[Accor$314]

I have read about protecting my eyes and tried that ,
Although I have not been able make it a habit ( sometimes you do look at what your not supposed to even if there is no evil thought inside ) I have noticed when you do so your salah
becomes much more pleasing , you feel peaceful and relaxing . You feel love for Allah more.


Maybe more could be shared by the respected brothers on this. What are the practices.

Also from the highlighted four things to pay attention I find one very difficult.
Protecting your thoughts . How does one do that ?
All kinds of strange , apparently needless thoughts come to you.
I even get scared when negative thoughts come to me and just a seconds bad thought can make you depressed and influence your energy and motivation.

How do you stop having negative / nonsensical thoughts which seems to come out of nowhere.

[joulseenjoync]

I have read about protecting my eyes and tried that ,
Although I have not been able make it a habit ( sometimes you do look at what your not supposed to even if there is no evil thought inside ) I have noticed when you do so your salah
becomes much more pleasing , you feel peaceful and relaxing . You feel love for Allah more.


Maybe more could be shared by the respected brothers on this. What are the practices.

Also from the highlighted four things to pay attention I find one very difficult.
Protecting your thoughts . How does one do that ?
All kinds of strange , apparently needless thoughts come to you.
I even get scared when negative thoughts come to me and just a seconds bad thought can make you depressed and influence your energy and motivation.

How do you stop having negative / nonsensical thoughts which seems to come out of nowhere.

By This & This ..

wa assalam..

[carreraboyracer]

an incident quoted by Hazrat Maulana Shah Wasiullah sahab ilahabadi comes to mind..

That a buzurg was once passing by a fort.. high above was seated the king gazing at the goings on down below.. the king wished to speak to him.. lowered a rope and signalled to come up..

the buzurg climbed up and presented himself.. after salams.. the king asked him.. ' Tell me how did u reach Allah ..?'
and the buzurg replied..' The same way i reached u..'

puzzled.. the king asked him to clarify.. and the buzurg replied..' in the same way u lowered me the rope and i reached u so easily bypassing all gates and durbans.. similarly Allah jalla jalalahu lowered the rope of his love in my heart.. and i climbed up..'

Hazrat Maulana Shah Wasiullah sahab ilahabadi (rah) further says that for the king to notice the buzurg coming his way.. the buzurg had to leave his home.. walk for a distance and then gain the sight of the king.. similarly to gain the rope of love from Allah (swt).. one has to do mujahida.. toil in his way.. then only one shall deserve his benovelent gaze..

Thumbs up for sharing this wonderful malfooz.

[freddystone]

By This & This ..

wa assalam..

Identification with one,s mind,which causes thought to become compulsive,not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction,but we don,t realize it because almost every body is suffering from it,so it is considered normal.The incessant mental noise prevents us from finding the true realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being.It also creates a false "mind made self" that casts a shadow of fear and suffering.
Thinking has become a disease.Disease happens when things get out of balance.For example, there is nothing wrong with the cells dividing and multiplying in the body,but when this process continues in disregard of the total organism,cells proliferate and we have cancer.
The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly.Used wrongly,however,it becomes very destructive.To put it more accurately,it is not so much that we use our mind wrongly---we usually don,t use it at all.IT USES US.this is the disease.The instrument has taken us over.The mind uses us,We have falsely identified ourselves with it,so we don,t even know we are its slaves,almost as if we are possessed with out knowing it,and we take the possessing entity to be ourselves.
When someone goes to the doctor and says"i hear a voice in my head" he or she would be most likely send to a psychiatrist.The fact is,that in a very similar way,virtually everyone hears a voice or several voices,in their head all the time,the involuntary thought process continues in our minds non stop.The voices comments,speculates,judges,compares,complains,like s,dislikes and so on...,some times associated with visual images (mental movies).
Is it harmful ? yes.This the biggest obstacle between us and the realization Of Allah swt.unless we learn how to control our thoughts,we can,t learn to turn our mind to our creator.How impossible this demand seems to have " perfect "concentration in salat for five minutes while our mind is used to free thinking for the rest of the day and night.How many of our "Sins" are just related to our uncontrolled thought process.We look at opposite sex because we can,t control our mind,we hate,because our emotions (an interplay between mind and body) takes over,We indulge in false delusions of grandiosity because our mind plays it that way for us.If one calculates,very few of us has the real chance of a physical sin, most of our sins are imaginary.
Sufia,may Allah bless them,after realizing this problem,developed many methods for the control of mind. One such method is WUQOOFE QALBI.
The basic idea behind wuqoofe qalbi is this: Qalb occupies the same significance in our body as "ARSH" in Alam e akbar,so when one concentrates on his/her qalb,fuoozat from ARSH,starts pouring on qalb,even if one has not intended it,this gradually brings the " monkey mind" under control."Try to focus your mind on your qalb,gradually empty your mind from all thoughts,and remain in this state for as long as you comfortably can.The success is in regularity and not on the length of time spend".So the single most vital step on our journey to peace of mind is this: Learn to create a gape in the uncontrolled flow of thinking process,every time you create a gape in the stream of thought,the light of your consciousness grow stronger.

Omega!
I mean OMyGod!

[amotoustict]

Assalamualaikum,

in just a short span of time, mashallah so many precious posts. Totally amazing...

MashAllah brother, may Allah give you isteqamah and may He give me some part of your commitment to follow the path properly. One more thing, my Shaikh tells that we should not be too concerned with the number of lessons, rather we should focus on the Ultimate goal-Ridha of Allah at all times.
Any ways, who's your respected Shaykh?

Ameen to your duas, May Allah (swt) give you the double effect of the duas you have given me. Ameen.
Very true. Indeed the person's maqsat (purpose) should not be in completing lessons, but the ultimate goal which you have mentioned. It is always, and always my dua that Allah (swt) make me a type of person to whom Allah (swt) is pleased it always. Please make dua that that atleast I get a taste, or the drop of the ocean of the ultimate goal.

I prefer to keep the shaykh's name private, but I will mention that he is a khalifa of nafees shah sahib (ra), and was a very close accompany of Hadhrat Shah Sahib (ra), and has done alot of mujahada in his life.

But the type of person he is like a normal person, who in the morning after praying fajr and shurook goes to the shop (as he is a hakeem), and sits there. He prefers to stay in privacy, hence by looking at him you will not even know that he is a khalifa of a great mashaykh. I was just lucky that, that I heard he is a buzurg but didn't knew he was a actual wali of this time. After sitting, he gave me gift of azkaar, and to be honest I am not bayat to the shaykh. The zikr I am doing is a gift from him, I just have an islahi contact. Since he prefers privacy, I would out of respect for him would also keep his name concealed...

and also, who is your shaykh btw?

Add this also in your routine :

Ummat ki haal par fikir karke din mein chal phir ke ummat ke beeich deen ki mehnat karna aur raat ko Allah ke saamne roona......
.

Very true. One of the signs of abdaal and qutub are that they are people who give da'wa by day and cry by night, I also heard this from a buzurg. And Just make dua that Allah (swt) give me the tawfeeq to act upon the advice you have given.

And may Allah (swt) give you a place in jannatul firdows without any reckoning.

Astaghfirullah Bhai....I can,t say about others,but at least I am not one of those 'High calibre ' buzargan!

Bhai,to me this highlights one very important 'usool'....." That every one on the path of sulook needs mujahida,in addition to ZIKRE" .Lately it has been the prevailing practice to depend solely on ZIKRE.Hazrat Hakim ul ummat RA has pointed it out in several Of his malfoozat and khutbat....that we need 'Mujahida' as much as ZIKRE to achieve the objectives of sulook.Depending 'only' on ZIKRE may not work.
........

Ameen to your duas,
Very precious gems you have mentioned. Indeed I also have noticed that mujahadah is needed along with zikr. And I did also notice that, the reason why I did not progress in my zikr was a test by my shaykh if I have sabr and keep myself habitual with my azkaar, this was itself a great mujahadah, and another mujahadah was to reason my own wrong doings myself. And he is also such a sahibe kashf, that very word is full of wisdom. Even today, from the days with him when I was in my home country, I am getting more gems from just small talks he had with me.

Also, I am not bayat to shaykh. The shaykh has given me gift from his azkaar to do, which is benefitting alot al hamdullillah. During the time with him, I did not even knew what was sulook/tazkiya/tassawuf. And the shaykh gave me the basic zikr, and he knew that I will find it out myself as I further researched on this by reading books. I truly, just truly regret the amount of time I wasted with him, now I realize what precious time I wasted, which inshallah next time I will fully write down every word he mentions, inshallah!

Also, I would really reccomend you to make a single thread where you can post some beneficial advices and post just like dr.76 sahib has done in pas anfaas. You have, mashallah, amazing advices and gems in your hands which you should be sharing with us

In return to your duas, May Allah (swt) grant you a place in jannatul firdows.

MashaAllaah.

One question: When you suggest being in the state of wudu all the time, what does that really mean? Do you go on to renew your wudu the very moment it's broken?

Yes, I renewed my wudhu every time it broke. Sometimes when I am asleep, and would suddenly wake to go toilet I would do the wudhu. I would not even live few minutes without wudhu, during the time in wudhu I keep myself thinking that staying in wudhu is blessing and pure which Allah (swt) likes and the angels.

Another great effect is that it keeps you away from bad thoughts, gives you fikr, keeps you fresh and active.

Salam u alaikum,

MashAllah , and JazakAllah khayrun for sharing. Your post was of much benefit, and lot of lessons to learn. Overall what i learned was:

" If you adopt Taqwa, the result is guaranteed Qurb of Allah"

Al hamdullillah atleast my post came out to be useful. Even I am taking lessons from this post myself. I have planned to make a personal blog for myself where I can keep special sayings of buzurg and also my own words for myself to ponder on.

And I am sure the avatar you have on is the calligraphy of hadhrat nafeesul hussaini (ra)?

UserInvalid, may I ask what you do professionally?

Inshallah soon an elect. engineer.

Since reading your post yesterday Br User(in)Valid, parts of it keep resonating in my mind. Probably one of the most beneficial things I have read here.

I feel dispair at times at not being able to even reach the first step of sulook. I will try implementing the steps highlighted in your post, especially in the office environment and pray it benefits me.
.......

Ameen to your duas.
Do not be despaired. Remember, doing zikr is itself such a great blessing. If you do not experience anything, atleast say Al hamdullilah that Allah (swt) gave you tawfeeq to do zikr, having sabr is a muhjahada.

It is not really important to only follow the steps I have mentioned. You can also analyze yourself and make a list to which you can act upon, that is suitable for you. Do what benefits you, and drop what makes loss for you.

And May Allah (swt) open the doors of sulook for you and grant jannatul firdows.

In my initial stage too a lot of things happened in quick succession.
Some old hands even noticed the quick progress.
Even then I was sort of impatient why my case is not routine like senior Seekers - they come, give a letter and get it back after a few days.
Now it bugs me why the journey is not as rapid as earlier!
Man is hardly ever complacent.

May Allah (swt) make the journey of sulook like a breeze for you. And grant you the rank of fana and ishan. Ameen.

Bhai User.. one does not tie a defective black pebble along with such lustruous gems..

i thought about adding something yesterday.. but my mind was over whelmed by ur post.. dont know when i shall get taufeeq.. pls make dua that Allah gives me ikhlaas.. that the meagre defective amals if i ever did would get accepted.. everything indeed lies in his fadhl..

an incident quoted by Hazrat Maulana Shah Wasiullah sahab ilahabadi comes to mind..

That a buzurg was once passing by a fort.. high above was seated the king gazing at the goings on down below.. the king wished to speak to him.. lowered a rope and signalled to come up..
........

Ameen to your duas,
Hadhrat, May Allah (swt) give you ikhlaas in all acts of life, grant his fadhl and raza. Ameen.

Such a great incident you have mentioned. I have taken a deep lesson from it, your posts on pas anfaas are very informative and full of gems. I would really like to see more of your posts. If you have time you might also like to make a blog where you can posts, I am really sure that many many people will benefits from the huge amount of gems you have to share with others.

I have read about protecting my eyes and tried that ,
Although I have not been able make it a habit ( sometimes you do look at what your not supposed to even if there is no evil thought inside ) I have noticed when you do so your salah
becomes much more pleasing , you feel peaceful and relaxing . You feel love for Allah more.
.....

Dr.76 has quoted great posts. Indeed lesson is to be taken from those posts.

Simply keep yourself in the state of wudhu. Remind yourself that you are in the state of wudhu, and Allah (swt) is watching you at all times. For me, keeping myself in the state of wudhu kept me alert on not recieving the bad thoughts.

And always...always...never keep yourself free. When you are free, this is the time when the attacks of shaytan are on its peak. Keep yourself busy at all, times, maybe reading quran, do zikr, do house work maybe, do your normal work , go out for gasht, e.t.c

If you are sitting freely, doing nothing. Then be sure you are in the danger of getting bad thoughts. Keep yourself occupied all the times, when you are tired then sleep.

===============
Al hamdullillah, so many great posts which I need to take lessons from.

It feels like I have done zulm by posting this post, which are read by people who are higher rank in sulook then me.

May Allah (swt) grant all of the brothers here jannatul firdows, ameen!

[abishiots]

Assalamualykum,
This was indeed an eye opener. You have just explained to me what my elder brother used to do. I am a teenager and do not know anything. I have tried controlling my gaze but just did not know how to control my thoughts. Can you please give me some pointers on how to control my thoughts and also a few zikr's to do (that u were advised to do) since there is no Ulama in my area that are connected with tasawwuf. I reside in America. Requesting duas
JazakallahuKhayran

[arerrurrY]

Assalamualykum,
This was indeed an eye opener. You have just explained to me what my elder brother used to do. I am a teenager and do not know anything. I have tried controlling my gaze but just did not know how to control my thoughts. Can you please give me some pointers on how to control my thoughts and also a few zikr's to do (that u were advised to do) since there is no Ulama in my area that are connected with tasawwuf. I reside in America. Requesting duas
JazakallahuKhayran

where in USA? there are many mashaikh in USA.

[abishiots]

where in USA? there are many mashaikh in USA.

Wsalam

I reside in Florida. There are Ulema but some are involved in the noble work of Dawat and Tabligh and others are doing different discourses in Masaajids. A lot of people do not even know about tasawwuf (I wouldn't either if it wasn't for my brother) and from those who know it (mostly Arabs) think it is Bidah.

[THOUTHCAW]

" Ta na goyad auoo bigo kamosh bash"

'Till HE swt tells you to talk....keep silent'

[NEronchik]

Assalamualaikum,

I just want to share some observations I have made along with sulook. The observation about the easiest way to become a wali of this time and age.

When I was given azkaar by a shaykh, I was trying my best to get to the higher level. What I notice was that I was not progressing for some reasons, I did my wird/zikr daily, I would pray on time, I would even pray tahajudd, read quran e.t.c

but progress was not being made, even when I came back to the country I live in. I would call the shaykh very rarely, about after one month just to get some advice. He would always simply command me to do zikr at all states, through this kushoo would be attained in salah.

Everytime I would call, he would give the same advice. And then make dua for me to get the haqiqi love of prophet (saw), Allah (swt) e.t.c

Until I sat down and thought to myself what reasons could be that I am not progressing with my azkaars. Until, some time I wrote down few things which could be the reason of this.

1 - Not staying in the state of wudhu at all time
2 - Need to protect my eyes and thoughts all the time
3 - Need to make myself think that I am nothing, I have no value, to think that others are better then me.
4 - Doing zikr at all time. Talking less, and only talk when needed.


I started to act upon them. I would first stay in the state of wudhu all the time. Even if I was about to sleep, I would make sure I have wudhu. At all times I would maintain my wudhu.

Then if I would notice that there is a ghayr mahram who is very far, I would turn my way. If I would notice that there is ghayr mahram going to pass by, I would literally stop and totally close my eyes.

I would protect my thoughts by simply thinking what is happening now. Not to get myself in thinking about future, which can lead to desires for this duniya. Many benefits were aparent by this, I would easily concentrate on things. I would simply look at a page and memorize it on the spot, for example a whole page of the quran, it would take less then 3 minute I would have it smelted inside my head.

Wherever I would be, on the sofa, on the bed, outside with friends, in a group, in a meeting e.t.c I would have some form of zikr on my tounge, even if it is a small durood "Sallahu 'Allay Wa salam" or simply saying "Allah" by doing zikr I would talk really really less, sometimes my friends would come over and ask why are you not talking today? are you angry? e.t.c but I would just say that there is nothing of need to talk. Zikr is to be honest a good solution to control yourself from excessive talk.

And the final and the hardest part is to make myself think that I am nothing, of no value. Allah (swt) created me from dust, and I will go back to dust one day. If the person I meet is older, then I would simply make myself think that the person have more good deeds then I have, if it was a younger person then I would think, that I have more sins then the younger person. If someone would ask for something I would gladly give it, and if I would have a better piece of it I would give the better part, even if that person was not a muslim.

By implementing myself to act upon these things, I started to experience what I should be experiencing through the zikr. I did not only experience what I should be experiencing, but more then that. I will keep this secret.

After weeks of observing this. 'Eid came, I thought to call the shaykh to simply say 'eid mubarak. I just had my phone on my hears, he said "haan! aisay he zikr karo, jub tum aow meray pass dubara to main sirif tumhara dil noor ka tekho" [translation : Yes! thats how you should do zikr, when you come to me next time, then I want to only see your heart filled with noor"]

and then he asked when are you coming? I am waiting for you so that I can give you next lesson quickly! he also mentioned, ask anyone, who is in sulook/tassawuf/tazkiya, on how long did it took them to finish their first lesson. After few minutes he said, people take years to finish their first lesson, and you have finished it in just 1 week.

I also mentioned a dream out of many dreams I have seen. That I saw a buzurg that looked like me, face with noor e.t.c I could easily notice that the person is of high level. The shaykh simply replied "tumnay be aisa bana hay" "you have also have to become like this"

===================================

So my whole point of posting is that, I would simply like to share an experience and my observation on becoming a wali in this age of fitnah. If you do not believe what I have written, why not give it a try yourself?

Jazakallah,

May Allah increase you in your rizq, both spiritual and worldly, and make you amongst His closest servants. It might also be useful if you inform your Shaykh that you posted here.

[Luisabens]

@Brother user invalid :
Brother,I share all my other Brothers in their enthusiastic approval of the great job you did; It was indeed commendable,and we shall try to follow you.May Allah make your spiritual journey easy for you.

Brother sulook is a very tricky path,full of unexpected and unforeseen events,one may avoid them by following a few 'hints' from our Akabir.

Our Akabir tells us,that every thing which happens to a salik must 'only' be discussed with his 'Shaikh',and no one else,not even a 'Pir bhai',that is ,another Mureed of your own shaikh.It is not necessary that you hide 'big' things and disclose apparently small ones.....you must discuss absolutely nothing with others,relating to sulook,except your Shaikh....until you reach a stage where you gain the trust of your shaikh that you will not speak out,but by then one is mature enough to know that what happens between an Abd and his Rabb is strictly confidential.

Your intentions are absolutely pure,Alhamdolillah,I know you just wanted to share some useful information with our brothers and sisters,but irrespective of how useful in reality it proves (as in sulook,every one has a different experience),it clearly violates the rules of the game.To keep silent about your personal experiences is the 'Rule of thumb' in sulook.

And then who can be sure about his Nafs,not taking pleasure and pride from all the attention,praises,congrates etc which such 'exposures' invariably brings with it ? May be that is the main reason why our Akabir discouraged it.

I expect when you talk to your Shaikh,and tell him you posted it on the net,he will say the same thing which I am telling you.It really does not matter that your identity is not known to anybody.Your own Nafs knows your true identity,and might be feeling very good at the moment,about every word of this thread,except this naseeha from a humble faqeer,who unfortunately have 'a huge nafs'....and has gained some experience during unsuccessfully dealing with it.

Rasollullah sallallho alaihe wa sallam tells us to ' like for your Muslim brother what you like for yourself'.....hence these few lines ! I hope you don,t mind it.I thought for a while whether I should write it,because I am scared of the expected criticism coming my way in the next few letters,but undoubtedly " Din is naseeha". If you don,t point out things to me,or me to you,then we will both suffer in the long run.

I pray for you that may Allah swt keep you safe from the unwanted consequences of all this.!

In the end I may also suggest,that the title of the thread may be taken by some jahil like me as a claim to Wilayat,(which I pray for you that you get sooner than letter),but may be it was good to change the title.

Please note,every word of this post is written with extreme ikhlas,otherwise writing just a few more praises or not writing any thing at all, was the easiest thing for me to do !

[GentlieGant]

And I am sure the avatar you have on is the calligraphy of hadhrat nafeesul hussaini (ra)?

Yes indeed brother, it is one of his.

[Appenianags]

it is very easy to recognise a true sufi, they have three do,s and three dont,s
He is best in

1- Taqwa
2- ILM
3- Karamat

He runs away from,

1- Women ( obviously not from his own woman!)
2- Wealth (daulat)
3- Publicity ( shorat)

with these characteristics you can easlily identify a true sufi from fake one!

[joulseenjoync]

it is very easy to recognise a true sufi, they have three do,s and three dont,s
He is best in

1- Taqwa
2- ILM
3- Karamat

He runs away from,

1- Women ( obviously not from his own woman!)
2- Wealth (daulat)
3- Publicity ( shorat)

with these characteristics you can easlily identify a true sufi from fake one!

if i may rephrase that..
He is best in..

1. Following Kitab and Sunnah to the minutest detail..

karamat is not a criteria.. but itteba e sunnat is..

2. Ilm e Nafi..

He runs away from..

1. Sins.. akin to seeing a serpent.. and everything contrary to Nusoos..

wealth and publicity may follow him sometimes like a dog..but his heart remains detached..

wa assalam..

[hotsaucemidl]

if i may rephrase that..
He is best in..

1. Following Kitab and Sunnah to the minutest detail..

karamat is not a criteria.. but itteba e sunnat is..

2. Ilm e Nafi..

He runs away from..

1. Sins.. akin to seeing a serpent.. and everything contrary to Nusoos..

wealth and publicity may follow him sometimes like a dog..but his heart remains free from its attachment..

wa assalam..

[amotoustict]

@Brother user invalid :
Brother,I share all my other Brothers in their enthusiastic approval of the great job you did; It was indeed commendable,and we shall try to follow you.May Allah make your spiritual journey easy for you.

Brother sulook is a very tricky path,full of unexpected and unforeseen events,one may avoid them by following a few 'hints' from our Akabir.

...........

Assalamualaikum,

then I would request the mods to delete this thread.

Jazakallah.

[freddystone]

Assalamualaikum,

then I would request the mods to delete this thread.

Jazakallah.

Ille.
La.
No.
Nahin.

[amotoustict]

Ille.
La.
No.
Nahin.

Well 2 users have agreed that it was not right of me posting this as they say it may be due to my nafs :S

rather then having disagreements, why not get rid of the whole thing?

[joulseenjoync]

Bhai User.. they never said ur posting for ur nafs.. bhai lighthouse only hinted that in sulook one should discuss his personal issues only with the shaikh.. maintaining that ur intentions were absolutely pure..

so there is no reason to delete the thread.. insha Allah..

duas..

wa assalam..

[amotoustict]

Bhai User.. they never said ur posting for ur nafs.. bhai lighthouse only hinted that in sulook one should discuss his personal issues only with the shaikh.. maintaining that ur intentions were absolutely pure..

so there is no reason to delete the thread.. insha Allah..

duas..

wa assalam..

Assalamualaikum,

Hadhrat if you say not to delete this thread then I won't.

And a message to the audience, my shaykh do know the conditions at which I am at. Allah (swt) has opened so many things for him, sometimes I do not even need explaining my conditions, just like I mention in my OP that I just had my phone on my ear, I did not even speak a word about my conditions and he did knew them all.

Even when I used to sit with him, I was simply told to sit and not to do zikr. Only have intention of gaining faiz from him. He would just look directly at my heart and tell me my weaknesses which needs to be covered.

It may seem odd, but true.