Servant Of Allah Quotes

Is not Allah enough for his servant??

Praise be to God; whose compassion is all-embracing and Whose mercy is universal; Who rewards His servants for their remembrance [dhikr] [of Him] with His remembrance [of them] - verily God (Exalted is He!) has said, 'Remember Me, and I will remember you' - Opening lines from Kitab al-Adhkar wa'l Da'awat of the Ihya ulum ad-Din

By declaring our Prophet infallible and not permitting ourselves to question him, we Muslims had set up a static tyranny. The Prophet Muhammad attempted to legislate every aspect of life. By adhering to his rules of what is permitted and what is forbidden, we Muslims supressed the freedom to think for ourselves and to act as we chose. We froze the moral outlook of billions of people into the mind-set of the Arab desert in the seventh century. We were not just servants of Allah, we were slaves.

In the year of the sun was sun eclipse, the sun of piety, knowledge and divinity. The establisher of the path of Tijaniyya, the reviver of the traditions of the chocest of Adnan. The servant of Allah, the Imam of the Maliki law, and affairs are for Allah for he is the possessor. He added that Sufism is a spritual clinic with doctors who have knowledge of attending to ailments of the soul. For a sick patient who requires cure and dosses of medicine from the clinic, there is the need for him to make declaration of his sickness and acceptance of patienthood.

I am the slave of the Master of Prophets And my fealty to him has no beginning. I am a slave of his slave, and of his slave’s slave, And so forth endlessly, For I do not cease to approach the door Of his good pleasure among the beginners. I proclaim among people the teaching of his high attributes, And sing his praises among the poets. Perhaps he shall tell me: “You are a noted friend Of mine, a truly excellent beautifier of my tribute.” Yes, I would sacrifice my soul for the dust of his sanctuary. His favor should be that he accept my sacrifice. He has triumphed who ascribes himself to him! - Not that he needs such following, For he is not in need of creation at all, While they all need him without exception. He belongs to Allah alone, Whose purified servant he is, As his attributes and names have made manifest; And every single favor in creation comes from Allah To him, and from him to everything else.

We sometimes fail to realise that when we pray to Allah we are in fact performing a great act of ibadah (worship). On the surface it might seem as if we are asking out of self-interest, but we are really proving the sincerity of our belief in the tauhid (Oneness) of Allah and our submission to the True God. Thus the Prophet pbuh said: "Supplication is itself the worship." (Reported by Abu Daud and al-Tirmizi, sahih.) If a servant prays the whole night to Allah, he therefore performs a great ibadah all night long.

It was again to the Prophet Musa that Allah conveyed the essence of true religion. The Almighty said. ‘I was sick, and you did not come to see me. I was hungry, and you did not give me food.’ Musa asked ‘My God, can you also be sick and hungry?’ God replied ‘My servant so-and-so was sick, and my servant so-and-so was hungry. If you had visited one and fed the other, you would have found me with them.

In Sahih Muslim, it is recorded that `Umar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "The Messenger of Allah said: (There is no one among you who performs Wudu' and does it well, or -- amply --, then he says: "I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, '' but the eight gates of Paradise will be opened for him and he will enter through whichever one he wishes.)

If a rank is decided by Allah for a servant which he could not attain by his deeds, Allah afflicts him with distress in his body or children or wealth, and makes him bear it in patience until he achieves that rank which was written for him.

The signs of the soundness of the servant's love for his Lord are three absence of self-willing pleasure in every event which takes place through divine decree and seeing the perfection of the Beloved in everything and being content with Him in everything through submission to Him in all things.

We all want love. From God, and from the creation. We are all running towards something. Ironically, the more we run after the creation, the more the creation runs away from us! As soon as we stop running after the creation, and reorient, as soon as we start running towards God, the creation runs after us. It’s a simple, simple formula: Run towards the creation, you lose God and the creation. Run towards God, you gain God *and* the creation. Allah is “Al Wadood” (The Source of Love). Therefore, love comes from God—not people. “To acquire love…fill yourself up with it until you become a magnet.” When you fill yourself with the Source of love (Al Wadood), you become a magnet for love. Allah teaches us this in the beautiful hadith Qudsi: “If Allah has loved a servant [of His], He calls Gabriel and says: “I love so-and-so, therefore love him.’” He (the Prophet pbuh) said: “So Gabriel then loves him. Then he (Gabriel) calls out in Heaven, saying: ‘Allah loves so-and-so, therefore love him.’ And the inhabitants of Heaven love him. Then acceptance is established for him on earth.” [Bukhari, Malik, & Tirmidhi] We’re all running. But so few of us are running in the right direction. We have the same goal. But to get there, we need to stop. And examine if we are running towards the Source–or just a reflection.

....It was to complete his marriage with Maimuna, the daughter of Al Hareth, the Helalite. He had become betrothed to her on his arrival at Mecca, but had post-poned the nuptials until after he had concluded the rites of pilgrimage. This was doubtless another marriage of policy, for Maimuna was fifty-one years of age, and a widow, but the connection gained him two powerful proselytes. One was Khaled Ibn al Waled, a nephew of the widow, an intrepid warrior who had come near destroy- ing Mahomet at the battle of Ohod. He now became one of the most victorious champions of Islamism, and by his prowess obtained the appellation of " The Sword of God." The other proselyte was Khaled's friend, Amru Ibn al Aass ; the same who assailed Mahomet with poetry and satire at the commencement of his prophetic career ; who had been an ambassador from the Koreishites to the king of Abyssinia, to obtain the surrender of the fugitive Moslems, and who was henceforth destined with his sword to carry victoriously into foreign lands the faith he had once so strenuously opposed. Note.— Maimuna was the last spouse of the prophet, and, old as she was at her marriage, survived all his other wives. She died many years after him, in a pavilion at Serif, under the same tree in the shade of which her nuptial tent had been pitched, and was there interred. The pious historian, Al Jannabi, who styles himself "a poor servant of Allah, hoping for the pardon of his sins through the mercy of God," visited her tomb on returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 963, a.d. 1555. "I saw there," said he, "a dome of black marble erected in memory of Maimuna, on the very spot on which the apostle of God had reposed with her. God knows the truth ! and also the reason of the black color of the stone. There is a place of ablution, and an oratory ; but the building has fallen to decay.

During his illness he had spent every minute of consciousness calling upon God, every second of every minute. Ya Allah whose servant lies bleeding do not abandon me now after watching oven me so long. Ya Allah show me some sign, some small mark of your favour, that I may find in myself the strength to cure my ills. O God most beneficent most merciful, be with me in this my time of need, my most grievous need. Then it occurred to him that he was being punished, and for a time that made it possible to suffer the pain, but after a time he got angry. Enough, God, his unspoken words demanded, why must I die when I have not killed, are you vengeance or are you love? The anger with God carried him through another day, but then it faded, and in its place there came a terrible emptiness, an isolation, as he realized he was talking to _thin air_, that there was nobody there at all, and then he felt more foolish than ever in his life, and he began to plead into the emptiness, ya Allah, just be there, damn it, just be. But he felt nothing, nothing nothing, and then one day he found that he no longer needed there to be anything to feel. On that day of metamorphosis the illness changed and his recovery began. And to prove to himself the non-existence of God, he now stood in the dining-hall of the city's most famous hotel, with pigs falling out of his face.

128. Moses reassured his people, “Seek Allah’s help and be patient. Indeed, the earth belongs to Allah ˹alone˺. He grants it to whoever He chooses of His servants. The ultimate outcome belongs ˹only˺ to the righteous.” 129. They complained, “We have always been oppressed—before and after you came to us ˹with the message˺.” He replied, “Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you successors in the land to see what you will do.

By declaring our Prophet infallible and not permitting ourselves to question him, we Muslims had set up a static tyranny. The Prophet Muhammad attempted to legislate every aspect of life. By adhering to his rules of what is permitted and what is forbidden, we Muslims suppressed the freedom to think for ourselves and to act as we chose. We froze the moral outlook of billions of people into the mind-set of the Arab desert in the seventh century. We were not just servants of Allah, we were slaves. The

African slavery did not follow one model; the institution varied according to region, people, time, and religion. There were, however, similarities among the different African systems and huge differences with American slavery. Whereas kidnapping in the early days and straight purchase of prisoners of war were the methods by which the Americans and Europeans acquired their African slaves, wars were the principal sources of captives in West Africa. The Africans’ viewpoint on the matter is of particular interest. When Frenchman Gaspard Mollien told a group of Senegalese in 1818 that the European battlefields were covered “with thousands of dead, they could not conceive that the Europeans could massacre men since it would be more profitable and humane to sell them than to kill them.

The history of slavery provides the spine of this novel. Some texts that offered “deep background” were Boubacar Barry’s Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade, which excavates eighteenth-century slave trading history in Wolof-speaking areas of West Africa, and Walter Rucker’s Gold Coast Diasporas: Identity, Culture, and Power, about Asante peoples of West Africa, those who would come to be called “Coromantee.” Sylviane Diouf’s Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas is a must-read for anyone interested in Muslim history on the American side of the Atlantic. And Marcus Rediker’s The Slave Ship: A Human History gives background information about the brutal transatlantic slave trade. In addition, the digitized Georgia Archives provided information about eighteenth-century slave and Native American codes, as well as Land Lottery records. Henry Louis Gates’s edited The Classic Slave Narratives, which include Jacobs’s as well as Frederick Douglass’s autobiographies, continue to be so important to me. Ailey’s family lives

This life has been created with blessings that are deeply appealing to people, for: He has given you everything you have asked Him for. If you tried to number Allah’s blessings, you could never count them. Humanity is indeed wrongdoing, ungrateful. (Surah Ibrahim: 34) Moreover, Allah allows us to enjoy these blessings as we wish and informs us that if we thank Him, our blessings will increase even more. However, these wonderful blessings will be a cause of misery to those who are ungrateful. This is one of the Qur’an’s deepest secrets, a manifestation of Allah’s justice, and an important indication of the wisdom of His creation. For those who see the true Way and believe, He continually creates new opportunities and shows them the beauty of belief and the darkness of the unbelievers’ lives. So, whatever blessings people may have cannot give them a sense of real security and contentment. This, in fact, is Allah’s mercy toward His servants, for by this means they can understand that only believers who submit themselves to Allah can find true happiness and contentment, and thus submit themselves to Him.

From the subtle afflictions caused by love of status is seeking after and aspiring positions of authority – this is something whose reality is hidden and obscure. It is not understood except by those who have knowledge of Allah, those who love Him and who are at enmity with those ignorant ones from His creation who desire to compete with Him with regard to His Lordship and Divinity and right to worship, despite their despicability and the contemptible position they have before Allah and in the eyes of His chosen servants who have knowledge of Him. Know that love of status attained by having one’s orders and prohibitions obeyed and enacted, and by merely the attainment of a position above the people and to have importance over them, and that it be seen that the people are in need of him and seek their needs from him – then the soul of this person is seeking to compete with Allah in His Lordship and His Divinity and right to worship. Some such people may even seek to put the people into such a condition of need that they are compelled to request their needs from them, and to display their poverty before them and their need of them. Then he is inflated with pride and self-importance because of that, whereas this befits none except Allah alone.

But Paradise would not be a bore for Muslims with different proclivities. Allah also promised his blessed that in Paradise, “round about them will serve, devoted to them, young male servants handsome as pearls well-guarded” (Qur’an 52:24), “youths of perpetual freshness” (Qur’an 56:17): “if thou seest them, thou wouldst think them scattered pearls” (Qur’an 76:19). But surely the Qur’an isn’t condoning homosexuality, is it? After all, it depicts Lot telling the people of Sodom: “For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds” (7:81) and “of all the creatures in the world, will ye approach males, and leave those whom Allah has created for you to be your mates? Nay, ye are a people transgressing all limits!” (26:165). A hadith commands that “if a man who is not married is seized committing sodomy, he will be stoned to death.”6 Another hadith has Muhammad saying: “Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets it be done to him.”7 These strictures have worked their way into Islamic legal codes, such that two Saudis were so anxious to avoid a flogging or prison term that they murdered a Pakistani who witnessed their “shameful acts” by running over him with a car, smashing his head in with a rock, and setting him on fire.8 But the pearl-like youths of Paradise have given rise to a strange double-mindedness about homosexuality in Islam. The great poet Abu Nuwas openly glorified homosexuality in his notorious poem the Perfumed Garden:

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful,  All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds,  The Beneficent, the Merciful,  Master of this Day of Judgment in which we now live,  Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for thine aid.  Guide us on the right path,  The path upon which Thou hast bestowed favors,  Not the path upon which Thy wrath is brought down  Nor of those who go astray after they have heard Thy teaching  Say : He Allah is one God  Allah is He upon whom nothing is independent but  Upon whom we all depend  He neither begets nor is He begotten and none is like Him.  I bear witness there is none to be served but Allah,  And I bear witness that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is  His True Servant and Last Apostle...Amen

and Allah does not oppress His servants

True freedom is doing what Allah wants which is the defintion of freedom in Islam. The 'Abdullah is the only real hur because he is a servant and a slave to Allah and not to creation. The one who is a slave to himself is not free and will never be free until he is freed of himself. And this is why in arabic language the word for freed slave is also the word for master: "Maula"; like we call Allah "Maulana". So the freed slave is the one who is the master of himself.

You can tell Allah that when he judges you. Explain how you helped them build their obscene wealth. Explain how you helped them dole out scraps to the general population in order to keep it in check. Explain how you looked the other way while your employers raped the holy land for their own benefit and enjoyment. And why did you look the other way? So you could keep your modest civil servant post. Take the money,” Siraj insisted as he pushed it across the table. “You've done more to earn it than I have.

The Messiah does by no means disdain that he should be a servant of Allah, nor do the angels who are near to Him, and whoever disdains His service and is proud, He will gather them all together to Himself.

Bu iş sana göre değil ama ne yapalım? dedi. Biliyorum, canın sıkılacak, fakat insan yavaş yavaş alışır. Gördün ya, kimsenin bir iş yaptığı yok. Mesele o odanın içinde beş on saat oturuvermekte...Lüzumsuz gibi görünür ama bunsuz da dünya dönmüyor. Öyle ya, heralde böyle boş oturmanın da bir hikmeti var. Bir bakarsın, hükümetteki işlerin hepsini eli kalem tutan iki kişi bile çevirir dersin. Lakin o kalabalık olmasa âlem birbirine girer. Mesele memurların yaptığı işte değil, onların mevcut olmasında. Şimdi sen o tozlu odada oturdukça kendi kendine: "Benim burda ne lüzumum var?" diyeceksin! Yanlış!.. Mademki sen bir kere hükümet kapısından içeri adımını attın, artık lüzumlusun. Sen olmasan muhakkak bir yerde bir aksalık çıkar... Bunları işkembeden atıyorum sanma, bir zamanlar ben de başka türlü düşünüyordum; her şeyi aklımla halletmeye kalkıyordum. Fakat dünyada bir tek şeye inanıyorum: O da tecrübe. Sana söylediğim şeyleri otuz seneye yaklaşan hayat öğretti. Sen de yavaş yavaş yola gelirsin. Benim şurada üç günlük ömrüm kaldı; aklında bulunsun diye bunları söylüyorum. Hayattan fazla şey bekleme. Dünyada her felaketin içinden en az zararla sıyrılmanın yolu hayata uymak, muhite uymak, hiç sivrilmemektir. Geçen gün Ceza Reisi bir bir kitap verdi. Şöyle karıştırdım. Derin bir şey. İsmi Âmak-ı Hayal, senin anlayacağın hayalin dibi. orda yazıyor: Bir gün Allah peygamberleri çağırıp sormuş, saadet nedir? demiş. Her biri kendilerine göre cevap vermişler. Musa: Arzı Mev'uda gitmektir; İsa: Bir yanağına vurana ötekini uzatmaktır; Buda: Hayatta hiçbir arzusu olmamaktır, yollu şeyler söylemiş. Sıra bizim Muhammed'e gelince: "Saadet, hayatı olduğu gibi kabul etmektir..." demiş. Ne doğru söz! Hayatı olduğu gibi kabul etmeli ve ona ne bir şey ilave etmeli, ne de ondan bir şey eksik etmeli...Bazı şeyler vardır, canımızı sıkar; "Bu neden böyle? Böyle şeyleri dünyadan kaldırmalı!" deriz. Bazı şeyler de mevcut değildir. İçimizden, bunların olmasını ister, hatta bu uğurda çalışırız. İkisi de saçma ve faydasızdır. İnsan dediğin mahluk hiçbir şeyi değiştiremez. Bunun için, gönlünün rahat olmasını istersen, gördüğün fenalıkların bile bir hikmeti olduğunu düşün ve yeryüzünde olmayan iyilikleri oraya getirmek sevdasına kapılma... Sonra en mühimi: Kendini halinden şikayet etmeye alıştırma! Ömrünün sonuna kadar dövünsen bu hayatın cefası tükenmez; kendine etmiş olursun. İçkiye de şimdilik pek heves etme. Bazen insan avunmak için başka çare bulamıyor ama, sen nefsine hâkim ol. Biraz daha yaşlandıktan sonra nasıl olsa başlarsın. Hatta o zaman lazımdır da. Akşamdan akşama iki kadehin zararı yoktur. İnsana dünyayı unutturur. Eh, bu dünya da unutulacak dünya zaten...

The fire of devotion within the heart, ignited by the glance of the Beloved, contains the secret of divine consciousness, sirr allah. Sirr Allah is a spiritual substance within the innermost chamber of the heart, the heart of hearts. His divine consciousness, which reveals itself within the heart of His devoted servant. (p. 116)

To be a servant of Allah means leading one’s whole life for the purpose of gaining Allah’s pleasure and approval.

Allah tests people in the world to distinguish the ones who believe in Him from those who don’t, and to determine which of the believers are best in their behaviour. Therefore, it is not enough for an individual to say “I believe”. As long as one lives, his faith and devotion to Allah, his perseverance in religion, in short, his steadfastness in being a servant of Allah are tested in specially created conditions and environments. Allah states this truth in the following verse: He created death and life to test which of you acquitted himself best. He is the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving. (Surat al-Mulk: 2)

3:20 So if they argue with you, say, "I have submitted myself to Allah [in Islam], and [so have] those who follow me." And say to those who were given the Scripture and [to] the unlearned,[133] "Have you submitted yourselves?" And if they submit [in Islam], they are rightly guided; but if they turn away – then upon you is only the [duty of] notification. And Allah is Seeing of [His] servants.

Each Name can be thought of as a bi-unity: first, an uncreated Lord and second, a created vassal or servant. The uncreated Lord may be thought of as the Angel of the Eternal Hexeity of the Eternal Individuality of a given individual's being. The created individual or servant is seen as an epiphanized form of the uncreated Lord. As the Murid follows the way of Truth Without Form, he or she becomes aware of his or her own eternal individuality ('ayn thabita).

He also records that Wahb ibn Munabbih said, ‘A servant worshipped Allah for fifty years. Allah inspired him with the words, “I have forgiven you.” The servant asked, “Lord, what have you to forgive, I have committed no sin!” Thereupon Allah ordered a vein in his neck to throb painfully such that he could not pray or sleep. After a while it was cured and an angel came to him, and to him he complained about the vein. The angel said to him, “Your Lord, Mighty and Magnificent says: your worship for the last fifty years equates to the soothing of that vein.”’ [Abu Nu‘aym, vol. 4, p. 70 #4784; and ibn Abi al-Dunya #148]

Hakim records on the authority of Jabir that the Prophet (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said that Jibril said, “A servant worshipped Allah on the top of a mountain, in the middle of an ocean, for five hundred years. Then he asked his Lord to let him die in the state of prostration. We used to pass by him each time we would descend and ascend and we would find written in the (pre-eternal knowledge) that he would be resurrected on the Day of Judgment and would stand before Allah, Mighty and Magnificent. The Lord would say, ‘Enter My servant into Paradise by virtue of My mercy.’ The servant will say, ‘My Lord, rather by virtue of my deeds!’ This will happen three times, then Allah will say to His angels, ‘Weigh my favours against his deeds,’ and they will find that the blessing of sight alone takes up all the deeds he did during his five hundred years of worship, with the other bodily blessings still remaining. He will say, ‘Enter My servant into the Fire!’ He will be dragged towards the Fire and will cry out, ‘Enter me into Paradise by virtue of Your mercy! Enter me into Paradise by virtue of Your mercy!’ Thereupon he shall enter Paradise.” Jibril went on to say, “Muhammad, things only happen by the mercy of Allah.” [Hakim #7637]

Abu Sulayman would say, ‘How can an intelligent person be amazed with his deeds? Deeds are one of Allah’s blessings, as such it is upon him to show gratitude and to show humility. It is only the Qadariyyah who are amazed at their deeds!’ [Abu Nu‘aym, vol. 8, p. 155 #13896] i.e. those who do not believe that the actions of the servant are created by Allah, Mighty and Magnificent.

It is for this reason that some of the Salaf said, ‘Abu Bakr did not outstrip you by virtue of much fasting or prayer, but rather because of something that had taken root in his heart.’ [Muslim #867/2005] Some of them said, ‘What was in the heart of Abu Bakr (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) was the love of Allah and sincerity to His servants.

It is with this overall meaning that some of the Salaf said, ‘When a servant commits a sin and says, “My Lord, You decreed this for me!” His Lord will say, “You are the one who sinned and disobeyed Me!” Now if the servant says, “My Lord, I erred, committed a sin, and wrought evil,” Allah will respond by saying, “I decreed this upon you and I will forgive you.

Abdu’l-‘Aziz ibn Abu Rawwad said, ‘Allah inspired Dawud (‘alayhis-salam) saying, “Dawud, give glad tidings to the sinners and warn those who give in charity.” Surprised, Dawud said, “My Lord, why should I give glad tidings to the sinners and warn those who give in charity?” He replied, “Give glad tidings to the sinners that there is no sin that I find too grievous to forgive (even shirk if one repents from it) and warn those who give in charity that there is no servant upon whom I mete My justice and judgment except that he is destroyed.”’ [Abu Nu‘aym, vol. 8, p. 211 #11906]

A’isha, al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali, Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri and others described him. They said that he would work in the house with his family. He would delouse his clothes, mend his sandals, serve himself, sweep the house and hobble the camel. He would take the camels to graze and eat with the servants. He would knead bread with them and carry his own goods from the market.

The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

Janna is a materialistic and sensual paradise. It exists to satisfy the Muslim’s physical desires. ~ Delicious food, exquisite wines, beautiful huris[7], and servants are the source of pleasure in Janna. ~ Women are separated from each other in Janna.  Each lives in a separate “corner of a pearl,” many miles away from the others. ~ Allah’s attribute of beauty will be seen by Muslims in Janna, but he will be unapproachable and unknowable.

The adoption of Islamic law had a decisive effect on slavery in West Africa, for it significantly reduced the causes for enslavement while at the same time encouraging manumission. Islam neither condemned nor forbade slavery but stated that enslavement was lawful under only two conditions: if the slave was born of slave parents or if he or she had been a “pagan” prisoner of war. Captives could legally be made slaves if the prisoner was a kafir (pagan) who had first refused to convert and then declined to accept the protection of the Muslims. In theory, a freeborn Muslim could never become a slave; therefore, judicial process led to death for those who had committed a capital crime—since prisons did not exist—while the perpetrators of smaller offenses, including debtors, saw their property seized or received corporal punishment.

Islamic sacred writings reveal all of nature—all anymals—as created and tended by Allah, and destined to be drawn back to the divine. Sacred writings reveal a compassionate Creator; Muhammad models kindness; as viceregents, Muslims are expected to be merciful and compassionate. In Islamic religious traditions, the role of Muslims is one of submission and service to Allah—of tending creation on behalf of the Creator. Each living being is an individual in the Islamic worldview, a devoted servant of Allah, living in her or his separate yet similar community. While we have no rights over other creatures, anymals are granted rights under Islamic law, such as freedom from cruelty and protection during times of war.

During his illness he had spent every minute of consciousness calling upon God, every second of every minute. Ya Allah whose servant lies bleeding do not abandon me now after watching over me so long. Ya Allah show me some sign, some small mark of your favour, that I may find in myself the strength to cure my ills. O God most beneficent most merciful, be with me in this my time of need, my most grievous need. Then it occurred to him that he was being punished, and for a time that made it possible to suffer the pain, but after a time he got angry. Enough, God, his unspoken words demanded, why must I die when I have not killed, are you vengeance or are you love? The anger with God carried him through another day, but then it faded, and in its place there came a terrible emptiness, an isolation, as he realized he was talking to thin air, that there was nobody there at all, and then he felt more foolish than ever in his life, and he began to plead into the emptiness, ya Allah, just be there, damn it, just be. But he felt nothing, nothing nothing, and then one day he found that he no longer needed there to be anything to feel. On that day of metamorphosis the illness changed and his recovery began. And to prove to himself the non-existence of God, he now stood in the dining-hall of the city’s most famous hotel, with pigs falling out of his face. He looked up from his plate to find a woman watching him. Her hair was so fair that it was almost white, and her skin possessed the colour and translucency of mountain ice. She laughed at him and turned away. ‘Don’t you get it?’ he shouted after her, spewing sausage fragments from the corners of his mouth. ‘No thunderbolt. That’s the point.’ She came back to stand in front of him. ‘You’re alive,’ she told him. ‘You got your life back. That’s the point.

The first condition is the blessings which come to the servant from Allah (Most High), one after another. What secures them is gratitude (shukr), based on three supports: inward recognition of the blessing; outward mention and thanks for it; and its use in a way that pleases the One to whom it truly belongs and who truly bestows it.

Sylviane Diouf’s Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas is a must-read for anyone interested in Muslim history on the American side of the Atlantic.

The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

But . . . but . . . my Muslim friends tell me Islam is peaceful! Your Muslim friends may indeed be peaceful and reject these teachings. Or they may not know about them, because their teachers did not emphasize them. Or, they may be lying. It’s unfortunate, but true: Islam is the only major religion with a developed doctrine of deception. Many believe this doctrine, called taqiyya, is exclusively Shi’ite, but actually it is founded upon Koranic passages. Chief among these is this one: “Let not the believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers. If any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah; except by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves from them” (3:28). Ibn Kathir explains that in this verse, “Allah prohibited His believing servants from becoming supporters of the disbelievers, or to take them as comrades with whom they develop friendships, rather than the believers.” However, exempted from this rule were            those believers who in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers. In this case, such believers are allowed to show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda’ said, “We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.” Al-Bukhari said that Al-Hasan said, “The Tuqyah [taqiyyah] is allowed until the Day of Resurrection.

Most of the warnings against denying the Awliya' and their marvels are directed to those who encounter Awliya' and their marvels in their own lifetime, so one should take this scale by which he can measure and see if he is among those who deny Allah's friends or among those who accept them. When a contemporary speaks of miracles and marvels and is said to be one of Allah's friends, what is his immediate reaction? If he finds that his heart expands and he feels joy and tastes sweetness when hearing about the miracles, then let him rejoice at Allah's favor and thank Him, for he is among Allah's righteous servants and will not leave this lower world until he, too, attains sainthood. Such will be Allah's generous gift to him for having rejoiced at His favor upon a fellow believer...