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The Importance of a Guide
All Praise is for Allah
who saved us from sins and brought us to His dhikr in His House. When Allah
showers His mercies and blessings upon someone, then Allah plants love for
the Deen in the heart of that person. His hearts desire to perform good deeds
and refrain from wrong. Allah makes it easy for him to walk the path of Deen.
It is a Sunnah of
Allah's Messenger (sallallahu alaihe wa sallam) to pray and supplicate to Allah
to make it easy for us to practice the Deen. The journey on the Path is a very
dangerous one. This is because the greatest enemy, the accursed Shaytaan is
present and he has permission and power from Allah to try and mislead
mankind.
This is a Straight
Path. But it is so hard to travel on this path that people find it extremely
difficult. Whenever a person goes on a journey, whether it is to another town or
country, he needs some guidance. And with a guide the journey becomes much
easier to undertake. The life of a human being is also a journey, and has been
described in that way by Allah's Messenger (sallallahu alaihe wa sallam) . This
journey starts from the moment that a person is born and ends at the time he
dies. We have the Qur'aan, the Ahadeeth and the Sunnah of Allah's Messenger (sallallahu
alaihe wa sallam) to guide us. But in the light of the Qur'aan and
Ahadeeth we will find that we also need a guide of another kind.
My Friends, I would
like to warn you that until a person finds a true guide for this journey of
life, he is in great danger of being led astray by the incitements of Shaytaan.
Nobody past or present has ever reached the true destination without this
guidance. They all needed someone to show them the way.
So it is very important
that a person finds a friend of Allah and sits in his company. No matter what
status you have in society, whether you are a scholar, Haafiz or a Qaari, it is
essential for you to have a Shaykh, because if you do not have a guide you will
lose your way and come off the Path. May Allah grant us such a guide who
leads us along this Straight Path of Allah .
Once a person sits in
the company of a friend of Allah, he finds it easy to refrain from those sins
that he once saw as huge unavoidable obstacles in his path. This is because when
a person sits in the company of a friend of Allah, he loses the company of the
accursed Shaytaan. And when he comes out of the influence of Shaytaan, then all
the impure properties that reside in his heart begin to leave.
By sitting in the
company of the friends of Allah, the Noor of Allah comes into a person's heart,
and he finds it easy to carry out Allah's commands. A person should seek a guide
who is not too far away from him, so that he can go and sit regularly in his
company.
I would also like to
say that, there are a few different types of Nisbat (link) with a Shaykh. One is
that you sit in the company of a friend of Allah, solely for the purpose of
attaining blessings. The other is when a person sincerely repents to Allah
from his sins, at the hand of a friend of Allah. And this is also called Bay'ah.
In this second case it is much better for a person to be in close proximity of
his Shaykh. A person gains so much when he sits in the company of his Shaykh.
And of course
repentance is something that is done by someone who commits sins. You don't do
tawbah after doing a good deed do you? A person should never think to himself 'I
shall wait until I am good and then I will go and sit in the company of a friend
of Allah.' This is a deception. The reality is that the more unclean a
person is, the greater is the need for him to bathe and purify himself.
There is a cure in the
gaze, talk and company of a friend of Allah. At first there is much anxiety but
this is because a person thinks that getting rid of sins from his life will be
hard.
Considering that
Shaytaan tries his utmost to mislead a person and discourage him from leaving
sin, it is indeed a very great thing that a person does not succumb to Shaytaan
and sits in the company of a friend of Allah and repents from his sins.
He should try to gain
as much as he can from the company of his Shaykh. He should learn the lessons of
dhikr, listen to what the Shaykh has to say, and then try his best to practice
upon what he hears. It is important that before we go and sit in the company of
a friend of Allah, we should make the intention that we will act upon whatever
we learn from him.
A person does not make
Bay'ah just so that he can go around telling people which silsilah he belongs
to. He must change his life, for that is the only way he will get benefit. This
way the journey of life for a person becomes easy, otherwise he will find it
extremely difficult to fight Shaytaan and escape from sin. If a person does not
have any weapon to fight his enemy then he will be unsuccessful. A person needs
weapons for every battle and this battle against Shaytaan is a continuous one.
And the greatest weapon for this is the company of a Pious Man of Allah. When a
person sits in the company of a friend of Allah, then Insha'allah he remains
safe from the evil of Shaytaan.
May Allah give us
the strength to act upon what we have read.
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