Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #103 A Key to Loving One Another Granted Shade By Allah Preparing for the Afterlife
AI: Summary ©
The importance of the creation of man is discussed, along with the need for mutuality and sharing of love. The speaker emphasizes the importance of peace and good deeds in relationships, and provides personal stories and hedge language to point out the importance of peace and love. The concept of love is also discussed, along with the importance of balancing expressing love and gratitude to friends and returning to one's beliefs. The speakers stress the importance of having a positive mindset to be aware of one's expressing love and return to one's beliefs. A call to donations is also mentioned.
AI: Summary ©
You're listening to the Roha, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Rasro Beni.
In our daily we're continuing to look
at
Sheikh Yousaf and Nabhani's collection
of 40 hadiths on loving
for Allah.
This is an important quality
because each of these
each of the expressions of loving for Allah
is from love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because the believer
realizes
that
when we say Allahu Akbar,
Allah is
the absolutely great.
Right?
That all that matters is Allah himself
and his attributes
and his actions.
And what is creation but
the traces of Allah's action.
Right?
So Imam Al Ghazali,
when he talks about gratitude
in the
he
says,
because if you consider
in reality what is it that exists,
all that exists is Allah himself,
his attributes,
and his actions.
And as for
creation and and as for Allah's servants,
they are but
the traces
of Allah's action.
What is creation but?
The creating
of Allah.
K.
So it goes back to him. So our
dealing with creation is in so far as
it is Allah's
creating.
So we love
it for the sake of Allah. But in
creation
there are
acts
that are beloved to Allah.
There are people who are beloved to Allah.
There are relationships
that are beloved to Allah.
Right? So we have you can describe that
our love for creation is at 2 levels.
There is the there is the general love
of it being Allah's creation
and then there's a particular love
of that which
is particularly beloved to Allah. Right?
In accordance with the standards of the guidance
that Allah and his messenger have given us.
And we looked at an example of that,
the 7 who are under the shade of
Allah
Right?
So
and an emphasis on this, of course, is
people.
Right? Is loving
humanity,
but particularly loving believers.
And that's what
a lot of the hadith on loving for
Allah entail. And one of the reasons why
loving
others for the sake of Allah is so
important,
they say, is that the human being is
a needy animal.
We have been created needy.
The human being has been created weak.
Now that weakness of the human being,
it causes humans to come together in society.
Right? So they're coming together
in society because,
you
know, our needs are better fulfilled in society,
even our material needs, but also our spiritual
needs.
Right?
That coming together
requires good relations.
Right? It requires good relations.
But those good relations
can very often
be colored
by the merely worldly considerations.
Why do you maintain good relations with your
parents? Well, because if I didn't,
it'd be too much
trouble. Good food,
all kinds of other considerations.
I'll get their inheritance, whatever. Like, all kinds
of ulterior motives that people have.
That's at one level. But also, given that
human beings are needy,
we have our defensive
tendencies.
Right? We tend to be possessive.
So siblings
can vie with one another for material gain
or for favor
or many different
rational and emotional reasons that people's weakness causes
them to also become defensive and negative
even if it's to their own detriment.
Right? No one would say that, you know,
the best thing I did in my marriage
was I used to get mad at my
husband.
Right?
K? But it's because of that weakness and
defensiveness,
the essential weakness of the human being, they
get
defensive. Either for rational reasons, they're trying to
protect their rights or just emotionally,
they feel threatened.
So
in this, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala called us
to have a higher motive in our relations,
which is for Allah
Right? So we see in this Hadith,
when we reach Hadith number 11 on and
by the one
in whose grasp
is my soul.
You shall not enter
paradise until you believe.
And you will not believe
until you love one another.
Meaning, you will not truly believe
until you love one another.
And
and this is
from
the sense of
mutuality.
Right? The root.
Right?
From mutuality until you love one another.
The prophet
did not talk about virtue in the abstract.
They will love one another.
How would you do it?
So prophet
gave
specific
keys to love one another.
Because loving one another has many manifestives.
Should I not point you
to something?
Should I not guide you to something?
You know, to one thing.
If you do it, you will love one
another.
Because
love is a big deal. So but it's
a one thing.
Right?
If you do it, you would love one
another.
Spread
the salaam
amongst
yourselves.
Spreading the salaam
is different from just giving salaams. Giving salaam,
you see someone you say
but spreading the salam is that you don't
just give the salam
when you see somebody.
Right? In the normal way, which is when
you when you're going to meet someone or
converse with someone, but spread the salam.
Which means, for example, if you're walking down
the street, you see you know, you meet
someone, you you greet them, but you spread
it. You go beyond that. You pass by
someone, you greet them as well.
And that sometimes is that awkward Muslim moment.
Right? You're in a crowded supermarket
and you kinda like, you know they're Muslim,
but and by the time you decide, well,
maybe I should say salaam, they passed you
by.
Spread the salaam. Right? In all these situations
where you're not in
it's not just give salaams, which is when
you're you're going to have an interaction,
but more broadly.
Right?
It also applies, for example,
don't just greet those you know, greet people
you don't know.
There's people you're actively in contact with, so
naturally you'll greet them. You'll say Assalamu Alaikum.
You call your friend,
you say Assalamu Alaikum.
But also
spread the salaam just as you would greet
those you are going to contact,
reach out to people
you've not been in contact with.
It's a neglected sunnah
to maintain
ties just by giving salams.
It's mentioned about many of the Sahaba and
it's related from Ibn Abbas and others Sahaba
who who weighed their time
more preciously than gold and silver.
That sometimes they just go to the marketplace,
go around and say
and they notice
that we saw you walk around the marketplace,
you didn't
look to buy
anything nor to sell anything, said I just
intended to greet the believers.
Right?
And this is a neglected sunnah.
So call people, even within family,
right,
you know, to spread the salah. And there's
many manifestations of that. You know, those you
run into, but, ness, you're not going to
converse with, those you have relations with.
It's also good habit
to
you know, like, if you meet someone,
exchange contact details
and reach out to them with the salam.
Spread the salam amongst you. And then you
keep that
the prophet
use a beautiful expression
with respect to family ties,
but it also applies to
social ties. He said
keep moist
your family relations
even if it's with giving salams.
Right?
And now, you know, at the least so
in our times, if you're not gonna call
them, you just even text them,
hope things are well, etcetera.
Yeah.
Briefly.
And you intend the salaam in its meaning.
And if you keep doing this,
it it'll
it's a means of
the it's a prophetic guarantee that none of
you
you will not enter paradise until you believe,
and you will not truly believe until you
love one another.
Should I not point you to something? If
you do it,
you will love one another.
Spread the salaams amongst you.
It also
reminds us of these when you say it's
to
say Right? It's a bad habit.
Although if you'd summarize
salaam
by in in in a text message, it's
understood you're that I'm I'm saying a salaam
alaikum.
Just write it out in full.
All
modes of digital communication have shortcuts.
I mean, I can write entire
treatises
just using my shortcuts.
Right?
It's a simple, sir.
It's a dua. You intend it, but don't
just some people say SLMS or what's
it? SLMZed
slums.
Right?
Right?
And it's you know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
refers to in the Quran as
a blessed
greeting.
Right? It it is.
I got in trouble with one of my
teachers. We were doing a
a few of us. We're doing a
a weekend program at the University of Toronto
on the branches of faith. It was a
tricky program because over 2 days,
we're doing the 77 branches
and
and sort of had to divide how we're
going to split them in the sessions and
so,
may Allah preserve him, had one of his
sessions, I think, had 3 or 4 branches.
I said, can we just squeeze in the
the the the as well? Because
it like, what's there to say about the?
Right? It's like, give salams.
And,
yes, sometimes our teachers teach us by our
I think salam is
is a minor thing.
Because it's like big good deeds. Right?
Mending relations, doing that, all the branches of
faith. So Sheikh Tal said,
I'll do the session after it. I'm going
to speak only on the salam.
I was responsible for putting together like, please
don't do it. I
said,
I'll speak about this. But it was sort
of his rebuke of me, like, yeah, don't
leave anything of the good to be small.
Don't leave anything of the sunnah to be
small.
But the salaam
is a tremendously
significant sunnah as we see from this hadith.
Right?
The
right here,
peace itself be upon you.
Right? Or all peace be upon you.
Right? It's a
to Allah. You're addressing the person with greeting,
but the meaning of the greeting is
may
Allah's
peace be upon you.
May either peace itself,
right, which is
may peace itself be upon you or
may
or may all peace,
right, at the levels of peace. If you
think about all the manifestations
of peace,
then maybe you're free from hurt or harm,
physical,
emotional,
worldly,
religious,
spiritual, in your relations, in all things
be upon you.
K.
And this idea of
is that may it encompass you.
K.
Literally, it's may it come down upon you,
may it envelope you.
And the salam of course is one of
the names of Allah
So as a secondary,
may the
may
the peaceful,
right, the one who is complete peace and
this is source of all peace, may he
be may he take care of your affair.
And the two meanings are interrelated.
And it also, of course, is a pledge
because if you want that if you pray
for that for someone, it's also a pledge
that I won't harm you in any way.
I want good for you and no harm.
And so they said broadly there's 3 meanings.
1, may all peace be upon you.
May may all peace envelope you. Number 2,
may the peace Allah be
with you.
Thirdly,
which is a derivative meaning from that, that
I
want good for you and no harm.
Right?
So it has within it that sense. So
it's an amazing
dua.
Right? An amazing pledge
to the person you're dealing with. And if
you intend those meanings and you keep intending
those to others,
you will
go to love one another, Right? By promise
of the prophet. This is related by,
by Muslim.
The next hadith
So messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
relates
that
truly
Allah most high
says on the day of resurrection,
Where are those who loved one another
by my majesty?
Meaning for my for the sake of my
majesty.
They loved one
where are those who loved one another
by my majesty,
They had no ulterior motives in that relationship.
Today, I will shade them on a day
that there is no shade
but my shading.
Right? On the day of resurrection.
That of the categories of people will be
completely shaded,
right, in in peace
and serenity
and
with no fear when people
will be
shaken,
right, on the day of resurrection.
Right? This is one of the the keys.
So they say anytime one is going to
interact with anybody, one should intend this to
love them for the sake of Allah.
Even if it be
at the general existential
level.
There's one sheikh in Syria, he was stuck
in a remote part of Syria with a
lot of people from particular Muslim sect
who are giving him a really hard time.
They're trying to provoke him to say something
controversial, but he wouldn't. They kept giving him
a hard time because they didn't want him
there. They wanted him to go back to
Damascus. He's a very learned scholar. And if
he was there, people would be attracted to
him.
So they kept giving him a hard time
and
nothing.
Then they decided to sort of squeeze it
out of him. They went and said, do
you love such and such
sect?
And he said, obviously, me personally, I didn't
because they're every day you're giving me a
hard time. Every
every other prayer that some
person you're sending to to the Masjid he
was at in that remote area
to try to provoke him. Then you're asking
me, do you love
do I love you?
He said, me person he wanted to say
me personally? No.
I said, but I paused. And I said,
well,
you're Allah's creation.
Like, he said to himself, you're Allah's creation.
So insofar as you're Allah's creation, he said,
by Allah, I love you.
Right? In the sense that you're Allah's creation,
as annoying as you may be,
I love you too. Right? For for Allah's
sake. Right? So this applies
to but to both the general love that
you love people for the sake of Allah.
And also
with the particular love to those
whom one chooses to to have relations with.
And you but from that, of course, you
also see this idea of loving one another.
Right?
Is
a powerful quality
that preserves iman.
Right?
We know the dua of the prophet
for love.
Oh Allah, I ask you for your love.
And the love of those
who love you.
Why? Because attaining the love of Allah requires
that we be in the company of those
who love Allah,
right, because
temperament
steals from temperament.
You are
as your
company. You are the sum of your close
companions.
Right.
So if you love
people who love Allah,
then what? They they'll make dua for you,
but practically if you love them, then you
will be with them. And if you if
you're with them, then the acts by which
you grow to
beloved to Allah are facilitated.
Allah ask you for your love. And the
love of those
and the love of those who love
you.
And the love of and the love of
an action
that will make me attain your love.
Right? So
you know? So and also it tells us
that don't just have sterile relationships.
Right?
You ask people,
who are your friends? A lot of people
don't don't even have friends. So I'm busy
with family.
That's against the sunnah. The sunnah
Right?
Right? From the sunnah is to have many
friends
for the sake of Allah
k? The general friendship of having good relations
with everybody, like, what do you acquaintances, good
acquaintances though. People with whom you fulfill the
sunnahs of good relations. If they get sick,
you you visit them,
you give gifts to them once in a
while, etcetera.
Right?
You stay generally in touch with them, but
the particular,
friendship as well.
But then in the in that in those
circles of friendship is not just to say,
well, they're my friends. I we hang out.
I don't know.
Right?
A life worth living
that we see in the sunnah is a
life worth living with intensity.
Don't just hang out hang out with a
friend. You should choose friends that are worth
being friends with and if they're worth being
friends with, then appreciate them. Love them.
Right? And that's one of the important sunnah
of the prophet with that the prophet said
if if you love someone, tell them that
you love them.
If someone does good to you,
tell them that you're grateful.
And you see with all the different things,
all the different emotions,
and the sunnah
in relations is to be expressive
of one's
expressive in greeting, expressive in in thanking, expressive
in loving, expressive in caring.
Right?
So that's also from
who loved one another and who expressed that.
Right?
And
then we'll stop at hadith number 13. Hadith
number 13
is the hadith of Abu of Abu Idris
al Khawalani.
It should be it it's a noon and
a year.
And this is,
related by mam Malik in the.
And it says somewhat lengthy hadith, we'll read
it next,
about Sayidina Muadh ibn Jabal. And Sayidina Ma'ad
ibn Jabal
who is the
whom Abu Dhi Sal Khawalani met, died
at a remarkably young age. And I ask
you guys tomorrow, how old Sayidina Ma'ad was
when he died. One of the most learned
of the companions,
dearly beloved to the prophet didn't live in
old age.
K.
And this hadith
is a is a an amazing it's an
amazing hadith on love
and the different aspects of love. So we'll
look at that
in the next
session.
We also look in in our daily at
the
council of Imam Al Ghazali
to a student of his
on
living one's knowledge
of religion.
Ayuh al Waled, his letter to a disciple
letter to a student, literally,
my dear child,
says,
He says,
make your resolve
in your soul
and your weakness
or and your defeatedness in
your
lower self
and death
in your body.
Because your resting place is the
grave.
And the people of the grave
are waiting.
Those who are already in the graves are
waiting. When will you come get come to
them? They're because
that's where you're going to be until the
day of judgment.
Right?
So make
your resolve.
Right?
Himma
is where you direct your concern, your ham.
Right?
And and
HIMMA, resolve,
right, is
this
where you'd where where you have strength of
concern. Most people,
right,
if you look at their life,
they're
they're able to sustain their work.
Right? They show up every day
without fail.
They're able to to, you know, after, you
know, brief periods of madness,
they're able to sustain their
their financial goals.
After some crazy bouts of spending, they settle
down, middle age, and they start,
you know, planning their financial goals.
If they want something worldly,
they have a lot of Himma for it.
In the old days when there's no Afis
in Mississauga,
there's all these people who used to go
across town
to Afis.
So your your worldly desires,
your nafs,
your your the things you desire, your whims,
you have high resolve for.
Someone
like
people confess to me, there's
one of the distinguished scholars was in Toronto
last weekend. I I know of several people.
I don't know why they're telling me to
I I wanted to come Saturday evening, but
there's a maple leafscape.
Okay. Like, it's not haram.
I bet
right? But,
you know, when it comes to your nafs,
your desires, your whims,
you have high resolve.
I need to get
the best seats for whatever
sporting event or there's some, you know,
whatever is going on.
But when it comes to dean,
what you know, your soul, we're defeated.
Oh my goodness. I struggle to get up
for fetch. You don't struggle to get to
work because if you did, you'd be fired.
Right?
But being, which is what matters, we're defeated.
Right? So Hazema is your defeatedness.
Right? That which of course what it's meaning,
what it's right?
If you're going to direct your resolve to
one thing, direct your resolve to the soul.
And what's the soul?
Is that
with which you are present with Allah
That's your soul.
Right?
That should be your focus. Right? And the
prophet promised
Whoever makes their concern one concern, meaning Allah.
Allah takes care of all their other concerns.
Right? Because you're gonna do it anyways.
Right?
So put put the first first.
Well,
If you're going to be defeated about anything,
be defeated about your desires.
Right?
Right?
Not in your deen. That's pathetic. You pause
and think about it.
And a lot of people are,
Dean's tough. But, you know, if you if
you head out, you get on the highway
at
6 in the morning, get on the 401,
there's you get on the highway at 4:30
in the morning. There's people already on the
highway. They'll do it.
But when it comes to Deen,
it's so tough. Right? They're defeated.
No. If you're going to be defeated, be
defeated with your nafs.
And death in your body, meaning that you're
ready to die.
Don't it doesn't mean kill yourself. And death
in your body, meaning be ready for the
eventuality of death.
Right? Be ready for it.
And don't take
your
bodily pleasures so seriously because you're gonna die.
Right? And they're they're just waiting for you.
So he says,
but beware
beware
of reaching them, reaching the people of the
grave
who are waiting for you
without
any provision. And what is your provision?
Your provision is your your your faith and
your good deeds.
That is your provision.
Right?
Your taqwa.
Right? So he says
Right?
These
it's related that Abu Bakr
said, these bodies are either
like
the,
the cage
of a
bird
or
a stable
for,
cattle.
Right?
A bird
and the
the prophet talked about the souls
be and the souls of martyrs being
in the heart in birds, the green birds
that
fly to the divine presence.
Right? And the scholars looked,
you know, it's a poetic look, but and
it the basis of it is several hadith
where the prophet
that why do
songbirds
sing?
K?
So as one of the poets said,
Right? Do you not see the songbird
that that is caged? Oh, you know, oh
youth.
Right? Why is it singing? It's singing and
yearning
for its homeland.
Right, and the bird if let go flies.
Right? So it's it's yearning for that. Likewise,
our soul
is like
like a bird yearning for its homeland, which
is paradise, which is why everyone typically
yearns for greenery
because
that's part of our the homeland of paradise,
greenery. And people have a little apartment, they'll
have a potted plant or something that reminds
them of.
Right? They say the most soothing color is
green because,
well, spiritually locust
from the green of paradise. Right?
So it's either
a cage
for birds
or like the stable for donkeys
for for beasts, for cattle.
You're just there, but if you don't eat
there,
you'll be
you you won't rise to anything.
It's again referring to Quran that they're just
like cattle.
And the the songbird has a aspiration. It's
yearning
for the for its homeland
and it'll fly
try to fly back to it. The cattle,
wherever they are, the same concern.
Eating, drinking, procreating.
Eating, drinking, procreating. K?
So it's reflect on yourself.
Which of these are you?
Which of these are you? Are you like
the bird in a in a cage? Say,
well, I'm I'm here right now,
but I have a homeland to go to
or you're
just and the
prophet Whoever loves
to meet their lord, their lord loves to
meet them.
Right? Whoever yearns to meet their lord, their
lord yearns
to meet them.
Or are you like?
They're just like
wild animals. Right?
So reflect which one are you.
So we ask Allah to give us a
clear sense of priorities.
Right? And then he,
talks about
the the birds that
that yearn for their homeland.
Right?
Because the the souls will be addressed.
Return to your lord.
Right?
And on the other hand, if we are
of the
the beast and we're more misguided
than the cattle because the cattle are fulfilling
their existential purpose.
So we'll we'll
look at that.
So may Allah grant us a sense of
gratitude
for the gift of the moment
that he's granted us and that we strive
in any moment that we're in
to turn to him and to yearn for
him and to seek him. And that's the
purpose of knowledge is to know
the way of return
to Allah
and then
to actively
return to him.
Thank you for listening to the raha, daily
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