Nadim Bashir – Top 4 Advices Of Imam Al Ghazali
AI: Summary ©
The importance of finding simple advice for travelers is emphasized, along with the need to correct one's perception of Allah and Subhanallah during the route to Chicago. The importance of shaping one's perception of Islam and their belief in spiritual reality is also emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the importance of fulfilling rights and achieving knowledge to avoid future mistakes, as it is crucial for achieving Islam. Acquiring knowledge and growing it in order to become a successful business owner is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
SubhanAllah. When you study the lives of our predecessors, our
pious predecessors, our ulama and so forth, there's one thing that
we learn about them, and that is that they would receive a lot of
letters from their students and from dua during their time, and
they would always be seeking advices today is easy. You just
pick up the phone. Sheik give me advice. It's simple, but long time
ago, they would have to write letters, and they would send it
and wait for their answers for a long time. One thing we learned is
that Imam Raza y alay was no different. He would always receive
letters, and if you don't know about Imam Raza yuham, one thing
we learned from his life is that whenever he would go and give a
lecture, the whole place would get packed by the shiuk and the
scholars and the Imams, that those who are considered as non Shyu or
non Imams and non ulama, they didn't even have space To sit in
his lectures, because it was taken over by those who were the the the
learned ones. That's how much learned he was. Subhanallah, one
time, he received a letter from one of his students and basically
asking him that, can you please give us some simple advices?
You've given many advices, and you've written many books, books
that are very general for people to read. And there are, there were
books written by Imam ghazalam Tala Ali, which were very
difficult to read and understand. So one time, he received a letter
that, can you please just give some just very simple advices that
a layman can follow them and abide by them. So Imam hosai, he
responded by saying that there are four things that I can share with
you right now that every person should abide by and Inshallah, if
they abide by these four things, Inshallah, the hope is they will
reach their ultimate destination. And so he begins the advice by
saying that a traveler must always remain on the path to do four
things. This is how he began the advice. Now it's interesting to
note that he said a traveler, why would he write this advice to
someone that, as a traveler, you must abide by these kind of
things. He could have said, as an individual, as a human being, but
traveler? Why? Because each one of us here, we believe, according to
the other Hadith of the Prophet sallam, we are all travelers, and
we are in this dunya for a very brief moment when you are a
traveler. Imagine if I'm going from here to Umrah Inshallah, and
the stop is, let's say in Turkey, or let's just say the stop is in
Dubai, or anywhere else we are going there for a very brief
moment as a traveler. That is a brief stop, but the altar in
destination is either Makkah or Medina inshaAllah. Likewise, a
Muslim, we have come into this dunya, the akhira, is our ultimate
destination. This dunya is a very brief stop. So he begins the
advice by referring to the person as the traveler. Additionally, if
you think about it, each one of us, when we recite in sutal,
Fatiha, ihdna, ASR al mustaqim, this path, this path is supposed
to lead us inshallah to Jannah. And anyone who stays on this path.
Now, who you? Who is the one who is often on this long path? It is
a traveler. When you think about traveling by road, going from one
major city to the next major city. Imagine a person driving from here
all the way to Chicago, for example, these are long roads, and
you have to remain on this long road. Likewise, our deen is such
and our life is such. We are on this path. It's a long path, but
Inshallah, as long as we remain as a traveler, we have that traveler
mentality that we are here in this dunya, very briefly, very
temporarily, and then we're trying to get to our ultimate
destination. As long as we have that mindset Inshallah, we'll be
able to focus on what is important. So then the four things
he said was, number one, a person must always correct their aqidah.
A person must always correct their aqidah when a person is coming
close to Allah, subhana wa taala, often they had flawed ideas. They
may had flawed, you know, opinions in their in their mind, they may
have been misinformed as they were growing up so Imam Al Ghazali is
saying that the very first step in order to come close to Allah
subhana wa Taala is that we must correct our aqidah, and not just
correcting aqidah, but making sure that there is nothing in our life
or within our lifestyle that can be regarded as.
A bid, because often Subhanallah, all of us, we have our journey to
Islam. Though we were Muslims, many of us, majority of us, were
born Muslims. But if you think about where we came from, or you
know, people who were born and raised here, like myself, but our
parents and so forth, where they were before they came into deen
and so forth, they were far from Deen. Think about, I mean,
majority of us here, we may have come from a background where they
did not practice Deen, where there was a lot of bidahat in their life
and so forth, whether it may have come from overseas and so forth.
But the point is, there were a lot of bidahat, if you observe the
world that we live in today from Islamic perspective, there's been
an islamic awakening that started in the in the, I would say, mid
1980s in America, and has continued on. Alhamdulillah, if
you go back in the 1980s there was nothing you understand. There was
absolutely there were hardly any massages. There was nothing going
on from the 1985 mid 1980s you see a growth taking place within the
Muslim community, meaning, from a religious perspective, a spiritual
awakening. And not only in America, but all over the world,
you see this spiritual awakening happening. But before this, there
was like this. There was a certain level of darkness, a certain level
of jahiliyyah that were taking place, and this affected and
penetrated many different families. So Imam Ghazali is
saying the very first thing in order for us to come close to
Allah is we have to correct our aqidah, our perception, our
understanding of who Allah, subhana wa Taala is, along with
the fact that if there's any badayat in our families that is
going on or within my personal life, they need to be removed. The
second thing that is extremely important when it comes to Allah
subhana wa taala, after correcting our aqidah, is to ensure that we
are making tawbah and sincere and repentance to Allah subhana wa
taala, very, very often, because a person, as every every one of us,
no matter how much we are, how high we are, in our religiosity,
in our spirituality, there's always going to be a relapse.
There's always going to be a time where we may commit a sin, and so
forth. We are, as a prophet saw Allahu, Ali wasla, he says in a
hadith, kullubani, adabahon, we all are going to commit sins. We
all are going to forget our purpose time to time. Yes, we
might violate someone else's rights here. We might miss the
Salat over here. We might violate the Quran here. We might do
something that is absolutely wrong. We might see something that
is wrong. We might hear something that is wrong. We may engage in
saying something that is completely wrong, and so forth. So
if that is a situation, no problem, as long as we make tawba
to Allah, subhana wa taala, even rasulallah wa alaihi wa sallam,
when he was, you know, let when he was on the on the outskirts of the
city, muad Radi Allahu Ayan. He's about to leave. Muad Radi Allahu
an he's about to go to Yemen. He gave him three advices. One advice
was, be conscious of Allah, have Taqwa wherever you go. But the
second advice that is relevant to our discussion here, he says what
we are is say yet. Al hasanata, tamho Ha, whenever you do anything
wrong, no problem. Back it up with something that is good, because
when you do something that is good, Tamu Ha, it will wipe out
the wrong that you have done. So. And not only that, but if a person
commits a wrong, but then they commit something, they do
something that is good, because ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala has
promised that every good that we do, ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala will
increase it and multiply it. That is why it's always you do. We do
something that is wrong. Hey, we make Toba, we make istifa. We try
to make a strong result that we won't do it again. And we back it
up with something that is good. A person commits a sin after that,
try to do something that is hay. Do give us Sadaqah. Read some
verse of the Quran, do some dhikr and so forth. Help someone else
out our deen is very simple in that, in that perspective. The
third thing he said was that we must do is making sure that we
fulfill everyone's rights around us. That means that if we owe
anyone anything, then that is still not pending. My I have to
make sure that my account with everyone is very clear. Why?
Because in the
if there's anyone that we have whose rights we have violated,
that they will come after us, and Allah will allow them to come
after us. And Wallahi the worst situation that anyone could be in,
and may Allah protect us from being in that position, is what
rasulallahu alay wasallam referred to in the Hadith as the mufnis,
the bankrupt person, thinking that we've done so much, I've done
this, I've done that, but I violated people's rights. They
will come on the day of judgment and take everything from me. That
is why, brothers and sisters, it's very, very important spirituality.
Our Ibadah Quran.
Salat and everything else, Ramadan and Umrah and Hajj, everything
else one side. But if I'm violating people's rights, there
is a clear threat that all this, Hey, that I'm doing can be taken
from me on the day of judgment. So that is why we have to make sure
that we ensure everyone else's rights. And the fourth thing,
which is extremely important is, as we progress, and we go through
this dunya and we are trying to come close to Allah subhana wa
Taala is to acquire knowledge. This is Imam Ghazali. He's saying
acquire knowledge. Now, Imam Ghazali also explains, how much
knowledge do you need to acquire? Acquire that much knowledge that
is relevant to you? See, there are things that are relevant to all of
us, how to eat, how to sleep, how to go to the restroom. These are
things that we all should know. But at the same time, there are
things that, for example, in my if I'm a businessman and I'm working
in a certain area of business, I need to know the fifth of that
business. If I'm if there's something related to my family
that may not be related, related to other families, but there's a
filthy aspect regarding that. Then I need to know that. This is why,
whenever he would go out during his khilafa into the markets of
Medina and so forth, he will not allow anyone to do business until
they knew the fifth of that business. Why? Because if I'm
doing something, I'm not doing it correctly, then I could be
incurring the wrath of Allah subhanahu wa upon myself. So
whatever we are engaged in, you, we have to sit down understand and
think about what am I engaged in? And I need to know the ILM
regarding that particular matter. I'm not now, there are some who
say I want to go and study. No, I want to study, acquire your ILM
and grow my ILM and become a sheik and so forth. That's a different
case altogether. But generally speaking, we need to know the
fifth that is relevant to our personal lives. So the four things
once again, correcting our aqidah and removing anything that is
considered as a bid I in our life, number two was what
Toba. Second one was Toba. Third one is
rights of other people,
the Haqq of others, Haqq, ibad, and the fourth one is
acquired knowledge. So these are four things, Inshallah, as Imam
Ghazali, he gives, once again, there's a lot of other advice that
Imam as Ali has given but Ali, one time rotate student that try to do
these kind of things as a traveler, if we can do those kind
of things, Inshallah, you reach your destination. I ask Allah
subhana wa Taala to grant all of us to fit to do these things and
do much more that we are required to do. I mean, alamin with Zach
Mullah khair as salaam, warahmatullahi Barakatuh,
muslimina, al muslimathi, al mukminina, al mukminatin, al qawni
Tina, Al Sadi na o Swan di wa saabiri Na WA
di Walu na AAT
walnut
walnut enough.