There are various forms of beauty
and there is a currency of beauty.
If I speak about beauty it shall mar your definition of beauty.
What is true beauty in God’s eyes?
What is Beauty in the Eyes of God?
God himself states,
'inallaha jameelun wa yuhhubul jamal’.
God says, ‘I am beautiful
and I love beautiful people'.
Now, the moment I said this, I thought, 'Really?
Then why did you create ugly people?'
Right?
So we understand that since God created everyone
and since God himself is beautiful
and God likes beauty
then God wouldn’t have created any ugly people, right?
Now, those who are ugly to us cannot be ugly in the eyes of God.
So then what is the standard of beauty according to God?
What is the standard of beauty in God’s eyes?
That’s what we need to find out, right?
For many people, the standard [of beauty] is lust.
I’ll give a crude example.
Many people like women that are scantily clad
and reveal their bodies.
They look at such women and say, 'she is very beautiful',
and those who have faith and divine light in their hearts
prefer a woman
who dresses modestly
and has divine light and faith in her heart.
So, the standard of beauty goes according to what is within you.
Some people prefer modest women
who do not display their figure
and who cover their heads and themselves with a scarf with modesty,
while some like those who display their bodies.
Whereas, others are fond of people that have painted their face with makeup.
One thing is to apply makeup and another is whitewash.
Literally mop the face [with makeup].
Right?
So, some people like women who do makeup,
have their eyebrows done, etc.
while some prefer simplicity.
Now, the beauty that was rendered to Prophet Joseph,
what form of beauty was that?
And the beauty that was rendered to Muhammad (s), what form of beauty was that,
one that was not even witnessed by anyone?
So, beauty is ranked.
And along with the ranks of beauty,
which beauty carries attraction for what sort of people was also categorised.
For example, the people of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.
I often refer to people of this region as 'soldiers';
they are fond of fair-skinned women.
They go crazy for a fair complexion.
Some prefer for a woman to be very skinny,
whereas some prefer a woman to be chubby with a round face, like the Arabs.
So, the definition of beauty for every man is different.
'The fingers of women were severed upon witnessing the beauty of Joseph'.
Zulaikha was asked by her friends,
'Now, what is it about this Joseph
that you’ve fallen head over heels for him?'
She was the wife of the governor of Egypt.
Obviously, she was married.
She bought a slave home and it was Prophet Joseph.
She fell in love with Joseph.
So, her friends asked her, ‘What’s so great about Joseph
that you’ve fallen for him this way?’
In other words, she was crazy about him.
So, Zulaikha said,
‘I’m going to take you to see Joseph
so that you may behold his beauty yourself’.
So, she said, ‘Close your eyes’,
and tied a blindfold around [their eyes]
and said, ‘Remove this when I tell you’.
She proceeded to hand each of her friends an apple and a knife.
Then she said, ‘When you remove your blindfolds and your gaze falls upon Joseph, slice the apple’.
When she took off their blindfolds and they saw Joseph’s face,
they were supposed to cut the apple
but they were enveloped by the beauty of Joseph
and instead of the apple, they sliced their own fingers.
Now, they were the friends of Zulaikha,
they were worldly people, so how did they observe Joseph?
They saw him lustfully.
So, Joseph was not the bearer of real beauty.
There are thousands of such ‘beautiful’ people that roam the world.
True beauty is that of Muhammad (s).
True beauty belongs to Mustafa (s).
True beauty belongs to Maula Ali (a) and HDE Gohar Shahi!
A beauty that renders the hearts and souls of humanity unconscious.
Those common, worldly women sliced their fingers when they observed the beauty of Joseph.
A poet wrote:
‘The fingers of women were severed upon witnessing the beauty of Joseph
but the men of Arabia sever their heads in the honour of your name'.
There are many types of beauty.
There is a beauty which, in order to be witnessed,
requires the heart to be able to bear the splendour
and be empowered with divine energy.
The more divine energy one has, the more it is enveloped by that beauty.
To become enveloped by the beauty,
to appreciate and admire beauty,
I believe this is a process which also goes through an evolution.
If you have X amount of divine energy today, your capacity of admiration will be in accordance to it.
If the divine energy increases tomorrow, your state of admiration shall increase too.
Tomorrow, when the divine light exceeds furthermore, passion shall begin to dominate your regime.
Then a time shall come when you will become divine light from head to toe,
then your passion too shall be served in [the Master’s] feet.
I came to learn from a tradition
how the time of martyrdom of Hazrat Imam e Aali Maqam, Imam Hussain came about on the grounds of Karbala.
At that time, Imam Hussain was in prostration
and he was enveloped by the divine beauty during prostration.
He witnessed the divine splendour during prostration
and he was lost in such a way
that he did not even realise that he was on the battlefield.
Zulaikha’s friends severed their fingers upon witnessing the beauty of Joseph,
so how would Imam Hussain have noticed the severance of his neck, whilst he was witnessing the divine splendour?
I read a book by Nizamuddin Auliya
in which he wrote a lot in regard to the eminence of his spiritual guide,
Baba Farid.
So, I was curious to observe the beauty of Baba Farid.
Nizamuddin Auliya has written a lot about him.
I often say that I am very fond of the Chishti Order,
the love of the spiritual guide that exists in the Chishti Order
is not found in the Qadri Order.
The Qadris are like the Deobandis - totally spiritual, but I don’t mean that in a negative way.
The love and subservience of the spiritual guide is dominant in the Chishti Order.
And to what degree?
To such a degree that one even nullifies the religious commands in obedience to the spiritual guide.
For example, the spiritual guide of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz (Moinuddin Chishti) was Usman Harwani.
So, one day Usman Harwani shaved his beard,
applied a red Hindu mark to his forehead and said,
‘I have abandoned Islam. I am a Hindu from today’,
then he went and sat in a temple.
All his disciples abandoned him and said that their spiritual guide has become kafir.
They all ran away.
Whereas, Moinuddin Chishti didn’t.
He went and sat outside the temple.
He sat at the threshold of the temple for three years.
After three years, when the duty [of Usman Harwani] from God had been completed
and he emerged [from the temple],
the moment he came out, Moinuddin Chishti fell to his feet.
He clung to his feet and he asked, 'Who are you?’
He replied, ‘I am your servant, Moinuddin’.
He said, ‘Really? But I am a kafir, why didn’t you run away?’
He said, 'Everyone ran away, but I remained’.
He was asked, 'Why did you not run away?’
He said, 'I found God because of you, how can you become a kafir?
I understood this to be divine wisdom
and so I waited for you.
I believe in you and I believe in God because of you,
if it were not for you, I would not have believed in God'.
Now, this is not permitted by Islam.
Go and present this matter to a scholar, ask any scholar or clergyman.
What will they say? 'This is haram!
You are following someone who has abandoned the religion.
They must be executed in light of the religious law!'
This is what you would say right,
you who talk about Shariah and swear at saints?
That’s what you would say, right?
You have no worth!
He converted 90,000 Hindus into Muslims
and you spew nonsense about these great personalities today on YouTube.
Their accolades are still sung to this day.
Such people overlooked religion in their love for the spiritual guide.
Besides, the religion is all about obedience to the spiritual guide.
This is what the companions did.
When they were performing salah and what happened suddenly during salah?
The Prophet (s) suddenly reverted towards the Kaaba,
whereas they would face Bait ul Muqaddas at the time.
This time, the Prophet (s) turned towards the Kaaba,
and then Maula Ali too reverted towards the Prophet (s).
Upon seeing Maula Ali, everybody else changed their direction too.
Later, the Prophet (s) asked, 'Ali, why did you change direction during salah?'
He said, 'O Messenger of God, because you did'.
When all the others were asked, they also said the same thing, ‘Because Ali (a) turned’,
and Ali (a) turned because the Prophet (s) turned.
So, the point is: you must do as the spiritual guide does,
what’s written in the books comes second.
You must do as the spiritual guide does.
Their spiritual guide was Prophet Muhammad (s),
so they turned in the direction the Prophet (s) turned.
This is what you must never forget.
When you find a spiritual guide,
you don’t consult the Shariah nor do you consult the Qur’an
because the Qur’an recited by the spiritual guide is coming from his heart
and the Qur’an you’re reading [on paper] still has no explanation.
So, I was intrigued to see the beauty of Baba Farid as Nizamuddin Auliya had praised his master so well.
Mevlana Rumi has also written romantic poetry for his spiritual guide.
He wrote such beautiful poetry about his master, Shams Tabrez.
And then Nizamuddin Auliya did the same for his master,
so I was really curious to one day
meet Baba Farid and analyse the magnetism in his face, the charisma of his person.
And guess where I met him.
We were going to the shrine of Imam e Aali Maqam, Imam e Hussain (as) esoterically.
When we arrived,
Baba Farid was holding guard at the entrance to the shrine.
Honest to God.
He was wearing a long white kurta
and was completely bald
and he had a white beard.
He appeared very majestic,
so I gazed at him.
He asked, 'Why do you gaze at me?'
I said, 'I have read in the books,
in which your disciple Nizamuddin Auliya praised your beauty.
So, I wish to see that beauty'.
He said, 'And what did you see?'
I said, 'I am searching for beauty, whereas I only see majesty'.
He was really appeased and embraced me.
And do you know what he said?
Honest to God,
he said, 'Such a reply can only be rendered by a disciple of Gohar Shahi'.
‘Only a disciple of Gohar Shahi can say such a thing,
that, '’Sire, I am in search for beauty, but am observing majesty'’.
’ ‘In search of beauty,
I am but witnessing majesty’.
He then said, 'I am the servant of Hussain,
and here, there is no beauty but the observation of majesty’.
So, beauty is of many standards
and the love of each beauty varies
and not everyone has been created by God to appreciate that beauty.
God has rendered various emotions in order to admire that beauty.
There is a beauty which is appreciated by a few
because the appreciation of that beauty requires an enlightened heart.
There is a beauty that relates to the divine light of the attributes of God.
Only those will observe it that have the divine energy of the attributes of God.
Another beauty relates to the Person of God
and only those shall observe it who possess the divine light of God’s Person.
There is a beauty of faqr (spiritual poverty)
and a beauty of wasl (divine union).
There is a beauty of being ‘you and I’.
You shall be affiliated with the beauty of whomsoever resides within you.