Gardens of the Righteous: Class 23 The Garden of Tafakur Part 1 23 rd November 2014 1 Safar, 1435 A.H.
The Garden of Tafakur Tafakur - Reflecting upon the great creations of Allah Tafakur is a type of worship that is needed for Steadfastness. Tafakur means to reflect upon the great creations of Allah. This is a type of worship that helps us to be steadfast. Tafakur is reflections of the result we get from the incidents in our life. An example for Tafakur is that of Suleiman who could hear the conversation of the ants. The ant was telling all the other ants to go to their houses or else Suleiman and his armies will crush them. Suleiman reflected on this incident and wondered if he should do Shuker or Sabr. PAGE 1
Definition: Tafakur When any incident happens in our life we need to activate our mind and brains in order to get to the result. We should not take anything as random. Anything that happens in our life is because Allah wants us to reach to some result. Allah will bring incidents to us to give us messages so that we do not deviate from the straight path. When Allah brings something in front of us, we need to reflect on it to reach the result. Tafakur helps us for steadfastness. PAGE 2
Pondering and reflecting on the incidents and creation is a command of Allah. It is a form of worship. Allah emphasizes about Tafakur in the Quran because reflecting leads us to have more faith and Yakeen. There are Ayat in the Quran asking us to look at the creation of Allah i.e. sun, skies, at the camels, at ourselves etc. In Islam when we do Tafakur we are getting benefits in the Duniya as well as Akhirah. Tafakur means to think/reflect about a matter till we reach to a result and the result should make one to believe. Our reflection should make us to reach to the goal of reaching Allah The creation shows us there is a creator. The creation of the universe is not random. Looking at the creation tells us the creator is greater than creation. Reflecting by itself it leads us to belief. The universe is like a teacher teaching us. PAGE 3
Today the human being is working like a machine, we wake up quickly, work quickly etc. It seems that everyone is in a hurry. We forget to enjoy the life and do Tafakur. Tafakur gives us energy. No matter how much we run in the Duniya we will get what is decreed for us. Our goal in life should be to run after the Akhirah. We need to reflect using our minds whether we are at homes or at work. The scholars before did a lot of Tafakur. If someone served them drinks they compared it to the drinks of the Paradise. They saw an oven and wondered what will hellfire be like. They reflected on everything around them. While waiting in a queue they would think about the waiting on the Day of Judgment. Just looking and reflecting on ourselves, our bodies, our system is Tafakur. Allah created us as a human being, He gave us one heart, two eyes, two hands etc. How Allah planned our life is the best life we can have. Allah knows all the probabilities and He chose and decreed the best for us. When we know Allah and we make Tafakur it makes a difference. However when we don t know Allah and we make Tafakur it will deviate us. e.g. when we know Allah is Ar Rahman, Ar Raheem then we see everything around us as mercy of Allah ( the good and the bad). Allah commanded us for Tafakur in the Ayat Al Quran. Now we will see the Ayat Al Quran that tell us about Tafakur PAGE 4
Garden of Tafakur - Part 1 Ayat in the Quran about Tafakur Surah Sabah, Ayah 46 Here Allah is telling the Prophet SAW to say to the disbelievers that he is only advising them with one single advise that no one deserves attachment out of love and magnify except Allah. No one deserves to be worshipped except Allah. This is the single advice. All messengers came with this message. If we follow this single advise we will go to Paradise and will be saved from Hell. We go to Allah for all our matters and problems in life. The solutions for all the issues at work, home, personal etc. is La ilaha illal la. If we follow this we will get all the goodness and we will stay away from all evil. All messengers came to guide the people to Allah and not to themselves. No one is a savior except for Allah. PAGE 5
We need to establish our worship to Allah. The messengers said to the people, My duty to you is one single advice i.e. you strengthen your connection with Allah by doing all the worship i.e. we pray, fast, read Quran, rely on Allah and all types of worship. After we perform the worship then we need to reflect and ponder to check ourselves so that we learn to better next time. When we do wrong we feel it inside us. We learn from our mistakes. We feel we need to do better so we ask Allah for forgiveness and we rely on Allah s help to do better next time. Doing Tafakur helps us to purify our Nafs. It also helps to renew our intention so we don t do our worship as a habit. Our routine and habit kills the reward. We need our worship to have a vibrant life. Example of Tafakur in Salah The Prophet SAW said, If our prayer is good then all our deeds will be accepted by Allah. So if our prayer is good then everything else will be good. Salah is our connection with Allah and if we make our connection with Allah right then everything else will be right. Sahih International And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah ] Allah tells us in Surah Baqarah Ayah 45, we need to seek help through patience and prayer. When the Prophet SAW was worried about any matter he would run to prayer. To check our Salah we need to see how are we after our Salah? Let us see what Allah tells us in Surah Ankaboot Ayah 40 PAGE 6
Sahih International Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do. We are told that Salah takes us far away from indecency and sins. Salah has an impact on our behavior as we stand in front of Allah. This changes us. Nowadays people separate religion from life. This creates a gap and the result is there is no impact. Infact religion tells us how to live our life, how we eat drink, sleep, deal with people etc. Some scholars say they can recognize if their worship is accepted by Allah or not by seeing themselves after the worship. If they are guided to other worship then it means Allah accepts their previous worship. We need to be honest and not cheat ourselves when we do Tafakur after the worship and analyse ourselves. Example of Tafakur in middle of night The best type of the Tafakur is in the middle of the night. When we wake up in the night there is a set of 1o Ayah in Surah Aal e Imran starting from Ayah 190. They are called Ayah Tafakur. The Prophet SAW used to recite these 10 days when he woke up at night. To be contd.. PAGE 7