.

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!