If you understand this one point, it will make things a lot easier for you and for me, too.
Because when people are unable to recognise their own feelings, they trouble me.
'Why is this happening to me?'
How many times can I explain it?
Therefore, you should make note of what I am saying.
Affliction of Evil Whispers
This has been narrated in Mishkat and Bukhari.
It is an authentic hadith.
Qala Rasool Allah (s) (The Prophet (s) declares):
Al shaitanoo jathim ala qalbi Ibn e Adam
'Satan grips on to the spiritual heart of the Son of Adam (man)'.
Fa iza zakar allaha khansa
'And when he engages in Zikr Allah (commemoration of God's name), that satan is removed'
'Khansa' means 'is removed'.
Wa iza ghafla waswasa.
'And [satan] instils evil whispers [into him] when he is heedless of Zikr Allah'.
This is a very important point, isn't it?
Once again, [we learn] that satan shall not exit the heart by the verbal commemoration of God's name.
It shall only vacate the heart when it is the heart that commemorates God's name.
For instance, if I feel an itch here, this is where I will scratch, right?
If I feel itchy here but I scratch my other cheek, would it be satisfying? It wouldn't, right?
Similarly, if satan is clung to your heart, it shall only vacate due to the heat of divine energy.
If the heart is heedless of Zikr Allah, then [satan] instils evil whispers therein.
Your emotions, mood and feelings are constantly changing.
Your feelings change many times during a day.
Sometimes, you feel very energetic and enthusiastic
but suddenly, your feelings change completely; those previous feelings disappear.
You feel nothing.
And you feel worried, 'why don't I feel anything?'
The reason for that, too, is when your heart is engaged in Zikr Allah, you are in pure bliss.
You feel merry and at peace.
You enjoy the pleasant state of your faith.
And then, suddenly, the zikr of your heart reaches the maximum.
I would like to explain here that heedlessness does not relate to the physical heart's commemoration of God's name.
Even verbal commemoration of God's name is not heedlessness.
You need to understand this.
When you have hot milk set to cool down
or the chai that we drink in Pakistan, and India, when you set it down to cool, it forms a layer on top
it's a brown-coloured skin that forms on top.
The same thing happens with hot milk.
Similarly, there is a law of nature that I want you to understand.
If your tongue and your physical heart are not engaged in the commemoration of God's name
and you are speaking of and/or engaged in activities unrelated to God -
for instance, we're conversing about laptops, it has nothing to do with God, does it?
This would also be 'ghair Allah (ungodly)'.
Or, if we're talking about cricket or films
It doesn't mean that talking about laptops is a sin.
However, it has nothing to do with God.
This is [an example] for you to understand.
So, when we speak of ungodly things, a layer of oblivion is placed upon our hearts.
Just like the brown skin that formed atop hot chai; the white skin atop hot milk.
Similarly, a layer covers our heart.
That layer in Arabic is known as 'ghilaf',
and when a 'ghilaf' is placed upon [the heart], [this act] is known as 'ghaflah'.
Now, your qalb (spiritual heart) -
The amount of zikr that God has specified for your spiritual heart -
for example, if God has specified 40,000 for an individual, that is their allowance [for zikr] by God.
Their zikr cannot exceed 40,000.
So, your spiritual heart shall go quiet when that limit of 40,000 has been reached.
What happens when your heart goes quiet and does not engage in zikr?
So, when your spiritual heart is no longer doing Zikr, would it be considered 'ghafil (oblivious)'?
No, because once it has gone quiet, it is still not speaking of ungodly [things].
It will become ghafil when it speaks about things unrelated to God.
Ghafil means one [whose heart] has layers placed upon it.
So, the heart shall not be called ghafil; it is simply not engaging in any more zikr than its daily allowance.
The heart is simply quiet, however, this is the time when satan launches his attacks on the heart.
He shall instil evil whispers therein.
He shall use those evil whispers to entangle your mind.
That is when your mood, feelings and emotions change.
When your spiritual heart was doing Zikr Allah, you were not concerned about your finances,
about what you'll eat or what'll happen tomorrow, but the moment your heart went quiet,
there is a sudden onslaught of worldly troubles on you.
What will happen tomorrow? I have to pay £400 here and £500 there. Where will I get the money?
But when your heart was engaged in Zikr Allah, it was content that 'God will take care of it'.
Or, when your heart is engaged in zikr, in that moment you think, 'I'm not worried about the asylum case. Sarkar will take care of it'.
Your heart is engaged in zikr, so you feel contentment.
'It's alright, it'll happen'.
However, when the zikr stops -
Half an hour ago, you were content that the Lord shall take care of it.
But when the zikr stopped, the troubles arose.
You'll start to think, 'That guy's asylum has not been approved, he's about to be deported',
'Neither he nor he has been granted asylum. I'm definitely going to be deported!'
At this moment in time, there is an onslaught of all these worldly perplexities on the individual's heart.
And if you are not in any worldly trouble, you'll begin to think, 'Sayyidi is upset with me'.
Why would I be upset with you?
Our emotions and feelings are directly linked to the state of our heart.
When your heart is not engaged with Zikr Allah, you will feel all sorts of fear.
Fear of this or that happening.
When your heart is engaged with zikr you shall be in a state of contentment
'The Lord is with me. Sarkar is with me'.
If you understand this one point, it will make things a lot easier for you and for me, too.
Because when people are unable to recognise their own feelings, they trouble me.
'Why is this happening to me?'
How many times can I explain it?
Therefore, you should make note of what I am saying.
Some people are plagued by overthinking, they think way too much.
'What will happen now? Will it happen or not? If this happens, then what will happen?'
They've no other thing to do.
They live in strife and don't allow others to be peaceful either.
So, this state of fear that people are taken over by -
When the name of God is not being commemorated in the heart of an individual, he acts like a pathetic person.
Many people start asking, 'Why is this happening? What's going on?' And those who are shy just pose these questions in their minds.
Better than being perplexed is to engage in zikr.
Engage in the zikr of HDE's name or God's name - whatever your mood dictates.
So, when the heart continues to rotate its feelings on a daily basis
it renders you emotionally unstable.
You hang between happiness and sadness - this rotation occurs between 20-25 times in a single day.
However, those whose hearts are constantly engaged in zikr - and not everyone is at this stage -
Constant zikr is granted to you when your zikr allowance reached 125,000.
Zikr allowance of 125,000 is reserved for those destined to become Aashiq (divine lovers). It is not for anyone else.
Once the zikr allowance reaches 125,000 and becomes stable -
And when it happens just once, it is settled forever; it's not like it'll happen once and never again.
This is for those whose zikr allowance reached 125,000, and with consistency.
They are then known as divine lovers.
Thereafter, zikr becomes constant.
And when zikr becomes constant, the state of the heart acquires consistency.
He will behave like a momin at all times.
Now, the problem with those who have not accumulated a healthy zikr allowance is that they are fine as long their heart is doing zikr.
But when zikr reaches its limit, then such people become unbearable.
'Look at what has happened'.
Such people have to be told multiple times to have faith in the Lord, to trust the Lord.
So at that moment if their heart is quiet, unfortunately, [I] do not pay heed to their troubles.
Yet they continue complaining.
This [rotating] state of the heart is quite taxing on one's total emotional regime.
Emotionally you are vulnerable
because your emotions and your emotional states are linked with the state of your heart.
And if the heart is not engaged in Zikr Allah,
then you are engulfed by all sorts of problems, all sorts of thoughts.
You are in deep, deep, deep, deep *hit.
People suppose 'my heart has done zikr for a while, and now it's not doing it, so I must be a hypocrite'
whereas, if you're a hypocrite, your heart will not do zikr at all.
If your heart is doing zikr you are not a hypocrite.
When the heart is not engaged in zikr, you also feel fearful.
Whereas, when the heart is engrossed in Zikr Allah, you feel very brave.
Suddenly, he's a brave man.
He feels shocked, 'How come I am so brave right now?'
It's not because you're brave, it's because of the state of your heart.
Your heart is engaged in Zikr Allah.
Your heart is engaged in Zikr Allah and that is why you're encountering an episode of bravery.
Don't worry, soon it will be over.
Again, you will be fearsome.
You will feel perplexed and think, 'What is it?'
Half an hour ago, I had no problems, I feared no one
and now, I fear... what if Bilal slaps me?
What if Jagga steals from me?
An onslaught of evil whispers.
So make note of this and apply it in your life.
When you notice you are emotionally down despite there being no indication of any problem, then understand your heart is not engaged in Zikr Allah.
At that point, you should either sit down and engage in zikr - and if you can't do that
then start practising the visualisation of God's name in your heart in complete solitude.
When you make visualisation of God's name, the state of your heart shall become positive once again.