Zakariyya Harnekar – Pearls of Wisdom #2
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of maintaining a positive attitude towards oneself and others, as well as finding one's wealth to align with one's Deen and state of piety. They stress the need for individuals to strip themselves from luxury and their Deen to find themselves in a space where their Deen can be preserved, and to be mindful of their state and not make a mistake in their decision. The speakers also emphasize the importance of finding one's success in life and aligning one's Deen with one's deen and state of piety.
AI: Summary ©
How's everyone today?
Yesterday, we were discussing
the first of the hikam of Ibnu Atayullah
and
it went
From the signs of of dependence upon actions
is that there is a decrease in hope
when a downfall occurs or when a slip
up occurs in your action.
And I think we discussed it from a
number of
perspectives.
What is iatimad alalamal?
Why is it bad?
What is nuksan in rajah? Why there shouldn't
be nuksan in rajah
when there is a decrease in hamal in
action?
But perhaps there was something that I forgot
to cover.
And
perhaps Allah made me
remember it
through having my own zalal.
So usually there's a certain
thing that I would do on a night
in the month of Ramadan
And I went home last night, I was
supposed to do it and somehow I fell
asleep.
And I woke up and there wasn't enough
time to do
it. So there was my zalal.
Usually, there's an action that
I do, Alhamdulillah, I try to have a
bit of
consistency in it.
But just the day after speaking about, the
night after speaking about this hikmah, then my
zalal occurs. What I usually do, I didn't
do.
You might say, okay I fell asleep all
of those things but perhaps I shouldn't have
even lied down for that moment!
Allahu'alaam!
And,
so it made me feel some things.
Obviously, the Hikma came to mind.
I shouldn't decrease in hope,
but I felt bad.
I didn't do what I what I usually
do.
And it reminded me
that
what is that feeling over there
of feeling bad for not having done the
action?
One is that I mustn't lose hope in
Allah. My hope in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
mustn't decrease.
But is there any value
to that feeling bad in that moment?
Is there any value to feeling bad? You
see, in the Arabic language
there is this concept of
that we refer to as raja
and its counterpart is hof.
Its counterpart is fear.
And the life of a believer is supposed
to be lived between the states of Khawf
and Raja,
between the states of fear and the punishment
of Allah.
Or if one reaches a higher state of
spirituality,
not fear in the punishment of Allah, but
just
being fear of being deprived from the complete
and perfect love of Allah.
Because
what does a lover fear more than losing
the love of his beloved?
So
there's
a state of fear
and there's a state of hope. So yesterday
we spoke about the idea that your hope
mustn't decrease
when you have a slip up in your
action.
So I try to remind myself my hope
mustn't decrease. You Allah grant me what you
would have grant me had I done that.
Right.
But is there value to that feeling bad
in that moment?
And
the reality is yes,
if there was no value
to feeling bad in that moment,
then in fact, you would not be justified
in maintaining your level of hope.
I'm going to say that again.
If there was no value in that feeling
bad,
then you would have no right to maintain
your level of hope in Allah. Why?
You see,
because it is a sign of your iman.
It is a sign of your faith
that you want to do what is pleasing
to Allah,
and when you don't do what is pleasing
to Allah, then you feel bad about it.
It's a feeling of regret.
And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam teaches us that
that feeling of regret in your heart, that
is your Tawba.
That is your turning back to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
And then you turn back to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. And on account of that turning
back to Allah, you now again hope in
Allah's mercy. In fact, that's that act of
making Tawba is a sign that you are
maintaining your hope in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Right? That bad that feeling bad or that
feeling of regret
or that feeling of remorse
is what drives you to undertake the act
of Tawba and that act of Tawba is
what indicates that you are maintaining your hope
in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Alright? So
that feeling bad, that momentary feeling of remorse
or regret
is something that's very important.
Right?
Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us in
a hadith.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us in a
hadith. Hadith could see. Hadith when Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam relates to us
what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says. Right? It's
different from Quran.
So he says in this hadith, Allah says,
sorry.
A slave of mine has sinned.
And my slave knows
I
may be mistaken the word. He says that
my slave
committed a sin.
And then the slaves is actually yeah, there
was a mistake in the mail. The slave
commits a sin. Then he says,
then he says to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
oh Allah I have committed a sin.
You know, pardon me.
And then Allah says,
my Savior has sinned,
but he knows that he has a Lord
that punishes
sins and forgives them.
So I forgive him.
And then
he commits the sin again,
and then he asks Allah again.
He regrets having done that, and then he
asks Allah again, oh, Allah forgive me for
my sin.
Then Allah
says, my slave sinned,
but he knows that he has a Lord
who can punish or forgives and pardons or
grants Tawba for that sins.
So, I forgive him.
I give him that tawba.
And then the sin commits the same sin
again. The slave commits the same sin again.
And then he makes tawba again.
And then Allah
says, my slave sinned,
but he knows that he has a Lord
that punishes and forgives sins,
so I've forgiven him.
And my slave can do whatever he wants
to. I will pardon from him everything that
he does.
You see,
what was the thing there? He did this,
and he had the zalal. He had the
slipper,
But that slip up on account of his
iman,
on account of his his gaze being directed
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he felt bad
and he made Tawba.
And on account of that Tawba,
Allah
forgave him, and that's what makes him deserving
of maintaining that level of hope in Allah
Right?
So
at once,
we must do
we must not have
our dependence on our actions.
Our dependence must be on Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
Right?
And if our dependence is on Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, then our hope in Him should
not decrease when we suffer a slip up
or a downturn in our action.
But there is also value
to feeling bad when you have that zalal,
to feeling bad when you actually have that
slip up because it drives you to make
Tawba, and that Tawba
is what Allah
loves you to do in that moment. If
you don't make Dua in that moment, that
would be another zalal.
That would be another slipper,
and we don't want to have slip up,
after slip up, after slip up. We don't
depend upon our actions, but we still undertake
the actions that Allah
wants from us.
That leads us into the next,
hikmah.
And
this second hikmah goes as follows.
Right?
I'm gonna say it again.
I'm gonna translate it for you. I'm gonna
translate it for you. I'm gonna translate it
for you. I read it for okay. Firstly,
there's 2 concepts that he speaks about here.
Tajrid and Asbab. So before I translate
the Hikma, I'm going to just explain to
you what these two things are, Tajrid and
Asbab.
Tajrid
literally means to strip away from something,
and asabaab
means means,
like using something as a means to something
else.
Using doing one thing in order to attain
another thing. I light I, you know, click
the lighter so that fire can come about.
I light the match so that I can
get a fire, or I make a fire
so that I can get heat.
The making of the fire is a sabab
to attaining the heat.
Right? Yesterday, we said you undertake an action
because you want to get an outcome and
that outcome is a reward from Allah or
attaining sustenance or something.
But we said what?
That
when you fail to do the action,
you mustn't lose hope that you will still
attain the outcome.
Right? So there was something there about the
relationship between a means and the outcome.
Now in this Hikma, he speaks about it
more clearly. He says, firstly, there's the idea
of stripping away this word Tajiri uses. What
is Tajiri?
Tajiri is like
it refers in this context to divorcing the
dunya.
Tajrid
refers to,
like, you know, wanting to isolate oneself
from,
you know, engaging in worldly activity.
That's what Tajrid means.
And Asbaab, as he uses the word here,
it refers to
being indulged in
doing things to attain outcomes.
Going to work, you've just focused on going
to work to attain a living, you know,
living in the in the world of means
where you do something to attain another thing.
Right? So Anasen Tijirid
is stripping away from the dunya, not engaging
in the worldly means.
As Bab is engaging in the worldly means
to attain outcomes.
Right?
And oftentimes, yeah, it would refer to
in this context, it will refer more to
using we using means to attain worldly outcomes.
Alright. So he says what?
Allah placing you
in a state of Tajrid, in a situation
where you are blocked off from the means,
and you must strip away from
using the worldly means,
or rather desiring to strip yourself out of
using the worldly means, to seclude yourself from
all dunya y things. Listen to this. It's
important.
Desiring or intending
that you strip away from the world, that
you are not going to undertake the means
any longer. You're not going to work as
much. You're not going to do, you know,
all of those material responsibilities or material things
that the human being generally undertakes in the
world. Your desire to stop doing that, to
seclude yourself from all of those things.
Whilst Allah has placed you in a situation
of asbaab,
Allah
has placed you in a situation where you
have children that you must be responsible for.
You have to make nafakah on them.
So now,
desiring Tajreel would mean you say that, no,
no, you know, I'm not gonna work. I'm
gonna dedicate myself now to making Ibadah.
I'm gonna go to the Masjid every day,
and I'm gonna make Salah
all day.
At a time when Allah has made you
responsible for the material needs
of yourself and other people.
So desiring that seclusion or strip, divorcing the
dunya, when Allah
has placed you in a situation where you
must use the asbaab.
He says,
That is a hidden desire.
That's a hidden component of your nafs.
He says that's part of your shahwa.
Listen to that.
Desiring to seclude yourself or intending to seclude
yourself
when
Allah
placed you in a situation where you must
use the means of the dunya.
That is a hidden
desire,
a part of the shower, but it's something
that people don't often recognize as that. Because
they think to themselves,
if my desire is if I want to
go sit in the Masjid and make salah
all day and recite Quran all day, that's
a good thing. Isn't it a good thing?
So they delude themselves into thinking
that,
you know, even though they have all of
these responsibilities
and opportunities to use the means, it is
a good thing that they don't want to
be there, and they want to be doing
other things. They want to be divorced from
the dunya.
Right.
And the second part of it says,
and desiring
to be indulged in the means.
Desiring to use the means to be indulged
in those worldly activities that bring about for
you worldly benefits.
When Allah has placed you in a situation
of tajreid,
when Allah has placed you in a situation
where
you must strip away from those worldly things,
where you must seclude yourself for Allah
He says,
That is a
a
a comedown if you want. That is a,
yeah, that is a decrease or comedown
in lofty aspirations.
That is a come down from lofty aspirations.
Now,
here in this context, what is lofty aspirations?
Lofty aspirations is desiring
the maximum,
seeking to use every opportunity that Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala has given you to please Him.
So is
something good here? Something desirous?
Yes.
Desiring to use every opportunity or the want
or the,
you know,
being focused on using every opportunity that Allah
has given you to please Him or to
attain goodness.
That is a good thing.
So coming down,
being it's almost what what we may refer
to as being lackadaisical
or being becoming complacent.
That's a bad thing.
So he says,
desiring to use the means when Allah has
placed you in a circumstance where you have
to cut off from the means, where you
have to cut off from the dunya that
is becoming complacent
and lowering yourself from the high hopes that
you should have,
the high aspirations that you should
have. So in the first part, He's telling
you what
desiring to not use the means, to strip
away from the means, when Allah has placed
you in a situation where you must use
the means,
is a hidden desire.
But desiring to use the means, when Allah
has placed you in a situation that you
must strip away from the means,
that is a sign of complacency
or a come down from the high aspirations
that you should have.
Now what can we discuss here?
What are such situations
or what is
okay. We have an understanding already of what
is
desiring to just subclude yourself, thinking to yourself,
you know what? I'm just gonna
scale down my life.
I'm going to you know, I was living
in
a nice big house, and my family is
accustomed to all of that. But now what
I'm gonna do is
I'm just gonna
neglect maintaining all of that,
and I'm just gonna dedicate myself to Aida,
and the rest of my family might just
suffer.
They must just lower their standard of living
with me
to facilitate for my
seclusion in Ibadah.
That's Eirada to tajirid.
So he says,
desiring tajrid
when Allah has placed you in a situation
of means.
If you know, for example,
my family,
and and, yeah, I don't mean, you might
just pander to the whims of your family.
Because
if your family themselves are not, or trained
already,
they're just gonna want more.
And Allah never ever makes you responsible
for simply fulfilling the desire of your dependence
or fulfilling the desires of your society.
Right?
If Allah made me responsible for fulfilling the
desires of my family, then every man must
work himself to the bone for the rest
of his life because his family will always
just want more and more and more and
more and more and more and more.
Right? Unless they themselves are trained, unless their
nufus themselves are trained.
But, if my family, they have a standard
of living,
I marry a woman and she comes from
a standard of living, and I marry her
with the knowledge that I must provide for
her the same.
Right?
And then one day I wake up and
they decide, no, I want to become pious.
So I used to be running a business
all along. Now I'm just gonna leave that,
and she might just be
willing to take the minimum nafakar that I'm
gonna give her
just because that's what I want to do.
He says, that's actually your desire.
What Allah requires of you in that moment
because Allah placed you in the situation where
you have that responsibility,
What Allah wants from you in that situation
is to use the means, is to go
and work, to earn a living for your
family, to see to their needs,
to see to to maintain the standard of
living that they came from, to give them
what is beneficial for them. Obviously, not to
give them what's harmful for for them.
Like I said, it's not just to pander
to their whims,
but you can't take a person who's accustomed
to living
here in the Rylands. He's accustomed to living
in the Rylands.
You can't tell him one day, look here,
we're gonna go live in Khayelisha
and think, oh, he's so pious. Masha'Allah.
My father has decided now we are going
to dedicate ourselves to the Akhirah.
The likelihood that you're gonna find that is
near 0
unless
unless,
like I said, the nufus of your own
family themselves are
are trained. And then it's not that you're
gonna go living necessarily in Khayelitsha. I'm just
using that as an example. Right?
But to come down from what you are
accustomed to is a difficult thing.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala doesn't always require
that instantaneously
from people.
Right? Allah doesn't require that instantaneously from people.
So if you have that desire,
what you can do is you can discuss
with those who Allah made you responsible for.
You can discuss with your family. You can
discuss with your dependents.
And if they are all happy with it,
if they are all happy with it,
then by all means, go ahead.
Then by all means, you can go ahead.
You can cut down on your worldly activity
and engage more in Ibadan, seclusion, and the
like.
But if that's not the case
and your family have reasonable
expectations upon you, from you, that Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
has imposed upon you and then you want
to strip away from that, then that's actually
your own desire.
And you might be deluded into thinking it's
not your desire because what you want to
do looks like a good thing.
That's why He calls it Shahwa Khafiyyah,
a hidden desire.
Right?
And that is something that occurs sometimes.
It is something that,
occurs.
What both that people want to step down,
they want to scale down when their family
is not ready for it,
when those that they are responsible for is
not ready for it or they are not
ready for it.
But you also find the opposite.
Many a times, we find ourselves
in Darul alums teaching and that.
Oftentimes, you'll find a man coming.
The man the guy's married.
He's coming to study.
And then before we are willing to accept
him, we ask them, you're coming to study
here,
but you're married.
Do you have children? You have children.
Are your family on board with you coming
to spend your day here?
If your family is not on board with
it, we can't accept you.
But oftentimes, you will find
that the man has spoken to his family.
He's spoken to his wife,
and his wife said, it will be my
joy
to decrease my standard of living so that
you can go study for the path in
the path
of Allah. He has spoken to his children,
and he has made the tarbiyah,
and the children say, no. We are happy
to not take everything we want
so that you can go study in the
path of Allah. We do see that.
But as one of our teachers have said,
when you see that, know that you are
standing in front of.
This is some angelic thing that you see.
That's not the norm.
To find a family, a whole scale, altogether
like that, willing to
come down from this standard of living, not
so that they have to look. We'll still
have a baseline.
We'll ask the person, look.
You're coming to study over here. Does it
mean you're gonna stretch out your hand to
other people for your family? If that's the
case, we still can't accept you.
But if you earn enough so that you
can fulfill the nafaka of your family, but
just it means they're gonna have to cut
here and there, and they're all happy with
it, we'll accept you. But like I said,
that's an angelic thing.
That's not the norm.
When when you find that happening, then you
must know these people, Allah selected them for
his his divine favor.
Allah selected these people.
Right?
So that is a beautiful thing. I'm not
saying
I'm not saying you must never come down
from your standard of living. No.
But you mustn't come down from that standard
of living
when it is required from you by Allah.
Right? Or when there are people that depend
upon you for that.
And now I use the example of a
family, just a single family unit,
but it may extend beyond that.
What if I live in a community, and
there's lots of struggling people in my community,
But, for example,
I'm a doctor.
They don't have the opportunity to work and
earn money to see to their needs. They
may have some skills, but it's not gonna
see to the needs of of those people.
But I have the ability to earn,
and I can earn handsomely,
and I can use this to look after
them.
Desiring to leave that work
so that you can
seclude yourself in worship, that again here is
an example of that Shehu Wa Khafiyyah,
of that hidden desire.
No.
Rather, thee, you should use the means
and use it in a manner that will
please Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and that will
be more beloved to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
in that case.
In fact,
it would be, you know, a part of
a Farud Kifaya there.
We
have this important integral part of our Islam
called Zakah.
You can't have Zakah if there's no rich
people.
And according to the normal law of the
world, you won't have rich people unless there
are people working to earn money.
Right? According to the normal law of the
world. But again, we as people who are
placed in this world
with certain laws, normal laws,
we interact
with the world according to those laws that
Allah created because it's Allah that created those
laws.
If he didn't want us to interact with
those normal laws, He wouldn't have placed those
as laws in the world.
If Allah wanted us to live in this
world, make salah,
and not have to go and work, then
He would have made it, like I said
yesterday, rain chicken.
Or some days it would rain money, some
days it would rain dates, some days it
would rain water, some days it would rain,
you know, all of the things that we
require for our needs. But Allah didn't make
that the system of the world.
Allah didn't make that the system of the
world. The system of the
world is
when you need
to earn money, when you need to earn
sustenance, you go out and you work in
a manner that's pleasing to Allah according to
the law of Allah. You earn your rizq
and you recognize that even when I have
undertaken the work, the risk is still sent
by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and I use
that rizq in a manner that pleases Allah.
And just listen to how many times I
mentioned Allah in that equation,
but on the face of it, it can
look like a normal man
in his normal clothes,
going to his normal job,
earning normal money, coming to spend it on
normal things like food and,
housing and whatever and water and electricity and
whatever else for himself, for his family, that
looks like a very ordinary life.
But if he's doing it in the knowledge
that Allah placed me here, Allah placed this
responsibility
upon me, Allah
wants me to undertake these actions. I'm working
according to the law that Allah placed for
me, Then it's still about what?
Allah, Allah, Allah.
And that man,
whilst he's doing all of those seemingly normal
worldly things, he's actually in the path of
Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He's actually in the path of Allah.
And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells us this
in a hadith.
There was one day the companions were sitting.
They saw a young man come out.
And, probably for those who students of mizanativa,
I must have told this hadith many times
before.
As man comes out, and some of the
companions, they remark
how excellent is this person's strength,
how excellent is this person's youth,
and his ability if only he had spent
it in the path of Allah.
He was going out to work. He got
up very early to go and work.
If only he had used it in the
path of Allah.
And they were thinking maybe he had he
had he only gone on jihad, etcetera.
So Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came to hear of this,
and he told him again, I'm paraphrasing.
I'm narrating by meaning.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told him that if
he is going out to work
if he's going out to work to earn
money because he has parents who are old
and so that he can see to their
needs, then it's already impossible.
If he's going out to work
because he has a spouse and children,
and he's going out to work to see
to their needs so that they don't have
to stretch out their hand to other people
to ask of them, it is already in
the potable.
If he's going out to work
to see to his own needs
so that he doesn't have to stretch his
hand out to others to ask them, it
is already in the path of Allah.
But if he's going out to work
so that he can earn money,
and he can boast with that wealth to
people, and he can become on account of
it, then he's in the path of Shaitan.
Right.
So it's telling us that what we must
be doing is what?
We're working with the means, but
because it's the means that Allah created
to the extent that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
wants from us.
Right? In a manner that's pleasing to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. If you find yourself living
in the world of means, using the means
in that state, then that is what Allah
wants from you. You are already doing what
piety dictates from you.
Right? You're already doing what piety dictates from
you.
However,
there are states.
There's a time when I can decrease my
work,
and decreasing my work means that my family
and other people are gonna suffer.
In that state, you must rectify your intention
and continue to use the means.
Continue to focus on your work and whatever,
and know that Allah is pleased with you
for that.
Then there's a time
when you know I can decrease my work.
I'm so wealthy already.
I can decrease my work,
and my family won't suffer
and my family won't suffer,
and I can engage in.
What must you do then?
In that case, Allah doesn't impose upon you.
You can decide to decrease your work,
right,
and focus more on your
and less on your work and earn less
money. You have less means.
Or
you can continue to work
and earn more than you require
for your family and whoever is dependent upon.
But now the question is, what am I
gonna do with that excess?
Now the question is, am I working for
the sake of working,
or am I working for the sake of
Allah?
In that case, you have a choice,
But to maintain that high level of piety,
you must ask yourself, what am I going
to do with that excess?
Because
having that excess is,
you know, it's a burden. You're going to
be questioned about it by Allah.
And
if you want to do the bare minimum,
then you at least have to pay your
Zakah.
If you pay your Zakah, you won't be
punished
for having that means beyond your Zakah.
But if you want to attain lofty status,
then you must use that excess
for what is pleasing to Allah.
Allah says in the Quran, they ask you
what they must spend.
Say to them, they must spend what is
surplus.
They must spend what is surplus, what is
beyond their needs.
Right?
So now what can you do with it?
See to the poor people, see to the
orphans, we live in the most unequal society.
There's poverty anywhere you look.
See to the Islamic institutions, I'm involved in
many Islamic institutions. All of them are short
of money.
All of them are short of money. Why?
That's the nature of these institutions. Somebody comes,
that person that's willing,
oftentimes, he finds himself in difficulty,
but he's willing.
So sometimes, like I said, you know, interviewers
have to turn him away because he must
focus on his earning his living.
But sometimes there are situations that
these institutions, they won't even continue to exist
if
the if there aren't wealthy people in the
society that fund them.
Historically,
you never have a situation where a madrassa
gets set up, and the madrassa must go
look for funding.
No. There'd be aqaaf set up in the
society
where people, wealthy people, are proactively they have
set up institutions
that has money, that has wealth,
that earns profits, and they have set that
money proactively
away so that it can fund institutions.
They have they are looking for good in
society
to see to. In fact, it would be
the desire of the wealthy people at that
time, You know what? I don't even want
to set up something else. I want to
be the one to fund this entire project
myself.
They would have that desire.
I'm not gonna set up the thing and
go look for Albu. I want to be
the one to spend my money.
I don't want to be deprived of the
opportunity of spending my money.
So in that case, when a person has
surplus to their means
and they use they're still living in the
world of means, they're still going out to
the job and working hard, but they have
that surplus, and they're using that surplus to
fund all of the activities
of the Muslim society and of the people
who are in need, then that may be
a loftier state for them than to cut
off from the means and just, you know,
pray
Barakah to worship.
But I can tell you,
few and far between
are the wealthy people
who are ever ready to spend their wealth
like that.
And, like I told you, I'm involved in
institutions. I see how good I I never
like to be involved in fundraising.
But, I can tell you, the ones who
are, you know, are bold enough,
the ulama, who don't need they don't have
any needs of their own, but they're willing
to ask other people for the needs of
other people.
It's a brave thing to do.
They have a hard time.
You go to the guy.
He has 1,000,000.
And then he wants you to justify to
him for hours on end. Why must I
give you money and then let you leave
with a 1,000 rand, 10,000 rand? You wasted
my time. I didn't waste your time.
You wasted my time. There's other people who
are willing to give.
Right? It's a it's a difficult state to
be in, to have that surplus, and to
give readily.
But our wealthy people, if they want to
be the wealthy people of piety,
not poor people,
stay wealthy,
but the wealthy people of piety,
then that must be your goal for your
wealth.
That must be your goal for your surplus.
As for the second part,
as for the second part, so we spoke
about, will you have enough?
If you decrease in your using of the
means,
then it's going to encroach on those people
who are dependent upon you, who have a
right over you. Then you must stay using
the means, and that's what Allah wants from
you.
When decreasing your work will not encroach on
those who have a right over you,
then you have a choice.
Either I can
continue to work in the means and attain
surplus, But, if you want to maintain the
lofty status of of the highest levels of
piety,
then use that in in manners that will
please Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And, if you just want to do the
bare minimum, then you must at least be
giving your Zakkah.
Right?
But if you want to also, you may
decide to decrease your
your usage of the means and dedicate yourself
to worship, and Allah
would also be happy with that from you.
If you,
you know, if that Ibadah leads to good
states, etcetera.
Right? And oftentimes, being a person of those
high states
means that you can impart those states to
other people as well.
So a person there's a judgment call that
has to be made there, and every situation
will be different.
So a person should seek the counsel of
an I limb
that knows
how the world works and that knows the
person intimately and the state of piety to
guide them in that regard.
Right?
But what about the other situation?
What about
desiring to use the means when Allah has
placed you in a situation
where you must be cut off from the
means?
What are such examples?
You find yourself in an environment,
and in this environment, you have a comfortable
life.
You are able to earn a lot of
wealth, and you're able to live
luxuriously,
but in this environment,
there is a detriment
to your own deen.
Perhaps next door to me there's a
place of
illicit activity
or there is,
you know, lots of music around me all
the time that that has bad lyrics
or there is
a threat to the iman of my children.
There's no community for my children to grow
up and there's no masjid close by for
them to attend.
So now in this situation,
you can't say no no no no no
no. I want to stay having this luxurious
lifestyle. Now in this situation, you must actually
it's required of you from you by Allah
to strip yourself out of that comfort.
To strip yourself out of that comfort.
Even if it means you have to go
to a place of lesser comfort.
Maybe you're living in Claremont,
and you're living a luxurious life there, but
there's no Muslim community for your children.
Or there's no Islamic education for them, and
you justify to yourself, no, you know what?
I can't take my child every day to
learn about the deen because now it's too
far. I have to drive all the way
and then there's traffic going to Rylands where
there's some madrasa perhaps.
So now I decrease and I said, Tamachandu,
you must only go to madrasan on Saturday.
No.
Now you might be giving your child material,
but you're not fulfilling your responsibility in relation
to him, in relation to your deen in
relation to their deen,
in relation to their Deen, and in relation
to your Deen because it's your responsibility.
Now, what does Allah expect from you?
Allah expects you to strip yourself from that
luxury
and to find yourself in a space where
your Deen can be preserved.
So He says, when Allah puts you in
that situation where you recognize
there is something that requires me to move,
whether it be on account of it being
a detriment to my deen or the safety
of my family or whatever it may be.
That's your responsibility.
And then you say to yourself, no, I
want to stay here in this means. If
I'm going to leave there, I'm going to
have to come down from my standard of
living, etcetera, so I could be as comfortable.
Desiring to stay in the means when Allah
has put you in a situation where you
must strip yourself away from that means,
that
is
That is a comedown from the high aspiration
that you should have.
That is a comedown from the high aspirations
that you should have.
You may think to yourself, oh, no. No.
I'm still fulfilling my responsibility in relation to
my child because I'm sending to mother on
a Saturday.
He can't sit with the ulama frequently.
But, yeah, okay. You can sit with him
on a Saturday.
Yeah. He's gonna play soccer every day of
the week.
Is that what Allah wants from us in
this life?
And it might be a piercing thing for
me to say
because the natural progression that we have in
our lives generally is, you know,
and we want for our children and they
must go, you know, we had a difficult
life. They must go study, go to university,
get high degrees.
Every youngster in my generation has a degree,
doctor, engineer, whatever the case may be, which
wasn't the case in the year of my
parents
who lived with a lot more simplicity.
Everybody has that. And naturally what happens, your
earnings increase.
And when your earnings increase, you think yourself,
what must I do with this money? Your
standard of living increases.
You move into the leafy suburbs. Not that
it's a problem. It's not a problem at
all to live in those,
places.
But it's a problem if there's a if
it necessitates
a in the
in your Deen and the Deen of your
family.
Right?
So naturally, we move that way.
And, you know, maybe you move out of
Saudi state and you go live in Claremont.
But now there's no Muslim neighbor for your
child to play with.
There's no auntie that's gonna tell him to
go to the Masjid.
Maybe there's no Masjid close by for him
to even go to.
Then that's a problem.
Obviously, if you tell yourself and you plan
before and you say, look, you know, maybe
there's some rough elements in this area. We
want to move out. But moving out, there's
some challenges in moving out.
There's no masjid so close by. But you
tell yourself and you dedicate yourself, you know
what? I'm moving and I'm cognizant of that.
I'm going to do things to ensure that
our Deen is not harmed. We're gonna drive
to the Masjid every day.
And I'm going to ensure that my child
has spaces, Muslim spaces, that can cultivate its
Islamic character,
and you ensure all of those things, then
by all means, it's fine.
But if it's an increase in luxury and
the trade of his Din,
we never opt for that.
That is what Ibn Ta'ala is talking about
here. That is a comedown from high aspiration.
The aspirations that Allah expects us to have
that we should be aiming for in our
life.
Right?
So that's an important lesson.
Is there time up already?
Time's up.
Important lessons to think about it.
Desiring
to be free of the dunya when Allah
has placed you amidst that means is from
the hidden desires.
And desiring to be engaged in the means
when Allah has placed you in a situation
where you are required to strip yourself away
from that luxury and that means
that is a comedown from the lofty aspirations
that we should be aiming for.
Right. So again, something for us to sum
our minds up.
In the first part, He's telling you,
hey, Buddha, you must work.
You must work. And if you don't want
to work,
despite Allah putting you in a situation where
you must work, where you're just being lazy?
That's what Allah wants from you. But in
the second part, He tells you,
when Allah wants you to strip away from
the dunya,
when Allah wants you to strip away from
the dunya,
despite the fact that you want to be
in the means, in the luxury of this
dunya and earning more of it, that's a
comedown from the lofty aspirations. And that's a
real thing that we must assess in our
lives. Am I in that moment now where
I must strip away? Am I in that
moment where I must come down?
And sometimes
that happens in a very subtle way, and
sometimes it happens in a very overt way.
War breaks out in a community. The family
must move.
Or, you might think of Turkey, for example.
Turkey became heavily secularized
at a certain time. Many of the olema,
they had to leave. They had lots of
luxury. They had lots of wealth there. They
had to leave for the sake of their
deen. One of my,
masha'i that, in in Syria,
he told us once we were walking in,
in in Turkey.
He's now in Turkey. I wish I had
to leave Syria.
He pointed out a huge,
like, fountain,
a huge fountain.
He was telling us that, you know, in
in our house in Syria, in our courtyard,
in the courtyard of our house,
we used to have one of these huge
fountains.
Obviously, that tells you how the rest of
the house was.
Nice. Very nice.
And then we went to have supper at
his house one day. I guarantee you, the
size of his house, the size of his
whole place
was smaller than
from this pillar. I would say maybe that
pillar
till like halfway to that wall.
From that pillar here to maybe 4 souffuf
and to where I am,
that was the entire that was the
entirety of his home. His kitchen, his bathroom,
his bedroom, his place for his mother, his
place for all of his 4 children, his
whatever.
Everything in that small space.
So he had to leave the luxury that
he had there
and come to a very small cramped place
here in Turkey.
But why were they willing to do that?
They were willing to do that
because they recognized that at that moment
in fact, why he why he had to
leave was because he was defending the Sahaba.
They locked him up in jail for that,
for defending Aisha
They locked him up in jail.
So he had to flee with his family
when he came out.
So he fled from all of that luxury
to the small apartment. Why?
For he's Deen and the Deen of his
family. In fact, many of the Masha'ih
that we met last year myself, Moloh Muhammad,
Moloh Khalil, and Molayshah, we went together.
1 night can I tell this one story?
1 night, we were we were walking
from a Masjid.
I can't even remember where all we went,
but anyways, it was like 12 o'clock nearly.
It was about 12 o'clock
and, we were walking back to the Sheikh's
house.
We walked past
his house, it was fairly far from this
mosque. We went to that specific mosque because
there was a dhikr there that we wanted
to attend.
And, as we're walking back,
there's a small kid.
He sees us
and he asked the Sheikh in front like
who he is or whatever and he learns
that he's like an Eilim and he learns
that, you know, we are all students of
Deen.
So he says, he has a big bunch
of keys on his belt, on the loop
of his belt.
He says,
no. Walking past my house, you must come
in for for some tea.
So we tell him, hey, it's 12 o'clock.
We don't want to disturb your family. He
says, no. No.
You have to come into my house for
some tea.
So he told him, no, man. No. Maybe
another day. We can't come now. It's it's
too late. He says, if my father knows
that the group of Olamah walked past my
house and I didn't invite them in,
you'll be very unhappy with me. You must
come in.
So there's like 7 of us, we come
into the house.
We came to learn that he was about
12 years old.
He comes in. He comes to sit with
us. But before he comes to sit with
us, he tells his brothers about 7 years
old maybe,
you must tell the sisters they must go
prepare some tea and biscuits and things they
must bring it to us.
Poor people, a small place.
And the sisters like
she was also maybe around maybe 8 years
old or so. She goes to prepare the
tea. There's guests now.
And the younger brother was maybe about,
I don't know how old he was, maybe
like 5 or so, he starts looking after
the very small baby
playing with her, making her quiet know there's
guests now. And I was like shocked out
of my mind.
Like, what is this?
A family that said, ready to my khidma
at like 12 o'clock in the night just
because they saw people connected to the Deen.
No. This only comes from Tarpia.
And then the father came up. The father
sat with us for a bit.
And he was telling us about your story.
He was actually from he was a descendant
of Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And he was telling us that, you know,
he has some high qualifications.
He's also a refugee.
You know, I can even call them refugees,
but he fled from Syria because of the
war. He had to leave
with his family,
living in a small basic place.
And he told us that, you know,
he's received offers from numerous countries,
Western countries, that have refugee programs.
America, he mentioned Germany.
I think he mentioned Canada as well.
And he said, you know, what they offered
me was a lot.
They would see to all my needs in
terms of housing, job, everything seemed to.
They showed me the places luxurious. They'll see
to the education of my children, everything.
But I thought to myself,
am I gonna take my children out to
this place where this Masjid is here, where
they hear the decree every day? And I'm
gonna take them to that place
where
I might have all of that luxury but
I know I'm going to be required to
assimilate into the society.
No.
The right decision for me and my family
is to stay here in poverty.
Look at the children.
In fact, after
that, after getting the kids to come and
make tea and all of those things for
us,
the father told the boy, okay, you must
recite some Quran for us first.
Because he's hosting the guests now. This is
the etiquette of hosting your guests. Recite some
Quran for them. After reciting some Quran saying,
you know, sing an nasheed for them to
make them feel at ease.
And then you come and you serve all
of them and you greet them.
All that he knew about us
was
these are people
who are students of Deen or students of
sacred knowledge,
and they wanted to treat us like kings.
Kiss our hands and all of these things.
Where does this come from? That's only tarbiyah,
and that's only the
the the divine hand of Allah's
guidance.
Why did I tell you that story?
This is a case here
of
where the man is faced with a choice.
He's living in poverty and in difficulty.
His family had to come down from their
luxurious living
in Salin.
But, this is a case
where Allah placed him in a situation of
Tajrid.
Despite the fact that he may want the
means,
he stays in that state of Tajrid. He
stays in that state of divorcement from the
dunya, and that is a sign of lofty
aspirations.
That is a sign of lofty aspirations.
And I'm telling you if you want to
see the examples of that
just look at the pious people who keep
their families in that state of poverty
for the sake of Allah. In fact, you
know what?
The greatest example of that was Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
If
he wanted this if anybody wanted the skies
to rain gold for them
and the earth to grow the luscious crops,
it would have been Him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
If anybody wanted the wealth of the wealthy
people to be placed at his feet,
it was him
But he said, no, I want to live
with the poor and I want to die
with him.
So may Allah
grant us to reflect on our situation
and may Allah
make us cognizant
of keeping our eye on it
so that we know
is this a moment when I must strip
away from the means
or is this a moment when I must
engage with the means?
Why must I engage with the means? Because
it will be pleasing to Allah. Why must
I strip away from the means? Because it
will be pleasing to Allah.
It's all about Allah.
Allah. Allah.
So may Allah
guide us, read our minds somewhere on it
and make us people of of
that high aspirations.
Are there any questions?
Okay.
Question on the first one. Okay.
I'm confused. So I have 7 dependents, but
I desire to be on Ithikaf. I chose
not to this year due to rather being
an assistance to my wife and kids. Have
I chosen the lofty option or not?
Good question.
And I cannot say exactly for your situation.
If your family would be able to manage
without you,
if your family could be able to manage
will be able to manage fine without you,
then you should opt for IATKF.
But if leaving your family, maybe you live
in a bit of a dangerous area,
if leaving your family would put them in
danger or render them in need that they
can't bear or that they won't understand, then
it's better for you to stay at home.
So only you can make that
call. Only you can make that call as
to whether you chose the lofty option.
But you must remember,
there is that creeping
thing within our nafs, that laziness within our
nafs. Also,
where that
where you almost fail the desire to do
the pious thing.
Where I tell myself, you know what? I
want to make
a tikaf this year.
But you don't put in your leaf.
No, you have to ask yourself, did I
really have that intention?
Or, I want to make it a tikaf,
but I didn't put in the necessary
protocols.
Like for me, for example,
I know that
I can't leave my wife alone at home
on the days when I was doing a
tikaf.
So I thought to myself, could I make
arrangements for her? Could I not make arrangements
for her? If I couldn't make arrangements for
her, then I'll stay at home.
If I could make arrangements for her to
be in a safe space,
then
I go on.
If there's something that my children require
and that requires me to be there,
then I ensure that I'm there to fulfill
that. Maybe they are safe in their home,
but they need to be at a certain
place at a certain time,
and they wouldn't be able to get there
if I'm not there to take them.
Then you must be there to take them.
But you see,
there's a principle that we have also.
What you cannot attain in its entirety,
you shouldn't leave off altogether.
If
what you cannot attain in its entirety, you
shouldn't leave it of altogether.
So, if you can't be on the atikaf
in the week because you have some responsibilities,
but you can be on the atikaf on
the weekend,
Then you if your intention was sincere, it
would drive you to be in the masjid
on the weekend.
If you cannot be on the Atikaf in
the day, but you can spend the nights
in the masjid,
then your sincere intention will drive you to
take the part even though you couldn't attain
the whole.
So, always be watchful of that laziness that
tries to creep upon you.
Right? And that's why I mentioned we must
be watchful of our state. Am I in
a moment of Tajrid or am I in
a moment now of Asbaab, of desiring the
Asbaab when I shouldn't?
Is this a time where Allah wants me
to strip away or is this a time
where Allah wants me to stay engaged in
the dunya?
And sometimes it's not very clear, but you
must make the call and that call must
come from your sincerity and your sincere desire
to please Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Right? And
like I said,
sometimes you can't it doesn't mean
you can
cut yourself off from the means completely. No.
Sometimes it means I must work in the
day, but I'm gonna exert myself a little
bit extra at night and I'm gonna go
to the and I'm gonna come back the
next day, and I'm gonna work
again. It's only 10 days.
Maybe you can't do it for 10 days
on 1, but can you do it for
5 days? Then I'm gonna be there the
odd nights.
Right? So, don't let that laziness creep up
upon you.
But, that's why it requires somebody to be
constantly cognizant of this state.
But, as an extra advice, a little bit
divorced from this Hikma specifically,
you should try to have your entire family
engaged
because sometimes you'll find your wife will tell
you when you're just being lazy.
She'll tell you.
You're saying you want to be here because
of your family. No. I'm telling you to
go.
They must
go.
But
again it comes from ensuring that you have
tarbia together. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide
us.
Make our tarbia, tarbia of our family
and our entire community.