Zakariyya Harnekar – Pearls of Wisdom
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of sustained behavior and belief in oneself as the creator of one's own life. They stress the importance of trusting oneself and avoiding planning and committing to something without proper understanding of the process. They also discuss the importance of working on retirement annuities and pension funds, as well as the need for people to live at least a month in advance. They stress the importance of knowing how to apply life coaches and not giving away everything.
AI: Summary ©
And being sustained, or taking medicine and attaining cure, or
going out to work and attaining wealth, or, you know, entering a
building and finding shelter from the elements, all of those things
Allah created the relationships between them. That's what creates
the normal order that we perceive in the world around us
whenever we allow Subba Hanu Atala has made something either
incumbent upon us or desirable for us, like being protected, being
sustained.
Then using the asbab means that you must do the action that Allah,
subhana wa Taala has assigned the relationship with the outcome that
we resign.
Do you understand that? So I said before Allah created a
relationship, for example, between eating and being sustained.
It is our responsibility that Allah placed upon us to look after
our bodies by sustaining it.
So what is our responsibility? Our responsibility, then, is to do the
action that Allah created a relationship
with being sustained. And that is what eating,
right,
eating,
consuming nutritious things.
So using the asbab means that if Allah made it your responsibility
to be sustained, you can't sustain yourself.
But what you can do, you can eat the food. So you must eat the
food. That is what it means to use the means,
right? That is a physical action.
It's an action of your limbs.
Where is that? Beer? Is not the action of your limbs trying to
order things, trying to plot everything out. Is not
an action of your limbs. That's something that's fickly. It's
something thought related. It's something internal,
and it is not connected to the first thing in that relationship
of cause and effect,
that beer is not connected to the cause, like eating, that's
connected to the effect
being sustained.
You understand?
So, for example, if I say, Look, I'm going to do this, I'm going to
eat, it's going to cause me to be sustained. Then, with that
sustenance, I'm going to run so long, and it's going to cause me
to gain muscles. And, you know, then I'm going to use my muscles
for XYZ,
the tadbir, did
you see what I planned out? A number of things the tadbir,
plotting everything out and ordering everything. It depends
not on the action that you undertake, but it depends on the
outcome of that action.
It depends on being sustained and having the energy to then run. It
depends on building the muscle through running.
It depends on, you know, whatever the outcome is, the thing that of
the thing that you want to use your muscles
for, right?
So the tibial is connected to the outcomes, not to the inputs. So
he's telling you, look here,
all that you can do is
you can do the inputs.
The outcomes
is in the is the work of Allah.
The inputs are within yours, within your sphere of
responsibility. But the outcomes, Allah has taken that upon himself.
So to give you a simple example, where, if I'm sick,
must I take medicine, or mustn't I take medicine?
I must take medicine.
But when I take that medicine, when I I'm feeling pain,
and I go when I take that Tramadol,
when I put that Tramadol in all the panado in my mouth, I know
Tramadol, because of the broken Omni, I had to take a lot of that
stuff.
When I put the Tramadol in my mouth
and I swallow it,
I tell myself, yeah, Allah, relieve me of the pain, not yet.
Ramadan, you
understand.
So you do the action, you do the action,
but you rest assured that Allah is in charge of the outcome,
right?
And that's why he says that internal process of of you know,
thinking things through, and trying to plot everything out, and
almost living your life as if you are assured of the outcomes of
your inputs,
of the effects of the causes that you employ.
The.
So I'm going to see you tomorrow, what opportunity presents itself
to me? I'm
going to see you tomorrow, what opportunity presents itself to me,
and I'm going to take it whatever it
is, even if I have to go do some work for somebody for that day,
it's fine.
I'm going to employ and Allah is going to look after everything.
But here, on the other hand, this guy who plotted his life out so
clinically,
he's constantly burdened.
He, I mean, even when he's in his job, and he and he hates his job,
he's sitting there doing somebody's accounts all day, and
he's just, he doesn't find any pleasure in life doing it. In
fact,
it makes him miserable. And he goes home, and he's bad with his
family.
He just can't see himself leaving his job to go do something else.
He can't
because he's it doesn't fit in with the plan that he has for
his life. Rasulullah told us,
lo Anna Kum te tawa ka Luna,
Allah, kulihi, if only you had placed your trust in Allah as it
is Allah the right that you place your trust in Him. La Raza, you
would
have sustained you like He sustains the bird.
Ter do he?
Goes out in the morning, empty ballad. What a rule. Who betrana
And he comes home in the night, full ballad.
He goes out in the morning. He doesn't stay in his knees. He goes
out in the morning to seek his
and he comes back in the evening, sustain. Does he have a fridge? He
doesn't have a fridge,
let alone a freezer to
keep things for a longer period of time.
So Rasulullah sallallahu is telling us, um narrates to us,
if you place in Allah, if you place your trust in Allah as it is
Allah right that you place your trust in Him as you supposed to
place your trust in Him, you would sustain you like He sustains the
bird.
It goes out in the morning, empty ball, and it comes home in the
evening, full belly, enough for itself and for its family.
That's
the easy thing, but
it's something that that I promise you, if you just look to many of
the scholars in the community, you will find it something that is
that is true.
They never worried.
They never
they know Alhamdulillah Allah is going to sustain
and on the other hand, you find the person whose life is so well,
clinically plotted out
difficult burden life.
So that's what, that's what Ibu Nahata Allah is telling
us. And it's not like I'm not making a stigma against people
with degrees. I have a degree as well. Alhamdulillah,
the point is not to, not to plot out everything clinically. I went
to do my degree, to be honest with you, I went to do the degree to do
the degree just because I wanted to get married. So I thought,
Okay, let's go get married. And everybody thinks I'm ready to get
married, so then I'm ready to get married. But I knew, actually,
once I'm done with the degree, I want to go study Dean.
So though I was going to do the normal means. I'd rather my plan,
in my mind was very crazy.
So anyways, Alhamdulillah, I never worried.
I did nothing. In fact, I got married. In my first year of
study, Islamic studies, I got married.
Alhamdulillah, I think I lived a good life.
There was never a moment when I didn't have food. There was never,
in fact, it was my I religiously every week we used to have date
night. I was very busy that time.
I still, years must all laughing because he was with me.
I was very busy. Monday, in the morning, I go study Dean, come
home five o'clock. After that, I go do some teaching.
Once I'm done with that, after you share somebody ask a question. Now
you sit another half an hour, hour with him.
Then after that, you you know, maybe you must find time for
whoever you know as a right to your time, then you go sleep
tomorrow. Repeat.
Alhamdulillah, the only free time I had was Thursday night and
Sunday night.
So there's no date night is going to be either
Thursday night.
Don't criticize me
Thursday night or Sunday night, right? But
there was never a time when when there was nothing
Alhamdulillah
and Allah
just takes care of everything always, man, you just have to
trust the process
so committed. Anita beer, rest yourself from plotting and
planning too much
from a comma. Beru Kanker for that combinase, what other than you,
has undertaken to fulfill on your behalf. That's the outcomes of the
means that you employ. Don't try to don't try to force it yourself.
Don't try to force it yourself.
Allah will always give you enough.
But now the question is,
how much is enough like? How much must I be employing the meat?
How little tad beer must I employ in my life?
So he says, arrest yourself from having this TED beer.
But it's, I promise you, for many, for most people, it's too
difficult. They can't foresee themselves living without having
some degree of planning, without without having some degree of
security and assurances in place,
without having the freezer full to some degree,
without having the fridge full to some degree. Some people need to
have a 500 liter chest freezer full to the brim.
Some people need to have their pantry and entire room.
Some people can suffice themselves with a pantry in one cupboard
and 200 liter chest freezer.
Some people can suffice themselves with just a simple stand up
freezer, fridge on top, freezer at the bottom,
there's assurance in that you have enough for tomorrow the next day,
maybe, but different people are different stages of that. So where
do we look to to decide? Yes, we know we must employ the means.
And we know that this, that bead, is something that we should
actually find the rest from.
We should actually find the rest from
and I can assure you, you know the world we're living probably in, in
the time in the world where people are most distressed,
where people are most burdened, even though,
in history, we probably more affluent than any generation
before us, people are still more burdened.
People are more distracted. People are more depressed than ever
before. People have more anxiety than ever before,
despite having oftentimes more affluence, like if you just think,
for most of us, we can just think, okay, how is my parents living?
We live five, six people in the same house that my parents lived
2030, people.
But they were never my moon like this. They were never burdened in
distress like this.
Now, even now in that time, maybe two people in the house had a
degree, whatever. Now all the children have a degree,
but they still burden.
Oh, it just doesn't make sense.
Something else must have changed
before you could have you know, you have your functions. The
entire family comes to the function, everybody and the food
is the no complaints, no fighting about it. Now you want to have a
simple eat supper, and everybody's asking, who's going to make the
food? Who's going to do this, who's going to do that? Like it's
a chore, it's crazy. Something changed,
something changed,
and it can't be the means, because now we have more means.
It's something internal that changed.
It's our understanding of what our standard of living should be. It's
out that beer for our own lives. That's what's changed.
That is what has changed.
But anyways, back to the point I was getting to
how much rest must we find from the state beer? It depends on your
level. It
depends on your level.
And Imam Raza I Rahima, Allahu, taala, he taught us about this.
For some people,
for some people,
they plot and plan and store and sit
away things
that's enough
for the entire year. Some might even do more than that. Imam Azadi
was living in a time, perhaps, of much more pious people.
Now, a person sets enough store for the entire.
Life,
right? We had the question yesterday, pension funds,
retirement annuities, that's sitting the thought in that is
sitting away enough for your entire life,
and the circumstances in the world may necessitate that
maybe a person knows, look here, I don't have any children that's
going to look after
me. Maybe I have children. Maybe they I can see these guys are not
going to look after
me. That's a problem in and of itself, because then you must work
on something else, actually. But you know, if that realization is
there, some people are in that circumstance, maybe to them, yes,
it, it's actually to actually be recommended for them in the Sharia
to take that step of having that pension fund,
as long as, obviously, that pension fund does not, you know,
it's not like a haram pension fund. It's Sharia compliant, or
the retirement annuity, Sharia compliant, right? Because you're
not breaking the law of Allah. So it might even be recommended for
some people in that situation. But
let's take an ordinary person.
If Imam, as Ali, says for some people,
they must enough for them is enough for the entire year,
Louisiana, enough for the entire lifetime, right?
Listen in that maybe enough for 10 years. Some people, on account of
their spiritual state and what they're ready to be without being
constantly worried about things is that they can sit away enough for
a year.
Some people,
they need enough for a month.
And many people live like that.
That's only the middle class, middle class who can't fathom
that. How can I only have enough for a month? No, no, there's many
like
there's many, many in our society, the most unequal society, one of
the most unequal society. I'm not sure exactly, but I think, if I
think we are the most unequal society in the world,
there's many people who live like that, and if you've never seen
that,
then you must get around a little bit.
You must take a drive around town and speak to people.
Not only rich people,
right? Some people, they need to sit away enough for a month. They
need to have that stored. They need to live at least a month in
advance.
Some people live a week in advance.
Some people, they can live with enough for the day.
And they were companions like that, Abu Dhar, RadiAllahu, but
even amongst the companions that wasn't the norm, even amongst the
Companions radial lava and whom that wasn't the norm. And
remember, I got to do the verse before, whereas Aruna Kamala and
fuku, they ask you, oh, Muhammad Sallallahu, alayhi, wa sallam,
what should they spend? Say to them, O Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
would say to them, oh Muhammad, sallAllahu, alayhi wa sallam, they
should spend what is surplus.
So even the Companions different what is surplus.
Some of them felt that, you know, you to have your needs for the
entire year. That's fine. What is over and above that that surplus,
and
there was a time in the latter part of the life of Rasulullah. We
know rasulallah To be, have been poor.
But in the latter part of the life of Rasulullah, it's recorded in
the mu Ajam Sahib Tavar ani
that rasulallahu alayhi wa sallam would give his wives a certain
amount. Because remember when, when Muslims would conquer places,
etc, then they would get booty.
And a certain amount of that booty was specifically for Rasulullah.
So when Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi salam would get it, he
would give it to his family.
And if you actually visualize the amount that's mentioned in the
Hadith, it's like an entire room full
of staple foods. It's quite a lot. It's
an entire room full
so Rasulullah, sallAllahu, alayhi wa sallam would give that to his
wives, and it would be like what is enough for an entire year. So
we know that it's permissible to do that. Certainly
look what our mothers did with it,
RadiAllahu taala, and who knows a different
thing? Rasulullah would give it to them.
And it was these but they were generous. Women bias women, they
would, in turn give it away.
We know of Aisha radiAllahu Anna, when she was given things like
that, she would sit for the entire day and give away and give away
and give her until she had
nothing. But the fact that Rasulullah sallallahu gave it to
them shows that it's okay to have.
The fact that they gave it away shows their level of piety.
Radi Allahu, Taala and hun right? So Imam Al Ghazali tells us people
at different levels,
right, at different levels and stages in their journey to Allah
and stages in the degrees of tawakul. So you must, as imam, as
Ibn atayla, is telling you, you must, your nafs must find the
rest. If your nafs find the rest after having a year supply, fine,
be satiated.
But we often times find people who have enough
for two, three lifetimes,
living lavishly, and
then they still want more and they have no purpose for them more.
It's crazy thing we should actually be striving to be of
those who require less security and less assurances. That's why.
You know, there's one parable that comes to mind
once,
a person, a traveler, you went to meet this pious person.
And so
he knocked on the door. The pious person let him in,
and he saw that the house was fairly empty,
not much furniture. So the person asked him, Look,
where's your furniture?
So the person told him, asked him, where's yours?
He went to the person, the pious person's house. The pious person
you asked him, where's your furniture? The pious person asked
the traveler, where's yours?
So he said, I'm a traveler. I can't carry my furniture with me.
So the pious person told me, told him, Well, I'm also a traveler.
The dunya is my journey.
So I must say, carry my furniture with
Rasulullah. SallAllahu. Asmaa said, kunfi, dunya ka Anna Karibu
awasa, Abu
as dunya as if you are a stranger
or a Wayfarer or a traveler.
Be in this dunya
as if you are a stranger
or traveler.
Travelers don't need too much.
But again, even in that journey, some people travel lighter than
others,
so I
don't want to, I don't want anybody to leave with the
irresponsible thought that
they must give everything away.
You have to assess your state, you have to assess what you can handle
and what your family can handle.
And then if you so desire to be of that elect view, you can work
towards needing less
look.
Some people,
you can get an heightened state in your atikaf, but we don't want
effervescence, right? We don't want you to go and give away
everything,
right? And remember the other this is now we, after talking a lot
about this, hekma, I must tell you about the other
one, right? You rather took a Taj read Maha ATI, lahi, ya Kafi AZ
Bab Mina Shah, minash, how fear you must use this, but
it is your nafs. Don't even worry.
Don't even worry.
Don't worry.
Use the means, but don't worry.
So May Allah guide us to, you know, to to attain the correct
understanding of it's a fine thing. And I can't sit here
and say how it applies to every person's life.
I can sit here and tell you what the virtue is.
You have to assess, you have to introspect and reflect upon your
circumstance in your life and see how it applies to your life. And
if you are smarter than that,
you need to get somebody who has attained these states,
who knows how to guide other people in this regard, and ask
them, look at me. Help me do a life audit.
Nowadays, people use the word you must have a life coach. You
must have all of these things in the past, what you call this? You
must have a sheik.
Now I'm seeing this that is, that's what it is,
right?
So if you want a life coach, okay, by all means, but hopefully you
get a life coach that can guide you properly,
right previously to school, getting a share. But I'm not
saying you have to, if your attention what you want. Let it be
a friend that has basira, that has insight, that can help you.
And if it what I'm saying is actually.
Before that before, if it's not a shaykh of tazkiyah that has walked
the path completely,
then let it be a sheik of El
ash who knows the Sharia, etc,
who might know these things theoretically, and who can help
you. Then you know, make decisions. There's many of them
you can speak to. Malana Muhammad, he's somebody that I view to have
that insight.
He's not a,
you know, he doesn't position himself as a sheik of tarbiyah or
anything like that. It doesn't position himself as a sheik, but
he's somebody that I deem to have the wisdom and insight to guide
people in their lives. There's many others, many others, and
you'll find them in every community, I'm sure this
community, there's people who I deem to be very divorced from the
dunya, who perhaps can help you as well.
But seek out those. Seek out that help.
You know, sometimes you can do a DIY job, but you might end up with
some funky walls, skew, etc.
But
the desire must be to have rahatul Pal, to have a rahatu, to have a
nafs rested our hopes in Allah,
the reality that the outcomes are in Allah's hands, we tie our
bodies, like I said before. Al jawari, hotamal, your limbs work
while kulub and your heart, tatawaka, they rest in the
knowledge that everything is in Allah's hands.
But again, don't run away with ourselves.
People are different levels. They can they they can live with
different degrees of rest.
So do your own introspection, your own life, audit and see where you
are, where your family is, and then you can work from there. Then
you can move from there,
right? You have understood. So I think that also answers your
retirement annuity pension fund question. First thing is that
Sharia compliant. He was not Sharia compliant. Then it's off
the table.
Because now you want to do planning
that Allah is telling you is haram. You can't do that kind of
planning. That's not as Bob. That's you must make tajiridi. You
can't use that as Bob at all. It's off the table.
But if there's a Sharia compliant option,
then you can take it by all means. Sometimes it may even be a wise
thing to do,
but some people, they might not see the need for it.
Some people might not see the need for it, and
there's not a problem in relation to them not seeing a needful
as long as they're not expecting handouts,
etc? So I hope that's understood. Me. Allah Subhana rakais, rest
yourself from too much plotting and planning from a calm abiru
Kahan,
what other than you, has undertaken to fulfill on your
behalf. Falata kumbi, healing. Don't you try to undertake it
yourself. May Allah subhana guide us, make us people of ease, make
us people of rest, make us people of you know contentment,
and may Allah subhana wa Taala see to all our needs,
right? Well, that's in for today. Inshallah, any questions?
No, that's clear. Alright, tomorrow. Inshallah, what's the
next one? Let's see. Let's read it.
You can think about it each day. Female dominal,
you exerting effort
in what has already been guaranteed for you,
what a Ruka, female tulip, a mink, and you falling short in what was
requested from you.
Dali, Luna. Alan Thomas
is a sign that your insight is being blurred,
that your intellect is being blurred. The ability to use your
intellect and insight is being taken away from you, right? I'm
going to say it again. Each tihaduka, female dominal, you
exerting effort in relation to what has been guaranteed for you,
what a Ruka female tuliba mink and you falling short in what has been
requested from you.
Ali LUN is a sign, or is a proof. Alan three miles in basilaty mink
is a sign that your intellect and your insight is being taken away
from you.
So may Allah not let our intellect be taken away from us. Make us
intelligent people. But we'll talk about that more but, but more
about that tomorrow, Inshallah, when there for now Anna and
Alhamdulillah, mean as Allah Ketu.
To create a.