Questions & Answers

“How is wisdom from God different from philosophical wisdom?”

“There are multiple points of view in religious thoughts. Everyone agrees upon tazkiyah nafs, but after that some people emphasize on dawah work, some on jihad, some on charity, some on Sufism, and some on iqamat-e-din.”

“Why does it happen that people do not feel repentance? Is it due to their egoistic nature or arrogance, or is there a reason that people often do not repent?”

“If emotions are taken out of deen, and deen is according to rationality, how can you inspire people to do religious duties?”

“Does our heart and mind have a connection with our soul? How do we know if the thoughts that arise are from our heart and mind or the voice of the soul? Can we hear the voice of the soul? How do we know if it is a thought from our mind or from our heart?”

“What is the meaning of shukr (gratitude)? Its basic meaning is acknowledgment, but can you explain it in an elaborate way? It is very important in the Quran, because the first verse is Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Alhamd means praise, but its real meaning is acknowledgment.”

“How can we develop inner peace so that it reflects in external actions? Because only when we have inner peace can there be communal harmony.”

“What should be the starting point of ma'rifat (spiritual knowledge)?”

“What is spirituality? Please tell us something about it.”

“We worship God, but how can one love God?”

“What role does intuition play in developing love of God? What is your comment on this?”

“What can derail a person from love of God? What is your opinion?”

“Maulana writes in Quranic Wisdom that Quranic spirituality is spirituality of the positive kind. It means living in the world and trying to derive spiritual food from material things as a matter...”

“How about God realization for those who are put into test where even basic needs are not met? Please guide in this.”

“What is spirituality and what is religion? What is the difference between the two? Please clarify.”

“Maulana, my question is: what must we do to establish a profound connection with the Quran? Please clarify.”

“I love your talk today. I believe the real problem of not being able to connect with God is due to having unlimited desires in ourselves. These desires keep distracting us from the remembrance of God. My question is: how can we eliminate these desires and come to the level of simple living?”

“Sometimes I feel my ma'rifat is high and sometimes I feel it is low. I get very frustrated with this high and low experience. My question is: how can I always be in a state of high ma'rifat?”

“My question is with respect to yesterday's lecture on suffering. Is it right to say that suffering which takes man to God is good?”

“Many a times we do repentance and we mean it as well. But after a while we again end up either repeating the mistake or make new ones. This gives rise to guilty feeling to such a level that we fall in frustration.”

“Can I understand that the same is for Tawbah Nasuh (sincere repentance) is to sit back, take stock and replan after every action?”

“To clean one's thoughts, a very big heart is needed, especially for a dai. My question is: How can we all make our hearts big?”

“I need to know how I can develop ma'rifat (wisdom).”

“My work is full of responsibility. Even when I come back home I bring work from office. All this makes it difficult for me to think about God and find some time for reading Quran and do contemplation. I get only Sundays and I do not miss your class. So I make use of only Sundays for my spiritual development.”