Ahmad Arshad – Discourse At Khanqah #10
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Is a month to
really
listen.
There are
so many blessings that are happening in this
month, in this
in this time that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has given us
that only people
who hear things but do not listen, they
are the ones who
are unable to benefit from this month completely.
For example, we are told that
the birds in the sky,
the critters on the ground,
the fish in the sea,
the animals that are crawling,
all of them are
asking for forgiveness for people who are fasting.
Meaning they are
doing Zikr of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And only when the heart is alive
and only when we are able to have
that
sort of
insight, a person is able to hear that.
They feel tzedeker happening all around them.
They
feel the the barakah of tazikr happening around
them as well.
But this is something that we have unlearned
or we have failed to learn
is that a lot of times we hear
things
but those things don't necessarily affect us. They
do not enter our hearts. That
it
enters one ear
and then exits from the other one, meaning
it does not have any sort of
permanent
effect on us. It doesn't change us. Those
worst will change us.
One of the
examples I would say is that, for example,
you know,
the life of Sahaba Khan al Zhanu lahi
j Ma'een,
they listened to the Quran.
And so listening to the Quran,
countless stories of how
it affected them. They were
always in a sort of huzen, grief,
because they never thought that anything that they
had done was enough.
They used to cry, they used to weep,
and all of these verses created
this effect of Ihsan in them. Maqam of
Ihsan in them. We
hear the same Quran,
the same words, exactly the same words,
but it fails to have the same effect
on us. It's very ajeem.
The Quran that if it were to be
revealed
on a mountain,
it would tremble, it
would tremble
with the awe of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
Now in the same Quran
it is in our hands, it enters our
ears.
Isn't this a jeed that it's, you know,
it doesn't create the same effect on us?
There's nothing wrong with the Quran.
There's something seriously wrong with us
that we have failed to utilize it, the
words and kalam of Allah
to really commune with Allah
So again, this is a time that we
have to open up our hearts
and open up our hearts and
do a little bit of reflection and contemplation
of why this is the case.
And, you know, when we listen
or when we hear we have to listen,
you know, when we
enter Tarabi or whether we are reading the
Qur'an on our own,
you know, it's it really is there to
waken us up.
So anyways,
talking a little bit about akhwal,
kefiyat,
that
a person, a Saliq
Wayfair,
usually goes through, you know, we come across
this
sort of
prison that everybody kind of goes through. This
is something that pretty much everybody has to
go through.
This gayfid
can be a Mahmood thing, but it can
also be debilitating depending on how a person
person takes it. Surely the Qur'an doesn't mention
it,
in a positive way.
You know La'at Tahzin Inna Allahha Ma'ana
that do not have this huzn because Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is with us.
In the Ayat that was read today,
It's
a sign of
that they are free from houf, external
fear or houson, this internal grief, fear for
the future,
grief about the present or the past.
So Allah
protects them from that.
Nevertheless,
huzun is a kafir that is a hal
that pretty much everybody has to go through.
And
this hosun can be an, you know, antidote
when it comes to the poison of desensitization.
When the heart has become so hardened,
then you need that jolt. You know, it's
that
adrenaline shot that just jolts the body. You
we need that jolt of huzan sometimes.
And so huzan is really this agony that
a person feels. It's it really
is this pain and agony a person feels
when
something is taken away from them.
Right? Or they fail to get something that
they want.
So it's that, you know, in Urdu they
call it mahrumi.
It's that feeling of loss,
grief,
agony, pain that a person feels.
And now
different people have hosun for different purposes and
again as I said it can be a
positive
force,
but too long and too much of it
can can sometimes be debilitating as well.
So for example, for Awa Munas like us,
for people who,
you know,
who have really not been able to spend
their life like we really should have,
What is the huzan that usually is experienced?
You know, it's like
the fact that we are
actively involved
in disobedience and sins against Allah
outward and inward.
And so
that should create that huzd,
that grief, that
honestly we are failing the makzad of our
jinniki, of our life.
It's a failure.
Right? If you're hired to do something and
you're unable to do it, again, that kuzan
is there. Oh my god. I'm going to
lose my job because I can't really do
what I've been hired to do. It's exactly
the same thing
that that I grieve, that shock, that agony,
that pain of loss
is there.
And it's also a little bit about, you
know,
you know, just
witnessing this this jaffa, you know, this
aloofness in life and this disloyalty to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. You know, the hussan is
that,
you know, we
see that our sins are distancing us from
Allah
and the more distance it is,
the more we are falling into sins.
A) The life of sin distances, of course,
pushes us away from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
but the grief that the more we are
distant from Allah
now we fall into these sins and these
disobeidences even that much more.
It's a very ajeev kind of haal that
a person can
feel within them.
Because, you know, it's, again, it's not a
good feeling.
It's not a good feeling because
it can put a person in despair,
hopelessness.
Okay. It's not worth the effort. You
know, why even try it? Why should I
even
bother with this? Things like that.
Like an avamunas will generally
feel this kind of poison. And there's also
that
poison about,
you know,
loss of, you know,
loss of loss of life. You know? I'll
tell you sometimes I dream
that for example I'm taking a test and
I'm unable
to do the test for one reason or
another, and the time is running out. And
I can tell you in that dream, you
know, you're
just hyperventilating.
Oh my God, I don't know the answer.
Everybody else has done.
I've been in academia too long.
So everybody is done and you're just still
trying to, you know, sometimes your pencil is
not sharpened and sometimes
It's so Ajij.
Right? It's, but the halal is there, that
is also sort of pudan which consciously we
come across and like, you know, time is
running out.
Time is running out.
You know, our
hair is
turning gray. And you know, for those of
you
which is not but soon it will be,
you know, mashallah.
Kids are growing up and before we know
it, you know, our time will come. So
that sort of loss of time that I
was supposed to do something and
I'm I'm stuck in my life.
I haven't been able to accomplish anything, man.
I'm stuck.
So that's also
a
a normal person, you know, like that's my
my go through. And, you know, people say
this.
Shit. I don't know. I don't I don't
feel, you know, I don't know what's going
on. My life is
tough.
I can't find time. I feel like, you
know, you know, so they will say these
things. But this is what a normal
person will usually say. But I mean, what
about those who have the Himma and that,
you know, that have taken steps towards Allah
They also feel wisdom but for other reasons.
I mean, for sure, this
loss of time is there, but for them
it's
what time have you
spent in dispersion in
this tafaraka?
Right? What we call distraction.
For them, this is the you know, it
it really saddens them that, you know, I
should have been
working towards suzuriyaqal.
I should have been
you know, should have had this presence with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, this awareness, cognizance,
a level of taqwa, a level of haya.
I really should have had this.
And when a person does not see that
that loss also causes
that grief as well, that agony and pain
as well. So usually these are people of
Himmat that are kind of working towards a
goal, but for example,
maybe unable to
achieve it and so that causes that but
also sometimes, you
know, you know, not being in the state
of all the time. You know, These kafiyyah,
dahwal come and go. And so sometimes
when a person is unable to achieve a
certain
or a certain,
etcetera,
etcetera, that can also
cause a person to fall into that the
state of as
well. So, you know, we have to we
have to be aware of these. We have
to be aware of that these things happen.
And then, you know, you have the Aqsaqawaz
kind of people, you know, they also feel,
you know, poison.
Usually they are Allah
elevates them from, you know, from this state,
you know, as the ayat itself tells you.
That
are those
that
But for them, there is a different kind
of thing. And you know, it it could
be, for example,
that,
difference in a harwale can cause frustration. So
that can cause a little bit of
poison as well. So for example,
if a person is so used to the
unsof Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and he comes
across the awe of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And if a person is very used to
the jamaal of Allah
and he comes across jalaal of Allah
sometimes navigating that becomes a little
difficult as well. Okay? Allah is. Right? Allahu
Samad.
And so, you know, these things happen. It's
not it's not something that doesn't happen. It
happens to all of us. Right?
So so that can also certainly cause that.
And,
Sometimes you want to stay within a certain
hall.
You know, I can tell you that in
the beginning when a person does
there is a different kind of jaz, there
is a different kind of
and once you go ahead, then there is
this, you know, calming down and,
effect, right?
Is like settling down.
So it may not be the same kind
of and people feel
people feel this little bit of agitation towards
that. Because it makes them question things without
really understanding the rule.
So it happens too.
But now the huzan is about questioning the
qadr for natalaq because on one hand we
are saying, you know, we're doing this for
your sake,
but sometimes we are showing that, you know,
we are we are becoming.
So that
reality check can also
put that person in in sort of like
a
doubtful state as well. So, you know, this
is again, as I said, I mean, this
is something that everybody has to go through.
It's how we use it.
So in the month of Ramadan,
what is the Khuzan? The Khuzan is that,
you know, almost the first Ashariah is god.
Right? The first Asherah is gone. What have
we achieved?
I mean, shouldn't that, like, alone
just like really wake us up?
What have we achieved?
Is this Ramadan going to be like every
other day?
Like every other month?
And that that that should really, like, scare
us.
This is not just that we have lost
our opportunity
because we become the, you know,
the target of the badwa,
but Jibrayil and the Amin of
People who come across this month and they
do not get themselves forgiven. I mean, this
is a and you know, there are signs
of forgiveness. We can't, you know, okay, I
ask for forgiveness, but forgiveness as we have
learned before, it leads to change.
You know, the sign of forgiveness is that
there are openings from Allah
of tadeeli, of change, of transformation,
of progress,
of of this pull towards Allah. This is,
like, the biggest thing.
That right away, this this paradigm shift happens.
Right? This reorientation
happens.
You know, things that we were
thinking about now we're just like not thinking
about it. Things we were indulged in, they
didn't seem all that important anymore.
So that orientation
and if it doesn't happen then, you know,
zazumaani kalami, you know, astaghfirullah astaghfirullah. I mean,
not I mean, we should do that at
least.
But, I mean, it it puts the the
tawba and acceptance of tawba in doubt. Okay?
And that should scare us. That should worry
us. That should put us in huzu. But
not to
so we leave everything.
But so it gives us more energy, more
enthusiasm,
more Himmat, that InshaAllah, I have to become
somebody who does more
and more and more.
Used to say,
That you do and you do and you
do till you tire yourself, and you tire
yourself and you tire yourself and then you
do more. So
That's something that we should
keep in mind, insha'Allah,
and, you know, maybe ask to Adi,
give me them. You know, there's that saying.
Because
poetry, you know, it's
That made you become familiar with some,
you know, some kind of hurricane or
too far? Did I get the hurricane?
Too far. Yeah.
Something like that. Because
the the waves of your heart doesn't have
any istarab. It just settled down there.
So have some momentum, have some movement.
So, may Allah
bless us inshallah
with his brahm,
with his fitter,
with his sword, with his sword.
Help us benefit and maximize this time that
he has given us.