How To Destroy Your Ego & Leave Shameful Sins
Omar Suleiman – Story Of Abu Mahjan
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
A great article that was written in the Huffington Post, maybe a few weeks ago, by by a rabbi by the name of Alan Lurie, if I'm not mistaken, and he wrote an article called the law of spiritual narcissism. It was an incredible article. And somehow it really blew my mind because it made me think of the prophets I send them as I was reading that article, I was thinking of the prophets lies in them how the prophets I send them warned us against everything that he was mentioning. And you know what he said? He said spiritual narcissism is that the end goal of your spirituality is self love and feeling amazing. The only thing you want out of your spirituality is to feel great. So it's
like buying a new car or buying a new house or acquiring something else with this dunya. It's a self help methods just to make you feel good. And it's not supposed to be the goal of our Deen that we're just supposed to make ourselves happy that we're just supposed to make ourselves feel good. Isn't that the exact opposite of what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam embodied? We find that a certain loss I'll allow it was solemn. I guarantee you dear brothers and sisters, the way the prophets I saw them enjoyed his 200 his pmln is a way that none of us would be able to enjoy our prayer, the way the prophets I some love to interact with Allah subhanho wa Taala the way he loves
to stand at night, even with his feet, swelling, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I guarantee you if it was up to the Prophet Sall alone, it would sell him if Rasulullah Islam could put himself in a room and just pray all day long, he would do it because he loved the love that much. But that wasn't him all along. It was something that wasn't what he was about. It is philanthropists to them. But you know what the crisis is sometimes, obviously living the privileged lives that we do. Where it's all about me, me, me, me, me. What can I do for myself? Now I've seen FC FC. I'm not happy today because this is happening. Why is it so law making me happy? Why isn't this convention? Why isn't this
halaqa getting to me? Me, me, me, me, me.
There's something else about that. That you know, sometimes, the way to rid yourself of its ego and of its empty desires, its petty desires is to attach it to a cause that is greater than its and when you attach it to a cause that is greater than its then you find yourself too busy thinking about greater things and in touch with greater things and in touch with serving the people to sit there and live out your animalistic desires all the time. It leads you to something else. It softens your heart. You know, there's a story that we find from time aside to know it will cost you a long time I knew about a man by the name of mobile managing a Sufi Rahim Allah tala, Abu Mahajan was a young man
who used to always drink alcohol inside them, constantly alone, I don't have to constantly punish him and eventually won the battle of fathers here came the time of the Battle of fathers he came side that said, You know what, I'm gonna tie you up. I'm just gonna hold you. I'm just gonna hold you here. And I'll deal with you later. And Subhanallah he leaves that that man, a woman and he goes out to the battlefield. And his wife was watching the prisoner.
And while the prisoner is there, a woman is there and starts to cry. And he tells the wife of Sarah. I can't believe that when this is going on. When these people are struggling, that I'm sitting here tied up because I can't stop drinking alcohol. He said please just let me go and join my brothers just for a date. I'll come back. I won't tell anyone that you let me go. I can't handle being here because I couldn't control my alcohol habit. I can't handle just sitting here while my brothers are out there struggling.
And you know what she listened. She saw the sincerity in that man. She let him go. I will imagine wrapped his face when to the Battle of father co fought so bravely that after the battle side little the Allahu anhu started to ask who was the person that was veiled that was fighting that way.
But while he was asking that double mountain was already on his way back to the wife of sad to be tied up and act like nothing happens. So sorry, though the law and who comes home and he tells his wife. You know, when we come home, we talked about how the day went right. You know, I was at work and this happened today. Guess what happened at work today? Sorry, I was coming home and saying I was at the Battle of God to see and let me tell you what happened.
And some hon Allah He says that this man came that fought so bravely and we don't even know who he was. She said Do you know who that was? That was your prisoner. Imagine? He cried because he wanted to be with you and I let him go. And he came back and look at him. He went and he tied himself back up
sagittal the Alo unwinnable imagine and he released him
and he told double margin will lie even if you drink again. I'm
Never gonna punish you again.
And I will manage and respond to two sides and this is what I'm getting at. I Bouman responded to silence and will lie, I am never going to drink again. What happened there a shift in priorities. It was no longer just about him it was about something greater than him. He realized that there was a cause that was greater than him that was out there that he needed to be a part of. And that kept him away from living out those animalistic desires that removed his self from himself. And that's something that also last I'm told this would even happen with a man that would establish justice on this earth after it is filled with injustice, the MADI himself, and also los wasalam said, use the
whole lo fi Laila, Allah will correct him and one night, Allah subhanaw taala will reform him in one night, sometimes by attaching yourself to those causes, sometimes by going out there and by caring for other people and serving other people. As Gandhi once said, something very beautifully said find yourself by losing yourself in the service of people by going out there and attaching yourself to those those causes of justice and social justice. Allah subhanho wa Taala allows you to remove your ego and remove your lowly knifes from yourself. And that's why who the allow and who says, A man came to the prophets lie Selim. And he complained that his heart was hard. It was so lost I said,
I'm told him you should accompany an orphan osafo and Yamaha Cydia team, you should accompany an orphan. You should care for him, show him mercy and feed him from what you feed yourself. Because then you'll understand something about him, then you'll understand life again, then your priorities will shift because you would have attached yourself to a cause greater than yourself. Your heart now surely softens with that stuff. And so we can fall into that false notion of spirituality, where it's all about me. And I just need to feel happy. And as long as I'm happy. It doesn't matter if everyone else in the world is miserable. When I see something going on in the world, when I see
Syria or Egypt or Libya or what was being talked about today, or Burma or Somalia or any type of conflict that's going on in the world, wherever it may be. When I see any of that I'm not going to change the channel because I don't want to depress myself, I need to engage those I need to engage those causes and engage those local causes. When I see a homeless person on the side of the street, I need to engage that cause when I see that someone is being oppressed in the community, I need to engage that cause that's part of your spirituality. That's part of your Iman. That's part of removing your knifes from yourself. Otherwise it's enough c form of spirituality which is completely
contrary to Islam.