Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #171 Guidance for Seekers Introducing the Author and Text The Treatise for Seekers o
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Each week in our
Friday circle,
we share
a brief reminder
and
we had been going through
hadiths that soften hearts
from one of the great collections of hadith
through much of last year.
And we're we're beginning
from this week
to cover one of the great
works
on
Islamic
spiritual wisdom.
A beautiful treatise by one of
the imams
of the salaf of the early Muslims.
And one of the first
who
spoke
systematically about Islamic spirituality.
A great scholar
of the science of hadith,
a great theologian,
a distinguished
jurist,
but above all
a master
of Islamic spiritual wisdom.
And the work that we're going to be
looking at is called
The treatise for seekers of guidance.
And I sort of
when we're starting seekers,
we initially named it seekers guidance
partly because I was thinking of a cool
name
and I used to have a blog called
seekers digest.
So I thought of the treatise of Imam
al Muhasibi
and chose this name.
And then Imam Zaid comes out with
this book called The Treatise for Seekers of
Guidance.
And I felt kind of smart,
which I don't always feel because
when you do something and someone
much smarter than you, much wiser than you
does the same thing, you get glimmers of
hope.
But it's
an amazing
work by one of the real giants of
islamic scholarship.
Al Harith ibn Assad Al Muhasibi.
Imam Al Muhasibi
was born in Basra,
and
it's actually not known exactly when he was
born. But it's assumed to be around the
year 165,
give or take some years.
He didn't spend long in Basra,
and he
migrated
to Baghdad,
which
from the mid
second century of Islam
was
really the
It was the
the marvel of this world. It was probably
the biggest city in the world at the
at the time.
Although some Chinese would dispute that but
these are Muslims considered the biggest city in
the world. Some Indians would argue about that
but Indians argue about most things. Allah bless
Everyone.
And he studied
in Baghdad
with great scholars both of the outward sciences
which he distinguished himself in
but also
great many of the great spiritual masters of
Baghdad.
And he lived there
and he died there. And he started actually
quite a lot of controversy.
Because though he was a great scholar of
hadith
and at that time,
you know,
the greatest concern
of
the of
the beloved messenger was
to preserve
the sunnah of the prophet
to preserve that which the messenger of Allah
has come with. Anyone busy doing anything else,
they're they consider him to be kind of
strange,
which is why Imam Abu Hanifa
was widely criticized
because he studied hadith,
so they respected him. But then he's saying
things that are not just hadith,
where you where you getting this from? Sir,
they were very wary and this is a
very healthy tension. But Imam Al Muhasibi was
both a great scholar of hadith
and the outward sciences,
but he spoke
in-depth in-depth
about
taking oneself to account,
spoke in-depth
about the states of the heart,
about
the different thoughts that occur to a person,
spoke he spoke with
great detail
about sincerity
and how to acquire it,
about
showing off an ostentation
and its manifestations.
He spoke
with great nuance
on how to fulfill the rights of Allah
And part of what is required in order
to fulfill the rights of Allah
is how to carefully guard the rights
of Allah's
creation.
And he had so much emphasis on on
taking oneself to account
that that's the name that he got.
From from taking oneself
to account.
And he wrote many great treatises. The one
that we're going to look at is one
of his midsized works,
the treatise for seekers of guidance.
And
the comes from,
which can be called right guidance.
Right? And
can be seen
as a synonym for
for guidance
being shown the way.
But
and there's much discussion on the distinction between
and Hidayah.
But one of the ways of understanding the
distinction is that
you could you know, guidance is to be
shown the way,
but Rushd
emphasizes the aspect of it being the right
way.
Right? Being the right way.
Right? It's right guidance.
And the Mustar shid
is the one who is seeking
guidance.
Right?
So this is this is a book. I
would have called it a book for like
book of assistance. Right?
I would call it book, but Imam Zaid
called it
a treatise. So we'll follow his naming.
The
it's a treatise for those
seeking right guidance. You want to be guided
as a believer and you're seeking to be
rightly guided to what? To Allah
Here is
a work for you.
Risala
can sometimes indicate that the work is shorter
than a book, than a kitab,
but not always because Imam Al Shafi'i wrote
his risala and it's big.
Right?
And
but in the title is also an important
indication,
right, which is that change begins with seeking.
Right? Change begins with seeking.
It is also telling us that the guidance
that is sought is not purely academic guidance.
Right? That this is not just describing
a theoretical framework
for
ethical conduct or for spiritual conduct. That this
is the theory.
Right. But rather
if you're seeking change,
you are then
this is guidance
for you.
And we ask Allah to benefit us from
that. We are blessed
to
have
this work translated
and also commented upon by one of the
great luminaries of our time,
Imam Zayed Sheikir.
And this work is available through Firdaus books
and others. There's also an ebook,
and maybe it's just me, but the ebook
works kind of funny.
Inshallah they'll update it or whatever, but the
hardcover
the hard copy
is much more is much
nicer than the ebook. But there's also an
ebook version
floating around
on legally.
The legal ebook, you can get it through
Kindle and all these other places.
And Imam Zaid,
may Allah protect and preserve him,
in his commentary
gives really practical guidance on how you can
apply this
in our lives.
And
it's a commentary that that is full of
benefit. The commentary is taken from
Imam Zaid's teaching of the work
over a decade ago.
And
that
the the lesson set of Imam Zayed teaching
this work is also available, and I believe
through those books also has that available. So
you can get the book, but also the
CD set.
Imam al Muhasibi's
work was published in a brilliant edition that
could really be called a commentary,
right, by one of the great luminaries
of the 20th century,
Sheikh Abdul Fattah
Abu Huddah,
who
was born in the year 1917
and died in the year
197
1997.
And
I remember it very distinctly because we used
to have a with
with Sheik Talal.
Sheik Talal, our dear
teacher here in Toronto was a direct student
of Sheikh Talal Fatah and
you know we used to be a really
curious bunch at U of T.
Kind of crazy and raw
like not not fully cooked.
So I'm sure we were quite entertaining
for Sheikh Talal, he was a very calm
man. So he used to usually come with
this smile like I'm expecting something funny to
happen and it usually did.
But
this
but one day sheikh Tal came,
I think it was February 16th, because that
morning, Sheik Abdul Fattah had died.
And so he mentioned to us. Of course,
Sheikdal being Sheikdal didn't mention that he's a
student of Sheik Abdul Fattah or anything like
that.
But
Sheik Abdul Fattah
who was from Aleppo in Syria, but he
was
exile like so many Syrian scholars have been
in the last 40 years
and lived
much of his final decades in
in Saudi.
He was
a one of the truly distinguished scholars of
Hadith
and
was also a, you know, passionately Hanafi.
And he authored
many works
and was noted
for the precision
and nuance
of his scholarship.
They say
whether he authored a book or edited the
book, his footnotes would be much more interesting
than even the book itself. You bought it
the book, you'd go through the footnotes because
you could learn so much just by flipping
through the footnotes.
And
he wrote copious notes
on this book. And in our lessons, we'll
often be referring to the notes that he
shares.
And one of the concerns of Sheikh Abdul
Fattah Abu Buddha in in the work is
to show how
Islamic spirituality
is deeply rooted
and
is the fruits of
the Quran and the Sunnah
and is integral
to the understanding of the early Muslims who
preserved the Quran and the Sunnah.
And also to show that this is not
that Islamic spiritual wisdom is not some call
to to individualism
and to seclude oneself from society,
but it is a personal transformation
that is part
of the transformational
message of our prophet Muhammad
So we'll be starting this work,
from the author's opening
next
week. But this week, we wanted to share
some examples
from
the spiritual wisdom of this great scholar,
Imam Harith,
Ibn Asad Al Muhasibi.
And
Imam Al Muhasibi said so we just these
are just some selections. They were selected by
Sheikh Abdul Fattah in his foreword.
He said, Rahimahullah Imam Al Muhasibi said,
Everything has an essence.
And the essence of the human being is
their intellect.
And the essence of the intellect
is divine facilitation.
Tawfir. Why?
Because
if you are guided
to right thinking,
if you are guided to make right
choices,
you are guided to the truth,
It is
from Allah
It is from Allah
It is divine facilitation.
It is Allah creating
that
good
in your
in you.
In another narration of the statement, he said,
the essence of the intellect is patience.
Is
patience.
And we'll look at his explanation of patience
as being steadfastness
on what is pleasing to Allah
Also from his from the words of Imam
al Muhasibi and this
reminds us of the balance
that is inherent
to the sunnah of the Prophet
Because the definition of the straight path
at is
the path of perfect balance
between every consideration.
And Sheikh Talal, may Allah preserve him, once
said
but he refused to explain it. He just
said think about it.
I don't think I still understood it. But
he said people imagine the straight path to
be 2 dimensional,
but it's not.
I said, so then how many dimensions does
it have? I said, think about it.
Right? Because there are multiple considerations
of what it means
to to to have uprightness.
Right? To to to to be purposeful.
And all those considerations,
the right balance is a.
Which is why it's a point of belief
that a as Imam mentions in his creed,
the straight path is the the way of
the sunnah is the path of perfect balance
between
extreme
between being extreme and being lax,
between excessive hope
and between dejection, between every consideration,
the right balance
is and is found in
the path of the prophet
So exemplifying that balance,
he says,
The best of this community
are those
whose
next worldly concerns
don't busy from their worldly concerns,
nor their worldly concerns
busy from their next worldly concern. Why? Because
Allah
describes the righteous believers as being those whose
call is,
Oh lord,
grant us and it's not grant me, grant
us.
And who is the plural for?
For all creation.
In this life,
great good,
which is
all all matters of this world that are
pleasing to you.
The good of this world is not your
pleasures
and desires.
The good of this life is all that
is a means
to the to
Allah's pleasure. The good of this life
is all that is a means to Allah's
pleasure
of the matters of this world. Not just
for oneself, but for everyone. Grant us.
And in the next life, good.
And the greatest good in that. In all
of this is the concern for Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Right? And this balance is something
worthy of reflecting upon. You'll you'll have much
to say about this
in the text itself. The best of this
community are those whose next worldly concerns don't
busy away from their worldly concerns.
Your religiosity
should not cause you not to
be negligent with respect to the rights of
your parents, your spouse, your children,
your neighbors,
the rights
of others.
But being busy with their rights
or with your career or anything should not
busy you from your next worldly concerns. What's
the right balance
in these matters?
It is
upholding the sunnah of the messenger
Imam Al Muhasibi was asked what is good
character? And he summarized it in 4 qualities.
May Allah grant us
good character.
The Prophet described good character as being
the key to dealing with all people.
Deal with people
through good character.
Right.
The instrument
for dealing with other people
is good character.
What is good character?
Now you could go into a
theoretical
explanation.
Let's define character. And then what is what
is good? Then what is good character?
And its types and so on. But practically,
that's the difference between theoretical guidance and practical
guidance.
Right? Someone seeking practical guidance. He
says,
Allah grant us these qualities.
Good character is
bearing
hurt
or bearing
bearing harm,
lack of anger,
a cheerful
face and pleasant speech.
Right?
Imam al Muhaasabi also
talk talks at length about the central virtue
of gratitude,
thankfulness, shukr.
And he says,
Whoever does not thank Allah for blessings has
made them susceptible
to depart.
And those of you are familiar with the
hikam
of
will hear a resonance
to this because many of
you need many of the you know these
wisdoms
of the great of the scholars, what are
they? They are insights
of the meanings of the Quran and the
Sunnah.
They didn't make something up that well the
way I see it
gratitude is this way. They are reflecting
on the guidance
of the Quran, the understanding of the sunnah,
and these are
fruits of their insight.
And
Allah says,
If you are grateful,
surely we will grant you increase.
So
Allah's
preserving of good and causing it to flourish
is conditional upon
gratitude.
And there's implications to that that lack of
gratitude.
Right? Lack of gratitude
is what causes blessings to depart. And they
say the departure of blessings is not simply
in losing them,
but in failing to benefit from them.
In failing to benefit from them.
You may have a blessing, but if you're
not grateful for it, how will you benefit
from it?
And one of the early Muslims said, the
reality is that all people
are ever drowned in blessings.
They just imagine
that,
and so that they they just imagine that
they're facing hardship.
Right? Because the real at any moment,
anything that could happen to you, if you're
a believer, is good for you. So you're
drowned in blessings.
Even if what's the worst thing that can
happen to you in this life is that
you die.
But if you die a believer, then even
that death is good for you
because what comes after it, the hereafter comes
after it.
So Allah's father
says, We will try you with a little
of diminishment, of this and that. They said,
what about what about if you lost your
life? They said that too. It's just a
little bit.
Because compare the finite life of this world
with what you move to, which is the
the infinite life of the hereafter,
it's next to nothing.
Right? So it's not such a big deal.
Of course, you should realize that yourself. Someone's
going through trial, don't tell them it's not
such a big deal.
You have to give them empathy and care
and mercy and all those things.
The the final hikmah that we're going to
look at from Imam al Muhasibi,
and this is from his emphasis
on the inward.
But the emphasis on the inward has an
external purpose. He says,
That whoever
corrects their inward
with watchfulness
and sincerity
Allah
adorns their outward with striving,
with and
following the sunnah.
Right?
That if you want to change your condition
very often when we say, okay I want
to get serious about deen to say, let's
start doing things.
Let me pray, fast, recite Quran, do this,
do this, do this.
It doesn't happen
because
you started
the wrong way.
Right? You started the wrong way.
And this is just an insight from the
words of the prophet
Actions are
by their intentions.
So you started to pray. The question arises,
why?
Well, because
actually not sure.
Rationally doesn't make sense. Why would you pray
if you don't know why you're praying?
I'm reciting Quran. Why are you reciting Quran?
It's good to recite the Quran.
Why is it good to recite the Quran?
Because it is. That doesn't answer the question.
Right? Actions begin with their intentions.
Conditions change
by
taking oneself to account.
Being watchful.
The realization that Allah is watching over you.
Right.
Is to realize that Allah is watching over
you. So you act accordingly.
And there's a method to how you operationalize
that watchfulness which she'll talk about.
So if we want to change
our religious condition
whether as individuals, but also if we want
to change
our communal
condition as a community, very often we look
at, okay, let's make a to do list.
Next, let's make an action plan.
Right?
And yes, that is needed.
But it begins with let's make a spiritual
plan,
which is
prioritizing
sincerity
and prioritizing
consciousness
of Allah.
Right? And if one does that, then the
fruits of that that Allah
will direct you towards
striving
in your own life
and
in your wider concern
and will will manifest
the sunnah to you. Because if you want
to sincerity is to act seeking the pleasure
of Allah. You will realize that the only
way to seek the pleasure of Allah is
to follow the messenger of
Allah It's an amazing
it's
a it's a truth. Right? Whoever and Imam
al Muhasibi
speaks with authority. You'll see
this in his words like they they read
like hiccup, like
spiritual wisdoms.
And the Ulema say that the reason
that they speak with this authority
and the reason these words
have lasting
spiritual impact, we're not crazy that 1200 years
later we're still reading these things because it
works.
And why does it work? Because it worked
in his life,
Right? He's not saying this because
he put together a theory.
He's saying this because he lived it.
And his own life
and his uprightness and his own scrupulousness and
caution
and care
are manifestations
that this is true. Right?
Whoever rectifies their inward
through watchfulness and sincerity, Allah
adorns their outward with striving. May Allah make
us of the people of striving and following
the sunnah.
So inshallah
next class we'll begin with the opening of
the text
and by looking at the council of Imam
al Muhasabi
on how to be people
who truly see things as they are. The
'ulul al bab' the people
of insight, the people of meaning. Because we
live in a world of forms
apparently.
But the reality
of this life
is meaning. So how can we be people
of meaning rather than mere form?
And how can we be people of Quran?
And how can we truly
uphold the Sunnah? How can we be truly
intelligent?
So it is,
it is a very powerful opening. We ask
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to do it
justice.
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that He
make us true seekers of guidance and he
facilitate the way of right guidance for us
so we can be of the people of
his closeness
and love and beholding the people of contentment.
The people
who are
in the company of the beloved Messenger
under Allah's eternal love with our loved ones
in eternity.
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