Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – The Struggle Against the Nafs
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AI: Transcript ©
hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah Hamden cathedral the uban Mubarak and fie
Mubarak early coma your Bora buena De La Jolla, who
was salatu salam ala. So you will have you will Mustafa sallallahu
alayhi wa aalihi wa sahbihi wa barakaatuh seldom at the Sleeman
Cathedral
in Iommi, Dean unburied.
This is a reseller that have one of the machinery of the Tariqa has
Hajah use of Hamadani he's one of the great musharaf of that video,
and number of his recital, his small. So this is a number of his
recital.
And I found one of them to be I mean, I haven't read all of them.
But the one I found it to be a very
succinct Naseeha that he's providing, which covers many, many
aspects, but it serves as a reminder inshallah for these
things. So
what he,
the first thing he starts with is very important, and this is the
secret of the path.
The being in association with the Sheikh is probably one of the most
important aspects because otherwise worship you can do for
yourself. Why choose to be in atari? Because if you can't be
with your shape,
right, that's, that's kind of the point that it's to get the
software, because when you're in that company, then the Sheikh will
also be in that mode of earshot. And then there's the benefits. So
being in a measureless is extremely useful. So that's what
he says. He says, Joe, moody, Piercy, sorbets, a maroon who will
say check her rose on bazaruto Kamal Fusa key art of rock mattala
Currituck el mal fossa to escape Calbee Riza Casa Barra if somebody
is unable to be with their shaken because there's you're too far
away, or for whatever reason, I mean, anybody who's close, there's
no excuse to be honest, that's the, that is the secret of the
path to be in the gathering because of the spiritual
rejuvenation you get there from the collective of God that take
place, and that is what we really benefit from. So
if somebody can't, then they should read at least eight pages
of the one of any Musharraf biographies.
In order to there's many in Arabic, there's many in English,
there's not as many yet. But that is the that will be the you can
say the replacement until they can go and visit the shake again.
Because without that, it's just, it's just a connection, in which
there's no life, the life can only come when you make that
connection. That's very important. Because that's what gives the
benefit for the rest of the week, the rest of the month, or whatever
it is to.
Then he says that there are three things
there are actually four things that a person has to stay very
steadfast on. One is, of course, he shot of the knifes the desires
of the heart have to be opposed.
They have to be opposed all the time, that's going to be a
constant problem. And that's why it's a constant reminder. Because
that is one thing, which is always going to be something we contend
with. Right, as we know. So that's why this is being mentioned over
and over. And now one thing he says which is very, very
interesting, is that the way you do it is
number one, your speech,
your food, and your clothing must be according to need only
not just to fulfill desire.
So that takes away
the need for going and doing too much shopping for no reason.
It needs to be if you've got a need for a new garment, then yes,
go and get a good garment. But don't get another garment just
because your heart desires it and you don't need it. First get rid
of the other garment then maybe go and get another one. Give it to
the poor. That's your sadaqa that's done, then go and get
another one.
So to balance that dura and
personal satisfaction, additional that that's that's something we
have a lot of us and because it's halal to buy more, it's halal. I
mean, it's not haram isn't. That's where and because the whole world
today is about style and getting the latest things we also get
caught up in that.
How do you balance that? That's a very difficult thing to do. But
this is the point this is a very important point. Because the more
you indulge the knifes in even Halal things, the more it's going
to it's going to rear its head. Then he says
if it's sufficient for you to eat one time in a day, then make that
sufficient
is speaking
Obviously, we might think this is so strange, because we're so used
to eating three times a day, you know, breakfast, lunch and supper,
or two times a day at least. But obviously, when when he's saying
once a day, don't think that he doesn't know what he's talking
about. I mean, this is the case, in many parts of the world, they
only get one time. That's all they get.
And then he says, when you do eat, don't feel your stomach.
Because it says that if a person doesn't control their desires in
these things, then they will eventually be destroyed
spiritually, until the nurse doesn't become obedient to the
person,
then shaytaan will never go shaytaan can never stay at a
distance, because that's the internal an internal associate of
shaytaan that he uses inside us. So if we can't get a grip on the
nurse, then try as much against the shaytaan we've got an inside
and inside man shaytan has an inside man to deal with the knifes
and the shaytaan will not have an inside and it's going to be much
more difficult for him, then you have to just deal with him like an
external enemy. Otherwise, you have to deal with him as an
internal enemy. But we don't even know that we still think is
external yet he's got a guy sleeping inside the house.
Number two, he is talks about he also talks about Hello, which
means to be alone for a while.
And to do this, you know, whenever a person can.
From this, you get your your heart allows your heart is allowed to
have sukoon again, when you're constantly with people is being
attracted in all different directions. Unless of course,
you're always with good people. But even then, within the good
people, it's not all you You're hardly ever going to be among Olia
I complete earlier. That's why the famous thing about chef alias
artillery that used to even after the HTML ads used to go on to
Hello.
That's how the you know that he knows what he saw. He's a Sufi. He
knows what he's talking about. Otherwise, who would think it's
even any kind of reasonable sense to go from an HTML that is such a
Iman boosting thing? And it is no doubt and then insist that I have
to go in Hello for a few days. Where would somebody come up with
that from anybody who is not initiated? They think that yeah,
you know, this is like, an affront to being an initiative or what's
what's the problem with initiative, but the HTML, there's
a certain benefit of Eman boosting, but at the same time,
what it's a lot of the lot and if the lot is not everybody's not a
William there. So your hearts attract each other hearts bent.
Hearts influence each other. So Subhanallah
so that's why I try to go into someone so whenever there's an
opportunity to do an attic off. I mean, unfortunately, our attic
offs are not properly takeoffs anymore. They're still better than
being outside because you still with believers, but it's not real
hello in our attic us because we sit and we talk and I mean there
are mashallah, monosodium Zedekiah is very good.
We insist that it's not discussion with anybody. So that's another
thing. And just generally throw out there, you can't just wait
until Ramadan and get everything done. And then you know, you have
to do this overtime. So whenever there's an opportunity to do
something like this, we're just just stay at home Monday in don't
go out, just stay at one home and just focus on your own good things
that could be done as well.
Then the other thing he talks about is don't sleep too much.
And he's quite generous, because he takes from your mouth as it man
was he actually mentioned this in his video till today as well that
you I mean, he says you can't sleep for more than eight hours,
eight hours is absolute max. Because it says that even if you
look at eight hours, if a person has slept eight hours, then that
means he slept 1/3 of his life.
Now, if you look at eight hours a day doesn't sound too much. When
you think about 1/3 of your life is spent sleeping, that does sound
a lot. Of course, if a person is doing evil, then it's good to be
sleeping for 1/3 of your life, then at least that set much less.
But if you want to be productive and you want to worship Allah
subhanaw taala then bad methods mosaica you know, then it's
there's no point doing the sleep in this world.
But then also, they say don't sleep too little until you
actually can get very used to it otherwise, that will make you
hobbies and knifes that will that will make you feel just
that will make you feel miserable, then you can't do worship. So moja
has to be moja has to be done according to step by step process.
Somebody jumps into the deep end from before it can actually make
them feel miserable. Because they're going to feel hungry, if
they've tried to abstain from food is going to make them feel sleepy.
It's going to make them feel weak. The body you know there's a body
that has to go along with your spiritual state. Otherwise the
body will rebel and make you feel miserable. And when you feel
miserable, then you can't really put your heart in worship.
So you know that everything has to be done. You have to train. You
can't jump
from one extreme to the other, we don't have the mental capacity and
the body doesn't allow it, the body rebels. So you have to go
according to the biology of the body and train slowly. And the
good thing about the body is that it can be trained to do these
things.
So that's why anybody who jumps into the deep end without training
themselves to do it, they will generally find out that it will
backfire. Right, and then you lose everything. That's why you have to
take it easy. You have to allow the knifes if you've had a life of
Nazi pleasures, then you have to allow it some permissible pleasure
once in a while.
And slowly slowly you start dealing with it. Number three, he
says Halal eating food and clothing. And he says that such an
important thing that with haram, you will be bereft and deprived of
any form of node that's supposed to come in your heart. And that's
exactly what we are looking for nor of the heart. So if a person
eats haram or wears haram, basically haram income, that's
where it's going to come from, right. I mean, because anybody who
is on the path is not going to eat halal haram Yanni haram. But the
source is what he's probably speaking about here.
Because that's where we make the mistake.
So in that case, the heart will never gain any node. And you will
never have pleasure in your worship.
Because pleasant pleasure in the worship comes from having this
additional node. Otherwise, we'll do worship but we'll never have
the pleasure of it. Because pleasure has to come from the node
the node is what gives you the pleasure.
That's why Sheikh Geneva Baghdadi used to say, Be suffered torture
me. Well, Moscone Yasu, umbra, Colo, that it's with the purity of
food and residents, where you stay, it's not somebody else's
property. It's your own property in the sense that your rightful to
stay there. This is a big problem. In many places, there's these land
problems, inheritance problems, and people are sitting in what
belongs to somebody else. It's a massive problem. So he says, if
somebody has purity of food, and residents, then all their matters
would become straight. That's the baraka of it that will actually
help you become straight.
I think one of the biggest things we're dealing with today is that
even when it comes to alcohol issues and stuff like that, and
pork and gelatin, I don't think anybody, I don't think anybody can
say that they have never, never consumed any part of the pig.
Because of the amount of things it's used in,
you know, all the way from the filter of apple juice is made from
some aspect of the pig.
Right now, it's a different issue of weather goes through, and
there's a whole discussions trying to determine how to deal with
that. So that's why cloudy apple juice is the best. But there's
things like this simple things that we don't even know.
Because that's the fitnah, the pig is so versatile, that it's used in
everything.
And that's just far fetched. I mean, there's other things, it's
so easy, because sometimes you don't have to mention certain
ingredients, but it's unavoidable.
We just pray to Allah that Allah overlooked that for us. Because if
he was to go into the strict criteria of these machines, what
they're saying, I mean, we're not going to get anywhere.
Number The next thing he talks about is bad company, avoiding bad
company that has a very detrimental effect.
So just as we don't want to put anything haram in our stomach, we
don't want the association as much as possible. We need to avoid it.
Now the thing is that most of us we work in non Muslim
environments. Right. And there's sometimes even when most of within
Muslims on it, you know, there's a lot of swearing, there's just a
lot of deceptive talk, maybe
discussion of haram discussion of cheating, whatever the case is.
Now, the thing is that you're going to have to work now we need
to obviously be trying to look for a work situation that is very
conducive, but it's not easy for everybody to come along with that.
So just practically speaking, we want to try to
try to be able to go in and understand this is work. I do what
I have to do I avoid any kind of unnecessary interaction
unnecessarily benefiting from any wrongs that may be going on or
being influenced by them. And then I have to go on worship. So I have
to go and do some extra thicker or something like that. So there has
to be some kind of bonus if there's a thought in here as to
like this is going to negatively affect me. I mean this company
But then you have to also be careful that it doesn't lead to
you becoming aggressive in that situation.
That's the difficulty of this life today in this in the Western
countries. The difficulty is, how do you dislike something that is
haram, but it doesn't lead you to aggression. Nor does it lead you
to absolute acquiescence and comfort.
Because physically, we can't change much. You're working with a
person with a sexual deviancy example. You know what I mean by
sexual deviancy. Now, what are you supposed to do in that situation?
I mean, personally, I think it's a bit worse, although it's as
similar as working with somebody who's in a haram relationship.
Right? 40 years ago, 50 years ago, when haram relationships became a
bit more open and allowed and it became less of a taboo, the
Muslims probably felt the same way.
Right?
You would never have children who were illegitimate before. But now
you do. And it's the norm. And it's quite fine.
We've pretty much accepted it, in a sense, though, we dislike it.
Right? And one is natural one is not natural. So there is a
difference. Clearly, there's a difference. But how would you live
in this world without in this country,
without becoming aggressive towards somebody like that?
Which sometimes can be very detrimental in terms of, you know,
because it's against the law to do that. So how do you balance that
with? Also not feeling like it's all fine?
That's the biggest challenge for Muslims today, things of that
nature.
And
a simple example is if you watch a movie, and there's
the clearly haram aspect going on in there of
the would you call it
falling in love romance, we generally become part of that, we
kind of become so absorbed in the story that we can start thinking,
yeah, go ahead, you know, you had to do this, you know, you we
become part of the whole plot.
What does that say for our iman at that time?
It's quite scary to think about these things. So how do you
maintain the state of the heart of a believer?
Because Can we say that we're acting like a believer when we're
so absorbed in this, of course, we shouldn't even be watching this.
But I'm saying this is the case where Muslims watch these things.
And they get so absorbed, that they start, you know, because the
director, he is going to the way he makes the movie, he is going to
the way they do it is to attract sympathy for even the villain, the
villain, there's sympathy in the way they play, the thing it makes
him seem to be the one you must be sympathizing with, right, because
that's the way of the movie. And then when the guy's done all his
bad in his life, and then after he's like the hero at the end, and
we just follow that, you know, mind because we become so
absorbed.
So how do you deal with that situation where the professor
Lawson said that if you can't even think about it in your heart, then
it means that there's that's the last part of your iman
mustardseed.
These are the real challenges we have on a very subtle level.
Because we being on the path, we have to think of these things,
because these are highly detrimental. But then you can't go
into work and it's like coffee, coffee, coffee, you have that that
how you're going to deal with work that way as well. Do you
understand?
You can think of it inside you. But how you're going to you know,
how do you deal with that. That's a very difficult thing.
very detrimental thing.
Now, this is the very important part here,
which is
Mujahidin.
So the internal Mujahid that is against the shaytaan
and against the dunya you have another Majah so you haven't put
your head against the dunya.
It's trying to get into our heart. So the Majah is not with the dunya
we have to live here we can't be you know, but it's about it
getting into our hearts. So that's our Mujahidin number one. And then
we have a Majah with our knifes
and then we have moja with the shape on so we have our three
levels.
Each three of these are trying its best to in encroach on us and
influence us
so that it takes us away from the world.
shaytaan gives the whispers in the heart
that's the that's the idea of faith.
can't make you do anything, whatever it is.
knifes will is even a bigger problem, because it comes from
where we don't even realize. And it makes things that you need to
do this, you need to do that it gives us a demand inside and when
you've got, it's like for example, you want to avoid something but
your family already known to do it, do it, do it. That becomes
much more difficult. And some outsider telling you, you feel an
obligation towards your family.
Right? You feel an obligation towards your family. You're like
how far should I do it? Should I not do it and then you do it do
it. So can you imagine that? So if your family is
the same kind of thing here, if it's your enemy in this sense,
then your enemy is going to you think it's your friend, because
your family is not your enemy.
It's easy to get rid of the shaytaan but the knifes Can you
can only overcome the Nostromo Jaha shaytaan you can say older
bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim. But the knifes you have to have
more Jehovah and Mujahidin means depriving it, of it, depriving it
of its
certain things that it wants to do. So that you give it less
energy. The more we the more we indulge it even with Halal things.
And the biggest example of this is Ramadan, Ramadan is a training
ground for this, this is so that Allah subhanaw taala give 30 days
of training for this, that's how important it is. And you could
have made on the whole year but then you want to become a
different story. But then it's the training that look this is the
benefit you'll see from this and you're supposed to carry on some
of this afterwards.
The only way to do it is to ask Allah subhanaw taala and to
overcome the self by depriving it of things.
The way to do it, he says is by eating less. So fasting more,
that's how you do it.
Getting up more at night to do more tahajjud because that's going
to go against the knifes because the weird timing that you have to
that's another thing and walking
instead of writing he considers that that even that for the sake
of Allah to walk somewhere
as opposed to using
the car or something like that is that in itself also put some pain
on your heart or on your knifes
and the other thing is to start doing work within the people
which is generally this is extreme but the witches do not seem to be
very honorable work you know help people in a way that breaks your
enough's
clear up the masjid, things of that nature, which generally, you
know, people who have a lot of self respect will not do.
So this is the the knifes down
and that will help it.
Somebody asked, you've heard of biopsied bestowed by a Zb stormI
who was one of the great leader of the past. Somebody asked him what
was the most difficult thing and burden Allah subhanaw taala placed
on you when you're in his path.
So he says that if I told you you would not be able to listen, I
said no, no, no. Then tell us okay, what's the least of the
burdens that Allah has placed on you? The least of them if you
can't tell us what the biggest one is? What's the least one? So he
said, you don't even have the ability to listen to that. He said
the least is
no they insisted. So he said
when I told my enough to do it, and to be obedient, and it did not
accept, then I humiliated it for one whole year.
I punished it for one entire year not for one day.
Not for two days, but for an entire year I went against
everything minus wanted.
Then I got it to see it's like a wild horse which doesn't want to
listen you have to use certain training tactics to it which is
deprivation.
That's why some of the orlimar they've mentioned that
you could have 1000 profits to do to intercede for you
against the knifes mean of no benefits
it's just trying to show that the knifes can only be dealt with in
one way. So you could have 1000s of profits to intercede for you
against your enough's but was make KitchenAid Vida Agha until you
don't act yourself they will have no benefit. The only way is to
humiliate it and to starve it
that's the only way to deal with it
so vicar etc helps, but you also
So need muda against enough's
vicar, etc will help you have enough fortitude to struggle with
enough so this is a higher level in general not going to talk to
people about, you know depriving them of success in Ramadan. But
the thing is that we get them into vicar because there's no way you
can even think of depriving yourself. You love you enough too
much. How can we deprive ourselves, the only way we can do
that is when we do enough vicar so that Allah subhanaw taala becomes
foremost in our mind, we begin to love him, we see that we see the
need for such a thing, then we'll have enough strength to do that.
And Manasa detente, we don't have to lie that he was a master in
these things as Messiah. So when connotative sub came to him
Monash every time we told him, the biggest people used to come then
say it's today, man nadwi abdulmajeed. There. Yeah, but the
one of these great people used to come. So when Cory tapes up came,
he told him to straighten the shoes now carry tapes is the
bottom of dialog Diovan, you know, there is no greater institution
than the time. You know. So he is the he is the principal, he comes
in to monitor LaTonya Washington, he tells him that you must
straight and people choose tomorrow.
So that's the kind of thing they used to employ in those days
today, if you tell them what to do that I mean, we, you know, we'd
never do something like this if you've told us to do that. So,
carry tapes, it was very refined, you know, if I found it very
difficult to do. So then it was the sheiks
order. So he had to do it. So what he did was he went and started the
next day, he did straighten some shoes, but the nicer ones he
didn't touch the road and those people are coming from the fields
Taliban is in you know, is a village. So there's people coming
from the fields, all dirty, tatty. You know, that's they've been sewn
up so many times. And you know, that's the kind of slip he didn't
want to touch them. He only touched the good ones, and he
straighten those up, someone else recently noticed it. So in
tomorrow, he says, tomorrow, I want you to just focus on those
ones and not that one.
So when he did that the next day now that it was appointed, you
know, order, when he he read later recounts that when I did that all
the arrogance from my heart disappeared. I humiliated my
knifes.
Remember when I went to turnabout and the person who was showing us
around Maulana Jose pays me miss. So there's the Taliban Hancock.
And then after that some distance away. There's a land that mana
town we used to own and on there, he had built
a building, there was a building there
that was out on the side of the village at the middle of nowhere,
in a sense. So he said, now it's actually in front of his his
grave, because he decided to have his grave away from the graveyard
of the town. So somebody said, What is this special
preparation you're making for your own grave in this special place,
and so on.
Because it does seem a bit special, doesn't it if you don't
want to be in the general Cobra Stan, and you make your own copy
of Stan.
But he says, and this is the foresight of the man. He said that
I've just routed out one of the such a big facade that could
happen afterwards.
Because
if he was buried in the general graveyard, it's owned by
everybody. You can't have any control there. He's seen the abuse
of other grave other mosaics, graves where people come and
certain groups of people take over and make that a money making job.
Now if it's on his own, that's
run by his family and his mother, sir, then they can make sure
nothing like that happens. So look at his foresight, even after his
death is focused on these things.
So now, you know there's a few other people buried there. But
that's it's an it's guarded. So you know, you can't go and do
these kinds of things. But that's a separate point. The point is
about the building. He showed us this old building just one kind of
building. And he said you ha own mudo cabeza, Jetta jinkies la
honey OTT.
They're basically those who couldn't be rectified in the
handcar. They had to be sent here and the Hanukkah is not like some
kind of plush, luxurious place anyway. It's quite basic. So if
they couldn't be sorted out, then he goes carried himself to your
homepage I get
but these great people who are willing to put themselves down to
that.
I mean, what we're doing here is a joke. We're just about doing
something a little accepted.
If you go and look at the ripe old ajeeb it's a wonderful places it's
nothing around it. Just in the middle of the forest kind of
thing. Nice green all the way around. And around the first time
we went there and there's people doing liquor there was quite
amazing.
It was quite amazing. Because you can have in London is difficult
you hear in the traffic, you're hearing everything, you know, to
have that kind of isolation
To be just focused, because even the sound of traffic is going to
be distracting you you can, it's going to make you think about
where you have to go because we're so used to it, it's just
psychological, we can't help it.
So
we just, we must try to do as much as possible. So he says a few
other things, but I'll just basically well Latina Jaha, do
fina Alana Hadiya, Nam, Cebu Lana, that those who really do Majah in
our way for us who would shahada means to exert yourself, in the
sense to exert yourself whoever does exert themselves, so my way
for our way, we will then show them our paths, the paths to Allah
subhana wa Tada the higher level paths, we all Muslims,
Alhamdulillah, we all have a level of Tofik of doing good deeds, but
then the path of enough sudomotor in, those are blocked to us until
we don't do much.
Otherwise, our knifes will constantly stay in Loma Amara
situation, we're constantly going to be in this turmoil. The way to
get there is to do more Mujahidin. But the thing I want to just
caution is that Majah has to be done slowly, slowly, because we're
not used to it. We've left lived lives that are and if you don't
have the one is that somebody can take themselves out of
life like that and go into a monastic life where everything
surrounding us monastic, right, like a hunter in the middle of
nowhere. And that's what everybody's doing. Nobody's eating
good food, everybody's eating basic food, then it's easier
because your surrounding will help you. But in this country, to go
into a monastic life, where everything around you is too
difficult, you're worried it's like you're taking a child,
putting him in front of all these ice cream parlors and not buying
an ice cream.
You're torturing yourself then. So that's why one has to work slowly
on this.
One has to work slowly, within the confines of what we have. That's
why it's difficult, otherwise, it will backfire. And you'll lose
your knifes again.
Right? So I'm not trying to tell people not to do it. But I'm just
trying to say that we need to do it slowly, slowly. And if the
desire is there, and the will is there, and you are making small
increments each time then inshallah at least we're getting
somewhere.
So the thing is to make that improvement bit by bit, at least,
at least.
And if one day Allah Tala does give us an ability, and it's very
difficult for people to go away, but if we can go away for a while,
and then that would be very beneficial because that does help
us it's like having a few Ramadan throughout the year to find a
situation like that.
Unfortunately, many of the articles that we do this good food
in those articles, you know, there's all of that so at the end
of the day, what do you end up really getting out of the
antibiotics that feeling good? You get some benefit, but it's not the
same thing.
Allah subhanaw taala help us Allah subhanaw taala benefit us