Riyad Nadwi – 25. Ikhlas Configurations of Multiple Motives and Message Balancing
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Assalamu alaikum, everyone.
Thank thank thank you again. Thank you for
coming.
May Allah reward you. I know week 5
is a very, very intense period of the
term. So the fact that you guys have
made the effort to come to Sheikh Mohammed's
class to to seek knowledge
and and reflect upon your spiritual development, you
know, may Allah reward you, immensely for it.
Today, again,
is a continuation of our series on Imam
Khos Ali Zahir.
Last week, we looked a little bit at
the machinations and how you form intentions in
the 1st place. I assume, Sheikh will continue
from from that point on. So with that
with that said, I'll pass over to Sheikh
Rab Naijara.
Allah
says that whosoever
desires the life of this world and its
adornments,
we will fully repay them for their deeds
therein.
And they therein will not be deprived.
Those are the ones for whom there is
not not anything in the in the hereafter
but fire.
And lost is what they did therein,
and worthless is what is what they used
to do.
Brothers and sisters, assalamu alaikum.
Welcome to our 25th
session on lessons
from Imam Ghazali's Ahiyah,
in which we are, as you know, focusing
on iflas.
Last week,
we started to reread
the chapter
on Atikotil
Niyati,
which is the chapter on the true nature
of intention.
And we said that
intention was not
statements or scripts on the tongue or
declarations,
but it was intention was a state in
the heart. It was
a a condition in the heart from which
motivation
ensues.
And in that discussion,
there were
8
points to keep Salient in mind. And I
will quickly
go over those, inshallah.
The first was
this intention
being a state in the heart
is attached to both ilm and amal.
Intention is attached to both knowledge and actions.
It's sandwiched between these 2.
Number 2 was that every action or stillness
requires
3 components.
The first was elim, which is knowledge.
For human beings, do not do what they
do not know.
And the second was,
which is the will or the motive
for we do not seek that which we
do not want. And the third was,
which is the capacity or the strength that
we should have
to carry out an action
or a stillness, whatever it is. Number
number 3 was that human beings are
created with the need for certain things and
with the need to avoid certain things. Some
some things are
favorable and beneficial,
and some things are
the the the human being is created with
such need that
we are dependent on favorable and beneficial things
in nature, and we are,
and things in our in our environment are
either repugnant or harmful,
beneficial,
or favorable. And
and so
number 4 is that we are in need
of the ability
to recognize
what is harmful and what is beneficial.
And that recognition, that
ability to recognize
is mediated
through
insight
and the 5 senses. Imam Ghazali specifically says,
well, I'm not going to go into the
inner insights into, into that aspect, but I
will deal with the with with the 5
senses with with which is what through which
we interact with,
with the world around us.
Number 5 was that the process of
action formation
involves the
activation of a cascade in the mind. There's
a there's a cascade in the mind that
develops and it starts with knowledge.
As in the example of seeing food.
When you see food, you have to recognize
it as beneficial, and then it doesn't stop
there, but you've got to develop a motivation,
a an appetite for it.
And then that follows you. You would need
to have strength and capacity to consume the
food
Because and he gives he gave the example
that there are lots
of ill people who recognize food as being
favorable to them and good for them, but
they would not be able to eat it
due to they're not be able they are
unable to eat it because of lack of
appetite or lack of physical capacity in they're
incapacitated.
Number 6 was that the
cascade
is sequential.
1st comes the knowledge,
either in the
form of recognition,
assumption, belief, or,
an ink you you make an assumption that
something is such. So that becomes rigid in
the mind. That's the first level. And then
the appetite, the inclination, then the will, motivation,
which in turn activates
strengths and capacity.
And this is a continuous process. It's it's
it's
it's it's like a perpetual
millstone. We gave you the example that the
scholars use of a millstone.
That it is a perpetual millstone with grains
of all sorts being poured into it,
and the resulting
product
are the states and motivations we end up
with at the end of the process.
Number 7 was that Nia
intention
is
in the middle of this cascade. It's not
at the beginning. It's not at the end.
It's in it's it's an intermediary in the
process of this cascade. It does not start
with pronouncements and statements,
and it comes before the engagement of strengths
and capacities.
Number 8 was that motivations can
be singular,
and they can be combinations of
2.
In which case, there'll be 4 configurations.
And he starts with this, You can have,
but the human capacity human mind is limited
in the in the in in number of
things it can take on board. So he
starts by giving you an idea of how
it is configured
in
when you have double motivation for one action.
So he's saying first is,
and and that's what we were discussing,
the configurations of intentions.
And he says that there are 4 possible
configurations. The first
was the singular,
as remember the the example we had for
that was what?
Was of a person,
who is,
confronted by a harmful animal, a snake or
something drops in front of them, and whose
intention is to escape when they, at the
point of escaping
from a sudden appearance
of a harmful
a beast or an animal or snake or
or or a lion,
when you're running away from that, you a
person is in the street or walking in
the road and then a lion jumps out,
they drop the luggage and everything of concern
to them and
jumps away and try to escape. At that
point, that person is
a prime example of a mokhlis
because the intention is completely pure. There's no
other concern in the mind other than escape.
So that is a pure intention.
So that was the first configuration.
And then
he goes on to explain the other,
configurations of where there are not one, but
2 motivations. And he says that there are
4 configurations of those,
And he gives examples for these configurations.
But before I do that, and this is
what we will read today, inshallah, we will
go go through that. But but I want
to,
ask you to use what you have learned
so far about intention, about this cascade and
the way things work in the mind,
to reflect on your own motivations for things
you've done over the last week and for
things that you will be doing
in the coming week.
And try to identify
among those decisions, among things that you're doing,
especially
decisions that you're taking actively. It's a this
is not not the ones that you're that
are happening,
without you having the the
the time to reflect. But
think about
decisions that you've taken in the last week
and decisions that you were going to take
in the coming week. And try to identify
of those decisions
which are singular which has singular motivation and
which has multiple motivations
in it. What are the ones? So you're
not identifying content here. At the beginning, all
you have to do is just and this
is in learning the skill of dealing with
intentions.
Is that the fur first thing you do
is that you
learn to identify
whether there's a multiplicity or whether there's singularity.
That's the first
task.
And that's the that's that's how the training
begins.
And now, of course, I'm not asking you
to share your private thoughts in public or
to discuss it with others, but it is
something to do in private in a private
manner.
And this is an exercise,
in in in training. It's, it's actually a
good way of training one's,
oneself to become more and more conscious of
motivations.
Usually, we are oblivious. And the reason you
need this is,
we are usually oblivious to our,
motivations,
in intentions, what we do. We seldom pay
attention to the particular stimulants or the motivations
deep in the heart. We tend to go
about our daily lives. And whenever we reflect,
we indulge in plastering. You know, we plaster
over,
our actions with,
formulaic
statements,
that are not interpretive of what's really happening.
You know, the the the they're usually
standard run of the mill statements,
the kind of things we expect,
to hear about intentions. So we know the
the formulaic ones, the one that the standard
intentions. You know, I did this, but oh,
oh, yeah. I you did so and so.
Yeah. Well, I did that for charity. I
did this for this person. I did this.
So these are plasterings that we can put
over them, but we're not talking about that.
What what what we were talking about is,
that they're not these sorts of statements are
not descriptive.
The the the prescriptive the prescriptions that we
learn.
So we need to develop
skill to identify and describe
our motivations
in an accurate manner instead of parroting the
prescribed intentions and plastering them over our actions.
So in a nutshell,
it's about
seeking
the descriptive over and above the prescriptive.
And we might not realize it, but much
of what we do in the modern world
is affected
by, in some way, by
our surroundings, our environment.
So
Either
by
the people around us or by the way
the culture in which we live.
And the large elephant in the room in
this
regard is
the example of the, well, the the factor
of the the role that advertising play in
our lives.
Companies
spend
100 of 1,000,000,000 of pounds every year putting
messages into our minds. In fact, the last
for the figure for last year is,
over 700,000,000,000
and
with estimates in a few years, it will
go over a trillion.
So,
if you think we are not affected by
adverts,
then ask yourself this.
Why would these companies spend such enormous amounts
of money
if they had no effect.
The fact is that when we see an
advert for something with a message saying,
oh, this is good for you,
and there's a picture of a healthy, attractive
human being next to it. Yeah. That leads
to a cascade
of
activations and connections and simulations in our brain
at a subliminal level. We're we're not always
conscious of what's going on, but we see
that, and then there's this cascade that takes
place.
And
and and that's just the first stage. That
is that is what Imam Ghazali talks about.
That knowledge with that which is favorable to
you. That that that's at the first big
the beginning. The the level of knowledge. It's
the cascade for.
It's a knowledge of that which is favorable.
And then
once you move from there, once your system
recognizes it as beneficial
and all the necessary connections
are begin to activate. And you will find
that your errada, your will prompting you to
pick up the product from the shelf in
the supermarket
without you giving even a second thought about
why why did I do this? I you
went into the supermarket and there there's a
whole range of stuff, and you picked that
one up. Why did I pick that one
up? And you were unable to explain why.
You you have no
conscious
rationale for doing it, but it has somehow
seeped into your system
because of the associations and connections that have
been established.
And by the way,
how many adverts do you think you've seen
yesterday?
Anyone can give me a figure without googling?
I just wanna see what what you think.
How many do you think you've seen yesterday?
Any any answers from this side as well?
5, 6. 5 or 6.
What about the sisters? 0. How many?
That's it. 9 or more. None.
How many? More than 20.
20. 20.
100. A 100. 200. 200.
I have an ad blocker.
You have an ad blocker.
Yeah. Right. Right.
Yeah. I'm afraid it doesn't work. It doesn't
work like that.
Because it's not it's not about ads in,
on on the phone that yes. There is,
obviously. Facebook made a 115,000,000,000
last year from advertising. So, yes, it it
is in there. But there's a whole
array of
sources through which you're receiving messages.
The figure of a 100 to about 500
to a 1000
used to happen in the 19 seventies.
Yes.
In the 19 seventies, it used to be
about between
a 100 and a 1000.
Do you know what it is today in
the modern world?
You would have seen if you live in
the modern world and you act you
act like a normal
like, people act the kinds of interactions that
modern people have,
you would have had anything between
410,000
adverts yesterday
and that every day. That's the amount of
messages you would have had.
Yeah.
On the average, this is the average person
in the modern world sees between 410,000
adverts every day.
And these are 4 to 10000 bits of
information
which are highly crafted,
specific messages in them. And we receive these
messages through our most of these messages through
our eyes.
Because the eye is the fastest modality through
which we learn about the world around us.
A message does not have to be in
the center of our vision or our focus.
It does not
or or we don't have to be completely
conscious, and recognize the advert when it comes.
In fact, we have very little conscious recognition
for most of the adverts that come into
our view on a daily basis that we
have seen. You you think you've seen 5
5 or 6 or maybe a 100 or
so, but
the the number is much larger,
and they're all registered
somewhere in your consciousness.
They motivate motivate us to
act in particular ways.
And note here that these are all
messages
about
the betterment of your dunya.
These are all messages telling you how good
life can be in the world. It's, you
know, how how much you worth that you
worth this you work this product, that you
you you're deserving of it, and that this
is this will make your life better. And
the connections that are made with the with
the kind of ad people that are pictures
of people next to it. So they're all
about the betterment of your dinner, how how
good life in this world would be. And
if you had this product and if you
if you don't have the product, how wretched
your life would be also. And so there's
the converse
of that logic that's built subconsciously, subliminally
in your mind.
And each one of these 10,000 messages
is in essence, therefore,
a dower
to Dunia.
What is it? A dawah to dunya. Now
there's nothing wrong with that in making your
life better,
on its own,
but it comes at a cost of if
there is no balance, you see. An invitation
towards the betterment of this world. Now think
about how many messages
we received
yesterday
about saying that we should seek the betterment
of the life
beyond this life.
Think about
the fact
that we are required
to be conscious also
about the betterment
of our life beyond this life. Next life,
the next life. What what what's how many
messages have you received for that?
And where's the balance? You know, because people
will come up quickly and say to you,
but, you know, there's a verse in the
Quran where Allah tells us,
You know, talking about dunya.
We like to use that verse a lot.
What we failed to realize,
where is the preponderance
in that verse?
What does the verse say?
One thing about the dunya.
There's 2.
The prayer
is for 1 in the dunya and for
2 on the other side. And we have
a few
of for akhira and 10,000 for dunya on
the other side. That's where the balance that's
where it's imbalance.
So
the preponderance in the verse is clearly in
the direction of Uhra.
So what does this mean?
Now
we're saying that all Allah grant us
we're quick, you know, when we make dua,
we're always
plentiful. We've got lots of things to ask
Allah for about the dunya. When we speak
to Allah, when we make when we make
prayer, we make supplication,
you know, we are
it's plentiful. It's profuse with detail. Oh, Allah,
grant me good life, big house, and wife
with following characteristics. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6,
20. We are we've we've got all sorts
of,
conditions. But when it comes to asking for
Jannah,
we're short on detail
and quick to conclude.
Now one of the dua
of the supplications of the prophet
that he used to make,
whenever he sit sat with the Sahaba. Mostly,
he said the the the beginning of the
hadith says,
that that that Selim, the prophet, sallam, get
up from sitting with the Sahaba
without making this dua. And in the dua,
it's a long dua, but in
it, there are 2 sentences.
It's beautiful and very deep
in the sense that Rasool Allah says saying
that, oh, Allah, do not make my dunya
the only extent of my concern.
The only the only extent of my concern.
And not the extent and not the limit
of my knowledge. You see? Because the extent
of your concern is linked to knowledge. It's
first
of the first
point of the cascade. Where the cascade begins
with is what? Knowledge. So if your knowledge
about the dunya is
so vast
and so profuse, since then you're
receiving this torrent of
messages
every day about the dunya, then the dunya
will be big in your heart. So that
then becomes Akbar ham hamik. That will become
your biggest concern
about the dunya, and you will forget that
you are to balance it with the akhirah.
At least balance, but in truth. Because it's
life of eternity versus a life of 50,
60, 70, 100 years, and then it's finished.
This life is temporal.
It's temporary. We're here. You know, if you
think that you'd live for
ever or you live for beyond everyone else,
then go in the, you know, the hospital
and have a look at how many young
people are dying,
in perfect health. But, you know, there's there's
a phenomena and, you know, people are the
sudden death syndrome.
People dying without any real cause. They they
don't know why. Perfectly health, athletes, and just
collapsing and dying because their time has come.
That's what that that's the main factor. When
your time comes, then whatever,
some reason will come in. You'll get cancer,
so you will get knocked down on the
road. Something will happen. But it's about your
time. When Allah decides that, look, your time
is this much. That's when you will go.
But no one can claim that they will
not go, that you cannot leave this world.
That that that no. I'm going to be
here forever. No.
The one who claims that doesn't understand life
because that's how Allah has created life. He's
created life from death to test us.
So
Allah did not make the world
for us to make it our greatest concern.
Our concerns and obsessions for dunya, as we
have learned, is predicated on knowledge
about what is available
and what is favorable for us.
Now there's no harm in knowing that that
if,
if if we are also knowing what is
favorable for us in this world, there's no
harm in knowing about the dunya, about things
that are good for us in this world,
if we are also familiar with what is
available and favorable for our next life, if
if it is balanced.
But if we are exposed to this torrent
of messages about this world
without anything to balance it with the akhara,
then we will become
reluctant
to invest
time and resources in the preparation for the
ihara. That's that's the
the result of it is that if it
depends on the knowledge
and the consciousness you will have. It's that
torrent of information. Now you might say that,
okay. Well, we are exposed
to 10,000 messages a day
of reminding us about Dunia. How on earth
can we ever balance this with,
with messages for the Alkara? Is this possible?
Well,
there are easy ways to balance it.
And if you want the prescription, then I
can give you, you need to do 5
things.
You need to do 4 things, actually, after
the 5 daily prayer. As long as the
first thing you have to do is make
sure that your 5 daily prayers on time
is confirmed. That you're you're doing your 5
daily prayers. Because that will
be the first thing that will be questioned
on the day of judgment. If you're if
you're successful in your reckoning for your prayer,
then everything else will be okay. But if
you fail on that first, that's the first
question,
then everything else then will tend to fall
apart.
Because
that is the thing. That is the first
thing. It's the it's Al Farq. It's Al
Farq. That's that's the that's the the,
the main
point that will be questioned on the day
of judgment. So your 5 daily prayer on
time.
That's very important.
But in addition to that,
try to become
attached to Quran.
That's the first thing. Is that make sure
you read at least 1 juz of Quran
every day. This is because the words of
Quran
in Arabic and I'm saying this in Arabic.
You you have to read Quran in Arabic.
Reading Quran in Arabic,
the words, the actual letters
have a supernatural effect on your heart.
And don't feel that, you know, peep because,
I know,
Shaitan and some people might come and say,
oh, well, you don't understand what you're reading.
Why reading? It's all useless. You know, you
you might not gain anything.
Do not fall
foul of this argument because this is not
correct.
Is that whatever you read, you will it
is you will get if of course, if
you understand
the meanings of what you're reading, then it's.
It is light upon light.
But never think that
you are
wasting your time by reading the Quran in
Arabic. Because each letter, as I said, has
tremendous
power
to affect your heart, to affect you, and
to bless you. You get reward.
In fact, the hadith that Rasool Allah SAW
Salam
told us through which he explained
the value of the letters of the Quran.
What is the hadith? The hadith is that
he says that you that I say that
every letter you will get, one reward which
will multiply into 10.
But the example he used
was what?
The example he used was alif, lam, mim.
Alif, Lam, Mim are these 14 letters that
they are letters in the Quran that no
one knows the meaning.
They are they are they are of
they are known as Haruf Al Muqaddaat.
The Sahaba didn't know the meaning. The Mufassirin
don't know the full meaning of this, neither
is any Alim, any scholar.
That this is a is accepted that these
are these are letters for which we do
not know the meaning. And that is the
example that the prophet, sallam, choose to use
when he told us about the fact that
we're going to get a reward for each
letter in the Quran.
And that will be multiplied.
That blessing will come. The hadith is that
And that I I'm not saying that
is one letter. I'm saying is one letter.
Lam is one letter. These are letters that
in 30 verses of the Quran, you find
these,
combinations of these letters, of these 14 letters,
and they are known as ruff al muqataat.
We do not know what they mean what
they mean. So when you but reading them
is as powerful
as reading any other part of the Quran.
So don't feel that,
if you don't understand, then not reading in
Arabic will not benefit you. Yes. It will.
If you know if you if you want
to learn more about and learn Arabic and,
and get into this, then, yes, by all
means, do so. But you should not feel
impeded, you you know, that look, because I
don't know Arabic, I I should I should
only read the Quran in English. The Quran
in English is not the Quran.
This you should be very clear about. There's
no such thing.
What this is, it's a poor approximation
of the meaning of the meaning of the
Quran. That's what English is.
The Quran is in Arabic, and that word
is the word of the creator of the
heavens and the of the the heavens and
the A'af. Allah,
his words. You are repeating the words of
the creator of the heavens and the A'af
to repeat that
and benefit from what he's he created you.
So that same Allah who created the heavens
and the earth and who created you, it
is his word that you're repeating. And you
can't repeat that in any other language, you
know. There there's no there's no translation
here.
This whole idea that you can translate and,
you know, it'd be sufficient,
that's
another big problem that we face is that
because there's translation and maybe and nowadays, Google
Translate, everybody thinks that, you know, I'm I
I can become,
expert in everything and understand everything. No. It
does. It doesn't work like that. It doesn't
work like that. There are lots of words
that you cannot translate.
But with the help of Allah,
you can get the blessings. You can get
the words. You can get the,
the the effect of
reading it. Because
if you think about that
conversation I spoke to you about in the
first lesson this term, Remember that conversation I
said that Allah took all the children of
Adam, alayhis salaam, out from the backs of
the fact the parents of Adam. They're the
children of Adam and stood us all up
in front of him. And we had a
conversation with Allah.
That conversation is recorded in the Quran in
which language?
In Arabic.
That conversation. That alastoo bi rabbikum khaloo bala.
That so just as we have
a deep record, every human being has a
deep record of
meeting Allah, of knowing
knowing that Allah is omnipresent,
omnipotent and omniscient
and omnipresent,
as we found in children.
Every child is born with that imprinted in
their in their heart, deep down in their
soul. We have that. It has to be
it it has to be suppressed. That's why
it's so easy to get children to believe
in Santa Claus because they they already have
something in them that believe that that
fosters that kind of belief. They know about
the mortality,
of the they know about the immortality of
Allah before they learn about the mortality of
their own parents.
This is what research has found. So that
conversation with us is deeply embedded. So it
is not, it's not far it is not
beyond reason to suspect that there are some
remnants of that
communication and language embedded in our souls as
well in terms of language. Allah knows if
the if there is
remnants of that.
So in any case,
we should not feel,
reluctant to recite to read the Quran in
Arabic because you will benefit. If someone comes
here and reads Quran beautifully, you will all
be affected even if you don't understand what's
being said.
Okay. Now the second thing that you should
do
is and these the messages from the Quran,
well, that is, of course, the one that
will that will hit your heart
in for balance.
The second thing you need for balance is
that you should
spare some time to learn and practice
the sunnah of dhikr.
The sunnah of dhikr is the supplications to
du'a, the adi'ya of Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
That he taught us,
to punctuate
the transitions of our day.
When you wake up, when you put your
clothes on, when you go to bed, when
you eat, when you step out, when you
travel, when there are supplications.
These these are things that punctuate
the transitions in your day, things that you
do. You can learn all of these.
And in each of them, if you learn
the meaning of them, you will see how
they are not only connecting you to Allah,
but they're connecting you of a of a
consciousness of akhirah.
These are things that will connect you. So
these will help to balance
that torrent that you're receiving about the dunya
on on the other side with the akhirah
is that you learn. You know, for example,
the dua that you recite when you're traveling.
Do you know the dua? The one when
you travel is?
That
praise be to Allah who was afforded us
this transport that we are traveling on. We're
going on a journey and we were not
we will we will not be able to
get it had it not been made made
possible, made available to us from Allah. And
then this the last sentence is
that we are returning to our Lord. That
we are so we are going on a
journey here today, but the in the bigger
journey, it's a reminder of the larger journey,
the journey that we are in fact returning
to our Lord.
That we are going. So for every journey
in every journey, there's a reminder of the
of the higher journey, the bigger journey, the
the the certain journey, the con the confirmed
journey. That journey
in which your
date of departure
is booked is already confirmed.
Your time of departure is booked. Where you
will die, when you will leave. Your cabin
crew is booked.
You know who's your cabin crew? These are
the angels who will come
and answer and question you. Manrabuk, who is
your Lord? What did you do in this
dunya?
That, yeah, your cabin crew is booked. They
will come. If you if we had spent
if we had spent our life recognizing
Allah, we spent a life thinking, practicing the
of the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, then we would answer correctly.
Because they will ask, you know, who is
your lord? And, you know, Mahdi Inuk, what
is your religion?
What faith did you follow? Wamanhadaladiursilafiqum,
who is this man who was sent? And
according to some report that that we'll be
shown,
Rasoolullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And if we
did not follow him, if we did not
recognize
his guidance in this world, then
we would not recognize him in the grave.
That's our cabin. That's your cabin crew who
will come.
So those are the things you have to
prepare for. That is the cabin crew. So
when you travel in this world and you
recite that dua, you're reciting you're saying to
Allah that you're you're reminding yourself, look, I'm
gonna I'm traveling here. I'm I'm going on
a journey, but I must not forget that
I'm actually on a bigger journey. And a
journey where my time is booked, my cabin
crew is booked, my date of departure is
booked. The only difference, the only problem is
that I have no knowledge of it. I
don't know when I'm going to go. I
don't know when my time is.
And when my time comes, the other bigger
problem is that when the time comes, you
will not have the option to say, oh,
no. I'll go later. No. You cannot.
When the time the time comes, you have
to go. That's it.
So
these
du'a, these zikr, these adkar
of night and day, they help us to
punctuate
the day
without with into recognizing that, look, we are
on a bigger journey. You know, when you
go to bed at night, you say, Allahumma
Bismikr.
What? You don't say,
oh,
Allahumma bismikah
amut.
I'm dying.
Remembering of the journey again, the big death.
Allahumma bismikah amutu wa'ihyah.
In your name do I die, and in
your name do I come back to life?
So it's a journey. The sister of death
is sleep.
How many people go to sleep and don't
wake up? So that's
the that that's how it will help you
in dealing
with
that torrent that I'm talking about that's coming
from the other direction.
So to learn these, these are,
short
adkar that you can learn,
from little booklets. There are lots of booklets
available,
where where you can learn learn these dua,
and
make it a habit to recite them regularly.
Because the benefits of learning, it it it
when you recite them at the at these
various junctures, they will punctuate your consciousness
with the messages about Allah and about meeting
Allah in the Akhirah.
Right. Number 3 is that instead of spending
enormous amounts of time on the Internet
reading
about the lives of celebrities and politicians, etcetera.
You should
set aside time, save time
to read about the biographies
of the Sahaba, about about prophets, first of
all. The biography of prophets,
the biography of Sahaba,
the biography of pious Ullama, of of Ullama
and and the pious people.
These four these four categories.
The biography of prophets,
the biographies of Sahaba,
the biographies of Ulema, and the biographies of
pious people.
If you
learn, read about these, and have these
stories in your mind, the the life stories
of these people in your mind, then that
will
because stories tend to connect
in a
episodic way in the mind. It it engages
the episodic memory, and it doesn't give you,
like, individual facts. The memory is divided into
episodic and semantic.
But when you are studying a subject in
in Oxford, you're,
wanting to, get the details of things, then
you go into the semantics of finding out
each detail point by point. But we're talking
here about episodic memory.
The episodic memory is the one that takes
the entire story and links it all together,
and that has an impact on your mind.
That has an impact in your heart. So
the episode, the story is the thing that
will benefit you. So you learn you learn
the stories of people you read read about
them. Because nowadays, what happens is that, you
know, we are familiar with the life stories
of all sorts of people. We are familiar
with the story, life stories of footballers and,
you know,
movies,
actors and,
celebrities, people who are famous just for being
famous.
Yeah. There are lots of so who who
has done nothing in their life. You know,
in the old days, you used to have
people who are famous for doing things. You
know, the he's run a 100 mile mile,
he run a minute under he run a
100 meters under a minute, you know, like
we had here.
And and then or he's done this and
he's done x y and z. He's built
something. But nowadays, there are people who are
famous just for being famous. They they've done
nothing in their lives. And yet, we follow
them. We look at their stories. We we
look at their, at,
what they're wearing, the kind of, relationships they're
having. We know all sorts of things. You
know, I ask young people,
what?
Give me
10 names of celebrities you know, and they
will rattle it off in under, you know,
under a minute, you can hear them saying
this name, this name, or that name. This
footballer, this one. And if you ask them
to say,
well, tell me 10 the names of 10
Sahaba.
How many think you they they can say?
They reach number 5
and then stop. They start with the 4
full of fa and then yeah. Maybe,
I can't remember. That's it. That's all we
know.
Think about names that pop into your head
about Sahaba.
We should know the life stories of these
people. These these are the people
who are trained
in the first and the best. Allah sent
guidance to humanity
to guide people,
and he the first generation who were taught
how to live how to live this guidance
were the Sahaba. So we have to learn.
So familiarizing ourselves, putting putting aside some sort
of
daily routine
to read
about the lives, the companions of the prophets,
of
pious, about the lives of the Ulema, lives
of lives of people who dedicated
their lives to Allah. That's the thing.
Dedicated their lives to Allah. They don't get.
Okay. So now the 4th point
that you need to
make
it habit
to and this one is relates it relates
to time management
and how you spend your time, your daily,
and where you spend your time. We've been
talking earlier about
spending your time with people who will remind
you of Allah.
Spending your time with people whose hearts are
connected to Allah. That's
given. You,
it's an imperative in the Quran.
Keep yourself patiently with that. So that's there.
But then there's the other the other issue
of if you're
keeping yourself patient with
with this, but,
you also need to
work towards
seeking those environments
through which you can reflect
on Allah,
looking at the signs of Allah. And the
signs of Allah are in his creation.
Allah signs are in his creation. So if
you
walk through if if you if if if
you are able to disconnect from screen
and look and spend time
with something that you can look at it
and say, this is the creation of Allah.
Be it a tree,
be it a mountain, be it a lake,
be it a river.
That interaction with that
will
allow you
to connect
the creative power
to enhance the creative your your view of
the creative power of Allah with it. And
these things have tremendous effect on your heart.
You know, the the
in fact, some of it we can measure.
There are lots of studies
that show that if you walk through, you
know, there's one study where they took university
students,
a group of university students,
I think about 20 of them, took 10
of them,
divided them into 10, k, into 10 each,
and then tested their vitals for stress. Their
stress management,
like blood pressure, BP, pulse, and,
skin test, galvanic skin test for for for
stress,
measurements.
And then they send these 2 groups of
people to walk
a mile,
through to another part of the campus in
the university.
But one
path
passed only buildings, and the other path passed
through
a a a road that had trees
along
the path on both sides with a walk
through. And then at the end, when they
reached the other side, they also they took
them and measured measured their stress levels
and their results.
Showed that the people who had walked through
the path with the trees
had
their vitals were lower. They they had lower
pulse rate. They had lower blood pressure, and
their anxiety levels were lower
than the people who walked past the buildings.
And there's a re well, they they the
way they this is explained is that, you
know, the environment, you got, fresh air and,
the oxygen, etcetera.
But for us Muslims, there is more to
this than meets the eye.
From a scientific level is that
everything in the world,
that every
creation of Allah
is involved in the zikr of Allah.
Everything. Everything is in the zikr. Everything does
the zikr of Allah, does,
sings the says the praises of Allah.
And there's nothing everything does
it. But,
but you do not you cannot perceive that.
But
So the individual,
the individual bits of a of a building,
yes, is doing it. But when there's a
when there's a living being, a tree, that
entire being
as a whole is also doing dhikr. And
you're passing that, and if you reflect
on the fact, you're you're benefiting from the
dhikr of that tree, you're walking past that
tree, and that tree is in dhikr of
Allah, then it will benefit you. If you
also
reflect, You also have dhikr in your heart.
The dhikr of that tree and the dhikr
in your heart will synchronize.
So spending time in nature
with the
with the clear in, intention
to connect it to Allah. That is that
that's the point. Is that and to less
time, you know, less time from the,
the screen because that that's that that will
not help that that will increase your your
your stress levels and and and also affect
your bill the the the torrent that's coming
from the other direction. That 44 to 10000
that I spoke of. And because
Allah
has
explained to us that a consequence
of zikr, whenever there's zikr, a consequence of
it is that it produces
tama anin. It produces peace and tranquility in
the heart. It comes here. It brings it
brings you peace.
So with that zikr,
remembering, looking at the leaf, every
leaf on every tree is a message. Now
we talked about the 10,000
ads that you see every day. Now think
about the amount of tree leaves you can
see on a tree.
There are thousands of leaves. There are thousands
of, of of branches
that you can see, and each one of
those is a message has a message. If
you reflect that this is Allah's creation, this
is yes. It's a solar panel that's,
an exquisite solar panel that Allah has created
to take energy from the sun and go
up, to create, and and to create energy
and growth and all that Allah has created.
But it is a message there. There's a
message there also for your heart that this
is Allah's creation and how beautiful is it
it is. The most beautiful things, despite all
our technological
advancements that we have,
even today,
the most beautiful things in the world are
the things in nature, which have Allah has
created directly. There's nothing that can come
anywhere near to the beauty of a rose,
the beauty of a human being. Those that
beauty will always be there. 1st first to
recognize and to thank Allah. To
to reflect on
the greatness of Allah. The Allah who created
the galaxies,
the billions and billions of galaxies is the
same Allah who is creating these leaves, and
he's creating these microscopic creatures.
And
down to the
creatures that are living on in the eye
of ants,
he's fulfilling
every need of all of these. If we
think about that, then it will balance. It
will it will give us the balance that
we need. That Allah is Rahaman and Rahim
and he is Ra'zac. That he's the sustainer.
He's he's giving sustenance to everything. He's sustaining
those those massive galaxies that are billions and
billions of light years across. And he's also
sustaining these microscopic creatures that are living in
the depths of the ocean. He's sustaining it
all. So he's sustaining me. He has made
me he's he's create he's created me, and
he will sustain me. And his rahma is
available to me. His mercy is available to
me, but I have got to recognize it.
I have got to look to Allah and
seek it. I've got to loan for it.
And when you do that, then Allah comes.
Allah Allah does
you do you move move once this month.
He says, man attorney Shivran That
if you come this much, I will come
this much. And if you come walking, I
will come hurtly. I'll come rushing to you.
I will come running.
Harwala. Man attaining yamshi attitu hoo harwala. Allah
Allah wants you to come to turn towards
him. So if you turn your heart, you
spend time. You put aside time, you know,
spend time in in in nature.
With with this intention, not to reflect,
you know, that we are some,
the way it's being done today where it's,
the reflection
is seeing nature
as being independent
of itself and being something that you, yeah,
you can enjoy,
but it's not connected back to Allah. You
have to connect it. You have to see
it not as not as something isolated in
itself, but some unit in itself. You've got
to connect it to Allah and say that
this,
and see it as Allah's handiwork. This is
what Allah has done.
Once you do that,
then,
these interactions with nature will become messages
to help you balance the 4,000, the 10,000
messages
of adverts you're seeing every day.
Okay. So,
over there.
Now we started off about, we were gonna,
continue the configurations of multiple motivations in the
heart in which in this chapter,
which
will help us, inshallah, to be able to
recognize the more subtle motivations that creep into
our hearts without us realizing it.
And, this is to
help you to get
better at
spotting the deceptions of the lower self, the
deceptions of the nafs and the deceptions of
shaitan.
And
we need to start,
with the large with the basics and the
large bits, the the large things, the,
the large motivations,
with,
and with that,
hope over time, we will become more adept
at spotting more and more subtle ones. That
that's the whole idea. If you look at
the text and how it's how it's, designed,
initially,
this might seem rather complicated and even,
to some people point less at why why
is Imam Ghazali going into such detail? But
there there's a logic to it. It's like
learning to drive. You know, when you're learning
to drive, the instructor has to explain to
you what is the,
relationship to the,
to the of the clutch,
to the accelerator, and what what is
when do you need to put the,
your foot on the brakes, and, you know,
where you should look where are your blind
spots, and where you should look. So these
are basic you have to learn.
And and then once you learn to drive,
all of this becomes automated. You you you
do it, at second nature. But if you
don't spend time
doing
focusing and studying and reflecting on these details,
then to get there where you need to
be,
is difficult.
So,
the first con converse version he he he
talks about, is,
is, of course, what what what we did
last week, which was the one about the
lion, the, well, the harmful animal. If it
jumps out at you, you're walking in the
road with your car with your luggage. It
jumps out. You will leave your luggage, all
your concerns that you have in the world,
and you will run. And you will have
only one concern in your life, and that
will be Ikhlas.
You will be mokhlis because you will have
only one concern, and that is escaping the
lie. So in this that is the that's
the first one, and that's the pure one.
But but then the the second one, he
says that,
and and what he's doing here, he he
he he gives you,
2 sets of examples. So in some ways
in sometimes 3,
sets of examples
so that you can
embed this in your mind. So
he
says,
That he said that that's does in the
second configuration,
it is when 2 motivations
are combined in the mind, in the heart.
You have 2 two reasons for doing something.
And
they are such that if one is
if you had only one of those,
they are strong enough
to still stimulate you into doing the action.
Still motivate you into doing.
That it would be said that the,
an example of that,
general example of that would be that if
some if 2 people are strong enough to
carry something, but one of but they they
both carry it. So if one was not
like this table, 2 1 person can carry
it, but if 2 people came and carry
it, that'll be okay. But if
it was to be carried by 1, he
will still be able so the motivation is
strong enough to be an independent, but it's
2.
And and he said, and
the example
in our context is,
That a person comes who is a relative,
and he's also
a poor person.
So he's poor and he's a relative, and
he asked
for help,
for something he needs. So what does he
so he helps him,
for both reasons.
That if he was that and he knows
in his heart, look, if this person had
come and asked me purely if he wasn't
poor, but he has come and asked me
purely on the basis of of relationship that
he is my relative, I would help him.
I would help him. He didn't have to
be poor. Or if he had come and
he was poor and he didn't need,
and and he was not my relative, I
would also help him.
Okay. So he's giving a third example. He's
saying that so
a, a relative or a poor person,
comes about who is a poor poor person,
a relative who is not poor may come
and he will also give, and a and
a poor person who is who is not
a relative, he will give. So in either
case, he's showing that both motivations are equal.
And the third example he's giving, he says,
like, a person who has been ordered by
the,
his physician, his his doctor says,
He told him that, look, you you should
not eat.
And this person then it happens to be
on the day of Arafa. On the day
of Arafa, people fast. Right? So he's saying,
Fasam
If any knows in his heart look. If
it wasn't the day of Arafa,
if
That he would have left. He would have
avoided food anyway
because of the diet.
And if it wasn't for the diet, then
he would also leave it.
He would leave it for Arafa. So both
of these are equal motivations. Right?
So these 2 have been combined into 1.
That the
these 2 have come together, and it has
propelled them. The cascade happens. You know the
cascade we spoke of in the beginning? That
cascade happens, then the the irada is engaged,
and then the strengths, the Pujra, is engaged,
and he does the thing. So so the
cascade occurs, and it happens. So this this
category is known
as rafiq.
That it is the the second is rafiq.
It's it's an accompanying.
It's, Fal Musami had a a mura a
mura fakatilbawahis.
That this is something that's an accompanying motive.
Right? So because they're of equal value.
But, Salis, he said, but the third one
is.
That like in,
So he's giving the same two examples, and
he's saying that, look, now this thing this
table has become heavy. It's a it's a
heavy table now, and it cannot be carried
by 1 person. So it has to have
2.
It has to have 2 people to carry
it.
And
if it's left to 1 person, then he
will not be able to do so.
Alright. So so without
both motivations,
the person will not act. That's basically what's
being said here.
So and he gives the same example about,
the
person who is,
the the Ghani, the the the the relative
and and the poor person. So he says,
that
a rich relative comes to you and ask
for,
a dirham, for ajorti here. And he doesn't
give it. One dirham. He says, okay. Well,
no. I'm not gonna give you because you're
rich. Okay.
But a poor person comes and ask for
dirham, and he gives.
But then
a rich pea
a poor
relative comes and ask and he gives him.
So in that case, Fayakunah embarrassed,
in the masjidah he the memorial by Hussein.
So it it it it it the motivation
is a combination of 2. And without that,
it will not happen. Fahu Al Karabatul Al
Fakar, both has to come together in order
to form the the motivation.
And
he's he gives a third example. He said,
it's it's of a person who is
giving
charity,
to
for the purpose of earning
reward from Allah. That's his motivation.
And certainly so Legharad I Sawab well, Legharad
I Sana'a and he also has
another
motive, which is to
earn the praise of people. Right? He wants
people to say, oh, Waha, this guy is
ready. You know, what an amazing man. He's
giving
to
her.
That if he was
on his own, we're in a place where
people would not see him and not be
able to praise him, then he would not
give it. Even though there is
attached to that motivation,
a
a motive to earn reward from Allah, but
it is not strong enough,
alone, independently.
So it has to have an an additional,
reason. You know? Like, I'm going to do
this bike ride, but I need you all
to also pay. You know? I'm doing it
for Allah, but I'm doing it. I want
you all to also,
post my,
give me ticks on my post on on
my Facebook post when when I, do it.
You know? So so I get all of
that as well. Right? So
now
and and if the Facebook,
display and all the other stuff is not
available, then the the niyyah for tawab, for
Allah, for gaining reward from Allah is not
strong enough. So he will not do it.
So that's that's the that's the third combination.
So so he's saying,
no.
Okay.
So he's saying that that if you if
it's only for that,
And he's saying that, look, if this person
was not a,
if this person was a sinful person who
did not
aim for,
reward from Allah, he did not have any
what's he did he was a sinful, he
was a neglectful person. He didn't care if
Allah was going to give him reward or
not. He was such a person.
Then
the fact that people were going to praise
him would not be sufficient
to motivate him to give to give charity.
So these 2 had to come together.
So there is some belief. There is some
search. So there is some,
a yearning for in longing in the heart
for reward, but that reward is,
it that
that motivation is so is weak. So it
needs something else to to attach to it.
Right?
So when both of them have come together,
both of these come together,
And this this,
he he's saying that when they come together,
they they form this motivation in the heart,
and we will call this one the shared
motive. The one that is shared.
Okay. That was number 3.
But we have round of time. InshaAllah, we
will do number 4 next week. And then
we will move on to, discussing more about
the eyes as well, inshaAllah.
We will
yeah.
Somehow I had yeah.
I think I talked too much today and
it didn't mean we'd anyway,
let us pray.
Oh, Allah. A portion for us,
fear of you so that it may come
between us
and your disobedience.
And of your
obedience that will lead us into your paradise.
And give us
certainty in our faith that will make the
afflictions of this world easy for us.
Oh, Allah. And give us the joys of
our hearing
and our seeing and our strengths as long
as you keep us alive.
And make us and make us make us
make it the in make us in make
it the inheritance of us, y'all Allah.
Oh Allah,
and let our vengeance be on those who
have wronged us and aid us against
those who show enmity towards us.
Oh, Allah. Do not make our affliction in
our deen.
Oh, Allah. Do not do not make our
affliction in our deen,
Oh,
Allah.
Do not make
our this world
our greatest concern.
And do not make it the extent the
only extent of our knowledge.
And do not give power over us to
those who will have no mercy on us.
Oh, Allah.
These young people have come here today
to learn to
correct their intentions.
Oh, Allah.
You control the hearts.
The hearts are in your control. Oh, Allah.
Cleanse our hearts of the clutter. The clutter
of this world and fill it with your
mercy and fill it with your guidance, dear
Allah.
Oh, Allah, bless us so that we may
perfect our intentions, oh, Allah. Oh, Allah, guide
us and take us by the hand. Take
us by the forelock.
Oh, Allah,
we have no one else to turn to
but you. O Allah. We have no other
Lord to turn to but
you. O Allah. You created us. You gave
us all we needed. And to and in
front of you, we will stand on the
day of judgement.
O Allah. We forget this. We forget that
this life is short and that the life
hereafter is forever.
Oh, Allah. Help us to recognize this. Oh,
Allah. Help us to be conscious of it
and help us to prepare.
Oh, Allah. Help us to prepare for the
day when we will have to leave this
world. Oh, Allah. Oh, Allah. Help us to
be conscious.
Help us to be conscious of our journey.
Help us to be conscious of the bigger
journey, the journey to you,