Husain Sattar – Fundamentals of Tasawwuf #2 Sacred Learning
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Sayyidina Muhammad
Wabarak Wasallam.
So yesterday, we had a detailed discussion about
the
reality of the composition of a human being.
And, we started out by discussing the fact
that,
we would have a lecture instead of a
talk or a speech.
And then, we we did
go through a series of basic principles concerning,
the human being and how a human being
can succeed
in this life and in the hereafter.
Many of the points that I wanted to
mention, I was not able to mention because
we had already gone for over an hour
and a half.
So I wanted to continue with some of
the theme of what we started yesterday.
I realized that some of the people here
were not some of the people present today
were not here yesterday. So we'll provide a
brief review, and then we'll continue.
So yesterday, I discussed
the fact that human beings
well, I started by discussing the fact that
Allah
has 2 methods of creation.
And,
one method is that things are created
slowly over time.
For example.
And the second method
is that things are created instantaneously
with the command and
the result is
it is.
So these are 2 different spheres of creation
of Allah
and we discussed a little bit of the
detail of both of these spheres. And we
said that the
sphere in which Allah
says, and
then it is fayakun
that this is called Alamal
Amr. This is the commanded world
and that the second sphere
in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala creates
the region
over time in stages
that that is called Alamal Khalk,
the created world.
And we'd provided some general principles concerning each
of these two worlds, but the summary of
that discussion was that human beings are a
very unique
type of being,
in that they actually are a composite of
both of these worlds.
So when we look when we consider ourselves,
we actually have to consider 2 aspects of
ourselves.
The first is that we are we have
a rur,
we have a soul,
and that soul comes from the commanded world,
Alem al Amr.
And then at the same time, we have
a body,
we have a jisim
and that this jisim actually comes from the
created world, Alem al Khalaq.
And so we're actually a composite of both
of these worlds.
Now from that we derive several corollaries.
The first and most important, or like we
should say the first and the most foundational
was that
that which comes
from Alamal Amr
needs to be sustained
from Amri things.
So for example, we said that the soul,
the ruha of a human being comes from
Alamal Amr and that its sustenance will also
come from Amari things, from spiritual things.
So that the sustenance of the soul is
actually derived from
things that are spiritual.
And at the same time, we said that
the body comes from Alem Al Khalk, from
the created world
and that therefore
the things which sustain the body will be
Khalki, will come from the created world as
well.
And the simple example would be that our
bodies are made from mud
and everything that we use to sustain our
bodies happens to also come from mud.
For example, the food we eat,
it grows from the mud and then we
eat it. The clothes we wear, they grow
from the mud, cotton for example, and then
we produce it. Now at the same time,
you could say that maybe we get our
food from animals, for example, when we eat
meat, or we get our clothing from animals,
for example, if we wear wool. However, both
of those also come from mud because they
are also created
in a in a sense from mud, from
dirt, and they also eat from crops which
also come from dirt.
So essentially, what we were trying to highlight
was that the the body requires its sustenance
from bodily things, from tangible physical things, and
that the soul requires its sustenance from
spiritual things.
Now that's a very simple principle and not
too hard to understand. However, it forms the
key foundational idea for the vast majority of
human failure in this day and age.
Why? Because most people in this day and
age, when you look at just mankind as
a whole,
have made the erroneous assumption
that peace
will be attained by it by gaining physical
things.
So whether you look at a Muslim or
whether you whether you look at a non
Muslim, in this day and age, we've begun
to think that somehow our happiness is tied
to physical things. For example, if we have
a big house, we'll somehow be happy.
And if we have a we have nice
clothing, we'll somehow be
happy. If we have a nice car, we'll
be happy.
If we eat good food, we'll be happy.
However, what you have to recognize is that
happiness is not a characteristic of the body.
Happiness is a characteristic of the soul.
So here we are trying to feed the
soul with houses,
trying to feed the soul with clothing,
trying to feed the soul with ice cream
and chocolate,
trying to feed the soul with nice cars.
And what ends up happening is that we
are feeding the body instead of the soul.
The body turns into a monster.
It crushes and and leaves no space for
the growth of the soul, and then it
produces within a human being depression.
And it's a jib. It just, it's just
it's so blaringly obvious in this day and
age. You look at the most wealthy people,
and they tend to be the most depressed.
You look at the most wealthy societies, and
within them, you find the greatest degree of
depression.
You can travel to some very, very poor
places in the world,
and you'll see happy people.
And it's funny because you'll read these articles
not from Muslims, but from non Muslims who
will actually go and say, I traveled to
Tibet, or I traveled to some village in
China, or I traveled to some small Muslim
village in even Afghanistan.
Right? And they'll say that when I went
there, I I was shocked to see that
the people were happy.
They were smiling. They were laughing. They were
enjoying life.
And that's because they this very simple principle
has not destroyed them. You know, this this
you could say this mistaken principle has not
destroyed them.
So I made this very clear yesterday, and
we discussed this in detail that, you know,
we all need to we all desire to
be happy in this life and happy in
the hereafter.
And what it contents the human being is
that the soul be provided for.
Why? Because we are from Jannah.
We, our souls are from Jannah.
That is who we are. The body is
not who we are. The body will be
put into the grave and will return back
to the dirt and will disintegrate.
It's the soul that will be raised up
and will be judged on the day of
judgment.
Now this soul actually grew up in Jannah.
It was, Yom al Allast, we were in
Jannah. We were in the presence of Allah
We were there.
Alright? And then we got banished down to
this earth for a period of time, and
we happen to be wrapped up in this
thing called the body while we're here. And
the body is what deceives us because all
of the tests in this world, they're all
bodily.
Lowering the gaze, eating halal,
earning a halal income,
all these things, these are all bodily tests.
So what happens is the body is sort
of the you can say the vehicle that
tests the soul. Now if the soul is
fed
with the things that it was used to
having, the presence of Allah,
to
Allah and nearness to Allah
the soul becomes very content, very happy, and
the human being becomes happy
irrespective of what their body has.
And, the the great example that I gave,
which I think anybody who's ever spent any
time studying
the deen in any type of, Islamic environment
will tell you that when students study in
the Madaris of this of of our deen,
they are so content.
They are so content. And the it is
despite the fact that it's one of the
hardest things to do.
It's one of the hardest things to do.
I mean, very you can ask people, you
know, what was their toughest struggle? They'll say,
well, when I studied in madrasa, that was
really tough. And then you ask them, when
were you happiest in your life? But at
the same time, when I was in madrasa,
there was no greater there was not no
greater happiness that I can recall.
There was no greater happiness that I can
recall. And this is a common theme. I've
just seen it over and over and over
again, and you can ask anyone. I don't
have a doubt that they would share the
exact same with you if they truly benefited
from their teachers and they were doing what
they were supposed to do.
So this principle is essential.
And now also from this from this common
idea, which we've already covered, many other issues
arose. For example, the success in marriage, and
we discussed that yesterday.
For example, why Ramadan
Just to prove the principle, why Ramadan is
so beneficial to us, why the atiqaf is
so necessary for us, etcetera, etcetera. And all
of these were discussed yesterday. There was a
recording made. You can obtain that recording, and,
we're not going to repeat that.
So what do we wanna discuss today now
that we've reviewed everything?
Actually, one more principle I should review, which
is necessary for today's discussion.
I also told you that, in yesterday's discussion
is that, we do have a responsibility to
grow our soul, and we have a responsibility
to grow our body as well. These are
two responsibilities that that have been placed upon
us.
And remember that the body grows from bodily
things and the soul grows from spiritual things,
so we have to grow both.
And I also told you yesterday, which is
going to now lead into today's discussion,
that the body just as the body requires
a balanced
slate of nutrients.
For example, you can't just feed the baby
bread all day. It won't grow properly. You
have to give them bread. You have to
give them milk. Eventually, you have to give
them meat. Okay? So there's a balance. There's
this RDA recommended
nutrients that people need to consume in order
to grow the body properly.
In the same way, there's a balance of
nutrients that's required for the growth of the
soul.
So you need to give it some Quran,
this will cause it to grow. You need
to give it some salawat and Rasool Allah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, this will cause it to
grow. You need to give it some suhbah
of good company. This will cause it to
grow. You need to put it in the
masjid as much as possible. This will cause
it to grow. So these are the multiple
nutrients that are required in order to grow
the soul, and that's actually the discussion that
we wanna have today. So that's what that
that was yesterday. Now summarize,
and today's focus is going to be a
discussion of the rule.
Now the first thing to remember,
the first basic thing I would like to
say about the is that
the needs to, number 1, be given space
to grow.
The
number 1, needs to be given space to
grow.
What what do I mean by that? If
you recall yesterday, I told you that the
body,
the jism,
and the
soul, the they exist in one closed contained
space.
And if the body's big, the soul has
no place to grow.
Right? If the emphasis of a human being
is on the body all the time, they
just care about what they live in, they
care about what they what type of bedsheet
they sleep on, they're worried about what type
of clothing they wear, they're worried about all
the time whether their purse and their shoes
match, Okay? Etcetera, etcetera. Then what ends up
happening is their soul the body grows, grows,
grows, grows into an animal, into a monster,
and it provides very little room for the
soul to grow.
So So the first thing that has to
happen before the soul can even grow is
that you have to contain the growth of
the body, but that's tomorrow's discussion. By the
way, what's the name of the
center point of the body?
Nuffs. Okay? So nuffs, you know, you hear
this term all the time. You have to
crush your nuffs. You have to crush your
nuffs. You have to crush your nuffs. Nuffs
is just the name of the center portion
of the body. It's the it's the the
the key command center of the gism. That's
the nuffs.
So if the nuffs is out of control,
then the nuffs takes up the vast majority
of space and the soul becomes very crushed
and very depressed.
So that number 1, the patient the person
sorry. The patient. I'm thinking I'm in the
hospital. The the person
gets depressed.
So, you know, they start feeling depressed. They're
never happy. They think that if I have
a softer I'm not feeling good because my
mattress is too hard, so I need to
buy the mattress that has the dial so
I can one day make it soft, the
next day I can make it hard. Right?
Nowadays, I mean, you see that we've gotten
to such it's become so ludicrous that you
have mattresses that the husband sets his number
and the wife sets her number because this
is gonna bring happiness somehow. Yeah.
But, anyway, that's the point we've come to
in this day and age. So the once
the nafs is out of control, there's no
space for the body to grow. So the
one thing that has to happen is that
the nafs has to be curtailed. Now the
simple curtailing of the nafs,
right, the simple curtailing of the nafs, what
will it do? It will actually cause the
soul to expand.
Now this is important because yesterday after the
discussion, one of the brothers came to me
and they asked me a very interesting question,
which I thought I actually wanted to share
with everybody because it does come up if
you think about what I'm talking about a
little bit. Just reflect on what I'm saying.
He said, how come, you know, I gave
this whole discussion yesterday. He said, how come
that you find that people who,
go and practice yoga
or people who go and live in a
Buddhist monk,
you know, a monastery, for example, how come
they become very spiritual? How come they themselves
say are they experiencing
something and they also feel spiritual and they
begin to feel good about themselves?
So I explained to this brother yesterday and
it's again part of today's discussion is that,
look, this is a very simple physical principle.
Right? That the the body and the soul,
they exist and it contains space, and that
the vast majority of human beings have grown
their body and they're enough so much that
their soul is automatically depressed and constricted.
So if any human being
using any mechanism,
alright, begins to cut off the bodily
desires
and the body begins to shrink down to
its normal size, their soul will expand, and
they will feel spiritual.
So it's not that you can only fear
only the Muslim can feel spiritual.
Right? I mean, there's some degree of spirituality
that will arise just from maintaining a normal
balance of being human.
So it's so we should that should be
very clear. We shouldn't be confused that, you
know, oh, how can they be spiritual? Does
that somehow is that some sort of Islam?
Is that some sort of defect on Islam?
No. No. No. This is just part of
being natural human being.
Now the ajeev thing, however, is that those
things will never make the soul grow.
See, there's 2 separate issues. 1 is to
just can't come into the maintain the balance
of the body and the soul, which if
any human being does, they will be at
some degree of peace.
But actually beyond that is to cause the
soul to grow and elevate,
and that requires Islam.
That requires deen.
And when a person does that, they go
far beyond this basic
spirituality that you see that, you know, that
can arise in in various settings. They go
far beyond that. They attain a degree of
spirituality and of righteousness and of closest to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that can never be
described in words.
So our challenge is not only to mean
to to contain the body, we wanna contain
the body to its and, you know, knock
it back into its cage. It's like a
lion, you need to whip it, whip it,
whip it, whip it, and shut the door
before it comes out and it kills you.
So you put it back into its cage
to create space for the soul. Once you
create space, the soul automatically expands, and you'll
feel good about yourself. But then the next
thing is to grow the soul.
So today's discuss tomorrow's discussion is about nafs.
Today's discussion is about growing the growing the
soul.
Alright. Now so the first point,
and then maybe the next question we should
ask. So we know that we have to
grow the soul, and we know that as
we if we grow the soul and feed
the soul that we will become people who
will be close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
I mean, that's actually the way by which
you grow the soul, to bring it closer
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. When we say
grow the soul, what we mean is bring
it closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So
then we should ask ourselves, okay, what's the
best mechanism by which we do that?
So the best mechanism
is, as I have already said, is the
deen of Allah
And in this day and age, that Deen
will be the Deen of Islam.
And in this day and age, the mechanism
of that will be the Sunnah of the
Prophet Muhammad
So basically, if you want to summarize it
in one word, it's the Sunnah.
The Sunnah is the mechanism to closeness to
Allah
Now it's unfortunate that in this day and
age, this has become the most confusing principle.
You know, these discussions for me are so
important because first of all, we didn't even
understand the balance between the body and the
soul, but that was, like, essential to our
happiness, essential to understanding who we are, and
essential to be able to academically
deal with this whole issue.
But then beyond that, what totally perplexes me
is even if you get this far in
the discussion,
then it's confusing to people that the sunnah
is the actual mechanism by which you attain
with aya.
Even this concept has been lost in this
day and age. This is how diluted we've
become.
And we have to be very clear about
this one principle because it's the failure of
the vast majority of people who decide that
they wanna pursue this path.
It takes one, you know, degree of waking
up to recognize that we have to pursue
this path and begin to attach ourselves to
Allah. But then, unfortunately, people wake up and
then they start traveling
backwards. They go down some other path. They
don't recognize that actually the essential
mechanism of development of the human being
is the Sunnah of Rasool Allah
and that within the Sunnah of Rasool Allah
is contained success.
Now, the premise of all of this lies
in an eye of the Holy Quran in
which Allah
states
This is our equation.
This is our equation.
Okay. Now what does the equation say?
The Messenger of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is
being commended by his Lord to say
Say to whom? Say to your companions
and all of the generations of Muslims
to witness this discussion as well
subsequently till the day of judgment.
Say to your companions,
That if you love Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
follow me
Allah
will fall in love with you.
So here is a very simple equation.
If you love Allah
and you desire to attract Allah
attention,
then you have to recognize that the only
mechanism by which you can do that is
to follow the sunnah of Rasool Allah Now,
actually, as a corollary to this, you have
to realize that the food of the soul
comes from Allah's attention.
The more this soul is
focused on Allah, and the more the barakat
and the fuiyudat and
the tawad juhat come from Allah
the more the soul becomes elevated and eventually
develops into
a worthy human being who will eventually enter
into Jannah.
Someone who will attain content contentment in this
life and who will attain
in
the hereafter.
Means
what? Means success,
but not s u c c e s
s that people die for, or whatever that
is.
Success meaning that you know, Falah has a
very success never can define the word Falah.
Success can it's it's far beyond that understanding.
What is what is mean when we say
You know, we say this regularly. What is
according to the scholars, is that success after
which there can never be failure.
Now how why is why is that,
why is that, condition required?
Because in this world, every success is followed
by failure
or at least the potential for it. For
example, you may become a billionaire. And what
are the billionaires doing all the time? They're
always worried about their money.
It's funny. A guy makes a $1,000,000,000, he's
always worried about his money. He's worried about
his, what do they call it? Asset preservation.
You know? I need to preserve my wealth
in the in the face of inflation. I
need to make sure my wealth is broadly
invested so that I don't lose it.
Even the wealthy man worries about preservation of
capital.
Why? Because every wealthy man knows that it's
easy to become poor again, quote, unquote, relatively
poor again.
Alright? The healthy person knows somebody has health.
They're very happy with their health. They know
that one day they'll become sick. There's no
person in this room that won't eventually become
sick because even after our health, there comes
sickness.
Alright? You can become very successful. You can
become the most successful person in your community,
but you always know there's a potential for
failure. You'll always be up at night thinking,
what's the next step forward? Because if I
don't take a step forward, I'm gonna end
up taking a step back.
So in this and, anyway, even if you
were to have a perfect life,
no one can deny that you'll die, which
is the ultimate failure if you're living a
perfect life.
Right? If you're living the perfect life and
everything is exactly the way you want it,
then death becomes your failure because you go
into the grave and you can't take any
of it with you.
So in this life, there is no permanent
success. There is limited success.
But the word,
it means a permanent lasting
success after which there will never be failure.
So what do we mean by that? We
mean that you go into Jannah,
and once you get into Jannah, you never
ever again have to worry about being sick.
You never ever have to worry again about
losing your wealth.
You never ever have to worry again about
losing your house
and the best you never ever have to
worry again about jahannam.
Because for the moment, that's the failure. We
always worry even if we're practicing perfectly, we
worry about the potential for jahannam that's always
on our neck. The possibility always exists.
So that is falah. Now this falah is
so established so established
that what will happen after people are put
into jannah. When all the people are put
into jannah and the people have been put
into jahannam and everybody's balance has been taken
into account, then you know that that animal
will be brought before the people. And the
animal will be brought, and it will be
sacrificed, and it will be asked, what is
this animal? The people will be asked, what
do we know what this animal is? People
will not know, and it will be told
to us that this is
death itself,
that death itself has been sacrificed, meaning then
the people of Jahannam will realize that the
door is closed on them because at least
they thought they could die. You know, they're
going through *. They say, well, at least
we'll die. You know, even the cancer patient,
when they're just going through the worst stage
of their cancer, they they said, well, the
hope for us now is death because it'll
be over.
So there even death will have been removed
as an escape. And for the people in
Jannah, they'll now know that there's no more
worry because, you know, permanent success and the
possibility of death has even been removed.
So,
again, that is what is
that is basically what defines.
So that's the ultimate success.
Now this was a tangent for what?
That's the problem.
Oh, the sunnah of Rasool Allah
So the point here was that if a
person wants to be able to achieve their
goal of growing their soul so that they
can attain the ultimate success
that is to enter into Jannah,
then they need to recognize that the method
is the sunnah of Rasulullah
and that the paradigm or the equation which
establishes this is
Say, If you love Allah, follow me. Allah
will love you. Now, then the next issue
concerning this verse is that what do we
mean by following the messenger? Because this is
also a confused issue in this day and
age.
So in Arabic language means to follow.
Alright. And
for those of you who are studying Arabic
language, that's a reflexive form.
If you follow the western teaching then that's
verb form 8. Okay? And verb form 8
is a reflexive form. So what does it
mean? It means to reflect the following back
on you, to internalize the following back on
you. Meaning, to follow footstep by footstep exactly
the way
without, with, you know, with not a generalized
following, but a very specific following, footstep by
footstep by footstep.
So that we mimic Rasulullah
in every aspect of his
existence.
So that his dress,
his mannerisms,
the method of his Ibadah,
the way he smiled, even in some cases
when he smiled,
how he dealt with people,
all of these are various aspects of the
sunnah and they all become the key mechanism
by which we progress our soul towards Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because when a soul grows, it approaches Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So this is this is like essential because
in this day and age, it's the most
confused thing.
It the mechanism again by which we the
soul grows is to attain food and the
food of the soul is the attention of
Allah
And if you want the attention of Allah
you have to follow the sunnah. Meaning if
you want the love of Allah, you have
to follow the sunnah, Allah will then love
you. So the sunnah is what? It's the
magnet
that attracts
the love of
Allah And it's that love of Allah
which then feeds the soul, and then
the soul becomes dragged
or brought close to Allah
So this is the paradigm.
Now
this should then answer some very simple questions.
You know, sometimes people come up and they
say, brother, tell me,
is it sunnah
to have a beard or not?
Or is it sunnah to wear white clothing?
You know, do I have to do it
or is it just a sunnah? They'll put
it that way. This is what the con
this is sort of the the the connotation
of the question. Do I have to do
it or is it just a sunnah?
You don't have to do it. It is
just a sunnah. But if you understand that
the sunnah is a mechanism of growing the
soul, then you would recognize that if you
want to be able to achieve your goal,
which is to excel in the deen, there
is no other way but through the sunnah.
Otherwise stated, that there is no wilayah except
through the sunnah. And anyone who ever tells
you otherwise has is has has deceived you
far beyond
any deceit because they've deceived you in the
most essential aspect of your existence.
And this is a clearly understood principle from
day 1 up until 1400 years from from
from that day. That the Sunnah is the
mechanism of progress and that there that there
is no wilayah without it. Now this doesn't
give us the
a license to go and criticize others. I'm
not telling you that you need to now
read and scan every person and decide whether
you think they're good or bad based on
whether they follow the sunnah. That's not our
job. But what I am telling you is
that if you desire
to grow your soul,
then the mechanism
will always be through the sunnah,
through every aspect of the sunnah. And when
you do anything according to the sunnah, you
will bring barakah into your life, and you
will cause your soul to get elevated.
Whether it be sleeping, whether it be brushing
your teeth, whether it be clipping your nails,
whether it be the way you dress, whether
it be the way you deal with others,
whether it be how you smile, whether it
be how you pray, whether it be the
method of your recitation of the Quran with
tajweed,
all of these things are sunnahs,
and all of these things will cause you
to grow. So we should never ever be
deceived by this concept.
And if you're seeking to grow
and you're seeking an environment, you know,
it's interesting. So you buy a flower. Right?
Let's say that you you are, you you
wanna buy it. You you see a beautiful
plant in in the store,
and you want to take that plant to
your house.
So what do you do? You buy the
plant from the store,
and then you bring it home. And then
the husband and wife, they have a discussion.
And sometimes the kids join in, they say,
where should we put this?
We have to put it in a place
where it's gonna grow. So then they think
they say, okay. Is there enough light here?
Is there enough water here? Is there enough
shade here? Is this close to the window
or far from the window? Is it near,
you know, near the fence or away from
the fence if you put it in the
backyard? Is the soils is the soil good
or the soil, you know, bad?
So they make all these distinctions, and then
they decide where they wanna plant the plant
because they know that if they put it
in the proper environment, only then will it
develop
and blossom into what it truly should be.
So the same thing with your soul.
You make a conscious effort of where you're
going to plant your soul.
When you choose the gatherings that you're gonna
be in, you are making a conscious effort
of where you're going to plant your soul.
So if you say, I'm gonna hang out
with people who are totally heedless,
who just sit around and waste their lives,
then you will have put your soul into
concrete.
And when you put your soul into concrete,
guaranteed, it will die.
Guaranteed it will wither away and die, and
you'll never be happy. I'll tell you, you
know, I've done that partying thing. Alright? I
was in high school. I've done it. There's
no happiness there. And it's funny because anyone
who's into it, you know, the parties and
the people
and the fashions and the,
you know, the in crowd and the,
you know, the popular people and all that.
Anybody who's into it, they're never happy. They're
they're not happy.
Yeah. There's just no permanent happiness there. There
you you maybe there's a few minutes of,
pleasure and then there's
hours and hours of depression.
There's no happiness there. Why? Because you took
the soul and you planted it in concrete.
It's not going to grow. It's going to
wither away and you will never be at
peace with yourself. And it's funny because you
can see the person from far away. If
you look at their face, they don't even
look happy.
You can tell. You can look at them,
and they just you can say that, wow,
this person looks so dark.
They're so dead. Although they think that they're
really living life. You know, I'm free. I'm
really doing the things that I enjoy. I'm
really cool. Look at all the people around
me. Look at my friends. Look at how
people respect me. It all disappears.
Those friends are the ones that disappear the
next day.
When one thing goes wrong, they go run
off to the next person. You know, you're
in today. You're out yes tomorrow.
So you have to choose where you plant
your soul. Just like you would choose where
you would plant the flower.
Just like you would choose where you would
put a plant. You have to choose where
you're gonna plant your soul. Now then you
can also say to yourself that I'm gonna
plant my soul in mediocrity.
I'm gonna go and just find,
you know, people
I'm gonna plant my soul in a place
where people are not striving or struggling, but
they're just happy being Muslim. You know, okay,
we're Muslim, but that's sort of like a
secondary thing.
What's more important is I'm a doctor Muslim.
What's more important is I'm a big house
owning Muslim. What's more important is I have
a big bank account Muslim.
What's more important is that I'm a suit
and tie Muslim, you know people respect me
I'm a corporate Muslim.
So once that Muslim becomes a secondary aspect
of that person's creation now you've achieved Islam,
I'm not debating or doubting that, Allah
will Insha'Allah accept the kanima of those people
who attest to it and Insha'Allah, Allah will
multiply their deeds and remove from them their
mistakes,
but you planted your soul in your mediocrity
and you will never allow that plant to
blossom the way it should.
It's unfortunate.
It's unfortunate.
Alright. Now, then you could take your plant
and you can plant it in a place
where there's deen, but there's no sunnah.
So if you find a place where there's
deen, but there's no sunnah, the plant will
grow, but it's not going to blossom in
the way it should.
Or finally, if you're fortunate enough, you can
find the environment of Sunnah,
where you see people striving and struggling the
same way that the companions strove in struggle.
Where you see people emulating and mimicking Rasool
Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam the same way that
the companions emulated and mimicked Rasool Allah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam.
Where you see that the other tree, the
other people who brought their soul and planted
it in that environment, they have become something
unique that you can't even imagine that these
people had these characteristics, that you've never seen
people like this before,
and you and and you plant your soul
in that environment, then you'll also become like
those people.
So, you know, the the best proof of
the soil
is to look to look at the plants
within that soil.
So this is the type of environment that
we must seek to plant our soul. And
when we plant our soul in that environment,
we become focused on our environment. We don't
need to worry about why is this brother
in that environment or what's this brother doing
in the other environment. We focus on our
environment.
So again, this is a key principle for
developing the soul, which is that the soul
requires the sunnah.
Now the scholars of the,
they've actually dissected out various aspects of the
sunnah,
and they have done this so that we
can be very clear about the balance of
nutrients that's required.
So let me walk you through those, and
then inshallah, we'll close off this session. Alright.
So the first oh, I have one more
point after that, and then we'll close-up this
session.
So for example,
within the sunnah, you see a strong,
a strong,
emphasis on recitation
and listening to the holy Quran.
So any human being who desires to develop
their soul and attain closeness to Allah
will require
interaction with the Quran.
And unfortunately,
even the most righteous people are lacking this
in this day and age.
It amazes me that there's a person that
actually wants to get close to Allah, wants
to develop themselves, wants to become a real
human being, and the Quran remains on their
bookshelf.
It's now possible.
Well, let's say it is possible but you've
lost the most powerful tool for your development.
Because the Quran is that special word of
Allah
that with every letter
of that is pronounced from it, your soul
grows.
In fact, it comes in hadith what? That
in anytime you recite the Quran for every
letter that's recited, you receive 10 rewards.
For every letter that's recited. Now some people,
they say, well, brother, I don't recite the
Quran because I don't understand it. I read
the translation.
I read the commentary.
Okay?
Fine. If you recite you read the commentary
and you read the translation, there's nothing wrong
with it. But this reward that's being highlighted
within the Hadith has nothing to do with
commentary or translation.
It's the mere
articulation
of the letters in the order in which
they were revealed.
What's the proof of that? The proof is
also within the hadith because in the same
hadith with which Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam states that you get 10 rewards for
every letter, the example that he provides in
order to highlight this principle is what?
Alif lam mim,
alif harfun,
walam harfun, wameem harfun.
Such that if a person recites alif lamim,
they get 30 rewards.
Now, if you ask yourself, So what's the
translation of alif lamim?
No one knows.
So you say, What's the meaning of alif
lamim?
The only thing we agree on is that
no one knows for sure.
Those are called
No one knows what they mean, no one
knows what their commentary is.
So here this hadith provides two benefits, it
highlights that the articulation of every letter of
the Quran provides 10 benefits per letter,
And that that is not dependent on understanding
or commentary.
It is simply dependent on the moving of
the tongue
according to its order of revelation.
Now if you understand and you're reading, that's
even better.
But that that should not preclude you to
say that I don't know Arabic or I
don't understand it or I don't I wanna
study the tafsir first. That's deception. It should
not preclude you from having a daily interaction
with the Quran.
Then our scholars, they say, well, how much
interaction?
So how much interaction? That's up to you.
But it should be regular and consistent.
The ideal is 20 minutes. I mean, 20
minutes, we can take out of our day.
If anyone tells me they don't have 20
minutes, I would like to sit down and
hear about what they do all day.
That means that they don't re read the
newspaper.
They don't follow they don't goog what is
what is he talking about? Gchat.
And they don't text. And they don't have
a cell phone.
And they eat only 3 to 5 minutes
each meal.
And if they do all those things, then
I will actually have to see what type
of, you know, what what type of life
they're living, but I don't think there's any
person in the room that's so efficient.
So 20 minutes a day is not a
problem. We have to do it. And I'm
telling you, look. Let's just say you're so
spiritually weak
that you can't even recite 20 minutes a
day.
That's okay. You know what you do? You
just hold the book in your hand for
20 minutes a day.
Just hold the book in your hand for
20 minutes a day because
just the book itself attracts faith from Allah
It will bring barakah into your heart that
will eventually grow the soul. Once it becomes
big enough to walk, then it'll have fun
running.
Okay? So
this is just a very, very simple principle
that you have to devote 20 minutes. Even
if it's not reading, you're just holding the
Quran. You just sit there and think, I
wish I could read the Quran for 20
minutes. That would be sufficient if that's where
you're at. But there has to be this
window of time in your day and you
have to make time
because there's there there is nothing more powerful
than the Quran in spiritual development.
There is nothing,
no dhikr that any sheikh can ever assign
you, no talk that any scholar can use
to move you.
Right? No conference that can be established in
the greatest of halls can ever, ever replace
20 minutes of Quran every day.
Consistently.
You just can't compare. Those are the words
of Allah. I don't care what type of
talk I give or what type of talk
someone else gives. It's nothing compared to the
word of Allah.
It is nothing compared to the word of
Allah.
I don't care if you have a conference
and there's 50,000,000
Muslims at the conference.
It does not
approach the barakat, the fuiyudat,
the the the progression
that's made by interacting with the word of
Allah.
So this is like, you know, this is
like the absolute necessity. It's like breakfast, lunch,
dinner, Quran, or it should be this way.
Quran, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Right?
It's absolutely necessary, just like you wouldn't skip
a meal during the day.
So we have to make this part of
our regular routine, number
1. Number 2,
Every single day,
we have to spend some time reciting salawat
and rasulullah
Now, this provides us with multiple benefits. Number
1,
it is the mechanism by which we actually
bring blessings to our Okay, number 1, and
most important, it fulfills a mandate of the
Quran.
Allah
states in the Quran what?
Allah
Subhanahu Nara'
(QS. 3) That verily Allah and His angels
send blessings on Rasulullah
So all you who believe, you should also
send blessings on Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Now, Ajib that the ulama in the commentary
of this ayah, they say this is the
only act of worship.
The only act of worship that Allah himself
says, I do it, my angels do it,
so you guys should also do it. The
only act of worship
that has that construct.
So imagine the power and the benefits associated
with it. And the funny thing is when
you do so, you don't benefit Rasool Allah
sallallahu alaihi wasallam in
a relay to you, which sends 10 blessings
back on you.
You know, like, you send a text and
then you get a text back. You know,
so you text these numbers and then that
hits the tower and sends you some information
back. So what you're really doing is you're
texting,
you know, that tower that's sending the barakat
back on you. So by you sending salawat
and Rasulullah salawahu alaihi wa sallam, what actually
happens is 10 salawat get sent back on
you.
And not only that, but those salawat get
presented to Rasulullah salawahu alaihi salawam.
So ajeeb, the benefit associated with it.
And what this does, number 1, so you
fulfill a mandate. Number 2, you bring blessings
upon yourself, which again is a food for
the soul. Right? This is one of the
essential components,
or nutrients, I should say, necessary to grow
the soul. And then,
Alright. So that's the second thing that we
have to do. Number 1, recitation of the
Quran every day for a set period of
time.
Number 2, send
daily. Ideally, we should do that a 100
times in the morning, a 100 times in
the evening. If you don't have the time
for that, do it 50 in the morning,
50 in the evening. If you don't have
the time for that, do it 5 times
in the morning, 5 times in the evening.
If you don't have time for that, do
it once in the morning
and once in the evening. But you should
never ever leave it.
Well,
once in the morning
and once in the evening
will be
will be sufficient
will be sufficient for your soul to grow.
So that's the second thing.
The third that we have to do is
called Itiba as Sunnah. This is the third
thing that we have to follow and this
I've already talked about. Itiba means to
internalize the following of the sunnah of Rasool
Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and we should follow
him footstep by footstep.
Now, what the sunnah is again, is it's
a magnet that draws Allah's
love.
And Allah's love is the most tasty food
for the soul.
You know, it's a soul food.
Allah's
love
is the most tasty
food for the soul.
So what we're really doing is, you know,
what you're doing is you are
turning on your your
your magnet so that it attracts Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala's love.
So for example, when we say that, look,
it's sunnah to grow your beard.
Alright.
What actually what is the beard? The beard
is a magnet
that when a human being grows it, Allah
sends his special love on that human being,
some portion of his special love. Now every
sunnah actually has its own
taste
and has its own
dimension of love of Allah
that's associated with it. So something so small
and easy. I mean, look, the beard the
beard is a funny thing because it's the
one sunnah that you don't actually have to
do anything for.
This is why I'm talking about it. I
mean, you know, if I tell you you
have to follow the sunnah, you have to
wear white clothing, you have to go buy
white clothing, and you have to put it
on. Right? If I tell you, you should
follow the sunnah, you should eat on the
floor, you have to sit down, eat on
the floor, your knees hurt. Okay? If I
tell you, you should follow the sunnah,
you know, you should smile when you meet
a brother, you have to reflect those muscles
and you have to put show your teeth
when you look at the brother.
Okay? But if I tell you you have
you that's it's sunnah, and we already know
it's sunnah, to grow your beard, you don't
have to do anything. It just comes out
by itself. You just have to be old
enough. Right?
So
it's the one sunnah that we actually take
out. We remove it. It was already it
was a freebie, and then we take it
away.
So it's the opposite. It's a fun it's
a funny sunnah in a way in that
sense. Not funny in sunnah, but it's a
unique ajeeb. It's ajeeb sunnah. It's a it's
a unique sunnah. So, I mean, I'm just
giving you one example, but, you know, applies
to everything. The way you deal with your
kids, the way you deal with your wife,
the way you treat your friends, the respect
that you show to others, the way you
treat your parents, all these things are defined
by the sunnah.
Now every sunnah that you follow,
you end up making yourself that much more
beautiful to Allah
and Allah
is beautiful and he loves beauty. Allahu jameel,
you have bull Jamal. Allah is beautiful and
he loves beauty. So he loves beauty and
he is attracted to that beauty. Now,
Ajib,
that we are so despicable
that you read the Quran, and it has
so many
it has so many bad things to say
about a human. You know, they're they're hasty
in
the your efforts are all dispersed. You're not
focused. You know, we're all we're we're being
told all these things about ourselves.
Right? And so what makes the human being
beautiful is actually the sunnah. Without the sunnah,
the human being has too many negative characteristics,
and Allah will not fall in love with
such a being.
Alright? But when a human being takes on
the sunnah,
then what happens is they make up their
deficiencies. Now what do you mean by that?
So, you know, if you ever maybe you
don't know this, but if you're not married
or if you've never dealt with these types
of things, but what happens is, you know,
every human being has blemishes and defects.
And so they cover they like to cover
up those blemishes and defects. For example, you
know, if a woman notices that she has
some defect in her skin color, she she
let's say she deems it to be defective,
you know, that's sometimes the way the psychology
is in this day and age. She deems
her skin color to be defective, so she
has to always wear mask or a makeup,
you know, a special kind of mask. Now
she's so worried all the time
about that mask that, you know, every 20
minutes she has to go to the bathroom,
She has to check-in the mirror, is my
mask straight? You know, is my covering all
fine? Why? Because she is afraid that she
won't be able to she won't be able
to attract attract the attention of a male
if she doesn't have that mask.
So she uses that makeup to attract attention
of a of a male. Now, let's put
it in a good context. There's a woman.
She gets married. She wants to attract the
attention of her husband. So what's she going
to do? She's gonna make up her hair.
She's gonna put on makeup. She's gonna change
her clothing. Some of these brothers are wondering
why they're gonna get married now.
So, anyway, the point is is that, you
know, so they that she they do this
and then they attract the attention of their
husband. So they like to you know, these
are the mechanisms by which human beings can
attract the attention of another human being. So
what's the mechanism now? You put on makeup,
you can put on lipstick, it's not going
to attract the attention of Allah.
Okay? What attracts the attention of Allah according
to the Quran, according to this initial paradigm
that we established is what? The sunnah.
When a person dresses themselves up up in
the sunnah, they're basically attracting Allah's attention and
he falls in love with them.
It's the only way by which you can
attract Allah's love.
Say, if you love Allah,
right?
Follow me footstep by footstep
Allah
will fall in love with you, will love
you. So to attract the love of Allah
we require the sunnah of Rasool Allah
and ecstasy.
Ecstasy lies in
finding every tiny sunnah of and
following that sunnah
from head to toe,
from heart to soul.
Every sunnah you can find. We are people
who you know, like, people you see people
who are searching seeking treasure. What do they
do? They go to the Caribbean, and they
get those metal detectors, and they dig, dig,
dig, dig, thinking they're gonna find the treasure
of the Spaniards or something like that. Right?
So they're trying to find even the rarest
gold coin because they see value in it.
For us, we dig, dig, dig, dig until
we can find every sunnah of Rasulullah
and we wanna we wanna emulate every single
one of them.
Every single one of them.
I mean, I'll tell you just the people
of piety,
just the concept that they had concerning the
sunnah was just
amazing. It was just amazing. And, you know,
this is a whole
lengthy discussion, but they wouldn't leave any sunnah.
And they wouldn't do anything unless they knew
what was the sunnah.
So, for example, I mean, you read in
the books of Saluk, in the books of
the that there were some masha'ik, they refused
to eat watermelon.
Why? Because they didn't know for certain how
rasulullah sallallahu alaihi sallam actually ate the watermelon.
Meaning, did he cut it into slices? Did
he cut out pieces? Did he spoon out,
you know, like, using your finger? Did they
spoon out pieces? So they wouldn't eat it
because they did not want to leave the
sunnah in this regard. So better to just
leave the watermelon than to potentially do something
against the sunnah.
That they were that strict. They were that,
let's say meticulous. That's probably the better word.
So for us, the sunnah is our cloak.
The sunnah is our cloak, and the itibab,
the sunnah is the method of of of
of movement. Now let me make this very
clear, and let me make this very clear
with as much emphasis as possible.
In the in the pattern of the, when
a person begins to seek to develop spiritually,
what they tend to do is they tend
to move into the direction of the. Right?
Because that's really the where the focus is.
So there's a lot of emphasis on on
on spirituality within.
And what happens is in the mechanism
of, what people begin to seek out is
they begin to they begin to then seek
out the teacher and seek out a place
to learn.
And often, you'll find a place that does
not emphasize
the sunnah, but instead emphasizes other things besides
the sunnah.
And where that emphasis exists, I will guarantee
you there is no success.
Because there's no wilayah without the sunnah. So
this let this point be very, very clear.
That if you truly desire to achieve perfection
in the path
of attaining
the path of perfection, let's put it let's
name it that, then it must be through
the sunnah. And I don't care if a
shaykh assigns you the best in the world.
It sounds beautiful.
It never will take the place of the
sunnah.
It will never take the place of the
sunnah. So the sunnah for you, you can
say that when you're seeking out to develop
yourself,
it's the
key feature that you should look at before
you make your purchase.
Like, people go to buy a car, then
some people say, I wanna know what the
horsepower is. Some people say, I wanna know
what color it is. Some people say, I
wanna know what the how many people it
seats. So they use these features to make
their decision about where they should invest their
money for the car. So the key feature
that you use to make the decision about
where to invest your soul, where to plant
your soul to develop yourself
is the sunnah. Where you find the sunnah
and the sharia, you can plant yourself and
be
contented
that you will attain the path to perfection.
And where you don't find the sunnah, especially
where the sharia is lacking, you run. You
run as fast as you can. You turn
and you run.
And this also came up yesterday. So one
of the brothers came up to me after
yesterday's talk, and he said, brother, you're talking
about this about the, but I'm kinda confused
because,
you you know, I I I've seen some
people who practice the, and, you know, they're
playing the drums and dancing around in circles,
and they're at graves worship you know, you
they're doing these weird things at the graves.
And so what do you say about all
this?
So I said, look. That's not what our
discussion entails. I'm not talking about that. I
don't I don't even have a name for
some of that stuff.
But what we're talking about when we're discussing
the is the emulation of and
the
the
under the guise of the Sharia and the
sunnah. This is the Under now I'm explaining
to you general big principles about the salawul,
but this is really the definition of the
salawul.
And if you don't find this, then don't
look any further. I don't care how eloquent
the talk is. Doesn't it doesn't matter how
eloquent the speaker is. Doesn't matter how good
things look.
The Sharia and the sunnah
must be present.
That's the first
that's the sign on the door that says,
come in. Available.
Okay? That's the sign on the door. Before
you even enter, you have to see that
on on the surface. And if that's not
on the surface, it's very easy. And if
actually, if you use this principle,
life becomes very straightforward. You know, sometimes we
get confused. Sometimes we get to the point
in life where we say, okay, I know
I wanna be a good Muslim,
and I know I need to
pursue Allah, and I know I need to
crush my nafs and grow my soul, and
I know that I would like to do
it by seeking a traditional
future. But then we get confused, Okay, so
which one?
Which one? But, you know, if you have
this one general principle that the Sharia and
the sunnah are the sign before you enter
into the shop,
you will save yourself from 99.9%
of wasted
effort.
99.9%
of the time, you'll be fine.
Very rarely would you be deceived if you
use this as your guiding principle.
Okay. So that's.
And, again, that is a magnet that attracts
food, and that food grows the soul.
And the 5th is,
companionship.
So any time the soul is put in
the company of other good people,
the soul will grow. And anytime you put
the soul in the company of wicked people,
the soul will shrivel away and die.
So for us, one of the important features
is that we come into the company of
the righteous.
And every time we're in the company of
the righteous, we benefit. Now you look at
the this gathering of Etikaf, I mean, this
is really what defines the gathering.
The the the what defines the gathering is
that a bunch of righteous people have come
together and that these righteous people together are
seeking Allah
And anytime we sit together in such a
gathering, we will always benefit. The soul bent
the soul will grow without you doing a
thing, which is again why I stated, 1,
we're in the Masjid. 2, we've got a
good schedule. 3, you've got good company. That
even if you're in this and you do
nothing but just the prayers
and follow some basic thing, you know, guidelines,
you'll benefit. You'll leave here having achieved your
goal.
So
for us, Suhbah is essential. And I'm I've
said it once, and I'll said I've said
it, you know, not once. I've said it
probably 100 of times, and I'll say it
a 100 more. You know, what defines
every generation in the in the history of
this deen has always been Suhbah has always
been Suhbah.
So the Sahaba,
in fact, are called Sahaba because of Saudhaba.
Right?
They're Sahaba.
It's their name is derived from the fact
that they kept company with Rasulullah SAW.
So he who kept company with Rasool Allah
in the state of Iman becomes a Sahabi.
He who kept company in the state of
Iman with the Sahabi becomes a Tabi.
He who kept company in the state of
Iman with the Tabi becomes one of the
Tabi'in,
etc.
And he who desires to attain the path
of perfection must keep company with the path
of the with the people who have also
who are also seeking that path.
Now that doesn't again, it's not licensed to
then say, I'm never ever going to hang
out with anybody else.
Alright? You have to fulfill the rights of
other people because that's the sunnah,
and the sunnah is a guiding principle of
the sunnah. So we don't just say, you're
gonna lock yourself in with these group of
people. But what it what it what it
highlights is when you have your free time
and you have choice, it's what you choose
to do.
That's really where the discussion in the and
and and the battle lie. And same thing
with the sunnah, by the way. You know,
sometimes you don't have choice, for example. And
this all also is often misunderstood by the
youth in our community. You know, when you're
with your parents and you know that it
drives them nuts to see you follow the
sunnah because they're worried for you, let's say.
Let's say that they have some true worry
that if you follow the sunnah maybe somebody
will harass you. Okay? So you don't go
home with a big turban on, you know,
you find the biggest turban you can and
tie it only in front of your mother.
You're she's gonna go crazy.
That's not the discussion. The discussion is what
you do in your time, in your constricted
space, in your you know, when where you
have the opportunity.
So, you know, if your mom tells you
to not wear the turban, let me guarantee
you this, you should not be wearing the
turban. It's a sunnah to but to keep
your mother happy and to follow her command
is mandatory.
Right? So if she she has the ability,
it's her
sharia given right to say,
this bothers me. I respect this turban. Usually,
the mother will say this. I respect the
turban. It's a beautiful thing.
Wore it, but
I I'm a little worried when you wear
it. It bother I I'm afraid for you.
Okay. If that's her sincere concern,
then you should leave it. You should not
try to
do things to to purposely,
you know,
bother you or disturb your parents. Now you
come into the Masjid, you're in Itikaf, you
know your parents are in Iowa, they're not
gonna show up here. Tie the biggest turban
you can find.
Tie your friend's turban to yours and tie
that on your head. That's fine too.
No problem. No problem in this gathering. Okay?
This gathering, I mean, you know, you're in
your own four walls. We're in control. So
this is the place of sunnah. Now you
come here and you wanna leave the sunnah,
then you're you got problems. Not problems, but
you're not taking full advantage.
Right? So we should really seek the sunnah
in everything that we do, in everything that
we do. And there's some sunnahs that you
can always do,
you know, like smiling to your with your
mom, but, like, asking your mom how she
is, like, serving your parents, like, keeping them
happy. I mean, these are just things that
are that are defined by the sunnah that
we can always do, like, giving from our
wealth. You know, no one would ever stop
you. Your parents would never stop you from
doing such things. So grab the pearls that
you can, and then save the rest for
later, and you'll always have opportunity.
One general very, very firm principle
that he who is sincere,
but lacks the ability to do something at
this time, but then takes full advantage of
what is available, Allah will always, always open
the door for them later.
Always open the door for them later.
Like, for example, somebody wants to become an
Alem. He wants to study the deen, but
he has very limited resources available in his
community.
But he with sincerity goes and takes advantage
of those resources. I have seen time over
and time over again, Allah then sends an
alum to that community for that person.
I've seen it so many times.
I've seen that a person wants to study
deen, they'll go to a place to study
deen, everyone in the world will tell them,
you
should not go to this school. This school
is no good, and there's no good teachers
there. Allah will send a teacher there for
that person because they went with sincerity.
So Allah will always open the door when
you
when you restrict when you keep yourself within
the mandates of the sharia and the sunnah,
and
you seek to perform that which you can
perform,
then Allah will open the next door for
you for sure for sure.
So you should keep that principle in mind
as well. So, again, is
the 5th thing that will allow you to
develop your soul.
Now all of this
must be tied in with one thing that
can kill the soul. So there's some there
now what will kill the soul is sin.
When a person sins,
that's the poison of the soul.
So all of these things must be done,
and at the same time,
every sin must be avoided to the best
of one's ability.
So we have to if you wanna make
effort, then,
you if you wanna make effort on something,
it's avoiding sin. Now let me tell you
some very interesting thing
that Sheikh Zulfikar has told me on 2
or 3 separate occasions about the.
So and in fact, I was just in
Damascus with him, and he again said this
to me. Again, you know, just to highlight
this. He said to me,
the salawulf is not the name of a
bunch of adkar that a person does.
He said, instead,
the secret of the salawulf lies in avoiding
sin.
If a person avoids sin,
then everything else is already ingrained in the
deen and the person will develop to a
very high level. Because, I mean, you think
about it. Okay. You pray salah. Right? Every
time you pray salah, you're gonna recite Quran.
You're gonna make salawat and Rasulullah salalahu alayhi
wasalam. It's already been built into the salah.
You're gonna be in the masjid. You're gonna
have good company. So the deen is already
designed in that way for you to develop.
But where the problem lies, where the vast
majority of people fail
after they come to this point. Now we've
gotten this far. A person realizes
that they need to turn towards Allah and
that they need to make a change in
their life. And that the way that they're
gonna do it is to follow the Sharia
and the Sunnah. And they do all these
few things, like, come into good company, recite
Quran, etcetera. They find the right place to
plant their plant. Then the next problem that
happens is they're doing these things, but they
don't leave sin.
And when they don't leave sin, they're poisoning
their own progress.
And this is the most dangerous aspect of
the soul of a person's development if they're
not meaning it's it's the most common cause
of failure.
So in this environment where most of us
have come and our minds are straight,
what kills us
what kills us is we don't leave the
scene.
And there's always something, and everybody has their
own.
One guy, he's caught up in eating some
kind of food that he shouldn't be eating.
Another person has an addiction to the Internet,
is looking at things that they shouldn't be
looking at. Another person
likes to speak and is saying things they
shouldn't
say. Another person is hanging out with people
that they shouldn't be hanging out with. So
what happens is these things come together and
they kill the plant before it can even
grow.
So if you want to recognize where the
vast majority of people fail, it's in the
inability to leave sin. And, again, that's a
beautiful part of this gathering is that there's
no potential to sin here. I mean, you
can, but it's very hard. You'd have to
try.
You know, the environment is not conducive to
it.
You'd have to try. You'd have to sit
and find something to talk about, and you
can't even remember who's out there anymore. So
what is there to talk about? You'd have
to, you know, sit and bring your phone
in and begin to surf the Internet for
so for some worthless reason. I mean, the
environment is very defensive here. It's very it's
very, very fortified.
So it's this is the perfect environment in
which we can begin to remove the sins,
but we have to remove the sins in
order to be able to progress on this
path.
Now if I have to say what's the
general principle to avoid sin? The general principle
to avoid sin is also present in the
Quran. When Allah
commanded Adam alayhi salam and Hawa alayhi salam
to avoid partaking of that particular tree, they
weren't told don't partake take of the tree.
They were told
Do not even go near this tree because
if you go near the tree,
can cause you to slip.
So the battle for sin remember this remember
this with bold letters.
The battle
against sin
does not lie in the sin.
It lies in the environment of that sin.
Do you understand?
The battle against sin
does not lie in the sin.
It lies in avoiding the environment of that
sin.
Look, if you know that you've got a
problem, let's say there's a sister, alright, or
a girl,
and you're involved with that girl.
If you go and, you know, you you
sit next to her, you're gonna be involved
with her. You have to avoid her totally.
You have to cut off every connection with
her. You have to say no chatting, no
texting. I'm not gonna and delete
block this one from my email account.
And only until you knock off the entire
environment will you be able to free yourself
from that person.
Alright. If you have a problem lowering your
gaze,
then you cannot go into the mall
at on a hot summer day at 3
in the afternoon.
You're
gone. You're gone because you put yourself in
that environment. It's over. There's no battle left.
It's like standing in front of a truck
and saying, Bismillah.
It's over. I don't care what you recite.
You have to you can't stand in the
middle of the highway. You're gonna get run
over.
So why would you stand in the middle
of the highway of sin? It's funny. Right?
But this is what we do. We go
into the environment. We say,
What did you put yourself there?
What did you put yourself there for the
1st place? Why you cannot survive that environment.
So the battle against sin
lies in
avoiding the environment altogether.
So this is why we like the 24
hour grocery store. You know? The time to
go to Jewel is wake up 20 minutes
before fudger and on your way stop and
buy your groceries. There's no one there. It's
perfect for you. It's perfect for the believer.
You don't wanna go there in a crowded
day. You know, the time to buy your
stuff in the mall is to go late.
Go be the first one at the store.
You go there at 9 o'clock, nobody's there.
You know, you go there at 5 o'clock,
it's busy. It's crowded. There's too much potential
for for damage.
So if we have value for the iman
that we have, we would be very careful
about entering
the in any environment of sin. Now look.
If you know that you have a problem
with the Internet,
okay, which is, I would say, the most
common problem among youth.
If you know you have a problem with
the Internet,
then you have to get rid of the
Internet.
And I'm just gonna tell you very honestly.
And even if you don't have a problem
with the Internet, it's very likely that it
would safeguard you if you were to minimize
the Internet within your home. And
this is the one of the most dangerous
tools of shop on, the Internet.
Because
even the good person
who never intended to be
where he ends up
will easily slip with the Internet
because it's too connected. It's a web. You
know, the name gives it away, worldwide web.
You just get stuck and Chaitan just comes
and destroys you.
It's very, very dangerous.
So you have to use it in the
most limited fashion possible.
Even to read the news is dangerous because
the news talk talks about so much lewdness.
You know, there's so much garbage in the
news. They'll say that, you know,
this famous person was
caught somebody took pictures at the beach of
this person.
Right? So you then somebody clicks and reads
the article. Then they say,
yeah. That website was down for 3 days
because everybody was trying to download the pictures.
And then so then you start you click
on that website too. Right? So what happens
is you never intended. You started asking yourself
where what's the stock market doing today? And
you end
up crashing yourself.
Right? Because you end up reading things that
you should not have read.
And the problem with that is that these
things get into the soul,
and they
they are like weeds.
They're so hard to get out. They're so
hard to get out, and
it takes Ramadan. You know, it takes the
power of Ramadan to be able to erase
these things.
So then you have to wait a whole
another year to for it to to to
be gotten rid of.
So the Internet, let me tell you, we
just give you one piece of advice. Internet,
avoid to the best of your ability.
Because I'm telling you, I'm the one who
hears all the problems. Right? Or other people
in the community who have this responsibility,
they come to me and, you know, I'll
tell you families have been destroyed by the
Internet.
Girls have been destroyed by the Internet.
Brothers have been destroyed by the Internet.
Have been destroyed by the Internet
because the girls' section is chatting up with
the boys' section.
It's not uncommon. It's common.
It's common. It's not rare. It's common.
So
Internet,
maintain it minimally.
Better to not keep it in the house.
Use it only at work.
And if you absolutely have to check your
email, then, you know, you get some device
that only allows you to check email and
gives you no other option.
You know, just some simple thing that allows
you to just check email and whatever you
have to do for work, but keep it
very simple. Sheikh Zulfikar
says it like this,
that look, every house has electricity.
Alright? But you don't put your foot you
don't put your finger in the socket.
When you go near the plug, you carefully
put the plug in, and you don't do
anything more.
So you use it to the level necessary.
And what do you do when you have
children?
You cover all the plugs.
Right?
Anybody who has children, they go to the
store and they buy those covers and they
cover all the plugs. Even though electricity might
be a necessity,
you use it to the degree of necessity.
You don't put your finger in there and
wonder what's gonna happen. You know, you don't
rewire something thinking this might work better now.
So you just be content with the amount
that you need it and nothing beyond that.
Now Sheikh Zulfikar did not tell me this
in the context of the Internet, although it
applies. He told me told me this in
the context of probably the more dangerous thing
in this day and age, which is the
cell phone.
Why is a cell phone so dangerous? Because
the cell phone creates an opportunity for you
to speak what you shouldn't be speaking.
In any any human being can only say
so much
before they end up saying things they shouldn't
say.
And, you know, clearly told us that if
you guarantee the tongue and you guarantee what's
in between, you know, the private parts, then
you'll be guaranteed Jannah. The tongue is something
that we have to be very particular about
how we use. And especially if you have
a habit about talking about others or you
use the phone in that way or you
talk to someone you shouldn't be speaking with,
but the phones are very dangerous. And now
because the phones have got this texting on
it, texting has removed.
The girl who wears,
she has no problem texting because she's behind
her,
but she'll be texting someone that she shouldn't
be texting.
And the brother who would never ever have
the audacity, he wouldn't even have the courage
to even peep in front of a girl.
He wouldn't be able to say a word.
He can text her because it's there's no
shame in it. You know, Haya has been
removed.
And now these phones, I mean, they've become
smarter. They're not the only thing smart about
them is Chaitan is teaching people how to
be smarter about them. There's nothing more smart
about them. They don't do anything better for
you. So you have to be very careful
about this. And Sheikh Zulfiqar, I mean, it
was funny because we were sitting in
I I was sitting on a bus, and
we were driving through Damascus and through Syria.
And I was asking him all these questions.
And, you know, I was asking about, I
don't know, video games and this and that
and this and that and this and that.
And when when I came to the question
of the cell phone, his whole face changed.
His whole face changed. And he said,
I wish I could make this haram.
I wish the muftis would just make this
thing haram
because I can tell you and, you know,
he this is his life. He deals with
this every day. I can tell you I
can tell you
the the vast majority of spiritual problems in
this day and age among the righteous seeking
to develop themselves
lies is always traced back to the cell
phone,
the vast majority.
And he said that he said this to
me in his own words. He said, I
feel we are walking
from his hotel to the Kaaba, you know,
to pray there. It's in Makkah
Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah
Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah
Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah Makkah
Makkah Makkah Rahma. He says to me, I
feel that
Cheban,
after the cell phone was created, he went
on vacation
because he was done. All his effort was
done. And then it's funny. We went to
the masjid, and 30 cell phones are going
off while you're praying.
And people are answering it. Literally, the guy
sitting there praying. He the phone goes off.
He picks it up, and
he puts his phone back down in the
middle of prayer.
In the middle of prayer. Now you think
that's funny, but the thing is the the
reality is when your phone goes off, you
wish you could do that, but it's just
you can't do that in front of people.
But you your mind does the same thing.
Your mind says, who's calling?
Right? So what happens? You see that when
people are praying and their cell phone goes
off, as soon as even before the salami
is done,
it's out, and they're looking at missed call.
Who was it? Right? Or they're sending just
a quick text message in between the salam
and the dua.
Right? Because it it distracts you.
And, really, the issue is is that human
beings have been designed to be constantly connected.
See, it's in our nature. This is where
this is where the power of the cell
phone lies.
As human beings, we have a desire to
be constantly connected. We need to be instantly
messaged.
Okay? We we need instant messaging.
But that instant messaging, you have 2 places
you can apply it. That desire, you can
apply it to your connection with Allah
so that you're constantly connected with Allah
or you can apply it to your connection
with dunya. And this is the tool by
which you are constantly connected with dunya.
This is the tool that will detract you.
Now, of course, there are necessities and needs,
and I'm not I'm not telling you the
cell phone is haram nor am I,
you know, saying that you don't have needs
and necessities, but use it to the limit.
Now you think just be honest with yourself.
Just take a piece of paper and say,
okay. How many minutes do you think you
need to talk in a month?
You say to yourself, okay. If I have
to talk and it's a necessity and I
just use it in emergency, if my car
breaks down, if my mom's wondering where I
am, I quickly tell her where I am.
If my wife needs to give me a
grocery list, I quickly take the grocery list.
So you say, okay. How many minutes do
you think you need in a month? So
you say, okay. I need 200 minutes. That's
a lot. But let's say you need 200
minutes.
Alright? So then you buy a phone with
only 200 minutes on it.
And you'll you you and then you'll see
that you'll only use it when it's necessary
because when they charge you 40¢, then the
NAFs doesn't like that. You know, 40¢ a
minute. And you'll use it when it's necessary.
Actually, the best phone is a TracFone.
I don't work for TracFone. I'm just telling
you this. But the best phone is a
TracFone. Why? Because when the 200 minutes are
over, it shuts off itself. You can't make
any more calls.
Alright? So you have to have it. It's
the most simple phone. It's whatever. It's, like,
$9 a month. You know? You just have
it for absolute necessity,
and it it will free you from an
addiction.
Otherwise, you're always worried about charging it. You're
never worried about charging yourself.
That's what happens. You're always worried about charging
it. You're never worried about charging yourself.
So you have to be very careful with
cell phones. Very careful with cell phones. Anyway,
this whole discussion arose because I was telling
you that when you wanna grow the soul,
you have to, number 1, grow the soul.
But number 2, you must avoid sin because
sin is what is detrimental to the growth
of the soul.
It is the poison that damages your progress.
And the vast majority of people in this
room were growing the soul. You wouldn't be
here if you weren't concerned about that. So
when you pray, when you come to the
masjid, when you make the effort, when you
sit next in the company of scholars, when
you listen to talks, you're developing yourself. So
that's all natural.
Now the key battle lies in avoiding sin.
So one more component of that. And that
is is that anytime you avoid sin,
anytime you try to avoid sin, by the
nature of being present in this world,
sins will occur.
It's just part of life. Just like if
you have white clothing and you go outside,
it's gonna get dirty.
If you just live life in this world,
there are going to be some mistakes that
occur.
And so, therefore, in order to remove those
mistakes, you must also have in your daily
routine
routine. So every day, consistently,
regularly,
we must make.
And the best way to do so is
every morning and every evening. So when you
wake up in the morning, you make.
You seek forgiveness for your mistakes. And when
you go to bed in the evening, you
reflect on the entire day, reflect on every
mistake you made, and you seek a stickfad
for any mistake that might have occurred.
So this is an essential component of your
development as well because it removes the poison
that would have killed your growth.
It's Allah's mercy
that Allah gives us the ability to actually
clear away that poison. Now the beautiful example
of this, and it's highlighted in hadith, is
that Allah the prophet
tells us that anytime a person sins,
what happens?
A black dot comes on the heart. Now
I can tell you I've been in heart
surgeries before. Okay? People who sin don't have
black hearts. It's not a physical thing. It's
a spiritual thing.
So what's happening is that the heart gets
black, but it's the soul that is being
referred to as the heart here that actually
is actually getting dark. So the way by
which we remove it is to make Istikfar.
The more istighfar,
the more you remove those black dots. The
more you remove those black dots, the wider
the heart will be, the more healthy the
heart will be, the more receptive it will
be to all of the good things that
you do, and the more you'll grow in
closeness to Allah
It's such a simple prescription. It's not hard.
What's difficult is that sheffan and the nafs,
they come in the way.
So that's tomorrow's discussion.
Sheffan and then mostly the nafs and then
part partially discussion about sheffan.
So every day, we'll cover a little bit
and actually I'm sorry. You know what? That's
not gonna be tomorrow's discussion. What time is
it?
1:30:3.
1:30:3.
See, there there's a second discussion that goes
along with all of this, which is,
what happens when the soul grows
and the change that occurs in a human
being.
And that's a very, very lengthy discussion. And
so we'll start that tomorrow and maybe we'll
get to the nafs tomorrow, but if not,
it'll be the day after inshallah.
So, with that,
we'll we'll stop for today and then we'll
continue tomorrow. So may
Allah give us a to be among those
who become
addicted to the sunnah of Rasulullah
may he make us among those whose hearts
who who can who restrict the growth of
their nafs
and who have the sense to be able
to,
to not feed their nafs. May he make
us among those who are consistent in their
dhikr.
May he give us the love of the
recitation of the Quran. Give us the tawfiq
to be able to constantly recite salawat and
Rasulullah Subh'allahu alaihi wa sallam and may he
give us the best of company so that
we may be raised with the best of
company.