Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Be Truly Free [Hikmah 62]
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the negative impact of slavery on the world and how it can lead to slavery. They emphasize the importance of breaking emotions and showing oneself the value of living in a free state. The speakers also touch on the importance of serving others and finding the best way to approach one. The lockdown has been a challenge for many people, but the focus has been on showing oneself the value of living in a free state.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi wa salatu salam ala
say you didn't study. While early he or saw me he was seldom at the
Sleeman Cathedral on laomi been Amma bad inshallah as we move on
with our
study of the book of wisdoms, the HECM of Abner artha Allah, which
Abdullah can go his commentary, we move into Hickman number 62
aphorism number 62 and it will take us to sessions to discuss
this one. It's a very small wisdom. He says under hood Ron, me
and Dan who is and the horn member and and who is what I'm doing Lima
into the whole polymer
and the horn member and and who is swabbed in Lima and Allahu
Ptolemy, in your despairing you are a free man. But in your
coveting you are a slave. In your despairing you are a free man. But
in your coveting you are a slave to what that simply what he's
saying is that
anything that you become despondent of that you lose hope
in that you no longer care for, as the American would say, I don't
care for that, then you have suddenly become a free man.
If you can just stop caring for a lot of the dunya. And you can stop
caring for it when in the sense that you can stop wanting it and
desiring it. And basically leave all hopes that it doesn't really
give you the pleasure that you really need and that you really
want, then you've become a free man. And in your coveting it you
are a slave. So if you are greedy for it, and if you're really
trying to pursue it, and you have a lot of avarice, and
courageousness for it, then you are a slave because it means
you're going to go after it, you're going to have to do the
requisites for that. So from our from our book it's in it's on page
215 is from page 215 on the book. So for those who are following.
So
it's a simple idea. But we need to practically use it, we need to
contextualize it, we need to understand how to apply this in
our life. So the idea is that anything that you lose hoping
what it means by losing, hoping is that not that you try to get it,
you try to get it and then you can't get it. So you're like,
Okay, forget it now because I can't get it. The idea of this
kind of is, is that you found something superior. So he said,
Forget this thing. For example, if you're
really addicted to something, or you really enjoy something a lot,
and it's something that you have to do, for example, let's just say
you like eating, you like eating out. So you're constantly looking
for somewhere to go for the new place in town for your favorite
restaurant, and you must go there, you must go and patronize them
once a week or twice a week. Now, at the end of the day, you may be
very busy, but you still feel like you need to go. Or it's a friend
or something like that where you must go and visit them otherwise,
you just don't feel comfortable or whatever the case is, that means
you've become like a slave slavery here is in a very broad sense of
the idea, which is the anything which you must do something for
that you can't remove the shackles off that you need to do otherwise
you
even though there's nobody over your head, that this is the idea
that this is not the kind of slavery that we're used to seeing
where you're a master and you can't do anything else. This is
actually probably worse slavery, which is kind of voluntary
slavery, slavery. I know it's putting a very negative spin on
these things. But the idea is that if you're forced to do something,
which is not worthwhile, which is not have that benefit, not long
term benefit, it doesn't provide the benefit in the Hereafter, then
being slave to those things, is a really sad idea. That's why he's
saying that you'll only become free once you start despairing of
that in the sense that you lose hoping that that you know that I
don't need to do that. So as I said that if if eventually you
become such a person that I don't need to go out and eat exquisite
foods anymore, I don't need to look for new restaurants. I don't
need to look for new cars to drive. I don't need to look for
new friends to make. I don't need to look for people that I must
speak to and not do anything you know, not be satisfied until I'm
speaking to somebody all day on the phone or
I don't need to be on YouTube all the time or I don't need to be
online or checking my posts or whatever all the time, then you
freed yourself to them. But what's the point of freeing yourself if
you're just going to involve yourself in something else, which
is also then going to chain us in a certain way?
So that's the point. The point is that if you're chained to
something which is of benefit for this world and the Hereafter, then
that is what really matters as long as we can break our shackles
break the shackles of those things which are of no benefit.
So we're Abdon that's why this lockdown has been quite crazy for
a lot of people because there's so they're just so much a slave to
going to the pub, for example, right? This such a slave to going
and hanging out with people, that they've got nothing else that they
can do for themselves, there's no worship they can resort to, I
spoke to a friend of mine, which I have a lot of respect for a
few days ago, and mashallah, his worship is approximately seven
hours a day,
a very productive person, he's not just resigned to worship. And that
said, he's a very productive person. He's got lots of work that
he's producing, he's still producing. But in terms of his
solid, his Quran reading, and his garden, and the aura and
everything, it's about seven hours. And he basically says that
when somebody calls him, you know, he's like, okay, when can I get
back to my car? Right, unless it's something to do with productivity.
That's why this has been a huge test. This lockdown has been a
huge test for a lot of people that, you know, I can't go and
socialize. I guess it's a challenge in the sense that we
can't go to the masjid, you know, in some cases where they closed
the masjid for in some countries, mashallah, in America that there's
a there's a church in a synagogue, I believe, two congregations that
took the not sure if it's the county or the Council or the state
or the government to court and the Supreme Court has actually given a
judgment in favor that religious organizations or religious
worship, places of worship rather, can stay can stay open, and nobody
has the right to close them down. Which mashallah I think, you know,
that that is some, that is the place you want to go because
that's for Allah, that relationship needs to be for the
sake of Allah.
So, the pandemic is a really testing time to see what we're
really associated with, what we're really slaves to, and
what we need to work on, I think that's, that's going to be
something that we need to we need to focus on. And May May Allah
subhanaw, taala, grant us access. So then he's saying that you're
safe, if you're coveting that thing, and you're free, if you're
despairing of it. So when a person else that becomes despondent of
something, and he no longer makes an effort to go after that thing,
is going to free up a lot of time to focus on what is actually most
important. Now, what is the underlying point there is that you
become despondent of everything else. And then you connect
yourself with the true one, all of these false ideas of the world,
which means they're not necessarily false. I mean, food is
not false. But what we mean by false is that it is not something
that is going to benefit you in the long term. Right? You need to
fill your stomach, you get some decent food, and that's a good
idea. But the whole point of this is that go and connect yourself to
Allah subhanaw taala. And when a person does connect themselves to
Allah subhanaw taala in the sense that everything they do has a
purpose now, what it means by connecting yourself to Allah, that
sounds like a very abstract idea, like what do you do? How do you
connect yourself to Allah subhanho wa taala? The idea is that
whatever you do, you're doing for the sake of Allah like, Okay, does
Allah want me to do this? Would Allah like me to be doing this,
would Allah not like me to be doing this, to make that kind of
decision to have a good intention, you still may be going to work to
earn a living for your family, and that's completely fine. You may
still be cooking, you may still be cleaning, you may still be doing
all of these things. But everything is now done for the
sake of Allah that you understand. That's the only place where
benefit comes from.
Now, the benefit of that, so, why why should we do this? Right? Why
should we do this as a question? I mean, why all of these efforts, it
is so tough for people to not go and eat somewhere not look for a
place to eat, not go online, not do this not do that, or, you know,
not waste their time. Rather, it's very difficult because there's
just a lot of chemicals which are released at that time, and there's
a lot of excitement that you get, so why Why should I give all of
that up? The reason for giving that up, is that when a when a
person cuts away from everything and does things only for the sake
of Allah, not intrinsically for those things themselves, then
Sahara help Kuta Allah, Allah Husa it'll hook Hulk, then the true one
will actually have all of creation submit to you.
If you can make that exercise, which is the difficult part if you
can complete that exercise and show Allah subhanaw taala our
sincerity then Allah subhanho wa Taala will have things at your
disposal.
And I'm not joking. That is something which Allah will give
you from
way you never thought
you know you, you will get to eat the good foods, you will get to
have the good things in life without even making an effort for
it. Allah will provide you them somehow. Now I know you're gonna
say like how show me this empirically, it's something you
have to show yourself empirically. You have to try it and you'll see
that Allah subhanaw taala opens it up for you.
I was speaking to somebody else just over a week ago, and
mashallah, his daughter, he managed to convince her to start
focusing on Allah subhanaw taala.
And it's quite amazing the kinds of things that Allah subhanaw
taala opened up to them.
You know, for example, one thing that he did was he said that he
spent, he wanted to go for Hajj. So he had two cars, he didn't have
much other money, he sold one of the cars so that he could go for
hedge. Now they needed another car after they came back, and he
didn't have the money to buy a car. But mashallah a friend of his
who owned the car showroom, right? He managed to give him a extremely
good deal, and pay him pay him later on. So
when his daughter asked me like, how is all of this happening? He
said, well is because of, you know, the efforts that you make
for the deen Allah subhanaw taala opens up, opens up that's exactly
what our commentators are saying here, that Allah will then have
everything at your disposal for Colonel, a Shia or Kulu her libido
and pretty much everything else then. Right, in their own way will
become your slave, which means that you will get access to the
these things without too much effort. That's why the friend I'm
talking about, I find him so productive. And I'm surprised that
he can spend so many hours in the worship of Allah subhanaw taala
it's only 1/3 of his day spent in the worship of Allah subhanaw
taala nearly the amount of time or the amount of time that many
people would actually spend sleeping the seven hours, he's
he's spending in worship in a normal day, not just in Ramadan.
So
everything else will become your slave and will be subjected to
what you want. Allah subhanaw taala will provide that
is he what they say is that under my awkward marlim dish huddle
Mocha, when you're going to remain with all the created beings until
you start witnessing the Creator. When you then see the creator, you
won't need the created beings, I mean, you're still gonna have to
eat, don't get me wrong, this is not some kind of extreme idea were
proposing here, you're still going to need to eat, you're still going
to need to wear clothing, you still need to, to drive and to use
transport and things like that. But the point is that once your
focus is on the Creator, then
all of the creation will be at your disposal in some way or the
other.
So that's what it means that if you are a slave, if a person is a
slave,
he is then free of
everything besides Him meaning as a slave of Allah, then he is going
to be free of everything else besides Allah subhana wa Tada.
And you can only be a slave of the thing that you covet. Remember
that you can I mean, I'm not talking about involuntary slavery,
where somebody is forced into slavery and beaten up. That's not
the kind of slavery we're talking about voluntary slavery here,
right? Where we decide this for ourselves, right? And remember,
anything that we do, it's a decision that we have made to do.
Generally speaking, if we've decided to waste our time, if
we've decided to commit haram, if we've decided to engage ourselves
in a haram relationship, if we've decided to get into a haram
business, that is a decision that we've taken, you can you can make
all the excuses in the world that it's because of this excuse and
it's because of that excuse. There's no way I can survive
unless I do this unless I do that. These are purely excuses. Because
Allah says, I mean, if you're a believer in Allah, Allah says that
when we get our color and Allah He for Hua Haspel, that whoever does
rely on Allah, Allah is sufficient for them. Whoever does rely on
Allah, Allah will provide them from where they did not expect,
where you are, least expectation is ALLAH SubhanA wa, tada. Will
will provide for you, anybody who believes in Allah cannot be
despondent like that. Some people actually intellectually, right,
psychologically, intellectually, they've actually shut down all
those. There's a guy who called me and he said, This is what's been
happening for the last 10 years or last seven years, I can't remember
is a long period of time. So basically, I don't know if it was
I can't get married. I can't my businesses, any anything that I do
put my money in, you know, I don't get anything out of it. So then I
said, Okay, you know, maybe we need to start reading this. And he
said, No, I've tried that as well. I said, maybe you need to start
doing this. No, no, I've tried that as well.
All right. So basically anything that I could have said to him that
okay, use rokeya use.
Do you know do this UScar for Baraka rhetorical walk, or
whatever is like no, I've done all of that. Now, to be honest, I
mean, that person has another problem maybe while
if there is a person like that, because a lot of people are going
to be wondering now, like if there is a person like that, who is
trying to do a garden or says they are and trying to do Rokia and all
of these things and they still having problems, it probably means
that they're doing something else which is very wrong in their life.
Or there's some something major that they've done that they have
not made Tober for that they've not repented from, maybe a
blasphemous expression or something like that. Because at
the end of the day, if somebody says, Oh, I've done that I've got
I've done this and I've done that nothing benefits me, it means that
they've lost hope in Allah subhanaw taala I can't think of
anything else
said Yeah, I know all that I know all of that I've done all of that
thing.
So then why are you calling me you got hope in me, you got no hope in
Allah subhanaw taala but everything I tell you, you
actually shutting the door to all of that thing that I've tried and
and done done those things as well. Whereas Allah subhanaw taala
says that he'll he'll, he'll give you
that means there's something else which is a hinderance if you're
trying these things, and you're still not getting it means there's
a hindrance because remember, there's two things and trying to
get something but actually blocked, that there's some
blockages, you have to remove the blockages. And the path of
spirituality is such that is that the first first thing that many,
many of the our spiritual scholars say the first thing you have to do
is Toba.
Because when if you don't do Toba and the sins that are honest, they
act as preventers, they remove the blessing, they remove the baraka,
they make it actually difficult to worship. Once you do Toba and the
sins are lifted, then you've got clarity, then you've got a purity,
you've taken the burden off, then you can actually go further, then
you develop your Tawakkol and your sovereign, your sugar, and Connor
and all of these other principles that we're speaking about, the
first thing is always going to be Tober. So maybe this is what there
is just that we had a very short conversation, I wasn't able to
explore it further, right, because it's almost like he is calling for
help, but doesn't want to help himself. Right and very difficult,
because everything you suggest is just is just struck down. So once
you start putting your gaze on the creator of everything, then the
creation will diminish in your site, you'll still be using
creation, but you won't value it as much. You won't be hankering
after the new phone, you won't feel bad in your heart that I
don't have the next phone.
You know, that's a very typical example of today, you will you
will have feel no guilt whatsoever, you will feel no
regret, you will feel no loss, you will feel no deprivation, that I
don't have the next, the next product the next gadget, you will
feel no deprivation, if you have it Alhamdulillah but if you don't
have it, you will have no problem whatsoever. And if you have it,
you will have it for the right reason, not for the wrong reason.
Now imagine just think just think this kind of life.
What a beautiful life that is where you get things because you
need them. And you'll never regret or what you do not have you never
guilty you never feel deprived of what you do not have. And when you
need something Allah subhanaw taala helps you and you get it.
What a life. When you have something, when you want
something, Allah subhanaw taala assists you in providing it to
you. And when you whatever you do not have you don't feel too bad
about it.
That's the life I mean that satisfaction. Otherwise, what kind
of a mental state psychological state that person is in, where
every night he has to think I have to earn this extra money I have to
do this, getting themselves maybe into haram investments and haram
jobs and haram desires and everything like that, what is the
point of all of that? You see, the logic is simple. When you want
something down, the reason you want it, generally speaking, is
because you love it, or you have to develop a liking for it an
affection for it, an attachment to it, then after that you have to in
order to get it, there's certain measures you have to take, which
means you have to maybe submit yourself, right, we're not talking
about some kind of, you know, conspiracy here that you have to
submit yourself and you have to bow down in front of an idol. And
you know, this is not that kind of a discussion. This is submit
yourself in the sense that you have to really like put yourself
behind it.
And there's certain things that you there's certain hoops that you
have to jump through to be able to, you know, to to get these
things and
whatever that thing commands, which basically means that
there'll be nothing verbal coming coming from there, but whatever it
really requires for you to be able to attain it.
You will you will have to do that. You can consider that for maybe a
career position.
You know, that is going to be a bit more, there's going to be a
bit more clarity of these ideas in there. Because what you have to
realize is that the reason why you have to do this is because when
you begin to love something, love is a very powerful idea. Love is a
very, very, very powerful feeling, and a human sentiment. When you
attach yourself to something and love then it basically blinds you
and defends you. So you actually stop seeing what is really
beneficial and what is not. Because your object is this
particular object of love. Now, it's wonderful if the object of
love is a beneficial object of love, that is Allah subhanho wa
Taala anybody that Allah subhanaw taala wants us to love, because
Alhamdulillah then that is what we want. Because when you love
something, you will do everything for it. Right? And if you love the
right thing, and you're going to do everything for the right thing,
well, that is the deen if you're going to love Allah subhanaw taala
and His messenger and the deen and that is going to basically blind
you to all of the other redundant ideas of this world, wasting of
time and all the other haram pursuits. And that's a wonderful
thing. Now imagine if that love is for something else that then
blinds you from the love of Allah subhanaw taala from pure love of
Allah and His messenger and the deen and you're wondering, like,
why is it so difficult for me to?
Why is it so difficult for me to follow the dean? You know, there's
many of us that's the idea like, why is it so difficult is because
your love is with something else. And when you love something else,
it blinds you to everything else. It defends, you do everything
else. So you don't see the same pleasure in that because you think
all of your pleasure is coming from your object of love.
So simple idea, like why is the Dean difficult for me is because
the dean is not your object of love.
The religion, Allah and His messenger are not your object of
love, because if they were, then everything else would pale in
comparison. But right now the dean is painting and is pale is pale in
comparison, because your focus is somewhere else. But Hamdulillah,
you at least have the feeling of guilt. So we can develop them we
can build on that, at least that means we got the faith in our
heart to feel that why am I why is this pale for me? Why is this not
enjoyable? For me? Why is this not the object of my love? But we may
have never framed it in that regard. Maybe this is what will be
helpful here Inshallah, to frame it in such that What is your major
objective love? What is your goal in this life? Is your goal this
life or the life hereafter? What is our goal?
These are the ways to decide, you know, what is it that we want from
this life?
What state do we want to die on?
You know, where do we want to see ourselves in five and 10 years and
maybe 20 years? What state? Do we want to see ourselves when the
inevitable death of ours comes?
That's a very powerful idea. What do we want to see ourselves? Where
do we want to see ourselves? What should we have accomplished by
them? When it's the last day of our last hour of our
accomplishment in this world, after which there's nothing we can
add? Except reap the benefits? or
suffer the suffer suffer the the the difficulties and the problems
of what we have sown before in this world? What where do we want
to be in that last minute of this life after which it's no more?
After that? It's all just decided?
Where do we want to be?
That's what we have to if we think about that, we can understand what
our real objective love is.
Because remember, anything you love is going to make everything
else pale in comparison. So if the dean is
not shining, if the dean is not attractive, it means our object is
somewhere else. But how then do we make the Sharia the object, our,
our, our Allah, subhanaw taala, his messenger the object, and
everything else, then subdues. And
everything else becomes away from our sight. That is through first,
not just the vicar of Allah. But first to get our orientation
perspective, right? Perspective is very important if we don't even
know that this is the way these things are. This is the way the
life works. And this is the way the shaytaan deceives us where he
where we get ourselves engaged in other objects of love, then you
can't even get out of it because we don't even know what the
problem is.
Right? Because love is a very, extremely Love is a very powerful,
very powerful idea. That's why a poet says up to her room corner,
while Hooroo abdomen atomic,
that a slave is actually free as long as they are satisfied and
contented with what they have.
And a free person is actually a slave. Right What legally may be
considered a free person we are free people, actually slaves as
long as they continue
You have to have this greed for other than Allah subhanaw taala.
Whenever else or whenever you have love for something, you have to
then obey it, you have to do things for it, you have to submit
to it in a way, there's things that it will force you to do,
changes in your life that you will have to make.
And
the reason for it, is that it blinds you from everything else.
This is the reality of servitude. This is what you call servitude, I
have to watch that match, doesn't matter if it's solid time I have
to watch that match. It doesn't matter if it's the 27th night is
the Tarawih prayer. But that World Cup final,
you know, was in Ramadan.
So I'm going to miss my taraweeh of the of the 27th night or 25th
night or whatever it is, because that is more important for me.
Even though today, you can actually watch it later. Allah has
made it actually even easier today. You know, about 100 years
ago, if you if you miss the match, you missed it, you can only hear
about it, you'd never be able to see it again.
But this one, you have to watch it live. Because there's something
else about it being life.
You know, you don't want to fall behind, everybody else is going to
know about it. And you're gonna have to hear about it from others.
You've not watched it live. So you did not get the information
firsthand. That's all it is, isn't it, you just didn't get the
information firsthand.
You know, who won the bake of the British Bake Off? Now I must watch
it to find out. Because I want to know myself. Directly. I don't
want to have to hear it from someone else. Allah help us with
these things. They're they're very powerful. They're very powerful.
Now Now think about it. I mean, we're gonna have to, we're going
to continue this discussion in the next session. But just think about
this. How repugnant how redundant, how silly, how foolish, right? Is
a person whose master wants him to be the king
wants him to be the master of other things. But he wants to be
the slave of those very same things. His master wants him to be
free.
But he wants to continue to be a servant of these things.
Subhanallah his master Allah actually created the entire
universe,
to be at his service, to be at his or her disposal. But then he
starts to be observed, he starts to serve those very things which
were supposed to serve Him.
And thus he becomes a servant of an extremely insignificant idea.
Something that we're just supposed to use to go through this life,
they become a servant, because they want it so badly.
And they want more than they can chew.
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
So in sha Allah, we will continue this discussion next time today.
This is all what we have. And there's a lot here for us to be
able to ponder over and inshallah benefit from. So we ask Allah
subhanaw taala to grant us the trophy.
And to make this easy for us to allow us to correct our
perspective, which is the most important thing. So we stop here
in sha
Allah, I'm on the Santa Monica Salam, the Bharatiya Dolcetto
anybody Quran Allah who may be your neurotic and Assam youth
Aloha Mia and me um, and then you know, he learned the Subhanak in
condemning nobody mean does Allahu Akbar Muhammad and Maha Dean and
God will Karamja krummenacher Armenia Hieronymus Olean. Well,
Martine, we are hamara Haman, Allah we ask you for your special
favors. We ask you for your special favors. We ask you for
your special forgiveness. Your Allah we ask You for Your
protection. Your hammer Rohini Yeah, hi Ron Masoli in Oh,
merciful one. Oh, generous one. Oh, Clement one oh forbearing.
One.
I'll be Neverland. One, your benevolence, your benevolence,
your generosity, your mercy, Your forgiveness, especially of those
things that bring about bring bring about problems in our home
that removed the blessing from our homes of Allah, from our families,
from our lives, from our jobs from our iman, oh Allah. Grant us an
understanding of our faith grant us an understanding of the best
way to approach you the best way to worship you the best way to
devote ourselves to you have Allah we are so ignorant of,
of the ways, the best ways and the most efficient ways to worship
You. Oh Allah, grant us your love and the love of those whose love
will benefit us in your court of Allah causes us to rise on the Day
of Judgment among the good people, the Siddiqui in the shahada, the
Saudi heed among the prophets. So Allah, we send Your abundant
blessings and our messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
salam, O Allah protect us
Especially during these times remove this pandemic for us, Oh
Allah, do not make us allow us to do anything in here which would be
foolish Oh Allah allow us to do things in the correct method.
Allow us to be the guides of others Oh Allah allow us to be
forces of good change accept us for the service of your deen of
Allah bless all of those who are making an effort in this world to
make it a better place so Allah grant them guidance and make them
close to you. Oh Allah make us of those who are forces for good in
this world and keep away us away from forces being forces of evil
of Allah grant us beneficial knowledge and allow us to see the
truth as the truth and allow us to follow it and allow us to see the
wrong as the wrong and allow us to abstain from it. Oh Allah protect
us from illnesses of Allah and our brothers and sisters around the
world who are being subjugated Oh Allah we ask that you grant them
respite and removal of these problems and grind them
ascendancy, oh Allah grant them power or law, grant them safety,
grant them protection, our life except from all of us and protect
us and especially our next generations until the Day of
Judgment, from all of the evil out there all of the challenges all of
the problems will lay except this little gathering that we do here
and all of God gathering Oh Allah allow them to be increased so that
there's more people who are remembering you. Oh Allah make
this imagine this purely and sincerely for your sake and oh
Allah make it a source of guidance make it a source of blessing Oh
Allah make it a source of Hidayat make it a source of of closest to
you our life except from us and accept from all of those who make
this happen. All of those who listen all of those who take part
and are Allah grant us that have to do even more. So how they got
to realize that mIRC fullness Allah when Allah Al Hamdulillah he
or Benard I mean they're automatically or Hamra.