Issue No: 149
25th January 2013
3rd Rabiul Awwal 1434 A.H.
Salamun alaykum,
Has your nafs changed?
Have you seen the commercials on television advertising for a product or treatment where photos marked “before” and “now” are displayed?
Like the example of a body exercise programme where photo of a person, before taking the treatment, with stubborn belly fat protruding from his waist is shown. This is then followed by photo of the person now showing with ripped body and six pack abdomen muscles. This looks great. So the exercise programme has worked; it’s been successful!
Since the day of the sighting of the crescent of Muharram to the 8th Rabi ul Awwal we have devotedly engaged ourselves in a very different lifestyle. Our dressing, time schedules, religious activities and personal dispositions had altered. Even the décor and presentations in our centres had changed. We have been undergoing a powerful ‘treatment’ directed at our nafs-the self.
For a period of two months and eight days our focus has solely been on undertaking azadari of our beloved Imam Husayn a.s. The anticipation is that after immersing oneself in the azadari for a period of some 68 days, this ‘treatment’ will now effect a change to ones’ self. Would you not like the nafs to be a different one than the state it was in before the commencement of Muharram? Just like something along the lines of the photos ‘before’ and ‘now’ in the television commercial.
As we put to rest our clothes, schedules and activities of azadari, look inside oneself and inquire: Is the picture now of ones nafs changed to that of a superior, purified status than before?Is the mumin transformed to be like one expected by our Imam Sahibaz Zaman – the master of our age?
Wa ma tawfiqi illa billah
Fazle Abbas Datoo
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Resident Alim
Wessex Shia Ithna Asheri Jamaat