Tahir Wyatt – Exquisite Pearl #01
AI: Summary ©
The interviewer discusses the history and meaning of Tagne's use of the word "tell you the truth" in various ways, including the use of the word "tell you the truth" to describe the physical and spiritual aspects of the Prophet's teachings. The interviewer also discusses the importance of learning the Prophet's teachings and seeking certain qualities, such as being hungry and not doing anything. The interviewer provides a brief recap of the interviewer's biography and discusses various topics related to the interviewer's life and career, including the importance of physical travel, the use of terminology, and the use of different referring points for different speakers. The interviewer also provides information on the interviewer's work and potential future follow-up.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wa ash-haroo an la
ilaha illa Allah wa alayhi wa as-saleheen,
wa ash-haroo anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasooluhu
salallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa
salamu tasliman katheeran ila yawm al-deen.
Amma ba'd, alhamdulillah, tonight we're going to begin
the explanation of As-Sayyid ila Allah wa
al-daar al-akhirah, a poem by al
-Imam Abdul Rahman bin Nasir al-Sa'di rahimahullah
ta'ala, which is only 18 lines, but
in reality, this poem can be considered to
be a basic introduction or primer on the
subject of Al-Tazkiyah.
And the Imam himself explained his own poem.
Again, the poem is 18 lines.
He explained it in a book called Al
-Durrah Al-Fakhirah, which is why you see
here the exquisite pearl.
So this book is available in English with
a red cover.
Many of you probably have seen it.
Can you hold it up?
Looks like that.
It's available and it is a translation of
the author's explanation of his own poetry on
the subject of Al-Tazkiyah, which often refers
to purification or is often translated as purification
of the soul.
In other words, how do we get rid
of the evil things that are associated with
the nafs like kibr, like arrogance?
How do we replace that or how do
we also have the beautiful devotional acts of
the heart like ikhlas or sincerity, hope in
Allah, fear of Allah.
How do we actually gain those things?
And that is because, as you'll see here,
Tazkiyah is an ilm.
A lot of people look at Tazkiyah as
just people talking about things that will melt
your heart, make you feel good, make you
strive more as if this is something that
we just talk about.
And it's not a science or discipline in
and of itself that is learned.
And the reality is that this is ilm.
It's not just feel good information.
Now, there's several things that indicate that Tazkiyah
is an ilm.
It is a discipline that has to be
learned.
It has to be studied, has to be
observed.
Jireer, or Jundub ibn Abdullah, he said, كنا
مع النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ونحن فتيان
هزاورة We were with the Prophet صلى الله
عليه وسلم.
We were young boys on the cusp of
puberty.
He says, فتعلمنا الإيمان قبل أن نتعلم القرآن
ثم تعلمنا القرآن فازددنا به إيمانا So we
learned Iman before we learned the Quran.
Then we learned the Quran and our Iman
increased as a result.
What's that mean?
What's that mean we learned Iman?
Look what he says.
He says, we learned Iman before we learned
the Quran.
Does everybody agree that if you just sit
back and relax, you're not going to learn
the Quran?
Isn't there a way that there's a method
to learning the Quran?
It doesn't mean everybody's method is the same.
But everybody recognizes that there is a method
to learning the Quran.
You don't just watch somebody and you learn
the Quran.
Or you don't just sit back and expect
that the Quran is going to come to
your mind some kind of way.
Well, the same way with Iman.
You have to learn it.
They observed the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
who was teaching them certain things.
And then they found those same meanings in
the Quran.
Does that make sense?
So they're watching the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم as he prays.
They're watching him as he fasts.
They're watching how he deals with people.
And then they learn the Quran.
And the Quran, the speech of Allah عز
و جل, is affirming those same meanings that
they're learning from the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم.
فتعلمنا القرآن.
So then we learned the Quran and it
increased our Iman.
Shaykh Usama Taymiyyah رحمه الله تعالى, He says,
صحابة أخذوا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم
لفظ القرآن ومعنى.
And this is important.
The Sahaba, may Allah عز و جل be
pleased with them.
They took both the words, the love of
the Quran, and the meanings of the Quran
from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
This is important because anybody that comes with
a meaning that contradicts the understanding of the
companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
for the Quran, then they are not taking
the teachings of the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم himself.
Because the companions of the Prophet صلى الله
عليه وسلم, they learned the words of the
Quran, and they learned what?
The meanings of the Quran.
هو الذي بعث في الأميين رسولا منهم يتلو
عليهم آياته ويزكيهم ويعلمهم الكتاب والحكمة.
سبحان الله.
So يتلو عليهم آياته.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, what?
Recite the ayat of Allah سبحانه وتعالى.
And they will hear those ayat.
ويزكيهم.
Purify them.
And teaches them the Quran and hikmah.
What's the difference between يتلو عليهم آياته ويعلمهم
الكتاب?
What's the difference between reciting the ayat and
teaching them the book?
Reciting the ayat is the what?
The words.
Teaching them the book is the what?
The meanings.
That was the job of the Prophet صلى
الله عليه وسلم was saying.
Anybody says, well, the Sahaba didn't understand his
ayat.
Then that person is actually negating the fact
that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did
his job.
And that is تكريب of the Quran.
Because Allah عز و جل said that he
sent the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to
teach them the Quran.
And they learned the Quran.
So, Sheikh of Islam says that the Sahaba
took from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
both the words and meanings of the Quran.
He then says, بَلْ كَانُوا يَأْخُذُونَ عَنْهُ الْمَعَانِ
مُجَرَّدَةً عَنْ أَلْفَاظِهِ بِأَلْفَاظٍ أُخَرٍ They even took
the meanings of the Quran from him that
were not necessarily tied to the specific words
of the Quran.
So they were...
Not everything that the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم did and taught them were the words
of the Quran.
The sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه
وسلم itself does not necessarily coincide directly with
the words of the Quran.
But they learned that from the Prophet صلى
الله عليه وسلم and it gives us the
meanings of the Quran.
He says, As expressed by Jundu bin Abdullah
al-Bajili and Abdullah bin Umar رضي الله
تعالى عنهما Who said, We learned Iman first,
then we learned the Quran and our Iman
increased.
So he says, He would teach them Iman
which encompass the meanings conveyed by the Quran,
Including commands, beliefs, and the things to be
accepted with obedience and trust.
Or affirmation.
And this is true because those who memorize
the Quran were fewer in number than the
general believers as is obvious.
So the reality is...
What he's saying here is that the Sahaba
of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم They
learned from him Iman, part of which is
Tazkiyah.
Part of which is Tazkiyah.
And I'll give you another example.
That this is Ilm.
And it is established from some of the
companions of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم
That he said that the first knowledge to
be lifted from this Ummah would be Khushuur.
Khushuur.
What is Khushuur?
We talked about this.
We had a whole lessons.
What is Khushuur?
So it's a little more than just focus
in the prayer, but that's part of it.
Sorry?
Okay, I like that.
That your heart is present throughout the prayer.
Okay, so that encompasses focus and other than
focus.
That you are present.
He said that this would be the first
knowledge that is lifted from the people.
And then what?
Khushuur is what?
It's knowledge.
It means it has to be learned.
It's not just something that you're gifted without
actually learning.
Now, some people, Allah عز و جل may
just give them certain qualities as a favor
from him.
But as Allah عز و جل says in
the hadith Al-Qudsi All of you are
hungry except for those who I feed.
So what?
So seek.
فَاسْتَطْعِمُونِ If you seek that I feed you,
then I will, then I will feed you.
How do you seek that Allah feeds you?
So sit on the couch.
Ya Rabbi, feed me.
And then you don't move.
You don't go out.
You don't do anything.
You don't do any work.
You don't go to the grocery store.
You don't go to the...
You don't do anything.
You just sit there.
Ya Rabb, feed me.
خلاص That's how it works.
Okay, if that's not how feeding you works,
then look at the next part of the
hadith.
كُلُّكُمْ ضَالِ إِلَّا مَنْ هَدَيْتُ All of you
are misguided except for those whom I guide.
فَاسْتَهْدُونِي أَهْدِكُمْ So seek my guidance and I
will guide you.
Sit there and just say, الدين الصراط المستقيم
وخلاص Guide me to the straight path, and
you don't do anything on that path.
لا There's a path that has to be
traveled, traversed.
You ask Allah عز و جل and you
do the work.
Right?
Just like when you ask Allah for rizq,
you ask him to provide for you and
for provisions, and then you put in the
work.
Similarly, الخشوع, which is a part of تذكير.
It is knowledge.
طيب Allah عز و جل says in the
Quran, الهاكم التكاثر حتى سبتم المقابر طيب What
is تكاثر?
What does that mean?
This is one of those surahs that everybody
reads in the salah.
الهاكم التكاثر What does that mean?
The whole ayah, what does it mean?
Just raise your hand and tell me.
الهاكم التكاثر ها If you move your hand
a little bit, I think you're raising your
hand a little bit.
طيب فضلا Our moral moral has distracted it.
Okay.
So people are distracted.
Okay.
الها is to distract.
الهاكم التكاثر So he says more and more.
More and more what?
What is تكاثر in this context?
Sorry.
Worldly means.
Worldly means.
طيب Yes.
Worldly pleasures.
So, okay.
So wanting more and more worldly pleasures, competing
for that, vying with one another, and trying
to have more, like كثير, تكاثر, has distracted
you.
Until what?
حتى زلتم المقابر What's that mean?
Until you visit the grave.
Until you visit the grave?
Until you're in the grave.
Ah.
Until you're in the grave.
كلا Listen to this.
Listen to this.
كلا سوف تعلمون No, you will know.
علم كلا سوف تعلمون ثم كلا سوف تعلمون
You will know.
كلا لو تعلمون علم اليقين Hmm.
طيب كلا لو تعلمون علم اليقين There's something
that is omitted in the speech because it's
clear.
It's clear to those who the Quran was
revealed to.
And that is, if you had علم اليقين
If you had true, certain knowledge, you would
not be distracted by these worldly things.
Hmm.
طيب إذن There's a disease here, which is
what?
Vying, competing, striving for more and more of
the dunya.
That's a disease.
What is it that cures that?
It's knowing.
علم Certain knowledge that what?
That you're going to be in the grave.
طيب So, even, even, they say knowledge of
what?
Knowledge that you're going to be resurrected after
death.
طيب Everybody knows they're going to die.
Well, just, I know, it's 2024, so people
have various ideas now.
But the thing is, most of Benny Adam,
the one thing we can all agree on
is that we're going to die.
And if you live in America, you're going
to pay taxes.
Everybody agrees on that.
It's, the issue is what?
Do you have علم اليقين That has to
be learned.
That has to be learned.
That level of certainty has to be taught,
studied, learned.
The whole point here is that تزكيه is
an Islamic discipline.
It is علم.
It is not just something that comes, you
know, just because you listen to a few
lectures or somebody did something that's off in
your heart.
It's an علم.
And عبد الرحمن بن ناصر السعدي رحمه الله
In this book, he is going to give
us the major stations, and I'm going to
talk about what that means.
The major stations on the journey.
Okay.
Two that are directly related to the science
of تزكيه.
That is what this book is about.
All right.
So, before we get into the meat, it
is important to just understand what is it
that this book is about?
What is, what is this سير الله What's
this mean?
This is working on تزكيه.
Now, I want to go back quickly and
then we'll move forward.
The title of the book التر الفاخرة The
Exquisite Pearl, which is an explanation of منظومة
السير إلى الله ودر الآخرة The journey to
Allah and the hereafter.
So there's three phrases here.
First one is the journey.
The second one is to Allah.
And the last one is the hereafter.
Everybody clear?
What's the three phrases?
The journey to Allah and the hereafter.
So that you understand what this poem is
about and subsequently what the explanation is about.
It actually revolves around these three meanings which
are exactly the three meanings with which every
messenger of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was
sent to the people.
Okay, Alhamdulillah.
So the first one that I'm going to
talk about because this is what all of
the messengers were sent with is to Allah.
Allah azawajal.
So the main objective of the messengers is
that they came to teach the people about
who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is.
Who is Allah azawajal?
His names, His attributes, His actions.
And then as a result of that, the
fact that we have to worship Him alone.
If you believe that He is your creator,
your sustainer, the one who manages the affairs
of the creation and so on and so
forth, right?
If this is the case, hang on.
If this is the case, then it is
Him who deserves to be worshipped alone.
This is the first thing that every messenger
is sent with.
Second thing is, how do you, how do
you worship Him subhanahu wa ta'ala?
What's the path that leads to His pleasure?
What is it that He is commanding you
to do?
What is it that He prohibits you from
doing?
What is it that you are encouraged to
do?
Okay, that is what?
That's the seir.
That's the sirat.
That is the journey.
Clear?
That's the journey to Allah.
And then, and then they teach the people
about what the consequences are for not following
that path or what the reward is for
following that path.
And that is, that happens where?
Primarily, in the hereafter.
Some of that happens in this dunya.
Don't believe.
There are consequences in this dunya to disobedience
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And there are rewards for following that path
in this life.
But, because the home of the hereafter is
permanent, then this is what the focus is
on.
Alright?
So, every messenger is sent and their da
'wah تبتكز على هذه الثلاثة.
Okay?
All of their da'wah revolves around these
three, three areas.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the path to
Him, and, and the hereafter.
طيب As a result, there are three major,
let's just call them, let's just say, major
sciences in Islam that deal with those, with
this.
The first is, العقيدة which teaches you about
who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is.
And then of course, there are branches to
that.
The second is, فقه which teaches you what
is commanded of you, which you are prohibited
from.
So the halal and the haram and the
wajib and so on.
Alright?
And then there's علم التزكيه Alright?
Which is the third.
Because those things that you are to do
all have external manifestations and internal actions that
have to be done.
So, salah, if you raise your hands the
way that you're supposed to raise them and
you recite surah al-fatiha and you go
into ruku, mashallah, and your back is so
straight that you could put a glass on
it and it wouldn't fall off and you,
mashallah, you make sujood to the end of
it.
You do everything you're supposed to do.
But you have no khushur whatsoever.
Like, what?
It's a, it's an external picture, right?
With, with no heart to it.
And so the tazkih, part of tazkih, is
those internal manifestations of the external ibadat, like
salah, and like you're giving of zakat, and
like you're performing of hajj, and so on
and so forth.
Okay?
Like, any questions about tazkih before we move
forward?
Because this is extremely important that we understand
the subject that we're covering.
Any questions about that?
Like, then, what we'll go on to now,
inshallah wa ta'ala, is to talk about
the author of the book that we're going
to study, bi-idhnillah, the rahman bin nasir
al-saidi.
And the reason why this is important, and
some people think that this is just something
to get out of the way because it's
an academic study.
It's not that.
It's important to know who your author is.
As Muhammad bin Sirin, rahimahullah wa ta'ala,
said, إِنَّ هَذَا الْعِلْمَ دِينٌۢ فَانظُرُوا عَمَّن تَأْخُذُونَ
دِينَكُمْ Okay.
He says, this knowledge is deen.
The knowledge is deen.
So look to whom you take your deen
from.
Be careful who you take your deen from.
Before I go any further, I actually want
us to break this statement down.
What does it mean that knowledge is deen?
What is deen in the first place?
Okay, so the way you live your life.
Keep going.
What else?
More specifically, though that's not, that's correct.
Sorry?
So it's your compass, okay?
It's your GPS, right?
Okay, okay.
More specifically, it's how you worship Allah, right?
So, so okay.
This knowledge therefore is what?
It's how you worship Allah.
You worship Allah based on the knowledge that
you have.
So be careful who you take knowledge from
because that's how you're going to wind up
worshiping Allah.
This is why you see people in certain
environments that don't know any better.
They do certain things that may, they think
is worship of Allah Azawajal.
But in fact, it is not the way
that Allah Azawajal said that he should be
worshipped.
And this brings up a very important point,
which is that Allah Azawajal is worshipped on
his terms, not on our terms.
And therefore it's important to learn the deen
the way that the Prophet peace be upon
him, taught it.
Now of course, younger people growing up in
an environment where that's just not the case,
they don't know any better.
They're going to follow whatever their parents are
doing, whatever they find common in society.
But at some point, a person gets to
a level where they can learn for themselves.
And as they learn for themselves, they start
to see that some of what they may
have initially learned may not even be correct
or may be a better way to do
it or to the end of it.
إِنَّ هَذَا الْعِلْمَ الدِّينُ فَانظُرُوا عَمَّن تَأْخُذُونَ دِينَكَمْ
This knowledge is deen.
So look who you're taking your knowledge from.
Be careful about who you take your knowledge
from.
So in that sense, it is important to
know a bit about the person, the author
of any book that you're studying.
Because you want to know that they are
qualified to talk about the subject that they're
dealing with.
The same way we've read the biography of
Ibn Qayyim رحمه الله تعالى when we talked
about the inner dimensions of Salat.
And it was one thing that really stood
out in his biography.
And we talked about at the very beginning
what made him specifically uniquely qualified to talk
about the inner dimensions of Salat.
Anybody remember?
Yes.
He was known for the quality of his
Salat.
Anything else?
Right, like other others of his peers, of
his students commented on his level of dedication
in the Salat to the point that Ibn
Rajab رحمه الله تعالى who lived many years.
He lived 40 some years after the death
of Ibn Qayyim رحمه الله تعالى And he
said, I've never seen anyone pray like I've
seen him pray.
Right?
And so you want to reach that level.
So similarly here, before we just start picking
up a book and we're saying, okay, who
is this?
Is he qualified to talk about the subject
of السير إلى الله This broad topic of
تزكيه and the journey to الله سبحانه وتعالى
So we're going to just read a little
bit about the author.
All of this is from the beginning of
the book.
So none of this is from me specifically.
This is all in the beginning of the
book.
Does everybody have the book?
That's the question.
No.
Okay.
If you don't have the physical copy of
the book, do you have the PDF?
Because it should have been sent down.
Most people do.
After the class.
For this class, everything that we need is
going to be here on the slides.
Inshallah.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Reading from the author.
The author is عبد الرحمن ابن ناصر ابن
عبدالله ابن حامد السعدي حامد حامد السعدي فنشعر
بنو تميم تميم بنو تميم So here it
says سعدي Some in UNESA until today, they
say سعدي His family predominantly says سعدي It's
the name of their great-great-grandfather.
Okay.
So either way, it's fine.
I learned from my Sheikh Sheikh Abdurrazaq Al
-Badr حفيد الله تعالى who is to my
knowledge the most knowledgeable person alive today as
it relates to Sheikh Abdurrahman Ibn Nasir Al
-Sa'di I learned from him the pronunciation سعدي
and he talked about that specifically on more
than one occasion and he was very close
to the family and his master's thesis was
on the جهود of Abdurrahman Ibn Nasir Al
-Sa'di في تقرير العقيدة So basically the various
works and efforts of Abdurrahman Ibn Nasir to
on the subject of العقيدة نعم He was
born on the 12th of Muharram 1307 Hijri
Corresponding 1889 in the city of Onays Situated
In the city of Onays Onaysah Situated in
the province of Al-Qasim Central Saudi Arabia
He was orphaned at a young age His
mother passing away when he was only 4
and his father when he was 7 His
older brother Hamid Hamid Hamid Hamid Was then
entrusted with his care and upbringing By the
age of 12 Shaykh al-Sa'di Had completed
the memorization of the Quran After which his
pursuit of knowledge and the sacred law began
in earnest He studied the traditional disciplines at
the hands of a number of senior scholars
of the land from them And so now
we're going to talk about some of his
mashayekh On this point He was born in
1307 He wrote the explanation of this poem
that we're studying Al-Turra Al-Fakhira In
1333 At the age of 26 Okay I
wanna I'm pointing this out because I know
some of you are younger You need this
encouragement You need this encouragement To know And
you'll see This The poem is amazing The
explanation is amazing And he did all of
this at a very very young age Subhanallah
And the difference between them and us Is
Facebook and Tik Tok And Al-Kalam Al
-Fadhi All the social media that we're on
And Musasazat And you know Whatever You know
Chain What do they call those things When
people get addicted To those chain shows Whatever
they call Right The difference is They spent
their time differently It's not a different Biographical
makeup You're human beings You get a heart
With two kidneys And the same thing But
subhanallah Allah azza wa jal He chooses from
his servants Whom he wills And subhanallah We
as Muslims Have to not get totally Caught
up in Our environments And look to these
examples That are not that far away This
is not like Oh we're going back to
the time Of the sahaba And we have
to imagine How they were No this is
not that long ago It's not Al-Sa'di
Was the sheikh Of The sheikh of our
mashayekh Basically like The grandfather of our mashayekh
Number one Shaykh Ibrahim Al-Jasr Born in
1241 Hijri He first studied locally Then went
to Syria To further his studies Shaykh Ibrahim
Was well known For his good manners Scrupulousness
And generosity He was also blessed With a
lengthy life Passing away At the age of
97 Under him Shaykh Al-Sa'di Studied Quranic
exegesis Tafsir Jurisprudence Fiqh And the science Of
prophetic traditions Hadith And notice subhanallah So Al
-Sa'di Was Right Which was in 1307 Okay
This sheikh was already 66 Okay Now what
I want you to note though Is that
Shaykh Ibrahim Al-Jasr Rahimahullah He studied locally
first And then he went to Then he
went to Syria to study This is This
is notable Because they kept that tradition of
Ar-Rihla Fi Talab Al-'Ini Which is to
go out To seek knowledge Notice first That
he studied where?
Locally First And this is the sunnah Of
the ulama From the time Of the tabi
'een Rahimahumallahu ta'ala They studied locally first
And this is really Really important A lot
of the fitnah That we suffer From in
this country Is because The students of knowledge
They go overseas first They don't study locally
first They have no filter By which to
process The information that they are getting So
they don't really know How to apply the
knowledge That they are learning To their context
Which is not the same That you find
For example People with students From many other
countries Whether it's Nigeria Or Indonesia Or otherwise
Where they've studied first And then they go
overseas And study with the masha'ikh And
in the past They would not take you
as a student Unless you study locally Where
did you come from?
For example Abdul Razzaq Al-San'ani In
Yemen And Imam Ahmed comes to him And
Imam Ishaq You're coming from where?
Did you study with so and so And
so and so And they test them first
Because it's important That you're able to contextualize
The knowledge that you have He studied first
Where he was Then he went to Syria
And then he came back And he taught
his people As-Saeedi Rahmatullah Ali Is studying
with him After the age of 12 Right?
So this man is well In his 70s
at this point 78 years old At this
point You're talking about knowledge Not just knowledge
You're talking about knowledge And hikmah And tazkiyah
And all of that Because somebody's 78 They
know that they have Less in front of
them Than they have behind them Their preparation
for the hereafter Is different than a person
that's 26 Right?
And so Saeedi is soaking all of this
up At a young age Subhanallah Alright Number
2 Sheikh Salih Ibn Uthman Al-Qadi Al
-Qadi Born in Ramiza In 1282 Hijri He
traveled to Egypt To study at the famous
Al-Azhar University Where he was granted Authorization,
ijazah And a number of subjects Under him
Sheikh Istiqdi Studied theology Tawheed Tabseer Fiqh Fundamentals
of jurisprudence Usul al-fiqh And grammar Number
3 Sheikh Ali Ibn Nasir Abu Wadi He
studied He first studied in Unaiza In Riyadh
And then traveled to India To study under
the hadith scholars Yeah, India India was well
known At that particular time To be the
home of the muhaddithin Many of the scholars
of hadith At that particular time Were in
India until this day Many of the older
scholars of hadith Reside in India And our
scholars still travel Until today They still travel
To go get the high asanid From the
scholars of India So you'll find Sheikh Salah
al-Husseini Seyhullah ta'ala He's traveled to
India To take from the kibar Of the
major scholars there Of hadith And others Many,
many others Under him Obtaining numerous authorization Still
under him Sheikh Istiqdi Learned hadith Learned hadith
and tabseer Number 4 Sheikh Abdullah Ibn Al
-Harabi He was born in 1249 Hijri In
the city of Unaiza He traveled to the
Hijaz province And also to Egypt In his
quest for knowledge From him Sheikh Istiqdi Learned
fiqh Usul al-fiqh And the disciplines Connected
with the Arabic language By the way All
of this travel They didn't have airplanes at
the time Just to make that clear Or
cars Alright There were some There actually were
trains But cars and such such Were non
-existent Just so you can see Subhanallah That
Allah Azawajal Opened up the door For Abdur
-Rahman Ibn Nasir Al-Sa'idi Rahim Allah
To study with these great scholars Right And
to learn From them And The fact that
he had more Than one scholar And he
studied hadith With this one and that one
Right And so subhanallah Whoever wants to know
The mistake of his sheikh Let him sit
with somebody else No sheikh is perfect No
sheikh is going to say Everything right Okay
But This is the beauty of having More
than one sheikh Because subhanallah You get to
see You get to compare notes So if
you find out All of your sheikhs Are
saying the same thing It increases the confidence
That you have in that knowledge And if
you find that Some of them may differ
About something Now you at least know Right
That this issue is something That requires further
study And something that you can look into
At a later time Now Character and abstinence
From wrongdoing I want this point to come
out He was not just known For his
knowledge But he was known for his what?
For his ibadah Right He was known for
his akhlaq He was known for his zuhud
So now When we talk about This book
that we're covering On tazkir These are the
qualities That we're looking for In a person
that I'm going to take from Right Now
The deceased May Allah have mercy upon them
I don't know And I did not go
back to I believe that here Is Mohammed
bin Salih Al Uthaymeen But I could be
wrong Because sheikh Al Uthaymeen Was his student
Right Sheikh Mohammed bin Salih Al Uthaymeen Famous
The famous Al Uthaymeen And so Salih bin
Abdulaziz Al Uthaymeen Allahu a'ala Maybe Maybe
I'm actually Let me back that up I
forgot Salih bin Abdulaziz Al Uthaymeen Is a
historian Who did write about He wrote about
Al Najd He has a two volume book
On Al Najd I just remembered Now Go
ahead Remark The deceased May Allah have mercy
upon him Was exceptional With regards to his
excellent Conduct And his humility To both young
and old He was a person of worship
Excellence And shrewdness As well as a jurist
Safish And traditionalist Muhaddith And exhorter Wazir Wa
'il Wa'il Yeah And an orator As
-Sateed A linguist And an author He combined
within him Knowledge of a variety of disciplines
And this is extremely rare By the way
It is extremely rare That somebody with The
level of knowledge That a Sa'idi had
Is also a good speaker That's usually not
the case Usually the ones that speak the
best Don't have as much knowledge And usually
the ones with more knowledge Are not necessarily
You know Great orators Because Oratory skills Is
its own Needs its own attention And thought
process And how to And the one that's
Involved more in the academic side Of knowledge
Doesn't usually Is not usually that great Of
an orator Nah Yeah Yeah Sheikh Abdel Aziz
Abdel Aziz Bin Baz Said about him He
May Allah have mercy upon him Had a
great concern for fiqh And issues involving Differences
of opinion Paid attention to knowing The stronger
opinion Along with its respective proof He hardly
Spoke unless there was A benefit I think
this is profound By the way Sheikh Abdel
Aziz Bin Baz He said he hardly spoke
Unless there was a benefit Let's see what
he was going to say I sat with
him I sat with him On more than
one occasion In Mecca In Riyadh And he
only spoke Sparingly Except in issues of knowledge
He was humble And had an excellent character
Whoever reads his books Will realize his virtue
Knowledge and concern For textual proofs May Allah
bestow Vast mercy upon him He says this
Even though Many of the books Of his
At the time Of Sheikh Bin Baz Were
not available They were not even available To
the public Most people didn't Even know All
of what he Has written As you'll see
now Inshallah to Allah His works From the
age of 23 Up to his death The
Sheikh Devoted his life To teaching And instructing
And cultivating the people During this time He
authored Over 30 books And treaties from them
Way more than 30 By the way Way
more So this Particular biography Of the author
Was written Maybe 20 something Years ago Okay
And again At that time The works of
the Sheikh Were not As public It wasn't
Until this Printing 27 volumes Okay Of his
works Came out That now Alhamdulillah We have
The Broad The broadest Publishing Of his books
To date And I believe That it has
gotten That this is The everything There In
those 27 volumes And subhanallah Even the titles
That we have in English Are well over
15 to 20 books Of his In the
English language All of All of which Deserve
to be taught All of which Should be
read His knowledge is solid Subhanallah And As
our scholars say He is the one That
took the knowledge Of Sheikh Al-Islam Al
-Taymiyya And Ibn Al-Qayyim Rahimahum Allah And
Contemporized it If that's a real word Made
it contemporary Used contemporary language To basically summarize
Their knowledge For these days And times And
so His works are amazing Subhanallah They're going
to mention This particular Biographer Is going to
mention Seven works So they're listed here Number
one Number one Tafseer Al-Kareem Al-Rahman
Fi Tafseer Al-Kalam Fi Tafseer Al-Kalam
Al-Manna So this is This is famously
known As Tafseer Al-Saadi Right?
And so that Alhamdulillah Has been translated In
ten volumes In the English language Tafseer Al
-Saadi Yeah, you can You can skip that
Number two Number two Al-Tanbihat Al-Lateefah
Fi Mahtawat Alayhi Al-Aqeedah Al-Wasitiyah So
he has Also an explanation Of Al-Aqeedah
Al-Wasitiyah It is not a Word for
word explanation It's more of a brief commentary
On the objectives of Al-Aqeedah Al-Wasitiyah
Alright?
The third is Manhaj Al-Saadiqeen Wat Tawdeeh
Al-Fiqh Fi Al-Deen This book In
my humble opinion Is one of the best
books To start one's study of fiqh No
matter what madhhab They're going to study afterwards
Even though Shaykh Abdul Rahman was a Humbly
by study He was not mutasib Meaning he
wasn't one of those Who said that the
truth Is only in the humbly madhhab It's
just that in order to be Consistent in
terms of one's Foundations, it is important To
study one way And then after that build
upon that And so Manhaj Al-Saadiqeen Is
not really A humbly fiqh book Though the
majority of it Is humbly But it has
over I think Even though it's not that
Large, it has over 300 Ayat Al-Hadith
As its basis For fiqh And it's worth
studying from cover to cover And then a
person Can use that as their primer For
fiqh and it has been Translated into the
English language Within the last Five years or
so The first part had been translated some
time ago Maybe close to Ten years ago,
but it's complete now To my knowledge in
the English language Now, number four Irshad Ulul
basair wal albaab Linail al fiqh And this
is a Guidance to those possessing insight and
understanding For attainment of the law This one
is a fiqh book That's in question and
answer form I don't know if that's been
translated or not Allah knows It says number
five This actually It says the treatise on
the maxims of George Fruta Is written in
poetry form, brief notes to each line Of
poetry by the author himself, this is translated
By the way Insha'Allah Maybe next week
I'll show you some of the The covers
of the books You know, where you can
get them from Number six The light for
the hearts of the righteous A superb exposition
of 99 prophetic Traditions that deal with belief,
manners, moral Saluk, law, and social transactions He
also is actually Bahajat Qulub al-abrar is
not just the compilation Of the 99 Hadith,
it's also his Explanation, okay The 99 hadith
by themselves I think Is jawami al-akhbar
And then the explanation Is bahajat qulub al
-abrar I also not I know that the
hadith themselves The jawami, that has been translated
I'm not sure about the Explanation, and then
last Al-wasa'il al-mufeedah lil-hayat
al-sa'eedah The beneficial means to a
happy life And maybe Maybe I'll talk a
little bit more about this Next week insha
'Allah Because the author Begins his poem by
saying Sa'id al-ladheena Sa'id al
-ladheena Tajannabu subul al-radah So he's talking
about who are the Happy ones, okay Sa
'id al-ladheena tajannabu subul al-radah So
maybe we'll talk about what it Means to
be sa'eed, this book has been Translated
like four different times Four different translators, I
don't know If they didn't know that the
other ones existed With different titles Which we'll
also insha'Allah ta'ala We'll talk a
little bit more about next week Now, let's
get straight to the introduction insha'Allah The
introduction All praise be to Allah, lord of
the world May Allah exalt and send blessings
And peace upon Muhammad And his family, companions
And followers These are some brief but beneficial
Comments to my poem regarding the journey To
Allah and the home of the afterlife Explaining
its meaning And clarifying its premises The poem
encapsulates The main stations For the wayfarers To
Allah Which should lead them to the gardens
of delight And to the closeness Of the
magnificent lord It should also safeguard them From
the torment of the hellfire And from the
anguish of being veiled From Allah I beseech
Allah by his benevolence And bounty That he
cause his work To be purely for his
faith And for drawing closer to him Okay
The author After Sending Praising Allah And peace
upon the prophet And his family And companions
He mentions that this is a Brief Explanation
Brief comments on his poem Entitled السير إلى
الله والدار الآخرة And we mentioned Previously the
significance Of the title And The significance of
the title Is that it contains The three
Main objectives of The sending of every messenger
Which is to what?
To teach people About who Allah subhanahu Wa
ta'ala is Okay His names and his
attributes And his actions and therefore That he
has the right to be Worshipped alone and
the second thing is How to do that
How do we worship him What is the
path To him that's the journey that's the
And then the third thing is What awaits
a person In the hereafter In the hereafter
So the author says That This سير إلى
الله عز و جل Or this poem in
and of itself قد حصلت على كثير أو
كبير من منازل السائرين Okay So he says
that there Are these منازل Of those who
Are traversing the path منزلة منزلة What he
means by this is Like they're stations So
I want you to think about it like
this Think about a Physical travel From one
place to a next place Okay Along the
way Especially for a person that is Traveling
a longer distance Okay, they map out Their
travel Okay, they need to stop here Refill
on gas or recharge They need to stop
here Because at this Particular point, they've run
out of gas So they need to rest.
So that's another station And they're stations along
the way And so The scholars of Islam
that have talked about This journey to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala By the way, Ibn
Rajab He says that All of the scholars
when they say السير إلى الله They mean
السير على صراطه المستقيم That's the meaning That
means traversing The straight path That's what they
mean when they say the journey to So
traversing That straight path When they talk about
that They Give the analogy of that Like
a physical travel Now there are multiple differences
When you cross a station And you're traveling
Like to another state or city Once you
cross a station Once you leave that station
behind These stations Stay with you So when
you get to the station of صدق Truthfulness
You don't leave that as you're traveling to
the station of الرضا Which is seeking Allah's
pleasure Everything stays with you There's an interconnectedness
between these stations And so these stations Are
more of They are names Of العبادات القلبية
The devotional acts of the heart So that's
That's what these stations refer to And There
was a famous book Written by Al Harawi
رحمه الله تعالى Called منازل السائرين منازل السائرين
The stations of The wayfarers Or the stations
of the travelers However In this book Al
Harawi رحمه الله تعالى Uses a lot of
the استلاحات Or the terminology of Sufis And
for that reason Imam Ibn Qayyim رحمه الله
تعالى Wrote an explanation Of منازل السائرين And
he called it what مدارج السالكين مدارج السالكين
The levels of those who are Traversing the
path And so what he wanted To do
was Explain Al Harawi's Book in the best
way Possible and that is because when we
use Terminology that is not From the Quran,
not from the sunnah of the Prophet صلى
الله عليه وسلم There is often times the
possibility That that terminology can be understood More
than one way So this person uses it
and they mean something that's positive And another
person uses it and they mean Something that
is false And so what Ibn Qayyim رحمه
الله تعالى Wanted to do was to come
and try To number one Explain that terminology
in the best way possible But also to
Clarify Some of the terms That may be
used in a better manner And also he
went in depth And so it's a three
volume work And it is one of the
most Extensive works on this This topic of
One of the most extensive works This work
that we're studying Is 18 lines of poetry
And very short And it's basically Giving you
the cream of that book It's almost like
Taking that whole Three volumes and squeezing it
down To its base sum And giving you
the The cream of the crop Of that
particular work And that's why I consider this
to be One of the best primers On
the subject of At-Tazkiyah Alright, now The
issue is There are some People who say
that there are A certain number of stations
Like Ibn Qayyim's work رحمه الله تعالى Which
has 100 stations Though he does not say
that it has to be 100 There are
some that say that it has to be
this number And you have to go in
this particular order And that's really important that
we understand that Because This terminology is used
a lot By various Groups of Sufis And
just note, as I've mentioned on several occasions
That the Those who claim to be From
Ahl al-Tassawwuf Are not all of the
same They don't agree with themselves On many
things And they follow different orders Okay, so
you'll find this one is Naqshbandi and this
one is Rafai And some of them Excommunicate
each other They make takfir of each other
So we're not getting into any of that
And I'm not going to go into a
detailed expose On what Tassawwuf is However, I
think it's very important because we're talking About
stations To look at what one of the
Great scholars of Islam, Sheikh Hussein bin Taimir
رحمه الله تعالى, said about this particular Subject,
and we're going to just read what Sheikh
Hussein Said, we're going to read the translation,
and then we'll Stop there, read that translation
Ibn Taimir, رحمه الله تعالى, said Similar to
the sequences introduced By Ahl al-Talam who
Claim that knowledge of Allah could Only be
attained through them Are the sequences mentioned by
Various groups of Sufis Who wrote about the
states And actions of the heart when they
Discuss the spiritual Stations in their arrangement Right,
so spiritual statements Stations in their arrangement What
comes first?
The first thing that we're going to talk
about is Al-yaqadah, okay?
The station of al-yaqadah Which means to
awaken, okay?
And the reason why is because chronologically A
person Is either ghafil So they're negligent, they're
heedless Or they have awakened From that state
of heedlessness And then everything comes after you
wake up Right, so that is usually And
that's what Ibn al-Qayyim, رحمه الله تعالى,
also In Madarij al-Said al-Keen, that's
what he Started with and that's what al
-Harawi started with But in general, there's no
Specific sequence That one has to go in
in order to Reach Allah سبحانه وتعالى Or
be on the Sirat al-Mustaqim Now, one
scholar might List a number of stations in
their order While another lists a different Number
in sequence And that's all fine is what
he's trying to say There's no binding sequence
One might say that a servant cannot Transition
to a certain Station until they achieve a
particular State and that they move to another
Station after a specific One.
Some say there Are a hundred stations While
others believe that There are more or fewer
Some categorize the stations into Different sections while
others Consider them all one section One might
mention certain Names and states that another Does
not mention.
The most That can be said about Any
of these scholars is that what They describe
is their own experience Or the experience Of
their peers reflecting their Spiritual journey in the
Order of their stations.
He said this is the Most that can
be said.
The most That can be said is that
maybe this is what This one experienced in
that particular Order but not to make that
binding On anyone else.
Yeah If what they have stated is correct
It simply describes the journey Of a specific
group.
However To claim that all of Allah's Odiyat,
closed servants Follow the exact same order Or
path in transit Transitions is false.
Alright and so Insha'Allah Ta'ala we'll
stop there We'll pick up with the Rest
of the introduction and go Directly into the
poem Itself.
I will just say In closing that Our
scholars They have encouraged us To memorize this
poem.
It's 18 lines, not that long So literally
if you do Two to three lines every
week By the time we get to the
end We'll be done And so I'm encouraging
all of you At a minimum by next
week to just memorize The first line of
poetry which is Just memorize that and insha
'Allah Ta'ala we'll pick up there next
week