Nadim Bashir – Key Gems To Learn From Shaqiq Al-Balkhi
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Today, Inshallah, I want to share with you
something that I found very beautiful from one
of the stories of the people of the
past.
And this is a story about a scholar,
his name was Shaqiq al-Balkhi.
He was a great scholar of the past
regarding tazkiyat al-nafs.
And he was in the Khorasan area, the
current day, I would say, Iran area.
A great scholar, a great abid, you know,
a great muttaqi.
And people would come to him and learn
from him.
So there was a person by the name
of Hatim al-Assam.
He came and he studied with him and
he stayed in his company for 30 years.
Now, I want you to think about this
when I say 30 years.
This is something that was very common at
that time.
People would go and stay under the supervision
of a sheikh, of a scholar.
And they would learn from them for so
many years.
They would not bounce around.
Today, Subhanallah, you find so many people who
are trying to look for tazkiyat al-nafs.
And they are bouncing around from place to
place, trying to find something that's going to
appeal to their heart.
That's not how people were in the past.
They would go and sit with one sheikh,
and they would learn from him for a
great amount of time.
So 30 years in the supervision of one
sheikh.
So at the end of 30 years, the
sheikh, Sheikh Shaqeek al-Balkhi, he asked Hatim
al-Assam, that, Hatim, you stayed with me
for 30 years.
What have you learned from me in 30
years?
And he says that, in all these 30
years, I've learned 8 things.
I've learned 8 things from you, my teacher.
And he says, what are those 8 things?
And he began to go into details.
The very first one, Inshallah, we're going to
go through just some of them today, and
some of them, Inshallah, next time.
He said, the very first one I learned
is, that in this dunya, everyone loves something.
And there is people or things that love
them.
So for example, we love our families, our
families love us.
But he says that I realized one thing,
and that is that no matter how much
you love anything in this dunya, eventually, inevitably,
you're going to be divided and separated from
them.
There is no question about that.
He says, when I looked at the family,
people are going to get separated from their
family.
And no matter how much that family loves
this person, eventually they are the ones who
will go to the graveyard, they will bury
him, and they will leave him.
No matter how much they love him, and
how much he loves this dunya, it does
not matter, he's going to be separated.
As we know from the hadith of the
Prophet ﷺ, that three things accompany a person
to the graveyard.
And even, no matter how much is coming,
even the car that he paid for, no
matter how much of an expensive car it
is, that car will come, will accompany him,
and that car will go back home.
And he's going to be left all alone
at the graveyard.
So he says, I realize that why not
focus on that one thing, and why not
love that one thing that will never, ever
be separated from a person.
Rather, we should focus on that.
And he says, I realize that the only
thing that will never, ever be separated from
a person, who will accompany a person in
this dunya, will accompany a person in the
grave, and will accompany a person in the
akhirah, is their good deeds.
Hence, I realize that good deeds should be
my best friend.
And that should be the thing I should
love the most in this dunya.
And hence, I should give that much amount
of time to my good deeds.
Because at the end of the day, that
is the only thing that will accompany me,
and will be in my grave.
And hence, that is the thing that loves
me the most.
So he says, I realize this is why
I need to focus on going forward in
my life.
The second thing he says was, that I
realize that in this dunya, there are so
many people who follow their pleasures.
And they follow their pleasures, first of all,
for two reasons.
Either number one is, because they have a
lack of iman.
Or number two is, that they have a
lot of ego.
For example, even if you look at shaitan.
What led shaitan to committing the sin that
he did?
He was arrogant to Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
He did not obey Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
But you see in his justification, there was
a lot of ego involved.
So a lot of times, people they do
commit sins.
Not because they actually like to commit sins,
but they use ego as a step stool,
or as a platform to fulfill their desires.
So he says that, when I reflected on
the entire world, I realized that everyone is
following their passion, their desires, their egos.
And he says that, at that time I
reflected on the verse of the Qur'an.
Which verse of the Qur'an is this?
He says, وَأَمَّا مَنْ خَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ وَنَهَى
النَّفْسَ عَنِ الْهَوَىۥ Those who fear the standing
position of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
What does that mean?
مَخَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ Some of the ulema they
say that this is in reference to the
akhira.
When you and I, when we will have
to stand before Allah on the day of
judgment.
And we have to understand that I will
stand before Allah.
There is no one who's gonna support me.
Every person is gonna be by themselves, no
allies.
And this is why subhanAllah, when you read
the Qur'an, and you try to understand
the Qur'an, and you look at what's
happening today.
You see what's happening today with our brothers
and sisters in Gaza.
And yet today you find that no matter
what the government wants to do, you find
people today who will stand by their side.
Who will support them.
Who will support the genocide that is taking
place.
And not only non-Muslims, but you will
find Muslims also standing by their side.
So that means that whenever they want to
do something, they know they have allies.
You know what the Qur'an says very
beautifully?
مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ
You know what that means?
That on the day of judgment, when they
stand before Allah, and Allah is gonna question
them.
Just like today you will find a world
court.
You will find a world court standing and
saying that if this person were to come
into our country, he should be arrested for
war crimes.
Yet there are people in the world who
will stand by their side.
Why?
Because today this is there.
These people who are supporting on the back
end, this is their wali and their naseer.
On the day of judgment Allah says, مَا
لَكَ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ When
this person stands in the court of Allah
SWT, there is no one, there is no
power, no superpower, no government that can step
in and say that I support this person.
Why?
Because لَا يَتَكَلَّمُونَ إِلَّا مَنْ أَذِنَ لَهُ الرَّحْمَٰنِ
وَقَالَ الصَّوَابَ No person can talk and utter
a word without the permission of Allah SWT.
And you know subhanAllah, even today when people
say, how can people commit sins?
Even Muslims or just in general, how can
people commit sins?
You know subhanAllah, there is once again, you
always go back to the Qur'an.
There is a very beautiful verse of the
Qur'an.
It's not an entire verse, it's just the
last part of a verse in surah Saad.
Allah SWT says, لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ بِمَا نَسُوا
يَوْمَ الْحِسَابِ People, Allah says, they will receive
a very painful punishment as a result of
what?
Because of the fact that they forgot.
They forgot about the Day of Judgment.
You know when a person commits a sin,
when a person commits a crime, what they're
doing is, they have forgotten about the fact
that we all have to stand before Allah
SWT.
بِمَا نَسُوا يَوْمَ الْحِسَابِ They have completely forgotten
about the fact that they will have to
question.
So Allah SWT, so this again, the Shaykh
says, when I reflected on the world and
how people are running after their passions, their
desires, their egos, and I'm talking about haram
desires, not halal desires, but haram desires and
so forth, then I reflected on the Quran
and I realized that if there's anything that's
going to benefit us in this dunya, it
is to be cautious of Allah SWT, is
to have the fear of Allah SWT and
to make sure that we don't fall into
following our desires.
We do not become enslaved to our desires.
The desire will say, you slept so late,
خلاص, let Fajr go, let Fajr slip by
and so forth.
No, when we live in this dunya, and
either the desires are going to become enslaved
to us, or we become enslaved to our
desires.
Meaning that if my iman is higher than
my desires, then my iman will always dictate
and tell my desires, this is how you
need to follow the right path.
But if we, if the iman is lower,
and we become enslaved to our desires, then
subhanAllah as we have seen, from all the
shuyukh and all the ulema of taskiratul nafs,
when you become enslaved to your desires, then
there's no end where the desires can take
you.
Because today you want this, tomorrow you want
that.
So whatever the desire says, we will say,
آمَنَّا وَصَدَّقَنَا No, the desire needs to say,
آمَنَّا وَصَدَّقَنَا to us.
We need to be more in control of
our desires, than the desires need to be
in control of us.
So these are two things today inshaAllah, we'll
leave at this right now inshaAllah.
But once again, eight things that he says
that I have learned from my shaykh, living
with him for eight years.
Once again, the first one was what?
Best friends, your best friend, your best companion
should be what?
Good deeds.
Because they would never ever let go of
you.
And number two is, that we live in
a world of passion and desires and so
forth.
Hence, in the world that we live in,
we need to hold on to taqwa, and
make sure that we do not become enslaved
to our evil desires.
I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that
He grants all of us the tawfiq to
apply these two things, and the upcoming things
inshaAllah in the upcoming weeks.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant all
of us tawfiq.