USMANI DISCOURSES. English translation of talks by Mufti Taqi Usmani DB.

It was Hazrat Thanvi’s routine practice, that whenever he wrote a letter making a recommendation for someone, he always added this statement, “If the favour being asked is not against your rules and other considerations, then kindly do it for this person”. 

Sometimes he also added these words, “If what is being asked is against your other considerations, and you chose not to do it, I won’t be the least bit upset.” The reason for adding these words, was to give the person full freedom, in making their decision, without any undue pressure, and also for making sure that they won’t feel bad, if they did not consider it prudent to act on the recommendation. This is the correct way of doing Sifarish or making a recommendation.

Deen is the name of doing what Shariah demands of us at any given time. This is not Deen that someone is sick or is dying, and we neglect their needs, saying that it is our time to perform our religious rituals. Deen is not the name of indulging our own interests, it is the name of doing what Allah Ta’ala wants us to do, at that time.

Hazrat Abu Zar Ghaffari (may Allah be pleased with him) has narrated that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said;

“Treat people according to their nature, temperament and character.”

Hazrat Dr Abdul Hai (may Allah bless him) used to say that after Fajr Salah make this dua (prayer);

ان صلاتی و نسکی و محیای و مماتی للہ رب العٰلمین

“O’ Allah! My Salah (Namaz), my Ibadah (acts of worship), my life, and my death, they are all for you.” (6:162)

Whatever activities I carry out today, I will do those solely with the intention of pleasing You. But I am weak, I do not trust myself. Please help me to stay on the right path.

In a Hadith the Holy Prophet ﷺ said,

“That person is in great loss whose today is no better than yesterday.”

If a person is committing the same number of sins today he committed the previous day without even the smallest reduction, and he is not doing any more acts of worship today than he did yesterday, then he has not made any progress.

That is why the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has taught us to say this prayer,

“O’ Allah! Please make our today better than yesterday, and our tomorrow better than today.”

Hazrat Dr Abdul Hai RE used to say that everyone of us should look at our daily routine, to make a list of which of our daily activities are in accordance with Shariah, and which are not. How many Faraid (فرائض) and Wajibat (واجبات) do we follow in our daily life, and how many we don’t? How many Sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ do we follow in our everyday life? How many opportunities for good deeds are we neglecting each day? What sins are we involved in, in our daily life? Make a list of all these Do’s and Don’ts.

Once you have made such a list, then consider how many of these sins you can give up easily, without too much discomfort. Give up those sins immediately. Then consider those sins which you cannot give up immediately for some reason. Start making an effort to give them up, even a little bit if you can. And for the rest, start praying to Allah Ta’ala, “O’ Allah! I have given up all the sins that I could. But I am unable to give up the rest. Please help me in refraining from these sins too, with Your blessing.” Start making the effort that you can, and start praying to Allah Ta’ala, to help with the rest. Insha'Allah, Allah Ta’ala will help us.

There are two essential steps on the path to Allah Ta’ala; start making whatever effort you can make immediately, and then pray to Allah Ta’ala to help you with deeds that look too difficult. If a person keeps following these two steps all his life, he will Insha'Allah succeed on this path.

The Holy Prophetﷺ narrated the following Hadith-e-Qudsi. A Hadith-e-Qudsi is a Hadith, in which the Holy Prophet ﷺ says, that he heard Allah Ta’ala say this. In this Hadith the Holy Prophet ﷺ said that Allah Ta’ala has said;

“When a person commits a good deed in this world, I reward him with ten times the reward he deserves for that good deed. And if a person commits a sin, I only punish him equal to the punishment he deserves for that sin. I do not even double that punishment. I either give him punishment proportional to what he did, or forgive him altogether.”

Allah Ta’ala further describes who will not be forgiven.

“If a person fills the whole world with his sins, but then comes to Me, I will grant him as much forgiveness as the number of his sins, as long as he has not committed Shirk. (Shirk means ascribing partners to Allah Ta’ala).”

In the next sentence of this Hadith Qudsi Allah Ta’ala says;

“If a person comes one palm measure towards Me, I go one hand towards him, if a person comes one hand near Me, I go two hands towards him, and if a person walks towards Me, I run towards him.”

In a Hadith, the Holy Prophet ﷺ once asked the Sahabah, “Tell me, who is truly destitute?” The Sahaba replied, “O’ Prophet of Allah ﷺ! We consider that person destitute, who has no money.” The Holy Prophet ﷺ replied, “The true destitute is not the person who does not have any money. The true destitute is the person, who will present before Allah Ta’alah on the Day of Qiyamat, having many Salah, many fasts, numerous Tasbeehat and Nawafil in his balance sheet, but on the other hand, he would have usurped someone’s property unlawfully, he would have deceived someone, he would have hurt someone’s feelings, he would have harmed someone, and in this manner, would have violated rights of many human beings.

On the Day of Qiyamat, all these people whose rights had been violated, would protest to Allah Ta’alah, “O’ Allah! This person had violated our rights in the earlier life. Please make him pay back our rights.” On that day, dollars and dinars wouldn’t be acceptable as currency. The currency of that day, would be good deeds. Someone would be given his Salah as compensation, someone his fasts, and someone his Tasbeehat and other good deeds. This way, he will eventually run out of good deeds, but there would still remain some people, whose rights he had violated. Then Allah Ta’alah would order, that since his good deeds have run out, now, put the sins of those people whose rights he violated, in his account, to compensate for the hurt he caused them. So, this person would have come with a great wealth of good deeds, but will end up with a great number of sins. He is the one who is truly destitute.”

There are five facets of Islam, and unless a person embraces each one of them his/her Islam remains incomplete.

The first is Aqa’id meaning beliefs: for example, believing that there is only one God, Muhammad SAW is His last Prophet, and that after we die there is going to be a Day of Judgment, when we will have to account for all the deeds we commit in this life.

The second is Ibadat meaning acts of worship: like Salah, fasting, Zakat, and Hajj.

The third is Ma’amlat meaning financial transactions: it means that a person conducts all his financial transactions like buying and selling, and conducting business dealings, as per the rules of Shariah, and that a Muslims should not earn any income through Haraam and forbidden means.

The fourth is Ma’ashrat meaning ways of interacting with people: The core principle of Ma’ashrat is that a person does not deliberately or inadvertently cause hurt or distress to another human being.

The fifth is Akhlaq which means purification of one’s inner-self: It means that a person should try to get rid of undesirable internal or spiritual attributes like Takabbur i.e. arrogance, or Bukhl i.e. miserliness, and acquiring desirable internal or spiritual attributes like Tawazu i.e. humility, and Zuhud meaning not having undue love of this material world.

“O’ you who believe, enter Islam completely, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Surely, he is an open enemy for you;” (Surah al-Baqarah: 208)

“…he (Ibrahim) said, “O my little son, I have seen in a dream that I am slaughtering you, so consider, what is your opinion?...” (37:102)

“…O my dear father, do what you have been ordered to do. You will find me, Insha'Allah, one of those who endure patiently.” (37:102)

“So, when both of them submitted themselves (to Allah‘s will), and he laid him on his forehead” (37:103)

The Holy Quran has used the word اسلما for this occasion, meaning when both father and son submitted themselves to the will of Allah. It means that in Quranic terminology “Islam” means that a person submits oneself totally to the will and command of Allah Ta’alah.

Allah Ta’alah has established two pathways to guide human beings. The first is that of the Holy books; Torah, Zaboor, Injil (Bible) and Quran Karim.

The second pathway is that of messengers of Allah Ta’alah, the Prophets of Allah. The Prophets were sent down with the Holy books to interpret for the masses what the books meant, and to show people through their words and actions what following these books meant in practice. In the Holy Quran Allah Ta’alah says;

“(We sent them) with clear signs and scriptures. And We sent down the Reminder (The Qur‘an) to you, so that you explain to the people what has been revealed for them, and so that they may ponder.” (16:44)

Allah Ta’alah sends His messengers to interpret His books and to purify people. In the Holy Quran Allah Ta’alah says;

“Allah has surely conferred favour on the believers, when He raised in their midst a messenger from among themselves, who recites to them His verses, and makes them pure, and teaches them the Book, and the Wisdom, while earlier, they were in open error.” (3:164)

The balanced approach is the one which the Holy Prophet ﷺ himself has advised us to follow in a hadith;

ما انا علیہ و اصحابی

“Follow my way, and the way of my Sahaba (The Holy Companions)”.