Suhba Pearls from DeenPort

DeenPorters in the UK have a beautiful thread going called "Suhba Pearls". It contains some of the beautiful words of Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller. I'm going to paste them here. Jazakum Allahu Khayran and Barak Allahu fi kum to those who have been posting on the thread.


'love is not an easy matter...' (Shaykh Abd ar-Rahman Shagouri)

"The only escape from Allah, is to Allah"- Shaykh Nuh, in response to a question that ended with: "...so theres no escape from Allah?"

'man sumut najaa' Hadith of our Beloved (saw). With the rough meaning of, 'he who keeps quiet is saved'. In relation to the topic of keeping ones speech in check.

...that darknesses and tribulations upon the heart were from the wisdom of Allah and were to teach us to appreciate the blessings we have...he used the example that love after having being rejected is more sweeter than recieving love without any effort...so the lights that come to us after the darknesses of tribulation are sweeter than just receiving blessings without having suffered for them...

...that the key to the universe is la ilaha ilAllah...that all actions are but the action of Allah...true tawheed...

...that dhikr is the reason for existence...that we should take a moment to ready ourselves for the Divine Presence before beginning our dhikr...

...that the Divine Presence is a gift...so we have to show gratitude for it...

...that dhikr without the heart connecting to Allah is not dhikr at all...

...that dhikr is the greatest joy any of us can achieve...

...that dhikr burns off the shaitaan...

...that iman, complete tawakkul and genuineness in one's slavehood defeats shaitaan..

...that proper manners - adab - is the key to everything...

...that it is Allah that sends down tribulation and only He that can remove them...tawheed again...

...that there is nothing in existence except the actions of Allah...and that experiencing this is jannah for the arifeen...

...that the goal of the path is Allah, not spiritual stations, miracles, etc...

...that the rules of the shariah are for our benefit, not Allah's...

...that in everything we do, we should ask: 'what's in it for Allah?'...and if it's nothing, then we should junk it...

"the sign of bad character is someone who argues a lot"

dhikr is the light that burns the shaitan. He said the dhikr that is made on the tongue is said in the mind. From here it descends into the heart...until ones whole being....becomes a window

As much as you long for Allah He longs for you.

"Anyone who understands the reality of the hellfire would not want a single non-Muslim to enter it."

be people that are part of the solution not part of the problem.

how many a young man died before the old man who he was waiting to die first?

...only once a heart is broken into pieces....can something be made of it

Dhikr without feeling the presence of Allah is not dhikr.

"Allah"

they say (the mutasawifeen) "the sign of the one who has not sat with the shuyukh is the one who is loose with his tongue".

The Universe was created for you...you were not created for the universe...[you] were created for Him

Everything is meaningless, unless they signify some thing beyond themselves.
Everything is perishing, except that which is done for Allah, and Allah alone. Things are illusionary, actions are real.

Sufism is Fakr - poverty to Allah, it is complete relinquishment, complete submission, turning to Allah utterly.

Tears are a liquification of emotions from the heart, the piece of flesh that you want to fix so that the rest of you is fixed.

The key to presence with Allah is watching the breath, making sure each breath is for Allah.

A bogus sufi said "A true sufi is one who can pluck bars of gold from thin air". Shaykh Abdul Wakil heard this and said "No, a true sufi is who when a bar of gold is pick pocketed from him the state of his heart doesn't change".

whoever has been given the tawfeeq to make zhikr, then this is a proclamation that he is from the awliya.

Regarding spiritual rank, he said (along the lines of)....

Prescribing ranks to oneself is 'ghafla'

Allah put you there, He keeps you there. If you put yourself there, you will surely fall...

Let spiritual rank seek you, do not seek it. Seek Allah, and all will be found....

Whoever finds Allahswt, Allah frees him from caring about what people say, from thinking about prestige, from drawing closer to the dunya and the people of the dunya, and the need for grudges....

If an action were done with the intention of demonstrating the sunnah of the Prophet (saaws) or the tawhid of Allah, that action stays with Allah swt for ever....

You don't love anything except you are its slave, and He doesn't like that you are a slave of anything else...

May Allah 'Azza wa Jall preserve Shaykh Nuh and continue to benefit through him. Amin.