Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #176 Guidance For SeekersTrue Intelligence & Planning The Treatise for Seekers of Gu
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The podcast discusses the importance of prophetic guidance and straightening from past mistakes to avoid future mistakes. It emphasizes the importance of planning for one's future success and knowing one's values. The speaker provides insight into the importance of praiseworthy planning, using intelligence and words to determine one's success and respond to difficult situations. The importance of witnessing in tests and finding the divine grace is emphasized, along with resources for expanding one's life.
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Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
Weekly, we look
at
some
guidance
for those seeking
the path of turning to Allah
from
a treatise named
the treatise for seekers of guidance.
By the great imam Al Harith Al Muhasibi.
And this
work
represents
a
formulation
of
the way of Islamic Spirituality
by one of the great imams of the
salaf of the early Muslims.
Al Harith al Muhasibi
was born in the year 165
after the Hijra,
and he died in the year
200 and 5th 243
after the Hijra in Baghdad.
And
today,
we're going to look at
his advice
on where should one be directing one's life
concern, one's and
some of the signs of true intelligence.
So he tells us,
And in this, he is really summarizing
prophetic teachings.
Right? Because each of every statement that he
mentions, if we wanted to expand it extensively,
you find so many hadiths
that touch upon it. So he begins,
that
carefully guard your concerns.
Carefully guard your concerns, your
and busy yourself with rectifying
your own self
away from the faults
of others.
Guard carefully
your
concerns.
Right?
Everyone has something that they are directed
towards in life.
And the sign of what they're directed towards
in life
is what they think
frequently
about.
And
where you direct your concern
will be reflected in where
you exert your effort, your Himma.
So
be
on guard for that. How are you on
guard for that?
Periodically, you should ask yourself
that what was I thinking about today?
Right? What am I?
What are my priorities?
Right? What are my
priorities?
And if we had to list our priorities,
right, if we paused, like, if there's a
pause button in our lives, say, pause,
and said, what are you concerned about?
We'd all have a long, like a top
ten list.
But the question is,
where is Allah
on that list?
Especially when we know that our beloved messenger,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said
that, That whoever makes their concern
one concern, namely
Allah,
then Allah
will be their sufficiency
from all their concerns because everything else then
falls into
perspective.
And if you put your concern in the
right place, then you would know that
you will be standing before Allah. So rectify
yourself
first.
Right? This does not mean step away from
your
social responsibilities.
Right? But particularly, we all we worry about
what so and so up to and what
so and so up to and why they're
doing this and why they're doing that. But
to what extent do we ask ourself
that question?
Right? And this is
the sign of true intelligence as the prophet
said in the sound hadith.
The smart person
is the one
who takes themselves to account. Then said
that they take themselves to account or they
restrain themselves.
Right? They don't allow themselves just to wander
aimlessly.
And act for what comes after this life.
Right?
Away from the faults of others unless it
is related to 1 of 2 matters.
Unless it's related to commanding the good and
forbidding the evil,
then that is a an obligation.
Whether at the individual level or at the
wider level, people are doing something wrong, you
have a responsibility
towards them.
Or at the level of
of giving sincere
counsel because religion is sincere concern.
But that's not busying yourself with the faults
of others. You see someone
doing something wrong, you don't see it as
a fault, but you see it as a
responsibility. If you could give them advice to
rectify it.
And then
he says,
that it is sufficient
fault for a person
for faults to be manifest in others that
are hidden within them themselves.
And then you see faults in others,
then know that you have those faults
as well.
Right?
So
one of the ways Imam Al Ghazali says
that you should strive to change is if
you see a fault in another person,
take that as a mirror for yourself. Then
you either have the same fault
or worse than it
or similar to it.
So
you take it. The first thing you do
when you see the fault of another is
to try to change what's within yourself.
Try to change what is within yourself.
While
if it relates to commanding the good and
forbidding the evil, that that is a duty
even if you have the fault.
And if you can give good counsel,
then you do so.
But correcting others but forgetting yourself
is a sign of
turning away from Allah
And then he says,
or that you hate in others things that
you do yourselves
because Allah
has told us that it's odious.
It is odious to Allah and foolish
because on the day of judgment, you will
not be directly asked about them,
but you will be directly asked about yourself.
Or it's sufficient to be a fool that
you talk about people with things that are
of no concern to you. They don't relate
to you, and they not they do not
relate to some responsibility you have towards them
in terms of commanding the good or being
of sincere counsel to them.
And then there is practical intelligence.
Right?
He says,
what do you do with your
intelligence?
He says,
use your in intelligence
for Allah
by leaving
self direction.
And use your intelligence
use for the sake of Allah your intelligence
by leaving self direction.
And seek Allah's assistance in turning away apparent
destiny.
So there's 2 points. 1 is
that use your intelligence
for Allah
in leaving
self direction.
And
is one of the most important concepts in
Islam.
One of the great masters of Islamic spirituality,
showed in his work at
that attaining
illumination,
you know, illuminating one's heart by leaving self
direction.
That this is
the
realization of what it means to be a
slave to Allah.
But
is a very interesting word in the Arabic
language. Why?
Because
has both a very positive
indication and a very negative indication.
Right?
From the same
the the the root
of it
also refers to one's backside to go to
behind something. Right?
From which from from where
reflecting on the Quran is called
from.
Why? Because you don't just stop at this
at the face value meaning
of something, but you go
beyond that to the depths of the meaning.
So it's to take something towards its end.
Right? So planning,
like you begin at the beginning of
is to to take it towards
the end.
So there is a very praiseworthy sense of
regarding
which it has come from the prophet
as related in the of a sheikh of
a shehab, related by Sayna
Ali
that planning
is half
of living.
And if you live without planning,
you're not gonna you're not gonna do anything
in life.
So
has a positive sense.
The the the great imam of the Islamic
rational sciences,
he says that praiseworthy
is to consider
best possible
end results.
Right?
Is to consider best possible end results
and then to take
the effective means of seeking them.
Right? So it has a sense of take
full consideration.
But positively,
what is it,
Then you consider, okay. This is the situation.
What are the best possible outcomes?
And then how do I get there? That
is praiseworthy planning.
In that regards, the say, praiseworthy planning has
3 aspects.
That one seeks good outcomes.
So that one seeks good outcomes
with good intentions
for the sake of Allah.
And then one sees what are the best
means to get there. That is good. That
is praiseworthy
planning.
But there is a blameworthy planning
that is implied from the Arabic of Tadbir,
which is that you try to fully control
something.
Right? That you try to encompass something
fully,
which is it's not
planning, but it is self direction. You're trying
to
control everything about the situation,
including its outcomes.
Right? Particularly,
including its outcomes. So they say blameworthy
is when you try to control the outcome,
number 1,
or
you worry about what might happen. Because if
you try to control something fully,
you don't know what other people are gonna
do. So you're worrying.
Right? What other people might do? What could
happen?
Right?
And the consequence of that that this kind
of self direction you're trying to control
everything
is
that then
you rely
on the means
or yourself
and you fear others.
So he says, use your intelligence for the
sake of Allah.
Right?
And how do you use your intelligence for
the sake of Allah? By asking one question.
What
outcome
is pleasing to Allah
where I am
in a specific matter or in your life?
What outcome is pleasing to Allah? And secondly,
what means do I take
that will be pleasing to Allah?
What means do I take that will be
pleasing to Allah? That is using your intellect
for the sake of Allah.
And beyond that,
leave
the blame or the aspects of self direction.
If a course of action will be pleasing
to Allah, all things considered, then it doesn't
matter what people will say.
It doesn't matter
whether it's hard work.
It doesn't matter
that
you may miss out on something or the
other of
duniya.
Right?
So
this
is a key.
And then
and he says, and seek and rely upon
Allah in
turning away
apparent destiny, the.
Right? And what you turn away of them
is being harmed by destiny.
How?
Because what is destined is going to hit
you.
But if you rely upon Allah
then you are able to respond to what's
going to hit you, what's going to happen
to you in a good way.
And that
is how you
turn away
what's destined.
Right? Because if difficult things happen,
you can respond negatively.
Someone's
infant dies,
and you can respond very negatively to that
by despair,
spiritual despair,
and also emotional despair. But you can rely
upon Allah
and see it as being from Allah. And
then you can turn away the harm of
of that and rather find the divine grace
in it. And we'll close with the council
of who
said,
oh child of Adam.
O human, o child of Adam, don't rejoice
in wealth,
and don't despair in poverty.
Don't be sad in tribulations,
and don't be happy in ease.
And then he says something
amazing.
He
says,
because gold is tested with fire.
And likewise, the righteous servant
is tested
with tribulations.
Right?
Right. As the poet said,
Right?
As the poet said, and your some of
you will know the reference, that Allah has
promised that he will test you and test
you. And if you respond
as
he has called upon you,
it'll leave you like pure gold.
Right?
So
the
this
council, which we will complete looking at next
week, you know, this is really important. Right?
That
Allah
has promised
that that truly with
difficulty comes ease.
Right? It's not that it comes after, it
comes with it.
And the ease that comes with the difficulty
is far greater
than the difficulty.
Because
the way
Right?
The
difficulty
is mentioned with the l
with the referential l.
With
the difficulty,
it's referring to one difficulty.
And 2 users are mentioned. 2 eases are
mentioned.
Right? So with with the one difficulty,
there comes great ease
comes with it.
With that difficulty, there
comes great ease. Right?
And how is the ease?
By witnessing
in the tests
the divine
op the divine opportunity.
Ibn Atha'ilah's secondary in his hikam
puts
that
If you behold
Allah's giving
when He withholds from you,
then the withholding
becomes
from giving itself.
Then the withholding becomes
from giving
itself.
So may Allah grant us
understanding
of tests
and make us of the people of gratitude.
Right? Of gratitude. Because Allah's blessings are so
tremendous
that
we cannot enumerate them. Allah
in the Quran, and we'll close with this,
says,
if you were to count Allah's blessing,
and it's mentioned in the singular.
You could not
count it. You could not encompass it. And
the scholars of
mentioned many, many explanations of why Allah subhanahu
wa
ta'ala
says,
If you're to try to enumerate
Allah's blessing.
Because in reality,
all that exists is nothing but a blessing
from Allah.
Everything.
It's all a blessing,
and you cannot encompass it.
And there's many other explanations that the nirmat
Allah, many of the early Muslims said, it's
referring to the prophet
or iman or guidance.
But it's all from Allah
You cannot encompass
Right? So may Allah
grant us appreciation
of that and realize us in the blessings
of Iman as the prophet said, Allah.
Adorn us with arraignment
of true faith and make us of those
who are rightly guided
and who
inspire others to guidance. May Allah grant us
deep concern for the good of others and
make us of those who uphold the good
in our own lives and who expand our
lives
in spreading
good in the ways most pleasing to him
where he has placed us
to his eternal good pleasure, reflecting the light
and beauty and mercy and virtue and excellence
of his beloved messenger.
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