Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Allah is Definitely in Your Heart [Hikam 254]
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So, he says because whenever people remember Allah,
there are three types of people who remember
Allah.
One is who's doing it to get reward.
Every tasbih is a plant in paradise, is
a tree in paradise.
That's their focus.
Every tasbih is a plant in paradise, a
tree in paradise.
There's another group of people who are no
longer worried about their trees.
Right?
They just leave that to Allah.
I'm not gonna plant any trees, I leave
that to Allah.
They're just seeking presence with Allah.
I just wanna be in your company, I
just don't care about anything else.
I'm leaving it to you.
I can't even explain that one.
But he's saying that the third category are
those who are already reached and many of
the veils have been lifted.
And that's what he says.
We go on to the next aphorism which
is on page 132.
This one is two aphorisms before that one
which is number 254.
And in this one he says, This is
really really profound because again it tells us
something really interesting.
And really reassuring you can say.
Very promising.
The outer aspect of an invocation, meaning the
outer form of the dhikr and remembrance that
we do, would not be, could not come
into existence save for the inner aspect of
contemplation and meditation.
In simple words that there's no way you
can remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala unless
there's a place in your heart for that.
Unless it's something that you've thought about.
Otherwise, why would it come out?
The remembrance of Allah doesn't come out just
like that.
It's coming out because of something in your
heart.
We may not think so, right?
We may not think that we're so close
to Allah or that we're so in tune.
But he's saying that there's no way you
will remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala unless
it's from your heart.
If you're remembering Him, if you're criticizing, if
a violator is criticizing Allah, that's a different
reason.
But if you're remembering Allah, it has to
be something in your heart.
So, what exactly does that mean?
Let's look at that in a bit more
detail.
Saying that when your apparent state, outer state,
either tasbih, tongue, is mushtaghilan bi dhikrillah, is
involved and occupied in the remembrance of Allah,
take that as a sign that the love
of Allah exists inside you.
Otherwise, why would you be doing it?
There is an element of love.
Of course, that love could grow and become
deeper and stronger, no doubt.
But there is an element of love in
your heart for you to be able to
take the name of Allah.
اِذْ مَنْ أَحَبَّ شَيْءٍ أَكْثَرَ مِنْ ذِكْرِهِ The
only person that remembers things is the one
who loves that thing.
So that whenever you love something, you're gonna
start mentioning that.
Hey, look at my phone, look at this,
look at that.
You're gonna constantly bring it up on your
tongue.
وَلَا تَكُلْ مُحَبَّ إِلَّا عَنْ ذَوْكٍ وَمَعْرِفَةٍ The
only way to actually have muhabba is to
have a longing for it, a desire for
it, and a knowledge of that thing.
The only way you can love something is
if you know the qualities of that thing,
and have a desire for those qualities.
That's love, anyway.
فَلَا يَكُونُ ظَاهِرُ ذِكْرٍ إِلَّا عَنْ بَاطِنِ شُهُودٍ
So then he says that there's no way
you can apparently, outwardly, remember Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala unless you've had some kind of
witness inside, witnessing inside of Allah, right?
أَيَّ شُهُودٍ كَانَ Whatever type of witnessing it
was.
Even though وَإِن كَانَ لَا يَشْعُرُ بِشُهُودِهِ The
person doesn't know that he's got that internal
witnessing of Allah.
You don't realize that.
Because when we've made dhikr, we don't realize
that we have an internal witnessing, do we?
But there's no way that dhikr could have
come out, even for five minutes or two
minutes, unless we've got that inside.
It goes into a bit more depth.
I'm just going to explain it briefly, because
it gets a bit more complicated and profound.
He said, فَمَا ذَكَرَتِ الرُّوحَ حَتَّى فَنِيَتِ The
soul can only remember Allah after it annihilates
itself of anything else.
We have to destroy its connection to other
things for it to remember Allah.
Otherwise, it's just going to be constantly attached
to something else and thinking about that.
So there has to be a level of
literally dismissing everything else for us to remember
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
In simple words, you could say, وَلَا فَنِيَتِ
حَتَّى شَهِدَتْ And as soon as you kill
your ruh, when I say kill your ruh,
I mean as soon as you let it
die its normal worldly connections, you let that
die, then you will remember Allah.
Because otherwise you can't really.
Because everything but Allah is world, is dunya.
So if you get rid of the dunya,
it has to be Allah, there's nothing else.
You can't have just nothing, right?
This is what you call مَانِعَةُ الْخُلُوبِ in
منطق, which basically means that you have to
have one or the other, right?
Because you have to have Allah, and if
you don't have Allah, then you have to
have the dunya.
What else are you going to have unless
you're a dead person?
It says that whenever it annihilates like that,
then it witnesses Allah.
So anybody then who has annihilated and doing
the dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
that means that his ruh at some level
has definitely witnessed the beauty of the presence
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Or it has actually contemplated it.
He's been contemplating the greatness of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Otherwise, why would you?
Why would you sit and say subhanallah, subhanallah,
alhamdulillah, read the Quran?
Why would you do that for?
If you don't think that the one you're
remembering is great, you must, that's the only
way you're going to do it.
It's the only reason you're going to do
it.
Or you're going to do it because you're
thinking of Allah's reward.
That's the lowest level.
You know, when you think of reward or
punishment.
So you're going to think of that, but
that's still Allah, it's still related to Allah.
He's the one who's going to give you
the reward of the punishment.
So then he says that what conclusion you
get from here is that if you have
any kind of remembrance on your tongue, it's
going to have to be born from some
kind of witnessing of the heart, right?
And that is usually the state of normal
murids or normal knowers of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Or it's going to come from a thought
or contemplation, a consideration.
That is the lesser level, which is when
you're looking for reward.
I want reward, that's why I'm doing it.
Not because I just need to do it.
The first one is that I just can't
help it.
That's what I do.
That is me.
They're both good.
Obviously, the first level is greater because you're
not doing it for any selfish reason.
Second one has a bit of selfish reason.
You're doing it for reward.
So that one, you're doing it because you're
spurring yourself to do it by saying one
plus one is two.
If I do this, then I get that.
Whereas the first one, there's no equation.
It is the state.
It is that you're remembering Allah for the
sake of Him.
So he says because whenever people remember Allah,
there are three types of people remember Allah.
One is who's doing it to get reward.
Every tasbih is a plant in paradise, is
a tree in paradise.
That's their focus.
Every tasbih is a plant in paradise, a
tree in paradise.
There's another group of people who are no
longer worried about their trees.
Right?
They just leave that to Allah.
I'm not going to plant any trees.
I'll leave that to Allah.
They're just seeking presence with Allah.
I just want to be in your company.
I just don't care about anything else.
I'm leaving it to you.
And, I can't even explain that one.
But he's saying that the third category are
those who've already reached and many of the
veils have been lifted.
And that's what he says.
So may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala give us
the true understanding of that.
And that's amazing, isn't it?
To feel good that Alhamdulillah, we at least
have some kind of association with Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala.
It's not just a tongue thing.
So now there are so many people, believe
me, who come and say, I don't get
anything out of my prayer.
So why should I pray?
I used to have good conscious, you know,
good conscious thoughts in my prayer and reflection
and concentration.
I don't have that anymore.
It's definitely something to be worried about.
But that doesn't mean you stop doing it.
I'm sitting for 10 minutes and, you know,
a few months ago, I used to feel
really good about it.
Now I don't feel ecstasy when I do
that.
That's not your problem.
Your problem is just remember Allah, man.
If you have ecstasy or no ecstasy, that's
not for you to focus on.
Your job is remembering Allah.
Now, this will tell you that you're remembering
Allah.
That means you've got something in your heart.
Otherwise, there's no way you would waste your
time doing this.
The only reason you're going to mention a
certain phone is because you got it in
your heart or a certain car.
You're going to mention it.
It's because it's not a certain person.
It's in your heart.
That's why.
Why would you mention it?
Otherwise, it's not bothering you or you're not
enamored by it or you're not contemplating it.
Why would you mention it?
Unless you're just a random talk of anything,
but then it's still in your heart to
talk about it.
So that is really beautiful to know that
it's in our heart.
Alhamdulillah.
So we thank Allah for that.
It's just another thing to thank Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala for.
اللهم أنت السلام ومنك السلام تبارك يا ذا
الجلال والإكرام اللهم يا حي يا قيوم برحمتك
نستغيث يا حنان يا منا لا إله إلا
أنت سبحانك إنا كنا من الظالمين جزا الله
عنا محمد ما هو أهله اللهم صلي وسلم
على سيدنا محمد وعلى أهل سيدنا محمد مبارك
وسلم يا غفار يا فتاح يا ستار يا
حفظ يا سلام يا ذطيف يا ذا الجلال
والإكرام يا الله have mercy on us and
Allah accept us ya Allah ya Allah we
thank you for your for the bounties you
have showered upon us especially the bounty of
remembrance the bounty of being able to sit
in the masjid the bounty of remembering you
and being remembered by you ya Allah allow
us to understand this and the significance of
this and allow us to increase with this
o Allah only you can grant it to
us this is absolute fadhal and grace from
you we could never have done this had
it not been for you o Allah reward
our teachers reward our sheikhs o Allah reward
the Ibn Ata'illah Al-Iskandari and o
Allah reward all of our teachers up to
the time of the Prophet ﷺ o Allah
for conveying the deen for us o Allah
make us all in some way of shape
or form those who convey the deen further
on o Allah accept us for the service
of your deen o Allah make us part
of this tradition o Allah accept our work
whatever little that we do o Allah you're
the one who gives us the ability to
do it in the first place o Allah
now accept it from us o Allah protect
us o Allah forgive us o Allah we
do wrong we make mistakes ya Allah have
mercy on us and all of those who
assist o Allah all of those who attend
all of those who listen o Allah we
ask that you accept us all subhana rabbika
rabbil izzati amma yasifoon wa salamun al mursaleen
walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen ya Allah shower your mercy
upon our brothers who are suffering in the
different countries in the world especially Gaza and
Palestine ya Allah grant them recovery, reform o
Allah grant them and allow the whole world
to see the truth as it is and
o Allah allow us to follow the truth
and do the right thing for the truth
and bring insaniyat back to the insan o
Allah allow everybody to see the wrong as
the wrong and to abstain from it and
to distance themselves from it o Allah grant
our brothers relief and freedom and their dignity
grant them a much better reward and a
better compensation for what they have lost and
grant them the sabr and patience ya Allah
and o Allah allow us to do that
which is correct and beneficial and productive ya
Allah protect us from all evils and all
forms of mischief and all forms of fitna
which are out there subhana rabbika rabbil izzati
amma yusifoon wassalamu alaikum the point of a
lecture is to encourage people to act to
get further an inspiration an encouragement persuasion the
next step is to actually start learning seriously
to read books to take on a subject
of Islam and to understand all the subjects
of Islam at least at their basic level
so that we can become more aware of
what our deen wants from us and that's
why we started Rayyan courses so that you
can actually take organized lectures on demand whenever
you have free time especially for example the
Islamic Essentials course that we have on there
the Islamic Essentials Certificate which you take 20
short modules and at the end of that
insha Allah you will have gotten the basics
of most of the most important topics in
Islam and you'll feel a lot more confident
you don't have to leave lectures behind you
can continue to listen to lectures but you
need to have this more sustained study as
well Jazakallah Khair Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh