Zakariyya Harnekar – Pearls of Wisdom #1
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's teachings, including his belief in the laws of Allah Subhenahu Wa Ta'ala, is emphasized. The use of "wayfaring to Allah" and the precedent for this concept are also discussed. The importance of following people and following principles of the hadith is emphasized, as well as the importance of reading and sharing experiences in publicity. The speaker emphasizes the importance of action and avoiding the we'd" words in the context of statements made by Allah Subhan suddenly.
AI: Summary ©
Okay.
Okay.
Alhamdulillah
we
praise and thank Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
for the state that He has placed us
in allowing us to be in the Masjid
or if listening wherever
perhaps listening to some of the words of
the Ulema of before
and taking some guidance there from.
That in and of itself
is something for which we need to thank
Allah
and as we go through this text Insha'Allah
we will
learn things that, you know, teach us to
reconsider
how we think of the states that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala puts us in.
But before we get to that,
let's just discuss a little bit about what
we are going to be doing in this
class.
So
Mawlana
Khalil mentioned that you'll be learning or reading
and reflecting on some of the hikam of
Ibn Wa Ta'ala
iskandari
or a secondary.
What is that?
It's a compilation
of about 260
some
sayings
of a scholar by the name of Ibnu
Ahtawillah.
A secondary is his misbah.
It speaks about the place where he came
from.
Alexandria.
Right?
And
who was this person? He lived in about
7 he died in about 7:90
of the hijrah.
Right?
Ibn 'Ata'illah
was a student
of
a person by the name of Abu al
Abbas al Mursi.
Not,
Muhammad al Morsi the previous
president that was, his position was usurped in
Egypt. No, not that one. May Allah grant
you my place in Jannah.
Abu al Abbas al Morsi.
Abu Abbas al Musi
was a student of Abu Hasan Ashaedili
and why I mentioned that is because you
might have you might be familiar with the
term Ashaedili.
Abul Hasan Ashadili
is the eponymous founder
of the tariqa of Tasawwuf
called the Shalvili tariqa.
You might have heard of the Nakshabandi tariqa,
the Chisti tariqa, all of those things. But
we're not here to speak about tarika and
all of those things or anything wherein people
may find controversy.
We're here simply to speak about the wisdoms
of the ulema
that teach us how to connect to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
based on how they understood the Quran and
the sunnah and the experiences
and the,
you know, feelings and states that Allah
opened upon them.
So
the subject
matter
of this
text is Saluk
or
Asayr illallah.
Saluk, journeying or wayfaring to Allah
or tazkiyah if you want purification of the
soul or zuhud if you want,
abstinence from the dunya or tasawuf if you
want, whatever name you feel comfortable with. That's
what we're discussing.
That's all different names for the same
essence.
Right?
So,
Ibn Utta'ilai aliskandari
was from that lineage or that was his
lineage of teachers.
Abu al Abbas al Mursi was a student
of Abu al Hassan al Shaddili
and
they were very extremely pious people.
But not only were they pious people,
what is very important to know about them
is that they were ulama.
Right?
And why I highlight that they were ulama
of the highest order.
Why I highlight that is oftentimes when we
speak about,
you know,
being an ascetic
or wayfaring to Allah or the people of
Dhikr, whatever the case may be.
We sometimes have or create a dichotomy in
a mind between them and the people of
'Ilm.
But really the leaders of the people in
Suluq,
in wayfaring to Allah, the ones we should
actually learn from,
are the ones who combined
between 'Alm and 'Amal,
who combined between having knowledge of the Sharia,
knowledge of the laws of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
They combine that with spiritual practice,
making lots of adkar,
making salah, doing all types of aida,
doing spiritual exercises
like,
you know, divorcing themselves from the dunya.
And by so doing, they gain another type
of knowledge, which cannot be attained through reading
books.
They attain
experiential knowledge of Allah. So they have knowledge
of Allah and the laws of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala that can be studied theoretically
through the sciences of Fiqh
and Aqidah
and all of those things.
But by putting all of that into practice
in the best possible manner
and taking guidance from those before them,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala also opens up to
them a type of knowledge
that you cannot attain through simply reading books.
Right.
And, that reality actually makes me feel a
little uncomfortable to be sitting in front because
I don't think I have any of that.
Mine is what I attained from reading books.
But we hope that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
inspire our hearts with what the books can't
give us.
And
where is the precedent
for this this idea?
You may ask,
why are we
studying a book
or learning a book that has about 200
and some odd sayings of a person?
Why are we not having a class on
hadith?
Why are we not having a class on
Quran,
tafsir?
Why are we not having a class on
firk? Why are we not doing all of
those things? No. No. No. We do all
of them.
Last year, in our last year, we had
a class on 5th in the morning. They
say we have a class in taqidah in
the morning. In the night, we have a
class on tafsir. Before Asr, we had a
class
on hadith.
After that, we had a class on
Seerah.
In the night we make adkar, we put
those things into practice.
But this subject, the subject of Suluq,
wayfaring to Allah, it has a precedent.
It's an important subject like all the other
subjects as well.
Where do I get that from? Did I
suck it from my thumb or just because
of an affinity that I have to eat?
No.
You read in the book of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala everyday.
You not say that?
Then what you say after that?
Is it not so? What does it mean?
We say,
Oh Allah,
guide us to
the straight path, the consistent path.
Now the ulama,
they say
that the Surah Al Fatiha that we recite
it's umul kitab.
The Quran calls it that.
The mother of the book. What is the
mother of the book? The it didn't give
birth to the rest of the book.
But in Arabic we say the the mother
of something is
the thing that it all returns to
or the asrul of something, the origin of
something.
So Surah Fatiha didn't give birth to the
rest of the Quran. All of them are
equally a revelation from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But everything in the Quran can find a
reference
in Suratul Fatiha.
It's like a,
executive summary of the Quran if you want.
Right?
And in this executive summary of the Quran,
Allah tells you
to do one thing. Allah teaches you to
do one thing and that is to make
a dua'an
or rather actually Allah teaches us many things
how to praise Him, who He is, who
we are in relation to Him, all of
those things, but Allah tells you to ask
for one thing.
Guide us to the straight path.
Now
this path that we want to be guided
to,
Allah could have given you the details of
the path.
He could have told you very easily.
It's the path of believing in Allah and
the angels and the books
and, the last day and the messengers and
Jannah and Jahannam. Allah could have put that
in there very easily.
Allah could have said the straight path is
the path of salah and zakah and hajj
and fasting.
Allah could very easily have put that into
that street of somebody. It should have only
been a few words more perhaps.
But Allah didn't give any such stable description
of the path.
Right?
What do I mean by a stable description?
Something that defines it clearly that doesn't change.
If Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala to say that it is the
path of performing salah 5 times a day
or believing a set
list of belief,
those would have been things that are clear
cut and that they would not change with
time. They had no possibility of changing.
Rather, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala described the path
in two ways.
1, it's mustaqim.
It's consistent.
But that doesn't tell you much about what
it entails.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells you
it is a path of a group of
people.
The
word in
Arabic
is a relative pronoun and it refers to
a group of people if used in this
manner in the plural form.
It refers to
people.
So if I want to say for example,
if I want to describe a group of
people with
something that cannot be done with a single
word, then I would use this word al
adina, this relative pronoun, and then have a
sentence with something like a sentence after it
to explain what it is.
Right. So what description does Allah give to
the path?
Allah tells you it is a path that
belongs to a group of people and it's
a path that doesn't belong to 2 other
groups of people.
This is
The path of those whom you are favored
upon. Guide me to the straight path.
The path of those whom you are favored
upon.
You understand from
The path of not or other than those
whom
there is your anger upon them, there is
a wrath upon them,
and the path of other than those who
are lost and astray.
What I want to focus on here is
just that word 'Al Adheena'
Are people
is describing a path by a group of
people, is that a stable description?
People
change. Not only are people in and of
themselves different,
but an individual changes from day to day.
Even within a day, you may experience multiple
states.
So the description that Allah gives there is
probably the least stable description that you can
give for this path that you want to
be guided
to. But because of its importance,
Allah describes it like that anyways.
Allah describes it like that anyways. And what's
the lesson to learn from that?
This path of Islam,
this path of guidance, the straight path,
It's not a path that you walk alone.
It's a path that others have walked before
you.
And if you want to walk the path,
you have to recognize those whom Allah is
favored upon.
Once you recognize
those whom Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is favored
upon,
then you walk the same path of them
and that's how you be of Al Adina
or Sirata Al Adina and Amta'alaheem.
If you think you can, you know, cut
yourself off and live in a vacuum
and, you know, I'm only gonna learn my
Islam from books.
I'm only gonna learn my Islam from
even if you learn it from a book,
there was somebody who wrote that book.
So, you're still following the outpourings of the
heart of that author.
It's not a path that you can just,
you know, take the Quran, read it on
your own, and do whatever you want to
You'll never be guided like that.
The only way that you can be guided
aright
is if you follow those who are guided
aright before you.
And that
how do you do that? Can I go
directly to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam?
You may say, yes, I can pick up
Sahih Bukhari
and I can read the hadith of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
The only person that would say such a
thing is somebody who doesn't know what Bukhari
contains.
What what Sahih al Bukhari contains
is just a compilation of a hadith but
there's 2 parts to the hadith.
The first part of the hadith is the
list of people that narrated that hadith,
and the hadith only has strength if the
people that narrated the hadith have strength.
So still then you are following the people
who narrated that hadith.
And these principles in the hadith,
if there is a narration of hadith, but
the practice of the person who narrated the
hadith contradicts
that hadith, then some scholars would say that's
an indication to the fact that that scholar
deemed the hadith weak themselves.
So what must you follow?
You must follow the person
according to those scholars who opine that.
And then do we follow Bukhari just like
it was a book that was authored in
some
200 somewhere? It was compiled and now we
just take that book, pick it up and
follow whatever is in there? How do you
know you can rely upon that book?
There were no printing houses back then.
No! Somebody copied the book from Imam Abu
Kharewar, heard it from him, and then transcribed
it.
The only reason we are willing to accept
that book
is because
we trust the person that transcribed the book.
And then multiple copies were made of the
book and because it then spread we trust
the people who transcribe those copies.
There's, you know, Farabri
was the one who related to us, Al
Bukhari,
And a few people after that, one of
the most,
authentic and dependable
scribes of Sahih al Bukhari was a lady
by the name of Karima al Marwazia.
The alba, the most precise copy of al
Bukhari that all other copies of Al Bukhari
are measured against is a copy of Karima
al Marwaziyyah,
was a pious lady.
We trust Al Bukhari because we trust Karima.
Right? And so
even if somebody wants
to imagine to themselves or think to themselves
that you know what, I'm gonna love Islam.
I'm just gonna do what I want to
do. I'm gonna pick up the hadith books
and I'm gonna do whatever I want to
do in following those hadith.
No scholar will tell you that that's a
guided way.
You have to follow. You have to look
into the people that narrated those hadith. Before
Imam Al Bukhari and after Imam Al Bukhari,
you cannot
follow the Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam without
there being a chain of people between yourself
and Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And the more dependable those people are, the
more,
you know, the more
they whose people imbibe the teachings of Rasool
Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the greater the nur,
the greater the light,
the Mohammedan
light that passes on from Rasool Allah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam to ourselves.
Why? Just think about it.
Who are the best of people?
Best human beings ever on this human on
this face on the face of this earth.
Before
The Ambia.
The Ambia alaihimus salatu wa salam.
From the Ambia,
they are those who have greater virtue.
They are the rusul, those who receive scripture
as well. From the rusul, they are Ulul
Azm. They are 5
messengers who are greater than the rest of
them in status and in virtue. Nuh alaihis
salam, Musa alaihis salam,
Ibrahim alaihis salam, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And
from them, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam is the
greatest.
But after them, who's the greatest group of
people?
The Sahaba.
The Sahaba.
Why they're the greatest group of people?
Because they gave a lot of charity, because
they fasted a lot.
No.
The only reason that they are the greatest
group of people, you know, if one of
them
had to become Muslim
in the company in the presence of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam or out of the presence
of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, but meet him
and then die before the next waqt of
salah enters.
Let's say they became Muslim.
They became Muslim
at 12 o'clock in the morning.
At 12 o'clock in the morning, there's no
Salah that's incumbent upon them at that time.
And in the Mitra Surah Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam theoretically, and then they die a moment
later.
Before the waqdah Dhur enters, there wasn't even
a salah that was compulsory upon them. They
didn't give any charity. Nothing.
They would still belong to the group of
the greatest people ever to walk the face
of this earth. Why?
There's one thing that they have.
In addition to the iman,
they have suhba. That's why we call them
Sahaba.
They enjoyed
the company of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam. So do I need to present you
any proof
greater than this to show you that suhaba,
company,
is something valuable.
Why is it valuable?
Because you learn from the people whose company
you hold and also you share in their
states.
You share in their states.
Right? It might be that you find yourself
in a gathering and this is substantiated by
hadith. You might find yourself in a gathering
and on account of 1 person in that
gathering, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala shaw His mercy
upon everybody else. Why did you get that
virtue? Because of your company.
Right?
And
so
this tradition
of learning things in theory, but also learning
from people,
looking at people who we recognize to be
of those selected by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is of utmost importance. It's part about the
religion. In fact, that is the lived tradition
of Islam.
That is the ruh of Islam.
That's the Rooh of Islam.
And so it's for that reason that we
go to this book of Ibn Atha'ilayah. You
know, story about Ibn Atha'ilayah.
Even Atha'ilayah,
he was in fact himself skeptical.
He said, you know, he was a great
scholar of firk and all of those things,
but himself he was skeptical of,
like,
this tazkiyan. Why must I go sit with
this person? He's not even necessarily a scholar
at the same level as me.
Why must I go sit by him to
learn?
And then
he said somebody just prompted him and told
him, look, you must go sit in the
gathering of Abu Abbas al Mursi.
So he went to sit in the gathering
of Abu Abbas al Mursi.
And
in this gathering of Abu Abbas al Mursi,
he
explained a certain concept.
He explained a certain concept
and then
he presented
so he actually spoke about the phenomena of
tazkiyah, purifying the soul of ness of, you
know, tazkiyah to ness of saluk.
He spoke about this concept.
And
he said
that
he explained it in such a way, in
such a manner,
and in so many different ways
that I broke down in tears. It it
baffled my mind.
You spoke about
I'm just trying to get that quote. I
don't know why it didn't keep it in
front of me.
This is either him
or
one of the commentators,
Sir Ahmed Zaruk, who this,
who directed the story.
Perhaps I'll tell it to you another time,
Insha'Allah.
But he explained
the relationship between,
Tasgir to NIFS of Saluk
and learning the sciences of Fiqh, etc.
And what was that? What was that relationship?
The relationship is that
all of those sciences,
almul kalam, firk, all of those things. Those
are the forms.
Those are the outward forms
and the experience of those forms, the saluk,
that is the ruha.
But he explained it in so many ways.
Ibn 'A'at Torah said, I went, I was
skeptical. Why must I do this? Why must
I learn from these people,
who practice?
And he said, he sat there and the
scholar explained in so many ways. It baffled
his mind. He, you know, he he actually
went into a bit of a stupor
because how of how much his mind had
to process in that moment in those moments.
And he broke down in tears and then
he said no. No.
He's learnt before. Yes. He's a scholar already
of the highest order, but no, I have
to sit in the company of Abu Abbas
al Mursi and here I'll get a different
type of knowledge.
And then,
he took what he learned from Abu Abbas
al Mursi.
Not from the theory of what he learned
from him,
but what he learned from the way his
way of life
And then he
codified that or he recorded that in these
pearls of wisdom.
But each of these pearls of wisdom are
informed by the Quran, are informed by the
sunnah, are informed by fiqh, are informed by
aqidah, all of them,
all of those various subjects.
So when reading these statements, we get to
learn about those sciences,
but we also gain a glimpse
into how the people of Allah
put these things into practice
and that's the virtue, that's the Miza of
reading a book like
the Hicam of Ibn Ta'ala Al Iskandari.
Right? And so
with that in mind, we ask that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
put our heart into
a state
that is receptive
And we ask that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
purify our hearts and we ask that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala give us through reading the
statements of these people who are beloved to
Him,
states that make us also beloved to Him
like they were beloved to Him.
And we ask
that Allah
through it,
you purify our action and make it Mustaqim
so that we can follow the path that
is Mustaqim.
Right?
So
before we move further just take a moment
to rectify our intentions and ask Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala to gaze upon us with His
divine gaze of
mercy and of Rahmah
so that we can actually benefit from these
statements.
So,
what's how long have we been going on
for?
I don't know.
Didn't take the time.
So
these statements before I actually get into the
first one, they may seem like just this
joint this jointed
statements or aphorisms,
some call them, or wisdoms. Just disjointed statements.
Here's number 1, number 2, or number 3.
It doesn't matter where you just come whether
you come and just read number 1 or
whether you read number 5. They see you
might think that they're disjointed.
But if you actually read them or you
go to the scholars that have unpacked them,
like, say, Ahmed al Zarook,
or in the more recent past, one of
my, you know, most beloved scholars,
Sheikh Mohammed Saeed, Ramadan al Boting,
we'll see how they show us the connectedness
between these statements.
How at first glance they may seem disjointed,
but upon a little bit of pondering, you
may find that each one is a Muqaddima.
It's a,
like a precursor to the one that comes
after it.
And it's a completion of the one that
came before it. One explanation
of the one that came before it. Right?
So,
you know, despite my inadequacy
of discussing these things with you
or experiencing these states,
we ask that Allah
open to us some blessings and some barakat.
So we read the first one.
The
PDF of the hicam with the translations have
been sent on the Atikaf group. If anybody's
not in that group, you can just ask
somebody next to you or whatever to share
it with you or you can come to
one of us later and we'll share it
with you.
For those online, I'm not sure. You can
I'm sure you can just type in the
hikam of Ibnu Ata'illah and you'll find them.
There's a link in the description to the
YouTube
stream as well.
Alright. So the first one that we have
is
The first of these wisdoms that he gives
us
as people reading these statements because we want
to walk this path,
he tells us,
from the signs
of dependence upon actions.
Meaning, 1 you're supposed to look at this
introspectively and say and see within yourselves.
Do I have the straight of depending upon
my own actions?
Right? He says, one of the signs that
will tell you that you are depending upon
your own actions
is what?
Is that you have a decrease in the
amount of hope that you have when you
slip up or when a slip up occurs.
Let's see the translation that we have here.
One of the signs of relying on one's
own deeds is the loss of hope when
a downfall occurs.
What does this mean?
One of the signs
that
you
depend upon your own actions
for any type of benefit,
whether it be benefit in this dunya,
or whether it be
actions that you do
seeking thereby salvation in the year after or
increasing the rank in the year after.
One of the signs that you think to
yourself,
Look, I made Salah,
I gave Zakah,
I fasted in the month of Ramadan,
so I deserve Jannah.
Or,
I went to work,
I did my degree,
I wrote up my CV,
I did all of those things required of
me.
I should be sustained.
One of the signs that you depend on
your actions
is that you decrease in hope.
You think to yourself that you are less
deserving of the outcome or you have less
hope not to think that you're deserving, but
you have less hope in attaining
your desired outcome
when you fall short,
when you happen to not make salah one
day,
you oversleep
or you are awake, but you're so busy
that you you don't make your salah.
And then you think, no, no. Now I
can't get Jannah.
Now there's no hope for me.
Or you think
that one day,
because of some negligence, I slipped up in
putting effort
into my work,
so
I don't deserve to be sustained.
That feeling of a loss of hope
when you have a decrease in action, when
you slip up, or when a downfall occurs,
that is a sign that you're depending on
your own actions.
Now the first thing that you must know
is,
you're speaking about depending on your own actions.
In a pejorative context.
You're speaking about it saying that the fact
that you depend on your Amal
is a bad thing.
It is a bad thing.
Nowadays, there's a lot of movements. You must,
you know, you must better yourself in all
of these ways
and then you will attain good outcomes.
Yes, that's not wrong, but it's not entirely
correct.
It's not wrong, but it's not entirely correct.
You see
the way of the believer is
is what?
With my limbs I do whatever I need
to do. I don't sleep in my bed
and think that Allah must send chicken down
from the sky for me.
I
go to work and I earn a living.
But when I earn a living
and when I when I attain that money
or that rizq,
not for a moment do I think to
myself,
I attained this risk because I went to
work.
It's a fine line to
to balance.
It's a fine line, and it's a fine
state to balance.
At once,
I don't
get indulged in inaction.
I don't not do anything.
I do whatever I need to do.
But when I attain the outcome
that I sought by undertaking that action,
I don't for a moment think that I
attained that outcome on account of my action.
SubhanAllah.
It's a difficult thing oh, it sounds like
a tricky thing, isn't it?
Because if I didn't attain the outcome on
account of my action, why did I undertake
the action?
Right.
We'll talk a bit about that later.
But what we must understand here is that
Ibn Utta'illlah is saying
that
depending upon your action is something bad.
So look into yourself and see if you
have any sign of that threat.
And if you have that threat, then remove
it from yourself.
Right?
Remove it from yourself. Now, firstly,
why would it be a bad thing to
depend upon your own actions?
Well
for 1, Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam tells
us that our actions don't lead to our
salvation. Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam says
in a part of a hadith, he says
Know
that no person attains success.
No person attains salvation through his own actions.
So the companions asked him,
wala antayar Rasulullah?
Not even you. You haven't
done a sin in your life.
In fact, the potential for sin was removed
from your heart when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
cleansed your heart.
So every single action that Rasulullah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam does is a good
action,
and many of those actions that he does
is over and above what is compulsory upon
him.
So the companions ask him, you Rasool Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, every single action of
yours is good.
Is it that even you are not saved
on account of your actions?
Rasool Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam tells him,
not even me.
Except
if Allah enshrouds me with his mercy and
his bounty.
SubhanAllah.
Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam is teaching us
even the actions of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa
sallam are not what attained salvation in and
of themselves.
It is the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala that he bestows
on account of you
displaying that token action of doing what he
asked you to do.
Right? So if Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam's
actions
didn't have the value and Rasulullah salallahu alaihi
wa sallam's actions have the most value,
then what paltry things do my actions have?
What what worth does my action have? What
ability
does my action have to bring account salvation
or to to bring about salvation or to
bring about,
risk or to bring about happiness or to
bring about anything?
When my actions,
even my good actions,
are more deserving of being called sins than
good deeds.
When I make salah,
I'm thinking about everything else.
I'm thinking, you know, do I sort out
everything for the the next meeting that I
need to engage in?
Or when I'm giving charity, I'm thinking, oh,
what a charitable man I am.
Or when I'm going to work, I think
about how hard at work.
When my good deeds the good deeds like
that, are they deserving of being called good
deeds?
So my good deeds
that are so
ridden
and filled with flaws,
that they are more deserving of being called
bad deeds than good deeds,
Do they have the ability to bring about
the good consequences of the good outcomes that
I seek?
Certainly not.
So Ibn is teaching us
one of the signs
one of the signs
that you depend on your own actions,
and you shouldn't depend on your own actions,
is that you your hope decreases
when your action decreases.
Your hope decreases when your action slip.
And why is it a bad thing? Why
shouldn't your hope slip? Why shouldn't you hope
for?
Why is it that I can still hope
of Allah? Oh, Allah,
love
me.
Oh Allah, make me of your elect slaves.
Oh Allah, grant me Jannah al Firdos. Oh
Allah, give me the company of Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam. Oh Allah, sustain me. Oh Allah,
feed me. Oh Allah, do not let me
go hungry. Oh Allah, yield my brokenness. Oh
Allah, grant me cure from sickness. Why can
I hope for all of those things
when I fall short in my action?
If I wasn't even deserving,
truly deserving of
the good outcome when I undertook the good
action?
How then do I have the right
to maintain the same degree of hope
when I fall short in doing the action?
How then just think about it for a
moment, it might be a bit hard to
to to process.
If I can't if I don't even truly
deserve
an account of my action,
to desire the outcome
of that action, or what I deem think
to be the outcome of that action,
when I do the action,
why is it that I should deserve
the same outcome
when I don't even do the action at
all?
Because
the source of our hope or the one
that we place our hope in, the being
whom our hopes are in is Allah.
And Allah doesn't change when you fall short.
Allah's ability to give
doesn't decrease
when you fall when you oversleep for your
Salah
or when you
don't do an action.
The Allah that was able to give you
when you did the action is still able
to give you when you don't do the
action.
So, Ibn 'Azza'ilai is telling you the first
thing that you must get right if you
want to walk this path.
In his first Hikma, he's telling us what?
Listen, take your eye off your own action
and place your eye on Allah.
Take your eye off your own action and
place your eye on Allah.
If you're perfect, no. Whether you're perfect or
you're the sinner, put your hope in Allah.
Don't put your hope in your action.
It doesn't matter. Allah can open your heart.
Allah can give you that opening whilst you're
sinning as Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala can give
you that opening whilst you're doing the best
good deed.
It's not you that does, it's Allah that
does.
So
let's read that again.
From the signs of your dependence being in
your actions
is
is that there is a decrease in your
hope
when there is a slip in your actions,
when there is a downfall in your actions.
So may Allah
make us
people
whose hope in Him remains constant.
In fact,
oftentimes
oftentimes
when you miss out on that salah,
and I'm not telling you ever to miss
out on a salah, you must never miss
out on your salah,
Or
simply when you recognize
that you fell short.
When you recognize that you fell short,
then you recognize your imperfection
before Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and that is better for you than doing
the good action
and thinking yourself perfect.
One of the
later
Hicam that we might get to speaks about
that.
So the lesson is
that our hope in Allah
we must try to keep it constant.
Why? Our gaze must be in Allah and
Allah is constant.
Our actions
waver. Our actions,
sometimes they seem good and sometimes they seem
bad, but it's not on account of our
actions that Allah
grants us his bounty.
It's not an account of our actions that
Allah
bestows upon us his favor.
But don't for a moment think that means
you mustn't do actions tomorrow's hikmah.
We'll speak about the fact that you must
still do actions.
So if you want the state
of the people
of of Ma'rifah, of the people of piety,
of the oliya of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
then the first thing you must know is
don't focus on yourself.
Don't focus on yourself. Don't focus on the
actions that come from you. Focus on Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Focus on Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us
and give us the realization of this hikmah
of ibn Wa Ta'ala
who took it from his teacher Abu Abbas,
who took it from his from his teacher
Abu Hassan al Shaddili. We in turn took
it from his teachers and their teachers until
that light emanated from Rasulullah
Sallallahu
Alaihi wa Salam. So we'll end over here
for today inshallah,
and, we'll continue tomorrow. So we won't have
the long introduction tomorrow, so perhaps we'll do
more than 1 hikma.
Tomorrow,
But are there any questions? We don't want
to end without any questions.
A lot to think about.
You can let your mind somehow and connect
instead of scrolling YouTube
or whatever.
Any questions?