Shadee Elmasry – The Role of Dhikr in Liberation From Envy & Misery

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