Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn Standing in Obedience Ribt WD 06192020
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Gathered us here, on this
afternoon,
and we were not to be guided, was
it not that he guided us?
This is the fulfillment of
my
for such a long time that this has
been interrupted.
This it's
an important,
and it intersects so many things.
One is
the remembrance of Allah and the remembrance of
a part of the deen which is completely
forgotten by people,
which is the
spiritual
life of Islam,
which is the life of the heart, which
is the life of a person's
what makes them a human.
Because what makes you a human being is
not your body. It's not how good you
look or how strong you are, how fast
you are. There's something
between every human being, whether a person is
young, healthy, beautiful, rich,
intelligent,
powerful.
And even if a person were
protect us, a person to have all their
limbs cut off
and be completely
completely unable to help themselves, completely helpless. But
there is something that makes them a human
being as well.
There is the, the story that many of
us read in
school of Helen Keller.
Literally a person who even her senses were
were cut off, and she gained them later
on in life.
That it showed that that there's an
that that that the
makes there's a a a grasping that the
spirit makes that goes even beyond
even beyond the senses.
And,
that is something that the philosophers since ancient
times have said, and that's something that modernity
completely makes in thought of. It completely,
negates
and pretends like it doesn't exist.
And because we also are people who who
live in a society in which modernity and
modernism as a philosophy has the upper hand,
we also have
some of us unintentionally and some of us
intentionally have remodeled Islam in order to fit
that,
that world view, and it's not right.
And so this space, is
a place where we can
come and mention these things and talk about
these things,
without having
undue editorial oversight from people who don't really
have any business with oversight in any of
these things.
It's often a complaint, and it's not a
completely illegitimate complaint that people have that the
are sold out or that the don't speak
the truth or that
the have
ceased
serving the prophetic function,
for which they were given mandate.
And as a matter of, I completely disagree
with this,
with the sentiment,
if a person
holds it in an absolute sense. I think
it's a a problem that could also be
tantamount to Kufr.
However,
we would also be remiss not to
accept the fact that to some degree or
another,
there has been a
a great amount of undermining of what their
sacred function is.
And so
people ask me why can't you teach this
dars in the masjid? And I if I
told people why I can't teach it in
the masjid or why I can't teach it
in other masjid or I can't teach it
in other institutions, it would really cause a
great deal of consternation. Either people would have
a bad opinion of the other Muslims or
they would have a bad opinion of me
because they wouldn't believe the things I told
them. So why why go negative?
I gave us this place. The rent is
extremely cheap.
And,
if the dome doesn't look as nice as
you wish it did,
good for good for you, the Rasulullah alaihi
wasalam. His masjid didn't even have a roof,
and we all know that that was the
most Mubarak of places.
This Darce itself,
there were a group of people who asked
me to,
start this Darce several years ago in 2009
in Seattle.
And
very few of them stuck out more than
the first, obviously, 5 or 6 lessons, and
then they dropped out. But
what was their loss as a gift for
me that I got a chance to read
through this book?
It went through many permutations. It went through
many different lands,
in order to reach here. We're,
you can see, we're at the 3rd out
of 4 volumes of Ibn Allan's commentary, and
we're almost at the end of it.
And so, my hope is this place will
be the one that
Allah will give to Tawfiq that we can
finish the book.
Obviously, these books, you know, it never finishes.
You always repeat, but it's good to have
it's good to have, you know, passed some
certain amount of effort in order to, in
order to attain something good. And,
like I mentioned,
wherever I have the opportunity to mention it,
it's completely,
it's a completely hidden book. It's hidden in
plain sight. It's probably the book in in
Masajid that's found,
most frequently after the most half itself, after
the Quran itself.
However, nobody has read it. Nobody understands what's
in it. Nobody knows what the purpose of
the book is. The book is a book
of Tasawwuf.
I translated the forward to it, and it's
unpublished. Maybe I'll share with some people, but,
you know, I know we actually wrote a
forward to the book explaining exactly what the
point is. And the point is is that
it's the spiritual teachings of Islam. By the
way, you'll pick up a lot of by
the way, you'll pick up a lot of
by the way, you'll pick up a lot
of other things.
But, but the point of the book, the
ordering of the book is there to facilitate
a certain type of spiritual awareness in the
in the,
the student who reads it. And
it is brilliant
in that
the nisbet of the prophet
that a person has is one of the
most powerful
and expedient vehicles
in a person's spiritual journey to Allah.
And we live in a time where literally
I've given in places,
and a brother will come after the and
he'll say, well, you know, last week, you
know, you said us all of the stuff
about making the dhikr of Allah. Last week,
the Khutba was, you know, about why saying
Allah Allah and sitting in a room and
saying
is is a is a reprehensible innovation. I
said, I don't know what I can do
to help a person who that's their Nasib
from
life that they go around saying things like
that. I have no idea how to help
such a person. All we can do is
make,
dua for Allah and we can keep the,
remembrance
and the reminder alive that Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wa Salam, he,
you know, he's the one who,
Allah I wrote about him in his book.
If you love Allah to Allah, then follow
me so that Allah may love you. And
Allah is all, forgiving and all merciful,
as most forgiving and most merciful.
He's the one that the person who says
on,
on him one time,
will send
on that person 10 times. This is one
separate benefit.
And there's another benefit that's separate than this
one, which is even greater than it, which
is what?
Whoever sends salat and salam to the prophet
I saw to some that whoever's every person
who sends salam to me, Allah Allah
returns my ruh to my to me, and
I return the salaam personally.
And the salaam for the prophet
he doesn't need it because he already has
it.
But the salaam we get on the dua
of the rasul
is of great use. It's of great benefit
to us.
And
I don't know how to say it better
than that except for if if you're to
put a dollar amount on, what does it
mean that Allah sends you 10110 blessings for
every blessing that you invoke on the prophet
What's a dollar amount on the blessing? You
know? Is will you find a lot of
blessing at the dollar store?
Let's be real here. Let's cut to the
chase,
you know, because everybody has to pay rent,
And, it's all about money, and it's all
economics and whatever. And Karl Marx,
you know, between Karl Marx and Adam Smith,
98 percent of the is living in that
space. Right?
So let's let's cut to the chase. How
much is it worth to you? It's worth
a dollar?
Okay. If I give you $10 for every
salam that that you say to the prophet
and then afterward, just
I was in the khatam right now at
Dar es Salaam. He's literally this is exactly
what he was saying.
Right?
How excited would you be?
How excited would you be? I'll put a
I'll put a addendum on top of what
he said,
which is just like every
every nation sovereign nation has its own currency.
If you're in Mali during the reign of
Mansa Musa, your gold is not gonna be
worth that much. Why? Because it's gold like
left and right.
However, if you go another place, maybe gold
is worth a lot.
If you talk to me 5 years ago
or 3 years ago or 2 years ago
or a year ago about Bitcoin,
And I told my opinion about bitcoin in
public, and I almost got stoned to death.
And everyone says, shit, you don't know how
the blockchain works. I'm like, I guess I
don't. I guess I,
like, you guys all know and I don't
know. Right?
And now,
is it worth the same? It's not worth
the same. Every currency has a time and
place that's useful. If you try to spend
rubles right now over here, nobody's maybe they
won't even exchange them for you, whereas you
could have at least got them exchanged a
year ago. Right?
What is the currency over here? Pounds, euros,
they're meaningless. You have to use the US
dollar. Otherwise, the whatever, you know,
Sanjeet at the 711, he's not gonna sell
you even if you hand him a 100
pound note. He's not what he's what is
he gonna do? How is he gonna sell
you a a a a whatever a bottle
of water or something like that? Right?
Every place has its currency.
We're talking about the Allah,
you mean, the the
That's that's that's what that's a currency not
of the United States of America because nobody
cares about your piety over here.
Nobody even cares about your piety in the
masjid. Why are they gonna care outside of
it?
Where is that currency valid? That's the only
currency that's accepted from in the.
When you enter into the grave, it's the
only currency that's accepted. So it's good. We're
gonna make the journey. May as well do
the exchange. Wonderful thing about this book, you
increase in your ilm, you increase in your
aqayd, you increase in your tasalf, and it's
also a majes of vicar at the same
time.
Granted that you restrain your own and I
restrain my own laziness and say
on Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam's name whenever
you
have the opportunity. Don't say it so frequently
that you can't understand or listen to what
the dar says, but you have so many
opportunities. When the name of the Rasulullah alaihi
wa sallam is said, you say
When the pronoun refers back to him, you
say
When the mention of any of the ambiya
of Allah
are mentioned, you say
This is, this is also this is your
bonus to your zikr majlis. This is one
of the reasons this is one of the
reasons that
some of the greatest in
the history of Islam are who? They're the.
Some people actually find it ironic. I remember
I was in the of my sheikh, and
someone someone asked me he says that he
says he says in Urdu, he says he
says,
Sheikh,
So why aren't these Hanbali's ever Sufis?
And, why? Because he's used to our friends
who carry the dawah of,
you know,
of certain certain nation states of the Arabian
Peninsula.
And they also are Hanabulah. We won't be
begrudge them. You know? They also study the
Hanbali fiqh. They have institutions. They have courts
that run according to it. It may be
their local variant, but we won't begrudge them
that fiqh is fiqh. Right?
But when it comes to, they'll completely hack
it down to pieces as if somebody is
just, like, I don't know, came in, like,
worshiped an idol or something like that because
they said
a hundred times on Thursday night or whatever.
Right? So how come this how come there's
no big great Hanbali Sufis?
I said
I said, have you ever heard of Shah
Abdul Qadir Jelani?
He says he said, of course, he was
a Hanafi, though. I said, I'll give you
I'll give you I'll give you 3 more
guesses, son.
Why
Imam Ahmed himself, his name is the the
Tabakat of the Sufia is is never neglected.
Of course, there are people who made and
there are people who kept all of these
traditions of the of the real, not the
cultural and customary
that that that's, you know, kind of like
you can see at, like, what are music
shows or whatever. Right?
But even even the most stern of Muhandid
Athene, just the act of saying
every time you read a hadith, this is
also itself it's a it's like a kind
of like a dhikr majlis by adverse propriety.
One of the reasons I'm spending all of
this time going through all of these things
good. You guys already know these things anyway.
Meaning that the reminder benefits the believers,
and,
a person doesn't ever enjoy
the product that they're consuming until they actually
know what the value of it is.
Otherwise, like, Imam, Shafi'i, you know you know,
he goes that in its own homeland, the
is itself just, like, considered considered another piece
of wood. Right?
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave us. So
where we left off,
I was the Babu Fadliqiyamal
Layl.
The last place that this book was read,
was in the ICC in Cleveland.
And so we left in the middle of
the in the middle of the Bab, and
I introduced the Bab by saying that this
is a very long it's a long chapter
in the, but sadly, it's not a long
chapter in our own lives. I'm the first
person who,
enters a plea bargain with the lord in
this regard,
except for all I can say is that
sometimes the person who Allah loves when they
have difficulty, then they are forced to go
to this thing and they realize, wow, this
kinda works.
And
Allah to give us,
to do things the easy way instead of
the hard way.
More virtuous
more virtuous or most virtuous.
And he said he said he said what?
Lengthy.
And it's narrated by Muslim. So Imam Nawi
puts a note in here that the word
here means it means standing. The
word is a very interesting word. Allah says
in his book, he says,
he says,
That stand in front of Allah Ta'ala in
the state of
Even the Salawatullah. The
the, Masha'i have somewhat of a world war
between them about which one of the salawat
is the salawat. And,
the and the,
their
their,
general
preference is the.
Malik
who was a for
the hadith in his age despite being from
the Alun Adar. Amongst the,
his opinion was that it's a salat al
fajr.
And,
you know, obviously,
God knows, you know, if allata intended the
Ummr to know it, it would have been
included in the book of Atida rather than
something discussed in. Right? So it's fine. There's
no need to be dogmatic about it. But
all I can say is in the age
we live in,
is the one that's getting
massacred by people, especially in the summer months.
So bless the person who wakes up for
it. It's a great.
There are great things that the Ummah is
expected of, but if you're not gonna wake
up for fajr, then, like, you know,
you know, what are you gonna do?
But what does this mean? Right? This means
a number of different things.
It means obedience.
It means
humility and and stillness.
It means silence.
These are all different things. Stillness is like
don't move around.
Humility is a, and obedience, there are there
are states inside the heart,
and it means
silence as well.
It means what?
Silence. So this is this is a a
a big hassle in terms of why the
Mashaikh had their certain different preferences for certain
different things in terms of even the fiqh
of the salat.
So you'll see, for example, Imam Shafi
his, in his Madhub, and I heard this
from the themselves.
I'm not just it's not like my own,
like, Maliki propaganda or whatever.
But,
they said that that in
an sense, there's no preference in the school
for praying for
putting your hands at your side or putting
tying your hands.
There's only an
which is a a a preference for for
a secondary reason,
which is what that
in general, if there's a choice between 2
different things,
that you should choose the thing that's quieter
and that's more still.
And there's less in Khan. He figured that
there's less chance that a person will move
around if their one hand clasps the other.
Otherwise, Aslan, if theoretically, if a person is
just still both ways, there's no preference for
1 or the other.
Or for example,
right, the the the who
say
Amin quietly rather than saying it out loud.
This is also it's maybe a second tier
Dalil. It's a second tier proof for that.
But what you can say this is closer
to Kunut than than the other,
option is. And so, okay, people apply it
differently, but everybody agrees with this concept. You
shouldn't be fidgeting around. You shouldn't be moving
around. You shouldn't be gesticulating.
You shouldn't be,
you shouldn't be doing any things. Rather, it's
also a a manifestation both physically and inside
the heart of your slavehood that you stand
like at at attention, like a soldier doesn't
move around.
Right? Or a servant or a slave doesn't
move around or fidget or express themselves or
whatever. The salat is your time not to
express yourself.
So express yourself. That's good. Express yourself, you
know, when you're making a painting or whatever.
Right?
Even then within reason. But,
but to express yourself in the salat is
missing the point of the salat. Why? Because
it's
stay standing in salat in front of Allah
in the state of.
And so here, the Rasool
says that the most,
virtuous of
to stand for the longest amount of time,
to stand for a long amount of time.
And this is the
this is exemplified in the Rasul Sallallahu Alaihi
Wa Salam's tahajjud prayer
and his night prayer.
That he didn't use to do this for
the for the prayer generally. In fact, he,
discouraged people from the imams from making the
prayer excessively long because the people are masajin
they're masjuneen.
It's a it's some it's like they're imprisoned
in the prayer that they can't move, they
can't go anywhere. And so sometimes every now
and again, people who don't read fit, and
that are very excited about piety, maybe they
came to, like, and they're, like, really excited.
So it will be, like, time for the
salat, and they'll just and
they'll just, you know, they'll they'll they'll they'll
start,
cranking the Gatling.
And,
the appropriate time for that is what?
The appropriate time time for that is your
own
and in particular,
the, the night prayer that's in Abdullah bin
Abbas
narrates of the prophet, his prayer was so
long that, you know, he wondered, is he
even still alive
or not? And in that sense, it could
refer theoretically
with all deference to Imam Noi to more
than just a.
It includes the. It includes the the sujood.
It includes,
the the the sitting between the sujood and
after the sujood,
etcetera.
But it's a state that a person
puts them self in both in their heart,
in their mind, and in their body,
in, stillness in front of Allah's Allah
This is really important.
Was is here. I spent a good deal
amount of time with them. They call him,
not like. We have some people, they have
the last name,
amongst us because one of their forefathers was
the judge. I was explaining to my children
that, like, you know, to be the judge,
like, you every one of us knows, like,
at least a handful of lawyers. Right?
Very few of us know a judge. And
if you know a judge personally, you probably
don't know so many of them unless you're
actually in that field or in that profession.
And the same thing is that the is
a month of,
of of.
And so only the top tier folk are
you know, you're either a bogus Qadi. If
you're a real Qadi, it's like a very
elite position for someone to be in. And
so he happens to be from, some of
those areas, in his homeland where,
the the the judge still sits
and that the Ijazah of Kaaba is still
there and their,
rulings are still,
enacted.
And he really is a man worthy of,
such a mansib.
And so I I I sat with him,
most of the day yesterday. So if you
hear me peppering some of the things that
he the anecdotes that he put in,
you know, that's why. So one of the
things he mentioned is that I asked him,
I said, what do you think is, like,
your advice to us?
You know, doing work over here in America
and whatever? Like, what should we do be
doing? What should we not be doing? He
says, what kind of advice am I gonna
give you? He says,
himself,
he says that the first thing a person
has to do is
work on being human being.
You have to be a good human being.
Once you fulfill that, it, like, unlocks
something inside of you.
It was the 2nd tier that on top
of that. Although, when you say first, 2nd,
3rd, we're not talking about one after the
other. They're all simultaneous, but
rationally, one is built on top of the
other. You work on on them the same
the same time.
But, just like the you know, the bike
has pedal and brakes at the same time,
but you you know, they're not they're not
they may not be used exactly at the
same time. But if you're not running the
pedal, you're never gonna have a chance to
use the brakes or whatever. Right?
So is the second thing that's built on
top of that is that you have to
be a good Muslim.
The third thing that's built on top of
that is what? You have to then seek
the knowledge of why of the
Rasulullah He said when these three things are
in balance,
then what happens Allah
opens the door of Ilham, that he'll show
you what it is you need to be
doing.
Every person is different, their capacities are different,
their talents are different, their time is different,
their age is different, their circle of people
is different, their temperament is different. Their physical
strength, mental strength is different. So Allah Allah,
I will show you then, you know, what
to do. You you need to work on
these three things before you can,
you know, be be capable of receiving this.
And he gave Dalila as well,
which is. Right? That those who, strive
in our way and in order to get
to us, we will we will guide them
their different paths that that will allow them
to
arrive.
The point of waking up in the in
the middle of the night is not to
be something like that look, oh, look somebody
else is pious. So you should be pious
too. And, like, because they're idiots and they
wasted their time doing this thing, and we're
gonna them.
You also should do the same thing so
that you can also, you know, receive people's
accolades or whatever. At the end of the
day, people used to do these things because
they actually benefit you in your life. They
actually work. Say, no.
Who wasn't a man who used to like
wasting time, and he didn't like people who
wasted time.
So when he's saying that, you know, to
his commanders to look through the ranks of
the people before the eve of battle and
see
who's reading Quran and who's making tahajjud, and
the people who are not doing those things
throw them out because they're gonna be the
reason you lose.
At some point or another, there's more than
just a mystical good luck charm issue with
that. There's some capability inside of a person's
own self,
some siren, some secret inside of their own
self that they unlock through these things.
And so this
salat,
this tahajjud is part of your
being a good human being, and it's part
of your being a good Muslim, and it's
also part of your being a scholar. Especially
those people who are Hafadul the Quran,
Your is gonna be in the salat. Otherwise,
the memorization that people have for tarawih, which
is usually the the bulk of most hafaz's,
their retention of of the Quran.
That's a time that you're
so freaked out about worrying about other people
that, like,
that it's difficult. It's difficult to to ponder.
And in fact, ironically, being a person who's
been like a imam in Masjid, you know,
as a profession from time to time, If
I allow myself to start thinking about what
I'm reciting too much, it's just gonna end
up ruining everybody's prayer. I'll forget which raka
I'm I'm in. I'll get stuck in a
place. Literally, it happens. This is not out
of piety. This is just because,
you know, not everybody is like an expert
juggler. In fact, most people aren't. And so,
this is this is an opportunity for all
of these. There's a purpose for it. It's
not something that's just complete waste of time.
So both,
Bukhari and Muslim, Rahim narrated
said that the most beloved
of prayers to Allah
is the prayer of Dawood
And the most beloved of fasting to Allah
Ta'ala is the fasting of Dawud Alayhi Salaam.
That he used to sleep for half the
night,
and then he used to,
wake up for a 3rd of the night,
and then he used to rest again for
a 6th of the night. So he didn't
so so what what was his that he
would
sleep half of the night?
So in order what's one what's one half
plus 1, where's Abdullah? Abdullahi.
What's 1 half plus 1 6th plus 1
third plus 1 6th? One half, 1 third,
1 6th. What does it what's the total
here?
You're don't you do fractions in elementary school?
Math is your friend even in Islam. Right?
Math is your friend, everybody. Math is your
friend. Yeah. No.
Don't don't don't no cheating. Otherwise, I'm gonna
put you on the spot next time.
I know you know I know you know
this one. I'll pick I'll find the question
you don't know.
It's 1. Like
like, Imran Baisaid
very correctly. It's 1.
So if you're sleeping for a half
and you're
praying for a 3rd and then you're resting
for
the the another 6th. How much time does
that leave for, like, playing video games or
doing other stuff?
A grand total is 0. Right?
So this is one of the the most
effective habits of a person that they can
have is sleep at night.
When you ask somebody, like, just random person
random person in the community, you know
I don't wanna say cultural Muslim in the
sense of, like like, disparaging whether they believe
or questioning whether they have iman or not.
Everybody believes. Right?
But in the sense that they kind of
go go with the flow, they're not like
people formally studied.
Generally, the sensibility is that,
piety has to do with, you know, just,
like, super, like,
self destructive, like, bear the cross level of
devotion.
And
the reality is what? It's just like simple
choices like this. Like, if you go to
the nights are short in the summer. Right?
It's a drag on all of us.
If you go to sleep at, okay, imagine
you pray 10:30 at the masjid, and you
get home by 11. You go to sleep
at 11,
and you wake up at
4:15 in order to make it to the
Muslims for 4:30.
Right?
That's still a decent amount of sleep. Like,
if a person only slept that much, it
may not be a good regimen for the
entire week. You know? But you still can
get through the day,
and you still have enough opportunity to go
to sleep for an hour or 2 before
you
go to work
or to take a when you get home.
The problem is what? Forcing yourself to go
to sleep at that time.
That's what the piety and righteousness is in,
though, in real life. It's not like the
bearing the cross or whatever. It's in doing
that. But interestingly enough, that's actually a much
more self destructive and horribly, like, difficult
thing to do
on the nuffs.
But it does make you a better person,
and it does make you a more efficient
person.
That's
why, you know, like, all of this, it
doesn't start with, like, waking up. All of
it starts with what? Just going to sleep
when when you're done with Isha praying
Isha at its time and
going to sleep when you start. At any
rate, the
the the description of the salat of Sayna
Dawud alayhislam is that he slept half the
night, which is the most restful part of
the night to sleep in, and then he,
woke up for a third and prayed, and
then he
slept or at least rested for the last
6th.
And,
that the most beloved of fasts is
the fast of Dawud alaihis salam,
which is to fast a day and to,
not fast for another day.
So the
commonality or the the kind of the
common denominator between both of the
things that say in the Dawud alaihisam,
both of his spiritual practices was that you
pace yourself so that it
becomes something that is there's more focus and
there's more intentionality in it rather than it
just becoming, like, kind of a road habit.
Now Malik,
I mentioned this is a point. You don't
have to agree with it if you don't
want to, and you don't have to follow
his madhhab if you don't want to. But,
you know, he he his madhhab is that
it's better to actually it's more there's more
virtue in
in,
fasting every day, and there's more virtue in
praying the entire night.
But why is that? Is it because he
wants to make the prophet
Of course not.
The Rasool,
what he's saying is this is look. If
you fast
if you if you wanna get the maximum
that maximum efficiency, right,
this is how you're gonna get it. This
is where you're gonna get it at, the
sweet spot. There's diminishing returns after. There's still
returns, but they're they're not as much. You
don't get as much bang for your buck
for the amount of time you spend doing
things.
And the ideal model for a Muslim is
that they are a balanced person.
Now
if you're in good health,
and you're 19 years old
and you can't get a job,
you have no one to support.
Right? You can go and fast every day
and pray the entire night then.
If you have to go to work and
you have to make ends meet, and if
you don't, you know, your entire family and
your parents are gonna be out on the
street, then by all means,
pray a third of the night. Sleep until
fajr. You know? But this is what this
is the prophetic prescription is what for
a person who's
balanced all of these different things at the
same time that this is the sweet spot.
Because just like this is a balance of
uses of your time in the night or
uses use of days in terms of fasting,
there's also a balance in terms of piety
that the Rasulullah alaihi wasalam has so many
different,
hadith where he mentioned things like there are
certain sins that won't be forgiven except for
through prayers.
There are certain sins that won't be forgiven
except for through fast.
There are certain sins that won't be forgiven
except for through, the difficulty you go through
in order to provide for your family.
The certain sins are forgiven from prayer to
prayer. Certain sins are forgiven from Jumah to
Jumah. Certain sins are forgiven from Ramadan to
Ramadan. Certain sins are forgiven through Hajj. The
person who will
be able to fulfill all these things is
a well rounded person. If for one reason,
Allah shuts one door for you, then you
also have other doors open that you can
still,
move forward with. But the best person is
the one who's the most,
balanced according to what their,
according to what their abilities and their,
their their struggle is. And so that's what
that's what this means. Otherwise, if a person's
not like if you fast, you know, if
you fast for,
like, a day more than, like, every other
day, that somehow
you're, like, losing you're getting a sin or
you're losing at
that point. You're building on top of it,
but there's some diminishing returns that are there.
And so all of it has to do
with balance balance rather than what you do,
like, really excited one night.
That I heard
from the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam, which is the it's
a because
there is something that
that's known in the Usul as Musul Kafi.
That there's a hadith that's narrated,
from the prophet
but there's
there's a gap in the sunad, but it's
a a a subtle gap. So if you
have a companion
who narrates a hadith from the prophet
there is a possibility,
depending on the words that he he uses,
there is a possibility that he didn't hear
it from Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, but
he heard it from another companion.
And this,
they tolerate this. Why? Because the companions, all
of them are upright narrators.
You know, some some what if it's a
Munafi? But they're not gonna narrate for Munafi.
Right? When it comes to Rasul
Musa
himself in his Muqaddama, he considered this to
be,
like, common knowledge
that the the Rasul
said, whoever lies
lies against me,
on purpose
Let them prepare to take a a seed
in the fire.
And it's narrated from a number of the
companions
that they considered lying against
the prophet to have been
to be fulfilled by a person who says
something with the Rasool, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, that
he said it, and
they're not a 100% sure
that he said it, but they don't disclose
that fact. That itself is sufficient to be
considered a lie against Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
So here, there's you know, when you see
that, you can you can at least appreciate
there's some some increase in the,
in in the integrity
of of the claim that he said that
I heard from the messenger of Allah
myself. Right? Like, said,
that he he had there's a there's a
a man from the Ansar. The 2 of
them would alternate days sitting with the prophet
to hear the things that he said.
And one would earn a livelihood, and the
other one would sit sit with him.
And, then they would switch, and then they
would, like, debrief one another, you know, in
the off in the off hour.
That is not one of
those things. This is actually something that he
heard directly that the messenger of Allah
said in every night, there's indeed such an
hour.
And here hour doesn't mean 60 minutes because
they didn't have clocks and things like a
sad. It just means, like, a measure of
time.
There's a measure of time in the night
that
a man from amongst the Muslims and here,
obviously,
man is not it doesn't mean nobody ever
interpreted it. It's not my luck, whatever feminist
reinterpretation of the Hadith
means. It means there's no person.
Whoever,
that from from amongst the Muslims who
reaches that hour or who attains that hour,
and they ask Allah most high, for something
good,
from the affairs of
their dunya
or their hereafter, their their this worldly affairs
or their otherworldly affairs,
except for Allah
will give that thing to that person. He
says that and and Raul, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
he said
emphatically,
he emphasized, although it's already known from the
from the siak and sabak of the of
his of his kalam, from the,
you know, from what's said explicitly and implicitly
from what's been stated so far. But he
then emphasizes again that that happens every single
night. That happens every single night. And so
this is a a blessing Allah
gave
to us and gave to this. Many of
us, again, I'm the first one to file
the plea bargain. We sleep through it too
much,
but,
that does exist. That time does exist. You
don't have to wait for Ramadan or for
Leila Tulkadr or whatever or for them to,
like, have, like, a special in the masjid
or whatever
to cash in on it. It's there. It's
there for everybody.
And the beautiful thing is even though it's
in the
chapter of
the the virtue
of standing in prayer in the night,
the hadith doesn't
explicitly mention prayer.
Prayer is from amongst the states that a
person makes du'a to Allah and calls upon
Allah. It's the most
sanctified
and most powerful of estates. However, sometimes our
sisters,
for example,
there there are days in the month that
they're not able to
pray. Or after delivering a child for some
time, the postnatal bleeding, they're not able able
to pray.
There are times that the brothers are,
you know, like,
either not able to pray or not even
willing to get up.
Even if you're in your bed, even if
you're in the state of Janaba,
the mentioned
that there's no there's nothing wrong with making
dua.
There's nothing wrong with asking for something.
And the nice thing is what?
Is that,
is that to make dua
doesn't require that you be, again, in Tahara.
It doesn't require that you be standing. You
could be anywhere, but what it requires is
the heart that has to be physically present.
Because when nobody else is there,
it's an act of sincerity to remember Allah
when people everybody is remembering whatever person they
love or whatever thing that they love at
that time. And so you have to remember
Allah ta'ala at the bare minimum.
But if you if you're laying in bed,
you could still ask Allah
for all of these things, and that that
that that measure of time is there every
night as well.
And sometimes we ask for silly things, and
then we get them, and then you say,
I should have
I should have asked for Jannah. And
maybe all of us, you know, at some
point we asked for Jannah, and it was
at that time, we won't know until the
other side. Right? That's also a mercy as
well.
And if not, Allah give us that that
moment. But you can look for it. You
can look for it in every night. And
there's a lot of stuff that that that
needs to be asked for. Like, you know,
the Ummah, the affairs of Ummah,
by some standards, seem to be, like, you
know, at least part of it seems to
be, like, in a pretty big mess right
now. So we need people to look for
that time and ask for those things as
well.
But it's something that you don't even have
to theoretically be in salat. But why it's
appropriate to mention
in the
is that the the highest state that the
believer is in is
in the
salat. That's like an angelic state that it's
a state that mimics the angelic state that
because while you're in Tahara,
you're in in ritual purity, you're in in
in in. You're completely standing in obedience.
And so a person the amount
of
and
that
the heart is open to receiving,
it's the maximum. It's just like if a
person is filling us a bottle with a
small neck versus filling a bucket, you can
fill the bucket a lot quicker.
That the the the receptacle is open for
those good things at that at that time
for the person who's aiming their
their antenna
toward a good signal,
at that time, that that's the way to
maximize it. But it's not by any means
the only way a person can do that.
If somebody were to, like, fill their, you
know, like, you know, wanna fill their container
with,
you know, with with something, you know, if
there's, like, gold over here, you know, just
take the small pieces and put it in.
Nobody will go home poor. Trust me.
Even if you cannot pick the big bricks
up, even the small shards of it, if
you can fill a small bottle up with
it, you'll still go home rich.
Said that when one of you stands,
in the night for prayer, then let them
open that,
session of prayer with 2 light,
rakas,
and it's narrated by Muslim.
This is something my,
dear friend
and
Sheikh,
Moana Tamim, he mentioned a very good example
for this. He said that the likeness of
this and the likeness of, for example, praying
Sunna's before your farthest prayer,
it's like the mind is, like, whizzing around
with a bunch of different stuff.
And,
just like, you know, imagine it's like the
ceiling fan
that that some of us have on now.
The weather's a little warmer. Right? That when
you shut the ceiling fan off, like, it
still spins for a little bit. Right?
So it's just a way of letting it
letting it letting it calm down.
I shouldn't say just there are other,
benefits as well. But even even even Alan.
Right?
He mentions here,
that, it the point of it is to
get rid of whatever is left in the
body,
from
sleep
and to
bind
the
nerves
and to strengthen the
strengthen the limbs,
from,
from
their the the break that they come came
from and to
orient yourself,
with complete,
with your with your complete enthusiasm to the
night prayer.
Again, a hadith in a in in a
similar
meaning
that the first one was a of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, a a
instruction to the Ummah. And the second is
that he himself used to do the same
thing. The
narrates that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
When he stood in the night for prayer,
he began his,
session of prayer with 2,
comparatively
light
Muslim.
Said Aisha,
and she also narrates that the messenger of
Allah, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
if for the reason of some sort of
pain or sickness or injury that he had,
he was unable to wake up in the
night in order to, pray,
then he he would
essentially make up those 12 rakas that was
his noble habits
to pray at night. He would make them
up during the day,
which is, again, a concession to the fact
that people sometimes will need more sleep if
you're injured or if you're,
if there's some other issue that's there that,
that this is the way to this is
the way to counter counterbalance missing it,
completely.
And it's important to to mention, by the
way, that, you know, these hadith these last
two hadiths are narrated by who?
Who obviously
being the one that,
from amongst
he's she spent the most time with her
compare comparatively that it's narrated. So that,
Souda bint Zama'a gave her a turn to
say the Aisha
when she became older.
And,
she so she comparatively spent the most time,
and she had
a very long life after the messenger of
messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. That
when she when Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
passed away, she was compared to the young.
And
if you, wish to,
imbibe the world view of Facebook and Twitter
and, like,
whatever, then the entire thing about Shida Aisha
is, oh, look, she was so young when
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam married her.
And from our point of view, you see
the books are of Ilmar filled with her
narrations.
And it's known that ibn Saidna Omar who,
would not
protest when she gave opinion during his caliphate
against his opinion.
And that if she wanted to say anything
about
him that she wanted to, she would have,
and she did.
She literally did.
Many of her fatawa
that she gave were in stark contrast to
other companions, and some of them even the
ladies, it was awkward for them. She was
an. She was a. She was in her.
She was
not an. Right? The ladies came to the
prophet the the said Aisha complaining that Omar
is not allowing us to come to the
Masjid
with the hadith in hand, armed with the
hadith that that the prophet
said, don't forbid the women from coming to
the masjid.
And what did say the Aisha
say? She said, if he knew if the
Rasulullah
saw how you you come to the masjid,
he would have banned you as well.
Which is what? It's not It's not, you
know, they brought a hadith as Dalil. What
is she she's she's telling them, you haven't
understood the the the hadith properly.
And, you know, so she was not a
person if you read, you know, she's not
a person who held her opinion back. But
every time she mentions him and speaks about
him, she speaks about him with love
as if he was a blessing in her
life, not anything else. And for us also,
their love was also a blessing for us
as well because if it wasn't for their
love, then,
you know, how would we know any of
these things?
You
know,
was not the one who spent the last
third of the night with the Rasool
when he was in his home.
Despite the the the the the the magnificent
and grand
gave him
above the entire,
umma of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
But this is something that
we, you know, we we are we are
in debt to.
So think of that whenever Shaitan says something
stupid in your head and in my head
because, you know, we're affected by people and
things around us, that this is is what
the reality is.
Allah said,
whoever
sleeps through their
or some part of their,
and then they read it later,
after they wake up for Fajr,
between anytime between Fajr and between Dhruh.
It will be written for them as if
they read it in the night.
What is the what is the hizb? Right?
Here is like a synonym for what we
what we also refer to as like a.
Abdulai,
do you have a?
Yeah.
Do you keep it? Don't answer that question
in front of anybody.
Right? But this is a question we all
should ask ourselves. Right?
And this is another thing you can't talk
about for whatever reason. You can go to
Jummah for 7 lifetimes in America, but you'll
never hear the word hezbur weird like mentioned
in this
context. And if you do,
that's you're talking like a Sufi. Here's the
Sufi said,
And he's not it's not his words. Who's
he narrating from?
Which is what? What is the his what
is the word that a person has? What
is a hisb that a person has? It's
obviously, everybody has to pray 5 times a
day, so it's not the fara'iv.
But it's some
amount of
that are
that a person does as a personal practice
that they hold to and they do it
regularly. So
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is saying that
if you're his from the night, whether it's
recitation, whether it's a dhikr, whether it's the
salat from the context of Imam Nawi putting
it in the Bab right in the
you know, that that should be prime amongst
those possibilities, but it's not the only one.
That whoever sleeps through their heads for whatever
reason,
because they didn't set their alarm
before they woke up in Turkey with the,
like,
super loud adhan, which is Allah give us
all the of, like, you know, being there.
We can do it here in America as
well.
In Turkey, at some point or another, they
used to actually kill people for giving the
adhan
in the republican era. America never had that
that that that era. Someone said, well, the
city of Wood Dale doesn't give me permission.
Who told you? Who Put a gun to
your head and said that, like, you know,
you and your 40 best friends all have
to live in Wood Dale or whatever. Right?
Go win an election or build a city
somewhere else. You can do it. If you
really want to, you can do it. But
since all of us wanna live comfortable distance
away from somebody else
so that we can be good Muslim on
on Fridays and or, like, on at most
of the events and wear a nice chukar
clothing that or whatever online,
Muslim,
swag, and
then, you know,
be a different person on Monday or what.
Okay. Fine. I mean, maybe it's hard then.
But, like, you
you can do that. You can because context
is what? Like, no one's gonna sleep to
fajr. Right? That's just that just doesn't happen.
Right?
We have to remedially get to that point
as well, but that's a different that's a
longer,
discussion. It's a different module of the of
the project Insha'Allah.
The the point here is that the person
who sleeps through it
for whatever reason, good, bad, ugly, whatever it
is, even if it's a wrong reason, if
you even if you're like, I'm really sleepy.
Right? Qazi Sab was mentioning that some student
of knowledge came from all the way to
to study,
and,
he came really, really late, and then and
then and then
the person who woke wakes people up for
Fajr,
who's the most hated person in every madrasa.
And, admittedly, one of the most pious people
in every madrasa
simultaneously hated because, viscerally, you associate even if
you heard the person's voice during the day,
you associate their voice with the pain of
having to wake up for fudger.
Right? So, like, you involuntarily, you just hate
the person even though you know inside your
head that that person is a good good
person.
You know?
So is it that the the the the
the the sheikh who is assigned to wake
the students up for Fajr is waking this
guy up who just arrived late in the
night from Guhaat.
And involuntarily,
when when waking him up for Fajr, the
guy just, like, burst out. He says, look.
He goes, there are 2,000 masjids between here
and Quahat. I could have prayed Fajr in
any of them. I just came here to
learn dars, so don't waste my time as
Fajr. Words he probably, inevitably, not only himself
personally regretted when he woke up, the probably
made sure he regretted when he woke up,
through a process of love
and that might be classified as abuse nowadays,
in America. But at any rate,
love and nonetheless,
the
the ideas what whatever. If you have one
of those moments, it happens to every single
one of us.
If it doesn't happen to you, make for
me, you're a good person, better person than
me. Happens to every one of us, at
some point or another. It happens to every
one of us.
And the best of us are the ones
who are, like, quickly
able to restrain it and able to hide
the fact that it happens from other people
relatively well. Otherwise, weird things happen inside the
heart. It's kind of it's kind of up
and down inside. Whatever it is. You slept
through your
for
whatever reason, good, bad, or ugly.
Said, the
messenger of Allah said, if when you do
finally get your wits about and your your
your uncle together and, like, wake up, At
least pray it after after your fajr,
and between your fajr and between between the
crack of dawn and
and between,
the time of.
If you can do even that much, Allah
ta'ala,
writes it
as if you prayed it in its correct
time. But the issue is this, is that
for in order
for that deal to be valid, you have
to have at some point or another intended
to regularly do it at night, otherwise, it's
not your his.
The second question that we have to ask
ourselves in order to,
engage with the hadith properly is, like, do
we have a hisb
That we can say I slept through it
or I didn't?
That we can say, okay, I slept through
it, now I'm gonna do it in the
daytime?
What is your?
Am
I give him long life after the death
of several of the elders from our. Now
he's our elder
because he's an elder now. He's the the
ones older than him have passed now, so
he's there. So,
I hear him so many times in Bayan.
Right? You're you're you're of
of of zikr that they said that even,
like, illiteratively, you should be doing
forget about that. The discount is that you
should do this much, like, you know, in
the day.
Ustadji says if you can't do if you
can't do a 100 of this and a
100 of that then do 10 of this
and 10 of that. And then he finally
says what? He said that that if you
can't even do that, he says do every
one of the zikrs one time.
Condense all of the avkar of the different
times at one time and just say them.
You're the duljif say it one time, you're
salat in salam, and the prophet
say it one time. You're still far. Say
it one time in the day. Literally, it
wouldn't take you much more than 10 seconds
to do the whole thing. He says he
says that when people tell me that I
forget and I can't I I don't remember
to do that, he said, I don't know
what to tell you anymore.
This is not just like, like
like
one particular sheikh, his take on Islam.
This is the tradition of our mashaikh, our
elders,
the ones who the people in the Bilad
and the Sharq and Garb, they entered Islam
at their hands. The government is not going
to wanna forfeit
like Jizyah
revenue.
Right?
Armashai, what did they say? My own Sheikh,
Mawana Abdul Halim Chishti
his nephew came to visit at Dar al
Qasim once, the son of his brother. He
said, my father,
Mawana Abdul Halim,
was a graduate of Nadua in the old
days. He said, I didn't wanna go to
Darsen Zami. I went and, like, got a
degree in literature. He's a he was a
professor of literature, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala have
mercy on him. He he even passed away.
We had such a good time. Me and
Milana Bilal, Sheikh Amin sat with him, and
he mentioned that he said that I my
father made sure I read at least through
the.
One day, I had to go do some
work at the university,
a registrar
that was only possible to do at the
time of our, so I said, Abhaji, I'm
going to
do this thing. I can't take darsh today.
So he says, Abhaji said, why don't you
sit sit for 10 minutes? He's like, no.
No. No. I gotta go. So why don't
you why don't you,
just, you know, sit for 5 minutes? He
says, no. I gotta go. Like, the this
thing has been stuck for a long time.
You know, bureaucracy is bad enough over here.
It's even worse in in in our
countries that, some of us may be from,
or some of us may be from soon.
The
he he says he says, why don't you
just read one hadith? He says, no. I
just gotta go. And he said that he,
like, tilted his, like, spectacles down and looked
at me straight through the top of the
spectacles. He says, why don't you just read
one letter? Then he he said, I realized
he's not joking. He's not playing around right
now.
Why? Because when you miss the the one
letter, then that means that it's
it's not the registrar that you're that's that's
the reason you're going. Something else is happening
here. You know?
So we should also remember the you know,
have our his if you're his wisdom read
had three times, you know, before the crack
of dawn or whatever some point in the
night. And if you sleep through it,
then read it during the daytime,
then at least you'll be, like, if our
names are in the, like, the bottom of
the list of the people who are associated
with this hadith,
it's better that you're on the list as
well.
At least that it's better at least that
you're on the list rather than being
absent from it
because,
a day will come when people will regret
will regret,
very sorely,
not being, on the list. Allah
give all of us
So
a couple of things.