Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #005 Mercy Manifest at Night Spending for God Knowledge of the Moment
AI: Summary ©
The history of Islam is discussed, including the importance of mercy and mercy in early mornings and late afternoons at night. The beast's mercy is emphasized, and night worship is a fundamental aspect of god's mercy. Prayer for the way of life, knowledge of the consequences of promises, and guarding one's moment is essential. The importance of practical knowledge and action in relation to circumstances is emphasized, and praying for the way of life is obligatory and necessary. The importance of doing things and not damaging others is emphasized, and the need to donate to the program is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
The messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be
upon him, encouraged us to strive for uprightness
by seeking assistance in the early mornings, late
afternoons at and something of the depths of
the night. From this tradition, the scholars made
it a habit to briefly read text of
religious guidance in the late afternoon and often
term such readings the daily.
The term refers to the late afternoon, but
also to a time of rest from worldly
toils and reinvigoration of one's spirit.
In this day, Sheikh Harazrabani will be covering
2 texts. Imam Zarrnouji's primer on the etiquette
of seeking knowledge,
and Imam Youssef Anabahani's beautiful collection of 40
sets of 40 prophetic hadith.
Hadith.
In our daily Roha, we've we're looking at
the first
collection of 40 hadiths in a set
of
40 sets of 40 hadiths on the of
the prophet
our intention is to go through the whole
work which cover you know, so we'll cover,
you know,
you know, over a 1000 Hadiths.
Right?
And
the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
tells us
about his own words
that. I was
given
comprehensive
speech.
I was given
comprehensive speech. Why? Because the words of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, they are divinely
inspired.
They are divinely inspired.
Right? The the sunnah.
And now there there's some discussion in detail
that is everything in the sunnah
directly,
wahi
or did the prophet
have a role of ijtihad.
Right. But
the
and there's a range of opinions, but even
the personal judgment of the prophet
was divinely inspired
in so far as
he's a prophet. Prophets
are divinely
protected
from error,
from sin, from disobedience, from wrong, right? And
all the judgments without fail of the prophet
were inspired in the sense that they were
rightly directed.
There are great
personal judgments.
Even in the cases where Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala corrected
the judgment.
So,
and that's a subtle investigation,
there's a beautiful discussion of that in,
the work Our Master Mohammed by Sheikh Abdullah
Sirajuddin.
In his conversation with Sheikh Abdul Rahman al
Shahouri, which is available online and some, I
think, translated it, it's discussed how he was
inspired to
clarify that issue because some people
misportray
the discussion of scholars about that. But his
words are divinely inspired.
I was granted
comprehensive speech. But from the speech that he
was granted were the sacred hadiths.
And these are very special. As you'll see
all the hadiths of the prophet are very
special, but these have
elements of extra specialness.
So
we looked
yesterday
at
the hadith
on Allah's
hadith on Allah's
forgiveness,
His generosity
and His mercy
amongst them. We took the last hadith that
Allah most high says,
my
my mercy
precedes
my wrath.
And this is not a precedence of time.
Right? Because time does not relate to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Right? But we looked at
that the basis of Allah's dealing with his
creation is mercy. And that mercy is present.
It is waiting.
Right?
The anger is only manifest upon rejection, and
we expanded that last lesson. It's an important
concept
that talk about.
So today, we begin with the 5th
So
this Hadith is a composite Hadith.
This Hadith is a composite Hadith. The beginning
of it is from the words of the
Prophet describing
a reality that he was inspired
to have knowledge of by Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
and then within that description
is the Hadith Qudsi.
Right. So,
Abu Rayya
relates that the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam said
Our Lord
mighty and majestic
descends
every night
to
the sky of this world.
Until only a third of the night remains
saying,
Allah
says
saying,
Who is there to call upon me so
that I may answer them?
Who is there to ask me
so that I may give them.
So,
the Messenger said
Our Lord mighty
and exalted
descends
every night. Now the descent here,
right,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is 1 in his
entity
and his attributes and his actions.
Now when something is ascribed to Allah,
an obvious question to ask is this Allah
himself?
Is it talking about Allah himself? Is it
talking about his attributes
or his actions?
Is it talking about the entity of Allah,
the being of Allah,
talking about the attributes of Allah,
we're talking about the actions of Allah. So
his descent,
a quality ascribed
to the entity of Allah,
to his attributes,
or to his acts.
And it relates to the
action of Allah right. It
is a divine act, but what is it
that descends?
It is
this descent here is
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'a's favor.
Right? It's a descent of Allah's favor
of his
So there's two ways. How do we understand
hadiths like this?
These are called
these are called
the
these are called Mutashebi,
right? They're called unclear texts.
Why?
Because the literal meaning would be absurd. If
Allah Subha'ata is descending every night to a
third
in the final third,
And is it the final 3rd of the
night somewhere on earth?
Always.
Somewhere on earth is the final 3rd of
the night.
So what's going on? Right? If it's lit
if it's literal
and then, you know, and literally would entail
all kinds of obvious absurdities.
Right?
And some of those who say literally, they
don't we just excuse them in so far
as they don't know what they're talking about.
It makes no sense.
And there, it's important to understand clearly
the principles of transcendence of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
in our times and Shaykh Nur Khayler for
example has literalism and the attributes of Allah
etc. The early Muslims preferred not to get
into these things, they said
relate it
as. So we affirm what Allah affirms and
we say
there's nothing like on time and we don't
say anything more than that, either in explaining
it or in adding to what was said.
Right?
But
negating
what Allah
has already negated. There's no similitude.
There's no literal descent, because literal descent would
be from place a to place b,
and every place is created.
Anything that takes up space is a body,
and a body is originated. Anything that changes
and movement is a change, and change
is a sign of origination.
Ikhtilaf Allah tells us in the Quran is
a sign of origination
and none of that is meant. This is
the descent of divine mercy,
right,
of divine
favor, of divine opportunity,
right,
calling out,
and the 3rd of the night, night begins
with Maghrib and
ends with the beginning of Fajr. So that's
the night
and the last 3rd of the night
is particularly meritorious,
particularly
meritorious.
And we'll look at many Hadith on Qiamul
Layl so that we'll look at that.
And calling out, who is there to call
upon me so that I may answer them?
That is the descent, right, the descent is
this a time of the closeness of the
divine favor, that's the point of the hadith.
What does the descent mean?
We leave that alone.
The point is
that
Allah's mercy is close,
particularly close in that hour. He is actively
calling upon you, who is there to call
on me so I may answer them?
Who is there to ask me so that
I may give them?
Who is there to seek my forgiveness so
that I may forgive them? So 3 of
the spiritual works,
so we learned from this hadith
that one of the times for seeking divine
favor,
assistance,
mercy
is the final third of the night.
And amongst the works in it is to
make dua at that time.
To ask Allah,
right,
to seek Allah's forgiveness,
right, these are three components of anyone's night
routine.
And
it is
you may
be your dua
is not the cause
of Allah's response.
He has turned to you,
so you may turn to him.
Right?
Right?
Who is there to call upon me? His
response is waiting.
His giving
is waiting. His forgiveness is waiting.
And so it's connected to the Hadith on
Allah's mercy
precedes his wrath. His mercy
precedes his wrath. It tells us of the
great merit of night worship as well
as is obvious.
And that's
one of the,
they say shiarosolihin,
the distinguishing
characteristic of the righteous
is night worship. It's
foundational to the sunnah of the prophet
The second hadith we're going to look at
today briefly, An Abu Hurayya Ta'ala
An Nabi SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam Maqal Yakuura Allahu
Ta'ala
Anfiq,
Unfiq Alayk
So Abu Hurair radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu relates from
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Salaam that he
said that Allah Most High says,
unfirk
alaik,
spend
and I will spend upon you
and this Ra'ul Bukhari
right, this is related by
Imam al Bukhari and Muslim.
Spend,
and give right,
give
and I will give to you and this
is a general principle
of
in life right,
as you are
so shall you find,
as you are so shall you be given,
Spend upon Allah's creation
and Allah will give you.
Spend for the sake of Allah and you
will find Allah.
And in another narration which he mentions
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala continues saying
Allah's hands are full
they're not
emptied by
giving
is giving by night and by day
right?
You cannot imagine
the extent of divine
generosity.
One of the keys here
to
you attaining
generosity in what?
In every way. You want material ease, spend
and you'll find it. Everyone who's ever involved
who's involved in fundraising
knows this reality
That
and I've heard it from Sheikh Abdul Adris,
Imam Zaid,
Imam Salimi who gave the had their fundraiser.
It's like it's given. Who who gives? It's
always the same people. Why? Because one practically
they find that wealth does not diminish by
charity. The Prophet promised that already.
That if you give, Allah will multiply it
beyond measure,
right?
Even in its worldly implications,
let let alone the intangible
implications
of giving
in social well-being, in spiritual well-being.
And that those are all these indicators of
divine favor because ultimately,
reward
is not worldly. That's an important thing to
remember.
Taawab,
du'alama define everything. Taawab,
reward is defined
as what Allah
gives his servants in the hereafter
out of his generosity
for what they did in this life.
So by definition, the reward of actions is
not in this life.
These are just divine indicators and facilitators, I
made dua and I didn't get what what
you wanted, that's not the purpose of dua.
Purpose of du'a
is the akhir,
is
your degrees of closeness with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Whether you got what you asked for, that's
not what the purpose of du'a to begin
with.
But du'a,
but spending, and the spending is both of
wealth,
but also of spending of one's time,
spending of one's concern, one's attention, one's ability,
right? All of these things are from spending
as we will see when when we come
to those related texts.
It also tells us about the tremendous,
the tremendousness of the one we're dealing with,
right?
And these are one way the Ulema mentioned
that one increases in faith
is by these promises,
right, by these promises.
Spend and you'll see the consequence of the
promises,
right?
The people who make dua,
they see
the consequence of
those promises, right?
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to manifest those realities for us.
We're going to look briefly
at
the,
now
at the adab of seeking knowledge.
So we began chapter 1. We had looked
at the introduction of the author where he
mentioned how the text is divided.
And
chapter 1 begins with the with the virtues
of with the
reality of knowledge and fiqh
and its virtues.
For those who would like to read further
on the issue of the of what is
what is knowledge, what are definitions of knowledge,
Imam al Ghazali
has a one of the sections in the
book of knowledge is on
what is knowledge,
he has a whole slew of definitions,
but by knowledge what we mean firstly by
knowledge in the context of
the deen we refer to
knowledge of deen,
and by knowledge
what is praised is
is knowledge that benefits
and they
a couple of practical definitions of that one
is that
that what is alm, Imam al Ghazali refers
to that
It's a knowledge of how you pursue the
path of the next life.
That is beneficial knowledge.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran,
The next life is better for you than
this life, as I say this is the
beginning of knowledge
to know that. So how do you live
in this life?
Seek with all that Allah has given you
the next abode.
But do not forget your share of this
life.
So
that is beneficial knowledge is that which enables
you to seek
the next abode,
to seek
closeness to Allah, to seek Allah
while not forgetting
your share of this life.
Another definition that Imam al Hazali and others
have given
is that
is
is a knowledge of that enables one to
draw closer to Allah.
Right?
That's sort of the higher degrees of knowledge.
And
so he tells us that
not all knowledge is immediately
required. What is required?
Right? Is what he refers to as
essential knowledge. So that's where we left off.
So the author says
that you need
in the moment
that you are in.
Is knowledge that you need
to be, you know,
to that is essential for you
in the moment that you're in. Right?
And that's what life is, right. The hal
here is the moment, right.
The circumstance
you're in, where are you,
right. You are
in a moment
surrounded by a nexus of
considerations.
That's your reality at every moment.
You're in
all you have is the moment you're in
and you have to make a choice given
the circumstances that surround you. The choice is
the knowledge
makes it clear. How do I choose what
is acceptable to Allah, pleasing to Allah, beloved
to Allah
and that is
the best of knowledge is knowledge of the
moment,
where are you
and what are you to do in the
moment you're in.
And the best of action
is to guard
and the hal here is either to guard
one's moments,
the best of action is to guard one's
moments, to make one's moments, moments of light
not moments of darkness, moments of drawing culture
to Allah not moments
of turning away from Allah.
Another way of looking at the haal here
and the commentators on Tali al Muttalim differed
on this is and the best of knowledge
is
guarding one state.
It's to guard one state.
But it would in terms of correspondence
between what he said, the first statement, the
best of knowledge is knowledge of your moment,
and the best of actions are to guard
one's moments. To make every moment count for
you
and not to count against you.
As one of the early Muslims said, umruqa
and fas.
Your life is but breaths.
So be avid
for for your breaths
to count for you and not against you.
Your life is but breaths, said another scholar.
Every breath that goes,
some of your life is gone.
So he
says, it is obligatory for the Muslim
to seek
knowledge
regulated to what happens to them in their
circumstances.
That hal here relates to their
moment, you know, to to to the their
circumstances.
Whatever circumstance they're in,
and some circumstances are general.
In one's
days, one's weeks,
Some things all of us have to do
and some are specific to our particular
circumstance. So he says
Right? So I said, so
it is
there
it is absolute it's there's
is absolutely necessary.
It is there's no way around. Right? It's
absolutely necessary
to pray.
It's obligatory.
So it is obligatory then
upon
each Muslim
to have knowledge
of what
would happen to them in prayer
to the extent
by which they would fulfill the obligation of
prayer.
The obligation,
the obligatory acts. That's all that's obligatory.
That's all that's obligatory.
What is obligatory in the prayer? That's it,
nothing else
which is why of course in the Hanafi
school they don't talk about the the the
they generally don't use the term fardaayn
because it is so obvious,
It's so
simple. The Farda of the prayer, how many
integrals are there in the prayer?
How many obligatory
acts are there in the prayer?
5 or 6 depending how you count. That's
it.
5.
Someone becomes Muslim,
what do they need? What is obligatory for
them to learn?
Pretty much nothing.
Don't be naked when you're praying. Face the
qibla. Make.
Just minimum.
Right? That's it. That's all that's obligatory and
that's where someone begins. You're gonna start teaching
somebody,
don't torture them. That is zulm.
Right? Zulm is to impose more than what
someone can take.
Right?
And
knowledge
of prayer related to what one needs to
do the the necessary
is necessary.
And then he mentions an an
important principle
Because
what
one
because the means that one takes to fulfill
an obligation
becomes itself an obligation,
and the means that one takes
in order to establish
the necessary
becomes itself
necessary.
And this is this is a this is
a concept
that
is expressed in many, many different ways by
the olema,
and the succinct,
the sensible succinct
expression of it
is,
means take the rulings
of their ends.
So the means
to the obligatory is obligatory. The means to
the necessary is necessary.
And likewise, the means to the Haram becomes
Haram even if it's in itself permissible,
etcetera.
And of course, some of the Indian scholars
try to came up with an awkward way
of expressing it. It was very brief, they
say, wajibul, wajibul, wajibul, wajibul, wajibul,
wajibul.
Right?
What's necessary for the necessary
is necessary. That's
it. What's obligatory for the obligatory is obligatory.
Right?
Becomes obligatory.
And he says
likewise
with respect to fasting
and with respect to Zakat if they have
wealth.
And likewise with Hajj if they fulfill its
conditions
but
if you don't seek a certain amount of
basic knowledge, you don't know if Hajj was
obligatory on you.
Then how do you know if you had
to do it? And a lot of people
are in that circumstance. They they die and
they had money, then I'll do it later.
Who said you're allowed to do it later?
And likewise,
with respect
to transactions,
if one
engages in transactions,
which in our times is everybody.
Everybody.
When you wake up in the morning and
you turn on the lights,
that is a contract between you and the
electricity company or between someone in your house
and electricity company. You're living in a house
that's a contract.
You drive a car,
you're you're
you're leasing or renting, you're you're leasing or
what else do you do with cars? Not
renting. You're leasing or you finance in some
way, that's a contract.
Right? Every your whole life is transactions,
material transactions. All relationships are non material transactions.
That's a separate matter.
And
most people live in some degrees of sin.
Right?
Right?
It's called they're they're sads,
some active degrees of sin. Right?
And it's it's sad
because
across the board,
whoever is content to act with ignorance is
content to disobey Allah.
You have contracts at work, you have contracts
all over the place.
Your cell phone plans a contract.
So, oh, it must be okay. How? You
got divine inspiration that your cell phone contract
is permissible, but other people get it. So
everyone else is in disobedience, you're in disobe
I'm not suggesting your cell phone contract is
haram, but how do you know?
How can you distinguish between what's allowed and
what's not allowed?
And if you live in a Western society,
that's not such a big deal in your
day to day
formal transactions because they're established
in structured ways, but they may be elements
of riba.
There may be other elements that are impermissible,
and those are grave sins.
And in but in informal transactions, you lent
someone money, you borrowed
money, etcetera.
This is a very grave area, which is
what he will expand on in the next
class. Right? Mohammed al Hassan was asked, why
don't you write books on the science of
renunciation on,
right? On how you avoid worldliness. He said,
I wrote many books on the fiqh of
transactions.
The beginning of renunciation is to renounce disobeying
Allah.
Right?
To renounce what is displeasing to Allah. Because
what's the point of doing fancy spiritual works?
So, O Allah, I am seeking your pleasure
by doing this and doing this and doing
this while you're in a state of sin.
If anything, actually,
they say
one could be closer
to divine wrath. Right? Because their servant
hanging out at the back of the of
the king's palace
doesn't like this.
The king's there, but you're like you're in
the court of the king, but you're
just doing your little things
and, you know, not in disobedience.
But this guy at the front said, oh,
king, I love you.
Oh, king, this is all for you. And
you bring fancy coffee for the king and
all these things.
But the king said,
please do not do these kinds of transactions,
and you do them. When you show up
the next day,
I love you. I do this. I do
that, but you keep disobeying. Who is more
likely to be under the displeasure of the
king? The person who's actively disobeying him
while and even actually the person who's doing
nothing
and may have shortcomings will be less odious.
So especially if someone gets religious, they have
to be very serious
about
their
their transactions
and their relationships.
Those are 2 areas where the gravest happens.
Transactions,
your material dealings
with people in life. And number 2
is your human relationships.
1 requires
practical knowledge
of transactions, the other requires akhlaq,
living
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for facilitation
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