Answered by Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him)
How do we avoid backbiting (ghibah)?
We do this by bringing to mind the ugliness and danger of
backbiting. We should also reflect on the punishment for it in the next life. In
the Quran, Allah likens the person who backbites to someone who eats the flesh
of his dead brother. We should see backbiting as a lightning bolt which
destroys our good deeds. We should accustom ourselves to only mentioning a
person’s good deeds and qualities if there is a benefit in doing so.
If we are tempted to backbite someone due to a perceived fault, we should do two things instead: pray for them and give them sincere advice either directly or indirectly.
Imam Hasan, the son of Imam Abdullah bin Alawi al-Haddad was
a seeker, a person of piety and a scholar who acted according to his knowledge.
Imam al-Haddad, however, was waiting for him to reach higher levels. He said:
“When that son of mine performs hajj something will be ingrained in him which was
not in him before.”
So he went to perform hajj and implemented all the sunnahs,
exerted great caution and effort until the hajj had its effect upon him. Then
he returned to Hadramawt and became a paragon of renunciation of worldly things
(zuhd).
They told him that part of his house was falling and it
needed to be repaired (houses in Hadramawt are built from mud bricks and
require regular repair) but he replied that he did not need that part of the
house and life was short.
He focused on teaching and preparing for the next life until one half of the house caved in. He said: “The other half of the house is sufficient.” He carried on in this way until only one room of the house was left standing. When people criticised him, he replied with a verse of poetry:
يقولون بيتك بيت صغير كأن نسجته لك العنكبوت
فقلت المقام قليل به وهذا كثير على من يموت
They say your house is so small it could have been woven by
a spider!
I say to them I will not live long in it and it is plenty
big enough for someone who is sure to die
This is the exact opposite of what hajj does to some people.
They go to hajj and they have some humility but they return with more desire
and concern for worldly things. This would be a sign that their hajj has not
been accepted and we seek Allah’s refuge from that.
The whole purpose of hajj is to draw us closer to Allah, the
King, the Living and that we see things as they truly are.
Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us
by him)
One of our teachers was Habib Muhammad bin Alawi al-Attas, a scholar and a true worshipper. He was known as ‘al-Zabidi’ because he spent some years studying with the scholars of Zabid (once a great centre of knowledge in Yemen). During his time there he chose to work as a waiter in a restaurant, not because he needed the money, but in order to refine his lower self (nafs): running round taking people’s orders, bring this, do this..
We visited him in his home in Huraydah at the end of his life with a group of scholars: among them Habib Mashhur bin Hafiz, Habib Umar bin Alawi al-Kaf, Habib Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Shihab and Habib Salim al-Shatiri.
He said: “Last night someone saw the Prophet ﷺ in this very room.”
May Allah have mercy upon him – a scholar who knew the importance of refining the nafs.
Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him) during his commentary on Ihya Ulum al-Din, Dar al-Mustafa, 28th Dhu’l-Qa’dah 1440.
The Prophet ﷺ said: “The best prayer is the prayer of the Day of Arafah. The best thing which I and the Prophets before me have said is:
لاَ إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ، لَهُ الْمُلْكُ وَ لَهُ الْحَمْدُ يُحْيُي و يُمِيت وَ هُوَ حَيٌّ لا يَموتُ بِيَدِهِ الخَيْرُ و هَو عَلَى كُلِّ شَيءٍ قَدِيرٍ
La ilaha ill’Allahu wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahu’l-mulku wa lahu’l-hamdu yuhi wa yumit wa huwa hayyun la yamut bi yadihi’-khayr wa `ala kulli shayin qadir
“There is no deity save Allah alone. He has no partners. To Him belongs the dominion and all praise. He brings life and brings death and He is the Living Who never dies. To Him belongs all good. He has power over all things.”
The Prophet ﷺ called it a prayer (dua) but where is the request? What is the person actually asking for when he says it?
The reality is all requests are contained in it if you are connected
to its meaning and realise its
implications.
If you say it with realisation, your Lord gazes upon you and all requests made to Him by anyone in the past and the future are insignificant compared to what He then gives you.
The believers should repeat it on the Day of Arafah whether they are performing hajj or not.
Saying it removes
darkness from you until you become pure light. It removes the darkness of
witnessing created things by affirming to Whom truly belongs the dominion and
the power to give life and death.
Can you then have hope in other than Him, fear other than
Him or rely on other than Him? No!
May Allah enable us to realise these realities.
May He bless us on the Day of Arafat such that the forces of disbelief, misguidance, corruption and deviance are stopped in their tracks. May the banners of Muhammad be unfurled in every place so that the promised time soon comes in which la ilaha ill’Allah enters every single house.
Answered by Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him)
All my time is spent raising my children and I feel I am missing out on worship and seeking knowledge. What advice can you give me?
For you to raise your children in the best way is an act of worship and is part of acting according to your knowledge. Try to follow a class when you have a bit of spare time. A pious woman from the Amudi tribe (in Hadramawt) wrote out the whole of Imam al-Subki’s three volume fatwa collection. At the end she wrote: ‘Please excuse any mistakes I may have made because I wrote this while I was breastfeeding’. The truthful person continues doing good works however small regardless of the situation.
Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him) marvels at Allah’s command to His Beloved ﷺ to seek forgiveness for the believing men and women and the Beloved’s request for us to do the same.
Be certain that there is no deity except Allah and seek forgiveness for your sins and for the sins of believing men and women (Muhammad, 47:19). In this we observe Your mercy and compassion for the believing men and women as You address Your servant, the one You made absolutely compassionate and merciful to the believers. You say to him, “seek forgiveness for them, ask Me to forgive them, for I wish to forgive them. Turn to them, intercede for them and act as their intermediary, for you are the most beloved of all My creation to Me.”
Allah says to the one He loves the most: “Seek forgiveness for the believing men and women.” This is an amazing manifestation of Allah’s compassion and mercy for the believing men and women! Before we even gathered together and sought His forgiveness, Allah said to the greatest of all leaders: “Seek forgiveness for them – those who live in your time and those who will come after you. The subtle manifestations of My will have preceded such that I show mercy to them with the most noble of My creation in My sight acting as an intermediary: and seek forgiveness for your sins and for the sins of believing men and women. And he duly sought forgiveness for us.
Every day and night he would seek forgiveness for the believing men and women and he commanded all those who love him and follow him to do the same along with him: “Whoever seeks forgiveness for the believing men and women every day twenty-seven times will be among those whose prayers are answered and those by whom the people of the earth receive provision and rain.” (Tabarani)
If the person who responds to the Prophet’s invitation to do this becomes someone whose prayers are answered and someone by whom the people of the earth receive provision and rain, then what about the Prophet himself? Just by following the Prophet, obeying his command and seeking forgiveness for believing men and women, this person receives something directly from the Prophet. He attains such a state in Allah’s sight that through him provision, rain and goodness is apportioned. But what about the source of all this – the Prophet himself? The individual follower reaches this state as a result of the Prophet. What does this tell us about the station of Muhammad in the sight of the King of Kings?
Extracts from a talk delivered in Dar al-Mustafa, 18th Shawwal 1440
In order to act upon the hadith we should say 27 times every
day:
أَسْتَغْفِرُ
اللهَ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ والمؤمِنَات
Astaghfirullaha lil-mu’minina wa’l-mu’minat
I seek
forgiveness for the believing men and women
Answered by Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him)
How can you tell the origin of a dream?
Scholars like Imam al-Ghazali teach us principles for identifying the origin of the passing thoughts (khawatir) that come to the heart. Those thoughts may be divine (directly from Allah), angelic, satanic (from the whisperings of the Devil) or from the lower self (nafs). The same principles may be applied to dreams. So if a dream is followed by a feeling of tranquillity and presence of heart its origin is divine or angelic. If it is followed by a feeling of unsettledness then it is from the lower self or the Devil. If you dream about something you have thought a lot about in the past then this is from the lower self. When you remember Allah afterwards, the effects of dreams that come from the Devil disappear.
If the dream contains encouragement to disobey Allah, become lazy in acts of obedience or hold a bad opinion about someone or harm them then it is from the Devil. Generally speaking, any dream which contains going against the Shariah or against good etiquette (adab) is from the Devil. Any dream which encourages you to do good, have a good opinion of others and increases you in humility is from Allah.
Allah says: Satan
threatens you with the prospect of poverty and commands you to do foul deeds; Allah
promises you His forgiveness and His abundance: Allah is limitless and all
knowing (al-Baqarah, 2:268).
Answered by Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him)
How does a seeker of knowledge attain openings?
Seekers must abide by the etiquettes of seeking knowledge. They must spend time reviewing what they have studied with fellow students and write down important points which they learn.
They should call upon Allah by His names the Opener, the
All-Knowing 100 times a day:
يا فَتَّاحُ
يا عَلِيمُ
Ya Fattāḥ ya `Alīm
They should also repeat Ayat al-Kursi followed by this prayer
upon the Prophet ﷺ :
Allahumma salli wa sallim ‘ala sayyidina Muhammad wa ‘ala ali sayyidina Muhammad fi kulli lamhatin wa nafasin bi `adadi kulli ma`lumin lak
O Allah, bestow prayers and peace on our master Muhammad and his Family in every instant and every breath equal to the amount of everything known to You
If you do this on the day of Eid and the next day and the day after you will maintain the connection you made with the speech of Allah during Ramadan. The comfort you felt and the ease with which you recited it will continue throughout the year. You will not fall into the darkness of abandoning the Quran.
The more you are distracted with Eid, however, the harder it
will be to return to the Qur’an. The soul is slow to become accustomed to doing
good but fast to become accustomed to leaving it.
O Allah, make us among the people of the Quran. Do not make
us among those who the Prophet ﷺ complained about to
his Lord. Allah then revealed: The Messenger cried out: “Lord, my people
had abandoned this Quran.” (25:30)
Habib Ali al-Jifri (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him)
Answered by Sayyidi Habib Umar bin Hafiz (may Allah protect him and benefit us by him)
What intentions should we make for after Ramadan?
We intend to be among those whose entire year is Ramadan
We intend that our connection with Allah is expressed in our actions throughout the day and the night
We intend to serve the Ummah in the best way by focusing on the Three Objectives (knowledge, devotion and service)
We intend to seek the pleasure of Allah and to make His Messenger ﷺ happy in all that we do
We intend to attain an increase in presence of heart with Allah at all times but especially during the prayer and recitation of the Quran and the adhkar
We intend to establish gatherings with our brothers and sisters who we love for Allah’s sake
We intend to fast the Six Days of Shawwal and other blessed days such as Tāsūā’ and Ashura (9th and 10th Muharram) and the Day of Arafah and at least three days in every month
