Ali Albarghouthi – This is Love #35 Loving Knowledge
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning and pursuing religious knowledge is emphasized, along with the need to be open-minded and not just pleasant with words and attitude. The importance of motivating with words and actions to push people up and achieve their goals is emphasized, as well as the importance of learning and pursuing one's beliefs to avoid confusion and harm. The importance of knowing one's actions and emotions to avoid confusion and harm and the need to be a good Christian person to avoid unnecessary behavior is emphasized. The importance of submitting to Allah's will and not losing perspective on the actions of others is emphasized, as well as the importance of knowing and understanding the situation in order to live in the west or the east.AI: Transcript ©
Ahmedabad.
This is hadith
number 35 in the series of this is
love,
and the title of this chapter is loving
knowledge.
Loving
knowledge and loving those
who seek it and those who teach it.
And we have a hadith here from Rasulullah
When Safwan ibn Asal
said,
It says, I came
to the messenger, alayhi sallahu alayhi sallahu alayhi
sallahu alayhi sallahu alayhi sallam while he is
in the Masjid,
and he was reclining on a red cloak,
his red cloak.
I said, oh Messenger of Allah, I came
seeking knowledge, meaning to learn.
So he said
he says,
He says, Welcome, O Seeker of Knowledge.
He said, The seeker of knowledge.
The angels
surround him
and they shade him with their wings.
And then until
they pack on top of each other
until they reach the lowest sky
or the lowest heaven
out of love for what he is seeking.
So again, what do the angels do? And
at first the prophet, salallahu alaihi wasallam, welcomed
him, and he said that the angels, they
surround the seeker of knowledge,
and they shade him,
and they pack.
Right?
They come on top of each other.
Until that, all of that,
that tower of angels
reaches the lowest
sky
and the lowest sky
is beyond
what you can see.
The lowest sky is Sanat Udunya. Its limit
is beyond what you can see.
So this is, of course, is a great
hadith, and what we want to take from
that
is an emphasis
on loving religious knowledge,
and seeking it, and why it is so
valued.
And before we get into that, I want
you to note
how
cheerful and wonderful the Prophet, Alaihi Wasallam,
was when he was a welcoming
Safwan.
So
words matter.
If you
are a motivator, if you are enthusiastic,
if you are welcoming,
if you are happy, if you are cheerful,
you're able to spread that.
And if you're the opposite, you spread that
as well.
And words are a double edged sword.
They could save and they can doom.
They can elevate and they can demote.
They can build up a person or they
can destroy him.
So it's important if Allah Azza wa Jal
had given you the ability to speak and
He did,
and He had given you people around you
who listen and are affected by what you
say, whether they are family or neighbors
or acquaintances
or strangers,
that you speak the best because you have
the power
to bring them closer to Allah or further
away from Him. You have the power
to build them up and make them feel
better about themselves and better about what they're
doing, to make them feel better about the
religion of Allah
and motivate them to be do even more
or you can discourage them and make them
feel
worse
about themselves and about
religion and about life in general.
So it's important
to spread that goodwill, to spread that enthusiasm,
to spread hope,
and to spread love for the religion of
Allah and ease.
So here the prophet
was making it easy for Safwan and we
will understand why that is necessary when it
comes to Islam. But he was welcoming him
And if he welcomes himself, Safwan is likely
to be motivated to seek knowledge because of
that attitude of the Prophet alaihi salatu wa
sallam. Were he to repel him,
he would
not.
Would he, too, repel Safwan
or dismiss him
or be angry with him or
with Him or be irritated with His request,
someone would simply turn away and find something
else to do or at least will not
be as motivated. But when you want someone
to do the right thing, you motivate them
with your words and your attitude. And that
is an important thing. You motivate them with
your words and your attitude. And that is
an important thing. And that is an important
thing.
Thing, you motivate them with your words and
your attitude, and that is important to keep
in mind that you have the power to
make things better with your words and with
your attitude, with how you welcome people.
Right?
And
there's a hadith here on page 365
that reinforces
welcoming and celebrating the seekers of knowledge.
It is said that He
and this is narrated by Ibn Majah. He
said,
He said that alaihis salatu wasallam they will
come to you and he is likely is
speaking to
the Sahaba or the knowledgeable among the Sahaba.
So he says
people will come to you who will be
seeking knowledge.
When you see them, say to them,
Welcome, welcome. Oh, those whom the
Meaning when you are gonna receive those people
who wanna learn,
those are my wasayah. Those are the people
I'm entrusting you to take care of
and be nice and kind to.
Meaning and teach them. Meaning so
welcome them and teach them when they come
to you.
So we need to do this
with those who are seeking knowledge.
Anyone who is coming to ask a question
and maybe you will receive you don't have
to be
a scholar
to receive someone
asking you about this and that. And if
they are asking you out of concern for
their religion
because they wanna know, they wanna please Allah
and avoid His anger,
then be
pleasant,
be
open hearted,
give them
the answer as much as you can
and if not, refer them to those who
can.
But the attitude, that cheerful attitude that this
is what you're seeking,
you are the Wasiyyah of Rasulullah
Meaning the Prophet told me to take care
of you, so I will take care of
you and I'll support you and I will
guide you as much as I can.
And
the reason why
we should do this
is that the truth is heavy.
So Allah Azzawajal kind of to support that
statement that the truth is heavy.
Allah Azzawajal
said to his prophet alayhis salatu wasalam,
Inna sanulkii
alayqaqoolin
faqeelah
We will send down to you heavy words.
And what is he referring to
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?
What are these heavy words? It's the Quran.
Inna Sanukhi Al Aikha, we're gonna give you
qaulah.
So these are the words the statements of
Allah.
What is their characteristic?
They are heavy.
So what does it mean that they are
heavy?
They're heavy
in that they are deep
and they are rich
and they are transformative
and you can study them and continue to
study them and you will continue to gain
wisdom from them. There's no end to it
and they require implementation
and they require sacrifice, meaning it's not a
trivial thing.
If you accept it,
your life will be changed
and you will have enemies.
And not all words will have that
but they will change you inside out and
they'll change society
and they will not stop demanding from you
change until you change completely.
Those are the words that are heavy. Trans
transformative completely of you and everybody around you
and in the process they require a lot
from you.
So that
is contrasted
to the words and statements that are trivial,
light,
that
does not require much from you and also
does not give you much
Doesn't give you a lot
and doesn't want anything from you,
right? Like somebody telling you a joke.
It could
what? Elevate your mood, right?
It doesn't enrich your life beyond that moment,
doesn't transform it
but a piece of wisdom
that you think about
and it keeps asking you to change after
you realize what it means, that's different.
So Ibn 'Abdulla ibn Mas'od, he contrasts kind
of the trivial and the heavy statements
and he said, Al haqquthaqilun
mari
is the truth is heavy but wholesome.
And falsehood is light but diseased.
And perhaps a desire, momentary desire,
yields
decades
of sorrow.
Perhaps momentary desire, momentary lapse of judgment, yet
you say yes to yourself because
you crave something. So you say yes to
it. The consequence of that is sorrow that
extends for a very long time.
So here the wisdom is
the truth is what it's heavy.
So is it easy to sit and read
the Quran?
Yeah. If you say yes, then everybody would
be doing it, right?
Right? So is it easy?
No.
Is it easy to watch movies?
Yeah, numbers just contrast numbers.
Okay,
what is the truth and what is falsehood
here?
Oh, so you understand.
1 is
heavy
but if you actually persist, it will give
you a lot in return.
But that movie,
you'll watch it and you'll watch another one
and you'll watch another one
but then what does it give you back?
Not much. It just has taken your time.
That's it.
It didn't give you anything in return. You
say, Well, it entertained me. Yeah, it just
took entertained you for this 1, 2, 3
hours but beyond it does not. It doesn't
give you much.
So what he that's what he's saying. He
says, If you want something
and this is, I say in the book,
think of junk food.
How delicious is it?
And how bad is it for you?
And you can eat a lot of it,
right?
French fries after french fries after french fries,
right? Fried food, fried food. You can eat
that every day but what will it give
you?
Sickness.
Or as wholesome food and that's
not always appetizing.
You got to force yourself sometimes to eat
it but the consequence is what?
Healthful body
and a better mood, by the way.
So
that is a,
an example that Allah has given us in
the physical world for us to understand the
non physical world as well.
If you want the truth, the truth is
heavy. So if you are a seeker of
knowledge like, why would we digress here to
talk about why the truth is heavy? If
you're a seeker of knowledge, you're carrying something
heavy.
So don't make life harder for that person
by you being hard on
them. You know why sometimes and this is
only a partial answer to the question of
why sometimes the religious means
or the religious seem to be in worse
mood than non religious.
The religious
don't have
a better mood sometimes
than the non religious
And the reason is what they're carrying is
heavy.
What they are worried about is heavy.
So they cannot afford to be superficial.
So if you know that what they are
carrying is heavy but coming to the Masjid
is not easy,
praying on time is not easy,
reading the Quran is not easy, so they're
struggling
with all of this and then you come
and you make it difficult for them,
then you're working against Allah's religion and those
who want to follow it.
And that is why the attitude here is
important when you see someone religious, motivate them,
push them up, not pull them down.
Understand that they are struggling just like you
are struggling. Don't Don't be over critical with
the religious when you find flaws in them
but rather advise
and compliment
and push up, not down.
And that is why it's important
that when you see the seeker of knowledge
you welcome them and you motivate them because
they need that motivation.
It's enough that the Shaytan is working against
them, and their self is working against them
and maybe their families are working against them
and their friends are working against them and
they're alone trying to do the right things
and then you come and you burden them
with an attitude like
that, that is the wrong.
That is the wrong attitude.
Other thing that you can also derive from
this is
the Prophet alaihi wa sallam was the leader
of the Ummah. He is the imam. He
is the political leader. He is the religious
leader. He is
constantly
seeking and receive not seeking receiving people's
problems and solving this and worrying about that.
How could he be so cheerful when somebody
comes to him asking him for something?
You know that when you receive so many
requests and you have your own personal burdens
and even communal burdens, you don't have
the capacity
to be so nice,
to be kind.
People may see you and you are weighed
down by all of your problems, weighed down
by all of your concerns.
How could He be so cheerful and smile
in his face?
How could that attitude
be there?
And we can say that he had this
attitude alaihis salatu was salam because of how
close he was to Allah.
It's wrong of you to think that the
prophet or a prophet of Allah does not
get sad.
Do the prophets get sad?
Yeah? Well, of course,
right? You guys are worried. When I said,
Do the prophets get sad? He said, I
don't want to say the wrong thing. I'll
wait for him to say yes or no.
But yeah, they do get
sad. Yeah, the prophet said that about, about
the death of his son Ibrahim.
You know, we are sad over your death.
Do they get their chest tight?
Yeah.
We know that your chest gets tight because
of what they say.
Do they experience fear
of people at times?
Yeah.
He said about the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam, he says, You're afraid of people, are
you worried about
them? And you should be worried and fearful
of Allah more.
So
prophets are human beings and it's important to
remember that they're human beings because now you
know that they are struggling with emotions similar
to yours.
So the prophet gets burdened
but what is the thing
that removes that burden?
It is their proximity to Allah Azzawajal.
The closer they are to Allah,
the lesser the burden.
Doesn't matter what that burden is.
They're worried about the Ummah, worried about who
did not accept Islam from their family, worried
about this, worried about that, whatever, even you
when you find that you are burdened,
get closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And the greater the burden, the greater the
proximity that is needed.
They say I tried it but it's not
working. It means that you'd have to try
harder and get closer
closer in dua, closer in salah, closer in
sujood and so on and so on and
so on and the burden will decrease and
so you will find that you will have
inshirahus suddr that Allah will expand your heart.
Alam nishraha lakasudraq, he said to the prophet
that do we not expand your chest
for you?
And Musa alaihassalam asked, rabbi
Allah,
expand my chest. Why expand my chest? So
I could take whatever they are saying and
be patient with it.
So that comes from Allah azza wa Jal
and from proximity to Him.
This is how He managed to do it
It is a favor from Allah Azza wa
Jal but it comes through
what? Being close to him.
So if you are burdened,
come close to Allah Azza wa Jal.
And I point here in the book before
coming at that's the last point I wanna
make about,
the burden of the truth
and the difficulty in embracing
it is that
I divide following the truth into 3 stages.
The first stage is the beginning,
and that stage is when you are excited
about it. You're just starting whether it's a
person who has just accepted Islam
or had just recommitted himself or herself to
Islam or started to read a book whatever
the beginning of anything
That's exciting.
It doesn't last.
But it's good to experience that excitement in
the beginning.
Then you go in the middle.
That middle stage is where everybody gets stuck.
Most of us get stuck.
Where you want to proceed but you're gonna
stagnate,
right?
You lose your motivation.
You fall into a rhythm.
You can't break through.
I want to be closer to Allah but
I can't. I don't know what else to
do.
So I've settled into particular practices, a particular
routine,
I feel but not a lot.
So I'm
stuck. I'm in the middle of the book
but I can't finish it.
I'm in the middle of an action but
I can't finish it. That's where you get
stuck. You've reached a roadblock or a ceiling
and you can't break through.
The 3rd stage
is when
you retain that excitement
through exerted commitment to Allah, A.
Z. So
if you don't want to be stuck in
the middle,
you have to say to yourself,
I'm dissatisfied
with this routine.
Dissatisfied with those feelings.
Dissatisfied
with being stuck right there. I want more
for myself,
more from myself.
So if you push yourself and you keep
pushing and you persist,
you'll break through
and you will retain
greater
excitement than the one that you had in
the beginning.
But that is the test for those who
are speaking Allah Azza wa Jal.
Are you gonna give up in the middle
or will you continue until you reach the
end? And I don't mean that when you're
gonna reach that end, that last stage that
you're not gonna be challenged
but at least you're not stuck.
But how to move from the second to
the third is again with du'a and increased
worship.
With du'a and increased worship.
With knowing that there is more that you
can get and that what you have right
at the moment is not enough.
When you're dissatisfied
and you ask Allah for change, change can
happen.
Our problem is what what? We get distracted
and we think that what we have at
the moment is all of it but it's
not all of it. There's always more.
And as we've said about the love of
Allah, Azza'udal,
the love of Allah has no limit,
right? The love of Allah is limitless.
You could live a 100 years
and you would not reach the end
of the love of Allah Azza wa Jal
and Allah could extend your life as much
as Nuh alaihis salam and you would not
reach the end of the love of Allah
because there is always more to feel and
more to know.
So if you push yourself
and you pray more and you read more
Quran and you make more dua and you
plead with Allah Azza wa Jal and you
do more dhikr, you will break through by
the will of Allah Azza wa Jal.
So that stagnation is not inevitable
and our feeling of helplessness and being cynical
and being dissatisfied
is not
necessary,
we could overcome that.
Now,
let's move to the
virtue of knowledge
and we'll talk first about its virtue and
then why it's virtuous.
So a few sayings
on page 368-369.
He said
He said Extra knowledge is better than extra
worship.
So worship
has an obligatory side and a voluntary side.
So the obligations are necessary
But when you come to voluntary
worship,
what he's saying is that ill
is better than that.
And it doesn't mean stop your voluntary worship,
right? It doesn't mean that. What it doesn't
mean is think about
priorities and ranks.
And when you look at knowledge, knowledge
is better than voluntary
deeds
on average.
And Ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhu, he said to
that
He says, Discussing matters of knowledge for part
of the night
is more beloved to me than praying the
whole night.
Studying
for part of the night is more beloved
to me than praying the whole night.
And his Zuhriq and he's one of the
great scholars of Islam. He said,
Allah is not worshipped with anything like fiqh,
meaning understanding
of religion.
And as Shafi'i,
Rahim Allah, he said,
says, Seeking knowledge is better than voluntary salah.
Javier says this, right?
Seeking knowledge is better than voluntary salah.
If you go back to al Zuhri when
he said Allah is not worshiped by anything
similar to fiqh,
meaning seeking knowledge and understanding it.
That means that seeking knowledge is what?
Ibadah.
Like when you study, whether you are attending
a lecture
or reading a book,
that is seeking knowledge, right?
But do we
have at the same time
the intention,
the realization that this is a baddah as
well?
Just like when I'm praying,
just like when I'm fasting,
just like when I'm making du'a and dikr,
this is also Ibadah that Allah rewards me
for.
So we have to be cognizant of that
because Allah rewards you more when you do
this and you will be motivated when you
do that because you say to yourself Oh,
subhanAllah, now at this moment I'm in a
state of Ibadah. Then you take it seriously
and you anticipate rewards for it. And not
just sitting for entertainment.
So now you elevate your presence
especially when you believe the angels of Allah
Azadul could be attending and listening to the
same thing I'm listening to.
So this is something that is extremely serious
because this is Ibadah
and I'm coming close to Allah because of
this Ibadah.
So this is something that is wonderful.
Shafi'i also said
He says nothing after
the obligatory
prayers
or obligations,
something better
than seeking knowledge. They say even jihad. He
says even jihad
because seeking knowledge is the basis of jihad.
You won't be able to
strive and struggle for Allah's sake unless you
know
what to do and what not to do,
what is lawful and what is not. That's
the basis of it.
And the final quote here on these pages,
Abdullaib al Warraq was asked,
It's as if you were
to be asked
You only have one day left to live,
what would you do?
He says, I would sit to teach.
Right? If you have one day to live
what would you do?
And that is a very interesting
not only question but answer.
If you only had one day to one
day to live,
one thing to do in that day, what
would you do?
So Abdullah ibn Mubarak who is a scholar
who is also a Mujahid
who's also a,
mutasaddiq. He has had money that he gave
for Allah's sake. What would you do? He
said, I would sit to teach. And that
tells you that he understood that
knowledge is valuable.
And if I still have
an extra breath, a few hours more to
live, I want to spend them doing that.
So think about that for yourself if one
were to ask you, If you had 1
week to live, what would you do? And
mean seriously.
Like if you were to sit and think
about it if you had 1 week to
live
what are the things that you would do?
Because these would be the things that are
important to you,
right?
I will finalize this, finalize that. Your answer
would tell you then you care about
1, 2, 3, and 4. It reveals
what you worry about.
So if ibn Mubarak said I would sit
and teach people what he was worried about
was his hereafter.
He didn't save money and he didn't save
family.
Although
family is important.
But he said, I would sit and teach
because he worried about his hereafter.
So, inspect your,
answers
to understand what is important
and then
if you discover that what is important is
not really what is supposed to be important,
start adjusting
what you love and what you desire
so that your answer would match
something that Allah
loves. So if someone were to ask you,
what would you do? You would not say,
I would go to McDonald's,
eat the last meal there,
or I would travel to Paris, right, and
just die under the Eiffel Tower, or whatever,
right? It's not like these things.
He would say,
I would do something meaningful. What is that
thing that he would
do?
Now, why was and is knowledge
so important?
Because
you will not know Allah Azzural
without it
But how would you know Allah Azzuajal without
knowledge?
How would you love him?
How do you know his names and attributes?
How do you feel connected to him if
you know nothing about him? Like how could
you worship
Allah if you know nothing about him?
So in order to love Allah,
if you're close to Him,
to fear Him, to hope from Him, you
have to know Him.
And that is what Ulm gives you,
reveals to you who Allah is.
And the best of knowledge is the one
that reveals to you who Allah is and
the best of knowledge is the one that
brings you closer to Allah
and every
discipline is supposed to feed into that.
And any discipline that takes away from it
is unnecessary or harmful.
So it's supposed to all lead to Allah's
love, Allah's fear, hope from Him, reliance on
Him but the only thing that gives that
to you is
and that's why it becomes so invaluable.
And Allah Azzawajal said in the Quran,
Indeed only those who have knowledge
have awe
of Allah.
And I say here I said,
It says, khasya is not fear
because we could translate this as
only those who have knowledge fear Allah. He
said, nukhasya is something more than fear.
Is
is
fear but reverence
because it's based on knowledge,
meaning that they all have fear of Allah
but reverence
because they know Him.
They're not just afraid. You could be afraid
of a lion, afraid of a snake. That's
not what we're talking about.
You're afraid but you revere.
Just like consider
an earthly monarch
king.
You're afraid but respect.
Not just fear. You're afraid but respect.
Respect because you know he has power
but you also like
Him.
So because of that power you fear Him
but at the same time, why? You respect
Him
and He's close to you.
And so
Allah says about
the Ulema they are the ones who truly
are in awe of him why because they
know him more and the more you know
him the more you'll be in awe of
Allah Azzawajal
And even even even the angels of Allah
Azza wa Jal have that
even though they're not sinful,
They're not committed a sin they're not afraid
of hellfire
but when they hear Allah's commands
they fall into
they fall
in prostration.
Why? Because they know Allah
and we don't.
But the more that you do,
the more that you will resemble the angels
and how they revere Allah as Zojl.
So the more that you know,
the closer you'll be to Allah as Zohjal.
So knowledge gives you that and knowledge also
tells you
how to be close to Allah. Not only
who Allah is
but how do you get close to Him?
What is He like and what does He
hate?
So if someone were to ask you, There
is a God. Alhamdulillah.
Now we know this. What is He like?
You say, I don't
know. What does He hate? I don't know.
How do you
follow His commands? I don't know what His
commands are.
Okay, what would He say about A, B,
and C? I don't know. How to worship
Him? I don't none of these things. So
we don't know anything about how to be
close to Allah,
how to avoid His anger, how to fulfill
His will on earth.
What is beneficial,
what is harmful unless He tells you
how do you get this?
That's what feeds it.
So here with Lilly tells you 2 things
to do, 2 very important things
who the Creator is
and how to be close to Him.
And that is why knowledge is so valuable.
And Allah Azzawajal said that people
when they praise Allah Azzawajal in the year
after and they will say, Waqaluhamdulillahi
ladhihadanalihada.
Wumakunna
linahtadiya
laulaandhadan
Allah. They praise Allah as though they say
we praise Allah who had guided us to
this and we could not be guided except
for Allah.
It's not possible that you'd be guided
except for Allah. In two ways, of course,
guidance in terms of acceptance of the truth,
not only knowing it but acceptance of the
truth.
A lot of people may know what the
right thing is but they don't want to
follow it.
So it's a favor of Allah's favors when
you wanna follow the truth. It's not you.
So you have to
thank and praise Allah for it, Alhamdulillah, that
you have opened my heart to the truth
and may it continue to be open to
the truth
but also Alhamdulillah
that you told me
about who you are
and about how to be close to you
and about what benefits me in this life
and about what harms me in it so
I would know right from wrong because you
could you're the only one who could tell
me and you told me. So Alhamdulillah
for this nihma.
So that's why knowledge is so important
because it is so beneficial.
And the more that you will get of
it, the closer,
at least in potential
you'll be to Allah Azza wa Jal.
And the prophet alaihis salatu wasallam said,
is if Allah wants the best for someone
He gives him an understanding of religion.
Right. If Allah wants
good for someone,
He teaches him this religion.
And the opposite, of course, should be true
that if Allah does not teach someone religion
then He does not want the best for
them.
This is all available to everybody
but if you find yourself inclined towards
learning
the sharia,
learning Islam,
learning tawhid and seerah and fiqh and all
the branches of Islamic knowledge, you find yourself
eager, you want to learn it, you want
to teach it,
then that is a possible sign that Allah
is guiding you towards the best because He
wants the best for you
cause He likes
you.
Right. And if you find yourself
repelled by it,
you're not interested in it,
then that is a
dangerous sign
that you don't want the best for yourself
and so Allah doesn't want that for you.
So you have to strive and push yourself
to learn
because every time that you're doing it you
say Alhamdulillah, that's a good sign, by the
way, right?
If you're reading the Quran, if you're reading
its tafsir, tafsir, if you're listening to hadith,
don't misinterpretation,
if it's an Islamic lecture and you are
learning and you say that's a good sign
that I'm listening to this, it's a good
sign that I'm here, it's a good sign
that I want to be here, that I'm
committed to this because this is fiqh and
deen and fiqhiz deen is something good which
is what? A sign that Allah wants good
things for me.
But if you're somewhere else or you're always
somewhere else when Islam is being taught then
that's not a good sign for you.
And that is what that's the statement from
the Prophet alaihis salatu wa sallam. So keep
it in mind. If Allah wants the best
for you, He gives you religious understanding.
So if you want the best for yourself,
you strive until you get that religious understanding.
And you don't wait for it to come
to you, you run after it,
You go and you download those lectures or
you seek them and you buy those books
and you set a time to read and
you set a time to study and you
ask questions, you seek it. If it's important
then you seek it.
And I included here a hadith
the Prophet alaihis salatu wa sallam when he
said,
the one who
treads a path where he is seeking knowledge,
Allah will ease him into a path to
paradise.
If you seek a path of knowledge
Allah will facilitate you into a path to
Jannah
because of what you have done.
And say the angels, they lower their wings
out of respect,
out of
happiness for what the seeker of knowledge is
doing.
So remember the beginning,
the first hadith, the hadith of the chapter
where we said that the angels will surround
the seeker of knowledge, shade him with their
wings, and they will top each other and
then till they reach
the lowest sky.
So what does that remind you of?
Reminds you, perhaps,
of a celebrity
who is being,
surrounded
by fans,
1 on top of the other.
And that is, of course, out of apparent
love or admiration
for that person.
And they can't control their emotions.
That is
worldly celebration
for worldly reasons
and the seeker of knowledge
find himself alone.
No one cares about him. He's the only
one
in his surroundings who is doing this
and if he feels
estranged and alienated he should remember what the
prophet
has said that if people don't care, the
angels of Allah care.
And if people don't
admire, it's not that you're seeking people's praise
and admiration but if people don't admire
what you're doing, not you but what you're
doing, they don't value what you're doing,
The angels of Allah value what you're doing
and to the extent that if you are
walking they lower their wings
to you.
If you can visualize this, if you could
imagine this, it would satisfy you beyond any
human praise or admiration. The answers of Allah
should be enough.
He says,
the Alim,
those who are in the heavens and earth
and the fish in the sea ask Allah
to forgive him.
All the animals ask Allah to forgive him.
And he says the virtue
of the Alim
over the worship of Allah is like the
virtue of the full moon over the stars.
That's complete, full light
next to small light
that disappears in comparison.
That's what the scholar is compared to those
who just worship without knowledge. And lastly, he
said, Alayhi Salatu was Salam,
that the scholars are the heirs
of
the prophets and the prophets did not leave
behind
wealth,
but they left knowledge.
The one who attains it had attained plenty
of good fortune.
So that's what the prophets of Allah had
left behind and what they've left behind is
nothing
other than knowledge.
So if you want to grab on to
whatever is left of prophethood
because there's no prophethood after Muhammad
but what is left of prophethood
is this alm,
is this Quran
is this hadith.
So if you want as much of prophethood
as possible,
you hold on to them
And you will now resemble more and more.
The more that you now know, the more
that you apply, you'll resemble
more and more the prophets of Allah without
being a prophet. You'll resemble more and more
the companions of Muhammad
You'll be elevated to their
station
and if you are
a teacher
even the animals will pray for you.
And if you are a seeker of knowledge,
the angels of Allah Azzawajal
are supporting you.
So there's nothing loftier.
There's nothing better. There's no better job.
By the way, you don't need you don't
need a degree.
You don't need admission,
right? This is open to every single person.
If you decide at this moment you could
become a seeker
by saying to yourself
I will read,
I will listen. But you commit
Not just wishful
thinking. I'll commit.
I'll start reading.
By the end of the week I'll finish
this. Every week I'll attend this. I will
listen to that. I will become a seeker
even if I don't spend as much time
as I would like but I am consistent
and I'm doing it daily
or weekly,
then perhaps Allah
can consider us among those
who are fortunate enough to be teachers of
good
and seekers of good.
And the last thing, Insha'Allah, that I will
say is that
we said if Allah wants the best for
you, He teaches you knowledge, right?
And
in fact, whenever Allah
wants the best for you,
He will lead you to what He loves.
The question that you ask sometimes and the
question that we ask sometimes,
how do I know if Allah loves me?
How do we know if Allah loves us?
And we spoke before about some physical signs.
Of today, so far we said that if
Allah wants the best for you, He gives
you religious understanding.
But we answered that question before. We explained
some physical signs of Allah's love that if
this happens that could be a sign of
Allah's love. If this happened that could be
a sign of Allah's love.
Well, today,
we're gonna add something to it.
Ibnutaymiyar Rahimu'Allahi said,
He said when Allah loves someone He employs
them in what He loves.
If Allah loves someone
He employs them in what He loves.
So if you want a sign of Allah's
love, look at what you're doing and let's
look at what we're doing. Ibn Tayaniyah is
saying, if Allah loves you,
He chooses you to do the things that
He loves.
What does Allah love?
He loves dawah, for instance. This is just
examples. He loves dawah.
So if you're someone who's doing da'wah,
that's something that Allah loves,
then he'll use you for it.
Or taking care of the houses of Allah
Azza wa Jal or teaching people
or taking care
of your family
or helping your neighbors
or or or or. So you consider
if Allah loves you,
He brings you close
just like you
when you want something,
you ask it of those who
whom you love.
Meaning if you want something,
where do you seek it from?
Let's say you need some money. Do you
go to a stranger that is likely to
say no to you or to someone who
is close to you who is likely to
say yes?
If you need help, give me a glass
of water. Help me with this.
Help me with that. You seek those that
you love.
Do you think love you back? Who are
likely to say yes. So you bring the
loved ones closer to you. Now Allah doesn't
need us
but when He
wants things on this earth to be done
through people
and He loves these things,
they'll happen through the people that He love.
So then you ask yourself is Allah using
me in things that He loves?
And if the answer is yes,
then praise Allah for it.
Now it's important here not to be so
self pleased with ourselves and say Masha'Allah, Allah
loves me so much that you should never
be
so self satisfied with yourself.
This is not helpful as a conclusion it's
helpful as a pursuit,
Okay.
Not helpful as oh, I'm doing this, Allah
loves me.
I'm done. I don't need to do anything
else.
No, maybe what you're doing is flawed. You
only think.
Maybe you're praying but your prayer is flawed.
Maybe you're working in the Masjid but not
for Allah's sake. Maybe you're doing da'wah but
to be famous.
It's not enough for you to be engaged
in an activity that apparently looks Islamic and
you say Masha'Allah, Allah loves me for that.
You can't conclude
it. So what do I use it for?
As a pursuit,
as a goal.
If what doing is pleasing to Allah, Alhamdulillah,
but you need to perfect it.
You need to move higher
and to things that are better. But if
you find Alhamdulillah
that you are inclined
to do things that are pleasing to Allah,
then no, Alhamdulillah,
this is
something good. Do more of it. So if
Allah loves you, He employs you. He uses
you.
And if not,
you find yourself just simply wasting your time
and wasting your life,
then that time is against you. And Allah
is not,
at this moment at least,
you are not among the Beloved because you
are not chosen.
And if that makes you dissatisfied,
afraid, angry, then good.
Because I hope it makes you so dissatisfied
that you decide that I I want to
be among those whom Allah loves. Let me
do something better with my life.
So choose the best
and that becomes this earthly
sign,
an earthly manifestation of Allah's love. And the
greater that you do of that, the greater
it's a reflection of Allah's love and keep
revisiting your intention
and keep revisiting whether you are doing
implies with the sunnah of the prophet alaihis
salatu wasalam or not
and they stop checking the accuracy of what
they're doing.
So you have to always keep checking both,
but
pray that Allah will give you the opportunity
to be a seeker of religious knowledge, a
teacher of religious knowledge if you have enough
to teach,
and overall
person who does something that is pleasing to
Allah.
So this is, Insha'Allah, the conclusion of the
lesson for today.
This was hadith 35, by the way,
Let me know if you have questions
before we can
and if so,
Okay. I'll I'll answer this, inshallah.
Let me first see if there's anything related
to the lesson to the
Okay.
So the sister's asking,
we've talked about intention. How do we deal
with
doubts about our intention after the act is
done?
So was this for Allah
or was it for someone else?
So first of all, doubts about an intention
after
a deed
do not invalidate,
the deed itself. So if the thing was
done for Allah's sake,
but afterwards
you have doubts about it, it doesn't affect
the validity
and the reward of that action.
So it doesn't harm it. So you shouldn't
be worried about
later doubts affecting the previous action.
But if the later doubts are about
purifying
and improving your intent
and visiting flaws in it
for further
actions,
then that's something positive.
So if you say to yourself,
I may not have been as sincere as
I should be, Maybe next time I could
avoid this and do that.
Maybe there was a mixture in my intention
between this and that. How do I avoid
it?
Maybe I can increase my sincerity by doing
these things and avoiding those things. So that,
muhazaba,
right, holding yourself kind of accountable
after the deed is always useful.
It's always useful.
As long as it does not become so
persistent
that it is,
immobilizing.
That it doesn't reach the stage where you
say to yourself, oh, I've given up. It's
way too hard.
None of my deeds are sincere.
It's such a burden. I just don't want
to do this anymore. If it's excessive, you
need to stop.
So you know things through their fruits.
If what it's bringing you is,
better focus on your intention and a better
deed because you are more focused, then Alhamdulillah,
that's good. If it's persistent
thoughts and intrusive thoughts about oh it's wrong,
it's always wrong, then you know that that's
the wrong path. So don't take that path.
Always think about things that could improve, not
things that can impede.
So and things that can help us, insha'Allah,
with intentions is hide whatever you can and
have hidden deeds,
and separately,
have hidden deeds that no one knows about
because that trains you to have better intent
and better connection to Allah
and pray to Allah
that whenever you are doing, you're doing things
for his sake.
With practice, Insha'Allah, it will improve. It will
never be perfect.
It will never be perfect.
Perfect. I know everybody should know this, but
it will improve, Insha'Allah.
So the question here is kind of a
fiqh question. Can we combine between Maghrib and
Isha
so that we can sleep early before Isha
Adhan
because of a sickness
or because one is occupied or because of
studying.
So of course, these reasons are not all
the same.
So a person can combine between the salas
if someone is traveling.
That's easy, right? Maghrib and Isha, you pray
it at Maghrib time and you sleep before
the Adhan of Isha, you could do this
that's no problem. If someone is sick,
right, and their sickness does not allow them
to stay up to Isha,
they can combine their salah early and they
can sleep early if they wish.
Now, if one is occupied or someone is
studying,
what does that mean?
Now, studying is not such a burden that
you really need to sleep
or miss Asia for it,
right? There are ways where you could sleep
before,
sleep after,
take naps,
or you still
are up
for Isha time. And Isha is what time
is Isha
now? 10:30?
Like, just the Adan, right? 10:20?
Something like that. So it's not excessive.
It's not excessive, right?
So
and you know I'm taking into account also
fajr time. So there are ways, InshaAllah, where
you can divide your sleep and not miss
Isha at the same time. So I don't
see
that,
studying is enough of an excuse for somebody
to miss Isha.
That you're occupied, it depends on what is
occupying you.
And it depends whether this is something that
is frequent
or infrequent.
So the occupation is what? If somebody tells
me I'm a surgeon
and I have to
perform surgeries and the surgeries
make these excessive demands on my time and
I cannot be up and I cannot be
focused unless I have that amount of sleep.
And it's not every day and it's not
every night, maybe,
right? But I don't know what kind of
things
occupy you that you will need to do
this especially every day.
So sickness is different.
Studying,
no.
If you're occupied,
it depends on what and how frequent.
So if is affliction
considered
a love from Allahazojal
or punishment.
So the prophet
said,
If Allah Azzawajal wants good for someone,
He afflicts him. Him.
So Allah wants the good for someone,
He afflicts him.
Him. So,
lofty rewards are with excessive or increased
affliction.
So if Allah
wants to elevate
someone
and he wants to give them a lot
of rewards, He tests them more.
So
if Allah gives bala' to people and you
see some people have more afflictions than
others. Things that's not working in their life.
They try this, they try this, they have
physical sickness, they have family problems, they have
problems with their children, they just have a
lot of problems. Right?
And they are pious and they are patient,
and that's important. They are pious and they
are patient, and this is happening to
them. Or we say if this is happening
to them,
it is likely
we say that this is a sign
of Allah's care for them
as he was with his prophet, alaihassallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
That is, he tested him with his family,
he tested him with the death of his
children, he tested him with loss of family
members
and being expelled and being threatened and
attempts at his life, all of that. He
threatened all of these things
And not because Allah Azzawajal disliked or hated
the prophet alaihi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam or
wanted to punish him because he loved him.
So the greater that Allah loves a person,
the more that he tests him. And we
explained before why that test is there.
Because when you're tested in the dunya, what
does it do to you and your relationship
to the dunya?
Or let's put it the other way. If
Allah gives you a lot from the dunya,
what how does it affect your relationship to
the duniya?
You're really attached to it.
You can't let go of it.
My money, my money, my money, my children,
my children, my house, my job, my mansion,
my car, everything There's no room in your
heart for anything else except the dunya. Allah
has no space.
Now, when he takes these things away from
you, what happens?
What?
You'll be close to Allah, Azarajal because you
said, I'm tired of this duniya. Right? That's
what people say, right? When Allah test them,
He says I don't want this world anymore.
I'm ready to go to Jannah, right? And
they're simply they're fed up.
But it's kind of that attitude of I
don't want this anymore it's just too much.
I want to go to Allah Azza wa
Jal. That's what he does,
Right? He shows you its reality
so that you could dislike it
and move you closer to Him And be
attached and reliant on Him, not the dunya.
So when you get sick, you don't think
first of the doctor. You think of Him.
When you don't have money, you don't think
of your rich relative who will give you.
You think of him.
So you lose your attachment to the dunya
because you don't have enough of it and
just it gave you help, right? You don't
want it.
So you lose your attachment to it, you
rely on Allah and that's why it's a
sign of love.
That's true. That's true. I mean, you've you've
answered right. You know, the question is,
you know,
Where is Allah from what is happening in
Palestine?
What you well, your answer is right. It's
a test, and it's not only a test
for them, it's a test for everybody who's
watching,
whether we succeed and whether we fail.
First of all, I mean,
it's important not to lose perspective.
And if you consider
history,
things have happened in history that are worse
than what is happening now.
Like, people were slaughtered into hundreds of thousands.
Muslims,
hundreds of thousands, were killed in ways that
are worse than what you are seeing in
front of your eyes.
And yet, Muslims, yeah, it it shocks you,
but Muslims are not supposed
to lose their faith at the sign of
trouble no matter what the trouble is because
their belief in Allah Azzajal is, first of
all,
He does what He wants.
You're not there to question what He does.
If you believe that He is wise,
right, that's why it's important to have enough
iman before the test.
That's why we're Yani,
you have to save yourself from the fitna
by having enough iman. You can't say,
I'll wait till I'm tested and then I'll
work on my iman
because you don't have time then.
You just you will see an overwhelming test
that you cannot explain
and you cannot endure.
So people before in Baghdad
were slaughtered to 100 of 1000
100 of 1000
by the Mongols in Mahul
until, you know,
rivers were flowing with their blood.
People were burned alive
and he'd be combed with metal combs
to separate his flesh from his bone while
he's still alive and he'd be sewn in
half.
All of that does not shake his
faith.
And now we just see things from afar
and we say, where is Allah?
That tells you of course that our iman
is not at a level that Allah azza
wa Jal is pleased with.
No, you have to say Allah is fa'alu,
He does whatever He wants. You cannot
you cannot change it, can you?
It happens whether you like it or not.
It's happening.
So you have to submit to Allah's will
and you understand that you're under His will
whether you like it or not and it's
happening whether you like it or not.
So you're not in a place to question
Him.
So you have to have this attitude of
submission to Allah Azza wa Jal first of
as we said, reverence
and then a belief in His wisdom that
even if it escapes you, there's wisdom in
it.
Even if it escapes you, there's wisdom in
it whether you can see it or not.
And the third thing is to note some
of the things that are positive that come
out of the negative
to see that it's not happening
aimlessly.
Now
the extent of injustice
in the face of this earth
is so great,
is so entrenched,
so deeply rooted, do you think it will
be extracted without sacrifice?
You think about it.
The amount of corruption in the world today,
the Prophet, alaihis salatu wa sallam, when he
came to the Quraysh,
Say la ilaha illallah. Say la ilaha illallah
and you'll be saved. They didn't.
Some of them had to be killed for
them to understand what the truth is. Do
you understand how entrenched falsehood is?
Entrenched economically,
culturally,
in the family, in society, it just it
cannot be extracted.
Some of the sahaba had to die, be
killed,
be tortured
and some of the kuffar had to be
killed
for the rest to see what the truth
is.
So look at the amount of falsehood you
see in the world today.
You think that there is no price
to remove
it? Because they spent a lot of time
building this up, this falsehood,
right? A lot of time, do you think
reversing it
is not gonna require some price,
some blood, some suffering?
It has to. Logically,
it has to.
And the rest of it is what?
That if Allah Azzawal
had decided that they are Shuhada,
what is better than that?
If somebody had decided that this person was
gonna die
under the rubble because
of bombardment
or because they are starving. He decided that
he's a shahid.
What is better than that?
And the shahid of battle,
the one who is in battle, the shahid,
right? So that you understand our perspective needs
to be deeper and that's why knowledge is
important, So we're not so
reactionary.
So the shahid himself, when Allah asks him
on the day of before the day of
judgment in the barzakh,
He says
wish. He says wish for for what?
He gave me this and you made me
see this. He says wish.
He says, wish? Allah keeps asking him. He
said then he sees,
the shahid says
or he,
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said about the
martyr. He says when he knows that Allah
is continuously asking him
wish
and he's not stopping he says I wish
that I would go back to the duniya
to be killed again for your sake.
Then when he says this, Allah stops asking
because that He cannot grant.
Does anything else wish for it? What do
you want?
Now, can you think of it?
Today somebody is asking you wish.
Until you can't wish anymore.
So in the achir, it says wish.
You can wish for what? I want 1
palace, 2 palaces, 10 palaces. Then what? I
want
acres and acres of land. Then what? I
want, I want, I want, I want, and
then what? He says, okay I'm done. There's
nothing else.
But the best thing that he can ask
for is what let me go back to
the duniya
so I would be killed again. The killing
that when you see you say where is
Allah?
You feel sorry
But no, he wishes for it again. Why?
Because of what he sees of how much
Allah honors him when he dies.
So what you see as an affliction is
not.
What you see as a disaster
in Allah's eyes,
and in the worldly sense in Allah's eyes
is not.
That's why a person needs kind of to
expand their knowledge and context of what is
happening and look at the world but look
at the next life.
And know that
changing things takes time and changing things takes
sacrifice.
And Allah will not neglect the sacrifice of
those who will sacrifice.
The best way for du'a?
Dua? Okay.
So
you have have 2 questions? Okay. See because
if they're related,
haven't received them.
Okay. Okay. Got it.
Is it logical to compare our test to
the prophets? Prophets were taught amen by God,
whereas we are living in the society, there
is no concept of creator. So in today's
context, how do I reconcile?
My question regarding living in the West as
a Muslim thinking to keep the next generation
in the path of Islam.
So
I don't know the connection between the 2.
Okay, is it logical to compare our tests
with the prophets? Absolutely.
And what I'm saying here is not that
they are at the same scale
or not that we have the same iman.
It is that we can learn from them.
Right or wrong?
Right? You have in the prophet of Allah
a good example. A good example in what?
In everything. In how we worship
but also in how we dealt with
trials,
tests.
So is He your model or not?
Yeah. Is he your example or not? So
then that comparison is possible. Now, if there's
a difference
between the 2, of course, in magnitude,
scale,
in levels
but you always learn from it
and you always can follow his example and
how he dealt with and what he avoided
and what he did. So
yes, he was taught by Allah Azza wa
Jal but
your iman your iman,
because it's not as great,
your test is also not going to be
as great.
And because his iman was greater, his test
is greater.
So the comparison
is useful, Insha'Allah.
How do I reconcile?
Something missing here.
Now whether you are living in the west
or living in the east or living in
the north or living in the south,
aren't you a
human being
who has the same creator? I understand different
in context. But
no matter where you live,
you're under the same obligations,
right? You're under the same commitment.
The trials could be slightly different,
but
frankly, in today's world, some of the trials
that you find in the West are exactly
there in the East.
You might have
better environments in the East,
but not always.
So if you are living in the West,
I don't consider that to be
enough of an excuse to say, well, my
context, my peers, my this and that.
What are you gonna say to Allah, Azza
Jair, when you meet him on the day
of judgment? My friends,
my coworkers,
my neighbors,
What's what's the excuse?
So
you're going to stand before Allah Azzawajal and
you will have to answer the question. And
the question is, you know, why did He
create you for?
So
if you
wanna pass on
the Islam
that will protect the next generation
pass on the Islam of the prophet, alayhis
salatu wassala.
Pass on his sunnah as he practiced it.
Pass on the aqidah as you derive it
from the Quran and derive it from the
sunnah.
Pass on the application,
unadulterated,
unchanged.
It's how he lived
and how He practiced. And when you do
this, you'll prosper whether you live in the
east or living in the west.
But if not,
then it's not gonna be provide the foundation
that you need.
And
maybe I'm missing something in the question, Insha'Allah.
I don't know.
How to make or what is the best
way to make dua? Your question. And probably
we'll stop there.
Is it
a tradition, the du'a that is inherited from
the Prophet Alaihi Wasallam or can you make
up your own du'a?
The best du'a is the du'a of the
Prophet. The most comprehensive du'a is the du'a
of the prophet but you can make your
own du'a.
Right?
No, there is no specific order to du'a.
So you can just simply, for instance, you
begin, if you wanna begin, begin by praising
Allah as a dujal.
Sada and salaam upon the prophet alaihis salatu
was salam
and make your du'a.
Now, if you have time you could go
with the sunnah dua first, dua from the
prophet and then your own dua. You don't
have time? Do your own du'a. You don't
have time? Do just his du'a.
So the reason why his du'a is better
because it is
comprehensive.
It's coming from the most eloquent and who
knows Allah Azza wa Jal best. So it
covers all bases.
But sometimes you need to communicate yourself with
Allah
and emphasize particular things that you want. That
is allowed.
And if it keeps you close to Allah,
that's even recommended. Guess what? You're having a
conversation.
So there's no order to it.
So if you want, praise Allah salaam al
salaam alaykum the prophet and
then Amen?
I think, we'll,
conclude here
next week
at the same time at
7:30
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