The Right Order of Love: Allah, His Messenger, and Our Responsibilities
Address by Huzoor Wala Shan Pir Sahib (RA)
Date: 15 February 1986
Discourse No. 44
بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِیْمِ
فَنِعۡمَ الۡمَوۡلٰی وَ نِعۡمَ النَّصِیۡرُ
رَبِِّ اشۡرَحۡ لِیۡ صَدۡرِیۡ وَیَسِّرۡ لِیۡۤ اَمۡرِیۡ وَ احۡلُلۡ عُقۡدَۃً مِّنۡ لِّسَانِیۡ یَفۡقَہُوۡاقَوۡلِیۡ
اَللّٰهُمَّ صَلِ عَلٰی سَیّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍوَّعَلٰی اٰلِ سَیِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍوَّعَلٰی اَصْحَابِہٖ وَعَلٰی اَذْوَاجِہٖ اَجْمَعِیْنَ وَبَارِکْ وَسَلِمْ وَصَلِ عَلَیْہٖ
All praise is for Allah.
Countless thanks to Allah Almighty, the Master of the Kingdom, who has once again granted us the opportunity and ability to gather here for His pleasure, in His remembrance and in His love. Millions and billions of blessings and peace be upon the Leader of the Prophets, the Beloved of Allah, Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa (PBUH), through whose blessed presence and grace this favor has been bestowed upon us.
Respected listeners! A person comes into this world with many relationships. One relationship is with Allah; another is with the Holy Prophet (PBUH); another is with one’s parents; another is with one’s children; another is with all one’s relatives; and another is with the rest of creation, and so on.
However, the relationship with Allah, the relationship with the Holy Prophet (PBUH), and the relationship with one’s parents are of such a nature that they can never simply be disregarded. Allah Himself created us, He bestowed all blessings upon us, and ultimately we must appear before Him and answer for all those blessings.
Our relationship with the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) exists because the only means of attaining Allah’s pleasure and succeeding in the test that Allah has given us is through the blessed person of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Allah has stated:
مَنْ يُّطِعِ الرَّسُوْلَ فَقَدْ اَطَاعَ اللّٰهَ
“Whoever obeys the Messenger has indeed obeyed Allah.”
Surah An-Nisa, Verse 80
There are many such commandments. It is Allah’s divine decision that whoever loves the Holy Prophet (PBUH) receives the love of Allah; whoever chooses the servitude of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is accepted as being in the servitude of Allah; and whoever refuses to obey the command of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) becomes deprived of Allah’s pleasure and incurs His displeasure.
Love for one’s parents and children is natural. Allah has placed this wisdom within human beings so that His creation may be nurtured and preserved. He placed the love of children in the hearts of parents, because of which they remain engaged day and night in serving and caring for their children. In this way, the creation of Allah is cared for.
Had Allah not placed this love in the hearts of parents, no father or mother would willingly take upon themselves the burdens and difficulties of raising children. The whole of humanity would then be scattered, neglected, and destroyed.
Therefore, the love of parents for their children is actually a favor from Allah; it is not merely an achievement of the parents themselves. Allah bestowed this blessing upon them. For this reason, Allah also commanded children to serve and honor their parents so that their rights may be fulfilled.
Likewise, there is a relationship with one’s children, initially because of this natural love. Among all these relationships, a person must establish their proper order in order to live a righteous life and determine whose right has priority.
The first and greatest love is the love of Allah, because the very purpose of human creation is to love Allah and worship Him.
The second is the love of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), because without following and serving the Holy Prophet (PBUH), the purpose of our creation cannot be fulfilled.
After this comes love, relationship, and service toward one’s parents and children, because Allah has commanded us to serve them. Whoever fails to fulfill this command has failed to perform his duty and has therefore become sinful.
However, because of the misleading influence of the ego, Satan, and worldly attachments, many people give the greatest importance to their children, spouses, or parents. Such people either become misguided because of their ego even after understanding religion, or they never truly understand religion in the first place.
The consequence of such misplaced love is of two kinds.
One consequence can be observed in animals. Animals naturally love their offspring, but when their young grow up, they separate from them. Have you ever seen a grown buffalo remaining attached to a young buffalo in the same way throughout life? Or a large dog continuing to care for a grown offspring? Never.
When the young of an animal or bird grow up, the parents no longer remain concerned with how much service they once provided them.
Birds bring food and place it into the mouths of their young, but we never see a grown bird bringing food into the mouth of its parents.
Why is this?
This is the result of worldly and merely natural love.
Those who love their children while neglecting Allah ultimately experience this very kind of outcome at the hands of their children. The second and even greater consequence is humiliation and disgrace in the Hereafter.
But those who, by the grace of Allah, understand the true importance of these relationships and love Allah first, then His Messenger (PBUH), and then love and serve their parents and children because Allah has entrusted them with these responsibilities—then even their worldly service becomes an act of worship.
The same Allah who, from the moment we are born, provides us with parents to care for us, transforms those actions that appear worldly into acts of love and worship and into means of drawing closer to Allah.
Therefore, respected members of this gathering, make your lives such that Allah and His Messenger (PBUH) occupy the highest place in your hearts.
Serve your parents, children, and even yourselves with the intention that Allah will be pleased. Then, when that inevitable moment arrives when we must appear before Allah and answer for all our actions, we will not have to feel ashamed. Instead, every action of ours will be presented as part of our worship.
In this way, we will appear before Allah successful and honored. We will benefit from those eternal and everlasting blessings, and even in this world Allah will protect us from grief, regret, and difficulties and grant us the opportunity to live with honor and dignity.
The love of parents or children has no reality when compared with the love of Allah and His Messenger (PBUH). If a person gives such love greater importance and, because of it, becomes heedless of divine love, then he is truly unfortunate and sinful.
The lives of the Messengers of Allah provide us with a practical model. We should learn lessons from them.
Regarding Hazrat Ibrahim (AS), it is mentioned in a narration that on the Day of Judgment, when everyone will be presented before Allah, he will say, “O Allah! You had promised to protect me from disgrace, so save my father today, because this would be a great humiliation for me.”
It will be commanded that his father has no such right over him. He will be told to look beneath his feet. When Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) looks, his father will appear covered in filth and in the form of an animal, and the angels will drag him by his feet and cast him into Hell.
Therefore, the love of parents and children must never become an obstacle between a person and the love of Allah.
When Hazrat Sa’d (RA)’s mother learned that her son had accepted Islam, she stopped eating. Hazrat Sa’d (RA) went to her and tried to persuade her.
His mother said, “My son, what kind of religion have you adopted? Leave it, otherwise I will continue to starve myself until I die, and people will call you your mother’s murderer.”
Hazrat Sa’d (RA) replied clearly:
“Mother, even if you had a hundred lives, and one by one each of them were to perish because you wanted me to abandon the religion of Allah, by Allah, I would never leave Allah and His Messenger (PBUH).”
His mother became disappointed and eventually accepted his decision and began eating again.
In comparison with the rights of parents, the love of one’s children cannot be given precedence. Those who place their children above their parents are rejected from a religious perspective, and in this world too they become disgraced and unfortunate. Their own children then treat them with disrespect and follow their own children instead.
This gathering of the blessed Awraad is a practical demonstration of this very principle. Those who participate in it are people who have come here after sacrificing all other loves and worldly necessities for the sake of Allah and giving importance to the remembrance of Allah.
When reciting these blessed Awraad, we should understand their importance as well as the importance of this gathering. We should humbly pray:
“O Master of the Day of Judgment! We are weak. Overcome by our ego, Satan, and the world, we stumble and fall at every step. By Your grace and mercy, through the blessings of these Awraad, grant us steadfastness. Grant us a correct understanding of religion and keep us established in the love of Yourself and Your Beloved (PBUH).
Grant us the ability and strength to fulfill all our responsibilities in this world and the Hereafter, and all other duties entrusted to us, solely for Your pleasure and according to Your will.
Make these blessed Awraad a means for us to overcome the difficulties of this world and the Hereafter.”
Now let us begin.
بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِیْمِ
The blessed Awraad-e-Naziriyyah were recited, followed by a supplication.
