Salawat with Allah’s Beautiful Names: Ya Jami’ (the Uniter)

This prayer is taken from Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz’s collection of prayers using Allah’s beautiful names in which he calls upon Allah by His beautiful names and then asks Him to bestow prayers upon His Beloved by those names. Finally, he asks Allah for a portion of those attributes which belong to Allah and which He has bestowed upon His Messenger ﷺ. Continue reading Salawat with Allah’s Beautiful Names: Ya Jami’ (the Uniter)

Weights and Measures

Insights from Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him)

Any action which is heavy and hard upon the lower self (nafs) will be weighty when your good deeds are weighed on the Scales on the Day of Judgement. Any action which is easy for the lower self will be light upon the Scales.

When someone’s soul becomes tranquil (al-nafs al-mutma’innah), however, they no longer find any hardship or difficulty in acts of obedience. Continue reading Weights and Measures

The Loss of Shaykh Shukri al-Luhafi

We praise Allah and at the same time express our sadness at the departure of one of the great men of the Ummah, a khalifah of the Chosen One ﷺ, one of the oceans of the Noble Qur’an, the one we love for Allah’s sake, the noble Shaykh Shukri bin Ahmad al-Luhafi. May Allah raise his station and unite us with him in the highest levels of Paradise. Sham has bidden farewell to one of its great scholars and an inheritor of the Prophetic Legacy. Continue reading The Loss of Shaykh Shukri al-Luhafi

Tafsir of Short Surahs: Surat al-Duha

A summary of Habib Umar’s commentary on Surat al-Duha, Ramadan 1436

This surah was revealed after a period in which revelation had stopped coming to the Prophet ﷺ . Some of the disbelievers of Quraysh, including the wife of Abu Lahab, said to the Prophet mockingly that Allah had forsaken him and was displeased with him.

Allah then revealed:

By the midmorning

And by the night when it is still

Your Lord has neither forsaken you, nor is He displeased.

Continue reading Tafsir of Short Surahs: Surat al-Duha

The Six Days of Shawwal

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that whoever fasts Ramadan and then fasts six days in the month of Shawwal has fasted the whole year, since each good deed is multiplied by ten. Thus the thirty days of Ramadan equal three hundred days and the six days equal sixty which together make up the whole year of three hundred and sixty days. The scholars say that what is meant is that one has the reward of a whole year’s compulsory fasting, not merely supererogatory fasting. The Prophet  also said that whoever completes Ramadan and the six days will emerge as free from sins as a new born baby. It is thus recommended to fast any six days of Shawwal. Continue reading The Six Days of Shawwal

Salawat with Allah’s Beautiful Names: Ya Mun’im (Bestower of Blessings)

Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz teaches us to thank Allah for the immense blessings that He has bestowed upon us, the greatest of those being our beloved Prophet ﷺ . He also directs us to ask for an increase in those blessings, for gratitude and for those blessings to be preserved. Continue reading Salawat with Allah’s Beautiful Names: Ya Mun’im (Bestower of Blessings)