A Spiritual Malaise and its Cure

A human’s spiritual maladies are many, some worse than tothers. But one that ranks among the worst is the disease of lust and servitude to base desires. Our Beloved Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wasallam), whose life mission was to emancipate man from the slavery of lust and desire and deliver him to the servitude of One God and Supreme Creator, warned us in the following sombre but eloquent words: “I fear three things for my Ummat: The deviation of lowly desires, servitude to passions of the stomach and private parts, and negligence after Ma’rifat (recognition). “ (Kanzul Ummal). In another solemn warning, Our Beloved Rasool sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said: “The destructive diseases are: Desires that are followed, niggardliness that is obeyed, and the satisfaction of each man with his opinion.” (Tabrani). It is thus clear that submission to lowly desires and lust is a deadly spiritual malady that requires urgent treatment.

It is a unique and amazing attribute of Our Beloved Messenger that he had his finger on the pulse of every human trait and behaviour. You would not find any other scripture highlighting man’s spiritual sicknesses as our Quran and Hadith does. Indeed, mankind has witnessed an unprecedented surge in passion and desire, a phenomenon that has engulfed the entire human race. The bane of all our woes has been and still is our subservience to lust and passions. It is this lust and passion that has broken up marriages, destroyed morality of both young and old, divested its victims of wealth, health, and wisdom, and has left many a reputation in tatters. Servitude to lust is like an addiction; nay, it is addiction itself. The difference between addiction to intoxicants and addiction to lust is that the first affects the physical body while the second affects man spiritually. A drug and alcohol addict needs physical help. He needs to have his system cleansed and detoxified. The lust addict, on the other hand, needs to have his rooh purged and flushed, for his illness does not directly attack the physical body. However, the effect lustful and passionate acts have on the physical side of man is disastrous to say the least.
A drug addict would have to attend a rehabilitation centre to quit the habit, while the alcoholic has to be placed in a similar environment to break out of alcoholism. Even psychologically affected people are placed in a centre to help them recover from their mental and emotional ills. But where does a lust-addict go to get himself cleansed and cured? Well, this problem was detected and deliberated over centuries ago by the doctors of Deen. It was for the purpose of treating spiritually ill patients that they established centres called Khanqah or Zaawiya (in Middle Eastern countries). The khanqah is an establishment comprising several rooms for single people. The seeker of spiritual reform will live in one of these rooms and under the guidance of the Shaikh who administers the Khanqah, will spend time in zikr, ibaadat, meditation, and attend discourses on Deeni matters. This is the spiritual rehab where seekers of islaah or moral regeneration come to cure themselves. Alas, this concept is slowly dying off in the Muslim world today.

Be that as it may, it remains a faradh obligation to seek cures for our spiritual maladies. Allah has commanded as follows: “He who has purified his soul has certainly achieved great success; and he who has polluted his soul has certainly suffered great loss.” (Surah Shams, verses 9 and 10) Lust in man is centred mainly around woman; hence the resultant sin is zinaa and related acts.

A man once wrote to Hazrat Moulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi that he had fallen in love with a woman. He was extremely perplexed and feared that his obsession with this female would result in zinaa. All his thoughts, talks, and motives were pervaded by infatuation with this woman. The man was sick, so he turned to a spiritual doctor for treatment. We will reproduce the gist of the cure mentioned to this man by Hazrat Thanwi (RA), who the Muslim world unanimously acclaimed as the Reformer of the last century and one of the greatest doctors of Deen produced in the Indo-Pak subcontinent. Unlike physical medicine that works for some and not for others, the cures of Deen are beneficial to all who sincerely seek reformation. This wonderful cure, too, can cure anyone who suffers from the disgraceful and shameless sin of fornication. Hazrat Thanwi mentioned the following points as a cure for illicit love and resultant zinaa:

Have a bath, don clean clothes and offer two rakaats Tauba Salaah. Recite Surah Kaafiroon in the first rakaat and Surah Nasr in the second. Thereafter remain seated and make one tasbeeh of istighfaar. Then make a sincere dua of repentance. While crying before Allah, feel shame and remorse, beg Him for forgiveness, and promise Him that you will not repeat this sin. Recite as much istighfaar as possible.
Read the verses of the Holy Quran and the Ahadeeth of our Rasool sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that explain the punishment for zinaa. Contemplate daily over these punishments

Spend some time in seclusion and make the zikr of LAA ILAAHA ILLALLAH, adding the words MUHAMMADUR RASOOLULLAH every now and then. This zikr should be done loudly and for a short while, but it must be done consistently. As the days go by, gradually increase the time spent in this zikr. When uttering the words LAA ILAAHA imagine that you are expelling all thoughts and inclinations of the dunyaa from the heart; when saying ILLALLAH imagine that the Overwhelming Presence of Allah is filling this heart.

Break off all communications with the woman. Expel all thoughts of her from the mind. If her image or thought crosses the mind recite Laa howla wa laa quwwat illah billah in abundance.

If the thought of this woman persists then begin swearing her in your mind. Insult her with the worst swear words you can think of. Make her out for the worst human being on earth. But this must all be done in the mind. Such an approach will diminish love for her, which is the ultimate aim.

Make regular dua to Allah while shedding tears, that He cures you from the grip of this lust. Such duas of a desperate one never go unheeded by Allah The Almighty.
(Extracted from the book At Takash-shuf)

The aforementioned cures were also administered by Hazrat Thanwi (RA) to an adult male who had become attracted to a young lad and was in danger of committing the evil sin of homosexuality. When ministering the above, Hazrat Moulana Thanwi said: ‘I have no doubt that this remedy will cure him of the sickness, provided he is sincere and does what he is told.’ (Al-Ifaadaat)

A CURE FOR MARRIED MEN
Another evil that has smitten our society is the adulterous escapades of our married males. There are some poor souls who threw away their good wives for the sake of cheap, lurid women outside nikah. At the peril of their marriages, some of our brothers flit from one woman to another, without the least shame and regret. Every time the wife unearths an affair, the husband swears that he will not repeat the sin. The moment the dust settles and everything is back to normal, the man then strikes up another haraam relationship. Soon the wife finds out about this new adulterous liaison, and the whole process is repeated. This is repeated over and over, until eventually the marriage totally disintegrates.

The logic in this is quite simple. Any woman who is prepared to entertain a married man in an extra-marital relationship is wicked in the extreme. Had this woman any morals in the first place, she would not have allowed any contact between herself and the other man, married or single. The pure religion of Islam militates vehemently against such illicit love. There is absolutely no scope in Islam for illicit liaisons and extra-marital affairs. We now provide a form of contemplation for married men that will Insha Allah, cure them from zinaa.

Spend a few minutes daily, in seclusion to think of the consequences if people in the community found out about this haraam and evil relationship. Let your imagination run away with you for a while by pondering over the disgrace and humiliation that comes upon one whose love-affair is exposed to the community. Imagine what this will do to one’s reputation; what would friends and partners say? What juicy gossip this would be for the women of one’s community! What would my parents say, and what would my own children think of me? Indeed, I would have failed every person in my circle who held me in high esteem! I would become the laughing stock of the town” Just imagine: People who respected me for years would be disgusted to know that I, the ‘Mr. Pious’ in the eyes of the community, have been exposed as an adulterous leach! Just think: ‘How would I face people, and would I still be able to hold up my head and walk in society after this disaster?’
Almighty Allah has granted man a wonderful gift in the form of brains and contemplative powers. By using this mind to conjure up consequences for one’s sin, consequences that are not imaginary or far-fetched but happen daily before our eyes, one will soon develop a terrible fear of being exposed and will eventually eliminate all haraam love from the heart. The fear of one’s dirty linen being laid bare to the society would become so dominant that one would actually start detesting such illicit affairs. This cure can be used in addition to the others mentioned earlier, and Insha Allah, the results will be forthcoming.

A bit of good news for those of us involved in zinaa, as mentioned by the Auliyaa: one who has succeeded in cleansing himself from the sin of zinaa totally, will progress more rapidly than others in his spiritual life.

The late Shafeequl-Ummah Hazrat Moulana Muhammd Farouq Sahib (RA) says: At the precise moment when a sinner turns to Allah in repentance, the Special Mercy and Acceptance of Allah gushes forth in torrents. The sinner should then start ‘looting and plundering’ this abundant Goodness that Allah has let loose at the time of taubah.’

Subhanallah! How great was the vision of these Auliyaa! May Allah grant us all cure from our spiritual maladies through the blessings of these pious souls, aameen!

CURE FOR SECRET SINNERS
Man’s lust drives him to do the weirdest of things. A person under the seizure of lust is like a drunken individual. All sense of good becomes temporarily paralyzed. For this reason the hadith says that iemaan exits the heart of one involved in lustful acts. It is due to this dominance of lust that the individual goes on to pornography, chat-rooms, filthy websites, dirty magazines, MXit, cell-phone porn, and a host of other evils. All these evils that provide illicit sensation via modern-day technology were created by shaytaans (devils) who had sold their souls to the Big Iblees. In the privacy of the home, car, workplace or office, behind computer screens, and under the cover of darkness people perpetrate these evils to achieve carnal satisfaction. Some of the more shameless brand of humans do these things openly in front of others. These people are terribly sick and need desperate treatment. Well, here is a great cure:

Contemplate that Allah is always watching. He is aware of my every move and thought, be it in the privacy of my bedroom or basement, or the freedom of a holiday resort, or in the middle of an island. He sees every single act of my eyes and hands, and hears every sound that escapes from my lips. “My Allah is watching! How dare I behave so immorally!”

Do this continuosly at a fixed time of the day and, Insha Allah, the effect will be achieved.