Our friends in Singapore are busy preparing for a dawra on Imam Ghazali's Kitab Bidayatul Hidayah to be led by our dearest Shaykh Fahmi Zamzam al-Maliki. It's supposed to take place on 30th and 31st of May 2015 bi-iznillah. Let's pray so that everything will go smooth for the organizer. Ameen.
Upon knowing about the upcoming event, I looked up the kitab and found a chapter on adab of companionship with Allah. This is what Hujjatul Islam wrote and may, by reproducing it here, you and I will get to internalize it better.
Know that your Companion who does not leave you whether you are living in a place permanently or travelling, whether you are sleeping or awake, and indeed whether you are alive or dead, is He who is your Lord, your Master and your Creator. Whenever you remember Him, He is your Companion, as He (exalted is He) said: 'I am the companion of him who remembers Me.'
When your mind is filled with grief over your shortcomings in your religious duties, God is your inseparable Companion as God (exalted is He) said: 'I am with those whose minds are filled with grief for My sake.'
If you knew God truly and perfectly, you would take Him for a companion and leave people aside. Should you be unable to do this all the time, take care that your day and night are not without a time in which you will be alone with your Master and enjoy the pleasure of your secret converse with Him. At that time you have to follow the rules of companionship with Him, so you must learn them.
The rules of companionship with God are:
- keeping silent with the head cast down
- ignoring one's surrounding
- concentration of care and attention on God
- continuation of silence
- keeping the body's members at rest
- hastening to carry out His commands and avoiding His prohibitions
- not complaining against fate
- continual remembrance of God and reflection on Him
- preference of the truth over falsehood
- independence from people
- humility before the awe of Him
- brokenness of mind under the sense of shame
- quiescence of mind from worries of earning a livelihood while relying on the guarantee of sustenance given by God
- and trust in the bounty of God knowing that He chooses for man only that which is good for him.
All these should be your distinctive characteristics in all your days and nights for they are the rules of companionship with a Companion who does not leave you [at all] whereas [your companions from among] people sometimes leave you.
***
Of the 14 rules of companionship with the Most Loyal Companion, I need to hammer hard two of them: independence from people and that He chooses only the best for His servants. On this auspicious evening of Israk Mikraj, I wish you a serene time alone with Him.
Ref: https://attahawi.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/bidayat-al-hidayah-by-imam-al-ghazali.pdf
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