Suhaib Webb – Lesson Six The Types Of Souls
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AI: Transcript ©
It's a very beautiful prophetic tradition that I
think is crucial for us as we walk
through this journey together.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam has said
that indeed
that in the body there's a piece of
flesh.
If it's sound,
the entire body is sound. If it's corrupt,
the entire body is corrupt. And you can
imagine this kind of like, you know, the
drop when it hits the water has this
kind of ripple effect. This is the idea
that this
part of the body is so important that
it has this ripple effect. And he said,
It is the heart.
The heart is extremely important in Islam, and
most ulema, most scholars don't differentiate between heart
and soul. Some do, some don't. We're gonna
go with this simpler terminology and just say
it's all one and the same. You're gonna
find this kind of deeper
discussion in other places.
I just want us to get the idea
and start to get to work, if you
will.
But
Sheikh Ahmed Dardir starts this text, right?
Opening up for us an important
gate and that is the gate of remembrance.
Because if we're not in a state of
remembrance then we're in a state of negligence.
And there are beautiful,
beautiful traditions
about the importance of remembering Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. The Quran for example says,
Fathkuruni
athkurukum,
remember me me, I will remember
you. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has said
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said, nobody remembers
me in a group except that I remember
them in a better group, and nobody remembers
me alone except I remember them alone.
And the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said
that
the dry which is most beloved to Allah
is someone who remembers Allah and weeps
out of their love for Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala. And there is another tradition that says
out of reverence and fear of God, the
fire would never touch that face where that
drop comes. SubhanAllah, one drop is greater than,
you know, we see these massive fires now
with global climate change happening. Imagine that one
drop can put out the fire of *.
So, Sheikh
Ahmed Dardir opens up for us a very
important important door, and that's the door to
dhikr,
to being in a state of remembrance, and
not ghaflah,
a state of negligence.
And we know that
remembrance has different type of levels, right? Remembrance,
of course, of our speech, saying, la illaha
illallah, as we learned here.
The remembrance that we show in our mind
when we have good thoughts
about Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and about faith,
and then the remembrance on our actions,
that we live a life of responsibility,
not a life which is undomesticated
and negligent.
That takes us now into this
important discussion because as I said earlier, the
heart has this impact on the person.
And the sheikh, he's gonna use the word
nafs, we're gonna understand it to be nafs
means heart and soul together.
But he mentions something which is extremely important
as we start this journey.
And that is that within the Islamic tradition,
right, of of spirituality
and within the faith of Islam,
we believe that the soul can take on
7 different characteristics.
It's important that we know these characteristics so
we can treat ourselves.
The best person to treat
their own illnesses is usually the person, right?
So the sheikh he says,
one nufus
sabah,
he says that
the souls
are 7. What he means is alsafu nafs
Saba,
right? The different kind of
characteristics the soul can take on
are 7. We're gonna talk about those insha'Allah.
The first he says,
is the soul which
commands to evil. And he says,
It is the one that does not encourage
a person to do good.
Actually encourages evil.
So this is the first.
And he says, but if somebody
becomes aware of this,
and begins to strive against it, and work
against it, and actually oppose it,
and run-in opposition
to its desires,
then at that time they become what's called
lawwama. Their soul becomes what's called a nafsu
lawwama.
And
means to blame. The Quran says,
They do not fear the loom, the blame
of the laim, of the blamers.
So loam
means like I'm blaming you with something, I'm
charging you with something.
So now the soul has begin to awaken
from its slumber,
and a person is beginning to
achieve a dilated sense of of of spiritual
understanding
that is telling them like, you ain't living
right.
I remember, subhanAllah, when I was 17 years
old.
And sometimes this this can happen in very
powerful ways. We talk about this,
on our class, the station of the seekers.
Because the first station of the seeker is
aliyahqada,
is awakenings. And awakenings,
alarm clocks aren't always nice, right?
I remember when I was I remember when
I was 17 years old,
there was
a
a, a time where I was very negligent
in my life.
And I was I was out at night
as young people, you know tend to go
out Friday Saturday evenings.
And, I saw this guy he got shot,
this young man,
and his his chest basically just exploded man,
on the on the sidewalk and there was,
I mean just
indescribable amount of blood.
And I was just looking at him.
And the police came of course and after
everything was
handled, I remember I was in such a
state of shock
that I went to the policeman and I
was like, is he gonna make it?
You know because it was so impactful I
was in shock. And he's like absolutely not,
he's bleeding out all over the parking lot.
And I remember
that evening
I started to experience
that voice
that was saying to me,
look,
you gotta start getting it right man.
You have to take responsibility for how you're
living your life.
So that's kind of like an example of
a nafsuallawama,
right?
Is the soul,
the description of the soul's characteristic now is
it's trying to put us in check.
It's trying to tell us like, yo get
it together.
You know, you gotta live for what's better,
you gotta work on yourself.
The Sheikhi says,
so if somebody
pays attention to that
and they begin to act
on
this sense of healthy guilt,
and we know that imam al Qazari more
or less says that guilt
or fear
is only good as long as it inspires.
Right? So the inspirational type of
guilt, not the defeating guilt or the defeating
fear. The guilt like when my wife tells
me that we're doing a certain diet and
then at night I see that my other
family members have been like thrown down,
and then I remember, hey you know I
need to
adhere
to the policy, that's a good sense of
of reverence.
I'm not gonna say fear,
or guilt but a good sense of reverence.
Jim Carrey has a great statement, he says
between me and paradise
is the sandwich at night, right? We all
understand what this means, right? Enough guilt to
motivate me to be better,
not the kind of guilt that that destroys
me or fear that destroys me. So So
at this moment this soul has now motivated
and encouraged someone,
right, to take responsibility for themselves. And they
begin to act
in a way that they're starting to head
towards
a life of faith and devotion.
And he says if somebody does this, at
that moment, Alhamdulillah,
mad
at
bihaythuulhimatfujhuruhaawatakwah.
Then at that moment someone becomes aware through,
alhamdulillah,
the illumination that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala puts
in the heart,
meaning the ma'rifah,
the knowledge
of what Allah says in the Quran, faalhamaha
Allah says that we have inspired souls to
recognize what is right and what is wrong,
it's crimes and it's successes.
So now there's even a greater sense of
awareness.
And and the word malhamah means to be
inspired
That Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala now is
inspired this person
to live for a greater purpose,
SubhanAllah,
resuscitated the person from a life of sin
and evil,
and brought them back to a life of
faith.
That's why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the
Quran uses very beautiful metaphors for a
a'udhu bihi'minashaytan
and regime,
the one that was dead
and We brought him to
life.
We brought him or her to life with
faith,
resuscitated
them. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says about the Prophet.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says about the Prophet
Sallallahu Wa Ta'ala
Allah
Subhanahu
Wa
Ta'ala
says,
We brought you out of darknesses
into the light,
the light of faith, SubhanAllah.
So at that time the person
has the inspired soul
and he says
and the sign of that is
aware not only of the greater
evil that is in their life, but now
they become
even more, if you will,
focused
and aware of
a greater sense of discernment
of the minor and major mistakes that are
in their life. So at first it was
just
leaving sin, changing our lives, getting rid of
the evil
that we're doing,
and now it is becoming aware of even
some of the subtle,
more sublime
issues of evil in our lives that are
internal as well.
And he says, and if a person continues
now, and what mujaheda means here, he keeps
saying that if the person turns on the
path of mujaheda.
Mujaheda is from the word jihad, right? But
what it means here is that the person
is going to obey Allah
and disobey their soul when it commands them
to evil.
Obey Allah
and turn away from disobedience.
This is what it means by Mujaheda.
Of course this is done through worship
and obeying and following the messenger of
He said,
therefore the person continues
on this battle
to domesticate their heart,
and to push it,
right, through worship to change.
He says at that moment in time, the
person,
the soul
And then the person acquires the characteristics, and
he says characteristics
of God. What he means is the moral,
the
morals
and
etiquettes
of the Quran,
and the hadith, or the sunnah of the
prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Fahadashaksiata
khalak
bi akhlaqalwahi.
So they acquire the character
of the Quran
and the character of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam,
and he says something very beautiful.
Such as
mercy,
benevolence,
kindness,
generosity,
and love.
So now the soul becomes
stationed,
anchored,
a sense of stability.
My experience is that usually when people are
chasing after evil or living a life of
evil,
their fitra tells them that they're on thin
ice.
So they're not stable.
The most
unstable people I've ever been around are celebrities
before
becoming Muslim.
Right? The most unstable
because that ice is very thin, but,
you know, if you have a palace on
thin ice, what does it mean?
And
that
recognition
of the value
of the dunya, the temporary world
vis a vis the hereafter
is really the key to finding this
anchoring.
One time a man, he came to Harun
Rashid. Harun Rashid was a great,
renowned,
controversial,
leader of the Muslims in the Abbasi empire.
And he came to him and he said,
and this man was was a righteous person,
and he said to the
to the caliph,
what is the value of this world to
you?
He said, I don't know.
So he said, I know,
let me tell you, he said sure, he
said if you were in a desert,
what would you give me for just a
glass of water? Like if you had access
to no water, right? And you were in
the desert, what would you give me? He
said I'll give you my entire kingdom.
He said, and then if you had to
use the restroom,
and your bowels
could not be released unless
you gave something, what would you give? He
said, I would give my entire kingdom.
He said, so therefore your entire kingdom, this
entire empire is only worth
a glass of water and a trip to
the restroom.
Right? That's the reality of
life.
So the sheikh he says someone continues on
this path they're going to reach what's called
nafs motameinna,
and I've translated motameinna
as settled,
as calm.
I'm complacent in the sense of in a
good way.
I
find myself, alhamdulillah,
I'm secure.
Secure is another great translation for the word,
Allah says in the Quran,
In
the remembrance of Allah
hearts are settled. So now I'm settled,
you know, and I think a great metaphor
for this is marriage, right? Before marriage everybody's
a little bit unstable and we finally find,
hamdulillah, the right person and Allah puts love
and mercy in our hearts ideally,
then there's a sense of being settled,
right, a sense of calm that touches the
person.
He said this is the 4th. So
and then now
Right? The The soul which is found finally
rests,
and it's settled. This is mentioned in the
end of Surat Al Fajr. You a yatuhan
nafsul motamayin.
Allah describes the people who enter paradise as
having the nafs mutameinna.
And then the sheikh, he says something really
important about this. He says,
in this place,
This is now where the journey to Allah
starts.
Because if I'm not sure,
if I'm not stable,
then I can't go on that journey.
You're like, no let's go, let's go on
this trip, I got an Airbnb it's gonna
be amazing and I don't really trust you,
or you don't really trust me, like you
know, I'm good man.
There's other places I gotta go.
So once I get to a place where
I have this relationship
with faith and with worship and most importantly
with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
Now I'm ready to go man.
And that's why I believe that there has
to be
a
rehabilitation
and a ministry amongst Muslims
to help those people that have had traumatic
experiences with religion,
whether through caregivers, parents,
bad teachers,
bad community,
abused online,
bad teachings, whatever, so so that they get
to a place you think about it if
you're a teacher of Maslow's hierarchy of needs,
they get to a place where they're secure.
Because
security, mutamain,
boom.
Now
you can launch.
So he
says,
He says and even though,
right, this is the start,
it is not free of
subtle impurities.
For example, showing off,
feeling that I'm better than people because I
have like this religious
identity
in my heart,
right? Looking down on others,
being harsh,
all these are subtle things,
showing off, ostentationism.
So he says
at that moment of time the person has
to continue
to stay down.
Now we see why patience resilience is a
better translation of sabr is half a faith,
right? It's the fuel that's pushing the car,
you know what I'm saying? It's the fuel
for the iman.
So if a person continues to do that
and they become aware of these subtleties and
they oppose,
So the more they become dilated, the more
evil they become aware of in their lives,
the more they're going to
disobey
that evil, whether it's
subtle or whether
it's explicit.
And as that continues to happen, mashallah,
at that moment they become what's called
Anasoo
Arawdia.
Anasoo
Arawdia
is contentment.
I am content with Allah as my lord.
I'm content with Islam as my way. I'm
content as my religion. I'm content with a
prophet as my messenger and teacher.
That contentment
is
largely
identified by a person not seeking value through
sin and evil.
And also,
as the sheikh talked about in the very
beginning, that they restrict themselves
to the essentials
of the permissible.
Because I'm good,
I'm good.
Allah says,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is the one that
has all things and all of you are
impoverished to Allah.
And the major sign of this radia
is clinging atamasukbitaatillah.
Wa bi itbaahi saydina Rasulillah
is that I
am, alhamdulillah,
satisfied
with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as my Lord
and my obedience to Allah
Allah says in Surat Zumr, is not Allah
sufficient for
his servants?
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says about Sayyidina
Nabi salallahu alayhi wa sallam about the prophet,
the Quran says,
We sent you
with what is sufficient, alhamdulillah,
for people.
Salallahu
alaihi wasalam.
So Anuradbillah.
Waahiya alhamisa
says this is the 5th.
And then a prophet continues on this path,
continues
to grow,
continues to be dilated,
continues to see the evil that they need
to deal with in their personal life
and
in society and around them.
So they feel a sense of self accountability
and social responsibility.
We can't divorce social responsibility from tasauwolf,
that renders religion meaningless.
I have to go together.
Whoever sees an evil should change it whether
whether in his self or outside or herself
or outside,
we have to be involved
in
challenges of injustice that the world face faces
today.
So the person continues on that path, mashAllah,
until it becomes
a pleasing soul.
Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala is pleased with these people.
These are
the
people
who
Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala has given them his Rudwan,
his absolute joy
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And then finally he says also of course
no one should think that that's it,
right? And we need to realize that these
7 different kind of,
descriptions of the soul are not gonna necessarily
follow this order, they're not gonna be, you
know, permanent, they're gonna come and go, there's
always a need to work and improve.
So alhamdulillah, it's not like 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, I'm good, it's all
good. No, no. So that's why he says,
an nasu al mardiyyah
at that moment the greatest test for that
person is to think I'm good.
Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, one of the great
scholars,
on his deathbed he was saying, no, no,
no, no, no, no.
And people said to him, what happened? He
said, shaitan came to me and he said,
you did it You Ahmed, you succeeded Masha'Allah.
Jannah is yours. He said, no no no
no, if I have one foot in the
world and one foot in paradise,
I'm still not stopping,
I'm still not gonna give up working hard.
So consistency,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says it in
Those who say we believe in Allah, Allah
is our Lord, and they stay consistent.
So the idea here is that
understands
that the danger of this moment is for
me to think there's no more work to
be done.
But if someone shoulders on
and keeps that attitude that there is no
nihayah for them, there is no ending except
Allah.
It doesn't say an nihayah by the way.
You lose something in the English that to
Allah is the last stop.
The last stop on the end of the
journey,
subhanAllah, for the tzadik.
So
the person doesn't get caught up in feeling,
oh I feel so amazing,
in an amazing spiritual state.
Sometimes that can be
Sinners, you know, they have the same kind
of euphoria when they do evil. So it's
not about that, it's about am I worshiping
Allah? Am I treating others well? Am I
living a responsible life? That's what's important.
And that doesn't stop until I hear
Like I'm not gonna stop until I hear
interjannah.
So when the person has that attitude, he
says they reach the 7th, and that is
As Sheikh Ahmed mentions, which is the complete
soul.
So that's the 7th. So what are the
7
different iterations
or descriptions of the soul that we wanna
talk about or we've talked about today?
Number 1 is,
right, the soul that commands evil.
Number 2 is,
the soul which
starts to demand responsibility, it's the blaming soul,
literally means soul that commands responsibility.
After that is al malhama,
an nafsu
the awakened soul, which
is literally the translation is inspired.
The Quran says we inspired it. So at
that moment that inspiration,
where someone becomes aware of good and evil,
boom,
there it is.
So that's going to be
the 4th. The 5th is going to be,
right? The soul which is
content. The 6th is going to be,
the soul which is
pleasing,
and finally anafsu
al kamila,
the complete soul. How do we recognize
the signs of these different things,
the illnesses therein,
this is the science of Tasawwuf.
And this text that we're talking about is
not going to get into too much detail
on all of this, but is going to
give us very simple practical action items and
attitudes
that we can adapt to work on our
souls, insha Allah, and become better people.