The Primacy of Adab #1 – Manners of the Salaf

We begin in the name of Allah old Praise and Glory be to Allah had made his finest peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad and his family and his companions and all those who adhere to his guidance May Allah azza wa jal make us among the best of those who adhere to his guidance Allah whom I mean. So in sha Allah this evening, as promised, we begin a another journey together.

A book club of sorts, except I'm the one doing all the work.

Summarizing another one of my favorite books in sha Allah, which is faultless setup or

AdaBoost self with diamond Manas, the manners of the self, the predecessors, the earliest Muslims in their dealings with people in their interpersonal relations. And this is a book that was written or more accurately compiled

by a contemporary scholar, whose name is Lila fact her lot. And

today's introduction in sha Allah will revolve around a refresher on the primacy and importance of a Deb

in the great deen of Allah Zilla Jen and the primacy of the biographies of the early Muslims in helping us inculcate, internalize and adopt these adab these mannerisms into our own lives. We all know that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam was described by Allah as being upon Holyoke in alim or in NACA Allah Allah FileOpen Allium you are certainly upon a great standard of character.

And he said to us sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in nama Bharath to liotta Mima, Saleh Allah fluc I was sent for no other reason than to perfect the good character of people.

And he told us that to the degree of the greatness of your character, is the degree of your greatness in the sight of Allah

in

I have back home Illa Allah, He said, are in our head Beckham a layup, the most beloved of you, to me in another generation Santiago come the very best of you are theatrical, or accidental colocar those of you best in character. And in the narration I mentioned prior to what he said, the most beloved of you to me, what up trabuco mini image listen, and those of you who will get to sit closest to me, on the day of judgment are those best in character. And so he is upon great standard of character, as per the Quran, and as per him, I will send to perfect character and to the degree that we reach in greatness of character, we are close to him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in this

world and the next,

another dimension of appreciating just how central good character is and good manners is that when Gibreel alayhi salam came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,

in the famous hadith of Gibreel, many of you, I'm sure are familiar with it.

And he asked him those famous questions. What is Islam? What is the man What is this and he actually didn't do that, until he exemplified first good character. He came and he got close and he sat down and he in a reference position and then he asked, and the scholars tell us this is to remind us that the path to sacred knowledge, the path to understanding the reality of this deen is through the gateway of Edom, through the gateway of manners this great Hadith was said at the end of the prophets lifetime to summarize all of Islam you know, when he left they said, Who's that he told them Do you know who that is? He said Allah and His Messenger know best he said that was revealed by

the way attack whom you are limo come, Dina, whom he came to teach you, your dean, to summit failure, Dean, what part of the Dean did he begin with the Edit part of the dean? He started with good manners. I know he's Salaam.

And this is what the early Muslims understood that there's no gateway but this It is narrated that Abdullah Hussein Mubarak Rahima Hola. He used to say national Isla Khalili Minal adab, WA Jimena Isla Caffee, Minella alien. We are more in need of just a little bit of added a little bit of manners, then so much more knowledge. We're far more in need of manners, even if it'd be a little manners than knowledge, even if it's compared to a whole lot of knowledge. Why do you think he's saying that

And for all the new attendees you know that I prefer not just I allow you to sort of engage with me and even ask questions made, don't wait till the end because you'll probably be asleep by then if you do wait till then

you can't have a Deb without Ellen

it's a cycle, but he's saying it has to start somewhere it needs to start with Adam. If you're going to learn anything, learn Adam and more Adam, because the more edit you have, the more alien you will naturally get. It's not just you know, adapt to not jump the gun with your teacher, you have to have respect and sort of admiration for your teacher and proper etiquette and protocol to be able to benefit from them. Right. But also the subject of the or the objective, I'm sorry, of their aim is to get you closer to Allah. And so if you don't have the Edit, then you will not even have edit with Allah. And hence you will never be getting closer to him. You know, it was reported that Malik Rahim

Allah the great Imam Malik, when he was taking on a man, a chef as an apprentice, young chef very, he used to say to him Egil

at the Becca

diver camelhair Where l maca iPhone, I guess. H al l maca. Mill Ha, Becca Defty he used to say,

make your

knowledge consider your knowledge like salt. And consider your manners like flour.

What does that mean?

Someone unpack that for me.

You need more flour. Okay, good.

The right that's that's the sort of the base ingredients flour. Very nice, Chef.

Yeah, and actually, if you go for too much salt, if you sort of mess with the proportions, what's gonna happen, you're gonna ruin it right or wrong. Not just is it the bass and you won't have anything. But also even if you had the bass, but there's more salt than flour, then it's lopsided, it won't work. And so it's the path to knowledge. And it is the balance between knowledge and manners. And of course, it is also the

the key to spreading your knowledge. Right? Like nobody wants to learn from someone that doesn't have integrity. We're speaking about that, you know, today in the football, but how exactly did Islam spread? And has such a lasting impact on the hearts? You know, I think about Subhanallah the, the gaping hole in Edit nowadays, even bleeding into the data sphere. Yes, it's exciting to have clickbait titles or it's exciting to be controversial, or it's exciting to be all like firebrand and all of this and sometimes, you know, Justified Anger, but to make this sort of the everything, right? It comes at the cost of cheapening all the knowledge you have to share. Yes, it may get a lot

of views, it will get a big splash on the internet, but how do you have lasting impact? This requires a certain dub that you bring into and spread with the sacred knowledge.

And

another testament to that is the incidence of at the edge of the face, right? Like when when his tribe came to meet the Prophet SAW Salem, they all ran to him, you would think that's the right thing to do, and to rush to Allah and His Messenger, right? For federal Illa Allah to rush to Allah and like, how do I know what Allah expect? I'm rushing to the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, so they get to town the oldest run to the Prophet SAW Salem,

except to their leader, except Allah judge. What does it I said you do? Allah judge

slows it down. He's more calculated. He's more methodical. He goes and ties up the animals and he's the chief like they were disrespecting him like so they made him do the legwork.

And then he changed his clothes because you've been traveling for a while. And so you probably don't smell great and your hair probably isn't in the West, you know, set up and so he takes care of himself real well. And then after he does that, he goes to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and he says to him, in Africa hustle attain you Hibou whom Allah al al Mohler nuts you have two qualities that Allah loves, even though they ran first, because he calculated edit, I'm gonna be more presentable before I come to the Prophet SAW Salem. He turned out to be the one Allah loved more

and also it earns the people that we're not

haphazard and how they address the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Quranic phrase, if you remember when we were studying SUTA cultura together, which was this

Order of manners, the Sunnah of Adam and ethics. Allah said in a Latina who donate a sweater from Engel Rasulillah those who lower their voices in the presence of the Messenger of God. These are the ones whom Allah has tested their hearts for TEPCO meaning tested for taco and found it there right has confirmed that their hearts have Taqwa For them is forgiveness and a great reward in a Latina you know do not get me in what are in her jurati Federal home late afternoon then the second idea came with a pinch and it said those who call out to you know Adam, call out to you all Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam from behind the walls that they thought it was just normal no big deal

you don't have to get all you know formal about it. Hamid got a question and they would call out to him from outside of his apartment. Some Allahu Allahu Allah wa salam O Allah said those who call out to you from beyond your walls at federal home late afternoon, these are not people of intelligence, most of these people are not people of intelligence.

And so, where does the the the moral hiccup happen? The author argues Jana, actually one of the premises there are like three or four forwards to the book. Many scholars have written for awards for this book in approval of it and to encourage people to read it

and he says here one of the writers that had dead that came a whole lot

hi yeah, normally it's and he said was ever would allocate in mechanical Halophila and itself before the him and plenary Allahu Allah him walk out to him. The the reason why these things get lost, is because people stop rehearsing

the biographies. And the character that was exuded by the earliest Muslims. You see from Allah as Rama is that he made the best of this ummah, the earliest fleet, so you don't have to sit there and search throughout history like yeah, which one's got it right? Yeah, this Deen was properly understood and best lived by the very first students of it, right? This is not my words. And the Prophet SAW Salem, they leave us in the dark. He said the best people are my generation and those after them, those after them. And he really emphasize those first three generations of Islam and the Quran that as well. The Quran said was Serbia, kona Serbia cannula, Ecole Makara, Boone,

the the first to lead the way, they will be the first to lead the way on the Day of Judgment, you got to pay attention to these, they will be closed those brought closest to God. And then he said they are many from the first generations and fewer from the latter generations. And so you look there for a better view of what Islam actually looks like what living Islam looks like. And so by doing that, this, you know, sparks inspiration, it's motivating, but it also sparks hope, in a sense that without knowing that these people actually lived this way, you may think Islam is just theory, is it actually livable this way? Right? Just wonder like, like, Is this real life? Or like, Are

these like pious exaggerations we find in our books

and so we begin in sha Allah Tada, this is the final four word for word of the author himself.

And

let us begin with you know, reminding that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Himself taught us to say Allah Houma.

I sent a healthy faxing Hello, P. O Allah, you have perfected my creation, meaning my physical appearance,

my outward features for x in quality and so perfect, my inward features, perfect my manners

that dwell within me.

And ask for the foreword of the author itself.

The reason why I said that this book was more of a compilation than an authorship is because what he did was just that believe and trust the process, that through subjecting ourselves to the lives of the self, we will be able to be carried into their lifestyles to be able to be carried into their qualities to imbibe them to absorb them ourself. And so the entire book is really gems and anecdotes of incidents in their lives, or statements from their mouths that reflect to us what Adam looks like, especially in the capacity of interpersonal relations. He begins for instance with a

an anecdote from Mohammed Ibrahim

Al Abdi L. Wu Shan Ji Rahim Allah

Who says men are ordinary men will feel happy lady added in for cardiac Tehama and you can and yet Viva Allah Allah He also like he said that whomever you know starts learning about this Deen without having the sacred manners intact. They are on the verge of belying Allah and His messenger. You can actually fall out to faith without having at least you know the baseline Pass Fail line of Adam committed.

And he cites Ibrahim Habib even Shaheed Rahim Allah Allah saying

that my father once said to me, oh my dear son, go to the scholars and go to the jurists and learn from them, but take from their manners and from their demeanor more than anything, because that is more beloved to me than you memorizing an endless Scroll of a hadith.

Ibrahim Abu Bashar Rahim Allah He narrates the two men, students of knowledge were once learning together then got into a conversation which escalated into an argument which became a verbal altercation, and he silenced the both of them. And when they held back, he said, Don't you fear Allah? How could you become so vulgar when you're a student of the sacred sciences? And then he turned to their attention to the fact that maybe you didn't go through what I went through? And he said to him,

that we used to learn that hypnotise Alanna from no place was a man, you need some background that was sought out from all over the world for how forbearing he was, like, nothing could get him out of character. Nothing. It's America.

And

in his biography of amazing, amazing things, like one time

a man walked up to him and slapped him across the face. And so he grabbed his face, he said, Bismillah

I told him, what are you doing? He said, I wanted

the world to know that I slapped the Sayed the biggest baddest chief of the Arabs out there, the say of the Arab.

And so he said to him, but you got the wrong guy.

That's not me.

He said, what he said, Yeah, it's that guy. And he pointed to the biggest hothead in town.

And so he walks over to that guy, and he goes,

he slaps this guy, this guy on swiped, turns around, grabs his arm and removes it with his sword.

And so that kind of ice holds his hand from far away and the people hear him saying, and now Allah, He led the hotbar to her Wallahi I cut it.

That was my revenge. I deserved it and was able to get it through my helm through my forbearance. This is just This is how you think and like I was just add that you got the guy's hand cut off. But the idea is that he has his edit in the form here of self restraint, and that too, is a virtue.

So Ibrahim Bashar

mentioned that Ibrahim nagged him one time so all these men fighting and then he silenced them and told them fear Allah and then he said to them after they quieted down, it reached us that landed in a place said, we used to go to a place of not awesome see, it's inherited. Has that you need a handoff. You don't you can't have a hiccup in sort of the baton passing of the baton.

He says we used to go to a place of Nasim and learn from him him, learn from him forbearance, the same way we used to go to the other scholars to learn from them and learn from them sort of the didactic knowledge, the academic knowledge, if we can call it that.

And so the man said I promise I will not go back to this, this behavior.

And Mohamed Ebner obeyed upon Nafisi Rahim Allah said to the people to the students of Hadith, why can't you be more like he said in the units one of the great scholars in the early century?

What about ASAP newness? Do you want us to be like oh teacher they said he used to when he entered the gatherings of Allah Amash, one of the foremost luminaries of Hadith, when he would gather get into reach the gatherings of an Amish and Allameh should be surrounded by young and old people. People from every walk of life, they would go and stare at him to draw from his manners. Why can't you be an exemplar? Why can't you be an icon?

And it was said so Abdullah hidden Mobarak Rahima Hola. Where are you headed? He was always traveling, where are you headed? And so he said, I'm heading to El Basra. Let's sit in Iraq. And so it was said to him who's left in Basra.

Like there's nobody left in the bus whose knowledge you haven't collected you're the superior of them all right now who's left for you to travel to another bus era by Illuminati? He said ignore our own. There's one man left if not one Abdulla have now Alan Great to have you right? Ignore our own, who do mean clarity he could have been edited dip noun so I can take from his manners and take from his etiquettes

and aliveness Medina Rahima Hola. This was the chef al Bukhari, or even moodini was one of the most well known and closest teachers of the great demountable, Claudio himolla. And Ali and in Medina, Rahima, hola. And others, used to all attend the gatherings of Yemenis or either upon another great scholar of Hadith, seeking nothing from what he had to say. It wasn't because what he was teaching them,

except that they wanted to stare at how he carried himself and his demeanor.

And Mohammed, Nevada, and when I finished your Rahim Allah said, We were once in the presence of Abu sureit.

Abdullah had an issue, right. And so many people started getting into a lot of different issues, you know, the Islamic veneer many times to the ego wars and these religious discussions. And so he stopped them when he saw the argumentation get out of hand. And he said to them, cut daddy net Kulu buku your hearts have become polluted.

And so get up and go to Holly didn't even know her maiden, Maddie, go, here's your here's your prescription. Now, go to hotmelt homemade, and go polish your hearts in his presence, and learn from him. How to stir interest in the hereafter and learn from him how to tenderize your heart because that is how you will get back to a bad arguing is not a bad learning if it's for Allah is a bad once you get into arguing that means you've lost this what you've lost the plot, he said and learned from him how to renew your sense of devotion, and to generate in you a disinterest in this world or tourist visa, and how to rekindle your friendships, of course.

And stop arguing with each other. Because

arguing in whatever has not been permitted, arguing has been allowed debating and it has been allowed in a very limited capacity, but arguing beyond what is committed, hardens the heart and generates enmity between people it'll eat away your eat away at your faith, your heart your spirituality, it's not a small issue.

And you know, when we say that the Prophet alayhi salatu salam came to better humanity and better their relationships with people. He taught us what it really means to be human beings, you find there is a a pattern of discourse that among the early Muslims, that they used to differentiate between a true human being right a vehicle of morality, and between a pseudo human being like a human like person, a humanoid if I can call it that, solely based on what

solely based on Edit, and there's a few that I'll just read to you one or two of them. To move on to the next point quickly. If not best for the Allahu Anhu mother great, so heavy. He used to say there have been nurse or bhakti and NES NES.

The NES the people are gone. There's no more people these days. And all that remains is a NES NES NES NES is a play on the word NES. It's not an actual word. Really? Yeah, it's not. And that is why they even ask them like what is an s&s? Like is that even a word? It's like what? SNEZ

that's why I said humanoid and human like and right. They said to him, what's in US Ness? He said a Lavina Yetta Chabahar gonna be nasty relates to Venus, people that resemble human beings. They're a shell of the human being, but they're not actually human. They've lost their humanity. How do they lose their humanity by losing their civility losing their Adam losing their virtue losing their character. And similarly Ibrahim the Adhan Rahim Allah, he said it as well, centuries later, he said there have been nests the people are gone. Well, Buckley and s&s and only these like humanoid folks around wema are on Venus. I don't consider them people anymore. We're in NEMA voume su FEMA in us.

They've simply been dipped, you know, like, you dip a strawberry and chocolate to get a casing. They've been dipped in the water of people, but they're not actually people. They're not people anymore.

And so we're trying to reinstate even our humanity through Adam and one

As you do that through the lives of the self, that is the intention coming to this gathering every Friday night in sha Allah in reflecting as Allah commanded us on those that have been rightly guided right we're commanded to do that is a means through which Allah's Mercy comes down the Mercy of Allah comes down through this a bad that a bad of reminiscing on those who have been guided right.

And so how I'm doing it now, Assad Rahim Allah speaks about this and he says man Nava Rafi cRsf. Whomever, you know, looks deeply into the biographies of the early Muslims, the self Arafa Teixeira, who he is able only through that he's saying, to recognize how much of a shortfall they're in how negligent they've been out of attack Sierra WHO, WHAT A Hulu undara Jetta regional, and how far back they fallen from the ranks of Truman

it hurts I know it's a little bit difficult, but the healthy hurts in sha Allah.

And

Isaac Nebbiolo word Rahim Allah

whenever the stories of the Salah for mentioned.

Or he would say whenever the stories of the seller for mentioned if Toba Hannah coluna we all become exposed.

You know, it's not even about the seller, like you want to do this for yourself. You want to sort of like snap out of

too much patting on the shoulder.

One of the brothers in this message actually, I will only share his story if he's not here. He's not

asked me some some filler questions.

Some like legality questions regarding worshiping in the middle of the night. And he was very nervous. And I was sort of reassuring that that's totally fine. And what you're doing is okay, and he gave like his big sigh of relief.

And he said all hamdulillah because I've been doing it like this the last 25 years of my life. And what he was sharing with me the load the workload of what he was sharing with me, until today will lie until just an hour ago again, I was it kept coming back to me and makes you feel this big.

You know, I do 1000 of this. And, you know, if you have that, and I do this, then I do that in that order. Is that all right? I'm just like, yeah, I needed to hear this.

And so we all need to subject ourselves to that honest assessment

I'll read to you a few final anecdotes to close this introduction today

about the gap that the sell off speak about, even in their times, they felt that there was a drift and not enough attention given to the standard. The standard that was set by the self through the guidance of this Dean.

Automotive mill had Rahimullah

he says

whenever I wanted, I'd be able to find someone that makes a promise and keeps it and now I cannot for the life of me find find anyone except those who make promises and never keep them. Can't remember the last time someone kept the promise to me.

It's become sort of something like you know, normalized.

And le Mama didn't humble Rahim Allah the great one of the four great Imams he used to say they used to say to him, que fenati footcare there been, how can we recognize a liar, he said, be male or add him by their promises or by their appointments.

And Armando will have with himself coming back to him he used to say they used to say they used to do without saying, right? They used to walk even without talking. And then they began talking and not walking. They began talking promising and not doing anything. And now they neither talk nor do neither speech nor actions, nothing at all remains. And it hasn't been hasn't

said about this issue, that I have met people.

If they saw the best of them, the best of us. In our day and age they would have said this person has no share in the hereafter.

Don't want you to get hopeless but I'm just showing you how much of a shock factor happened when they saw how fast things fell.

We ask Allah to have more

Mercy on us and to not expose us and better our manners. He says we've come across such people in our life, that if those people were to see the best of us today, they would say these people have no share no share of righteousness.

And if they would see the worst of us, they would say, don't these people even believe in it? They have judgments.

And so, we seek the biographies for these reasons.

One of the early Muslims i

I forget his name. Now he used to say whenever I found hardness of heart, my heart became hard and stony and I'm not moved anymore to do the right thing or stirred in the right way emotionally even towards the realities of faith.

He says I would go and travel till I met Muhammad Musa Rahim, Allah Allah

and that would

rinse my heart, it would revive my heart to remove the corrosion and the rust and the layers. It would

clarify for me my heart for an entire week. It was a dosage for him. Because when I would look in his face, I would see the face of someone bereaved, you know, someone just lost a loved one and they're sort of like grieving over it. His face is the face of a woman who lost a child he sink.

And he used to always say, a hookah Manoir aka Bureau, IATSE, he Cobla, an era of Lockerby Kehlani. Your brother is the one who gives you a wake up call by seeing him not through hearing him.

And, you know, the idea is if you can't find them, you got to open the books and find them. Right? It's, as one of my teachers said, you know, imagine being in a city Allah forbid, and everyone's got the plague. And everyone's on the way out. And you got it to now. And so you scramble to find a physician. And then you finally land the physician and then you find out he has it too.

So what do you do in that desperation?

You implore Allah azza wa jal and you keep pushing. That's what it is. Blaming others or losing hope will not benefit. And so taking it one step at a time and not getting too disheartened to deflated, but understanding the necessity of this is the path forward.

And Imam Malik Rahim Allah Allah Allah, it is reported about him that he used to say, whenever I used to find hardness in my hearts, I would come to Mohammed bin monka.

The first is 100, USA, this is Mohammed Animoca Rahim Allah and the righteous would all gather around this man to draw from his guidance and to draw from his spirit to draw from his piety. And I too, would come and stare into his eyes and be reminded by that for days and days.

And it will Josie the great author of Islam, one of the most prolific authors in the history of Islam will be done in four minutes in sha Allah.

He says about this at this was standard practice. He says What can a GEMA 10 minute self there used to be a whole group of the self the early Muslims, they would seek out the righteous man simply to look into his demeanor, look into his guidance and to draw from that.

Because they see that the fruit of his knowledge is that guidance. And so understand this and do not ever get lost in pure study. Without the merger, he says without blending it in your study of fifth Clen Hadith and otherwise, with the biography biographies of men that can teach you that can teach you the realities of what it looks like to believe in this and to pursue this. This is how you keep your heart alive and awake.

And Abu aim mentioned in the sort of the history of Azerbaijan, and if not a saccade as well they narrate that I would refer at the companion of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to say and some would attribute this statement to the Prophet himself. sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, she called me Rahim Allah did

that he used to say Camella ug tena Amina shulkie Larina I will add the same way you cannot harvest grapes from thorns. You know this is a biblical account as well. This is verbatim found

in what remains of the records of the previous prophets actually it is attributed to Jesus peace be upon him as well as you may find in biblical literature. He says that the same way you do not draw grapes from thorns. This the same way you will never find the wicked and the righteous landing in the same place. You will not land a place in Jannah while acting like the people have

The fire. And so they are two separate paths. So take whichever path you want.

But getting on the right path, full stop, the author is saying but getting on the right path begins with what?

Because you might not get to the end of the path, you might sort of just get on the path and then your time is up, right? We're on the clock is by loving those on that path. This is the formula because when Anna strati Allah who

heard the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say Omar Omar I'm and I have

a person who will be with those he loves. He said nothing gave me more happiness, more relief. And then that statement

because I love aboubaker I love Allah His messenger, he said, and I love Oh bucket and I love Omar and now I can hope to catch up with them. Even if I don't reach all that they've reached. This is the optimism we sort of need to motivate ourselves with going into the book. He says when he said you will be with those who you love, who and then other ahaadeeth He said mentorship behavior calm and for whom in whom whomever imitates the people is of them. And so throw your love of this path and your study of this path and your attempt to imitate this path. You will be resurrected among those who made more ground on this path than you. Doesn't the Hadith say? Well, you batholith Abdul

Allah Mata Ali, a person will be

reserved resurrected on whatever they were doing while they were dying. So if you were doing a project called pursuing the pinnacle of manners pursuing the top and you die doing that you will be resurrected like that. This is someone who pursued the highest stations may Allah azza wa jal better our manners and yours. The very first anchor chapter in this book is that in their dealings with people, they seek Allah's approval, and they have no hope in getting approval from all people. And he speaks about how this betters their relationship, even with people that you're sort of don't have this high expectation that everybody has to love me, which is probably the the antithesis or the

kryptonite of the mindset of so many people today. That stress is so many of our relationships, the fact that we feel like everyone has to agree with everything that I'm about see or I've ever done. And so this strains it as well. And so that's just a little bit of a cliffhanger or a teaser for next Friday. Or whenever we resume in sha Allah Tala does aka located on Salalah Nevada kind of you know Muhammad, while early heat or savvy Jemaine