In the latest episode of Ilm Seekers, Shaykh Ismail Kamdar gives some practical tips on how to maintain Ikhlaas (sincerity) while studying Ilm.
Ismail Kamdar – Advice for Ilm Seekers – Maintaining Ikhlaas
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So I want to look
at hamdulillah salat wa salam ala rasulillah. So in this episode of Advice to him seekers going to address a question which I get every semester from my students. In fact, I get this very often. And that question is, how do we people who are studying Islam, maintain a philosophy or maintain a sincere intention for the sake of Allah, we know that having a sincere intention for the sake of Allah is very important.
It is the really the deciding factor on whether we are rewarded for what we are not that seeking Islamic knowledge and teaching it with the wrong reasons, which is known as we are shooting off. This is a sin Islamic is a major sin. Right, it's a form of minor shock. And it is something for which a student of knowledge is punished for in the afterlife.
On the other hand, doing this good work for the sake of work, is one of the most rewarding deeds that a person can do.
But we know that maintaining that EClass is not easy.
As we do our work as we study, ego creeps in the wrong intentions creep in. And we often find ourselves wondering, am I really doing this for the sake of Allah? Am I doing it for my ego? Now, when these thoughts come to us, the first point that we should realize is that if we are worried about our intention, if you are worried about whether we just for the sake of Allah, if we are worried about whether we are sincere, can get in of itself is a sign of sincerity that in of itself is a sign of Islamophobia. Because only a sincere individual worries about his or her attention. Someone who is not sincere, doesn't care. Right, they will do what they want, they will follow the
laughs they will please the ego and they won't think twice about. So the very fact that you worry about this is not itself a sign of the class. Now the question is how do we maintain this class and I will mention three points, or three things that you and I can do to maintain our class. Point number one is to have a secret good deed. This is something which is recommended by many of the early scholars. And that is that you have at least one good deed your life that you do on a regular basis that nobody knows about, except law.
So this can be a secret charity, it can be some anonymous way in which you are serving the community and happy diploma can be some extra so that if you pray in private that nobody knows about, give me some Quranic recitation, if you do that nobody knows about can be submissive parts and repentance that you do every day that nobody knows about, at least having one deed like this on a daily basis. The benefit of this is twofold. Number one, you know that that deed in particular, is free from Ria, because you are doing it for the sake of Allah, no one knows about you, except Allah does, nobody else knows about it. So there's nobody else that you could be doing it for. So that's the first
point. The other benefit that you get from that is that it trains you, it trains you to have to do that by doing that deeds solely for the pleasure of Allah that sincerely can rub off onto our deeds that we do throughout the day in public.
The second way in which you can maintain a collection Nia is to surround yourself with good company. Keep yourself constantly in the company of people who are sincere. People who are reminded to be sincere people who are working to clean a water by hand or dollar people who want to do what is best for the Ummah stay away from company that is egotistical and self centered that has an agenda. Because these people their qualities will rub off on you to make sure that your friends are people who will DC you string a reminder to do things for the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa Taala if we have this kind of good company insha Allah will help us to maintain a sincere connection.
A third way in which we can maintain a classroom dia is to make to our to Allah every day to keep us sincere. And to make dua to Allah to forgive us when we unknowingly fall into Ria because sometimes it just creeps up on us. We don't even realize when we have what protect us from this And forgive us when we do it unknowingly. These are the words that we should be making every day.
I want to mention two more bits of advice on this topic of VR shooting off. The first is that some people ask me, How do I get rid of it completely? What's the one thing I can do that are never experienced VR ever again in my life? And the answer to that is there is nothing you can do to get rid of it completely. Because the jihad against the knifes the striving against the temptations of the soul against the wrong intentions against the evil
This is an ongoing thing until we die. Rarely, the more righteous you become, the more your ego tries to sneak in, the more famous you become, the harder it becomes to avoid via, the more successful you are in your power, the harder it is to avoid react, there is nothing that you can do that's going to make it go away. It is a constant Jihad that goes on until the day we pass away. So it's something you need to be constantly aware of. It's something you need to be constantly fighting, there's no way to get rid of it completely. The other point I wanted to mention is that she is going to use this to try and make you give up. She is going to tell you don't do Islamic
work. Because you're not doing it for the sake of Allah. Don't give that lecture because you're not doing it for the sake of Allah. Don't make that YouTube video, because you're not doing it for the sake of Allah. And what's going to happen you're not going to do it. You're not going to make your YouTube videos you're not going to post on Facebook, anything beneficial. You're not gonna give lectures you're not going to teach you're not going to write what are you going to do
shaytan is cutting you off from the dollar
in the guise of stopping you from here
rather when these thoughts come to you when it comes to your saying, don't do it because you have told yourself I will do it and I will do it for the sake of Allah right five of the negative thoughts as a point in putting your mind and do it for the sake of Allah. Whenever you want to do something that is a good deed that is going to benefit the Kuma Don't let she don't stop you with his negative thoughts. rather tell yourself I am going to do it and I'm going to do it for the sake of Allah and if any wrong attention sneaking out of Allah forgive me and to guide you and to keep me doing it sincerely for his sake. So this is some advice on the topic of PR and maintaining a sincere
intention I hope really benefit you all a lot protect us from via e keep us in CMU keep us humble may keep us serving is Dean and use us to pay for this much later on. And inshallah we'll see you in the next video to discuss another question which I get asked very often by my students regarding seeking knowledge was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.