Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 1439 Ramadn Late Night Majlis 28 MarifMasnav Worship the Big Snake 06132018
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By Allah Subhanahu
Wa'ala. We made it to the 28th night
of Ramadan.
It seems that there is a very highly
high likelihood that we only have one more
left, which is tomorrow,
and one more night of Ramadan left, which
is tomorrow, which is why today is probably
going to be our last for this, our
last for this year.
We won't have tomorrow probably
for the same reason that we didn't have
it yesterday,
which is that these nights are very short,
and they're very precious.
And
a person needs to
get whatever they can out of them.
One of the original reasons for
recording these,
for those who'll remember, is because we used
to have like these in the Hanukkah
in, in in in Pakistan.
With our Sheikh Allah
have mercy on him
and fill his grave with.
It used to be a
a small break after the
and, a small break after the
and, you know, something to engage the mind
with while drinking tea
and, something to engage the heart with and
to refresh
the the spirit so that a person has
courage and and
and,
excitement
and
enthusiasm to go back and do more,
do more.
And one of the the
the sicknesses of our poem in particular,
meaning this Islam that we've made for ourselves
in America,
which is not exactly the same
as the one that we inherited from our
forefathers in every single way possible.
One of the sicknesses that we've made for
ourselves in this this Islam that we practice
here
is that we run away from Ibada, from
the worship of Allah
Like, we run away from as if it's
a death, as if it's death itself, and
not a good death either.
We run away from it,
kicking and screaming.
So if there's 2 opinions, 1 for reading
20 rakas and 1 for reading 8, we'll
pick 8 just because, you know, we can
say, lip service whatever we want to with
regards to how strong the dalil is and
all this other stuff. But we'll, at the
end of the day, intuitively pick 8. Why?
Because there's less in it. And if someone
says you have to walk take off your
socks or you wash your feet, we'll we'll
we'll, keep the socks on and wipe over
them. Why? Because there's less in it. And
if someone tells us that you have to
give less versus more, we'll give less because
there's less ibadah in it. And if somebody
tells us that we have to, you know,
do any anything, it's just this kind of
weird
weird phobia that we have of of acts
of worship.
And I think it's deeply ingrained in
the kind of, like,
internal,
conflict that we have between
wanting to be modernist and fit in with,
with, with a kafar
and, with the Munafiqeen.
And, you know, you don't wanna fit fit
in with them because if you fit in
with them, they're gonna be in Jahannam forever,
and that's not a good place to fit
in.
And so but at the same time,
that's who we have to work with. That's
the jobs we go to. That's the school
we go to. That's what I mean to
be very frank, you know, those those are
our relatives. Those are our, you know, those
are people we pray pray with, amidst in
in the masjid. I mean, oftentimes,
especially with some of the more screwball katibs
that we have floating floating around. And those
are the people that we pray behind oftentimes.
And, they will belittle they'll belittle Ibadah. They'll
belittle the worship of Allah,
as
being some sort of secondary thing. In fact,
this is one of the
the the the defining
differences between modernist movements,
that,
you know, themselves claim to put Islam at
the center of life versus
the the traditional practice of Islam, which is
that, you know, our old,
their idea was that
Allah didn't create the mankind or the or
the jinn except for to worship,
except for he said, except for to worship
me. And so when all of the governments
are settled and all of the revolutions and
and and and rebellions are over, all of
the wars are fought, the king one king
is on the throne and the other one
is deposed, when all of the money is
is separated and it's gone whichever way it's
gonna go. When all is said and done,
the the reason for all of it was
what? Was so that we could worship Allah
and the one who worshiped him without getting
involved in any of that makk.
That one has
made,
you know, that one has made
their their place in this life and has
has used their life well.
And,
you know, someone may do all of those
things in order to establish the worship of
Allah and that's a very noble effort. In
fact, that was the effort of the Sahaba
themselves.
But we, you know, we we understood that
that if you worshiped Allah properly before you
left this world and you weren't able to
get into that,
you know, you got you got you got
what you needed. You know, you didn't miss
out.
And if you did all that stuff and
you didn't have the worship of Allah,
then,
then, you know, it's like you lost everything.
It's like a person who, it's like a
person who goes to the, you know, goes
to the grocery store to buy a a
can of Coke, and they just leave with
an empty can. It looks like, it looks
like, it looks like a can of Coke,
but there's no Coke in it. It's a
complete it was a waste of time. The
main objective is is lost. And someone may
admire how wonderful the can is and how
I couldn't make it make this aluminum can
at home on my own. And that's all
wonderful and great. But at the end of
the day, the maqasid, the objective is is
lost.
And, you know, that's the difference is that
that was the traditional view of things. The
modern view of things is what? Allah Ta'ala
legislated
tahara so that you can be clean.
Allah Ta'ala legislated salat so you can be
punctual and so that you can stretch and
it's good for your body. Allah Ta'ala legislated,
you know, the consumption of halal meat and,
you know, so the Muslims can have their
own economy. And Allah Ta'ala legislated
zakat, you know, so that we could be,
you know, financially self reliant. You know? And
so, basically, everything that was supposed to be,
why? So that we can show our love
to Allah ta'ala. All those things, they actually,
substitute them for some sort of benefit.
And the biggest sellout is the one who's
sitting at home and,
worshiping Allah
because if you worship Allah but you don't
make, you know, the new caliphate or you
don't make the new state with a, you
know, a president from your party or whatever,
then you're a Munafib, and you're a kafir,
and you're a sellout, and you're, you know,
you know, whatever. You're you're a a useless
Muslim
and, you know, but if you if you
make the state,
then, that's, like, somehow, like, you've like, Islam
has, you know, you've you've, lit up the
scoreboard and scored, like, the hat trick of
Islam.
And, you know, in that vision or those
2 competing visions of Islam, I know exactly
where, where where, you know, I feel the
the the hap is and the barakah is.
And when I hear the book of Allah
and its ayat being recited and I reflect
over the life of Rasulullah
and his Sahaba radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu.
You know, I feel like it's a no
brainer, you know, which one of them is
superior than the other. And, you know,
if somebody wants to,
tell me about the importance of,
of of Khilafa and the proper stewardship of
of the governmental affairs of the Muslims.
Alhamdulillah. Masha'a by Allah SWAVAW.
I never belittled that. And, our masha'if
did more actual practical progress work
toward that than,
than a lot of the, the the jackals
and hyenas that squawk,
and, and and and and cackle and laugh,
out in the public trying to pretend to
roar like the lion.
So I don't feel like there's a need
to prove any of those credentials. And if
somebody wants to call me, you know, call
me like a quietest Muslim or something stupid
like that because of what I just said,
That's their problem. But this is the tariqa
that we've,
we've learned from our mashaikh,
and those were the ones who are the
last vestiges of authority,
in in in the deen of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And, if if they go one way and
if, you know, these politicians and,
whatever people who want to replace Islamism with
Islam,
want to go another way, I know which
group of people I wanna stick to. So
please, for the sake of Allah
you know, use these last moments for the
worship of Allah
You know, say the tasbih, say the tahleel,
Alhamdulillah.
Right? Say la haloalakua,
say the
say the Allahu Akbar, say subhanallahi wa bihamdulillahi,
subhanallahi alaawhim
Read, you know, if you have if all
you know is Suratul Fatiha and
you know, sit and read it again and
again.
For the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
darken the room, make wudu, sit, face the
qibla.
Even if you don't know any of these
words, it's an act of worship just to
close your eyes and face the qibla and
think.
Think and reflect on how much you love
Allah. Think and reflect upon all of the
beautiful things Allah gave you and how thankful
you are. Think and reflect over if, you
know, Allah gives you life and, you know,
make good intentions. If Allah gave me life,
I would like to go to Hajj. If
Allah gave me life, I would like to
sponsor an orphan. If Allah gave me life,
I would like to teach someone how to
read. If Allah gave me life, I would
like to help my neighbors. If Allah gave
me life, I would like to do this.
These things are all,
acts of worship. Reflect on how sad you
are and how much you regret,
your sins and the the mistakes that you
made and ask Allah for forgiveness and you
keep asking and he'll keep forgiving.
You know, if you have the him or
the courage, then then stand up, you know,
turn the lights out, stand up and, you
know, pray 2 rakaas
and know that when a person is in
sajda,
they're closest to Allah. And that's the the
the time that you have to to speak
to Allah ta'ala.
Ask him for something so that he can
give it to you,
and feel feel the joy and ecstasy of
that that that those those few moments,
when you know that the rabbi
entered you and let you enter into his
court when your forehead is touching the floor,
that you have entered his proximity.
You've entered the sacred place, the holiest of
holies. There are entire ummas of people that
were not allowed to make sajdah to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And here you are, you've made sajdah to
Allah and you've entered into that sacred proximity.
So now that you're there, you may as
well ask for what you need and ask
for what you want because as long as
you ask, Allah will keep giving.
And be happy about that. You know, be
happy be happy about that. Go to jama'
early. You know, God forbid someone pray their
sunnahs.
This America is like a graveyard of sunnahs.
And I have to admit, anyone who knows
me well knows that, maybe I'm not also
on top of, of of, you know, praying
my my sunnahs as much. Some sometimes people
think that I don't pray my sunnahs because
I'm running away. The different have different
for the different salawat. So it's not always
the case that I'm just trying to bounce.
But I'll admit sometimes I pass by.
But the idea at least you should have
inside your mind, this is not a waste
of time. This is good. If I was
a good person, I would do this, you
know. And when you have a a chance,
you know, know that your life was made
so that you could do that. You know?
Those few times you make the the sajdah
on the ground in front of Allah
That's like a beautiful thing. Right? Make have
joy. Enjoy the idea that when you read
the Quran,
the eternal and uncreated speech of Allah Ta'ala
is pervading every part of you. And
and feel it, experience it when it's happening.
When you sit and make dhikr and you
say
When you say
I feel this is pulling out
all of your worries, all of your woes,
all of the things that harm you, all
of the things that you don't like. It's
pulling it out of your heart. It's pulling
it out of your chest. It's pulling out
of your body. It's pulling it out of
your mind. There's nothing else.
There's no other god. All of it when
you're saying
make conceive of this, all of these things
are being pulled out. And then when you
hear Illullah, like a bolt of lightning is
coming into your heart. And that bolt of
lightning is the pure and unadulterated,
connection that a person has with Allah
that it's entering straight into the heart. The
heart sits, tilted slightly to the,
slightly to the left hand side of a
person's body. That it's entering in straight into
the heart, and it displaces everything else that's
in it. And when the heart is filled
with this light, every time a person says,
that that that that that's a feeling of
joy, and it's a feeling of happiness.
And it's a the thing that you've been
looking for. It's the thing that made you
happy,
that you looked for when you received a
a present as a child or when you,
you know, first
met your, you know, spouse when you got
married or when you, you know, received received
some sort of award or when you eat
the food that you like. All of these
joys and all of these happinesses were just
there so that you can so that you
can understand
that when that you can understand that there's
a joy that's above all of these other
joys. And this joy is all of those
joys put together and it's even more than
that. And feel it enter into your heart.
That this is the happiness and the and
the the the joy and, that the because
of which through which I'll have all of
those other joys and this but this one
will still make all of them else. All
the other ones, they feel like nothing.
And, you know, a person might be like,
look, dude. That's good and stuff, but,
you know, I don't get that. I don't
feel that when I say La ilaha illallah.
And I don't get that when I read
Quran. And I don't get that when I'm
praying and I'm I'm I'm doing my ibadah.
And, that's fine. That happens also to people.
This is a spiritual condition
that happens to people that sometimes people don't
enjoy their their ibada, their, their their their
acts of worship while they're doing them.
But the idea is that whether you enjoy
it or not, you'll enjoy it one day.
You'll you'll enjoy it. Imagine a person who
doesn't get pleasure out of their acts of
worship, but they still do them punctually out
of love for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Who who's more worthy of receiving reward?
Which mother loves her child more? Or which
mother is more heroic in her in her
love? The one whose child is, the one
whose child is, you know, perfect and listens
to everything that she says and, you know,
and she's just happy with it? Or the
one that's, you know, has difficulties,
is sick,
is has some illness, is rebellious, is, you
know, gives her problems, gives her trouble physically,
mentally,
spiritually, gives her difficulty, and she still sticks
with that child,
which which mother's love is more perfect,
and more,
more deep and more,
profound.
And,
there were from the
from the from the prophets,
And there were from the oliya of Allah
Ta'ala.
Those from the prophets who were sawn in
half,
by their enemies.
And they never thought for a second to
utter a complaint against the lord.
And they were from amongst the Aliyah,
say the Asia,
alaihi salam who's mentioned in the, in the
Quran not by name, but her she her
she's mentioned in the Quran
that she was the the the wife of
and she believed in Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala
and they tortured her and she and and
and to relieve her from her torture, Allah
showed her her place
in in in Jannah and her house in
Jannah and she smiled and she she she
was happy about it. And it was so
beautiful that it made her forget her torture
while they were torching her to death. And
they thought she's lost her mind. She's completely
lost it. And but it wasn't that. It's
the Mahaba and the love of Allah that
overwhelmed
overwhelmed that very painful experience that she was
going through. There are only of Allah in
this
that that that wept and and and, for
joy when receiving martyrdom in the path of
Allah ta'ala. There are those people in this
ummah that that wept for joy at the
time of of of of of death. Why?
Because of their their their their their excitement
to see Allah ta'ala and to meet the
messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And
it wasn't their excitement to die. It was
rather the they hate dying like every other
person hates dying, but their love of Allah
ta'ala was so overpowering that it even overpowered
that very visceral,
very visceral dislike that a normal person has.
And the thing is that look.
If you don't have that right now, then
at least accept inside of your heart that
that's better than, you know, that would be
amazing to have. That's what you wish you
had. And
gives it to people. And the thing is
this is that if you don't have it
and you,
still keep going with your,
that's a that's a form of love that's
even more deep and even more profound, and
it will pay off even more one day.
And the thing is, look, the nafs wants
to be like Superman overnight, and he wants
to be like, you know, big sahaba status
of wali overnight. And this is also a
a type of things that the in the
chanqas,
when they see people who are just new
in in their saluk come into the chanqah
and, like, think they're gonna be, like, super
high spiritual rank overnight. They kinda roll their
eyes and they say, okay. Well, we wonder
how this how long this guy is gonna
last. And they try to tell them to
moderate themselves. And some people take the lesson
in benefit, some people don't, and and they
get burned by it. But the idea is
this is that,
you know, the nuffs is not gonna go
out of the way so quickly.
So you're trying to cut the nafs out.
The nafs which is accustomed to being happy
by eating and drinking candy and sweet things.
The nafs that's happy and accustomed to,
getting its happiness by other people praising them
or being friends with them. The nafs which
is accustomed to being happy by, you know,
being in comfort and, in being ease. And
now that Nasir trying to put it in
hardship
and teach it to be happy through the
love of Allah,
it's not gonna happen overnight. It's a process.
You gotta work on it.
And there are things that you have to
do in order to, you know, set the
up for that. And one of the things
you have to do is stop eating haram
things.
Stop going out to the stop going out
to the restaurant where the meat you you
know, you have no idea who killed it,
and you know nobody said
on it. You know a machine probably killed
it. And, you know, you god knows the
kitchen, they're handling haram things and they're mixing,
those haram things and then they touch one
haram thing and they touch the other. You
know, people go to, like, weird places. I'll
be frank with you. You know, subway. Go
to subway. The the
the the the, you know, even if you
ask the the person to change their gloves,
you know, the the sandwich before yours, they
use the same glove to pick up the
bacon and they use the same glove to
pick up the the the lettuce. Give up
all of these things. Just be done with
them. It's it's okay. You can you can
you'll live without Subway. You'll live without Burger
King and McDonald's. In fact, you'll probably live
longer without them. You'll live without well, you'll
live without, you know, your your nice steakhouse.
I know that Muslim restaurants don't know how
to make steak. I know that.
I know that. And, you know, you have
a past. I have a a past as
well. And, we don't need to say any
more than that. But I know that very
few Muslim restaurants know how to make a
steak proper. Just give it up. Be done
with it. Sahaba
whom we're eating,
we're eating dates and water.
You'll be able to get by. You'll be
able to get by by eating at your
local Halal Advocates approved outlet or eating at
a place, you know, eating fruits and vegetables.
It'll probably be better for you. Stop watching
this television.
Stop listening to music. Stop polluting the senses
with these things.
It's it's like it's like a person it's
like a person,
you know, or a house that uses the
same pipe for the the the the water,
the the the water to drink coming in
and then uses the same pipe for the
sewer water flowing back out. It just doesn't
work. You're not gonna get the clean taste
of the the good taste of the clean
water. You're just gonna get sick again and
again and again by these things.
And the eyes are the eyes are just
like the the direct, like,
highway,
you know, express lane into the heart. And
you'll see you'll see something,
you know, and it will completely ruin your
your spiritual how,
that you built for for a 1000 days.
It will it will completely ruin it. It
will completely ruin it. You'll see the face
of somebody. You'll see, you'll see someone's property.
You'll see someone's car. You'll see someone's house.
You'll see some piece of dunya
and it will completely displace all of that
spirituality from from your,
from your from your heart. It'll completely get
rid of it. So stop stop, you know,
stop we gotta stop,
harming ourselves like that. I promise you I
promise you, cleanse
Cleanse your eyes and cleanse your ears
and cleanse your stomach and, you know, cleanse
your your, your other limbs,
your tongue, you know, hold it back. Cleanse
these things for 40 days and I promise
you, you'll start to enjoy
your your your ibadah. You'll start to enjoy
your
spiritual state. You'll start to feel happy inside.
You'll start to feel peace inside. You'll start
to feel you'll start to feel tranquility inside.
Your good deeds will all will start to
come naturally to you, and you'll start to
remember bad things you did and regret them.
And you'll start to not want to do
them anymore. You'll start to see them as
distasteful.
It will change your life for the better.
You know, do these things. Don't don't be
one of those people who hates rebada.
So
I've
I've, you know, I I I've I've made
this summary case,
for why,
you know, we should we should, you know,
we should do that. We should spend some
some more time in in in salat. We
should spend some more time in the recitation
of the Quran. We should spend some more
time in zikr. It is not like a
a a kind of a waste of a
time side freak show or something that we
get out of the way. And then after
that, when we're done, then we'll do the
real work of Islam, which is like building
a caliphate or, you know, you know, getting
elected to the senate or
just all of these other things. Those things
are all side jobs, side projects.
If there's benefit in them, the Muslims will
come together and make mashrah and consult with
one another, and they'll designate a group of
people to do those things. And those people,
our prayers are with them. And if we're
practically able to help them in some
capacity that's demonstrably useful, then we'll help them
in the in that capacity as well.
However,
you know,
every every politician, every businessman, every rich man,
every wealthy man, every imam, speaker, leader,
every one of those people, their whole point
is to establish the remembrance
of Allah in the earth. And if they're
not able to do that, then, they're a
waste of time, and Allah protect us from
being such. And, if you're able to do
those things without getting involved in all of
that other stuff,
for Busher Akom,
glad tidings to you that you're one of
the select and elect of god's god's,
servants and slaves, and he chose you for
him. Just like, just like,
the
the personal assistant of or the or the
chamberlain of the king, he stays with the
king. And so he eats and drinks from
the king's table, and he, received the divine
the the the royal favor from the king.
Just like that those people they received the
favor, of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And if Allah sends one of those people
out into the kingdom,
to make
then they obey his command and that's also
a great rank of honor. But the one
who can stay, in in the royal presence
and under the royal gaze by day night.
It's it's,
obvious and plain to any person who has
any ability to think,
how superior and how beautiful and how wonderful
that is. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala not
let us leave from this world except for
until he looks at us and said that
this one is mine. I am I'm his
and he is mine. I am hers and
she is mine. Allah
look at us with the the the the
the the the look of
of of the one who loves
and, and give us that we should look
at him,
the look of the one who loves. And
Allah
make that our eternal state.
So with that, there's one more hikaya just
so that we can
so we can,
we can keep the,
keep the the the the
keep the,
the sequence going
that we had going from before and with
that will end.
And it is the story of the snake
in the city of Baghdad.
A snake catcher once went to the mountains,
which were covered with snow.
Due to the snow and cold, many very
big snakes lay motionless as if they were
dead.
Mawlana says
the snake catcher saw a dead snake in
the extreme cold of winter. He picked it
up and took it to Baghdad
with the purpose of using it for a
show.
The snake, like a pillar, was long,
which the snake catcher dragged along to earn
his livelihood.
The snake catcher thought it was dead, while
in fact it was alive.
Through the cold, it appeared to be lifeless,
but they knew not. The snake catcher told
the spectators of the show, I have brought
the snake which I killed. And in hunting
it, spent extreme diligence and had to sweat
blood.
As he was showing off, say, oh, look
at this, you know, snake huge snake that
I hunted and I caught it and I
killed it. How brave and wonderful I am.
Milano Rumi continues,
he dragged the snake along to Baghdad, advertising
it as he went, along bragging about his
bravery.
A large crowd gathered around as the news
quickly spread that the snake catcher had brought
a very big snake, A most rare thing
which is most astonishing.
Numerous inexperienced and stupid ones gathered. All of
them were caught in the neck net of
the snake catcher.
Meaning what? The snake catcher we use we're
supposed to use as a net to catch
to catch the snake, but really his stupidity
was a net that caught all of the
spectators and gawkers and squawkers.
In the morning, when the sun rose in
the sky and the sun's rays heated the
snake, the coldness of its body disappeared.
Gradually, the signs of life came back into
its body. The heat of the sun brought
the signs of life into it, and the
coldness departed from its organs.
Then the snake which was dead became alive
and started making movements.
The people seeing the movements of the dead
snake were astonished,
and these movements became, for them, a cause
of great astonishment.
The spectators in astonishment shouted in a loud
voice, and all of them fled in the
various directions.
When the snake began to move around fiercely,
many people fled so wildly that they struck
one another and became injured. The snake catcher
himself was petrified with fear.
From here, Mawlana Rumi Mawlana Hakim Hafthir Saab
explains. From here, Mawlana Rumi starts to instruct
saying, oh, you seekers, after this path to
Allah, it may appear that the nafs, not
being involved in sins, may appear to be
dead. But one is never certain as to
how it will react when left alone
with a strange person of the opposite gender
or with one of its desires.
If the nafs like Firaun should find a
means of comfort and power, your nafs will,
like Firaun, become rebellious
and begin to commit sins and will begin
to fight against the callers toward truth.
And the the the what is
the
the example of Firaun?
Firaun is the one who,
as long as as long as he's able
to get away with it I mean, he
kinda reminds me of other,
world leaders that may be,
at home or abroad,
domestically or domestically.
If he can lie, he'll just, again, get
away with it. He'll just lie. And if
he can get away with something, he'll get
get away with it. So he just called
the said the Musa a liar and says,
you have no proof. And then he's like,
okay, well, here's the proof. So he threw
his staff and it became a it became
a snake. And he, put his hand to
his chest and then showed it to him
and it shone brightly,
with white light.
And then he's, oh, well,
maybe you're a maybe you're a maybe you're
a magician. Yeah. Yeah. You're a magician. And
so then he called the magicians
and then,
the magicians,
they
they did their show and they made their,
like, little fake magic snakes. And then the
staff of Saidah Musa became a snake and
then destroyed,
all of their snakes, and they're like, wow,
man. This is not a magic show. This
guy's stick actually became a snake.
And they all
then accepted the dawah of Sayid al Musa
Alaihi Salam
and so Fir'aun was stuck again so he
had another chance to lie. So he was
like, Oh, well,
he must be the big magician that taught
all of you and you guys were all
in cahoots with one
another. Okay. So they keep doing that again
and again, and then Allah
sent down
plagues
on on the people of Egypt.
And,
and then Saidna
Saidna Musa Faraun tells him, look. You know,
call on your god to lift these plagues
from us. And he's like, I'll only do
it if you promise to stop bothering us
and let us go. And he's like, yeah,
yeah, of course. Why? Because he had no
other choice. Right? So he's compliant.
And,
and then,
so what happens, Allah Ta'ala lifted the plagues
from the people of Egypt,
the the Qumal and the Fadir and, you
know, like the the the all of these
different
blights and and pestilences,
that Allah Ta' sent down on on them.
He lifted them those those pestilences, he lifted
them up
and, and gave them peace again. And so,
now when he has some wiggle room, he,
again, backs out on his on his word.
And it was so much so
that,
when the
left,
to to to, you know, left from Egypt
in order to go
to the holy land, and the hosts of
were barreling down on them,
and,
gave the honor to
that the staff of said the Musa Alaihi
Islam touched the water and parted the seas.
And they went through they went through the
dry pathway in the middle. And once they
got out,
and Faraun and his army were inside the
sea,
and the sea was crashing in on him,
you know, he was struggling. He was trying
to he was trying to say what? You
know? He was trying to say,
that I believe now. Now I believe in
the god of of Musa, alayhis salam, that
there's no god except for the god of
Musa, alayhis salam. So the idea is this
is that was obviously too late for him.
But the the the nafs of Fa'an is
like every nafs,
which is if you give it if you
give it space, it's gonna go crazy and
it's gonna start saying, you know,
which is something that actually said, that I'm
your your Lord most high, that I am
God. Every nass has that potentiality
inside of it.
But if you, if you keep your,
if you keep your foot on its neck
and when it starts to misbehave, you put
the pressure down on it, then it will
be, you know, it'll be a good boy.
It will be it will be nice. Your
nafs will be nice, and your nafs will
recognize the truth.
So that's what that's what, Moana Hakim Afthersab.
He said that Moana Rumi said, if the
nafs like Far'aun should find a means of
comfort and power, your nafs like Far'aun will
become rebellious
and begin to commit sins and will begin
to fight against the callers toward truth.
And so you have to, you know, you
have to just be careful with it. Don't
think that, okay, I'm on a on a
I'm on a winning streak. Ramadan was amazing.
I this is this is something that will
happen on Eid day or the day after
Eid, for many people. I'm
a pious person. You forget what your how
was,
before, you know, in Shaban or, you know,
you forget what your how was before Ramadan.
So I'm a pious person. I've been doing
this 20 rakas on top of my 5
daily prayers every day and reading my one
safara after the other, one juz after the
other, and I've I'm just, you know, I'm
I'm hitting it real hard,
And I'm a good person.
And then, while you once you trust yourself
that you're a good person,
and you give your your nafs a little
bit of space,
then it's like that snake that you thought
was dead, but it wasn't dead. It was
just hibernating in the cold. And the so
the rays of light hit it and, it
will get up and it'll just start biting.
It'll start biting
other people. It will start biting you.
Allah protect us from that
from that snake. Allah protect us from that
that that nafs. It's not dead. So you
just keep it in check.
Give
me. I
make for you. Everyone say accepts
from 1 of us and may he accept
from us all. Don't ever give up hope
even until the last dying breath.
If you if you, you know, you're like,
wow. This nafs has been misbehaving, and no
matter how hard I try, it's been misbehaving,
until my dying breath. You know, somewhere in
the back of your mind, keep making those
duas
because
accept
it. Accept it. Maybe even if it never
happened in this world, the fact that you
kept asking will be an at the very
least, it will be an occasion for your
forgiveness. And it's not good to just have
thoughts like that, and then then, like, just
go ahead and excuse yourself for behaving badly
for the rest of your life. But, you
know, keep struggling, keep struggling, even if you
lose every time. The fact that you kept
struggling and kept asking, that also will be
a a great on the day of judgment.
It will be a great on the day
of judgment. We have to believe that.
Lesson. Molana Hakim after says in this story,
Molana Rumi gives a very important lesson for
the seekers on the path to
Allah. Never be completely sure about the state
of your nafs. In its natural state, it
is inclined toward evil. Even if through the
company of a sheikh and a long life
of spiritual efforts,
the nafs appears to have changed toward good,
still do not be at ease with it,
and still do not be unmindful mind unmindful
of it. Do not become negligent in taking
precautions.
Do not become like some foolish Sufis who
have, for a long time, through the efforts
of zikr and other spiritual vigils, seen their
nafs having become accustomed to subjugation, so they
started to become at ease and unmindful of
these dangers. They started becoming
involved in mixing with other people of, the
opposite gender or people of of of perverse
attractions.
They thought that the desire to commit sin
would not overpower them. Hence, why should one
not look upon these,
beautiful people with clean looks?
They did not know how the tribe did
they not know how the tragic result would
be? They became disgraced in a bad way.
The nafs which appeared controlled and dead came
alive again with the warmth of the the
sun of their attractions.
And the looks which were supposed to be,
quote unquote, clean looks turned out to be
dirty and prohibited.
In the end, the snake of the nafs
bit them. And from the path of the
truth, they were rejected and became disgraced.
For this reason, our elders have stated that
no matter how old a person who seems
to fear Allah should be, one should, up
until his death, not be negligent of precaution
against the nafs.
Hajjah Azizul Hasan Majzub says in translation,
have no trust in this nafs, oh, you
devout one. Even if it becomes an angel,
remain distrustful of it. Look at the snake
of your nuffs as soon as you're neglected
here neglect
as soon as you're negligent of it here,
it will bite you there.
A dog, no matter how trained it becomes,
does not take the chain off of its
neck or become let it become slack. A
trained dog will remain a dog. Do not
remove the chain from its neck. May Allah
grant us divine guidance to remain watchful over
our until
the,
until our very last breath on this
earth.