Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #160 Finding Comfort in Ones Acts of Worship and Its Cure
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You're listening to the Roha, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Rasra Behni.
Alhamdulillah, as we're continuing to look
at the blame worthy traits of the human
self,
and
how to treat them
in this striving to have a pure heart,
which is the key quality
for
eternal success
in the hereafter.
The whole
success and failure in life has been made
contingent,
dependent
in the teachings of the Quran and the
teachings of our beloved Messenger
upon the health of one's heart. Allah swears
by the human self.
And by the soul and how Allah fashioned
it.
And he inspired to it both its virtue
and its vice.
Its vice and its virtue.
Successful is the one who purifies it.
And a true failure is one
who allows it
to be corrupted.
So this treatise of Imam
We've
reached
trait number 36.
And
he says,
From its blameworthy traits
is
its
finding
comfort
in its obedience
to Allah Subhanahu
wa
Ta'ala.
And
to look at one's good deeds with the
eye of approval.
And what's the problem with this?
The problem
of this is that while there's
a sweetness
to obedience,
a satisfaction,
and happiness
in the worship of Allah.
A contentment
in all states in which one is in
submission to Allah.
And a bitterness
and sadness and loss and regret and remorse
in all that turns one away from Allah.
However,
sincerity entails
that you worship Allah, that you obey Allah,
that you pray, that you fast, that you
give in charity,
that you do good deeds
not
for the buzz,
but for the Lord.
And this is one of the
apparently innocent,
but
actually
detrimental. Things that can arise out of someone
becoming accustomed to worshiping Allah.
Practically you go to work
and you know in the stress of the
day,
Zohar time this is a really nice break.
It gives me some time to
regroup,
to breathe, to de stress.
Alhamdulillah.
I can clear my thoughts.
I can relax.
So but what happens? You find Uns.
You find comfort in these
in these aspects of the worship
or even spiritually.
You know, you pray
and you find
a spiritual
joy.
So you become attached
to the joy
and not
to the giver of that joy. Because what
is sincerity?
Sincerity is to act seeking Allah
and no meaning
besides.
Right?
So
these
fruits
of one's worship
are
encouragements
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But the purpose
is beyond them.
And one of the harms of taking
joy in
these in these aspects of one's worship
is the second part. Then you look
at your worship with the eye of
self approval.
Look I pray so well. I've improved my
prayer so now I find
whether it's the spiritual meanings you find or
the personal
worldly benefits you find in the prayer. So
you look at it with the eye of
approval, I pray.
And that's very harmful.
Because that is from a lack of sincerity,
and the lack of sincerity is the breeding
ground
of vices.
Pride can come in,
well showing off can come in, conceit,
self satisfaction,
pride,
looking down on others,
heedlessness,
heedlessness. Because you're so satisfied.
They say it's the example of that is
like the person
who goes who goes
looking for the king.
And you get to the palace,
some people get busy by the trees,
some by the fruits, some by the rivers,
other people enter
the court of the king. And they're like
wow! So they're and the king's right there.
Did you really go looking for the king?
Wow. And they put, you know, they say,
welcome to the court, and they take off
your travel clothing, they put nice garbs, now
you're busy with the garments. You know, you
know,
can I get one of those belts too?
And, you know, so you're busy with those
things, then they serve the meal.
You're like focused on the steak
and the
potatoes,
and there's the king.
And no one's paying attention
to the king.
Whose gardens are those, whose rivers, whose castle,
whose court,
whose
whose gifts,
whose meal,
whose table,
it's the king. The point is the king.
So
that's why
Abu Bakr said
that
seeking
the sweet seeking
the sweetness of acts of worship
is a destructive
poison.
A destructive poison for whom? For someone who
is seeking closeness to Allah.
For someone seeking closeness to Allah.
Right?
Because
as
you know this work
that we're looking at,
or
Ibn al Sarami, Imam Zaruk has
a poem version of this.
And
it was commented upon by a student of
Iam Zarooq's,
one of his distinguished students, Imam Al Kharubi,
who says in his commentary,
What is incumbent upon the servant of Allah
is they not
be fixated
on their actions.
And not to ascribe your actions to yourself.
Why?
Allah has created you and all that you
do.
That is
what is befitting.
It's a type of
implicit
association of partners with Allah. It's insincerity
because you acted not for Allah.
Now it's not
a sinful motive or some, but you fell
short.
So why do you go to the court?
Not for the king, you went there because
you want the stake.
That's not sincerity.
That's not sincerity and that's not love.
So
that's why in one of the brilliant treatises
of Islam,
it's a deep reminder of what true faith
entails,
what oneness of Allah entails.
And this treatise is translated into English. A
treatise concerning divine oneness translated
by Usad Mukhtar Holland. May Allah have mercy
on him.
He says,
he begins
in a dramatic fashion. He says
your entirety
is hidden
association of partners with Allah. Why?
Because every time you seek
other than Allah,
this is
an an implicit,
unconscious
seeking of other than Allah. And that's it's
insincerity, and insincerity
is
against what we've been commanded of sincerity.
They've been commanded only that they worship Allah
making their religion
completely sincere for His sake alone.
And when you become attached
to these,
to the sweetness of worship, to the happiness,
to the social aspects of the worship, etcetera.
These are things. How do you treat those?
You treat those 2 as gifts.
So you thank Allah for the gift. You
have gratitude,
but you don't busy yourself with the gift
from the giver.
So he says,
Your
affirmation of divine oneness
will not become manifest for you until you
leave your own self
and all your attachments
by Him,
by being attached to Allah.
So that you are
by Him and for Him,
and not by yourself and for
yourself. Right? And that's a high level reminder.
Right?
Wali as
well says these amazing words. He says,
Oh you who are imprisoned
by desires.
Oh you who are imprisoned
by your acts of worship.
Oh you who are imprisoned
by stations
and
by visions.
You are deluded.
The sinner is deluded
by their sin
and turning away from Allah. But the one
who's worshipping
is also deluded, it's not as bad a
delusion in one sense
because you are at least obeying Allah.
But
if you're obeying Allah, not seeking Allah,
that too
is
in
It's stepping down from the station of slavehood.
You are worshiping Allah, but not sincerely for
Allah. You've been commanded both.
It is you we worship, it is you
we rely upon.
So you're still a prisoner.
Right?
And all of these are from absence from
Allah
Whereas what is sought
by the worship
is the one worshiped.
What is sought
in one's worship is the one worshiped.
So see the Abdul Ghani Nabi will see
in his commentary.
He says,
So stopping
with the acts of worship alone
without
genuinely
purifying with sincerity of motive
is
a preventative
from reaching
Allah
You're in the castle but you're ignoring the
king.
At least you're in the castle, that's better
than being out there somewhere.
But sometimes being in the castle could be
a false claim.
So, yeah, you gotta go to the castle,
but you gotta pay attention to the king.
As Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in Surat
Najm, verse 42, and truly to your Lord
is all end.
Is all end.
Is all that is sought.
Alright.
So
and this goes against Sidq,
being true to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because as Sidi Abdul Ghani Nabulsi says, because
if you were true to Allah,
you would not turn away from Him
towards your desires and your sin or towards
the worship and its fruits. You would engage
in the worship
but engaging your heart with Allah
So this is the
underlying
principle here that don't
worship Allah for Allah.
Right?
That truly by the remembrance of Allah do
hearts find rest.
But that
by the remembrance of Allah is by the
one remembered.
That is the
rest that is sought. The rest that is
sought is
the rest of
reaching Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Right? And
and that rest is a rest in which
there is no rest.
You have inward rest but outwardly you are
always striving.
What you seek
is beyond you.
What you seek
is beyond you.
Because you never reach Allah that okay I've
reached.
So how do you deal with this? He
says
It's treatment first is to know that your
actions,
even if you strive to make them sincere,
they have
hidden defects, they have shortcomings.
Were you conscious of Allah at every moment?
Did you
uphold what Allah says when He says
Be mindful of Allah as He deserves.
Right? Esteem Allah as He deserves to be
esteemed.
Allah tells us the answer.
They did not esteem Allah as He deserves
to be esteemed.
So to know that your actions,
even if you strive to be sincere, have
shortcomings. So how could you take pride in
your efforts?
And that all your actions are never
short of
never bereft of shortcomings.
So rather than taking pride in what you
did,
recognize that you fall short of what Allah
deserves.
And that's the state of our beloved Messenger
the
one who is told
by his Lord
I am the foremost of the children of
Adam
and that's not a boast. He is commanded
to tell us that.
In my hand will be
the banner
of praise on the day of resurrection.
He will be, you know,
like, they'll be advertising on the day of
resurrection,
this is the beloved of Allah.
Right?
But yet,
what is his sunnah? It is his sunnah
to make Istighfar 3 times after the greatest
act of worship, the prayer.
Why?
Because Allah you deserve better.
His state is that in one gathering he
would make Istighfar
70 times. Why?
Because
as
a servant rises in their relationship with Allah,
they realize
how much more does Allah deserve.
Right? How much more
does Allah deserve?
Because he says
And to know that its actions
will
not become sincere except
by stopping to look at one's own actions
with the eye of approval.
Rather, how does one look at one's actions?
When I was still in university, we had
a deed intensive
here in Canada, this is 1995.
And many of us were having an activist
crisis back then,
because we had been running around,
you know, a lot of harukah.
That's what we thought. A lot
of action
with little
that was blessed. And there's always benefit.
But we're,
a bunch of us are very concerned.
I asked one of the scholars that, you
know,
I'm worried that all this, you know, activism
and positions of leadership in the MSA, and
in the community, and this and that. So
should I step away from that and
and sort of work on myself?
And this this scholar
looked as I said, the strangest thing he'd
heard.
He said, why would you do that?
I said, because you're just worried about insincerity
and pride, and
And he smiled, and he said,
only a fool would take pride in the
actions of another.
Only a fool would take pride in the
actions of another. Why?
But Allah tells us,
Allah has created you,
and He has created all that you do.
Your your actions
are a gift from Allah
Your actions are a gift from Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Don't ascribe it to yourself.
Strive out of Adab with Allah,
but see
the action,
see the inspiration to the action,
the facilitation of the action,
the knowledge by which you can direct yourself
to the action. You've learned how to pray.
See that as a gift from Allah.
Right?
And what is the beginning of gratitude,
which is the way of the prophets
in all their actions?
Say, act, oh family of David,
with gratitude.
And few of my servants are truly grateful.
And what is gratitude?
Abu Bakr al Wasafi
said, same person we quoted earlier about looking,
if seeking the sweetness of one's acts of
worship, making that one that that's a killing
destructive that's
a
destructive poison. Radiallahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Gratitude
is to behold
divine favor.
Gratitude
is to behold
divine favor.
So we ask Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la to
grant us of that.
Next,
tomorrow, we'll
be looking at
the harm of following one's desires,
right,
And how
following one's desires kills
the the human self,
kills one's heart. So we'll look at that
Thank you for listening to the RoHa, daily
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