Suhaib Webb – An Introduction to Tasawwuf AlKharida (Part Eighteen)

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.