What is Iman?

Shaykh Habib ‘Ali al Jifri says:

Iman is not something that I just “perform” in a place of worship.
Iman is life.
Iman is how I interact with Allah during all the breaths that I take.

[Audio Lecture]

“The Prophet’s Perspiration Gave Off Light”

by GF Haddad – Safar 1426

Our Mother the Faqīha of the world, Ā’isha al-Nabawiyya said, Allah be well-pleased with her:

I was spinning while the Messenger of Allāh (peace be upon him) was mending his sandals and I was observing him. His forehead began to perspire and his perspiration gave off light. I gaped in astonishment. He looked at me and said: “What is the matter? Why are you gaping?” I said: “Messenger of Allāh! I looked at you and your forehead began to perspire and your perspiration gave off light. If Abū Kabīr al-Hudhalī had seen you he would have known that you are most deserving of his poetry.” The Prophet  asked: “And what does he say, ‘Ā’isha, this Abū Kabīr al-Hudhalī?” She said: “He says:

Exempt of any remain of menses,
born of hale nurse unsoiled,
Were you to look at his facial traits
– they beam like a white lightning-cloud!

Wa mubarra’in min kulli ghubbari haydatin
wafasādi murdi‘atin wadā’in mughīli
Fa’idhā nazarta ilā asirrati wajhihi
baraqat kabarqi-l-‘āridi-l-mutahallili

Hearing this, the Prophet rose and kissed me between the eyes, saying: “Allah grant you goodness on my behalf, ‘A’isha! You make me happier than I could make myself.”

Narrated through al-Bukhārī by Abū Nu‘aym in Hilyat al-Awliyā’ (1985 ed. 2:45-46), al-Khat īb with two more chains in Tārīkh Baghdād (13:252-253), Ibn ‘Asākir (3:307-309 and 59:424) through al-Khat. īb’s and Abū Nu‘aym’s three chains, and al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā (7:422 #15204) and Dalā’il al-Nubuwwa cf. al-Ghazzālī’s Ih yā’ (3:126-127) and al-Suyūtī’s Khas. ā’is. (1:115). Al-Mizzī narrated this hadīth in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (28:318) as an example of a rare, lone-narrated report that comes only through the reliable Khārijī Imām, genealogist, philologist, and centenarian historian Ma‘mar ibn al-Muthannā Abū ‘Ubayda al-Taymī al-Bas. rī. The verses are cited in Abū Kabīr al-Hudhalī’s chapter in Dīwān al-Hamāsa.

That the perspiration-beads of the Prophet  were luminous is confirmed by the hadīth of Anas in the Sahīh: “He was rosy-colored and his perspiration seemed like pearls” (kāna azhar al-lawn ka’anna ‘araqahu al-lu’lu’). Narrated by Muslim, Ahmad, and al-Dārimī.

Dedicated to Imam Ash-Shadhili

Radiya Allah ‘anhu



By Muhammad al-Yaqoubi

"This is a rough translation of the poem that I wrote yesterday (14th Aug.) on the way to the shrine of al-Imam Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili, may Allah be satisfied with him and may He allow us to benefit from his secrets and knowledge."

The Qutb of all Qutbs throughout times is
Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili;
An Ocean of Secrets and an Imam of Guidance
For whom the soul is the least price.

He led to the Master and climbed
in virtue to highest peaks
And brought in this discipline what
Made it more august than all branches.

Read Poem Here...

Stay Close By the Door

Stay close by the door, if you desire all beauty
And leave aside sleep, if you wish to arrive

And make of the spirit your first place of account
To the beloved, whose lights shine as from gold

All of them worship out of fear of the fire –
And consider deliverance abundant good fortune -

Or, so they may dwell in the gardens, and reach
To the meadows of paradise, and there drink from its rivers

Of gardens or fire I have no opinion
I seek no exchange for my dearest love

- Rabia Al-Adawiyya