Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #144 Being Lazy and What it Causes
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You're listening to the Roja, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Rasra Behni.
Muhammad
Allah
Welcome to our
weekly
sessions
as part of the in
which we look at
healing hearts,
looking at the blameworthy traits of the self
and their cure.
And
we are looking at a text by
imam
Abu Abdul Rahman al Sulami called the riubu
nafs, the blameworthy,
traits
of
the self
and their cure.
And we've been looking at
how
to go
from the wayward tendencies
that
the human self
can have
to
the praiseworthy,
purposeful qualities
of the
sunnah of
the beloved messenger
And the 16th trait
that we're looking at is
laziness.
He says,
from the blameworthy traits
of the self
is
laziness.
Right?
And
he
what is laziness?
Right.
Laziness,
is to
not act upon
what should be acted upon,
when it should be acted upon,
how it should be acted upon. Right? So
laziness
is not to act upon
what should be acted upon.
When
it should be acted upon,
and as
each one should act. Right? So laziness is
to is either
is not to approach
actions
with vigor.
Right? With vigor.
Right?
Or not to do the actions
with vigor, with purpose.
Right?
The
in the sunnah is to approach
actions with
and
with resolve
and determination.
So how does one
deal
what what causes this laziness?
Right?
Imam
Soleim identifies
in his method a primary
cause. He says,
It
it
laziness
is
literally
the inheritance
of eating one's fill.
Why?
But this
because
it
causes 1
to
what does food do? Food fuels
the animal self.
Right?
We we have the app the
one way of looking at the human self
is
that the the human intellect
is the
is
the midway
between 2 tendencies of our humanness.
Our
animal
tendencies
and our appetites
fuel our animal tendencies.
The human being is an animal.
And
there are angelic
tendencies.
And the spiritual
nurtures the angelic tendencies.
Right? And in the middle is the intellect.
The intellect which tries to distinguish
what to
do. The masters of the spiritual path said,
considered
that the best way
of because the intellect on its own
is
like the
is
almost
incapable on its own of
of managing
the
the animal tendencies
because they are almost predatory.
Your desires,
your whims, etcetera.
They are but
yeah. They are just like animals.
Rather they're more misguided because animals are fulfilling
their purpose.
So the the intellect on its own
trying to deal with this wild animal
tendencies within you, especially if they're unrestrained,
would struggle.
The bay the basic thing
that in order
to be able to direct yourself to the
good, to make good choices,
you need to restrain
the animal
tendencies
and you need to nurture the angelic tendencies.
So the
So that the
the the motivating
drive
within you for the worldly
is stronger than the motivating
drives within you for
the animalistic,
the mere
food and drink and fleeting pleasures.
Right?
So the intellect, its role is can have
restraint.
Have restraint.
Because dealing with
a controlled animal
is much easier than dealing
with an unrestrained animal.
So you have to.
And which is the desire that we fuel
the most?
Generally, it's food.
Right?
So for
because
the self,
if filled,
is strengthened.
And if it's strengthened, it will take its
share.
Right? It'll take what it wants,
and then you're in trouble.
And if it gets what it wants, it
will overcome the heart
In attaining to what the heart wants.
What is,
what, what, what does the heart want?
The heart
yearns for
Whoever seeks Allah in the last day, that
is the of the heart.
Right? So you need to control that.
And this
warning against Shiba, against
satiation,
of course, is a sunnah.
The the child of Adam feels no vessel
more damaging
than a stomach.
Simple as that.
It's sufficient for a person to have some
small morsels,
by which to keep their back straight.
So you give it,
but with restraint.
Right? You give it, but with restraint.
Because if you give it without restraint,
then
you'll have 2 harms.
1, you will not be able to control
it,
and it'll fuel you,
and this lack of restraint there will fuel
other harms.
And it will
then that's what you'll be busy with, and
you will not find
the resolve
or the fuel for the resolve towards what
you need,
which is what you need is Allah. You
need the.
So.
Right?
So how does one deal with this? Right?
So you say.
Right?
Its cure,
right,
is making oneself be hungry.
Right?
Making oneself be hungry. This is not
a debilitative
hunger.
It is a restraining
hunger. It is a restraining
hunger.
Right?
A restraining hunger and a disciplining hunger.
Restraint that you don't give yourself everything you
want.
K? And that hunger, which is of the
most active
wish that your animal self has,
If you control that, then you're able to
control other inclinations that you have.
Because the purpose of life is
to discipline yourself
so that you can then go towards Allah.
So this is a purposeful hunger.
Okay?
And how does one operationalize a purposeful hunger?
By following the sunnah.
By following the sunnah. Right?
And we'll see. And what are the benefits
of this purposeful hunger in accordance with the
sunnah?
Because the the animal self,
if it feels hungry, it does not get
its
share its wishes.
And if it doesn't get what it wants,
it becomes weaker.
And if it's weakened, if your animal tendencies
are restrained and therefore weakened,
then your the heart can overcome them.
Because you have
in the middle,
the intellect,
at which is the faculty
by which you choose.
If you're
being swayed
by the animal
inclinations,
what are we you being swayed away from?
The angelic inclinations.
And the heart only has one direction it
can go on. So it keeps turning that
way towards
the desires, it's turned away from the spiritual.
And if it's if restrained,
one can
direct
one's hunger,
one's and one's appetites towards
the spiritual. One's eating becomes
a spiritual eating through high intentions.
Right?
And,
right, so the prophet,
warned against
excessive eating.
Right?
So he
this
and if the heart can prevail,
then the heart will direct it towards
acts of obedience.
Right? Because you don't have this lower tug
that keeps you away from the acts of
obedience.
And then because if you don't have this
drag,
then laziness will
will drop. Of course, there's many other aspects
to laziness, but he mentions the key.
The key. There's many other causes of laziness,
but this is one. Right? In itself, overeating
causes laziness. It stirs the animal spirit within
1, and
lack of restraint with eating,
right, that you just submit to whatever whim
you have
will affect
other choices.
Right?
And this is why the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam emphasized in the Sahih Hadith,
right, that
no child of Adam filled a vessel more
harmful for them than their stomach.
Right?
It is sufficient
for them to have a few morsels to
keep their back straight. The amount that you
need
to
have the strength
to do good. The amount that you can
have with gratitude,
with good intention,
in beneficial ways, you eat with other people.
Right?
So your eating becomes
an act
where
you
prevent harm,
discipline the self,
have good intention,
eat with purpose, with gratitude.
You eat
in ways that magnify benefit. So the eating
becomes
a spiritual
act, not an animal act. This is why
one of the practical tips
give is that the time you need the
most adab
is when it's most tested.
So the time to have most with eating
is
when you feel most hungry.
That helps you with restraint.
And
you know, proper manners facilitate
restraint
in our actions.
So
the
there's some practical tips that the mentioned
against laziness. We we've gathered 7 to make
them,
you know, brief and to the point. One
is have a this is one of the
things that, you know, to have change, you
have to have purpose. You have to establish
a purpose and commitment in life. What are
you doing?
Right?
Because if you have a purpose clear, then
the choices,
your choice you know, the the choices made
arise from
the purpose driving you.
Right?
One of our great teachers in Toronto, Sheikh
Talal,
was asked
to to give a talk at the wedding
of
an old friend of mine's
daughter
about good character.
And he gave this brilliant talk.
I think it flew over the heads of
a lot of people. It flew over my
head too, but I've been reaching up to
try to understand it for months.
That really good character, what is it the
fruit of?
There's certain thing that drives good character.
How you are, which is good character,
is the fruits of
your values.
And your values are the fruits of
what you are seeking in life.
What's important to you? What is your purpose?
Because purpose
and what you are seeking
is manifest in
certain values.
What your things that you value in life.
What are the things that you value?
What you value
is the fruits of what your purpose is,
what you are seeking.
And those val what you value
for a lot of us may be unstated.
It affects your choices. Even you see that
with students. Sometimes you tell a student, do
this, do this, do this. They won't do
it. Why? Because they don't value that.
And until they value it, they won't do
it.
So what your purpose is
affects the things that you're that you value.
And that's what values means.
Values are not just some abstract idea. Real
values. What
what moves
you? It says purpose
is expressed in values and your values
are purp manifest in your character, how you
are.
And your character is manifest then in your
conduct.
This is why purpose is so important.
What
what is your purpose and commitment in life?
This purpose is then best translated into establishing
habits and routines in life. And this is
what the sunnah is. Sunnah
is purposeful living.
It is a way,
a consistent way
that is followed
in one's life
and in one's religion.
And one so develop sunnah habits.
The believer's purpose in life should be seeking
Allah and seeking that which is pleasing to
Allah in
the matters of the hereafter and the matters
of this life.
How do you translate that? You develop habits
and routines, and that's a sunnah. And we
establish these
gradually,
consistently,
purposefully,
sustainably.
Yeah. And then we stick to them.
Right? We stick to them.
An excellent manual on how to structure one's
life.
We ask Allah for facilitation to act upon
it. Is Imam Ghazali's work the beginning of
guidance?
And it's beautifully taught at Seekers Hub by
one of the very distinguished
scholars
in the west, Sheikh Yahirodas, may Allah preserve
him.
Was a person who,
you know,
one of the most
non lazy people that I know.
He is so driven and so focused and
so hardworking.
It's a true inspiration.
And
the actualizing of these
purpose and high values,
Imam Al Haddad's
work on the book you know, the his
work, the book of assistance,
is a manual
of the hereafter.
Also,
taught in 3 parts
by Sheikh Yahya on SeekersHub Global.
Then
one of the things that fuels
resolve and higher purpose
is to read the biographies of the righteous
because they serve as living embodiments
of how
mere humans
lived
the high prophetic standard of purpose,
commitment,
habit,
and routine
with excellence.
And then keeping the company of the righteous,
gatherings of knowledge, gatherings of remembrance,
congregational
prayer,
right, these
inspire,
and they instill discipline.
And then at a very practical level
at a very practical level,
anyone who's serious about getting things done should
have a system
by which to keep track of how they
get things done. And having a personal productivity
system
helps
in establishing
such positive routines.
Right? To be clear, what what are my
priorities in life?
What am I trying to get done? And
anything you're trying to get done should be
broken into habits and routines
expressed through a personal
system by which you is how by which
you can establish routines, and there's good books
related to this.
Amongst them, the power of habit
by Charles Duhigg, for example.
Having a personal productivity system, and there's many
of them such as, you know, David Allen's
getting things done or whatever. Some practical system
that you apply consistently,
and there's many others. The action method, etcetera.
There's many, but that you apply.
And there's systems of, you know, of how
you establish personal goals such as and there's
many of them. You know, one pop up
you know, that many researchers
recommend these, the the WOOP method, w o
o p.
Right?
We identify what you what what you wish
for.
These are your
purpose.
What are the objectives
that you have, and these are the habits
and routines you want to establish.
Then you identify what are the obstacles within
you that prevent you from fulfilling
those
those matters. And these are the blame and
at the heart of them are these blameworthy
traits that we're looking at.
And then you have
a plan
plan of how you will make that happen.
And that's and
that's
this.
And in this,
we can mention
a
beautiful,
comprehensive,
dua of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
There's several versions of this.
This particular one's related by.
The prophet said,
Oh, Allah,
I seek refuge in you from
worry
and grief.
And I seek refuge in you from incapacity
and laziness.
And I seek refuge in you from
cowardliness
and miserliness.
And I seek refuge in you from
being overcome
by debt
or being overpowered
by people.
And it's a beautiful
dua, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. You
can find it in
every committed,
concern. Muslims should have a good
work such as the of the
book of remembrance of
of prophetic supplications. This is found in most
of the collections because it was a regular
hadith
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And
and there's a beautiful background to this. The
the, you know, the hadith that the the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam entered the masjid
one day, And
he found one of the,
people of the Ansar, Abu Umama,
who was sitting in the masjid.
So the prophet went to to him,
and the prophet noticed these things about people.
And he said to him,
yeah. How is it that I find you
sitting in the Masjid in other than
a time of prayer?
Because different people were different. There's some people
who were in the masjid the whole time,
but the different people were different. He was
and
he was this is not common. So you
went and asked him personally. Right?
This is active mercy
and caring.
So
Abu Umama
just laid it out there. He said,
worries
that don't leave me.
What do you know
and great deaths, oh messenger of Allah?
So the prophet the messenger of Allah said,
Allah
will Allah, mighty and majestic, will remove
your concerns
and fulfill for you your debts.
Abu Umama said, do tell me, oh, messenger
of Allah.
So the messenger said
that
every
morning when you wake up and every night,
say so the the there's a to say
by morning and by night, but reflecting on
on its meanings.
Oh, Allah,
I seek refuge in you from incapacity
and laziness.
Why?
Because what do we want? We don't want
ham. We don't want
worry. We want
we want high resolve.
We don't want.
We do not want.
And is hardship
hardship
or feeling overwhelmed
by distressful things.
Right?
We want
we want the facilitation of the ways of
good.
And I seek refuge in you from incapacity
and laziness because we want
high resolve
and high
inclination
towards the good.
Rushing to all that is good.
And I seek refuge in you from
cowardice
and miserliness
because
we seek
to have courage.
Right?
Right? And we want
to be of the people of Karam and
Jude. We want to be the people of
nobility
and generosity
and giving.
And I seek refuge in you from being
overcome by debt.
And a lot of debt arises from what?
From these things that come before.
From
from
our
spending
out of laziness and incapacity,
out of our cowardly spending.
Everyone else has a new whatever, so I
need a new thing as well. Do you
need it? No. And you know you don't
need it. You just get it because everyone
else is getting it.
K? See, refugee need from being overcome by
debt,
which is a result of poor choices,
typically.
And being overwhelmed by people
because we seek only Allah and what is
pleasing to Allah.
So this is an amazing supplication. I'd
remind myself and you to strive to be
of those who
who implement this sunnah, this dua.
That, oh, Allah, I seek refuge in you
from worry and hardship.
I seek refuge in you from incapacity and
laziness. I seek refuge in you from cowardice
and miserliness. And I seek refuge in you
from being overcome by debt or overpowered by
people.
And this particular narration of this incident
is related. It's related a little more fully
in Abu Dawood, but there's it's sim there's
similar narrations.
This is on the authority of Abu Sayed
al Khudiri, also similarly related in Bukhari and
Muslim.
You can find it there.
So we we try to expand on because
this is one of laziness is one of
the
real
blame worthy traits of the self.
Right?
And it's
the the
the result of
a of
when we are overcome
by
our our animal instincts.
And our animal self,
the animal self has its appetites,
but what do what do animals do?
Right? They're they're just grazing around.
Right? They're just grazing around. It's like cattle.
Allah describes them.
They're they're not the human being has been
honored. So typically,
most human beings, when they lack purpose,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala does not say.
They're just like dogs.
They're just like pigs.
And who have particular, blameworthy
quality.
They're just like cattle.
Right? Thank God. And most human beings are
relatively docile in their way. They're just grazing.
They're not doing anything particularly harmful, although some
are,
you know, wilder than others. Most people are
not doing such bad, but
that
but what are they busy doing?
What do most people do on their weekend?
That's where when you have free choice.
When you're home, what what do most people
spend doing?
When you're, when you have your free time.
Right, may Allah make us of those who
direct
the time that we have
towards what Allah seeks from us.
Right? And that's where,
you know, responding to laziness and keeping in
mind those,
you know, those seven
qualities to combat laziness that we talked about
about having purpose,
establishing sunnah routines,
etcetera,
is critical to this. May
Allah realize us in these
qualities
and make us of those who are are
driven
by the higher rather than the lower tendencies
within us.
Thank you for listening to the Ruaha, daily
guidance for seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani.
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