Yahya Rhodus – Session 1- Intro to Book 20 & Allahs Refinement of the Prophet
AI: Summary ©
Al's virtual retreat for Al's book on Prophetic books is organized by Al's organization, and participants participate in a series of workshops on natural rhythm, the holy month, and personal behavior. The importance of understanding the natural rhythm of the universe, the holy month, and the holy month in relation to personal behavior is emphasized. A trainer discusses a person as a good person and the most experienced person in the world, while a brief advertisement for a book describes a person as a good person and the most experienced person in the world.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, wa
rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, wa
rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, wa rahmatullahi ma wahibiyan kareemani
ya rahiman judu wa ajil bih ma
talib man tawajjah nahwa babik ma
raj'a min dhaka kha'ib waghfir ighfir
dhanba abdeen qad ata nahwaka ta
'ib salawatullah uslillah
ta'ib wa ta'umul ala jama'an
kawakib man tawajjah nahwa
babik ma raj'a min dhaka kha'ib
waghfir ighfir dhanba abdeen qad ata
nahwaka ta'ib salawatullah
uslillah ta'ib wa ta
'umul ala jama'an
kawakib Allahumma salli wa sallim wa
barik alayhi wa ala alihi Allahumma
salli wa sallim wa barik alayhi wa ala
alihi As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu
MashaAllah, welcome everyone, I'll say it again As
-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu We want
to welcome you all on behalf of Al
-Maqasid to our weekend retreat on Book 20
of the Ihya Al-Muddin, Kitab Adab Al
-Ma'isha Wa Akhlaq Al-Nubuwa The retreat
has been titled On Prophetic Characteristics And so
we've been brought together this evening walhamdulillah and
this weekend for a truly distinct honor and
purpose inshaAllah and this will become I hope
clearer and clearer with each passing moment each
passing session and each day This is an
opportunity really for all of us that we
pray we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala
we'll be full of blessings of meanings, of
openings, and of ataya, of gifts from Him
subhana wa ta'ala and in these hours
inshaAllah we'll be studying one of the greatest
works of our tradition, the Ihya Al-Muddin
of Imam Al-Ghazali about which was said
as we've repeated many times retreat after retreat
by Al-Imam Al-Nawawi that were all
of the books of our tradition to be
lost the Ihya Al-Muddin would suffice to
replace them and about which was also said
لو بعث الله الموتى لما أوصل أحياء إلا
بما في الإحياء if Allah subhana wa ta
'ala was to raise the dead they would
give the living no advice other than what
is contained in the Ihya and that is
again an indication of how comprehensive how sufficient,
how holistic it is in representing the deen
and this weekend in particular we are favored
and we are honored with what is called
a khatim of this work a completion of
the reading of this work so as our
mashayikh, as our teachers will elaborate upon the
Ihya is constructed of 40 books or chapters
we began approximately 10 years ago with book
21 and we now complete that cycle وَالْحَمْدُ
لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ with book 20 and so
this is a very momentous occasion for Al
-Maqasid, for our local and for everyone who
is blessed to be a part of this
journey وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ and it's a very auspicious
time as well and even further perhaps it's
I think even more auspicious that we are
studying this particular book as the culmination of
our journey this is book 20 which is
in essence a book of the shama'il
of the Prophet ﷺ his blessed characteristics and
his traits and his habits his miracles for
those who have had a chance to preview
the book and alhamdulillah you've received this beautiful
handout which I'm holding which details mashallah what
the sessions will cover and has ample space
for your notes as well and so this
book it's as if to say that the
ihya' al-muddin is a summarization of the
deen itself and this book in particular is
the pinnacle of that in that we know
that the oft-repeated and very well-known
hadith of the Prophet ﷺ إِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ لِيُتَمِّمَ
مَكَارِمًا أَخْلَاقًا that verily I was only sent
emphatically he stated this to us ﷺ to
perfect or to really bring to the culmination
of good character and so this is our
aim بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى this is our prayer
to our Lord ﷺ that he will gather
us upon this intention inshallah and that we
will be able to realize inshallah some of
its meanings بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ and so with that
we will transition quickly to some housekeeping announcements
just given I think some of the uniqueness
of our logistical needs and considerations this retreat
before we go directly into session one and
so just as a note alhamdulillah which is
really again our honor and our pleasure we
have probably the largest amount of registrants of
any of our weekend retreats inshallah ta'ala
and so with that alhamdulillah again we're honored
by this and we're pleased by this but
the facilities do require a little bit of
finessing if you will so that we can
make everything work and so we ask that
everyone is patient and perhaps this is a
great opportunity for us to actually enact and
put into practice that which we'll be learning
about the prophetic characteristics having patience having hilm
having forbearance with one another with everyone who's
here inshallah so please note that with the
large numbers we have a couple of unique
considerations the ribat this space is the main
space for all sessions but there are ample
overflow spaces as well so the lounges for
both men and women are dedicated spaces for
that as well as in this building upstairs
there's a classroom that is labeled the khairat
classroom it is dedicated for the men overflow
in the basement of this building we also
have overflow space for both men and women
and then there will be tents outside that
you'll inshallah have dinner in those tents will
also serve as overflow spaces we have a
tent for the men and a tent for
the women inshallah we also have overflow restroom
spaces and spaces for wuboo and so there
are of course the main restrooms on each
side for the men and the women respectively
but in the basement of this building there
is one restroom dedicated to our brothers and
in the stone house which is the building
to the back of the trail that some
of you may have parked at the restrooms
there of which there are three are dedicated
to the sisters there's a lot to keep
in mind here but ultimately what we ask
is that if you have any needs or
any questions our volunteers are more than happy
to assist they're all wearing khidmah badges which
you can identify hopefully but if not feel
free to ask any one of us as
the organizers to assist or direct you inshallah
and with that we also have a child
care program and a youth program that will
begin tomorrow starting with a 9.45am drop
off the locations are as follows and we'll
repeat them but inshallah the youngest children ages
3-5 will be in the stone house
that building again where the expanded where the
overflow parking lot is the children that are
age 6-8 will be in the green
barn which is a building to my left
and your right down the path here along
with the boys age 9-12 and then
the girls age 9-12 will also be
in the stone house inshallah an additional note
just about what we call the Al Maqasid
Campus Bookstore that will also be open during
select hours which we'll make note of in
the food tents inshallah ta'ala and then
just a final logistical consideration before we share
a note about the program and conclude is
that all of the materials that you are
seeing before you all of the materials that
we'll be referencing throughout this weekend are available
online at www.almaqasid.org slash on hyphen
prophetic hyphen characteristics there's also a sort of
app that we've developed for each retreat the
link for that has also been sent out
but we can send it out over the
telegram but if you don't go to that
website or haven't been added to or joined
the telegram then of course we won't be
able to send those so please do take
a moment in the break to access that
site join the telegram and access that app
the books outline the retreat's schedule and the
summaries all of the adhkar and awrad that
we'll be reading all of the recitations are
all detailed there along with any needed urls
and then finally with regard to the program
it is always intended to be comprehensive and
holistic the three pillars the three sort of
objectives here al maqasid al thalatha that inform
everything that is done here are knowledge, devotion
and service ilm, suluk and da'wa and
it is with that spirit in mind that
this program has been crafted we do have
a slightly lengthier program than usual beginning as
early as 5 as you see today and
concluding later than usual on Sunday but still
we have infused every aspect of the program
with elements of knowledge seeking knowledge from our
teachers sitting at their feet as we study
this blessed work devotion and dhikr as we
gather before the prayers after the prayers in
the morning and in the evening to recite
blessed compilations from the sunnah of our Prophet
ﷺ and service inshaAllah first and foremost we
are at your service but also we encourage
everyone to be in the service of each
other and to take from this retreat that
which you can be of service with to
those to whom you return bi-idhnillah and
with that inshaAllah I will pass it over
to Sayyidi Shaykh Yahya Roris for session one
barakAllahu feekum wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi ta'ala
wa barakatuh Bismillah, just before we start if
I can just get everybody in the habit
we're going to have to really pack in
very tightly this weekend this is just the
beginning so if we could just have everybody
move in and just what we want to
get in the habit of just, I want
to offer come all the way over here
let's get in the habit of filling up
all these spaces here we can even have
people come to the right here inshaAllah it's
going to be less of an issue tonight
but more of an issue tomorrow so let's
just get in the habit of as we
come into the musalla try to stay as
close as you can as they say al
-zahmah, rahmah and that having a tight space
is a mercy from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala samal khayat and al-ahbab maydan the
eye of a needle for those that love
each other is a very vast open space
Bismillahir rahmanir rahim alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa sallallahu
ala sayyidina muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
wa sallim ajma'een subhanaka la ilmanana illa
ma'allamtana innaka anta al-'alim wal hakeem wa
la hawla wa la quwwata illa billahi al-'alil
adheem alhamdulillah this is a great, great blessing
to be here and this is a very
special retreat for more than one reason first
and foremost we are going to be studying
book 20 of Ihya l-Middin and if
you divide 40 by 2 you get 20
this book is right at the heart and
the essence and the core of this blessed
work this monumental work of and because it
deals with the Prophet Muhammad who is the
heart and core and spirit of this entire
deen this is the heart, core and spirit
of this entire book everything in it essentially
what we are learning we are learning the
deen of the Prophet and how to resemble
him and to be like him and essentially
this is a book of this is a
book of prophetic characteristics as you will see
in the introduction shortly the second reason this
is so special we've been doing these retreats
for about 11 years now the first retreat
that we had was in 2013 in West
Virginia we rented a house actually we didn't
rent it it was my family's uncle's house
and many of the people who came to
the first summer retreat that we did which
was in 2013 came to that retreat we
kind of packed into this house and people
were sleeping all over the place and Alhamdulillah
it was a very blessed occasion and after
that our second retreat we did we rented
a house in Chesapeake Bay and then the
third retreat we again rented I think in
West Virginia and then after that Alhamdulillah we
eventually got this spot and we've been doing
these retreats for many years and eventually we
developed the cadence of doing five books of
the Ihya year five weekend programs a year
and if you include the summer retreat which
is separate essentially we have six retreats for
the year and Alhamdulillah we've now come full
circle we started with the Rub' Al-Muhalikat
the Quarter on Destructive Vices and in this
regard the intention behind it was to follow
our teachers who when they started teaching the
Ahl al-Badin in particular our teacher Sayyid
al-Habib Omar he started with the Quarter
on Destructive Vices many years ago in Tarim
and that's a class that takes place once
a week on Wednesday nights and has been
going on for many many years and now
they've come around such that they're in the
first quarter Alhamdulillah that we've been able to
read all through the third quarter and then
the fourth quarter and then come back to
the first quarter and now we're in the
very last book of what is really the
second quarter the Rub' Al-Adat and this
is how Imam al-Azadi radiyallahu anhu ends
this blessed quarter and as we will see
he wanted to include the without repeating many
of the other etiquettes that he already mentioned
he wanted to include a book on the
prophetic character and so this is a very
blessed book and the reason why we are
reading through the whole book is because everything
and really in everything in all of the
chapters of every book of the Ahliya is
important but this is especially important because it
pertains to Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
so one of our intentions should be from
now from this moment until the end of
this retreat which will be on Sunday night
bi-idni lillahi ta'ala and I know
people have at work often times on Monday
if you can stay until the very end
it's a good idea you can take Monday
off it's a great idea you can get
a little bit less sleep and to make
sure you're here for the khatam that's a
very good idea if you're able to if
you have flights they can still be changed
so we encourage everybody to stay all the
way until the end bi-idni lillahi ta
'ala and we should make the intention from
now that this be a means for us
to attain closeness to the best of creation
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and that we develop
love in our heart for him sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam this whole weekend we're going to
be speaking about him so this is a
golden opportunity and so we should remind ourselves
every time that we hear his blessed name
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or any of his
name sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or any of
his words sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or any
of his attributes we should just keep saying
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam it will be his
name will be mentioned so many times this
weekend we will be sending in the hundreds
if not in the thousands of salat and
salam upon him just in hearing his name
and this blessed work and so everything that
speaks of him just say sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam we don't want to be bakhil we
learned about the bakhil in the khutbah today
that the bakhil is baeed min Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala baeed min al jannah that
he is distant from Allah ta'ala and
distant from paradise and our prophet said is
that the bakhil the miserly one is who
when he hears my name mentioned that he
doesn't send salawat upon me so we should
always that perfume our hearts and our tongues
and then those around us with blessed salawat
upon the blessed of creation sallallahu alayhi wa
alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam and one of
the things that we will be learning when
we learn about his physical characteristics and then
we learn about his that internal characteristics and
then we learn about things that were related
to him outwardly is that this gives us
an ability to use our imaginations for the
greatest purpose possible which is to reflect upon
higher meanings and this will inshallah ta'ala
be I'm divulging from now to encourage you
all to come the object of reflection tomorrow
morning we will reflect upon the line of
the Buddha Sharifah of Imam Busayri wa man
huwa al-ayatul kubra li mu'tabiran and where
he speaks about the prophet as the greatest
sign of Allah ta'ala so we're going
to contemplate that meaning ponder it deeply and
see if we can have a renewed relationship
and receive an opening and a connection to
that reality biidin Allah ta'ala so with
that we will start inshallah ta'ala may
Allah give us tawfiq and open up our
hearts and may the light of these blessed
meanings penetrate deep within and may every word
that we read and every sentence that we
read and every paragraph that we read and
every page that we read that forever changes
and leave an indelible mark on the depth
of our being that opens up the doors
internally for us too that attain an intimate
relationship with the best of creation sallallahu alayhi
wa alayhi wasallam and if someone attains an
intimate relationship with the best of creation the
doors of all good open up for that
person and that person is preparing himself to
fulfill his purpose on earth which is none
other than to know Allah jalla jalaluh all
doors are closed to draw near to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala from the time that
he was sent and became a prophet and
given his blessed message except through him sallallahu
alayhi wa alayhi wasallam and that he is
the greatest way for us to draw near
to our Lord is to believe in Allah
and to believe in him and to believe
in Allah how he taught us to believe
in him and then follow him inwardly and
outwardly may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give
us tawfiq ya arham al rahim bismillah so
this is kitabu adab al ma'ishati wa
akhlaq al nabuwwah and so here this is
the book on adab which is the plural
of adab translate that as you wish etiquettes
propieties however you choose to translate adab so
this is the plural so this is a
book of adab and this is a book
of akhlaq and so ma'isha here refers
to our life our affairs everything that we
do in relation to life so this is
really about prophetic living it's about prophetic living
and at the outset we should say there
is nothing more important for us than to
imbibe the prophetic character especially in these lands
prophetic living we don't want to just talk
about these meanings we want to live them
and we want people to experience the messenger
of Allah s.a.w. through us we
want people to experience the messenger of Allah
s.a.w. through us and every time
we even no matter how imperfectly reflect one
of his character traits s.a.w. people
will then experience Rasulullah s.a.w. through
us and when people experience the messenger of
Allah through us and they start to taste
the sweetness of his deen and the light
that then hits their heart they will come
to know that far from what people are
saying about Muslims they will realize that this
is truth and this is the final revelation
and he is the final prophet and one
of his name is Al-Aqib he is
the last in succession of a long legacy
of prophets and Alhamdulillah here we are 1400
plus years later in Makanji Pennsylvania speaking about
the best of creation but that's not a
sign that Allah wanted good for humanity then
what is this property that you have that
we have next to you here if you
walk by if you're going to the parking
over there look on the stone house building
and you will see that it was built
in 1804 so who would have thought that
in 1804 this was mostly fields and farms
and agriculture and things like that here who
would have thought that fast forward 120 years
and that Muslims are here in these lands
that concentrating in these lands with the remembrance
of Allah calling the Adhan and sending salawat
upon our Prophet ﷺ so Kitab Adab Al
-Ma'isha so this is about the etiquettes
that we need for life and prophetic character
Akhlaq is the plural of Khulq and Khulq
is an individual trait of character and the
character traits of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ so
Imam Ghazali r.a says Alhamdulillahi allathee khalaqa
kulla shay'an fa ahsana khalqahu wa tarteeba
actually forgot the oh it's not upstairs anyone
have the translation with them here no I'm
actually going to use that one they sent
out the PDF of the translation did they
not they did it's on the website it's
on the app okay let me just pull
that up here and we're essentially
going to go through word by word let
me just pull this up here now
we're using a different one okay that decided
not to open okay just bear with me
very briefly here this is Alhamdulillah have a
very organized dropbox no that's the summary is
that the one they sent out hmm that's
the one they sent out okay no we
actually have to send out another one can
you have them send out the one from
Medina Institute yeah because that's the full translation
words that's the abridgment what was that translations
there we go I'm actually going to send
this to you now Manik and then just
have them send this out right away got
it all right Bismillah okay
so it'll be coming to you soon this
is one that will will go off of
and it's a PDF that's Medina Institute it's
been translated adeptly by Sidi Abdelaziz Soraka so
it's a very good translation and we're going
to be going through that May Allah reward
our brothers in Medina Institute for putting this
out for us so Bismillah Alhamdulillah who created
everything so he says praise be to God
who created everything and excelled in his creation
and arrangement thereof and this is reminiscent of
a verse of the Quran when Allah S
.W.T. says Allah S.W.T. is
the one who created everything and that created
everything with proper measure everything is being created
exactly according to the way that the Lord
of the heavens and the earth, wisdom dictates.
So fa ahsana khalqahu wa tarteeba, everything has
been created by him in the most beautiful
ways and that he has ordered it, tabaraka
wa ta'ala, wa addaba nabiyyuhum muhammadan sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam fa ahsana ta'deeba.
He is the one who taught his Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam propriety, adab, and
excelled in his teaching.
And so this comes from a blessed hadith
of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
and there are multiple narrations despite the weakness
in some of the chains that collectively can
be used for this purpose, addabani rabbi fa
ahsana ta'deebi.
And so one of the greatest signs of
all of our Prophet's Prophethood is how he
reached such high degrees and really the highest
degree of human perfection even though he was
orphaned.
His father passed away when he was in
his mother two months into his mother's womb
according to the dominant opinion.
And then even his mother passed away when
he was young sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
But despite that he was the most perfect
human being ever and had the very best
adab and the very best of character.
And we should always when we think of
adab connect the meanings of adab to abudiyah,
to servitude.
And no one was a servant of Allah
tabaraka wa ta'ala like the best of
creation.
And so Allah took it upon himself, inna
allaha addabani according to another hadith, Allah is
the one who that taught the pronunciation of
adab directly.
And he is the one who refined him
and he is the one who taught him
everything that it is that he needed to
know sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam.
And then Imam al-Ghazali says And
Allah ta'ala is the one who, having
purified his traits and virtues, took him as
his chosen and his beloved.
Allah ta'ala that took the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam as his beloved.
And this is always amazing to think about
people who question the place of love in
Islam and they know that one of the
greatest names of their Prophet is Habibullah, the
Beloved of Allah.
He is the Beloved of Allah, how could
people question that love has something to do
with Islam?
Not only does it have something to do
with Islam, it's the foundation, it's the greatest
motivating factor on the path and it's the
greatest goal that can possibly be achieved and
that all of the bliss in paradise that
will stem from our degree that we attain
of love of Allah and his Messenger and
of course that the following that takes place
after that.
وَوَفَّقَ لِلْإِقْتِدَاءِ بِهِ مَنْ أَرَادَ تَهْذِيبَةً Those for
whom Allah wills spiritual refinements are granted the
good fortune of following him.
اِقْتِدَاء, it's similar in Arabic to اِتِّبَع وَحَرَمَ
عَنَ الْتَخَلُّكُ بِأَخْلَاكِ مَنْ أَرَادَ تَخْيِيبَةً While those
for whom Allah wills misfortune are kept from
emulating him and adopting his traits of character.
And so in other words that if you
want to know whom Allah wants to bring
close to him, see who is closer and
following the best of creation ﷺ.
And if you think about this, we know
this as believers deep within ourselves but then
it's amazing how we get lured into following
people that لَا خَلَاكَ لَهُمْ They have no
portion of the Hereafter.
I was meaning to mention a story last
night that I forgot in the context of
himmah and I was talking about how all
worldly aspirations essentially are lowly.
It doesn't mean that they're wrong, all of
them.
You could do something of this world for
the sake of Allah and get great reward
for it.
But the point is they're all considered to
be lowly compared to aspirations of the Hereafter.
And they say eventually what we want is
to reach a state where we are removed
from the clutch of the world.
And the shahawat which create these connections and
attachments is that we might be in the
world but we're not of the world to
the extent that we allow the dunya to
take hold of us and keep us attached
through the desires that we have for it
is to the extent that we're in the
clutch of the dunya.
And then he mentioned this story where there
was this wazir, a minister who was very
wealthy and had a lot of servants and
was walking outside one time with his retinue
of people and all the people who are
there to welcome.
You know you just accidentally come across these
videos when you're trying to do something good
on Instagram and it was like there's this
video of this son of the richest man
in Asia walking through the Dubai mall.
Like who cares?
Like and what?
And there's all these people around him and
no one can come close to him and
this type of thing and it's just people
are like oh my goodness the son of
the richest man in Asia, wow.
And you know this whole mystique around these
people and draw.
And so there was this minister was walking
outside with his retinue and his pomp and
all of his everything that was with him
and all these people came around, who is
this?
Who is this?
And there was an older lady on the
side of the road and she finally said
to him, how many times are you going
to say who is this?
Like essentially why are you looking at this
person?
He said this is someone who has fallen
from the divine favor and then look at
the state that he's in.
So all these other people were looking at
him with awe and that essentially wanting to
be like him and wishing that they would
have and this lady who understood, she was
an older lady, said to him, this is
the type of people that you want to
be like.
And think about how many people are like
that.
And people have a lot of influence, people
that have a lot of money, people that
have a lot of dunya.
So many of us and so many Muslims,
we get lured into this and we actually
follow these people and actually lend an ear
to these people and we actually let these
people willingly into our hearts.
The people who Allah loves are those whom
He gives tawfiq to follow the best of
creation and to resemble Him.
And our teachers emphasize this point over and
over and over and over and over again
because they know how many iltifatat, how much
the time which we live, people are turning
to other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
to turning to other than what is pleasing
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And then he says, وَصَلَّ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ سَيِّدِنَ
مُحَمَّدٍ سَيِّدٍ مُرْسَنِينَ وَعَلَىٰ أَهْلِيَ طَيِّبِيِّينَ أَلْطَهِرِينَ
وَسَلَّمْ كَثِيرًا And may Allah send plentiful blessings
and salutations upon our master Muhammad, master of
the messengers and upon his fine and pure
family.
أَمَّا بَعْدَ To proceed.
So this is one of the interesting things
about this book.
There are very few words of Imam al
-Ghazali himself.
Most of it is just narrations.
Very few words.
Most of the book, almost all of the
book in fact, are just narrations about the
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
But he does mention this.
فَإِنَّ أَدَابَ الْغَوَاهِرِ أَنْوَانُ أَدَابَ الْبَوَاطِنِ Certainly, the
proprieties of the outward are the sign of
the proprieties of the inward.
So the way someone is outwardly is indicative
of what is transpiring internally.
So whenever we are people of adab outwardly,
this is a sign that we are people
of adab internally.
In other words, the outward stems from the
inward and not the other way around.
Yes, the outward can affect positively the inward,
however, the inward is what really affects the
outward.
The outward stems from your state of heart
inwardly.
And the greatest adab of all internally that
we need to have is correct belief in
Allah.
And then there's a long list of others.
Then he says, وَحَرَكَاتِ الْجَوَارِحِ ثَمَرَاتُ الْخَوَاتِرِ And
so the movements of our limbs are the
fruits of passing thoughts.
ثَمَرَةَ الْخَوَاتِرِ This is a very important word
for the science of tasawwuf, for the interternal
state of the heart.
A خَوَاتِرِ is a passing thought.
And the three most important types of thoughts
are thoughts that are from angels, thoughts that
are from demons, and thoughts that are egotistical,
from the ego.
These are the three main categories of thoughts.
So everything that we do with our limbs
ultimately stems from a thought when it relates
to voluntary action that we are taken to
account for.
وَالْأَعْمَالَ نَتِيجَةُ الْأَخْلَاقِ Moreover, deeds, things that we
do are the outcome of virtues, of literally
traits of character.
It's a very important statement there.
And again, much of this we know, but
this is to hammer it into the heart
and finalize it once and for all so
that there's absolutely no doubt about this.
And then we spend the rest of our
lives based upon that sound, certain knowledge of
this reality, trying to nurture and cultivate the
meanings of faith and etiquette in the heart
so that it then manifests outwardly.
And this is why when the heart's good
and sound, naturally only what is good will
flow freely on the limbs.
So the اعمال, the plural of عمل, your
acts that you do, they're a نتيجة, they're
a result of your اخلاق.
And then he says وَالْآدَابَ الرَّشْحُ الْمَعَارِفِ And
proprieties, this is how he's translating آداب, are
the distillation of sciences.
Now that requires a little bit more deeper
of an understanding.
And this word here, رَشْح, is the word
that you would use to like sprinkle water,
and as if that something is pouring over.
In other words, مَعَارِف here, he translates it
as sciences, but really what he's meant by
here is that knowledge that you and I
have of Allah تبارك وتعالى in particular, or
that which brings us close to Him, because
it's here in the plural.
And so what happens naturally if you have
authentic knowledge in your heart, knowledge of Allah,
knowledge of this دين, that رَشْح, it pours
over and spills over into everything that is
that you do outward, so these will then
be your اداب.
And it will lead you to being a
person of اداب, inwardly and outwardly.
And then he goes on to say, وَسَرَائِلَ
الْقُلُوبِ هِيَ مَغَارِسُ الْأَفْعَالِ وَمَنَابِعُهَا The innermost contents
of the hearts are the bedding grounds and
sources of actions.
So سَرِيرَ, which is the singular of سَرَائِل,
is one of the words used for the
internal state of the human being.
Here that it's مضاف to القلوب.
So the hearts, the innermost contents of the
hearts as he translates it here, هِيَ مَغَارِسُ,
a مَغْرَس is literally the place that you
plant something.
And a منبع is the source of something.
So in other words, is that the seed
of all action is in the heart.
And if the heart's rotten, the action's going
to be rotten.
And if the heart is poisoned, there's going
to be poison in the action.
So it's the مَغَرَس, it's the place that
you plant something.
And it's the منبع, it's the source.
And the منبع here could be the source
in the sense of, that likely here in
terms of, that you imagine water that coming
out of the ground, the source in that
sense.
وَأَنْوَارَ السَّرَائِرِ هِيَ لَتِي تُشْرِكُ عَلَى الظَّوَاهِرِ فَتُزَيِّنُهَا
وَتُجَلِّهَا And then he says, And it is
the lights of the innermost contents that dawn
on the outward and adorn and beautify them.
So the انوار, again, lights of the سرائر,
the internal dimension of the human being.
These are what radiate outwardly.
So if there's light in the heart, it's
going to radiate to the limbs.
And the limbs are going to be illuminated
from the illumination in the heart.
And from again, over and over again, you
start to see why.
It's so important that we open up our
eyes and we open up our ears to
listen carefully to the Book of Allah تبارك
وتعالى.
What happens when that light comes to the
heart?
What happens when we hear the blessed hadith
of our Prophet ﷺ?
We allow ourselves to hear beautiful poetry of
the عَرَفٍ بِاللَّهِ.
We read the books of this deen, the
books of the various sciences that we need
to learn, but then also the books that
are meant for the heart.
What happens to the heart?
It becomes filled with light.
And then as a result, what happens is
that that dawn on the outward and adorn
and beautify them.
So that light which radiates outwardly, it adorns
and that it beautifies the various limbs.
وَتُبَدِّلُوا بِالْمَحَاسِنِ مَكَارِيْهَا وَمَسَاوِيْهَا And then, substituting
their offensive and evil traits for good traits.
So it's really interesting he's saying this now
because in the next book, Book 21, it's
where he starts to speak about the internal
dimension of the deen which relates to the
heart.
So Book 21, for those that want to
join us in February, is personally a retreat
I would not miss.
Not because we're here, but because of the
book that we're going to be studying.
And Book 21 of the Ihya is one
of the most amazing books in the entire
Ihya.
And it's one of the most important in
order for us to really see Imam al
-Ghazali at work in this beautiful balance between
aql and naql.
In his use of the sharia sciences and
the way that he interweaves into that other
knowledge that was available to him during his
time.
And brings it together for us to understand
the importance of the heart.
Book 21 is Kitab Sharh Aja'ib al
-Qalb.
The book on the explanation of the wonders
of the heart.
So what happens is when the heart radiates,
is that it changes people's evil traits into
good traits.
It's light that's going to do that.
So light, if you will, is purificatory.
And this is why Imam al-Ghazali was
one of them and other scholars said this
as well.
I sought knowledge for other than the sake
of Allah, but knowledge refused to be sought
except for the sake of Allah.
Why?
Because sacred knowledge is coated with light.
It purifies you.
And it's as if you're bathing in light
and it just purifies you.
And burns away all that evil traits within
the human being.
And then he says, وَمَنْ لَمْ يَخْشَعْ قَلْبُهُ
لَمْ تَخْشَعْ جَوَادِحُهُ He whose heart is not
humbled will not have humbled limbs.
In other words, whose heart is not in
a state of reverence, they will surely not
be in a state of reverence outwardly in
relation to their limbs.
And when our Prophet ﷺ saw someone playing
around, Ya'bath, in his prayer, the Prophet
then commented, لَوْ خَشَعَ قَلْبُهَذَا لَا خَشَعَ جَوَادِحَ
Were that person's heart to be in a
state of reverential awe of Allah, his limbs
would be still.
And so, there's this big thing now in
modern pseudo-spirituality about stillness.
The art of stillness.
And these types of things.
And that putting the pseudo-spiritual side of
that aside, is that there's truth to this,
but in a true religious sense.
And the way to that, the greatest way
to that is the Sunnah of our Prophet
ﷺ.
And when the heart is filled with Iman,
and knows that it has a Creator, and
is aware that that Creator sees him at
all times, خَلَص That reverential awe leads that
person's limbs outwardly to be still.
And this is one of the greatest traits
that we need to have when we are
standing before Allah in prayer.
And then finally he says, وَمَنْ لَمْ يُكُنْ
صَدْرُهُ مِشْكَاتِ الْأَنْوَارِ الْإِلَٰهِيَّةِ لَمْ يُفِدْ عَلَى الظَّهْرِ
جَمَالُ الْآدَابِ نَبَوِيَّ And this translates, And he
whose heart is not a niche of divine
lights, will not receive an outpouring of the
beautiful prophetic proprieties upon his outward.
So essentially what he's saying here is, is
that this whole affair is one of the
heart.
The key to adab, to etiquettes, the key
to akhlaq, character traits, is to focus on
the state of one's heart and to align
it to the sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad
ﷺ.
So now we will read mostly in English
for the remaining part of the introduction.
He then goes on to say, I had
resolved to conclude the quarter on the daily
habits, so the second quarter of the Ahl
al-Madin, of this book with a comprehensive
book detailing the proprieties of living, lest it
prove difficult for a seeker to extract them
from the rest of the book.
So he's going to compile it and all
the other chapters that he mentioned in one
book.
He says though, I realized however, that each
book of the quarter of daily habits had
already covered a number of proprieties.
And I found it burdensome to repeat them,
for repetition is tiresome and it is the
nature of souls to dislike repetition.
As such, I saw fit to limit myself
in this book and mention only the proprieties
and virtues of Allah's Messenger ﷺ, that are
related from him through tradition.
Yani indi blessed ahadith of our Prophet ﷺ.
So I set them forth section by section,
without their chains of transmission, Isnads, in order
they be brought together here along with all
of the proprieties, a renewal and re-emphasis
of faith through the witnessing of the Prophet's
noble character traits.
Allahu Akbar and this is what happens that
when we spend time with our Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam what does he say here
that along with a renewal and re-emphasis
of faith through witnessing of the Prophet's noble
character traits sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, tajdeedil iman
wa taqiduhu, so your faith is renewed and
then it is made stronger and it is
re-emphasized and then he says a single
one of which unequivocally testifies that he is
the noblest of Allah's creation exalted is he
the loftiest of them in rank and the
greatest of them in esteem so what say
you of all his virtues combined and the
more you come to know about him sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam and the more you come
to know about his virtues the more you
come to know about his character the more
you come to know about his miracles the
more you come to know about his teachings
the more you come to know about him
in every aspect the stronger your faith becomes
because you start to realize it is impossible
that all of that be gathered in one
human being without divine intervention I shall mention
in addition to his virtues his physical form
followed by mention of his miracles his more
Jesus that are authentically reported in the traditions
in order that they articulate his noble qualities
of character and nature lift the cover of
deafness from the ears of those who deny
his prophethood it is a law who grants
the enabling grace to him inmate the master
of messengers and character virtues and all their
signposts of the religion indeed he is the
guide of the perplexed who answers the supplications
of those in dire need and a lot
of barakah is the guide of the perplexed
of her new attire and he answers the
supplication of the most poverty those who have
turned to him completely and he is the
one that we recite in the blessed weird
hair of your mom had dad after the
horror that yeah we are the most everything
that Oh helper of those seeking help we
are the most everything yeah we are the
most everything when you're most of these you're
crying out for him and he is the
one subhanahu wa'ta'ala who helps you had
Derek and had a keen that Oh Savior
of those are about to destroy themselves the
haddock is the one who's being destroyed and
a lot to that is the one who
saves you that you are the one who
saves the one who is destroying himself subhanahu
wa'ta'ala so he's the Mujib Dawood and
what the Monterey he was the one who
answers the call of the one who is
in dire need and so then he lays
out how he's going to approach this let
us first present an exposition of Allah's teaching
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam propriety adab
by means of the Quran which shall be
followed by concise yet comprehensive account of his
virtuous character traits a summary account of his
proper proprieties and virtues an exposition of his
speech and laughter an exposition of his proprieties
and virtues with food an exposition of his
proprieties and virtues with dress an exposition of
his parting despite his ability not to an
exposition of his overlooking of things he disliked
an exposition of his generosity and munificence and
exposition of his bravery and courage an exposition
of his humility and exposition of his countenance
in physical form and an exposition of his
comprehensive miracles and proofs that Allah sent him
with sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa
sallam so that is Imam Ghazali's introduction and
then inshallah we will briefly cover the chapter
1 which is for those that have received
the PDF it says 20.1 an exposition
of Allah's teaching his chosen and beloved Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam propriety by means of
the Quran so he says here كان رسول
الله صلى الله عليه وسلم كثير الدراعة والابتهال
دائم السوال من الله تعالى أن يزينه بمحاسن
الاداب ومكارم الخلاق the messenger of Allah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam was constant in his humility
and submissiveness ever asking Allah exalted is he
to adorn him with excellent manners and noble
qualities of character and so this is the
best of creation who had the most perfect
character he's teaching us this is how we
should be so we take from that if
our Prophet was constantly and continuously asking Allah
in a state of humility and submissiveness for
good character this is something we should do
good character is that important and we should
do the same thing and so then he
goes on to mention here that our Prophet
saying اللهم حسن خلقي وخلقي اللهم جنبني مكرات
الأخلاق and that he would pray Oh Allah
adorn my form in character and Oh Allah
turn me away from ill character and so
the first one is narrated by Abdullah Masood
and Sayyida Aisha اللهم أحسنت خلقي فأحسن خلقي
just as you have adorned my physical stature
adorn my character we also know in other
narrations our Prophet used to say this when
he would look in the mirror اللهم كما
حسنت خلقي فحسن خلقي teaching us to avoid
vanity and to notice the blessing of Allah
تبارك وتعالى upon us the point we should
be looking in the mirror is to that
find out defects that we want to remove
right if we're looking in the mirror for
a job and seeing all those reps you
know panning out how am I looking here
right how's that diet looking you know and
oh wow right we're impressed with how we
are preparing ourself to go out in public
that is not the purpose of looking in
a mirror and mirrors are actually a fit
and I started thinking about this actually ordered
a book I have it upstairs on this
and it's really amazing to think about how
many mirrors are do we come across in
the day-to-day in our society and
previously mirrors were much harder to come by
and they weren't as big they didn't have
these massive mirrors like almost every house an
apartment has in the United States of America
we go into the bathroom even in poor
areas and that half of the wall is
a mirror and that people do you have
tended to have smaller mirrors that they would
kind of be able to see themselves and
here and there but there wasn't this obsession
with looking in the mirror and that certainly
that the fact that there are so many
different mirrors this is a problem for us
because that it has led to a lot
of vanity and self-conceit by people having
the wrong intentions when they look in the
mirror and that wanting to look good wanting
to impress people wanting to be a certain
way for other people's approval that's not why
we look and that shouldn't be why we
look in a mirror that we should look
in the mirror ultimately to let see if
there's any defects do I need to remove
anything that is on my face or something
like that and that check what it is
that we're wearing to make sure I would
ask cover whatever it might be and then
that to see the beautiful form that we've
been given and everybody is beautiful insofar as
their creation of Allah Ta'ala all the
beautiful skin tones all the beautiful types of
features these are signs of Allah Ta'ala
but you have adorned my physical stature adorn
my character meaning that what's really important is
our state of heart our character and we're
not taking to account for how we are
outwardly unless that we go against the sacred
law and do something that we're forbidden from
doing in relation to our that physical state
so our Prophet used to supplicate this regularly
and that the narration in Tirmidhi which is
slightly different to the one Imam Manawi mentions
is Allahumma inni a'udhuika min munkaratul akhlaaq
oh Allah I seek refuge in you from
that vile character ill character munkarat that bad
character wal a'maal wal ahwaa and from bad
actions and from misleading desires and another nation
wal adwaa and that different types of illnesses
and so our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
sought refuge in Allah Ta'ala from bad
character and then Imam Wazari goes on to
say and so Allah answered his supplication and
fulfillment of his words call upon me I
will answer you sending down to him the
Quran and inculcating him with proprieties through it
and thus his character was the Quran and
then we learned this famous narration which is
in Sahih Muslim that Sa'd Ibn Hisham said
I went to see Sayyida Aisha may Allah
be pleased with her and her father and
asked about the character of Allah's messenger so
again look at this blessed individual who's inspired
he wanted to go to learn about the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and what did
he do he went to Sayyida Aisha who
better to go to than the one who
knows him inside of the house and outside
of the house and sometimes we can put
on a mask and fool people outwardly but
the people that were up close with inside
the home know us much better than people
outside the house so he went to the
right person and so may Allah be pleased
with her and her father asked about the
character of Allah's messenger whereupon she said do
you not read the Quran that's all you
do you not read the Quran you want
to know about the messenger of Allah his
descriptions in the Quran this is a form
of a question but this is what she's
intending of course I said then she said
the character of Allah's messenger was the Quran
now there's many different levels here of meaning
one of them is that he sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam implemented the book of Allah Ta
'ala in a way that no one else
did and this is why his life is
like a tafsir of the book of Allah
Ta'ala another meaning there is he was
someone who practiced what he preached no one
practiced what they preached like our Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam he was perfectly aligned with
the very same message that he was teaching
and he was calling people to and in
fact that he himself called people to the
reality of that message with his state first
and foremost before he even spoke so there
was no discrepancy there and this is why
religious bigotry in religious hypocrisy is probably the
greatest thing that pushes people away from this
religion when they see people not putting their
knowledge into practice and then yet another level
and Imam as the BD mentions this and
quoting some of the scholars who came before
him that in reality that there is a
subtle indication here Imam Suhrawardy mentions this in
the awarif and ma'arif he says fihi
ramzun ghamidun wa imaun khafi'un ilal akhlaqa
rabbaniya so there's a roughly what he's saying
is there's a subtle indication here that what
she was referring to was a very lofty
meaning but essentially she clothed it out of
her adab with Allah subhana wa ta'ala
in a language that everybody could understand and
that this meaning of ta khalaqa bi akhlaqa
illa that human beings even though that we
have to be careful how we express this
there is a portion that human beings can
have in relation to the attributes of Allah
subhana wa ta'ala a very limited human
portion and Allah of course is absolutely different
from his creation so we're not saying that
we are like Allah he's absolutely different from
his creation but there are that there's very
deep meanings here and this is why many
of the books that explain the asma ala
al-husna the 99 beautiful names of Allah
will mention the portion that the human being
can have in that particular name okay so
for instance Allah is ar-Rahman the manifestation
of ar-Rahman in human beings is an
overwhelming mercy that they have in their hearts
for other people's otherworldly success whereas the manifestation
of Allah ar-Rahim is an overwhelming mercy
that they have in their hearts trying to
take care of people's worldly needs and so
in other words this is what it means
is that if Allah's ar-Rahman he's ar
-Rahim human beings can that have been abdur
-Rahman and in doing so have that mercy
for the otherworldly success of people and so
if Allah is al-Karim the generous human
beings can have a portion of that name
by being generous people here on earth and
so forth and so on and then you
have other names that tend to be more
internal like more the majestic names so for
instance the name of Allah al-Malik the
king in relation to the human being is
that we're supposed to be in charge of
our limbs and so the book of Seedah
ibn Umar translated that the kingdom of the
heart and limbs has been in control and
if you're in control of your kingdom which
is your heart and your limbs then you
have a share of that name of his
al-Malik subhanahu wa'ta'ala and it's limited
and it's always related to that our human
side of course but there is a reality
to this meaning and so some say that
this is what Seedah Aisha was really pointing
to and then Imam Ghazali goes on to
say وَإِنَّمَا أَدَّبَهُ الْقُرْآن بِمِثْرِي now he's going
to mention a number of verses the Quran
had inculcated in him adab propriety through the
likes of his words and he's going to
point to a number of verses here خُذْ
الْعَفْوَةِ وَأْمُرْ بِالْعُتْوِ وَأَعْلِلَنَّ الْجَاهِنِينَ keep to
forgiveness enjoying kindness and turn away from the
ignorant and then Allah says إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ
بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْغُرْوَ وَيَنْهَاءَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ
وَالْمُنكِرُ وَالْبَغْيِ Allah commands justice and excellence in
giving to relatives and he forbids indecency evil
and transgression now we don't have time to
go into a detailed commentary of these but
we will read them وَقَوْلِهِ تَعَالَى وَاصْبِرْ عَلَى
مَا أَصَابَكَ إِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ bear
with patience whatever befalls you for that is
of the matters that determine affairs وَقَوْلِهِ وَلَمَنْ
صَبَرَ وَغَفَرَ إِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ and
so pardon them and forgive them and for
the one who is patient and forgives that
is one of the matters that determine affairs
وَقَوْلِهِ فَاعْفُو عَنْهُمْ وَاسْفَحْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحَبِّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
so pardon them and forgive them for certainly
Allah loves those who act with excellence وَقَوْلِهِ
وَلْيَعْفُو وَلْيَصْفَحُونَ أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ إِنْ يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ
and let them pardon and forgive would you
not love for Allah to forgive you وَقَوْلِهِ
إِدْفَعْ بِالَّتِيهِ أَحْسَنُ فَإِذَا الَّذِي بَيْنَكَ وَبَيْنَهُ عَدَاوَةٌ
كَأَنْهُ وَلْيُّنْ حَمِيمٌ repel evil with that which
is better and then the one between you
and whom there is enmity will be as
an intimate friend وَالْقَاثِي مِنَ الْغَيْثِ وَالْعَافِينَ عَنَ
النَّاسِ وَاللَّهُ يُرْحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ those who restrain anger
and forgive people and Allah loves those of
spiritual excellence وَقَوْلِهِ إِجْتَنِي بُكَثِينَ مِنَ الْظَنِّ إِنَّ
بَعْضَ الْظَنِّ إِثَمٌ وَلَا تِجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْطَبْ بَعْضُ
فُمْ بَعْضَهُ shun much suspicion for indeed some
suspicion is sin and do not spy on
each other and do not backbite each other
so these are just examples the new ones
that is mentioning how the bet Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala taught the best of creation
through the quran and then he says here
when the prophet's upper molar tooth was broken
and he was wounded during the battle of
uhud and blood began to flow over his
face he wiped the blood saying how can
a people who dye the face of their
prophet with blood be successful why he invites
them to their lord whereupon allah revealed correcting
you have nothing to do with this decision
there are innumerable examples in the quran of
this inculcation of adab of propriety and in
the version that they sent out that stops
there in a previous version that they had
of uh the translation before i went public
and i need to speak to him i'm
not sure if they intentionally did this or
not there is in addition there's some other
things that imam was that he mentions in
this first chapter uh that were failed to
translate so we will just read through those
and then pause for dinner now
so he says here the prophet is the
primary recipient of this inculcation of propriety and
refinement and then light spreads from him to
the whole of creation everyone hear that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is the primary recipient
of this inculcation of adab and refinement and
then light spreads from him to the whole
of creation as such he was inculcated with
propriety by the quran and he in turn
inculcated the creation with propriety for this reason
he sallallahu alaihi wasallam said i was sent
to perfect the noble qualities of character thereafter
he made desirous for the creation to attain
good qualities of character such as those we
have mentioned in the book of disciplining the
soul and refining the character book 22 of
the al-madin which we will take by
the light i think somewhere around um april
and that again is also a book uh
not to dictate your schedule for the next
four months but i personally wouldn't miss on
that one either that's a really important book
to catch which we will not repeat here
when allah perfected his character he praised him
and said and indeed you have an exalted
standard of character and one of the things
just look at any picture of the muwajah
sharifah that screen that the prophet says behind
him you'll see there's different panels and there's
three different verses of the quran look to
the right and above the verse that's on
the right there's a line of poetry of
imam abdullah bin albi haddad and that line
of poetry nabiyoon azeemun khulukul khuluk ladheel lahu
azzam rahmani al rahmanu fi sayyidil qutbi that
a prophet whose character is the character that
the all-merciful has magnified and the master
of all books and so shaykh abdul hakim
said this is like his epitaph i.e
what you write on his grave in other
words pointing to the importance of character and
this is also a testimony to the wilayah
of imam haddad that that's still here to
this day in that very very very special
place and so when allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala perfected his character he praised him and
said this verse indeed and indeed you have
an exalted standard of character exalted as he
how tremendous is his sublimity and how complete
is his conferring of favors and considered his
far-reaching subtle kindness and magnificent bounty having
given him and praised him it is he
who adorned the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
with noble qualities of character and ascribed to
them saying and indeed you have an exalted
standard of character thereafter the messenger of a
god sallallahu alayhi wa sallam explained to mankind
that allah loves noble qualities of character and
detests low qualities of character and then saint
ali said how strange it is that a
muslim when his muslim brother comes to him
and he does not regard himself obliged to
do so for even if he did not
hope and recommend recompense or fear punishment it
was still necessary for him to hasten to
noble qualities of character for they point to
the paths of salvation upon hearing this a
man asked ali did you hear this from
allah's messenger and ali said yes and i
heard even better than this when the prisoners
of tayyib were brought they stood amongst them
a slave girl who said oh muhammad will
you see fit to let me go and
keep the arab tribes from rejoicing at my
misfortune for i am the daughter of the
chief of my people and he saves guards
valuables frees captive states the hungry provides food
extends greetings to others and has never refused
anyone who sought him in need i am
the daughter of hatem attari to this the
prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said dear girl
this is in truth the description of the
believers if your father had been a muslim
we would have invoked god's mercy upon him
let her go the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam said for a father loved noble qualities
of character and indeed allah loves noble qualities
of character after this abu burda ibn niyar
stood up and asked oh messenger of allah
does allah love noble qualities of character the
prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam replied by he
in whose hand is my soul no one
shall enter the garden save he was of
good character it is related from adam and
jevil that the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
said verily allah has surrounded islam with noble
qualities of character and excellent works these qualities
include having good relations with others performing noble
deeds being affable bestowing favors feeding others extending
greetings visiting a sick muslim whether he is
pious or impious escorting a muslim's funeral beer
answering the invitation to partake of food and
inviting others to it pardoning others making peace
between people possessing munificence and generosity and lenience
initiating the salutations of peace repressing anger forgiving
people and refraining from what allah has forbidden
such as vain and frivolous acts singing all
musical instruments revenge lying greed avarice meanness artifice
deception calamity foul relations forsaking of family ties
bad character haughtiness boasting conceitedness arrogance pride and
decency foul language rancor envy omen seeking transgression
enmity and oppression and it said he the
prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam left no beautiful
counsel save that he called us to it
and commanded us to observe it and he
left nothing that was fraudulent or he said
shameful or despicable save that he warned us
of it all of the four aforementioned is
sufficed in the following verse allah commands justice
and excellence and then finally said that the
messenger of god sallallahu alayhi wa sallam counsel
me saying oh i counsel you to fear
allah speak truthfully fulfill solemn oaths bear trust
refrain from perfidiousness look after the neighbor extend
mercy to the orphan be affable in speech
extend greetings of peace perform good works shorten
hopes remain steadfast in faith gain deep understanding
of the quran love the hereafter be anxious
regarding the final reckoning and to be humble
and i forbid you to insult a wise
sage belay a truthful man obey a sinner
disobey a just leader and to sow corruption
and i counsel you to fear allah with
regard to every stone tree or village and
to repent for every sin a secret repentance
for a secret sin and open repentance for
an open sin this is how the prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam instilled propriety within allah's
servants and invited them to noble qualities of
character and good manners we're not going to
comment on any of that now because some
of this will come up as we go
through the various sessions may allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala give us tawfiq and open up
the doors of his mercy for us in
a complete following of the best of creation
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and revive in our
hearts a deep and profound love for him
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam may allah tabaraka ta
'ala ya arham wa rahmeen mustow his mercy
upon us and to benefit us immensely