Suhaib Webb – Hikam One Signs of Misplaced Trust
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This is
a class I've been wanting to teach for
a long time, and
this is one of those slow dose classes.
It's gonna take a while
because, masha'Allah, we're going to cover the hikm
of Imam Ibn 'Atha'Allahu 'skindri
The hikm are like
332
advices
on faith,
on life, and really their whole purpose,
as I heard from one of my teachers,
is to explain
the statement of the prophet
That there's
That there is no
creation and no power
except with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. How will
there's no change,
nothing happens, nothing occurs, and
there's no power in the things that occur,
except for Allah
So 330
t 2 advices that are helping us live
and understand the statement which the prophet called
From the treasures of Jannah is the statement
Now the narration, the prophet said, this is
the most beloved thing to me in this
world.
In in kinda taking it
in a more focused way,
this text is going to cause us to
think about our emotional
and psychological
relationships
with faith.
And it's going to ask us some really,
really powerful questions
that
compel us to become extremely introspective.
Not to the point that we become self
centered,
but hopefully to the point that we become
responsible.
So the real goal of this book is
to enhance our Ihsaan.
To worship Allah as though we see him.
Even though we don't see him, we know
he sees us.
And each one of these wisdoms
has like 2 sides to it. For the
saint,
for the sinner. Right? For the righteous person,
and then for people like myself,
we got issues. Trying to do our best.
Trying to improve every day.
My job is to explain this in 2
ways. Number 1 is for those of you
that have never encountered something like this before,
you're really gonna enjoy it. It's gonna challenge
you a little. For those of you who
may have studied it before, to explain it
in perhaps a more,
aggressively
academic way, just so that you can
like see some things that you may not
have noticed before.
The explanation
of the hicom that I'm using is from
Sheikh Abdul Majid Sharnobi
Al Mariki
Al Azhari Al Khilwati.
For those of you who are taking the
40 hadith with me, then you know him.
Died in 1929.
Was this really really profound writer,
an editor of classical texts
and left this, like, massive body of literacy.
So let's jump into it. Insha'Allah Ta'ala. Have
you ever noticed, like,
sometimes I noticed in my life
when I'm really successful religiously, I sometimes take
my foot off the gas.
You know what I mean?
Then there's been times in my life where
I've sinned and slipped,
and I also like to take my foot
off the gas.
Imam
Ibn Alta'ala Eskandri
is going to start the hikm
by
dedicating about the first 15
to things that can cause us not to
have
as possible a pure connection to god.
Some of these things are much more dangerous
and subtle
because they appear good.
Like, it's easy to recognize, like, haram stuff
and stay away from it.
But if my good deceives me, I'm in
trouble.
So the sheikh is going to dedicate the
first 15 wisdoms,
the hikm,
the plural of hikmah,
wisdom,
to
understanding
how we need to frame certain things and
prioritize them
so that they do not interfere and corrupt
our reliance
on Allah.
And the first thing he's gonna start with
is our amal,
our deeds.
Because deeds
can trick us. Right?
We might not have true intentions behind our
deeds.
We might be contradicting
our hearts with our deeds.
We may allow our deeds to cause us
to be delusions.
We may allow our deeds to destroy us.
So he says something really, really, really profound.
He says,
I'm gonna read it again.
Alamatiatimat
alalamalnuksaanurrajaindawajjudizalal
Which means from the signs
that someone
has trusted
in their deeds. Yeah. Timad means like totally,
like, just totally relied on their deeds. It's
like.
And the reason
this is kinda dope, he's playing around in
the language
because it's like you're trying to rest on
these deeds,
but your deeds
are not what's gonna carry you necessarily. So
it's like you've rested on something that eventually
may crumble
if you place them
in the wrong way
and if you're not doing them
for the right reasons.
In other words, if Allah hasn't blessed your
deeds,
you're gonna fall while you try to rely
on them. It's like dope. So he says,
from the signs that you have
improperly
trusted your deeds.
Nuksanurraja
is a loss of hope.
Nuksan means like deficiency.
So a loss of hope
when
the test
or the slip
occurs.
It's like so dope, man.
It's very profound.
So from the signs that you and I
have
incorrectly
relied
on our deeds
is that
when the test shows up,
we slip.
Let's see what Sheikh Sharnoobi
Al Mariki has to say about this hiccup.
Because if you think about it, remember the
theme of the first 15 hiccup
is to keep everything away from you
and your relationship with Allah. So if I'm
doing something to show off,
my deeds
are taking me away from God. If I'm
sinning with my deeds, they're taking me away
from my relationship, my trust in Allah.
So this is what he's getting at.
Sheikh Sharnubi,
he says,
From the sign that someone has trusted in
their deeds.
Sheikh gives one
component of the meaning, and that is that
when that person experiences a slip,
they lose hope in the mercy of Allah.
And here's where the sheikh takes it to
a whole another level, man.
He says because what's
mentioned in front of you
is that this is, you know, the sign
that you trust in your deeds is when
a test appears, you lose hope.
But what's understood
is that a person
prefers
hope.
Right?
When things are going well, they're hopeful.
So when things are going great, they claim
to have hope in God.
But when they start to go through it
and they start to face difficulties,
they lose hope in God. He said that's
the mafum of it.
And this hikma, this wisdom, he said is
really going to be appropriate for those people
who have ma'arif of Allah.
Because they realize it ain't about the actions,
man.
The actions
are not what we should be relying on.
We should rely on the lord of the
actions. In the 96th verse of Suratul Safed,
Allah says after.
Allah created your actions.
Nothing happens
in existence.
I'm not blinking my eyes. I'm not breathing.
I'm not moving my hands. I'm not teaching
you, Except this was created by God.
This book
and Islam in general
demands a relationship with Tawhid
that compels us to a sense of responsibility,
that is very powerful
and transformative.
And some of these things you're gonna be
like, I didn't know it was this deep,
yo.
Like, I didn't know it was this distilled.
I didn't know that this was what it
was what it is.
And perhaps you're saying, but, like, what about
the evil I do? Everything is from God.
How do you understand that? Take my class
on theology, Insha'Allah, it'll be cleared out for
you as well as in this text.
But
he's saying
don't allow your actions
to come between you and hope.
And we can add
don't allow your actions
to come between you and fear
and responsibility.
So he said,
the righteous people are those who do not
they do not amplify.
Their hope is not amplified.
Like just because they do good, that doesn't
cause them to get
overly delusioned by their goodness.
Right? So they have hope in their good,
not in the one that caused them to
do good. That hope should've already been there,
man.
That hope in a healthy way should've already
been there.
So they don't see, like, you know, I'm
my own guide. Like, I guided myself.
But they attribute
their success
to God. Look at the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam after 23 years of dawah, and
he sees people embrace Islam.
Right? Magnify your Lord. Praise your Lord. And
seek the forgiveness of your Lord.
So what he's saying is don't get caught
up
in your good
because your good didn't come from you. Allah
says,
You didn't throw it, or Muhammad, when you
threw it, Allah threw it.
The power of Allah Subha'ala allowed that to
happen.
So he's saying,
don't forget
that the good that you've done
It's from Allahu
So he says those people who know this
are those who are
fascinated
and constantly in a state of rida with
al akhdar.
Bil akhdar. They are in a state of
happiness.
Whatever Allah has given them,
whatever Allah has given them, they attribute that
to Allah. Reda means to choose.
So they always choose Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That happiness, that contentment.
And he said, what that means
is that they understand
that whatever happens in their life,
whether good or bad, they know it's from
Allah. If it's good, you stick to it.
You ride it out. If it's bad, that's
a test.
Avoid it. That's why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
says in Suratul Qasas
verse 68.
Creates what he wants and chooses what he
wants.
So this has taken us now to a
hyper understanding of our actions and how we
should posit them in our lives.
And that our actions should serve as an
awareness of Allah. As I said earlier, the
goal of the hikm is to create
a heightened sense of worship Allah as though
you see him. Even though you can't see
him, you know he sees you.
So the first lesson is for people who
are doing good. Yo. Don't get it twisted.
Don't don't think.
You
know? Like, I I guided myself.
So the outcome of that should be thankfulness,
humility,
appreciation.
You know what I mean?
Holding on to the blessing,
because it's all from Allah. It ain't from
us.
The second lesson is for the sinner,
because
perhaps the sinner
will,
in the other direction, allow their sin to
defeat them. I made mistakes. Allah hates me.
Oh, man. I screwed up. Allah hates me.
Just keep going, man.
Stay with Allah. Repent
and keep going. And the sheikh, he mentions
this beautiful poem. Actually, it was written
by Imam Ibn Utta'a Allah, the writer of
Al Hikam. It
said
You know that the the righteous intelligent person
is the one who does not allow
his or her sin
to take him or her from hope.
Because Allah is the one who forgives all
sins. So we see this hicom has two
meanings. Right?
It is, you know, for the one who
has trusted in their deeds, they lose hope
when they slip.
So the sin consumes them and destroys them.
For the one
who does good but allows that good to
make them delusioned
and intoxicated with themselves, what's what's called alaujab,
to be amazed at ourselves.
Right?
As mentioned in the Quran, they love to
be praised for things even when they don't
do it.
Then both of those are a sign of
subtle idolatry. Doesn't mean that those people are
not Muslim. Stay away from that stuff.
But that's a sign of, like, minor shirk.
Because I've made my deeds
the object of my worship,
my hope, and my fear.
As mentioned in.
So what we wanna think about in the
first hikm
is if I'm doing good, alhamdulillah,
praise be to Allah,
I just keep going.
I stay upright.
And if I'm sinning, I repent, and I
keep trying to get better day in and
day out incrementally.
And if I slip, I don't let that
slip destroy me. That's why the prophet said,
follow
a bad deed immediately with a good deed.
Because it will wipe it out.
And that takes us to the 3rd important
principle
that we take from this first hikam
is the meaning
of
lis takamah,
being upright. Some we we tend to frame
lis takamah
as only for people that are doing good.
You know what I mean? Like only people
that are doing good can be like lis
takamah means to seek to stand, literally.
To seek to be upright.
But lis takamah has 2 two two types.
Lis takamah of the sole,
the uprightness of the righteous person,
is to be consistent in that righteousness,
to preserve that righteousness,
and to attribute it to the blessings and
fadl of Allah.
The second is lis takamah,
the uprightness of the sinner.
Somebody may say, how can a sinner be
upright? Listen man, people are complex.
You know, I don't believe necessarily in false
binaries, but people are really complex.
And the righteous the the the
uprightness of the sinner
is that even though they're sinning, they keep
coming back to Allah.
They keep turning to Allah.
As I mentioned earlier, the hadith of
follow-up a bad deed with a good deed.
And this hadith found in Bukhari, which when
we learned from our teachers, I'm gonna tell
you something so cool. When you read this
hadith to the masheikh,
the hadith of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam,
which is hadith Qudsi where Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says to the angels, look at this
person, this servant of mine who sinned and
repents to me, I forgive them.
Then the prophet says the person will commit
a sin, again,
They will make the sin again. The same
sin.
Then they will repent and Allah will say
look at my servant
who again sinned and has turned back to
me. I forgive him or her. We learn
this hadith from our teachers. They won't stop
saying it.
Look at my servant. Look at my servant.
Look at my servant. Look at my servant.
Look at my servant.
Who sinned and repented? Who sinned and repented?
Until
the student will say to the sheikh,
sheikh like the the wording stopped.
Because the sheikh wants to remind us
that Allah's forgiveness doesn't stop. Allahu Akbar. It's
like so cool, man. That's something we learn
from our teachers.
It's not something we can learn simply by
reading books.
So this first hikm,
has so many meanings. But we took a
few. That is number 1, for the person
who allows their
sin to have so much strength in their
lives
that it keeps them from having hope in
Allah. Number 2, for someone who does righteousness
and allows it to keep them keep them
you know, make them delusional.
It could also mean, number 3, that a
righteous person, their their trust in a lie
is not true.
Their trust is in themselves or their deeds.
So when
the going gets difficult,
because their faith was in something which is
finite and unstable,
their reaction will be unstable.
So the sheikh is saying, listen,
good and evil are part of life.
Try to stay away from evil, try to
do good, but we're all gonna have slip
ups.
And we're all gonna have successes.
In the face of successes, stay consistent,
preserve them and think Allah.
And avoid thinking it was you. In the
face of sin,
leave the sin,
make tawba,
turn to Allah, and do your best to
get better, and follow it up with obedience
to Allah. So the first hikm,