INTRODUCTION

The hadith which has been put forward as the pivot of this discussion is one og the most comprehensive and rewarding exhortation of the Noble prophet(4) to one of his most eminent companions(abu dharr)

The hadith is split into sections so as to enable easier understanding..and I urge the reader to pay close attention to this hadith as it speaks to the heart of every1 who reads it contemplatively

-------THE EXHORTATIONS---------------

PART-1
ON WORSHIP AND THE PERCEPTION OF ALLAH

---"O abu dharr! Worship Allah as though you SEE Him because if you do not see Him, He nevertheless Sees you"

ON THE STAGES OF WORSHIP OF ALLAH
1st stage---"Know O abu dharr that the first stage of devotion to Allah is KNOWLEDGE OF HIM.verily,He is the first before whom there is none ,He is the one and the only ,and there is none like Him.He is the everlasting ,the eternal.....and He is capable of Doing anything

2nd stage---the second stage is believe in Me(the prophet) and acknowledge that Allah,the exalted has appointed me to be the giver of glad tidings

3rd stage---the 3rd stage is love for my Ahl al-bayt(a) those whom Allah has cleansed and purified from every kind of impurity


THE NEED FOR DERIVING CoRRECT BENEFIT FROM ALLAH"s BLESSINGS

"O abu dharr! Act upon my advice so that you may become prosperous in both worlds. O abu dharr! The majority of people are defrauded of two GRACES and they do not appreciate them-these are GOOD HEALTH and LEISURE(being at ease)

" O abu dharr! Make the most of FIVE THings before five other things befall you: Youth before old age,Health before illness,ability before inability,leisure before toil and LIFE BEFORE DEATH"

MAKING TIMELY USE OF OPPORTUNITIES AND KEEPING PROTRACTED HOPES AT BAY

" O Abu dharr! Beware lest you procrastinate praiseworthy deeds on account of your protracted hopes"
BECAUSE you only HAVE TODAy and tomorrow is not yours
--"O abu dharr! If you comtemplate about the hour of death and perceive with what speed it is coming,you will hate its deception and snare"

THE INTERMEDIARY ROLE OF THE WORLD
" O abu dharr! Live like either a stranger or a passer-by in this world and consider yourself as a dead human being"

PART-2
MAKING GOOD USE OF PRESENT ABILITIES

---the role of meditation upon death and the consequences of sin-----

"O abu dharr! Beware lest your death finds you while in a state of sin in which case no opportunity remains for compensation and repentance and for returning to the world,no heirs of your will extol you for the Inheritance you have left them and Allah,the exalted will not accept the excise which you will make"

---THE Need for appreciating life------

" O abu dharr! Be more miserly with your life than you are with your money and wealth( make Good use of life and make wise plans regards your life)

I
----DISCHARGING duties on time and not being anxious about the following Day------

" O abu dharr! Does anyone of you expect something other than wealth which leads to disobedience,or poverty which results in forgetting Allah,or sickness which ruins his body or old age which witholds him from activity,or death which arrive hurriedly,or the arrival of the seditious imposter(dajjal),or the approach of the day of resurrection which is more dreadful and bitter

PART-3
CASTIGATING THE ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE FOR WORLDLY GOAL

I
--the consequences of acquiring knowledge for the sake of deceiving others-----

"O abu dharr! A parson who acquires knowledge for the sake of decieving people will not smell the scent of Paradise

----ADMITTING IGNORANCE(a quality of divine scholars)

" O abu dharr!whenever they ask you about something which you do not know,say you do not know so as to remain safe and do not pronounce an edict over what you have no knowledge of in order to escape Allah's wrath on the day of resurrection
(And you are not given out of knowledge but a little-17vs85

---MaN's BIGGEST REGREt ON THE DaY OF RETRIBUTION----

" O abu dharr! A group of the dwellers of heaven will glance down upon the inmates of the fire and ask them 'what made you enter hell? Despite THE WE ENTERED HEAVEN AS A RESULT OF YOUE TEACHINGS AND TRAININGS' 'In response,they will say, " we enjoined others to perform good works but we ourselves did not do what we advised others to do'

Jaza kun lahi kaeran

Part 4
VIGILANCE AND ALERTNESS OF A BELIEVER

---companionship with the pious and religious scholars and how sin is perceived by a believer and an infidel--------

"O abu dharr! The pious are honorable and the religious scholars are the guides. Companionship with them results in the increase of knowledge and virtue. A believer perceives his sin as a frightful cliff which he fears will come down crumbling upon him while the infidel conceives his sin as a fly which passes across his nose"

(Two groups broke my(the prophet) back ; a religious scholar who is unrestrained in performing indecent deeds and a devoted worshiper who is ignorant and uninformed)

----paying heed to sin and concieving it as great( the result of Allah's grace & favor)

" O abu dharr! Allah, the exalted and blessed,embodies His SLAVE's(one who strives in His path) sins in front of him once HE desires his good and make sin heavy and unbearable for him and He erases sin from the memory of a slave( one who persists in sins) Whom HE intends bad for"

--paying heed to the greatness of the one who is being disobeyed-----

" O abu dharr! Do not look at the smallness of sin, but look at the greatness of the One you are disobeying"

EXTRACTED fROM---PROVISION FoR THE JOURNEY
VOLUME 1---by muhammad taqi misbah yazdi
---lesson 1 to 8---