Al-Hadith: if one keeps fasting (Soum) and salat and
it is nothing but a show off, it is Shirk in the eyes of God.
In
our society today, especially in a society where we have so many religions and
religious people and their imposition of religious belief system on others,
they seem to forget the fact some of these rituals like worship, fasting,
prayers- if they do not perform these rituals as per the divine prescription,
they are in deep trouble.
It's
not just the Quran, the Bible and I believe in all other divine scriptures God
must have emphasised on performance of the worship with sincerity and with the
utter intentions of pleasing the Lord, not making it a public display to earn
praiseworthiness for themselves. It is in human nature: when they do something
good they want people to know it and praise it. Oftentimes, when I play well, I
come back and ask everybody, 'Did you see my shot?' When you prepare food for
somebody, what do you expect at the end? It is like you are trying to say,
'Don't pay for the food, but be sure praise it.' This is the case.
If
you did something good and then people praise you, you earned it; but there is
a form of corruption even when it comes to emotions. Some people want
praiseworthiness without doing anything. This is what God doesn’t want when you
come to prayer. You are not doing anything good, but you want people to praise
you for something good that you didn’t do. For example, this is what happens in
Pakistan:
the ministers, politicians and bureaucrats make announcements in the television
and media, 'We
are going to help 1000 needy people tomorrow.' They make the
announcements, everybody claps and they never help them. In a similar way, what
God doesn’t want you to do: people go to churches, mosques, synagogues and all
the other worship places and they do worship. The problem is when the worship
does not reach God and God doesn’t accept it (obviously, when it will reach
God, then
there will be a question of rejection or acceptance). The worship did not reach
God and you do not care whether what you are doing is reaching God; but people
witnessed you in the prayer and they are praising you. This is extremely
forbidden in all religions and this is regarded as the extremely most hated act
in the eyes of God.
I'll
give you an example: I give you an envelope and I say, 'There are 100 pounds in
the envelope'. I make this announcement in front of everyone and you are very
happy. You go home and open the envelope -when you open the envelope, there is
nothing. Now you are really upset because everybody knows I was giving you 100
pounds, but you never received it. In the eyes of people, I gave you 100 pounds
but you never received it. And if I kept doing it five times a day, every
single day, you can understand how upset God would be!
In
a similar way, people fast and observe lent. Now, most Muslims think fasting in
the holy month of Ramadan is to keep off food and drink, starve for 12-14
hours. But, the Prophet of Islam, Prophet Mohammad said, 'If you are fasting
but your fasting turns out to be an act of showing off to others, then you are
in trouble'.
We
have to examine and determine how does fasting and worship become an act of a
showing off and it doesn’t reach God? There were times when interpretation of
the words of God and the words of the Prophets and Messengers was explained by
the Sufi Masters and learned ones, but for the past few centuries now, there is
no understanding of what God is saying.
They are confined to physical performance of the worship, but
the core of worship is the spiritual acquisition. They have forgotten the soul
of worship, which obviously is spirituality. It is with the help of spirituality
that every act of a man reaches God. And without that spiritual connection, no
matter how hard you are worshipping God, no matter how long you starve, if this
doesn’t reach God, then all sorts of worship and rituals will become an act of
showing off. Any worship that doesn’t reach God, but people see it, is a
show-off. Why is it a show-off? Because it is a lie. You worshipped, it didn’t
reach God but people witnessed you in worship and they are praising you for
this.
But,
today people have no time to think over this issue. They are just fasting,
nothing else. This is not one or two cases today: a majority of people do not
want to know whether what they are doing should reach God. They are not in the
business of making sure that what they are doing should reach God. It’s like
there is a burden and they just want to get rid of this burden by going to the
mosque five times a day or by fasting for 30 days. And there is corruption in
this: they want to make sure it’s not always 30 days, rather they want it to be
28-29 days. This is why there is a problem with sighting of the Moon. When they
want to start the month, they miss one day - so now there are 29 days in the
month. And when it is the end of the month, they celebrate a day early, so it
is 28 days. This is all corruption. People think God is a fool; honestly, God
is not a fool. God is very clever.
In Islam, Judaism and Christianity, God is determined, at
least he says so, that he will forgive every other type of sin for except one
sin. That one sin that he doesn't want to forgive and he gets really offended
by it: that sin is finding a partner with him. In other words, to believe or to
perceive that there is somebody else who is equivalent of God.
This
kind of belief and perception in the eyes of God is unforgivable; God is not
going to forgive it. He said that he would forgive all other types of sins and
there are thousands of examples where it is clearly evident that he forgave
people who had burden of sins. However, this tiny little sin, that you thought
there could be somebody who is equivalent of God, is not forgivable in the eyes
of God. The entire building of the Muslim faith is founded in this belief: do
not find a partner with God. Which means, 'Do not even perceive that there can
be an equivalent of God. There is nobody like God'. It is the same for
Christianity and Judaism, because these three religions are the Abrahamic
Faiths and come from the same source.
It’s
interesting to know that the most detestable, the most ignitable sin in the
eyes of God is to commit Shirk, which is to think of somebody as an equivalent of
God. If somebody does this, God is not going to forgive him. It is a very
sensitive matter to go and worship - either in a mosque, synagogue or a church
- but not being able to send it to God. If you perform worship, but you are not
able to send it to God, then this in the eyes of God is form of Shirk.
Religious people have to be very vigilant, alert and attentive. But people
don’t care these days. I don’t see any chances of Muslims verbally saying,
'There is somebody like God', they will never say it. However, when they are
fasting and performing Salat and they are not able to send it to God, this is
what they are doing!
If
you do not know how to drive a car, you better not drive it; because if you
drive it, you will screw yourself and the car. I may say to you, 'If you are
not a driver, do not drive this car.' Because the chances are, if you do not
know driving, you can kill yourself, you can kill others and you can destroy
the car. When we say to Muslims, 'Hold on, before you think of fasting or
worshipping, make sure your heart is involved in this worship; otherwise you
will screw yourself. Such a fasting and prayer which cannot reach God is like
paving your way into hellfire', they say, ‘Ah, look at this Mushrik! He is
saying "Do not pray, do not fast"! He is Kafir!’ They are very
efficient in issuing Fatwas of Kufr. All the bad acts and deeds that you can
find in a book, you will see them in today’s Muslim: backbiting, slandering,
corruption, cheating God, cheating the Prophet, cheating mothers, cheating
husbands, cheating wives, cheating daughters, cheating sons, cheating
everybody, cheating themselves! And still they are Momineen (Believers)?
They
say, 'A friend in need is a friend indeed'. If you befriend somebody, make sure
this relationship is based on sincerity. If you befriend somebody and that
relationship between two friends is not based on sincerity and you cheat each
other, then that is not friendship; that is concealed enmity.
In
a similar way, today, when these Muslims are fasting and they are going to the
mosque for prayers, this is Salat and this is Soum, but it is concealed Shirk.
Forget about God, even your wife wants you to be sincere with her. When you are
married to a woman, that woman wants to make sure that you do not even look at
any other woman. What do you think God would think? Do you think God is a fool,
that he doesn’t want sincerity from you? You want God to be on your side in all
odds, in adversity. At the time of need you call upon God, like God is just on
hold! Muslims pray and say, 'Oh God help me'. What do you mean, 'God help me?'
Is God on hold for you? [They say], 'No, God said, "Ask me, I will
help"'. This is a general practice in our country and in all other
countries where Islam is practiced: they pray for 10 minutes, and then after 10
minutes, they raise their hands towards God, towards the sky. You worshipped
for 10 minutes and after that, your list of demands lasts for 30 minutes!
Sincerity is the backbone of your worship. But the problem
is: people do not know what sincerity is.
To
be sincere with men is different from being sincere to God. You see, our
relationship with God is different than it is with our fellowmen. If I wanted
to be sincere with you, I would make sure that when you are in need, I help you
out and I do help you out of no hidden agenda. For example, thinking, 'I can
help him today; maybe tomorrow in return he will help me'. So help somebody
without this desire of being helped in return; help for the sake of helping
others. This I understand is a form of sincerity. But, we strictly follow the
law of 'if you scratch my back I will scratch yours'.
So
the lesson that we learned today is that any form of worship should not be
confined to showing it off only. If you are doing something, make sure what
you're doing for God should reach God. And if it doesn't reach God, then it
will become an act of showing off.
Danger:
when you are performing a form of worship, whether it is invocation, fasting,
reading the Holy Scriptures – Bible, Torah, Talmud, Psalms of David, Quran – or
any form of worship, if that worship does not reach God but people have seen
you worshipping, then that act will become an act of showing off. And that act
of showing off, in the eyes of God, is equal to committing Shirk, which is
unforgivable. Now, just imagine how sensitive this matter is and how attentive,
alert and vigilant one has to be when it comes to performing worship. You can’t
take it really lightly, like, ‘Okay, it’s time from prayer, let’s go’, and do
it without making sure it’s reaching God. But how many people in religions
today think, 'Oh, this is really something sensitive. I want to make sure what
I am doing should reach God, because if it doesn’t reach God I will be in
trouble'? You are worshipping God, thinking there would be 70 female virgins
waiting for you in paradise; but your worship didn’t take you there and you
will end up in hellfire.
To summarise:
the concealed form of Shirk is to worship God on public display, but not to
display your worship to God.
His
Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi’s doctrine that Jesus is God, he comes from the
Unseen World and he has his own kingdom is so appealing because no other
prophet - if you believe Jesus is a prophet - could do what Jesus did. People
couldn't see anything, they were blind; Jesus just touched them and they were
able to see. People who couldn’t walk, Jesus just touched them and they were
able to walk. And he was making a bird with clay, he breathed into it, it
became alive and flew in the air. No other prophet had the ability or the
divine, spiritual calibre to do it. Only Jesus did it. Why is it so? Because
Jesus is a special prophet? No. Jesus is not a special prophet; Mohammad is a special
prophet. But why did Jesus do it then? Because Jesus is God.
Christians
are very strict about this theory of one God. But why then do people worship
Mother Mary? According to the religious belief system, you can only worship
God. But, if you worship somebody, aren’t you indirectly believing that it’s
God? It’s contradicting if you worship Mother Mary. From the core of our heart,
we respect Mother Mary. Even according to the Quran she is the best woman in
the entire Universe and she was elevated above all women. We really respect
Mother Mary, but we don’t personally believe she is God; we believe Jesus is
God. We have to call spade a spade. Jesus is God. Some people simply say Jesus
is Lord, but I find it really blasphemous if we confine Jesus to be Lord.
Q: What does God say about fasting?
According
to a Hadith, 'If you perform Salat for a show-off, it is Shirk and if you keep
a fast for a show-off, it is shirk'. Now, how does Salat become a show-off?
When
you perform Salat and it does not reach God but people see it, it is a
show-off.
Prophet Mohammad said, 'There is no Salat without the presence
of heart'.
If
your heart is empty of God's light (Noor), Salat will not reach God and God
will not see it.
God says that
He does not look at your bodies and your deeds, He rather looks at the
enlightened hearts and pure intentions.
Roza
(fasting) is kept to purify Nafs. When you don't eat food and drink no liquid,
you keep off Naar (negative energy), but at the same time, you need Noor
(positive energy) to fill the gap created by fasting. If there is no Noor
inside to fill the gap, then Shaitan enters the body. And your Roza is wasted
and it does not reach God. However, when Noor is created inside the heart and
Nafs, it is Noor that sends Roza to God.
According
to Quran, and of course according to Bible, God prescribed fasting on believers
for one reason: and that is to purify them. It is a path of purification. The
question is: if fasting itself will purify human beings, then we shouldn’t eat
at all? To refrain from all sorts of foods and liquids for a certain period of
time is just one external aspect of very sophisticated sense of purification.
The thorough purification, however, is not based on starvation. To starve is
not completely purifying yourself. We have to know how it works.
The religions
do not speak on this subject, only spirituality does. And whose spirituality?
His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi’s spirituality. No other spiritual person went
into such lengthy details the way His Divine Eminence has. It’s very systematic
and very spiritually mathematical, what actually happens when you refrain from
foods for a prescribed duration of time.
There
are two types of energy, positive energy and negative energy.
Most
people, when their stomach is empty, they feel very low and very humble. Some
people are raging when they are hungry, some people are really angry when
hungry; but most people are very humble, down-to-earth, they feel very lowly.
However as soon as they eat, they start jumping and singing. I have seen it.
When I am hungry I am quiet. But once I have eaten, then I starts singing
Qasidas and this and that, because the Nafs (Self) is happy. This is very
important to understand: when we eat, only negative energy is created by our
body. The energy which the food creates in our body, however, is vital to
sustain life; but at the same time it is negative.
The
whole purpose of fasting is to replace that negative energy with positive
energy. Now, how do we do that? Negative energy is physical, positive energy is
spiritual. When we eat food, negative energy is created. And when our souls
worship God, positive energy is created. Now, just think about a man who
doesn’t know the entire regime of fasting: that person is fasting and he is not
consuming any food, which means he is not creating any negative energy.
However, he doesn’t know that this negative energy is to be replaced by
positive energy and he doesn’t know how to produce positive energy. He is
naïve, he doesn't have this knowledge. His souls are dormant, not awakened and
not involved in any type of spiritual worship. So negative energy comes to a
halt for 14-16 hours, and in that duration, it is not replaced by positive
energy. So what happens is, as long as you're not eating, negative energy is
not created. However, when you eat after 16 hours, you produce negative energy.
In your mind, you think you're doing something good; but nothing is happening.
Now
the benefits of fasting can only be reaped once you have become a spiritual man
and your souls are able to perform internal, spiritual, worship. Because the
positive energy is only created when the souls are in worship; the worship of
the body is nothing but a physical exercise. By performing physical worship,
you do not create positive energy. For positive energy to be created, the souls
must be activated.
So what happens is, people who are alien to spirituality,
however they have this religiosity in their nature, being naïve of the
knowledge, they go on to keep a fast. They refrain from food for 13-16 hours.
In that time, they do not create negative energy which is created by consuming
food. However, there are so many other holes through which the negative energy
keeps barging into their body.
It
is not just food, there are so many other things as well that you must stop
doing while you are fasting. For example, hurting somebody emotionally or
physically – if you are harming somebody, verbally or physically, you are
producing negative energy. If you are thinking badly about people, you are
consuming negative energy. If you're being dishonest, you are creating negative
energy. If you are not good to people, you are creating negative energy. For
example, you are fasting - you are not eating any food. So, you have shut one
window. However, if you are watching a nude movie, what is the point? The
window is shut but the door is open! You are not deterring the negative energy;
you have changed the source of negative energy. We are not producing negative
energy by eating food but we are producing it by doing something
extraordinarily bad.
This
is what people need to understand. But they will think about it when they are
sincere with the Lord and when they are sincere in purifying themselves. The
thing is: people do not have the intent of purifying themselves; they're just
doing it as part of rituals. They're not interested; they're just doing it for
the sake of doing it. Maybe they're doing it because they think, 'Oh, we've
done it. Now we will escape the torment of the grave and the torment of
hellfire. We will be sent straight to heaven where 70 virgin damsels are
waiting'.
So
the purpose of fasting is to purify yourself. For example, if your clothes are
dirty and you put them in the washing machine, but there is a lot of water and
no soap, what will happen? Some of the really stubborn spots on your clothes
will not just go away by putting it in water; you need some kind of detergent.
In a similar way, when you to purify yourself, you want to replace the negative
energy with positive energy. What are people doing? They're shutting down a
door on negative energy, but they're not replacing it with positive energy.
When it is not replaced with positive energy, you do not reach purification.
It
is like an ill person who is just seeing the doctor, just taking the medicine,
but he doesn’t want to know if the medicine is healing him up. Generally, if we
have a problem, we see the doctor and the doctor prescribes medicine for us; if
that medicine doesn’t work for us, then we complain to the doctor. We say,
'This is not working for me, give me something else'. Why do we say that?
Because the medicine is not working for us and we want to heal. We know that if
we're going to see a doctor, we're going there for a purpose and that purpose
is healing.
Have you ever seen a person who goes to the doctor, takes the
medicine, and when the medicine doesn't work, he says 'I don’t care. I'm just
concerned about taking the medicine, I don’t care if I die'? This is silly: we
don’t see such things in this world. In a similar way, fasting, Salat and all
other different types of worship is to arrive at a result; if you are not
arriving at a result, then it's useless.
For
example, you are working somewhere for 12 hours a day, but you don't get paid.
You'll do it for a day or two and then you'll say, 'If you're not paying me,
I'm not going to work'. But when it comes to the religions, you're going to the
mosque, temples, churches, etc but you are not reaching the goal: you are not
acquiring spirituality and purification. Then you should think at least twice:
why should you do it? You're just wasting your time.
Q: What is the reason behind His Divine Eminence
Gohar Shahi coming from Pakistan,
why not another country like Australia,
England or America?
You
see, the problem is, the last Adam who was the most eminent one, his progeny is
confined to that area. His progeny is there and these people can potentially be
more in terms of understanding and in terms of being recipient of the spiritual
benefits. Because all the prophets and messengers, including Jesus came from
that side. No prophet came to Australia,
USA, Africa, or Europe. All these messengers and prophets came to this
particular piece of land: Iraq,
Jerusalem, Israel and the other side of the
Arab peninsula; only this area. This area is where most progeny of the eminent
Adam live.
I
can give you an example: why are we selling so many dishes of Nihari and
Biryani in this area? Because most people here are Pakistanis. If you are
selling Nihari in an area where nobody knows Nihari, you won't sell anything.
People in America, England, Australia, they come from different
Adam so their understanding of the religion is different.
Even
the original Christians do not come from Europe, they come from Jerusalem. The way they
respect Jesus is different; they almost worship Jesus. The type of love they
have for Jesus is amazing. However, with due respect to all other communities
in the world, if Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and Britons see their
behaviour and love for Jesus, they say, 'Oh, it is a personality cult. They're
crazy, they're insane'. To them it appears to be insanity and for them [the
original Christians], it is love. They love Jesus to a degree where they cannot
see anybody else next to Jesus. But in these areas, they have very calculated
belief systems, very calculated emotions, and very calculated love. You cannot
love somebody mathematically. You do not measure the intensity of love.
The
reason why HDE Gohar Shahi appeared in that area is because the mission of HDE
Gohar Shahi is reaching the world through these people. However, HDE has been
everywhere: to America, Canada, Europe
- all over the world. But all other nations took it really lightly. 'Oh yes,
HDE Gohar Shahi came to our church. It was a wonderful speech, we believe what
He said.' And that’s it. But people from this area [where HDE Gohar Shahi has
come], they say, 'Alright, this is my life; this is what I'm going to do all my
life'. In other words, their dedication is more trustworthy. They're more
dedicated.
But
this type of emotion and dedication is very volatile as well at the same time.
If it is mistaken, then it turns into fanaticism and extremism. You see a lot
of idiots marching on the road and carrying out arson attacks and suicide
bombing. Why? Because they're walking on the path of fire. If you take
one wrong step from dedication, you fall into the ditch of extremism and
fanaticism. There should be intensity in love, but intensity in love does not
mean harming other. You can love your Lord to any degree, to any extent; as
long as it does not harm anybody, as long as you do not offend anybody. It
should be between you and your Lord. You can go to all lengths in love, you can
keep no boundaries in love. As long as you do not harm, disgrace, disrespect or
offend anybody. However, when you take one step wrong and you say, 'No, I want
everybody to love God the way I do', then this is fanaticism.
HDE Gohar Shahi teaches us the right path: love your Lord to
any degree and extent but let others do what they want. And love is a medicine.
When love enters the heart, the heart is purified. And when it is purified you
do not hold enmity for anybody.
You
do not hate anybody, you do not harm anybody, you do not hurt anybody. You do
not dislike anybody. But when there is devil in your heart, then you have this
compulsion, 'No, I want everybody to become Muslim. If they don't want to
convert into Islam, I will kill them'. This is insanity; this is not Islam,
this is not humanity, this is not God's word. This is fabrication and an act of
stupidity. Stupid is one whom God has deprived of intellect. And all these
people have lost their minds. Live and let live; if you want to love God, do
it! But don't impose it on others. Let them do what they want to do.
Q: Why did God create man to worship him? Weren't the angels enough to
worship him?
According
to Quran, the body of Adam Safi Allah was being shaped in the paradise. The
angels said to God, 'Why are you creating Adam again? This Adam will create
mischief on earth and bloodshed'. And then they said, 'Are we not enough to
worship you?' God said, 'You do not know what kind of Adam am I now creating'.
If
you pray physically or if the angels pray and they glorify God, it doesn't
really please God in the way that it pleasure comes to him when a human heart
articulates with his name. If a man is caressing another man's thighs, he won't
feel anything good. But if a woman is doing it, he will feel a lot better.
There are all sorts of creatures that God has created to
glorify him and they are in all realms that God has created. However the
pleasure and ecstasy that God really has is when a human heart articulates in
his commemoration. The ecstasy that God enjoys comes from a human heart. God
designed his pleasure in the heart to worship him.
The
angels do in their own capacity glorify him; but God doesn’t care. Because
there is no enjoyment: 1-angels, they don’t have Nafs. When a man with his
heart remembers God, he is doing so having neglected the evil nature of his
Nafs and having barred himself from so many hurdles. After abridging between
good and bad and crossing over so many potential hurdles, and then succeeding
to remember God in his heart, obviously it will earn God's favour. These angels
don’t have to make an effort because they do not have any evil nature. They
don't have any negativity in them; if they remember God, God thinks, 'This is
not a big deal because it is easy for them'. If somebody who has a devil touch
in them and even then they control their evil nature, they succeed over their
evil nature and then they develop love for God and worship God, this earns
God's favour and this is what God wants.
