Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – 1 3 Ghazali’s Beginning of Guidance (Bidayat alHidaya)
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The Islam culture has had a negative impact on people's behavior and personal relationships, and has affected their personal relationships and relationships with their loved ones. The "rocky world" where advices are being written to make the perfect individual, but the "pailt of" advices Schiff Abell provides in between, because they are the only person who wants to worship Allah throughout the whole day. The "vanaling of" advices that Schiff Abell provides in between, because they know that people want to worship Allah throughout the whole day, but the "pailt of" advices that Schiff Abell provides in between, because they are the only person who wants to worship Allah throughout the whole day.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al Hamdulillah
Al Hamdulillah Hamden cathedra on the uban Mubarak confy Mubarak
canali Gmail, your Hebrew Rob buena Yoda, Gil, the jeweler who
are Manuel or Salatu was Salam ala so you will Habibollah Mustafa
SallAllahu Taala are they who are early he was sabe he about Rocco
was seldom at the Sleeman cathedral Elomi Deen Amma buried
Allahumma Salli ala Sayidina. Muhammad were other early so you
didn't know Muhammad wa Burdick wa salam. I think it's a big
sacrifice for all of you to be here
on this Sunday, when you could have been doing so many other
things.
So my dua to Allah subhanaw taala for all of us
is that in this busy time that we live in, with our busy lifestyles,
where we've constantly got other things to do,
and we're inshallah doing this with full sincerity, may Allah
give us that sincerity in a flawless and single mindedness for
Allah subhanho wa Taala that Allah subhanho wa Taala
give us Baraka in our time, due to the sacrifice, so that whatever
outstanding tasks we have to complete before Ramadan, Allah
subhanaw taala puts blessing in our time in our life and our
activities so that we can complete them.
Because when a person gives time to Allah subhanaw taala, Allah
opens time for them.
Many people they complain about Baraka in time they feel the day
just passes just by, of course, that's a sign of the Day of
Judgment.
That a year will seem like a week and a week, like a day, a year
will seem like a month, a month, like a day, a month, like a week
and a week, like a day. And the day will just pass by as like a
little twig is put to burn and it just
burns through very quickly. Just recently, my brother told me the
annual book fair was on and didn't you go to it? I said, I did go to
it. It was in April, right? And he said, Yes, this is April. And I'm
thinking about last April.
So this year, April, has come the book fairs gone. And I didn't even
know because I thought I was just there a few weeks ago.
So we're living in very strange times. So that is a sign of the
Day of Judgment. However, it's a minus sign.
Minus signs, as opposed to the major signs are not necessarily
global phenomena.
May major signs like the journal, they will be global, nobody is
going to escape that meaning everybody is going to be affected
by it. So you either you protect yourself or you fall prey to his
deception. May Allah protect us. But the minus signs are those
which are
in different intensities around the world. So in some places, the
disobedience of parents is worse than in other places. Immorality
is worse in some places, as opposed to others. Likewise,
shortening of time is manifested differently in different places
around the world. So what I noticed was that when I went when
I was in India, the day mashallah had a very long, long, extended
time, it seemed, in England, it went a bit faster. When I went to
America, it was even faster. So I complained to one of my teachers,
I called him up, I said, Man, the day is just going past like that.
So he said, Do vicar because at the end of the day time is in the
hands of Allah subhanho wa taala.
And if we remember Allah, you will open up the rest of time. And what
is opening up the rest of time, it's not like you're going to have
the hours and hours to spend and you don't know what to do with it.
That's not barakah in time, there's so many people, they say,
you know, I've got, like three hours, I don't know what to do,
like, what's your problem? Imam Ghazali will address this. And he
does it beautifully.
So Allah will allow you to do more, he'll allow you to achieve
more in a small space of time than somebody else in that same amount
of time.
Who knows how old Imam Ghazali was when he passed away.
He was 55 years old. He was born in 450 Hijiri. And then he passed
away in 505 Hijiri, just over the turn of the century. And thus he
is considered to be the Majid of that century, the revival of that
century. And there's no doubt of his revival work. The other thing
about Imam Ghazali is that I don't think there's a single place in
the world that doesn't study him
in weather critically or objectively or whatever it may be,
with a Muslim or non Muslim. I would probably say that
Aside from Rumi, who is probably more among populace people,
bizarrely, among the more thinking people, whether Muslim or non
Muslim, is probably one of the most famous individuals. So
whether you're in a Muslim country or a non Muslim country,
at university, there's studies of Imam Ghazali, his work his thought
and his impact. So for example, in Seoul as at a master's level, we
had to write an article on whether Imam Ghazali is Sufi
contributions, spiritual contributions were more
significant, or his philosophical contributions were more
significant. So study both of these
contributions he's made, and tried to determine the impact of both
and then evaluate, which was more significant. So that was quite a
difficult thing to do. Because when you look at his impact in
spirituality, it's absolutely amazing. He mainstreamed the so
often Sufism and spirituality, because the soul of and
spirituality had come to a point where certain exotic ideas had
started to creep in certain degenerated forms, maybe from
foreign influences had started to creep in. So there was a lot of
confusion about organized or you can say a formal approach to the
self and the whole concept of spirituality. Because in the early
times, it was a generic thing that people used to do. People want it
to be close to Allah subhanaw taala. During the time of the
Sahaba, there was no need for a discipline with rules and
regulations, boundaries.
There was no need for any kind of a formal outlook and methodology
in that regard. In a time Rasul, Allah, just like there wasn't for
all sorts of Hadith or anything, for that matter, later on
initially was called Zewde and abstinence, that was the focus,
but then later, it developed even further. So what we could say is
the Imam has Ali's time they were still not much of like a formal
order system. That's why in all of the writings around because it
will be very hard pressed to find that he belonged to a particular
order that he was a Naqshbandi or Chishti or a car dirty or anything
of that matter. In fact, Sheikh Abdul Qadir jeelani came after him
about 70 years.
shakeup, Ducati Jelani passed away in 570, something, so he followed
him and Missouri.
Yet, Imam Ghazali, it's mentioned that he is one of his show you in
spirituality was a more ideal format, it was actually in the
Naqshbandi line. So he's one of the Mashgiach of next month, in
their line basically.
So,
what Imam Ghazali did is he so people felt that the solf and
aspects of spirituality and a focus on it as a science as
something to pursue the path, the path to Allah was, they weren't
sure whether it was alien, or whether it was acceptable. So with
his eloquence and his ability to articulate these great, profound
meanings, he was able to have the common people understand the
beauty of the sofa and Sufism.
That is what he that is his impact in spirituality. And then, of
course, his his great work, that he Almaden underscores that whole
thing and explains what this path is and then he wrote a number of
other works that were you can say summations of it, summaries of it,
or slightly different takes on for example, a Kimi I saw that he was
Persian in origin.
So he wrote the Kimi ISR that the alchemy of happiness.
He was from tus, to says by Mashhad in Iran, North north east
of Iran today
kind of close to Nichelle port, but at a distance. So many of our
scholars came from that area. So we mustn't see this as foreign
because, in fact, all of our famous six Hadith collectors
Bukhari Muslim Timothy Abu Doudna say and even no matter they all
from the old non Arab
because Imam Buhari is from Bukhara, which is in Uzbekistan
today. So it's Turkic origin. That myth is also in Bahara. border of
Afghanistan and Uzbekistan is right at the border. Decided
subgrantee. Stan that side? It's it's Uzbekistan. That statement.
My Muslim was from Nisha pool, which is north northeast of Iran.
Imam Abu Dawood from CG Stan which is C Stan, which is no which is
central South
East of Iran bordering Afghanistan, at the lower level.
Even Omar J's from Qazvin, which is north northwest of Iran, and
Imam Nasai is from Turkmenistan south of Turkmenistan border of
Iran.
from NASA. So all of these great scholars and this, they're not the
only ones, there's so many others that Imam Ghazali is one of them.
And in fact, Imam Ghazali is the hudgell Islam. And I'll put my
hand down on the table and say that he is. He is one of the most
impressive scholars and it's very personal to me. But he is one of
the most, most impressive scholars that I have read. And if I have
benefited from any single scholar in history,
so profoundly, it's him. Because it's the way he thinks it's the
way he writes, it's the way he presents his argument. He's a
psychologist. So for example, we'll come across a particular
discussion soon, where he will tell you that you should always
try to do good in your life, and try to avoid doing wrong in your
life. Try to always be a force for good to spread virtue, and never
to spread any kind of wrong, never to harm anybody, and so on and so
forth. And then he says that if you can't help harming someone, if
you can't help not being positive, if you can't help not being
able to, to spread virtue, then you should go to sleep.
because sleep is a neutral state. law, no luck, one Lackawanna Lake,
neither will you benefit in that, neither will you be harmed in
that, but it's a neutral state. So now the lazy ones among us,
they'll think, mashallah, that's a good photo of Imam Ghazali, to go
to sleep. But then they see he just, he takes you through this
beautiful journey. So you're thinking this way, and then
suddenly he wakes you up. And he says, But you know, death,
asleep is the sister of death. And what good is there in life in
which this percentage of it is death, so suddenly is springs you
back into reality. And that's the beauty of him that despite the
fact that he is Persian in origin, his Arabic is so impactful. It is
so so lucid, and just so convincing, that it's a piece of
art in itself, that that's the word I'm just totally amazed by
this scholar. Because he's not just speaking about virtue on a
normal level, he's speaking about it from a very intellectual level,
he's understood the human psyche. And this particular book, which is
called be Dietzel. hedaya, is written almost like an
afterthought, in a sense, after he writes his hair alumi Dean that
was written over his 10 to 11 year period, after he left everything,
after he left the dunya innocence positions of the world where he
left his rectorship at the Nithya College in Baghdad that everybody
was after. And he he left it and everybody was like, why are you
leaving it?
So he left all of that, and he went to Jerusalem. He went to
Damascus, he went to the Halloween. And during that time,
he wrote, he wrote this here or to me, Dean. But towards the end of
his life, when he retired to tus and refuse to go back to Baghdad,
even though the Amir's the leaders, they were really
persisting. And they were really trying to impose on him to go
back, but he refused that, and he decided to then just teach his
students decided to study Hadith and so on. And then he wrote this
beginning of guidance towards the end. Now, what is the beginning of
guidance? So as doctors have said, it's the preliminaries of what a
person needs. It's like, take an example, that the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam towards the later muddiman period,
you have Gibreel Alayhis Salam suddenly come along. Well, you
have an an obscure individual come along, that nobody recognized but
seemed very smart in terms of his dress, very clean jet black hair,
you know, the Hadith. And he started asking some very basic
questions. What is Imani Rasul Allah, what is Islam? What is
axon? And the reason why some gave some very simple answers. And much
of the reason why that took place at the end was to refocus and
understand your principles. Because sometimes what happens
with in anything is that you initially start with a mission
statement, you start with some goals in mind, with certain
objectives in mind. But as you go along and you encounter different
challenges and different needs, and so on, you start to adjust.
And sometimes you actually end up losing your foundation, you end up
losing your founding principles, you move away from them. So it's
very good to actually take a few steps back and relook at the whole
thing and then reorient yourself. So it almost seems Wallah who
Ireland it almost seems like this. What he meant was that he did with
this book that I've been writing all of these great books that
speak about the journey itself, and the end of that journey, and
the objective and the goal and this perfect human being. But how
do you get to the beginning if people's initial stage of that
journey is not going to be based on
Based on the right foundation, then people are going to lose,
they're going to lose before they've even started. That's why
he called this the beginning of guidance, literally the beginning
of the path of guidance. And we're going to read through selections
of this book, it's too much to read in three hours, the entire
book. It's to read, I've selected different portions, which I think
really highlight what this book is about. And if you really focus, if
you focus on his Nakajima, what you'll understand through that
introduction is what he's writing this book for. So I think what
he's doing is like what Gibreel Ali Salam did is to take that step
back and say, Look, this is what really matters for you to be able
to get on this journey. And he is just so straightforward about it.
He takes no prisoners. He sharpshooting, he says what he
wants, and you just have to open your mind and be allow your heart
to be beautified and your mind to be inspired. Otherwise, it's a
waste of time. Even his greatest critics have had to acknowledge
the beauty of the work and its benefits. And when I speak about
his critics, I'm talking about critics that were to some level
had some level of objectivity. Because today you have blind
followers of these critics that go even beyond even beyond the
original criticism. So for example, two of his famous critics
were ignored Josie, I will follow general Josie, the great scholar
of Baghdad, and again, another amazing individual. He used to not
leave his house except for salata. And for Beyonce for lectures,
otherwise, he was at home just doing his work. That's how he was,
and that's why he's produced so much herbal fellowship, no Josie,
the humbly scholar.
The other one is immuno Taymiyah.
So they both criticize the work primarily from the perspective
that Imam Ghazali they say was not very strong in Hadith. And it's
there are a number of narrations in the book that are weak and some
even fabricated, which is the case there's no doubt about it. We're
not hiding behind anything. But a man who has early actually turned
to Hadith study only afterwards. But despite saying that ignore
Josie actually summarized the book and produced the summary form of
it.
Right.
So he, he saw the utility of the book, he saw the benefit just
oozing from it.
He decided to capture what he thought was the beauty of that
book. And he did a summary even though Tamia also mentioned I
mean, he criticizes Imam Ghazali for
talking about arcane topics which are not understood by the common
folk
the more and it to total human because he did not do much of
that. The one who did much of that was ignore r&b.
Right, the under Lucien scholar Rahima, hula, he, he's got some
really serious things that he discusses there, which a lot of
controversy is found surrounding that. But even with his early, he
speaks about certain things on the mystical path that were revealed
to him which even though they may have felt that doesn't have a
basis maybe other people will not understand you will. So that's his
criticism on that but he can't deny deny the criticism, And
subhanAllah ignore Tamia had a lot of praise for Sheikh Abdul Qadir
jeelani. They were both humbleness.
They were both humble is and he had a lot of praise for him. But
today, people who purport to follow these individuals, because
they're doing tech lead of these individuals, they won't see any
sense. That's why Imam Ghazali actually said that don't have a
debate with a mocha lead. Don't ever debate with somebody who
blind follow someone, because you could convince them and show them
convincing evidences. But because they don't, they're not thinking
for themselves. They, although they will be convinced, but they
will prevent themselves from accepting because they think that
if they go back to them or colored, those who they're
following, they will have an answer to this, though they don't
understand it right now.
And subhanAllah This is such a good Naseeha the other day
somebody came to me and started asking me questions.
And I could see that he was half convinced, but he was refusing to
accept and I said you know what, this is a perfect example of where
the man has already said that don't debate with a mocha. You are
a mocha Lin, and his charge was that I was a mocha and I have no
problem with being a mocha lead Subhanallah I have no problem with
being a mocha lead but on a different level. But his duck lead
was preventing him from understanding something that
intellectually His mind was accepting. But because of his
affiliation, he wasn't accepting Imams as that he has just a lot to
offer. For example, if you just read his a here the alpha two
alpha two
Listen, he speaks about 20 kilometers of the tongue. That's
how refined he is. That's how subtle he that he has so much
subtlety. So he speaks about everything from, you know, the
normal lieben amoeba, and all of those things and shut them and
swearing and disputation the normal calamities to all the way
to people who move their mouths in these weird aristocratic ways.
When they speak to look pompous, you know what I mean? When they
speak in particular is they put on a bit of an air about them and
they speak you know, and I don't know how to do it. So, you know,
they basically speaking like the cow chews the cud, moving the jaws
around, and the professor Lawson was actually condemned it. So he
discusses that as well, very refined. When you read his works,
it's like he's speaking to you. Because he's understood the human
psyche to such a degree because he's taken time off from human
beings to wander around for 10 to 11 years. And his poem, his poem
in that regard is so beautiful, because one of the great scholars
said that I used to see 300 turbans in his gatherings in
Baghdad, and today, I see him on, you know, on all of these paths,
and he's alone. So I said to him, I said, Why did you do this? Why
did you do this? Why did you leave such a coveted position? When we
say 300, turbans? These are 300, great scholars that were in his
class in Baghdad, he was the Teacher of teachers. And he left
all of that and now he's wandering around and then he said this
beautiful poem, he said, I left 32 He said, I left the love of Leila
was sorted.
Now, these are metaphorical. These are metaphor. These are
metaphorical Beloved's in Arabic literature. So whenever somebody
wants to speak about a beloved they give them the name Leila and
sorda. Right, Leila may have been an originally
real person, but then eventually, it became a metaphor. So Leila and
Surah. So he says that I love I left my Leila and Sarita, which is
things that are beloved to yourself. Arabic poetry is very
amazing. You have to understand the way it starts. Otherwise, you
will be confused by Allama Boosey. When he starts speaking about I
mean, the Quran, JIRA, and MB, the salami, you'll just get like, what
is he talking about love in the beginning of a poem, but the
Prophet salallahu Salam, this is just to capture attention is
called the naseeb. The initial part is to capture people's
attention by speaking about a beloved and you're longing for
them. Whoa, muddled. barcoo Fill Vollmer. Inami. So has the
lightning, is it because of the lightning that has shown from a
dam that you are crying? What's the lightning from Elan got to do
with making you cry? It's because she lives there.
So when in those days when we didn't have artificial lights when
the lightning struck, then it means it revealed her area for me.
So that made me remember her made me cry.
And one one, somebody was looking at the moon
and said, Why are you looking at the moon he says, Well, my beloved
is maybe also looking at the moon. So our gazes will meet at the
moon. This is love talk, we won't get it unless you know romance.
But because Arabic poetry was so full of this, they used to use
this. So Imam Ghazali does the same thing. He says, I was I'd
left sada and Leila.
And as I'm trying to get to my objective, and now I am totally
tired.
I'm emaciated. And suddenly I hear from the back a voice saying your
Manziel is in front of you. You're nearly there, your Manziel is in
front of you. And then eventually that's how I found it. So he was
just trying to tell that scholar who was making this observation
that he was asking him this question, why did you leave all of
this, trying to say that I had left it for a particular
objective. And finally, I am reaching that objective. I've
reached that objective and there's no doubt that there's theory in
his work. You see, writing and speaking is also everything, every
part of us. Nothing is intrinsically done. It's all from
Allah.
Because we are, we are occasional lists. We believe that everything
comes from Allah subhanaw taala. So nothing happens by chance.
That's why there's certain poetry there's certain writings like
Chicago called the Gilani Ribolla try reading a translation of his
work by matar Holland matar Hollander. He's passed away now
Rahimullah he's translated a number of the miroir with the
discourses of Sheikh Abdul Qadir jeelani. Even the translation is
so effective
because it's just the way he brings his out humans together His
admonitions just hit set your heart.
So Allah subhanaw
Attalla makes people speak in particular ways as a matter of
Tofik at the end of the day, it's a matter of Tofik. That's why
it's very effective, his work
very effective. So let's start looking at the beginning of
guidance.
So we start from page 16. For those who have a book, you don't
need to have a book you could just be listening. It's fine.
Bismillah R Rahman Rahim. Hamdulillah. He helped Gandhi was
Salatu was Salam ala Muhammad in Rasulullah. He was early he was
Herbie him in birthday, Amma Bert, he gets right into it after his
basic hotbar although in that Hello Medina, he's got a
beautiful, unique hotbar at the beginning of every section, where
he brings the attributes of Allah subhanaw taala that are related to
the subject matter of that chapter, and is composed the
unique hotbar for each of them. In this one, he just felt like
getting to the point. So he says, In the name of Allah, most
Gracious, most Merciful, All Praise be to Allah as much as it
is right to be praised, and peace and blessings be upon Muhammad
Sallallahu Sallam His messenger and slave and upon his family and
his companions after him. And then to proceed.
You who are desirous of acquiring sacred knowledge,
and I hope that's everybody here
expressing in yourself a sincere and a passionate thirst for it.
Not for
Leo Murray Hill aroma, as the province of Allah Islam said that
whoever seeks knowledge to dispute with Allah ma,
that's not the point. The point is, I want to know it for myself.
So he's giving us that benefit of the doubt he's this is who he's
addressing, he's not addressing the insincere is, he's actually
addressing the sincere which goes to just show the weight of his
words. So he's saying,
who has a sincere longing and a passionate thirst for it, know
that if your aim in seeking knowledge is to compete,
to show off, outdo your peers, garner attention, and a master
debri of this world. So he refers to the money and position and
wealth and gifts you could receive as debris of the world. Debris is
basically what's leftover after a demolition project. So he, as I
said, is extremely eloquent, every word is measured.
And yet it flows from him naturally. I'm sure he didn't sit
and fuss over this, like some of the deeds afterwards.
So he's giving all the reasons here to compete, to show off to
outdo your peers, to garner attention, and a master debris of
the world. Then you are on your way to rendering your religion
null and void.
destroying yourself and selling your eternal life for this present
one.
So he doesn't start with the modern way of praise first, and
then criticism later, he just gets right into it. He takes you off
your off your seat, man SubhanAllah. And then he carries
on he says your transaction is empty. Your deal that you're doing
is empty. There's no substance in it, your business is profitless.
And the person who teaches you in this regard, he is now blaming the
teachers. That if this is your intention, and your teacher
continues to teach you then look what he says. And the person who
teaches you in this case is nothing less than an accomplice in
your transgression. A partner in your loss.
Imagine somebody mentoring somebody in a business proposal.
And it's a profitless business, then the The mentor is going to be
considered to be either foolish wasting his time or taking
somebody for a ride.
So he's saying your teachers like that as well because he hasn't
recognized that this is your problem. He hasn't been able to
guide you Alright, you're both the same. Because Subhan Allah, may
Allah subhanho wa Taala make us good students and good teachers.
This is the case. Good people are only made through other good
people because Allah subhanaw taala says yeah, you will have the
nomina Kumar Asada keen Sahaba were only became good because of
the Prophet salallahu Salam because of their companionship.
Prophets are different because they get director beer from ALLAH
SubhanA wa Tada.
Others have to seek it through Allah subhanaw taala but he's told
us to seek it through sitting in the good, good company. So the
teacher needs to have that effect and impact. Then he says he can be
compared to one who sells a sword to a highway robber.
The teacher is providing instruments to the student
which is going to be on the way of loss. So it's like you're giving a
highway robber a sought to go and
using his crime
for as the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
Indeed whoever helps with a sin by even half a word is a partner in
it.
These references here, Iraqi from Muslim daily mean, they obviously
not from the original edition, as you can see in the Arabic that is
not there, that's an addition. That's something we've added to
this edition just to facilitate reference purposes. We haven't
graded the Hadith though, because we we believe that we he's using
all of this to provide an impact. This is not a photo dot Awaji
issue. This is not a matter of Shelia have tried to legislate
something is to try to provide a wisdom. And I think he's been
successful in that regard. And that's why we decided not too
great the Hadith for that reason.
But if in seeking knowledge, your intention and aim between Allah
Most High and yourself is to gain guidance.
So it's between Allah and yourself. So it has to be sincere.
It's not to show your family or because your father wants you to
be your mother really has a desire that you'll be a half is of the
Quran, and an alum and she sees you on the member. She sees you on
YouTube.
Right?
You know, before it was like she sees you on the member, but now
she sees you on YouTube. That's the modern manifestation of it,
isn't it?
You get more people on YouTube than you get in the masjid now
SubhanAllah.
And the worst things you say on YouTube, the more the more views
you'll have.
And that that's the game of YouTube, the more the worse, the
more controversial you can be and the worst things you can say. And
an appeal to people's knifes and immorality. They actually
discovered that the the philosophers of the last century
that's what they discovered, that's what advertisement is all
about that pure decadence.
I scream pure decadence, indulge yourself,
release the devil in you.
These are the kinds of terms because it's all because they know
the knifes is just so volatile that you appeal to the knifes and
you will sell your product. And this is really this is timeless.
This piece that Imam Hassan has written is timeless, it can apply,
because he doesn't speak about the trends of the time only he does
speak about certain people, you know, dealing with the trends of
the time, which are generally temporary temporal things they
happen and then they go, he's speaking from the basis that this
will apply any time where were the demand was early thought that
sitting in Bradford, you know, Bradford or wherever I mean, I'm
not trying to say Bradford, I'm saying you know, anywhere. But
where would he have thought? Bradford May you get an apology,
you know, and his book will be taught is quite amazing. It's
quite amazing to think about that. But you know, we can be amazed by
that happening to Imam Ghazali we should all have a desire that that
happens to us. Because at the end of the day, what use is there in
life that when we're gone, we're finished? Why can't we leave
something behind with all sincerity that people will say
Imam Ghazali Rahim Allah
because every time we say Rahim, Allah he's benefiting. This is an
investment. So he he's really shown what it's about. And if any
one of us has a desire to leave something behind, and we ask Allah
for Tofik, Allah can allow it to happen. We're only shortchanging
ourself, we're only shortchanging ourselves.
Allah will be with us as much as our him is an end of one day appdb
And with my servants, as he thinks of me, so if you think I can't be
a half is I can't do this, I can't do that I can't contribute. I'm a
loser, then you're a loser.
But if on the other hand, you have this high aspiration, like Imam
Ghazali and Gilani, and all of these other great ones,
you will get somewhere.
You will get somewhere Allah you just have to ask Allah Allah you
accept me for some service of God. If in seeking knowledge, your
intention to name between Allah Most High and yourself is to gain
guidance and not simply the transmission of information, then
Glad Tidings be for you. The angels will spread wings for you
to walk on and the fish in the sea will ask forgiveness for you as
you strive. Now you know that that is appealing to the Hadith, which
speaks about that for a tileable URL in the sea. The fish in the
sea make dua and the angel spread their wings. That's a famous it's
known so He's appealing to that. You should know before all else
that guidance which is the fruit of knowledge has a beginning and
an end. This is the beginning of his thesis. This is what he wants
to tell us in this
treaties that he's is composing. This is what he's saying that
before all else that guy
guidance, which is the fruit of knowledge has a beginning and an
end, an outward aspect and an inner aspect. When you don't even
know those boundaries and those rules and those milestones, then
where are we?
When you know something, you can follow it more easily.
And you understand where you may be going wrong. So this is what
he's providing for us.
To underscore his point, he's saying there is no way to reach
the end without mastering the beginning. Unfortunately, I can't
read this in Arabic because I don't know if everybody
understands Arabic here, but it's so much more beautiful in Arabic.
Wala will soon Sula Isla Annie hayati, her birthday, may be the
Yeti ha.
You know, he's just so beautiful, so eloquent in his language, but
I'll just stick to the English for now. There is no way to reach the
end without mastering the beginning. Just as there is no way
to discover the inner essence of it until you have arrived. That's
an understanding of its outward.
Now generally, both in the discipline of knowledge, like when
you're studying in a madrasah, they tell you that your
foundational years, your first, second and third year are really
the basis. If you really understand your Arabic grammar,
well, your etymology, your morphology, and your Bala huts and
your FOSATU your rhetoric and your your basis of your fit. And if you
if you really understand all of that, the last few years are
simple, because then you have the tools now to be able to understand
you're not going to get stuck on a word, you will know how to find
it, you know how to look, look for it, you'll know how to overcome
that obstacle. But if your grounding is not strong, then
you're on a shaky foundation, then you're going to be questioning
everything, then you can't really benefit. So he's saying the same
thing, apply that to this. But if you know the basis of guidance in
itself,
and so on, or how many of us have even thought about this path, that
there's even a beginning to it. And there's principles, right, we
just kind of take it as it comes. Because it's something that we
live by. We're all in it, whether we like it or not. And as Muslims,
we have this feeling of guilt, and we have this motivation to do
good. But we don't know it as a science. That's what science helps
us because it's organized everything. So he tells you this,
how you start and this is what it is. And if you fall to this, you
might be careful of these, these things which may take you away
from your direction, and so on and so forth. It's like that. So this
is the benefit here. Here, I am going to point you to the
beginning of guidance,
for you to see where you stand and determine what your heart intends.
So now this is a moment of reflection, I'm going to point to
the beginning of guidance for you to see where you stand and
determine what your heart intends. If you find your heart inclining,
towards what I say, towards it, meaning what I say. And you find
yourself compliant and receptive, then look at the end, look to the
ends of it, and immerse yourself in the oceans of this knowledge.
So you're sorted. If that's your case, that whatever I'm going to
say now you can relate to it, you think you can, you can conform to
it. And that is exactly what your mindset is, and that's your
direction, then you got no problem. You just think now you're
already past the beginning, you can focus on the objective. And
the end. However, if on the other hand, and this is probably
speaking to the majority of us, if on the other hand, you felt you
find that in taking stock of it, your heart puts off starting it,
or ask for more time in responding to its demands, then know that the
part of your knifes, your lower self wanting knowledge is the self
that commands evil Subhanallah that's the deception of the knifes
that the reason why you want knowledge and you're seeking
knowledge, even though it seems to be a virtuous ambition and a goal.
But you're asking it for a different reason. You're knifes
has a different reason in that. Just to give you some background
here, what are the MA say, the Allama of the understand the self,
they say that if you find that you can sit and do this me, but you
can never read the Quran. And you can only do certain types of
worship, but you really find it difficult to do other forms of
worship. They know that that's your loves playing with you as
well. So you're gonna you're going to say that but I'm doing worship,
yes. But reading Quran is also very important.
Reading the hedges is also very important, not for it, but it's
important. So we're talking about people who are on the path who
want to prosper in that regard. But they just do a few tests.
That's the extra. They can't do enough. They can't do tahajjud for
example,
to be honest, I mean, the 100 is a prayer of prayer of love.
Only the person who's besotted by Allah, who hasn't. Who has this
extreme love ish because they call it
only he can break the hatchet
because it's just so difficult
To do otherwise, because when you have love for someone, you will
text them at two o'clock at night.
Right? If they even by mistake gave you a missed call because
they just they were messing with their phone and you you will call
them back, hey, I thought you wanted to talk to me. And I'm
like, man, what's going on, I'm trying to sleep now. Everything's
going to become positive, you're gonna be waiting, you're gonna be
waiting for that inshallah Allah will give us that kind of love for
himself. So then know that the part of your lower self wanting
knowledge is the self that commands to evil, which has risen
up out of obedience to the accursed satan.
I mean, this just seems so extreme, doesn't it?
Then he says, Satan strategy is to throw to you the rope of deceit,
then pull you in
to the abyss of the abyss of destruction. His intention is to
present evil in the form of good
until he succeeds in making you of those who lose the most in respect
of their deeds, whose efforts have been wasted in this life. While
they reckon that they did good work, who can say that only the
person who is really understood the deception of the devil and how
he works, at this point, Satan will recite to you, the excellence
of knowledge will give you all the fall of knowledge, the high ranks
of the scholars, and all that has been related about it in the
Hadith, and other narrations. And so he will divert you from the
warning of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he'll make you
look at all of the positives of just studying knowledge, you know,
of the external glamour that you get out of it, he'll make you
focus on that.
He, he will divert you from the wanting of the Prophet sallallahu
Sallam he who increases in knowledge, but not in guidance
increases only in distance from Allah Most High. And the following
one of those most severely punished on the Day of Judgment is
the knowledgeable person whom Allah did not benefit through his
knowledge. See, if those were the narrations in initially, you need
the positive narrations, the ones that talk about the high position
of the element that angels laying down their wings and the fish in
the ocean making dua and songs that you need that to get you on
the path. But once you're on the path, then we need to start
thinking of this because shaitan won't allow us to get on the path.
If you do overcome him in that state in that first initial
position, then he will. And this happens, believe me this this is
something that we're going to have to constantly struggle against, he
will he will divert our our sincerity, he will he will divert
us from the true path, he will somebody praises you, and it will
start making you bloat. And then you will look for ways of how you
can get more popularity. That's the way it is.
You will you will look for ways to get more popularity,
you will look for stories that will
that will attract people to you.
Now, that's a double edged sword. Even though Josie says that he
used to have 100,000 people that used to come to his lectures in
Baghdad in those days.
I just wonder how he even conveyed his message to 100,000 people, but
they must have had a system, the muscle memory system where there
will be people conveying
from you. So
he used to.
He says I used to use a lot of poetry, because poetry really is
very effective. Sometimes, one line of poetry is better than half
an hour of speech. If it's said at the right moment, because it
sticks in your mind. Whereas speech it just goes on and on
sometimes. So sometimes you say a poem, it will stay in here and
that's the power of poetry
in the poetry is very powerful in that regard. So
he used to use a lot of poetry. And then he decided that this is
all real. It's all ostentation. It's all the color of it's all
pretenses. It's all just adornment. So, one great thing
about Abner, Josie, I think every student should read his book
called seydel hotter,
which is to capture the thoughts of the heart. So it's these little
musings that he has these thoughts that he had I saw this and that is
how I reacted but then later Ivan is very honest about himself. And
a lot of what he's going through a lot of Tula go through that a lot
of Polish. Students go through that.
So he says on this one in this one place, he says that I stopped
using poetry, because I thought it's all just for artificial. Then
later I saw that the crowd dwindled. So then I thought to
myself, that no I need to use it, because it does help people. It
does help people to be inspired. So then it becomes a point of
intention and sincerity. I using it just to attract people or are
you using it to attract people so that they will listen to what you
have to say not so that then they will praise you. That's why
sincerity is so difficult. That's why it's called Sheikh Al huffy.
Sheikh huffy, it's called a minor shift because it's so subtle, it's
so difficult and delicate, and matter.
So this person, he should supplicate for protection Thus, I
seek refuge in You from knowledge that does not benefit Allahumma
inni at all to become in our element, Lion Farah.
This could be used in both ways today. One is that Oh Allah,
protect me from even that sound knowledge which is not going to be
of benefit for me. But it's going to take me to the path of
ostentatious showing of fame and Ria and also from that knowledge,
which is useless knowledge where we spend hours and hours reading
articles and studies and watching YouTube videos thinking we're
learning something but we're actually wasting time because it
has no bearing on our life. Really. This is the one of the
biggest challenges we have today. Many most of us waste a lot of
time in pursuing things because it's so freely available out there
in glamorous ways that we waste our time doing that. So Allahu
minneota between El Milla infer will apply in both of these cases,
that it will help us not waste our time in redundancies and will also
help us from learning the true knowledge for the wrong reason
devoid of sincerity. A heart that does not fear a deed that does not
ascend an invocation that is not heard. And from this one, on the
night of my ascension to the heavens, the Prophet sallallahu
sallam said, I passed by people whose lips were being cut by
pincers from the hellfire. So I asked, Who are you? They replied,
we used to order people to do good and not to do it ourself
and advise people against evil, even as we were doing it ourself.
May Allah protect us from being that.
Again, it's a very difficult situation. Because one side you've
got the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala says limita Kulu and Amara
falloon Why are you doing that which you don't do yourself? And
this, there was one particular person who stood up an Imam, he
stood up, he turned around and he said to everybody is the WHO
straighten yourselves. Like it's the chemo become Mr. Kim, he
talked about so forth. But that moment,
he thought about is the farmer on the path of Allah. And he said to
himself, that I'm not Mr. Kim, and I'm telling these people to do is
stay calm, and he fainted that he became unconscious. It was just
that moment.
So
you've got that side. But then you've got the other side. That
somebody came to Imam Malik Rahim Allah and He said to him, that
there's so and so's a big scholar or something, but he doesn't do
Omer will maroof and Daniel Mancha, he doesn't enjoy the good
and forbid from the evil. Why? Because he feels that he doesn't
do it perfectly himself. So he will be hypocritical. So you know
what Mr. Malik said? He said, Lila shaytaan of Mafia, Bihar be
whether it's possible or shaytans be won him over basically, that
this is a deception of the shaytaan because
there's another quote from Omar Abdulaziz who's the majority of
the first century and he is the most comprehensive module that
we've ever had. Because you know, you've got Imola Dakila read,
you've got Imam Shafi Imam Ghazali. So UT, you've got all of
these others who are Majid Dineen, but they were mostly studied what
they did the revival work they did was based on knowledge and
sciences and an L. Whereas what Omar Abdulaziz did who is the
who's the majority of the first century is not only did he do, he
did work in sciences and in terms of establishing the basis for
them. He was also the emir, he was also the ruler, the Khalifa. And
there's nobody else who's had that same position afterwards
scholarship plus Imara. Most of the Majidi the and afterwards have
just had scholarship, they were academic, but they didn't have
caliphate. They were they were not the Khalif, whereas Omar Abdulaziz
was once he wrote to a governor, admonishing him, giving him some
admonition about something. And then he says, Look, I'm telling
you this, but I don't think that I'm perfect myself. But if nobody
did a model model for Nike and Moncure, than this, then then we
would then we wouldn't have virtue.
So that's why the Obama contributo cathedra is willingness to sit he
mentioned that under Limit, hakuna matata follow and that rhythm have
to do this, even if they don't think they're up to standard. Of
course, a hip hypocritical one who's, you know, I mean, you won't
call that person a scholar, but somebody who's not even trying,
they're literally just going out there and enjoying themselves and
they go down, man, that's obviously understood that that's
pure hip hop.
Chrissie, Abu Zaid Salut, je style, right? But what I mean is
that if somebody is trying, and we fail all the time,
the modern world is very merciless. When it comes to that
they love leaders who stumble, then make a big, they will make a
big would you call it, scandal out of it. And somehow there's been a
number of Christian priests and so on that got caught doing something
or in a in a moment of failing or weakness or something, and certain
Muslims as well and they were they will, they will really take you to
task people will take you to task, people will take you to task. But
at the end of the day, we try our best.
The status of a scholar is not easy, because the rewards are so
great, the risks, they match the profits.
But we can't we can't be successful without Tofik. So we
ask Allah for Tofik
because only he can guide us and preserve us and protect us and
keep us straight.
Then he says then beware or destitute one of following Satan's
disingenuous advice and being roped in by his deceit for E yada
yada miskeen
for IACA miskeen. And to the insulators, we will be happy
Hooray actually sounds like a mahkamah ts.
Then he says Woe to the ignorant one because he did not seek
knowledge.
Just in case, this is what I call a Montessori psychology, you've
got an ignorant person who is not an alum who's reading all of this
and thinks I'm glad I'm not an island.
So then he says Woe to the ignorant one, because he did not
seek knowledge.
And then he gets back on the scholars. And he says, And whoa
1000 times to the knowledgeable one who did not act upon his
knowledge.
What are the Rahima Kumala? What number Rahim Allah,
he seems to have taken a deep breath here.
Right? I'm just trying to put myself in his mind, you know, the
other must say, my body's objective must have been this, and
they argue about it, and so on. So we're doing a bit of textual
analysis, trying to get into the writers mind, we have that
discretion away.
So he says
wylam Understand, may Allah Musa have mercy on you. So his Jellal
is suddenly subdued. And he this is a moment of Jamal. Right? So he
says, may Allah have mercy on you. There are three classes of people
who seek knowledge. So his admonition is finished. Now he's
trying to academically provide for you the different slots that you
can take the different positions you can take. So he says,
There are three classes of people who seek knowledge.
Now, this just reminds me that in some cultures, in some cities
around the UK, let's just say there seems to be only two
classes. One is that classes, that's just Joe Hill, they just
know how to do the animals, the prayer, etc. And the other one, if
you want to start learning knowledge, and you have to become
a full Island, we won't accept anything less.
We need the middle class.
The middle class is the one who's working and so on, he can't expect
to do you know, an island class, you know, whether it'd be an
evening one or a morning one, but he should have some foundational
you know, enough foundation that they can make good choices. So I
know that mashallah jKn, right?
They're trying mashallah, to cater. So this would be something
which you may already be doing. But I would suggest this
everywhere, that you, you have these one or two year classes for
adults, that teach them the basics of Hadith, and tafsir, and fic,
and so on, so that they have some grounding, they're not just
talking of total ignorance, because that's what really
corrupts. So we need that middle class. We even have that in terms
of practice, you've got people who don't cover whatsoever. And then
you've got the other ones. I mean, when you see women, for example,
and the full Nickleby we don't have anybody in between.
And sometimes people find it so difficult to jump from nothing to
full. So there needs to be a middle transitional class, even in
that regard, which in London we have.
But in some places in the north, what I've observed is that you're
either fully practicing or you're doing everything else. And that's
really problematic.
Because we do need transitions, people should have all shades
unfortunately, you can't even say all shades of grey anymore. Those
who are laughing feel sorry for you. And those who didn't laugh
and don't get it, it's okay you're safe.
Allah protect us, Allah protect us.
So he's going to speak about three classes of people. He says first
is a man who's who seeks knowledge, to make it his
provision on the way to the next life and intends by nothing other
than the countenance of Allah Most High and the home of the he
thereafter he is Fahad, I'm in alpha is in he is of the winners.
Now let's see which class we fall into.
The other thing I'd like to tell those people who are starting off
that a lot of the time this from personal experience, I'm telling
you, when you start off, you have a very solid intention.
You have a unadulterated, that's why you're taking this whole
study.
But as you then go on the shaytaan comes afterwards. And then as
avenues open up as your popularity grows, that's when you have to be
even more careful. So you're not just careful at the beginning, the
corruption sometimes comes later.
And eventually, you can even just fall completely prey to it.
And not extricate yourself. So don't think that just because
you've got a good intention right now and you think yes, I'm from
that, that you will always stay like that. You can stay like that
if you know the pitfalls. The second one, he says is a man who
seeks knowledge to assist him in this present late life and
attained by honor good standing and wealth. And you can see how
the intention is just slightly different. It's not, it's still
for Allah. But he wants to pick up a few profits on the way which is,
you know, I got some honor people say Mawlana sub Mufti sub shakes
or whatever it is, right? Good Standing. People respect you that
open doors for you.
Give you a place to sit, you know, and so on, and all wealth. So he's
also got those things. It's like somebody who goes to a hedge
purely for hedge there's another one who goes but he wants to buy
some
jumpers and things like that, which I don't think is a problem.
Because this Islamic garments, but you know, sometimes they want to
buy
I don't want to Cartier hijabs, Christian Dior hijab, because
they're available in Saudi. I mean, I don't want to pick on the
women. Because men have that problem as well. In fact, you can
actually buy shawls that are Kenzo and
all these designers actually went into a shop in Abu Dhabi, I think
it was, and I just started seeing all these push hijab, not hijab,
sorry, shawls. Those, what they call a Jota, you know, the red
shows that they wear, and it's name brands now, they know it's a
market. So these people are catering for it. And I'm sure they
will not fake
it. So men are into that as well. So it depends on what your
intention is.
He is aware of what he is doing. So he knows that I'm not 100% He
knows what he's doing.
And he feels it in his heart that this state is not good.
And his intention is not right.
So he knows, but then why does he do anything about it? It's very
difficult to do that. The law of fame.
prominence is a very difficult thing, to to avoid.
Because we justify we love ourselves more than anybody else.
So we will justify to ourselves that it's okay, it's right. It's
okay.
He is of those who put themselves in jeopardy. Now this person is on
the brink.
If he dies before making repentance, it must be feared that
he will come to a bad end. Yeah, Allah and His fate is under the
divine will. But if such a man is divinely guided to repentance
before the arrival of his appointed time, and if he adds
good works to his knowledge and redeems himself from his past
shortcomings, he will become one of the winners.
I think most people fall into this group.
Most students of knowledge most aroma
and maybe I'm just doing chaos on myself. Right? Maybe I'm totally
wrong and maybe people could be from the first group majority but
this is I'm doing chaos on myself Elmo yaki so Allah NFC, so forgive
me if that's what I'm doing. But these are the challenges that I'm
speaking you know from from myself. For truly one who repents
from a sin is like the one who has no sin. So you can still salvage
everything and turn it around become a winner. Number 3/3 is a
man who has fallen completely under Satan's sway. This man uses
his knowledge only to increase his wealth, boast of his rank, takes
pride in his large following does
cool crude things, right just to appeal, and so on and so forth.
With his knowledge he explores every avenue hoping to gratify all
the desires he has for this world. This is an extreme case. In spite
of all of this, he still secretly believes that he has a high place
with Allah is totally deluded.
Because He adorns himself with the outer characteristics of the
learner following in their footsteps in dress and manners of
Speech, all the wise all the while rushing with frenzied desire
towards the world inwardly and outwardly, this person is
irretrievably lost because he's in compound ignorance. He doesn't
even know he's wrong.
He is one of the foolish, deluded ones. This is because there is no
hope for his repentance as he is convinced that he is one of those
who do good. Such a person is heedless of the words of Allah
Most High. O you who believe? Why say you, that which you do not?
That which ye say you that which you do, not
most loathsome in the sight of Allah, Most loves, is it in the
sight of Allah that you say that which you do not do? He is one of
those about whom the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
was speaking when he said, there are some that I fear most for the
there are some that I fear more for you
than I do the general the Antichrist, people asked Who are
they a messenger of Allah, He said, evil scholars, sometimes
what happens is that we make mistakes, scholars will make a
mistake, they may say something wrong, they may do something
wrong. And they realize that they've done something wrong, but
then
fear of loss of position will stop them from apologizing, from saying
they're wrong, and rectifying the situation.
It's a very dangerous world out there.
Very dangerous world.
So that's another pitfall. You know, you're wrong, you know, you
put your foot in your mouth, but then you'll justify.
And you'll have reasons to justify.
These are the benefits, it wasn't that harmful, it benefited such
people, you know, and so on and so forth.
That's another pitfall.
That's why you know, the only way to succeed is what he's gonna say
a bit later, is to become a willy of Allah.
That's the only way you can succeed in this regard. If you
leave it to yourself, and you think you can manage your life,
and manage your PR and manage your activities, the world is vicious.
Shaitan is strong.
He is a strongest were weak. Otherwise, in reality, he is weak,
but his strength is due to a weakness.
So when I say shaytan is strong, I'm talking about it relatively.
Because Allah says in the Quran, shaytani cannot or Eva, that's for
the wedding. That's for the one who's close to Allah.
This is because the aim of the Antichrist is to misguide people.
Because the word digital means that we it means to present
something adorned, that is not it means to promote something that is
not of that status to show something in a dilute, dilute
people to think something is different to what it is. That's
what you call it. That's where it's it comes from the word
digital, that the jar just does this so frequently. That's why the
Hadith, people who Hadith scholars of Hadith, or transmitters of
Hadith of mates, you know, who've been narrating spirits
generations, that's why the orlimar call them the journal, not
because they're the AntiChrist, but because they are trying to
show a Hadees to be more savvy than it is. So they're doing a
level of the WWE and digital in that. So this is because the aim
of the Antichrist is to misguide people. And if the likes of a
scholar urged people away from this world by their speech and
statements,
this is a phrase worthy of being written in gold. Look very
carefully at what he's saying. He's saying this is because the
likes of such a scholar urge people away from this world with
their speech, they give big fiery bonds and speeches. But they
actively invite them to it through the actions and state.
They're doing something different to what they're saying. This is
because actions speak louder than words.
And human nature is such that it inclines more to take part in what
is done than to obey what is said.
This is the nature of the human being we will adopt and assimilate
practices that we see happening more than we will take something
that is said to us something that is said to us, it will take much
longer to penetrate our heart than what we see happening.
And that is what Imam Ghazali says. In fact, in another place,
where he is going to say is that people, personalities,
individuals, human behavior, we steal behavior from others without
even realizing. He says we steal behavior from others without even
realizing this is just the way humans function. This is how
humanity is. We can't deny that so you just have to be on guard
Even though Josie says something very similar, it but in a
different context, he says that if you can't have people around you
that are pious, righteous and good acting, then read the stories of
the pious people. Because he says if although you're doing it
through reading, but you're going to learn how the Hadith and the
Quran is being manifest on individuals, how they practice
their life, how they put those revealed texts, and guidance into
action in their life, and you can benefit from it in a practical
way. So he's saying the same thing, but he's saying do it
through a book, if you can't find people to nice people to be in the
company of. So it's the same kind of thing, because he says, You
will be more impacted by somebody practicing something than what
they say.
How much more corruption indeed, well, the actions of this deluded
man cause than any good brought about by his words, since the
ignorant man only throws himself into pursuit of worldly things,
after he sees the scholars doing so. So he's misguiding so many
people.
Now you can tell that out of the three classes, who he is writing
this book for,
because he still feels that the first and second class, the first
class, of course, winners, second class, they they've got potential.
But this third class is the problem. So that's why he's really
on their case.
So then he says, Thus, the deluded scholars knowledge becomes the
very cause of the servants of Allah daring to disobey Him.
Despite this, his ignorant lower self gives him assurance, filling
him with hope and desire, causing him to expect favors from Allah as
a result of his knowledge. And his evil inciting Sol makes him
believe that he is superior to many of his servants. Therefore,
oh seeker, be among the first class of seekers. They're not be
of the second class.
For how many a procrastinator days before he repents.
And the older we get, the more difficult it becomes to change.
Because we become set in our ways. We're no longer as flexible. As
one of my dad said, the other day, I went to him and he gave me this
book and that he had written as a manuscript. And he said, is
Coppola, you know, you read this? And then he says, Are you going to
read it as a inshallah? He goes up putting it together?
Are you going to read it? Are you tired now? Like, have you retired?
Because, unfortunately, is what happens with many of our orlimar
they graduate, and then they already tired, they spent six
years. So they tired now, they don't read anything. Everything is
now based on six years of knowledge. They don't and what
the, what all of the research shows is that any scholarship, if
you don't continue to stimulate yourself with new challenges, then
you become stagnant. And it's just like the still water that just
becomes dirty.
So this is a guy and I thought the he knows what he's speaking about,
you know, he's, he knows what he's speaking about. Because
unfortunately, boats are looked at each other. They just get tired.
So they're not be of the second class for how many procrastinated
days before he repents and forfeit forfeits everything. Another point
of email has it that he mentioned elsewhere, he says that, which is
the most frightening statement of his that I've had an it's a put me
in a crisis. What it was, he said that if by the age of 40, you're
good and your virtue does not overcome your bed, then you have
very less chance afterwards.
So if by the age of 40, your good does not overcome your bad, then
it's much more difficult afterwards, because 40 is when
people become prophets. It's a level of maturity is an age of
maturity.
And you can't expect that when you're 39, then you're going to
suddenly change because these things don't happen that easily.
It's a matter of Tofik you have to get your direction in that regard.
If anybody is what I would suggest, which is which I found to
be beneficial, is that you should constantly make this dua Allah
humara zakenna Hogback Werehog Dominion Pharaoh Nahor boo InDeck
Allah grant us your love and the love of those who love you. Then
Allah will give you pious company
because all I want your love and I want the love of those who love
you.
These are beautiful doors when you go into a new area. Oh Allah Habib
na Illa Allah will have been Saudi he earlier Elaina O Allah make us
beloved to the inhabitants of this town to all of them, but only make
those inhabitants Beloved to us who are pious among them. Because
when you go to a new town, you don't want to get into the wrong
crowd and do the Haram things because nobody's watching you,
because your social supervision has is no longer there. So
You want only to
incline towards people that are good in that town. But you want
everybody to incline to say you get some honor and you're not
driven out of the town. Right? Beautiful. The professor Lawson's
doors are just absolutely beautiful. That's why man because
it says 40 years of age
40 years of age.
So that's why therefore OSI see could be among the first class,
they're not be of the second. And, above all else, beware to not
allow yourself by any means possible to be of the third class
and end your life, wretchedly utterly bereft of hope for success
or salvation.
For in Coulter,
you can tell he's an academic, starting with this question
answering afterwards, right? If you then ask, what is the
beginning of guidance, you're not like there's people like him. And
although he was teaching at a university, not a modern
university, but you know, more nationally, Tonry came along, but
whenever he starts a discourse, he'll say, I'm going to use these
terms. And this is what I mean by these terms. So although he never
went to any university, and you know,
you know, modern ways of presenting, he will define his
terms. It's just a very generic academic way of looking at it,
which unfortunately, many of us have lost to say, when I use this
term, this is what I mean by when I use this and then he will start
his discourse.
So, if you then ask, what is the beginning of guidance? What is the
beginning of guidance, that I may test myself thereby know that it's
beginning is the outward form of God consciousness taqwa, and its
end is the inward reality of God consciousness. So here, look at
it. A lot of people they say that what's more important is the
insight. It doesn't matter how you dress, how you present yourself
how you behave, it's more about the inside.
He seems to be arguing differently. He's saying the way
to start is to sort your outside of because it's easier than to
sort your inside out.
And there's a hadith of Rasulullah saw there's a DUA, which is
Allahumma JAL serie Rottie Hiram in either annuity which either
near the Saudi Hutton Oh Allah make my study roti hiraman Allah
Ania T, make my inner dimension better than my external dimension
and make my external, pious and righteous because it's easy to
apply piety outside
than it is inside. Though it is difficult outside as well. But
relatively speaking, so he says.
Hence, there is no Ultimate Bliss except through dukkha and guidance
does not come but to those who are consciousness conscious of Allah.
Taqwa means carrying out the commands of Allah Most High and
turning away from that which he has forbidden. There are those two
parts to it. And in what follows I will expound to you briefly the
outward manifestation of God consciousness in both its parts.
So he's going to speak about this book is essentially what he speaks
about here is the following. He starts with this more Kadima.
Then he says,
part one is about external obedience is. So literally what
he's going to do for about a good 60 pages is going, he's going to
tell you how to spend your day
how you wake up in the morning, what you do first, and what you
do, then you go for salads, what do ours to read what you do in the
masjid? How you make your salad. The other of the prayer that
others have will do the other Bahasa the other, we're going to
the toilet. He does all of that.
In fact, we're not going to be covering that part. But he also
says, One thing he says, which I found very interesting, is that
you should cover your hair in the toilet should cover your head in
the toilet, which you generally here but you don't see where it's
from. But there are actually some narrations to that effect which
you can actually see in the, in the endnotes, right. There are
some references to that and there's also some reasons of why
that's that should be done and so on. So he tells you everything
goes into all of this. What you will also find is Imam Shafi Imam
Ghazali Rahim Allah was a Shafi but
in a number of issues. For example, in this book, he tells
you to raise the hands up to the ear lobes like the Hanafi is do.
So I consulted the Shafi scholar when I was editing the work and I
said how come he's saying this, when the Shafi opinion is to raise
it only up to your shoulders and not up to your ear lobes? It says
Imam Shah Imam Ghazali has certain divergences from the Shafi school.
So even Shafi is who are reading this book, be careful of the fic.
It doesn't necessarily represent the Shafi Madhav in everything,
but in the divergence is there on minor issues anyway, so you'll
make a difference. And for the for the benefit of the Hanafis. We've
added all of the Hanafy opinions wherever they differ in this
But they mentioned in the end notes so that you're not confused
by it. Within all of that, he provides advices. So we're not
going to look at how to spend the day because that's too long for us
to do. But we're going to go in to look at the peppering of
advices that he provides in between, because he really gets to
the core of things. And the other thing that I'd like to mention,
which Schiff Abell has an idea that we mentioned about the Hello
median as well, is that when you read some parts of this book, you
will think, How can you do that.
But what you have to realize is the man who has early
is writing to make the perfect individual, he doesn't want you to
do anything, but worship Allah throughout the whole day. So then
he begrudgingly even lets you go to work.
If you read about it, he even be grudging. He says, if you really
need to, then you go and do that. Right. So if you've got a source
of income, where you've got some rich inheritance or whatever, then
you don't need to go anywhere. So when I went to visit a doctor,
yesterday, he is in Bradford. He is he's a retired doctor, and most
people probably here don't even know him.
But he says he wakes up at 230 at night, the start is tahajjud, et
cetera. Then after fajr, and he does whatever and then he goes to
sleep. And then from nine o'clock after tea or whatever, and I may
be misquoting the full details, but until about 1130 Does his
Mamula again and then he reads Quran he does this, he does that.
And this is his retirement after being a physician for so many
years. I thought Subhanallah so wonderful, that you can actually
dedicate yourself to that.
That that's just so wonderful that you can spend that time
afterwards. Most people aren't even given that Tofik but he is
mashallah, he took the Tariqah from
Chabrol, HOXA manaton, Wiz Khalifa. And then he's also
benefited from Hakeem after and this is the benefit very
intellectual individual. And but mashallah, this is how he's
spending the remaining days of his life. He's not that old yet, you
know, he's probably about 60 something 70 It's not that old
yet, but he's got the Tofik
we just wish we can do that.
I asked mostly taki with 90 The other day when he came, I said,
when did you start doing you're aware been etc.
So he says, you know, when the first time I got the Hadith,
if I'm correcting correctly quoting him, he says that it was
when I, because I know we were we were in South London and I saw
that after solid, you know, after modeling everybody kind of
finished and he was doing is a wellbeing is extra. So I said,
when did you start doing because such a busy individual and the
complexity you have people who are workaholics and very academic, is
that you justify studies because you know, you hear these quotes,
like
learning one masala of knowledge is superior to how many records of
nothing 1000 nuggets of nothing. So that's in your mind. But this
is again, where the shaytan comes in. Right? He says that if you're
just if you just have a propensity to certain because that there's
more enjoyment in that, and there's less enjoyment here.
Right. So then I asked him, I said, when did you start doing
this? So he said the first time that I was given a hadith book to
teach when I became a hadith teacher, which was at the age of
20 something
right? That's I thought I have to do this and that's when he started
doing this wrong.
So don't be deceived. Being a workaholic is also a problem.
being totally infatuated with your knowledge can also become a
problem, because then you leave out other things at the end of the
day. That's why Junaid Al Baghdadi. He said when he was seen
after his death, what benefited you? He says it was the Ruqayyah
at the few small records that we did the Sahara at the night.
That's what really benefited us.
So it's you don't know what's going to be accepted. But you have
to increase your chances and you have to express your because
there's no point of knowledge. It's not just to know so much that
it's to actually understand where it's going to get you. So when
Imam Ghazali speaks about if you really as a hero know me then he
just makes you like the perfect he doesn't want a single blemish. And
that is one of the so called criticisms objective Chris
criticisms of his book that he is writing this at a time when he's
just come from his seclusion right from his work of hormone his work
his time of being just totally away from everything. So he's in a
different world. But the benefit of these stories is that they will
shock you into reality, because we're on the opposite side. So,
once I was sitting in a Taleem of Fabiola, Amal, and in Canada and
one of these individuals afterwards, he says How come you
guys are always reading the stories about these extreme hunger
and now eating for so many days and they start on the other? How
do we do this? This is impossible.
And so Khaled The reason Imam Hassan equals the same kind of
stories. They were individuals in the past that did these things.
Not everybody did it not everybody could have been if not a be Laila
he used to go to the used to defecate once in every 15 days.
Today we consider that to be unhealthy send you to the doctor
give you a laxatives, there was nothing in there to come out.
Because there was such basic foods that they would eat that would
just be taken by the body. Right now doctors will tell us whether
that's even possible or not, but that's what's related. Right? But
I'm sure if somebody goes to you today, your 15 days you're gonna
give them laxatives, right? Yeah.
You become institutionalized
into thinking that way. Right? But
the stories are there to shock us because we're on the other side
when you hear those stories inshallah we'll get to the middle.
So understand them in the context. Don't think they're too far to
reach. It's just that we have to start realizing that we're so on
the other side that inshallah we will come to this side. So
inshallah we will have a few minutes break.
Bla Hola.