Surah as Saffat....... Shaykh Tawfique Chowdhury's commentary part 3

friends, dato and tansri,

towards the end of shaykh tawfique's commentary part 2 , he was commenting on the life and time of prophet ibrahim. in this section he will be commenting on the rest of the named prophets in surah as saffat.

as a digression, i am always fascinated by young ibrahim's surreal conversation or rather  very brief altercation with jibril in that split seconds when king nimrud got ibrahim catapulted , airborne and before falling into a cauldron of fire.

jibril alaihisalam asked, "... thou need my help?"
the young ibrahim replied, "the help of Allah alone is what I need!"
"pray, then, to HIM, that HE may save thee!" rejoined Gabriel.
"He knows my condition," answered Abraham.


this dichotomy i find plays itself very well in two group of people at opposing poles of the ugama currently.

i am referring to the salafi/wahabi grouping on one side whose daily litanies and wirids weighs very heavily on doa, doa,  and doa , apart from the 'standard'  tahlil, tahmid and tasbeeh.
to the point they are almost apologetic about the use of the word 'zikr'.. i can feel that to present day wahabies , 'zikr' and 'ihsan' , when their tok gurus have , but to mention them , they do it with some degree of apology. such was their sensitivity to anything 'sufi'

the sufis on the other hand weighs heavily on zikr, zikr and zikr, apart from the 'standard' solat and qur'an, tahlil and tahmid, to the point doa constitute only a small portion of their activities. 

it is completely almost the other way round.

there are levels and levels in ihsan and the difference between the two groupings are difference between 'prefects' and 'lovers'.

' lovers almost stop asking.....everything thrown by allah and from allah to him is alright and ok!.....redha, to the point he stops asking'

the 'prefects' are overwhelmed by syariah , while the drunken 'lovers' are drowned by 'love and mahabbah'.

we mere mortals, ideally want to have the right mix of both  syariah' and ' mahabbah; 
exoteric islam and esoteric islam....the outer shell, and a deeper inner kernel.
we need both.

to get the right mix, it is back to ilm , ilm and ilm.
...and you must be willing to meet with all these these socalled tok gurus with an open and a critical heart.
don't sell your soul  easily to just anyone with a skull cap or large turban.
it is read, read, read...and to a certain extent , with modern technology now, it is listen, listen and listen.
then choose  your tok guru  murshid that is, if you can find him.

our ugama is not for 'donkeys'.
it is for thinkers!

this is just my humble  perception.
we mere mortals ossilate in between  being 'lovers' and 'prefects'.
take a middle position, a safe position , i guess.
happy hunting.
allahualam.

let us join shaykh tawfique chowdhury in his third and final part of commentary of surah as saffat. there is a section about prophet yunus here. 
his lack of sabr and frustration that lead him to abandon his flock, and finally landed in the belly of a whale.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3XoTCIvttA

[   shaykh tawfique chowdhury's commentary part 3  and final commentary ]



.....and if you ask me what is prophet's yunus [pbuh ] doa and prayer.
it is one of the most powerful zikr ever:
" la ila hailla antasubha nakainni kontuminaz zolimin..."

one of my favourite doa and wirid, given by one shaykh , in our 1st meeting in ipoh some years back.
i took ba'yah from him that day.

" la ila  hailla antasubha nakainni kontuminaz zolimun !.."

dr nik