Yahya Rhodus – Knowledge & Wisdom Imam alHaddad #20
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Abby Herrera says Cara Rasul Allah He sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa
sallam manually de la hooby Heron u sub Minho. This is a Hadith in
Bukhari, and it translates as when Allah desires good for someone, he
afflicts him.
When Allah desires good for someone, he afflicts him.
And this is a very important Hadith that teaches us how to
understand aspects of the Divine Decree.
And it also is one of the many ways that we have a more nuanced
perspective, by what some people which is, again, a foreign
language to us, but what some people call the problem of evil.
We understand difficulty we understand tribulation and
affliction in a very specific way. And part of this relates to the
way that we understand the world to begin with as a test from Allah
Subhan Allah to Allah. But the amazing thing is here is that this
hadith starts by saying, Whoever Allah wants good for when a lot,
desire is good for someone, you'll sit Minho he afflicts him.
And the scholars have a debate whether it is you'll submit who
Oh, you'll submit who. And the difference would be is that in the
first reading, when you say you're served with a Kasara, on the slog,
and he afflicts him, or if you would, that put a fetter on the
saw, you'll submit who it would have a different meaning here, it
would be meddling in Mattoon, he has afflicted and those that
prefer it to be in the passive tense.
say that this is more respectful and when we that talk about Allah
subhanho wa Taala just as in the Quran, when selenium Rahim is
mentioned a number of things he is attribute them to himself but our
excuse me, he's attributed to Allah. But when it comes to that,
being sick, he attributes it to his own self. What either moated
to for who he is Fein and when I get sick, he didn't say that. What
either um, what are the new Allah when Allah makes me sick, even
though everything in reality is from a lot of other V said, What
you then loaded to, for who is Fein. And when I get sick, that
Allah to Allah cures me. So we do have a dub, when we talk about
head and shot, good and evil, and that the general principle is, is
that we attribute good to Allah, and we attribute evil to our own
selves or to the actions of people, even though everything
from the Divine Decree, herded, we will murder here, its sweet
aspects and the bitter aspects, the good of it, and the evil of it
is ultimately all from Allah Jalla gelato. So both readings work for
this hadith, but we will stick with the first you'll sibme In
whom he afflicts him.
And so that what is this hair that has been referred to here, the
scholars say that this is good that comes in this world. And in
the next Harlan when the island, when the island good in this
world, and good in the next world, and that they look at this in more
detail is that what is happening here, when we get afflicted, these
afflictions could come in a number of different ways. They could be
in our own physical bodies, it could be in our wealth, it could
be in relation to someone that we love. And that what's happening
here is that when we experience tribulation, is that we receive a
reward from Allah Tada. And not only do we receive a reward, it's
also an atonement for things that we have done wrong. So the reality
is, it's a blessing. Because we have our the prophets Allah from
the blessing and our Prophet and from his being beloved to Allah to
Allah, which ultimately all stems from the Mercy of Allah. It's an
Martoma and that what this means is is that it is an ummah that
will be shown mercy to in this world, that through the divine
gentleness, but also most importantly in the next world. And
this is what our teachers have taught us to
To the include, in our perspective, when when you look at
all of the tragedies that are happening right now, as we speak
in the Muslim world, if you just take one country like Yemen, and
you really understand what is happening right now, and
everything that they're saying that half of the population is on
the verge of that famine, and having not enough food to survive,
and that all of the susceptibility to that terrible diseases, and all
of the problems that are there, this is just one country, and you
could name another, and another and another in another. And there
are other countries in the world where they have people that are
also suffering greatly. And one of the ways that we can find
we can that look at this is to always remember that this isn't
Omar Houma. And that this will not be forgotten, all of the
difficulty, all of that trouble, all of the pain, all of the
suffering, is that Allah to Adam will recompense them. In the next
world, there'll be a lot fear in this world, especially for those
that turn to him in a divine gentleness, but especially in the
next world, when we see what Allah Allah has in store
for them, is that people will actually as odd as it sounds,
when they see what Allah has in store for these people, and where
they will be in the next world. Some people that enjoyed this
world will wish to have come back and suffered like they did, so
that they could attain their rank in the next world. Now, it's very
easy to say that, but believing in that, and this is likely to be
true, is it helps us to maintain a balance in terms of how we
processes knowing is that there is a day of judgment, knowing that
there is an afterlife. And so our teachers taught us to never forget
that dimension is that things being brought forth in this world,
difficulty and pain and suffering, and reality is a mercy. Because
the next world is everlasting, this world, no matter how long you
remain in it, no matter how much you enjoy it, it's going to end.
And once we transition into the next world, all of the pleasures
that we had in this dunya are going to be like a dream that you
woke up from 100 Mahnomen, aka the Linzer Elan, in the lobby, Bobby
Mithila. Law holder. It's like dreams that one sees in asleep
state, or it's like a vanishing shadow. The truly intelligent is
not deceived by it. This role is deceptive by its nature, its
illusory, by its nature, and that the intelligent people are those
who think about the everlasting world of the Abode that is to
come. Any help.
Is that, that it's an atonement, and it's a means for reward. And
if you look at one of the commentators on this hadith is
that he says the following is that a number of things might happen.
These tribulations might come to him by way of physical ailments
that could get sick. And I think it is important to just want to
pause and mention this very quickly.
Not every
not every tribulation that we go through is necessarily a
punishment. There are actually three different types of
tribulations. There are tribulations, that you do
something wrong, that it's a punishment for having done
something wrong, other tribulations or an atonement for
that something of the past, not necessarily directly because you
did something wrong. And then there are tribulations that are
means of raising you in rank. And actually you didn't do anything
wrong. It's just a means to raise your rank. You don't actually know
with the tribulations you receive what it is. It is good to be
introspective. If you all of a sudden, start having multiple
tribulations. It is good to take stock and to reflect. Am I doing
something to cause this? It's good to be introspective like that. But
you might not come to a definitive conclusion. Maybe you do figure
out something. And you think that it might be this in generally
speaking, these are inclinations of the heart, and that it can be
used positively even if you don't know definitively. Guitar tried to
uproot wrong action and mistakes that you've made. But even if you
don't know that if you did something or not, you don't know
which of those three categories it is.
It's inconsequential, insofar as it relates to how you respond to
the tribulation.
In generally speaking, as Moshe Arani mentions, the way you
respond to the tribulation is actually indicative of what kind
it actually was.
In other words is that the way we respond to tribulations is with
complete Tasneem in submission to Allah, being content with the
Divine Decree, and there's three different ways you could respond
to a tribulation,
that you could that panic in fight and fight it and try to oppose the
Divine Decree, or you could be patient with it. But the highest
is to be content. So those are the three ways. And generally
speaking, if you're content, it's a sign that it's a means to raise
your own rank. If you're patient, it's a sign that it's an
atonement. And if you're panicking, it's a sign that it's a
punishment. These are just general principles. But it's not always
the case, even if we don't know we're still required to respond to
it in a way that is pleasing to Allah to Allah. So he says here is
that when a lot is as good for someone, he afflicts him, for
instance, that he gives him that a sickness of some sort.
And I actually met someone in Singapore, when someone told him
that he was that when he was diagnosed with cancer, and the
doctor informed him of this, his first reaction was a smile.
He got happy.
Because he was a person on thicker, who used to remember a
lot often,
in his first response to that, what appears to be what that
terrible news was, he smiled, and he became happy. Because he was
reminded of the meeting of Allah. And he took that to mean, my, my
end is near my time to meet Allah is near. And this is what I've
been waiting for.
Now, that sounds odd, and we don't necessarily force that on other
people. But the fact that there are some people that are like
that, and he still went about trying to treat himself, he still
went about trying to rid himself or tried to be cured of his
cancer. But that was his initial response. What a difference
between someone who just completely panics. This person saw
this as a sign that his meeting with Allah's near
wow, you know, we ask Allah to give us the bat, we don't You
don't know how you're going to act, you don't know how you're
going to respond with a terrible tribulation necessita mode after,
so that,
that he could afflict you with a sickness, okay? Or that he could,
that do something in relation to your wealth,
take wealth for you, and take wealth from you. Or that all of a
sudden you have new bills, you have other ways, things that you
have to spend on, that all of these things can happen by way of
tribulation in relation to your wealth, or is that certain things
could happen to you, that make you sad, and that take from your
happiness, whatever those things might be of a psychological
nature, or is that you could go through some type of difficulty
and hardship. Things are difficult for you to bear things of
different sorts. And different times of our life, we go through
different things in the important thing is, is to have the correct
conception of tribulation.
And when tribulation comes our way, we should try to think of it
in the sense, understand what is happening.
And we have to train ourselves to step back and to think
it's happening at multiple levels in my life right now. And the
amazing thing about the companions,
and these are people that were described as crazy people
that have been said, I met people that if you saw them, you would
have said that they were crazy.
You would have said that they were like legally insane.
Why? Because the way that they viewed things was so different
than the way that people dunya did. And they weren't the crazy
ones at all. What he means by that people of dunya of the world saw
them as crazy. But the reality is, is that they were the most normal.
And if you divine define normalcy as those that are closest to the
natural disposition, the fitrah were all of the All Souls were in
the Presence of Allah. So we mean by normalcy, being in the Divine
Presence and everything else is a diversion. That's a very different
definition as opposed to not what's normal in our day, which is
very different. It's where people are very mediocre and tend to that
normal normalcy relates to someone's knifes completely
overtaking them. So anyhow,
that this is a very different perspective, because of the way
that they prefer the afterlife over this world their perspective
on things
was very, very different, and the Companions preferred to being in a
state of hardship. Why? Because they realized ease was going to
come soon. twice over
in the Moto city Surah right because indeed with hardship comes
eat indeed with hardship comes eat ease. So for every hardship
there's two eases. So they realized that two eases were right
around the corner. But when they're in ease, they realized
hardship was going to come. Because it's just the way the
world is you're never going to have a life that is just 100%
Easy. So anyhow, that we have these other really blessed Hadith
that point to the same meaning I just want to look at a couple
and one of them is a Hadith in Bukhari,
where my you see when Muslimah Manassa Ben Wallah, wassup and
voila him and whatever who's in what other Nola hum and hit the
Shoka you shakuhachi Illa CAFR Allahu Bihar min Hatha Yoga,
Allahu Akbar is that no Muslim will be afflicted with any type of
difficulty, any type of anxiety or sadness or pain or grief, even a
thorn that they're pricked by.
So you're walking, pricked by a thorn, except that it is a means
for Allah to Allah to atone for their sins.
So the beautiful thing is, every time you go through any of these
situations, any of us in any grief, any difficulty of any sort,
and everything else that was mentioned, it's a means of
forgiveness of since it atone for your sins. It's amazing.
And in another Hadith, mammon, musty minions is also in Behati.
You Cebu other there is no Muslim that will be afflicted by any
hardship. Illa had the low annual Hatha Yoga camera to hard to work
with Shesha
except that ALLAH to Allah will, that relieves him and forgive him
of his sins, the way that leaves fall from trees.
So we are now in the fall season, we're in autumn, and that leaves
are already falling off the trees and they're going to continue to
do so. So this is one of the spiritual meanings that we can
reflect upon when we see leaves falling off trees, is that any
difficulty we go through, is that Allah will forgive our sins into
literally, that take them take our sins away from us, and they will
fall away that they fall from the leaves of trees fall.
And then we get into the Hadith. And this gives us hope.
And this is you see this a lot of the righteous especially towards
the end of their lives go through immense tribulations.
Either Sabha cattle abdomen Allah Haman Zita tune lemmya Lemme yerba
lo hobby am Allah.
If that is that been preordained, predestined for a servant to
attain a great rank with Allah, that he's unable to attain through
his actions. ypt Allah Hello, he just said, Allah will try him in
his physical body, or family, or in his wealth ofI wallet, or in
his son, or one of his children filma sub bateau, then he will
grant him patients give allow him and bless him to be patient
regarding it, had Yorba Linda Holman, Zillah de Sebata Ramona,
until he will then reach the station that was predestined for
him to attain.
We ask Allah awful lot in gentleness, we don't want Allah to
try us in any of the ways mentioned not in our own physical
body, not in our wealth, let alone in our children. But if this does
happen, that sometimes that this is a good sign that Allah to Allah
wants us to attain that some rank, and that we're not able to attain
it by anything that we can do, other than being patient with the
situation that we go through.
And what amazing perspective and this is why it's so important that
everything that comes our way while we have divine decree is
that we have to respond to it with submission. May Allah give us
Tofik, it's very easy to speak about a very difficult in the
moment to actually do.
And in that moment, is that when you submit to the Divine Decree,
and you're at least patient better yet content, you are in a state of
perpetual worship.
That's a bad, it's worship.
And you can attain through that worship, that what you can't
attain with your other actions.
And that when you that, think about young people, sometimes
young people go
Through enormous tribulations in their, in their,
in their health. And, you know, this is the first thing that came
to my mind when one of my
very, very dear friends said your son mccannon when he was afflicted
with his condition, the very first thing of course after shock in
sadness is that Subhan Allah, this is a sign that to me that Allah
Tabata, Ko, tada wants to cause him to reach a heartbreak.
That to be that young, and to be that active in that involved, it'd
be helping that many people and then to have all of that stripped
from you,
in a very short period of time,
like the deep down in my heart.
If i You can't put the grief or the sadness aside, but that makes
me look up to a person like that, like this is a person that Allah
wants the greatest good for.
It's a very different perspective. And it doesn't mean that we don't
strive for our cure, and all of that, and that we hope and pray,
we do all of that. But Subhan, Allah, to go through that
difficult of a tribulation, at that age, when all of these doors
have opened up. That makes me internally being off someone that
Subhan Allah, Allah once immense good for them. In the hereafter,
we ask a lot of adequate data, to cure him into that restore his
health completely out of it, I mean, and to bless him and his
family with patients, and ultimately contentment and to look
after them and take care of them yada, but I mean, and so that this
is a very different perspective that we have as believers, and
that the scholars mentioned in this discussion of that receiving
reward for tribulation, and that having atone for the sins is that
is patience, a precondition to receive the reward of that
tribulation or not.
And some of the scholars have said, No. And even if you're not
patient in the way that you should be, you still receive the reward
for going through that tribulation. Other scholars have
said is that no being patient is a prerequisite for the reward of
going through that tribulation, there's a debate.
But one way to combine between these two positions of some
scholars have done
is that that any affliction that you go through, that there will be
reward and there'll be an atonement for it. But is that the
more patient one is and the one more the one moves up into
contentment is the more reward in the greater benefit that will be
in that tribulation? So the foundational dimension of
foundational atonement foundation or reward will be there. And then
the more patients and then contentment is that the more
reward that someone will then receive a lot of adequate to Anna,
protect us and give us Tofik and bless us with alpha alpha and that
we asked a lot to pardon us and to grant us that well being in all of
our different states.
Play Bismillah so let's move on in our study of helpful solid enemy I
would also let her come here. knowledge and wisdom we have
reached chapter 23 titled The Golden Mean
alongside the LSAT now Muhammad Nurik is Saturday will medica GRE
which may only be equally as worried early he was a heavy node
Bismillah Al Rahman Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa sallahu
wa ala Sayidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam in
knowledge and wisdom by Imam Abdullah ibn Allaway and her dad,
may Allah preserve him, increase him and benefit us through him.
Chapter 23 The Golden Mean,
know that moderation is steering a middle course are required and
recommended in all affairs. It has been handed down that the best of
things or the middle ones, moderation, deliberation and
graceful manner are one of 25 parts of prophethood. The
Commander of the Faithful ally May God honor his countenance said,
Keep to the middle of course, for those who exceeded, return to it
and those who fall short of it, rejoin it. It is out of incapacity
or neglect that one falls short of the middle course and moderation
while to exceed it is to be in moderate and extravagant. Both are
reprehensible and distasteful. And both devotion
ordinary activities. Okay, so let's let's start here. He doesn't
have a paragraph stop here. But I think this is a good place to
begin and then we'll continue. This chapter is titled the golden
mean.
And he says here that know that moderation and steering a middle
course are required and recommended in all affairs in the
two Arabic words that he uses here is as if the sword
and I'll ask the muscles, so let's say like our Walsall dia. And it
is it has become very politically correct to talk about the Middle
Way in our time. And that oftentimes people are that
speaking about it for various reasons. And that not realizing is
that this has been a part of our deen from the very beginning. This
is not just something that has been here in the modern world.
This has been a part of our deen from the very beginning. This is
the essence of our deen. And that moderation is how he translates
the flawed. And then steering a middle course is well below
assault. And so the word Walsall to itself means the middle
Subhanallah we were just speaking today in Arabic class about the
word Assad in a slightly different context that the prophesy centum
said, if the Assad ofin nephropathy, NIS would in my Isha.
And that would translate something like
that moderation in spending is half of one's livelihood is half
of wands, that is half of wands.
That that way of living, if you will, your Maisha is that your
livelihood, it's how you earn your wealth, it's how you conduct all
of your affairs that require that money to take care of them. And
that this amazing word, if the sod comes from a root word apostle,
that it has a number of different meanings. And this is a very
important word. And the institution that we have here is
called an mocassin, which comes from the same root word. And the
word casada. Among the meanings is, it's to let go to a particular
destination.
But then it's also to that do so
in a manner to go directly there. And to not that fall short in any
way, and one or other directions. And it's also about that how you
go. And so that includes at all it's also relates to your
intention that you make and going. So it combines between that the
destination, the intention that you make to go there and how you
actually travel there. And there's other nuances of this word as
well. And when you take it to the if Tala form. And then here the
verbal noun is that actually Assad? Again, this is the same
word that we use in modern and modern Arabic for economics, which
also indicates something to us about that part of our theory of
economics beginning in the home home economics, which relates to
the word itself, economics, even as we say it in English, and the
importance of having a balanced approach in terms of how we spend
money. And one of the things that we're discussing is it's very
different, being economical and being frugal is very different
than being stingy ly stingy or miserly. stinginess, miserliness
is that blameworthy? That being economical, being frugal, making
good decisions, is that actually encouraged and when it says that
it's Knutsson, Manisha,
it is that important in terms of our livelihood, how it is that we
spend our money, what we choose to spend our money on, and that many
of us fall into this trap of wasting a lot of money. And when
we waste a lot of money, there won't be blessing in it.
And so you could be a very wealthy person.
And that you it is still required of you to that have this trait of
being economical, even if you had a lot of wealth. And then that
there's again a difference between that
that being economical and being stingy. And that difference would
lie in terms of that, when and how we spend our money.
And when it comes to the
At giving us a cat, giving charity to people who are in need, hosting
guests and things like that, or that providing for your family in
a way that they're used to, that not doing any of these things is
where you verge on get on the verge of miserliness. As for that,
detaching yourself a little bit, not wasting your money on
unnecessary things. And that having a budget that you try to
stick to within reason that's balanced, and that choosing
carefully how you spend your money, that's actually a very good
thing. And that it's very important, this is a part of
maturity, as someone gets older, they're going to think about
establishing a family, it's very important to be aware of that how
much it's going to cost to provide for our family, all of the
different factors that are there. And that assuming the
responsibility on your shoulder to take care of that. Anyhow, he's
used it in a different context here and the idea of the middle
course. So this is also a way that this word if the solid can be
used, but what he says is, it's required and recommended in all
affairs. This is a this is one of the key
principles of how to cinema, Jim, what Gemma has one of the
hallmarks of that true Islam
is that maintaining that middle course, and balance is the most
difficult thing to attain. And if you look at our own selves,
oftentimes, and he's going to mention a number of ways that we
are supposed to remain balanced, is that
it's, it's we find ourselves in one of the two extremes. But where
we want to be is we want to strive to be in the middle. And he
mentions this hadith of moderation, deliberation and
graceful manners are one of 25 parts of prophethood, in other
words, is that, that there are many essential parts of Prophet
These are from them. And these are things that you find in all of the
different prophets.
And so, then we have this idea, as he says here, of the two other
extremes, so it is out of incapacity or neglect, the one
falls short of the middle course and moderation, while to exceed it
is to be a moderate, and extravagant. And this is what's
known as tipheret and if rot tipheret, an effort excessiveness
and remissness are remissness, and excessiveness. And that these are
things that are not obviously not desirable. And whether that be
from the standpoint of the intellect, or from the standpoint
of the sacred law, whether that means in relation to worship, or
whether that be relation into that customary things that we do
ordinary activities as he translates it here. So in all
these different affairs, and this is again, what we want is this
balance between the intellect in between the sacred law, and that
both help us to make right decisions, and the intellect has
to be fueled by the sacred law. But then the intellect has to be
able to think properly and you could have weak intellects. Well,
so they know the sacred law, but their intellect doesn't help them,
apply it properly, that they make mistakes and application or make
mistakes in their ability to that know what is right to begin with.
So anyhow, they both go hand in hand. And this is important in our
religious affairs just as important and our ordinary
activities,
like Bismillah.
Both are reprehensible and distasteful in both devotional and
ordinary activities, from both rational and legal points of view.
God blessed and exalted as he has shown humanity, the way of the way
to moderation, and the middle way, is concerned spending, which is
one of the best activities and personal attributes. He said,
exalted as he, that not your hand be tied to your neck, nor open it
altogether, lest you sit down, blamed and regretful, and he said,
exalted to see. And those who, when they spend are neither
wasteful nor grudging, but stand firmly between the two. So these
are classic examples of Quranic examples in relation to spending
of the balance. And again, these are the two extremes as that there
are some people that are wasteful. And that is, again, there's a
difference between being generous and between being wasteful. Just
as there's a difference between being economical and being that
frugal balance is really what we want. And then there are some that
are grudging that are on the verge of being miserly. So you don't
want to be miserly, nor do you want to be wasteful, you want to
be somewhere in the middle, and that this is one of the times
where it's actually praiseworthy.
to hold on to money. Whereas in general, it's good to give out
that what's in excess of your needs, if you're able to do so if
not, to give out regularly is that to hold back to find the best way
to put it in place to put it into wait to find that who was most
deserving of it, until so to that find pay people or projects to
support that, you know, there's going to be an increased reward in
doing so it's actually good to hold back your money for that
purpose. To find someone who's really in need to find a scholar
who's really in need, or someone from added bait or someone that
you know, is very righteous, or someone who's going through an
extremely difficult time. So especially these areas holding
money to give to these types of situations, there's an increased
reward in it. But anyhow, that balance is really what we want.
And then this principle will differ according to different
people. People that have much less outwardly it's going to be much
less that they're giving the balance is going to be different
from them outwardly, as opposed to people who have a lot more.
All praiseworthy attributes and activities should be judged
according to this rule, to go into this in detail would be too
lengthy. So we will give only a few examples,
liberality and spending or one instance about which you have just
heard with God, the Exalted says,
X access and moderation here amount to squandering and
wastefulness and God likes not the wasting in greed, wasteful. Well,
and God likes not the wasteful while on the other hand
insufficiency and neglect amount to avarice and greed. And the
miser is remote from both God the Exalted and for men. So this is
one we already talked about where that generosity is actually that A
is all virtues, actually, that lie in the middle. And there's two
extremes on either side. So here the virtue is generosity, and
there's two extremes. On one side, you have stinginess, miserliness,
on the other side, you have that extravagance in wastefulness.
Generosity is actually somewhere in the middle. And generosity is a
trait of heart, you could actually have someone who's extremely
generous, who actually doesn't have a lot of wealth. It's because
just how they are, that's their state, and that the reality of the
trait is in the heart. And then everything that they do outwardly
is based upon that strain on the on that trait. And so you can have
an extremely generous person who actually only has a little bit.
And you could have that extremely miserly person who has a lot in
give some of that wealth. It both of them are possibilities, but
well, we want us to be in the middle. Generosity is a meet is
where you're not wasteful. And wastefulness could be that just
doing too much. When it's not needed. Or there's too Calif,
you're just it's been forced, and you get so much food, no one's
going to eat it, you don't have any plan to give it to people that
are in need, in which the food is wasted. That's not a good thing.
So to unnecessarily go out of your way for something is or that to
spend your wealth on an unlawful ways. You spend a lot of wealth
but there's, it's unlawful. And so in this regard to are some of
these weddings that people have in these enormous amounts of money
that people spend on halls and meditation, this and that, and
1000s and 1000s and 1000s of dollars. And while there's nothing
wrong with having a nice celebration, that it would be
great that if when people think about these things that maybe they
actually make a fundraiser as part of their wedding a fundraiser for
a cause. Or they give a portion of money to the poor, or something
like this would be beautiful customs. If people started doing
things like this, where is that you can still have fun, you can
still celebrate, and you can do so moderately. It doesn't have to be
over the top. And then another example of this extravagance and
when people start competing with each other, someone gets a certain
type of house or this person has to outdo them, or a certain type
of car and someone has to outdo them too much. And then likewise,
there's a number of examples that are more well known when it comes
to miserliness. All both of these are extremes. Generosity is
somewhere in the middle.
Not in the next one.
Again, courage is a praiseworthy quality and commendable behavior,
however, in moderation turns it into recklessness and unnecessary
risk taking where
insufficiency turns into cowardice and disgrace. Okay. So also
courage, sometimes we think of courage is just as great virtue in
is a great virtue, but it's actually a balance between two
extremes, sometimes is that it's on the verge of being reckless.
And that what's the other one? He says recklessness and what else?
unnecessary risk taking unnecessary risk taking. If it's
unnecessary risk, why do it that's not courage.
So, courage is somewhere in the middle. And on the other side,
where there's cowardice. And what they say is, even the courageous
person still might fear.
But they have strength of heart in that moment, where they need to
rise up and do something, whether something needs to be said,
whether something needs to be done, whether there's a stance
that needs to be taken, whether whatever is the case, is that they
can get beyond their fear and respond in a courageous way in
that moment.
Whereas the coward Joban is their heart is like cheese. Joven is
soft. And it's just it, they're not able to, they just cower away
from that moment where they need to stand strong.
And so courage is in the middle of those two. You don't want to have
cowardice, cowardice, you don't want to that not be able to rise
to the occasion in the moment when you need to do so. But you don't
want to be reckless, you don't want to take unnecessary risk. And
so that there are many examples of people taking that unnecessary
risk. It could be that the way that some people drive were that
they're just out of control. They drive so fast that customarily, if
they did need to stop or something like that, that they could put
themselves in danger. That's not courage. Okay, that's
recklessness, and then it actually differs for each person and
differs upon the thing. So what is cowardice for one person is not
necessarily cowardice for someone else, or what is reckless for one
person not necessarily reckless for someone else, that if you have
like a trained horseback rider, that is that galloping very
quickly for them, right? That's, you know, that's obviously
perfectly fine, because they're trained. But if you have a novice
who just gets on there, and it's not necessarily a lack of courage,
if they don't start galloping right away, because they're not
trained yet. They go at their pace until they learn how to that
gallop, and so forth and so on. These are just two small examples,
and there's many, many others that that you could mention. But again,
what is praiseworthy is the balance in between. Okay.
Humility is also praiseworthy, but when excessive, it turns into
obscene quences
up sequences and humiliation, and when insufficient into arrogance
and vanity, the same applies to modesty which in itself is
exceedingly praiseworthy. Yeah. When excessive it becomes
femininity, and weakness. And when insufficient, boorishness and
ineptness.
Okay, gone. Yeah, actually, yeah, no, hold on.
Okay, so humility is also praiseworthy. But when excessive
it turns into obsequiousness and humiliation, and when insufficient
into arrogance, and vanity, so, normally we speak of humility as
the opposite of arrogance, which it is, but even in the virtue of
humility itself, it is a balance between two extremes. And on one
hand is that it's where that you are just humiliating yourself. The
believer doesn't humiliate himself. You are supposed to carry
yourself with Sakina and wakad with tranquility and indignity,
and look at these beautiful words Sakina. tranquillity but it comes
from this word sukoon, which is actually stillness.
So meaning when you're in public, is that it's good to carry
yourself with stillness is that you're not riled up easily
by someone's rude to you. You know how to deal with that you're very
calm and patient, and you know how to respond to them. Someone
challenges you, you don't just cower away from a challenge,
you're still you know, how to respond to that person. Is that in
a situation where things are getting intense that you need to
respond in some way? You have stillness allows you to do what is
right, just as you have dignity.
And the source of our dignity is in the knowledge that
our pride lies in our servitude to
Allah, we're not proudful in terms of thinking we're better than
other people. But our is, our honor is in that we are servants
of Allah. And the source of our dignity is in that Allah to Allah
has blessed us with Allah, Allah and Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah.
That's the source of our as of our honor, is that we are people of
belief.
And we believe when we walk out in public is that what we have been
given? Obviously, from nothing that we've done, but what we have
been given is the best thing you could possibly be given. There's
no greater gift of all.
And there's a lot more that could be said about that. But dignity
and tranquility. This is how we're supposed to care ourself in
public, our teachers,
when we're studying, used to drill this into us Sakina and Wilcox
Akina and,
and there are a number of things that take you outside of both of
these states, in terms of how you carry yourself many imbalances
that manifests in different ways. But this is the basic principle.
And he said the same applies to modesty, which in itself is
exceedingly praiseworthy, yet excessive when it becomes
effeminacy and a weakness in when insufficient,
boorishness and ineptness. Okay, and so, again, modesty is that
it's a balance. And sometimes when you need to rise to the call, and
you're just so embarrassed to do it, we have to learn to overcome
that.
And that, especially, as well, for example, and things in terms of
like public speaking, naturally, some people are embarrassed or shy
away from public speaking.
But is it it's good to accustom yourself to speaking in public and
getting over that. And it's fine at first, it happens to people,
but to plague you and have you not be able to get over it, even
though that it's one of the things that people actually fear the most
is public speaking, sometimes there's some people fear public
speaking more than death. But you it's good to get over that.
Or that in terms of,
like, being too shy to pray in public, or being too shy to that
put a bully in their place, or being too shy to,
you know, tell someone something is wrong. That's not, that's not
religious shyness. Right. That's actually blameworthy shyness. That
religious shyness relates to this balance in terms of that how you
carry yourself, being very careful about the words that you say,
that's a part of modesty, shying away from foul language, and to
the extent that some of those who really implemented this character
trait, say no, I'm a bit I'm disease, used to not use the word
for gonna have to use it for what he didn't use. He wouldn't say the
word armpit. He would say, what's under the arm.
Because he didn't want to pronounce the word armpit that it
was just too little bit that uncouth in his book, is that he
used to use a word like Under Armour, literally that which is
under the arm, let alone other parts of the body. Other things
the writers don't speak like this. they shy away from it, or in terms
of what they show, in terms of the body and so forth and so on, and
how they carry themselves that is praiseworthy. Hyah and the source
really of modesty is that for both men and women, is before Allah,
Allah gelato. And so it's that for both men and women to both be
modest can let's just take one more little section here, this is
a longer chapter. So we will finish up the second part. Next
week, we'll just take this last section here.
Lastly, good humor and cheerfulness, too much leads to
fascist SNESs and triviality, while too little leads to
offensiveness and estrangement. Other trades can be gauged in the
same manner. The same principle applies to daily activities such
as sleep, food, clothes, and so on. One must always take the
middle way for both extremes, and for both extremes are blameworthy.
Okay. So be sure in Russia he translated here as good humor and
cheerfulness. What is that one in here is a balance. So it's good,
to be light hearted. It's good to be cheerful, it's good to smile.
It's good to be easygoing, it's good to be agreeable. We've taken
some of this before. These are all good things. It's good to have
friends and to be a social person. These are all good things, but
it's balance. Okay, when these
Things get in on one extreme when they then when they become that
when they when they go to excess.
That
this is where
it leads to that traits like virtuousness and triviality, where
that everything becomes a joke or someone just can't control
themselves. They're just laughing all of the time and that you see
this a lot, especially in like WhatsApp
chats where a little bit of lightheartedness, a little bit of
joking is fine, but sometimes Yala teeth, it just gets joke after
joke. And it just, it gets to be too much, right.
And you have to be careful, right? By doing it too much, because
sometimes actually, people will get offended. And you have to be
very careful, we're joking with people too much. Because sometimes
there's a little bit of truth behind the joke. And you're
suddenly almost like stabbing someone while you're laughing. And
you'd be surprised some people actually laugh. But then deep
down, you've actually hurt them. They're in pain. So you have to be
careful, you have to be careful and find that balance of proper,
tasteful lightheartedness. And then also, the other extreme, is
also blameworthy, wear, that you just you're almost like a cold
person, you are offensive in a different sense that you are
strange people, people feel like you're so distant, because you're
just not there with them. You're not, you're smiling, you're not
cheerful, right? That's another extreme. And, you know, again,
that this differs from person to person. And from situation to
situation.
That, generally speaking, is that when we're with friends, when
we're at home,
that a man with his family or a wife with her family, is that
there should be a nice, beautiful, that spirit at home, where there's
a little bit of, you know, laughter, there's light
heartedness that both spouses are approachable. And that's, that's a
good thing. When you're around friends, it's the same thing. But
balance is really key. Sometimes you're a little bit serious. And
you have times where you even pray together, you do invocations
together, and things like that. And then you have other times
where you laugh, and you joke together within limits. And then
you have times where you're talking about normal things you're
planning together, you're talking with the kids together, whatever
it might be, but balance is really what what is desirable. And there
are some exceptions of what is meant by an exception here that it
applies slightly different to some people.
There are some people that will be more serious, because as they're
focused on something like a student of knowledge, a student of
knowledge you can expect from a student of knowledge, what you'd
expect from a friend, and a student of knowledge needs to be
more focused, they need to use their time very well. And that
sometimes in passing that, if they don't take the time to that,
to be with you and to be as cheerful as you might want them to
be, in a sense, they're excused because the balance for them is a
little bit different. They have to, really, that focus on their
studies into manage their time well, or they're not going to
achieve that in their studies. So balance is really what we want.
And that balance, again, is different for different people.
And we have to recognize that we have to have an except from have
realistic expectations from different people is is really the
point here. And then this amazing thing that he says here is that
other traits can be gauged in the same manner. The same principle
applies to daily activities such as sleep balance, you don't try to
just cut back on your sleep and I'm gonna sleep two hours a day.
But then to sleep 10 hours a day is too much. So see how much your
body needs, get a good night's rest, make the intention to
worship Allah in Hollis. And if you want to cut back on your sleep
cut back slowly, little by little food, same thing. This differs for
different people in different times. Balance is what we want,
sleep food, clothes and so on. The same principles apply apply to
that all of our different states and again, these are books of
action. And what we want to really do is to sit down into think about
our different states. How am I in relation to food? How am I in
relation to clothes? How so there's imbalances and all of
these things. If you're spending 1000s and 1000s of dollars, on new
clothes all of the time and every season you're buying magazines to
see what the people are wearing what is in for that season, and
your clothes are fine
But you have to just buy the new styles to be in for that season is
going to change in the spring. And then the following fall that
you've given all your clothes, and that's a little bit much, right
but dressing nicely in certain occasions, how could that is
there's nothing wrong with that. And Allah Tada loves to see the
trace of his blessings on his servant. But again, what's
understood was that his balance is balance. And again, this differs
for different people. And the same thing goes with the cars that we
buy with the houses that we live in, and so forth, and so on. And,
again, there's nothing wrong with having nice things, you have to
just give shortcode to Allah data. And that balance differs according
to the different people, but we want to maintain a balance in
every aspect of our life. And that we should know that the Middle Way
is always the best. He's going to give us an amazing principle here
next week, in terms of what to do and we don't know what's best in
any given situation. On What side do we err
that's a very fact very practical, very beautiful. We'll come back to
that meeting later as next week. May Allah have adequate data give
us Tofik plus has to be people of the Middle Way. Less has to be
people who and all the different things that we do everything that
manifests from us outwardly in in religion, all the good traits of
character mulata give us the greatest portion of them. It was
to find that middle ground may love to accept us as we are
forgive us of all of our sins, accept all of our good deeds, and
to bless us to be able to travel a path where by which it leads to
knowledge of whom subhanho wa Taala and love of Him and love of
his prophet and loving for his sake. Subhanallah data, may Allah
to add of us if they come out who's in Khartoum and in mode,
also a lot I seen him her maiden while I do sabe Saddam Al hamdu
Lillahi Rabbil Alameen