Suhaib Webb – Lesson One What is Tasawwuf
AI: Summary ©
The importance of knowing who Allah is and following his teachings is discussed in a study on Islam's core system of television. The speaker defines Islam to be a practice, caution, and limit oneself to essential elements and restriction of the heart. The definition is designed to be a process of distancing oneself from disobeying Allah, limiting oneself to essential elements and addressing deeds. The study uses a study of the core system of television as a practice and focuses on the concept of "meditation" in Islam.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome to our class on
sanitation of the soul.
Going to be going through a very important
book written by a medieval giant of Islam,
Sheik Ahmed Tardir called Al Kharida
al Bahiyya.
The glimmering pearl. Right? Like, if you look
into the the dark sea, you see this
pearl glimmering. If you look at all of
the things around you in the postmodern world,
Islam
Masha'Allah is like a glimmering pearl. Allahu Akbar.
And this section of the book that we're
talking about is the last section of it.
It's actually a poem and he actually explained
it as well.
But the first part of the book you
can see up to up to this point
is dealing with
theology. Is dealing with creedal issues.
So someone may ask like, why does he
put creed before
to so of?
If I were to tell you, you know,
go somewhere and find somebody for me and
I didn't tell you who it was, how
would you find them? Or go and get
something for me and I didn't tell you
what it was, how
would you get it for me? You wouldn't
be able to.
So how can someone claim to have a
relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala be doing
Marie
fatihi without knowing him?
How can someone claim to love the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam truly without knowing him?
How can someone claim to be obedient to
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala with not without knowing
firk?
So what the sheikh is doing here is
he's teaching us the methodology, the pedagogical
methodology of Islam. That we start with creed,
we move to fiqh, and we finish with
tasolef.
Tasolef is the cherry on top. And what
he's doing is he's helping save us from
notions of contemporary
new age spirituality,
which is really a a gloss for hyper
individualism.
And that is that a true relationship with
Allah
has to be done by learning who Allah
is.
You must know that there's no, no,
god except Allah.
Knowing his prophet
and following the commands of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and his beloved messenger.
Obey Allah
and
and obey his messenger.
Who obeys the messenger has obeyed Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And after that comes a tasaw of spirituality
and Islam and unlike the word spirituality,
The
purification of the soul
and the development of of the soul's ability
to sense between good and evil
and be sensitive to good and evil is
found
at
the steps
of Akida
and Filk. So now you can understand why
at Swiss,
our core system is based on Akida, theology,
Fiqh, practice
and to soul of spirituality.
SubhanAllah.
Sheikh Ahmadirdir, he says it beautifully.
That there's no way you can travel to
God if you don't know God.
And I like to say
without his deen
Now
the sheikh is going to talk about the
definitions of tasawaf and he does something really
really incredible.
And this is something that I really enjoy
by certain scholars when they do this because
it shows you their depth and their precision
and nuance. And that is he defines to
so off in 2 ways. Number 1 is
as a science,
As a field of study.
Number 2,
as a practice.
What does it mean
to practice
living a life what I understand
I am trying to draw nearer to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and have a meaningful relationship
with faith.
So the first he says
that
defined as a science
He says that it is the knowledge of
certain principles and Usul here means things that
have come from the Quran and Sunnah.
That by lowing them, by knowing them,
someone will be aware of how to purify
his or her heart
and his or her. He uses how as
many perceptions
but this not only means perceptions,
right, it also means our limbs.
I I've added to this definition
and I said,
That this is a knowledge,
the knowledge of certain foundations
who teach us and help us recognize
a a pure heart,
a pure mind and thoughts,
pure perceptions and actions.
That's Tassoof Ilman.
Then he moves on to the definition Amalel
and this definition is no joke because it
immediately centers us on responsibility.
You know, the first definition we can argue
about it back and forth, we can engage
in kind of an intellectual discussion,
but the second definition, the the Amari definition
does not play, man. It does not play
and it it
it it oozes with responsibility.
It commands responsibility.
So he says
That is gonna divide this definition into 3
parts.
The tasawaf
is to be to take
caution
when it comes to the commands of God.
Meaning that you're extra careful
when it comes to making sure that you
and I
observe
what Allah has commanded.
Means to go far,
go far away. So ichteenev means to distance
myself as far as I can
from the prohibited.
So the first,
I'm being extra careful. I'm diving in the
deep end when it comes to making sure
that I obey Allah
The second, I am running to the hills
and getting far as far as away I
as I can
from any semblance of disobeying Allah
You Allah. Minimalism.
The 3rd component of tasawaf is to restrict
myself to the necessities
when it comes to the permissible.
It's a tough definition. Makes me feel like
I got a lot of work to do.
I don't know about you, but I'm reading
it. I'm like, oh man. Number 1 is
that
I
that I
am taking all necessary caution
when it comes to the commands of Allah.
And I'm distancing myself as far as I
can
from the things that Allah has prohibited.
And finally,
That even in the area of the permissible,
I am limiting myself,
restricting myself
to the things which are a necessity.
It's not easy, man.
That's not easy. And what we understand from
this is that
the purification of the heart is not a
event. Again, this is new age spirituality
that we have the epiphany and then we're
all good. No. No.
Spirituality is a long term process that is
going to come with ups and downs. I
don't like to use the word spirituality, but
I'm just doing it for the sake of
of clarity.
Tasawah for Tasqiyatunafs
is not an event. It is a process
that demands throughout our lives.
We are constantly working on these things.
Improving my adherence to the commands of Allah,
distancing myself from disobeying Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
and then trying to manage
to minimalize things so I can lighten my
load. Because
if faith is a mountain, if I try
to pack too many things in this bag,
I'm not gonna be able to climb.
So what I have to do, I have
to restrict it
to what I need.
What is
a necessity? The sheikh he continues and he
says,
that the objective of
is the purification of the heart. And actually
purification doesn't really give us the meaning.
It's like sanitation.
Means to to take something that was fasted
and make it
pure.
Allah says he will guide you by rectifying
your deeds for you.
So salahulqal
means that I'm always engaged in trying to
spring clean this thing man,
work on myself.
As well as my perceptions of my attitudes
and my ideas
and my liims in this life.
And of course then the other objective of
tasawaf is that I'm going to experience
bliss in the hereafter
at the highest levels.
So we
we we now continue with the text
and move on to the first practice.
What is the first practice? Because this text
is designed to just give us things we
can practically do. What are the things we
can practically do to increase our faith and
have a better relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.