Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #143 Seeking Recognition for Ones Actions and Its Cure
AI: Summary ©
The importance of being on guard with respect to one's traits of oneself is emphasized, including seeking compensation for actions and not wanting to be Yo'll. The negative impact of actions and lack of gratitude on one's behavior is discussed, including the belief that everything is from Allah himself. The importance of finding one's behavior in relation to reward and understanding one's lack of sincerity is emphasized, along with the importance of finding one's own attributes in relation to reward and understanding one's own potential for success. The speaker emphasizes the importance of serving the righteous and not just eating it, as well as regaining the sense of pleasure and connection with spiritual wisdom. The importance of subscribing to a monthly donation and thanking listeners for their support is also highlighted.
AI: Summary ©
You're listening to the Roha, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Rasra Behni.
In our sessions on healing hearts
in which we're looking
at
Imam
Salami's work
on the blameworthy traits of the self
and their cure.
We
have been looking at some
heavy matters
because
these traits
are
these blameworthy traits of the self
are common.
Most
people
are likely to have them,
at least at some level.
And
so they're common.
They're also subtle
in that unless
you are careful
about
being on guard with respect to these traits,
it is almost inevitable
that
the this trait will be
either manifest
in
you
as a
common
trait of character
or
at the very least, it'll be something
that
can
manifest itself
once in a while in your conduct
and in how you are. So this is
why
one needs to be on guard with respect
to
these
traits.
And
the
nafs, the Self,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes it in the
Quran,
truly the self, the lower self
is ever commanding
to
ill.
Right?
Unless Allah has mercy on it. Right? Except
meaning that this is inevitable.
Right?
So one one needs to to be
very careful
and that
reminds us also of the words of one
of the great Imams of,
Islamic Spirituality,
Imam Abu Hassan.
A Shad Ali who said that whoever does
not have deep knowledge
of the science of ours
will die committing
enormities
while being completely oblivious to it.
Right? While being completely oblivious
to their committing
major sins.
And this is
another of the realizations that one has
is that the blameworthy traits of the self
are much more profound
than the act of not doing
certain
things, right,
of the outward.
Right? They're much more profound
than that.
It is easy
to start
praying.
And one must
not be neglectful
of one's prayer.
However,
it is very easy, for example, to
lose
one's
purpose
in one's religion.
Right?
To
develop
a laxadaisical
approach
to
presence of heart with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and some of the other traits
that we looked at.
So
this is where
paying attention to this is so significant.
Trait number 14,
right,
is
one of the traits of the heedless
self.
He tells us
from the blameworthy
traits of the self,
right,
of the lower self,
right, of your wayward
self
is
is seeking compensation
for its actions.
Right.
Seeking compensation
for its action. Meaning, expecting reward
for its actions.
Meaning, you've prayed. So you're like,
okay. You're expecting now that
I deserve Jannah, and since I have prayed
my sunnah as well,
you're expecting that I have an appointment in
Jannah with such and such thing. As if
you know, you are
you
know, you know, religion
is like shopping on Amazon.
Then you place the order,
and you have
guaranteed
hereafter delivery.
But it's not next,
It's next day delivery.
The next day being
the next day.
Right? So you have guaranteed next day delivery.
And that's
blameworthy for a number
of reasons.
One is
that
you are ascribing
the good to yourself.
Right? You're ascribing
the good to yourself, and that is against
reality,
it is against the Quran, and it's against
the sunnah.
Reality. Why?
Because
your reality is that it it is Allah
who is sustaining you,
yourself,
at every moment in existence.
So if you are being sustained at every
moment by Allah,
then it is Allah who's creating and sustaining
your actions as well.
And this reality
is very clearly affirmed in the Quran.
Right?
And Allah has created you and all that
you do.
Allah Allah is the creator
of everything.
There's nothing
that is excluded from that.
Even more than that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
tells,
You do not will unless Allah wills.
And even the will,
the will which is that resolve
of choice
and you chose
something, so you willed to do it.
Even before that, where does consciousness arise from?
The the thoughts,
the inclinations.
Say it is all from Allah.
Right?
He is the one who makes you laugh
and cry.
And the sunnah is very clear about this.
Whoever finds a good, let them
praise Allah.
Right? So
this is
very very harmful,
ascribing actions to oneself as if
you have some in entitlement.
Number 2, it's forgetting Allah's favor.
This is from
the bounty, the grace of my Lord.
Right?
And this is the attitude of all prophets
before.
Oh, Lord I am.
For whatever of the good you may send
me in desperate need.
That is a prophetic
approach.
It's forgetting Allah's favor.
It is a lack of gratitude.
It's a lack of gratitude.
Because Allah did not have to tell you
what what deeds are pleasing to him. He
didn't he could command you,
but not reward you. He said you have
to do this, and I'm not going to
give you any reward.
He still deserves
it.
Okay.
As
Sayidar Abu Adawiya said in a poem,
She said, I love you with 2 loves,
and we'll talk about her poem some other
time.
Right?
Said one is the love of yearning,
the other is,
And a love I love you for with
2 loves, one is a love of yearning
for you, the other is a love because
you deserve it.
Right? A lack of gratitude.
Allah did not have
Allah could have created us without purpose.
He could have created us, commanded us to
worship him, and then thrown us all into
* anyways.
If it sounds that bad, what do you
do with most of your food? You throw
it in the garbage.
And and it doesn't really belong to you
anyways. It's an amenah from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, but you still throw it in the
garbage.
Now usually, we don't go to our siblings
and give them a hard time.
That
how come you threw your food in the
garbage?
Give me a break, Faraz Bae. I'm
it was mine.
So Allah created us,
and
there's no one who whom he owes rights
to. Lack of gratitude, the fact that he
has promised reward.
And also comes from a sense of self
worth,
of spiritual entitlement, as if I am something.
I deserve.
And this is very dangerous
because this is the stirrings of pride,
of self consequence.
And it is a lack of slavehood to
Allah Subhanahu
As
I am in absolute need of Allah,
I have nothing whatsoever.
That's the attitude of the servant,
That's the attitude of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
Right?
Entering
Mecca victorious
on the recon on the conquest of Mecca,
he said,
victorious
to the people of Makkah. I say to
you today what Yusuf said to his brethren,
there is no blame on you today.
May Allah forgive us
and you.
Right?
Right? May Allah forgive us and you.
Right?
Right?
So this is
a
and also breeds laxity because if you look
at all the good that you are doing,
right, the if you do good,
the attitude is you have you feel
the favor of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the
gratitude to Allah, and you feel more indebted
to him. And you wonder how can I
better express my gratitude?
But if you look at it and tell,
I did this and this and this and
this,
then the nafs will creep in and say,
you know what?
You're really good, masha'Allah.
And you won't do
you won't do more of what you what
you have to do,
and you won't work
at sincerity
and presence of heart in what you are
doing.
You say not only did I pray my
Maghrib, I did my
Salatul Awadeen too.
If you look at it that way,
But did you do it properly?
Did
you outwardly do it with according to Sunnah?
What about inwardly?
Sincerity, presence of heart. Right? So this is
very damaging. So how does one deal with
it? He gives a very
beautiful
explanation. He says,
and the treatment for this
expectation of reward
is
is to behold
the shortcomings in one's actions,
right, outward and inward.
Did you really do it in accordance with
the sunnah?
Outwardly.
Do you do it in accordance with the
sunnah inwardly?
Now it's a little more complicated.
Right?
But that's not it.
And one's lack of sincerity
and one's lack of sincerity.
Right?
So he mentions 5 cures,
beholding one's shortcomings
outward and inward. 2nd,
to be aware of one's lack of sincerity.
And sincerity
has a
there's a condition of sincerity
which is
that why you began the action.
But sincerity also has a sunnah.
Right?
Sincerity has an obligation and a sunnah. The
obligation is
that you begin your action for the sake
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
The sunnah of sincerity
is that you sustain
that
sincere motive
throughout the action. We just call,
Right?
You know,
maintaining
one's sincere intent.
Right? It's just purposeful
worship,
which is to have presence of heart, basically.
Right?
And
then he says,
Because the smart person
with respect to their actions is the one
who turns away from seeking compensation
out of proper adab
with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
That whatever you do,
if you focus on yourself,
you have self consequence.
If you consider
what does Allah deserve?
Whatever you did, Allah deserves better.
And that's
one of the many lessons of why we
make istighfar after the prayer.
Many olema have written treatises amongst them in
the 20th century, a very distinguished,
Damascus scholar,
and very interesting because he's at the intersection
of many
different,
Muslim tendencies in the 20th century.
Sheikh Jamar
al Din al Qasimi,
brilliant scholar,
on the
subtle meanings
of why we seek forgiveness after the prayer.
And we always do it, It's not that
you make a Ikhfar 3 times unless you
prayed really well. If you prayed really well
you say Alhamdulillah,
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah. No.
Because whatever you did Allah deserves yet better.
Actually, have a sense of humility with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And that's the state of
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Right?
So to have adab with Allah
Knowing also
that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Allah mighty and majestic,
destined
for every person
their destiny.
And that whatever Allah destined for them will
come to them in this life and the
next, and you don't know what will unfold
in your life.
Okay?
You are not the master of your faith,
you have a master.
As one of the great damaskan poets of
the 20th century said,
right? You are in the grasp of God
imprisoned.
Right? Right?
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said
that the hearts
of the children of Adam are between 2
fingers of the fingers of the all merciful.
He turns them as he wills.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the best
of creation used from his most frequent dua
was,
Oh overturner of hearts.
Make my heart. I didn't say make our
hearts,
meaning I'm kind of fine but we'll do
it in the in the plural because I'm
I'm praying for you bro.
No?
Make my heart
firm on your religion.
Was this man
not promised
all the promises that we know?
Who tells us about the virtues of the
Prophet
after the Quran is the Messenger sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. In our Roha classes before, we looked
at 40 hadith on the in the virtues
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam related by
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And these are
the words of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
because he was commanded by Allah. He knows
all those promises.
The best of creation,
the beloved of Allah,
Sahib al Maqam al Mahmoud,
Sahib al Shafa, the one who has a
praiseworthy station,
the the great intercession, all these things. He's
the one who told us.
Yet, He is making this du'a to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, because you don't know the
reality
of destiny
and reckoning.
And Right?
And
also knowing that the only thing that will
redeem one
from one state is sincerity.
Right? It's sincerity.
That is purely for the sake of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Right? And that's the state of the righteous
servants of Allah.
We feed you only
for the sake of Allah.
We seek no
recognition
from you, nor any gratitude
from you.
Right?
So these are
some of the
ways of having this expectation of reward.
Rather
the believer has hope
of the reward of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
What is the adab with respect to reward?
That the believer has hope and fear of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Right? Has hope and fear of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. Right?
The one alone who deserving of worship
is characterized
by
attributes
of mercy,
but also with attributes of majesty.
When you consider the attributes of mercy of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
it makes one hopeful
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But when one considers the attributes of majesty
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
one feels,
you know, as if
one is completely bankrupt,
and one needs both.
K.
As
Iba Naqpayla put beautifully in his hikam,
and there's so many hadiths that
give examples of that, said,
No sin is great
if you are faced by the fadl, by
the generosity of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
That's a sign of hope.
The believer never loses hope because one's hope
is in the Most Generous.
But
And no sin is small
if you are faced by the Justice of
Allah.
Right? And that's so the believer is between
hope
in Allah's mercy, His generosity,
His lutf,
all the qualities of
the the these are called the the sifat
al jamaal.
The names or the attributes of beauty
and connected with the attributes are the many
names of Allah of Jamael,
Isma'al,
Jamael.
Then you consider
the attributes of Allah's majesty
and
you know, and that's something that
odd
the best of creation.
You look at the descriptions of the prayer
of the prophet
his chest
and you can see these in the
description of the night worship of the prophet,
his chest would be like a pot
on a on a strong flame,
you know, with when when the water is
boiling and the lid
is bouncing on the top. Like, you'd hear
this, you know, for his beard would be
dripping wet with tears.
Right. If, you know, imagine if Allah told
you, you're the best of creation,
and you're in, like, great.
Chill time.
K.
So between so one is between this
we don't we don't expect the reward rather.
We are hopeful.
We don't place our hope in our deeds.
We place our hope in Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. We don't fear our shortcomings.
We fear
the majesty of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And whoever
fears the station of their Lord,
and
forbids
their lower self from its capricious ways.
Then truly paradise will be their resting place.
So rather than having
expectation of reward, one has one has hope
and fear, and one
has certitude in the promise of Allah.
Okay.
Allah does not
renege on His promise.
One has certainty in His promise but the
promise has a condition.
Right?
If someone says if you come by 8
pm I'll give you Gulab Jaman.
So they promised it but if you don't
come at 8 pm you don't get it.
Right? And that's like the promise for for
paradise. The the promise is conditional on something.
You are sure of Allah's promise. We have
to ask ourselves, are you fulfilling your part?
And you don't know whether you're you'll die
on that.
The
we look also briefly
at the next
trait,
which is
losing
the taste of obedience.
Right? This
is one of the dangers of acts of
obedience that
the becomes
The act of obedience
goes from being an act
of turning to Allah to being a mere
habit.
And this is tricky
because we are commanded
to
and encouraged
to have
religious routines.
Right?
Or in general,
we have obligatory habits. The 5 prayers
are obligatory habits.
Ramadan is an obligatory habit. We fast the
month of Ramadan. We have some obligatory habits.
We have some sunnah habits like the sunnah
prayers, the sunnah fasts,
which it's
sunnah for us to make them habits.
And then we have recommended habits.
So habit
is
a key ingredient,
the ability to establish
obligatory habits,
sunnah habits,
recommended habits,
and a 4th category of habit that the
ulama mentioned are facilitative
habits.
Facilitative
so we have obligatory habits, sunnah habits, recommended
habits, and facilitative habits. Facilitative habits are those
that are not in themselves
required
but they assist you in fulfilling the fard,
sunnah, or recommended habits.
So for
example, you've realized that anytime you go out,
like you know, you go for dinner with
your friends, anytime you go
for the post dinner
activities,
that's when
you threaten
your ability
to do your Fajr routines, for example. So
you say okay I'll go for dinner, now
the post dinner,
Faluda and Pan and
whatever
else takes place that is
maybe less
innocent than Faluda,
that part you give it a miss.
If you get home by 11, you'll be
fine, but if you get home by 12:30,
1 o'clock,
everything else is risk. So these are facilitative
habits, things that you do and things that
you don't.
Take care of your diet, you find that
you're better able to,
you know, do certain sunnah, etcetera.
These are facilitative habits.
But the danger is that if once you
get a habit down,
then just take it for granted. So what
do you do with it?
He says,
is to lose the taste,
the sweetness
of one's acts of obedience.
And he says very directly,
if you lose the sweetness
of obedience,
wadhaalika
min sukmal kalb.
This is the result,
I'm sorry for the typo, I'm sorry I'm
stickler for these things,
this is the result.
This is the result of an ailing heart.
This is the result of an ailing heart.
And from the treachery
of the lower self.
Now the ailing heart
could be of 2 types.
You lose the sweetness of worship,
the ailing heart this could be because of
actual bad qualities in the heart.
So you
with your acts of obedience, you started developing
pride,
contempt,
envy,
malice.
Right?
These, you know,
these vices.
So they
take away the spiritual purity
that is needed
to feel
the
benefit of your acts of obedience.
That's that's the ailing heart that is a
sinful heart.
There's also an ailing heart
which is the heart that lacks sincerity.
And the 2 are typically connected
because the heart, the nature of the heart
is that
the heart must be facing something.
Right. So if you're not turned to Allah,
you'll be turned to something worldly. Just the
nature of the heart,
the heart inclines,
and the heart must incline to something.
Right?
And there's strength of inclination, but the heart
must incline.
If you're not if it if it's not
inclined to Allah, it it'll be inclined
to something.
So it's lack of sincerity is
an ailment of the heart. And the the
treacherous lower self,
your nafs and your hawwa, your sinful desires
and your wayward ways.
Right?
So the the sweetness here is
the experience
of benefit
from the act of worship.
Right? And this
experience of benefit,
it's not why
one performs the act of worship.
Because one of the
foundational principles
when it comes to our actions
is
that the reward of our actions
is what Allah grants us for our actions
in the hereafter. That is reward.
There there is
no
no direct reward for actions in this dunya.
Now Allah is merciful, he gives us facilitative
signs
that if you pray,
you'll feel good, this and that, but that's
not why you pray.
That's not why you pray.
Those are signs of encouragement,
but that's
not why you pray.
So
the sweetness here
the olamas say that the true let the
the true
sweetness of
the act of obedience
is not
the feeling
of joy,
the fleeting feeling of joy that one feels.
Because that you know, joy
isn't out of your control,
but the sweetness
is
a meaning of faith that's in your heart
arising
from certitude
in the promise of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Right? So the true
sweetness,
the that is mentioned,
in the hadith of the prophet, it's not
that you feel great.
Often you won't. And many of our acts
of obedience, of course, the tawah is not
just our prayer. Many of the things that
you do,
it's not, yay. You know, you're taking care
of someone sick.
Right?
And they just vomited. You clean the vomit.
You don't feel, subhanallah,
I feel like I'm I'm in Jannah.
No.
Your hands are full of someone else's vomit,
like, that's not a very spiritual experience.
Right? So the sweetness of our acts of
obedience and he says Ta'at,
an act of obedience whether obligatory or recommended.
You're
very often if you if you're involved in
service, a lot of people who are,
you know, of the poor and needy,
you're dealing with homeless people,
people who've suffered abuse.
It can be a very difficult experience.
It's not very you know you're dealing
with homeless people who also have problems with
drugs, with this, with that, It's not a
very uplifting experience. We're not the sweetness of
our acts of obedience is
a meaning of certitude
arising
of certitude and contentment arising
from
our knowing the promise of Allah.
Right? That is
what the sweetness of faith refers to. And
the key cause of losing the taste of
obedience, Dua Lama say, is 1, is loss
of purpose.
You forgot
why
you are doing what you're doing.
You made your your the sunnah a habit,
but you forgot
that you're not doing it just to do
it. You're doing it for Allah.
You got involved in feeding the homeless
because you read about the hadiths of the
great virtues of feeding the homeless, but now
this is what you do.
You forgot the purpose behind it.
Right?
And you drift away from the highway of
the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, which is
that truly actions are only
by their intentions.
And each person shall only have
that which they intended.
So the sun one of the most important
sunnahs is
is to renew one's intention.
And that's something one should periodically
look over.
How is my intention in my acts of
worship? How is my intention with respect to
my work? How is my intention with respect
to my
family relationships?
How is my
intention with respect
to anything religious I do? My studies,
my charity, my volunteering.
Right?
And the smart would make intention
plans.
Right? They would revisit. They would define their
intentions
for the key
areas of their life.
They try to always
be raising their intention higher
and renewing the intention.
Right? Because if you renew something, you try
to renew it on better terms.
Right?
So
to to round off, Imam
Salami gives us some practical cures. How does
one regain
or how does one maintain
this,
you know, the the the taste, the sense
of meaning
in our act of obedience.
Right?
He said,
eating the halal.
Why?
Because Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala commands the prophets.
Right? Eat
of
the wholesome
and do righteous deeds.
Right?
And the prophet said that that
Allah commanded the believers, was what he commanded
the prophets
to eat of the the wholesome
and to do righteous deeds.
And eating
at the tayib
is
is the lawful
in which there are no
surrounding elements of doubt.
And the things that Ulema mentioned are
is for example, if the person keeps
the animal
in a cage that is too small,
and some of the
say,
Even if it is when you bring the
animal to the market, you keep them in
a small cage rather than a reasonable cage,
this is a shubha.
Why? Because the animal has rights. And the
sunnah is not just to give the animal
its rights, but to
take care of the best interest of the
animal.
That's not something, you know, sort of new
age, sort of you know,
hippie fiqh,
this is the sunnah of the Messenger
He's the one who told us that, you
know, a woman went to * because of
ill treating a cat,
And a prostitute
ended up in heaven because she
gave water to a dog.
Right?
So,
eating of the wholesome, and that requires attention.
The second
is that's
very emphasized in the sunnah, as we know
from the hadith of the lawful and the
unlawful, etcetera.
The interesting thing about the hadith of the
halal and the haram,
which is one of the Hadith that Imam
Abu Dawood, and Imam Ahmed, and other considered
of the 4 Hadith that the message of
Islam revolves around.
This was narrated
by whom?
By
And Noman ibn Bashir. Right?
Noman ibn Bashir.
And he says in this hadith, in the
40, I heard the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. This is very noteworthy
because then Noaman Ibn Bashir was one of
the first children born
in Madina after the prophet moved to Madina.
So when he heard this, he was either
5 or 6.
And he didn't just say,
He says,
I heard.
Because he's relating what he heard as a
child.
Because children were instilled these values from when
they're small.
Right? Eating eating the lawful, avoiding
the doubtful.
Same in the 40 now you have the
hadith of Sayyid Al Hassan
who was asked, what do you remember
from the words of your grandfather?
And most of what Al Hassan al Hussain
related from the Prophet
was indirectly
to their father.
And we have hadith where they
asked their father.
Their mother didn't live long after the Prophet
as we know,
but even they used to go to other
companions like the famous hadith of Hindib Nabi
Hala.
But he said,
I memorized from my grandfather,
meaning that he heard it directly. It's again
only around 6 years old when he heard
this, Al Hasan Ibn Ali,
the grandson of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Leave all that would make you doubt,
for all that would not make you doubt.
That's very critical. 2nd,
and
constant remembrance
of Allah. Again,
the sunnah.
Keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of
Allah.
Keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of
Allah.
The third,
and serving the righteous.
Right?
And
Khidma,
right, is not doing token errands. Right? Pick
up someone's shoes, they can pick up. They
say Khidma
is
assisting
another
in the fulfilling
of their
aims.
That is.
Assisting another in fulfilling their aims.
Because tokenism is not.
And that could be in their worldly aims,
because someone has,
you know, life circumstances whatever, one of the
brothers of Allah Azzir Khayr, today, because we
just had a baby,
they went picked up
we had we have a certain meal plan,
they went and picked it up. Right? That
is assist in the basic aim of
having food. Right?
Right?
But serving the righteous
is
you know
an aim that is important
but particularly we have to serving the righteous
is to serve them fulfilling their aims. What
is the concern of the righteous? The things
that are pleasing Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. As
far as in some countries, there are good
habits of serving the righteous, but if you're
from Syria, for example, other places, a lot
of times people will do token things, and
very often, like I saw a number of
times in Damascus, people would do lavish things
for
the ulema and says, hey.
That's not what we want. Right? They wanted
the someone gave them a car.
In Damascus at that time, this, like, late
nineties,
most people didn't have cars.
He looked at the he's like,
what what what do I want with this
thing? Firstly, I don't drive. Number 2, I
can't get a license.
I'm
a. If
I try to get a driver's license, I'll
there's
a 1,000 in the those days, there used
to be a lot of problems.
K. And second, this is not what you
want. If you're
serving him would be if he has a
if he has a project, you assist them
in fulfilling their aims
in that project. You support some of the
students in that project.
You help them establish
the things, you give some of your time,
etcetera. And that's serving the righteous. And one
of the benefits of that as well is
the opportunity to interact with people of concern
with with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is that
you acquire that concern.
Right.
It's a command
in
the
Quran.
All you believe, have taqwa of Allah and
be
with those who are true, true to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And closeness to them.
Closeness to them so that one can benefit
from their example.
And one of the good practices that you
would find in many Muslim countries, and one
of the beautiful things when I was in
Syria that was beautiful,
was to have a habit to visit people
of knowledge and to take one's family with
1. In Damascus, it was a given. If
any of the mashaikh came back from Hajj
or Umrah in the neighborhood they lived, it
was an expectation.
People would go and visit them.
Like my grocery
store owner, who's actually now the father-in-law of
one of my teachers,
he used to ask,
Sheikh Sadiq returned from Umrah, have you visited
him yet?
I said, how do you know he returned
from Umrah?
He said, you don't live in this neighborhood?
Right? And and this is a beautiful culture.
It was a given the 1st day of
Eid
was to visit family, 2nd day of Eid
says the default. What do you do?
You go visit the people of of learning,
and you take your family with you.
Right? You make the
they say a visit an Eid visit is
like a ruku or sujood. It's brief.
K?
But
these are and these are
important
in the habits.
K. And beseeching Allah
for change.
Right?
You know, there's so many duas of the
prophet for the health of his
of the heart, like the du'a we mentioned.
And
so that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala may grant
the heart health
and remove its dark ailments from it.
So that Allah
removes the darknesses
of the sicknesses of the heart.
So
that one may find through it
the sweetness
of acts of obedience. So this is,
these are practical tips from the sunnah of
the prophet
of
keeping company,
of, you know, of
seeking
to keep our hearts alive. Another one that
the early Muslims would often mention
is to remain connected
with spiritual wisdom.
With spiritual wisdom.
Right? Because Allah Subhanahu Wa Salam tells the
Prophet,
So remind for reminders benefit believers.
And the Prophet
used was relating the Quran to the Sahaba,
but along with relating the Quran, he would
give them reminders.
Periodically,
not constantly. Why?
Because we need that direct reminder.
And having
and now we have ways of connecting with
things that remind us of our relationship with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And connecting to them
both in person, but also through things like,
yeah, subscribing to beneficial podcasts, etcetera. One we
could I can unhesitatingly
recommend is Musad Amjad Tarsin's Soul Food, for
example.
And, you know, these kind it's a beautiful
podcast that talks about the the health of
the heart.
These things help. We ask Allah to grant
us hearts that are alive, that are conscious,
that are sincere, that are upright,
that are turned to him.
Next, we're going to continue from trade 16
on Wednesday by looking at laziness. It has
an amazing discussion
on what is laziness, what stirs laziness,
and how you
beat down upon laziness.
And,
Thank you for listening to the Raoha, daily
guidance for seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani.
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