Riyad Nadwi – 14. Imam Ghazali on Ikhlas
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AI: Transcript ©
Are we set up in the class?
Yeah. We can start,
Oh, okay.
Allah
says that we will surely test you
with something of fear
of hunger
and of loss of wealth and lives and
fruits,
but give good tidings to the patient.
The one who, when disaster strikes,
they say, indeed, we belong to Allah,
and indeed, to him we will return.
Though the those are the ones upon whom
are blessings from their lord and mercy
and it is those who are rightly guided.
Say,
oh, Muhammad,
if your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your
wives, your relatives,
the wealth which you have obtained and the
commerce wherein you fear the decline
and dwellings with which you are pleased are
more beloved to you than Allah and his
messenger
and striving in his path, then wait until
Allah executes his command
and Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient
people.
Brothers and sisters, Assalamu alaikum Welcome
to our 14th session. This is our 14th
session
in this series in which we are studying
the teachings of Imam Abu Zali on sincerity,
intention,
and verbal habits.
And in our last session,
as a corollary, as a spin off to
our discussion
on attitudes to truth in the modern world
and the spread of postmodern philosophy,
we pondered the historic tragedies that followed the
reformations of of the 2 Abrahamic faiths
in
Europe that precedes
the arrival of Islam in in this continent.
And we saw how
a reformation of Christianity
was
followed by several decades of war and
killing resulting in the loss of life in
in numbers reaching nearly half the population of
Central Europe. And, similarly,
in for the reformation of Judaism,
the Berlin Haskala,
was followed by a tremendous suffering for the
Jewish diaspora in Europe.
And in this regard,
we saw this as a,
well well, this is how I see it,
and I think this is how we should
we should look at it is that this
is the big news of it.
And
this is this aspect of it cannot be
ignored
and then
use those
precedents
as
sources of guidance for the way we should
treat Islam. And,
in this regard, I I received,
2 questions.
So I'm gonna deal with those first. The
first question was, were there no good outcomes
of of these reformations? Were were there nothing
good about them?
And the second question was, how do we
know that this hadith, the hadith I read
about the warnings, the prophecies,
that they refer to Judaism and Christianity?
So I will deal with both of these
in, the first is that the answer to
the first question is that there were, of
course, some benefits, some good things that happened
after the reformation,
like, literacy increased,
because
one is that the Bible was translated into
the vernacular. And and then the other was
that,
there was a the proliferation of of of
printing.
The gospel
press coincided with the same,
efforts that were made by,
Martin Luther. The books were were published.
So in that sense, literacy increased,
and also and, of course, the the church
stopped selling indulgences. And,
the third was that,
Henry the 8th got his involvement from Catherine
of Aragon.
But
that's, I think,
as much as you can say, there were,
some opening towards other faiths as well.
But if you look
at the
outcome
as a whole,
we find that Christianity is split into thousands
of denominations. You know, Islam. In Islam, we
have 2, Shia and Sunni, where the prophet
predicted we'll be reached to 73.
But we have 2 or we have 4,
madhabs,
schools of thought. But
in Christianity
today, there are 4045,000
denominations,
And that's a result of this, of the
reformation, the the
the the proliferation
of denomination. So you can imagine what would
happen
to Islam if such a thing should happen.
You know, they used to say that if,
in that period that when 10 people meet
in a room, they would come out with
11 denominations.
That that's how,
terrible it was about
deciding what your faith is,
in that,
storm of
post
reformation,
war and
intrigue.
Number 6 was that what we see, if
you look at history,
the graph shows you that
there's a stark decline in the practice
of the teachings
and belief in Christianity. If you take,
any index, take the church attend attendance index.
The graph
slopes from reformation and then start
the
stark
dives deep,
due to things like the secularization,
the
the enlightenment and modernization, etcetera.
But the point is that the reformation did
not produce wonderful outcomes for,
for Christianity
itself.
And we can see the outcomes we we
can see those effects happening even in our
day. If you if you if you look
at the graph even for the
the 20th century, you will find you you
will see it's it's it's sloping
when it comes to,
attachment to the faith.
So
the easier they made the faith is the
easier they made it for people to leave.
This is what the this is the conclusion
of researchers
who have looked into this. I and I
think it is for this reason that Muslims,
need to take lesson, but the lesson is
is how to avoid it at all cost,
how to avoid something like that happening,
among, among our follow with other followers of
Islam.
Muslims are functioning
fully. They're fully
they're able to function perfectly well in the
modern world. We do not need to have
a reformation for us to function because we
can find Muslims in every field of
of modern life and they're functioning perfectly fine.
So we do not need it. We
we we have enough,
plasticity or or flexibility in the system to
adapt to life in the modern world without
the trauma of a reformation.
That that's the conclusion.
And the bottom line is that,
in regard to what I my my approach
last week was that,
what's the big news here?
What's the significant new news about the reformation?
Is it the is it Henry's divorce,
or the death of 8,000,000 people? What would
you do? You know, you got you have
these 2. Yes. Okay. He got his divorce
because he appoint he appointed his own,
archbishop,
to to do it.
Grandma, did
offered the annulment. He he issued the annulment
instead of the pope. But
do we use that? Or do we say,
look, here, we have 8,000,000 people who died.
To put it into perspective, now take take
the example of a family feud over inheritance.
And if there's this family that has a
feud
and
half the family is killed in the feud,
And then later after that,
you know, they managed
to divide the,
the inheritance,
in some way.
What do you think
would draw the attention of people? Would they
draw the attention to what the inherited settlements
afterwards?
Or the fact that the family was half
of the family were killed? What's the big
news?
And that's the big news here. The big
news is that the consequence of it. And
similarly, you know, for what happened in in
Judaism
out of that remove out of that shift
away from
following the guidance of the rabbis who had
very strict rules about the way they interpret.
And that going back to Palestine and setting
up a
a state there was not was not allowed.
No.
In in the theology. But because they had
this new approach to theology that we had
to do, we had auto,
independence. We we we had to get get,
it it led it it boosted
the idea of Zionism, and we know what
troubles this has brought today. So there are
lots of warnings that are attached
to reformations of these 2 Abrahamic faiths in
Europe,
that precedes us.
And the second question, of course, links into
this is that,
how do we know? How do we know
that Rasoolullah was
speaking,
where we highlighted the fact that he he
he the prophecies
were that we should be careful because we
will follow them inch by inch
and foot by foot even if they go
into a lizard's hole.
Even if they that you will follow them
inch by inch and foot by foot, even
if they go into
lizards' holes. So,
now the answer to that question is, in
fact, in the hadith itself.
Last week, I might not have, read the
entire hadith, which was which ended with a
question and answer. The the last part of
the hadith, has the answer. And the answer
is that the the Sahara
asked the questions themselves. They they asked this
question. They said to Rasoolah, when he said
that those who are before you, they asked
him. They said, well, they
said,
are you speaking about the Christians and the
Jews, the Jews and the Christians? And his
response was in a question. He said, famine.
So who else who else would I be
talking about? In other words, who else? Man.
Femin. So it is very clear that it
is this it is the same history and
we are followers of the line of prophets
that was sent by the same God by
Allah
the same Allah who sent Jesus alayhis salam
is the same Allah who sent Moses alayhis
salam, and it was the same Allah who
sent Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And when we
are warned about a trap in our path
in such clear terms,
it is necessary that we keep
a vigilant eye
on history
and
to to look out for what for for
these fit ins in in in in our
path. And as I said, we can clearly
see signs in,
of this sort of activity
among Muslims
and also we'll see,
like, there there are lots of red flags
flying and, of course, high among the postmodernists
who are trying to deconstruct Islam
among the interface practitioners trying
to delegitimize and manipulate Muslims to do it.
And I'm saying that all interface activity is
such, but they are very well organized, well
funded organizations of interface,
organizations that
which are actually,
stealth,
evangelism
that is, disguised as interfaith. Stealth evangelism,
disguised as interfaith to affect
Muslims and to create that reformation that that
which is
available. If you you just have to take
a a deeper look and you will see
it.
And, of course, we have also the,
you see these red flags
in, among the, the progressive Islam movement, the
so called progressive Islam,
which is, of course, dominated by voices of
people who are who only qualification qualification. Their
only qualification
is that they is that we were once
extremists. You know? The degree of EET,
ex extremists has become more has become the
the new supreme qualification for speaking about Muslim
affairs. It's above Alim. It's above Mufti. In
fact, Alim and Mufti is a is a
disqualification
nowadays.
If you're an Alim, you're you're you're you're
immediately
disqualified when speaking about Muslim affairs nowadays where
where where the extremist, you'll find that the
ex extremist is held in high esteem,
the higher esteem than the than the scholar,
the person who had spent,
you know, decades studying Islam.
That person's word is no longer valid. And
and this is also there we also have
prophecy
in this regard that the prophet
said that in
before the emergence of the gel there will
be years that are characterized by
deception, by strange deception. And this deception
is means to to be deceptive, to be
the, to to,
fool people, to turn things upside down. And
he explained. He said how how the matters
would be turned upside down. He said, you
kept the
that the person the the the truthful person
will be treated as a liar.
He will be belied.
And the liars will be believed.
And then the trust trustworthy one will be
treated with treachery.
And the treacherous one will be trusted.
And then
the will speak
in on public matters.
The
and
and is the ignorant and the foolish people
will speak. That those people will come. And
this is this, hadith, this sort of message
is repeated in many different reports. It is
a hadith in Bukhari where Rasulullah
said that,
that when he was asked about the end
times, you know, when when the end will
come, when it's the last hour,
and he says,
he he said
that if trustworthiness
is lost, is lost, there's no longer trustworthiness.
You've the the values have turned upside down,
and they ask, how so? How is it?
And he his response was
that,
for either
that if the the time when when when
you see that serious matters, that the matter
of the country, the leadership, the place where
guidance is supposed to have come from,
from scholars and from people who who know
what to talk about when when they're replaced
by
and people in people who are clearly incapable
are leading, you know, the the,
the the insane people are leading. So so
what you find is that is that if
you find that,
then, no, then expect the final hour to
be soon. People taking the ignorant as leaders
and guides. Now
so
in a nutshell, the
postmodernist agenda to reform Islam
is an agenda of deconstruction. It is an
agenda
of demolition of of distinctions between
our values, between right and wrong. You know?
This is something that they have done effectively
in the second world, in the modern world.
Where teenagers in schools today,
when surveyed, they they they say when when
asked about right and wrong, they all they
say that that that
in one study, 40,
64%,
it was, if I remember correctly, that,
64%
of teenagers
in high school
said that right and wrong, what is right
and what is wrong is a matter of
personal opinion. This this was a survey in
Canada,
when at the height of
postmodern,
philosophy, the the spread of it,
that the distinctions between right and wrong, that
that the meaning of right and wrong is
a matter of personal opinion.
So the minds of the next generation is
being pumped full of this postmodernist mumbo jumbo,
and
we have a we we have a challenge
here. We have a we we have something,
very dangerous
that can undermine
not only our faith, but our understanding
of what is right and wrong. So
people need to be very careful.
And another yeah. I'm I'm saying not only
the details of our faith, but general understanding
of values, of ethics. So there is a
problem.
This is a massive topic that will require
once more time, to do justice to it.
But given that it's only related to
our topic tangentially,
I I will leave it for now. Maybe
we can come back to it later,
inshallah,
in the in the course in in the
other discussions.
But now to come back to our our
topic,
last week, we also talked about
the need for a healthy balance between
fear and hope, which as Imam
says
he says that the the these are the
two wings with which the believer ascends to
worthy stations. The,
in his words, for
that the hope and fear
are the two wings with which
the close ones,
the the the close ones, the ones who
allow us to bring close to him, they
they ascend to all blessed stations with these
wings, these two wings of
hope and fear. Now hope.
And so obedience to Allah is not akin
to obedience of a traffic water as I
said or to a policeman
where where there's no connection, there's no relationship
of love.
With Allah, when we obey, we there's a
need for relationship. There's a need for love.
There's a need for connection.
And to Allah subhanahu to love Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
is
in fact the highest station the loftiest
of goals in our journey back to Allah
we are on our journey of return
back to where we belong
Repeat that. We are on our journey of
return back to where we belong. That is
how we see life in this world.
So
that collection is that, yes, you might never
see that you obey the police, the the
traffic warden. You might never see him again.
We will definitely meet. We will definitely be
returned. And that returning is the is to
return
to have return in such a way that
Allah is pleased with us. So we belong
to him, and we will return to him.
That so because of that, we need to
be we need to have a relationship.
Let's say to my servants who have transgressed.
Oh, my servants who have transgressed
against themselves by sinning,
then do not despair in the mercy of
Allah. This is where hope comes in.
Oh my servants who have transgressed against themselves
by sinning. Do not despair by the mercy
do not despair
of the mercy of Allah. Indeed,
Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is
he who is most forgiving, most merciful.
That is
the verse that is the verse that should
pull should clear any doubt we have in
our minds that because, well, I've committed lots
of sins. I'm, you know, I'm a terrible
person. I didn't do I I'm I've spent
so many years,
off the track now. Will Allah accept me?
Allah is saying Allah is opening door, and
he's saying, he said
that even if your sins have reached the
clouds,
the skies,
even if your sins are as large as
this world, I will forgive it all if
you'd come to me with hope. Come to
me with with the with sincerity. Now
love,
strong hope
is the hope that is rooted in this
love, this love for Allah. We need
our hope
for reward in our sincerity to be rooted
in that love, the love of Allah.
And so today, we are going to continue
reading from the chapter
of
the
the book of love,
longing, intimacy, and contentment.
And there are 5 questions 5 subtopics
in in this discussion that I want you
to keep in mind in the form of
5 questions. The 5 questions that we need
to keep in mind was, what is love?
What do we instinctively
love? How do we fall in love? What
are the reasons for love, and on a
scale of priority,
who is more deserving of our love?
Because,
it's a lengthy discussion.
We might not get through all of it,
obviously. It's a well, what's the time now?
Yeah. Yeah.
But if you keep these questions in mind,
we're going to answer these questions 1 by
1.
Because these questions, in addition to being important
for our topic, they will also help you
to deal with with your with modern confusions
surrounding the concept of love and attachment.
In fact,
people are very confused about these things nowadays.
Many young people in our world today are
more attached to inanimate objects than they are
to human beings.
And I'm sure you know what I'm talking
about. Young people today
are more attached to their mobile phones than
they are attached
to other
people in their life.
In one study,
students were,
who were forced to,
leave their mobile phones outside the examination
hall were found to be suffering from
separation anxiety,
because
the teachers
realized that students who are highly capable were
were underperforming,
and they had this
strange anxiety developing because their phones were left
outside the hall. So eventually, they came up
with the solution that they would be allowed
to bring the tell bring the mobile phones
into the hall and put into a bag
next next to them, keep with close proximity
because the distance
and this is exactly the distance created
anxiety. This is exactly as it does when
when you are forced to be,
forced to keep a distance away from your
beloved.
You suffer from separation anxiety.
The exactly the same thing was happening in
the in this and there are lots of
examples like this that are signs of a
modern problem.
A problem of misplaced love and misplaced attachment
with
of course, unintended consequences for our world in
general,
and in particular, for our understanding of these
concept concept of love and what it really
means.
Even our vocabulary
is also
impoverished when it comes to this.
In Arabic,
the vocabulary
deals with this beautifully
because you have,
degrees of love with
distinct labels that that characterizes you know where
you are, and and you can you can
go through them. You know? The the 10
stages of love,
in Imam,
Zubedi
who did a commentary on this, on this.
He talks about the 10 stages.
We will go through that,
while I speak while we read the text.
Okay. So this is the exposition of the
true meaning of
love.
What is love?
And he says,
You are the the purpose here is in
this chapter is to
understand that the meaning
that the full meaning of
that you will not understand what is being
said unless you know what
love is in itself.
The first thing that needs to that you
need to
appreciate or you need to recognize
that you cannot
imagine that there should be love
of something without knowing, without having knowledge of
it, without
having the knowledge and the perception of it
to be,
for it to be perceived.
A person does not love that which he
does not know.
And this is why it is not imagined
that the that an inanimate object would would
have that capacity to love
that this is a speciality
of living beings
of perceptive living beings
That then
the most perceptibles, the things that we perceive
are divided into things that are pleasing and
perceived that are perceived that that are,
perceived to be comforting
perceived to be comforting and pleasing
and which which opposes or repulses
and and pains the individual.
The or you will find it's neutral. Neither
neither causes pain nor it causes,
joy or pleasure.
That anything that pleases him and brings comfort.
So that
that anything that brings that that that is
pleasing and brings comfort
is lovable
so you can love it lovable to the
perceiver
and anything that that brings pain
is disliked
And the things that do not cause pain
and harm are not called
lovable.
Said, so
Everything that is pleasurable is beloved.
And this is what the meaning of love
he's saying. The meaning of something is lovable
that there is a disposition
of inclination towards something
the inclination uh-uh disposition of inclination
and the meaning of something being disliked or
something being,
hated or,
detested
that there's some disinclination in
So love
is
the inclination
of by disposition
to something that is pleasant.
If this
inclination then becomes confirmed
and
and then it is strengthened,
then it becomes.
Now in the explanation of this
transition
from
it being an inclination,
simply an inclination to becoming attachment,
there you have a division
of
7 degrees there's 7 degrees to reach from
from
from male which is inclination
to reaching Ishq
and Imam Zubairi explains this he says,
yeah, is, 10
The the first
what happens in this hub
is,
the inclination when you it develops, say, an
attachment, some kind of connection. That there's
an a connection,
and then that
connection
leads to a
willful
pursuit in the direction of that connection, and
that is the Irada. So the number 2
is Irada.
And then the Sababa the Sababa is
where it's
a pursuit with
you. The the there's there it's it's starting
to get warm. It's it's the
the temperature increases
towards,
pushing the person in that direction.
And
then is,
when the
attachment
is such that it
it's hard to disconnect
because you're you're attached. There's the
normal attachment where you can attach and disconnect.
But when it reaches to the level of
haram, then you cannot detach. You'll find you
will find it hard to detach. It's it's
starting to stick. It's starting that this the
the mail the the inclination reaches the degree
when it's it's it's it's it's connected. I
can't I'm just like we're saying about the
phone that it's it's it's locked on. It's
it's holding there. You cannot get away.
And then and then you
and
and then
the next level is wood,
which is,
which is the complete the pure love. Nothing
else is in the heart. Now it's it's
it's becoming it it's pure love.
It's filling the heart. It's beginning to fill
the heart. And then beyond that, you have,
Ishq that is this on the 7th level
that that the the wood,
you you have wood, and sorry. You have
wood and then,
Shagoff.
Shagoff is when it reaches to the extremities
of the heart.
And after that, after shalaf,
then comes Ishq. So at the 7th level
is Ishq. Ishq, which is an attachment that
is Mufrit. You remember Ifrad and Tawhrit
we spoke about earlier? So this is where
it goes
beyond
the meaning of hope. Ishq is an attachment
where it starts to connect in such a
way that is
that there's no release. It's it's completely locked
on and stays there now.
There's no,
there's nothing else that is coming into the
heart. Each detachment is is so strong.
And,
this is the one where he says that
the ones we which you start to worry
about about your friend. You know, your your
friend is is is got attached to somebody
and you're you're starting to worry about, you
know, I'm I'm they all they all they
think about and talk about is that person.
That is when that is Ishq.
And and then obviously above that, you have
other levels that you have the
the the the 8th one, which is a
time. Time,
is
is to become captive,
where you're you're
you are like a captive,
and
everything
that the beloved everything that the the
the the the the beloved wants is is
controlled by that. And then above that, you
have, which is you become slave.
You're a slave
as as a slave. There's nothing else. And
that's why the word slave here is is
part of
the
degrees of love
in this science, in the science of the
heart.
To become abd
is the 9th stage of love. To become,
as I spoke about last week, about the
a beautiful
meaning of the word abd, of the word
slave. Here is that above and above time,
above that being captive, there is to be
slaves. So when you're attached, your your heart
is is overflowing with love, and then you
reach to a point where you're captive and
then you become slave of it. That's the
9th level of it.
And of course the final level is where
you become khalil and khalil is where the
heart is so filled that there's no place
for anything else that there's no place for
anyone else you only have one love, one
friend, one one person who is in the
heart and no one else
and that is Khalil.
So and, of course, this is,
in this science, but in various other science,
there there are other configurations
of these degrees with other labels. Like, imam
al Sarrabi in his, fakul laga.
He
added
1 in the beginning which is
you start with just,
general
yearning to just taste you. I I like
something with
that is linked to the desire,
but
it follows
the same development even though they might have
different names is that this is a,
a process of love, a process of develop
of developing love where love increases
in intensity
and it reaches out, it reaches slavery
and and you're it's it's a beautiful thing
to be in love to that degree that's
so if you're if if you are if
you
manifest if you,
manifest true love,
then you will be true.
You will be a perfect servant. You will
be a perfect slave for Allah.
Of course, Khalil
is a different,
level above that, but that's the point here
in.
And he's so he's saying that, well,
It's it's avoiding things that are,
disinclination and,
hatred, dislike of something that you're avoiding.
And if and likewise, how you can traverse
the degrees of love to reach the,
the. In this one, he's saying that in
in, which is dislike, which is things that
is disinclination
you can move into the in in the
direction in in the opposite direction and then
and then you reach to a point that
is mocked which is abomination
intense dislike.
And so this is the,
basis for the true meaning of the word,
that is necessary.
Now the the next thing is,
is that
that when it is,
love is
then
follows
it follows perceptions and knowledge
then it will be divided according to with
by necessity
it will be divided
according to the perceptibles
and the senses
For every sense,
there is a perceptible,
of a particular kind for perception for there
is a there is a a perception of
perceptibles,
things that you can perceive.
And for each one of these,
there is a there is a joy in
perceiving it in in the perceptible.
Well, and it and that creates that inclination
towards it.
In the and he he said that if
your nature is
sound, if it's not been corrupted, and we
have a lot of corrupted natures in our
time today nowadays. But so so he's saying
he's he's
giving this
prerequisite that a person,
if
their natural disposition, if their
fitra has not been corrupted, then
so the joy of the eye is in
seeing
seeing beautiful things
and beautiful images
and
nice things.
And the
joy of the ears is in seeing is
in hearing,
beautiful tunes and harmonious
sounds.
Whatever to Shem and the joy of the
sense of smell is in,
perfume is is in fragrance,
is in nice fragrance that you have beautiful
fragrance, sweet fragrance.
And
and
the joy of taste, of the sense of
taste is in food.
And the joy of touch is in the
is is in,
softness and smoothness.
Because they are joyful,
these
senses
are
these perceptibles, the senses
are enjoyable, then they are beloved.
So for a sound
instinct, for a sound,
disposition,
it will create it will create
a connection, a
an inclination to it.
That
said that I was made to love from
of your world 3 things.
That I was given that I I was
made to love.
Allah put this in his heart to love
perfume and to love women and to love
the prayer. And of course, he said
that
my the greatest pleasure in this world
was prayer.
But Hashem, so and he's saying that
and
salah it's very clear here that there's no
portion for the eye or the
hearing of joy in the salah. This is
something deep inside
and he has made it
the highest form of beloved the prayer is
the highest form of beloved
so what we learn from this so
it is not directly related to the senses
The the joy that you get from salah
is not directly related to the senses.
But a 6th sense.
And the place of it, the place of
this 6th sense
is in the heart.
And it is only those who have a
heart, whose heart and sound will experience that.
So
then we have
that it is clear that human beings that
does not
it does it is no secret that people
love themselves.
And it is also,
not hidden that people may love others in,
for themselves in in in the interest of
themselves.
And it is also imaginable that a person
may love someone else not for themselves,
but but for love them,
for themselves.
And this what this is what may be
difficult for for the weak people
And people
find it hard to understand that a person
may love someone without an ulterior motive just
for loving them for themselves and it does
not come back to them the the joy
of loving them does not come back.
He said then the truth is that such
a love exists.
So we have to and he says
that
the beloved the first beloved of everyone is
themselves.
That that you have a inclination in the
in the self,
towards
your existence
and towards the continuation of your existence
and a disinclination
towards
your nonexistence
and your destruction.
Because this is something that
your your
that will keep your existence and you will
and and this is,
this this is comforting to you to have
to have such a,
a feature.
Why are you saying
So the the thing that is that brings
the greatest comfort is to know that you
are that that you will continue to exist,
and the thing that brings the greatest,
dislike is the thing is is the thing
that will bring you out of existence.
So
just as
the room that the continuity of your existence
is beloved,
so also is the perfection of your existence
is beloved.
That if there is some insufficiency
then
to the extent of that insufficiency
it is non existence.
So that is a problem,
and that is disliked.
So
the first lovable thing naturally that a person
is inclined to love is themselves.
And then
the security or the safety of
his body, his his,
arms, legs, his his the he himself,
then his wealth,
and then his family and his,
and his
friends and people around him, etcetera.
So
by then, he's saying
So the first,
beloved is
himself,
his
completeness of himself, his continuation of himself,
and he dislikes
the opposite to that. So this is the
first of the reasons of love.
And the second reason was.
The second reason of for love is, uhhsan,
which is
kindness.
Abdul Uhsan that the human being
is a slave
to kindness
and the hearts
have been
placed on a primordial disposition
to love those who are kind to them
and to dislike those who are those who
are unkind to them
that do not
make a sinful person
do be kind to me. Yet in in
other words, giving me the person who extends
his
hand of help towards me.
That a person I a sinful person to
help me and then my heart will love
him. So do not make that happen.
So in this is the secret.
And in this, there is this indication that
the love of the heart of the one
who shows kindness to you
is
automatic, and it's it's it's compulsory. It's it's
it's by necessity. It happens.
You it it it is impossible to to
repel it.
And it is instinctive. It's natural. It is
the fitrah. It it is and there is
no way of changing this.
And this is how a person may love
a a strange a stranger.
A person may love a stranger
between whom there is no connection of family
or nothing or no kind of connection, but
you will end up loving them because of
because of kindness. You've done some people do
kindness to you.
But he's saying that if when this is
manifested,
it returns to
the first reason for love. What was the
first reason of love? The first reason for
love was loving yourself. So he's
saying,
There are all of these things that comes
back that that that a person may help
you with
is
it will lead to either
your extent of the continuation of your existence
or the perfection of your existence. That is
how you the the kindness that you receive
pour into these two
needs that you have.
There are things through which your existence is
is is is, is taken care of.
But there's a difference
in the type of love that you have
for this person. You love yourself, your body,
and everything directly. There is no mediator. There's
no reason,
other than you're loving yourself.
But when it comes to people who are
who have done good for you,
there is it is not the
direct. It is not direct, but there is
a reason.
And he gives an example to explain this.
He said it's like the doctor.
That the like, the
doctor who is becomes a means through which
your
body is preserved your body is preserved.
So there's a difference between the love
of health
and the love of the doctor through whom
you are receiving your,
means of health.
That
health is something that is required of itself.
That that that that and the the the
doctor is
you're
acquiring,
you're loving him because you're you're acquiring
health through him.
And so it is about and so it
is in relation to knowledge.
Your teacher is beloved to you, but the
love of knowledge
is the thing that is
that takes precedent in your in in yourself.
Well,
So the the teacher is beloved because of
your love for knowledge.
And he said, so it is for food
and,
and drink. It is beloved.
And
so our,
love of wealth, but
that food is loved for itself.
But
wealth, but
money
is loved
because it is a means to food. You
don't eat for itself. You don't eat your
money.
So
the difference is difference in degrees of,
relation to your own to loving yourself.
So there they return to the love of
a person of themselves
so that's number 2
number 2 was
number 3 is
the and
to love something for in itself
and
that there's nothing to be gained other than
loving it for itself for its own existence
that just loving it for what it is
and this is the true love that,
that you find
that you can have confidence in
and the example of this is loving beautiful
things
that you love them for themselves because they
are beautiful They're they're
pleasing.
Anything that is beautiful
is beloved.
It's
beloved to the perceiver. Beauty
is beloved in the eye of the of
the perceiver.
Because of because of the beauty in it.
And the reason for this is that there
is pleasure
in the apprehending of beautiful things. So there
is pleasure in that.
This is not for anything
any ulterior,
reason.
That Rasulullah
used to love the,
greenery and running water because that's a pleasing
scene when if if you look at it,
it it brings comfort. It's it's it's enjoyable
in itself.
And these are the reasons for love,
he said.
Okay.
Where are we? Okay.
For Hazihi, Asbab, so these are the reasons
for love.
And every pleasurable thing is beloved.
And anything that is beautiful in itself and
please,
nice things,
then it has a joy of its own
to the perceiver.
And no one can deny this fact that
the things beautiful things are beloved
now think about this that if it is
confirmed here that Allah is beautiful
for intabata
if if it's confirmed in our heart that
Allah
is beautiful
then
by necessity
we cannot
but love Allah.
For the one in whose heart
the beauty of Allah
and the magnificence of Allah is opened then
can they will not just as we are
naturally attached to or naturally inclined towards loving
beautiful things knowing that Allah is beautiful
by recognizing
that in the heart then
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said
that Allah is beautiful
and he loves beauty.
That Allah
loves Allah is beautiful and he loves beauty.
Now
there's
more about
means of
love,
but,
we've run out of time to continue.
In relation to the first one, I want
you to I I I want to read
that how how does this relate
to the,
how does this relate to these 5 questions?
The questions we we we looked at was
what is love,
what do what do we love instinctively, how
do we fall in love, what are the
reasons for love and on a scale of
priority who is more deserving of our love.
The number 5 for the first one the
first one is that you love yourself right
so you love you you love your yourself,
you love the
existence of yourself, you love the continuity of
the existence of yourself, the love you love
the completion of the completeness of yourself.
Now he's saying that
in this so in relation to this what
how does it relate to our love of
for Allah he's saying
that all love will
love links up to the love of Allah
and anyone who loves any other thing without
that link
is will only do so
due to their ignorance of the love of
Allah And he says
that
That this a person who loves themselves and
loves
the continuity of the existence of themselves and
love
their,
completeness of themselves,
then that person
must love by necessity
Allah more than anything else because
for the one who knows himself in truth,
who knows the the true self
and the one who recognizes his lord
he will definitely know
that he
that he has no existence of himself
from himself.
He did not bring himself into existence. She
did not bring herself into existence.
We did not come into existence by ourselves.
That verily,
his existence
and his and the continuity of his existence
and the perfection of his existence is
from Allah.
Min Allah
and with Allah. Billahw illallah unto Allah.
This sentence has to be ingrained in our
mind that when we love ourselves
then we should know that our existence
did not come
by
ourself.
That
that is what we need to keep that
these sentences that
we were brought into existence we did not
submit an application
to be to exist.
Allah
through his mercy
and through his
compassion
and through his wisdom brought us into existence.
It is with Allah that we will exist
so if you love yourself then you must
love Allah by a greater degree because Allah
is the one who brought you and your
exit the continuity of your existence
billah it is with Allah and
it is to Allah illallah
it is the return to Allah
that will
determine
what kind of existence, what kind of kamal,
what kind of completion you will have to
your existence.
Whether that return is a return into mercy
or return into anger. That is the question.
So when it comes to loving things,
when it comes to loving ourselves,
that is the first
hurdle that we mental hurdle we need to
we need to clear in our minds that
we are connected. We're connected to our Creator
through this creation
and our love He is more deserving of
it than anyone else that is where it
starts.
Okay that much for today InshaAllah we will
continue next week answering the other questions.
Let's pray.