Riyad Nadwi – 15. Imam Ghazali on Ikhlas
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Yes. Assalamu alaikum.
Are we ready to in the class setup?
Oh, okay.
Assalamu alaikum brothers and sisters.
Welcome to
our 15th session in our series studying Imam
al Zali's teachings on sincerity,
intentions, and verbal habits.
In our last session, we talked about the
need for balance.
The need for balance between hope and fear,
and that strong hope
is that hope
which is rooted in love.
And as Muslims,
we need our hope for reward and sincerity
to be rooted in the love for Allah.
Our discussion revolved around
the 5 questions. 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, what is
the most who is the most deserving of
our love?
Now in answer to the first question, what
is love and attachment,
we
reflected on the fact that on account of
limited vocabulary
and excessive indulgence in our world today,
conceptions of love are misplaced
and,
are well, and as in the example, we
found that the very young people
falling in are in love
and being more attached to
devices than they are to other human beings
in their lives.
We also looked at the rich vocabulary of
love
in Arabic and its arrangement into 10 degrees
of intensity.
1st, the alaka, first, the alaka, which is
the,
special,
kind of attachment, then, the
will and pursuance of that attachment,
then the Sababa,
which is the warming of the attachment and
turning into deep love,
and then haram
locked into attachment,
then wood, purity, and love,
then shagaf,
love extending to the extremities of the heart,
and then ishq,
love that
overpowers the individual,
and then,
which is the captive love, and,
which is the slave to love, and finally,
which was where there is no space left
in the heart for the love of anything
else.
We reflected on the word
also as slave
described here as the 9th degree of love.
And in that,
we see that it is
a far cry from our popular
mental simulations of the war of
images attached to the word.
In this one, we're we can conceive
something pleasant and desirable for our soul in
the word as
the 9th degree of love.
Also, in pondering the text about love, there
were 10 broad points that emerged.
The first was
that there could be no love without familiarity.
You cannot love that which you do not
know. So that was the first point.
The second point was that
things we perceive fall into 3 broad categories.
Those that are pleasing, those that are displeasing,
and those that are neutral.
Number 3 was that we are predisposed
to loving things that are pleasing and comforting,
and we are also predisposed to loathing or
disliking things that cause pain.
And there's, of course, a
way to to comprehend pain,
and the presence of pain for and for
this, I want to give you a a
bite sized reflection
on the on the presence of pain because
this is
a question that we often face. People comes
come up and ask
why is there pain in the world? This
is a question that's posed to people of
faith.
And so our answer to this in a
bite size is that if there were no
pain in the world, what do you what
would you imagine would happen?
If all the pain receptors were taken away,
what would happen? The
well, for a start, we would chew and
swallow our tongues
every time we eat because we would not
be able to distinguish between our tongue and
a piece of meat in our mouth.
The pain receptors in our bodies are in
fact
an alarm system placed in us by Allah
to warn us
of when something is wrong.
It's it it it it it is there
to warn the system to react, to do
something about it.
He has created
with these nociceptors,
which are these free,
bare endings of nerve endings
in the skin, in the muscle, in the
joints,
in the bone, and also in the visceral
organs in the cavity of the body.
And there's
these
they're there for one purpose, and that purpose
is to warn us and to warn the
brain to set off the emergency. It's an
alarm that goes off when something is wrong
and they something needs to be done about
it.
For example,
the skin
is the first line of defense against harmful
bodies, harmful,
organisms entering into your body. It's it it
the skin is the first line of defense.
Now when
that pain alarm in the skin
fails, the body is easily invaded.
And if you
look at the way amputation is done for
people with diabetes,
they have their legs amputated without anesthetic.
And the reason for that is that the
pain result of these pain receptors in there
we we have around 200
pain receptors in every square centimeter of our
skin.
And in diabetes when we have prolonged diabetes
and it and it goes,
these receptors are damaged, then for them, cutting
the leg is like cutting a piece of
cardboard.
So pain and pain receptors
are part of an alarm system that is
indeed a
blessing in disguise built into us by Allah
to protect us. Even psychogenic pain comes back
to these physical
mechanisms that of alarm that Allah has put
in us so that we can recognize something
is wrong. Now take away all the pain
receptors from the human body in the world
and the harm will be unimaginable.
So, yeah, that's your bite size for this.
Keep that thought in mind the next time
you're questioned about why is there pain in
the world. Well, what would be the alternative?
Number 4 was that what is meant by
love?
We learned that it was.
It's an it's an inclined disposition
towards something through which joy and comfort is
obtained.
But that's just the beginning. That's just the
that's the overall. But then when you follow
it, it has much deeper meanings.
Now how does this compare with modern conceptions
of love? The what we discussed,
if we were to compare that with modern
conceptions of love, we'll find that the
modern conceptions of love
are somewhat muddled and can be confusing because
of
a heavy fixation on passionate love, on erotic
love.
In fact, although love is considered a basic
human emotion,
the understanding of how and why it happens
is often muddled in in the theories,
or just simply dismissed on grounds of being
too primal or mysterious,
to be understood.
Psychologists,
of course, have various theories,
such as, the triangular theory of love and
the color wheel model and the liking and
loving.
But but in all of these, what we
find is that there is a fixation on
passionate and erotic love,
and that often limits the grasp of,
of it. It it the the grasping and
the to to truly understand,
because of the way in which we use
language about love in general.
Now take one example.
Take the word making.
Until the 19 forties up until the 19
forties,
the word making when attached
to the word love
meant showing attention to someone. That's what's meant
or or quoting someone. It's it's all that's
all it meant.
But now in our language, due to sexualization
of so many aspects of our lives,
today, that construct is completely restricted to only
one particular meaning,
only to a carnal denotation.
You couldn't use that now in that sense,
in the sense of showing attention.
Even though if you look at
literature and poetry just a few decades ago,
you will find that the
this construct
is employed in the meaning of showing attention
to someone.
And now it has
completely
it is become completely restricted
to only the meaning one meaning alone.
And, yes, indeed, that in in
that meaning is is an expression of love.
It is an expression of love, but not
all of it. But
and
that is not the only form of making,
and, of it.
And that is the problem. Here here is
the problem. Our language
gets more and more,
as it gets more and more focused and
restricted to narrow carnal desires,
then that restricts our ability to
envisit to to grasp the full meaning of
it, which, of course, is due to,
in in our day, it is due to
the pernicious
influence, the this ubiquitous and pernicious influence of
the outrageous theories of Freud.
And because of this, we are losing our
ability to appreciate
the nuances of our emotions about
our about ourselves and also about our the
world around us.
And as you can see here, the changes
in our verbal habits of this sort can
result in a restriction of our ability to
conceptualize
and appreciate the full meaning of love.
Language, you should know,
and this is why I've we've we've we've
added verbal habits to the title of this
series,
is that language
plays a major role in the way we
perceive and think about the world around us.
And let me give you another bite size
about this.
Bite size about language and the effect it
has on you on your ability to perceive
things in the world and concrete things.
If you do not have a word for
a particular
spectrum of color in your language, you will
find it hard to see that color.
In Polish, they there's a word for the
color blue. It's.
And then they also have another word for
light blue and which is
distinct. They have and they have,
and
these are 2 distinct independent colors in Polish,
and it's so it is in Russian and
Hungarian as well. It's it's in that part
of the world. It's a big distinguish between
blue and light blue with 2 dis as
as they see it as 2 different colors.
So if you show a Polish speaker,
a spectrum of blue and light blue squares,
they will distinguish
more varieties of color than an English speech
speaker will be able to do. English speakers
will not be able to see the full
variety because of our language.
Language
English will not has not has not,
trained our brains to see that. So we
wouldn't be able to do so.
We wouldn't be able to see the full
variety,
of
of colors in there. Whereas the Polish person
will see 2 distinct colors
and will be able to use a qualifier
for each independent color. And don't be confused.
We are using this qualifier light for blue
for light blue. So they have Sydney and
Niebieski.
Niebieski
is what we would call light blue, but
that's a distinct color for them. So this
qualifier that we are using as light, we
are saying light blue,
the Polish person will come along and put
a qualifier on Niebieski.
He he will say
which means which if we were to translate
that, that would be dark light blue.
And if you show, he will show you
the two different colors,
and he will say, hello. This is Niebieski,
and this is.
And that and we will see this both.
That there's no difference between the 2.
But and that has to do with language.
That it's translated through how we were trained
to see things with with the labels we're
given.
So language
plays a major role in the way we
perceive
phenomenon in our world.
And if the word we use for love
is gradually being reduced
to just one form of conception, as we
saw happened,
when used in combination with
this word of, with another word, with making,
then this has tremendous consequences for our understanding
of love in general. And this is why
I say that even if we cannot learn
to speak Arabic, and and I think everyone
should have an an intention to learn Arabic
and to learn to learn these sciences. This
is part and parcel of our culture part
and parcel of our culture. So we should
have an intention and try. But if you
cannot, then at least,
you should
try to enrich your vocabulary, the English vocabulary,
with Arabic terminology.
Use Arabic terminology. And this is not some
new thank you, you know,
revolutionary
new idea.
Just look at the hard sciences and you
will find an abundance of Arabic terms from
astronomy to mathematics and beyond.
Algebra is.
And
it
in fact, there are approximately
1,000 Arabic loan words in English. So adding
a few more to help you steer your
life in the right direction is not too
much to ask. And this is why I
insist that we use
terms like and
when we're talking about these things So that
they don't
so that we will we will not become
trapped, and and and these can become part
of our day to day vocabulary.
And in so doing,
save us from having to deal with the
baggage of other terms where the consequences are
potentially dangerous.
Nowadays, many marriages are failing,
the the the they're falling apart because of
misconstrued notions of love. People go into love
and have
completely,
bizarre ideas of what love is.
People need a new source of vocabulary that
is not susceptible to the kind of linguistic
drift such as we are experiencing with modern
English today,
where
only amateur meanings and postmodernist deconstructions are allowed.
But this is a whole other topic, for
another time. But here,
to come back to our topic, Imam Ghazali's
explanation of love.
Though in the first instance, it might seem
simplistic, but if you follow the discussion
through to its conclusion,
you will find that it is not only
deep and comprehensive,
but it is also a source of release.
It's a source of it grants you escape
from that narrow confine of modern conception of
the word love.
Imam,
hadith al Muhasibi. Al Muhasibi,
summarizes
what is meant in the Islamic conception of
love beautifully here, and I'm going to read
that. I'll read the English alone
time. Okay.
He says he says love is to incline
to a thing
with your whole being
and then to prefer it over your own
soul your spirit and your own property
Then to be in a harmonious
accord with it inwardly
and outwardly,
and then to know that even after all
of this, you're still deficient in your love
for it.
I'll repeat that.
Love is to incline to a thing with
your whole being,
then to prefer it over your own soul,
your own spirit, and your own property,
and then to be in a harmonious accord
with it inwardly and outwardly,
and then to know that even after all
of this, you're still deficient in your love
for it. In other words,
always seeking to be more in love with
the object of your love.
Whereas in the modern conception, love is often
muddled with transactional conceptions where we're in love
with someone, but we expect them to behave
and act only in accordance with our wishes.
Whereas in true love, it is the reverse
of that. You are
you are the one who becomes the captive.
You're the one who becomes the follower, and
and and and you're the one who starts
to feel obliged to follow and fulfill
every wish and command of your beloved. You
know, there's a story of, I saw, I
remember here is, that of, the story of
case,
Leila and case, Leila
and Leila and.
And some of the scholars quote the story,
for focus.
They they they once
he was he saw the dog
from the village of Leila,
and he started following it.
And it so happened the dog walked through
the forest, and some people were praying, and
he walked across their prayer mat.
And later on, the people caught up with
him in the journey and they asked him,
they said, look, we were praying and you
walked straight across the prayer mat. Didn't you
see us? And he said, he asked them,
he said, were you
involved in the praises and thinking about your
beloved Allah were you?
And he said yes
they they said of course we were praying
to Allah
and he said well I was following
the dog from the village of my beloved
and I swear by Allah, I did not
see you, but you saw me. So the
moral of the story was that, of course,
when in pursuit of the beloved one develops,
probably just see doesn't see anything else. And
that's the kind of
aspiration we should have for our love with
Allah that's and it it it completely encapsulates
us, not that we go walking walking in
front of of people and they're praying as
we shouldn't,
there is,
expectation about avoiding this. But
the moral here is that
to have this is something in the heart.
Okay. Now
number 5 is that each of the 5
senses have their own pathways to love through
the things we enjoy.
Our sight enjoys seeing beautiful images. Our ears
enjoy listening to beautiful voices
and harmonious sounds.
Our tongue enjoy tasting delicious food, and we
like to touch smooth and soft things.
Number 6 was that there is a 6th
sense
of pleasure
located in the heart.
That is not the 5, a 6th sense
as in the pleasure we get from prayer.
That only the one who has a sound
heart, who has a heart that is free
from corrupting influences will taste and enjoy that.
So there's an internal joy to be gained.
Number 7 was that human beings primarily
love themselves.
They love themselves and they love things that
are connected to that. Like love
of the perfection of themselves, love of the
continuity
of existence of themselves.
And that is of course the first reason
for love, the love of the self.
The second reason for love is kindness.
That that
the human being is a slave to kindness,
which is natural and automatic. You cannot help
loving people who are kind to you.
Number 9 was that the third reason for
love
is the beauty we perceive in things themselves
as a rose,
such as a rose.
The love we have for a rose is
for for its own beauty.
And here we are reminded also and told
in the hadith that
that
that that Allah is beautiful and Allah loves
beauty.
And
and so that alone should be sufficient reason
for loving Allah.
And then finally, number 10 was that,
and which is further to the the 11th
point, the the the no. Number the 10th
point was that we should, love our that
if we love ourselves and love the continuity
of ourselves
and love the perfection of ourselves then by
a greater degree of necessity we should love
Allah
because
he
anyone who knows himself and knows Allah will
know surely
that he or she does not exist by
themselves,
but they exist they exist
only by the will of Allah. We did
not submit an application to come into existence.
It is Allah who brought us out of
nonexistence into existence.
Allah says in the Quran
Has there not been
over mankind, over man, a long period when
he was nothing?
He was nothing.
And not even mentioned.
Not even mentioned.
So
we will
read now,
Okay. 388.
Let's complete that page.
Yeah. So
in emphasizing that,
we're being told here that
that
That his existence, his the continuity of his
existence and the perfection of his existence
is with Allah. It is from Allah. It
is with Allah and it is and it's
to Allah.
That he's the one, the initiator of the
one in that brought him into existence.
That Allah is the one.
And he is the one who preserves it.
And he is the one who will complete
your existence.
By creating these characteristics
for perfection.
And he has created
the means through which your existence and the
continuity of your existence
will will happen.
And then creating
guidance
towards the use, towards the exploitation, towards the
using of these the using of these means,
the exploiting these means.
And were were this not to be the
case
for the person from the perspective of his
own self has no existence
that he is complete he's erased he's completely
erased from existent, non existent
That if Allah did not bring him into
existence, he's complete non existence as we read
in the ayah.
And he will also and even if he
manages to come into existence,
he will be he would have been destroyed
immediately
after coming into existence.
I
think
that
had
it not been
for
the presence had it not been for the
presence of the bounty of Allah that caused
him to survive and and may make make
him make him preserve preserve
his existence
after coming into existence.
And
he's incomplete after coming into existence
and he is incomplete when he comes into
existence
had Allah not
perfected his
completed his existence.
And in summary
that there's nothing in existence
that that that is in existence of its
own in of its own self
except with the sustainer of its existence.
The name of Allah
the sustainer of all existence
the the the ever alive, the the the
ever living with which everything
depends upon which everything depends.
And everything other than him, it it depends
upon him.
That when you love yourself, if someone knows
knows themselves and they love themselves, then they
will they will,
by necessity, have to love the one with
whom their existence depends, the one upon whom
their their existence depends, and the one upon
whom their the continuity of their existence depends.
That he be if he if he realizes,
if he when when we have internalized this
fact that it is with Allah that are
that has brought us into existence, we are
in we we and and preserving of our
existence,
and there and we cannot exist without him.
And if we do not love Allah for
this, then that will be only
due to our ignorance of Allah and ignorance
of ourselves, ignorance of the true nature of
ourselves and the ignorance of Allah. Well,
and as we said in the beginning, that
that love is the fruit of knowledge. You
have to know.
And that if your if your knowledge goes,
then you then if your knowledge is weak
if your knowledge
dissipates and so with
with your will your love and if it's
weakened, so will your love and if it's
strengthened, so will your love.
That whoever loves whoever
recognizes Allah who knows Allah then he will
by necessity love him, he will love him
and whoever
really realizes or understands true nature of this
world, then he will be disinclined
from it.
Okay. So now we will go back to
dealing with
the reasons of love.
Right. Okay.
So
we also read
that
we love
things because they are beloved. That that we
love,
we fall in love with things because of
their of the beauty inherent in them.
So what is the meaning of beauty
in
our understanding? Well, what is it that
what is inherent in things that make them
beautiful?
Excuse
me.
Something that
is
that that
and this comes back to
the discussion we had last,
about the visual nature of our culture, the
culture in which we have that we we
we have we focus heavily on the external,
on on the forms, on the shape of
show. And this is why the preponderance
of our tendency to want to show because
we we focus on we we are we
have heavy focus on the external form. So
he's saying here that and that the,
if you
That only the external forms, that there is
no that there is no beauty except
the what what the senses can perceive, the
the external self.
The beauty of that that that is apprehended
from colors and from shapes
and from images.
And from
the characteristic that you look for the beauty
of an of a of a human being.
And he's saying
so
the beauty of the eye is the thing
is is the dominant one.
And because people generally
look at
beautiful things and they are,
the source through which we
apprehend beauty is
through the eyes,
we That's something that is not apprehended
with the eye or
imagined,
that is,
arranged in these in these shapes
and in these colors or in these imagined
colors, then it cannot be beautiful.
And I said,
that you you cannot imagine that something can
be beautiful beautiful.
Because you you that there will be no
joy in such a thing.
And then it will not be beloved.
And this is a clear mistake. And
this is what he's saying. He's saying that
beauty
is not limited
to the perceptibles of the eye, things that
are perceptible to the eye alone.
That's not so.
He
said,
that beauty
and and nice things
are are also present in things that are
not apprehended directly by the senses.
Is just as you say that this is
good character.
And, how that this is good knowledge.
This is a good,
a a a a good, biography.
And these are good characteristics.
And verily a good,
good conduct, good characteristic, good character
is by by that is intended,
That when you say a person has good
character,
you're talking about knowledge, you're talking about,
intellect,
chastity,
courage,
god consciousness, kindness,
chivalry, and all the good qualities.
And and one of these things is not
necessarily apprehended directly by by the senses.
It it is it it is apprehended through
something inside,
a a a nur, a light, an internal
light, basira, which is in in
insight perspicacity.
And
and all of these are beautiful.
That the that people who have these qualities
are beloved
to anyone who who recognizes them, who recognizes
these qualities.
That and and one of the signs of
this is that
that we're that the the disposition that the
natural disposition of people is to love prophets.
To love prophets.
And to love Muslims, we we love the
Sahaba
in spite of us never seeing them. We've
never seen the prophets. We've never seen the
Sahaba but we love them.
And
there are people who love the the the
leaders of the of the Madhabs, the
the scholars of the mithra shafiri, Wabi Hanifa,
Omerik,
He said we we love them.
And he said the people may go into
excess and go into extreme over their love
and,
for people of the
so to tell
I'd like to I'd like to know he's
he's putting this in in form of a
question. He said,
or in in in astonishment,
that the person who loves Imam Shafiri,
why does he love him?
That he's never seen his picture. He's never
seen Imam Shafi's picture, but he loves Imam
Shafi.
That and it is possible that he might
see if even if he sees the picture,
he might not think it as beautiful,
but
but he loves
him.
So his
apprehending, his loving love,
featuring his apprehension of love,
his conception of love for imam Abu Hani,
Imam Sha'afiri,
and
exce excelling in the love for that for
imam Sha'afiri
is
on the basis of an internal image of
something deep inside
not for his external form.
Look, that's all gone into the grave.
That he loves him, that the love is
based on internal characteristics.
From
that dean and his his his his god
consciousness
and the depth of his knowledge
and his vast,
grasp of the
and his efforts to spread the Deen
spreading it all over the world
And these this beauty is not
recognized
except through an internal the an internal perspicacity
and a a a an insight an internal
insight.
For Amal Hawass, the
the direct senses are not related to this.
And so it is for the one who
loves Abu Bakr and
and
and prefers him over others.
And
those who love and
they
are strict about the in their obedience to
him in in promoting him.
It's
making the same knowledge, the same point about
the about these these Sahaba that you would
love you would love your little loving them
for something deep inside
which is their knowledge, their deen, their taqwa,
their shajar, their
alayhi.
That the he doesn't love him. That the
person who loves Abu Bakr
he does not love him for he for
the flesh of his body and his bones
and his skin
and his and his shape.
He's
okay.
So the point here,
that when people describe,
this was a very,
generous man.
And and they,
and when they describe as
with courage,
The love
enters into the heart by the group of
necessity even because of the description,
because of the qualities they have. When I
say that it came in
and not due to this visual
representation, you know. And, and this also links
back to what what we say about that
about today's world is that you people aren't
even even reading books and getting meanings. We
we we want to see it all. We
want to see pictures of it. And you
should know that, there's
a
strong
restriction and and a corruption. If you read
a book and then see the movie, people
talk about how it has destroyed their image
of what they had in the book because
it's it's this corrupted it corrupts the power
of your own imagination.
Okay. So he's saying also
that they love him,
not for an for the vision, for for
the external
form,
and also not for something that they will
gain from him.
If you if you come across the biographies
of some of some past or some generous
king of the world who were just and
who were kind and who did lots of
good things, then the love of that king
comes into your heart.
And even though you have nothing
to gain
from his kindness or nothing but the the
fact of knowing that there's that someone has
demonstrated kindness.
It's so far away. You wouldn't be able
to benefit from it. And in fact, there
are some psychological studies that show this, that
people's sense of well-being increases. They feel feel
good when they hear that other people in
different parts of the world are being helped.
So you
get a sense of a boost,
a sense of,
goodwill and feeling,
good feeling in your heart when you help
people, when you see others help people, when
people help you. But when you see others
getting help also, it's the same as if
you are helping. It's it it it
creates a sensation of love and appreciation for
it in your heart naturally.
This has been
confirmed
by
studies,
psychological studies.
So it's not only
who the love of the human being is
not only is not
dependent only, is not limited to people who
have done good to you. But the one
who is who is kind in himself is
also lovable.
People who kind people are loved
in themselves,
whether that love comes to you or not.
So now,
That anything that is beautiful or kind,
is beloved. And so when a person is
good, when a person does good, then that
kindness. And according to some of the other
manuscripts of this book, the the he's listed
that as the 5th reason for love. But,
I've added that to so it becomes 5
reasons. But in this text that I'm reading,
it's it's only 4. They've restricted it to
4.
The 4th reason
for love
is that there is
that there is
a that there is some subtle connection
between the lover and the loved,
between the lover and the beloved.
That there is no people may fall in
love
even if there is no connection of beauty
or anything to
any exchange of kindness or exchange of favor.
Just
that there is a connection,
a between a subtle connection between the souls.
And the way they explain this is is
that in hadith, we are told that
that the souls
are like marshaled soldiers soldiers.
When you marshal soldiers, when soldiers are marshaled
into into lines and doom,
that those that that are close to each
other and become familiarize themselves,
and those that were distant remain distant.
And this is in relation to the in
the Quran where Allah says
that Allah
took all the souls out of the backs
of the children of Adam
and stood them all up and had a
conversation with them and took an oath. And
he said,
they said, yeah, of course.
Am I not your lord? And he said
and then we all said, yes. Of course,
you are our lord. And this was an
oath that Allah took in order
to put the put the proof over us.
So on the day of judgment, we will
not be able to say. The ayah continues.
It says,
that we that so that you you will
not be able to say that you are
unaware of this because deep in your soul,
there's a connection,
there's a there's a record
of that meeting with Allah. And that meeting
not only with Allah as he's saying here
now is that
is that there's meeting of the souls of
each other. So there's some connection. So when
you meet somebody immediately,
you feel that, oh, this person I know
this person, even though you've never met ever.
So that is a subtle connection through which
love can develop.
So in conclusion, in so
that the that the types of love are
they fall into these 5 categories.
That the love that he falls into, that
he loves
himself
and he loves the existence of himself and
he loves the completion of himself and the
continuity of himself. That's the first.
And then the ones who
are beloved to him, the ones who the
the ones who are kind to him, who
show favor.
And this one returns back to his own
existence because kindness to you, you receiving favor
serves your own,
continuity, your own preservation.
And loving those who are kind, who are
the people who are kind to people, that
is also lovable.
Even though the the kindness is not towards
him directly
and love of everything that is beloved that
is beautiful in itself
That anything that is beautiful, whether it is
the external or the internal. So we have
2 conceptions
of beauty. We have external beauty and internal
beauty.
And and then love of the person within
with with whom
you have a subtle connection.
Follow.
And now he asked the question.
And here
is
where it gets
deep. He says, follow.
Now imagine if all these reasons for love,
all these causes of love
were to be
manifested
in 1 person.
The
that the love for that person
will be
will will be intense
if if if all of those qualities,
all of these reasons are found in just
one. And he gives the example. Come here.
That if a man, for instance, had a
beautiful son,
very good conduct, beautiful conduct
and he had lots of knowledge of deen,
everything, all the knowledge.
And
he was very good, efficient
organizer of himself and his life.
And he was generous to people.
And,
and
and he was kind to his father.
Such a person, such a son
will be beloved
So
the
love will be intense, and and the intensity
of the love
of of the
combining of all these law of of all
these characteristics in one person will be according
to the level of those characteristics
in that person.
If the person the level of the characteristics
would determine
the level of the love.
So now he's saying that
that the love will be of will be
in high
degrees it will enter into very high degrees
so now let us let let us
speak let us let us explain
that all of these reasons, these causes, these
reasons for love
are not imaginable
in anyone else.
In its full complete perfect
perfect existence
and coming all at once
except
in
Allah except in relation to Allah alone
all of these characters that we've come that
we've read about and spoke about and are
pondering
all of these in their fullest form is
in Allah alone
only in
Allah.
So
the having that you will see that the
most deserving of all
in for of our love is Allah because
he is most deserving of it. There's no
one more deserving of this love
like Allah.
Okay. What's your time? Yes.
Okay. So we will
explain
those in more detail Insha'Allah in this that
part of it next next week Insha'Allah.
Now,
it is the
beginning of
the,
month of Shaaban is is is upon us,
and,
I think it's important that we,
bear in mind,
a few things.
First, it's is the hadith that Rasool Allah
SAW Salam used to say, used to make
a dua. Some people raise questions about this
hadith, but it is the dua of the
salihi. And if you don't want to accept
that that this is a dua of Rasool
Allah SAW Salam then it is the dua
of the Sahihin of the pious people
Ramadan.
That that oh Allah
make
give us Baraka. And Baraka is also another
term that there's no equivalent in Arabic for
it in English. Sorry. There's no equivalent in
English for it. So we should start using
the word Baraka and recognizing. Barakah is the
thing that leads that
where you where where little will serve a
lot and and something that will that is
ultimately
that is ultimately beneficial. Because we can have
lots of good things in this world and
it turn out to be trouble in the.
But barakah is something that gives that that
is e that is eternally good. So barakah
is where you can have a little amount
of of of something, and it can last
you for
it can suffice you
for, for an abundance of it. So that
is barakat. So what is the barakat that
we need for these months? In the month
of
Shaba, and that's now, you know,
approaching us,
used to do
one thing which was noticeable, and the Sahaba
asked him, you know, they say he said,
That I did not see you fast as
much as you fast in
other than Ramadan, of course, but in the
month of Ramadan, in the month of Shaaban.
So fasting
regularly in the month of Shaaban is a
sunnah. This is a confirmed sunnah. So don't
let don't get him don't don't get don't
allow yourself to be for to to be
taken up by the discussions about what is
and what is not in this this. This
is confirmed. And, of course, in the 3,
the
the,
13, 14, 15,
These are
the the nights when when the night when
when when when the when the moon is
out,
the the the bright nights. Though, those those
days are,
for fasting, and then you can fast
as many days as you as you're able
to in this month. That's that's the second
thing.
The third thing is that
said that
in a hadith supported by the Majah,
said that
in
that in the 15th night of that
Allah looks at his entire creation.
And he forgives
his entire creation
except 2.
You know what is shirk? And, of course,
shirk, we should avoid all forms of shirk.
Shirk as in riya. You should avoid the
little shirk. The big shirk is,
inshallah, none of us will commit that. But
the little shirk, we should also try to
avoid that, that Allah forgives all his creatures
except the the people who are involved in
2 things. 1 is jerk and the other
is, the one who carries malice and hatred
and ill will in his heart towards people.
So clearing your hearts in this month
in preparation for the season of reward. The
season of reward, the season of bounty, the
season
of spiritual upliftment is coming in Ramadan. So
use this time now to clear your heart
to you know like you have spring cleaning
before the coming of the harvest. Well the
harvest is coming in Ramadan so clear your
heart with a with deep with problems that
you may have in your heart.
With people or difficulties you may have about
one thing or another with with,
ill will towards people or hatred or any
type of malice,
examine yourself and say, look. Okay. Well, I'm
not going to get involved in any any
more of that
and ask forgiveness and clear it.
Okay. What's the time? Yeah. Okay. Now let
us pray. And as most of you would
know that,
the,
grandfather of 1 of our one of our
students in this class passed away last night.
And so please make intention for this dua
to be especially for him
with mercies from Allah
and that his relatives who are left behind,
are granted
and fortitude
to continue his
in his good footsteps,
in that to continue to populate
his book of good deeds inshallah.
Okay.
Oh, Allah. Please forgive us. Oh, Allah. Forgive
us our sins, and forgive us for our
negligence of our sins.
Oh, Allah. Show us the truth as it
should be
and grant us the will to follow it
and show us falsehood as it is
and
grant us the power to avoid it. Oh
Allah,
you love to forgive so forgive us. You
Allah, we are your slaves
We are your slaves, and we have no
other to turn to, oh, Allah.
Open our hearts to your guidance and lead
us on the path towards true love. Oh,
Allah,
Aliyah's grandfather returned to you last night, and
so we beg of you to accept him
into your mercy
and forgive his sins.
Oh Allah, we ask you to fill his
grave with light.
Oh Allah,
extend his grave as far as the eye
can see.
And open onto his grave
windows
from Jannah.
Oh Allah, pour upon him the fragrance of
Jannah
and spread for him the spreading of Jannah
and clothe him in the clothes of Jannah.
Yeah, Allah.
Oh Allah.
Grant him company that will be pleasing to
him on in his grave and on the
day of judgment.
Oh Allah grant his family
grant his family strength
grant his family fortitude
to benefit from their father's
own good deeds
and to bring to bring them to bring
them all together again in mercy
on the day of judgment.
Oh Allah, we ask you to forgive us
and forgive them and forgive all those who
have preceded us towards you. Oh Allah,
we are your servants
forgive us.