Yahya Rhodus – Hikma #102 Being Inspired to Ask Our Lord Is a Sign He Wants to Give
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord
of the worlds.
And the best prayer is to submit to
our master, our master Muhammad, and his family,
and all his companions.
Exalted are You.
We have no knowledge except what You have
taught us.
You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
And there is no power or strength except
with Allah, the Most High, the Most Great.
And all praise is due to Allah.
We are now going to resume our study
of the Hikm, the aphorisms of Imam Ibn
Ata'ilah Sikandari, may Allah be pleased with
him, and may we benefit from his knowledge.
Ameen.
And this ever so blessed book, which serves
as a type of constitution for the spiritual
path.
These blessed principles that we have to learn
and constantly come back to, and strive over
an extended period of time, throughout the course
of our lives, to put into practice.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala open up
our hearts and minds to an in-depth
understanding that then enables us to put these
blessed aphorisms in practice in a way that
is pleasing to Him, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
We have reached the 102nd aphorism.
And this is where he says, رضي الله
تعالى عنه ونفعنا بإله في الدارين متى أطلق
لسانك بالطلب فأعلم أنه يريد أن يعطيها متى
أطلق لسانك So, this could translate, when He
inspires you to ask, or literally, loosens your
tongue, know that He wants to give you.
So, متى Whenever you find this happening, متى,
whenever, when, that He does what is called
أطلق So this Arabic word أطلق is a
word that you would use to free a
captive for instance, أطلق الأسير to let him
go or to release him or you would
refer to it in terms of your ماشية
your livestock أطلق الماشية صرّحها to let them
go out So normally your ماشية, that you
tie them up so they don't get away
and then you untie the feather and then
let them go about and so here you
also use it in relation to your tongue
it's to let your tongue go to be
released, or to loosen it, because it's the
same thing that you would refer to as
like a knot you would say like هلّ
العقد has a similar meaning too that loosen
a knot So what the understanding here is
often times we're tongue tied spiritually we can
move our tongues but we don't tend to
do them and one of the amazing things
is listening to the people of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala make du'a and we
begin of course with du'as that we
learn in the Quran and then we add
to that the du'as of our Prophet
ﷺ and these are the greatest du'as
of all that we can make from the
Quran and from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and
then we add to that as well learning
how to make du'a for the great
inheritors of the Prophet ﷺ through the Awliya
and think about how many du'as that
we have from the Awliya from the Ummah
of our Prophet ﷺ what a blessing countless
treasure troves of supplications from the Arifeen, the
knowers of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala what
a blessing just think about the wealth of
resources that we have were you to compile
it in one book how many volumes would
that be and there are people who have
that rooted themselves in the Quran and in
the Sunnah of our Prophet ﷺ and then
you find them that making beautiful du'as
and then after all that was mentioned the
best du'as that we can make are
the heartfelt du'as in the moment of
sincerely turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
for what it is that we need or
what it is that we seek and here
what he's saying is that this is a
great blessing he's going to speak about what
that really is to have someone's tongue be
released to be loosened so that we can
then turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and supplication and and treat him and subhanahu
wa ta'ala and if you think about
it one of the Arabic words and this
is the word here is talab talab is
to seek, to ask, to request and if
you think about this meaning of talab that's
linguistically so there's actually an app now in
Egypt called talabat where it's kind of like
it's not like, it's kind of like well
instacart now you can order from restaurants but
it's kind of like an app that you
can that order from when you're in a
Muslim country and it's all halal that you
can and it gets there very quickly and
the delivery fee is very cheap compared to
here you can get a long list of
things, it's called talabat but I used to
this meaning crossed my mind, I remember being
in restaurants before in the Muslim world and
it's just really amazing to see how people
carry themselves they know the menus so well
and they know how to make talab, to
ask for food and condiments and how they
want their food cooked and all this type
of thing it's almost like an art and
you see this when people go to coffee
shops and I want my latte just like
this in this heat and it's almost like
you're cool if you know exactly what to
ask for and then someone else comes in
he doesn't know coffee or she's out of
tune because she just said the wrong word
it's actually called this and they called it
that and it's almost like something is wrong
with you because you don't know how to
ask for something but that's people of dunya
is that they've mastered the art of ordering
of asking for something in worldly terminology the
awliya have mastered the art of entreating Allah
asking Allah that's their specialty they know how
to turn to their lord in dua this
is one of the greatest blessings of all
and I remember meeting one of the habib
and this particular habib one of the righteous
said about him his fatiha, that's their way
of saying his dua is that knows the
pathways of heaven this is a way of
indicating that his dua's tended to be answered
they know how to and we know that
there are pathways of our a'mal saliha and
that we know that the people who didn't
believe in Allah and did actions that were
displeasing to Allah is that the heavens and
the earth didn't cry for them in other
words is that where their actions would ascend
into heaven is that if the person was
a disbeliever and did wrong deeds that Allah
doesn't cause even though we're talking about inanimate
objects to weep for that righteous for that
person because they weren't righteous nor the places
where they're on earth what's understood from here
is if someone was righteous is that the
masaid of their a'mal the places where their
actions would ascend, the heavens cry for them
the places where they're on earth cry for
them so just think about blessed spaces like
right here we have a prayer hall here
how many times have people prayed here who
would have thought that when this house was
built that Muslims would be here and praying
in these blessed places and then the more
prayers that we do here the more light,
the more they remember Allah here the more
light, the more that then when people come
in even when no one tells them anything
their heart tells them something's different here this
is a place of prayer this is a
place of the remembrance of Allah Ta'ala
this is a place where if you would
lift the veil you would see actions ascending
into heaven for the sake of Allah Ta
'ala and hopefully accepted in his presence and
so the meaning here is that the people
of Allah Ta'ala know how to ask
Allah so for Allah to loosen your tongue
with a request or an entreaty is one
of the great blessings for us to live
a life where you and I are constantly
making du'a to Allah Ta'ala and
this is not just something that we do
from time to time du'a really is
a way of being because it is a
state of heart that then allows you to
turn to him and think about all the
different times that we're taught to make du
'a in the last third of the night
after prayers, after the Adhan after the Iqama
and so forth and so on that in
the morning and in the evening at various
times during the day before we go to
bed at night and so forth and so
on and on a daily basis there's times
on a weekly basis and all these other
blessed times that we know that is good
for us to make du'a so he
says here so when Allah loosens your tongue
or you could say here Allah loosens your
tongue one way of saying it, even though
the word that's used here is not Elhamah
when he inspires you Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to ask Bit Thalab so Thalab is to
ask when he inspires you to ask or
when he loosens your tongue in entreaty Fa
'lam, know then know, know what?
An Nuhu Yurid that he wants and your
Atiyah he wants to give you so when
you find that your tongue is now loose
it's no longer tied down and you don't
find du'a difficult to do you find
du'a freely flowing from your tongue which
is a very eloquent way to refer to
this, so just imagine that goats that being
tied up and all of a sudden you
let them loose in the pasture and how
they go out to pasture and to eat
and so forth that imagine someone who's a
captive and they've been in prison for a
long period of time all of a sudden
that they're freed and the meaning there so
this idea of that freely flowing du'a,
and this is one of the signs that
du'a is accepted, is that it freely
flows from your tongue and you might make
du'a for something that never even crossed
your mind to make du'a for and
it just flows easily that when it happens
is a sign that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la puts you in that position,
inspires you with those supplications because He wanted
to give you what it is that you
are asking for, so the previous aphorism, aphorism
number 101 is that stated متى أوحشك من
خلقه فأعلم أنه يريد أن يفتح لك باب
الأنصبه when Allah estranges you from His creatures,
it is because He wants to open the
door of intimacy with Him so we also
see this word متى what is He trying
to teach us by saying متى, when or
whenever, He wants us to be aware of
certain situations so that we can maximize our
benefit from every single moment of our life
or at least when there's special times or
special states that overcome us so when we
see that Allah Ta'ala has put us
in a situation where He estranges us from
His creation people outwardly might think that of
this world, oh something's wrong with me why
are people acting like this towards me why
do I feel like this, why do I
feel alienated why do I feel isolated from
the spiritual path we interpret that opposite to
the way people of dunya interpret that people
that want people to regard them highly people
that want to be the center of attention
get bothered when that happens people of Allah
see that as a sign that what it
is because He Ta'ala wants to open
the door of intimacy with Him see how
powerful of a principle that is imagine if
you could take that from someone who knows
nothing about the spiritual path and teach them
that meaning that this exists in a spiritual
context, all you have to do is believe
and then strive and this door could open
for you what kind of healing is that
going to bring about in that particular individual
so here likewise in Metta, there's another instance
that we want to look for and to
be aware of so how does this relate
to the one that preceded when Allah Ta
'ala opens up the door of intimacy with
Him and we are longing to be in
the presence of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and that one of the signs of this
is that He loosens our tongue, in other
words He enables us and allows us to
turn to Him and ask Him Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala and to request from Him so
this meaning of that loosening of the tongue
such that we can then ask Allah Ta
'ala it relates to our recognition of our
absolute need of Him, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and that seeking sufficiency through Him, not through
created things so the vast majority of people
one of the two main reasons that people
tend not to ask Allah Ta'ala, either
they don't believe in Allah or their Iman
is very weak, their faith is weak so
if you don't believe in Allah, your faith
is weak, why would you ask Allah you
don't have any faith at all or we
have weak faith to begin with so why
would you ask Allah secondly, is if we're
in a state of what is called Istighna'
we think that we have everything that is,
that we need we are relying upon our
wealth, our health the people around us, our
position all of these things so we don't
think that we're in need and if you
don't think that you're in need you're not
going to ask just as outwardly, that if
you're financially well to do you don't tend
to ask people for things the people that
tend to ask people for things are people
that are in more difficult circumstances and likewise
spiritually if you don't feel that you're in
need, even though it's an illusion because we're
all in absolute need, you're not going to
usually ask so this relates to these meanings
of turning away from relying upon created things,
finding sufficiency in created things to relying upon
Allah and finding sufficiency in Him in being
ever aware of our absolute need and impoverishment
before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so one
of the core meanings here is that ashhadaka
faqarak Allah puts you in a state where
you realized you're in absolute need so that
then you call upon Him, what is called
the Lisan al-Idhra with the tongue of
absolute need with the tongue of someone who
realized they have nowhere else to turn except
to Allah so this is one explanation of
this meaning, when this transpires internally, that awareness
of your absolute need of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala this is one of the greatest
signs that He will give you what it
is that you are requesting just as there's
other signs for other things, one of the
great signs that a dua has been accepted
is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala inspires you
to ask for its acceptance after you perform
that particular act, and this is especially the
case with dua if someone is inspired to
do this at special times of the day
most importantly, the last part of the night,
so dua is a means outwardly for us
to receive what is already been determined it
is we're going to receive so dua doesn't
change the qadr doesn't change what has been
predestined, it is a part of the qadr,
it is a part of what has been
determined for us and it's a means outwardly
for that thing to happen and certainly there
are things that happen without our prayers but
then there are things that happen that when
we pray for them and this is also
one of the great ways to strengthen our
iman just as we don't let it despair
if our prayer is not being answered not
every prayer is going to be answered in
according to the meaning of us getting exactly
what it is that we're asking for but
then sometimes there are prayers that we make
and then we see the answer right away
so we have to in all of our
different states and actually that when our prayers
are not answered and things don't happen in
the way that we want because every sincere
dua in reality is mustajab, it is answered
but one or two things happens you either
get what it is you're seeking or a
tribulation is warded off from you or it
leads to some good that Allah gives you
in hereafter and when people come to Allah
Ta'ala on the day of judgment and
they see what it is that they receive
from duas that they made here in this
world they would have wished then they would
have wished that the dua that they made
be postponed until yawm al qiyamah because of
the greatness of what they receive in the
hereafter so dua means for that us to
receive what Allah Ta'ala has preordained for
us there is a beautiful hadith in the
shu'ab al-iman al-iman of Imam
al-Bayhaqi that says man uqtia arba'an
lam yuhram arba'a whoever is given four
things will not be prevented from four things
man uqtia al-dua lam yuhram al-ijabah
whoever has been given supplication i.e. Allah
Ta'ala inspires them to supplicate they will
not be prevented from their prayers being answered
because Allah Ta'ala says ud'uni astajib
lukum supplicate me I will answer your supplication
ud'uni astajib lukum hubaashiratan there is no
waw, there is no fa, there is no
thumma there is no conjunction whatsoever rather there
is a command to make dua and eventually
immediately astajib lukum supplicate me and I will
answer your supplication man uqtia al-shukur lam
yuhram al-ziyadah so it goes on to
extend this meaning, whoever is given gratitude, they
will not be prevented increase because Allah says
la-inshakaltum la-zidannukum if you are thankful
that I will increase you man uqtia al
-istighfa lam yuhram al-maghfira whoever is given
seeking forgiveness won't be prevented from their sins
being forgiven because Allah says istaghfir rabbukum innuhu
kana ghafara seek the forgiveness of your lord
indeed he is all forgiving wa man uqtia
al-taubah lam yuhram al-qabool whoever is
given taubah, he won't be prevented from acceptance
huwa liyaqbal al-taubah al-ibadi he is
the one who accepts taubah from his servants
so these four things, if Allah gives them
to you you will not be prevented what
comes as a result of them but the
first one relates to dua whoever makes dua
will not be prevented an answer from Allah
and then in a hadith of a prophet
man uzeena lahu fid dua minkum whoever has
been permitted to make dua yaani, that the
doors open up for them to make dua
Allah has permitted them to supplicate him faqad
fultihat lahu ababur rahma the doors of mercy
have been opened for this individual wa ma
so'ir Allah shayan ahab ilayhi min al
-afwi min al-afwi wal-afia that Allah
will not be asked for anything more beloved
to him than pardon and well-being so
this is two of the greatest things that
we can ask Allah ta'ala for afwa
and afia the two greatest things we can
ask Allah ta'ala for are afwa, pardon
and afia, well-being and I remember that
Maulana Abu Turhan regularly would say at the
end of sessions of learning is that he
would make dua for tawfiq and afia all
the time to be given enabling grace and
well-being so we ask Allah ta'ala
for afwa to pardon us and we ask
him for well-being subhanahu wa ta'ala
and this is one of the main things
the amazing things about the generation of blessed
people who came before us they were very
conscious because of how they were actively preparing
for the meeting with the Lord but also
too their concern for people not wanting to
be a burden upon them.
How many of you have parents that you
might hear them making dua they never be
in need of people especially as they age
they don't want to be a burden upon
people when they age and they don't want
to be in a position that towards the
end of their lives where they are relying
upon people or they're in a position where
that they're not able to serve themselves and
to take care of themselves and this is
something good to ask for is that we
want to age well and then when it's
time for us to go that we return
to Allah ta'ala and it is a
double sword sometimes that we can keep people
alive longer but often times is that what
goes into that and the places they have
to be in order to do that aren't
necessarily the best things for them so inshallah
Allah gives us courage to be able to
do the right thing as we age as
our parents age, as our loved ones and
blessed community members age to do the right
thing and so that we that live nobly
and die nobly in a state that is
pleasing to Him subhanahu wa ta'ala so
that these are things that we want to
ask for but here the dua the hadith
of our prophecy is that when Allah permits
someone to make dua فَقَدْ فُتِحَتْ لَهَ بُعْبَ
رَحْمَةٍ اللهُ أَكْبَرُ so think about every time
that you are making dua doors of mercy
are opening and this is something when you
think about this helps you be present with
your heart when you're making dua if you
just think okay I'm just making another dua
here I go again, it's the same dua
we always recite, same dua خَتَمْ الْقَرَانَ after
the burda, it's the same dua over and
over again I'm a little bit bored, how
many times are we going to make this
dua if that's the way you see it
you might not get much out of it
but if you realize this is a dua
that came from the heart of an arif
billah of someone who knows Allah and these
da'awat are azeemah, they're great and every
time that we supplicate, whether we're the one
reading the dua or the one listening to
the dua we realize dua is being made
and Allah permitted us to make that dua
and as we're making that dua, it's at
the ababa rahmah, the doors of mercy are
open, who knows what you receive and you
might one day just receive what you haven't
received in all of the other times that
you've previously made that dua because of the
barakah of that moment, the blessing of that
particular moment, so we should remind ourselves of
this and there's different versions of this blessed
line of poetry, we've quoted it on multiple
occasions but it says here, teaching us when
meanings of supplication come to the heart to
ask for particular things and our hearts are
attached to that particular supplication the very fact
that the heart is attached to it is
a sign that Allah wants to give us
it so the poet said were you not
to want to give me what I'm hoping
for and asking for there's different versions, but
from the outpour of your bounty you would
not have inspired me to ask for it
or as it's written here from the outpour
of your generosity you would have not taught
me to ask you so when we're taught
how to make dua when we're inspired to
make dua our heart is attached to certain
supplications you weren't planning to ask for anything
specific but the door opens up and you
just feel it just flowing easily that is
the time we should ask and turn to
Allah and turn to Barakat Allah and there
are times that tend to there's times that
this tends to happen more so than others
whenever we gather together in special times in
the month of Ramadan at Iftar, after Taraweeh
and so forth and so on and that
special times of the week the last hour
on the day of Juma'ah that surrounding
Juma'ah when we come to Juma'ah
between the imams between his two khutbahs immediately
when the prayer is done that after every
single one, there's special times where this is
much more likely to happen and one of
the sadeheen said is that Allah Ta'ala
did not literally open up for the tongue
of the believer to ask for pardon except
that Allah Ta'ala opens up the door
for him to be forgiven and as one
of the other righteous said commenting on this
is that how could Allah Ta'ala not
respond to him when Allah Ta'ala loves
to hear the servant of his request were
it not to be that Allah Ta'ala
loves for that servant to ask him that
he would not have granted him dua and
the authors on the comment on this hikmah
that they do remind us is that even
if our prayers are answered it might not
always happen in the way that we want
it to happen.
It could be agile or it could be
agile.
It could be it could happen very quickly
or it could take a long time so
even if we are granted exactly what we
are asking let's just say that we're sick
and we're asking Allah for shifa.
It might be that Allah answered your prayer
but it takes a long time for that
actually to manifest it could we expect it
to happen overnight or in a short period
of time that it doesn't work like that
things don't happen when we want them to
happen we have to have adab in all
of our different states and you have to
always remember I am in the opinion of
my servant and there are some people that
we make dua and then we ask why
wasn't my dua answered and that they want
to hasten the answering of the dua and
that's something that we are warned from doing
and that so that dua as it says
here it is from among the various types
of customary means like planting seeds when we're
farming like taking medicine when we're sick it's
a means for the plants and the fruits
or whatever it is that we are planting
to come it is a means for whatever
it is that we are taking by way
of medicine to for healing and so forth
and this is the same thing this is
how we also view dua and so that
if Allah subhana wa ta'ala loosens our
tongue and the door opens up for us
to supplicate Him and that there's something that
transpires internally where now we feel it's the
time to put our needs to Allah subhana
wa ta'ala the greatest thing that we
can ask for is what He is seeking
from us the greatest thing that we can
ask Him is what He is seeking from
us and so remember in Hikmah number 75
the greatest thing that you can ask from
Him is what He is seeking from you
and it is coming in Hikmah number 118
where is what you are seeking from Him
from what He is seeking from you so
if you think about it what Allah subhana
wa ta'ala wants from us as opposed
to what we want from Him and then
there's a whole other meaning where is that
the vast majority of people are seeking from
Allah and this is one of the beautiful
statements that they say about Abu Yazid al
-Bastami is that the vast majority of people
are seeking from Allah but he was seeking
Allah he was seeking Allah closest to Allah
knowledge of Allah gnosis, Allah's forgiveness and so
forth and so on proximity to Him subhana
wa ta'ala and what a difference and
the vast majority of people when you say
okay the doors open right now make du
'a the vast majority of people would ask
for worldly things which it's not bad to
ask for worldly things but like that's what
you're asking for and certainly there are certain
worldly things that we ask for that will
be a means for affairs of the religion
that's different if we're going to ask for
worldly things the best of worldly things that
we ask for but some people are just
so inundated with the love of the world
that that's all they know how to ask
for and then there are things we can
ask for that are religious matters that relate
to our connection to Allah subhana wa ta
'ala and then the greatest things of all
that we can ask for is that knowledge
of Him whether it be to one thing
that you could ask Allah for just one
thing hopefully we'd ask Allah for ma'rifah
oh Allah we ask You for to know
what knowledge of You and so insha'Allah
ta'ala may Allah ta'ala inspire us
to ask Him subhana wa ta'ala and
to give us tawfiq to ask Him what
is most pleasing to Him subhana wa ta
'ala for us to ask Him may Allah
ta'ala loosen our tongues to constantly be
in a state of supplication and turning to
Him and may Allah ta'ala open up
this door so there will be servants of
His that are turning to Him in all
of our different states in times of ease
and in times of hardship so that's the
very first thing that we do whether that
door of prosperity or door of difficulty opens
up for us in both states, in times
of good, in times of hardship, in times
of bad in times of happiness is that
we always turn to Him subhana wa ta
'ala may Allah ta'ala loosen our tongues
ya arham arhameen to constantly ask Him in
a way that the elect of the awliya
and the salihin do ya arham arhameen wa
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen alhamdulillahi
rabbil alameen