04 Garden of the Aware Course
Date:
Channel: Omer El-Hamdoon
Series: Omer El-Hamdoon - Garden of the Aware Course
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Man Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah. While early he was a woman, Elijah, I hope you're all well and in good health, ask Allah subhanaw taala to to bless you and give you
good health and
to give you the strength to carry on the learning and coming closer to him subhanho wa Taala and welcome back, I apologize that I had to reschedule the last meeting, but inshallah we should come back on track by having another meeting in another lesson in two weeks time. So today, we're going to continue Inshallah, as we had done before, and I did
ask, that you try to just prepare as well by reading the story, because we have a long story as well today which inshallah we will, we will go over. So, just quickly from the previous lesson, we had spoken about the importance of recalling the intention to our up to now, really, there has been so much mention of the intention, and we said that that is very key to the whole concept of knowing a loss pantalla coming closer to him Subhanahu wa Taala knowing that having the having an intention, near recalling and being sincere, in that intention, also, we spoke about the importance of being truthful in having our intention and what it means to be truthful, we spoke a little bit about
aspects of knowledge are how knowledge should be ensured understood. And we also spoke about how part of a good concept of a person who is actually loving for others, that good because that is almost like the, the display the reality of an Islamic, if you like, character is that you want for others to good. So in your nature, your very nature is about goodness, and that is because Allah subhanho wa Taala wants the good for humanity, Allah wants for people to be to practice good, Allah wants for them to be guided, Allah doesn't want anybody to be punished. And so a person who knows Allah subhana, Allah is going to also behave in that same quality that Allah subhanaw taala
treats the humans with.
And lastly, we spoke about clearing one's heart and breast from any enmity. And we said that that is the way for peace that a person can attain. Now we're gonna start off in sha Allah by looking at the
the next saying, and this is related to someone called aboubaker adopte. Abu Bakr DOCA, he was from the senior, Sophie's the senior people who, and we'll talk about a little bit to solve today and socialism. So it was once the senior ones he was someone who Allah subhanaw taala had gifted with honorable gifts. And he summarized the affair of ours meaning that fair of how we deal with matters how we establish matters, he said, basically, we can summarize it into four things of how we behave, how our attitude is. And remember, this is about the path of knowing Allah is it from the garden of being aware. First of all, we do not eat except from need. And that's something that we already
mentioned before we spoke about those who do not eat except we talked about madmen elsewhere then is eating the bread. So the reality of it is that these people, they do not eat except from need, meaning that food has a purpose.
Some people
as they said in, in
contrasting are two types of people, some people eat, to live
and others live to eat.
You know, some people their life is, you know, their life is about you know, their life. Their experience in life is about how they eat the food, how they enjoy the food, whereas others just eat because they need to live. And so here the need of food food is a no doubt has a purpose. The purpose of food is to give you the energy into the sustenance to give you the necessary nutrition that you're going to need for maintaining your life in the best way. So yes, it does have purpose and indeed a food does come in different tastes for
We're all different palettes, and even Allah subhanho images and so on before the robot Abraha Allah bobbin awkward and we give virtue for some of it, meaning some of the plantation and vegetation, we give virtue for some of it over others. So no doubt some food tastes better than others some
food is his more tender, more delicious, more succulent than others. So that is a reality and one is not ignoring this because this all from the Naumova Launchpad is from the blessing. However, the concept of food has to be in our mind, we're going back to the whole concept of intention is that even when you're eating, these were Abubakar Dr. himolla, saying that eating is from a need is not to eat, as we will come to realize the saying of
later on Alicia is that they did and he was talking about, again, the pupil of righteous they didn't use to eat out of luxury, food wasn't a luxury, but it wasn't just about, you know, attaining the best type of food and obviously, you know, for us average layman, as they say, Yeah, we're going to be, you know, choosing different types of foods and spending time or sometimes having three core sometimes five course meals, and if you're really on a different level seven course meals and preparing the meals and you know, having your appetizers and your starters and your salads, and, and then the soup and all that. But see that that's you know, that's maybe a way that some people are
conditioned. But the reality of the matter is that when you are really
focused on the the purpose of food, you're not going to do that, but rather, you're going to see food as really just, you know, just a means to getting the energy to getting the most nourishment so that you can carry on your life.
And did you read something about your mom in Norway in his biography, which also is to the same effect. Secondly, we do not sleep except from being overcome. Meaning that these were people who, again, they, they looked at the value of time, the importance of time, and because they understood the value and importance of time, they didn't have time to just, you know, just sleep, you know, sleep again, was for a purpose for a need, what was the purpose is that when we are overcome with tiredness, we can no longer carry on our day to day activity, you know, we feel really tired, that's when we're going to sleep, we're not just going to sleep for the sake of sleeping, we're not going
to just go and sleep just so that you know I have to fulfill a certain you know time sleeping but rather tired, go to sleep, not tired carry on but even when they're not tired, they're not sleeping, they're not playing games or watching television or Netflix or or chatting or or whatever they are engaged in a bad day in a purpose. Reading as we will see in shallow as in the later chapter of people who used to, you know, they used to spend their their every precious moment that they had they used to spend it in the best way either by worshipping Allah pantalla. By writing by compiling by learning by studying by doing good. So the lack of sleep or the No sleeping was for serving a
purpose. Thirdly, we are not silent except from fear. Now here that would understanding of such a term might somebody might say, Well, what does that mean? It means that they are scared that they're cowards. Is that what he's saying? That they only when they're afraid they do not talk. But rather, there is another concept here, which is important. First of all, there's two aspects generally, I'm sure first of all, it's fear. When we are looking at the person in front of us, we are not silent, we're not gonna we're gonna restrained from saying things when we have fear that the person in front of us is gonna be affected by what we say in a very negative way. Meaning that they are
they are going to be you know, it's going to cause them some for fitting out. So suppose themselves what problem might even push them away from the Dean, you know, there are times you have to choose the times when you are when you give an OC hat when you give advice. When you talk to people you know, there are there's important to choose those times and you can't just you know don't just
think that you know as some people very naively think that you know, heart I've got something to say it's a good thing. I will just say it I don't care. You know, people don't misunderstand not No, no, that is wrong. And that's why we read in
And
in the in the Zaharias narrated by
in accordance to
to Alibaba titles. He said to people learn to have differnece be my lemmya Alamo don't narrate to people don't speak to people about things that they might not understand. They will not comprehend because a to headworn and you can serve Allah Hora soon do you want that they will renounce or reject what Allah says aunty is what his messenger said, because what happens you come to somebody and they use you they've not understood or maybe they haven't heard the Hadith, or they haven't heard the saying, and you say to him, this is what Allah says, This is what the Prophet and the Hill says, no, no, no, the Prophet didn't say that. Allah didn't say that. And they will reject it, not
because our of you know that they have any information, but rather because they are lacking comprehension. So they refute it and that can be a danger. So if we're afraid that the person in front is not going to react favorably, we have to also be careful of what we say.
And offer a level as well. You know, I remember
once we were in the masjid,
and, I mean, I was praying, I came to the masjid, I was praying my son there
waiting for Salah to Asia, there was other another guy came here and he was also trying to pray. And when he was praying
his phone went off. Okay.
And this I you know, part of the realities of, of this life today is that people have mobiles. Many of many often people will switch those mobiles off upon sizing but there are other occasions where if you forget, or maybe not too bothered about it, and so he left his phone his phone started ringing and then you could hear this big sort of announced from the from somewhere at the back I was stopped federal law stuff for a law and you know, this
was
public in trying to rebuke this guy when in his telephone. And the guy obviously he finished this I read this and then they prayed.
They prayed
they should and when I when this guy said the stuff for a loss of somebody else also joined in LA how La Quwata illa Allah so I heard this guy somehow is being attacked from all corners. Now he might have just made a genuine mistake and he forgot to switch which happens. It happens. You know, it happens to many of us, you know, maybe a distracted as you're coming in whatever, you're not you you're thrown off course. Imagine an AI and power off the salon, somebody the Imam invited me to say a few words, sometimes the Imam there, he says compensate us. So I said, I said this is a great opportunity to mention something here.
So I gave that example, I said to the boat, you know, I said look, you know, whoever left his mobile on any is a mistake, it would happen. But that shouldn't be a reason for us to speak such way and this guy. May I actually say You know, I'm not coming to the masjid again. You know, if this is how people in the masjid treat me, then you know, I'm not coming to the rescue again.
This you know, I'm I was just pray at home, you know, I've been shamed up in front of everybody. And that can happen somehow a lot. So, that is the kind of fear that a robot could hear as mentioned, sometimes you are afraid that the words that you will speak,
how you direct your advice will be taken in a bad way or may not be understood, then be silent, because you want to win that person rather than cause him to be.
The other aspect of fear here could be fear about ourselves. Why? Because there are people who when they go around advising others, giving us the higher giving talks, they might feel there that there is something happening inside them that I'm such a great manual, look at my
advice I can I could speak nicely. People are congratulating such a great hope by such a great speech. So there is a fear here now that this speaking that I'm going to speak
is actually not going to cause me problems. So the default position is that no, we're gonna say what's right, we're going to enjoy and good we're going to forbid evil, except when we fear that that might affect us. And that might therefore not have the intended purpose, then we're going to be silent.
Okay, and this matches very nicely with the fourth perspective, which is we do not speak except for purpose. So even when we are going to speak there has to be a purpose for our speech. You're not just gonna be talking and gossiping and chatting and things the power law, one of the big
problems as we know from the Hadith of the Prophet SAW Allah so them and indeed you might have seen that in one of the Hadith that was mentioned by Imam knowing that hadith that the core of Islam or the sphere of Islam rotates around, is that the advice or the process and and to my eyes when he took hold of his tongue and he said, Hold back this
though the command of all affairs is to hold back your tongue, because when you allow your tongue to be loose, even in things which are not directly haram, obviously to do things which haram lying backbiting, swearing, slamming all this is haram. But even when you are speaking things which are not haram, so you're just going to be gossiping, chatting things, you are going to end up more than likely to fall
into saying things which are not of purpose that are going to be helpful, and you might lead you down a purpose or path of doing things which are wrong. So again, when you're eating, make sure that you're eating for need have the intention, you're sleeping, you're sleeping because you're tired and you have again, recall the intention, you are silent. You're going to speak out for a purpose. And the only time you're not going to speak out is your when you're when you're afraid that your what you say is going to have a negative impact on others.
The next quotation that Imam unknowingly gives us is one related to Imam Shafi. Rahim Allah, in which he
he said
to Jonas,
been Abdullah it's there's a narration as soon as another narration is Ebro, Abu Abu an isla. And he said to that he said to him, all father have more sounds like Kenya as a way of like speaking to people before, if you struggled your automobile, if you did your best, in order to please all people, then there is no way to achieving this. So if this is the case, then make your intention for action, intention sincere for what
the reality of matter is, you will never be able to please everyone, all the time.
Some people try to be a little bit eloquent in this and they say you might be able to speak, please all the people some of the time, or some of the people all the time, but you're not never going to be able to please all the people all the time. And therefore, you know, it's just difficult. It's just hard. If you think about Allah Subhana Allah, the Almighty, people are not pleased with him. If you think about the process on the lower set of people who are not pleased or rejected him, so why would you think that you, as an individual you're going to be people are going to be pleased with you. So don't try to win P don't make your mission to win people over. But rather than make your
actions and attention sincere for Allah, and Allah subhanaw taala xojo is the one who will make people love you make people respect you and admire and if they don't respect you don't admire then this is nothing to worry about. Because remember, your intention is for Allah, you're wanting to do things for Allah. So just keep that in that kind of state of mind. And that way in sha Allah, you will attain much more in life because again, you're not going to be focusing and directing your attention to others but rather for ALLAH SubhanA.
Next, we have the saying of
Abu Abu Usman, sir Abu
Abu Abdullah Al matar me
and
he mentions here
reference to someone who is a Sophie and this is why Charlo just mentioned a little bit about what is Sufism what is or solve. Now, Sufism has been given a bad name
either by some of the people who claim to be Sufis or by those who are opponents of Sufism. And so by by default, this whole practice if you like, this reality has been given a bad name.
But when you want to judge something, you have to obviously go back to the the foundations you have to go back to what people you know, what the actions are based upon, go back to the tax go back to the rather than judge practices and realities by people because they people are not a good reflection of what the ideals are to be.
Unless there are prophets and messengers, apart from that people are going to make mistakes. They're not going to present
things as they wait to God look at how Muslims present Islam today. Not really ideal, you know, and a lot of times they bring bad name because they say this is in the name of Islam when in fact it's nothing to do with Islam. So Sufism in its very basic nature is about a person seeking a person seeking companionship with others in a path to worshiping Allah subhanho wa taala, coming closer to Allah, purifying the soul, and almost like having a pledge with your companions, to do good deeds in making yourself better. So there's a number of if you like,
aspects, and facets to Sufism, one is that it's a path. So you're again going on the path, as we mentioned before that Muslim is on a path. But here it's about realizing that your path and the company that you choose with you on this path, those people who you can then seek their support, seek their help, make a pledge with them, that we're going to work together in making ourselves better, I will help you you help me, I'll help myself, you will help yourself. We're all working together, how do we make ourselves better, purify ourselves clean our hearts, make action sincere. So it is all about having a correct purpose in reaching Allah subhanho wa taala. So that's very, in
a very basic nutshell, what Sufism is usually a comes with, usually, it comes with abstention from the dunya, which is good not to, you know, increase the love of the dunya in your heart. And to so put that aside, usually it's related to a person who is increasing in their good deeds and action intentions. Usually, it is related to good love, good other underlying so there's a lot of aspects related to Sufism, in that regard. Now,
like anything, any any ideology, any
practice, any program, any project, there are, there will be there will be scopes, where people misrepresent the like. So, there are people who have claimed to be surfaced without time, and they would have done silly things
to promote
their way promote their path, promote their practice, there have been people who are not Sophie's, but actually there are.
There are just people who are there to
abuse others misuse them to try and make money out of them. So they will use the guise of Sufism as a means to take money from people you know, because when you are, if you show yourself as being a very noble person, as a very pious person, very humble, very, that people come to you and sometimes people think that you are such a great man, that you must be able to,
to do great things. And so they start to automatically be mis aligned and deluded by who you are and what you what you are present. So this happens as well with some people who do that. So all in all, that's what we're saying is that people will abuse it by wrong actions. But the essence of Sufism as we will talk about later on in sha Allah, is that it's about good notions notions of
abstinence from the dunya notions of
loving Allah Subhana Allah his Messenger having company where you can work together made the remember Allah Subhana Allah together maybe learn together and so on so you're helping so Abu Bakr Al magrabi He says that forever Abdullah malo he says that a Sophie without truthfulness, so almost like he's warning us that there will be people who are not going to be true and they claim to be Sufis but they're not true. And so therefore they don't have purpose. And he says therefore the one who shovels mud is better than him. The person who shoveling mud might seem like a dirty job it might seem like a job which is
which is you know, is obviously as dirty as impure is engaging with filth, etc. And many people might actually even, you know, look down or something
but he who does such a job not because they despise him, but because they feel that kind of job is not, you know, it's not fitting for them, you know, they won't keep the clothes clean. So but he's saying even then the one who shovels might that you might think is no good. Actually, he is better than this claimed false.
Sophie who is saying that I am worshipping Allah Pinetown and truth Allah but actually has no truth and he is a hypocrite. He has a false intention, he has a false aspiration.
In that regards, now, he mentions here the ones are obviously, like I mentioned, he's just trying to give an example of a job that many people might think is of not that it's of no use, but actually it might block people might feel that they are, you know, that they don't want to be doing such an engaging as such job. But then at least this person is serving a purpose. He has a reason he's serving community, he's serving society with his work.
And lastly, for today, we're going to go on to the subject of the honor of the score. And here we have the story of Hammad, Ibnu selama and Mohamed Ibn Suleyman, man. Now,
I hope that you guys manage to read the story,
which, which is there and the book that you've all received? So I'm not going to go over the story again, because that will take time. But basically, this forum which is narrated to us by Imam, and no in this book, is there to serve a purpose. And in a very basic format, this purpose shows us that a scholar alum who going back to what Imam Shafi was saying is that you know, you're not gonna be able to please people that therefore focus on pleasing Allah subhanaw taala. On when you focus on pleasing Allah, Allah will give you the honor, Allah will give you the honor, as a scholar as a as a human, and he will make those who are tyrants and those who try to subdue others, he will despise
them and the little Muhammad eventually man, he happened to be one of the cousin of the abassi ruling party as a father and grandfather.
And he was the governor of Basra. Hammadi muscleman was one of the top scholars in Basra and Mohamed, the mystery man, he wanted to ask him that question. So he sent somebody to ask the question, but rather Hamad insisted that I'm not going to answer the question unless he comes personally. And he comes by himself, he doesn't come with all his entourage and all his horses and men trying to, to maybe, you know,
to
frighten me or trying to make me an offer of him. variety comes individual asked his question, I'll answer him I don't have a problem, but from for him to expect me to go No. And so, when you read that story, you can see the power of having knowledge, you will see the power of that person who not only has knowledge, but also has
has
any the the the onus that way demands on us and demand respect, and that is how a person who again, links himself to Allah subhanho wa Taala and has a correct attitude towards
towards knowledge towards intention towards all that kind of thing, that kind of person will demand that respect from the ruler. Now, if you managed to read the story, which I hope to have, you can see that in fact, there are a number of lessons to be learned here or to be let's say, extrapolated from this story. And that is because when when a person is
when a person is an island, he has to not only respect the knowledge, but he also has to make people understand that this knowledge is worthy of respect. And so even you see in the past that
olema the way the way they behaved, they showed and they displayed and they gave people that understanding that knowledge is not to be littled so when they used to sit in their sittings and they used to speak Hadith and knowledge, they will sit on a couch or maybe a raised platform again, all the knowledge that they they held knowledge wasn't something that was just a you know, just given here and there. In fact, in one narration, there was a guy called Alcor, an OB Alcor, an OB was a person who
wouldn't say he was a highway man road or highway man, but he was someone who was considered one of these
bad people and he was behaving in a in a
Yanni in an inappropriate way, he was somebody who some people say that he was drinking he was young, he was somebody who was very much a
trying to
belittle others, you know, like this, like basically a fog
PC, that's why was was doing and he on one occasion having
he was you know, he was having a,
he was he was drunk, he was, you know, either he was engaged in, you know, music or theater and he saw
somebody who's sure about forbidden hijab who also is it has mentioned in the garden of the where this Sherborn hijab was was a very highly high level scholar. And he said
that he apparently said that, you know, once I was in this kind of state, so I he saw a shorba and he said he wanted to make fun of him. So this is obviously while he was this kind of person wanted to make fun of me little shorba so he came to shorba and she was riding his donkey. So he saw a foreigner he said, you know like in in Hazard
making hesitation sorry, making fun of that person trying to humiliate him.
He said to him, tell me a hadith narrated me a hadith social by said, you know you are, it's not befitting for you to hear Hadith you know, the state that you're in, I don't just say Hadith like this, you know, just in the road. And so apparently being the kind of person he was he take gets out his dagger and he says, Look, I feel it, you're going to tell me a hadith or I'm going to stab you basically. So I guess he kind of attitude he had so Chernova he said, you know, we have this case, sure, but said we have narrated from so and so who has narrated from so and so and so he mentions for him the chain of narration, but the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, either learn to
stay first not mash it, if you have no shame, then do whatever you want. And he was like,
narrating this hadith to him. But at the same time, he was basically saying that you have no shame. You know, you have no shame to talk to me like this. And, in fact, that narration that's that that incident was a wake up call for Carnaby where he realized, Oh, my God, what am I doing? I really don't have any higher I don't have any shares. So it caused him to repent to Allah. And in fact, he became a righteous person. after that. The interesting thing is, even though he had heard from sure but he's had that was and he, when he repented to Allah sutra, he tried to go back and learn from sugar, but he didn't find him. So that was the only Hadith he heard from Ferber.
You know, surprising, but the point being anyway, that I don't want to go into golf on a tangent. The point is that people gave that reverence to Hadith. So in this case, you can't just narrate your Hadith in the street, you know, and if you are intoxicated, or you're somebody who is making fun of the deen again, I'm not going to reiterate Hadith for him. Going back to the story of 100, we see from that story how Hammad was a person who practice abstinence, again, something that we just mentioned about.
He didn't have many items in his house, as the narrator says, and this was something that also we have a narration from Selma, no Pharisee who also we have a saying here in the garden. But when shall man l found she was about to die, he started to cry. And they said, Why are you crying? He said,
Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he took an oath from us that the provisions of any one of us and he took a pledge. And that pledge is that the provisions of one of us in this life should only be the provisions of someone who is on journey. And he said, we have abandoned that pledge, meaning that your provisions your luggage or equipment that you have in the dunya should be like the person who is on a time and today's Highlife you imagine you're going on a journey.
You're gonna go now to
wherever you want to go
to another country, but you want to go now, what are you entitled to in terms of luggage, you know, you're entitled to 23 kilograms of flight luggage and a hand baggage or whatever. That is your lucky that is the that is you on a journey, you know, and even that that's a lot, journey, you know, but, but that's the kind of equipment but today, the reality is, if we wanted to look at our equipment in our house, we would need vans, you know, literally vans to fill out all our stuff that we have that we have accumulated in our houses.
So this story shows us that it also shows us that the honor of the dilemma, which is what we are speaking about here, and you know, the scholars,
the scholars who really understood their position, they didn't allow themselves to be humiliated by the kings and the governors.
And they forced the governors and the kings to respect them. Now, obviously, there were a group of of scholars who didn't do that. And that we can see in a number of situations another something that we see today as well, how many incidences we see today in the world where scholars who have belittle themselves by by knocking at the door of the
of the rulers trying to get their proximity. And Imam Malik, he said, The beautiful thing he said, he said, we witnessed that we learned that the people would come to them, and they wouldn't go to the rulers, meaning that if you want something from them, you come to them. And that's a mark of respect for that.
We can also see how much these different points of knowledge of how
of hammered and how he gave it to Muhammad, we can see the hammer the whole fundraising with a chain, again, something that we have spoken about before and it's called it's not. And even when we see the opportunity, he had to take money, guys anything, look, take this 40,000
their hands, he didn't want to take the money. And not only did he not want to take it because he he was I mean, initially he was worried that that money was not Hellenic, maybe he had taken it from other people, he had robbed people, or taking it by force, because the ambassador when they came to rule in in their time, they not only did they kill most of the mermaids who was the density before them, but they also took their money. So of course, you know, it's stealing the money is taking their money. So he was worried that that wasn't her. But when this guy said to basically, look, this is not, you know, some of the second is my own money I've inherited, but even then he didn't want it
because he said if I take that money, and I try to give that money or you know, to the poor people or to redistribute it, which is what what Muhammad said to him,
it might be that when I come to distribute the money,
I might not give somebody, you know, I obviously I got I'm going to give people but sometimes I might give somebody somebody might maybe not give him maybe I'll give somebody more than somebody else. And then that person who doesn't get money, he feels angry against me, he might say something but and he will be sinful for that. So the point being is that I don't want to put people in the scenario where they are going to be sinful towards me by accusing me of unfairly distributing some money. So I'd rather just forget about the money and just you know, just carry on with my secrecy, that is the kind of attitude that they had
towards
towards the knowledge and towards
understanding and also narrows in a very nicely to what we said before, which is that you can't please everyone and so therefore, do not try to please everyone. So therefore, what you should try to do is you should try to think about the biggest
Picture in this case, the bigger picture with B, in this case is to do what's more safe for you as an individual, and safe for others. And inshallah I'm in the process of getting another book that's inshallah related to the stand out Athena and it's, it's an explanation this Inshallah, when that book comes out, you'll find a very
quite a few stories in there related to this perspective, as well in terms of the honor of the scholar, and in terms to this also incident which similar a similar thing that happened to me when I was in Iraq, which I will not narrate to you now. I'll let you get the book.
Okay, and how we're going to finish here and show off.
Some of you may not have read the story and not read the book because I understand that maybe you didn't get the chance to So to go back and read that story. So at least then that you understand a little bit more about what I have been talking about. Now. I wanted inshallah to make this program very beneficial for you. So Inshallah, I'm going to be reaching out to each one of you in the coming weeks. And if you're up for it, have a chat in sha Allah about how you are progressing with this whole concept of reading this book and also maybe learning and understanding this book and inshallah in doing so,
we can maybe look at some aspects that you might want to consider if you have any issues inshallah we can also discuss that
so we're gonna end there and Allah.
We end this recording by saying,
long soil salat wa salam ala Muhammad while you're so happy you are hooked on Juana and it hamdulillah Robin