Muhammad West – The Revival #14

Muhammad West
AI: Summary ©
The greatest scholar of Islam is the book ofteenth centuries, which describes his journey from childhood to present age and the importance of learning and finding one's own values. The speaker describes his struggles with mental health and transformation, including a desire to return to spirituality and a desire to be a product of the "so mean." He emphasizes the need to reform our spirituality and rebuilding our spirituality to achieve the ultimate path of spirituality.
AI: Transcript ©
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I hope you're all well.

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Night number 14,

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and, we're concluding with Imam Al Ghazali.

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We said that he was,

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the 5th regarded as the greatest scholar of

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his generation

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when he was alive and and posthumously we

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still recognize him as the mujaddid, the reviver

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of his time. He had, ascended the heights

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of intellectual

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thought within Islam. He was

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the chancellor or the head of the of

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the the most prestigious university in the world

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at a young age. He had authored dozens

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and dozens of books. He had defeated many

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academics in different thought and debate. He was

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the master when he came to Shafi I

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fiqh. He's still today the legend when he

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comes to the Usul Afiqh.

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And then all of a sudden,

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before the age of 40,

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he goes and he wants to teach,

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and he stands before a classroom and he

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can't talk.

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He's struck down by some kind of illness.

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What's wrong with him? The doctors and and

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as we said, he's a celebrity. He's not

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just any alim mushek. He's a celebrity. Kings

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consult with him. He has fatawa with rulers.

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And so the best physicians see to him,

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and they all conclude, which he knows already,

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it's not a mystery to him, that this

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is a this is something in the heart.

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Nothing wrong with his tongue. There's something with

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the heart.

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And

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he asks he says to the Nizamiyah, he

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says to the not and and he's not

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asking the he's asking the Khalifa basically, I

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want to leave Baghdad, I'm gonna go on

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Hajj. Maybe if I go on Hajj, things

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will be better, but his mind his intention

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is not to go on Hajj. He sorts

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out his affairs. He puts all his money

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in a trust for his family. He says

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that I I I mentioned to go on

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Hajj, but in reality,

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I went to Syria

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to go fall off the grid, to just

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disappear.

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So the greatest al Haram in the world

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just disappears,

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resigns from his positions. No one knows where

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he is besides his family,

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and he is now in seclusion.

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Now this is Imam Ghazali's crisis.

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What was going on? Many speculations.

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Remember the other the all these group, the

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assassins, they had just killed the sultan. He,

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Imam Ghazali, just wrote a book against the

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Isma'ilis. So there's a thought perhaps he's fearful

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for his life. But what he does is

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and what perhaps makes Imam Ghazali so great

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is that he always wrote and he wrote

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this book, Al, Al Muntik,

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The Deliverance from Era.

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He's ex it's an autobiography

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where he writes what he was going through

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during this time. He explains why I left,

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what was my,

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preoccupation,

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what caused me to go through all this,

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and so he gives a detailed account and

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his journey that he's going through now. So

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I took slippage of this book. It's not

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a very long book, but it's really a

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a a detail a deep book in terms

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of, someone pouring their soul out and telling

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you how, you know, what and he's saying

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this book's purpose is he's saying I was

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off the path, and I had to rectify

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myself,

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and this is my reflection. So he says

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from the period of when I was an

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adolescent,

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from basically from my twenties until now in

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my fifties, I have ventured into this into

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the vast ocean of knowledge. So he says

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to to to the reader, I am someone

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that immersed myself in learning and understanding,

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and I fearlessly

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went into the depths of different thoughts

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and like a diver, I'm going deep and

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penetrated the darkness

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and, thereto, it's dangerous and it's abysses. All

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the different philosophies and thoughts, whether it's the

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Shias, whether it's the Ma'ilis, the philosophers, without

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any care, I jumped into every thought, every

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ideology, and I went deep in to understand

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it. And I interrogated the beliefs of every

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single sect and scrutinized the mysteries of each

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doctrine in order to dis disentangle truth from

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error and orthodoxy from heresy.

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And I never met and, you know,

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side note, if you look at his other,

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books,

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Imam Ghazal doesn't mind to be a little

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vain, a little cocky. He doesn't mind to

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say, I'm telling you this, and you're not

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gonna get anyone better than me. So he

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has this about himself. And so he says

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here, I've never met anyone who claims to

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know the hidden meanings of the Quran except

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that I sort of interrogated his belief. And

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there was no philosopher

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whose system I have not been able to

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comprehend. No one came to me with a

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system which I couldn't master,

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nor any theologian whose intricacies of doctrine I

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have not been able to work out.

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Examining and then he says, now after after

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reflection, examining my actions.

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Even the best deeds that I have done,

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the most fair seeming, which was my lectures,

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the best thing I could do was to

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lecture my students and my professional occupation. I

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found to my surprise that I was engrossed

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in several studies that was of little value,

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and it was profitless with regards to my

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akhirah. It will no benefit to my akhirah.

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I probed my motives for teaching and found

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that instead of sincerely doing this for Allah,

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it was only to actuate a vain desire

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of honor and reputation.

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I perceived that I was now on the

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edge of an abyss and that without an

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immediate,

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conversion, I would surely be doomed to eternal

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jahannam. In these reflections, I spent a lot

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so he says I was going through this

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for a long time. For for months

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years, I felt this way. Before he actually

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resigned, this was preoccupying him. But then he

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says, anybody who goes through a midlife crisis,

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a career crisis, you can almost

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he he explains to you. It's not an

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easy thing to do.

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And what makes Ghazali great is, like, he's

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very human. He says, I have all this

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I have power, position, a family. I have

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reputation. I can't just throw it all away,

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and I'm conflicted.

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And he says,

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still a prey to I was a prey

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to uncertainty.

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One day, I decided I'm going to leave

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Baghdad

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and to give up everything, and the next

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day, I gave up my resolution.

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I advanced one step and then relaxed.

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In the morning, I was sincerely resolved that,

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the only to occupy myself with future thoughts,

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and by the evening, carnal thoughts assailed me

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and then my resolve disappeared.

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On the one side, the world kept me

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bound to my post in the chains of

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covetousness

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and on the other side, the voice of

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religion cried out to me, up, up. You

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only have a little time left. If you're

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not gonna change now, when are you gonna

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change? You know? And if thou does not

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break the chains today, when will you break

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them?

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Then he said at some point, my resolve

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was strengthened, and I wish to give up

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everything and flee. But then the temptation

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returned to my heart. Some voice told me,

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you're just going through a momentary kind of

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depression.

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You're only going through something which is gonna

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pass, man. Don't give it all away, for

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it will soon pass. And if you give

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in to this depression, you give up this

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fine position. Your life's work, you're gonna give

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up. This honorable

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post

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exempt from any trouble and rivalry, you are

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the king. Why would you wanna give all

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this up? The seat of authority is yours,

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safe from any attack. You will regret it

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later and without being, being able to recover

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from it. So, he said,

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I remained,

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and I was torn. I was conflicted inside.

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And I was to the and I was

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this internal battle continued for 6 months. And

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then I basically

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said I gave up to Allah. I said,

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oh, Allah, you decide what I must do.

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And then he said, as a mercy, Allah

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inflicted me with this inability to speak.

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He said, Allah struck me down with this

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illness where I was unable to teach, and

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this is the thing that he loves the

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most. Yes. He's writing and he's debating, but

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the thing that I love the most was

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to teach, and this was taken away from

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me. I couldn't teach anymore. I couldn't speak.

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And this put me further into a type

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of depression. I couldn't eat. I couldn't drink.

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And

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I was really basically, I'm I I was

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almost like dying.

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The, my physical power was such that the

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doctors despairing me of of saving me. The

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doctors gave up that there's any cure for

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me. They said the problem is in the

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heart

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and has communicated itself to the whole of

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the body, and there is no hope unless

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the cause of this sadness,

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you know, gets cured.

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And finally,

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conscious of my weakness, Allah forced me into

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a position where I couldn't turn away anymore

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of my weakness and the prostration of my

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soul. I took refuge in Allah as a

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man at the end of himself without any

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recourse. I had no other option. And then

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he quotes the ayah. Allah says, and who

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is the one who will assist the person

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who is in desperation except Allah?

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And so designed to hear me, Allah made

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it easy for me to give up everything,

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my honor, my wealth, even my family. I

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gave out publicly. So he so he says,

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I said to the world publicly, I'm just

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going on Hajj, but secretly,

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I resolved to go to Syria. I don't

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know. Like, we'll speak why he's going to

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Syria. Not wishing that the Khalifa or my

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friends should know my intentions

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of settling in that country. I made all

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kinds of clever excuses for leaving Baghdad without

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fixed intention of not without the intention. I

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didn't tell anybody. I never returned. I never

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intended to return.

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So then, you know, he mentions what he

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now this book was written, like,

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years after he now left Baghdad. He said,

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then I betook myself to Syria where I

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remained for 2 years in Syria, and I

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devoted myself to retirement, mediation, and seclusion.

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Lived alone, basically, in a masjid. He's just

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making dhikr. He's just

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on the path of of spiritual,

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healing.

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The only thought of self improvement and discipline

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and purification of the heart by salah and

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going through the forms of devotion were the

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Sufis,

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which they had taught me. I used I

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lived a very solitary life in the Masjid

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of Damascus, and I was in the habit

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of spending most of my time alone in

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the Manarat, closing the door behind me. From

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after 2 years there, I went to Jerusalem,

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and I secluded myself in the Dome of

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the Rock. After that, I felt a desire

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to go for Hajj, and then I went

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to Mecca and I visited Madinah. And then

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I felt a a a yearning to see

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my family again, but I'm scared, man. Once

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I go back to the real world, I

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might relapse

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as never to never to go back to

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to to my old life. At any rate,

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I mean, if I did return to live

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the I would still live a solitary life

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and focus on mediation, meditation,

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but events, family, and cares, life, troubled me

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and and right. So you said I had

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to go back. However,

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the however irregular the intervals which I could

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give,

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devotional ecstasy so he says, I still maintain

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my vicaras that gave me this feeling of

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of of of happiness. My confidence in it

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did not diminish. Even though I now was

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able to go back to my family,

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I I could now live in the normal

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world, but still, it did not take me

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away from the path of spirituality. And the

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more I was diverted, the more the dunya

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sort of, you know, occupied me, the more

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steadfast I was to return to the path

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of the spiritual.

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And so he mentions now,

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and he talks about

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what gives him what his conclusion is. And

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he basically says, I have spent my life

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searching for truth, searching for happiness. He will

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talk about being an alim, a sheikh, a

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maulana, a jurist, and he said this did

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not bring me closer to Allah. He then

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said I spent time with the philosophers, debated

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them, understood their reason, their logic, and this

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did not bring me closer to Allah. And

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he says the only thing that really brought

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me closer to Allah was the path of

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spirituality. And he says the path of spirituality

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is not something you can study. He said

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all these things I used to study theoretically,

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but he said this this part, you

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must experience it. He says, there's a big

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difference between knowing what turning away from the

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duniya is and really turning away from the

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duniya. There's a big difference of living

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a a a life without being attached to

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the duniya and actually breaking away from the

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duniya. I saw that one can only hope

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for

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renouncing the world and turning only in in

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Ibaal to Allah.

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And I saw that the only condition of

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success was to sacrifice your honor, your riches,

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your purpose only for the sake of Allah

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and the attachment to this world. Okay? So

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he he speaks about how this is the

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the best the best path. And he says

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that whether you're the philosophers and the thinkers,

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I'm telling you, the

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happiness that you will receive on the path

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of dhikr

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is the thing that,

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is the only path for me. And he

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mentions that, ultimately,

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everyone is searching for truth.

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There is a limit that your eyes can

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see, and there's a limit then he says

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your mind can go beyond your what your

00:12:10 --> 00:12:12

faculty of seeing. Your mind also has a

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limit, and that higher level of intuition and

00:12:15 --> 00:12:18

knowledge only comes from Allah's divine opening, and

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that only comes through dhikr and comes through

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devotion and spirituality.

00:12:22 --> 00:12:24

And so he also mentions, you can be

00:12:24 --> 00:12:24

a

00:12:25 --> 00:12:27

and you can master all the knowledge, but

00:12:27 --> 00:12:29

you don't get closer to Allah. And so

00:12:29 --> 00:12:31

this is a man saying that this is

00:12:31 --> 00:12:31

the ultimate path.

00:12:32 --> 00:12:34

In his book and now this many people

00:12:34 --> 00:12:36

criticize that he's is is Ghazali now telling

00:12:36 --> 00:12:39

you, look here, guys. I've ascended the levels

00:12:39 --> 00:12:42

of academic rigor. All of you resign your

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posts, give up your career, give up your

00:12:44 --> 00:12:45

studies, and just go sit in the masjid

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and making dhikr. He's not saying that. And

00:12:47 --> 00:12:49

he says, this is what I needed for

00:12:49 --> 00:12:52

me. This was my healing. I'm not saying

00:12:52 --> 00:12:54

your path is the wrong path, but this

00:12:54 --> 00:12:56

is what I I needed to heal myself.

00:12:56 --> 00:12:58

He actually used the word healing. My objection

00:12:58 --> 00:13:01

my object my object is to explain my

00:13:01 --> 00:13:03

own mental attitude and not to dispute with

00:13:03 --> 00:13:05

those who have found healing for themselves. Whether

00:13:05 --> 00:13:06

you found whatever path is for you, but

00:13:06 --> 00:13:08

this is the path I needed. And he

00:13:08 --> 00:13:11

also in in this book, when he discredits

00:13:11 --> 00:13:13

the philosophers and the thinkers, he doesn't also

00:13:13 --> 00:13:14

wanna discredit

00:13:14 --> 00:13:15

science.

00:13:15 --> 00:13:17

So he says it's important to remember, it

00:13:17 --> 00:13:19

is therefore a great injury to the to

00:13:19 --> 00:13:21

to Islam to con to say that to

00:13:21 --> 00:13:24

defend Islam, you must discredit discredit science. There's

00:13:24 --> 00:13:26

no conflict between that. I'm not saying that

00:13:26 --> 00:13:28

you must stop studying science. What I'm saying

00:13:28 --> 00:13:30

is don't get attached to this. And don't

00:13:30 --> 00:13:32

think that if you are a great scientist

00:13:32 --> 00:13:34

or a great thinker that you are on

00:13:34 --> 00:13:36

the right path when it comes to religion.

00:13:36 --> 00:13:38

He's always trying to say that. So this

00:13:38 --> 00:13:40

is a a great book about a person

00:13:40 --> 00:13:41

that went through a crisis,

00:13:42 --> 00:13:44

and and he's trying to reform himself, and

00:13:44 --> 00:13:45

he almost concludes that this is the way,

00:13:45 --> 00:13:47

the the path of of the spiritual way.

00:13:48 --> 00:13:50

And his greatest work, he writes during sort

00:13:50 --> 00:13:51

of his so while he's while he's sort

00:13:51 --> 00:13:54

of in seclusion, he's still writing. And his

00:13:54 --> 00:13:55

greatest book that everybody must have heard,

00:13:57 --> 00:13:58

He writes it at this point point in

00:13:58 --> 00:13:59

time. And so,

00:14:03 --> 00:14:06

His books are very much polemic, meaning he's

00:14:06 --> 00:14:08

attacking somebody. He's debating with someone. Now even

00:14:08 --> 00:14:11

this book, it's like to revive Islamic sciences.

00:14:11 --> 00:14:12

It's also attacking somebody,

00:14:13 --> 00:14:15

and it's attacking actually the ulama class, his

00:14:15 --> 00:14:17

own fraternity, his own colleagues. He's saying to

00:14:17 --> 00:14:18

the ulama,

00:14:18 --> 00:14:19

the threat to Islam

00:14:20 --> 00:14:21

is not the Mu'tazila.

00:14:22 --> 00:14:23

It is not the Isma'ilis. It's not the

00:14:23 --> 00:14:26

Crusaders. The threat to Islam is the ummah

00:14:26 --> 00:14:28

is sick, but the doctors you are the

00:14:28 --> 00:14:30

doctors, but we are sick. We have spent

00:14:30 --> 00:14:32

our time debating and arguing. We have spent

00:14:32 --> 00:14:34

our time learning not for the sake of

00:14:34 --> 00:14:35

Allah. I and he said I am a

00:14:35 --> 00:14:37

product of that. I'm sort of the the

00:14:37 --> 00:14:40

pinnacle of that. We need to revive Islamic

00:14:40 --> 00:14:42

thinking again. We need to understand when we

00:14:42 --> 00:14:43

teach Islam,

00:14:44 --> 00:14:45

we it's if it's devoid of spirituality, if

00:14:45 --> 00:14:46

it's devoid of

00:14:46 --> 00:14:48

if it's devoid of getting close to Allah,

00:14:48 --> 00:14:49

then what are we teaching? What are we

00:14:49 --> 00:14:51

busy with? So, really, the,

00:14:51 --> 00:14:53

many people read it and, you know, and

00:14:53 --> 00:14:55

it but it's ideally meant for the ulama

00:14:55 --> 00:14:58

class. You and we need to reform ourselves,

00:14:58 --> 00:15:00

and that is why the reformation begins at

00:15:00 --> 00:15:02

that class. Now as I said, you'll see

00:15:02 --> 00:15:05

tomorrow, while he's in his travels, that's when

00:15:05 --> 00:15:08

the crusaders attack Jerusalem and they massacre, commit

00:15:08 --> 00:15:10

the genocide in Jerusalem. And he's basically saying

00:15:10 --> 00:15:12

before we can fix that, we first need

00:15:12 --> 00:15:13

to fix the root cause, which is the

00:15:13 --> 00:15:15

ulama. This is what we need to we

00:15:15 --> 00:15:16

need to fix, subhanAllah.

00:15:17 --> 00:15:19

And so in his final days, eventually, after

00:15:19 --> 00:15:21

about 10 years of living like a a

00:15:21 --> 00:15:24

Sufi, basically, and and and it's important, though,

00:15:24 --> 00:15:25

to to say he's not saying that dhikr

00:15:25 --> 00:15:27

without sharia, that is not gonna work. You

00:15:27 --> 00:15:28

must be confined to the rules of the

00:15:28 --> 00:15:31

sharia. And so now he finally returns back

00:15:31 --> 00:15:33

to where he started, his tiny village in

00:15:33 --> 00:15:34

Nishapur with his family.

00:15:34 --> 00:15:35

He is,

00:15:36 --> 00:15:38

he goes back to teaching, but now on

00:15:38 --> 00:15:39

his own private classes,

00:15:39 --> 00:15:42

focusing on spirituality. He's still writing, and and

00:15:43 --> 00:15:44

he he continues to write. The

00:15:45 --> 00:15:47

Khalifa begged him to to teach again in

00:15:47 --> 00:15:49

Nashapur. He said, okay. I'll try it for

00:15:49 --> 00:15:50

a little bit. Went for a few months

00:15:50 --> 00:15:51

and said, no. Thanks. I I can't go

00:15:51 --> 00:15:54

back to government institutions and all these things.

00:15:54 --> 00:15:56

You know, he's really made a break of

00:15:56 --> 00:15:58

of from, we'd say the corporate career,

00:15:59 --> 00:16:01

and he teaches very much privately focusing on

00:16:01 --> 00:16:01

spirituality.

00:16:02 --> 00:16:03

And he passes

00:16:03 --> 00:16:05

away at the age of 53 in really

00:16:05 --> 00:16:08

where he began. So remember, he comes from

00:16:08 --> 00:16:10

a very poor background. There was this desire

00:16:10 --> 00:16:11

to ascend to be the greatest, to be

00:16:11 --> 00:16:13

the best, and he goes back being a

00:16:13 --> 00:16:13

very

00:16:14 --> 00:16:17

humble, very simple, outwardly man. And that's where,

00:16:18 --> 00:16:19

he passes away and he leaves behind a

00:16:19 --> 00:16:21

legacy of over 70 books.

00:16:22 --> 00:16:24

70 books. One of his books, I think,

00:16:24 --> 00:16:26

towards the end of his life, he wrote,

00:16:26 --> 00:16:27

it's called the alchemy of happiness.

00:16:28 --> 00:16:29

And so perhaps in the end of his

00:16:29 --> 00:16:31

life, he found that happiness that he was

00:16:32 --> 00:16:34

he was looking for. And, as we said,

00:16:34 --> 00:16:36

why he's such a remarkable character is that

00:16:36 --> 00:16:38

if you at any point of his life

00:16:38 --> 00:16:39

where he wrote,

00:16:40 --> 00:16:42

people have taken from it and resonated with

00:16:42 --> 00:16:44

him. If you're going through a personal spiritual

00:16:44 --> 00:16:46

crisis, career crisis, there's something of Azalea in

00:16:46 --> 00:16:48

there. If you go working and building a

00:16:48 --> 00:16:50

career, there's something of Ghazal you can take.

00:16:50 --> 00:16:51

If you like philosophy, there's something here. If

00:16:51 --> 00:16:53

you don't like philosophy, there's something that he

00:16:53 --> 00:16:54

wrote on it. And so that's why he's

00:16:54 --> 00:16:57

relevant to to to to, basically,

00:16:57 --> 00:16:59

to all times and and why he's such

00:16:59 --> 00:17:02

a great great scholar. And but, really, one

00:17:02 --> 00:17:04

of his lasting legacies would be this ehalomodil

00:17:05 --> 00:17:07

would really shock, the conscious of the ulama

00:17:07 --> 00:17:10

class, and it would begin a type of

00:17:10 --> 00:17:11

revival

00:17:11 --> 00:17:13

where we'll see a new generation of people

00:17:13 --> 00:17:16

like Salahuddin Alayubi, which we'll talk about in

00:17:16 --> 00:17:17

the coming days.

00:17:18 --> 00:17:19

May Allah grant mercy

00:17:19 --> 00:17:20

for

00:17:23 --> 00:17:24

Imam Ghazali and for all the. Right. So

00:17:24 --> 00:17:27

we said, how old was Imam Ghazali when

00:17:27 --> 00:17:29

he was appointed the lecturer at the prestigious

00:17:29 --> 00:17:29

Nizamiyah

00:17:30 --> 00:17:31

in Baghdad? He was only,

00:17:32 --> 00:17:32

34.

00:17:33 --> 00:17:35

Thoban Basir. Okay. Here we go.

00:17:37 --> 00:17:37

And

00:17:41 --> 00:17:42

Azra Basil Mayat.

00:17:43 --> 00:17:45

Azra, she here? No?

00:17:49 --> 00:17:50

Sumayya Asma.

00:17:51 --> 00:17:53

Yes. Sumayya Ismael. It's Sumayya Asmael. It's Sumayya

00:17:53 --> 00:17:53

Asmael. It's Sumayya Asmael. It's Sumayya Asmael. Sumayya

00:17:53 --> 00:17:53

Asmael. Sumayya Asmael. Yes. Sumayya Ismael. It's Sumayya

00:17:53 --> 00:17:54

Asmael. It's Sumayya Asmael.

00:17:55 --> 00:17:56

I mean, tonight's question,

00:17:57 --> 00:17:59

what was the date when Luci Barghazali passed

00:17:59 --> 00:18:00

away at the age of 53?

00:18:00 --> 00:18:02

I didn't I don't think I mentioned that,

00:18:02 --> 00:18:05

but Yes, you did. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's

00:18:05 --> 00:18:07

a easy date. Yeah. It's a easy date.

00:18:07 --> 00:18:08

It's a double Nelson.

00:18:09 --> 00:18:10

Nelson plus 1. Right?

00:18:11 --> 00:18:12

Okay. And then,

00:18:13 --> 00:18:13

just tomorrow,

00:18:14 --> 00:18:17

announcement that we will be doing, Ishay is

00:18:17 --> 00:18:19

5 past 8. Ishay starts 5 past 8

00:18:19 --> 00:18:20

tomorrow.

00:18:20 --> 00:18:21

So much.

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