Suhaib Webb – The HIkam Women’s Halaqa
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AI: Transcript ©
Does that make sense?
You guys said I'm just a little bit
lost because the horse is numbering it as
9, and 9 is numbered something else for
me. It's it's 11 for us.
Yeah. Yeah. So, unfortunately, some of the the
the prints of the hiccup,
whoever printed it didn't know, oh, that's a
hiccup.
So they wouldn't number it correctly.
They thought it was part of his. Mhmm.
See what I'm saying? So they they didn't
catch it.
The way that the different parts are bolded
kind of I can I can understand why
they missed that?
So last time when you talked about this
one,
you mentioned
the to look into your
state and how this,
it refers to the state you're in while
doing the.
Yeah. It's gonna we're gonna get to that
at the end. So
good. No. Good. Excellent. So the first part,
to know what ajanes. Ajanes means, like,
the different type
the the the different types and quality
of the amal.
We say aljazam and jints alamal.
Like a genre or
it's
I I feel like it's a it's a
bigger word than type.
Yeah. It's it's it has to do with,
like, quality also. Right? Quality,
of the act.
So I'm trying to pull up a translation
of the hiccup. None of the translations I've
come across have been very good
because
it's not an easy book to translate, of
course. It's not it's not something simple.
I'm gonna share this with you guys
in the in the chat as well, English.
Anyone else have thoughts, Mariam or Ara or
Magana on
the translation of the word gins.
Gins means genus. Right?
In grammar,
but here gins is meaning.
It's
it's it's much deeper than that. Right?
I'm checking.
Yeah, man. This translation doesn't really cut cut
it, man.
I don't even think they translated.
See that?
To know
what actions differ because the inspiration of the
states
of being differ.
Okay.
I always,
I always thought of it as, like, you
reap what you sow kinda thing. Like, that
that kind of summed it up for me.
But the word itself, yeah, I I'm not
sure. Like
Yeah.
Oh, wow. There's the,
the audio.
Here's another translation.
This is the same translation.
What's going on, man? But,
God bless him. You know, it's it's never
easy
to we should never be overly critical of
the work people do, man. It's it's never
easy. Here's the actual hicom itself
that I think also will be helpful
as far as keeping the numbers
the numbers together. Hold on. Let me Elmani
says category, class, kind, sort, species, type, or
variety.
Yeah. So the variety the different variety of
acts, maybe a good way to say it.
But it it has to deal with a
certain
state of where a person is. Right? There's
also the meaning of the nature the nature
of the state. Does that fit?
That's nice too. Maybe the natural variety. I
don't know.
You can take it. Arabic is very profound.
It's very beautiful.
Let's see let's see if Sheikh Shar Nobi,
he explains it. But
to know what,
you
know, the different types of,
I like to say the quality of x,
I think sometimes kinda sorta captures it.
You guys feel free to differ. I just
feel like that gives that essence of its
meaning.
Is is based on the different things which
inspire
the actions of the soul. Right? So Aman
is the actions of the limbs.
We said it consists of 3 things. Right?
Intention,
Education,
and practice.
So Ibn Qayyim, he said, like, no, the
early Muslims tended to ask themselves
lima wa keif about anything they did, like
why and how.
Is it for God? And then how do
how did I
employ this act? Was it according
to the sunnah?
And the lamb here is called
because of
the varied
kind of
inspirations
that impact.
And I like to look this as like
environmental.
What what are the environmental factors that impact
your heart?
Sheikh Sharnubi,
Sheikh Amina, you wanna read?
So
what he's talking about now here is the
the balance between the internal and external acts.
But we talked about this last time, right?
That the the current state of the world,
the postmodern world has inverted this.
So we talked about how that's
it's brutalizing on the human species.
Where Islam asked us to look
into our souls
and to value people for where they are
internally.
It reminds me of a hadith that
Why does it remind you of that hadith?
Like, whether you are the one influencing
the
the the culture around you and the state
around you or vice versa. And, essentially, the
prophet says that you need to be better
than just a stupid mold.
If people do good, you do good. And
if people do bad, you do bad.
Which include like, there has the potential of
you doing good, but it misses the point
of why you're doing good.
Can you can you say that hadith again?
It's really profound.
I thought it was
I'm saying I wanna hear it again because
it's so nice. Yeah.
I'm trying to memorize it right now.
Let me look it up so that we
don't memorize it wrong. Alright. Alright. And then
you can give me a jazza and a
hadith.
Nice.
But that's that's that's amazing. Like and there's
a statement of saying Ali mentioned by, I
think, in
Al Kamal,
where he says, you know, don't be like
branches on a tree, right?
Just don't like just blow around where you
are.
Okay.
Can you continue?
I know you're looking for the hadith.
So So the key the key to the
things that impact our heart is like one
of the scholars said that you should put
a security system on your heart, on your
on your heart
and put it in your eyes, your ears,
what you eat, what you think.
Right, so the importance of having Husnu Vann
Bila,
right, in particular having Husnu Vann Bila, which
now people are struggling with,
having Husnold Zangbillas.
The story of even Arabi when he went
to Mecca. I think I told you guys.
I tell you the story, Eben Arabi in
Fotuhat in Makia when he said I went
to Mecca
and I met the most ignorant human being
I've ever seen in my life.
Yeah. So he went to Mecca and he
says, I met the most ignorant human being
I've ever met in my life.
And
they asked him, like, who? And he said,
well, I met this guy who was making
a tawaf, and he had this massive
amount of followers. Right?
So
I I said
to the guy, like,
man, who are you?
And then the guy, he was like,
I'm actually nobody. I'm an idiot. But I
just say one thing and people follow me.
And I got this following because
I'm not even learned. Like, I'm not ashamed
or anything. I just look like it. I
I play the part.
So say that even out of it, he
said, like, what do you call people to?
And he said, I told them,
That's my message.
It's like totally dystopian. Right?
There is
no good anywhere.
So even out of me said this is
the worst
human being I've ever met in my life.
Oh, it's Rush Limbaugh.
And, Imam al Hazari,
he has a small essay where he he
he dis in Sheikh Abu Fata Habuwoda, he
translated Ayur Hamu.
Imam Al Ghazari, he he he said that
there are some people
who will cause people to lose so much
hope
that the only thing they left halal to
eat is grass in the mountain tops.
Like this, like, and that makes Islam impossible
to practice. Right?
So
what we allow to impact our hearts,
whether in the name of conservatism
or liberalism.
Right? In the sense of whether it's being
laxed religiously
or overly strict religiously,
and also in our professional lives and personal
lives
can be
an impact on how we act, obviously.
So how would you guys recommend that someone
stays balanced? Like, how do you make sure
that the aren't
taking you to one extreme or the other?
And I see I see that the material
world, especially, is driven by corporations. Corporations sell
an extreme idea
because that's how you keep people off balance.
You know, a lot of us deal with
college students
and the construction of beauty is one of
the most brutal things I've ever seen impact
young women.
It's it's relentlessly
brutal.
And men are being hit with a whole
another set of it's almost impossible to catch
and quantify what men are are also facing.
Mhmm. But just engaging and having 2 daughters,
man, older daughter now 18,
and then dealing with college students.
You know, these constructions that impact the heart
are then found
in actions. Young men who watch *,
right, who
who take
relationship advice from, like,
certain type of art that they they may
be exposed to
impacts their marriages.
Allah, this is what you do. Tell us
something good.
And
I'm listening to you and appreciating what you're
saying and thinking, you know, as much as
we we
think we should engage in conversations more. And
when we say let's talk about our blessings
more, talk about the good more, that's huge.
We should. But we should also encourage people
to talk about the bad things. To talk
about what they're seeing that they don't like
or what they're feeling that they don't like.
And if it is, for example, beauty distortion,
to talk about that so that we could
redirect that
so that we could kinda guide the right
or better or had the healthier way of,
you know, feeling and thinking about these things.
So just kind of not not only talk
about the good things, but also to
be open about those
harmful things.
You know you know what? This this that's
that's amazing.
Magdalene, do you have anything you wanna share?
You know, you know, this actually reminds me
of the Hadith of the 3 guys in
the cave.
You know what I'm talking about?
The 3 guys who
in Riyadh Salehain is authentic Hadith.
I think of Abdullah ibn Amin al Khattab,
those 3 men
who
were in the cave and then the rock
fell
and blocked the cave.
And then they all made
with some good they did. So one was
like he took care of his parents and
he made sure they had their milk.
The other, he controlled his sexual desires for
his, I think his cousin.
And the third was like he
he had hired somebody. He had employed somebody
who left
and came back. And then, like, when he
left, he didn't pay him. So he took
what he owed him and invested it and
and it grew, and then when the guy
came back, he gave him everything he earned
through his investment,
and the rock moved each time.
But, like, it it brings together this hiccup,
like, number 1 is, like, your suhba.
Like, who who's around you?
And the number 2 is the quality of
the deed that was sincere for Allah. So
the rock moved.
So that was like there was this
kind of intersection
of
which impacted their hearts, made them sincere,
coupled with that being brought about by being
or furnished by being around good people.
So I like to tell people, man, surround
yourself with good friends. What do you guys
think are the qualities of good friends?
You know, people ask us a lot. I
was asked this the other day, like, what
are the qualities of good friends?
Someone can point you out when you're doing
prom.
Help you build character.
Nice.
I wanna also say that they love you.
Because even as they're fixing your character, they're
doing it with love. Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can tell the
difference between the your someone telling you you're
a screw up or someone telling you, like,
hey, you really need to work on this.
You can do this.
Yeah. I always see that the loving
the loving descent is the descent that, like,
is is invested in, like, helping me increase
my capacity to be better
instead of just, like,
you suck.
Right? It's like, you may suck, but you
can
grow. Mhmm. You know what I mean? Like,
it's not just like, you're horrible.
Okay. I'm horrible. Okay. So I'm gonna stay
horrible. But then it's like like the guy
who when he comes into the mosque
and he's praying
and the prophet,
was it that like he someone sneezed and
he said, your hamak Allah or something like,
no, no. He came into the Masjid and
people were in Ruku and Bukhari. So he
made a at the door of the Masjid
and he walked like a bata, a duck,
you know,
to the the row.
And then afterwards somebody told the prophet about
it, and the prophet said, hey, come here.
And he came to the prophet, and the
prophet
said, JazakAllahahu Khairan Allahhersiq.
Right? Like, may Allah reward you for your
enthusiasm, but don't do it again.
Right? So like there's this correction, but then
there's this like
improvement
that's there. So I think friends do help
center us. Right? Like,
to know what, like how do I balance
is certainly by being around love.
You know, there's this statement
that the prophet said,
I was my provisions came from the love
of Khadija.
My risk
was from her love.
It's like a heavy statement, right? And then
like, if you love somebody, the Prophet says
you have to tell them
Allah has like these special friends,
even Majah, you know, narrates
they asked him, man who
are those people and he's like people who
people
who love by the spirit of Allah.
I think that's one. I think another thing
is, like, making sure people have realistic expectations.
Yes.
Mhmm. That's hard to deal with sometimes, like,
people's expectations
of the material
aren't necessarily
in line with their capabilities.
And I think having exposure, regular exposure to,
like, some kind of religious
information is important.
Right? Being being fed
religiously
every week, I think is crucial.
I think consistently worshiping together, be it a
halaklava, be it sala, be it whatever, that
level of consistency is what creates familiarity of,
like,
you are the person that prays, and I
look forward to seeing you pray.
And just it becomes
like a
I don't wanna say safety, but a familiarity
that makes it feel like home.
Mhmm.
And they become your family through the worship.
Look look where Sheikh Shahr Nubi
takes this discussion.
Whoever wants to read
And
One sec. Sorry. One sec. Everybody understand the
hadith?
Yes.
Is Mariam still here?
Yes. I'm here. Okay. Sorry. I've I've I
I I do you wanna share anything so
far that we talked about? You wanna chime
in? No. I'm good. I'm I'm I tend
to to listen more than than I, Yeah.
I remember you told me. Yeah.
Is Majdeline still here?
I think we lost her. I'm I'm here,
but I have to sign out now. I
have to go back to work. Okay. I'm
recording it. So if it's okay with you
guys, I'll just post it on YouTube and
you can check it later. Yes, please. And
I'll Is it okay with everybody else?
Mhmm.
Nice. Yes. So this hadith
in the in the body, there's a piece
of flesh, and there's also a rewire.
So this is the hadith that says, you
know, in the body there's a piece of
flesh if it's good.
If it's healthy, the whole body is healthy.
If it's corrupted, the whole body is corrupted.
It's the heart. Okay. Go for it, Sheikha.
But also if you do post it, I'd
found the other hadith that I mentioned. I
shared it in the group.
Nice. Nice. So we you can read it
for us maybe at the end. Sure. I
think you read it right, though. As far
as I'm gonna get real quick. I I
didn't read it right. Oh, man. Alright. Here
you go.
Okay.
Yeah. So look look how he
frames the role of tariqib and tariqib.
How do you how do you you know,
Imam Ibnu Juzayi,
he says in his Muqaddimah of Tafsir that
the entire purpose of the Quran is Ibadah.
Like, that's the primary job of the Quran
is to define what is worship.
And as an extension is then, how do
you motivate
people to worship
and how do you warn them of neglecting
worship? So he says that that edifice is
on Tariq and Tariq.
Encouragement
and discouragement.
So the sheikh, I like what he says
because I think about this from, like, maybe
a ministerial point of view,
a chaplaincy point of view,
an imam point of view,
a teacher point of view.
So if, you know, the heart is impacted
by the virtues
of Kiamuleil,
then the heart will want to do that.
And it will choose over
Netflix binging, for example.
And then the limbs will follow.
And now we can understand why
people like Imam say, not Imam,
Now we see kind of how these books
are written
to inspire the heart
and to discourage the heart.
SubhanAllah.
Kind of interesting, man.
So this takes us to the next one.
So after talking about kind of the the
factors that impact the heart
and the limbs,
he gets to the essence of the heart.
And he says go ahead, Sheikha. You can
read it if you
That
makes sense.
Sorry. I can't see because it cuts off.
It's okay.
So
the actions are like empty vessels.
And the life
that's found in these vessels. Wojjud is the
existence
Siri of the secret of Al Ikhlasifiyyah.
Mhmm. Yeah.
So that righteous actions are very similar to,
like
he says like, like a ghost. Right? What
he means is like an empty vessel.
Something that has no substance.
I like to think of it like as
a mannequin. I I wouldn't use the word
Ishbah, I would use maybe like mannequins.
And the life of these acts.
Is Arabic is really beautiful by the way.
And the life in these vessels
would do to sir Ikhlas.
Is it so Ikhlas is the light is
the oxygen to the to the act.
Is the heart that pumps the blood into
the the act. It gives it life.
It's like really nice, man.
Can I father?
It
sorry. It's so powerful.
Mhmm.
How do you wanna translate that?
He's saying, like, it's someone that dedicated a
servant to the the king
hoping to get reward except that the servant
was dead.
And if you're giving
that he's saying instead of receiving reward,
you should actually be punished for it because
you're giving something that's dead.
Here, the sheikh, he does something that I
really appreciate because
oftentimes,
when we read
before I go, you seem like you wanna
say something about what you just said that's
much more profound.
I'm it's filtering in my head.
This is my thinking face.
And you know what's powerful about this example?
The guy actually put in work.
You know, like, he tried. He just
he didn't he didn't care about the quality.
I'm not in favor of this example, but,
you know, this isn't an old book. So
Yeah. I don't know if I can relate
to the example, but, like, you see this
with Goodwill where people will give away things
that are still usable because they want someone
else to benefit from it versus someone that's
taking out their trash
and just found a convenient place to drop
it off, and it add just adds more
work to the person that has to sort
it, and it's just frustrating.
The Boston Mosque, we had to put a
sign out, please don't leave your clothes, at
the clothes collection
because people would leave the wrong clothes. They
were like, oh, this fucking dump on my
clothes.
Like, no, we can't use those clothes, man.
They have to be folded. They have to
be washed.
Right? And people would literally just, like, leave
their
jeans in front of the thing,
like a pile of clothes.
And, it became yeah.
So, the idea here is is, you know,
the quality that
the right,
is impacted by where the heart is.
Okay. Can I
ask or I guess,
there's this idea of right now a lot
of us Muslims have learned the Farahid? Right?
We're doing our prayers. We're doing our siem.
I wanna balance
what I feel about,
you know, us learning
the. So, I mean, us, like, teaching them
and imposing them so quickly
without
first teaching the loss and whenever I'm like,
the way I'm thinking right now is when
I'm in that classroom teaching these young kids,
my goal is to teach them how to
connect to Allah first and foremost so that
I can prepare them for when they are,
you know, obligated to do these, you know,
prayer and whatnot.
But you're,
you know, we're in a state where we
have a lot of people who have, like,
obviously, we don't not do
our prayer because then there's, you know,
I got for that. But
we're the balance
because then you have, you know,
you wanna be able to encourage
that connection
and prioritize that
while teaching it.
It's like
someone who doesn't wear hijab, for example, we
know this is a we know this is
a command by Allah, but you wanna
teach,
if lost, you wanna teach that connection with
Allah. There's purpose. You know? But then
do you say, okay. Don't do it until
you feel that or do it.
And maybe, you know, he'd have this sensitive
topic, but, you know, it's a lot. You
don't do it until you you build
that connection
or like the previous
or what we're talking about just prior to
this. You know, the heart isn't in input
the legs and the limbs are because it's
a fun and you have to do it.
That's profound. I'm sorry. But then
what would you suggest as then being,
like, how do we
how do we teach that is my question.
I mean, I'm always
for
preventative and just really making sure that you
teach young people how to connect to all
and prioritize that.
It it during the prophet's time, it was
okay for him. I mean, they were teaching,
they were teaching connection with Allah before he
was teaching connections to Allah before the Hakam
even came out.
But
and I feel like it it has to,
to some degree, come in that order. You
teach
love for Allah, connection to Allah
before teaching these rules.
But,
right now, it's kind of it has to
be simultaneously.
Right now, the and are set. I mean,
I wonder if we ask,
you know, some of these people that are
being exposed to that kind of education, like,
do you find love in worship? Mhmm.
Do you feel loved in worship?
You know, I I asked one time almost
I don't cry very much, but one time
at NYU,
unfortunately, I should be better about crying more.
But
I I ask
the people that come to the Tuesday halaqa,
this is over a year ago.
Hey, how many of you feel like Allah
loves you and no one raised their hand?
Mhmm.
There's like a 100 some people in there.
Nobody raised
their hand. So I mean, imagine trying to
navigate
a world which is already presenting so many
existential challenges
Mhmm. And then not feeling loved.
Like why would the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam say that if you love someone, you
have to tell them
it's like
you must tell them.
Because love is like a restorative thing.
It's
very restorative.
And, yeah, I think I think that you,
you know, hopefully FYI, you guys can think
about
how do we, like, turn
these things into, like, a pedagogy?
How do you teach these things? It's very
important.
Go ahead. Sorry.
No. That thank you so much for saying
that. Yeah.
And here is what I appreciate Shasha Nabi.
He
says,
that Ikhlas can be different for different people.
So this is like the class of people
who are worshipers
are bad, right?
And and here what he means by the
Ubad is like everybody who worships Allah.
Like the common worshiper,
right? Who who, establishes the fraud.
He said for them, it allows us to
be free of showing off whether it's a
explicit or implicit form of ostentation
and to be free of anything for which
the the soul finds some kind of,
agency.
So the reason that they do this
is that they flee from,
you know, the punishment of God,
and they have hope in Allah's reward.
It says, but the Ikhlas of the lovers,
and isn't it interesting back to what you're
talking about, Alaa, how
when scholars would talk about
often great
worshipers, they would use either Al Hashi'in
Al Al Muhibi.
Those who have a sense of fear and
reverence
or those who have acted on
a great sense of love.
Out of awe
and respect.
In the,
Sultan Mudathir
Before before we get into this, most
scholars
are of the opinion
that the first
group that he mentioned
is actually
also a great group because insul Al Anbiya,
the prophets are quoted as worshiping Allah,
hoping in Jannah, and fearing his punishment.
So so this designation there is a little
bit of discussion and critique
academically
about this issue.
But if
if if you and I
were to talk about the people that we
engage with and ourselves now,
what categories
and this is are gonna be our discussion
question for next time.
How would we divide people according to Ikhlas?
Like for me,
I knew a brother who his Ikhlas was
to stop shooting heroin.
Like that's where he started.
Like this, he was like, this is this
is how I'm gonna give back to God
is like,
this brother asked if shooting heroin breaks his
fast in Ramadan.
Like that's where he was.
So getting him to the point where he
was able to be mukhles in that one
thing, like how do you expand the capacity
of people's Ikhlas
in our own capacity.
So what would be the categories that we
deal with today?
So that's your assignment that we're gonna talk
about next time is.
When he says
Like, that's important for us to think about
now.
So, like, where would you put
the designations of a class? The sheikh, he
just uses Al Ubaid,
then he uses Al Muhibim.
God bless him.
Allahu al Hamu, he's a great scholar.
What would be the designations of Ikhlas that
you and I would look for today
If we're not and this isn't to look
down on people, right? This is meant to
to be at the service of people.
And of course,
so everybody understand kind of the assignment?
Mhmm. What would be like, what would be
like the, you know, however many different tiers
of sincerity would you find? Like for example,
the convert girl
who's 17 years old in Louisiana who contacted
me and said like,
I think I can only fast like an
hour dude or I'll be I'll be like
physically harmed.
Like,
is there a class in that one hour?
Yeah. Does she have to make up that
fasting in the future? Of course, right?
But like how do you how do you
increase her capacity to feel tied to Allah?
To tell her like, no, no, you have
to do it, then she gets thrown out
of her house and who's gonna take care
of her? Nobody Nobody and then you have
COVID. So for many converts, I can say
this early on being able to leave the
house is the opportunity to practice.
Now you can't even leave your house.
So how do you increase the capacity of
that person?
Because,
Tawfeeq Min Allah. So we're gonna think about
what are the different tiers of people that
we may find
Like Ikhlas
is articulated
according to
That all has to be there.
Because all that impacts a person's ability to
be sincere. What is the setting? And then
I think the second question that we wanna
think about is then what is the setting
that allows someone to reach maximum capacity?
How do you curate Ihlaz?
Of course, Ihlaz is from Allah. Right? But
we have to try our best.
So like how do you curate sincerity?
So those are 2
questions. Then he mentions,
of course, is
this incredible woman,
Sufi,
who died actually visited her grave in Masur.
And you know, Rabia Adawiya
is someone who begins to start the early
iterations of the theology of love.
Like if you wanted to kind of categorize
versus say someone like El Ghazady
who negotiates
a theology of sadness.
He's Neo Platonic.
And we know that the Platonic Ethos is
one that looks at human beings as like
necessarily just a piece of garbage.
And that again doesn't take anything away from
any we should be able to look at
this subjectively. Right? People get really upset and
angry, but we don't need to have cathartic
reactions to, like, legitimate historical facts. Right? It
is what it is. It's very neoplatonic.
Tonic attitude towards people is 1 like basically
people suck.
So hence, if you think about how Ghazadi
creates
in the beginning of the Ihia, which he
took largely from Ibn Sina and then Muhasibi
and Imam Al Qushairi and I will play
the Mekki.
You know, sometimes plagiarizing like even pages verbatim.
Again, I'm not a fan of Ghazari, I'm
not the enemy of Ghazari, but I I
do have my concerns based on what my
teachers taught me of
some of his framing of the role of
human beings is like very morbid, extremely
morbid.
But the opposite of Ghazali is
who is the theologian of love. Like I
like to tell non Muslims like our first
theologian of love is a woman named Mahabia
Atul Adulya
after of course the great generations of Muslims,
right?
To the point that she reached a level
of love
where scholars are critical,
which is okay.
None of them said she's a bad person,
but look at her poem.
So everybody worships you,
fearing the fire
and hoping in a in salvation as the
great reward.
And they they
they hope to reside in the the the
the
the palaces of paradise.
And they will reside in Jannah in these
palaces and drink from
Sabir. Me, I don't care about heaven and
*.
I don't wanna seek any recompense for my
love I have for you, like my love
for you is my Jannah.
So like, Rabia Ahadawiyah is kind of the
opposite spectrum of Al Ghazari.
And she negotiates what we could say is
like a theology of love to the point
that and here's what a scholar said, hold
up a minute. The prophet said they worship
Allah for Jannah and *. I'm saying, like,
thank like,
yo, that's deep, but like hold up a
minute.
But still like,
it's a very beautiful thought that she has.
And then in in in Ghazali's
morbidness there is some realism there that like
it's true,
you know, there's good to take from them.
But the sheikh is saying like this is
the example of Al Muhibbin. Al Muhibbin You
Budoon Allah
See that?
Mhmm.
Amalek, can you read the poem?
Yeah.
And I think it's important that we teach
young women about Rabia 2 Aduia and young
men
as our Theologian
of Love.
She is the theologian of love.
And not no Joel Osteen
type, you know, but like a very profound
practical,
love.
And this is Ihsan. Right? And this is
not wahdatulwujood,
that's a whole another ballgame.
Right?
So he says, as for the Ikhlas of
those who are close to Allah, meaning by
their Niya,
that is that that is their ability. And
whenever scholars of Tasul use the word shuhud,
it means the Ainu Qalb.
It's called Musa Hadet. Maybe sometimes you read
it, you're like Musa Hadet.
Musa because look, the shuhud afiq is to
see the moon.
Right?
The Shahada, excuse me, of tasawaf
is
to see with the heart.
But of course,
the eye of the Faqih
takes supremacy over the eye of the heart.
You know, because
if we just let people go off their
feelings, you know, it's gonna be chaos. There
has to be
a.
You know, like someone comes like, man, I
don't know, man. I had this, like, really
strong, like, spiritual thing where, like, I saw
alcohol as, like, halal, and, like, I just
think I'm just gonna go to the bar,
and, like, I just feel so close to
God, like, oh, my God.
Yeah.
You know? And
then you're like, well, the sharia says alcohol
is haram. Oh, I have the
I'm Laduni, like I have the knowledge of
the others. And that's where Ghazate gets criticized.
When he creates this kind of idea that
there's like, scholars of books, and then there's
like,
what esoteric scholars.
That's very platonic.
That's what he didn't mean it this way.
People came after him and sort of expanded
on it.
And even out of the also, like if
you read the first introduction of his Futahat
Al Makia, you'll think you're reading something that's
published in the Alqaf of Saudi Arabia.
It's like adheres to the Quran and Sunnah
and the Ijma
and don't deviate from the book in the
Sunnah.
Like it's actually very profound the he writes
because even Araby is Duaheri,
he's not Madikishef he Hanafi hambali he was
Duaheri which means no PS at all.
So the idea that even out of his
like lost in some kind of like groovy,
hipster,
Coachella,
Burning Man, Islam,
It's not true.
Doesn't mean he's not above criticism, even Tamia
has some legitimate concerns that he
mentions, although that heavy unfortunately regurgitate some of
the lies attributed
to even Arabi and that's why,
Sayna Suyuti wrote a book called,
you know, awaken the idiots about the reality
of the iman Arabi. And then he goes
through all of these strange statements and shows
there's no asanid for this. The
point is, right,
Ikhlas,
is to be grounded in knowledge internally and
externally and
in the mukarabin are those who they have
Musahad and Tulkalb.
Ahsan.
That's what he means by here shuhuduhum
infirad
alhaqq.
Means there's no power, no strength, good and
bad, everything that happens in the world
is from Allah.
Although we're commanded to try and to work
and to make effort.
Can I
have to You just have to ask permission?
Just chime in.
So I have two thoughts that are going
through my head. One of them because initially
we were talking about what does it mean
to have good company, and we said someone
that loves you.
And whether you're teaching someone
salah or hijab or whatever it is that,
like, there's I feel like there's an underlying
current that's missing in a lot of these
ideas of, like,
Allah is asking us to do this because
he loves us,
because it's a protection for us. And every
time, like because I used to work in
youth camps and I would talk to young
women a lot that are very like, and
this is the age where
dealing with body image is really, really critical.
And we would repeat it like, there's the
hadith about the prophet saying,
the
way that you've perfected my outer, perfect my
inner.
Allah made you and he made you beautiful.
Mhmm. Why would you listen to anyone telling
you otherwise? Allahu akbar.
And I just there's
I I don't I don't I've spoken to
enough people where to them Islam is a
checklist,
and
it's not supposed to be a checklist. And
I feel like that's kind of the balance
between the two that it's not that there's
if I'm gonna say I love Allah, fine.
Then do what Allah
told you because I'm trusting Allah that he
knows better than I do.
I might not wanna wear hijab,
but I'm trusting a little I love Allah
enough to trust him. I might not wanna
wake up for Fajr, but I know Allah
enough to trust him.
I I don't know if that's part of
the balance. I think the other thing that's
what's significant about the difference between Rabia versus
Imam Ghazaliyah, Alehim both of them. Rabia was
oppressed.
Oh, man. And so used her beauty against
her
and tried to Isn't there things that she
was sexually assaulted? Sorry. Go ahead.
Yeah. Like, people were using her beauty
against her, this thing that everybody desires,
and someone's using it against her and oppressing
her because of it. So it makes sense
that she would
try to come to this place of, like,
what does this all mean
versus Imam Ghazady having a ton of authority
and privilege and, yes, he left
his position as this teacher, but that was
still his background.
And I just whether you are connected to
the power authority of the time and you
have privilege
changes how you view the world. So it
makes sense that he's talking about this is
how we can organize, this is how we
can do this, this is how we can
do that because
he's trying to teach it to a political
power of saying, hey. Maybe you should do
this better.
Like, he just I feel like he had
a different role than Rabia.
Mhmm. I I just the reason I I
talk about that, I had a teacher. I
remember getting really angry at some of the
tafasir about the Quran where they would say
things that were very misogynistic
and other ones that didn't. And I remember
having a teacher sit me down. He said,
if the book was published by the political
authority of the time,
keep that in mind.
If the book was published by this person
who was serving the community that was trying
to balance everything and that's how their books
got published, then they're gonna have a different
view.
And it just, alhamdulillah, it gave me a
lot of calm in terms of looking back
at a lot of our the scholars throughout
Islamic history because otherwise I'm like, why? How
could how could you say this?
I'm sorry. I felt more like a rant.
I don't think that was a rant. I
think that's very I think you should continue
to build on what you're saying is powerful.
It's very meaningful.
Why do you think that she found love
as the ultimate redemption
compared to Ghazari who found morbidness?
Like he finds he finds love through sadness.
She finds
love through sadness,
but, like, it's inverted. Right? His is, like,
starting out great. He's at the top of
his field,
and then he realizes everything around him is
kind of not
as it appears.
And so he finds himself through kind of
a sad outlook.
She experiences,
I think she was even some people say
like born an orphan and,
you know, she was she was at the
bottom of the economic total pole. Then you
live in a society where matriarchy is not
in existence, right, for the most part.
And she has to navigate all of these
things and then ultimately her sadness leaves her
to
love. Qazadhi's
comfort
leads him to sadness.
And that makes sense. That's somewhat the balancing.
Go ahead. I think it kind of goes
back to what was said in the paragraph
just above this that,
there everybody has their differences, whether it's environment
or personality.
And I think each one of these,
scholars that we're referring to
are filling a need in their heart
with, for example, you're
saying,
finding it through sadness
and you're finding it through love.
They're filling this this need in their own
hearts.
And then, you know,
that idea
of their
doing it.
It's their way of closet. And I think
that's beautiful because it opens
channels and tiers, like you mentioned, for everyone
to find their their floss
their way.
Oh, that's awesome.
Nice.
Nice. Nice.
We can talk about this more, I think,
next time, inshallah, that's a lot to to
take in.
We haven't talked about who is the mukharab.
Right? So we talked about
the muhibin
and the muhazinin.
Some people worship for them could be a
form of sadness like,
you know, I think that Imam, Sayedna Imam
al Azari Allayr Hamel,
I think he found a healthy dose of
sadness as being needed to balance the Abbasi
opulence he experienced.
So maybe it was like there's there's that's
his worship, right? Allah says those who call
upon Allah in hope and in fear those
who weep and those who are happy. Like,
I mean, there's there's room for different articulations,
right?
And then Sayida
Rabia,
she finds it through through love.
After going through, like, what can only be
considered? I mean, there's a reason she went
to Egypt. Right?
Many of the scholars of Iraq left Iraq,
like, Hari Abdul Wahab,
Al Baghdadi, one of the great Maliki giants.
He's buried in in Cairo,
next to Sidi Cali. Sidi Cali is buried
next to him. And people ask
You know, like,
I was in Iraq like a Quran in
the house of an apostate.
That's how I was I was treated because
there was a lot of schisms happening amongst
Muslims. Right?
Lot of ugliness that happened. Not it's not
the Iraqi people. Right? It's
the political economic
setting.
So there could be some delusion that some
people experience and ultimately find redemption in different
different emotions. I don't think we should censor
the sadness of Qazari. We can be critical
of maybe of the theological
construction of it, which is okay. Ulema are
doing that.
I don't think we should be critical of
the love of Rabia,
but there is some some concerns that, like,
this is, like, so much love. Like, it
takes you to like, you don't care about
heaven and * anymore, but that's not what
she meant. Right? She was the first to
observe.
Same with Seyda Ghazal if someone said to
him, like like, he wrote an essay, like,
don't cause people to lose hope.
So there's obviously a balance between the 2.
Any other thoughts before we,
stop and then we'll pick up next week.
I don't know if this is
just overthinking it, but I I I remember
reading somewhere that,
essentially, the conversations your parents have or whatever
conversations you have
from 0 to 7
end up being your internal dialogue.
And one of the things I remember reading
about Ravi, as part of the reason she
was called Ravi, I mean, literally child number
4,
was because she was clearly lacking in receiving
that love.
Mhmm. You just have to dig to a
deeper place to be able to fill it
because what you're replacing is a parent's love.
And as a human being, like, that's just
one of your most fundamental needs. And I
and I think that,
like, her spiritual projection was just so
incredible
because she had so much trauma already,
and she was filling all of that trauma
with the love of
Allah and filling all of those holes.
And
for
the majority of people, you don't have those
holes. The majority of people
have at least one decent parent that tells
them they love them. Have it like
a lot of people have 2 good parents
that tell them they love them that'll I
don't.
I think she's just in a category of
her own, and I feel like I've seen
this with some people where you you deal
with them.
And I know that they're gonna reach a
spiritual height that I'm not even gonna dream
of.
Mhmm. But it's because they need it to
heal their own trauma, and their trauma is
just so deep. It's just so deep.
I think you'd be surprised with how many
people might actually connect to and relate
to
her perspective.
And I think that that's so beautiful actually
in the way that you said it right
now. You made me wanna do a psychological
inventory on an an idea.
But, but I feel like
the fact that a per any like, a
person can pick this up and say, wow,
this speaks to me.
Kind of you know, just like a person
can pick up Rosati's work and say, wow.
This speaks to me.
Again, it opens that channel for people to
be able to live out their way of
connecting to Allah and their way of creating
their
sense of.
Exactly. But, yeah, I definitely think that her
category is vast. I think that if if
I mean, there are so many people that
can connect
trying to fill that void because trauma is
just present in so many
homes and so many lives in so many
different ways.
Yeah. You know, one of my teachers used
to say that the the scholars and historical
giants are like medicines in the cabinet.
Mhmm. You know, like, aduya.
And everyone has a different like or even
vitamins. I like the word vitamins, you know,
like supplements,
different supplements
that at different times of our lives like
we can relate to
the morbidness in some of Quazzotti's writing.
The the love
through sadness that you feel in in in
the poetry
of Sayyidir Abi al Adawiya.
And interesting that the Egyptian revolution happened,
you know, the massacre in
the square named after her.
You know, I just thought that was that
was profound as well.
But let's, let's let's take a break. Concelin
will pick up next week.
I think our regular time is good that
we that I was supposed to meet you
guys, I think, on Sunday,
if that's fine with everybody.
I'll just make sure that I remind myself,
to to to be there.
But what we wanna think about then is
the different tiers of Ikhlas.
And maybe you can also think about the
different tiers of love and sadness
if you have time. Like, you know, how
would you place
right? Not just their that they're Ashakas. When
he says the word Ashakas, shakas is
is ingredients. There are a number of things
there. Right? What are the ingredients of Ashakas?
And then what are the different
of
people in regards to these areas in your
life that you serve?
And you deal with
I mean, I'll put this on YouTube, so
if you guys wanna watch it later.
If you can just quote the correct,
method Go ahead and say it.
So he's saying that this is narrated by
that says,
What did he say?
He's saying that
Uh-huh. But it is narrated
in
Can I trouble you to,
put the links that were in the chat
of this,
Zoom to the WhatsApp group? For some reason,
I wasn't able to copy. Yeah. Or I
can put them in the the YouTube post
at the bottom.
Okay. That's not the one thing.
You guys don't mind if your pictures are
on the thing on YouTube?
No. No problem. Thank you so much. Okay.
Just making sure. Alright.
We'll see you guys Insha'Allah, I think on
Sunday.
Ramadan
belated Insha'Allah, early Ramadan