Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #189 Guidance for Seekers Religious Virtues & Adab
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The podcast discusses the importance of seeking guidance from spiritualers to find life-changing guidance, emphasizing proper manners and surrounding one's "has been" with caution. The use of digital media and digital media can reduce one's time and wakefulness, and the speaker advises to use circumspection as a companion and make one's free time profit. The podcast also emphasizes the importance of working on one's health, productivity, and free time profit.
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We're continuing to look
at
the treatise for seekers of guidance by Imam
Al Harith al Muhasibi.
He's one of who was one of the
great early imams of Islam.
And he says,
Hold fast
to proper manners
and be distant
from whim
and anger,
and
work
on the means
of attaining wakefulness.
Right? Hold fast to proper manners.
Right? Is the right way of doing things.
Right?
Is the right way of doing things.
And holding fast
to
is that you make a commitment
that everything that I do,
I do it in the right way.
This presupposes
the seeking of knowledge. Right? Because the purpose
of seeking knowledge
is not to become a sophisticated Muslim,
is not because you're a curious Muslim,
but rather
because
in seeking the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala,
there
are ways to do things that are plea
pleasing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And these
are the adab,
those things that are explicitly from prophetic teachings
and those
right ways that the scholars have explained
are
extensions
and applications
of prophetic guidance
to particular situations. Their proper manners
that the Ullman say there's proper manners of
sending text messages.
Right? Amongst them, which we there's no the
prophet did not send a text message. If
you see that hadith,
you know it's one of those WhatsApp fabrications.
But there are proper manners that we understand
from the sunnah
of sending text messages. Amongst them that you
that you greet in full.
Right? That you greet in full, the Prophet
sent letters
which he didn't write himself, he had them
written but they all
they have full greeting.
But one of the important adab, for example,
of
any kind of correspondence
is that you mention who you are
early on,
especially if it's long.
Right? Sometimes it's like a murder mystery.
Then this happened, and this, that happened, and
she got mad, and he got upset, and
so and so was
who who are you? Are you so and
like nobody knows. And sometimes at the end,
it's still a mystery because you don't know
who it was.
So what do I do? I don't know
who you are and who she is and
who he is
and like
so it's one of the adab. Actually, it's
a Quranic adab.
That it is from Suleiman.
It began.
And it's in the name of Allah, the
merciful and compassionate. Likewise,
the letters of the prophet in the beginning.
And there's other adab.
So anything that one does, there are proper
ways to do it.
There are proper ways to do it, which
is to to know what is the sunnah
related to this matter, what are the the
considerations the scholars mentioned in applying the sunnah
to that particular
situation.
Right?
Applying that the sunnah to that particular situation.
I have a very comical little treatise that
a friend sent me called Masaile Mobile,
which are
77
religious rulings related to mobile phones. But some
of them
are very good in that for example some
people use ringtones
that contain
zikr of Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala.
But the only way that would be permitted
if you are very careful, if you're like
me, my ringer is never on ever.
So it's always off and I'm always on
do not disturb mode. So my ringer doesn't
ring. So even if it was on my
ringer
but if you don't keep your ringer off,
if it's going to ring in the toilet,
you're
going to be disrespecting the name of Allah.
Right? So there are different
proper manners with respect to each of these
things. Right? So hold fast to adab. A
beautiful example, if you remember when Habib Qadim
al Sakaaf came to Toronto, someone asked him,
actually it was my wife,
about
how do we use digital media purposefully,
And how do we reduce our time using
digital media?
I was
the
intended by that, although I'm mentioning it because
now I have to vie for my wife's
attention.
What goes around comes around. But,
so he shared there's all kinds of insights
that if you're going to be using this
media, how do you use it? Right? So
hold fast to to Adam
in everything. There are there's right ways of
doing things
and hold fast to it. That's number 1.
And be distant from 2 grave harms. 1
is whim,
which is doing things just because
Just because. Why? Why not?
Right. Why not? Because
if you're not careful about harm,
you will fall into it.
Right?
So
be distant
from
whim, which is doing things without clear purpose
and without
expected benefit.
And anger.
Right? And anger.
Because the prophet said,
do not get angry.
And act in all the means
that would cause you
to be
in a state of wakefulness with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Awake.
Sayyidina Ali
reported to have said that people are
asleep
and when they die they wake up.
When they die they wake up.
But the righteous servants of Allah,
they have a good life in this life
because they're awake.
They're awake
through remembering their lord, awake through having good
intentions,
purpose,
benefit
for others. So work on the means of
wakefulness which is remembrance of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Having
a plan of how you will
be turning to Allah in your days and
nights,
having routines
in your life
of devotion,
of worship,
of service
for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Says and make muraqaba,
watchfulness of Allah,
your
greatest aim to be ever conscious
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah is watching
me wherever I may be. So you act
accordingly.
Take gentleness
as your approach.
And circumspection
as
your companion.
Circumspection which of which the prophet said
Circumspection
only brings good.
And he warned
shaitan
and haste is from the devil. And in
another narration the prophet
said,
Circumspection
is from Allah
and haste is from the devil. Where's everything
from Allah? But
circumspection,
thinking things through.
Think of consequences
before you act.
Make
that your he says, make
circumspection your companion.
Mean meaning it accompanies all your choices. Anything
you do,
think about the consequences before you act. 1
of the companions of
Ahmed,
he said
words that
they they deserve to be written. I used
to actually have it at I didn't think
of getting it. A friend gifted it to
me. I had a calligraphy piece. It said,
Whoever is watchful
of consequences
remains safe.
Make circumspection
your
companion.
And make
safety,
serenity,
peace your cave.
Alright? And this is the cave
where this is your safe space.
Alright?
They say
Nothing compares to safety.
Right? Of course there's outward safety, There's
you know that you don't harm yourself outwardly,
but there's religious safety that don't do anything
that is religiously harmful for you.
Also don't do anything that would
would had you thought it through be expected
to result in religious harm.
But also
know that you have a heart.
Right?
You have a heart that is
the locus of your relationship with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'la.
It makes safety,
right?
Everything that
cultivates
being safe
with Allah,
that cultivates
a good relationship with Allah,
turn to it, embrace it.
And everything
that threatens that,
leave it.
The Prophet instilled this in his grandson, Al
Hassan Ibn Ali, when he was just a
little child, 5 or 6 years old.
He said,
I memorize
from my grandfather the Messenger of Allah. Meaning
that this was nurtured in little children.
5 or 6 years old.
Leave everything that would make you doubt
that would cause you to be uncertain.
Leave anything that would make you uncertain
for everything
that would make you
certain, that would not make you uncertain.
Embrace make safety
your
protected cave.
And make your free time
profit.
Right?
Then what do you do in your free
time?
That's your that's
what a gift. And the Prophet warned,
There's 2 great blessings
that most people
are
cheated off, meaning they cheat themselves of them
but they allow themselves to be cheated off
them.
Right?
Health and free time
And and others in their commentaries explain that
whatever state of health you have and some
of us when we get to certain age,
there's always some things that are creaky.
Right?
Typically, it doesn't
get less creaky.
Right?
So whatever health you have,
don't cheat yourself of that.
And if all you have is you're able
to breathe, use those breaths
in love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Right?
And your free time
Prophet.
And dunya
your means,
right? Your
your mount
to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And make the hereafter
your resting place.
Why?
Live in this life as though a stranger,
right? You know you don't belong here, your
resting place is the hereafter.
So at the very least, live with that
consciousness that this is not my homeland,
but higher than that. This one the hadith
in the 40 Nawi, the hadith of Abdul
Lai bin Umar.
Oh, Abi R Usabi, live in this world
as one journeying. You are on a journey
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So this is a very comprehensive,
in just three lines,
he's given us a comprehensive council. Then he
says,
Al Hasan al
Basri
said,
Allah has not made for the believer
any rest
before paradise.
Why?
The one who has created you tells us
We have created
the human
in toil and struggle.
Right? It's not that there is some toil
and struggle, you've been created in it.
Right?
Right?
And that's why they say
that
seeking happiness
in prison
is from the delusions
of one's,
yeah,
confusion,
of one's confused state. You're in prison.
K?
Figure out how you're gonna get out of
here. Like, say, let you know, let's have
a good time, and that's it. You're in
prison. Get out of it. Well, what's your
prison?
Your prison
has chambers.
Right? Your nafs, your your lower self, your
whim,
your worldly
inclinations.
Right? These various
these are your prisons.
The one who frees themselves from them, then
you find
rest and joy. So we ask Allah
to realize
us
in these realities.
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