Ml Ashraf Ali Thanwi RA

The blood shed by sacrificing one’s desires is the horizon of becoming a saint. Taqwa means to curb the fulfilling of the desires of the heart. Shed the blood of all your desires and all the four horizons of your heart will become red. The sun of this world rises from one horizon, which is from the east. But when the saints adopt piety by sacrificing all their desires and enduring grief in the path of Allah, then all the horizons of the heart become red and the sun of Allah’s friendship and relationship rises in the heart.

If one does not sacrifice one’s desires, then what would one achieve? Attain darkness upon darkness and pollution over pollution. Get a foul odour and a disgraced name. None would call him ‘pious’. When the creation comes to know that a person is the head (of evil), they snatch all noble titles away from him. One of the punishments of sin in this world is that all titles of honour are snatched away from one in this world.

What would be the condition of that heart whose every horizon has the sun of Allah’s proximity rising from it? A man called Khurshid (sun) came to me one day; I recited the following couplet to him:

When Khurshîd obtained the creator of Khurshîd (the sun) in his heart, then ask Khurshîd the condition of his world.

The Secret of Mentioning Sin First
The fact that Allah took an oath of the Nafs is proof that He wants to explain something very important. I was travelling by train with a very great scholar. On the way, he recited this verse in Fajr Salaah. During Salaah the thought occurred to me why Allah mentioned sin first. I asked the scholar who smiled and told me to explain.

Taqwa’s Dependence on the Ability to Sin
I replied that Allah has inspired me with the answer. Just as Salaah cannot be performed without Wudhu, similarly one cannot study Sahih Bukhari without doing the pre-final year. In the same way, Taqwa is dependent on the substance of sin. Had this substance not been existent, how could one prevent it? Every prohibition requires the existence of the prohibited act. For example, I tell you not to look at the Tasbeeh in my hand. The existence of the Tasbeeh is essential. If I do not have a Tasbeeh in my hand and tell you not to look at it, everyone will say the statement is wrong. There is no Tasbeeh in the hand.