In the name of Allah, The Beneficent, Most Merciful.
O you who yearn for eternal beauty, traveler on the path of the true wish, may Allah make you successful in knowing the true way, finding it, and being upon it. May He use you and us in actions that please Him and are done for His sake. For the beginning and the end and what is in between, and success in them all, belong only to Him.
The way and means to eternal salvation and bliss is in coming close to the Truth. Allah Himself teaches us the meaning of His closeness to us. He teaches us by sending us His prophets. We say, "we believe." It is the truth. We accept and confirm it. The only thing then left for us to do is to follow the teachings and the example of His prophet.
First, you must believe in the oneness and uniqueness of the One who is before the before and after the after, who created us and everything else, and you must not associate with Him anything unbefitting the purity of His Essence.
The second matter of importance for one who wishes to learn is the belief that Allah Most High is free from all resemblance to anything visible or invisible in the creation. He is free from all defect.
Look upon the whole creation, and above all, mankind, with good will - accepting, approving, forgiving, serving, loving. Make that your nature in your dealings with the world. Listen to your conscience.
Cleanse your heart. In that clean heart, keep up prayer for your faithful brothers. Help and serve, as much as you can, the people who hide their misery, who are content with their poverty, the travelers on the path to truth.
Do not attribute to yourself virtue, goodness, and graciousness because of your service to the creation. Consider that you owe other people thanks for having humbly accepted your help. It is incumbent upon you to lighten the load of those who are burdened. If people whose pain you have helped to alleviate cause you pain in return - if their responses, their ways, their habits are dark and cast shadows upon you - show patience and forbearance.
Do not forget that Allah says:
"...surely Allah is with the patient." (Al-Baqarah, 153)
Do not spend your life in empty endeavors and your time in idle talk. Instead, reflect and remember Allah, read the Qur'an, guide the misguided to the enlightened path. Help others leave evil and turn to doing good. Mend broken friendships. Help others to help others.
Find the right friend, who will be a support for you, a good traveling companion on the path of truth. Faith is a seed. It grows into a tree with the beneficent watering and sunshine of faithful friends. Beware of being close to those who do not discriminate between the faithful and the unfaithful - not knowing either faith or the faithful, they do not care about them. They are either strangers to or enemies of the truth in which you believe.
Look for a perfect teacher who will lead you on the straight path. In your search for a guide, be sincere, because sincerity distinguishes the true seeker. It is certain that if you cling to sincerity and truthfulness, the Lord will manifest His attribute of the Ultimate Guide upon you and will guide you to a perfect teacher.
A matter of the greatest importance, one of your greatest needs, is to be sure that the morsel of bread you put in your mouth is lawful.
Take care, since if the love of this world takes root firmly in your heart, it constricts your heart, and it becomes exceedingly hard to pull it out and throw it away. This world is a trial ground; don't seek comfort and riches in it.
Eat less. That will leave more space in your heart and will increase your desire to pray and be obedient It will make you more active and less lazy.
Cleanse and beautify your days and nights with worship. The generous Lord asks you to His presence five times a day. Do your prayers at the times He calls you, five times daily, and at each prayer make an accounting of your actions since the last prayer. It is to be hoped that only good deeds and actions befitting a Muslim are done between the times of prayer.
Most people complain that this world, their work to secure their sustenance, and their work as householders for their families, take time away from their worship. Know that work done heedfully, with consideration for others, in accordance with proper behavior, for the pleasure of Allah, is also worship.
Allah has blessed you with intellect, knowledge, profession, strength, and health. All grace and power are due to Him. Use these to gather as much of your sustenance as possible in the minimum of time. If possible, secure in one day your week's sustenance.
Take the example of Ahmad al-Sabti, a prince, the son of the 'Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. He used the maximum of his talents and strength and effort and worked exceedingly hard as a manual laborer on Saturday. With what he earned in one day he was able to live a whole week. He dedicated the remaining six days of the week to working for Allah and worshipping Him.
.... to be continued.
It is pointless to watch other people's houses crumbling when our own house is in need of repair and attention.
May the Eternal Truth wake you from the slumber of heedlessness. May He make you aware of the origin, to which we will all return and in which we will all remain for the rest of eternity.
May the Divine Seer of all and everything open your inner eye, so that you can see and [COLOR="red"]remember what you have done and said all through your life in this temporal realm of experiments. Then you will know and always remember that you must account for it all and that you will be judged on the day of final judgment.
Do not leave your accounting to the Day of Reckoning. This is the place and the time to do it. See yourself. Close your accounts. The only way to salvation is to go into the Beyond clean and clear of debts. Give heed to the advice of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) who said, "Make your accounting before it is made for you, weigh your sins before they are weighed for you."
Examine your life; weigh your transgressions against your good deeds.
Do it while you still have time in this world of numbered breaths, while you can, before you are left alone in that dark hole in the ground.
While you are alive, your worldly self is like a collector of benefits from Allah's bounties, which come to you from myriads of hands.
What you receive is not really yours; you are like a cashier who distributes what he has received, and you are responsible for the accounting of it.
If you do not do this today, be sure that tomorrow on the burning Day of Reckoning you will scream and ask for help. No one will come to your aid. You will hear the divine voice coming from the center of all divine orders, the voice of the Absolute Punisher who punishes the guilty, reducing them to nothing.
Hasn't the Lord sent you messengers; hasn't He shown you the right way; hasn't He ordered you to remember Him and praise Him day and night? Hasn't He given you time within the day and within the night to follow His orders?
If you wait until the last minute, you will receive no good from your regret. If you insist on waiting and delay the accounting of yourself, know that all doors and windows will be closed to you and you will be left outside.
If this is the case, know that there is no other door, no other place in which to seek refuge. There is no place to go - for you or for anyone or anything in the creation - except Allah's door of mercy. Go and kneel at its sill. Shed tears of repentance and beg for entrance. Try and see what is behind the curtains.
There are three dangers which may keep you from examining yourself making the accounting of your acts, and being thankful to your generous Lord.
The first of these dangers is unconsciousness, heedlessness.
The second is the flood of tastes and desires that gush from your ego, your lower self.
The third is bad habits, in fact all habits, which make one like a machine.
The one who can protect himself against these three dangers, with Allah's help, will find salvation in both worlds.
Blessings be upon our master Muhammad and his progeny and his companions - in all tongues, in all places, and at all levels.
The End.
...................
It is pointless to watch other people's houses crumbling when our own house is in need of repair and attention.
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