Islam

Sabūr, patience, is the source of the ability to embrace every­one. If a stressful situation increases, use shukūr, gratitude, as the means to increase your embrace. If even more difficulty comes to you, have tawakkul, trust in God, placing every­thing in His responsibility and increasing your embrace even more. Say, “Al-hamdu lillāh. I have done everything I can do and I have placed everything in Your responsibility. Al-ham­du lillāh, I praise You now.” If it gets even worse, say, “Allāhu akbar! I die in You. You are the greater One.”

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

The Paradigm of Islam

April 7, 1986

The highest ideals of Islām are the ninety-nine glorious wilāyāt, the qualities, actions, and conduct described by the asmā’ul-husnā, that are found in the heart of every human being.

The awareness of those beautiful qualities and actions must be allowed to circulate in your heart and throughout your body. His names must be allowed to circulate there. We must act with the qualities of the Rasūlullāh [Sal.].

Islām is unity. It is the repetition of the kalimah. It is the salām and the salawāt. Man must gain the qualities of the Rasūl [Sal.]. Then the kalimah, the salām, and the salawāt must reverberate in his heart. Islām is sabūr, shukūr, tawakkul, al-hamdu lillāh, and Allāhu akbar—patience, gratitude, trust in God, giving all praise to God, and knowing God is greater. When the qualities that are the exalted ideals of Islām develop in human beings, resonating in their hearts, unity, harmony, and humble qualities will develop among humankind. Such a person will have no hatred, divisiveness, or differences. These qualities will be the means through which he will embrace and unite with everyone.

A fruit offers its taste. A honeybee collects the nectar from all the flowers and gathers it in one place as honey. Gathering nectar from the flowers, a honeybee brings it to one place. This brings peace to the bee and to everyone. It brings the sweetness of honey.

Islām is similar. If the ninety-nine wilāyāt of Allāh, His three thousand divine attributes, the qualities of the Rasūlullāh [Sal.], the salām, the salawāt, and the kalimah begin to resonate in the qalb of a human being with the resonance of sabūr, shukūr, tawakkul, al-hamdu lillāh, and Allāhu akbar, and if he acts with those qualities, such a person will possess no hatred or enmity. That is Islām. Those are the qualities of Islām. That is the exaltedness of Islām.

Its exalted paradigm is to praise Allāh with praise that is absolutely pure.

The salām must reverberate in the qalb with unity, with the qualities of Allāh and Rasūl [Sal.], and with trust in His words. The salām and the salawāt must reverberate in the heart. Then, when the dhikr and fikr, the repetition of the names of God and the constant contemplation of God, begin to reverberate, the resonance of that reverberation will bring many millions of explanations. Those explanations will enter many millions of hearts and bring them peace.

Each will then care for his neighbors as he cares for his own life. He will regard no one as an enemy. Allāh has no enmity. Īmān has no foe. Sabūr, shukūr, tawakkul, al-hamdu lillāh, and Allāhu akbar have no prejudice. We cannot say they have anything like that.

The paradigm of Islām is formed of God’s qualities.

Genuine Islām will exist only when this state of Islām is clearly evident in each heart. It is not about killing, cutting, or stabbing. These good qualities must establish the victory of Islām. If these qualities and actions abound in your heart, that will be the victory. When Allāhu akbar, the salām, the salawāt, and the good qualities reverberate in that manner, that is Islām. That reverberation will enter each heart and bring peace. Only unity and love can captivate every heart, every country, and every life. Only that unity and love can be called Islām. Islām is not war, the sword, hatred, or divisiveness. Allāh has no divisiveness and no enmity—He has created all things. The kalimah has no enmity. Once a person says the kalimah, he is a Muslim, one among all who have accepted the truth of God. What hatred can those who have accepted God possess? They must acquire and accept His qualities. The moment someone accepts this state with faith, he is a Muslim. That is what could spread like wildfire throughout the world. What will it demonstrate? Honey that has been gathered from many millions of flowers! When they say the kalimah and when the qualities come into them, it will be like honey gathered from many millions of flowers and collected in one place. Islām is honey. Everyone will unite as one, and Islām will be the honey that we and everyone else will taste. Those qualities are honey. The sweetness of Islām will be like sweet juice squeezed from an exquisite fruit. Such are the qualities of Islām. When the qualities described by Allāh’s names are attained, when the Rasūlullāh’s [Sal.] qualities are attained, when the kalimah, the salawāt, and the salām are constantly recited, this is the state that can be seen within such a person. This is the state that will go to other hearts, touch them, and captivate them as well. That will be love, the loving trust that melts the heart. Doubt and prejudice have created divisiveness. Doubt, jealousy, prejudice, and enmity have generated these overflowing rivers of blood.

Arrogance is the source of destruction. Arrogance destroys the self and it destroys others.

Sabūr, patience, is the source of the ability to embrace everyone. If a stressful situation increases, use shukūr, gratitude, as the means to increase your embrace. If even more difficulty comes to you, have tawakkul, trust in God, placing everything in His responsibility and increasing your embrace even more. Say, “Al-hamdu lillāh. I have done everything I can do and I have placed everything in Your responsibility. Al-hamdu lillāh, I praise You now, O God.”

If it gets even worse, say, “Allāhu akbar! I die in You. You are the greater One.”

You must attain these qualities. When the salawāt begins to reverberate, this will be Islām.

Islām does not fight with anyone. The fight is to battle against hatred entirely within yourself. One of the weapons that must emerge from that fight is compassionate love. We must use the weapons of patience and forbearance, the qualities and actions of God, the qualities and actions of the Rasūlullāh [Sal.], the unity of the kalimah, its taste, its honey, its sweetness, its fruit. That is Islām. Its value lies in those exalted ideals. The exaltedness of the paradigm of Islām can be seen in those qualities.

We can see the exaltedness of Islām only through those qualities, not through the worldly qualities we now possess. We need to think of this.

Āmīn.

– M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen(Ral.)