Thursday, 13th Rabīʿ al-Ākhar
He (Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin RA) was the most exalted amongst the auspicious duʿāt mutlaqīn and had attained the loftiest station between them. He was most resolute amongst them in times when people were terror-stricken and the most compassionate of them upon the children of the faith. He was the most benevolent of them in giving, the most eloquent in speech and the most far-reaching in gracing people with his kindness and munificence. Indeed, Allah made his love the shield from hellfire for his followers and bequeathed upon them the verdant gardens of the Eternal Realm and Firdous. His heart and words were divinely aided and inspired by Allah and His beloved walī, with his age and length of life the longest amongst the duʿāt mutlaqīn.
He visualised the intricate concepts embedded in the books of Dawat vividly and projected them before our eyes, while the sword of his proof left his adversaries humbled and disgraced. O how he endlessly quenched our thirst with the eternal flowing rivers of Heaven. O how he incessantly gifted us the pure fruits of Eden. Now, the very souls of Mumineen by virtue of his absence, mourn the passing of the one who brought about their existence and bestowed them with a perfect form distressed by the loss of the radiance of a personage who created their spiritual essence and satiated us with the eternal Kauthar. Why should it not be? For his absence from the face of this earth is such a calamity that if it were to befall the skies they would tremble and collapse. If the earth were to know whose noble body it has enshrouded in its soil, it would crumble, swallow its inhabitants and erupt in mourning and lamentation. Undoubtedly, his venerated grave is a sacred mound, frequented day and night by legions of noble angels, just as they visited his lofty presence during his lifetime. Similarly, caravans of Mumineen flock towards his mausoleum, with the standards of his love raised aloft, like they thronged towards his exalted courtyard during his life. It is around his final resting place that celestial and spiritual bodies orbit, as they did around his residence.
He was the confluence of divine virtues, whose traits caused the scales of radiant qualities to incline. He was the bearer of glories and pride, a forceful ocean of grace and honour, the Kaaba for pilgrims, a refuge for those seeking shelter and a radiant sun of nobility, perfection, sagacity, solemnity and beauty. He was a valiant, lionhearted sovereign, noble in origin and prudent in his affairs, an ideal for the dignified and a qibla for the worshippers. He was our splendid sovereign and our firm support. He was our eternal refuge and our merciful sanctuary. Our beloved Syedna and our guide, our sustainer and our creator. A master of the intricate nuances of various literatures and gatherer of noble essences originating from the quintessence of divine origins. He enlightened the path of righteousness and guidance and the pathfinder for the way of benevolence and munificence. He was one who revived the languid soul of virtue and nobility and a cloud yielding a downpour of pure water that bestowed life upon all beings. He was a vast pasture of noble qualities and apparent merits; a spring of blooming flowers of unyielding perfection. His equal or rival was non-existent and he was a personage of loftiness and majesty. The pillar of the preeminent of his age who were rightly guided – The solemn Fatemi Dāʿī – our beloved Maula, Syedna Abu al-Qaidjohar Mohammed Burhanuddin. May Allah prolong the life of the praiseworthy endeavours of his name and the glorious achievements of his epithet till the day of qiyāmah.
Indeed his absence is a tragedy that enfeebles. How can one find the strength to exercise restraint and forbearance upon such a calamity and catastrophe. By the Lord of Skies! Never! There is no choice but to seek solace by emulating the holy Prophets, their legatees and the pious aʾimma. Indeed, the one chosen to bestow life to the souls of Mumineen and appointed to reveal the true meaning of ishrāq has been laid in the earth. Verily he – May Allah exalt his sacredness – ensured salvation for all those who attained it a handhold of virtues. He perfected the pristine qualities, dignities and grandeur attained by the immaculate devotees of Allah. He reached the ultimate zenith by virtue of the auspicious congruence of the standards of good fortune, elegant victories, remnants of divine grace and blessed preeminence. He chose a verdant, radiant garden encompassed by the light of the Quran as his grave, adjacent to the lush meadow of heaven: the tomb of his solemn father – the dāʿī of Allah, the all-compassionate. He prepared the place of his burial through his foresight and planning in accordance to the wishes of Allah and His will.
O how great a Dāʿī was he. Divinely aided and inspired at all times. O How great a Maula was he who recited the majālis of wisdom with utmost sublimity and perfection. He continuously prepared for the dawn of zuhūr through the remembrance of Imam Husain. Endlessly he shed a surging sea of tears through his mournful recital of the Compositions of Grief and Lament. He always recited those passages in a manner and style which moved listeners to tears and filled them with grief. Hence, both realms lament him today.
O Mumineen shed your streaming tears and lament over the one who is a piece of Mohammed’s flesh! The son of Maulatona Fatima, for whom Rasul Allah stated, ‘Fatima is indeed a piece of me.’ He — Allah’s salawāt and salutations upon him — was forced to swallow one agonizing mouthful of death after another. The despotic heretics of his grandfather’s umma subjected him to the worst of atrocities and heresies.
Shed tears of sorrow! Intensify your grief for the son of your nabī’s daughter and his wasī! Rain forth from your eyes, tears of blood as you grieve for the one whose blessed head was severed from his sacred body at the nape of his neck! The one whose saintly body was made to be a sacrifice for swords to slaughter and for arrows to target. The innocent women [of his household] were bound and shackled, subjugated to the oppressors’ cruelty and tyranny. They had no one to provide them succor nor give them justice in wake of what had befallen them. ‘In near, the wrongdoers will surely come to know what (dreadful) end they will meet,’ as retribution [for their tyranny] on the prolonged Day of Judgement when Allah will ask them [of their ill deeds]. On that day, they will have made an adversary of the Nabī Mustafa. All glory be to the one who made this temporal world a place of hardships for His awliyāʾ and compensated them in the Hereafter with the ease, comfort and reward of heaven.
May Allah increase his sacredness and may he shower upon us his intercessory blessings and benedictions.