Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #156 The Love of Speaking in Front of People and its Cure
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You're listening to the RoHa, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Jarrah Beni.
Alhamdulillah.
In our lessons on
Imam Soleami's
work on the blameworthy traits
of
the human self
and their treatment,
we've
reached
the 32nd
of the blameworthy
traits.
So he tells us
From the blameworthy traits of the self
is
its liking
or its loving
to speak
before people.
And
to delve into the subtleties
of knowledge.
To capture
with that
the
hearts
and attention
of the inexperienced.
Right?
So
and
to steer
through
appealing
words,
the
attention
of people
towards 1.
And so this is from
the love of being manifest.
And one of the ways that people do
that
is to when they speak to people,
they may not actually have that much knowledge,
or they may not be specialists,
but they'll mention
subtle things.
Why?
Just just to impress
people. Not because
not
for the sake of guidance,
what will benefit people.
Not for the
sake of strengthening their
confidence
in the way
of Ahlul Sunnah, the way of mainstream Islamic
scholarship.
Not for the reason of
strengthening their
confidence
in the scholarly method
in our religion,
not
to to to increase people in confidence about
you
know, the depth and nuance, the sacrifice of
the scholars of the religion. These are all
worthy
because
part of guidance is the way that the
guidance
was preserved and transmitted,
and the transmitters of that guidance.
Right?
But rather just to impress.
Right?
To
literally
capture
the hearts of the inexperienced.
And Abu
Madian
in his hikam says,
The claimant
is the one who points to themselves.
That
the the claimant,
the one who's seeking
personal attention,
Right? The one who's calling to themselves,
is the one whose
words are
if
you
you know,
if one were to consider them, are pointing
to themselves
rather than pointing to Allah
Because
right?
The true person calls to Allah. The Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam is commanded in the Quran
to say
Say this is my path.
And one of the reasons he said to
connect
the path
of our religion to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam is that
the way of guidance is embodied in the
Prophet SAW.
And
what does the Prophet do?
I call to Allah.
That is
being
that is trueness
embodied.
As for the one making so the sincere
points to Allah.
The claimant
is pointing to themselves.
Okay. So one has to be careful about
that oneself.
Be
with people be cautious.
Be cautious.
You don't have a right
to think ill of others,
but you do have a right to be
cautious.
You do have a right to be cautious.
And the ulema in Damascus for example, would
caution
students from not quoting their teachers too much.
Right. Because if you say
our sheikh so and so said this, and
our sheikh said this, the danger is
that if you say well so and so
is my sheikh, you say well he's you
know what a big deal he is. So
it's a
derivative
affirmation of consequence,
right. Like say oh like sheikh Solon is
really big and he's my sheikh, so you
know like I may not be that big
but I'm big enough for you. Right? Kind
of thing. And so that's
from the tricks of the self.
So one of the things I must say
regarding that is the focus on any
religious
discourse
is
that is the Quranic paradigm. What will benefit
people
in any
religious response,
answer, teaching?
Be wary of trying to impress anyone.
Rather
focus
on benefiting them for the sake of Allah.
Mufti rafi Usmani,
the grand Mufti of Pakistan, he expressed it
in beautiful words by saying
says please
the medicine
where
the where the hurt is.
That that's
you know, the prophetic teachings have been described
as medicine.
So you apply the, you need to consider
what does the person need, you need to
diagnose what does the person need,
and
give that much
to the
what what the need is
and
renew your intention that this be for the
sake of Allah.
One of the ways of safety in that
is always,
they say
from the blessing of knowledge is to ascribe
it to its people.
So they mentioned that
one of
the one of the scholars,
he
asked Sheikh Abdul Rahman al Shahudi
that what is the best way of arranging
of
of making after
the obligatory prayer.
And this is someone who's
one of the giants of Damascus
and the sheikh of the sheikhs of Damascus,
and person of known, you know, spiritual depth
and profundity and adherence to the sunnah. He
said
where's
Kitab al Athkar of Yamanawy?
And he, you know,
they got him the copy of and
he looked through it, found the section on
what is said after, and he read that
section.
So he's not answering from himself, he's saying
well this is what Imam Nawi says and
that's safer.
Right? On the side of restraint in one's
response.
Right?
That and
beware because you know you want to benefit
them, but you don't want to harm yourself.
And you know you have a self that
is a congratulatory
self.
It likes to clap at your
at you.
So be careful. So he says,
so that's
something to keep in mind. He says,
from its treatment is to act on what
you admonish others with.
Right?
And part of that is you intend to
anything you're telling people,
you intend
to advise to be the first one advised
by it.
And
to admonish people by one's actions, not merely
one's words.
That as is related that Allah Most High
revealed
to Jesus the son of Mary, peace and
blessings be upon them both and upon our
beloved prophet
If you wish
to admonish people then admonish yourself.
And if you take heed
yourself,
then admonish others.
Otherwise,
feel shy of me.
And this particularly in the general call to
the good. This does not apply to commanding
the good and forbidding the wrong because that's
a public obligation,
but in giving people advice.
And at the very least is that one
should be striving for it.
Right?
Because someone may struggle with something.
One of the great scholars of India,
in the early half of the 20th century,
he said that any fault that I found
within myself,
I would
start telling people about it,
intending
to remind myself
until,
and I'd keep admonishing them until I got
rid of that fault myself.
But that requires
intention.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said
and,
then this
hadith in similar narration is found in the
works of Sunan
that on on on the night of the
and
on
the night of the night journey,
I passed by some people whose whose
lips
were being raked
by rakes of fire.
The rakes which you collect leaves with etc.
So the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, I
said who are these,
my brother Jibreel?
Those are
the preachers
of your community.
They command people to virtue
and they forget themselves.
And yet they recite the book.
And that's
from Surat Al Baqarah verse 44, where Allah
said,
Do
you command people to virtue?
And you forget yourselves.
And
you recite the book.
So
so
this goes back to sincerity.
Sincerity, and to be careful about oneself. And
also by looking
at always being in consultation
of
the people of knowledge. That any step one
takes on the path of calling to Allah,
one of the things we see from the
sunnah of the prophet
is to
consult.
And the Ulemmat used to take that very
seriously.
Imam Abu Hanifa
had great students.
The greatest of whom was Al Qadi Abu
Yusuf.
And he was teaching in the lifetime of
the
of Imam Abu Hanifa, but then he started
a class
on the outskirts of the city without
seeking Abu Hanifa's permission. Even though he had
permission to teach,
But any class he'd start he would consult
Imam Abu Hanifa. And he was attending daily
in Abu Hanifa's class, and he used to
be right at the front.
And he wouldn't sacrifice the front seat to
the extent
that one day his own son died,
and he only attended the beginning of the
washing of his son.
And then said, I need to leave now
because if I don't go now, I'll be
late for the front row of Abu Hanifa's
class.
So he left.
He bade his son farewell, and he left.
So he started this class, and he would
be there daily in Abu Hanifa's class. But
Imam Abu Hanifa sent him
a message
with a messenger,
to where his class was, asking him 3
questions. What is the answer to these 3
questions?
And he answered one way, and he was
shy, so he sent it with the messenger.
Abu Hanifa sent the message back that this
is wrong.
So Abu Hanifa said, then it must be
this way.
Abu Hanifa wrote back, that too is wrong.
Then Abu Hanifa came and said, you asked
me the question, I answered this way, and
there's subtle subtleties.
Answered
in one way. Then you and you said
it's wrong. So I said, then it must
be the other way. And he trusted his
teacher.
And you said it's wrong then. What's the
answer? He said, a tafsir. There's detail.
In some circumstances, the answer would be this,
and in other circumstances the answer would be
that.
And the point he was making is that
doesn't matter
how much you attain always
consult.
This is a central sunnah that one only
neglects at one's peril.
You know the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the
greatest
intellect in humanity
was commanded,
consult them in all your affairs.
Even though they're
all less than his
intellect, less than his wisdom.
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So this is one of
the
keys of safety when it comes to
being in any situation of leadership
etc. Likewise,
activists need to be very careful about this
quality
that in anything in which you're calling to
Allah or standing for the representing the religion,
the intent in it must be
not to impress
but
to seek the pleasure of Allah.
We ask Allah
for ease and assistance and facilitation, wa salallahu
alayhi wa
sahabi assalamu
alhamdulillahi
robilaalameen.
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