بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
اَلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ
13 Zul Qa’dah 1445 – 22 May 2024 #MI001
QUESTION
I was wondering how Allah Ta’ala protects His Special friends. Are there any such examples that can be cited?
ANSWER
Yes, indeed there are many many such examples of Allah Ta’ala protecting His Special riends, not only in as far as their worldy affairs are concerned, but also, more importantly as far as their Imaan and Aakhirat related affairs are concerned. Hereby find an incident which has been narrated by Maulana Maseehullah Rahmatullah Alayh:
A certain buzurg arrived in a locality. In this town there lived another buzurg as well. This buzurg came to know that a certain buzurg had come to his town from outside. He thought to himself: “A buzurg has come – I should go and meet him,” and he got up. A feeling then came into his heart: “Do not go.” So he sat down again. Then he thought: “This is only a wehm – an unsubstantiated doubt – I am having. I should really go,” and he stood up again. The feeling again came into his heart: “Don’t go!” He sat down again. After a little while he thought to himself: “No, really, I should go and visit him.” He got up. This feeling came again: “Don’t go!” But this time he ignored it and started moving towards the door. He had hardly taken two steps when his foot slipped and he twisted his ankle!
This brings forth an important principle in Sulúk: If a person is a real, genuine muttaqí, abstinent (parezghár), zákir ahlulláh and he experiences a sudden feeling in his heart, then he should not act contrary to that feeling. Should he act contrary to that feeling, he will not be committing a sin as far as his ákhirat is concerned, but he will definitely suffer some worldly harm.
So, this buzurg, having ignored the feeling that came into his heart – “Don’t go!” – suffered some harm: his ankle got sprained. Now he could not go.
One or two days later, a person from that locality came to visit this buzurg. This buzurg enquired from him: “Bháí, some buzurg had come to our town – is he still here or has he left?” This person replied: “Hadhrat, he has left already. However, he turned out to be a bid’atí!” This buzurg said: “Ofo! This is the reason why my ankle got sprained! I had intended to go and visit him and this is what happened!” For Friends Volume One – 359/360
In the above episode, you find the Buzrug being protected from accociating with a Bid’ati. Two great harms would have come about had he met the Bid’ati:
1) His association would be a means of his students and the public being deceived, and very possibly embracing and eventually following the teachings of the Bid’ati
2) The Buzrug himself was at risk of inadvertantly diluting the passion he had for strictly following the Sunnah of Nabi-e-Kareem Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam
The massive sin of committing Bidah is clearly portrayed in the following Hadith, which is sounded out every Jumu’ah in the Masajid throughout of the world:
“…every newly invented matter is an innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Hellfire.”
Source: Sunan Nasaa-i #1578
