Adnan Rajeh – Towards a Modern Awakening #06 – Intentions and Spirituality
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of purifying one's soul and heart, as it is crucial to achieving spiritual well-being. They advise listeners to read the book of absorption and encourage them to support their faith. They also encourage people to support their spiritual institutions and be part of their lives. The book provides guidance on how to purify one's bodies and minds, and encourages support for their faith.
AI: Summary ©
As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi ta'ālā wa
-barakātuh, Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm, wal-ḥamdu liLlāhi rabbil
-ʿālamīn, Allāhumma ṣalli wa-sallim wa-barik ʿalá
nabiyyinā Muḥammadin wa-ʿalá ālihi wa-ṣaḥbihi ajmaʿīn
wa-baʿd, Allāhumma ʿallimnā mā yanfaʿunā wa-infaʿnā
bimā ʿallamtana wa-zidnā ilman ya-arḥam al
-rāhimīn.
Welcome to our seven-episode series of Towards
a Modern Awakening.
Today's episode number six, where I'll be talking
about intentions and spirituality.
And to be honest, the word spirituality is
a bit superficial for me.
I would have probably chosen purification in a
different setting, but just so that this is
relevant, I thought the word spirituality would bring
forward the meaning that I'm trying to address,
inshallah.
And when you look at it, you may
even think, well, intentions, spirituality, what's the difference?
Is there a difference?
And why intentions specifically?
The reason that you talk about intentions specifically
and looking at it as its own entity
is because that's how the Prophet ﷺ treated
it.
And that's how all the scholars who followed
in Islamic history did as well.
Every book of ḥadīth you open, the first
ḥadīth right in it, innamā al-aʿmālu bi
-n-niyātin, Deeds are judged based on their
intentions.
wa-innamā li-kulli-mri'mmāna, When every person
is going to be rewarded and judged based
on their intentions, every book of ḥadīth, I
kid you not, starts with that specific ḥadīth
because of how the scholars revered this ḥadīth
and treated it and how important it actually
is in our deen.
And what intentions actually refer to in Islam
is something called ikhlas, sincerity.
The importance of intentions are based on the
concept of al-ikhlas, of being sincere.
Al-ikhlas is by far probably the most
important aspect of being a Muslim.
The thing that you should continuously be thinking
about, focused on, asking yourself about, revising and
revisiting throughout your life, is your ikhlas, is
your sincerity.
In the Qur'an, the surah that is
named al-ikhlas, it's the only surah in
the Qur'an that's name, the word, the
name, doesn't exist within the wording of the
surah.
Every surah in the Qur'an, the actual
name of it, is a word that exists
somewhere in the surah.
Except this one.
The word ikhlas does not exist there.
But what ikhlas is, is the natural consequence
of believing in these words.
Believing that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la is the one and the only.
That He is the only one to depend
upon.
That He does not bear children nor was
He ever born.
Meaning He is the first and the last,
Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
And there is no one that is similar
to Him or is associated with Him, Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
Understanding that about Him, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la, means that you will be sincere
towards Him when you worship.
So, ikhlas is the most important thing from
a belief perspective, from a creed perspective.
Tawheed, which is believing in the one and
only God, which is Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la.
That is ikhlas from a creed perspective, a
theological perspective.
And it's also the most important thing from
a behavioral perspective.
Achieving ikhlas, achieving sincerity in your life where
the only reason you do something is for
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
See, in Islam, intentions or motives are extremely
important.
Motives are extremely important in Islam.
We need to continuously revise why we're doing
things throughout our lives until the day we
meet Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
Imam Sufyan Al-Thawri, for example, once was
called to come and attend a funeral.
So, he had his students around him, and
they all got up to leave.
Imam Sufyan sat there for maybe 25 seconds,
and then he got up.
So, he asked him, Imam, what were you
doing?
He said, I was fixing my intention.
I was rectifying my intention.
I was making sure my intention was correct.
Why don't you do the same?
Don't you focus on your intention for a
moment?
Of course, the students at that point looked
at each other, not as much as we
should, apparently.
Another nice example that we have, Sayyiduna Ali
radiallahu anhu, during a battle, he was engaging
in battle with an enemy soldier.
And as Sayyiduna Ali radiallahu anhu was winning
the battle, or winning this fight, and just
before he actually delivered the final blow, this
man spat in Ali radiallahu anhu's face.
When he did that, Ali left him and
went and continued to fight elsewhere.
So, this man followed him and asked him,
why wouldn't you?
I did that as my last thing to
do in life.
I was just, Before you did that, I
was fighting you for the sake of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When you did that, I had this anger
in me where I wanted to punish you
for myself, and I would never do something
for myself.
It's a severe example, but it shows you
the range of how our Salaf would look
at the concept of intention, and the concept
of sincerity, regardless of whether it was something
as simple as attending a funeral, or in
the midst of battle, they were always looking
to see what their intentions were doing.
He teaches us, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, through
a hadith, a hadith Qudsi that we know,
where he says, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I
am the least needing associate when it comes
to deeds that are done for me.
So, if you've done a deed for me
and for others, for Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala and for other associates, then I will
leave my associates to give you their reward.
I don't need your deed at all.
And this is a very scary hadith, because
it's telling us that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is only going to accept deeds and
actions that have been done for him sincerely.
We're the only motive.
For people, all that matters is what's done.
Whether you achieve the goal, and you achieve
the purpose properly.
Most human beings aren't interested in why you
did it.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is more
interested in why you did what you did,
in contrast to actually what you did and
how it turned out at the end.
Meaning, for someone to try their best for
the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
and not actually achieve the goal.
And someone else, not doing it for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but
achieving the goal.
For people, they'd rather have the goal achieved.
For Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he'd rather
make sure that the motive and the intention
behind it was perfect.
That doesn't mean that we'd rather people fail
at what they're doing.
No, no, that's not what I'm trying to
say.
But I'm trying to explain the importance of
motives and intentions.
And this is something that you'll find all
through the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's sunnah,
and all through the Qur'an as well.
If you go to Surah Az-Zumar, for
example, he says, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, قُلْ
إِنِّي أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ مُخْلِصًا لَهُ الدِّينِ
Say that I have been commanded to worship
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with full sincerity,
in terms of how I'm going to deal
with his religion.
Everything I do is going to be with
full sincerity.
In the Qur'an there's an interesting linguistic
complex that comes three times in the Qur
'an, where he says subhanahu wa ta'ala,
he's telling Musa alayhi salam to talk to
Ibn Isra'il after he gave him the
Ten Commandments, and he said, فَخُذْهَا بِقُوَّةٍ Take
this with strength and with seriousness.
وَأْمُرْ قَوْمَكَ يَأْخُذُوا بِأَحْسَنِهَا And tell your people
to follow the best of it.
The best of it.
The best of the commandments?
Why?
Is there something that is the worst of
the commandments?
Of course not.
الَّذِينَ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقَوْلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحْسَنَةً Those who hear
the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and follow the best of it.
Follow the best of it.
Does the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala have a section that is the worst
of it?
Of course not.
Hasha lillah, of course not.
Then what does this mean?
وَاتَّبِعُوا أَحْسَنَ مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُم مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ Follow
the best of what has been revealed to
you by your Lord.
The same question.
No.
So how do you understand the best of
what's been revealed?
You see, within Islam there are a thousand
commands and instructions and directives and prohibitions and
all these different rulings that exist in Islam.
There are thousands of them.
Are we going to follow and practice all
these rulings all at once all the time?
Of course not.
Of course that's not how things work.
Certain rulings will be followed in certain times.
It's just how Islam functions.
So when you're in a given situation, which
ruling or which command or which directive are
you going to follow?
Well, after you learn Islam properly and you
seek knowledge and understand the conditions of everything
and how things are supposed to be done,
you're left with the question, what command right
now would better serve the purpose of the
deen?
What command right now would bring Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala satisfaction upon me the most?
What would Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala love
me to do right now the most?
What is most sincere?
I'm going to give you a few examples
so you understand what I'm trying to say.
You see, it is convenient to tell your
children all the ayat and ahadith about bir
al-walideen.
It's convenient for you, but it's not sincere.
It's convenient for a husband to recite upon
his wife all the ahadith where the Prophet
ﷺ is telling women to treat their husband
in a certain way.
It's very convenient, but it's not sincere.
It's convenient when you dislike someone and they
make a mistake to decide that this is
the right moment to give nasiha and to
defend Islam in front of those who are
trying to destroy it.
It's very convenient to do that publicly, but
it's not sincere because if you liked that
person, you probably wouldn't have done it in
the same way.
And I can give you a hundred more
examples.
You can probably do a hundred more.
You can always find a way to justify
why you're doing something.
Well, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that
we should do it, and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala taught us to give nasiha.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to
defend Islam in front of those who are
making mistakes.
True, but at this moment, right now in
your situation, is the way that you're doing
it the most sincere way?
Is the way that you're doing it actually
for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala?
Or is there some self-serving aspect within
it?
And this is, of course, what the importance
of understanding sincerity is.
Intentions, that's what they mean.
The reason that we have an intention is
because we get for a moment to focus
on my being sincere.
Never stop doing something if you feel your
intention isn't a hundred percent.
That's not what I'm teaching today or what
I'm talking about.
Never stop doing something khair because you feel
your intention isn't perfect.
But make sure that you're taking time to
actually care about your intention.
Which takes me to the second part of
what I want to talk about today.
Taking care of the concept of soul purification
or one's self-purification.
I believe that the actual problem that we
have in our ummah today is a problem
of nufus.
It's a problem of egos.
There's enough space in all our masajid to
fit all of our bodies, but there's not
enough space in the universe to fit all
of our egos.
And this is the actual issue that we
struggle with.
All the problems that you see, all the
disagreements and the politics, if you break them
down, what you'll find at the end of
it or the stem of it, is just
an ego problem.
Some person who dislikes another.
Something like that.
It's something very simple that if we were
focusing on tezkiyya, on purification of our hearts,
we wouldn't have.
The question that is left is how important
is that in Islam?
This is the problem for me.
How important is it in Islam?
There's nothing that is more important than it
in Islam.
And the evidence for that is in abundance.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about why
he sends prophets.
The reason for sending messengers.
Isn't that a huge question that needs a
huge answer?
Why, Ya Rabb, did you send prophets?
What purpose do these prophets actually fulfill?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took time to
explain and say that there are four reasons,
there are four purposes prophets are here to
actually achieve.
Four goals they have to achieve and leave.
And he repeats that in the Qur'an
in three different places.
When Ibrahim a.s. is talking, وَرَبَّنَا وَبَعَثْ
فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ
الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ And again in Surah Ali
Imran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has completed
his bounty upon the believers.
وَرَبَّنَا وَبَعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ
وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ And then again in
Surah Al-Jumu'ah that we all know.
وَرَبَّنَا وَبَعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ
وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ يَتْلُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ
آيَاتِكَ The first goal, which is to recite
upon them the signs of God.
To tell them who Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is.
You need to know who your Lord is
so you can have a relationship with Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You have to know who Allah is.
If you don't know Allah, you can't have
a relationship with Him.
You can't have a relationship with anyone that
you do not know.
Period.
That's the first purpose.
Second purpose, وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ To purify them.
And then after that, وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ And
teach them the rulings of God, الْكِتَابَ And
the wisdom of how and when to practice
these rulings, الْحِكْمَةَ But the second reason that
Prophets are here for is to do تَزْكِيَة
Is to actually purify the hearts and the
souls of their followers.
And this is something that is extremely underrated
today in Islam.
We're not focusing on that.
We don't even think about it.
We don't even talk about it.
You can go through a life in a
Muslim family And never hear this concept ever
come up, not even once.
You'll go through your full childhood as a
Muslim And this will never be brought up
with you.
Which is a huge problem because it's the
second purpose of why Prophets were sent.
And it's one of the most important things
that we have in our Deen.
Look at the example of Imam Malik.
When he was a child, His mother would
put his imamah on his head.
تَقُولُ كَانَتْ تُعَمِّمُنِي أُمِّي وَتَقُولُ لِي إِذْهَبْ إِلَى
رَبِيعَةَ الرَّأْيِ فَتَعَلَّمْ مِنْ أَدَبِهِ قَبْلَ عِلْمِهِ Go
to Rabi'a, which is one of the
great scholars of his time, One of Malik's
teachers.
Go and learn from his adab, learn from
his manners and his way, his hal.
How he behaved.
The level of reverence and respect he showed
the words of Allah SWT, The words of
the Prophet SAW.
Which is what people actually remember Imam Malik
for.
Revering the hadith of the Prophet SAW.
Revering the city of the Prophet SAW.
More than all the fiqh, as important as
his fiqh was.
رضي الله عنه وعليه رحمة الله And I
think that's something that we have extremely underestimated.
For example, Surah Al-Shams.
Allah SWT takes oaths in everything that He's
created that you can see.
On a daily basis.
وَالشَّمْسِ وَضُحَاهَا وَالْقَمَرِ إِذَا تَلَاهَا وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا جَلَّاهَا
وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَاهَا وَالسَّمَاءِ وَمَا بَنَاهَا وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا
طَحَاهَا وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا Eleven oaths in a
row.
Never in the Qur'an will you ever
find that again.
This is the only place in the Qur
'an where he makes eleven oaths in a
row.
And he swears subhanahu wa ta'ala by
the sun.
And the moment that it shines the most
brightly in the sky.
And by the moon when it comes after
it.
And by the day.
And by the night.
And by the sky.
And everything that went into creating the sky.
And by the earth.
And everything that went into creating the earth.
And by the human soul.
And everything that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
put into creating the human soul.
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَهَا And this soul has been
given the basic understandings of what's right and
what's wrong.
And then he, after making these oaths.
He's going to tell us why he made
these oaths.
If I come to you and I say,
I swear to God.
And I walk away.
You're waiting for something.
What's next?
You swear to God.
This is called in Arabic, جَوَابُ الْقَسَمِ So
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I swear by
this and by this.
I take an oath by this and by
this.
قَدَ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّاهَا وَقَدَ خَابَ مَنْ دَسَّاهَا
Indeed, those who purify their souls are going
to be the most successful in this life
and the hereafter.
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ دَسَّاهَا And those who fail
to purify their souls and let their souls
continue to function the way they will always
function.
Will be extremely disappointed يوم القيامة Extremely disappointed
يوم القيامة He says, صلى الله عليه وسلم
لَا يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ حَتَّى يَكُونَ هَوَاهُ تَبَعًا لِمَا
جِئْتُ بِهِ No one will have full Iman
until their self-desires are aligned with the
teachings of Allah سبحانه وتعالى Go to Surah
Al-Nazi'ah Surah Al-Nazi'ah talks
about the Nafs That the Nafs is going
to be either what saves you and takes
you to Jannah or is going to be
what causes you to go to Jahannam And
we're given the example of Fir'aun Fir
'aun إِنَّهُ طَغَى The problem of Fir'aun
Everything he did The enslavement He ran an
empire with all the complexities of running something
like that The reason for everything he did
is طغى طغى means he became arrogant He
was filled with arrogance That's it Which led
him to oppression طغيان is when you're arrogant
and your arrogance leads you to oppress people
That's why when Musa Alayhi Salaam in Surah
Al-Nazi'ah when he comes and talks
to him What does he say?
He says فَقُل Musa say this to Fir
'aun هَلْ لَكَ إِلَى أَن تَزَكَّ How about
you come along with me and I teach
you how to purify your heart وَأَهْدِيَكَ إِلَى
رَبِّكَ فَتَخْشَ And I lead you to your
Lord so that you may have reverence for
Him in your heart This is what Musa
Alayhi Salaam told Fir'aun تَزَكَّ How will
you purify If you can purify your soul
and your heart everything will change Of course
he refused And so at the end of
Surah Al-Nazi'ah Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala says وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَافَ مَا قَامَ رَبِّه
وَنَهَى النَّفْسَ عَنِ الْهَوَى And as for those
who fear the status of their Lord وَنَهَى
النَّفْسَ عَنِ الْهَوَى And restrain themselves from fulfilling
all their self-desires Just restraining themselves Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about the concept
of someone worshipping their self-desires There is
no faith on earth that has ever made
an idol and called it self-desires and
worshipped it This is just a figure of
speech أَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَاهَهُ هَوَاهُ أَفَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ
اتَّخَذَ إِلَاهَهُ هَوَاهُ وَأَضَلَّهُ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ Twice
in the Qur'an The second one is
very scary in Surah Al-Jaziyah You see
the person who chose their Lord to be
their self-desires And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala has misguided them Even though they are
filled with knowledge If the brain becomes really
really big But the heart becomes really really
small This imbalance can never bring khayr If
the head is going to grow Meaning you're
going to become more knowledgeable You're going to
have more and more information You're going to
have more and more degrees The brain is
getting bigger The heart has to get bigger
as well So the balance stays If the
heart doesn't get bigger and stays small There
is no khayr to come from that There
really isn't We have an issue today with
the concept of tazgih It's not important anymore
And I feel bad about that Because that's
not how I was taught Islam That's not
how I was raised to become a Muslim
And that made all the difference for me
in my life All the difference was made
because of understanding This very simple and clear
concept of tazgih You see when you do
a deed When you perform an action of
any sort They are fulfilling the conditions of
the action Doing it properly the way the
sunnah taught us And the way the Qur
'an explains to us But at the end
there is the concept of acceptance of this
deed Do you know that your deed now
has been accepted or not?
Do you know that?
No, you don't You've done it But has
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala accepted it?
There's that last step that we have no
control over We can increase the probability of
our deeds to be accepted How?
By performing tazgih By making sure there's a
lot of sincerity in these deeds And that
there's less of all the diseases of the
heart within it We can increase the probability
but you don't know That's why if you
go to different parts of the world After
prayers people look at each other and say
Taqabbal Allah It's not a sunnah But the
reason that they do this Because the scholars
over years Taught people to remind themselves after
prayer Ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
accept it from you Because if he doesn't
accept it Rabbala taqabbal minna If he doesn't
accept it then what's the point?
Not only is the acceptance of the deed
extremely important But the athar Al mutarattib alal
qabool Meaning the consequences The effect Allah's acceptance
on your deed will have on you When
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala accepts your deed
There's a nur that is going to fill
your heart If you don't get that Then
you didn't get anything out of the action
Because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala doesn't benefit
from our deeds It's just we hope that
he accepts them And when he accepts them
He fills our heart with light With nur
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala That's why we know
the hadith Rubba saimin Laysa lahum min qiyamihi
illa aljoo'u wal ta'ab Rubba qaimin
Laysa lahum min qiyamihi illa aljoo'u Sorry
illa aljoo'u wal ta'ab Rubba qaimin
Laysa lahum min qiyamihi illa aljoo'u wal
ta'ab There are people who fast And
all they get from their fasting is being
Obviously I'm making mistakes sometimes Is hunger and
thirst And those who perform qiyam And all
they get from it is being tired at
the end of it Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala Allahumma a'idhna min thalik wa taqabbal
a'malana Ya urham al-rahimeen Allahumma ameen It's
a very scary thing to think about That
everything you do is just not accepted And
the reason Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala won't
accept something Is because it's filled with all
these diseases of the heart All these problems
that we didn't take care of What are
the diseases of the heart?
Scholars count over 25 of them Some go
up to 30 I recommend you read Ihyaa
aloom al-deen for Imam al-Ghazali Reviving
the sciences of Islam For Imam al-Ghazali
I also advise to read Al-Risal al
-Qushayriyya Which is what Imam al-Qushayri wrote
In a 300 page book Read At-Tibyan
fi Adab Hamidat al-Qur'an Al-Imam
al-Nawawi These books, the scholars talk about
The spiritual aspects The tazkiyah aspects of the
nescence And when they go through all the
different Diseases of the heart Four stand out
as extremely important for us to know Al
-Ujjub, Al-Kibir, Al-Hasad, Al-Riya You
have to be aware of these four Because
we were created with these four As a
part of who we are They're there Unless
you remove them, they will stay there They
will grow, and they'll get worse Some people
have them smaller Just by our predispositions And
how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Created our
characters Some of us have different degrees Of
these diseases Meaning, not everyone has The exact
same degree of each disease Some people have
more Al-Ujjub than they have Al-Kibir
Some have more Al-Hasad than they have
Al-Riya But they're there, all four are
there Meaning, tazkiyah is important because There's no
one who was born without them They're always
a part of who you are If you
don't remove them, then they will stay There's
a lot of other ones, but these are
the four major ones If you learn to
observe them To watch out for them Then
you can actually start changing yourself Vanity, which
is Al-Ujjub Vanity is when we're full
of ourselves When we're extremely in admiration Of
who we are And of course, what's the
right way What's the right concept to have
It's confidence, we're supposed to be confident in
who we are Confident that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala Gave us all the tools, Ahsan
Taqweem Allows us to fulfill our goal And
that He believes in us Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala And we can do it, that's confidence
Al-Ujjub, vanity is not a good thing
The pendulum of the human experience Kind of
swings inside of us back and forth Shaytan
wants you either to be Extremely vain Doesn't
want you to be confident because that's the
right way Or you can be someone who
has very low self-esteem Which is of
course a whole different Type of problem that
needs a different solution But we want to
hold it down right in the middle Where
we're confident Use Al-Hamd for that, Al
-Hamd praising Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Takes
the focus, the spotlight From being on me
to being on Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
What I have is not because I'm smart
Because I'm accomplished Because I'm hardworking What I
have is because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is generous Because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is forgiving Because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is patient with me And that's why I
have what I have and that's the only
reason And you can take it away, you're
focusing on praising Allah Instead of focusing on
praising yourself Al-Kibr, arrogance for example Arrogance,
the same pendulum is swinging back and forth
Arrogance on one extreme And then inferiority complexes
on the other extreme And right in the
middle is humbleness, humility Which is what the
Prophet Alaihissalam taught To be humble How do
you fix that?
Istighfar, you do a lot of istighfar You
focus on your mistakes You can't be arrogant,
you can't think you're better than other people
If you're always seeing I made this mistake
and this mistake and this mistake And you're
asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for forgiveness
I don't know the other people's mistakes I
don't know your mistake, I know mine As
far as I'm concerned, you don't have any
mistakes That I can see So why would
I think I'm better if I know my
mistakes And I only assume your mistakes Why
would I base my judgement on assumption Rather
than on certainty of knowledge Which is I
know who I am, I know the mistakes
I make So you focus on asking for
istighfar And you stay humble throughout your life
Arria, ostentation A word I'm becoming more and
more familiar with Showing off, wanting others to
see What we're doing Wanting people to focus
on Caring about people's opinion The opposite of
that is ikhlas, is sincerity That's why it's
so important Arria is a form of shirk
Arria is actually a form of shirk, it's
just a small form of shirk But it's
a form of shirk You're not worshipping people
But you really seem to care about their
opinion in you Almost equally to how you
Care about Allah's opinion in you Which makes
no sense at all How can Allah's eyesight
upon you Be equal to other people's eyesight
upon you How can we be ashamed Of
people looking at us So we don't do
dhunub in front of them But when people
aren't looking We commit sin because only Allah
is looking at us It's a musibah You
get rid of that through tasbih Allah put
all the solutions For these things in Islam
Tasbih, you exalt Allah The more you exalt
him You figure out that there's no one
close to him There's no one like him
No one's worth caring about their opinion But
Allah, once that settles in your heart You're
good, you don't care what people say anymore
It takes time but it is achievable Al
-hasad, envy and jealousy You get rid of
that by Filling your heart with love The
opposite of that is love I envy someone,
the opposite of that is to love them
And to love khair for them To love
for people to achieve And to be great
How do you do that?
You have to adopt the concept of congregation
Of jama'ah, that's why jama'ah is
so important Masajid are closed, yes But we
have to keep the jama'ah spirit alive
Because once you kill the jama'ah spirit
We can't move forward Because al-hasad starts
to fill the hearts of everybody When I
know that you're on my team When I
know that you're wearing the same jersey I'm
wearing We're on the same team I want
you to achieve because that means my team
will win But if I don't see you
as a part of my team Al-hasad
is easy You don't want people to be
better than you We don't want people to
be better than us Unless they're on our
team Unless we want the team to win
And they're on our team then yes, be
better Because that means we have a stronger
team and we'll win It's just a way
of thought that changes If you want to
achieve khushu'ah Which is what we do
all Ramadan Which is why we're broken hearted
that this year The masajid are empty You
want to achieve khushu'ah You have to
love the Prophet Houses that don't revolve around
Loving Muhammad Where he is spoken of Where
everything he did and taught Is celebrated And
the love of the Prophet is being instilled
In the hearts of everyone in that household
It's a house that is going to be
Spiritually thirsty and hungry Spiritually bankrupt Because his
love Is what fuels Our ability to continue
to carry the message Of Islam and follow
these rulings If you don't love the Prophet
You can't love Allah He is the pathway
He takes us to the love of Allah
If you want to love Allah You have
to love the Prophet It's literally impossible To
love Allah without loving him As a Muslim
that is Because he is the one who
taught you everything About Allah And yes the
heart can be filled With the love of
Allah Where that's all that matters to you
Where you're so happy And in content With
just knowing that Allah is satisfied with you
That he is Washing upon you That he
is a part of your life That he
knows and understands your pain And he cares
about you That being enough Not needing people
around This is something that is achievable Through
loving the Prophet So what is the action
plan for today?
Just like your body needs Food and drink
And it needs nourishment And it needs rest
Your soul needs the same Our souls are
exactly the same They need nourishment If your
body goes without nourishment for a couple of
weeks Or a couple of months It starts
to die Slowly it starts to die And
it shrivels down and you can't survive And
our souls have the same problem It doesn't
hurt as much And it's not as acute
But our souls have been thirsty And hungry
For the light of Allah And the beauty
Of the teachings of the Prophet The action
plan is that You have to start taking
this seriously This is one of the most
serious aspects Of our existence We aren't making
If we don't purify our hearts We will
not be successful It doesn't matter how many
deeds we've done Because Allah's acceptance of these
deeds Is going to be based on How
much we've purified ourselves while doing them How
much sincerity exists in these deeds How much
we have purified these deeds From our vanity
and arrogance And selfishness and oblivion And negligence
If we don't take this seriously Then nothing
we're doing Is going to amount to anything
Every Muslim should have Someone who is doing
that for them You need to go and
find a Shaykh Who can teach you this
stuff This is a science This is a
full discipline of Islamic knowledge That has been
unfortunately turned into A very controversial aspect of
Islam But it's not And I'm not asking
people to go and engage In full Sufism
That's not what I'm asking you to do
But you need to find someone Who can
walk you down the pathway of purifying your
soul And purifying your heart And becoming someone
who understands What the oneness of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Actually means Understands where Khashu
'ah comes from And is in a state
of Full calmness and closeness to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Regardless of the changes That
happen around them in their lives Who actually
worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Because they
feel they need to Because they feel they
want to Because they want to be close
to Him It's not That takes time, that
takes effort You need to find someone who
can do that for you Who can teach
you, who can educate you And Alhamdulillah scholars
They exist around you, you just have to
look for them You have to take time
to focus on that Aspect of your existence
There is no benefit of knowledge You can
read all the books of Fiqh If your
heart is not purified Then what you are
learning is going to harm you More than
it's going to help you Because your soul
is not ready to accept All this light
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And all
this knowledge Every Muslim should have a Wird
every day Should have a Hizb every day
Wird is an amount of remembrance of Allah
If we are doing Tasbeeh and Istighfar and
Hamd As I told you they fix the
problems Every Muslim should have a Hizb A
certain amount of Quran that they recite every
single day These are little things that we
don't do as much Or we don't do
anymore Even though I can't imagine how a
Muslim could survive As a Muslim in the
world Without doing these things on a daily
basis Where the remembrance of Allah And the
book of Allah Is something they do every
day And they've invested Enough time in bringing
Their hearts closer to Him subhanahu wa ta
'ala Learning the diseases of the soul And
how to deal with them Being more aware
and mindful of who we are As people,
what's happening on the inside And that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is not looking at
our bodies On the outside and what we
wear He's looking at our hearts He's taking
a look, what have you done Have you
purified Or is that heart filled with clutter
And filled with envy and selfishness So that
how is this light going to penetrate the
darkness of all of that I advise you
to read Ihya al-Umiddin for Imam al
-Ghazali Read the Hikam Of Ibn Ata'illah
al-Sikandari The pieces of wisdom that Ibn
Ata'illah left Read these books, ask scholars
to recommend Things for you to read so
you can learn So your heart can be
brought closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
I believe that this is an important Aspect
of our awakening Which is becoming more self
-aware And taking that self-awareness From the
source of the Quran And the Sunnah of
the Prophet I hope that was beneficial Before
the end During these times This time that
we have, this time of pandemic That we're
living through It's important to realize That our
Islamic institutions All around the country In our
cities specifically Will struggle Within this period To
meet their financial needs Because the masjids aren't
filled anymore And people aren't coming in everyday
And putting in donations and helping them And
I want to encourage everybody To support our
Muslim institutions All around the city Specifically our
father institution Within London The London Muslim Mosque
They have put together a campaign called Better
Together Go to together2020.ca There's a lot
of details there Of a $10 weekly donation
That will allow the institution to continue To
support 200 needy families Within the society Meet
their basic financial needs To keep the place
running And to continue to subsidize around 100
students Whether through the Quran programs Or through
the school The London Islamic School And I
encourage everybody To do that, to go today
Online and to support them With whatever you
can Because these are our Muslim institutions If
we lose them, if they can't meet their
needs Then basically we're going to lose everything
And do the same for The Westmount Centre
The Mac Westmount Centre That I run most
of my halaqats in Do the same for
the South Islamic Centre The North London Islamic
Centre The Masjid Al Hayya, all the different
institutions In our city, during this period Are
going to need our financial aid So that
they can continue to meet their financial needs
And run insha'Allah After this is all
over, things will become better again And we'll
be able to figure out some plans For
our future I hope everyone will consider that
Today Assalamualaikum