In the history of human societies there is a strange yet repeatedly recurring tragedy: when a weakness becomes widespread, people begin to regard it as a standard. If the majority is ignorant, ignorance is renamed simplicity; and if most people avoid reflection, that lack of thought is disguised under the title of peace of mind.… Continue reading See the World Through the Eyes of Mawlānā Abū al-ʿIrfān Nadwī

How ignorant you are of the beauty of Joseph! You imagined that Joseph’s beauty was confined to the image, and you assumed that the outward appearance encompassed the whole meaning. How mistaken you were, and how misguided was your soul in its fascination with the surface! Know that if you sought to emulate Joseph’s outward… Continue reading Reminder: How ignorant you are of the beauty of Joseph!

When I presented my deeds on the Scale of God on the Day of Judgment, my soul trembled with shame, and the Scale itself seemed to shudder with embarrassment. For I beheld the works I possessed—feeble, insubstantial, carrying no weight in the sight of the Most Merciful, and I had never imagined that I would… Continue reading Reminder: I made the Scale ashamed

I was born in Paradise, beside the Lord of all worlds, and it was for me a homeland untouched by decay, a dwelling unchallenged by fear, and a companionship unmarred by solitude. I was accustomed to its bliss, its ease, its shade, and to its perfection, so pure that words could never fully convey it.… Continue reading Reminder: The stranger who loses the path of his journey

Do not be angered if you are called ignorant; for does a person truly resent a title that he deserves? Indeed, the acknowledgement of ignorance may well be the first gate to knowledge and the most truthful path to wisdom. Do you not see that you are ignorant of the Creator, ignorant of creation, and… Continue reading Reminder: Do not be angered if you are called ignorant

What is life but a fleeting moment between dawn and sunset: it begins with a cry and ends in silence, passing like a drifting cloud that never settles in one state. A person runs after hopes and gathers from the world whatever he can, imagining that tomorrow stretches endlessly before him. Yet suddenly he realises… Continue reading Reminder: Then—death

Indeed, speech, even when it adorns itself in the garb of intimate supplication and veils itself behind a curtain of secrecy, is headache itself, and to the soul a grievous exhaustion. It weighs upon the ear as though the voice were a hammer striking against thought; it wearies the heart until words become a dust… Continue reading Reminder: Speech is headache itself