Ihsan- Science of Curing the Heart

Ihsan: Science of Curing the Heart

Introduction: The Realm of the Heart

I think the topic that I was given was about the heart or the illnesses of the heart and how to deal with that, and from what I heard it was covered by Shaykh Abdullah Idrees before and I'm sure he could do a better job about it than I can. But also I'd like to say that any talk for me about these matters is certainly tadhkirah or a reminder for myself as well, because I'm certainly by no means where I would like to be in terms of the nature of the heart and its state.

The Hadith of Jibril and the Three Dimensions of Islam

The hadith that Imam An-Nawawi relates in his Arba'een, which is really a hadith that is a summation of the Islamic teaching, was a hadith that the Prophet ﷺ is questioned by Jibril, and all of you are familiar with the hadith. But the last section of the hadith deals with an issue about which really is the realm of the interior or the realm of the heart, and that is the idea of Ihsan.

Interestingly enough, in the Islamic tradition, the sciences of the heart were really a science that was studied alongside the other sciences. So in other words, a student of the Islamic teaching would not simply study fiqh, which is concerned with the rules of the shari'ah, in how to perform the wudu, in how to buy and sell and the activities of daily life. This is the arena of fiqh or the science of jurisprudence.

The science of the doctrine or the dogmatic aspects of iman is some call it kalam or usul al-din, which is the principles, and they're really intellectual principles upon which the aqeedah is based, and that is the realm of what's generally known as iman. But then there's a third aspect of the Islamic teaching which goes under the category of Ihsan, and this has been called by various scholars different things.

The Science of Suluk and Tasawwuf

The early scholars called it the ilm al-suluk or the idea of being salik, and the book that Ibn Qayyim wrote called Madarij al-Salikeen deals mainly with this whole idea of what is suluk. And unfortunately I think in many ways because of what are known as the ghulat al-sufiyah or the some extreme groups of people that have been termed sufiyah or better termed mutasawwifah, have in many ways maligned the sciences of Ihsan.

People like the English have a proverb: say don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. As a kind of reaction to maybe some of these superstitious or folkloric manifestations of Islam, have tended to ignore the extremely rich intellectual tradition that exists in the psychology of the nafs and in the psychology of the human heart and how the diseases of the heart are nurtured and made well. And so I think really it's very relevant in our time that the Muslims once again begin to examine this rich literature and really start thinking about these things, because it's an element that in many ways does not exist in a lot of the current movements, Islamic movements.

Although the idea of tazkiyah and tarbiyah is certainly a concern, the emphasis is sometimes often not given the degree of importance that I think is absolutely necessary for it, because what my own study has revealed to me is that basically every Islamic revivalist movement—and by the nature of Islam it is a deen that revives itself—the Prophet ﷺ said that this deen would be renewed by renewers and this happens continuously and it has in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

The Two Foundations of Islamic Revival

But what I have noted in the little research that I've done personally and heard from others who've done more extensive research is that really every Islamic movement of any worth that has had some sustainability in the history of Islam was based on really two foundational principles:

The first one is the revival of the knowledge of Islam, which has to do with the outward sciences, which is interesting that Abu Hamid al-Ghazali—who many, in fact it's almost really by the ijma' of the ummah, he is considered to be the mujaddid of the sixth century of Islam, and this is almost without argumentation—an extraordinary figure who had a massive impact on the Muslims during his own lifetime and after that, and of whom really myriad scholars have benefited extensively from his work.

Defense of Imam Al-Ghazali

And I know that recently there has been criticism of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, and certainly from the area of hadith and people saying that he's weak in hadith, and I think it's a grave disservice to the Imam, because while every book other than the book of Allah has mistakes in it, and this is something completely accepted by all of the scholars of Islam, there is not a single book on the earth that does not contain mistakes in it except the book of Allah.

And Allah would not allow any book other than his book to be perfect, because Allah alone is perfect with kamal lillah. And so any scholar who writes a book ultimately will have mistakes in that book, and it doesn't matter how great that scholar is. And so to focus on the mistakes of the Imam and to not benefit from the extraordinary revivification of the Islamic teaching that he gave to this ummah is really a grave disservice.

And I know like Sheikh Nizam Ali Yaqoubi was telling me yesterday who actually did his PhD on Abu Hamid al-Ghazali that the Muslim camp tends to be on two extremes: one, people that say the Imam can do no wrong, and the other is people that criticize him. And really the position is always the middle position in Islam, that we take from our scholars what is beneficial, and then from the scholars that came later and rectified the mistakes that those Imams made, then those mistakes are taken into consideration, and this is the way of the Islamic teaching.

Ihya Ulum ad-Din and the Revival of Tazkiyah

So Abu Hamid al-Ghazali wrote his book Ihya Ulum ad-Din, and really it's based on again these two aspects:

the revival of the Islamic intellectual legacy and the revival of the idea of tazkiyah or tarbiyyat al-nafs. And this is why the fifth book of the Imam's work deals almost specifically with the states of the self and the rectification and purification of the self and of the heart. And he was a master of this area, and it wasn't something that he understood intellectually, but he was actually somebody who was a practitioner of this riyadah or this tazkiyah.

And a beautiful book which is really almost a concise summation of his whole work is the book Ayyuha al-Walad, in which he wrote to one of his students who was a scholar of his own right, and really told him what was important about the deen. And one of the things that he emphasized in that book was that if you learn knowledge and you just acquire all of this information but you never act upon it, then ultimately you are like Allah says in the Qur'an:

Allah says that the likeness of those who were given the Torah—as it's heavy, it's a weighty thing (إِنَّا سَنُلْقِي عَلَيْكَ قَوْلًا ثَقِيلًا - inna sanulqee 'alayka qawlan thaqeela) (Quran 73:5) "We will thrust upon you a heavy word" and (حَمْل - haml) indicates that it's a bearing, you have to bear the word. And so Allah says the likeness of those who were given the Torah to bear, in other words in action, but they don't really carry it, in other words they don't act according to it, then they're like donkeys that carry books. In other words, the information is just on the back because it's not being lived, it's not being experienced, and it's not the responsibility of it isn't being taken upon the individual to act according to it. And so this knowledge is really of no benefit.

Four Types of Scholars According to Ibn Rajab

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali رضي الله عنه says in his commentary on the hadith (مَن سَلَكَ طَرِيقًا يَلْتَمِسُ فِيهِ عِلْمًا، سَهَّلَ اللَّهُ لَهُ بِهِ طَرِيقًا إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ - man salaka tareeqan yaltamisu feehi 'ilman, sahhalAllahu lahu bihi tareeqan ilal-jannah) (Sahih Muslim 2699) "Whoever goes out seeking knowledge, Allah will make easy for him the path to Jannah" he says in that that there are four types of scholars or people of knowledge, and this is a very important distinction that he makes:

The first he says is (عَالِمٌ بِاللَّهِ وَعَالِمٌ بِحُجَّةِ اللَّهِ - 'aalimun billahi wa 'aalimun bihujjati Allahi) this is the one who knows Allah and knows the proofs of Allah, and he says that this man is safe in his own self and he is a hujjah over Allah's creation.

And then the next one he says is (عَالِمٌ بِاللَّهِ وَعَالِمٌ بِحُجَّةِ اللَّهِ يُفِيدُ نَفْسَهُ وَلَا يُفِيدُ غَيْرَهُ - 'aalimun billahi wa 'aalimun bihujjati Allahi yufeedu nafsahu wa laa yufeedu ghayrahu) one who knows Allah but does not know the barahin or the hujjah, the proofs that Allah has sent down. He benefits himself and he doesn't benefit other people.

And then he said (عَالِمٌ بِحُجَّةِ اللَّهِ وَجَاهِلٌ بِاللَّهِ - 'aalimun bihujjati Allahi wa jahilun billahi) one who knows the proofs of Allah, and this one is somebody who has all the rules but yet he doesn't know Allah, and he said (يَضُرُّ نَفْسَهُ وَيُفِيدُ غَيْرَهُ - yadhurru nafsahu wa yufeedu ghayrahu) he harms his own self and he benefits others.

And then so this categorization and the possibilities here is that the Imam is telling us that there are individuals who know Allah. What he said that means is (مَعْرِفَتُهُ بِاللَّهِ تُبَاشِرُ قَلْبَهُ - ma'rifatuhu billahi tubashiru qalbahu) that his awareness of Allah is something that's impacting his heart. And it might not be somebody who knows very much outward knowledge.

The Simple Believers Among the Sahaba

And this is very important because many of the Sahaba were of this ilk. In other words, many of the Sahaba were not scholars; they were actually very simple people who, but because their Iman was so strong and their knowledge of Allah was so powerful, that they were of this deep knowledge of Allah, and yet they were not people of fatwa, they were not people of even memorizing the whole Quran or knowing many hadiths.

Many of the Sahaba, the actual people that gave fatwa from the Sahaba are less than ten. I mean this is a historical fact: they were only a handful of the Sahaba that were really giving fatwa, and most of them really didn't want to because they had such taqwa of Allah. So I really think it's important that we don't envision that, you know, if you're not a scholar, that that's it, you're cut off. From on the contrary, there are many very simple Muslims that their Iman is so strong these people are in a much better state than people that know many riwayah and all of these words and things like that, and in the end of the day really they it doesn't benefit them.

The Strong Believer

Now the best one and the highest one according to Ibn Rajab is the one who knows Allah and who knows the Sharia of Allah, because the Prophet ﷺ loved that things were beneficial. You know in Allah: (الْمُؤْمِنُ الْقَوِيُّ خَيْرٌ وَأَحَبُّ إِلَى اللَّهِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِ الضَّعِيفِ، وَفِي كُلِّ خَيْرٌ - al-mu'minu al-qawiyyu khayrun wa ahabbu ilAllahi mina al-mu'mini ad-da'eefi, wa fee kullin khayrun) — "The strong believer is more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, and in all of them is good."

So the strong mu'min is the one who in terms intellectually has a lot of knowledge and also benefits other people, but he's also being benefited by his knowledge. And so a weaker mu'min would be somebody who maybe has less knowledge and these type of things, but still in both of them is good.

The Importance of Tazkiyah in Islamic Education

Now in terms of the so this whole aspect of learning these outward knowledges is extremely important, but at the same time it should not be at the neglect of this Tazkiyah that should be taking place. And traditionally what would happen is because people were studying with people that really had had a lot of purification themselves, that this would affect these people in a very profound and deep way. And through the process of spending time with these people, they would literally themselves become people of Tazkiyah.

The Colonial Destruction of Islamic Education

And unfortunately in our Islamic ummah, the teachers and the scholars of Islam were really so tortured and attacked and opposed, especially during the colonial period, that I mean you can read—in I read in in Turkey that in 1923 there were 17 shuyukh that were hung in one village. You know the what took place in Morocco under governor Lyautey, this fanatical French governor who literally went and killed many many teachers of Islam, and this was happening all over the Muslim ummah.

And then the next thing that took place was the dismantling of the Islamic madrasa and university system, which would—these systems were producing human beings of great caliber. Well those things were literally dismantled. So we find ourselves in a very precarious situation because not only do we have very few people that are really well-established and well-grounded in the Islamic sciences, but also we have very few people that have gone through this serious training in which they can lead, they can take you know positions of qiyadah.

Umar ibn al-Khattab said that you should be people of understanding before you get into positions of authority. And what happens in many situations is many of us are put into positions of authority really before we're prepared for that. And I would certainly you know put myself and many other people in in that category because this is a tragedy in the Islamic ummah.

The Two Foundations of Islamic Revival Revisited

So in these two aspects of the Islamic movement, which is one: the revivification or revival of the Islamic sciences and knowledges. Now the Islamic sciences really are very well known, they're categorized and they're classified, and they're classified between what are called fara'id kifayah, fara'id al-ayn or individual responsibility, collective responsibility.

There is an obligation on all of us to learn the ayn. All of us have this individual responsibility, and these things really are not learned on a weekend seminar. There are things that take serious study by all of us. And unfortunately if we did not get it as children, then we must learn it as adults. I mean the best and ideal situation is that a parent will give the child what it needs in terms of the prerequisite knowledges of Islam, but if they're not given these knowledges and they reach into adulthood and they find that they're in a state of ignorance, it becomes incumbent upon them as a mukallaf, as somebody who is responsible to seek that knowledge.

Knowledge from Cradle to Grave

And we know also that knowledge according to Islam is from the cradle to the grave. It literally is from the cradle to the grave. And we have many traditions of scholars—Ibn Yusuf, who on his deathbed was learning some masa'il fiqh, and it wasn't because he needed in this life; he literally wanted to increase his knowledge because Allah raises up those who believe and those who have been given knowledge by degrees.

So the more knowledge, the more iman one has, the higher their degree is with Allah, and this is how these people look. They were learning knowledge not for their own selves, not for self aggrandizement, not to display their knowledge, not to be impressive in front of people, not so that yusharu ilayhi bil-banan like they say, like people pointing and oh look at that one and what knowledge he has. This is all illusion.

The Story of Khalil Ibn Ahmad

Like Khalil ibn Ishaq, when he—Khalil ibn Ahmad who wrote the science of arood which is prosody and really

a brilliant scholar and grammarian—somebody saw him after he died in a dream and he said, where were all those knowledges that—because he, Khalil, asked Allah to give him a knowledge nobody else had before him and he was inspired to put down the science of the metric versification in poetry, the what are called the buhur in Arabic, of lines of poetry, and he did this.

And so this man asked him in his dream: what did Allah do with all those knowledges? How did they benefit you? He said, "What was yet to habba'an manthurah"—I found there just nothing. All the arood, the nahw, the sarf, all these things that I learned, habba'an manthurah. And like al-Junaid al-Baghdadi, he said somebody saw him after he died in a dream and he asked him, and he said:

فِي جَوْفِ اللَّيْلِ – "All those fine things we were saying, they're all gone, and all of those wonderful articulations there, they disappeared, and the only thing that benefited us was some little rakats we were doing in the in the middle of the night."

You see, so I mean all of the knowledge, once the human being dies, really it's habba'an manthurah, you know, the sadaqah jariyah which benefits us are those things, those books that people leave behind and these things where people benefit if they were placed for the for the sake of Allah alone.

The Story of Ibn Furath and Sahnun

I mean there's a great scholar in Tunisia, Ibn Furath, and he was a really great scholar and he wrote a book in which he collected most of the traditions of Imam Malik (رضي الله عنه - radiya Allahu 'anhu) and this man when he went back to the to Tunis, there was another man, Sahnun, who wrote the Mudawwanah al-Kubra which is he took from Ibn al- Qasim (رضي الله عنه - radiya Allahu 'anhu). And the scholars of Tunis asked Ibn Furath to look at the book of Sahnun and to measure it against his, which was called the Asadiyyah. And Ibn Furath said, "Why do you need his book when you have my book?"

Now that's zillah, you know, with all respect to the imam because he was a great scholar and imam. But the point that he said that—his book was left by the Muslim scholars. I mean his book, even though it's there and it's looked at by certain scholars, the Mudawwanah of Sahnun is the book in which Allah gave the tawfiq, and this is very fascinating.

The Acceptance of Imam An-Nawawi's Works

There are literally hundreds of arba'een, at the collections of arba'een hadith, hundreds. You can see so many ulama wrote it because of the hadith about arba'een: (مَنْ حَفِظَ عَلَى أُمَّتِي أَرْبَعِينَ حَدِيثًا - man hafiza 'ala ummati arba'ina hadithan) it's a weak hadith that even though he mentions at the beginning of the book, but because of the hadith many many people wrote arba'een.

Why is it that when we say arba'een, everybody knows Imam an-Nawawi? I mean why is that, that Allah gave this imam tawfiq in the in his arba'een in a way that no other imam was given? And really Imam an-Nawawi has an amazing maqam in this ummah because all of his books have complete acceptance. And really the way that's understood is the degree of Ikhlas of this imam and his life and what it meant. It was somebody who was not

there for shuhrah, who was not there for to become famous, for notoriety, for these things—doing it for the sake of Allah.

"What we do, they don't want thanks and they don't want gratitude and they don't want reward." They do this for the sake of Allah, and this is Ikhlas.

The Science of Ikhlas: Mukhlis and Mukhlas

But the science of Ikhlas literally is how because there's a difference between mukhlis and mukhlas. In the Quran both ways come in the Quran: one is active form and the other is a passive form. So there is literally a passive—there is a Ikhlas that is active, but there's also an Ikhlas that is passive. And the two are—the ones, the people of Tawfiq are the mukhliseen and the mukhlaseen.

"And those who when their hearts deviate, Allah deviates them more." And so في

"In their hearts is a sickness, Allah increases them in that sickness."

And this is the difference: there's a departure at a certain point in the individual's life where they move towards increase or they move towards decrease.

The Nature of Iman: Increase and Decrease

وَيَدُدُّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِيمَانًا – "And increases those who believe in iman." The Iman itself, the ulama say that "raddu 'ala al-dhadi yuzidu al-imanu" that Iman increases. There's a khilaf, an opinion that differs from that, and it's a very intricate opinion, but it's really more a semantic difference.

The Iman increases (يَزْدَادُ الإِيمَانُ بِالطَّاعَةِ - yazdadu al-imanu bi-ta'ah) - when the obedience to Allah is increased (وَيَنْقُصُ بِالْمَعْصِيَةِ - wa yanqusu bi-al-ma'siyah) and Iman decreases as far decreases. And this is the nature, and by the nature of the Sunnah of Allah, we are either in ziyadah or we are in nuqsan. We are either increasing or we are decreasing, but there is no static state in dunya.

Stasis does not exist in dunya. It's not in a biological phenomenon, it's not a physical phenomenon. You won't find any stasis in the dunya. The nature of dunya is change: things are either growing or decaying. And such is the nature of the spiritual world. The heart is either growing with Iman or it is decaying. And the way that it grows is through obedience to Allah.

The Science of Tawbah (Repentance)

So in terms of looking at this, the science of the heart, I want to look just at a few things and then I'm going to open this up for some discussion or question.

Ibn Ata'illah says that Tawbah is an absolute necessity from every wrong action, from every wrong action, that it is necessary immediately and against every wrong action. And there must be remorse, nadamah, and the place of nadamah or remorse is the heart, which differs from guilt in the English language, which is what they call a sickness with them.

Guilt is something where the the person actually believes that they are worthless. In other words, their self has no inherent worth and and and so they identify the wrong action with the nature, the human nature itself. This is not the Muslim position; this is the Christian position.

The Muslim Understanding of Sin and Forgetfulness

The Muslim position sees wrong action literally as a slip if one is a mu'min—into ghaflah, into forgetfulness, and that forgetfulness is a temporary state for the mu'min. It is not a permanent state. And so you move literally in and out of ghaflah until you become from the people who are in a state of awareness of Allah. And this is so -most of us will fall into the category called al-nafs al-lawwamah, which is the blaming self, where we remember and then we forget, we remember and then we forget.

And this is why Tawbah is the act of turning back to Allah. It is a continual act. There is a constant turning, just as the the the earth is continually revolving around itself and moving around the Sun, that the mu'min is continually making this Tawbah to Allah, forgetting, entering into ghaflah and making Tawbah. You see, and this is the nature of the mu'min.

The Nature of the Heart (Al-Qalb)

The nature of the heart—al-qalb in Arabic language literally means the thing that turns. It turns, means literally to turn. Inqilab is to turn upside down. So the heart by its nature is an organ that is turning. It moves towards obedience and it moves towards disobedience. What the mu'min is desiring is that stationary state of Iman where it stops at a certain point moving towards disobedience and then back to obedience, and it literally begins to move continually towards obedience.

And this is an achievable state. There are people that have achieved this state. This is not something that is is unachievable. Many of the Sahaba, this was their state. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq was a man who was continually on the increase, Umar ibn al-Khattab, these Sahaba. And we have many examples throughout history of people that entered into this state of obedience to Allah.

The Maqam of Ihsan

And this is where they get the idea that (حَسَنَاتُ الْأَبْرَارِ سَيِّئَاتُ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ - hasanatu al-abrari sayyiatu al-muqarrabin) – "The good actions of the righteous people are literally the sayyiat of the people that are in proximity to Allah" in their awareness of Allah, because the maqam of ihsan is (أَنْ تَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَاهُ، فَإِنْ لَمْ تَكُنْ تَرَاهُ فَإِنَّهُ يَرَاكَ - an ta'bud Allaha ka'annaka tarahu, fa'in lam takun tarahu fa'innahu yaraka) — to literally worship Allah as if you see him, and if you don't see him, then indeed He sees you.

The Conditions of Tawbah

And so this idea of making this tawbah—and so he tells us that tawbah is necessary from every wrong action, and then he gives us the conditions: (بِشَرْطِ الإِقْلَاعِ وَنَفْي الإِصْرَارِ - bi-sharti al-iqla'i wa nafyi al-israr) – it has to be with the condition that you leave it immediately if you're in it (إِنْ كُنْتَ مُتَلَبِّسًا بِهِ - in kunta mutalabbisan bihi) – and if you're not in it, you've done it and then you must make

tawbah, then the immediacy of it is still present because delaying tawbah is a wrong action itself from which tawbah must be made.

So tawbah is like—the wrong actions are like compounded interest. It just keeps getting worse the more you put it off, and it will keep getting worse, like the Prophet says about the black spot on the heart: it continues to increase until the whole heart is completely black. And this is a very dark state to be in because then what happens is the heart cannot be penetrated by the nur of wahi. It literally reflects or deflects the the nur of wahi.

The State of the Munafiq

And this is the state of the munafiq, who can hear words that are from the Quran, who can hear words that are from the heart, and it doesn't penetrate the heart because the heart is not receptive to the meanings that are entering into it. It literally pushes it away, like Sayyidina Ali said that (الْكَلِمَةُ الْحَقُّ تَدْخُلُ فِي قَلْبِ الْمُنَافِقِ - al-kalimatu al-haqqu tadkhulu fi qalbi al-munafiq) this the word of the truth will enter the heart of the munafiq, but it will just be in a state of turmoil (حَتَّى تَسْتَقِرَّ فِي قَلْبٍ مُؤْمِنٍ - hatta tastaqirra fi qalbi mu'minin) until it finds a heart of a mu'min.

So the munafiq will literally have to throw it up. He'll have to get it out until it resides in the heart of the mu'min. And this is a horrible state to be in, and unfortunately many Muslims are in this state. I mean this is a tragic thing because Muslims can hear the book of Allah and it has no impact on them whatsoever. يُضِلُّ بِهِ كَثِيرًا and this is because the sickness of the heart.

Purification of the Heart

And the only way that the heart is purified is through serious scrubbing. The Prophet said: إِنَّ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ يَصْدَأُ وَإِنَّ صَدَأَ الْقَلْبِ الذُّنُوبُ – "Everything rusts or encrusts over, and even the heart becomes encrusted."

– Allah says in the Quran that the heart literally became this was covered in this darkness by what they were earning (بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ - bima kanu yaksibun) - by what they themselves were earning.

And so the only way that it's purified is literally through a washing, through a scrubbing. وَإِنَّ صَقَالَةَ الْقَلْبِ ذِكْرُ اللهِ and the scrubbing of the heart is the remembrance of Allah. This is the polish of the heart. And so tawbah is part of dhikr.

And this is why Umar ibn al-Khattab said: أَفْضَلُ الذِّكْرِ الْوَقْفُ عِنْدَ الْحَرَامِ "The best dhikr is when the haram is present, you stop and don't go into it." Remembering Allah when you are about to enter into ma'asiyah, this is the best dhikr—that you remember Allah when you need to remember Allah, and that is when you are susceptible to the haram.

And then he says وَلْيَتَلَافَ مُمْكِنَ الاسْتِغْفَارِ – and also you have to, if you've harmed people, then you have to rectify that, islah dhat al-bayn. If somebody stole something, he has to give that wealth back. If it was backbiting, they

have to go and ask forgiveness of that person, unless it's a type of situation that it will literally increase the difficulty, and then there's—you get into difference of opinion, but I don't really want to look at that.

وَحَاصِرُ التَّقْوَى اجْتِنَابٌ وَامْتِثَالٌ and he says that the taqwa, it is achieved through avoidance of the haram and doing what Allah has commanded. And by the consensus of the scholars, imtithal is easier than ijtinab. It is easier to be obedient to Allah in what he's commanded than it is in what he is prohibited. And this is very important to remember that that it's easier to fall into ma'asiyah then doing the right action.

Understanding Darakat and Darajat

Why? Because the nature of ma'asiyah is a downward motion, it's a downward motion, it's darakat. Jahannam is darakat, and so there is in a sense like a gravitational pull that is helping you to go into this type of destruction, whereas the darajat is an upward motion spiritually. In other words, it takes an exertion of effort to do this.

And this is why the Prophet said : (حُفَّتِ الْجَنَّةُ بِالْمَكَارِهِ، وَحُفَّتِ النَّارُ بِالشَّهَوَاتِ - huffati al-jannatu bi al-makarihi, wa huffati an-naru bi ash-shahawati) "Jannah is literally surrounded by difficult things, and the fire is surrounded by those appetites, things that people inclined towards."

And then he says (فِي ظَاهِرٍ وَبَاطِنٍ بِدَايَةُ النِّيَّةِ - fi zahirin wa batinin bidayatu an-niyyah) – in the inward and the outward, so there has to be ijtinab and imtithal not simply in one's outward form but in one's inward form also, and with this taqwa is achieved.

The Goal of Taqwa

And taqwa is really should be the goal of every mu'min because the Quran begins: ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ هُدًى لِلْمُتَّقِينَ )Quran (2:1-2) — "This is the book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for people of taqwa."

الم It's not a guidance if you don't have taqwa. It can lead people astray that don't have taqwa. And we have historically many groups, from the Jahmiyyah to the Qadariyyah to the Wasiliyyah to the Nabatiyyah, all of these different sects and groups that use the Quran as their proof for their bid'ah, for their ahwa, for all of these things, and literally went astray. Why? Because they did not have taqwa.

Humility Before the Quran

And the Quran begins: الم Quran 2:1). You look in any tafsir of any worth by any mufassir and they will say: Alif Lam Meem (اللهُ أَعْلَمُ - Allahu a'lam) Allah knows what that means. So the book itself begins by telling us: there are you are limited, ya bani Adam, in your knowledge. You are limited in your knowledge, and you have to enter into the realm of this book with humility.

If you think you can come to this book and bring your previous knowledges and presumptions, then you will be led astray. But if you submit to the book—and the beginning is submitting to Alif Lam Meem, that the answer to Alif Lam Meem is Allahu A'lam—if you submit to that first criterion in reading the Quran, then you're from the people of taqwa. But if you enter into the Quran with arrogance and thinking that you can in some way interpret

The Disease of Modern Self-Appointed Muftis

And one of the sicknesses of this modern age is all of these people that want to literally become muftis and ulama. They read one book—taqwa, sunnah—and suddenly they're faqih and they're giving everybody fatwa and things like this. And this is a disaster. And even worse than these people are the ones that don't even read a book and they give fatwa. I mean it's gotten even to that point where: oh don't worry ya akhi, istafti qalbik—like your heart is a mufti.

Istafti qalbik is based on a somebody being fitrah. I mean the Prophet, when he said to that man (اسْتَفْتِ قَلْبَكَ - istafti qalbaka) (Musnad Ahmad 18006), he knew who he was talking to. Not everybody can take a fatwa from their heart, because a lot of hearts are just filled with shahwat and ahwa, and what their heart will tell them is that: do whatever you want. You see?

So the heart has to be really in a position before it's it's it's—so it has to be in a fitrah state, and that takes literally for most of us a deep struggle and mujahadah and riyadah and these type of thing.

The Four Aspects of Taqwa

So then he says: (فَجَاءَتِ الْأَقْسَامُ حَقًّا أَرْبَعَةٌ - fajāʾati al-ʾaqsāmu ḥaqqan ʾarbaʿatun) – these, the, if we want taqwa, there are four aspects to it, four aspects to taqwa. And then he says: (وَهِيَ لِلسَّالِكِ سُبُلَ مَنْفَعَةٍ - wa hiya li-s-sālikī subula manfaʿatin) and it is for the person of suluk it will take them to the paths of benefit.

First Aspect: Guarding the Seven Limbs

And he says: (يَغُضُّ عَيْنَيْهِ عَنِ الْمَحَارِمِ، وَيَكُفُّ سَمْعَهُ عَنِ الْمَاثِمِ كَغِيبَةٍ نَمِيمَةٍ زُورٍ كِذْبٍ، وَلِسَانُهُ أَحْرَى بِتَرْكِهِنَّ مَجْلُوبٌ - yaghuḍḍu ʿaynayhi ʿani al-maḥārimi, wa yakuffu samʿahu ʿani al-māthimi ka-ghībati, namīmatin, zūrin, kiḏbin, wa lisānuhu ʾaḥrā bi-tarkihinna majlūbun) that he should, we should lower our gaze from what is haram.

"Tell the mu'mineen to lower their gaze," and tell the mu'minat to lower their gaze. This is on the haram, what is ever haram to look at, then we should lower our gaze from it.

The Power of the Eye

Because the eye—although the ulama have agreed that the eye is literally not connected to a kabirah, that there's no action that the eye can partake in that is connected to a grave wrong action—but like Ibn Abbas said: (لَا صَغِيرَةَ مَعَ الإِصْرَارِ - lā ṣaghīrata maʿa al-ʾiṣrāri) – there is no little wrong action with istimrar, with continuity of action.

So if the eye is always looking at the haram, that itself becomes a kabirah. So the actual if the eye sees haram occasionally, which is especially in this country, you're just audhubillah, I mean we're just surrounded by imbibing the haram, which is a disaster for one's iman, because they agree also that the quickest limb to destroy the heart is the eye itself. This will destroy the heart.

And part of it is because visual things are actually more difficult that to get out than hearing. You can hear many things but you'll forget them. You can hear music but you'll forget it. But I guarantee you if you've watched films that you've got those images in your mind right now. I know that everybody in here who's seen films or watch television, you can close your eyes now and imagine a film that you saw, and there's images of the haram that are in your heart. They're there. How do you get rid of that? We shouldn't have looked at it in the first place. Now it's there. What do we do?

This is a disaster, and this is what shaytan does. He likes to fill the heart with the haram so there's no room for the halal, because the haram is a—we are, and every container has limits, and you have to empty it of the haram and the jahiliyyah before it can be filled with the halal and the nur of Islam.

The Process of Spiritual Transformation

And that's why the sahaba (رضي الله عنهم - raḍiya-llāhu ʿanhum) who said the Prophet literally emptied us out of jahiliyyah to fill us up with Islam. So there's an emptying that has to take place before there's a filling, just like you have to exhale before you can inhale, just like the heart has to be contracted before it can be expanded. This is the nature of Allah's of creation: the diastolic, the systolic, this is the very nature. The pupil is expands in order to take in and it contracts in order to prevent light from coming in, and this is the nature that Allah has made us on.

So contraction and expansion—Allah is Al-Qabid and Al-Basit. He's these two: the expander and the contractor. So the more we expand for shaytan, the more we contract for Iman or for Rahman. The more we expand for the Rahman, the more we contract for shaytan. And this is really the nature of creation.

Guarding the Ear

So he's telling us (يَغُضُّ عَيْنَيْهِ عَنِ الْمَحَارِمِ - yaghuḍḍu ʿaynayhi ʿani al-maḥārimi) and then (يَكُفَّ سَمْعَهُ عَنِ الْمَآثِمِ - yakuffa samʿahu ʿani al-māthimi) – he turns away from listening to that haram. So he begins with the eye because that is the most important organ, and then he goes to the ear.

Now the ear is very interesting also. If you look at the eye, the eye literally takes in only a linear—we have a basic peripheral vision, but it's limited. We don't see behind us. But if you look at the ear, the ear by its nature is circular. It takes in everything around it. And this is why generally in the Quran Allah begins with (إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ - ʾinna as-samʿa wa al-baṣara) the ear, the hearing, the sight and the heart, all of these things the human being is responsible for.

We are literally responsible for these things. Why? Because if we allow our ears and our eyes to open up to everything, then the heart is what suffers. So the ear and the eye, which are called mawaridul ilm and mawaridul

jahl—they are the areas where knowledge comes in, but also where ignorance comes in—and they come in and enter into the container of the heart.

Protecting the City of the Heart

And so literally the mu'min is somebody who protects and guards his eyes and his ears in order to protect his heart. They are literally like the thughur, like boundaries, in which he must defend them. So these are armies that were to use for Allah, to protect the city of the heart, which is the residence of Iman. That is the malik, that is the king that we should respect and protect.

But if we literally open up—like any country that just leaves its borders and anybody can flood in—then this is what happens with the human being. The heart is left unprotected, and literally the armies of Jahiliyyah flood into the heart because that's what they want to conquer. And this is what Shaytan wants to conquer: he wants to become king of the city of the heart.

And this is what Allah is warning us about. He's warning us in the Quran: don't take Shaytan as your friend, don't take Shaytan as a nasir. He's khadhul, he's gharur, he's deceptive, he will betray us. And this is the nature.

The Diseases Entering Through the Ear

So he tells us that we have to protect the ear from what's wrong, and then he gives us the examples: (كَغِيبَةٍ، نَمِيمَةٍ، زُورٍ، كِذْبٍ - ka-ghībatin, namīmatin, zūrin, kiḏbin) – Ghibah is he begins with Ghibah because Ghibah is the most common. This is what most of us- this is what we're dealing with. Muslims have become people that backbite.

And Allah says: (وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا - wa lā yaghtab baʿḍukum baʿḍan) – "Don't let one of you backbite another of you." (لَا يَسْخَرْ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ - lā yaskhar qawmun min qawmin) (Quran 49:11) "Don't let one group mock another group." Don't let a group mock another group, don't be people- trivial people of backbiting and trivial pursuits, these type of thing. No, we should be people of depth. And so he's warning us about backbiting.

And then he says Namimah, because Namimah literally is that which separates people. It's called ifsad dhat al-bayn, and the Islam is based on islah dhat al-bayn. (فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَأَصْلِحُوا ذَاتَ بَيْنِكُمْ - fa-ttaqū-llāha wa ʾaṣliḥū ḏāta baynikum) – "Rectify between your two brothers."

And then he says Zur, and Zur is false witnessing, bearing false witness, which is really—this is a wretched thing, one of the worst things that a human being can do is to bear false witness against other people.

And then he ends with Kidhb, because this in a sense is really a generic under which these other things will fall. And Kidhb is anything that is opposite of the truth, and this is something to be avoided, neither listening to it.

Guarding the Tongue

And then he says: (لِسَانُهُ أَحْرَى بِتَرْكِهِنَّ مَجْلُوبٌ - lisānuhu ʾaḥrā bi-tarkihinna majlūbun) – it's even more important not to listen to these things but not to speak them yourself. In other words, don't become vessels whereby people pour this poison into you, but don't

yourselves pour it into other people, because it's actually worse to be the one who is pouring this foulness into others than to be the one receiving it. (وَكِلَاهُمَا شَرَابٌ - wa kilāhumā šarābun) – and both of them have evil, both are evil states.

Guarding the Stomach

And then he says: (يَحْفَظُ بَطْنَهُ مِنَ الْحَرَامِ - yaḥfaẓu baṭnahu mina al-ḥarāmi) now he moves to the stomach. So he's dealt with the eyes, the ears, the tongue, and there's seven limbs that are literally like thughur or the boundaries. And then he goes to the batn, the stomach. (يَحْفَظُ بَطْنَهُ مِنَ الْحَرَامِ - yaḥfaẓu baṭnahu mina al-ḥarāmi) – that he protects and guards his stomach from the Haram.

The Prophet told us about that if you have (عِقَّةُ الطَّعَامِ، صِدْقُ الْحَدِيثِ، وَحُسْنُ الْخُلُقِ - ʿiffatu ṭ-ṭaʿāmi, ṣidqu al-ḥadīthi, wa ḥusnu al-khuluqi) iffatu ta'am, sidqu hadith, wa husnu khalq, and iffatu ta'am, that don't even worry about whatever afflicts you from Dunya if you have amanah, trust, wa sidqu hadith, wa khalaqatu hasanah, and good character, and then guarding what you eat.

Ahmad Zarruq said: all of ni'mah can be reduced to two things: luqmah and suhbah—what you eat and the company you keep. And he said: so guard what you eat because you will do according to what you eat. If you do eat Halal, you do Halal. If you eat Haram, you do Haram in spite of yourself.

And he said: look to who you take as a companion, because you're on his Deen, you're on his Deen. (الْمَرْءُ عَلَى دِينِ خَلِيلِهِ، فَلْيَنظُرْ أَحَدُكُمْ مَنْ يُخَالِلُ - al-marʾu ʿalā dīni khalīlihi, fal-yanẓur ʾaḥadukum man yukhālil) (Sunan Abu Dawud 4833) "A man is on the Deen of his companion, so let one of you look to who he takes as a companion," to who he takes as a companion.

Leaving the Doubtful (Tark al-Shubuhat)

So that he protects his stomach from the Haram (يَتْرُكُ الشُّبُهَاتِ بِاهْتِمَامٍ - yatruku ash-shubuhati bi-ihtimam) – and the next thing is tark al-shubuhat, tark al-shubuhat. So here he's covered—where he's going through these things, the tark al-shubuhat is literally leaving anything in which is doubt, anything in which there is doubt. And this is a Maqam of what's called wara' or scrupulousness, and the people of wara' are the people that fear Allah.

And then he says: (يَحْفَظُ فَرْجَهُ - yaḥfaẓu farjahu) he guards his private part. The Prophet said: (مَنْ يَضْمَنُ لِي مَا بَيْنَ لَحْيَيْهِ وَمَا بَيْنَ رِجْلَيْهِ - man yaḍmanu lī mā bayna laḥyayhi wa mā bayna rijlaihi) "The one who will guarantee for me the tongue and what's between his two thighs or her two thighs, I will guarantee for them the Jannah."

And so guarding one's farj, literally, is part of taqwa. And this follows the food, because eating the haram leads to doing the haram. You see, each one of these things moves.

The Connection Between the Eye and Zina

One of my—Murabit al-Hajj told me once he said: (الْعَيْنُ بَرِيدُ الرِّنَا - al-ʿaynu barīdu az-zinā) the eye is the post, it's the post sending the letter of fornication. It's the baridu zina.

And this is why everyone has a degree of zina written for them. And the farj (يُكَذِّبُهُ أَوْ يُصَدِّقُهُ - yukaḏḏibuhu ʾaw yuṣaddiquhu) the private part will either negate it or confirm it. So the eye, the hand, the tongue, like giving murawadah or some type of

flirtation with the tongue, this is a type of zina. Touching for ladhdha is a type of zina. Looking for ladhdha is a type of zina. And the looking between, the Muslim have to be with adab.

You know, and you can get into difference about al-wajh, al-kaffayn, and these type of things. I really don't. These are all masa'il khilafiyyah that people have. But the basic bottom line is that you should not (لَا تَلْتَدُّ - lā taltadd) that if you're finding that you have ladhdha from looking at the face of either a man or a woman, then you have to fear Allah, (لَا يَتَأَمَّلُ مَحَاسِنَ امْرَأَةٍ - lā yataʾammalu maḥāsina imraʾatin) and don't (يَتَّقِي اللَّهَ وَيَغُضُّ مِن بَصَرِهِ - yattaqī allāha wa yaghuḍḍu min baṣarihi) that a man should not reflect and contemplate on the beauty of a woman unless he intends to marry her or his wife. And the same goes for the women.

Rulings on Awrah and Modesty

Sidi Abdullah ibn Hajj Ibrahim in his fatawa says that it's not obligatory for the man to cover what is haram for the woman to look at. In other words, between the rukbah and the surrah is awrah for the man. The chest is not awrah. That does not mean that a woman can look at it. It's not permissible for a woman to look at a man's chest without the shirt on, but it's not obligatory on him to cover it. She has to lower her gaze.

And this is really honoring women, because Allah has made the woman cover because of the weakness of a man, whereas the woman, because she's stronger in that area. And this is the truth: that the man is more susceptible to that type of fasad.

But the reason Allah began with (الزَّانِيَةُ وَالزَّانِي - az-zāniyatu wa az-zānī) - He begins with the female, because generally fornication happens when the woman allows the man and inclines the man towards something that he already has a susceptibility. So if the woman is strong, the man might desire but doesn't have the opportunity. You see? But the woman is actually has more iffah in this matter than the man. And Allah honors her because of that.

And this is why He's asked her to veil herself so that she's not accosted by men who are weaker in that aspect. And this really is, I mean it's very clear by istiqra, by analysis of the Quranic picture that it's showing that.

Women Praying Behind Men

The same with women praying behind men. You see? A man, the reason men can't pray next to a woman or a woman in front of a man is because the man's going to lose himself, become preoccupied with something that he's not supposed to be thinking about when he's praying, whereas the woman can pray behind the man because she's not as susceptible to that by the nature of who she is than the man is.

Again this is an honoring, and we know during the time of the Prophet that there was not a curtain between the women and the men in the masjid. The young boys would pray behind the women. But we also know the Prophet said the worst ranks of the women are the first ranks for that reason, that they have men in front of them that are bowing and things like that. But just the fact that that exists, again shows that the woman has more strength.

Scientific Confirmation of Sharia Wisdom

And it has been proven in studies of pupil dilation. They do these studies, people study everything. And they know that the pupil will expand when it sees something pleasurable and contracts when it sees something that is not pleasurable. And what they do is they do these studies where they show people pictures, pleasurable pictures. Men's pupils will dilate, whereas women's don't. But they found that women are more attracted to the voice than they are to the visual pictures and things like this. These are fascinating studies that are done about that, that confirm again the wisdom of the Sharia.

And in the same way, the pheromones of human beings, which has been established now that we have pheromones that are literally sexual receptors that go out and attract the opposite sex—the pheromones of women have been shown to be radiating, that they actually radiate, and the pheromones of men are obtained through touch. And so again, the hijab literally is part of that protecting the inherent nature of a woman. And so it's all the wisdom of the Sharia will be confirmed again and again.

"Allah will show them all these signs until it becomes clear."

Guarding the Hands and Feet

And then (وَيَتَّقِي فَرْجَهُ، يَحْفَظُ فِي الْبَطْشِ وَسَعْيِ مَمْنُوعٍ يُرِيدُ - he guards his private part, his hands and his two feet, وَسَعْيِ فِي الْبَطْشِ) so there he's completed the seven things that we have to guard the heart with.

And this is the eye, the ear, the tongue, the batn, the farj, the hands and the feet. And this is the way we destroy our hearts. And if we guard ourselves and become responsible, because these poor things are going to bear witness against us on yawm al-qiyamah. These hands will bear witness against us on yawm al-qiyamah and say: He made me do this. We are in charge. The aql is in charge here. The hands are not in charge.

If I want to drink a cup, my hand did not do an autonomous action there. It didn't rebel against me. You see. No, I commanded my hand to go and pick up the glass and now I'm telling it to put it down. You see. Stop that. Doesn't work like that, unless you have Parkinson's disease or something like that, where it's beyond human control, and then people shake and things like that. But that's not what we're talking about. If you've got those problems, then you can't do anything wrong. Right? Somebody paralyzed, that's it. And that's why the shaykh al-zani is the worst type creature. You know, the ones that are old and decrepit and, you know, they're still doing these haram things. It's something despicable.

Second Aspect: Knowing the Hukm of Allah

So those then, that's the first. We're dealing with four things here of how to purify the heart and achieve taqwa. That's the first one and I'll go briefly through the next three.

(يُحَكِّمُ قَلْبَهُ فِيهِ مَا يَعْلَمُ اللَّهُ فِيهِ حَكَمًا - that he should not do anything without knowing the hukm of Allah). And this is something that we're very neglectful about. There are many people that go into businesses, go into contracts, go into relationships without understanding what the hukm of Allah is.

And this is something that's disastrous. We have to know what Allah has commanded in everything, in every single action, and Allah has not left us without guidance. We even have guidance when you don't have a choice between two haram things. This happens in existence. And we have usuli principles that protect us and guide us, but we have to have taqwa and we have to go and ask the people that if we don't know, we have to ask the people that know.

Third Aspect: Purifying the Heart from Spiritual Diseases

(يُطَهِّرُ الْقَلْبَ مِنَ الرِّيَاءِ وَكُلِّ دَاءٍ حَسَدٍ وَعُجْبٍ - so the next thing in achieving taqwa), after the seven limbs and after learning the shari'ah of Islam, is purifying the heart from riya, from hasad, from ujb, and from every disease.

And the Prophet ﷺ said that the shirk in his ummah is (أَخْفَى مِنَ النَّمْلَةِ السَّوْدَاءِ عَلَى صَخْرَةٍ سَوْدَاءَ فِي ظُلْمَةِ اللَّيْلِ - "More discreet than a black ant on a black smooth rock.") This is the shirk of the Prophet's ummah. It's a very subtle shirk and it's called riya, which is showing off - (يُرَائِي النَّاسَ - showing to people and not guarding what Allah has commanded).

And then so he begins with riya because that's the foundation of all sicknesses. And then he says (وَكُلِّ دَاءٍ حَسَدٍ وَعُجْبٍ – hasad and ujb).

The Disease of Hasad (Envy)

Hasad, being envious, and this is one of the worst things. And the Prophet ﷺ said: (إِنَّ الْحَسَدَ يَأْكُلُ الْحَسَنَاتِ كَمَا تَأْكُلُ النَّارُ الْحَطَبَ - "That the envy will eat the good actions like fire eats the dry wood.")

(Sunan Abu Dawud 4903)

And seeking refuge from hasad—and hasad is when it's different from ghibtah in the Arabic language. And ghibtah, the Prophet ﷺ said: (لَا حَسَدَ إِلَّا فِي اثْنَتَيْنِ - "That hasad is called ghibtah when a man has knowledge or has memorized the Qur'an.) You don't have hasad but you wish that you were like him. You wish you had what he had without him losing it or her losing it. And that's called ghibtah. That's a good hasad. That's a good envy."

"That we should compete and vie with good actions." There's nothing wrong with that. That's okay because the competition is a high thing, it