Riyad Nadwi – 17. Imam Ghazali on Ikhlas Intention is not a script
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of finding the source of love, finding beauty in one's life, and developing a habit of connecting two words in one's mind. They also emphasize the need to be clear about the message and not mistreated or abused. The importance of intentions and building habits of completion is emphasized, as well as the importance of visiting sick people and updating one's mind to reflect on the importance of the fire and the clutter of one's mental state. They also mention a new topic, but remind listeners to revisit it.
AI: Summary ©
I just need a confirmation
for the
classroom. Is that set up, from the brothers
who are involved in that?
Alright. Yes, ma'am. Yes. It's set up. It's
set up. Whenever you're ready. Can we start?
Yeah. Whenever you're ready, inshallah.
Okay.
Clear.
Allah
says, whosoever
desires
only the the life of this world and
its adornment,
we
will fully repay them for their deeds in
it,
but they will not and they will not
be deprived of anything in it.
And those
are the ones
whom there for them, there is nothing in
the in the.
And last, it is what they did
therein
in the
earth. Worthless is what they used to do.
In other words, he says,
Say, oh, Muhammad, shall we believe shall we
not inform you of the greatest kind of
losers, the greatest losers in this world
as in regard to their deeds,
the greatest types of losers.
There are those
There are those whose
efforts
is lost in the worldly life, in the
worldly pursuit
while they think that they are doing well,
and this is the problem,
while they think that they are doing well,
deceived by the world.
So, brothers and sisters, welcome to our
3rd term,
of lectures, which we are starting 3 weeks
late,
because of
illness. And I'm sorry about that,
the delay.
But today, we can continue
with lecture number
17th. Yeah. I think it is. Yes. Lecture
number 17th.
And in this series in which we are
reflecting on Imam Al Zaidi's teachings on sincerity,
intentions, and verbal habits.
Now in
last term, we
covered a wide range of topics. Many
that were directly related to the core subject,
which is Ikhlas,
and others that were tangentially related, but nonetheless
useful in the fortification of our iman and
our practice of Islam.
And
we dealt with topics that included discussions on
curing the hidden shirk,
discussion on sincerity and truth, discussion on the
way language influences our perception.
And we provided you also with a survival
toolkit for postmodernist philosophy, which is, of course,
the dominant philosophy in our age.
And we reflected on the tragedies of
religious,
reformations in Europe. And we also had a
lengthy discussion
on the need for
sincerity
to be rooted in love, the need for
a relationship of love with our creator,
with Allah
They need to recognize that he, Allah,
above all,
is most deserving
of our love.
Now in the final session last term,
we focused on using our knowledge and our
understanding of the five reasons for love
to configure
our heart towards divine love
using we we looked at the five reasons
for love, and we looked at
how we should cons we should configure those
in our hearts to
foster divine love, the love for Allah. And
in that, we pondered on 5 points. The
first was that our
first experience of pure love comes from the
context of the parent child relations.
The parent child relationship is the is our
first
experience of pure love. Parental love
is well understood to be the most powerful
or one of the most powerful forces in
nature.
The parental instincts for the well-being and the
protection of a child
is one of the purest expressions of love
and it is so because
it is a special gift from Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
that is essential for our survival.
Human infants are not like animals.
They're not like animal infants that get up
and start to walk around and can feed
themselves in a few hours after being born.
Allah has made us utterly dependent on our
parents
for years after being born.
And that support, that dependency
is
that support is is
dependent on divine mercy.
It is a it's a dependency
that
is fulfilled through a divine mercy that finds
expression in the hearts and the parents in
the form of parental love.
It is a love that Allah
plants in the hearts of parents and he
says, as we are told in Hadith,
this mercy that he has caused to descend
into the earth is distributed among the jinn
and human beings and animals and insects. So
and and with that one mercy,
with that one mercy,
they that we all share,
we express
love and kindness
and and affection to one another.
This is the fitra, the natural path on
the course of the bit. And this is
not to say that sometimes you know we
are if
we're ungrateful
or we fail to prevent the heart from
getting hard or encrusted,
then even parents can lose this gift of
parental love. It is not it should not
be taken for granted.
Once
a harsh Bedouin,
man saw the prophet
kissing his grandson, and he said to him,
oh, I do do you kiss your children
your your children? I have 10, and I've
never kissed any of them. And in that,
he,
sought to
to display a sort of macho,
personality,
and something to be praised in
that used to be praised.
But Rasool Allah sallam's
response was,
What can I do for you if Allah
has taken the mercy out of your heart?
So the love
the love that,
we we we
experience from our parents is a gift from
Allah.
It is it is a gift and that
can be lost and when it does then
we find parents mistreating their children and even
worse putting the newborn babies in shoe boxes
and leaving them on the roadside. So the
point was to recognize
that the source of parental love
is Allah. It comes from Allah
and we should both as children and as
parents
recognize it as such and be eternally grateful
in our heart. Whatever we
experience or benefit from that love. So that
was the first point.
The second was that we need to develop
a habit of connecting
2 words in our minds.
Do you remember what those two words were?
The words were nama and.
Nama is what we receive from Allah
in terms of favor, the bounties, the major
gifts, the subtle kindness,
the assistance, the sustenance, the grace, the mercies,
the love.
These are all
They're all an the plural is,
is
is
the plural for
and is
the provider of those favors and the gift
the the the gift, the giver of the
favor, the giver of the gift.
These are,
in the meaning of
Hassan
and.
Kindness
and
the kind one. If you remember, these were
also both of these that we have learned
are instinctive reasons for love. When we when
we receive kindness or we we learn about
someone who is kind, then those are pathways
to love. So
it was about connecting these two words to
remember and recognize that when we receive a
favor, any comfort, any blessing, any good in
this world that it is ultimately from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and regardless of who delivers
it to us. Whoever delivers the,
whoever delivers that bounty to you that who's
the the
at the end of it, the bestower, the
giver, the kind one ultimately
is Allah
The intermediaries
are like postmen
delivering presents that were
bought and that were wrapped and posted by
someone else. The one who thought of you.
The bounties we received in this world
are sent by Allah. He is the one
who thought of you. And when did he
think of you? He thought of you even
before you came into existence.
Think about that for a moment.
Even before you existed,
Allah thought of you.
Think about that. That before he brought you
into existence, he thought of you. Think about
that. Allah is saying that this is Allah's
kindness. It says that he thought
about you
before
creating you. He he had to think about
creating you, and he created you given that
that kindness and that favor as we have
learned
in in previous lessons.
These are strong reasons. The one who think
the one who thinks about you, the one
who who sends kindness to you, the one
who sends favors to you. So for the
for that
is sufficient reason to love Allah. So much
so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
prayed
for that he should not receive. Prayed. He
made dua. He said that he didn't want
to receive favors from wicked people because that
would make that would cause his heart to
love such people.
So the point here is to establish
a a a mental habit of connecting
with
always reflecting
on Allah as the real source on the
bounties we get in this world.
Number 3 was to link our perception of
beauty which is another reason for love,
linking it, linking our heart to the source
of all beauty in the world, all beauty,
anything that we perceive as beautiful.
Beauty is, of course, in the eye of
the believer, but the one who created the
eye to behold,
the one who created the cones in the
eye, the one who created the the optical
nerve in the brain, the one who created
the the occipital lobe, the word, and give
us the ability to perceive,
he knows thoroughly
what we will find beautiful and what we
will find apparent and disgusting.
When we look at the world around us,
despite
all the advancement in human creativity
and artistic
productions and creations,
we still find that the most beautiful things
in the world are not artifacts.
They're not things created by human beings.
The most beautiful things in the world are
are the things that were created by Allah.
The beautiful rose, the symmetrical flowers,
the blue sky,
the tranquil lakes, the majestic mountains,
the gorgeous valleys,
the beautiful and handsome human beings.
These will always remain at the top of
the list of the most beautiful things in
our lives. The prophet
told us in hadith that
that Allah is beautiful
and Allah loves beauty.
Now we cannot see or imagine Allah but
through pondering his wondrous and beautiful creation
we can be sure in our hearts that
the one who is responsible
for creating
such amazing beauty
must be beautiful beyond all beauty.
And in that, we find a powerful reason
for love, a reason to love our Allah.
And then
the 4th point was that
love
can develop
through affinity. We talked about affinity, the subtle
relations, the connections of closeness. And the hadith
said that,
the, the and that,
and this is hadith, he's quoting he's reporting
from Allah. Allah says,
that whosoever
whosoever
declares war,
whosoever
shows enmity to a, a friend of mine,
and loves
expressing friendship closeness here that I I have
I will declare I have declared war against
such a person who has showed enmity towards
my beloved so someone I love, someone or
a friend of mine, buddy.
That that you will not get closer to
Allah
with anything more than
the the the that is more beloved.
But something that is more beloved to me
than that which I've made that which I've
made compulsory on you.
But then
my servant continues to draw near to me
with
with super regards for you, with extra things,
and extra extra deeds
until
I love him.
That Allah says that until I love him
and till that I will and he will
enter into my love for either and
if I then love him
and when and when I love him, he
will that, he will draw near. And when
I love him, I am his hearing with
which he hears, and his sight with which
he sees, and his hands with which he
strikes, and his foot with which he walks.
And when he asks of me, I will
surely give it to him.
And were he to seek refuge with me,
I would surely
grant him refuge. So
now in other words
I become his ears with which ears in
other that
the ears will only hear
those things that pleases Allah.
Entering into the love through fulfilling of the
obligatory
deeds
and then going further with extra deeds doing
more than the fault, doing more than the
obligatory.
Following
the law to avoid difficulties in the akhirah
is compulsory
but we need to go beyond we need
we we need to seek extra to bring
more to bring us into the love of
Allah.
So that was the 4th point. And then
the 5th point was that,
the message in where
Allah
says,
that oh ye who believe, whosoever
of you, a past state, who leaves Islam,
who leaves this religion,
then
you should know, certainly, presently, you should know
that Allah will replace them. He will bring
people who
he shall love,
who he will love
and who shall love him.
And and the point we were drawing attention
to here, the pertinent point here,
is that leaving Islam
is not
primarily an intellectual problem, but a problem of
heart,
a problem in the heart, a problem of
love.
And the replacements for those who leave Islam
will not suffer from this lack of love.
So Allah is, Allah is making it clear
here that look, he will that they he
will love them. He will bring people who
he will love and who will love and
who will love him. So the point was
not,
the point here was to note that whenever
someone leaves Islam,
Allah will always replace them, and that is
Bishar.
That is glad tidings. It is a it
is good news, an uplifting piece of news,
which is that no matter
how many people leave Islam,
Allah will always replace them.
And this is particularly heartening
for us in today's world
where every
day we hear Muslims being mistreated, abused, killed,
massacred.
I I
news coming from all over the world and
and with 24 hour news cycle, people can
become disheartened. So it's important to note this
that look
that Allah will always replace Muslims on the
face of the earth, on the face of
the planet
until just before Pia. Just the last moments
before Pia.
Then
everyone will be wiped out and only the
wretched people will be left. But before that,
we need to keep this fact in mind
because
some people look at our situation today and
become disheartened,
and they feel that people are trying to
get rid of the Muslims and eradicate Islam
from the face of the earth.
And it can sometimes seem will look like
it may succeed, but we should be clear
in our heart that this will never happen
until, of course, the final hour.
We should know that this is never ever
going to happen. Yes. We will
have difficult times, dark times of trials and
tribulation,
but the morning light will always come again.
And if you look at history, if if
Islam was to be wiped out
of the planet, then it would have happened
in many, many occasions before in history.
It would have happened in the battle of
Badr. It would have happened in the battle
of Uhud.
It would have happened in the onslaught of
the Mughal and the Mongol invasions
where the devastation
and the intimidation was such
that a Mongol soldier,
a Mongol soldier would meet a 100 Muslims
in the street and say to them, wait
here, I'm going to get my sword. And
they would not move. They would wait for
him.
But what happened in the end?
These same fierce Mongol warriors
became
defenders of Islam. These same people
who wrecked havoc on Baghdad and all the
other cities, Muslim cities that have conquered and
killed 100 of 1,000,
they became
defenders of Islam. And now today, I know
many descendants of those same
Mongol
warriors who
are practicing Muslims, who love Allah and love
his deed.
So
anywhere you look in history, you will see
Islam surviving against
all odds every time
even in terms of numbers. I mean, we
we can see this in in,
you know, the the that,
in that morning when an Israeli fundamentalist,
a,
a man called Goldstein, mister Goldstein,
he went into the Ebrahimi mosque
the Masjid of Ibrahim where
Ibrahim, alaihis salam is
supposed to be be buried
in Palestine, and he took a machine gun
in there and killed 30 people while they
were praying for Jafar Salah.
And a further 20 died later on in
the day. So there were 50 50 Palestinian
men were killed in 1 morning.
And in that same morning, that same day,
someone did looked at the birth
in the birth rate in the in the
hospitals in in Palestine, and they found that
50 babies were born.
So
even in terms of numbers. So if yes.
We are having we're living in difficult times,
for what we see happening to Muslims as
in Palestine, in India, in China, and elsewhere,
but we must never allow ourselves to become
disheartened.
And in this verse in this verse that
we've read in Surat,
there's a reinforcement
for us in this fact that
Allah will replace, that we will we will
we will protect his deen, that he has
revealed his deen and he will protect it.
With the mercy of Allah, we are an
indomitable species. We're not we're never going to
become extinct
until, as I said, until the very final
hour just before.
And the key feature to look for is
love for Allah. The replacements will always love
Allah. You'll bring people who will love Allah.
Now now today I want to return
to the discussion on Nia intention because if
you remember,
a few lessons ago, we read about the
misconceptions in the mind
about Nia and the this entire
section, the
the well, the entire course that we are
doing here is is
about Nia. It is about it is about
the,
intention. We when we started, do you remember
if you remember, I I spoke to you
about the story of Imam Ghazali,
when when he was questioned
about
why he returned. And if it was so
bad
that that he left it and if if
it if it was no good, why did
he return? And he said,
It's a return will be returning to what
it was in the past.
He
said
that I I was spreading the knowledge through
which you you gain
status and prestige.
That I was that that my speech and
my actions were all about this.
And that was my aim and that it
was
that that was my intention, that was my
motivation, that was my intention,
that to get status so that people can
recognize me and I and and
so that is what I left.
And said as for now,
but now I'm calling to the to the
knowledge
that the thing with which I'm calling to
the knowledge
through which you can abandon, through which people,
through which
the abandoning of
status and position.
And through it, you will recognize
the the lowliness of of this
of the station of of position.
And this is my intention now. This is
what I intend now. This is my this
is my intention
and my and my and my aim
and my wish.
And Allah knows this from that Allah knows
that I'm truthful in this.
And
and
the reason I want to I want to
rectify myself and others.
And I believe but I have a strong
belief in an iman that
that there is no that there is no
movement and there is no power. There's nothing
in this world except through Allah
There's no power and there's no strength.
But I didn't move, but Allah moved me.
Now this in this statement there is a
belief in Qadr and
one of the points we spoke about in
our last session also was belief in Qadr
is that we should we
should have a
a
presence in the mind
when we look at the world. Well, in
fact,
the says that you should have the the
of.
We should have,
it that it is a that you should
always have
that
on a continuous basis, whatever happens, the minute
something has become passed, then that is that
Allah has made it so we should have
with it. That that so that Allah is
the door. So he says
that I did not do but Allah used
me for so I asking him so I'm
begging him I'm begging Allah
that he should rectify myself that he should
rectify me first
and then through me he
may rectify others
and he should guide me
he should guide me and with and through
me he should guide
and that he should make apparent make apparent
the truth as as truth.
And he should guide, he should give me,
grant me the ability to follow the truth.
And he should show me
the falsehood as falsehood.
And he should grant me the abstaining
from it.
So
that was
the
core
focus
for this course.
It was
to
recognize
the importance of nia, of intention, and that
a person and that a person can reach
the highest levels of academic achievement in Islam
and yet suffer from a very dangerous,
death, a dangerous,
short, a dangerous
deficit, and a an
illness,
that will never that that will undermine everything
else. And that is why intention
focusing on learning your on learning about intention
is so important. Now what we did first
is that we looked at riya because the
the scholars say that
and if you treat
riya, then Ikhlas will automatically come because the
the thing that undermines
sincerity
is ria, is ostentation. It's showing. You're wanting
to show. So
what I want to do is to bring
this back, go back to this to start.
We will we will read now from the,
chapters about Nia, about intention.
And starting with, of course, what Imam says
because he
said
that know that
a ignorant person or a person of less
knowledge may yes,
You may hear what we have said about
the improving of Nia or intention,
and
the hadith of Rasulullah
where he said,
And then he speaks he says to himself
that at the point of teaching
or at the point of doing a trade
or something or eating, he says
that, okay, I make intention.
That person says verbally
that that I make intention
to teach for Allah
or That he thinks that he says this,
you know, I'm
I I'm going to teach for the sake
of Allah, and I'm doing this for the
sake of Allah. I'm doing x and y
for sake of Allah. And he thinks that
that is near.
All the all the various movement, everything that
he does.
And he's saying that, look, and this is
completely
at odds
with what near is.
To say, to to run these scripts on
the tongue,
on even in the mind. And most of
us know we we we we are familiar
with the fact that
saying these things are perhaps not,
clear intention, but the the they're not proof
of intention just by running these scripts on
our tongue. But running them in the mind
also
is not proof of intention.
Yes. It's good. You can run scripts
on, in response to questioning of why am
I doing this.
But these are these are all
these are Hadith.
He's saying, Imam Khuzali is calling this Hadith.
That this this is speaking to yourself or
just,
oral,
pronouncements, but they're nothing.
He said it's it's thoughts.
From one thought. It's moving from one thought
to to to to another.
When and
is completely different from all of this. It's
it's it's completely,
separate from from this whole idea of just
running scripts.
So
and
we have just completed a whole month of
training
for the heart in Ramadan, and so this
is a good time
for learning about the purity of intention and
to focus on building habits on the on
correct on building habits of, correcting our intentions.
Now in order to lay the groundwork,
I want to refresh our minds with some
of the
of Niya, some of the virtues, the virtues
of Niya, and reflect on how our predecessors,
how the pious,
the,
how they used to treat this matter of
intention.
So I'll start by with with the reflection
on,
on the role of sight in in the
corruption of, of Ikhlas. So we will read
that hadith.
Because if you remember what I said about,
Ria, that we dealt with Ria first
because
Ikhlas
is in
treating is in effective treatment, lies in in
in effective treatment of riya. That is the
thing that corrupts
your intention. So riya. So the first hadith,
that Allah does not look at your features
and at your wealth
that he looks at your heart and your
actions
that he's looking at the heart. This is
what this is Imam Ghazali is explaining this.
He says that the the look the
focus on the heart is because it is
the place of near.
It it is it is the place. So
this idea
of
that who is looking at me, these simulations
that run-in the mind and we're we'll come
back to this. I mean, I've spoken to
you before about simulations.
It's that our mind is active
regularly with simulations,
about who is looking and who is who
is observing us. And, and and what are
what what are their reactions to what we
are doing. And in fact, we're being
trained,
on an active way before in the olden
days, these these sort of behavior
of
actively seeking attention
and seeking the the mother, seeking the
the the the the observing of people of
what you do,
people who are naturally inhibited to,
about these things. There there was some degree
of shame about this, you know, or how
can you be so ostentatious,
you know, natural. There is a fitra,
inhibition to these things. But if you're involved
in the kinds of activity that is that
happens now in social media, then that inhibition
gets worn away.
That natural fitra inhibition
about, you know, putting yourself on display and
seeking it and looking for it. And, you
know, we'll put a post and we we
check 15 times to see if anyone has,
given us a thumbs up and everyone has
noticed us, and we have done something. That
that that whole,
process
undermines
that the natural, the inhibition
that's supposed to be in us, and the
one that is supposed to draw our attention
to another Allah, that Allah's view of us.
What is Allah saying? What is Allah seeing
of us? Because he's saying through and through.
He's saying into our hearts. He's saying what
we are doing. And so
he he looks at the heart. So that's
the first thing. Then
that a person may do a good deed
that they seal a
a scroll and take it up
and then it's placed before Allah,
and then Allah says
throw it away.
That he did not do that good action
that you saw you saw, but I saw
his heart. You saw him doing it, but
I saw his heart. So
he did not want me.
Then it may come that he may call
the the he he called the angels
that he did not seek my pleasure so
throw it away.
But
then Allah calls the the
angels
and right that he has done this and
he has done x and he's done y,
he's
done this and this.
And then the angels will say,
that
he did not do any of this.
That he had made he he had a
genuine intention for it. He had a genuine
intention for this.
So that is
what,
the point that when Allah sees the heart,
he sees the intention
with which things are done.
And
in
Nabi that whoever
goes into battle and he all he seeks
is a rope. Just a rope around the
head, then that is all he will get,
nothing else nothing else.
The the the Sahabi is reporting. He said
that I sought the help of, someone,
to help me. No. Until you make a
a you promise me that you will you're
gonna give me something.
So so I promised him. I said, okay.
Well, I'll give you x y z.
So I mentioned this conversation
to the prophet
and
in response he said
that he has nothing of the dunya and
of the
except that which you have given to him.
So finally helping you in the in the
battle does not suffice
if you have asked for something like that.
There are lots of reports.
Whoever
makes a firm intention of doing something and
he did not manage to do it, then
he will it will be written for him.
He will he will get the reward for
that thing.
And
then
this hadith the 2 the 2 people will
meet.
The one who the killer and the killed
the murdered the the one the killer and
the killed are both in the fire. So
the people asked Rasulullah Sallalahu Salam that
Well, what about the the one who kill,
who was killed? And then he said he
explained it's about the heart again.
That he also wanted to kill his brother.
So and this happens,
quite a lot that people make
large promises
for the Mahar when in marriage with with
the intention of not actually ever giving it.
And in this hadith was
making it clear that if you make it
if you make a promise to give the
a if you make if you make a
statement
about giving a Mahar
of some, x amount of money or something
or gold or whatever in marriage,
the and with the but the intention in
the heart is is never to fulfill it,
then
then he that person will be indulged in
Zina. That's that because the the the intention
can ruin
it.
That the one who takes a loan with
the intention of not repaying it, then that
person is also a thief.
Yeah. So that's how dangerous
the
intention is. It can destroy what for the
The the best of actions are to complete
the and
to have caution
from, from what is Allah has rendered haram
and sit on to have true near through,
intention in your heart.
And
that the he he wrote this
to Omar Abdi
Abdi Abdul Aziz. He's saying that that the
help of Allah
is in proportion
to the
level of your nia, level of your intentions.
From and whoever's nia, whoever's
intention is complete, whoever nia, whoever's intention
is fortified and complete and pure.
He said
then then the his the help of Allah
will also be complete.
And
the level of the
impurity of the intention
will dictate the level of the help that
you will get from Allah.
That perhaps
a small deed, a a a need, a
meager deed, that's
little something you might do, may become very
great because of the and
sometimes a large
a a great deed you may do may
become small because of the because of the
intention.
That if a person's
main objective in his heart, his main his
main concern is taqwa and pleasing Allah and
fearing Allah then
even if his entire all his organs are
collected with the dunya,
his intention will bring him back to to
correct purpose, to correct the the focus.
But the ignorant one will be
vice versa of that. The the report that
a person will do good deeds for a
little while and then but then go back
to seeking the dunya.
This is he's saying who is speaking about
the first generation
that they used to
learn niya. They used to study, learn it,
go through processes of of studying niya
the same way in the same way that
you are learning how to do
how to do deeds. You know, you're learning
to pray, learning to go to Hajj, learning
all these things. They used to learn he's
saying
They used to learn the learn how to
configure a how what is
Be before
they
for the actions just like you are learning
Amal,
your
that seek
the intention for an action before the action.
Seek an intention for the action
before the action.
That seek an intention,
seek good intention for your actions before you
actually do it.
And as long as you are intending good,
then you are in good. You are in
higher. Allah, you are intending
That as long as you are intending to
be to do good, then you will be
you will be in khair.
I'm 49.
Okay. So it is for this reason.
And it is for this reason that they
you will find that some of the people
of the early generations,
they upstate, they
withhold themselves, they refrain from certain good deeds
because of niya. They Islam
If if
and look at the language that is being
used here. It's not that if they didn't
make the if they didn't make the intention.
He's saying
Islam
that
as long as the
the correct intention
did not present itself to them
did did not formulate itself so the
the did not come so he's saying
that that the is not coming. I'm trying
to do something but I didn't, it's it's
not coming. I'm I'm not I'm not getting
the pure intention because your intention can be
corrupted. You know? A person you you're trying
to do something but then
simulations
form in the mind.
So he's saying
was great scholar and he said,
Great scholar, I mean, passed
away. And did
not attend the and
when he was asked about it, he said
he said,
I I was waiting for the nia, the
correct nia to come because all sorts of
simulations come. And to get your nia pure
to get the pure nia takes time. So
he's saying I didn't get it, so I
didn't come.
And then he gives an example of, that
one of one of these great scholars, these
pious people,
called his wife and said
and bring the comb.
And and and and she
said to him,
should I bring the mirror as well?
And
but then he didn't respond straight away.
There was some quiet. So and then and
then he said, nah. Okay. Bring it.
So then she asked you. They asked about,
well, why did you say? He said,
that I had an intention
with the comb. I had a good intention,
you know, maybe that I'll comb my hair
nicely, and I will stand and pray, and
I will get but but then he said,
but then I I started to try and
formulate. I started to wait for the correct
intention
of the nia. So that's why I didn't
that that that's the reason I didn't call
you. I didn't respond straight away.
And then he puts it back to Allah.
Listen to this. He said
so so I waited. I stopped
until Allah created this. Put this in my
heart. Give me the good give me the
ability. Then remember what Imam Zalai is saying
that this comes from Allah and you have
to put your heart, put your focus your
heart and your your your whole mind towards
Allah. Oh Allah help me with this So
and then Allah prepared it for him. And
he said,
that Hamad
Hammad of Nabi says Suleiman, great scholar. He
passed away in Kufa, and then Imam was
to ask, are you not going to his?
That if I had the correct,
then I will go.
They
were such people that if they were ever
asked to do something good,
they used to the response used to be
that if Allah has given us the correct
intention, then we will do it. We will
do. We we will go and we will
proceed with it.
And and another scholar great scholar, he used
to say, he he he did not speak
without.
People ask him questions, and he he never
used to give answers. What
else? And then sometimes he would just start
speaking
and
without anyone questioning him all of a sudden
randomly and then people will say, well,
and and then when they ask, why did
you do this? He says,
but did you want me to speak without
nia?
That yes, you come up and ask me
but I I didn't have the correct nia
and that yeah. It was all clouded then.
I had loads of simulations going on in
my mind.
This is a scholar,
a scholar,
but
who was,
some people tried to say that he was,
a
a fabricator, but that's not true.
Imam,
half of them Hajjar makes it clear. He
said
that
that this person is not a liar. But,
anyway, he wrote a book of of.
And if you remember when I spoke to
you, I gave you that,
bite size
bit on Hadith, on our approach to Hadith
in general and about this idea about,
the levels of Hadith
and going into the forensics.
This story
is this conversation here is relevant to that.
The the imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal who's the
head of the,
the the,
Hanbali school.
So he he came to this scholar to
to Dawood ibn Muhammad and he asked him.
He said, love, can I have the book?
So he took it for the so
then he
he skimmed through it, and then he noticed
a few things,
and he gave it back for. He he
returned it to him.
So then, Imam Dawood said to him that,
why did you return it? You you haven't
have to read much
of it. You know what? Why are you
returning it so quickly?
Said that that there are, I saw
a a a weak chain in it.
Any a weak hadith.
Some the chain of the of one of
the hadith, I saw it's weak.
And then Imam Dawood said to him this
scholar said to him,
He said, I did not
write this book
to take it out from the perspective
of a Hadith forensic.
And this is the important thing. The the
the
I did not write this book. The purpose
of this book, the perspective and the nia
of this book is not about Hadith forensics.
My my approach to this is for actions
and for helping people with their deen and
to helping to to increase your iman and
to help you with niya to help you
with help your with your mind. This is
what this is.
So
upon hearing this
imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal said to him
give me the gift
so that I can look at it from
the perspective from which you have just explained.
This is Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbali is saying
this. He said that I can look at
it from the perspective from which you have
seen it.
And then he took the book and read
it thoroughly for a long time.
Then
he said to him, may Allah reward you
with with good, with abundance of good
That I I I've got a lot of
benefit out of it.
It
benefited me. So this is the point. This
is the point here. The point is that
you should
that
Hadith forensic if you become a Haredes forensic,
if you apply Hadith forensic
all the time, then it can sometimes
it it it it become excessive. This is
not to say that we accept every Hadith
and every, even even the,
the fabricated,
reports. This is not to say that,
but we should not be
walking around with that
when we're dealing with Tarbia because the scholars
have lowered the bar when it comes to
this,
in in Tarbia.
So and okay. And another
report here.
He said call for me.
He said to him that, you know, make
someone said to him, make dua. He said,
yes. I will. But when I get the
the intention, if I get the the correct
intention, inshallah, I will.
That I have been
seeking the correct intention
to visit a sick person
for over a month now for a month
now. What and I've not got the correct
intention. Now what does this mean? This means
that this person is saying, look, I want
to go. I I want to go and
visit this person, which is a sunnah, something
you get a lot of reward, and it's
very it's it's it's important to do when
your brother is sick to go and visit
them. And, you know, especially if it's not
coronavirus. But,
in generally here, this is, when when a
person is ill, you you visit them. Now
here,
this person is saying that I for a
whole month now, I've been trying to get
the gun. So what is it that corrupts
the intention? It's the simulations
that look, I'm gonna go there and there
are people are going to see that I
visit. They're gonna think that I'm happy, that
that that I'm a pious person, means his
family might give me food. I might I
might,
increase in status by people thinking, oh, he's
he goes and visits sick. He's he's he's
x, y, and zed. All those simulations,
all the things of Nagar, who is looking.
So when the Nagar when the Nagar when
the the the observer,
idea, when the observer phenomena
is
completely
cleared and only Allah is there, that is
what you have for Niya. He said that
you have to go there. So he said,
a whole month I've been trying to deal
with this to get these simulations out, and
they haven't they haven't come yet.
He said that I was walking with,
Maimun Ibrahim and when we reached his house,
I turned around and went back. So his
son said to him,
why aren't you inviting him for dinner? And
he says,
I didn't have I didn't have a for
this. I I couldn't, I don't have the
correct
So this is what this is. He's saying
that the the intention,
it follows
the perspective for which you are dealing with
the thing.
If it if the perspective,
if the position, the goal, the motivation in
it changes,
then
then the changes.
And they used to think they the first
generation, they used to, they didn't do actions.
They didn't do do things. They didn't approach
things unless they had the
because they had it firmly ingrained in them
that
intention
is the soul of actions.
It is the soul. Without the soul, the
action is dead.
So he says,
because and they also knew that that an
action without nia without the correct nia will
be ria will be ostentation will be showing
off you'll be you'll be putting yourself on
display
and
it will be burdening yourself unnecessarily
and for that that becomes a that becomes
a reason for displeasure
not for
not for closeness to Allah but for displeasure
So so he said
so he's saying that look,
and they knew they understood this thoroughly
that Nia intention
was not the speech of someone saying, oh,
now we together we're gathered. Oh, I've made
intention of so and so. No. No. It
wasn't that. But
it is a motivation in the heart.
I mean Allah
that comes
from the flowing
of openings in the heart that Allah gives
that you come to.
And it may come at sometimes and may
sometimes it may not.
The one
who has deen, who has Islam, who has
deen
as a dominant concern in their minds for
that person
that in most cases the will come. It
will become it'll be it'll be easy for
the to arrive in the heart that is
that has deen that has Islam that has
Allah that has the fiqr of deen in
their minds
that person's heart will will will it will
be easier it will it will become easier
for kairat to come in the heart
Because his heart is that person whose whose
dominant concern and,
occupation in the mind
is
Islam is in pleasing Allah then that person
will have in their in their mind the
in their heart the heart will be filled
with
So that though that that is in the
heart of the the
the the the global intention in the person's
mind will facilitate
detailed intentions
as well.
But on the reverse, if a person's
main concern is dunya and and he's just
using Din or she's just using Din, whoever
it is, whoever's just using Din to raise
in the status of the dunya and to
me me, show me me. Look. Just see
me. Just see how powerful I am, how
intelligent I am, how pious I am, how
how great I am. If if that is
there for the duniya, then
then the the correct will not come. It
will not be there.
That even sometimes the correct intention for such
a person will be difficult for even the
father even in the obligatory
things.
And the the the real thing that we
should keep in mind here is that
you should remember the fire and and remember
the fire. Ultimately, that is where
the journey ends. Either
to the fire or to Jahannam. No. To
Jahannam
or Jahannam. Oh, Jahannam. So
let me ask about that so
you keep whatever these simulations and all these
other things come to corrupt your intention
then remember remember the fire
that the
bounties of Jannah
and encourage
the encourage the lord the self for that
for to seeking that what is with Allah
not not what is with people
And then maybe through that,
a weak motivation will start to develop.
And then his reward will be according
to the level of that intention, how pure
it is, how clear it is, how safe
it is from simulations
of other
observances.
So,
we've gone over our time. Inshallah, we will
continue next week, on the topic of niyyah.
And may Allah
bless us all with
focusing and thinking about this. This is a,
immensely important topic.
So
for that, Insha'Allah,
for those of you who have not
listened to the entire series, I would strongly
urge to go back and try and and
even for those of you who have listened
to it, you know, there's there's a lot
of dense material in in these presentations, and
it'll be good to
to do a revision to do revisions on
a regular basis so that it it it
sticks in the mind,
because we are we're living in times where
the mind is cluttered. The the I I
I I don't have to explain to you,
the level of clutter that is ongoing. People
are in a state of,
dizzy,
mental,
clutter. So
for clarity in the mind and especially about
something as important as this, you need
to have repeated
instances of it so that it sticks out
and it it raises
to a level of,
of your
consciousness that will then
dominate or
overpower the other influences and clutter.
Okay. Let's press it.