Remembrance of Allah — Page 4
4 who was not engaged in the ; he was just sitting with them. God Almighty said that the individual sitting with them cannot be unfortunate. He would reward and hon- our him as well ( S a hīh al-Bukh ā r ī , Kitāb ad-Da‘wāt, Bāb Fa d li Dhikrillāhi ’Azza wa Jall; Hadith 6408). 1 This means that even though the one sitting in the company of the virtuous may not receive guidance at one time, he will certainly be blessed with it at some other time. It cannot be that despite sitting in such a gathering with sincerity of heart, such an individual should remain a disbeliever; albeit true, the one who sits just once or twice—never to return thereafter—remains a disbeliever. This statement does not apply to him. Therefore, one should try to the utmost to remain seated in the gathering and if someone is faced with some urgent need, he should go and quickly return after attending to it. Recently, I had delivered some sermons concerning the subject of prayers, and within them, such topics were mentioned, by the grace of Allah the Exalted, from which many people benefited. I have received many a letter in which it was written that much benefit was derived from these sermons. A person from Lahore wrote to me about these sermons, but his name was illegible. It appears God Almighty has employed His attribute of Satt a r [the Concealer] with respect to him. He expressed amazement at what I had done, that I had disclosed those methods which had been kept secret and hidden all along, and from amongst which the sufis [mystics] would disclose barely one such method after exact- ing years of service from people, whereas I had readily disclosed everything. In addition to this, he also wrote that I was indeed obliged