Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #175 Guidance for SeekersAweHope and Patience The Treatise for Seekers of Guidance
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The podcast discusses the three qualities of Islam, including faith, experience, and love. Fear and love are important in achieving deeds, and the need to uphold these qualities in order to be of insight. The importance of patient mentality and faith is emphasized, along with the importance of showing faith and serving others. The speaker provides resources and support for listeners, including a website.
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We're continuing
in our weekly look
at Imam
Al Harith al Mohasabi's work,
Risaylatul Mustardshidin.
And
this work,
which is translated into English
by Imam Zaid Shakir. May Allah
protect
and preserve him as
treatise for seekers of guidance
is a beautiful
early summary
of
living the prophetic way. Right? Because what is
spirituality?
Right? What is the science of?
It is living the prophetic way. Right?
Many people have
this imagination
that spirituality
is
singing
and funny things and chilling out and
the people who are
more most serious
about
their faith
with the people of the spiritual path. The
people who were most
intensely committed to following
the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
both outwardly and inwardly
are the people not just were, but are
the people
of the spiritual path. The the the way
of because
our religion has
three dimensions
and a fourth reality that is kept in
mind.
The seed of the religion
is
iman.
The tree of religion
is Islam.
Right?
But the fruits of religion
are isan,
is spirituality.
Right?
Is is a perfection
because the the
the point of the seed
is not that there just be a tree,
but that the tree bear fruit.
So
the
seed of faith when it is planted
and nurtured,
it grows
the tree of submission.
Islam.
But the fruit it bears
is
is
spiritual excellence.
And Allah uses this metaphor in the Quran,
in Surat Ibrahim.
And this tree is an upright tree.
Right? And its branches extend to the sky.
Right? Its branches
extend
to the sky.
Right? They say the the tree
as a metaphor for the believer.
Right. The how Iman,
right.
Iman
is expressed in gratitude
through Islam.
Faith is expressed in gratitude
through Islam.
But it is how Islam is how you
express your yearning for the divine.
And because if the
seed of faith is planted in your heart,
you yearn
for
the divine.
And that yearning
begins with Islam.
But then the expression of the Islam
is also a yearning for the divine.
How?
By
it bearing fruit.
So this is why
this spirituality
is all grounded in living
the realities of the sunnah.
Imam Al Muhasibi began the text
with 4 keys that we've looked at in
the past two lessons, which are
that if you want to be of the
people
of insight, you need to have 4 qualities.
You
need to take care of your intention.
You need to have taqwa of Allah, mindfulness,
particularly with respect to the rights of others.
You need to take yourself to account
right, to
have
to the level of watching over every thought.
Right? And
taking yourself to account and watchfulness,
are interrelated
as we saw.
Today,
we're going to continue looking
at Imam
al Muhasibi's advice
on three key qualities.
Having awe of Allah,
hope, having rajah,
having hope,
and
having patience.
Having awe, having hope, and having
patience.
And
with that,
there's 2 beautiful councils that we look at.
The first being from
on this theme, and the second from.
May Allah be well pleased with them.
So
He
says, Rahimahullah,
hold yourself in awe of Allah
with respect to your religion.
Hope in him in all your affairs,
and be steadfastly
patient
in all that befalls you.
Then he quotes the words of fear
only your sin.
And hope only
from your lord.
And don't be
don't
be shy of those who don't know until
they ask.
Right? And let not one who is asked
about something they don't know about.
Let them not feel shy of saying I
don't know.
So
we look at these three qualities and the
advice of Said Nali,
The first quality that he reminds us
to uphold
is awe of Allah.
Right? Hold fast,
hold yourself in awe of Allah with respect
to your religion.
Right?
Now can be understood as being
fear
but the only problem with fear is that
fear is generally understood to be a negative
emotion.
If you fear something, you flee from it.
But
the nature of fear of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is fascinating.
The the best way of understanding it, the
Ullama tell us, is that
if you look at how Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala describes
that fear.
And as for the one who fears
the station of their lord,
And who
prevents
their lower self
from its
wayward
ways.
Then paradise is their resting place.
So
the right? This fear or awe of Allah
is one fears the station of Allah, the
majesty of Allah,
the greatness of Allah.
Right? Because
the distinguishing quality of the believer
is
and those who believe are most intense in
their fear of Allah. So our relationship with
Allah is a relationship
of inclination.
Right? The
it's of intensity of love. And what is
love?
Right?
It's It is constant inclination.
So this is not the fear of the
one who turns away,
but rather it's a fear of the one
who's turning
in love
to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and they're in
awe of Allah. Habib Ali al Jifri
once asked Habib
Ali so Habib Ali al Jifri once asked
Sheikh,
Sheikh Mohammed Saeed Ramadore
that does the
lover
fear the one they love?
And Habiba and Sheik Al Buti started crying.
Said no one
fears
more intensely than the lover.
Why?
Because the one who loves, who's always inclining,
it is only they who truly understand.
The the greatness,
the majesty
of the one they're inclining towards.
Right? That is the the fear. So it's
a fear. It's an but it's a fear
of awe.
Right? It's a fear of awe.
It's a fear that bequeaths within one
a sense of humbleness
that that the one I love deserves better.
The one I love deserves better.
And as for the one who fears the
station of their lord. And in this verse,
and you should pay attention to this in
the Quran.
When the difference between when Allah refers to
himself as rub,
as lord,
and when he refers to himself as
Allah.
Because
the the name Allah
is called the
the name of majesty.
Right? It's Allah's name of majesty
and greatness.
But
when Allah refers him himself as a
Rab, this is
This is from his expression
of love and care for his servants.
From his expression of mercy to his servants.
The
because the rub is from.
He's the one who takes care of your
affairs. He's the one who originates you, who
sustains you, who provides for you,
who answers you.
Right?
The one who is in awe
of the station
of
their loving lord.
Their caring and merciful lord.
Right? And that's the balance. Right? That's why
it's important
that when we explain fear to people
that fear Allah.
Right? Someone tells you, fear Allah. Say, okay.
I'm I'm gonna run away. Right?
No.
There is no shelter
nor safety
from you except in you
because you are the object of our love.
And how is this expressed?
And this is the blessedness of the advice
of the great masters. You could say a
lot about
fear. He says,
have all hold yourself in awe of Allah
with respect to your religion. Why?
How do you express
your love of Allah?
That is deen.
Right?
If you realize the greatness of Allah, how
do you realize How do you express that?
Yes. I know how great you are. By
upholding
the limits
of the deen. K. Hold yourself in awe
of Allah with respect to your religion.
Whether it be your prayer
or your devotions.
Do
it.
Expressive of the of your awe of Allah.
Likewise,
with respect to the halal and haram. Right?
That's where
fear
is manifest. It's not by going oh and
ah. Right?
The
the the
the awe of Allah is
then when you buy and sell, when you
transact with people,
when you rent something,
did you make sure that this is in
a manner that is in accordance with the
deen of Allah
and you enter into a contract?
So
And
in the Quran verse that we quoted from
the 79th Surah verse 40,
and who who
keeps
who prevents their lower self from its
winds, from its wayward ways.
That is deen.
A
deen comes from restraint.
The prophet
said, the smart person is the one
who restrains themselves.
Who restrains themselves.
Or
as Imam Nawi explains it,
or who takes themselves to account that you
check yourself.
Right? That you check yourself.
Right?
Meaning, practically,
that you think before you act. You think,
is this acceptable to Allah? Is this pleasing
to Allah?
And then you act.
That's why Rui bin Ahmed said,
One of the companions of Ahmed.
Whoever is mindful
of consequences
will always remain safe.
We ask Allah to be of them. Then
he says,
and hope in him, hope in Allah, in
all your affairs.
Hope
the Ulema tells us tell us
is unconditional
because the believer is not hopeful in their
own acts that I can do it.
Right? I'm hopeful that I'll pass my exams.
That's a type
of latent shirk.
I'm hopeful that this project succeeds.
No.
Hope
is only in Allah
because we don't rely on ourselves.
We don't rely on anything in creating hope
in Allah
So true hope
is seeking the right outcomes
and taking the right means to get there
outwardly and inwardly.
That is true hope.
True hope is when what you are seeking
is worth hoping for.
It is of the good of this life
or the good of the next.
Otherwise, it's delusion.
And then taking the right means to get
there. And there's outward means and inward means.
The outward means of expressing hope
is taking the best means
and these are both material and spiritual.
Right? So you wanna get a job.
You don't just make, You take the material
means to find the job, but you also
you make dua, etcetera, but that's not enough.
Right?
Taking the best means to get there,
there's outward means, but there's also inward means
which are
sincerity.
True hope without sincerity is not true.
That that you do it seeking Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And
with complete reliance upon Allah.
That's why
a secondary in his hicam, in his aphorisms,
to one of the great masterpieces of Islamic
spirituality,
his teacher, Abu Abbas Al Musi, when he
wrote this book, he said,
my dear my dear child,
You have summarized
the and
added to it. Even though Imam Ghazali's
is 4 large volumes made up of 40
books,
The of are 250
short statements,
short aphorisms.
But there's a point to it.
Begins his From the signs that you're relying
on actions
whether your own or other peoples
is that you lose hope
when downfalls
occur.
And and he doesn't say mean
from the signs of relying on your actions.
From the signs that you're relying on actions.
Whether your own or other peoples.
From the signs that you're relying on creation
is losing hope when
things go wrong.
Right? Because our hope is in Allah
And the hope of course is not
just in some things.
Right? In everything.
In everything that one does, the believer hopes
in Allah.
The third
quality is,
he says,
and be steadfastly
patient in all that befalls you.
Right? True patience
is to remain firm on all that is
pleasing to Allah.
With
outward good response.
With outward good response
and inward contentment.
Outward good response
because
let's say
someone
is in a situation where they're being harmed.
Then it's not patience to just let this
harm continue.
It's against prophetic teachings.
If one is able to step away.
K? Someone's stealing your money, you don't say,
okay. That's fine. Steal it. If you steal
my money, I can't pay I can't support
my family.
So that's not patience.
I stop you, but in the right way.
And inwardly to be completely content.
Right? Inwardly
to be completely content. And he'll talk a
lot about patience.
But you're supposed to be patient in everything.
The beginning of patience is trials.
Because in trials, there's nothing else you can
do but be patient.
Right?
And they that's why they say patience must
come with gratitude and contentment.
And so one of the early masters of
spiritual path, he defined patience is
that true patience
is that you face even destruction
with a laughing face
because it's from Allah.
It's from Allah. And you are responding in
a manner pleasing to Allah.
So you'll it is from the one you
love,
and you're responding to it in a way
that you hope he loves.
Right? So just part of the love story.
Sayna Ali
said,
fear only your sin.
And hope only in your lord. This emphasizes
what we took. And then don't be shy
of those who have no clue anyways. They
don't know unless they ask.
Right? They have to find out about your
affairs to know. Meaning,
be shy of the one who knows everything.
And
don't be shy if you don't know of
saying that you don't
know. Because one of the qualities
of a person beloved to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is
humility.
Humility.
Right? Right? Because you are not
you don't have self consequence. I know. No.
Your knowledge is a gift from Allah. And
if you don't have it,
you don't feel bad about not not having
it. You just say, I don't know. And
that's a sign of humility. And finally, we'll
close
with
He gives a beautiful metaphor for what is
the relationship between patience and faith. He says,
He said, no well that patience
in relation to faith
is like the head
in relation to the body.
Right?
If the head is cut, the body is
gone.
If
something if you hear something that would make
you upset with respect to your honor,
then overlook
then forgive and overlook.
Because that is from the highest of matters
as Allah subhanahu tells us. And then he
mentions the words of Sayyidina
Umar who
said,
that whoever
fears Allah doesn't express their rage.
You read. And whoever
is mindful of Allah doesn't simply do whatever
they wish.
And then he said,
Were they not a day of resurrection? Things
will be different from the way you see
them.
Right?
Really differed on what he meant by that.
Right?
But this is a
because what is the expression of fear of
Allah? The expression of fear of Allah is
how you conduct yourself.
Right?
So we ask Allah to realize us in
these qualities to to make us people of
deep love and deep awe
of unconditional hope, of steadfastness,
of humility, who don't hesitate to say, I
don't know.
People
who understand
the worth of patience
and who express
their
conscious awe of Allah
by controlling our rage
and by restraining
our whims.
Because
this is a little
of the reality of our beloved messenger
who says
that
I am the one amongst you who who
knows Allah the most, and I am the
most fearful of you of Allah.
The one
who
even
in the most intense
of outward
trials
was always unconditionally
hopeful.
Look at his life in Mecca.
Right? When people
would be
shaken and saddened.
Right? He has nothing but unconditional hope.
Other people saw difficulty in tribulation.
Right?
You you see no
shaking
of that hope. Look at his dua
after being turned away at Ta'if.
Right? And there are those
foolish and short sighted in our times who
say things that are completely unbecoming of a
believer.
Right?
That the prophet
was also depressed.
The prophet was also down. That nothing like
that is true. Right? At Ta'if,
the prophet
was bruised and wounded.
Right?
And he expressed his neediness to Allah
But yet he said, but if you are
not upset with me,
then I have no concern whatsoever.
Right?
That is,
alright, that is that is iman.
That is iman.
Right? And we should look
to that regularly.
You see the steadfastness of the messenger
both in his devotion
and in his concern. His devotion,
he would stand so long at night his
feet would swell. Why?
Steadfastness
in worshiping his lord, but also steadfastness in
serving people.
The prophet did not even have a door
to his house.
Okay. After a full day at you know,
of
of serving others, when he came home,
he divide his time at home
as it's come in hadith
between
himself
between Allah
his family, and himself.
Right?
And he would give Allah his full you
know, that time of devotion and he would
always give his family their time, but his
personal time, he used to spend it on
the ummah
and would not hold back anything from them.
Right?
Steadfast
in service. We ask Allah
to grant us of these qualities and to
realize us in the realities of the people
of guidance.
Next week inshallah, we'll look at where to
direct our life concern.
May Allah
bless and accept
and preserve for us and our loved ones
and the ummah of the beloved messenger the
gifts of faith, guidance, and good in the
ways most pleasing to him.
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