Abdal Hakim Murad – Overcoming Ego
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning from the natural and from the experiences is discussed. The segment emphasizes the need for individuals to learn from their experiences and learn from their actions. The speakers stress the importance of taking small small steps and not feeling anxiety or envy, as well as the need for individuals to be aware of the future and not be in compliance with the age of the internet. They also discuss the importance of returning to a garden state and not feeling anxiety or envy, as well as the need for individuals to be aware of the future and not be in compliance with the age of the internet.
AI: Summary ©
Cambridge Muslim college training the next generation of Muslim
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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