Walead Mosaad – Session 5 Beautiful Islam
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AI: Transcript ©
Saramonic mark, we're gonna get some data from Elohim hamdu
Lillahi Rabbil Alameen Allahumma Salli wa Sallim wa Barik, ala
Naboo, roofie, Rama? I mean, so you didn't? Have you been a karate
I mean a call it a little imagining what's your feelings and
you mean, what say the quality or the Mullah Mohammed Abdullah,
while earlier I was having on Viola about. So thank you, sister
Aaron for
introducing and being with us on the
broadcast, I guess we'll call it
tonight. And as was mentioned, this is the fifth class, we intend
to go until the week right before Ramadan. So think eight total. And
we'll see what happens after that. And also, as was mentioned so far,
when we're talking about bridging the divide between
religiosity of religion and spirituality, which has kind of
been one of the themes we've been talking about. So far, we did
speak about things that were traditionally studied in the
subject of theology, or Qlm, or theta, or sue the dean. And these
also will, are these foundational aspects of what we're studying are
essential.
The automat, they have a Makuta, they have a kind of a PC saying.
If you don't
preserve the insole, then you will be deprived of those who MondayA
will sue him and muscle. So
the muscle of something is that which, if it were not there, then
nothing else would be present either. So the foundation
so these foundations are extremely important. And the foundation
here, what we're talking about is the foundation of our shared
objective reality.
There is no other reality. There is no sort of subjective, post
truth sort of world,
even though our culture is kind of heading in that direction. But I
think as committed Muslims, and as believers,
we believe that the reality is the one that Allah put there. And that
has not changed since he created it. Allah informs us in the Quran,
that he created the heavens and the earth and everything between
in six days, six days, not like our days, but
days nonetheless. And then there were two days created. And then we
did not appear to us as human beings until after those first two
days, when the heavens and earth and even other creatures were
created, and the angels were before us and the jinn.
And it's that foundational, that primordial reality, that there's a
piece of that inside each and every one of us. And some have
stated that our seeking of God is nothing more than becoming
reacquainted with that innermost being of ours. to reacquaint
ourselves with the day of less than or equal. The day when Allah
said to us collectively, after all the souls were gathered in the
lines of Adam, our father, Ali Salam, and Allah said to us, allow
us to grow up become called rubella Shahina. Then we said,
Indeed, you are Lord. And we have borne witness to that. So there is
a part of us that still bears witness to that every single human
being.
But they say, the cosafa of the machete, yeah. The, the opaque
nature and the heavy nature of these bodies that we occupy can
sometimes prove to be a barrier, to become acquainted with that
uttermost reality. So
part of our life then here is contending with these particular
circumstances that Allah has put us in. And it is a proving ground.
It is a testing ground, it is
Dorabella It is a place of trial and tribulation. And it's Darfur
net. And it's a place that's temporary, it's a femoral, it's
not going to be there forever. It's kind of like, you know,
compared to the F era, it's just, you know, temporary holding area,
you know, before we go into what the Quran describes as the actual
the real hideaway and the real life. So
our journey then in this life is to just to
reach that point, which you all will reach when we die, and then
all of those things that we saw as figurative and that we
believed in
abstract ways, or at least allegorical ways, there'll be no
more allegory, there'll be no more figurative. There'll be no more
metaphors everything will be as real as real can get. And that
will happen when we pronounce our last breaths. But Allah subhanaw
taala had his infinite mercy and His wisdom has equipped us with
faculties, each human being that allow us and help us to see that
reality before we actually get to it, or at least to affirm that
reality before we actually come upon it. And that's why he has
sent messengers and he has sent prophets and he has revealed His
Word to us, and in His revealed Word, namely the Quran, all of
these things are explained to us in enough of a way for us to
affirm them.
And to believe in them, maybe not to completely have a heart attack,
as mentioned, now have a complete encompassing knowledge of it. And
this has also to remind us of our humility and of our nature before
God only Allah Spano. Tata has complete encompassing knowledge of
everything. And well met with Tito, Manila and me, Illa Allah,
and that which we have been given of knowledge, since the drop, it's
not much compared to the things that can be known. So what we know
and what actually can be known, there's no comparison between the
two things.
But the the honor of the human being shot off an incense is in.
And knowing more in knowing to begin with, and in knowing what's
true, and affirming what's true and rejecting, which is not. So,
as we had mentioned before,
we are going to also be looking at some of the, what I call the HECM,
not what I call the Hycon. But some of the HECM that
specifically, and all of them all, you know,
264 of them have a kind of applied a theology aspect to them applied
our feeder, but we're going to look at it in a systematic way.
So that we look at several of them at a time and then kind of look at
the running themes. Through them, we won't go through all of them,
but we'll get inshallah through enough of them that we can kind of
discern some of these themes. So I haven't actually approached it
this way before. And I've taught it I have taught previously just
like one through 264. But to take a more cinematic approach, and
perhaps there'll be other benefits we can get out of that. But before
I get to that, I remember the last thing I think I mentioned last
session, that we talked about the primal obligation of knowing Allah
subhanaw taala. And knowing him in a sense, as as much can be known
about him,
despite our limitations, and and chief amongst those things that we
need to know is that he exists, and that his existence is quite
unlike our existence. It's not contingent, it's not dependent
upon anything. It's everlasting, it's always been there, it always
will be there, so forth.
And so, because of the incomprehensibility of the divine
essence, Allah subhanaw taala then reveals Himself to us in ways in
different ways. So if the essence can not be known, then we can see
things that indicate the existence of the essence. And some say that
existence itself is proof enough of the divine essence. So our very
existence is means that there has to be a divine existence, and that
those two existences are actually one in the same. Because if it
were not for divine existence, there'd be no existence at all. So
if not for the divine being, there would be no being to begin with,
you know, being with a capital B. So our whole enterprise here, not
just our individual existences, our beings, but the whole idea of
being right as a category with a capital D would not be there
without the being of God. And that's why some of them, they
said, they're actually one of the same that God's essence and his
existence are one of the same, because with a capital B, the
being of God, there's no other being really worth mentioning,
because all of the other beings are subsumed and understood, via
the true being, or the visual Hawk, as some of them call it,
the true being of God of the last battle God, but how do we know
him? Then? How can we comprehend Him? How can we think about him?
How can we seek Him? How can we invoke Him? So one of the
wonderful things that we've been given as human beings, we've been
given this great gift of language, and that we use symbols that both
have a printed form, and also have a phonetic form that we can
pronounce them. And these symbols when put together letters, form
words, and the words form sentences and then they give
meaning. So, as the ancients said, in defining the human being and
Haiwan unknotted, or the rational animal, the Arab said Haiwan
NATEF, which means and not means
To pronounce, so they went a bit beyond the Greeks and said, It is
the animal that notch is.
So, articulate means to share thoughts
so, when we share our thoughts, that is indication that we are
human beings, and
the ability to share from thoughts from one to the next is an aspect
of that language but also an aspect of that language is that we
are able to invoke the name of Allah subhanaw taala.
When Gibreel Allah He said, I'm going to the province or Salam.
And he said it
right the first
encounter, as it were with Archangels you read the Quran, and
the Prophet SAW said Solarstone said mana be caught it. I am not
someone who reads or recites or has or as well read, or can
articulate in that way based upon reading the thoughts of others.
And then he said, If drop this mirror of bigger a lady Hello.
So we said show to actually show them well, how do you go about
doing that? What is the first step is this small, bigger, it could be
smaller or bigger, so read or recite, by the name invoking the
name of your Lord o'clock this middle Becca Levy Holika.
The one that he has created you. So invoking the name of Allah
subhanaw taala, then, is one of the chief principal ways by which
we can
become better acquainted with this ultimate reality. And so we find
that lots of our Ibadah lots of our our acts of worship usually
include two components, we're usually saying something or we're
moving with the body.
So in the prayer, for example, the the heart of hearts are the
movements of the prayer coincide with things that we say. So the
tech community haram, as we said, before you put your hands up and
it's like everything that is not from important that is not Allah,
you throw behind you, the symbolic throne of the hands up to Kabira
to the Haram and you say, Allahu Akbar, and that same meaning is
conveyed in the words Allahu Akbar. Right? Allah is the
Greatest.
And some said this is an actual superlative, or it is a figurative
superlative. Because to be greater than something else means that
other thing has greatness. But there's nothing that has
greatness, like the greatness of Allah's battle data. So they said
it's a figurative, superlative. So Allah is Great without comparison.
But in the general sense, we see that nothing can compare, nothing
can be even
have a whiff of variability except maybe we use the same words as
Cuba. Right? Right. There's can be or there's big or there's great,
but nothing is about, like a lost battle that Allahu Akbar. So the
Divine Names then and the divine attributes give us an
understanding, and the utmost understanding, actually, because
there's no understanding of that, because we can't comprehend the
essence so it gives us an utmost understanding of Allah subhanaw
taala
so they said there's different types of divine names before we
get into the HECM.
Some of them
actually two are indicative of the divine essence. In other words,
there is nothing that these two names invoke except the whole
understanding of Allah subhanaw taala so not a specific attribute
of God or not a specific name of Allah subhanaw taala but what you
can call a proper name that is Shammi right comprehensive of all
that we understand about Allah Spano Tata, and as the Quran says,
sort of, right I think, what are the lower the ramen for innovator
do for that Will Smith and
whether they're Allah or whether ramen so call upon Allah, or call
upon a rock band? The true proper names of Allah subhanaw taala
for him at no further smell, Al Hasina whichever which you you
invoke. He has the most beautiful names. So Allah and
ramen are the Neff sia names or NFC attributes they indicate the
divine essence. So
we also say Allah, when we want to refer to Allah subhanaw taala in
in the most comprehensive way. Some have said that Allah is
smaller than other that the greatest thing of Allah is in fact
Allah has been stated.
We say it in
shahada, La ilaha illAllah. So the negation and an affirmation, La
ilaha illa Allah and we also invoke our ramen.
Usually when we say the Bismillah Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. So,
these two names specifically then are indicative of the divine
essence. And they in of themselves especially loves of gelila. So,
when we say one word before to the name of God, we say loves
Angelina. So, the indicated name of magnificence
can be used itself as a vicar in itself or as a way of remembering
Allah subhanaw taala. And Allah may have used the verse in the
Quran, who could be less than Madonna Humphrey holding Emile Abu
say Allah then leave them in their frivolous play. So even just to
say Allah, and the Hadith of the Prophet SAW Selim, they will not
come. The I will not come upon people except there will be people
saying Allah Allah, that they will still be on invoking the name of
Allah Spano, Tata and Raman also, the Arabs did not know the name of
Rahman before the Prophet SAW, I said.
That's why they thought Rahman was a person. And they thought it was
someone that the Prophet SAW Selim would be going to and visiting in
the mountains and he would be the one who would be in their
imagination, telling them all these things.
So that's one type of of divine name, the divine name of essence,
let's call it
then there are in names that are indicative of
the divine 10 Z, or su or
era approachability is what I call it English.
So it's more like stating what Allah is not but in stating what
Allah is not you're stating when he actually is within this name.
So, these names are these attributes, then they have a
counterpart that is completely the opposite, which Allah is not. So
sometimes these are called slight via called sometimes called
negative attributes or sometimes called synthetic 10 z. Then z
means is approachability, Allah is beyond reproach
or sometimes called the fat to the sea Holy Names, when the talk of
these and talk of these in Arabic language also needs to be
approachable.
Much in the same way we call the Haram in Mecca would have met any
enviable right because haram comes from haram which means something
that is enviable, should not be its sacred it should not be
violated based in luck this right in
so these names that are beyond reproach of Allah Spano Tata like
unweit
right or Allahabad? Allahabad means he's one so he's not two
he's not three he's not for any
any means the one who is completely self sufficient and not
in need of anything so he's not an 40 year right we are
alone when you add to alcohol
it's completely without need of anything and everyone else is for
theory and if our theory if we were off Mattila
T Urmila, Yahoo, whatever. So, everything else then is in need
completely of Allah subhanaw taala
then there are names that are meaningful
or positive attributes that have a meaning of themselves without
understanding a negation of something else. So, these would be
most of the Divine Names likely you could put in this category
like a lolly and Kadir, Elaine will Quadra well Maurice irata
Alhaj Alka you
all of these names then indicate right and these names are actually
can be invoked as well. Alcohol right the one who who compels are
overwhelmed and and Octavia and Malta team then looked at the one
who is
supreme in their ability to do things and on top of the one who
can avenge so all of these names are indicative of other meaningful
of positive or positive and some of these names
are Jim Edie and some are Jannetty some are
beautiful names and they invoke feelings of ease and gentleness
and mercy within us and some are Jalali which are are inspiring and
magnificent like the ones I just mentioned, like an octagon or the
Malta team, and some are of ease like Latif Rockman. And will dude
mean.
So these names are called the or attributes are the positive names
that have positive attributes that also help us to understand the
last panel data. And with each one of these names,
they are we use words to describe them. And they are mentioned in
the hadith of imperata, the 99 names and Buhari, but they're not
limited to that. Some have counted over 150. And some say
not some, but the mainstream
approach is that there are names that allow someone to reveal to us
and some that he did not reveal to us. So there are some that he kept
within his sacred
and secret knowledge and others that he has revealed to us. And
the 99 names mentioned in the hadith of Bokhari are all names of
Allah subhanaw taala. But there can often be additional ones to
that, and whether we can call upon those other names that are not
specifically mentioned in a 99 names. That's a matter of some
difference amongst the automat, like, in men and Handan. Alone,
not equal, right not mentioned specifically in that hadith, but
the meaning is conveyed in the Quran. So men and men, right, the
one who
does beautiful things for you, such as that you should be
grateful, and men.
So those are also Names of Allah subhanaw taala. And they indicate
these, either meanings of, of majesty are meanings of beauty.
And in each one of them, there's a specific to unlock, right, there's
a specific connection to the human condition that will reveal parts
of reality to you. So there is a type of, as they say, tell when,
right, there's a coloring of the soul that comes about when you
think about these different names, or you invoke these different
names.
And that's why some of the machetes that we've come across,
you know, they'll, they'll teach people to invoke certain names at
certain times and in particular ways in particular numbers. So, in
the realm of invocation of thicket of the divining specifically, it's
much like, you know, the physician, the spiritual physician
can, can prescribe the right one for the right situation or for the
right, spiritual state and so forth. There are some that don't
need any sort of, you don't need a prescription, you can just go and
recite them anything mentioned in the Hadith, and mentioned in the
Quran, and so forth. Then obviously, this kind of the
Salawat on the prophesies. Lm is one of those examples.
That has kind of a general
you know, they said that isn't to do the assault on the Prophet SAW
Selim is in the Quran, in Allahu Allah, aka Toby so do not in the
video, you will Adina and also nobody was selling with a steamer.
So Allah Subhana Allah is telling you some Diwali or selling with a
steamer. You know, um, it's a command. And it's open ended, it's
not qualified or anything. You can invoke that at any time. And
actually, when you are giving Salawat or asking Salawat you're
asking Allah subhanaw taala to bless your prophet. That's
basically Aloha misogyny, so Allahumma invoking Allah's Name
Salli, ala Sayyidina Muhammad, you know, please send your blessings
and your salutations
upon our Prophet Mohammed Salah lorrison.
And then the last category
are names or attributes that are indicative of divine acts.
So these would be like a rosette, and Mahi and meet
a rosette. So one who gives sustenance. So where does this
come from? It comes from the manifestation of the divine name
out Razak. Where does it yet come from? Where does life come from?
That aspect of the naira name that we can invoke and Mahi where does
he imata? Where does that come from? Also from that aspect of the
note, the VI name, and mu meet, and so forth. And so
one way of looking at the reality all around us is just what they
call the to Juliet, which are the manifestations.
Hear a baby is born here. Yes.
But feel happy, inwardly. It's email.
So I hear when I lost my father giving life here. So his divine
name manifested in creation. And so life was given, or a divine
divine name was manifested and will meet, life was taken away.
And this person got their paycheck
today, so that was I was up. And this bird that went out in the
morning and found it's it's worm, also, that's a result. And so, bye
bye.
Being in a state of absolute right being in a state of complete
immersion, and recognition and who then witnessing of the Divine all
around you, then you begin to see life in a different way. So rather
than seeing these what seemed to be like, random, somehow
uncoordinated acts all around us and maybe even chaotic, it
appears, but there's no chaos above it, it's all ordered. It's
all manifestation of Allah subhanaw taala not a single
invisible, you know, not Milla nanometers worth of anything would
happen, where it not for Allah subhanaw taala. And so, that type
of recognition, that type of shooed,
acknowledgement is not an intellectual one. Because an
intellectual one is fleeting. You read about it, you hear it, okay?
I believe that makes sense. But it's not something that's going to
remain with you. And kind of inform your world and inform your
soul unless it becomes a show who does it. Right, something that
you, you practice, right to get to and you put in a little bit of
work, you know, hard work or soul work, then these things can become
manifest. And basically, it's implementing the Sunnah. And
following all the commands of Allah subhanaw taala and
maintaining your bad debt. I mean, that's, that's the basic formula.
There's no
kind of, you know, magic wand or mystery about it. But
the ability to do that is not always easy. So even when we're
trying to do that, we also invoke a loss penalty.
You know, every day when we're sad 17 times a year can Apple do what
yakka
necessary? So yeah, Kinabalu only you do we worship so outwardly,
all of our acts, we tried to make them sincerely for Allah subhanaw
taala. What a year ago, less than a year kind of stay in means that
we seek ALLAH subhanaw taala solely from
our hearts and we seek his aid in doing all of the other things that
we are seeking. So the Fatiha really is kind of like
a microcosm of how we should go about living life because in the
beginning, we invoke Allah's Name whether we call the best meta as
from the from Lakota or not, but we say Bismillah R Rahman Rahim,
then we say it hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen. So, always the
best way to go about your affair in anything is to begin with
gratitude. So by being grateful to Allah, Spano Tata, all the other
things will come out in a more beautiful way as well. So we
entitled The sessions beautiful Islam, certainly the most
important
call it a state call it emotional response, call it what you will,
but gratitude has to be at the top of the list. When you're grateful
for everything and you're grateful for the little things, then the
small things that you feel are irksome, or you feel are out of
place, or you would rather not be there don't seem that important.
Because you're overwhelmed by gratitude.
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen al Rahman al Rahim. Right again, we
were thinking about the the geomet thinking about the beauty And the
beauty of Rama so Allah ramen the proper name and Rahim, which is
the mercy that some have said is specific to the believer, or the
mercy that is specific for the
man who killed the dean. Right? The Sovereign or the Owner of the
Day of Judgment. So showing us this life is just fleeting, it's
temporary. And then after say medica, within we've we've
affirmed the reality as it is, we showed that we should be grateful.
Then we seek ALLAH subhanaw taala Yeah, I can I will do what you can
to stay. Only you do we worship on you. Do we seek assistance from
men Highfield? Right. Yeah, can I will do what I can especially yes,
that doesn't mean that we may not allow may not send us help in the
form of people. But in terms of our connection with our souls, to
the Divine Presence, only Allah subhanaw taala.
And then we asked him Furthermore, dinner, see rottenness the team
guide us, right, which is kind of a fatwa. It's a meaning of Iraq,
and I will do what you can to stay. So this is I'm and this is
cos this is general. And then this is a more specific request, if you
didn't see that it was the theme.
And then in the way that we asked for the Sultan was the theme. We
also show how we go about finding the Celtic muster theme Sirata
Latina and an entirely him so so Altadena, and I'm telling those
you have bestowed Your blessing upon. So there are exemplars
around us. There's others for us to follow sort of him and not fall
into the pitfalls of evading mcglue EBIT him, one of the only,
not the ones that are you are wrathful with or the ones who have
gone astray.
And the ones who are wrathful with because they have the truth. They
have the men hedges they have the method
analogy, but they allowed their new fools, they allowed their egos
to overtake them, and
God, you know, misguide them to a different place. And this is why
the wrath is invoked well a law lien, or the dollar lien or those
who are misguided, we don't even have the truth who have just
fallen off the way. So, avoid those two pitfalls and
seek help only from Allah subhanaw taala.
So
this type of approach, or this type of elevated knowledge that we
are talking about
requires effort.
Requires soulful effort requires honestly discipline requires
temperance.
It can't come about by wishful thinking, it actually requires
some level of sacrifice. And on a basic level, you sacrifice those
things that you may like, but there are prohibited by the
Sharia. And on a more
profound level, you sacrifice those things that may not be
prohibited by the Sharia, there may be and of themselves,
permissible, but they don't add or facilitate your way to a loss
final data. So you practice sacrifice that as well. And
sometimes the shootout teaches us that sometimes we have to do that.
Where we just began to bless this month of Shaban so that means a
month ago before Ramadan and Ramadan, we sacrifice things that
are normally halal. And it's kind of one of the lessons in that is
to show us that sometimes you have to
reorient the priorities. So even if you sacrifice something
normally,
that you would be entitled to or that you'd be accustomed to. That
cast rely that breaking up habits is actually one of the most
important things that will bridge between religiosity and
spirituality.
Spirituality without discipline
is destined to feel.
And religiosity without grounded and
inherited traditions of spirituality becomes coarse and
rough and offensive. So they both need each other. Sometimes they
talk about these two things like a Sharia will happy.
Right? So the Sharia is that word aspect or the Islam of the Gibreel
Hadith. When you bill came to the province, I asked him tell me what
Islam is. And he mentioned the five pillars. And then the the
Hatha, right is the SN
which established looking into Katara, the spirituality to
worship Allah as if you see him. So it's a modality, right? It's a
cave, it's how you go about doing it, not what but how. And then the
bridge between those two things, two things is the three o'clock
which is Amen. Right, which are the six pillars of faith, so
affirming reality, as it is Wacka. So this requires to Luke requires
Majah.
But even in that way of sacrifice, and in that way, of of struggling,
the means themselves also are beautiful.
So whether it be fasting, whether it be Liam Elaine, waking up to
pray at night, whether it be holding one's tongue when you want
to say something
nasty, and you decide not to because it's for a greater good.
And that's in terms of just outward acts, at a deeper level,
it'll even be about states and thoughts. Right? So
you can belittle someone, or you can disparage someone outwardly by
saying something about them. And you can also disparage them in
your heart. Right, which is a precursor to disparage disparaging
them outwardly. Because maybe one day when you put under pressure
and you are provoked, you might disparage them outwardly, because
the thought was already there. You already entertained it within
yourself. But if you don't entertain it within yourself, and
you have this level of discipline, even in terms of your, your inner
life, let's call it then it never even gets to the outer life. You
will never disparage that person because you never even thought
about dispersion to begin with. Because that's not where the way
you see them because you have horses on. Right so you have the
virtue of having a good opinion of people. And so in essence
it's so it's like a require it's a protection. It's like, you know,
you have this rich inner life that is busy with the invocation of
Allah and the hood and the presence of everything that is
manifested in by the way of the names of God that you don't have
time to think about.
You know what
may
Get in Harry and the Queen and what happened there I went back
and forth and who's right who's wrong? You know what's going to
happen? How's that all going to turn out, so forth.
Not that it's not insignificant, but it's, it's not your life.
But we're so busy with with other people's lives, we're kind of,
we're passive
observers, don't be a passive observer in your own life. You
know, in our lives, we want to be active, we want to be building, we
want to be helping want to be assisting want to be serving, we
weren't to be having outward manifestations of love. But when
we're passive in that sense, and we're just taking things in and
taking things in, and one of the things, what are what's going to
come out after that? What will be the output? Right? If all that
input is coming in, it's things that really don't concern us have
nothing to do with us. And our mere distractions, then what type
of output? Can we expect after that? What type of inner life can
we expect is going to be going on? When when that's the, you know,
the kind of the work we're busy with? And we said early, early in
this class, in the first session, I think, pay attention what you
pay attention to,
we have limited attention, energy, right. And probably as modern
people, we have much less than our predecessors. And so we don't want
to kind of wasted on things that don't really bring any sort of
return for us neither in the dunya, nor in the ACA.
I think
when hosted Islam and Lolita Comella Yanni, so from the good
Islam of a person is to leave that which doesn't concern one.
So
where does one start, then?
One way to look at it
kind of thematically or hierarchically or topically, is
that
usually when people want to think about rectification and changing
their life around and so forth, we think about the things that they
do.
acts and deeds, things that they say. And one of the things that's
most central to the life of the Muslim is their acts of worship.
And for many, these acts of worship sometimes are
transactional.
Transactional in the sense that I am, okay, I'm going to pray now,
because I'm supposed to, and then, you know, Allah wants me to do
that. And that's good. And, but I might get some sort of return
after that, right, I should get something that's, you know, going
to be an ease for me in life and so forth.
Or even less than that, people may be saying, well, okay, my parents
want me to pray. So I'll pray or my parents want me to fast or
fast, then it even becomes transactional, but not even
really, for Allah subhanaw taala.
And the idea is for these things to be devotional not
transactional. So devotional means that they carry the true meaning
within themselves, and then you're able to get the benefit that's
meant for them. Because every aspect of every act of worship,
there is a benefit in it. And we mentioned before, I think,
a couple of weeks ago about the standing in the prayer versus the
the prostrating versus the bowing versus the sitting versus the
different movements of raising the hands. They all have spiritual
implications, right? They all have effects on your spirituality, even
though outwardly, they just look like, you know, coordinated
movements, but those corded movements affect the soul. You
know, many people believe that about yoga, for example, or tai
chi or Pilates or whatever. But for, for us, the prayer itself is
the epitome of life. Right? They're standing there sitting,
there's bowing, there's being on the ground, where you came from,
and where you will return. And we say this is the closest you are to
God when you're in the position of servitude. So all of these things
carry that type of significance.
So the first thing that I want you to be concerned with, then is
rectification of one's acts one's deeds. So the Hickam kind of takes
that approach.
It looks at
kind of this transactional or habitual practice of Islam and
wants to take you from that particular place into a more
devotional approach, right, that will more appropriately reflect
the Amen
so you can also think of Islam is the outward aspect. And then Imam
is an inward and SN is how to
reconcile between the inward and the outward. And so we want our
outward acts to reflect the reality of the universe. Right and
the reality that it's only a law it's only about a last final
thought and thought about it.
Who sees me praying in the masjid? Or am I trying to get something
out of it? That's in terms of dunya.
But that doesn't reflect the reality or the or RLP, though. So
reconciling those two things, the actual, the ritual practice with
how things actually are is one of the
or are the main objective of Zook of Teskey of purification, so
forth. And I think of living beautiful the slab, right Islam
that's just outward, and movements, and a laundry list of
what to do and what not to do, and devoid of any deeper meanings. And
that is not that beautiful. It's just, it's transactional. We want
to be more than transactional, we want to be devotion. So the first
step rectification of Acts,
and the first hikma that blah, blah, includes
where he says,
from amongst the signs of dependence upon pious works, is a
diminishment of Hope upon the occurrence of a misstep.
From amongst the signs of dependence upon pious works, is a
diminishment of hope, upon the occurrence of a misstep.
When I love it, when I love it, I love it when I look short, and
look Sananda and Judas, Ellen. So
here, he has a couple of terms that he introduces.
And one of them is anti Med, or dependence or reliance.
That's an inward aspect. So He's tying an inward aspect about
something to an outward aspect, which is pious works which are
outward. So there is a relationship between the two,
right, and it's not just, you know,
a formal transactional activity, just do it and done with and then
go back to what we're doing. No, there should be not transactional
aspect to it, but transformational aspect to it. You know, every act
of worship should transform you to some degree.
But like, if you if you're, if you exercise regularly, no one would
exercise regularly, if they didn't think it was going to have some
transformational
aspect to it, who would go to the gym and lift weights and, you
know, do cardio and do all those things, if they didn't think it
was going to bring something transformational about them. But
yet, for the prayer, we kind of just do it this habitual way
sometimes.
And we don't think about the transformational aspect. So here
is introducing the first step. So I need to and he tells us by
saying not giving us a prescription, but actually it's a
description. Because he says for amongst the signs of dependence
upon fires works, is a diminishment of Hope upon the
occurrence of a misstep.
So he's also teaching us kind of taking us out of just always
looking for a
command, or something prescribed to us, but he's describing to us
so we can recognize it ourselves. And that sounds actually something
quite empowering in the spiritual world, rather than relying upon
someone else's prescription for you, but then describing what's
going on with you or inside of you, so that you can learn to
recognize the signs yourself. So for amongst the signs of
dependence upon pious works, is a diminishment of hope, upon the
recurrence of a misstep. So it sounds negative.
It sounds like we shouldn't have a dependence upon our pious works,
we shouldn't have a dependence upon our bad and are acts of
worship. Why?
Because if you do that one of the signs will be a diminishment of
hope.
Upon the occurrence of a misstep,
but I thought,
if we make a mistake,
then we should feel bad about it.
And that's true, we should feel bad about it. But what he's saying
here is, if you are making it transactional, right, and you're
making it a zero sum game, such as that, oh, if I make a mistake up
here,
then that means I am less worthy, and I have less access to having
hope in Allah subhanaw taala
then that means that I am looking specifically at what I do. And I'm
not looking specifically at what Allah does. So he wants to take us
from the I look at what I'm doing, I made this mistake or I this this
pious work, to looking at Allah subhanaw taala. So what do pious
people depend upon? They don't depend upon their Atmel their
works where they depend upon. They depend upon formula. They depend
upon the
the grace of God
so that by the grace of God, we're all will there pious deeds be
accepted, and only by the grace of God also, were their missteps be
forgiven? So it's the same book
cases. So why should I equate the two? So why should I have a
diminishment of hope? Because I made a mistake. God's mercy is
still all the same. Right? Allah's Mercy is still all the same. His
mercy did not decrease because I made a mistake.
Nor did his mercy increase because I did something good. So the
reason that I do the good things is because he asked me to
what they say into fairly Allah subhanaw taala asked me to do
that. So then I do it. And then Allah smart Allah asked me to
refrain from this for my own good, then I do my best to refrain from
it. So this will kind of recalibrate or reorient our
approach to our acts of worship to our evader that it's a privilege
that you can do it to begin with.
It's not a burden
by the Quran describes that the prayer is a burden upon everybody
except Akashi,
who is the Harsha the one who has presence of Allah subhanaw taala
in their art,
the have a witness about them, right? A witness a witness of the
Divine about them. It's not burdensome, burdensome to them.
Because it's it's only enriching their inner life. So they're doing
it outwardly. And maybe, yes, you have to make mobile and maybe the
water is cold. And maybe you have to wake up early and the time that
you were sleeping, he didn't feel like doing that but
there's a recognition that there is an enrichment that comes about
it
that the Jeff Jones on in mythology you'll do a little bump
coffin with our
right so at this stage, the the Jeff and Giovanni mythology, their
sides that are Jaffa it gives you a meaning like
it's not comfortable being in that position.
Right, because they need to be up there the ruler of the whole fun
of Omaha, and they invoke their Lord, how fun was drama? So how
often
not Minelab right, not another not a higher level not from from
punishment, whole fun, middle Iraq,
right? Fear of distance of space between them and a lost battle to
Allah. Will tama and Phil Kolb
from landfill Corp. So not seeking the reward but seeking closeness
and nearness to the one who is worthy of being close to and near
to? Namely, Allah subhanaw taala. That's a whole different way of
worshipping Allah. Right. And this is describing the people who just
can't be sleeping there all night, they have to get up and have to,
if Allah says that His mercy descends, and he descends in the
last third of the night, and he's waiting for people to invoke Him,
How possibly then can you be asleep all that time when he's
just already given you the opportunity? Right, so the, the
kind of the inner workings or inner life says, I can't live like
that, I have to get up. Right? And, and if, if that feeling, if
that intention is there in the believer, then Allah will
facilitate for you, I'll help you to do it. So, rectification of
Acts Then begins with looking towards the law, not looking
towards yourself, not looking to what I am doing, or how much I am
doing, or anything like that, but to
what a privilege it is, how grateful Am I to be able to
worship Allah subhanaw taala.
So another heckler that's kind of also in this
meaning.
Deeds are mere forms, and their spirits are the presence of the
secret of sincerity within them.
And also to call in
right deeds are mere forms. So as we said earlier, they outwardly
the reform outwardly, we pray in exactly the same way more or less
that the promises are said and prayed and the Sahaba prayed, and,
and the companions and the people after them. I mean, physically.
And maybe we even met don't necessarily spend less time I pray
that they did. Yes, they did pray at long hours sometimes, but
sometimes, you know, they had other things to do. So what's the
difference then? So it's not the sutra. Right? It's not the form
outwardly, but it's the spirit or our Cyril Ramaphosa will do the
simple philosophy.
And the
the spirit behind the form or the Spirit that gives life to the form
is the presence we should
have the secret of sincerity. Right in Arabic calls. It's simple
if loss within them.
The secret of sincerity, some of them said the commentators on this
why did he he could have just said sincerity. Why did he say secret
of sincerity? Are they not the same thing? Isn't the secret to a
better secret to acts of worship to be sincere? So why the secret
of sincerity? Some of them said sincerity is the fried
philosophy, the Freedonia Lila so
Insperity is to invoke only Allah to seek only Allah in your acts of
worship and Mazar right the secret in that at the battery mineral how
they will cover
how we will call latika, at the very minute how we will cover so
to, to declare oneself
free from the blemish of thinking they have their own independent
power and strength.
So again, it's it's moving from the eye. So the sitter then even
in your acts of worship, even though physically you may be doing
them, but Allah subhanaw taala is doing them. He is allowing you to
do them and he is blessing you by allowing you to do them.
While I'm out, I'm at the Ramita we're like in the LA Rama was not
used to the arrows when you throw the arrows, but it was a last
final data. So that was the supreme act of divine act of
worship, when that archers
through the hours arrows at the enemy. So is the prayer not the
same.
So when you prayed, you did pray outwardly, but the one who, who
gave you the whole and the whole was the power and the strength and
the ability and the success of that ofI to do it was Allah
subhanaw taala. Now you pray. And now you will invoke Allah out of
gratitude. Right, which is one of the higher forms of invoking Allah
Spano God, this was the prophetic form. When he was asked why do you
pray so long via Isha and your ankles or your calves are
swelling, he said, I felt I could Aventura Should I not be grateful
servants. So out of gratitude, not of any transaction. So.
And if you think about the things, we have to be most grateful for
the basic gratitude that we're actually here,
that we actually exist, and that we actually continue to exist. So
they said, The harmattan in Egypt when I was telling that the
blessing of existence and the blessing of continued sustained
existence until the time that Allah decrees, those, every single
creature on the face of the planet has those these two things to be
grateful for. And we know that Allah subhanaw taala, who will
Kadir on macdaddy, or Madrid. So everything he does is with a
purpose, and it's by choice. So we could have chosen and could have
made purposeful, someone besides you and someone besides me and a
whole different world in this world, you could have made Mars
the inhabited planet,
and the earth, nobody's on it. But that's not the HECM of Allah span
of the wisdom of Allah subhanaw taala that he made this particular
planet, this particular place, these particular people. So all of
those things are choices made by Allah subhanaw taala. And so we
should be at least grateful for that choice that he chose us.
And that's an honor. Allah honors us by choosing us to exist. And so
we try to honor him by showing our gratitude for that honor he
bestowed upon us.
So I think we're upon the hour. So I'm going to stop here.