Moulana Mohammad Ilyas (R.A)
1-7

1

Words and reflections

While talking to Maulana Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, Moulana Muhammad Manzoor No’maani and Muhammad Shafi Quraishi Saheb, Hazrat Maulana said:

“It was the general condition of the Ummats of the former Prophets, that as they moved away from the times of their Prophets, their religious acts used to take the shape of mere customs and become empty of spirit and reality. Performance of these acts meant nothing but to celebrate established customs. Then, some other Prohets were sent to the Ummats for the correction of this misguidedness and waywardness, who, while removing these customary aspects, used to introduce the realities of religious acts and the actual spirit of Shari’at to the people. When, in the end, the Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam received his call to prophethood. The condition of all the nations of that time who had any relation with some revealed religion was the same. Even if some part of Shari’at brought by their respective Prophets was present in them, its condition was no more than a collection of spiritless customs. Yet the people considered those customs as the real Deen and Shari’at. The Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam then removed these customs and taught the real religious truths and commands.”

"The Ummat of Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is also suffering from this very disease now, and its worships also reflect this customary trend. This error has grown to such proportions that even the teaching of deen, which should have been the means of correcting all faults of this kind, has also become a mere custom at many places. But, since the successive coming of the Prophets has been put to an end and the responsibility of such missions has been placed on the Ulama of the Ummat because of their being the representatives of the Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, so they are the ones who are responsible to pay special attention towards correcting this misguidedness and corruption. The means for this correction is the 'correction of intentions'. This is so because Customariness comes into the deeds only when the sincerity to do an act solely for Allah and the marks of true obedience start disappearing from the deeds. With this correction of intentions, the direction of deeds gets turned towards Allah and reality comes in them in place of Customariness, and every deed is then performed solely with the true sense of Allah's worship and obedience. In short, creating sincerity and reality in religious practices by making people attentive to correct their intentions is a very special responsibility of the ulama of the Ummat and the carriers of deen."

2

Hazrat Maulana said:

"The importance of the fact that deen is easy is announced in the Qur'an and Hadeeth with great emphasis. This means that deen is absolutely simple and easy. So, everything in deen will have to be easy and simple in proportion to its requirement and status in deen. That's why since correcting one's intention and doing things only to gain Allah's pleasure are very necessary in deen- rather are the soul of all religious acts- therefore these are very easy. Together, since this very purity of intention is the sum and substance of all the faculties of “sulook” and "tareeqat” (sufism), hence, it becomes clear that sulook is also an easy thing. But remember, every work becomes easy if done with its particular procedure and principle. When using the wrong method, even the easiest of the easy works becomes difficult. Now the mistake people make is that they consider mere observing the principle as difficult, and hence avoid following principles; whereas even a very usual and ordinary worldly work cannot be completed without following the principle and appropriate method. A plane, boat, car, train, etc, all are operated on some principles;  so much so that even baking of bread and cooking require following a particular method."

3

Hazrat Maulana said:

"The particular objective of 'tareeqat' is that the love for Allah's commands and the dislike for what Allah has forbidden become part of one's nature. (This means producing such a state of mind that delight and pleasure is felt in obeying Allah's commands, while pain and shock is felt in going near to the forbidden actions.) This is the objective of tareeqat. As for the methods specifically introduced for zikr and spiritual exercises of particular nature, these are the means of attaining this objective. However, many people have started considering these means themselves to be the objective of tareeqat, while some of these means are actually innovations [in the religion]. Anyhow, since the status of these methods is that they are only means, and are not desired [from the acts of worships] in themselves, therefore with change in conditions and needs they must be reviewed and modified. As regards the things which are apparent and clearly defined in the shari'at, their practice will remain the same and necessary for all time." 

4

Hazrat Maulana said:

"The status of faraaidh (compulsory duties) is much higher than those of nawaafil (voluntary actions). It must be understood that the only objective of nawaafil is to bring perfection in the faraaidh, or to compensate the shortcomings in [the performance of] faraaidh. In short, Faraaidh stand primary, while the nawaafil are their subordinates and stand secondary. However, the condition of some people is such that they remain unmindful in respect of Faraaidh and devote themselves more to nawaafil. For example, you all know that calling and enjoining to the good and forbidding the evil (that is to say, all branches of the tableegh of deen) are among the important faraaidh of deen, yet how many people are performing these faraaidh? On the other hand, there's no such shortage of devout and committed practitioners of nawaafil." 

5

Hazrat Maulana said:

"Some religious people and scholars have got seriously confused in the chapter of istighnaa: they take istighnaa as standing for not even meeting the rich people and the people of higher social standing. They maintain that one should not meet these people at all. In fact, istighnaa only requires that we should not go to these people hoping for their wealth or seeking fame and fortune. Meeting and mixing with these people for the sake of their reformation and other religious objectives is not foreign to the aim of istighnaa. Rather, it is necessary in a way. However, we must be on the alert that through this meeting, we do not develop in ourselves a thirst for fame and fortune or the desire for riches."

6

Hazrat Maulana said:

"Whenever a bondsman of Allah wishes to take a step towards any good deed, Satan opposes him in many different ways and places difficulties and hurdles in his path. But if these twists and turns fail to stop his progress and that bondsman of Allah starts doing that good deed after crossing these hurdles, then Satan's second effort starts: he then tries to become the shareholder of that good deed- either by injecting evil into his sincerity and intention- or using some other similar means. That is, sometimes he attempts to mix the desire for show and fame, and sometimes he tries to corrupt his sincerity by mixing other motives- and at times he succeeds in this effort. It is, therefore, recommended for religious workers to remain alert from this danger. They must keep on safeguarding their hearts from such satanic whisperings, and should regularly examine their intentions. This is because the moment an intention other than the intention to please Allah becomes a part of a deed, it no longer remains acceptable by Allah." 

7

Hazrat Maulana said:

"This sad negligence and shortcoming occurs in many madrasahs that although the students are given education, yet no considerable effort is made to put these students to the actual objective of this study (that is, service of deen and calling towards Allah) when their education gets complete. As a result of this negligence, many promising student-scholars of these institutions, having completed their studies, only aim at earning their living. For this, they either rush to study herbal medicine or join the teaching profession in English schools after passing the government university examinations. In this way, all the time and money and all the efforts that were spent on their education not only go to a complete waste but corne in the use of the enemies of deen in some instances. Therefore, with respect to this education we should concentrate our efforts and thinking more on this thing that the students who get their studies complete, they should get involved only in the service of deen and in fulfilling the rights of the knowledge of deen. If our lands produce no fruit, it is still a loss; but if they produce fruit that goes to our enemies, it becomes a far greater loss."