The Merchant Whom Allah Loves

People of wisdom state:Allahu ta'ala loves a merchant who is honest in all his transactions. He never loves a liar. Our Master the Prophet said, "A trustworthy and truthful merchant will be raised up with prophets, the truthful, and martyrs on the Day of Resurrection."
Trade is done at a place where Allahu ta'ala sees. Since there is no place Allahu ta'ala does not see, we should not deceive anyone, should always see customers as the right party, should not be trying toward them but rather put up with their trying behavior, and should deem it a blessing to serve them for the pleasure of Allah. We should work for the sake of Allah and ponder whether our Lord is pleased with what we are doing now. Our master the Prophet said the following to Hadrat Bilal al-Habashi before dying:

(O Bilal, go and inform my Ummah that they will be successful in all affairs if they do these three things:
1. Let them be perfectly truthful and let them not deviate from truthfulness.

2. Let them remain in unity and solidarity with each other.

3. Let them correct their intention and do whatever they do for the pleasure of Allah.)
The sin that upsets Allahu ta'ala the most is to break people's hearts. We should not break anyone's heart no matter whether one is a Believer or a disbeliever. We should please people, make them happy, and appreciate their value. We should not regard customers as easy touches, as suckers. Rather, we should regard them as our benefactors.

Buying and selling is contingent on the will of Allah, so we cannot know whether or not the sale will be concluded. We should only employ means, agencies, and ways. We should not do a wrong action, valuing only money. Instead, we should take it as our duty to win people's hearts and to satisfy them. Those who are modest and full of love will be successful in all affairs.

A little greed brings much harm. Acquisitiveness and greed are like two hungry wolves. They gnaw and eat up the greedy, and their lives end in this way. We should be satisfied with what we have and give thanks to Allah for His blessings.

Does a person who is satisfied with what he has not work? Of course he works. If he attracts positive energy and wins du'a [supplication, prayer], no one can catch him, and no one can count his steps. However, if he is fractious, causes others trouble, and is always quarrelling and disagreeing with people, that is, if he is the one who has ruined his own self, it is quite difficult for him to do a good job. Eighty percent of success is to win people's hearts and twenty percent of it is to work.

Du'a takes precedence over money. It is very wrong to change this order and give priority to money. We should work to win dua before anything else. In order for us to win du'a, we must do good and win the love and confidence of others. People listen to and obey whom they love. A person who has lost others' love may seem successful temporarily, but this success will not be long-lasting. We should not be today's merchants, but tomorrow's merchants.

We should work in accordance with the description of the Muslim. Our Master the Prophet stated, "The Muslim is he from whose hand and tongue people are safe."

The sign of remembering Allahu ta’âlâ

It is a great bliss to remember and make mention of Allah when one goes to and comes back from work, performs a task, and at every possible opportunity. It is an utter misfortune to forget Him and to be heedless and unmindful of His remembrance. People always remember their beloved ones. If they love much, they never forget. The basis of îmân is to love Allahu ta’âlâ. The symptom that indicates this love, in turn, is to remember Him frequently. That is, those who love Allahu ta’âlâ remember Him much, and those who remember Him much love Him.

It was stated in a hadîth-i sharîf:
(The sign of loving Allahu ta’âlâ much is to love remembering Him.) [Ibni Shâhin]

The Holy Qur’an purports:
(To remember Allahu ta’âlâ is greater than everything else.) [Sûrat-ul-‘Ankabût, 45]

(O Believers! Remember Allah much.) [Sûrat-ul-Ahzâb, 41]

(Remember Allah’s blessings, so that you can attain salvation.) [Sûrat-ul-A’râf, 69]

(Know well that only in the remembrance of Allahu ta’âlâ do hearts find satisfaction, rest.) [Sûrat-ur-Ra’d, 28]

(He who does not remember Me will experience woes, and He will be raised up blind on the Day of Resurrection.) [Sûrat-u Tâhâ, 124]

The symptom of whether the remembrance of Allahu ta’âlâ has settled in a heart manifests itself through a person’s having (Islamic manners called) adab and beautiful morals. The following ahâdîth declare:
(The difference between a person who remembers Allahu ta’âlâ and who does not is like the difference between a living person and a dead one.) [Bukhârî]

(Remember Allahu ta’âlâ so much that you will be called a madman in the end.) [Hâkim]

(Remember Allahu ta’âlâ in such a way that hypocrites will call you pharisees.) [Bayhaqî]

Haqq ta’âlâ (Allahu ta’âlâ) declared: (I will treat My slave the way My slave thinks of Me. Whenever he remembers Me and makes mention of Me, I will be with him. If My slave remembers Me at a gathering, I will remember Him at a gathering better than it.) [Bukhârî]

(There is a varnish for everything. The varnish of the heart is the remembrance of Allahu ta’âlâ.) [Bayhaqî]

(The most virtuous dhikr [remembrance] is to say Lâ ilâha ill-Allah.) [Nasâî]

(He who remembers Allahu ta’âlâ among negligent and heedless people is like a soldier who continues to fight while everyone is fleeing from the front.) [Tabarânî]

(He who makes remembrance much will be safe from hypocrisy.) [Ibni Shâhin]

(Remembering Allahu ta’âlâ in the morning and in the evening is superior to fighting in the way of Allah.) [Daylamî]

(He who cannot perform acts of worship at night, who cannot spend his property on charity, and who is afraid of fighting with the enemy [jihâd] should remember Allahu ta’âlâ much.) [Bazzâr]

Haqq ta’âlâ (Allahu ta’âlâ) declared:
(I will take him out of Hell who has remembered Me for a day or who has feared Me once.) [Hâkim]

Those who remember Allahu ta’âlâ will reflect on His greatness, attributes, commandments and prohibitions. So they will develop a desire to do good deeds and to avoid evil ones. In this respect, it is highly effective to remember Allahu ta’âlâ.

Hadrat Hasan-i Basrî declared:
The remembrance of Allahu ta’âlâ is of two kinds:
1. It is very thawâb to remember Allahu ta’âlâ through the heart.
2. What is better than the former is that when one intends to commit a harâm, one remembers Allahu ta’âlâ and quits it.

Three people and three differing views (Atheist, Mutezilite, Jabriyya)

One day three people—an atheist, a Mu’tazilite and a person holding the Jabriyya belief (a determinist)—came before Imâm-i A’zam. The atheist said:
“If Allah exists, He who is existent is seen. If He exists, prove His existence.”
The rationalist Mu’tazilite asked:
“There is fire in Hell. The Devil was created from fire. Then is it possible to punish the Devil with fire?”
Then the determinist asked:
“You claim that people have irada-i juz’iyya [partial will]. Now that the Creator of everything is Allah, what can people do?”

Hadrat Imâm-i A’zam, taking three handfuls of damp soil from the ground and shaping it into three balls, threw each lump of soil at each of the three people.
All three of them made a complaint to the Qâdi about the event. The Qâdi asked the Imâm the reason why he threw those clods of earth.
Imâm-i A’zam gave the following reply:

They asked me questions, and I answered them. Initially, the atheist said that Allah had to be seen if He existed. But (when I threw the clod of soil at him) he said that it caused pain in his head. If there is the feeling of pain, he should show and prove it. How can a person who cannot see even the feeling of pain see Allah? The atheist does not have mind. If he has, he should show it. A soul, like mind, is not seen, but its existence is understood through the deeds it does. The existence of the universe, in the same way, shows the necessity of the existence of a creator of it.

As for the Mu’tazilite, even though he was created from soil, the clod of soil affected him. Now that the soil is affected by soil, so fire is affected by fire. As a hacksaw cuts metal, so fire burns fire.

Lastly, the determinist asserted that Allah made people do all deeds by force. Then, (according to his belief) that lump of soil was thrown at him by Allah. Why did he make a complaint to you about me? He is contradicting himself with this complaint.
 
The boat without a maker

Occasions for which Hadrat Imâm made such pithy replies are many. For example, one day he made an agreement with an atheist to meet at ten o’clock and have a debate. Hadrat Imâm intentionally came about an hour later than the arranged time. When he was late, the atheist said, “Your imâm feared, so he has not come.” But when he came, he was asked the reason why he was late. He answered, “There was not a boat, so I could not get across the river. All of a sudden, to my utter amazement, tree branches that broke off became a boat without anyone intervening. I boarded it and came. Therefore, I am late.” On hearing this, the atheist burst out laughing. “Do you see how he is lying? Can a boat be made without anyone intervening, without a maker?” said the atheist. The Imâm hit the nail on the head saying, “Oh atheist! Even a boat cannot come into existence without a maker, how can this enormous universe come into existence by itself?” So he gained a decisive victory over the atheist before the debate ended.
 
There is no end to numbers

An atheist, again, said, “If Allah exists, He cannot be eternal in the past and in the future.” Upon this, Hadrat Imâm asked, “Is there a number before 1?” The atheist answered, “There is not.” The Imâm said, “Count up from beginning to end.” After counting up for quite a while, he gave up. Hadrat Imâm told, “Go on! Count up to the last number.” When the atheist opposed him saying, “Million, billion, trillion, quadrillion … There is no end to them,” At that moment, Hadrat Imâm made a sharp riposte, “Now that there is not a number before 1 and there is no end to them, is it not possible for the Creator, who has created the universe out of nothing, to be eternal in the past and in the future?”

Spiritual Luminance and Islamic Manners

People of wisdom state: 
The sun radiates heat and light to everybody. People make use of them and continue living. Though all beings on earth benefit from the sun, it never says, "You warm up thanks to me, and it is I that provide you with light." So is the case with Islamic superiors. Though they emit fayd [outpouring that flow from the guide’s heart to a heart, which thus gains motion, purity, and exaltation] to the whole world, they use such expressions as "This weak person" or "This faqir [the one who recognizes his complete dependence on Allah in all of his affairs]" or "We are nothing" to refer to themselves. We, Muslims who hold the creed of Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jama‘ah, know the Sun [the spiritual guide showing the path]. Furthermore, we know such suns as Shah-i Naqshband, Imam-i Rabbani, and Mawlana Khalid-i Baghdadi. We owe everything we have, including our faith, to these superiors. If we had not known them, how would our lives be now? We would be worse than other people.

Our Master the Prophet stated, "Mercy descends where the pious are mentioned." From this mercy, a person whose pot is completely open gets much, and another person whose pot is slightly open gets a little. However, the one whose pot is upside down does not get any. The coming of mercy and fayd is beyond the power of humans.

The coming of fayd
Fayd is like sunbeams and it sends light everywhere. Fayd certainly flows from those superiors. Receiving or not receiving it is within the power of humans. In fact, fayd comes up to the level of the chest, but there are some requirements to be fulfilled in order for it to gain access:

1. To believe that fayd is coming,
2. To have a firm belief in the greatness of the person from whom the fayd flows,
3. To love the person from whom fayd flows, that is, to be obedient to what he instructs,
4. To perform obligatory religious duties and to abstain from forbidden things,
5. To be respectful and well mannered toward that person to the utmost. This last requirement is the most important and the most difficult one because it is stated that anyone who does not observe [the Islamic manners called] aadaab cannot win the pleasure of Allahu ta'ala, nor can he become His friend.

In this context, Hadrat Imam-i Rabbani said:
"Among all kinds of acts of worship and perfections that bring one closer to Allahu ta'ala, suhbah [being in the presence of a spiritual guide and his delivering religious speeches and their being listened to by those in attendance] is ranked first, but its condition is heavy. This condition is the adherence to the manners. If one transgresses the manners by as much as an atom's weight, one cannot derive benefit."
Obeying orders and manners

Manners are two kinds: (1) to know one's place; (2) to obey orders, to perform what one is told. Our religious superiors stated, "Al amr-u fawq al-adab." That is, obeying an order is above observing manners because following an order is the highest of good manners.

The essence of the path of Islamic superiors is manners. We may do excellent and highly beneficial deeds, but they are of no avail, of no use if they have not been done in compliance with manners. As a matter of fact, Hadrat Shah-i Naqshband declared, "The essence, the beginning, the middle, and the end of this path is manners."

Breaking repentance a thousand times

Question: It is claimed, "According to the Qur'an al-karim, if a Muslim renounces Islam and becomes an apostate and afterwards makes repentance and returns to Islam and then renounces Islam again, it is not possible for him to be pardoned even if he repents of it." Is it true?

ANSWERNo, it is not true. The meaning of the Qur'anic verse mentioned is as follows:
(Allah will not forgive or guide to the right path those who believe and then reject, and then again believe and then reject, and thereafter increase their disbelief.) [An-Nisa' 137]

It is not said in this verse that those who make repentance after rejection will not be forgiven. What is said is that those who increase their disbelief, that is, those who continue to disbelieve, will not be forgiven. No matter how many times a person becomes an apostate, he will become a Muslim if he repents of it after each. In other words, even if he has broken his repentance a thousand times, what counts is his last status. Judgment is made according to final result. Hadrat Imam-I Qurtubi stated, “According to this verse, Allah does not forgive those who believed in Musa ‘alaihis-salam and then who became disbelievers because of disbelieving in Uzayr ‘alaihis-salam, and then who believed in Uzayr ‘alaihis-salam and afterwards who became disbelievers because of disbelieving in ‘Isa ‘alaihis-salam, and thereafter who increased their disbelief by rejecting Muhammad ‘alaihis-salam. The meaning of Allahu ta’ala’s statement “… and thereafter [who] increase their disbelief” refers to those who insist on disbelief” (Tafsir al-Qurtubi).