We are a Pir (Persian word that means “spiritual master”) of the Silsilah (line or chain of spiritual transmission) Chishti Nizami and belong to the Tariqat of Hadzrat Pir Amin ul Hasnat Shah Sahab, may Allah Almighty be always pleased with him, (biography see also www.gatetodivinemercy.com ) of Bhera Sharif, Punjab, Pakistan. The chain of Spiritual Transmission (silsilah) comes to Bhera from Sial Sharif, Punjab, Pakistan, which in turn has obtained it from Taunsa Sharif, at the border between Punjab and Baluchistan. In its turn Taunsa Sharif has obtained the Spiritual Transmission from Chishtian (Mohar) Sharif, Punjab, which in turn received the spiritual blessing from Delhi (India). We invite the dear visitor of this web site to read the list of the holy names of the Spiritual Masters of the Silsilah Chishti Nizami, we invite also the dear reader to examine the section regarding the Silsilah Chishti in general.
We confess here that we did not select or choose to be a Chishti but we can say in a certain sense that Allah SWT has chosen this silsilah for us. We specify this point because we have witnessed in these years many seekers specially western-born people of the path of Haqiqah (tasawwuf) getting around in acquiring details about the various methods of each Silsilah and the references of different Pirs thus making their mind prevailing on their hearts and ultimately ending in a kind of sterile “Pir shopping” adventure, which most of the time ends with many people giving up the search. Although this is a kind of “natural selection”, since the path of Haqiqah (tasawwuf) is for selected and elected personalities, it is our duty to denounce errors of this type (Pir-shopping). It is indeed not conductive to a good success to seek entrance in an order of reality where mind (the immediate and easy connection to the manifested worlds) is to a big extent an obstacle and heart (related to divine inspiration and intuition and connected to the unseen world) has ultimately to prevail. Moreover there is a very subtle error of attitude (adzab) in the tendency of people who are inclined to the “Pir-shopping”. The error consists in not considering that it is from the minus that comes the plus or in other words, perhaps crude but more effective, the “inferior” cannot judge the “superior”. “Inferior” here should be taken not in its offensive meaning but in its relation to the Spiritual Authority. In this relation we all, from the highest Pir to the “last Muslim”, are “inferior” in respect to the Spiritual Authority. Thus having established this general fact it is consequent that there are different ranks of “inferiority” and “superiority” and in respect to the Spiritual World a seeker of it is materially in a condition of inferiority respect any of the active and operative members of tasawwuf. Once this concept is accepted it goes by itself that any seeker of the path of Truth cannot have its exact knowledge and therefore cannot judge anyone of the members of any Spiritual Order. In order to have a clear understanding on what we mean at this point we invite the dear reader of the visitor of this web site page to read from verse 65 to verse 82 of Sura 18, Al-Khaf (The Cave) of the Holy and Glorious Qur’an. In those verses is narrated the meeting of HHH Prophet Musa, AS, and HHH Khidzr, AS, defined by Allah SWT as “…servant from among Our servants upon whom We had bestowed a special Mercy from Ourselves and We have taught him (special) inspired knowledge from Our Own Presence” [Sura 18 Al Kahf (The Cave):65, translation from Jamal ul Qur’an, Zia ul Qur’an Publications, Lahore-Pakistan. Note in all the web site the quotation from the Holy and Glorious Qur’an are from this translation – orders can be made on line – and we will use the Latin word in Italic, “ibidem”, which means “same place”, implicitly of translation]. The “special Mercy” of Allah SWT translates into the reality of a superior authority like that of HHH Khidzr, AS, to a Prophet and Messenger like HHH Musa, AS, and this is proven by the words exchanged between HHH Musa, AS, and HHH Khidzr, AS, in the following verses: “Moses said to him: “May I keep you company on the footing that you will teach me of the special knowledge of guidance which you have been given?” / The man said: (O Moses!) you cannot have patience with me.”/ “And how can you have patience over a thing of which you have not the comprehensive knowledge?” / Moses said: “If Allah will, you will find me patient and I shall not disobey you in anything” / He said: “Well, if you do wish to remain with me, do not question me about anything until I speak to you it myself” [Sura 18 Al Kahf (The Cave)):66-70, “ibidem”] Verses 66 to 70 show the condition of relative “spiritual inferiority” of HHH Musa, AS, in respect to HHH Khidzr, AS, based on “comprehensive knowledge”, a knowledge “inspired” by the Own Presence of Allah. If such differences among spiritually highly ranked personalities are so real to be narrated in the Holy and Glorious Qur’an those differences will be more real among ordinary persons as we are. Therefore those who indulge in “Pir shopping” should consider that ultimately their own attitude has a nature which is exactly the contrary of the order of reality that they seek to belong to. The attitude of a seeker should be of such a nature to realize what Allah SWT in the Holy and Glorious Qur’an says: “If Allah finds any good in your hearts, He will grant you something better than what has been taken from you…” [Sura 8 Al Anfal (The Spoils of War):70, “ibidem”].
In regard of this “Pir-shopping” we give here following our personal story as an experience not for sake of pump and pride but with the humble intention to serve as an example to others. In fact when we were seeking for a Pir instead of being interested to know details like Silsilah name and what the Silsilah does we were firstly attracted, fascinated and then fall in love through his picture by His Holiness Hadzrat Pir Muhammad Karam Shah Al Azhari, RA. We indeed were thirst of spirituality and as fresh converted Muslim we sought the help of Allah SWT to give us a Spiritual Guide. And Allah SWT in His Infinite Mercy made possible that our imperfect and impure being could be honored of receiving spiritual blessings by a real living Sufi Saint and Islamic Scholar of the highest rank, His Holiness Hadzrat Pir Karam Shah Al Azhari, RA, Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (Shariah Bench). Eleven years later His Holiness Hadzrat Pir Amin ul Hasnat Shah Sahab, may Allah Almighty always be pleased with him, elevated our imperfect and sinful personality to the function of Spiritual Master, Pir in Farsi and Sheik in Arabic, making possible that this humble servant, born Catholic in Italy and converted to Islam at the age of 44 years, would have been perhaps the first authentic Italian-born Pir giving to one of the most beautiful countries in the world, Italy, an invaluable honor, indeed not commensured to the humble qualities of this servant.
On the other side it is the right of a seeker to find the most suitable murshid for him, we do not argue on this point, we want to stress the importance of the proper attitude to search for a Pir as a suggestion to the sincere seekers, so that they may avoid errors. This is particularly true and important for western-born seekers, maybe freshly converted, who feel necessary a spiritual connection through an authorized Pir. Today many Pirs and Spiritual Orders utilize Internet to preach and propagate Islam and make known their presence to those who seek Islam and Knowledge. Internet is quite impersonal, emotions and feelings are distorted and somehow reduced in intensity thus it is quite possible that someone may indulge in “Pir-shopping” even without realizing it, but this does not change the fact that it is an error, a subtle error and it is for this reason that we have spent quite long time on this “Pir-shopping” issue, hoping to have clarified the point and to have done service to Islam.
About the function of Pir
We utilize the first plural person in our writings to stress upon the fact that being Pir means to cover a special, specific function in Islam and particularly in Tasawwuf, which is the interior, esoteric aspect of Islam and therefore we do not write for personal satisfaction but as a part of our duty to fulfill the function of being Pir. Whenever it will be required by the circumstances we may write pages in first person whenever we express individual point of view or speak about our ordinary life. In this respect of eventually presenting a biography we would like to be very clear that we are forced by the necessities of this modern life to eventually present our biography. Infact it appears that a very large number of persons in these days show more curiosity of knowing details of individuals rather than seeking knowledge of general and perennial laws. This attitude is perhaps in order to make also their own judgment on such and such person, forgetting that the Only Authority to know and judge is Allah SWT. And we do not like to encourage anything that may even remotely mimic Allah SWT beside the fact that we have very little to take pride of our individual life. Who is the sinner who like to expose himself to the others?
In order to become a real, authorized Pir one has to receive khilafat (power of representation or in more legal terms to receive a kind of “power of attorney” from the Spiritual Authority) from another authorized Pir who is the last representative of a chain of transmission started in this world from HHH Muhammad Mustafa, SAWS. We have to underline “in this world” since the Real Source of All Spiritual Orders is One, Allah Almighty. It is for this reason that every authentic, real and alive Spiritual Order is the only authority in this world capable to grant to those who qualify to it the authentic Return to Allah SWT, which may end in the Supreme Identity.
Acquisition of a real khilafat is not at all a whimsical act of individuals, on the contrary is a function designated and ordered by Allah SWT to His Manifestation and Allah SWT has His Own Signs to inform His bondsmen. Therefore this justifies writing in the first plural because as a matter of fact anyone who writes for the sake of the Spiritual Truth effectively writes on behalf of Allah SWT. Therefore similarly to legal matters by law there is someone, the original Pir, who delegates powers to someone else, the recipient of khilafat, and those powers can be limited to the extent the original Pir decides.
More in general a Pir covers several duties to honor his function. Those duties regard the spiritual and even material welfare of his disciples being for each of them a reference, an example and a support, like the Holy Prophet, SAWS, was for his blessed companions, RANHUM. Not necessarily a Pir must be an Islamic scholar but indeed he must have a sound Islamic knowledge at least enough to keep himself as pure as possible.
One of the particular functions of a Pir is that of enabling Allah SWT of giving directions to his disciples by unseen actions. Some Pirs of very high spiritual rank are fully conscious and aware in real time of those actions, other Pirs may be not totally conscious but as long as they are preserving their purity and obey the orders of their own spiritual master they enable the unseen actions of Allah SWT reaching their murids. Although physical comparisons or examples do not take into account the real complexity of the unseen, spiritual world one can think of Pirs like electromagnetic wave telecommunication systems. In such systems there are transmitters, which have the possibility to transmit original information sent to them by a superior intelligence, and repeaters, which receive the signals from a main transmitting station and send it as it is in their surroundings. In order to further clarify our point of view one can further expand the physical example. In fact if one forgets religious or sectarian influences (our writings in this web site are for Muslims and Non-Muslims regardless their sectarian belonging), in other words if one is not prevented and thinks in terms of logic and observes what happens in nature he can only see that in every case the perfect systems are those working in feedback. In other words the feedback is a system which acts as a control to the main system reducing the errors and the deviations from the “path” for which the system has been originally designed. So that feedback systems are regulated by a kind of an “extra intelligence” in order to perform near perfection (i.e. at the specified performances or “within the path”). But Allah SWT is by definition Perfect. Perfect is an attribute of the Supreme Entity given by every spiritual and religious system from immemorial time. When we drive a car we adjust its direction, speed and asset accordingly to the ever changing road conditions in order to arrive smoothly and safely to our destination. Today with the advent of computers and incredible automation systems it is possible to fly an aircraft with accuracies of few parts over a million within its pre-assigned path, thus without mistaking the landing track. In certain extent a Pir works like a feedback system – apparently external to the disciple – so that he may be the intermediary to correct the changes of path that a disciple may need due to his own inexperience or still imperfect inclinations. If a limited and imperfect being like a human can conceive, design and realize a feedback control systems to guide any type of vehicle on sea, on ground and on air why Allah SWT, Who has given us that intelligence, cannot have conceived a sort of feedback guidance system to rescue His Beloved Creatures and bring them back to Him? Allah’s SWT approach and realization in everything is of course Perfect and it does not have comparison with a humanly designed artifact like a feedback system. But we feel this example is more familiar to millions of students, technicians, scientists and even laymen because the fact that a civilian aircraft takes off from San Francisco, USA, and lands in Rome, Italy, without missing the landing path is under everyone’s eyes daily. If our intelligence, comparatively much limited respect Allah’s Supreme Intelligence, can conceive a system to guide any vehicle (sea, air and land) to its wanted destination, why cannot Allah SWT have conceived a system to guide His Creatures back to Him? To “see” the system of Allah SWT one has to change the system of observation and instead of human eyes one has to utilize “something” which works beyond human eyes, which means using his own spiritual heart. This is exclusively possible if the seeker has been initiated to tasawwuf by an authentic, real Pir from a recognized Spiritual Order (silsilah). In our opinion it is in this respect that one has to interpret some of the ayats of the Holy and Glorious Qur’an like: “Well, the (blessed) one whose breast (note of translator, n.o.t.= heart) Allah has opened for Islam, follows but the light from his Lord (n.o.t.=Allah). So woe to those hard-hearted ones who are not stirred by the Remembrance of Allah. These are lost in clear error/Allah has revealed the Best Discourse, that is the Book whose verses are alike, in meaning and fairness repeated over and over again, and the bodies of those who fear Allah (at its recital); then their bodies and hearts soften to the Remembrance of Allah, He guides therewith whom He will. And he whom Allah sends astray, then none is there to guide him aright. ” [Sura 39, Az-Zumar, (The Troops), 22-23, “ibidem”].
We would like here to underline that in a Tariqat (a spiritual community of disciples initiated by the same Pir Sahab) there are disciples (murid) whose spiritual station may be higher than the spiritual station (maqam) of some of the Tariqat Khalifa. Therefore one has to be extremely careful and do not make confusion between spiritual rank and spiritual function. Being a Pir means to cover a defined spiritual function, regardless the spiritual rank or station (maqam) in which the same Pir is stationed, although a minimum pre-requisite of rank is necessary. Basically a Pir has the main duty of keeping himself pure enough to honor his function being his spiritual station a secret as it is a secret of every mutasawuffin (from Arabic, it means a follower of tasawwuf) and even to certain extent of every Sufi, who is “Al-Hikma-al-ilāhīya”, those who are arif-bil-lahi, in other words those who know by Allah’s SWT knowledge, since there are also different ranks of Sufi. Indeed to cover the function of Pir there are at least certain minimum requirements about the spiritual rank in which the Pir is positioned in the spiritual hierarchy, but this is known only to Allah Almighty.
A Pir basically has been bestowed the “power” of rendering alive the Words of Allah SWT because the same formula recited by a non-authorized person does not transmit and carry the same intensity of spiritual influences. This power of rendering alive Allah’s Words under specific ritual circumstances is not strictly owned by the Pir but the Pir has it as a legacy from Allah, since he is an intermediary between Allah SWT and His Creatures. His Holiness Hadzrat Abdul Waheed Yahya, RA, known mostly by his original Christian name: René Guénon (Blois, France 1886, Cairo Egypt 1951) writes about the Hindu Guru, who is equivalent to the Islamic Pir: <<…if the mantra is not learned by the mouth of an authorized guru it is without effect because it “has not been made alive” by the presence of the Spiritual Influence, of which [A Spiritual Influence, note of the translator ( = n.o.t)] be (n.o.t: the guru) is solely destined to be a vehicle…>>. (From the book “Perspectives on Initiation”, originally written and published in French with the title “Considerations sur l’ Initiation”, 1946. Passage written in Chapter VIII entitled: “About the Transmission of Initiation” translated into English from the Italian translation of 1949 published by Fratelli Bocca-Milano). One can replace Pir instead of Guru the meaning of the above passage will remain the same. In the previous paragraph of the above quoted chapter René Guénon writes – <<…it is easy to understand that the role of the individual who confers the initiation is in reality the role of a “transmitter” in its most exact meaning, he (n.o.t, the one who confers initiation) does not act as an individual, but as a support of an influence (n.o.t Spiritual Influence) who does not belong to the individual order; ‘he’ (n.o.t, it is our addition to the original text) is uniquely a ring of the “Chain” (n.o.t., spiritual chain or silsilah) whose starting point is beyond and outside humanity…” – (From the book “Perspectives on Initiation”, originally written and published in French with the title “Considerations sur l’ Initiation”, 1946. Passage written in Chapter VIII entitled: “About the Transmission of Initiation” translated into English from the Italian translation of 1949 published by Fratelli Bocca-Milano).
The above describes the main function of a Pir. As we have already written the function of a Pir has several attributes. Here we would like to be more specific. By attributes we mean to say that the Pir has his own obligations and his own duties towards the members of the Ummah and towards himself, both integrating each other into a rather complex reality. In order to understand better this function of a Pir we can trace a comparison with something taken from the modern world. Indeed we can feel the eye browse of surprise risen by the purists. To those dear visitors of this web-site we want to say that we follow the example of our beloved Prophet Muhammad, SAWS, because whenever he, SAWS, was explaining his message and his sentences he, SAWS, would have spoken the language of those who were listening to him, SAWS. We live in a more or less modernized world and today majority of people do understand modern concepts, not ancient concepts. Therefore we have to adapt our language to the language understood by the moderns if we want to make them understanding what it is our duty to tell. This approach has been also that of His Holiness Hadzrat Pir Muhammad Karam Shah Al Azhari, RA, enforcing his syllabi in his Dar ul Uloom system in 1957. He, RA, wanted to prepare Imams and Islamic Scholars capable to speak the language of those who are absorbed in the daily routine of a modern life which unluckily absorbs more than what it can give in return. In the light of the above justifications we can write that the spiritual world maybe compared to a multinational company started as a “one-man company”, inspired by the unseen to develop certain business since long time ago. The multinational due to its development has now its Chairman, Deputies of the Chairman, Directors General, Directors and Deputy Directors each of them carrying a specific series of duties, each of them having specific targets. His Holiness Hadzrat Muhammad, SAWS, can be compared to the “one man founder of the multinational” but with the unique, special characteristic that he, SAWS, remains Chairman perennially and restlessly being the first servant, SAWS, of our Lord, Allah SWT. Deputy Chairman can be considered the aqtab (the poles, we will clarify the meaning of these words later), the director generals the Autad, Abdal, Nujaba, Muqaba, Aklyar, Abrar, while the directors and deputy directors are the Pirs with their Kholefa (plural of Khalipha) or Caliphs. As per what one can think about positioning ourselves we would just recommended not making any supposition but simply pray for this humble and sinful person to fulfill his duty.
More about the function of Pir
Since we have introduced ourselves as an authentic Pir of the Chishti Nizami order born in Italy but living in Islamabad – Pakistan – and we have justified writing in the first plural as a technical necessity of covering a function by obeying to our Spiritual Master HHH Pir Amin ul Hasnat Shah Sahab, may Allah be always pleased with him, we would like to extend more the concept of Pir, while the discussion about tasawwuf, its authenticity and necessity will be given in the related section (Islam and the Two Paths).
As reported in the “Dalail ul Sulook’” by Maulana Allah Yar Khan translated into English with the title “An objective appraisal of the Sublime Sufi Path” by Mr. Abu Talha: <<… There are two distinct facts of prophethood and both are equally important, as communicated in the Qur’an: “Undoubtedly Allah did confer a great favor on the Muslims when he raised an Apostle from among themselves, who recites to them the Revelations of Allah, and purifies them, and instructs them in the Qur’an and Sunnah whereas they were in manifest error before”. [Sura Ale-Imran (The Family of Imran) 3:164. “ibidem”]. The first, i.e. the external or the outward aspect pertains to the recitation of the scripture, its teaching and exposition; the second, the internal, pertains to the inward purification. The pious souls who inherited ample share from the former were called the commentators, the traditionists, the jurists and the preachers while those blessed with both attained the high offices of the Divine elite, Abdal, Qutb, Ghauth, Qayyum, etc. But it must be remembered that all these attainments emanate from the same fountain head, the Book (not: the Holy and Glorious Qur’an) and the Sunnah, which constitute the only connection between Allah and His faithful believers and in it alone lies the ultimate salvation (not: “salvation” here must be interpreted as “spiritual liberation”). Right from the death to the resurrection, the basis of all reckoning will be the Book and the Sunnah. That is why all learned ‘Sufis’ (not: we do not agree with the words in inverted commas because it is a tautology and shows how poor is the English language to explain the Truth. A Sufi is a person who knows by Allah’s knowledge and for sure there is no knowledge in all the Universes superior to that of Allah SWT therefore a Sufi is learned by himself in virtue of the special love that Allah SWT has reserved to him. The translator on his side wanted to stress upon knowledge and a more correct sentence would be …. That is why all Sufi and learned mutasawuffin …. But Allah knows more and we seek His Mercy and Forgiveness) are unanimous in asserting that a Shaykh or a guide must have true understanding of both. If someone is seeing flying around but his practical life runs counter to the Book and the Sunnah he cannot be termed a wali-Allah (not: servant of Allah SWT in term of a saint), instead, he is an imposter or charlatan, because perfect obedience to the Prophet, SAWS, is indispensable to any claim of Divine Love, as enjoined by him, SAWS.
“Say to them (O My Apostle): if you really love Allah, then follow me ; and Allah shall love you and forgive you your sins; and verily Allah is the Most-Forgiving, the Ever Merciful ” [Sura 3 Ale-Imran, The Family of Imran, 31 – “ibidem”]
Only those of Allah’s bondsmen proved true followers of Sunnah who kept in view the importance of both aspects of the Prophethood, Outward as well as Inward, and in their preaching and dissemination of the Message, down the times, never lost sight of purification of the soul. Every excellence and all exalted hierarchical offices are attended solely through total adherence to the Prophet, SAWS. This is certainly the foundation stone of tasawwuf and an exclusive condition to acquire the station of “Sufi”>> Note that we have modified into the sentence in double inverted comma the word used in the original English translation, i.e. “Sufism”, because there is no Sufism in strict terms but there is tasawwuf, since Sufi is a spiritual station corresponding to the condition of “Al-Hikma-al-ilāhīya” the “one who enjoys Divine Wisdom” and for this reason he is arif-bil-lahi. Moreover there are different ranks of Sufi, attained according to the original individual qualifications.
For what concerns the various conditions and function of the Pirs (Shuyukh) we can quote the following passages: “The Shuyukh can occupy different ranks (maqamat): the Shaykh of the Direction (irshad) is he whose science of the traditional rules (fiq) mixes with the science of tasawwuf, in such a manner that he is neither an exoterist nor he belongs completely to tasawwuf; the Shaykh of the ahwal instructs with the ahwal (not: ahwal= spiritual states). These are gifts from Allah SWT to the heart of the traveler of tasawwuf. There are thousands upon thousands of spiritual states, each state containing a myriad of subtle allusions and each allusion containing innumerable meanings. Within the spiritual concert the listener may experience a host of spiritual states. One way refer to the meanings of words like hal, lisan hal, mono, sama. The Shaykh of the instruction (tarbiya) and of the travel (suluk) reunites in himself all the stations (maqamat): he is the one who authorizes the disciples to enter in spiritual reclusion/retirement (Khalwa or Chilla).” From Al-Qamus Al-Sufi, (Sufi Terminology) by Amatullah Armstrong. Feroz Sons, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Pakistan.
Meanwhile from “Ad-Dinu Nasiha” of HHH the Shaykh Muhammad at Tadili, RA, 3rd Part, translated into Italian by the Review of Traditional Studies, RST, issue number 29, P 167-168 we read:
From René Guénon “The Man and his Becoming according to the Vedanta “Italian Edition, page 219. Translated by the undersigned, we read: <<…A further study [to that of the “bala”, identical to the “chil”,’ the Christic child, and to the embrional potentiality, station in which all the power of the being are concentrated in one point] is represented by “panditiya, in other words from the “knowledge” attribute that refers to the function of teaching; the one who possesses the knowledge is qualified to transmit it to the others, or more exactly, to awake in them corresponding [possibilities [not: of knowledge], because knowledge in itself is rigorously personal and impossible to communicate. The Pandita has therefore the character of Guru or “Spiritual Master” [in Arabic Thurabbul-muridin]; but he [not: the Spiritual Master] can limit himself to have the perfection of the theoretical knowledge, therefore it is necessary to consider, as ultimate and further rank (not station), “mauna” or the state (n.o.t.: maqam) of the “thus” as the sole condition in which the Union (n.o.t.: Supreme Identity, fana-e-billahi in Arabic) can be realized…>>
The function of Pir is permanent but in certain specific conditions it can be more or less temporarily suspended. This occurs in case of dispersion of the Pir in the world (dunia). “If the Shuyukh are captured by some hal which makes them astray from the Sacred Law, leave them to Allah SWT, do not follow them and do not trade their path, because they are dismissed by Allah SWT in Allah SWT. You will never at all cost take as a model somebody on whom (Divine) Law does not have any authority even if he will bring revelations” from Allah SWT. From Ihtiram-ash-Shuyuk, HHH Mohyuddin ibn Al Arabi, RA, translated into Italian by the Review of Traditional studies, issue no. 31, page 31.
And this sort of Spiritual Masters are those who have “hal”, states, that procure them to go astray: “one has to leave them to their states and one must not spend time in their company. Even if they will make miracles, nobody will seek their help until they will not observe the (Divine) Law”. From same source quoted above.
Once again from Initiation and Spiritual Realization of René Guénon we read at the chapter “Guru and Upaguru” that a Spiritual Master “must have knowledge of using every circumstances favorable to the spiritual development of his disciples (murids), in conformity to the possibilities and particular attitudes of each of them and if he is really a spiritual master in the exact meaning of the word, he must be capable to provoque sometime the manifestation of those circumstances at the desired time”.
As we read it is clear that there are different ranks of Spiritual Masters with different qualities and powers. Then from the same book we read that: “the human “Spiritual Master” infact is nothing else, ultimately, than the exterior representation and like a materialized (n.o.t.: representation) of the true “Interior Guru” and if his function becomes necessary, this is due to the fact that the initiated (not: i.e. the disciple or murid) until a certain degree of Spiritual development has not reached the stage of being capable to directly enter in conscious communication with the internal spiritual master. One has to realize that independently from the presence of an external, human spiritual master, “the interior Spiritual Master” is always present, in every circumstance, because he is a unique single thing with the true and real “self” of the being”.
Until this point we have referred to words of the Holy and Glorious Qur’an and Muslim Saints, RANHUM. We would like here following to examine some practical duties of the function of a Pir in our own, humble words:
- Spreads and preaches Islam restlessly.
- Administers initiation into tasawwuf by pledging alliance with his disciples or murids (bai’at).
- Takes care of the spiritual and material well fare of his (murids) disciples.
- Manages and re-directs into real charity the funds given to him by his followers and sympathizers.
- Increases his knowledge in Islam to spread it as a beacon of light.
- Takes care of his purity and perseverance in the spiritual path.
His Holiness Hadzrat Pir “Babuji”’, RA, of Golra Sharif (Rawalpindi, Pakistan) had a special liking for railways. He would have taken the train to move from the little village of Golra Sharif to Rawalpindi, barely 10 km away. One of his followers (murid) asked His Holiness one time the reasons of his deep liking for trains and railways. His Holiness answered “A Pir is like a locomotive and his murids (disciples) are the wagons. He, the Pir, has the duty to pull the wagons along the defined path like the locomotive pulls the wagons along the track”. Narrated to me by Hazrat Ali Haider Shah Sahab, one of the beloved murids (disciples) of HHH Pir Babuji, RA, whose full name is Hadzrat Pir Mehr Ali Shah Sahab, RA.
In order to understand the relation between Pir and murid we have to remember the words of His Holiness Hadzrat Umar Farooq, RA, about the nature of His Khilafat having been the second successor (Caliph) of His Holiness Hadzrat Pir of all the Pirs Muhammad, SAWS. His Holiness Hadzrat Umar Farooq, RA, said “During my Caliphate I fear that a dog may die of starvation in the territory under my control because in the day of judgment I will be accounted for its death”. We personally feel that this can be translated to the function of a Pir in fearing that one of his murid may not die of “spiritual starvation”, to do not think of real material help.
To whom we address this web site.
We address this web site to those who are sincere seeker of Truth, those who are feeling totally disoriented by the present global reality of a world where money counts but money cannot buy happiness and freedom from anxiety, anguish and depression. Money cannot even buy a treatment against the sense of solitude this modern world leaves even after intense days of social life, thus pushing people to search for new contacts, new adventures and experiences in the hope that all those diseases of humanity my be blended and finally find a cure. Unluckily the world (dunia) is the most unfriendly companion of travel one can find in this life. Indeed Allah SWT has made this world beautiful and intriguing so that majority of us love this terrestrial life and would like never depart from it, even in front of uncommon hardships. Many Pirs of the Silsilah Chishti, we included, consider this world in such a way that in itself does not require the disciples to retire in seclusion (“chilla”), since this world in itself is already “chilla”. A Maulwi and disciple of HHH Pir Fareed ud Din Masood Farooqi “Ganj Shakr”, RA, of Pakpattan Sharif (also known as “Baba Fareed”, RA) requested his holiness permission to go for Chilla in the jungle. At this request his holiness advised him to do not do it asking his disciple “how many pillars does have Islam?” The Maulwi-disciple was a little annoyed by such silly question and answered “five!”. Baba Fareed, RA, corrected him “Six! Maulwi-Sahab! The sixth is bread (“roti” in Punjabi)” with his answer Baba Fareed, RA, was suggesting Maulwi Sahab that striving for his own livelihood would have been far better than suffer famine and seclusion while wandering in the jungle in “Chilla”. But the Maulwi Sahab did not listen and finally obtained a reluctant permission. After one week Baba Fareed, RA, called for one of his favorite servants (kadim) and requested him to prepare the tastier and flavored food. Then asked the Kadim to go to the jungle and search for Maulwi Sahab. When the Kadim would have found Maulwi Sahab he should have asked him “how many pillars does have Islam?” and in case Maulwi Sahab wanted the food before breaking the fast he should have requested first Maulwi Sahab to transfer to him, the Kadim, all the blessings earned during the Chilla, after this solemn promise then the Kadim should have given to him the food. This was the order and the Kadim executed. When he found Maulwi Sahab in jungle he asked him “how many Pillars there are in Islam?” and Maulwi-Sahab answered “Six! Six! Six!” trying to grab the delicious food he was smelling. The kadim obtained then the blessings of the Maulwi’s Chilla for himself and then let the Maulwi grab the food and break the fast before time. In a nation-wide televised interview the interviewer asked HHH Pir Karam Shah Al Azhari, RA, if he was sending in Chilla his disciples, his holiness answered that the best Chilla for his disciples was “Work! Work! Work!”
In Islam and Islamic societies there is no concept of holidays, except for Eid day while Haj and Umrah are not at all vacations, although taking proper rest is recommended in the Holy and Glorious Qur’an and in Ahadith. The reason of this is because e true Muslim would work without excesses, thus without excessive tensions putting the result of his own endeavors in Allah’s SWT Hands. In this respect true Muslims do not face depression and anxiety because they know that the future and their provision is in Allah’s Hands and not in their own hands and therefore there is no need of excessive worries.
As a matter of fact Islam is a universal, complete religion that has all the technical means and supports to enable its followers to acquire salvation for those who limit themselves to follow Shariah, and the ultimate Spiritual Liberation and Supreme Identity for those who have the courage (heart) to thread the path of Haqiqah. In both cases Islam teaches to practice tolerance through patience and understanding in pursuit of knowledge. In this view Islam prepares its followers at different degree of conscience to rely more in the hereafter than this beautiful but unreliable world. Being conscious of the authenticity and truthfulness of the Holy and Glorious Qur’an in which Allah SWT says: “…(O My Apostle!) Say you: Shall I tell you of something far better than these? For those who keep away from evil, with their Lord are gardens watered underneath by running streams, wherein they shall dwell forever; and therein for them shall be chaste wives; and this above all they shall enjoy the goodwill of Allah. And indeed Allah is Beholder of His servants…” [Sura 8 Al Anfal (The Spoils of War):70, “ibidem”].
One immediate objection to the above could be the following: “if Islam is so effective to heal the sicknesses of this world why still Islam is not the unique religion of this world?” The reality is that Islam has been progressively wrongly projected and presented by the Western media since centuries in a very different way, totally opposed to its reality. As a matter of fact Islam has been projected and it is presented by the western media as a religion of :
- Ignorance. In reality (and contrary to the Catholic/Christian approach towards its followers) Islam everywhere in the Holy and Glorious Qur’an and Ahadith hustles to knowledge. In the narration of sura 18 Al-Kahf (The Cave), verses 65 – 82, we have seen that knowledge is the only measure to establish ranking in the Spiritual Domain. The Prophet of Islam, SAWS, said “seek knowledge even going to China” In the VI-VII Century After Christ a travel from the land of Arabia (the Present Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA) to China was indeed a very challenging event for the length, the dangers and the costs of such a travel. Only a real lover of knowledge would have invested his money, efforts and put at risk his life in such a travel. This to explain the reference to China. Moreover as Archeology and History teach us China in the VI-VII centuries, AC, was an advanced country with deep knowledge in several sciences and effectively a land where to find practical and spiritual knowledge since Taoism, the spiritual path exclusively open to the Chinese race, is all in all equivalent to Tasawwuf and all the Chinese knowledge in various disciplines derive from this Divine Path. It is not casual that in real Taoist temples even in the present days it is preserved and exposed a copy of the Holy and Glorious Qur’an (witnessed by His Holiness Hadzrat Pir Zuharat ud Din, may Allah Almighty be always pleased with him!). We have made reference to Catholicism and Christianity in general not for sake of confrontation but because most of the critics to Islam come from the Catholic/Christian dominating world, the same world that after promoting Crusades after Crusades against Muslims has promoted and gained from Colonialism and Slavery of African Black Muslims. Catholicism in particular has a very particular character: the so-called dogma of “Infallibility of the Pope” and this is very singular because basically all the knowledge is apparently concentrated in one-man, thus favoring in the others, clergy and non, a sort of “intellectual laziness” because since everything must be known to the man-on-the-top why the other have to bother so much? More in detail we quote here following a passage of the above referenced book “Perspectives on Initiation” written by René Guénon, the passage concerns the Catholic notion of Infallibility of the Pope: “…what it is stupefying in it and in any case it is peculiar to it is only the fact that the doctrinal infallibility is considered entirely concentrated in a function exclusively exercised by only one individual, whereas in other traditional forms, it is generally acknowledged that all those who exercise a regular function of teaching do participate to this infallibility in a measure determined by the same function…>>.The reality is that in these days ignorance is not associated with religious and spiritual knowledge but it is referred to modern science so that countries and ethnical groups are rated “advanced” on the basis of their scientific and technological achievements accordingly to the parameters of modern world. If already there is a paradox in witnessing the Catholic/Christian world accusing Muslims of ignorance whereas Catholics/Christians themselves are fostering intellectual laziness in the field of religion among their followers. This paradox reaches its acme in witnessing that the forces which have plunged entire continents in the captivity of Colonialism, which in turn has prevented any scientific and technological development, are now accusing of “ignorance” those invaded populations where they induced poverty, corruption, political and social instabilities fostering hatred among different religions and even among different sects within the same religion. Furthermore the recent developments in unfortunate countries like Iraq and Somalia, for example, show a new subtle attitude: the lack of strong indigenous and Islamic leadership and the state of disorder induced by the unnecessary wars has plunged entire nations in a kind of struggle to overcome civil war. In these conditions there is no possibility of social, scientific and technological progress and this is perhaps ultimately the real purpose of the “war on terror”: prevent at any cost the development of Islamic countries by plunging them into primary needs like food and peace, survival from terror actions in a slow “religious cleansing”.
2. Intolerance. The Holy and Glorious Qur’an teaches tolerance among human beings regardless their origins, religions and race. Similarly the Prophet of Islam, SAWS, during his human life has been the most tolerant being on earth. At the beginning of Islam the Holy Prophet, SAWS, was persecuted and abused even by some of his relatives (one has to consider that still today blood relations are considered very strongly among Arabs) and never had a single minor reaction to all those abuses he, SAWS, was subjected. His blood uncle, his father’s brother, Abu Lahab with his wife were throwing on him, SAWS, dirty waste and seeding his walk path with branches of trees thorn with needles and the Prophet of Islam, SAWS, never reacted and always asked Allah SWT to forgive all his enemies. Another episode to give an idea about to what extent the Prophet of Islam, SAWS, remained tolerant. During his, SAWS, migration to Madina the first thing the Holy Prophet, SAWS, did was to build the Masjid as a center of the first free Islamic Community and as a meeting center with his blessed Companions, RA for each of them. The house of the Holy Prophet, SAWS, and his family members, AS, and his blessed companions, RA for each of them, were built around the Masjid un Nabi and that place became the most sacred and cared place and still it remains as such today. The early Muslims were proud of the Masjid un Nabi and kept it pure and clean. Actually the Masjid was integral part of the Prophet’s house. Given these conditions one has to imagine the following scene: “A delegation of non-Muslim Quraish from Makkah Mukarrama came to Madinah Munawwar for parliamentarian discussions. They stepped down from their horses and camels and after entering the Masjid courtyard they started to release their natural pressures under the shocked eyes of the Holy Prophet, SAWS and his companions, RANHUM, who did not hesitate to take out their swords to kill those infidels rendering impure the sacred floor of the Masjid, which at that time was just sand. The Holy Prophet, SAWS, quietly stopped his companions, RANHUM, telling them “Let them relieve themselves, they do not know about purity”. To our dear non-Muslim western readers we ask to consider their own reaction if a dozen of guests would enter their houses and get relieved themselves on the most expensive carpet present there in their own house… how they would react? We may quote countless examples of tolerance of Muslim Saints (awliya-Allah) who made those actions of tolerance out of love and remembrance of the teaching of the Holy Prophet, SAWS, and those examples arrive until these days since more than fourteen centuries.
3. Nurturing terrorism and every form of fanatic religious fundamentalism. We cannot deny that the last fifty years have witnessed a dramatic increase of terrorism attributed to Islamic Fundamentalism. It has been rather an escalation. From hijacking of civilian aircrafts then released in majority of cases to the use of human bombs, the so-called suicide bombers, to kill innocent people. But one has to be extremely careful to reach conclusions. In this field, by its nature, actions are conceived in secret and none of those who come to know from the media can have the capability to verify the truth behind tragic events. This field of terrorism narrated by the media and presented through the media escapes to a great extent to Allah’s SWT order to verify always a news as prescribed in the Holy and Glorious Qur’an: “…O you who believe! If any wicked person brings you any news, check it fully lest you may harm any people in ignorance and may later feel sorry for what you have done…” [Sura 49 Al Hujurat (The Inner Apartments):6, “ibidem”]. The fact that media in general are “wicked” should not even been discussed because every media channel serves generally interests of certain groups. “Wicked” is an enemy, hidden or open, and most of the non-Muslims have shown enmity to Islam. Among the most “wicked” the secret services of any country because of their well known misuse of power to protect and cover interests of certain lobbies. How can we verify what has been kept hidden and secret and only told by media which in turn they can only publish what it is given to them? As a matter of fact in front of a dramatic event like that of suicide bomber we have 50% of probability that the action was genuinely conceived and conducted by a Muslim organization. But on the contrary we have 50% of chances that other, non-Muslim hands can have conceived, organized and ordered a certain act of terror to Muslims who were kept ignorant about the real identity of those imparting them orders and from the real source of those orders arrived to them, the non-Muslims. It is not matter of fiction and fantasy: methods used by intelligence are extremely various and most of them beyond any conventional thinking. A very well informed writer of intelligence stories like the American Tom Clancy (with sure connections within the simulation room of CIA) has described in one of his first fiction stories (Red Hurricane), still written during the Cold War, the intelligence technique of “masquerade” (maskirovska in Russian), which consists in conceiving and actualizing a terrorist action to provoke on the masses disdain and resentment against those to whom the terrorist action has been imposed. For example an explosion among peaceful civil population (better if majority are old people, women and children) in order to justify a repression against a certain ethnical or religious group of people or even a subsequent military action to gain more power and strength. In this case those victims are called by the intelligence services “collateral damages” and they are the “price” modern powers are ready to pay to justify their new forms of colonialism. It is for this reason that we recommend and pray that every Muslim and non-Muslim be more patient, tolerant and sagacious to understand who are really those behind the dress of “fundamentalism” pushing for fanaticism considering that most of the sectarian movements, especially those branded as “jihadi-movements” are the result of “covered actions” of the colonial powers, which restlessly and brutally have seeded divisions among Muslims applying the old concept of “divide and rule”. Anyone can easily verify an historical reality: more or less three hundred years ago, prior to the Colonialism, there were not so many dramatic differences among Muslims, as we witness in these days. From the other side we warn the media, especially Western-based, but also those in Islamic countries who are sponsored by dubious western organizations, to ascertain the truth before throwing mud on Islam and Muslims. Those who indulge in extremism cannot call themselves Muslims because Islam is a religion of balance and Tolerance. Our beloved Prophet, SAWS, said “always follow the golden average path”. He, SAWS, did not indulge in violence and did not resort to the use of weapons unless by Allah’s SWT specific and clear order, As it has been proven historically the Holy Prophet, SAWS, made his first military action (battle of Badr) thirteen years after he started to preach Islam and underwent any form of humiliation and harassment to himself and family members. On the other side we have to consider that certain fundamental laws of nature work for Non-Muslims and Muslims. Let us take a house cat, if one approaches the cat with love and respect the cat will somehow return those sentiments in his own way. But if one attempts to approach aggressively the same animal, the cat, if cornered, in other words if it will be left without way of escape, it will attack on his aggressor in a kind of “die or survive” attempt. More or less all animals will behave similarly. Now our dear web site reader should imagine himself sitting in his house, all the sudden police knocks at his door and shows him a government order in virtue of which he has to share his own house with the previous owner who has lost all his properties but not his money-in virtue of a new Government order and law. You may well imagine yourself in being forced to share your house territory with an estranger who in virtue of the law and the power of his money starts even to build division walls in the house you were previously peacefully enjoining. Would you not react legally and then gradually escalate into fighting if you cannot afford to quit the house and find another solution to regain your peaceful life? If one looks at the international history of the last 300 hundred years he will find that Muslims, and not only Muslims, have seen their territories forcibly occupied and their life forcibly changed by populations of other religions and different habits. Western, especially Dutch and Portuguese, developed the slavery of black, Muslim Africans into America, yet in these days this phenomenon has not been properly understood and classified by historians as one of the most tremendous and cowardly action of “religious cleansing” ever done by the human western white race. And this still with the “paternal benediction” of the Catholic Church, which was also earning money from the slave traffic, to the extent that Pope John Paul the Second while visiting the slave concentration prison in the Island in front of Dakar, Senegal, Africa, begged forgiveness to the Africans for the devastating extermination of countless families. Similarly Stalinism in former Soviet Union has utilized mass deportations to install ethnically different people into different territories in order to obtain a kind of “automatic control” by the old saying “divide and rule”. Occupation of Palestinian land has caused the “monstrous” situation that is under everyone’s eyes and nobody can deny that many Western super powers have favored the establishment of a state, Israel, at expenses of a local population of Islamic religion. The white, Christian race that gradually occupied territories in North, Central and South America did it at the expense of local indigenous population even effacing races and very ancient civilizations (Red Indians, Maya, Aztec, etc…). In certain cases the same white invaders retorted against the European Armies that were protecting them in order to form, by use of violence and terrorism, new nations in the name of freedom. The interesting is that books of history call those wars “Independence Wars” and those who fought the invaders are honored as “freedom fighters and martyrs”. Muslims who fight for the freedom of their territories, invaded centuries back by non-Muslims, do not have the right to call themselves “freedom fighters” and the right to be considered “martyrs” by the international community. If those Muslims became so desperate to gain at least a life as normal as that of the average of the world population and intensify their fight, those people become pray of all possible solutions of salvation, including martyrdom at any cost, even using terrorism. We do not justify them, rather we condemn them because human life is precious gift of Allah SWT and blood of old people, children, women and men has been always respected in Islam. But we feel that those worldly powers who do not strive for a real just solution are equally responsible of the lives of both, the suicide bombers and their victims. In a specific session we will deal with terrorism and specifically suicide bombers and any other form of the modern terrorism. We want only to conclude this section remarking that it is quite singular that the dominant media and the powers who are using media are always favoring the method of the doubt whenever they give news but whenever in front of any reaction of Muslims who may act by desperation – remember the above example of the feeling of living in your own house occupied by someone else supported by a law-order enforcement – that action is related without any doubt to Muslims (usually Pakistani) thus directly or indirectly blaming Islam. This we oppose and refuse categorically, if media are serious and not “wicked” they have to tell an impartial truth and at least remember centuries of oppression, mass killing and torture of Muslims, which did not end in Bosnia and does not end in Palestine, Lebanon, Kashmir, Iraq and Somalia.
4. Chauvinistic religion, i.e. the western portrayed way of Muslims treating women. Western world is plenty of jokes and cartoons portraying Muslims, especially Arabs, dealing with enslaved-Women. The so called “Women-Liberation Movement” that by fact has enslaved women to the stereotype of struggling and battling woman-knight, with the result that today women to demonstrate and testify in a certain sense their “freedom” are reduced to use the language and behavior of rude men, show their nudity like animals, enslaving themselves in double or triple roles. That of fostering nudity and obscenity as a symbol of courage and independence is one of the peculiar characteristics of women because of the existence of “wicked” men both forgetting even the first action Adam, AS, and his companion did when they fall down from Paradise, i.e.: they covered their nudities, and yet they were sinners. “So (at his inducement) the two ate of that Tree, then (all at once) their private parts became naked to them and they began to stick the leaves of the Garden (to cover their bodies). And (thus) did Adam disobey the Command of his Lord, and so he was not successful as to what he had desired” [Sura 20 Ta-Ha (Two letters of the Arabic Alphabet):121, “ibidem”]. The condition of the so-called “free women” is so devastating and evident that has affect even males behavior. We do not need to elaborate any writing on this subject because to demonstrate our assumption it is quite easy: it is sufficient to see the sons and the status of the families in modern society. The situation is so dramatic that even traditional families, like those of Muslim Pakistani, when in contact with the western social life become corrupt through the women behavior and ultimately even disintegrate. This is evident among the Pakistani community in Denmark where the divorce rate in the Muslim Pakistani families is at its peak. To portray Muslims as enslavers of women dedicated to their harassment is a vulgar expression of ignorance utilized to spread more ignorance as an application of the technique of “throwing mud on somebody”, because sooner or later some of it will stitch on the target. But there is in recent years a much subtle way in which Islam has been targeted as a sciovinistic religion. We refer to those Muslim-born women writing books depicting abnormal situations of women life in villages or towns, even women immigrated in Europe but subject to ancestral laws. As a matter of fact those writers must expose the absurdity of those situations but must relate them to the real culprit, which is ignorance of Islam and not Islam in itself! Islam in itself is the religion that gives women the maximum independence and ensures their highest status in the society and eases to them religion to a great extent. Unluckily the situations depicted by those writers are abnormal situations originated by ignorance and ancestral habits rooted in those societies before the advent of Islam. This is quite evident in the celebration of marriages where local customs and ancestral habits are mixed with the simple but essential tenants of Islam regarding marriage. Unfortunate cases and situations becoming public are mostly generated by ignorance of Islam, preservation of pre-Islamic rules and bigotry. Unluckily there are situations that those writer ladies have suffered by themselves or have witnessed through others with the attempt to prove the equation Islam equal to sciovinistic religion and unfortunately in most of the cases the result is that this equation is welcomed in the Western society to prove their hostile attitude towards Islam. But it is not Islam that should be accused but those individuals who preserving pre-Islamic habits or fostering ignorance of Islam help to portray a wrong image of Islam. This action is quite subtle but unluckily very real because unfortunately still there is effectively a marginal phenomenon of women harassment in the Islamic world basically due to the ignorance on Islamic firm laws of protecting women. This marginal but present phenomena is generated by illiteracy and poverty in most cases but it affects basically all the classes of the society, as a matter of fact we should not forget that even rich and educated classes are not exempted from religious ignorance, bigotry and ancestral rules. But those situations are far inferior in intensity and number to what a common American woman risks in certain big cities like New York, where there is a rape-episode every five minutes accordingly to the statistics published by the NYPD (New York Police Department) and the same happens in many Western European cities too. It looks like that the modern world, developed and run by the white western race has generated the monster of women liberation, which in turn has totally enslaved women, and to acquire a certain right of existence and “getting the license” of being the perfect solution the modern western world had to attack and destroy anything which is supposed to be different and more dangerous to the modern world if it is right. First of all let us explain why we have stated that the women liberation movement has in reality enslaved more and more women rather than free them. After more than hundred years still the number of so called independent women and the count of countries where effectively parity of sexes is observed is far less than the hoped and much far less than the targeted. Moreover the supposed equality between the two sexes is far from being realized and this is irrespective from religion, ethnical and geographical background. Unluckily for women it appears that still the world is in reality sciovinistic and their condition is even more enslaved than before, only the form is changed and in our opinion worsening the condition of women. Indeed it is not the condition in which Islam projects women. Let us see the stereotype of a present day woman. She should be financially independent, as well as sexually independent, must hold the highest possible academic degree and for this she cannot compromise with a married life at younger age – as it was custom in the past even in non-Islamic Countries – being the companion of a man. But due to her own constitution a woman will end to fall in love with a man sooner or later, except some cases of course confirming the general rule. In this process of being independent the woman falls in competition with her colleagues and to win the competition she has to be everything except herself, except owing her identity. She has to dress as much provocative as she can in order to win the competition at first glance and also subdue with her beauty masculine competitors. In order to do so she has to be as beautiful as she can thus enslaving herself to the cult of her body and fashion. On the other side the competition in the working and sentimental life will contribute to increase frustrations and sense of insecurity bringing to nervous breakdowns and paving the road to the use of intoxicants and all sorts of solutions that may help women to evade from the dramatic reality of their day to day life. It is not casual that “heavy intoxicants” are common among the most successful and beautiful cat-walk girls. The drama is that on the other side modern women attitude has increased in men (particularly their companions or men aspiring to become their companions) a sense of frustration, solitude and insecurity which bring also men to the same attempts of evading reality practiced by women. As a result we have a humanity sick, who does not know from where comes and where has to go, whose life is much closer to animal life rather than responsible humans (in a recently telecasted program in the Italian State Television, RAI, they were comparing the average number of copulations of a human male per week with those of a jungle lion…). In this scenario a religion that may effectively render free from any form of alienation and contribute to give to the soul quiet and peace and above all a sense of security is a religion enemy of this foolishness of the modern world and a security risk for huge interests patronized by network of organizations that have roots in every walk of the society from the political and government institutions to the institutions that are supposed to protect against those abuses. It is a well orchestrated foolishness that serves many interests and lords; as a matter of fact women and men today are prey of multinationals of crime dressed with the cloth of irreprehensible morality but becoming day by day more rich at the expenses of their fellow citizens. The existence and flourishing presence of the organized crime is due to the fact that today humans have to spend money to show-up (beautiful and expensive cars, top of fashion dresses, jewelry, mobile, frequenting top class restaurants and gyms, even spending for cosmetology and plastic surgery in order to better show up their nudities in public) and in all this game of showing-up humans are more unfortunate than animals, at least animals do not fall in the depression of lacking money to do things. On the contrary humans must have money to be more attractive to each other and to establish their dominions. It is enough to open internet on any international browser or mail system (msn, hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc…) to witness that a major factor today is credit management because more than half of the planet lives on credit to satisfy the primary needs of self-establishing at the highest possible level in the society. This same modern world is then all out to give to the ignorant and those who do not want to think and being rightly informed a wrong, distorted picture of Islam. Since women are a very subtle but powerful “engine” to move their companions in certain directions the best trick is that of scaring women to prevent them to like Islam and embrace Islam thus fading away the interest of Islam of their men in many cases. The above are fact realities which confirm that post-modern world is more chaotic than previous modern world and that the structural differences between woman and man are therefore totally misunderstood even by those Muslim-born who keep themselves in darkness and ignorance. Many families in many countries so called Islamic are gradually adapting to the western style with the result of a society which starts suffering the same sicknesses of the western society. In many cases young women fell pray of this change and are caught in the middle of a society which is trying to change towards a loosing western style and yet it is looking somehow to its past without understanding the real values of an orthodox, true traditional society. The essential, key reason is that the modern society does not have any direct connection and per consequence any love for the Holy Prophet of Islam, SAWS, who is the unique and incomparable Mercy to every mankind, Muslim and non-Muslim. Incidentally this is felt in the Asiatic Subcontinent where inter religious dialogue is very difficult but religious differences are effaced on the days of celebrations of the passing away (Urs) of recognized Muslim saints (wali-Allah), RANHUM, which are visited by Hindus, Buddhists and Christians as well. On the other side almost every Islamic society in this world in the present conditions has a very weak connection with the Holy Prophet of Islam, SAWS, much weaker than the past. We are not saying that there is no respect and consideration to the Holy Prophet of Islam, SAWS, we want to mark the fact that most of the Islamic societies have forgotten and even forsaken to assume integrally the example of life of the Holy Prophet of Islam, SAWS. When one recognizes that a person has a charismatic figure and likes him and more he stays with him more starts loving him to the extent that he starts to copy him he has at least understood the mechanism to love the Holy Prophet of Islam, SAWS. This is what happened to the blessed companions, RANHUM, of the Holy Prophet, SAWS, being with him, SAWS, daily. But this can happen to anyone who realizes and understand the incumbent presence of His Holiness Muhammad, SAWS, and therefore trying to know him, SAWS. More this person will adopt his, SAWS, blessed habits. For example the Holy Prophet, SAWS, was very fond of women but extremely respectful to each of them. He, SAWS, liked to listen to them, to speak about their problems. Today one of the major reasons of misunderstanding between women and men is that men are no more capable to listen to women. In order to make the reader understanding what we are trying to say about the relation between the Holy Porphet of Islam, SAWS, and women we quote a passage of the book of our senior Pir Bhai and Khalipha of His Holiness Pir Karam Shah al Azhari, RA, Pir Muhammad Imdad Hussain Pirzada, founder and principal of Jamia Al-Karam, UK, who in his book “The Ideal Mother in the light of the Qur’an, Sunna and Tradition (meaning ahadith) reports the following hadith (from Sunan an Nasai, Book of al jihad (25), chapter 6, Hadith 3117):<<Jalimma (Allah be pleased with him) came to the noble Messenger, SAWS, and humbly remarked “O Messenger of Allah! I wish to do jihad and I have come to seek your advice”. The noble Messenger, SAWS, asked, “Is your mother alive?”He replied in the affirmative and so the noble Messenger, SAWS, stated, “Remain with her for paradise lies beneath her feet”.>> How is it possible that the Holy Prophet, SAWS, who had to conquer the whole Arabic peninsula and was in need of army-men refused the enrollment to a man whose mother was alive and whose mother he, SAWS, did not know personally? It is only possible in the case the Holy Prophet, SAWS, was really caring and respecting women. Then in another time the Holy Prophet, SAWS, said: <<The mother has the greatest right over a man>> [Al-Mundhiri (d. 656 AH), at-Targhib wa’t-Tarhib min al Hadith ash-Sharif, Volume 3, Book of an-Nikah, page 53 (Number 16)]. After the fall down of Makkah Mukarrama the Holy Prophet, SAWS, pledge alliance (bai’at) with all those Makkans who decided to embrace Islam, among those there were many of his relatives, among them there was Hind, the wife of his cousin and his fierce enemy, the chief of the Quraish of Makkah Mukarrama, Abu Sufyan. Hind lost her father and brother by the hands of His Holiness Hadzrat Hamza, RA, the paternal uncle of the Holy Prophet, SAWS, during the first battle of Badr. Due to this episode Hind, a typical Quraish woman (i.e.: very strong, energetic and enterprising), pledged to revenge them and got killed His Holiness Hadzrat Hamza, RA. Infact she hired a black man expert in throwing the javelot who killed His Holiness Hadzrat Hamza, RA, during the battle of Hud. Not only but out of rage and to satisfy her desire of revenge she ate the liver of His Holiness Hadzrat Hamza, RA, extracting it from the fresh noble dead body. The reciprocated love of the Holy Prophet, SAWS, for HHH Hamza, RA, is so strong that even today those who really know Islam, present themselves in front of the grave of HHH Hamza, RA, before going to the Masjid un Nabi, SAWS, in Madina Munnawwar, in order to be safely and well accepted by the “Lord of Madina”, SAWS. All this we stated to underline that the Holy Prophet, SAWS, received with smiling face his cousin, Abu Sufyan (against who he fought various battles) and Hind and gave to both of them Islam respecting them and forgiving them and even joking with Abu Sufyan. He behaved with them as the most merciful human being, not only out of his blessed function of Prophet, SAWS, but because of his merciful character. Can a man like this, SAWS, have suggested or hinted at harassing women or misbehaving with them? There is only one answer: “it is impossible!” We invite the dear reader to go to the section Women and Islam in order to have more information on this subject. Islam is total submission to Allah SWT, but also and above all total obedience to the Holy Prophet, SAWS.
We have tried to give in this introduction an essential message. Islam is the last and most complete religion given by God preserving still alive two paths, one known as Shariah (the large road), common to every Muslim and a selected path, known as Haqiqah (the path of truth), which is reserved for few elected people. Threading the path of Shariah will ensure salvation. Threading the path of Haqiqah will ensure Liberation and Supreme Identity. In order to render clear the difference between the two paths we can quote here following the words of René Guénon at the end of the chapter II, ‘Christianity and Initiation’, of his posthumous book “Perspectives on Christian Esoterism” (1954): <<… as per saying of certain mutasawwufin, “…Paradise is yet only another prison”…>>
But none of the above path can be even conceived without the development of the respect and love for the Holy Prophet of Islam, SAWS, who is the best model for every Muslim and with whom, SAWS, every Muslim must dream to be united. This is why the kalimah talbiah, otherwise known as the first kalimah is in two parts stating and confirming the Perfect Unity of Allah SWT and that Muhammad, SAWS, is the True and Last Messenger, SAWS, of Allah SWT.
