so you have chosen yourself to be a 'traveler'.
NO! ....you definitely do not want to be in cattle class or even the 2nd class.
you want to travel 1st class!
you want to cross the 'sirat' with relative ease....
you want to plant your 'palm trees ' in jannah....
do zikr.
start now my friends!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmKBf3kGbbg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX6uAsRQN9Q
from here you can move forward:
for example, just for example only, imam al ghazali, in his book of prayer and wirid, in volume 1 of his ihya, recommended many steps, ten altogether, and one of them , his observation of what the elite of the elites [ ..abi'd...] do as one of the ten recommended steps ,was to repeat 1000 'kulhuwallah'; 1000 tasbeeh, tahmid and tahlil,; and 1000 'selawat to the prophet', amongst other things, on the whole of friday ie from thursday magrib prayer to friday asar prayer...allahualam
i tried this experiment last week, just doing the 'three 1000' only, and collectively done continously, it was easily in excess of just about 3 hours.
it is 'dowable' even by mere mortals like us.
it is the istiqamah that will separate the men from the boys...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blJ8neV3wYU&t=77s
but if you are a serious traveler, it will become a pleasure......
with initial difficulty , come ease.
that is the joy of 'traveling'.
dr nik
ps:
you would have noticed by now i always like to quote al ghazali...he is my favourite actually.
and why not?
he was 'hujjatullah islam' of his time. [ born 1058, died 1111 ]
during his time at nizamiah university as adjunct professor in theology he could out-debate anyone on matters of fekah of the ugama and philosophy.
of al farabi and ibnu sina, great men and contemporaries of his time, he wrote, or rather he pulverised their philosophical leanings, in his book 'the deliverance of error' as such, ...." none however of the muslim philosophers , engaged so much in transmitting Aristotle's lore as did the two men just mentioned....... the sum of what we regard as the authentic philosophy of aristotle as transmitted by al farabi and ibn sina, can be reduced to three parts: a part which must be branded as unbelief ; a part which must be stigmatised as innovation; and a third part which need no repudiation at all..".
in short these two were rubbished by al ghazali for their love affair with things greek..
after 12 years or so of 'existential crisis' spent in the desert of syria, he came back fully versed in both esoteric and exoteric islam.
he wrote voraciously and what he wrote were, importantly, all well documented.
he lived 450 years after nabi, 200 years after the time of muslim ibnu al hajj and muhammad bhukari, both great hadith collectors, in aperiod where oral tradition was supreme
in short , if we read him well, he should be a wholesome 'tok guru', to pick up some ilmu , pearls and gem, here and there , firsthand, with a high degree of confidence
two bright stars of the muslim world, ibnu qayyim [ 1293 - 1350 ] and his teacher, ibnu taymiah [ 1263 - 1328 ], both reformers of their time were easily 2 centuries beyond al ghazali. muhammad ibnu abdul wahab , another reformer, was easily 7 centuries after him.
in a society where oral tradition were supremely important , my central thesis is that al ghazali is more 'salafi' than these three great men.
at least he can quote and count hasan al basri as one of his teachers' teacher.
hasan al basri is a tabi'un, having being taught by sayyedina ali in his youth since he grew up in the household of ummu salamah, nabi's wife.
alghazali quoted al hasan a lot in the ihya. ghazali's teachers were tabi-tabi-tabi tabiun. 4 generations after nabi.
why al ghazali remained to be a 'persona non grata' and 'unmentionable' to present day so-called 'salafis' and wahabbis like dr maza, dr rozaimi and rasulapakahnamadiadah et al , is beyond my comprehension.!
they all learn their ugama from books!! getting their ma's and phd's or whatever.
incidentally,ibnu qayyim and his teacher, both were incarcerated in prison by the sultan of that time for their stance on grave visitation. they were even against people visiting the grave of prophet muhammad [ pbuh ] in madinah!
this did not in anyway belittle their greatness as reformers of the ugama of that time, bu their present day followers 'climb up the wrong tree'.
[ footnote : oftentimes i felt like giving a tight slap to the numbskulls guarding prophet's grave whenever they shout ..'haram haram haram'....to guests of the holy house when these people start raising their hands in supplication. these numbskulls think guests to the prophet's mosque, who travelled thousands of kilometres to be there, have brains as small as them...]
these same 'literalists' were the people who wanted to 'excavate ' nabi's tomb some 45 years back since their tok gurus' had the perception that 'grave' should not be in 'masjid' . thanks to tengku abdul rahman and the other oic members at that time, the plan was subsequently shelved.
these 'literalists' had no respect for the nabi.....nabi's house in makkah was turned into a public toilet near the present central bus station for fear that pilgrims will venerate the place.
these very same clowns who almost wanted to collect heavy entry tax for pilgrims this year in 2017, but opted not to after much complaint and 'animal' noise from the rest of the world.
their teachers can be great people but if their present day followers do not use their brains fully and correctly, islam go down the drain.
with IS and other things going on, it certainly is!
that is the basic problem with the wahabbis!.....they are 'too blinkered', and they tend to under-rate other people's motives and thoughts. there is nothing wrong in choosing to use 'blinkers' for safety in the practise of one's ugama but much has to be said about imposing this 'blinkered views ' upon others in the , alhamdullillah, wide spectrum of what is known as the din of islam.
this wide spectrum is a nikmat and a barakah from allah.
allahualam,
