Jamal Zarabozo – Tazkiyah – Purification Of The Self
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AI: Transcript ©
Allow us all to Santa Maria and Amina Mohamed, what should I learn ilaha illallah wa hula should you color or should one the Mohammed bin Abdullah who are so bad
for small let me think Valley Ranch for inviting me here today. Valley Ranch Michelle has a very nice in case you didn't know what Valley Valley Ranch Islamic Center has a very nice reputation Mashallah. And so it's a pleasure for me to come and finally visit.
So, last last night and one of the other mosques in the area
I should say one of the other many mosques in the area, I lectured about purification of the soul and I know some of you are here both both lectures. So, inshallah today's topic obviously is going to be different from yesterday's topic, but I'm going to start off with the same just with a definition of purification of the soul, and some of the key elements of what this concept concept is all about. Inshallah, before we move on to the specifics that we want, want to discuss Inshallah, in today's lecture, so, after lengthy research on different definitions of purification of the soul,
I've come up with this again, this rather lengthy definition but Shala I'll go over the key points after I give the definition inshallah. So, purification of the soul is the process in which the healthy elements found in the soul are fostered built upon an attitude attitude, added to while invading contaminants are removed or controlled, such that the person worships Allah properly and fulfills his purpose in life, which can culminate in the ultimate expression of true essence.
So, basically, what this what this definition is describing
is that all of us are born with a Phaedra with a natural inclination to turn towards Allah subhanaw taala to accept the truth of Laila Allah and to worship none other than Allah subhana wa Tada.
And then on top of that, of course, we know that Allah has sent messengers and books to to fortify and to strengthen what we actually internally already know and already knew.
But all along even from the even from the time of the creation of Adam,
there are forces shaytaan for example, in atomic forces, and elements, that basically are coming to our knifes, and they are interfering with this process of purification.
So it becomes it becomes a struggle, it becomes something that takes effort. And as I said, there is there is a process involved.
And also, as the as the definition is shown there is also a goal is also there's a goal behind purification of the soul. In other words, when we're talking about purification of the soul, we are actually speaking about the idea that we have like something that we want to attain
and we need to be moving and working towards achieving that goal.
And obviously, it is very important. It is very important that we have a good grasp of what that goal is.
You know people can put we mashallah, as human beings, Allah subhanho wa Taala has given us, Allah subhanho wa Taala has given us the ability to,
you know, when we focus on something, Allah subhanaw taala has given us the ability to like really work for somebody, you know, you take, for example, like Olympic athletes,
some of them every day of the year, some of them six days, you know, six days out of the week, they're working an average of eight, eight hours a day, eight hours a day, doing whatever training they need for their for their sport. Because obviously, they have a goal they want, they want to be able to either compete in the Olympics, that's I guess, the lesson goal or the greater goal, they want to win. They want to win in the Olympics. So once their mind is set on that and they understand that goal, then they figure out what they need, what they need to achieve that goal. And as I said, Allah subhanaw taala has shown us that we as humans, when we set a goal and we understand the goal,
we do have, we do have a great ability, Mashallah.
In general, I mean, you know, some humans might struggle with this, but in general, we have the great ability of when we recognize a goal that this is what we want, because essentially what is a goal, a goal is like really what your heart wants. This is what this is what your heart is driving you to do.
And so once you once you really are set on
goal, and this is what your heart your knifes really wants, then inshallah you're going to be start making the effort to achieve that goal.
And of course, our goal.
Our goal as we know, the pleasure of Allah, subhanaw, taala, Jana, and so forth, it is a very noble goal. So I want to, I want to discuss, first of all this question of, of the goal of purification of the soul.
And the importance of recognizing what is the school
because, as I discussed, for example, with respect to with respect to athletes and so forth, when you recognize your goal, and you take it very seriously.
This gives you the ability to judge virtually anything that you might do in the light of that goal.
Like, for example,
let's say like somebody has the goal of losing 100 pounds, right, it seems to be a common goal that people have.
So next time they go to eat or or exercise or don't exercise right there. In their mind, they're like evaluating, if I do this, is this going to be good, helping me towards my goal? Am I going to be like taking two steps back. And you'll always have this process, you have this process going on, by which you are able to determine by what you're able to determine with respect to every action, every action that you do, or every every
relevant action that you do, you can figure out whether or not that's going to be good for you with respect to your goal or not. So it is very important to focus on the goal and understand the goal.
And, of course, as Muslims, as Muslims, it is part of our belief caught part of our clear belief that we're not here as human beings. We're not here basically, Allah subhanaw taala has created us without any purpose without any goal, without even any guidance to lead us to a certain goal. This kind of belief, this kind of belief that we are, we are just existing here like some of the atheists kind of believe that there's like no purpose. There's no purpose to our entity here.
Allah subhanho wa Taala says Roma falak the Sama what maharatna sama will are the one my bein Houma bought Vertica when the Latina covered over we know little Edina cattlemen and not Allah subhanaw taala says, and we did not create the heavens in the earth, and that between them aimlessly, that is the assumption of those who disbelieve. So whoa, whoa to those who disbelieve from the Fire.
Allah subhanaw taala also tells us in the Quran for her septum anima holla, Conoco Mahabharata one Nakum Elena to Jehan,
Allah subhanaw taala says, Then did you think we created you uselessly?
And that to us, you will not be returned?
So as part of our arcade, right? I mean, you can take a five year old Muslim child and ask them for example, do you have a purpose here? Are you you know, are you eventually going to be returning to Allah? subhanaw taala and judgment and all that? And And most likely, the answer automatically is yes, of course. We're here for purpose and so forth.
But there is something there is something that the Arabs refer to as,
as the Senate has.
What they mean by the Senate, * is that we may claim, we may claim that yes, we recognize that definitely, we have a purpose and so forth. But our behavior, our actions, the way we actually approach life,
is actually indicating something different.
So it's not so much the design, it's not so much the tongue what we speak and what we say. Because we can claim anything.
As they say, in English, the proof is in the pudding, or talk is cheap, I can give you all sorts of expressions that they use, right?
So you can claim and when I say you can claim, by the way, when I say you can claim, I'm also saying you can claim this to yourself.
You can tell yourself, yes, I understand I have a purpose, and I'm working to that purpose. But in reality, in reality, the way you're behaving shows that it doesn't look like you're you understand that you're here for purpose. It doesn't look like that you understand, for example, that everything that you do,
every action that you do is not inconsequential. It's not insignificant.
Every action that you do could actually be an act that is taking you closer to Allah soprano.
$1 or an act that is that is taking you further away from all this amount of data.
That's not inconsequential.
And when you recognize that, look, you have a purpose and you're moving. Basically, in your life, you're moving,
you're moving towards your final destination, you cannot, you cannot escape it.
And that's why Allah subhanaw taala mentions, you know, like in that, in that verse, When did you think for example, that you're not going to return you are you are moving towards an end?
When you recognize it,
when you think about it, what do you prepare for it? When you take it seriously or not? That of course,
that's up to you.
If you don't take it seriously, if you don't recognize it, and so forth, then
basically, of course, you're going to you're just harming yourself. But as I said, you might say,
you might say that I have a purpose, I understand my purpose and so forth, but that needs to be reflected in your actions.
So first and foremost,
recognizing the goal is basically one of the first steps, one of the first steps of purification of the soul.
Because essentially, as we described, you know, the, the ultimate goal of preservation of the soul, as we talked about, when Mahalo to gender will insert allele abodo.
Though we have created Najin, and humankind except to worship Me, Allah subhanaw taala says, So the ultimate goal of purification also is to actually be that true art.
To actually be that true servant of Allah subhanho wa taala. And hopefully, inshallah be the best, the best servant that that you can be.
But the earlier that you recognize that goal, the earlier that you recognize that code, then you can consciously start being on the path of purification of the soul.
You know, many scholars, obviously, many scholars, when you read about this concept of purification of the soul, they usually talk about the first step as being Toba or repentance.
Because you know, if somebody has has believed in leading his life, and it doesn't matter if it's Muslim, who was converted, I mean, a non Muslim was converted to Islam, or maybe a Muslim who was, who was grown up as a Muslim as a Muslim.
You know, even if you've grown up as a Muslim, even if you've grown up as a Muslim, at some point in time, there had to be this conscious decision on your part that you want to take the Dean's seriously.
So it doesn't matter really what your background was.
But at some point in time, when you start taking it seriously, then you have you have a lot of baggage.
You have a lot of things that you've done before that you need to be, you need to be you need to be inshallah forgiven for it. And that's the essence. And that's what Toba is all about repentance.
And so they talk about repentance as like being the first step on the stage of purification of the soul. But why are you going to repent until you first realize that wait a minute, something is going on here.
As I said, I'm moving towards a certain direction. And either I take it seriously and understand that direction.
And understand what I should be doing with respect to where I'm moving towards. And until you make that until you make that recognition, there's a good chance you're not even going to take the steps of
the steps of repenting and trying to find what is the goal that you're seeking.
And as I said, I'm just talking about it briefly here, I'll talk about it later Inshallah, the goal is to be is to be a true od of Allah subhanaw taala.
And as I said, once you recognize that goal, just like what we talked about before, if you're trying to be a tool, Abdul Allah subhanaw taala, then that's going to give you the ability,
that's going to give you the ability to judge everything that you do that you do in your life, in the light of that goal.
What you do with your time, what you do with your energy, what you do with your wealth, what you do even with the kind of job that you do, and so forth. All of these,
all of these you need to once you understand that you have a goal that you're trying to achieve.
All of these become important resources that you're going to reflect one and think about whether or not you are using them wisely. Let's let's say like time for example. And for all the promises in them as as
Basically referred to, like free time is one of those bounties that many, many people, they, they neglect, neglect in the sense that they don't take good advantage of them.
And especially, you know, nowadays, with entertainment and all these, all this kinds of stuff, all this kind of stuff around us.
And lots of things that we can do, and especially for kids, there's all sorts of,
you know, Six Flags, Disneyland and all sorts of these things. And whether you're in the Muslim world, or here, it's all the same.
And by the way, all those things, you know, when you go to these amusement parks, for your kids, for example, all of them take time, all of them take money, all of them take some of your energy.
And so you need to, you need to ask yourself, whether or not that is a good usage of your time, for your or for your family or for your children.
Is this helping you with respect to your ultimate goal or not?
I'm not sure I'll let you have shakes here that can give you those photos later. That's not my point here. My point is that if you're conscious of your goal, if you're conscious of your goal, then you start thinking about these things. How much how much time did we waste last year, how much wealth did we waste last year, that none of it went towards our goal.
And time in particular, obviously, as you know, as you all know, you cannot you cannot regain that right once you lost time.
At once you lost the day, for example, in which you did not make decode or read Quran or do anything that brought you any closer to Allah subhanaw taala, there is no way that you can regain that.
But if the goal of your life is not very clear, you know, you don't you're not focused on that, then you will be doing these things and not even realizing that maybe they're not good for your for your overall goal.
Even worse, sometimes, is not to recognize that, in reality, as a Muslim, you have one ultimate goal period.
And everything else needs to be judged in the light of that ultimate goal.
And when you don't do that, you can get in a in a possibly very dangerous situation.
I mean, suppose for example, somebody is dreaming of becoming the president of the United States.
So in order for him to achieve that goal, he might have to do certain things and certain compromises and you know, all sorts of different things. That from his other goals perspective of being a true art of Allah subhanaw taala. They're not they may not be correct, he should not be doing these things.
But he still does.
He still does not because he has as another goal, that at least at some times, in some points, he is giving a just as much importance and weight as being an optimal this mandala.
You can see how that how dangerous that might be
that at some point in time you're giving,
you're giving your time and energy of trying to satisfy a goal that is not consistent with your overall goal of pleasing Allah subhanaw taala and being in app development.
And there are
there are, obviously there are
there are people who as I said, as they go through life,
as they go through life, they don't recognize they don't recognize that they should have one single goal that they are working towards.
And what that means, again, what that means the impact of that is everything else will be judged in the light of that goal.
Doesn't mean that they won't be doing you know, that they won't be working, for example, for a degree or working for for a promotion and so forth or taking their kids someplace here or there, doesn't mean they won't be doing that. But they will make sure before they do that, that that is consistent and good with respect to their overall goal. That is the point
to ignore it and not to think about it,
to ignore it and not even to think about it. That's where the problem lies.
And so, focusing and recognizing the goal.
This goal of being an ad this is the this is what we were created for will Mahalo to gender will insert Ilya Boone
ALLAH SubhanA wa
palaces have not created the jinn and human humankind except to worship me. And every and this is the same. You know this the same message, this being an ad of Allah subhanaw taala is the same message that was sent to all of the messenger does the same message of all the prophets it is the divine message, Allah subhanho wa Taala says we will apply BATNA equally material solid and net but Allah watch 20 Buddhahood Allah subhanaw taala says we sent to every peoples a messenger with the message of worship Allah alone and avoid all false deities or false gods everything else that you are chasing other than Allah subhana wa Tada.
And we need also to comment on this concept of a burden as well.
So basically, when you are an ABD, when you are the act of Allah subhanaw taala you are trying to fulfill, you're trying to fulfill the requirements of to hate.
To hate there's basically you can divide to hate into two major branches, to hadal me to hate which is related to what we believe about Allah subhanaw taala
that he is one he has no partner and so forth. So we have the witness of Allah subhanaw taala with respect to what we believe and know and affirm with respect to Allah subhanaw taala and then we have two Halal Amany
we have the implementation of that to hate, which is also known as to Halal although here and to hadal Obadiah
where we are accepting no other objects of worship except Allah subhanaw taala and we're making our Obadiah our servitude only towards Allah subhanaw taala.
And this Obadiah
Ibn Taymiyyah is one of the scholars who has written perhaps some of the greatest length on this concept of audio. And he emphasized the fact that LA Bader
and this is something this is something even in like some of the books, the elementary books on Islam, some of the books even on tarbiyah that I've seen a
lot of times the way that Islam is taught, Islam is taught and kind of like it's a matter of do's and don'ts.
You do this this is why Jim, so I have to do it. This is haram, so I have to stay well. And we think and we think that that's Obadiah we think that this submission is awarded. And as I said you'll see plenty of books whether it is for children or for like new Muslims and saying basically, Islam means submission to Allah subhanaw taala and this is what they mean by Allah Buddha here.
But as as Emin Tamia says and as he discusses any proof, so different verses, but it's not the thing that we want to talk about in its entirety here today, he said that Obadiah, Allah Obadiah, comprises
or embodies Gaia to lay, the vital Mahabharata who
embodies the Assam utmost degree of submission to Allah subhanaw taala.
Through the utmost of degree, the utmost degree of love for Allah subhanaw taala
the utmost degree of submission to Allah subhanaw taala via the utmost degree of love for Allah subhanaw taala
This is Obadiah. And then he talks about, you could have, for example, a ruler,
you could have a ruler, a tyrant rule, for example.
And you may submit to everything that that order that that ruler orders you to do. But in your heart, there's hatred for that ruler.
But you're submitting
this is not awarded
you could love someone
but you don't submit. You could have extreme love for someone but you're not submitting to what they're saying. This is not a rodeo
the concept of Obadiah the concept of an OBD of love idea as he says and I said he discusses in detail has to combine both this utmost degree of submission which is driven by or accompanied with the utmost degree of love for Allah subhanaw taala this is an idea and this is why when I say that, when I say that Tuska is a kind of
process. So a lot of times people have this like a very low level of a love for Allah and submission but inshallah as
To become essentially better and better servants of Allah subhanho wa taala, all of this increased.
So, so this is the essential goal to be an add a servant of Allah subhanaw taala, in the sense that we just that we just described in this way.
Unfortunately, even this goal, this goal of Alodia
some people are not are not satisfied with it,
right, like some people, like they'll talk about, you know themselves like what about me, you know, I have to be true to me, I don't want to be like this, I don't want to necessarily be someone who's submitting to God, or even if I'm going to be submitting to God, I still have to be the way that I want to be, and so forth.
And so you find people who, who
I mean, even Muslims, even Muslims, you'll find them that they are not necessarily satisfied with this idea that I'm going to be an Abdullah, a servant of Allah, somehow, and they're like somehow in their minds.
And I think from the Quran, you can say that there's some perversion in their mind somehow, in their mind. They think that they can maybe do better than that. They can be greater than that.
Anyone can be anyone can, you know, be a worshiper, and so forth. I want to be I want to, you know, cure cancer or do whatever I think I can be, you know, somehow, somehow great on their own.
And this, obviously,
is very dangerous, and this is a reflection of Kibera.
This is a reflection of arrogance.
And who, who are you as a tiny speck in the overall massive creation of Allah subhanho wa taala, that Allah subhanho wa Taala had the mercy upon you, as I said, to create you in a certain way, and to send messengers to you, and even even sent you his speech, make you able to even understand his speech.
Who are you to think
that there's something better and something greater that I can be than a servant of Allah subhanaw taala.
And again, conceptions and understandings are so important for human beings. When somebody understands that fact,
that Allah subhanaw taala calling us to be His ABD. We don't know, of all the of all the creations that we see, and this cosmos, maybe we're the only one that Allah subhanaw taala has caused us to be an Abdon this way, we'll call Ramona money, Adam, we don't know how great this is an honorable is from Allah subhanaw taala. And yet there are those among us
that out of arrogance, they think, no, that's not enough.
That's not sufficient for me.
And I refer to it as arrogance because
Allah subhanaw taala also describes it in different passages as being a type of arrogance. Those who, those who don't who are not willing to submit to Allah subhanho wa Taala this is just areas. Allah subhanho wa Taala says, well, a woman who is similar to a lot woman and the hula you're stuck Barone on your bed that day. Well, I guess that's you don't we sit behind a Leila wouldn't hot lay of life total and Allah subhanaw taala says To Him belongs whoever's in the heavens in the earth, and those near him, the angels, the angels who have that lofty position with Allah subhanaw taala. They are not prevented by arrogance from his worship, nor do they tire was run with dialysis, Liang
instant, instant giver and Mercy who on your corner have done Leela? Wala al Mulla al melodica to macabre Boon Romania stancliffe on a Beretta he will you're stuck bit but yes.
So yeah, sure to home you Lee. Jim Yan. Allah subhanho wa Taala says, Never would isa Ali Salam never would the Messiah de Saint de state to be a servant of Allah, nor would the angels near to him and whoever the states his worship in his arrogant he will gather them to Himself all together.
And we can understand when this was by the way, the Prophet SAW Selim said lay it Hello gentlemen canopy call behemoth kala
min Kibber Baba Salam said no one will enter Jannah who even has the slightest amount of Kibera in his heart?
Because the essence of Kibera is basically you are this creation of Allah subhanaw taala and you're trying to make
yourself in some way, breathe and enjoy within your even with respect to the province I said,
Allah subhanho wa Taala refers to the greatest of all humanity. Allah subhanho wa Taala refers to him in some of the most noble of times situations in which Allah is referred to him Allah subhanho wa Taala refers to him as his abd his slave, his servant Subhanallah the sob AB de les lemon and Masjid Al haram Elon Musk, Luxor, la de Barak. Now how Allah
subhanaw exalted as the one who took his slavers up during the night from the Masjid Al haram to upset the prophesy Salam said Do not exaggerate that learn to throw any karma at Rotten Asara. bloomery Mariam the prophesy Salam said Do not exaggerate with me.
Come
within the surah Abner Mariam like the like the Christians exaggerated with respect to the son of Miriam the Anima Abdullah who the CoLo had the light water sunnah
for in the process and I'm certain eight for a nama Anna Abu popolo up the lie also
processing I'm said Do not exaggerate me like with respect to me Don't exaggerate in your approach to me, like the Christians deal with respect to the Sun America.
And then the process of surveying them a very I am only his servant, his art. So say, say about me, Abdullah, the servant of Allah and His messenger.
And as I said,
those people who are not satisfied with the school, actually, you can see them kind of in different extremes.
And there's some extremes, you know, like, let's say like, towards the atheist side, that they think somehow they can be better than just being a simple servant of Allah,
that somehow they can set their own life path, and they're going to be better than being a servant to wellness.
Unfortunately, there's another extreme.
There's another extreme where, from a religious perspective, they're saying like that is not that is not that is not there, that is not sufficient, or that is not their goal. And this is also very dangerous as well. And the danger here, you know, sometimes like forms of religious extremism, and this is a form of religious extremism,
that is more dangerous in the sense that it is attracting the religious people.
I mean, the non religious people, if they go to some extreme, well, their origin, non religious, they already have a problem in the first question. But religious extremism is taking the religious people and then taking them to an extreme. Right immuno climb has this passage about a shutdown when you know, shaytaan kind of looks at the individual. And he sees that if this, if this individual is like lethargic and has no energy to or no drive to do anything good, then he'll just get him you know, involved in just wasting his time and all sorts of things. But if he shaytaan seems like this person has energy, and wants to get like super religious, then a shutdown will try to come and drag
him and make him go even beyond even beyond what the religion is asking him.
And so probably a lot of you are familiar with, there's even schools in Islam, if you can believe this, that they don't stop at being an addict.
They don't they don't stop being up. Some of them are like no, the goal of Obadiah I mean, the goal of purification of the soul.
And this is okay, hopefully, hopefully, Inshallah, this is the most extreme, but it's still out there and it still exists within us.
The ultimate goal for them is not to recognize that they are an act of Allah subhanho wa taala. But to recognize that there is no such thing as ABD and Allah, there's no such thing as as as as the worshiper and the worship, we're all Allah
and their goal of teaching and and spiritual exercise is to reach that level, to understand that.
And of course, once you understand that, then maybe many doors they will claim will be open to you but
others others actually say that the goal actually is to try to unite with Allah subhanaw taala at the heart,
that somehow we can get to a spiritual level that we can
even have this union, this union with Allah subhanaw taala
and unfortunately, most of the or the bulk of the people in our Ummah, historically
Those
who have been dealing in purification of the soul that's the direction that they've been going, especially in the last few centuries.
And this is a shame.
An extremely important topic that the prophesy centum has come to send us to teach us about the Codman Allah Allah, Allah Momineen it bath of him rosulip minutos him yet Allah Allah him at will use a Kim will you Ali Mohammed Kitab will hokhmah
that Allah subhanaw taala has blessed the believers by sending a messenger from amongst them
who recites them the Book and purifies them and teaches them who and teaches them the Book and the Sunnah.
His sunnah is about his sunnah and the Quran, it's about purifying our souls for us as human beings. As I said, this is the towhead This is tidal Amelie.
And for people to miss that and and say no, we actually, we go beyond that. We're not being ABD, we are recognizing that we're above ABD,
we're all Hola. Or we can become united with Elisabetha.
Some of them don't quite reach that point. But they they, some of them believe like an alpha.
Where you annihilate yourself, you try to get to a point where you don't recognize that you exist. You don't recognize that you've ever had deeds or anything like that. And it's just you're just recognizing Allah subhanaw taala.
And none of this, none of this has to be found in the promises from the promises.
And it's amazing to me, I don't know how much I should comment on this, if this is the right forum to do or not. But it's amazing to me how much
misappropriating the goal of Tuscania how much of it is so accepted, and people make a blind eye to it within the Muslim ummah, and make excuses for for this kind of thing.
You know, one of the one of the one of the very famous, not necessarily most rooms, but one of the very famous books
on purification is called Manasa, salary. Manasa salary.
By al Harvey,
you know, the stages of the street, the stages of the travel, so there's 100 stages in it. And in each stage, there's like three, there's like three levels. The level, let's say, the level, we'll call it in English, the beginner, the intermediate, and the advanced.
In almost every one in almost every one of those stages. The third level is always the same. This type of funnel where you lose yourself completely, you lose the fact that you exist. The Prophet SAW Selim and his Sahaba, they were always I guess, to use the next exploding English expansion, they're always down to earth.
We don't see this as a goal, that you get to some point that you don't see yourself you don't see You're acting as if you don't exist. And you're going back to Allah before He created anything of the creation.
We don't see any sign of this.
As a goal of Tesco for coming from the promises. The goal of Tesco is to live a Tawheed to live our belief in the Oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala by servitude to him.
And servitude to him in all aspects of our life.
I don't know how long you wish for me to speak. So I'm going to obviously, it's it's a very big topic. And I think it's a topic that is not discussed enough. But there's a lot there's a lot of topics actually that are not discussed, if you ask me.
But I'll just want to comment Inshallah, on one last thing with respect to
what you can call, let's say like the scope of purification of the soul.
And I've already kind of alluded to this before, but when you think about purification of the soul, and all of the different aspects of your lives that it touches upon,
you have to recognize that that the scope of
the scope of what purification of the tool touches upon spends every aspect of your life.
Obviously, obviously, it is inclusive of
your relationship with Allah subhanho wa taala.
And that's the first one probably everyone's going to recognize that nobody's going to doubt that
but it's a bit it's also about your relationship with your own knifes.
Your relationship with your own soul.
What are you doing with respect your own soul?
I'm sure you know a lot of people, they, they, they talk to themselves internally.
But they're way it used to be used to be when I went to school UC Berkeley, UC Berkeley at the time, there was, unfortunately a lot of people who had
you know, now like, like homeless people now. So it used to be the time if you if you saw somebody walking down the street, and he's like talking and talking and then he's, you know, you know that there's something wrong with that person. Now, it just means he has a phone and he's talking and talking on the phone and things have changed a lot. First time I saw people doing that I was like, Well, this is it's getting a little out of hand everybody seems to have mental issues. They're all walking down the street talking.
But even with respect, even respect your own knifes
purification of the soul actually dominates that scope as well.
You're no longer free once you recognize that that you're an act of Allah subhanaw taala you now recognize that you know you're no longer free to do with your knifes whatever you wanted to do
you know if you had a certain goal in life, right? You want it to be for example
I don't want to take too obvious to
it let's let's just speak theoretically right? If you had a goal in life, and you're working towards that goal,
and then all of a sudden you find somebody tells you oh that is completely haram.
For 20 years, I've been learning how to play guitar. I've been dreaming of being you know, lead guitars for some group playing at Coachella or something.
And then finally somebody comes in and say oh, by the way, that's haram
that's my dream
by the way for a lot of kids growing up in the United States that was their dream like like yours truly right that like that's that's my dream. What do you mean? What do you mean as Hara
so now you have the struggle? You have the struggle within yourself?
Am I going to do what my knifes
what unfortunately the disease parts of my knifes is trying to tell me to do
or inshallah am I going to listen to my Lord, listen to the promises. And I'm going to control my nerves to do what it is. I'm supposed to do even if I have to sacrifice
even if I have to sacrifice maybe years of effort as they say, Okay, that's all down the drain as possible.
So even with respect to knifes, obviously your relationship with others as a whole also falls under the scope of Ischia.
And Allah subhanaw taala has created us in such a way that we interact with one another.
Somebody is coming to the Juma prayer, mashallah to do this act of worship between him and ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada.
And he parks in the fire lane.
And we had one case we had, we had one case and in, in California where
somebody was coming late to the prayer. So the most important thing for him is I have to pray, who cares if I might hurt somebody else.
The ambulance couldn't get through. And when they told that Brother, look, your car's blocking Amazon, somebody was like having a heart attack or something.
He was the one who got upset at them for telling them he has to move their car and move his car.
But it's the thought process.
Don't you think? Don't you think that what you're doing to others is related to your goal of being an abdollah Smetana.
You know, we had back in Boulder where we you know, we have snow and sometimes things are slipping on the floor. And we had a very elder, very elderly chef.
And we have these racks to put their shoes in. But of course some people don't put their shoes there. So the elderly man came and he's tried to step over the shoes and he felt and this is an elderly man that suppose I mean religious man, a chef, that supposedly Everybody respected. And so we announced, look, this is what happened. The chef and this what can happen. Please put your shoes in the shelves.
Do you think from that day on everybody put their shoes on the shelves? No.
And if you come a little bit late to sort of oh, they're about to make a call. I can't miss the record, right? Just drop your shoes wherever and go.
Because now you're saying look all this important wall is all my test gear is just about my relationship with the Lord.
This is also part of your task and in reality
As part of the the relationship with your Lord
to test Kia, the purification of the soul also encompasses your relationship with society as a whole. And obviously your relationship with your spouses and those who are closest to you, your children, spouses relatives.
How many people maybe when they go to the mosque, they're known to be very nice people and then when they when they go to their home they're known to be very mean and rough with their family or their spouses or they beat their spouse or what
do they think? Do they think that what they're doing you know, like, this is my this is my home, this is my kingdom, I can do what I want.
With any Muslim would any sound Muslim who says he's an Abdul Allah? subhanaw taala? Would anyone think like that?
Hopefully not. But as I said, by the Salat *, by the by the actions, probably that does seem to be that does seem to be the case.
Even our relationship with animals and you can prove from plenty of evidence from the Quran, sunnah, that even how we interact with animals
has to be under the guidance of the principles of purification of the soul. When you are purified, when your soul is purified, and you understand what that means, that's even going to affect how you interact with animals. Many, many years ago, when, when I was about to enter the gate, entering into the Kaaba,
an old man in front of me we at that time, there was a lot of kittens. I assume that's not the case or cats running around movement, not the case anymore. Oh, man in front of me just There was one small cat kind of in his way. And he just kicked it about 10 feet.
No, I mean, no. It could have easily stepped around stepped over whatever. No, just kicked it about 10 feet, the cap,
you know from the distance, right?
He's about to enter. I mean, what is he doing? What is this person doing?
He's just a few feet is not that far away from the Kaaba. He's about there. Like, I'm going to be mashallah doing act of worship of Allah, I'm going to be called *, whatever, go back and like, like I'm purified.
And you don't even understand, look, look, what are you doing in the process.
You don't think your behavior, you don't think your behavior is taught part of your Obadiah part of your submission to Allah subhanaw taala loving submission to Allah subhanaw taala
even the environment
we can prevent, we can present plenty of evidence that you know, we're not supposed to be wasting water and this and that even the environment,
our own time, our own wealth, all of these things. All of these things fall under the scope of purification of the soul.
So when the person Shala goes through the process, and that's another important topic obviously goes through the process of purification of the soul. As he gets purified, one of the signs that he's getting purified, you're going to see a change in all of these aspects, how he's interacting with Allah, how is it interacting with his own knifes, how he is interacting with others, such that he will be inshallah implementing Tawheed in his life,
the practical part of
living according to what Allah subhanho wa Taala has commanded us to do.
And hopefully Inshallah, we're all in that process and we're all inshallah striving to be,
we can borrow an expression from the army, all that we can be, we're striving to be all that we can be with respect to being an adolescent. And if we haven't reflected upon it and haven't thought about it, and haven't thought about how comprehensive this concept is, well, it's time for us to wake up and inshallah change our ways and change our behavior to reflect and focus on our one single goal that we have a fulfilling to hate a being a true hub of others.
That will Allahu Allah Mubarak, Allah salAllahu Salam glomalin Amina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa
barakaatuh I'm done. I don't know if
you know how there's no questions after whatever it is. I heard somebody described this as a Hydra. I was sent. I was sent to WhatsApp saying you're supposed to give a hug after Russia. It should be one hour long. I said well, things are really bigger in Texas.
One hour long haunted I've never heard of this before in my life. So that's my that's that's my thoughts
but I guess there's no question or anything. So inshallah balaclava comes Mahakala bye. Bahama negotiate.
Well,
I'm not in charge. I'm a guest right
here