This lecture was delivered at the Abu Huraira Center.
Moutasem al-Hameedy – Authentic Vs Inauthentic Spirituality
AI: Summary ©
The importance of authentic spirituality in Islam is discussed, including the "hasn't been good" approach to body health and the "hasn't been good" approach to belief. The "has" approach is a result of a mixture of factors, including misinterpretation and cultural misunderstandings. The "has" approach is a personal and scientific way to achieve spirituality, and is essential for personal health and productivity. The importance of science and belief in Islam is also emphasized, along with the use of " hamoni" in avoiding unnecessary distraction and confusion. The importance of laughter and shadowman in achieving spirituality is also emphasized.
AI: Transcript ©
Islam and in authentic spirituality, which has no place in Islam has no place in Islam. And from an Islamic perspective if we embrace the Quran and the Sunnah of the prophet and tell us then authentic spirituality that has a basis in Islam and as the is derived from the Quran and the Sunnah of the prophet SAW Selim is beneficial to us, beneficial in matters of the deen and in matters of all our fellow, and also beneficial in our daily life, in our daily life, because everything in Islam is about all of it leads at some level, to improving the quality of life here on earth.
Plus, or in addition to
enhancing our chances to enter Paradise, please Allah subhanaw taala and make it near him on the Day of Judgment. But, and that means on the other side, in authentic spirituality, although it might feel good, it might have an impact on your soul
is unhealthy.
And it's not it's not helpful. It's not good, it has adverse effects, it has adverse effects and this is what I will try to clarify here. In the within this kind of context, I will be talking about the spirituality of the prophets, Allah them himself, the spirituality of the companions, and how it manifested, how it manifested. So instead of spirituality being some kind of
intangible dimension, now we're going to see how it connects to acts of worship, to relationships, humans, how humans deal with each other, and how it impacts the person's life and their, the way they handle life in general. So, authentic spirituality is the balance that we spoke about yesterday, which is to strike a balance between spirituality tending to the spirit to the soul, and its needs. And it's once and striking a balance with
following the whole and the authentic Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. So in order for obedience, we said,
the spirituality has to be in obedience to Allah subhana wa, Tada. This is by following the Quran and the Sunnah. If any kind of spirituality, any kind of spiritual practice that you don't find it, the front, don't find the foundation's authentic foundations for it. And you don't find it being practiced on the sun of the prophets of Salaam or the first three generations is it's the fact it's unacceptable. And it's harmful to your soul and to your heart. Period. That's it because spirituality is worship is worship, and it's part of the unseen, the soul, we said it's part of the unseen. So what is good for the soul? Or what is bad for the soul? We humans cannot access it. We
cannot access it because we said no one has ever touched their soul. No one has ever seen their soul with an eyes. No one has ever smelled the soul. No one has ever tasted their soul. Right? And this is why our rule aluna kinda rule hit with a Roman Emory Robbie, they asked you about the soul. They say tell them a lot and even say a small thing about the song he said, Tell them a rule is from the matters that Allah has kept, whose knowledge that Allah is kept for himself. So know your limits.
So what does that mean? That means we cannot know what is good for the soul and what's bad for the soul except through revelation. That's it.
If we don't abide by abide by revelation, we're gonna fall into spiritual practices that will be harmful to the soul harmful to the heart. Although it might seem to be pleasant, and helpful, and this is where a lot of Islamic sects went wrong with their spiritual practice, and find them doing certain acts of worship, maybe even doing certain forms of Vicar but in a way, and in a manner and using numbers.
That was not non from the prophet SAW some from the companions of the Prophet solo solo, or even from a tablet.
There's no foundation for it. And Islam. Actually, when you search for the origins of these practices, you're gonna find that they come from other nations, other nations. So you're gonna look at for example, take them mysticism, mystic practices, mistake practices, are found in every religion, in every culture, every culture
You're gonna find it in Buddhism. You'll find it in Hinduism. You'll find it in Judaism. You find it in Christianity with all denominations. You will find it in Australian indigenous people. You'll find it in the indigenous people of how I as well whatever they're called.
Anyway, whatever they are, and in New Zealand, the Aboriginals there the Maoris, the same similar stuff mysticism is found there, you can find it everywhere and the eskymos same kind of traditions, and they are spread around. So you will find similar practices, there's a lot of parallels that you can find and detect among these mystic practices and schools of thought.
Now for us, we have a Sherry and Islamia, Vienna, Suharto, Lima acaba, Shara Islamia, abrogates, everything that came before it, everything that came before it. So what we have in Islam, authentic spirituality is what we find in the book of Allah. And what we find being practiced by the prophet sallallahu Sallam who's authentic Sunnah, his companions. And these have been that remained upon they remain faithful to the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu sallam. That's what acceptable spiritual practices are in Islam. Anything outside that circle is a question mark on it. There's a question mark on it. As simple as that. That's a basic definition. What is inauthentic spirituality?
Is there such thing as inauthentic spirituality? Yes, indeed, some people try to take it intellectually. They say, like, for example, we're going to see people from a different religion, having some form of communion, some kind of a congregational remembrance, or decal, or prayer, congregational prayer together, they're singing, and they are experiencing some kind of, you know, a thrilling kind of feeling feeling high. And, you know, getting into this kind of state of feeling pleasant, and feeling spiritual.
So somebody intellectual might say, Oh, this is fake, they're faking it. No, they're not faking it. They are having a spiritual experience. And that's true. They are having a spiritual experience. But the question is, is this spiritual experience authentic or not? Is it helpful? Is it beneficial to the soul and the hardware? Is it harmful? That's the question, does it bring the person closer to Allah? Does it cause spiritual growth? Or does it cause a spiritual impairment? That's what we asked about. That's the most important question. Not everything spiritual is good. Because the soul is just like the body you can be doing, you can be doing something thrilling good seems beneficial with
the body. You can like run a marathon every week, 50 kilometer marathon every week, and you think that's very good for the body because you challenging it is stretching your body beyond its limits. So that's gonna make you a Superman. And it might work for maybe 20 years, you actually be growing. But maybe after 20 years, your body would collapse completely. Your heart, you'd have heart failure, you will have a lot of issues with your body. Why? Because you have abused your body. So it seemed to be very pleasant, very empowering, your body was growing was getting stronger, and so on and so forth. But because you have not obeyed the principles, the authentic principles as to how you should
treat your body and how much you should challenge it, then it ended to be detrimental to your body. Same thing with the soul, you might have a spiritual experience. Some people do meditation, some people do some kind of congregational Vicar in a way that was never, you know, reported by from the prophets, I said, Emily's companions, so they experience pleasant things, and they starts beautiful, and so on and so forth. But
and maybe you will find even difficulty showing these people what's wrong with this because they say it feels good. I feel closer to Allah, I enjoy it. And I feel myself growing spiritually, yes, but on the long run, what's going to happen? A lot of these people, they end up, you know, abusing religion. They end up abusing religion. So, why because who knows since the soul is part of the unseen world who knows what's good for it, and what's bad for it? Allah subhana wa Tada. So we have to abide by the revelation. Now let's take a look into the inauthentic spirituality.
First, let's start outside of Islam. You have a lot of spiritual practices.
To name a few. You have spiritual practices and Christianity
and Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism
and the different indigenous cultures in Africa you have a lot of spiritual practices.
Where did these presuppositions
practices come from? There's a lot in common among them. What do you think those come come from?
Are they a human invention? Are they totally a human invention?
What do you think?
opinions this sake opinions, nothing right or wrong? I mean, we can comment on it and clarify it. Do you think these are all human invention? They came up with something like this, by the way, okay, I'll leave this towards the end. There's a special spiritual practice that is ancient, and now it's coming up to the surface, these recent years.
Okay, so these were remains of
you mean?
over over revelation. These are remnants of Revelation, some of it is remnants of Revelation. Okay? Is there another opinion? What do you think these spiritual practices came from?
From the jinn, okay? That's another possible way from jinn. They were taught from jinn. What else?
satanic influence, satanic influence, it could be, let's link it to the jinn more but it could be since satanic influence Yes.
A man Lee made Amanda may do you think all of these, like everything in these spiritual practices and the tenants behind them? beliefs behind them are actually completely manmade.
Everybody?
Okay, so that you basically talking about the fifth right here, which is our covenant with Allah subhanaw taala. That's just the need for us to connect with Allah. But that does that explain the existence of these detailed spiritual systems?
Okay, so it's based on this then it's corrupted? Yes.
Okay.
So first, it came through profits, probably, and then it got distorted, changed, and so on and so forth. Okay, there isn't we don't have any scientific facts about this and historical research specifically about this. But looking at these different traditions, I at some stage I went, I looked into Taoism.
Buddhism,
some Eastern philosophies as well, a little bit in Hinduism, and some of the mystic traditions. And
my personal conclusion is that a lot of this stuff came from Revelation. But it was changed. It was distorted, it was mixed up with a lot of philosophy, a lot of misinterpretation, a lot of twisting, and so on and so forth.
So you will find a lot of powerful principles that, that sometimes you'll hear some of those speakers and those traditions, they will be talking about one aspect.
For example, they talk about just one example. They talk about trusting, and they mentioned trusting the universe.
They say trust that there's a universal mind, that runs everything. And once you put your trust in it, it will help you.
I mean, that's, that's pretty much where we talk about tawakkol but we link it to Allah subhanaw taala. But these people have a different perception of God or they call God okay. So, there is no doubt there are profound words and profound statements like even for example, I was reading
was his name. This Chinese guy? I think he lived. No, his. His Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu wrote the book, which is the Tao. This is where Taoism comes from Taoism is the is the
is a philosophy. It's not more it's not a religion. It's a philosophy that came from Lao Tzu. So Lao Tzu, I think he lived 5000 years ago. So he himself wrote this book. This is the summary of his teachings. In this book, reading in this book, you can you can find a lot of principles that are divine principles.
way a human being can come up with these ideas impossible. But they are mixed with a lot of schilke that mixed with misunderstanding, a lot of false notions about Allah Subhana, WA Tada, and a lot of wrong practices. So looking at all of these things, my personal conclusion, and I think there's a lot of evidence to support it, because all of these seem to be you know, pointing towards one direction. And the last one sentences in the one we're in omet in in Hana, Hana there, anyone who knows, a little more Maha sauce and also alpha, he knows that this is a very profound statement. Allah is basically saying what in that kid, Minh?
Thank you. Martin.
illa caleffi Javier for emphatic conditioners, linguistic conditioners in one statement, that means there is no nation except that prophets were sent to them. There is no nation. So talking about the people and digitus people in Australia. Yes, absolutely. So messengers were sent to them. People in the end of the world, New Zealand, in the eskymos. In Alaska.
We're in matin. Illa Halevy, Hana de there is no oma except a prophet was sent to them, was sent into them.
So where did all these traditions from the prophets welded all this revelation? Where did it go go to? Was it wiped out completely? Was it destroyed completely?
It was distorted, it was changed. So this is why she for the 17 years has a very profound statement. He says this is how we deal with sects within Islam that have went astray. And with non Muslims. He says couldn't learn more who have one
final word pupu alhama, home in half. When Holly fukuhara de La MaMa home in Bothell,
that's a general that's the general approach Yoshi for the 17 year in dealing with deviant * and dealing with other religions. So he said with each one of them, there is truth and there is falsehood. And he says there is no one in this universe, who combines all of evil together, not even shape one.
No one has all falsified together, everything, he got everything wrong. And there is no one who combines everything, as a person who combines everything that is true, except for the Muslim Oh, man, it's totality. It has the truth within it. So you miss it, I miss it, someone else has it. So it will never be non existent among the Ummah the truth.
So she has done with me, and he says, so we agree with them. We agree with them. And we commend them on the truth that they have. And we disagree with them and have dissension and enmity with them based on the false that they have. That's our approach. It's a differentiated approach. It's not everything you have is wrong. And this is why For example, when we talk to people from any other religion from Christianity, oh, it's all distorted.
That's not the way to deal with us. Now. Listen to me when he talked about
when he had arguments with the Christians, he had debates against the Christians.
He actually pointed out certain things among Christianity, within Christianity that are actually truthful,
that are actually truthful, why? Because these are remains of Revelation, you cannot deny them, and you cannot go against them. You cannot go against the truth, regardless of who it comes from? Do the Christians have some truth within what they say they have? These are this is what remains from a 17 lolium. And he said, um, do we Muslims reject everything? No, we don't reject everything. We take a differentiated approach, the truth that they have, we accept it.
But the false that they have, we reject it. It's not a blank statement. It's not why a black or white, we take this differentiated approach. So looking at these people, and I'm going to use this point in our life, we live until tomorrow to talk about what Islam has to offer what Islamic spirituality has to offer it into in today's world. And I personally believe that Islamic spirituality offers us a few ways to deal with these challenging circumstances where Muslims are being targeted in the media, and
socially, and the I mean, the Islamophobia phobia, anti muslim spirit is actually growing and spreading and becoming more apparent. So I think Islamic spirituality has a very powerful way to handle this kind of wave, very powerful way so it could offer profound solutions.
So when we look at these people, or these traditions, we look at them we say, okay, when they talk about to walk will in that sense, this kind of trusting is what we have into work and that's true
but
directing distrusting to what they call the universal mind why they call or Mother Nature, or this god that is in everything we say that's false.
What does this do this builds bridges between us and other people, number one, and number two, it shows that we have our distinct spirituality and our principles that we're not willing to compromise on.
inshallah, tomorrow when I talk about this, this will show you how this will open windows of, of connection. And this will open ways for people to see Islam because what we have been doing recently, in the last 200 years, we have been practicing Islam and offering Islam in a highly technical way. highly technical way. And the halaqaat Friday, not yesterday, but the week before I quoted from Imam even in Josie or him Allah to Allah, what he said about how being immersed in the sciences of Islam. The study is specifically mentioned the study of faith, and the study of Hadith. He says this does not help your heart unless you mix with it what he calls
maraca Cthulhu, the spiritual stuff, the spiritual, you know, discourse that we have within Islam. So he says, If you study these sciences, without exposing yourself to the heart, softness and the spiritual side of the Islamic arguments, you're going to develop a hard heart.
And you will be very intellectual and very judgmental in your approach.
So looking at the life of the prophet SAW Selim, yes, he would teach, but he would teach in a personal way, because the private life of the Prophet size and and that's what we're going to talk about today. Look at his private life, there's so many moments of spirituality where he stands most of the night, praying to Allah subhanaw taala in a state of complete, absorb absorbency in the, in the prayer itself, he's absorbed completely in the prayer, the profits or losses he's absorbed into.
So
so when we deal with these traditions, we have to be careful, we have to take a differentiated approach, we see the truth that they have, why? Because you cannot reject the truth when it comes. When you say, when it comes from a from a different tradition. And it's true, and it's compatible with what Islam is, you reject it, and you say, I have this.
Okay, you offer something that you have rejected, you have just rejected, it's a matter of consistency as well. So you cannot reject reject the concept of tawakkol when it comes from a non Muslim. Okay, and then say, Okay, and then Islam offers this, which is the one thing that I'm going to share with you, although it's going to be controversial, is going to be challenging to some people, a lot of Muslim speakers and debaters used to challenge Christians and judge them when they said, you will see it when you believe it, right? They say you have to believe first, then you will see it right. Some Christians like born again, Christians, they will tell you, you have to believe
in Jesus, then he will appear to you.
Now this statement has falsehood and hand it has truth in it.
The truth is, when you believe in something, you will actually start seeing it.
When you believe in something, you will start seeing it. When you change your beliefs. Your perception will change. And this is a fact By the way, this is known everywhere. If you live in denial to something, your mind will cancel it without you being aware of it. unconsciously, your mind will cancel it will cancel it completely.
But once you believe in it, you'll start noticing it. So for us we don't perceive reality as it is. This is something very well known has been documented has been experimented. And if you pay attention to your personal conduct, you're going to see it. I'm going to give you a very simple example. If you develop at one moment, an interest to buy a car or want to buy a car, let's say I want to buy a Nissan Rogue.
I developed an interest in this car. I never had interest in it. But someone told me it's a very good car. So I put my mind on Nissan Rogue, I want to buy it.
So you Google it or you go Kijiji and you check these cars on offer on sale, you look at Nissan Rogue, you look at different colors. How does what's the interior looks like? What's the engine? How's the engine? How's the maintenance? Is there a parts available in the market and so on and so forth. So you look at all the aspects of the car. Now walk down the street, shepherd.
Shepherd road east, Sheppard Avenue East, walk down the street, all of a sudden you're gonna see Nissan Rogue everywhere. I've never seen it before. Like, oh, the whole of Toronto is driving Nissan Rogue. When you walk back home and you look outside your neighbor has Nissan Rogue. Why would I
developed an interest in Nissan Rogue, my now my neighbor has it why it's always been there, but you've never seen it, you develop an interest in some pair of shoes, or some kind of shirt, or pants. The moment you put your mind on them, you'll start noticing them everywhere.
You say how come and if like this happened to me a lot, I some stages, I developed interest in certain subjects to study. So I wanted to study this one study that every time I, I developed an interest, for example, in some science, or some kind of discipline. As soon as I start reading in it, all of a sudden, you know, it starts appearing everywhere. Oh, this person has studied this. How come? I thought I was the only person thinking of this? Why once you develop an interest in something, it starts popping up everywhere.
That seems spooky, right? It's, it freaks you out? Why would I develop an interest in something all of a sudden, it starts popping up wherever I go. People, oh, my cousin is studying this. How come I thought no one in my country even heard of this study. But now all of a sudden, the closest people to me have it. Why? Because once you once you put your awareness on something you your mind, your perception will start searching for it, you start seeing it. So when you don't want to see something, you can actually your mind is going to cancel it and you won't be aware of it. You won't be aware of it. Now, why do I say this? I say this because, again, the statement that we some Muslim
preachers used to use against Christians is okay, you will see the truth once you believe in it, you have to believe first. And then once you believe you're going to see it, yes, if you believe in anything, you will start seeing it by the way, even if it's not there.
Even if it's not there. If you think the world is a bad place, convince yourself the world or let's say someone betrays you, someone treats you bad, okay? And they abuse your trust, they take advantage of you, you become hurt, traumatized and injures you hot. What are you going to do? you'll develop this kind of defensiveness. So when I say the world is a vicious place, everyone is against you. Everyone is plotting against you. You're going to look at people, you're going to search for signs of people who are going to try to manipulate you and take advantage of you. Even the closest people to you.
Even the closest people to you, you're gonna look at your parents. Oh, what does my dad mean?
Is he against me? Is he with me? Why is my mom talking to me like this? Well, let's see what else you mentioned this, maybe she's against me.
This is how this how our brains work. So we have to be careful. So when you believe in something, you're going to find it. And this is why in Arabic, they say in the slang language, they say
La la la to grace or Haiya. Heaven. Okay? They say, if a person is bitten by a snake, if he sees a rope is gonna freak out. Why? Because again, I see it as a snake. He's not gonna see it as a rope, he's gonna see it as snake. So really, when you believe in something, your perception is going to change and you will start seeing it, you will start seeing it. Anyone who studies success and self help knows this very well. They say the reason why you can't see success is that you believe you believe you can't do it, you believe it's not there. Once you change your mind and you say about something, it's possible, actually, things start to change. I'm going to give you a very radical
example, very radical example. Previously, prior to 1953.
It was a fact among physiotherapists and people who studied the human
anatomy and sports experts that it was impossible for a human being to run a mile in less than four minutes. It was a physical impossibility. This was accepted as a fact for centuries, for centuries.
And for centuries, no one ran the mile in less than four seconds.
Now one English person
I can't remember his first name Jim Bannister.
Bannister. His last name is Bannister.
protocol. projectory. Bannister something like this. He put his mind he said it's possible. It's just possible. He said, I'm not going to believe this. So I'm going to do it. It's possible.
So what happened he trained himself. He trained physically with the idea that it's possible. It's in his mind. He's a belief
I believe in June 1952 or 53. He ran one mile in less than
Four minutes. Now that's not a surprise.
The same year, by the end of the year, there were 13 other people who run a mile in less than four minutes. What happened?
Why all of a sudden it was possible when one person broke that belief physically, all of a sudden other people could do it.
When the belief changed, things change, actually, I believe Henry Ford said, Those who can do those he who says he can, and he who says he can't, are both usually right.
Actually, there's a more profound statement from aluminium via pileup of the law. He was asked key for quintet. avaliable for son, how did you beat these strongest warriors fighters, he was still young.
He says open European FC and neocortex
for your NFC and necochea uno, de and NFC that's profound. He says, I put an idea in my heart in my chest, that I'm going to kill him, I'm going to beat him.
So with that strength, he feels that for me, so he also feels I'm going to beat him. So he becomes an aide, or a helper to me against his own self.
That's Leave me alone.
So that shows that we don't see reality as it is, it's biased, your past experiences, your beliefs, your denials, your expectations, they all form, they all form or shape your perception. So when we tell, for example, again, back to the debate issue, so when sometimes we said to some Christians, okay, that's completely faulty thing. Completely faulty thing, believe, and then you will see, believe and you will see, okay, we say no, the concept in principle is correct, because that's how humans behave is how they perceive things. But to say that about Jesus and him being God, that's false. So you have truth here, but you have false ID here. So we're gonna
split them. And we're gonna call a spade a spade, you know why? Because it hasn't muscly a person came to Him. And He said to him,
like you told us, that if you give for the sake of Allah, trusting and Allah subhanaw taala, or if you give for the sake of Allah, Allah is going to give you back, but I've been given for so long, and I'm not getting back. He said, Yes. He said, Yes, that's right.
He said the NACA totally. The NACA olien. NACA tune FICO. thebarton. What an unfair
as it was, they said, You spend and you lose money I spent and I get back money back from Allah. Because you can use spend, you spend your testing Allah out, is he going to give me the money back, and that's what you're going to get. But I spend forgotten, when I spend, I spent in trust of a loss palitana. So when you believe in it is going to come back? When you doubt it? Because the testing allows you to see does he fulfill it or not? That's what you get. And that's exactly what Allah says. And he's going to see it as reported by Sal Bukhari.
And who have db familyoven, AB dB. Asha, I am to my service, he thinks of me as he believes about me, what do you believe about Allah, you're going to test a lot out, you're not sure if Allah is going to give you back. If you spend for the sake of Allah that your money is going to come back, you're not sure you want to see.
Okay, you want to I want a lot to prove that to you.
That's where you're gonna get doubt again. But if you spend and trust, so you have to believe in it to see it. That's what it has implicitly saying.
So you cannot that's that's the issue with debates. So taking this kind of sweeping approach, you know, blank statement approach. That's all wrong, no, differentiate. There's why even taymiyah use this differentiated and his arguments with everyone had been Tamia use this approach, he would say what they said there is the truth, but it's mixed with falsehood here. So we have to dismantle them, put the falsity here and put the truth here and recognize each one for its own merits. And that's it. So again, so with these traditions, we have to this how if we want to deal with them, if you don't have to deal with them, you can shun them altogether, and focus on the sound that's, that's
ideally, but if someone has an interest to study them, or someone who has come from these traditions there are, by the way, there are Muslims and there are people who have come to Islam, who now practicing some of these things that came from these traditions. So it's important for them to learn because they are already into this stuff. Like there are people who do
Meditation. There are people who do meditation, there are people who do some kind of yoga, where there is some meditation and some spiritual practice. So these people need to know how to handle these things. They need to know how to handle these things. So these spiritual practices, yes. Are they spiritual? Indeed, they are highly spiritual, to the people who practice them and get involved in them. Do they feel spiritual? Do they feel high? Are they doing something to their souls and experiencing something? Absolutely they are. But all the practices that they do that do that are not in line with the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, they might feel good, they
might feel spiritual, they might feel high. But these are absolutely not doing good to your soul. Period. So you find these people, not all of them, but in different traditions, you find some of them spiritual, how do they practice their spirituality? By open sexuality.
This is why, for example, the one of the most controversial bigger Hindu
guys who was in the 60s 70s became so big offshore. offshore, he became so big in the United States, and they wanted even to build the city.
So they used to get into spiritual practices, doing congregational prayer, and jumping and singing and feeling really high. People are feeling spiritual, but he built a cult around it, and what would they do afterwards, open sexuality,
open sexuality,
immoral, immoral, yet they felt high, even when they're doing it, they felt it was a spiritual experience.
So this is why the only way to practice an authentic spirituality is to see what is in the Koran was in the Sunnah of the prophet or something somebody is getting into some people are getting now into meditation. I am talking about meditation, by the way meditation. I'm speaking about this because it's becoming very common. And a lot of companies are introducing these practices to their employees of Temecula because
they have seen that with meditation, people's sense of well being comfort, less stress, is actually helping their employees. So there is less less absenteeism. There is more productivity, people are more comfortable spending time, more time at work, and so on and so forth. So for them, this makes money, so they're happy with this.
So a lot of people are exposed to this meditation. Meditation is not one thing. There are different types of meditation. The most common now most widespread type of meditation comes from what they call Transcendental Meditation. It's about silence in your mind. You sit still. Close your eyes, open your eyes depends but breathe. Okay, relax. Put your awareness in your body, feel your chest, feel your stomach, feel your hands, feel your arms, vilifies feel the the vibe of your own body. And forget everything else and keep focused on your breath. Have awareness, pure awareness in your body.
Yeah, now they call it mindfulness because they want to avoid.
Okay, meditation comes more from these Eastern spirituals. So they give it now more of a much more mild name. So this is why they use this in positive psychology. They call it mindfulness. Okay. So it's basically silencing your mind and just being aware. Don't think don't judge don't engage in any thought.
This is not a new practice. This was known among some Sufi sects
in the past mystic practices, so I am talks about this in modality said again, and he says, There are people who silence their minds and sit still think of nothing, do nothing. He says, what does this benefit a person?
He says the mind if you silence it, there's no benefit in it.
But the point is to engage your mind with profound thoughts about Allah. And about the last day. He said, that's the only form of victory and the fact that is beneficial. So in Islam, there is no this kind of what they call silence in your mind and mindfulness, okay. But there are other types of meditation that they call it guided meditation with mantras, so you recite a mantra, okay? Some of these are names of jinn. Some of them are names of saints from different traditions. Some of these are just positive words. Like, I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm happy, I'm happy. You just think like that. You keep repeating this for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, two
hours, just keeping common saying this, okay.
Still, I mean, there might have some psychological effects, but at the end of the day, you are playing, you're messing around with your soul, and you're playing a dangerous game.
So hamdulillah in Islam, we are given a completely different alternative. And this will take us to more. So do you find this in Buddhism?
Hinduism, all these traditional practices, indigenous old nations, a lot of these have been practiced, and so on and so forth. So they do this for healing, and so on and so forth. And it does, it might might have an impact because the soil has an impact on on the body and on the mind. But the most important thing we said it might bring you some initial benefit, but who knows what's the long term impact is going to have on your soul? You don't know because you are messing around with part of the unseen world and you have no clue.
And as I said, you can abuse your body and you can seemingly, you're getting so many benefits, but you are in the process, destroying your body. The same thing with the soul, you don't know what's happening because you don't have access to it.
You don't have access to it. So what is authentic spirituality? That's the spirituality of the prophet SAW Solomon, his companions. the spirituality of the prophet SAW Selim and his companions was, let's look at the life of the prophet SAW Salah.
How did it start? It started mainly with
Allah, Allah.
Allah, Allah. So moving away from people, the prophets of Salaam would spend time for the last three years before receiving revelation. he would he would spend the whole month of Ramadan in the cloud Hello indicator of handle most of the time for the month by himself where he would go back home, get some food and some stuff to keep him alive, then, or sometimes honey jolanda would send the servant to give him the supplies, and then the person will stay there. And he would contemplate you would think he would he wants to stay away from the clutter of people because there's with people there's a lot of competition. And there's word of mouth by him. He says innovation talks about Moxie that
will loop the things that are that destroy your heart. One of them he says
el mercado pasado mohalla mixing alone excessive mixing with people. Excessive mixing with people then he says well after too nasty illness is the problem of people anything other than people who creates problems for people, it's other people. Then he says what blocks your heart? Is he he makes a beautiful statement. He says Johan fassi Benny and that's the modality sarakin says de Haan and fassi Benny and what is it? He says the smoke
of people smoke of their breath that has illness in the heart hatred, envy, jealousy, negativity is this smoke that comes out of the breath that comes from the heart is going to poison your heart. So this is why he says a Muslim should only deal with other people when there is a benefit in matters of religion, or matters of dunya.
So he says dealing with people should not be excessive should not be over luxury, a matter of luxury. So you need to deal with people when you need to not say necessary necessary is an extreme case. But for Hajj I say there is a need. There's a human need. You need to deal with people you need to do transactions. You need to come to the masjid and pray. You need to attend classes. You need to go and buy groceries you need to go to work.
You feeling bad, you need someone to vent to unconfined and so you find this kind of person that's a need. So unless but don't say okay, there are people who can't sit with themselves. They can't spend five minutes by themselves.
They're afraid they're scared to sit by themselves. So as soon as they have five minutes by themselves, they panic. They start texting friends calling up friends. No Do you have five minutes is gone. Let's go to Tim he says go get some coffee. Let's go to the bluffs and so on and so forth. Right? Let's go and have a walk. Let's do this. Let's go to Montreal do anything. But they once they are by themselves, they freak out why they can't face this emptiness, this vacuum inside.
Whereas this vacuum that's why you can find your connection to Allah Spano Tata. So excessive mixing with people is going to kill this. So the prophet SAW Selim at the beginning, because people have influence in your people are going to poison your mind. This is good, this is bad. This is this is not good. You should do this. You shouldn't do that. Why did you do that people make you feel guilty. People will judge you. You will have expectations they will give you looks that will weigh you down.
That's how people deal with others. So they so they get your mind clogged up with so much negativity and so much fear and so much frustration is so much stress that you're stressed out. You don't have any space or any peace to focus on your heart. So you're stressed out. So you need to calm his mind. By doing what having moments in seclusion, having some moments in seclusion. The process of Saddam would still do this even after the after
revelation, but he would mainly do this and pay up and nail being with a lot because seclusion is not about you being by yourself.
There's a difference between loneliness
Some people when they're by themselves, they feel lonely. Loneliness shows there's a sick heart. There's an empty heart.
But what Muslims are what a, someone who's grown spiritually is a Muslim. They appreciate. aloneness, not loneliness, aloneness, they are full. Why? Because you are with Allah. you're connected to Allah.
You're aware of Allah. So you, you want to spend time with Allah.
A lot of the people who talk about a lot about the biography of me, Tamia, Rahim, Allah tala, they said he would often go to the desert, run to the desert, to the east of Damascus, run to the desert. Why, sometimes for two, three days, he wants to be by himself. He says I'm tired. I'm tired on a focus on alone. I have time by myself for the last panel. Tada. So he gets out of it. This is why when he was put into prison,
he said, Well, I've been waiting for this for so long. This is a one time by people not leaving me alone. people having demands on him. Again in Tamia on an everyday on a daily basis, he would have roughly in our estimation today,
right from
from from the moment of failure, and he would take two to three hours everyday sitting by himself, he would not talk to no one. And he called this this is my breakfast and he couldn't do it. This is my breakfast. What would you do? He would sit down, he would shut out his senses completely shut them down, shut the world out. And do what
he said. So society handled the morning ticker. And that's just him and Allah.
That seminal and that's the advice. He says he at any time when he says you need to spend time by yourself and not make so much with people but he says if you have to spend time with people, and you don't want to be with them, if you can turn this conversation into something about allow something beneficial do but if you can't, which happens, he says you need to facilitate rule haccombe in benei him fetter kuno habarana even stick your soul out of them. So you are present in your body but you are absent in your mind. And he says well I have to do Adda in Lhasa hypo Milan and Lin FC. He says no one can do this except someone who has worked hard on himself.
So you are amongst people and you look at them and you smile at them and they talk and they think you're engaged with them but your mind is with Allah might is with Allah somewhere else completely different. So first thing with the processor was this kind of seclusion is kind of aloneness, where he would contemplate the bigger questions about life. It would calm his mind because people are gonna work your mind up with so much negativity, expectations, judgments, I mean, walk into the masjid and you're going to, you're going to feel the piercing or a few eyes right? In a Masjid. Walking down as you're gonna see people looking at you in strange ways Why? Human beings have issues
they're fighting battles in their life. And people they want to vent out. So you come in Come in their face, they kind of throw that on you. That's how humans are. Don't expect them to be better than that. They need empathy and sympathy for that not even judgment.
So you need this kind of seclusion in the life of the seller. Afterwards, what would the prophet SAW sent him to where would his spirituality show the family praying at night? The professor solemn loved it. He would even leave his wife and he would pray at night. That ease of action will be alone. She says, like I missed the props on one night. And I looked.
I touched around and I saw that and then I felt the prophet SAW so long. I felt him praying. His lap was wet. Why? Because his eyes were tearing up. His eyes were tearing up his beard would be wet. His clothes his his lap is wet.
That's a moment of connection to Allah subhanaw taala
Some people think it's sadness. It's bad. No, there is a positive type of sadness when you connect to a las panatela and you embrace the reality of life, the reality of existence, you connect to Allah. There is a beautiful feeling of bliss, a blissful feeling where you were tears come out with joy and connection and love and fulfillment and connection to Allah subhanaw taala there's no way there's no words to describe this like
whatever tabbing in said, will lie in no letter Monroeville, Alabama have lots of goofy Hello Can Hello genetti famously had in the homeless.
One of the debit in says, There are moments that pass that I go through that I say to myself will lie if the people in paradise are experiencing something similar to what I'm experiencing now. This is a beautiful, this is a beautiful way to live. What a what a blessing from Allah, what what ecstasy and what what a great reward from Allah subhanaw taala and another one says will light
up man nofima named
Gentlemen and industry, a lot of people have you know of wealth and people of power, if they know the happiness and the beauty and the bliss that we enjoy in our hearts, they would fight, fight us to get it from us, trying to get it. These are the people who are who are.
People are enjoying everything in this world, they have access to whatever they want in this world. What does this come from its connection to a loss of the prophet SAW solemn would experience this spirituality. To me laying beside him. There's nothing more beautiful than this. You're standing in the Presence of Allah, when he ascend where he descends to the nearest Heaven, is the closest to his creation in a way that befits His Majesty
is the closest your heart feels it,
your heart knows it,
then you are standing in his presence, and you are reciting his words, you are reciting the words of Allah subhanaw taala. In the middle of the night, people are sleeping, but your heart is with Allah. Whereas the world The world has disappeared from your consciousness, because you are in the Presence of Allah in the world for you, there's only Allah and you. And if you get closer as well, you get to a point where you don't even feel yourself you only feel the presence of a loss penalty.
You only feel the presence of Allah. And this is what the scholars or scholars have taken this term and corrected it because what we used was used by some Muslims, they call it phenol or should you stop witnessing you stop feeling or you stop being conscious of anything but Allah subhanaw taala so you don't feel anything but Allah subhanaw taala and you are absorbed in the love of Allah, nothing is more fulfilling than this additional amount of data and he went over tabbing he said,
sometimes at night I'm reciting. And I'm reciting one verse is so profound and so beautiful that I cannot move on to the next verse. I keep repeating it, and it shows me in an meanings new meanings unfold to my heart, and I enjoy them more and more and more and more. He says for four days, I'm stuck with the same verse. And he says Walla Walla, Walla, county Rahmatullahi for el Fuu. And we're in limited data, he says, but the blessing of Allah comes on me and it makes me forgetful. So I missed on some benefits and I happen to move to the next verse. And this is how I'm able to carry on
fabhotel bonanni, the great scholar of Hadith,
the great Tabby, he says he used to say to himself, yellow beam used to make a llama encounter out later. A salata. A salata for your Cobra, for Alinea, or Allah, if you have ever given someone the ability to pray in their graves, please give it to me.
Please give it to me.
This kind of sweetness that spirituality, spirituality of the prophets of Salaam also because spirituality is moral By the way, spirituality is moral. So our morality or principles like truthfulness, justice, forgiveness, kindness, generosity, courage, where does it come from? comes from our soul. It comes from the soul. It comes from the soul. Coward, cowardice, lack envy, hatred. What is this come from? It comes from the self, not the soul comes from your mind that wants to compete and wants to fight over things. But the soul is part of the unseen world it knows everything is there in abundance that Allah's gifts are uncountable, there's no limit their abundance. So the
soul knows gives and it knows it's gonna get back. It's courageous and it knows nothing is gonna happen except what Allah wrote for it. So the the soul is essentially ethical. So when you tap more into your spiritual side, what happens? Is that more into the deeper part of your heart and your football, what happens? I'm going to take two minutes and then we'll make Earnshaw. What happens you're going to be ethical. So look at the prophet SAW some how he dealt with people aside, I mean, that's his federalized spiritual nature before Islam he was the he was the trustworthy, it was the honest look at the the problem afterwards. And then but when it comes to the prophet SAW Selim, he
had already lent the professor him some money, but the time hasn't come yet. So he sees the prophet SAW Selim, what does he say? He says, Yeah, Mohammed in a coma Banco Abdulmutallab Oman model. He says Mohammed without respect, no respect to Mohammed, you family vibe drama club, you people don't give people their rights. You keep putting off the deaths. You keep playing games. That's how it feels right? It was very disrespectful. And Bob gets angry.
He puts his hand on his sword. He says, messenger of Allah, let me chop off his head.
What does the professor Sam says? He turns to the man. You can't do this. If you're not spiritual. You can't fake this. The President
To the man and he says
so that you're truthful you need your money. You need your money back then he says to
Bob Lima have to Why did you scare the man?
Would you just kill the man? you're frightened him.
The man has a right in Alisa. Hi, Bill Hector McMullen. The man has a right and the one who has rights, he can speak with a strong voice with his tone gratitude. So in that is liable. Hakuna Matata in the province of Southern said, so I'm about to
give him Okay, that's from the property of the President. Give him the money that I owe him and give him on top of this.
Some compensation for my own money. Give me some compensation because you frighten them.
Okay, you can't do this unless you're spiritual.
So the spirituality of the prophet SAW Selim, was visible and apparent in his dealings with people this way, spirituality is practical. It's not impractical. It was practical. So the spirituality of the prophet of them showed in all of these aspects of his life. So he was kind with people. He was accommodating, the Bedouins came and asked him very aggressive, harsh questions. The Prophet I was on I was very patient, and he answered them with a loving
with a with a loving, fatherly demeanor towards them. And then the Prophet sallallahu Sallam this
you know, weighed him down as why actually alone when she was asked about the Prophet Salaam because Salaam died, yes, that is 63. But 63 was still considered to be young person and had only a few white hairs. That's it. And he was physically strong. So they said, Why did the prophets of Salaam like die at this age why he became so weak, she said, help Amazonas people destroy them.
People destroyed him. People had expectations, dealing with different types of people from here and there people speaking with different languages, different demands, and people are nice people are demanding people are aggressive, some Muslims or non Muslims wars and helping the poor and the needy and so on and so so much to deal with. She said hello, Manas. People destroyed him. That's why he became so ill. He became weak. But obviously that's the will of Allah subhanaw taala. So the professor Nam never showed impatience. Where does this come from? This level of patience comes from your soul. You have to be strongly spiritual to be there. Now inshallah, tomorrow in my talk, I will
talk about how to develop oneself spiritually in an authentic way, and how spirituality or what semuc spirituality can offer the world today and our times does that mean la hora de la semana Vina Mohammed
Salah shadowman and we'll be speaking after mother