Hamzah Wald Maqbul – And Those Who Strive in Our Way 9 Ramadan 1444
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AI: Transcript ©
We reach this Mubarak 9th, night of Ramadan,
the night of Jum'ah.
So it's 2 Jannahs down and then 2
more to go.
And, whoever wants to do something in these,
Mubarak days and nights, now is the time.
Otherwise, it's gonna slip through our fingers.
The first 10 days that are characterized by
Rahma, whoever wishes to ask, this is their
opportunity to ask.
That there are certain people that he
manumits from the hellfire,
and that's every night.
Although the the last 10 nights are characterized
by this, so there's a great number of
them. But in every night, there are some
people who this is up for grabs. There's
a quota that's up for grabs.
So all that make us from the
of this, Mubarak night. Amin.
As for this, Tarawi,
it is the,
sustenance
of the spirit and of the heart.
Allah
continue to give us this blessing
and Allah,
not take it away from us. Allah
give it to our brothers and sisters as
well and give us through it the method
that we need in order to get through
this life, Amen. With what we need in
order to prepare for the hereafter as well
as live a a decent and dignified and
honorable life. Amen.
We continue,
in
the section describing the archetype of the of
the Salis, which is characterized by Mujahada.
So he's gonna tell,
stories a couple of stories
and, a couple of, talk about a couple
more concepts.
Just remember, when you hear, like, a story,
this is Sahil to study, Bayezid Bustami,
Nunun Visri. These are generally like a flag
should go up. These are like, don't try
this at home type of stories.
You learn something from them. Allah give you
a high if you get there one day,
make dua for me.
But this is more to, like, learn something
rather than to emulate,
personally because you may end up
you may end up burning yourself.
So we continue. So as regards to what
has been said by the concerning
the lower soul, the
said the vision of the lower soul of
the nafs and its promptings are the worst
of veils
because obedience to it is disobedience to god
which is the origin of all
veils. Okay? It's, again, it's not a fancy,
like,
it's not a fancy thing that, like, Sufi
say.
Rather that's the whole teaching of the Quran
itself.
As for the one who is
crooked,
who's twisted,
who rebels
and,
prefers the life of this world.
For that person,
the blazing pit of fire is their eternal
abode.
And for the one who fears the day
that they will stand in front of the
Lord,
and they forbid their character character is what?
They forbid
the nuffs from what it desires.
This is their characteristic. Those are the people
that,
the paradise will be their eternal abode. This
is directly and diametrically
opposed to and in conflict with the kind
of, like, prosperity Islam
that's pushed by
conferences
and, you know, Islam evangelists,
the world over. That's, the dean of the
Nasara, in particular, the dean of protestants.
We don't say that life is supposed to
be horrible.
We don't consider the dean to be a
curse, that life is devoid of joy or
whatever, but the issue is this is you
have to have some struggle before you can
get to the the sweetness as well. So
it's a balance between 2 extremes that, like,
on one side, I've heard from the lips
of rabbis,
not the, like, fruity ones that, like,
you know, don't believe in god, but the
actual
ones that practice their deen,
that they consider the Torah to be the
curse of Allah to Allah and their people.
And the end of
maybe for those particular people, it is the
curse of god on them in reality.
So we don't say that. It's not so
much that you get to get to that
point where you're so, like, oppressed and crushed
that there's no nothing left for you. Whereas
on the other side, this whole thing of,
like, fleeing from, like, oh, that made me
feel bad. I don't wanna feel that way
ever again. This is, like, silly. We have
to kind of get over
said that the lower soul, the nafs, is
an attribute which never rests saved in falsehood.
It never rests saved in falsehood, meaning it
will never seek the truth.
Hakim Mohammed bin Ali who
is not the
but somebody else, who we'll talk about actually
further in the next, in the next section,
in the next archetype.
Says, you wish to know god while your
nafs subsists in you, but your nafs doesn't
know itself. So how should it know anyone
else?
What does that mean? Like, can we mention
I mentioned something yesterday because
and was in med school. Right?
That you should know that actually has a
function in keeping you alive. That's not all
it does though. That's just the beginning of
its
to know it. That's just the beginning of
it. It's not all of it. There's a
lot more there other than that.
But,
that's the beginning of it. He says that
the nafs doesn't even know itself. What's the
what's the
materialist proof that the nafs doesn't know itself?
Why do you eat?
You eat because you need energy. Right? You
need to sustain yourself.
But does the nafs know when to stop
eating? Absolutely not.
There
is a 1000 people
in a 1000 Walmarts
buying a 1,000 box of Little Debbie snack
treats as we speak
because the Nasdaq doesn't even know itself.
There are a 1,000 people looking at
the face of a 1,000 beautiful man, woman,
god knows what, 57
choices they have nowadays.
Because the nafs doesn't know itself.
It doesn't know what it's doing. It doesn't
know why it's doing. It doesn't care.
It just does it.
So Hakim says what? And really, he said
this. He really is a Hakim. He said
that, you wish to know god while you're
naf subsists in you, but your nafs doesn't
even know itself, so how should it know
another?
Junaid says,
to fulfill the desires of your nafs is
the foundation of
because the nafs is not connected with and
is always striving to turn away from the
of Islam.
And he who turns away denies, and he
who denies is a alien. It's Begana. It
has nothing to do with nothing to do
with us. It's a complete stranger. Begana in
Persian is also another it's a word used
for a kafir as well, but it means
stranger. It's one of the first lines of
the
the Masnavi Moana Rumi.
Why do you sit so far away as
if you're a stranger? It's
but he's evoking, like, why are you acting
like a Kafir? You're a Muslim, but why
are you acting like a Kafir?
Why don't you just go hustle, make it
into tawaii? Make make it into jahaha, you
know, open the from time to time
It's okay. You know, grow a beard. You
don't have to be the, you know, in
order to do these things. Don't sit far
away like a stranger, but come inside inside
the circle of the the people of love.
The one that actually literally means the the
people of madness, but it's a metaphor for
for for love.
The
fanatical fanatical madness.
It says that, Junaid says to fulfill the
desires of the lower soul is the foundation
of Kufr
Because the lower soul, the nafs is not
connected with and has always been striving to
turn away from the pure truth, the pure
heart of Islam. And he who turns away
denies, and he who he who denies becomes
an alien, becomes a stranger, becomes a begana.
Abu Soleiman Darani
said that the lower soul, the nafs, is
treacherous
and hinders the one who seeks to please
Allah, and resistance to us is the best
of actions.
So the sheikh now says, he says, now
I come to my main purpose which is
to set forth the doctrine of sahu
concerning
and the discipline of the lower soul and
explain its true nature.
So there's a sub subtitle
discourse on the of the lower soul.
Allah said, those who strive
to the utmost,
for our sake, we will guide them
into our ways.
And the messenger of Allah
said and he he quotes a hadith. It's
a weak hadith. It's not
fabrication. Just letting you know that. Again, you
should know where to find what, where.
It's not a book of hadith. The meaning
has a certain sound that wield to it.
That's why it's okay that he,
quotes it. And perhaps he himself is not
a Muhadid, so,
that's why he quotes it. This is a
thing that we have. Like, we just, like,
look for any
reason to, like, disqualify something if it's not
a 100% perfect. This is also 100% hater
like pop culture.
The desire to see something has some good
in it and find a reason to, like,
resist it. Rather describes the
then you can say that. That's okay. That's
not it doesn't mean that you don't dislike
or disrespect the shaykh either.
But he quotes a a hadith that's that's
probably
probably not not correct. He says that that
the that he says that the prophet
said that the,
Mujahid is the one who
strives all his might against his own nafs
for Allah's sake. So I don't know the
the attribution of this one, but I'm talking
about the next one. And he also said
that we returned from the lesser jihad to
the greater jihad. On being asked, what is
the greater jihad? He replied, it is a
struggle against oneself.
And so the the idea is that that
that there's a there's a narration attributed to
the attributed to the Rassulullah alaihi wa sallam
that he was coming back from Gaza with
the with the companions of the and he
said we're coming from the lesser jihad to
the greater jihad. We're coming back from the,
the the martial struggle in the path
of back to the struggle against the nafs.
And,
it's it's not it's not a correct hadith.
And if anything,
going out to do battle against, like, enemies
that are numerous
in the miserable heat and, treacherous conditions of
the open desert when you're outnumbered and you're
unarmed and you're unarmored and you have no
protection itself as a Jihad of the nafs
first before it's a Jihad of anybody else.
But, at any rate, he quotes this,
this,
probably incorrect narration in order to make it
correct precept, which is that the jihad of
the is important.
So thus, the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam adjudged the mortification of the lower
to be superior to waging holy war against
the believers because the former is more painful.
I say that that's not a, again, an
incorrect thing to say, but if you're actually
gonna go out and fight, you have to
have control of your nafs first before you
can do that in the first place. So
there's no, you know, there's no, what you
call, tawbaab between these two things.
They're not they're not, mutually exclusive.
You must know then that by way of
mortification,
by way of,
is plain and manifest for it is approved
by all men and groups, of the religious
and observed and practiced by the Sufis in
particular. And the term Mujahadda
is current amongst Sufis of every class. And
the shayiks have uttered many sayings on the
topic. Sahil bin Abdullah to study
carries the principle to an extreme point.
Here, he means extreme, not not to mean,
like, beyond, the limit, but meaning to to
its,
greatest extent.
It is related that he used to break
fast only once every 15 days,
and he ate little food, in the course
of his long life.
And the point of this, again, is not
Moasila that he used to keep fast for
more than one day at a time.
The fast is opened even merely by the
intention of opening it or by taking a
sip of water or something like that. But
he used to not eat between fasts for
for
over 15 days at a time. Again, that
part's not an act of worship.
It's not an Ibada. The Ibada is the
the Nephil fast, which is only on all
the days of the year, except for the
2 and the the days connected to the.
But,
but it definitely is to not eat as
much or to not eat between the fasts,
is definitely a way of disciplining the soul.
It's not an act of worship, but it
is a way of disciplining the soul.
And we saw
he lived for, like, a 114, 116 years,
something like that. And he used to just
take a couple of bites of rice, like,
twice a week.
He didn't eat all that much. He would
drink some sips of milk every day, and
that's basically all he used to eat. Gave
him a very long life, and he was
completely,
like, by day night, the man lived in
a tent, so it's not like he has
any private time that he can do something
when no one's seeing him.
But he was completely,
must have wrapped like a drowned in the
recitation of the Quran,
and and the the Quran
by day and by night.
While all of the people of the spiritual
path have affirmed the need to and
have declared it to be an indirect means
from the Asbaab of attaining Mujahada, the count
contemplation and the vision of, of of the
divine.
Sahil asserted that Mujahada is the direct cause,
the of the latter.
The difference between Sabah and is the
something,
I think it's a bit too abstruse for
this, but
the point is
is you can I guess the closest thing,
although it's not exactly that, but the closest
thing is that that that that, and
what he means by is closer to correlation?
What he means here by is more more
close to causation.
And he attributed the search,
to a powerful effect on attainment,
So
much that he regarded the present life spent
in search superior to the future life of
fruition. That what that the seeking of something
from Allah
is
itself the reason that you find it.
And this is an important point because people
ask this. How do I know my duas
are being accepted? How do I know Allah
is gonna forgive me? How do the fact
that you have this concern, the fact that
you bothered to ask, it's a sign that
something good is happening.
Right? In the absence of some other, like,
really messed up confounding factor, it's a sign
that something else good is happening.
And so, in this sense, it's actually very
empowering to the Saliq to have this mindset
because it makes a person
not give up hope,
in what is otherwise a very difficult,
path to tread.
If he said, you serve God in this
world, you will attain proximity to him in
the next. Without that service, there would not
be this proximity. It follows that Mujahada practice
with the aid of Allah is the direct
cause of, union of here, union doesn't mean,
like,
it means what? It means
It means reaching your, destination with Allah
ta'ala. Others on the contrary hold that there
is no direct cause of union with God,
and whoever attains to God does so by
the divine grace, by his father, which is
independent of human actions. Therefore, they argue that
the object of Mujahada is to correct the
vices of the lower soul, not to attain
real proximity, and in as much as Mujahada
is referred to man,
while the contemplation is referred to god. It
is impossible that one should be the cause
of the other. Sahala, however, cites in favor
of his view the words of god, and
those who strive to the utmost for our
sake, we will guide them into our ways,
I. E. Whoever makes Mujahada
against himself will attain
contemplation.
Furthermore, he contends that in as much as
the books of the books that were revealed
to the prophet and
the sacred law, and all the religious ordinances
imposed on mankind involved, mujahada.
They all must be false in vain if
mujahada were not the cause of contemplation.
Again, both in this world and the next,
everything is connected with principles and causes.
If it is maintained that principles have no
causes,
then there is an end of all law
and order and neither can be, neither can
religious obligations be justified
nor will food be the cause of repletion,
and clothe the cause of warmth. Accordingly,
to regard actions as being caused,
is and
to rebut this is
nullification.
He who asserts it is proving the existence
of contemplation, and he who denies it is
denying the existence of contemplation.
Does not training the nafs, the rialba of
the nafs, alter its animal qualities to the
point where it will even alter the qualities
of a wild horse and substitute human qualities
in their stead so that he will pick
the whip from the ground and hand it
to the master himself, or he will roll
a ball with his foot. In the same
way, a boy without sense and a foreign
race is taught by training to speak Arabic
and to take a new language in exchange
for his mother tongue.
So this one would get him canceled for
being, like, racist, like, you know, Arab supremacist,
whatever, but so be it
so be it. Make us the boy who's
without sense in a foreign race that that
gets trained to speak the Arabic language and
exchange our mother tongue.
He said, and the savage beast is trained
to go,
away, when leave is given to it and
then come back when it's called, preferring slavery
to freedom.
Therefore,
therefore, Sahil and his followers argue that
is just as necessary for the attainment,
of,
Usul of arriving with Allah as diction and
composition are necessary for for necessary for the
elucidation of ideas.
And as one is led to knowledge of
the creator by assurance that the universe was
created in time,
so one is led to union with god
by the knowledge and, and
of the lower soul.
So this is he explains Sahal's,
Sheikh Sahal to to studies
Madhub,
and then we'll stop for today Insha'Allah. Tomorrow,
he'll then explain
the
of
those who said no to attribute your salut
to your own that is not right. And
then afterward, he will
try to reconcile between those two different views.
The point is is this is that it
should it should not be lost on anyone
though. The the of the itself is a
very,
important part of one's deen, and it's an
indispensable part of one's deen. And, as long
as the is comfortable, a person is not
gonna make it anywhere.
The point is not necessarily to kill yourself.
Otherwise, we would believe, like, the Janes and,
like, other, you know, some other religious duo
and, like, some sort of, like, sacred
suicide where you like starve yourself to death
or whatever,
or that, you know, the concept of Nirvana
that like Indic religions have, that you somehow
have to achieve
freedom from the pointlessness of existence. We don't
believe that. But the idea is still that,
like, just like the horse has to be
broken in order to, you know, have the
quality of being able to be ridden.
Just like that. The nafs need some some
amount of training before it can actually do
anything. And until then, talking about Sufi stuff
and, like, reading Sufi books and having, like,
nice Jadar and, like, a nice tasbih.
Like, see? Like, I have masha'Allah.
I sell nice tasbihs to people. I tell
them there's no
guarantee of any
could still be complete slob, but the dustbees
will be nice, of course.
But, like, you know, until then, these things
are all just,
the the Sufia like Ruane said. They're just
the absurdities of the of the of the
Sufis. Allah give us the
And if you get a nice dasb, that's
cool too, I guess.