Suhaib Webb – Bound By God Zarrq’s Principles of Sufism Part 2
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Like, have you had that conversation with yourself
lately? Like, what do I need to feel
well?
When people ask me about friendships and relationships
and marriages and stuff, I say to them,
have you told those people what makes you
feel valued?
And do you know what makes them feel
valued?
So you can align your values. What do
I need to feel cared for? What do
I need to feel whole without being like
hubristic? Hubristic but like narcissistic.
But I still need to know what I
need.
So the sheikh, he says, Alhamdulillahi
kama yajibuli adhim I'm masjid. I'm just gonna
read in Arabic before barakah. He said, all
praise be to Allah
as
his transcendence
and his
incredible nature and magnificent
desserts.
And his
again like his transcendence.
And peace and blessings upon
Al Habib
Sayyidina Muhammad.
You know whenever you feel sad make salawat,
you'll feel differently.
The prophet said
whoever says salawat
Allah sends salawat upon him times 10. Like
whoever says peace and blessings be upon me,
even if it's an English man,
or Urdu or Persian, whatever, it doesn't matter.
All languages are made by Allah.
He said Allah will
raise that person 10 Derek stations,
forgive that person 10 sins,
and grant them 10 hasanat.
You know when the Prophet was told that
if you said that that would happen, you
know what he did?
Abu
Musa Al Shari said when the Prophet SAW
Salam was sitting with us, suddenly he made
sujood,
the prostration of thankfulness,
and I asked him, why are you thankful?
He said, no one from my Ummah says
except those things happen. So I'm so happy
for them
that I made sujood for them, for you.
Another authentic narration, whenever you say alayhis salatu
salam,
when you say salallahu alaihi wa sallam, there's
an angel next to the grave of the
Prophet who says what's your name?
Lamis just sent salam to you. What's your
name brother?
Anas.
Ayas.
Ayas Jisins Salam to you.
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So like you know,
we believe
beyond the material we have a greater passion.
So
Prophet said, I left you 2 things, if
you hold them you'll never go astray, the
Quran and Ma'al. This is related by Imam
Rasalullah radiusesalullah.
The Prophet Muhammad Ahabbat Hussain Fakatahabuhullah.
An authentic hadith, whoever loves Hussain has loved
Allah. Whoever loved Hussein, Allah loves him. These
are all from our Sunni tradition. So again,
we get we're very fragile. Sunni fragility.
It's a problem.
Do you couple that with epic fragility?
Oh.
And he said, the reason
that I wrote this short text,
and I divided into chapters.
Is to introduce the foundational principles of Sufism.
A lot of people may be Sufis and
they're unaware of what are the foundational principles.
Then your Sufism is untethered.
And untethered spirituality is a problem too.
We've seen spiritual abuse. Right? Those things happen
when
I I allow my spirituality
to to deceive me.
I become blinded by spirituality,
but I should never calibrate my spirituality in
a way that allows me to feel superior
to people.
That would be shaitanic Sufism.
But Ademek Sufism is that my spirituality always
causes me to turn back to Allah and
to recognize my humility my my mistakes
and to see that I need Allah and
I need to be good to people.
So the sheikh lays out what are the
foundations of being a Sufi.
Like, what are the foundations of reading Quran
properly? What are the foundations of Arabic language?
What are the foundations of fiqh? So the
sheikh is saying, I'm going to bring discipline
to this science because it has become untethered
and because of that people on the other
side are upset.
And I'm sure you've seen stuff on YouTube
people like stabbing themselves, say laila himlaw
and drinking poison. How about this man? You
know, drink poison, can't bear fudger?
Kinda awkward, right?
Or I I have such a spiritual state,
but like I abuse my kids.
What's the purpose of your spirituality if you're
an abuser?
So he's saying,
I'm gonna lay out what are the foundations
of tesauf and its principles.
Can you go back up please?
Yeah.
A little bit in the middle. Yeah. And
here's the point of this entire book. I'm
going to marry the foundations of Islamic law,
the philosophy of Sharia
with Tarika,
with the inner.
So I'm going to weld the inner and
outer rules together.
No one had did this before him. The
time of the prophet,
they weren't provided.
Zakah has two meanings for a reason. Zakah
means to give, but Zakah means to grow.
Zakat means to give. Zakat also it's in
the language means to purify. So there's never
this
amputation,
if you will, between the inner and the
outer. This happens over
time.
Here means aqidah,
the foundations of belief
and firk means the practice, the outer practice
with the inner. How many of you know
the hadith of Jibreel?
Like the famous hadith where Gabriel comes to
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, ask him
3 questions.
Those three questions are found in what he
just said. He asked the prophet about faith,
that's also.
He asked the prophet about Islam practice, that's
fiqh. He asked the prophet about the heart,
gassan,
to worship Allah as though you can see
him, even though you can't see him. That's
tariqa,
haqiqh.
So he's saying I'm gonna marry all 3
of these things together
to show you that Tasolov
is rooted
in foundations.
To protect us from charlatans who say they're
righteous people but are really creeps,
and hyper literalists
who are irresponsible in their literalism,
I'm gonna try to bring some balance to
this situation.
So it's upon Allah that
I trust and hope he will facilitate this
for me.
Shaykh is very humble. Wailei
astalid astalid means to rely, to lean on.
So on Allah, metaphorically,
I'm I'm leaning on
to help me accomplish this. Fitaqiqimaqasat
in achieving this goal, this objective that I
want. Waheswona
wanaqmalwaki.
Allah is sufficient
as a caretaker
and as a guide and as someone who
looks after my affairs.
Let's take a 10 minute break when we
come back Gonna start the first Qaida, the
first rule.
And this rule is the foundation of all
things.
And what he's gonna ask you to think
about and what I want you to think
about during the break is
wellness.
What does wellness mean to you?
So inshallah, we'll take a short break and
then be back inshallah.
Let's think about wellness.
Like, I want you to kind of close
your eyes for a minute
and just look into yourself
and think about what you need to feel
well.
Those are those are these are powerful conversations.
We don't talk to ourselves enough.
So just take like a minute or so,
and just think about
and and and these things can change. These
aren't perennial.
Sometimes I need pizza to feel well. You
know what I mean? But try to think
about what is intrinsic to your wellness
Alright, does anyone wanna share?
Yes
sir.
Masha'allah
man. It's nice.
Well, we're done. He's
he's like finished the whole course.
Can you get can you get specific?
Like, what's something you need specifically to feel
emotionally well?
That's been shed.
Alright. Cool. I'm a let you off the
hook. Yes, sir.
Maybe you can translate for everybody.
That's what they need to feel well.
Whoever is sufficient
I'm a let you think about it and
I'll get back to you. Yes, ma'am?
Feeling anchored.
What what does that mean though? Like I'm
not gonna let you get away with euphemisms.
Sure. I'm gonna get you. Yes. Feeling I
have a base that I can go back
to. I can float around, do What's that
base? Family home. Right. Good. Good. Nice. Nice.
Family home. I was trying to push him
to say mama.
Right?
But, yeah. We we personality in Greek means
a mask.
Right? So we tend to layer. I'm not
saying you did that, but we tend to
layer our needs
and that's why communication is really important. What
do I really need? Has anyone seen that
show on Netflix
where that lady goes into people's houses and
help them organize their homes?
What's that show called? Rio Hondo. That show
is amazing man. I don't know her name.
I'm sorry.
But like and she says to them what?
Keep what?
What brings you joy. Keep what brings you
joy. And there's this white dude with like
Michael Vick jerseys and like like he's got
stuff from like DMX t shirts and he's
like this is like really hard.
Like I don't know what brings me joy.
And that's terrifying when I don't really know
what can bring me. And maybe one of
the goals of capitalism on steroids
is to confuse what makes you happy. So
then you become a consumer.
You buy
things. Buying things makes me happy. Yes, you
had your hand up, sister.
You need to have sleep.
Yeah, man. Getting enough sleep is important. That's
It's beautiful.
Physical
safety.
Physical safety. What does that mean, doctor?
Your wife's around?
Yeah. That's beautiful.
Anyone else? Yes.
Anxiety. How many people struggle with anxiety?
Iben Hazen said the whole entire goal of
life is to reduce anxiety.
Like after worship and everything is like people
are constantly motivated for security,
right,
to achieve
a lack of anxiety. I didn't realize
how powerful anxiety was,
till I lost my mother.
And then I didn't realize how powerful it
was, so I started working in a university.
I don't mean to insult students,
but I'm I I like I had a
student
who her anxiety,
she couldn't come to class.
Like she's I thought she was blind because
I know back in the days I would
have been like, yeah, I'm sick. I can't
make it.
But like really was overcome with,
I would say,
unrealistic
senses of fear about stuff that just didn't
exist and having to like walk her through
that.
She couldn't come to class like it debilitates
people.
What
do you need not to feel anxious?
Yeah, but that's an honest answer. Don't don't
be shy here to say like I don't
know. The Prophet said I don't know is
a third of knowledge,
and we're all still like if we all
knew like we're going to be anxious until
we get to Jannah.
The dunya is a place of anxiety.
Because if it was a place of absolute
tranquility we wouldn't long for paradise.
So
there's a balance. Yes, in the back.
For what? Creativity.
Yeah. Creativity.
You know, there's there's like in in Iman
in Chicago, I don't know if people are
familiar with Iman, they have,
like therapies of the arts. We took a
group of students last year to iman and
they did like pottery,
and like there were people like beating up
the clay,
You know and they were like good, you
know take out that anxiety. And then they
created something from their anxiety,
from their anger. It was very beautiful, mashallah.
What else?
Yes, sir. In the back.
Brother Rafiq, thank you. So
let's let's start now. The Sheikh is going
to talk about wellness.
And if you look in the Quran, it's
very interesting
when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks to the
Quraysh, I don't know if anyone here is
familiar with like Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
It's a theory when you teach children like
if you know, Sally
lost her snoopy pencil,
like, she's not gonna be able to take
an exam now. It's like I lost my
snoopy pencil.
Human beings, we may replace that snoopy pencil
with something else,
right, with something greater or even something of
less value,
but it comes in and creates
like problems.
So
if we can scroll down, inshallah.
Sheikh begins
by
it's interesting.
Okay. It's fine. No worries. No anxiety.
Yeah. Yeah. Let me vent.
So no. So he says,
he begins and he's talking now about from
the perspective
of the inner. He's he's not talking about
the outer. He's saying inwardly,
if we want to start
to
become well at an inner level,
this is how we need to define inner
wellness.
The wellness of a Sufi,
The wellness of a seeker.
The wellness of someone who's working on the
internal furnishings,
Islamic.
So there may be other definitions of wellness.
Mohammed, the document didn't, didn't download. So thank
you so much. Allah bless you
tremendously, a 1000000 times over.
So
he says Alafiya
too. Alafiya means wellness.
And afia is a word that means like
everything's gravy. You know what I mean? Like
everything's great.
That's Afiya. It's like a great way to
translate it.
Sheykh begins he said wellness,
everyone knows what is sukoon. Sukoon is a
letter that doesn't have a vowel, right? So
it's like a, I, u, sukoon is the
circle, right?
Sukoon actually means, what like an Urdu Jib
Korom, right? Suqun means silence,
Uskut.
Also means tranquility,
sakinah.
So the Sheikh is saying that Afiya
is that your heart is in a state
of sukum.
It's second,
Meaning,
you're not being pushed and pulled in a
1,000 different ways.
You found some kind of tranquility.
You found silence in your heart. What it
means to you is that as a metaphor
that the world around you and the things
around you are not so loud
that they're careening into your soul
and taking away from who you really are.
It's a very his language is the guy
is Mashalame.
So he says Alafiya
and the sufia
sukuruqalb
is that tranquility,
that healthy silence
of the heart.
I don't get a job. The job in
in,
in that looks like when I don't wear
my glasses. It's
probably where I can see it. I actually
can see it right now.
Now I bless you, man. Thank you. I
really love you guys, man. I appreciate you
both.
So if we can scroll
Scrolling down.
I think if you hit that
too. So he says I'll just go from
memory.
He says, which means that the heart
is experiencing a sense of tranquility
that
protects it. Ibtaraab
is like if you walk like this,
that's Ibtaraab. In hadith we have what's called
Sanad Mutaril. If a chain of narration breaks
a lot, it has like came from this
person, that person, that person, so like I'm
trying to follow the chain to the prophet.
It's like boom boom boom boom. It's not
consistent.
So it means that the heart is being
rocked by inconsistencies
and by things that are causing it to
be bumpy boom boom boom boom.
Who can think of something that makes your
heart
bump? I got one, I got a 18
year old daughter.
Yeah.
All the mothers like,
and a 16 year old son. Lord have
mercy.
Right?
That
causes your heart
to jump up in there.
Right? What else?
What rocks your heart moves you?
Music.
Good.
But here it's in a negative sense.
Work. Yeah. He means you're being rocked by
something which is not healthy for you.
Work,
definitely.
Instability in here. Mister yeah, man. Family instability.
Politics.
Weather.
Weather. Weather. I'm Oklahoma, man. I remember tornadoes
as a kid.
That would rock you.
Right? He's talking about those things external
that,
cause,
I'm gonna find my copy of the book
on my phone, my memory is not that
dead,
that cause us to be rocked,
that cause us to to experience,
anxiety.
I think I got it. Okay. Yeah. Let
me use it.
So
what he means the things that rock you
in the wrong way? Yet Torah is a
negative
bounce.
So it's like Georgia Avenue.
So it's Georgia Avenue on your heart,
and it's rocking you.
So family,
those things that move us. So he said,
Alafiya
is sukoonuqalb.
But he also there's something inferred here.
It doesn't necessarily mean things that legitimately should
rock us, like our kids
kinda should rock us. Right? Our family.
They have that right. What he means are
how many likes do I have today?
So what he's getting out of things which
aren't intrinsically
there to rock you?
Superficiality.
Because if I'm rocked out of concern
for my child, that's worship.
If I'm politically motivated about a 7 year
old child that gets shot and killed
and that moves me, that's a good thing.
It shouldn't consume me, but it can inspire
me.
But if I'm worried because,
you know,
my,
the projector is not working and that consumes
me. It, like, ruins my day.
That's not good.
Or like I couldn't find my dress shoes,
so I had to wear like New Balances.
Oh, God. Life's over. Like, nobody even cares,
dude.
So what he means here
is stuff that shouldn't rock you.
You. Our kids should rock
us. The weather
sometimes should rock us.
So He says, Alafi'atum,
wellness
is the tranquility
of the heart
from disturbances.
Meaning that in the face of those challenges,
in the face of my heart resting on
a metaphoric Georgia Avenue,
I don't lose myself.
That's wellness.
I don't lose my values.
I don't lose what intrinsically identifies me.
I can think of something that had a
major impact on me. Friends, man.
Sometimes friends are enemies,
especially if they're trying to
like push me
or intimidate me
to be something I'm not.
That's Ibtihrah.
And you'll notice that when the Sheikh talks
about this kind of stuff, he uses really,
really kind of universal language
because everybody got their own drama.
Everybody has their own problems.
So he said Alafi'atoo.
That's the wrong one,
the other document.
No there's another document. You that's the wrong
document.
It's okay, it all happens, there's 1 and
2 that's 2. So keep that one open
because we're gonna use that one later.
So he says Al Afiyatu sukurum albihanal
Tirabi and then He says meaning
tranquility
could be due to a number of reasons
And here we see this is a theme
of this book,
the attempt to constantly marry things, not to
separate.
So he
said, that tranquility
could come to your heart either due to,
like,
your habits.
Like my man said, listen to music. Some
people that listen to Bach, it brings tranquility
to their heart. Some people listen to Sammy
Houston, I bring tranquility. Some people listen to
Coltrane. I don't know.
Some people do yoga. Some people go and
throw a kettlebell around. Some people eat kale.
Right? Some people do keto. I don't know.
Right? But we all have our own thing
that we like to do
to achieve
a sense of tranquility
within the sphere of our life. Go on
watch with your wife or husband,
Play with your children,
right?
So he said, wakadayakuluzarika
b Sabbath,
that tranquility
could be experienced
through things that you like to do in
your daily life.
Like the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
I
love
perfume Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Ibn Josi said the Prophet loves
also
sweet meat from Yemen.
Needs to say like, I love to wear
the cotton from Yemen,
sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
We should not think that being a spiritual
person
means to completely
devoid ourselves of any physical blessings.
Allah says وَالحِيمُمْ.
It's
like celebrate blessing.
And I I worry sometimes especially with with
younger Muslims,
like they're taught like
you shouldn't have swagger,
like you shouldn't enjoy. But
for many people like my man
Amir Suleiman,
like spoken word is his passion. He finds
pleasure and tranquility in them.
And he said,
awachin sha'i or perhaps
you find tranquility
from your religious practices.
And that's what I love about him. Usually,
I've seen people say one of the most
irresponsible things I've ever heard in my life
is when a young woman, you know,
this is years ago, I was sitting in
the audience,
asked an imam, I'm going through depression,
and he said, it's because your imam is
weak.
I was like, okay, let me cut you
in the face and if you bleed it's
because your iman is weak. Like that's ridiculous.
So what the Sheikh is saying is,
and there's a subtle inference happening in this
principle, and that is that you gotta find
peace in a in 2 places,
in this binary relationship.
You gotta find peace in dunya. You gotta
find peace in Ashkenazi. You gotta find peace
in spirituality,
and you gotta find peace in the material.
So instead of divorcing
my material responsibilities
and my,
desires for,
go upon,
my desires to achieve,
yeah,
Masha'Allah,
and my Allah bless you guys, man. Thank
you so much. And my desires to achieve,
I need to try to weld the dunya
with that ashgara,
not separate them.
Why do you think, for example, even Telia
says,
if you think if you want to be
in paradise,
then you should live paradise,
like you should feel paradise in Dunya.
Before paradise comes
you should have felt it. Meaning like
you should find happiness in Allah's blessings, man.
But not to the point that it becomes
an unhealthy attachment. We're gonna talk about that
later.
So the Sheikh he says, wellness
is that state of the heart where you're
I'm good,
I'm good. It's not easy.
Ano el terab from the things that shake
it and move it.
Meaning that that tranquility could be due to
something
that you find tranquility in doing in your
daily life
or it can be something found in the
liturgy
and practices of worship that Allah has commanded
you. Man, it's so freaking relieving to hear
that.