Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.  Allah’s Blessingd and Salutations be upon the Noblest of the messengers, our Master and Maulana Mohammed, his family, companions, offspring, pious descendant and wives, the mothers of the believers.

It has been narrated in the ‘Hadeeth Qudsi’, “The most lovable thing to me, that a servant can do to come nearer to me, is to perform the duties I made obligatory on him (Fara-id). In addition, my servant continues to draw nearer to me by performing supererogatory acts of worship (Nawafil) until I love him. Should I love him, I become his sense of hearing, his power of sight, his striking hands, and his walking feet.  Should this servant ask Me, I should certainly give him, and should he seek refuge in Me, I should protect him..”.  From this ‘Hadeeth Qudsi’ we conclude that Allah –SWT- of all the acts of worship, He likes the obligatory duties, but of all the servant’s acts, only the supererogatory ones bring Allah’s love to the servant.

The supererogatory acts of worship are neither random or liberal acts nor are they addition to the religion. They are shadow of the obligatory duties (zel al-Fra-id), e.g., U’mrah is the shadow of Hajj, Alms giving (Sadaka) is the shadow of Zakat, any fasting after Ramadan is the shadow of the duty of fasting, and any prayer beyond the duty prayer is its shadow, and so on.
That have been said, do you know what is the Nafilah of the first pillar of Isalm’s Duties?

The first pillar of Islam consists of two parts: Firstly, to profess, “There is no god but Allah” (La Ilah-a Illa Allah), and its shadow is to mention Allah with His comprehensive Name ‘ALLAH’.  This is because the statement La Ilah-a Illa Allah, is made of 12 Arabic letters and if we remove the repeated letters only three will be left: Alif (A), Lam (L), and Ha (H), the same letters of the Name ‘ALLAH’. The second part of the ‘Profession’ (Shahadah) is to profess “Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah” (Mohammed Rasul-ul Allah) and its Nafilah is to mention Allah’s Blessings (Salah) upon the Prophet (SAAW).

Following the rule that the easier worship gets higher reward, it follows that the Nafilah of the two witnessings (al Shahadatin)  are the “Dhikr and Salat upon the Prophet (SAAW). This Nafilah is not restricted in any way, shape, form, time, place, travel, condition, quorum, hunger, spending the night or any other sort of limitation whatsoever. It is free of any condition for two reasons: First, to be easy to do, second, no one can excuse him/herself from doing it as it is within the capability of the weakest creature of Allah, and does not require wealth, health or specific location or any other conditions, including even during recitation of the Quran. Allah –SWT- said in the Quran “Wa Edha Qurea Al Quran Fastamia’ou Lahu wa- Anseto La’lakum Torhamoun”, which can be translated as ( When the Quran is read, listen to it with attention, and hold your peace: that you may receive Mercy). Then Allah –SWT- said right after that “Wadhkur Rabbaka fi Nafsika Tadr-rua’an wa Khifatan wa Duna Al-Jahr..”,  which can be translated as (and do bring your Lord to remembrance in your soul with humility and reverence , without loudness in words..). This indicates that Allah –SWT – orders us to do Dhikr in all situations, and there is no excuse from doing that, even when we are listening to the Noble Quran’s recitation.

Dear reader, which condition is better: to have heedless hearts (Qulub Ghafilah) or do the Nafilah?

There is no power or might except with Allah.

The Editor : Original Arabic text in Behira Wal-Akalim Journal- Issue # 216

Filed under: Let It Be Good, O' Allah on January 17th, 2011