tasawwuf

Q: Please explain to me in easy terms - What is Sufism?

Q: Reason why I'm emailing you is because I need urgent help. I have major hypocrisy in my heart with lots of maradh. I dont know what to do or where to even start! Please help me, this hypocrisy started 7/8 yrs ago when I fell in doubt with my religion and ever since then my life has been very miserable, I been through alot and it still hasn't changed me. Allah has given me lots of trials and I keep failing. I am also a hafiz of the Quran which makes this matter very serious. Up until now I got very scared as I've read the hadith from the prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) that most of the hypocrites of the ummah will be the Quran memorizers. This has scared me, do I have any hope of my hypocrisy to be forgiven if I repent sincerely. Again the key word is sincerely, I also have lots of arrogance and pride, I try to change it but its too difficult. I'll change for maybe like a few hours or even a day but then I go back to how I am. How do I change this for good? I am also very heedless, I think bad about Allah but I don't want to. I want to be back to normal like I how I was when I was younger. I have all the traits of the hypocrite, I lie everytime, sometimes I don't even realise I'm lying, I break promises, I have arguments, I have a big ego, I want all this to change. I also have riya but I dont know where to start. I try but its too difficult, can you please give me advice on where to start and can you also please give me advice, everytime I try to change I try to be a perfect Muslim but its too much to handle, I know we have to take it easy step by step but I overburden myself by trying to be the perfect person and everytime I do this I fail, within few hours I'm back to sqaure one!!! Im tired of this, I have gotten nowhere in life, life has been ups and downs, no self development, living life mostly depressed but i dont know what im living for, please please can you help me, I want to be submit my soul humbly to Allah but its too difficult, what can I do? I want to be a genuine person not a liar!!! This is very serious!!! Im an outward muslim but inside im not a believer, please help me.

Q: How can one attain good character and modesty?

Q: I have come across an aayaat or Ahaadith that state the following: Allah loves it when.....Allah loves those who are...Allah loves this....Allah loves that if one.....etc. So My question is:

1.) What are the virtues or reward in doing those things that Allah loves?

2.) When you do those things that Allah loves, will you get his mercy and pleasure?

Q: An ustaad said here in a sermon about the characteristics of people that have riya (besides showing off ibadah), kindly answer yes if any of this is true:

1.) If a person is always concerned about other peoples opinion, then he is not free from riya.

2.) If he has a desire in his heart and is eager to be praised, noticed, appreciated & admired by the people then he is not also free from riya.

3.) If he is always concerned about how to please people, then he is not free from riya.

4.) If he fears the criticism of (un-Islamic) people, he is not free from riya.

5.) If he constantly worrys about what people might think about him , he is not free from riya.

6.) If a person is free from any of the abovementioned, then he can assure that he is safe from riya. This kind of shocked me because I thought riya was just showing off your ibadaah to people.

Q: Is it permissible to take a college course of Sufism? I will be starting class soon and I found a good Professor. I do not consider myself a Sufi, but I am just searching for a good professor who has clear class structures and such.

Q: On this website a person asked if it is permissible to read Shaykh ibn Arabi's Hizbul Wiqayah -ad Dowr al A'la and the reply was that the works of the shaykh should not be read, even though the questioner sent a link to the work in question which is very much similar to the Hizbul Bahr which many of our Deobandi Ulama read. The work is actually a simple beautiful dua/wazifa/wird of 33 verses each one containing two names of Allah, a dua and a quranic ayat. What is wrong in this? At least the work should have been looked at before giving the fatwa. Please revise your answer as people will be deprived of this very beneficial work. This work is not at all like the other works of Shaykh ibn Arabi that has difficult tassawuf terminologies. It is merely a dua, consisting of Allah's names and quranic ayats.