Ahmad Arshad – 09 26 2024 Remembrance Solace Of Hearts
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Ever Merciful, I seek refuge with Allah
from Satan, the accursed.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Ever Merciful, I seek refuge with Allah
from Remember me, I remember you, and thank
me, and do not disbelieve me.
Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of
Might and Glory, above what they ascribe to
Him.
And peace be upon the messengers, and praise
be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
O Allah, send blessings upon Sayyidina Muhammad and
upon the people of Sayyidina Muhammad and bless
him.
We begin this majlis with the beautiful name
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We send salutations on our beloved Hazrat Muhammad
al-Mustafa salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that he puts barakah in this gathering, in
this majlis, and make this a source of
redemption and source of forgiveness for each and
every one of us.
Insha'Allah, try to remain focused on the
dhikr that will be done and remain focused
on your heart.
Make sure the heart is able to concentrate,
is able to bask in the mercy of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Try to disconnect, retreat yourself from worldly thoughts,
insha'Allah, and be able to focus on
the dhikr and tazkirah of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Astaghfirullah rabbi min kulli dhanbi wa tubu ilayh.
Astaghfirullah.
Astaghfirullah.
Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammad wa ala aali
sayyidina Muhammadin wa sallim.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem, Malik
Yawm Al-Deen, Iyaka Na'budu Wa Iyaka
Nasna'een, Ihdina As-Sirata Al-Mustaqeem, Sirata
Al-Ladhina An'amta Alayhim Ghayri Al-Maghdubi
Alayhim Wala Al-Dhalleen.
Amin.
Bismillah.
Alhamdulillah.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa
ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala
aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin
wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin
wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa
ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala
aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala
aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin
wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin
wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa
ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala
aali Bismillahir
Rahmanir Rahim Ya Baqi Anta Al Baqi Allahumma
Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa Barik wa Sallim Bismillahir
Rahmanir Rahim La hawla wa la quwwata illa
billah Allahumma
Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa Barik wa Sallim Allahumma Salli ala
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
La ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu minal
zalimin La ilaha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu
minal zalimin Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa
ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa Barik wa Sallim
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa ala aali Allahumma
Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa Barik wa Sallim Allahumma Salli ala
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa Barik wa Sallim Allahumma Salli
ala Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa Barik
wa Sallim Allahumma
Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa Barik wa Sallim Bismillahir
Rahmanir Rahim Wallahu Waliyul Mu'minin Allahumma
Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa Barik wa Sallim Bismillahir
Rahmanir Rahim Allahumma
Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina
Muhammadin wa Barik wa Sallim Allahumma Salli ala
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa
Barik wa Sallim La
ilaha illallah La ilaha illallah
What I've heard first hand from Mufti Rufus
Bani Sahib about how he said that the
bare minimum that everybody should have is to,
for example, go out in Jamaat because you
are with people of Iman.
So, in itself, it is a good source
of support.
We need those support structures.
A higher level is to have scholars in
our life that people can have an Islahi
talib that you can reach out to, that
they can give you mashwarah, they can tell
you about halal, haram, and things like that.
And an even higher one that is a
better sort of translation of kunu ma'asadiki
is having people that you have like a
qalbi ruqani ta'alluk that you kind of
undertake this path of purification and rectification of
your own nafs and of your own qalb
with them.
Last time we spoke a little bit about
what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us
such opportunities, whether it is people, whether it
is makan or jamaat, whether it is places
or whether it is time.
So, it's people, places, time.
And within people you can say things as
well.
So, place, time, and matter, if you want
to call it that.
When such things happen that there should be
a sanctity associated with nisbat of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Let me look at the example that if
you have the Qur'an, the masaf in
front of you, you're not going to treat
it as any regular book as you would
do, let's say, like a fiction, a storybook.
Or if you are in baytullah, let's say
you go to haram, or if you are
in mawaj sharif in front of Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, you're not going to, you're
going to be extra vigilant in those places.
Because there is a sanctity, there is a
nisbat, so there's extra adab, there's extra muhabbat,
there's an extra ta'alluk with it.
So, having that sort of adab is necessary
to be able to benefit from those places,
from those times, as well as those people.
If you waste away your time in Ramadan
like we waste away our time during the
rest of the year, then it's, you know,
not only is it a waste of life,
but you actually become a target of the
hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in
which Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, if a
person does not get himself forgiven, even during
the month of Ramadan, even during these blessed
nights, then such a person, woe and destruction
for such a person.
There's a certain mizaj that has to be
developed, and we focused on that last time.
It's not something you just do, for example,
if there's a cop in front of you,
you'll do adab, but that's a forced adab.
What the other sort of adab we were
talking about is developing a mizaj, a mannerism,
like an etiquette, like an attitude of adab,
towards everything that we come across that has
nisbat with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So, this is something we have to practice.
This is something we have to practice.
And people who have this huduri of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, and may Allah ta
'ala make us amongst those people who develop
that huduri, if you are always cognizant of
that presence of Allah is with us, Allah
is watching us, then obviously a person is
going to be in a state or in
that mizaj of adab 24 hours a day.
Now you can imagine how the ikhlaq changes
towards everyone, how the thinking changes, how we
behave, behaviors change, everything changes.
You can just talk about any aspect of
human life, and you will find that it
will change.
Now moving on to this journey of becoming
a muqarrab of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
another aspect of this is, even when a
person develops a habit of learning, it's not
a learning that is in vain.
So for example, a lot of time people
will go to a college and a university,
they will spend 4 years, 6 years, and
you talk to them after 10 years, it
feels like I wasted my time.
Meaning, it seems to me that I took
all this loan, and I spent all of
this time, and I should have done something
else.
People will say this.
And people will go to a university and
college just to get a degree, a diploma,
just a piece of paper.
A lot of times it doesn't even help
you in your, let's say, career, and so
people will have this, I wasted that life.
So that's not the ilm we are talking
about.
That's not the learning we are talking about.
Because that can happen, right?
And ilm is not that knowledge.
Ulema have said that that is information, that
is ma'alumat, ma'alumat or a specific
fun that you learn, specific capabilities or abilities
that you learn.
What we are talking about is, let's say,
if a person is engaged in uloom diniya,
uloom al-islami, and even in uloom al
-islami, if a person has that developed mizaj
of adab and ikhlaq, now this ilm, this
gathering of ilm, becomes something that is known
as ilm-e-naafi'a.
And this is a dua of Rasulullah ﷺ
asking for ilm-e-naafi'a.
Now, the literal translation of ilm-e-naafi
'a is beneficial ilm.
So how is this ilm beneficial?
Usually we'll give that famous definition by Mufti
Shafi'i Usmani Sahib, rahmatullah ta'ala alayh,
in which he asked some of his students,
what is ilm?
And different people gave different answers.
He said, no, ilm is a nur, it's
a light.
Al-ilm-un-nur is a famous saying
that when this light enters into your heart,
it causes a tahrik.
It makes you mutaharik.
It moves you.
It moves you towards action.
So, according to him, this is what ilm
-e-naafi', a beneficial ilm, is.
So all of that saarif and nahaf, which
sometimes is difficult for people, especially the nahaf
part of things, all of that, it just
clicks.
All of that helps you become close to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So ilm-e-naafi', it becomes beneficial.
That whole journey becomes beneficial.
Because all of that is kind of forcing
a person to action.
And what action are we talking about?
It could be any action.
It could be extra ibadat.
It could mean that a person is more
careful in their ma'malat.
It could mean that a person is more
careful in their ma'sharat.
Because all of that you learn through ilm.
Like, what should be my ma'malat with you?
How should I do trade and commerce?
We have a business contract.
Same thing with a unit of family, which
also comes in ma'malat as well as ma'sharat.
All of that, you start to change.
There may have been a different way of
doing things, but ilm-e-naafi' is that
when you learn it, it becomes a little
different.
You change the way that you are approaching
all of these things.
I will think, and I've heard this from
some of my teachers, that you can also
think of this from a psychological perspective.
Like, ilm in general is like, I'm going
to just cover this book, or I finish
this book, and I finish this book.
It's more than that.
Ilm-e-naafi' is that ilm that, when
it enters your sha'ur, your consciousness, it
quenches its thirst.
Because the natural state of consciousness of sha
'ur, it's skeptical.
It asks questions.
For example, if I tell you, Danish is
not here today.
Danish is on the moon.
Right away, your mind is going to ask
questions about it.
He's on the moon.
How did he get there?
Did he take the rocket?
Did he take SpaceX?
How was he able to afford it?
Did he know somebody?
Did he go yesterday?
Did he go today?
Is he coming back?
All of these questions.
This is something that the mind does.
It's just like su'aal after su'aal
after su'aal.
So that thirst is always there.
A lot of times, from a worldly perspective,
that's very useful.
Because that's how research questions come into being.
If you talk to anybody who is doing
a PhD or who has done a PhD,
they'll tell you, you have to come up
with new research questions that you have to
answer.
But I would argue that when it comes
to the uloom of diniya, uloom of diniya,
it is exactly the opposite.
Ilm is something that actually quenches, that puts
your consciousness at ease.
That all of this, like why and how
and this and this, it just settles down.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, there's this
concept of ilm al-dun and shar'a
al-sadr.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives you that,
shar'a al-sadr, that your heart is
at ease with what is being given to
it.
It's at ease to it.
It's not like, you know, it accepts it.
It's like very natural.
It's like a puzzle.
Everything is just coming into its place and
the whole picture, your picture of life, becomes
very, very clear.
The bigger questions of why, why am I
here and things like that, everything just sits
where it needs to sit.
And you know, one of our mushayikh mufti,
Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi Sahib, he mentioned this.
He mentioned that, when Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala blessed me with nisbah and ta'alluk
and with his own sheikh, Hazrat * Imdadullah
Mahajer Makki, he had that sohbah with him.
He said that, some things changed within me.
And one of the things he mentioned, he
said that, before, if I had any ta
'aruz in any aspect of the shariah, I
had to look at books, after books, after
books.
What is the answer to it?
He said, now Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
just puts the answer.
Sort of like an ilm al-dun.
It just comes in the heart.
It's like an inspired answer Allah ta'ala
gives in the heart.
And so everything is just settled.
So the sharah sadr is there.
And the second aspect of it, which we'll
talk about as well, is that you also
do amal al-saleh, was that, you know,
amal became easy.
He said that before I had to really
force myself.
Like sometimes we have to force ourselves.
Tahajjud and this and this and this.
Do I really need to do this?
Can't I just do the faraih?
Do I have to do the sunan?
Do I have to do the nawafil that
comes with it?
Can I just do like 10 minutes of
dhikr?
Why do I have to do 15?
So the forcing of ourself is there.
We have to force ourselves.
And so amal al-saleh and amal al
-saleh that as a result of that good
sohbah on that journey of becoming a muqarrab
is that amal that comes natural.
That you don't have to force yourself.
That you want to do.
That you want to do.
And this is something that subhanallah you find
in most of our salaf salih.
I'm saying most because or you could possibly
say all of them.
But the more you read about them, the
more you come across that every single one
of them were people who were salihin.
They were salihin.
They were people of amal.
They were people of sacrifice.
They were able to accomplish so much in
their life.
And then you're like how did they do
this?
Didn't they get tired?
You know like all day long they were
doing this and then they are standing in
qiyam at night.
How did you know?
How?
Right?
This is the reason that for them the
ilm was ilm al-naafi.
That was pushing them towards doing amal on
it.
And the amal al-saleh became very natural
like second.
So they didn't have to force to do
it.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is what
we call tawfiq min Allah.
Allah ta'ala just gives you tawfiq to
do amal.
This is from Allah ta'ala.
This is a tawfiq.
This is a gift from Allah.
It's not like everybody doesn't know that we
have to do certain things.
But the question becomes why is it that
we are unable to do?
And one of the reasons is that tawfiq
isn't there.
So tawfiq from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
comes.
Amal is just very very easy to to
do.
I remember in Ramadan not the last one
but before that my own father-in-law
was here and we would see him that
mashallah he would be sitting inside and mashallah
all day long he would be reading the
Quran.
And he finished multiple Quran.
We're talking like 10-15 Quran.
This is how much he was able.
It was very easy.
Naturally when we looked at our own selves
it's always I have a job to do.
I have school to do.
I have teaching to do.
I have family to do.
Always that that hujjat that excuse just comes.
I have to do this.
I have to do this.
I have to do this.
And so barely barely most of us just
finished like one Quran.
Some of us were you know really pushed
it maybe two at the most.
Not to belittle it but I'm just saying
the level of tawfiq that somebody who's 80
-85 years old mashallah it's the same time.
The time is the same but there's so
much more barakah.
So much more barakah in it.
These actions were coming extremely easy.
Those actions that have become like burdensome to
us.
And so this is also something that Suhbat
-e-Saleheen definitely helps and Allah Ta'ala
gives and opens up doors of of tawfiq.
The things that were difficult before now become
easy.
And now if you look at it from
that lens we will understand even like contemporary
times or just go back one or two
generations I actually remember my own grandparents and
you know they were not religious people.
They were conservative like most of the society
but what we call like religious people they
were not that.
But I remember like almost every single day
3 o'clock in the morning both of
my grandparents they would just wake up and
they would be like reading the Qur'an
they had like a whole tarteeb Surah Taghabu
and Surah Muzammil and you know other adhkar
and you know finishing Ayat-e-Karima and
other ayahs and so they would just continue
and you know we would wake up at
night time and we would just see like
both the grandparents they're just sitting there doing
their thing.
Regular people regular people living regular lives but
Allah Ta'ala had just the Tawfiq was
there.
The Amal-e-Saleh was there and it
would continue all the way to Ishraq and
Jashd and in the middle you know our
grandmothers you know she would cook us breakfast
too so she was always doing that but
she would be doing dhikr while she's doing
it.
So now that we think about it you
know like now that you reflect on that
you understand that something was really different something
was really different their Ta'aluk with the
Deen their Tawakkul in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala their Yaqeen in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala their Muhabbat of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
you know they would you know the shock
that they had for anything related to Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was just amazing just amazing
like people would go for Umrah and they
would bring back dates and Aabi Zamzam and
what not and it was just SubhanAllah it
was like the greatest treasure they were treated
as such the way that they would just
kind of like keep it in like a
special place and they just you know give
us like a few drops of Aabi Zamzam
and now we go and MashaAllah everybody has
like 10 bottles of Aabi Zamzam that we
bring back and just the shock isn't there
and we bring like 20 kilos of Ajwaz
and you know it's just sitting you know
the shock isn't there things change and you
know and one of the reasons is because
that you know they approached being a Muqarrab
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala very differently
and you know with this Ilm-e-Nafi
and with this Amal-e-Saleh consistent Amal
that has consistency in it consistent to action
consistently praying Tahajjud consistently I remember my own
grandmother like you know we would wake up
and she would like blow on you know
she would read all the Quran and Tahajjud
time she would just like you know blow
on you and you know we would wake
up from that and I remember like the
first time I probably prayed Tahajjud was because
of that that my grandmother was praying and
you know she blew on us and we
woke up and I was like what is
this what's going on and she's praying Tahajjud
so we should go pray Tahajjud too somebody
else's Tawfiq gives you Tawfiq too and with
that with that sort of Ilm with that
sort of Amal is when Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala gives you this innate Hikmah Hikmah
that wisdom which is like a lost like
treasure of a Mu'min Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala gives you a person who is Hakim
Hakimul Ummah Hakimul Ummah is a person who
is wise Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives
this innate Hikmah and Hikmah is you know
how do you approach circumstances like every single
circumstance Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives you
the ability to deal with it correctly and
you know the answers are there you become
a source you become that leader that source
of inspiration and motivation for others so Hikmah
and you find that you find that amongst
all of our Akabir that it came very
very easy to them right many many stories
of Imam Adham Abu Hanifa Rahmatullah and it
wasn't that he was when people say he
was very sharp he was witty you can
say that something to do with the DNA
no I don't think that's the case I
think it really is because his attitude towards
the Deen his attitude towards life his thirst
that was quenched by Hamad Rahmatullah Ta'ala
and others it left such an impact on
him Allah Ta'ala just gave him that
SubhanAllah that if you want to call it
that higher level of intellect Allah Ta'ala
gave him answers why is it that now
we have more or less four Madhahib methodologies
of jurisprudence that there's a consensus in Ahlul
Sunnah wal Jama'ah we all know that
there were many other methodologies, many other Madhahib
too that Allah Ta'ala gave Qaboliyah to
these four so this is the Qaboliyah, this
is being a Muqarrab and if you look
at the life of all of them Imam
Abu Hanifa Rahmatullah and Imam Malik Rahmatullah and
Imam Ahmad as well Imam Shafi'i they
faced a lot of difficulties in their life,
it didn't come easy but Alhamdulillah they were
very different people and this is the difference
that we're talking about so people will engage
in ilm, they will go to madaris they
will follow the Nizami curriculum 4 years, 5
years, 6 years but the question becomes why
is it a person graduates and the first
thing is I want everybody to call me
a Mawlana I want everybody to call me
a Mufti I want everybody to treat me
they never had to ask anybody to do
it people recognized them as Imam-e-Azam
because of this whole litany of Sifat that
Allah Ta'ala had given them so much
from the people of Sifat, nobody had to
ask, please call me Imam-e-Azam none
of that Allah Ta'ala gave them that
everybody recognized that they're special people everybody recognized
them and take any other names people recognized
them as such Hujjat-ul-Islam calling somebody
a Hujjat of Islam he didn't say call
me a Hujjat of Islam because I've done
this specific course people recognized and if you
look at his history, his quest and again,
all of that is part of that, the
Adab and that Shaukh and we spoke about
that, and the Suhbah and all of that
that led it to that moment where people
were recognizing him as Hujjat-ul-Islam and
we'll continue this is that if we want
Kabuliya from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala these
are things that we should be looking for
in our lives when we gain Ilm when
we are on the path of learning it
shouldn't just be that I have to finish
certain books and I have to memorize certain
terminologies and I have to take certain exams
it has to be much deeper than that
it should be a quest for Ilm-e
-Nafi an Ilm that leads to Ilm-e
-Ladun an Ilm that puts your consciousness yet
completes that puzzle, that quenches that thirst an
Ilm that becomes a source of Nur that
keeps you Mutaharik that keeps you Be-Araam
and doing something for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala that I do something for Allah I
do something for Allah this is what it
is Allah, I have to do something for
Allah this is Be-Araam and then along
with that Amal one of the things that
I have seen is that people who are
engaged in Ilm or who have become people
of Ilm, you know they have become Ulama
that becomes a source of excuse for lack
of let's say their own Ma'mulat their own
Adhkar their own things that they have to
take care of they all, you know, I
don't have enough time it's very easy Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Fa-Iza Faraghta Fansab Huwa
Ila Rabbika Faraghab and again, you know, is
it the Barakah in his life or is
it also the aptitude towards life right that
you know, the excuse would never come it
wouldn't be oh I'm too busy for this
or I'm too busy for that it would
really be you know wherever I can put
an Amal I'm just going to insert that
Amal there so I'm able to do that
so Insha'Allah we make du'a that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala whatever effort that
we are putting in the Deen Allah Ta
'ala does not waste them away and Allah
Ta'ala through his infinite mercy uses them
to make us amongst those who are his
Muqarab people who are close to him, people
who are near him in reality rather than
our own minds May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala Insha'Allah keep us guided Ameen Alhamdulillah
Insha'Allah for a few minutes close your
eyes bow your heads in humility and humbleness
and let go of all the thoughts of
the Dunya and everyone in this Dunya step
back from these thoughts from these emotions, from
these passions to look inside your heart this
heart which is a vessel of love of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala how it has
become emptied of it Insha'Allah focus on
it make Niyat, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's
Anwarat, Tajalliyat, Piyusat are descending upon us entering
our heart filling our heart with this Mahabba
filling our heart with Noor and getting rid
of all the filth and darkness and hardness
that has occurred because of our own sins
and feel that your Qalb is calling out
to your Beloved feel that your Qalb is
saying Allah, Allah, Allah and that we are
listening to it Insha'Allah
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