Suhaib Webb – Lesson Five Repentance
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Welcome back to our first
season. I like to use that word season
of sanitation of the soul here at Swiss.
Reading Al Kharida al Bahiyyah
of sheikh Ahmed Dardir.
What this text is providing us is the
10 foundations
that are needed for us to work on
our heart. So these 10 foundations to the
heart are what the rules of grammar are
to speech and writing and comprehension.
And every other course that we take here
at Swiss or that we teach you
is going to just really be building on
these foundations. You know that I'm big into
foundations. It's something that I believe is very
important. Something lacking in the American Muslim community.
In general, I don't know about other places.
I can speak to the larger American community.
It's just like foundational education.
Putting in that raw work in a way
that's accessible to everybody.
So Alhamdulillah, we've reached now the second foundation
from the 10 foundations of Al Wussur. Wussur
means to arrive.
So the sheikh, he says,
The second is Shukr.
And he says, waqun
and be Allah upon
Alihi.
Ali
the nam of Allah.
Thankful,
showing gratitude.
The sheikh, he says
meaning the second foundation out of the tin,
is being grateful
to the source of all blessings, which is
Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Allah says in the Quran after
Right? If you were to count the favors
of Allah,
the blessings of Allah,
you would not be able to do so.
We live in a time of incredible
ungratefulness
and
almost, you
know, you could say contagious
cynicism.
And the reason for that is people have
Yaqeen in the dunya.
They have certainty in the temporary world.
So they're not grateful.
But when I expand
my horizons
to the hereafter
and understand
that I'm living for something greater,
I allow that to encapsulate
the vision I have of the temporary world,
and I see blessings,
Alhamdulillah,
as for what they are. But then I
also appreciate tests and trials as simple salt
to help me, you know, build the meat
of the hereafter, if you will.
That the test and trials of this life
are not the end,
but a part of something greater.
And that that cannot be given to somebody
through the secular lens.
That has to come through the lens of
faith that expands
how we see the world. If you will,
it allows us to see the world in
a much more liberal way. Way. Right? To
expand
beyond the simple material
and to see through that,
to the hereafter.
So I'm not defeated by tests
and I'm not overly gassed up by successes.
I
contextualize
all of that into pleasing Allah
and what's good in the hereafter.
Allahu Akbar. Allah says woman
Who wants the Akhira
will work for it,
will struggle for
it. So the foundation of being grateful to
Allah
is
to untether myself from unhealthy attachments to the
temporary world
and to see
my
happiness
and my sadness
through the gauge of what is going to
bring me success in the hereafter.
And that's why Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, says
to the prophet
Later on we're going to give you what
pleases you.
Later on, we're going to provide you with
those things that make you happy. As
if to say from this point onward,
as you go through prophethood, you're going to
experience ups and downs.
But later on, later on, later on, when
you meet Allah,
you'll find this rida.
We ask Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, to make
us from those, insha'Allah.
So the sheikh, he says,
be in a state of shukr.
The word shukr actually
in ancient Arabic
is applied to a fat she camel,
and the idea was that a fat she
camel was indicative
of a generous master.
So the signs, the plump camel,
were signs
of a benevolent master.
Figuratively, now this is applied to a person
who shows signs of grace and happiness
and joy and forgiveness
and mercy,
recognizing that Allah
has blessed them.
So now they recognize the blessings of Allah
and they translate that into a positive life
and a life
of gratitude.
SubhanAllah.
The Sheikh he says, and he defines
Shukr, he says,
It's
actually a really, really nice description.
He says that thankfulness
is that when the servant of Allah
directs all of the blessings that Allah has
given to him or her
from the intellect,
hearing,
seeing,
speaking
and other things
to the purpose of his or her creation,
which is worship.
If we wanted to define it a different
way that makes it clear,
Is that a person now?
Directs and is actually interesting because you make
of money, right?
I exchange it. The
is the money exchange.
The of verbs is morphology to change it.
So it means that I am literally exchanging
the blessings that I've
received
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, from the intellect
and my speech and my vision and my
heart and everything,
I'm redirecting that or exchanging that
for the Ibadah of Allah.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, it's a very, very,
beautiful definition.
And then he says, you know,
that the writer of this poem alludes to
that when he says,
to be constantly
in state of thankfulness to Allah
Then the sheikh, he starts to talk about
the different iterations of thankfulness in our life.
And he says something really, really powerful and
very, very beautiful.
And this is also mentioned by other scholars
in the context of the statement, iyakana,
budu. Right? In Surat al Fatiha. Because when
I recognize a blessing,
either I'm going to exchange it for something
which is good. I'm gonna use it and
employ it for goodness. This is an amta
alayhim.
I'm not gonna pay attention to it. I'm
gonna ignore it even though I know it's
there and act counter to it. That's magbou
bi'alayhim.
I'm not going to see those blessings and
still try to act and that is
abalim.
So
Guide us to the straight way, the way
of those who you favored. It means those
who have who
have knowledge of blessings.
And then
and that they exchange
those blessings for the worship of Allah
The sheikh, he says that
thankfulness
This is what I just talked about, but
he says it in a much more eloquent
way. He says that gratitude,
right, is really founded on a state of
the heart
and the mind
as well as,
hitma bil arkan, how I act and how
I live, wanutqbul
lisan and what I say.
And he says, expounding on this, that being
a grateful person means
The first is that a person believes that
blessings are solely from Allah.
And the second is to be grateful with
our speech is to recognize
as we talked about earlier, and to be
in the state of remembrance and gratitude to
Allah
Allah The third,
and that a person is using and employing
his or her body
and her his or her gifts
of limbs
to observe what Allah has
commanded
and to avoid what Allah
has prohibited. So he says,
That a person is employing his or her
limbs to observe the obligations as well as
the sunan,
Those things which are recommended.
This actually a very beautiful thing. He says
something that people should be thankful for is
repentance. That Allah guided them to repent,
That Allah
gave them the awareness and awakened them. We're
going to talk about this in the future.
To be a penitent person,
not to be negligent.
And that a person, when they're thankful, should
be thankful that Allah has guided them to
be thankful.
Imam Al Shafi'i used to say, Alhamdulillah,
all praise be to Allah who guided me
to say Alhamdulillah,
therefore I have to say Alhamdulillah.
Subhanallah.
Subhanallah.
That gratitude has no ending, he says. What
is
what is aqara alihi salatu salam?
And that's why the prophet said since Shukr
has no ending,
has no nihaya,
that's why the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, said
subhanak, transcendent is Allah,
who we could never encapsulate
truly
thanking him, thanking you, You Arab.
You are as you have think to yourself,
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And he said, and to live a life
like this,
to be in a state of gratitude like
that is not easy.
It's a very great thing.
Because this is the way of people who
are truthful.
To be thankful with my heart and my
mind and my
attitudes, to be gracious and exhibit gratitude in
my speech with zikr, and to be exhibiting
gratitude and translating my understanding of blessings
in my
actions. He said,
That's not easy.
Because this is the way of the people
of truth.
Allah
says, Allah says in Surat Saba verse 13
that very few
of my servants
are going to be thankful.
And to appreciate this further, Allah says,
Allah says that you must make amal. Amal
is a deliberate act. It's different than
The word Amal means that I have a
deliberateness to it. There's an intention. That's why
the prophet said that indeed
by the intentions.
But also means something that includes the mind,
the heart, and the limbs.
An action is translated in this way is
like me inadvertently doing something. But
implies
a deliberateness
and compliance with
Sharia.
So when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about
gratitude in the Quran, he uses the
as if to see that this includes everything
that we talked about earlier. Those foundations of
gratitude, my attitude,
my emotions,
my speech,
and my actions.
We ask Allah
We ask Allah to make us from those
who are truly grateful.