Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #131 Introduction to Blameworthy Traits and Their Cure Imam Sulami
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You're listening to the Roja, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Rasra Behni.
Muhammad.
In
upcoming weeks,
in our
sessions of the,
of the Roha, we're going to be looking
at
a brief treatise that deals with
the heart of our religion, which is the
sound heart.
And the
treatise is Imam al Suleimi's work
or or
the the blame worthy traits of the self
and their cure.
And we're going to to begin
by looking today in the first of the
sessions
at the author, the text,
the author's opening and his discussion about the
three types of self.
The author of this work, Imam Abu Abdul
Rahman
al Solemi
was one of the great Imams
of Islam.
One of the great
Imams of Islamic Spirituality
who died in the
year 412
after the Hijra.
And
he was
like the other great imams of Islamic Spirituality.
He's a great well rounded scholar of Islam.
He was an authority in Tafsir.
He was a great
scholar and authority in the science of Hadith.
Amongst those who quote who
narrated Hadith from him
was Imam
Al Beihaki,
was a great late hadith masters
and
and others
as well.
And
the we can
mentioned
about him that, you know, you know, a
few
important
pieces. Right? 1, firstly, what what is his
full name?
Is, you know, he's famous as Abu Abdur
Rahman
al Sulami.
Right? His full name is Mohammed ibn al
Hussein.
Ibn Mohammed
al Sulami.
Famous as Abu Abdul Rahman.
And
he died
in the year 412 after the hijra. So
in the beginning of 5th century of Islam.
He is considered one of the leading
writers
of the formative phase
of Islamic Spirituality.
The
and
he was one of those people who wrote
on Islamic spirituality,
who
was an authority
in so many major Islamic
sciences, which is why the scholars paid a
lot of attention
to his works.
One of the things that distinguished his works
that though an early work,
he
wrote
many brief
works.
Amongst them, this this work, which is a
very seminal work, you know, or you the
blame worthy traits of the self.
So his many of his works were were
brief
yet on critical
topics.
Among so he wrote
amongst the other famous works of his, he
wrote a book called,
the proper manners of keeping company.
And this is a central topic in Islam.
But
the work
is
not a very long work. It's less than
100 pages.
Other of his works that
that are and that's translated into English.
He wrote a famous work called
Kitabul Futuwa,
the book of
chivalry.
That's
translated in a simplified translation
as well.
And again, a critical Islamic value, Futuwa, what
it means to be a person of
noble nobility and noble concern.
Right?
And, you know, so that's one of the
one of the the the reasons for
the the benefit of his works. That he
chose critical topics
and his works
were brief.
They're comprehensive.
He
gathered
a lot of the quotes of the great
authorities before him.
Having himself written amongst other works,
one of the early
biographical
dictionaries
of the great masters of the spiritual path.
So
that
made,
you know so he'd endeavored
to gather
the
the the words of the of the of
the great imams of the spiritual path, etcetera,
on different subjects.
And you find his works filled
with
that,
you know, with with that
benefit.
We will we will see
that,
you know, he narrates
the the, you know, many of his quotes.
Right?
With his chain of transmission.
Right? With his chain of transmission. Because he's
still in what's called the
age of transmission.
Right? So very often the quotes that he
has from the early Muslims,
you won't,
he's one of the he's a primary source
for the quotes from
the great imams
of Islam
on matters of spirituality.
Why is this work important?
Because it deals with
the states
of the heart.
Right.
The states of the heart or the states
of the self, the nefus.
Right.
And very simply,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the human self
as being one of the great signs of
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah
swears by the
I swear by the self.
And everything Allah swears by is a great
sign of Allah
and how Allah has fashioned it.
So the self itself is a great sign
of Allah
in how it was created
and in its potential
to be conscious of Allah,
be close to Allah,
be pleasing to Allah.
Right?
And how Allah has fashioned it. So that
it's a sign of Allah and it has
a potential. What is a potential?
Truly successful is the one who purifies
it. Truly successful is the one
who refines it.
Is refinement or purification.
And
truly
a failure
is the one who corrupts it.
So the this is one of the most
amazing verses in the Quran that there's one
criteria for success and failure in life.
If you are able to refine
yourself,
the self, the nafs,
your state with Allah, you are successful.
And if you fail to do that, you
are a failure.
Right?
So this work
is significant because
it is a brief work.
He he looks
at 69
blameworthy traits of the self.
He begins with some of the most important
ones.
Right? So it is comprehensive
yet brief
on one of the most important subjects
of Islam.
It has a clear structure.
He begins
with an outlining
of
what the self is and that there are
3 types of self, the human self,
which has been classified in many different ways.
But he says there's 3 different types of
self.
And what are what the distinguishing traits of
each of these are? Then he looks at
69 blameworthy traits
with their cures. And that's the other thing.
He doesn't just say, well, this is a
blameworthy trait. How do you get rid of
it?
How do you get rid of it?
And he uses very careful language. Right? These
are you these blameworthy traits, these are not
traits that you
change.
These are not traits that you remove. These
are traits that you cure.
Why?
Because the heart,
the spiritual heart, like the living heart
requires
has things that give it good health.
And treatment
takes time. Right? And they're,
you know, and they're cure. Right? So this
is,
you know, it
this is an important insight that the treatment
takes time. And we'll be looking throughout
at their opposite.
What are the virtuous traits?
Because the reason to highlight the blame worthy
traits is to rid oneself of the blame
worthy traits, but also to acquire
the praiseworthy traits.
So
we will
be touching upon those as well.
We'll
look at
the author's introduction
and he tells us about the importance of
purification of the self and then the 3
types of self.
So regarding the importance of the purification of
the self,
the author says
All praises due to Allah
in the beginning and in the end.
And
Allah may Allah bless
our master Muhammad
inwardly and outwardly.
Upon his folk and grant complete abundant and
constant
peace.
Right. And this this is of course a
beautiful,
rhetorical device. It says, praise be to Allah
in the first and the last.
So
and you'd
expect that if you someone to say, and
may Allah bless the messenger
outwardly and inwardly.
That's a normal order.
But he flipped it around.
Not just for stylistic purposes
but Allah bless the messenger inwardly and outwardly
pointing to a reality which is that outward
well-being
emerges from inward well-being.
And so he flips
you normally say,
Right. So Allah bless
our master of hamad inwardly and outwardly.
As Imam
Junaid said about
the of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Why was his character tremendous?
Because he had no concern but his lord.
What made the character and conduct of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam tremendous
was
the nature of the state of his heart
with Allah
And he says,
All praise is due to Allah
who made his purified servants come to know
the blameworthy traits of their self.
Right.
And
who
inspired them.
Right and who honored them by showing them
its treacherous ways, it's.
Right? That yourself
has blameworthy traits.
So for you to say for you to
be conscious of one blameworthy trait of yours
is better for you than for you to
be conscious of a 100
praiseworthy traits that you have. Because you can't
do anything much
with your praiseworthy traits.
But one blameworthy trait that you recognize,
you can
change for the better.
And who's honored them by knowing its treacherous
ways.
And who has made them
made his honored servants people of wakefulness
and
awareness.
Of
the states that affect the self.
There there's things that happen to you that
manifest good
traits
and there's things that happen to you that
manifest your ugly traits.
So people Allah favors, they become aware of
the things that happen in their life that
trigger good qualities or that trigger bad qualities.
And who has granted them the success and
facilitation
to cure
the blame worthy traits of their self.
And the deeply hidden evils.
How?
Through medicines that are
hidden
from other than the people of heedfulness.
Why?
But the people of heedfulness
are aware of what the blameworthy traits are.
They've considered them. So then they recognize
their cures.
Right?
Who recognize their ailments.
And
also
and because they busy themselves
with seeking to heal
their their own blame worthy traits.
So Allah made it easy for them
to engage in this
otherwise difficult endeavor
which is to change oneself for the better.
By Allah's grace
and by
his good graces and facilitation.
And then he explains that
some
Right? Some of the
scholars have asked me. Right? So
Right. So may Allah honor them
to obey him
And that I gather
some
chapters regarding the blameworthy traits of the self.
By which one would then
have a guide
on how to deal with other blameworthy traits.
And this is why we'll expand
the first ones a little more because the
other ones follow. There are common traits
in the blameworthy
traits.
And if you'd realize how you deal with
some
then you can apply the same principles in
dealing with others.
So I hasten to answer
his request. And this is one of the
things that you see throughout Islamic history.
One of the blessed things
that opens doors of benefit is a sincere
request.
So many books were written
because some sometimes a teacher
asked a student
to write a book and the student listened.
Sometimes appear,
right, someone,
you know, one scholar asked another fellow scholar,
why don't you write about such and such?
And it was of clear benefit, so they
wrote.
Sometimes a student asked the teacher for guidance
or a question and they wrote a book.
Imam al Haddad
was asked some questions on
assistance and advice and encouragement
on how to travel the path of the
akhira.
What was his response?
The book of assistance.
It was a response
to someone's request.
One of the students
asked him for advice that he could hold
on to for the rest of his life
and is being benefited from 950
years later.
So don't hesitate to ask. One of the
blessed ways of expressing sincere concern is to
ask.
And don't want you not be shy to
ask with sincerity.
Okay. He said I hastened to answer.
And
I gathered these chapters.
And I ask Allah most high that he
not make us bereft
of the of of its blessings.
And this is after I sought Allah's guidance
regarding it.
And this is an important principle
of our religion
that anytime
one
is deciding
to do something and wants to determine whether
it is good or not,
it is sunnah to make a stikhara.
Or anytime one is inclining to something good,
apparently good to do,
then before
going from inclination
to
engaging in it, it is sunnah
to make
to make wudu, pray 2 rakas for Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and to ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala by ideally
by the dua of
but even by just sincerely asking Allah for
guidance
to help one choose.
And sometimes one may be in a rush
and one cannot
pray 2 rakas and make the dua. We
know there's a number of duas that the
prophet taught us. Among them,
Oh Allah,
choose
for me
and make my choice on my behalf.
Asking Allah to inspire 1, sometimes one has
to make a snap decision. They say even
if you don't have time to make that
dua or the dua doesn't come to your
mind just say, You Rabbi.
Say, Oh Allah, Oh Lord.
Right? So to ask
Allah before one seeks.
And I sought his
assistance
and facilitation
thereby
and he is and Allah is my sufficiency.
And he is the best
of aids.
And
Allah's blessings be upon our master Muhammad and
his folk
and grant great peace.
So this is his
opening
in
and then
he tells us about
the different types of self. There are this
is an early work early work so there
there are different versions.
Right? There are different versions.
Right? And this arises for different case. Sometimes
some people got an incomplete manuscript.
Sometimes the author themselves
taught the book many times
and they adjusted around. So different people related
different versions of the same book from the
author.
And the most famous example of that is
Imam Malik.
Imam Malik was constantly
adjusting his mata,
it was a living book.
So sometimes he include hadith
in when he was narrating it. So those
who narrated that time narrated extra hadith
and sometimes
he narrated fewer
ones.
Sometimes
the transmitter of a book was had their
own things that they included in the book.
So the one of the famous examples with
respect to the murtagh, the murtagh of Muhammad,
of Imam Malik
amongst the people who who narrated it
was Imam Muhammad Al Hassan.
Muhammad Al Hassan was a main one of
the main students of Imam Abu Hanifa.
He narrated the murtagh of Imam Malik as
he heard it
but in his transmission
he interjects once in a while when he
disagrees
with Imam Malik. And he says however
we also relate,
it's on some issues
where Imam Malik relates his position that
Imam Hasan doesn't agree with.
He interjects it. We also relate this from
other than Imam Malik.
And he
intersperses so there are sometimes different narrations of
the same same text.
So we're we're going to follow
this one. And he says there's 3 types
of self.
Know well that the self
is of 3 types.
Firstly, there is the sinful self.
Right?
And this is the self
that
amara is from kafiratul
amr.
Right?
It is constantly
a commanding one
to sin.
Right?
So, you you know, we
this the the self that is constantly commanding
towards sinfulness.
Right? That that is,
you know, that if you're if you're trying
to walk
walk the straight path,
if you pass by 10 sins, it'll think
it'll encourage you to do several of them
and it'll remind you, hey, you didn't do
such and such. Right? It's constant. That is
it's constant
inclination.
The second is
the nafsil lawwama,
the reproachful self.
The reproachful self is the self of a
believer
who has at least some inclination towards the
good.
So if
he does commit sin,
it
reproaches itself for
it. So you're trying to walk the straight
path and you're committed, I'm not gonna do
the sinful things. But
you may stumble once in a while. But
if you do stumble,
you will
blame yourself for it. Shouldn't
have done it.
That's the reproachful self.
And then we have the nafsul mutma inna,
the restful self,
which is the self that has been disciplined.
So it no longer
so it no longer
commanding one to sin
whether actively
or occasionally
and its reproach has worked on itself. So
that
it has gone from sometimes sinning. So it
generally
it it it's at rest from its wayward
ways.
Right. And each of these, of course,
is based on,
you know, different
Quranic texts. Allah
says from Surat Yusuf
verse 53.
Truly the self commands
to ill.
Right?
And and other and similarly, Allah tells us
about the the Allah swears by the reproachful
self.
So the first type of nafs is the
Right? The nafsul
mutma inna. We're going to
look at
the this first type of self,
you know, these three types of self in
the next
session, which is on Monday
But
the
the critical thing is to be to be
aware. Right?
That if that
firstly, that you being a believer
is not just about doing
certain things in your religion.
Praying, fasting, sticking to the halal,
avoiding the haram, etcetera
that you're being a believer
is above all
a matter
of having
a heart
that is good with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Because that is
that is,
you know, that the the heart
is the soil in which
the seeds of faith are planted
as is clear in the Quran.
So if you seek
good fruit
in your religious life.
Right.
Right. Good fruits are only the result
of
good cultivation.
Right? And you have to take care
of that that soil. The prophet
said that in the heart, in the the
body is a morsel of flesh
which if sound the entire body is sound.
And if corrupted the entire body is corrupted.
Truly it is the heart.
So
our understanding of spirituality
of purification is not just that this is
an add on to the religion. That once
you do everything else,
then now let's,
you know, let's beautify our religion. So this
is not just some
this is also the dimension of sophistication.
And that first get your religion going and
then make it sophisticated.
Right? That, yes, there are some things that
one prioritizes.
One must have the right belief.
One must begin praying. But right from the
get go,
one has to realize that Allah only accepts
that which comes from a heart that is
sincere.
From a heart that is pleasing to him.
Nothing benefits 1 on the day of resurrection
except one who comes to Allah with a
sound heart.
So this is
something that is at the very heart of
the religion.
Good actions
are the results
of having a good state.
Right?
Good actions are the result of having a
good state with Allah.
And having a good state with Allah
That and having a good state with Allah
is the result
of
being firm footed in
the testing
circumstances.
Right?
And the testing sorry.
The they differ on what what is meant
by it. The commentators of Hakam differed
but that, you know, much of our life
happens in cruise control.
You wake up, there's some of us who
are better at routines than others.
Right? You have, like, a certain routine.
But the test of life are are when
things go wrong.
Right? And spiritually,
there are testing moments.
And good states arise from how you respond
to those testing moments.
Right? Which is when you have to in
the old days, when you have to get
off your your horse
and
and fight it out. Right? That's when
you will be seen whether
you have the short sword was a good
decoration item or you could actually do something
with it.
So
good states are the result of you
being able to be,
you know, firm footed in those testing
circumstances.
All of life reduces itself down
to certain tests
and the choices made in those testing moments.
In everything else,
just
acts out the consequences
of those
testing moments.
So we'll be looking at these three types
of of self,
the and
he begins, he list them from the lower
to the higher.
The
the the self that commands,
the
the the self that commands to to sin,
then the
the reproachful self.
You're trying to do the right thing but
you're struggling. So when you but when you
do struggle,
you blame yourself
and then the
the self that has achieved
serenity.
Right? It's now
generally
at rest from its wayward ways.
But when he details these three out,
he begins with
the restful self. Because that's the the self
that one seeks to attain.
The Quran
this classification is a Quranic classification of the
3 types of self.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Quran
talks about distinguishes the self in a number
of different ways.
So sometimes classified this in these three ways.
Right?
So the self could be either
it generally inclines towards sin or it inclines
away from sin. And then in the middle,
it's a struggling self.
But you could break it down further
of how much it inclines towards sin or
how much it is realized in being away
from sin.
So on the side of good, you also
have
a
the the self that is content with Allah.
And higher than the one that's content with
Allah is the one that Allah is content
with.
Right. So these are 2 of the degrees
of the self.
Right.
And they saw other,
you know, other shades, you know, there there
are qualities that Allah mentions in the Quran
of
people of who are perfected. So they also
talk about the
perfected
self.
And then when it comes to sin, there's
the the is not quite
that is not always commanding to to ill
but it is
sometimes commanding to ill. Right? So there's gradations.
And there's,
you know, early and late scholars who divided
it more than this. So we ask Allah
to grant us knowledge
of that which results in having a sound
heart and a sound state with Allah
the prophet used to make dua
to make
his to make his heart firm
on
Allah's religion.
O overturner of hearts, make my heart
firm.
Right?
Upon your religion.
Right? Upon that which you have come with.
So we ask Allah
for that
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