Suhaib Webb – The Gifts of La Ilaha Ila Allah
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AI: Transcript ©
Welcome to our class. One of our core
classes here at Swiss. The core classes, of
course, at Swiss are founded on 3 subjects.
1st is faith, 2nd is practice, and the
3rd is purification of the soul.
Iman, Islam and Tisauwuf.
The
framework for this is provided by a beautiful
narration which many of us know
from Sayidna Amar, from Sayidna
Abi Hurayrah and others that the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam
was visited by a person who asked him
3 questions.
What is Islam? What is Iman? And what
is ihsan? We know the prophet
answered. And these are really the three core
foundations of Islamic education. Right? Islam meaning practice,
Iman meaning theology. And
to worship Allah as though you see him
even though you can't see him is what
we're studying now.
If you have any theoretical concerns about studying
Tasawaf or things like that, I encourage you
to go and check out my course
on Imam Suyuti's foundations of Orthodox
Sufism. I go through a number of the,
kind of, the contemporary concerns that people have.
Now that being said, we wanna jump into
this because this is our first course in
the core series on tasuluf.
There are other, you know, courses here at
SWISS like the Hicam
and even,
Imam Sayyuti's text I mentioned earlier, but those
are more like electives. We have a series
of core courses at SWISS under theology,
under practice,
and under to soul for to ski it
to nafs that we want people to follow
to go through kind of the Swiss system.
And this is the first text,
in that and this is, of course, Al
Kharida
Al Bahiyyah
of Sayyidna Imam Ahmed Adardir
Radhiallahu Anhu.
Sheikh Ahmed Adardir was one of the great
great great scholars of the later middle ages
of Islam and Egypt.
A tremendous jurist,
a tremendous
theologian,
a tremendous
leader,
a tremendous,
scholar of the heart, of the purification of
the soul. And I used to actually study
in the masjid that was next to his
home which is still there. Of course, you
can go inside it. It's walled off
with Sheikh Ahmed Toharian.
Sheikh Ahmed Dardir, you're going to encounter him
again at Swiss. In fact, you're going to
encounter this book
in some of our discussions on theology
because the first part of this book is
dedicated to understanding iman.
And the second part is dedicated to just
to understanding
Ihsan.
And we're just gonna jump into it inshallah
and what I want you to think about
is now getting the basic practices
needed to have a meaningful relationship with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in your life,
and the basic practices needed to preserve and
keep your faith strong. So this is like
the foundational practices
of people who are interested in really doing
kind of the labor
and getting into the raw materials of working
on purifying
their soul.
Now the sheikh, initially in the beginning parts
of this book was talking about Aqidah and
as he finishes he says something really important
because it's a poem. It's really beautiful. He
says
And he says that the statement,
every component of Islam falls underneath
Because
he's talking about theology earlier which is really
is encapsulated by the statement
So after talking about Tawhid,
after talking about the prophets,
after talking about the angels,
after talking about the hereafter,
after talking about Qadha and Qadr, he says,
addressing
the importance of
Muhammad Rasulullah.
He says,
The kalima of Islam is So
everything that he's addressed now is going to
be
umbrellaed if you will.
All the things that I talked about.
This this this is ruling, this ruling, that
ruling. You have to believe this about Allah.
You have to believe this about the prophets.
You have to believe this about the angels.
All of
this
Islam
is encapsulated in the statement.
And that moves us now to the section
on where he says very beautifully.
He says
So therefore,
abundantly
and generously
say.
Engage in the dhikr of saying La ilaha
illallah.
Bil adeb
with the proper etiquettes.
Because you will
ascend to the highest stations,
the highest spiritual states,
the highest levels of iman and commitment to
Allah
by saying
abundantly.
So this is the first etiquette of the
believer
who is starting now to work on the
heart. Where should we start? Let's start with
zikr.
Let's start with the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. That's why Imam al Bukhari
in his Sahih, it starts with
every action is by the intention. And then
he ends
this incredible collection of prophetic narrations.
Right? He says that there are 2 statements,
the hadith that are light on the tongue,
heavy on the scales, and beloved to Allah.
That's the last hadith in Sahih Bukhari. As
if to say that everything in between
is going to be really predicated by the
niyyah
and the remembrance of Allah. Another lesson that
I heard is that maybe someone reading Sahih
Bukhari is like, man, this is a lot
to do. I can't do all this as
that man who came to say, Nabi salallahu
alaihi wasallam and said,
He said, you know, the the the the
the rules and everything now become so abundant
in Islam.
And this was someone who became Muslim early
on when there wasn't that many things to
do. Now you have salah, zakah, hajj,
jihad, dawah, everything. Right? So he's saying,
It's a lot.
Is there anything you can teach me that
I can do that's gonna, like, help me
maintain
even though I'm not able to do all
those things? And the prophet
said to him,
keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of
Allah
So this is something that any of us
can do no matter where we are,
No matter where we are spiritually, no matter
how bad you feel about yourself, no matter
how successful you feel. How does the end
of the prophets prophethood,
come about?
With thicker. How does the prophets prophet start?
Read with the name of your lord. So
is
sandwiched between the remembrance of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
So whether someone's just starting out, whether someone
is a saintly person, whether someone is struggling
with sin,
this is the first step to pull us
out of those difficult times
into a meaning
meaningful relationship with Allah
So abundantly say
with adab. We're gonna talk about that next
time. You will you will ascend to the
highest stations.
The prophet
said,
the best thing that was said by
in by myself.
The prophet
said
The best thing that I said and the
prophets before me said was
that there is nothing in existence
worshiped
except Allah
No cause,
no car,
no job,
no family member,
no attachment to sin.
So Alhamdulillah,
the first etiquette that we learned
for those of us who are seeking to
have this connection with Allah
is to abundantly say
Next time, we're going to talk about the
etiquettes associated with this beautiful statement.