WORLDLY FLAVOURS Hadrat [1] Muhammad Mathum Faruqi (rahmatullahi alaih) says in the 56th letter of the first

volume of his Ma tubat: May Haqq subhanahu wa taala bless you with realization of your religious and worldly wishes! The medicine for protection a gainst the harms of worldly flavours and transient blessings is to use them in a manner compatible with the Shariat [2]. In other words, it is to obey Allahu taal as commands and prohibitions. Those flavours will be harmful if they are not util ized compatibly with the Shariat. They will cause Allahu taalas wrath and torment. Maximum possible abstinence from enjoying them is the safest course to follow fo r real and definite salvation. Those who cannot manage that degree of abstinence should use the medicine requisite for protection. Thereby they will be safe fro m their harms. Shame on those people who can neither manage the necessary abstin ence nor protect themselves by using medicine and who, thereby, leave themselves vulnerable to patent disasters and afflictions in addition to a pathetic depriv ation from eternal happiness! [Islam does not prohibit worldly flavours and plea sures. What it prohibits is an exorbitant and bestial indulgence in them.] So pi tiable are those people who succumb to the indulgences of their nafs and fail to enjoy the worldly flavours in manners and doses prescribed by the Shariat, there by divesting themselves of the felicitous and everlasting flavours of Paradise. Do they not now that Allahu taala sees all? Have they never heard that enjoyment of worldly blessings within the limits of moderation drawn by Islams Shariat is t he only way of acquiring immunity from harms? There is the inevitable and immine nt Judgment Day, when all the worldly activities of each and every person will b e laid before them. [Apparently, those who chase after worldly pleasures and tas tes do not seem to believe that there will be rising after death, that people wh o adapt themselves to Islams Shariat will attain the blessings of Paradise, wherea s those who flout the Shariat will be subjected to the fire of Hell. Paradoxicall y, Europeans and Americans, whom these deniers of the life to come loo on as mo dern and great people, do believe in Paradise and Hell. They crowd into churches . Embrace the worse features of Europeans by imitating their immoralities and di shonest acts in the name of modernism, on the one hand, and criticize your count rymen, calling them regressive and bigoted people, on account of their belief in the Hereafter, which is an asset they share with Europeans, on the other: this lu dicrous oddity unveils the fetid inner intentions. We should not believe these w retched people, who are merely slaves to their sensuous desires and pleasures.] How luc y for those who have attained love of Allahu taala by abstaining from His prohibitions in the world, when the Promised Day comes! How luc y for those who do not succumb to the temptations of the sequinned worldly life, who fear their Rabb (Allahu taala) and curb their sensuous desires, who advise their household and their inferiors that they should perform their daily salats steadily, [and w ho teach their spouses and daughters how to cover themselves in a manner prescri bed by the Shariat when they go out!] How luc y for them! Salams to those people who follow the way to felicity shown by Allahu taala and who adapt themselves to Muhammad alaihis-salam! GLOSSARY [1] Hadrat: title of respect used before the names of great people li e and Isla mic scholars. [2] Shariat: (pl. of Sharia) i) rules and commandments as a whole of the religion. ii) religion.