Yaser Birjas – Being Watchful Means Holding Yourself Accountable
AI: Summary ©
The importance of being watchful of one's nails is highlighted, including keeping them on track to prevent overwhelming behavior and being aware of one's nails' activity. The speakers emphasize the need to deal with one's nails and keep them on track to prevent overwhelming behavior. The nafs, which speak of individuals with specific functionalities, are the combination of both the heart, mind, and the heart and mind, and individuals with specific behavior. The nails speak of individuals who want to be fulfilled in a way that is easy for them to achieve.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.
Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa baraka to our
Prophet Muhammad and to his family and companions.
May peace and blessings of Allah be upon
them.
Imam An-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy on
him, in the book of Al-Muraqaba, the
self-examination and always being watchful of Allah
SWT, he adds Hadith Abu Ya'la Shaddad
Ibn Awus, may Allah be pleased with him
and please him.
Hadith 66, Here, the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says in this
Hadith, Al-Qayyis, which means a wise person,
a wise person, a sensible person, is the
one who calls himself to account.
What does that mean?
Means what?
Like you deal with your nafs, the Prophet
describing your nafs like what?
Like a debtor, somebody owes you something.
So you deal with your own self, as
if it's a separate entity that owes you
so much.
If someone owes you money, how frequently would
you go back to the money, and say,
hey man, I mean, it's due, I need
my money back.
How often would you invite, tell somebody, hey,
I need my money, I need my money.
And would you give them a slack?
How often do you give them a slack?
And then when they keep resisting and trying
to keep you in a slack, eventually you're
going to start putting into account, hey, wait,
I need my money now.
Imagine how you deal with your nafs, but
now it's not about money right now, it's
about the akhirah.
Now, you're bringing your nafs to the account
in matters of the akhirah.
Like, hey, don't do this.
Hey, stop this.
Hey.
Like, as if your nafs is robbing you,
and it's taken so much from your account,
and you need to keep stopping it.
So the Prophet ﷺ says, A wise person,
the one who takes his nafs, as if
it's somebody that actually robs your account.
So what are you going to keep doing?
Keep holding it.
Making sure to get that back away from
it.
And made all of this for the sake
of what?
What's going to happen after death?
Now, all what you do is because of
what you expect to happen after death.
So I need to make sure that my
account on that day is clear.
So that my nafs, that's the one that's
supposed to act on my behalf, it doesn't
mess it up for me.
So I need to always put it to
the account.
Now that requires what, O Jama'at?
That requires muraqabah.
This is where the muraqabah comes in.
I need to be watchful of what I
say, and what I do, what my nafs
desires, where my nafs pulls me, how much
it keeps pulling me, and how far it
takes me away.
So I need to keep my nafs on
the track.
I keep holding it on that track, because
I remember what's happening after death.
He said ﷺ, And for the foolish person,
and I just mean the incompetent, that's what
it means.
The incompetent.
Someone who always feel incapacitated completely, like I
can't do anything.
They convince themselves, my nafs always gets the
worst out of me, my nafs always wins,
no matter how much I try, so they
give up.
And what do they do?
They start following their nafs wherever it goes.
In whichever opportunity, a nafs sees something desirable,
it follows it.
It goes after it.
The Prophet ﷺ says, that incompetent person, that
foolish person, is the one who subdues himself
to his temptations, all the time.
And then, and then he starts having hope,
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, would help
him.
On one of two things.
That Allah make that desire to be fulfilled
easily, like still wants Allah to make it
easy for him.
The other narration, hope that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, will automatically save him from that.
Like not to put the effort.
So they follow their desire, and they hope
Allah azzawajal, will just kind of like, protect
them from it.
You can't do this, ajma'ah.
You need to have that muraqabah.
You need to keep yourself under check.
And you always deal with your nafs, as
if it's a debtor, that you keep trying
to get back your wealth from it, and
your accounts from it.
Keep it always clean and straight.
That's how you deal with your nafs.
And obviously, the only way you could do
it, is if you have muraqabah.
Like always check what you say, what you
do on a regular basis.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, make us
among those who are aqiyas.
Those who are truly wise people.
Those who are always in control of themselves.
Ya rabbil alameen.
Wallahu ta'ala alameen.
Any questions, ajma'ah?
Yes.
The concept of nafs.
Man, you start upon a question, it's going
to require the whole night to explain.
Imam al-Qayyim, rahim Allah, he talks in
details about this.
What is nafs?
Is the nafs a ruh?
Is the nafs the function of the ruh?
Is it something like a cognitive understanding, or
a separate entity?
Like different definitions of that.
But the easiest way to understand really, is
you could say that a nafs is really,
it's more of like the function of the
ruh, just like the reason is a function
of the aqil.
And nafs is the function of the ruh.
So therefore, you try to control it.
It's the one that keeps going after what's
desired.
But at the same time, it needs to
be trained.
It needs to be controlled, so it doesn't
take you to ruins.
So there are many interpretations to it.
Is it a separate entity?
No.
But this is the operation of both the
heart, and the mind, and al-ruh, the
complete functionality together, when you put them together,
they constitute a nafs for you.
So it's something desired by the nafs, by
the ruh, by the mind, by the heart,
and you have to work them together to
make sure to control it.
Wallahu ta'ala alam.
Kullu nafsin da'iqatul mawt.
That's now the general definition of the nafs.
Like I said, the Arabic language sometimes use
the term, an inclusive term, which is basically
representing the whole living being.
So nafs means what?
A human being, all of you together.
And sometimes it speaks about a nafs as
being what?
Separate from the body.
Wallahu ta'ala alam.
Subhanakallahu wa bahamdik.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.