Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Imam Qurtubi’s The Secrets to Asceticism
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Bismillah your Walkman you're walking
around Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ALA. So you didn't know
Celine or he was happy or Baraka was seldom at the Sleeman Kathira
on Eli ami de la.
Let's start a start in the name of God all praises is to God, Lord of
the universe, and praise and blessings be upon Muhammad, the
final messenger and all the messages that God has sent since
Adam, peace be upon him to the final messenger.
Right, so we have the concept of Zuid. The word Zohar in Arabic is
simply to abstain from something to withhold yourself from
something and technically, it's come to be understood as meaning
abstinence from the world,
a way to not let the love of the world come or creep into our
hearts. And despite the fact that we're literally submerged in the
world, and we have to live in the world. In this regard, you've
actually got two various different opinions. One is the opinion that
if you
the world is
actually the two opinions that I'm speaking about. They come from
they're they're based on different durations. You have a narration
which says a dunya, MeLuna, Rama Luna to Murphy Ha, the dunya, the
world, this about that we're living in is a cursed and
everything in it is accursed.
So you've got that kind of an extreme depiction of this world
that it's all accursed, then you've got another side of it,
which says, for example, a dunya, Masato era, the dunya is the
plantation of the hereafter.
So we're kind of told that this is a place where you can do things
that will get you somewhere in the hereafter and without it, you're
really not going to get anywhere because this is the plantation you
you have to have a plantation, you have to have a place where you can
produce your crops to be able to reap the benefits of it. So from
that, and a number of other narrations, similar to that
prophetic traditions, you get an understanding that this world is
actually very important, and it isn't, that's why we're here.
It's also said that this world is your capital. It's your Rasul,
Mal, it's your capital. And to tell the truth, I mean, just
looking at it, practically and holistically, if you didn't have
this world, we couldn't get to Paradise.
From where we are right now, based on a religious understanding that
there is a paradise to go to. So really, this world, that's what
it's about. But then you have these other narrations which call
the world accursed. So I think the truth is actually in between the
two. And both of these things are mentioned in forms of
exaggeration, just so that people can be careful about what the
challenges of this world are. And I think the way some people have
explained it is that let the world come right to your heart, but
don't give it a place inside. It's almost like a ship that sails in
an ocean, you need the water for it to sail because the ship will
not sail on land. So you need to be in this vast ocean, you're
literally covered by it, and you could be submerged by it very
easily. So sail in the sail in this sea, but do not let it
overcome you and do not drown in it. So that's a great parable for
our, our, the Muslim understanding of the world and the human being
as such.
What's very interesting, though, is that over the centuries, the
scholars have had various different perspectives of how much
of this world should be adopted inculcated into oneself, how much
of it we should utilize and use, how much of it we should allow
ourselves to be freely indulgent in. And that's very interesting,
because it's kind of moved from the earlier generations to the
later generations, it's kind of moved in a very, you can say, a
very predictable path. Right, almost as if we're becoming more
engrossed in the world and
less abstinent from it. And to tell the truth, a lot of what I'm
going to say today, I have to say for myself, that it's going to be
a lot of theory. And the reason is that I'm if I don't say that I'm
going to sound like a hypocrite, because
when you speak about pure abstinence from the world, and
then you see some of the depictions of that and some of the
ways that was practiced, it's good
To blow our minds, you're going to think how can we ever do that? For
example, give me an example.
Some of the, one of the one of the early followers of the companions
of the Prophet Muhammad, so you think somebody that lived about
100 years 50 to 100 years after the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, he said to somebody, he said to somebody of
the next generation who hadn't seen the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Sallam who was a bit later than him, he said today,
this is kind of gross, but he said today, you people that flew to
North Fulton, which means essentially, what he said first is
that when we used to defecate, our defecation, our stool was like
goat droppings. I don't know if any of you have seen goat
droppings, right? in third world countries, they literally little
balls, dry balls, just like, you know, just right. And today, you
guys, you do it like I mean, another way of saying is you do it
like Hello.
Sorry, for those who don't understand Halloween.
Halloween is essentially
a nice gooey mess. Right?
I mean,
la Hola.
And essentially, it's based on the foods that you used to eat. It's
so amazing. The difference between there's another one? If not be
Leila was another great scholar within the first two centuries.
Do you know how many times he used to defecate in a month?
Once or twice?
We would consider that a problem you'd run to the hospital.
Right? If somebody didn't defecate, you're onto those. I'm
constipated. I need a laxative because I've got a lot of stuff in
there. I need to get it out. Right. It's unhealthy. But the
reason that was it wasn't a body problem. That was just how much
they ate of solid foods.
Right. Now, all of this will be put into perspective. I'm just
trying to give you an example of how they were abstinent from
everything. And you will learn that from the way the Prophet
Muhammad said a lot of some did as well. So
most of us have heard of Sufism, which goes on the various
different names the soul of Sufism, we speak about
purification of the heart, we speak about axon. These are
various different names that this idea, this practice, goes through.
Now, there's the degenerated forms and the exotic forms. And there's
also the authentic, reliable forms, right based, you know, at
some level, at all levels in the Islamic tradition of Quran and
soon and then there is also the there are also some degenerated
forms that have kind of gone way beyond and inculcated all sorts of
other practices. We're not here to talk about that. What we're here
to talk about is that generally,
if you study this idea, historically, you'll see that
initially, it all started off with Zuid Zuid, this concept of
abstinence, that's why the earlier books that we will relate to and
the earliest so called Sufis were the likes of Fidel of nor ELT were
the likes of another one was Abdullah Hindle Mobarak. He died
in around 181 After the Prophet Muhammad's migration, right. So,
these are some of the earliest within Ibrahim even though Adam
you're talking about Junaid Al Baghdadi right Shibley the all of
these people that the whole concept of Zod in fact even Sheikh
Abu later some Monday, his he is considered who died in 370 300.
That's fourth 10th 10th century Gregorian fourth century Islamic
Hijri calendar when he wrote his book and he was known as an
ascetic, not as a Sufi. So the early Sufism tended to be
asceticism, which just meant cutting yourself away from the
world and absolute focus on the hereafter using the world to the
minimum level. And then some took it to a great extreme like Buddha,
one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him
a Buddha or the Allah on his his legal
his legal perspective on this was that you could not keep anything
for tomorrow
you could not hold anything for tomorrow it would be wrong haram
against reliance on God for you to have food left for tomorrow so
there'd be no fridge or freezer right for that matter. That was
not the widely held opinion though the widely held opinion among the
Sahaba was that it's fine to and the rhythm I have discussed
because the Prophet Muhammad peace we are going to use to actually
give the the yearly rations to his wives. So for eyeshadow, the
Allahu anha, the wife for the others, he would give the yearly
ration of wheat or barley or whatever it was, the thing was
that they would spend it they would give it out. So although
they had the years storage, the Russians which and that was not
like a huge amount, it was very, very rationed for
whole year as well, they would give it out to others. So that was
the early period, it was all about asceticism, there was no such
thing about additional kind of Sufi practices first just based on
that, and of course, fulfilling the obligations of the religion of
prayer and, and so on and so forth. Now, the book that was
suggested that we go through, we're not going to go through the
whole book, but this is a book by Kotori Allama contributers. And
under Lucien scholar, a great great, great scholar wrote this
really
great commentary of the Quran called
it's common Quran, he was a fucking he was a jurist. So he's
done a he's he's produced a commentary of the Quran that is
primarily based on legal rulings, and so on. But he's a great
scholar. And this is another book this is part translation of
another book on him of his about Zod about a service called the
secrets of asceticism. And essentially in the here, the first
chapter he describes it explains what Zohar is all about.
Number two sovereignty over this world, the virtue of Zakat and its
fruits, number four states of those who practiced zakat in this
world. He has accounts in there. Then number five, and six is what
we're going to look at, because number five deals with the
Prophets zoo, sallallahu alayhi, Salam. And number six deals with
the zone of the companions and companions refers to those people
that will immediately with the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
sallam. Number seven is virtues of earning and spending wealth
property. So essentially, in that chapter, then, because he's in the
first five chapters, he's speaking about abstinence, abstinence,
someone might think that it's not permissible to have a saving, or
to have wealth. So then he describes the fact that the
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him also said that
the best, the best person is the one who has
who has the purest wealth. Because with wealth, you can do things.
Right. With wealth, you can do things and if you actually do a
survey of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad Musa and who are
supposed to be the best of the best according to Muslim
understanding, you'll see something very interesting.
Who's you heard of the US have a sofa? Right? Let's have a sofa
consider the poorest of the poor because these were students who
had no family in town. They used to literally live behind the
Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him on a raised
platform that had been made for them. They would literally survive
on handouts. At times, they were there were times when they didn't
have any food, like Abu Huraira. The famous companion was one of
them, or the Allah one, he sometimes would be would be found
lying down
on his side on his back, as though his insane because of extreme
hunger, sometimes, the people would invite them to eat but these
people were the poorest of the poor.
Then you so in terms of various hierarchies, within the
Companions, you have does have a suffer. Then you have the 10 that
were given glad tidings of paradise that I shot are more
Bashara. Right. So these are those who the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him. In On one occasion said Abu Bakr, Phil Jana Amara
villager, Northman Phil Jana, Ali, Phil Jana Abdurrahman, alpha Jana,
and he mentioned 10 companions that he's in general, he's in
paradise, he's in paradise, he's in paradise, right? So that's so
special. That's what's special about them that he kind of said,
in in that one sitting that they are all in paradise. Those are the
10. And what's most interesting thing about these 10 is that none
of them are that's how suffer,
you'd expect that sort of suffer in terms of poverty, because they
were the poorest of the poor, they'd have a garment. And when
they were buried, because one of them was martyred, you pull the
garment to cover the head, and the feet became exposed. You pull it
down, and the head became exposed. When they pray the garment was so
short, that the women who prayed behind were told not to look up.
Right, because they could even cover themselves with it. That's
how poor they were. But none of them were the 10 or were the
highest in the hierarchy. In fact, you know who you had in the
hierarchy. You had somebody like Uthman, or the Allah one you had
Abdurrahman mouth, you had disobeyed Him that hour and you
had told her ignore obey the law. And these forward millionaires or
billionaires these were they had some crazy riches. Because when
you and you'll see that from the Sahaba, when you're talking about
donating 300 horses, right? That means donating 300 Even Honda's
you know, forget Mercedes or BMW or whatever else you want to say.
But can any I mean, even third, I mean firstly Abdurrahman, but now
if I show the Allah Allah says about him that one day in Medina
we heard this big rumbling sound like some big force was coming in.
What happened? That's the caravan of Abdullah Mohammed is now coming
back from his business trip. That's how much sound it made.
Right? We're talking about you know, that they used to trade in
those days. I mean, like it's you can say today's like big Cardenas
because they trade it in
goats, sheep, camels and so on. Right and cameras are expensive.
So when you're talking about donating in the path of Allah 30,
and then 300 with all of its equipments, right you're you're
talking about fully kitted 30
Toyotas, or whatever you want to say even ladders, you know, I
mean, we don't do them anymore here anyway. Right? So it's just
30 cars. That's not something simple. I mean, donating one kind
of path of Allah is difficult for us. So you're talking about people
who had some great riches, but they were the top 10 Not because
they, they brought it through the they bought this position through
the riches. But that despite the rich, that richness that Allah had
given them that God had given them, their heart was not inclined
towards it, after 100 now says that
he was a man that could turn gold into does, he said, I can pick up
a rock, and I'll find gold underneath.
God had just given you know, there's certain people I'm sure
you know, as well, they're just very good at business. And others
people aren't, though they might be PhDs or whatever. But there's
just some people, they can throw the dice anyhow, and they get,
they get rich, not through gambling, and it's just an
expression, right? It's just an expression. So the man or the
Allahu anhu, the same thing. The way they worked was that, yes,
they had a good business, they had a business going, but the business
was not associated with their heart. It was just something they
did in the world. So that gives us an understanding. And this is what
many of our latest scholars have had to draw from. Because
nowadays, I mean, we can't survive on just daily rations. And like
tomorrow, we'll see. You know, tomorrow, we'll see we'll get some
money from somewhere. And you know, we'll work for it, and we'll
buy bread at the end of the day. That's what we'll eat. I mean,
SubhanAllah. Another thing is,
we'll read will read will read will the next chapter, the next
chapter and he deals with is the profit and loss statement on his
nation's test. So essentially, that is the one that discusses
those Hadith that tell us that look, wealth is there for you. But
it's a test for you.
It said about Sophia and authority who was a follower of the
companions. So third generation, well, kind of second generation,
you can say after the Sahaba he says that if I didn't have wealth,
I'd be in big trouble from these governors, these political
politicians, the governors, they are busted caliphate, right? That
used me because I won't have any money. I couldn't be independent.
But since I've got money, they can't say anything to me. So he's
saying that having wealth is a defense for him, right? So you've
got these various different you got these various different
perspectives towards towards wealth, right. But the main thing
in all of this is desert.
Right? Then he then he talks about explanation of this world and its
method metaphors, and that is dealing with all of those
narrations in which the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said
for example, the world is accursed. And another one he said,
If this world was worth even as much as the as much as the wings
of a fly, though, 32 We're in the law. Hey, Jenna, how about
auditing, Massa caca if you're on minha, shutter button Mima, and
that's another statement, the Prophet sallallahu sallam said
that if God had,
if God had the if God had value for this world, even as much as
the value of the wings of a fly or a mosquito, he would not give them
those who deny Him, those who don't believe in him, he would not
give them even water to drink, even a sip of water to drink. But
because this world isn't a big deal for him, it's just a place
for as a test for the people. That's why he feeds he's, he gives
everybody, right?
Obviously, I'm talking from a very Islamic perspective on these
things, right? Number 10, number 11. So in that number 10, he
actually describes these various metaphors of what they mean
because the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam use used a lot
of metaphor in cases to depict things. Number 11 Is the world as
a prison for the believer, because there's a very famous tradition,
which says that the world is a prison for the believer. And it's
a paradise for the non believer. And what does that mean? And
essentially, it's a relative statement. It's a, it's a reason
it's a prison for the believer is because you got no restrictions.
Can I go out and, you know, eat at McDonald's or, you know, whatever,
are they? No, you know, that's haram, you know, I can't eat that
burger there. You know, I have to go and find a halal place, which
means that, you know, somewhere it's lawful meet and so on. Can I
go to a disco? Can I go next door and have a good time there? You
know, you can hear it, right? No, I can't, right? So you got stuff
like that there's restrictions, whereas in paradise, there will be
no restrictions.
And then, essentially speaking about the non believer as one
without any restrictions in the world.
Right. So do what you want. So anybody who feels that they can do
what they want. They should be no restrictions, that the Hadith
seems to be speaking about them.
Right. So that's he explains that he is quite short chapters. This
whole book has a few appendix and so on. But I'm not here to speak
about the book in general, we're going to be covering two of the
chapters. So I want to speak about the Prophet
salallahu Alaihe Salam. But one thing before we start that
is that the Prophet Muhammad, Salah lorrison peaceville, when he
was
in terms of what he did,
a lot of and what he did, very little of, it's very interesting.
There's a great scholar who wrote a biography of
the Prophet Mohammed, a Sierra, called the EOD again, another
American scholar who is buried in Marrakech,
very interesting Sera, what he he discusses this concept that you
see that when it comes to food, and you'll see, when I read this
chapter, you'll understand what I'm speaking about. There was the
prophet so a lot of Psalm eight so less that you'd be wondering, how
did he survive on that, when we're speaking about no fire being no
guest of being on in the house for sometimes days on end,
surviving on literally water and dates. And you just wonder, right.
And there's a number of other things, number of other things.
However, when it comes to strength, as witnessed by many of
the companions there, for example, during the Battle of the Trench,
when they were digging the trench, there was this big boulder that
they came across, and nobody could they they all try, they will try
the big guys, they did, none of them could do anything. And then a
prophet Muhammad peace be on he took the axe, the pickaxe, and he
struck it three times, and it shattered. Right? He was not known
to be a big, muscular kind of individual. But yet he had that
strength, then we're talking about nine wives at once. Right, which
is very specific to him, no Muslim can do that anymore. Four is the
maximum for where it's permissible, right, according to
the Quran, but the Prophet Muhammad was allowed nine, nobody
in that time complained about it, because it was normal to do that.
So the enemies, they made a big deal out of everything else, but
they never made a big deal out of him marrying so many women,
because that was seen as a great thing at that time. So when it
came to things, you see a prophet that sent by God, they normally
made the best of the people in some sense. So you had Moses peace
be upon him similar kind of thing. Right, he lifted up that he had
gone to Meridian. And he saw that this troupe of men had come and
Fed had allowed the animals to drink the water from the well.
Then there are these two girls at the back who had brought their
animals. But these men, these men, selfishly put the cover back on
top of that watering pool, and didn't allow them to drink. And
this was not a cover that could be lifted by one or two people. You
know, he needed a party of men to do it. So he felt really bad for
them. He went and he just moved away
as a single man. So then he led he allowed them to let the animals
drink. And then they went away. And they were actually the
daughters of the Prophet Schreib.
Schreib in biblical terms is what was the biblical name for sure.
It's kind of very interesting. Jethro. There you go. Jethro.
Right.
So
when the daughters went back, they said, This is what happened. And
then they give us suggest him that I think you should hire him as a
servant as a helper, because he's strong. So that was one of the one
of the characteristics that he's strong, and he's very strong,
right? And number two, is, he's very trustworthy, because these
were two young girls. But when they he walked in front, what the
commentators say is that he walked in front, and they would tell him
where to go. So he didn't walk behind them. Right? He walked in
front of them, because that's considered modesty in Islam.
As well, right now, so prophets have a lot of power. When you're
talking about nine waves. That's not easy. Right? That's not easy.
Right?
And
so
there's that. But then in terms of food, in terms of
I guess we'll just we'll just read the chapter. I'm telling you most
of it. So let's just read the chapter. But what what were he was
trying to say is that you had this perfect balance that what people
would consider to be praiseworthy, he, there was a lot of it that he
that he could do, and those things I mean, it's not praiseworthy to
be gluttonous. You know, somebody who eats too much you kind of look
down upon them even though they might win a you know, five bottle
coke drinking competition, right or hamburgers as they do you know,
in New York, sometimes you
No, I can eat this many hamburgers and so on. I mean, all of that is
just a
friend of mine who went to study. Now the way they eat rice in Saudi
Arabia, and in a few other countries of the world, some of
you mean is that they, they eat it with their fists with the whole
palm. Right? Now, forget spoons, I mean, in, it's encouraged to eat
with your fingers, right. And the whole reason that it's sooner,
it's a prophetic tradition to eat with three fingers so that you
take smaller morsels. And the whole concept behind that is that
our eyes are normally greedier than our stomach. What that means
is that when you're really hungry sometimes, and or if you're on the
phone, you might eat end up eating more. Right, then if you took it
easy, you will end up eating because eventually you'll become
more satiated. And you'll think, you know, sometimes you're the two
dishes and you eat one you relax for a while the other dish coming
I can't eat yet. But you would definitely eat and if it was
always there if it was there from before. So a friend of mine, he's
a really big guy, right? He's a really big guys bigger than me.
You know, he's big. And
I study naamyaa They take their fist and they eat, they make balls
of the rice and they can eat it. I don't know, do any of you do that?
So
they saw him this big guy, and they're all small and thin. And
he's he's probably bigger than all of them. And he's eating with
three fingers. So you know what they said to him? And he's a
scholars that these are the scholars you're studying. And they
said to him, cool, clear regional heat like a man.
It was so wrong with you three fingers eat like a man. See is a
is a, you know, he's a very witty character. He just turned around
and he goes to them. And coloca after every job. I'm eating like
the most superior man. He's referring to the Prophet Muhammad
peace, because that's what he said, Eat with three fingers. They
just shut up.
Silent.
The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon you, he said. And as I sound
hypocritical, even talking about it, he said, it is enough for you
to take that much food, which keeps your back straight. That's
it. And then you know what he said? He said, If you really want
to eat a lot, then 1/3 of your stomach
1/3 for food 1/3 for water and 1/3 for the air.
Now, can we do that? Maybe some of the women can do that. But some of
the men I mean, we have a big shot. We have big trouble with
that. Right. It's It's normally an issue. We're not talking about
anorexia, that's a different issue. Right. But this is just
talking about just being careful. The Prophet Muhammad said one
thing, which is amazing, he said, the worst of the vessels that you
can fill up is your stomach.
Now that is, I mean Subhanallah, the worst of the vessels that you
can fill is your stomach. That is just so true. That is just so
true.
Now, now let's look at let's look at some of these chapters. These
chapters were talking about chapter five, which is about the
Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu. asceticism was a good
example to be the author says that in this chapter mentioned will be
made by way of a sample of some aspects of the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi salam in his livelihood, in his food, in his
attire, and in his transport. It's been quoted earlier that a woman
has Hadith in which he said, My Lord offered me the land of Makkah
in its golden silver equivalent, and I said, No, I don't want it.
That's referring to the fact that he was given a choice that if you
want riches, we can turn the mountains into gold for you.
Right? And the Prophet Muhammad said, No, Sal, Allahu Allah is and
he said, No. So what this establishes very clearly, right
and later on, physically, lots of wealth came in and he refused to
take it. Right. And that what that establishes for us is that this
was not an imposed poverty.
This asceticism was not something compelled, it was not something he
was forced to do, because he had nothing, you know, like, You got
nothing. Okay, fine. I'll take that room. You know, I'll take
that I'll take this whatever, no problem, you know, because you
can't do anything anyway. This was voluntary. And that's the
difference. Right? That's the difference.
In Muslim Sahai, which is a book of prophetic traditions, one finds
on the authority of a Buddha, or the Allah one. He is that Sahabi
who I said whether we had an opinion that you can't keep
anything, you should keep nothing for tomorrow.
I was walking earlier at night with the Prophet salallahu Alaihe
Salam in the section of Medina, which is paved with black stone.
We were looking at the mountain of orchard that's a famous mountain
there, were upon the messenger of allah sallallahu sallam said to
me, oh Buddha, I said at your command Messenger of Allah, He
said, What gladdens me is that this mountain of art be turned to
gold for me. And then
Three nights should pass. And out of it, they'll be left nothing
with me after the lapse of this period, except one coin that I
keep aside to pay ready to pay a debt. What delights me is, so
essentially he's saying that I wish all of this would be gold for
me. And I could spend it within three days, so that the only thing
I have left at the end of it is one coin. And then he said, I,
what delights me is to spend it all among the slaves of God of
Allah like this. And then he said,
so just to give it out.
That's reported by Buhari. There's another sahabi, who was very poor.
Some years later, when Omar or the alarm became the hot leaf, so he
sent him 1000 dinars that's 1000 gold pieces. And in today's
equivalent, that is, if 200 dinars today, today is worth about 3000.
It's about, let's just say 2000 by two to 3000 pounds, because gold
has gone up crazy in the last 10 years. If we say 200 dinars are
worth about 2000 2000 pounds. How many? How much would how many
pounds would would 10 with a with 1000 dinars be worth
that's five times as much. So we're talking about 10,000 pounds,
imagine somebody giving you 10,000 pounds. And that's the minimum,
it's probably more than that. You suddenly from nowhere, you're a
poor person, this man was a poor man. He gave him 10,000 Because he
got some huge amount of wealth had come in, he split it up among
everybody. Here, you got 10,000.
Now, the wife didn't know about this year.
When his wife came, she found him crying, as though as he'd never
seen him cry before, like a man crying, right? Like he'd never
seen. What's wrong? Have you found that there's been some major
attack on one of the boundaries of Islam somewhere? And it's just an
aggression? This is an honor. No, has the has the Khalifa of the
believers? Has he died? Has the Ameerul Momineen died? No, no,
that's not what it is. Why are you crying for them? Is that this is
what he said. He said, Omar wants to efface My name of the register
of the poor people.
He wants to take my name away from the record of the poor people. Now
that needs to be put in context. Essentially, we've got
the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam his dua was gather me among
the poor in the Hereafter. And you know what the benefit of that is?
If you've got not, if you don't have much, you've got not much,
you know, like you get a form to fill in something. But equal
those tax those tax plans, have you got a pension? Have you got?
Have you got stocks? Have you got shares? If you're, if you're poor
go where you're going to say not Na, na, na, na, right? If you do
have it, what are you going to have to you're gonna have to bring
your statement, so you're gonna have to write amounts, you can
have to do this, you're gonna have to do that similar kind of thing
in the hereafter. Right? It's a similar kind of thing in the
hereafter. If you don't have much you will sail through because you
got not much to answer. Did you pray your prayers? Yes, I did. Did
you have? What do you do with your money? I didn't have any money.
How does God feel? But when you got a huge amount of money, you've
got business interests, you got this is possibly you might have
cheated somebody you were taking somebody's money, you may have not
told the absolute truth in selling your product. Right? You may have
hidden some details. You know, there's lots of stuff that happens
in business, it's just an issue. It's just one of those things,
right? Did you really fulfill all of your employment hours? Right?
To to really justify your salary? Right? Or did you mess around for
five minutes? 10 minutes here and there. I mean, that's really owed
to, you know, did you use the company phone, whereas you're not
supposed to for personal business, or for personal reasons, things
like that. It's just a lot of questions that would come when
you're so conscious about these things. Right? So his wife, she's
so calm, she says, What's the problem?
Distributed? Give it away. So then he calmed down, like we're very
happy, you know? And he says, Okay, fine, you know, the old
dress of yours, bring it. So they made the little pieces from that.
They split up the money, made little bags and the next and he
was crying all night. Because he felt if I die, I've still got all
of this money.
It's just so strange. Next morning, he stands by the road
right? Early in the morning, everybody passing by here you go.
Here you go. Here you go. There lucky day today. Right. But that's
the way some of them, some of them dealt with it. Right. That's the
way they do and this was all from the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him.
Another one Imam told me the reports on the authority of Abu
mama, that he said not even a loaf of barley bread used to be left
over for storage or for future consumption in the household of
the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He will leave
anything for tomorrow.
Because he was like, no problem. We'll just the Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him used to come home in the
morning after fajr prayer after the morning dawn prayer, is there
any is there any food in the house? I shall be honest. There's
no there's nothing today. Okay, I'm fasting. as casual as that.
Imagine if a husband goes home today because there's no food man,
what's he gonna? He's gonna go crazy, right?
On another occasion, she said, one of the wives said the I've got
some vinegar. This is great. I like vinegar, no problem bread and
vinegar is some of the best pet condiment you can have. So I told
you know when I was when we were discussing this hadith I, I told
women I said, I want you to do that when did your husband's
when they come in, just give them vinegar, and let them get angry
and then show him the Hadith that man you need to act like the
Prophet Muhammad peace we have
another narration and this is not just like one person's one
person's observance. This is I mean, the first one this was from
a boo mama or the ALLAH and he says this. The next one is from
Abdullah Abdullah Abbas with the Allahu Anhu. He says the messenger
of allah sallallahu alayhi salam used to sleep for consecutive
nights hungry, his family unable to find something to give him for
supper. And that means they didn't have anything either. So it wasn't
like you know, some were having in some words, the bulk of the bread
he ate was made of barley because Barley was cheaper than wheat. So
you hardly got wheat bread was mostly barley bread that he got
another one from another companion saheliyon On Saturday, a Saturday.
He was asked, Did the Messenger of Allah ever use to eat bone marrow?
Right, which means one is you get a bit of meat, then when you get
when you get all the parts and you can take the marrow out and this
is supposed to be the legacy. He said that the messenger of allah
sallallahu lism never saw the bone marrow until he met Allah. He
could have the he refused to, I don't need it.
I don't need it.
You know, out of all of the presidents of the world today,
there's, it's very interesting in Uruguay, South America, the guy
who's leaving the country right now, he lives on a farm drives
this like 20 year old Volkswagen Beetle. And he lives on his wife's
farm. And he they do their own, you know, goats and sheep and
stuff like that. And he literally makes like 10,000 or something a
year. That's it, he donates 80% of his, his wealth to the poor.
It can be done. Right? It can be done.
It was in the BBC just two days ago. You can check it up.
Right then the messenger of allah sallallahu Allah, He says,
somebody was asking this companion sadness, sad, did you use to use
civs during the time of the messenger of allah sallallahu
sallam, and he said, We had no CIFS there was no sieves in
Madina, Munawwara. So he said, then well, how did you manage to
make use of your barley? Like, you know, you're you're like dragging
our agony barley that's not sieved where it's not all taken out. So
he answered, we used to just put it in something and say,
like, just blow on it, literally. That's what he said, we say off.
So we used to blow on it. And
he says, we used to puffing it the air with our own hands or mouth.
And then we used to, after grinding it, and whatever
evaporated, evaporated, meaning whatever flew away, flew away. And
whatever residue was left in the sieve, we would, we would moisten
it with water, and then we would need it and that's how we would
make our bread. And the scholars of Islam they say that the there's
their statement, they say that the first bidder,
right? The first innovation in Islam was the use of sibs.
And today, you have to pay extra to buy unsaved flour.
Right? If you even like to eat brown flour, wholemeal flour, and
the more that it's grainy, the more expensive it is. And the
bleached white stuff is the cheapest, right? That's a better.
Another bit is using spoons. Right? That's another bit. That's
another innovation, that they're not reprehensible innovations, but
their innovations in a sense that these were not practiced at that
time. And it was a later time. But that was a big deal is like how
did you guys do that?
And then
our Isha the wife of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam she
said from the time that he arrived in Medina to the day when he
passed away, the family of Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam never
ate a meal made of wheat to their fill for three nights in a row.
That's an absolute statement that for three nights consecutively,
they never got wheat every single day.
And another one
Imam Bukhari and Muslim they relate this one. They say that
when the messenger of allah sallallahu Alisson passed away
He,
actually the Allahu Anhu reports that when the prophets of Allah
and passed away, my shelf was empty of anything which a human
being could eat, say for half a half piece of barley in one shelf
of mine, that's all I had left. That's all the Prophet Muhammad
salah, some left for his wife, I ate some of it. And what she said
is that she used to take from this bag of barley, and she used to eat
it. And it seemed to go on forever. Right for a number of
days, she just kept eating from it, the bag was very small. So
from your prediction, you think it estimation it probably be lost in
three days, but it just carried on and on. So then she decided to
open it up and check what's inside, like, what's going on is
an endless bag or something. And as soon as she opened it up and
checked, then there was only that much left
in Islam because at the concept of baraka of blessing when God puts
blessing in something, it just goes further. But God always works
behind the veil. We say, it never works. Magic, oh here, it's gonna
Hey, presto, it's gonna be in front of you. It's always work
behind the veil. And this was this also happened abou railroader the
Allah one when he was given a bag of dates, a small bag of dates,
and he would keep it with him and he would just eat from it. And he
ate from it for days and days. And then eventually he started like,
what is what kind of bag is this? So he opened it up, and they were
maybe seven dates or whatever, and they were only seven dates. Right?
So essentially, if a miracle is happening for you just enjoy it
before you start looking for you know, like the goose that used to
lay one golden egg every day. That's obviously mythical but
and I just has in a shot of the Allahu anha Imam quote to be says,
Our Isha has informed you, my readers of what was the daily
livelihood of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, stemming
from his Zohar then this was it was a voluntary zone in this world
abstinence, despite the continuous succession of military conquests,
and the huge amounts of wealth and collected taxes and levies that
flowed to him. So he had access to it, but he refused.
Another one. Now look at this. In the Bukhari and Muslim which are
Hadith collections are collections of Hadith, we find again, that the
messenger sallallahu alayhi, salam, he, he bought food to be
paid on a later date from a Jew. So he needed food. So he bought
food from a Jew on
credit. And as security for that credit. Now listen to this very
interesting, a security front for that credit, he gave them his iron
coat of armor.
Right? This tells us a number of things, that it's permissible to
deal with Jews. Right? The problem we have today is a different
problem. It's a Zionist problem. It's a fundamentally it's a it's
an extremist problem. It's it's a terrorism problem, which is a
different story. But Muslims probably said a lot of them had
made dealings with Jews, because the Jews were in Madina Munawwara
and there was nothing wrong with that. Right? And this shows that
when the Prophet Allah son passed away, his coat of armor was by the
Jew, because he hadn't paid him back yet.
Right.
Exactly. Nyssa II which is another Hadith collection.
Right. The psyche, which is another Hadith collection, says
that
the messenger of allah sallallahu Sallam passed away while his armor
was poor pawn to a Jew in exchange for 30 double handed scoop of
barley that he had purchased for his family, and he was unable to
pay back so the army was still there.
Another one
is.
Ottawa Ignacio bave said my maternal aunt said to me which is
our Isha Aisha is his maternal lungs he said by Allah Mason, we
spent 14 nights and no fire no lamp was lit in the house of the
Messenger of Allah
right we just didn't have the oil to do it. And
he then asked them in such a case what did you used to live by what
did you used to eat? So, she said the two black things
what are those dates and water. Now what is not black, but in
Arabic you use these terms, what you call like you one term
dominates the other and you kind of do it because in Arabic you
have a singular jewel and then a plural whereas in English we just
have a singular and plural. So they say comma rain. Comma means
moon Shams means the sun but they say comma rain which means the sun
and the moon. So they they use these dual terms sometimes to mean
two things that are partners with each other and their dates and
water was stable. Right? So that's what we used to survive by now
when I was studying up in very at the seminary there. This hadith
when it whenever it would be related in Buhari to Muslim, the
sheikh would say okay, we're going to try this out. So
He would order order all of these dates and have them placed all
around the madrasa and say that there's going to be no food cooked
today I want you to survive on dates and water today. Now for us
it was very interesting because dates was a delicacy was something
that was a luxury you didn't get them in those days, you can get
many dates, this was about 1520 years ago. Nowadays, there's dates
everywhere, they're coming in from all over the, you know, from Saudi
Arabia to California, right. So, there used to be dates put all
over the place, and we'd have to survive on dates. It was quite
enjoy because you had lots of dates. But the shakey would be in
in the evening and feel sorry, makes you suffer. But this would
go on for days. Just dates and water. That's it. Anyway, that's,
that gives us an understanding. There's many other narrations, I
want to just look through some about the companions that they
continued this but then after that, it's no longer like that.
Right. Now, one thing to clarify, this is a safe course, but not
unnecessary costs. So for example, you had the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, he praised good food. He said, Oh, that's a really
good food. He liked the shoulder meat, right? He said, That's very
good. So whenever he got it, he would eat it. Right, he would
enjoy it as well. And he said, it's a very good food. And
likewise, with clothing, he would wear the most basic clothing. But
on one occasion, he did buy a really expensive garment. We don't
have any proof of him wearing it. But we do have a narration about
him buying one. And that's to prove to us that you can buy it if
you want to. So he was a prophet that said, Look, do not take it
into your heart, use it if you can abstain from it, you should
abstain from it. And that's why among the scholars of the later
time, you had different you have people doing different things. So
you had some scholars, they were just abstinent as well. They use
the most coarsest of clothing and the roughest of food, they would
eat on purpose. And yet there were others who when they would pass
you know that they pass by because the most expensive perfume would
be lingering. Right like Abu Hanifa Rahim Allah Imam Malik as
well. Somebody said to Imam Malik, after reading this hadith, why is
it that you wear all these good garments? He says we wear them and
we make Toba we repent trying to tell him look fine, you know, we
repent to Allah is you know, it's another perspective. Because at
the end of the day, a scholar needs to look like a scholar. And
wearing having good clothes, people will respect it and people
look at things like that with respect they look down upon other
things because most people don't get it. They think it's
despicable. Right? This guy can't do anything for himself. On the
other hand, Abu Hanifa Rahim Allah in His gathering one day there was
a man who had some really shabby looking clothing on so he made him
wait after everybody he said Can you wait behind everybody else
left and he was left behind? And he pulled out some money he said
look, go Asahara you know go go and get some get some stuff for
yourself you don't get buy some clothes for yourself that you know
make yourself decent. So you know the man he turns around and says
I've got money.
So then what's the problem then? Is and there's a hadith, right
we'd say is that in Allah you Hebrew and you're a thorough who
Attala near me here Allah, which means Allah likes to see the
effects of His bounties on his servants. So if Allah is giving
you money, use it. Unless you're giving it all away in charity,
Don't hoard it and not use it. Right? So as you can see, there
needs to be a balance between the it's completely fine to have the
nicest card, the latest phone and all that as long as your heart is
not in it.
Right as long as you're not obsessed by it, you know, I'm just
flashing my phone around my car on my handbag or on my dresser on or
whatever it is. That's the whole perspective of abstinence.
Right Imam called to be he says that in this present chapter we
will mention a concise specimen of some aspects of Ziad of the
companions. We start with Abu Bakr Siddiq, who is the first Hanif
one of the jurists examined Shibli by means of the following question
now Shibli was a later ascetic. So one person one jurist, he asked
Shibley about the rules of zakat, which means the arms that we give
the in charity, Muslims give 140 2.5% So he asked Shibley about
it, he said, How much is levied on one who possesses five camels. So
one who possesses five camels, they're supposed to give one goat
in charity for people who are farmers, who raise cattle and so
on. If you own five camels, your charity from that should be one
goat equivalent to a goat.
He asked Shibley that same question, what should you give?
What is the amount
Shibley said to him, what kind of response do you want according to
my perspective, and my point of view, my method or your method?
So the person got confused. He said, Why do you have a different
method than ours? Do you have a different school of thought? Do
you follow a different legal system than we do? So
he said yes. So he said, Okay, which one? I don't know about it.
Which one do you follow?
because this was before the, I mean, this was really early time.
So the month hands had not developed in the systems that we
had today. So he said,
well, in terms of your mouth hub, the tax on such a property would
be one sheep from the five for the five as for our madhhab, the whole
of such property should be given away.
So he said, Have you any mom you follow in that mother? meaning are
you is that your perspective? Is is like you have any mom, you have
a leader, the you know, the founder of a school that you
follow in that. So she said, Yeah, I do have a leader in that I have.
The imam of my mother is Abu Bakr Siddiq the Khalif since and you
know where he's taken that from when on one occasion they needed,
they needed supplies that they needed. They needed help. Abu Bakr
Siddiq are the Allahu Anhu. Well, Omar Rhodiola on came with half of
his wealth and he thought he'd done what more than anybody else
could do. Imagine splitting everything half half of your
family. The other half I'm going to take that means you know you're
one cupboard one this one that we have so many things that you we
probably can't even have split it. I mean, if he told to move out of
our houses, I mean, unless your students I guess it's all right.
Right. But if we're it, he said half and he thought he'd done the
best that day and when he got there, suddenly a whole bucket of
Siddiqa. The alarm comes in he says what have you he was asked
what have you bought? I bought everything. What have you left for
your family? I've left Allah and His Messenger there.
Right. Now, the Prophet Muhammad is interesting here very
interesting is a very important point. The Prophet Muhammad said
Allah Islam, he accepted that from Abu Bakr
right, he accepted that he didn't say no, no, no, take it away. He
accepted it. On another occasion, another Sahabi came he says, Look,
I'm about to die, right? I feel I'm going to die soon. I want to
donate all of my wealth, all of my wealth in the path of Allah and
the Prophet also said no.
And he said, No, I really want to he says okay, he says, Can I do
half then he says no, not half. Finally, he allowed him to give
1/3
Why there does he not allow him to give even a half? Here he accepts
full and half from Omar. Because he knows these people he knows
they can handle it. Right. He knows the reliance of Abu Bakr
Siddiq are the alone is so up there, that he doesn't matter. He
they will not complain, they will not become dejected and depressed
and their family can deal with it as well because they were all made
like that. But not this other Sahabi maybe and that's why it's
Oh, it was to set a precedence as well. The only one that can be
given like that.
numerable hottub are the Allah one.
He used to eat the roughest of food, and were the causes of
clothing. And he was the Amira minion, he literally ruled all the
way into Persia and into the Levant into Syria and other areas.
Anyway, huge amounts of wealth that were coming along. On one
occasion, a group of people, a group of Sahaba, would just come
back from one of those expeditions, they are in the
booty, they'd found all of this really refined white cloth from
Persia. So they put it on to show Omar when they came back to Madina
Munawwara that, look at this great cloth. They came and they made
salam to him, they greeted him, and he turned his face away. So
they became really dejected. We've just come back from so far. And
our leader is turning his face. Oh, and they just couldn't find an
explanation. They found his son in the masjid in the mosque, Abdullah
Ahmad. And they said to him, this is what happened. What do you
think it is? He looked at me, he said is your clothing. You've been
affected. And he doesn't like that. You'd gone there for a
purpose. You've been affected. He doesn't like that. So he said, we
quickly ran home, we changed our garments to the normal ones we
wore, we used to wear we went back to him. And this time, he stood up
with a biggest smile on his face. And he shook everyone's hands
individually. And he he he hugged every one of us individually.
Totally different. Right. Then, we gave him some of the sweets, we
had brought some special sweet dish. He tasted a bit of it. He
said, This is too good. I come he said go and go and give it out to
the children of those who have been killed in the path of Allah.
Right gonna give it to them. But I can't take this. Then as he was
leaving some of the Sahaba they and these companions, they said,
Look, we need to do something about this. We've got delegations
coming day in and day out Trump far and wide. He's got 12 patches
on his garment. He literally had a garment with 12 patches on
conspicuously, and his food is cause he needs to at least dress
up for that. Because then it will it will have this sense of on the
people, you know, he looked like he looked the part, right? And the
food and others can enjoy that as one of those people don't want to
eat. said well, who's gonna go and tell him? Right? So then they
said, you know, there's only two people that could tell him. One is
his daughter Hafsa or the Allahu Allah. And the other is Ali for
the Allah one, the one who later became the fourth Hadith. They're
the only ones who are brave enough to go and speak to him like that.
So they went to early Rodial
One day said, Look, this is what our story is. Would you do that?
He says, No, I can't do it. So this one, I can't even do this.
When to have sir? No. Then he then they said, Well, who's going to do
he says Your best bet is go to our Isha and Hafsa. They were wives of
Rasulullah sallallahu sallam, he's got a lot of respect for them
because they own Muhammad, meaning their Mothers of the Believers. So
they are technically his mother, spiritually speaking from an
Islamic perspective. And so they went to Asia and Hafsa Radi Allahu
Anhu said, Look, this is our plan. You you understand the logic
behind it, you understand the reasoning, can you go and speak
to? So have sort of the alarm? She said, Look, I don't mind coming
along, but I guarantee it's not going to work. Right? I show them
instead, I'll go, come on, let's go. She was very bold on them.
Right.
So they went, they took permission, can we come in and so
on? And she said, he said, Yeah, come in, you know, of course, you
can come in. And he, you know, he wanted the way they were sitting
and everything, he really made them feel comfortable, no matter
what meaning you know, like, or Mother of the Believers, whatever
you to say. They said, You know, this is what the Sahaba been
thinking that you know, you were all these garments like this 12
patches on there, your food is so close, you know if you had this if
we could have a good meal prepared for your official dining so that
people can eat with you as well. And when you when you present
yourself people it will strike or in these delegations that come?
You know, it's just normal way of saying for that reason.
And you know what he said?
He started crying,
crying. Bukan. shadiness says he started crying so profusely.
And then he turned around to them. And he started asking, he said,
Oh, Ayesha, do you ever remember a time when, for 30 days you had
consecutively for three days consecutively? That the prophets
of Allah some had a meal, proper meal for three days? She said, No.
And he asked him questions like he knew about all of this, he was the
same one who if you remember that there's that there's an incident
when the Prophet sallallahu sallam was a bit unhappy with his wives,
and he went away for 30 days, he went into this loft, right.
And I'm one of the I went to visit him there. And he saw that he was
just lying on straw, and it affected his body. And he said,
these cars rose and the seas, you know that they've got all these
riches and look at you and we're supposed to be and he started
crying. This is the same man who today is acting in the same way.
Right? And he started crying and he started asking Then he said to
have suddenly Allah Hana, do you remember that you told me that the
prophets Allah Allah, so we used to have this really basic mat that
was filled with deep leaves that he used to sleep on, which was
very rough, and you certainly have an imprint in his body. And one
day, you decided that you would double it up so that he could it
could be a bit more comfortable. And when he woke up that day, he
missed his Tahajjud prayer, you woke up for Fudger. And he said,
What have you done? Right? Do you remember? And she said, Yes.
And then he said, and he explained, he was a very OCD
character is a very principled man. He said, Look, if I do what I
do, then I've got an example in the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
Sallam who did exactly that. And he went to Allah and my other
predecessor, Abu Bakr Siddiq, or the Allah, He did exactly that.
And he also went to Allah. And if I do this, you have no complaints
because I'm doing exactly what my predecessors did. And they just
went out and they don't Sahaba there's no chance. Now listen to
what he said. He says that I kind of have no case says I once heard
Omar say, I'm because they still want there was somebody sitting
with him, and he was eating, and he said to the other person, come
and join in. This is an icon of your food. I've got all this nice
food, you know, I'm gonna go home and eat I've got better food
there. So you know what Amara the alarm said to him. He says, By
Allah, I am not ignorant of how to dress a Camel's Hump. That's
probably a great delicate delicate dish right? of grilled meat of
Cinnabon, and of solar solar. But I have chosen to spare my
pleasures for the hereafter.
In describing a Catterick category of people, Allah subhanaw taala
said, You dissipated the good things you had in your worldly
life and enjoyed yourself in it. So now we give you less now, had
you made sacrifice in the world you get more in the hereafter
because there is a real abode. Now the word or Silla means
broiled meat. It has been so named because it is warm by exposing it
to the heat of the fine by burning it there in as far as sinner they
are spicy condiments made of mustard seeds and raisins, and
Salah it signifies the variation of long thin bread. And
this is all this other food that he's speaking about. And
essentially, he's saying I know about all of these delicate foods
so he's like, you know, you're coming off with all of these these
famous names of of proper chef cooked foods, right and saying I
know all of that stuff, but I don't want it right.
Then he said, a half a half ignore us mentioned the following. He
says I used to have lunch with the Almighty Allah on partaking of
bread oil and vinegar or bread, milk and meat.
cut into strips and dried.
The least common item of this food though, was fresh meat off, it was
fresh meat on we used to say do not sift out the flour, for the
whole of it is nutritional food. I mean, he was a dietitian in New
Orleans talking about
I think that's, that's enough to get a depiction of what these
people were like. And essentially, that's what Zuid is about. And as
I said, I sound absolutely like a hypocrite talking about this
because I can't do this. Right? I can't do this. That's why the
scholars of the later times even the Sufi scholars, the latest
times, the whole focus now has become that, yes, you use these
things, but do not let them get to your heart. And the meaning of
that is if you don't if you can't get like if I've got a, you know,
HD desire phone, for example, and the latest, you know, Samsung s3
is out. I really feel like getting one. But this thing is working.
Right? That's my little Zune, but it wasn't what I paid about.
Probably about 300 pounds for it at one time. That's not so good.
But the reason I did it was because I needed it for my emails
and so on. So yes, if you do need a nice car, because it's reliable,
go and get one. But don't do it to make don't do it because of your
love of it. Love of the world. Do you understand, like crazy Apple
followers? Right? Whose God has died? So you stand outside a shop
for so many days and nights, just so that you can get the first one.
So you can have bragging rights? What is that?
It's quite crazy, isn't it? And we're going into an extreme level.
It's literally like a religion, right? obsession with these things
in like a religion. Now. It's strong. I mean, can you see
anybody waiting for three days to go and pray his Juma
prayer, or, you know, for that reason, but you can wait for a
whole night
to buy the next, you know, you've got the eight, the four and now
you want the five. And you know, I used to make a lot of money for
somebody.
I don't want to bash up I mean, they do good products. There's no
doubt about it. Right? But it's obsession, if you're getting it
just because it's good. Alhamdulillah. But if you're
getting it because bragging rights and because dunya Love, Love Love,
that's the problem.
May Allah give us some of these, at least so that whatever we have,
because there's a permissibility in using whatever you have, but
it's about not making that your ambition and your goal and not
feeling bad about it if you don't have it. Right, and thanking Allah
subhanaw taala for giving it to us when he does give it to us. It's
really that's what it comes down to. If you have any questions.
Good, good point. That's a good point. Question is that's a that's
a I guess, a very multifaceted question because it requires a
number of areas to deal with.
Abdullah Sheikh Abdullah Al Haddad, one of the great scholars
of Yemen, he said something very interesting. He said that this
world,
if there was no love for this world, the world would not
progress. Because if you didn't care about the world, you wouldn't
be worried about even, you wouldn't be worried about
inventing something, you wouldn't be worried about manufacturing
something so you could you could sell it and make some money,
everybody would just be focused on God. So clearly what has happened,
what's happening in the world is definitely an aspect of
advancement. And there's a lot of interest in the world. And there
are people who have the interest and love for the world. And they
do that. However, having said that, because that's the backdrop
from which we're coming. If none of these generations were there,
and if this practice of the prophets of Allah, Islam wasn't
there, then we'd be carried away in this. But because as a Muslim,
as a believer in God, this life is not the the main life the main
life is the life of the hereafter. So it's about saying, Well, this
is what you're going to be dealing with. And this is will be your
experience, but we want you to focus on this, so that you're not
consumed by this and you lose out in the hereafter. So now, in
essentially, in other words, if your whole focus is the hereafter,
you will do enough of the in this world to get by. And clearly if
more people felt that way they'd be they'd be less advancements in
what we call advancements, there'd be more advancement to God and
spirituality, but they'd be less materialistic advancement. Now, is
materialist advancement, so important in comparison to
spiritual advancement? It is for people who are only concerned
about this world. Absolutely. It's the most important thing that
things are, what are you talking about? Right? But when you're when
you're a man of the Hereafter, when you're a person of the
Hereafter, we're in an era here Haiwan is Allah says, which means
the the hereafter is the real life, the more we strengthen our
belief in the hereafter. That's how we, that's how much detached
we can become of this world. Now we're talking on very individual
level of people who believe in that, but clearly on a macro level
They will be No, there won't be much advancement if everybody
started focusing on the hereafter.
But then we but then the issue is, that's healthy people. That's not
how people are. Right? So it's kind of an issue where God knows
that this was going to happen. So
so so he's mentioned all of these things. So those who are concerned
about the hereafter will try to abstain.
Right there to answer your question
right now, to
go in the past and to
say that again.
See, when you say follow up 30 day talking about Sufi tricks, right?
The thing about that is that you, you'd be very, it'd be very
difficult for us to find a Sufi trick that that could, right.
Exercise, this kind of zone we're speaking about, most of the topics
will, will do focus on zoom in the sense that remain within this
world, but keep your focus on and there's some tricks which are
known for wearing good clothing, because they think that that is an
important aspect of human dignity. And, you know, to show you select
the next one, these, they're known to make sure they got a turban,
they've got a staff, they look the part, right. There's other tricks
we don't know who we're not to involve. There's there's other
tricks to have a lot of Gemma like that. But what the scholars of
Sufism have also said is that if we try to make people do this kind
of effort and exercise, nobody would remained give you an
example. Just about 100 years, less than 167 years ago, there's a
principal of a major religious institution, he goes to a Sufi
Sheikh to go in
for purification, but he says, I want you to help me out because I
feel that I've got a lot of inner issues, right, a lot of
blameworthy inner characteristics. So I want you to help me out. He
said, Okay, fine. What I want you to do, and this was in a, he's
from, like a big town. And he's gone to this little village where
you've got all of these farmers who are coming in with dirty
clothing, and you know, like soiled clothing, and everything,
all sweaty and so on. He says, when people come for prayer, I
want you to straighten their shoes. Because then they'll just
kind of throw them and come in, I want you to straighten them. So
this great shape. He says, The first day I started straightening
the nicer ones, I couldn't bear to touch the really, right. So after
about a day or two, the sheikh had gone to meet, he said, you know,
he came in, he saw that and he said, From tomorrow, I want you to
do those ones. And he said, then I started doing that. And that's
when I realized that all the arrogance and conceit and pride in
my heart disappeared. Right? But who's willing to do that today?
You know, there would be there would be people but generally, a
lot of Sufi tricks don't use this kind of practical zone. Some
people do. They'll say, you know, you have to make sure you dressed
in this particular way. But there's very few of that.
Because people are especially in the West, it's just so difficult.
Yeah, maybe if you know the country, it might be possible. But
here you can't but have you know, you need a credit card, you need a
car, you need an Oyster card, you need this, you need that you need
a phone. I know it'd be very difficult, but I'm sure there are
people who do it better. No, I mean, as I said, I'm
I'm not I'm the least of these other heads, you know, so I can't
really help in that regard. May Allah subhanaw taala give us some
zone. But yes.
Yes.
I was wondering, isn't it all about finding an equilibrium? At
the end of the day, the middle way? Surely being hungry is just
as bad as the? Absolutely. Absolutely. I can understand why
they were trying to do that
wouldn't
be
a way for us to live our lives.
That's exactly why right in the beginning, I said there's two
extremes to this and the way is in between, because there's even a
another famous Hadith which says curdle fuckery, hakuna COFRA which
means
it is very possible, or it's very likely that
extreme poverty could actually lead to infidelity lead to
unbelief, disbelief, because the person can't handle it. But what
we're speaking about people who could handle it, that was the
depiction but that was a really extreme depiction. The whole idea
of this is that if you've got a piece of paper that needs to be
straight, and you suddenly find out you're supposed to hand it in,
but then he's bent suddenly, you know, the way you'll straighten
this out is not just by going like that, because it's always going to
keep this way. You bend it the other way. So then it becomes
straight. And that's the whole idea here is that we're talking
constantly about the sort of these people so that although we're
never going to probably reach that level, we get to the equilibrium,
but these people they could handle and that's why they did
that because they did it forever. I mean, like that person who
started crying when Omar ready Alon Radi Allahu Anhu sent him
1000 dinars, he should have felt very happy. But no, he wanted. It
was sad. It was voluntary, who was chosen and they could deal with
it?
No, you didn't like that? Yeah. But he preferred to live his life
that way. He could have gone out and made money if he wanted. But
he, he looked at those Hadith who had said, I want to, I want to be
among the poor people in the Hereafter. And he decided to do
that. And he could handle it. The main thing is, you can handle it
by choice,
because then you had, for example, another very great Sufi, Oza head,
he was the ruler, he gave up all of his riches and the rest of his
life, he remained like that. It was choice. That's why it was
early on that will say that if you're poor already. Right, then
that is not good. Because you're forced into that that's not Zod is
volunteering.
Right?
Yes, I was.
Wondering if there's any distinction between different
sorts of concern for the world? So this world like, you know, mobile
phones or whatever.
But then what's, what?
Positioning is right, for example, on slumped the world like concern,
right? Or
very, very poor people.
It gets to a world people. Absolutely. But it has, it seems
to be very different and motivated for something right?
Yeah, or, for example, supplying water fresh water to place. And
that's absolutely fine. Right? That is recommended, because we've
got the concept of charity that you need to give charity. And
there's just such a huge amount of emphasis behind spending in the
past and gotten the whole point of rich people spending is to spend
on the poor. Then, for example, we have
I mean, if you look at the history of the Muslims in Spain, for
example, creating aqueducts, and all of that, it's greatly
encouraged to bring essentials, not luxuries, but essentials,
that's definitely recommended. That is definitely recommended.
And it's about giving for others and not using it for yourself.
That's it's like a selfless act. So Omar, the Alon is sending 1000
dinars to the other person, but he's not retaining it for himself.
In fact, he told his son that he had stipends for lots of different
companions, but for his son, he gave him very little. And he said,
I don't want it to be seen as a self fish act that I'm giving you
as well. So it's about sacrifice for yourself, but giving to
others. Yeah.
I think I think we have to understand it's not about hunger.
Sorry, it's not about hunger. It's about not loving the world, and
wanting to do with the least. So I'll give you what I guess the
example is, Abu Bakr, Siddiq radioman was thirsty, somebody
brought in water. Now, in those days, what they used to do like we
do today is instead of Sometimes you ask for water, they bring you
Coke, right? They bring you something else, because they think
water is kind of primitive. So let's bring him something else.
Some they brought him a drink, that was sweetened with honey or
something else, he drank a bit of it and he started crying.
Why are you crying for he said, I feel I'm getting receiving the
bounties of my hereafter in this world. And I'll be deprived of
them in the hereafter. The whole focus was so much on the hereafter
that literally were just carrying themselves in this world doing
what they had to do in this world, not indulging. So the whole
purpose of this hunger, whatever is, is no indulgence, not hunger
for itself. But to tell the truth, eating less has great health
benefits. Right? That's a whole different story that has great
health benefits, that what the province of Assam said, the worst
vessel you can fill is your stomach, I believe we really you
can tell any dietitian or any person that's trying to deal with
obesity problems, and they'll they'll probably give you a hug,
because that's just such a beautiful statement.
I wish I could do that. All right.
Okay, just take a look at it. Yes.
So you were saying just now about
that. If you take your bounties in this life, that then you don't get
it in the hereafter. But if God is the most generous, and you get
that much less, that's what he said that if the more sacrifice
you do in this world, then that is going to be magnified in the
hereafter. It's not like okay, we've allotted this much to you
that you've taken in this world, okay, you're gonna get that much
less. Nobody knows the real number. But the main thing is that
we're told that if your focus is the hereafter and you're doing
everything for you hereafter and you're not going to involve
yourself with the world too much here, you will get more there. So
it's not that okay, if I've taken everything this world I mean,
otherwise we'd all be losers in the hereafter.
To because we're really, really enjoying ourselves the way we live
anyway. Right? It's not a straightforward equation like
that. But the whole purpose is that if I show less indulgence in
the world, I'm showing greater
focus on the hereafter. So it's about that sacrifice. Really.
Okay, just take a look here for listening. I mean Allah subhanaw
taala give us all at some level definitely more than an allow us
to not raise not
have obesity related problems. May Allah subhanaw taala keep us
strong, strong and healthy. May Allah subhanaw taala give us the
tool feet to see things in the correct way and to practice it and
stay away from trials and tribulations.