Abdal Hakim Murad – Overcoming Ego

Cambridge Muslim college training the next generation of Muslim

thinkers

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah while he was

off the woman while up,

moving through the days of Ramadan, traveling purposefully

through the desert

every evening being hospitably welcomed by the Oasis, and on we

travel the journey. It is a journey towards the eighth and the

outward, rejoicing and celebrating the hope of Allah's cabal and his

his acceptance

and of return to busts after cogged expansion after

construction, but also a journey within

every outward form in religion enacts and reminds us of an inward

process of turning and transformation. It is always about

toe hade, about Tober. But it's still far. So the prayer leads us

to the process of being erect in our normal human life, standing as

biped through the Sajida, of inky Tsar brokenness, annihilation

before the divine majesty. And we end in a position of equilibrium.

This is one of the meanings of Gallica, Omnicom or Martin

Masataka. Thus, if we may do a middle nation, that we end up

halfway between these two possibilities of apparently

autonomous ambulance humanity and prostrate, self annihilation in

the presence of the Divine and this is one meaning of the Hadith

that says a Salah to Mirage will not be in the prayer is the Raj of

the believer. In the prayer, of course, in the Hadith was gifted

to the Holy Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam on the night of

the Mirage which is historically commemorated in the weeks prior to

the month of Ramadan, that there is the aspect of Khilafah in this

and the aspect of serenity. The last word of the prayer is a Salam

or Aleikum, the invocation of peace, equilibrium has been

restored.

Similarly, at the end of the fast after this cycle of abstention,

and gratitude, Sauber and Shaka, we have the combination as we

return purified Insha Allah, chastened, rejoicing as we return

to our quotidian routines.

But in all of this, there is the process of moving forward.

Ramadan is not just something that we do, that is awkward that

disrupts our routine in order to entreats in heaven, it would be a

strange thing for the divine, to give us only that, but instead is

an inward journey that leaves a permanent trace on the soul. So

Ramadan should not be a step up into a more heavenly space

followed by a step down after the eighth, but it should be a step

up, that enables us to take a further step up the following

year. So that as we move on in life, Ramadan becomes a more and

more amazing, natural transformative experience, rather

than just

circular.

So, in order for this journey, really to be a journey, rather

than just a wandering around in circles every year, we have to

make sure that we know what it is for, so that we can make the right

kind of Nia just saying I intend to fast tomorrow is formerly

correct. But unless the heart really knows what the expected

benefits of the fast, something is being lost,

just as the prayer is legitimately, it started by the

intention of saying the mother of prayer. But unless the heart

really knows the immensity of this prophetic act, and approaches it

in gratitude, and reverence, something is lost. It's as if we

are Legalist and routinized. Religion, turning it into a kind

of cosmic slot machine. So we put in our ammo, and we get out treats

at the end of our life. And that's really rather strange reason that

Allah subhanaw taala to have created human beings in this act,

any type of human to have sent them prophets and br and Alia and

Allah, there's more to this than meets the eye.

So what is it that Ramadan is leading us towards? Well, it's

leading us towards evidently the gift of summer, or Salmo this for

summer, in terms of the Hadith that the fasting is half of sober

and it teaches us that rather extraordinary lesson, which for

most of the year, we are reluctant to consider, which is that

actually we

are able to say no to things.

Normally, we say I have to have this indulgence. I need this new

car, I need this holiday and I'm tired and I need to chill and to

have these treats. And actually, that's not the best part of us

talking though. Ramadan tells us that we do have the capacity to

say,

Nil by mouth, from dawn until dusk, not even drinking, and even

controlling the thoughts and our habits of speech. It's very

radical. So by the end of the month, we've actually learned this

formal lesson that with Allah's name, I walk away, he reinforces

us actually to be able to say no to the ego. That's an important

lesson. It should help us to overcome the pessimism, the

lassitude, which we often feel these, that this knifes, Amara is

just too strong, and I can't deal with it. So I'm going to do

religion on a kind of minimal level because things are just too

tough. And I'm feeling sorry for myself, no Ramadan teaches that

you can actually do a lot, you can do a lot more prayers, you can do

a lot of abstaining from pleasures, human beings have this

capacity. And Ramadan proves that to us. So that's a real gift. And

we need to learn from that. And remember it when we're tempted to

return to indulgences and forms of laziness and saying yes to the ego

at other times of the year, we know that we can do better than

that. There's no excuse. So there is that journey, the journey

towards greater respect, I think for the capacity of the human will

the irata to prevail over the knifes the lower ego. It's proved

in this month, but also the inward journey, which is the journey

towards healing alpha, towards being Allah's approved organism in

the world of dunya.

That entity that Adamic miracle to which to whom that angels could

bow down that strange enigmatic passages, and

if it appeared, say in a medieval Persian poem, a lot of our

brothers say I stopped for Allah Sure, haram but it's the beginning

of the Quran

commands them and is to Dooley Adam, prostrate to Adam, for

sogetsu Illa a bliss of our stock per hour Kena metal caffeine they

will bow down but a bliss didn't. He refused and was proud and was

one of the unbelievers those who literally cover up reality.

Now, if you look at that verse, you'll see that the reason why he

does it

is not that he's getting involved in some kind of misunderstanding

of total hate, but rather, that he thinks is too good for this

process. Aba was duck Bara

he considered himself to be Kabir. Although the divine name Al Kabir,

applies only to the divine subhanaw taala. He alone is a

Jabbar.

The Kibriya is his alone, la Homolka. SAMOA at will other than

any human being that thinks that he's really some kind of special

person has arrogated himself something that is uniquely divine

trait He alone is the source of being the author of time, the

underlying principle behind every movement that exists in the

heavens and the earth, He alone is okay beer and water can be even,

He alone has the right to do that. So the shaytaan in this pride is

immediately indicating what can go wrong with us.

Your worst of the Seven Deadly Sins superbia pride, arrogance, we

know best. And we see this now in this whole civilization that we're

inhabiting at this particular rather extreme stage of the human

story. Human beings with the sovereign autonomy preached by the

enlightenment, our lack of need for the wisdom and the sagacity of

the past. And if the sages and of the Prophet, we alone know what's

right. With our science, it turns out that we are so smart that we

can even destroy the biosphere, kill dozens of species every

month. reengineer species, perhaps reengineer ourselves. We're so

smart that we're facing extinction. That's the smartness

of the one who will not bow down to the clay spiritualized creature

and humanity at the moment is going through the final meltdown

point of this individualism.

This honor Hey, Ron men, I am better.

The one who knows best who thinks that he can second guessed the

divine commandment God says one thing but I'm going to do

something else because the dignity of the will. It's just ego is just

pride is from third around who refuses to accept even the signs

of Musa alayhis salam

He wants to build a tower because in his scientific mindset, that's

the way in which you get to see whether there is a divine entity

or fundamental category mistake. And it's the nature of the

ignorance of this age, and it's messing human beings up. It's

messing family life up. It's messing up people's sense of

national belonging, it's messing up the biosphere. This is an age

of chaos and confusion.

But the basic reason for this is ego. Self might, as William Blake

calls it, this fiery sense of I know,

I'm not going to accept the authority of anything else

tradition, or the sages or the mount or the madhhab, or whatever

it might be. I know best. There are religious expressions of this.

The one who thinks that is so cool, that he can ignore all of

the wisdom of the jurists and come up with some new fatwah thinking,

I know the Quran and the Sunnah better than all of these people

have been Hydra, Kalani and so your tea and Sally, I know best.

So often fundamentalism is a very modern kind of phenomenon because

it empowers the sovereign individual human will, and says,

you can know better than the consensus of the scholars of

bygone ages, you alone have authority of the Quran and the

Sunnah, to understand what they mean. So, even religion has

succumbed to this age of ego, Age of self, Age of self might.

So in the month of Ramadan, we are told that Shayateen, which teach

us this nonsense about pride and self

are chained up and a little bit broken. It's hard to be really

arrogant and proud. When you're hungry and thirsty, and the days

are long and you're feeling the blood sugar level is low. It's

hard to be really arrogant and proud in that situation, that

brokenness is what we need.

So when we're in that state, and we can see ourselves in

perspective and see the consequences of our pride and how

inhuman it is on human and inhuman, then we can start to move

back and start to move into the situation, not of pride before the

divine which is an absurdity. But the brokenness that leads to

prostration before the divine, which is the natural state of

Obadiah of humanity and of the chosen one ally slash slim, who is

Abdullah in the Abdullah, the slave of God.

Now this Obaldia is related to this process of, of return to the

divine. I Bader, including the CM is all about returning to where

and how we were in the animal Arwa before insolent in the world when

the flesh made the possibility of sin and anger and pride a

possibility. So it's about returning to a garden like state,

taking us away from the fiery state of the one whose

selfhood is determined by ego and passion of various kinds, narrow,

low hidden waka, Ella teetotaler or al F EDA. It's like the, the

fire of God that rises up above the heart, the angry person and

the jealous person and the fearful person they're consumed by these

flames. This is certainly an age of anxiety and age of depression,

an age of envy, and an age of a lack of serenity and stillness and

acceptance of the divine truth and, and and of the

appropriateness of the Divine decree in every age. We are

uncomfortable.

So, in order to get back to that, we use the word Wilaya.

And we have to be wali Alia, which is a very frequently used organic

sense, and this is why the angels were able to bow down to that that

creature that seemed to be made of perishable mud and clay, the

lowest thing, but when the fuck Nephi he made Rafi note we breathe

into him something of our spirit and therefore this strange

theological paradox of bowing down to a creature became not just

possible but a divine command.

So this we layer

is where we need to be because Allah subhanaw taala has says in

that Hola Hola, he la helful nollie him Willa homie Arsenal

Verily the Olia of Allah, there is no fear upon them, neither do they

grieve.

It's what we all want. Fear is anxiety about the future. What's

going to happen about Brexit? What will you do next? What is

happening with extremism? What's happening with global warming

anxiety, we need to take precautions and be aware of the

future. That work is impossible in this we know

possible outcomes.

But this endless fearful agitation is a denial of the Divine decree

and it should not settle in the believers heart. So we lie is

about the assuaging the calming of our inward anxieties and filfil

fearfulness, but also will have only half as unknown and they are

not sad.

They are not endlessly revisiting the past and anxious about what

they should have done what they didn't do, and trying to reinvent

the past which ultimately is in the Divine Decree. So they are in

the moment, not panicking about the future not panicking about the

past absolutely in the moment because the moment is all that's

real. And we have to be ignore walked, attentive, mindful to the

miracle of the moment, because the future is who knows what it will

be the past, you can't do anything about be in the moment.

Now the modern world tends to focus us very much on possible

outcomes, and seduces us and a nice that ties us with talk about

the future. If you buy this, you will get that if you pursue this

career option, then there will be this door open to you, etc. And we

dream. With this timidity. There's thinking about the future.

And that tends to make us spaced out and unreal and uncentered and

that is one reason for our anxiety. But this Wilaya is about

being completely in a state of appropriate connectedness and

nearness to the divine. The wali is the one who is close.

mm crochet Rahmatullah. Alayhi says, has another sense of this

which is actually human toilet, a follow who Alamo Africa the Wali

is the one whose actions succeed each other uninterruptedly in

conformity to the sun.

In other words, you're not good one day and bad the next you mess

up and then you get back. No, you're in a state of consistent

compliance with the Divine Decree. So that's one meaning of the Wali

unnecessarily the one who is well he is the one who is in that state

because it's irrational and impossible for him, really to be

tempted by the silliness of disobedience and to follow the

flames of the lower self.

But as we progress, we recognize that there is a journey in our

faith that Ramadan should represent and facilitate, which is

the journey represented by the famous Hadith and no orphan is one

of the great hadith of Islam and it's a hadith pudsey

roll Buhari on Abu Hurayrah radula Juan and the Rasul allah

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam a call female Yahweh he or rob Be gentle

JELA Allah when other Li Hua Lian forgot to harp

wala Takara boo la appdb che in a harbor la I'm in love Toronto la

from LA is La Yatta caribou lamb Neverfail had that or Heba that

either webtalk on to some holiday. Yes my OB Well Basara hola dup

Ruby, while yedder Hola to Patricia will be her. Well Regina,

hola TMC Ali wala Ines the other biller or Atana wala inist Ansari

Nila angsana la Carol Hadith, in this hadith Bootsy. Allah subhanaw

taala is saying where the harms are Wali of mine, somebody who is

in this state of constant attentiveness to the time and

whose desire for anger for rage for envy, for getting his own back

for vengeance has all gone, and is just in the moment accepting the

divine decree. Whoever harms such a person, I make war on him, and

anybody who attacks those out of Allah subhanaw taala catastrophes

will come.

This is visible throughout our history.

And then the Hadees continues, my servant draws nearer to me with

nothing more beloved to me than that which I have made an

obligation upon him.

So through these obligations, including fast fasting, we draw

near to Him, and Allah loves those actions, we may not still be very

lovable, because we're not getting them right. We're not inhabiting

them properly, we're going through the motions. But the divine love

is for the action for the outward form of what we're complying to.

And then the Hadith continues. And my slave drawers, Nick continues

to draw to me with optional acts of devotion until they love him.

So when on top of that, when the beauty of those actions has become

so clear that we want to do more and more, and we want to inhabit

them more and more authentically, Allah loves not just the act, but

the one who is performing the act knows he loves us. So this muhabba

this Divine Love is seems to be at the center of this process of

moving forward through our hyper debt. And then it says, And when I

love him, I become the eye with which he sees an ear with which he

hears and the hand with which he strikes and the foot on which he

walks. Which means he's constantly in compliance. Whatever he does

with his limbs is in compliance with with the Sunnah.

with Martha, and is in the steady state of loving closeness to the

Divine and distance from revenge and passion and vengefulness and,

and anger and all of this other ugly things, which are the satanic

things that prevent the prostration.

And if you seek as my protection, I will certainly granted him and

if he seeks my support, I will certainly granted him this is what

we need. And this is the message and the moral and the beauty of

Ramadan, overcome that ego. Be truly in the space of accepting

the sober accept the Divine Decree, overcome those passions

and that vengefulness and that flame within and you will become

supported by the Divine that this is what the unmet need So may

Allah subhanaw taala make this Ramadan of real summer of real

SoloQ of real wayfaring of real journeying towards his good

pleasure in sha Allah and accept all of our fasting and our water

and our tearaway and our Eco Ekrem insha Allah malacological Allah

Fomenko was Salam o alaikum wa Rahmatullah Cambridge Muslim

College, training the next generation of Muslim thinkers