Proactive Struggle: Gaining Divine Support Through Service and Humility

October 5, 2026 October 5, 2026

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From the Realities of Mawlana (Q) as taught by Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi

أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ ٱلْرَّجِيمِ
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

A’uzu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

I seek refuge in Allah (AJ) from the accursed Satan
In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘aalameen, was salaatu was salaamu ‘alaa Ashrafil Mursaleen, Sayyidina wa Mawlana Muhammadul Mustafa ﷺ. Madad ya Sayyidi ya Rasulul Kareem, Ya Habibul ‘Azeem, unzur halana wa ishfa’lana, ‘abidona bi madadikum wa nazarekum.

Atiullah wa atiur Rasul wa Ulil amre minkum. Always a reminder for myself, ana abdukal ‘ajeez, wa dayeef, wa miskin, wa zhalim, wa jahl, and but for the grace of Allah (AJ) that we’re still in existence.

أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ وَأُولِي الْأَمْرِ مِنكُم… ﴿٥٩﴾‏ …

4:59 – “…Atiullaha wa atiur Rasula wa Ulil amre minkum…” (Surat an-Nisa)

“…Obey Allah, obey the Messenger, and those in authority among you…” (The Women, 4:59)

The Path of ‘Ishq (Love) and Divine Grace

Alhamdulillah that Allah (AJ) granted us this path of ‘ishq (love) and muhabbat into the depth of the heart of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. Alhamdulillah granted people to have tremendous sincerity to get the attention of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. With their khidmat, their service and their showing of this Divinely love. This is a great honour and a great gift to get oneself to be motivated. It is difficult enough but to motivate hundreds of people in this way of love and this ‘ishq is only from Allah (AJ). It means if Allah (AJ) is pleased with the mission then only Allah (AJ) can send the faiz (downpouring emanation). The light and Divine grace to the heart of Prophet ﷺ and from the heart of Prophet ﷺ is central command. That, that grace begins to emanate out to people to hear it. Once they hear it, it dress their heart and they feel it. Once they feel it, they listen to that.

The Greatest Jihad (Struggle) and Holding Onto Deen (Religion)

They listen to that guidance. They yearn to achieve that guidance, and they go out marching in the way of Allah (AJ). It is the greatest jihad. The greatest fight is the fight against oneself. The fighting of others and for bounty or for goods, it has its own reality. But the one whom fights against himself for Divine grace. Fights against himself or herself for the love and ‘ishq of Allah (AJ), the nazar (gaze) and the love of Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ. In days in which we describe, they become like holding your faith like a fire of coal because it is not popular.

عَنْ أَنَسِ بْن مَالِكٍ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ :قَالَ رَسُولُ الله صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ:« يِأْتِي عَلَى النَّاسِ زَمَانٌ الْقَابِضُ عَلَى دِينِهِ كَالْقَابِضِ عَلَى الْجَمْرِ » رَوَاهُ التِّرْمِذِيُّ.

Qala RasulAllah (saws): “Ya ti ’alan nasi zamanul qabidu ‘ala dinihi kal qabidi ‘alal Jamr.” (Rawahu Tirmidhi)

Anas ibn Maalik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessing be upon him) said: “There will come upon the people a time when holding onto the religion will be like holding onto a burning ember ((hot coal).” [Tirmidhi]

That one’s faith is something that shaitan (satan) is asking people to compromise. That, ‘Oh, you can be like this, you can look like that,’ and everything is about compromising to make other people happy. Other people comfortable. But Prophet ﷺ gave to us our co-ordinance that, ‘No, holding your deen will be like a fire.’ So, if it is not feeling like fire, then we have to increase the activity. It wasn’t supposed to be easy and comfortable; it was supposed to be a continuous struggle. A struggle to get what’s needed to be done, a struggle to go out and do what is necessary for my protection. Because all of these actions bring about Divine love and the nazar (gaze) of Prophet ﷺ.

Protection and the Test of Reliance on Our Own Actions

It brings about a dress upon me, my family, and all those whom I’m responsible for. That is the protection, and this is what we’ve described in many, many talks. You can go back now, mashAllah, to the AI [Shaykh.AI]. It Is like having a shaykh just sitting there. Ask whatever smallest question you want to the greatest question you want, and it gives you the understanding in a very eloquent response.

So, that when we think that we are protecting ourselves. That, we are protecting our loved ones through difficulties, calamities, testings, emtehan, whatever people want to call these situations. Because every day is a test, they want these things to be taken, these medicines to be taken, this type of food to be eaten. This type of this, and this type of that. Whatever people are seeing upon the news, it is a battle against families. If – in our teaching is that – if I think my actions will save me, then I have a lot of pride and arrogance in my actions. That we think very highly of ourselves. That ‘Oh yeah, no, no. What I’m doing is good, it is solid, it is so strong, it will help me. It’ll help my family and all my loved ones.’

Entering the Path Through Negation

But the tariqah (spiritual path) comes and teaches at the beginning of this gate and the beginning of this door and this path was negation. That as soon as I’m going to embark and truly enter onto the path in Muharram, step with my right foot. Enter to Surah Tawbah which no “Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.” It means that I’m entering now this path in which to sacrifice myself Ya Rabbi. I know, “La ilaha illa anta Subhanaka, innee kuntu minazh zhalimeen.”

…لَّا إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ ﴿٨٧﴾

21:87 – “… La ilaha illa anta Subhanaka, innee kuntu minazh zhalimeen.” (Surat Al-Anbiya)

“…There is no god/deity except You; Glory to you: Indeed I have been of the wrongdoers/Oppressor to Myself!” (The Prophets, 21:87)

That ‘Glory be to You; You’re the Great One, ana abdukal ‘ajeez, wa dayeef, wa miskin, wa zhalim, wa jahl. I have nothing for myself to protect myself, nor my family, nor my loved ones.’ That’s the door and the step we enter to.

Service Brings Mercy and Heavenly Attention

So then what protects us Shaykh? What protects us from Allah’s (AJ) anger? What protects us from the whiling desires of shaitans from attaching themselves to us? That was the khidmat (service) and that was the life of service. So we say again, hoping that my nafs (ego) will understand because I have to talk to myself. If other people are interested in listening, alhamdulillah.

So I take all the things I’m supposed to do that Allah (AJ) asked me to do, and I really don’t put importance on it. My salah (daily prayer) is not going to conquer the earth, and it is not most likely going to save my children from calamities. What my shaykh taught me was your khidmat would. Because khidmat – service brings rahmah (mercy), brings the nazar of the heavens. it brings the gaze, the emanations, you gain attention from the heavens. The heavens now is looking at the servants whom serve. Because they serve the kingdom.

Tawheed (Oneness) in Everything – Allah (AJ) is the One Who Provides

We’re trying to be employed by the kingdom, not only the boss at work at school. Then people will say, ‘Shaykh, but they pay us, so of course, I have to serve them.’ Say yes, you serve them, but who really pays you? Allah (AJ). Allah (AJ) puts into that company, ‘Give him a raise.’ Allah (AJ) puts into that company, ‘Fire him.’ A decree comes to the person’s heart and they’re gone. This is the tawheed and the Oneness of faith. Nothing escapes the order of Allah (AJ). Allah (AJ) is my Boss. Not that man writing the check, he is merely a servant of the same Creator. Whether he acknowledges him or not, Allah (AJ) holds his heart with his two fingers. it means with His qudra (power) and His Might holds the heart of every servant.

Serve with Every God-Given Gift

So my life was to serve with every aspect of whatever Allah (AJ) gave to me. With my time is service, with my ‘aqel (intellect), with my mind, my God-given ability was to serve. With the wealth Allah (AJ) has given to me was to serve. What else is there that Allah (AJ) has given to us, all of it is on the table to serve. Then we live a life of service, and it is such an easy understanding. The one whom serves the kingdom not only serves themself. Because once you’ve served Allah (AJ), no problem, serve your family. Serve your loved ones, everything.

But once you’ve lived a life of serving the kingdom, you’re a servant of the kingdom, and this is the greatest honour. As a result, everyone in that Kingdom looks to you. You gain the nazar of Prophet ﷺ – big or small, it doesn’t matter. Depending upon the people’s abilities. I don’t have to feed the entire city to gain their recognition, their acknowledgment, their nazar. I do what I can do. We do what we can do.

Encouraging & Inspiring Others to Join the Service

Then the shaykh inspires you too, that once you’re sincere and you’re actually trying, why don’t you go out and encourage other people to join you? I only have such an ability to do so much by myself. If this was about only doing it by myself, we would be very limited. But leaders will be born, and as a result of their leadership, they do, they do, they do. They sincerely do. They begin to encourage others to, ‘Come with us. Let’s do it!’ Get other people to come and support, and to do it.

So means wherever people are, everybody has the ability to inspire, to post that, ‘We’re going to be doing a feeding at this location, in Florida, Los Angeles, Chicago, Kenya, Nigeria now, India. Wherever it is. Why don’t you come and join us? Why don’t you come and participate? Why don’t you come and help?’ So that you can understand how difficult it is to get people and inspire people to do good.

Understanding the Difficulty of Inspiring Good

Once you live that life, then you understand that, mashAllah, that now how the shaykhs bring hundreds of people to actually do good? When all the odds are against them. Because everyone has a shaitan that says, ‘No, I don’t want to do anything.’ Go try to talk to one person and inspire them to do good, and ‘No, I don’t know, maybe I’ll see you later.’ So once we do good for ourselves, we live a life of doing good, have good character, following the examples. The khidmat, the service brings the Divinely grace and the gaze of the purified and holy ones. Then we rise above and inspire other people that come with us for a feeding. They come with us to go give food, go to local businesses and say, ‘Would you like to donate so that we can give more food, so that we can do more projects?’

It is not about everyone saying yes to you. But it is how many times are you willing to take a ‘no’ until somebody says yes. This is in our entire life. It is not how many times you won, it was how many times you got up after being knocked down. Because we said Allah (AJ) likes the fight, the victory is with Allah (AJ). Go out and fight against your devils. ‘Oh this humiliating,’ exactly. They’re not all saying yes, they weren’t supposed to. Allah (AJ) will give the one whom he wants in his heart to say yes to you. So this is an understanding that sometimes you don’t think people really understand.

Our Path is a Path of Humility

They’ll email, ‘Oh that nobody was interested,’ I said why you thought you’d go and the first round Allah (AJ) was going to open everybody’s heart. To listen to you like is a message from the Divinely Presence? You thought too highly of yourself, but the path is a path of humility. Every day, you know in the old times the shaykh would tell the students, ‘You have to put this bag of raggedy clothes and you take this cup and you shake the cup, you go down into the town and ask people to support.’ Not that everybody was going to support you. But that it was humiliating and they didn’t care if you were or you were wealthy or whatever your provision was.

The shaykhs want to develop a sense of – live a life of service. If it is humbling for you, it is pleasing to Allah (AJ). So Mawlana Shaykh (Q) many times described that they would go and ask for nuts even, forget about money. They would ask for donation, whatever people could give. Because this was a life of service and a life to humble ourselves. There is nothing wrong with being humbled – it purifies the heart. When the heart becomes purified, there are people that their heart and sincerity is pure. When they go out, Allah (AJ) opens the hearts of people to give to them in droves.

Service Must be the Essential Ingredient of Our Life

But that didn’t come overnight where you can watch and say, ‘How the shaykh is able to do that?’ But that came by a life of testing and humiliation. So, this life of service and if you ask the AI [Shaykh.AI] most of its answers will include that ‘Don’t forget service in your formula!’ It is like not being able to bake anything without flour, forget about all the other ingredients you put in. But the main ingredients of success in reaching the Divinely Presence is a life of service. Whether I serve with my skills, my computer skills, my intellect, my ability to write, my ability to communicate, my ability to program. Whatever it is that we have and whatever it is that Allah (AJ) has given to us, this life was a life of service.

As a result of serving, then this oceans of blessings begin to dress the servant. As a result of now walking in the steps of the shaykh, you begin to understand the shaykh didn’t just arrive there and sat at that place because he just drove there and got there. The 35 years of serving people, 35 years of humiliation. 35 years of asking and asking people’s support and everybody is saying no and no and no. Then one day you look back and there are hundreds of people serving, hundreds of people donating, and living a life of service of their time.

Responding to Difficulties with Service

Now mashAllah, look at the fruits. They’re out collecting hundreds of thousands of pounds of food everywhere. Making videos daily coming out. Images and graphics daily coming out, our own production team putting videos. Why? Because you live and walk the path. As a result, one day Allah (AJ) inspires the hearts of other people that, ‘Follow them and follow him and do as he asked you to do! Do as he did and he does!’ When you live a life of service, you know that the nazar of Allah (AJ) upon you. The nazar of Prophet ﷺ is upon you.

So this is all our life was meant to be – is for the nazar. If Allah (AJ) gives you a difficulty in life, don’t just accept the difficulty. If something is not operating correctly, the energy is not correct. That the difficulties are happening within the home, live a life of service. Don’t be reactive, you know ‘What are we going to do, what are we going to do?’ Be proactive! You have to do a lot more, you have to be actively involved. You have to do your salawats (praises upon Prophet Muhammad ﷺ), you have to do your practices. You have to give your contributions, everything.

Khidmat Strengthens Our Spiritual Protection

It is not just, you know, wait till disaster comes and devils are overtaking the home and do whatever, you know it doesn’t matter. Everything in our life is about a struggle. If Allah (AJ) opens for a situation means He is looking for a struggle, that how come you’re not struggling? How come you’re not trying to fight through this difficulty and resolve these issues that come into our lives? That’s important for us. That something, it must be deficient in my practice, in my understandings for how is this negativity coming in? We pray that Allah (AJ) give us an understanding and inspire within our hearts. That to take the path for all of its realities and to reach towards its realities, inshaAllah.

Subhana rabbika rabbal ‘izzati ‘amma yasifoon, wa salaamun ‘alal mursaleen, walhamdulillahi rabbil ‘aalameen. Bi hurmati Muhammad al-Mustafa ﷺ wa bi siri Surat al-Fatiha.

Special thanks to our transcribers for their help with transcribing this suhbah.

Original Date of Suhbah: November 24, 2023

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