Ahmad Arshad – Discourse At Khanqah #24
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The speakers discuss the importance of taking care of one's mental health and physical health during the pandemic, avoiding activities that can cause stress and discomfort. They stress the need to stay away from irrelevant activities and avoid graduation. The speakers emphasize the importance of giving care and attention to one's own health and behavior, being vigilant, and being productive to help others during the pandemic.
AI: Summary ©
When I look back at
college years at NYU,
I remember that there was a summer in
which I had to take some courses,
and I was staying on campus.
And in summer, because normal students are usually
not there,
so you get students from all over.
And so this one person
came from Texas, some university in Texas,
and he happened to be a a football
American football player,
somehow related to Dallas Cowboys.
And so
those couple of months was because
this person had a very rigorous schedule.
Even though he was there to take some
classes,
he was
very cautious
and very
aware of
what his daily schedule looked like.
And so
the workout,
in the morning and at night and
and especially what he intuit, like, in terms
of food.
We were all
college students and we would eat whatever was
given to us,
but he was very careful about what he
was consuming.
And
and, you know, so he told us all
about, you know,
his how his
life was, his coach, etcetera, etcetera.
And so it was a deep after several
years when when I looked back at it
that this person was so worried about the
physical fitness
and reaching the peak of his physical abilities
that he was willing to sacrifice whatever he
could.
He showed utmost care to it.
Daily exercises,
whatever he was consuming and eating,
and making sure that, you know, he was
he had a physical coach that, you know,
he was
in touch with and who was kind of
keeping an eye on all of that.
You know, a spiritual journey is not that
different.
You know, it requires us to
have a regimen, have a schedule
of my that
we are taking care of day in and
day out.
There are things certain things that you have
to do but hazed from.
And there are things that you have to
make sure you're not consuming.
And then, you know, just like that
person, he had a physical coach.
You know, we have spiritual coaches which we
call our teachers and.
And it doesn't matter that you're not in
the Hanukkah.
Just like that person was not in Dallas,
in midst of, you know, where everything was.
He was,
you know, a 1000 miles away.
He was in New York, and he had
every every opportunity
to
not do his exercises,
to eat whatever he wanted. Right?
But he showed that care. And just like
that, a sonic
and
a mureed, somebody who seeks Allah
who wants to get close to Allah
They really have
to come to come to terms with this
care
that they have to give to to their
own saluk.
Right? It's not something that
we could just take willy nilly. You have
to spend some time. You have to be
thoughtful about it. You have to be intentional
about
it. And, again, you have to make sure
that your
are being done. You have to make sure
that things that you're supposed to stay away
from, that you're taking care of that.
So this kind of has to be given.
This kind of has to be given. This
has to kind of care has to be
given to our own
saluk. Otherwise,
you know,
I'm sure that that person, if he stopped
doing that within a couple of months,
he would have become just as normal as
us.
And similarly, if a person lets go of
the and
they're not keeping an eye on their own
progress and things like that, then
slowly and steadily, the decline starts to begin.
Sometimes we don't even know that it's happening.
Sometimes we think that we are progressing, and
on the other hand,
we are actually declining because the cure, you
know, the the
the of these things are just not there.
So some of the things that we have
you know, one of the thing is
that keeping an eye on our
making sure that are constantly
happening,
and they are in accordance to the the
sunnah
of
the because that has a big
and then acceptance of those.
Similarly,
those that are called
making sure that we're not doing it.
That,
prevention is better than cure.
And so that's true when it comes to
the saluk as well. We have to stay
away
from sins outward and inward.
You cannot
do and
you cannot do all of that and, you
know, if a person suffers from diabetes
and he's eating double their chocolate cakes twice
a day,
then there's no complaining that why is this
diabetes coming back and why is
it, you know,
cure, you know, or why why is it
getting cured of it? And so you have
to stay away from it, and then the
medicine will take effect, and then
inshallah, slowly and steadily,
the the the sickness, the ailment will go
away.
And second thing, when it comes to our
aamal,
especially for the salik, because we have to
deal with our inner demons,
You know, we have we cannot become people
who
look at our own and
let them
feed
our Okay? So,
you know, we have to be careful about
that.
Because as I said in some other that
a lot of times, nuffs is looking for
anything.
Luffs is looking for anything that will give
it that
I am better than others, and, you know,
I am you know, that I am ness
will will want acknowledgment,
recognition.
And so our is actually part of that.
And so some of our
had this
habit of just belittling what they were doing
because they had they kept their eye on
the of Allah.
So for example, Hazrat
they write, you
know, Allah
His azbat is beyond this. It's beyond this.
It's beyond this. Right?
So in that term, you know, when that
al Muht of
Allah is in front of us, we will
never
feel
complacent and comfortable with what we're doing. Right?
We always feel that unease that I have
not done enough.
Because how can you do enough for Allah
Right? How can a person do enough? Because
Allah's,
you know,
as they call them, is just,
you know, beyond any anything that we can
possibly do. Right? So when we become comfortable,
we are becoming comfortable with our own selves.
Right?
And, you know, that's not a good place
to be in because
progress usually stops if we just become,
this is what I'm doing and I'm okay
with it. How do you progress when you're
okay with what you're doing?
And so,
you know, they have this saying,
that you keep on doing and you are
still afraid of rejection.
Afraid of rejection because you don't know if
they're accepted or not. So in terms of
our own,
we have to be very vigilant of this.
We have to give care
that, a, we're doing it according to the
sunnah.
B, you know, we are, you know,
making sure that we are not,
you know, we don't we don't keep an
eye on, you know, what we are doing.
You know?
Oh, look at me. I am putting in
this much effort. Look at me, the I'm
doing. Look at me, the variety of all
the stuff I'm do.
You know, you do it and then you
just, you know, do
not deserve this and you move on.
Don't keep an eye on on yourself from
that perspective. Look at look at this. Look
at the right look at all of this
that I have done.
Because it's it's a recipe for disaster.
Because as I said, eventually, this will lead
to, like, self love,
self comfort.
And
we won't we don't want to become those
people who who feel that way.
And so some masha'ik, as I said, they
used to belittle what they were doing.
The famous saying that, you know, the, they
used to pray all night long, and then
they used
to get up in the morning, and then
they used to say,
I mean, what what heart
says that? That we haven't worshiped you as
you deserve to be worshiped.
This is somebody who is
up in qiyam all night long,
and then and, you know, this was free
from riyal. This was really the call of
their hearts.
Allat, I have not been able to worship
you as you deserve.
Honestly, if we ask ourselves, if we had
one night like that, that we were up
in qiam and just we were doing you
know, that morning, you know, we'll we'll have
extra breakfast and then, you know, we'll,
you know, we will send messages here and
there. And
and then, you know, when we go in
front of others, you know, we'll be we'll
pretend to be, oh, very tired. Oh, why
are you so tired? I
was, you know, just in a state of
worship all night long.
Our own, you know, when they when they
would fast, they would put some oil
on their lips.
Like, oh, they definitely fast, so people wouldn't
know that they would fast. Or when they
would,
you know, spend their night in in, like,
Ibadah and zikr, they would wake up and
then they would put, like, you know, oil
on their faces so the the faces will
look fresh.
Yeah. That's it.
Right? So that was so people wouldn't
couldn't tell that, you know, they have been
doing this online because that was such a
personal thing for them.
So that's, you know,
and also keeping an eye on our to
that our states, you know, there's some consistency
in that. And,
then again, just like our do
not become a source of our being complacent.
Because some people will say, oh, I keep
on sitting, but
then
those are are from
They're from Allah
because if it's not leading us away from
a life of sin,
And then we do actually on our own
as well.
And in general, you know, you know, we
we should do shakam on them anyways
because,
and luckily, who are we to have aharwal
and kefiyat and
who are we to, you know, even pretend
that that we have something like this. And,
love, we have, you know, we have just
your father and. That's it. That's all we
have.
And we hope
our hope is in you, y'all luckeri,
and our redemption is from you, y'all luckeri,
and nothing other than your fazar, your garam,
your nusra is going to save us.
And so if you feel,
do not make this
an for me because I'm not
And 3rd is also
being careful in giving lihaz to the that
Allah has given us. You know, every day
as we have established is a gift from
Allah, and it should be taken as a
gift from Allah. Do not keep on dwelling
in your yesterday.
Okay? If yesterday had and sins in it,
today is.
And yesterday, Allah gave you the opportunity to
do some.
Today is just sugar. That's it. But we
don't dwell in it in terms of, oh,
I worked so hard yesterday, so I'm going
to not do for the next 5 days.
Oh, no. It doesn't work that way. Today
is today, and we have to make today
count.
And, you know, as our especially
used to say
that every bread taken in
is as if it has been taken in
disbelief.
So keeping an eye on our,
keeping care of them and making sure that
we are being productive.
That product you know, being productive could mean
that you are, you know, getting ill. That's
okay. The presence of Allah
that's okay.
But with this, you know, presence of Allah
with,
it can mean that you're doing some. You're
sending salawat.
It could be it could be any of
this. It could be helping your parents.
But with their presence, with the of pleasing
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it could mean that,
you know, you're taking care of patients, that
in the again, you're helping people, doing service
to others. All of these things
is being productive in our time. And so
we have to make sure that our time
is not getting wasted
because our time wasted is our life wasted,
and it does not come back.
Now the doors of stove are open,
but, you know,
we don't know when our last breath is.
Okay?
If you have learned anything from COVID, you
know, it could be today, it could be
tomorrow.
And so we have to be very vigilant
and careful with the.
Allah makes it easy for us. May may
Allah
allows us to become people who give
and and and cares to our own and,
our. And may Allah preserve our as well.