Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Signs and Remedies of Low Iman
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim Al Hamdulillah hamdulillah your
salatu salam ala say you didn't mousseline while early he was, he
was seldom at the Sleeman caphyon laomi. Dean Emeritus, Allah
subhanaw taala has placed us in this great city of London.
And sitting here today in this great institution of learning part
of the imp bridge, new branding, right instead of
Oxbridge. I guess it's in Bridge. Now. Allah subhanaw taala has
privileged us, ALLAH SubhanA, WA, tada has privileged us in the
sense that we have a lot of sense of security.
We are relatively relatively I mean, we have issues but we
relatively feel safe. When we walk about, we don't have to add every
small activity that we need to do, we don't have to pay a bribe, to
get, you know, to get our basic, everyday essentials.
Unfortunately, that's a reality for many people live in the world
in different countries. So we do have a lot of issues though. So
despite all of this sense of security, and relative state of
comfort, we definitely still have challenges. And if you look
anyplace in the world, you'll actually see the same kind of
thing.
There's going to be issues wherever you are just different
nature, a different nature, a different set of issues that
people will have to deal with.
Today, our talk is about the fluctuation of our faith, the
highs and lows.
How person feels from day to day, sometimes a person feels really
close to Allah gets really motivated to do things, read the
whole Quran or something spends all night in vicar or something
like that. And then after that, sometimes just feel like you know,
why am I even a Muslim? So people, unfortunately, are going through
these fluctuations. Now, the target is that there's always
going to be fluctuations. That's the nature of this world. That's
why Allah subhanho wa Taala has instituted the whole concept of
Taqwa of Toba, of repentance of Istighfar and repentance, to such
a degree to such a degree to really drive that point home. What
point home to really drive the point home that if you ever do
fail or fall, then make sure you don't become so despondent that
you actually give up. So in order to underscore this point, and in
order to highlight it, and really deeply embedded in our minds, the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that if that Allah
says that if you people did not sin, if you are a people who did
not sin for some reason, then he would actually take you away and
bring people who would sin, but then who would sin and then seek
forgiveness afterwards. So the reason I mentioned this hadith is
that, I believe that Allah subhanaw taala is saying this, to
really give us this idea that there is no way that you should
ever become despondent or hopeless, or an absolute failure
that I can never make it. And he's trying to say that people will
make mistakes, just try to avoid the mistakes. So now going back to
the whole fluctuation, in electronics,
what's required is a steady flow of amperage that comes through
where there's a fluctuation is actually harmful to your gadget.
That's why, although it Hamdulillah, in this country, you
have a relatively stable electric supply. And we don't have the
general fluctuations that are experienced in other countries. I
remember when I was studying in India, we had to buy a fridge. And
along with the fridge, you had to have the stabilizer. Because there
were hikes in electricity, sometimes it would be an absolute
low way would totally disappear for 24 hours. And other times just
get this massive spike, and it would take your refrigerator with
it. But alhamdulillah in this country, Jerry don't have to do
that though people as a backup as a safety. Some people have these
power breakers and other circuits and things of that nature, the
electricity supply in this country is relatively safe in the sense
that they've really managed to regulate it to such a degree and
building the circuits and everything that even if a person
is being electrocuted, or would be electric, you'd in any other place
here that it would break because it measures the electric current
at each time. So if we take that same idea to our Imam, just
imagine what's happening to our faith, if a hike and a low, right,
if there's no electricity, there's no function, right? And if it's
too much, then that burns you out, in a sense, right? It burns you
out in a sense when it comes to Iman, you want to avoid
fluctuation, you want to be steady. That's why the Prophet
sallallahu sallam said do
Little, but make it regular, the province of the law Some said that
which is regular and little but regular is superior to that which
is a lot and abundant and then it makes you heedless that you
suddenly have this false feeling of having done so much. So now you
just say I'm sorted for the next, you know, this is enough energy,
spiritual energy for the next two weeks. That's, that's not the way
it should function, the prophets Allah, so who knows our
spirituality, the way the human functions, he is telling us that
you need a steady supply. So now imagine a fluctuation.
That what we're trying to now do, what we're trying to aim at is in
our iman, rather than our fluctuation being
right, really high up sometimes and really low or low, low, low,
and then really low, right? It never really hits. It's never
regular. Rather than that, we want to try to minimize that and
stabilize that as far as possible. So it needs to be stable,
sometimes a little fluctuation and you drop somewhere, that's okay.
You just carry yourself back up. The problem is dropping all the
way down here. And having no supply, losing your faith or just
about losing your faith. So there will be fluctuations. That's why
the reader might have mentioned like as early etc. They've
mentioned that once a person is trained themselves very well, in
terms of good character, and so on. It's like training a wild
horse, a wild horse has been fully trained, can be relied upon by the
rider that it will not resort to its wildness, it will not resort
to to a stampede, and it will actually follow the orders of its
master of its rider. That's the whole idea. But then it does say
that even such a horse that's been so well trained, sometimes also
goes back to its wildness has a little wild streak. But because
it's been trained so well, it is able to recover faster, it's able
to recover faster. So that's the same kind of thing here with human
beings. Sometimes we will fall prey or we could fall prey, except
those Allah preserves except those Allah preserves on a very high
level, right of the Olia right, we will fall down. It's just that
Let's not fall down too far. And maybe it's just a little, you
know, a little low here. And then we get right back up, Marsha, we
do a bit we go higher up and you know, we balance ourselves. That's
essentially what it is. So I think the let's just gauge our life.
According to that. What kind of a low Are we at? Right? What kind of
a low have we been at? Because there's always going to be that
kind of fluctuation. So may Allah subhanaw taala give us
steadfastness. Now how do you know we've got fluctuation? What are
the signs of low faith? Let's talk about low faithless, then we'll
start talking about the boosters, right because sometimes you need
an added supply, the supply that we're getting is not enough. So
then you have to get a special supply of current or wattage or
whatever you want to call it right to now, within the whole realm.
Let's talk about
the lows, the signs of the low of faith, I'm sure some of them are
very evident, very clear to us. But some of them, for example, is
committing sins, in which you no longer feel guilt.
So it's simple to commit sins, we don't even feel bad about it.
There was a time in our history when we used to feel bad, but no
longer do I feel bad anymore. Worse than that, is to have a sin
that we've become so accustomed to that has become part and parcel of
our life, that no longer do we even recognize it as a sin. When
is that we recognize something as a sin, but we don't care about it.
The other one is no longer do we even know. In fact, sometimes the
case even gets worse than that sort of third level of low, right?
So one level of low is not not feeling guilty anymore, committing
us and not feeling guilty anymore. Right? I guess you could even add
in the fact that commits in that one low than not feeling guilty is
a second low is further low. Number three, is it becoming part
and parcel of our life to such a degree that we don't even know
that it's a sin? And the worst of it is? What can be worse than
that?
Anybody have an idea? What can be worse than that in this stream? Or
can be worse than that?
Yeah, I guess enjoyment would have to factor into all of these
otherwise, you won't be doing it right. But the good point, I would
say, not ever having known it as a sin, which is compounding
ignorance. So it's ignorance is based on ignorance. Good tribal,
right. That does add an added dimension to it though. So this is
not even knowing. And that's why one of the greatest calamities
that this nation this amount of hours the Muslims of any
generation will ever suffer.
is going to be ignorance. That's what he meant the hubby said your
mom the hubby is a man who knew his history like no other his
students Allama Iraqis Xena dinner Iraqi says about his his teacher
shamsudeen The Hubby, right is of the fifth sixth
centrally around that time to sixth century. Around that time,
he says that my teacher was so well grounded and so knowledgeable
about all of the Hadith scholars of diverse hundreds that he wrote
these books in 2535 volumes CRR Allah mean no Bella and Kira to
her FOB. And he's like one of the stalwarts of Hadith tradition. And
his students, Iraqi says about him that if he was to stand on the day
of judgment, and Allah was to give him like a little platform to
stand on. And he was to look around, he'd be able to pick out
every one of those 1000s of Hadith narrators, starting from the
Sahaba down to his time, and tell you their date of birth, when they
died, who they studied with, who studied with them, what not Hadith
named and narrated, and everything, according to them.
That's the kind of ingenuous minor genius he was. And he after all of
this, he has a 30 if you know he has a history, and he has a book
on history. And what he says is that one of the biggest calamities
that this OMA will always deal with will be ignorance, because
when a person is ignorant, then they don't know what's right or
wrong. And the worst part of ignorance is that in Islam, we
actually differentiate between, or actually we divide ignorance into
two into two types. One is normal ignorance when you don't know. And
you know, you don't know. That's why you've come to study, you
don't know the subject that you're trying to study. So you've come
here to study it. You've there's an acknowledgement, I don't know,
that's why I'm here. That's why I'm asking this question. But
worse than that, is when we don't know that we don't know. And we
think that we do know. So the worst part is when you do know
what ima means, right? We think we know what ima means. But we don't
know because we're bereft of some of the most fundamental guidance
in this matter. Fundamental verses of the Quran fundamental Hadith on
the on the subject, I'll give you an example about this. I was
speaking to somebody.
And it was it was a while back, I just recorded this this incident.
And it was a it was a person I was speaking to in a shop right in a
store. And he says he was denying some something he was denying
something. And he said there's there's no existence of this
thing. I think it was the jar or something. I can't remember
exactly whether it was that the jar or the Maddie or whoever it
was, but he was like an absolute in absolute denial that there's no
proof of it. There's no this than other. And I'm telling him there
are so many Hadith and when I quoted the Hadith to say, Oh,
okay. So some people form ideas about certain aspects with
absolutely no idea. And they become very rigid in that idea.
And they don't know what the reality is about that. So compound
ignorance is really, really bad. So not knowing the first I said
the first low was committing a sin and not feeling bad about it.
Because eventually not feeling bad about it, it will start off like
that the taboo will be broken, for example, going into a bar, you're
not going to drink I don't come Yes, like no, I'm not going to
come with you. Come on, come on, oh, they they serve orange juice
there, you can just have a you know, some mineral water or
whatever it is. And then finally, you make your way inside. And
eventually, slowly, slowly, the taboo of that breaks, no longer
does it feel as fearful and a shaytani as you ever thought
because whenever you mingle with any shape ponds, you become used
to them, right? And then it just becomes worse from there from
there until you actually justify you no longer feel guilty and so
on and so forth. So the first one is sins, the telling tale of this,
the telling sign of this is no guilt, number two, heart, heart.
All these are interlinked as well. hard hearts. What that means is
just don't feel like it. I don't feel like praying for others or
praying. I don't feel like it. Right. I just don't feel like even
going for Joomla eventually. I don't feel inspired to read the
Quran. I don't feel inspired to be to act out my faith or whatever it
is. So that's what you call a heart heart when the heart is
hard. As Allah subhanaw taala speaks I'm gonna go love and Rana
Ida perubahan, which is like an extreme state. Right? Then a
person doesn't feel like doing good, because our entire spiritual
center is in our heart. And as the Prophet sallallahu sallam said,
that is the portion of the body it's it's an organ, a piece of
flesh, which if it is sound, everything will be sound, it will
be soundness, the limbs will be will be encouraged to do sound
things, things have belief and faith and good and humanity.
Otherwise, it will be a really hot, hot hot. So this is no desire
to read the Quran, for example, or even to listen to anything. Number
three, is feeling lazy to do good deeds. No inspiration, feeling
lazy. It's very similar to the second one. It's actually the sign
of a hard heart and sign of a lot lowness in faith.
Number four
or this, then all of this actually, then these are kind of
progressive in the sense that it then leads one to have no value
for the Sunnah, or for anything to do with religion. So not a big
deal anymore. In other respect that it holds in your sights
sometime that used to hold and used to really feel good about
seeing Muslims used to good at seeing a good deed, no longer do
you feel like that anymore. Number five,
no Torkel no reliance in Allah subhanho wa taala. So then what
happens is, we start becoming irritated at small, small, the
minor most minor of issues, just as a human being our character
just totally deteriorates. And what that means is, we get angry
at the smallest of things, you just have no openness of the
heart, there's a meanness in the heart now, and you just get
aggravated, get angry quickly. That's a sign of a bad heart of a
low of iman, because a person with strong Iman won't have that. Now,
let me just clarify something here that the Sharia is very extensive.
Sharia has many dimensions that Islam has many dimensions in the
sense that you know, we've got the belief system, then we've got the
worship system, which is based on the our five pillars, solids, a
cup Hajj, and so on. That's just one dimension, then we've got the
dimension of social interaction. And then we've got social
transaction, right dealings and so on. Then number five, we've got
the interstate and purification of the heart and removing blameworthy
traits. So what we have in this world, this is another lowness of
faith, right? Because all of this is faith. For example, if you take
a book on Hadith, and you take the Kitab Al Imam, the chapter on
faith, for example, take Buhari take Muslim sahih, Muslim or
simpler, take the Moscato Masabi. Or take any other book in Hadith.
And look at the Kitab al Iman, the chapter on Iman, and just see what
kind of extensive cover it it will cover the traits of the heart, it
will cover the beliefs, it will cover destiny and predestination,
all of these complicated issues, right, it will also cover the 70
or so branches of faith, which includes everything from modesty,
chastity, bashfulness, to removing something harmful from the street.
All of that is Iman, that's all EMA, that is what makes a perfect
believer when a person is fulfilling all of these branches,
or branches of faith. So now, what happens is, you have a person who
only focuses on one of these dimensions, again, based on
ignorance, oh, I just need to have a good heart. I just need to be
kind to everybody. But then they're not praying, and they're
not covering and they're not doing everything else. And they're
looking down upon people who do that. But then you've got another
extreme of people who praying and covering and all the rest of it,
but they are abusive to others. So it's about being having an
equilibrium in all of these aspects, and not having highs in
one thing, and lows in another dimension. Right now, I don't know
how you would plot that on a graph, right? But you guys at
Imperial College, so you can maybe figure that out for me. But you
know, I've got a simple graph here. But now this is adding
another dimension to it that in some aspects, you're high up, and
in other aspects, you're down. Right. So
that is getting in small, small issues, not having good characters
having this mean character. That's also lowness of faith number
seven, or number six rather,
being mean in general, and stingy.
being mean and stingy, not willing to part with your money for any
good cause, either for social socially demanded, cause whether
it be taking your friends out to eat, right, so the person goes out
to eat with with everybody. But for some reason, they always go to
wash their hands or something when the patient when the bill comes.
Right. Now that is also a lowness of faith because that's an absence
of reliance in Allah and stinginess. Right? Now, of course,
it's understood that if everybody's in an exceptional
situation, everybody's always making this guy paid. And I don't
blame him for running away. But if he's always in the always in the
bathroom, right or in the toilets, washing his hands when the payment
come or when the payment time comes, then that's, that's a
different issue. That's a social issue, not paying the card, not
fundraising, not paying sadaqa not giving charity, and so on and so
forth. Number seven, rejoicing at others calamities.
When other people have calamities, you get excited about it. That's
totally another sign of aloneness in faith. Right now. I don't know
maybe you guys were thinking I'll just be talking about lowness in
faith in terms of girlfriend boyfriend relationships, right and
just hooking up with the wrong people and committing drinking and
haram and that kind of stuff, but it's a lot more. It's a lot
more comprehensive than that because Iman is very
comprehensive. Hopefully this will give us a better idea of this a
number number eight is, I only believe in this is just a
manifestation. I only know what's clearly Hello. What's clearly
haram. I don't care about the things in between. Just tell me Is
it halal or haram? Right? If it's doubtful, I don't mind doing it.
Whereas a person with Taqwa of a stable faith, they will be
concerned about that out of fear that will fall into haram. Because
the Hadith mentions that every domain has limits has a boundary.
And if you go close to that boundary, if you hang around at
that boundary, you will one day fall into it. So it deals with
that. Number nine,
is making fun of the Sunnah, making fun of your religion, not
having a problem. When will it be when things become comedic, when
you start making fun of your own religion, then there's something
seriously wrong with your faith. And then if you justify that on
top of that, then one is a mistake somebody made. But then the other
one is, you know, like making fun of somebody's hijab or something.
There's, you know, there's somebody who doesn't wear hijab,
she's making fun of other people's hijab, or somebody's making a
guy's making fun of somebody's beard, for example, or something
of that nature, whatever the way somebody dresses. The next point
is number 10. No concern for the state of Muslims around the world.
So with everything the whole Muslim world is on fire, nobody
person doesn't have concern is that God, they're to blame for
that. Even if they are to blame for that we're still required to
help, right, because that's what Iman is supposed to do for us.
These are all different lows that we're speaking about. Number 11 is
obsessive concern of how we look.
Obsessive concern is about I mean, this is probably lighter than some
of the others but obsessive concern about the way a person
looks, and loving yourself more than anything else, which will
actually lead to demeaning others, sometimes not giving rights of
others to them. And it makes a person, a mean selfish, self
contained narcissist, individual. So these are all signs of the
lowness of faith.
The main thing out of all of this now is how do we cure this? How do
we cure this? And again, to cure this, there's no single one single
answer, there is no single approach to this. It's very
comprehensive, and inshallah we can try to do all of these things.
So that hopefully, we can strike luck, and it will stabilize us,
it's trying to get energy from as many places as possible to give us
a steady flow, a steady flow of spiritual energy. That's the whole
point. And on top of that list on top of that list, is to read the
Quran. The Quran is one of the most powerful books or sources
that you will come across. And the good thing about it is that it's
available to you, wherever you may be, you know, if you want it to be
available, because if it's a person that you get energy or
energy from your spiritual support from, they may not be available
for you, they may be in exams, they may be tired, they may not
just be available at two o'clock in the morning, when you really
need them most, but you will have the Quran in front of you. And the
Quran is such a great book, written in such a style by the
Divine because it's it's a divine scripture, as the Muslims believe
that you pick up any page generally. And every time that
I've tried this, it's work for me, and you're looking for an answer,
there's some issue in your mind of concern for you. You pick up the
Quran and you start reading the translation with reflection, you
will find that it will give you an answer it will give you direction.
That's this amazing, comprehensive way that the Quran has been
written by Allah subhanaw taala it's absolutely amazing in the way
it can do that. So over and above everything else is the Quran. One
thing that we have to remember what the Quran will teach above
anything else, is that
as it starts Alladhina you may know and believe
Alladhina you don't want to believe those people who believe
in the unseen. Now sitting in Imperial College, that just sounds
like such a stretch, you know, from a worldview of everything
being empirical, based on observation, and then something
that can be something that can be recreated and modeled. And then
you've got this whole idea of belief in the unseen it does seem
very far apart. But because Islam has no problem with science
itself, right? It's very easy, reconcilable. I'll give you an
idea. You could be the greatest scientist, but
whereas a normal person what happens when you
What do they get? What what do generally people get happy about,
they get happy about their bank balances increasing. If your bank
balance increases, you get happy by it, it makes you feel good.
Right? If your bank balance goes down, and there's a low in there,
it makes you feel sad. But look at a believer, he gives sadaqa, she
gives a cut, or she helps out somebody. And what the How does it
make you feel, it makes you feel good. So is what kind of a
situation is that? What kind of a feeling is that you're supposed to
feel, according to normal observations people generally feel
is that you feel good. When your money increases. Here, you're
giving money, not on yourself, you're not getting anything for
it. You're giving it purely to unknown people for the sake of
Allah, and you get happy violence. And this is not just the feeling
of a believer, but this is what believers feel. But this is not
just the feeling of a believer, they did a study in Vancouver, in
Western Canada, about people may be made to spend $20.10, or $20.
They got this bunch of students in the morning, and they said to
Here, take this envelope. And they had three different groups within
that. One group got an envelope saying, here's 10, or $20, spend
it on yourself, buy something extra on that day, whether it be a
coffee or something or a Starbucks, or whatever it is,
right? The other group spend it on somebody else.
Actually, there were just two groups, if I remember correctly,
so spend it on somebody else.
At the end of the day, they were supposed to give a report how they
felt consistently speaking, the majority of people who spent it
and others felt way better. What accomplished a lot more happier at
the end of the day than those who'd spent it on themselves.
That's $20 Extra. That's about 1015 pounds, right? Right now
Canadian dollars, 1010 pounds, right? It's two to a pound, right?
But that's 10 extra pounds, you're buying an extra cup of coffee or a
nice cakes or whatever with it. Right? But you did not feel
better. That way. It made you feel a bit good, but spending on
somebody else made you feel even better. So then what happened is
they decided that okay, Canada's mashallah prosperous country. So
maybe it has something to do with the context where you are. But
they tried that in other parts of the world and third world
countries, in other places were not as privileged, that
consistently found the same response. When you spent on other
people, you felt better.
You just felt better. That is what Eman comes to bolster, every man
comes to support that idea Eema and our faith is there to just
give that raise and to give support to that idea that you
spend on others. It's not about you, me and I, it's not just about
yourself, it's about everybody else. So the Quran will teach that
then number two are the Hadith I've already mentioned that to you
if you pick up the book of iman, the book of faith from any book on
Hadith, and you will just see the wide ranging topic on that
subject.
The number three stories of the Sahaba and Stories of the
Prophets, they hold huge amounts of iman boosting morale. For
example, if you think this sort of use of of the Quran, so the use of
in the Quran, the chapter of Joseph, I think he's salaam, you
will find that you have an individual
who teaches us so many different lessons. He's an individual who's
thrown into the well as a young boy, as a young boy, you know,
just budding a toddler, he's thrown into a well by his own
brothers, the people that you trust, the people that you're
expected to trust? Can you imagine psychologically what that could
have done to anybody that your own brothers and all of them, not just
one of them, but all of them? Did that to you? Can you imagine what
kind of trauma that a person should go through, you know,
according to current psychological studies of what that would do to a
person. So you're, you're thrown into well, picked up and sold as a
slave.
no position, no position despite being the son of a prophet, but
now no position alone, no contacts, no support, no support
whatsoever. But he had faith. He had chastity, he had morality, he
had personal ethics. And because of that, and his obedience to
Allah subhanaw taala underscored this this high level of faith this
equal this equilibrium in his faith, what happens is he becomes
a minister, he becomes a minister and he gets this totally amazing
position. Tables are then turned tables are that terms and those
same brothers, they come to him and they come to him and they say,
Yeah, are you will as ease Yeah, you will. ICS masala what an
outdoor Oh Minister, oh respected minister. They come because now it
is a drought in the lands and
they find out that this in Egypt where use of Ali Salam now is his
big you know, they don't know it's him right but they know that
there's a minister there mashallah who's giving up supplies to
everybody because they have preserved their crops of the past
preparing for this time because it's based on a dream I don't want
to go into the whole story now. But
they come and they say, oh respected minister. Our family has
been afflicted, masala will earn adore. Our family has been
afflicted with jitna Bibi adore it Moosejaw team. We've come with a
very small amount of payments. We only have a small amount of
supplies. But we want a full,
full compensation from you have this for all financial pain, what
Assad that Elena, they are begging in front of him. They are asking
for His Mercy now. And then eventually it becomes an use of
it. Sam says to them, Marfa altoon be useful. Do you remember what
you did to use have? Nobody knows about this today? Surprise, how
does he know about this?
Mafia ultimate use of so then they say they click on straightaway in
the color and the use of are you really useful?
Are you radius visitors? Yes, this is use of and this is my brother
Binyamin, who the taken, who'd come to meet him earlier on he
taken with him from such an improbable, impossible situation
of survival with traumatic issues and everything else in it. He
rises above all of this because of his faith, because of his chastity
because of those ethics that he has with him. And it leads him to
be where nobody else could have been. That is what the Quran will
teach us a constant reflection the Quran over and over again, this is
a Surah which if you you know, if you think that you read it once
and that's it, you will actually exhaust its ability to impress
you. You read it again after a few weeks and it will impress you
again. That's the power of the Quran. So that's the power of the
Prophet stories. Ibrahim Ali salaam story. That's another great
story. Right? Then the stories of the Sahaba Omar, the hola Juan de
rana diviner out for the Allah one and the others higher to Sahaba
there's a there's a book called higher to Elijah the Sahaba in
three volumes, it's absolute stories galore, you know, just
read a bit of that every day and just be inspired both by the male
and the female companions, their their stability, their Eman and
the one thing that characterizes the Sahaba is essentially this
ability to regulate their faith and not to have lows and then that
is what you will learn from them. So it's learning from that number
four, I actually have mentioned Hadith and Iman already.
Some other things, knowledge is a must have already underscored the
ignorance aspects. So knowledge is a must and knowledge is gained by
looking at the stories that we speak about nothing is gatherings
of spirituality,
a gathering, that is spiritually boosting, look for them. And
generally what I tell people is that there are a few things that
if you do every day, if your weekly routine is this, then
inshallah you will be safe. What is that?
Every day it is not it will take about half an hour of your day, in
24 hours, we'll take half an hour of your day. But and you might
think in a student's day, half an hour. tough, very tough,
especially if you're a good student. I expect you all to be
good students if you're in Imperial College, not a party
school. Right? When I was studying at Mercer,
I had no time to vicar. Just be honest, I had no time I just
thought I need to study you know, whether I'm studying a hadith and
see it and so on. I would just be studying in my room, I'd be
studying and there was a vicar gathering that used to take place
in the mother's day every day about half an hour. And I wouldn't
go there. So many other people, they would go there. Then
something told me you must go. Because because it's a good thing.
But I've got no time. Yes, but it's for Allah. That's why you're
studying to remember Allah right. Okay, let's go say she's gone sit
there and do my own vicar. You know what I found, and I started
doing this other exam times.
Exam time when, you know, you're more busy.
And what I found is that I just got more barakah in my time, I
accomplished more.
That was the weird part. That was a strange part. I'm saying this
from personal experience, that I just got more out of it. I had to
study less than I got more out of it then having to toil over so
many hours. And clearly what it is, is that if you give Allah your
time, because he's in control of time in general, he will open up
the rest of your time for you. So you will be able to do much more.
And that the proof of that is in the great people that we know of
the past who died at the age of 40 5060 but still left a great
mark. Great Books how
They could have produced all of this work in this such a short
amount of time, and unless it was impossible, generally speaking,
but they did it. So that is the baraka that Allah gives through so
100 is still far in the morning and evening stuff with Allah
Robbie minimalism being a to delay, right? Any is too far you
want to be to be honest, but this particular one is really powerful.
And if you want just email me, I'll actually send you a document
that has all of this written on the stuff that hola Rob beam in
Colombia wanted to relay. The benefit of this is that any sins,
any wrongdoings, any blemishes we've had over the last 24 hours
or that since the last time we'll be forgiven. So when we're just
cleared, there's less pollution already. Number two 100 salawat
and approximal. Awesome morning and evening. For the reason we do
this is because we owe it to our messenger. But above all, another
point of this as anybody who sends one blessing on Rasulullah
sallallahu Alaihe Salam, Allah says 10 blessings on him. So we
want blessings. Now, now that you've been purified by the estate
for now we want blessings from the Salawat and Rasulullah sallallahu
Sallam number three, read a portion of the Quran a day.
Seriously, if it's just one page a day, or even half a page a day,
that's fine. Remember, what's regular is better than what's a
lot and you do less afterwards. So if it's just even one page a day,
pick it up and read it. That's three. Number four, is to have a
few moments every day, at least five minutes between you and Allah
subhanaw taala in some type of meditation, introspection, Maha
Sabha, maraca, right, where you just talking to Allah, you and
Allah, that's it to your Creator, whether you're remembering your
death, whether you're just asking him, whether you're just taking
his name, whatever it is, but it has to be without distraction.
That's number four. And number five, is attending any spiritual
boosting, boosting, gathering once a week, whether that be in your
masjid, whether that be in your ma, you know, in your eyes, or
wherever it may be, it has to be an image and boosting one, not one
with politics, not one with anything else. It has to be
somewhere where you feel closer to Allah, find images like that.
Whether that be online, if you can't find anything locally, go on
YouTube, or tap into somebody's broadcast if somebody is
broadcasting a gathering of that nature. And Allah has made it very
easy for us, because now you can have whatever shape you want
online and make him speak whenever you want, is that your bidding
forward, him repeat, speeded up twice, the you know, if you don't
have time, there's all sorts that you can do. So once a week, if you
do these five things, your iman will have stability, because these
are very, five things are very, very powerful. So
another cure for low faith is this regimen of the
strict regimen of this liquor that I just mentioned these five
things. Number four, just be constantly think thinking about an
evil ceiling state. I know it's a negative thought. Right? So think
about a positive seeding states. What I mean by a positive seeding
states, and a negative seeding state or evil seeding state is
when a person is about today.
What do we die with? How do we die? Are we going to say La ELO
every day?
Or are we going to be saying something crazy? Are we going to
die listening to something crazy, or in a crazy situation?
Or is it going to be in a pleasant situation? Is it going to be
higher than tayyiba personal hajima? Or is it going to be
Suharto And subhanAllah there are certain sins that there are them I
have mentioned that they guarantee a bad death. One of them is
drinking.
One of them is drinking intoxicants. This guarantees about
death. It just prevents a person from seeing the claim on his
deathbed. And saying the Kadima on your deathbed is the promise of
the law. Some said Whoever says La ilaha illAllah. on their deathbed,
they go to paradise. One day, they will go to Paradise, they will go
to Paradise, if not straight away, they will go. Right. So that's the
benefit of that. So everybody should be fearful of an evil
seeding states. So rather than focus on evil seeding states focus
on a positive or law give me a positive seeding states, a good
seed seeding state. But if we're about to sin, then fear and evil
seeding states that will really help to boost our iman.
But I said you'd only think this way, if there's some light in the
heart, if we're a very low, very low, there's no way we're going to
think like this. Why should we be thinking about how we die? Right?
Unless we have a challenging situation in front of us an
accident or something of some sort. We don't want those to be
reminders. Allah give us a reminder, in a more pleasant way
than to have an accident or some bad calamity and then we remember
these things. The poor
what it means when you're really deep down, the only thing that
helps is asking ALLAH and sitting in a good gathering, having good
people around you. That is what helps to help you build yourself
up again. And
the final two final two points, final two points.
Number one, do not ever justify our own actions. Whatever it may
be, let's say we fell into some kind of sin.
understand it's a sin, acknowledge it's a sin, and ask Allah for
forgiveness. Even if we're doing it, oh, Allah, get me out of here,
I understand this, and I'm still doing it. But get me out of here.
Don't justify it. Once you justify it, then that is a really low, and
it's difficult to come back up from that.
Unless there's a there's a life changing situation.
Don't ever justify sin. If you can't do something good today, do
it tomorrow, at least have the intention of doing it tomorrow.
But don't say just because I am here or there or I'm in England,
I'm in the West, I'm in
this country or that country, it justifies it. No, it doesn't
understand deep down, it's wrong and it's wrong. Right. That's the
main thing, any Senate maybe it doesn't matter. And the final
thing
is,
it doesn't matter how long we are. It doesn't matter what laws we've
gotten to don't give up the basic things for your faith that you've
been doing. They do matter. You may not see any benefit from them.
But maybe if you stop them, you'll go even further low. Or you may
leave low, stay low for longer. So if you mashallah you do pray, or
you do cover, for example, but you've gotten into haram
relationships, that doesn't mean that now you don't need to cover
anymore, because it's not worth it. Covering, praying, etc, is a
separate worship for that you will be rewarded inshallah. And being
in a haram relationship is a separate sin for which you could
be sinful and punished. But the main thing is that don't conflate
the two and say, because I'm doing this, I no longer need to do this,
or it's not worth it anymore. This is extremely important. That's
Don't, don't let go of those straws. The very important, I give
you a final story.
There is a
in the good old days, right? Where you would be traveling, I mean,
good old days Yanni, when you'd be traveling, and you'd be accosted
by highway robbers.
Right? The dacoits.
So there's a very interesting story about one of the really
pious a slough.
The story is this, that there was a guy, a businessman, a trader,
who was going on one of these trade routes with all of his
merchandise along with a caravan of traders. And the fear then was
to be accosted by these robbers on the way and they would take all
your merchandise. And if they spared you, you'd be lucky, right?
So you'd be carjacked, caravan jacked, whatever you want to call
it, modern term.
So these guys were held up, everything was taken by these
guys. And then they were put in front of their leader. So they
were going to be presented in front of the leader. So the leader
sitting there, and
some of his men, they brought to him, some of the specialty nuts
and spices and all of this really good stuff that this caravan had
been carrying, and presented it in front of the leader, that here
have some this is the hole that we've just made today. So he looks
at it. And then he says, no, no, no, I'm fasting.
So this individual, this trader, he's thinking, what a crazy scene.
This is, he's committing some of the worst atrocities of robbing
all of these people. But then he's fasting. What's going on here? So
it was a brave man. He said, I don't understand one thing. How
can you be fasting when you're doing this? So the response he
gets from this leader called Shibley, is that
I'm keeping a window open to Allah.
He was a Muslim says I'm keeping a window open to Allah. Okay,
whatever window that is at sea, you know, so a year or two later,
the same trader you know, he's he's in Hajj or Umrah and is in
the Haram. And he sees this man, standing by the Kaaba and crying,
holding on to it. You know, it's a very distinctive kind of action
that he's doing anything. What a pious individual. This must be,
who can stand there for such a long time for such a long time.
He's standing there making dua crying and so on and so forth. He
says, Let me wait for this man. I can
Asking for Doha.
When you go for Hajj, you see these kinds of scenes and a lot of
things kind of impact upon you. So he's waiting there and then
suddenly this person turns around. He says, No way. This is that same
Shibli, the leader of that those highway people, and he says, is
that you? He says, Yes. He says, didn't I don't you remember I told
you, I leave a window open to Allah. And he has given me the
ability to repent. And he gave up. Now, that's a robber who was there
was Shibley, nobody in the world would have known about him today.
But today we speak about him, because he changed his life. And
he became a very prominent ascetic, he gave up everything.
And most books on spirituality will speak about him today. So
that's the amazing thing. When you have it, you see, when I talked
about in the beginning, going back to our fluctuation, if we have
this steady supply of faith, it will help you in your challenges.
Because as I mentioned, right in the beginning, there's always
going to be challenges regardless of where you are, whether it's,
you know, whether it's a sexuality challenge, right to do with the
opposite gender and all of this stuff, whether it's to do with
whatever it may be, if we have a constant stream of spiritual
energy coming through through our actions and deeds, we will be able
to deal with them. So they might even Abdul Malik is one of the
famous Khalifa of the OMA yurts, the brother of what he did not did
Malik Abdul Malik number one son, and
in his palace, he had a personal vendetta, right? He had a person
that
this person might have, you know, he's a young man. He was a young
man, hired by the Khalif to give a van in the palace in the palatial
Masjid. One day, Salima Dibner Abdul Malik saw this more other
than he sought, he caught him looking at one of his slave girls.
She was a really beautiful, same girl that he had in the royal
palace, you know, the king was going to have the best people
around him. And this more other than he caught him looking at her
got really angry got very jealous. So he said to the slave girl, and
uh, he needed an excuse to do something to him. And in those
days, it was just kill him.
There was impunity, there was no law, he was your own law, right? I
mean, these are Muslims would steal.
So he says, I need an excuse. So what he did was he got the he got
ahold of this female servant. He said, Look, I want you to dress
up. But nice perfume on dress yourself, adorn yourself and so
on, and go and offer yourself to
and that will give him an excuse. So she did. She did. She did this.
She She She beautifies herself, adorns herself, and goes up and
says, you know, I've seen you looking at me, this is a really
good time. Let's do what you need to do. I have the same feeling
that you have.
Now,
you've got your eye on someone. Suddenly they present themselves
to you in an empty classroom. Nobody's watching. What are you
going to do?
If you have no Eman, the Eman is low. It's gone.
But if you have the man, this man he says, he thought about he says,
You know what? Come back tomorrow.
He's putting a buffer. He's not giving it up completely. But he's
putting a buffer, come back tomorrow.
It's the police when they stopped somebody, they're not supposed to
come from right in front. They're supposed to stand in the back it
secures them as well. And it also secures the person inside. Because
when you're standing up with a weapon, especially in America, if
you've ever been, you know, there's if you're standing up and
you've got a weapon, there is this psychological factor of aggression
that can overcome you and you don't realize it. So you're
supposed to put a barrier before and that's what the that's what
the province of Lawson tells us to do. If you're angry, sit down, put
a buffer zone. When you're standing up, you're more likely to
be more volatile. As I sit down, otherwise, lay down if that
doesn't calm you down, put a buffer. So he says no tomorrow,
come back tomorrow. Now the king was an impatient man, but Khalifa
is an impatient man. He's a no go back and say, if you want to, you
know this is the best time the Kings not looking this time the
other tomorrow, they won't have a chance. See, she goes back. When
she went back to him now this man he's got his time to think his
initial shower desire that crept up that that impetus he got in
that lust, he was able to deal with it. And he says, I fear the
one we're going to stand in front of if we did anything. I fear the
one we're going to stand in front of now go back and don't ever come
back to me.
Now go back and don't ever come back to me. And she starts crying
because she's now has the fear of God in her will was AB what have I
been doing? She goes back And subhanAllah so
The man is now so so taken aback so surprised, so happy about by
the scene that then he he sends a minister of is one of one of his
aides to go with this woman, and a bag of gold coins and says, Go and
give this to that.
And say that this is a gift for you, you can marry her. And she's
now a gift for you and all of this money to go with it. So this aid
goes along with this with the servant, this female servant goes
and tells that to the young mother even. And you know what the
husband says now, it's halal, isn't it? Right now it's halal,
right, Masha, your parents have spoken to each other. Until now it
wasn't the case. But now hamdulillah it's Hala. You know
what he says now? He says, I can't have her anymore. He says I can't
have her anymore. Because the last time that she came on, I said, I
told her to go I made a vow to Allah that I will never touch.
So now I can't go back on that.
Now this is a personal ethics office. It's Halal now says once
I've given it up for the sake of Allah, I will not take it again.
That he's overcome. Now the only way we can do this and deal with
these challenges is if our iman is at an equilibrium, if it's a low
and this thing happens Subhan Allah that's the end of the story.
So it doesn't matter where we are. It doesn't matter where we are.
Let's boost our iman and get it in sha Allah stable. May Allah
subhanho wa Taala help all of us may Allah subhanho wa Taala assist
us all. May Allah adjust and lessen our challenges in front of
us to make it easy, but the main thing is May Allah keep us
connected to him or her that Werner and in hamdulillahi rabbil
Alameen