Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Muhsib & the Doctrine of Satisfaction 2 Ramadn 1444 Late Night Majlis
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Muhammad
and to have opened our first fast.
Allah
accepted from us from Uma Sayed Muhammad
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala give
us a tawfiq to fast all the rest
of the days of Ramadan. Those who missed
them to make them up.
Allah accept
our standing in our prayer,
our fasting, all of our good deeds and
rectify through it
that which is broken, in ourselves and in
the Ummah Sayyidina Muhammad
So we'll start
reading
from the Kasher Mahjub
of, Ali, Sayed Ali Hajwari
which,
we read from in the past, from time
to time. It's probably one of the more
abstruse,
texts
that we've had in Ramadan late night for
those who've been listening for a while.
And one of the reasons is it's one
of the first texts on the
topic of the that was written. So before
starting,
to read,
I wanted to mention a couple of things.
I remember in the when I asked my
Sheikh for,
permission to read this book. Said you can
read it if you find benefit in it,
you know, start reading if you find benefit,
you can keep reading.
And if not, just put it down.
And so after reading a while, I asked
him, I said, can I ask some questions?
He said, sure.
I said,
a lot of the things that they describe
in this book don't seem to exist anymore.
And the,
it seems to be describing something very different
than what we consider the soul of today.
And he said, he said part of that
is because people's,
capacity to do things has diminished,
with the passage of time.
But he said that, none of the things
that you'll find in in this book are,
like,
invalid or irrelevant.
So talking
about, you know, talking about the idea of,
for example, praying
tahajjud and
praying tahajjud until the time of Suhur,
talking about those people who used to make
Quran
1 after the other, and people whose were
allowed to pray, like, a 100 rakats every
night, etcetera.
A, those people existed, b, wasn't a waste
of time. It had some effect on people,
and that effect was tangible. You see it
in people. And so this is from that
age. So that age is gone now. Now
the that people used to say, in the
1,000 and 100, now they say in, like,
10 and 1. I heard my Sheikh
give him long life. I heard him say
that. He said that the discount word, if
you can't do anything else, just just say
I'll have car one time each. If you
come to me with an excuse afterward that
you can't even do that, then there's something
else going on here. This is not maybe
this is not you or it's not what
you really wanna do with your life.
But,
it's it's good. It's good. It's good. There's
a a doctrine that says that if you
know what the path is in front of
you, like, you look on the map,
it's a journey of a 1000 miles. You
have you're on mile, like, 2 right now.
There's still some benefit in knowing what's ahead.
And so with that intention, we, we read.
And if you hear something crazy or something
like really, like, what what was that all
about? Don't don't feel bad. Some of these
things are really,
they're from a people who are far more
advanced in their than than than many of
us will ever be, people like myself.
So this is the
we're gonna read from the, 14th chapter,
of Nicholson's translation,
concerning the doctrine held by the different,
the different paths of the Sufis.
Meaning what? Every sheikh sheikh is like
a preceptor. He's the one who helps a
person in their salub to reach
their goal.
So the guy who's a bus driver will
tell you about the buses.
The guy who's, you know, at the you
know, works at the airport will tell you
about the airplanes. The guy who works at
Midway will tell you about Southwest. The guy
who works at O'Hare will tell you about
United or American.
The guy who works at Amtrak will tell
you about the train. The guy who, you
know, does Uber will tell you how to
take a car.
The the goal is the same. The destination
is the same, and the
the the ways there are different.
Woman,
he says,
So he's not talking about the typical
differences amongst the great of
the era in which,
the soul started to be documented first. What
were their dispositions,
and what what different methods they took to
reach the path, the destination in the path.
The point of this is not,
the point of this is not just to
tell stories like
type stuff because it's Ramadan.
But maybe somebody will see something that makes
sense to them and something that appeals to
them more.
And so if you're a bird, try you
know, you're made to fly. You don't need
to beat yourself up if you're not good
at swimming, unless you're a penguin. Right? And
if you're a if you're a fish, you
don't need to beat yourself up, you know,
for not, flying. Rather, everybody will find the
the the mode that's easy for them and,
that that pays off for them. Maybe they
don't know what that is so they can
try something of, like, a couple see what
the choices, the options are in front of
them, and maybe there'll be some benefit in
it.
So sheikh
says, I've already stated in the notice of
Abul Hasan Nuri,
that the Sufis are divided into 12 different
groups,
2 of which are reprobated and 10 of
which are approved.
So he says he describes
12 different groups that are, Raj, that are
prominent,
2 of which he says they're completely off
their off the path. They're off their rocker.
We don't
we don't approve of this.
He acknowledges that they exist, but they they've
they've kinda gone off the rails.
But 10 of them are within the,
within the.
Every one of these 10 groups has an
excellent system and doctrine in regards to birth
purgation, mujahada,
struggling against the self, and contemplation,
mujahada. So he has this dichotomy between the
2 of them.
Is you actively striving to get to your
path.
Is you noticing Allah taking you there.
And so he he talks about all these
concepts in in greater detail, and they're it's
really fascinating, the discussions.
Although they differ from each other in their
devotions, practices, and aesthetic disciplines,
they agree in the fundamentals and derivatives of
the religious law and unification. Religious law being
the that have to follow Sharia, and unification
means what? This is Nicholson translating to, you
have to have correct.
You have to you have to have correct.
So,
interestingly enough, if you read this book, you'll
find actually many of the,
many of the old of the, not only
are they,
people of Kalam, but many of them are
the other people as well. The people who
don't like Kalam at all. They're Hanabila,
and
their names actually show up in the
the the the turuk of, the
the the turuk of the different,
Sufi paths,
and they have some of the harshest anti
Kalam
opinions, some of them.
Is Sheikh Ismail Al Harawi,
being probably the most
clear
the most clear example of that, who's
even
even wrote his
on top of.
He was super anti calan,
but you can't say he was a De
Sufi. He's, like, one of the, like,
kind of, like, top alpha
So,
the point is is what? They were concerned
with Aqida, whatever their positions were.
I definitely
cast my lot in with the.
I feel like they're doing a bit better
job at what whatever it is is that
they that they did. But the, there
are there are a strain of or a
way of conceiving of that's within the.
And at any rate, both of them neither
of them were people who
disavowed the path of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Abu Yazid,
he'll
talk about him a little bit later. And
we talked about it in the past in
the
late night. He said,
disagreement of,
the of the is a mercy except for,
as regards to,
Tajid detachment from this world
and
unification. You miss it in the in the
translation.
That rhymes in Arabic in the translation, you
say detachment and unification. It sounds a little
more dry. Right?
But, it's like you should be detached from
the world. Whoever disagrees with that, this is
not a mercy. And, whoever disagrees with regards
to their, this is not a mercy. The
rest of the individual messiah,
the difference of the opinion of the other
mother.
And there's a famous tradition to the same
effect.
The real essence of Sufism lies amidst the
tradition, the of the,
and is divided only metaphorically and formally. So
he's saying in reality, it's all 1, but
it's divided only metaphorically and formally.
Therefore I therefore I will briefly divide their
sayings and explanations of Sufism and unfold the
main principle on which the doctrine of each
of them is based in order that the
student may readily understand this matter.
So the first
path he typifies by the path of the
sheikh
Abu Abdilal Harith al Hasibi,
who's
also one of the early authors in Tasawwuf,
and, he'll he'll kinda talk about what what
typifies his approach to.
They are the followers of Abu Abdul Abdul
Abdul Hadith Bin Asadullah,
who by the consent of all of his
contemporaries was a man of approved spiritual influence
and mortified passions, meaning.
His literally, his breaths were accepted. I mean,
everything he did seemed to have to feel
from Allah to Allah, and his, his ego
was like dead.
He was versed in theology, jurisprudence,
and and mysticism,
which is a
Nicholson word here.
He discoursed on detachment from the world and
on,
on while his outward and inward dealings with
God were beyond reproach.
The peculiarity of his doctrine is this,
that he does not reckon satisfaction,
amongst the stations, but includes it with the
states.
Stations are those things that once they enter,
they change you permanently.
And the states are something that comes and
goes, that that being pleased with Allah, he
doesn't consider this to be a station that
a person passes, but a state that comes
and goes with a person.
He was the first to hold this view,
which was adopted by the people of Khorasan.
Afterward, the people of Iraq, on the contrary,
asserted that satisfaction is one of the stations,
and it is a form of extreme trust
in Allah
The contour
controversy between them has gone on to the
present day.
Discourse on the true nature of satisfaction of
and the explanation of this doctrine.
In the first place, I will establish the
true nature of satisfaction,
what it is, and set it forth in
its various kinds. Then secondly, I will explain
the real meaning of the word station, maqam
versus state or
hal, and the difference between them. Satisfaction is
of 2 kinds. A, the satisfaction of god
with man, and, b, the satisfaction of man
with god.
Divine satisfaction really consists in god's willing that
man should be recompensed for his good work
and in his bestowing grace or
karamat upon them grace upon them. Human satisfaction
really consists in man's performing the command of
god and submitting to his decree.
Accordingly, the satisfaction of god precedes that of
man,
For until man is divinely aided, he does
not submit to god's decree and does not
perform, his command because man's satisfaction is connected
with god's satisfaction and subsists thereby.
In short, human satisfaction is equanimity,
Meaning, your heart is not
doesn't change regardless of what happens.
Equanimity toward faith,
whether it withholds or bestows and stirs spiritual
steadfastness
in regards to events, whether they be the
manifestation of the divine beauty or divine majesty,
jamal or jalal.
So that it is all one to a
man, whether he is consumed in the fire
of wrath or illuminated by the light of
mercy, because both wrath and mercy are
evidences of God, and whatever proceeds from God
is good in his eyes.
Obviously, again, like I said, they were they
were hardcore
back then, so they said stuff like this.
The commander of the faithful, Hussein bin Ali
who was asked about the saying of Abu
Dharr al Ghifari. I love poverty better than
riches, and sickness better than health. You notice
that he look he refers to Saidna Hussain
as Amirul Mumineen.
This is one of the interesting things that,
you know, if a person wants to accuse
the Ahl of not loving Ahlul Bayt, if
you see that the way the old used
to talk about them, it's,
you see that the the the claim is
is is awash.
Sayna Hussain
replied to him.
Right? So
he narrates
said, I love poverty better than riches and
sickness better better than health.
Sayedna Hussain
replied,
god have mercy on Abu Zar, but I
say whoever surveys the excellent choice made by
god for him does not desire anything except
for what have god has chosen for him.
So Abu Dharr al Rifari
who is hardcore, he said that the difficulty,
I like it better than the ease. He
said, Hassain
who says, well,
that's good,
but whatever Allah chooses for me. If Allah
chooses for me ease, then that's more proper
for me.
Obviously, the author includes this quote because he
considers saying that Hussein's
statement to be superior,
even though there's great in both of them.
When a man sees god's choice and abandons
his own choice, he's delivered from all sorrow.
This, however, does not withhold good, or does
not hold good in the absence, from god.
It requires presence with god because satisfaction expels
sorrows and cures heedlessness and purges the heart
of thoughts relating to other than God and
frees it from the bonds of tribulation,
for it is a characteristic of satisfaction,
to deliver.
This is one of the things that I
love about this book and books like it,
is when we talk about being satisfied with
the divine
decree, generally, the discussion
revolves around us
as individuals.
And what is the first thing he said?
He said, well, there's 2 aspects
slave satisfaction with the He shows how the
priority is actually with
and not with the slave. That's the secret
of tasuluf. It's not being like, look, I'm
a good guy and now I'm pleased with
everything Allah. No. It's
the idea that you recognize Allah is the
is
the
is
the the fulcrum around which the entire thing
pivots. Just that recognition in of itself is
is is like a majority of the, of
the the path you have to traverse. The
rest of it, is only,
possible to be fulfilled once you,
once you accept that and recognize that.
From the standpoint of ethics, satisfaction is acquiescence,
of one who knows,
that giving and withholding are in god's knowledge
and firmly believes that god sees him in
all circumstances.
There are 4 class classes of quietists. Here
is quietist. Now he's not talking about politics.
He's just talking about people who are happy
with whatever gives them.
1, those who are satisfied with God's gift,
which is no sismarifa.
2, those who are satisfied with happiness, niyama,
which is, this world. 3, those who are
satisfied with affliction, bala, which consists of diverse,
probations. And 4, those who are satisfied
with being chosen, which is love or mhabba.
He who looks away from the giver to
the gifts accepts it with his nafs.
When he, who has so accepted it,
trouble and grief vanish from his heart. He
who looks away from the gift and to
the giver loses the gift and treads the
path of satisfaction by his own effort.
Now effort is painful and grievous, and gnosis
is only realized when its true nature is
divinely revealed. In as much as gnosis, when
sought by effort, is a shackle and a
veil. Such gnosis is noncognition.
It's a nakira
saying that that it's it's the opposite, in
fact, of, of gnosis.
It's opposite of.
Right? You guys all took, like, first class
before everyone bails. Right?
Again, he was satisfied with this world without
god is involved in destruction and perdition because
the whole world is not worth so much
as, that a friend of god should set
his heart on it or that any care
for it should enter his mind. Happiness is
happiness only when it leads to the giver
of happiness. Otherwise, it is an affliction.
Again, he who is satisfied with the affliction
that god sends is satisfied because the in
the affliction, he sees the author thereof and
can endure its pain by contemplating him who
sent it.
Nay,
he, does not account it painful, such as
his joy in contemplating his beloved.
Finally, those who are satisfied with being chosen
by God are his lovers, whose existences and
illumination
alike
in his anger and alike in his satisfaction,
whose hearts dwell in the presence of purity
and in the garden of intimacy, who have
no thought of created things and have escaped
from the bonds of stations and states and
have devoted themselves to the love of god.
Their satisfaction involves no loss, for satisfaction with
God is itself a manifest kingdom.
This is the meaning
of
the the hadith of the prophet
The
person who loves to meet Allah Allah Allah
Allah Allah loves to meet that person.
Say the
in particular asked,
are you talking about dying because nobody loves
to die?
The point is of rida is not that
you become some sort of, like, maniac and
be like, yeah. I, you know, like, lost
my job. Yes. Like,
it's like that's something's wrong with you if
if that's how you are. But the idea
is if you think of Allah on the
other side of dying, literally somebody just texted
me this morning. People,
has
the salat, the the
the the fast. It's like it kinda jolts
the system. All of a sudden, a person
starts, like, all the pent up, like, spiritual,
housekeeping that they've been putting off for a
while. Now they have to get to it,
so it, like, kinda breaks on a person.
So they got a I get a bunch
of, like, panic texts today. One of them
was,
you know, I have this, like, really morbid
thought. Like, I don't like the idea of
dying, and I feel ashamed of myself. Like,
what kind of Muslim are you? I don't
like the idea of, like, closing my eyes
and not opening it again and, like, not
being able to get up or breathe or
whatever. I said, that's fine. Like,
if you like dying, you should probably go
see the psychiatrist.
If the aslaf said, Aisha
herself is saying that, like, none of us
like to die.
And the Rasool said, yeah. That's fine. That's
not what we're talking about. We were talking
about the meaning of Allah. When you think
of death,
the contemplation should not be cardiac arrest. It
should not be the cessation of brain function
or stopping breathing or any of these things.
You have a like, as a human being,
you have a natural aversion to all of
these things. You didn't choose to be averse
to them.
Chose them in you. Like, if people who
don't have those aversions, they usually die very
early because
they make, like, really irresponsible choices and, like,
you know, people who can't feel pain and
things like that, they'll do the craziest things.
They'll kill themselves actually
because of that. Because they don't you know,
they can't feel any better.
So that's not what we're talking about. What
we're talking about is what? Is to see
Allah through the other side of it.
Can you lost your job because, you know,
I don't know, because you you you grew
a beard or because you wouldn't shake hands
with a woman or because you, you know,
wouldn't take a bribe or because you didn't
like, a number of things a person could
I mean, if you lost it because you
didn't show up on time, then you should
probably set your alarm 10 minutes earlier. Right?
But, but, like, you know, if you'd lost
it for the sake of Allah, think about
that that how
how how, you know, Allah to Allah, how
pleased, you know, you'll be to meet him
and you'll be able to say, look, you
know, I gave this up for your sake.
You know? And how how how how how
you will be to say that, you know,
in the YouTube video of your life is
being played
again in front of, you know, Allah,
and the angels and the jinn and everybody,
the prophets are seeing.
You did good.
You know? You did you make the right
decision.
You died in such a way. You lived
and died in such a way that that
that, you know, people can be proud of
you,
that people can you know, there's something to
look up to. That's that's a that's a
good feeling a person shouldn't. It's not it
doesn't seem to be like some sort of,
like, rocket science Sufi,
like rocket, like level 20 and marakaba, like,
that you'll never get to to understand why
that that should be good. That, you know,
you would love that a lot to meet
you in a way that you have something
good to show him, and that he's proud
of you and he accepts it from you.
So we continue, inshallah. It says it's related
in the tradition, this section. It's related in
the traditions that Musa, alayhis salam, said, oh,
Allah, show me an action
with which if I did it, you would
be satisfied. Allah answered,
you can't do it, oh Musa.
Then Musa, alayhis salam, fell prostrate worshiping Allah
and supplicating him.
And God made a revelation to him saying,
oh son of Imran, my satisfaction with you
consists in you being satisfied with my decree.
Meaning, when a man is satisfied with God's
decree, it is a sign that God is
satisfied with him.
Again, we don't we think of it as
something we do, but it's actually a product
of Allah Ta'ala's choice, not the other way
around.
Bishop Al Hafi
asked for Bayl Bin Ayyab,
both of which
the previous majlis, as you can listen to
their, the the Tabqa,
Asked him whether, zuhd, renunciation,
or satisfaction was better.
Fudayl asked replied,
satisfaction because he who is satisfied does not
desire any higher stage,
I. E, there is above renunciation
a stage which the renunciator
which the renouncer desires, but there's no stage
above satisfaction
that the satisfied man should wish for.
Right? So you're making zuhat. You're like, look,
I'm not gonna, like, eat and drink. I'm
not gonna get money. Because you're looking for
something still. Whereas when you found
it, that that's superior.
This is something actually one of the great
gifts that Nahu al Sarf gives you. Right?
The Rasul Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam his?
His
name is Muhammad.
It's
Isam Afrool.
So we think of, like, you know, like,
your passive passive passive passivity is like
like being weak.
Active participle is where the actions are. Like,
I wanna have my control of my own
destiny, and I wanna I'm gonna do this.
I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do this.
I'm gonna do that. And so like, I
remember reading that, like, I was like, this
is kind of neat, right? You read that
in the books of the old masha'k, this
is
a sign of superiority that he's the praised
one, not the praiser.
That he's This is one
of the honors of the messenger of Allah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned in the Quran.
That Dawud alaihi salam is described as,
that Dawud slew Goliath,
whereas the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is
described as what? As you're not the one
who threw when you threw like but Allah
threw.
It's a sign of the come out of
his
in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that Allah attributed
to himself to action. So Fudayl is telling
Bishop Hafi what? He says that that with
zuhl, when you're detaching yourself from the world,
you're seeking something through that detachment, because nobody
does that, kinda on their own. Whereas, with
satisfaction, you don't have anything else left to
be desired. You're already happy.
You are you already made it. And, again,
what is there's no, like, there's no rocket
science with it. Nobody likes going through difficulty,
but the one who loves Allah love
carries them
through difficulty, and gives them satisfaction.
He says, hence, the shrine is superior to
the gate.
What's better, the the gate of the Haram
Sharif, or actually being in the mataaf and
making tawaf?
Hence, the shrine is superior to the gate.
This story shows the correctness of Muhasibi's doctrine
that satisfaction belongs to the classes,
class of states, and divine gifts,
not to the stages that are acquired by
effort. It is possible, however, that the satisfied
man should have a desire. The messenger of
Allah
used to say in his prayers, oh, Allah,
I ask you
for satisfaction
after the going forth of your ordinance.
I e, keep me in such a condition
that when the ordinance comes,
to me from you, destiny may find me
satisfied with his coming.
Here, it is affirmed that, satisfaction
properly is posterior to the advent of destiny,
because if it is
preceded, it would only be a resolution to
be satisfied,
which is not the same thing as actual
satisfaction.
This is enough for today.
Make us from those who are
the people of with his