A Reading of Reflection this Blessed Friday Morning:

Let us all live for Him; and He, the Oft-Forgiving, the Most Merciful, the Most Bountiful, the Bearer of the Highest Name, will be for us. What Allah prefers most among all His creation is His servant who believes only in Him, that He was not born Himself, that He has no resemblance of any kind, and that He does not associate partners with Himself.
He is the First, the only Existence before existence and the Only Existence after creation ceases to exist. I often mediate on the ineffable and unfathomable cataclysm that will occur when all the innumerable manifestations of Allah cease to exist and nothing is left but Allah, the Last.
Only Allah existed in the beginning before creation, and it is only He who will exist when the creation has ended; and there has never been a change in His Essence.
The creation came into existence only when His Spirit manifested into the light of Muhammad. Out of this light Allah manifested the rest of creation, both the material and the Hereafter.
In Hadith Qudsi, Allah says, “If not for you [O Muhammad], I would not have brought forth the creation. I created you for Myself and made the rest of creation for you.” The Prophet said, “All Muslims are from my light and my light is from the light of Allah.”
All of creation – believers and non-believers, the heavens and earth – come from his light and his light came from Allah [without how]. How great a kingdom it is!, without limit and frontier. All these are signs of Allah, the Supreme Being, and manifestation of His sublime Light.
Allah! You are the First, the Last, the Seen and the Unseen. You are the One, the Only.
The Messenger of Allah said, “Allah alone existed before creation,” to which Sayyadina ‘Alī, companion of the Prophet and the ‘Door of Knowledge’, added that Allah alone existed even now. Nothing is existing other than Him.
What is now is what was before; what was then is the same as now. Our occupation and duty as humans is only to maintain constant remembrance of our Lord. So let us be steadfast in giving thanks and praise to Him, resolute in avoiding disbelief, accepting all that He places upon us.
No matter how busy, complicated, and stressful our lives may become, let us always set aside time for Him, time to seek His Mercy and Forgiveness. When we approach Him, let us come in absolute humility, like a worker who has been avoiding his job. Certainly when the worker decides to return, he would not come arrogantly but only with complete humility.
Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse (d.1975) was a well known Scholar of Qur’ān and Hadith and is also known throughout Africa as a great Saint of Allah who guided many to Allah.