Suhaib Webb – Hikam Two Emergent Religiosity Needs Direction

Welcome back

to our explanation of the hicom

using of course the shar,

the explanation of Sheikh Abdul Majeed, the sharnobi,

al Madiki, Rahim,

and we reach now the second hicom.

Before we get into it, I just wanna

give you a few stories that would help

understand and illustrate and kind of animate what

this hiccup is talking about. When I first

accepted Islam, I met this brother at a

masjid who told me I should quit college.

So when I asked him why I should

quit college, he was like, you know, man,

you can't be learning from these kufar, blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah. Right? Really

bad advice.

So I went home and I told my

father like, yo,

because of Islam I'm quitting college. My father

was like, you're crazy.

You're insane.

Then my father, he's smart. He said, what

are you gonna do with your life? I'm

gonna hang out in the mosque and play

basketball, man. I mean think about it. Quit

college, hang out in the mosque with the

brothers, eat biryani, play basketball all day. Yo,

that's the life, yo. You know what I

mean? So my father was like okay, who's

gonna pay for you to play basketball

and hang out in the mosque all day?

The mosque, then I gotta pay for that.

Then I was like, oh, man. I didn't

think about that part. And then my father

said, you're not being religious, you're being lazy.

Right? You're not being religious.

This claim of religiosity

is masking

some laziness.

Now listen to this hiccup, and hopefully it

will make sense to you.

Imam Ibn Utta'ala says, iradatukatajareed

ma'aikamatila

The sheikh, he says you want

Iradatuk

is mudaf, the master,

to the mudafun ilay. Yani, enter to read

kedah.

Tajrid.

The word tajrid is from jarwada

ujaredu,

tajared

and tafail and faala yfailu,

which means to peel.

You think about when you peel something, the

peel usually there is for its protection, to

protect it from the elements of the dunya.

So he's saying you wanna peel something.

And what he's talking about is you wanna

peel

the causes that Allah has

manifested for you in your life.

And those causes

in your life protect you and sustain you

just like the peel of a watermelon or

an orange.

SubhanAllah,

man.

And also to peel something you gotta put

in work.

So you're trying, although you can't by the

way, and I can't peel away God's plan

for us,

but we can choose to try to oppose

and that's fura.

So iradatukatajirid

ma'aikamatillah.

You wanna peel away tajirid al asbab.

You wanna peel away the things that Allah

has manifest for you in your life.

Ma'aikamatilla,

while God akamak,

while God has established you in those situations.

Oftentimes

when people become religious they wanna leave everything.

They wanna step away from everything.

They, in fact, tend to see religion as

being synonymous

with just putting everything in the recycle bin

of life.

Sheik is saying

be careful of that.

Religiosity

that's not guided

and religious impulse,

which isn't directed,

can be a problematic thing, man.

Can be a problematic thing. So here the

Sheikh,

the first hicom is talking about the danger

of not understanding your deeds.

The second hicom is talking about the danger

of not understanding

your motives

and your impulses.

So he says, 'irad tuqatajirid

ma'yakamatila

yakafil asbabi

aiyakafi tarqil asbabi

Be careful

of letting those things go from your life

because it may mask

a hidden agenda,

a hidden desire.

Like me, right? I wanna quit college,

hang out in the mosque with the brothers,

play basketball,

and eat freaking biryani.

Who wouldn't wanna do that? That's shahwa kafia.

The reason he says that it's shahua and

kafiyyah is something subtle.

It's not something that's easily discerned

because

usually people do this in the name of

religion.

And when people do things in the name

of religion that are wrong, it's very hard

for them to see they're wrong

because

they're doing it in the name of religion.

So the first part of this hicom

is warning us about

irresponsibly

letting things go

without paying attention

to what Allah has facilitated

for us.

And the sheikh, he says the sign that

Allah wants something for you

is, of course, it doesn't violate Islam.

And number 2, it's easy for you.

And number 3,

you're established in it.

It comes to you easy and you find

yourself that you're established in it.

The next part of this hikam

gives us the balance of impulse

and the balance of motives.

The sheikh, he says, watiradatukal

asbab,

and you wanting

to cause things in your life.

You wanting

to furnish causes in your life that aren't

there.

Even though Allah has established you The word

iqamah is important. That means

your life is cool. You got what suffices

you religiously

and in the

dunya,

Allah has established you,

Be careful.

This is incredible, man.

He says, and you wanting

to create the furnishings of life for yourself,

even though Allah has already sufficed you,

be careful.

Be careful

of leaving taqatajirid.

Leaving the life, the simple life that Allah

has given you.

Leave the peel where it is

because you may

fall from

a higher aspiration.

Like if you start going for dunya, you

may have Inhitaht. And the word Inhitaht,

subhanAllah, the sheikh uses the same word that's

used to describe the fall of our father

and mother from Jannah. All

of you get out.

And in the Quran it's interesting, I heard

this from Sheikh Ahmediye

that sometimes Allah says, you

too Adam and his wife get out. In

other places,

all of you get out because we were

in the loins of our parents.

We all fell from Jannah. So here the

sheikh is saying, you have a good life,

your deen is tight, your dunya is tight,

you have what suffices you.

And you start to think man, the grass

is greener on the other side, so you

may

sacrifice your relationship with Allah

and the balance that you have in the

dunya

to go for something else, and that may

cause you to fall

from a greater aspiration,

which is jannah and simplicity.

The prophet said,

like simplicity is from faith.

This happened to me when I was in

Al Azhar.

I was there in my thirties, my early

thirties.

And I remember I saw this show, like

what 30 year olds are doing nowadays. And

I was in Eshar, I had less than

$500

in my savings account. I was broke.

And, you know,

I started watching this show and I was

like, yo, I should quit SR. I should

go back to America. I should get a

master's degree.

And I should go work in an office

like all other 30 year olds. Like Jim

and Pam. You know what I'm saying?

And then I got a phone call from

someone that offered me a job to translate

things in Egypt, which paid

in Egyptian

Egyptian terms about the same.

Then I realized like stuff for Allah man,

what am I doing? Like I'm here, this

is where Allah has put me in my

life, this is what I'm good at, this

is what I do well,

so let me just ride the wave. Because

imagine if I left that and went for

the office job. That doesn't mean office jobs

are bad. If you're good at an office

job,

don't go to Eazar.

See what I'm trying to say here? Maintain

that balance.

So the sheikh, he says

You wanting to peel away the things that

Allah has given you after Allah has established

you there, be careful that may mask a

hidden agenda, a hidden desire.

And you wanting

to furnish your life with asbaab after Allah

has sufficed you, causes means asbaab causes,

after Allah has sufficed you

with the life that you have, be careful

because

avoiding that simple life that Allah has given

you may cause you to fall

from a higher

aspiration.