Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 20 Ramadan 1441 Late Night Majlis Ghazali On The Love Of Prestiege Addison 05132020
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the negative impacts of wealth on the heart and the physical and mental attributes of the heart. He explains that wealth is a result of aer's desire for satisfaction and that the spirit of God is a secret. The speaker also discusses the importance of praying to God and not giving up on one's knowledge to benefit oneself. The importance of finding quiet spots and updating behavior is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
We reached this Mubarak 20th night of Ramadan,
with
which
the,
second Ashala,
is coming to a close. May Allah
give us barakah in those few moments of
it that are left. And, make us from
amongst those who are, the Utaka,
those who are freed from the hellfire in
this,
Mubarak remaining,
10 nights or 9 nights,
be it as it may, that that are
left in Ramadan.
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, make us amongst those
who
revere
those moments that are left and take advantage
of them and not make
them, you know, the royal gift and royal
treasure that's wasted
on the undeserving and those who don't value
it.
So we continue reading from Moana Seydabul Hasan
Ali Nadwiz,
saviors of the Islamic spirit with regards to
Imam Abuhamad Al Ghazali, his life and times,
and, the lessons that, he left behind for
this ummah,
and in particular, his critique of
the yearning for honor, leadership,
and, you know, esteem and prestige amongst people,
which is
an
extremely
detrimental
sickness.
It is haram, just like eating pork is
haram, and it is
the last
fault of the heart, to leave the heart
before a person attains the maqam of wilayah
and siddiq with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The maqam of sainthood and and and truth
in their faith with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And unfortunately,
my experience in teaching Muslim kids in this
country, and really maybe,
in many other places in the world as
well,
shows me that it is faded from the
consciousness of complete classes of society that this
is a bad thing and this is a
harmful thing. And generally the the mindset amongst
many kids of a particular class is I
want to be rich so I can help
the dean. I want to be,
you know, I want to be a leader
so I can help the dean, etcetera. And,
the syllogism is is is malconstructed
to say the least.
If the love was for helping the dean,
then if there is a way of doing
it,
you know, through other than prestige and wealth,
that's better than a person would naturally choose
that. Unfortunately,
you know, deen is used as a foil
in order to hide
just the love of wealth and love of
of fame and prestige and leadership
and, you know, things of that ilk. So
I think it's very appropriate,
even through the centuries that we read what
Ghazali has to say about this
Yearning for honor.
Under the caption,
why man has a natural longing for honor,
jah,
and why it seldom leaves
even the heart of a penitent one. Ghazali
writes in his Ihya.
One must know one must know that exactly
for the same reason which makes wealth dearer
to a man, he inculcates the love of
jah, of of honor and prestige.
Just as gold is liked more than silver
even if the 2 be of the same
value,
Jah claims precedence over riches.
As you know, gold and silver have no
attraction in themselves, for they can neither satisfy
hunger nor can they be worn.
These are just as good as any other
metal. But these have an allurement because they
serve as the means of satisfying desires held
dear by man.
Similar is the case with Jah,
which
means winning and dominating the hearts of others.
However, despite the fact that jah and wealth
equally share the fancy of man,
the former claims precedence over the others for
reasons more than one.
There are 3 conspicuous reasons for it. The
first of these is that Jah can be
a means for attaining riches, while the,
ladder may not be helpful in commanding the
respect of others.
Anyone winning the hearts of others wins their
services and their belongings too,
as people are always desirous of making presentations
to those those whom they,
love and revere. On the other hand, if
an undistinguished plebian somehow gets hold of a
treasure, he cannot win the respect of others
merely by getting rich.
Jah is thus held dearer than wealth.
Another obvious reason is that there are always
a there is always a danger of losing
wealth. It can be stolen or taken away
forcibly.
Kings and tyrants can confiscate it. It also
needs to be guarded and kept in boxes
and in strong rooms. But once a man
wins the heart of a person, there is
no longer, of, any danger of it being
lost to thieves, robbers, or plunderers.
It is, indeed the most well guarded treasure.
The treasure of the heart is immune from
all of these,
from all of these, dangers.
The third reason is,
the third reason for holding Jah dearer than
wealth is that it goes on increasing by
itself without requiring any effort to be made
for it. When people begin to venerate anyone
on account of his knowledge or virtuous actions,
they sing his praise, thereby widening his circle
of followers. It is thus only
the
other towns and lands, the number of admirers
too increases with it.
As against this, wealth does not increase by
itself.
These are manifest,
These are the manifest reasons for giving preference
to jah over wealth.
One can also find many other reasons for
it. Now, it can be argued that if
what I have explained here is correct, a
man should like to have riches or jah
only to the extent of fulfilling his desires
or meeting his wants.
For he holds these deers only for, achieving
these ends. But the fact is that the
covetousness
that man of no of but the fact
is that covetousness
of man knows no bounds.
And he goes on accumulating possessions and riches
till the limits of his needs are left
far behind and he presents the spectacle of
one alluded
to in the tradition, meaning the hadith, which
says if man has 2 valleys filled with
gold, he would only long for a third.
Similarly, a man is always anxious that his
jaw should go on increasing until his fame
reaches far off lands. Although he knows that
he would never step into those countries or
ever meet their inhabitants.
The answer to the question posed earlier is
that in truth and reality, the love of
Jah produces an intoxication which can hardly be
eradicated.
There are two reasons for this. One of
these is manifest and can be conceived by
everyone.
But the other is,
related to a peculiar trait of the human
self, which is so subtle and latent that
it would be difficult even for the most
intelligent to fully grasp it.
It can only be understood by those who
are endowed by the brilliance of mind and
have a deep insight into the psychological nature
of man. The first of these two causes
is that man always feels an innate uneasiness
on account of the fears and doubts in
regard to that which he holds dear, and
accordingly wants to ward off all dangers real
or imaginary from it. As a poet has
said, to fall in love is to fall
in a 1,000 anxieties.
Ain't that the truth?
Man is never satisfied,
no matter what provisions,
he has made
to meet his necessities.
The doubt that he might lose his possessions
later on always assails his heart
and this makes him sad and anxious.
This anxiety can be removed only in case
he gets something which can be a substitute
for the possessions which he fears to lose.
Again, on account of his self love and
eagerness for a long life, he overestimates his
necessities for the future and wants adequate resources
to counterbalance
the imaginary perils,
to his means.
He is always worried about the supposed hazards
which might make him lose his resources.
The only effective remedy he can think of
against these risks is to have so much
estate,
and effects that if somehow he loses a
part of it, he may be able to
manage easily with the remaining, assets left to
him.
The doubt and fear in regards to, future
security never allow him to be content with
his existent belongings
and he yields,
to the desire of possessing,
the fortunes of the entire world.
The prophet of Islam
has very rightly said,
that the longing for 2 things, knowledge and
wealth, is never satisfied.
The desire for jah or winning the hearts
of men is also insatiable precisely for the
same reason.
Another reason, and a more cogent one than
the first, is the spirit, is that the
spirit is commanded by Allah.
The Quran says they will ask you concerning
the spirit. Yes.
Say that the spirit is by the command
of my lord.
The command or the emir, by
by by which is meant, the emir of
the lord,
is meant here, means that it is a
secret which can be experienced by the illuminated
masters through beatific visions,
but cannot be divulged.
Meaning it's This is the difference between elm
and malarifa is that,
both
have a meaning of that
the person who possesses it understands it. However,
elm is something that somebody not only understands
but they can teach to another. Whereas is
something that can be understood but
and teach to another. Whereas, marifa is something
that can be understood, but it cannot be
explained.
The command,
by, the Lord means that it is a
secret which can be experienced only by the
illuminated masters through,
through beatific visions but cannot be divulged.
The prophet of Islam too did not disclose,
the reality of the ruh, but, without going
into its reality, one can find out that
the heart of man
has fourfold,
predispositions.
The first of these is a beastly
predisposition
inclining toward eating, drinking, sexual *, etcetera.
The second pertains to what may be called
a ferocious leaning toward killing, injury, and hurting
others. The third element of the human nature
is devilish, having a predisposition toward deceit and
fraud.
Divine attributes
seeks expression in the divine attributes like beneficence,
dignity, grandeur,
respect, and glory.
The heart of man has numerous similar predispositions,
which cannot be gone into any detail here,
but as stated, one of the important inclinations
of the heart owing to the spirit being
a command by the lord pertains to the
quality of perfection.
And, what is this perfection? It consists of
being unrivaled in perfection and owning an existence,
not dependent on any other for anything.
Man is thus naturally inclined toward perfection since
it is a divine quality, a quality which
does not admit, any rival or peer,
for that would really constitute a defect in
perfection.
The perfection of the sun lies in the
fact that it is the only sun. Likewise,
the perfection of a being
is enjoyed by, God Almighty alone. Here being,
being spelled with a capital b, is enjoyed
by, God Almighty alone for there is no
perfect being beside Him.
Both being and Him here being capitalized.
Whatever exists besides Him is simply His creation
and cannot exist on its own.
Thus, in very truth, nothing exists without God,
for sharing any quality with him presupposes an
equality which is a defect for the unrivaled
perfection of God Almighty.
Just as the sun illuminates,
everything in this world without losing its perfection,
God also bestows existence to everything.
It is on him that the existence of
everything depends in this universe.
Unrivaled perfection is thus a divine attribute, which,
to which man has a natural predisposition.
Some of the mystics, the Anidu Sufis, have
observed that in the recesses of his heart,
every man nourishes the same feeling, which is
found in the expression of
when he said
I am your lord most high.
It is because of this reason that man
finds it more pleasing to become an object
of homage and reverence
than to become himself a devotee or worshiper.
This is a natural human instinct which is
alluded to in the divine revelation, which says,
the spirit is, by the command of my
lord,
which is a very deep and subtle point.
Man cannot, however, attain absolute or unrivaled perfection,
but his desire for it persists because he
derives a sort of satisfaction from it.
Absolute perfection is
the end and not the means of achieving
anything else. The fact is that every man
adores his self as well as its absolute
perfection.
He shudders at the idea of death simply
because he sees the annihilation of his self
and its perfection in his death.
Absolute perfection, on one hand demands complete independence
from everything for its existence and on the
other hand, dependence of every other existence on
it.
If, however,
that be not possible,
the next best course desired is to dominate
others.
Man desiring complete perfection has thus a natural
inclination
predominance over others.
* over others is gratifying to the self
and a means of achieving perfection.
It consists of his capacity to be effective
and the ability to make, others change their
will.
Accordingly, man wants to dominate over every other
being but the latter consists of objects, some
of which do not admit of any change
in accordance with the human will. As for
instance, the supreme being and his attributes. There's
another category of objects which undergoes change but
not in conformity with the human desire and
these are the heavens, the planets, the angels,
the jinns, the devils, mountains, oceans, and the
like.
Objects falling in a third category such as
land, its elements, minerals, plants, animals, and also
the hearts of men are liable to change
under the influence of human will. Now the
objects of the first two categories being outside
the scope of human influence,
man endeavors to acquire knowledge of these objects
for acquiring the knowledge of anything is also
a mean of means of gaining *
over it.
You see the keenness of some people to
have an insight into the reality of the
nature and attributes of God, angels, heavens, planets,
stars, oceans, and their wonders.
This is also a way of acquiring some
* over these. You would have seen that
if a man cannot himself manufacture something that
catches his fascination, he wants at least to
know how it had been made
because this gives him some satisfaction.
A man who cannot himself invent a game
like chess or any other device at least
wants to know how it's played or used,
or how it was invented.
He finds his ignorance vexatious
and the knowledge,
enchanting since he wants to make up, for
some of his own deficiency through the knowledge.
And this is deep because, you know,
just getting to this, station itself of of
knowing that knowledge gives you power over things
and wanting knowledge already puts you spiritually. I
would say like, you know, amongst the the
the high levels of bogusness that we live,
you know, with and the high levels of
ignorance that we live in. I mean, just
being at this stage where you understand where
that knowledge gives you power over something,
itself already puts you in like spiritual ninetieth
percentile.
You know, where a lot of people just
prefer ignorance over knowledge and their, you know,
bestial qualities,
basically reign over them and they use the
machinery of the intellect order to serve them
and really nothing else.
So that's I guess kind of the problem
is that people,
you know, people
may have made a fair amount of spiritual
progress when compared to other people but it's
still a little bit, you know, it's still
coming up short.
Help us and give
us help against our
subtle defects that hold us back from
from realization and from attainment with him.
Of the earthly things over which man desires,
predominance in order to utilize them according to
his wishes, there are 2 subdivisions.
Firstly, those pertaining to the body and, secondly,
those pertaining to the
spirit. The first comprises possessions and belongings, wealth
and resources on which man wants complete *.
He wants complete authority use to use these
in whatever,
manner he desires because authority is necessary for
perfection.
Dominance is one of the attributes of God
reflecting his quality of overlordship,
paternalism, etcetera.
Man has a natural inclination to hold these
dear to his heart no matter whether he
ever needs them for meeting his personal requirements
or not. Similarly, man also wants to have
slaves,
who would be under his * or to
force even free people to accept his predominance
so that he may command their homage and
services.
It is not necessary that he should always
win over their hearts because * by force
is
more often, as much effective in winning, over
the heart of a man. It is therefore
natural that a man sometimes desires to attain
predominance through brute force because it expresses his
authority over others, an attribute of perfection to
which man is predisposed.
And, part of it is
dominance over other people physically, you know, has
to do with dominance over their body. I
think part of this, the subtlety of modernity
is the kind of weird preoccupation people have
with my body,
my choice. Which is like, I guess it's
okay. Like I don't want to go into
your house and like make you eat Cheetos
if you want to have Cocoa Puffs or
whatever. Like that's not really what what I'm
trying to talk about. But this idea that
you do to yourself whatever you want and
you don't owe any, responsibility
to Allah, much less to anybody else.
This is like a really weird,
tightly held apida of of of modernism,
that I think is kind of in this
vein as well, because they just don't want
to accept that Allah has
any any dominance over themselves, perhaps because of
this same
quality of wanting to be god oneself.
It is not necessary that he should always
win over their hearts because * by force
is more often as much effective as winning,
over the heart of a man. It is
therefore natural that man sometimes desires to attain
predominance through brute force because it expresses his
authority over others, an attribution an attribute of
perfection
to which man is predisposed.
The most precious of all earthly possessions then,
following under the second category, is the *
and winning over the hearts of men.
The perfection of * lies in the authority
exercised by man over the hearts of others
who are ever willing to comply with his
bidding.
The hearts of men can be best dominated
by creating love and reverence which is born
out of a conviction about the perfection of
qualities in the person adored. For perfection of
qualities is a divine attribute to which man
has an inherent inclination.
The heart of man, therefore, desires to attain
perfection either through knowledge or authority.
Riches and Jah,
being the 2 potent means of acquiring authority
are cherished by the heart of man.
And since knowledge and authority are limitless, man
endeavors to gain knowledge of everything and command
authority over every existence.
As the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam has alluded to the dissatisfaction
of the
learned and wealthy,
the desire for man's,
for man,
the desire of man for * over things
beyond his authority goes on ever increasing.
This is a really,
really important
chapter
because
it has to do with so much of
the sickness that is really, I think,
not only the same as, in this age
as it was in that age but,
maybe it's actually intensified
and it's been enshrined into the the kind
of public akida that, you know, the nation
state is built on and that modernism is
is built on and the modernism is like
the basic Aqidah just like, you know, the
Sunni Aqidah is a platform on which the
4 Madhhabs
run, you know, communism and capitalism and all
these other kind of modernisms that, all these
nations run on. I think the common aapida
that they all, the plat common platform that
they all operate on is modernism
and modernism has to do with a a
a very allergic a
very allergic and very irritated rejection of
the authority of anybody else
over a human being,
thinking authority to be in and of itself
somehow some kind of a,
you know,
abnormal
a,
you know, a perversion and at best a
necessary evil,
whereas authority doesn't necessarily need to be evil.
If authority is evil in all cases, whether
it's necessary or unnecessary, then
naturally, the greatest source of evil in the
universe should be Allah because the authority is
absolute.
Protect us from ever harboring such a sentiment
inside of our hearts openly or secretly.
But, this thing that Imam Ghazali just mentioned,
I mean, it is it's it's horrible. You
know, the person who accumulates wealth and leadership
for the sake of helping the ummah,
if the reason that they're doing it subtly
inside the heart is because of their wish
to dominate others and thereby assert their perfection
and godlike attributes,
then, you know, I'll leave it to you
to decide whether or not the ummah is
ever gonna benefit from such a person,
or whether a person is going to be
more like Firaun and propagate pharaonic type,
pharaonic type, effects,
in the in the ummah and in the
creation,
even if, done by,
you know, by means of the civilization of
Islam. And we have people like this in
the Muslim world. We have rulers and leaders
like this. A number of them relatively recently,
met
very
unfortuitous ends in front of the eyes of
people and still they don't learn their lessons.
They still don't learn their lessons. There's still
a bunch of jackals and hyenas in line
after them in order to take their place.
And lest we, as a minority in the
United States,
you know, point fingers at the Muslim world,
we have, like, little mini versions of these
people in in many of our organizations.
And, Allah protect us all, man. Allah protect
us all that, even even within the the
ranks of the people studying knowledge, none of
us are immune. I'm not immune and you're
not immune. None of us are immune. Alright?
The
the person who's afraid will leave early. Meaning,
they'll make preparations for, for failure, You know,
to try to prevent failure.
And the person who doesn't fear, that person
will make no preparations and they won't reach
their, they won't reach their destination in time.
And so none of us are immune to
this. A person has to constantly check their
intentions. Am I learning this,
you know, in order to assert my perfection
and
have a a just like a smug feeling
inside of my heart,
about about my control over something because I
know about it.
And then my control over others because I
know more than they do.
Or are they actually doing it as a
matter of service? And the proof is in
the pudding, you know? Are you able to
say I don't know when you don't know?
Are you able to yield to somebody else's
authority when, they know more than you or
they're in a position
that
they can help the ummah better than you?
Or even if they know the exact same
amount as you or a similar amount as
you or even if they know a little
bit less than you but they're able to
get the job done through their authority so
you can, like, yield. And this is one
of the reasons I think a lot of
people who are kinda allergic to the soof
and its terminology and somehow harbor this weird
like misgiving in the back of their brain
that Shaytan put there or maybe because of
their interactions with people who are legitimately bogus
people and they think that some part of
it is bida. When the Sufis talk about
fana, what are they talking about?
If the secret motivator for a person to
get wealth in Jah is what?
Is,
because they wanna be like god. You know,
they wanna exert some sort of godlike existence
in a perfect, complete, or limited fashion.
Either way being, completely
completely, like, unacceptable,
like like Iblisian level unacceptable,
then
necessarily for a person to take this path
and to be able to benefit from their
knowledge like Sayedna Adam did rather than to
have the knowledge be the means of their
fall like Iblis,
you know, they are necessarily
ana left to say that I'm nothing.
You know, there's no
no left to say that I'm nothing. You
know, there's no I left for me to
say I am nothing. It's just silence.
You have no, you have no opinion anymore
in front of the lord. You have no
being in front of the lord. You don't
see yourself in front of the lord anymore.
Rather, there is a god and
his commandment
goes over the creation
and it goes over you
as well and you just silently
accept it and obey it, you know,
where where the the, you know, where the,
where the
materialist,
sees the the the universe and has to
be convinced of god that a person in
front of the lord sees the lord and
has to be convinced of the material.
You know, you have to you have to
get that get to that point if you
want to ensure yourself,
that you're not going to you're not gonna
use your your money and you're not gonna
use your your knowledge,
in a sense to cause facade in the
world. And what bigger facade is there,
in the world than to try to set
yourself up as a god,
other than Allah
You know, that have you seen the person
who has turned their vain desires into their
own god? Like, what a what a what
a horrible failure for a person. You know,
what a complete horrible failure. It's better to
just be a dimwit who,
has no aspirations in life,
but just was told that there's one Allah
who created everything and that you have to
pray to him like 5 times a day
and like not even go there, not even
try to pursue this greatness, with yourself. And
on the flip side, if you look at
the civilization that was built by,
built by Islam,
it's not like we're not like Europeans where
we say, absolute power craps absolutely because there
were people in the history of this ummah
who wielded absolute power. The prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam wielded absolute power in a way that
would be completely important to,
any modern sensibility.
And, he died broke, you know. I mean,
he died a servant. He died sleeping on
a straw mat and, like, you know, sleeping
on the floor. And, he was he was
broke, you know. There are many people in
Madinah much more wealthy than him. He didn't
ingratiate himself nor did he ever eat from
sadaqa. He made, zakat haram on his family
and tell.
May Allah
protect them and keep them in dignity and
honor and make means for them,
above that because of the abstention of the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
You know, he
he didn't ingratiate himself through his and
then said Abu Bakr Siddiq
who ruled with absolute power thereafter and the
same thing, he died he died broke. They
had to argue with him even to take
a wage,
from the Baytul Maal and he himself imposed
several times a decrease in his wage. You
know, said the Amr
you know, the same thing. You know, he
would he would make in the in the
masjid, then his side would be imprinted with
the with the mat,
who
liked the prophet
You know, these are people that didn't use
the money to ingratiate themselves. Rather,
they gave from what they have for the
sake of Islam.
Look at Sadna Uthman, Sadna
Ali Look at Sadna
Umar bin Abdul Aziz
Look at the you know, look at even
Sultan,
Sultan Alamgir,
He
used to,
you know, used to write the mushaf and
knit caps.
There were so many there were so many
of the salateen in the history of
Islam. They used to eat by the work
of their own hands. Would not take,
they would not take,
money from the treasury
in order to,
in order to, survive. Rather, they used to
eat from the work of their own hands.
Why?
So that they could have that type of
abstention and they could
abstinence in themselves and be from those people
who literally
the the knowledge Allah was endowing them with
and the money Allah was endowing them with
and the honor and the jah that they
were being endowed with wouldn't wouldn't take them
down the Iblisian route.
Rather, they could wield it, powerfully and forcefully,
in the islah and the rectification of a
of a broken world and putting back together
a broken world
and in, helping the creation of Allah Allah
who needs who needs help, you know, who
needs, you know,
they're
crying out for for help.
The the the poor and the oppressed and
the people who have no one to care
for them are crying out for for help
and they need somebody to be there for
them. And Allah in his mercy raised such
slaves that that that purified themselves, that bathed
in purity,
to the point where, when they were vested
with knowledge and when they were vested with
power, when they're vested with wealth, they wielded
it.
They wielded it effectively and they wielded it
for the good of of of the creation.
And in the in the process, they had
to stamp out they had to stamp out
the the share of the nafs.
And look,
you know, if you want to help the
ummah and you wanna be a leader in
order to help the ummah or whatever,
If you can't stamp that nafs out, you're
I promise you you're gonna cause more facade
than you're gonna cause help. If you can't
stamp that nafs out, if you're not genuinely
happy that somebody else is giving the chutba,
that's more knowledgeable than you, then when you
give the chutba, your chutba will increase the
amount of facade and mischief in the earth,
rather than islahid than rectification.
If you're not happy that somebody else, you
know, is president or somebody else's leader that
can do a better job than you,
then you're you're, you're more of an Iblis
and a Firaun to that organization than you
are a Musa or a Muhammad alaihis salatu
alaihis salatu alaihis salatu alaihis salam.
And
and, teacher of Mufti Taqi and great, just
just a great man.
It was, you know, it was something he
used to say that our would repeat to
us that the sign of the sincerity of
a and
meaning what? A man of the lord,
literally, but in the cultural context, meaning sign
of the sincerity of a person who holds
the ijaz out of the olema and does
the work of the olema and the qom
whether or not they actually have enough ilm
to deserve it. The sign of sincerity in
a moloi is what? Is that when he
sees another moloi doing the same work that
he's doing better than him, instead of making
him anxious or upset, or or tense, it
makes him happy.
And if you can't get to that point,
you know, uh-uh, then, you know, it may
be time to sit in the Hanqa, you
know, and shut the lights off and, you
know, go hungry for a while and do
a little Allah Allah until until
that darkness from inside the heart, is evacuated.
And, there's no shame. I mean, if it's
there, every one of us has it. I
mean, we're all created with it. We're the
with the with the capacity toward it. We're
not prophets that the, you know, the angels
took our hearts out and, like, you know,
washed the washed the black spot out in
a,
you know, in a golden basin with, like,
the water of tsum tsum or something like
that. All of us have some some share
of it. And, you know, there's no shame
in in in beholding it. If you see
it's there,
everyone has it. You know? The shame is
in what? In leaving it there and then
going on accumulating the means of greatness while
you know that that's that that darkness inside
your heart is going to divert it toward
harm.
That's shameful.
If at any point along the process, a
person sees that darkness inside of their heart
and says, you know what? I don't wanna
go down the path of Iblis. I don't
wanna go down the path of Karun. I
don't wanna go down the path of, of
Balam. I don't wanna go down the path
of, you know, every fake
sellout,
self interested,
leader
and self interested,
you know, scholar for dollar,
type person.
Then
you know, go find find a a quiet
corner. Right? That's what the word means anyway.
Go find a Hanukkah. Go find a quiet
corner. Go find a zawiya, tekkeh, and dargah
somewhere and, you know, sit with the and
say you're Allah Allah, you know? And I
feel bad that we don't have institutions like
that in America and we need them.
Right now, the massages are barely being supported.
The massages are locked. That's a whole another
discussion that I don't wanna have right now
but, the point is is just a sit
down sit down in the corner and sit
with and, you know, take the divine name,
for some days at a time in hunger
and in silence and in
darkness.
So that the the light of that,
of that thikr and that remembrance and that
tarbia will cast and push this darkness away
because we don't need you to tap out
and quit and be like, oh, look, you
know, I'm insincere so I'm gonna just I'm
out, you know? I'm gonna gonna tap out.
I'm gonna quit. I'm gonna bail out. I'm
gonna hit the eject button and, I can
still, you know, go and make some money
for myself and be a dunuity person. It's
better than, like, you know,
using the dean,
abusing the dean for my own gratification, which
is true, but
the the the the thing to do is
not to tap out. The thing to do
is
what? Is to,
shore up your defenses.
To fix yourself what's wrong and get right
back into the get right back into the
battle. Get right back into the thick of
things and keep doing the work.
This is why, you know, people find it
very strange. Hadid Al Malaniyah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Don't ever make the mistake
of looking at the tablis in your in
your masjid and thinking of Milana Iyas. He
was a great of Allah. InshaAllah the tablis
in your neighborhood are but they also might
not be. Sometimes they're not, oftentimes they're not.
Right? Mullen Elias was a Sufi of the
first rate and he was a,
he was a scholar of the first rate.
And, he used to go out, on Tabligh.
People go on Tabligh nowadays because, you know,
it's a very spiritual experience. And it is
a very spiritual experience, especially for someone who,
you know, spends their their week,
not engaged with the deen. Right? Melania Elias,
by mixing with the common people, he used
to feel,
he used to feel a a a type
of rust on his heart. So he would
go on tabli for 3 days, and then
when he would come back, he would sit
in the masjid or in the khanqah for
3 days, either in the
or in the with,
one of the right Puri Hazrat.
Why?
So as to take the rest of interacting
with people who are not focused on the
attention of of the remembrance of Allah off
of his heart.
Meaning what? It's an ongoing process. You got
to keep that process ongoing and updating. You
can't just be like, oh, I did something
in the
past and I had some experience because of
which now I've turned some part of the
deen into my identity.
Tarika so and so iya or so and
so medhab or so and so kalam or
so and or so and so or so
and so position in.
You gotta keep your you gotta keep that
that that water flowing, you know, over your
heart,
so that the the the junk doesn't accumulate
on it. Otherwise,
at any time, the darkness of the love
of,
of of of of this pharaonic and
love of
of power and of honor,
and of the perfection that is only and
solely the the the the right,
of the lord,
that if it ever comes into the heart,
you know, god help us all. A person
is gonna go down and they're gonna take
a whole bunch of people down with them
in the dunya and possibly in the as
well. Allah
give us in these Mubarak days
the happy decision,
from his,
from his omnipotence
that we not be from such people and
that he provide us the means,
that we can take in order to clean
ourselves,
from from the filth of, of this, subtle
desire that lurks and hides inside of the
dark recesses of the heart.
Fill every one of those recesses and flood
it flood it flood every one of them
with light,
so that, this,
sickness has no place to hide
and is, completely disinfected
and, that the the the
completely
completely completely floods the heart heart until a
person,
is nothing in front of Allah and thereby,
from the
the one who humbles themselves for the sake