“Be More & Achieve More!”

In the early hours of Tuesday night (3^rd of January 2012), I got a call at 3:00am that my beloved father, Mohammed Afzal Khan, had peacefully passed away, at the age of 78, and his soul’s journey had moved to the next stage of its journey. I made my way back to Manchester from the south of England by car and arrived by 11:00 am to find the process of communications between the coroner, mortuary (at the hospital) and the personal medical doctor were all underway, with my three brothers and two sisters being kept abreast of it.

Due to Islamic prescriptions of burying the deceased as soon as possible, we were all anxious that the body was released sooner rather than later. But owing to his excellent general health, the medical practitioner was unable to issue a death certificate. However, with some assistance from friendly local municipal councillors, who sent emails to the coroner, we managed to get the body by late Thursday afternoon. His body was washed on Friday morning, prepared for burial – only two sheets of cloths are required to cover the body – and then transferred to the mosque where the final prayers would be made over it.

The funeral was well-attended, some 2,500 people or so came from multiple sides, the mosque was over-capacity and so many had to pray outside in the car park area to ensure attendance.

The body was then transferred to the graveyard with some following the hearse vehicle and many others making their own way. His body was lowered directly to the ground six feet below onto the cold, wet earth, wrapped in the two clean white cloths, with his face showing, and then turned eastwards towards the direction of Mecca. Further involuntary prayers and supplications were read over the grave by Imam’s who were touched by the whole scene and felt a close attachment with my father both in living days and on his departure from this plane of existence.

Now, here is what is more surprising, in a sense, than any of the procedures or indeed his sudden departure: the number, range and type of people who visited our houses to remember him fondly – women, including my mother, were in the adjacent house and men in my father’s house.

Since my arrival on Wednesday morning until Monday morning, apart from the burial day of Friday, I have personally been receiving people from eleven in the morning ‘til eleven in the evening. Many expressed their shock and disbelief of his expiration, as he was so fit and healthy, whilst others recounted their times with him.

One of the oft-repeated aspects mentioned by them was my father’s kindness and ability to make people feel warm, special and welcome when meeting them – both young and old. It’ll be easier for me to copy here what I put on my facebook and twitter statuses on the morning of January 6th:

“Dear Friends, the loss of any near one is a gap that cannot be easily filled, but even more if it was one who was a pillar of society: one who combines the secular and religious seamlessly such that the social and spiritual merge with grace, beauty, mystifying power and great resolve. One who crossed continents yet had deep care for one-and-all on both sides of the global hemisphere; one who gave his full attention, willingness and magical smile to both young and old alike to make each feel extra special, assured, centred and clear-minded; one who resolved conflicts, aided the insecure, helped fulfil the aspirations of the eager, and gave comfort to those in distress. A person of principles with huge self-dignity, his goal was to make people see the brighter side of life. This is just a glimpse of my dedicated Father, whose soul entered the next stage of its journey a couple of nights ago, and whose body will be buried by me and my brothers tomorrow on the glorious day of Friday. Please join me with your refined thoughts and prayers in earnestly asking Almighty God to have mercy on his soul. Thank you.”

Esteemed people of the society came and sat with us at home and through this testing time, I managed to get right to the heart of why so many endearingly remembered him. This is what I want to share with you here as I feel it will assist manifold in the common relations we have amongst us whilst we attempt to tackle the issues of everyday life on top of the global concerns surrounding us. He was not the richest, most powerful or the most famous, but he was amongst the most caring, sincerest, principled and whole-hearted of people.

Until his last days, he was himself running a daily luncheon club for the elderly. Though we all told him to leave it and rest more, his view was that it provided him daily activity, a focus, and an opportunity to engage with others; something I only came to truly understand posthumously.

His affectionate concern for others stemmed from a deep appreciation for how sincere and useful others were towards him just as he was unreservedly towards them. Colour, creed, gender, role, status, socio-economic class were not barriers or his measurements for bonding, but moreover, the genuine application a greater value system of others within inter-personal relations.

This value-system is what carried him into the political arena where the Rt. Hon Gerald Kaufmann, MP has been a long-standing friend of his (for over thirty years). I believe given the right circumstances, he would have made a brilliant cabinet minister. But he had a young family to take care of in a new country, get them through education - which was his main priority - look after the household here in England as well as those overseas, including the needs of several relations who called upon him living in Pakistan, Canada and elsewhere.

Apart from these practical issues, another feature that kept him slightly away from committing fully-fledged to the political machinations was his deeper spiritual understanding, strong values of ethics and principles of morals ~ with truth and justice residing above all. Accordingly, political expediency was not his mantle, nor could he accept the “rule of the mob” at the expense of ‘golden-mean’ standards. Most of the national and international issues were clarified in his mind as he saw the extension of the ‘great game’ as a farce, a denial of International law and a rejection of the idea of principles over policy. Thus, he found an alternative way, his way, in the care world.

As such, the last and only one to be with him in the depths of that Tuesday night in his transference from earthly existence to the spiritual realm was my beloved mother (75), whom he was looking after. Since that moment, she has proven herself to be a solid rock in the midst of torrent rain, wind, and engulfing sea waves of trial and tribulation. Remarkably, she retains redness in her cheeks, a glowing testimony that it is her character which has come to symbolise the 55 year partnership she had with my father.

All their children and several grandchildren will remember this message well: that a lasting partnership has love, understanding and compromise at the root of its organisation. It is now up to us to continue such a wonderful legacy with both faith and benevolent determination as we journey on back into the same Earth and beyond.

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Hi,

As I was reading some passages of the Final Testament this morning, a certain aspect became clearer to me than the light of day: just how much do we need to live in this world? In Chapter 76, Mudaththir (The Wrapped One) we read the following -

8. Finally, when the Trumpet is sounded,

9. That will be- that Day - a Day of Distress,-

10. Far from easy for those without Faith.

11. Leave Me alone, (to deal) with the (creature) whom I created (bare and) alone!-

12. To whom I granted resources in abundance,

13. And sons to be by his side!-

14. To whom I made (life) smooth and comfortable!

15. Yet is he greedy-that I should add (yet more);-

16. By no means! For to Our Signs he has been refractory!

So look here, there are several points of consideration:

(a) God created man - and each will return to Him bare and alone just as he was first created; (b) God alone gives to whom he pleases, as He pleases; (c) For those who reject, and worse openly rebel against God’s signs and bounties, warn them of the consequences and then leave them to God to deal with; (d) The Sinner may be self-complacement now, but what will be his position when the reckoning comes? (e) Man’s adventitious advantages - wealth, power, position, talents - are NOT due to his own merits. They are gifts from God, Who created him. In himself he came bear and alone - and will return as such; (f) Despite what others have, one should be content with what one has been allotted for them, to use one’s time, energy, resources and talents to discharge one’s responsibility to oneself, fellow mankind and to the Creator of all; (g) Those that have been given “in abundance” - children, honour, prestige, power, wealth, facilitation - have an equal responsibility just as any one else, perhaps more-so; (h) The more such a type of person is given, the MORE he wants, without recognising the Source of all Goodness, and this is the Sinners way.

The appetite of man is not quenched from desiring more because the faith in higher matters is missing. There is no spiritual link with the One Who originated life and death in order to test us in our deeds. What will any person take with them from this temporary world except their deeds? To serve God and His creature’s is a privilege and a responsibility, a real investment into one’s eternal future. Look at Pharaoh - immortalised by God as a sign of one who thought himself as god, all-powerful and self-sufficient. He rejected the warnings of one who was raised in his own home (Moses) and suffered the lasting punishment in this life and the next. In the previous chapter (Muzzamil, 75) this is mentioned -

14. One Day the earth and the mountains will be in violent commotion. And the mountains will be as a heap of sand poured out and flowing down.

15. We have sent to you, (O men!) an apostle, to be a witness concerning you, even as We sent an apostle to Pharaoh.

16. But Pharaoh disobeyed the apostle; so We seized him with a heavy Punishment.

17. Then how shall ye, if ye deny (God), guard yourselves against a Day that will make children hoary-headed?-

18. Whereon the sky will be cleft asunder? His Promise needs must be accomplished.

19. Verily this is an Admonition: therefore, whoso will, let him take a (straight) path to his Lord!

We can see that Pharaoh could not escape his end; he had to face what he deserved despite all the luxuries surrounding him, and not one of them came to his aid when the stark Reality came to light. This world we live in here in Earth is in a solar system, which is part of a galaxy that is only one galaxy amongst many millions, and the universe is ever-expanding, yet this is only the first level of the seven heavens above. Looking at your situation, life and circumstances from this perspective, doesn’t it make you wonder what all this struggle is worth..? One day, the world as we know it will crumble and disappear - metaphorically as we end this journey on Earth - or physically as we read in the verses above when all is transformed after the final trumpet is blown…

So let us have pure contentment in what we have, what we have been given, what we are being tested with, before our time is over, and we only gasp in utter regret!

For Success & Contentment,

Asad Khan

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Hi,

What is time? The question has baffled many a thinker throughout the ages and continues to serve as one of the greatest mysteries. You realise that time ‘flies’ when you’re having fun, or when immersed in a series of long thoughts that has taken you into dream mode. Conversely, when you are waiting for something to happen and keen to see an outcome it seems like its taking forever!

Yet time, and its measurement, remains the same. The only difference is the state of mind that you have whilst experiencing its relativity. Now lets say that there is something that you have to do, its important and much depends on it. But you don’t feel like doing it, before long all the symptoms of procrastination set-in and the whole idea of that important task feels more like a chore, a burden. And if you actually get round to making a start, you tend to be sluggish, out of sync and phased by the whole process.

Consider the alternative: you are feeling fresh, responsive and ready to tackle any challenge coming your way, which may not only be critical, but difficult. And now you are not put off by the size of the job but welcome the opportunity to pour out your creativity and perform at greater levels. In doing so, you do not necessarily realise the amount of time consumed when working on it, which may be much more than what your originally envisaged!

So, enjoying what you do is more important than the act of the doing alone. This enjoyment comes from the inside, from your natural state, which is why you should choose, whenever you can, to work on those things in work and life that suit your inherent interests and abilities.

The test of time is to pick-out the most interesting and rewarding from the trivial, mundane and the un-captivating. Once this is done, you can ‘fly’ through time more often rather than twist and fret on the spot.

The Space-Time Factor

Now, If the Sun is able to warp the space-time factor, and it being only one of the many suns in this lower universe, then you shall deduce that other bigger suns and entities will ‘affect’ time in similarly extraordinary ways. And in the proximity of God, the Ultimate Power, Absolute Force and The Infinite Source of Energy, who sits on His vast throne above the seven heavens, time definitely is not as we perceive it here on earth. Recapping on an earlier Chapter (The Ways of Ascent, 70):

70:4 The angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a Day the measure whereof is (as) fifty thousand years:

70:5 Therefore, do hold patience, a patience of beautiful (contentment).

70:6 They see the (Day) indeed as a far-off (event):

70:7 But we see it (quite) near.

So ultimately, in the grandest scheme of things, life and the universe, the only aspects that really matter are the deeds that we send forwards which we all will be accounted for on the Great Day of Reckoning. If we utilise our God-given talents and strengths for the benefit of others, within the guidelines provided for us by our Creator, then we will not only find success but contentment also. This is the test of time, particularly when our ‘goals’ are not reached and the outcome we desire is not in sight, then the magnificence of patience must be exercised and witnessed.

And remember, no-one really manages time, you can only manage the activities that you do through choice and self-discipline.

There is much more that can be stated on this topic including the eastern view of kairos versus the more western chronos interpretation of time. However, if one day can equal 50,000 of our human years, be sure that there is a massive unfathomable world out there waiting to receive us in our onwards journey.

For success and contentment,

Asad.

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Greetings,

We, mankind, are created weak, hasty and ungrateful. We have learnt in the previous postings that when things go dead against us we do one of two things: (i) despair and give-up all hope; (ii) enter into prolonged prayers with the deity that we know to exist - the One who created the heavens and the earth and rests on His Mighty Throne above - but lack the proper knowledge to relate to Him. Why? because our base nature tends to seek Him and want His assistance and yet, attempting to be patient, grateful and resolve to persevere only comes with great character development and spiritual insight.

Then, when we are bestowed favours from above, we forget the Source of Goodness and assign the turn-around to our own abilities, or ‘luck’, or worse some false deity or spiritual force. And as the person continues along the path of good fortune he begins to develop a sense of self-sufficiency that quickly rises into a type of arrogance that we are all too familiar with.

But here I want to help you to link this state of arrogance with one other crucial feature: miserliness. You see, this self-conceited person who believes in his own abilities as being the sole power to shape his destiny becomes hard-hearted and shows the exact opposites characteristics of when he was in despair: “I have such and such, so much, and I managed this myself and hence who are you to ask me for anything? Go do it for yourself!” Might be the silent messages emanating from his conduct.

We have been looking at verses in Chapter 70 (Ma’arij, The Ascent) and I want to share with you a coiuple of other verses to put things into further perspective:

17: Inviting (all) such as turn their backs and turn away their faces (from the Right)

18: And collect (wealth) and hide it (from use)!

And so, as the great commentator A Y Ali say, the analysis of sin is given in four master-strokes, of which the first two refer to the will or psychology of the sinner, and the last two to the use he makes of the good things in life.

1. Sin begins with turning your back to the Right, refusing to face it squarely, running away from it whether from cowardice or indifference.
2. But conscience and the sense of Right will try to prevent the flight; the Grace of God, Allah, will meet the sinner at all corners and try to reclaim him; the hardened sinner will deliberately turn away his face from it, insult it and reject it.
3. The result of this psychology will be that he will abandon himself to greed, to the collection of riches, and the acquisition of material advantages to which he is not entitled; this may involve hypocrisy, fraud, and crime.
4. Having acquired the material advantages , the next step will be to keep others out of them, to prevent hoarded wealth from fructifying by circulation, to conceal it from envy or spite.

And so it is: In adversity man complains and get into despair. In prosperity he becomes arrogant and forgets other people’s rights and his own shortcomings.

So here is the simplest of formula to write but amongst the weightiest to enact:

Faith + Gratefulness = Righteousness + Charity (Benevolence)

As per the prophetic tradition, all children of Adam sin, but the best amongst them are those who repent and return to their Creator.

Most sincere people, the general do-gooders, are those who will have a strong sense of guilt when committing a sin and feel a strong tremble within when approaching that which is not proper. And even if this was recklessly repeated due to the weak nature, then this generally good and sincere person does his best to stay away from falling into the same trap. It is only those who refuse to believe that any wrong is being committed, they have deluded themselves into thinking that what is improper is actually valid and acceptable. They have become hard-hearted, deaf in the ears and blind in their sight, though they have a pumping heart, physical ears and eyes. The gap between the physiological function of these organs and their respective spiritual faculties has widened - this connection is lost.

Their central nervous system (CNS) no longer trembles at the idea of committing a sin - whether it be against their own person or against another - as this CNS does not have the same sensitivity or sensibility towards understanding virtue, morals, thoughts, intentions, deeds or habits.

It’s only with a real big JOLT to the CNS that a chance of self-awareness is created and the possibility of appreciation, gratitude and humility re-enters the emotional pattern. Otherwise, the person is far removed from such sentiments and it is no wonder that righteous conduct does not follow.

So what is righteousness you may ask. Let’s us see what the Divine instruction on this is. As well as 2:177, we have in the same chapter 70 that we been studying so far the following masterful insights and instructions:

Not so those devoted to Prayer;-

Those who remain steadfast to their prayer;

And those in whose wealth is a recognised right.

For the (needy) who asks and him who is prevented (for some reason from asking);

And those who hold to the truth of the Day of Judgement;

And those who fear the displeasure of their Lord,-

For their Lord’s displeasure is the opposite of Peace and Tranquillity;-

And those who guard their chastity,

Except with their wives and the (captives) whom their right hands possess,- for (then) they are not to be blamed,

But those who trespass beyond this are transgressors;-

And those who respect their trusts and covenants;

And those who stand firm in their testimonies;

And those who guard (the sacredness) of their worship;-

Such will be the honoured ones in the Gardens (of Bliss).

Prayer, Selfless-Sacrifice, Generosity, Probity, Chastity, True and Firm Witness, and the real consciousness of Higher Presence are the hallmarks of those who desire Peace & Tranquillity in this life and the Eternal Garden of Bliss in the next.

Does every man of them long to enter the Garden of Bliss?

By no means! For We have created them out of the (base matter) they know!

We are all on a journey and the emptiness, confusion and uncertainty of faith that pervades people’s everyday life comes from a lack of true knowledge. Hence the requirement of Divine Revelation to help put matters into the context of the actual Reality.

The animal part of man is nothing to proud of, and we know it. It is by spiritual effort, and long preparation through a good life that a man can rise above the mere animal part of him to his high dignity as a spiritual being, and his noble destiny in the Hereafter.

We all have our day-day experiences, some good, some exciting, others challenging and yet others still quite mundane and tedious. We have to learn to develop a greater awareness in order to make this journey peaceful and more importantly to ensure we safely arrive at the desired ultimate destination.

For Success and Contentment,

Asad Khan

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