Central Purpose Of The Human Being

Central Purpose of The Human Being

Opening and Introduction to Divine Names

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Imam al-Qahtani and Imam al-Shatibi mentions this, that on the permissibility of taking things from dreams, and he mentions that Imam al-Qahtani saw a dream in which he was told by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to say 40 times (يَا حَيُّ يَا قَيُّومُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ - yā ḥayyu yā qayyūmu lā ʾilāha ʾillā ʾanta) (Quran 3:2). And he said, whoever says that and continues on it, his heart won't die when the hearts die. So, and a lot of the scholars have mentioned that (يَا حَيُّ يَا قَيُّومُ - yā ḥayyu yā qayyūmu) is (اِسْمُ ٱللَّهِ ٱلْأَعْظَمِ - ismu Allāhi al-ʾaʿẓam). It's the greatest name. Big Khilaf about that. Most of the Qawm say it's (اِسْمُ ٱلْجَلَالِ ٱللَّهِ - ismu al-jalāli Allāh). But it's a name that Allah hid from His servants. But (يَا حَيُّ يَا قَيُّومُ - yā ḥayyu yā qayyūmu) is a very is one of the strongest of the in the for the effect that it has on the heart.

And so, Inshallah, we'll start with just 40 of this. Inshallah. (ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَٱلصَّلَاةُ وَٱلسَّلَامُ عَلَىٰ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَىٰ ءَالِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَن وَّالَاهُ - al-ḥamdu lillāhi waṣ-ṣalātu was-salāmu ʿalā sayyidinā muḥammadin wa ʿalā ʾālihī wa ṣaḥbihī wa man wālāhu) (إِن شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ - ʾin shāʾa Allāhu) (بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ أَعُوذُ بِٱللَّهِ مِنَ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ ٱلرَّجِيمِ سُبْحَٰنَكُم - Bismi Allāhi ar-Raḥmāni ar-Raḥīmi ʾaʿūżu bi-llāhi mina ash-shayṭāni ar-rajīmi subḥānakum)

The Journey of Life: Beginning, Middle, and End

About yesterday the journey that we're all on again, whether people like it or not they're on a journey it has a beginning and it has a middle and it has an end and the beginning of the journey we're in the middle right now so this worldly life that we have is actually the middle in terms of its stages and there are going to be further stages after we die so there's a and we have in our tradition one of the clearest explanations of what happens after we die of all the previous religions that went before us.

The Realms of Existence: Malakut, Mulk, and Jabarut

So the journey begins in this malakut that we were in because the ruh its nature is malakuti it's not of the mulk and this, what we're in here is the mulk this is called the dominion Allah is malik and he's malik of al-mulk, al-malakut, wal-jabarut and these are the three dominions or worlds Allah is rabb al-alameen so this is one world, the mulk this is the lowest world it's yattadaffaq it comes out of the malakut that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created and the malakut comes from the jabarut.

The Primordial Covenant

So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when we were in the malakut we were in a state of mushahada and this is why when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala ashhad al-arwah he made them testify

"Am I not your lord?"

(بَلَىٰ شَهِدْنَا - balā shahidnā) we're in a state of witnessing the ruh witnessed this and all of us had this whether we're christian, jew, hindu, buddhist, muslim all of us were in a state of witnessing atheist, all of them all of the arwah had this witnessing.

The Soul's Embodiment in the Physical World

And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he put the ruh into this vessel that we now embody this is like the bird in the cage so we're in this cage and this cage is made of flesh and blood so this is the mulk what we have here is the mulk but the ruh that resides in this place is it's only a prisoner it's only a prisoner it's going to move on and it will leave this cage behind just like you open a cage and the bird flies out and leaves the cage behind and doesn't look back if you open a cage for a bird it won't look back it just flies out and it's gone.

The Nature of Creation and Light

So we came into this world and what happens you see when you come into the world the world's nature is ghulmani because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the malakut is nur and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created the heavens and the earth from light

Allah is munawwir He is the illuminator of the heavens and the earth all of this came from light there was a point when all of this was a point of light and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said

this is the alam ul amr this comes from the jabarut Allah says (كُن فَيَكُونُ - kun fa-yakūnu) and things are and so from this incredible outpouring of these tajalliyat all of these manifestations that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has thrust upon existence we are part of it we are part of it.

The Human Being as the Meeting Place of Two Worlds

And Allah has made us the interstitial space you see in the Qur'an Allah says

if you look at the ufuk the ufuk is the meeting place between the heavens and the earth that's the horizon is where the heaven and the earth meet and you can only see this really in the ocean because when you're in the ocean you see the meeting place it's the heavens and the earth meet on the horizon and Allah says we will show them in themselves this is the meeting place of the small, the microcosm it's where these two worlds meet the heavens and the earth the mulk and the malakut they meet in the self in the human being and then on the horizon this is symbolic of the heaven and the earth meeting on the horizon these are the two points.

The Human Being's Significance in the Cosmos

And so the human being is put in this extraordinary position because see now they want to make us insignificant they want to tell you that you are nothing they show you all these vast pictures you know if you go to astronomical observatory if you go to one of these places they'll show you these films and they'll reduce you to nothingness they say oh look here you're from an insignificant planet in an insignificant solar system in an insignificant galaxy in the midst of billions of galaxies this is who you are you're nothing and that's true they're not lying but if you go inside the human being all of those vast spaces out there are also in you inside you.

Imam Ali said in his Diwan (أَتَحْسَبُ أَنَّكَ جِرْمٌ صَغِيرٌ وَفِيكَ ٱنْطَوَى ٱلْعَٰلَمُ ٱلْأَكْبَرُ - ʾataḥsabu ʾannaka jurmun ṣaghīrun wa fīka ṭawā al-ʿālamu al-ʾakbaru) you think that yourself is some insignificant thing and yet in you are all of the cosmos are in you (أَتَحْسَبُ أَنَّكَ جِرْمٌ صَغِيرٌ وَفِيكَ ٱنْطَوَى ٱلْعَٰلَمُ ٱلْأَكْبَرُ - ʾataḥsabu ʾannaka jurmun ṣaghīrun wa fīka ṭawā al-ʿālamu al-ʾakbaru) you think that you're an insignificant thing and yet in you all of the world resides.

The Power of Sensory Experience

And so when we came into these bodies, to enter into this body is very powerful because it's sensory, it's حِسٌ and Allah gave us these five senses and these are the inroads of experience you see and this is you have a certain group of materialists that began to argue and you find them all the way through history but they argued that all of knowledge comes from your sensory perception this is where it comes your Tabula Rasa your blank slate and then you come into the world and then you begin to be filled up with experience and the experience comes only from this world there's no other experiences you see this is what the materialists claim.

Modern Materialism vs. Ancient Wisdom on Human Purpose

And they want to tell you that you're insignificant you're nothing you're just a random event in a random universe this is now the modern cosmology if you go to the leading universities in this world you will hear this from the biggest professors that this is merely a chance you're merely a random event and because there were billions of years and multiple possibilities that this is the conclusion here you are playing solitaire on a computer this is the human being right? diversion, entertainment this is what we're... now this is what they... the world now is created for diversion it's always been a diversion but the difference between modern people and ancient people is all of the ancients knew that the diversion was a diversion there was no purpose in it all of them knew this.

The Ancients' Understanding of Purpose

The moderns are unique in their belief that this is the primary reason for us to be here is simply to entertain ourselves to be diverted to listen to music to watch films this is it we just entertain ourselves until we leave and then another group comes and they do the same thing and it just goes on until it ends with cosmic collision some giant asteroids going to knock us like it wiped out all of the dinosaurs this is the belief now the ancients all knew that there was a purpose for the human being that you had a reason for existence and that your reason was not by chance it was by purpose that you are created with purpose that there's a telos for the human being there's a hadith

does the human being think that he's left in vain that he's simply a sudah, random event right? this is what Allah asks does he think that all of this was for nothing?

The Stages of Human Creation

That you went through all of these stages from a... I mean first of all you had to need nutrition because there was a time when your material body was being formed inside somebody else right? because for semen and ovum to exist you need these things to be created and they're created from nutrition so there was a point when we were just nutrition but then there was a point when that didn't exist because that came from another thing itself right? so there was a point right?

there was a time when you were nothing, then you became something so all of these events that happened is it for no reason? there's no purpose to it? this is what the modern people want to tell people and they're confusing people.

Evidence of Incorruptible Bodies

And there's an article in the discovery magazine several years ago where they allowed these people into the catacombs to see the incorruptibles from the early pre-islamic, I mean these are pre-islamic saints whose bodies didn't, you know a lot of them were mummified because the popes would actually have them tell them to embalm them just to, like, small prints just to make sure they didn't corrupt after because then they would know, because in catholic tradition in order to be a saint, you can't corrupt if the body is corrupted by the earth, it's a sign that it wasn't a sanctified soul so that's one of the signs that we know this and many of the awliya their graves were uncovered and people saw them, just as they were Sayyidina Hamza, I met a man who was part of a group that put Sayyidina Hamza's body back into his grave when it was exposed by a flood, and he saw the body completely intact I mean, I heard from eyewitnesses not like somebody, I didn't see it, but I heard from from him that he saw it, and he was a alim I have no reason not to believe him.

The Qur'an as Dhikr: Remembrance of What We Already Know

So because of this this material body that we're in, people forget and this is why the Qur'an is called dhikr it's a reminder of what you already know when we do dhikr Allah it's remembering what you already know this is what it is it's not that you're learning something new, it's something you already knew dhikr al-hakim the wise remembrance or reminder right, so this is and the human being is this is our purpose is to remember this truth and then live according to the truth.

The Four Primary Enemies of the Human Being

And so during periods of time these truths are forgotten people forget they lose their way and we have enemies and Allah has warned us of our enemies we have the four primary enemies of the human being nafs, shaitan, hawa, and dunya these are the four primary enemies every human being has to struggle with these their entire life and you can't be deluded about this.

Universal Human Delusion

Imam al-Ghazali wrote a book arguing that all of creation was in a state of delusion all of creation was in a state of delusion and he said the most deluded people are the people of tasawwuf that's what Imam al-Ghazali said you know there's a story I read in a book on Zen stories that this famous Zen master he was like a great Zen master and everybody spoke widely of him and he was coming to a monastery and this monastery was famous for people they were all enlightened this is what they say and so the Zen master when he came they wanted this like a lesson and he said all enlightenment is delusion and that was his lesson and everybody just got out and left except one guy, the monk he's sitting in front and he said you're not going to leave without because they just said he doesn't know anything he said you're not going to leave with the others he said I've been sitting here for so many years thinking I was enlightened but now I realize it's only early senility.

Our Blind Spots and Need for Others

People are deluded we're all in deluded states you know if you think about your own state and how often have we not seen things that were so clearly in front of us and then one day we suddenly realize it, something about ourselves or about somebody else the blind spots every human being has blind spots you know there's certain things you can't see and one of the things that you can't see is yourself and that's why the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said (الْمُؤْمِنُ مِرْآةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ - al-mu'minu mir'atu al-mu'min) the believer is the mirror of the believer and what the believer mirrors is not your perfections they mirror your imperfections and this is the blessing of being in the presence of the salihun and the righteous people.

The Hidden Awliya

And Alhamdulillah we've had the pleasure of meeting some of these people because many of them now they're hidden in their homes they don't even go out because people can't they say the Awliya are the brides of God and only the can see the bride so if you don't have if you have no relationship to the bride and this is why Imam al-Ghazali and others Imam al-Shadhili he said the least the least is is belief in in the people of Allah that's the least you have to believe in them you have to believe that people had ma'rifah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Value of Contemplation vs. Worship

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said (تَفَكَّرُ سَاعَةٍ خَيْرٌ مِنْ عِبَادَةِ سَبْعِينَ سَنَةً - tafakkuru sa'atin khayrun min 'ibadati sab'ina sanatan) and it could mean a moment in Arabic is better than 70 years of ibadah he's talking about a heart that has been purified because we can worship our whole life, 70 years the average the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said (أَعْمَارُ أُمَّتِي مَا بَيْنَ السِّتِّينَ وَالسَّبْعِينَ - a'maru ummati ma bayna al-sittina wa al-sab'in) so what he's saying is you can spend your whole life doing ibadah and yet ma'rifah that one moment of ma'rifah is better than all of those years of ibadah that one moment of ma'rifah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Islam is About Knowledge of Allah

And see this path is about ma'rifah, Islam I'm not talking about, this is not tasawwuf I'm talking about Islam Islam is about knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the knowledge of Allah is not a set of arguments that you read in a book, it's not a that you study with a scholar, you can study those with orientalist now some of them know it better than a lot of the scholars of Islam know these texts, really because this is outward knowledge that you can learn the hypocrite can learn them no, this is the shahada right.

The Hadith of Jibreel: Islam, Iman, and Ihsan

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in the hadith and this is the second hadith Imam al-Nawawi mentions from Sayyidina Umar when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) they were sitting with him and (طَلَعَ رَجُلٌ - tala'a rajul) a man appeared before them and then they described the man (لَمْ يُرَى عَلَيْهِ أَثَرُ السَّفَرِ - lam yura 'alayhi atharu al-safar) they couldn't see any traveling nobody knew him so they knew one he wasn't from Medina and yet there was no traces of traveling on him and the sahabah all sitting there and then he sat with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) (فَأَسْنَدَ رُكْبَتَيْهِ إِلَى رُكْبَتَيْهِ وَوَضَعَ كَفَّيْهِ عَلَى فَخِذَيْهِ - fa asnada rukbatayhi ila rukbatayhi wa wada'a kaffayhi 'ala fakhdhayhi) to the Prophet's knees.

Sitting with the Scholars

And this is an isharah also because in the muwatta Luqman al-Hakim says to his son, (يَا وَلَدِي جَالِسِ الْعُلَمَاءَ وَزَاحِمْهُمْ بِرُكْبَتَيْكَ - ya waladi jalis al-'ulama wa zahimhum bi rukbatayk) sit with the ulema and put your knee against theirs right, and he said (فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يُنْبِتُ الْحِكْمَةَ فِي الْقُلُوبِ مِنْ جُلُوسِهِمْ - fa inna Allaha yunbitu al-hikmata fi al-qulubi min julusihim) Allah will cause wisdom to grow in your hearts by just sitting with them just sitting with them grow in a good earth.

The Soul Needs Purification to Grow

So your soul is a seed (قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّاهَا وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّاهَا - qad aflaha man zakaha wa qad khaba man dassaha) (Quran 91:9-10) the soul needs tazkiyah tazkiyah means to make something grow يُزَكِّي which also means to purify because something will not grow if it's not given pure soil pure earth, pure water it needs purity to grow if you put something in something that is not pure it won't grow sumud is not najis the fertilizer it needs something that it needs to be in good soil and it will grow and this is what the hearts of those people are like if you sit with them.

The Questions About Islam, Iman, and Ihsan

So when he did that he asked him about (أَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ الْإِسْلَامِ - akhbirni 'ani al-islam) and iman and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) told him (أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ بِاللهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَتُؤْمِنَ بِالْقَدَرِ - an tu'mina bi-Allahi wa mala'ikatihi wa kutubihi wa rusulihi wa al-yawmi al-akhiri wa tu'mina bi al-qadar) he told him what Iman was (أَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ الْإِسْلَامِ - akhbirni 'ani al-islam) what Islam is (خَيْرِهِ وَشَرِّهِ - khayrihi wa sharrihi) you believe in the six articles of faith this is what he told him and then he asked him about Islam and Islam, the five pillars and then he asked him about Ihsan what is Ihsan (أَنْ تَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَاهُ فَإِن لَّمْ تَكُن تَرَاهُ فَإِنَّهُ يَرَاكَ - an ta'buda Allaha ka annaka tarahu fa in lam takun tarahu fa innahu yarak) that to worship Allah as if you see Him this is what Ihsan is and if you don't see Him at least you are in a state of muraqabah it's either mushahadah or muraqabah but that's what Ihsan is.

The Pinnacle of Islam is Mushahadah

So what the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is saying is that the pinnacle of Islam is a state of mushahadah and you have to deal with the hadith which is in the same collection of the arba'in where he says that (مَنْ عَادَى لِي وَلِيًّا فَقَدْ آذَنْتُهُ بِالْحَرْبِ - man 'ada li waliyan faqad adhintuhu bi al-harb) (Sahih al-Bukhari 6502) this is a you have to deal with that hadith that whoever makes war on a wali of mine I declare war on him (وَمَا تَقَرَّبَ إِلَيَّ عَبْدِي بِشَيْءٍ أَحَبَّ إِلَيَّ مِمَّا افْتَرَضْتُهُ عَلَيْهِ - wa ma taqarraba ilayya 'abdi bi shay'in ahabba ilayya mimma iftaradtuhu 'alayh) that no one of my servants draws near to me with anything more beloved than the fard (وَلَا يَزَالُ يَتَقَرَّبُ إِلَيَّ بِالنَّوَافِلِ حَتَّى أُحِبَّهُ - wa la yazalu yataqarrabu ilayya bi al-nawafili hatta uhibbah) and you will continue, he will continue to draw near to me with extra acts these are السَّابِقُونَ أُولُئِكَ الْمُقَرَّبُونَ

The Three Categories of Believers

Everybody (ثُمَّ أَوْرَثْنَا الْكِتَابَ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَيْنَا مِنْ عِبَادِنَا فَمِنْهُمْ ظَالِمٌ لِّنَفْسِهِ وَمِنْهُمْ مُّقْتَصِدٌ وَمِنْهُمْ سَابِقٌ بِالْخَيْرَاتِ - thumma awrathna al-kitaba alladhina istafayna min 'ibadina fa minhum zalimun li nafsihi wa minhum muqtasidun wa minhum sabiqun bi al-khayrat) (Quran 35:32) those are the three maqams maqam al-islam, maqam al-iman, maqam al-ihsan if you just have belief right that's good but you're still zalim li nafsihi you haven't completed (لَا يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ حَتَّى يُحِبَّ لِأَخِيهِ مَا يُحِبُّ لِنَفْسِهِ - la yu'minu ahadukum hatta yuhibba li akhihi ma yuhibbu li nafsihi) (Sahih al-Bukhari 13, Sahih Muslim 45) you don't truly believe it doesn't mean you don't believe but if you don't love for your fellow human being what you love for yourself then you're not your iman is not complete it's not complete so that means that there's a complete iman.

The Complete Believer

So what is a mu'min al-kamil what do they look like, who are they because they're not the same as a mu'min who's naqs in his iman, he's deficient in his iman and this is our religion you know we forget this and the least you could do is be like the traditional common muslims the least all of us could do is be like the least of the muslims who believed in these people right (فَبِهْدَاهُمُ اقْتَدِهْ - fa bi hudahum iqtadih) (Quran 6:90) by their guidance, follow it follow their guidance right the righteous people, the mu'minun these are real people (كُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ - kunu ma'a al-sadiqin) (Quran 9:119) be with the truthful ones (يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ - ya ayyuha alladhina amanu ittaqu Allaha wa kunu ma'a al-sadiqin) be with the people of sidq these are the people whose hearts are with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah tells us to be with them seek them out wherever they are, seek them out and sit with them, and be with them and benefit with them, and be humbled before them.

Seeking the Righteous

You know these are the people I went to the middle of Sahara really, to Sahara desert to meet one of these people when I heard about him and I was a young man but I wanted to see this person because I only heard about him you know the Arabs say sometimes the ear has ishq before the eye you know you hear about somebody and you get ishq you know what ishq is right al-ishq most people you have to at some point I hope you get ishq because Allah made ishq in the world this worldly love he made it to show us what divine love is like it's a hujjah against us Layla and Majnoon it's a hujjah against us Layla and Majnoon because if this is the love of a created thing for another created thing what is the love of a creature for his creator if that's what you'll go to the depths you'll go to right.

The Power of Love

You know they have an advertisement for learning Italian it's one of those and it shows a farm boy and he's in love with an Italian celebrity and he wants to learn it says he's going to only have one chance when he meets her this is an advertisement because they know they're talking to people who understand that when you're in love you'll do anything for the beloved anything right but people they don't learn Arabic right really they don't learn Arabic they don't want to learn the language that the beloved speaks to his creation in they don't we're lazy people we claim love it's not true but there are lovers and if you're not one you should at least be in awe of them right I wish I could be in love people long to be in love you know some people they want it so bad they keep falling in love again and again just for that experience of love you know these foolish people because it's a disease also you know the ishq is actually related to a vine that strangles the life out of the plant that it gets hold of right the cure of ishq is to cut the connection and so you can want to meet somebody so badly you'll go to the ends of the earth to meet that person.

The Story of Salman al-Farisi

Salman al-Farisi look at his love look what he did he traveled all over if he heard of any righteous man he would go and his journey is an amazing journey to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) when he got there he had and

because of his sincerity Allah gave him these signs so he knew what to look for and the first time he met him he brought him dates and he said this is sadaqah and then he watched him he didn't eat from it because he knew he was told he won't eat from charity and then the next time he came he gave him dates and he said this is hadiyah it's a gift and then he ate from it and then he knew ah just like I was told right he knew and then the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) showed him the khatm he knew it and Salman became Muslim.

Salman's Freedom and the Prophet's Miracle

And then Salman look at his sincerity the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) gave him he was a slave unjustly he was enslaved you know stolen on a caravan but he planted 300 date palms and the man who had bought him stipulated that they had to come to fruition before he could be free and in a few months they all came and they except for one they went back the Prophet went back 299 had come to fruition only one was and he said what happened Omar said stop it Allah I planted that so the Prophet planted it and then it came quickly and he was free but look at his love Salman look where love gets you Salman is our family he's part of our family سَلْمَانُ مِنَّا أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ Salman al-Farisi amazing man for his love.

Maimuna's Love for the Prophet

Look at Maimuna look at her love 30 years after she married the Prophet she was nearing death you know where she wanted to go to the same place that she spent the first night with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) that's where she's buried look at the love look at that love you know it's amazing that love of the beloved and this is what these people had you know and they want to just take love out of Islam and make it something else this religion is about love.

The Religion of Love

He didn't use any other word (قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللهُ - qul in kuntum tuhibbuna Allaha fattabi'uni yuhbibkum Allah) (Quran 3:31) until you love say if you love Allah then follow me and Allah will love you because the the sign of love is that you follow the beloved you will do what the beloved says and the beloved of Allah is the messenger of Allah he's Habibullah he said when they were talking about he said I heard what you were saying right this is the name he was given he wasn't given the one God spoke to he wasn't given the one God befriended he wasn't given the one who's the spirit no he was Habibullah the beloved of God this is his maqam and hubb is his way the way of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is love.

The Journey of Love

And so this journey is a journey of love it's wanting to know God and we forget you know we just forget because we get caught up in dunya and all of these you know this journey it's a tough journey too you need rest from time to time you need rest you need recreation but the heart has to be revived again and again and that's what these journeys are about that's what you're here for you're here right now this is what we're all here for to be reminded that's where we're going but we want to go the right way we want to go the right way when we die

Death Before Death

And this is the death of the sensory so that the meaning can awaken and then you can have the sensory with the meaning you can have the sensory with the meaning because Allah put the sensory in here for a reason it's here for a reason it's not a negative thing we're not like some of the earlier Christians that hated anything to do with the world and materialism and all they hated it and so they would flagellate themselves and deny the body and some of them didn't take baths and that's not our way our way is balance it's the way of balance.

The Three Elements of the Spiritual Path

And so my reminder to myself and all of you is really this is a real path and it has three it has three elements the riding beast the saddle and the rider you need all three and without the saddle you'll fall off right without the beast you're not going anywhere and without the rider there's no point for the journey right but that's it so you need your Islam you have to have Islam and you have to have the basic knowledge of Islam we're people of knowledge our way is a way of knowledge and you have to learn a text of Islam that's why this program is about Iman Islam and Ihsan because this is the foundation of our religion.

The Four Dimensions of Islam

And like I said yesterday people want to make it one dimensional or two dimensional Islam is not it's a holistic religion it has four dimensions the Hadith of Jibreel clearly makes a statement of four dimensions it has breadth it has length length breadth depth and width it has all four it has the dimension of Islam this horizontal relationship with people and then it has the Iman which is your relationship that connects you with Allah so Islam much of it is congregational like we come together you know it's Ijtima' you pray together you fast together you break the fast together all of these things and you have a Jama'a so you need Islam it's very important you can't the religion is protected by these outward things they're not insignificant and they all have profound inward meanings all of them but the outward even if you're remain at the level of the outward it's a path of salvation it's a path of salvation.

The Need for Iman

And then the Iman you have to have Iman you have to know your Lord you have to know Imam al-Ghazali you're going to be looking inshallah at the pearls and the jewels of the Quran the jewels are those ayahs in the Quran Imam al-Ghazali's theory and it's not really a theory it's a way of looking at the Quran because he proves it but the Quran the essence of the Quran are two types of verses the ones that tell you your Lord and the other tells you your journey to your Lord what you need to do to get to your Lord to your Lord is the end we're going

back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that's what this journey is about and getting knowledge of Allah so you need Iman and so you learn that those outward things to protect your Iman.

The Chaperone of Aqidah

In the Masnawi he says that the knowledge of Aqidah is like the chaperone between two lovers it prevents anything Haram happening so you need to have that knowledge of Aqidah to protect your because if you don't you can say things about Allah that aren't true and the worst thing it's worse than Shirk it's worse than Shirk to say about God what you don't know in the Quran it's considered worse than Shirk.

Ihsan and Purification of the Heart

So the and then finally Ihsan right you have to have Ihsan and Ihsan is about Tazkiyah it's about purifying the heart and now this relates you see what the reason that the body becomes more and more cumbersome is because of sin and what are called the Dhunub and Uyub these are the two problems for the heart the Qalb is polluted by two things it's polluted by these natural blemishes that are part of human nature and then it's polluted by the sins that we accrue in our life and the Tazkiyah is to protect the heart and this is through Mujahadah so you have to have Mujahadah this is the basis of getting close to Allah this is Mujahadah doing those extra things.

The Different Doors to Allah

And Nawafil are Allah has opened many doors of Nafilah and we have different personalities different natures for some people they have a scholastic inclination and their purpose is to preserve knowledge and to teach knowledge Imam Malik was the door that Allah opened to him was a door of knowledge and he was min al-arifeen undeniably he was a Gnostic of his lord but his knowledge was in Fiqh this is where Allah opened and in preservation of Hadith this is the door that Allah opened to him other people have the door of Zuhud of detachment other people have the door of charity different doors are open some people have many doors right.

Abu Bakr's High Aspiration

Abu Bakr the prophet said there are 8 gates to get into paradise and one of them is called Rayyan and fasters get into it and the prophet said Abu Bakr his Himmah is so high he said does anybody go through all 8 gates and the prophet said yes and I hope that you're one of them and he is one of them you know because the prophet won't hope that except that it's but he doesn't want Ghurur to get into the heart so he says it in a way to keep the humility there the prophet was guarding the hearts of his Sahaba but Abu Bakr was like that he did more before Fajr than people did the whole month right.

The Secret in Abu Bakr's Heart

The Hadith where they come and the prophet said at Fajr has anybody visited a sick person Abu Bakr has anybody given charity this morning Abu Bakr did anybody get up fasting Abu Bakr did anybody follow a

Janazah Abu Bakr he did everything or he was the only one the prophet was showing them why he but what did the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) say he said he was not preferred over you because of fasting and praying but by something in his heart right Imam Malik said (لَيْسَ الْعِلْمُ بِكَثْرَةِ الرِّوَايَةِ وَلَكِنَّ الْعِلْمَ نُورٌ يَقْذِفُهُ اللهُ فِي قَلْبِ الْمُؤْمِنِ - laysa al-ʿilmu bi-kathrati al-riwāyati wa lākinna al-ʿilma nūrun yaqdhifuhu Allāhu fī qalbi al-muʾmin) knowledge is not in the multiplicity of narrations but knowledge is a light that Allah puts in the heart of a believer.

The Three Types of Mujahadah

And so you need mujahadah and the three types of mujahadah you have mujahadat al-badan mujahadat al-badan is to struggle against the inclinations of your body and so people that get up if you're not getting up for Fajr that's your mujahadah if you're getting up for Fajr then mujahadah would be to get up for tahajjud to do some night prayers. The mujahadah of your fasting. If you have a problem with food then it's good to do fasting the Sunnah is to fast three days out of the month. If you can't do that then to fast those that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) mentioned like the six days of Shawwal the day of Arafah if you're not on Hajj.

Recommended Days of Fasting

Things like that. The day of Ashura I mean there's Rajab is a good day (صَوْمُ شَهْرِ رَمَضَانَ وَجَبَى فِي رَجَبٍ شَعْبَانَ صَوْمُ النَّذِيبَةِ شَعْبَانَ رَجَبٍ مَنْدُوبِ - ṣawmu shahri ramaḍāna wa jabā fī rajabin shaʿbāna ṣawmu al-nadhībati shaʿbāna rajabin mandūbi) Ibn Ashur says in his Urjuza So this is a good month and doing those extra acts.

The Karamat of Bodily Mujahadah

The karamat or the wonders that come from the mujahadah of the body are hissiyah This is what the ulama say. They're sensory type things So for instance There's a hadith (مَنْ غَضٌ بَصَرَهُ فِي عِبَادَتِهِ أَذَاقَهُ اللَّهُ لَذَّةَ - man ghaḍḍa baṣarahu fī ʿibādatihi adhāqahu Allāhu ladhdhata) That whoever lowers his eyes because that's struggling mujahadah of the badan because that's a sensory thing You enjoy looking you delight. So if you struggle against that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said Allah will cause you to taste a sweetness in your ta'ah.

Physical Pleasure in Worship

So people actually get physical pleasure. In fact some of the scholars argue about if people do ibadah because of the physical pleasure. Because you can get physical pleasure in ibadah. You can get physical pleasure in prayer. You can get physical pleasure in tilawat al-Quran. Literally physical pleasure. Just like other people get pleasure in their sensory things, people get physical pleasure from these things.

Athletes as an Example of Bodily Mujahadah

And this is why if you look, the metaphor or not the analogy that you can see of mujahadah of the badan are athletes. Because they do incredible mujahadah of their bodies and look at the miracles. That's why people watch sports. They don't watch sports for the 90% of the game or 95% of the game. That's just, they watch it for those moments where they can't believe it. Right? This is why they watch. And that's why most people, they just watch the highlights on the news or something. Because they show the highlights, right? Of these amazing

things. That's because these people are doing mujahadah of their bodies. So they get these gifts. Because these are sunan of Allah. If you do these type of struggle you'll get these results.

Mujahadah of the Nafs

And then you have mujahadah of the nafs. And the mujahadah of the nafs is fighting against your greed, your impulses, all the akhlaq al-sayyi'ah, your bad character, all these things. If you fight against those, Allah will give you understanding. Right? fahm, understanding. And some of the ulama, Allah gave them great gifts.

Examples of Illiterate Scholars Given Knowledge

Some, we have ulama that were literally like one of the great scholars of tafsir of who did a commentary on the Quran Imam Al-Jamal. He was illiterate. He couldn't read or write. And he taught in Al-Azhar. Khalid al-Azhar He had big openings from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He was an ignorant man. He was close to 40. He used to take care of the lamps in Al-Azhar. And he spilled some oil on one of the students. He was filling a lamp. He spilled some oil on one of the students and he told them ahmaq or something. He just said, watch what you're doing. And he felt so bad. He's a mature man and this young student is looking at him with contempt. So he went to one of the sheikhs and he said, I want to educate myself. And he began to teach him. He was so sincere. Allah gave him big openings. He became one of the greatest grammarians of his time. And his commentaries are still read. Khalid al-Azhar He's not even, they just call him Khalid al-Azhar.

Sidi Abdulaziz Dabbagh

You have Sidi Abdulaziz Dabbagh. He was ummi, illiterate, couldn't read or write. And he gave commentary. He solved some problems in tafsir that if you read the Ibriz, you'll see. He solved some problems in tafsir. He used to be able to, he could do the hadith by just hearing a hadith, he knew if the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said it or not. And one of them asked him how he did that. He said, if he said it, he said, you know how in winter when you speak, you see like a steam come out. He said, when they speak a hadith, I see light come out of their mouth. And if it's not, I don't see that light. This is what he said, subhanallah.

Other Illiterate Scholars

Al-Buyazidi, one of the ulema, he was ummi. And Allah gave him all these knowledge. Sidi Ahmed Zarruq, one of the greatest, really scholars of ta'ifatain. You know, he's imam of ta'ifatain because he was a great faqih, usuli scholar. He was a muhaddith. He was a student of Imam Sakhawi. Imam Sakhawi was one of the greatest muhaddithin. Sidi Ahmed Zarruq, his teacher, who he had his opening with, Abu al-Abbas al-Hadrami, was illiterate. And he actually took permission when he wrote his book on Abu al-Abbas, he asked him, could I correct all your grammatically incorrect statements and write them in fusha? Really? I'm not making this up. I mean, these are people who were so sincere with Allah that Allah gave them openings.

The Wisdom in Preserving Illiterate Awliya

And the reason Allah will keep these unlettered awliya who are given knowledge is to prove because the karamat of the awliya are like the mu'ajizat of the anbiya. So the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) when they asked Sidi Abd al-Aziz al-Dabbagh, somebody said to him, (الْعُلَمَاءُ وَرَثَةُ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ - al-ʿulamāʾu warathatu al-ʾanbiyāʾi) the scholars are the inheritors of the prophets, (مَاذَا وَرِثْتَ مِنَ الرَّسُولِ - mādhā warithta mina al-rasūli) ? He said, (وَرِثْتُ مِنْهُ أُمِّيَّتَهُ - warithtu minhu ummiyyatahu). You know, that I got from him his ummiyah. In other words, my knowledge is not, this is called wahbi knowledge.

Kasbi and Wahbi Knowledge

You have kasbi and wahbi knowledge. And kasbi knowledge is important. You have to study and learn. That's kasbi knowledge, to learn. You have to study fiqh and you work on it, you do memorization, things like that. But wahbi knowledge is what comes (مَنْ عَمِلَ بِمَا عَلِمَ أَوْرَثَهُ اللهُ عِلْمَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ - man ʿamila bimā ʿalima awrathahu Allāhu ʿilma mā lam yaʿlam) if you act according to what you know, Allah will give you knowledge that you don't know. (اتَّقُوا اللهَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ اللهُ - ittaqū Allāha wa yuʿallimukum Allāhu) (Quran 2:282). It's not a jumlah shartiyah, but the ulama take a isharah from that ayah (اتَّقُوا اللهَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ اللهُ - ittaqū Allāha wa yuʿallimukum Allāhu). Have taqwa of Allah and Allah will teach you. It's a isharah, it's not a grammatically, it's not a jumlah shartiyah. But the meaning of the condition is sound, the ulama say. That if you have taqwa, Allah will give you knowledges.

Mujahadat al-Shaitan

And then you have mujahadat al-shaitan and fighting shaitan. (إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوًّا - ʾinna al-shayṭāna lakum ʿaduwwun fattakhidhūhu ʿaduwwā) (Quran 35:6). Shaitan is an enemy. And shaitan is real. You know, shaitan is real. Not with the, you know, I mean there's hadith that there's horns of shaitan and things. But you know, the popular imagination has created this image that makes people think that it's a joke. Shaitan is real. There's dark forces working in the world. And they whisper in the hearts of people. And sometime the whispering become audible like hallucinations. And they do wretched things. Shaitan will get people. And shaitan loves to humiliate us. This is his favorite thing.

Shaitan's Envy and Strategy

He loves to, because he hates us. He has envy in his heart for the station that we were given. He has envy in his heart. And the envier wants to see, he wants to see the source of his envy. He wants to see him grovel. He wants to see him be humbled by the world. He wants to see him in a destitute situation. And this is shaitan's, he hates when people get close to Allah. But he's tricky. You see, first he'll get you, his first strategy is kufr. That's his first strategy. And if he can't get kufr from you, then he tries to get nifaq. If he can't get nifaq from you, then he tries to, like he tries to get ma'asiyah. Right? And his favorite one is bid'ah. To get innovation. But ma'asiyah, if he can't get bid'ah from you, he'll get ma'asiyah. You know, just like sinfulness, stealing, lying, cheating, adultery, whatever. He wants to get that, to humiliate you.

Shaitan's Final Attack: Riya

If he can't get any of these things, if he sees that you're on a strong path, then he gets really serious. Seriously.

The Last Thing to Leave the Hearts

And the last thing to leave the hearts of the Siddiqoon is the hubb al-riyasah. And the Prophet ﷺ said

Right. (مَا أَضَرَّ بِدِينِ الْمَرْءِ مِنْ ذِنْبَيْنِ ضَارِيَيْنِ فِي غَنَمِ الْمَالُ وَالْجَاهُ - mā aḍarra bi-dīni al-marʾi min ḏanbayni ḍāriyayni fī ġanam al-māli wa al-jāhi) materialism, and stature. Oh, stature being held up. You know, sheikh, so and so. Or doctor, so and so. Or whatever it is. You know, all these things people want, you know, in the world. The pomp and circumstance of the world. Really. But it's, you know, it's nothing. It's nothing. It's all, it's empty. The world is empty. It's vacuous. Really, it's empty. It has an empty, there's nothing there.

Speaking to an Audience of One

Rumi said, when you speak, always remember you have an audience of one. You know, who are you trying to impress? No, seriously, who are you trying to impress? You know, in the meditations, Marcus Aurelius, he says, he says, there's people who say they don't care about the people of today, but they care about their legacy. He said, these people are only fooling themselves because the same fools that will be around a hundred years to be reading their legacy are the same fools that are around today. You know. And that's why, you know, be a celebrity with God. All these people want to be celebrities now. This is like the goal of all these vacuous people, to be a celebrity. Famous for 15, go on YouTube, you know, get your 15 minutes of fame, whatever it is. Really. It's empty. Everything Everything other than Allah is vanity. It's vacuous. It's empty. Everything.

Everything Other Than Allah is False

Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, This truest thing a poet ever said is what Labid said.

Everything other than Allah is false. Baqal. Alhamdulillah.

The Tongue: Our Biggest Enemy

So those, anyway, this is like introduction because the biggest enemy, our biggest enemy is the tongue. It's really, it's a big one. And, you know, you have a quote in there from Confucius about the ancients. The ancients were very concerned with the tongue, rectification of the tongue. This is a question about Riyadh and inshallah when I get to the section on I wanted to read some lines here though about the you know, one of the things people, the word Tasawwuf is a good word. It's not a negative word. It's a good word. It's a beautiful word really.

The Historical Acceptance of Tasawwuf

And one of the things that the scholars of the past said is no one ever denied Tasawwuf. But they always condemned or criticized people that claimed to be people of Tasawwuf. But Tasawwuf was never denied. None of the ulema historically ever denied Tasawwuf. You will find no alim in the history of Islam that denied Tasawwuf as one of the sciences of Islam. None of them. Ibn Taymiyyah did not deny Tasawwuf. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah didn't deny Tasawwuf. Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali didn't deny Tasawwuf. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab did not deny Tasawwuf. And we have a letter that he wrote arguing that. That he was not against Tasawwuf.

Evidence from Riyadh

And the Hayat Kibar al-Ulema, Hayat al-Amr bil Ma'ruf wal Nahy an al-Munkar in Riyadh published the text of Abd al-Rahman al-Akhdari in Tasawwuf. I have a copy published in Riyadh by the Amr bil Ma'ruf wal Nahy an al-Munkar. They don't deny Tasawwuf. But they attack practices and things that some of the Sufis do. Like they would attack the people that do the whirling and things like that. That's another thing. And I'm not attacking that. But I'm just saying this is what they... But Tasawwuf as a science of Islam, nobody in the history of Islam denied Tasawwuf. It's a word that shows up very early. Just like many of the technical terms of Islam. And it was a word that was used.

Ahl al-Suffah as Proof

The proof of the people of Tasawwuf of Tajrid are Ahl al-Suffah. They were people that didn't have anything. And they just did dhikr and studied with the prophet. He used to feed them. They were homeless people. He fed on average every day 70 people. Homeless people. We forget that our prophet he was taking care of homeless people. It's a sunnah to take care of homeless people. Because he was doing that. 70 every day. There were between 4 and 70 people of Ahl al-Suffah. And every day he would feed them. They used to bring the food to him and he would just send it out to them. He would not eat very often just to give them food. Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam fed people all the time. His sunnah is to feed people. But nobody has denied Tasawwuf.

Corrective Works on Tasawwuf

And what Imam Al-Shatibi was also used to kind of attack the people of Tasawwuf or Talbis Iblis Ibn al-Jawzi, things like that. These are correctives that scholars did in certain times. But if you read the I'tisam and then you read the Muwafaqat, they're very different books. It's like two different authors. But Imam Al-Shatibi says that in the early period they called the people, they called them the Sahaba. The Prophet said,

. He was yearning to meet his brothers. And they said (أَلَسْنَا إِخْوَانَكَ يَا رَسُولَ اللهِ - a-lasnā ikhwānaka yā rasūla allāhi). Aren't we your brothers? (أَنْتُمْ أَصْحَابي - antum aṣḥābī) or (أَنْتُمْ صَحَابَتِي - antum ṣaḥābatī). You're my companions. My brothers come after me.

The Reward of Later Generations

And then he said, they have reward of 70 from amongst you. And they asked, how could that be? And he said,

You have people to help you do your good. But these people will come and there's little help. They'll be doing good without much help. Because people, the religion