Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 24 1440 Ramadn Late Night Majlis The Quest 05282019
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
So we continue with our discussion that we
had from yesterday
regarding
the
consequences of actions.
So
Moana Kamruzaman
brings a anecdote,
regarding the famous sheikh,
Moana Shah Abdul Haq Al Mhadith Adelawi
Shah Abu Bakr was
a Muadith of the caliber of sha'a in
the generation before him or in the century
before him.
And, you know, you see that the hikmah
of Allah ta'ala in so many different things.
The Shahabdu Haqq also similar to
Shahulullah
went to the Haramain Sharifayn
and brought the sonat of Hadith to the
Indian subcontinent.
But because the Mughal empire and the the
rule of the Muslims was still strong at
that time,
his son, instead of teaching Hadith after him,
was appointed Qadi. He was appointed judge, and
so he spent his entire life in the
service of fiqh, which is not a bad
thing.
But,
what happens is that then it sidelined the
study of hadith.
Whereas
lived in the dying days of the empire.
And,
because of that, the there's no demand for
judges in the courts,
at least paid judges. So nowadays, people who
study fiftah are also
People like Muhad Nitin are or were back
then.
But in those days, if you were like
the top carnivore in fiqh, you know, you
could get a really powerful politically powerful and
lucrative position with the government.
And so,
you can see some hikmah and also the
sukut of the dawla that the the, the
the empire falling apart
means that now hadith studies are on even
footing with fiqh.
But at any rate,
is a very important figure in the intellectual
history of the Ummah, and in the intellectual
history of the, of Islam in the subcontinent.
So he wrote a letter to the Nawab
Murtala Khan,
who was a dignitary,
in the Mughal court and a paymaster
during the rule of the emperor Shah Jahan.
Shah Jahan also,
is,
the emperor who is known for having commissioned
the
the Taj Mahal.
He was a gentleman. He was a man
of learning, and he was a man of,
patronage of the arts.
And,
the British weave, like, a kind of a
weird alt history for the Molo empire in
which they try to portray people in certain
in a certain light. So they portray him
as,
as as being kind of more of an
artsy fartsy type of person.
But just because he was a man of
style doesn't mean he wasn't a man of
Dean.
Rather, he was a learned person.
He's a learned person. He had a great
amount of, and even though they, you know,
the propaganda,
tries to paint Aurangzeb as the fanatic,
who is his son who takes over after
him.
But, the fact is that Shah Jahan actually
imposed the the jizya on a great number
of the al Uthimma
during his reign, and Aurangzeb upheld it,
the jizya that wasn't enforced from before.
And,
his father, Shah Jahan's father, the emperor Jahangir,
he was an illiterate man, and he was
kind of a rafian. He was a really
good soldier and a really solid commander, but
he was a completely unlearned person.
And, what happened is that Jahangir, his father,
Akbar, who had,
who had
the Mujadid al Fani, who we read one
of his letters, in one of the nights,
in in in Majlis.
Mujadid al Fani was in jail through the
reign of of Akbar,
and he was
in jail for the first part of the
reign of Jahangir.
The man was complete like, I mean, he
was he was a ruffian. He was illiterate.
He was actually a a a heroin addict.
Not a heroin addict. I'm sorry. An opium
addict.
But
he freed he freed during his reign, he
freed Mujaddad Al Thani,
and he, actually will take Bey'a from him.
He'll take the tariq from him. And Allah
knows best how much progress he made or
he didn't make. But one of the things
that he did in in in, in his
toba was that he commissioned, Mujaddir Asabs to
give advice and direction to the
the the learning of his sons. And that's
why Shah Jahan is a person who who
who is a person of knowledge.
So this, Nawab Murtazakhan,
is a a a pay master and a
a courtier,
during the reign of Shah Jahan.
In his letter, he wrote 3 pieces of
advice,
one of which was,
be mindful of con the consequences of action.
So this Nawab Mirza Zakhan wrote a letter
asking for advice from Shah Abdul Haqqal Muhaddith
Adhailahu and
so
he he gives him the advice of being
mindful of the consequences of action.
Mona Kamruzaman
writes, I feel it would be appropriate to
quote the entire letter for further, enlightenment,
but, I'll just suffice with with with this
part,
That he writes to him,
that you should develop a genuine quest.
What does this mean? This is
an interesting wording. It's almost strange. What does
it mean? Develop a genuine quest. This word
quest is the same word that,
Harbury translates,
in the,
and this is,
thanks to Moana Tamim. He he shared this
with me,
some time ago that Arbery translates with,
the last aya of, of the Suratul in
Shirah. He says
that,
let your desire be to to your Lord.
Arbery translates that verse as
let and unto unto, God, may your quest
be or let your quest be. Meaning, it's
what you desire. Now I'm not like, an
expert in in romance languages.
You speak Spanish, don't you? Somewhat. Anconco.
Yeah. So you just came back from Cuba.
Right? Yeah. So,
right?
In Spanish means what? It means like desire
something, you want something. Right?
Even even for example, if you say to
you say to someone I'm told in in
Italian, if you say, like,
what you would say I love you in
Spanish, you don't say that to your children.
It's like inappropriate. You say,
that from the same. Right? That it's something
you want. Means to desire something, to want
something, to wish for something, to hope for
something.
So to develop your genuine quest, it actually
translates very well with with,
that let your quest be for Allah That
genuine desire and love
that you should,
Allah should be pleased with you and that
you you should, bring your life into,
into into a form that Allah is pleased
with. That should be your question, genuinely, you
should you should love it and desire it,
to develop that and cultivate that in your
heart. The second is be vigilant about the
consequences of actions.
Be vigilant that that none of your deeds
that you do are without without consequence. Even
if Allah forgives you for everything at the
end of the day, still it's gonna there's
gonna be some sort of consequence for the
action. And it's really, I mean,
weird. It happens in weird ways. People who
are not familiar with the system don't think
about how it's gonna end up. So I'll
share with you,
One of the many stupid things that that
that that I come across in the day.
I'll share a little bit with you.
I've been trying to trying to
transcend all of this type of stuff in
Ramadan, but, you know, sometimes it just catches
up with me probably because of my own
actions and deeds.
But, someone told me frustrated. They said someone
texted me,
you know, that somebody in some group that
they're in, family group or whatever on WhatsApp,
which
anyhow,
we are going there.
He says he says that someone texted me,
Imam Ghazali, r a, was a great scholar,
but, unfortunately,
his views against Greek philosophy were extreme.
And they were,
to mean, they mean no education interpreted to
mean no education other than the Quran. But
the Quran asked us to
ponder asked us over and over to ponder
and research.
So he says, what should I say to
this man? I said, I don't know. What
do you what do you wanna say to
such a person? Right? I I I wrote
to him. I wrote him. I promise you
that 2 things. 1, this man doesn't know
Arabic, and b, he's never read a gazali
before. And so this exhortation of,
you know, Allah exhorts us over and over
again to research, That has to do with
everything except for with Islam.
But,
you know, I just I sent him back.
I said, here's a quote. You can give
this guy a quote, from Ghazali to back
up his his theory that Ghazali said, I
hate Greek salad, Greek yogurt, and Greek pastries,
and most of all Greek philosophy. And you
can tell Plato to shove it up his
republic.
But that wasn't a Muhammad Al Ghazali. That
was Ghazali, Ben Baz Jenkins from the 73rd
Street, Macedon, Philly.
But
why is this relevant to why is this
relevant to what we're talking about right now?
Okay?
These types of things, a person should really
be scared of them.
Okay.
A person doesn't read Ghazali.
A person doesn't read Arabic. Okay. Ghazali is
a great scholar. And now because they heard
some or some or, like, say something stupid
about Ghazali that somehow Ghazali that told people
not to study science, which is completely patently
untrue.
Now this person
has a a a complete, like,
idea in his head that
that has nothing to do with reality. It's
like the person imagined a pink elephant tap
dancing on the moon.
But unlike with imagining a pink pink elephant
tap dancing on the moon, this is actually
you're saying he's backbiting 1 of the and
one of the greater
the consequences
of which are far more bitter
with than than thinking about a pink elephant
tap dancing on the moon, even though both
of them are equally disconnected with reality.
These are when we, you know, we were
talking about yesterday and yesterday's medallist. What are
the that certain sins will open the door
to,
you know, Allah giving you certain other actions.
Certain sins open the door to greater sins
and certain good deeds open the door to
other great deed good deeds and certain sins
close the door to certain good deeds. These
types of things I see them happening with
people. I'm like, Yeah, Allah. What what would
a person do? Like, it's better just to
go out and have a beer or something
like What did a person do that that
made them,
you know, subject to such a sin in
which there's no benefit, no enjoyment,
no,
truth, no understanding,
and so so much punishment. It's just so
much like compounded stupidity. Jahal, like, you know,
Jahilia is what what they call the era
before Islam. Just like
so much like like a sandwich made out
of, like, 44 or 5 different types of
organic certified hand slaughtered Halal advocates in general.
Why why does that happen? So a personal
case, he says be vigilant about the consequences
of your actions. And the 3rd piece of
advice is what is that if you wanna
follow your Din correctly, then you have to
make that between two things. You have to
have a good inner state and a good
out outer state.
Don't be one of those, like, well, don't
judge me. Allah knows what's in my heart
as if you're assuming that your inside is
good.
Why? Because the outside is a manifestation of
what's on on the inside,
and the inside is affected by what happens
on the outside. And there may be a
gap, a lag between them. You know, maybe
someone may be doing something bad right now,
but they're actually a good person. Or maybe
someone may look good outside, but they're actually
a bad person. But the the lag, it's
not there's no it's not disconnect. It's just
a lag. You know? So you, you're following
the sunnah means what? That outwardly you should
you should seek to be good while you're,
seeking to be good inwardly.
And,
you know, and and not not to ignore
either one.
So he writes, a quest overtakes and overwhelms
a seeker in such a way that nothing
can stop from reaching his
objective, his objective and his wish. That's the
the quest that you should develop in your
heart for Allah ta'ala. His enthusiasm and restlessness
reached such a level that even if all
the intelligentsia of the world were to get
together and tell him that it's impossible for
him to realize his objective,
and it that it is difficult for him
to acquire it, he pays no heed to
them whatsoever.
It's what I want. It's what I want.
It's what I want. It's what I want.
Throw a fit. You know, Elon Musk wants
to, like, I don't know,
you know, make a way to get to
the moon for, like, $10,000.
So he's gonna gather ridiculous sums of, like,
venture capital in order to make it happen.
Someone probably told him this is a dumb
idea and he doesn't care.
What's the point of going to the moon?
There's not even any air over there. We
can throw a rock at somebody, like, what
are you gonna do over there? But he
wants to do it, and so even even
even a fundamentalist backwards anti Greek philosophy,
has already brainwashed moldy like myself has to
admire that. Look, Marcella. He wants to go
to the moon so bad, and look look
at how much resources he's able to marshal,
or someone like that is able to marshal
in order to make it happen.
Right? And that's for something stupid.
Right? Someone's like, oh, look. You know, go
to the moon isn't stupid. Okay. Yeah. I
mean, it's it's wonderful. It's great. Right? But
it's not gonna, like, you know, it's not
gonna solve the problems of the world. It's
a cool thing at most.
This is the of the the dunya and
the
of the
Dunya and the of the Aqirah, this will
actually solve the problems of the world. This
will actually result in a increase in the
quality of life in this world and the
hereafter for black people, and white people, and
brown people, and old people, and babies, and,
Muslims, and non Muslims, and, you know, it
will be good for the environment, and for
the trees, and for the air, and for
the water, and for the animals. There's a
lot of in it. So why should a
person take no for an answer?
When people tell you it's not it's not
it's not practical
practical. Why should you take no for answer?
Why should you take an take no for
an answer? What is your for the point
of living? If you don't get what you
want, then what's the point? What is success
in anything else if you don't get what
you want? This is a person should develop
the quest such that it overtakes and overwhelms
them,
and in such a way that no nothing
can stop them from reaching their objective
and their wish. Enthusiasm and restlessness should reach
such a level that even if all the
world were to get together and tell a
person it's impossible to realize the objective and
that it's difficult to acquire it, the person
pays no heed to them whatsoever. Munakam Ruzaman
continues. He says there's no place whatsoever for
idleness.
Do whatever you can. Do not consider any
action to be insignificant.
Allah most high has an appoint appointed a
reward for every action. Don't don't don't,
don't
consider any action to be insignificant.
And this is also the before that in
the Surah
Shira.
Right?
That, when you're done with one type of
struggle, then then then occupy yourself with the
prayer.
Meaning what?
Even good deeds, a person tires out from
them, so switch between them
separately. But don't waste time.
Don't waste time. And this is one of
the things people have trouble understanding. Right? If
you can't pray all the time, then pray
as much as you can. And then after
that, read the Quran. If you can and
then after that, fast. And then after that,
go earn your living. That's like a useful
thing. And in your earning your living, you'll
charge yourself up for the prayer again. You
know, go work out. Go do something useful.
This is one of the things. Right? People
people are like, oh, look, you know, like,
the dean is gonna kill all your fun
or whatever. Right? The thing that the thing
that the dean stops a person from enjoying
the dean doesn't stop a person from enjoyment.
The thing the person the dean stops a
person from enjoying is the thing is completely
waste of time. Games that that you can't
win except for through chance.
Playing fantasy football and rolling dice at stuff
and, like, those type of game those are
haram. Why? Because there's no benefit in them
whatsoever.
Right? That's why the ulama, they they differentiated
between backgammon and between chess. At least chess,
you develop some sort of skill in it.
Right? It's a type of enjoyment,
but you win through skill rather than winning
through winning through chance.
And so then think about what does it
mean that people watch TV for hours? What
does it mean that people, you know,
would rather watch a basketball play game than
play basketball? You know what I mean?
The playing playing the game, actually, there's some
benefit in it watching the game. There's not
so much benefit in it in it, at
all, you know?
And I'm sorry if it upsets people. I'm
not trying to be holier than thou. I
also do stupid things. Like, I sometimes spend,
like, an hour, I don't know, picking the
callus off the bottom of my foot or
something stupid like that. And people do things
that are dumb, but you shouldn't be proud
of them, you know. And as Muslims, we
should be we should get to a point
where okay. Fine. If someone's, like, just new
to the deen, you don't have to, like,
tell them, you know, basketball's a waste of
time and kill them and, like, drive them
away. But at the same time, there should
be a point where someone can say, okay.
This thing has a point. This thing doesn't
have a point. And so what what does
he mean? He says, do not consider any
action to be insignificant.
Even when you gotta rest, even when you
gotta relax, even when you gotta take it
easy because you can't be in, like, hyper,
like, full soofy mode 24 hours a day
yet.
You know, still, like, choose your
relaxation,
wisely. Why? Because nothing that you do has
has,
you know, is insignificant, and nothing that you
do has,
no consequence. Everything has some consequence and you'll
feel that consequence. Allah most high has appointed
a reward for every action.
So Allah says that whoever
does an iota of good shall see it.
He translates as
iota.
In the marketplace, the
is the
the the weight of
a a a a dinar. So it's something
like like 4 grams, slightly less than 4
grams, which is not a lot. Right? So
whoever does a little, like, a small like,
you know, like, whatever a nickel worth or
a quarter worth of of good, he'll see
the good for from it. And whoever does
that small amount of evil,
the person will see the the evil from
it.
So
then continues. He says,
also wrote a book on the subject of
recompense.
It is titled,
the recompense of deed of deeds,
and it is the most comprehensive work. We
we would like to quote its introduction and
some sections from its first chapter.
And,
we mentioned him before, Hakim al Ummah,
one of the most prolific, both in his
authorship and and the people that he produced.
So to know why is he relevant to
you and me,
today.
The first Sheikh Islam of the Islamic Republic
was a Khalifa of Hazratanri in the Tariq
and a disciple of his Moana,
Moana Shabir Ahmed Uthmani
a
man who was so,
who was so well thought and well spoken
that the largely
secularist
Muslim league,
who,
who was,
the inheritors of
of, of Pakistan when it was made,
They they
by consensus
and by the special request of,
of the
first
president of Pakistan,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah Al Mulaqabib Qaidi Azam,
the the the great leader.
He not only appointed him despite being a
man who never he was a secular person.
He was born into a a a
Mejian family, a Zoroastrian family in,
I believe in Gujarat or in Bombay.
And he
converted to being an Israeli.
His family converted to Israeli Shi'aism.
And, but he was so impressed with this,
with this, this Sheikh,
Mohammad
Osmani, that after that he would stop
all of his sectarian
self identification. And when someone would ask him,
what are you? He say, I'm a Muslim.
And when they press him for a sec
sectarian,
whatever affiliation,
he would say that I'm whatever this movie
should be Ahmed is, this is the thing
I follow.
And, he actually gave Wasiah that he should
lead his Janaza.
And, they say that he he he was
otherwise, until until the point of partition,
almost unfamiliar with even the salat itself.
But he was, so impressed with, this Mullana
Shabir Ahmed. Mufti Shafi, who was the sheikh
of Islam after him,
is also one of the Khalifa and his
disciples of Hazratanri. Mufti Shafi is the father
of Mufti Taqi Usmani Mufti Rafi'i Usmani, 2
of the modern,
experts and,
Marajah Afiqh
in the world.
Who
else?
Who is the,
sheikh of sheikh Amin?
The one about whom if you ask Sheikh
Amin I remember one time I asked about
about him. I didn't even ask about him.
I mentioned him. He he sometimes when I
used to work at Dar Al Qasem, like,
we would go together for Bayan oftentimes.
And so, if someone asked to introduce Sheikh
Hamza, he says, Hamza will do it. So
I I I one time I
I had the good fortune or making the
mistake of,
of introducing Sheikh Amin, And I said that
he's
he's the tazkir ala, our kabir marshal. He
studied from people like Mawlana Khaytayib.
And so Shaykh Amin got up and he
said Mawlana Khaytayib's name, and then he started
crying. I mean,
looked at each other like it's so awkward.
Like, from all the ulama, some of them,
their eyes are like rivers. Is not the
guy who cries out. You know, like, very
few people have seen it happen, and so
we're just like, oh my god. What do
we do?
So he he,
he's also from the Khulafa of Hazratanwi.
A number of our mawana Aziz in Elgin
is the his his sheikh is also from
the Khulafa of Hazratanwi,
Sadeef Ahmed Bandhooi
and so on,
so on, so forth. Many people who we
didn't name because it's gonna take up all
the time, but a very prolific, scholar. And
he was, one of those type of people
that just he wrote so many,
simple works,
and, he would just write a comment off
the cuff on something, and that itself, then
one of his students will turn it into
another multi volume work.
He's a he's a man of very deep
insight Allah.
Introduction to
the recompense of deeds,
actions are causes of reward and punishment, this
is mentioned in the Quran under various themes.
In some places, action is specified as a
prerequisite
and consequence of recompense.
Allah ta'ala said in Suratul Araf, and when
they exceeded the limits in that which they
were prohibited,
we decreed that you become like apes detested,
that you become apes, that you become apes
and become detested.
It is clear from the above that they
received this punishment because of their transgression.
Allah most high said,
He said, when they when they displeased us,
when they upset us,
we exacted vengeance from them.
And
this is this is
it's very scary that entire
civilizations were destroyed.
And that happens in this world every now
and again, just so we can take a
lesson.
The actual destruction is going to happen in
the hereafter.
The destruction of this world is scare and
this world is scary enough.
This happens
cyclones, like, I read just yesterday, like, whatever
weird, like,
tornado's hitting Indiana and and and Ohio entire
like, multi apartment complexes are completely
leveled.
And we don't, you know, we don't take
heed from it. We don't take a lesson
from it.
It happened and it still happens.
The destruction is going to be even more,
horrifying.
Allah says that when they when they when
they when they when they upset us, we,
exacted vengeance from them. This clearly shows that
displeasing Allah, most high, is the cause of
the revenge
being taken. Allah says, If you fear Allah,
He will,
He will
decree in your favor, and He will expiate
your sins.
Allah says in Suratul Jin, had they remained
steadfast on the path, literally, on the tariqa,
we would have given them abundant water to
drink.
That he talks about the the disbelievers that
if they repent and establish the prayer,
and, pay their zakat,
then they become your brothers in deen. In
some places, Allah most high uses the the
letter which is to show that one thing
is the reason for the other.
This,
this is what because of those actions that
your hand set forth.
Because of those things that you used to
do.
That is because they disbelieved
in our signs. And in some places, Allah
most high uses the fa of of Sababiya,
the fa indicate indicating
consequence.
That they disobeyed the messenger of their lord,
and so Allah
Allah sees them.
And they belied,
our
they belied the 2 of them, meaning said,
Musa and said, Naharun,
and because of that, they became
the destroyed.
In some places, the words
had it not been,
are used also to indicate
causality.
And it's mentioning about Sayna Yunus, alayhis salam,
that had he not been amongst those who,
glorify,
the transcendence of Allah most high, he would
have remained in the belly of the whale
until
the day of judgment.
This, clearly shows that he was released on
account of his glorification of Allah Most High.
Sometimes the word low is used to indicate
causality.
Had they,
performed that which they were advised to, do
or that they were commanded to do, it
would have been better for them.
In all of the above verses,
we see explicit demonstration that there's a definite
relationship between actions and recompense.
That the idea that a person is just
kind of, like, floating around in their in
their life, as the object of stuff that's
happening to them rather than
in control of how their life is going.
It seems it seems to be, it seems
that that's not a complete, you know, that's
not a completely
correct way of looking at things.
And so this is the the opening,
salvo from this,
from this work. We'll read more from it,
in the coming nights.
And so he he he writes this,
introduction, and then he writes his name, Muhammad
Asher Ali.
And so, Mullan Akhmer Zaman will quote from
the book a little bit more in some
details that he'll put some details with regards
to regards to how how the mechanics of
the law of recompense works. But, you know,
let a person know that that the
the of the
is
is is to reject outright and outright jabber,
and
to chalk a path out of the middle
of them.
That we don't believe in hard predetermination
to the point where,
where everything is written and we're just like
innocent victims that are kind of going to
a destiny that we have no choice in.
And at the same time we also don't
believe that I create my own actions, Allah
doesn't create them.
Allah knew everything that was gonna happen before
it happened, and he decreed everything to happen
and things go according to his decree.
But,
when he judges us, he judges us not
based on his decree, but based on our
own choices.
And he doesn't judge us based on his
knowledge, but he base judges us based on
our knowledge.
And he,
doesn't judge us based on his will, but
he judges us based on our will. And
he did create a will for each and
every one of us. And he did create
knowledge in each and every one of us.
And,
you know, instead of worrying about whether it's
fair or not fair that he choose what
he chose, we should be more worried about
what we choose.
And is it fair or not fair that
we choose what we choose.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make these, nights those
in which we're forgiven for our sins, and
that the doors of, of evil are closed
to us, and that we do good deeds
such that the doors of good are open
to us. And, you know, whatever isn't forgiven
yet, Allah Ta'ala forgive us. Allah.
Forgive us, so that we can take more
benefit, and take take more benefit from what's
left from our lives, and what's left from
these Mubarak days and nights of Ramadan, and
make us from amongst those who are forgiven
and accepted, and who Allah decrees that He's
pleased with us. Allah Allah give us the
deeds of those who He loves and protect
us from the deeds of those who He
hates.