Suhaib Webb – Lesson One What is Tasawwuf

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.