Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #136 Treating the Loss of Resolve
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of self-consciousness and the importance of not losing the drive of one's actions to achieve their goals. They emphasize the importance of taking oneself to account for their actions and character, watching their actions for their success, and learning from their Bible and seeking guidance on how to achieve their goals. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of finding purpose and intention, action that is driven by 2 prophetic qualities, rectifying one's affairs, and following the light of the sun.
AI: Summary ©
You're listening to the
daily guidance for seekers with Sheikh Rasra Behni.
In our
Roha sessions, we are looking
at
Imam al Suleimi's work on healing hearts,
his treatise
on
the blameworthy traits of the self
and how to treat them.
To
her. The blameworthy traits of the self and
how to
rid oneself of them.
So
we
human beings have temperaments.
Right? Have.
Right?
And
these temperaments
have
propensities
towards good and propensities
towards bad.
Everyone,
we understand from the Quran and the sunnah,
is born
with inclinations
towards good
and inclinations towards bad.
It is
what influences
affect
a person
and what choices are made by the person
that cause
then
the inclinations of good
to be fulfilled
and the inclinations
towards
bad
to be restrained.
And both good and bad are means to
Allah
The good
by
acting upon it, by making it a habit,
by and by making it
a trait
of character.
Right? It is by acting on the tendencies
of good, on the inspirations of good, that
it they become good actions,
and good actions become good
states,
akhwal,
and good states become
good
traits of character.
Right?
Good.
Right?
And the opposite.
Right? The opposite.
But, ultimately,
we are responsible for our choices. We're not
responsible for our environment.
And so someone who had
a had a difficult upbringing.
They're raised in a corrupt family, in a
corrupt environment,
etcetera.
Now by the time they hit
adulthood, they're going to have more challenges.
Right? They may have more tendencies towards
the sinful or the harmful than others.
They're responsible for their choices, and there's a
perfect balance that we leave to Allah.
Right? And someone in brought up in challenging
circumstances,
how they'll be judged dealt with
will may differ from someone who's brought up
in a facilitated environment.
Right?
We ask Allah
to facilitate for
us the good. So we've been looking at
the
the
the traits of the self,
and we began just to recap the first
three, what was the first one?
Being self satisfied. Being self satisfied.
Right?
And there's no
nothing more harmful than being self satisfied.
Because if you're self satisfied, then you will
not want to change.
You'll continue making the same choices.
The second is
the second blameworthy trait
Cry
empty. Yeah.
Is
where
one has religious inclinations,
but that are just
feelings
that don't
translate into real change.
Is to when to be 1 once in
a while, one cries about one's mistakes or
whatever, but then really doesn't do anything much
about it.
Right?
That won't produce change. That itself
is a type of indirect
self satisfaction.
And once in a while, you feel kinda
bad about yourself. I'm such a loser.
And you feel good about feeling such like
such a loser in your back to feel
good about yourself.
I I had a good cry.
And then what happened on Monday? The same
old.
Right?
The 3rd laymor the trait is
To not have trust in our love, to
be
to busy oneself with with provision and not
have trust. Yeah. It's to busy oneself
with provision
without trust in Allah.
And that's dunya.
Dunya. That one seeks the that one
seeks
provision, which is fine,
but
one
beholds
that benefit and harm comes from other than
Allah
Whereas the sunnah is to take the means
with a heart reliant upon Allah
Right?
To study
said
Trust in Allah was the state of the
messenger of
Allah. And the taking of means was his
example,
was his practice,
was his way.
Whoever seeks a state,
let them let them adhere to the sunnah,
and that's the balance.
Is to
inwardly
trust in Allah and outwardly take the means.
And
that is the right balance.
Merely trusting without taking the means
is leaving
the
sunnah,
and merely taking the means without trusting
is also contrary to the sunnah.
So today, we're going to be looking at
the 4th
trait
onwards.
The 4th being
2
is the 4th blameworthy trait is losing resolve
in fulfilling rights,
and he gives it
this kind of statement.
But let's see what is meant
by it.
Right? What is meant by losing losing resolve
in fulfilling rights?
So he says,
It
is
it's losing
resolve,
losing
commitment
with respect to rights
that it was fulfilling
before.
Right? Right? It's losing resolve. Why?
That you are doing the right thing
and you're consistently doing it
for a while. You're fulfilling rights. You're performing
your prayers. You're upholding
your
beauty to Allah.
Your social
your religious
responsibility socially,
but then
you lose the resolve.
Right?
Because actions are driven by intentions.
Right?
Intentions are driven by
purpose.
Okay?
So what happens
that
and that's the danger of habits.
The danger of habits
that
the,
right,
Become your
your your acts of worship
becoming
habits
is very good to become routines.
But,
if they become routines,
it is easy then to neglect what?
To neglect the intention driving it, because you
just do it. It is normal. You do
your. Before, you had to struggle to do
your. You had to gather your intention, remember
your purpose, and now it's just become routine.
But what happens?
The you you lost
the driving intention. Because before you had to
press yourself to do it,
but that pressing yourself to do it
may meant that the intention was there. There
was a driving purpose. I need to start
I need to do my.
But then when they become habits,
you can lose it.
Right?
And
worse than that, he says,
And worse than that
is
the one who's not concerned
about their falling short.
Because the it starts slipping away.
Right? It starts
slipping away.
And one of the things this requires is
muhasaba.
You have to keep taking yourself to account.
And the muhasaba,
taking oneself to account is not only
with respect to actions,
but it's also with respect to intentions.
Right?
And Imam Al Ghazali
talks about what one takes oneself to account
for.
Right?
Right?
You know, one takes oneself
to account with respect to to to one's
actions,
but also one's intentions.
Right? The actions are outward actions and actions
of the heart.
One's.
Right? And each of them, one takes them
to account the outward manifestation of that action,
but also the
excellence in that action. So am I praying?
Yes. I am. But am I praying with
excellence?
K? And,
talks a lot about how one takes oneself
to account.
And in the seminar we had,
which will be available as an on demand
class as well. Is it available? Yes.
No.
No. Oh, it's not you. Yeah. The on
on how to take oneself to account,
There's a very beautiful discussion of Imam al
Ghazalis about that.
Imam al Haddad,
in the book of assistance, the chapter on
how to take oneself to account,
he summarize that
really powerfully.
And that's translated into English, of course.
So
one one has to always watch over one's
one's actions
and one's character.
Likewise, one has to watch
in both what one is doing
and the excellence by which one is doing
it. Also has to watch over one's
intentions.
K?
Or is one acting with intention?
K? Which is the baseline. Am I doing
it for Allah? And also, the excellence of
one's intention.
How much
purpose is there in in my intention?
Okay? And this anyone who loses out
right? Anyone who's doing something and they stop,
there's a cause.
Very often, it's an internal cause. They just
lost purpose. The simple thing. They don't know
why they're doing it. Or they could be
external things that move them away. But even
the external factors that move them away, ultimately,
the external factors, what did they do?
They changed their resolve.
Right?
They changed
their resolve.
Right? So one even external factors go back
to
internal
resolve.
Right? That okay, now you're in a bad
environment. So and so convinced me
not to continue my
studies or so on. That bad company
busied them away from their night worship. No.
It didn't.
Right? That tugged at them, but ultimately, what
happened?
It affected
their intention
and their sense of
purpose.
Whoever hopes for Allah and their
and the last day.
Right?
So
and the the person who
starts developing
shortcomings,
starts losing resolve,
that's a blame worthy trait. But worse is
when one loses concern.
Doesn't even worry about it. Like, someone,
they were doing their sunnahs, but now they're
slacking off on their their emphasized sunnahs.
They were careful about
their with people, but now they're not. Someone
may note realize that I have something to
work on.
It's still a blameworthy trade, but someone who's
working on something,
that's a good place.
The worst case is is it's bad when
one no longer cares.
Right?
But even worse than the one who doesn't
care about their shortcoming
is the one who doesn't even see the
fact that they're they're falling short. Everything's fine.
K?
And what did the prophet say?
Do not place our tribulation
in our deen.
Right? That's one of the harms of worldly
success. People say,
everything's fine. Got a new job. We have
an we have
new new children, new house, new this,
but
we got a whole bunch of new things
in the life, except there's
less and less.
Right?
Right. And that's the inshikal bidunya.
And worse than that,
And even worse than that, worse than not
seeing
your your shortcomings is to think that you
are doing well. It's not only that you
you don't see your shortcomings, but you actually
think I'm doing well. Alhamdulillah.
I support Islamic relief. I do this. I
do this.
Right?
And one of the dangers of that is
that you need to know what what are
you responsible for.
Okay? I sponsored an orphan.
I well, I didn't, by the way. But,
you know,
I did this. I did but what are
you responsible for?
Warns about this kind of thing.
Is what?
That
another
that one of the signs
of Caprice
governing you
is being busied
by superogatory
works,
by knefil works. You don't it's not personally
obligatory on you to sponsor an orphan,
but it is personally obligatory on you to
pay your zakat.
It's you don't have to give charity
to that person, but you do have to
provide adequately for your own children.
Right?
I'm doing well. No. You're not.
Right?
Are you fulfilling the rights of Allah in
your life? Are you fulfilling the rights other
people have over you in your life? The
obligatory rights.
Right.
What is the governing
cause for for this loss of purpose
that leads to loss of intention,
which leads to the loss of good.
Right?
Yes.
This arises from a lack of gratitude.
When?
This arises from a lack of gratitude
when you were granted
the tawfiq, the facilitation
to fulfill those rights. Whether the rights of
Allah or the rights of
Allah's creation.
This is this is the
It is the cause.
Lack of
gratitude.
Which is why what did the prophet
say?
In the in the hadith is in the
4 in AUI?
That's Hadith
of. Right?
Yep. The hadith of.
It's a very special hadith
because it's it was contiguously transmitted by Damascus.
Right?
And people used to travel to Damascus just
to hear this hadith of Abu Zar.
Right? Abu Zar who wasn't originally from Damascus,
but he became resident of Damascus.
And and there's chains of transmission all the
way to our
time that's related just by Damascus.
Right?
And you could find it in it's in
the mid thirties in the, it says,
whoever finds a good, let them praise Allah.
Right? So whenever you do the good,
it when you start ascribing the good to
yourself,
I did it.
Oops.
Right? That is the beginning
of
your of the spiritual that's the beginning of
spiritual decay. It's ascribing the good to yourself.
And that's the beginning
of
potential spiritual harm.
It won't happen right away,
but it'll happen.
Right? It'll happen.
Right? It says, this arises from the lack
of gratitude at the time that you had
the success to fulfill the rights. Because how
did you have the
success, the facilitation?
From Allah Subhata.
My success is only by Allah.
Right?
So
because
one's gratitude
was insufficient. One's gratitude meaning to Allah
was insufficient.
One goes for being in the state
of
plenitude
of good, tawfir,
to the state of shortcoming
when it comes to the good. Because from
Allah, and if you're not grateful,
it'll be taken away.
Right?
And then given this lack of gratitude, and
lack of gratitude
leads
to lack of thinking about Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala because now you're ascribing the good to
yourself.
So
do you now feel need of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala? No. I'm doing fine. Whereas before
you felt an urgent need for Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Right? It's only through gratitude that you maintain
your relationship
with Allah.
So then you don't feel a need for
Allah, so
even your shortcomings become veiled from you.
And eventually you start liking the bad things
you you did.
K. So the the urge to the good
diminishes if you have a lack of gratitude
and the urges towards
the the vile gets strengthened.
As for the one
who sees
their act who for whom
their
ill deeds
are made seemingly.
So they see them as if they're good.
Right? And this, what does it do?
So woe be to those whose hearts are
hardened
away from being conscious of Allah.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
about people who have this, again, type of
self satisfaction.
And they imagine that they're doing well.
Right?
That's from
Surat
Al Kahf 104.
Right?
But he says there's one cause, right, which
is lack
of gratitude.
Then it continues.
And this is how we have made made
seemingly for each
people
their actions.
Right? And this is also this idea of
self,
self justification.
Right?
You know,
you can't how can you live with yourself
if you think that I'm doing the wrong
thing? You have to justify it. Because at
the at the root of it, you're a
rational animal.
You have to have a reason for doing
something. If the reason isn't right, then what
are you gonna do about it? You're gonna
justify
it. That's self justification.
And I'll just say it's a right if
it's a right thing then it's good. There's
a reason. Why do you beat him up?
Well, look how he was behaving.
Rather than seeing your action,
you blame the other.
That's what Allah asks
you. Right? And that's how Allah says, we
have made seemingly,
we've made
pleasing to each. Umma is each group of
people,
their actions.
That's the nature of the human being.
K?
And that's from
verse 108.
Each group
is well pleased with what they have.
Meaning, what they what they do.
Right?
They justify it.
So they they no they no longer see
that this is not the right thing. I'm
not falling short. I'm not seeking Allah. Just
I am fine.
Right?
And what's the warning of that?
We will lead them on from whence they
could never imagine.
Right?
From Surat Al Araw verse 182.
But where does it arise from? It arises
from lack of gratitude.
The problem happened when you did the good.
You don't ascribe it to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala,
then
that's the big the beginning of the social
the spiritual corruption
of falling short,
losing resolve,
becoming self satisfied is not when the shortcomings
started happen. It happened
from the lack of gratitude when you did
the good. That's when the problem happened.
That's why a lot of
worry about that.
Right?
When people do the good, they worry at
that point, not when they start having shortcomings.
It was coming.
Why?
Because where's the intention?
And where's the intention?
Right?
So where's the the safeguard there is gratitude.
Whenever there is good,
if you behold it as being from Allah,
you are safe.
If you behold it as being from yourself,
ascribing the good to yourself
is the beginning of spiritual
downfall.
And then we'll lead them astray by their
own choices.
And the safety from that is constantly
turning
towards Allah
Right? And
is
turning
is to
is to seek protection from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. It's to flee to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. This is why one of the things
one should never do
is just to stick
to to a habit
of
sunnah, zikrs,
and duas, etcetera, and and and not to
change it up.
This is why the prophet he didn't just
teach you, okay, These are the zikrs you
that you do in the prayer. These are
zikrs you do after the prayer.
He did so many zikrs after
in the prayer after the prayer. Why? Because
he variegated it.
Right? Right?
Is to always have this attitude that you
need to express your neediness to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And one of the things practically for that
in our own worship
is that just as you make
the transmitted duas of the Quran and the
sunnah in the prayer after the prayer, always
have some personal needs
personal
spiritual needs that you ask Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala for
in your own words.
And they say, if you had a dichotomy,
you could eat you could either
just say the sunnah duas or make dua
heartfelt dua. Which one is greater in reward?
If that's the choice, just say the sunnah
dua or make heartfelt dua in your own
words. Which one is superior?
The heartfelt dua. And it's almost politically it's
of course a false dichotomy.
Because what's the ideal case
that you say the sunnah duas and make
them heartfelt.
Right? But if it was only just say
the sunnah duas, say
read it.
Was that really du'a?
Because what is dua? Dua is an expression
of need. Did you express any need? No.
Now if someone asks us in this way,
we wouldn't give them. But Allah is merciful.
But that's not the same as asking with
need. Right?
So with the sunnah duas, we refresh
our sunnah duas always be learning some, you
know, there's so many different amazing duas of
the prophet
reflect on it. But also say some from
your own own words. But and we should
get out of the habit of only asking
Allah for our worldly needs. Oh, Allah have
an exam. Please make me pass.
Your exam is not the biggest need you
have. The biggest need is your relationship with
Allah. That's number 1.
It is constantly turning to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala in need.
And to constantly remember Him. Because remembrance of
Allah
stirs consciousness of Allah,
reminds us to intend Allah
in what we do.
Reminds us of the purpose of life, which
is to seek Allah
in life.
Reminds us to be grateful.
And how does one save oneself
from this?
Is to recite
the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Right?
And,
and to reflect on its meaning.
Right? And again, don't just have a routine
of reading Quran.
Right? Read the Quran but also
seek its meaning. The other way I say
a very practical thing with this is whatever
routine you have daily of the Quran, try
to look up 1 verse a day.
Try to look up the meaning of 1
verse a day.
Just one.
And that's not just a little
because hopefully you live another 20 years.
If you look up one verse a day
of the Quran, in 20 years you you
will have
looked up the tafsir of the whole Quran.
That's the power of consistency.
Because
365 days a year times 20
goes into 7,000 something. There's 6,000 something versus
the Quran.
Depending on how you count. I'm not very
good at counting, but you'll get it done.
Right? Just one verse at a time. Right?
What you read, make a little note. I'd
like to look that one up and look
that one up. For whatever reason, it resonated
with you. Sound what what's that talking about?
Just one verse.
And also
falling short in fulfilling rights
is to consider great
the rights of people. Because falling short in
fulfilling rights, you have to realize that people
have serious rights over you.
Right? Wronging them is very serious.
Right? Whether this be,
you know, the
our immediate circle of people, but also others.
People will ask. None of you believes until
they wish for others of the good that
they wish for themselves. They have great rights
over you. Your faith is dependent
on genuinely caring for their good and fulfilling
that.
And asking
the righteous servants of Allah
to
make dua for 1. So that one returns
to a better state.
Okay? And this is one of the things
that you see many hadiths of the prophet
salallahu alaihi wa sallam. One of the most
frequent dua's of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam and it's related that this was from
the frequent dua of of of Sayyidina Dawud
alaihis salam
is Allah Oh Allah I ask you for
your love.
And the love of those who love you.
Why?
Because a person will be with those they
love.
And we know that the dua of others
benefits 1.
Many hadiths on that. So if you could
you make dua yourself, but one of the
ways
one one of the benefits of asking someone
else to make dua is self recognition.
Right? Because we are given to self justification.
I'm fine. You're not that bad. Like, what
I mean, I just
told her she was really fat. I didn't,
like, I didn't do anything really bad. I
didn't hit her. And you broke her heart.
Didn't hit her, but broke her heart.
Right?
I have a friend that I keep mentioning
this story, but it's true. It's been over
a decade, a friend of mine, 10th anniversary
of their wedding. He told his wife, she
came down wearing the wedding dress, said,
honey, how do I look? He said, you
look like a balloon that's about to burst.
And he said, I'm just being honest.
Broke her heart. And it's been, like, ages.
She still got
like, hamda, this their marriage survived with a
lot of intervention,
but she's still very self conscious.
Right?
So but sometimes
one way of
beating self justification
is to ask someone to make the offer.
Because you're admitting, yeah, I'm I'm mucked up.
Right? That yes, I messed up. I'm not
I'm struggling to do my sunnahs etcetera. So
you go to someone to make dua. Their
dua will benefit you, but also telling someone,
not just talking publicly about it, because then
you because talking publicly about it is self
justification.
I'm fine.
Could you tell everybody then they'll say, I
I don't do my sunnah either, and they're
sort of celebrating in slackness.
But you go tell someone, like, I'm I'm
mocked up. What do I do? Please make
dua for me.
So that admission
in this concerned admission
lifts self justification,
and their dua does benefit too.
Right? Of course, you make dua yourself to
change your state, but that dua benefits. There's
just
so many hadiths about the dua of a
believer, for another believer
in their
is answered.
The prophet
asked say no Umar to make dua for
him.
And he he was headed for Umrah,
and the prophet
said,
yeah. My dear brother, make dua for me.
Said no Umar said, after becoming Muslim, I
did not rejoice on anything as much as
the prophet saying this to me.
Right? So this is
is a good thing. And if you're gonna
ask anyone to make dua, ask people of
of righteousness, of good to make dua for
one. You should always ask your parents to
make dua for you. You should always ask
elders. They say
2 practical thing. If you meet someone learned,
especially, you know, learned or someone righteous,
always ask them to make dua for you.
Just practically. Anyone who's older,
even if they're grumpy, a lot of old
people are grumpy. Like, grumpiness does not discount.
Like, you go to the masjid, there's some
of this old auntie who's telling everybody off.
Why are you doing this? But,
she, you know, she seemed like a righteous
but grumpy lady. Just ask her to make
dua for
you. Very low chance that she'll make dua
against you. Even if she does, it won't
hurt you. Right?
But just ask anyone of knowledge or righteousness
to make dua for you. It's a it's
a good investment. So it's very simple investment.
Also, the other thing to ask someone of
of knowledge is to ask them for some
advice.
You don't have to act on everything people
say.
Right? But you're inspired by their advice.
So that it may be that Allah opens
for 1 the door of obeyed obeying him
and serving
him again.
Right?
So this is
the, you know, the the the main keys
are 2. Gratitude,
Right? Gratitude
and purpose.
Right?
Because
if you lose purpose,
you lose intention,
and
you're in a state of loss. And it's
so clear in the Quran.
Truly you have in the messenger of Allah
the most beautiful example for for whoever hopes
for Allah and the last day. And this
is
purpose.
Right?
In surah and and the end of,
Surat Al Kahf?
So whoever
hopes for the meeting of their Lord,
then let them do actions that are righteous.
Actions that are righteous are actions, the Ullama
tell us, Righteous actions are good deeds coupled
with good intentions.
That is a righteous action
is
an action that is good in itself
accompanied by good intention.
But what is it that drives good intention?
So ever
hopes for the meeting of their Lord has
a purpose. What are you trying to do?
I'm trying to get to Allah in a
good state. I'm trying to earn the pleasure
of Allah, the closeness of Allah, the love
of Allah. If you have purpose, then
have a good intention
and good actions will arise. But you don't
have purpose, you won't do anything.
Once in a while, you have a flicker.
I should recite Quran.
Why?
I should
makes no sense.
And guess what? You won't.
Right?
Right? So we should have a clear sense
of purpose, and that will help us drive
our attention. Well, look, The next one is
quite brief, so we'll just look at it.
The 5th trait
is losing the sweetness of obedience, and this
is very
similarly related.
Right? It's losing the sweetness of obedience.
And is to obey yet not find
the sweetness of obedience, the the pleasure of
obedience.
And this inevitably happens.
1, because, you know, initially, there's this burst
of enthusiasm
and it's novel. And people like novel things,
but then it becomes a routine.
So one is because you lost intention, so
it's related to the one before. You lost
intention, and you stop being grateful.
Before, you're so amazed. Oh my god. I
got to I managed to to to to
do whatever. Oh, so so how do you
like you know, like, you have childlike amazement
when you start getting serious about things. And
then you're like, whatever.
So even if you get up and you're
like, whatever. Right? So you lost
the purpose.
Number 1, you lost your intention. But also
sometimes Allah takes it away from you. Why?
To
test
you.
In some traditions, they refer to this as
the dark night of the soul.
Right? Allah, from the mercy of Allah, is
generally the initial
experience of people who turn to Allah is
bust,
is expansiveness.
Right?
But you you you find pleasure in it,
joy in it, but then Allah, at some
point, may take that away. Why?
Are you worshiping him for the buzz
or you worshiping him for him?
Right?
Right?
And
and that's where and sometimes one will find
it. You stand up to pray, and you
feel
like, you don't feel it.
But it's not about the feeling.
Right?
Right?
It's about
Allah.
So sometimes there's there's a test element in
it, but also inwardly,
it happens because
Because your acts of obedience become
admixed
with showing off,
with acting for other than Allah. That's why
it's he keeps this one quite brief because
related to Yahweh. You stop having intention.
Or your intention start getting mixed up with
other motives.
Before you're just doing it, I need to
you know, or even in your service,
you're helping in the masjid etcetera. Initially,
you really you really want to do something
pleasing to Allah. But now,
you know, and you gave that one, you
know, that one announcement and you're like, oh,
Allah, please make this, you know, make me
not show off or this, that. But now
you're like,
I can do this.
Right?
And then you you learn how to impress
people by it And this and that. And
what happens?
Insincerity
creeps in. And if insincere
and you won't find benefit in something that
is insincere.
Or because of the lack of sincerity
in it,
you stop making the intention.
K?
Or by leaving
one of the sunnahs related to it.
Because the sunnahs
safeguard
sincerity.
Because what is the sunnah?
The sunnah is the embodiment of what it
means to be pleasing to Allah.
And adherence to the sunnah genuinely
expresses
being pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Of course, there's outward sunnah and inward sunnah
is related to something.
So how does one treat it?
He says
The cure for this losing sweetness of obedience
is to demand
sincerity
from oneself.
How?
By
The prophet said the smart person is the
one who takes themselves to account
and who acts for what comes after this
life. They have purpose.
So
every night,
one should look back over one's day. What
did I do today?
Whoever anything of the good, thank Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala for it. Anything that you didn't
do
or you did with insufficient
excellence or insufficient sincerity,
seek Allah's forgiveness for it. Ask Allah to
help you change
it. Right?
Weekly, monthly, you should look back at what
what's going on in my life?
Right? And ask Allah for change.
Right? And then take the means.
That's number 1. It's a demand
sincerity for oneself. Secondly,
and to hold oneself to the sunnah in
one's actions.
Right? Particularly,
when you don't feel it.
Right? Particularly, when you don't feel it. You're
like, whatever. Let me just get it over
with. No.
Hold yourself as best you can to the
sunnah.
Right?
1 is the one of the one of
the prophetic
criteria
for being someone who adheres to the sunnah
is
that
even when one is
feeling lazy,
right, one feels lack of resolve,
then one's fatra
is to the sunnah.
Right? That even when one feels
feeling tired,
you know, the minimum standard is the basic
sunnah.
Right? So you just wanna pray isha and
go to sleep. So you say, well, I'll
pray isha. I'll do it properly, but I
won't do it long. So you leave some
of the recommended actions, but you stick to
the emphasized sunnah.
I'll do my emphasized sunnah,
and I won't compromise on that.
And you ask Allah for forgiveness for the
extra that you weren't able to do.
Right? But to adhere at least to the
emphasized sunnah even when you don't feel it.
And thirdly,
is to rectify
the foundations of one's affairs so that the
endings are made sound. What are the beginnings
of one's affairs?
It's purpose and intention.
What are you what are you doing in
life? That's the basic question. Right? That underlies
all inter
Where are you headed?
If you don't know you don't have for
yourself a clear answer to that, then everything
else is trouble
because you're confused.
Right? So if you're confused about what you're
doing in life,
then confusion is gonna creep in into your
choices.
K? So
the foundation is
have have clear purpose,
translated into clear intention.
Action that is driven by 2
prophetic qualities.
Should I not be a servant
who is truly gratitude? That is the prophet
sallallahu alaihi sallam's expression of why he did
things. Should I not be a servant
who is truly
grateful?
So those are,
you know, some of the
qualities of how.
And
the purpose isn't the sweetness.
Right? One of the great scholars
wrote a treatise called,
Things that are not
of consideration.
And one of them is
the sweetness of of worship.
If you find it great, you don't,
that's not why you worship.
Right?
As the poet said,
Being spiritually
expansive or spiritually
constricted,
I have I am not in any way
limited by these.
Why? Because
as long as you are seeking Allah. What
what what are you doing in life? I'm
seeking Allah. What are you doing in this
action?
I'm trying to do my action in a
way that's pleasing to Allah.
Like I'm seeking Allah in my action. My
purpose in life is to seek Allah.
My my intention in this specific act is
to seek the pleasure of Allah. How am
I doing the action?
In a manner pleasing to Allah.
Right? In accordance with
the guidance
that Allah has given with respect to the
limits, trying to adhere to the sunnah in
it. If you're doing that, then you're in
bliss.
Whether you feel it or not, doesn't matter.
Right? So
how you feel about it doesn't really matter.
It's like someone asked Bob Dylan on a
Monday morning, hope you had a good weekend.
Said I had better things to do.
Right? It doesn't matter. Right?
The one who really wants to get
to the one they love, whether it's raining
or not, doesn't matter because they're not worried
about the rain.
You know? I need to go visit.
Zubeir leaves home because,
you know, he's now finally
you know? They've had their.
So Zubay is married to Zubaydah. He's headed
to go go see Zubaydah. Does he really
care that it's raining or not?
Well, he will say, Zubaydah, honey,
know I'm gonna visit you, but there's a
little bit of rain. I don't like the
rain, so I'm not gonna visit you today.
Does that make is that love? No. If
you love, you don't really care.
Right? There's a traffic jam.
Deal with it. Right? Because I am
yeah. And Allah deserves even better.
And those who believe are more intense
in their love of Allah.
So we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
grant us
purpose and resolve and clarity
in
all that we do.
Thank you for listening to the daily
guidance for seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani.
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