Suhaib Webb – Healing the Heart & Strengthening Submission (Part One)
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We look at the Quran and we ponder
on the Quran, we find that there are
3 really
foundational components
that a person of the Quran should be
engaged in. The first is worship.
That's why worship is used in a universal
sense. For example, You budoon Allah. They worship
Allah Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. In a specific
sense, You have Quran Allah. They remember Allah.
They establish prayer. So worship is used as
a universal
and then the particulars of worship are mentioned.
And even their particulars
of particulars like ruku and sujud
are mentioned
to highlight the importance of worship.
The second is knowledge. We find Allah
says in the Quran
that indeed the people who have reverence to
Allah are only the people of knowledge.
We know that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala did
not order the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
to ask for an increase in anything except
knowledge. And then different types of knowledge are
mentioned like tafakkur.
We'll talk about those things, the differences later
on inshallah in our
lessons on tafsir
and fehm. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
right, they don't understand.
We also find for example, tadabbur Afarayat tadabbaroonal
Quran. So knowledge is mentioned.
It's mentioned
in its different iterations,
in its different ways to show that it's
a constant also in the life of the
Muslim as well as knowledge being mentioned in
the past
and present tense like I mentioned earlier.
The third is Tasqiet and Nafs.
So the first is worship
in its broader sense of the word.
Everything that Allah loves.
Number 2 is knowledge, the acquisition of knowledge,
the depth of knowledge, and so on and
so forth.
And the third foundational principle of Islam
is
is purifying the soul
and working on our behavior.
That's why Allah
says,
Indeed, the one who in the past
purified their soul is successful.
But he also talks about it in the
present future.
Tazekah indeed successful as the one who is
purifying
and will purify their soul. So, subhanAllah, these
are the 3 foundational components of Islam
and of course these are the 3 things
that the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
when he was asked by Sayyidina Jibril
alayhi salatu salam. Akbirniyaanal
iman. Akbirniyaanal
ihsan. Teach me about Islam. Teach me faith.
Teach me about Ihsan.
It was these three things
that made up the bulk of the prophet's
answer
For that reason, one of the major focuses
of Swiss is a section
on purification of the soul and improving our
character.
What has been classically referred to as a
tasauwolf.
I know that that word tends to bring
out a lot of kind of cathartic reactions
and I think it's very important that we
understand that this reaction really was created,
by a group of people and a certain
understanding of Islam
that had a number of political reasons as
well as power reasons for taking out Tisauwuf.
Framed very similarly
as Tassa'uwuf is framed, as like a a
pathology
that Muslims should be careful
of. So before we jump into the book
that we're going to be reading together as
an introductory
to the science, let's address a few issues.
Number 1, the idea of bidah. We know
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam has
said
like every bidah will lead astray.
Traditionally, our scholars divided into 2 camps on
the idea of innovation.
Number 1 were those who said anything
introduced in the realm of religious worship,
whether it has a foundation or not meaning
some supporting evidence,
should be rejected. And this was the early
school
of Imam Malik
radiallahu anhu.
The
second opinion is that if something has its
foundation
in Islam and it's supported
by foundational texts and it doesn't contradict
contradict a foundational
biddah. And that was the school of Sayna
Wa Imam Mana Asha'i
Radiallahu Anhu and the majority of Sunni scholars
throughout
history.
And they divided Bida into 2. Bida Hasana
and Bida
sayya. Bidah, Mahmouda as Imam Shafiya called it.imbida
kabiha.
A commendable bidah and a rejected bidah. We'll
talk about this later on in Ousol Lofeir.
The reason that I give the introduction is
that scholars in general agreed
that terminology
does not fall under innovation.
That the names of things do not fall
under Bida.
That's very important because this is where we
see the cathartic reaction to the word tasawaf.
Somebody may say that the prophet, salallahu alaihi
wa sallam, he never used the word tasawaf.
That the Sahaba, they never used the word
tasawaf. How
do you respond to these things? Not so
that you can be someone who instigates more
divisions in the Muslim community,
but so that we can bring people together.
One of the signs of beneficial knowledge
is
is to bring the community of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam together
not splitting the ummah
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So
the first is this principle
that there is no bidah.
That there is no innovation in what you
call things. And the proof of this is
for example the science of Tajweed.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he never used
the word ikhfa, idram,
mudood,
and so ikhalab. He never used these words.
Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. But these were words
that came later on because the science
needed to be more organized.
The word Al Balah, rhetoric.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he never used
it. But if you go to any major
religious institution in the world,
they have, for example, in the Azhar, in
Medina, in Damascus, in Morocco, in Pakistan, in
Malaysia, in Bosnia.
The section on.
Words like
and so on and so forth.
The
never used the word
in his life to mean as it is
now.
So all these different terminologies of things that
we study.
Traditional,
normative,
mainstream,
Sunni
scholarship
did not
deem these things as Bida.
This is something that has happened in recent
years, maybe because people are so sincere sincere
and pious.
But piety is not enough. Piety has to
be coupled
with knowledge.
Of course, some people may say but the
prophet
said, Quran, like, the person should make, you
know,
tasin of the Quran.
The prophet said,
whatever Allah intends good for. It gives them
the understanding of deen. So they will say
that these terminologies
have some root
in the source. And we'll
say Exactly. We agree with you. And the
same thing applies to the idea of tasawaf.
If we look as I mentioned earlier, one
of the foundational sources of the Quran in
Sunnah is the idea
of tazkitunafs
tazkitunafs.
That takes us to a second important axiom
which you want to memorize and you want
to know
that our scholars said
There's no fighting over terms.
We don't argue over terminology. This is something
that's relatively new, perhaps a product of modernity,
the hyper focus on the outer.
Whereas,
normative mainstream religion is concerned with the inner.
So this axiom, laamoshaha
tabustila
We don't argue over terms as mentioned by
Al Imam Ibn Qayyim
has a few conditions. Number 1, of course,
a term should not be something evil, right?
Should not be something vulgar.
Number 2, the term should not confuse people
like I would use the word Quran to
talk about something else but the Quran is
the Quran or the name Mohammed
as a prophetic usage,
right, to describe another prophet for example before
him.
Those are kind of the conditions of
using terminology.
You can call it what you want. Nobody
cares what you call it.
And that takes us to a third axiom
before we start to talk about what is
to
and this axiom is so important and very
brilliant.
Which means that concern is given for the
meanings,
not the names. You can call it whatever
you wanna call it. Like, nobody's tripping on
that. But what do you mean
by what you say? So that forces us
and compels us to delve deeper into our
discussions and our academic engagements
that we don't get lost on the exits
of terminology
but we focus on what people mean by
what they say.
What they mean by what they say. And
that has the potential number 1, to make
clarity.
Number 2, perhaps we're using different terminology,
but we agree on the meanings of the
terminology
so it can bring unity, alhamdulillah, to the
Muslims. And number 3, it raises the level
of etiquette
in our discourse.
So therefore people can call it.
People can call it.
People can call it tahdib and nafus.
You can call it what you want.
That takes us to the next point and
that is that
when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam answered
Sayna Jibreel throughout history,
those answers begin to form the faculty of
Islamic studies.
The first answer was about Islam. So that
faculty is the faculty of ilahiyat
or ilmukalam
or ilmettawhid
or aqidah.
The second was about the acts of worship
so that became.
Right?
Or that became fiqh and evolved into medhabs
just like theology evolved into medhabs.
And the third was ihsan to worship Allah
as though you see him even though you
can't see him. And this
over time evolved
into the faculty
of tasawaf. Tasawwuf. Tasawwuf was taught traditionally
in all of the major mainstream
Islamic institutions
regularly
and considered a, if you will,
a macronutrient
in the life of a budding student of
knowledge
because knowledge
without good character
and knowledge without a pure heart will lead
someone to hypocrisy.
That's why
He said a
scholar of Islamic law, a Sufi.
Someone who focuses on the heart.
Don't don't be that or that.
Then he said because by Allah, I give
you this as a sincere advice.
That doesn't have to Soaf is a hearted
person.
And they will never taste taqwa.
And the one who focuses simply on Tasawwuf
without recognizing the limits
and obligations of the outer sciences, akida and
fiqh.
And someone that's ignorant will never be able
to reform anything.
So traditionally,
a student of knowledge would study akida and
fiqh
and then study
and then study the inner. Because
and
are the keys to regulating
the spiritual. Because we know that often times
if the spirit
is untethered from principle,
it becomes lost in a form of self
idolatry,
self adulation
where because things feel
good, they must be acceptable. So that's where
the fiqh comes in, halal and haram.
And the aqeedah comes in worshiping Allah without
falling into shirk. InshaAllah, next time, we're gonna
talk about the definition of tasawuf.
What we talked about now is very important
though. Number 1, the idea of Bida in
a very simple way we unpack that more
so in Usolofek
being something that
has no source,
no support in our Sharia.
Number 2, the idea of calling something by
different names. Tasawwuf, Tas Q'etanef. Scholars weren't concerned,
about those things.
And then finally, what we talked about is
those foundational principles
of the Quran and balance
being knowledge,
worship,
and tasawaf. And how traditionally
the outer
knowledge of fiqh and the cognitive
imam
Ashur he
says he says in the way of the
malakih waqt al Ashari and the aqidah of
Imam Abi Hasl Ashari
Ashari
and then he mentions to so
so practice
to so
and that leads us to our discussion about
balance.
Barakalawafikum
Wajazakamalayukherin.
Next time, Insha'Allah, we're going to talk about
what is tasawaf as classically defined by our
scholars. JazakAllah
Khair and Assalamu alaikum.