Thanwi, Hakim al-Ummat Ashraf Ali

One mistake which generally the careless make, is that they consider some good deeds to be lowly and do not save themselves from some deeds they know to be bad.

Some deeds are good but Shaytan misleads with [saying], ‘The work that are major which need to be done, you do not do! So what is the worth of doing this [good].’ Similarly, sometime in regards to bad deeds he says, ‘You do not let go of the major bad deeds. Having that, what is you piety worth?’

My fight with most people is that they do not speak clear. Ambiguity makes me uneasy. Even if the matter is small it should be clear and concise. This is what is missing in most people. I try to instil this but [then] people get apprehensive. They want to conclude matters in a wishy-washy way as is done by the ignorant, pretentious and the snitch. I become uneasy when people speak in such a manner. I restrict them to which the entrants become perturbed. So this is my fight. If one speaks clear, I have no complaint.

Nowadays organisation fill whole registers with strategies and positions but no real work is done. We should do whatever we can. Do not worry about scale - start small. Our case is such that we want to be top-notch or not at all.

A shaykh should be qualified (kamil). Most make mistakes in recognising them and as such it is necessary that we know how to identify them. The key features are: