Walead Mosaad – Session 1 Prophetic Ethics
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of learning about Islam, personal and professional relationships, and the holy spirit in bringing people to the point of being recognized. They also touch on the loss of the feeble culture in the Islamic world and the importance of understanding the carrier of the holy tradition. The speakers provide a detailed overview of the book The Bayon of Islam, including its origin, historical context, and importance for understanding character traits and practicing them. They also discuss the importance of strong willpower and avoiding negative outcomes in sharia law. Finally, they touch on "hamrock ethics" and its importance in sharia law.
AI: Summary ©
From. So
we are beginning a new session, a new
class
that we hope to do weekly at this
particular time,
Wednesdays at 12 PM EST, and then,
6 PM, I think, Cairo time, and add
another 2 hours for
anything east of that like the UAE or
COPPA.
So,
this book that we've chosen,
it's probably one of the most
succinct
and,
I would say
thoughtfully put together
treatments of what we refer to as the
Shemael
of the prophet Muhammad SAWAHSALAM.
And the Shemael of the prophet SAWAHSALAM basically
comes from the word Shemael which means character
trait.
So it's looking at the specific
prophetic
character traits
and much emphasis has been put upon the
idea of
character.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
his report to Aqsa as well, I think
we're gonna encounter this hadith in the chapter
as well.
I
have not been sent except as to perfect
character
traits
and
he has also said adeen and Muhammad.
That adeen
is Muhammeda. It's how you deal with one
another. Oh, and the popular
popular Arab proverb,
as you
will be with others, they will be with
you.
So quite a, a big emphasis upon it.
And you could safely say
that it is the
quintessential and most important aspect in terms of
our
horizontal
relations.
And what I mean by horizontal is how
we deal with creation, how we deal with
others and then there's the vertical
relationship is our relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
and these
2 are closely connected.
In fact, they cannot be separated or divorced
from one another.
It is rare that you will find someone
who
is quite good in one and then very
lacking in another,
It does happen
but then
the character trait itself or the if it's
let's say someone thinks they have a good
relationship with God
and then their character comes out
in very
offensive and
reprehensible ways with others then that means there's
some deficiency
with some shortcoming in their relationship with Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And it may be true that some may
have great character
but don't have such a good relationship with
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and that can happen
for people who are not Muslim or people
are not believers or people not devoted, but
then we would also say it's not quite
the same as someone who is doing it
and seeing their relations,
as a function of the relationship with,
with the divine, with with Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. So it's,
it's quite important, I think,
that we delve into this issue of character.
Those of you who have attended some previous
classes with us,
we
mostly focused,
especially
Tutber Al-'Afin that we just did, and had,
more or less concluded most of it,
maybe last month and then before that
at Fathav
Abbani,
for Sida'ab Al Qadr Gilani that was very
much focused on the vertical
spend some time and focus upon this what
we call the
horizontal relationship or Hleq.
And this is really
also from another perspective
what defines us and how we are viewed
by others not just on an individual basis
but how we are viewed by others even
on the, you know, the broader
community basis. You know, what's a Muslim to
someone who doesn't know anything about Islam
or doesn't know anything about the prophet Muhammad
salallahu alaihi wasallam
and for this reason you see that when
people
try to attack Islam they tend
to try to attack the prophet Muhammad salallahu
alaihi wa sallam. So, just like
the Denmark cartoons of 2006
and, the Paris newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, I think,
cartoons,
more recently
and so forth. So, you find
the, the focus then
is upon
our prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam because
they think this is where we're getting our
morals and our ethics and our character from.
And whether they're they're correct
in,
discerning what our morals are,
based upon what they see from us or
if if we if it's a it's a
misevaluation,
that's besides the point. But, nevertheless, the main
point
is that
people will tend to think about prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam based upon what we do
and based
upon on on on what we don't do
and and how
we contend with issues and contend with people
and relationships and and so forth.
And I think
really this is the,
the most important aspect of, of Dawah today,
the most important aspect of letting people know
about Islam, it's not going to be about,
I think, in my opinion, how many articles
we write or
books that we put out there explicating
the
the finer points about Islam and why it's
good and so forth. But I think it's
really gonna come out in these
perceptions,
especially based upon
personal relationships
and and how we as a community
deal with
what you could say is the
the modern day chaos that that we're all
kind of feeling right now, anything
from the pandemic and and global economic
uncertainties
and,
all that goes along with that,
climate change and
natural
reoccurring or more intense natural disasters like wildfires
and hurricanes and and tsunamis and so forth.
So all of these things, really the world
is kind
of well, you could might say sort of
a tipping point about
how we're going to,
how we're going to move on from this
and how and and do we as Muslims
really have anything
constructive to say about it?
Do we have something to to offer? Do
we have something to contribute?
So I I think,
you know, our
main problem, our issue begins with us, obviously.
Internally, our relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and then from there,
our relationship with everyone
else and we believe that our prophet SAWHSAWALLAH
SAWHAN he was the,
epitome
of all that was good.
It's enough that you look at even one
character trait
and see how remarkable he was in terms
of his
mercy, salallahu alayhi wasalam, his
kindness,
his gentleness, his resolve also
in in difficult situations,
his,
unrelenting
and,
unshakable,
unassailable
belief and trust in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
perhaps is one of the most important aspects
of our prophet salarahu alaihi wasalam.
So, many, many things and
you know then the question
becomes well how do we
how do we put that into practice for
ourselves? How do we be that?
How do we
take on that those traits?
So certainly
reading about them,
studying the seerah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, which is his life biography,
is an important aspect. And anyone who's,
I don't know, been any through any of
formal Islamic education or informal.
Most likely started somewhere with the seerah,
started with the biography of Muhammad SAW ISALLAH.
Kind of like taking chronological
snippets
of of the prophet's life, so we learn
early on that he was orphaned, his father
died, salallahu alayhi wasalam, some months before he
was born,
and even the Sira starts before that with
his
great, with his grandfather
and how he
of adulation and
of respect then that was accorded to the
Benu Hashim which is the sub tribe
of the prophet Muhammad SAW ASALLEM and then
also the oath of his grandfather
that if he were to
be blessed with children,
that he would sacrifice 1 of them and
then the Quraysh interceded and instead he sacrificed
a 100 camels, but the son that was
supposed to be sacrificed was actually the father
of the prophet salallahu alayhi salallam 'Abdulla' and
that's why the prophet salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi
salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi salallahu alayhi
salallahu alayhi salallahu
alayhi
salallahu
alayhi salallahu alayhi salallam he would say to
the sahabha and ibn alayhiayn
I am you know the
the the successor or the child of the
2 who were supposed to be slaughtered namely
Ismail alaihis salam, which we believe the lineage
of the prophet salar alaihis salam goes all
the way back to when Ibrahim his father
was going to
carry out God's command
but instead was given a horned ram instead
and that's how we commemorate that with Eid
al Adha and many of the Hajj rituals
as well
and,
his father Abdullah,
salallahu alaihi wa sallam. So,
then Nasirah moves on to
his father himself
was passed away before he was born and
he was with his mother for the 1st
years and then he went to
Bani Saad, Halima Saadiyyah, where she was his
nursing mother and then as he grew up
in Quraish and at the age of 35
he was the one who settled the dispute
between
the different sub tribes of Quraish after they
had rebuilt the Kaaba and where to place
the black stone and who was going to
place it and so forth and then the
beginning of the dawah which began in Varhira
at the beginning of Revelation
and so on.
What the Shamal however gives you or
the study of the character of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam doesn't give you snippets but
it gives you
and not to belittle the seerah it's very
important to study and we should have a
sound knowledge of that
but I think it would be
incomplete if we didn't also study
the Shamael. So here is a description
of what was he like.
You know? It's a
imagine,
you know, one of those TV
kind of,
when they get you know, they interview all
the people who who have who know the
person
and, you know, they wanna commemorate the person,
wanna know what he was like and what
was it like to
to speak to him and what was it
like for him to speak to you and
what did he look like and what did
he like to eat and
how was he with women and children and
orphans and so forth. So
that all of that comes in
to the, the Shamayil which,
Sayedee,
of Mohammed al Ghazali
does in this particular work.
So,
that's kind of what we're,
we're going to do.
And for Tuho just for us this book
has been translated,
Many of the books of the, which I'll
get to in a second,
have been translated. So here is the
translation. I'll hold that up to the camera
a little bit, which was done by, doctor
Adi Sethiyeh,
and it's a very good translation. I was
fortunate enough to be in on the production
of this book early on to review it,
the translation. And I wrote a small
preface in the beginning for those of you
who have it.
And,
as did
sheikh Ninyawi, Hafidahullah,
and and sheikh Boukdur Afifi of Oxford also
wrote,
introductory
forward and, introduction and, forward and introduction.
So
Maybe
I'll just wanna read a little bit of
what the preface that we had here because
I think it's
not that because I wrote it, but but
I think it might be of use.
So I say that religion
has been largely dismissed as a source for
general welfare and happiness by both the irreligious
as well as some of those committed to
a faith tradition.
Religion often retreats to the confines of identity
politics
or to a sort of religious and sectarian
tribalism,
echoing the general contemporary
trend in politics, business, and social relationships.
As a result,
the world eerily descends
towards a complete loss of meaning
in everything that ever was
meaningful.
Most are oblivious to this very occurrence.
It is our assertion that the root cause
of this state of affairs is the loss
of adab,
the sum of the personal, communal,
and societal courtesies of living and etiquette in
the Islamic tradition as taught, practiced, and actualized
by the prophet Muhammad, salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Some of the Ulema have asserted that these
character traits exemplified by the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam are enough to provide certainty
for the claim of his prophethood
as they cannot be found in any other
human being
to such a level of perfection.
He salallahu alaihi wa sallam
was the most devoted husband and father,
the most forgiving companion and confidant,
the most courageous leader, the most giving friend,
and the most worshipful servant of God.
Furthermore, he was able to exemplify these beautiful
character traits for his companions to such a
degree of embodiment
and perfection
that they too were also able to pass
them on to their companions
and thereafter to the Muslims of the present
day.
So Islam then is a it's a transmitted
tradition. So one generation to the next inculcates
these prophetic
ethics and adab and and comportments. And
then by way of,
what we've talked about previously in some other
classes, oral transmission, a u r a l
from the aura,
right to being the presence of such people
then you kind of imbibe some of that
in addition to obviously the importance of the
written transmission and an oral
transmission.
So this represents the inherited wisdom tradition of
Islam
that is not merely passed on through books
and texts,
but rather also through living and breathing inheritors
of the grace,
spiritual fortitude, and all encompassing beauty of the
prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So,
in order for us then to
avail ourselves of this the first step is
to learn about it.
And I would say one of the objectives
in learning about it is so that we
may be able to identify
these character traits in the inheritors of the
prophet Muhammad SAW ISAW. One of the questions
we always get asked often
is you know with so many let's call
them talking heads
and laqabdulillah I hope I'm not one of
them
that are around just you know saying things
about
Islam and what Islam is and what Islam
is not and how we should be and
what particular cause Islam should stand for what
it shouldn't stand for and how to
leverage Islam for whatever gain that people are
looking for. So there's many, many sort
of different
postures and and and and positions going about
about how we're supposed to
practice this this great,
tradition and this
lovely way of life
and
people are confused. I think people,
don't know who to listen to, don't know,
you know, who are the, to use a
popular term, the contenders from the pretenders. We
don't know.
It sounds nice. It sounds good, but is
what they're saying is that the right way
to be or is there another way and
so forth. So
the soundest thing that I can tell people
is
look to see the prophet within these people
who claim to be inheritors of the prophet
and it's not by their dress, it's not
whether if they wear turban or if they
have a beard or if they have a
proper headscarf or anything like that. These things
are aspects of Islam in varying degrees of
importance
but
the more important thing is in terms of
their
their ruah, their spirit, their Muhammedah, their character,
the vibe that they give off when you're
in their presence. Do they make you think
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? Do they bring
you do they bring your heart to God?
Or
do they
kind of bring you down into
sectarian
diatribes and thinking about
what this group said or what that group
didn't say and how could we respond to
them and, you know, they don't really represent
Islam and we're the ones who do. If
that sort of rhetoric,
is,
is dominant in in the discourse of whatever
particular teacher that you're following, or movement or
whatever you want to call it, then I
would say that's a pretty prominent red flag
to look out for. The prophet was a
uniter, he was not a divider.
And he kanyajma al kullub, the first thing
that he would unite would be the hearts
of people. He he wouldn't be dividing people
and so, you know, when we learn about
these character traits and and we we then
learn to recognize them and then practice them
within ourselves and we also learn to recognize
them within others,
to see who the true inheritors of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam are.
And,
a case in point, one of,
the great automat,
indisputably, I would say, of this past century
or of the 20th century as well.
Duktur Muradin Mawlana, Duktur Muradin Mawlana, Duktur
Muradin Ayseer of Halab, the great Muhadith and
Mufasir,
the great Hadith
traditionist and Quran,
Sijith
of Halab of Alapoh
in Syria passed away today at 86 years
of age.
RadiAllahu and may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala fill
his grave with light and have mercy upon
his soul
and console those who were close to him.
I was fortunate enough to have known him
and to have
heard hadith from him and to have
studied with those who studied with with him,
and so whenever you see a prophetic inheritor
like this from that which we saw of
his
mannerisms, his akhlaq,
his
way of contending and dealing with people the
way he was with his students all of
these
showed you that this is an example of
a prophetic inheritor, this is an example of
someone who's
imbibing the Quran and sunnah and the prophetic
character traits. And when someone like that passes
away, very rarely or ever
are their shoes filled, is someone there to
take their place. So, it's a type of
thulma
for the Islamic kind of leaves a go
a hole sometimes a very big gaping hole
depending upon
who the person is and I think,
Sheikh Mooladun Yedir is one of those people,
so may Allah Subhautahu Wa Ta'ala have mercy
upon him
and
raise him in the highest ranks and degrees
and give him the company of the
prophets and the siddiqeen
and the
and the shohada.
So,
I wanna move on because we've taken quite
a bit of time already
to the book
itself. So, yeah, Illumidine, for those who are
not familiar with it,
like I mentioned, it's the magnum opus of
Mohammed al Ghazali, which is a name that
many of you are familiar with.
And not to get into a big introduction,
if you purchase the book, it kind of
has, a lot about that that you can
read on your own. But one of the
discerning qualities and features of the ahiyah,
which means revival,
and the one that stands out to me
in particular is
that,
Al Ghazali clearly shows his
renewal or mujedid,
credentials in the book of the ahiyah. Even
the title itself indicates as much.
Someone who will renew the faith
for the believers.
And it's not because Islam is deficient that
it needs to be kind of done over
again as has been the understanding of some,
people who I don't think really get it
but it is more about
the the practice, the today yoon,
you know. So we make a distinction between
deen and today yoon. So deen is the
principles, the ethics, the morals of Islam, those
are immutable and unassailable.
And then we have the tadayun, the way
that we go about practicing it, the way
that we go about imbibing
it. And this can go
undergo it can become worn like a worn
clothed item of clothing as I think one
of the Uyghurs of the hadith mentions
Right? Something that becomes worn
and then you have to renew it. Right?
You get a new one or you
you repair it or fix it up and
so in terms of how we articulate the
din, in terms of the pedagogies involved, in
terms of how we transmit it these are
all the basis for the renewal, these are
all the basis for where there can be
a type of tashdeep,
or renewal or revival.
And this is what Abu Hamid Al Ghazali
did in the Haya and arguably
more so than any other
book ever did in the history of Islam
is found in the Ahiyyah.
So,
he
points out the shortcomings especially that were flicking
people of his time period
which was kind of a
to be enamored with the outside trappings of
Islam and
you know to
what's called the rusum,
right, or the formalities and he wanted to
get past the formalities even the formalities of
worship
and get to the inner meanings,
right, the inner dimensions
of worship whether it be the prayer, whether
it be Hajar or the Zakat
or,
il amr bin maroo for nahyanil munkar, right,
for joining good and trying to avoid evil
and trying to embody that in oneself and
to help others to get there. So, these
are all aspects that are addressed in the
ahiyah and he divides it into 4 main
sections.
So the first section is roba l'ibaidat
which looks at acts of worship from the
prayer to fasting and so forth and the
inner meanings in there. Then it looks like
then it looks like obala adet,
and adet are things that are,
can be
intended as acts of worship, but it deals
more with, like, relationships with people, with neighbors,
with, family,
and so forth. And that's why this last
chapter
of prophetic ethics comes as the last chapter
in that particular
quarter,
right, of chapters.
Then there's,
Rubai al Mujhikat
which is looking specifically now at character traits.
So the the the chapter on
prophetic, ethics is also as an opening or
a gateway
to the last or the second half of
the ahiyah, which is dealing with how do
I avoid
or how do I remove,
shortcomings and deficiencies in Warren's character
first by identifying
identifying them, and that comes in the rabbi
muhlikhat.
Right? Muhliqat means things that destroy you really
and and these things can destroy you within
things like envy and jealousy and
and enmity and ranker, hikht, hasad in Arabic.
These are the
negative
character traits that one has to try to
empty oneself
from
as the
arlamat ateskia they say ataghliya.
Right, taghliya means
empty yourself of this.
And then the last set of 10 chapters
the last quarter is called Ruban Munjiyaat which
is to that which will save you and
this is looking at
that was looking at vice
and this is looking at virtues.
So, it's looking at things like having patience,
fortitude,
gratefulness,
gratitude,
Mahaba, Rida, you know, love for the divine,
love for the father alaihi wa sallam, love
for creation, contentment with Allah's decree and that
is the,
last chapter, of chapter.
So, and it said that in Ahmed al
Ghazedi he was inspired to kind of go
on this journey of beginning to write this
book when he himself was quite the accomplished
theologian.
He was already
widely read and widely studied before he wrote
the Ihiyyah. People would come from all over.
He was in the most prestigious,
Islamic city at the time of Baghdad, and
he was in the most
prestigious
institution,
a Nizamiyah
at the time, and one day he just
couldn't speak anymore. He couldn't teach. He couldn't
He started to think why am I doing
all of this? What's the point? Is it
just to get all these accolades? I've gotten
that. What's beyond this?
And, this is when he,
took permission from the authorities and he ostensibly
went to Hajj and Umrah but he actually
was gone for 10
years. In that period, he had visited Jerusalem
and he had visited,
Damascus where he wrote most of
the ahiyat and one quarter of the Umayyad
Mosque,
in Sham in in Damascus. So
that's kind of a little bit of the
history about
this,
this book and where it came from.
So,
with that, I'd like to just look at
the intro.
So I have both the Arabic and English
versions here in front of me.
So I'm gonna look a little bit up
the Arabic, which usually I prefer because
and we'll we'll also use the English as
well as best as we can do that.
So he says begins with
All praise be to God who has created
everything and then
perfected his creation in
proportion. Who has refined his prophet, your tadeeb
refined,
Muhammad salarized sallam. God bless him and grant
him peace and then perfected his refinement
and purified his character and morals,
then took him as his chosen and beloved
and facilitated his imitation
for whomever he has willed to cleanse
and barred from acquiring his morals whomever he
has willed to debase.
May God bless Muhammad
chief of the messengers
and his good and pure family and grant
them peace
in abundance.
So,
and, like, many of his,
predecessors
and successors and
contemporaries,
he begins with something called in Arabic baraat
alistihlal
or foreshadowing.
So So he foreshadows. So this preamble which
although we have in the preamble usually consists
of what we call in basmalah Alhamdulillah was
salatahu al assalam or athinet.
In anything that one does. And this is
based upon the hadith of the prophet subhanahu
wa sallam that any matter of importance,
that does not begin with invoking Allah's name
is devoid of barakah,
right? Is devoid of
divine grace if you don't
preamble it, you don't start it with Bismillah.
And so
invoking Allah's name then is a means by
then to
seek the
barakah from or the blessing from Allah Subhana
Wa Ta'la.
Adaba nabiuhu Muhammad Subhana wa sallam fa asana
tadiba. This is also based upon a hadith.
Adabaani
rabbi faasana ta adibi.
My lord has perfected my moral
character traits or my character, and he is
the best of those who perfect
those character traits. So the Ghazali in the
beginning section here, which we I don't think
we're gonna get to today,
but it will be the one we'll probably
start off with
next time
is how in the Quran
did
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala perfect the character of
Muhammad salarahu alaihi wa sallam.
And here the Quran is telling us how
that went about, right? There's one of the
amazing things about the Quran is
you find that many of the verses are
speaking directly to
the prophet Muhammad salaw alaihi wa sallam.
So, and sometimes it's speaking specifically and the
discourse is intended solely for the prophet Muhammad
SAW AHSALAM.
But most of the time
it's intended for him but
for the prophet as a conduit for what
we can take in as also
uh-uh imbibe within ourselves.
Like when Allah says
So by the mercy of Allah,
you became layin.
Right? You became gentle for them.
Right? And if you were the opposite faz
ghaleez. Right? If you were,
you know,
austere and offensive and reprehensible in your behavior,
alan faldum min howlikh, they would have ran
away from you.
So even though this address, this discourse is
through the prophet salarahu alayhi wasalam, it's something
that we can take in to imbibe for
ourselves.
And maybe the wisdom behind that is
the Prophet
is our door, here is our path, here
is our gateway,
and there's no other door, there's no other
gateway.
We are not going
to learn
character, or learn how to worship or learn
anything or know the Quran or know what's
right from wrong except via the gateway of
Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And this is
exactly the way that Allah subhanahu alaihi wa
sallam wanted it
you want to be laying,
then seek and imbibe the character of the
prophet Muhammad
So here in the next part, he's offering
us a little bit of an explanation of
why is character so important.
He said, indeed, our external deportment,
the outs out outward character, is but an
indicator of our internal comportment
comportment. Sorry.
This is a central theme, central idea in
the study of prophetic ethics or the study
of akhlaq and character
that,
that which propels our ethics, that which propels
our morality
is not driven
by some sort of pragma pragmatic or utilitarian,
motive or objective.
So,
yes
but this is more of a description than
a prescription.
So do basically do unto others as you
want to be done unto yourself. That's called
the golden rule, and we also have this
concept within Islam.
But kamatidinu
tudan means as you do to others,
expect
the same to return back to you. But,
the
common
aspect of all those things is that Allah
Subhanu wa Ta'ala he's the driver of all
of this,
right. And the Arabs they say kurushi salaf
wudayn right everything that you do is gonna
come back to you eventually.
There's some hadith that indicate this as well
that if,
if you make tayir,
right, if you debase
your brother or sister about some deficiency in
them then expect it one day to come
back to you to be found within you.
So that not as meaning as a motivation,
but as a warning.
But
our our character then should be propelled by
our
inner character. So the outward character should be
propelled by the inner character. So the inner
character then
as Ghazari will talk about in the last
quarter of the Hayat that we just previously
mentioned
which is to have love of creation, love
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, content with Allah's
decree,
to also to remove vice from 1 which
would be jealousy and rancor and anger.
So all of these things, if they're within
your heart,
likely they will come out and they will
be reflected in your limbs. What Ghazali refers
to as the jaway.
Because he says for deeds
he says the activities of our limbs are
but the fruits of our thoughts.
Right? So what we think about,
eventually we might actually act upon it.
For deeds are about the consequence of inner
character
and ethical conduct,
the distillate
of knowledge,
while the inner secrets of the hearts are
but the roots of actions and their wellsprings.
Right? So anything that's going on inside
likely will manifest itself
on the outside.
So one of the issues I would say
with our understanding
that you
that you pay, like, $3,000
for or something like that, and they'll tell
you about, you know, workplace ethics and go
into issues of
sexual harassment and, you know, different,
statutes in whatever country you're living in the
law if it's specifically like the United States
or United Kingdom.
And,
basically,
it's fear of consequence. That's the main,
I think, motivation,
which which means consequence that you lose your
job or you might
suffer some sort of
deep consequence for a particular action.
And
then that will then be predicated upon, well,
how well
or do I believe that the consequence will
happen to me or not or can I
squirt the consequence? So it doesn't necessarily make
the person a virtuous person.
It makes them maybe a utilitarian or pragmatic
person. If I can get away with it
then I might do it. If I can't
get away with it then I won't do
it.
And even for someone who wishes to practice
these ethics and these moral behaviors
then will largely come to depend upon their
willpower, their individual willpower.
So I'll just will myself not to do
it. I will not do it. I will
avoid it based upon the power of my
will.
And the problem with that is that usually
ends in failure.
And and we talked about in our other
classes, the the nafs.
The nafs is powerful and it has machinations
and it's relentless
it will keep insisting
right that thing that you're trying to avoid
it will keep insisting to you and it
wants you to go do it And the
remedy within Islam,
or with an understanding of Islamic teskia or
of
character and spiritual
purification
is that we
do not put ourselves in a position to
say it succinctly. Don't put yourself in a
position where you're going to be only dependent.
The only barrier between you and that thing
is your willpower. We don't want willpower to
be
the thing that gets us by. We want
to avoid the situation to begin with. And
so really you can make an argument that
the whole sharia itself,
especially the specific,
let's call it,
maxim or doctrine
of sateviriya.
Right? Sateviriya
means
to avoid something that mean of itself may
not be so
iniquitous but to avoid something that's
more harmful.
And, zeria means like small alleyway,
so maybe just going in the alleyway
is not so bad, there's nothing bad about
that, but what's on the other side of
the alleyway?
Right? Maybe there's all sorts of things, all
sorts of trouble you don't want to get
into,
so the smart person
will just avoid the alloy to begin with
and keep walking and don't go down that
path.
So,
for us,
our sexual ethics, for example,
and the
institution of marriage and how there should be
no sort of
acting upon that outside of marriage,
and avoiding the pathways that could lead to
that, which we talked about khalwa and seclusion
with someone of the opposite * was not
a relative or or a spouse,
though that's part of how the understanding goes,
that we don't even wanna put ourselves in
a position where we then have to come
to depend
upon our willpower to get out of trouble.
And so it's more about what I think
in the modern literature what's called virtue ethics.
So we wanna
inculcate, instill the virtues within us and this
can happen by a variety of means. One
of the most important means is to learn
about them and see what they are to
become aware of them. Another important means is
to be with people who embody them, right,
to be in a society, in a community
and that's why we have such
an emphasis
on
on community and we have an emphasis upon
living with people and associating with people and
you know,
to avoid the jaleesesusu,
to be alone is better than to be
with someone who is going to be a
bad influence
I think people are rejecting such notions does
not delegitimize
them.
So I think,
you
know, for us, we,
we just kind of
try to do our best by perfecting the
inner aspect of who we are, you know,
and you can actually
do things to
help you with your thoughts, with your reasoning,
with your contemplation.
And the sum of the Ibadat, the sum
of the ritual
acts of worship in Islam go a long
way towards that. Dhikrullah
is why that's so emphasized.
Right? It's
only
hibada that has the word kathira that comes
after it. The prayer itself, specific times, 5
times in the day very
structured in the way that it's supposed to
be done. But the dhikr of Allah is
maftoor. Right? The dhikr of Allah is kind
of
unqualified. Any way which way you can do
it.
Right? Standing or sitting or even laying down
on your sides, all of those
in other words, in all of your aspects
and all,
dispositions that you may be in your life,
you could do the qullah, you can remember
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And that's really the
most potent and number one remedy to
casting off extraneous thoughts and Wasaiwis,
which I think is probably the number one
challenge that we have today. And Wasaywes
means,
falling prey to our own delusions and to
our own whisperings and
seeing reality as it's not. Thinking something is
there and it's not really there. Or
being mired
and thinking about other people's motivations and their
intentions and why they're doing this and why
they're not doing
that, and then acting upon
those particular wasaawis, those particular whisperings, so then
you wind up falling prey
to all of these things that are not
moored in reality.
Right? And one of the things about dhikr
of Allah is that it it moors you,
right, like a book, it's moored in its
peer. It anchors you in reality,
because you're mentioning the real, you're mentioning the
Haqq,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so there's nothing
more real
than Allah
and, you know, the
just as,
you know,
the soul will respond to that. So, something
the body does which is you're mentioning with
your tongue, but the soul will respond, the
spirit will respond and in fact even the
body will respond
and
dhikr or call it meditation, call it what
you will is extremely,
important and
this physical dhikr of the tongue then,
in its highest form will graduate to a
dhikr of the heart
such as that the,
zakir, the one who's remembering Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala will not be busy with anything except
almazkur,
except the one being remembered or recalled in
any Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And so, you
have like this almost on state all the
time in terms of remembrance of God, so
there's never an off state.
Right? There's never like, let me leave some
time for Allah
and then time for this and that and
something else. No, everything will be via the
prism of the divine,
and that's the felicitous life,
right?
As the Quran said, the one who's You're
Adam, dhikrla,
saish, Isha tan Duncan, the one who turns
away from the dhikru of Allah SWT will
have this very
miserable life,
very
difficult life,
inner life at least.
People may have
these grand outer lives
and may have many possessions and much material
wealth, but the real life is the inner
life because the inner life is what is
going to determine how you're going to be
in the next life
where it becomes
reversed.
So whatever was happening in inner life then
becomes outer in the next life.
So in the Qur'anic
language of how
the delights of the of heaven
are described,
that's just kind of an inversal of the
inner life now becoming mutajestic, now becoming the
outer aspect, the outer life. And So, the
most important thing then becomes the inner life
and that's why Ghazali said that these are
just nata'ich,
right? These are wellsprings that come from
the inner comportment which is the most important,
aspect.
So,
I think I'm gonna stop here because I've
talked too much already. I didn't want it
to go more than 40 to 45 minutes.
Jazakkum Malakir.
I
I think we will,
we'll not be doing questions.
We might have a separate session
to do that,
insha Allah and we will, insha Allah see
you all
in the next week.