Hatem al-Haj – Manāzil as-Sa’irīn #75 – Chapter on Taste

I'm about to proceed. Today inshallah we will finish the section on Allah when

the states Enter Enter spiritual states

that's from station 61 to station 70 Today we will cover station 70 which is the station of hard faced

shala next time we

next time we next time we have a scale session

I don't know if

we will do two factor sessions next time or not, we will talk about later inshallah, next time we do a scan session we will start the section on it will add when I add is the plural of valaya while I as intimate friendship, translated sometimes I've seen her translated sometimes as holiness.

So, when I

is the singular one I add the section that we will cover next inshallah will be the section on

and then thereafter there will be a section on it

which is choose

and then there will be the section on an area which is endings basically the ending of the past to Allah and the stations,

the you know, the highest stations, but as we said before the stations overlap and no one can ever deny that

what we've already covered is of the highest stations or the highest station at least in the prophetic terminology.

And so, this would be inshallah, what we will cover

in this

session and then we will talk about the loss, which can be translated as misappropriation.

But if you want to translate it in a way that is more descriptive, because misappropriation could be the Miss in this misappropriation could mean different things, but in particular, means that wrong full force equal, appropriate appropriation or seizure of the property of others, wrongful and forceful. Each one of those words is consequential and is necessary for proper definition, wrongful forcible appropriation of the property of others.

Let's first go over Zocor taste that Mr.

Holloway who died in the 480 if anyone after hedger said that his Bookman as it was it was

the law the Almighty said this is a reminder that in sort of sod

cutter laws

This is a reminder and then the second and certainly the relevance of this as

well and his book modality seddiqi in comments that have relevance to the topic, though, is that

xic is

a prerequisite for what comes after it though, because a prerequisite for what comes after it or the or the decree is a prerequisite for

after you remember you start to taste

but like I said all of those spiritual states overlap and also Someone may say that you will not have proper they currently have property or properties.

Then she proceeds to define as though and he said though Capcom in other words do agile Amina bark.

Up communal words were agile aminal bark

Selassie

taste is more permanent than words and clearer than Barack and it is a free level.

We've gone over what didn't work before, what is the intense spiritual

sort of experience that is not invoked, nor it is earned, but rather granted. And it is brief.

And we said that Barak the lightening is also an intense spiritual state. But unlike other words the witches encountered on the past, the bark is encountered, prior to embarking on the past, invites you to come in, it's a permission for you to come in. And he's saying that a vamp is more firm, permanent and clearer, more permanent than at work, because it is brief, it is transient, but as ALC is a station that is stay in, it makes you a better taster of haka Appleby, man, the truth of the man and

it's more permanent and also when it comes to

the lightening lightening may not be very discernible by you, whereas the taste is clearer.

And there is there is no ambiguity

when it comes to having the right taste, the prophets Allah mentioned the concept of zoek when he said the catarman Eman, Marathi Avila yarrabah Islam Idina, Wahby Mohammedan surah, how

he tasted, the man the man is reported by Muslim from the lower animal, he tasted the savor of faith, amen, He who is content or pleased with Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, or the and the Mohammed as his prophet, or messenger. So,

in this the Prophet sallallahu Sallam tells us about the person who is going to be able to taste face, not just

acquire it through intellectual inquiry, but rather taste it, feel it, experience at the level of the heart, not the one who accept

because that is what the air where the evidence led him accepted. Allah says Lord Muhammad is His Messenger and Islam as is the but it is the one who's can tend to with as Robbie, Robbie

it's not just a simple qaboun or acceptance, but it is rather which is to be pleased with adds pleasure, contentment, so to be pleased with content with Allah subhanaw taala as your Lord Islam as your deen and Mohammed as your messenger. This is a phase that is higher than Islam, piloted by Amanda polenta. ameno Anakin Kudo has

the the nomads the nomadic Bedouins say

and this is certainly you know, this is America lobby. So the the nomadic Bedouins around the messenger. This is about the majority of them. It does not mean that there could not be a nomadic bedwin who is actually a

faithful believer or a moment.

But this is about you know the the majority condemned to Omarosa, you have not yet had a man Well, I can kudos man. But say we accepted Islam, Islam, we became Muslim we accepted Islam. So the distinction here Allah subhanaw taala granted that you are Muslim me, you have said let Allah Allah so Allah and you're not lying about. You've truly accepted Islam. You're not hypocrites. But you are not a tr you are not mania. And as we said before, Islam and the man is that stuff taco is after a customer. When they are together in the same sentence. They mean different things. And when they're mentioned separate

directly, they mean the same thing. So when you put Islam and email together in the same sentence, you probably want to say that there are different things. And when you mentioned Islam or Eman

separately, like you talk about Islam, that is just like a man, like a man is like Islam. So they are synonymous when they are mentioned separately, but they are different when they are mentioned together in the same sentence. And when they're mentioned together in the same sentence, email could be related to

the beliefs, you know, and Islam could be related to the practices or Eman could be a higher

level than Islam. So Allah subhanaw taala tells them here that you know, you are Muslim me, you have accepted Islam, you do say that Allah, Allah, truthfully, but you are not believers. So, in the sense that you are not momineen, you have not ascended to that level yet. If you say if you want to send to that level, you want to have pleasure with Allah as your Lord, you know, Islam as your deen Muhammad, as his as your messenger, you want to be content with this, and you want to be happy about, it should make a difference. You should be rejoicing in the fact that you have accepted face to Allah subhanaw taala had to deal with this, the, you should be grateful, thankful, you know,

pleasure, all of the manifestations of having pleasure and contentment with it's not like, you know, you're you consider it a favor on Allah subhanaw taala, that you have accepted faith, you will recognize this favor, that he selected you to be one of the believers. So, then the automaty man, he will taste the savor of faith, he is pleased with Allah as his Lord Islam as the religion and Muhammad is His

Prophet, or messenger.

I want to say that Tay is a this is a you know, so once you have tasted the faith, which, like I said, is different from merely accepting

the religion.

Because this is where the evidence led you, then you become capable of tasting the other truth of Revelation, and the universal truth as well.

You once you have face to face, then your taste becomes appropriate, then you could hear her hobbies and have the proper taste when it comes to understanding of this hobbies.

You have the proper taste and understanding the program.

And in applying the hobbies or applying the program, it's not the mere knowledge. It's also the taste that refines the knowledge

is the place that the tree finds the state will never be a substitute for the knowledge of Sharia. But it will always augment our understanding of it, refine our understanding of it.

So basically, like you have, you have a lens

and it's smudgy.

When you remove this module, you will have a better sort of perspective.

And that is what the purification of the heart of those, when you make when you have this proper taste, you had already purified your heart, you don't have the smudge on the lens. So you removed yourself interests, you have removed your biases. And now the tool

is more capable of perceiving the truth and the facts. So

one thing that is that is important here with he'll start by

maybe we should talk about it when we get to it. We're gonna get to it right now. So, so what this is saying is develop is more permanent than what it is not. It is you know, it is

quality that you will have to an established quality you become you become a person of taste propriate taste

and this will enable you to have the proper understanding of the act the hobbies, the way of the righteous predecessors because you have become a person of taste person who removed the smudge of the lens lens person who had

transcended their self interests and their biases. Now the machine is working correctly, it will perceive the Choose correctly

then he said Raja Raja it is a three levels Raja una volta sleepy tamela. The first level is the tasting of belief the savor of the promises thereby. So when your belief your your your

sleep, tastes, the savor of promises the promises of Allah subhanaw taala. Now you're not only trusting the promises, you've tasted the promises of Allah subhanaw taala. So, once you have tasted

follow the rules one doubts do not restrain it doubts do not restrain and restrain belief. Keep in mind that doubts would restrain belief a belief is not is not augmented by taste, have belief is established through intellectual inquiry alone. Doubts will restrain it will hinder it, because there is no argument that is that proof.

When it comes to intellectual inquiry, there is no argument, intellectual argument on the existence of God or, you know, whatever arguments they mentioned ontological cosmological teleological anthropic principle, when it comes to intellectual arguments, they're not doubt proof. And the

philosophers have always

sort of recognized Stephen, the faithful philosophers, to a large extent, particularly from Constantine, they have recognized that the sort of intellectual path to face is somewhat deficient.

That's why you find someone like Emanuel Khan, who was faithful himself, he said, I had to deny knowledge, to make room for faith or to make room for belief. I had to deny knowledge to make room for faith or to make room for belief. What did he mean by saying, I have to deny knowledge. Because, you know, knowledge, particularly, then during confinement, prior to have to be so certain ad hoc to be acquired through very rigorous,

logical process to be called knowledge. And that is why, you know, sometimes even from the time of David Hume was the first person to talk about the psychology of belief in some detail and so on.

They were not really saying that belief is not rational. They were not saying that faith is not rational, they were saying that it is rational. But, you know, there's got to be other ways to acquire it reach certainty, it is, you know, a logic the logical argument alone or sort of the logical process alone will not lead you to certainty

whatever that logical because because you have like different types of arguments, you have the analytic a priori argument, which is called deductive argument that's good for math and stuff like this. And you have the ape, posterior right? empirical argument that is the good for natural sciences.

And then you have the abductive and inductive arguments, and if you combine them all,

do those vospers. They don't lead you to surgery, but certainly, with the abductive argument and inductive argument added to the different the other types of arguments, they could lead you to certainty but what is

More important for us to understand is that natural belief and experience. So belief, natural belief is this continuous belief

that is the source of your proclivity to believe it is the

tendency to believe it is the, the the god gene as they describe it, that we're hardwired to believe in God, the remains of the primordial covenant that remains of me separate outward with acara becoming very adamant. Koreatown Mashallah Hamada and fussy mothers to get up, become beholden your Lord took from the loins of Adam out his progeny, offspring, and then made them testify against themselves? Am I not your Lord, they said, We you are. That is the first covenant that is the primordial covenant. And the second one, the remains of this is the gaji, the hardwiring, that makes us prone to that makes us in need of faith, belief. So that's natural belief. And then you have the

experience of belief which will come after you taste, faith, after you experience faith, that is when you taste phase, that is when you have experiential belief, if you add the natural, and the experience, to the intellectual arguments, so before the intellectual arguments, you have that natural belief that is pushing you to look for God to find the God and then through the intellectual argument, you come to realize all sorts of you know, whether it is the inductive,

empirical, in some sense about, you know, not God God himself, but to some sense about the manifestations and so on.

And then the abductive and inductive, then you become established, you know, you say that, yes, this makes sense. To the philosophers, this alone does not need certainty, but add to it natural before and then add to it after you have accepted face your experience, face your face than your face. And then this reach these things these combine will get you to a level of certainty. That is Maximus

disambiguation.

Yeah, he'll

be speaking in relation to Christianity.

No, no, he was not talking about Christianity as a doctrine, per se, but he was talking about, you know, metaphysics, he was talking about proving God through dialectics proven God through a logical process of the duction a priori knowledge, you know, using the cosmological argument using the teleological argument, to prove the existence of God, and to talk about the nature of God, he was not talking about Christianity, Christianity, per se, he was talking about the metaphysicians and their efforts

to prove certain metaphysical facts.

So, if you combine them all together, then you will have you will have the certainty

interval mamina the dynamic overlay or some of the some of the true believers or those who believed in Allah and His Messenger, then they did not have doubts, then they did not have doubt, this experience of faith is important for one to, you know, eliminate doubts, to not allow doubts, because, like I said, the intellectual arguments alone will not be doubt proof, or not doubt proof.

further than doubts do not restrain it Do not restrain that belief what a man hopes to do not interrupted what to whom near and wishes do not impeded and wishes do not impede the difference between hopes and wishes, is that hopes are usually you hope in something that is tenable. That is adequate.

That you could heard that you could have,

but wishes are usually in reference to things that are beyond reach. wishes are usually and some people have wishful thinking and, but, but then hopes and wishes will not interrupt that belief will not impede that belief from reaching its final destination.

Then the checks, do adonijah to Sania zoco irati melones. The second level is the tasting of comfort in intimacy which is owned by the will thereby falala will be Sharon, it does not get tethered by any diversion.

That will, you know, we're talking the first the first one is about the cutters about, you know, the steel faced in the subject of the promises, your faculty of believing faced in the truthfulness of the promises.

And then this second level is the level where your will

face the comforting intimacy after you have advanced on the path and then you start to experience discomforting intimacy with your Lord, that will becomes energized. It is not just the lead that is not just believing the promises, but rather, your will, which is the most important part in you, you will, you know, that's the resolve will, you know, the will is your driver

to good or bad. And as I

said that, you know, Helen Khurana Kudrow in Mexico, or Costa Rica,

you have to go So, mobile. So the public or the masses say that everyone can be everyone is measured according to what they master.

And the hearts of the elites say that everyone is measured according to what they seek, what they pursue, not what they Master, their aspirations, not their aptitude, not their aptitude, but rather, their aspirations, the will, and the resolve, that they have to aspire for greater things. So political liberty in May, or cinema is what the public would say, everyone is measured according to their aptitude, you know, that which the master and the house

would say, or the elites will say that everyone is should be measured according to their aspirations, not their aptitudes, that which they seek or pursue. So that well now that now we're you know, the first one was about, you know, you will believe and to will have some people have this, you know, certainty of belief, but then there's not alone move them does not alone, drive them you're certain you know, and you've had the intellectual and the the the natural and everything and some of the experiential as well. And now this reaches you to a level of certainty that is doubt proof because then you're certain

but then

you don't have the drive that's why the

that's why the very I says in the memo, you know, that we've cited before in the denominator 24 millimeter tablet, how do we make it more visible?

Verily, how do

non

verily the believers are the ones

to be the labor force, you

know, when we know the levina amueblado

to be invisible visibility, okay, and the minimum you know, in a verily the believers are the ones

sort of,

you know, verily the believers are the

Ones who believe that a line is messenger, and then have no doubts. And then submillimetre, then they have no doubts.

And so for the cause of Allah, with their money, that striving for the cause of a Lost Planet, Allah Jihad for the cause of Allah subhanaw taala with their money and their lives,

risking their you know, their wealth and their lives, that is the will, you know, so, sometimes certainty does not lead people who have low resolve, people who have low result, sir, certainty will not be enough for them to lead them to good works to the higher aspirations, because they are people of low resolve.

He says here, the second level is tasting, the tasting of comforting intimacy owns by the will thereby allow them to be each other, that does not get tethered by any diversion. Now, if the well

is energized, if the weather is energized, by tasting phones, tasting, that that comfort of intimacy with your Lord, that we're less energized, then no diversion will tether it down, we'll pull it down, we'll hook it down to this Dornier or to you know, succumb to, you know, way down towards the earth, their aspirations will be always higher, higher, transcendent, transcendent, they're not way down, not tethered to this areas or to the life of this world.

What I have said who are that it does not get corrupted by interferences does not get

corrupted by interferences, any interference, we're not

on the way you could be, you know, sometimes, the difference between the chakra is the sacral is the destruction of a version from the side of the road. The

The art is an interference on the road, it's like a bump

that you need to get around or get over on the road can sometimes thou art can sometimes be caused by yourself.

And sometimes your own recognition of your own work as odd that that could hurt you. So your own sort of recognition of your own work of your own salon delayed or your own charity had becomes an interference because once you're seeing your work you're seeing yourself and that obstructs you becomes the art of that interference between you and watching your Lord and being observant of your Lord and being grateful towards your Lord who enabled you to pray or enabled you to give that charity. So the art is on the way that

it's different from the Sangha, which is a diversion or distraction. And then what I took at the root Africa pan, so it will not be tethered by any diversion weighed down by any diversion. It will not be corrupted by any interferences on the road. And it will not be spoiled by any dispersion, to not be spoiled by any dispersion. dispersion is when you're

when you're watching via recognition of the multiplicity of creations and events hinder you from realizing the oneness of the Creator, the first and the final cause God you know, and that happens often. You know how many things are distracting us now? are a lot of things that are distracting us.

That is the that is dispersion that is the flicker.

And we're always we always ask this to flip and then it is important also.

There was like recently, a new

study coming out of Germany published by the American psychology

American

Association, American psychology Association have something about the you know the effect of that feeling of oneness with a Divine Principle.

On the human, and on our levels of satisfaction and our levels of gratification. So they, they basically

interviewed many people of different faiths backgrounds. And they found that the people who scored the highest, and that's in Germany, and they found that people who scored the highest were the Muslims, and the people who scored the lowest were the atheists, which would be expected for sure, because there's so much stuff records, you know, there's that, that that sense of oneness, that sense that all things are in one hand, that that sense of, you know, the,

you and your feeling of oneness with, with the divine, also your feeling of oneness, your, your togetherness with the divine,

it would be, you know, x expected, I guess, that the atheist would score the lowest on this scale. So, but they found that the Muslim scored the highest, when we talk about one is the you, you take it for granted, because you just because you just grew up thinking that there is one God created this universe, we're all going back to. So you have a certain degree of that feeling of oneness that you take for granted. But you cannot imagine the effect of not having this, you know, when you know,

everything around you will be, you know, just piecemeal retail, there is there is no overarching wisdom, or meaning or anything,

becomes a very, very draining very sort of taxing to the soul. So let's look at data with a flick I will not be spoiled by any dispersion, your belief, in fact, which is important for our Sunday understanding of Gemini and Gemini and these things, union and togetherness, so that we don't get into sort of neoplatonic emanation and modernism, we don't get into sort of the these philosophical Sufi trends that have had

very grave impact on the leader of the Muslims, particularly at certain

junctures of our history, where you don't discern any more between the creator and the creation, because there is only the creator and we're all part of the one. No, we're not part of the one Islam is very clear, there is a creator and there is a creation, and the Creator is not the creation and the creation is not the Creator, that our sense of a sense of oneness, our realization that our Creator God, the Creator, truly created things out of nothing, nothing.

And those things that he created, out of nothing are existed, because of they are not existence, existence, then there is no miracle there and there is no power, there is no concept of creation, to begin with. But our creators are recreating and creating things out of nothing, they are existent.

But at the end of the day, their existence existence is contingent, isn't it have a beginning it's contingent, and even their everlasting goodness, which we believe that some of his creations will be everlasting, the souls of the believers by consensus,

are everlasting. So the everlasting mess of the believers in Paradise is also contingent. Upon hire you, the living by himself, for you, the self sustaining, we are all being sustained by him, even in Paradise, not like going to be just like we're able to sustain ourselves, we're sustained by him. So our recognition that we're being sustained by him is the first and the final cause and so on, will make that multiplicity of things around us sort of almost vanish. You know, in our in our calculations, that is an hour, not an not in our understanding that in our calculations, you don't, you know, factor them and in your calculations, the pleasure of your Lord, conformity with the will

of your Lord is your ultimate pursuit. That's, that's it. That is the oneness. That is that togetherness that we're talking about. And this is the most beautiful thing, and this is the most calming thing, to the soul,

to the psyche and most grateful

Fine. So, keep in mind that we have this difference between togetherness and union in the sense of Mormonism, our union is not in the sense of Mormonism, our union is in the sense of togetherness with God, you know or he conforming to the will of God, to have complete conformity with the will of God subhanho wa Taala. And then he said, what data to salaries and third level, he said, important to try to solve the disconnected facing the disconnecting the disconnected tasting,

connectedness, that disconnected tasting, connectedness. So, after you have, you know,

and the totality is talking about here is this connectedness, you know, he considers the first and the second level to be still disconnected,

the final level which is complete conformity with the will of the Divine, complete conformity with the word of the Lord, when you have, when the, the sort of the word vanishes in your perception and your calculations, not necessarily perception, but in your calculations in the sense that, the nothing, nothing at all, whatever they vary due from seeking the pleasure of a loss, that is, when you start the connectedness, facade was your Lord.

And, and that is he, you know, puts this in the third level, because, he means to say that this is basically the face of the earth. And as we said before, that is the significance

because, it is the Sufism of sobriety not Sufism of intoxication, the SU version of subsistence that the Sufism of violation

that we

that we are for or the that we command

and seek to learn from. So, that is the suddenly funnel is he says here, that after you have been disconnected then you start to taste, connectedness

and that is part of this phase of sunny financial planning of your will into the divine with

without calling him Mattie Tom and Gemma, the one with great resolve tasting togetherness with the divine without him at Tom and Gemma, the one with great resolve tasting togetherness with the divine. And then he said without putting Samarra t Tama Yan and tasting the beholding of the Divine during your soft conversation. So someone who is in prayer the night prayer that's the Maharajah was their Lord, they are in thick. And the

animal Samarra during this soft conversation with their Lord, whether they are in prayer or they are nvic. You know, imagine someone in the middle of the night and they are praying. And they got to the seventh Makkah, for instance.

The time of Sahar and then

Tom and I and the savor of watching beholding the divine, certainly you're not going to be on the divine, with eyes of your head that's talking about the eyes of your heart.

If Moosa was not granted that you're likely not going to be granted, you're not most of a sudden.

So,

but

he to some extent, the eyes of the heart can have the same level of certainty like the eyes of the head. So it is a an in this case, like eyesight watching. Am means eyesight, you know, watching by eyesight, because the eyes of your heart have become extremely discerning, extremely powerful, capable of citing the divine

eyes of your heart, not your head during the times of soft conversation. That's the highest level of certainty or certitude

that you could ever reach. There was no Tada. Grant is that certainty. May Allah, Allah grant us that comforting intimacy with in his presence in his heart that I could only have a Stanford body or a political arm of 100

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