Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #172 Guidance for SeekersThe Meaning of Praise The Treatise for Seekers of Guidance
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The podcast discusses the importance of prophetic guidance for millions around the world, with a focus on the great early work of Islamic spiritual wisdom. The message of the podcast is a call to life, but it is not a call to death. The spirituality of Islam is based on loyalty to the book and following the path of guidance, and holding fast to divine guidance is crucial. The importance of following and holding fast to achieve Islam's path is emphasized.
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Last week, we began looking at
one of the great
early works of Islamic spiritual wisdom.
A great work on how one realizes
Islam in one's life
because the straight path
is not just a way that one follows
in life,
that everyone has some way, this is ours,
but the path has a purpose
which is
to fulfill
its ultimate objective
which is
closeness to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
which is attaining unto
the love of Allah, which is attaining unto
closeness to Allah,
which is being of the people
of
eternal
contentment,
becoming of the people
of paradise.
And those seeking guidance
took the means of attaining guidance.
And one of the means for guidance are
the great scholars of
the Islamic tradition whom the prophet himself
referred to as being the inheritors
of the prophets.
Because prophets left behind
neither
wealth
nor
success nor,
progeny
rather what they left behind as their inheritance
was
knowledge of guidance.
So whoever takes of it, said the prophet
has
taken something
truly great.
So we
began looking at
the treatise for seekers of guidance.
Ilham Harith al Muhasabi's work,
And we mentioned just briefly about
the author
who was one of the great early imams
of Islam,
and
this work of his
is
a comprehensive council.
It is not written as a formal
book that is arranged into chapters
and subjects. It is, as we will see,
a practical
council.
And we looked at
Rushd
from which the term Mustasheeden
comes is sikih
is right guidance.
To be guided
aright.
And the one seeking guidance
has a sense of purpose.
They have a sense of purpose, and we
talked about that.
That
you were not we were not created in
this life
without
purpose.
Right?
And this is one of the points of
reflection
with which the author
himself opens his text.
This work
has
a an excellent
translation and commentary
by one of the luminaries of our time.
Imam Zaid
Shakir and that is something
that you can
benefit from.
It's called treatise for seekers of guidance and
it's available.
So today
we are going to be looking at the
opening of Imam Al Muhasibi's text.
And
Imam Al Muhasibi
begins as Islamic texts are begun in the
name of Allah mighty and majestic. Right? Bismillahir
Rahmanir Rahim.
Right? In the name
of
Allah.
Right?
Rahman,
the encompassingly
merciful.
Rahim,
The particularly
merciful. Because He is
His encompassing mercy
envelops all things.
Right? All things. Things only exist
due to the mercy of Allah.
And that is only one aspect
of the mercy of Allah.
But His particular mercy
are for those
who turn to him
and seek
his mercy.
And then he
begins by praising Allah
He begins
after the Bismillah
by praising Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
In the name of
all praises are due to Allah,
the first,
the eternal.
Right? The first, meaning without beginning.
The eternal.
The 1,
the majestic.
The one
who has none,
who can compare to him,
or is like him.
Right?
I praise him, says Imam Al Muhasabi,
with a praising that
is
requisite
to his blessings.
And that reaches
the extent
of his gifts.
How can you do that? How can you
praise Allah enough?
By
Allah's praise
of Himself.
That all praise is deserved for Allah.
It's deserved by Allah. It is not that
I am praising Him,
but the praise is His. It belongs to
Him.
And this of course also reminds us that
why do we praise Allah
We praise Allah
because of who he is.
We praise Allah because he is
Allah.
We praise him for himself.
Right. For his perfection.
For his majesty.
For his beauty.
Right. For his reality.
We also praise him for his attributes
because he is the most praiseworthy
for who he is.
He is the most praiseworthy
because of his attributes.
Every attribute of perfection
Allah possesses it.
All the attributes,
all the qualities
of majesty,
all the qualities of mercy,
all the qualities
of beauty,
of perfection,
all of them Allah possesses
in absolute perfection.
And Allah also is praiseworthy because He is
in His attributes completely exalted
beyond any
imperfection.
And we praise him also for his actions.
Right? So we praise Allah for himself,
for his attributes, and for his actions.
So only praising Allah because of something nice
that happens to you in your life
is very short sighted.
We praise him because of his actions.
What he does to you is only
for you, is only one small subset of
his actions. He deserves much more praise than
that.
Because every action of Allah
is an expression
of who he is and what his attributes
are.
So all
divine acts are deserving
of praise.
One of the great early Muslims
expressed this
quite dramatically.
His child died in infancy, and someone told
him, your son has died. And he said,
Alhamdulillah.
And people were shocked.
Because people think you just say Alhamdulillah. And
they said, oh great. That
means, oh, great. Something nice happened. Therefore, let
me praise Allah.
That's short sighted.
We should have
insightful
praising of Allah.
Right? Then he says,
and I bear witness
that there is no God
but God.
Alone
without partner.
The witness
of one who knows
Allah's lordship.
And of course, Allah's lordship the word
is an amazing word because
is from is
the one who cares
and nurtures,
who takes who takes care of your affairs,
and will is taking you towards
what is ultimately good for you.
Right?
The word Allah is they call it,
the name of majesty.
Right? You say it with a sense of
awe.
But when you say,
right, you say that with a sense
of intimacy with Allah.
A sense
of
like the child
when they turn to to their mother.
Right? With a sense of expectation
from Allah
with hope.
Right? Because he is your lord.
Right? He is your caretaker,
your cherisher, your nurturer.
Right? So
with a I bear witness that there is
no god, but god alone without partner with
a wit with a bearing witness of one
who knows
Allah's
caring lordship.
Aware
of
his absolute oneness.
And I bear witness
that Muhammad
is his servant and messenger.
Allah chose him for his revelation.
Because what makes a prophet a prophet?
What makes a messenger
a messenger? That Allah
chose
this individual
amongst all his creation
for direct
revelation
from
Allah himself,
and granted them the station
of being Allah's ambassadors
to creation.
Conveying to them what the lord and sustainer
of existence
wants from his creation.
Allah could address creation directly,
but he chose to address them in this
way
through his prophets
and messengers who are the emissaries
of Allah.
And whom
and that Prophet whom Allah made a proof
upon all creation.
So that any who perishes
may perish
with clear proof.
And for those who come to life
come to life
with clarity.
Indeed Allah is truly all hearing
and all knowing.
Right?
So this tells us what the purpose of
the message is.
Right?
This message is a message that is a
call to life.
But which life?
The true life. Because this life
is fleeting,
and it's
the sense that it lasts
is merely a delusion.
The true life, as Allah tells us in
the Quran,
is the life of the next life.
Right? And this is
one of the things that the the with
the prophet
when they're when they're building,
they would often sing together.
Right? In
the truly the the true life is the
life of the hereafter.
For Hamil,
Ansara will Muhajira.
So have mercy
on the Ansar, the people of Medina,
and
the migrants.
Meaning the people of Mecca.
Right? The true life is the life of
the hereafter. This is just a fleeting
delusion.
And then
he opens
by
declaring.
Right? That know well
that Allah most high
chose from amongst his servants
who are believers,
people of insight.
Right? That in general,
amongst creation there are some whom Allah gifted
with the gift of faith, and that's a
gift. But amongst the believers,
there are heedless believers and there are people
of insight.
The is
the essence of something.
You can have just a shell of something,
but you have its essence,
the the people of insight.
Those who have knowledge
of Allah
and knowledge of the command of Allah.
And Allah described who are the people of
insight, that who are the chosen
servants of Allah.
And amongst his creation
there are some who believe. But amongst those
some who believe
are some
who not only believe
but who are really alive.
They
live their faith.
And Allah described their qualities and these qualities
are 4.
Right?
Allah described them with 4 qualities, with loyalty.
That they fulfill.
They remain
loyal to Allah.
They remain true
to Allah.
And this is one of the greatest qualities
one can have in one's spiritual life and
as a human being is.
Right. Abu Madyan said, one of the great
scholars of,
originally from Andalus,
from Muslim Spain, but then he migrated to
to North Africa,
said,
Whoever seeks
spiritual clarity,
let them hold fast to loyalty.
And awe.
And of course
the often translate is fear,
but
the believers fear
is not the fear of dislike.
Right. Because one type of fear
is you
you you you're in a state,
you're shaken by something that you dislike.
And that's not the nature of your relationship
with Allah. He is not the object of
our dislike.
Right?
What is the nature of the believers fear?
Why do we fear
Allah?
It is an awe.
Allah subhanahu tells us
Whoever
is in awe of the station
of their lord.
If you recognize how
great
god is
in his perfection,
in his majesty,
in his beauty,
You're dazzled and shaken.
Right? That is the fear of a believer.
Right? It's not the fear of dislike that
okay. If you really fear something, just stay
as far away from it as you can.
But that's not the fear. So it's like
the fear of a child,
lest they displease their mother. What does the
child do? They run to their mother.
Right?
And I I always break things.
Safest place is
going,
You know, latch
on. So it gives them less maneuvering space
for their,
their modes of therapy.
And reverence,
which is a consequence
of awe.
And these all 4 of these are pointed
to in the Quran when Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says,
It is only those of insight
that take heed.
Those who fulfill the covenant of Allah, who
are loyal to the covenant of Allah.
And they don't break
their pledge.
Those who maintain
all ties that Allah has commanded
be maintained.
That is praiseworthy character.
To maintain
well your relationship with Allah
and to maintain well your spiritual relationships,
to maintain well your
social
and worldly relationships. That is
good character.
And who are in reverent awe,
who
are reverent of their
lord, and
are in awe
of
having a bad reckoning.
It's from Surat Arad verses 19
to 21.
Right? So he tells us,
right,
that people of insight, what happens?
Their hearts
open up. And this is a beautiful expression
that is repeated again and again. And he'll
talk more about it in the text.
Right? The
faith
is a good word.
It's like a the metaphor
of faith is like a tree.
But how does tree begin? How does a
tree begin?
It begins with a seed,
but the seed is planted.
But if the seed
of faith,
right, is planted,
what happens
to the soil in which a seed is
planted?
It opens up.
Right? And that and where is the seed
of faith planted?
In your chest, your
because within it
can be your heart.
Within it can be your spiritual heart. If
the seed of faith is planted
and it begins to take root,
your chest expands
to give space
for your heart.
Right. And this is and Allah's this
whomever Allah
expands their chest
for faith.
The prophet
asked
did we not expand
your chest?
Right.
So he says,
whomever Allah
opens their chest
and for for faith.
And their acceptance of faith
reaches their heart.
So it's not just a seed
that they say, yeah, I have it, but
it becomes rooted
in their heart. It becomes rooted
in their heart.
And if you realize that,
right, you have faith.
But a tree that does not bear fruit,
is it a tree?
It is. The apple tree that doesn't give
apples,
is it still a tree?
Yeah. It is.
But is it fulfilling
the purpose of an apple tree?
Not really.
I know with all due respect to apple
trees that you can't criticize anything now. Right?
But that's not the purpose of an apple
tree.
The believer is meant to be like the
good word.
The the good word is like the good
tree whose roots are firm and whose branches
are in the sky. It bears fruit in
every season by leave of its lord. So
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
uses this metaphor. Right?
So someone
for whose faith becomes rooted in the heart,
then what do they
do?
And whoever seeks thereby
a path
of closeness to Allah,
holds fast
to the path of the people of insight.
Those praised by Allah
for having those four qualities.
How do you hold fast to their way
Of reverence and awe
and commitment.
By holding fast
to the limits
of
divine guidance.
Right?
Of the book of Allah most high.
The the book of Allah and the
example of his messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And what
the guided
imams
of this religion
have agreed upon.
Right.
This is
this is the way
of Islamic spirituality.
Right? That if you want
spirituality,
if you want
change,
if you want to be a person
of purpose,
of meaning, of insight in this life,
you need certain characteristics. What are those characteristics?
The characteristics that he described
right at the beginning.
Right?
Right? Of having
loyalty
to Allah,
praiseworthy traits of character, awe, and reverence.
How do you attain those?
By
by this commitment
to what faith entails.
And at the heart of it is
holding fast to divine guidance. Right? This
outside of this, there is no Islamic spirituality.
Any understanding
of spirituality,
the spiritual tradition,
tasawwuf,
sufism
that is not rooted
in the book of Allah,
the sunnah of the messenger, sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
And the way of the guided inheritors of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
can take any name it wishes, but it
has nothing to do with the spiritual tradition
of Islam.
The spiritual tradition of Islam is not about
song and dance.
It's not about
anything
but Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Everything besides Allah is a means to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Right? And this is the straight path. He
says,
Right? This is the straight path. The path
that we ask Allah for
in every
prayer, in every cycle.
That Allah has called his servants to.
So this is my path
that is
straight. So follow it.
And what is the basis
of Islam? And what is the basis of
the spiritual tradition of Islam? It is following.
And don't follow various ways.
Lest they take you away from the path
to Allah because he himself
has given us the path to him.
This is what he has advised you with.
This is what God advises you with so
that you may become of his mindful servants.
Then he goes on to explain what is
meant by holding fast to the book of
Allah.
Alright.
But he mentions this emphasis on on
following and holding fast, and we'll close with
this
with the words of the beloved messenger
who said in a hadith that is related
by Imam Ahmed and Abu Dawood and Tirmidhi.
And it's hadith number 28.
Is it 28? Yeah. Hadith number 28
of Imam Nawi's collection of 40 hadiths.
That the prophet said
hold fast
to my example,
my sunnah.
And the example of the rightly guided successors
after me.
By down with it by down on it
with your very molars,
said the beloved messenger.
Meaning, bite down of hold fast to it
in a manner that you couldn't possibly let
go.
Like, if you bite something
with with just your front teeth,
someone tugs,
you lose the grip.
But if you got something bitten down, so
you really like that steak, but it's not
yours, it's your brother's.
So he's gonna take it, so you bite
down upon it because you couldn't swallow it.
Steak needs some time to
chew. So he's tugging at the steak.
He's not going anywhere because it's
you got it by the molars.
Bite down on it with your very molars.
Right. Don't let go.
Right. And this is
the way of Islamic spirituality which is why
you find the great Imams of the Islamic
spiritual tradition
were great scholars
of theology.
Like, Imam al Muhasabi, he was a distinguished
theologian, a distinguished jurist,
a distinguished
master of hadith.
There these were people of Quran
and Sunnah.
And then he explains and we'll begin here
next class. What is meant by holding fast
to the book of Allah?
Right. So that's where we'll
what is meant by holding fast to the
book of Allah? What is meant by having
true intelligence?
What is true intelligence anyways?
And then
what is the way of the truly intelligent?
He gives us 3
criteria for being a person of intelligence in
this life, and it's not what people talk
about
very often.
And then
and that will con conclude
his
opening statement.
And then we look at his first advice,
which is
to look carefully at your intention.
Okay. So that's what we'll look at
next class. We'll begin
by by his explanation. It's beautiful. On what
it means to hold fast
to the book of Allah. So just in
in summary,
we looked at his opening
that
what is
guidance?
Right? What is guidance?
Right? In this life,
we have a purpose.
Amongst the believers are those who reflect,
and they realize
that their faith has a purpose. The purpose
is
closeness to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So they nurture their faith. So their hearts
open up.
But the opening of the heart
is by
by following
the Quran and the Sunnah. But following it
with a purpose, which is to take this
guidance
that has come
from God
to turn
to God.
Right? That sent as an expression of divine
mercy,
embracing that mercy,
and seeking Allah's mercy
through
that gift of mercy.
Right? And then he explains what does how
do you
follow the book of Allah?
How do you follow the book of Allah?
So so this is a truly beneficial
and practical work. It gives us much to
reflect upon. And one of the ways to
benefit from a work like this
is not simply to listen, but to reflect
to reflect.
That what is this
saying to me in my life?
Do I need to consider a little more
about what my purpose is in life? Do
I need to consider a little more how
is my relation to the book of Allah?
Do I need to consider a little more
What is my connection
to
the prophetic guidance?
We ask Allah
to make us of the people of insight,
of those whose hearts are open
to
the light
of guidance, of faith and good, and that
we manifest
fruitfully
in our actions, in our state, in our
dealings.
We ask him that he make us mirrors
of the light
of his beloved messenger,
who is the
embodiment of all qualities,
beloved to Allah,
who is the embodiment
of divine love.
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