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Remembrance Of Allah - By Shaykh Ashraf Salah
Remembrance Of Allah
By Shaykh Ashraf Salah
Dear Muslims:
Allah
(SWT) says: “Remember Me, and I will remember you, give thanks to Me and do not
be ungrateful” (Al-Baqarah: 152).
Our duty, we
the people of Islam, is that we ponder the concept of remembrance, so that its
meaning becomes clear to us, and that we may perhaps fulfill its right. Allah
(SWT) says:
“Those who believe and their hearts are tranquil from the remembrance of Allah
(SWT), Is it not through the remembrance of Allah (SWT) that the hearts feel tranquility? Those that
believed and did good deeds, paradise is for them and the best of Abodes”
(Ar-Ra’d: 28-29).
Remembrance,
is encompassing, it cannot be constrained to certain areas, or placed in
general precepts of statements and actions, ideas and beliefs. Remembrance is
not an hour of calling out to your Lord; limited to the morning or the evening,
in the mosque or in a Mihrab (niche), and after which, the servant travels
about in all places of the earth heedlessly, doing as he wishes and acting as
he pleases. The one alive with the remembrance of his Lord, who is truly
practicing his Deen, realizes that his Lord is watching him in every situation,
wherever he may be. His path of actions and activities being in accordance with
the commands of his Lord and his prohibitions, he acknowledges his human
weakness, and therefore seeks the assistance of his Lord in everything that
befalls and worries him. Concerning this, Saeed
bin Jubair (RAA) said: “Everyone who performs an action out of the obedience to
Allah (SWT) then he is one who remembers Allah (SWT) the Most High”.
Dear Muslims:
The
Muslim who remembers Allah (SWT), - awakes and sleeps, sits and stands, leaves
in the morning and returns in the evening having a deep feeling that the
beating of his heart, the rotation of his eyes and the movement of his limbs, -
all are in the grasp of Allah (SWT) and under His control. He has a deep
feeling of faith, that the coming of the night and the approach of the day, the
breath of dawn and the setting of the twilight, the movements of creation and
the orbits of the planets … all of that is by the power of Allah (SWT) and
through his decree. Allah (SWT) says: “Those that remember their lord standing
sitting and upon their sides, and ponder the creation of the heavens and the
earth with the thought: O our Lord not for a foolish purpose did you create all
of this, Glory to you, grant us salvation from the punishment of the fire”
(Aal-‘Imran: 191).
Those
who remember Allah (SWT) sincerely live
for their Lord, praying, praising Him, struggling in His Cause, and acting for
His Sake. They have distanced themselves from the deceptions of this temporary
life, and the attractions of this earth, and they have traveled on the path
towards the pleasure of Allah (SWT), seeking His Face, remembering His Name at
all times and in all situations. Allah (SWT) says: “Say: verily my prayer and
my sacrifice, my life and my death are for Allah (SWT) the Lord of the worlds.
He has no partner, and with this I have been ordered and I am the first of the
Muslims” (Al-An’am: 162-163).
The
situation comes to a point where their Lord boasts of them in front of his
angels. Muslim narrates in his Sahih from the Hadith of Muaawiyah (RAA) who
said that the messenger of Allah (PBUH) came out upon a circle of his
companions and said: “What made you all sit here? They said: We sat to remember
Allah (SWT) and to praise Him for guiding us to Islam and the favor He showed
upon us through that. He (PBUH) said: I ask you in the name of Allah (SWT) , nothing
made you sit here except that? They said: Nothing except that. He (PBUH) then
said: As far as my questioning you and asking you in the name of Allah (SWT),
then I did not do that out of contempt of you, But Jibreel had come to me and
informed me that Allah (SWT) the glorious and majestic boasts of you to the
angels”.
Dear Brothers And Sisters In Islam:
The
Muslim who remembers Allah (SWT), possessing a pure heart, submitting to Allah
(SWT), and on the other hand he nobly toils, his feet dusty, and his hands
straining in the arena of work, with no impatience nor weakness, with no
humiliation nor pride, humbly working for Allah (SWT), and saying: “O Allah
(SWT) I seek refuge in you from
incapacity, laziness, cowardice, decrepit old age, and stinginess. I seek
refuge with you from the punishment of the grave and the trials of life and
death”, and in the narration of Al-Bukhari “and the burden of debt, and the
coercion of men” (as narrated by Anas and reported by Muslim).
Here
is a practical glimpse of the day of a Muslim who remembers his Lord, - a
Muslim who follows the authentic Sunnah
of the Prophet (PBUH).
The Islamic day starts from the
faint light of dawn, or a little before that, and it stretches the day’s
length, turning through the late morning and afternoon, through the night and
early morning, the Muslim awakes with the rise of dawn, starting his day with
this supplication: “All praise to the One Who gave my body health, and return
to me my soul, and permitted me to remember Him”. (Reported by Tirmidhi as
narrated by Abu Hurairah). “We have awaken upon the fitrah of Islam and the
statement of sincerity and upon the Deen of Our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and
upon the way of our father Abraham turning to the oneness of Allah (SWT) as a
Muslim and he was not from those that commit shirk” (Ahmad, Tabarani).
During
this, O Muslims – the veil of silence is torn, split by the beautiful sound of
clear words and of pristine meanings and objectives, - the sound of the
Mu’adhdhin calling to The Oneness of Allah (SWT) and to success, in statements
- all of which are remembrance, being repeated after him by the Muslims.
Dear Muslims:
The
Islamic day starts with footsteps of tranquility and peace, to the mosque in
the dark of the morning, so that the Muslim may stand devoted and fearful in
front of his Lord five times a day; Allah (SWT)
says: “and establish the prayer for my remembrance” (Taha: 14). He (SWT)
says also: “And establish the prayer verily prayer prevents lewdness and evil
and the remembrance of Allah (SWT) is greater” (Al-Ankabut: 45).
This
pious Muslim says when leaving his home for the prayer: “O Allah (SWT) place in
my heart light, and in my sight light and in my hearing light and on my right
side light and on my left light and over me light, and below me light and in
front of me light and behind me light, and make this light great for me”
(Bukhari, Muslim).
When
his feet come closer to the mosque then he calls out with another remembrance,
for the messenger of Allah (PBUH) has said: “when one of you enters the Masjid
then he should send blessing upon the prophet (PBUH), then say: O Allah open
for me the gates of your mercy. In addition, when he leaves he should say: O
Allah I ask you from your blessings” (Muslim, Abu Dawood, Ibn Majah). On the
authority of Haywah Ibn Shuraih who said: I met Uqbah Ibn Muslim and I said to
him: I have heard that you have narrated a Hadith from Abdullah Ibn Amru Ibn
Al-Aas from the Prophet (PBUH) that when he would enter the Masjid he would
say: “I seek refuge with Allah (SWT) the
Great, and with His Glorious Face, and His Eternal Authority, from the accursed
Satan. He said: Is that all? I said yes. He said: So when you say that Satan
says: He has been protected from me for the rest of the day” (Abu Dawood).
Dear Muslims:
This
long Islamic day is mixed with supplications for eating and drinking, traveling
and returning, sleeping and wakefulness, tiresome and difficult times, health
and sickness, supplications for this life and its worries, debts and its
payments, seeking ones sustenance, relationship with one’s family, and the
righteousness of children.
If
we have the pure objective in seeking after the pleasure of Allah (SWT) and
desiring good for people, then we will achieve the pleasure of this world and
the success of the hereafter, and it is narrated that the Prophet (PBUH) said:
Whoever had this life as his sole concern then Allah (SWT) will disperse his affairs and place poverty
right before his eyes, and nothing would come to him except that which is written
for him, and whoever had the next life as his intention, Allah (SWT) will
gather for him his affairs, and place richness in his heart, and this life
(pleasures of the world) will come to him, falling upon. (Ibn Majah, Tirmithi,
Ibn Hibban).
May Allah (SWT), bless,
guide and forgive us all. (Ameen).
