Wayfarers to God

This book is an exposition in Habib 'Ali's own words, of the challenges and obstacles facing today's Muslim in their attempt to seek proximity to the Creator. The prose is dynamic, and delivered with compassion in a way that gently provokes the reader into accounting themselves and their relationship with Allah. The text gently guides the reader to elevation, without admonishment or chastisement. With opening remarks by Habib 'Umar bin Hafidh, Habib 'Ali describes the timeless journey to Allah in prose that is particularly relevant to our time. Chapters within the text cover the following areas: Approaching Allah, Adherence to the Sunnah, Impediments to Wayfaring, Interferences that Disrupt a Wayfarer, The Principal Diseases of the Heart and their Cures, Loving and Loathing for Allah's Sake, Attention to Excellence in a Work of Worship. Wayfarers to God will be available for purchase from Guidance Media (online and at your local bookstore). Please be sure to sign up (Stay Informed) on our homepage and you will be notified as soon as this book goes on sale. Excerpt from Chapter One of Wayfarers to God, entitled 'Approaching Allah' All praise belongs to Allah. All praise belongs to Allah, the Generous, He Who when He threatens, pardons, and when He promises, keeps His word. The bountiful, He Who gives without being asked and gives without measure; Who rewards in abundance; Who gives without count; Who calls His beloved ones to the precincts of nearness and ignites their longing for that High and Majestic Presence. He calls out every night in the last third of the night, “Is there any seeker of forgiveness at all? Is there any penitent whatsoever? Is there anyone in need at all so that I may fulfil his need?”. He calls out at every breath and at every second that the doors of approaching Him are open, His gifts to those who are sincere are available, and His benefactions to those who lie in wait, obtainable. He has created us so that we may profit from Him and not so that He may profit from us. What great success awaits for those who yearn for His presence and seek the path of those beloved to Him. We bear witness that He is Allah, there is no deity but He, alone and without partner; a witnessing through which the door to approaching Him will open to the hearts, and such that the souls will be animated by the essence of yearning for Him, and footholds will be made firm on the adab (proprieties) due in His presence. And we bear witness that our sayyid (‘refuge in times of crises’) and our mawla, Muhammad, he who combines all that is worthy of praise, is His Servant, His Envoy, His Beloved, His Chosen One and His Intimate Friend, whom Allah has appointed as the gate to Him - the landmark that guides to Him. There is therefore no other path that will lead to the rank of belovedness in the presence of the Creator except cleaving closely to the footsteps of the Prophet. “Say: If you do indeed love Allah, then follow me, you will be beloved of Allah” [Qur’an, 3:31]. It is this path - that of invoking blessings and peace upon the most beautiful beloved, the most high, the most sublime - that is indeed intended by the phrase 'Approaching Allah’, and the quest for a special ‘nearness’ to Allah. It is a quest that many people in our times have shunned, preoccupying themselves instead with that which does not merit preoccupation, and enterprises which are profitless. The tacky adornments of life and its shoddy decorations have captured them, and consequently they have turned their backs on the essence of happiness, and al-husnaa, namely the Garden, and al-ziyaadah, namely gazing at Allah’s Noble Countenance. People have become content with this bankruptcy while days and nights pass them by, and so they fail to seek the essence of proximity to Allah. SINCERITY IN CALLING ONESELF TO ACCOUNT Both a mu’min (believing man) and a mu’mina (believing woman) are quite content to let a year, another year, the third year, the fourth, indeed the tenth year, pass them by whilst neither of them have called themselves to account with sincerity. They do not examine their states with the passage of time. What have I gained this night? And what have I gained this day? Last night has passed us by and has passed you - has also passed us by, both you and me - in what have we increased? What have we gained? What provision did we make that day? And if it is the case that the day and the night and the day succeeded by another day, and again the night succeeded by another night, pass us by pointlessly without us gaining anything of the essence of approaching Allah, nor have we experienced the reality of yearning for Allah, or used the days as a means to scale the ladder of sincere companionship (with Allah), then what is the worth of this life? Is the worth of this life food and drink? Is the worth of this life robes and garments? Is the worth of this life wealth and gold - ephemeral things (that will surely perish)? Is the worth of this life prestige in the hearts of human beings which is prone to tarnish or to betray? Is the worth of this life to have man, who was created by his Lord, be content to fall from the rank of living for his Lord - which is the most sublime of ranks - to the rank where he lives for his nafs? He lives to the measure of his desires? He lives for this world? He lives for human beings? Indeed, that is abasement itself: for Allah to turn the heart of a servant away from seeking to attain nearness to Him! For He has sent our sayyid and our mawla Muhammad, and before him He sent envoys (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon all of them) as deputies from His presence - so that they may awaken us to this aspiration, and guide us to this quest, so that each one of us would devote complete attention to this matter of wayfaring to their Lord! A day passes you by, and then a night, yet within the day and the night lie treasures of Allah’s Munificence that are beyond count and comprehension. No one can comprehend what Allah has placed within them. Indeed, were your senses to be enhanced, you would find that the mere second which goes by contains treasures of Allah’s Munificence that are beyond imagination, beyond comprehension, beyond count. This is because Allah has called Himself the Giver, the Gracious, the Bountiful, the Generous, the Pardoner, and the Beneficent. These names are attributes and predicates of the Lord Most High, and Allah, Sublime is He, did not establish them to idle purpose.