In the name of Allah the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious

Every day in our lives walking, sitting, bowing, laughing ,eating , being able to stand in front of our
rabb five times a day, is solely the taufeeq from Allah. It was that one day that I was ready to
resume my prescribed prayers. I made the niyyah and was unto miraaj with my rabb and there in as
many as times I would fall in sujuud and prostrate to the Most High, a strange but a truthful
thought anchored in my heart. If Allah hadnt willed , if Allah hadnt given me the taufeeq to
prostrate in submission to Him, I never could have... Allah hu Akbar.
Recalling of a story of Shaykh Abu Abdullah Andalosi (r.a) The author says:
The incident of Shaykh Abu Abdullah Andalosi is deeply rooted and embedded in my heart that the
ability of my speech is inked with the pen. I desire for the saalikeen and for those who have the
slightest connection with tasawwuf, that this incident should settle deep in the hearts of each.
Shaykh Abu Abdullah was a famous shaykh and a Mashaikh from among the awliya of Andalosi.
Thousands of khanqah were enriched by his pious presence, thousands of madaaris were running
by his faiz. Thousands of students and thousands of mureeds. It is said that his mureeds were
counted to be nearly twelve thousand.
Once he set out for a journey, thousands of mashaikh and ulemah among whom Hazrat Junaid
Baghdadi (r.a), Hazrat Shibli (r.a) were present. Hazrat Shibli (r.a) states that our carvan was
preceeding a head with immense barakah until we arrived upon a town of Christians. The time for
prayer was closing in. In the town no water was found. On the outskirts of this very town was a well
where a few girls were filling their pitchers. Hazrat Shaykhs sight befell a girl from them. As soon
he saw her he grew restless. Hazrat Shibli (r.a) says that after the shaykhs talk to her , he turned
away. Three complete days had passed he would neither eat nor drink nor would he speak to any
one. Hazrat Shibli (r.a) says that all were worried. The third day I asked Ya Shaykh! Thousands of
your mureeds are troubled and worried by your state. The Shaykh turned towards them and said,
My close ones! Until when can I hide my state from you? Day before yesterday, the girl that I had
seen, love for her has over taken me so much so that my complete being is dominated. Now there is
no possible way that I should leave that very land.Hazrat Shibli (r.a) replied O My chief ! you
are the peer and the murshid-e-alam of the dwellers of Iraq and reputedly high with your ibadah
and its faiz. Your followers , your mureeds have exceeded in counts of twelve thousand. In tufail of
the Nobel Quran, please do not bring us and them shame and defame.
The shaykh said, My close ones! My and your destiny, by the Lord, has been destined. The honour
and the garment of wilayat has been seized and the signs of hidayah have been lifted. Having said
this he started weeping and then said, O my nation! Qadha and Qadr have been destined. Now

this has fallen out of my hands. Hazrat Shibli(r.a) says we were deeply amused and unbelievingly
astonished at this very strange incident and we cried in angony and anguish. Our Shaykh too kept
on cried with us, so much so that the earth drenched and seemed to be overwhelmed with the flood
our tears. After that, left with little choice we returned towards our homeland of Baghdad. Upon
our arrival, we narrated this strange incident which lead to deep dismay and chaos among the
mureeds of the Shaykh. A few of them blown with sorrow and severe agony returned to their lord,
immediately as they acknowledged the news and the remaining ones fell in humbleness to their
Lord and made duas O the Turner of hearts, bestow hidayah on the Shaykh and then return him to
the status he was previously entitled to. And after this all the khanqahs closed down and we spend
a year living in this sorrow and agony and kept returning in desire of our Shaykh. After a year
when the mureeds planned that we must seek the news of Shaykh so as to what conditions he is in,
so a small group of us travelled. Upon arriving in that village we enquired with local people the
whereabouts of our Shaykh. The villagers informed us that he is in the jungles grazing the pigs. We
were taken aback in astonishment and gasped We seek protection from Allah! How did this
happen?! The villagers informed us that he was engaged to the daughter of the chief, her father
had agreed to this proposal of marriage on this very condition (of serving him by grazing the pigs )
and the Shaykh agreed to it. So hence he is on his duty in the jungles with the pigs. Hearing this we
trembled and shivered out of fear while the agony and the sorrow pierced right through tearing our
hearts. An uncontrolled storm of tears started flowing from our eyes. With extreme effort we fought
our inner state and with difficulty held our hearts to go to the jungle and find our Shaykh grazing
the pigs. We saw the Shaykh wearing the traditional caps of the Christians and their traditional belt
was tied around his waist, he was leaning over the very same stick, watching over the pigs, with
which he once leaned on while delivered the khtubas. This deepened the pain in our hearts and
excavated our sorrow deeper than we thought. The Shaykh saw us approaching him and lowered
his head. We send the salaam upon him as we came closer saying, Assalamualaikum. He replied
in the lowest of his undertone Waalaiykum assalaam. Hazrat Shibli said, O Shaykh! Having the
sacred knowledge, the hadith and the ilm of tafseer and the benefit of it, today what is your state, in
what condition you are in!
The Shaykh said, My brothers! I have no control over my self, my Lord turned me into what ever
He willed. And after giving me such a high status and His closeness, when He willed, He threw me
far from His doors. Who can ward off this great misfortune?! O my dear ones! Fear the
needfreeness of Allah and His anger and His wrath! Do not grow arrogant nor have pride of the
scared knowledge and its benefits, that He taught you. After saying this he lifted his head towards
the sky and said, O my Maula! This was not my opinion about you that You will humiliate and
defame me, and that You will throw me out of your doors. Saying this he started urging his plea to
his Rabb and started crying. Then he said, O Shibli! Look at what is apart from yourself and seek

heed.Hazrat Shibli(r.a) replied crying, O my Rabb! We beseech you only to seek help and we
beseech you with our urges and in our every action and task we trust you alone. Cast away this
misfortune from us that except You no one is able to caste it away.The pigs listening to his crying
and his painful voice, as soon as they heard, gathered around him and they also started crying
aloud. The Shaykh was crying helplessly burning in his own agony. Hazrat Shibli(r.a) said,
Shaykh you were the Hafiz of the Quran and you would recite the Quran in all of the seven
dialects, do you still remember any ayah from the Quran?The Shaykh replied, O dear one! I
remember only two Ayahs from the Quran and there is nothing more that I can recall, one of the
ayah are:

. Whomever GOD shames, none will honour him.

Everything is in accordance with GOD's will.(Al-Hajj 22:18)

( And he who changes Faith for disbelief, verily, he has
gone astray from the right way. (Al-Baqarah 2:108)

Hazrat Shibli(r.a) then said, Ya Shaykh! You had 3000 ahadith along with their narrators,
memorized and were fluent on your tongue. Now do you still remember any one from them.He said:
(
He who changes his religion (i.e. apostates) kill him. Related by Al )
Bukhari.

Hazrat Shibli(r.a) says that seeing this condition of the Shaykh we left him for Baghdad. We had
only crossed three stops that we suddenly saw our Shaykh ahead of us that he came out of a stream
of water after having taken a ghusl and in a loud clear voice he was saying the words of the
Kalimah Shadah, witnessing over Allahs oneness and that Muhammad was His messenger, over
and over again. The extent and the degree of our happiness could only be known by one who knew
the depth of our worry and anxiety. We asked our Shaykh what was the guise to this very issue? The
Shaykh said, Yes. When we had arrived in the village and in the temples and the churches, the fire
worshippers; seeing them worshipping of other than Allah and being engrossed in it, filled me with
arrogance and pride in my heart. And their rose a sense of superiority within me that we the
momins are so dignified and reputed while these people were so unfortunate, stupid, ignorant and
foolish that they worshipped things that did not respond and were completely irrelevant what so
ever. It was at that time that I heard an unseen voice which called out to me and said, This Imaan
and Tawheed is not your personal talent, that everything is Our Taufeeq. Do you take your Imaan
to be a thing of your authority? And if you would like should We tell this to you now? And that
moment I realized that as if a bird had just flown out of my heart. Which as a fact was the Imaan.

This was the only thing that I had to make a point of in this entire story, says the author. Takabbur
is such an evil thing that it doesnt even spare the Shaykh and the Mashaikh. May Allah protect us
and He is the only one can be Merciful to us, and may He save us from such trials and tribulations.
{Extracts of Ummul Amraaz by Hazrat Shaykh ul Hadith Maulana Muhammad Zakarriyah
Sahab Rehmat ullahalayh.}
Alhumdulillah, today was rare to me, it seemed that I had just been saved! Truly, I couldnt have
been saved if Allah didnt rescue me. Allah is there. So He was, so He is and so He will be. It was
Allah who made me fold in prostration before Him. It was then that I realized that we are in His
Mercy.
Jazakumullah khairun.
Kashana Nidal