Islam's Reformers .pdf

hair picked out of butter fat.”If you commit a sin, you should immediately make tawba[with your heart] and say istighfâr [with your tongue]. The tawbamust be performed secretly for a sin committed secretly, andpublicly for a sin committed publicly. You should not delay thetawba. When a person commits a sin, the angels do not recordit for three hours. If he makes tawba within this period, the sinwill not be recorded at all. If he does not make tawba, one sinwill be recorded. It is a graver sin to postpone the tawba. Thetawba is acceptable until one dies. You should make a habit oftaqwâ [avoiding the harâms] and wara’ [avoiding the doubtfulacts]. Avoiding a prohibition is more important than doing acommandment. For it is more progressive and more beneficialin this way, [that is, in purifying the heart and subduing thenafs], to avoid the prohibitions than to do the commandments.Good deeds can be performed by sinful people as well as bygood ones. Yet it takes being a siddîq and having a strong îmânto avoid the prohibitions. Ma’rûf-i-Kerhî was Sirrî-i-Seqatî’smaster. He passed away in Baghdâd in 200 H. He used to say,“Do not look at women or girls, or even at a female sheep.” Itwas stated in a hadîth-i-sherîf, “On the Rising Day, people ofwara’ and zuhd will be ahead of all those people blessedwith Allâhu ta’âlâ’s grace.” [Zuhd means to abstain fromproperty that is more than necessary even if it is halâl]. It wasstated in a hadîth-i-sherîf, “A namâz performed behind animâm who holds wara’ will be accepted. A present given toa person of wara’ will be accepted. It is an act of worship tosit with a person of wara’. It is alms to talk with him.” [Itmeans that it will be accepted and will produce much thawâb]. Itwas stated in a hadîth-i-sherîf, “Two rak’ats of namâzperformed with an imâm who holds wara’ is more blessedthan a namâz performed with a fâsiq.” [The word ‘efdâl’,(which is used in the hadîth-i-sherîf and which we translatedinto English as ‘blessed’), means ‘that which brings morethawâb.’] If your heart does not feel easy as you do something,[if your heart feels uneasy and palpitates], stop doing it! Makeyour heart a muftî (religious guide) in doing actions about whichyou feel doubt! It was stated in a hadîth-i-sherîf, “Actionsabout which your heart feels calm, [is easy about and likes],and with which the nafs feels annoyed [and dislikes], arebeneficial. An action about which only the nafs feels calm- 319 -