Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Bismillahir- Rahmanir-Rahim
1. Opening
Friends who are blessed by Allah, In today’s digital era and modern world, many people are trapped in the pursuit of free-floating spiritual thrills. They admire false serenity, claims of mystical experiences, or mere vibrations of inner feeling without wanting to be bound by religious rules. They think spirituality is enough to just be felt in the heart. Know this: a valid spiritual state must be regulated, filtered, and controlled by the signposts of sharīʿah knowledge—not by wild, directionless feelings or intuition! Without sharīʿah knowledge, a person is easily deceived by false glitter. Remember, a cyber criminal or a skilled thief can have a high reputation, huge success, and appear to “shine” in their worldly community because they achieved their illegal targets. Yet their fame and success are a gigantic falsehood that has nothing whatsoever to do with Divine truth. Allah will never radiate His light into a heart that is impure and disobedient.
Psychologically and scientifically, human feelings are highly subjective, biased, and easily manipulated by circumstances or the whisper of the ego. Sharīʿah knowledge comes as an objective parameter that functions as a “signal regulator” so the soul does not wrongly capture the waves of truth. No matter how great an inner experience may be, if it crashes into the signposts of Islamic law, then it is not divine light, but the deception of Satan [istidrāj]. Allah’s light of guidance will only enter a heart that is pure and submissive to His rules.
Allah SWT affirms the absoluteness of His light—which is granted only to those who are pure—in the Qur’an:
نُّورٌ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ ۗ يَهْدِي اللَّهُ لِنُورِهِ مَن يَشَاءُ
“Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills.”[QS. An-Nūr: 35]
Knowledge is the primary guide that distinguishes between the path of salvation and the path of inner ruin. Rasulullah ﷺ reminded us about the importance of keeping every deed and spiritual state firmly on the rails of sharīʿah through his saying:
مَنْ عَمِلَ عَمَلًا لَيْسَ عَلَيْهِ أَمْرُنَا فَهُوَ رَدٌّ
“Whoever does a deed that is not in accordance with our matter, it is rejected.”
[HR. Muslim]
2. Lessons and Message
Let us reflect on a true, saddening story about the impact of losing the compass of knowledge. There was a righteous young man who longed for closeness to God. Because he was unwilling to study sharīʿah knowledge with discipline, he began following a deviant spiritual group that promised “mystical sensations and instant gnosis without needing to pray.” The young man felt his soul floating serenely and assumed he had reached the rank of a walī.One night, his paralyzed mother wept, calling him for help. But the young man ignored his mother’s cries while thinking to himself, “Don’t disturb my meditation, I’m connected to God’s light.”How saddening to see his inner blindness. He felt he was shining at the spiritual peak, yet in the sight of Allah, he was free-falling into the pitch-black abyss of disobedience for abandoning the obligation to be dutiful to his parents. His soul had been tricked by a false signal.
So we can understand the function of knowledge as a signal regulator with an intelligent smile, let us use an analogy about “Mat Kaoy’s Fake GPS App.”Imagine a man named Mat Kaoy driving a luxury car at night. Mat Kaoy wants to go to the city of Banda Aceh, but he is too lazy to read the traffic signs on the highway [as if too lazy to study sharīʿah knowledge]. Mat Kaoy prefers to drive relying only on “inner feeling” and a pirated GPS app with a broken signal.Midway, that broken GPS speaks in a very convincing voice: “Turn right now! Ahead there is a very beautiful and peaceful view of the stars!” Mat Kaoy felt calm hearing that voice, so he stepped on the gas and turned right with full conviction. But guess what was in front of him? The road was a dead end, and Mat Kaoy’s car plunged straight into a villager’s catfish pond! Mat Kaoy climbed out of the car drenched and smelling of mud.
Funny and pitiful, isn’t it? Many of us on social media act amusingly like Mat Kaoy. We are lazy to study fiqh, lazy to learn the signposts of ḥalāl and ḥarām, but feel the most spiritual just because we often post peaceful, aesthetic quotes. We feel our lives are already “shining” like a thief who successfully cracks a safe without getting caught. Yet without sharīʿah knowledge as the regulator of our inner signal, we are in reality driving our souls following the “fake GPS” of base desires that is ready to drown us in the pond of eternal ruin!
3. Conclusion & Closing
Friends, the profound moral message from today’s reflection is very clear: never be dazzled by a sense of calm, a thrill of success, or popularity gained by violating the boundaries of Allah’s rules. Success without obedience is a falsehood that holds no value before Divine truth.Let us subdue our ego to reopen the books of knowledge, listen to sound sharīʿah lessons, and discipline our daily worship according to the guidance of Rasulullah ﷺ. Make knowledge the signal regulator in our chests. When our hearts are cleansed of the stains of sin and tuned to the frequency of obedience, Allah SWT will radiate His true light—a light that not only cools our own souls, but can also illuminate the path of salvation for those around us.
May Allah SWT save our inner selves from the deception of false sensations, and adorn our hearts with the light of knowledge that leads to true taqwā.
. والله أعلم بالصواب
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
Abu Sultan Al-Qadrie
