Hayaatul Muslimeen

(The Life of Muslims)

By

Hakeemul Ummat,Mujaddid-e-Millat,

Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Ashraf Ali Thanvi (Rahmatullah Alayh)

Translated by

MAJLISUL ULAMA OF SOUTH AFRICA

Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said:

"Verily, Allah will send for this Ummah at the beginning of every Century a person who will renew (reform and renovate) for it the Deen. "

Hadhrat Hakimul Ummat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi (Rahmatullahi alayh)) was one such Mujaddid (Reformer) as is mentioned in the hadith of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).

The condition of the Ummah at all levels and in all spheres of life is dismal and deplorable. The Ummah is grounded in the quagmire of decadence. Its state of dishonourable existence is indeed heart-rending to those who understand the value of Islam and the true position of the followers of Islam. The way of life of the Ummah in present times and the Islam handed down by Muhammadur Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) fourteen centuries ago are entities widely divergent and poles apart.

There is extremely little affinity between the present Ummah and the Islam of the Sahaba of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). Spiritually, morally, culturally, socially and politically, the Muslim Nation has fallen into the lowest ebb. The Muslim Nation is bankrupt in all spheres of its life in relation to Islam. The pitiable condition of the Nation of Islam besides its stagnation in the morass of corruption and degeneration, in which it flounders, is its steady sinking into greater destruction. The Ummah is smitten with some incapacitating disease, which has destroyed its moral and spiritual fibre, which had sapped its lifeblood and which has made Muslims the slaves of the kuffaar. The disease has brought the Ummah crashing from its position of grandeur and glory, which once was its capital. The former grandeur of the Ummah was raised on the foundations of the highest kind of spirituality and morality. This spirituality and morality which constituted the springboard from which the Ummah of Islam took off in its flight of glory to attain the loftiest pedestals and pinnacles of grandeur and power, was the Rope of Allah - that Habibullah stated in the following aayat of the Qur'aan Shareef:

"And hold on firmly all of you onto the Rope of Allah and do not split up (among yourselves). "

Since the Ummah, in the truest sense of the command, in its early stages gripped this Habibullah with might and power, it took hold of the powerful and unbreakable Divine Bond stated in the following aayat:

"Verily, they grabbed hold of a powerful handle; there is no break for it. "

But, alas! The disease has ruined the Ummah. The Ummah is lying sprawled and prostrate, not in Sujood, but on it's Face at the feet of the kuffaar to be buffeted and manipulated in the conspiracy to fulfill the desires of the kuffaar. No longer is the Ummah holding on to the Rope of Allah.

In Hayaatul Muslimeen or the life of the Muslims, Hadhrat Hakimul Ummat diagnosis the disease of' the Ummah and provides the prescription and the remedy for the sure cure of the Ummah. The prescription is the result of the diagnosis of one who has been sent by Allah Ta'ala for this purpose. The remedy offered is not a personal concept. Not some new-fangled product of the human mind gone astray. It is the remedy given by Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). It is then this divine prescription, which the great Mujaddid offers.

Since the disease has gripped and blinded the Ummah at all levels, this prescription offered in Hayaatul Muslimeen is for the entire Ummah. It is in fact the true and only panacea for the ills of this Ummah. It is the one and only alchemy of happiness and success for this Ummah, which although following the norms and cultures of the kuffaar, still positively asserts its allegiance to Allah Azza Wa Jal. Since Hayaatul Muslimeen is written for all Muslims, Hadhrat Hakimul Ummah had endeavoured to keep it as simple as possible and that the Muslim masses may easily comprehend it. Simplicity is the thread, which runs throughout the book. In fact, the greater portion of the book consists of Qur'aan and Hadith narrations, for it is the Qur'aan and hadith, which were the foundations, on which the superstructure of Islam and the Ummah's glory were erected by the Sahaaba (radiallahu anhum).The remedy offered by Mujaddid Hadhrat Hakimul Ummat rahmatullah alayh) is simple, divine, the one and only cure, the certain cure for the Ummah if only the Ummah can rise to the occasion and accept the remedy !

(Majlisul Ulama of South Africa)