Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #151 Avidness For This World and Its Cure
AI: Summary ©
The assignment is designed to emphasize finding one's path and finding one's way to happiness. It is a focus on finding one's way to happiness, rather than finding one's way to success. The importance of finding one's way to happiness is discussed, including the need for practical intelligence and finding one's way to success. The importance of commitment to nurturing oneself and learning prophetic guidance is also emphasized, along with caution and critical thinking.
AI: Summary ©
You're listening to the Roja, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani.
In
our RoHa sessions,
we are looking at
reminders
from the niche of prophethood
on how to improve
our condition
in our in both our relating to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and in our
relations with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's
creation.
And
we're looking at a work
by Imam al Sulami called
k?
Successful indeed is the one who purifies it,
and
a true failure,
Khayba,
is like loss with regret and remorse
that
that remains.
K? Because you could fail, but, you know,
you
you need you could get up and continue
but kheba is a sense of loss in
which like you like it's despair and lasting
regret. It's really
a bad state to be in. So
we've been looking at these blameworthy traits
to understand them but also
to
rid oneself of them and he gives
the the the treatments.
Last session, Sheikh Badib, may Allah
preserve him, explained tama or
excessive avidness, which is blameworthy. And it's so
obviously
ugly that it doesn't actually explain
avidness itself.
But he closed the section
by reminding
that there's a there's an avidness.
Because Tama typically is avidness
that goes beyond limits.
Which is why the general sense in the
Arabic language of Tama as opposed to Raghba,
for example,
right?
Is it's negative.
But at the end of the section, he
points to the fact that there's a type
of excessive
avidness
that is actually
desirable,
which he says
for the beloved?
And
while knowing
that
the necks of men
are chopped
by avidness.
Of course, that avidness
ruins,
but there's also a thing that
if you want
the ultimate beloved,
you need that avidness.
And what is that avidness?
Those who believe are most intense in their
love of Allah. There is an avidness
that is praiseworthy
but it needs to be in the right
place but you have to be
willing to pay the price.
Right?
Our price is dear for one who would
court us,
as the poet put on the tongue of
the divine.
So related to avidness
is the next blameworthy trait, he says, in
the 25th of the blameworthy trait.
That from the blameworthy traits of the self
is its
keenness
for building up
its
worldly
gains
and seeking
ongoing increase in it. A takasur
which is ongoing increase.
Right?
And this is from it's a type of
delusion.
There's nothing wrong with it.
In so far as
if it's from the permissible, it's permissible. But
it's a type of foolishness in that as
the Arabic
saying goes,
From madness is to build castles on bridges
because you missed the point.
You have some wealth,
and you're on one side of the bridge,
you need to cross the bridge.
Now on the way, if the bridge is
long, you may stop for snacks,
you may stop
and you know open a a collapsible chair
to relax on a little bit, enjoy the
view. But if you won't get to the
other side,
you kind of miss the point of the
bridge.
And if you spend all your capital on
the bridge, you get to the other side.
Now Now what are you gonna do on
the other side?
I don't have anything
to,
whose returns are fine on the other side.
So that's like your life.
Every
breath is your capital. Okay.
What is the treatment for this?
This avidness for this world.
He says,
to know that this world, this life
is not for you, an abode
of
you know, in which you will remain.
This is not your lasting abode.
And that the hereafter
it is the abode of remaining.
That's where you belong.
And the intelligent
person
is the one who acts
for
the abode
of their
repose,
of their long term
residing.
Because what is the intellect?
Right? They say,
The intellect is the tool
for distinguishing.
Right?
And intelligence is the capacity
to make good
distinctions.
Right?
But there is mere intelligence,
as Imam Ghazali explains in the book of
knowledge in the ihyeh. There's
someone who has sharp intelligence,
but there is what's called practical intelligence.
What is
what is praiseworthy in, you know, in real
terms is what we can call PSI,
practical spiritual intelligence.
Which, you know, which is
a capacity to discern that
that the next life
is indeed better for you than this life.
So
so that's the intelligent person.
Okay?
Our beloved prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, the
smart person, the
the difference between the you know, the just
mere intelligence
and being smart,
is the smart person
that doesn't just know what things are, but
they get it and they know how to
respond beneficially.
The smart person is the one
who takes themselves to account,
who
The one who takes themselves to account, who
restrains themselves, said the prophet
Wasallamilalima badalmote and who asks for what comes
after this life?
And the fool,
the fool is one who just follows their
whims, whatever they feel like they do.
And
then have false hopes with Allah,
one of these days.
Right? The intelligent person, the one who asked
for their eternal
residence,
who doesn't just act for the sake of
the stages of their journey.
Because the stages
are crossed.
But your residence
at your destination
remains.
So intelligent person acts
for
where their
destination
is.
This worldly life
is just
play,
and idling,
and adornment,
and boasting amongst
you,
and vying with each other
for wealth and children.
Right?
And the next life
is better
and more lasting.
And the here,
you know, the comparative sense in the Arabic
language has 2. 1 is a relative comparative.
A is good, but b is better.
Alright?
So the tafdil is
or it's
It's absolute.
That B is absolutely better than A.
It's incomparably
better. So let's say
says, the next life is incomparably better.
And
absolutely
more lasting.
Because one is infinite,
and the other,
though there is some amount, but anything over
infinity
is essentially 0.
What is dunya?
It's x over infinity.
Right? Which is essentially 0. It's not quite
0. There's something there, but
it's not really quantifiable. What is the
the other way around? It's infinity over something.
Right? So
But what is the key?
He says,
and the next abode
is absolutely better for those
who are mindful.
Alright?
This is
the indicating
continuity
of those who are ever
mindful.
And
so
this commitment that is taqwa,
this commitment that is taqwa
is
a quality that we strive to nurture.
Right? That we strive to nurture.
Right? And that's why one of the things
that nurtures
concern for the akhira,
the prophet
told us, how do we treat
worldliness?
We need to know the nature of this
world, and we need to know what benefits
to get us to the hereafter. The prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said in the hadith
of the day by Imam Tirmi and others,
This that worldliness
is accursed
and all that is in it is accursed
except for the remembrance of Allah and what
relates to it
and except for
one
seeking sacred knowledge.
Worldliness,
which is concern
for matters of this life
in a manner that busies 1 from the
hereafter,
It's accursed, meaning it distances
from divine mercy. Because
the manifestation of divine mercy in the ultimate
sense is
for creation is
the hereafter
for the believers. It is paradise and what
is found in paradise
at the levels of finding.
Except for the remembrance of Allah. So to
treat worldliness, one needs to
establish routines of remembrance,
by morning and by night,
Keeping one's tongue moist with the remembrance of
Allah through one's day to take care of
one's acts of devotion.
All of these to nurture remembrance in one's
life. And the other commitment that one needs
to have is to learn prophetic guidance
that which gives you life.
That's how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes
the prophetic
water. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes what the
prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam has come with,
what revelation is, as life giving water. Without
it,
the human heart is like the earth that
is dead.
Sayyidna ibn Abbas radiAllahu alaihi wa sallam described
the verses on have you not seen how
Allah
sends down water from the sky?
Giving life to the to
the the earth after it have it was
dead.
That this also this refers not just to
the physical earth
but also
the spiritual earth that is
your heart
in which the tree of faith
grows.
What is the water of it? The water
of it, majiaabi rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
what the messenger of Allah has come with,
which is sacred knowledge.
And to quickly to close, we'll look at
the next blameworthy quality because it's also closely
related. From
this blameworthy
qualities is deeming good the things
that one
engages in.
That's
and to deem
the actions of those you disagree with as
being vile.
Because this would lead to conceit.
This would lead to conceit.
To deem anything that you do as being
good
and to deem what others to do to
be bad, and that's ignorance. Whereas you are
accountable for yourself.
You're not accountable for others. Even the actions
of others, what's your accountability?
It's your responsibility
with respect to them.
Right? So someone does something wrong,
your responsibility is not them. Your responsibility is
what am I responsible to respond
to their actions? So someone does something wrong.
You're not responsible for them.
You are responsible there to either command the
good
or to give counsel.
Right?
That that's your
responsibility.
So how does one deal with this delusion
of being satisfied with oneself and negative towards
others? Is
is to
be critical of one's own self.
Right? Don't.
You don't have a good opinion of yourself.
Right?
Particularly
to know that not every decision you're making
is a rational or spiritual decision.
We are animals
with the capacity
to be rational,
religious, or spiritual.
But the beginning inclinations of the human being
are what?
They're but like cattle.
Right? You can rise up to that but
don't have a good opinion that I am
beyond that. No.
You're an animal with potential.
Right? With potential.
So because the self is ever commanding to
evil.
But you have good opinion of others because
you don't know what the end of their
actions is, and that's
practical method. You don't have a good opinion
of yourself,
You have a good opinion of others.
Now in they say
Right? In dealings,
the basis is caution.
So this is different from, for example, if
you enter into a contract say inshallah, they'll
they'll fulfill it. No.
You have good opinion of them, but you
act with caution. You write it down, you
make things clear, etcetera, to the best of
your ability.
And that's not about done. That's about caution.
Right? Whereas we fall into the opposite error.
So we we will stop there,
and he'll talk about then being overly compassionate
and caring for your ego.
Right?
So we'll look at that. It's a fascinating
discussion.
Thank you for listening to the RoHa, daily
guidance for seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani.
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