Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Fes 2017 Sd Ahmad Zarrq Usl of Our Path Part I 12252017
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Like we said yesterday, Insha'Allah, we'll read. There's
a short work,
but a very robotic
work written by, the sheikh, Ahmed Zarooq,
who was a native of this fast
and who was
a great sheikh of
hadith and of fiqh.
He was a of the Maliki Madhub, meaning
that his
opinions are considered authoritative within the Madhub.
And he also was a great sheikh of
the
and,
just a person of very amazing insight. His
words have a lot of barakah in them.
And so he wrote a short a very
short work. It's essentially just like a pamphlet.
It's called Risale to Usul Al Tariq. And
the reason I wanted to share it,
is that
spirituality is part of the deen,
but spirituality,
the word itself, it's become a very, like,
discount whole foods,
you know, type of idea and concept.
And
people don't understand how it connects with the
deen of Islam.
Some people
gave them enough insight to understand there is
something
called spirituality that speaks to the heart. But
even then,
it's,
something that in most people's minds, whether they
admit it or not,
it's
they consider it as something extra or on
top of what the regular dean is.
And,
that's a complete,
that's a complete misconception,
of what the dean is.
When I say misconception,
I mean it's a wrong aqidah.
It's a wrong aqidah regarding Tassawaf, and more
dangerously, it's a wrong aqidah regarding Islam.
It's an akhida problem.
So I thought we'd talk about tesawaf in
order to rectify
in order to rectify people's akhid,
Insha'Allah. And it's nice it's nice to hear
these things again in the words of the
masha. I have barakah in them,
And and sometimes you may understand something yourself,
but you don't know how to explain it
to somebody else.
So,
by hearing the words of the Mashaikh, you
can have a more you can have you
can have a more clear and concrete and
definitive way of explaining it to people.
So
is a word,
it means literally it's a plural plural of
roots,
and in in
Islamic intellectual discourse,
wasul mean those things that are universal,
those rules that are universal. So,
you know, for example, in in in in
the, you know, in fact,
the may disagree with one another with regards
to
should you say Amin out loud or not,
or should you say the
out loud or not, or things like this.
Those are
means branches.
Those may differ, but the usul are the
same. The tree have all the branches of
the tree, they share the same usul.
And,
so
in in in intellectual
Islamic intellectual discourse,
the the meaning of the word the meaning
of the word usul is,
those things that are universal. Please sit up.
Those things that are universal.
They're shared across the board by everybody regardless
what their differences of opinion are and things
like that.
So this is the usul not of fiqurah,
tafsir, or hadith. This is the usul of
the tariq, the path to Allah
meaning a person's spiritual journey toward Allah, the
journey of their heart toward Allah
to get from the point of where we
are right now
to the day in which wealth and progeny
will not benefit a person.
Nothing will benefit a person except for,
the one who comes to Allah to Allah
with a heart free from blemish, free from
free from impurity, and free from flaw.
So these are the usul of the tariq.
Because oftentimes when you ask someone about the
soul, if someone say it means singing nasheeds,
another person will say it means dancing in
an ecstatic state. If you ask somebody, they'll
say it means smoking weed and getting close
to God. If you ask somebody, it will
say celebrating the Moled. If you ask somebody
and even though I'll admit that's a difference
of opinion, that's fine. But even the people
who celebrate the mooled, the ones who have
any insight at all know that that's not
what the saulaf is. If it was what
the saulaf was, then the Sahaba didn't
practice it.
You know, it's
it doesn't make sense. Those are Furu'i issues.
Someone might say, well, nashid,
there's some nashids that make my heart feel
so much iman, but that's fine. Nobody's saying
that's not haram or whatever.
Smoking weed is probably haram, even if you
do feel closer to Allah Ta'ala when you
do it, it's still haram.
So that's that's that's not that's kinda open
shot issue. But the thing is that all
of these issues are fluri,
and the the the the person who has
has, like, an intellect that works properly,
that person tries to abstract and understand things
at their level,
understand it at the ground level.
Because if you know how to conceive of
something,
then you can understand the things that you
weren't told specifically. If you know what the
suf is at a level, then when you
come across issues in your saluk, in your
travel along the along your path to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala that your shaykh didn't tell
you
about, you'll be able to use your brain
and figure out something about it.
Whereas, whereas,
if you're only told what to do, what
to do when your shaykh is gone, your
entire world is gonna fall apart.
And, you know, there is
a lot of importance
placed both
in saluk and culturally speaking as well in
the Muslim world on
respecting your teachers and respecting your elders.
And you'll never you'll never reach the the
of your.
One of the reasons for that is even
if you become better than them, because they're
the ones who guided you along the path,
they're still getting all the reward for what
you for what you achieved. So you'll never
you'll
absolutely never be better than them. It's just
not possible. It doesn't work that way.
However,
that being said, the point of Tasawaf is
not for you to become, like, kind of
free slave labor after
post civil war, for for for your shave.
The point is is that that you're you're
you're listening to their instructions,
helps you to take what they have and
then
be a good person,
and save yourself as well. And with that,
the sheikh receives help
by your progress.
With your progress,
your sheikh will receive your progress as well.
And I'm not just talking about your sheikh
and tasuluf, everyone, even the person who taught
you alif batatha as a kid, all of
them, if they're sincere and they
know something about the deen, all of them
wish for you to be successful.
And so the point of teaching the usula
of the tariq is what?
Is that that rather than being the person
that when your sheikh dies, you completely like,
implode and some people,
some people will leave the deen, some people
will stop doing what they do,
in terms of their thikr and their activity
and whatever. Instead of that, that you carry
the, you know, that you don't be the
person that the baton is handed to you
and you drop it or you sit down
while the whole rest of the race passes
you by, that you grab it running and
you you you take it to the next,
you take it to the next, to the
next runner.
And, that's
a concept that's not
it's not something that you have to, you
know, go like to a quote unquote Sufi
gathering and understand. Allah himself says in in
his book,
Allah said about the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam something only He could say. If anyone
from the Ummah said it, then we would
probably
burn him for blasphemy.
But Allah ta'ala said it, and he's the
only one who can say it, and he
conveyed the truth through it,
that Muhammad
is but a Messenger,
And there are other Messengers that have come
and go from before him. If he dies
or is killed,
will you turn on your heels and run
away?
And Allah says, if you turn on your
heels and run away, it doesn't harm Allah
in the least. However, the people who don't
do that and who are thankful to Allah
and keep taking the work forward, Allah will
reward them. And the occasion of this being
revealed was on the day of Uhud when
many of the Muslims thought that Rasulullah salallahu
alaihi wa sallam
was shahid fi sabiillah,
many of them out of depression, they just
kind of dropped out of the battle. They
didn't know what to do anymore.
And the idea is this is that you
should imbibe as much of this,
of these teachings in yourself,
so that that
you also the minute that the sheikh is
not physically with you, you know, the teachings
and the the the saluk and all that
doesn't become absent
because we've become really bad about this. And
we we learned it from other people, and
we've taken it to the next level of
being, like, really pious in one gathering
and really smart in another gathering, and really
something else in another gathering. And just literally
we literally change our clothes, we change our
appearance,
we change the same person, literally, their appearance
in Ramadan is different than their appearance in
the rest of the year, and their appearance
in Hajj is very different from and
I get the fact that there's some necessity
for that as well, because of the awkward
circumstances that we're in, there's some necessity for
it. But the point is that, you know,
you know, if you have to do that
hustle between the masjid and between work,
you cannot let it happen to your heart
because if it happens to your heart, you're
gonna have problems, you're gonna have big problems
in this world, you're gonna have big problems
in the hereafter,
and Allah Ta'ala doesn't love the 2 faced
person.
It's a hadith of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam that a person who's 2 faced in
this world, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is not going to speak to him, meaning
he's not going to accept that person's petitions
and their duas on the day of judgment.
So the idea is what is that this
is a I mean, this is a really
it's a big issue. Right? In the death
of your of a first of all, the
person who you took Be'a with is not
the only one who's your sheikh. Be'a is
an outward
form. It didn't even exist in the time
of Rasulullah SAWH in the sense that the
Sufis have it nowadays.
They used to take the oath of fealty
from Rasulullah SAWS, but it was everything. It
was spiritual, political. It was it had a
different it had a different quality to it.
The bayay you take with somebody, even if
you physically don't put your hands inside of
their hands, if your heart has connection with
them, Khalaf, that person is, like, that person
is in the spiritual world, that person is
your sheikh.
And and on the flip side, if you
take with somebody and you don't have that
connection inside of your heart in the spiritual
world, it says there's nothing happened. And so
there are many people, they they have a
sheikh, for example.
People we might not even associate with the
soul, but they're taking spiritual faith from that
person. And
lest a person think it's funny, just the
amount of ruhaniyah and spirituality that comes with
having la ilaha illallah in your heart, you
can affect other people with it. You're not
supposed to go around and be like, okay
I'm gonna affect people, but it happens, it
affects people.
And so what happens, the death of your
sheikh is what? It's not just the physical
death of your sheikh. There's other things that
can happen that your sheikh dies. The person
that you thought is a person of of
some sort of like superstar, angelic, superman,
quality of of infallibility, and then you realize,
oh my god, this is a human being.
Then people collapse and they leave the dean,
all this, etcetera, etcetera. The point is what?
Learn the teachings when you, you know, when
you see something from somebody that reminds you
that they're a human being, then you should
give them nasiha, and you should ask Allah
to forgive them. If it's bad enough that
it necessitates that you no longer take from
that person, that's fine.
The point is is that whatever happens with
people, your your saluk
along the study shouldn't
shouldn't ever collapse.
Theoretically, it's a sign of your imam that
even if you found out the next day
that, you know,
that your sheikh is a complete fraud, like,
you know, if you saw Muhi Hamza sitting
on the street corner doing something, like,
really inappropriate, he's, like, smoking weed with, like,
you know, whatever the creeps or something like
that, or the bloods because I'm open minded
guy.
You know,
it's okay. This guy is not maybe he
wasn't the person we should learn Dean from
anymore, but it doesn't mean that your Dean
should stop.
So that's
the the the benefit of of of reading
this usu the usu'at the tariq that was
written by
and
I'm scratching the surface to people who understand
these uleun properly, then they'll be able to
unpack much more meaning from from it. But
we'll just take the first kinda, like,
overhead
flight level glance, and, maybe a lot will
open up more meaning for us, at another
time.
He,
he he said,
By
what does it mean?
Is one of the names for the heart.
It literally means secret. Right? Because people say,
oh, may Allah TA sanctify a secret. And
so people think it's some sort of, like,
weird dimension x like
secret that it it it's not.
I mean, it's a big it's a big
but it's not like something that has some
sort of mystical meaning that you only wanna
get to level 27, you'll understand. Like, it's
not like that.
It it
means to exalt something about blemish.
And the is the heart. Meaning, if the
day of judgment is
remove any any blemish that may be in
his heart so that his heart is accepted
by Allah.
He said that the usul of our tariqah
are are the usul of our path to
Allah is in 5 things.
This is a very deceptively simple text, by
the way.
There's some point in memorizing it because it's
very easy to memorize and then pondering over
the points, like, later on, like, digesting it
later while you go through life.
The first one,
is
as to fear Allah
when,
alone and when in public.
And
when you're alone,
nobody else sees you. Sees
you. So the person thinks it's not even
Shaitan. It's just itself. I'm a anyway. Knows
that I'm a so may as well stop
trying.
You know, I agree.
Knows who we really are. No matter how
fancy and schmancy we are in public, knows
who we are, but that's not a reason
to stop trying.
You should try at least a little bit.
Even when you're when you're alone, maybe you'll
get more mileage
out of the little bit of that you
had when you're alone,
versus the, like, you know, super pititis show
that we put on in front of one
another.
Then
the flip side is that in public, some
people, their fitness when they're alone. Some people,
their fitness when they're in public.
Why? Because other people see them, they see
other people, and they get affected by what
other people say or they're afraid of what
other people are going to say, things like
that.
So there's a there's there's kind of like
there are two sides of the same coin
that you fear Allah in
private and in public.
And the second
is
following the sunnah of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
both in things that you say and in
things that you do.
And so,
The dua is what mus literally means
what? In the modern Arabic, it means like
your your your skull. Right?
Or your the the
the brain which is the area inside the
skull. In the classical language, it means a
hollow space within a bone.
And so here, it's it's it's,
used to mean
it's the core of it's the core of
core of your worship is to ask Allah
for things.
And
the aqwal, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
I mean, in general, it's the hadith, but
the duas of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, Moana Anwar Shah Kashmiri
Khatimatul Hifal.
He was the the the the sheikhul Hadith
of Darulun Deoband at the turn of the
century, and he was not only a Hafiz
of Hadith, he photographic memory. They say that
he he would,
he could remember
not only when he he read books, every
book he read once, and he could remember
what page everything was on and where in
the page it was. He literally had a
photographic memory. He just didn't forget things.
And so,
he was a very unique master of of
of of of the Ulum in general. He's
the one, you know, the Dora
Dora Hadis,
the the reading of the 6 books, Hasitha.
Before him, it used to be read
just continuously sardan, like the way the old
Muaddiddin used to read them.
And, they would they would maybe stop and
discuss a couple of issues, but it was
more a a a a kind of a
ritualized reading of the hadith of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam at salat.
When Mawlana Anur Shah
was became the sheikh of Hadith,
the man knew so much. He would just
stop and comment on everything. So you'll find
this in this book, this in that book,
this in the other book, the other thing,
this has really related to this, that. And
so what happened was it completely changed the
the way they taught hadith.
Because after he left,
then the students are like, they missed his,
so other people would try to be like
him. But who who can be like him?
But he said that if you want to
know what Rasulullah
was thinking
or have an insight into what he was
thinking when when when different things happened in
his life,
then reflect over the dua that he made
at that time.
Because oftentimes,
you'll see different in different occasions,
you know,
things would happen
and he would he would he would say
something. Certain things are are
like using the restroom and entering the Masjid.
Those are those are, like, habits. Right? And
certain things, it was just a time in
his life something happened and he said he
said he made some dua.
That's how you'll know what Rasulullah salallahu alaihi
wasalam was thinking. That's why it's important to
remember the duas of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasalam. It's more than just like a ritualized
incantation
for protection and things like that. Although that's
also
there.
And there's a great benefit in that as
well. But it helps you again to have
insight into what, you know, the Usul of
of of of the sunnah of the prophet
And then as of a shidi, people have
left the the even acting on the sunnah,
outwardly in their actions, there's a great benefit
in barakah in that as well.
And that is what the is.
It's not it's not, you know,
again, getting high and then feeling all spiritual.
It's not it's not those things. If there
was some spirituality in getting high, then
people better than us would have done it.
And the number 3 is
Sorry. I'll Aradu. The third one and this
is really important,
and it's almost,
neglected. It's completely it's mentioned from
discussions with regards to Dean nowadays,
which is what
is
completely
turning your back on worrying about whether people
like you or they don't like you.
Yeah. Right?
It it it it means to, like, to
just turn away from something.
And,
is that are the people coming toward you?
Are they going away from you?
Completely not not caring about that.
The two possibilities whether someone likes you or
doesn't like you, both possibilities becoming
completely equal.
And the the big demon like enemy of
this concept is the what
this weird thing that we've made up in
in in the time we live in that
we call dawah. Yes.
Dawah to Allah
is a issue.
But the Nasrani
Nasara like obsession that we have
that we're not making properly if people don't
listen to us.
Rasool Allah did he make Dawah properly?
Did he use a good akhlaq? Did he
use Hikma?
Did everyone listen to him?
No. Some of his closest relatives, his uncles,
his cousins, they're they they were haters. They
just didn't listen.
And so while we're,
stuck in the torture chamber of, like, you
know, worrying about why don't people love us,
great portions of the deen passes by.
And, again, this doesn't mean, like, be a
jerk or whatever, because the point before was
to follow the sunnah. The sunnah is to
have good akhlaq concern for people, this, that,
and the other thing. But ultimately,
this obsession that, like,
you know, oh, I used the one time
and that's why someone didn't become a Muslim,
like, you know, 20 years later.
Come on. You have to let it go.
It's not that's
that's ultimately Allah
chose the deen to be such a thing,
and he chose that person to be such
a person, and he decided that person is
not going to
accept it. That person made the choice that
this is the deen of Allah Ta'ala, I'm
not going to accept it.
Right? So you not using a miswak, all
it does is it deprives you of some
piece of the sunnah. It doesn't benefit them
at all and it
sorry. It doesn't benefit them at all and
it harms you. It harms you. And so
this is something that that that's like it's
a it's it's an important part of the
deen. We have to teach
it to our children. We have to there's
so many, like, weird parts of our our
society completely break down because of things like
this.
That we're just so afraid of everybody.
We're afraid of we're just afraid of everybody
that what are they gonna say? What are
they gonna do? What are they gonna and
it's good. It's good to, like, be concerned
with people. Right? So if your wife is
or your husband is, like, you know, wants
to eat at main stop and you wanna
eat at mister broast, then you know what?
Just go to main
stop. Make them happy. Right? Why? Because you
don't have to do anything with Dean.
Right? Both places are Hafsa certified. Rafa, like
inspected both of them earlier in the week.
It's it they're they're clear. There's no real
substantive difference between them, you know.
But the the issue is what?
The the the the issue is that when
it comes to issue matters of deen, you
know, you just have to just do what
you need to do. And if people don't
like it or if they like it, just
don't worry about
it. And this is again, this is not
like, oh, look. Hamza is, like, making a
cult that's gonna make, like, you know, children
fight with their parents and husbands and wife
fight with each other and cause strife sectarian
strife and disorder in the Masjid or in
general society.
Allah himself says, right,
So don't
don't follow the the the the kuffar, the
kafirin,
and don't follow the munafiqeen, the hypocrites.
And the things that they'll say they'll say
to you that are harmful,
just leave it alone. Don't even worry about
it.
Right? Bill O'Reilly gets up on TV and
gesticulates with his big arms. He has Allah
gave him other problems to worry about now.
Right? Count
on the the the man who looks like
he has a orange dead cat stapled to
his head
with the tail, like, whatever comb over, like,
over his bald spot.
Right? Who cares what he says?
All of his minions, Steve Bannon, and badanika,
weird people, like, all of these who cares
what any of them say?
People who sleep at night because of those
people, they should be losing sleep at night
because of Allah.
Right? And then it trickles down. And the
thing is from those people, anyone can it's
easy. You can pump people up in a
band. They'll, like, get over it a little
bit. Right? It hurts when it comes from
your loved ones, from your family, from your
relatives.
I think about Rasuulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, even
his uncle Abu Talib who, you know, Abu
Jahl, Abu Lahab, these people are like horrible
people anyway. Right?
It hurt him even that they didn't become
Muslim.
To
honor people and treat people good anyway. Then
what do you think about the one who
is such a close relative and did so
much for him that he has a a
a a a debt of of gratitude that
he wishes to repay him? It hurt him,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. But what does it
what does it mean?
Does it mean that he compromised in his
deen when they asked, he asked for compromise
in the deen. Abu Talib asked on his
deathbed,
by which Quraysh would have made suh with
Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasallam. They would have rectified
their their their, what was broken between them.
And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to the
same Abu Talib in his deathbed. He said,
if they put the sun in my right
hand and they put the moon in my
left hand, I wouldn't change a thing. Tell
me, is this what is this like? How
does it fit into the modern concept of
dawah where people, oh, shave your beard and
wear a suit so that people will love
you, you know. Okay. You can wear a
suit if you want. That's not like a
issue, but whatever. Take your hijab off because
people are scared of missiles or whatever. Go
on. Leave it alone. It's not it's not
it's it's not it's not the path of
Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And it's not the path that's chalked out
in the book of Allah Ta'ala.
And the 5th 1,
sorry. 4th 1 is
being equally happy with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
when you have little and when you have
plenty.
And the first the hard lesson first hard
lesson for most normal human beings is to
be happy when they have a little bit.
And then some people become so habituated to
that when they have a lot of talk,
it starts giving them namma, they freak out.
So the second lesson is even harder to
learn is that, okay. No. It's okay even
if Allah gave you a lot. There's a
adab and a a a person has to
have with that as well. And so you
see in the Sahaba
there are different
there are different,
people who have different they they have a
different example in them for you, for how
your life is.
There are amongst them the people who are
wealthy in Jahiliya and they've become destitute in
Islam.
There are amongst them those who were, wealthy
in Jahiliya and wealthy in Islam.
There are amongst them the ones who were
destitute in Jahiliya and they became wealthy in
Islam. And they're from amongst them those who
were destitute in Jahili and they're destitute in
Islam as well.
And so all of them
learn how to navigate this, that whatever Allah
chose for us and we should say these
things. It's not, you know, because sometimes some
of these things we don't say them because
you don't wanna look like, you know, pies
or show off your whatever in front of
people. We should repeat these things with one
another so that maybe the heart the reality
comes into the heart one day. That when
something happens, whatever it is,
you say that the choice Allah made for
me is better than the choice I make
for myself.
The choice Allah made for my loved ones
better than the choice that they made for
themselves.
This is always the case, absolutely,
from from from the universal perspective.
From our own perspective, it's always the case
as long as we have iman.
Whoever believes in Allah
the choice he makes for us is better
than than than than than what we could
have made for ourselves.
And in an absolute sense, not even just
like, okay, it's somehow true or whatever. Someone
might say, well, how come how come I
didn't, you know, like get a, you know,
whatever $1,000,000,000
and I could still die on iman. No.
This is better. You'll you'll understand
why
there's no other way it would have been
as good as it is this way.
So a person should be pleased with Allah
Ta'ala, Allah Most High,
in in in having little and in having
plenty.
And then the 5th point is,
Always returning everything to Allah to Allah when
you're happy or when you're in affliction.
Everything remembering Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala when you're
in a good state, you're in a bad
state.
Everything we're we're returning to Allah Ta'ala. When
you do a good deed and when you
commit a sin, there's no
description of the believer
in any of the that say that the
believer is the one who doesn't commit sin
or doesn't make a mistake or doesn't
have a bad day or doesn't have an
off day or whatever.
But in everything,
you return to Allah in
everything. You return to his remembrance, you're to
return to his deen, you return to,
thinking about him, in every single thing that
you do.
So the sheikh continues.
So he explains explains
these things in a little bit of detail.
He says,
He said that the the the way you
you can know that your taqwa is
reaching going somewhere.
Not that you're like, oh, okay. I fear
a lot as much as I can. Do
do do. I just go on with your
day and nothing changes.
Right? The way you know that your is
going somewhere
is in 2 things. 1 is you cautiousness
that the the the the things that you
used to do yesterday,
you scrutinize them, and,
they don't seem like they're good enough anymore.
And this is
this is something like when when, like,
a suit suited booted
tells it to you, it's like a big,
like, revelation. But when the tells it to
you, you're like, yeah. Whatever. Right?
What what did what what did they that
guy wrote a book about, like, how 80%
of the things that you do
get you 20% of the results, and 20%
of the things that you do get you
80% of your results.
What is that? That you go through every
day, all the things that you do, everything
you say, everything you eat, everywhere place you
go, every person you meet, all of those
things, and see where am I getting the
benefit from and where is the harm coming
from, or where might and and once you
remove the harm, where might the harm come
from?
What are the places that the the harm
might come from?
Where the loss might come from?
I have I mean, you know, people are
gonna get up on me for using the
Hafsa, like, example again and again, but it's
true. Right?
You know one place, everything that the the
inspector went went and saw everything that came
into that place and out. The other place
you don't know, you're, like, ordering whatever the
salad. You don't know the knife is
using being used to cut the ham before
you go to the whatever. And
these things, you should think about them.
And someone might say, well, Sheikh, that's like
a level of waswasa.
It's not not. You can assume that this
and you can assume, oh, curse. Wonder wonderful.
That's great.
But what
the
inside of the heart is what? When you
have a choice between the two matters,
why would you choose the thing that has
less that has more chance of harming you
than the thing that has less chance of
harming you?
Why why why why would you do that?
You know?
You're, you know, you're about to fly fly
out of the country or into the country,
and so you have, like, you know, you
know, $10,050
in cash
and $9,950
in cash. What's the difference?
It's just $100.
If you take that one bill out,
you'll go through safely. If you leave that
one bill in, they probably won't check. I
mean, our when we leave the country, nobody
checks anything anyway. Right?
The TSA, they're not they're the they're not
customs officers.
So
but why would you why would you take
the chance if they find that that you're
$50 over the limit and you didn't declare
it? What will they they'll take the entire
thing away from you. Why would you do
that?
It's just stupid. Right?
So I was like, no. You don't understand.
I have to this. I have to that.
Okay.
If you absolutely have to, like, you know,
you know, if I don't get $10,050
to, you know, such and such person in
London, you know, they kidnapped my cat, they're
gonna, like, throw it off a cliff.
Okay. Fine. You're in a some unique situation
of difficulty or whatever, then whatever. But the
the ones who are not, why would you
do that?
It's just it's just stupid. We wouldn't do
it with our dunya. Why would which is
limited and perishing. Why would we do it
with our akhilah, which is
unlimited and last forever?
The first is alwara and
the second is al istiqama.
That the good things that you do do,
that you're consistent in them, they're not just
one off and and and then, like, you
just don't see the person again until Ramadan.
That person being yourself
and myself.
Right? That's those are the two signs that
you actually have taqwa from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
And, see, Ahmed Zarruk, he writes in a
in a in a small nazam somewhere else.
He says
That the whole secret of the deen can
be distilled to what,
fearing Allah and having having,
being continuous in it, not changing.
And and the largest the greatest miracle of
Allah ta'ala is not that a person walks
on water or flies in the air. It's
what is that that person has Yateen inside
of their heart. And what's the proof of
that? That Abu Bakr who
was described to us,
that his his his iman was such that
even if you were to be shown the
heavens,
it wouldn't increase in his his yakin and
his certainty one bit.
So how do you know that you're actually
having taqwa as 2 things? That you find
yourself scrutinizing things that you didn't scrutinize before
and being cautious about everything
and constantly tuning. It's not it's not like
a obsessive compulsive
type screw scrutinization,
which is it doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't
benefit you or someone else. It doesn't it's
not in conformance with the sunnah, and it
doesn't go anywhere. Rather, it is a constant
process of making things more and more efficient,
more and more better, and bringing your heart
more and more in line with with the
and having istikamah in it that you don't
go hard in and hard out that you,
that that you, become, like, super,
like, for
40 days, and then afterwards, someone sees you
clean shaven having a beer on the street
corner. I wish I was making stuff like
that up. Those things happen.
So, so those are the two signs.
And the the way that you know you're
getting somewhere, that you're
actually attaining the the,
the of the sunnah, you're actually attaining the
following the sunnah
is that that you,
you you,
you're,
guard your your deen,
and your dean is
protected. And,
and you have good character that you find
yourself forgiving people that really have no business
being forgiven, and you find yourself
being silent even though you wanna say something,
and you find yourself preferring other people over
yourself, and you find yourself doing all of
those things, sacrificing from what you have for
other people, all of those good akhlaq of
the rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that's that's
how you know you're getting somewhere with the
sunnah, which is something some of us who
are
some of us struggle with. So
help us, but that's how you know you're
getting somewhere with the sunnah of the prophet
because that's that's that's the greatest part.
Rasulullah
said I wasn't sent except for in order
to
perfect, the most noble of character.
The way you know that you're turning away
from whether people like you or don't like
you,
is in 2 things, is that you're find
yourself able to have patience with
hardship,
and the second is that you find yourself
able to trust in Allah Ta'ala. When you're
doing something
and, like, you don't know this, like, keeping
it real might go very wrong,
but you're just like, no, Insha'Allah,
I trust in Allah Ta'ala, whatever happens.
You know, whatever happens.
Even if it's rough in the in the
short term, in the medium term, in the
long term, everything will be everything will be
alright. In fact, they'll be better because of
this.
And the realization
of being
pleased with Allah and having a lot or
having a little,
the sign of it is that a person
is content.
They're always they don't feel like disturbed that
I need this. I need that. They're content
with what they have
and that that they're,
they're happy to
leave their affairs to Allah.
Why? Because the person says, well, if I
had just this much money then I could
buy a house and then they get the
mortgage. If I had this much money I
could pay it off And then they pay
it off, then I need this much money
so that I can pay the taxes. And
then, okay, you get that money. I need
this much money because when I become old
and I can't work, maybe my children won't
support me. Maybe, which is fine. There's a
a lot of those things, there's some reasonableness
in them, but there's that thing that pushes
a person. If you don't put it in
check, it will go all the way to
the point where people will start killing one
another for, like, having $17,000,000,000
instead of $16,000,000,000,
which are amounts of money you can't even
spend in your in your life even if
you tried.
It just becomes ridiculous at some point. So
just just
being able to be like whatever is happening
right now or not, I'll do I'll do
whatever is reasonable, but, like,
trust my affairs with him,
rather than rather than needing to, like, rectify
the whole whole world on my own. Because
you you can't do it.
You just can't. It's a big world. You're
a small person. I'm a small person. Even
if you I'm a big person. I'm still
a small person.
And you just can't do all of that.
And if you spend your whole life doing
those things, then who's going to who's going
to,
rectify their heart and be prepared for entering
Jannah.
It's like a person who goes to an
airport
and he sees that the airport is, is
like messy,
which is a lot of airports around here.
So they start sweeping the floor and cleaning
up and picking up the garbage. If they
get so into it, they miss their onward
flight.
What's the point?
It's fine. It's good to pick up the
garbage from here and there. That's nice. But
it's where you're supposed to be. You're just
there to you're just there for transit. You're
just there to change flights. That's what we're
here for. Make it as nice as you
can for the, like, whatever 7 hour layover
you have, and then after we're leaving. There's
no there's it's not it's really that simple.
And the the realization
of
the realization
of returning to Allah Ta'ala in all matters,
is
in
praising Allah Ta'ala and showing thanks to Allah
Ta'ala
when you're
happy. Praising Allah to Allah and showing thanks.
Praising is that a person
should magnify the greatness of Allah to Allah
on their tongue
and in their heart. And shukr is what
you should give a little bit back.
That you do something either in your actions
or in what you give in terms of
your money or in something or another to
to to give a little bit back. It
doesn't mean that you're
you're paying a lot of that back for
anything. There's nothing you can do. Even the
fact that if a person their entire everything
they had in their entire every day of
their life, every moment of their life was
spent in Allah's
Ibada,
in order to pay him back for whatever
whatever,
gifts he gave that in of itself,
how who's gonna give the sugar for you
and being able to do that? The sugar
for that is even greater than the the
itself.
So you're just never gonna get there, but
it doesn't mean that you're allowed to give
it up.
This is a real this is a spiritual
sickness.
Allah has forgave
he go for Rahim, so you just stop
asking. Allah gives, so you just stop trying.
You you don't you don't you don't do
that. It doesn't mean that you're you're
you're seeking forgiveness is generating his forgiveness.
It doesn't mean that your your
attempt and your effort is generating the results,
But you don't give up those things either.
That's what the slave hood is. That's what
Allah wants you to do. He he gives
you all these other things. All he wants
from you is that you just
try. That you just ask. That you just,
you know, you you you try your best.
So is the the hamdah is in the
tongue and in the heart, and the the
sugar is in the body and in the
wealth.
And that a person should that a person
should
seek refuge in him
when
times are difficult.
And everyone goes through difficulty.
Everyone goes through pain. Everyone goes to suffering.
Everyone goes through
coworkers and a boss that are gonna drive
you insane.
Everybody has
some moments with their significant others
that are
slightly more
vexing than
the honeymoon.
It happens.
It's normal.
What is the sign of being on the
tariq is what is that it wakes you
up a couple of minutes before Fajr comes
in, and you pray 2 rakaz. And when
you have nobody else, you're grown up now,
you're no longer allowed to, like, watch Sesame
Street and sleep until 11 o'clock.
You have to, like, pay your bills and
you have to, you know, if you stop
stop, you know, caring about your responsibilities, everything
in your life falls apart. That's kind of
bogus sometimes. A person stresses that hurts people.
And,
there are a lot of people who just
drop out of society. And I think this
is one of the reasons why
why we see in the time and age
we live in, what is not a some
a modern phenomenon, but it's just quant quantitatively
increased.
Just people being weird.
Somebody has their alternative,
lifestyle. It's not like people didn't have those
things before, but now it just becomes weird.
And some people become weird, Star Trek and
whatever. People like listening to the stories in
the old days as well, but, like, people
just going crazy off the off the off
the edge, off the cliff with regards to
sports, with regards to all this. Why is
it? It's an escapism from
a life that had to have responsibility in
the past as well,
But that responsibility is like mounting, mounting, mounting,
mounting on a person to the point it's
so stressful. People cannot even find time to,
you know, eat properly in the day. And
some person because they're not eating properly, they
they're emaciated. The other person because they're not
eating properly. They're they're they're overweight because the
next person is not eating properly. It causes
this problem. All these weird problems because of
the stress.
What what is the thing that dissipates the
stress?
You ever seen, like,
you know, the weird give a weird infomercials
with this miracle cleaner, it will strip off
all the rust. It will this, it will
that, it will the other thing. All you
have to do is search for the dhikr
of Allah for some time.
5 minutes is not is 10 minutes is
not gonna kill you. The old people in
the old days, there's one of the only
of Allah is buried in the in the
city. Abdul Aziz Dabaab, inshallah, maybe we'll go
and see his Mazar inside of the inside
of the Medina.
He was completely illiterate person
like Rasoolullah.
And so,
I I you know, I some my brother
read one of his books and he said
that we read his book in which he
described
his life that he was a person who
liked liquor and this that and the other
thing. And so he mentions that his his
he he one day met and
he begged him, give me the give me
give me the word.
And he said, I'll I I won't give
it to you because you won't do it.
It's too much for you.
He says he says, no. I I promise.
I swear I'll do it.
And he
he says that he says that, no. You're
not gonna do it. He says, no, no.
I swear. I promise I'll do it. And
he begs him, and finally he gives it
to him. He says, it's so long.
He said, I'll start after I'll start I'll
start after Fajr
and,
literally, it will take me to finish.
And then I keep doing it, and then
eventually, I can finish it by. Eventually, I
can finish it by by Assar. Eventually I
can finish it by. Eventually I could and
then
there's other parts of the the the story
of what happens. People used to have him
up for those things in in in in
certain time.
Bad news,
we're probably not those people.
I hate to be a jerk.
I would be the happiest person if you
prove me wrong.
Really I would.
It would make me so happy if you
prove me wrong. I would say I was
wrong. This person is like that.
If that's not the case, though,
that again, it doesn't mean that you give
it up completely.
Even 5 minutes of the zikr of Allah
ta'ala, if it's done with intent and with
presence of mind, it can take a person
a long ways.
That a person
this is a certain type of dhikr that
a person should seek refuge in Allah Ta'ala.
Like refugee
flees from their country to go to the
next country in order to be safe because
there's no bonds and there's no firing and
there's no secret police and none of that
gas attacks and any any of that stuff.
That you seek refuge in Allah to Allah.
When because what? Because just because you're a
person of dhikr and you have your deen
together and whatever, it doesn't mean you don't
feel pain or you don't, you know, stuff
doesn't harm you. And I I think that
many people make a great disservice when they
portray
wilayah to be some sort of, like,
you know, like,
people are, like, what
are firing machine guns at Magneto, and he's
making the bullets swirl around in the air.
It's not like that. If that was the
case, why would the world be the way
it is?
It doesn't it's not like that at all.
I think people make a disservice when they
say that. People those people, they do feel
harm from these things. But when you seek
refuge in Allah to Allah, then you have
a mighty refuge, then big things happen as
well.
And and that's something that we should not
not only not feel ashamed of doing, we
should we should
practice doing more more often. That's the that
we we read in the
that we read in the rebat after we
all the salahim.
Means what?
It means refuge.
Means what? That there's no refuge and there's
no salvation
or being saved from Allah Ta'ala except for
with Allah.
And so
the the tahtif of what? Of returning to
Allah in happiness and in affliction is in
happiness that you have that you praise him
and you show shukr to him. And in
affliction,
you, you seek refuge in him. 1st before
resorting to any other means, and resorting to
your own intelligence, and your own money, and
your own, you know, wits, and your own
all of these other things.
Before any of those things that you return
to him, and then you see the help
that he he gives you in solving those
things that seem unsolvable.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala give us so much
Tawfiq InshaAllah. We'll continue with
the we'll continue with the, the book tomorrow.
And,
InshaAllah,
hopefully, we'll finish it before the end of
the the trip.