Nadim Bashir – Top 4 Advices Of Imam Al Ghazali

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.