Shadee Elmasry – The Role of Dhikr in Liberation From Envy & Misery
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim, hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam
ala Rasulillah. While he was so happy woman, whether it is March
1 2018. And I'm sitting here today with you reading a book by a male
press called the remembrance of God by genetic Dean, a CLT. It's a
translation of one of the small essays inside of how we will fit
our Imams up, very well known Imam, really, he came at the near
the end of the first millennium, of Islamic history. And he was
basically you could say he was the judge almost of all the disputes
in the debates that occurred, because he had so much material to
draw from and so much precedent and so many other scholars his
work to look at. So remember, CLT is one of the is probably the most
prolific writer, some people do take against him that he was
lenient in the matter of Hadith. But
in essence, he is one of those polished scholars who is agreed
upon,
I would say 95%, okay, in what he talks about, so he's one of the
one of the ILM, or the major figures of Ellison, well, Gemma,
and he has this book called How we live photography, it's a
collection of fatawa that he wrote, it's two volumes, and a
male press, from out of England published a small section on Vic.
Okay, these brothers from the UK. And the reason that I am writing
about this or recording this is that we've recently been talking
about the most harmful element to a person's happiness. And
happiness is something that we all crave, and happiness is something
a cya is something that sometimes you think, well, we're not meant
to be happy in this world. This is a test, we're not supposed to be,
you know, worried about how we feel. But that's actually totally
wrong. And when it comes to happiness, the angel when he
writes down what we did in this life, or what we're going to do in
this life, when he enters the womb, and writes all our destiny
down. The last thing that he writes is a Sharpie, Yun upside is
that this angel writes down whether or not we are happy, or
we're going to be miserable. So happiness, sad and a Chicago are
really what were created to be in one of these two states and the
human being is constantly, nonstop, always at every moment,
either trying to avoid misery, or attain happiness that every second
of everything's existence, whether it's a cat, a cat, if it's warm,
is trying to get to balance that out and get cool, dog if he's
hurt, thirsty, he's trying to find water, the human being
is always at all times seeking happiness, okay, and trying to
move away from misery. The only difference is that between the
moment and otherwise is who we trust on telling us what happiness
is and how it's attained. So that's why the MBA, the MBA are
also seeking happiness, right? But happiness for them is something
else. Happiness they've, they've understood, and they've been
taught by the Lord, that happiness is being in line and into sleep
and submission to the Divine Will. Okay, so they've understood what
happiness is. So there's no real difference between someone between
human beings and the idea that they seek happiness. But the
difference is what we believe about humanity and what we believe
about happiness, okay, and where it's going to come from, who owns
it, is it owned by someone, or where's the locus of happiness is
happiness in our stomach is happiness in our loins, in the
pleasure of the stomach and food and * and, and fame and wealth
is that where happiness is, those who heard are also seeking
happiness, there was once a famous Zen head.
He was passing by a king, and he is having a they had a talk. And
the king said to him, I is the king stopped his retinue. And he
said, Stop and respect I respect this Zedd, who has left off the
dunya for the sake of Allah azza wa jal, he said, The Zen said, I
have to be honest with you, you are a bigger hit than me. Because
you're giving off eka. You're giving up the ACA for the sake of
the dunya. So your investment and your your your Zoho is greater
than myself, but I'm merely giving up a little bit of dunya and
getting a lot of Africa because I want to I want Jana, I want to
enjoy it. I want its food I want it's all that there's the mala
that and the pleasures that are there, right. So zoo hood, from
this aspect, you have to understand what it is is also the
zoo head, he just understands life differently. He wants happiness,
too. So what is the point of all this is that the issue of
happiness is not so much okay, as the prophets have taught us by
acquisition, in fact, the acquisition of
material things. It's more of a headache than anything else. Well,
this is what the MBR telling us the acquisition of material
things, the fame, got a lot of wealth. Your wealth is good,
right? It makes you happier. If you know how to be happy, wealth
makes you happier.
wealth in itself can buy you anything but wealth if you want.
If you're if you know how to be happy, wealth can make you
happier. Okay, but otherwise, too much wealth, too much fame, too
much material possessions, too much power. Okay, all of that is a
headache. Okay. So acquisition is what we are trained to think that
happiness is by acquiring whether these materials are abstract,
that's rather the MBAs have taught that happiness is actually by
removal. It's actually by with removing certain things, and not
so much material thing. Yeah, material things maybe, right. But
ultimately, the most, the greatest happiness is by the removal of
envy. Envy is the the sin of the heart, let's say 90 said, that is
its own punishment. Right? Envy is a one of the biggest calamities
that will come upon a person, if he has envy, he will be a
miserable person who could just guarantee that now envy itself is
the desire the misery upon seeing the blessing of Allah upon someone
else. So that's what that's what it is. Envy is that you don't want
to see someone else being blessed. That's the problem, when you see
someone else having it good, having wealth, having beauty,
having fame, having power, having popularity, having whatever it is
that you feel miserable. Now, the first problem is this, there are
two problems here. Number one,
the person who is having this type of envy is not remembering and is
not recognizing, who is the one who is giving out these numbers.
He is not recognizing that this namah is coming from Allah
subhanaw taala. That is his decision. That is his judgment.
And who are you to differ with it? That's the first thing.
Now the second thing and in that requires Tasleem submission and it
remember how he says in part of the Arpita let's go to cardamom
fill Islami elaborate Tasneem you will your foot we are footing in
Islam will never be secure, unless you are understood this concept of
submission to Allah's will. This is what Allah has willed for you.
And this is what Allah has built for someone else, that you have to
have that submission. Now number two,
is something even more important. And that is, what are you jealous
about? What are you envious about? You're upset because Allah gave
someone some dunya. So you've overvalued the dunya. And this is
why envy is actually a not a root disease, but it's a function, it's
a branch. It's a branch of love of dunya, you can't envy someone
unless there's something to MVVM about. So you if you're a person
who loves cars, you're going to envy someone who's got a nice car,
right? Or you could even be someone who has a nicer car than
you. Unless you've you know, removed me from your heart, you
can still love something and not envy people who have it. But in
the most case, okay, you love a thing, you're going to envy the
one who has it. Even if you have like a neutral envy, which is
called we call it a HIPAA, you could call it neutral envy or good
envy that I don't want him to lose it but I want one too, okay. But
if you're someone who loves cars, you're not going to care if
someone gets a medical degree, right? So you have there has to be
an object to the envy, okay. And in this case, the removal of love
of dunya is the solution and is the only way and route to the
removal of envy. So if you if the objects of envy, okay to you,
you've nullified them, you've neutralized them in your own
heart. So what am I going to be envious about there's that then
envy cannot exist in such a person. And in the second stage of
this is that you cannot tell people the human being doesn't
work this way that you tell them stop loving this or that. It
doesn't work like that. Rather you tell them do love something else.
Okay, displacement is how real zoo hood occurs chooser hood is not
that I'm going to stop have stop loving this, stop possessing this
stop having that
rather reels of wood
is by loving something else so much that you actually have
forgotten
about the reality of what the other thing that you were thinking
about. That's its displacement reels of it occurs by this
placement. So if we're saying that a person will stop loving some
dunya so much now what do people usually do? The usual mistake that
people make is
instead of loving wandering, yet, they just start loving it
Different dunya and Ivanovna, Allah, He has one of the Hichem.
And one of the explanations of it is that it's almost like some
people are like donkeys going around the
going around in circles. So in certain farms, they need the
donkey to go around and circle to move a mill right? To move a mill
or to move some tool or other. So they have the donkey going in
circles. Okay, just keep walking in circles. Well, we oftentimes
when we get burned, and we can't have one Donia and we have a bad
experience with one dunya. What we do we make this mistake
is that we ended up just turning to a different dunya. And then
we're going to have the same experience there, right, we focus
ourselves from one dunya to the next. And that's the problem.
Rather, in contrast with the Gambia, what the prophets have
come to us to do and to tell us to really free us from this
enslavement to worldly matters into our knifes is that they tell
us listen, forget this dunya completely, okay, and I will turn
you to the world of the Spirit. And that's what the NBN have done.
And that's their product. That's their Silla is that they turn us
from the world of satisfaction and happiness through dunya, which
leads to difficulty because dunya is hard to get Allah has made
dunya hard to get. And it leads to misery. Because the dunya is
finite, and therefore there's not a lot to go around. Okay, there's
not everyone could have this dunya all the dunya. Right. Not everyone
could have everything, there's a finite number of, of whatever it
is that people love in this world. That's how Allah created it.
And number three, because there's finite, and because there are
going to be haves and have nots, you end up with envy. Good. So
it's difficult.
It's finite, right? It's hard to get it takes hard work to get it.
It's finite. And on top of that, no good. You end up being a have
not and everyone in some way, shape or form is I have not. And
then you end up in a state of misery and envy. Okay, this is the
nature this is the result of chasing dunya. Now in contrast and
be at TELUS Listen, there's something free.
Yes, it takes hard work, but not that hard, more time than anything
else.
And it's a guaranteed result. And there is it's infinite, there is
no end and no one's gonna have it if someone else takes a big
portion. They're not taking anything from you. It's infinite
on top of that. And what is that? That is noodle Lazo? Ajah Okay,
that is the nor that we are trying to acquire into our own hearts.
And when we acquire this node into our own hearts, then at that
point, what we end up with
is a sad, Cobra. A real happiness other Cobra, of course, it's
paradise, but sad, in this respect is far greater when it is of the
heart. And it is something in your soul it is inside of you. It's
like the electricity inside of a computer. Like where is it? I
don't know where it is. So it's it's locus is so deep inside the
human being, no one can take it away. This is the true Sakina that
gives people sad. Some people say, the Muslims, why is this so good
about me? Well, why didn't the material world advance that much?
We say, well, actually, the material world did advance. But
number one, it did advance number two, that's not the goal of what
profits do. Profits don't come to try to advance our material world.
And number three, one of my hunches is that the NBA gave
people something far greater, that made them more satisfied. You find
a lot of these investors and a lot of these people that you see in
the history books have who advancing the material element of
the human condition. You find them oftentimes dissatisfied,
miserable, they're seeking they're searching for something and they
end up with some material thing. Well, I think that the MBAs the
people who followed them and when the format large followed them you
had an alma that was more or less satisfied. And that satisfaction
allowed them to go at a slower pace. Okay. Businesses you don't
see humongous corporations in the oldest comic world I think that
the guy when he sold enough rugs, he was satisfied for the day he
has enough money let someone else get some money no big deal right?
There's no the Greek there's greed and this this this cavernous does
emptiness that's inside of the heart of the people that made them
go for more always going for more. I think it wasn't there, like in
the general civilization of the Muslims, and even in Christian
dumb because we say that even though they're upon the lead up
prayer in general, does do something for the human being. So
this is the the chain that
domino effect here. We have taken you in the last 15 minutes through
a domino effect. The first thing is the question of happiness and
misery. And we are legitimizing it that the quest to be happy is
legitimate. The only question is, well, who defines what happiness
is? Where is the locus of happiness? Where's the happiness?
Is it in our bank accounts? Right? Where is happiness? Okay, where is
it going to come from? Okay, and then what are the practices to get
there? So then the second thing we said is that it's the removal of
envy. That is the key to happiness. Okay, getting that envy
and envy itself is a is a branch from the root what's the root? The
root is love of dunya and love of dunya Oh, but we never actually
defined dunya which we have to do is dunya like my job is dunya like
my wealth Well, no, I'd love to make money everyone was trying why
you got to make money. Everyone wants to make money. Right? Every
you need to be successful. You need to have some, some kind of
thing where you sit back at the age of 60 and say, Well, I did all
this. That's great. Right? Otherwise, what am I doing? I'm
wasting my time. You need to have something tangible, something
physical. Right, unless you're Allah gave you some degree of Eman
that we don't have. Okay, but even that is not even the Sunnah. The
Sunnah is not just to be on a mountain or in a room alone and
wait till you die this is not the way of Islam the way of Islam is.
You have the your spirituality by evening in the daytime you should
go out and produce something Allah Subhana Allah says that put the
salah to me further put itself in touch with audio Abdullah Abdullah
if drama is over, all right, then go out and seek the bounty of
Allah right go out and work so we should have something so dunya is
not what people imagined it to be my career my degree my wealth.
That's not don't dunya is khulumani usually rule of the
Arabic is everything that busies you from Allah. So if your action
is for the sake of Allah
if your career you're seeking it, right to fulfill a photo, which is
some whatever your job is, maybe it's a funky fire. Okay. Like
gynecologist Muslim woman gynecologist right so fuck you
fire someone Muslims woman's got to do it. Right, when you're gonna
have your, the women you gonna go get checked by men. So there's 55.
And then there are other ways to make your intention sound. And of
course, we know how to test whether or not our intention is
actually true, or if it's a lie. And the way to test it is to
compare and to look, are we leaving off the fora that Allah
gave us
in order to do this? Or are we actually doing anything haram to
do it, and the moment that we are doing haram and leaving off
obligations for in order to gain something, then we know that we're
liars, or neffs is playing a game with us it's not for the sake of
Allah. If it's for the sake of Allah then do what Allah said to
do first, which is our for our Salas, chica song, okay? On all
these things, and the more omelette, the right interactions,
and we don't forget him. So. So that's the definition of dunya
because envy is a branch of dunya. You can't remove dunya from your
heart just like that. We said you have to displace it with what are
you going to displace it? We displace it with the product that
the Gambia have brought down and they are here to channel, the note
of Allah azza wa jal, and we put in our hearts in the note of Allah
prophesy, centum talked about it. And he said, the sign of it is
that you want to leave you forget about dunya you forget about the
thing that distracts you from Allah. Literally, he said, The
True zone is not that you intentionally leave something off.
Nope, you're so busy enjoying his vicar that you actually forgot
about the dunya didn't even cross my mind. Something I forgot about
it. And you get more interested in matters of the afterlife, and you
actually start to prepare yourself for death you start thinking about
okay, how do I want to die? Do I really want to die? With this
feud? Do I really want to die with this sin? Do I really want to die
with these debts? Literally? Right? Do we really want to die?
You know, feeling that I should have spent more time with you
know, my kids or more time doing charity or something like that? Do
we won't want to die spending seven hours a Sunday watching
football? So you know the brothers I'm gonna I don't mean of what
your minds somewhat kicking back and watching a game, right? I'm
not even that strict. I don't mind that at all. That sometimes could
be good. You said what your son watching some brothers from like,
11am to 11pm. How could you I mean, you don't get bored from 11
to 11. And now it's gonna get worse because it's all the
bedding. In any event. That's a whole nother subject.
But the point is, we displace dunya
by the gorilla, love of the gorilla, and that's what this book
is about. So that's really the intro thesis on the and why I
wanted to cover this book to show the importance of this. They could
end like everything, when you want to do something. You need friends
to do it with.
It's hard to do something alone. It's easier to do something
together. So this is why he actually talks about
The modality and the different ways that that goes down so we're
going to cover this little by little. Now you note that this
video here is just a still image in the future videos when we
actually get to the Hadith and the content that Imam asuci gives. I'm
actually going to put up a screenshot of the Hadith so that
if you're a Arabic student, you can actually read along and double
this up as knowledge and Arabic. So just come look at it that's
that does it for the first session with Saddam when it comes