Download PDF: [S] The State of Proper Morality

What is the state of proper morality and good manners with the Awliya? How important in this in their daily living and practise is something needs to be inspected. There is no doubt that in their teaching, their books, their Malfuz, they had certainly emphasised this important task and duty. They had also made it compulsory upon their students and Mureeds.

In fact, to please people and to remove their difficulties was something which became their daily Wazifah. They placed the same importance to this as they placed on their other forms of Ibadah. It is important to understand that true Islamic morality is not merely the act of wearing clean clothes or dress in a nice fashion. It is not the act of sitting in a good society. It is not the name of merely standing up to greet someone who arrives. It is not the name of merely greeting someone warmly who comes to visit you or to speak nicely to someone.

Ikhaq or Islamic morality is the name of serving creation. It means humility and being able to sacrifice. Ikhlaq means to be concerned with the needs of people. It means to be able to worry about creation, to bring benefit to creation and to create comfort and peace for creation. It means to stay hungry while you feed others. It means to remain naked while you clothe others. It means to give respect to those lower than you to be able to make the poor and needy happy and to satisfy their wishes and needs. It means the act of not being to able dishearten any person. It means to pardon and forgive and to turn away from the faults of someone. The Awliya made this their mission in life and their objective.

This is the Ikhlaq which makes a human into a human. The outer appearance of a human does not make him into a human. When we look at people, we see that people have two eyes, two ear and other similar features, this does not make a human into a super human.What distinguishes one human from another is the behaviour and the Ikhlaq of one person from the rest. There is a vast difference between having Ikhlaq and not having Ikhlaq.

If having the same physical features was what made humans similiar, then there would be no difference between the Awliya and the ordinary man on the street. But certainly, there is a vast difference between the Awliya and the ordinary man and this has been created because of the Ikhlaq of the Awliya.

In fact, people who do not possess Ikhlaq has been considered as worse than animals in the Qur’an. This can be clearly seen in Surah Al’ ‘Araf.

Moulana Muhammad Idris Al Ansari, in his book “Halaat wa Maqamaat-e-Sufiyah,” has presented a Persian poem where he has explained that, “A person is not merely respected because he can see with his physical eyes. Yes, a person is respected if he can see with the eyes of the heart. After all, Nabi ‘Isa – peace be upon him – and his donkey could see with their eyes, but the difference is that Nabi ‘Isa – peace be upon him – could see with the eyes of his heart. Through this power and inner vision, he became the beloved of so many people. In fact, it is through these qualities that a human becomes a super human. When people are able to practise on the Prophetic Iklaq as taught to us, then certainly all the vices within society are eliminated.

Oppression and tyranny disappears and people in general find it easier to live in the world. So if the world is looking for world peace, all it has to do is practise one simple teaching of Islam which is the inculcation of Ihklaq within a person. When people do not practise on this, then society becomes a place of animals and animosity. If we look at most parts of the world today, we find that this true spirit of Ikhlaq which was taught in Islam has certainly disappeared. The Prophets have always taught man this important lesson. This is the reason that the true inheritors of the Prophets, meaning the Awliya, have always practised on this and taught others this important lesson and advice.