Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 25 Ramadan 1442 Late Night Majlis Carnal Intellect Vs The Real Intellect Addison
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The transcript discusses the concept of the brain and its potential for activating the brain and causing people to become aware of the world. They stress the importance of understanding the physical race and the need for a return to the sense of reality, including belief in the physical world and the use of faith and straight knowledge in learning and understanding the truth of the universe. They also discuss the importance of witnessing and verifying experiences to understand the power of the mirror of one's heart.
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Alhamdulillah.
We have reached this Mubarak 25th night of
Ramadan.
It's from the odd nights and it's the
laylatul Jumuah. Allah
may make it Mubarak for us.
So we continue,
from Moana Asayd Abul Hasan Ali and Naduis,
saviors of the Islamic spirit,
reading about the life and work of Molana
Jalaluddin
Rumi.
So we read from the subheading, Molana,
His Methnawi and Its Message.
Rumi had been endowed with a tremendous spiritual
enthusiasm and a firmer of love, which was
lying dormant under the cover of his erudition,
particularly
particularly of those relating to the speculative branches
of secular sciences.
As soon as Shams Tabriz cast his enchanted
spell over Rumi,
it would be seen his spirituality
was animated and the outcome was enchanting in
beautiful lyrics,
describing the mysteries of divine love and spiritual
raptures,
undescribable ecstasies and transports.
He ultimately attained the stage where in the
words of Iqbal, he could claim,
at last,
flames burst forth from every hair of me.
Fire dropped from the veins, of my thought.
It is a state where every sage gives
a call with a 1,000 tongues for a
worthy companion.
Oh, where in the wide world is my
comrade? I'm the bush of Sinai. Where's the
where's my Moses?
For those of us who, Masha'a, don't really
study
literature,
These are not things that anybody meant literally.
If they did all the olamah would have
made Takfir of them a long time ago.
Rather these are expressions,
that are metaphor,
and, the person who wishes to take good
from it will take good from it. And
like I said, we have some people in
the Ummah who, Masha'Allah, be because of their
complete orientation toward evil,
in in thought and deed. They will find,
Kufr where none exists, and they'll find shirk
where none exists.
They will literally steal Kufr from the jaws
of iman, and Allah Ta'ala be your help.
The point is is what? Oh, where in
the wide world is my comrade? I'm the
bush of Sinai. Where is my Moses? Meaning,
this is the madhar of faith. This is
a Madhar of field, of the divine outpouring
that somebody has a story to tell of
love,
and, they they want somebody to hear it
from them. And that's something that everyone of
the oliya of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala Allah
has endowed them with.
And this was the reason why Rumi found
it difficult to spend his days without a
confidant and a companion.
His restlessness did not calm down until he
found a companion in Salahuddin after Shams and
in Shalibih Samadin after Salahdin.
Verily, it is not easy, for the candle
to throb alone.
It was this fire of love which led
Rumi to seek spiritual food and energy through
musical recitations.
He,
has explained it thus in the Masnavi.
Therefore, Samah,
is the food of lovers,
the singing the singing of poetry,
endowed with spiritual meanings. So therefore, Samma is
the food of the lovers of God, since
therein, there is the fantasy of composure, tranquility
of mind.
From hearing the sounds and the pings, the
mental fantasies gather great strength.
Nay, they become forms in the imagination.
The fire of love is made keen, inflamed
by melodies,
just as the fire
and ardor of the men, who dropped
walnuts into the water.
This is an allusion to a
one of the hikayat in the Masnavi.
And this very ardor of love compelled him
to indite the Masnavi, to write the Masnavi,
basically.
Quote, flow of speech from the heart is
a sign of intimate friendship.
Obstruction of speech arises from the lack of
intimacy.
The heart that has seen
the sweetheart, how should it remain bitter?
When a nightingale has seen the rose, how
should it then remain silent?
Meaning what? When you see your beloved, then
you're gonna want to sing.
The Mesnavi is a collection of heart rending
lyrics. It unveils the innermost feelings of its
author. The Masnavi affords a glimpse of Rumi's
ardent love and fervor of spiritual yearning,
certitude of knowledge, and unflinching
faith.
And therein perhaps lies the secret of its
effectiveness and universal popularity.
Iqbal has truly said the lifeblood of the
singer runs through his melody.
Critique of reason.
Rumi began his career as a successful teacher
and a dialectician
since, he had come from a firm grounding
in the Asharid school of thought. However, when
God raised him to this state of beatific
visions and illuminations, thus enabling him to reach
beyond
the veils of words,
phrases,
ideas,
and thoughts which merely cloud the inward aspect
of reality.
He became aware of the mistakes
philosophers, dialecticians, and other rationalists.
His forceful criticism of the rational or logical
syllogism is thus an expression
of his personal experiences which can hardly,
be controverted by others.
During Rumi's time too, the sense perception was
regarded as the only infallible source
for acquisition of knowledge, and whatever was beyond
the ken of perception was increasingly being denied
by the then scholars.
The Muertesilites
had upheld this view so forcefully
that the faith in unseen realities, quote, had
suffered an irreparable loss, and the people had
begun to cast doubts on the veracity of
revealed truths.
Rumi raised a severe criticism of this view
and frowned on its standard bearers in these
words.
The doctrine held by the eye of sense
is Mu'tazilism,
whereas the eye of reason,
is Sunni
in respect to,
its union and its united vision of God.
Those enthralled to sense perception are Mu'tazili.
Though from misguidedness, they rep represents them represent
themselves as Sunnis.
Anyone who remains in bondage and slavehood to
sense perception is Mu'tazili.
Though he may say he's a Sunni, it
is from his ignorance.
Anyone who has escaped from the bondage of
sense perception is a Sunni. The man
endowed with spiritual vision is the eye of
sweet paste and harmonious reason.
And so this is
this is a a chastisement of Moana, of,
empiricism,
and of
thinking that only what you see and touch
and taste
is real.
And, this is in fact interesting that he
brings out this point that Sunnism never
was an empiricist
tradition,
rather correct reason will always
mean that a person who denies
realities
other than sense perceived, that person is really
an irrational person.
Sadly this is a struggle that
many Muslims fight against the
Aqidah of modernism
and sadly many Muslims masquerade about as orthodox
believers in the Deen where they've abandoned reason
and,
only,
taken what they see as what is true.
And,
their hearts and minds are therefore,
in chaos and disarray,
and they do not have harmony in their
reason.
And, you'll see them saying things about faith
that indicate that they are at once
very ardent in their Islamic identity
and at the same time very,
very much in doubt of its truth
and of what it has to offer. May
Allah ta'ala, protect us from such people
who are misguided and misguided. Amin.
Mawlana has asserted at more than one place
in the Messinaabe
that in addition to the external senses, man
has been endowed with inner senses too. And
that these inner senses are much more wide,
potent, and sagacious than the outer sense organs.
Beside these 5 physical senses quote, there are
5 spiritual senses.
Those latter are like red gold, while these
physical senses are like copper.
In the bazaar where they, the buyers, are
expert,
how should they buy copper scents as if
it was the scents of gold?
The bodily sense is from eating food of
darkness. The spiritual sense is feeding from a
sun.
It's a quote from the Masnavi.
If anything cannot be seen, or for that
matter is beyond the awareness of physical experience,
then in Rumi's view,
it is not necessarily non existent.
He holds the view that the
latent
underlies the manifest in the same way that
a healing property,
forms the intrinsic quality of a medicine.
Quote,
the unbeliever's argument is just that is just
this that he says, I see no place
of abode except this external world.
He never reflects that wherever there is anything
external,
that object gives information
of hidden wise purposes.
The usefulness
of every external object is indeed internal.
It is latent like the beneficial quality in
medicines.
Unquote.
Rumi says that in
the materialist,
Rumi says that materialist lose their sense of
inner cognition and are unable to understand
its objectives simply because they cultivate the habit
of accepting only the external and manifest.
In his opinion, this signifies
lack of foresight on the part of materialists.
Quote,
since the foolish took only the external appearances
into consideration and since the subtleties
were very much hidden from them, necessarily they
were debarred from attaining to the real object,
for subtlety escaped them on the occasion when
it was the object presented itself.
Rumi proceeds further to censure the intellect
as well,
which like sense perception
lacks the capacity to obtain the knowledge of
realities revealed by the prophets, salayam al salatu
wa salam.
It is it really does not possess the
ground on which it can
base its speculation
in such matters nor has it any experiential
awareness of the realm of the realm that
is hidden from its view.
Quote,
what do you know of the waters of
the Euphrates and Aksus, Sweden pure? You have
taken a boat in a pond salty, rotted,
and impure.
An intellect which has a dominant carnal reason
is a partial or particular intelligence according to
Rumi. For it breeds doubts and skepticism,
and its abode is darkness.
It brings disgrace
to the absolute intelligence and frustration to mankind.
Insanity is preferable indeed to the sagacity of
such an intellect.
Quote,
imagination and opinion are the bane of the
particular discursive reason
because its dwelling place is in the darkness.
The particular intelligence, meaning one that sees some
things and not others, The particular intelligence has
given the universal intelligence a bad name.
Worldly desire has deprived the worldly man of
his desire in the world hereafter.
It behooves us to become ignorant of this
worldly wisdom rather,
must we clutch at madness,
end quote.
Rumi says that he has had an experience
of this worldly wisdom
and had reached the conclusion that, quote,
I have tried far thinking, provident intellect.
Henceforth, I will make myself mad. Meaning that
this logic of materialism,
this logic of materialism is no logic at
all and to be completely,
you know, complete, you know, fruit salad is
better than
better than this type of
use of the intellect in order to serve
only material things.
Thereafter, Rumi advances an argument clear cut as
well as to the point in support of
his contention.
He said that if the intellect were sufficient
for the comprehension of the revealed truths, then
the rationalists, logicians, and dialect dialecticians would have
also shared
the secrets of religion.
If the intellect could discern, quote, if the
intellect could discern the true way in this
question,
Fakhruddin Razi would be adept,
in religious mysteries.
And,
you know, this is,
perhaps
anyway, maybe we finish the chapter and speak
about this a little bit. That Rumi holds
a view that the science is cultivated by
human intellect cloud the knowledge of reality and
make the seeker of truth skeptical.
Therefore, he pleads that one should shun philosophy
and,
ratio,
cenation
if
he wants to inculcate an unflinching faith and
attain the gnosis of ultimate reality.
Quote, if you desire that misery should vanish
from you,
endeavor that wisdom may vanish from you. The
wisdom which is born of human nature and
fantasy. The wisdom which lacks the overflowing grace
of the light of glorious God.
The wisdom of this world brings increase of
supposition and doubt. The wisdom of the deen
soars above it to the sky.
So,
you know, he he was a genius of
his age, and,
I think very few people did more in
the service of defending,
the creed of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah against
all sorts of different,
all sorts of different deviance than he did.
But, definitely, it's not reading for everybody,
and definitely, there are some people who read,
just in order to show how smart they
were. And, definitely, there are some people who
read,
just in order to show off and really
it was not something that,
will
be the medicine for the difficulties that they
have in their own lives,
which is what is this lack of Yaqeen
inside of their heart. And this is one
of the reasons that, you know, when you
see
the Masnawi taking potshots at, for example, the
Mutakalimun.
It's not necessarily because of anti Kalam strain,
but because the objective of Kalam is different
than the objective Tisauf.
The objective of Tisauf is to make a
person worship Allah as if he sees him.
If he doesn't see him, then to know
that,
Allah sees him at least.
Whereas the objective of Kalam is what is
to entertain all the objections of the mushrikeen
and the kuffar and the Muqtadia,
the deviants and disbelievers and antagonists of Islam,
to entertain all of their objections and to,
answer them.
And you can see how in a human
being, in a particular one human being, if
you were to entertain every objection that was
brought forth to you,
that's going to that's going to that's it's
gonna lead to a place that's not healthy,
psychologically. So if every time when you were
in elementary school said you someone said you're
stupid or you're fat, you wrote like a
master, you know, 30 volume
magnum opus work
refuting the fact that you're fat or that
you're stupid or that, you know, you're ugly
or someone you know, everybody hates you or
whatever.
What will happen is your mind will just
be wrapped up in all of that.
And if you are to be wrapped up
in sense perception, then you're going to lose
out on the benefit of rationality.
If you're wrapped up in sense perception and
rationality, then you'll lose out on the benefit
of of of revelation.
And so this is a a
a, you know, a kind of
beautiful and simplified
call
to a type of healthy life inside of
the heart.
Because in those days, if you were a
person who could replicate the arguments of or
whatever,
you know, you would you would be the
top dog. You would, you know, you would
get, you know, a position and you would
make money and stipends would be given to
you, etcetera, etcetera.
But it's not it's, you know and it
is Faruk and Ummah in the sense that
somebody has to have that knowledge in order
to refute the people of deviance.
But for most people, it's not gonna it's
not gonna, you know, do do it for
them in terms of their salvation and in
terms of their iman.
And this is this is kind of what
what's going on here. Otherwise, Molana himself, many
of the things he's saying here are very
much in line with Ash'ari creed, and he
himself is,
trained in the Azshari Mataridi,
school. And he himself,
as
a card carrying,
you know, uses the the the emblem of
the
as
the emblem of the correct, creed, and
and and lampoons the Martezilah and the other,
crooked people of deviance.
Because of the deviance, they tried to introduce
into the pure and pristine deen of Allah
Ta'ala. Allah Ta'ala protect us all. So we
don't have to, like, look and see these
things as, like, somehow there's some sort of
war going on between these people. In fact,
they're all the same people. Mulla' Shefali Tanwi
who, you know, whose Khalidi Masnawi is, a
source of not only this year's,
this year's,
you know, some of some of some of
this year's interpretation of the the the the
hikayat of the Masnavi. But even, I think,
2 years ago, we read from
the
of
and,
you know,
these are these are the
these are the mullahs that carry the, you
know, carry the, the tradition of,
the tradition of of kalam, etcetera. And so
it's just a matter of putting the pieces
of the puzzle together properly rather than thinking
everybody's at war with each other.
And And that's another problem is that as
a Ummah, we kinda think a lot of
people have, like, lost
the the common sense
understanding that, like, we kinda have to get
through this together and that having a hadith,
you know, it's not hadith versus fiqh or
hadith versus khira'a or mukkawi
versus the, you know, versus the mufti or
whatever. You know, like, all of these things
are branches of of of learning of the
deen, and they all have their they all
have their place. And it's a matter of
making,
you know, harmoniously understanding the place of all
of these things together in in a larger
and a wider picture,
and knowing that sometimes,
you know, when you have something which is
a medicine, if you take too much of
it, it can also harm you. So when
somebody speaks out about taking too much of
a particular medicine, it doesn't mean that that
thing is a poison. It just means that
it's it's kind of like it's
things have become out of
they've come out of,
perspective, and they've come out of,
the proper ratios and proportions that they should
be in and that they need to be
adjusted. That's all.
Molana Abu Hassan 'Al Naddui, he continues. He
says, in his view, meaning Molana's view,
the logical syllogisms
and the inference is drawn there from smack
of an artificial,
from an artificial method of reasoning, which is
only of limited utility.
This method is unsuited for establishing the veracity
of theological truths.
Drawing an analogy between logical argumentation and wooden
legs, he says, the leg of syllogisms is
of wood. A wooden leg is very infirm.
Melani,
Abu Hassan Ali Nadri continues. He says the
science of dialectics
and the scholastic argumentation employed by it are
incapable of producing conviction
and an ardent faith.
The reason for it is, according to Rumi,
that the dialectician himself is very skeptical about
the veracity of what he pleads.
He merely rehearses the premises and the propositions
that he has learned from his teachers
and,
the propounders of his school of thought.
Quote, the imitator brings on to his tongue
a 100 proofs and explanations, but he has
no soul. When the speaker has no soul
and no spiritual glory,
how should his speech,
have leaves and fruit?
Rumi prefers intuition or spiritual cognition to the
carnal intellect, which is particular individual discursive and
dependent on sense perception.
He holds the view that the experiential
awareness can gain knowledge pertaining to the terrestrial
world only.
On the other hand, the spiritual cognition emanating
from the universal intellect is a lodestar for
the human intellect.
The intellect of man should be guided by
intuition in the same way as the former,
holds the reins of human frame. The spiritual
cognition is thus in the view of
Rumi, the intellect,
of of
intellect without
the carnal intellect.
He says that the
spiritual cognition is thus in the view of
Rumi, the intellect
of intellect without which the carnal intellect would
not deserve to be known by that name.
Spiritual cognition is, however, enjoyed only by those
who have been enriched by an ardent faith
and an an unquestioning conviction in the ultimate
reality. Quote, the philosopher is in bondage and
slavery to things perceived by the intellect,
but the pure one,
is he who rides as a prince on
the intellect of intellects.
Volume after volume have been blackened by the
discursive reason of man, but it is only
universal intellect which illuminates the universe. Quote, the
intellect makes books entirely black with writing. The
intellect with the capital I of intellect
keeps the horizons, the whole universe filled with
light from the moon of, reality.
It is free from
blackness and whiteness.
The light of its moon rises and shines
upon heart and soul.
The intellect of intellect born of faith and
credence guards man against carnal desires and earthly
temptations.
It instills a sense of faith and trust,
confidence,
and hope, while discursive reason brings disbelief and
infidelity, doubt, and suspicion.
The reason
that is allied to faith is like a
just police inspector.
It is the guardian and magistrate of the
city of the heart.
Again,
notice the the dichotomy between that intellect which
is a carnal intellect, which is just a
person coming up with reasoning in order to
justify the bogusness of their of what their
heart wants versus the intellect which is guided
by the divine light,
which is truly,
freed from the power of subjectivity
and from the power of of error and
folly. And this is one of the reasons
that, you know,
again, he's not saying he said to him,
intellect is a good thing because he calls
the the the ultimate guide the intellect of
the intellect.
And if intellect was a bad thing, he
wouldn't call it that. But this is the
reason that, you know, we read in the
Fatiha everyday.
Guide us to the straight path,
the path of those people who you've given
your nama, you blessed, you know, the oliya
of Allah to Allah, the people who you've
given your fuu'u to,
the people who are the siddiqeen,
nabiin, siddiqeen, shuhada, and salihin.
You know, give us that guidance.
Those people who are not the
those people who are not the ones that
you're angry with and not the Balin, the
people who have, gone astray. Because for them,
the intellect is just a tool that will
help them,
quote unquote, help them, go astray even faster.
Molana,
writes,
he says, Molana Abu Hasan al Naddui writes,
intellect is the guardian of faith within the
human frame.
Its fear,
keeps the baser inner self in chains.
I apologize. That's, Milana Rumi, actually. That's still
the quote wasn't over. He says the reason
that is allied to faith is like a
just police inspector.
It is the guardian and magistrate of the
city of the heart.
Intellect is the guardian of faith within the
human frame. Its fear keeps the baser self
in chains.
Mawana Bilhassen Ali Nadi continues. He says, Rumi
propounds,
the view that the spirit rules over intellect
precisely in the same way as the senses
are servitors of reason.
The spirit can lay bare the mysteries of
heaven and earth which are beyond the ken
of intellect and resolve the most naughty of
problems,
which cannot find a clue
which for which reason cannot find a clue.
Quote, sense perception is a captive to the
intellect or reader.
Know also that the intellect is a captive
to the spirit.'
Says what? He says sense perception is a
captive to the intellect or reader. And know
also that the intellect is captive to the
spirit. Meaning your empirical senses,
are captive to to your ability to reason,
and your reason is captive to your spirit,
which only
receives,
fuel then receives the outpouring,
of of increase
from
from from from revelation and from,
those supernatural means that Allah has instituted like
the prophet
and like the
of Allahu'ala and the Nisbah with with them,
through them to him, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
The philosopher cannot overstep the limits set by
information furnished by human perception
and the rules of logical syllogism.
The carnal intellect is thus cast into a
prison from which it cannot come out. Quote,
the philosopher simply speaks according to the science
of reasoning
for his intellect cannot cross the threshold of
its abode.
The philosopher killed and exhausted himself with thinking.
Let him run on in vain, for his
back has turned toward his the treasure.
Let him run on.
The more he runs, the more remote does
he become from the object of his heart's
desire.
Quote, the philosopher again, we're talking about philosophers
and what in not the sense of people
who think properly, but the old pagan philosophy.
The philosopher may
possess a complete mastery over speculative branches of
learning and may also be endowed with foresight,
but he lacks insight into him his own
self.
Although the cognition of the latter is more
important than the knowledge of everything else.
Quote, this tyrant excels in a 1,000,
sciences, but lo his soul knowest not a
thing.
You know the value of every commodity, but
not of your own. Isn't that a folly?
End quote.
Rumi advises the philosophers and dialecticians to abandon
philosophy and scholasticism
and cultivate
the knowledge of religious truth for it alone
has the light of certainty and wisdom.
Quote, how long will you be mad after
the Grecian lore? And Grecian, like, you know,
the Greek philosophy.
How long will you mad after the Grecian
lore? Try to learn the wisdom of faith
once more.
End quote. Rumi says that man can attain
the knowledge of self through purification of his
heart and through rectitude of his behavior.
The more the heart is is purified, the
more it would be able to reflect like
a mirror. The wisdom contained in the faith
and illuminate itself without the help of a
tutor or a scripture, with the divine grace
and revelatory
guidance.
So he says without a tutor or a
scripture meaning what? That after a certain point
after a certain point. Obviously, the vahir of
the law, we all
keep it as important. Rumi himself is a
Mufti for God's sake. So, to, you know,
to try to claim otherwise is kind of
silly, but it doesn't stop people from doing
it.
But at any rate, the the point is
is what? Is that there's a context in
which all of these things are said. In
the context of,
you know, Mullana Seyda Abu Hasan Ali Nadwuy
actually saying this is what? Is that after
a certain point,
you know, that you learn the Fard kifaya
Farda'in, I should say, and you've, you know,
you've understood what the dictates and boundaries of
din are, then,
you know, making more and more impressive shows
of your learning
are probably gonna be helped, you know, you're
probably gonna be helped more in your faith
than
than doing that
by what? By rectitude
and spiritual purification.
Quote, make yourself pure from the attributes of
the self that you made the nafs, that
you may behold your own pure, untarnished essence.
And behold within your heart all the sciences
of the prophets without book and without preceptor
and without master.
Meaning what? That it was all there in
you, in the first place. It was there,
and it doesn't mean that necessarily that you're
you're free from master or from
preceptor or from book.
Rather,
you'll bear witness to what the prophet salayam
al salam in the books brought and the
true preceptors and masters,
expounded. You'll witness that it was there in
you all along, and it was the Haqq,
and you will verify what you needed to
know, only with the teacher from before. You'll
verify it by bearing witness to it on
your own.
At another place, Rumi says, when the mirror
of your heart becomes clear and pure, you
will behold images which are outside of the
world of water and earth. If the orifice
of the heart is open and clean, divine
light without an agent shall it glean.
Allah,
make us from amongst those people. Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, pour into our hearts
the secrets that he pours into the hearts
of the people that that he loves even
though we're not worthy of it. It's a
weird time we live
in. It's a strange time we live in.
Allah
give us from his
father.
Allah give us from his that those people,
the people who are, like, listening to
Majlis at some random, time and hour, and
place
instead of, you know, doing
any of the other
bizarre, enough gratifying things that people are doing
even those who are fasting.
Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, give from his fuiyud.
I wanna re reiterate that a person should
not get the wrong,
message. In fact, many of the great Mutakalimun,
Isfarayni,
Sanusi,
the Sahib, the,
Abdul
Kubra, and Wusta, and Sohra, etcetera. These people
are all are bad. They were they were
Sufis. They were people who were known, and
they're they're respected by the people because primarily
not because of their not because of, their
learning. They're respected by the Ulamam for their
learning, but by the people for their piety
and righteousness, and they're turning away from from
the dunya.
And,
you know, they're the ones who, you know,
cultivated the signs of Ilmukalam in order to
what? In order to, shut up those people
who
will pretend with their own carnal reason, their
own carnal intellect. Try to pretend that somehow
Deen doesn't make sense. It makes perfect sense.
But once you've seen that hudja, once you've
born witness to that proof, instead of dwelling
on it and being proud of yourself of
how you're able to understand a really complicated
book or whatever, then get to the work
of what it is that that deen teaches
you to do, which is polishing the mirror
of the heart so that something beautiful can
shine in it and so that it can
glean the light from
Allah's,
most radiant
and most beautiful and most majestic presence. Allah
give all of us