The things necessary for everybody, and
especially for the youth, are three:
The first thing is to correct the faith, so as from
the Hell fire to be set free.
For that purpose you must gain the exact
knowledge of faith and iman [1].
Knowledge is required to believe and then to act
upon the Divine Firman.
You should learn the aqaid [2], and fiqh [3] as much as
needed in your case.
The second thing is to obey the shari’at [4] and follow
Muhammad (alaihissalam) pace by pace.
The third thing is to acquire ikhlas [5] in every deed
discarding vanity and show.
In obtaining all these essentials of Islam, you
should be like an arrow in a bow,
The acceptance and reward for a deed with no
ikhlas is impossible to find.
The source of ikhlas is tasawwuf [6] , keep that
always in mind.
GLOSSARY
[1] iman: faith, belief, beliefs of Islam; kalam, i’tiqad.
[2] aqa’id: doctrines, dogmas, tenets (of a religious faith).
[3] fiqh: knowledge dealing with what Muslims should do and should not do; actions, a’mal, ‘ibadat.
[4] Shari’at: (pl. of Shari’a) i) rules and commandments as a whole of the religion. ii) religion.
[5] ikhlas: (quality, intention or state of) doing everything only for Allahu ta’ala’s sake; sincerity.
[6] tasawwuf: (Islamic sufism as defined by Islam) knowledge and (after adapting oneself to fiqh) practice of the manners of the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam) which strengthens iman, makes the practice of fiqh easy and provides one to attain ma’rifa; ‘ilm at-tasawwuf. [See the book Maktubat by Ahmad al-Faruqi as-Sirhindi (rahmatullahi ta’ala ‘alaih)].