Generally, people do not understand this
and it is very important to understand this:
the value and benefits of Zikr e Qalb.
This is not an act of worship like salah, fasting and hajj…
Is Zikr e Qalb An Act of Worship?
This is just a casual example that I’m sharing.
I have met many people who have established a physical relationship with their partner before getting married
and their justification was that they had already intended to get married to each other, so it didn’t make a difference to them.
However, if you have no such intentions and then you engage in [a physical relationship before marriage] then it is a [religious] crime.
Generally, people do not understand this - and it is very important to understand this: the value and benefits of Zikr e Qalb.
This is not an act worship like salah, fasting and hajj.
Because people are of the understanding that zikr is an act of worship like salah, fasting, hajj, zakat.
So they think it doesn’t make a difference if they do not practise zikr because they are offering salah anyway.
Yes, as long as you believe that salah, fasting and zikr are acts of worship,
then it doesn’t make a difference which act of worship you perform and which you don’t.
Such a mentality will not cause any problems for you; you will easily abandon zikr.
However, what you must understand is that Zikr e Qalb
The name of God settling into the heart,
is neither an act of worship nor a devotional act, rather this is establishing a connection with God.
Just as nikkah between a man and a woman establishes a connection.
Similarly, Zikr e Qalb is not an act of worship, rather it establishes a connection between man and God.
As long as you fail to establish a connection with God,
neither your salah no your fasting nor your recitations of the Qur’an shall be of any use.
If you say that nobody should engage in zikr, they should only offer salah - fair enough but they don’t have any connection with God.
In fact, perhaps God issue a case of trespassing on you
because God introduced salah for the Momineen, ‘Who is this faithless man in the mosque who hasn’t even acquired Zikr e Qalb?’
Perhaps your performance of salah will displease God.
Because you are not the one God has obligated salah upon.
God has obligated salah upon the Momineen.
You have not become a Momin.
The people you surround yourself with, your friends and families, who claim to understand the religion,
know nothing about Islam and the Qur’an.
They think ‘zikr’ is just Sufi jargon.
They say, ‘We offer salah because we’ve been commanded to’.
Indeed, the Qur’an commands you to offer salah, however, has God not also instructed you to establish a connection with him?
What is Sirat al Mustaqeem? The path that leads straight to God.
If I ask you about that path that leads straight to God, where does that path begin?
Let me tell you something, lend me your ears.
If we want to go to Manchester or Bradford, we can’t go from the side roads, we would need to take the highway.
Now, you cannot stand outside your house and look for the highway from there.
You walk a few steps and say, ‘Nope, there’s no highway here’.
You have to find out where the highway begins and then you catch the highway from that point, and that will lead you straight to [the destination].
Similarly, the path that leads you straight to God - where does it begin?
Through salah or hajj? From the mosque? From Medina or Mecca?
No, neiher from Mecca nor Medina. That highway that leads to God begins from your heart.
So you need to reach your heart first.
Just like you need to reach the area from where the highway begins.
Similarly, our heart is the place where the highway to God begins.
You have to come back around to your heart if you are searching for the Sirat al Mustaqeem, the straight path that leads to God.
That highway is connected to the heart.
What does ‘hidayah’ mean? Hidayah means instruction, guideline.
What does it mean to guide?
For instance, when you go to historical sites...
You could either go on your own and look at the sceneries but you may not know exactly what you’re observing,
but some people when they visit historical places often hire a tour guide
who leads them and informs them of the importance and history of the place and you walk along as they take you on the tour.
Similarly, hidayah - what is hidayah from God?
Instructions on how to reach God.
You don’t even know what hidayah means practically.
Hidayah means instructions.
What does the Qur’an say?
‘Those who have belief in God, I shall give his heart the instructions on how to reach me’.
God will not render guidance to your eyes, ears, nose, mouth or head. Neither to your hands nor your legs.
God will render guidance to your heart.
It is the heart that is the recipient of guidance.
However, you have to make your heart capable of receiving guidance from God. The heart is in a sleeping mode. It is in a dormant state.
Islam is not just about the verbal proclamation of the Kalima and growing a beard.
‘Iqrar ul bil lissan wa tasdeequn bil qalb (verbal proclamation and affirmation of the heart)’ - that is complete.
A majority of Muslims are only aware of verbal proclamation of the Kalima and engaging in futile worship
and then they argue that they possess a lot of knowledge.
What knowledge do you possess when you have abandoned the Qur’an?
Everything is in the Qur’an yet you have fabricated new concepts.
Prophet Muhammad (s) said,
‘O son of Adam, there is a lump of flesh in your body that which, if rectified, will rectify your entire body; if corrupted, will corrupt your entire body. Remember well: that is your heart’
But your intelligence is so poor that you do not even ponder on that organ that can reform your entire body.
What part of Islam do you actually understand?
There are many great scholars among the Shias, Sunnis and Wahhabis, etc.
such as Tariq Jameel and Tahir ul Qadri and Ilyas Qadri but who among them is explaining this hadith to you,
that Prophet Muhammad (s) declared the reformation of your entire body is dependent on the reformation of your heart?
Why are you not focusing on the reformation of the heart?
Do you [Muslims scholars] think you understand the Qur’an better than the Prophet (s)?
Prophet Muhammad (s) declares: reform your heart and your entire body shall be reformed.
Their focus is on the outer appearance, growing the beard and hair and wearing an imama.
You do all these things and then engage in sodomy instead of seeking guidance.
Why? Because you have not reformed your hearts.
Prophet Muhammad (s) declared that if your heart is corrupted, your entire body is corrupted.
So it means that your heart is corrupted while you adopt a religious guise outwardly; you grow your beard,
apply attar and wear the imama sharif. Then you go to a mosque and become an Imam or an orator or a Maulana
Some became Tariq Jameel or Tahir ul Qadri.
But where are the teachings of the Qur’an?
Do you think you’ve become a scholar by reciting and teaching the Qur’an?
At least adopt this one hadith to prove you’re truthful. What is the reformation of the heart?
When I speak about the true teachings of Islam, about the reality of Islam, people ask where does this come from?
I am giving you the references for the Ahadith and the holy Qur’an and still they ask where does it come from.
Are you in your senses?
What knowledge do you possess?
If there is even one honest person,
upon reading this Quranic verse and this hadith, they would leave all their reservations aside and embark on the journey to reform their heart.
But the problem is, how is the heart reformed? You don’t even know that. You only know how to argue and spew nonsense.
Open your eyes and look around at the [so-called] great scholars everywhere.
Do they tell you that the Prophet (s) has made the awakening of the heart central to the pillars of Islam?
Why do they not tell people the verses of the Qur’an that state God renders guidance by implanting divine light into the heart?
Or the verse that states those who want to adopt Islam must open and expand their chest for the divine light of God?
I know that I speak from the Qur’an, so I am not troubled when people abuse us in return because I know their abuse is not aimed at me, it’s aimed at the Qur’an.
I present to you the verses of the Qur’an that speak of the expansion of the chest and awakening of the heart.
I did not reveal this Qur’an for me to be offended by their abuse; they may reject is as much as they like.
So do not compare Namaz and Zikr e Qalb.
What is the reason?
A narration of the Prophet (s) states - and the problem is that the entirety of this narration wasn’t made available to the common public which is why they do not understand it.
A narration states, ‘Those that engage in Zikr Allah are alive, and those that do not are dead’.
People were unable to understand this and as a result fabricated interpretations such as,
‘When we are engaged in namaz, we are also remembering the name of God, so we are qualified’.
It is not the verbal commemoration that denotes life, it is the commemoration of God’s name in the heart.
The heart engages in Zikr Allah - it is such people that are ‘alive’.
The same happened at the time of the Prophet (s).
The Prophet (s) did not side with Aisha (ra) until they had received the Word of God to confirm what she said
so that no one could have said that the Prophet (s) was personally biased.
And so that the Prophet (s) could set a precedent that the Prophet (s) says only what God decrees.
Now, a verse of the Qur’an states, ‘The Arabs say that they are Momin…’
Now, analyse this: it is being said as if the Prophet (s) does not know what they [the Arabs] claim.
‘The Arabs say that they are Momin but say unto them, they are not’.
God has set this standard that those who recite the Kalima by their tongues do not become Momin.
Then God says, ‘Say unto them…’ It’s not as if the Prophet (s) said it according to their own accord.
Rather, God is instructing the Prophet (s) to say it. God says, ‘Say unto them:
you have verbally affirmed Islam and become Muslim, you shall become Momin once the Kalima enters your heart’.’
Who is teaching you what it is for the Quran to enter your heart. What guidance do you have?
When I look upon these people, I feel a great amount of disdain.
Under the guise of the Qu’an and Ahadith, and through the pretences of religion and shariah, they are rejecting the Prophet (s).
To awaken the heart is not worship, it is a relationship.
For instance, you are wedded by affirming your acceptance three times.
In the same way, when you affirm ‘Allah Hoo’ three times in the presence of your spiritual guide, you are establishing a relationship with God.
Sultan Haq Bahoo said, ‘O aspirant, come hither and let me connect your spiritual wire to God’.
And after studying and learning [the religion], what do they [the clergymen] say?
"What need do we have of any Spiritual Guide?
We shall understand the Quran ourselves."
Suit yourself.
Those who have a desire to be misguided, who can guide them?
If the Qur’an was enough to render guidance to you, what would be the need of Prophet Muhammad (s)?
The Prophet went to Taif, he was attacked
His shoes were filled with blood.
He had to fight battles, tie stones to his stomach.
God could have simply sent Gabriel and he would have distributed it to everyone.
The Molvi and Mullah could have read it themselves and becomes saints on their own.
What was the need to trouble the Prophet Mohammad (saw)
if the Quran was enough for your guidance?
Its a great shame.
I often give this example.
"Oh we are educated people, you cannot make a fool of us."
I got into an argument with one man.
He said to me, ‘I am an educated man’.
I asked, ‘Are you trying to say that I’m ignorant?’
He said, ‘No, I have done civil engineering’.
So I said, ‘Okay, fair enough. Then why don’t you fly a plane?’
He said, ‘How can I do that?
So I said, 'But you are educated.'
You are educated, so you should be able to fly a plane, do surgical operations, heart operations and eye operations.
He said, ‘How can I do that?
I said, "If you can't do this then was the teaching of Quran and Ahadith included in your engineering course as well that you are calling yourself educated?"
"If you don't know this then was the Quran and Ahadith including in the degree you obtained?"