Greetings, dear teacher,
Good morning. I hope you’re well.
The following points have been attributed to Master Fayyazbakhsh. Apparently, he spoke about them on the programme *Kalemeh* on the national television network.
Could you please explain them in simple language so they are accessible to everyone and we can share them in our groups?
May God reward you.
**What is needed to ward off distracting thoughts, as explained by Master Fayyazbakhsh**
**The commanding self directed towards higher things**
1. **Mindfulness (murāqabah):** Pay attention to what enters the heart.
2. **Remembrance through the tongue and fasting.**
Seek forgiveness and send blessings upon the Prophet.
The good word is inseparable from the spiritual wayfarer.
As remembrance rises, it carries the one who remembers upward with it.
3. **Warding off distracting thoughts.**
The faculty of imagination cannot be controlled directly.
There are satanic thoughts and God-inspired thoughts.
Pay close attention to the verses while reciting the Qur’an.
Touch the verses as you recite the Qur’an.
Keep the name of Allah with you; as soon as a thought assails you, bring the words لاالهالاالله to mind and say them aloud.
Before prayer, observe the recommended practices that prepare you to enter into prayer:
- Prostration before prayer
- The call to prayer and the iqāmah
- Do not pray facing a window or television.
**Before going to sleep:**
- Put your phone aside.
- Recite the *musabbihāt* surahs before sleep: al-Hadid, al-Hashr, al-Saff, al-Jumu‘ah, al-Taghabun and al-A‘la.
- Recite the Four Quls, Ayat al-Kursi and Surah al-Ikhlas eleven times.
- Perform ablution before sleep.
Helping others brings expansiveness to the spirit.
**The stages of mindfulness:**
1. Observe what is lawful and unlawful.
2. Do not cross the bounds into sin.
3. Keep the worlds beyond death in mind; this is mindfulness of the Hereafter.
Self-examination means being able to answer if asked, “Why did you do that?” If your teacher recommends a particular number of daily self-examinations, you should carry them out.
“From the perspective of the people of spiritual insight, worship is a discipline of the will and of the faculties of estimation and imagination. Through repetition and habituation to being in the presence of the Real, it continually draws these faculties away from concerns tied to nature and matter and towards spiritual imaginings. As a result, these faculties come to submit to the ‘innermost self’ and to the human being’s God-seeking nature, and obey them—so that whenever one wills to seek the manifestation of the Real, these faculties do not work against that aim, and no inner conflict arises between the two inclinations, the higher and the lower. Then the ‘inner secret’ can receive illumination from the inward realm without their interference.” (Ibn Sina, *Commentary on the Isharat wa’l-Tanbihat*, vol. 2, p. 592)
May God grant us the ability to understand and act upon these teachings, for the sake of blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad.