The Revival #14
Date:
Channel: Muhammad West
Series: Muhammad West - Ramadan 2024 - The Revival
File Size: 18.26MB
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AI Generated 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 Generated Transcript ©
I hope you're all well.
Night number 14,
and, we're concluding with Imam Al Ghazali.
We said that he was,
the 5th regarded as the greatest scholar of
his generation
when he was alive and and posthumously we
still recognize him as the mujaddid, the reviver
of his time. He had, ascended the heights
of intellectual
thought within Islam. He was
the chancellor or the head of the of
the the most prestigious university in the world
at a young age. He had authored dozens
and dozens of books. He had defeated many
academics in different thought and debate. He was
the master when he came to Shafi I
fiqh. He's still today the legend when he
comes to the Usul Afiqh.
And then all of a sudden,
before the age of 40,
he goes and he wants to teach,
and he stands before a classroom and he
can't talk.
He's struck down by some kind of illness.
What's wrong with him? The doctors and and
as we said, he's a celebrity. He's not
just any alim mushek. He's a celebrity. Kings
consult with him. He has fatawa with rulers.
And so the best physicians see to him,
and they all conclude, which he knows already,
it's not a mystery to him, that this
is a this is something in the heart.
Nothing wrong with his tongue. There's something with
the heart.
And
he asks he says to the Nizamiyah, he
says to the not and and he's not
asking the he's asking the Khalifa basically, I
want to leave Baghdad, I'm gonna go on
Hajj. Maybe if I go on Hajj, things
will be better, but his mind his intention
is not to go on Hajj. He sorts
out his affairs. He puts all his money
in a trust for his family. He says
that I I I mentioned to go on
Hajj, but in reality,
I went to Syria
to go fall off the grid, to just
disappear.
So the greatest al Haram in the world
just disappears,
resigns from his positions. No one knows where
he is besides his family,
and he is now in seclusion.
Now this is Imam Ghazali's crisis.
What was going on? Many speculations.
Remember the other the all these group, the
assassins, they had just killed the sultan. He,
Imam Ghazali, just wrote a book against the
Isma'ilis. So there's a thought perhaps he's fearful
for his life. But what he does is
and what perhaps makes Imam Ghazali so great
is that he always wrote and he wrote
this book, Al, Al Muntik,
The Deliverance from Era.
He's ex it's an autobiography
where he writes what he was going through
during this time. He explains why I left,
what was my,
preoccupation,
what caused me to go through all this,
and so he gives a detailed account and
his journey that he's going through now. So
I took slippage of this book. It's not
a very long book, but it's really a
a a detail a deep book in terms
of, someone pouring their soul out and telling
you how, you know, what and he's saying
this book's purpose is he's saying I was
off the path, and I had to rectify
myself,
and this is my reflection. So he says
from the period of when I was an
adolescent,
from basically from my twenties until now in
my fifties, I have ventured into this into
the vast ocean of knowledge. So he says
to to to the reader, I am someone
that immersed myself in learning and understanding,
and I fearlessly
went into the depths of different thoughts
and like a diver, I'm going deep and
penetrated the darkness
and, thereto, it's dangerous and it's abysses. All
the different philosophies and thoughts, whether it's the
Shias, whether it's the Ma'ilis, the philosophers, without
any care, I jumped into every thought, every
ideology, and I went deep in to understand
it. And I interrogated the beliefs of every
single sect and scrutinized the mysteries of each
doctrine in order to dis disentangle truth from
error and orthodoxy from heresy.
And I never met and, you know,
side note, if you look at his other,
books,
Imam Ghazal doesn't mind to be a little
vain, a little cocky. He doesn't mind to
say, I'm telling you this, and you're not
gonna get anyone better than me. So he
has this about himself. And so he says
here, I've never met anyone who claims to
know the hidden meanings of the Quran except
that I sort of interrogated his belief. And
there was no philosopher
whose system I have not been able to
comprehend. No one came to me with a
system which I couldn't master,
nor any theologian whose intricacies of doctrine I
have not been able to work out.
Examining and then he says, now after after
reflection, examining my actions.
Even the best deeds that I have done,
the most fair seeming, which was my lectures,
the best thing I could do was to
lecture my students and my professional occupation. I
found to my surprise that I was engrossed
in several studies that was of little value,
and it was profitless with regards to my
akhirah. It will no benefit to my akhirah.
I probed my motives for teaching and found
that instead of sincerely doing this for Allah,
it was only to actuate a vain desire
of honor and reputation.
I perceived that I was now on the
edge of an abyss and that without an
immediate,
conversion, I would surely be doomed to eternal
jahannam. In these reflections, I spent a lot
so he says I was going through this
for a long time. For for months
years, I felt this way. Before he actually
resigned, this was preoccupying him. But then he
says, anybody who goes through a midlife crisis,
a career crisis, you can almost
he he explains to you. It's not an
easy thing to do.
And what makes Ghazali great is, like, he's
very human. He says, I have all this
I have power, position, a family. I have
reputation. I can't just throw it all away,
and I'm conflicted.
And he says,
still a prey to I was a prey
to uncertainty.
One day, I decided I'm going to leave
Baghdad
and to give up everything, and the next
day, I gave up my resolution.
I advanced one step and then relaxed.
In the morning, I was sincerely resolved that,
the only to occupy myself with future thoughts,
and by the evening, carnal thoughts assailed me
and then my resolve disappeared.
On the one side, the world kept me
bound to my post in the chains of
covetousness
and on the other side, the voice of
religion cried out to me, up, up. You
only have a little time left. If you're
not gonna change now, when are you gonna
change? You know? And if thou does not
break the chains today, when will you break
them?
Then he said at some point, my resolve
was strengthened, and I wish to give up
everything and flee. But then the temptation
returned to my heart. Some voice told me,
you're just going through a momentary kind of
depression.
You're only going through something which is gonna
pass, man. Don't give it all away, for
it will soon pass. And if you give
in to this depression, you give up this
fine position. Your life's work, you're gonna give
up. This honorable
post
exempt from any trouble and rivalry, you are
the king. Why would you wanna give all
this up? The seat of authority is yours,
safe from any attack. You will regret it
later and without being, being able to recover
from it. So, he said,
I remained,
and I was torn. I was conflicted inside.
And I was to the and I was
this internal battle continued for 6 months. And
then I basically
said I gave up to Allah. I said,
oh, Allah, you decide what I must do.
And then he said, as a mercy, Allah
inflicted me with this inability to speak.
He said, Allah struck me down with this
illness where I was unable to teach, and
this is the thing that he loves the
most. Yes. He's writing and he's debating, but
the thing that I love the most was
to teach, and this was taken away from
me. I couldn't teach anymore. I couldn't speak.
And this put me further into a type
of depression. I couldn't eat. I couldn't drink.
And
I was really basically, I'm I I was
almost like dying.
The, my physical power was such that the
doctors despairing me of of saving me. The
doctors gave up that there's any cure for
me. They said the problem is in the
heart
and has communicated itself to the whole of
the body, and there is no hope unless
the cause of this sadness,
you know, gets cured.
And finally,
conscious of my weakness, Allah forced me into
a position where I couldn't turn away anymore
of my weakness and the prostration of my
soul. I took refuge in Allah as a
man at the end of himself without any
recourse. I had no other option. And then
he quotes the ayah. Allah says, and who
is the one who will assist the person
who is in desperation except Allah?
And so designed to hear me, Allah made
it easy for me to give up everything,
my honor, my wealth, even my family. I
gave out publicly. So he so he says,
I said to the world publicly, I'm just
going on Hajj, but secretly,
I resolved to go to Syria. I don't
know. Like, we'll speak why he's going to
Syria. Not wishing that the Khalifa or my
friends should know my intentions
of settling in that country. I made all
kinds of clever excuses for leaving Baghdad without
fixed intention of not without the intention. I
didn't tell anybody. I never returned. I never
intended to return.
So then, you know, he mentions what he
now this book was written, like,
years after he now left Baghdad. He said,
then I betook myself to Syria where I
remained for 2 years in Syria, and I
devoted myself to retirement, mediation, and seclusion.
Lived alone, basically, in a masjid. He's just
making dhikr. He's just
on the path of of spiritual,
healing.
The only thought of self improvement and discipline
and purification of the heart by salah and
going through the forms of devotion were the
Sufis,
which they had taught me. I used I
lived a very solitary life in the Masjid
of Damascus, and I was in the habit
of spending most of my time alone in
the Manarat, closing the door behind me. From
after 2 years there, I went to Jerusalem,
and I secluded myself in the Dome of
the Rock. After that, I felt a desire
to go for Hajj, and then I went
to Mecca and I visited Madinah. And then
I felt a a a yearning to see
my family again, but I'm scared, man. Once
I go back to the real world, I
might relapse
as never to never to go back to
to to my old life. At any rate,
I mean, if I did return to live
the I would still live a solitary life
and focus on mediation, meditation,
but events, family, and cares, life, troubled me
and and right. So you said I had
to go back. However,
the however irregular the intervals which I could
give,
devotional ecstasy so he says, I still maintain
my vicaras that gave me this feeling of
of of of happiness. My confidence in it
did not diminish. Even though I now was
able to go back to my family,
I I could now live in the normal
world, but still, it did not take me
away from the path of spirituality. And the
more I was diverted, the more the dunya
sort of, you know, occupied me, the more
steadfast I was to return to the path
of the spiritual.
And so he mentions now,
and he talks about
what gives him what his conclusion is. And
he basically says, I have spent my life
searching for truth, searching for happiness. He will
talk about being an alim, a sheikh, a
maulana, a jurist, and he said this did
not bring me closer to Allah. He then
said I spent time with the philosophers, debated
them, understood their reason, their logic, and this
did not bring me closer to Allah. And
he says the only thing that really brought
me closer to Allah was the path of
spirituality. And he says the path of spirituality
is not something you can study. He said
all these things I used to study theoretically,
but he said this this part, you
must experience it. He says, there's a big
difference between knowing what turning away from the
duniya is and really turning away from the
duniya. There's a big difference of living
a a a life without being attached to
the duniya and actually breaking away from the
duniya. I saw that one can only hope
for
renouncing the world and turning only in in
Ibaal to Allah.
And I saw that the only condition of
success was to sacrifice your honor, your riches,
your purpose only for the sake of Allah
and the attachment to this world. Okay? So
he he speaks about how this is the
the best the best path. And he says
that whether you're the philosophers and the thinkers,
I'm telling you, the
happiness that you will receive on the path
of dhikr
is the thing that,
is the only path for me. And he
mentions that, ultimately,
everyone is searching for truth.
There is a limit that your eyes can
see, and there's a limit then he says
your mind can go beyond your what your
faculty of seeing. Your mind also has a
limit, and that higher level of intuition and
knowledge only comes from Allah's divine opening, and
that only comes through dhikr and comes through
devotion and spirituality.
And so he also mentions, you can be
a
and you can master all the knowledge, but
you don't get closer to Allah. And so
this is a man saying that this is
the ultimate path.
In his book and now this many people
criticize that he's is is Ghazali now telling
you, look here, guys. I've ascended the levels
of academic rigor. All of you resign your
posts, give up your career, give up your
studies, and just go sit in the masjid
and making dhikr. He's not saying that. And
he says, this is what I needed for
me. This was my healing. I'm not saying
your path is the wrong path, but this
is what I I needed to heal myself.
He actually used the word healing. My objection
my object my object is to explain my
own mental attitude and not to dispute with
those who have found healing for themselves. Whether
you found whatever path is for you, but
this is the path I needed. And he
also in in this book, when he discredits
the philosophers and the thinkers, he doesn't also
wanna discredit
science.
So he says it's important to remember, it
is therefore a great injury to the to
to Islam to con to say that to
defend Islam, you must discredit discredit science. There's
no conflict between that. I'm not saying that
you must stop studying science. What I'm saying
is don't get attached to this. And don't
think that if you are a great scientist
or a great thinker that you are on
the right path when it comes to religion.
He's always trying to say that. So this
is a a great book about a person
that went through a crisis,
and and he's trying to reform himself, and
he almost concludes that this is the way,
the the path of of the spiritual way.
And his greatest work, he writes during sort
of his so while he's while he's sort
of in seclusion, he's still writing. And his
greatest book that everybody must have heard,
He writes it at this point point in
time. And so,
His books are very much polemic, meaning he's
attacking somebody. He's debating with someone. Now even
this book, it's like to revive Islamic sciences.
It's also attacking somebody,
and it's attacking actually the ulama class, his
own fraternity, his own colleagues. He's saying to
the ulama,
the threat to Islam
is not the Mu'tazila.
It is not the Isma'ilis. It's not the
Crusaders. The threat to Islam is the ummah
is sick, but the doctors you are the
doctors, but we are sick. We have spent
our time debating and arguing. We have spent
our time learning not for the sake of
Allah. I and he said I am a
product of that. I'm sort of the the
pinnacle of that. We need to revive Islamic
thinking again. We need to understand when we
teach Islam,
we it's if it's devoid of spirituality, if
it's devoid of
if it's devoid of getting close to Allah,
then what are we teaching? What are we
busy with? So, really, the,
many people read it and, you know, and
it but it's ideally meant for the ulama
class. You and we need to reform ourselves,
and that is why the reformation begins at
that class. Now as I said, you'll see
tomorrow, while he's in his travels, that's when
the crusaders attack Jerusalem and they massacre, commit
the genocide in Jerusalem. And he's basically saying
before we can fix that, we first need
to fix the root cause, which is the
ulama. This is what we need to we
need to fix, subhanAllah.
And so in his final days, eventually, after
about 10 years of living like a a
Sufi, basically, and and and it's important, though,
to to say he's not saying that dhikr
without sharia, that is not gonna work. You
must be confined to the rules of the
sharia. And so now he finally returns back
to where he started, his tiny village in
Nishapur with his family.
He is,
he goes back to teaching, but now on
his own private classes,
focusing on spirituality. He's still writing, and and
he he continues to write. The
Khalifa begged him to to teach again in
Nashapur. He said, okay. I'll try it for
a little bit. Went for a few months
and said, no. Thanks. I I can't go
back to government institutions and all these things.
You know, he's really made a break of
of from, we'd say the corporate career,
and he teaches very much privately focusing on
spirituality.
And he passes
away at the age of 53 in really
where he began. So remember, he comes from
a very poor background. There was this desire
to ascend to be the greatest, to be
the best, and he goes back being a
very
humble, very simple, outwardly man. And that's where,
he passes away and he leaves behind a
legacy of over 70 books.
70 books. One of his books, I think,
towards the end of his life, he wrote,
it's called the alchemy of happiness.
And so perhaps in the end of his
life, he found that happiness that he was
he was looking for. And, as we said,
why he's such a remarkable character is that
if you at any point of his life
where he wrote,
people have taken from it and resonated with
him. If you're going through a personal spiritual
crisis, career crisis, there's something of Azalea in
there. If you go working and building a
career, there's something of Ghazal you can take.
If you like philosophy, there's something here. If
you don't like philosophy, there's something that he
wrote on it. And so that's why he's
relevant to to to to, basically,
to all times and and why he's such
a great great scholar. And but, really, one
of his lasting legacies would be this ehalomodil
would really shock, the conscious of the ulama
class, and it would begin a type of
revival
where we'll see a new generation of people
like Salahuddin Alayubi, which we'll talk about in
the coming days.
May Allah grant mercy
for
Imam Ghazali and for all the. Right. So
we said, how old was Imam Ghazali when
he was appointed the lecturer at the prestigious
Nizamiyah
in Baghdad? He was only,
34.
Thoban Basir. Okay. Here we go.
And
Azra Basil Mayat.
Azra, she here? No?
Sumayya Asma.
Yes. Sumayya Ismael. It's Sumayya Asmael. It's Sumayya
Asmael. It's Sumayya Asmael. It's Sumayya Asmael. Sumayya
Asmael. Sumayya Asmael. Yes. Sumayya Ismael. It's Sumayya
Asmael. It's Sumayya Asmael.
I mean, tonight's question,
what was the date when Luci Barghazali passed
away at the age of 53?
I didn't I don't think I mentioned that,
but Yes, you did. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's
a easy date. Yeah. It's a easy date.
It's a double Nelson.
Nelson plus 1. Right?
Okay. And then,
just tomorrow,
announcement that we will be doing, Ishay is
5 past 8. Ishay starts 5 past 8
So much.
So much.