Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Sunday, November 4th

Regular Devotions: having a wird...

-We must fill up our time with acts of worship so no period of time passes without being used in some act of goodness.
-This is how we put baraka in our time.
-Imam Al-Ghazali said: "You should structure your time, arrange your regular devotions, and assign to each function a set period of time during which it is given first priority but which it does not overstep. For if you abandon yourself to neglect and purposelessness, as the cattle do, and just do anything that may occur to your at any time it happens to occur to you, most of your time will be the basis of your transactions, and the means to attain to everlasting felicity, in the proximity of God the Exalted. Each of your breaths is a priceless jwel, and when it passes away it never returns"
-Have more than one wird. When you move from one wird to another you escape becoming bored.

-Ibn Ata'illah said: "Because Allah knew of the presence of boredom in you. He created a variety of acts of obedience"

-Being persistent with a wird and repeating it everyday results in illumination of the heart.

-Shaykh Abdur-Rahman As-Saqqaf said: "Whoever has no wird is a qird [moneky]!"

-When choosing a wird one should be moderate and take on something that one can keep up with. The Prophet (pbuh) said: "The acts most pleasing to Allah are the most constant even if few"

-It is Satan's way to entice the seeker at the beginning of his quest to be excessive in his devotional activities, the purpose being to make him retreat. either by giving up acts of goodness altogether, or performing them incorrectly.

-A wird can take the form of:
supererogatory prayers
Quran recitation
aquisition of knowledge
invocation [dhikr]
reflection [fikr]