Mufti Abdurrahman

salamu alaikum,

I don't normally want to give my own personal advice. But here is some, anyway:

If you are a brother and ever get the opportunity to spend time with Mufti Abdurrahman Mangera, do it.

wassalam,
yousuf

the youth

subhanAllah.

I met Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar before I met Shaykh Zulfiqar.

The first time I met Shaykh Husain I asked him for advice in dealing with the youth in our community. I explained that many of them are good, but that they need guidance. He said he did not have experience with this and remained quiet. Though I was surprised, I did not press him.

Later, he said he did have something he wanted to say about the question. SubhanAllah.

He mentioned the hadith regarding what happens when Allah loves someone...that He orders the angels to love the same person and eventually, they also announce this.

So, he mentioned that if we straighten ourselves out, others can't help but love us and that will be the best way to affect them. He gave examples of people he knew that had caused changes for the better in the lives of their family members - not by directly telling them to change, but by changing themselves for the better.

This answer settled in my heart. May Allah reward him and love me and him.

Talbeenah

My good friend asked Shaykh Zulfiqar about a dua to help him with his back ache.

Sh. Zulfiqar replied that there is dua and 'dawa'.

He explained that the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) complained to Jibreel (alaihi salaam) that he gets tired. So, Jibreel (alaihi salaam) told him (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) told him to use "talbeenah".

Sh. Zulfiqar said they did some research and found that talbeenah may be made from cooking three ingredients together: barley, milk and either dates or honey.

I found that I usually need to cook the barley in water first to make it soft. Anyway, I found it to be so powerful that I don't drink coffee on the mornings that I take talbeenah.

Eating

salam,

I was with Shaykh Muhammad al-Yacoubi (yahfidhahu Allah). He was taking me around Damascus showing me various important locations. We passed by the graves of some auliyaa' and got on the topic of Sufism. He mentioned that there are three principles: eating less, sleeping less and talking less.

He told me a good trick to eat less. First, count how many bites you take at a meal. Then, decrease the number of bites by one for a week. For example, if you take 40 bites in a meal, decrease it to 39 bites. Then, decrease the number of bites by 1 each week. That way your body does not even notice.

He said there were some auliyaa' that needed to eat only very very little.

May Allah give us taufiq.
Ameen.

wassalam.