Yahya Rhodus – Hikma #113 Spiritual Preparedness and Purity of Heart
AI: Summary ©
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the the
the the the the the
the the the the the the the the the the the the the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the
the the the
the the the the the
the the the the the the the the the the the the the
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most
Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And the best of prayers.
And peace be upon our Master, our Master
Muhammad, and his family, and his companions, and
peace be upon them all.
Glory be to You, there is no knowledge
for us except what You have taught us.
Indeed, You are the All-Knowing, the All
-Wise.
And there is no power or strength except
with Allah, the Most High.
All praise is due to Allah.
We have reached the 113th aphorism.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala benefit us
through this blessed collection and open up our
hearts to be able to receive guidance and
His mercy.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this aphorism states, وَرُودَ الْإِمْدَادِ بِحَسَبِ الْإِسْتِعْدَادِ
وَشُرُوكَ الْأَنْوَارِ عَلَى حَسَبِ صَفَعِ الْأَسْرَارِ So, this
could be translated, spiritual sustenance comes in proportion
to spiritual preparedness.
Spiritual light radiates in proportion to the innermost
being's purity.
So, let's look at these words.
The first word we have here is وَرُودَ
And in the Arabic language, وَرَدَ يَرِدُ is
to come or to arrive.
But it also could mean to appear or
to be received by someone, to come to
someone's hands.
So, وَرُود is the verbal noun.
In here, what is the وَرُودَ of?
الْإِمْدَادِ This is a very important word that
we understand well.
And the word إِمْدَادِ is the verbal noun
of أَمَدَّ which has a similar meaning to
the root word which is مَدَّ يَمُدُّ to
extend or to expand.
And it takes on the meaning then of
to help, to aid, or to assist.
So, أَمَدَّ has a similar meaning to help,
aid, or assist.
And it also means to reinforce an army.
So again, that idea of giving support or
even to supply.
And it is from here that this word
مَدَد takes on the meaning of spiritual sustenance.
This is one of the ways that you
could translate this.
But also, مَدَد is an army.
So, I sent you مَدَد, I sent you
a battalion, or I sent you that part
of the army.
يَنِي, it's a type of help, aid, or
assistance.
And so, when we think of this word
مَدَد, we're essentially thinking of a word that
relates to receiving help.
And so from here, it can take on
this meaning of spiritual sustenance.
So you could say, what مَدَد is to
the spiritual state and to spiritual health is
what food is to one's physical state and
physical health.
So in other words, what happens when you
eat food?
Food is assists you in something.
You eat food, that food's digested, and you
get energy as a result.
If you didn't eat, you wouldn't have energy,
any energy to function.
Likewise, we have spiritual food that nourishes the
spiritual heart.
And pseudo-spirituality is to our spiritual state
what junk food is to our physical state.
So if you eat enough junk food, you
eat enough sugar, you eat enough unhealthy food,
it's going to affect you eventually, most likely.
And likewise, if you don't nurture your soul
and your heart and your innermost being with
what it's meant to be nurtured with and
nourished with, then that you will get very
weak and you will lack spiritual energy.
So مَدَد is that spiritual sustenance that we're
given by Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى where in
which that we have spiritual energy.
So keep in mind that the word صلاة
traditionally is a type of spiritual laziness.
So it's possible that someone not be lazy
at all outwardly.
They have high aspiration in terms of the
things of this world.
But when it comes to spiritual matters that
they're actually very lazy.
So the word مَدَد here is translated here
as spiritual sustenance.
Well, actually it's the translation of امداد.
So ورود الامداد Okay, so the coming of
that spiritual sustenance بحسب الاستعداد.
This word حسب in the Arabic language means
according to, in accordance with, commensurate with depending
on.
بحسب what?
الاستعداد Again, we added the word spiritual here
because it doesn't just mean any type of
preparedness.
It's a type of spiritual preparedness as we'll
see.
And people have different levels of spiritual preparedness.
وشروق الانوار So شروق is شرق يشرق is
to shine or radiate.
إشراق is the sunrise.
So it's to rise or to shine, to
radiate.
And then انوار of course is the plural
of نور.
So again we see بحسب and على حسب.
It's in proportion to what?
صفاء of the أسرار.
صفاء of course is purity and أسرار is
the plural of سر.
And a سر linguistically is a secret that
which is hidden.
صرّ is to make happy but also means
to conceal.
So a سر is something that is hidden.
And then it takes on the meaning of
سرّ كل شيء جوف The secret the سر
of anything is its inner dimension, the جوف,
the inner aspect of it.
So when we talk about the human being,
we have a internal nature that is composite.
And each aspect or dimension of our internal
nature has a particular function.
So we have what is called a قل.
We have what is called a روح.
We have what is called an عقل.
And then we have what is called a
سر.
And the scholar of the science says that
the سر is the place of شهود, of
divine witnessing.
And what does that mean?
These are words that point to a reality
that is experienced.
But here, when we talk about the سر,
we're talking about the internal dimension of the
human being.
So this is why it's translated here as
just innermost being.
So spiritual sustenance comes in proportion to spiritual
preparedness.
Spiritual light radiates in proportion to the innermost
being's purity.
And that's a fairly easy word to, very
easy aphorism to understand.
But what we want is its reality, it's
not just its words.
So in the previous aphorism, in number 112,
we were speaking about أوراد, remember?
It said لا يستحق الوضع إلا جهول Only
the ignorant man scorns the recitation of a
litany.
Okay, so we talked about the centrality of
regular devotion.
Whereas now, we are tying this to the
importance of spiritual preparedness, استعداد, impurity of heart.
In other words, that in order to really
receive that we have to be ready for
it.
And again, it's no different than anything else
that we think about in the world.
If someone has a big presentation to give,
and it's not something they can do improv,
for a major deal, for a company that
they work for, are they going to be
called upon if they just are going to
neglect that opportunity and go up and just
wing it?
Is someone who plays a sport going to
just not train for two months, and all
of a sudden, after an injury, jump into
the game and expect to be a star?
No, it doesn't work like that.
Not in the outward world nor in the
inward spiritual world.
There needs to be استعداد.
There needs to be a spiritual preparedness.
And there's a degree to which we can
acquire that.
And then there's a degree to which that
Allah Ta'ala gives His fadl to whom
He pleases.
And some people have a greater capacity or
a greater level of spiritual preparedness than others.
And ultimately, we have to thank Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala for whatever He's given us.
So, when we were previously speaking about the
litanies that we do, Sayyid Ahmad Abdulaziz says,
ثُمَّ ثَمَّرَ تَرْوِرْ وَنَتِيجَتُهُ The fruit in result
of doing regular litanies is what?
الْمَدَدَ لِلَّهِ Is that you get divine support
and help.
You get spiritual sustenance that comes from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Because to the degree of our preparedness is
to the degree that we will receive this
divine support from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this is now what we are speaking
about.
And it's connected in this way to the
One that preceded it.
And so, the foundational meaning here is if
we want this sustenance from Allah, this support
from His presence تَبَرَكَ وَتَعَالَى We have to
prepare for it.
And how do you and I quote unquote
prepare for it?
بِيَتْ تَطْهِيرِ فُرْآدِهِ By focusing on purification of
the heart.
And purification of the heart, learning the basics
of it, is فَرْدْ عَيْن It is an
individual obligation.
And then we roll up our sleeves and
we're ready to go to war with our
enemies.
And it's a daily struggle.
And it's one round we win and one
round we lose.
And one round we get hit really hard
and we might even get knocked down but
then we get back up.
Hopefully though we don't get knocked out.
We gotta keep our guard up at all
times.
That's what they always say in the ring,
right?
Keep your guard up at all times.
And we've seen examples of that.
One doesn't happen, boom, someone gets knocked out.
And that's the way the nafs is, you
have to keep your guard up at all
times.
And protect yourself from it.
So rolling up the sleeves to work hard
on ourselves.
To learn what the diseases of the heart
are and start to analyze and scrutinize our
hearts to see if we have any of
those diseases.
And when they arise, we struggle against them.
So it's likely that we have a whole
array of different diseases.
If we know what arrogance is and it
comes in the heart, we know what to
then do.
If we know what envy is and it
comes to the heart, we know what to
do.
And we're not taking into account as long
as we do what we're supposed to do
when these things happen.
And it's painful and it's hard and it's
tiring at times to do this.
But there's nothing more rewarding.
And the more that we do this, the
more that we purify our hearts, and then
the more when we add to that, is
we have regular acts of devotion which assist
us in the process of purification through the
light that comes from these acts of devotion.
Then the heart becomes more and more pure.
And as a result, that we have more
we're more ready to receive.
And so then the second part about shuruk
al-anwar when the spiritual light radiates in
the heart and what is really meant by
this is all of the great divine gifts
that we receive from Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
They come in accordance with the purity of
our innermost being.
To what degree are we attached to this
world?
To what degree are we veiled by this
word again otherness?
To what degree are we solely focusing on
the sensory world?
So what we want is this imdad, this
support that comes from Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala, this spiritual sustenance that some refer to
it as anwar at-tawajjah the light of
directing the heart to Allah.
These are the two main states that we
want to be in as a sadiq, as
someone traveling the spiritual path.
What's called at-tawajjah and iqbal.
At-tawajjah is directing your heart towards Allah.
Iqbal is turning towards Allah.
They're very similar in meaning.
So iqbal is to turn towards Allah with
your heart.
Tawajjah is to direct your heart towards Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala in all of the
different states that we're in.
And we attempt to be present with Allah,
whether it's a class, whether it's a prayer,
whether it's a litany, whatever it is that
we're doing, we want to be present.
And to give that act that we're in,
in that particular moment, 100% of our
effort.
And Sidi Ahmad Zarouk says that what is
this imdad that comes from Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala?
ما يحصد من الفوائد الدينية ودنيوية.
He gives a very broad understanding.
Any religious and worldly benefits that come from
being in the state of istidad.
And so, another way of referring to this
is فَبِقَدْرِ الْمُجَاهَدَةَ تَكُونُ الْمُشَاهَدَةَ To the degree
that we strive and struggle.
This word mujahada is the same that it's
another verbal noun of the root jahada.
The other verbal noun is jihad.
This spiritual struggle that we place in.
To the degree of our spiritual struggle is
to the degree that one will witness.
And that has a very deep spiritual meaning
of the highest degree.
And you could maybe loosely say that to
the degree of our spiritual struggle is to
the degree that you will also witness the
bounty of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But really what we want is that highest
degree of ihsan of all.
Which is to witness the divine impact upon
creation.
وَبِقَدْرِ التَّخْلِيَةَ تَكُونُ التَّخْلِيَةَ To the degree that
we rid ourselves of vices, of things that
are displeasing to Allah Ta'ala.
To avoid what He has prohibited.
Will be the degree then to which that
we adorn the heart with what is pleasing
to Him.
To with the various virtues and things that
are beloved to Him.
So that Sari Ahmad Zaruk mentions that this
istidad this spiritual preparedness يَجْرِ فِي ثَرَاثَةَ You
find this in three different ways.
The first is اِخْلَاءَ الْقَلْبِ Is that we
remove from the hearts our preoccupations from anything
other than Allah.
And again this is very lofty.
We study this then we go right back
to our old ways right after the class.
And again the disclaimer has been repeated multiple
times.
The only reason we're teaching a lofty book
like this is because it was requested by
our teachers.
Inshallah that we're in that they're blessing and
there'll be support from them spiritually.
Otherwise that this is a very advanced book
and we hope that by Allah blessing us
to hear these meanings that we experience them
one day solely from His bounty and generosity.
But at very least when we read them
we read how far we are from them
that we love the people of them.
That we know for sure.
We love the people that they're referring to
here.
That have dedicated themselves exclusively to Allah.
How could you not love someone like that?
Who has dedicated themselves exclusively to Allah.
Of course you love them.
Because Allah loves them.
If we love for the sake of Allah
we will love them.
And so the first bit of this is
to إخلاء القلب to remove from the heart
these various attachments.
How would you do this?
By having regular routines.
This is where it comes after the aphorism
that relates to litanies.
Various acts of devotion that we do.
Why?
Because we have to preoccupy the nafs.
The self.
Otherwise it will preoccupy us.
The famous statement of Imam Shafi.
One of the two things that he learned
from the people of the spiritual path.
The Sufis.
The nafs.
That if you do not preoccupy with good
it will preoccupy you with evil.
It will get you in trouble.
Because the reality is there is no neutrality.
وَالْأَصَرِ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسَرٍ It's one of
the meanings.
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا And the exception is those
who believe to the end of the chapter.
So there's no neutrality.
You are either moving towards Allah or you're
moving away from Allah.
And what we want is to have various
acts of devotion that we do throughout the
day to preoccupy ourselves with good.
And then we force ourselves to be present
therein.
This helps to remove these attachments from the
heart.
This helps build our spiritual preparedness.
The second bit of this is to have
a heart that is filled with the love
of Allah.
And knowledge of Allah.
And we do this by remembering Him often
and reflecting in the ways that our Sharia
has permitted us to do so often.
And then thirdly, it relates to ثبات of
remaining the way that we need to be
when Allah Ta'ala opens up the doors
for us by having ضط of the نفس.
When we start to experience something of these
divine blessings, we have to be very careful
because the نفس can spoil it.
We need to preserve and protect those gifts.
So it's about ضط of the نفس.
And Sidi Ahmad Zaroub mentions this beautiful statement
that Sidi Abdus Salam al-Mashish, the Shaykh
of Imam Abu Hassan al-Shadhari, that he
said to him.
He says, عليك بوئد واحد You must have
one single wird, one single litany.
Now this is emphasis, otherwise there's many litanies
that you have, but he's emphasizing something here.
That this is the heart of the matter.
What is that single wird?
Now what he's going to say is not
something we might think is a wird.
اسقاط الحواء Avoid your desires.
And اسقاط literally is that do away with
following your desires.
ومحبت الله And have love of Allah.
So set aside all desire for other than
Allah, and then just wholeheartedly love your Lord.
He said this is your wird.
What a beautiful wird.
And at very least let's start with an
intention.
One of the beautiful, special, pious people of
our time he said one of the things
that we should intend daily and if you
want maybe at night before you go to
bed, is to love the Prophet ﷺ in
every moment of the day.
And to send salawat upon him in every
moment of the day.
So even if we don't do that, we
at least have the intention to do that.
And we know we always love him.
Every believer always loves the Prophet ﷺ.
But we intend to love him always.
We intend to send salawat upon him always.
And likewise, let's intend to attain the highest
levels of love for our Lord and to
be in constant state of devotion and worship
of him Tabaraka wa Ta'ala.
And then Inshallah Allah will open up the
doors for us to be able to achieve
that.
So the benefit of this imdad, of this
spiritual sustenance that comes by the way of
divine assistance is that it does purify the
heart.
Is that it removes the heart from the
heart.
All of these different things that clog it.
And then the more that we then receive
from Allah ﷻ, the more that we go
through this process of taraqi, of ascending and
getting closer and closer and closer.
So that relates to the first part of
this.
Wurood al-imdad bi hasab al-istidad.
Spiritual sustenance comes in proportion to spiritual preparedness.
So there's a degree of spiritual preparedness that
is kasbi, that is earned.
And it's done in the way that was
previously mentioned.
By tilling the heart, struggling against yourself and
purifying it.
And this is the essential definition of what
suluk is.
And it's about purifying the heart.
And how do you do this?
Bi ikhlas al-qasd.
By having sincerity of intention.
And by tahdhib al-akhlaq, refining your character.
And purifying it from its diseases.
So then, shuruk al-anwar wa shuruk al
-anwar ala hasabi safa al-asrar.
Spiritual light radiates in proportion to the innermost
being's purity.
So the more pure that we become, and
again the more pure that we become from,
that all of these different attachments, all of
these different things that are drawing us in
different directions, the more that the heart will
radiate.
And Ahmad al-Ajiba includes these beautiful lines
of poetry.
May Allah not make our portion just the
laq laqat al-lisan, the movement of our
tongues.
Intalashad konan ayni qalbi shahad al-sir gheebuh
fee bayani, fatrahal konan ayanika wamhu nuqtati al
-ghayni in awratat tarani.
And our teachers used to say when they
quote things like this, that for them, it's
a reality they're experiencing, but they teach us
adab.
Hadhihi loghatun la'arithuha.
This is a language I don't know.
So even if we translate these words, they're
in the Arabic language, but the language that
they're referring to is the language of the
hearts.
Imam al-Qushayri has a beautiful book called
Nahwal Qaloob, The Grammar of the Hearts, where
he interprets the grammatical principles in a spiritual
manner.
And Sidi Ahmad al-Ajiba, who we quote
regularly, also has a spiritual commentary on the
Ajramiyya, where he talks about the principles of
grammar and the rules, but with a spiritual
interpretation.
And so he's talking about here how the
world that ceases to be on the eye
of my heart, that fades from the eye
of my heart, and so then my heart
is able to see various things clearly from
the unseen.
And so he's saying then just leave that
all of these things that will stain what
it is that you see, and that the
more that you remove this otherness, that the
more divine witnessing that one will attain.
So to the extent that our hearts are
pure will be to the extent that our
hearts shine with light.
So the shuruk of the anwar, the radiation,
the shining of that spiritual light, is to
the degree of purity.
And if you think of the heart, as
we previously mentioned, like a mirror, if that
mirror is dusty, let alone if it is
rusty, it's not going to shine the way
it's supposed to shine.
As opposed to it being fully polished.
The more polished it is, the more splendor,
the more beautifully that it will reflect.
And Sidi Ahmad al-Ajeeba quotes this beautiful
story of the Mullah al-Arabi al-Daqawi
in one of his correspondences that ...
...
...
This is based upon a verse in the
Quran where Allah Ta'ala says, now you
see the mountains, thinking they are firmly fixed,
but they are traveling just like the clouds.
...
...
...
And so there is an outward meaning, and
the outward meaning is that these lofty, great
mountains which are symbols of stability on the
Day of Judgment and after the horn is
blown, that we will see things start to
change.
And that we think that they are firmly
fixed, but they will travel like clouds.
Clouds are the lightest of things.
We fly through them and they look like
they are thick and that we can go
right through them.
Whereas mountains are fixed and firm in the
ground.
But this is one of the things that
will happen when things start to change after
the blowing of the horn is that they
will be like clouds and be blown with
the wind.
But then this takes on a spiritual meaning.
And Siddiq ibn Ajeeba says about this, that
this is how the hearts of the Rasikheen
of al-Anbila are, those who are firmly
grounded in knowledge of Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
They receive great divine gifts, but it doesn't
show up on them.
This is the highest stage of all, to
be a knower of Allah, to be able
to mix with people.
But it doesn't show.
And so they used to say, if you
would have saw me in the beginning of
my path, you would have thought that I
was a Siddiq, a great saint.
And if you would have saw me at
the end of my path, you would have
thought that I was a Zindiq.
And maybe translated here best as, to someone
normal.
The greatest of the Awliya' in many ways
seem so normal.
Because they often times do what a lot
of other people do, but they do it
for very different reasons.
They're firmly grounded.
They can receive without that people knowing what
it is that they are receiving.
So they are with the people outwardly, but
their heart is with Allah.
And these people are mercy.
Because this is what is required to be
a guide to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
They can go through very powerful states.
And to be able to bear it.
And that it was said to Imam Junaid
in the beginning that you could see the
traces of his spiritual states on him.
And they say, now that we notice that
you're not moving at all.
And of course that he's in constant increase.
Then he quoted this verse, ...
...
...
So this is one of the spiritual meanings.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
of this earth, and they're still accessible.
And they're accessible to hear us in the
United States of America.
And we have teachers like that here, just
as there's teachers that are overseas, people that
can take you to Allah, subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
These are the real teachers, not people that
are just teaching these sciences as like an
older brother or sister.
But they're known as the Rijalul Qummah.
They are that great people of Allah who
could be a means for people to draw
near to Him, for people to draw near
to Him, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And the people that make His creation beloved
to Him and make Him beloved to His
creation.
And they're people that follow the prophets and
are inheritors of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
And he says that if you reach this
level of itiqad that there are people that
are like this, they're still here and you
have to find them, you have to make
the intention to want to find them.
This is one of the greatest gifts of
all.
We're not saying this is an obligation.
The obligation of the science is to learn
the basics of Fad'aim, but these people
exist.
And this is why they've always said the
shuyuk are of three types.
You have a Shaykh of Ta'aleen, a
Shaykh who can teach you sacred knowledge that
has learned the science and can teach it
to various degrees.
And then you have a Shaykh of Tahlib,
a Shaykh who can help refine your character.
And then you have what is called a
Shaykh of Fatih, a Shaykh that is a
means for your spiritual opening.
And it's possible that all three are in
one person.
It's possible that two are in one person.
It's possible that only one is in one
person.
And there's different types of shuyuk.
So this exists.
And what he says here is that swearing
an oath by Allah, Allah al-Azeem, is
that one would receive spiritual sustenance by night,
by day, throughout his months, his years, at
all times, at every hour, at every moment,
by having a connection to these great knowers
of Allah.
How did the Sahaba come to know Allah?
Rasulullah.
It's so obvious, it's so easy to understand.
How did the Tabi'een come to know
Allah?
By meeting the great Sahaba who became knowers
of Allah from the Prophet ﷺ.
How did the generation after him become knowers
of Allah?
By being around the people that came before
them.
And this is still there to this day.
We still have great knowers of Allah on
the earth today.
There are people that have seen these people.
They still exist.
And by finding them and believing in them,
when all the outward chucks, this opens up
huge doors for us to benefit from them.
And so to recap here, is that one
of the ways that we increase our spiritual
preparedness is by increasing in our regular devotions
and working to purify our heart.
And as a result, is that the more
pure the heart becomes, the more it radiates,
the more that the heart radiates light.
And that light is a sign that the
heart is alive.
And Allah says in the Qur'an, فَأَحْيَنَاهُ
Allah speaks of the one who is dead
and that we brought him back to life.
وَجَعْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ And
we gave him a light that walks among
people with.
يَمْشِي بِهِ فِي النَّاسِ Among people, indicating that
light emanates from their heart and affects people
that are around them.
That's why when you come into the heart,
the presence of the real people, is that
you benefit immensely from their presence.
May Allah ﷻ bless us to put this
into practice in a way that is pleasing
to Him ﷻ.
Give us tawfeeq in all of our affairs.
يَارْحَمْ رَحْمِينَ صَلَى اللَّهَ عَنَ أَرْثِ مُحَمَّدٍ وَلَا
أَلُوْسَ بِسَلَمٍ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ يَرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ