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WAYFARERS TO GOD |
This book is an exposition in Habib 'Ali's own words, of the
challenges and obstacles facing today's Muslim in their attempt
to seek proximity to the Creator. The prose is dynamic, and
delivered with compassion in a way that gently provokes the
reader into accounting themselves and their relationship with
Allah. The text gently guides the reader to elevation, without
admonishment or chastisement.
With opening remarks by Habib 'Umar bin Hafidh, Habib 'Ali
describes the timeless journey to Allah in prose that is
particularly relevant to our time. Chapters within the text cover
the following areas: Approaching Allah, Adherence to the
Sunnah, Impediments to Wayfaring, Interferences that Disrupt a
Wayfarer, The Principal Diseases of the Heart and their Cures,
Loving and Loathing for Allah's Sake, Attention to Excellence in a
Work of Worship.
Wayfarers to God will be available for purchase from Guidance
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Excerpt from Chapter One of Wayfarers to God, entitled
'Approaching Allah'
All praise belongs to Allah. All praise belongs to Allah, the
Generous, He Who when He threatens, pardons, and when He
promises, keeps His word. The bountiful, He Who gives without
being asked and gives without measure; Who rewards in
abundance; Who gives without count; Who calls His beloved
ones to the precincts of nearness and ignites their longing for
that High and Majestic Presence. He calls out every night in the
last third of the night, “Is there any seeker of forgiveness at all?
Is there any penitent whatsoever? Is there anyone in need at all
so that I may fulfil his need?”. He calls out at every breath and at
every second that the doors of approaching Him are open, His
gifts to those who are sincere are available, and His benefactions
to those who lie in wait, obtainable. He has created us so that we
may profit from Him and not so that He may profit from us.
What great success awaits for those who yearn for His presence
and seek the path of those beloved to Him. We bear witness that
He is Allah, there is no deity but He, alone and without partner;
a witnessing through which the door to approaching Him will
open to the hearts, and such that the souls will be animated by
the essence of yearning for Him, and footholds will be made firm
on the adab (proprieties) due in His presence.
And we bear witness that our sayyid (‘refuge in times of crises’)
and our mawla, Muhammad, he who combines all that is worthy
of praise, is His Servant, His Envoy, His Beloved, His Chosen One
and His Intimate Friend, whom Allah has appointed as the gate
to Him - the landmark that guides to Him. There is therefore no
other path that will lead to the rank of belovedness in the
presence of the Creator except cleaving closely to the footsteps
of the Prophet. “Say: If you do indeed love Allah, then follow me,
you will be beloved of Allah” [Qur’an, 3:31].
It is this path - that of invoking blessings and peace upon the
most beautiful beloved, the most high, the most sublime - that
is indeed intended by the phrase 'Approaching Allah’, and the
quest for a special ‘nearness’ to Allah. It is a quest that many
people in our times have shunned, preoccupying themselves
instead with that which does not merit preoccupation, and
enterprises which are profitless. The tacky adornments of life
and its shoddy decorations have captured them, and
consequently they have turned their backs on the essence of
happiness, and al-husnaa, namely the Garden, and al-ziyaadah,
namely gazing at Allah’s Noble Countenance. People have
become content with this bankruptcy while days and nights pass
them by, and so they fail to seek the essence of proximity to
Allah.
SINCERITY IN CALLING ONESELF TO ACCOUNT
Both a mu’min (believing man) and a mu’mina (believing woman)
are quite content to let a year, another year, the third year, the
fourth, indeed the tenth year, pass them by whilst neither of
them have called themselves to account with sincerity. They do
not examine their states with the passage of time. What have I
gained this night? And what have I gained this day? Last night
has passed us by and has passed you - has also passed us by,
both you and me - in what have we increased? What have we
gained? What provision did we make that day? And if it is the
case that the day and the night and the day succeeded by
another day, and again the night succeeded by another night,
pass us by pointlessly without us gaining anything of the
essence of approaching Allah, nor have we experienced the
reality of yearning for Allah, or used the days as a means to
scale the ladder of sincere companionship (with Allah), then
what is the worth of this life? Is the worth of this life food and
drink? Is the worth of this life robes and garments? Is the worth
of this life wealth and gold - ephemeral things (that will surely
perish)? Is the worth of this life prestige in the hearts of human
beings which is prone to tarnish or to betray? Is the worth of this
life to have man, who was created by his Lord, be content to fall
from the rank of living for his Lord - which is the most sublime
of ranks - to the rank where he lives for his nafs? He lives to the
measure of his desires? He lives for this world? He lives for
human beings? Indeed, that is abasement itself: for Allah to turn
the heart of a servant away from seeking to attain nearness to
Him! For He has sent our sayyid and our mawla Muhammad, and
before him He sent envoys (may the blessings and peace of Allah
be upon all of them) as deputies from His presence - so that
they may awaken us to this aspiration, and guide us to this
quest, so that each one of us would devote complete attention
to this matter of wayfaring to their Lord!
A day passes you by, and then a night, yet within the day and
the night lie treasures of Allah’s Munificence that are beyond
count and comprehension. No one can comprehend what Allah
has placed within them. Indeed, were your senses to be
enhanced, you would find that the mere second which goes by
contains treasures of Allah’s Munificence that are beyond
imagination, beyond comprehension, beyond count. This is
because Allah has called Himself the Giver, the Gracious, the
Bountiful, the Generous, the Pardoner, and the Beneficent. These
names are attributes and predicates of the Lord Most High, and
Allah, Sublime is He, did not establish them to idle purpose.
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