al-Raghib al-Isfahani #05 – The Project of Self Reform

If our highest purpose in life as a human being is the Latha is stewardship of the creation, then we should know that we don't deserve that role until we've purified ourselves. And we've improved ourselves. And so a lot of us for Hani, then he moves into, here's the project of self reform, here's the project of developing the self, how are we going to do it? Right? We've just established the motivation as to why. What are the steps? How are we going to get there? And he, he gives three parables and they're all interrelated. And they're all sequential. So the first parallel he goes, is that of a boat. So imagine that you are on a boat, okay? Is it possible for a boat to stay

absolutely still, on the water, it's not really possible, especially if you don't have an anchor, it's going to drift this way, it's going to drift that way. The boats in motion, okay. Everybody who exists in the world, they're on the boat, whether they know it or not, the boats moving. Only a few people are aware of the fact that the boat is moving. And so they're making preparations for what's going to happen when we hit land.

What do I need to do? What's the first thing I'm going to do when I hit land, like what needs to be taken care of? Most people, they're just asleep, they're on the boat, they're looking at the water, look in the sky. All this is nice, but they have no idea. If we want to give a modern day example, maybe we can compare it to a subway or a train or something like that. Right? The the train is not staying still, it's moving.

And so if it's moving, okay, if it's moving, how much does it make sense to imagine, imagine this, imagine this, okay, you go to the subway, or you go to the train, and you've got your bag, and it's full with clothes, and it's got, you know, some things that you need for your trip. Would it make sense to open up your bag and just like, spread out everything, start hanging your clothes off the railings, you know, put your books set up your computer, everything as if as if you're in your final destination as if you're in your hotel room, or you've reached home? That doesn't make any sense at all. Why? Because it's just a transitional state, you're in the train, just to get from one place to

another. It's never meant to be your final resting place. Right? There's something after that's going to come and you need to be ready, right? When your stops coming. It's announced over the over the intercom, you have to have your bag in hand, all your stuff collected. And then you need to, you need to get off. Right? Imagine this person who, under their delusion, they thought that the train was there, their final destination and they got all their stuff spread out. And then the captain or the conductor, you know, says over the intercom, here's your stop. What are they going to do? They're going to have to scramble around and gather their things, and they're probably not going to

make it right. So that's the first step is to wake up this life that we're on. It's like a boat or it's like a train, it's moving, we're gonna die. There's an afterlife, instead of spreading out all of our things here. And imagining that this is our final destination. It's not, it's actually just a train car. That's taking us to our final destination. And so we need to have our bags in hand ready for the second when our time is up. And the angel comes to take our soul so that we're ready to step off that train to get to where we're finally going. The second parable that allows for Hani gifts when it comes to how do we embark on this journey of improving the self is, is about light. And he

talks about the famous ion sorts of note which the chapter is is named after. nodal not enough, right? Like there's this like Light upon light. And the scholars they have so many different interpretations of what this particular verse means. What does it represent? It's very, very symbolic. It's very metaphorical. And so it's open to interpretation, and allows for Hani himself, he understands it as the light of revelation.

What happens when it is matched with the light of intellect? Okay, he that's what he imagines is the Light upon light, there's a light that every single person has inside of them, which is their capacity for intellect. And then there's a light that comes from outside which is the light of revelation of Quran and Sunnah, the things that Allah has given us. And when you combine those two things, when you use your intellect in the way that Allah intended to submit to the revelation, and you use your intellect to apply the revelation, and you use your intellect, to, you know, to preach the revelation to other people to spread it and to make sense of it in an appropriate way, then this

is the it's like a multiplying effect. It's amplified.

And so this is how a human being is supposed to be there. This is their tools right? So the first power will kind of answers the the sense of urgency the motivation Okay.

A I've got my Netflix show coming on tonight, I'm gonna go watch it at six. And I've got this other thing here. And it's all kind of tied to my dunya and my livelihood and things like that what's going to give me the motivation to improve myself? It's the urgency that's provided, I'm realizing that I'm just in this train car getting to my last destination.

What do I use? What are my tools to improve myself. And here's these two tools, Light upon light, the light of revelation and the light of the intellect. The two tools that Allah gave me, as he said, and the sorts of milk the two Regrets of the people of hellfire, well, we'll call it the local numbness mount Matthew, If only we had either listened to the revelation, or used our brains, right, so these are the two tools that Allah gave you, in order to write yourself in order to fix yourself. This is what is your, your capital that was given to you in advance.

And the final parable that that the author gives is that of a farmer, okay?

He compares the world to a field.

And the plants are like your, your actions or your good deeds, right. So you're going to plant this seed, and then you're going to attend to it. And then you're not going to truly harvest it until your death. Okay, the moment of your death, that's the harvest. And so if you look across from farm to farm to farm, you're gonna see a lot of different things, right, you're gonna see some people who only planted a little bit, or only planted like a mono crop, right, and just like one type of good deed, and some people, maybe they planted a lot of seeds, but they didn't cultivate them, they didn't tend to them, they didn't protect them from showing off or from arrogance, or from pride or

these sorts of things. And so they have seeds all over the place. But then there's weeds and there's all these other sorts of things that have taken over. And there's other people whose gardens are just absolutely immaculate. You know, everything is just so clean, and the fruits are enormous and ripe and shining. And then you have some people who they're just, they're just sitting watching the weeds grow, they didn't even plant anything. That's the person in the train car, who spread out all their things, they think that we're just here just to watch the, the weeds grow.

Right. And so when the end of life comes and it's harvest time, then we're going to get to the, to the to the barn, right where everything is weighed, okay, everything you're going to see everybody's fruits on display, this person has nothing this person has, okay, funny looking fruit. Now this person has like, wow, like, like very, very professional looking fruit. Like that's going to be the day when and then you're going to have to pay, right? This is also part of the metaphor. How do you get the seeds you have? That's the pay, right? You got to pay back your creditors, you got to pay back the person who lent you the tools, you got to pay back for the seeds, you got to pay for the

labor, you got to pay for all this stuff. And then you're going to find out what's left. What's left in your scale? Did you plant enough good deeds? In order for you to pay back all your creditors and have something left over? Or did you waste your time you wasted your tools, you waste your energy, and you don't have anything. In fact, you're still in debt. So these these three parables are all us for Hani gives us in order to show us the sequence. The first sequence for self improvement is to wake up, that gives us the urgency that gives us the motivation.

The second is about guidance, right and the tools, the innate tools and the external tools that Allah gave us to improve ourselves, Revelation, guidance and intellect. And the third thing, the third parable is meant to draw our attention to action. Right? All this stuff is just theory, unless we actually start doing good deeds, unless we actually start getting into the field, getting our hands dirty, holding the garden, right, removing the weeds, watering the plants, those sorts of things.