Abdal Hakim Murad – The Divine Closeness

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah early he

was Sufi woman who Allah.

So we've plunged into the very different but somehow familiar

waters of the month of Ramadan

embarking upon this great annual journey. And we do feel it's a

journey because we know that we progress inwardly. At any rate,

we know that the a bada intensifies as the month moves on,

reflecting not just the

intensified holiness of the last 10 days, and of Laylat al Qadr.

But also the hearts increasing softness and sensitivity and sense

of attentiveness, to the value to the nourishment, that a Betta is

offering us.

And in this season, we learn the necessity of a certain brokenness.

This is difficult for people with a modern education quickly to come

to terms with we are told to stride around to feel good about

ourselves to proclaim our own value. It's an individualistic age

in the sense that it almost defies the individual

Ramadan confiscates from us, our usual pleasures are usual treats,

our grazing habits, really all of our bad habits, and puts us into

this different and challenging space.

This space is a space of expectancy.

It's as if the angels are watching, wondering whether we're

going to live up to the invitation that the month represents, will we

just

mess around? Will we just fake it? Will we just somehow bluff our way

through the month? And then a day or two after the aid it's as

though the benefits have gone completely? Or will we actually

make use of it?

Ramadan is

a divine gift, offering us an outward form, which way we are

invented, invited, with our intentionality to fill with

meaning. Allah subhanaw taala gives us the prayer. He gives us

the fast, he gives us the kettle FITARA He gives us the tearaway

all of these are frameworks in which we can operationalize

religion.

But what is the key virtue, the state of the heart the disposition

of the soul that is not only encouraged by this month, but

which is indispensable in it? How should we be in this state of

confiscation of exile from our usual treats?

One of the terms that the automat most frequently deploy in this

time is the idea of a certain humility, of a lowering of the

head of an awareness of vulnerability and an openness

therefore, to accept that Allah subhanaw taala alone is great.

And this is the virtue that is often associated with the

qualities of solat and Sabra

and it is the virtue of Cushaw the Arabic word for it. The Quran says

was the I know be Sabri was salah, we're in the Halacha dira tone

Illa Allah Akashi aim, seek help in prayer and in Sabah, patient

forbearance. And this is difficult except for people who have for

sure.

Now we know from the hadith of Timothy that fasting is closely

related to sober

and sober indeed is the key virtue you might say of Ramadan.

Both patients in abstaining from our usual indulgences and patients

in maintaining additional acts of devotion.

So, we are asked, first of all, to find help in prayer and in sober

and then we are told that it is difficult except for the people of

color shot. In other words, we seek help from the principle of

course, sure.

To the extent that the heart is humbled, and inwardly reflects the

outward humbling of the body.

It can open up open up to the reality of Ramadan open up to the

reality of the Divine Name AlkaViva are either Salah chi

baddie Annie for India Corrib Well, My servants ask

concerning me, I am near, know that I am near.

And the whole journey of faith really is the realisation of the

Divine closeness. It's not a traveling to the Divine Presence

so much as an unveiling of the Divine Presence, which is

something that has no geographical or temporal localization, because

it's too near to us for that closer than the jugular vein.

So this quality of hotshot turns out to be the cardinal virtue that

will enable Ramadan for us, which will operationalize it and turn it

from being just an outward practice, surrounded by charming

features of inherited cultures, and turn it into a contemplative

exercise of the very first importance.

What is the quality of this whole shot?

One of the great Halima defined it as to the Lolita globe, the

alemayehu, Yobe, the humbling of the heart, to the Knower of the

unseen.

That is to say, the one who in the prayer in the tearaway in the

intentions in the Iftar, in all the practices of Ramadan, in

particular, is aware that Allah Subhan, Allah to Allah sees all

those things that those crowds don't see.

That one leaves the mosque, perhaps in a sense of self

satisfaction at having performed 20 Records rather than leaving

like some others. But that self satisfaction is a sign that we

haven't actually performed a single record.

We need to leave in the state of is still far, but in the state of

hopefulness. And that comes about through this whole shot through

this brokenness to this humility. That is also something sweet and

beautiful because it is the precondition for the experience of

the nearness of the One in whom is all perfection, and all healing.

So to operationalize this, we enter examine ourselves through

the process of Maha Sabha. This is a month when we should really be

watching ourselves,

ignoring what other people are thinking or doing when they're

watching us. They're not the judge. But watching ourselves, and

particularly scrutinizing the states of the heart, examining the

state of the heart at the beginning of the prayer, do I

really mean it when I say Allahu Akbar and examining the state of

the heart? When the prayer is over? What is the quality of the

tulips? If we're saying a lot to the end of the winter of the

tearaway what is the emotional experience of that?

So this whole show

is about undistracted pneus.

It's about not looking around what they call into fat looking this

way, and that

it is the end will help the upholding of the heart

Lilla heater Isla de Han Minh much more.

So one of the scholars used to say

it is the heart standing before Allah Bay near de la HIDTA. Allah

before God in the presence of God, becoming much more with a unified

concern.

In other words, a class what is a class mean purity because it means

the minimizing of the number of intentions and every action we

have. The Mona Lisa has dozens of intentions, most of which she

probably doesn't even discern. The believer should have one

intention, which is to please the one who alone is a meaningful

judge.

So this crucial

is measurable. When we consider the extent to which our concerns

are focused, do we have this attention? Are we thinking only

about or only about the quality of the soldier award only about a

meticulous adherence to the perfect form of the chosen once

Allahu alayhi wa sallam rather than surrendering to any kind of

innovated personal preference.

So this attentiveness is very important. Ottoman LT fat, not

looking around to see what others are doing.

So, in this month, when we consider this whole short and this

kind of natural humility because an intelligent human being is

aware of the shortness of his or her life is aware of the weakness

of his or her. Today Yan religiosity is aware that without

a consciousness of the divine help the divine healer

In the divine forgiveness, we really are not very much and we

don't really stand a chance when we face judgment in this world or

in the next world,

that this brokenness is something that is part of fitrah part of

naturalness. It is the proper state of human beings. Arrogance

is the Pharaonic refusal to bow down to the Roth which is an Adam

Alayhis Salam.

But who short should be our natural state?

We look in the Quran we find women a tea and the guitar, an adult

Akashi item that either endzone now i Li had a desert or I bet

and have a lot of signs it is that you see the Earth in a state of

Cushaw Kashi item. And when we send down upon it, the rain

it thrills and grows, beautiful plants come from it.

So in a sense, we have to be like the earth, in Ramadan, in a state

of potential fertile receptivity.

Grace comes from the Creator. We can't make the rain fall, we may

have extraordinary moments that transform our lives. If we are

giving this month something of its right, there are so many gifts, so

much so much richness that can be bespoke bestowed at this time. But

we have to deep, empty, broken, receptive, which is the meaning of

Islam itself, receptivity, submission, acceptance.

So we ask Allah subhanaw taala as we venture into this very holy

time, that we make full use of it, that we don't waste a second,

whether we're doing something or not doing something, whether we're

praying, reading Quran, or not eating or not drinking, that it'd

be a time where the distractions of the modern world settle, become

less interesting. And we have this hemorrhage more this unified

contemplative concern, so that we will remember only the one in the

multiplicity and are not distracted by anything at all. But

focus only on him a wide alcohol, the one that overwhelming so we

ask Allah subhanaw taala to accept our fasting to accept our prayers

to accept our intentions, to accept our goodness insha Allah to

his family, neighbors, most congregations and to make this a

real time of inward prosperity for ourselves, our communities, and

for the whole Ummah in sha Allah to Allah Allah will see Mr. Khan

was salam o aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.