Ahmad Arshad – Discourse At Khanqah #20
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As the second of Ramadan
comes
to an end,
and soon we'll enter the last Ashura
Ashura of its coming and not
emancipation from the hellfire.
And before we know it, you know, this
month will be taken away from us.
You know, this month is a microcosm of
what our life should really look like.
I recall that has a
in one of his,
he mentioned that
the life of the is
what is called
and
a much more.
So we use these two terminologies,
and we understand what means, you know, actions
and,
you know, good deeds.
So
is
easy to understand that
what we do is that we try to
pack
as many
in the limited time that we have in
this earth.
And so,
for example, in this month, not only do
we fast, but we read the Quran.
We are praying salah,
we are doing zikr,
all of those things and much, much more
together
so we can maximize the time.
And
is an interesting
concept, which means that
when we do some
we don't just stop at that.
Meaning, the next day comes and next day
we have to do more.
What that means
is, you know, let's say Ramadan ends,
the next day is Eid, and Eid is
with
with starts with the salah itself.
And in itself is a,
is the hikmah that even our celebration is
with the of Allah
And
it shows that it doesn't matter if it's
the next day.
It means that don't think, oh, I just
came out of this one month,
and now it means that I have, like,
5 months of rest.
Next day, you have to
work and work more and work more and
work
more. And this is what life should really
be.
Because life, this time that Allah
has given, it's slowly ticking away.
This life is melting away before you know
it. It will be gone.
It will slip from our
hands, and we won't even realize what happened.
And so we have to make sure that
our whole life is
like this month of Ramadan
in the sense that we
combine different
Don't think of don't leave any
thinking it is small, because we don't know
which
will be
there from us that will be pleasing to
Allah We don't know that.
And don't do any sense thinking that it
is small because we don't know what's making
the eyes of Allah
And what will
what will
be the cause of us getting,
you know, being held accountable? What might be
small in our eyes may be really big
in the eyes of Allah's
But we have to be very
vigilant of that fact,
and
and whatever
opportunity that
gives us, we have to make use of
it. Whether it is suhba of our elders,
whether it is suhba of our peers,
whether it is opportunity to gain illim, whether
it is opportunity to do dhikr,
don't
you know, this is one of the things,
and I think there was a
a call that has been attributed to
that, you know, shaitan
gives us hope for a very, very long
life.
And so we'll keep on putting, oh, no.
No. I have good but, you know, 6
months from now, or 1 year from now,
or 5 years from now.
Yeah.
We wait because we think, oh, we have
good
intentions.
And we waste our time just based on
good intentions.
It cannot be. We have to
do whatever we can in the limited time
that we have. It won't be perfect.
Nobody said it's going to be perfect, but
it will be something.
It will be something.
So we have to keep on doing something,
and we have to
live every day like it is
a fast for us.
Famously said that,
you know, that this life is
of one day, and in that one day
we are fasting.
Right? I mean, it's very profound
if you think about it, that
what do we do during fasts. Right? We
stay away from certain things.
We do certain things
whether we like it or not. And this
is why this month is also called the
month of Sabra.
A month of Sabra. And Sabra is really
that you
hold yourself
when something
happens
contrary to what you want, contrary to your
Anything that happens and you hold yourself, you
don't react to it, that is saber.
And so we do saber, you know.
Like,
no. No. You know, I have to wait
You're
thirsty, and then, you know, no. I have
to wait till I thought.
Right? Anything like that. And even, like, other
sins that we stay away from,
you know, we we do something on that.
You know? I'm fasting. I'm
not going to do x, y, and z.
I'm going to control my tongue. I'm going
to control my gaze. I'm going to control
my tongue.
And really, again, as as I said, like,
you know, Ramadan, it's a microcosm of our
whole life. The whole life, we just do
something over certain things.
That's that's just what we do.
Right?
Whether those things are good or bad, I
mean, that's just,
you know, that's a separate discussion.
If Allah
says it, we just do it.
Just like if you think about it, you
know, fasting,
it doesn't benefit Allah
in any ways.
Nothing does.
So why, Allah, why ask me not to
eat and drink? You gave me halal and
food.
Why can't I eat? Because it's for my
own good. So staying away from certain things
and doing certain things,
it is our own good.
And this is why have written that,
you know, one kind one is that
that that, you know, you
do because sometimes you just don't feel like
doing things.
Right? Oh, I have to do extra.
I have to do extra.
Can I just read one and not one
part of or I just can't control my
thoughts? You know? Can't I just do one
of this and one of
that? So this is the that
we have to do, that you have to
force yourself sometimes, but that's okay.
It's not going to be that every single
time you do, you know, stand up for
prayer, it's going to be a for you,
and you're just going to go into this
other dimension
of spirituality and
and even if that's not the case,
we still have to do because
our demands it.
We're
The second is
same thing
that, you know, sometimes
it really you know, it's like, oh,
Look at that. You just feel like doing
it, and
you can't control your gaze. And,
you know,
smartphones sometimes seems very appealing and, you know,
certain websites and Internet and all of that.
Let me check out this and let me
check out that.
And to do
being patient over the again, you have to
force her. You you don't
you don't want to.
And there is,
you know, there is burden in that.
There's burden in that, and that's okay. That's
what we do.
Self restraint
is
That's why it's called restraint, because you're burdening
yourself.
So this is what our life is, that
you have to do
as well. Your wants you to take this
way,
and you hold it and you bring it
back into submission to Allah.
Does it require?
More than you can imagine
because
is so strong. It's not a strong toga.
But the knees,
it just
it it doesn't it doesn't want to let
go. It it just comes back and bites
you, and
and, you know, it's it's you. And
sometimes you get tired of it, but it
it doesn't get tired of holding you.
K. Physically, you might be drained,
but your naps is still
pulling you in one direction, so
it's like, no. No. No. Get up and
do this and do this. And
so it's such a weird control that it
has over us.
So we have
to push it aside. And the have written
that
it is more important to do this kind
of,
you know, meaning staying away from a life
of sin, outward, inward, whatever the case might
be,
than to do, like, extra, let's say, good
deeds.
Like, you have to because that is something
you really have to do.
Doing extra good deeds, etcetera. You know, that's
that's just showing
that to Allah that
you love him. But here, you are actually
showing that you are an 'Abdufala. And that
is something Allah determines.
So it is more important
to
leave sins that we might be indulged in.
Well, the proper word is that we might
be addicted to.
The sins are an addiction like any drug.
And it's it's it's actually
if you
look at the neuroscience behind it, this is
that very true. You know, what we call
the dopamine effect.
You know, the things that we are used
to, you know, we train our brains
to
do certain actions and habits and whatnot,
and we associated that
high of dopamine with it.
And so it's very difficult to come out
just like any drug. You You know, somebody's
on heroin. It's going to be very difficult
for for that person to let go because
of,
you know, how the brain changes. The brain
chemistry changes. The same thing with sense.
The brain chemistry changes.
And you have to, like, again, pull it
back, go against
your basic instincts as
a. Right?
You know, we're not there, but it's still
like, the the animalistic instincts within us, you
have to go against them.
And the third is
sabr
ala Musiba,
that any kind of Musiba that comes from
a trial strip, everybody faces
that. 1st, you know, we have to get
it to our minds that we're not special.
Even at this
point in time, the 8,000,000,000
of human beings
were not special, and there were many who
lived before us. Great, great people lived before
us. And many will come after us as
well. So
we are like a speck in this world
Here,
the the bigger, you know,
picture of things, we're here for what? Like,
50, 60 years is nothing.
It's nothing, you know? Talk about light years
and all of that, and, you know, we
can't even get to Mars and
we're nothing.
And so, you know, in the in the
grand scheme of things, like 14000000000
years
of the known universe,
Not the what is beyond that
Nobody knows what's beyond that. Like, meaning, we
don't know
what's beyond it.
And Allah you
know what a he is.
And then our uncle just
and 60 years out of that 14000000000
years, that's nothing.
I suspect.
Everybody faces trials and tribulations.
Every person, you know, sometimes people are healthy,
sometimes they're sick, sometimes they're rich, sometimes they're
poor,
sometimes they're young, sometimes they're old.
It's just it's just, you know, sometimes there's,
you
know,
a villa, you know, so it's it's just
part of life.
And through all of that, we have to
do supper and make sure
that our dialogue with Allah
remains untainted.
It remains untainted.
That is something we cannot lose, that is
something we cannot risk.
Anything else in in in our life,
we can sacrifice. Everything can be sacrificed.
That is the most essential, the most precious
thing we have. This iman,
a taluk with Allah
So
don't destroy that dialogue
over something
as meager
and as,
you know, as as
I wouldn't say useless, but, you know, I
mean, as as this dunya,
which has been created in Allah
has not looked at it with the love
not even once.
But look at how many times we look
at it, love.
We're driving. Look at that car.
Look at that house.
Look at that person. Look at this. Look
at that. Look at this. How are you
looking at this? Like, cover this. Cover that.
Cover this. Cover that.
Hi. Hi.
Because there's no end to desires in.
You can, you know, I can desire everything.
There's no end to it. And the ajeev
thing is when you get something, now you
the next desire comes in. Then you
then the 3rd one comes
in. Then 4th one comes in. And 5th
and so it just doesn't
That is a tourist that just doesn't get,
you know, get quenched.
It's like drinking seawater.
You keep on drinking it, you get more
thirsty.
So obeying the thirst of our naps is
exactly like that. You keep on feeding it.
You keep on feeding
So, again, what does Ramadan teach us? Control
it.
Control your nahts and even control it. You
know, of course, control it with your desires,
but even sometimes
reasonable things that you need,
even control them.
Kind of be nice, something we need and
control it.
We should remind ourselves and we should really
focus on this of
Ramadan,
and
we orient ourselves accordingly. So inshallah, we look
at the whole life like
that. The whole life we exercise self control.
We become people who
have restraint.
We become people who will do our utmost
to do
whether it is over or
or.
Make it easy for us.