Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Importance of Sincerity and the Dangers of Entertainment [Hikam 10 & 20]
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi wa salatu salam ala
Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi albaraka seldom at the
Sleeman Kathira on Eli Yomi. Dean Amma bad
Salako apne slough go, come Nazeri or Hakata Tsay. Now the culture
here, anybody who's following the path
of salute, then they should not look at
their predecessors,
the machinery of the past
with denigration,
which means that
it should have respect for them.
And
if you're reading something, and something seems to be below the
standard that you would think somebody should be at, then you
should not look at them with denigration.
What people will realize as they grow older, when you're younger,
especially if you're a person with high him, high aspiration high
standards, you hold everybody to that standard. And because you're
young, you can generally
keep up with that standard.
You can normally act up to that standard when you're younger. But
as you grow older, and you become a bit more complacent and
displaced, then and you become more mature and experience. You
have your own stumbles, then you start becoming a bit more Haleem
and Clement,
Allah subhanaw taala is
the most Clement
Allah subhanaw taala is the most Clement meaning he forbear so
much. There's a hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu. Somebody
says La Halima in LA Zoo authority. There is no Clement
person except the one who has had a stumble before. Because when you
had a stumble before, then you will understand that this is human
nature.
So then you will be more forgiving of others. Otherwise, you will
hold everybody up. This is a bigger challenge. For people who
have a high standard
who have a lot of self esteem, perfectionist, people who are very
laid back, they don't care about anything anyway, they don't they
don't care how the world is they they will just slip. So everybody
has their own, they've got a different challenge. This is
primarily I would say a challenge for people who hold things in high
aspiration, high standard. And then when they see something below
that standard, they get angry. They think why isn't if I'm able
to do it, why can't they do it?
But then, when you've had experiences of yourself and you've
become overwhelmed yourself sometimes, then you'll start
thinking well, that's the way the world is nobody's perfect.
Nobody's a Superman, Superman doesn't exist. The prophets were
Superman. Nothing beyond that. I mean, the prophets were Superman.
So always try to find an excuse for somebody especially if they
occur even.
Even Even though Tamia says that.
So he is no Tamia Rahim Allah, He is seen as being anti dissolve,
and he was definitely a bit more stricter on the social aspects and
many others. There's no doubt about that. But he understood the
concept of it. And same as his students I am who wrote my daddy
Josiah key and a number of other books as well. However, when it
comes to one of the I mean, if we say Who Who do you know, as one of
the biggest Sufis of the past, what name would come to your mind.
It generally be Abdul Qadir, jeelani, Raja Latina, he's a
humbly as well. So you've got to humbly scholars one on this side
of one scene to be to be on this side of the spectrum. And the
other one to be seen on the other side of the spectrum. And
the Allama, what they mentioned is that if you see an acronym,
and something strange is seen of an item, then we're supposed to
make excuses for them, because he's an animal at the end of the
day, he should know better. So if he's doing something like this,
unless there's a pattern,
and it's constantly happening, then of course, then you can see
that this might be the downfall of an item. But otherwise, if there's
just some one strange incident or something, which has a possibility
of being seen positively or negatively, then of course, that's
then you have to put it in the best of forms. You have to do that
for anybody really, you have to do that for anybody. There's been so
many times in the past when I have maybe judged somebody normal
person, whatever it may be, that they're doing this or they're
doing this and later it transpired that no, they had a absolutely
valid reason. Or that there was a mistake or something like that.
And then you know, we become really angry and we go in guns
blazing and so being judgmental is not a good idea. I mean, I'll tell
you that from experience, it's not a good idea. It's not a positive
thing, and it's not healthy.
Right number nine, he says Salic apne aapko musika or T TV will get
us
Chai, Chai or Quran Maji calidad. Pani, Camuto manera.
That's quite obvious that stay away from
artificial forms of entertainment as much as possible.
I've thought about this for a while, there's a hadith which
mentions that music creates hypocrisy in the holiday stories
wonder how that's the case? What can how does it create? How does
it create hypocrisy. Now, of course, we don't have labs and
scientist, unfortunately,
much of science takes place in the West, and some of our best
scientists from Egypt and Palestine, and Pakistan, and so
on. They're all sitting in, in America, in American universities
and labs and in British universities and labs, Dr. Khan,
and, you know, Dr. Sheikh, and so and so and they're doing all the
work here. So they don't really get to do the research that they
would like to do. Otherwise, this is the kind of research that we
shouldn't be doing. Right? So I thought about this for a long
time. And what I realized after doing a bit of study, and
experienced as well is that
once music becomes you become accustomed to music, it takes over
your hearts, you become more addicted to it. Some people cannot
work or even function or even walk. Without music. Some people
literally are doing sometimes intensive work that requires their
brain but they still need a background sound. And that's just
addiction. That is a problem. Why would you want a background sound?
We've got a background sound right now, which is bothersome. Right.
But you know, for the sake of the air, we need it. But why would you
need background sound when you're doing mentally intensive, taxing
work, it's understandable. If you're doing something mundane,
you're just like tying ropes together or something like that,
when you're weaving or something like that, which is like quite a
routine, you get into the routine and it becomes quite second
nature.
So what happens is that once the music captures your heart, you
become addicted to it, then nothing else really provides the
same kind of benefits.
And the reason it can't provide the same kind of benefits, the
Quran will not give you the same benefit as music because there's a
massive difference between the two pleasures, the Quran does provide
a benefit. But it's slow but enduring. It's slow, its punches
soft, its effect is slow, but it will remain for longer. Whereas
music, it gives you an instant high, it gives you a hit. But then
as soon as it's off, you're down again, and he doesn't stay. You
know, it just rings in your mind for a while it just rings in your
brain for a while it just beats you in the head for a while. But
what happens with Quran is that you won't effect you like that,
because our hearts aren't prepared for it. But its effect will stay
there. And then eventually as you build on it, then its effects will
stay longer and longer and longer. And it will benefit you and it
will illuminate your heart. So once a person becomes accustomed
to music, then hypocrisy is in the heart because then Allah won't
enter the heart for him. Allah won't do anything for him, meaning
he himself won't think that the Dhikr of Allah will do anything,
because they'll all be about music.
So and then this is about artificial entertainment is
essentially this is also about wasting time, a person should be
focused on doing something useful. It doesn't mean you have to do
worship all the time. But it means you have to do something useful
all the time, by which you're able to either do as they say, Esau
little esaral. Higher Elena says Imam Ghazali mentioned you should
read his bid AYATUL hedaya is beginning of guidance where he
speaks about how you spend the entire day. And he says that a
human you know in the day should either just be doing vicar of
Allah remembering Allah, or if he has to do something else, then it
should be esaral Higher, doing something of Social Welfare trying
to benefit somebody else. And number three, if you he
begrudgingly says if you have to earn a living, of course, he's
extreme in that regard. If you have to earn a living, then okay,
I'll let you go and do that for a while. But otherwise, you should
just be focused on this. That's very extreme.
The best job that you can have in this world.
If you ask Allah subhanaw taala is a job that's related to your deen.
I mean, what better job is there than an Imams job? Right, as I
know, you have to be Superman to be an Imam, because of the demands
that everybody has off you. But what better job is there than
that? Seriously, I feel really bad of letting it go but I just
couldn't do it anymore. But I did it for eight years in American you
know, six years in England, right? Because you get to do your salads.
And then you get paid for that though your intention is not the
pay if your intention is I'm only doing this amount for the pay,
then you're losing. But your your intention shouldn't be that why
should it be that your intention should be that man Allah has given
me a job that relates to my Deen.
Similarly, teaching,
producing Islamic
material, lots of things like that, that you could be doing. Of
course, everybody's not going to get a chance to do that. But
that's fine. Your intention could be that when I work, then I'm
going to use this expertise or the strength or the money that the
wealth from it to do something for my own upkeep of it in terms of
Islam or to help somebody else always have the many many good
intentions. Because at the end of the day, the intentions are from
us for Allah it's to accept we don't have the intentions and
what's Allah gonna accept from us? So have as many intentions as
possible when whatever you're doing as mundane as the job maybe
Sarika can Okay tidy can net or Nick NSA Marina who Belka who said
as my subject this is very important, this is very important.
A sonic a person who's on the path. If somebody praises him,
because they've seen sudden changes in you, you started
sending praying all the solids, or you pray all your novel prayers
now, or you started changing your appearance. You started doing
vicar more, you know, you started abstaining from haram things that
people that you used to do before, you know, etc, etc, people have
noticed the change in us and now they start praising you're
genuinely otherwise, sometimes people just make fun of you, you
know that sometimes they just, you know, they just want to make fun
of you. But otherwise, positively people want to praise you
mashallah, you're doing very well and so on. And yes, you're going
to feel this is another test. This is another test. So what you don't
do is don't give up what you're doing. Even if you have a bad
intention. Don't give it up. Because you have to learn good
intention. good intention doesn't come about like that. You can't go
into a gym and just start lifting heavy weights like that you have
to start off from small. So you we don't have the ability to do good
deeds and be sincere at the same time. But slowly, slowly, we have
to push sincerity into it 5% 10% 15% 20% Sometimes will be
fully 100% sincere, but then sometimes you may lose it for that
moment, maybe a vulnerable moment this is until we gain is the karma
until we gain is the karma the heart becomes more tranquil, you
know more it's more trauma in you know away from law from Amara, it
becomes more lawanna and then it becomes more automatic. And then
after that you'll be fine but it has to be learned and you will
build that up from 5% inshallah to 100%. Sincerity is difficult to
attain. It's very difficult to attain but it has to be learned
and he has to be practiced.
sinagoga aqui na shyster calm carb potato apne enough's Casa de
methylene, schemata, woebot, rochlin, OROSEI, Mujahidin, Masha
QCAT Medallia. If a person does do something that they're not
supposed to do, then you can penalize yourself. Be careful
about penalizing yourself, I ran into a case once
a poor sister who
she racked up basically compound interest, it was interest and
compound interest. And so what I mean is, she used to vow that I
will not do this thing again. And if I do then I have to pay 10
pounds. Right 10 pounds manageable.
Then it happened again. So she she wanted to be more strict with
herself. So she said 100 pounds.
And then she wanted to be even more strict with herself. So then
she said 1000 pounds, and then it just kept racking up.
Right? And it was then a spiral that was out of control. So
we have to find loopholes for them. Otherwise, how they how is
she going to pay 1000s of pounds because of her vow that she's
done? Right. So we had to find a find a loophole. The biggest
mistake that people make which is positive essentially, remember to
make a vow is not necessarily recommended in terms of being a
sunnah the Prophet sallallahu sallam said, the value is there
just to extract money from a buzzkill from a from a miser,
because a vowel is not going to change anything.
Another another is not going to change anything, specifically to
one another. Another is if this happens, then I'll do this.
This is the opposite, right? This is the opposite. But the main
thing is this is kind of a self imposing penalty that we're doing.
The main thing that you have to remember from a jurisprudence
perspective is that when you are doing
a vow, it has to be verbally stated using specific terms where
you are obligating yourself, so I put it upon myself, I obligate
myself, I consider it necessary on myself something to that effect,
that I will pay 10 pounds. If this happens again, if you just think
in your mind, that I'll pay 10 pounds if this happens again, or
if I do this crime again. If I do this penalty again, then you're
not obliged, though.
It's good to fulfill that because you have made a vow, you have made
an obligation, but it can't be taken to court.
For because you haven't verbally said anything. So we managed to
get out of out of that we told you to give some sadaqa at least. But
don't ever do that, especially if you notice you're going out of
control. The whole point of self imposing penalty is not to punish
yourself further. It's to deter if it's not acting as a deterrence
and why you're doing it.
Okay, this is a few aphorisms on sincerity, which are very
beautiful.
If not all Eskandari, he says atma Lu su arrancar. Emerton were Urwa
who
would you do several philosophy here.
Listen to this carefully. And Merleau saw Soran imagine what who
how would you do several philosophy her actions are
lifeless forms.
Actions are just
these practical demonstrations that you do what does it make it
when you make salats?
You could do that?
Automatically.
You could do that as in automatic pilots. So what is it that makes
it special? What Ottawa who? How would you separate a philosophy
her the presence of an inner reality of sincerity within them?
Is what endow them with a life giving spirit.
So if you don't have sincerity and an action, then it's just another
action. In fact, it becomes worse than another action. If you're
doing a budget without sincerity, it becomes worse than not doing it
sometimes. Because then if you're doing it to show somebody else,
Allah subhanaw taala will say that you've committed schicke, a form
of shirk. So with any action, the righteous deeds of the servant,
that are devoid of sincerity, are like the dead body without the
soul.
However, if actions are accompanied with sincerity the
body will have LIFE insincere actions are lifeless and will
bring no benefit in the hereafter.
The next one is a bit heavy, you'll have to pay special
attention to understand this one. It's really complicated. It's not
that complicated, but it's it's on another level. He says ma ra that
him Medusa licking and Ducky for in the cushy fella in the two
harati full hockey karate under the Tata logo. Amma MK wala double
Rajat the WHA he will mocha when it in that will help our Ico in
nano fitna to follow tech for
all right, hardly does the intention of the initiate the
initiatives, the one who has just started on the path? Hardly does
the intention of the Initiate one want to stop at what has been
revealed to him, then the voices of reality call out to Him that
which you are looking for is still ahead of you.
And hardly do the exterior aspects of created beings display their
charms, then the inner realities call out to Him. We're only a
trial. So disbelieve not
now who understood that.
What that means is
if you're going from here to
Birmingham, you've got on the highway. And suddenly, you see
our highways are pretty boring, right? The MRI is pretty boring,
you don't see anything, it just feels there's nothing there. In
America, the highways are much more interesting, because you
would be going through places and be lots of stuff you see, this is
probably Mozart hit Mozart. In England, it's better because you
don't get distracted. But you know, you've got these side shows
taking place, you got something here, you've got this nice rest
area, you've got these Vista points. So now your objective is
Birmingham. But what you do is every time you see something nice,
which come about on the way, you stop, and you look and you spend
time and and you're supposed to get there, the faster you get
there, the better because you'll start earning your benefits there.
But not benefits any you know, I mean, by benefits earning, you
know, rewards and so on. So but what you're doing is you're
wasting your time because all of these things are distracting you.
So what he's saying is that for the initial one, the one who
starts following this path now what's going to happen is, this is
very difficult for people to understand because we haven't
experienced it. It's mystical in the sense that when you haven't
been doing so much liquor anyway, our whole life has been like that.
So we've never experienced any kind of spiritual enlightenment.
Right? So anybody who's going to look at this, he's going to think,
what kind of bid are they talking about what kind of spiritual
openings and revelations are they speaking about? I've never felt
anything like that. I pray every day I pray five times a day.
But how connected is your heart to Allah? subhanaw taala? That's the
question. So what happens is when you start doing thicker and dirt
starts to wash away from our hearts, and the blackness starts
to disappear and we start becoming illumined certain
things open up for us. You don't start knowing what's going to
happen tomorrow. That's not what I mean. But there are certain things
that Allah subhanaw taala inspires you. You start suddenly feeling
better. You start feeling the sweetness of faith. There are
certain other unveilings that take that could take place. Now he's
talking obviously to, he's talking to the initiate, so that when you
do experience these things,
don't make them your objective.
They're not your objective. They just things on the path. They just
sideshows on the part, they just stir you along. That look, the
bigger thing is in front of you. Right? So that's what he's saying.
So look at let's read it again, hardly does the intention of the
Initiate one to stop at what has been revealed to him?
These revelations that are coming about Now I don't mean why he, but
just these revelations that are coming about, then the voices of
reality will call out to Him that which you are looking for is still
ahead of you.
It's still ahead of you.
And hardly do the exterior aspects of created beings display their
charms,
creative beings, all of these side things even though Allah subhanaw
taala might be giving you these spiritual
intuitions and unveilings. They're still creatures, they're still
created. It's not the creator that you've got yet. You have to get to
the Creator.
So hardly do the exterior aspects of created beings display their
charms than the inner reality is call out to Him, saying we are
only a trial. Don't disbelieve. For you this is disbelief. We're
not those that you have to believe in Allah is who you have to
believe in. So you only have to believe in Allah subhanaw taala.
The way he comments on this is this, he says a servant while
traversing the path and engaging in vicar, and reflection and
contemplation. See, when you start doing these things, then you will
experiences you might receive numerous kinds of mysteries and
realities in the heart. The spiritual ecstasy experienced as a
result can lead to one becoming engrossed in those states.
Subhanallah you know, when you do your thicker and you Morocco, and
you had a good day of quality maraca and you actually feel good
about it. It's the same thing. That's not what you're looking
for. It's beyond that, that helps, but that's not what you're looking
for. So if you don't feel pleasure, but you're doing maraca
properly, you're still getting to your objective.
It's a very subtle science. But we're so corrupt, we're so far
away from it that we have to be taught these things. Sahaba had
these things this is their experience all the time.
The spiritual ecstasy experience as a result can lead one to become
engrossed in these states. To the extent that one begins to think
that this is the goal, whereas it most certainly is not. Yet such an
afflicted person can rejoice in the hope of divine guidance, where
the accomplished sheiks shadow is over the seeker to inspire him on
towards the goal of divine pleasure. See, this is talking
about a very critical problem.
One of the sheiks calls this short circuiting, what that is, is that
if you're not see these other cards that have been prescribed,
aside from the first lesson of the Naqshbandi Way, the first lesson
of the machine, anybody can do that. But once you do, you go
beyond that, and even with the Chishti ways as well right in the
just the way they eventually give you the car like pass and fast and
the bus and fast is is beneficial for everybody. But then the La
Ilaha illa Allah and so on. I know a classmate of mine when I was
studying younger he decided to just go and do this La Ilaha illa
Allah Allah Illa Illa Allah, you know, for like an hour or
something in a in a classroom. It was dark. It was one of the you
know, when four o'clock is Maghrib. So he was doing it after
that or something in the classroom in darkroom. And he said he
started seeing stuff.
He goes, he just started seeing stuff, and he got really
frightened and everything. What happened, what's happening, there
is a short circuit, he wasn't permitted to do that. He was going
abundantly because the Sheikh will tell you, Okay, this is how much
you do. And then if you notice that there's strange things
happening or whatever, then you tell the Sheikh and then they will
adjust it for you.
Right then say, Don't do this or do that. It's just like medicine.
Sometimes it has a side effect or an overreaction, right. Of course,
there are certain things that will never give you an overreaction
like Salawat Albertosaurus them you can sit the whole day and do
them, they'll never be a problem. But there are certain things that
are very powerful. According some aroma La Ilaha illa Allah Subhana
Allah in new quantum in a volume in the Tao of universalism from
the Quran is very powerful. You can sit that and do that for you
know, a few 100 times that could prove very, too strong for you.
Right. So, of course anything mentioned the Quran and Sunnah of,
you know doing it this many times that will never
I have 100 times this trick for no problem 10,000 times it's no
problem. But La ilaha illa, ALLAH SubhanA, can you contribute
authority we took unicyclists from out of the whale
as powerful. So can you imagine doing it 10,000 times, it proves
hot, right. So that's why you need a shake when it comes to these
extra UScar.
That's why you need them for the, for the extra spark to regulate
them. So that's what he's saying here, that if you don't have the
shakes shadow over you, essentially his guidance he's
talking about, you know, shakes not gonna have a shadow over you
all the time. These are just metaphorical statements, right. So
to inspire a person towards the goal of divine pleasure, this can
happen with the inspiration of the heart. Sometimes, your self will
tell you,
your goal is ahead.
Don't hold here, advance
these conditions and states that you are experiencing our creations
like yourself, they are not the creator. So on the side, VISTA
points, will still say Birmingham 50 miles, but you just stopped
over, you want to stop and have a good time before you get to 50
miles even though the sign is telling you 50 Miles is your
destination.
You these conditions in states that you experienced are creations
like yourself. So these are all just creations like yourself, they
are not your Creator, your goal is the creator most high. Similarly,
the external beauty of worldly objects can be revealed to the
traveler through the course of his journey. And he can become
excessively attracted to them, if deviation has been decreed for
him, which can be in the form of becoming attached to an
accomplished guides.
If a person becomes attached to an accomplished guide, we didn't do
this one last week. Okay.
He becomes entrapped in these worldly objects. What happens is I
had a friend who wanted to get into the path of sulk. This was in
America. So he found this famous Sheikh in one of the cities there,
and he became attached to him and the Sheikh. He would sit there in
the gathering and talk about Ottoman history, and more about
Ottoman history and that kind of stuff, then any periodical, etc.
And then he would take everybody to work on his farm in upstate New
York. Right? And basically, there was no, it was all about hidden as
opposed to you could reach Allah like that, you know, but this
person then he ran a mile afterwards when you know, when he
found he found that this was problematic. The shake would sit
there and women would niqab on he would say you don't need to any
club. You know, what's this, this is all extreme. You know, it would
just be a mixed gathering and things like that. Eventually, he
got out of it. So if you get yourself, you know, people, they
want to look for something, sometimes people are in a
vulnerable situation. So they find somebody says, you know, he's a
great shaker, he'll help your dishes and shakes make big claims
as well. Right? Allah protects us from making claims. And so they'll
go in and
you know, subhanAllah, they're going to feel some benefit
initially, because they're going to start doing certain Mathcad, et
cetera. But eventually it's going to be devoid, may Allah protect us
from them.
If divine guidance comes to the person's aide, the reality of the
objects of the transitory world become manifest manifest to him,
and they call out to him loudly. We have been created by Allah Most
High as a trial for you. They're not going to call out but what it
means is that they will that's what their state will be saying
that we're not your objective. Do not be ungrateful to your Creator,
by engrossing yourself in US may Allah subhanho wa Taala give us
that insight, so that we are protected from focusing on things
that are not to our benefit. This is the biggest problem today that
man has is distraction, useless entertainment, this is why we're
engrossed in even those people who are trying to get close to Allah.
Even the knowledgeable people, this is what we are engrossed in.
This is our biggest fitna today is to do useless things. It's come
right to your phones. It's come right to your palms before you
have to go out to do useless things. The most useless thing you
could do sitting at home was just laze around go to sleep. But now
you're getting your bed and you can still do the wrong things and
this is the biggest distraction that we have today. Because haram
and fitna, we have today So may Allah subhanaw taala protect us