Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #149 Five Keys for the Treatment of Blameworthy Traits
AI: Summary ©
The importance of recognizing and removing blameworthy traits of oneself is crucial to avoiding becoming a blameworthy person. The speaker provides five key techniques for treatment: recognizing one's fault, knowing its opposite, being generous, and being mindful of one's company. The importance of actively seeking good companies and reminding Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is also emphasized. The speaker provides guidance on obtaining daily donations for listeners and emphasizes the importance of seeking one's true love for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
AI: Summary ©
You're listening to the Roha, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Rasrabbani.
We
are resuming
our sessions on
the,
which are brief daily reminders
on
the guidance of Allah and his messenger.
And we have been covering
a work
by one of the great early imams of
Islamic
spirituality,
imam Abu Abdurrahman al Sulami.
And
just to reintroduce us to this
work, in this work
on touches upon
the blame worthy traits of the self
and what
the believer can
can do
in terms of ridding oneself of those traits.
Because
Allah,
in his great wisdom,
has made the human being
for the purpose
of submitting to Allah.
And he has placed within the human being
both
the capacity
to
submit
and the capacity
to resist.
Has and Allah has placed within us all
some good tendencies,
some tendencies towards
virtue and good and righteousness
and some enthusiasm
towards that. And Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
has put the opposite
as well, has put within us tendencies
that are
the opposite
of these tendencies,
tendencies
to incline towards vice and whim
and our
destruction.
Right? And
when it comes to the virtues, which is
what the prophet
has come
to perfect
because he tells
us
that that I was only sent to perfect
noble character.
Right? Noble human qualities.
One of the great gifts of Allah
upon us is the very fact
that
that
our imperfections
are a means
to attaining human perfection.
Why? Because when the prophet
tells us,
I only came
to perfect
noble character. What that entails
is that we as human beings are born
with imperfections.
What is the purpose of prophetic guidance?
The prophetic guidance takes us from our imperfect
states of humanity.
Where we have some good, we have some
bad,
And the potential
in prophetic teachings
is
that they give us a standard
for human
conduct
and a method
for human change.
A standard for human conduct
and a method
for human change. So how we can go,
as one of our great contemporary scholars put
it so
eloquently, how we can go from be being
the way we are
to striving to be to be
as he was.
Right?
So this is the wisdom of having faults
that there are opportunities
for us to struggle
for change.
And when we recognize our faults and our
shortcomings,
this is in reality a gift.
It's a gift
because
the potential in that is
seeking the closeness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Ib'n Ata ila secondary, one of the great
imams of
Islam,
he
put it in a in very beautiful terms,
says,
Were it not for the battlegrounds of the
human self,
then
the spiritual journey of those turning to Allah
would not be realized.
So when it comes to each of
the blameworthy traits that we'll be seeing in
these sessions, the first thing to look at
with them
is to identify what is this fault.
That's Imam
Salami's method. What is this fault?
And then with respect to the fault,
to understand how it creeps in
or how it grows within us
because
these are like diseases.
Right? They can,
you know, they have signs, but they also
have tendencies to spread.
What are their manifestations?
What are their manifestations?
But then critically,
the Prophet
did not come to us with
mere theory.
The beauty
of the prophetic
way in ethics,
in human ethics
and moral conduct
and virtues
is that it is a practical method.
You see in many traditions, great talk of
virtues,
but it's a theory of virtues.
And of course, there's a practice of it
in every tradition.
The human virtues are are known and recognized
throughout
civilizations. However,
we are blessed to have a living embodiment
of those
ethics,
that moral conduct,
that virtue.
So
the key then is
and this is one of the things Imam
al Sulami does throughout
is for each of the blameworthy traits, how
do you
treat it?
What are the prophetic medicines
to to treat it?
And
there are a few things
that we see as we go through
the, this work on the blameworthy traits of
the self, that are constants.
There are some things that are constants
that are required in any treatment of the
blame worthy traits of the self.
K? And we can mention
a few of them as our introduction to
the series today, and then we'll close.
We can mention 5. Right? Five keys.
Five keys to 5 general keys to treatment.
And these
you'll find throughout, Imam al Salami keeps going
back to these because
if you take care of fundamentals,
then details
will frequently
either fall into place or
they'll be facilitated.
One of these keys to removing any blameworthy
trait
is recognizing
the fault.
Right? So recognize
the fault.
And not to recognize it theoretically
that being
stingy,
is bad, but to recognize it within you,
yourself,
right, is to recognize
the blameworthy trait within. That's number 1.
And
to recognize its harm.
Right? So recognize the blameworthy trait and its
harm.
And that requires knowledge.
Right? Knowledge.
And this knowledge is so important
that when Imam Abu Hanifa was asked, what
is
religious understanding?
Right?
What is fiqh?
Which in the broad sense is
understanding of religion.
He said,
Fiqh, religious understanding, is to know yourself.
What counts for you and what counts against
you. So this recognition that when when you
have
blame worthy qualities,
then first thing is to recognize that I
have it. And that seeking this knowledge,
which is what we do when we look
at a work like this and other works
that tell us about ourselves,
is not to be theoretical that, oh, in
Islamic ethics, in Islamic
spirituality,
they say this about people who do that.
No.
It's about you.
Enter what a book. You and your lord.
Right?
You and your prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
That where are you in turning to your
lord? Where are you in
looking towards the light that your lord has
sent that is the messenger?
To recognize
the fault within
and understand it, understand its harms. That's number
1.
The second aspect to treating any
blame worthy trait that he tells us is
they say,
matters are treated by their opposites.
And all the great
scholars who've talked about how do you get
rid of blameworthy qualities,
this you know, if you there's a
balance
that is praiseworthy in our religion,
a virtuous balance,
both
excess
and remissness from that balance are blameworthy.
So for example,
being generous
is
praiseworthy.
But
being excessive in spending
is blameworthy.
Right? Which would be from wastefulness,
from squandering,
from irresponsibility.
Because if you are excessive in spending, then
you might not be able to spend on
your family, on your religious duties, etcetera.
So that excess is blameworthy
and remissness,
falling short by being stingy, is blameworthy.
But how do you deal with stinginess?
You you learn what is its opposite. What
is what does it mean to be generous?
And one is generous
a little more than
than the norm
till one treats it.
If you have an issue with
being
rude for example,
right? Or not caring about others.
There's a
a balance that is praiseworthy,
a virtuous balance, but you're extra polite
until
you have dealt with your
impoliteness
or you're not caring.
And so you, you know, you come in
to office and you really don't care about
any human beings. I got work to do.
But to treat it, you have to go
to the opposite
until
you cultivate
consideration
for others, etcetera. So that's the second. So
the first was to recognize one's fault. The
second is to know its opposite.
So you can treat the shortcoming with it,
but also so you can acquire the virtue.
Right? Because if you get rid of the
blameworthy trait, the only way you've gotten you
removed it or begun
extricating it is if you replace it with
its opposite.
You get angry easily,
you work on,
on forbearance,
etcetera. So that's the second.
The third
key to removing blameworthy qualities
is to of is
to shield yourself
through
good company
through good company.
Right?
The company
of those
whose
whose own
character and conduct
and life attitude
uplifts you. So it helps you foster
virtuous qualities
and keeps you away
from blameworthy qualities. And
this is so important that the prophet
said,
a person is on the religious way of
their close friends.
So let each of you look at whose
company you keep. If you're if you're stingy,
maybe it's because of the company you keep.
But it also avoids
the manifesting of bad qualities. And where do
you find good company? You find good company
in gatherings of good.
Right? At the mosque,
in circles of learning, in circles of remembrance,
in opportunities
for
service.
So that's the third,
is to actively seek good company.
A 4th consistent key that he mentions
is
the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Because by remembering
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
one is not only
seeking reward,
but one is seeking to be conscious of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And if to the extent that you are
conscious of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
you are more likely to be conscious
of striving to seek his good pleasure.
And that
would
tend
progressively to direct you towards virtue and to
hold you back from
vice.
So remembrance of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala which
our beloved prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him, himself said is a key.
Right? When the man came in the hadith
of Abu Luh bin Bus,
a man came and said, You Rasulullah,
Oh Messenger of God,
that the teachings of Islam are so vast.
Give us a comprehensive door
that we can hold fast to. That'll be
a means of entering into the virtues of
religion,
the closeness to Allah. The prophet
said,
keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of
Allah. And to have routines of remembrance
is one of the keys
that
he consistently
emphasizes.
And there's many other keys that he mentions,
but a 5th
is not
immediately obvious,
but it is critical because and it's highlighted
both in the Quran and in the sunnah,
and we'll be expanding on it when we
in upcoming days because it'll be coming up,
is
being careful of what you eat.
Being careful of what you eat
and being careful of the source of wealth
wherefrom you eat.
And that's
very
emphasized in many hadiths of the prophet in
that
who have in the hadith of Allah is
pure and accepts nothing but the pure.
Between them are,
in that
And in that hadith, what is the consequence
of
of consuming the impure, of earning the impure?
It is
the corruption
of 1 spiritual heart.
The hadith of the lawful is clear and
the unlawful is clear and between them are
unclear matters. Those who fall into the unclear,
what is the consequence?
The consequences you'll inevitably fall into the sinful.
So
what you consume
affects
your spiritual state.
And that's one of the constant emphasis. So
these are 5 matters
that we wanted to sort of remind of
some of the key
points that Imam Salami touches upon for treating
any of the vices. We ask Allah
that he grant us
insight
into
what we need to change for his sake.
And in one of the
one of the great early scholars describe the
state of those close to Allah
and
the the state of those who yearn for
Allah, and we'll close with this. He says,
That
the hearts of those who know Allah
behold that which onlookers behold not, and wings
that fly without feather
to the domain to the to the
presences
of the lord
of the worlds.
Then one of the later scholars added one
line to it,
ibn Ajeeba, as he mentioned is his farsat.
So if you seek to attain these meanings,
then change yourself
a little for our sake. And this is
on
the tongue of the divine as if Allah
is telling the servant,
if you seek to attain these meanings
of what it means to love, what it
means to live,
what it means
to be close to Allah, what true joy
means.
Change yourself a little for our sake. So
when we recognize our faults, we feel down
for our faults, but we see the opportunity.
As Majnoon would say,
when anything reminded him of Allah,
or it reminded him of Layla, you say,
I can smell
the scent of Layla. In our faults, we
see the opportunity
of closeness to Allah.
Because our striving to change our faults is
a declaration of love to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. That, O Allah, I love you.
O Allah,
I'm striving for your sake.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant
us what he has granted, the best of
his servants and to make us of those
who walk on the footsteps
of the very best of his servants, our
beloved messenger.
So these sessions will be daily,
Mondays
to Thursdays,
right after Duhr prayer here, so about 1:40.
And you can tune in every
day. Thank you for listening to the daily
guidance for seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani.
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