Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 1439 Ramadn Late Night Majlis 26 MarifMasnav The Determinist and the Tatooist 06112018
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We've reached the
26th
night of Ramadan,
and
the days and the hours and the minutes
are slipping through our fingers.
This is
a time unlike other times,
so
make the best use of it that you
can
because
the other 11 months of the year, even
though there's great benefit and great fafl from
Allah in all of them,
those times and places Allah
commanded and loves for the believer to show
his slavehood.
Those times and places you're not gonna get
them back because
you show your slavehood by doing things the
way Allah wants them, not the way you
want them. So this is the time Allah
Allah wants you to push yourself the extra,
the extra mile. So do like the prophet
did wake your family uh-uh
that
uh-uh become serious and
and
and and gird your loins,
tie your belt tight, and, get to the
work that you need to get through. If
you haven't finished the khatam of Quran yet,
finish it. If you're finishing the second one,
finish it. If you haven't been able to
read from the Quran, now is the time
to crack it open and read it. Everything
is all matters are as as they end.
Everybody has some sort of dip or low
in in their
motivation in Ramadan.
If that's happened to a person, then it's
time to pick up the pace again
because these days are not gonna come back.
And, these days, the small amount of effort
a person puts into them may be something
that a person enjoys,
for a lifetime.
And if a person were to put 10
times that effort in another time, maybe it
wouldn't yield as much benefit. And Allah gives
to
the one that he loves. May Allah
love all of us and give us from
his love.
Not because of who we are but because
of who he is
and not that we deserve anything. So may
Allah
treat us not based on who we are
but based on who he is.
He is the most noble of the noble.
He is our hamur Rahimin.
He is the one who
He's the one He's the one who wrote
as a commandment over himself,
mercy. And he's the one who
his mercy outstrips all other things.
And he's the one who,
he's the one who is worthy of
of being feared, and he's the one who
is worthy of forgiving,
forgiving his slaves. So may he, may he
give us based on who he is and
not based on who we are.
Amin.
So the
I wanted to share today,
The first one is the story of the
one who considered himself forced.
And this is also, you know, this is
an interesting hikayat that has to do with,
the nexus between
and between
between, between the correct belief of every Muslim
and between a person's treading the spiritual path
toward Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And how, having a wrong
can mess up your it can mess up
your
your
your your journey toward Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and take you on a on a detour
or or or take you out out of
that journey altogether.
A certain person of incorrect belief claimed that
man is forced
and does not have any choice in any
matter to do according to his own will.
Hence, he concluded that all his actions were
due to his destiny being fixed and forced
upon him. Therefore, he was not responsible or
accountable for his actions.
And so this class of deviation,
in the books of Akhida is known as
the Jabariya,
those people who believe in hard predestination,
predeterminism,
that a human being has no choice in
any matter,
at all whatsoever.
And Allah,
forces everything. So there's, you know, so much
so to the point where there's no real,
point in trying or making any effort
in life,
on a person's own.
On this day, this person entered an orchard
and without the permission of the owner of
that orchard started picking fruit from the trees
and ate it. The owner of the orchard
came along and shouted at him. Oh, you
wicked thief. What are you doing?
He replied, this orchard belongs to Allah, and
I'm a slave of his.
He said this orchard belongs
to Allah, and I'm a slave of his.
I'm eating, the gifts of him, so where's
the sin in that?
Meaning what? That, you know, I have no
choice in the matter. I'm just eating from
the orchard, and it all belongs to Allah
anyway. So what's the big deal?
The owner of the orchard took hold of
him and tied him to a tree with
a rope and started to beat him over
his back with a very thick stick.
The thief,
the thief cried out, oh, you unjust one,
why do you persecute this innocent one in
such an evil manner? Have you no shame
in front of Allah?
So, by the way, this is actually a
thing. My grandfather, my father's father, Allah
forgive him his shortcomings and
pardon him
and and and give him from his mercy.
He was
a he was a functionary in the government
of the Nawab of Bahaupur.
Bahaupur being one of the,
one of the few princely states in the
Indian subcontinent
that was never directly ruled by the British.
It always maintained its own rule,
and,
they definitely had to make some concession to
the British colonizer.
But, in lieu of those concessions, they got
to keep their own government, and they didn't,
they were never ruled directly by by by
the
by by the by the colonizer.
And,
there are a couple of places in the
subcontinent like that. Generally, they suffer,
far less, post colonial trauma culturally,
and and there there's a number of nice
things that are preserved in those types of
places.
So,
the the the area,
the county, my my father tells me that
that,
my grandfather was,
that my grandfather was essentially the
the mayor or the governor
over. It's a area bigger than a city,
but smaller than a than a state. So
I don't know what the exact,
word for for such a functionary in English
would be. But,
the the the area that he was
that he was in charge of essentially,
my father said that,
my grandfather, if he would
catch a thief or a criminal
in that area, they used to hang them
upside down
and,
they would their back would be buried and
they would be beaten.
And so if you think that, I'm a
jerk or I'm harsh,
then,
you have to remember
that, you know, even though I don't own
any land,
and I'm not a I'm not a a
prince or a governor or
in charge of really anything.
My forefathers before me were, and
they were they were people who, you know,
were given Iftiar. They were given,
they were given authority.
And they wielded
it,
you know, and the prayers that they wielded
it for the better. At least that's what
our forefathers tell us. And, Allah is the
one who knows the truth, but we have
good opinion of them Inshallah.
So this this, this dude who,
you know, who had this aqidah problem,
he,
he got caught and he was hung upside
down for stealing someone's fruit from their orchard.
He was hung up upside down, and when
that stick started hitting him in his back
and he started screaming,
he said, what a he said, what a
what a an unjust and wicked person you
are to, persecute an innocent person in such
a evil manner. Have you no shame before
Allah?
The orchard
owner
replied, this stick is Allah's, and I am
his slave,
who is busy with your beating. I have
no choice in the matter. I'm forced to
beat you,
and so is my stick. And remember, everything,
that's being done is being done from Allah
most high.
The thief has the thief then replied, I
repent to Allah from this wrong belief of
the Jabariyah of of of of hard predeterminism.
There's no doubt a choice.
There is a choice. There is a choice,
And he, screamed it again and again.
So
it's obvious to a person these people have
these questions about, like, well, do we believe
in hard determinism or do we believe in
complete free will? And the fact of the
matter is that, yes, Allah does what he
does and he knows everything from before the
creation of the heavens and the earth, and
nothing happens except for through his power and
through his,
and and through his allowing things to happen
and through his wanting them to happen.
But at the same time, it's intuitive to
us as human beings how the choices that
we make, we have some
connection with them. If a person wants to
do good, generally, they do good. If a
person wants to do bad, generally, they'll do
bad. And, you know, we understand not only
what the connection between our desires and what
happens,
is, but we also know intuitively why we're
responsible for the choices that we make.
And,
in fact,
a breakdown in this intuition,
with regards to with regards to,
why a person is responsible for the consequences
of their actions.
This is a this is a type of
mental illness. This is a type of mental
illness if a person
actually really isn't able to
understand the consequences,
of their actions or that they have responsibility
for their that those consequences,
we say that that person is is is,
like, legally majnun. They're legally not majnun in
the way that,
you know, Peis fell in love with Layla,
but majnun as in a person who's not
legally,
obliged to, follow the law. Rather, they become
a ward of the state or of whatever,
guardian
of theirs, and they have to, you know,
they no longer have the legal authority to
make transactions or sign for themselves or make
their own decisions.
And so this is something that,
our,
Ustad and
Aqida and a great number of other things.
Mawana, Sheikh Amin, Allah
give him a long life. He he points
out in summarizing
what at first seems like the most abstruse
point in the entire Aphi that the Hawiya.
He summarizes it by saying that, yes, Allah
knows everything that's gonna happen.
But he doesn't judge you based on his
knowledge. He judges you based on your knowledge.
He doesn't judge you based on his ability,
but he judges you based on your own
ability.
And so with,
we believe that he knows everything and that
he's the one who causes everything to happen
because that is befitting of his majesty that
we affirm this truth and reality, with regards
to him. And,
and we we we take it without exception,
and we we,
in our complete slave hood, we submit and
yield in front of it. However,
you know, Allah
made a sacred law and that sacred law,
much of it is predicated on moral responsibility.
And we understand intuitively why,
that that's a reasonable thing from our point
of view as an individual observer.
And that has a reality, and we don't,
we don't deny that reality. And if a
person is perplexed as to how both can
be,
true at the same time, then know that
this is, one of the things that the
the the deen prohibits the, the person from
speculating on.
Rather these are, these are those things that
Allah and his
informed us we're not going to understand in
this world. Not not that both of them
are true. That part is very clear to
clear to a very even a simple minded
person.
But, how there it's possible for them to
be true at the same time. It requires
understanding something about the nature of the universe
that, the creator will understand in the creation
isn't quite in a in a position to
understand at this time. So, we we leave
it. We accept Allah and his
commandment and we leave it at that.
Lesson. Mawlana Hakim Akhtar adds,
that a man once came before
and was asked, is a man forced,
is Imajbur? Is the man is the man
stuck in divine predestination,
or does he have free choice?
Saidna Ali
told him lift up one leg. The man
lifted up one leg. Then he told him
now lift up the other. He was asked
how can you lift both legs up?
Replied,
well, that is the answer of your question.
Man is half forced and half free. Meaning
what? He made the choice to lift one
leg up and he was able to he
made the choice to or wanted to make
the choice to lift the other one and
he wasn't able to. Meaning that in some
way you're forced and in some way you're
not. And this was a very beautiful and
very simple,
very simple way of explaining something that, you
know, verbose individuals can, you know,
kind of weave together a merry-go-round of
of Kalam,
that just leaves the question more confused than
than than,
than, than having answered,
from the question.
But, this is a very simple way of
explaining something that is, in in fact, very
complex to a,
a person in a few, number of words
regardless of how intelligent that person is or
how able they are to understand philosophy and
more abstruse and fine points.
And this is one of the qualities of
the prophet
and
definitely,
learned from it, including who
was the the the the owner of a
great number of very wise
sayings. Very simple sayings with very few words,
but endowed with, with with a a a
a singularity of of of wisdom.
Mullen Hakim Astarte continues. He says, we should
continue to beg Allah the ability
and divine guidance to do righteous deeds and
beg him to grant us proper understanding.
The end result of some sins and the
punishment is that one's intelligence becomes defective.
The end result of some sins and the
punishment is that one's intelligence becomes defective.
The punishment of becoming changed from the human
form to that of animals has been lifted
from this, was called that there are people
in the that came before us,
that that were punished by being turned into
pigs or into into dogs or into,
sorry, not dogs,
pigs or monkeys.
But the punishment of reason becoming effective,
affected so that we behave like animals still
descends on us. This is a this is
a, this is a punishment for the person
who wants to be myopic, be nearsighted,
and not look at the, but only look
at this world.
That person that person, their their intellect,
you know, as a punishment basically gets robbed
from them. And, there's a hadith of the
prophet
The love of this dunya is the the
the fountain spring,
the headwater of every,
of every,
sin and and and error.
And it's funny if you look at scams,
you know, they have, like apparently, they have
on TV,
whole TV shows about, like, scams, how people
will get people to, buy into a scam
and, then they'll just get completely fleeced. They'll
get robbed. All of it has to do
with greed. You know, somebody will say, oh,
if you give me this much money, I'll
give you this much money back tomorrow.
There was a scam in Pakistan while I
was there that was in the in the
newspaper,
that that that there was a,
a gentleman with a very respectable sounding name.
His name was Sayedah,
Sibdul Hasanaim,
the the the the the grandson of the
2, Hassan's Al Hassan and Hussain.
And Allah knows best what his actual lineage
was, but
the sayid simdul Hasanayn,
he got the nickname double Shah. Why they
call him double Shah? Because he he had
a he basically, you know, had a quote
unquote investment where if you give him money
in 18 months or some or some 8
months or 7 months, something like that, he'll
return it to you double, no questions asked.
And so double and, obviously, that's completely haram.
You can't have, like, a fixed income investment
like that where you promise a person a
fixed income that they give you one amount
of money and that they can rightfully accept,
in a a different amount back as a
as a as a as a set transaction.
That that's the definition of riba.
So double shot, basically,
you know, when some people a couple of
people, they were getting their money back,
on time,
news spread like wildfire that this guy has
some sort of huge investment that we're all
gonna make money from. And it was this
huge pyramid scheme just like Bernie Madoff and
things like that. It completely collapsed.
And,
you know, Double Shah is probably in in
in the Pakistani prison right now.
But, you know, god knows where all the
money is. You know, they claimed at the
end, they always claimed that, oh, we don't
know where the money is, but it goes
somewhere. It's not like it just disappears into
thin air. But the funny thing is double
Shah's
victims who should have known better. This is
a very basic part of the sharia that
this is, like,
that this is not this is not Majay's.
You know, from double Shah's victims are ostensibly
religious people. There are even a couple of
there are even a couple of, imams, village
imams, and things like that that got stuck
in that. And what is it? It's just
the greed. You know? When you when when
someone shows you a little bit of what
you want,
and you let greed take over,
then the intellect,
now is in service of the nafs, and
the nafs is completely gonna humiliate the entire
being,
including the intellect in the in the in
the process, and he's gonna use the intellect
very wrong and incorrect way.
And so, you know,
in a very destructive way. So this is,
definitely a very subtle point that, Hakim Sabraha
mentions
that even though Allah doesn't punish this by
turning its
members into pigs and monkeys,
He does sometime give us punish us, Allah
protect us by taking away our intellect so
that that that we still retain the outward
human form, but we're still we behave like
animals.
And so may he says he continues, may
Allah bestow upon us correct understanding the light
of reason. May he protect us from the
punishment of being
changed in heart and reasoning,
so that, so that we become lower beings.
The experience of these saintly ones in the
aliyah show that whoever stays in the company
of the aliyah
performing the remembrance of Allah punctually
is protected against punishment of a defect in
reasoning and intellect, causing one to behave worse
than animals.
So the next hikaya
I wanted to share
is the story of a man who had
a lion,
tattooed on his arm.
So,
says,
he says that during the days of Jahiliya,
in ignorance, people have the habit of having
pictures tattooed on their arms of lions and
panthers and other fierce looking animals.
Obviously, it's haram to get a tattoo because
it is haram
to alter permanently the, the form of the
body.
Rather, it's a,
you know, it's a
it's a commandment of Allah
preserve and keep the body the way it
is. There are only certain things like the
the
the the the the circumcision
or or, you know, a person keeping their
lip clear of hair,
from their mustache,
or certain things like that, you know, or,
like, you know,
cleaning the hair from the from the, the
the private parts or from the armpits
that are,
that are Masoon or Sunnah, but those are
also considered to be from
from the the fitra of a a a
human being that they're considered.
They're considered to be from the fitra of
a human being. So permanent alternate alterations are
haram. It's for that reason that ear piercings
are an exception.
The rule is that piercing is haram otherwise.
People get their noses pierced or their eyebrows
pierced or their lips pierced or their cheeks
pierced or their tongues pierced stuff a lot.
I remember
in university, the first class I had, some
guy had his tongue
pierced, and he would flick the tongue ring
in class the whole time.
Allah to Allah be our protection.
You know, it's good. You don't mention these
things to the kids because,
you know, somebody who gives good advice and
time,
will save, someone from doing something permanently. Just
that's that's bad. There's a whole culture behind
it. I
know what the tongue ring means
or the tongue tongue ring means and, you
know, I don't wanna talk about it because
it's a
blessed night of Ramadan. But the point of
the matter is is that even if a
person is and other sins,
you know,
if you're not gonna be a 100% biased,
you also, you
know, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be a
100%.
Just crazy.
So,
all of these things, they're they're haram because
a human being is most beautiful in the
form that Allah,
gave them.
And and and that's something that that anyone
who has their still,
natural,
and organic nature preserved in them, They'll understand
that and see that. And as a person's
humanity is taken away from them, they start
to look at more and more deformed and
and and,
ugly things as beautiful or as desirable and
Allah be our protection.
But in the days of Jahiliyah, people used
to like, you know, to show how tough
they were, get, like, lions or panthers,
tattooed,
on their arms,
in order to look tough, you know, be
be be be a tough guy.
In this way, one of them told the
tattooist,
draw a line on my arm. When the,
tattooist heated up the needle with which he
was going to make the tattoo and placed
it on his arm, he felt such pain
that he shrieked saying, what are you drawing?
The tattooist replied, I'm drawing the tail of
the lion.
He, replied, but you can draw a lion
without a tail. The tattooist again heated the
needle in the fire and placed it upon
his skin. Again, he gave a loud cry
saying, what are you drawing now? He replied,
I am drawing a lion's ear.
The man said, but a lion can be
without ears as well.
Once again, the drawer placed a needle in
the fire,
to heat it and then placed it upon
his skin. Again, he shrieked, saying, what are
you drawing now? He says, I'm drawing the
abdomen of the line. He says, leave that
out. Just draw a line without an abdomen.
Thereafter,
he even refused the drawing of the line's
head. The tattooist, in anger, greatly irritated, threw
down the needle and said, get away from
me. Who has ever seen a lion without
a head, without a tail, without an abdomen?
Such a line has never yet been created
by Allah. Oh, you, when you are unable
to bear the pain of the needle, then
do not speak about tattooing,
such a line on your arm.
Moana Rumi continues. He says, oh, brother. Bear
the harshness of your Ustad or peer's training.
So bear the harshness of your teachers. Your
teachers, those not the people who are getting
paid, a salary in order to teach you
things. That's a transactional relationship.
These are your teachers who are teaching you
about deen.
He says,
oh, brother, bear the harshness of, of your
or your peers training. Your the the the
the the the the harshness of your
teacher of deen or your,
guide and and and and preceptor on the
spiritual path
so that you may find safety from the
dictates of the self and be saved from
blasphemy and inequity.
If you desire to be enlightened and shining
like the day, then annihilate yourself
like, the night after day.
Meaning, in other words, if you reform the
self through eliminating the evil dictates of the
self at the hands of a
worthy,
shaykh, it is its darkness will disappear and
you will discover that your life through the
light of contact with Allah will become enlightened.
Mawararummi continues,
like the saints, like the oliya, acquire freedom
from yourself, for after such spiritual efforts, such
nearness is achieved.
That the light of the sun, moon, and
stars become a slave to the inner light.
Oh, you listener, if you experience the splendor
of Allah's nearness within yourself, the whole world
will appear
worthless before that light.
Moana Hakim Akhtar
says, drawing a lesson from, these verses, which
we read in translation,
the drawing of pictures is prohibited in Islam,
but here Moana Rumi tells a story of
the days of ignorance. In it, he wishes
to inform the seekers of the, of the
path to Allah ta'ala that if the, the
the sheikh who is a follower of the
sunnah
should for the sake of rec rectification resort
to some harshness,
then for every rebuke, they should be tolerant
and accept it with pleasure so that through
the through the that rectification,
there may arise in them
the doing of righteous deeds and praiseworthy morals
and manners.
If every rebuke of the sheikh is going
to cause you to grudge, then how can
you become clean as a mirror without,
without the cloth rubbing you?
This these spiritual exercises and efforts,
are only for a limited number of days.
Once the, the the objective is obtained, thereafter,
there will be, there will be comfort.
And so the idea is what? It's just
like this this dude, you know, wanted to
be like a tough guy
and have the the the lion tattooed on
his arm, but he couldn't bear, the needle
even for a moment. And he screeches and
he screams.
The same thing is what, you know, what
we have, you know, with regards to those
people who aspire to the path and, to
the path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that
if you really don't want to have your
nafs give up anything,
if you really want to just be, you
know, just you think you're gonna buy the
correct correct, topi or hat and buy the
correct kurta or or, you know,
tunic shirt and buy the correct sabha or
or or rosary
and, you know, join the correct group and,
you know, say I'm a murid of so
and so sheikh or I'm studying in such
and such place or whatever. And but you
don't want to go through the difficulties of
actually,
actually listening to instructions,
or studying,
or or evaluating the self, or
giving up those things that that that, you
know, your new acquired
newly acquired,
or sometimes, oldly acquired,
connections,
tell you to give up. If you don't
wanna examine your own life and try to
apply that knowledge and apply those teachings
to your own life,
because of how much it hurts, but at
the same time, you know, you wanna, you
know, walk around like a tough guy in
front of people.
Unfortunately, that's not really how it works.
If you want to have if it's, you
know, something worth having, it's worth putting an
effort for. This is something very important to
understand. If it's worth having,
it's worth working for. If it's not worth
working for, it's not worth having at all,
in the first place. And one thing that
really alarms me is that, you know, our
community, our social media, our our our masajid,
they're filled with people who wanna give a
chutba about doing the right thing, but they
don't want to learn the knowledge. They're filled
with people who wanna correct misconceptions, but they
don't wanna learn the knowledge. They're filled with
people who wanna tell people how to be,
but they don't wanna be that way themselves.
They're filled with people who want to,
you know you know, teach other people, but
they don't wanna learn anything themselves.
My brothers, if you want to,
if you want to help the ummah as
a person of knowledge, then go and study.
You know, spend some years of your life,
and and focus on it. You know, do
it well and come back, then you're gonna
help people. If you want to, just become
a keyboard warrior
and defend Islam, you know,
you know, a quarter through, you're having learned
the lessons of listening to stuff on SoundCloud
or YouTube, and a quarter through listening to,
like, whatever Jordan Peterson,
or those type of,
bands or social justice y type stuff. And
then the other half is just, you know,
your own opinion about matters. That's not really
how this thing works, is it now?
You know, we won't say that such people
are not Muslims but the the the
the the way of the Ahlus Sunnah or
Jama'a
and, the way of the Sufi path. And
when we say Sufi path, not those people
are claimants to it because there's a lot
of goof out there.
But, the the the genesis of tasolef, the
classical form of tasolef is exclusively exclusively,
exclusively
a a,
a a a a a tradition that,
comes from and is the fruit of the
the the way of
the. So you don't have Rawafid, you don't
have Mu'tazila,
you don't have,
you know, Karamita, you don't have all these
other heterodox groups, Khawarij and things like that
that that fit into this tradition. Later on,
like impostors, like jackals and hyenas, they try
to hijack the the beautiful imagery and metaphors
and
and, language and traditions of tasauf because they
see that that people love it and it's
successful
in order to kinda inject their twisted, nonsense
into it,
and use it as a vehicle in order
to poison people with the same poison that
they've been selling,
from the very beginning.
But there is no there is no, there
is there is no, classically any,
form of tasolef except for it goes hand
in hand with the the the way of
the al sunnah with jama'a.
And so,
you know,
the the point is is that if you
wish to,
benefit and be benefited, you have to, put
in, that time and that effort,
in order to better yourself first. If you're
not gonna do that, you know, you, just
getting up on Facebook or Twitter and, you
know, telling somebody that they're a liberal or
that they're they're, you know, conservative
or that, you know, you know,
Republicans are stupid or Democrats are stupid or
giving your position on this, that, or the
other thing. It's not really gonna do a
whole lot of it's not really gonna do
a whole lot of benefit. And if someone
looks at me and says, well, you're no
better than anyone else. Well, you know, even
if that's true, then don't be like me.
Then learn the lesson anyway.
The the point of this is not me
pointing fingers at other people who are probably
better than me anyway.
The point is that just to share a
piece of learning from our from our elders,
and from from our our great ones that
came before us,
all of whom, when they give their opinions,
they're not giving their own opinions. They're not
sharing their unique snowflakiness with the world. Rather,
they,
submitted themselves
in front of what they got from their
mashaikh
who, and, you know, in a direct chain
that connects them to the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And through that submission,
Allah gave them a self that was better
than the self that they gave up,
in order to enter this path.
And that's where you see all of this
beauty,
coming from.
And so,
with that Allah
give all of us so much. There is
no better time to annihilate the self,
and the nafs than this Ramadan,
where you don't eat and you don't drink
and you, you know, read after
of Tarawee,
and you read
page after page of the Quran and you
don't give yourself a chance to think or
talk or engage with anything other than with
the words of Allah Ta'ala and the remembrance
of Allah Ta'ala.
And it shows you how much, how much
beauty there is inside of you and it
shows you how much work there is left
to be done. Allah
give all of us, all of all of
us the tawfeeq of
of giving up, our
rotten,
and and inadequate
and
shame worthy of shames,
Nufus, our our ourselves.
And may he, by the barakah of that
noble,
by the barakah of that noble abandonment,
give us a self that's better than than
what we gave up.