Wednesday, December 26, 2007

What is music in Islam?


What is music in Islam? It is haram, forbidden to listen to music that is arousing to the ego. How can you tell? If the heart goes to haram ,it is haram!

Some people, on the other had, when they listen to music are changing, looking at their incompleteness. This is a funny happening, and with it comes a strong desire to complete one's self, to save one's self from incompleteness. This is divine music, special music. We may say it is 'sunnah'.

There is also another class of people, those who must listen to music. The music of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi q.s. , for instance, was the opening Divine knowledge. From it one could take a power to protect the nation of Muhammad s.a.w. This is 'wajib' music.

Originally, no action was prohibited. Prohibition came only after that action started leading away from Allah Almighty, and towards our nafs, our egos. This is a general law. As our Grandshaykh says, "I'm giving you a balance and a base. You may now go anywhere, east or west, and not lose your way. In every action, you may find 'wajib', 'sunnah' and 'haram'. One man goes to saloon to drink; it is haram. Another goes to take knowledge; it is sunnah.

Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil Haqqani
taken from The teachings of Grandshaykh Abdullah Faiz Daghestani

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Quranic Recitations by Shaykh Jamhuri bin Ramli al Hafiz

Alhamdulilah, We have released a Quranic Recitations by Shaykh Jamhuri bin Ramli al Hafiz. Originally, it was on cassette but due to advance technology in other parts of the world today, I have decided to make it into CD at reasonable price $10.00

Biography:
Shaykh Jamhuri is one of the imam of Baitur Rahman Mosque, Aceh. He is a Hafiz Quran. He is also a university graduate in Jakarta. He is the murid of Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil Haqqani and Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani. Today, he is spreading the beautiful teachings of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. from city to another with peace, love and tolerance. He is also leading the Khatm Khawajan (zikir) of Naqshbandi Haqqani in Aceh.

The contents of this CD:
Surah As Sajdah
Surah Yasin
Surah Al Waqi'ah
Surah Al Mulk
Surah An Naba
Surah An Nazi'at

*If you are keen to purchase this amazing Quranic cd, please email me for your order. Thanks

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Music is defined by Rumi in the following couplet:

“Music is the nutrition of the souls of the Servants of the Lord, since in music, there is the hope of reaching God.” Therefore, music, when combined with mediation and contemplation, is seen as being a faster way to reach God.

The fountain magazine
pic: Shaykh Abd Wahid whirling at Cinere Zawiyah, Jakarta, Indonesia

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Seeking Provisions

It is crucial for us to understand that trusting in God's provision for us should never prevent us from working to earn a living. The Prophet himself implied this when he said, “So stay warily conscious of God and beautify the way you beseech and request.” He implied that it is acceptable to request material support and to seek to earn a living in the world. If relying on God negated the need to request, search and earn, then the Prophet would never have declared it acceptable and admonished us to beautify the way we go about it. The Prophet never said, “Don't request,” but rather said, “Beautify the way you beseech and request.” It is as if he were telling us, “When you seek provision and request it, beautify the way that you seek it. Be polite, courteous and humble in presenting your needs, always turning over final say in every matter to God alone.” With this advice, the Prophet has allowed us to request provision through intermediate means (al-talab min al-ashab). Intermediate means could be supplicating God or working in the world. The Prophet had previously pronounced, “It is allowable for people to live off their rightful earning (kasb al-yamin).” This is just one instance among many when the Prophet showed that working and earning money is allowable as an intermediate means by which we receive our provision. Indeed the Prophet encouraged us to work and struggle to earn and improve our lot.

There are many benefits to engaging the world through hard work. The true One knows the weakness of human hearts, acknowledges our inability to clearly see what is apportioned for us, and compensates for our frailty by guaranteeing that we will receive our provision. In divine wisdom, God has allowed us to option of working and relying on intermediate means for earning, as a way of receiving this provision. Through divine benevolence, God has granted this to us as a support for our feeble hearts and repose for our forgetful souls.

Working for your living protects you from lowering your dignity by having to beg for support from others. It preserves the luster of faith from the tarnish of having to ask from other people. Whatever God gives to you by means of your work does not come as a gift from others, necessitating some subsequent obligations upon you. If someone hires you for a job or pays you for some service rendered, your boss cannot count it as a gift or charity, for your work helps to further the boss' own goals. You take your livelihood as earnings from the boss, not as charity. You take it as a right and not as a request.

As you work to earn a living, you are distracted from sinful pursuits. You are saved from the curse of idle time, which gives you the opportunity to act against God's commands. Just observe how negligent people, when they have vacation from work or periods of unemployment, dispose of their time in sinful pursuits! For such people, working for a living is a form of compassion from God; it keeps them from temptation, trouble and inevitable negative consequences. Further, earning a living allows you to be compassionate with those who do not work. The profits you earn are a means of providing the gift of livelihood to those who dedicate themselves to worship or keep their time unencumbered for meditation. If not for those who work and give their earnings, how could anyone spend time in isolated prayer or dedicated service to God? Indeed God had made earnings a from of service for others who dedicate their lives entirely to God.

From another perspective, God desires believers to grow close to each other in relationship of mutual interdependence. This is reflected in Divine Speech, Surely the believers are siblings (ihwa). Earning a living through work causes people of different backgrounds to come together, to get acquainted, to cooperate, and to learn to love each other. For this reason, only a stubbornly ignorant or foolishly heedless person would deny the efficacy of working to earn a livelihood. We have no report of the Prophet Muhammad commanding people to stop working an earning as he called them to live in accord with God. Rather, in calling his followers to divine guidance, he urged them to engage in the kinds of work that are pleasing in the sight of God. The Qur'an and the Prophet's teachings are full of exhortations to work. The poet excelled who exclaimed:

God commanded May, in her starvation
“Shake the palm tree in your desparation
And gather the dates that fall as it leans!”
The dates could have fallen, if God had willed,
And without a shake her needs could be filled
But nothing occurs without intermediate means.

How clearly the poet points out the meaning of Divine Speech [as it tells the story of Mary when she was pregnant with Jesus and living in isolation]: Shake the trunk of the date palm so that the dates fall into your gathering arms. Once the Prophet stopped at someone's house and was offered a meal of cucumbers and fresh dates. He pronounced, “This offsets the damage of that,” meaning that the cucumber require hard labor to cultivate while dates come almost freely. However, this is an exaggeration [since cultivating dates, too, takes labor].

When the Prophet said to be like and “wake up hungry in the morning and take rest well-fed in the evening,” he was teaching that working for a livelihood was the established norm in this religious community. The birds, as they wake then rest, are analogous to us in our work. We wake in the morning to earn and acquire; in the evening we return home to rest and enjoy what we earn. There is a maxim that explains this point: working with intermediate means is necessary for rectifying your material being, just as withdrawing from intermediate means is necessary for clarifying your spiritual seeing. God established intermediate means through divine wisdom's subtlety, but do not rely on them fully to acknowledge God's absolute singularity.
The Book of Illumination (Kitab al-Tanwir fi Isqat al-Tadbir)

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Love is the key


Love must not be by tongue. It must be by heart, by body, every cell of your body must say, “I love Muhammad (s)!” That is not shirk, that is love. There are people when “Muhammad (s)” is mentioned tears come to their eyes.

Do you think love is only by means of the tongue? If you are in love with a woman and she doesn’t respond to letters or to calls, you are crying ,you don’t sleep.

There are awliya who cannot enjoy themselves except through tears of love to Muhammad (s). Their joy is in their tears. That is why the greatness of Sayyidina Muhammad (s) cannot be understood.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani
taken from Love is the key suhbah

Friday, December 7, 2007

Audio titles of Sufi Masters

Salaam bro and sis,
I hope and pray you are in the state of good health in this blessed month. I have some of the audio and vcd of our beloved Mawlana Shaykh Nazim, Shaykh Hisham Kabbani and the late Shaykha Hajjah Aminah Adil, may Allah bless them all. Each of the cd or vcd cost S$10.00. Below are the titles. If you are keen to purchase any of the titles, you may email or sms me. thanks

Vcd
The Beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and his Sahaba
by Shaykha Hajjah Amina Adil q.s.

Cd (Audio)
Khatm Khawjan & Suhbah :The Purpose of Creations
by Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil Haqqani

Zikir & Hadrah
by Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil Haqqani

*These are suhbah by Mawlana Shaykh Hisham after his seclusion in 2005.

Ibn Arabi (Edited version)
by Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Destruction of the Idols in the heart
by Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Manifestation of the Lordly heart
by Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Backbiting not allowed
by Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Hide your asceticism
by Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Center of gravity
by Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

Awrad Fajr of Naqshbandi Haqqani
by Imam Abdul Rahman

p/s: Please take note the cost of the cd doesnt include postage.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Habib Syech Assegaf cd at Malaysia

For those who are interested to buy the Habib Syech Assegaf cd "The Best of Qasidah" vol 01, you may order from Bro Afifudin at alfialfuddin@yahoo.com or 012 26408778