My Mother – Excerpt from speeches
Ever since I had my senses, at a young age I have seen my mother praying, and supplicating to Allah, and witnessed her crying in her prayers. When I was a child, I used to sleep beside my mother. During that time she would teach me the explanation & meaning of Surah Kahf I still remember it. Also during that time the Surah Buruj the oppressive ruler placed believers in fire that whole incident I had heard this from my mother. This was when I used to sleep beside my mother, I was a child as a teenager wouldn’t be sleeping beside his mother.
When she would buy something from the store she would ask the children to distribute it among themselves. She would observe what are we doing. She would check who has more greed & who displays generosity then she would teach that child per his/her temperament.
Our neighbor was Maryam’s aunt, Allah have mercy on her. She had read all books of hadith Bukhari, Muslim, and Mishkat. She feared Allah. My mother was her friend. Once it came out of my mouth that the landlord or owner of this house. My mother got upset with me why would you say the owner of this house rather your focus should have been the owner of this world i.e. Allah, this was her way of teaching. She said no lunch for you. So, we went to Maryam’s aunt our mother was not giving us food. I still remember Maryam Aunty who would teach me surahs.
My mother got me to start studying under a teacher. At night, my mother just to make up my mindset would ask me ‘Son, read the book and tell me the story of Yusuf, today tell me the story of Musa, tell me the story of Ibrahim. All of this is to create that mindset. One day I was telling her the story it was dark at home, reading to her in light of an oil lamp as candles were considered expensive.
(In tears) the one whose relationship with Allah is established. Words that come out of that individual Allah makes them true. I remember vividly to this day.
“O son in the darkness of this house today you are reading this to me and I am listening. Allah bring that day that thousands listen to your speech”.
(Those days came when Ml Umar Palanpuri (rah) would speak to thousands).
I try hard not to talk about myself but I remember this incident of my mother.
Value of Life – Excerpt from speeches
A great spectacle will come on the Day of Reckoning in which good and bad will be decided. The Prophets would deliver this message from Allah. To prepare for that is this current life. After death, man will not be able to prepare anything.
When a man enters his grave, his conditions will magnify whether good or bad. On the other hand, his ‘ability’ to prepare to face those conditions will be taken away from him.
Suppose in this world if a snake appears, man can either utilize a stick to strike to defend himself or run away to protect himself from harm. If a fire starts he can extinguish it using water. If daylight disappears, man can light a torch. If a man experiences hunger here, he will be satiated by eating food. If he experiences thirst, he will fetch water & drink it to quench his thirst. Here, in any condition man experiences, he possesses the ‘ability’ to prepare for that.
And what is the meaning of death? The meaning of death is man’s ability to prepare for hereafter will diminish. In the grave, the snake appears the ability to repel it will be gone, darkness appears ability to bring about light will be gone, harm is being inflicted the ability to defend oneself will be gone. Even if relatives leave sticks in someone’s grave the sticks of this world cannot be used to defend oneself against the snakes in the grave. The water of this world cannot extinguish the fire in the grave. Torches of this world cannot eliminate the darkness in the grave. Means of this world will not be able to facilitate ease in the grave.
There when man will see that there is no alternative. He will ask Allah “Oh My Allah please return me”. He will realize that in the grave he has no ability (to alter his condition). Here I cannot pray, here I cannot fast, cannot engage in remembrance, or read the Quran. “Oh my Allah please return me”. What invaluable treasure was the life of this world that I didn’t avail!
Now I have realized had I glorified Allah once, there would be a tree for me in heaven. Had I praised Allah a tree would be created in heaven. In this world had I given in charity I would receive its recompense. In this world if only I had engaged in inviting to Allah, all human beings to whom the message would be delivered and all human beings that adopted righteous life due to it. Equivalent to their actions O’ Allah I would be rewarded as such. Now please return me. Now I understand. Now I will go into the world and perform righteous actions.
Allah will say “No!” (23:100)
Conversation with Atheist/Excerpt from Ml Umar Palanpuri (rah)’s speeches
We were traveling in an airplane. My neighboring passenger was an atheist. We became acquainted and started conversing. Initially, he used to worship idols but later on became an atheist.
He asked me ” I want to ask you something”.
I said “Sure”.
He asked “In this world there are millions of people who believe in God, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Jews but it amazes me that no one has seen God so how do they accept God? What I cannot see how can I accept? Forgive me but I have asked several monks but they could not pacify my concerns. Talking to you perhaps you can help me understand that God we are not able to see how can we accept Him?”
He was a doctor as well, obtained a degree from Tokyo and he was traveling back to his country. I said, “ok, without seeing, millions of people worldwide accept millions of things. Even in those countries where atheism has spread millions of people accept millions of things without seeing”.
He said, “Forget millions, just show me one or two without seeing them accept something”.
I said “One condition; what is accepted without seeing is based on signs. Without signs, they will not be accepted. A person sees something and accepts it. When will he accept without seeing? Even though he is not able to see the thing, he can acknowledge it by seeing its signs.” He started to think deeply about this.
I told him “Nothing to worry let me explain. Your intellect and my intellect. Are you able to see this? No, you cannot see it. All the passengers on this airplane are you able to see any of their intellect? Have you ever seen in your life any human intellect? Tell me do you accept intellect exists or not?”
He said,” I accept”.
I said “You don’t accept blindly. Rather you accept it based on inference. You say I possess intellect. Because I am exhibiting signs of possessing intellect. And what is that sign? That man doesn’t speak incoherently. He works properly. And if he doesn’t possess intellect. Then he doesn’t speak coherently, throws stones at you, curses without reason. Thus, you accepted the ‘intellect’ based on its signs. You didn’t accept it by seeing it.”
He said, “Yes that’s there”. So without seeing you accept it, you accepted it by seeing its signs.
I said ” Another example is there is a soul inside of you and there is a soul inside of me. Have you seen this soul? When you are operating on someone in a hospital you cannot visually see the soul. But he is alive. You accept there is a soul without seeing. You acknowledged it via its signs. And what is that sign? In a man his eyes see, ears can hear, tongue speaks, hands can hold, feet can walk. These are signs he is alive and possesses a soul. From this, you infer that he is alive. Insects don’t come to sleeping snakes but to dead snakes they do. A vulture doesn’t eat a sleeping man, but to a dead body, it does. Both me and you accept there is a soul. So do insects and vultures acknowledge that there is a soul even though they cannot see it. Rather we accept soul exists through its signs.”
He was receptive to this so did several other passengers sitting in the airplane. So I have shown two things: intellect and soul. Without seeing you accept them but you accept them based on their signs.
I said “Take third example as well. In a jungle, if you see a house right away in your mind you will think this house was not self-created. Rather this house must have a builder. Have you seen this builder?”
He said “No”.
I said, “Do you accept there is a builder without seeing him?”
He said,” I accept”.
I said “But you cannot indicate whether the builder is black or white, tall or short. But you would have to concede that this house has a builder. This ‘house’ is a sign that it has a builder. Three examples have been given. Taken another fourth one. I accept you are a doctor. I have not seen you attending college. I have not seen your certificate. But I still accept you as a doctor. Why? Because you have signs within you that indicate you are a doctor. You attend to ill patients, their health improves from this I ascertain that you are a doctor. This is a sign. I will give a fifth example after this I am not going to give a sixth example as there are millions of these. I will give you a fifth example that even an illiterate will accept.”
He said, “What is that?”
I said “In a desert a camel passed by, a Bedouin didn’t visually see a camel walking by but saw its droppings and imprints of its foot. Does Bedouin without seeing the camel acknowledge there is a camel or not?”
He said, “Yes he will acknowledge”.
I said “Without seeing, an illiterate man acknowledges there is a camel by seeing its droppings. Doctor you are educated so are millions out there but they don’t even know this much that the large sky, land, moon, sun, unclean drops of semen through which this huge man comes into existence, small seeds which give rise to large trees, on these trees fruits grow, there is juice in these fruits. All of these are signs that there is a creator behind them. Through its dropping, you understand there is a camel but you don’t understand through heavens and earth there is a creator! This creator is who we call Allah and we believe in Him without seeing Him rather we believe in Him through his signs.”
