Hosai Mojaddidi – Foundations of the Spiritual Path (Monthly Sisterhood Halaqa Part 3)
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Welcome, ladies, mashallah, the lads great to see some of you
haven't seen some of you in a while hamdulillah
and those of you who are tuning in, so we are going to break soon,
very soon for Asia within the next few minutes, but just to kind of
bring everyone up to speed, which is gonna thank you, Microsoft. Hi,
John, good to see you. Mashallah.
So we've done as I was mentioning before, you know, in previous
Haluk, as I've done here, we've covered different texts. And last,
I think we started in September, so we missed November because of
the holiday break. People weren't here. But September in October, we
dedicated to starting the reading of a text, which is called the
foundations of the spiritual path. So if you don't have it, maybe
Mary, would you be able to help me? Because could you do that?
Excellent. So we have Mary who can AirDrop it to anybody if you're if
you have your your airdrops open, but it's a it's a PDF, and this
PDF, even for those of you who are watching online, it's very easily
accessible if you do a search. And there's the other end. So maybe we
can type it in the chat for the online folks.
You found it? Is it the son dollar one?
Okay, great. So Mary has it open? Or we'll wait for the event
inshallah. And then we'll resume they come again, everyone hummed
it in. Can you hear me? Yes. So
this is necessary. And shall I think, for the livestream, it is,
but Bismillah.
Welcome back. And I don't know, if you had a chance, I know we had to
stop for prayer. But if you haven't had a chance yet to look
at this PDF, then I invite everyone to please open up the
PDF, so we can look at it together. And I'm just going to
summarize just the first two sections here that we had already
covered in the previous sessions. This is officially session three
of foundations of the spiritual path. As I mentioned, we started
in September, we had October and then November, because of the
Thanksgiving break, we did not have a session. So we're resuming
today. So with that said, this document, the reason why it is
such an important foundational text that I think everybody should
be really familiar with is because it just gives us a roadmap,
something to work with some guidelines and principles. Some,
you know, it points out things that we should consider and think
deeply about because embarking on any things serious, you know,
requires consideration and planning, and thought, and that's
where if you really think about all the things you've ever
succeeded in, likely the ones that you put the most investment in
ahead of time are the ones that you actually, you know, succeeded
with. And you saw through whereas the things that you haphazardly
started or you know, rushed into, they probably did not come to
fruition or it didn't maybe materialize. So that's just human
nature. So this is a roadmap. So what is it, and we're going to
read from it here. So the midzone rock, he's has many great titles.
This is one of them the regulatory regulator of the scholars and the
saints. But he wrote the following document and he says that if
anybody is asked about the foundations of his or her path,
that they should reply, that the foundations of the spiritual path
of Islam are five qualities. So this is basically in order to be
on the path you have to have these five prerequisites or foundations.
The first being taqwa, you have to be a person who is mindful of
Allah subhanaw taala. And he puts that disclaimer, privately and
publicly. So you have to be consistently mindful of a law. So
everywhere you are, essentially, whether you are by yourself, you
are with people, you are at work, you are at the doctor's office,
you're at DMV, the post office, you are at the grocery store,
you're picking up your kids from school, you're in traffic, we
could list on and on and on and on.
A person who is mindful of the last part that doesn't stop, you
know, for anything else, you know, you're always in that, or at least
you tried to be you tried to bring your mind back to, to something of
benefit and obviously, what's more beneficial than to remember your
place and be mindful of God and praise Him and I just take it all
in because there's a lot of
things that we experience in our senses. I mean, if you really
think about just how how much sensory overload we experience as
human beings, especially in today's world, with all the
images we're taking in all of the sounds we're taking in all the
conversations, we're having the music, there's a, there's a lot
but the soul, as we know, was created to know its creator. And
so we have to force ourselves from those distractible states to try
to bring our mind back to what essentially matters. And so being
mindful of Allah's palette and all of those places is really
important. And there's obviously places like the masjid or here in
the house of Allah supplant that this is going to be much easier to
do, you're going to hear the name of Allah. Maybe every few seconds
if you're really paying attention and people are talking in sha
Allah, masha Allah, that party will come the more than will come.
People are constantly remembering Allah and also just being in this
space facilitates that right. So there's obviously places where
it's going to come a lot easier. Can you think of another place
where the remembrance of Allah might come? Easier?
Where is it? Excellent. Yeah. Michelle, the sacred cities,
right. Some of
us here have Hamdulillah. Ben, how many of you have been to the
sacred cities like you've been on on whatever Hajj? Right, it's an
incredible blessing to go there. And it's very easy, obviously, to
be in those spaces. And remember ALLAH, so there's facilitation for
sure.
Where else? Where else? Do you think the ease? Or where else? Do
you think it's easier to remember? God? Maybe even?
There you go. Thank you. That's, that's the one I was looking to
hear or hoping to hear. The cemetery. Right. How many of us
have recently gone? How many? How many have gone to the cemetery
recently? Recently, right?
Marshall every 15 days, that's a beautiful is that your own
practice that you committed to yourself to I have to go every 15
days.
A law
that's so beautiful.
You know, just
I love I love that you have a regiment about that, because it
occurs to me often, you know, as you all are, some of you may know,
I've lost both of my parents all at home. And I've lost loved ones
in the past. And I always think of
how much we love our family members and the people that we
hold so close. But also, I hate to say how easy it is to forget
sometimes, you know, I punish myself often because one of my
intentions of moving to this community was actually to be close
to the five pillars where my father Elijah was buried. And I
said to myself, I'm going to be able to go so much more often
because I live close by. But how I failed, I have definitely fallen
short.
Yeah, no, no, but sister, Michelle, the fact that you had
this beautiful response that was just so
like, confirmed, like every 15 days, I really take great
inspiration from that, may Allah bless you and increase you.
Because if we're really honest with ourselves, we're going to be
one, you know, forgotten, it's just going to happen. And I think
that's something that we have to come to grips with, that this is
the nature of dunya is that, you know, there's, we have sometimes I
think this overinflated sense of self importance, you know, because
we're, we're doing things we're busy, we have positions, we have
jobs, we have titles, people need us, people depend on us, people
count on us, we have dependents. So sometimes you just have to have
that real real talk with yourself and say, like, all great people,
all people in the past, you know, they had their time and then it's
over and then really matters, right? Like who's going to come
visit? Who's going to visit us when we're gone? And those are the
things a lot will obviously determine that. But I think the
cemetery is just another place, it's easy to remember God because
obviously, this is the final end of our, you know, in this world
anyway, the worldly sense where we where we will all end up. So those
are places where there's facilitation, but there's also
places where it's very difficult to remember Allah subhanaw taala
What about that? What what do you think it's, it's challenging, more
challenging to remember Allah would be a very common place that
we all go to all the time.
Work, right.
That's actually a good point. So you could want to be or you could
be thinking of him but you can't be fully immersed in that process
of thicket right? It's difficult your our minds can usually only do
one or two things at a time. I mean, women handed out we have the
advantage of being able to multitask but even then, to
concentrate on work, and exactly execute properly and maintain
a state of total remembrance is difficult.
You know, another place that I that comes to mind, somatic
unwelcome is the marketplace, right? The Marketplace, which is
one of the places that we are taught as Muslims to try to avoid,
you know, to be not the window shoppers that just walk around and
waste their day at the marketplace. Because there's fitna
in the marketplace, right? Your eyes overwhelmed the dunya, which
the material world is enticing, it's seductive. And so it actually
is a place designed to make you forget about Allah subhanaw taala.
Therefore, when you go to the marketplace, you should have a
purpose. Right, you should seek to get what you want, and then get
out and I recently I had to go to the mall. And you know, I don't
know how many of you are in my generation. But back in the days,
the malls were buzzing places, you know, you it was so overcrowded,
and people went there for that purpose, because that's the place
to just people watch to just waste your day. And as teenagers that
was like the place to be, you know, every teenager, that my
generation, we just want to go to the mall, hang out place you go
from the morning or as soon as you can and spend all day. And it
obviously sounds fine, fine when you're in that age. But as you
grow older, and you realize, you know, what were you really doing
there, you were just consuming, you're taking in a lot of things
that, you know, whether it was good or not, I mean, obviously
it's subjective, but you're, you're not remembering a lot. And
then how oftentimes when you're in those places, let's say you're
eating, you're going to the theater, you're going shopping,
you're likely going to be using the restroom, which means you're
not going to be able to maintain we'll do we'll do is out the door
means prayers out the door. So these are the fifth one of these
spaces, right, that we have to really think about. And I think as
women, you know, we have a lot of purchase power, as they say, We're
the, you know, for marketers anywhere, we're the number one
demographic because they know we love to shop. So I really think
for us we need to take this message to heart that when we talk
about mindfulness of ALLAH SubhanA, WA Tada, it's going to be
difficult to maintain that state if we do not make choices that
facilitate mindfulness, right. So if you're going to spend a lot of
your time or seek even on weekends, where your weekend is
precious time, right precious time to really be trying to catch up on
things. But if now the weekend becomes the day where you are
going to spend with your girlfriends or your sisters, all
day just window shopping and eating, you're likely going to not
be doing this right which is which is what we're called to do, to
remember a loss of profit. So there's many places that we can
list. Again, places that facilitate the remembrance of
Allah doesn't. But he specifies that as the number one criteria of
being on a spiritual path, you have to be a person who
understands the importance of taqwa, who, who maintains that
GPA. And that's how you do it. And it's consistent across the board,
whether you're by yourself or in public, it doesn't matter. You're
just a person who's trying to really remember your Lord and your
purpose. That's number one. Then he says, adherence to the Sunnah
in word and deed. So after you've checked that first box, that you
are a person who's committed, you truly are mindful of our law, you
put that into practice. Now he's telling us that you also want to
be a person that follows the Sunnah of the prophesy centum in
your words, and in your actions you got you have to be consistent.
So some people may have knowledge of the prophesy centum Sierra of
his Hadith, they may know certain qualities about him, right, like
if you've read the Shema, if you have certain, certain knowledge
about the way that the prophesy set, spoke, or or ate or walked,
and you know those things, but then in your own behavior in your
own actions, you're not implementing that. That's clearly
a disconnect. Because why? What is stopping you? What is preventing
you from applying the Sunnah, right? What Why is it that you
just have that knowledge? And for some people, it's not even that
they're not applying the Sunnah. But they're actually doing the
opposite of what they know, which is obviously hypocrisy. And that's
we definitely don't want to do that. If you know that the browser
ism did certain certain things a certain way, but you're going
counter to his way, then that's something you need to work out. So
that's the second quality he lists and then he says, indifference to
whether others accept or reject one. So being free from the burden
of seeking validation from human beings, because it is a burden.
It's a big burden, right? Absolutely peer pressure,
capitulating to the norms that are set by society.
The by culture, you're never we're never going to please people, if
we're always trying to meet the expectations of human beings who
are faulted, you know, we are people have flaws, and we don't
always have things, right. Whereas Allah subhanaw taala, he's
perfect. So when he sets a standard, then obviously, there's
no issue there. So seeking His pleasure seeking his little da,
even if it goes against the people, becomes the way of the
seeker, right? That even if, you know, I have to not attend
an event, because I know there's going to be alcohol, right? I know
that my family will be upset with me. They may excuse me, they may
not speak to me, I might deal with certain, you know, issues, but I
have to draw a line, because it's an environment that my Lord has
prohibited me from from going to, right. That's the believer, they
draw lines, they understand boundaries, and they don't
forsake their principles and values and their faith for the
sake of making other people happy. So when you get to that place
where you are completely, not worried about whether or not
people are going to accept me, or people are going to reject me,
it's a freeing you're, you're, you're shedding yourself of the
chains. And I say chains, because chains are meant to hold us down
of the chains of constantly seeking the pleasure of people
over especially the pleasure of Allah. That's the third criteria.
So again, we're not we're not even yet, you know, establishing all
the other components, we're just saying, if you want to be on this
path, you have to do these things, right. And then the fourth, he
says that you have to be content with Allah subhanaw taala in
hardship and ease. Now, this is relevant right now. Because even
though we're not directly impacted by the atrocities that we are
witnessing, right, we are literally watching a genocide, it
is very difficult to,
to watch all of this and then try to make sense of it. We can't and
we don't understand everything, and that's okay. It's okay.
Because we know that there is the only one that matters is almost
pride that he's in control of everything, right. So deferring to
the knowledge of Allah, the fact that He is in control, is is in a
way, it allows us to not be consumed with things that we can't
resolve anyway, we can't answer those those questions like why? We
don't know, right? Why does this have to happen? These are things
that humans, you know, we can unravel ourselves, just trying to
think about these things. Allah knows, and that's all that
matters. So to witness these types of things, and still find that,
you know, contentment, whether it's again, external or outside of
your own experience or something with within your own experience,
if you're going through a very difficult time people go through
tribulations, you know, people go through challenges, but it's still
try to find the, you know, the points of your day where you're,
you are still truly overwhelmed by gratitude to Allah subhana despite
the hardships or despite the evils, despite everything else
that's going on in the world, you know, that it's all in the end of
the day, it's all good because, for example, those who are
suffering, we know their end in sha Allah, we know that they're
with Allah subhanaw taala, those who have been martyred or with
ALLAH SubhanA, those who are oppressed are with Allah subhana
wa, tada, those who are
oppressing, we know their judgment is with all of us. So where, you
know, if you just really put it, lay it all out, and you start to
really understand that in Allah's decree, and in His judgment, all
of it will be resolved, then it just gives you that comfort. So
that's just one way of, of looking at this but also, just as I said,
in general, and your own hardship and your own ease that you still
you don't turn from Allah because shaitan will turn will use these
types of, you know, experiences, human conditions or events, to try
to turn people away from God to suddenly doubt Allah to suddenly
call into question, right? Allah supply those choices like why, and
this is, you know, where people who have no faith these are the
types of arguments they make, you know, who who don't even believe
in God. They make these types of arguments. So we reject all of
that because we, we say, who are we to ask Allah? Right? This is
his dominion. He can do whatever he wants. And we just we have
trust. That's the bottom line we have trust.
Absolutely.
Shirt.
The prison Yes, but that actually was the one that got the time to
get away from all the distractions. Absolutely.
There's a method for understanding your own self. And then to get a
very good understanding.
The dreams came Absolutely.
Right now it's a beautiful reflection. And
such a beautiful reflection, just like coconut sister was just for
those who are online, they can always hear, you had mentioned
that the story of Prophet Yusuf Ali Salaam and his experience
being imprisoned, you know, the scandal that he was accused of
that that gave him time to really just, you know, basically develop
this right develop this, this trust with Allah. And that's what,
yes, whether it's, again, our own personal hardships. That's how we
can look at these tests and tribulations as opportunities. So
just like Illa, hidden, and then, you know, similar to this fourth
point that he mentions, is turning to Allah in prosperity and
adversity. So this is more about being proactive, that wherever you
are, that you have this, it's like a, you know, you're constantly
turning yourself back to Allah, no matter what you don't turn away
from Him. So whether you're an ease, whether things are going
really well for you, or you have difficulty, you're consistently
turning, turning, turning. So all five of these sets you on the path
right? Now the question is, which he answers as we go down this
document, well, how do I get there? How can I get to that level
of certainty, that level of conviction, that level of
strength, that level of practice, you know, how can I get there. And
so then he goes on, to describe what the criteria are. So if we
want to get to those five, we have to have certain practices put into
place, right? First of all, you have to see the goal in mind. So
he says, exalted aspirations, that means you need to be away from the
dunya mind, right? Put on your athletic glasses, as they say, and
start to really look about investing in your, in your
salvation. And in your future, when you can do that. And you move
away from just the material world and all the things that people
focus on here. And you have a broader lens, a lens that's really
looking towards your, your final destination. That's when you start
to make better choices, right? And that's, I think, pretty, pretty
true. If you and that's what happens to people who come to the
faith is they no longer are stuck in the now and the here. They're
looking at their right, I need to get to that level. And so you're
always looking up and onward. Right? Like they say that it's the
camel vision. Camels naturally, just the way it was structured
their bodies, they look ahead and up, right? Whereas the donkey
vision, which is what we don't want, the donkey vision is what
it's limited. And it's right in front of you. So human beings,
when we want success, we we have a camels vision, right? So that's
how you first start to develop these traits, as you will need to
look beyond this life. Because if you're stuck in the temporal
world, then this is all you'll get. You know, we don't want that
we want to move beyond that. And then maintaining Allah's reverence
this is really important, especially.
I was watching something recently with I think it was a video with
my son. And the speaker said something about God. And my son
just was like, how could he say that? He was you know, this is
fifth or have children handed up? They're raised obviously, in a dub
and they understand that we should have
a decorum, right we should we need to know that there's a way to
speak about oh, Spanner. First of all, we do not anthropomorphize
God, Allah subhanaw That is not human in any way which possible,
there's no human qualities. So when you speak of Allah, if you
don't understand that like and you know, people will, for example,
make it I've heard Muslims say this, they will if you call upon
Allah as the man upstairs, because you're borrowing from, you know,
phrases, from what people say in this culture and film and
television. Oh, the biller, you don't say, oh, yeah, I'm waiting
for the man upstairs to answer my doors. I will the biller This is
Cofer, who are you praying to? So sometimes we we don't, we're not
paying attention to the words that we're using, the language that
we're using. So reverence of Allah is really understanding that Allah
subhanaw taala is above his creation, and in every sense of
that word, and that's where even calling into question what we see
in the world is bad. Because there's, there's accusations
layered in that right? If you're calling into question, Why does
this have to happen? Why did Allah allow this to happen? Why is that
part of my decree? Why me? Very, we have to watch that. So
reverence to Allah is there's many ways that that can play out but
certainly in the way that we talk about Allah subhanaw taala that we
understand Him according to his descriptions, right? And we don't
we don't interpret him in our own personal way.
There's this idea of having a personal God. You know, that's
very new agey. But Allah is. There's one, right and he's the
only one and he's for everyone, right. And so we don't try to
tailor God to fit our, what we want, he is who he is. And we
praise Him as as that. So really having that understanding. So
that's a second way. So if you really want to get to those first
five, these are the things he's mentioning, expanding oneself and
excellent service of others. So very important that we are people
of hikma of service, because when you get out of yourself out of
your self centered worldview, and start to really pay attention to
what's going on with the rest of the world, then and especially
specifically people in need, then you start working towards more
important things, you know, I was,
I was part of a, you know, a healing circle, with a group of
tech employees earlier today. And, you know, one of the brothers who
mentioned this, they're Muslims, they work for a tech company. So
we just came together to discuss everything that's happening. And
so he just said, you know, I typically enjoy my work, but I
have,
I've lost kind of that appreciation or that love for what
I do it because I'm starting to see how mundane basically it is,
you know, when you contrast it to what's going on, in Philistine, so
he was just making the point that, because his eye and his focus, and
his attention now is there, all of a sudden, things that were once
meaningful to him, are not as they don't have the hold the same
weight. And I think that was a, you know, a good reflection in
what we're talking about. Because once you start to zoom out, get
outside of what you always may, you know, think is or what you may
value and think is important, and start to scale back and look at a
broader picture of things. And then especially as I said, in the
context of those who are struggling and going through
hardships, it puts your own priorities in perspective. So
that's the benefit of it, if you're out there, serving working
with people, whether they are, you know, the poor, feeding the poor,
or you're working with children, or you're working with people with
special needs, or you're working on the front lines, and trying to,
you know, maybe working with, you know, in this case, and, and
social justice sort of causes or you're working with the elderly,
whatever group or demographic you're working in, when you start
to take the focus off of yourself, your self interests, your the
things that you hold, dear, you start to realize that maybe what
you hold dear, isn't as valuable, right.
And, and that's a very important perspective, because sometimes we
are so inside of our own selves that we don't really think about
what else is going on around us. So it was really important and
there's again, many ways that people can be in service, but just
making that a part of your your life that you actually want to
help people that you actually want to be a do gooder. You know, you
want to go out there and change the world in your own small little
circle, it doesn't have to be these massive ripples. You know,
like sometimes we get in this black and white kind of thinking
where it's like, if I'm not making a massive, massive impact, then
what's the point but maybe you don't realize the impact you're
making? You know, there's that that butterfly effect, which I
think is a really good analogy, that the the butterfly effect is
that the wing flap, you know, the wing not span, but the what do you
call it, I guess flapping of a butterfly can actually affect
global weather patterns, you know, and yeah, like tsunamis and other
things. And, you know, these are, these are just ideas, but that we
shouldn't trivialize small things that actually can make large
impacts. Because we just simply don't know, what is. It's like a
domino effect. Right. And I think that's the purpose of it, like you
could, you know, be, you could do something that you think is
insignificant, but maybe the outcome of that insignificant act
is actually quite extraordinary. Because if you're nice to someone,
for example, and you impact their their day, and they are able to
take that energy and come out of maybe a depressive state, maybe
come out of, you know, because you are kind to them, you show them
kindness, compassion, then maybe they can do something
transformative because of that single interaction, right? And
that's why a smile is considered charity, right? We have all of
these principles in our faith, and many stories of things that we
would deem like, Oh, it's just no big deal. Why that wasn't a big
deal. But then you find out maybe later
that no that single moment that single interaction that single
exchange actually, was the ripple effect that led to this, that or
the other. So the point is is hikma is something that we have to
bring back as a practice, because part of Western culture that's so
toxic is this idea that we're just, you know, that we just serve
ourselves. And, you know, I, I posted on Instagram, I think it
was earlier today, or maybe yesterday, I can't remember, maybe
it was yesterday, a video of this woman who she basically, you know,
at 38 years old, has decided that she really wants to have children
and be married. And she she did this whole interview, and I think
even wrote an article that where she stated that she feels like she
was cheated out of
or she was cheated by by feminist sort of ideas, because she lived a
very self serving life. And she realized that that's just not very
fulfilling. And a lot of people are waking up to that. But you
know, we want to be mindful that this is just part of our deen to
be people of service like it's shouldn't, we shouldn't have to.
Yeah, we just have to go back to the basics. So he mentions that as
a practice that people get all the profits, they were shepherds, they
took care of, you know, almost finally gave them some very
specific roles of caretaking. And then eventually they went on to
become prophets. So it is very important that we inculcate that
even in our young children in our homes, not have, you know, roles,
for example, for children that are very one sided. You know,
sometimes in households, in many of our cultures, you have girls
learning how to serve guests, how to make tea, how to even prepare
certain things, and the boys have no idea how to do any of those
things, because that's considered girls work. That's not prophetic.
The prophesy Saddam men did his own clothes, he washed his own
dishes, he was very, very, an active participant in the
household. So it wasn't so gendered these things. And it's
also because he was in the service of people. So that's the third
point and then fulfilling one's resolves. This is really about
being a person of follow through, if you're gonna say you're gonna
do something, it shouldn't be just lip service, be a person who's
actually, you know, who has integrity, who has was word means
something, whose character is, you know, is proven in inaction.
Because it's easy to say things. That's the fourth quality, you
know, and then the fifth, he says, is magnifying one's blessings, and
gratitude.
Which is, you know, we've said it before, but it's always good to
remind ourselves, gratitude is not just a verbal process. That's
actually one of three components of gratitude. Gratitude actually
has three parts, which is in the heart, on the tongue, and then
with the limbs. Right, so sugar, alcohol, sugar, Allison, Shikara,
Jawara, these are the three manifestations of gratitude. And
above all, is the last one, gratitude, as defined by our
teachers is when you use the blessings of Allah subhanaw taala
for that, which pleases Him. So you use your physical body, your
skills, your blessings, your wealth, your health, your
knowledge, in a way that is pleasing to ALLAH SubhanA that
that is actual gratitude. And if you don't do that, but you're just
like, 100 Allah all day long. That's not gratitude. Right?
That's just you, when you saying things on your tongue that are
not, you know, manifest in your limbs. And that's a you know,
that's, that's the lowest or if even at all, a manifestation of
gratitude, because it's, the Mona Lisa can do that. Right. And the
fact the hypocrite is the worst, because they say what's on the
tongue that's not in the heart. So we want to actually make sure that
it's not that it's repeating it on the tongue as much, but there are
that our actions are actually reflecting it. So staying away
from the Haram is a no brainer, right? If you're a person of
gratitude to Allah, you don't fall into haram. If you're a person of
gratitude to Allah subhanaw taala. You think about your,
like your your, your day, is informed by the most important
things that we do prayer. You're plugging in everything else around
those things, because you realize that that is the greatest form of
gratitude is when I pray to my Creator, my body, I could be
running marathons, I could be saving lives, I could be working
for this, that or the other, I can be doing a Dima but if I'm not
using my body, right, in the worship of my creator, then I am
not showing gratitude, right? Because there's nothing greater
that we can do with our physical body than to worship Allah that
everything else is secondary. Right think about that. And that's
why it's interesting that you know, people who, who try it
It is there is a form of I think cognitive dissonance because there
are people who can be strong in their faith in terms of feeling
faith, but then they make excuses for why they don't do certain acts
of worship. Right? And you have to kind of call into question like,
you know, what's that? Well, that's what it is they there's a
disconnect there, they have to be reminded that you could be strong
in your faith, but if you're going to not pray your prayers, because
Oh, and I had, you know, I had someone I remember a while ago,
they were medical doctor. And this was kind of their dilemma that
they have. Actually, I've had two people, er, not er, EMT and
medical doctor. And both of them had sort of the same question,
which is, I really difficult schedule, sometimes. I can't even
predict what's going to happen have to go into emergency, you
know, surgeries, I have to do this. And I have to do that. And
so they kind of excuse their prayer. Because while I'm saving
lives,
and then you have to say, Well, okay, let's, let's kind of gain
perspective here. Right?
Yes, it's important to save lives, but you have to be, you have to
figure out a system. And if it's as simple as, even in the surgery
room, pulling aside and making your prayer, because prayer is in
and it's gonna go out, then you have to make those decisions.
Because by Sharia, a person, even on their deathbed is not exempt
from prayer. And to me, that's pretty profound. Because if
there's ever an excuse for someone to be not praying, it's a person
dying actively. But if they have awareness, even if they can't
make, you know, I mean, they're not It's not required of them to
make will do necessarily, but there's time mom, if the prayer
comes in,
you have to pray. Right. So that's why I feel like
having this understanding is really important. That to be a
person of true gratitude, what was positive is to understand that
there is no greater objective every single day than to make sure
you are worshiping him as he deserves to be worshipped, then
everything we do on top of that all of the other good deeds that
we do, whether they serve other people, or ourselves, have the
Lama have a welcome. But it comes after our prayers, right. And so
that's how we really, truly show gratitude to Allah. And so then he
goes on, and now he's giving more detail about each of these. And
he, he mentioned these, as, you know, points of focus for us to
think about, he says, He whose aspirations are exalted, is raised
in rank. So this is really great, because almost no one is telling
you, if you
raise the bar for yourself, basically raise the bar and start
to think about me and pleasing me above everybody else. I will as a
reward, raise your rank. Right? And I mean, I can tell you, in my
own experience, I absolutely remember experiencing that when I
started to come to practice Islam. I actually thought it was odd how
I was suddenly being treated with more respect by elders, people
were asking me as though I'm some authority, and I'm like, wait,
what? I'm like,
I'm a teenager, barely, I don't know anything. But because they
saw the seriousness with which I took my life. Because I decided to
wear hijab, I decided to start becoming a practicing Muslim.
Suddenly, they saw me as a person of importance. And it took me some
time to kind of understand but I remember reading a very specific
Hadith that said, Whoever pleases Allah subhanaw taala, before
people almost rather be pleased with them, and He will make the
people pleased with them. And then the one who pleases the people
before Allah subhanaw taala they will never be pleased with them,
and he will not be pleased with them. And that just was kind of
like, wow, because I saw that in my own life. I decided because,
you know, when I was
when I came to the faith that was not popular and was not trending,
to be a hijab be or to do these things actually was the opposite.
I had many, many people telling me no, no, no, no, don't wear hijab.
What are you doing? Why would you do that to yourself? You're so
young, how are you going to get married? Nobody's gonna want you
and it was gonna look at you. So it was a choice that I was like,
Well, I can listen to these people. Right? And be afraid and
let that fear dictate or I can say, But wait a second. Allah said
I have to do it. So I have to do it. There's no you know, choice
there. Alhamdulillah it's a difficult choice when you don't
have support. And here in America Yeah.
Yeah, now this was for me in college and and uh, but it was,
but this this is true like Allah will
I will make it easy for you, he will, he will raise you in rank.
So sometimes we think like, Oh, I'm gonna, people are gonna
mistreat me, people are gonna not but actually the opposite happens
because you're with all law. So it's like it makes sense when you
think about it, like how, you know, Allah will will, will give
you that. So that's, you know, the first thing he mentioned that he
says, Allah maintains the respect of he who preserves his reverence.
So when you are really careful to speak about Allah only in the best
way possible, to make sure that you're using, like, you know, just
to be so attentive to how you the speech that you use, the
descriptions that you use, the way that you, you know, praise him is
all very cushioned with with a dub and with consideration and with
careful language, because you don't want to say anything, right?
That would in any way be deemed as disrespectful, you're taking so
much care, right?
Then Allah subhanaw taala will preserve your respect. It's just
this beautiful reciprocity that we just have to appreciate. Like our
Lord is so generous, because you think like, you know, I'm not I'm
undeserving when we are, we're not we don't deserve anything for from
you know, I mean, I mean, I'm speaking for myself, but if you
really think about how generous all of us want that is, with all
of the blessings He gives us, He gives us and then on top of that,
he rewards us in this way. You're just like, wow, Allah Allahu
Akbar, indeed, Allahu Akbar. And that's why he deserves so much
praise. So, you know, these are the rewards of doing these things.
He who services for others is ennobled by it. So when you become
a hire them or hire them, then Allah subhanaw taala because, you
know, we think of services like, Oh, you're lowering yourself.
That's a very Neff see, and sometimes I mean, it could be
cultural, because people in some cultures look down on people of
service, right, like to be in the service industry, you know, is
deemed like low tier, but actually, in our tradition, to be
a certain service of people is a very high McCombe, it's a
beautiful thing to do. And the best people are those who are in
service, but are, are not known to the people, you know, like the UN
I know. Because for those of us who have been in Mecca, Medina,
how many times when I would honestly I would sit in front of
the HUD on whether it was a Medina or Mecca, and I would just watch
the cleaners and be like, they are probably the most
not lucky, but fortunate people on the planet, right? They're wearing
their outfits or uniforms, and they they're cleaning garbage. But
if you're really truly looking at them through the proper lens, you
see them as Oh, my God, you're you're above all of us all day,
what are you doing? You're serving the house of Allah, the Sacred
House of Allah, or the the province liasons mosque, and
you're cleaning up after the Hajaj the people who have come cleansed
from these places? You're, you're you're I mean, it's just an
incredible, lofty position, right? And what are we doing? We're
chasing people who are dead. I mean, all the below, I don't know.
But if we don't know people, but if we look at the foulness of the
society around us, likely, we are in the service of a lot of foul
people. And if you look at the people in our, our politicians and
the people who have a lot of wealth and power, who are in a way
over us, right, these oligarchs and these other people, they're
not the best people. These are people who are morally in many
cases, bankrupt people. And yet we serve them in our own ways we work
for their companies. So it's like, yeah, in the grand scheme of
things, I'm sorry, but a hadham of deen and of people of Allah is far
better. So it's a beautiful again, quality and then he says he who
does that which he resolves to do is assured continual guidance. So
if you're going to be a person of follow through, then that's one of
the benefits is that ALLAH SubhanA, Allah will continue to
also follow through with you and give you that continuous guidance.
And we need we need to, we need to understand that our guidance is
something we have to ask almost product for because it's not
guaranteed. This is one of the the traps that we can fall into as
believers is that we think just because we've entered the faith,
and we've taken on the practice of the faith that it's going to just
carry us through to the end. But that's not necessarily true. We
have to obviously continue to invest in that and continue to
follow through in our actions. And continuously ask all those product
for guidance. Like really genuinely like Allah guide me
because I could be those deluded people who think I'm on the right
course but maybe I'm going this way or that way and I have no idea
Right. And that's you know, that's and that's certainly the
experience of some people that they think they're, but their own
knifes deludes them so we don't want that. And so that's why
continual guidance is such a gift. He who deems blessings to be great
by his own eye has shown gratitude and he who is grateful ensures an
increase in blessings from the giver of gifts, according to the
promise of the truth for one and this is again, let me ask
goodness, let me shoot in LA, right. I'm sorry, no
I'm sorry. I'm thinking of another that's the verse of of I mean, the
Hadith about gratitude, the one who does it, gratitude, great,
sorry, the one who is not grateful to peoples are grateful to Allah.
And then the other verse from the Quran is that in Shekhar toma as
he then Nico, so if you are grateful that Allah subhanaw taala
will increase you in gratitude. So this is where, again, just being a
person that's constantly magnifying your blessings, willing
to see the good in everything. I mean, if and if anything bad
happens, like I used to do this as a practice, I still do it handled,
I still do it. If I stub my toe, if I cut my finger, if I am in
pain, the moment it happens, I force myself to say Alhamdulillah
wash.
Because yes, I'm in pain. But that pain was a reminder that I'm
human, that I'm mortal, that I will have an end soon. And
and I want to be grateful I don't want the pain to blind me from the
gratitude that I should feel right. So I'm going to be grateful
by just remembering that,
that Allah subhanaw taala
despite the experience I'm having in this moment, right, because
it's not. I mean, if you think about stubbing your toe,
it's a very difficult pain, you know, or recently I was praying
Subhan Allah and this is, you know, sometimes sometimes things
happen and we just have to Allah is the best of planners, I, my my
desk that I work on, I had my prayer rug laid out right next to
it. And subhanAllah I think I did two things, it was kind of funny,
I got up to pray, and I didn't realize I put it way too close to
the corner of my table. So I got up and I think I hit my elbow with
one. And then I hit something in the moment of prayer. Like, so
internally, I was like, okay, so behind Allah, my knifes needs to,
you know, at some breaking sometimes, you know, we need those
knifes breakers. But I had to say Alhamdulillah, because I'm
praying, you know, and even though it hurts, and it's you know, those
are very startling, shocking pains, we have to be willing to
just see beyond the moment and see the bigger picture, which is 100,
I have a body, I can go up and down, I can pray, I'm very
grateful to Allah, to be in my home to be able to pray at home. I
mean, these are all things that in those moments you have to reflect
on, right? And that's what exalting your blessings is, is
stop focusing on the negative that one single negative, and try to
look at all the other things. So even in your personal in our
personal relationships and our personal experiences. If you have
a bad meeting with
your boss, you know, it's very easy to hold Dr home to be
seething and angry and upset. And not to say that, you know, those
those emotions, we should just suppress them. Maybe you need to
feel those things. But if it's carries on to the point where it's
like now your state for the whole day, and then you're coming home,
and you're just angry, and now you're gonna blast it your
children and your spouse, and you're just in a bad sour mood,
that you have to snap out of that you have to awaken to and say, You
know what, yeah, it was a bad conversation. And I, maybe I have
my own, you know, legitimate
grievances, and then what have you, but at the same time that I
have a job, you know, maybe my boss wasn't in a good mood, just
start to get out of that negative state. And the way to do that is
to exalt Your blessing. So this is a very important daily practice
that all of us have to do and do consistently. So now, just in sha
Allah in the time, I know, we're a little over, but I wanted to at
least introduce the room, the next five, because what he has he's
doing in this document is laying things in his very, you know,
logical sort of order, which is the first is the foundation, then
how we get there. And now he redirects us to the things that we
should do in order to have good conduct in the first place.
Because the five things that we just described are the
prerequisites of the the former five right, but how do we even get
to having exalted aspirations? How do we get to maintaining Allah's
reverence? How do we get to being people of hikma? How do we get to
being people a follow through and gratitude? Well, he says those are
also five things that we need to do. So it's this again, really
nice organized structure. And he says, first of all, if you want to
do this, you have to seek sacred knowledge. Right, because you
can't just come up with these ideas on your own and
That's where I think in the information age, where there is a
lot of,
you know, people and there are people are very smart in many
respects, right? You could be a person who did really well
academically, maybe you're street smart, maybe you're confident in
certain things that you abilities that you have. But if it starts
to, if you start to think of yourself as being also, you know,
able to just figure this all out on your own, in terms of your
spiritual practice, that's very dangerous. That's what we would
call delusion. Because it's delusion. It's your Yeah, it's
your own deluded enough, because you need we need spiritual guides,
right? It's, it's the same as if someone is like, let's say they're
good at,
you know, reading, and maybe they have certain skill sets, but then
they think that they can take on something because of those skills,
right? Like, or, let's say, you can
hammer a nail, you know, and you're pretty good at hammering
and you can use certain tools. But now you want to go and you want to
build a house all by yourself, it's premature, right, you might
have certain skills to uncertain things, but to take on a massive
undertaking, like building a house based on limited ability and
skills is delusion. Whereas if the person said, You know what I like
to use tools, I'm comfortable with certain tools I have experienced
doing this, that or the other but, and I would love to build a house,
but I'm going to work with a contractor, I'm going to be an
apprentice, I'm going to, you know, watch and observe. I'm going
to, you know, go on on the construction site and learn on the
job. You know, this is a lease showing some humility. But for
some reason, again, because of the times that we live in. Some people
just think they can approach Islam with I can open up the Quran, and
I can just interpret things for myself. I can read the Hadith, and
I can, you know, decide and cherry pick what I like and what I don't
like this is very dangerous. Very Yeah, it's very Yeah.
Sure.
No, no, please don't abysmal. Go ahead. You're so sweet. No, if you
if it's relevant to this point, I would love to hear
yes.
Right.
As we're having here, the beer right. speaks to us in different
levels. The 55 year old 40 year old 15 year old share with you all
the knowledge all that period. So that's one subject. Let's see.
They're also stuck in their ways, like, making sense. He sure.
With the contemporary world. Absolutely.
Absolutely.
What do you do?
Yeah.
Absolutely. No, it's a great point.
You said, yeah, they were giving points out to wake up early. And
after 10 points.
Yeah,
absolutely. No, just kidding. I'm laughing because that's obviously
it's just so it's a sign of everything we're talking about,
about just the confusion and, and how much is out there and how it's
so hard to navigate. But that's actually a good example of why
it's so important to have time to understand who are the valid
sources, right. And so, because it's a free for all right, and
social media and the Internet has kind of leveled the playing field
where anybody can just now go and say, Oh, I'm a knowledgeable
person. I'm a chef. I'm a chef. I'm a Mufti I'm a this remember
that? We have to have discernment and discernment tells us well,
there's criteria for for who is really a valid teacher, which he's
gonna get into, by the way, that's why this document is so important,
because he actually helps you to know who to stay away from who are
the charlatans who are the ones who, who, who trick and manipulate
or use the profit off of Islam they market themselves as as
teachers when they have their Grifters. They have zero
credentials. So credentials matter in our tradition credentials,
absolutely matter. That's why the traditional path is a path of a
snad. It's of a chain right that you know, if you're a person of
knowledge or you're purporting to be a person of knowledge, then you
should have credentials that that connect you to a chain that's, you
know, throughout history that goes back to our primary sources,
right, the prophesy son, being obviously the first teacher, our
prophet of God, right and so, our scholar
As they all have chains of transmission from their teachers,
to their teachers, their teachers going all the way back to the
great scholars of our past the Sahaba, the prophesy seven being
the first. And that's how you know that you're learning from someone
who's who's you know, who's proven themselves to be people of
authority because you can't be in the chain unless you have a Jazza,
which are licenses to teach. So it's kind of you know, it resolves
that issue. But in today's day and age, people don't even ask for
those credentials anymore. It's just like, oh, they they have
followers? Well, my teacher pointed out Sheikh Hamza May Allah
bless him, he said very clearly, people forget that he Bliss has
the most followers. So, so that yeah, so that's not a criteria for
authority. If you're looking for followers, you know, so stuck for
a lot. That's that shouldn't be your standard. It's not about
followers. It's about who did they learn from? And are those people
qualified to teach? And, honestly, it's, I was speaking to someone
earlier about how scary it's getting, because the lines are
being blurred all the time. And like you said, people will say,
make claims, they say certain things. But we this is why this
document is so important, because he's going to put the
responsibility on you and me to know how to identify the true
scholar from the false one. And if we don't have discernment, then
we're just like, every, we're part of the problem. Right? We're
sheeple, as we say, sheeple are people who just, I'm gonna go this
way, I'm gonna go that way. We don't want to be like sheep, we're
not cattle, Allah gave us the intellect for a reason. So asking
the right questions. And for me, a big criteria, this is just my tip
that I would advise
is, first of all, make sure that you're following people who cite
their sources, often, if they're speaking without citation of
sources. That to me, that's, that's very, very rare. That's a
red flag. You know, I we need to see what are you? Where'd you get
that from? It can't just be my own ideas. I don't want to hear the
ideas of anybody, you know, I want to know that it's grounded in and
it's passed all the tests, right? It's passed all the tests that
this is solid knowledge, sound knowledge. And that's where really
emphasizing
the tradition, you know, that it has to be rooted in our tradition,
it can't just be fanciful ideas or opinions. And that's one of the
signs of the end of time that people will be very impressed by
their own opinions. And so they start to oversell their own
opinions. So someone can be a very eloquent speaker, and they're just
going on and on and on. But it's like, okay, who are you speaking
from? Where are you speaking from so teachers who use texts who
refer to the Quran to the Hadith, they're usually mashallah, I
think, rooted in the tradition, and they're pretty safe. I mean,
there's obviously other things to look for, but that would be
certainly one of them. So seeking sacred knowledge, he mentioned
that as if you want to really have the best, you know, conduct and
behavior and character, then that's has to be a primary focus
of your life, that you are a person of seeking knowledge,
keeping with spiritual guides, and the fraternity of aspirants, to
gain insight into one's faults. This is actually also an important
reminder, too, that we need Sahaba. So we need to come
together like this. Because if I take knowledge and make it my own
personal endeavor, but then I don't come together with other
people to just kind of share ideas to make sure that, you know, am I
thinking about this? Right? You know, sometimes we need that
perspective that only another person can offer, then I'm left to
my own devices. And this is very dangerous, we don't want to be on
our own trying to figure everything out. So having a Gemma
having a group, and that's why it's important to, you know, study
groups are really encouraged, finding people that you have
similar interests with, and keep their company. And that's how you
can also, you know, start to behave better because we conform
to the groups that were in, and company matters, and then
foregoing dispensations and interpretations concerning
injunctions for one's own protection. So this is about
looking for loopholes. Like Don't be the person who's constantly
trying to find the easy route to everything because sometimes you
need to be challenged. You know, if you're always trying to
shortcut your way into the deen and of course, all the prophets
have said that Xena is made easy for us and it is. But some people
they have ulterior motives, you know, it's like, they're really,
they're not satisfied with, with with order and structure, they're
trying to find ways out of, you know, that type of, of discipline
and that's not good. You know, you want to be have some commitment to
discipline. You know, for example, I mean, just an easier now
As you will be dieting, you know, if you're going to try to lose
weight, or you want to get in better shape, but you're always
looking for the shortcuts, you know, like, what's the quickest,
like a seven minute workout, you're likely not going to make
that much progress, you might get a little bit of, you know,
exercise in, but if you can't be always looking for that kind of
stuff, you know, and there's, I'm sure better examples. But that's
the third point. And then he says, organizing one's time with the
remembrance of Allah to maintain the presence of heart. So now this
is, again, the onus on us is if you really want to be serious, you
want to be a better Muslim, because people make these
statements all the time, I want to be better. You know, I want to get
closer to Allah. I feel like there's a disconnect, and they say
all these things, say all these things, and then you ask, Okay,
what's your schedule? Like, what are you doing, but there's nothing
really there. So if you if you're serious, then you have to take it
upon yourself to say that's it. I'm I'm going to take out all of
these bad habits and vices I've collected over the years, I don't
need to do this anymore. I don't need to watch this much TV or
listen to this much music. Actually, I had a sister. Not that
long ago, tell me that she was a very big decision for her. But she
decided cold turkey, she was cutting out all music. She just
said I'm done. I music is a huge fitna, for me, it's distracting
for me. When I listen to it, I just get, I forget to pray. So she
made that decision. I'm breaking from music. That is a beautiful
sacrifice. But what that also opens up is your time, you're
going to be managing your time better, because music and other
things like that entertainment and whatever, take up a lot of our
time. And they're a waste of time in most cases. So organizing your
time to make sure that you're really remembering all law that's
on you. And then the last one, he says is suspecting the selfish
soul in everything, in order to free oneself from its whimsical
desires and to be saved from destructive circumstances. This is
I think, very, very important. Because we externalize problems
all the time, we are very quick as human beings, to finger point to
blame everybody else, always. But the believer has to come to
reality and say, I am actually at the heart of a lot of my own
problems. And if we're really being honest, we'll start to
really do that internal work and say, Actually, I keep saying that,
Oh, it's so and so's fault, because I miss prayer, or I can't
do this, because you guys are always keeping me you know, busy
with this or that or the other. We just like I said, make excuses and
justifications. And that's just the normal sort of ego protection
that we do. But turn on yourself is basically what this is saying
realize that the enemy within is your greatest obstacle to God. And
until you see it, you see her, right you see your own enemy, him
or her yourself, your ego,
then you're going to it's going to continue to trick you, right is
going to continue continue to dupe you, because you're gonna, you're
gonna be diluted, you're gonna be distracted, you're not going to be
looking at right what's in front of you, which is you stand in your
own path. And I'll give you an example. And this honestly works
like.
So there are times and this happens to me, it happened to me
just the other day where I will get up to pray and I'm praying and
I'm you know, trying to be very concentrated I, I try to select
certain sources so that I can keep my mind focused, and I know which
shortcut I'm on because my brain is constantly thinking about
things. So I have my own ways of trying to be very focused, right.
So I don't remember which prayer it was, but I prayed and then I
wasn't sure. Did I just I don't know what happened. Something got
my attention. Brain went off into the other direction. So I have
this conversation with myself. No, no, I think I prayed. I'm pretty
sure I prayed all for it. No, I had to I did I had to. And so I
started having this conversation with myself and then I realized a
sigh. This snuffs wants you to believe something, but maybe
there's something else compelling you to question it right? to
question yourself, just get up and prayed again. That's it. Enough
battle over because if I'm going to sit there and tug, a go to
battle with this snuffs and I allow it to overwhelm me, then I'm
just gonna be like, Okay, I'm tired. I already prayed. I'm going
to move on. But if I just come to reality and say, No, it actually
got me this time. I was trying to be focused, but I'm human. I made
an error and now I'm going to overcome it. Because I'm shutting
down the debate, right? The debate is over. I don't care if I if I
did it without I mean, I did it with the right intention. If I did
three or four, may Allah accept it as extra nephila, but I'm going to
do a whole entire different prayer. Now I have certainty that
I prayed all four because I'm actually laser focused right now.
So I try to make it a habit that if I have that doubt within
myself, I don't let my knifes try to negotiate with me. Because I
know my neffs is lazy. I know my enough's will want me to take the
easy shortcut route and go, No, it's okay you do, you're fine. You
always pray this, right? So just do the prayer again and shut it
down. And under that when I do that, I feel so much better
because I'm like, if I had allowed my enough's to convince me that I
prayed all for, yes, I might have just moved on and forgotten about
it. But what about on the Day of Judgment, right when all your
prayers are brought before you and this there's gonna be an
accounting and I'm like, it's just not worth it. I don't want to go
through that. Oops, I should have I could have known there's no
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda on the Day of Judgment. So pray again, hello
us and if topic move on. So that's kind of how you turn against
yourself. Right? Because your knifes will will not direct you
ever to good. It's never going to tell you to take the harder path.
It will always tell you to take the easier path and so you disobey
and whatever it pushes you and goads you to do the opposite and
inshallah you'll find success so on hamdulillah there is more but
inshallah we went over a little bit because we had that break for
prayer. So I don't want to keep all of you for longer. I just let
me just look at this really quickly. Yeah. So when we come
back inshallah what we'll do is we'll pick up from this third
section next month when we return and we'll read more but you have
the document now please feel free to read ahead inshallah and
explore this with your with your spouses, explore it with your
children this is a wonderful document that I personally I think
every Muslim should look through they I really think it's it's
really important so hamdulillah any questions in the few minutes
before we end here
we're tired I know it's it's evening work tomorrow yeah
okay when when it's over okay, just go ahead and Hamdulillah I
know I want to thank all of you and I want to thank those of you
who are on the livestream as well. I apologize for again, any any
interruptions or or issues here if there were any. So we'll go ahead
and we'll inshallah and in dogs made out of matter to him, while
also in in Santa Fe, Hosur Illa La Nina Avenue. I'm sorry Hideyo to
Isobel happy with the rest of the sub Subhanak Aloha Morbihan
decrescendo La ilaha illa Anta Saphira COLA to Lake Allahumma
Santa was senemo Baddeck Allah say that our moto Have you been on
Mohamed Salah Allahu Allah He was sent him while he was talking to
sort of this demon cathedra Subhanallah because mobilicity IUC
phone was salam ala l Mursaleen. When hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen
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