Shaykh Amin's Quotes
The key must be smaller than the door.
At a Tafsir lesson, on adhkār related to the Names of Allah , March 2020
Allāh is the one who cares for you the most. If Allah were not our Lord, in one year or five, we would destroy the whole earth.
From the tafsīr of Surah Al-Sāffāt , March 4th 2018
We should not study science to prove that Quran is true. That is retrogressive and counter-productive. You are paddling in a creek without water.
From the tafsīr of Surah Al-Sāffāt , March 4th 2018
The word for man, rajul, is related to the word for foot, rijl. The rajul stays on his feet, no matter what you throw at him.
At a reading of the Mishkat Al-Masabih ,
The need of the hour is for Muslims to distinguish betweem the hukm and the hikmah.
At a tafsir of Surah Al-Ankabut ,
The piety of an 'aalim lies in his learning.
At a tafsir of Surah Al-Ankabut ,
Jannah is not a place for procreation, it is a place for eternal companionship. And so, Iblis facilitated the procreation of the very one he despised.
At a reading of the Mishkaat al-Masabih ,
We are not afraid (as scholars and students) of kufr, or shirk or sin. What we are afraid of is the weakness of the ummah in representing Muhammad (Peace be upon him).
At a tafsir of Surah Al-Maidah (5:72) ,
The dhikr (remembrance) of Allah is sweet only if the nafs (self) is slaughtered. Otherwise it is sweet poison.
At a reading of the Mishkaat al-Masabih ,
A weak (dha'eef) hadith is not weaker than the one who speaks of it.
At a reading of the Mishkaat al-Masabih ,
As soon as you feel good about yourself, know that the devil has got you, because he is made from fire and he understands the nafs better than you.
From the Hikam ibn 'Ata Illah lecture series ,
The greatest gift that Allah gave the Prophet is the Quran. The greatest gift that Allah gave the sahaabah is the Prophet . And the greatest gift that Allah gave us (the ummah) is the sunnah. When we apply the sunnah in our lives, in our thinking, and in our decision-making, we are reviving Allah's gift to us, the sahaabah and the Prophet (Peace be upon him).
At a spiritual retreat , December 2007
What you see in dreams (subject to interpretation) is far more real than what you perceive with your five senses.
During a lecture on the etiquette of seeking interpretations of dreams ,
Who can conceive of a fruit that tastes different and better with each tasting? Who can conceive of an angel that has six hundred wings, each wing the span of the horizon? Who can conceive of a horseman that gallops five hundred years yet does not escape the shadow of a tree in Jannah? Who can conceive of this level of vastness and magnitude? Not a poet. Only a prophet can who speaks from what is revealed to him.
The Darul Qasim Sunday Tafseer, conclusion of Surah Al-Shuara ,
It is okay to fall down, but it isn't okay to stay down.
Lecture series The Names of Allah, during a discussion of the name Al-Wakeel, with respect to falling into sin, in the context of losing hope in Allah) ,
These things happen in that world, and I don't think we should deny it because they don't make sense. And that's exactly why we should believe in them - because they don't make sense. We have enough of the "making-sense" rat race twenty-four hours a day.
Lecture series Introduction and Orientation to the Qasidah al-Burdah, with respect to dreams ,
You must know the fiqh to override the fiqh.
At a reading of the Mishkaat al-Masabih ,
In this vast space (of the cosmos) for a human being to assume that nothing else exists except himself is the height of paranoid arrogance.
The Darul Qasim Sunday Tafseer ,
Jannah (Paradise) begins where the collective imagination of all humanity ends.
At a reading of the Mishkaat al-Masabih ,
From the Traditions
Dala’il al-Khayrat
Dala’il al-Khayrat, the most celebrated manual of Blessings on the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in history, was composed by the Sufi, wali, Muslim scholar of prophetic descent, and baraka of Marrakesh Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli (d. 870/1465). Born and raised among the Gazulah Berbers of the Sus region in southern Morocco, he studied the Qur’an and traditional Islamic knowledge before travelling to Fez, where he memorized the four-volume Mudawwana of Imam Malik and met scholars of his time such as Ahmad Zarruq, and Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah Amghar, who become his sheikh in the tariqa or Sufi path.
Amghar traced his spiritual lineage through only six masters to the great founder of their order Abul Hasan al-Shadhili and thence back to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). After initiating Jazuli into the way, he placed him in a khalwa or solitary retreat, where he remained invoking Allah for some fourteen years, and emerged tremendously changed. After a sojourn in the east and performing hajj, Jazuli himself was given permission to guide disciples as a sheikh of the tariqa.
Imam Ahmad al-Sawi relates that one day Jazuli went to perform his ablutions for the prescribed prayer from a nearby well but could not find any means to draw the water up. While thus perplexed, he was seen by a young girl who called out from high above, “You’re the one people praise so much, and you can’t even figure out how to get water out of a well?” So she came down and spat into the water, which welled up until it overflowed and spilled across the ground. Jazuli made his ablutions, and then turned to her and said, “I adjure you to tell me how you reached this rank.” She said, “By saying the Blessings upon him whom beasts lovingly followed as he walked through the wilds (Allah bless him and give him peace).” Jazuli thereupon vowed to compose the book of Blessings on the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) which came to be known as his Dala’il al-Khayrat or “Waymarks of Benefits.”
His spiritual path drew thousands of disciples who, aided by the popularity of his manual of Blessings on the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), had a tremendous effect on Moroccan society. He taught followers the Blessings upon the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), extinction of self in the love of Allah and His messenger, visiting the awliya or saints, disclaiming any strength or power, and total reliance upon Allah. He was told by the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in a dream, “I am the splendor of the prophetic messengers, and you are the splendor of the awliya.” Many divine signs were vouchsafed to him, none more wondrous or unmistakable than the reception that met his famous work.
Its celebrity swept the Islamic World from North Africa to Indonesia. Scarcely a well-to-do home was without one, princes exchanged magnificently embellished copies of it, commoners treasured it. Pilgrims wore it at their side on the way to hajj, and a whole industry of hand-copyists sprang up in Mecca and Medina that throve for centuries. Everyone who read it found that baraka descended wherever it was recited, in accordance with the Divine command: “Verily Allah and His angels bless the Prophet: O you who believe, bless him and pray him peace” (Qur’an 33:56).
(al-Mutrib fi awliya’ al-Maghrib, 143–44).
-Sheikh Nuh Keller