from the teachings of our respected Shaykh Muhammad Saleem Dhorat (Hafizahullah)

The purpose of our very creation is so that we worship Allah subhaanahu wata’alaa and in order to do this we firstly have to recognise Him, attest to His Oneness and thereafter worship Him in the manner of a true slave. A slave will never do anything against his master’s wishes and to this end he, in fact annihilates his own wishes. If Allah subhaanahu wata’alaa created us to be His slaves then assuredly we have the capabilities of being slaves i.e. one does not order a blind person to see something. Therefore as slaves of Allah subhannahu wata’alaa we should annihilate our wishes and follow His commands. This is ‘abdiyyat, and to be a slave of Allah subhaanahu wata’alaa is the highest stage for a human.

To achieve this stage one first needs to have recognition of Allah subhaanahu wata’alaa. It is one thing to have “knowledge” and quite another to have “recognition” (Ma’rifat). One knows Allah is powerful but how powerful? If one had ma’rifat one would fear Him and refrain from His disobedience. Knowing that He is the One Who bestows upon us countless blessings, do we have knowledge of just how much we are indebted to Him? If we did recognise this fact we would have intense love for Him. However we are blinded and the cause for our blindness is a veil being present – the veil of sins.

When we go to a garden we see the beautiful colours and smell the fragrances of the flowers however we do not recognise the Creator of those colours and fragrances due to the veil of sin being present. Only with much effort and striving for rectification (islah) will those veils be removed leading to the ma’rifat of Allah subhaanahu wata’alaa and then the colours and fragrances will fade and the Creator will become apparent.

The Prophet’s sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam status is higher than any other creation. So much so that during the Me’raaj even Jibrail could not venture beyond a certain point. After the name of Allah subhaanhu wata’alaa, during the call for Salaat and the Iqaamah, the name of His beloved Nabi sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam follows. In fact Salaat begins with the name of Allah and ends with salutations sent upon His Nabi sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam. Even in the grave after being questioned about Allah each person is asked about Prophet Muhammad sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam. Despite this great status, he was a slave of Allah and he behaved like a slave.