3rd Muharram

3rd Muharram


بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم








Allahuma Sali Wasallim Wa Zid Wa Baarikh Ala Sahib e Dawa Tin Nabawiyya


Wa Thowlatin Haydariya


Wal Ismatil Fatimiyyya,


Wal Hilmil Hassaniyya,


Wash Shuja'atil Husseiniya


Wa Ibadatis Sajadiya


Wal Masaril Baqariyah


Wal Aasaaratil Jaafariya,


Wal Uloomil Kazamiya,


Wal Hujajil Razaviya,


Wajud Taqawiyah,


Wa Naqavatil Naqaviyah,


Wal Haywatil Askariyah Wal Ghaibati illahiya Hujjatil Qaimmil Bil Haqq





Rabi shahri Sadri Waya Sirli Amri, Wahlul Uqdatan Min Lisaani Yaf Qahu Qawli…





Dear mothers, elders, friends and sisters in Islam,


Assalamun alaikum jamian warah matullahi wabarakatu!





I begin with the name of the Almighty, who has created the earth
and the heavens, the creatures of land and sea, and has given man the
power to ponder upon various creations.

Today's topic shall be on the believer's trials and tribulations.


There always comes a time in a persons' life that he/she is tested
most severely, or sometimes with small hardships. There are times when
we feel, after every problem, another one is thrown towards us. It is
common saying in gujrati:


"Ek musibat patheche ne biju ubu thayche"





In the most trying times it is very difficult to remain positive
and remember that it is through hardships and difficulties, that man
emerges successful.


You will always notice when you look back into history, that those
individuals who faced the most trying of times, emerged the most
successful and whose names are recorded in the books of history.
Einstein for instance, was thrown out of school because his teacher
thought he was too dumb. His mother said that I will educate my son and
today we know of so many of Einstein's discoveries.





Therefore, let's not underestimate the power of trials and when
faced with hardships, let us learn to overcome them in the best manner
possible instead of grumbling about them all the time.





A authentic hadith goes:


"Indeed, the believer undergoes trial in proportion to his good
deeds. So one whose faith is sound and whose deeds are good, his trials
are also most severe. That is indeed because Allah Almighty did not
make this world a place for rewarding the believer and punishing the
unbeliever. And one whose faith is feeble and whose good deeds are few,
faces fewer tribulations. Very tribulations hasten towards the believer
with greater speed than the rainwater towards the earth's depths".




What is the meaning of trial?


The Grace of the Almighty has been accompanying the children of
Adam since eternity. He bestowed upon them two educators and teachers,
which are like two wings with which they can fly from the depths of
ignorance, defectiveness, ugliness, and wretchedness to the heights of
knowledge, perfection, beauty.





The first of these educators is the faculty of the intellect which is the inner teacher.


The second, is the outward teacher, and is presented by the prophets and divine guides.


None of these two can singly achieve this end without the other.


For, the human intellect itself, cannot identify the path of
wretchedness nor find the way to the hidden world and the realm of
hearafterly existence.


Similarly, the guidance of the Prophets cannot be effective without the use of the faculties of the intellect.


Thus Allah gave us these two educators, so that through them we can realise the potentialities and hidden faculties.


Allah Almighty blessed us with these two great bounties in order to
try and test human beings, for it is through these bounties that
individual human beings are separated into the evil and the wretched,
the obedient and the rebellious, the perfect and the defective.




Imam Ali (a.s) says:





"و الذى بعثة بالحق لتبلبلنّ بلبلة و لتغربلنّ غربلة"


"And by Him who has sent down him (the Prophet) with the truth, you
shall indeed be mixed and intermingled and then separated in the sieve
(of divine trial and tribulation)


Just like when we sieve flour or something similar, we let the
clean and good bits stay behind. But how much do we shake that sieve?
Sometimes hitting it against our palms?


He goes on to say:


"By Allah who sent the Prophet with faith and truth you will be
severely subverted, bitterly shaken as in sieving and fully mixed as by
spooning in a cooking pot till your low persons become high and high
ones become low, those who were behind would attain forward positions
and those who were forward would become backward.


What does this all mean?

It means that in life we will be tested with various difficulties
that may sometimes even push us into a dark corner, but when one has a
faith so strong that the harshest of winds cannot shake it, then it is
in that dark moment, that the light of faith shall shine its brightest.

Because he/she knows that the number of days in this world is limited and few, as compared with the hereafter.


It is commonly said amongst us, that if within 40 days you have
not come across any hardships or difficulties know that something is
wrong. Because it is when Allah the Almighty has forsaken you.


Even the most minor of difficulties, such as a severe migraine or
cold, or something like an injury is enough and one should be happy
that Allah has remembered me.

In this manner, He is reminding us, that Oh my Bande, you have strayed, come back to me!

Those few days that you remained ill, could be the cleansing of your sins.


Don't get me wrong here, that whenever you see someone always in
hardships of some sort, you say ke: "Ya Allah, ane to Jo…kadaj bow
ghuna kayri hase…etle aa badha problems enaj maleche"


No! maybe we need to look into ourselves, that why I haven't got any hardships in my life:


"Mane sukam kai problems nathi maila?"


This is what we had discussed earlier, the act of "positive thinking"


Also we must remember that Allah tests us in our times of
happiness aswell, with our wealth, power, status and social position.
To see how well we are carrying our duties and serving the people, are
we mindful of our duties towards the people?

If everyone in this world were mindful and paid their Zakat and
Khums, poverty would have literally been eradicated from its roots!


One who attains felicity and eternal life does through Divine guidance, for Allah has bestowed all the means of attaining them.


He did not just send man to the earth, and then asked them to be
well-mannered. No! He sent man, and He sent the Holy Prophets and the
Holy Quran for guidance unto mankind.

He did not just leave man alone to fend for himself. Then later punish or reward them.


Also, one who earns wretchedness and falls into destruction,
following Satan, his wretchedness and damnation are also earned by him
out of his own free will because he does so despite the availability of
all the means of guidance.


Now, every act of the human being, or rather every event that
occurs to an individual, leaves a lasting impression in the self. This
is for both, good and evil deeds, as well as pleasures and pains.

For instance, every pleasure attained from food or drink, or from
a very fun event that has occurred, leaves an impression upon the soul
and creates or increases the love and attachment for that kind of
pleasure in the soul. The more one plunges into that particular deed,
the greater becomes the self's love and attachment for this world and
its reliance upon it.

Thus the self is nourished with the love of the world and trained
in accordance with it. The greater the pleasure derived, the stronger
becomes the roots of this love; and the more the available means of
comfort and luxury, the sturdier becomes the tree of attachment to the
world. And the more the souls attention is directed towards the world,
the greater is the proportionately its negligence toward Allah and the
world of the hereafter.


Thus when this reliance upon the world becomes complete, the soul
assumes a worldly and materialistic form, and the absence of attention
towards Allah.


Now on the contrary, if one has a bad and painful experience of
something, the impression of that experience creates a dislike in the
soul. The stronger that impression is, the greater the inward dislike.


For instance, if after moving to a city one has to face there
numerous torments and ailments and hardships and undergo outer and
inner adversities that he faces, the more will be his dislike and
hatred for that place. If he knows of a better place, he will migrate
to it, and if he is unable to make that journey, his heart will migrate
and go out to the city of his liking.


Thus, if a man faces adversities, pain and torments and hardships
in this world and is overtaken by waves of calamities and tribulations,
he will inevitably, come to resent it. His attachment to it will
diminish and he will come to distrust it.

if he believed in another world, a vast world free of every kind
of pain and grief, he will inevitable, and undoubtedly want to migrate
to it, and if he were unable to make the journey physically, he will
send his heart out to it.


After having heard all this, we come to know that whenever Allah
the Almighty has a greater consideration and love for someone, and when
someone is the object of the mercy, He restrains him from this world
and its charms with the waves of calamity and tribulation, so that his
soul turns away in disgust from the world. So that his soul turns away
in disgust from this worlds adornments. And he turns his face and his
heart, to the extent of his faith, toward the world of the hereafter.


A noble tradition even points out to this matter.

Imam Baqir (a.s) says:


" Verily, Allah Almighty treats the believer with the tribulations
in the same way a man treats his family with gifts after an absence (
upon a journey), and He restrains him from the world in the same way as
the physician prescribes restraints from the sick man"

Imam Ali (a.s) in Nahjul Balagha, sermon number 16, says:


"Beware sins are like unruly horses on whom their riders have been
placed and their reins have been let lose so that they would jump with
them in hell. Beware that piety is like trained horses on which the
riders have been placed with the reins in their hands, so that they
would take the riders to heaven. There is right and wrong and there are
followers for each".


And every action we perform also has an impact on the way the
world sees us. We have to be very careful that we donot tarnish the
religion of Muhammad Mustafa (s.a.w.w), because one wrong doing of
someone, is not going to be pointed at that person. When quoted, they
will say, yea, it's the Muslims who do such and such an evil. We are
then passing out the wrong message to the public, and we will be
answerable to the Almighty Allah on the Day of Judgment.


Imam Ali (a.s) says:


"The absolute peak of understanding the religion of Allah is to
never let people become hopeless of Allah's mercy or to discourage them
from expecting the munificence of Allah nor to make them feel safe in
their sinful ways from the wrath of Allah. "


The question arises why Imam ('a) left Mecca on 8th Zilhajj while
it is the day when pilgrims prepare to leave for Arafat and why he did
not complete his Hajj?


There were some factors due to which His Eminence hastily left Mecca and they are as follows:





1. The regime had become so strict on him that His Eminence had
become sure that it would open the door of battle with him or it would
have him killed during the performance of Hajj rituals. And in this way
trample upon the sanctity of Hajj and destroy its Holy aims among whom
was freeing the community in a complete way from humiliation and
servitude.





2. If the regime had not initiated battle with the Imam during the
rituals of Hajj it would have done so immediately after the conclusion
of Hajj. At that time he would have been in Mecca either in battle or
he would have been killed. In both the cases there would have been
bloodshed in the Holy House in the Holy Month. Therefore His Eminence
left Mecca in order to defend the Islamic sanctities.





3. The departure of His Eminence at that delicate moment was one of
the important ways of propagation against the regime of that time,
because the news of the Imam's sudden departure spread to all the
pilgrims of the Holy House in a sensational manner and the people who
had arrived from all over the Islamic regions conveyed this information
to their native places that Imam Husain ('a) has declared an uprising
against Yazid. And that the Imam had been compelled to leave Mecca at
such a crucial moment as he wanted to protect the sanctity of the Holy
land at the hands of the Umayyads…these were some of the factors that
led the Imam to depart from Mecca before Hajj.











Umme Salma says that one night the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.w) went
away from our midst and he did not return for quite a long time. When
he came back his hair was dishevelled and he was covered with dust and
one of his palms was closed. I asked,
"O Prophet of Allah! What has happened, for now I see you distressed and covered with dust"





The H.Prophet replied:





"I was taken to Iraq at a place called Karbala, and was shown the
place where my son Husain and other members of my family and children
will lay slain. I have gathered their blood (red sand) and it is here
in my hand."




Then he opened his palm and said,





"Take it and preserve it with you."


I took it from him and saw that it was red coloured sand. I kept
it in a bottle and sealed its lid and preserved it with me. When Husain
left for Iraq from Makkah, I would remove that bottle every day and
night and smell it and look at it and weep over the sufferings, which
would befall him. Then on the tenth of Moharram, the day on which
Husain was martyred, I removed it in the first part of the day and it
was as usual. Then when I removed it in the last hours of the day, I
saw that it had turned into pure blood. I was grieved and started
wailing in my house, but I concealed it, lest the enemies in Medina
might be informed of it and may hasten to rejoice over it. From that
day onwards I kept this sorrow concealed in my heart until the time and
day the news of his martyrdom reached Medina, thus its verity was
proved.





Illahi, bi Haqi Muhammad wa ale Muhammad,


Illahi bi Haqi Ali (a.s)


illahi bi akhase sifatika, wa bi izze jalalika, wa bi aazame asmaaika, wa bi damaee shohadaika


Nasaluka Ziyadattan Fill Ilm,


Wa Barkatn Fir Rizq,


Wa Toolan Fil Umr,


Wa Sihatan Fil Jism,


Wa Raahatan Indal Mowt Wal Maghfiratan Ba'dal Mowt


Rabbana Taqqabal Dua Ya Allah Rabbana Taqabbal Minna Innaka Antas Samiud Dua Birahmateka Ya Arhamar Rahimeen