Finding peace inside oneself - a talk to the tijani daira in Copenhagen

Allah tabaraka wa ta’ala says in His Book

بِذِكْرِ اللّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

That is one of the main goals in this blessed gathering; dhikruLlah.

But will the hearts find peace and sincerity by the dhikr alone? No!

Do you think the munafiqun find tumat’nina, real peace of heart? I think not.

You need a repenting heart and willingness to change, and the conditions of repentance are deep remorse for ones past wrongdoings and a firm conviction never doing this or that again. That’s not always easy. Many of us do the same wrong again and again. Then we have to repent again and again, but al-hamduliLlah, Allah gave us Salat al-tawba, a prayer for repentance, that many of us should pray evening after evening, until Allah removes the sinful desire from us. Allah is always testing us, and He gives us the same dars again and again, until we take the message.

Someone will say, “I will repent whenever Allah guides me”. That’s wrong. Such statements are only signs of misery, self-debasement and lack of spiritual insight. Even worse, the person may have a problem with his/her ‘aqida.

We believe that Allah is the Creator of everything by His Knowledge, Power and Will. But I have a will to! Last night I wrote these notes. Did I create the notes? No, Allah created the notes, after I willed it. So if you choose to do wrong, Allah creates the action, but the choice was yours, Allah did not choose for you. This is from our ‘aqidah. However it is difficult to understand the mystery of Allahs predetermination and our free will. To really understand that, we need to know what our soul really are, but when the Emissary of God was asked about the spirit, Allah revealed the words:

الرُّوحُ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي وَمَا أُوتِيتُم مِّن الْعِلْمِ إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً

Our adkar are our works to purify our spirit. By purifying the spiritual heart, by reciting al-wird al-lazima and al-wadhifa we progress in our suluk, our travel towards Allah Most High. Someone is progressing faster than others, but keeping up the adkar, and may Allah help us being consistent in it, will free us from sinful actions. We pray five time a day, and recite awrad three times a day: When do we have time to be unconscious of our Lord subhanau wa ta’ala and do foul things?