with Shaykh Abu Aaliyah
Hamza Tzortzis – Heart Therapy Diseases of the Spiritual Heart & Their Cures
AI: Summary ©
The heart is the one that makes decisions and actions, and it can affect behavior and emotions. There are various spiritual diseases and diseases that occur with the heart, including past spiritual master's actions, dark heartedness, and jealousy. The importance of affirming one's Islam, praying, and fasting in religion is emphasized, and the need for constant reinforcing one's spiritual potential is emphasized. The challenges of finding one's own success and finding one's own success in the past are also discussed. The speaker emphasizes the importance of learning to be successful in life, rather than just achieving fame and fame, and embracing one's true potential.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh brothers and sisters and friends with the peace and blessings of Allah Subhana Allah to Allah be upon every single one of you Alhamdulillah I am so pleased to have with me today, our beloved chef Alia and we're going to be discussing an extremely important topic. In actual fact, I think this topic needs to be emphasized needs to be reiterated, needs to be propagated, and needs to be internalized within the hearts and minds of every single Muslim, especially the Muslims who are engaging in online and offline data sharing Islam or some form of
activism. In actual fact, especially those who are in leadership positions who have followers.
The reason this is important is because everything that we do, what we say and how we act, how we relate how we relate to ourselves, how we relate to others, how we relate to Allah subhana wa Tada is really a derivative of our state of heart, our heart state. And today, we're going to be talking about the heart, the importance of the heart, what are the main spiritual diseases of the heart, and the explanation, how we can cure these key spiritual diseases, and other pieces of advice related to this very important topic. So my dear brothers and sisters and friends, if you're involved in any form of Dawa sharing, Islam, activism or leadership, you have to have to focus, I try and mention
this many times in different types of talks and platforms that I'm engaged in. And to be honest, a lot of this, if not all of it was actually inspired by the chef that you're looking at today, our beloved chef chef about earlier, and he is the need of the time, we have to address this, because it's going to shape our present, and shape our future, in actual fact, is going to shape our past. And I think that's really weird, is because the way you understand the past is sometimes understood through the lens of the prism of your heart state. And you will never truly understand your past. And therefore you won't need you won't know what to do now. Or you won't, you won't be able to go
where you need to go. Because your heart now is not in the right state. And you're seeing the past, in maybe a skewed way from a spiritual perspective, and therefore your present is not healthy, and your future may not be healthy. So from that perspective, it's so important everything that we do, how we communicate with Muslims and non Muslims, how we share Islam, how we act is all a derivative of our hearts state. And this is why my dear beloved brothers and sisters, I emphasize in retreat, you need to take every single word, every single syllable extremely seriously today, because insha Allah is not just going to be informative. It's going to be transformative. So without further ado,
my dear brothers and sisters, I'm going to ask a beloved chef about Alia a first question, my dear beloved chef, first and foremost, how are you? Alhamdulillah vertical if he can, so no pressure then Right?
No pressure at all, and how you just hit the nail on the head with that introduction SubhanAllah.
Chef,
why is the heart important in Islam?
Okay, Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah, my bad.
I hope and I, I suspect this will be familiar with most of your audience. So I will keep it brief. And only kind of maybe go into details where, where we really need to.
So
the heart is important simply because our last one or Thailand or Iran in so many places, tells us the heart is important. Okay, and by the heart we're talking about the spiritual heart, the locus or the seat of faith in man,
the seat of matter for knowing Allah, the seat of virtues and vices or spiritual virtues and vices, which can either make or break our outward actions of prayer of fasting or relationships. So Allah subhanaw taala stays in one place in the Quran. And I'll mention two verses. Those who are familiar with such verses, than two verses will suffice. Those who are unfamiliar with the importance of the heart, these two verses will be like a stepping stone for further exploration, exploration. Allah's one
Osama says in the Quran in a very famous celebrated Ayah averse, yo Mala Yun for Omar on well ever known in laminata Allah because when Salim that day when neither wealth nor children will benefit anyone except he who comes from Allah with a heart that is sound with a sound heart. Holborn saline elsewhere in the Quran that's in Surah Ibrahim. Elsewhere in the Quran in surah hajj, the 22nd chapter of the Quran, Allah Subhan Allah Allah says, I fell in your sea rule fill early, have they not traveled through the land for to Cornella home Kowloon, yaki Luna, Bihar, Iran on yes my own or Bihar, and have they not hearts by which they understand or is by which they hear for inner her la
dama upside. It is not the eyes in the head that go blind, while lacking that medical liability if is to do but rather. But rather, the hearts in the chest that become blind. So the heart can be blinded. And then we're all we're in all sorts of states, and our actions are really going to be empty or misguided. Or we can see with our hearts because they have a sound disposition, a sound orientation, they're aligned with the divine pleasure with the will of God. And those two verses alone are really, really important.
If I just had one more verse, which has to do with the soul, and it's similar the soul the spiritual heart is the
one can actually say they're one and the same thing for our purpose in of discussion. Allah says we're not seeing one master where he swears by the soul and how he formed it for him or her for Judah taqwa and how he inspired it with consciousness of wickedness and righteousness. But if Allah Herman's a successful is he who purifies the soul of adhaar them and DESA and destroyed is he who corrupts or ruins of the soul, the same with the heart corrupts or ruins of the heart.
So overall, the knowledge of spiritual diseases and how to remove them from our heart or soul and replace them with the opposite spiritual virtues. On the whole, as a rule of thumb, this knowledge is followed online is a personal obligation of every Muslim to know and to learn, at the at least the basic level, this is not something nice
and beautiful and pretty, this is actually an obligation, those who do it will be drawn closer to Allah and will be rewarded, and will be of those who have sound hearts, those who don't we become sinful for leaving off an obligation. And unfortunately, it's that type of obligation that when it is really neglected, I could pray outwardly I could fast outwardly but maybe my fasting or my or my prayer won't be accepted due to some serious
spiritual disease in the heart that obliterate or cancel out my outward deeds. That is how serious it is, which is why imam in law came and said just to finish this point, that as a rule of thumb, the inward obligations of the heart
are more obligatory than the outward obligate obligatory actions. As a rule of thumb, there are exceptions. There are places where the other way applies. But as a, as a rule of thumb, the inward obligations are the heart, which is our discussion today.
More are more important than obligatory than the outward obligations because it's the heart that counts. It's upon Allah subhanaw taala. So Chef, what is a famous Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam concerning the soundness of the heart, which echoes the first idea that you mentioned.
So perhaps, or probably the most famous one that scholars quote, generally in their discussions that is a Hadith in Sahih Muslim if I remember correctly, it's I have unsalable Horace, a Muslim, the hadith of man and this year, on the other hand, who, and he narrates that the Prophet sallallahu sallam said, and it's quite a long Hadith and towards the end, he said, In the Prophet alayhi salatu salam said in nephila just for the mandala either Salah had Salah had just a dog
Lu ye the faster that faster digested the Kulu, Allah will called. Indeed there is a piece of flesh in the body. If that piece of flesh behold and sound, all of the body is whole and sound. But if that piece of flesh be diseased or corrupted, then the whole of the body is diseased and corrupted in like proportion. Allah where he'll code that piece of flesh is the heart of the spiritual heart. So when the heart is sound, the outward actions which are motivated by the inner heart, will reflect that soundness. If the heart is corrupt, then to the degree it is to the degree, it harbors darknesses, those darknesses will be outwardly expressed in how we behave, what we do, how we speak,
what we say, so on and so forth. Zakka have beautiful, that I don't think has anything to add there does not quite have. So this shows the importance of the pileup of the role of the soul, they used synonymously for the objectives of what we're talking about, in shows, or tense of purifying them and making them sound in the Islamic tradition. And to the degree where you spoke about the student of being Tamia when he said that, in general, that that inward actions if you like, the actions of the heart, or the sadness of the heart, this is more or obligatory or a priority over the kind of external actions. And as you said, the external actions are derivative of the soundness of your
heart or the state of your heart. Okay, so my second question is, and this is the big one, right? What are the main spiritual diseases of the heart? And can you explain what they are?
So unfortunately, there are quite a few
serious spiritual diseases of the heart.
And scholars tend to list them for convenience sake, teaching sake and just for the sake of giving us the hope that we can manage our inward cells, they, they generally list them sometimes as 10, sometimes as 15. Without going on to too too much. So beyond our aside from kufr and schicke, aside from disbelief, or idolatry, in any of its forms, okay, because they start from the heart disbelief starts in the heart. Idolatry or shit starts in the heart, those greatest spiritual diseases aside
the normal spiritual diseases when we're speaking about diseases of the heart.
Those Gremlins of the heart as as people call some people call them
I'll list them arrogance.
In Arabic, it's called Kibber.
insincerity or showing off a real love of prestige and attention problems Jah greed, borehole anger or other this is undue anger. Okay, lob, resentful envy. Hacer that you have a particular term for hazard. According blameworthy jealousy, Lane worthy jealousy, so that's hassad hit spite, okay, or malice, vanity and self conceit or job.
Too much laughter gutter a total Qalam. Too much talk in Qatar to a Qatar have died. Too much talking catheter to the kalam boasting about once are the far one. stinginess bull greed hit us being slavish to one's physical appearance. That's not to say we shouldn't look well. But being slavish to fashion and to outward appearance to Z, you know, Lil UCLA, and finally, delusion, being deluded about one's own self over all
of these spiritual diseases, there are certain core diseases and on the whole 90% of what I've said, they are,
they are forbidden qualities of the heart. They are haram qualities, some of them might be disliked qualities like too much laughing. Okay. But the rest of them more or less are haram qualities as Haram as like drinking wine or eating pork, for example, or in some cases even worse.
So in terms of, and I've heard you mentioned this before, to me that there are around four key spiritual diseases and many of these other spiritual diseases emanate from them. So what are these four key key spiritual diseases and maybe you could explain a little bit about them.
So by the
time we reached the middle of the second center of Islam. So let me give us a stamp here Imam app had been humble. The last of the four great Imams who died in the year two for one of the Islamic calendar. Two for one hugely. Imam Al Bukhari, the most famous of the Hadith collectors, he dies to five, six hugely
just about 20 or so years after
the science of spirituality in Islam, the science of Descoteaux knifes
purification of the heart, or it's called The Science of SoloQ, spiritual wayfaring, the science of Ihsan
spiritual excellence. There are other words for the science there are the terms for the science but that science of actions of the heart as you quite nicely put it began to be codified and develop very much like FIQ very much like Hadith very much like Tafseer of Quran and Arabic grammar, and it became a science in itself. And at some point during that time, scholars looked at the source materials from the Quran and the Sunnah, the wisdoms of the Sahaba, the inherited wisdoms of the early scholars who followed in their footsteps, the venerable self. And they began to see that out of these spiritual diseases, there are some diseases that are so deep and so dangerous, they tend to
give rise to other spiritual diseases. By the time we get to the fifth Islamic century, two and a half centuries later, or the seventh this lamp, eighth Islamic century. Further, further on, you have two seminal figures, Imam Al Ghazali. Later on umami, Blancpain. And there are others in between and others before and after, who then say, well, we feel that looking at the evidences. And looking at the whole thing deeply. That there are these four, sometimes some have said six, five, but for diseases that are the root diseases, if we begin to work on these diseases, hopefully many others might then begin to take care of themselves, or at least diminish. But if we leave these four
diseases to just rampantly do their dark things, and we're always in a state of darkness over us, because we harbor these things in our hearts or these diseases in our hearts, then it's likely that other diseases of the heart and other darknesses of the soul will proliferate. Even if we're outwardly managing to act the part. And those four diseases they say, our jealousy, or hassad
Kibber
arrogance,
or job, conceit or vanity, self conceit, or vanity, and lastly, Rhea, ostentation or showing off. Generally this has been
the tendency of our past spiritual masters and also of the chefs of, of tarbiyah and SoloQ. Often today at contemporary times, how they generally tell us that these are the ones that really need to be worked on.
Okay, so let's start with the first one. Let's start with Hassard. blameworthy jealousy.
What is her said? And how do we cure her said
so hamdulillah the science of of spirituality in Islam, the science of dealing with the rule the spirit, purifying the heart actions of the heart,
give us
a rava L and for ba L.
Diseases and virtues or vices.
Kibber Okay, arrogance and virtues. The opposite in this case is humility. Okay.
And learning the diseases is fairly straightforward. It really doesn't require a PhD, or any deep philosophy. It does require it does require just taking some time in a drawing a deep reference getting serious with the staff. But it is the cure horse. We have to really roll up the sleeve because now the it's the ego involved. Absolutely. It's the ego saying no. Mentally I can accept this, but I'm not going to change.
And that's the difficult bit. So what is jealousy in terms of Islam, jealousy, envy, blameworthy, jealousy blameworthy? Envy? hassad
is when one wishes or one desires that another person loses their blessings, some blessing that Allah has given a person, wealth, fame, good looks.
Good spouse, fast car, it could be religious or worldly, but it's worse when it's religious
knowledge. memorization of the Quran could be a whole host of things. When the heart feels that are why do they have that they shouldn't have that. Okay? That is envy or jealousy. And it's an it's the sin. If we're talking about the Earth itself, in up there in heaven, okay, the first spiritual disease was Kibber arrogance. Satan, I'm better than you.
Down on Earth. The first real sin was between the two sons of Adam peace be upon him, Cain and Abel. Okay. And
one brother says to the other after they both offer a sacrifice that align or like sets the sacrifice on one,
but doesn't accept the sacrifice of the other because of a defective intention or an attitude of the heart. The one whose intention of sacrifices isn't isn't accepted, becomes enraged against his brother, why you? I'm older than you, I'm better you know why you and you, it should be me. I should have been favored like that. I shall kill you is what the brother says, And he carries out the foul deed.
His jealousy made him so incensed, so enraged, he's he killed, he murdered his brother. Okay. Now, not every level of jealousy can
do that, but it is so evil, it can drive people to that level. So the Quran says in the Fourth Chapter, the answer often is, um, yes, or doing a NASA alma mater home alarm in fugly? Or are they jealous of people because of that which Allah or that which God has bestowed upon others out of His Grace and Bounty?
Allah has bestowed it
Allah does things with wisdom, with knowledge, with purpose, with knowing the full picture, are they jealous of people because of what Allah has knowingly bestowed upon people.
So that is the root root problem of jealousy it is.
It is different than, Oh, that person has well for a lot of religious knowledge or is very charitable or whatever. And I would like to be that without wishing ill for that person or that he or she loses those qualities, that's perfectly fine. That's being inspired by other people's states, and abilities. And that is a good thing.
Jealousy is where one bit is there. And the other bit is not, I want those qualities or that particular quality. And I want that the other person doesn't have it.
Out of envy, envy and jealousy that that blameworthy jealousy, as you quite rightly, rightly put it, that is a real disease, and that happens all over the place.
And generally, our scholars say it happens between people of the same category. So a footballer is unlikely to be jealous of a musician. And a musician is unlikely to be jealous of, say, a doctor,
or an adopter of a theologian. But theologians or scholars might be jealous between each other footballers might be jealous between each other and so on and so forth. Okay. Why is he getting all the intention? Why? Why did he get the big, big transfer? Why, why, why? Why is he scoring gold so easily? And so on and so forth? Why are people going to his circles of knowledge and not my circles? Why are people reading his books and not my books? Or why is my social media page like kind of like a graveyard and his one is like buzzing like Disneyland. So it happens generally between similar qualities or people that have similar traits or, or jobs, whether it happens that way or that way.
It's blameworthy and we need to work on it. So that is the form of the disease hazard than the cure is
conceptually rather simple but
had, as I mentioned before the doing is it serious work conceptually? Well, if every blessing someone has
comes ultimately from Allah.
Then who am I as a Muslim, or even as a human being?
to disagree with God's infinite wisdom and knowledge of where he chooses to place his blessings?
It seems a tad
delusionary that I should think I know better where Allah should be placing his blessings or not. Why did Allah place the blessings of, of popularity with him and not me? With her and not the other person or her and not me? Well, Allah works in wise ways, with perfect knowledge.
I might think of that as scratching my head, why that's fine. But why, as in, he shouldn't have is, is pretty presumptuous of a believer, it's not something that would really come out of a believers mouth, if we're to be perfectly honest, not unless they kind of lost their marbles at some point. And so we have to then remind ourselves,
that Allah has placed His blessings in that person exactly where it should be. Now, whether he Allah has done so for the divine wisdom of, of enhancing that person's spiritual status with him, or testing him,
or making an a noose around their neck. That's the divine wisdom and we might not be able to perceive that or we might be Allah knows best. But Allah has placed a blessing for one divine wisdom or the other in that person, and I have no right to become envious of it, to the degree that I think it should be removed.
But what I may say is that I would hope for similar blessings in my life that is perfectly natural. And when it comes to real, spiritual, religious virtues, it is praiseworthy to aspire to as regard to worldly, worldly blessings. The scholars are generally it's, it's generally not praiseworthy, unless it's going to help people. If I have a lot of money, I can do more charity, and that's fine, because then there's a spiritual virtue attached to it. But if it's just I want more cars for the sake of more cars,
and more stuff, for the sake of more stuff, it's not praiseworthy to wish for it. In fact, it becomes blameworthy. But that aside, the idea is, I should not question the blessings of Allah in the way that my my heart is that they should be removed from that person, how dare he had that blessing? That is something we really need to work on. And how do we work on that simply just by reminding ourselves, Allah knows best? Why you place that blessings? I shouldn't question it.
And keep working on it that way to question it is really dark hearted. And do I really want to be a dark hearted person with my Lord? And unfortunately, dark heartedness tend to show very quickly on others, we've now come to a point in society whereby waves with normal normalized dark heartedness, but 1020 years ago, in this country, for example, people used to frown
on dark heartedness, even if we ourselves were dark hearted in our lives, but we would frown because we knew that's the wrong thing. Now, it's been kind of almost socialized to normality, but the believer doesn't consider it normally. She or he considers it abnormal, and Alana Asmus
to circulate here. So that's the first spiritual disease and its cure. So just to summarize, and let me see, I've been listening attentively, I've been reading this book called, you're not listening by Kate Murphy. It's actually a brilliant book. I really advise everyone to read it. And I think there were one or two statements and he almost made me cry. And it's a formula book, I advise every teacher, preacher, leader, listener, mentor to actually read a book like that it's really in the bottom, we'll link it I'll put the link in the in the bottom of the description or in the description inshallah. So, let's see if I have been practicing. Because you have to be quite
attentive and listen with the intention to understand or doesn't listen to the words listen to the meaning. So, how sad blameworthy jealousy is not the type of jelly
See where you look at people or what they have in their blessings and say, Oh, I would like that. And, and, and you're not trying to remove those blessings from them. So you're like, oh, wow, that person has a nice car, that person has a nice voice when they recite Quran, the person has a lot of Islamic knowledge Alhamdulillah I want that too. But you don't have the kind of heart feeling where you want to remove it from them. blameworthy. Jealousy is when you're like, why do they have a good car? Why do they have a big house? Why do they have a great the voice when it comes to Quranic recitation? I don't want them to have that. I want to have that so that we blameworthy jealousy and
you're saying the cure is simply to remember that all of these things are a kind of manifestation of Allah's names and attributes. It's an a manifestation of His rather Quadra his Well, His power, His blessings, and so on and so forth. So for you to even question it in that way, is actually questioning God. So the way to actually deal with this is to remember who Allah is. So move away from looking at the, the, the blessing, look at the source of the blessings. Yeah, and then that's it. Is that a good summary?
No, that was Mashallah. Perfect summary. It was nicely better than that, which was been summarized
on the shoulders of giants, but
sorry, just one, one addition to that. So why is it a root disease? Why Yeah, why is it a root disease because we said that root diseases are such that other diseases spring for it from it, simply because if we think and it's this is not a profound observation, it's a well known human observation when people are jealous. they mistreat, the object of their jealousy. They either backbite them badmouth them, slander them, they don't give them their rights. They don't give them their due.
They may have, you know, they may have clear talents, but I will never acknowledge the talent, I will always speak bad about them, I will always have bad intentions and all these other darkness is come out. And of course, along with that comes a level of anger and hatred. And
and that hatred could boil and boil and until it boils over to doing physical harm. But even if physical harm isn't there, the minimum is that the the jealous person
who is dying in their own jealousy, unfortunately, can't even offer a smile to his or her Muslim brother when they meet them. Because the heart won't allow the muscles to move in the right way.
And that's just the sad place to be shut. The other thing is, and please, maybe briefly elaborate on this
can also be a pathway to shirk to Association ism. Because if you don't like the way God has decided to, you know, give his blessings and share his bounty or give, you know, share his bounty with people in the world, then could it could it not lead to actually diminishing the perfection of His names and attributes? Because if I'm like it, could it lead to that because you have like, oh, that person has great Islamic knowledge. He has also great wealth, he has an amazing relationship with his wife. Why is that the case? I hate that he has that I don't want him to have that. Why did you do that God and consciously or spiritually you could even be thinking God made a mistake, which
could be a form of association ism or should polytheism idolatry because you're now humanizing those names and attributes or you're making them not perfect because part of Tao heed the Oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala is that we affirm because names and attributes we affirm their maximal perfection. Have I got it wrong?
No, you haven't got it wrong, but there are there are shades of grey on nuances.
Whilst it is utterly unimaginable that a Muslim of any level scholar or just lay person, whatever believe God gets anything wrong, including where he should or shouldn't play the place his blessings. Whilst no one will hold that no Muslim would ever hold that as a creed. As an aqidah. It can be the the shadowy idea of it can momentarily infiltrate our hearts in our in our inner state of madness.
and jealousy. And so,
it is very understandable for some of these root spiritual diseases to be a minor ship, lesser ship ship called asker shellcode asker is worse than major sins.
But it's not that Schickel Akbar that great polytheism or idolatry that takes a person outside of religion, simply because even in the state of utmost jealousy that leads to murder. The foundational principle of Lila hate Lola is still affirmed in the heart. Okay, not alone deserves Worship God alone is is perfect, that I think that he's made a mistake is not my belief is just that, that is just what the darkness is, are confusing me with that is not a statement that I would declare. Because if you then ask a person who's jealous, so do you believe as a creed, God has made a mistake? That's our stuff for Allah. Number one say, well, that's kind of the implications of
jealousy, and it will get them thinking. And implications are not the same as actual believing, as per the scholarly saying last, the modern madhhab lays the matter. The consequences of one's view is not necessarily one's view. Wow. And this is the difference between a student and a scholar says Oklahoma, may Allah bless you, Chef scholars. Just the second question.
And maybe this is the big one. We don't know. Let's find out. So how do we address Kibber? What is Kibber arrogance and how do we address kibble?
So whether it's jealousy or Kibber, or the other two that come after, or your vanity and and showing off,
a lot of it is to do with how I carry myself with other people or how my heart views other people.
And that tends to become the make or break in terms of the spiritual diseases. So let me quote to us a really beautiful piece of spiritual wisdom.
And it's part of a larger collection of spiritual wisdom called Al Hycon. By the eighth century, seventh, eighth century, Maliki Egyptians got it even a thought in that Eskandari from Alexandria, and his collection of spiritual wisdoms. Hichem, a thought ear. There's an English translation of it as well.
With brief commentaries, his spiritual wisdom, since he wrote them have become the most famous collections of spiritual wisdoms. And if ever we want to train our souls into spirit, deep spiritual reflections, then you always need to have a starting point of reflection. These Hickam hours. I'll give you an example. Hickam number 85 Out of the 200 that he has.
And this applies here and this applies to hazard and this applies to the other two that follow.
He says
a Cohen or VA Hera of Hera tune woebot va hit AHA hit Run Woba Tina ha Ebro outwardly created things.
In this case people outwardly created things are an illusion,
but inwardly they are an admonition.
Occoquan of our Hera Hera Wilburton aha aember. Outwardly created things are an illusion, but inwardly they are an admonition, fan Neff, su Tong guru la vie hit Irati ha, well, hello, young guru Illa botany Bharatiya the ego looks at the illusionary exterior
whilst the spiritual heart looks at the ad Manipuri or admonitory interior.
So it's really about seeing
Okay, the spiritual path in Islam is really about seeing more than it is about actually doing with the limbs. Of course it is doing with the limbs as well, but it's how we see things or don't, how we dispose our souls towards something or don't. That is the real essence.
And so Kibber is a particular way of seeing just like hazard hazard is I don't see where these blessings have come from and they've come to that person with a divine purpose. All I see is that I don't have it
Why does he have it? Okay I deserve it more than he Kibber has that that arrogance has that similar blindness to it? So the prophets are sensors in a sahih Hadith in the muscle of achmad Lie yet Hello janitor in San and vehicle behemoth Hello but in min min huddled in middle of cable, main cable, no person shall enter paradise if there is even as much as a mustard seeds or an atom's weight of arrogance in their heart.
That's quite,
that's quite serious. So what is Kibber Alhamdulillah the prophets awesome defined it for us himself. He said I'll Kibera bathro Muhammad Yunus
is to reject the truth
and look down upon people. El Kebir bottlerock reject the truth will hum to NAS and also it's pronounced a Hummer, a hermit on NAS or Hunter NAS and looking down
upon people. So there are two parts of arrogance there is arrogance towards truth.
Okay, like kind of like ontological arrogance, I guess. All right. And then there is arrogance, not towards truth towards people.
Both our arrogance, okay, arrogance and awards towards the truth to be very brief and simple about this. I know that is the truth. But I'm still going to refuse to accept it. Either because it didn't come from me or didn't come from my tribe or my group or my party. Or either because I don't want to. I don't want to be seen to accept the truth from some my enemy, someone that I don't I hate that I hate someone who I don't think is worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with me whatever it may be. And this rejection of the truth is one of the one of the types of rejection that the idolaters at the time of processing did their
their their kufr their disbelief? Well, sometimes outright rejection. I don't believe God. Okay, which wasn't really what the idolaters did, but some people like atheists, I don't believe in God. Right. Okay. But sometimes they're kufr could be the disbelief could be that I know.
With all my heart, I know that's a truth, but I'm just not going to accept it ever because of reasons that I mentioned before that coffer is, coffer at this dark, nihilistic bar. Go for of believing. It's right. It's true. Morale is the bar along with arrogance, that stops me from accepting it as well. Okay, so that's arrogance towards the truth and it can be not just between faith and disbelief email and go for it can be Look,
brother,
my good friend, you can't be forcing your daughter to get married. You can
converse with her you can try to convince her of your personal choice that you want her to marry your nephew from back home.
Okay, but actually you can't be forcing her because Islam doesn't doesn't recognize any forced marriage that a woman doesn't agree to.
It becomes a false contract and a pass and forcing becomes a criminal a Muslim a large when an oppressor
and maybe here's the Hadith and he says
this is the way we do things in our culture and of that's Kibber towards the truth.
Inshallah to Allah hopefully Muslims are less likely to have Kippur towards the truth we may be slow in acting on the truth, but kind of as a route deep down in our heart in Charlotte, other Muslims as a whole we know that's where we should be heading. Even if we're slow to get up and do it.
Then kibra That tends to come up from us is vomiter NAS I am better than him.
And that is the Iblees it Kibber
okay, I'm created from fire. He is created from clay I am better than he.
I am. I am an Arab Muslim. He's an African. She's an African Muslim. I am better than her.
I've memorized Quran he's only He only knows 10 sources 10 chat 10 chapters I am better than he so on and so forth.
It's something that we might even
go so far as to say that unless we work on it is probably the default state of most human beings.
just it's just
it's almost impossible not to have some level of Kibera arrogance unless we're actually working on it, being scorned against it and being schooled in humility. And so it's not something we can just say, Well, you know what, I'm probably don't have it. So probably not it's probably we do have it. If we're to be honest, at some point, some level or the other. And Kibera again is an ugly disease, it disfigures the inner, and then that inner disfigurement, then outwardly shows itself the way that we talk the way that we behave just our facial expressions of self righteousness, holier than thou attitude.
And though it occurs, even in worldly things,
Islam tends to not turn a blind eye the Quran doesn't tend to turn a blind eye in, in the world, the arrogance.
But it tends to pick out worldly arrogance only if it's going to kind of lead to major violations of rights, taking people's lives, taking people's basic human dignity and rights. But the Kibera that Allah really, that the process I'm tends to want us to focus on
is that Kibber or arrogance that
that pride that stops us, humbling ourselves
to being fair, just and being truthful, beautiful people? Yes.
So there is no harm as we know, in being tribes, groups and nations, I'm not about nationalism, just tribes groups and nations nation with our own particular culture, particular language, particularly history.
As long as we recognize that our particular cultures and histories are part of the larger patchwork of the Muslim ummah, and that is our first level of identity and belonging Ness, it becomes a problem when i As for example,
so these are real life examples, I as an oral to speaking person, either from up India or from from Karachi, Pakistan, for example, looked down upon the Bengali speaking person, because our language is so rich or the Punjabi person, for example, so rich and so, you know what to, say arrogance. And and where did you get that standard of comparison from?
Why isn't Punjabi better than ortho? Or especially since order is only 300 years? 400? Less than 300 400 years old? Right? Okay.
Doesn't have any historic roots deeply. And Punjabi has been going on for my parents passed away, we're able to speak in people, my dad used to write poetry in Persian in order and whenever we come from that type of family, so it's not, I'm not, I'm a Gujarati, or I'm a Punjabi and therefore I'm just having to go out. Now actually, this is like kind of my kind of roots.
That's an example. That would be an example, example of
fair skinned people are better than dark skinned people, really?
So do you as a fair skinned person, feel that you're better than Musa alayhis salaam? Who was? Whose color was the color of Sudanese people that we see today?
Or do you think you are better than and you, you don't want your daughter to marry
someone like Amara DLR and who, who was if you go to southern India, if you go to Northern India, they're light and fair skin. If you go to southern India, they become darker in complexion generally, Amara Duran who was as dark as that,
or maybe even darker and alira the land halls as well.
So what you wouldn't marry your
daughters to, so it can actually get in the way of real serious spiritual growth and, and it becomes a veil of drawing closer to Allah because Allah despises,
allies contemptuous towards arrogant people, because there's no reason why they should be arrogant. And it's something we really need to take care of, in our own selves. And religiously.
It's more of a challenge than when we're not religious. Because when we start becoming religious, I'm now praying regularly five times a day and I'm observing the fasts in Ramadan. And then here is a Muslim who's not. So I can say and here is something that we mustn't be confused about. I can say, as a theory, the one who prays is better than the one who doesn't pray.
The one who fast is better than one who doesn't pass because the one who prays is rewarded
and is praised by God.
The one who fails to fulfill a clear cut obligation like praying or fasting in the month of Ramadan, they are sinners. And they are punished but they aren't they are under the punishment of God. Yes, surely the one rewarded by God is better than the one under the punishment of God. However, so that's in the theory we can and we must say that the praying person is better than the non prayer person, the practicing Muslim is better than the non practicing Muslim so on and so forth. We're not allowed to say opposite of that.
But when it now comes to specific individuals, i Here I am, I pray five times a day mashallah I fast in the month of Ramadan, Mashallah. And I, every year I give my zakat, mashallah, and here is another Muslim who knows they should do it. Okay, they believe it should be done. That's the right thing to do. But for some reason they don't do they pray three times a day. Or they pray only on Fridays or something like that.
In theory, I should be able to say,
the person who praises better than the person who doesn't pray, but I don't actually know as an individual, whether my prayer, my prayers have been accepted.
Because I might have prayed, arrogantly, or showing off or for some reason, where I'm not rewarded by Allah, but my actions are canceled, whereas this person might be actually Allah might be leading him or her step by step
towards praying. And they may not have that arrogance.
Now that person who is not praying, should not think, Oh, well, you know what, maybe I've got Ali's prayers aren't accepted, so maybe I'm better than him anyway. No, he or she should just be concerned about the fact that they're not praying, fix it with God, have some shame that you're not fulfilling even the basic obligation in front of Allah. As for me, I shouldn't, barring the fact of reminding gently and wisely my Muslim brother, or brother, you know, kind of we need to pray five times a day, right? Uh, barring that I should be thinking about making sure that my actions are done sincerely and correctly for Allah, such that out of His divine kindness, he will accept them. Because doing
actions that Allah won't accept because they are done in the wrong way or with the wrong intention.
It's like, you know, running, it's like, kind of doing some real hard work only to be told that actually, it's all null and void. It's just deflation. So, in theory, we can say this is better than that, in practice on specific individuals. We don't say so. So we make boast, we make claims about Islam, Islam is the truth is beauty. It is truth, it is the right way. But I as a Muslim, there is no boasting claims to make all I can say is I hope, I am on truth, beauty and Allah will accept my actions. Sorry, and that is why the Prophet sallallahu sallam said
because he's asked by Allah to say this, he says, Anna say you do well at the Adam.
I am the master of humanity.
Now if it was left at that, one might think maybe not the Sahaba but people like you and me 1400 years later, I think
that's a bit of a boast I thought although we're not meant to boast that's why the process and Allah told him to say an essay do malady Adam wala Sahar I am the master of humanity and that is no Boast not Sahaba will misunderstand because by the time you get to our our level of not very good Islam we might shaytan might trick us to think you know, that's a bit of a boast
and the process and makes that claim not for the sake of it because allies telling him you need to tell people because they need to have the right relationship with you.
So they can have the right relationship with me.
So, how do we deal with Kibber? How do we cure this spiritual disease
so that's that, that is a really
a really hard one if Kippur is the failure to see the reality behind one's work so let's just say I am I am more knowledgeable than the, the next Muslim. Let's say I am more wealthy and successful in business. Let's say I have I have achieved success worldly wise or religious wise, more than the other Muslim. Okay, that I'm now looking down upon.
Kibber is when I fail to see where this success,
my religious knowledge, my worldly wealth, my success in business, where does that all come?
And from, it hasn't actually come from me.
If I have some basic knowledge of the Quran, Quran 101 Then I will know that there are many instances in the Quran where Allah will say and here's one verse ma Saba come in, has in its environmental law, whatever good comes to you. It's from God, from Allah, whatever calamity befalls you it is from your own selves. So good is always from Allah subhanaw taala. Whatever good I have in my life. I know ultimately, Allah is the source of that good. And I would not have been able to achieve even a drop of that good, by my own might or main to believe otherwise, is to forget the hola when our Quwata illa biLlah. There is no mic, no power, no mic, no movement, no mic nor ability
except from God and with God.
So when I then realized that our Subhan Allah, Allah made me a vessel.
Allah made me a loving pawn on a chessboard, and did with me,
as he wished in his divine wisdom.
And he gave me these successes. The only possible state for a believer is not arrogance is humility. Because I, what did I do to deserve it?
You know,
I mean, this, this honor has come to me.
And I know myself,
or I should know myself.
And if it's not humility, it needs to be gratitude.
Okay, but humility and gratitude.
And so we need to keep reminding ourselves, that the good that I achieve is gifted to a lot of gifted from Allah to me, and I didn't deserve it. That's the key. Otherwise, I may think, because when you when we become religious, we kind of learn to adapt the, the the religious saying to our, to our own egotistical temperaments, because then I say, oh, yeah, of course, it's from Allah.
You know, of course, from a lot, but yeah, that's cool, of course, but actually,
I still feel that I deserved it. Which are you seeing you waxing proud? And I'm rather smug with myself.
So what's very interesting Sherif is so far, the solutions to the two diseases that you've mentioned, are really having a true understanding of the unicity of Allah subhanho wa taala, and his names and attributes and the divine reality, which is quite interesting. So if someone has a knowledge of Allah, not in an abstract sense, and in an informative sense, but also in a transformative sense, that they really understand who Allah is, then
those diseases in sha Allah can be diminished, maybe we will never remove them completely. Absolutely. As low as possible. And what's interesting, is all about Allah is all about knowing, referring to him understanding his might, His Majesty, his ability, his his Rama, his intense mercy, and so on and so forth. And as you say, you've said this many times before, having our hearts gaze, you know, towards Allah subhanho wa taala. So, this moves on to the third spiritual disease that we want to talk about, which I've heard you say before, this is like, the arrogance when there's no one around. Okay, so this is our job. This is vanity, self amazement, and the other descriptions that
you've mentioned previously, so what is our job? And what how do we kill ourselves from our job, the vanity and self amazement, which by the way, is is probably the primary spiritual disease of many of the duart including myself, people who share Islam, we give ourselves a tap on the back we think it was us it was my intellect, my ability, my arguments.
So what is this terrible disease and how do we cure it?
You know, the human heart was designed to see the hand of God behind everything in this world or in the cosmos.
The human eyes of the head are designed to be gifted with actually seeing a line hereafter.
But in this world, the prof
It's on the logarithm said when he was asked about spiritual excellence or Sr.
He said it is undoubtable Allah Nica Tara, it is to worship Allah as though seeing in
meaning seeing him with the eye of the heart, seeing the hand of God
behind everything, seeing that there is no ultimate mover
besides Allah subhanaw taala.
And the more the heart is purified in accordance with
Islam, and the Prophetic teachings, and the more we struggle against these spiritual vices, the more the heart is purified, and it begins to see with the spiritual 2020 vision.
It no longer needs glasses no longer has spiritual cataract, it's no longer spiritually blind, it's not the eyes in the head that go blind, but it's the hearts in the chest. And at that stage
taking the example of the process and but we can, we can peg it down a lot. So the process awesome is doing all these night prayers and standing so long that his feet are sweating, just out of the snow and they so they asked him yardas or Allah, I'll ask them, your former sins and your past and future sins have all been forgiven? Okay?
Why so much? Now, he could have said, well, you know, it's just my nature, I'm just, you know, I just, you know, I'm just a humble person I do so much and whatever, whatever just comes natural. No, he broken heartily says, Should I not be grateful slave.
Because his heart is constantly gazing at the reality of God, constantly gazing up Allah. Now, that's prophetic hearts, we're not going to our hearts are going to be not going to be like that, but they need to be like that to lesser degrees.
When I know that, actually,
I didn't have the ability to, I didn't have the ability to even do this talk, or even to understand spiritual diseases. Okay, left to my own devices, I would not only have none of this, I would have
the opposite
of all of this.
But if I, so what I should recognize is that Alhamdulillah Subhan, Allah, Allah has put this on me, for example, and one becomes humbled, has humility, or has gratitude or has fear of, in this case an immense burden, or not practicing what one preaches?
There will be so many ways of looking at Allah's blessings in terms of religiousness, or religiosity
that should step us away from arrogance, and make us see in the right way, but we need to be have be constantly reminded by people living living people
who actually in their lives, do see in the right way.
Or help us to see in the right way. That's really what our spiritual masters and does and the teachers have the in real life. As far as Islam is concerned, they tell they teach us this, and they help us with this more than anything else.
Ah, so our job, as you quite rightly said, is very much like arrogance. Our job is our job. Our job is to be amazed.
But amazing what my own self. Right? You know, I am the next best thing since sliced bread. You know, I don't really want to say it. I don't blow my own trumpet, but I actually do blow my own trumpet trumpet, okay.
And if I don't blow my own trumpet, explicitly, because I have been socialized into kind of civil society, I blow my own trumpet in another way. So I will say to you Hamza, you know, as you know, oh, four o'clock last night, in the depth of the night, you know, I got up and I noticed it was very windy outside. And I'm hoping I'm hoping I'm hoping that you're gonna ask, Well, what were you doing enough at four o'clock and exam I was just just do some 200 or something like that. Okay. Whereas all the time, that's what I wanted to get to, but I know I can't just say oh, by the way, I was up for a platoon sergeant. Because that kind of is like
it gives the game away. So I find other subtle ways to do it and and shape and kind of helps me and this makes me very intelligent to be shrewd in a very unspiritual way.
So
being amazed with one soul is unlike Kibber, which you
is to
forget that Alas, manaton has given me that blessing and that blessing doesn't make me better than someone else. Okay, especially by those standards that I'm probably judging, Kibera is vanity itself can see, that being full of one's own self, is that type of arrogance that I just have, just because of who I am, I have achieved
academic or financial success, or I have achieved some degree of religious
learning and Betterment I have achieved, and that's very obvious I can see that I've achieved.
But what I don't see is that who it came from, because it didn't come from me. So again, it's a failure to see who the real doer is because the heart is so blinded by itself. It can't, religiously, it can talk about a lot. We can talk about Allah, but we can't, we can't lift our gaze to Allah because we need to be the center of the conversation. It needs to be about us. Whereas the believer, the true believer, he or she, they do the deed. And then they can step back into the, into the background. They've come on stage, they've done the deed, and then they run for the side exits or behind the curtain, because now the glory of God should just take center stage, I did it for
God's glory, for Allah's remembrance to be made uppermost for His glory, to shine in the hearts to echo in our souls. And I've done the deed I prayed, and people have watched me pray, and that might have reminded something I've done whatever, now fade into the background.
Because the glory is for God, not for anyone else. And that is the challenge, especially for us religiously practicing or observant Muslims or whatever appropriate term
for this, because we quite often don't slip into the background.
And the reason why we don't, is not because there aren't exits or a garden, it's because we want the limelight, there is that craving.
But when we look in the lives of the salon, they were deeply
concerned when people praise them, they were deeply troubled by the fame that they got, whilst not seeking it, whilst not seeking it.
And when they had that level of chakra of fame, they didn't see it as a blessing but more of as a as a curse, or at least as a burden, at least as a burden.
And where they could kind of, you know, if I can just fade into the background,
they would do so with one condition. It is not permissible for a Muslim to fade in the background and leave
a vacuum concerning religious truths or existential truths. And in the early age of the Salaf, since there were just so many pious knowledgeable souls, individually, you and you know,
individually, one could do that, in this day and age whereby knowledge and dower there's just our issue is not that you are issues that we don't have enough people have knowledge and enough people doing now.
That's our issue. And so we really are struggling to fill the vacuum. But nonetheless, we should still have that attitude, is there a way that I can fill the vacuum and still fade into the background? And that requires kind of some of the hassle but some inward reflection
and looking at and looking at the larger picture of an AI a person who is
who is pointing hearts towards the glory of God or to the glory of self perfect so that's actually a perfect statement so we could transition into the cure but let me just because a lot has been said there I'd summarize for the audience what we're getting from this is
our job SELF amazement, in essence is focusing on the means and not the creator of the means focusing on yourself giving glory to yourself and giving glory to Allah subhana wa Tada for example, in a dour context. Say I have a debate
With someone famous and a do a great job, and they show the spirit of Islam and I come across as an intelligent, and articulate and wise and so on and so forth. And I mean, not act towards people that I'm better better than them, I may not be rejecting the truth, which will be Kibet an arrogance, but in my heart, or even maybe even in my expression of the way I frame these things. I'm like, ah, it was me, it was because of my abilities, it was because of who I am. It I was the, the cause of this, you know, and that will give you a sense of self of glory. And this can happen in an academic setting in a personal setting in a religious setting, the spiritual setting when you're doing acts
of worship, and so on and so forth. So, this is a huge danger, because as a Muslim, we should be basically giving All Glory to Allah subhanho wa taala. So that will be
now given, can you?
Can you summarize Kibber? Because I didn't give you an opportunity opportunity to summarize, I think there was, I only want to summarize when it's been a longer narrative, because people might get lost, it's not to do with the fact that you haven't done a good job is to do with the fact that people have sometimes have a tick tock mindset. So then maybe you lost sometimes after 10 seconds or something. So I think Kibera was done, and repeated in a way that they understood that it was about, you know, I'm rejecting the is rejection of truth and thinking you're better than others. But our job was a little bit more subtle. And you actually spoke about very important things that had to be
addressed as well. So I didn't want people to get lost with regards to what the definition of urgent is. So given us a job, how on earth do we, how on earth do we cure this disease?
This may sound like a bit of a woke statement, okay? From someone who
I'm trying to be spiritually awakened, but
hopefully I'm not woke. But we need to one of the cures of our job of this conceitedness that we have are this vanity that we hold about ourselves, vein gloriousness is just to remember, in reality, no matter how good we think we are, we are still broken people. And our prayers are pretty much still broken acts of worship. And our religious knowledge is still pretty much broken and fractured and not much, and so on and so forth. Okay. And that kind of will maybe pull us down a peg, without leading us to think of our of being soft humiliated, and you know, I'm worthless. Now, Islam doesn't want us to think we're worthless, but we have some worth in the glory and the worship
of Allah. So that's why the Prophet saw some says, and it's quite a strange statement, in one sense, given the whole emphasis of the Quran to avoid sin, avoid saying,
Repent, be righteous, good deeds and so on and so forth. Then we have the Prophet sallallahu listen saying in a sound Hadith, low lambda corner to the newborn, if you are not already sinning, Hashi to alikhan ma Hua Akbar Roman Dalek, then I would fear for you something worse than sending a job, conceit or vanity. Because one could imagine a human being who has a free choice
and does loads and loads and loads and loads of good deeds. At some point, they're not just going to be looking down on other people that you're not as good as me. They're going to be mightily impressed with their own selves and knots and then not see or forget that it all comes from Allah.
Okay, so in one sense, Chapin did both Kibber and and kind of urged him he lost. He lost the plot in both ways.
So if we just think that
whatever amazing talent I may have by worldly standards, it didn't come from me.
I was the mere vehicle or receptacle for its worldly manifestation. And for that I give a lot of thanks. And for that, there's no reason for me to boast.
There's no reason for me to is one of my friends showed me a few weeks ago,
there is this app, or there is this website that it has an AI that can write things for you. And so he showed me said
write a AI
Islamic sermon about piety.
And then it's wrote, okay, and when I read it,
not only was it articulate,
because, you know, and not only was it like, just absolutely spot on, and so concise and yes and moving, I just couldn't believe how moving it was.
And the AI wrote it. And then my friend explained to me as an IT person, he said, Look, you know, all it's done is, it's picked from this wealth of database, it's not kind of creatively done it from not from scratch. But it has been I said, still if I did that hook, but not only would it be a successful hook, but I mean, it just be the right thing to say. Let's suppose an idea that, let's suppose in this whole talk was an AI produced tool that I should know, in my heart, there's nothing for me to be proud of
those football, there's nothing for me to be impressed about for myself, I need to be impressed with the AI, who wrote my talk. For example, Don't try that at home, by the way.
The same thing here, it's not the AI, it's God, it's a loss of Hannah to Anna, be impressed with him. And really, really, that's the path in Islam, how I can take my gaze my inner gaze off of me, and lift it up to Allah subhanaw taala. And the whole spiritual path we revolve more or less around that. So our job is by just remembering that actually, I'm just the vehicle, and I'm thankful to be that vehicle or that receptacle. But I'm no more than that. Well, this again is about Allah subhanho wa taala. And this is
important focusing on knowing Allah. Because the more you know Allah, the more you will love Allah. And interestingly Eligos Adi, may Allah have mercy on him, he wrote in his ear concerning the need to know Allah, then the more you know, Allah, them, we would love him and he considered Love of Allah as one of the greatest highest forms of cognition actually, because it connected element knowledge of Allah subhanho wa Taala with loving Allah. And in this context, we need to know Allah much more know His names and attributes know his reality, and to be like Shuaib alayhi salam when he says, as the Quran mentions, indeed, my success comes from Allah Allah. And interestingly, and I've
mentioned this, in another video, I might put the link in the description concerning how we should how we should respond to success is the story of the man in the two gardens. Right. And we don't have to
say the scholars say that this was the kind of associationism a form of shtick of focusing on the means, and not the creator of the means.
One thing that we think we have to realize is that at the end of the day,
you, there were so many variables outside of your control
that were significant for your success and for what you've achieved.
And all of those things, ultimately, are utterly and fundamentally dependent on Allah subhanaw taala. You could never say it was you. Like, even when you're born like you couldn't for the first two months or something or even more, you couldn't lift your neck, you couldn't wipe your posterior you couldn't feed yourself, the actions of the system and individuals had to be in place in order for you to live and be and survive today. And you had no control over those things. Since the very beginning, how can you even think that this was all you the very fact that you're typing in a computer, the fact that you can speak the very fact that you can articulate yourself, it was as a
result of other people helping you other variables that you have no control over? And all of those things are utterly and utterly including you dependent on Allah subhanho wa taala, Allah subhanho wa Taala he's also mad he is absolutely absolutely independent. Everything depends on him. So even from that kind of ontological perspective, the reality what exists what is the source and nature of reality, as a Muslim from either perspective, you should realize you are just the means not the creator of the means. And you should focus on the creator and Glory to Allah subhanaw taala.
So, you mentioned something very beautiful because we mentioned this, I think a few months ago, a few weeks ago.
I remember I think I asked you about what about self esteem we live in a kind of narcissistic age is what about me sort about No, I achieve I can just do it impossible is nothing all of these kind of almost polytheistic slogans that we have from marketing these days. What about what about
about self esteem.
And then you've said something which I've repeated quite a few times since then. Maybe you want to repeat it to the audience today, when someone says, you know, if it's all about Allah, and it had nothing to do with me, and it was solely Allah subhanho wa taala. Then what about me as a human self esteem? And then you mentioned, I don't know if you remember if you said it, but you mentioned something, which is very profound, I reached out about you, you kick off by mentioning what I mentioned, and then that might lead me into, into being on the right track was such a statement. So
I don't know how to remind you without mentioning the whole statement.
However, you, however, you said this, you basically said
What greater honor is there, that Allah chose you
to be a manifestation of His glory?
Well, greater honor, and I've mentioned this before, and he was very powerful because people think was self esteem. It has to be me and but what greater honor is that? What else do you need with regards to your self esteem? Other than the realization that Allah chose you, and you didn't even really deserve it, but he chose you?
So I thought that was very powerful, because there's so again, with regards to this Bucha diseases remembering Allah subhanho wa taala. Now
final disease chef, right, the final disease,
ostentation showing off Ria, what is it? And what is its cure?
So let me lead into that with just the link from the previous to this.
Whether it's a job, vanity self conceit, or whether it's showing off or sensation, if not at that Illa in another one of his counselors or wisdoms said,
loud, tough bye PA to the uninhabited Minca Let not acts of obedience and make you enjoy us because they come from you. Wafra behalf Leanna her beras admin Allah like, but be joyous because they come from Allah to you.
Let no acts of obedience make you joyous because they come from you, but be joyous because they come from Allah to you.
When we have our lives rooted in Allah, whether it's our brokenness, in Allah, whether it's our joy in Allah, then that's all good. That's really all good. But if our brokenness or our joy, or our sense of self self is rooted in ego, or dunya, or something other than a lot, then it's not good. It's darkness all the way, as far as
the journey to Allah is concerned. And what we need to just remind ourselves is, its Allah, Allah, Allah, the practice of of abundant vicar is not meant to be just so you know, we can say we did this we did that it's so that it can be impressed upon our in witness that it's always about Allah, Allah.
When we say Subhan, Allah, masha Allah, those common expressions that are just peppered in ordinary talk, we don't have you know, as Muslims we know we don't have to go to a mosque to say Masha Allah Subhan Allah, it's not like a It's not like an Anglican attitude that somehow, you know, I will only praise God within, you know, within the confines of a church building kind of thing. I know of course, they don't have that belief that I've just said.
But with the Prophet Soissons guidance or sun has just told us to just pepper your conversations with just the remembrance and the glory of God Subhan Allah, masha Allah, Allah Hola, Lakota stop for Allah
Subhana Allah.
Why not because we can have these exclamations, but because they impress upon us, the reality of Allah. And that's really what it's about. It's about how can I, in the case of religious practitioners, how can I live out of laws truths in my life.
And in the case of living amongst non Muslims, I have a general duty of
reaching out to them with Islam or Tao as we go
But how can I reach out to people with this Islam? And how can I also step back from the limelight whilst doing those things it's it's a difficult one.
It you know we're going to trip and we're going to stumble but if we have people there to, to guide us into tell us that that makes the job easier.
So ostentation.
Again it's a matter of seeing. So Allah says for men, that Allah says in the same Surah as the story about the two people who own the two gardens, okay? In surah Talamh calf the 18th chapter, Allah subhanaw taala says for men Karna Yara Julia ka rugby for the Atmel Amylin, sila Han? Well, I usually be about 30 Euro be ahead, what's the whoever hopes to meet their Lord,
then let him do righteous deeds, and in the worship of his Lord, make no shit associate no one as partner
or Ria.
ostentation showing off is from the word of Allah. To see
RIA is to make a show of our deeds, let other people see them.
Now some deeds, you can't help that when you're praying in congregation, other people have seen it in one sense or the other. Fasting is the opposite. Barring Ramadan fast
option or recommended fast, no one probably would know that you're fasting. And likewise, charity in most cases, is given whereby well actually charity nowadays can be given just add a click of a button. Right? You don't even have to go out somewhere. So period, not even the one that you're giving it to knows that you gave it. So yeah, so you can do some things, concealed man other things you can't avoid, but they're done openly. But RIA are showing off one of these major sins and one of the four worst spiritual diseases is doing acts of worship or religious acts with the intention of being seen or not starting with that intention. But during the act, the intention chain changes. And
they're doing it to show off to impress others to be patted on the back, or some other worldly motive or reward. And all of that is my initial
nullifies the IDs, and is a major sin and veils us from a loss of amateur honor.
And it's something that
I could be wrong, but I don't think we pay enough attention to it in this day and age. If we were to compare ourselves just with the attitude of the, the early Muslims,
they seem to have been incredibly concerned about
the motives behind their religious acts of obedience or worship.
We tend to be a little bit more comfortable with ourselves. So I can quite comfortably say to I got married for the sake of Allah.
I did that with purely for Allah with nothing in my heart and these claims I just these are claims of angels. These are claims that maybe the highest Olia of Allah can make these are claims that could be made by prophets and messengers, Allah He was allowed to what Salam, but we're not any of that. And but we make those claims quite comfortably. And that comes not from some evil heart it just comes from normally it comes from the fact that I really just don't understand the gravity of what showing off is beyond the most trivial or most superficial understanding.
And we can't be trivial or superficial in our spiritual knowledge. We can be trivial spiritual, superficial in our knowledge of
inheritance laws in Islam. In our knowledge of some detailed laws of zakat beyond the two and a half percent I have to pay, you know, whenever but we can't be superficial on these, these matters because they are the substance of our very hearts submission to Allah. They are the bedrock of the foundation. If we don't see correctly,
then to that degree, we are