Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Remedial Tasawwuf SeriesFear and HopeDallas 12022017
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the concept of fear and hope, emphasizing the importance of balancing fear with hope and letting fear limit one's ability to do anything until they have enough time to heal. They also mention the struggles of individuals pressured to retaliate and complain about their actions, and the importance of avoiding negative comments in public settings. The speaker emphasizes the need for avoiding negative comments and the importance of avoiding negative comments in public settings.
AI: Summary ©
Tools of the Spiritual Trade lesson number 13,
fear and hope.
So So this is a little bit longer
of a chapter. There's a lot here.
Fear and hope,
are like the 2 sandals of the the
person who is on the path to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
One gets a little bit ahead and then
the other gets a little bit ahead and
the person is
balanced between the 2 of them. In fact,
this is part of the Akida of the
Muslims.
That a person shouldn't be like, the the
that,
oh, Jesus is like,
in my heart and I'm saved and there's
nothing that could happen that could ever harm
me again after this.
And oftentimes, missionaries use this as a selling
point. They say, well, Islam can't promise you
salvation whereas Christianity can. And we say, well,
you know, the government can also promise you
a 4% GDP growth, but it doesn't mean
it's gonna happen if it's not gonna happen.
The second thing is this is that even
rationally speaking,
we know that that's not true. It's a
false claim. Why?
Because does every Christian die on Christianity? Do
none of them apostate ever?
No. In fact, a lot of them apostate.
So this is a proof that they can't
guarantee salvation even by their own
unrealistic benchmark of just having accepted faith being
a marker of salvation.
So the aqidah, the Muslims are not like
the Christians that on one side, it's like
we got it made sun and that's it.
Jesus inside of me. Now it's time to
party.
Or, you know, we're gonna live a life
of piety and we'll never screw up or
never make us in because Jesus inside of
us. It doesn't work that way. And then
the other extreme is like, oh my God.
We're all going to *. There's no way
to make God happy. And, I may as
well just stop trying because there's no way
it's gonna happen.
Our our Aqidah is what? That there's one
extreme of hope and one extreme of fear,
and a person lives in the space in
the middle. That's a healthy spiritual life.
It's not to,
to, you know, take up residence in either
one
permanently. So a person may say, well, how
should I balance? How should I fine tune
the, you know,
the the the the mixture of fuel and
air in the in the combustion engine? How
do we how do we get the optimum
optimum mileage and power out of this fuel?
And the answer is, when a person is,
able to commit sins, young, healthy, has money,
you know, you still have your hair, you
still have your good looks, you still you
know,
you know, you don't look like, you know,
you got beat beat in the face with
the frying pan when you wake up in
the morning.
When you're still in that state, then the
fear should be dominant over you.
And when a person those things have left,
and a person or a person is in
a state of sickness or weakness or or,
near to death,
or in difficulty,
then the hope should overtake the fear slightly.
When a person is dying, remember this, when
you're dying, everyone's gonna die. I'm so I'm
sorry. I'm not, like, trying to be mean
or nothing. You're all gonna die. I'm gonna
die. All of all of us are gonna
die one day.
So if you have, the the the fadul
from Allah to prepare for it, you know,
you see it coming,
then don't remember your sins and don't don't
you know, that's the time to remember Allah's
mercy.
I am as my slave thinks of me.
So so,
you know, think of yourself even when you
remember your your shortcomings.
Think of yourself as being in you and
your shortcomings being insignificant in the face of
Allah Almighty's mercy.
Be concerned about returning people their debts that
you owe them or, returning people the the
rights that you violated from them. But when
it comes to the relation between you and
Allah
at that time,
keep in your heart the mercy of Allah
that you're you're going back to the one
who loves you more than your mother and
your father did, the one who had more
mercy on you than your mother and your
father did, than your wife and your children,
The one who loved you more than anybody
else before he created the heavens and the
earth,
that that that that keep that hope dominant
inside of you. Don't freak out. Oh, I'm
gonna go to.
Don't don't don't, don't don't do that at
that time. That's very inappropriate at that time.
Allah most high. So we're talking about what?
Fear and hope.
Allah most high says in his book,
The day of judgment will be such a
such a scary day that a a man
will run from his brother and from his
mother and from his father and from his,
his spouse and from his progeny.
Every person that day will have, an affair
that will,
make them separate from everybody else.
Nobody will nobody will be able to worry
about anyone else because they're so,
so scared about their own affair.
And this is not just for the unrighteous.
This is for everybody.
That day when they realized they had a
choice to do something better and they didn't
do do more than what they did, even
that will be a source of fear for
them because they have to stand in front
of Allah. They're afraid that Allah will ask
him why,
ask them why.
And so what what what do you think
will be the state of sinners?
That's a day that every
people, every
if every
every
people will be roving around like, like
hungry and thirsty,
like madmen. People who their hunger and thirst
has caused them to lose their mind just
to take,
one more good deed,
for themselves because of how how severe that
day will be.
This is Allah says in in his book,
he says,
oh, mankind.
Fear your lord because indeed the the the
the quake of the last hour is something,
great, enormous.
It's such a day that you will see,
every woman who's suckling a child leave the
child that she's suckling, and that every, woman
who is pregnant will,
abort her her pregnant her pregnancy will abort,
and you'll see the people as if they're
drunk in their fear.
But they're not drunk. What caused them to
be, to lose their minds is the the
realization on that day that the the torment
of Allah is severe.
And Allah most high says
He says that the the the person who
feared the the the the standing the day
of standing in front of their lord, that
person will receive 2 jannas.
So we see here that the point of
the the fear is not just to be
afraid all the time.
There's a benefit in it. The benefit in
the fear is what? Is that Allah Ta'ala
will cause Allah Ta'ala to love a person,
that Allah that that that the person didn't
ignore him, but he took him seriously.
And there's a reward for it that's far
more than what the amount of fear is.
You have some fear of Allah and he
gives you such a reward that it extinguishes
all of your fears forever.
But it's for the ones who fear him.
It's not for it's not for the ones
who don't take him seriously or take his,
his affair lightly.
Allah ta'ala, he mentions the the the the
the conversations of the people in Jannah
that some of them will will,
turn to others and,
they'll ask one another,
how did you get here?
And so people will say, we used to
sit in the comfort of our homes and
our families, completely safe from any any harm
or any difficulty or any want.
But still, we would sit in fear of
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And because of our fear of him,
he protected us from the the torment of
the the heat of the fire.
And we always used to we always used
to say to one another
that he is the one who fulfills all
of his duties, the one who,
fears him,
and he promised them a reward. He's the
one that if we fear him, he promises
here's a reward. He will come through with
it. It's not that we'll do our part
and he'll leave us hanging. That he is
he's Al Bari. He's the one who fulfills
his his vows and, and he is the
most merciful.
So this is what this means that even
the fear is a positive thing. It's not
a negative thing. It's not because we're supposed
to live like super negative lives and, like,
just,
you know, the the the the the point
of the dean is that a person should
suffer from some sort of psychiatric disorder where
they're, like, afraid of everything.
People suffer from those disorders should get help.
But the fear that's being described over here
is what?
The fear that's being described over here is
is the fear of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
as the way of showing him the respect
that he's due. So the fear shouldn't overpower
someone to the point where they can't do
anything anymore.
But it should be enough that they can't
disobey him or it deters them from disobeying
him. Again, like we said, the point with
the is not to that to get rid
of them completely. That's not possible. And if
it was possible, it would be unhealthy.
The point is to weaken them and to
bring them to heal enough that that you
that your Shahwat follow your orders and you
don't follow your Shahwat.
This is also a very beautiful hadith, which
is very jamir al ma'ani.
It concentrates
a lot of meaning
in a few words.
These are words to live by. I mean,
literally, it's
honestly,
I wanna say a couple of things. One
is you probably have, by this point,
heard my opinion how I detest I detest
the fact that people who are not, like,
learned in the Deen give and things like
that and, like, speak and things like people
will be like, Sheikh, may do offer me.
I wanna be a speaker. I'm like, don't
make do offer that. May do Allah is
pleased with you. You know, if he chooses
for you to be a speaker or whatever,
that's wonderful.
But don't make it something you want. Make
it something that happens. Because if you become
a big speaker and whatever
and Allah doesn't love you and you end
up in the hellfire, what's the point?
And if Allah loves you and you never
had a YouTube account or a Snapchat account
or Instagram or a Twitter or Facebook or
any of these things, but Allah loves you
and you go to Jannah forever, then what
did you lose? No one's gonna be in
Jannah. Oh, man. I wish I spoke at
the conference at the main session. Nobody's gonna
care. More people will regret it than than
than than be happy about it. Let's just
say that. More people will regret it than
will be happy about it.
And nobody, you know, if a person has
half a brain, you're not gonna wanna play
those odds.
But still, some of these teachings they're so
wonderful and they're so simple. This is the
genius of the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
That even people who live in a time
so removed from his time, and from a
circumstance so removed from his circumstance
and who are deprived of the Anwar of
Nobua,
of being in its proximity.
Still through the time, through the age, through
the translation, through the paper, through the continents,
through all of these huge barriers,
still the and the spirituality of these things
still, like, shine through to the point where
even I myself who,
has the the the aforementioned distaste even think
that these are things you should share with
people. You share with them share them with
your non Muslim friends if if the you
know, you don't have to be all preachy
and be like, you know, you should become
Muslim in this hadith. No. But if you
have a chance, there's so many people who
benefit from this in their dunya and in
their affirah. It's so common sense,
but common sense unfortunately not so common. That
saying Abu Narayat
said the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sama. So if you have to give a
Khutbah, you know, say things like this inshallah.
And don't speak your own things, speak what
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said. He said that Rasina Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said that the one who is
afraid,
that person will leave in the first part
of the night. What was the idea? That
the Arabs used to travel by night because
the Arabian Peninsula is extremely inhospitable during the
daytime,
And the direct sunlight will kill you.
You'll you'll you will, die. You will get
sunburned. You will it will destroy your skin.
It will you will,
be thirsty.
Literally, Bedouins, if you see, they breathe slowly.
Why? Because if they breathe quickly and they
speak very slowly and they they speak inside
of their their mouth. Why? Because if you
open your mouth too much, literally, all your
moisture will be gone.
That's how inhospitable a place it is.
So they used to travel by nighttime to
save themselves from the the the merciless sun.
So a person who has to travel, Rasool
Allah gives this analogy that the person who
has to travel,
and they fear the sun rising over them,
they'll leave early in the early part of
the night. They're not gonna just chill out,
have dinner, shoot the breeze, have jai, this,
that, and the other thing, leave 3 in
the morning, and what? Then they won't reach
where they need to reach, but the sun
will rise over them and it will be
a world of hurt.
Right. So a person who fears the sun
rising over their head, that person will leave
in the first part of the night, and
the person who leaves in in the first
part of the night will leave will arrive
where they need to get before the sun
rises.
Right? This is like the tortoise and the
hare.
The the point of it is what?
Is that the tortoise, even though he's slow
and he doesn't have a lot going for
him, he leaves he and he does whatever
he can. He leaves early and he just
keeps at it. He doesn't, like, he doesn't
let
go. And why what happens, we find out
later on that slow and steady wins the
race.
Right? The person who leaves the, who the
person who fears the sun rising will leave
in the early part of the night, and
the person who leaves the early part of
the night will arrive at their destination before
the sun rises.
Allah Indeed, the merchandise of Allah Ta'ala is
expensive.
This is one of the the the the
tahrifaat
of this age that we live in that
people try to market the deen to one
another as if it's an easy thing.
I'm telling you, Sayid Nabila is having a
stone put on him, and he's getting lashed
by, you know, by, Umayyah and,
you know, the two parents of, of Amar
bin Yasser,
who are tortured literally tortured to death.
He also is tortured to the point where
he loses his mind
temporarily,
and people are, the Sahaba are giving their
lives up in Badr and in Uhud, and
the Muadjar wouldn't have to leave their homes
and, you know, whatever. The Spanish inquisition and
the Iberian Peninsula and the Crusades and all
this the other stuff, you know, to even
to the point where look at what's happening
to the the people in Burma. They're the
tafsir of the
that
nobody nobody had any spite for them for
any reason other than they believed in Allah
ta'ala, Al Aziz Al Hamid.
Literally, we see it happening all around us.
And so far, we seem to be spared
from much of it, but still,
you know, this,
you know, dude with, like, the orange dead
cat stapled to his head is, retweeting weird,
like,
videos and saying, oh, look. Muslims are beating
up kids and crutches and, like,
God knows what, like, weird stuff that they're
that that that they're just sending out the
hate around us,
you know, and to think that it's not
gonna affect us, even just the psychological
stress and torment of the possibility that this
will affect us, that we go outside and
people think that we're like the type of
people who beat up crutches, the kids in
crutches and things like that. It's a pa
it's like it's difficult.
Right?
It's it's it's,
it's it's difficult.
And so a person wonders why why do
I have to carry this difficulty?
And so people who are marketing you like
the the deen is easy. Umajahallahu
alaykumfiddeeniminharaj.
Right? That this is a a piece of
the Quran is quoted out out of context.
Allah didn't make any difficulty for you in
the Deen. What's the context of it? How
does that ayah begin? So, jahidu filahi haqqajihadi.
He struggle in the path of Allata'az. This
is right to struggle.
Is that a lot of struggle or a
small amount of struggle?
It's a lot. It's overwhelming.
And then Allata says and Allata didn't make
anything difficult for you and the deen. Meaning
what? Don't complain about it. I gave you
a great task. Also, you will receive the
only thing greater than the task that you
have is the help you'll receive in,
in prosecuting it. So don't complain afterward. Don't
be a whiner.
That's the context of it. Otherwise,
anyone who reads the and reads the either
has to come to the conclusion, either these
people are not an example for us
or,
something's gone very horribly wrong.
And the fact of the matter is the
deen is difficult. Rasoolullah, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
is saying what? Indeed, the merchandise of Allah
is expensive.
You will have to sacrifice things for it.
You won't get it for free.
The reason you're going to Jannah is not
because you're, like, whatever, from from Texas.
You and your Texas mean nothing to Allah
Ta'ala.
Nothing.
Your degrees,
your school, your job, your money means nothing.
Each of us is more insignificant to Allah
to Allah than the bacteria that we kill
by the millions every time we wash our
hands.
They mean nothing to Allah Ta'ala. The thing
that means something to him is that a
person loves him,
That endears this even the small bacteria to
Allah
or what's less than than Allah says this
thing, whatever it is, it's it loves me.
And so I
my my promise is that whoever takes me
as a friend, they'll see how good of
a friend I am and how powerful of
a friend I am and what the benefits
there are in my friendship.
But what is it? The idea it's gonna
come easy? Whoever's telling it to, they're lying
to you. They're poisoning your ears. It's not
true. It's not correct.
It's it's
wrong. Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says that indeed
the merchandise of Allah Ta'ala is expensive. You
don't have to pay for it. It cost
you something.
It's not more than what you have, but
it is what you have.
It's not gonna come cheap. Allah Innasilatallahil
Jannah. Indeed, the merchandise of Allah Ta'ala is
what? It's Al Jannah.
So you give what you have, which is
very little. What I have, which is very
little. Even if we're billionaires, if we give
a $1,000,000,000,
it means nothing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
The galaxy that we live in, which is
too big for us to imagine, he has
1,000,000,000 of them, and he can create, you
know, a 1,000,000,000
times more than that,
without any effort from nothing. It means the
whatever. Even if we were to give a
$1,000,000,000, it doesn't mean anything to him.
Right? But it's the love from him that
he accepts.
That's a very big price for a person
to pay to pay from their own heart.
That you sacrifice everything, the space, the real
estate inside of your heart, you push everything,
evict everything out, and say this belongs to
Allah
That's a it's a high price to pay.
It's not cheap. It's not easy.
It's more difficult than just signing a check
and saying, here, take the $1,000,000,000. If I
could push a button and be a pious
man, I would have done so. But it's
not that easy. Indeed,
the
the merchandise
of Allah is expensive, but the merchandise of
Allah Ta'ala is what? Al Jannah. Nothing you
give. There's no $1,000,000,000 that could buy something
like that.
And the greatest blessing of Jannah is that
Allah is pleased with a person.
And the blessings then,
they continue for, thereafter.
So,
I I think this is a good time,
Insha'Allah, to take a couple of questions if
there are questions.