Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 18 1440 Ramadn Late Night Majlis Preference of Others Over the Self 05232019
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So today, I wanted
to read a couple of sections,
from the book with regards to,
the sufic virtues of the heart,
the good qualities of the heart through which
a person,
makes themselves eligible for the fadl of Allah
and the divine
outpouring of
his grace
and onto the heart,
that are necessary in order to have for
a person to have Nisba with Allah to
Allah,
and to
benefit from their living heart.
So today, I wanted to talk about first
Ithar.
Ithar is what it means to give preference,
to the needs of your fellow
Muslim over your own needs.
And it's, you know,
the
here writes Muslim because of the shutoff of
the Muslim over all of the creation.
But there's benefit and there's virtue and for
for,
for any of God's creation.
Although,
there is
certain times where certain things are more appropriate
than others. So in order to spare your
life, if you,
prefer yourself over, for example, an animal or
a plant,
then that's good.
That's not a a blame worthy thing for
a person to do. Or if you make
based on the sharia,
for example, that you give your zakat to
a Muslim rather than to a non Muslim.
That's praiseworthy. Why? Because the Sharia demands that
the zakat is not valid if you give
it to a non Muslim.
However,
showing preference
of another person or another one of a
lost creation over yourself in a manner where
the Sharia is not contravened,
and you are not, skirting any responsibility
you have to to yourself or to somebody
else, There's in that as well.
So he says
means to give preference to the needs of
your fellow Muslim over your own needs. This
is why we see the the people of
Allah giving preference to the needs and necessities
of other Muslims over their own needs and
necessities.
Even if they obtain food when they are
extremely hungry, they prefer remaining hungry over,
they prefer to remain hungry and to give
over the food to needy people.
Allah most high says in his book,
those people who took,
the Dar as home,
meaning the the Ansar, the the people who
took Madinah as, as their native place of
residence,
and Iman as their,
as their native place of residence
before, from beforehand.
Those people
love the ones that made Hijra toward them.
They love the ones who immigrated toward them.
The,
the, the the.
So it's a it's a clear reference to
the to the virtues of the Ansar.
And
Ithar is is literally the the that the
Ansar had with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. When they accepted when they accepted Islam,
if you wanna talk about Nisba and you
wanna talk about submission and you wanna talk
about the servant being a servant through his
service,
not through his,
the who were the only people who accepted
the message of the prophet
without asking for anything in return.
There were other people who recognized,
the
message from the different tribes outside
of other than the
But they they tried to bargain with the
prophet
that if, you know, if this thing becomes
successful, then promise us that we'll be the
rulers and the leaders, and Quresh won't won't
be the the rulers and leaders, etcetera. They
tried to bargain with the Rasul sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. Whereas
the whom the not only did they not
try to bargain, they accepted the because it's
the and they accepted the service of Allah
because the lord is the lord and the
servant is the servant.
But on top of that, they actually one
of the conditions of their
and their oath of allegiance with Allah and
his messenger
is that they'll prefer others over themselves.
This is why when Rasoolullah
passed away,
the logical
outcome was that they were going to take
their Madina back because it was their Madina.
They allowed the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
to come and they protected him and made
him their leader. Otherwise, it was their city,
so they were going to take control of
it again.
And,
said Abu Bakr
who politely reminded them
that,
that their also allegiance with the messenger of
Allah
was to prefer the people who immigrate to
them over themselves.
And once they remembered that, then they abandoned
this plan immediately,
and they simply asked which one of you
wants to be a mirror now.
And that's why there wasn't there wasn't a
fight. There wasn't a squabble between the Ansar
and Muhedrin over who who gets to take
over,
who gets to rule Madina
after the is gone. So this is this
quality of theirs is immortalized in the book
of Allah.
That the people who
took as a place of residence, the Dar,
and faith before, the immigrants came to them,
and they loved those who immigrated toward them.
They love those who immigrated toward them,
and,
they don't find any
reservation inside of their hearts with regards to
the things that Allah gave them.
Rather, they prefer others over themselves even though
dire poverty of their is their lot.
It says
that they they, prefer others over themselves even
though dire poverty is their own lot. You
practice.
They they they they prefer others over themselves
even though dire poverty is their lot, and
whoever
protects from the stinginess of his own
nafs, that those people are the ones who
obtain success.
Continues, he says the righteous ones give preference
to the needs of others over their own
selves even when they are in hungry and
when they're in need.
The, the people of Allah, enjoy a high
and distinguished position by virtue of their noble
character and their matchless quality of giving preference
to others. May Allah enable the Muslims of
today to follow in the footsteps of our
pious predecessors.
While conferring them,
while conferring them with their,
love and devotion,
and with their
that the the Allah conferred to them the
the the pain that our forefathers had, that
we also carry that pain in our hearts
as well, and that that that that that
suffering on behalf of the of the prophet
that we shield for them.
Nafir the great,
Tabiri, the freed slave of Sayid Nabu Al
Abin Omar relates from Abdullah bin Omar
that once he,
he fell ill,
and,
he
expressed his desire to eat fresh fish.
The servant boy, relates that I looked for
fresh fish in the markets of Madinah, but
could not find any.
After some time, I came across,
fresh fish,
and I bought one for, Abdullah bin Omar
for 1 and a half dirhams. So, like
7, 7.50 or something like that. Whatever how
much it cost to have a meal at
Fattush or whatever, you know, and and
and and, by Bridgeview.
So he goes he goes he goes, one
and a half dirhams. So after I grilling
grilled the fish, I placed it on a
on a piece of bread.
This is what happens when they see people
translate,
books in Arabic.
The translation literally is that I placed it
on a roti.
Obviously, that's not what the Arabic original
says.
See, there's somebody in the Majlis today who
said that today I I ended up
trying to
sell
Arab sweets to Desi grocery store owners.
Right? So Allah rewarded you now So now
the desi suite is going to the Arabs.
Not 1, 2 of them. Allah Allah Allah
Allah repaid you in double.
Ibn Umar
said, wrap this fish in a piece of
bread and give it to the beggar.
I said, may Allah keep you well. You
have been expressing your desire to eat fish
for so long, and you could not obtain
1. And we eventually found 1 today and
brought it to you for 1 and a
half dirhams. You should therefore eat it. I'll
go give the beggar the 1 and a
half dirhams
that it cost to to to buy the
fish.
Refused to eat it and insisted that it
be given to the beggar.
The beggar
the the servant boy gave the the fish,
wrapped in the piece of bread to the
beggar.
Since the boy was a sincere,
attendant
and sincere in his service of Ablob and
Omar
and he knew that
that Ablob and Omar had an intense desire
to eat the fish,
which he had obtained after a long time.
He also wanted Abdul Abhin Omar to eat
it and regain some of his strength. So
he therefore said to the beggar, is it
okay if I buy that,
that,
fish fruit back from you,
for for a dirham
and a half, and the beggar agreed. And
the boy gave him the gave him the
money and took the fish back. He then
presented it to Abdullah bin Amar and related
what happened between him and the beggar.
Abdullah bin Amar
says return the fish and the bread to
the beggar and let him keep the the
the dirham and a half as well.
And on that occasion, Abdulaban Umar related the
hadith of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. He said, I heard the messenger
of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam say, if a
person has a desire for something but repulses
his desire for Allah's sake and gives preference
to someone else over himself, Allah will certainly
forgive him.
Literally,
any person who has who feels a desire
for something
and then,
returns that desire, like, sends it back, meaning
it doesn't doesn't indulge it.
Rather, prefers for another person to have that
desire fulfilled rather than themselves.
This is an occasion for Allah to forgive
them.
It says,
will,
will forgive that person. And this, this narration
is also mentioned by Imam Ghazali in his.
There is a great lesson
for us in this story that said,
gave. Nowadays,
many Muslims do not worry about others and
are fully occupied in fulfilling their desires.
Every person, due to his greed is worried
about nothing but himself.
He does not bother about helping his fellow
Muslims, whereas it is an excellent means
for having one's sins forgiven,
as is clear from the above hadith of
Saidna Abdul Lab and Omar. May Allah be
pleased with both of them. The Sahaba enjoyed
a distinguished position in their concern for the
poor and seeing to their needs. They used
to give preference to the needs of others
over themselves. This was a blessed quality of
our elders,
in in the past. And nowadays, it seems
that most Muslims have succumb to their own
self motives and worrying about their own selves,
their own nafs.
And this is something
there's a Sufic excellence in it
that, has not not nothing to do with
feeding the poor. Nowadays, there are people are
like, well, you know,
if we feed you know, we wanna feed
the poor. Why? Because people think it's their
own job to, like,
feed the creation of Allah, and it's not
your job. You know, in some sense, if
wished to feed the poor, he would have
fed them himself.
This is an objection actually that the mushrikeen,
bring in Allah, immortalizes it in this Surat
Yassin.
And Allah
He
says that that if it said to them
spend on the poor, they say, why should
we bother to feed those people if Allah
was to feed them?
Then then, he would have fed them.
And Allah says, you people are completely lost.
You people are in just clear clear like,
clearly wandering in in in,
in confusion.
The idea is this, if Allah wished to
feed them, he would have fed them.
Now how would he have fed them? He
could have made, you know, manna and quail
magically appear for them. He did that for
He can do it again. That's fine. But
if Allah has feeding the poor with manna
and quail, then how how are you and
me gonna go to Jannah?
Why are you and I gonna go to
Jannah?
You you what's you understand what I'm saying?
Like, when you say that, if Allah was
to feed them, he would have fed him
himself. It's basically another way of saying, like,
I'm going to *.
You know what I mean? That's why it's
dalal. It's not that it's not true. It
is theoretically speaking, it's true. It's Allah's other
if you wish to. He wish to his
he wish to he could have fed them.
We read the Surah
in the in the
Taraweeh today.
If we wish to, we would have sent
sent down such a sign. All of their
necks would have,
been bent in humility
in front of it. Everyone, all of them.
Donald Trump and
Bethany, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Mike Pence, and,
Vladimir Putin, and, like, Kim Jong il
and I think all these jokers, they would
just be they'd have their heads bent in
front of the in front in front of,
the sign, and they would all make Tawba.
If you wish to, you could have sent
down a sign from the sky such that
all of them would have fallen in the
line.
The issue is this is not it's not
your it's not it's not doesn't benefit you
to think about what should Allah do.
He knows better than you what he should
do.
It's for you to think what should you
do, for me to think what should I
do. This happened. I mean, I I worked
with Islamic Relief. I remember I was in
a masjid in in Ohio. Anyone who's not
in Ohio should write down, just take a
minute to thank Allah that they're not in
Ohio. And and whoever is in Ohio, Allah
give you sabr and
reward for your patience with, this Ajib Kafi'at
that you're in. I was in a random
masjid in Ohio, and, literally the masjid security
guard, he was, I mean, he was a
Muslim. He was like, for, you know, from
whatever, from the Bilal. He came to me
when we were, like, whatever, doing Islamic relief,
fundraising.
He's like, what is this? We shouldn't have
to give money to this. The Saudis can
take care of all of it. They can
pay all of it. I said, yeah, that's
good. But then why are you gonna go
to Jannah, man?
He's like, no, the Saudis have money. I
I understand I understand the Saudis have money.
Okay? And they do actually, you know, whether
you hate them or love them, there are
people in Saudi Arabia who are very generous
as well, and they do take care of
some people, you know.
And so, whether you feel like it's enough
or not is irrelevant.
But if they're the ones who take care
of everybody, then why are you gonna go
to Jannah?
So, I mean, that's it's it's not a
good it's not a good, it's not a
good mindset to have. Rather,
the in these things, a a a opportunity
for Allah to forgive them because
the kefia is there in the heart. And
this is one of the reasons that such
like, Ithar is such a powerful,
vehicle to attract the forgiveness of Allah and
the love of Allah,
is that sometimes you want something really bad,
and you know inside your heart you really
want it bad.
And with a person's deeds, you know, nowadays,
everyone thinks the only good deed is, like,
to become a rich person and then, like,
give some nondescript donation at some nondescript point
in the future, or to be an imam,
or to be a speaker, or to give
a khutba, or to do something public that
has prestige involved in it. Right? And those
things, who knows?
You
only accept from the that that which is
Tayeb. There's any any admixture of impurity in
that deed, Allah is not gonna accept it.
However
so in those deeds you don't know, I
mean, a good piece of advice is to
is to in your inside your the record
books of your heart, pretend that none of
those deeds are gonna be accepted. You know,
your one tweet that you said to happen,
you got, like, a 1,000 retweets or whatever.
Right? In your heart, just write it off
like it's a loss.
Like it was your property and it burned
down. Why? Because your was happy that you
became famous or your was happy that you
made money out of it or you enjoyed
something out of it. Right?
But the reason I mean, this is not
a completely, like, negative way of looking at
things because there's another side of the coin
as well. Imagine something like, you know, you
wanted to,
you know, you wanted something and another person
wanted something. You know, you wanted a business
contract and your brother wanted the contract as
well. And sometimes you know that that person
needs it, you know, You wanted to have
the then you and and how'd you wanted
to have the good bed,
with the view or close to the bathroom,
and the other person wanted it as well.
Or you wanted to buy the last, you
know, of something and someone else wanted it
as well. And you know you want it.
And you know inside, it's that childlike, like,
reflexive, like, type of desire inside of your
heart.
The other side of the coin is what
is that in those situations, you know for
sure that there's no
conflict of interest because you know how badly
you want it. At that point, if you
can step on the neck of your and
just push that thing away,
this is like, like like money in the
money in the bank. Like, spiritually, it's completely
it's money in the bank.
And,
you know, there are a lot of things
like that that you just you just, like,
want it so bad.
And the story that's that's told about him
here,
it shows that he recognized that, that he
had that inside of his heart, and the
beggar probably couldn't really give, give that much
of a care. I mean, he was ready
to he basically sold the fish back for
the money. Right? He really didn't care about
the fish.
But
who wasn't doing it for the beggar, feeding
the beggar is whose job?
It's Allah's job.
Right? What is he trying to do? He's
trying to make
him fish his najat out of the, you
know, out of his his salvation out of
this deal. And so that's why,
there's so many, you know, say that Aisha
this attitude in general, not just with Ithar,
this attitude in general say that Aisha
Anha said it said that she used to
perfume the coins that she would give in.
So beggar, when they smell it, you know,
smells nice. And, someone said that to her,
like,
nobody
like, the beggar doesn't beggars don't care. They're
gonna spend it anyway. He said, I'm not
she said, I'm not doing it for the
beggars.
It's for the sake of Allah that I
wanna do it with Hassan when I do
it. You know? And so that that that
focus on Allah is better than a 100
and a 1000 and a 1000000 and a
1000000000 people's charities that are done just for
tax reasons or for the reason of nafs
or whatever. We have all sorts of billionaires
that donate, like, this much money to, you
know, cure AIDS or to fight cancer or
to fight poverty or whatever.
But if they're not doing it for the
sake of Allah,
then it's it's a still it's a nice
thing to do. I'm not saying it's a
bad thing that they're doing, but it begins
in this world and it dies in this
world. It will not carry over until
until
nor will it carry over into the.
So
this is the this is the sufic virtue
of the Sahaba
And the other,
the other section I wanted to read is
the one on which
is doing without.
Indeed, this life of this world
is is like distraction
and play.
And the,
the the the abode of the is.
What does mean? You ask Arab, what does
mean?
It's like animal. Right?
Like, you know, it's like something you say
to somebody who's, like, not behave very well.
But the word animal also, right, anime means,
like, in Greek, it means, like, spirit, something
that moves around, you know, something that's alive.
So means the same thing. Something that's alive.
It's not like a brick or a stone.
It's something that has life inside of it.
That's why it's a Heilan. So says that,
like, the the is the is the the
the the the the the abode of, like,
true life.
That this life in of this world is
like a rock compared to that. It's dead
like a rock or like a like a,
you know, a piece of wood or whatever
compared to the
compared to the life of the. The life
of the is animate. It's it has true
life in it. If they only knew.
This world is referred to as play and
amusement. It is like playing around and jumping
for a short while after which the fun
ends.
And I I think it's it's it's funny
that this is like a inelegant translation,
but in in in this in this
specific place, an inelegant translation is highly appropriate.
It's just fun. It's like a cheap thrill.
He says that you jump around for a
short while, afterwards the fun ends. This is
the case with this world. However,
actions which entail obedience to Allah's injunctions are
not included in this. They are listed as
matters related to the hereafter
and their fruits will be enjoyed in the
hereafter.
Who narrates that the messenger
said that this world is sweet.
It's
it's
sweet and it's and it's green. It seems
very lush and and and alive.
And Allah most high,
has appointed you as his deputy. He's put
you in charge to watch over it. Make
sure you don't screw it up,
for for a short amount of time.
And he's watching how are you gonna discharge
that duty.
So fear Allah, when it comes to the
dunya, and fear Allah when it, when it
comes to, it comes to women.
And this is a a a warning not
just to men, but also to women as
well.
And,
the the full,
that maybe some other time we can go
over it.
The above hadith refers to this world as
sweet and green. In the sense that it
appears very nice and also enjoyable while utilizing
it. However, just as a sweet or green
item decays very quickly,
the same can be said of this world.
Another in another hadith, the messenger
said, I'm most astonished at the person who
believes that the hereafter is eternal, but still
strives for this world of deception.
And the previously quoted hadith warns us against
becoming too occupied with this world and to
protect ourselves from the temptation of, of women.
What this means,
is that special attention should be,
given in safeguarding ourselves, from them and adopting
precautions
taught to us by the Sharia.
For example, to lower our gaze and abstain
from, free mixing with them and so on.
And obviously, this,
this advice of the sheikh is directed toward
men, but also women also should be careful
how they treat other women as well. In
the sense that somebody who is
easily taken advantage of, and somebody who is,
easily abused,
and somebody who's,
you know, who who may be humble or
meek with you, and so you step all
over them and treat them badly.
This is like this is a
very dangerous occasion for a person to earn
the wrath of Allah.
The life of the hereafter is the real
life.
There is no real life except for the
life of the hereafter.
The messenger
of Allah made this statement on 2 occasions.
The first was the battle of the handak
when the Muslims were experiencing extreme difficult can
extremely difficult conditions when digging the trench.
And so while they dug, they would repeat
the verse,
That we are the ones who pledged to
Muhammad,
and took an oath of allegiance with him.
That as long as we,
as long as we are alive, we will
we will make jihad,
we will strive
and and and struggle
in this path as long as we're alive.
And reply to this, the messenger of Allah
said, and you gotta you gotta, like, you
gotta, you
know, don't piece off to the,
that in their hour of difficulty,
that was their their and their resolve. That
they said, as long as we're in this
world, we're going to make jihad in this
path of Allah to Allah. Nowadays, if someone
says jihad,
many Muslims will scramble to, like, be like,
no. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
We didn't mean that. No. These are the
people that they're they have their resolve as
being firm. And, obviously, we don't mean some,
you know, criminal, like, killing women and children
and stuff like that when we say that.
But we do mean,
the struggle in which a person will,
will wear themselves out and give up those
things that he loves in order to make
a lot of them.
So in reply to this, the messenger,
and so forgive the Ansar and the.
These words were uttered to encourage the Sahaba.
May Allah be pleased with them and prompt
them on,
goad them on so that they may not
become restless on account of their extreme fatigue
and tiredness.
What,
it meant is that
this few days life after which comes the
real life of the hereafter,
and,
there and they will find peace and comfort
forever.
The second time the messenger of Allah
made the statement was on the occasion of
the,
farewell pilgrimage, and the occasion of his Hajj
when there was a large group of Muslims
with them.
Here too, the messenger of Allah direction
directed the attention of the Sahaba. May Allah
be pleased with them toward the hereafter
and to not become proud and, on seeing
their large numbers and strength.
These, are things of the temporary life of
this world. The real life is what's to
come in the hereafter,
and there will be, eternal and comfort and
rest therein.
We now take the opportunity of quoting from
the
which is a translation of the and
of Abdullah bin Mubarak
which was translated by Moana Habib Rahman Azami.
I think that's enough for today. We can
maybe, the section that he translated from this
kitab,
kitab,
of,
We can
read it tomorrow.
But this,
saying of the Rasul
this was their refrain that they used to
say in their hour of difficulty
and when faced with
backbreaking work. And the Muslims took this also
as a custom after
after them,
and the Maliki 5th books, I don't know
if it's in the other Madahibi also, but
in the Maliki 5th books, it's also written
that a person who is on Hajj, that
witnesses a miracle,
the the the the dua that
at your service, my lord, and there's no
life except for the life of the hereafter.
So,
he'll mention we mentioned right now that the
messenger of Allah
encouraged
the Muslims,
to towards Zohd, and we'll read a little
bit about
what the theory behind it is a little
bit more tomorrow.
Give us
a living heart that
lives
inside
of
the