Ismail Kamdar – The Art of Contemplation

AI: Summary ©
The importance of contemplation in Islam is discussed, including the need for balance and social life, working on one's thoughts to develop deeper spiritual qualities, and unlocking one's spiritual process through deep thinking and understanding oneself by sitting and thinking deeply about mistakes and goals. The speakers stress the benefits of contemplation, including unlocking deeper thoughts and developing a life lesson, and provide four types of contemplation that should be pursued in one's life, including deep thinking, cutting distractions, and creating a plan. They suggest that deep thinking is a fruitful practice and a way to improve one's life, while also being mindful of one's choices.
AI: Summary ©
And they take time to reflect and contemplate
on the creation of the heavens and earth.
And they conclude, My lord, you did not
create all of this with our purpose.
Glory be to you, protect us from the
punishment of the hellfire.
These two verses are full of so many
lessons.
You could literally write an entire book on
just these two verses.
But I leave the focus on one of
the qualities that Allah mentions in this verse.
About being the quality of an intelligent person.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes those who
are intelligent, those who are true believers to
be, from amongst those who يَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي أَرْضِ
السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ They contemplate the heavens and the
earth.
They contemplate the creation of the heavens and
the earth.
But this quality, تَفَكَّر, contemplation, is our theme
for today.
What does it mean to contemplate?
And how do we do this and how
does this fit in with our religion?
In the simplest meaning of the word تَفَكَّر
or contemplation, is that contemplation means to think
deeply.
To take a long period of time to
sit and think deeply about a topic.
That's the most simplest definition of تَفَكَّر.
That you just take your time and you
sit and you think and you think and
you think deeply about a topic.
And we live in a time where people
are too busy and too distracted to contemplate
on anything.
We are constantly connected.
We are on social media all day long.
If we are not on social media, we
are streaming.
If we are not streaming, we are entertaining
ourselves with video games.
We are always connected.
Now we connect to multiple devices at the
same time.
So it's not surprising to see a young
person today, watching something on one device or
playing a game on another device or chatting
to someone on a third device.
And we do this constantly from the time
we wake up till we go to sleep.
We don't give our brains time to think.
We don't give our minds time to develop.
We don't give ourselves a chance to develop
deeper thoughts.
Because we are always connected to the internet.
We are always connected to other people.
And this is not natural.
It is not natural to be connected to
people all the time.
We need to be balanced.
There are two extremes.
One extreme is total isolation where you don't
talk to people, you don't interact with people.
You are just yourself.
The other extreme is being connected and you
are with people all the time.
We need balance.
We need social life.
But we also need time alone.
And we need time to focus on our
thoughts.
And we need time to sit and to
think and to develop more mature, more structured,
more deeper thoughts.
This is really the primary goal of contemplation.
That your thinking becomes deeper.
Your thinking becomes more structured.
Your thinking becomes more mature.
And you notice the difference between someone who
makes time daily to think deeply and someone
who does not in the quality of the
thoughts that they talk about.
The quality of what they bring to the
table.
So what does this have to do with
Islam?
It has everything to do with Islam.
This is a quality that's highlighted over and
over and over again in the Qur'an.
And even in the seerah.
I'll just give one example from the seerah
that shows the importance of contemplation.
Where did the Prophet ﷺ receive the first
revelation?
Where was he when he received the first
revelation of Ikram?
In the cave of Iran.
What was he doing in a cave?
This is a businessman from the city.
What was he doing in a cave?
He would go every day to that cave
or rather he would go for long periods
of time to that cave to sit and
contemplate.
To sit and think deeply about the problems
of society.
About the purpose of life.
About what he's going to do with his
life.
He would go and sit in the cave
and just sit and think.
That means it is sunnah to carve out
time.
To sit alone in a place where there's
no distractions and to just sit and think.
This is the methodology of Rasulullah ﷺ.
And he kept this up after he received
the first revelation as well.
We know there are many occasions where he
would just go to the masjid and sit
and think.
Right?
Where he would like disappear from society and
just sit and think.
This is his method.
This is the method of the early Muslims.
But the Qur'an especially gives us so
many encouragements to sit and think.
So many times Allah SWT calls upon us
to contemplate.
He calls upon us to think deeply.
I'll give you a few examples.
In Surah Ar-Rum and we discussed this
verse a few weeks ago.
When Allah talks about marriage and He talks
about love.
He calls upon us to contemplate that the
very existence of marriage and love is a
proof of the existence of God.
So Allah SWT tells us in Surah Ar
-Rum.
وَمِنْ آيَاتِي أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَدْوَاجًا
لِتَسْفُدُوا إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُمْ مَوَدَّةٌ وَرَهْمًا From His
signs, from the signs of the existence of
Allah.
Is that He created for you spouses, that
you find peace in each other's company.
And He placed love and mercy between your
hearts.
How did Allah end the verse?
He ends the verse by saying, إِنَّ فِي
ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمِ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ That in this, in
the existence of marital love, there are signs
for whom?
For people who think deeply, for people who
contemplate.
In another verse, in surah Zumar, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala describes the process of the
soul leaving the body when we are sleeping,
and the soul leaving the body when we
die.
And He compares these two experiences, the minor
death that we experience every day sleeping, and
the major death, the day our soul will
leave our body and will never return.
And Allah ends this verse again by saying,
إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِقَوْمِ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ In this,
in sleep and death, there are signs for
those who think deeply.
Again, the word تفكّر is mentioned.
Even when describing the Qur'an itself, in
the verse that we discussed last week, surah
Asad, verse 29.
How did Allah describe the Qur'an?
كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ مُبَارَكًا لِيَتَذَكَّرُ أُولُّ أَلْبَابٍ A
book that will reveal to you that it's
mubarak, it has barakah in it, it's blessed.
What are you supposed to do with this
book?
What are you supposed to do with the
Qur'an?
يَتَذَكَّرُ أُولُّ أَلْبَابٍ You are supposed to think
deeply about its verses.
You are supposed to reflect on its verses.
You are supposed to contemplate its verses.
وَلِيَتَذَكَّرُ أُولُّ أَلْبَابٍ So that intelligent people can
receive reminders.
So that intelligent people can benefit from it.
Again, notice this trend throughout the Qur'an.
Whenever Allah talks about thinking deeply, He always
links it with His signs and He always
links it with intelligence.
Intelligent people think deeply about the signs of
Allah.
This is a message that's consistent throughout the
Qur'an.
And I'll give one more verse that shows
the importance of contemplation.
In Surah Al-Qaboot, Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala tells us that when we travel, what
we see of the world when we travel,
we should contemplate about the greatness of Allah.
When we see the world, when you see
the diversity of Allah's creation, when you see
the diversity of cultures and languages and different
regions and different natures and different things all
over the world, you should contemplate on that.
Allah says, قُلْ سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلِّلْلُّكَيْنِ فَبَدَأَ
الْخُبْرِ Travel to the earth and look at
how Allah created everything.
Travel to the earth and look at how
Allah created everything and realize that Allah's gonna
do it again, meaning the resurrection.
Right?
So all of these verses, whether about traveling,
whether about marriage, whether about sleep, all of
them call on us to do one thing,
think deeply.
تَفَكَّر Contemplation, deep thinking.
This is an important part of being a
Muslim.
This is an important part of being a
believer.
This is what separates the intelligent believers from
everybody else.
So today I wanna share with you three
simple things.
Number one, what are the benefits of the
تَفَكَّر of contemplation?
Number two, what are the different types of
deep thinking in Islam?
And number three, a few tips on how
to do this.
So let's start with the benefits.
Why should we make time to just sit
and think?
Why should we make time to sit and
reflect, to contemplate?
Number one, the number one benefit of contemplation,
it unlocks deeper thoughts.
A lot of people today, they only do
surface level thinking, because they don't ever take
the time to develop their minds.
The more time you spend thinking deeply, the
deeper thoughts you unlock from your own mind.
The more you are able to understand things
on a much deeper level.
And this can be anything.
Whether it can be the Quran, the Hadith,
history, but it can even be your own
life, your own self, it can even be
your own goals, it can even be your
own mistakes that you made in life.
To sit and reflect on this, and to
grow from this, and to mature from this,
this is one of the benefits of contemplation.
Another benefit of contemplation is to confront the
darkness within us, and to work on it.
And nowadays when I tell young people about
the importance of thinking deeply, one of the
most common objections I get is, I don't
like the thoughts that come to my mind
when I'm alone.
I don't like the thoughts I have to
deal with, so I distract myself so the
thoughts don't come in.
That's the wrong approach.
If you're not dealing with these thoughts, then
they are staying in your heart, and they
are going to affect you at some point.
The correct approach as a Muslim is to
confront the darkness within.
Every single one of us has a Nafs
-ul-Ambara Bistu, a portion of the soul
that commands you towards evil.
Every one of us has this within us.
We have within us a portion of our
soul that commands towards evil.
You have to confront it.
You have to deal with it.
You have to acknowledge it.
You need to know what your weaknesses are.
You need to know what your trigger points
are.
You need to know what causes you to
slip into sin.
And you cannot do this if you do
not think deeply.
You cannot do this if you are afraid
of your own thoughts.
You have to confront the darkness within.
And that leads us to the third benefit
of contemplation.
If you spend a lot of time thinking
deeply, you will understand yourself better.
You will know yourself better.
Many people today don't even know their own
selves.
They don't know their own strengths, their own
weaknesses, their own goals.
They don't know what they want to do
with their life.
They are just following what the media tells
them to do.
They never take the time to actually get
to know themselves.
And that's one of the benefits of the
Bakr, is you get to know yourself by
sitting and thinking and having an internal conversation
with yourself.
Another benefit of contemplation is that you learn
important life lessons.
One of the best things you can do
for yourself, especially if you are young, is
that every time you mess up in life,
and you won't mess up in life, every
time you make a mistake, especially if it's
a major mistake, take time to reflect on
that mistake and learn a life lesson from
it.
This will become invaluable life experience.
If you just take the time to sit
back and say, what went wrong?
What did I do wrong?
What can I learn from this?
How can I avoid this mistake in the
future?
This is one of the best things you
can do for yourself.
Another benefit of deep thinking is you can
help us make better decisions.
Instead of making rash decisions, instead of making
decisions on impulse, instead of making decisions just
for how we feel today, you can actually
take the time to assess something properly and
make a better decision.
And most importantly, the main benefit of deep
thinking is to connect you with your spiritual
side and to bring you closer to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala because the faqr is
an act of worship that is meant to
bring you closer to Allah.
That the more deeper you think, the more
you connect with the Creator, the more you
connect with your spiritual side, the more you
are able to understand the Qur'an, the
more you are able to see the benefits
of the Qur'an in your own life.
And these are six benefits of contemplation.
Now, I also want to mention four of
the main types of contemplation that all of
us should engage in.
Now, if you actually study the books on
this topic, there's a lot more than four.
So, for example, Ibn Tayyib al-Jawziyya lists
eight or ten different types of deep thinking.
Right?
But I'm just going to give four because
these are the basics.
These are the four everyone should be doing
in their lives.
Number one, the most general version, is Tafakkur.
Right?
Tafakkur, which is mentioned in all these verses
that we quoted today, is the more general
term of contemplation.
And we said, Tafakkur simply means to take
time to sit and think deeply for a
period of time.
That you spend 30 minutes to an hour
thinking deeply.
And this is general.
This can apply to anything.
To just sit and think deeply about the
mistakes you have made, about your own faults,
about your plans, your goals, about anything.
Even it could just be a historical incident
that you're sitting and thinking about.
It could be a hadith that you're sitting
and thinking about.
Just, in general, taking time to sit and
think deeply, this is called Tafakkur.
This is something everyone should be doing.
But there are more specific forms of deep
thinking that we all should be engaged in.
One of them we discussed last week.
And that is, Tadabbur.
Tadabbur is mentioned in the Qur'an, specifically
referring to the Qur'an.
Whenever the word Tadabbur is mentioned in the
Qur'an, it is referring to the Qur
'an.
Allah says, أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنِ Do they not
think deeply about the Qur'an?
Do they not reflect on the Qur'an?
So this is a specific type of deep
thinking.
That Tadabbur is general, Tadabbur is specific to
the Qur'an.
And this simply means that you take a
verse from the Qur'an, a passage from
the Qur'an, a story from the Qur
'an, and you reflect on how it applies
to your life.
How you can grow from this verse.
How you can improve from this verse.
How this verse can make you a better
person.
Then you connect your heart to that verse,
by taking time to think about that verse
deeply.
The third type of contemplation that we all
should engage in often is مُحَاسَبَة مُحَاسَبَة, self
-accountability.
Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a used to
say, حَاسَبُ قَدَّ أَنتُ حَاسَبُ Hold yourself to
account before the day when you are held
to account.
What is مُحَاسَبَة?
مُحَاسَبَة means thinking about your own faults.
Holding yourself accountable.
Telling yourself, I messed up.
I committed a sin today.
Okay, let me see the thing.
What led to the sin?
How can I avoid it in the future?
What do I need to do to repent
for the sin?
Then you hold yourself accountable.
You know what your sins are.
You know what your weaknesses are.
You know what your mistakes are.
You know what your trigger points are.
You know what causes you to fall into
those sins.
You know how to avoid them.
And you have inspiration to do.
Is it bad?
Is it good?
Do I have to try and be better?
مُحَاسَبَة is crucial.
It's something we should be doing all the
time.
And the fourth type of contemplation and deep
thinking that we should be doing as often
as possible is مُرَاقَبَة.
What is مُرَاقَبَة?
مُرَاقَبَة which is often translated as mindfulness.
مُرَاقَبَة actually means connecting your heart to Allah.
Thinking about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This is what مُرَاقَبَة is all about.
When you sit and you think about who
Allah is and what is your relationship with
Allah.
And you reflect on the names of Allah
and the attributes of Allah.
And on your own relationship with Allah and
whether you are close to Allah or not.
مُرَاقَبَة is often done during zikr.
When you are sitting and you say Alhamdulillah,
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah and you are thinking specifically about
the things you are grateful for.
This is مُرَاقَبَة where while remembering Allah you
are connecting your heart to Allah and you
are thinking deeply about Allah.
And so these are the four types of
contemplation that we should bring into our lives.
We should make time for deep thinking.
Specifically we should make time for deep thinking
about the Quran, about our mistakes, about Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And all of this is beneficial.
All of this is sunnah.
All of this is from ibadah, is from
the acts of worship.
And all of these things help us to
grow into better versions of ourselves.
وَأَفْرِقَ عَوَانًا عَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَعَنِ الْعَالَمِينِ الحمد
لله وحده والسلامة والسلامة على من لا نبي
بعد أباه إِنَّ أَسْتَقَى الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهُ وَسَيِّهُ
حَدِيهَا لِلْمُحُمَّدِ وَسَوَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَدَهُ وَشَّرُوا الْأُمُورِ
وَمُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَقُلُوا مُحْدَثَةٍ بِالْعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالْعَارِ وَقُلُوا
بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا
بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا
بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ
وَقُلُوا بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا
بِالعَارِ وَقُلُوا بِال And I read it and
I'm like, this is common sense, this is
obvious, we've been doing this our whole lives.
Why are the young people saying this is
so amazing and groundbreaking?
The book tells you stuff like, don't be
on social media, make time for deep thinking,
make time for more material.
I'm like, this is common sense.
And I realized it's not common sense to
the younger generation.
That the younger generation are raised in a
world where social media obviously existed.
They are raised in a world where the
internet is always around them.
And many of them have never actually thought
about disconnecting.
So they see this to be groundbreaking knowledge.
Even for the older people, this is how
we've always lived our lives.
So yes, I'll share a few tips and
you'll find these tips are found in that
book and they're also found in Islamic books
as well.
And so that means, number one, if you
want to think deeply about anything, please disconnect
from the internet.
Even if it's for 30 minutes, even if
it's for one hour, if you really want
to develop deeper and stronger thoughts, do not
have any internet around you at all.
Completely disconnect.
And you can do this in many ways,
right?
But I'll leave it to you to figure
out how to do it.
But make sure you are not connected to
the internet at that time because you will
be distracted.
And that takes me to point number two.
To think deeply, cut out all distractions.
All distractions.
Be in a place where there are no
distractions.
This is why in general, historically, people will
do contemplation in the masjid or in nature.
Right?
This is like the two places.
People either will sit in a masjid and
sit and think deeply or they will take
a walk in the park and say, Rasulullah
s.a.w. will go to the cave
of Hira, right?
Then they will go somewhere isolated where there's
no distractions.
No one's going to walk in you and
start yapping with you.
No one's going to start, you know, a
conversation with you.
No one's going to distract you.
You can just sit and think for a
long period of time.
So find a place where there's no distractions.
And choose to be in that place for
the next 30 minutes to one hour.
Number three, carve out time alone.
Make time for this.
We have very busy lives these days.
People's lives are just moving from one thing
to another.
You have to make time for deep thinking.
If you don't make time for deep thinking,
it's never going to happen.
So you need to tell yourself, the next
30 minutes, I'm not doing any work.
I'm not looking at social media.
I'm not doing anything except thinking.
You need to make that time.
And it's something you should try to do
daily.
Really, deep thinking is something you should try
to do daily.
It benefits your work.
It benefits your study.
It benefits your growth as a person.
It benefits your relationship with Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
It benefits your relationship with the Qur'an.
You should make time to do it daily.
So carve out time.
Cut out distractions.
Disconnect from the internet.
Number four, decide what is your method.
What are you doing today?
Are you reflecting on a verse of the
Qur'an?
Are you reflecting on a mistake that you
made?
Are you reflecting on an important goal of
your life?
How are you going to achieve it?
What exactly do you plan to do with
that time?
Don't go into that time without a plan.
Don't plan that at 11 a.m. I'm
going to do half an hour of deep
thinking.
And then 11 a.m. comes and you're
not sure what you're going to think about.
And you're just thinking about cartoons and video
games and everything besides what you should be
thinking about.
Have a plan.
Have something specific.
Today I'm going to think about this.
And I'm going to find a solution to
this.
Or I'm going to grow from this.
Or I'm going to learn from this.
And you focus on that for that amount
of time.
And there are ways to do this, right?
So you could do zikr.
You could recite Qur'an.
Or if you get good at it, you
can literally just sit and close your eyes
and go into your inner world.
And finally, that's the final point, number five.
Find a way to concentrate.
Figure out what works for you.
Find a way to concentrate.
Sadly, you know now, one of the problems
of the modern world that the internet has
caused is low attention spans.
Everybody got ADHD these days.
Thanks to TikTok, right?
Everybody can't concentrate these days.
This practice of contemplation will train you to
concentrate better.
It will train you to focus better.
It's what you need to solve that problem.
Many young people don't need meditation.
They just need to learn how to concentrate,
how to focus.
That's what we need to do.
So start with something small.
Start with five minutes.
And then ten minutes.
And then grow it.
You should at least reach a level in
your life where you can sit for 30
minutes alone with your thoughts and focus on
your thoughts.
That's when you know you are able to
excel at life.
And you can use that to focus on
other things as well.
But nonetheless, in the beginning, you might find
it hard to concentrate.
Here's a few tips on how you can
do that.
Obviously, get rid of your distractions.
But you can sit with your eyes closed.
You can sit with a pen and paper
so you can focus or write down your
thoughts.
You can take a walk in nature.
You can focus on your breath.
You can do deep breathing and focus on
your breath.
You can do zikr and focus on the
zikr.
There are many ways to do this.
I highly recommend getting some books or articles
on this topic to understand it deeper.
Understand that this is key.
This is key between being just a regular
Muslim and being from ulul albaab, the people
of intellect.
Every time in the Quran when Allah talks
about ulul albaab, the intelligent believers, the people
of deep intellect, He always links it to
tafakkur, to people who think deeply, people who
make time to think deeply.
We must make time for deep thought.
It doesn't matter how young you are or
how old you are.
It doesn't matter whether you are a student
or somebody who is working.
It doesn't matter what stage of life you
are at.
Everybody should have time for deep thinking.
And everybody should make time for deep thinking.
Everybody should develop this quality because this will
help you grow into the best version of
yourself.
This will help you to achieve your goals
in dunya and akhira.
This will help you get closer to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
This will help you to be more confident.
It will help you to be a better
version of yourself.
Really there is no end to the benefits
of deep thinking.
So let that all become from those who
are deep thinkers.
I ask Allah to allow us to benefit
from the Quran and especially to ask Allah
to make us from those who are ulul
albaab and from those who are true believers.
Al Fatiha.