Suhaib Webb – The Way Of Worshipers (part thirteen) Repentance
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AI: Transcript ©
We praise Allah.
You send peace and blessings upon,
our beloved messenger, Muhammad,
upon his blessed family, his companions, and those,
who follow them until the end of time.
We continue now reading our from the text,
Minhaj Al Abidine.
I personally believe,
and I'm nobody but as an educator,
that this book should be taught to
Muslims
in the high school as well as college
college level. There are 2 books, I believe,
of Imam Abu Hamad Al Ghazari
that are very important,
for both of those demographics. The first is
this book,
and the second is and
I believe should be taught to, like, seniors
or juniors in college.
So the first book is is talking about
the 7 obstacles
here in this text
to a life of devotion.
And then the second text, which I mentioned,
deliverance from error,
talks about a lot of the
philosophical challenges that people experience
as they grow in faith.
And it's it's
was the last text written by,
Imam Abu Mohammed,
Alokazari,
And
I was actually teaching it
to,
students
at Tandon
in the spring semester, and we had finished,
I think,
his really, really important introduction.
So again, this book,
Right? The way of the of the worshipers
as they are headed to paradise,
really is a text that frames kind of
how we look at life and how we
engage some of the obstacles that come, you
know, in our lives.
And then
the second text,
right, deliverance sleep deliverance from error,
is is so profound because it touches on
some of the philosophical challenges,
that we run into as we get older.
Right? And as we mature, and as we
start to think about life differently, and have,
as we have
experiences.
Before we continue reading, because today we're going
to finish,
the second obstacle,
I want to just recap his definition of
repentance.
Right? Repentance is so important that it's it's
something that accompanies
the beginning of an act, the middle of
an act, and the end of an act.
Right? The beginning because maybe we feel that
our sincerity
isn't quite there. In the middle, because we
begin to question ourselves, like, why are we
doing this?
And then the end as we look back
and again,
see some of the shortcomings that we may
have,
encountered,
subhanAllah,
during during,
that process.
And what I wanted to do before we
finish is just recap,
his really amazing definition of repentance
that we find here in the text.
Yeah. And here it is. So he says
that repentance
is
Right? That the first component of repentance is
that a person voluntarily
voluntarily
chooses to leave a sin.
So they're not under compulsion.
Right? It's not they're not leaving sin out
of duress.
They're leaving sin.
They're returning back to Allah,
out of their choice.
Right?
And here I had it, and now I
lost it.
No.
And as I get to that, remember, we
talked about how is is Toba an obstacle,
and Tawba becomes an obstacle to faith when
we fail to use it.
Right? So he says,
So he says
the definition of repentance,
and this is a very, very kind of
focused definition,
is right? To choose to leave
them a sin. You can see it here
if you're following with me in the Zoom.
Let me underline this this part for you.
This is actually very important. He says, first,
is that you and I choose to repent.
We choose to stay away from sin.
We're not under duress,
And that sin has occurred
previously in our life. So before that, repentance
had occurred. So I can't and this is
beautiful.
I can't repent before I do a sin.
You know? Like, I can't say, well, I'm
gonna repent for something I plan to do
tomorrow.
No. No. It has to have occurred.
So he says,
So 2 components.
I choose,
number 2, it's happened in the past, And
here's something very important,
and there should be a here.
And this is a mistake in the print.
Manzilan.
And what does that mean? That means that
as we said a few weeks ago, like,
I don't have to go back and do
this. Like, let's say I did a sin
6 years ago,
then I wanna repent for it. And now
I don't have the ability to do that
sin. Do I have to do this sin
again to be forgiven? Of course not. Manzelan.
So in a in general, and this is
the beauty of Islam, a general Tawba
that is sincere
is sufficient for specific sins.
So I turn to Allah
and I say, oh, Allah, I turn to
you. I seek your forgiveness.
I ask that you cleanse me of my
sins. I repent to you. I promise to
be a better person.
That is going to be sufficient
for sins that I did in the past.
I don't have to do those sins again.
And the last component,
And I'm doing all of this
out of a magnification
for Allah
and fearing his anger. Well, that is one
of the most beautiful definitions
and concise definitions of repentance
I've
seen. And
the reason he says it shows people have
utility. What's called kesp. What does kesp mean?
It means what Allah has given us the
ability to choose.
As well, Allah says,
Cusp means the same as amal, what I
chose to do. So I chose to do
wrong.
And also there's something beautiful.
For example, if someone forces me to sin,
am I a sinner? Absolutely not.
There's 2 meanings here. Number 1 is I
chose
to stop the sin.
But what we infer from this also is
that what if somebody is forced to sin?
Then there's no sin on them.
The prophet
said,
that the sin of forgiveness
and compulsion has been removed from my ummah.
This hadith is related by Imam Tabarani.
So actually, there's two meanings here. We could
spend a lot of time unpacking just this
definition.
A lot of issues. A lot of
come from it. But when he says,
first, it means that a person chooses to
leave the sin. They're not forced to leave
the sin. That's a different issue.
But also inferred in this, what if someone
is forced
to sin?
For example, say you're a convert to Islam
and you haven't told your family that you're
converted, and they begin to assume that you've
converted
and they threaten you
with a very serious threat during Ramadan that
you have to drink in front of them.
In that situation, a person is not a
sinner
because they are forced into sin.
They should make up the day later when
they can,
but there is no sin on them.
So
Very beautiful definition.
Now inshallah, we're going to finish today our
discussion on the second obstacle
of living a life of faith and practice.
And I'm super excited to be coming back
to New York City
this month, Insha'Allah, and I'm hoping
that we can start to do some kind
of in person
gatherings for this book
perhaps in the parks.
I don't think we can do it through
NYU, but we can do it, you you
know, just as brothers and sisters. The NYU
component would still, as far as I understand
it, be online. And I think
admission into NYU,
is for students,
and staff at this time only.
So the sheikh, he says,
as we finish,
the second obstacle of repentance.
He starts to talk about what if you
go back to the synagogue.
It happens.
Right? People repent. They
they engage in very serious repentance. They cry.
They weep their heartbreaks.
They feel the pain of the sin. We've
all we all experienced this. And then they
slip.
So he says
He says,
If you repent
and then you violate
the terms of your repentance
by returning to the sin a second time,
then immediately
return to repentance.
You know, sometimes people
when they repent I've been there. Right? We
make mistakes,
and then we repent, and then we may
slip later again.
And we may slip more than once. Right?
May may happen repetitively.
And and Shaitan will try to come to
us and say, like, don't repent. Allah will
never forgive you. You made the mistake again.
The sheikh is saying, la'a, the opposite.
Race to repent again.
There's a great statement of the that
before a
sin, you find yourself your understanding of Allah's
mercy is, like, wide.
Before, you know, as as we're battling, should
I engage in this sin or not?
Right? Suddenly, my understanding of Rahma is very
wide.
Allah's cream, Allah's forgiving.
Allah will forgive me. No problem. Khalas.
And then after I fall into the sin,
Shaitan will come to me and say, Allah
will never forgive you.
So so there's a statement that before the
sin, Shaitan
expands our understanding of mercy.
And at the end after the sin, he
restricts
our our understanding of mercy. But what does
say the imam,
Mohammed al Ghazari,
Rahim
what does he say? He says, if you
repent,
and then you violate the terms of that
Tawba,
and you return back to the the synthonian
a second time.
Race to repent again.
Because that repentance may bring more
light to your heart, man.
And we know the hadith of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Well, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will
discuss a servant who continues to sin and
every time he repents to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah will say, look, this
person believes in me and has repented to
me. I forgive them.
When we read this hadith to our mache,
they actually they don't stop us. This hadith
is in Bukhari and we keep reading it,
reading it, reading it, reading it until we
say, Sheikh, like the hadith is finished.
And they will say,
This is how it's been narrated from teacher
to teacher to teacher that we won't stop
you until you stop reading to remind you
that Allah will not stop forgiving you
until you stop seeking his forgiveness.
SubhanAllah.
SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah.
Subhanallah.
Then Abuhamad, he says,
The second reason that we should repent immediately
after a sin,
he says because you should say it to
yourself,
I may die
after this repentance.
So like let's say a person sins, they
repent,
they sin. Said don't delay the
Tovah, but to.
Right? Race for the repentance
because if you and I die
before we go back to the sin,
we died on on on repentance.
And the same thing if it happens a
second time, a third time, a 4th time,
a 5th time.
Allah
says in the Quran,
Race to Allah's forgiveness.
So subhanallah,
and as a Muslim community,
we have to ask ourselves, are we a
community that provides people entryways
into Allah's mercy?
Or are we a community that restricts
people's hope?
Because sometimes that's all people got.
All they got is Allah. You got this.
Allah says about the hypocrites.
They actually constrict people's ability to have a
relationship with Allah.
And you never know. You may have seen
someone last week. They're like the worst person.
But they started to pray. They started to
make dua or maybe you haven't seen them
for a year.
And the prophet
said 5 daily prayers.
Ramadan.
That as someone prays 5 times a day,
fast the month of Ramadan
and observes the Jummah weekly,
they'll be forgiven. So maybe since the last
time you saw them, they have done those
things and they have been forgiven. That's why
we shouldn't hold grudges, Unless, of course, it's
a egregious situation.
Because if Allah can forgive them, shouldn't I
forgive them?
And one of the challenges
I see in the Muslim country is its
inability to rehabilitate people,
to help people come back.
It's easy to break people,
but it's very, very difficult
to be invested in people and help them
navigate through the challenges of life.
And just as you have the person has
habituated is perhaps a better way to translate.
Actually is like a craft or some kind
of skill. Right? What he's saying is just
as someone has become skilled in returning back
to sin, let them be skilled in returning
back to Toba.
And maybe somebody who has, like, challenges with
sin.
They say to themselves, like, you know, there's
no good in me.
What
what is the sign that Allah
has accepted me? The sign is the guilt
that you feel.
So guilt in Islam
is not located in a way
that crushes our ambitions,
But guilt is assigned that Allah
is sending that alarm clock to your heart.
But that guilt falls under 2 designations.
Number 1 is the guilt that becomes
self defeating,
And that's not considered
what's called
acceptable guilt.
The guilt that destroys my hope in Allah
at yes.
The second type of guilt
is the guilt that's that that
encourages me
and makes me aware of myself
in a way that inspires me to turn
to Allah.
That's the guilt that we're looking for, not
the self pity that destroys me, Allah hates
me, Allah doesn't like me. If Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala didn't care about you, you wouldn't
feel guilty.
If Allah had abandoned you,
you wouldn't you wouldn't care. You wouldn't be
sensitive to evil.
So the the sensitivity
that we have to sin and the guilt
that we feel sometimes
is simply a reminder telling us
come back home.
Come back to Allah.
That's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
he said that the believer is like a
horse that escapes.
Related by saying the imam, who
one day comes back,
who one day returns home.
So, say, the imam says if you have
habituated
returning to the sin,
habituate returning to repentance.
And do not allow this is a very
beautiful statement.
Do not allow toba to
appear to you weak
in front of the strength of evil.
Man.
It's hard to translate
You Allah.
These words should be written in gold, man.
Say the Imam Al Khazari says,
don't allow
your
understanding and hope and repentance
to be weaker
than the sin you fell into.
And don't despair.
And do not allow shaitan
to use those things to keep you from
repentance because of those things. So first of
all, like my sin is so great
will never forgive
me. Allah's mercy is greater.
And don't despair.
Can you imagine Imam Al Khazari telling you
don't despair of Allah's mercy.
And do not let shaitan prohibit you from
repentance because of those things.
Right? That repentance actually is a sign of
good.
And the prophet said that the best of
you are those who are tested but repent.
And to prophet
is reported to have said, the best of
you are those who are tested with a
lot of sin
and
means but you also repent
Allah.
Because that that urge to repent
is an indication of good.
So he's saying this hadith. Right?
Right? The best of you are the one
who's tested
with sin but repents.
Means a lot. We talked about it last
week.
He says, say,
That means is someone is tested a lot
with evil,
but they
they
meet that with repentance
and regret.
So, Nadama, their regret is with Allah.
Allah.
And making istighfar.
Then he mentions this verse from Surat,
Nisa.
And remember and re recall the verse of
Allah
What a beautiful verse.
Whoever does evil
or wrongs his or herself with with
sin.
And then they
repent to
Allah. They will find Allah is.
I didn't talk about this before.
But it's great that the iman mentions it
in the context of this verse
in this discussion. Because what he's saying is
if you continue to fall into sin, continue
to repent.
The word
means the one who
forgives a lot.
Not just
also is important word, but here,
is the antidote
to despair
because Allah is
meaning the person continues to try to repent
and get better and improve,
then Allah
forgives them.
So
right? The form of the word
is
means, like, a lot.
Was Rahim.
So that is what it is. Right? Handle
it.
Then he as he closes out the section
on repentance, he says,
So then he continues
and he says, you know, this kind of
discussion be can be summarized.
And that if you begin this journey, a
journey of toba,
and you have
and you have cleansed your heart
from sin,
as best you can. Right? And
that and you've done this by and the
word
is like a citizen.
For who
means that you have
it's hard to translate, but, like, you've decided
to reside in a place
in your heart
with as little sin as possible.
And this should be Hamzah to also, by
the way. This is mistaken print. This is
one of the most common mistakes in Arabic,
man.
This word never appears with Hamzatulqatul.
What he's saying is that you you you
you're now on the journey. You've taken this
path of Tawba, the second obstacle. You've you've
started,
and you've worked to do your best to
repent
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and and and
and to work on yourself
and to
reside your heart in a place where you're
trying to limit and I'm trying to limit
sin.
Accept those things that Allah knows.
Right?
And Allah
knows
the sincerity
of your repentance
and the honesty of where you are.
No.
And that you've worked to kind of, like,
even please,
you know, people around you as best you
can.
And you've you've made
up and you've made up for the mistakes
you've made. Say, like, I've I've missed prayers
over time.
Say, I've aggravated people. Those kind of things.
So I've turned to Allah. I've located myself
in a place where where I'm trying to
limit sin and the triggers of sin that
we talked about before.
And, also,
I've done as best I can to kind
of fix or repair relationships that were broken
because of evil. And then also, I've worked
to make up for any of the fault.
Maybe I've missed Ramadan. Maybe I missed, you
know, Zakat. Maybe I missed some of the
prayers. So I do my best to make
up for the things that I have
fallen into.
Right? And then I've returned to Allah
completely and humbly
and beseeching him and fleeing to him Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
He says at that moment, right, at this
moment, then, you know, this is this opportunity.
This is this journey.
So now he's mentioning like how then you
should go about this. So you've done those
things and now you're you're in a state
of repentance. So some of this is a
little bit of hyperbolic,
but
he's saying ideally what you should do, you
should go pray.
We know that there's something called Salat Tawba.
And
the prophet
said whoever commits a sin, and after that
sin, this hadith is a good hadith. They
pray 2 raka. Sheikh, he says 4 raka.
No problem. They pray 2 raka and then
they repent to Allah. Allah will forgive them.
But the sheikh says if you've really decided
to go about this, you should, like, make
a
and you should, like, wear nice clothes
and you should pray for a car
and you
should, you know, in sujood. Right?
Place your head on the ground. He says,
You don't have to do this, of course,
literally.
In a place where no one can see
you except Allah, it could be in your
room, it could be by yourself.
And here he's being he said and and
allow, you know, the the the the earth
to touch your face.
The point is he's saying is you gotta
humble yourself.
And at that moment,
in
that
situation,
mentioned each and every one of your sins
to Allah.
Outside of the scenario that he's this is
his personal advice,
the idea is
that to really repent
you should make it like a moment.
I should make it a moment
and I should make sure that I'm alone
with Allah.
And at that moment, I confess to Allah
alone.
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, those things that are breaking
my heart, right, those things that are heavy
in my soul,
those things that are causing me to feel
this this anguish and this
this despair.
And you should blame yourself.
And you should like refute it.
And then you should
say,
And you should say to yourself, like, isn't
it isn't it time for you to settle
down?
Like, isn't it time for you to center
yourself?
Isn't it time that you repent to Allah?
And you should say, and I should say
to myself,
do you have the ability
to carry the punishment of Allah?
Do you have any type of need that
would cause you to
encounter
the wrath and anger of Allah?
And he said, and you should do your
best in that situation to abundantly remember these
things and to cry.
And
then you raise your hands and dua. You
say,
and then you turn to Allah, you
say, oh, Allah.
Oh Allah,
you're a servant.
Right? Your servant has turned to you.
And
turned to you in a state of fear.
Has returned to your door, meaning your repentance.
Abdul Kalasi,
your sinful servant,
has returned to reform.
You Allah,
your sinning servant has come to you with
excuses.
What's the excuse? Some people say, I have
no excuse.
The excuse is stupidity.
Like who anyone that would sin when we
sin, we're dumb.
That's why sometimes the word sin and disobedience,
the word used for it is ignorance.
Your sinning servant has come to you with
excuses,
So pardon me
with your generosity.
And accept me, embrace me
through your benevolent generosity.
And look at me
with your mercy.
Oh, Allah, forgive me from my past sins.
Sins. And protect me for the rest of
my life.
Because all good is in your hands.
And you are
with us so merciful, Raheem, the forgiving.
Let's read this, dua
one more time. So after repenting, after making
2 raka'ah for raka'ah, repenting to Allah,
turning to Allah,
and mentioning
in dua all of our sins and all
of the things that we've done.
Sayed the Imam Abuhamd al Khazari, he said
after that, you you don't have to make
this specific dua,
but what he's trying to do now is
model best practices.
And after interrogating our souls and being honest
with ourselves,
at that moment he says,
Abdul Abiyuk,
your
distraught
or fearful
fearful servant,
has returned to your door
and he returned to this relationship with you.
Your sinful
disobedient servant,
has returned to be reformed.
And your sinful servant has come to you
with excuses,
so pardon me
with your generosity.
And
accept
me and embrace me with your benevolence.
Look at me
with Your mercy.
Oh, Allah forgive me for the sins of
the past
and protect me through the rest of my
life. That's actually a very beautiful thing to
say. If someone's really sincere when they repent,
right, they're not only going to ask Allah
to forgive them for the past,
but they're also going to ask Allah to
protect them
for the future.
Because all good is under your control,
and you are to us the constant forgiving
the merciful.
And he says, and then you should make
this dua or
something similar.
And and and what this means, right,
is in a state of, like, you feel
shidda. You you you you're in a state
of, like,
you're so distraught.
Yeah.
Meaning the one who controls all great things.
And you who are,
you know, the last stop
of those people who have concerns and anxieties.
Like, you're the last and actually the Montaha,
right, is is like a,
right, is the station that you stop at.
So I'm you're the last stop
that people with their fear of their sin,
the anxiety of sin, the challenge of disobedience.
This is the last stop, man.
And, oh, you, who if you want anything
to happen, you say
You see, when you find yourself in a
difficult situation,
when you find yourself that you are burdened
by hardship and you feel like you're gonna
break, you should make this dua.
The one who controls all things.
And the one who you know, all anxiety
is directed to you. You're the last
stop on this. And we owe you who
if you want anything done,
you
say,
We are surrounded by our sins.
Right? Meaning that it's impossible for human beings
to escape sin.
Like, it's not gonna happen.
So you we we we
admit these
And you,
you are the one that can remove these
things
and take them away from us just as
you can with all difficulties.
I kept this du'a for you as a
treasure for this moment.
So forgive me.
So this is a du'a he's saying when
you find yourself broken, when you find yourself
in hardship
and difficulty.
And he says, and at that moment, right,
bring into
yourself a sense of you should cry if
you can, sense of humility,
a sense of weakness.
You should debase yourself because of sin not
to the point that you destroy yourself and
say
This is a really beautiful dua.
And my print is a little little old
school, so it's kinda hard to see, and
I do not have my reading glasses so
be patient with me also.
He says, and then after that you should
say
the one the one who nothing can make
him busy.
No no
can can busy Allah.
Means I got a lot going on.
Maybe someone ask, I'm repenting to Allah. This
person is repenting to Allah. This person is
doing sin. This person is doing good.
And like, you know, he hears all things.
Nothing can occupy his hearing from hearing
And oh, the one who
a lot of questions doesn't bother him.
The hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
If the first of creation
and the end of creation
and all
humanity
and all jinn
stood up and asked Allah and he gave
everybody what they asked for, it would not
decrease him in anything.
Yemen and the one who when people are
pleading with him, it doesn't bother.
Means to taste. So what it means is
give us the taste
of the coolness of your pardon.
And the sweetness of knowing you.
By your mercy, you arhamurrahimin,
the most merciful of the mercy giving.
And then finish by sending salawat
upon the Prophet
And upon
all of the believers,
males and females.
And then return to the obedience of Allah.
So after
kind of modeling the ideal repentance,
he shows us now
that outcome of real repentance
is to return to obedience.
And he says, this is sincere repentance.
So the beginning is the acknowledgment of sin,
talking to myself,
being alone with Allah,
raising my hands in dua,
admitting my sin,
acknowledging the difficulty of my sin and that
Allah is the only one who can get
me out of the situation.
And then returning to obedience.
Says, if you do that,
then you have truly repented
and you have
come out of this repentance
pure like the day your mother birthed you.
And Allah has loved you.
And you're going to have incredible rewards and
blessings.
You're you're here to be
and you
will experience
Barakah and Rahma which
no one could describe.
You Allah.
And you will have experienced security
and safety
from Allah's anger
and been freed
from the traps of Ma'alsi,
of sin.
What?
You Allah.
And you have escaped from the test and
challenges
of this life and the next.
And now you have passed
this portion of the journey.
Man. What a writer.
Imam Abuhamad
Afan Al Ghazari.
You know, I always wonder how much adger
he's gonna get.
So many
people have slandered him.
But
let's read this passage one more time because
it's like really, really super beautiful.
And then we're going to finish
this week.
So say the Imam Abuhamad
Al Ghazari Hujatul Islam.
People asking
this is our 13th every Tuesday we gather
at this time.
7
I believe 7 o'clock Eastern. I'm currently in
in the West Coast.
But he says
after talking about how to repent and how
to make tawba.
He says, if you do this,
and then you return to Allah's obedience.
Because those of you that have been with
us now,
all these weeks, remember last
the the week before,
he said if somebody ask you what is?
The word Nasuha means not to return.
So
sincerity,
sincere repentance,
Allah says, All you who believe, return to
Allah sincerely.
There's
a
same meaning.
So he said, this is how you do
it. So the last few weeks,
he outlined this process, and now what he
did, he went from the theoretical
to here's how you would actually, like, physically
do it.
And he got deep with it. He's like,
you should roll your face in the dirt.
Remind yourself this is where you're headed. No
filter is gonna help you in the grave,
man.
It's not gonna help me in the grave.
How many people are turning
to Dunya sincerely
and turning away from Allah sincerely?
From the Muslim.
Doesn't mean they're not Muslims.
Just means that we go through some things.
And how many people turn to Allah sincerely
and turn away from
evil
sincerely.
Allah says
he didn't put 2 hearts in a person.
So either
I'm sinning
or I'm repenting.
So Imam Al Ghazali says in Minhaj, the
book
page number
186.
Return to Allah, start to obey him. If
you do
that,
If you've done that, then you truly repented.
And you have
exited from your sins pure.
Like the day
your mom gave birth to you.
And Allah has loved you.
With the web,
and you will have tremendous rewards
and blessings.
And you will have achieved
a blessing
and a mercy for which even those who
know how to, like,
And you will have
experienced
serenity
and a a sense of wholeness and completion
like you
hold away from the sin.
And you
experience salvation from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's,
you know, his anger and
escaped
the traps and commands of disobedience.
And the and the challenge of the test
related to sin in this life and the
next.
And at that time,
you have traversed
this obstacle.
He doesn't mean that this is only gonna
happen once.
Remember earlier when he said,
you should make if your sins are a
habit,
make repentance your habit.
So
and by the will of Allah,
you have passed this obstacle.
And he says Allah
is the
one who controls guidance
through his grace
and through his benevolence.
So Alhamdulillah,
now we finish the second
Aqaba.
The first Aqaba was the Aqaba of knowledge.
How many people we saw become religious,
they learned wrong or they didn't learn right,
or later on in life,
their knowledge became a source of trial for
them. So the imam walked us through that
journey,
that obstacle. How do you learn
properly?
The second is
is repentance.
How people fail to repent
or to utilize repentance
as a means for restorative
a restorative relationship with Allah.
The third
that we're gonna start to talk about next
week
are
the foundational
obstacles
related to kind of like
4 entry points.
Because those of you this is the first
time you've
joined,
remember the whole purpose of this book
is that a person lives to worship. How
do I live a life of worship?
What are the obstacles in front of me
when I want to be an abbot to
Allah?
Knowledge, because I need knowledge to worship Allah.
Tawba, because I'm gonna make mistakes in sin.
So these are obstacles that he identifies that
he walks you through how to utilize them
in a way
that you reach the purpose of life. What
is the purpose of life?
I did not create you except to worship
me.
Open this. Open it? Okay.
Oh, what's this?
That is a crab.
Oh,
So
the third obstacle
This ring. Are these four entry points.
And now you have to start to think
about how you defend yourself
from these
4
obstacles or challenges that he calls the foundational
challenge. The foundational obstacle.
Oh, again. Again,
framing the purpose of the book.
Not to be a scholar,
not to be a sheikh, not to be
an influencer.
That's not what my life is for. That's
all salt on the food.
That's all secondary.
But the foundation of what drives me
is worship.
And you'll remember in the very first class
and you can find these also on my
on my YouTube page if you wanna go
watch them later as well as on Instagram.
Sayna Imam Abuhamad.
Sayna
Imam Abuhamad Al Qazari
said that you have to know that the
fruit of knowledge is worship.
So how do I keep worship in front
of me? That's the purpose. That's what I'm
here for.
How do I focus on that? So he
talked about knowledge,
repentance.
Seven obstacles to living a life of faith
and devotion.
Kababa.
Say kababa.
My daughter, I said, you want kebab? She
said, I want kebab.
I never had a kebab before.
You funny.
So he says
What are those four things that we're gonna
start
to talk about? He says,
Those 4 things are 4.
The first is a temporary world.
And how do you protect yourself from it?
Is
to peel
unhealthy attachments of it away from yourself
and to live in it in in a
different way. Not indifferent to, like, people's needs.
He doesn't mean that. Indifferent to the opulence.
Indifference to the danger.
Danger.
Danger. Yes. Good. Right. You learned a new
word.
Right? So to be
We're gonna talk about that next week.
The second oh, the second one I believe
was nafs.
The third one was shaytan,
And the 4th one was why do bad
things happen? These are the 4 obstacles
that are the foundational obstacles if they come
into your life.
If they come into my life,
they can divert us from a life
of faith and devotion. So what are they
quickly? Because
I
have a special guest.
He's gonna take over this production.
1st,
a dunya.
The second, a shaytan.
The third,
nuffs.
The 4th,
Why do bad things happen to me?
A boobish.
Next week in
we're gonna start by talking about.
I I love to teach this class because
I'm the one in most
in need of this
as I see myself.
And
for all the the the badges. May Allah
bless you.
But
this is type of text that the one
who's reading it is benefiting the most. Who
needs it more than anyone else. So I
don't want anyone to think
that I'm like this.
I'm the same as everybody else. I find
I'm when I'm reading this, I'm like, man,
I have a lot of work to do.
A lot of work to do.
So we need to
create a more horizontal
model of our relationships with one another,
not a vertical
relationship with people.
It's not healthy.
So we ask Allah
If you have any questions,
more than happy. I see there's a lot
of stuff going on in the Zoom chat,
but I think that maybe Asan Asan is
sharing, like, these amazing notes.
May Allah
bless you.
But if there's any questions, I'm more than
happy to take them.
And then my special guest is going to
come.
And to wall.
What was this? To wall something.
You wanna draw something? Ask mama for a
column.
This one.
I don't I don't have a pen.
This pen.
This pen.
This
pin.
Opening.
Yeah. So those people asking about where they
can attend on Zoom. If you go to
icnyudot,
uh,org,
icnyuorg,
You can sign up there. I don't think
it's open.
Oh.
How much you gonna pay
me?
So these classes actually would need to make
a schedule and put them on
on Instagram. That's my fault. I'm looking for
a designer who can help me do that
kind stuff. I'm I'm just a teacher. I'm
not good at design, but in design, some
of these things to put the schedules up
because we have 3 classes a week on
Instagram.
Mama has this. I don't have it.
So I I I'm I'm just a teacher.
I can't I can't do the my design
is really bad.
It's plastic surgery harama. It depends on the
plastic surgery,
and it depends on the reason for the
plastic surgery. So,
you know,
its foundation is that it's not allowed.
The foundational
rule on plastic surgery is not allowed.
But there are situations
and circumstances
where it is allowed. For example,
somebody born yeah. I'm looking for a graphic
designer.
Someone born with some kind of,
defect.
Someone that may have been in a car
wreck or crash,
or things like this.
Those people,
they're ex they're
situation. Alhamdulillah, we read
last year,
to our students attend an MSA at NYU.
And as I mentioned earlier, these are 2
books I believe that should be taught
to
junior and senior in high school.
This book and
then should be taught
in early college.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Barakalow ficom, which is, Kamalow Khayron.
May Allah
increase
everyone inshallah,
in
are cartoons for educational halal. So
cartoons
according to all other ulama, except basically the
ulama in Saudi Arabia, are allowed to be
drawn because you are not
reproducing a physical image that exists.
Right? The issue of drawing pictures in general,
the majority of scholars allow it because the
hadith of the prophet is not talking about
drawing pictures. It's talking about making idols.
So this is an analogy. Right? Those scholars
are saying, idols are like drawing pictures. Majority
of Sunnis are saying, no. No. No. No.
Idols and drawing pictures are not the same
thing.
So. Zach,
We'll see everyone,
this
Thursday. Also, we have our class introduction to
Tajweed,
and then,
we'll see you guys next week here every
week, 7 o'clock New York City time.
For taking all the amazing notes. And if
you're interested in joining, you can join to
the zoom at icnyu.org.