Suhaib Webb – An Introduction to Tasawwuf AlKharida (Part Eighteen)
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the core classes at Swiss, including faith, practice, and purification of the soul, and a course on daughters of the spirit. They also mention a book on theology and the importance of addressing the Karima of Islam. The speaker gives a detailed explanation of the etiquette of Allah's teachings, starting with the first etiquette of the believer, La ilaha ill clarity, and emphasizes the importance of the sheikh in preserving and keeping faith. They also give a lesson on the importance of the prophetic etiquette of La ilaha ill blood, which is the first step to formalizing the heart. The speaker gives a detailed explanation of the etiquette of being the first step to formalize the prophets' teachings.
AI: Summary ©
Assalamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi
Wa Barakatuh.
Assalamu alaykum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh.
Welcome to our class. One of our core
classes here at Swiss. The core classes of
course at Swiss are founded on 3 subjects.
1st is faith, 2nd is practice, and the
third is purification of the soul.
Iman, Islam, and Tassawaf.
The
framework for this is provided by a beautiful
narration which many of us know
from Sayyidina Umar, from Sayyidina
Abu Hurayra and others
that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
was visited by a person who asked him
3 questions.
What is Islam? What is iman? And what
is ihsan? We know the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam answered
And these are really the 3 core foundations
of Islamic education. Right? Islam meaning practice, iman
meaning theology, and ihsan to Allah as though
you see Him even though you can't see
Him
is what we're studying now. Tisawaf or Tasqiatun
Nafs.
If you have any theoretical
concerns about studying tassawaf or things like that,
I encourage you to go and check out
my course on Imam Suyuti's foundations of Orthodox
Sufism.
I go through a number of the kind
of the contemporary concerns that people have.
Now that being said, we wanna jump into
this because this is our first course in
the core series on Tussaud.
There are other you know, courses here at
Swiss like the Hicam
and even,
Imam Sayyuti's text I mentioned earlier, but those
are more like electives. We have a series
of core courses at Swiss under theology,
under practice, and under to soul for tisqiatunafs
that we want people to follow to go
through kind of the Swiss system. And this
is the first text,
in that and this is of course Al
Kharida
al Bahiyya
of Sayyidina Imam Ahmad ad Dardir
RadhiAllahu Anhu.
Sheikh Ahmed ad Dardir was one of the
great great great scholars of the later middle
ages
of Islam and Egypt.
A tremendous jurist,
a tremendous
theologian,
a tremendous leader,
a tremendous,
scholar of the heart of the purification of
the soul. Now, I used to actually study
in the masjid that was next to his
home which is still there of course you
can go inside it. It's walled off with
Sheikha Mat Toharayan.
Sheikha Mat Dardir, you're going to encounter him
again at Swiss. In fact, you're going to
encounter this book
in some of our discussions on theology
because the first part of this book is
dedicated to understanding Amen.
And the second part is dedicated to to
understanding
Ihsan.
And we're just gonna jump into it, insha'Allah.
And what I want you to think about
is now getting the basic practices
needed to have a meaningful relationship with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in your life
and the basic practices needed to preserve and
keep your faith strong. So this is like
the foundational practices
of people who are interested in really doing
kind of the labor
and getting into the raw materials of working
on pure fit purifying their soul.
Now the sheikh,
initially, in the beginning parts of this book
was talking about aqidah.
And as he finishes, he says something really
important because it's a poem. It's really beautiful.
He
says,
And he says that the statement
La ilaha illallah,
every component of Islam falls underneath La ilaha
illallah.
Because he's talking about theology earlier, which is
really encapsulated
by the statement La Illahillullah Muhammad Rasoolullah.
So after talking about Tawhid,
after talking about the prophets,
after talking about the angels,
after talking about the hereafter,
after talking about Qadha and Qadr, he says
addressing
the importance of
La ilaha illallah Muhammad
Rasulullah.
He says,
The Karima of Islam is
So,
everything that he's addressed now is going
to be umbrella if you will.
All the things that I talked about. This,
this, this is ruling, this ruling, that ruling.
You have to believe this about Allah. You
have to believe this about the prophets. You
have to believe this about the angels. All
of this, yandarij awyantawifi
karimatil Islam
is encapsulated in the statement,
La ilaha illallah
Muhammadar Rasulullah.
And that moves us now to the section
on tasawaf where he says very beautifully,
He says, 'Masha'allah
So, therefore,
abundantly
and generously
say La ilaha illallah.
Engage in the dhikr of saying La ilaha
illallah.
Bil adab
with the proper etiquettes.
Because you will
ascend to the highest stations,
the highest spiritual states,
the highest levels of Iman and commitment to
Allah
by saying La ilaha illallah
abundantly.
So this is the first etiquette of the
believer
who is starting now to work on the
heart. Where should we start? Let's start with
dhikr.
Let's start with the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. That's why Imam al Bukhari
in his Sahih, it starts with,
Every action is by the intention. And then
he ends
this incredible collection of prophetic narrations.
Right?
He says that there are 2 statements, the
hadith that are light on the tongue, heavy
on the scales, and beloved to Allah. That's
the last hadith in Sahih Bukhari. As if
to say that everything in between
is going to be really predicated by the
niyyah
and the remembrance of Allah.
Another lesson that I heard is that maybe
someone reading Sahih Bukhari is like, Man, this
is a lot to do.
I can't do all this as that man
who came to Sayyidina Nabi salallahu alaihi wa
sallam and said, Innasharai
al Islami al Kathurat.
He said, You know
the rules and everything now become so abundant
in Islam.
And this was someone who became Muslim early
on when there wasn't that many things to
do. Now you have salaas, aqa, hajj,
jihad, dawah, everything. Right? So he's saying, It's
a lot.
Is there anything you can teach me that
I can do that's gonna like help me
maintain
even though I'm not able to do all
those things? And the Prophet
said to him,
Keep your
tongue moist with the remembrance of Allah
So this is something that any of us
can do, no matter where we are.
No matter where we are spiritually, no matter
how bad you feel about yourself, no matter
how successful you feel. How does the end
of the prophets prophethood,
come about? Fasabihabhi
rabbika wastaghfir
with dhikr. How does the prophets prophethood start?
Ikra Bismi Arabic. Read with the name of
your Lord. So nubuwa
is sandwiched between the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
So whether someone's just starting out, whether someone
is a saintly person, whether someone is struggling
with sin,
this is the first step to pull us
out of those difficult times
into a meaningful
relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So abundantly say La ilaha illallah
with adab, we're gonna talk about that next
time, you will ascend to the highest stations.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
The best thing that was said
by myself.
The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
The best thing that I said and the
prophets before me said
was La ilaha illallah.
That there is nothing in existence
worshiped
except Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. No cause,
no
car, no job,
no family member,
no attachment to sin,
La ilaha illallah.
So Alhamdulillah, the first etiquette that we learned
for those of us who are seeking to
have this connection with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is to abundantly say La ilaha illallah. Next
time we're going to talk about the etiquettes
associated with this beautiful statement.