Yahya Rhodus – The Rawha – Hikma 97
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of bringing "beauty of existence" into existence and the "brillings of Islam" in relation to the "beauty of existence" that Allah gives us. They stress the need for a focus on these 2 things and responding to actions to avoid feeling distracted and in a state of fear. The importance of responding to actions is emphasized, and the "brillings of Islam" is discussed as a fruit of the "will of the universe."
AI: Summary ©
Thank Allah
for this immense blessing for allowing
our
ears and our hearts to hear these very
blessed words that emanated from the heart of
an Arif Bilhah,
a Noah of Allah
And he left his great work behind
for those that want to tread the path
and to draw near to him.
And
that this great text, the hiccup of
is one of the great works
of the spiritual path
wherein that we come to know that something
of its reality so that we can
that tread the path
and to become beloved to Allah
This is the end of the path.
Until
that I love him.
And after all of the effort and the
performance of the obligations
and the avoidance of the prohibitions and doing
what is pleasing to Allah,
this is what happens in the end is
that, hopefully,
that we become beloved to him, Tabarakah Wa
Ta'ala.
And we have reached the 97th
and the 98th
aphorism.
And
we will do 2 of them in this
session
because they're related.
And this is
where says,
And this is one of the oft quoted
aphorisms.
So this could translate, there are 2 blessings.
No existent thing is without.
And every created thing must have.
The blessing of existence
and the blessing
of sustenance.
And then the 98th,
He bestowed his blessings upon you first
by bringing you into existence.
2nd,
by sustaining you continuously.
So this aphorism you sent you is about
the 2 great blessings
that are associated with all of creation.
Or you could say the 2 the 2
great blessings from which
all other blessings are received as a result
of these 2.
And so let's look at a few of
these words. So it begins by Inat Matan.
This is in the dual. Of course, Arabic
has the singular pearl, but it has
the dual as well.
So
is a blessing.
And the ulama define
as
is that which has a
that praiseworthy
end.
Even if it doesn't correspond to what we
incline towards.
And so there are many things that are
blessings,
and there's oftentimes things as well that are
hidden blessings.
And so this is a blessing is that
that which will lead to a praiseworthy outcome.
And that could be here in this world,
but most importantly, in the hereafter.
So here, what are these two blessings?
So the word
is for any existing
thing,
any living being, any creature,
anything in existence.
And here, the way that this is phrased,
that
there are 2 blessings, no existing thing is
without
That literally that they can't be separated from
or can't part from them.
And then to further emphasize this,
So this word,
that comes from the root word,
which is to create.
Is something that is created.
And so
simply
must or that's inevitable
is
So every created thing must have.
What? These two blessings.
So there are 2 blessings. No existent thing,
something is mujjud,
is without, and every created thing,
every mukkha one, must have. What are they?
Nirmatil ijjad wirmatil
imdad. The blessing of ijjad.
So when we translate that as existence,
it's
doing the best you can, understanding the limits
of translation.
It's actually a causative verb.
Is to bring into existence, to bring
into being.
So if you would do a literal translation,
it would be the blessing of being brought
into existence.
And then
that the blessing of
being actively sustained.
But it sounds better in the more simple
way when you just say the blessing of
existence and the blessing of substance and then
explain it further.
So that's 97. Then 98.
So
is to give a blessing. And Allah, of
course,
is the
He is the giver of blessings.
So
he bestowed his blessings upon you,
first,
by bringing you into existence,
and second,
here
means continuously,
uninterruptedly.
And then we have this word,
This is a very important word.
And
the verb that is the source of this.
Some say the is the source of the
verb. But here that the is
to help, to aid, to assist,
to support with, or to provide for.
And so
what we're clearly seeing here is that these
2 blessings, I. E, the fact that Allah
originated us and brought us into existence, and
then
continues to sustain us. Without these two things,
nothing would exist.
No human being, no creature of any sort,
no animal, no plant, no inanimate object, nothing
in the plant or mineral kingdom or anything
else. None of this
would exist.
So this is one of the great reasons
that he points us to these realities
is the importance of these two great blessings.
And as we will see,
some of them says that the first is
a manifestation of his name, Ar Rahman.
And the second is a manifestation of his
name, Ar Rahim.
And they differ by the manifestations of both
of these names of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But,
that Allah
gave us everything in existence, these two blessings.
So
There are 2 blessings.
No existent things without
and every created thing must have. The blessing
of existence
and the blessing of sustenance. So let's look
at some of what the
the commentators have said
to bring these minis out a little bit
more in hopes that we can put them
into practice.
And so he said
he said
the blessing of being brought into existence.
Allah to Allah brought us from
the abode of the unseen
to the abode of the seen.
And from the abode of the command
to the abode of creation.
From the abode of the spirits to the
abode of physical bodies.
And from the abode of power to the
abode of wisdom. There's
all kinds of different ways of referring
to this reality.
But ultimately, it relates to what Allah
that tells us that,
that in relation to the human beings,
that
there was a time where that we were
that something that was never mentioned.
And
that there was a time where no one
knew us whatsoever. Just remind
that 5 minutes before you were born,
let alone that,
that a year, 5 years, or 20 years,
Yeah. I mean, we
were
that human beings were that
something that was never mentioned,
I. E. No one knew about us whatsoever.
And then we all of a sudden, we
come into the world. That is very humbling
to think about that.
That we were not here yet.
And even though Allah Ta'ala created the spirits
before the physical bodies,
we didn't emerge into this world.
And so the blessing
of being brought into existence
is an immense blessing
and a manifestation of the name of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Al Rahman.
And one of the scariest things of the
human being to the human being of all
is to
ponder nonexistence.
Not necessarily as a concept, but insofar as
it relates to us. Just imagine
never existing.
Wow.
Like, you never were brought into existence.
There's no you.
And we all know what that means in
relation to our own selves.
But there was no Islamic.
There was no Khalil.
There was no Amir.
Just imagine there was
no one
that we could attach that name to such
that we know these people. I can differentiate
Saliq from Khalil because I know that's Saliq
and that's Khalil.
Why? Because
there's an essence attached to that name, and
we know they're different.
But imagine it's never being created.
That is
a really scary thing for us to think
about that.
And everybody at the depth of their being,
when they get in touch with the fitra,
even if they try to deny it, understands
that.
Everybody understands
this the immensity of this blessing.
Even people that suffer here in this world
and to go through that immense difficulty.
Even people that actually take their lives because
of how much they're suffering here in this
world. Everybody deep down knows
the immensity of this blessing from Allah
And then we enter into this world,
And human beings naturally
are weak,
and we are entirely
incapable and unable to do anything
without the power of Allah Ta'ala.
So in relation to our existence,
there was a time that we were saying
something that was never mentioned, Yani. And then
after we brought into existence,
We have no strength
and that no one can really help us
other than our Lord
Only Allah
can help us.
And so what's clear here is that
one of the great reasons he's mentioning these
two blessings,
he wants the human being to be ever
aware
and the one traveling the spiritual path to
be ever aware
that all of the various blessings that Allah
gives us
with all of their diverse classifications,
ultimately,
the foundation of all of them are these
2.
Everything in creation
has these 2 blessings associated with it.
And, of course, most importantly,
human beings.
And so every other possible blessing that we
can get, were we not to have these
2, we wouldn't have any of those.
And then some of the commentators start talking
about the special nature
of the human being
and how Allah
has given us the ability
because of the way that opposites relate to
us
to attain that which
other beings that Allah has created have not
attained.
And when we, let speak about this, that
we speak about this in the,
discussion of theology,
in relation to the various classifications of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala's creation.
And that we know
that the
elect amongst the creation,
I. E, the prophets,
is that they're better than the elect of
the angels,
many, than angels that are close to Allah
And then the elect amongst
the creation that are not prophets,
the knowers of Allah and the uliya,
is that they are better than the that
general angels.
And then the general angels are better than
the general believers,
But the human beings are special, and even
though it is the ins and the jinn
and the malaiki that make up, they're the
consciousness of the universe, they are the Rooh
al Alemi.
They're the spirit of the universe, because
it is these three beings that Allah
has created that he's given them the greatest
ability to know him.
Now angels
that are in a state of worship, they
don't have tekleef and legal responsibility, but the
ins and the jinn, the humankind and the
jinn kind do.
And so it is that they are the
because of the special ability that Allah has
given
these
3,
that, beings
the ability to know him.
And so this is within the possibility of
the human beings, and this is why is
that when human beings fulfill their Adamic potential
is that they become better than the malaika
and the general malaika. The elect of the
malaika are better than even the huas of
the mumineen,
because Allah singles out our response to whoever
He wills.
And that what we recognize there then is
is that it is from the blessing of
Allah
He
brought us into existence,
and then he sustains
our existence
through his mercy.
And that it is this
being sustained by Allah
that when we recognize that, this opens up
the door for us to be able to
use the blessings that Allah has given us
to draw near to him. And this is
one of the very beautiful things
Badri Eid al Islam al Ghazali mentions in
the aya
when he speaks about the topic of shukr,
of gratitude.
He says every blessing ultimately
is a door
to draw near to Allah
So think about the way we're inundated with
blessings.
All of these blessings,
every single one of them, individually and collectively,
are all a door or
doors to draw near to Allah.
So think about the blessing of the eye
and how we can use it to draw
near to Allah, the blessing of our ears,
the blessing of that wealth, the blessing of
everything we've been given.
Everything is a door.
If that we embrace them and see them
as coming from their true source, which is
from Allah And
here is that they speak about what is
called
the Madad al hissi
and Madad al Mahanui.
Or Imdad al Hissi wal Imdad
al Mahanui.
And that the hissi is the physical blessings
that Allah
gives us. The matinui
or the spiritual.
And so that none of these are possible,
we're not to be brought into existence.
Just as when we attribute attributes to Allah
and that we say that Allah
that has the attribute
of will, and he has the attribute of
power, he has the attribute of knowledge, of
will, and power.
Is it if there's no life, so Allah
Ta'ala is hayat,
there's no way for
that anything that doesn't have life to not
to have,
knowledge, will, and power.
So if a human being does not have
life, there's no knowledge, they're dead.
And that
if they have
life,
but they don't have knowledge, then there's no
way to exercise our will if we don't
have knowledge of something.
If you never know that there's a place
called China, it's impossible that you could ever
intend to go there. It's a prerequisite to
exercise our will, knowledge.
And then
you might have life, knowledge, and will, but
not have power. So there's a lot of
things that you wanna do, but you can't
do.
You might just want to fly out to
the back and come back.
Right? But you can't.
So you are willing to do it, but
you can't do it because you lack power.
The point here is is that
the life that Allah gives
us that allows us then to be able
to receive
that sustenance from him to do everything that
it is
that we do.
Now and he says that from the blessings
of Imdad and Matanawi, some from from the
spiritual blessings,
are the blessings of Islam
and the blessings of Iman and Ihsan.
And the fact that Allah
preserves these blessings for us
and enables us to then move up in
their various degrees.
This is from the great blessings of Allah
Tabarakatala.
And when he's speaking of this,
he is speaking of it in its most
general sense, I. E. Is that all everything
in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's creation,
that has these two blessings.
But then in the second aphorism, which is
number
98,
he
addresses
human beings specifically.
So first, it's everything in existence, but now
there's a there's an address, an am a
lake.
He bestowed his blessings upon you first, because
someone says that it seems like what he's
mentioning here is the same as what he's
mentioning before.
But there is a reason he's doing it
because now he is directing this towards human
beings,
is that
we are the ones.
Everything in creation is a submission to Allah.
We are the ones that have the ability
to not be in a state of submission
in Allah Ta'ala outward in reality that no
one can ultimately do anything Allah Ta'ala doesn't
want them to do.
And so
there's something that relates to what we have
to do
as human beings.
And ways that you and I need to
recognize
is that that based upon these blessings that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us is
that we need to use them for his
sake.
And here he emphasizes
after speaking about Ijad,
well, then it be tawalilimdad.
Is that Allah
continuously
sustains us
in every single moment.
And we know we recite in Surah in
Ayatul Kursi,
Allah
does not doze off nor does he sleep.
And that and it's impossible for Allah to
do so.
But where Allah Ta'ala
to doze off, which is impossible to do
so, is that creation would
completely disappear.
In other words,
is that this is impossible for Allah. Allah
is sustaining
creation
in every single moment. And were it not
to be that Allah is
sustaining
and creating and recreating
and taking things out of this and bringing
them back into existence.
In every single moment,
nothing would exist.
And so this is why existence itself
is one of the greatest signs
of the existence of our Lord. The very
fact that we have existence.
And
the way that it seems so seamless
is one of the
wonders.
It's seamless.
Everything is just happening.
And even as we are experiencing it, we
don't experience it like
disconnected.
It's seamless.
The way we move from one moment to
another.
But the reality is is that Allah is
sustaining us.
And it's from here
that the true people of Allah are in
a state of ajab wonder,
how could someone deny
the existence of Allah?
Well, that's what it means to be a
kafar.
That's what it means to be a disbeliever,
is to simply deny what
every
soul knows is true.
To consciously
deny
and reject
the greatest truth of all, which is the
existence of Allah.
And all it takes is for us just
to pause
and just go a little bit beyond the
surface level
to realize that.
But unfortunately, we live in a society and
time where people are just so preoccupied
with that surface level
and are just being constantly entertained and distracted
where people don't tend to go deep
and people don't wanna go deep.
And then something reminds them to go deep,
and they have a moment.
Right? Because it's our fitra to want to
go deep, to want to reflect upon these
things, to want to be aware of these
things.
But it's very convenient, especially when the nafs
is doing its part to keep us distracted,
to not have to feel the responsibility
of going a little bit deeper.
And then people just run away.
But that's what it means.
If we're just running away from the truth,
and we're just
refusing to accept it,
then
when reality hits us,
it hurts.
And reality is not easy for us to
bear even if we're trying to embrace reality
and relying upon our Lord and
striving to cultivate the means of faith to
learn to submit to the divine decree and
to meet our Lord in good state. Even
then, it's not easy.
So what about then if we're that running
away from it?
When it hits,
it hurts.
Right? And people
are devastated
as a result.
But for the believer, Allah
assists them,
and that he that opens up the doors
for them to draw near to him.
So one of the ways of looking at
this
is once we know that Allah
is the originator,
he's the mujid who gave us existence
then we know is that
we have to that dedicate ourselves to him.
Is that what this necessitates
is that we dedicate ourselves to him,
and that we
belong to him.
Think about that meaning.
Is that this is what we want. We
want to belong to Allah.
We know in reality we belong to Allah.
Right?
And that
incidentally that if we think about that meaning,
that
those that that when they're afflicted
with a tribulation,
What do they say? Indeed,
we belong to Allah.
The two greatest things that helps us get
through tribulations
is idraq
realization of our ibudia, of our servitude to
Him, and that we don't belong to ourselves,
we belong to Him, and that we're going
to return to Him.
This is why what are we supposed to
say when we go through an affliction?
But not just uttering it with the tongue,
being in tune with its meanings.
We don't choose what happens to us. That's
from the divine decree word, Abid.
We belong to Allah,
And we know that we're gonna return to
him. No matter what is it we experience
here in this world, may Allah protect
us and preserve us and ward off tribulations
and difficulties from us. But it's only gonna
be a short period of time.
And then that's it. Khadasid. Done.
And then once it's done, we move on
to the next realm. And hopefully,
we lived right and did the very best
that we can.
And our hopes
can't be in ourselves.
If everyone else will let us down, we'll
let our own selves down before everyone else
lets anyone else lets us down.
Is that our hopes in Allah? What a
beautiful thing.
What a beautiful thing.
And someone was just mentioning this meaning
last night
about the danger
of cutting off the door of
tell the repentance for people.
Where there was someone who that
was,
right,
helping in a previous nation,
previous prophetic community
that
trying to help someone live right, trying to
help someone live right, and no response, no
response, no response.
And then
that that person said,
Allah will never forgive
you. Who are you to say that Allah
will never forgive someone?
And Allah revealed to the prophet of that
time,
is that tell the servant of mine, is
that the servant who had committed all of
those sins is that I've forgiven all of
his sins.
And that tell that the other servant who
said this is that let him begin that
all doing good deeds from the beginning because
he just with that one word canceled all
of the good deeds that he'd done up
until that point.
Whoever says is that the people are destroyed,
he's the most destroyed.
This doesn't mean that we don't point to
that wrong behavior. No. You call that out.
But to condemn a particular person
and to say Allah is never gonna forgive
you or to say that you're going to
*.
Right? We don't do that. Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, He's the only one who knows.
So the meaning here is is that
is a you and I that through actualizing
our Surah to do Allah
is that we don't want to belong to
anything else except him.
That's the word the way they say in
Arabic. What a beautiful expression.
Any unadulterated
servitude
to Allah
where
all of the various chains in the the
poles, the different things of this world, of
different things that are trying to trap us
and chain us up is that we reject
all of that. And that's not easy. That
takes time.
But this is the goal, if you remember,
that this is what we want. That to
be that true inner servitude to Allah
in all of our different states. And if
Allah loves us,
sometimes we gotta go through the grinder to
get there.
May Allah protect us and preserve us.
But sometimes we don't think right, we don't
do right, and
sends things our way so that we get
there.
But it's not the way that we necessarily
wanted to get there.
And
this is why when we do go through
tribulations, the very first thing we should look
at is what did I do?
Whether it's a health complication, whether it's that
a financial tribulation of some sort, or whatever
tribulation comes our way. The very first thing
we do is we look at our own
selves. What did I do?
And in the end, we never really know.
Is that tribulation a punishment?
Is it atonement? Is it an atonement? Or
is it a means simply to just raise
us in degrees? We never ever really know,
but we don't actually have to know. What's
important
is how we respond.
And so when we go through tribulations immediately,
we should go back to ourselves and to
think, what did I do? What did I
do? What did I do?
And
it's likely if we do this over and
over again,
Allah
alerts us and will let us know.
And it will come by way of, like,
a subtle ishar. Either, like, yani, there's inshira
in your sadr. So, a meaning opens up
your heart, oh, maybe it was because of
that.
Or maybe just something happens where you just
think that it's that, and you never actually
know definitively.
But,
the more that we can learn to read
these signs,
the more
spiritually
in tune and aware we become.
But the key is is that we go
back to him, and we feel completely
broken
beforehand.
And we repent to him,
and that we turn to him, and seek
his help,
and that Allahu Akbar,
that everyone else, SubhanAllah.
There is no safety and there's no refuge
that from him except to him.
And we seek refuge
that in him, from him. We seek refuge
in his Rudah, from his
and in his Mu'afam and his.
And I seek refuge in you, from you.
And what an amazing thing. And that type
of servant,
That type of servant is close
to the mercy of
Allah
Even if we've made major mistakes,
that person is close to the mercy of
Allah
This is why they say when they talk
about the the various classifications
of sins,
The sins that we commit
that relate to an imbalance
of the
appetitive or concubiscent faculty, I e, the things
of our desires,
are easier to forgive. If Allah wants to
forgive something, everything's easy for Allah to forgive
if he wants, but we're just talking about
in the outward sense.
Whereas
the sins that relate to the irascible faculty,
the faculty of anger,
tend to be harder to forgive outwardly.
Right? As anything's easy for love, he wants
to forgive.
And these are the sins
that are like
arrogance
and the things of this nature.
That
when that faculty is imbalanced,
it can lead to a number of sins.
If someone has is tried with arrogance,
and that conceit and things of this nature,
and sins that emanate from that, and even
envy, and even to a degree, ostentation,
that in some ways,
that
these are harder because the person, why, is
further from
that feeling in need of a Latara.
And so anything that gets between us and
the feeling of need then of being in
absolute need of Allah is
a problem.
So the first meaning here is understand that
Allah
he is the one who,
that brought us into existence.
And this is the first of the Ni'mataan.
And then
So the the first one is that this
is so that when we recognize that, if
Allah is the one who originated us, which
he is, and he brought us into existence,
is that how could we let ourselves belong
to anything else?
It's insane
and totally
that irrational.
But
we're supposed to be rational creatures, but we're
not always rational creatures.
And that
the desires
are the opposite of intellect.
They're 2 polar opposites.
1 is stable,
and the other is completely volatile.
And that's the whole struggle of the human
being. We're supposed to be rational because we're
rational creatures. We're Hayawah and Natak.
But this is why we want to belong
to Allah
only.
And why?
Because
that,
that
everything that Allah
blesses us with soul to be from him.
And then the second meaning is,
so
and here just once you change the particle,
the meaning changes.
And once we understand the second meaning, I
e, is that.
Sustenance comes from him. He is the one
who's sustaining us in every single moment and
giving us all of our blessings, all of
the physical blessings that we need from oxygen
and everything else that we need, food and
so forth and so on, everything to sustain
our lives, and then spiritually,
all of the spiritual means of iman alayhi
wa sallam and irsan
and everything that we need and the nourishment
to grow, everything is from him, outwardly and
inwardly.
And so the meaning there
is. In other words, is that we don't
everything that we seek, we seek through him,
and that we don't get caught up in
the means that would then take us away
from him.
So
that we belong to him,
is that we do everything
through him,
not through our own selves, let alone anyone
or anything else.
And if someone can be
It's very easy to say,
but what a meaning.
What a meaning. To belong to him completely
and to that rely upon him only,
Not to rely upon ourselves or anything else.
Everything that we do is through Allah.
And when we do things through Allah, it's
made easy.
And this is one of the aphorisms that's
actually coming. What is not made easy when
we seek it through him?
And that
what is not that what it what is
made easy that if we seek it through
our own selves?
If we seek things through our own selves,
it's gonna be difficult.
And, actually, if it's made easy, that's even
a greater danger, because then it might lead
us to be deluded to think that we're
actually the one doing something.
And, spiritually,
that is toxic.
And so this is what we want from,
these blessed meannesses to recognize
and to be aware.
It's not easy. It's not hard to understand
outwardly
that Allah
that he's the one who brought us into
existence, nor is it hard for us to
understand as believers,
that he is the one that sustains us
in every moment.
But we want to
raise
our awareness such that
we're aware of this constantly.
That he is the one who brought us
into existence, he is the one who sustains
us.
In other words, is that we want to
belong solely to him, and to do everything
we do through him, completely relying upon him.
Subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And then as they say here is that
this results in
turning away from everything else.
In order to belong to him and to
do everything through him, we have to turn
away from everything else, and to completely
that have what is called Iqbal
This is one of the greatest states that
we can be in, which is the state
of Iqbal.
And that Iqbal is the state of heart
where we are directing our hearts to Allah
and that we are
doing whatever Allah
opens up the door for us to do
in any moment.
And
that
that
it relates to that
remembering Allah and
relying upon him,
and being aware of the moment that we,
Allah has placed us in and doing what
is most pleasing to him in any given
moment.
And if someone is gifted, this blessing of
Iqbal
and all of its different meanings, that this
is one of the greatest gifts of Allah
to all of all. May Allah bless us
to be aware of these blessings,
and bless us to be able to put
this knowledge into practice in a way that
is pleasing to him. To bless us to
be people who are aware.
Bless us be people who that give themselves
entirely to our Lord. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. May
we be
and may we be that do everything be.
That may we belong to him fully, and
to do everything through him.
And to be aware of these great blessings,
and to show gratitude to him
And may all of the blessings that he's
given us, may we thank him generally
and specifically,
and may they be doors for us to
join your team.