Rely upon Tawhid and leave behind the doubts of the self, and you will attain what the noble ones before you attained.
When they act, they do not see themselves as the doers; rather, they recognise themselves only as instruments moved by the Divine Decree. Their repentance is to Allah, by Allah, and for Allah alone.
Their khawf is a trembling awareness before His overwhelming Majesty, while their raja’ is a serene certainty in His Promise. They accept the fatigue and hardship of their bodies as offerings in His service.
Their shukr lies in witnessing the Giver behind every gift, remaining inwardly detached from both ease and trial. Their sabr is a quiet contentment with whatever unfolds, seeking neither to resist illness nor to cling to health.
Their tawakkul is the complete surrender of all affairs to the One who knows every hidden reality. Their zuhd is the abandonment of all claims except what Allah has already decreed for them in His eternal knowledge.
Their love is an intoxication with the perfection of His Beauty — a love that carries the maqam of uns, the intimacy that adorns the hearts of those drawn near. Within this love is expansion, freedom, and intimate discourse with the Beloved, where the secrets of nearness continue to flow without end.
Therefore, strive to follow them through the perfection of adab. Be generous, and honour those who love the Beloved.
Adab is spiritual courtesy, as the masters have described — far more than outward good manners. It is a state rooted in knowledge, awareness, and presence of heart. True adab gives birth to right action, for actions attain beauty and correctness only when they arise from sound adab. When adab is preserved, every action becomes meaningful and every silence becomes an act of worship.
Your sharing of the qasidah is therefore deeply valuable, for it reflects the adab required at every stage of the journey — in stillness and in movement, in inward reflection and outward expression. One may master many subjects, but without adab on this path, a traveller may enjoy the journey yet never reach arrival.
When reflecting on the place of adab in the spiritual path, an important question arises: if the goal is to know Allah, what then is the role of adab?
The scholars of realization explained it with clarity: the purpose of our creation is to know Allah; the means is worship (‘ibadah); and the shield that protects the traveller from the dangers of the path is adab. Adab itself is born from the correct understanding of Tawhid.
Just as wudu’ purifies the body outwardly for prayer, adab purifies the inward being for witnessing. And just as the breaking of wudu’ breaks the prayer, the breaking of adab veils the witnessing of the heart.
If we reflect carefully upon the modern education system, we may see that its decline began when adab was separated from knowledge. Knowledge was gradually detached from its true Source — Allah سبحانه وتعالى — and reduced to an acquisition of the intellect alone.
Generation after generation, the ummah slowly shifted its reliance and reverence toward other than Allah, knowingly or unknowingly. This has produced a condition filled with claims yet emptied of sincerity, resembling a subtle hypocrisy of the age. Academic titles are often elevated above lived wisdom; a person holding a PhD may be honoured above a faqih who spent decades in the madrasah refining knowledge through adab.
Many today rush toward debate and argument, causing division among those who claim knowledge, while the people of true understanding often withdraw — not from weakness, but from a desire to preserve adab and protect the sanctity of knowledge.
Thus, the restoration of adab is not a secondary matter; it is the revival of knowledge itself. The loss of adab is the root of the loss of real knowledge.
I do not know why the subject of adab has been placed upon you to carry, yet it appears to address one of the deepest illnesses of our time. Perhaps Allah raises the reminder of adab when hearts are being called back to Him.
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