Ahmad Arshad – Remembrance Solace Of Hearts
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AI: Transcript ©
Assalamu alaikum
warahmatullahi
wabarakatuhu, wa rahmatullahi wabarakatuhu, wa rahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barak wa sallim.
Allah rabbul Izzat ke paak aur kare naam
ke saath is majlis ka azad karte hain.
Allah rabbul Izzat se duaa hai ki Allah
ta'ala ilm is baithne ko Allah ta
'ala kabool farmaye.
Hum sab ke liye zariyat najat banaye.
In lamhaat ko humare li keemti kar de.
Aur apna mukarab hone ka zariyat bana de.
Hum atala Allah ki taraf mutawajjah rahiye.
Aur muhabbat me doob ke Allah ta'ala
ka zikr kiji.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Astaghfirullah rabbi min kulli dhanbi wa tubu ilayh.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barak wa sallim.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin
wa ala aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barak wa
sallim.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen arrahmanirrahim.
Maliki yawm al-deen.
Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'een.
Ihdina sirata al-mustaqeem.
Sirata al-lazeena an'amta alayhim ghayri al
-maghdubi alayhim wala al-zaleen.
Ameen.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen arrahmanirrahim.
Alhamdulillah.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barak wa sallim.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala
aali Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barak wa sallim.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Alamna shurah laka sadarak wa wad'ana anka
bizraka alladhi anqadha dhahrak wa rafa'na laka
dhikrak fa innama alusri yusran innama alusri yusra
fa idha faraghta fansad wa ila rabbika farghab
Alamna shurah laka sadarak.
Alamna shurah laka sadarak.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Qul huwa Allahu ahad.
Allahu samad.
Lam yalid wa lam yulad.
Wa lam yakullahu kufuan ahad.
Qul huwa Allahu ahad.
Allahu samad.
Qul huwa Allahu ahad.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen arrahmanirrahim.
Maliki yawmid deen.
Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'een.
Ihdina al-sirata al-mustaqeem.
Sirata al-lazeena an'amta alayhim.
Ghayri al-maghdoobi alayhim.
Wala al-dalleen.
Ameen.
Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammadin Wa ala ala
sayyidina Muhammadin Wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Allahumma ya qadiyal haajat.
Allahumma ya kafiyal muhimmat.
Allahumma ya dafi'al baliyat.
Ya dafi'al baliyat.
Ya dafi'al baliyat.
Allahumma ya shafiyal amraad.
Ya shafiyal amraad.
Ya shafiyal amraad.
Allahumma ya rafi'al darajat.
Ya rafi'al darajat.
Ya rafi'al darajat.
Allahumma ya mujeeb al da'wat.
Ya mujeeb al da'wat.
Ya mujeeb al da'wat.
Allahumma Ya Musabbal Asbab, Ya Musabbal Asbab, Ya
Musabbal Asbab, Ya Musabbal Asbab, Ya Musabbal Asbab.
Allahumma Ya Arhamar Rahimeen, Ya Arhamar Rahimeen, Ya
Arhamar Rahimeen, Ya Arhamar Rahimeen.
Bi Rahmatika Ya Arhamar Rahimeen.
Ameen.
Bi Hurmati Muhammad al-Mustafa wa
bi siri Surat al-Fatiha.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Hasbuna Allah wa ni'mal wakeel.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Ya Khafi al-Lutfi, adrekni bilutfi kal khafi.
Ya Khafi al-Lutfi, adrekni bilutfi.
Ya Khafi al-Lutfi.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
Ya Baqi anta al-Baqi.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
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 Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik
wa sallim.
Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum bi rahmatika astaghis.
Ya Hayyu Ya Qayyum bi rahmatika astaghis.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
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 Raheem.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
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 Raheem.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.
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 illa Allah.
La ilaha illa Allah.
La ilaha illa
Allah.
La ilaha
illa
Allah.
La ilaha illa Allah.
Muhammadur Rasulullah.
Allahumma Salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala aali
Sayyidina Muhammadin wa barik wa sallim.
One of the things that is important for
any person to do is to reflect on
their life, the life that they have spent
and the life that they will spend, and
this gift that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has given them.
And the reason for that is that it
allows us to not only reflect on our
experiences, but to actually learn from them.
And this is essential.
Learning is essential for growth, and without growth,
life becomes stale and monotonous.
And so, when we look at ourselves, whether
it is individually or whether it is as
a society or as an Ummah today in
2024, 14 centuries after the passing of our
blessed Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, we ask
ourselves, what is it that is so different
about us and those earlier generations that we
call the Salaf-Saleheen, whether it is the
first generations of Sahaba-e-Karam, Rizwanullah-e
-Jama'een, or afterwards you have generations successively
coming afterwards, Masha'Allah, who were able to
accomplish so much in their Deen and in
the Dunya.
So, this is a question that we need
to ask because if we look at the
physical reality, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
given us more ni'mah physically than were present
at that time.
We are in much more comfort, we are
in much more luxury.
They had the same amount of time that
we have.
They had 24 hours a day, we have
24 hours a day.
They had needs, human needs associated with them,
just like we have human needs to eat,
to drink, to have safety, security, to have
a family, to be part of a community.
And so, you know, the earlier generations were
exactly like that.
So, physically, they were, I would say, in
a more difficult position, meaning they had to
work harder when it comes to basic things,
just as drinking water or to protect themselves
from the elements.
So, it's much easier now, meaning we have
more time, we don't have to spend that
time.
For example, Fatima al-Zuhra, R.A. Lady
Fatima, as we know, she used to spend
a lot of time in chores, so much
so that she would get blisters in her
blessed hands, meaning she would take flour and
she would grind them and she would cook
them.
The whole process was pretty taxing.
It was very physical in nature, right?
We don't have to do that.
If you want some flour, you can just
go to Apna Bazaar, get a bag of
flour, come back home, and you have machines
that will make the atta for you, and
you have electric stoves and ovens, and in
a few minutes you can get it.
If a person is lazier, they can just
go and order some naan and that's it.
So, we have to really understand that, that
they were able to accomplish so much more.
And the reason for that is that their
overall orientation in life was much different.
So, the generation that we call Salaf Salihin,
their orientation in life, their understanding of life,
what is life all about?
This is what we call teleology.
What is the maqsad?
So, their maqsad, maqsad-e-zindagi, maqsad-e
-hayat, understanding of this gift of life, was
very different than our understanding of gift of
life.
So, our orientation is different, that's why our
efforts are very much different.
So, they have the same time, we have
the same time.
They had necessarily, you know, same or a
little more energy, we have similar energy, but
they spent it on something else, and we
spend it on something else.
So, I think it requires a little bit
of thinking, that why is it, why is
it that we are in a state that
we are in?
And different people will tell you different answers
for this, but, you know, one of the
answers could be this, that their orientation in
general were people who were focused on akhira,
because Rasul-e-Akram ﷺ, he brought forth
this, you know, this opening, this reality, that
life does not end when you close your
eyes.
And generally, the Arab of that time, they
took it as such, that's why if you
look at the Qur'an, the Arabs ask
this question, really, that we will die and
then we will be raised up again?
So, Rasul-e-Akram ﷺ brought forth this
concept of akhira very elaborate, that no, this
life does not just end when you close
your eyes, there is a life afterwards, and
that life is the eternal life, there is
accountability, there is reward, there is punishment, there
is Yawm al-Hashr, there is, you know,
there is a whole living afterwards, a living
that can be most beautiful living, blissful living,
or it can be most formatted living, depending
on how we live our lives.
So, Sahab-e-Akram, Rizwanullah-e-Jama'een
and Salaf-e-Salihin, they were very much
focused on the akhira, and our orientation is
different, we have left akhira as the focal
point, and we have made the dunya, made
the dunya the focus of all of our
efforts, dunya focused, and this is because where
we live in, usually everybody is focused on
the dunya, so we just learn from the
society, we learn from where we are, from
our environment, and so if you look at,
you know, all of our efforts, is for
the sake of dunya.
So, that is a big, big difference, and
we have understood it in some other places,
for example, because their focus was so much
on akhira, Allah Ta'ala had given the
Sahab-e-Akram, Rizwanullah-e-Jama'een, and,
you know, the Salaf-e-Salihin afterwards, what
we call aql-e-ma'ad, you know,
this was a very different kind of aql,
intellect, that they always used to calculate, they
always used to make decisions based on based
on akhira in their mind.
And what do we do now?
We base all of our decisions, meaning all
of our intellect, is based on what we
call aql-e-ma'ad, which is dunyawi
benefit, loss, benefit, loss, benefit, loss.
That is why it is much easier for
us to move to a different state if
we will get a good job.
It is easy for us to move to
a different place if there is a good
university there.
It is easier for us to move to
a different state if we find that we'll
get a bigger house.
Because those necessarily are dunyawi benefits.
On the other hand, if you look at
the life of our elders, they would make
decisions based on the akhira, so they would
look for the best masjid, or the madrasa,
or the khanaqah, or the sohbat of saliheen,
and things like that.
And it was easy to make that decision,
so the question becomes why?
And it is because they had trained themselves.
Of course, their spirituality is part of their
ruhaniya, and all of that, but at the
end of the day, their ta'aleem, their
tarbiyah, whatever that process was, had trained them
to focus on their akhira, and to make
their decisions based on the akhira.
And our ta'aleem, our tarbiyah, done by
our school systems, our colleges, our friends that
we hang out with, the media that we
are exposed to, what do we do?
That we focus all of our efforts on
the dunya.
This is very common, and we have put
on these glasses, and we like to think
in those terms, so it becomes very ajeeb.
It becomes very ajeeb that if somebody tells
us that brother, do this, you will get
this, and on the day of judgment, you're
like, oh, okay, I can't wake up during
the night, so I can't do it.
But if somebody tells you that, wake up
during the night, and in the morning you'll
get a new iPhone, the decision is already
made.
We don't have to think about it twice.
That's the difference in psychology.
So it's a psychological difference.
Their focus, our focus, their efforts, and our
efforts.
And if you build on that, this is
why you find that the earlier generations, there
were very much people of ruhaniya, spiritual people,
spiritual beings, spiritual creatures.
Again, because of that, because they were akhid
focused, they would bring into their life actions,
and they would bring into their life habits
that would increase in their ruhaniya.
So very spiritual people, mashallah, and on the
other hand, we have made matter, materialism.
Materialism is actually like a philosophical sort of
worldview, where we take it as our focal
point.
So their focus point was akhira and ruhaniya,
our focus point is dunya, and because it's
dunya, materialism has really become the focal point
of all of our efforts.
Now materialism is what?
That the only thing that you can say
for sure is matter.
Anything that is metaphysical is just in your
mind, it's just in your head, doesn't really
exist, it's very subjective.
What really exists?
Meaning, so this is like an ontological question,
what exists?
To them, a materialistic view is that only
physical world that we can measure, usually through
empiricism, empirical means, that is the world that
only exists.
So make your effort in discovering it, so
if you look at all the research in
the dunya, what is the research going on?
All the research is, whatever sciences you look
at, is research on matter.
Research on matter.
Everything, everything to do with that.
It was very interesting, not too long ago,
it's been over 10 years, but something that
was probably not that prevalent in late 90s,
but in early 2000s, late 2000s, you found
that organizations started talking about the concept of
mindfulness.
Became very common, mindfulness, mindful practices, they will
bring in the concept of meditation.
Now this was not present, maybe there were
some organizations in general who would just focus,
but in general it was not present.
And then you saw wholesale adoption of it.
Now, the example was interesting because in the
deen, in the ruhaniya, you have a similar
concept, what we call huzoori, mindfulness, presence.
Meditation of zikr and things like that, being
in a state of muraqaba and muhasiba, etc.
But again, our deen looks at it from
the perspective of akhira, ruhaniya.
There, because everything is duniya, and everything is
materialistic, what was very interesting was all that
conversation about mindfulness was all about how does
it make you a more productive person.
Meaning how can you achieve more in matter.
If you're not focusing in your work, in
your job, do a few of these practices
and all of a sudden your creative juices
will flow.
They will literally say this.
If you don't feel you're creative enough, then
you need to do this, you need to
do this, you need to do this, and
it will help you be more, meaning, more
materialistic.
Your quest for matter will become much better
now.
So even that, it was very much extremely,
extremely matter-focused.
So materialism is a philosophical, it's a paradigm.
Now, you will find that some of, even
Muslims have adopted that so much so that
they will use their deen not in the
quest for akhira and ruhaniya, but in the
quest for duniya as well as materialism.
They'll use, I mean, deeni means deen, which
is supposed to be all about the divine,
metaphysical, akhira.
Now, because our talim and tarbiyah, whatever the
training is, we are so different that unlike
our salaf salihin who would even use their
duniya for their deen, we use deen for
our duniya, for our materialistic pursuits.
So, samaz milagri?
Ajeeb sadiq difference.
This is a difference.
You know, sahaba karam rizwanallah have been very
different.
They weren't like that.
They would use their duniya for their deen
because of that focal point of akhira.
We use our deen, which is apparently supposed
to bring you close to Allah Ta'ala,
you know, etc.
etc.
We use it for duniya.
I have a good voice.
Oh, masha'Allah, now I will use it
for duniyawi gains.
I'm a beautiful qari and I would use
this, or I'm a nasheed khan, right?
So, before it was just, you can sit
alone and, you know, think about your beloved
salallahu alayhi wa sallam and read beautiful poetry,
you know, and it would increase in your
ruhani.
Right?
Now, you use it, so, in a very
literal sense, people can, you know, drop money
on you and you see that.
That people are reciting nasheed and people are
throwing money at them.
This is what I'm talking about.
You're using your deen, because you're so duniyawi
-focused, you're using it for your duniya, for
your material ambitions.
Do you think there's a difference to Nasrat?
Right?
So, similarly, you know, our salaf salihin and
sahaba kram, because of that, because of ruhaniyat,
you found that they were very much, they
would build their batin and ikhlaq.
So, necessarily, the result was that they had
a lot of sifat.
They had a lot of sifat, people of
sifat, beautiful sifat, generosity and kindness and compassion
and self-sacrifice.
I mean, you name it.
You name it and they had it.
Because batin mattered to them.
So, batin was a focal point for all
of them.
And, on the contrary, for us, the zahir
has become the focal point.
Even from an individual perspective, now we are
more concerned, how do I look?
How do I look?
And, you know, how do I dress?
Or how do I do it?
Rather than what Allah Ta'ala looks at,
we're not that concerned about that anymore.
The batin, the shakal inside, we're not, as
long as other human beings consider us to
be pious and virtuous and naik and salih
and all of that, that's all that matters.
And, regardless if our actions are devilish in
nature and our solitude is not pure and
we lack haya and there's no sadaq, there's
none of that.
So, that's the difference.
They were focused on batin, batini taraqeeq.
We are focused on very much our zahir.
Zahir bach achha hona chahiye.
Aur yeh mardon mein bhi, orton mein bhi,
orton mein bhi.
How many women or men you'll find that,
you know, they take it upon themselves that
I want to make my inner self beautiful.
But zahir, zahir, zahir, zahir mein aisa hona
chahiye, zahir mein aisa hona chahiye, zahir mein.
It's very different.
Again, it just stems from, do you understand,
like it's stemming from the same, if you
want to call it epistemology, which is like
a source of knowledge, but it's really like,
you know, like how do you kind of
learn?
So, learning has been so different, which we
call taleem ul-tarbiyyat, that, you know, that
sort of like duniya, materialism, results in just
focus on the outer self.
Akhirat, akhirat-centric, meaning you're spiritual, ruhaniya, and
then you are focused on your baatein.
Isika end result, you'll find that, you know,
if you boil it down to actual faculties,
you know, our salaf-salihin were people that
were called ahl-e-dil.
Because they were internal focus, they had very
strong hearts.
Because they had very strong hearts, not the
physical, again, because we're thinking, the qalb, the
qalb was so strong, that's why iman was
strong.
And because iman was strong, the tawakkul in
Allah ta'ala was strong, and because the
tawakkul in Allah ta'ala was strong, they
were able to accomplish so much more.
For us, the qalb is extremely weak, because
the qalb is weak, iman is weak, because
the iman is weak, bayyaqeen is there, dhilmil,
dhilmil, dhilmil, you know, and because of that,
tawakkul is not there.
It's just not there.
And it manifests itself in our daily lives.
They were people who would strengthen their iman.
They would strengthen their hearts.
kaise karte the, zikr karte the, ibadat karte
the, sara kuch karte the, would really, you
know, they were people of strong tawajuhat, and
tasarufat, and you know, this is a hadith
that Rasulullah ﷺ, his ru'ab, his awe,
that magnificence, it used to travel at a
distance of three months from him.
That is the quwwat-e-quloob.
The qalb was so strong that it would
affect, it would affect the person sitting next
to them.
So, now, it's more, you know, everything is
just like an intellectual exercise.
So, we have brought all of our focuses,
you know, even our deen, it's not there
to strengthen our qalb.
It is there so it's, you know, my
understanding is good, and I can go give
a good biyaan, and I'm an articulate speaker,
and I can articulate things in a much,
much better way.
So, the way that even the deen is
perceived is different.
In the beginning, what was deen?
To strengthen the heart.
Today, what is deen?
It's all about an academic intellectual exercise, just
like our colleges.
You know, in college, you have subjects, you
take courses, you go from one subject to
another subject to another subject.
Even deeni pursuit has become that.
That is just, you're taking some subjects, and,
you know, you're increasing your intellectual capacity, you
know, your, what they call, like, critical thinking,
analytical analysis, that you're able to, mashallah, you're,
and, you know, it sounds like they're not
smart.
They're very smart.
Extremely smart people.
Like, you start talking to them, and they're,
you know, they'll bring in concepts from various
sciences of the deen, and, and you're like,
oh, mashallah, isko toh bada kuch aate.
But, again, when you look at sifat, when
you look at the qalb, and when you
look at, you know, the connection with Allah,
the ta'alluk, you know, all the things
that we spoke about even last time, you
know, qurba falla ta'ala, anabat illallah, you
know, being a muqarrab, and rujoo illallah.
It's just not there.
It's just not there.
It's very ajeeb.
It's 100% absent.
And seemingly, it is with people who are,
you know, very much considered to be what?
Now, you know, we can call them scholars,
people of ilm, people, but, again, look at
the paradigm.
It's because the dunya focus, because, you know,
all of those things are there that has
really, really shifted, that has shifted the way
that even deen works now.
So it's a subtle point.
I hope it's getting through, but it really
starts from, like, you know, the basic way
of how the world is perceived, and then
it just translates down.
Everything gets affected.
So did you understand a little bit or
not?
Right?
What's on one side?
Akhiraat focus.
Akhiraat is a concept, right?
You know, if you look at even the
Christian tradition and even the Jewish tradition, it's
not as strong, especially in the Jewish.
I mean, Christianity has, you know, eschatology, and,
you know, they have a little bit of
kingdom of God and, you know, things like
that.
But if you look at the Muslim paradigm,
Nabi ﷺ, whether you look at the Qur
'an, you know, how the qiyamah will come
and life after death, especially life after death.
I remember when I was a young kid,
I came across a book, a small book.
It was, like, an orange cover.
It said, like, مَعَتْكَ مَنْزِرْ مَلْنِيكِ بَعَدْ كَاهُوَ
Right?
And I remember, you know, when I read
through it, it was just like a collection
of hadiths.
Now, whether they were all sahih hadiths or
not, I don't know.
I was too young.
But, I mean, collection, there were some stories
of Salaf as-Saleheen, but in general, it
was a collection of hadiths, you know, and
it was, you know, broken down in terms
of, you know, people who were righteous and
then people who were not righteous.
It was halat of the jannat and then
halat of jahannam.
And I remember when I read through that,
you know, at least for a month or
so, you know, it really straightened you up.
Because, again, it changes that paradigm, like the
way that you look at life.
So, Nabi ﷺ taught that.
Nabi ﷺ taught us to be akhirat-centric.
And so, the first few generations, they, you
know, and, again, like, I will bring what
I said last time.
It doesn't mean that you don't engage in
dunyawi pursuits.
No, no, no.
It doesn't make that you don't, you know,
have a career, you don't have a business.
And we have explained this.
So, I don't need to, like, keep on
repeating.
Sahabah-e-Kamil, Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim,
I would say most of them, 95-99
% of them, they all had their, you
know, what we call their career, but usually
they were businessmen.
You know, so they had their businesses.
They had their, you know, they had land
that they grew on, right?
Fadaq was there.
Khaybar was there.
Then even Nabi ﷺ, you know, he used
to get proceeds from that as well.
So, there is that.
But we are thinking in terms of how
does a person make decisions in their life,
right?
So, this is, they were akhirat-centric in
their decision-making.
And this is, you know, how does it
benefit my akhirah?
And, you know, modern society, and even modern
Muslim, it has changed and shifted that our
efforts are duniya for the sake of duniya,
right?
They had duniya for the sake of akhirah.
So, our duniya is, and I'll tell you
this, you know, I engage with a lot
of PIs and researchers at the universities, various
universities, and, you know, they make a lot
of effort.
They make a lot of effort.
Subah, Sirat, you know, they have their labs.
But they are seeking it for the sake
of duniya.
So, there's always, you know, I want to
be published in Nature, I want to be
published here, and I want to get grant
X and this much money, and this.
So, the effort is there, but it is
for the sake of.
Now, Muslim, a Muslim researcher would make the
effort too, but they would be making the
same effort for the sake of their akhirah.
Right?
We will do the same thing.
But our intention behind it, that is akhirah,
that is getting close to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Right?
So, this sort of like ladder, if you
just, you know, go from there, akhirah versus
duniya, spirituality versus, you know, materialism that we
spoke a little bit about as a philosophical
sort of like paradigm of being inner self
versus focusing only on outer self.
Conscious, meaning, rather than becoming people of sifat,
characteristics, ikhlaq, you know, beauty, ihsan, taqwa.
Right?
It is all about how do I look
outside, what do I wear, what car I'm
driving, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And eventually, you find that rather than developing
their qalb, their iman, you know, it becomes
a pursuit of what?
Just intellectual or academic pursuits, basically.
So, I want us to kind of take
this sort of framework and then every time
that we look at or read the seerah
or whether we read the life of the
sahabah-i-kiram, bismillah-ir-rahman-ir-rahim,
of Salaf-i-Saleheen afterwards, right?
All the early generations.
If you just bring this perspective, you will
find that mostly, like obviously, you always find
exceptions.
You'll always find, you know, even in the
life of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam, even
Madina Munawwara, there were munafiqeen that were present
there.
Of course there were.
But munafiqeen were the exceptions.
Right?
In the generations afterwards, you always found people
that obviously did not act in the best
way.
But, you know, you cannot judge.
Overall, the general, the general orientation was always
like that.
And you will find that.
So, now the question becomes, why are we
talking about this?
Well, I mean, I think one of the
reasons that we, as an ummah, are in
this predicament is because of that.
If akhirat does not matter to me, why
would I make any decisions that will benefit
it?
Right?
Why would I make any benefit, you know?
If the duniya is the, is all in
all, materialism is all in all, you know,
material, you know, progress is everything to me,
that's all I'm going to focus on.
Right?
And if I'm not concerned about my inner
self, if I don't want to learn self
-sacrifice, then why would I?
Why should I sacrifice for you, for you,
for you, my time, my energy, my anything?
And this sort of, it develops it, because
this, the whole concept of individualism actually kind
of came down from that.
As long as you had some traditional deen
leading your way, people were still sort of
like focused on the other.
How do I benefit others?
How do I work for others?
How do I do this?
And as soon as all of that, that
was like shut, that door was shut, when
materialism just became everything, now you have to
give tax breaks, right?
Meaning you give to certain causes and it
will give you a tax break.
So you're bringing in a material benefit rather
than, no, no, this is the right thing
to do and, you know, feed others, et
cetera, et cetera.
So that has been brought in as well.
And as I mentioned, you know, that has
been brought in our deen discourse so much
so that we will use our deen for
our duniya, our deen for our material pursuit,
and that is problematic.
So what do we want to become?
We want to become ahle-dil.
Ahle-dil, people of heart, rather than just
people who are focused on our intellectual pursuit.
InshaAllah, if we make that change, inshaAllah, you'll
see everything will start to fit in.
You will find that your inner self will
become better.
Your inner self becomes better, meaning all the
sifat will.
If I am sakhi, if I'm not self
-centered, then I will worry about what's going
on in the world.
And if I don't, if I am self
-centered, right, if I don't care about sifat,
good qualities, characteristics, why should I care?
Why should I care about what's happening to
them or anybody else?
People take it to the nth degree.
Why should I care?
You know, my parents, they lived their life.
Why should I care about them?
You know, what happens to my brother or
sister?
You know, it's, this is very ajeeb thinking,
but there's, you know, you have to really
trace it back to what is really wrong
at the crux of it.
We are Muslims.
We don't think like that.
Our talim and tarbiyyat should reflect, should change.
And even in akhira, I will, you know,
take it one step further, you know, because
I started in akhira in the dunya, but
eventually, even akhira is all about Allah.
Right?
Meaning Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the
pivot around which our life revolves.
And the other lifestyle is just void of
divine presence.
So, atheism will kind of give, you know,
if you take it one step even before
that, because, you know, we have this deistic,
you know, deistic kind of existence.
We believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah ta'ala is at the center of
everything we do.
That's why akhira is at the center of
everything that we do.
And that's why spirituality and inner self and,
you know, working on the heart is at
the center of it.
If there is no Allah, right, then it's
just focus becomes the dunya, focus becomes materialism,
focus becomes outer self, and focus just becomes
intellect.
So, that's why we say love Allah.
Have a connection with Allah.
Okay?
So, when we do it, inshallah ta'ala,
you will find that everything, lego pieces, it
will just, all the pieces of the puzzle
will fit together, inshallah ta'ala.
I pray to Allah ta'ala that Allah
ta'ala may you and all of us
may Allah ta'ala make us sensible.
May Allah ta'ala grant us our own
taste.
May Allah ta'ala come into our lives
in such a way that our everything, our
seeing, our speaking, our thinking, our feeling, everything
changes.
Everything changes.
So, when Allah ta'ala comes into our
lives, there's such a transformative change that happens.
Transformative change that happens.
Everything changes.
Everything changes.
This is what we want, inshallah ta'ala,
to change.
May Allah ta'ala grant us all, inshallah
ta'ala.
Ameen.
Ya Rabbul Aalameen.
Wa Akhir Dawana Anil Hamdulillahi Rabbil Aalameen.
Inshallah ta'ala, for a little while, observe.
Close your eyes.
Bow your head.
The world is not there.
Move away from it.
May Allah ta'ala sink into the remembrance
of the Lord of Glory.
Imagine that there is no earth, no sky,
no moon, no sun, no stars, no humans,
no animals, no devils.
For a little while, just disconnect yourself from
everything and everyone in this world.
It's important to be able to step back
from this thought process.
You know, our thoughts, as I said, are
very much focused on duniya.
Step back from it.
Let go of them.
And everyone in this duniya is also very
temporal.
Let go of their thoughts.
Har cheez har ki Allah ki taraf dihan
karne.
You know, refocus your hearts to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and make intentions.
Allah ta'ala istajaliyat, anwarat, fuyuzat, are descending
upon us.
Anwarat aa rahe hain, dil mein sama rahe
hain, dil ki zulmat, sakhti, gandagi ko door
kar rahe hain.
Anwarat aa rahe hain, aur hamare dil Allah
ki muhabbat mein keh raha hai.
Allah, Allah, Allah.
Aur ham aapko apne wajdan ke kaanon se
sun rahe hain.
Inshallah.