The Real Goal Of Our Lives And The Secret Of Happiness

 Al Fatiha. 'A'udhu bil-Lahi min al-Shaytan al-rajim. Bismi-Llahi, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. Al-hamdulil-Lahi Rabbi al-Alameen, bari' al-khalaa'iqi ajma'een. Wa as-salat wa as-salam 'ala asharaf al-Anbiya'i wa al-Mursalin, Sayyidina, wa Nabiyyina, wa habibi qulubina, wa tabibi nufusina, wa shafi'i dhunubina, Abil Qasim Muhammad. [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'aali Muhammad]. Thumma as-salatu wa as-salamu 'ala Ahli baytihi, at-tayyibin, at-taharin, al-madhlumin. Wa la'anatu Allahi ala a'da'ihim ajma'in min yawmi 'adawatihim ila yawm id-deen.

Amma ba'ad, faqad qala Allahu Tabaraka wa Ta'ala fi kitabih, wa Huwa asdaq ul-qa’ilin. "Wasbir nafsaka ma'a alladheena yad'oona Rabbahum bilghadaati wa al-'ashiyyi [yureedoona wajhahoo] wa la ta'du 'aynaka 'anhum tureedu zeenata al-hayati ad-dunya wa la tuti' man aghfalna qalbahoo 'an dhikrina wa attaba'a hawahu wa kana amruhoo furuta" (18:28). Salawat ala Muhammad wa aali Muhammad [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad wa ajjal farajahum].

The ayat of Qur'an that I have had the honor of reciting before you is from Surat ul-Kahf, Chapter 18 of the Qur'an, verse twenty eight, in which Allah speaks to his beloved Prophet Rasul Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad]. Because the address is in the singular "Wasbir nafsaka", you O Habib, but it applies to all those who follow him, then to the mu'minin and bear with patience yourself. "Wasbir nafsaka ma'a alladheena yad'oona Rabbahum bilghadaati wa al-'ashiyyi yureedoona wajhahoo" (18:28). Bear with patience with those who call out to their Lord and supplicate him morning and night. That means continuously. Seeking nothing but closeness to their lord, seeking proximity, seeking a higher consciousness and greater awareness of their creator and their source and origin.

"Yureedoona wajhahoo wa la ta'du 'aynaka 'anhum tureedu zeenata al-hayati ad-dunya" (18:28). And do not be distracted in your vision and in your goal and in your single minded pursuit by those who are distracted and attracted by the beauty of this world. In other words, the constant remembrance of Allah, morning and night stands in opposition to being distracted by 'zeenata al-hayati ad-dunya'. "Wa la ta'du 'aynaka 'anhum tureedu zeenata al-hayati ad-dunya wa la tuti' man aghfalna qalbahoo 'an dhikrina" (18:28). And do not obey or follow or listen to one whose heart we have made heedless from our remembrance.

"Wa attaba'a hawahu" (18:28), and you will see that he is constantly running after his desires and his lust. "Wa kana amruhoo furuta" (18:28), and if you look at such a person whose heart is veiled from our remembrance and is constantly running after his desires, you will see that he does not have any single goal in life. His affairs are all scattered. "Wa kana amruhoo furuta" (18:28), today he runs after this, tomorrow he runs after that. Today this is the goal, tomorrow that is the goal. He has no sense of purpose that this is the end that I need to get to. He is just running here and there based on his physical needs and desires.

Now, this verse speaks of very many different themes. And I've used this verse last year as well to speak on different ideas like hawa, for example, "wa attaba'a hawahu" (18:28), but what I wish to do this afternoon, inshaAllah, with the Barakat of Aba 'Abdillahi al-Husayn, 'alayhi as-salam [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad], is talk about this idea of living life with with consciousness versus living life with a sense of heedlessness, and this idea of being Ghafil versus being constantly in the dhikr of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. Because the verse speaks "wa la tuti' man aghfalna qalbahoo 'an dhikrina" (18:28), and do not follow one whose heart is heedless of our remembrance.

Broadly speaking, what this verse is doing, it is dividing all of humanity and all of us in particular as Muslims into two groups. There is one group that is heedless, that is Ghafil, and there is one group that is in a state of wakefulness, that is conscious, that is aware. And the dhikr here is not simply recitation with the lips, where I sit on the prayer mat and do Subhana Allah, Subhana Allah, Subhana Allah, all morning or night, but my heart is somewhere else, my desires are something else. But this state of complete presence in the now and wakefulness and consciousness.

Now, the natural question to this then is how do I measure myself and identify which group I belong to? Most of us, out of a sense of humility, would say I'm in a state of Ghafla, I am not in a state of wakefulness. But there are degrees even in the state of Ghafla and in the state of wakefulness. So I want to place myself somewhere on this continuum from heedlessness to complete wakefulness. The way to understand this is to first look at what are the sources or inputs to our experience as humans in this life.

We know we come to this world from the wombs of our mothers, and we will live here for a short while. Some will live for four decades, some five, some six, some seven. Nobody lives for more than ten decades. There are very few that crossed the age of hundred. And those who reach even a hundred they are usually not famous for anything other than their age. In other words, even though we strive for a long life very often, once we get to an old age, we really can't do much. There is not much productivity that we have.

So really the life that we have is very short. And in this life, the experience we have, the human experience we have is driven by certain inputs, by certain sources. And I want to narrow these down to three and then challenge you to think of anything else besides these three. Everything that occupies us from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep can only fall into three categories. One, our thoughts. Two, our emotions and feelings. And three, our sensory perceptions and experiences. Sensory would be the five senses. So what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste and what we touch.

Now, I challenge you to think of anything outside this that occupies you during the day when you interact with other creatures, human or non-human, when you interact with this world or this place that we have come into to exist for a limited period of time.

From the time we come enter the world through the wombs of our mother to the time we exit to the grave at the cemetery between these two entry points and exit points, is there anything else that you can think of that occupies you that acts as a mediator between you and what you interact with, whether it is a living thing or a non-living, whether it is human or animal, whether it is an object your life, your spouse, your children, your job, the country you live in, the clothes you wear, the car you drive, everything you see, desire. You are limited to these three. You are driven in your understanding of religion, your understanding of what is right and wrong, your understanding of what your goals in life should be, your understanding of how to conduct yourselves to these three, thoughts, emotions and physical senses, the five sensory perceptions. So these are our inputs.

Now, the difference between those who are conscious and awake versus those who are in a state of heedlessness is that those who are in Ghafla, when they engage in these three sources or three mediums, they are completely identified by them so that they don't see themselves separate from them, and I will give you examples to make this clear.

When they think thoughts, they completely identify with those thoughts as being their thoughts. They are not able to see that some of those thoughts are from Shaytan or some of those thoughts are angelic and they are a blessing from Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. That it is an angel whispering or a devil whispering. They completely identify that these are my thoughts.

When they feel feelings, they completely identify with these as my feelings. I am angry. I am sad. I am happy. I am filled with lust or I am filled with anger. They completely identify with the emotions. And when they engage with their physical senses as well, they are completely in that experience. They don't see themselves from outside as someone experiencing those or interacting through those five senses.

In opposition to these are those who are in a state of wakefulness. Those who are in a state of wakefulness, they are rooted and connected to something higher. They are in a constant state of remembrance of their origin. So they still can experience and enjoy the life of this world. But they do it in a sense that is detached. They can see their thoughts coming in and leaving their mind. They can see an emotion enter and leave their body. They can see themselves and reflect on what they are doing when they are engaging in something physical, whether it is pleasurable or painful. Now, let's take a few examples, if you can recite a salwaat ala Muhammad [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad].

Consider for example, a person who loses his temper and in an unguarded moment becomes extremely angry and starts hitting his child. He may regret it afterwards, but at that point in time, while he slaps his child, hits his child, punishes his child, humiliates his child, abuses his child, puts down his child, he is completely identified with those emotions and thoughts because he is asleep, he is in a state of Ghafla. Someone who is awake will never do that, because he never says, I am angry. He says there is anger in me. There's a big difference when you say I am angry and when you say there is anger in me, you don't identify with that emotion. When we have an argument with our spouse, when we fight with someone at work, when we are sitting in traffic and someone cuts us and we honk and we shout and we race with them and we show them the finger and this four letter words being exchanged, we are completely identified with that experience.

When we sit to eat something we love, when we eat that food with lust and pleasure, we are completely identified with the sensory experience of taste. When we are watching a movie, we are completely into that movie. There is no sense of I am experiencing something as a spiritual being. On the other hand, one who is wakeful, it is almost as if he is above his body and he is watching himself from above. Imagine for a moment, wa al-iyyadhu bi-Llah, if I was hitting my child, but at that point in time I was able to see myself like a camera from the top of the room and now I am watching from above my body hitting the child. It would be a very different experience, wouldn't it? Because now I don't identify with that.

Imagine I am eating the same food that gives me pleasure, but I sit and reflect on what is it that is happening. This is a physical body that needs food for energy. There is a hole in my face that is called the mouth. There are bones on my finger here in my skeleton that can lift the food. I know this might spoil your experience afterwards when you're eating, but stay with me for a moment and think about it. I lift this food and I put this in the hole in my mouth and then there are bones inside that break, this food and chew. And there is a piece of flesh in my mouth, the tongue that gives me the taste. And then I gulp and there is a pipe that pushes it down into my stomach.

Now I eat with a very different sense and attitude that is utter humility. I witnessed the miracle of what is happening here, the health, the breath, the way the body is digesting this food. And every morsel I eat, there is a sense of 'Shukr' to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. There is a sense of gratitude, there is a sense of humility that how humble and weak and limited this body is, but how great the spiritual being is that it is able to recognize the Creator of this whole universe and this experience that I am having. Right. So that same thing, this one is eating, this one is eating. This one is getting sweet taste, this one is getting sweet taste. This one is getting salty this one is... But the experience is very different. One eats with greed, with lust, with arrogance. One eats with awakefullness, with humility, with dhikr of Allah.

And this is why Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib salawat Allahi wa as-salamu alayh [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad. Naare Haideri - Ya Ali. Salawat. Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad]. He says it is better to eat with the remembrance of Allah than to fast a mustahhab fast while you're in a state of Ghafla. Because the end goal is to become awake, to be a Dhakir or Dhakira, "wa dhakirin Allaha katheeran wa dhakirat" (33:35). So one person fills the stomach, and then burps with delight and says, Al-hamduli-Llah and another person eats just what he needs and says Al-hamduli-Llah, but there is heavens and earth difference between that Al-hamduli-Llah and this Al-hamduli-Llah they are not the same.

Now, if we take this discussion a step forward, when we look at humanity today, we find that most people are unhappy. And it's amazing how some people don't even realize this. But the moment you ask them, are you happy? And to think about it, they say, no, I'm not happy. Why is it that Allah creates us with so much love and sends us to this world to find him and promises us Jannah and gives us such a beautiful role models? But we are still miserable. Life is not happy. We seem to be just endlessly struggling like a donkey tied to a mill going round and round endlessly. There doesn't seem to be any purpose to life.

The reason why we are unhappy, we have found a reason and someone to blame. Usually we have found a reason. We either blame our parents because when we were young, they didn't give us opportunities, they didn't realize our potential, they didn't send us to university, they didn't do this for us, they didn't do that. Because it's easy to blame someone, right? Don't realizing that our children will blame us as well. Or we blame our spouse. If I wasn't married to this person, I would have gone far in life or this would have happened. Or we blame our children. If I didn't have children, I would have so much free time. I could have done this. I could have done that. Or we blame our boss, or we blame the country we live in, or we blame the system or we blame the, you know the community or we blame or we blame. In the end, we don't get anyone.

Then we blame Allah. We don't say it. But there is a resentfulness that if Allah wanted me to become such a great person, why did he not give me the opportunity? So we are constantly looking at immediate reasons and cause and effect and looking for someone who can take the blame for why we are unhappy and why we have not succeeded in life and attained that great ideals that we had from the time we were youth. But I want to suggest that the reason we are unhappy is not the apparent reason. Even if you have just had a fight with someone and you think that is the cause of your unhappiness, that is not the reason we are unhappy as human beings.

The reason we are unhappy is because we have lost that connection and that touch and sense of connection to our origin and our source, which is Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala and I have said this before, that because we cannot exist without Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, it is impossible to disconnect from him. But it is possible to be in a state of Ghafla so that you are not aware of that connection that already exists. And because we have lost that sense of the presence of this origin and source, the presence of Allah constantly in our lives.

So He says Himself: "wa Huwa ma’akum ayna ma kuntum" (57:4), He is with you constantly wherever you are. "Ud'ooneee astajib lakum" (40:60), Call me, I will answer you. "Wa idha sa'laka ‘ibaadee ‘annee, fa innee qareeb" (2:186), when my servant asks you about me, I am sitting right besides him. I am with you. "Wa Nahnu aqrabu ilaihi min hablil wareed" (50:16), We are closer to you than your jugular vein. We cannot be any closer to you than what we are to you.

Allah says. 'Qalb ul-m'umin arsh ur-Rahman', 'the heart of a m'umin is the throne of Allah'. 'La yasauni sama'ee' 'the heavens and the earth cannot contain Me and hold Me. But the heart of a m'umin can contain Me'. So He is so present with us. He loves us so much. He is constantly giving us attention. We think of Him, He is with us, but we are asleep, we are in a state of Ghafla. And because of the state of heedlessness, and that is why Allah constantly tells us in the Qur'an that if you forget me, I will not lose anything but you will harm yourselves. 'Wa ma dhalamuna wa lakin kanu anfosahum yadhlemoon" (16:118), 'they never did any injustice to us when the disobeyed us, but they were doing dhulm on their own selves'. "La takoonoo kalladheena nasu Allaha fa ansahum anfusahum" (59:19), 'do not be like those who forgot Allah so not he forgot them. No, so they forgot their own selves'. Those who forget Allah. He makes them forget their own selves.

"Wa idha qara’tum ul-Qur'ana ja’alnaa bainaka wa baina alladheena laa yu’minoona bi 'l-akhirati hijaban mastooraa" (17:45), 'when you recite the Qur'an, we immediately create a barrier between you and those who have no faith in the hereafter'. Right. "Wa man ya’shu ‘an dhikr ar-Rahmani nuqayyid lahoo Shaitanan fa huwa lahoo qareen" (43:36), 'whoever turns away from the remembrance of Allah, we immediately appoint a shaitan for him, he becomes his companion'. Then he keeps you occupied with the world. And that is where all the root of the unhappiness comes.

But the moment you turn away from this remembrance of Allah and the problem again here is that when we talk of Allah being present in our lives, we think of Him in physical terms. Most people who say they believe in Allah, if you ask them who is Allah they don't understand Allah is just an abstract concept of some 'Being' who created us, but who is Allah, that deep sense of realization that He is the 'Only Reality' and the 'True Consciousness' and the 'Origin' and 'Source' of everything and nothing exists without Him, and He is present in every particle and everything that exists even at a beyond subatomic level. The total consciousness that everything is, cannot escape Allah is missing in our lives in a very active sense. That is why the mystics say that if you, when an atheist says where is Allah, show me Allah, I don't see Allah, what is the proof of Allah, it is, as absurd. He is so present overwhelmingly that He appears absent because of the excessive manner with which He is present.

And the example they give is that if you went into an ocean and you spoke to a fish and you said to the fish, you cannot exist without water, the fish would look around and say water, where is water. I don't see any water because he is so immersed in the water, he doesn't see the water. The one who is outside sees the water and the fish. So you look around and you say where is Allah I don't see Allah. He is so present that he appears absent. You are drowning in Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, but you don't know that.

So the idea that we are trying to get to that, the Qur'an speaks of that, Muhammad and Aali Muhammad, alayhum as-salam are telling us to get to [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad. Naare Haideri - Ya Ali. Salawat. Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad], is to find this light of consciousness, to find this connection, to wake up to this reality so that we see when we put aside our mind-made egoic selves and we don't identify with our thoughts and emotions and senses, and we look at it from the outside and we wake up to the beauty of this world, then then life is beautiful. The universe is beautiful. Death is beautiful. Calamities are beautiful. You see the miracle of Allah in everything. You see the miracle of Allah when someone dies, you see the miracle of Allah when someone is born. You see the miracle of Allah when someone is rich, you see the miracle of Allah in poverty. You see the miracle of Allah in health, you see the miracle of Allah in sickness.

And this is the maqaam that Ibrahim alayhi as-salam had reached. That is why you see in the Qur'an when he talks about it, he attributes everything to Allah. 'Wa idha maridtu fa Huwa yashfeen" (26:80), 'And when I am sick, it is He who makes me well'. He knows it is medicine that he eats, but he sees Allah even in that medicine at every level, he surrenders to Him.

And when we lose this identity, then we are always unhappy. Then we are always upset. Then we just need an excuse. Then everything irritates us. We are unhappy because of the mosquito that is buzzing around us. We are unhappy because there is traffic. We are unhappy because it is humid and hot today. We are unhappy because the stock markets fail. We are unhappy because the gas prices have gone up. We are unhappy because the wife doesn't stop telling us things and jabbing and making us, you know, annoying us and irritating us.

On the flip side, when we find Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, then nothing annoys us. It's not because we now learn to control ourselves or we detach ourselves from everything else so that nothing can come in, annoy us or make us unhappy, but it's because we are now connected to something deeper. We transcend the circumstances of life. The face value experiences and thoughts and emotions and sensory experiences no longer have the ability to control us. And so we rise above that. And now we are able to walk around as a being that is benevolent, that is compassionate towards humanity, that is filled with peace. There is so much peace within us then, that when we sit in the presence of others, we spread the peace and sense of oneness to others and they are attracted to it. And that is why you see it is in our Fitrah that we are attracted to people who are mystical, to people who are spiritual, people who are more connected to a higher being and to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala.

We find that this example is given to us time and time again in Hadith as well. Amir al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib, salawat Allahi wa as-salamu alayh, for example says: 'Al-yakdhatu noor', yakdha is to wake up in Arabic, we say 'ikadh min an-nawm' to wake up from sleep, 'Al-yakdhatu noor', Amir al-Mu'minin says that when you get to that point in life where you shatter the ego and you wake up to reality and you are able to see your thoughts and emotions and senses from the outside and you become an enlightened being, you are filled with light you get a sense that you have come out from darkness into light.

And Allah says this in the Qur'an again and again that obey Allah and His Messenger, come to the message of, to what the Messenger gives you so that you may become alive and that you may take from Rasul Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam: "idha da’akum limaa yuhyeekum" (8:24), 'respond and answer the Prophet when he calls you to that, which will give you life'. 'Idh [wa] kuntum amwatan fa ahyakum' (2:28). 'You are dead. That means right now you're walking and talking, you're jumping, you're doing everything, but you are dead. You're not alive in Allahs eyes. Come to what He calls you, find him and you will sense that you have moved from death to life, from darkness to noor, from dhulumaat to noor that this why he says, 'Al-yakdhatu noor'.

In Ayat ul-Kursi as well, we talk we say "Allahu waliyyu alladheena amanoo" (2:257), Allah is the guardian of those who have faith. "Yukhrijuhum min adh-dhulumati ila an-Noor" (2:257), 'He takes them out of darkness into light'. 'Wa alladheena kafaru" (2:257), and 'those who are faithless', "awliyaaa’uhum ut-taghoot" (2:257), 'their companions are the rebels are the devils'. "Yukhrijoonahum min an-Noori ila adh-dhulumat" (2:257), 'They put them into a state of sleep'. So what is this movement? From dark to light and light to darkness? It's not physical light. It is from a state of heedlessness to a state of wakefulness, from a state of being dead to a state of the heart being awake and being alive.

But the same imam who says "Al-yakdhatun noor', he laments that people are very difficult to wake up. He says, 'al-nasoo niamun', people are asleep, 'idha matoo, ittabaho' when they die, they wake up. When the soul is separated from the body, then it's like, you know, coming out of the water to take a breath. And oh, I was asleep all this time. I missed out on the purpose of my existence. I did not live at all. He complains to his companions in Kufa.

If you look at Nahjul Balagha, he says, Is there no way to wake you up O' insaan? Is there no way to convince you to turn away from your thoughts and emotions and physical senses in this world and turn towards the dhikr of Allah? Is there no way to give you that 'Hamasa', that zeal to be dedicated to finding Allah? He says 'Malee arakum a'shbaahan bilaa arwaah'. Why is it that when I look at you, I see you physical beings, the skeletons that have no soul in them? You are like soulless beings. You are like just empty skeletons that have no life in them. 'Aikhadhun nouwamoon' you are awake, yet you are asleep. 'Shuhudan ghuyyaban' you are looking at me, you are present, yet you are absent. 'Naadhiratan umyanan' you are looking at me, yet you are blind. He is lamenting. He says I can see because he is an enlightened being. I see your physical bodies, but they have no souls. You are awake yet you are asleep. You are present, yet you are absent. You are looking at me, but you are blind. And this is the lament of the imams, of the prophet constantly, that if you knew what we know, you would have cried a lot and you would have laughed less.

You see in hadith al-Qudsi as well Allah says: 'Ajibtoo liman aiqanab il-mawt, kaifa yudhaq', I'm amazed at the person who is absolutely certain he is going to die, how does he laugh? You know, where do you get this 'juraa' to be so arrogant about life, to think that everything you have is because of your knowledge and your hard work, to trample on others, to humiliate others, to turn away the beggar, to have no time for Allah. It is a state of heedlessness until death comes and we are forced to wake up.

So as we draw to a conclusion, what we are saying is that as mu'minin taking inspiration from all this and from the ayats of Qur'an, it is important that we stay focused. First I say to myself and then to all of you that we should not be fooled by those who are driven by this world, and who whisper into our ears this desires to excel and go far in life and in career. Certainly we should do that, but they make us forget the hereafter. And we live in a society where death is not only hidden, but God is hidden. You will attest to this most of you who live here, who work in corporate world, who work in societies, can you openly and comfortably talk about God at your workplace? What do people think of you if you start talking about God or Allah?

So Allah has been removed from the workplace. Look at the TV, look at the radio, look at the commercials. Religion has been made a private affair. You want to talk about God, go to your mosque, go to your church, go to your private place of worship and talk about religion there. You cannot talk about it. The moment you talk about religion, you are seen as being someone who is odd or weird or backwards. This is what the world has become. It promotes you talk about atheism, you talk about sin, you talk about wrong, right, you talk about human independence, you talk about pluralism, everybody listens to you, puts you up on a pedestal. The result of this is that now humanity is not only asleep, but they are unhappy, and they look at everything from a material, physical and mind only.

And so they ask questions. They say if there was a God, why does he allow earthquakes to happen where millions of people die? If there was a God, why does he let a woman have a miscarriage? What was the point of her carrying a child for eight months and then losing the baby? If there was a God, why does a four year old child have cancer? If there was a God, then this old man who is in the hospital, who is suffering endlessly, aimlessly, why doesn't Allah take him away? Everything is determined in a physical material sense.

And these questions, people struggle to try and answer, the maulvi, that priest, everyone is trying to explain to it. For a moment, supposing we change our perspective and we see life as not a place we have come to stay, but a place where we have come to develop our souls, a place where we have come to find higher consciousness, a place where we have come to chisel and carve this soul so that when we die, our bodies that are pregnant with our souls give birth to our souls, and a beautiful creature, a butterfly emerges from that cocoon.

If we were to look at life for a moment from this perspective, none of these questions become irrelevant. Why? Because as a human being, from the time I am born, I am driven to be materialistic, I am driven to be selfish, I am driven to fight for survival, I am driven to go ahead of others so that I can survive. I am not patient when I don't get what I want. When I see danger, I free and flee and run like a coward.

Now what is it that will change these attributes in my soul and change me from being a coward to being courageous, from being impatient to being patient, from being selfish to being selfless, from being materialistic to being non materialistic. The only things that change it is suffering and pain and affliction. It is when I have to give away what I love, that I learn to be non materialistic. It is when I have to prefer others over myself that I have to be selfless and not selfish. It is when I have to face danger and not run away that I learn the meaning of courage and not to be a coward and overcome my fear. It is when I can't have what I want right now that I learn to be patient.

So now, suddenly, the earthquake becomes a means to avoid materialism, to witness the power of Allah, to help others, to extend compassion for humanity, to come together and overlook their hatred for each other. Suddenly, that miscarriage becomes an opportunity to surrender to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, to turn in submission to him. Suddenly everything becomes a miracle and everything becomes an opportunity to grow the soul.

If it wasn't for all these calamities and suffering, we would all die as materialistic, selfish, impatient cowards. But it is because of sufferings that some of us grow and become the followers of those who gave their lives in Karbala. I haven't come to masa'ib, but when you look at the history of Karbala, we always glorify this how the mothers sacrifice their sons, how they went into sajdah and did 'Shukr' to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. Where did they get all this from? They got it from their self and their development of their souls from before. But if Karbala had not happened, if that calamity had not happened, then the opportunity to do that 'Sajdah ash-Shukr' would not have been there. So the calamity becomes important. It becomes very important. [Nare Takbir. Allahu Akbar. Nare Takbir. Allahu Akbar. Naare Risalat. Ya Rasul Allah. Naare Haideri. Ya Ali. Salawat. Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad].

So I want to conclude then by saying that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala in Surat ul-Inshiqaq says: "Ya ayyuha al-insan, innaka kadehun ila Rabbika kadhan famulaqih" (84:8), O human being O' Insan You are constantly struggling and you are constantly working very, very hard and striving. You don't know this, but your struggle and striving is to find me is to find Allah, "innaka kaadehun ila Rabbika kadhan" (84:8), extremely your soul is struggling to find me 'famulaqih', and there will come a day you will meet Him. Now this mulaqih is liqaah of Allah, liqaah of Allah is not in a physical sense because Allah is not a physical being.

What is liqaah of Allah? In a word, it is this higher consciousness and awareness which can be attained to some degree in this world. And that is why in a final verse of Qur'an from Surat ul-Jathiyah, Allah says that 'on the Day of Judgment, those who turn away from this, those who avoid the dhikr of Allah, those who only occupy themselves with this world, those who do not care about developing their souls to come to this point where they will meet me, they will not meet me, they will not get this liqaa Allah. 'Wa qeela al-yawma nansaakum kamaa naseetum liqaa’a yawmikum hadha" (45:34), and it will be said to them this day you shall be forgotten the way you forgot this liqaaa of Allah. And they will be told "wa ma awa'kumun nar wa ma lakum min nasirin" (45:34), and now Hellfire shall be your abode and destiny, and there should be no one to come to your help.

And so, this is essentially the message to myself and to all of us that, yes, we struggle with life, we live in a world where Allah is not promoted, but we must never forget this message from Allah through His Messenger, through the Imams and the Qur'an, that our primary purpose in life is to find our creator and the Imams and the Prophet are the best teachers and guides for this. We have lots of role models and examples by which we can change some priorities in life initially, and then all of them eventually, so that everything we do in life is driven towards finding this higher consciousness towards Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala.

And the best example we find, as I said, is from Karbala. Two nights ago, we mourned for the young daughter of Sayud ush-Shuhadah, and she is known in the books of masa'ib, in history, she is known as Sayyida Ruqayya but in the South Asian or in the Indo-Pak tradition, she has come to be known as Sakina. And there are some narrations that say that her name may have been Sakina. And some say that Imam Al-Husayn had two daughters. He had an older one called Sakina, and he used to call Ruqayya, sometimes Sukayna. Because Sukayna is a diminutive, it means the little Sakina. But the word Sakina comes from tranquillity and the reason why Imam Al-Husayn would have called this child Sakina or Sukayna is because she was not an ordinary child, besides being the daughter of an imam, she was extremely, extremely intelligent and she understood matters where a four year old would not understand. And her presence alone brought this itminan and Sakina to Sayyid ush-Shuhadah.

He used to say, I do not like a home in which Rabab and Sakina are not there. The arbab of aza say, that the four year old had this habit that every night she would sleep on the chest of her father. And so she grew to this habit that she could not sleep, you know, when we read the masa'ib of Sakina we say that after Karbala, this child did not drink a lot of water or this child, did not eat a lot of food. I want to say to you that Sakina did not sleep a lot as well because she could not sleep without her baba. If she slept, she slept eventually in the zindaan of Shaam.

You have to think of this rationally from the perspective of a four year old, a four year old who in one day sees her brothers being killed, her ammu [uncle] Abbas being killed, her baba [father] being killed, the head of her father on a spear, her earrings being ripped from her ears, her dress being burnt, being tied in chains in a desert all alone. It is simply amazing the degree of masa'ib that this four year old could take. And I looked at the musibah of Sakina in many different angles. And I have seen that there were three main parts to which this girl suffered extremely. And I will not be able to speak about all three. I will speak about only one because each one of them is a masa'ib in its own.

One was the masa'ib of losing her ammu Abbas and not getting the water. There is a whole masa'ib of how she waited for water and how she never asked for water after Abbas 'alayhi as-salam. She had this deep attachment to her uncle Abbas. You know shaheed Professor Sibte Jaffer has this kalaam and this a'shaar that he reads in fazaail of Abul Fadhlil Abbas . And he begins that by saying "Panch Imamo karaha banke sahara Abbas''. And in that he has a line he said 'Chadre chinne pa yad aya har ek bibi ko, chadre chinne pa yad aya har ek bibi ko, har tamache pe Sakina ne pukara Abbas, har tamache pe Sakina ne pukara Abbas'.

The second musibah of Sakina was that she had this deep desire to return to Madina and you will see that even at the wida' she asked her baba that before you go, can you return me to Madina. And that itself is a masa'ib in itself. And the third most musibah, which was the greatest for her, was her attachment to her father. This musibah cannot be justified with any amount of masa'ib you recite because it was mutual, the degree to which Husayn loved Sakina and the degree to which Sakina loved Husayn. Some of the arbab of azaa say that when Husayn was leaving for the last time, Sakina was holding the feet of the horse and said to Zuljanah, 'do not take my baba'.

But I have read another riwaya that Sakina thought my baba will not leave without saying wida. So if I go and hide myself, then my baba will not go to the maidan. So she went and hid behind the tents and Husayn went around asking, where are you 'ya mohjata qalbi, ya kurrata a'ini'. O' the apple of my eyes, where are you? And she came behind the tents and he found Sakina playing with the sand. And he lifted her and said, Why are you sitting alone behind the tents, my child? She said, 'Baba do not go and make me an orphan. Mir Anees tries to capture this experience that how did Husayn leave Sakina for the last time? He says Sakina began saying to her baba, 'Baba, you know, I will not be able to sleep without you because I sleep on your chest'.

'Neend aigi jab ap ki boo paungi baba, mai raat ko maqtal mei chali aungi baba, farmaya nikalti nahi saydaniya bahar, chaati pe sulaigi tumhai raat ko maadar, usne kaha fir aaj kaha soyenge Asghar, Sheh bole ke bus zid na karo sadqe main tum par, shab hoagi aur dasht mei hum hongai bibi, Asghar mere saath aaj wahi soyenge'. 'Ajrukum ala Allah', 'Ajrukum ala Allah'.

I cannot understand how a four year old on Sham e ghareeba, in the dark of the night, where there are dead bodies lying all over. Why would a four year old leave the sight of her mother? No four year old would have the courage to leave her mother, but look at her attachment to her baba that she leaves her mother in a desert all alone, jumping over dead bodies, calling out baba because she wants to sleep, and she cannot sleep without Husayn. When Zainab 'alayhi as-salam finds Sakina, she's holding the feet of a body that has no head. And there is a voice saying 'Zaynab ahistaa ahistaa', my Sakina has finally fallen asleep. When Zaynab asked her, my child how did you know this was the body of your baba? There is no head or clothes on this body, she said my aunt Zaynab when I came out crying baba this body was calling out, saying, 'ilayaa ilayaa' come to me, my child, sleep for one last time. 'Ajrukum ala Allah'.

Sakina was taken in chains to Kufa and Shaam. Whenever Sakina fell from the camel, the head of Husayn stopped and would not move. Husayn would not leave without Sakina until she came to the zindaan of Shaam. In the zindaan of Sham, she would stand besides her brother Sajjad and look out. She would see the birds flying in the evening and say, 'my brother Sajjad where are they going? He would say to her, Sakina it is now evening. They are returning home. She would see little children holding the finger of their father walking home. She would say to her brother, Sajjad when will I go home as well, she kept crying for ammu Abbas. Again, Mir Anees here tries to capture this loneliness of Sakina in the zindaan of Shaam.

He says, 'Jab pyaas lagti roke chacha ko pukarti, dukhte jo kaan Shahe Huda ko pukarti, ata na jab koi to khuda ko pukarti, jeene se tang hoke qaza ko pukarti, kehti thi na chacha na imame umam rahe, rulwane ko adu rahe rone ko hum rahe, khai tamache shimr ke jabtak ke kha saki, sin kam tha dukh bhot the na bardasht kar saki'.

And on one night when she cried baba! And Yazid asked why is she crying and he was told the daughter of Husayn is crying for her father. And he sent the head of Husayn to the zindaan and Sakina saw the head of her father for the first time. The arbrab of aza say she put her cheek near the cheek of her father Husayn. First she cried for herself, 'abata man illadhi aitamani fi 's-segari sinnee'. Baba, who made me yateem at such a young age. Baba, did you not see how Shimr was slapping me? Baba, did you not see my dress was on fire? Baba, did you not see my ears were bleeding? Baba, I kept calling ammu Abbas, he never came. Then Sakina saw the blood on Husayn's beard, 'karima bint al-karim', she began crying for her baba. 'Abata man illadhi qata'a baridak', Baba who separated your head from your body, baba before Shimr killed you did he give you any water? Baba who covered your beard with the blood of your head.

She cried baba, baba until she fell asleep when Imam Sajjad moved her, he rose and cried, 'Inna li-Llah, wa inna ilayhi raji'un', the ghassalah came, the dress of Sakina was burnt and attached to her body. She could not remove the dress. She asked Sajjad. Did this child have a disease? I cannot remove the dress from the wounds on her body. No ghassalah, leave her. I will bury her the way she is. When this kaafila returned to Karbala, Zaynab came to the zindaan, she threw herself on the qabr of Sakina. Beti, you wanted to go to Madinah. Wake up Sakina, it is time to go to Madinah, my child! I go back to Karbala. Your baba will ask me, Zaynab where is my amanah? Wa Husayna! Waa Ghareeba! Matam al-Husayn!