Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Essentials of Islamic Spirituality- Four Fundamentals of Spiritual Struggle
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The segment discusses the four core fundamentals of spiritual struggle, including thoughts of reducing one's eating habits, expressing pride in their appearance, and not speaking in abundance. It emphasizes the importance of speaking for personal reasons, avoiding distraction from others, and avoiding false speech. The use of cutting speech as a way to save time and avoid embarrassment is discussed, with examples such as a Spanishman's statement about giving water to a Spanish woman and the use of cutting speech as a way to avoid embarrassment and reduce conversation.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Alhamdulillah wa salatu
wa salamu ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala aalihi
wa sahbihi ajma'in, amma ba'ad The
overview, we were on a discussion regarding the
types of spiritual struggle and he had split
them up into the different aspects qillat al
-ta'am, qillat al-kalam, qillat al-manam,
qillat al-ikhtilati ma'al anam and so
overview on page 39 he says that spiritual
exercises, riyadah, and spiritual struggle, mujahadah interesting discussion,
I mean every riyadah must be a mujahadah
anyway but I think it's just strictly speaking
that separating it mujahadah he calls a spiritual
struggle, riyadah a spiritual exercise so I think
the whole thing is a struggle anyway have
two fundamental arkan there's a mujahadah ijmali or
mujahadah jismani so mujahadah ijmali, a general kind
of struggle or you can say a physical
body struggle and then you have a mujahadah
nafsali which is more of an internal opposing
the lower self or mujahadah tafsili which is
called mental opposition yeah not very intuitive translation
but let's see how they work physical struggle
has the four fundamentals stated above which is
less eating, less talking, less sleeping, and less
association with people a reduction of food, speech,
sleep, and association it is necessary in these
acts, it is necessary to adopt moderation in
accordance with the instructions of a qualified sheikh
there's a lot of people who want to
start applying, you know, reducing their food and
so on and they do it by themselves
and they really really make a big mess
of it that's why it says that any
of these things that you do any of
these things that you do, you need to
do them under the guidance of somebody especially
a qualified somebody otherwise you either do too
much or you do too little neither is
there to be excessive indulgence in these acts
because these acts are not intrinsically beneficial, right,
all the time because the result will be
indolence and negligence nor should there be excessive
reduction for the consequence will be a physical
weakness mental opposition is also divided into two
classes one is Akhlaq Hameeda beautiful and praiseworthy
character traits that we are trying to adopt
so this is what we're trying to inculcate
and imbibe within us and Akhlaq Razeela which
are considered the repulsive and blameworthy character traits
which we're trying to take out and eradicate
from ourselves so he's going to break all
of this up now and he's going to
discuss all of these in detail, right so
let's move on to exposition of the four
fundamentals of spiritual struggle which is essentially the
talking less and sleeping less and eating less
and so on so he starts with talking
less Allah Most High says that He utters
not a word but that a vigilant guardian
is at hand ما يلفظ من قول إلا
لديه رقيب عتيد that means trying to say
that everything we say is going to be
questioned about because it's been recorded forget our
phones recording everything that we say, type, listen
to there the new algorithms are essentially that
if you've had a discussion somebody by your
phone, through your phone then you will get
advertisements in accordance to your discussion on another
app so if that can track us so
closely and so deeply and so profoundly then
why not Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
fact I think this is just evidence to
show us that Allah has more than this
from before the messenger of Allah s.a
.w. said He who maintains silence has attained
salvation من صومة نجا the prophet Isa a
.s., son of Maryam said do not speak
in abundance other than with the remembrance of
Allah for your hearts will become hard verily
a hard heart is far from Allah but
you know not and do you not look
at the sins of people as if you
are the overseers meaning we keep looking at
what other people do wrong right we keep
looking at what other people do wrong as
though we are what do you call it
we keep looking at what other people do
wrong as though we're in charge of them
and we are supervising them and we are
responsible for them now of course there are
some people we are responsible for but not
everybody okay so here we go I hope
you can all see that now so he's
saying do not speak in abundance and then
he says and do not look at the
sins of other people as if you are
the overseers gaze at your sins as if
you are slaves so a slave has to
be very very careful that if I've done
something wrong then my master will really punish
me so people are of two kinds the
one who is involved in sin and the
one who is saved from sin have mercy
upon those involved in sin and praise Allah
Most High for protection meaning for any protection
received this is a hadith from Imam Malik's
Muwatta I think abundance of speech hardens the
heart eliminating thereby humility and reverent fear of
Allah this fact is established by experience because
when you talk too much you become emboldened
in your speech then you're willing to the
reason why somebody talks too much is because
they like attention they like to get things
off their chest they like to talk about
things and this is known about the tongue
that the more you let it loose the
more uncontrolled it is so then we end
up saying things that we regret we end
up revealing things that we should not we
end up insulting somebody we end up divulging
information and so on so generally it leads
to things like because we like speaking so
then we will just share things that we
shouldn't be sharing we share unverified information subhanallah
so because of the hardness of the heart
but one fails to realize this drift from
Allah most high we get so engaged in
it that it carries us the reality of
it will be discerned in the hereafter although
the effects of such distance from Allah are
detectable here as well due to lack of
concern one fails to realize this one should
not view the sins of others as if
one has been appointed over others on the
contrary one should be concerned with one's own
sins so that reparation can be offered and
rectification adopted some people are involved in sin
and others again have been protected from sin
one should have mercy upon those who have
become involved in sin and not despise or
criticize them admonish them with kindness and supplicate
on their behalf protection against sins is a
safeguard hence one should not be vain and
arrogant if one is saved from sin rather
one should consider such protection as a favor
from Allah and say Alhamdulillah Allah has extracted
me from this not to show others but
I should say that to myself a favor
to which one is not entitled and be
grateful about it okay further explanation man's conversation
apparently falls into three categories so let me
just mention a hadith before this because that
hadith is what really put what helped and
inshallah it helps to put the fear of
God in us the Prophet ﷺ said كل
كلام ابن آدم عليه لا له right إلا
ذكر الله وما واله أو عالم أو متعلم
so every كلام so this is mentioning a
قاعدة this is mentioning a you can say
a principle of life of in terms of
accountability the Prophet ﷺ is saying that every
single statement every single utterance كلام right every
single utterance of ابن آدم of a human
being is against him is a burden on
him not to his benefit that's the default
so everything we say including what I'm saying
right now is going to be counted against
me meaning it is something to be reckoned
for okay then what the Prophet ﷺ does
is makes few exceptions from there and says
except the following so it's not like you're
okay with all of your speech it's all
neutral and it's fine except the following which
is bad no you're all going to be
taken task for for everything that you say
except the following it's a really interesting psychological
way of saying that right like for example
the Prophet ﷺ said التجار يحشرون فجارا right
that the تجار are just by default going
to be considered فجار except the following ones
which is to warn us that it's very
easy to fall wrong and foul of this
so what are the exceptions in terms of
the utterance and speech except when it's done
for remembrance of Allah ذكر الله now that
could be either direct ذكر الله وما وعلاه
either it's a direct remembrance of Allah سبحانه
وتعالى or anything related to it so we
are mentioning a hadith or Qur'an or
something encouraging somebody or we are doing some
preaching or we are doing some نصيحة or
whatever related to the remembrance of Allah to
get people to remember Allah to get people
to stop forgetting Allah to get people to
stop being negligent of Allah for example so
all of that is included right as long
as there's no ulterior motive in doing that
أو عالم أو متعلم or a teacher who
has to speak for علم for تعليم أو
متعلم or for تعلم for studying so for
تعليم تعلم so that's allowed and again what's
the تعليم تعلم what's the purpose of it
will have to be looked at that's that
is what really put into perspective for me
that I'd rather be silent in some cases
than to say something it helped me it
helped me and I hope it continues to
help me that is very important right so
man's conversation apparently falls into three categories the
beneficial i.e. such speech that has some
worldly or religious benefits so it could be
worldly benefit you can speak for business for
example you can speak to promote your business
as long as it's not haram and a
lie I just get worried when a businessman
I mean when I mean a businessman like
in a market has to literally be doing
a dhikr of you know whatever they're selling
right or vegetables or some clever statement or
whatever you know whether that be one pound
fish or you know four super glues for
a pound or you know a pound of
a kilo of apples for this much or
whatever I mean I just feel like you
know why don't you find something else for
example once I remember we went in Jordan
to eat from one of these really one
of the good Kunafa places I think it's
called Habiba right and it's in a narrow
street and it's very very popular whole line
that stands outside you know waiting to buy
Kunafa and subhanallah there's a there's a Syrian
refugee woman with her one or two sons
who's who who is literally just selling cool
bottles of water she's got them in a
in this large kind of tub of ice
water or something she's got water in there
and she's saying I can't remember the exact
word she's saying but she's saying الماء لدينار
or لخمسة فلس or whatever صلي على النبي
صلي على النبي and literally she's saying صلي
على النبي after each one now imagine how
many people I mean when I heard that
I did اللهم صلي على سيدنا محمد right
we were standing in that line I could
hear her so after that I I tried
to buy some water from her and I
think the the amount of money I had
she was going to give two or three
for that so I tried to give her
one back as though I'm doing صدقة like
literally she refused she said no حرام so
these are very very kind of independent people
self sufficient people who want to earn and
she thought about this right there's somebody else
in Jerusalem I think he was giving out
coffee and just saying these are people who
are ماشاء الله موثق موثق they've just been
given توفيق to remember Allah themselves and to
use this as an excuse to remind others
for taking the name of Allah or to
send salutations on the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم just imagine their status in the hereafter
imagine what they're going to get what they're
going to get in the hereafter so that's
talk for religious benefit or for worldly benefit
negotiate something for worldly benefits negotiate a contract
all of that and that is beneficial obviously
because you need that to earn money in
this world and as long as it's within
you know reason and so on it's fine
then number two is the harmful i.e.
such speech that has some worldly or religious
harm so remember if it's worldly benefit it's
fine but if it's worldly harm or religious
harm you're insulting somebody you're
to anybody or yourself directly and neither is
there any benefit then what the hadith describes
this third category of speech as nonsensical or
useless I would probably say instead of nonsensical
I would say I mean it's nonsense in
the sense that it doesn't get you anywhere
but it's probably redundant and useless on closer
examination it will be realized that this third
class of speech belongs also actually to the
second category meaning the harmful one harmful talk
if subhanallah were uttered once during a time
squandered in useless talk then half the pan
on the scale of the deeds would be
fulfilled so you're it's opportunity cost that you're
having here right it's opportunity cost that had
you said something that's why make a habit
that you know when you're sitting with people
and sometimes you know you have to sit
with certain people some relatives or others or
you're just in a meeting and there's just
a time waste going on and you don't
have the ability to change the topic you
don't have the ability to stop people from
doing because sometimes it just happens right what
you do is you just get into this
habit of under your breath doing some tasbihat
and it's going to look I mean if
it's not clear haram or heba or whatever
but it's just a waste of time as
such and you can't walk away you have
to be there and wait for something anyway
then and you don't want to upset them
by seeming like you're some kind of Sufi
right what you do is you just do
what they call some other breathing zikr like
what they call pass and fast which is
like you you draw in Allah and then
when you go out when you draw out
you say who and you say this totally
silent nobody would be able to even tell
nobody can tell right so it doesn't mean
that you have to show people I mean
if you got a reason to show people
to deter them that's fine but otherwise just
that's why they say that the mu'min is
the one if they're jealous about ghafileen but
when jealous about ghafileen so if he's sitting
with people who do zikr then to avoid
becoming arrogant he's doing istighfar as well right
so the the mu'min is always ahead well
okay so he carries on he says if
some advantage advantageous or righteous act were done
during the time spent in future futile conversation
it would become an expiation for sin and
a medium of salvation in the hereafter if
not this then at least such time ideally
spent could be expended in some worldly benefits
i'm sure there must be some little business
transaction that you can think of or do
or produce or something in that time that
people waste if you don't want to do
religious investment the messenger of allah said a
sign of one's islam being healthy is one's
shunning of that which does not concern him
shunning futile acts and futile talks it is
mentioned that a reckoning will be made in
the hereafter of futile speech there is therefore
no certainty that one will be saved from
something that will be submitted to reckoning that's
the thing that which means that everything is
submitted to reckoning then it depends on how
allah feels with us on that day right
whether he's in a good mood with us
or a bad mood with us because of
something else we've done allah protects us there
is therefore no certainty that one will be
saved from something that will be submitted to
reckoning because then there's so much that could
be scrutinized the struggle to reduce conversation is
more difficult than a struggle to reduce food
and sleep because it's so it's actually easier
to eat less for a lot of people
than it is to actually reduce conversation unless
a person doesn't talk much anyway then for
them maybe food is more difficult but for
most people it's more difficult to reduce conversation
because it's so easy whereas food you have
to actually you know take into the mouth
and it has to be available and so
on right whereas when it comes to speech
it's free right it's this little that's what
imam ghazali says that is such a small
flesh of the body but it has
a
limit eating similarly there's a limit to sleeping
on the other hand conversation requires no effort
and no difficulty in keeping the tongue in
operation just keep wagging the tongue man resorts
to pleasure so as to experience delight and
joy conversation aside enjoyment for all other pleasures
diminish with increased indulgence you know you have
certain amount of cheesecake you know you're with
somebody that you you know romantically really want
to be and eventually you know you get
a bit tired excessive sleep too is not
enjoyable but the enjoyment derived from speaking is
limitless in fact pleasure increases the more one
speak especially as long as you've got a
as long as you've got a very captive
audience than even more all right in fact
pleasure increases the more one speaks hence reducing
conversation is the most difficult usually speaking for
some people it might be something else in
spite of this difficulty freedom in it i
.e. speech has not been granted because of
the evils involved in excessive speech one becomes
greatly involved in sin because of speaking much
reducing speech has therefore been stipulated as a
fundamental of social struggle reducing speech does not
mean reduction in such talk that is necessary
because then that means you're going to be
harming yourself it means shunning nonsensical or useless
conversation even if such talk happens to be
lawful if this habit is inculcated then abstention
from unlawful speech such as falsehood scandalizing slander
and so on will be automatic abstaining from
unlawful discussion comes within a scope of true
spiritual struggle struggle that is obligatory if one
becomes accustomed to refrain from idle talk although
it may be lawful which falls within a
scope of secondary struggle then to a far
greater degree will one practice true spiritual struggle
compulsory compulsory striving against unlawful talk it is
not permissible to shunt talk that is necessary
since this will result in problems or cause
inconvenience and difficulty to the audience like why
don't you speak when it's necessary to speak
and then he discusses which will do next
time is explanation of what is considered necessary
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 Dean 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 inshallah 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 leave you
know to listen to lectures but you need
to have this more sustained study as well
Jazakallah Khair Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh