Suhaib Webb – An Introduction to Tasawwuf AlKharida (Part Seventeen)
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Assalamu
Alaikum, Wa Rahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. Welcome to our class
on sanitation of the soul.
Going to be going through a very important
book written by a medieval giant of Islam,
Sheikh Ahmed Dardir called Al Kharida
Al Bahiyyah, the glimmering pearl. Right? Like if
you look into
the the dark sea, you see this pearl
glimmering. If you look at all of the
things around you in the postmodern
world, Islam, Masha'Allah,
is like a glimmering pearl. Allahu Akbar.
And this section of the book that we're
talking about is the last section of it.
It's actually a poem, and he actually explained
it as well.
But the first part of the book, you
can see up to up to this point,
is dealing with theology,
is dealing with creedal issues.
So someone may ask like why does he
put creed before?
If I were to tell you, you know,
go somewhere and find somebody for me. And
I didn't tell you who it was, how
would you find them or go and get
something for me and I didn't tell you
what it was, how would you get it
for me? You wouldn't be able to.
So how can someone claim to have a
relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala be doing
mari fatihi
without knowing
him? How can someone claim to love the
Prophet Sallallahu
truly without knowing him?
How can someone claim to be obedient to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala without without knowing fiqh?
So what the Sheikh is doing here is
he's teaching us the methodology, the pedagogical
methodology of Islam.
That we start with creed,
move to fiqh, and we finish with tasawaf.
Tasawaf is the cherry on top. And what
he's doing is he's helping save us from
notions of contemporary
new age spirituality
which is really a a gloss for hyper
individualism.
And that is that a true relationship with
Allah
has to be done by learning who Allah
is, fa'alam, annahu la ilaha illallah.
You must know that there's no,
God except Allah.
Knowing his prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
and following the commands of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and his beloved messenger
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, Alatiya
O' Rasool. Obey Allah
and Waatiya O' Rasool and obey his messenger
Who obeys the messenger has obeyed Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And after that
comes a tasaw of spirituality and Islam. And
I'm like the word spirituality,
the
purification of the soul
and the development of, of the soul's ability
to sense between good and evil
and be sensitive to good and evil
is found
at the steps
of Akita
and.
So now you can understand why
at Swiss,
our core
system is based on aqeedah, theology,
fiqh, practice
and the soul of spirituality.
SubhanAllah.
Sheikh Ahmadardir,
he says it beautifully,
That there's no way you can travel to
God if you don't know God.
And I like to say,
Without his deen Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Now the sheikh is going to talk about
the definitions of and
he does something really, really incredible.
And this is something that I really enjoy
by certain scholars when they do this because
it shows you their depth and their precision
and nuance. And that is he defines to
so often 2 ways. Number 1 is
as a science,
as a field of study.
Number
2, as a practice.
What does it mean
to practice
living a life while I understand
I am trying to draw nearer to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and have a meaningful relationship
with faith.
So the first he says that
defined
as a science,
He says that it is the knowledge of
certain principles and And here means things that
have come from the Quran and sunnah.
That by knowing
them,
someone will be aware of how to purify
his or her heart
and his or her. He uses how as
many perceptions,
but this not only means perceptions,
right, it also means our limbs.
I I've added to this definition
and I said
That this is a knowledge,
the knowledge of certain foundations
who teach us and help us recognize
a pure
heart, a pure mind and thoughts,
pure perceptions and actions.
That's.
Then he moves on to the definition, amalan,
and this definition is no joke because it
immediately centers us on responsibility.
You know, the first definition we can argue
about it back and forth, we can engage
in kind of an intellectual discussion,
but the second definition, the Amari definition
does not play, man. It does not play.
And it it it
it oozes with responsibility.
It commands responsibility.
So he says
That and he's gonna divide this definition into
3 parts.
The is
to be to take caution
when it comes to the commands of God,
meaning that you're extra careful
when it comes to making sure that you
and I
observe
what Allah has commanded.
And to means
to go far,
go far away.
So
means to distance myself as far as I
can
from the prohibited.
So the first,
I'm being extra careful. I'm diving in the
deep end when it comes to making sure
that I obey Allah
The second, I am running to the hills
and getting far as far as away as
I can
from any semblance of disobeying Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
You Allah, minimalism.
And the 3rd component of tasawaf is to
restrict myself to the necessities
when it comes to the permissible.
Whew. This is a tough definition. Makes me
feel like I got a lot of work
to do. I don't know about you, but
I'm reading it. I'm like, Oh man.
Number 1
is that I
that I am
taking all necessary caution
when
it comes to the commands of Allah.
And I'm distancing myself as far as I
can
from the things that Allah has prohibited.
And finally,
That even in the area of the permissible,
I am limiting myself,
restricting myself
to the things which are a necessity.
It's not easy, man.
That's not easy. And what we understand from
this is that
the purification of the heart is not an
event. Again, this is new age spirituality
that we have the epiphany and then we're
all good. No, no.
Spirituality is a long term process that is
going to come with ups and downs. I
don't like to use the word spirituality but
I'm just doing it for the sake of
of clarity.
Talsowa for tasquiatunafs
is not an event. It is a process
that demands throughout our lives.
We are constantly working on these things
improving my adherence to the commands of Allah,
distancing myself from disobeying Allah
and then trying to manage
to minimize things so I can lighten my
load. Because if faith is a mountain, if
I try to pack too many things in
this bag, I'm not gonna be able to
climb.
So what do I have to do? I
have to restrict it
to what I need.
What is
a necessity?
The Shaykh he continues and he says
that the objective of tasawah
salahulukalbi
is the purification of the heart. And actually
salah,
purification doesn't really give us the meaning.
It's like sanitation.
Means to to take something that was fasted
and make it
pure. Allah says he will guide you by
rectifying your deeds for you.
So
means that I'm always engaged in trying to
spring clean this thing, man,
work on myself.
As well as my perceptions of my attitudes
and my ideas
and my liams in this life.
And of course then the other objective of
tasawaf
is that I'm going to experience
bliss in the hereafter
at the highest levels.
So Alhamdulillah we we we now continue with
the text
and
move on to the first practice.
What is the first practice? Because this text
is designed to just give us things we
can practically do. What are the things we
can practically do to increase our faith and
have a better relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.