Ahmad Arshad – Discourse At Khanqah #06
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AI: Transcript ©
So we have been discussing throughout this Ramadan
some of the akhlaan and gayfiad that a
person
might go through some conditions and states of
one's
spirit, one's soul.
And
yesterday, we spoke about this concept of
being in a contemplative and reflective state.
And today, inshallah, that I will continue that
with the concept of
which is of Allah
which is what we call remembrance. Now
but you know mind is a strange thing,
and it always wants to think of something
And to be able to quiet it down,
to be able to stop that, it takes
a little bit of effort.
And so one of the things that you
find in the
Quran again and again
is this emphasis
that Allah puts
on remembrance,
on being able to be aware,
to be able to remember, and not being
in a state of heedlessness.
You know, the eye of the Quran in
which Allah
says, those people of, people of heedlessness,
people who forget,
people who are in a slumber, in sleep,
they are like domesticated animals.
So they are called animals
rather than insan.
And so
realizing that awareness, it requires a little bit
of effort.
One thing is
to do the
and so
there
are plenty
of
that a person can do.
He left us with gems.
In
books of a hadith, you can find them.
And one should
try to bring it into their life as
much as they can. So that is actually
doing the thicket. But
one thing that we should add to that
is that anytime we are doing that thicket,
we should really do it in a reflective
state. So tafakkur and zikr should go together.
One is contemplation reflection, the other is actual
remembrance, whether you do it with your tongue,
whether you do it with the heart, the
contemplation,
the reflective part should be there.
And so there is that little difference. You
know, when somebody says, what is the fuck
code? What is the that code? What is
the difference? The fuck code is actually
identifying
a goal,
identifying
a station, and
the is actually
the ability to attain
it. That's when we contemplate, we reflect.
Allah
gives us some opening and with the of
Allah
in this constant state of
a person is able to realize that.
There are countless, as you know, Allah
orders in the Quran
And Allah
talks about people, you
you know, both male and female. You know,
you know, who do abundance of And and
you know the
in is what? It's more than half.
It's that you are able to remember Allah
more than half your time.
Now it's exactly the opposite. Now we can't
even remember Allah
in our salah.
You know, people stand up in salah and
they they're thinking, you
know, what's cooking inside and, you know, when
will I go home? When will I get
back on my computer or my phone and
my games?
So it's exactly the opposite. We can't remember
about that. And so it's a very dangerous
state to be in
that we are unable to remember
him.
And so one thing, you know, when we
are doing our is to bring in the
tafakkur. So when you say
do it with a sense of presence that
glory to be Allah
This is why we look at the dunya
with the the creation that we say,
and so glory to be Allah
So that is bringing the and zikr together.
When you say
you feel yourself getting filled
with gratitude toward Allah
for the countless blessings that he has given.
Don't just say it.
I mean, saying it is a good thing,
but say it with reflection.
When you say Allah, when you negate everyone
and everything, Allah is bigger
than anything and anyone. So being in that,
that is cutting with the sword of Allah.
All that
and connections and relations we have in this
dunya.
So bringing in that reflection to reading of
the Quran, to doing of the is especially
in session essential. And yesterday, we spoke that
we need to bring that into a salah
as well, bring a little bit of
Stop for a second
between,
and,
you know,
and and
and all the different actions that we do.
Just
half a second.
So bring your mind back.
Bring your
presence back.
And this is what Allah wants, you know.
Nobody can do 24
hours a day. But you can be in
the state of 24 hours.
Right? And this is what Allah
says in the Quran. The
the people of intelligence are those.
Those people were able to remember Allah standing,
sitting, and lying down.
And
the strong men I mean, strong persons, strong
people,
sign of the strong people is
That, you know, my you know, Raja basically,
you know, it's it's for for men, but
really here, it's for men and women.
It's like, who are the strong people, strong
or willed people,
right, who have this inner strength,
Who have the spirituality,
this and so Allah says that there are
those people who are able to
not to let
it's like trade and commerce. They do not
let trade and commerce
distract them from the remembrance of Allah
Right?
And so we have to ask ourselves, I
mean, are we those people?
Are we able to remember him when we
are trading and commencing and working and going
to school, going to job, things like that?
It's not that means that we are not
those people, that something is missing there.
Another point
is that, you know, zikr is on two
levels. 1 is a conscious level and the
other is subconscious level.
The more you do the remembrance
on a conscious level,
the more it settles down in your subconscious.
So for a lot of times, you know,
for example, when you are driving the car,
subconscious
is is what we call muscle memory. And
you're just driving and you know where to
go. You don't have think about it.
But
sometimes, something happens out of the ordinary, and
then your mind just comes back. That's your
consciousness, that's bringing it into your active consciousness.
And so the more we are able to
do Allah Taala zikr
in our active consciousness,
the easier it becomes to be able to
be mindful of Allah
in our subconscious and that is what is
required.
That I am being watched.
Do they not know that Allah is watching
them?
Imagine if it's settled in your subconscious,
will any person
deliberately or intentionally commit any sin?
That he is with you wherever you are.
So it doesn't matter when we are
sitting alone in our bedrooms and thinking that
nobody is with us, nobody is watching. Allah
says, I am with you
wherever you are.
And so,
if it's missing in our consciousness and subconsciousness,
meaning we are heedless, that's when a person
commits disobedience and sins and
that's what they earn.
You think your promoted art is close to
you? We are closer to you than your
own
promoted art with your own blood,
your own
life.
Is closer to us.
Is closer to us
than that. That kind of
and that closeness and that nearness.
Right? So Allah
sees even the jazbah, the emotions,
the intentions
that are
coming up within us. Meaning, whatever we are
thinking, Allah is seeing it.
Not that Allah just knows it. Of course,
he knows. Allah sees it.
Allah sees it. And so we, you know,
if we were cognizant of that of that
I am being watched, and even the bad
thoughts and bad emotions and bad desires
are being lost and looked at. They'll they'll
they'll be sobbing like a like a hunter.
You know, like a hunter takes his gun
and, you know, he's like, holds his breath
right before the the hunter shoots. You know
how carefully he's looking at the prey? That's
how we're being watched.
And so if that was in our consciousness,
as well as our subconsciousness,
which we call
then
protect us from a life of sin
and frivolous and meaningless and purposeless life and
a level of protectors. And so,
in this Ramadan,
we remind ourselves
that it's not just another month that we
are passing and it's not just about hunger,
starvation, and being thirsty.
Right?
It is about a bigger commitment to Allah
to be able to be mindful of him.
Allah mentions.
Is that
awe of Allah
that you are mindful of all the time.
You know, what they call fear of Allah.
But what is fear? Fear isn't being awe.
You know, if you see, like, a snake
or a lion,
what is that fear that, you know,
right away, like all this,
that response from within comes out. Oh my
god. What is going to happen?
That is, you know, that is. So,
is that metaphysical
reality
in which we have the awe of Allah
in front of us. I'm not going to
do this
because I cannot. I have to face Allah.
I have to be held accountable. There is
going to be
right in front of me. So I cannot
keep on living like this, domesticating that.
Okay? So it is to recommit ourselves to
remembrance of Allah, being in a state of
And, you know, we've mentioned before, you
know, reminding yourselves
of the bounties and blessings, of the beauty,
of the mercy, of the compassion, and even
so on and so forth. They can all
help. Okay? What we do in this kariq,
we do
So the of the dahat, the essence of
Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala can penetrate
within us. Okay? So