Salaam to all. My name is Muhammad Allie Khalfe. I am a student of Shaykh Seraj and Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks. They are graduates of the Umm al-Qurra University. They were also students of the beloved Sayid Muhammad bin 'Alawi a-Maliki. We are from Cape Town South Africa.

We have just completed the book entitled, 'The Legacy - A Spiritual Journey to God'.

If anyone is interested in a copy, please send me an email

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

. I would be glad to send you the book cover and an extract of the book. If you would like to purchase the book, send an email as well.

The book contains profiles, sayings, life experiences and stories of the greats scholars of Islam including, Maalik bin Dinaar, Abdullah bin Mubarak, Bishr al-Hafi, al-Shafi'i, ibn Hanbal, al-Thauri and a host of Saints and scholars.

Here is a Sample:

Imām Qushayri
376 - 465

Chain Link

Imām Qushayri



Abū 'Ali al-Daqqāq

Al-Nasrabadhi

Abū Bakr as-Shibli

Junayd al-Baghdādi

Sari as-Saqāti

Ma'rūf al-Karkhi

Dāwūd al-Tāi

Habīb al-‘Ajami

Hasan al-Basri

'Ali ibn Abi Tālib

Muhammad (saw)



Imām Qushayri
Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayri was born in northwestern Irān in the province of Khurasān, the richest center of eastern Islamic civilization down to the thirteenth century. He received excellent education in the Arabic language and he memorized the Qur'an. He was a beautiful poet, a courages rider and a valiant swordsman. He wrote many works including a Tafsīr on the Holy Qur'an and a treates on Spirituality (Risālah Qushayriyya). He studied fiqh (Jurisprudence) with Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Bakr al-Tūsi and Abū Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Farūk (d.406). He then did advanced Fiqh with Abi Is-hāq al-Isfaraini (d.417). Al-Qushayri studied the art of Tassawuf under Imām Abū 'Ali al-Daqqāq. He married Fatima, the daughter of Abū 'Ali. After Abū 'Ali passed away, Imām Qushayri sat briefly with Imām Abd al-Rahmān al-Sulami who was then eighty five years old.
We will quote extensively from the (Risālah Qushayriyya) in this chapter.

Human Companionship
'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Ahwazi reported from Anas ibn Mālik: The Messenger of God wondered, “When will I meet my dear ones?” His Companions exclaimed, “You are more precious to us than our mothers and fathers. Are we not your dear ones?” “You are my Companions,” he said. “My dear ones are a people who have not seen me, but have believed in me, and I am more to them than their hearts’ desires.”

True companionship is of three sorts:
Keeping company with those who are above you, which in essence is service;
Keeping company with those who are below you, which requires sympathy and compassion in the one who is followed and harmony and respect in the follower;
and keeping company with peers and equals, which is based upon preferring others to oneself and maintaining the standards of politeness.



The behavior proper to someone who keeps company with a shaykh whose degree is above his own is to give up opposing him, to treat everything that appears from him as beautiful, and to accept his states with faith in him.

When you keep company with someone who is at your own level, the proper course is to try to be blind to his faults. You should give what you see in him a beautiful interpretation in so far as it is possible. If you cannot find such an interpretation, you should keep your suspicions to yourself and look at your own faults, as you are obliged to do.

I heard Abū 'Ali al-Daqqāq say that Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari said, “I said to Abū Sulayman al-Darāni, “So-and-so has not made much of an impression on my heart!” “He has not made much of an impression on my heart either,” said Abū Sulayman. “But Ahmad, perhaps we are ruined: perhaps we are not of the righteous, so that we do not love them!”"

A man kept company with Ibrahīm ibn Adham, and when he wanted to depart, asked, “If you have seen any fault in me, please let me know of it.” “I have not seen any fault in you.” Said Ibrahīm “because I have looked upon you with the eye of love, so that everything I saw of you seemed good to me. Ask somebody else about your faults!”

I heard Muhammad ibn al-Husayn say that Bishr ibn al-Harith said, “The legacy of the company of bad people is to think evil of the good.”

Desires
Imām al-Qushayri says, I heard from Muhammad bin ‘Abdullāh al-Sūfi, from Abū al-Faraj al-Warthāni, from ‘Abdullāh bin Muhammad bin Ja’far, from Ibrāhīm bin Muhammad bin al-Hārith, from Sulaymān bin Dāwūd, from Ja’far bin Sulaymān, that he heard Mālik bin Dīnār say,
"When someone conquers the desires of this world,
satan is afraid of his shadow!"


Hope
It was related that once the son of Mubārak was striving hard (fighting) against an idolater when the idolators prayer time had arrived. The idolator asked for time to pray (respite). ibn al-Mubārak granted it to him. When he (the idolator) prostrated himself to the sun, ibn al-Mubārak wanted to attack him with his sword when a voice said him,
وَأَوْفُواْ بِالْعَهْدِ
"Keep your agreement if you have made an agreement (17:34), so he restrained himself. When the idolater had finished praying, he asked, “Why did you hold back from what you had in mind?” ibn al-Mubārak recounted to him what he had heard. The idolater cried, “What an excellent Lord is a Lord who will reprove a friend for the sake of his enemy!” so he became Muslim, and made good in Islām.

Yahya bin Mu’ādh prayed, “The hope I place in You (Allah) when I sin almost drowns the hope I place in You when I am performing my good works. In the course of good works I find I rely upon sincerity. How am I to preserve that when I am well known for calamities (commtting errors)? But in sin I find I rely upon Your forgiveness. How will You not forgive, when Your quality (Sifāt) is generosity?”

It is told that Ibrahīm bin Adham said; “I had waited a long time for the holy precincts of the Kabah to be empty of all but me. One dark night when there was a heavy rain, the precincts were deserted, so I began to make the circumbulating, saying, ‘O God, make me free of sin, O God, make me free of sin!’ Then I heard a voice from the unseen say to me, ‘O the son of Adham, you are asking Me for freedom of sin. Everybody is asking Me for freedom of sin. If I were to free you from sin, to whom would I be merciful?”


Was-Salaam
Muhammad Allie Khalfe

"When someone conquers the desires of this world,
satan is afraid of his shadow!"

subhanallah!