[For a beatific and beautiful beginning, Mawlana Khalid Baghdadi (quddisa sirruh) commences his book by quoting the 17th letter of the third volume of the book Maktubat by al-Imam ar-Rabbani Ahmad al-Faruqi as-Shirhindi (1) (quddisa sirruh)].

I begin my letter with the Basmala. Infinite glory and thanks be to Allahu ta'ala who bestowed upon us all kinds of favors and honored us by making us Muslims and valued us by making us the Umma of Rasulullah Muhammad (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam), which is the highest blessing.

We should meditate and realize that Allahu ta'ala alone blesses every favor upon everybody. He alone creates everything. He alone is the One who keeps every being in existence. Superior and good qualities of men are all His blessings and favors. Our life, reason, knowledge, strength, sense of hearing and speech are all from Him. He always is the One who sends innumerable blessings and favors. He is the One who rescues human beings from trouble and distress, who accepts prayers and keeps away grief and disaster. Only He creates sustenance and causes them to reach us. His blessing is so bountiful that He does not cut off the sustenance of those who commit sins. His covering sins is so great that He does not disgrace or hold up to scorn or tear the honesty veil of those who do not obey His commands or abstain from His prohibitions. He is so forgiving, so merciful that He does not hurry in punishing those who deserve punishment and torture ('adhab). He scatters His blessings and favors upon both those whom He likes and His enemies. He does not spare anything from anybody. And as the highest, the most precious of His benefactions, He points out the right path to happiness and salvation. He encourages us not to go astray, so that we go to Paradise. And He orders us to adapt ourselves to His beloved Prophet (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam) in order that we may attain all the infinite blessings, endless and inexhaustible pleasures in Paradise, and His own consent and love. Thus, Allahu ta'ala's blessings are as obvious as the sun. The favors which come from others, in fact, come from Him. He, again, is the One who makes others intermediaries and gives wish, power and strength to do favors. For this reason, He is always the One who sends all the blessings that come through all places and all people. To expect favors from anybody but Him is like asking for something from the custodian or asking for alms from the poor. The ignorant as well as the educated, and blockheads as well as the intelligent and the keen know that what we say here is right and to the point, for, everything said is obvious facts. It is not necessary even to think them over.

He who does favors is to be thanked and respected. Therefore, it is a human duty for every man to thank Allahu ta'ala, who has bestowed these favors. It is a debt, a duty which wisdom commands. But it is not easy to carry out this thanksgiving due to Him, for men, having been originally created out of nothing, are weak, indigent, faulty and defective. As for Allahu ta'ala, He always and eternally exists. He is quite removed from defectiveness. Every kind of superiority belongs to Him only. Men have by no means any similarity or proximity to Allahu ta'ala. Can men, who are so inferior, thank such a high being as Allahu ta'ala in a manner fit for His Dignity? There are so many things that men consider beautiful and precious, but He knows that they are evil and dislikes them. Things which we consider to be reverence or thanks may be common things not liked at all. For this reason, men, with their own defective minds and short sights, cannot discern the things that express thanks and veneration to Allahu ta'ala. Unless the ways of thanking and respecting Allahu ta'ala are shown by Him, acts that are considered as praising may be slander.

"So, the gratitude to be shown and the human duties to be done for Allahu ta'ala with the heart, tongue and body had been defined by Allahu ta'ala and communicated by His beloved Prophet (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam)! The human duties which Allahu ta'ala showed and ordered are called Islam. One thanks Him by following the way His Prophet revealed. Allahu ta'ala does not accept or like any thanks, any worship incompatible with or outside this way, because there are many things which men consider beautiful but which Islam disapproves of and regards as ugly.

"Hence, in thanking Allahu ta'ala, people who have reason should adapt themselves to Hadrat Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salam). His path is called Islam. The person following Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salam) is called a Muslim. Thanking Allahu ta'ala, that is, following Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salam), is called 'ibada (worship). Teachings of Islam are of two parts: religious and scientific. The former has two branches:

1) Teachings that must be believed through the heart and are called the teachings of usul ad-din or iman; 2) Teachings of 'ibadat that are to be done through the body or the heart and are called the teachings of furu' ad-din, ah'kam al-Islamiyya or the Sharia.

[The religious teachings revealed by Islam are the teachings that are written in the books of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. One becomes a kafir (disbeliever) if he does not believe, among the teachings of iman and the Sharia that have been reported by the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat, one of the nasses (ayats or hadiths) with explicit meaning. If he keeps his disbelief secret, he is called a munafiq. If not only he keeps it secret but also he tries to deceive Muslims by passing himself off as a Muslim, he is called a zindiq. If he makes tawil of the nasses with explicit meaning without knowing, that is, gives wrong meaning to them and believes wrongly, he again becomes a disbeliever and is called a mulhid. If he believes wrongly by making tawil of the nasses with inexplicit meaning, he does not become a disbeliever but, because he has departed from the right path of the Ahl as-Sunnat, will go to Hell. Since he believes in the nasses with explicit meaning, he will not remain in Hell eternally but will be taken into Paradise. Such people are called ahl al-bidat or heretical groups. There are seventy-two heretical groups. None of their 'ibadat is acceptable. Muslims whose faith is correct are called Ahl as-Sunnat wal-Jamaat or Sunnis. In relation to 'ibadat, the Sunnis belong to four different madhhabs. Those who follow one of these madhhabs acknowledge that the followers of the other three also belong to Ahl as-Sunnat, and they love one another. A person who does not follow any of these madhhabs does not belong to Ahl as-Sunnat. Further, "He who does not belong to Ahl as-Sunnat is either a disbeliever or a man of bidat." (2)

If a person who carries out his 'ibadat according to one of the four madhhabs commits sins, or if he makes any mistake in his 'ibadat, Allahu ta'ala will forgive him and will never put him into Hell, if He wishes. He will torture him as much as his sins, if He wishes, but later he will be released from torture. Those who do not believe even one of the clear facts that must be believed in Islam, that is, that are heard even by ignoramuses, are called kafirs (disbelievers) and will be subject to eternal torture in Hell. There are two types of kafirs: The kafir with a holy book, and the kafir without a holy book. If a Muslim abandons his religion, he is called a "murtadd" (renegade, apostate). Ibn 'Abidin (rahimah- Allahu ta'ala) wrote in the subject on 'people not to be married due to polytheism': "Renegades, mulhids, zindiqs, fire-worshippers, those members of one of the seventy-two groups who are as excessive as to become disbelievers, people called [Brahmins, Buddhists,] Batinis, Ibahatis and Durzis (Druzes), idolaters, the ancient Greek philosophers and munafiqs are all disbelievers without holy books." Communists and the freemasons also are disbelievers without holy books. Christians and Jews, who believe in revealed books which were later interpolated, are disbelievers with books.

If a disbeliever, with a holy book or without one, embraces Islam, he will escape going to Hell. He will become a sinless, innocent Muslim. But he has to become a Sunni Muslim, that is, to read and learn the book of one of the 'ulama' of Ahl as-Sunnat and adapt his iman, acts and words to what he thus learns. In the world it is understood from a person's clear words and actions said and done without darura (strong necessity or compulsion) if he is Muslim or not. It becomes definite at a person's last breath if he has gone to the next world with iman. If a Muslim with grave sins repents for them, he or she will surely be forgiven and become a sinless, pure Muslim. It is explained in detail in 'ilm al-hal books, for example, the book Endless Bliss, what repentance is and how it will be done.]

FOOTNOTES

(1) Imam-i Rabbani passed away in 1034 [1624 A.D.].

(2) In the letters of Imam-i Rabbani, especially in the 286 th letter of the first volume and in at-Tahtawi's commentary to Durr al-mukhtar (in section "Zabayih") and Mawlana Hamd-Allah ad-Dajwi's Al-Basa'ir li-munkiri't-tawassuli bi ahl al-maqabir. Both books are in Arabic. The latter was written and printed in India and was reproduced in Istanbul in 1395 (1975).