WEDNESDAY saw yet another capacity crowd, this time in Bolton, for the fourth day of the Dalāʾil Al-Khayrāt tour.
The audience were treated to the first full recital of the Dalāʾil, as Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi seeks to revive connectedness to Imām Al-Jazūlī’s sublime composition of praise for the Prophet ﷺ; with two more complete recitals to occur in Smethwick and Reading, as the Shaykh travels across the UK during July.
After mentioning that the Jazūlī order forms a prominent branch of the Shadhili tariqa, Shaykh Al-Yaqoubi reminded us it’s no coincidence that the two most famous works in this genre – the other being the Burda of Imam Busiri – were penned by Shadhili authors.
Such is the acceptedness of Imām Al-Jazūlī’s text, one need not even explicitly ask for the fulfilment of their need, explained Shaykh Al-Yaqoubi; they can merely intentionalise it whilst reciting the Dalāʾil, and it’ll be fulfilled, bi idhnillah ta’ala [by Allah’s Will]. Because, “Allah’s Knowledge of you suffices you from asking,” as the prayers [salawat] themselves mean that the Prophet ﷺ, takes care of you.
Reading the Dalāʾil, helps control your ego, caprices, bad habits, and addictions; its transformative power shouldn’t be underestimated.
Taking time to detail the extensive research he’s undertaken in relation to the many asanaid [chains of transmission] for the Dalāʾil, the Shaykh explained how he deliberately focused on chains related through the fuqaha [jurists] and muhadditheen [experts in Hadith], to demonstrate the unanimous acceptance of Imam Al-Jazūlī’s tremendous text.
Having provided an overview of the sequencing in the book, Shaykh Al-Yaqoubi consumately recited the Dalāʾil (almost as if in a single breath!), pausing midway to outline the protocol of listening rather than joining in during its recitation, before finishing by issuing an ijaza [licence to transmit] to all the listeners, in person and online, in what was truly a rare opportunity to have heard this most well-known of devotional panegyrics in the Islamic tradition.
