Tom Facchine – al-Raghib al-Isfahani #12 – There Are No Shortcuts To Piety

			The next thing that I was behind discusses is the relationship between these three levels. Okay, so
you have a model, right livelihood, then you have a bad worship or devotion. And then you have
Khilafah, which is, you know, a stewardship. And so what are the relationship? Or what is the
relationship between these three levels? Basically, can you cut the lines? Right? Can you skip to
the top and get all the macadam and the excellent elite qualities that qualify you to be the
successor or the steward of the creation, representing Allah in this in this world without going
through the two bottom steps? And he focuses first on on the relationship between the data and the
		

			data? And the short answer is no, you can't there's no cutting the line that you have to go through
a bad there is no getting to the top without climbing the rungs in the middle. You cannot for
example, he says, you know, he puts it like this, he says somebody who busy themselves so much with
a batter with worship and devotion, so that they never even get to the higher station of the
Khilafah. That person is excused because at least they're taking care of their responsibilities. But
somebody who tries to get the qualities of ratha without going through a bad is diluted, they're
tricked. They're hoodwinked. It's not possible. And this is backed up by the Hadith of the Prophet
		

			salallahu Salam, it's a hadith klutzy where he informs us that the most pleasing thing to us puntata
is the obligations, right. That's the thing. If you want Allah's pleasure, if you want his approval,
better word, then the absolute thing that you have to do is the obligations, five daily prayers,
hey, here's a cat, go on Hajj, all these sorts of things faster. And then after that's taken care of
all the extras, continue to get you closer and closer and closer to a Las Palmas Todd, but you don't
substitute them out. You can't go and do the extras and abandon the obligatory right that's putting
the cart before the horse, it would be like this. It would be like someone not having any food in
		

			their fridge, not having any furniture in their house. And yet, maybe the lights don't even work
because they haven't paid the electricity bill and yet they have a Rolex and they have an iPhone,
the latest iPhone, and they have jewelry. You miss the basics, right? You've got to work through the
run. There's no shortcuts, there is no shortcuts. And even theologically, in the Koran, Islam tells
us there's no shortcuts. Your lineage is not a shortcut. Your tribe is not a shortcut. Whatever
group identity you subscribe to is not a shortcut to piety to righteousness, you have to go through
the levels. And so there's no getting to the top without going through worship being that basic
		

			Muslim. So if you want to be this, you know, and we see this a lot. You know, there's a lot of
keyboard warriors out there. There's a lot of online activists that are like bring back this leader
for them. We're gonna do this, we're gonna do this and look at your five daily prayers. How many
times do you make Federer on time?
		

			Do you really think that you're going to be able to manage the creation in the way that Allah likes
and you can't wake up for Federer on time?
		

			It's not possible. There's no shortcut. You've got to make your bones you've got to earn your
stripes you've got to go through worship and only after worship that level of a batter is completely
solid and tight. Then you can hope to turn your attention to developing the elite qualities that
will make you a successor will make you a steward upon his creation.