The journey that leads to the pleasure of Allah: HİJRAH

HIJRAH
Hijrah is one of the biggest steps a person takes in his life in the way of Allah. Throughout history, many prophets and Muslims have embarked on a journey of hijrah to protect their faith, to live their religion or to escape persecution. Hijrah can be seen not only as a physical change of place, but also as a quest for spiritual upliftment. For a Muslim, hijrah is a duty to gain Allah's pleasure; sometimes it is a physical migration, and sometimes it is a spiritual journey that is made by stripping away the bad qualities of the soul.

Hijrah is considered under two main headings: zahirî (visible) and spiritual (inner). Zahirî hijrah refers to migrating to another town in the way of Allah and is an act of worship ordered by Allah to His prophets. The first prophet to emigrate in this regard was Prophet Ibrahim (a.s.). Freed from the oppression of Nemrud, Prophet Ibrahim first travelled to Egypt and then to Damascus. As a blessing of this emigration, Allah granted Abraham his sons Ishâq and Ya'qub and gave prophethood and holy books to their descendants. Based on this example, it is believed that those who are devoted to Allah will be rewarded in this world and the hereafter. In the early periods of Islam, emigration was imposed on Muslims as an obligation.

SPIRITUAL HIJRAH
Spiritual hijrah means abandoning bad behaviour, becoming virtuous and adorned with good morals, and progressing towards being closer to Allah. This inner hijrah is a journey that will last until the Day of Judgement. In this journey, Sufis leave the desires of the nafs and endeavour to be closer to Allah. In order to gain the pleasure of Allah Almighty, it is necessary to stay away from behaviours that may incur His wrath. This is possible by correcting our outward behaviour with Sharia, our nafs with tariqa, our soul with marifat and our secret with truth.

Zahiri reform is realised by fulfilling the obligatory, wajib and sunnah worships and striving to rise spiritually with nafil worships. At this point, the main thing is halal earning. The purification of the nafs passes through abandoning bad characteristics such as arrogance, anger, riya, backbiting and gaining virtuous qualities such as humility, sincerity and patience instead. The bad characteristics of the nafs create a veil for closeness to Allah; the removal of this veil requires effort and a constant inner struggle.

AS MAVLANA RUMÎ SAYS:
‘Rumi says, “Do not be deceived by what you see with the eyes of the world, be adorned with beautiful morals so that you can establish a throne in hearts,” Mevlana expresses that people should attach importance not to external appearance, but to inner beauty, that is, moral values. He also describes the spiritual journey of the person with the saying ‘I came as a raw, I was cooked, I was burnt’; he expresses that a person who improves his morals and struggles with his ego will mature and get closer to Allah, and this spiritual journey means that a person emigrates both inwardly and outwardly in the way of Allah.

The beautification of morality depends on abandoning bad habits and gaining good habits instead of bad habits with the right guidance. A person who wants to get rid of bad habits and have good morals should receive guidance from a murshid-i kâmil. In order to complete this spiritual journey, he should pray to Allah to be purified from bad morals and to turn towards the right path.