Safi Khan – Soul Food for College Students The Advices of Imam alGhazli Class 1
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The speaker discusses various topics including advice on practicality, practicality, and the importance of reflective learning. They emphasize the importance of practicing three things in life, including belief, belief, and knowledge, and stress the importance of avoiding the concept of teaching. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of practicing the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept of the concept
AI: Summary ©
Alrighty.
How's everyone doing?
Good to see you guys, and,
hope everyone enjoys their last month of freedom.
I'm just kidding. Before
before you go back to school.
This summer was,
enjoyable
and, beneficial, and,
Allah
put in it.
You always want Allah put in your time.
Right? Because time can be
somebody can have the most extensive amount of
time, and not really remember much,
but then
Allah might give somebody a small amount of
time, and they remember
an abundant amount of blessings. Right? And I'm
sure everyone can attest to that memory. So,
you know, even if summer is, you know,
two and a half, three months long, however
long it may be,
thank Allah
and ask Allah
to to put barakah, to put blessings in
the time that you spend. So,
last week, we finished
our series,
called the dua series. Right? We went through
this incredible book,
of dua,
And then, we had,
Shakiya Sur
come out last Thursday,
almost like a q and a talk show
format style program
to conclude the study and the conversations of
that Dua series. And so
we are now turning our attention to a
whole new series. And
one of the,
requirements, I guess, or one of the things
that I wanted for this series, and I
think it's such a it's such a tradition
that we established over the past few few
months, so is obviously having a text up
on the screen that everyone can kinda follow
along with and really benefit from.
Right?
To kinda put words both, you know, visually
and also just from hearing it can you
know, it it's like almost like a dual
way to to to really retain information and
knowledge. Right? To see it and then to
hear about it. And so,
we're gonna go,
into this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful text
that,
we will
call,
the series with
is the Advices of Imam Al Khazari
And I'll I'll explain
what this text is gonna be. So this
text is actually a really beautiful text. Why
is it a beautiful text? Because the text
actually was not a book to begin with.
This text, particularly, was actually a series of
letters
and later on became
compiled into a book. So the story behind
it, and we'll talk about it more in-depth
as we go through the translator's introduction.
So, essentially, long story short, what happened was
that Imam Al Ghazali,
and we'll talk a little bit about who
he was. Imam Al Ghazali, rahim,
had a student one time who
spent a number of years with him. Right?
Benefiting from him, studying with him, and being
under his mentorship.
And after so many years, this young person
essentially kind of moved on, graduated, you could
say, from his,
his study.
And once he left Imam al Ghazali's, you
know, mentorship,
formally, I guess you could say,
he realized he really missed his teacher a
lot. You know? And I think a lot
of times we have these,
memories in our own lives where we spent
a significant amount of time with somebody.
And then after that course is over, after
that semester is over, we realize, like, wow,
like, I don't want this to end. Right?
I don't want this relationship. I don't want
this dynamic to end.
And so what he did was he reflected,
and he wrote a letter to Imam Al
Khazadi, his teacher.
And he said, Sheikh, you know,
I I I know that I've
gone through extensive studies with you. You and
I have sat together for years studying the
ins and outs of this beautiful religion,
but
I still find myself in need of practical
advice. Right? Because it's one thing to sit
and learn technicals
and technicality,
and it's another thing to actually sit and
learn practice
practicality.
Right?
I can teach you the theory of x,
y, and z, but it's a whole another
thing about how to practice x, y, and
z. Right? Like, you can go and and
and and learn about the the the Pythagorean
theorem. Right?
But how do you apply that knowledge in
your life? I can go learn about biology,
but how do I apply it in my
life and in my work or in my
in my studies or whatever I do moving
on with my life. Right? So he asked
Imam al Khazadi this question. He says, Sheikh,
can you teach me? Can you advise me?
He actually didn't say teach. He actually said
advise me. Give me is
different than teaching.
Teaching is, you know,
dispersing information and knowledge somebody else, and it
could be
theory. Advice is heart. It comes from the
heart. Right? And we'll talk a little bit
about advice today.
Advice is something that is very hard to
find nowadays. I'll tell you guys that. Good
advice. Honest advice.
A lot of advice we get is just
completely, completely
backwards.
You know,
and sometimes the place where that advice is
coming from is not always the best of
places. You know, somebody can be giving us
advice from a place of selfishness,
or somebody can be giving us advice from
a place of ego and arrogance. Right? I
feel better than you. I know more than
you, so I can tell you what to
do. And some advice is just outright wrong.
Right? I mean, it just comes from a
place of no no substance. Right? Somebody's talking
about something that they have no knowledge about.
And so he asked his teacher this question,
give me advice, and Imam
he
wrote a series of letters back to his
student.
And particularly in number, he wrote 24 of
them. 24 letters. Can you guys imagine that?
Right? You write one text to a friend,
and they spend they they respond back in
24 different ways. Some may Allah give us
good friends. Alright? Usually, it's the other way
around. We send 24 texts, and we get
back one word. It's a pain on a
whole another level. Alright? So imagine
this is a teacher of his. Right? His
teacher is responding back to him in a
plethora of messages back. And so these 24
letters
were compiled later on
into this book that we now have. It's
called.
Okay? Ayuh al Walad
literally translates out to,
oh my son or oh my beloved son.
Because the reason why it's called
is because every single letter or now chapter
begins with that exact phrase.
Oh, my beloved son. Oh, my dear son.
And you can tell
just from that kind of beginning phrase,
each and every advice that Imam Ghazari shared
with his student was incredibly,
incredibly
loving.
Right? Everything I start with, I say, oh,
my beloved son, my beloved friend, my beloved
sister, my beloved brother.
If you say that phrase every single time,
like, if you read that text message from,
like, a friend, you'd be like, what's wrong
with you?
Like, I get it. You like me. Okay?
But, like, imagine every text message coming back
with that intro.
And,
you know, there's a place of love
where that advice is coming from. And so
this is the story behind Ayuh al Walad.
Okay? And so, we're gonna read a little
bit of the translator's introduction inshallah,
and make a little bit of sense out
of, the the the intro to this book.
So the translator, he begins by saying,
praise be to Allah Subhanallah. Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala is the most praised and the most
exalted,
and the alt and the ultimate end is
best for the pious and righteous.
Peace be upon the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam
Okay? The following is a very interesting message
from Hudjatul Islam Abuhamad Mohammed ibn Muhammad Al
Ghazali. Okay. That's his his name. To one
of his distinguished students who kept company with
the great scholar
for many years,
The distinguished disciple grew very fond of Imam
Al Ghazali as he learned a lot from
him, and he excelled in many disciplines until
he had assembled the minutiae of the sciences,
and he had perfected the virtues of the
soul.
One day, reflecting on the future, the student
thought to himself, I have read many books,
gained mastery over many disciplines, and I've spent
my life in learning and assembling them. And
now I ought to know which of these
disciplines will benefit me in the future and
bring comfort and console and consolation
to get to me in my grave and
which disciplines will not benefit me and that
I may then abandon. Okay? So he was
thinking. He was doing a lot of
by the me by the way, means reflection.
Right? He was thinking to himself. Right? How
how many of you guys are, like, nearing
the end of your college career? Anybody in
here? How many is you guys are in
the thick of it. Alright.
Man,
sore spot. Okay. So some people. Right? Nearing
the end. When you're near the end, I
I I've spoken to several college students in
my life about this exact topic, by the
way. After graduation, there's, like, this phase
that's almost like the.
It's, like, between, like, life and death.
You're like, now what?
What do I do? Right? I had fun
taking, like, 15 hours of credit every single
week of my life. Like, now that I'm
done with all the labs and all the
exams and all the papers, what do I
do now with my life? Right? I can
apply to certain jobs and I can, you
know, look for a certain career or whatever
that I wanna pursue, but I'm in this
very weird stage. And by the way, that
weird stage is sometimes very necessary, I'll tell
you. Why is it necessary?
Because it is important for a person
with every stage that they go through in
their life to stop and actually reflect upon
what they just engaged in.
And I'll give you a proof of this,
by the way. After your salah, what are
you supposed to do? Anyone?
Something. What are you supposed to do?
You're adkar.
You're supposed to sit,
you're supposed to say it Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah.
SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, Allahu Akbar Allahu
Akbar.
This is a way that you actually think
about what you just did.
You decompress
what just happened. Right? A person who moves
literally one minute to the next
with different activities
and they don't allow themselves to actually soak
in what just happened,
they never really
appreciate any experiences that they've had in life.
You can't just move on from one to
the other. You have to take your time.
You have to reflect. What did I just
do? The prophet Muhammad after
every expedition that he engaged in, whether you
talk about Badr,
Ohad,
Handak,
Tabuk,
all of these different, you know, modes of
of of of travel that he engaged in,
these expeditions, these battles sometimes that he that
he was in,
there's a sunnah that he particularly had that
all of the sahaba that were with him
always noted down. What was that sunnah?
He would come back from that travel. He
would go to his masjid in Medina, masjid
and Nabawi. He would offer 2 rakaat of
salah, and he would host a majlis.
He would host, like, a gathering with everyone
that traveled with him, and he's like, alright.
Let's just talk about what just happened.
Oh, snap. Is he okay?
Everybody.
This is his greatest intro, by the way.
He'll be okay tomorrow.
Some stories.
That's what happens when you're 67. Okay?
So,
you know,
the prophet,
he sat with his companions,
and he
just broke down whatever happened.
Right? Let's talk a little bit. How can
you how can you how can you come
back from a battle like Badr
and then just continue on the next day
in your life like nothing
happened. Guys, can we talk about this?
There were angels in the battlefield with us.
Anybody else see that stuff?
Right? Think about Uhud.
It was a difficult time. People passed away
that they were that they loved.
Let's talk about this for a second. How
can somebody just move on from that like
nothing happened?
And the same exists in this particular situation.
The student of Imam al Ghazali, he studied
with him for a number of years, and
he sat. And before he moved on to
the next stage of his life, he wanted
to think about what just happened. And I
want you guys to think about that with
your college lives.
You study for 4 or 5, some of
us 6, 7 super seniors. Right?
Or, like, how do you how do you
remember? How do you kind of summarize what
I just experienced in 5 years
without sitting and actually doing some self reflection?
Let's think about this.
And the more that I think
about what happened,
the more fruitful my planning for the next
stage will be. How many of y'all ever
had tough times planning the next stage if
you didn't reflect over the past stages?
Beautiful.
It's it's hard.
It's hard to do that. So this is
why this is such an important sunnah of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And so he says, I've read many books
and gained mastery over many disciplines,
but I wanted to find out which of
these disciplines will benefit me in the future
and bring comfort and consolation to me in
my grave.
Subhanallah.
Now we talk about a certain topic called
the idea of knowledge
and action.
Right?
How many of us are just storing information
in our head?
How many of us just know things?
And by the way, this is a great
danger
of
being in a place where knowledge
is found quite frequently.
We just go and we learn. We learn.
We learn. We learn. Ta'alim is beautiful, by
the way. Learning is great,
but learning
without applying,
there's actually, like, a a a a a
an element of madness to that to that
to that concept
that I just learn more and more and
more and more, and I don't act on
anything.
I don't act on anything. I just like
just storing in my hard drive.
But when it comes for to me to
actually act upon it,
I'm the last person to actually do it.
So I can argue with somebody on Reddit
for hours.
I can respond back to all those TikTok
comments. I can get into it with those
dudes that are live streaming at 1 AM.
For some reason, it's always 1 AM. Man.
I don't know.
But when it comes time to it, can
I put the live stream away? Can I
put my phone away and knock out, like,
2 rakaat of tahajjud at 1 AM?
Can I put my phone down and then
open up my and read a little bit?
Can I put my phone down and put
an alarm on so I can wake up
for a fajr the next day because fajr
is a fard?
It's an obligation.
Right? These are the moments where action comes
into play.
And so the student, he says, which of
these these pieces of knowledge
will be the most beneficial for me
to take to my grave? What does that
mean?
That one it's all said and done.
There's no one besides me and Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
There's no one left to show off to.
There's no one else to impress.
There's no one else to call me
knowledgeable or pious or religious or, you know,
generous and all these different things.
What will benefit me in my grave? What
are the three questions that that that that
the prophet,
he says that the will ask you in
your graves, y'all?
They will ask you, who your rub? Who's
your rub? Who's your rub? Who's your lord?
Who is
your messenger? Who's your prophet? And what is
your deen? Right?
These are the 3 questions,
and I'll tell you something really scary.
These three questions are things that we probably
memorized in level 1 of Sunday school. Right?
Like, we go through it easily when we're
like children.
But on that day, when you're in your
grave
and the angels, they ask you that question,
only people
who truly,
truly believe
in those three things will be able to
answer clearly.
There's no more lip service that day.
The angel will ask you, who is your
rub?
And you know the answer is Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
But for some reason,
my tongue will no longer allow me to
keep up with this performance
because my heart never practiced it.
My tongue will will not continue to say
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Why? Because my
my heart and my body never followed his
sunnah.
I claimed
to be a part of this deen.
When I read,
I
thought it was me,
but I realized in my grave, I never
practiced it enough to allow it to actually
be me.
And this is dangerous. And this is why
the grave, by the way, is such an
important life lesson.
Go go go visit the grave sometimes.
Go visit go go go pray Janaza.
If there's ever a time where you feel
that your heart is being hardened,
there's ever a time where you feel like
the dunya is taking over your your life
and you're being consumed by worldly matters over
everything else in your life, just go and
find a to pray in. And I know
it sounds a little bit interesting because you're
like, go find a Janazah. I mean, these
are serious things in in life. People are
passing away. No. No. No. But this is
yes. Janazah are are are definitely rights of
Muslims when they pass away, but they also
provide many benefits for the one who actually
attends it.
You go and you see, wow.
Like, what am I doing with my life?
This is gonna be me one day.
How do I want people to remember this
legacy?
What do I want to be known for?
What do I want Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to say to me when I see him?
These are questions. Okay?
And so he says,
it reminded me of the statement of the
prophet
and this hadith, by the way, if you
guys wanna see it, I'll kinda highlight it
for you guys right here. This hadith
is actually
the
the theme.
This is actually the theme of this entire
book.
If you could summarize
this entire book into a thesis statement,
it would actually be this hadith. And this
hadith is found actually in Sahih Muslim. And
it only shows you a part of it
here, but I'll read the rest of it
for you guys inshallah. So this hadith inshallah,
I'll read it to you. This hadith, subhanallah,
it says,
Allah. Oh Allah
I seek refuge in you
from
knowledge
that does not benefit me.
Knowledge that does not benefit me
because I will be asked about everything that
I know.
And think about how many things that we
know
that actually do us no good.
Yeah, man. You hear Bronnie James, man. 4.2
points per game. How that guy get drafted,
SubhanAllah.
Right? Like,
brothers are going into, like, actual hutwas preparing
these stats.
Right?
Or sometimes we're talking about, like like, you
know, that that that that that that Vela,
you know, pop up shop that happened. Y'all
did not yeah. I don't think I knew
about that, did you? You know? Like, I
that thing was okay, honestly. You know?
I mean, we know these things randomly, and
sure. Maybe there's and everything. Right?
But
if I know Bronny James Statline
more than I know about the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, sira, man, that is concerning
for me as a Muslim.
One of them used to cry for me
in his tahajjud in the middle of the
night.
One of them used to literally raise his
hands to Allah and
say, yeah. My ummah, my ummah,
and I don't even know some of the
things that he did in his life for
me. You Allah.
So he he he quotes this dua.
Allah protect me
from gaining knowledge that does not benefit me.
And if knowledge does benefit
you, Knowledge that benefits you by the way
guys is knowledge that is a legacy. It
will continue to benefit you. Can you imagine,
by the way, knowledge that benefits you? I
know that everyone thinks knowledge that benefits you
is like knowledge that you can practice right
away. Knowledge,
can actually be knowledge that benefits you in
multiple ways. You teach something to somebody else
that you benefited from, and now that kid
prays better because you taught him something.
Right?
You teach your friend a small statement of
the prophet and now that friend lives by
it
until they pass away.
And you get that sadaqa jaria. By the
way, there's a hadith about this. The prophet
he said that there are 3 things.
All the deeds of the son and daughter
of Adam cease
upon their death
except 3.
What are the 3? Number 1
is
the the charity that keeps giving.
You gave, like, $2,
and that $2 went to, like, feed 1
person,
and that one person ate. And then because
of that energy, they prayed and read Quran.
Every letter that they read, you get a
piece of that.
That's
right there. You didn't think about it. You
thought $2.
You quantified it as literally
$2 bills, and that's it. It's nothing great.
But because of that small meal, you allowed
that child to pray.
That that child prayed because of your generosity.
That's sadaqa jariyah. The second the prophet
he says is,
he says knowledge
that benefits.
Knowledge that benefits.
You teach some somebody something good.
You know? And I guarantee you everybody in
this room has a memory of somebody in
their childhood that taught them something that they
still benefit from to this day.
Somebody taught you that it was good to
say to your elders before you you go
do your thing.
Somebody somebody
taught everybody in this room that smiling at
people is actually a form of charity.
Somebody taught everybody in this room that
sincerity
when you pray is something that's good for
you.
Whoever taught you that,
make dua for them.
Make dua for them. Honestly, make dua for
them.
That if it wasn't for this person, I
would not have actually benefited from this. So
knowledge that benefits. Number 3 is
a righteous child that makes dua for this
person.
A righteous child. Sheikh Asar, by the way,
it was up here last week, and he
said that very bluntly. He said, there is
no feeling like having a child.
May Allah
grant everyone righteous children. Say I mean.
You know? And and and although the majority
of people in here probably do not have
children, what you can kind of think about
this as is, like, may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala allow me to be a righteous child
for my parents.
You know? And I'll tell you guys something
crazy. SubhanAllah. What goes around comes around.
What goes around comes around. I'll tell you
that, and it's a very interesting spiritual observation
in my life, and I have no idea
if there's, like, any sort of legitimacy to
it. But what goes around does come around.
I will tell you that. Okay?
So
Okay. Knowledge that does not benefit. Number 2,
the prophet says,
Allah protect me from a heart
that is not humbled by him.
Allah protect me from a heart
that
does not fear him.
Comes from
Hashia. Right?
This idea of of of being conscious of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. A heart that does
not feel anything.
There are people that walk around guys
that their hearts are beating physically, but, spiritually,
they are literally just zombies walking around this
dunya.
They feel nothing when they see something wrong.
They feel no joy when they see something
good.
They feel no issue
when there's a lie that they state.
There is no thinking the next time they
see something immoral happening in front of them.
And this all goes back to hadith the
prophet that whenever somebody sees something wrong, they
do one of 3 things. They change it
with their hands. They change it with their
tongue, or the lowest thing, the lowest level
is to feel wrong about it within your
heart, to disapprove it within your heart. Because
you might not always be in the position
to say something. You may not always be
in the position to do something with your
actions, but you'll always have the heart to
feel.
So a heart that's desensitized
is just as good as a as a
person that's almost deceased.
So the second part of the dua is
Allah protect me from a heart that does
not fear him.
Then the prophet
he says
he says
from a soul
that
never feels
content.
Allah protect me
from having a soul that is never happy
with whatever you give me.
You can have the riches in the world.
You can graduate from your school, from your
college with the best degree of all time.
You can land a a a beautiful job,
an easy job that does not cause you
stress,
that makes everyone proud of you.
But if you are not a person who
has gratitude
in the Quran? Because it's powerful. He says
Only
by the remembrance of Allah does the heart
truly find peace.
If Allah is happy with you,
then
you will be happy with yourself.
If you and Allah you know, subhanallah, it's
so interesting. I've seen relationships in this dunya
where this is actually very true. Y'all ever
notice, like, when 2 people are not in
sync, there are people around them that feel
it?
Usually, it's mom and dad. Right? It's it's
it's it's a very serious thing. Right?
When when parents are fighting, a lot of
times,
the kids end up suffering.
It causes major anxiety, man. I've I've
subhanAllah, and I I know for people who
are in, you know, Usid Mahmood is here
as well. I know he's worked with young
people.
And and and I have had this in
my life where young people have come to
me and they're literally shaking.
They come to me and they're shaking, and
they say, I I need to talk to
you about stuff.
What is it? What's going on? My parents
are fighting every single day, and they're physically
shaking.
Has nothing to do with them, by the
way.
It's just the way that 2 people interact
with one another that impacts the rest of
their lives.
So when a person is good with Allah,
you will see the byproducts of that that
seem unrelated.
There were ulama that actually used to write
about this. They used to say, the days
that I was good with Allah, I would
come home and my family was happy with
me for some reason.
When I remember to pray on time, I
remember I came home and my kids were,
like, in good behavior.
No misbehaving. No tantrums.
The kids were good.
When I used to be good with Allah,
like, I used to, you know, I used
to think about Allah. I used to do
dhikr throughout the day. I used to come
home and wifey was so happy with me.
It was weird.
And I know I did a lot of
wrong things. Like like, I know I was
the nicest, but she was so good with
me. She was so happy with me. It's
not unrelated.
When you're okay with Allah,
everything around you becomes okay as well. Yeah.
You know what? Sure. I got a flat
tire on my way to class that day.
I miss 1st period.
Man. My fajr today was so good.
My fajr was so good. I'm so happy
about the way that I prayed this morning
that although in
the realm, I suffered a little bit of
an irritation,
it doesn't bother me to the point where
I'm just ruined.
The way that you are with Allah is
contagious
in every good way, in every good sense
of the word, to everything around you. Okay.
And then the last part,
the prophet he says,
he said, and Allah protect me
from supplication
that is not responded to.
And, Subhanallah, this is like just a callback
to last week.
We did an entire 3 months of dua
and how Allah
will answer everyone's dua.
Answer it in the way that he
and his wisdom
finds it best,
but we never want our duas to go
unanswered
because of something that we did.
So the prophet used to make this beautiful
dua. Okay?
And so you can read here.
This idea captivated him.
He continued to think about it until he
wrote to his honorable teacher, Imam al Ghazali,
seeking his advice,
His
and his dua.
And
by the way, the Arabic of this is
actually very beautiful.
The Arabic of this is actually very, very
phenomenal. It says here particularly
that the student of Imam Al Ghazali,
he was thinking about this to the point,
subhan
subhanAllah,
until he sought his teachers
dua
and nasiha.
Not just not just his his fatwa, but
his dua and his nasihah. What is nasihah?
Anybody know? Nasihah means
Advice.
Advice.
What is the tie between Dua and nasihah?
I'll tell you what the what what the
what the what the tie is.
A person
that you go to for advice
should also be at the level where you're
comfortable asking them to make dua for you.
Nasihah, by the way, guys, is not just
this rudimentary elementary thing.
Going to somebody for advice is a big
deal.
Asking somebody, hey. I'm going through something in
my life. I want you to tell me
what you think is best for me.
Think about this. The quality of that person
to give you that
should also be the same
for that person
that you have confidence that they can also
make dua for you, that they will make
dua for you.
What do you have to have in your
heart to make dua for somebody? Anybody? What
do you have to have for that person?
You have to
you have to care about them. Sincerely,
ask yourself, who do you make dua for?
Who do you make dua for? Most likely,
you make dua for yourself, which is fine.
You make dua for yourself. Solely permissible. It's
actually encouraged. But the people you make dua
for also, family,
friends, loved ones.
What's one common thread that all these people
have together with you? They are close to
you. You love
them. So when a person gives advice,
also ask yourself, will this person also make
dua for me?
Is this person a well wisher for me?
Because Nasihah can turn sideways and upside down
very quickly.
That person can steer you wrong. That person
can give you the wrong advice. That person
can give you advice from the wrong place.
But a person who will make dua for
you will always give you the most sincere
advice. Why? Because sometimes that Nasihah might actually
hurt sometimes.
Like, hey. What do you have for me?
Can you give me some advice? And they're
just like, you sure about that?
And you're like, yes, please. Lay it on
me. They're like, alright. Here we go. Roll
up your sleeves.
But, also, at the end of that tough
advice session, that person will say, by the
way, I make dua for you a lot.
I make dua for you a lot. So
you know that it's coming from a beautiful
place. Okay?
And he said this distinguished student
thought to himself,
even though the writings of the imam, like
the or the and other works contain the
answers to my questions,
but now my purpose is to obtain from
the imam
specific reply to treasure
and to refer to throughout my life,
if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wills. And I
will regard it as an action plan and
an enduring commitment for the future. Now you
know what's something special about this, by the
way?
He says,
but my objective is
He says that I wanted something
that would give that would fulfill a need
of mine
to use as a short manual.
How many of y'all get, like and to
be honest with me here, I because I'm
a part of this, honestly. I I've been
a part of this. We get really impressed
by, like, long winded advice. Man. Like, this
guy's, like, the next man,
dude.
He, like, drops gems, man. When he talks
to me, he drops gems.
And now what we do is we confuse
good advice
for long advice.
How long was that advice session, man? You
won't believe it, bro. 4 hours.
It was profound.
Missed my prayer for this thing. I'm just
kidding. You're like,
oh, no. That's not good.
Look what he's asking his teacher for. He's
asking his teacher for practical short advices.
Sometimes you go up to somebody and you're
like, hey, man. I'm struggling in my life.
Can you give me some advice? Dude's like,
man, just pray fudge her a little bit.
That's it.
Pray fudge her more.
Man, that's boring, man. Give me something good.
I wanna I wanna hear something good.
No, man.
If you listen to this guy or this
sister who said, just pray Fudger more consistently,
you would see the answer to all your
problems.
Get up in the morning and pray Fudger.
Small piece of advice, small sentence. It will
change your entire life.
Don't confuse
long advice for good advice.
Good advice can sometimes be short.
Okay?
So he says, Imam Al Ghazali then wrote
to his student
a detailed message comprising
24 pieces of advice,
each containing
one lesson or more. Imam Al Ghazali discusses
in this message essential issues of paramount significance,
especially to the youth in question. Okay?
Inshallah, what I'm gonna do now
in the last 10 to 15 minutes that
we have together
is I actually
wanted to, inshallah, here,
share
just
the first chapter
of his
advice.
Okay?
The first chapter of his advice. Alright?
And by the
way, this is how long it is.
That's it.
Good advice.
What we just talked about.
Literally, you can count them literally on your
fingertips.
6 6 lines. That's it.
So he begins
this first piece of advice,
and he tells his student.
He says,
Okay?
He says, O my beloved son,
may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
He says, may Allah
give you a long life
filled with his obedience.
What's the correlation of long life and obedience
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? This is a
very, very interesting concept. Anybody wanna take a
shot at this?
Why would he make dua and say, may
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala give you long
life with
his obedience
in it?
Anybody?
So you can mentor people. Okay. Alhamdulillah. Good.
Good. Say more.
Subhanallah.
Subhanallah.
Guys,
long life can either be a curse or
a blessing.
I was actually just sharing this last night
with a couple of people
that time is very interesting thing.
A lot of people are obsessed with living
long lives,
but those long lives are not always the
most beneficial.
That sometimes when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes
somebody away earlier, Allah could have protected them
from years of forgetfulness.
Allah took away a person at age 50
or 40
because Allah deemed it the best situation for
them.
Because if Allah had let them live 50,
60, 70, 80, perhaps they would actually forget
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And
sometimes Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives people really
long lives
because Allah wants them to turn back to
him.
I'm giving you time to turn back to
me.
So making dua for a person's long life
shouldn't just be that. It should be long
life that is actually filled with the remembrance
and the obedience of Allah.
And subhanallah. And, you you know, something beautiful.
My my my my my elders used to
teach me this as a kid.
The reason why
you see elders in your life that are
so attached to Allah
is because they can't actually, like,
squander those late years.
In your early life, you're like, yeah. You're
busy playing and, you know, getting distracted by
things that are beautiful and,
oh,
right, like, you know, I I wanna enjoy
and, you know, have luxury and all these
different things. When you're old, anybody in here
have trouble giving their grandparents gifts?
Not because you, like, can't give them gifts,
like, because you literally don't know what they
want.
Bro, I go through this with my grandmother
every single year of my life. Like, what
did Dadi want? What would Dadi want?
She want a new shawl to go with
her collection of 80,000,000,000 shawls?
Does she want, like, another little frame
for all the other pictures that she that
needed to what does she want?
And literally,
my grandmother, I'll tell you, she's 91, 92.
May Allah may Allah preserve her.
I don't think there's anything
more beloved to her than whenever I come
back from Umrah, and I give her something
small from Mecca or Medina.
All she wants is Allah and his messenger
now.
That's all she wants.
She actually regifted a shawl that my wife
gave her, like, 2 weeks ago.
I told my wife to not get offended.
I'm like, no. No. No. She probably legitimately
didn't know.
I was like, because she has no need
of this stuff anymore.
She circulates, like, 3 outfits every single week.
That's all she wants. She's like, white, off
white, gray.
We're out here, like, purple, green, pink. Maybe
I'll throw on that crimson one day. You
know? Like, we get that teal.
Right? All she cares about is 3 colors,
and that's it.
To her, she is just focused on Allah.
So long life, obedience to Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. They're related. Okay?
He says,
and may he place you in his service
alone.
May Allah
choose you.
Y'all ever heard that phrase before? Allah chose
me.
This happens, like, when you go to Umrah
or Hajj
or you experience something beautiful, Ramadan.
Know that this was an invite from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. It wasn't perchance.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala didn't just make you
Muslim perchance. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala chose you.
Anyone ever do that exercise before? Why did
Allah make me Muslim?
Why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala choose me
to be upon
And why is the person across from me,
they've never even heard of Allah and his
messenger?
Do you think that was perchance? Do you
think Allah just randomly chose you random selection
that you got to experience Jumaa and Ramadan
and Eid and, you know, fasting and all
these beautiful experiences. You think that was just
random? I don't know. Allah chose you.
Know that there's an honor of being chosen
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. He says, may
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide you to the
right path of those who love him and
are loved
by him.
This is 2 very beautiful things.
You want to be upon
the siroth,
upon the the the path
of those who Allah loves
and those who love Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
That
mutual
mutual
relationship. Anyone here ever read sotulbayina
before?
Anyone? Sotulbayina?
What's the last line of sotulbayina?
There's a type of there's a type of,
like,
ecstasy
is the word to use actually, honestly. Like,
this
incredible
state of spirituality and mind and body and
soul where in spirituality and mind and body
and soul where
in
Jannah,
the relationship between Allah and his creation will
be
Allah will be pleased and happy with them,
and they will be pleased with Allah, and
that's it.
Not many relationships in this dunya, by the
way, are purely, purely,
like, mutual. You know?
Anybody here ever, like, felt like they had
a friend who they liked a little bit
more than they liked them? Right? Like, I
texted you and, like, you didn't like I
didn't give you what I wanted back. Right?
Like, it's just not the same vibe back.
Right?
Everyone in here probably has been through that
initial marital
marital try. Right?
Hopefully, this person likes me as much as
I like them. Oh, man. I got got
denied.
Right? Like, how? How's that possible, man?
The this is a
idea.
Right?
One time when you were 14, your parents
were like, why on earth does this kid
hate me?
When you're, like, 4, you used to bring
home, like, things to your parents to put
up on the fridge, and you would talk
their ear off. And then all of a
sudden, you hit puberty, and you wanted nothing
to do with them anymore.
Your mom's like, how's your day? Good.
What'd you do today? Nothing.
Did you have fun? Yeah.
Get in trouble? No. No. Right? Like,
that that was the there's always this imperfection
of relationships in the dunya.
But when it comes to Allah, in
Jannah specifically you'll see that mutual that mutual
nature
So he makes dua for his student. He
says, may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide you
to the path of those
that love Allah and are loved by Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. He says,
know my son.
That real advice
should be sought
in the revelation of the Quran and the
Sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
If you ever have any questions
and you ever think in your life that
there is something
better than the Quran and the Hadith, you
are completely,
completely lost.
Even if, for example, there's, like, a modern
day issue that you're going through,
there is some sort of element of Allah
and his prophet
that you can find to answer that question.
Can I tell you something crazy? I had
the story that one time. There was a
person that I know who was having trouble
buying 1 car or the other.
Well, you won't find the answers to that
in Quran Hadithiyan. You're like, you're not gonna
get that. Okay? Allah is not gonna be
like, you know,
you know,
get away from that Hyundai.
Go go towards that Honda. Right? No. No.
No. A lot of a lot of not
gonna state that like that.
You know what? You know you you you
know what his teacher told him? He said,
go and attend a Janazah prayer.
Go and attend a Janazah prayer. So this
person said, okay. It's random, but okay.
Goes and attends a janazah,
and then he goes back to his teacher
and he says,
oh, Allah, I can't believe I had trouble
picking between 2 cars.
I'm just gonna pick the one I like
a little bit more and just kinda roll
with it.
That's called the best advice is from Allah
and his messenger.
Think about Allah and his messenger every step
you take in your life.
What would Allah think?
What would the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam do
if he was in this situation right now?
You're having trouble with your friends, your social
life. You're having trouble with your family and
your familial life. Ask yourself if the
prophet was here right now, right here, what
would he do?
What would he do?
You know, I had a question one time.
There was a older
person that came to me, and they said,
I'm having a lot of trouble, like, convincing
my family to be as religious as me.
All my red flags were going off on
my everywhere in my my soul. I was
like everywhere. K?
All
how can I get my parent my my
family to be as religious as me?
Okay. You know what I shared with him?
There's a hadith that
Aisha our mother, she narrated that somebody came
up to her and asked what did the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
do
in his home
in his own house.
And you know what she said? Aisha radiAllahu
anha, she answered this man. She said, the
prophet
used to busy himself
with the Khidima of his family,
the service of his family.
He would busy himself with
serving his family.
And when the adhan came in,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would
go to prayer,
and he would try to make it to
prayer on time.
Did any part that hadith say you grab
your family and yank them with you to
prayer? No. No. No. No. What is the
what is the chron what what's the chronological
order of it? The chronological order is the
prophet used to spend time serving his family,
and then when he heard the adhan, he
would go pray himself.
Why is this so beautiful? Because
if you do your homework right,
your family
will follow you to Islam
because of how at their service you are.
You know your dad knows, man. Your dad
knows that you know exactly what he wants
sometimes.
Your mother knows you know exactly what will
draw her heartstrings sometimes.
And in this moment, that's all you need.
People will begin to love praying with you
because they know you sincerely love them.
Okay?
So he says
advice should be sought in the Quran and
the sunnah of the prophet. He says, if
you have attained advice from it
if you have attained advice from it,
then what do you need from me?
What do you need from me, man? He
said, what do you need from me? Why
do you need me to give you advice?
You have Allah and his messenger. I'm nobody.
Note the humility here.
Note the humility here. Don't don't some people
get, like, really gassed up when somebody asks
them for advice?
Like, hey. So
I know, like, you're, like, a really good
student. So, like, I was gonna ask you
about some, like, academic advice, and you're like,
you're like, what what's this guy think as
a Jomal? Like,
people take opportunity at the smallest things to
just, like,
straight flex.
Really flex, man. Like, I'm a little bit
of a half of myself. You're like, what?
But I don't ask you anything about that.
It doesn't take much for people to start
flexing all over.
Imam Al Ghazali does whatever the opposite of
flexing is.
He goes,
if you have learned Quran and Hadith,
then why do you need my advice? I'm
a nobody compared to Allah and his messenger.
I'm I'm down here.
I can't give you anything better.
And then check this last line out. He
says,
and if not,
and if you haven't
learned
anything from Allah and his messenger,
He says,
He says, and if you haven't learned anything
from it, then tell me, what have you
attained in all these years you were with
me?
What did you get from me all these
years? Were you just, like, sitting there and
just kinda, like, totalling your thumbs
and answering DMs? Like, where are you up
to, man?
If if
that's all we do in Islam
is we just plant the name of Allah
and his Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Salam in people's
ears, and we just let it work its
miracle. That's it. We don't have to reinvent
the wheels as Muslims, y'all.
It's right there.
Fall in love with Allah. Fall in love
with the Messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Could you imagine and I'll and I'll finish
with this inshallah.
There were people, the Sahaba
They were asked questions
from other people about why they did certain
things.
They'd be like a walking a certain way
or, like, you know, sitting a certain
way. And some people would ask. They were
like, why are you why are you sitting
like that? You know what the response was?
I saw the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
do it.
I just wanna do it because I saw
him do it.
Could you imagine
on the date of judgment when
when you stand in front of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
and you may not have been the the
greatest scholar
or the greatest, you know,
most knowledgeable person,
but you stand in front of Allah, and
Allah will ask you why you did certain
things, and your response is, Allah,
I know that your Habib,
your Rasul, your messenger
used to do it. And because I knew
that, that's all it took for me to
follow that example.
Imagine how pleased Allah
will be with you.
That's all I care about
is following you and your messenger, Yalla.
Okay?
So,
this is the conclusion of the first advice.
Okay? The second advice
that we will do next Thursday involves the
idea of
zaman, of time. We're gonna go through the
idea of time,
how to spend your time wisely, what to
do with your time, how to make more
time, put barakah in your time, how to
maximize on the time that Allah
has given you. That'll all, Insha Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, be next week. We ask Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to make us of the
people who benefit
from this beautiful religion. We ask
Allah to allow our knowledge to turn into
action. We ask Allah
to never to make us people of ignorance,
and we ask Allah
to allow us to find good Nasihah in
our lives, and we ask Allah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala, to put good people in our lives
that we can seek advice from.
Next Thursday, we're going to continue with that
10 minute q and a session at the
end of the session, Inshallah.
That'll restart.
We'll kick back up with that
next Thursday, Inshallah. Alright?
Guys. Thank you so much for being here
We'll see you all next Thursday.
By the way,
today is at 8:30 sharp. So
everyone's feel you feel