Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #033 The Great Virtue of alFatiha 100 Created Mercies Good Company for Knowledge
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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 Razrabbani 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.
We are continuing to look at
40 hadiths
in praise
of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
gathered by
the great
20th century
scholar,
the great lover of the prophet,
Sheikh Yusuf An Nabhani.
And
Sheikh Youssef and Nabhani in this collection
very uniquely gathers
40 sets of 40 Hadiths.
So the first was
40 Hadith and the second
collection,
which we're
in the midst of is 40 sets of
Hadith in praise of Allah
Wa Ta'ala
and
we stopped at hadith number
24.
Yeah.
So
what page is it in the thing?
Sorry.
Yeah.
Good. My bookmark got lost. Yep.
I
have it there. Okay.
So in this hadith,
it's related by Abu Hurrah radiAllahu ta'ala the
messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, whoever
performs the prayer
without reciting in it
the opening of the book,
it is
deficient. It is deficient. It is deficient,
meaning
not complete.
So Abu Huraira was asked, we may be
behind the Imam,
right?
And the Imam is reciting.
He said recite it within yourself.
Why? He said for I've heard the Messenger
of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Salam say Allah Most
High says I have divided the prayer between
myself and my servant
in 2 halves.
The first half is for me and the
second half is for my servant.
So we look at this is the this
is the point
of
the hadith and it's mentioned here. The first
part
that whoever does not recite the fatiha,
it's a well known difference of opinion amongst
the companions
and subsequently amongst the Imams.
That
there's 2 types of prayer
behind the imam.
So the cases are you could be praying
alone or you could be praying behind an
imam. When you're praying behind your
when you're praying on your own,
you need to recite the Fatiha, right? Whether
it being obligatory according to Jumhur
or it being wajib according to Hanafis.
When you're praying behind the imam,
then the prayer behind the imam is either
out loud or quiet.
So according to the Shafi'i, one must recite
the fathere behind the imam both in the
loud prayers and the quiet prayers.
In
some schools, one does so in the quiet
prayers not in the loud prayers and the
Hanafis said one does not recite behind the
imam in the loud prayers or the quiet
prayers,
right.
And the reasoning for that can be found
in its due places,
Right? So here, the Hanafis, for example, and
the Malekis,
when it comes to the quiet prayer to
the loud prayers, would understand recite it within
yourself, meaning
within you without pronouncing it. Right?
And if you say, I said to myself,
you didn't actually say
that's so tasty.
You say to to within yourself, meaning
in your thoughts.
Right? And there's khilaf on that. But the
the heart of the hadith is that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I have divided the
prayer between myself and my servant into 2
halves.
A half for me and a half for
my servant.
This points to the praise of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
number 2
reminds us of the great praise
that is Surat Al Fatiha
and it points
to many of the virtues of Surah Al
Fatiha. One of the virtues of Surah Al
Fatiha that is highlighted here is that Allah
Subhanahu wa'ala refers to Surah Al Fatiha as
the prayer of salah.
And this is one of the names of
Surah Al Fatiha
is that it's
divided the prayer
and this is a common
rhetorical usage in the Arabic language,
right, which
is mentioning a part
and intending
the whole.
Allah says,
and bow with those who bow.
It doesn't just mean that when people are
praying, when they go into the court, you
join in and then you leave.
So
Allah said
bow with those who bow. I bowed.
No one would understand that. What's understood from
it is
bow with those who bow meaning?
That's mentioning the part and intending the whole.
And be of those who prostrate.
The sujood is mentioned,
but what's meant is the whole.
Right? And it's done
for a number of reasons.
So
sometimes a part is mentioned and the whole
is intended,
and sometimes a whole is mentioned and a
part is intended.
I've divided the prayer.
Here, this is the whole, but what part
is being mentioned?
The fatiha.
Why is that? Because it's as if the
whole prayer is the fatiha.
The is the heart of the prayer,
that all the emphasis that arises with respect
to the prayer of presence of heart and
reverence and awe and humbling oneself, etcetera,
it applies a fortiori
to the.
1, because we can rectify your beginning,
then the continuity is much easier.
2nd,
because
the best of the prayer is
the recitation of Quran.
The overwhelming majority of the scholars
across
the schools of Islamic law
affirm
that
both rationally and both textually and rationally
recitation is superior to prostration.
Because what you do in prostration
is
of Allah, but we know that the Quran
is more meritorious than other.
In prostration, you make
but the Quran is the highest of both
and
And text usually because the prophet
said
the best of prayer is lengthy recitation and
other texts.
So this highlights how important the fatiha is
and which is why
the prophet what
he said that whoever does not recite it,
the prayer is deficient. In other
in other
Hadith,
there's no prayer for one who has not
recited the fataha, meaning their prayer is either
invalid the way the Shefik is understood and
understand it or the Hanif is going to
say their prayer is deficient.
It's either or
But
either way
that's
but why?
Always rulings
are generally connected with meanings.
Rulings,
virtues
are connected with meanings. The things that are
incumbent
are because they're the most important. They're the
most impactful.
Right? So I have divided the prayer, meaning
the fat between myself and my servant in
2 halves,
a half for me and a half for
my servant.
And my and for my servant
is whatever they ask for.
And this is one of the things to
keep in mind with the Fatiha.
Right? Allah has
it's as if what is the Fatiha?
Allah subhanahu wa'ala says, my I have divided
the
the prayer, the Fatiha into 2 halves. A
half for me, which is the part that
has the praise of Allah,
and a half for my servant,
which is the second, which is from
and then if you're making dua, and my
servant shall have
whatever they asked for.
And my servant shall have whatever they asked
for,
which is why
one should have presence of heart in the
when one
says, guide us
to the path that is straight. Guide us.
There's 2 types of asking of Allah.
There's the
asking, the unconditioned asking, guide us
generally
in all things absolutely
but there is also
the specific asking
which is the matter
that is
either the circumstance that you're in or the
matter that has befallen you or the choice
that you're seeking to make or the thing
that is troubling you or the difficulty or
the distress, whatever it may be.
And my whatever
they asked for,
guide us to the path that is straight,
the path to you, to your good pleasure,
to the good of this life and the
next.
Guide us. Right?
So this is the great gift of the
Fatiha,
which is why
the prophet amongst the many reasons why the
prophet described
that whenever any matter befell him, he would
turn to prayer.
He would turn
to prayer.
And this is one of the greatest mistakes
people make
when difficulties arise.
The sunnah is to turn to
Allah seek assistance
in steadfastness,
in patience and in prayer.
And part of it is this,
ask
if you're going to ask, ask
Allah.
So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala continues. When the
servant says,
all praise is due to Allah. All praise
is Allah's Lord of the worlds.
Allah, mighty and majestic, responds,
my servant
has praised me.
And they say this is
one should feel that divine the the, you
know, the honor, the gratitude.
Right? Then Allah recognizes
that praising.
And that divine recognition is far greater than
your praising.
And when the servant says,
the All Merciful,
the Most Compassionate
Allah Most High says
my servant
has
exalted me exaltation
and when the servant says
master
of the day
of
judgment
Allah says,
My servant has magnified me, from majd, which
is majesty and magnification.
And when the servant says, you alone
do we serve
and you alone
do we seek assistance
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, this is
between me and my servant.
And my servant shall have
whatever
they asked.
Right? And
right? The general expressions one should really pay
attention to them. And my servant shall have
whatever
guide us.
So there's a general asking guide us.
To what? To you
and to all that leads to you
in general,
but also
lead me to you
in this circumstance I am in,
whatever it may be.
Seek assistance and patience and prayer.
This is between me and my servant. This
is this is the mercy that is the
when the servant says guide us to the
path that is straight, the path of those
you have blessed before us,
not
that of
those who are under your wrath nor those
who are astray, Allah Subhanahu Waqq says this
is for my servant
And my servant shall have
whatever
they asked for. So we should pay attention
to this whatever.
And both the general
ask
to magnify it. What are you asking for?
You're asking for Allah
and the means to Allah. But in specific,
which is why it's a neglected sunnah for
many people
that
of the greatest types of dua is the.
So
anytime
you're going to do something significant, one of
the blessed things to do is to recite
the.
But don't just prattle it because you don't
ask Allah by words. You ask Allah by
meanings.
Right?
Words are like cups. The meanings
is what is found within them.
But Allah is generous, so he's put there's
a default
10 times
response that's already the cups are prefilled.
Right? So when
the action is found,
Allah by his mercy has already prefilled the
cup with
tenfold reward.
But you're losing out
by just accepting that
even though that's
generous,
right,
even though that is generous.
Rahul Imam Ahmed. This is related by Imam
Ahmed. Right?
And Khidad means narkasaw.
So this is
a reminder
to reconnect
with the
within the prayer, right, and to really consider
the to be the very soul
of one's prayer,
to be the very soul
of one's prayer.
We'll read the next Hadith as well.
The messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said
that truly when Allah created
on the day that He created
the heavens and the earth
a 100 mercies.
Right?
And these are created mercies. We're not talking
about this is not divine mercy divided. Right?
This
is good
embodied.
Right? This is created mercy, mercy in creation.
Okay? 100 mercies,
every mercy of them,
its extent is the extent of the heavens
and the earth.
Allah divided 1 mercy amongst all his creation
and he kept
99 of them for himself
when
it is the resurrection,
the
the day of reckoning
He returns that
that
that one mercy
and that one mercy all its manifestations in
creation. That is just one mercy.
It becomes
a 100 mercies.
And by that will he
show his mercy
to his servants.
Meaning
and this and who gets that mercy?
This is part of the meanings of the
prophet says
that Allah
shows his mercy
amongst his servants to those who are merciful.
That every manifestation of mercy in this life,
Allah will magnify it beyond measure
in the
on the day of reckoning.
A 100 times here.
Right? Arauul Hakim. Right?
And it's similar really by Ibn Majah and
others
as well.
And we'll
read briefly as well from
Talim al Mutalim
on the adab
of seeking knowledge.
And
we looked in the previous lesson
at
the 6 conditions
for benefiting
from knowledge, correct?
Right. That knowledge is only attained through 6
matters.
I will inform you of them with clarity,
intelligence,
avidness,
holding oneself patient,
and
and the means of reaching.
And those are not just material means, but
also all the other things. One needs books.
One's needs,
you
know, skills, etcetera, all the various things one
needs. The
is the means that you need
to
so that you can reach,
what you seek.
And to be to be under the guiding
of a teacher
wathulu is a man and long time.
Then he talks about the importance of
companionship. Right? And this is one of the
most important things.
They say
By Allah,
no one succeeded
of those who succeeded
except by keeping the company of those successful.
So
one is trying to have certain qualities
to succeed as a seeker of knowledge
and
to facilitate that for oneself, one should strive
and one should
actively seek out the company of those
who are
likewise.
Right? So he says,
and this is something that they say this
is part of.
One chooses it out. It's not who do
you spend time with? Well,
so and so lives next door to me.
Right? It's
really important. Right? It's really important. And one
must seek it out because one cannot traverse
a challenging path on one's own,
right, except rarely.
So
he says,
He says, it is incumbent that one seek
out
someone who's.
Right? Someone who is characterized by constant
seriousness and striving.
Right?
They say.
Whoever
strives
finds. So one seeks out people who are
striving, who are keen, who are avid,
and someone who's scrupulous,
who are careful,
right, who are careful
in matters of religion.
And someone of sound temperament.
One should flee from the lazy
and the one who have nothing to do.
And
the one who is just concerned by amassing
a lot of things
and the one who spreads corruption
Right?
Walfatan
and the one who promotes fitna.
Right? There's some people who all they know,
oh, you know Sheikh so and so
disagrees with Sheikh so and so and so.
Guess what happened?
You know, someone asked one of the Canadian
scholars, what's your opinion of
the of the conference in Chechnya? He said,
I don't have an opinion about it because
I'm not in Chechnya.
And all these people ganged up on him.
It's like and these are people who are
fitan and one keeps away from people who
promote fitna. Right? And then he quotes the
importance of good company, quotes a poet who
said,
said,
about a person,
ask not,
but
observe carefully their close friends
for every close friend
will be
following their close friends.
Right? Don't ask about a person, but rather
look carefully as as to their close friends.
This is one of the there's a positive
aspect of this that if you want to
acquire good qualities, keep the company, like the
active,
deliberate company, not just that you happen to
be in the same place. People it's clear
from the sunnah. People should be eating together,
spending time together,
right,
doing things together.
Right?
And it's it's
even things like going going shopping, doing the
groceries. So you look at the example that's
happened. It always used
to seek out others to do these things
with.
Right? Because it's much better.
It's much better. It serves as a reminder.
It keeps away from.
There's many, many benefits.
Right? So that's in terms of acquiring good
qualities but also how does one
you know, one of the obvious cases is
in marriage. A lot of people try to
figure out the person
but then don't you don't really have to
it's not so important to inquire about the
person
as to the close company they keep. The
challenge in our times is most people don't
keep the close company of anybody.
And that itself, but you can predict from
that that they're going to have all kinds
of problems.
Right? So this is an area that we
have to pay attention to ourselves. Here is
not to judge others, but that if we
want to be to acquire those qualities, we
must keep the company of those who are
striving to acquire those qualities. Qualities. Right? You
don't just say, well, I can't find such
perfect people, but
the you need the a person is by
their intentions,
right, and they're striving, not by what they
attain.
He said, and then if a person
if those a person keeps the company of
their evil,
then keep away from them quickly. And if
they're people of virtue,
then keep such a person's close company, and
you will find guidance.
Right? And he emphasizes another poem.
Right? He said,
don't keep the company of 1 lazy in
their affairs.
For how many
a a righteous person by the corruption of
another becomes corrupted?
Says
Adul
Beledi,
Says the the plague of the fool
goes
to the resolute
quickly
like a burning coal when it is placed
on
sand
the sand
starts heating up,
right.
Right? And the messenger said every child is
born on the natural disposition of submission.
But then it is their parents
who make them into a Jew or a
Christian or a Magin, the Hadith,
meaning
that
it is you know, the the social environment
transforms people.
Right? So just as the parents transform how
the child is, likewise, other types of social
company
transform both in the negative and in the
positive.
So that that is very, very critical.
Then he quotes some lines of poetry in,
which I
which I have no clue what they mean.
But the meaning
is
said
to be
that
a person
of harm
is worse.
A harmful companion is worse is more harmful
to one than a black snake
and of greater
detriment.
And then to close the chapter he says
Then if you wish to seek knowledge from
its people
or find
a proof
by which you can test
the absent.
Right? You want a way to judge?
Then
consider the earth by its names
and consider the companion
by their companions when you're choosing a companion.
Right?
Right?
And
consider the earth by its names. Why?
Because the the basis of names, at least
for the Arabs, was they would name things
by the qualities that they had.
Right?
And the Arabs would give a thing many
names.
So often there'd be one formal name for
something, but other names, they would give them
according to the qualities it had.
So,
you know, so what what is a place
called? So for example,
Medina before the time of the prophet called
from
Tathrib,
which means loss. And there's other names even
for the places around it.
There are places called like Adwa,
you know, the the disease that spreads and
this and this and all these really negative
names. So gonna consider earth, consider what what
what are the names for it? Meaning, what
do people call it?
Right?
And if they call it, you know, the
ugly hole and
the dreary place, etcetera.
And consider a person
consider
someone you're considering as a companion by the
companions that they keep.
So this is the section on carefully choosing
what one studies
and one's teacher
and one's companion
because these are critical to success.
The next chapter, which is very, very important,
is on
venerating knowledge and its people,
venerating
knowledge and its people.
And
this is
a value
that in modern times people find difficult because
nothing is sacred.
Nothing is sacred.
Right?
But the believer
holds that everything that has an inscription to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is sacred.
Relationships are sacred because Allah has placed them.
And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says in the Quran
that
whoever has
Whoever
has
active
veneration,
deep
unwavering respect for the symbols of Allah,
which are everything
that has been honored by Allah and that
is a means to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
The Quran,
the beloved messenger the
Kaaba,
the ritual acts of worship,
knowledge,
its people, its means,
all of these,
everything,
right? Whoever venerates
and every expression of veneration,
that truly is from taqwa that's in the
heart, meaning
a lack of is from a lack of
taqwa.
And if you seek to increase in taqwa,
one of the ways to begin that is
to begin having
tawim.
And in this a neglected virtue,
there's a sense that well,
everything's all the same. Nothing's all the same.
Right? There are many ranks with their Lord.
Right?
So we ask Allah Subha'ala to
grant us insight in this matter, and this
is an important
chapter, and he has some amazing examples. So
we'll continue from there.
Thank you for listening to the daily
guidance for seekers
with.
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