Riyad Nadwi – 11. Imam Ghazali on Ikhlas
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AI: Transcript ©
Welcome to our 11th session on Imam Ghazali's
teachings on intention,
sincerity,
and verbal habits.
In our last session, we discussed
broadly 4 topics.
The first was the interpretation of these penultimate
verse that I read to you just now
in Surah al Kahf,
which was an interpretation to see our to
see our worship
with sincerity as a meeting with Allah.
And in that, a reflection
of the hadith of Jibril alaihis salam
explained
as
if you see worship Allah, as if you
see him for verily, if you do not
see him, he sees you.
He sees you.
The second thing we reflected on was that
the nature of thoughts in human in the
human mind
and in the form of simulations.
And
if I say do do not think of
an elephant, your mind will simulate a large
chunky animal
with trunk.
And not only that, but you will simulate
such details as orientation,
color, and with full modeling of what they're
doing, depending on what the sentence is.
You and we will do this engaging with
brain networks and systems
as if we were seeing the elephant in
real life.
Now
and this is so we we we know
this. We found this out,
through experiments. We that if I say to
you that,
the carpenter
hammered the nail into the ground,
you will simulate
a picture in your mind of a nail
in the vertical position.
But if I say to you that the
carpenter placed the nail on the floor,
then you will simulate a nail in the
horizontal position. And
we know this because if if you give
someone to read this sentence and then you
show them the picture of a nail in
one of those two orientations,
and you ask them if the picture if
this nail had been mentioned in the sentence
that just arrived that just, was presented to
you earlier,
they will recognize that picture faster if it
coincided with the orientation that was in the
sentence.
So you're actually,
making simulations. So, and the point was that,
when you simulate people noticing you and speaking
about you, it provokes.
These simulations have deep connections and they create
emotional states, and those states
stimulate a perpetual an urge to perpetuate the
behavior
to make these things come through, and that's
the problem.
So
in order to deal with this, the the
the third thing we looked at was in
the chapter on treatment of Rhea,
the disease that of urge to show. We
learned that
Rhea comes from
3 thoughts in the mind, either compound or
successfully one of 1 after the other. The
first is the thought of people noticing you.
Oh, people are noticing me. And then the
thought of wanting people to be impressed and
praised, and praise you, because of what they
have noticed,
which is followed then by a determination
to make that these previous two thoughts a
reality.
And that cascade of thought is due to
this,
intense form of simulation that goes on in
the mind. And so, Imam Ghazali has given
us the the best way to deal with
it and which was that you've got to
protect yourself from this cascade of simulations.
It it and the way to do it,
it is to reject the first thought as
it appears in the consciousness. To say to
yourselves,
that what is it what is it to
you if people know? Whether they know or
they don't or or they know or not
or not know.
The fact that Allah
knows should not shouldn't shouldn't that be sufficient
for you? Shouldn't the fact that Allah knows
be sufficient for you? That's the question you've
got to use to push it away.
And and this should be followed by an
aversion in the mind, a dislike in the
mind,
in the heart that the a rejection of
this because
we should dislike it and reject it as
a as a dangerous thing, that this is
a dangerous thing. I like you destroy it.
Yeah. Like you have an aversion to all
dangerous things. If a snake appears, you will
have an aversion to it. If you have
a if something dangerous
appears, then that same sense of
danger and of aversion should be in your
heart.
The other point to bear in mind was
that the heart
often gets crowded
with emotion,
and and then overwhelmed, and there's no spaces
left. Like, Imam Ghazali has given gave us
a beautiful example,
which is one the the example of the
acredity, the bitterness
of anger, where a person may know a
lot about the virtues of composure and of
restraint and patience and all the other things.
And he may also know all about the
harms and the serious consequences of anger. But
when caught in a fit of anger himself,
his heart,
his consciousness is left with no space
for his knowledge to benefit him. There's no
space for that knowledge to become,
active,
what is known as
the heart
has no active space to
to deal with those things because of the
emotional state. The the simulations have gone way
beyond the ability for you to benefit from
your knowledge. So
there's no room at all in remembering all
the harm that is attached,
to this. And this is exactly what happens
with Ria. But instead of the acredity and
bitterness,
it's sweetness and enjoyment.
And they're both these are both emotions you
feel, the emotion of anger that causes this
bitterness in the mind and the emotion of
of pleasure,
the sweetness of the pleasure of knowing that
people are praising you. So one can enter
into a euphoric state that leaves no room
for remembering all the harm that is attached
to ria, and that's the point.
Therefore, it is
safer
to arrest that thought in the beginning as
soon as it occurs
together with bringing to mind all the calamities
that are attached
to that stream of thought that
you have to remember that this is a
cascade. This is a cascade that will happen.
It will simulate it will simulate you into
destruction. We need to combat
one stream of simulations with another stream of
simulations
to see, and that is what what would
happen if on the day of judgment you
are told, that
you lied.
Now today,
I want to read
excerpts from
which is the book of intention and sincerity.
And,
I know you must be wondering for well,
then which book were we reading from all
this time?
The the fact is that the is comprised
of 40 books.
And so far, we've been reading from
which is the book of condemnation,
of love for celebrity and ostentation.
And the reason I did this was that,
in this study of the subject of Ikhlas,
I have found that it is very beneficial.
It's useful to read around the subject before
delving into it proper. First, you you you
read around it. So having an understanding of
what is
and what is riya,
I feel it is a necessary prerequisite for
approaching the subject of sincerity,
especially for us living as we do in
a hyper ostentatious society. As I said, I
call it hyperria society,
where celebrity culture and the impulse to show
off is often dominant in our minds, in
our consciousness.
So,
yeah,
another closely related topic
to Ikhlas
is the topic of,
truth.
Now in fact, the imam imam Azali attached
this, synonym the the he attaches
the word
in a synonymous way to sincerity,
to in the introductory paragraph
of of the book. So I'm gonna read
that first, and then we'll go back to
the others to the other aspects of reading
it now.
Okay. In the first page. Okay. He has
a beautiful,
at the beginning, I I would love to
read it, but, yeah, we've already finished 15
minutes. Okay.
It's
it's
it's it's been
dawned upon the hearts of those people with
insight with deep insight in iman
and who has the the light of Quran
in their heart that there is no
path to salvation except with knowledge and practice,
knowledge and deeds and good deeds.
And so people are all in a state
in on the brink of destruction
except
those who know, who have who have who
has knowledge.
And those who have knowledge are all on
the brink of destruction
except those who practice what they what they
know.
Well,
Yeah. So the those who are acting, those
who do act upon their knowledge are also
on the brink of destruction
except those who are
sincere.
And the sincere ones are in great great
danger.
So action without
intention
is pain and trouble.
And
the intention without sincerity
is
is ostentation.
Is sufficient for a person to be you
know, for for
for one to be labeled a hypocrite
and it is it is
equal to disobedience.
Well,
and it's
without
siddiq, without truth in it and without
truthfulness in it is waste,
it's it's it's like dust, it's it's it's
floating, it's it's nothing.
That he says that,
Allah
says that any any action that has that
does not have that does that that is
done with the will of what done for
the motivation of any other than Allah, then
that is tainted
and submerged. It's lost.
That we have we we we have we
shall turn whatever they did
to as as floating dust. It will be
it will scatter dust. There'll be nothing dispersed
dust.
And
how is it possible that someone can will
will be able to construct a proper intention
when they have no idea of what the
reality of intention is?
And how are you able to construct? How
how will you able to form
Ikhlas?
Sincerity when you have no idea what what
the reality, what true Ikhlas is.
And how how is it possible to that
someone could
will be required for
to indulge, to perform
truthfully in truth when he has no idea
what it is?
So the
responsibility
for every belief, every slave, every servant
who intends to follow Allah
that he learns niya he studies niya he
studies intention
to know
the to have the knowledge the required knowledge
and then he corrects it with knowledge with
action
after having understood
the reality of
the reality of truthfulness
and and sincerity
so they're used next to each other
and because these 2
are the two means that that through which
the the servant through which the servant
achieves,
salvation.
And we are mentioning
in 3 in in 3 chapters.
And and the first is
the reality. The first the first verb is
the reality of and
its meaning. And then the second verb is
the reality of
in the the about
and and its reality
and its true nature. And then the third
is the third is in about truthfulness
and its reality.
Now
and
here, I I want
to speak a bit about
in a more in more in more general
terms,
because
this is not only synonymous with a class,
but it is similar, as I said, to
the previous subjects we have studied,
so far, which was,
as in the amplified relevance to our context
specifically.
Like,
in the same way how Ria had an
had an amplified
relevance to our context, this also, also. The
popular culture in which we live
has a problematic relationship with the concept of
in a variety of fields, a variety of
spheres of life.
The first one, of course, that will come
to mind if you talk about
speech and and lies and,
truth. The the first thing that comes to
mind is that in is that of the
the sphere of politics and and the words
of politicians,
which,
of course is,
is limited in the sense that, at election
times, they make promises and they don't get
they change their their opinion or or they
fail to do what they promised.
But there are other areas that are much
more pervasive in our day to day life
and even more which are even more than
politics, and there are 2.
1 is in business marketing
to which we are all exposed on a
continuous basis,
and the other is in popular philosophy.
More specifically, postmodern philosophy where the very concept
of truth is seen as suspect.
Now I want to deal with the first
with the first of the 2. Today, inshallah,
next week, we'll have time to deal with
the second one with the postmodern philosophy,
which is
particularly relevant to students at university
because you you you come up against these
sorts of things.
And
it's important for you to understand
the basis,
the the Islamic treatment and the and and
the structure of the of of fundamentals and
this fundament at at the heart of our
worldview.
Now the opposite to sit is of course
which is lies, the opposite to truth is
lie,
which is the same, which is the word
that Allah
will use on the opening scene in the
day of judgment. This that that scene I
I keep painting for you which was that
of the 3 people who will come and
they will say I did x and I
did y and I did this. Those people
will not be told that you didn't do
what you said you did. Yes, you did.
But the intention was wrong. You did it.
And and for that reason, they will be
told
that you lied.
Now
if you were to if I were to
ask you to think about it in which
context
people
most frequently are prone to insincere words,
where do we find
pretense, deceit, exaggerations, and deceptions
most in our day to day life,
we will
arrive at the conclusion that it is in
the marketplace.
When people are trying to convince their customers
to buy their products,
they tend to exaggerate and deceive. So and
this is why
one of the reasons, of course, why said,
that the worst places on the face of
the earth is the marketplace.
And this is a place where Shaitan causes
people to fall in love with the vanishing
world and forget the permanent world. And it
is also a place where people
tend to lie repeatedly
in order to get their custom, to buy
their items, and they they indulge in all
sorts of creative language to convince you that
you need these products, you deserve it, and
then and and they try in trying to
convince you of its quality
through exaggerations
and
misrepresentations.
Now
some might think that I'm the one who
is exaggerating here, it is not so bad.
But,
I assure you, if you take a look
at the deceptive messaging in business today in
our world,
where the marketplace is no longer confined to
the bazaars,
as it used to be in the olden
days. In our time, the marketplace is everywhere,
from the billboards on our roads
to the adverts in our pockets. An average
person
in modern day Britain today will see every
day 5,000 adverts,
and that's a conservative estimate.
Those are messages.
And as for the
accuracy of those messages, you have to look
at the large array of
deceptive tactics that are being used,
employed when in in the production of these
messages.
There there's a long list. I mean, you
can Google it, your false advertising, and you
will see it as misleading
illustrations, false coloring, angel dusting,
bait and switch, misleading
health claims, manipulation of terms,
small print, incomplete comparison, inconsistent comparison,
false labeling, disguise packaging, and it got the
list goes on and on and on. And
this is why there is a cat and
mouse relationship between governments and big business over
regulation
on preventing deception in advertising. But
governments are usually,
the
the losing end of of of these bargains
because they're heavily lobbied and
and threatened to discard regulation on a regular
basis. You you prevent the use of, of
these
business big business wants regulation to to vanish
so they can say what they want and
do what they want.
And this has consequences
for the way we or for the way
society relate to the concept of truth,
the concept of.
And I'm not talking about rogue traders here
on the margins of society. No. No. No.
No. I'm not talking about those. I'm talking
about
everyday large scale multinational companies that are regularly
fined for, you know, 1,000,000 of pounds
for lack
of lack of
in their messaging.
For example, in 2015,
a serial company with the same name as
a college here in Oxford,
Kellogg College, the the Kellogg Company
had the not Kellogg College. It had the
same name as the college, but I I
think they they got donation from the from
the company or or foundation linked to the
company. And,
they had to pay
£5,000,000
$5,000,000
to settle a class action lawsuit because they
were claiming that their product was all natural,
when in fact, it contained a whole host
of synthetic and artificial ingredients.
You know,
pyridoxine hydrochloride and calcium,
panthecetonate and
glycerine and sodium phosphate
or whole loads of things it had in
it. Now
that's the kind of thing I'm talking about.
This is pervasive.
The world we live in is in dire
need of sincerity and truth to deal with
deceptive
messaging in the marketplace.
The consequences
are real and pervasive.
One lie repeated can
affect
the entire world and everyone in it. Yes.
I'm saying one like and so when when
when when people,
create
a craft a lie and that lie get
repeated, it can affect the entire world and
and everyone in it. In 2008,
we had a global financial crash,
which is an example of this. It it
it it was caused by lies. The lack
of by
and they did toxic debt was willfully rebranded
as and sold
with new labels. They were they knew that
these things were terrible, that these things would
collapse, but they rebranded them and sold them.
And then you ended up. They were sold
as,
toxic stuff was sold as,
structured investment vehicles and high grade enhanced
structured opportunities and all sorts of fancy labels,
which was all lies.
Now this
global crash was the direct result of a
lack of,
lack of truth and and sincerity
in the marketplace. This is, of course,
just
a problem not just a problem in, big
finance.
It has severe consequences. Lack of and
has severe consequences for the well-being of the
human of human beings as a whole.
One of the
other area of deceptive messages in in in
businesses
is in the area of
food,
in well, cigarettes.
8,000,000 people will die every year, are dying
every year from smoking.
And
according to WHO, 500,000,000.
In in the last
in the last century, a 100,000,000 died, and
in the in in the coming century, 500,000,000.
That's their estimate.
In 20th century,
100,000,000.
Now this is all set to happen even
though medical experts
published their findings that cigarettes
cause cancer way back in the 19 sixties.
But what happened?
It there was conclusive evidence
that
cigarettes causes causes cancer in the 19 sixties.
By 1969,
all the major well, several of the major
tobacco companies came together and formulated a strategy
to undermine that knowledge, undermine the knowledge that
this happens. And there's a famous memo. You
can Google that. It that that says, where
where they agreed on a strategy. And strategy
was a judo strategy where you use the
strength of the the opponent, you know, and
and you defeat them. So they use they
said that doubt is our product, and we'll
come back to this idea of doubt. Because
if you say, well, oh, they'd in order
to create doubt over the research, over the
findings, they said we need more research. And
from since then, since the 19 sixties, they
have continued saying we need more research. We
need more research. For something, they're creating they
created confusion over something that was crystal clear.
Smoking causes cancer. This is straightforward,
undeniable
scientific finding, but they've done this. It's it's
a form of lying. It's a form of
avoiding.
And the heart of it, of course, is
the idea of,
greed
is good.
Greed and the glorification of greed, which, in
the words of Ayn Rand is greed is
healthy.
And, Ivan
Boyarski, who who told the business class graduating
that you can be greedy and still feel
good about yourself.
And there's a long list of influential
people who sanitize endless greed on the various
guises from Bernard Mandeville,
fables of bees to Adam Smith's
hidden hand, and from Ayn Rand's healthy greed
to Dawkins' selfish gene.
The result today is that half of the
world's
wealth is concentrated in 1% of the people
on the planet. Half of the world, and
90% of the wealth is in 15% of
in in the hands of 15%.
While
800,000,000
people go to bed at night
hungry in our world today.
So
greed
that fostered the lies that that causes, it
motivates people to lie and play
plays a big part in the in the
inequality we see around us. So so it
affects us. Lack
of lack of,
in
in
in these fairs has serious consequences for the
world in which we live in.
Now in contrast, one has to ask, how
is it
that the country with the largest number of
Muslims in our world today
accepted Islam
via
Muslim
merchants,
Muslim traders?
What was so different about Muslim traders that
1,000,000 were prepared
to accept Islam
after Muslim merchants landed on their shores?
To answer this, we have to look at
the teachings of Islam on and
on truthfulness and sincerity.
What is the most important ideal
for a Muslim in the marketplace?
It is.
A sincere Muslim trader is someone who
speaks
the truth not only because
it will benefit his custom but because it
is a duty enjoined upon him by his
creator, by Allah who says in the Quran,
fulfill. So fulfill the measure and the weight,
and do not deprive people of their due,
and cause not corruption upon the earth
after its reformation, that is better if you
should be believers.
And then the prophet
is
declaring
very clearly
very clearly, he's saying,
The martyrs are in the highest status, and
he's saying that the merchant, the trader, the
Muslim trader, who is honest and suduk, who
has siddiq, who has truth in him, who
has truth on his tongue, who is truthful,
trustworthy,
that one, the trustworthy, honest merchant, will be
with the martyrs on the day of judgment.
This is this is these are the ideals
that they they
inculcated in themselves, you know, in Hadis and
Bukhari and Muslim Rasuulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam
talks about about
trade. When you when you when you have
trade, you have to have
akhlas in it. You have to have
integrity.
And this story tells us, it's.
The man bought some land from a well,
from from one person,
and then
he discovered a jar in it with,
earthen pot with gold.
And so he went to the person who
he bought it from and said, look. You
better come and collect your gold.
I found some in the land. And he
said, well, look. I sold the land and
what was in it, so it's for
you you have to take it.
That person refused
and and the dispute
developed the dispute developed on who should take
the gold. The man said saying no it's
yours and he's saying no it's yours and
then eventually they got someone to come and
make a to
sort the matter between them, and they decided
that they were going to marry. He was
going to marry his daughter
to,
a a slave girl of
someone
in in their house. And so the and
they spent the money. So the 2 the
the the 2 parties were joined through marriage.
That's how they dealt with it.
Now what what is this showing? It's a
different it's a different view altogether. And Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is is emphasizing on
them. He says,
That that it it that Allah will show
mercy to a man who is kind in
his trade. When he is kind, he's accommodating,
he's forgiving when he sells, he's forgiving and
accommodating when he buys and when he makes
a claim. So the Sahaba knew this, you
know, Uthman radiAllahu anhu
was he bought so he was buying, a
garden, a walled garden, and the man said,
just about his to
finalize the matter, the man said, no. No.
I want 10,000 more.
You know I need 10,000 more and Usman
radiAllahu anhu turned around to the other Sahaba,
Abdul Ahmed Da'ouf was with him and he
said to him you know
That Allah will enter people into paradise
even even they are when they are kind
and compassionate and and sincere, they are soft
and accommodating
when they're in their buying and they're trading
and buying and selling. So take the 10,000
so that I can become deserving of of
the words of Rasulullah
This is this was the character of them,
that those
traders that arrived in Indonesia inculcated in themselves.
You know, there's a story about Imam Al
Hanifa. A woman comes to him and says,
I have,
this cloth,
the silk
pile of cloth I I I want to
sell. How much is it? And she he
asked her, how much would you want for
it? And she said a 100, and he
said, no. It's more than that. So she
said 200,
and he said it's more than that. And
she said 300, and he says more than
that. And when it reached 400, she says,
are you are you making fun of me?
And then he said, no. No. No. Bring
somebody. Bring bring bring a man to to
to to sort it out, and and and
somebody came, and he paid 500 for it.
That's the kind of
honesty there was in the trade. And warning
against that a person is warned also that,
yeah, that the the of the people who
Allah
the 3 types of people that Allah will
not look at and will not talk to
that that will not look at in the
day of judgement, and they will have severe
punishment is one of them. The the third
one is a tajid. The the tajid. The
one who
the one who sells his his things
or make it ready for selling with
incorrect, with lies,
with oaths lying.
Another story.
He's
they
he's
selling basket of, of,
almonds,
and he wrote that he will get 63.
He he will he bought it for 60,
and he said 3 3 dinars he will
get in
profit. And then the person comes the person,
the the dalal, the the middleman who sells
the others comes and says, look,
the price has gone up to 70 now,
so I'll pay you 70. And he said,
no. I can't because I've already made a
made a made a pact with Allah that
I will only take 3.
And that person, that trader who was going
to take it says to him, but I
made a pact with Allah that I will
not I will not
rob anyone today, so I don't want it.
So neither did he take it or the
other one took it. Another story.
A shopkeeper, a man goes into a to
a Muslim shop and says, do you have
wheat? Said, yes. I have wheat. Said, how
much is it? X number is this it's
it's so and so. So give me give
me some. Give me that amount. He said,
no. I I I don't want you to
buy from me. I want you to go
across the street and buy from that shop.
He said, did that shop have,
the same wheat? He said, yes. The same
wheat, the same price, the same price. So
why should I go there? He said, since
this morning,
I have earned already my days keeping.
And I've been looking at my neighbor's shop,
and no one went there all morning. So
I want you to go there and buy
it and buy the and buy the wheat
from that person.
That Jew
went to the shop, bought the wheat, and
then came back to the 1st shop and
said, I took the wheat from that man.
Now I came to take Islam from you.
This was the type of effect that has.
It was because of these ideals and attitudes
towards sincerity in trading that people of Indonesia
accepted Islam.
Yes. As I said, the country with the
largest number of Muslims, Indonesia was turned to
Islam when Muslim traders from Yemen and Arabia
started trading in those lands with honesty and
and sincerity with.
There were no battles, no military invasions of
Sumatra and Java,
but
demonstrations of true
genuine sincerity and truthfulness
in Muslim in Muslim trade.
These traders
attracted people to Islam and so Indonesia is
Muslim today.
But the tragedy of our time is that
our character and conduct in business and elsewhere
is doing the opposite. We're behaving in the
way in the same way as everyone else
because we have now internalized
all those behaviors, all those be in the
same way other people be because,
this the idea these these osmotic
this osmotic process of gradual acculturation,
we follow we we we are following the
greed is good prescription. We justify all sorts
of, of misleading messaging about our products. And
this is why there is a dire need
for reconnecting to the fundamental teachings of our
faith. And there's no there's no more urgent
and more important fundament
of our faith than Ikhlas and Sidiq.
The need for it is urgent and it's
for that I want
to read this book. I want you to
approach this this this part of the subject
with those,
urgent thoughts in mind.
Right.
I was going to read to you the
old,
but,
that will take an extra 15, 20 minutes.
So, what we will do is that we
will read the book on that
the
exposition of the reality of the reality of
truth and its meaning and its and and
and its levels, its ranks.
Know that your
know
that it's that know that is
applied to 6 things.
This is truthful
in in speech.
Truthfulness in intention and will.
Truthfulness in determination,
and
truthfulness
in the fulfillment of your determination,
and and truth untruthfulness in your deeds,
and truthfulness
in the in achieving this all the stations
of Deen.
So who has inculcated, who has characterized
all of these 6 in his character? For
who was.
He will be the
the the affirmer the affirmer of truth.
This is a
a superlative of.
And each of each one are are in
different stages.
Whoever has a
fortune of
fortune of fruitfulness
of any of the these 6,
he will be known as, a truthful person.
In that particular
category.
Now
a the first is
on the tongue which is truthfulness on the
tongue. It is it it this is only
about
narration and news and and giving testimony.
Which is something you add. Somebody says, oh,
so and so is in the is so
and so in the house? You say yes.
And and the information that you give is
either related to the past or the or
the or the past or the future.
And
in this,
it includes
the fulfillment of promises,
And it is incumbent
on every servant that he controls his words,
controlling of the words.
He does not speak except with
except with truth. And remember what I said
in the hadith last time?
Remember what I said
what I said the last time?
Somebody is not their sister's still waiting. Okay.
Hope they're not here. Now remember what I
said,
the last time about the about the fact
that that moment,
one word
could change could change your entire life. So
I want you to remember that
is a formatting for your for your tongue.
If you if you train yourself with
then that will
guide you to
developing a mode of talk. And this is
why I'm saying verbal habits here. This is
why we we we had the word we
had this term verbal habits in the title
in the title of this series. Is that
that's because when when you
when,
you have to protect your your your tongue
from saying things that are that are contrary
to reality.
For who if you if you protect yourself
from things that are contrary to reality, to
what what,
things that are inaccurate, things that are inconclusive,
thing things that are
willfully wrong,
then
you protect yourself from all of those things,
then you will be sad that
but there are 2
supplementary conditions that are necessary for this. The
2 supplementary conditions
are the first is
and.
That this is to
avoid
indirect references
and illusions.
Now and this is the one that's connected
to postmodernism,
postmodern
thought
where
people
use language in a way that is confusing.
And you're not and Insha'Allah next week we
will go into this. We'll talk about postmodernism.
But what I want to,
the point he's getting across here is that,
a person may you can use
indirect language
for
good reasons and for bad reasons. You can
use it for
doing for,
saying for avoiding
saying,
lies, and you can do it for avoiding
saying the truth. So he said
that in illusions, there are there's an escape
from
lies.
Because it it it instead of it stand
it takes the place an an illusion. You're
saying something indirect. You
that takes the place
of lies.
But this is problematic because the thing that
is wrong with lies
is
that this is
the reason why lies are so terrible is
to give the impression of something that is
and that is completely opposite to what you
are saying, and that's that is the
reason.
But there are some exceptions in this, which,
we will talk about.
There are
if, like, in matters of bringing people together,
in matters of war, in matters of in
things that you say to your wife, you
there are exceptions that you can say. You
can use illusion to avoid saying,
lies.
But in general,
The
prophet
used to
say that he's going in one direction, in
fact, he's going in another direction. And this
was to protect himself.
That people that the enemy will find out
where he's going and they may attack him.
This is not
this is not lies.
He said that
the person is not a liar who does
who does something
to bring 2 people together, says something to
bring 2 people together, he will not. If
he if he if he uses illusions,
illusions in different things. So but, generally,
to avoid
obfuscation, to to to become an obscurantorist,
And this is what most,
postmodernists
are now, which we'll talk about next week.
You speak you use language that people don't
understand,
and you
confuse people, which is like we said just
now that doubt will be our,
our product,
like the the tobacco companies did. These are
all things to be avoided.
To avoid as well, you can use illusion.
You're allowed to do this. But it's generally
about it's it's, and he gave the story
here about a woman, about a man who
was in a house and and some,
people were trying to kill him. And he
says to he says to his wife, draw
draw with your finger a circle and said
that he's not in this circle.
And she did.
That you have to so if you want
to perfect your if you want to perfect
your ability to
speak truth, then the first thing you have
to do is to avoid
using obscurantaneous
language, is to avoid these,
obfuscating
and illusions.
Speak clearly. Speak clearly so people understand what
you're saying.
That's 1. Not the hedging like a lot
of business people do.
The second thing that you need the second
thing that you need for Kamal for the
perfection of your siddiq
is
If
you have no place of training of your
tongue to speak the truth
with your heart because speaking the truth you
have to connect it with the heart so
the will is connected.
The will is is to convey the truth
then the tongue will follow. The tongue and
the will the tongue and the heart has
to be connected. And for this, you need
practice. You need to habituate. That verbal habit
that you need has to be habituated somewhere
in order for you to then practice it
with elsewhere. Those to jar, those merchants that
went to Indonesia, they would have practiced
speaking
truth, and they would have known the value
of truth. What did they do?
How do they practice it? That in the
perfection of it. And perfecting it, the best
place to perfect it, the most
valuable place to in
the art of
in in getting in getting into the mode,
into the groove of
the groove of truthfulness that you will be
truthful always
is to train yourself when you are in
front of Allah, when you are speaking with
Allah. And this is the next, this is
the the second point he is saying. The
first is to avoid this
convoluted language and the second is to train
yourself when speaking, train your heart, your mind
when you are with in front of Allah.
So he's saying when
you say
at the beginning of each salah
that I turn my face to the one
who
created the heavens and the earth. You're not
saying literally just your face you're saying your
heart as well. I'm turning my heart towards
Allah. I'm now facing Allah my face in
other words my heart towards Allah
so if his heart is then turned away
from Allah when he is saying
that I've turned my face I've faced my
my heart towards Allah when he says this
if it's turned away from Allah
Allah that is occupied
with the wishes of the dunya. He's thinking
about, you know, the house, the car, the
bank account, the my trade and all the
other stuff that goes on. We were
saying
but our hearts is all over the place.
So
he should be able to point to himself
and say
but this is a lie. I'm saying what
did I say? I say and then
another one when we say
Oh Allah, it is you alone we worship.
You alone. You alone we're concerned about in
our worship
but we have riya then what is it?
You alone we ask for help.
Another one, when you say that I am
a slave of Allah.
Now in this one
there's an interesting
morphological benefit of knowing of concentrating
on the Arabic words instead of the English
because sincerity, there's no connection. There's no morphological
connection between
the word sincerity and the word worship.
Now the word
slave,
the word slave and the word,
worship.
There's there's there's no connection in in English.
But in Arabic,
and
slave
and worship
are are connected by a morphology. It's exact
they're derived words. They have close connections. So
when when they're when they're,
used in the mind and the brain, they
are connected. They they activate the same
areas those functions for you to remember that
you are a slave you have no option
a slave what is the idea of a
slave the idea of a slave is someone
who has no choice he just does what
his masters want so in this you are
abd you are a servant That is what.
So when you say,
If he says that I'm a slave, but
he does not carry
the realities, the the the characteristics,
He does
not embody
those characteristics of slavery
to Allah.
And he had his own he had his
own projects and his own
wishes and his own
plans and his own things that he's doing,
then
then his truth then that will not be
said when he says
that I am a servant of Allah, I'm
a slave of Allah.
These are things you have to keep in
mind
that if I ask on the day of
judgment
when he's called on the day of judgment
to say that you are a slave of
Allah
then
what happens?
He would not be able to demonstrate it
because he was claiming to be slave of
Allah but he was acting like a free
man on everything else.
If he was a slave to his desires,
a slave to the dunya, a slave to
the worldly pursuits or a slave
to to to his wishes and wants
then then he cannot be
he cannot be truthful
really
to himself to to Allah
and when he says
Abdullah and everything that controls everything that controls
a person that person is a slave to
it
you're a slave And this is why Rasool
Allah Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salam
said,
may
may
the slave, may the slave of the dinar
be miserable. Taissa
Abd
dirham. May the slave of the dirham,
which is dinar, the the the currency is
the money. If you if you're slave to
money, then
then
sit clothed and
and and cloaks.
Things of the world, you can become slaves
to those things.
So so he's he's labeled everything
with which the heart is attached to it
an. This is what Rasool Allah sallam is
doing. He's labeled
a person if your heart if you're if
you're captured by it, if if your heart
is captured
by the love of money, then you are
a slave of it. But
if you're a slave, so you say
So the one who is truly
a slave of Allah is the one who
has become free from the slavery of all
others. So you have to become free from
the slavery of the money, slavery of the
wealth, slavery of the of of the desire,
slavery of all the other things that captures
you, that in which you in in in
in in which in whose grip you are,
you have to remove yourself. So there is
need for freedom, but it's not the freedom
to follow shaitan or the freedom to follow
the witches in Islam. There's the freedom
from all to be in the slavery of
Allah.
Okay,
we'll have to continue next week Insha'Allah.
But this is as much as I will
say today.
Let us pray.
You
Allah. Oh Allah.
Open our hearts.
Oh Allah. Open our hearts to your mercy.
Oh Allah. Grant us on our tongue. Oh
Allah. Grant us
truthfulness.
Grant us the value of truth, oh Allah.
Oh Allah, make us examples of truths.
Oh Allah,
open our hearts to truth, oh Allah.
You are the giver of the truth. You
are Al Haqq, you Allah. Oh Allah, place
it into our hearts.
Bury it into our hearts so that no
other space there is no space for for
falsehood. There is no space for falsehood in
our hearts. Oh Allah.
Oh Allah,
accept us. Oh Allah, forgive us. Oh Allah,
forgive us our shortcomings.
Oh Allah forgive us our shortcomings,
oh Allah we are trying, oh Allah these
young people are trying, these are young people
who have
all other things to do at university but
they have come to you here
to seek a path of righteousness,
to seek a path of deen, to seek
a path of light. Oh Allah help them,
protect them you Allah, protect their hearts, protect
their iman and protect them from the designs
of shaitan.
O Allah protect them from the designs of
shaitan.
So,
are the brothers in the room?
So did you miss half an hour of
the class?
Uhana, are you there?
No. We were able to hear you, but,
I I wasn't laying, but
Alright. Sorry. Yeah. I'd let you in, but
did you get the laptop? To join on
my laptop, and then I realized you're the
only host left. So unless you let me
in, I wanna Alright. Right. Sorry about that.
Anyway No. That's
we have the recording. So those of you
who missed can catch up. Yeah.
The recordings of last week has also gone
up. So those of you who missed that,
please join.
Please listen to it there.
Inshallah, next week, we are going to, study,
other aspects of, but in relay in in
from the perspective of
postmodernism,
which is a big tragedy
in our world today as well. So,
you do
find time to attend. And,
another thing I wanted to say is that,
yeah, you can listen to the recording and
recording is is there for those of you
who aren't able to make it. But if
you're able to make it, don't rely on
just the recording because,
it's it's important. I I really would like
you to be part of the dua, the
live dua. There is benefit in that inshallah.
We're hoping that Allah that you come then
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will,
InshaAllah answer your Amin
in it and make it a blessing for
for you and for all of us InshaAllah
so do try to make it
in the live program too.
Tayeb.
Is there any questions?
Are there any quest
Yeah. It might be.
Yeah.
I had a question from last time, please.
So when you mentioned
that they had extra salah, extra fasting, is
that a way to protect us from Ria
or only if you you recognize
that you already have Ria? Is it treatment
or more protection? Because often spreading goodness
can influence others. Like, for instance, let's say,
oh, yeah. I woke up for aphasia. I
do,
Monday and Thursday fasting.
Sometimes, if someone mentions it to me, it's
more of a reminder.
So I, myself, would do it. And then
if I do to the intention
that someone might also follow in this,
is that like, I don't know what the
line is. If you have if you start
with this intention, maybe you forget along the
line that you're doing it for the sake
of
making others doing the same thing. And, eventually,
if you get praised for this, maybe your
heart change. So when you mentioned hiding, was
that for
protection more or treatment
only when you know that you already have
the app? Yeah. There's
a there's a progression of treatment. 1st, there's
the importance
of iqfa, which is hiding, and that needs
to be done,
consecutive well, consistently in the beginning.
If you find yourself feeling that you're,
the urge to to tell people and to
give instructions to people, then you need to
scrutinize the reason for why you're doing it.
There is no harm in
telling people to do it and not saying
that you have done it.
That's true that, you know, there are people
who hide,
their actions and, don't allow anyone else to
know. And for instance, you're in a house,
and I I know this is the way
it's been done.
I've seen
in
in sleeping with the that they will wake
us up for tahajjud after they have done
all their prayers.
I used to be with the sheikh. He
in the night, he would get up and
just wake you up and then go to
bed. And we'll think no one no one
would have seen him pray, but he's woke
woken us up to pray.
And that was after he had prayed. So
there is that about hiding,
but,
so to train yourself that the default is
to hide. But if you feel that it's
necessary
that it will help somebody and you're not
doing it for Ria,
then you can you can because these are
these are the areas of exception. You cannot
there are things you cannot hide and there
are things sometimes you want the reward for
others to do it you want people to
do it so you can
that whoever
sets a good example and people follow then
you will get their full reward
So if that is uppermost in your heart,
then that's fine.
The problem,
develops
when people start speaking of it or when
the simulation
begins in your heart saying, oh, I have
told this person
to do
tahajjud,
and they're starting doing tahajjud. And they will
tell people that, oh, she told me to
do that, and people will really like me
for giving her such good advice.
That's the
that cascade of simulations in the mind. So
when that starts in the mind, you've got
to arrest it straight away and say no.
No. No. No. No. No. Hold it right
there. Are you trying is and you have
to address yourself. You know? Saidna, Omar used
to speak to himself,
loudly. He he, you know, he once he
hit a man and
and he,
sought his forgiveness, but then at home, his
servant found him saying to himself, yeah, Omar,
that this person came oh, Omar, this person
came to ask a question and you hit
him. And he kept saying it until that
until the servant had to go and say,
no. It's enough. It's enough. Enough. So addressing
yourself
is a good way of dealing with it,
and you deal with the thought. Monica willingness.
What what what is it to you if
people know or people say anything? That's nothing.
That that's actually dangerous for you. It is
what so it's arresting the thoughts that flow
from it in the simulations.
Those are the things you have to be
worried about.
But
in in this stage, this early stage, we
are learning about Ikhlas, we are learning about
these things. It's important
to practice Ikhfa, practice hiding,
because if you don't if you haven't if
you have never practiced hiding, then you wouldn't
know the difference between hiding and showing.
So we've been practicing showing quite a lot
all our lives. This is what we have
grown up and learned, but we have not
we have not tasted and know the the
the beauty of
having a moment
with Allah
knowing what you have done between you and
Allah.
When you when you taste the pleasure of
that,
the bounty that Allah has given you with
that realization in your heart that oh Allah
you know and I know let's not let
anyone else know and you reward me for
this on the day of judgment.
When you start tasting the pleasure of that
then it will eclipse everything else and will
help you. It'll be easier for you to
deal with those
cascading, those,
resulting thoughts of later damaging of it.
Okay?
Yeah. Okay. I think that should be sufficient.
Yeah.
Any other question?
No. Okay.
We'll see you all next week.