The First Friday of Rabbul Awwal Shareef

The Story of Love and Betrayal

 

Says Subhanahu in a Hadith Qudsi:

 

أنا جالس من ذكرني

 

ana jaalisu man dhakarani

 

I am sitting with the one who remembers Me

 

Sheikh Noor Muhammad Kabbani from the lecture - Sayyidna Muhammad (saw) is light from Allah - www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9BO1YqjNPg

 

“May Allah Subhanahu Ta’ala make us of the ones who can reach their light, their noor. Maulana Sheikh Nazim (ra) has said that our light will appear on the Day of Judgement and through that noor, we will find our way to the door of Jannah, Paradise. And according to that light, we will be elevating in the ranks of Jannah.

 

The Auliya Allah, the Friends of God, say that each obedience has its own light. And each one is different from light found in the other. Hence they say, do every goodness you can do. Don’t pass on the small ones for the big ones because you will miss the light of the small ones.

 

And where do you find noor? From the people of light, the Ahl e Noor. Like Allah says in the Quran:

 

قَدْ جَآءَكُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌۭ وَكِتَـٰبٌۭ مُّبِينٌۭ ١٥

 

Surely has come to you from Allah a light and a Book clear.

Surah Al Maidah, Verse 15

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

So then upon you it is compulsory that you are certain about him and what he brought from His Lord, who raised him, for your guidance towards the Path of Tauheed, His One-ness because…

 

Qad ja’akum minallah: indeed came to you from Allah, with him (the Prophet (Subhanahu sends greetings and salutations upon him continuously)) …

 

Nooran: a light, apparent…

 

Wa: and the light is…

 

Kitab im mubeen: a clear Book, appearing, bringing into view its guidance and its command.

 

“From Allah came to you light and a Book that explains your way. That noor, says Maulana Sheikh Nazim (ra), is Nabi Kareem (saw) and he is the light that shines on the Book so we can understand it. He is the light.”

 

Begin!

 

And he didn’t pray. He didn’t read the Quran. He didn’t do dikr. He was a woman who thought he was a man. He was autistic. He pulled knives on strangers unprovoked. He suffered from intense psychosis. Yet before my eyes, everything worked out for him in a span of 18 months. From wandering in parks as a homeless person to being in a home, loved whilst possessing certainty, inner and outer, that he would not be betrayed. Because of one thing alone: he relied on Subhanahu for his matters, in the words of Ghaus Pak (ra), kullahu, all of them!

 

January 2023

 

I had placed Shaan in the mental institute in early December. Then Pathani had come to see me at the end of January so he had been there about 8 weeks. For a month of that I had been in Karachi and I had asked someone to visit him every week. Pathani had been saying before she came in repeat, “I’m going to meet Shaan when I come.”

 

“Sure,” I would always reply. I hadn’t gone once. I had been told to stay away because I was an enabler or something. I was thankful. I hate regular hospitals. I certainly had no wish to go to one for the mentally disabled.

 

When Pathani returned from her visit, she came into my room and sat on my sofa. I thought she would pat me on the back for sending him where he could be treated. For a series of severe mental disorders that had been listed to me as the cause of his behaviour by important shrinks in the city.

 

“You have to take him out,” was the first thing that came out of her mouth. “You can’t leave him there.”

 

I was taken aback.

 

“It’s a terrible place and people there are really sick. Shaan isn’t sick like that.”

 

I felt my temper and voice rising. “Easy for you to say Pathani. I’m the one who found 4 places for him to move into and saw him getting thrown out of each one within a week. Pulling knives on strangers and cursing neighbours, threatening them with violence. Seeing people that aren’t there. I’m the one who kept him in my house for months.”

 

Although she too had kept him in her house for two when I desperately needed her to. That was when she became attached to him.

 

“You don’t like it?” I said almost yelling. “You take him and you keep him. But it’s not for a month or two. It’s forever. You take him and he lives with you. No, I have to go here and there and can I send him back for a few days? You will have to adopt him. I will pay for everything obviously. Can you do that? Can you keep him forever?”

 

It sounded like I was daring her but I knew in my heart it was an actual possibility. Pathani stared at me, then spoke in her usual gentle manner. “I will talk to my husband. But you have to go see him yourself tomorrow.”

 

“Fine,” I agreed. “I will go in the morning.”

 

I went and when I saw Shaan I was shocked. He was groggy and he spoke so silently, I could barely make out what he was saying. When he saw me he hugged me and started to cry. I had never seen him cry before.

 

He was only asking me one thing. “Do I have to live here forever?”

 

“No,” I said emphatically. “Of course not Shaan. Why would I want you to be here forever?”

 

Pathani was right. The other patients were unwell on a different scale. They were shouting and talking to themselves and it was what it was, an institute for people with severe mental health issues.

 

I asked the doctor why Shaan was the way he was. “He’s not like this. He talks a lot and is active. Why is he comatose?”

 

Because, I was told, he had been really aggressive in the beginning. Abusing the staff, insisting on doing things in ways even Pathani had not been able to change about him. Like washing himself with his clothes always on and using the sink to do it. Basically flooding the bathroom every time and then wetting the bedding. She had not been able to make him not do that either. He would also eat only very specific things and not budge from that. It was all part of his autism I think.

 

“And now?” I asked.

 

“Now Shaan bathes like we do, eats what she is given. The behaviour is controlled. There are no hallucinations.”

 

Except, I noticed, she was saying She, not He.

 

When I left I told Shaan I was trying to get him out. I didn’t mention Pathani in case she didn’t come through. But of course she did. That’s how the innately kind are. Reliably kind!

 

Pathani said she would take Shaan. I made arrangements for him to leave. In a week or so he was on a bus with someone to the village. A couple of months later, I got a call from her.

 

“Why does Shaan have to take these medicines?” she asked.

 

“All they do is make him groggy and weak. He uses his hands to lift up his legs just to put them on the bed. He hardly speaks.” One of Shaan’s legs was weak anyway. He walked with a limp.

 

“Yes,” I said listening intently, “But he also doesn’t pull knives on anyone. He doesn’t think people are there that aren’t. And he bathes like a normal human being. He eats a variety of food. Is that correct?”

 

“It’s correct,” she said without missing a beat. “But I don’t think he needs them.”

 

“Well he does,” I said firmly. “Don’t you dare touch his meds Pathani.” I tried to sound all threatening. “Yes, if you want him to get off them, next time you come, he can see his doc and they’ll taper them off. I’m not in favour of his being on them forever anyway. I don’t think it will be a problem.”

 

I’m not sure what words I used in Punjabi to explain psychosis and mental disorders, autism and who knows what else to convey that the meds were necessary and were not to be touched.

 

“Alright,” she said and I let out a sigh of relief.

 

Pathani lived in our village. She had worked for me and before that my aunt for almost 30 years before she took an early retirement. She was a member of my family.

 

A month later she called me and I could hear the smile in her voice.

 

“We’ve been hiding something from you.”

 

What the hell is what I thought but remained calm. “What Pathani?” I tried to sound deadpan.

 

“Shaan is off the meds. Nothing happened. She had some trouble sleeping. Other than that she’s back to herself.”

 

The first thing I noticed before the over-riding of my decision could even set in was this; the gender had changed for Pathani as well.

 

“Her name is Mehk Saba.”

 

The scent of the morning breeze!

 

Shaan had told me that once and I had marveled at how lovely a name his parents had given him.

 

“She was married. She has a child. Her husband was abusive and she ran away. She never wants to see anyone or go back.”

 

I listened in a stunned silence. I had begged, pleaded, and offered Shaan anything in the world to offer me the same information for months.

 

“Did she give you her id card number?” I asked almost hoping for a no. That felt like the last straw. Asking for those digits had been forced upon me by friends when Shaan was living with me.

 

“No, but she gave me a phone number. We traced the id card from that.”

 

Man, Pathani was resourceful!

 

“Ok,” I said softly. “So Shaan is a woman now?” I asked disbelievingly.

 

“She’s a woman,” said Pathani as if it was nothing. “She asked me to buy her a bra so I did. She wears a veil when we go out. She asks for pads when she has her period.”

 

The stunned silence returned.

 

Shaan or I guess now Mehek never wore a bra even though she was not light chested. There were times we would go out when I had to tell her, then him, to wear a looser t shirt so as not be stared at by weird men because she wouldn’t even notice that. When period stains appeared and my staff told me about them, I would say to him that he needed to wear a pad.

 

He would look at me like I was speaking German.

 

“That doesn’t happen to me,” he would say, not even addressing the word and end the conversation. Instead continued the dragging of sheets to bathrooms in and outside my house where he would be trying to wash them in small sinks.

 

Many people used to say to me then. Mehek was taking on the identity of a boy because of the park. To keep herself safe. I would just ignore them. I was educated in America. I went to Oberlin. I lived in New York for 11 years. I was progressive in ways they were not. So I only saw Mehek through one lens; the one of individual choice that had to be accepted no matter what it was. It prevailed over real trauma that was likely the cause of the shift, in this case of gender identity. If Mehek was Shaan, then Mehek was Shaan and everything else for me was an invasion of his choice.

 

But they were right. I was wrong.

 

The next time Mehek came, she was wearing a floral shalwar kamiz and shoes with a small heel. I didn’t say a word about the turn around or turn back I guess. If I could have respected a gender conversion without blinking an eye, why would I have a reaction if it reversed?

 

Months later a friend of mine started having delusions.

 

Hallucinating just like Mehek. People were there but they were not. Things happened when they did not. There was inordinate rage and intense grief. That pendulum moved in cycles as short as a few minutes. I called a shrink again. Because the person was not poor, I was told someone could make a house call and prescribe meds if she was willing.

 

“It’s the neurotransmitters in the brain,” the doctor said. “Intense stress, prolonged looping thoughts that are uncontrollable, fear about something are causing them to send signals to the brain which are illusions. Meds are needed to stop that activity. The signals have to be cut.”

 

Shoot, I thought. Like Shaan!

 

I knew what the shrink was talking about from the spiritual angle. Iblis was whispering to the nafs, the base self. The nafs was believing the whisper then taking flight with it. That waswasa was creating fear, doubt, anger, paranoia. Time was intensifying it.

 

Even then I thought to expel the waswasa, at the least, dikr was necessary. To dispel the darkness, to bring the heart into light.

 

That was exactly the tafseer by Ghaus Pak (ra) of Surah An Naas. The closing Surah of the Quran.

 

قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ ٱلنَّاسِ ١

 

Say, O Beloved (peace be upon you), “I seek refuge in (the) Lord (of) Mankind,

 

Surah An Naas, Verse 1

 

Qul: Say, Ya Akmal Ar Rusul, O Messenger who completes Messenger-hood (salutations and greetings upon your being the Seal of Prophet-hood and your blessed family), after Allah Al Haqq has placed you in the Maq’ad At Tauheed, the Seat of His One-ness and guided you in reaching the source of the ocean of realities which is Al Wahd Ad Daatia, the Essence of (His) One-ness, seeking refuge with Allah, clasping the rope of His Safety…

 

A’udu: (say) I seek refuge and shelter…

 

Bi Rabb in Naas: in the Lord of Mankind, who made them (human beings) appear from the cover of nothingness and raised them with different kinds of Lutf, Kindness and Karam, Generosity because He is the Only One…

 

مَلِكِ ٱلنَّاسِ ٢

 

The King of Mankind,

 

Surah An Naas, Verse 2

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Malik in Naas: the King of Mankind…

 

إِلَـٰهِ ٱلنَّاسِ ٣

 

The God of Mankind,

 

Surah An Naas, Verse 3

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Ilahi in Naas: the God of the whole human race because everything in appearance is from Him and returns towards Him…

 

مِن شَرِّ ٱلْوَسْوَاسِ ٱلْخَنَّاسِ ٤

 

from the evil (of) the Whisperer, the one who withdraws (after his whisper),

 

Surah An Naas, Verse 4

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Min sharr al waswase: (I seek refuge from The Lord of Mankind, The King of Mankind, The God of Mankind) from the evil of the waswasa, whispers that cause doubt and paranoia, from the whisperer, that spread quickly in the hearts of Mankind…

 

Al Khannas: the one who runs away and then returns to the people because he sits confidently in the heart of Man. So when he, (the human being), remembers Allah Ta’ala (in dikr), he, Khannas, runs away and feels constricted.

 

And when Man is ghafil, forgetful of Allah, he takes possession of the heart so the difference between remembering Allah and the whispering of Satan is like the chasing of light and darkness. If either one of them comes, the other one leaves. The example of it is like the example of paranoia which comes in matters so when the end results of a matter (are clarified), the paranoia returns (to where it came from) and vanishes.

 

For instance if it is said, the dead body is an inanimate object and lifeless, then he (the human being) is afraid of it and becomes still in it and if it is said a dead body is not to be afraid of, the paranoia of fear flees. Just like Subhanahu says:

 

كَأَنَّهُمْ حُمُرٌۭ مُّسْتَنفِرَةٌۭ ٥٠

فَرَّتْ مِن قَسْوَرَةٍۭ ٥١

 

As if they (were) donkeys frightened, fleeing from a lion?

Surah Al Mudassir, Verse 50-51

 

 

ٱلَّذِى يُوَسْوِسُ فِى صُدُورِ ٱلنَّاسِ ٥

 

who whispers in the hearts of Mankind

 

Surah An Naas, Verse 6

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Alladi yuwaswisu fi sadoor in naas: (Khannas i.e. Satan) who whispers in the breasts of Mankind when they were careless (in ghaflat) of the remembrance of their Lord and they make the fulfillment of the matter of their desires from their will…

 

مِنَ ٱلْجِنَّةِ وَٱلنَّاسِ ٦

 

(and) from Jinn and Mankind.”

 

Surah An Naas, Verse 6

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Min al Jinnate wa Naas: (because of those whispers) either from the Jinn, the invisible beings, or from Mankind. The explanation of the waswasa, the whisperings that trigger doubt and paranoia, of the one who makes the whispers i.e. who puts the whisperings in their breasts from the side of Jinn or people, telling them that they both, Jinn and Man, have the ability to give benefit or harm with impressions and permanence, so (in turn) they, both people and Jinn, place their demands and hopes with those two (instead of Allah) so they fall into a state of eternal regret and an abyss of being astray.

 

Ghaus Pak (ra) prays:

 

أعاذنا الله وعموم عباده من شر كلا الفريقين بفضله وجوده

 

May Allah grant us refuge and all His Ordinary Worshippers from the evil (whisperings) of both these groups (humans and Jinn) by His Fazl, Favour and His Jood, Generosity.

Ameen!

 

For the treatment to be of benefit, my friend’s willingness was essential. Till that was to come about, I kept harping on to her about the attack of the whispering. After all, I was literally seeing it.

 

“Say a prayer,” I would almost beg. “Read a verse of the Quran. Repeat a single word of it a few times a day. Something. Do something.”

 

This time I wasn’t wrong but I also wasn’t right.

 

That was when while saying one of my prayers I was made to realize that what Mehek had wanted was what every human being wants; love and someone that will not betray them. I had been bestowed with love by Subhanahu many times. But someone who would not betray? That had never happened.

 

So I started to think about the second part of that sentence.

 

The negation embedded in the need. Not I want this and that and that and that…but what I don’t want; betrayal.

 

I used to think betrayal was woven into every relationship. It had to be, I thought, in order for a human being to rely upon Subhanahu alone. Disappointed hopes and crashed expectations, shirrk. That’s how it would go. Like a negative person, I saw that possibility only existing through the experience of a series of abandonments.

 

One by one by one by one…starting with the parents, moving onto romance and eventually friends.

 

But again, I was wrong!

 

Because as soon as the word betrayal came to my mind, so did a hadith mubarik:

 

قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ "‏ أَدِّ الأَمَانَةَ إِلَى مَنِ ائْتَمَنَكَ وَلاَ تَخُنْ مَنْ خَانَكَ ‏"‏ ‏.‏ ‏

 

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "Fulfill the trust for the one who entrusted you, and do not betray the one who betrayed you."

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1264

 

Betrayal wasn’t the norm. It was forbidden. By the one who Subhanahu had assigned to state what was allowed and what was not. Not just as His Khalifa, Appointee, Successor, Representative but also has the one whose call, He said, was the same as His Own.

 

Not in a hadith which the misfortunate deny. But in a verse that stuns scholars to this day because of the use of the singular verb for ‘calling – da’a’ despite its existence in Arabic in the dual – “because the calling of the Rasool (peace be upon him and his family) is in fact the calling of Allah Al Haqq…”

 

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ ۖ

وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ ٱلْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِۦ وَأَنَّهُۥٓ

إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ ٢٤

 

O you who believe!

Respond to Allah and His Messenger when he calls you to what gives you life.

And know that Allah comes between a man and his heart, and that to Him you will be gathered.

 

Surah Al Anfal, Verse 24

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then said Allah Subhanahu, as a call to the believers, as a reminder for them and as a teaching:

 

Ya ayyohalladina aamano: O ye who attained to faith, it is the requirement of your imaan, faith, to answer the Call of Allah and answer the call of His Rasool (peace be upon him and his family).

 

Istajeebo lillahe: Respond to Him, be obedient to what is His Command and His Order and stay away from what He forbids…

 

Wa lir-Rasool: and His Rasool (peace be upon him asnd his family) adopt his sunnat, practice, and his adaab, manners and his akhlaq, etiquette.

 

Ida da’akum: When he calls you, any one of them, because the calling of the Rasool (peace be upon him and his family) is in fact the calling of Allah Al Haqq…

 

Lima yuhhyeekum: because he gives you life-giving messages from the Al Aloom Ad Dineeya, knowledge of religion and Al Ma’araf Al Haqeeqa, the Recognitions of the Realities, bearing fruits of Mukashafaat, Divine Unveilings and Mushahidaat, Divine Witnessing which had become faded for the people who were on the right path and the ones on the wrong path, both (i.e. forgotten by them both and unclear for them).

 

These (Ma’rifat and Uloom) make you inherit the life that is from the starting of time and is everlasting, forever which never has an ending except for the first taste of death of the nafs, ego, (in this world), which when it came, dismissed the requirements of being human and the demands of animalistic powers. And it is necessary that this response comes (to his calling) and your promises are upon the basis of khuloos, sincerity and tasleem, total submission.

 

Wa’lamo annallaha: And be certain that Allah Al Muttali’u, The Perfectly Informed, who knows what is hidden in His Servants…

 

Yahoolu: diverts and creates an envelope…

 

Bayna al mar’ay: between Man, the one who has structured himself in a human skeleton, which is specific upon on the fixture of true balance…

 

Wa qalbihi: and his qalb, the Seat of Recognition within the heart, which encompasses within it Allah Al Haqq, The Truth who is Allah Al Munazza, The One Purified of all, free and of being imprisoned, and Allah Al Mubarri’o, The One Above Everything of being encompassed or limitation, (He creates between Man and his qalb) many veils.

 

So these veils and coverings always remain, hanging, between man and his qalb, so the scent of love and closeness cannot reach him, that scent which is al muwaddi’, which leads towards fana, dissolution which results in baqa, everlastingness.

 

And this opening of the doors of love and closeness is received only with ikhlas, sincerity, and tasleem, submission and tafweed, surrender and tawakkal, reliance and tabbattal, devoted detachment and Tauheed Al Musqit, One-ness which makes drop everything extra.

 

Wa: And over all…

 

Annahu: Indeed, He…

 

Ilayhi: towards him, Subhanahu and no one else but Him, will rise the shadows in dissolution and will rise the invalid tangibles…

 

Tuhsharoon: gathered, returned like shadows return to the Creator of Shadows.

 

Subhan Allah!

 

The other hadith mubarik that showed me I was wrong in assuming all relationships had to betray in order for one to reach Subhanahu was equally striking and remained unforgettable after a single read:

 

قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مِنْ عَلَامَاتِ الْمُنَافِقِ ثَلَاثَةٌ وَإِنْ صَامَ وَصَلَّى وَزَعَمَ أَنَّهُ مُسْلِمٌ إِذَا حَدَّثَ كَذَبَ وَإِذَا وَعَدَ أَخْلَفَ وَإِذَا اؤْتُمِنَ خَانَ

 

“Among the signs of a hypocrite are three, even if he fasts and prays and claims to be a Muslim:

when he speaks he lies,

when he gives a promise he breaks it,

and when he is trusted he betrays.”

 

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 33, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 59

 

The way I was thinking about it, every single Muslim was also a Munafiq. The hypocrites were the most intensely disliked by Subhanahu. More so than the Kuffar, the disbelievers. How could that be right that all the believers were in fact Munafiqeen?

 

All except Pathani!

 

Then I remembered Mehek’s words the day before she was being sent to the hospital. Then we were praying like crazy that she would be taken in. All rules would have had to be overlooked regarding next of kin and proof of identity. Pathani had called to see how she was and she had said, the anxiety of the unknown palpable in her voice, “Whatever Allah wills for me only that will happen.”

 

After seeing Mehek, I felt like if rescue from any quicksand was pivoting on a single point then it was reliance, entrusting, to Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon his heart and that of his family) and through him, Subhanahu.

 

My experience with Tawakkul, reliance had started with the last verse of one of the most impacting Surahs of the Quran; Tauba, Repentance. In it I had found two words that had saved my life a few times before: Hasbi Allah – Allah is Sufficient for me!

 

فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا۟ فَقُلْ حَسْبِىَ ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ

عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ ۖ

وَهُوَ رَبُّ ٱلْعَرْشِ ٱلْعَظِيمِ ١٢٩

 

But if they turn away, then say, "Sufficient for me (is) Allah. (There is) no god except Him.

On Him I put my trust.

And He (is the) Lord (of) the Great Throne."

 

Surah At Tauba, Verse 129

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

And remain in your self, Ya Akmal Ar Rusul, O Messenger who perfects Messengerhood (salutations and greetings upon the one who is light upon light as is his family), upon the way of being said in the previous verse about your being the way you are…

 

Fa in tawallau: if they turn away and (still) shun you and leave you from bringing faith, imaan, in you and in your religion and your book…

 

Faqul: then say in your heart, beseechingly, to your Lord…

 

Hasbi Allah: Allah is Sufficient for me, Ar Raqeeb, The Only One Watchful upon me, He is Enough for me in this affliction of the enemity hoarded from them towards me because…

 

La ilaha: there is no god to return to in all trials and to plead before in the way of addressing…

 

Illa huwa alayhi: except Him, upon Him and no one else except Him because there is no truth in presence (other than Him)…

 

Tawakkaltu: I relied so I am not hopeful of and not afraid of anything except from Him…

 

Wa: and why would I not rely upon Him and return towards Him because…

 

Huwa: He is in His Essence…

 

Rabb ul Arsh il Adeem: the Lord of the Great Throne i.e. the One who is raises the Great Throne and makes plans upon it with Permanence and All Encompassing (Power) and Complete Command because there is nothing in Presence except Him and everything else will perish except His Essence.

 

I kept reading the word that meant I relied upon Him Alone:

Tawakkaltu: I relied so I am not hopeful of and not afraid of anything except from Him…

 

That’s what Mehek had done. She had relied only upon Him.

 

Only then she was Shaan.

 

And Shaan didn’t pray. He didn’t read the Quran. He didn’t do dikr. He was a woman who thought he was a man. He was autistic. He pulled knives on strangers unprovoked. He suffered from intense psychosis. Yet before my eyes, everything worked out for him in a span of 18 months. From wandering in parks as a homeless person to being in a home, loved whilst possessing certainty, inner and outer, that he would not be alone again. Because of one thing alone: he relied on Subhanahu for his matters, in the words of Ghaus Pak (ra), kullahu, all of them!

 

And Subhanahu gave her love and someone who would not betray her. Ever!

 

I searched the word tawakkal on all my 600 verses I had translated from the Tafseer e Jilani:

 

Surah Aal e Imran/159:

 

Fatawakkal: then rely for your matters…

 

Alallah: upon Allah and take Him as (your) Vakil, Disposer of Affairs, and do not pay heed to any other at all.

 

Innallaha: Indeed, Allah Al Hadi, The Only Guide for His Servants…

 

Yuhibbul Mutawakkileen: loves the ones who rely upon Allah, Al Muttakhadeena, the ones who make Allah their Vakil, Al Muffawwadeena, the ones who entrust their matters, all of them, to Him.

 

Yuhibbu – He loves them…

 

I found that the ones who relied upon Allah were also the ones Iblis had no power over:

 

إِنَّهُۥ لَيْسَ لَهُۥ سُلْطَـٰنٌ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ ٩٩

 

Indeed, there is for him (Iblis) no authority over those who have believed and rely upon their Lord.

 

Surah An Nahl, Verse 99

 

Tafseer e Jilani:

 

Inna hu laysa lahu sultanan: Indeed there is for him no authority i.e. he, Iblis, has no ability to possess and overcome…

 

Alalladina aamano: the ones who believe in Tauheed, the One-ness of Allah and have inner certainty in the truthfulness of Allah’s Books and His Messengers and the Day promised and that which will be given in compensation and reward in it.

 

Wa: And along with this…

 

Ala Rabbihim: upon their Lord, their Rabb, The One who raises them and upon no one else from the sources and means of day to day life…

 

Yatawakkaluna: they rely and surrender and they surely assign all their matters to Him.

 

And the word appeared in the advice the Prophet Yaqoub (as) gave to his sons. Incidentally, he was also the reason I had learnt another most powerful dikr when dealing with loved ones, fa sabrun jameelun, patience is beautiful.

 

Those two words were uttered by him twice when his sons told him the first time that Hazrat Yusuf (as) had been eaten by a wolf and the second time when they told him his other son, Banyameen, had been retained in Egypt for theft.

 

‏وَمَآ أُغْنِى عَنكُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ مِن شَىْءٍ ۖ

إِنِ ٱلْحُكْمُ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ ۖ

عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ ۖ

وَعَلَيْهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ ٱلْمُتَوَكِّلُونَ ‎

 

And yet I cannot avail you against anything Allah (wills).

The decision is with no one except with Allah. Upon Him I put my trust and upon Him let the ones who trust place their trust.

 

Surah Yusuf, Verse 67

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa: And know that indeed, I…

 

Ma ughni: I cannot save you and protect you with my advice that I have just uttered (about entering from different gates as opposed to one so the evil eye does not harm you)…

 

Ankum min: for you as related to your destiny…

 

Allah min shayin, inil hukmu: because there is no command and there is no order…

 

Illa lillahe, alaihi: except from Allah. Upon Him and not from anything from imaginary things…

 

Tawakaltu wa alaihi: do I place my trust and only in all the Commands…

 

Fal yattawakkalil Muttawakkiloon: so the ones who trust, they should place their trust in Him because there is no return for all except towards Him.

 

Then the word appeared in the connection of Subhanahu being The Only One Sufficient and Enough for the one who relied upon Him:

 

وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُۥٓ ٣

 

And whoever puts his trust upon Allah, then He (is) sufficient for him.

 

Surah Al Talaq, Verse 3

 

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa: And how can it not be that…

 

Manyyatawakkal alallahi: (for) the one who places His trust upon Allah, while he is sincere with Him, while he is entrusting his affair to Him…

 

Fahuwa hasbuhu: then only Allah is not Sufficient for him and Enough for him and suffices him in all of the provisions he needs for himself in this world and the Hereafter?

 

And again Subhanahu Himself asking, Am I not Sufficient for you?

 

أَلَیۡسَ ٱللَّهُ بِكَافٍ عَبۡدَهُۥۖ

 

Is not Allah sufficient (for) His Servant?

 

Surah Az Zumar, Verse 36

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

A Laysallahu: Is Allah, Al Qadeer, The Only One All Powerful One, Al Aleem, The Only One All Knowing, not…

 

Bi kafin abdu-hu: Sufficient for His Servant, the one who is Al Mutawakkil, only reliant upon Him, Al Muffawwid, who has entrusted all his matters to Him, so that Allah is Enough for Him in all that is of benefit for him and stops him from that which harms him?

 

In that search I also came across another appearance of Hasbi Allah in a verse which reminded me that even the idolaters called Subhanahu Allah. An address the some Muslims who had morphed into I don't even know what breed of non-believers couldn't get their tongues to utter:

 

وَلَىِٕن سَأَلۡتَهُم مَّنۡ خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضَ لَیَقُولُنَّ ٱللَّهُۚ

قُلۡ أَفَرَءَیۡتُم مَّا تَدۡعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ إِنۡ أَرَادَنِیَ ٱللَّهُ بِضُرٍّ هَلۡ هُنَّ كَـٰشِفَـٰتُ ضُرِّهِۦۤ أَوۡ أَرَادَنِی بِرَحۡمَةٍ هَلۡ هُنَّ مُمۡسِكَـٰتُ رَحۡمَتِهِۦۚ

قُلۡ حَسۡبِیَ ٱللَّهُۖ عَلَیۡهِ یَتَوَكَّلُ ٱلۡمُتَوَكِّلُونَ ٣٨

 

And if you ask them who created the heavens and the earth? Surely, they will say, "Allah." Say, "Then do you see what you invoke from besides Allah? If intended for me Allah harm, are they removers (of) harm (from) Him; or if He intended for me mercy, are they withholders (of) His mercy?"

Say, "Sufficient (is) for me Allah; upon Him put trust those who trust."

 

Surah Az-Zumar, Verse 38

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then pointed Subhanahu towards elaborating on His Tauheed, One-ness, indicating to the Mushrikeen, the ones who associate partners with Him, registering their state of beguile and allurement and being foolish, so He said, addressing His Beloved (upon whom and whose family He sends greetings and salutations continuously):

 

Wa la’in sa’altahum: And if you ask them, Ya Akmal Ar Rusul, O Messenger who perfects Messenger-hood (Allah sends greetings and salutations upon you and your family since always), the disbelievers of the Quresh…

 

Man khalaqas samawaati wal ard: who created the Heavens and the Earth i.e. the highest in creation and the lowest in creation and what is between them from their mixing and who has brought them into existence and who has constructed in them and who has made to appear what is in them from the natural wonders and uniqueness…

 

Layaqoolunna: so they say, for sure…

 

Allah: Allah, Al Muttafarrid, The Only One who creates and invents, Al Muttwahid, The One All Alone in His being worshipped and His being The Sustainer, because they have no power to turn away from this answer with their backs.

 

Qul: Say to them, Ya Akmal Ar Rusul, O Messenger who completes the Messengerhood (salutations and greetings be upon you and your family by your Lord) after that you heard from them this dialogue, enjoining them and refuting them angrily…

 

A faraytum: What do you say, have you seen with eyes or have you heard clearly…

 

Mimma tadoona min doonillah: from those you invoke from besides Allah, these that are falsely worshipped and you call them gods associated with Allah in power resisting (Him) and conflicting with authority and angry disagreement with Him, Subhanahu, for example…

 

In araadani Allahu: if Allah wishes for me and came His Order that it afflicts me…

 

Bi durrin hal hunna: harm from these i.e. your gods…

 

Kaashifatu durrihi: are they removers of His Harm, Subhanahu’s, from me upon the way of rivalry (with Him)?

 

Au aradani bi Rahmatihi: Or if He wishes mercy for me, beneficial from Him for me…

 

Hal hunna mumsikaatu Rahmatihi: are they withholders of His Mercy, preventing it from me and pushing away its arrival to me?

 

And after they became unable to answer and silenced from the listening of this dialogue, regretful (in shame of their gods being powerless but still worshipping them)…

 

Qul: Say Ya Akmal Ar Rusul, O Messenger who brings Messenger-hood to its conclusion (greetings and salutations upon you and your blessed family by Subhanahu) in words, consisting of only Tauheed, One-ness of Allah, and Yaqeen, inner certainty, empty from the signs of doubt, assumptions and estimation…

 

Hasbi Allah: Allah is Sufficient for me, Al Waahid, The One and Only, Al Ahad, The Only One, As Samad, The One Independent of everything, Al Kaafi, The One Enough for the everyday tasks of His Servants, Ar Raqeeb, The Only One Watchful over them in all their needs because…

 

Alayhi: upon Him and not upon any other except Him from the general sources and means…

 

Yatawakkal ul Muttawakkuloon: rely the reliant ones, the ones who surrender their matters, all of them, to Him so much so that they take Him as their Vakil, Disposer of Affairs and their belief in Him is sufficient and enough.

 

Continued on: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/53200623254/in/datepos...

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