Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #013 Oneness of Action Recording of Deeds Personal & Communal Obligations
AI: Summary ©
The importance of affirming the rule of one matter for another or negating it for it is emphasized in the use of messenger of Allah to encourage seeker guidance. The speaker emphasizes the need to be mindful of actions and not to pay attention to the cause and effect of actions. The importance of affirming the rule of one matter for another or negating it for it is emphasized. The importance of good deeds recorded in recorded records and the need for individuals to act upon them is emphasized. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of preserving knowledge and avoiding harm in a collective sense, as it is required for personal and collective health. The importance of knowledge in preserving deen and avoiding barriers against entry is also emphasized. Finally, the speaker encourages listeners to become a monthly donor at seekershub.
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 Horazrabani will be covering 2 texts, imam
Zarnouji's primer on the etiquette of seeking knowledge,
and imam Youssef Anabahani's beautiful collection of 40
sets of 40 prophetic hadith.
We're continuing our look at the 40 hadith
of
Imam Yusuf An Nabhani
in relating
a hadith sacred
hadiths
that highlight
divine qualities
of sacredness, exaltedness,
mercy, generosity.
And these are all the means of reflecting
upon
the Jelal and Jamal and Kamal,
the majesty,
beauty and perfection of our lord.
So we reached hadith number 20.
So with this chain of transmission,
Allah most the Messenger the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam relates that Allah Most High
says,
is to come to morning time.
So those who wake up of my servants
believing in me and disbelieving
in the stars.
And those
and others who disbelieve in me and believe
in the stars.
So,
so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues,
so whoever says,
we were granted rain
by the grace of Allah and his mercy,
such a person
believes in me and disbelieves in the stars.
And as for the one who says we
were granted rain
by such and such
star
or, you know, such and such celestial phenomena,
that
person
disbelieves in me and believes in
the stars.
So,
oneness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so this
hadith is related by imam Muslim.
Belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala entails believing
that
Allah
Allah is the creator of anything.
Allah
has created you and what you do. Allahu
and everything
is
by the decreeing of Allah
Right?
There's nothing
that has effect except Allah
So believing
that things have
are enough themselves effective
is
disbelief in Allah. Of course, it is not
explicit disbelief in Allah. Such a person still
believes that Allah is 1. They still believe
in his lordship,
but they are disbelieving in some of what
is
in affirmed by and
affirmed regarding and entailed by
Allah's oneness and lordship.
So this is,
this does not in itself take one out
of faith.
Right?
But it is dangerous,
and it is an innovation.
It is
a.
This is summarized very beautifully
by Imam Ahmed ad Dardir
in his poem Al Kharid Al Bahiyyah who's
who says,
Whoever says
that things have effect
by their very nature
or by necessary
causation
that a necessarily
entails b in of itself.
Right? Is
by its natural disposition.
The nature of fire intrinsically is that it
burns.
Is that it is the it is the
direct
effective cause
in of itself.
Like, they use the example
of. K? The movement of the
The movement of the finger and the movement
of the ring.
The movement of the finger
is
for the movement of the ring.
So if someone who believes that things have
by by their nature
and here by nature, we mean by their
intrinsic nature,
have direct
causality
that they create
the effect
or
or they're the necessary
they're they're the necessary cause.
They're illah.
That is disbelief according to all the people
of our community. You know, all the people
of our
community that this is the belief of the
people of the kibla.
This is not a matter
within
not just mainstream opinion, but within
the house of Islam.
You know?
And then he continues,
And this is a common error in belief,
and anyone who's affirms.
And whoever says,
whoever affirms
that things,
that causes have effect
because
of power placed in them by Allah.
Such a person is an innovator.
So do not
pay any attention. And this is
a latent belief in a lot of people.
Right?
That they they say, well, the fire burns
because Allah placed an ability in it to
burn.
That is
that yeah. We believe and
one superstition is what people had before that
the stars
have an effect on
what happens on earth.
Now people of Tawhid would say well because
Allah made gave them that
ability.
And that is,
an error.
That Allah placed the power, but then they
have effect
by themselves
through the power granted by Allah. We say
Allah is the creator of the cause and
he is the creator of the effect.
Right? That is the,
belief of Ahlul Sunnah.
So,
Allah
creates the effect
at the cause, not by the cause.
Allah
creates the effect
at the cause, not by the cause.
Right?
Right. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
creates the effect at the cause, not by
the cause.
Right. And this is,
why it's important,
right?
So,
as Imam
Dardev puts in his commentary,
The position
of
of
the of the people of the mainstream
and prophetic way is that there is no
effect for anything besides Allah most high.
In any way whatsoever.
Not by its intrinsic nature
nor by necessary,
causality
nor
through an ability placed in things by Allah.
Rather,
all effect
is
for Allah alone
completely
by his pure choice.
Allah does not have to make the fire
burn.
Allah can do anything that is possible or
not do it.
All
observed cause and effect
is affirmed
as a normative ruling.
Right? Right?
As a normative ruling.
We affirm the norms. We see a cause
and we see an effect and we affirm
the fire burns, but only normatively.
Which
is
The normative ruling when we affirm relationships
between observed causes and observed effects,
we affirm that the fire burns.
And this is when it is an observed
reality, not just
superstition.
Right? The stars and things like that that
people affirmed, those are superstitions.
But even other things, we have to safeguard
our faith because
believing
in anything having causality
by its nature,
by
necessary causation,
or by
ability placed in it by Allah,
It is all latent disbelief. It is not
actual disbelief because our belief
is
There is absolutely no power whatsoever
for anything
whatsoever, in any way whatsoever,
nor any ability whatsoever,
for anything whatsoever, in any way whatsoever,
except
by Allah.
The cause is by Allah
The cause is by Allah in Allah originating
it and Allah sustaining it at every moment.
And the effect
is by Allah.
By Allah
originating it and Allah sustaining it. So when
cause
is found, if Allah wills, the effect is
found,
but Allah created the effect,
the the cause,
and he sustains it, and Allah creates
the effect
and sustains it.
At
the cause,
if he wills,
not by the cause.
So we affirm this relationship.
Affirming one mat the normative ruling is affirming
one matter for another or negating it from
it.
That the fire
does not quench your thirst. Right?
As opposed to
food,
water quenches your thirst, fire burns, etcetera.
Affirming one matter for another or negating it
for it.
Through observation,
through repetition.
But there's 2 key principles.
And while it while having complete certitude
that it could be otherwise.
There could be fire and no burning.
There could be drinking and no quenching of
thirst. There could be medicine and no healing.
They could be a punch and no pain
and
no causality
whatsoever.
No causality
whatsoever.
So this is
so this is a very important
point and this is one of the things
that if someone does not study Islamic beliefs
and doesn't do so through sound means, they
could be very,
you know, their their iman could be in
danger and this has many practical effects.
If you believe that things benefit or harm,
then you would place your reliance on them.
You would trust
them. Place your trust only on the living
who does not die.
Because everything else is perishing, and that which
is perishing
is merely possible, and that which is merely
possible is dependent.
And that which is dependent
for its very existence
necessarily does not possess any ability nor power.
And all praise is due to Allah who
did not take us a child.
And he does not have any partner in
his dominion.
It has no
associate.
Right? Etcetera.
Umla.
So this hadith, right? So
it's a call
to have pure faith in Allah. That Allah
is the creator of all
that happens.
Right? And it calls us to
recognize
the absoluteness
of the divine will and power
and to slave who entails
seeking only from him and relying only upon
him. The next hadith on
Abu Hurair relates
to the Messenger of Allah
said that Allah Most High says,
if my servant
literally
talks about, but here this is referring to
the internal
talk. Right?
They tell themselves,
meaning they resolve.
If my servant resolves
to do a
good deed,
I
write it for them as
a good deed.
Right? So the resolve to do good is
rewarded.
Right?
It's as if when one says,
I will do it.
Right? That self talk
is rewarded.
And
and if they act upon it, I write
it for them as 10
good deeds.
And we know from other hadiths up to
700 times, up to many times thereof.
At the least that it's recorded
is 10 good deeds.
And if they
tell themselves that they will perform
a sin,
I will forgive it.
Right? The resolve to sin is forgiven,
meaning
that it is not recorded.
Forgiveness
has levels.
It
it's either
is
a.
K? It's covering over.
So one level of covering is that it
is
not
punished.
Another is that it is covered over,
so it is
not taken to account for. And the third
is that it's wiped away.
And so forgiveness can
it's overlooked
or covered up or wiped away.
And he wipes away
sins.
Right?
And that's one of the benefits of seeking
forgiveness
is to is for it not just to
be covered up, but it to be wiped
away from our record. Yeah.
Like you remove filth,
it's removed, but then you wash the area
to clean it.
So
I forgive it for them as long as
they don't act upon it.
And if they act upon it, I write
it against them by the like of it.
So a good deed is
recorded.
It's already written. Once you resolve to do
it,
sincerely,
it's recorded as a good deed before you
act upon it. If you act upon it,
it's multiplied tenfold
to many times thereof. Whereas the sin, if
you resolve to do it,
it's it's there, but you're you do not
incur a sin quite yet
even though you resolve to do it. Justice
would entail that that would be
because the resolve
of the heart is an action of the
heart.
And
will be entailed
by by reason,
by analogical reason would be that it's an
action of the heart, actions
are recorded, so that would be recorded as
a sin. But Allah
out of his mercy
overlooks it.
But it's dangerous, of course. Why? Because if
you then act upon it, it does get
recorded as a sin,
but
it is not multiplied.
It is not multiplied.
That's the vastness of the generosity. Other hadiths
do affirm that the angels don't write it
right away. That the angels delay the writing
down of recording of a
sin.
Giving the servant
the opportunity
for even after having done it, if they
repent right away and they rectify right away
without delay, it won't even get recorded.
So the angels have it. Okay. I'm going
to record it, but they give that opportunity.
Say, oops.
You resolved not to do it.
It
doesn't even get in your record. Of course,
one doesn't take advantage of that, but rather
one takes it as an opportunity
that if one were to fall into sin
of omission or commission, deliberate
or heedless,
that one rushes to
repent, and it's as if
one never did it. This hadith is related
by Bukhari and Muslim.
And
there's a number of
similar
narrations
as well.
The next hadith which we look at,
in the next,
lesson is a somewhat longer hadith. It's one
of many, many hadiths
that have come
on
the virtues
of group dhikr, on the virtues of
group dhikr. So we look at that,
next week of the angels
seeking out
the
circles
of remembrance.
Seeking out the circles of remembrance.
We ask Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la to be
of the people of His remembrance.
Outwardly and inwardly.
We are also looking of course at Talim
al Mutalim
by imam Zarrnuji
and we looked in the previous lesson at
the obligation of learning about
good character.
Those character traits that that have been made
obligatory. Both
the character traits that are obligatory
to have
as a believer
and those character traits that are obligatory
to avoid
as a believer.
And
if you don't know the good, how can
you uphold it? And if you don't know
harm, how can you avoid it?
Right?
That which
an obligation cannot be fulfilled without
is
in itself
obligatory.
And
amongst the contemporary works that deal with good
character is a beautiful brief work by
Habib Umar bin Hafil
on perfecting
noble character,
and that's an excellent excellent work.
And our dear friend and teacher,
Usad Amjad Tarsin's
series on soul food touches upon these traits
and it's on its way to becoming a
dedicated
book.
Imam Al Ghazali
in the Ihia
at the heart of the Ihia book 20
is a book on the prophetic character,
which is
really a summation of,
one it's an amazing summary of prophetic character.
The works of Shamael
describe the prophetic character,
but there are dedicated works on
good on the praiseworthy and blameworthy traits of
character.
And these are many amongst them, for example,
at Tarik al Bahamadiya
of Eham Al Birgivi
and other such works.
And the Ulema classically paid a lot of
attention to this.
It's something that
the
transmitted way of learning about character is because
good what is good character?
Right? Is
Right?
So as the poet said,
If all beauty were to take a human
form, and beauty were to behold
the beloved of Allah
beauty itself
would say
make tahleel and takbir say La Illaha illallah
Allahu Akbar.
Beauty would be dazzled by the beauty
of Allah's beloved
So that's the, that is the standard of
good character
and that is how we what is good
character?
That is the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. What
what what are the virtues of the Quran?
What are the virtues the Quran calls to?
They're embodied in the
messenger So that is the
the standard, the ideal,
right? And this is how
we what is virtue? Virtue is
the prophetic
it
if if we try to study it as
a science,
the Ulema looked at it in a number
of different ways. It studied across many different
sciences. We look at the adab, the proper
manners of the Sharia. We look at akhlaq,
the traits of character. They looked at the
the
virtues. Right? It is spread out across many
different,
sciences.
And in some of these they also did
look at what
the Greeks and others talked about because they
they looked extensively
at the essential
virtues, etcetera.
And some of this is based on sound
thinking
sound thinking.
But
they looked at what they had to say
in light of
the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah
and they took some of that
classification
and they adapted it, They adapted
it. But
just but what what is the standard by
which they measured
those teachings and by which they prioritized?
What are the Islamic priorities when it comes
to ethics or virtues?
Is the sunnah
of the messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam, which is
a detailing of the virtues exalted in the
Quran itself. Right? But
but there's there's
academics and others who'd say, well, the Muslims
took their ethics from
the Greeks or some people will say, well,
they took it
took their their ethics and their discussion of
virtues from the Christians. That is just kinda
ironic because actually could be argued as the
other way around.
If you look at the history of,
you know, the great writers like Thomas Aquinas
and others,
but one distinction between the way the Greeks
or the, you know, the great Christian
writers on ethics and virtues is that we
don't talk about ethics and virtues theoretically.
That is not merely a theory. Right? We
have
a practical model
of
perfection, of excellence.
And our sense of what is what is
what is virtue and what is ethics is
that which is
lived and acted upon.
And that's very important to be clear about.
And these are instilled
also through the great whether it be the
works of Shamael
or Fada'il or the virtues
or the works of Adeb.
Right? The works of Adeb,
whether the the hadith works of adab like
al adab al Mufrad,
of Yamal Bukhari
or the legal works of adab
like al adab al sharaiyah.
Right? These,
and this is an area because it's it's
a practical area that one
or the books of hadith that talk about
virtue like,
the garden of the righteous or.
You know, the
those matters that are encouraged
and warned against.
These works should be a constant part of
our
personal,
reading, reflection,
and striving.
And it's a key concern, of course, of
spirituality
as well.
Then
so this is the knowledge that is personally
necessary,
but there's knowledge above and beyond that, which
is what he touches upon. Next, he says,
As for
learning and retaining
that which happens
sometimes,
right, in your own life or that affects
people.
Only at sometimes
or in some circumstances that is obligatory
in a collective sense.
So everything that preserves
the fundamental good or prevents
fundamental harm
personally or collectively
is for
because all preservation of good is obligatory and
all prevention of harm is
obligatory.
But that which does not always happen,
its
knowledge
of the preservation of good and the prevention
of harm, worldly or next worldly is collectively
obligatory.
If some fulfill this obligation
in any land,
it is lifted from all others.
But if there's no one to fulfill that
collective obligation
in any particular land then they all share
in the sin
because
any good that is unfulfilled
or any harm that is not dispelled
is a result
of detriment
whether worldly
and more importantly next worldly.
Right? And they all share in the sin.
But of course, they also say that if
someone
if there's an unfulfilled collective obligation
and some
begin to engage in its fulfillment
Right? If there's a collective obligation that is
as yet unfulfilled
and some engage in it,
it wasn't personally obligatory for them to fulfill
it. But if they if they
direct themselves to its fulfillment,
then it would become personally obligatory for them.
If it's the case that if they were
to step away,
the obligation would
be more unfulfilled.
And this is very important for students of
knowledge because very often they get distracted
by and.
Right?
By trade and
and and playing around.
So it is incumbent upon the ruler to
command them
towards those things.
And
to command the people of a land to
those things. And there has to be public
policy
to fulfill
all the collective obligations.
And then he uses
an example
regarding the different types
of
knowledge, but we'll we'll stop there.
Right? So this collective obligation,
the most important collective obligation, of course, is
the preservation
of the deen. Right? All that is required
to preserve the deen, which is through
all the the various Islamic sciences,
right,
that is the most urgent communal obligation in
every land is more important than
our political well-being or our social well-being or
anything else. Right?
And then the other things that preserve good
for humans and others,
right,
including the, you know, the medical sciences,
the things that facilitate for people,
lawful income,
economic,
political, and social justice that dispel
harm, etcetera. These these are all obligations.
And one in choosing a career,
one looks at what one can do. They'll
be the the the greatest
and most lasting in benefit for others. But
if one directs oneself to a particular area
and were one to step away from it
with, you know, of one's choice, then it
would be sinful whether in religious matters or
in worldly matters. You know, if you are
the only heart surgeon in a particular land
and you say you know what I want
I've earned enough. I want to become a
stamp collector instead.
If you didn't and that's something that preserves
fundamental good even worldly.
It's not morally permissible for you to step
away
And you must also part of your obligation
in any particular collective obligation
is to look at how that can be
preserved after you because you're not going to
last forever.
Right? So that applies
not just in the religious sciences that a
person must not only transmit it, but look
at its,
you know, at the future generations.
I've got the is
not just a
generational concept, but it's an intergenerational
concept,
that also applies to the other
fields as well.
It's not enough for you to simply to
be a heart surgeon yourself, but to look
at how future generations of heart surgeons can
be trained and trained to the extent
that the collective obligation is fulfilled.
And there's a lot of ethical writing
writing on the ethics of professions.
Because one of the grave errors that people
fall into
is to create cartels,
right, where people of a particular trade place
barriers against the entry of others in that
particular field. So pharmacists don't want too many
pharmacists,
lest
their pay diminish.
Right? And we see it in a land
like Canada. A lot of people come who
are
supremely well qualified.
They could be professors in their field.
They may be internationally recognized experts,
but
barriers against entry are placed.
Why? Not to preserve the public interest,
and you need to verify that a person
is in fact qualified, but very often these
are barriers against entry that are placed
not for the public interest, but for the
private interest
of those who are already within the field,
and that is haram.
Why?
Because it prevents
the fulfillment of public interest. Right? And this
is why knowledge of fiqh is key to
the preservation of human good,
when directed towards
the preservation of human good. We'll stop there
and then he
explains the role of the various,
sciences and,
Muhammad.
Thank you for listening to
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