Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #181 Guidance for SeekersUpholding Truth & Good Company
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The podcast discusses the importance of prophetic guidance and small donations as a monthly supporter, as well as speaking truth to oneself and not wanting to be false. The importance of having a holy spirit and prioritizing one's company in one's life is crucial for success. prioritizing one's company and surrounding people is crucial for one's success. The podcast emphasizes the importance of having a certain number of companies in a certain amount of time as crucial for one's success.
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We've been looking
in our Friday night circle
at one of the great early works of
Islamic Spiritual Guidance.
Risalehatul
Mustardin
of
the great Imam
Hadith al Muhasibi
was a contemporary of the great Mujtaheed Imams
and was a great Imam
of Islam
and
noted
for his very deep and insightful look at
the human condition
with a particular emphasis
on taking oneself to account with respect to
one's sincerity,
one's trueness,
one's uprightness,
from which he became known as Al Muhasibi,
the one given
to
extensive Muhasaba,
to extensive
taking of oneself to account.
So he says,
Be ever speaking
of the truth,
ever acting upon it.
Speak the truth meaning 1 that utter nothing
that you are not sure is true enough
itself
Right? And that just even in our day
to day lives is something that people don't
take that seriously.
That speak truth,
make sure that what you're saying is correct.
But more importantly, Kulqayil and Bilhaqq
speak truth to others.
That if and what are the most important
truths? The most important truths are
to call to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
to
be of sincere counsel,
be a person of naseeh,
right? Give sincere counsel,
Command the good.
Know when and how
to forbid the wrong.
Right?
How to correct
with wisdom.
Right?
And act upon that. The truth that you
speak,
that you call to,
that you command,
that you advise,
act upon it yourself,
striving your best to do so.
And if you do that, if you are
ever speaking of truth
in your own life and to others,
the Allah will increase you in light
and in spiritual insight, Basira.
And do not be of those
who command
the truth
but who turn away from it themselves.
Right? Out of lack of concern that you've
done your job, you've told someone else to
do the right thing but you're not trying.
So then you will acquire
the sin
of being false.
And you make yourself susceptible
to the wrath of Allah Most High.
Allah, mighty and majestic says,
gravely odious it is
with Allah
that you say that which you do not
do.
Right? From
Surat al Saf,
the opening verses from verse number 3.
Waqala Rasoolullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
And the beloved Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam said,
It's
related.
That the Messenger of Allah said.
And there are other other wordings
of this statement that are established. This wording
is not clearly established from the Messenger
that whoever reminds others,
whoever admonishes others,
but does not take admonition themselves,
and whoever warns others but does not take
warning,
whoever prohibits
but does not desist themselves,
such a person is with Allah Most High
from the people
of
desperate loss.
Khaybah
is desperate loss.
And this is one of the key qualities
that a believer is committed to,
to truth.
They remind one another of the truth,
and they remind one another to remain
steadfast therein. From Surat Al Asr.
And then he says,
well, and regarding this of course is a
beautiful story from one of the great
giants of Islamic scholarship from Damascus in the
early 20th century. Sheikhali
Rahimahullah
Ta'ala. Sheikhali Thakkar
was known for his fiery sermons.
In his Khutbas,
he would address people directly.
Yemen
Oh you who have turned away from your
Lord.
Oh you who
have corruptly veered away from his command.
Oh you who are heedless of your Lord.
And like this, and people would cry and
repent. And
you know the khutba would move hearts and
afterwards people would repent at his hands and
you know, and follow the path of the
hereafter.
He had a very devoted student who studied
the Islamic Sciences with him and would seek
his guidance.
The students, the student went back to his
hometown,
small village.
And in the village, they didn't have people
of knowledge. So this student of knowledge, they
told him, can you give the chutba?
So he stood up to give the chutba,
and he remembers the chutba
of his teacher, Sheikh Nasheikh Alidakar.
So he did the same thing
but he goes,
He's pointing to you, Oh you who have
done this. Oh within 2 minutes
they started hurling things at him,
within 3 minutes they had dragged him down
the mimbar and they beat him up.
So he came.
Allah is planning on staying for a while
in his hometown,
he came back
to Damascus and visited the Sheikh
injured and bruised with
like wounds.
And his Sheikh, Sheikh Ali Zakar
asked, what happened to you? Said I gave
a Khutba.
He said, and what happened in the khutba?
Said, I did what you do.
But people are moved and they cry and
they repent
when you say these words, I said what
you said.
But they were angry at me,
they insulted me, they dragged me down from
the mimbar, they beat me up,
and you can see what state I'm in.
So Sheikh Ali Dukkar said, my son,
the difference between your words and mine
were when I was speaking to them,
I was not speaking to them.
I placed myself
in front of myself.
When I was saying, oh you who've turned
away from your Lord,
I was not intending to put them down.
I was truly admonishing myself.
When I said, Oh you who are heedless
of your Lord, I'm I was addressing myself
first and foremost.
And because of that,
my words
were of benefits to them,
and Allah placed light in them.
As for you, you are just looking down
on people,
right, and thinking you are something big.
So may Allah
grant us insight. We'll look at one more
counsel
from
this great imam, imam al Harith al Muhasibi
because in upholding the truth in our lives,
it's not easy
doing the right thing.
There's
things within us that hold us back.
We have enoughs,
we
have
a lower self
that has its attachments, it has its desires.
We have capricious inclinations,
instead of
attending the Dhikr,
what is saying, Oh, I didn't catch the
highlights
of whatever games happened today. So one catches
those instead
Or whatever else one may want to do,
one has enemies from within
that hold us back from what we know
to be true and we have challenges outside.
Right? There are challenges outside.
Humanity in general
does not turn to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
As one
of the wives of
Sheikh Mahideen Rahimullah
said,
Humanity
refuses
to direct itself to Allah except in tribulations,
Which is why tribulations are such
a rahma from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
So one of the keys
in this journey of life
which is really a journey to Allah,
right?
And the best of its provisions
is a righteous
spouse,
a righteous wife. Same thing with a righteous
husband, a righteous spouse.
Companions are so critical as we know from
the Quran and the Hadith of our beloved
Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So he says,
Do not keep
the close company of other
than an intelligent person
who is mindful of Allah.
Because
the intelligent person
does not mean
only keep the company of really smart people.
Right?
According to Islamic values, who is the Aatil?
Who is the intelligent person?
If we look at the Quran
and the Sunnah of our beloved Messenger Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam,
we understand meanings of what it means to
be intelligent.
Right? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
The smart person is the one who takes
themselves to account.
And who acts for what comes after this
life, that is a sign of intelligence, of
practical
of religious intelligence. Right? We're not talking about
keep the company of geniuses. Like, what will
they benefit you in the akhirah? But this
is what is spiritual intelligence.
It's someone who strives to take themselves to
account and strives to act after what comes
this life.
What is a sign of such a person
who takes themselves to account and who's preferring
the akhirah?
Imam Zaruk defines Al Aqil,
the intelligent person.
That Al Aqilu, this is an amazing definition
and it applies to anything that one does.
That the intelligent person
is the one whose actions
go back
to established principles,
whether of religion. Why did you do this?
Because this is religiously recommended.
Or rationally because this is more beneficial.
Oh
or customarily,
why do you eat in this way?
Because this is the
proper,
this is the social norms. That's a good
reason but they're good social norms.
Right.
That is the intelligent person. Who is the
fool?
What's the sign of a fool? A fool
is not someone who's not that intelligent.
The the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam defined
a fool for us in the same hadith
that he defined the smart person.
The incapable person
is the one who just follows their whims.
But they have big hopes, big wishes with
Allah.
But what are they doing about it? Nothing.
So the foolish person, Imam Zarook says,
the foolish person is the one
whose actions are not based on principles. They're
not doing this for a religious reason.
It's not for religion. It's not what is
it's not there's no
rational reason behind it of good or benefit.
And there is no customary reason that this
is the good way of doing things. Because
Islam takes into account
the Uruf of people, the custom of people,
the right ways of doing things.
And this is a constant emphasis of the
Prophet
Right? He said,
Be careful of whose company you keep. Do
not keep the Musahaba,
the close company of other than
a true believer
who
prefers Allah and what is pleasing to Allah,
who prefers the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and what corresponds to the
example of the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam over their own whim.
And let only the people of Taqwa
be your
regular
eating companions.
So whose company should you keep? Right?
A person
of pack of religious intelligence.
Wallatujalis
Illaaliman
Basira.
Keep keep only the company of a person
of religious understanding
and insight.
Meaning that, that's in
the company that you
carve out in your life.
You have to prioritize keeping the company
that will benefit you in your journey to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The summertime comes we
have loads of things to do.
I need to do this, I need to
do this, I need to do this.
You need Allah
more than you need the barbecue and the
picnic.
Right? How do you make Allah
happen in your life?
By the company you keep.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was asked,
Which of our sitting companions
is best?
He said, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
Those
who remind you of Allah
when you look at them.
Those who remind you of Allah when you
look at them.
Those
who remind you of Allah
when you look at them.
And who increase you in knowledge
by their words
And who remind you of the hereafter
with their work, with their actions.
Right? The most important
company you keep
is
who are the
exemplars
whose company you're trying to keep?
There's 3 levels of company
that
you need to consider
in levels of priority. The most important company
you need to take care of in your
life, you need to have some company.
And the most important company you'll have is
the company that probably time wise is the
least that you'll have.
You need to have some company of exemplars,
people you look up to and you can
say, I'd like to be more like that
in certain ways.
That you may keep company of them in
limited times compared to other company, that's the
most important company.
Then the second level of company
is your companions.
Because they set a standard for you, but
how much of the standard will you realize?
It'll be according
to what who are your companions?
A person is
on the religious way of their close friends.
So, let
each of you look carefully as to whose
intimate company they keep.
And there's both the physical company
and also the company
in our times, the virtual company you keep.
The 3rd level of company
is a company
that you are expected to keep.
Either in maintaining family ties or maintaining
worldly
or in attaining worldly goals
related to work for example,
and other
commitments.
Right.
So the the other is other company that
one keeps. But
if you don't care take care of having
exemplars that you keep the company of, and
good companions
then family
and other worldly
company you keep
won't
be
will be very troublesome for you,
for your Ikhira.
So this is very important. Right? The Prophet
gave this criteria with the like keep
some company of exemplars. How?
Make it a habit
to attend 2 types of gatherings.
Weekly, have a gathering
of remembrance of Allah
that you attend.
Have a gathering of knowledge that you attend
on on a weekly basis.
And with that,
try to inculcate
some
real company in your life. When you meet
someone, you meet one of the sisters, you
meet somebody
invite them over for tea.
Right?
Nurture
relationships of company. You don't have to be
sophisticated about it that we have to have
a dinner and no, Just get together. We
saw the prophet
would accept the invitation even on a piece
of
a piece of bread.
Whatever is easy.
So this
is an company that
whose
words increase you
in religious guidance and whose actions
urge you towards
the Akhirah.
So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that we seek out such company and we
commit
to having some company of exemplars,
to having some to make looking carefully
as to whose regular company we keep. And
when do you begin?
Act on what's already present.
Right? That if you are connected to some
gather, you know of a beneficial gathering, commit
to it consistently.
And then make ties with the people. Where
will you find good company? Imam Ghazali says
that you find good company in the
in the gatherings of remembrance, in the gatherings
of knowledge,
in the masjid.
Right? In the masjid.
But there, what do you do?
Be the one who invites people over.
Make tea.
Just give biscuits. It's not about what you
serve
but about making those connections.
Okay?
And then build those ties. We ask Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that He
facilitate for us all
those relationships.
That facilitate for us to improve our relationship
with Him, to improve our relationship
with His beloved Messenger
That we illuminate our life with these beautiful
sunnah of our beloved Messenger
that He facilitate for us the best of
company.
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