What Shall I do And How?

 

How many times do we ask ourselves the above question?
We in this human situation often feel constrained and limited by our circumstances.
So many times the world seems to tighten and close in around us. We feel stifled and suffocated.

 

Hazrat Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani r.a says in a discourse recorded in Futuh al Ghaib:

 

You so often say , "What shall I do and how shall I manage to do it?" The answer is, "Stay in your place and do not step beyond your own limit until the opportunity comes to you from the One who has ordered you to stay as you are".

 

Allah has said: O you who believe, be patient and excel in patience; be steadfast and observe your duty to Allah, so that you may succeed.

 

When you observe your duty to Allah, He maintains you in patience and respect for His Limits, and grants you fulfillment of what He has promised you in His Book, "He who is dutiful towards God, He prepares a way out for him, and provides for him from sources he could never imagine", 65:2-3.

 

You stay with patience until you receive the opportunity of those who put their trust in Him, for Allah has promised you sufficiency saying:

 

If anyone puts his trust in Allah, He will suffice him. 65:3.

 

You stay with your patience and trust, in the company of those who do good, and for this He has also promised to reward you saying:

 

And thus We reward those who do good. 12:22.

 

Allah loves you for this for He says:

 

Allah loves those who do good. 5:13.

 

Patience is the source of all goodness and safety in this world and in the hereafter. Through it the believer progresses to the state of cheerful acceptance and compliance, then to annihilation in the workings of Allah, the state of the Abdaal and transcendence.

 

Observation of Duty to Allah>Inculcation of Patience>Development of Trust>Sufficiency in Allah>Reward for Good-Doer>Loved by Allah.

Says Hazrat Inayat Khan:

Love is that state of mind in which the consciousness of the lover is merged in that of the object of his love; it produces in the lover all the attributes of humanity, such as resignation, renunciation, humility, kindness, contentment, patience, virtue, calmness, gentleness, charity, faithfulness, bravery, by which the devotee becomes harmonized with the Absolute. As one of God's beloved, a path is opened for his heavenly journey: at the end he arrives at oneness with God, and his whole individuality is dissolved in the ocean of eternal bliss where even the conception of God and man disappears.
'Although love is a sweet madness,
Yet all infirmities it heals.
Saints and sages have passed through it, Love both to God and man appeals.'

Divinty is Human Perfection.

Hazrat Inayat Khan says:

Resignation of the human will to the divine Will is the real crucifixion. After that crucifixion follows resurrection, but in order to attain to it one should first try and seek the pleasure of God. This is not so difficult when one begins to seek it, but when one does not begin to seek it, then one does not know what is the pleasure of God. Then there is another way which the Sufis have always taught: to seek the pleasure of one's fellowmen, and that is the very thing that man refuses to do. He is quite willing to seek the pleasure of God, but if one asks him to seek the pleasure of his fellowmen he refuses. In any case, either in seeking the pleasure of his fellowmen or of God, in both he is seeking the pleasure of one and the same being. It all begins very often with resignation. After having once resigned and when he is tuned to the divine Will, then a man need not resign any more, for then his wish becomes divine impulse.

The Shaykh, Abdul Qadir Jilani r.a also explains in Jala al Khawatir, "If something belongs to you, it will not pass you by, nor will it be used up by anyone else. But if something belongs to someone other than you, it will never come to you, however much you may want it and desire to possess it.
Should we not be resigned to our portion in life?

There is only yesterday, which is past and gone, today, where you are right now, and tomorrow, which is yet to come. Your yesterday has become a lesson for you to apply today. As for tomorrow, it is unclear whether you will be there or not, since you have no way of knowing what tomorrow holds.
Should we not be resigned to the power of now? The now is the opportunity to change the effect of the past and to build the future.

The Prophet s.w said, "On the day of resurrection, Allah will say to His believing servants: You have preferred your life hereafter to your worldly life, and you have preferred My worship to your carnal desires. By My Glory and My Majesty, I did not create My Garden of paradise for anything but your benefit.

As for those who are His lovers, He will say to them: You have preferred Me to all My creatures, to My lower world and to My other world. You have dismissed all creatures from your hearts and banished them from your innermost beings, so this My countenance is for you, My nearness is for you, and you are My servants in very Truth.

The food and drink of the angels is the remembrance of the Lord of Truth, tasbih and tahlil. For a few individuals among the saints too this comes to be their food.

How vast is the length of a person’s stupidity who fails to recognize the worth of good health and time for leisure. The Holy Prophet s.w said, " Two blessings that many people fail to appreciate are  good health, ‘Sihha’ and leisure, ‘Faraagh’.

Before sickness comes to spoil your health and distracting preoccupations leave you with no time, engage in service to Allah. Take full advantage of affluence before poverty strikes, by giving sadqa and charity. Be generous to receive Allah’s generosity.

Take advantage of your life before death arrives.
The Prophet s.w said: Death is sufficient as a preacher.
Everything you seem to possess is merely a loan to you, whether it be your youth, good health, leisure, affluence, poverty, or your life itself. Take good care of it.

O, Allah relent towards us and do not put us to shame in this world and in the hereafter."

Hazrat Inayat Khan exhorts further:

The method of the Sufi is quietude and silent progress, in order to arrive at the stage where you can see for yourself. The spiritual path is for the patient; patience is the most difficult thing.

In all the mystic thinks or does is a perfume of God which becomes a healing and a blessing. How does a mystic who becomes kind and helpful get on amidst the crowd in everyday life? The rough edges of everyday life rubbing against the mystic must necessarily make him or her heart-sore. Certainly they do. The heart of the mystic is more sore than that of anyone else. Where there is only kindness and patience, then it takes all the thorns. Like the diamond being cut, so the heart being cut becomes brilliant. The heart, being sufficiently cut, becomes a flame which illuminates the life of the mystic and also that of others.

It may seem a great sacrifice and torment to practice patience, but it is the only way to get out of the whirlpool; it is the only way that one can conquer life's difficulties. If anybody has ever conquered, he has only done so by this means; never by the means of resistance, but always by the way of resignation. All teachers have taught this way, saying, 'Prostrate thyself on the ground; prostrate thyself before God; kneel down'. Some of us fail to appreciate this, but the messengers do not leave anything unspoken; it is we who do not understand what they say. People fight for their religions; if we were just to learn the one instead! The question should always be: have we learned our own religion? To have learned it means to practice it and see its benefit. However fast we may try to run away from it, we will still find this lesson to learn. We have to make ourselves strong and prepared to withstand all that befalls us. Therefore we must develop our willpower first by such morals, and be able to harmonize our will with the others.

One thinks one can develop will-power by fighting, but that is not so, because by fighting we make very little progress; by fighting with ourselves we progress a hundred times more. Our greatest enemy is ourself. All weakness, all ignorance keeps us from the truth of our being, from all the virtues hidden in us and all perfection hidden in our souls. The first self we realize is the false self. Unless the soul is born again it will not see the kingdom of heaven. The soul is first born into the false self, it is blind. In the true self the soul opens its eyes. Unless the false self is fought with, the true self cannot be realized. Therefore endurance is necessary, patience is necessary.

If only we could fight with ourselves so that we became able to give pleasure to others! Sages are as harmonious with a pious person as with a wicked one, as harmonious with a wise man as with a foolish, with a rich as with a poor man. We feel friendly towards some, not towards others; we get on well with some, but with others there is always disharmony while with others again everyone feels peaceful and happy.

The lions could not harm Daniel because of the harmony of his will with the universal Will. The lions represent the destructive elements in the human mind. They represent wars, disappointments, rivalries, jealousies, envy, passions, and so forth, in different horrible guises. Our ego is the lion of lions, and if this is conquered, then these external lions--the different egos around us--are conquered also, and wherever we go, with anyone, whether foolish or wise, good or bad, we now have peace.

We may seek the higher knowledge or the higher things, but the very smallest thing, the control of all the creatures of the mind, which seems as nothing compared with the higher knowledge, once learnt and acted upon is greater than all. This is a great step; yet how difficult to gain this, how reasonless it seems! But when we pause to think of the difference between ourselves and animals, we see the greatness in this simple thing of yielding the will. If there is one animal in a place and another one comes to it, the first one wants to bite or bark, or even drive him out of his sight. A dog will do that even though he has finished his dinner and does not want to eat the food that has attracted the hungry dog to the place.

There is an Eastern parable of a dog going to a certain town. His journey was a very long one, taking two or three days as a rule, and yet he arrived before sunset of the same day. The dogs of that town were all very surprised to see him so soon. 'Yes, it was a very long journey', the dog said, 'but I attribute my speed to the kindness and help of my fellow-dogs. Since I left home, whenever I felt tired and tried to stop a moment to rest, four or five would run up and bark at me and want to bite me. So I had to run on without staying to rest in that place, or to search for food. And so it went on at every place I came to, until in the end I have arrived here at my destination.'

Sages have always repented of all things that make them animal. It is human beings that repent; the animals are pleased with everything that they do. The Bible says, 'Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand'. This has to be done all day long. Once one has realized it, the kingdom of God is at hand. The sinner can become righteous at any moment if he makes up his mind; the difficulty is to make it up. The next thing is to carry it out. Revolutions and harmony, war and peace, are all parts of a whole being. But contentment and perfect resignation open up a harmonious feeling and bring the divine will into harmony with our own. Our blessing now becomes a divine blessing, our words divine words, our atmosphere a divine atmosphere, although we seem to be limited beings; for our will becomes absorbed into the whole, and so our will becomes the will of God.

Resignation is the outcome of the soul's evolution, for it is the result of either love or wisdom.

Resignation does not mean giving things up, resignation means being content to give up.

Love is resignation to the will of the possessor of one's heart; it is love that teaches man: Thou, not I.