Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Meditation is Just a Voyage through Creation [Hikam 260 & 261]
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AI: Transcript ©
So there's Ramadan is a very good time for this I forgot this month
because Ramadan is terminally destabilized Leslie you're feeling
that hunger you're feeling helpless you're feeling vulnerable
is the time to think about this and to channeling in the right way
last session we can we will give the Imam Gonzales and then the
second part of it I did in another Masjid it's online now. There's
one thing he says that I used to feel guilty you know, when you
feel hungry, thirsty and weak in your fast you feel kind of
miserable. So before I used to feel like why do I feel like this
should feel energetic, just like normal and do everything.
Right, you know what I'm saying? You feel a bit vulnerable, you
feel a bit helpless, right? He says that's a good feeling.
Because that should make you think Allah wants to create that in you
so that you get a bit destabilized so that you can reorient and think
of it because when you're in a confident state, you don't think
we just carry on. But when we're in that kind of helpless state, we
try to do things so
that's why I've started enjoying the state now and not feeling as
miserable as I used to. But why am I feeling like this? Because you
know, you don't all feel the same to you or is it just me?
So, Allah Tala make it easy.
Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu
salam ala so you didn't Marcelino either early or Safi edge marine
and bird call Allahu Taala Isla
affiliated balloon Quran.
So doc Allahu La vie.
Today we're going to look at to aphorisms, we're on page 133,
which is the new chapter on chapter eight on meditation.
It's a bit deep, but inshallah it should be comprehensible and will
give us Inshallah, something to do. Very interesting to aphorisms.
This is number 260. He says, if no other Illa Rahim Allah Allah bless
him, he says elphic el fichero to say we'll call it female de Lille,
Aria el fichero, to say roll call beefy Maya D in VR.
So just to put a little bit of introduction here, when we embark
on the path of Allah subhanaw taala there's a number of things
that relate to this that are associated with this. One of them
is obviously focused on Allah subhana wa Tada concentration
Allah subhanho wa Taala remembrance of Allah subhanho wa
Taala This is the ultimate
goal of a Salic somebody who's trying to get close to Allah.
They're trying to think about Allah, they're trying to remember
Allah subhanho wa Taala and they're trying to attain the
Presence of Allah subhana wa Tada. That's what we're trying to do,
right? That's what this part is all about. So in order to gain my
refer, which means knowledge of Allah, awareness of Allah
consciousness of Allah, there's a few things that we're told to do.
We're told to remember Allah subhanho Sit down, do some vicar.
Walk around and do thicker and remember Allah subhana wa Tada. So
now he's talking about a concept called thicker. So there's the
thicker, the thicker. There's maraca
vigilance. And a number of these ideas. They're all related, just
to get somebody to focus on Allah subhanaw taala. So today, he's
discussing a thicker and thicker means meditation means just
contemplation. When you see anything, it should take you to
Allah subhanaw taala. Whenever you see anything, it should remind you
of ALLAH because ALLAH is behind everything.
Allah behind everything means that he is the causer of everything. He
is the Creator of everything. He is the nourisher of everything,
the Sustainer of everything, the designer of everything, that
empower of everything. So there's no way that you can miss it. It's
just that we usually stop. Oh, that's a nice camera. Or we stop
there. That's a nice guy. He's very kind.
That's a really bad guy.
And then we stop there. We don't go beyond that.
Oh, look, that's so beautiful. That is so amazing. That is
massive. That's enormous. It's splendid. It's fascinating. And we
stopped there.
So we look at the VA here. Everybody does that they
appreciate. They
acknowledge the apparent what we see. But then we don't see why
it's splendid, why it's great, why it's majestic. Why it's an issue.
Why it's a problem, why it's causing us if it's causing us
problems, right. Why it's so beautiful. We don't think about
that.
I mean, if you somebody Salam could seize the day ha and then
think about Allah subhanho wa taala, the creator of that beauty,
that's me.
Using. So he's saying that if you don't have this flicker, we're not
going to get far. So he's saying that kind of meditation
ultimately, that's what he's gonna say that kind of meditation or
what is meditation? Alright? He's saying what is meditation,
meditation and flicker to focus and contemplate and concentrate
and meditate? What where should you be doing this? He's saying
that is the voyage of the heart in the domains of alternatives. Now,
that sounds a bit
a bit complicated, but what it really all it's saying is that
what Ficker is, is to take a voyage in anything and everything
besides Allah subhanho wa taala. Because we come across these
things on it, we can't escape these things were living, we are
one of those things. We are somebody besides Allah subhana wa
Tada we are creation of Allah Maha Luke of Allah, and everything is.
So I see the AC, I see the heater, I see the clock. All of this is
Allah's creation. So it's a voyage in all of these things. The car
outside,
right, the trees, the roads, the beautiful weather, or the bad
whether this is all a voyage, all of that should be taken us to
Allah. So he's saying, meditation is the voyage of the heart, in the
domain of all of these creative things. That's what Allah wants
from us. All of these things should remind us of Allah because
they're all of them. All of these things Ireland.
Rubble, Alameen, Allah is the Lord of the universe is all of the
worlds. So Adam, all of this is an item that you know whether we're
an island in comes from it's, it's the plural of island. And the
concept of Adam comes from concept of item, which means the same
purpose person's name is Adam, his Adam is his name. Because that's
what represents him. That's his identity.
Alarm is another word we use, which means sign a signpost.
Where's the alarm? Or for this? Where's the sign for this? So our
alarm comes from the same concept. Everything is assigned to Allah?
Are we using it as a sign is the question. So let's see how they
explain this. So essentially, what the commentator is saying that
anybody who has no time for that, they might appreciate the beauty
of somebody stopped there. Whoever has no time to go beyond to go
deeper to look at why the pen works so well.
Why the book is so beautiful. Love flick Rotella. He has no
meditation, he can't do meditation. That's the only way
you can do meditations that way. Woman laffy Curatola. Now what's
the problem? If you don't have meditation or contemplation?
What's the issue? If I don't have it? Woman laffy Curatola, let's
say Rolla,
he can't voyage he doesn't have, he doesn't have a journey to
undertake, he can't get anywhere. If you want to get to the
objective, you have to undertake the journey. This guy's not on the
journey. Woman last year, Allah and the one who's not on the
journey. Now will soon Allah He can't reach. He's not going to get
there. He's not going to attain his objective. So he's saying,
essentially, this contemplation we're talking about and he
translates it as meditation here, what we're talking about is
essentially a voyage of the heart towards the presence of the Lord.
We're trying to get to Allah behind everything. We're trying to
find him everywhere. We want to notice him everywhere.
And he says that that void has to be an it's going to be among
everything because you can't see Allah. So it's everything he's
created. That's what you see. That's what reminds us of Allah
subhanaw taala.
And the purpose of this is so that you can gain the sign from there
about the existence of Allah subhanho wa Taala and everything
about him, his lights, his beauty, his might.
His craftsmanship, his ingenuity, and everything is subtlety, his
graciousness, his bounty and benevolence.
He says, this is only the starting point, he says, this kind of
meditation to look around and get to Allah. This is vichara to a
halal hijab.
This is the meditation and contemplation of the people with a
veil.
These are the Veiled ones that I mean, if we don't even contemplate
where are we then because this is still the level of the first
group.
The basic group
well thicker to actually shoot those people who witness Allah
subhanho wa Taala more deeply
their soul is doing the voyage, their eyes on during the voyage.
They've done that already. So they've reached it so they see it
everywhere. They notice Allah subhanaw taala everywhere. So now
it's
their soul eventually starts to write I know this is very
complicated because if you don't, this is a matter of experience is
not even something that you can, you know, explain to somebody
right? You know, you can't produce a video of this Can you write,
because he says that the second level is when the soul will start
to voyage among the realm of the lights, the special lights from
Allah subhanaw taala.
Or the secret aspects, things that are behind the veil.
The second level is when you get to that level, and it's very
clear, they will see that now this this sounds dodgy. This, this is
problematic. This is not beneficial. This is not right. So
the shade here, if not oil, he's discussing the first level. How to
get us onto that. May Allah give us the two feet. He doesn't
discuss the end, he should have discussed the answer. It gives us
an idea of where to go with this. But he doesn't he doesn't discuss
that part. There is another aphorism coming up where he opens
these things up a bit more in sha Allah. Shake the rook Rahim Allah
one of the great earlier he says,
this contemplation this thinking about Allah, this thinking about
all of these things to get you to Allah subhanaw taala. What that is
really is
for a person to allow his inner capability or capacity in a
capacity
of perception, comprehension.
You know, everybody has a comprehension faculty, don't they?
Where they comprehend things with that they acquire an understanding
of things. It's called Kuwa Iraqi in Arabic, Iraq means
a comprehension of something, I get that. Right, it clicked that
kind of an idea, right? Where you just get something. So it's
essentially to allow that to happen, and let it roam free among
the creation of Allah subhanho wa Taala among this optimal heap, and
essentially, among the unseen and the seen realities, so that we can
really get an understanding of the reality of things.
What do you mean by reality of things? How this phone is made?
No.
The reality is, the reality of the phone is how beneficial it is for
me and how harmful it is for me how much I should use it, how much
I should not use it. That's the reality.
There's another reality, which is the mechanical reality or the
technical reality, that's not we're talking about here. For me
to speak to somebody, if a person does this, well, they will know
whether it's beneficial and how to speak to this person and how much
to speak to us. How much to engage someone how much to not engage
somebody, when to say husband, Allahu Annette Milwaukee, and that
should do the trick for you. And where he actually requires the
response?
Is that kind of wisdom we're talking about.
That's what it means to get the hacky cut of something Allama
here, ie, according to what is reality is in the grand realm of
how it's going to affect us in this world and the hereafter.
The wisest people are those who understand us. They don't waste
their time.
They don't engage in redundant ideas, they know how to deal with
each issue as it comes about.
Woman which are the dirty gopher who if anybody who gains this he
is the RF he is the one who knows Allah No.
Because he knows what Allah wants in everything, everything he deals
with the food that he's having. He knows exactly what Allah the
purpose of that food is for him.
Even Otto Allah He uses the word RTR alternatives, meaning all
other things besides Allah really, he could have just said Mark Liu
cards, the creation of Allah, because everything is a creation
of Allah asides from Allah, everything is creation of Allah.
So he could have just said that it could have made life easier like
that.
There is a narration that
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam not sure how strong this
narration is, it's interesting, but I'll just mention that I
haven't been able to check its reference.
It's been quoted by a commentator, ignore elgiva But he says once the
Prophet sallallahu LysM saw a group of people sitting down
contemplating I don't know if they were sitting down but they were
contemplating they were thinking they were deep in thought it seems
reflection
so the prophets arson remain a de facto rule fill Hulk, wallet
Africa roof in Harlock.
reflects over creation,
reflect over the creation process or creation itself. don't reflect
over Allah. Meaning if you're going to try to refer How does
Allah look? How big is he? Where is he? You're gonna get? That's
deviance because we can never understand Allah
you
In terms of what he's made up of what it looks like, we know some
attributes and so on as much as he tells us, but besides that it
gets, it's not a realm for us for inocula kurunegala Hardcore cadre,
because you're not going to be able to give that 100% estimation
as much as this is right, you won't be able to get there. That's
not your job anyway, your job is just to focus on the creation and
how that relates to Allah. That's what we've given you. That's
what's in front of you. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam prohibited a people from trying to get an understanding of
the Essence of Allah subhanaw taala, what he's made up of, and
so on to try to get that reality because it's an impossibility for
us to get there reality. Allah is an infinite being with finite
beings, how does the finite being understanding Infinite Being?
Let's take a simple example, write a simple example. Imagine there's
a piece of paper, right, we got our little sister that writing on
a piece of paper with a pen, what's happening is that that pen
is moving around.
And ink is flowing and making marks on that paper. Just imagine
it, there's imagine there was a little ant, little ant on that
piece of paper. And it's seen all of these marks appear, it's
dodging the pen,
you know, under the assumption that it's somebody like Imam
Ghazali, who is not going to throw the entire way it's going to live,
you know?
Because his story about him that
despite all of his greatness, and all that he did, and all that he
contributed somebody saw him after his death, and how did you get to
where you are? How did Allah deal with you? So Allah said, Okay,
give me what you brought. So I gave you I said, I did this, I did
that. He said, none, none of this matters to me. He says, I'm going
to I'm going to give you forgiveness, because of one thing,
you will want writing. And there was a fly or something that came
and started feeding off the ink, you know, in those days, you could
actually feed off ink. Because it was very watery, and you dipped
your read pen into it. And
and you let it do that. A little act like that a little simple act
like that. And that's why you know, so let's just imagine this
pen is writing. And it's making all of these swirls and marks on
the on the earth on the ground on the right. So this act is thinking
all of these marks are appearing, and this thing is creating, how
far will the gaze and sight and vision of this angle? Or this
little, little insects? How far will it go,
it's gonna see the marks because the appearing under his feet, it's
gonna see the nib and the pen and the ink flowing from it, it might
be able to see the shaft of the pen, the pen
itself, some of it, wow, that's massive. Imagine this whole thing
do, who is he going to attribute that writing to and those marks to
who is it going to attribute it to
the pen, the nib is not going to attribute it to the fingers. The
fingers are too far too too distant for it. None see the
fingers, they're too distant, they're too big. They're out of
division that
doesn't reach there.
And then the fingers, but the fingers aren't riding on their own
or they the fingers are controlled by the hand.
And the hand isn't writing on its own is controlled by the arm, and
the arm is the person and the person is controlled by the mind
and the heart. And, and the person is controlled by Allah subhanaw
taala
How is it gonna get to that level? It doesn't, it just looks at
what's apparent. So we do we look at our parents, Allah wants us to
go beyond that right to the Creator. That's why he's given us
this apple. And all these reminders, no other creation. The
world has books, has scriptures. They might have a language, but
they don't have writing, do they? They might have signs, they leave
Allama they leave signs for maybe other animals, you can tell right?
They do droppings, they they really scent, and so on for one
another. I'm writing
only the human being well, I could call Ramona bunny Adam.
We've honored the here human being to do that.
So
that's why the idea is that nobody can reach Allah, not the essence
of ALLAH. We can reach an understanding of his signs and his
attributes, how they function, how they provide the input in
different things, but not that's why we're taught just don't even
go there because you're going to get confused. You're going to
become deviant if you do that. So the focus should be on the
greatness of Allah, on the Majesty of Allah. On the beginning
lessness of Allah that there was nothing he was there right from
pre eternity.
From beginningless eternity. He didn't suddenly come into being
If he had to be there from before, otherwise, somebody would have had
to create him. Somebody would have been a cause of his creation had
he not been there and then he came into being afterwards. He is the
one who is the cause of everybody else's creation. We think about
Allah subhanho wa Taala is everlasting nature. He'll always
be remaining. We speak about we think about Allah's oneness. Allah
tells us that in the Quran, Allah mentions and evidence he says that
had there been more than one God, there would have been there could
have been chaos in this world. There is no chaos, it runs quite
well. There's a bit of chaos here and there because of what humans
do. Right? So we Marchesa with a V come because of your pollution, of
plastic pollution, or the pollution of the seas and the S
and the ozone layer and everything like that. But other than that,
the sun rises every day. And it sets every day, and is a system,
you have timetables made up, you can predict these things. That's
Allah subhanaw taala is doing Had there been two Gods up there,
there would have been chaos one or they said, I want this program to
happen today. Another one may have said, I don't want it to happen
today. What's going to happen now? Can you have a not have the
program? I want this guy to do this? And the other is no, I want
him to do this. Okay, what happens if the gods just agree?
Well, then they're not very godly, or they, if they just agree, like,
you know, yeah, we'll just do everything together. What kind of
God is that God should be able to do what he wants. Right? So Gods
are independent, they should be able to do it is this hypothesis,
this is just pretending that that's the case, then it would
have been a problem, they'd be massive chaos. You can't have two
leaders of a country there's there's issues even one leader of
a country and too many advisors, right? So the proof is that Allah
subhanaw taala is one. So Allah tells us to think about his
oneness. And the main thing is how Allah manifests Himself and His
attributes, and his workmanship, his design and his beauty and
everything else. throughout creation. Every one of us here is
a sample of Allah's creation. That's why we're all unique. You
might find somebody who looks like and sometimes that you know,
because of my travels, I've seen both three instances of a single
kind of person. But there's always something different.
Right? So there could be somebody who looks like you.
Right? Who resembles you somewhat, but there's going to be massively
different. Even two twins, even a set of twins don't, are hardly
ever identical. Hardly ever identical in terms of every
aspect, behavior wise, temperament wise, thought process wise,
emotion wise, it's just very, very different. That's Allah's
creation. The faces are usually always always different. That's
Allah's ability in these 1000s, or sorry, 1000s, billions of people
to create them all independently, different
and unique.
That's what we should be focusing on. Wow, look what Allah has done.
Not just admiring it for the sake of admiring it, but get to Allah
that Allah is the One who the look what his power must be.
This is not prohibited. This is commanded. Because that is what's
going to get you to the marriage of Allah. That's what's going to
let you know who Allah really is. Now, what is the
what is this hijab? Right? What is this veil, then? Where does the
veil come into it? The veil is the one that doesn't allow you to
think beyond.
It doesn't let you go beyond what you see, you just admire the
apparent of what you see. And you don't go beyond that into the
actual creation.
That's why the people have Irfan. So the concept is called Irrfan,
which means recognition and awareness of Allah, those who have
modified this is called Irrfan, right in Arabic. So they are
focusing on the majesty of the Creator, and his oneness and his
eternal nature, how clear and evident he is, how strong and
obvious he is, and how evident he is and so on. In fact, sometimes
they could actually fully just focus on the substance without
focusing on what the eyes will see. So when they see something,
they actually see what's behind it. Not like physically they see,
but they realize what's behind it. So they go from what they see to
the grave, the unseen things which others will not see relatively
speaking, they go from the creation to the Creator. So as
soon as they see a creation, immediately the Creator comes to
mind. You see a fallen and you know, he identifies as a Samsung
fold. So you will immediately notice a Samsung phone, you see a
phone and it looks like an iPhone, immediately you think of an
iPhone, automatically they just recognize things like that it goes
back to Allah subhanaw taala just the way we do things, you see a
certain car you just see the light
Do you know that this is a Mercedes
because those are the particular lights that Mercedes have, or a
Volkswagen has, or a BMW etc.
You become so used to this you guys see a guy, a guy with a card
you see a car with by him in our car, this is a person who whose
focus is not the darkness he sees around him. But he sees the light
through that where the light is, if only we can do that as well. So
that is where now he discusses the next part. This is now the next
aphorism. The next aphorism is 261. This is what he says he says,
I'll flicker to Sirajul calm.
Once you learn how to contemplate this contemplation, right, this
meditation of yours, this flicker that you're going to do, that is
going to become the lamp of your heart. Right now our hearts are
dead. If you want to let them live and become bright and illuminated,
the lamp of the heart is to contemplate this way. Because
remember, everything we see it affects our hearts. It creates a
desire, we see something we want it created, hey, I want one of
those. I don't want one of those, you see something ugly, it's like
a that's dirty, that's ugly, that's repugnant. All of that is
being processed in the heart, all of this information, the heart is
the clearing house, all of this information is being processed and
filtered in the hearts. Once we start focusing on things for the
right reason, the heart will become a lot healthier, and will
become brighter.
Then he says, for either the Herbert Villa your agenda,
if this lamp goes, you have no contemplation. When it goes away,
the heart has no illumination, it's a black dead heart may be
caught. In a cardiac sense, it must be it's probably very
healthy, right? pumping the blood around. But in terms of the
spiritual aspect, it's dead.
It's dead. So
this is the way he they explain this, they saying that.
For somebody to somebody to contemplate the majesty of the
Creator, his oneness, that will give you light.
The reason why I'll give you light is because Allah has created you,
he wants you to recognize the right thing. So the programming
that we have inside us is that once you understand that, it just
benefits you, it's nourishing for you. Because that's how Allah has
programmed it. You can't get nourishment from anywhere else. If
you put the wrong
detergent in a washing machine and mess up, you put the wrong oil in
a machine that is not because there's different viscosity oils,
you know, to grease different mechanical parts, you put the
wrong one in on your bike chain, for example, or anywhere else,
it's going to mess up.
So the right kind of thought that goes with the human hearts is this
is this contemplation. If you don't have it, there's no way to
illuminate it.
So he's saying now that if the heart then becomes occupied with
this thought about the majesty of the true one for who Amana world,
that heart is illuminated and lit up binaural Hawk with the light of
the truth world.
Whatever Hello. I mean, figuratively lucky if it doesn't
have that light, because when you don't have light in a room, what
happens?
What's the inevitable consequence of not having any kind of light in
a room? It's darkness. Absence of light is darkness is to not
there's no two ways about it. You either have lights or you don't
have lights. If you don't have light somewhere, there's going to
be darkness. So that's what he's saying. He says that if it doesn't
have that, then
he's gonna have you see, the heart is always thinking. The mind is
always active, the mind never shuts down. In fact, even when we
sleep, the mind reassembles itself, it reorients itself,
right? The synapses and everything, they reorient
themselves. That's why sleep is important is always active, the
mind is always active. So the mind is going to be active. If we don't
give it the right thing to be active in it's going to be active
in the wrong things. That's what he's saying. But if it doesn't
have this focus on the truthful one, then it's going to be
thinking about everything but Allah because that's what's
available.
That is darkness. That is what creates darkness. And you have to
remember he says what a testimonial Dolma to a new
evidence, net never can darkness and light come together is going
to have to be one or the other. Right? There's always a tussle
between them. That's why contemplating over the universe
and everything that we see is the is the lamp of the heart. So when
there is no contemplation regarding Allah subhanaw taala the
light will extinguish itself because of the darkness of
everything else that you will think about. So you'll have no
light
That's exactly what he's saying. You don't want a tele there is no
light there is no giving light. Nothing that gives light Junaid Al
Baghdadi Rahmatullah they used to say a shuffle majority see what
Allah, one of the most noble gatherings and Atmos lofty as
gatherings are? A Judo Suma Allah is to sit with Allah. How do you
sit with Allah? Allah want to come and sit with you. Where do you go
to sit with Allah? Fie Maya fee may Daniel fee karate Allah
besotted Tauheed Allah be Celtic don't hate.
The way you do that is to go into this realm of contemplation. But
it has to be based on low heat.
So with low heat, you start contemplating with low heat means
with a focus on the Oneness of Allah only Allah can do whatever
it is, and you start thinking about these things. That's what's
gonna give light to the heart. Chicago has an usher video Radi
Allahu Anhu says that
if somebody achieves four things, if somebody has four things, he
becomes of the Sydney at MOCA, Robin Siddiqui and other highest
level of Alia. So you have Alia in general, lovers of Allah Siddiqui
in other highest of them, there's no level above that except the
level of prophecy but you can't gain that only Allah gives that to
maybe wishes. But becoming a Siddiq is a possibility through
one's own effort and action if Allah wills, right.
Whoever just attained three of them, then that person is from the
close. Olia, not Siddiqui, but still close enough. Whoever gets
only two of them than they are from a Shuhada al minimoon.
The believers who witness they have a certain amount of witness,
they can give enough witness but they're not beyond that. And
whoever has just one of them, at least just one of them. They Ebola
Saudi, they're righteous servants of Allah. At least they've got
that. What are these four? First is vicar.
Remembrance of Allah actually remembering Allah.
This has to be done based on along with good actions. The benefit of
this is that it'll give you a light that shines that will shine
things for you. Number two, is this El flicker?
To then start contemplating? See a vicar is Subhan Allah Subhan,
Allah Subhana Allah, that's the vicar contemplation is
look at this wall.
Look at this building. That's contemplation. That's not vicar.
Contemplation can get you to vicar, though, right? Or the vicar
you start with. So it just depends on where you are. So Flickr, he
says, Flickr has to have somebody, you have to have a lot of patience
and steadfastness for that. But the benefit of that is you will
get the knowledge Samarra to wherein you will ultimately get
the awareness and knowledge and that knowledge is very useful
because it will lead you right in this world.
The third thing is a fucker, not poverty in that sense of having
nothing but a need for Allah. This feeling that even if you've got
millions, everything at your disposal for you to feel you need
Allah
because we're helpless without Allah. All of this can wither and
dissipate. So to think all the time I am in need of Allah. That's
what fucker means here and need
to feel that need of Allah subhanaw taala
and that functions with sugar
to thank Allah and everything that we have. And the benefit of them
is that you'll just get more
the more you feel needy of Allah, the more he is going to give you
because you're going to do sugar, Lane Shackleton Mala as Eden,
you're just gotta get more than that.
Okay, what's the fourth one? So we have so far thicker, thicker, and
number three was thicker, which means the needs so we need to
remember Allah contemplate everything to get to him. And
number three was we need to feel in need of Him and always in need
and dependent dependents. The fourth one then, that has to lead
to is love of Allah.
And hope, love of Allah subhanaw taala the only way you can love of
Allah is that you dislike
everything that's other than him, which is everything in the dunya
not disliked, like I hate you. I don't want anything to do with you
go away. Not that kind of a dislike but you don't let it go to
your hearts. We use it. Somebody hates the dunya so much I'm not
going to I'm not going to eat is going to be committing suicide.
That doesn't work. It's just that it shouldn't get into the heart.
We use it but we don't obsess with it. May Allah protect us from
obsession,
except with him. So that's what it means that does
only way you can gain the love of Allah is when you remove the love
of everything else.
And the benefit then what's the benefit of this one? The benefit
of this one is that it will get you to the Veiled one which is
Allah subhanaw taala what exactly that means, it doesn't mean you
see Allah right in his form now because that that's beyond that's
not something but you will start to again get a better
understanding of Allah subhanho wa taala. So anybody who has ordered
these for their mashallah at the top, people are still striving if
they've got at least one of them some vicar. If you do something on
your righteous seven, right?
I will see that these are kind of the thicker, thicker, thicker, I
don't think you can get fucker without the first two. I think
these are kind of stage by stage, one after the other. Ultimately
your you get to love of Allah subhanho wa taala. That's amazing.
That's amazing Subhan Allah. So that's what he said, Right? In
these two aphorisms, I'm just going to conclude by reading to
us, the way Sheikh Abdullah gon go, he explains the first one, and
then a second one. So in the first one where he said, meditation is
the voyage of the heart, in the domain of all of these other
creation, all of creation from the heavens to the earth has been
portrayed or compared in this aphorism to the domain of
alternatives, right? The reality of meditation, what exactly does
meditation mean? Is the wandering of the heart in these domains.
Wandering in these domains in this context means to meditate on the
wonderful manifestation of Allah's power that reveals itself
perpetually in all of his creation. So you notice the power
of everything, power of a line, everything.
For instance, some are born. Some people are born, while others die.
Some are poor.
Some are wealthy.
We contemplate about the reasons for all of these things. There's a
wisdom behind all of these things.
We don't just take it for granted.
There are innumerable marvels in Allah's creation inhabiting the
heavens and the earth. Man is required to derive lessons from
these marvelous objects of Creation and meditate on Allah's
attributes of beauty, excellence, splendor.
This meditation will lead to recognizing the Creator most high
that what exactly how does he do things, this meditation will lead
to that he will firmly believe that his creator is most wise,
most Gracious, most majestic and most splendid, you will get the
attributes of Allah subhanaw taala. This is the type of
meditation that we are commanded, commanded to observe, we've been
forbidden to meditate on the essence of the Creator. Because
our limited minds cannot comprehend the infinite eternal
being. In such meditation actually lurks the danger of renouncing the
religion. And we seek Allah's protection. Belief in the Creator
should be confined to the limits indicated to us, we're told to
believe in a way that is told to us. Furthermore, one should
meditate on obedience and sin, that are for a certain act of
obedience, there is a particular reward, and for a sin, there is a
certain degree of punishment that's also affected.
He adds that extra point, then he says, we should also meditate on
the bounties of Allah. His bounties are innumerable. He is
the true benefactor. We should also meditate on the perishable
nature of the world and its objects. These various types of
meditation are praiseworthy, and we have been instructed to observe
them. You bought some fruits or vegetables and you couldn't use
them and they start withering away. You bought some milk, you
didn't use it, it became that that's because it's shelf life is
just shorter. Everybody has a shelf life in this world.
So just the way that became bad in three or four days, we're gonna go
in 6070 years or maybe less than that.
Everything has a shelf life, everything is perishable in this
world.
And then we think, well, that's how Allah has made it. Why is he
made it like that? Because that's the wellness the nature of this
world paradise is going to be forever and Hellfires forever.
For the second aphorism, which is meditation is the lamp of the
heart. So when it goes away, the heart has no illumination. This
aphorism means that bereft of meditation, the heart resembles a
dark room, in which there is no light giving lamp, one does not
know what lurks in that dark room as nothing is visible. Similarly,
without meditation, the reality and the true nature of an object
cannot be fathom, done, understood.
Meaning how it's going to benefit you or is it good or bad in that
sense, when man meditates the inner nature and Reality of Things
will be revealed to him. He will see with his open
Now as meaning is open spiritualize the realities of
truth falsehood, perishable nature of the world, and everlasting
nature of the hereafter. You're so obsessed about certain types of
food you love eating, or cars or whatever you just saw obsessed by
them, and they distract you is because of this problem.
So focus on the wrong thing, right.
The glory, the splendor, power and Wrath of Allah as well as his
being the true benefactor will, through flicker become vivid
realities. Man will also become aware of his own hidden defects,
the schemes and deceptions of his ego and shaytaan and that the
world is about of futility and deception.
If the servant refrains from meditation, his heart will become
like a dark room. He will then be unable to differentiate the
various things outlined above in his heart.
That's how he ended up Allah subhanaw taala give us a true
ability to start this process of contemplation contemplating
everything around us, so that we can get to their reality and
ultimately get a better understanding of the attributes of
Allah subhanaw taala so brothers Ramadan is a very good time for
this I forgot this month because Ramadan is terminally destabilized
Leslie you're feeling that hunger you're feeling helpless you're
feeling vulnerable is the time to think about this and to channel in
the right way. Last session we can we did the Imam Gonzales. And then
the second part of it I did in another masjid, it's online now.
There's one thing he says that I used to feel guilty when you feel
hungry, thirsty and weak in your fast you feel kind of miserable.
So before I used to feel like why do I feel like that should feel
energetic? Just like normal and do everything?
Right, you know what I'm saying? You feel a bit vulnerable, you
feel a bit helpless, right? He says that's a good feeling.
Because that should make you think Allah wants to create a new so
that you get a bit destabilized so that you can reorient and think of
it because when you're in a confident state, you don't think
we just carry on. But when we're in that kind of helpless state, we
try to do things. So
that's why I've started enjoying the state now and not feeling as
miserable as I used to. That why am I feeling like this? Because
you know, you don't all feel the same to you or is it just me?
So Allah make it easy. A lot of men this alone could sit down with
a bottle of the other jewelry really grown along me or you you
have the younger Hamitic and instantly you're Hannah and we are
manana Ilaha illa Allah Subhan again I couldn't I mean a lot I
mean, Allah have mercy on us Ya Allah have mercy on us. Yeah Allah
have mercy on this entire ummah. Oh Allah so our children our
families, oh Allah especially those who are being persecuted and
who being grant ya Allah Quran them relief oh Lord grant them in
grant them their freedom yeah Allah grant them much better than
what they had last year Allah Oh Allah make this some of them
better than any Ramadan before it's our Allah make us closer to
Allah grant us your vicar grant us your figure of Allah grant us
fucker to you and oh Allah grant us your hope and your love your
Allah make these things up this is the month of Ramadan Oh ALLAH it's
a month of contemplation with the hunger felt in our stomach and
minds of Allah with the decrease in sleep Oh Allah we in this the
stabilized states in this helpless state we call out to you here
Allah to stabilize us, our Allah to correct us to orient us
correctly to give us that balance and equilibrium Yeah, Allah Oh
ALLAH assist us in this regard of Allah makers of your chosen ones
your Allah make us of your earlier your Sydney's been, Oh Allah allow
us to be witnesses to your to your signs in this world. Yeah, Allah.
Oh Allah do not make us shallow individuals redundant individuals
obsessed with everything but Yuria Allah Oh Allah do not make us of
those Oh ALLAH we've led a life of negligence of distraction of focus
on so many other things Yeah, Allah forgive us. O Allah forgive
us. This is a month of your forgiveness and your generosity.
Oh Allah forgive us and assist us. Oh Allah, allow us to go to the
hot domain of Allah those who are trying to go for Hajj of Allah
take us on. Oh Allah make it easy for us. Oh Allah, Oh Allah make it
easy for us. Oh Allah, we ask that you allow us to surmount the
obstacles and the difficulties and you allow us to reach there. Oh
Allah, all of our 100 projects. So Allah we ask that you allow them
to be completed, how Allah You grant us fulfillment of Allah you
give us satisfaction with the halal away from the Haram ya Allah
Oh Allah make this Ramadan a truly blessing and illuminated month for
us and make many changes come about in our lives. or Allah bless
us and our children and our families. Yeah, Allah. Oh Allah
assist us and accept this gathering and accept all of our
gatherings that we do. Yeah, Allah and allow us to
You continue to work for your be in grant as the last insincerity.
Oh Allah grant us protection gland grant as the philos insincerity,
assist all of those and bless all of those who assist us. And Allah
all of those who expect us to make dua for them or who they deserve
that we make dua for them Allah bless them all and grant them the
permissible needs your Allah and make life easy for them. Remove
our ailments or diseases, our sicknesses, both our physical ones
and especially our spiritual ones, so that we can be healthy when we
come to Allah. Allah grant us the Karim, Allah, Allah Illallah on
our deathbed, and assist us also had a lot bigger ability to see
phone or solo and almost certainly not.
The point of a lecture is to encourage people to act to get
further an inspiration and encouragement, persuasion. The
next step is to actually start learning seriously to read books
to take on a subject of Islam and to understand all the subjects of
Islam at least at the basic level, so that we can become more aware
of what our deen wants from us. And that's why we started Rayyan
courses so that you can actually take organize lectures on demand
whenever you have free time, especially for example, the
Islamic essentials course that we have on the Islamic essentials
certificate which you take 20 Short modules and at the end of
that inshallah you will have gotten the basics of most of the
most important topics in Islam and you'll feel a lot more confident.
You don't have to leave lectures behind you can continue to live,
you know to listen to lectures, but you need to have this more
sustained study as well as local law here in salaam aleikum wa
rahmatullah wa barakato.