Hamza Yusuf – Being Spiritually Lukewarm Heedlessness In Islam
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the meaning of "hammed" in Arabic language and the theory that animals are not in a state of fear. They also touch on the "has" of human emotions, including thoughts of anger and desire for loyalty. The "has" of human emotions caused by animals is discussed, including the negative impact of social anxiety and the success of a meal promotion. The "has" of human emotions is also discussed, including the struggles of the current pandemic and the negative impact of social media on people's mental health.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
the Qur'an, يَقْتَرَبَ لِلنَّاسِ حِسَابُهُمْ وَهُمْ فِي
غَفَلَةٍ مُعْرِضُونَ that people's reckonings are drawing nearer
and yet people are in heedlessness, not thinking
about that.
يَقْتَرَبَ لِلنَّاسِ حِسَابُهُمْ يَوْمَ الْحِسَابِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ the
Day of Judgment, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
described the state of these people is that
they're وَهُمْ فِي غَفْلَةٍ, غفلة is a word
in Arabic, it has a lot of different
meanings but generally whenever you have a word
that begins with غَيْن, it has to do
with some kind of covering or something being
hidden, something being veiled like غابة, نغفرة, to
cover over and so the basic meaning of
it is that people are in a state
of heedlessness غَفْلَة, the غافل is heedless, مغفل
is a simpleton, a fool, somebody that can
be easily tricked is مغفل, somebody that other
people can fool them is a simpleton, so
the idea that people are in a state
of غفلة is a very strong Qur'anic
idea, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in
the Qur'an وَلَقَدْ ذَرَأْنَا لِدَهَنَّ مَا كَثِيرًا
مِّنَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنسِ We have prepared for the
* many multitudes of the jinn, unseen creatures
and the ins, human beings لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَا
يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا They have intellects, here the word
قلب means intellect, they have intellects but they
don't use them, they don't understand with their
intellects, لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا لَهُمْ أَعْيُونٌ
They have eyes لَا يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا But they
don't see with their eyes لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَا
يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا لَهُمْ أَعْيُونٌ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ
آذَانٌ And they have ears لَا يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا
But they don't hear أُولَٰئِكَ كَالْأَنْعَامُ Those people
are like dumb beasts like cattle and sheep
but then the Qur'an says بَلْ هُمْ
أَضَلُ No and this is a rhetorical استدراك
in Arabic بَلْ is used to clarify something
if you made a mistake or said something
that wasn't clear here it's used rhetorically they're
like animals no بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُ why أُولَٰئِكَ
هُمْ الْغَافِلُونَ Because they're in a state of
heedlessness now if you look at the animal
kingdom you will not find animals in a
state of heedlessness animals no matter what they're
doing are always in a state of awareness
if you watch an animal eating even a
dog it'll immediately sense if somebody comes near
it if you watch a rabbit eating rabbits
move their ears around why because they're worried
there's something that threatens them there's some danger
most animals have very sensitive ears and eyes
if you watch rats or mice if you
watch a mouse come out of a hole
a mouse doesn't just saunder out of the
hole the mouse comes out slow it moves
its head around the same with the lizard
if you watch a lizard come out of
its hole a lot can be learned from
animals that's why allah uses them as metaphors
in the quran if you watch a lizard
come out of a hole a lizard like
this the arabs say more bewildered than the
lizard because the lizard looks like he's bewildered
what he's really doing is he's checking is
there any danger out there animals are constantly
aware of danger they're always aware of danger
why because their their existence is threatened and
that awareness if they're not aware they're endangering
themselves they're endangering their pride if they're lions
or their flock if they're sheep that's why
in in the in the dumbest of animals
you have that we domesticate not animals in
nature animals that are domesticated need a shepherd
because they've humans have domesticated them they feel
safe they're in fences their food is there
they don't have to forage for it so
they start feeling safe so then you bring
in the right but if you go out
in nature animal fish are constantly watch a
fish they turn all at the same time
if they sense anything fish are constantly aware
because like the arabs one fish big fish
eat little fish so fish are always aware
there's a lot of animals that have uh
they'll only come out of their shell like
a turtle it'll come out of the shell
if it senses any danger it goes back
into the shell there's animals that that's their
hole the same thing they'll run back to
their hole the jar boy has two one
one there it checks if it's safe it'll
go out if it's not it goes out
the other one it's called a nafta which
is where the arabs get monastic from because
that's where hypocrites are always have exits exit
strategy but that's why allah says that these
people are more astray than animals because animals
are not in a state of heedlessness about
the the danger that is threatening them but
humans are in heedlessness they they lie around
an animal if they sense fire they immediately
run you watch any animal you put fire
near an animal and they flee what do
people do they see a fire they say
let's go check the fire out they're curious
because this is the type heedlessness man is
is so clever his cleverness kills him this
is the state of human beings but allah
warns of that state allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala says about the people of the cities
do people feel safe in these cities that
are harm won't come in the night time
while they're sleeping do people feel safe during
the daytime that our harm won't come to
them and they're playing why does allah use
play he doesn't say they're working because if
you have no purpose in your life in
what you're doing then you're playing that's what
love is it's it's an activity that has
no purpose other than entertainment that's that's what
games are they're simply to entertain people and
so this is what allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is saying about people they're in a
state of heedlessness do they feel safe from
the design of god the only people that
feel safe from the the design of god
who are they the losers the losers same
word surely by time by the passage of
time man humanity is in a state of
loss you're losing time your time is running
out you've got a clock on your on
your hand that will tell you 12 hours
you also have a clock that allah has
designed is an internal clock it's got 50
years 75 years 40 years 30 years and
that clock comes to an end that's it
that you you don't you don't get a
battery recharged if your clock breaks down here
you go and get it fixed no it's
over and then people what do they say
let me go back i'll do good that's
what people say that's the state of people
is a state of heedlessness people are walking
around daydreaming they're completely unaware i was taking
my children across the street yesterday uh it
was at night and and they had ridden
somewhere i rode with them and and i
said look when you go across it you
have to be completely aware because these people
are sleeping they're driving around in a they're
daydreaming people are on automatic pilot and just
to prove my point as i stepped off
the curve and i had the right away
and the pedestrian things had a sign saying
you know walk 10 9 7 6 8
and a car swirl almost hit me coming
around and this lady looks at me and
like she she didn't even see me just
to prove the point you know that could
have been it for me but that's the
state people are in they're in a complete
state of heedlessness when you're driving out there
driving is ibadah because you have a a
weapon of mass destruction behind you that's what
you've got there that's a weapon of mass
destruction and you don't give weapons of mass
destruction to idiots a car can kill large
numbers of people you can you can kill
50 people on the freeway now that's a
we had 30 people died 33 people died
in virginia it's a national catastrophe you know
how many people died yesterday on in automobile
accidents but people don't think of that but
but it's the same type of heedlessness that's
what people are in they're in a state
of and that is what the quran is
warning about don't be in that state don't
be in that state don't be worse than
animal because animals aren't in that state animals
are thinking about danger danger they're aware of
their enemies we're not aware of our enemies
those are enemies of man just like every
animal out there has natural enemies that it's
worried about constantly it's vigilant about why because
it doesn't want to lose its life and
humans should be conscious of losing their eternal
life that's that's that's what we're here for
we're here to prepare if you look imam
rahab is bahani says that allah has given
us three powers who that he put in
the human being the first power is called
which is a a power that we share
with animals it's called appetitive and it's part
of our animal nature because human is high
one but he's high one not to collect
the arab say an articulate or a rational
animal but that power the ability to to
this power of appetite is a is a
healthy thing when it's kept in check and
that's the the masharab the makal and the
mankah eating drinking and procreation that that that
that's the shahwa that human beings begin and
then you have the quwa al-ghadabiya which
is called the irascible power or faculty that
that god has put into man and this
relates to the emotions it's why people get
angry and that's put in there for a
reason because you should get angry about things
that should elicit proper anger but you should
get angry for the right reasons in the
right degree at the right time and towards
the right object you don't just get angry
there's people now walking around they're just filled
with rage they're filled with anger they'll get
angry at the slightest thing because that's their
state that's the hub that they're in because
the the irascible self has overwhelmed them just
like there's people now just looking for there's
people 40 million downloads of * in this
country every day 40 million the highest *
downloading going on per capita are in muslim
countries you can look at the google you
can look at the google research on it
and i'm reading a book on this subject
where i can't even believe it what's going
on out there because people are complete slaves
of their selves and that's total heedlessness you
couldn't do something like that unless you were
in a complete state of heedlessness that's what
it is it's total heedlessness and now shaitan
has vehicles has has their their their machines
and technology that can completely destroy a human
being completely you'll you'll put out your inner
eye blind it it's like it's like taking
a you know you're the uh the the
scholars of this science say the inner eye
is more sensitive than the outer eye the
spiritual eye is more sensitive than the outer
eye just like when you get a little
speck of sand in your eye you can't
see you just want to clear your eyes
anything that you're looking at that is haram
that's what it's doing to your inner eye
but worse it's like stabbing it it's like
stabbing it and that's what people are doing
that's what there is it's all heedlessness that's
why imam al-junaid said that the real
root cause of all sin crime evil in
the world is ghafla that's what he said
that is the root crime human beings are
sleepwalkers in the insomnambulant states not aware that
that the time is coming we're gonna have
to meet allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the
the reckoning is drawing near and people are
in heedlessness they're not thinking about it the
prophet sallallahu alaihi was thinking about it constantly
take yourself to account before you're taken to
account consider yourselves already in the grave that's
a hadith in sahih muslim consider yourselves already
in the grave be prepared to meet allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala it's real it's real
i mean those are hadith fire is real
paradise is real the day of judgment is
real the holders it's all real this is
the illusion people think they're going to be
here forever there were people 100 years ago
listening to the same ayahs hearing the same
they're all gone they're dead all of them
they're all gone and here we are and
we're going to be gone and these young
people they'll be sitting here with the same
problems the same stupidities the same miserliness greed
envy backbiting namima all the same diseases and
that's why in in the hadith the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam when he said set out
on the journey and reap the rewards he
said don't take this as some kind of
outward journey the prophet when he tells you
a commandment because outwardly merchants when they go
out on a journey they they benefit like
the arabs say travel there's five benefits in
traveling you get benefit from job but this
is a spiritual traveling set out on a
journey to god to allah and he says
that journey and finally i want before i
get to that the the third it's the
rational soul the power the faculty that human
beings have that separates them from all other
species on this planet with the exception of
the jinn that faculty is the ability to
reason it's the ability to think and if
that that faculty is meant to to be
in control of the other two faculties but
what's happened is it's switched over the horse
is riding the man the donkey is riding
you that's what's happening it's switched it's completely
backward you can tell people that it takes
your basal metabolic rate is like 1600 it'll
burn 1600 calories a day right so you
just need that just to survive i mean
you'll you'll burn fat or something like that
for a certain amount of time and then
the body starts eating itself then you die
that's what you need and then based on
your movement you need something on top of
that 500 a thousand depending on what people
do laborers need more people that use their
intellect need more because there's glucose you have
to have caloric intake for thinking so but
there's people out there eating 4 000 calories
a day every time they get on the
scale they see it going up they get
diabetes and then they pray you know for
a shifa people eat the all that ghee
and dalda and and this that and the
other and and then they get a triple
bypass alhamdulillah no seriously if you if you're
if you're sick people get sick you know
genes there's a lot of reason people get
sick but most people make themselves sick and
then they ask god for i give you
a body it has legs with muscles you
have a stomach that's meant to digest it's
all meant for it's all wisdom but you
can understand all of that rationally do people
exercise no the doctor tells them to exercise
they don't exercise do people overeat when the
ice cream comes do they eat it yes
even with diabetes i've seen people shoot up
insulin before they have their dessert i'm not
making that up why because they can't control
themselves it's as simple as that people aren't
well but you're human beings i mean this
this is we're not insignificant creatures we're meant
to be to to be people of discipline
i mean that's why allah has given us
this religion five prayers a day in specific
time the prophet saw him once saw a
man who had a heavy stomach and he
said that would be better if it was
on somebody else 30 000 children died yesterday
of starvation and all and probably more or
as many died from overeating because it's imbalanced
people don't think about other people they just
think about themselves that's hafla it's it's all
greed it's all ego it's all me me
me that's what's going on out on that
freeway out there nobody's thinking of the other
when i grew up people had courtesy on
the road i remember that clearly i'm not
making this up people had courtesy on the
road people would actually stop and let you
get in now they speed up and and
then flip you off seriously that because this
is a a complete me culture that's what's
happening it's the whole planet we got six
billion people me me me six billion people
it makes a wonderful world doesn't it well
you don't know that that's what islam is
about they prefer others to themselves khasasa even
if they have needs they actually prefer others
to themselves like the two of the ansar
who had a guest and they turned out
the lights because they didn't have enough food
for themselves they they put their children to
sleep and then they fed the guest and
the prophet said allah was pleased with with
what you did last night because allah is
aware those are real people those are human
beings it's not all these selfish people out
there it's not all these people filled with
that me me me attitude it's human beings
that's what we're supposed to be we're supposed
to be human beings now if you know
if you look what happened in in virginia
i mean there's a lot of it's a
very deep problem but it's a problem that
we need to think about as a society
about where this whole thing is going where
this project is going you know internet and
and violence that's so graphic you know that
if you have any sanity at all you
have to feel sick in in in the
fact that it's out there all this graphic
violence video games all these things i mean
even the kid is is imitating a film
that he saw that's what it you know
but if you look what happened to him
that's what i'm interested in what happened to
him i mean how how did that get
created you know humiliated laughed at because he's
korean made fun of by go back to
china people don't even know the difference between
a korean and a chinese person you know
they're very distinct look and they know they
know each other but korean sees another korean
they know each other chinese know each other
it's like africans people think blacks all look
alike when i was in africa i had
to learn all the different europa hausa manding
for that they all look different and i
learned to see i meet people on the
street that are from africa i'll say oh
where are you from nigeria how do you
know i said you're europa how do you
know they can't even believe an american would
even know that there's different kind of black
people in the world but you have to
treat people with dignity that's what happened this
man was humiliated since he was a little
kid in grade school and that's what happens
all this bullying and the quran prohibits that
is one of the worst things that you
can do is is making fun of people
mocking people humiliating people the same thing happened
in columbine you study those two boys that
did that in columbine the same thing they
were uh mocked by the jocks of the
school spit on called faggots what kind of
culture is that what do we teach our
children in the houses there's so much abuse
out there if you want to know why
people are in the states they're in look
at the way they're being raised look the
way they're being spoken to just human respect
human dignity treating people like human beings welcoming
people this is what humans are supposed to
be doing that that's what humanity is about
that's what we're here for we're here to
help each other work with each other in
righteous things don't work with each other in
harmful things Allah says don't let one people
mock another people and the qaum here is
nakira it's an indefinite substantive whenever you have
a negative before that it means anybody it's
like the usulyun say it means anybody no
people should mock another people arabs shouldn't mock
americans americans shouldn't mock arabs people should not
mock each other because when you mock people
they get angry because you're humiliating them you're
making them feel insignificant you're making them feel
like rich people that mock poor people that
was a lot of his diatribe was about
rich people their insensitivity and that happens we're
in a culture where we don't even know
there's a whole other culture living alongside this
culture that doesn't have anything really people that
don't have anything they live with rats and
cockroaches in this culture we've got uh new
orleans right now down there nothing's been done
we're trying to rebuild iraq and a whole
city was wiped off the map and and
still there's people that can't go back to
their homes well what's happened and these are
questions we have to ask as a culture
as a country and these are really really
troubling things that people should be deeply troubled
by these things just come and go and
then it's just a media flash in and
and everybody gets excited and then it's over
until the next one happens people don't think
about what's going on what are we teaching
our children there's a book by dave grossman
he's lieutenant colonel taught the psychology of killing
it's called stop teaching our children to kill
he it's been proven by social sciences that
there is a small number of people out
there that are going to become violent from
all of these violent games that they watch
yeah it's small it doesn't happen to everybody
but if it happens to a small number
that's the whole purpose of islam you prohibit
things to protect that minority that's going to
be endangered by those things like alcohol a
lot of people that have their glass of
wine every night the doctor said no it's
good for your heart forget about your liver
and your kidneys but it's good for your
heart but but what happens right there's a
whole other group of people they start drinking
that stuff it destroys their marriages it destroys
their life it's just like internet * in
this book i'm reading there's so many marriages
have been destroyed destroyed people that get addicted
to that don't even want to have a
intimate relationship with a real human being there's
in cyber world kind of culture people have
to ask themselves those questions ya
arham arrahimin wa ja'alna min al-faizin
yawm al-deen ya arham arrahimin allahumma iqibna
min al-ghaflati wa min al-ihtiqar wa
min al-iftikhar wa min kulli quseebatin tuba
'iduna anka ya arham arrahimin wa qahir qulubina
wa al-sinatina allahumma wahid sufufina wa alaf
bayna qulubina anta arham arrahimin subhana rabbika rabb
al-izzati amma shukhoon wa salamun ala al
-mursaleen wa alhamdulillahi rabb al-alamin inna allaha
ya'maru bil-adli wal-ihsan wa ita'i
dhikr al-qurba wa yanha an al-fahsha
'i wal-munkar wal-baghi ya'idhakum la
'adukum tadhakkaroon wadhkurallaha yudhkurukum wa shukroohu wa la
tukfuroon wa aqeem al-salat