May be I should be a Dayii

From the time I was driven into religious dogma, I had special attraction towards Fiqh, the jurisprudence. I still have this extreme love for it. I have more than 1800 audio answers recorded and uploaded, and there are thousands others which are unrecorded. I have more Fiqh & Fataawa books than any other book in my library and on my laptop.

However offlate I'm thinking about moving into another area, the area of tabligh or preaching. There are already many Mufti's with us, yes, by the grace of Allah, may be I was the first indian in Ahlus Sunnah to write fatawas and books in English. I would continue to do this, but I want to do something more.

I have read about Allamah Abdul Aleem Merathi, Ahmad Deedat, Habib Ahmad Mashur and other great preachers who spent their life in spreading the true teachings of Islam.

Presently the people whom we see on pulpit, YouTube, Facebook are mainly Wahabis and Deobandis. Muslim youths get attracted to them because of their nice dresses and good english speaking skills, but these wahabi speakers and preachers pose great risk. They interpret the Quran and traditions of Prophet in hardline and radical way cause them to leave the tradition sunni Islamic way.

Ahlus Sunnah is correct interpretation of Quran and traditions. All the Saints and Soofiyas who gave the message of humanity, love and compassion and propagated true teachings of Islam belong to Ahlus Sunnah.

In preaching there are different types 1) Preaching muslims so that they correct their beliefs and deeds. 2) preaching to non-Muslims.

While preaching to muslims is easy as compared to other one but both require high level of maturity and commitment. You need to well versed about the common questions and there answers which should satisfy the listener. You should be very well read and an ama zing speaker to conquer your audience.

I have worked with an organization which worked in the area of preaching to Muslims but not the other one.

I want to be a daayi, in sha Allah.   

Ramdan 2015

Its 30th Ramadan of my life and Alhumdulillah its going perfect. Last year it was quite tense due to family issues, but this year all is good.

I have shifted to a new workplace in March. This is quite far from my home and doesn't have any work from home option, instead they have mandatory yearly average of 9+ hours which every employee much conform to. I start early by 7.30am and hence get back by 6.30pm.

In my previous organizations the timings were really flexible along with no restriction on timings. I used to reach office by 11-12noon and get back by 6-7pm with almost no work.

Here I have to observed 9 hours along with that I have work too which keeps me occupied. I remember last time I was in a project and it had work was Nov 2011. After that to whichever Project and company I shifted I didn't had any work other than to reach office, spend some time and come back home.

 Now, 12 hours of my 24 hours day is at work hence leaving me with almost no time to work on my commitments. However I still find the time to go to Gym and Study.

There used to be a time when our whole family used to be present in Ramadan. Though the resources were limited but still my parents made sure that we have best of food and savories. Alhumdulillah now, Allah has blessed us with everything.

My younger brother who works with an automobile giant is in different city and youngest brother has completed his engineering this year and will be moving to another city in some months. So its gonna be only parents and two brothers now.

Allah is the best of planners.

  And Allah is the best of planners. (Quran 8:30)

This is indeed true. It takes for a while for us to understand but when we get the hikmah behind that we are just purely amazed.

After +2 I wanted to be a doctor but landed in an engineering college and before completing engineering I was selected for a firm.I was upset when I couldn't become a doctor but it was all in my favor.

I'm afraid of blood and flesh and moreover most of the doctors in India are able to do only graduation in medicine. PG in medicine can be done only if you are super intelligent or super rich. I fall short in both. So even if I would have got into UG it wouldn't be possible to do a PG. People try for years together to get a PG seat.

An MBBS doctor earns around 40-50K which is easily earned by an engineer in initial days of career. I'm not negating the value of being a doctor but its just that it was really not suited for me and hence my lord chose the best path for me.

There were around 46 students from my engineering institute who were selected for a technology firm at Bangalore. Almost all of them joined on 9 June at Bangalore, but I was asked to join on 26th at Chennai, alone, even though I'm from Bangalore. Yes I was sad and worried about moving to a completely new city which is infamous for its hot-hotter-hottest weather and hell for north Indians.

I reached Chennai and joined the firm. My supervisor was a very rude lady she literally made me cry in project. Everyday with her was a torture for me. I hated her, hated my job and hated myself. But this was the time when I understood the technology in-depth and it was the knowledge which I gained during this period which made me so competent in technology that till date, i.e. after 9 years, it acts as a strong foundation as I never worked so much in my career at later firms.

While in college I found a homeopathic doctor at Chennai for one of my medical issue, but at that moment of time I never imagined that I would go to Chennai. But see how perfectly my Almighty Allah planned for me. I was in Chennai now, met the doctor and started my treatment. The treatment required me to meet the doctor after every 15 days and then take the medicine for next 15 days. I stayed in Chennai for 13 months and was able to complete the treatment successfully.

I moved to Bangalore after 13 months in the same firm. Work was fine unless I was put under a useless and biased supervisor. No matter how good my work is, his work was to find fault in that. he started making personal comments too. He was so much behind me that he asked me to change a software code in my name and later when it was installed in production it failed causing the issues at client place. This software failure was reported to higher managers and I was in a fix. It was year 2009-2010 when entire US was under financial breakdown which caused havoc on Indian IT firms. Almost all the firms where firing the employees, my firm fired around 13000 employees in which I lost one of my best friend from college.

To make it worst Appraisal cycle also arrived. I was sure that I'm going to be kicked out of the company just like other lady in my project. I had recently purchased my bike and had a loan to repay, I was so much worried and anxious.

But destiny behaves in amazing ways and hope comes when you have lost all of it. I got a new job at an International IT firm with kind-of better pay. This is how my Almighty Allah saved me.

Okay, so I spent around 4 years in second firm. The first 3 years were in software development where I absolutely had no major work. The only work I had to do was to reach office and come back home. At the end of second project I was in free pool i.e. without any project for around 2 months, so my resource manager asked to me join the HR department of the firm.

I was the contractor hiring manager here. It was here that I understood the band and salary structure of the company. I understood at what level of experience which band should be given and how much salary should be expected.  When I looked at my band and salary was so ashamed.

Like my first firm, my new manager at HR department was also very biased. The appreciation mails of other team mates were forwarded to whole team but in my case it absent. One Stakeholder personally went to my manager and told him how I had closed a requirement which was pending from a long time and which lead to project being awarded to our firm. But my manager was quiet, no appreciation either by mail or oral.

In appraisal he ruined my rating. I was furious and gave the resignation without any job in hand. The sickness of the Manager can be imagined by the fact that usual notice period is 3 months but he reduced it to 2 months knowing the fact that I do not have any job in hand. This time also I had a loan to repay.

And here came the help from my Lord! on the last day at job I got the job offer from 3rd firm with correct designation and around 50% hike in pay (which I was able to negotiate due to my stint at HR).

Now at 3rd firm, everything was fine. The project, the people, the manager everyone was fine and work was very smooth. But I didn't had the profile for which I was hired. I waited for few months and proved my capabilities, even though I didn't had to do this because I was already at high band, and had a talk with Manager for  my correct work profile. The reply was not very convincing and hence I decide to move on. Just after 9 months at this firm, I gave interview for 4th firm, got selected as Lead and put down my resignation. Along with correct role they gave me 50% hike in pay.

So within one year, I shifted 2 jobs, got promoted to Lead  and got pay hike of more than 100%, Alhumdulillah.

One thing I forgot to mention. During my tenure at 2nd firm my marriage was fixed but just one month before wedding it was called of due to religious incompatibility. If I would have had got married I wouldn't have got the guts to resign without any job in hand and I would have continued at same designation and same pathetic pay. But Allah is the best planner, he had a perfect plan for me. He helped me get rid of religiously incompatible lady and rewarded me with better position and pay.

Allah azzawajal has rewarded me immensly in every walk of life. He has rewarded me with dunyawi as well as ukhrawi things.

So if you are having any trouble in life; pray to Almighty Allah and be assured that there is a better plan for you by the best of planner.

May Allah azzawajal accept me and keep rewarding this very sinful servant of his majesty self: Aameen, 

Recieved Ijazah of all the books of Imam Shaykh Shahabuddin Suharwardi

I have received complete Ijazah to narrate and propagate of all the books especially 'Awarif ul-Muarif' of Shiekh ul-Shuyukh Shahabuddin Soharwardi from Hazrat Syed Awais Ali Soharwardi of Lahore.
Hazrat was kind to accept my bait-e-taubah  in Silsila-e-Aaliyah Suharwardiyah and grant me complete Ijazah of all the books of founder of Suharwardiyah Silsilah.

Some of the famous books of Shaykh Suharwardi are:

1) Jazb ul-Quloob ila Mawaasilatil Mahboob : On the topic of Tasawwuf.
2) Rashf ul-Nasaih : On the topic of Ilm ul-Kalaam.
3) A'elaam ul-Huda : On refutation of old Philosophers.
4) Awarif ul-Muarif : One of the most famous and complete book on Tasawwuf of Imam.

Distinction of Awarif ul-Muarif
Shaykh Abul Hashim Soofi was the first person who established first Khanqah in the city of Ramla around 300 Hijri for the stay of mureedeen and muttabi'een and later these Khanqaahs were established all around by Soofis but there was no code of conduct or rule book to run these Khanqahs. Shaykh Suharwardi has the honor of being the first one who created rules and regulations for Khanqahs. 

A trip to Madurai and Nikah Bayan

My very old friend Mohammed Safi Attari invited me to deliver a speech at his family wedding at Madurai. I have known Safi bhai for around 8 years now, we met at a Dawat-e-Islami gathering and later came to know that we work for the same company.

It was Safi Bhai, Syed Rabbani Bhai and faqeer Qadri who were among the people who laid the foundation of DI in Bangalore. I have seen Safi and Rabbani bhai doing inventory , marking prices and ordering of maktab for whole nights. Wherever we used to have a religious program they would be there, carrying maktab on their bikes. In one of SDI's Ijtima we were not allowed to have Maktab stall at Ijtimagah so we kept our stall outside and sold books for over 25 thousand rupees in two days.And yes it was all fi sabeellillah, no petrol reimbursement no waqf-e-madinah guys.

However times changed and we all kind-of moved out of the tahreek. Safi bhai shifted to Malaysia, Syed Rabbani got busy with his business and I moved on to study my Ifta course, but the love between us remained the same.Its been 4 years now but when I think about it, it seems like just yesterday. 

First batch of Ihya Academy graduates!

Alhumdulillah, after more than three years of rigorous teaching and studying first batch of Scholars graduated out of the Academy with 3 Aalims & 1 Aalimah.May Allah bless these Ulema with success in both the worlds: Aameen.

Ihya Academy was a dream which I had pursued when I was studying the Aalim course. I know how much hardship I had to go through to realize my dream of becoming an Aalim. Spending 9.5 hours at office, 3+ hours in commuting and still continuing to go to Jami'ah and study everyday. Pushed out of Jami'ah and took shelter in Masjid, but myself and my teacher were not spared there and we had to move to local graveyard. Neither I lost the zeal nor my esteemed teacher lost the energy and we continued. Imagine visiting the graveyard every morning, everyday. I completed my Hadeeth texts and Fiqh texts in graveyard.

I didn't want that same hardship is repeated by any other student of knowledge so I planned to start an online academy which should teach the traditional course completely over internet. The child plan was put into action when I graduated from my Fazilat class in 2010. 

The flyers were sent  via emails and the response was enormous. Around 20 students from across the world joined the Academy and the course started on 1st Oct 2010. In our society it is a common mentality that the child who doesn't study is sent to Jami'ah to become an Aalim, so people have a notion that Aalim course is easy. But reality is completely different. Just like any other course Aalim course also requires hard work, determination and persuasion. In fact this course requires more attention than other worldly courses as other certifications and diplomas will remain back in this world but this diploma of Islamic studies will go with you in your grave and to the next world.

Over a period of time, as the level of study increased people left due to unable to cope up to the required dedication and hard work except four. Number 4 is a wonderful number. There are 4 khulafa, 4 Mazahibs and 4 Tareeqahs. So with the blessings of the number 4 these four students continued to study and reach to the next level.

And finally the day came which I always dreamed of, the day of their graduation. Mufti Zulfaqar Naeemi taught my students the last Hadeeth of Mishkat Shareef. 

Just like a farmer becomes happy on seeing his good fields same is the case with a teacher. Its a proud moment of a teacher to see his students graduate. In fact a teacher is spiritual father of his students. Imam Ahmad Rida wrote that a teacher is deputy of Prophet for the students.

I'm grateful to Almighty that he gave me the opportunity to be at service of  these wonderful and talented students of knowledge.  May Almighty make them shining stars of Ahlus Sunnah and a cause for my salvation on the day of Judgement : Aameen.

Alhumdulillah the second batch started from Jan 2014 and there are around 8 students from across the globe. I taught all the books of all the subjects for the first batch but this time I'm proud that graduates Maulana Mahboob & Maulana Imran are teaching the new batch. May Allah bless them with Ilm o Amal and make them a better mukhlis mu'allim.

Its been 2 years since I last wrote here. Well a lot has happened in these 2 years. The first batch of Ihya Academy graduated with 3 Aalims and 1 Aalimah. 2nd batch of 8 students is in progress with the students of the first batch teaching them.There are 1500+ fatawas online on NafseIslam now. I have been writing answers to the questions posted to me from across the world.

Alhumdulillahi ala zaalika.

in sha ALLAH, I will be writing about them in detail sometime soon.