Yahya Rhodus – Knowledge & Wisdom Imam alHaddad #5
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Yeah. And that is a very great blessing, unfortunately, in the
Muslim world, oftentimes you find is that children that come after
is that they oftentimes don't realize what are in the libraries
of their parents. And so you hear these stories Subhanallah of
children selling books away, they're selling their parents
books away. Their parents toiled in trouble themselves, on multiple
continents, in many different countries, and spent 1000s and
1000s, and 1000s of dollars, virtually all of the extra money
to the point that they couldn't even take vacations with their
families were spent on books, and all of the difficulty and toil and
trouble and time that went into that collection. And all of a
sudden their kids come along and don't respect, what is it they
have in sell off their books, and Subhanallah how many manuscripts
have been hauled off to people that they shouldn't really be in
the hands of those people? How many very rare good books that are
that who knows what happened to them, sometimes they're auctioned
off for very small prices, because of the next generation, not
realizing what is the how important these books are. And the
treasures that lie there in. In our membership comes the use of
saying one time
on, first of all, he's someone who Subhanallah whenever you're around
him,
you will necessarily come to love books. I've never seen a book
lover in my life. Lecture comes with, he is an incredible book
lover. And if you've ever been book shopping with him, if you
think we buy a lot of books, just go book shopping with Chuck combs.
I've been with him before, and literally shopping carts in the
plural, in anything of the most remote interest is a he'll just
stack up, he'll just stack up but the difference from him and other
view he actually reads them. And he actually really does read all
of those books. And I remember him saying, Is it from the bounty of
Allah to add upon him, as he never ever said that a book was
expensive?
I'm with what's in that book? Okay, yes, you might not be able
to afford a book. But to say that a book is expensive, that's bad,
like expensive. How could it be expensive, if something you read
in there leads to eternal salvation? How was that expensive.
And subhanAllah, we should have added with books we should have
added in terms of where we placed books, we should have added in the
way that we arranged books, if you ever see a book upside down, turn
it right side up, that they even go to the extent of not wanting to
put anything on top of books like pins or something like this, or
even your whatever it might be, that we should respect books, we
should keep them in high places, if we ever see them on the ground
that we should pick them up. And this is all very, very important.
And so that books are that we need to preserve them, and that we
should love them. And one of the other things that should come to
said about it was is you think about how amazing
the concept of a book is.
This emanated from someone's mind. And really what we have in the
sense is their life recorded for us in the book. And obviously, not
every aspect of their life. But think about the thought that went
into a lot of these books, and the research and the study. And then
here it's all here accessible for us arranged in chapters and so
forth, so we can access it. If you really think about that, that's
really amazing. How long did that person have to study in order for
them to reach that point where they could then write a book. And
then here you have the book right before you. It's really amazing if
you think about that, and that to have access to someone's lifelong
struggle right here before you. And easy way accessible way for
you to then to benefit from an access is really just truly
amazing, this whole idea of there actually even that being books.
And so one of the great intentions we can make is to preserve
knowledge and to protect it from being lost, even though of course,
that you need scholars who are going to be keys that open up
these books for us. And this is the other thing is that once you
really get into books, and you start reading the meanings that
lie there in your law, it really is a joy like no other joy of all
of the degrees, all of the various degrees of desire. A highest
desire of all in the human being is relates to acquisition of
knowledge, means that once that desire opens up for you, and you
inculcate that, and you cultivate that within yourself, all of the
other desires beneath it, you will prefer not
over all of them. And so knowledge in that books that contain that
knowledge are of the utmost importance. The another intention
that we can make is to spread and disseminate the teachings of our
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And this is something that
we hope to see increasingly, in our masajid. And in our places of
learning, as there'll be books available. So in addition to
recitation of the Quran in worship, that people can come in,
they can read on their own. This is something that we want to
encourage that there be circles of knowledge and so forth, to bring
life to the heart into the community. And by having the books
present, this is something that will allow for that to continue
on, I'm reminded of a story of have you Oh, my oldest brother,
have you matured, during the communist period of tidying, which
is a very difficult period, where people had to study in the most
difficult of circumstances, they would have to do so secretly. And
oftentimes, they would do so at the opposite ends of the day, so
very early in the morning, very late at night, and they would
sneak into people's homes, and they would study they would carry
their books, that inside of their garments. And when the many of the
manuscripts were being confiscated, and many of them were
destroyed, one of the things that have you've almost rather did is
that he would sneak into the places where they were holding
them before they destroyed them, and he would take them back. And
he's risking his life, because if they caught him, he would have
been severely punished. But he went secretly, because he realized
Subhanallah how important these books were. And this is a time
still where there have been a large number of manuscripts. Now,
one of the pitfalls of the printing press is oftentimes we
take this for granted, you can purchase this for a price. And
then, you know, sometimes we don't take for granted that this work.
Whereas if you would have that transcribed this book, from
another manuscript copy, you would have taken very good care of this,
especially if you took the time to do that, or is it if you purchased
a transcribed copy. And so it is, in a sense, it's not that
knowledge isn't for everyone it is, but you have to one have the
tools for knowledge, and two, you have to have the proper adult,
that in approach to knowledge. So is that by having books present,
is it it's one of the ways to disseminate the teachings of our
Prophet salaallah alayhi salam, the third intention that we can
make is, by virtue of this book, think about what it contains, from
blesseth verses of the Quran. What it contains, from a hadith of our
prophesy some scenes of the righteous people who came before
us is that you make the intention to seek the blessing of having
verses of the Koran present, a hadith of the prophesy centum
present in the statements of the righteous present in the great
scholars and that saints who came before us is that these books
comprise their knowledge. And by having them is that the in just
having them on the shelf. Is that a great blessing. And there's
something about books, if you go upstairs to that some of those
rooms there with books on the shelf, you feel a deep sense of
intimacy, what better and they're not decorations, but what better
thing to enter into. And there's something that it does to us
psychologically, just being around books, is it it makes you feel
comfortable, it makes you feel have an intimate like feeling just
by knowing that there's books around, and especially books of
benefit. And then there are some books especially like they say,
the sheaf half a yard. By having that book in your home. It's a
means of protection. It's a means of protection. By having the
Deewan, if you remember had that. Just having that Deewan with you,
is a means of protection. There are many people in the place that
I studied, and today that keep a copy of the diviner had that in
their glove compartment, in their car, in any car that they have.
It's a source of protection. So just having the books and of
themselves, there's a blessing in it. And that one of the righteous
have a boss, he used to be able to see light even though outwardly he
was blind. He was we'll see a lot of other we say he was busy or he
could see what the eye of his heart, he will be able to see
spiritual light in books, and how they bring light to someone's
home. And this is why there's a basic library that every Muslim
should have. There are certain books that every Muslim needs to
have at home, and collecting books for these intentions, and to then
give them to your children and hope that they then read them then
when they come home well at a later time is one of the great
things that we can do. So to seek the blessing of the verses and the
Hadith of our Prophet salaallah it Do you sell them in the righteous
in the saints that that are mentioned in them is another
intention that we can make as well. And there's a number of
others
that are mentioned here in this book, we'll just maybe just cover
a couple others, but we can make other intentions like
that making the intention to do a modem out of Linda Hanuman Carter.
By having that books of knowledge present, he will assist us in this
process of teaching people what is good, and that helping people
avoid that which which will distance him from ALLAH SubhanA wa
Tada. It is a a means to
that to
also, that make manifest the banners of Islam and spread
knowledge. And it's similar to an intention that we made before some
of these tensions when they mentioned in great detail, overlap
one with another, but that what we mentioned suffices because that's
at the heart of what it is we can that we can intend to be in the
light data. So we should remind ourselves of these intentions, we
need it when we acquire books, and that as they sit on our shelves,
we don't want those shelves to become dusty though. And it also
is very important that we that access them and read them. Because
really, that when you enter into these books, it's like entering
into a garden is that you're exposed to all of these beautiful
meanings. And that you move from that beautiful flower to beautiful
flower beautiful meaning to beautiful meaning and LaTonya give
us Tofik so we're on chapter four this Mila
listen her her mother who was so that was gonna say them, how many
others who send them
knowledge and wisdom, Mom and Dad about benefits through him in this
world in the next I mean, Chapter Four pride and heedlessness where
he says
proud and heedless people are diverted away from the Signs of
God, from understanding his secrets and from seeing his light.
He sung Allah who he most high says, I shall turn away from my
signs those who wrongful those who are wrongfully proud on the earth,
when they see each sign they believe it not. And when they see
the way of the righteousness when they see the way of the
righteousness, they choose it not for their way, but when they see
the way of error, they choose it for their way. That is because
they deny our science and our of them heedless, Thus does God
exalted depict them as proud and possessors of blameworthy
attributes. The last to be mentioned being heedlessness a few
signs from which he diverts them because of their pride and
unawareness. This is because these are ALM elements of the heart that
Intel it is Kurd until it is cured of them and freed of the
literatures effects, disqualify it and render it unfit understand
God's sign signs. How can a proud man understand God's signs when he
is conceited and arrogant, and does not humble himself before the
truth and its people. God places a seal on his heart, as he says the
aggressor is the speaker. Thus does God set a seal upon every
proud arrogant heart. As for the heedless, one, his distraction
diverts his heart away from understanding the signs of his
Lord, so that he turns and moves away from God. This is why God
commanded His Prophet to turn away from such people, saying,
transcendent and exalted as he turn away from Him who flees from
our remembrance, and desires but the life of the world. And he's
and he says, And he said, Exalted is He, and obey not him whose
heart we have made heedless of our remembrance, so be UNCLOS guard
against pride, for it is the eighth of the ailment that
afflicted Iblees and prevented him from obeying God and exalted the
exalted command to prostrate himself before Adam, may peace be
upon him. He balked and was too proud, and thus deserving for his
arrogance and rebellion of degradation, cursing expose
expulsion, from God's mercy, and perpetual everlasting
wretchedness.
We ask God the Exalted to save us from all afflictions. Be also
UNCLOS guard against forgetting God the Exalted his remembrance
and the hereafter for heedlessness is a major cause of ruin. It
brings on all kinds of evil and afflictions and both this world
and the next God exalted says, Indeed, those who expect not to
meet us are content with the life of the world and fear and feel
secure they're in and those who are neglectful of our signs. Their
home will be the fire because of what they earned. And he must have
AI says they know only some appearance of the life of the
world and are heedless of the hereafter. See how he first
negates their possession of knowledge then ascribes outward
worldly knowledge to them, and concludes with depicting them as
heedless of the hereafter. So understand and reflect God grant
success, there is no Lord but him
on time.
So chapter four is titled pride in heedlessness. And in this chapter
that her dad is giving us insight
into two very terrible qualities of the heart. One is kibow, and
the other is awful. Ah kibra translates as arrogance, pride,
and roughly translates as heedlessness. And he doesn't just
speak about these two qualities, he speaks about the
outcome of having these qualities in the heart. And this is of the
utmost important or importance for us to understand. And he begins
his discussion by saying is that proud and heedless people are
diverted away from the signs of Allah, from understanding his
Assad his secrets, and from seeing his lights. And remember, her dad
has this amazing approach. And one of the most important things that
underlies his goal for which he wrote all of these works relates
to spiritual realization, realization of Eman, s&m, and our
son. So one of the things he always tells us is the
consequences in the spiritual sense of not implementing, for
instance, in this case, pride and heedlessness, or whatever
discussion is at hand, he wants us to know that what's going to
happen? What are the spiritual consequences of that? And what are
the possibilities? Where are we to actually avoid these various
things. And so that the first is that they're diverted from the
signs of Allah, which is a very, very scary thing. And in relation
to arrogance, he quotes this verse and solotaroff that says also to
who and I yet yet Lavinia to cut Bo don't have an Audi behind it.
And a lot to Anna says that he will divert his signs, he will
turn them away.
That from those who show arrogance in the earth, without right, and
the danger there is, is that if we understand the Ayat of Allah, and
the importance of Allah signs, and the whole goal of the religious
life, and how we understand that the verses in the Quran and how we
understand the signs that in his in his creations of hunting went
to other if we have the, if the signs are being diverted from us,
right, and that we're don't have the ability to see them, the hotel
at a quarter, the villa, how are we going to fulfill our purpose
here on Earth, that as human beings, and that this is a result
of what this is a result of the arrogance and pride that lies in
the hearts of people you have to cut Bodoni out, and he translates
it here as those who are wrongfully proud on Earth. And
that, that this verse ends then Allah Tada goes on to say, the
full verse after saying that says, well, in your Aquila, ayat, Allah
ubia, and that were even were they to see every sign, they wouldn't
believe in it. When you wrote severe Rushdi lie at deftly those
even were they to see right before them the path of right guidance is
that they would not that embark upon that path, one euro cibula
yet definitely those of you that, but whereas if they see the path
of misguidance is that they take it as their particular way that it
given them care, that will be it? No, that's it because they have
denied our signs. What kind of unhealthy mean, and they were
heedless of them.
And here, when we think about people denying caribou denying the
signs of Allah to Allah, how does that happen at the heart level,
it's very possible that that person is in good shape, that they
could even have a nice appearance to them. They could be very nice
people even. And what takes place at the heart level is very, very,
very subtle. It's very subtle. And even though with what was
mentioned is that you could have people that are consciously
denying the signs of Allah subhanaw taala because it really
relates to that how we interact with everything that is happening
around us, and the doors that we open up for ourselves and close
for ourselves, respect
based upon the decisions that we make, and everyone has
opportunities in life, everyone has opportunities. And if we that
go after those opportunities in inwardly at the level of our
heart, is that follow those thoughts that will lead to other
thoughts that will lead to other thoughts that open door after door
after door after door until it things actually become clear to
us, then that we will receive guidance from Allah subhanaw
taala. But if we cover them up, which is a type of denial, and we
refuse to think about them, or we don't have the courage to think
about them, or is that we postpone thinking about them and all of
these different ways that we cover things up at the level of the
heart, Subhan Allah, it very well might be is that eventually that
our hearts are sealed, may Allah subhanaw taala protect us. And by
virtue of what we have brought about upon ourself, Allah to Allah
would not seal someone's heart for no reason is that he only has one
to add to leads astray those who have already gone astray and have
them ownselves and that he will only seal the heart of someone who
is that has opened up the door internally for them to have their
heart sealed otherwise is that anyone who is wanting to receive
guidance and has an open heart and as an intention to that come to
that right guidance or has the intention to someday come to the
intention or the intention to someday have an intention to make
an intention ultimately. And you could just keep going
is that Allah to Allah will guide those people. But if we that close
ourselves off, internally,
and there's very subtle ways that that happens with us, now how to
let go to the villa, it gets successively harder and harder and
harder and harder to have that door that opened up for us again.
And so that one of the commentators that says about this
sort of 180 when Allah to Allah says, I shall turn away my signs.
He says a ailment Suba Phil OFAC will enforce that are erected in
the horizons and in our own selves as we that find in another
vicinity i attina fit I fuck with you and will seem we shall indeed
show them Our signs in the horizons in in the own cells. A
dial Allah called the retina wa Danya Tina, that indicate our
power in our oneness min Elijah even must not from the wondrous
things that Allah subhanaw taala has created, you don't need to be
a scientist to reflect upon the signs of a lot of adequate data.
You don't need to be a scientist, all you need is that to take the
time to ponder some of the meanings. And you might need a
little bit of help at first, and use what some of the scholars have
written on the topic as a crutch, to teach yourself how to start
doing it. And once you have the ability to reflect on your own,
you will have amazing meanings come to your heart. If I think
about the few reflection sessions that we've done at some of our
retreats Subhanallah will reflect on a meaning for a few minutes.
And people that might not have ever really done it before. Come
up with amazing things. Amazing things come to their mind. And as
a result of spending that time in a state of reflection, but we have
to spend the time doing so. And filter when you is that when you
look at the wonders of Allah to add his creation. When you look at
today at about five 530 was incredible rain clouds. It was
very dark, almost like it's after maghrib and mulgara was still two
hours away. And then the winds come and then the rain starts to
pour down. And then the thunder and then the lightning, what is
the natural state that we're in when we see that? It's just
panela? Right? That's fitrah is to see that as wondrous in it is that
wondrous. And we have to be very careful to let science demystify.
Science can demystify if we're not careful. And that if someone's
going to embark upon a scientific approach is nothing wrong with
that necessarily, but is that you have to especially train yourself
to still be in a state of awe and wonder which you really should if
you're understanding the details of what's behind it. But
oftentimes people think that oh, because I can explain it that is
no longer wondrous, on the contrary, is that if you're able
to explain it, you should be in a greater state of wonder. Just to
think about the details of how all of this is happening. This is
truly wondrous, and that Allah subhanho data that he we have to
train ourselves to see what he's created and have that connect us
to him to about a COA to Allah and that what he says is here is that
that it can also relate to the Koran over the Koran okay to women
it could be could relate to the Divine union it looks it could
relate to the Quran meaning that Allah to Radhika to Allah. Will
that when someone comes to the Quran
On if they come to the Koran with arrogance, they're going to be
blinded by the Koran.
And they actually might be led astray.
The Quran is not leading in astray. Their approach to the
Quran is leading them astray. This is why one of the great benefits
I've heard from Sheikh snorkeler is he said whenever you start
reciting the Quran, just pause for one moment and make Toba
stuff. seek forgiveness for all of your sins, and then read the book
of Allah. So that one, you're polishing your heart, but to your
entry into the Quran with humility. And if you enter into to
the Quran with humility,
is that a lot out will open up the meanings for you. But if you enter
proudly, that you will be blinded from the meanings that you need,
you might read the verse and completely understand the wrong
meaning, or invite that bring your Bible thought that is ultimately
demonic, based upon someone's own state, not based on the Quran, in
and of itself. And that is the again this this relates to that
this as well. And
that the other etiquettes that we have with hola todos book are also
very important for us to to be able to receive meaning from them.
And then what he says here is that these people who show this
arrogance in the earth without right, is that there's a tuber
Allahu rubine phala tuffa Khurana is that they have their hearts in
that sense are sealed. And it causes it causes them to be unable
to reflect upon them, or to learn lessons from them. So reflection
is one thing that's called Tiffa core. And then you have what's
called the T bar, which is to take lessons. And that is of the utmost
importance, is that we take lessons from everything that is
happening around us from situations of people that we see
around us from the things that happen a lot to desperation, and
from things that we know that happened to the people who came
before us is that we have to learn lessons. And the principle states,
if you do not take heed
from a lesson of someone who came before you is that you will be a
lesson for someone to come after you. May Allah protect us. May we
learn the lessons that we're supposed to learn sometimes
Subhanallah that we do something, something happens to us we're
supposed to learn the lesson, okay? Don't do that again. And we
do it again. It happens again. We do it boom, it happens it we're
supposed to learn the lesson, that of any particular situation. And
they mentioned about there was this one particular man who kept
falling into a particular sin. And every time he'd fall into that
sin, Allah would send him a tribulation.
He committed that sin again, Allah would cinema tribulation, he
committed that sin again, Allah would send him a tribulation. And
that tribulation would cause him to repent every time from that set
until one time he committed that sin and Allah did not send them
tribulation.
And at that point, he panicked. Because he felt that a lot of
abandon him. And so he said he made a Tobin sore, he made a
sincere repentance, to never ever again return that thing. And then
he left it completely. The Subhan Allah, that if that these are
these are opportunities for us to have atonement, when things like
that happen if we have the correct perspective, anyhow, that he
quotes these verses, and he says, Thus does God exalted depict them
as proud and possessors of blameworthy attributes. The last
to be mentioned being heedlessness of his signs from which he diverts
them because of their pride and unawareness is because these are
ailments of the heart that until it is cured of them and freed of
their deleterious effects, disqualify and rendered unfit to
understand God's science, which also for us, is a very important
aspect of what we could call our psychology, the way that the
diseases of the heart and our emotions and our desires affect
our thought. If we think of the human being is just as a rational
animal, it's not the case we are affected by a whole bunch of
different things. And that we have this sense because oftentimes we
are around intelligent people that can describe certain things in
ways that we are unable to that we, in a sense, look up to those
people and respect them, sometimes even beyond the way that we really
should. And we take people as
that signposts for the truth as opposed to understanding the truth
and finding its people. And not that we don't have a trust with
certain people in relation to their presentation of knowledge
but especially with people who don't believe in Lila Allah,
Muhammad Rasul Allah, is that this whole idea is that there is
somehow that objectivity that in
In, for instance, the academic approach or the scientific
approach, and this is completely unfiltered, that you know, object
an objective approach to knowledge. That is that completely
ridiculous anyone that knows from within that will see firsthand how
oftentimes, theories and that various things that that theses
that people are trying to prove, that are really the very worst
aspects of themselves projected outwardly, and that there's
attempt and is defined something to that prove what it is that they
set out to that look for in the beginning. And so that we know
that we're that affected by the state of our heart, we're affected
by the vices and the virtues of the heart, we're affected by the
desires, at the level of the heart, and it can pollute our
perspective on things. And it can pollute even the conclusions that
we come to in relation to things. And how can a problem and
understand God's signs when he has conceited and arrogant and does
not humble himself before the truth, and its people, God places
a seal on his heart, as he says, Thus does God set a seal upon
every proud, arrogant tart, and the meaning here of the CEO is
that one is diverted from that understanding the truth in the
affairs. And so that's what he says about the person of
arrogance. And he says, As for the heatless, one, his distraction
diverts his heart away from understanding the signs of his
Lord. So the turns and moves away from a lot.
One of the meaning just quickly, and this is why, when it comes to
being Muslim, in this particular place in this particular time, is
that along with our unwavering commitment to our face, is that we
also have to be 100% unapologetic about our deen. This is our deen,
whether people like it or they don't like it, this is our deen.
And we should be proud of the fact that we are servants of Allah
Tada, our pride is in that we are arbete we are servants of Allah to
Baraka data. And if we even show so much as a weakness outwardly in
relation to this, is that we are setting ourselves up to be
devoured.
Really, we are, is it we have to be really, really firm in relation
to this unwavering This is our dean, and that we have to
understand is that when you are dealing with people that have
arrogance is that you can't expect an arrogant person to be able to
accept these teachings.
The hope is, is that through you interacting with him and through
you that finding ways to get around their ego, to their heart
is that you can help them. But ultimately, the arrogant person
has to leave their arrogance, the prideful person has to leave their
pride. And that's going to block them from the truth. And we have
to understand, is it we live in a very arrogant society. And there's
been arrogant people who's lived all throughout the centuries. But
modern man is especially arrogant is that there are many people that
think because of these incredible technological breakthroughs, that
somehow that we are immune to many of the tendencies of the
civilizations that came before us, which is absolutely ridiculous.
Sometimes people think, because of everything that we've been able to
achieve, that you hear people say, you know, just and this is this is
commonplace, that, you know, we're the best civilization ever. And in
these types of things, we have to be very, very careful to let them
creep into the heart because they will blind you. And if someone,
one of the great tests, to see if this is your state of heart or
not,
is to go on the pilgrimage, and to pray. In many of the places you
will pray.
And that sometimes the ground is dirty, and the people around you
are poor, and they stink, and the carpet is stinky, and the
bathrooms are dirty. And the food is not like the normal food that
you eat, and all of these other circumstances, what is the state
of our heart? What is the state of our heart? Are we troubled by
that? Can we not imagine ourselves being in a situation like that? Is
it Muslims must remain humble, must remain humble. And without
humility, is it to the degree that there's arrogance law, however,
the quarterly villa is to the degree that we will be that we
will be that blinded by truth and if you have a Muslim who's
accepted the truth, but is that also has this vise of pride is
that that we've various degrees that they're prevented from
progressing along the spiritual path as a result, they'll be
certain things that don't open up for them. If they find it
difficult for them to
sit before teachers if they find it difficult to them, for them to
that learn from other people, and they mentioned is that a scholar
doesn't become a scholar until he takes from people that actually
have more knowledge than him.
Till he takes from people that have more knowledge than him is
one of the most amazing things if you spend time with Dr. Omar
Farooq, Abdullah, whenever he is at any retreat, or any seminar, or
any program of any sort, he is in every single session from
beginning to end, every single session.
And he refuses to not sit in every single session. He wants to be in
every single session.
And he takes notes. And that many of these people that what fraction
of knowledge do they have compared to the knowledge of the ocean
oceanic knowledge of Dr. John Waters, but he's in every single
session of every single person does no matter where they are in,
he's taking notes. And he's learning and Subhanallah he might
even ask them questions, he might even ask them perspective on
things that is amazing. If we could bring that ethos into it
Subhanallah that things would be that, you know, that very, very
different. And we all have to learn from each other. And we all
have to benefit from each other. And that know that there's
different degrees that we benefit from that different types of
people, we have to have that clarity in this process as well.
But this all gets back to human humility. But it's very important
that we that we recognize the society in which we live. And the
one thing about a very arrogant and prideful person is that that
is not the time to just cower away and to be soft.
If you're dealing with arrogant and prideful people, you have to
be strong.
You have to be far.
And sometimes you have to
act away outwardly to that. Let that arrogant and prideful person
know that they can pick on you or they cannot manipulate you or
something like that. It's very important,
especially for our children growing up in a society is that
you'll be put in certain situations where you that think
that you might have to compromise your deen because of how the
people are before you. But we need to rule out to begin with this
idea that we need to fit into something fit into what if we're
trying to fit in to society in the way that they want us to be?
Oftentimes where you have people that are prideful, and that refuse
to submit to that the realities that of Allah Muhammad Rasul
Allah, that that was we've, we've we failed to begin with it. That's
how we approach these things. Anyhow, he then speaks about the
person of laferla. And he says his distraction diverts his heart away
from understanding the signs of his Lord. So in a different way,
the arrogant one is diverted, but also the HEDIS one,
so that he turns and moves from Allah. This is what Allah has
commanded His Prophet to turn away. This is why Allah has
commanded His Prophet to turn away from such people saying, turn away
from Him who flees from our remembrance and desires but the
life of this world and he said, So planning what to honor and obey
not him whose heart we have made heedless of our remembrance. And
so that there are certain people that's our response to them is
that we turn away from them. And the Arabic is for out and then TOA
and Hakuna. What are Tiltman other than Colombo under Kadena, do not
obey do not follow the one who we've made their heart heedless
from our remembrance. And so there are certain people is that you
turn away from
and that you don't busy yourself with trying to argue with them
trying to be preoccupied with them. Sometimes that is our
response. This is what I'd love to add is commanding our profit for I
did and mentor Linda Karina, we're here to help everyone. But if we
know that there are people that are that refusing to allow
themselves to be helped, if that these are people that by
interacting with them, it's going to cause a greater harm than it is
going to be in terms of bringing about benefit. There are certain
times that we have to turn away from the situation, that we don't
have to have every conversation with every person. There are
certain things you have to just leave and turn away from them. And
that's our response. And other times it's as Allah to Allah says,
that it relates to not obeying that people's whose hearts that
are he this from the remembrance of Allah subhana wa Tada. And
another meaning of this is, is that if someone is in a state of
heedlessness, how much guidance can they really provide you? And
that goes for a Muslim, let alone a non Muslim who's come
pletely distant from the remembrance of Allah subhanaw
taala, it doesn't mean that we don't treat people nicely, we
treat everyone as a foundation nicely. It doesn't mean that
knowledge isn't the last property of the believers it is. But we
have to be very careful in terms of what we take. And what we don't
take. And, unfortunately, is oftentimes we don't have the tools
to hear different people speak on different topics of knowledge,
whether it be a TED lecture, whether it be an NPR, that, you
know, program, or whether it be reading the news, or whatever book
that is that we're reading, oftentimes, we fail to have the
tools that we need to incorporate what is good from that into a
worldview have to heat. And so we have to be very careful that to
that shed some of the things that come with various aspects of
knowledge. Because we're being exposed to it, all of us have
iPhones or Androids or whatever some type of device or iPad, or
we're on the internet, and we're being exposed to knowledge in the
age of information in ways that is unbelievable, is that we are
exposed more on on a weekly basis than people were exposed to in a
lifetime. We are exposed more on a weekly basis than previous people
were exposed to in a lifetime. They say the average person
that was before the modern era,
was exposed to a weekly subscription of The New York Times
over a lifespan.
So you subscribe to The New York Times. And that's, you know,
everything that's in that all of those articles, that amount of
knowledge was in the pre modern period is what people were exposed
to over a lifetime. were exposed in a very, very short period of
time. And so that that requires that we be very careful about what
we take and what we don't take in. And then you understand the
pervasive nature of the modern world, where yellow teeth, we
talked about protecting our children, we need to protect
ourselves.
Yes, we need to protect our children to have they're just
inundated in meetings. And anyone who has young children know that
where are the good, healthy, beneficial books for our children
to read, especially when they reach the age of 1011 1213 1415.
And their teens, were now that they can engage now that they're
thinking now, what really exists in terms of literature, that is
going to really be of benefit. Okay, yes, there's a few good
classics that you know, are out there, there's probably a lot of
classics. But from a fully Islamic perspective, even with many of
those classics, you have to be somewhat careful, you have to
train them how to think about these ideas that they're being
exposed to, you have to train them how to think about them. They
can't just take them that Wholesale is that we have to be
able to think through them and to engage these ideas. And it's a
challenge, it really, really is a challenge. Because at that level,
the vast majority of people that are helping them do that in
school, don't really have the tools to do it themselves. So how
are they going to help someone else do it?
It really is a problem. So
all of that's to say not that we give up or despair, but it is
overwhelming. It is overwhelming. And sometimes that we are heedless
in our awareness.
Sometimes we think that we're aware, but we're actually
heedless, because that we think that we're aware.
And you know, this is a time really, that there's coming to
time upon the Omaha prophesy sends a hadith is that the only one that
will be saved is the one who makes a dua could do it in a hurry.
As like who supplicates like the supplication of a drowning person.
We're experiencing a time like that. There's certain things it's
like, yeah.
Trying to do something, but there's so many different things
going on. Yeah.
The only solution you think is to supplicate to Allah as if you're
drowning.
And the chakra of our prophesy centum is is that line you Illa
that person will be saved. But we have to supplicate in that way
with that state of heart, like someone who's drowning. And
imagine yourself drowning. That just your little you can't
breathe, you can't swim, you're about to die in the sincerity that
you would that place in your DUA so that you're saved. If we can
have that at the heart level, that that's a source of salvation for
us and very difficult times. So he says be on close guard against
pride. What is the ailment that afflicted IBLEES in prevented him
from obeying God, the Exalted command.
And then he says that we asked us to save God from all afflictions.
He said also being on close guard against forgetting God the Exalted
his remembrance in
in the hereafter for heedlessness is a major cause of ruin. And that
one of the things that goes along with heedlessness is idleness is
that if we're idle, we are much more prone to being heedless. It's
a very good idea to preoccupy ourselves with things constantly,
constantly, constantly. And from here, this is what requires a lot
of wisdom. And this is why it requires a lot of maturity as
well, when we read certain books, especially books of Phil, that,
oftentimes, the underlying assumption was that people were a
certain way in their time.
And from our perspective than time which we live, is that we have to
have to London be extremely creative, and how we deploy
different things that can be done that are from the realm of
permissible just to keep people out of falling into further
trouble.
That's really where we're at.
In relation to our own cells, I'm not even talking about that our
children are the younger generation rushing to our own
cells. And this is why that you almost have to encourage people in
our time to have
that, you know, hobbies, that they do things that they find solace
and better from the realm of the permissible. And someone might
say, Oh, why are they wasting their time doing that? No, it's
not about them wasting their time doing that. Think about it in the
other sense.
What are they preventing themselves from falling into as a
result of doing that? And this is why when you have halau
alternatives, and a lot of, you know, really, you know, you know,
good solutions to many of these problems is that we have to
emphasize them and encourage people to do them to prevent
people from falling into a greater harm.
Because he says he listeners is a major cause of ruin. It brings on
all kinds of eagles in afflictions, in both this world
and the next. So then the question arises is that how do we that make
ourselves wakeful, which is the opposite of heedlessness? The
greatest way of always to be around wakeful people, is to be
around people that remind you of Allah, our Prophet was asked about
who the ODR and he says Aladdin, Ido locura LA. They're the people
who when they are seen, Allah is remembered, that is a healthy,
that thing to be around people that reminds you of Allah, they
will remind you of the importance to repent to Allah, they remind
you of the importance of taking a straight path that remind you of
the importance of the obedience of Allah, they remind you of the
importance of devoting yourself to worship and preparing for the
afterlife. This is one of the greatest blessings of all. And
that, especially when it's regular, because there's certain
things that can't happen in you unless you do them time and time
again, time and time again, time and time again. And then the
effect of those things happens when someone is consistent over a
long period of time. And you'd be surprised, even if you are in a
school in a particular place that is somewhat protected from all of
the things in the world, and you're with the very best of
people still, then you fall into states of heedlessness. And you
need to be reminded, and you need to be reminded, and you need to be
reminded. And that's the blessing of Tarbiat which the vast majority
of problems that happens at the level of the individual and let
the love of the community of the room of our prophesy centum gets
back to a lack of tarbiyah a lack of spiritual training is that we
haven't inculcated in ourselves many of the meanings that we need
to that ward off home from ourselves and to be able to
preserve community to be of the utmost importance. But Toby is not
easy it means is that you have to swallow the bitter pill of
patients at times, and to do things that you don't want to do.
But in that is the healing is that if you can subjugate yourself to
that. And there's that minor versions of it. And what has been
arranged here is just a very, very, very watered down version of
it. And Charlotte's still a benefit because it's connected to
that great people. And it's because of that connection to them
as that it will still serve its purpose, but just very small
things like attending a weekly gathering of knowledge or weekly
gathering of remembrance, that trying to pray at least one of the
prayers in congregation during the day if not to just little things
like this and that a little bit of service volunteering and a little
here and there. These things are of immense benefit that will have
very long lasting rewards in this dunya and inshallah Tada and in
the alchemy Allah Allah give us Tofik bless us and take heed from
these busted words of a moment had dad who is the head dad. Hello
job. He is the blacksmith of the heart.
If we open up our hearts to these meanings, the meanings will do the
work. And just in the event that we can't spend time with righteous
people, we just read the books, because there's a reality to
reading their books of what happens to internally in your
heart just by reading the books just by reading the books just by
reading the books. It has a profound impact at the level of
the heart. We'll just take a little bit of Dr. Stuff embedded
these men in universe, He says on the bottom page 13, in the chapter
sub chapter titled The pairs
and if each thing created, we two pairs,
says the Quran thus it is to be understood that everything in
creation is paired. So Allah created pairs in his creation.
The divine attributes are also said to be paired for God is
little jewelry with a crumb, the Possessor of Majesty and
generosity and only the divine essence that is unique say he is
god he God is unique.
This is one reason why the Quran affirms divine transcendence,
God's uniqueness and incompatibility before mentioning
the Paris
both those we know and those we do not Transcendent is the creator of
all the pairs of what the Earth produces of themselves and of what
they do not know.
And this is in Soto to seen that Allah subhanho The Hala colors
wotja kula
and that
when we talk about the pears, this is very important for us to
understand.
And it's one of the great ways that we can reflect upon loss of
pantiles creation. The one the great wisdom in it is, is it only
he is one Subhanallah, who want to add up, this is reaffirmed and
other passages such as the following, the Originator of the
heavens and earth, He has made for you of yourselves pears in Paris,
also of the cattle multiplying you there in like him there is not
here God speaks of himself in his aspect as originator. Then he
mentions the prayers the heavens and the earth, which are the
subtle, cosmic immaterial dimensions. He then mentions that
the terrestrial love of the human and animal male female pairs, and
then reaffirms his transcendence like him, there is not examples of
Paris from every conceivable perspective can be found in the
Quran. From the structure or static cosmic perspective we can
take, as an example, the heavens earth pair, which also may be
termed visible invisible or MOOC meta Coots. These from the
sequential perspective corresponding to this world next
world or dunya, aka the next world is further divided into paradise
*, Felicity wretchedness. Then within the terrestrial world, we
have day night winter summer sun, moon, mountains, plains land sea,
then the vegetable, animal and human pears. At the individual
level we have knowledge ignorance, vise virtue, love, hate,
fortitude, panic, remembrance of God distraction, attachment to the
world detachment, and so on. Similarly, similar relationships
will be found at the molecular, atomic and subatomic levels. To
render these relationships clear, we must know that everything in
existence was made according to a model or archetype in the internal
immutable divine knowledge. Every relationship here below
corresponds to another at a higher level, and so on until their
origin in the uncreated divine knowledge, the first power which
is created, expressing this duality, in which became the model
for every subsequent pair is that of the pin the column and the
garden tablet, a low hand fold. The first is active and represents
majesty and the second is passive in relation to it and represents
beauty. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the
first thing that God created was the pin. Then he made the tablet
then made the pin within the pin was commanded to inscribe on the
top of the Gods knowledge concerning his creation from the
beginning to the last day. Thus the pin actively wrote, and the
tablet passively received its imprint. The first human pair was
also an active pole Adam, who was the first to be creating Eve, his
passive compliment. And then he says the terms active passive,
male, female, positive, negative are always to be understood in a
relative and not absolute sense. Since what is active in relation
to one thing is at the same time passive in relation to another,
the pin active in relation to the tablet is also imminently passive
in relation to the divine command which moves it. Men are active,
which in this context means protective and supportive in
relation to their wives, but passive in relation to their
parents, teachers and superiors, whereas women are passive in
relation to their husbands of course, archetypically speaking,
which means accepting of their protection and support but active
in relation to their children, whether males or females will
within a single relationship, for instance of the student and
teacher, in general, the student is passive in relation to the
teacher, but there may be some psychological elements in the
student, which are active in relation to other particular
elements in the teacher. Thus, each pole of a dyad not only has
the potential for the opposite role in another dyad, but also can
be a part of a complex set of relationships where active and
passive interactions exist in both directions. The reason for this is
that each pole of a dyad carries within it some of the constituents
of the other an obvious example being that the fact that both male
and females produce male and female hormones, which differ only
in their relative quantities. Furthermore, the term passive
quote denotes no weakness or imperfection, the divine
attributes of beauty can constitute passive perfection,
whereas those of majesty constitute active perfection,
active and passive attributes or roles in earthly creatures are
about the earthly shadows of these divine perfections. Passive
attributes are no less necessary than active ones for each
complements the other.
Mashallah, there's a lot there. And
this is very important for us to understand, there's a lot of other
things we can come to understand through this knowledge that were
being gifted here. And this is that we understand everything in
Allah subhanaw taala, as creation has an active and passive aspect
to it. It's active in relation to one thing passive in relation to
another. And this helps us at the metaphysical level. This also
helps us at the human level, it helps us to understand law, it
helps us to understand so many things, if we can understand how
this is happening. And he's presenting this in the context of
the pair's in the context of opposites. And so that we see that
the two major categories of alotau His attributes are the Jalali
attributes and the Jamali attributes, the attributes of
Majesty and the attributes of beauty. And again, here, this
really, really helps us out if
it's an understanding that, that it's easy for Muslim, for
instance, to understand the difference between quantum
mechanics and which appears to be very random, it appears to that
just be that uncontrollable. But that's what general is a
manifestation of jalala of majesty is, things appear to be random,
they appear to not be that
uniform. Whereas at the macro level, is it when you see the
uniformity of the universe, where everything appears to be so
perfect, and everything's in such order. For us, that's a
manifestation of beauty. So it's what's difficult for some people
to reconcile for us is very easy. It's easy for us to reconcile that
if you understand Gela in German, this is just one tiny example. And
there are many other things like this, if you just have this one
view of the world, there are so many things that you can reconcile
Is that where you ultimately realize is that both Joel and
Jamel ultimately are from Allah subhanaw taala everything is from
Allah. And they're both needed in creation.
And there's deep wisdom in there being opposites to begin with.
Because it is only in having opposites that you understand that
certain things were there not to be the opposite of how would you
ever understand what that thing is? And this is why it's been
said, be it literally had to debate you know, a shot through
its opposite things are known.
If we didn't know there was such thing as pain, how would we know
pleasure?
There are certain things if you didn't know them, how would you
know ever, it's opposite. Anyhow.
This also really helps us at the level of relationships in some of
the camera, the Sharia
that relate to both men and women. And when we speak about it
archetype Lee speaking what is meant by archetypal speaking here
is not in every situation, and that in with every single person
is so that we have to understand that these are these are
archetypes, but some of the rules of the Shinya that some people
might say, Oh, that's not fair, that they'd be like that for a
woman but not be like that for a man and or that be like that for a
man but it's not like that for a woman. One of the ways that we can
understand it is through that understanding the active passive
nature is that yes, in certain situations, that in the family
structure, that there are certain outcome that give the male certain
rights in the relationship, the husband,
but then in another relationship, is it that same female that when
previously in that relationship, she was a spouse, a wife, is that
now that she's a mother or she's a teacher?
is that there are certain rights that the city gives her. So, the
same person that is at one time active in one relationship is
passive and another that same male that is active again archetype Lee
speaking in that relationship and he explains it here as support and
that taking care of someone is passive in relation to his
teachers passive in relation to his boss at work passive in
relation to his parents and again was meant to be passive here is
not that you just are always receiving, but archetype Lee
speaking, it really helps for us to see things like this, because
then you start to realize is that everything has a passive and
active nature. And what that solves is this problem that people
have is like, I don't want to be passive in this situation. Right?
Everything is active and passive have a deal with Allah is that
when you're supposed to be active, have a dip in terms of how you're
active when you're supposed to be passive, have a dip in terms of
how your passive Ark again archetypically speaking, and that
solves a lot of these problems that people have in these hangups,
that many of which are as a result of them being infected by a
worldview that is foreign, to the way that we are taught to see
things. There's a lot more that's there. That's all that we have
time for now, but inshallah Tada. We will stop there and continue
on.
I apologize. We never leave time for questions. I will be I'm
committed to leaving time for questions because I know some of
these topics really require questions, especially when talking
to his efforts and costs. He's always aching to ask a question I
can tell you when I see a question.
I understand that well. We only have a few minutes before Isha so
I'm just going to hear a casita. But in sha Allah I'm going to be
committed to sha Allah allowing at least five if not 10 minutes in
the future for questions every session but I need reminders and
then someone that maybe that was David the shadow was just to walk
out to indicate to me Okay, Hollis wrap it up. Time for q&a. Michelle
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