Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 10 Ramadan 1442 Late Night Majlis A Radiant Summary Of Sufism
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Alhamdulillah, we have reached this Mubarak,
10th night of Ramadan.
It is the seal
of the nights of the first Asharah,
which are typified by
Rahma, by mercy.
Oh, our lord,
do not harden our hearts after you have
guided us
and gift us,
from
that place that only
your special gifts can come.
Those things that only you can give.
Gift us mercy.
Indeed, you are the great bestower of gifts.
So we,
continue to what is the, conclusion of this
booklet
that, Sheikhtamim has put together with regards to
the legacy of the,
Sufia in particular and the Chishtiya,
even in more particular than that,
the legacy,
of the mashaikh in
defending,
the sunnah and promoting the sunnah and adhering
to the sunnah,
and
how they held that as a cornerstone for
a person's spiritual
journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And, before, continuing to read the conclusion,
yesterday we spoke a little bit about the
harms
of music and merrymaking.
And I think, you know, it's important not
just to look at particulars, but to try
to analyze principles.
One of the things we do is we
look look at things only through the legalistic
lens,
and, it's important to respect the law and
the Sharia and the fiqh. That's the beginning
of any discussion, but it's definitely not the
entirety the totality of the discussion.
And,
people, you know, will say, okay, well, Sheikh
so and so allowed,
you know, musical instruments with this and that
condition, or they allowed this instrument, or they
allowed that instrument, or they, you know, maybe
some of the Mashaikh allowed the sama.
To be,
perfectly honest with you, there were
there were mashaikhavdasilsa
that
the use of musical instruments in the majlis
of Samar was
at least attributed to them,
relatively
strongly.
It's not something that you just wave off,
with the flick of your hand.
This includes,
the great Sheikh Shaul Dukaduz Gango
But you'll see that out of all of
the masha'i, he was the one who,
probably was the most, Jalali in his disposition
and the one that I think most, modern
people nowadays would probably call the police on
for
Morid abuse or whatever, because of his
complete,
stern and uncompromising
observance
of his practices in saluk in a way
that I think the public will not find
consumer friendly.
But,
you know, there's more there's more than than
just that fiqi,
discussion.
And I would say that if I'm a,
you know, if the mashaikh wanted to do
do it like that, then
they would leave less,
room for objection.
And we have not seen anybody, from the
living Moshayk do it like that.
Mostly we see the people who are, the
song and dance people are the ones who
are sharia light or sharia optional altogether.
May Allah protect us from,
whatever sin the punishment is,
going down that path.
May Allah protect us from that sin and
protect us that from that punishment,
which becomes a punishment that keeps on giving.
But
more than that, you know, despite the fact
that I think people there's a rule and
there there may be exceptions and people fixate
on the exception
and don't understand or learn from the rule.
One of the things that
as a principle, typifies the age that we
live
in is
a complete, like, oversaturation
of the senses, a complete, like, sensory overload.
Everything has to be a video, everything has
to be visual, everything has to have a
chart, everything has to have a picture, has
to have a diagram, everything has to, you
know, be catchy, everything has to be viral,
everything has to be, you know, 30 seconds
or you know, we went from 2 minutes
or less to 1 minute or less to
30 seconds or less. Now it also have
to be with TikTok, with singing and music,
and otherwise, nobody has the ability or ist
and that to hear or understand anything anymore.
And this is something that
people will
experience and people are experienced experiencing is that
the more music a person listens to,
of any type, whether it's spiritual or otherwise,
whether it has a good message or not,
or whether it's,
something that contains, you know, otherwise objectionable things
in the sharia or whether a person is
just, you know, listening to a real,
a mixed out tripped out track of Mary
Had A Little Lamb or something innocuous like
that. Is that,
is that that that sensory overload.
It makes the heart numb,
and it makes the ears numb, and it
makes the brain numb.
And, that's that's what happens, you know, sensory
overload is that when you when, you know,
when you
taste too much, you know, if you drink,
you know,
too much Coke, then all of a sudden,
maybe,
orange juice won't taste sweet anymore.
Whereas on the flip side, I remember I
went on the Atkins diet,
one time, which many of you may find
comical,
when I was in college. And
after having cut carbs out of my diet
completely for months,
I noticed, like, things like, lettuce and things
like
cucumbers are very sweet.
They do have a sugary taste to them,
and you don't notice that if you're completely
sensory, overloading yourself.
And so, you know, this is a
a a warning because there is a dichotomy
and an antagonism between form and meaning.
And people who focus too much on form,
those people will
lose out on on meaning. And that's why,
the the verse of Milana Rumi,
that,
you know,
it's a very pertinent verse for the Saliq.
That close your eyes and close your ears
and,
close your lips.
Then if you see not,
the light of truth,
then you can laugh at me. You can
say this entire Tarif is a joke.
But the idea is that. Is that if
you deprive yourself of
sensory input, if you starve the body, which
is kind of what fasting is about, if
you starve the body, if you starve the
senses, what happens is that the meaning inside
has less noise that it's competing against. And
when I say meaning, I don't mean like
the definition dictionary definition of a word, but
I mean the haqq itself, like the true
meaning of life reality.
You can ponder over it. Whereas if you're
busy, you know, trying to survive, if you're,
you know, sinking in in the ocean and
surrounded by sharks that are, like, biting your
legs, you're not really gonna be able to,
you know, think about
problems or issues that are in the world
of meaning, whether they are higher meaning or
even lower meaning like, you know, math or
science or whatever. You're not gonna be able
to really do good analysis of why is
it the sun,
that the sun is, you know, not burning
the earth or so far away that the
earth is freezing or these types. So you're
not gonna be able to think about these
things
because you're overloaded with the immediacy of
of thrashing, sinking, fear, emotion,
pain, etcetera.
And so it's not just the music itself.
In that sense, even singing the sheets,
in that sense, even watching videos, in that
sense,
the kind of instant gratification
cycle, dopamine,
dopamine slot machine cycle of getting likes and
getting retweets and,
you know, refreshing and dupe scrolling to to
to *,
you know, type of lifestyle.
If you keep doing that, obviously, you're not
gonna be able to have the ista'ada,
the capacity to stand
in taraweeh for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6 hours. You're not gonna be able to
hear, you know, half a * of Quran,
and it move you. You're not gonna be
able to read half a * of Quran
or a * of Quran or 2 ajuzah
or 3 or 4 or 5 or 4,
in a quarter,
like the, you know, the where the the
manzil is, etcetera. You're not gonna be able
to do those things.
It's just gonna be too much. It's gonna
be onerous for you.
And, you know, if this is something that
you're listening right now and you're like, wow.
You know, I feel none to those things.
You know? I don't get enjoyment from them.
You know, we're talking about the Sufis not
allowing their ecstatic states to overwhelm them. I
wish I had a ecstatic state so that
I could try to fight against it overwhelming
me or even let it overwhelm me.
You know, that's that's unfortunately sadly, the the
way we set up our lives nowadays is,
such that, you know, we
do we do suffer from
from having this complete active suppression of meaning
in our lives.
And so, you know, the old people think
about it. They didn't used to have to
drive. They used to walk a lot of
places. They had a lot of time to
think about stuff. We need to redo our
our routines such that we take out, you
know, spend significant portions of time taking out
all of that sensory overload, whether it be
music or videos or,
social media or whatever it is. We need
to TV, whatever it is. We need to
take all those things out. Marshall, we have
a generation of people, probably many types of
people who listen to this. You know, the
generation of people actively gave up watching TV,
threw TVs out of their houses.
And, we're very proud of ourselves and then
bam, Shaitan got us. We have a phone
in our pocket. It's worse than any TV
could have been because you can watch whatever
the * you want on demand and there's
a nearly endless supply of it.
So we need to we need to
revisit the plan,
in order to maintain some sort of spiritual
capacity,
to,
understand and to reckon with meaning.
And, you know,
the thing that Ramadan kind of brings your
attention to the most is the fact that
from those things that you lose the capacity
to engage with,
when you have sensory overload, whether it be
with music or other things, is is the
the the Quran itself. Because this is the
month of the Quran. This is the month
of Taraweeh. This is the month of tilawas
and khatams and and things like that,
that you lose the capacity to engage with
that. And once you've done that, you have,
like, you know, locked yourself in from the
emergency exit. The one door every other door
leads to, like,
snakes and fire and death and destruction and
pain. And the one door that, is your
exit that will allow you to safely go,
where you need to and get to your
destination. We've chained it shut by all of
this sensory overload, whether it be lawful or
not.
And that's one of the reasons I mentioned
that issue about,
you know, fiqh is the beginning of a
discussion, but it's not the entire entire discussion
that it is possible to engage in something,
lawful,
to such a point that it will,
that it will end up destroying you. Like
Ghazali
said that the halal is the haram is
like poison. Any amount of it will harm
you large or small. The halal is like
medicine,
a pro an appropriate
dosed amount
depending on what your condition is and and
what your disposition is, etcetera. An appropriate dosed
amount,
will will help you.
It will cure you. And taking too much
of it then also becomes a poison. You
have a headache and you just slam down,
the Costco bottle of Advil, you're gonna you're
gonna end up frying your kidneys. You're gonna
end up killing yourself, and that's no good.
And so just keep that in mind Insha'Allah.
Conclusion.
Adar Tanri writes, in conclusion I present a
section from Tavkira Tar Rashid,
that demonstrates the path of our akabir in
the most beautiful way. The aqabir are the
senior and elder mashaikh from whom,
the entire age took their deen and who
whose fiyu have spread throughout the continents
and, who the great olema have testified to
their righteousness and to their learning.
And those people are the ones that the
messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said
to the companions in a hadith narrated by
Hakim.
That
the blessings is in following your akabir.
So whoever has a tan, we considered the
akabir. I consider the akabir as well.
He says that, in conclusion,
I present a section from Tafkira Tarasheed,
that demonstrates the path our Akabir,
took in the most beautiful way. Tafkira Tarasheed
is
biographical work of, with, of,
Mullana Rashid Ahmad Gangoi
It shows their complete dedication and loyalty to
the sunnah of our beloved master, Sayid Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Molana Badar Alam Mirati
writes about his Sheikh, Qutbul Alam Molana Rashid
Ahmad Gango. He's saying,
from head to toe, every part of his
body had been perfectly cultured by and firmly
bound to the pristine Sharia.
The sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam had
attached to him firmly.
Hence, he could not be swayed to any
side.
His heart, having witnessed the beauty of Allah,
had become aloof to the attractions of this
world.
All his body parts had become dedicated to
striving for Allah's pleasure.
His heart had become a treasure trove of
Allah to Allah's true love.
Every part of his body had become ardently
desirous of striving for Allah's pleasure in serving
Islam
to the extent that it had become his
natural habit to follow the Sharia as was
brought by Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Since there was nothing he loved more than
the sunnah, it brought him pleasure beyond description
to practice upon it.
Allah's divine grace
had always assisted and supported him.
The divine enablement or tawfiq had become his
backbone.
Rectitude had become his strength.
He had been bestowed peace and tranquility of
heart.
The crown of steadfastness and fortitude had been
placed upon his head.
A true quest and sincere desire for the
eternal life of the hereafter had become his
shade, shading him against the ups and downs
of life as though they never existed.
I was fortunate enough to come across a
page containing notes on the essence and fundamentals
of the tariqa.
It was in possession of Hazrat's son, Mona
Hakim Moana Mas'ud Ahmed Sab,
and had been personally written by, Hazrat's blessed
hand, minis sheikh Rashid Hamel Gangui.
Hazrat had written it during his early days
and Allah alone knows what had compelled him
to write it.
I present it to the reader as follows.
The science of Sufism,
he says,
is the science of Islam which pertains to
the inner self,
in the inner self and the external self,
and the strength of one's conviction, their Yaqeen.
This is the loftiest science.
The condition of the Sufis entails a rectification
of character and constant submission to Allah.
The essence of tasuluf involves imbibing the character
of divine qualities of Allah into one's own
character.
His own will should be removed
and the slave should become totally engrossed in
attaining the pleasure of Allah.
The character and manner of the Sufis,
are the same as that of Rasulullah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam as per the declaration of
Allah
You, oh, Muhammad alaykasa to Islam, are certainly
on a lofty character.
And whatever else is described in the hadith,
and is
included upon that which the Sufis must act
upon.
The details of the Sufis character are as
follows.
1, to consider
oneself
to be the most insignificant,
and the pride is its opposite. To have
pride in oneself is its opposite.
To interact in a gracious manner, number 2.
To interact in a gracious manner with people
and to bear their injuries and wrongs.
3, to interact with leniency and affection and
to abstain from anger and rage.
4, to be concerned about the well-being of
others and to give preference to others with
kindness.
This means that the person must give preference
to others over their self.
5, to be generous.
6, to overlook and pardon.
7, to have a smiling appearance and be
cheerful.
8, to be tolerant and adopt a gentle
approach.
9, to abstain from formalities and making a
show of oneself.
10, to spend without restriction, but not so
freely as to cause one to become needy.
11, to place one's trust in Allah.
12, To be content with little of this
world.
13. To be abstinent.
14. To abstain from fighting, disputing, and arguing
unless it is for a just cause.
15, to abstain from hatred, malice, and jealousy.
16, to abstain from desiring respect and authority.
17, to fulfill one's promises.
18, to be forbearing.
19, to be farsighted.
20,
to be loving and affectionate
towards one's own brethren,
yet to remain aloof from outsiders.
21,
to be grateful to the person who does
good to 1. 22,
to spend one's efforts for the benefit of
the Muslims.
A Sufi cultivates his internal and external character.
Tasuluf is all adab,
keeping etiquette in its entirety.
Etiquette in the court of Allah entails turning
away from everything other than Allah out of
modesty and awe in front of Allah's greatness.
The worst act of disobedience
is intimately conversing and corroborating with one's lower
self, and it is a cause of darkness.
And with that, the book ends. Sheikh Tamim,
includes a du'a
at the end of the book. May Allah
ta'ala, most high, enable us to adorn our
internal and external states with the beautiful qualities
of his most beloved slave and messenger, Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
our master, Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. May the peace and blessings,
of Allah be upon him and upon his
blessed family and progeny and noble companions until
the day of judgment.
This last,
this last handwritten rukkah
that Moana Badr Alam
received from Molana Rashid Ahmad Gango, his son
Hakim Molana Masood Ahmad.
There's so much in it. There's so much
in it. It's filled with noor.
And, I don't see anyone could object to
it, except for a person who just
doesn't know their left from their right. Sadly,
there's a great number of such people,
in this day and age.
And as,
as is, mentioned in this
set of advices last set of advices that
we,
that we read from.
Instead of worrying about being angry at them
or whatever,
one should just go about their business and
be forbearance with the
with the with the creation
and make dua that Allah
give each and every one of us
good rectification
and,
that we love for our brothers, that which
we love for ourselves, that we love for
our sisters, that which we love for ourselves.
May Allah,
clean what's inside of our hearts and make
it worthy of receiving the sunnah of Rasool
Allah
and make,
make our hearts worthy of traveling this,
Mubarak path.
May Allah make
us worthy of traveling this Mubarak
path. And while we're
fully aware that we're not worthy, may Allah
take us down this path safely to its
journey and its destination,
as a sign not of who we are,
what we deserve, but as a sign of
who he is
and,
how he deserves to be worshipped.