Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu, good to see everyone, mashaAllah beautiful Saturday morning here and inshaAllah we'll be doing, we'll meet twice inshaAllah today and then next week at the same time to discuss, so the topic is sins of the heart and we'll be looking at the conversation from a book by Imam al-Nahlawi, Imam al-Nahlawi Rahimullah was a scholar of Damascus in the last century, he died in 1931 on the western calendar, 1350 on the Hijri calendar. He's not very famous quote unquote except in Syria, he's known in Syria. He was a Hanifi jurist and an ethicist and this is his most well-known work, it's called ad-durr al-mubaha fil-hadri wal-ibaha, which translates as the uncovered pearls in the lawful and prohibited, ad-durr al-mubaha, the pearls that are uncovered with respect to this topic of al-hadr wal-ibaha, what's lawful and prohibited. And it's a very unique work in the sense that it combines both law and ethics or you could say both the outward and the inward dimension of the law. So most standard books of fifth deal with the outward dimension and most standard books of ethics deal with only the inward dimension, but there's a few books in our tradition that bring both together. And the most famous of which of course is the Ahial al-Middin, Imam al-Ghazali's revival of the religious sciences. But this is a later work, it's a Hanifi work, Imam Ghazali al-Shafi, so it's sort of a Hanifi version and it's very condensed, it's only one volume and a lot of Ghazali's conversations and definitions are presented in a very summarized, succinct manner. So it's a very easily accessible manual as opposed to Ghazali's multi-volume for big volumes and as we mentioned this has a lot of thick details from the Hanifi tradition. So the most, the lengthiest chapter of this book is the chapter that deals with Akhlaq, which is ethics, virtue ethics, and he lists over a hundred blame-worthy traits, what he calls sifat-dameema, so reprehensible blame-worthy traits, some of which are haram, some of which are makru. And so the goal is for the believer to study these and each one is anywhere from one to three pages of discussion, so it's manageable and to just avoid them to the best of one's ability. And of course, this is a tall task to navigate life while avoiding these blame-worthy traits. And this is, to do so successfully is encapsulated in the word taqwa. So taqwa, this term that we hear often, almost every khutba will begin with the verses from the Qur'an calling us to taqwa and the root of taqwa comes from wikaya which is a shield, the wikaya is a protection and so the idea is to protect oneself from everything that Allah hates, taqwa is for the person to shield himself or herself from that which is offensive to Allah, that Allah has deemed either unlawful or reprehensible. And so if a person can learn these and stay clean of them, they will be a person of taqwa. And so this also presupposes introspection, which is a good point of departure for a conversation on sins of the heart, is that the person must be accustomed to self-examination. A person must, a believer who is serious about his or her relationship with Allah, needs to be in the habit of just being honest with themselves. And this is a great adab. In fact, this is the adab according to some of our masters. So Abdullah ibn Mubarak, one of the great imams of the Taba'een, he says, قد أكثروا الناس في الأدب. He says many, many people have tried to define what adab is. It's translated as etiquette, comportment, manners, proper action vis-à-vis Allah swt adab. All of these meanings are there. He says قد أكثروا الناس في الأدب. Many people have tried to define adab. And then he says ونحن نقول we pause it that it's معرفة النفس. He says we pause it. Our estimation is that adab is معرفة النفس. It's to just know oneself, self-knowledge. And self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. This is the beginning of wisdom in all wisdom traditions is to start with knowledge of oneself. Abu Hassan Ashad Ali, Rahimullah, another great ethicist of our tradition. And he says إذا راد الله حوان عبدن When Allah wants the servant to be humiliated ستر عنه عيوبه He veils the servant from his own faults. The person in their psyche they're like I'm fine, there's no problem here. This is a sign that Allah wants to lower the servant, hawan, Allah wants the hawan of that servant. And then he says رحم الله وإذا راد الله إزه but when Allah wants the servant to try to be like a supreme, great one, an eminent person, what's called a master بسره بها Then Allah shows the person his faults. Allah lets the person see their faults لئتوب منها so that they can make توبة from them. So they can change توبة is to just let go of them. So again it presupposes introspection. The student of the student of Abu Hassan al-Sha'dali ibn Atailah r-Rahimullah. He talks about this ethic in one of his maxims when he says that أصلوا كل معصية وشهوة وغفلة رضعا النفس He says the foundation, the ground from which every act of disobedience comes from. The foundation of every شهوة every illicit lust that's for something that will harm the person. وغفلة every the foundation of every time a person is thinking of things other than Allah. أصلوا كل معصية وشهوة وغفلة رضعا النفس is what's the foundation of all that is to be self-satisfied is to be content with the way you are. This is the foundation of all these harms. أصلوا كل عزة وطاقة وعفة وعزة عدم رضة منك عنها and the foundation of every active worship and every act of worship and the foundation of every time when you are paying attention to Allah and the foundation of every افة is to be able to restrain yourself from what's unlawful, what's offensive. عدم رضة منك عنها is when you're not content with yourself. When you think about yourself and you just shake your head saying what a mess.  This is what he's saying that عدم رضة when you're not content, you're very unhappy. You're very displeased with your level. And then he says, وَلِئَنْ تَسْبَحْ عَلِمَنْ يَرْضَ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ وَلِئَنْ تَسْبَحْ عَلِمَنْ يَرْضَ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ Even if you kept the company of a scholar who's content with himself, even if you kept the company with an alem, with a great scholar who's satisfied with himself, فَأَيُّ عِلِمَنْ لِعَلِمَنْ يَرْضَ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ Because what knowledge does a scholar have if he's content with himself? What type of knowledge is that? وَأَيُّ جَهْلٍ لِجَاهِلٍ لَا يَرْضَ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ And what ignorance does the ignorant person have if he's not content with himself? أي, your friend who is not a scholar and has not studied Islam but they're like, I have a whole lot of work to do, that is someone who will elevate you. That's the type of person to keep company with. But the scholar, even a scholar who's satisfied with the way they are, one should stay away from them. One should stay away from them. This is very scary. So again, the foundation of this discussion is to know yourself and to be dissatisfied with where we are. And this is the great road to triumph. So getting right into the discussion then, as we said there's over a hundred so we're only going to touch upon a few. The first one actually, can anyone guess what's the worst vice possible? So yeah, Kuffer. Kuffer is the first one because this is the worst. There's an interesting discussion in theology, in Western theology about faith versus lack of faith. Is it considered a virtue or not? Is it a discussion in virtue, ethics or not? Why do they have that conversation? Because some Western theologians considered faith to be something that you don't have a choice in. Your belief is something that once you recognize it, you believe it. And if you don't recognize it, you don't believe it. So there's not much of a decision. It's rather a cognitive thing. Can you recognize something or not? So based on that perspective, they said faith is not a virtue. Faith is merely an epistemological thing. It's a cognitive thing. Do you recognize it as true or do you not recognize it as true? How can you be held accountable for that? So the Islamic response is that it is a virtue. It's the greatest virtue, iman. And it's opposite. Kuffer is the worst vice. It's the worst crime. Why is there a moral component to it? Because there's something above and beyond recognition. There's something above and beyond recognition, which is what, what's the name of the religion? Submission. It's not only recognizing that something is true, but it's actually submitting yourself and accepting it in your heart. So it's not simply cognitive, but it's also spiritual. And this is why the qalb is the seat of iman. It's not the dimaq. The dimaq is not where iman is. The qalb is where iman is. The dimaq recognizes, it engages in cognitive functions. It learns. It processes information. But the heart either submits to what it knows to be true or holds back. And so that holding back to ultimate reality, that's what kuffer is. It's once a person recognizes truth and they refuse to submit. Whereas Islam or iman, it's called a movement of the soul. Once the soul recognizes, once the mind recognizes truth, the oneness and existence and oneness of Allah SWT, which is evident in creation, then does the soul submit? Does it move? It's like a sajda. Does it go down? Like the soul is qaim normally. It's standing. Does it actually make sajda to submit to that truth or does it refrain? Does it hold back? Because it's for whatever ulterior motives that it has. So that's why kuffer is the first and the worst vice from a moral perspective, from the Islamic tradition. If any of you come across this discussion in Western theology, you'll see how many of them limit it to an epistemological discussion. Whereas we have this, we consider it a virtue as well. And this is why translation is very tricky. Like we often translate kuffer as disbelief. Disbelief in English can be used for something that it's just too much to believe. He was in shock almost. He was in disbelief about that thing. So when we, and also iman, if we translate it as faith, faith, it's a very loaded term in English. Faith in English actually has to do more with trust and confidence. Do you have faith in God? Yeah, I trust God. In our tradition, that's tawakul. Iman is based off of, it's not simply tawakul. It's actually, like we said, the submission of the soul to what it knows with certainty. It's submission of the soul to what it knows with certainty. So there's a, there's the knowledge aspect which is certitude. It's not, that's why in the West they have this thing. I'm trying not to go in the tangent, but I can't resist. They have this thing in the West, like Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard talks about the leap of faith. He says, if you wanna have faith, you have to leap past reason, because reason, religion is outside of reasons. And then this is coming from a lot of baggage in Western philosophy of the proofs of God and what Kant ostensibly disproved, the proofs of God. But in any case, Kierkegaard's way of dealing with it is that fine, reason is on one side and religion is on another side. And to become a person of faith, you have to leap out of reason and embrace religion. In our tradition, no, religion and revelation is grounded in reason, like it's rational. We can, we actually have proofs, logical demonstrations for Allah's oneness, for Allah's existence, for Allah's attributes that we affirm. And we can show that kufr is a contradiction. Kufr is a contradiction that the world comes from nothing. This is a contradiction. And for temporal contingent existence to be absent or not be based in necessary existence is a contradiction. But in any case, iman in our tradition is, there's no leap, the leap is with Tawakul, the leap is with relying on Allah once you believe in him. But with iman, it's rooted in certainty. We have certainty in Allah's oneness. We have certainty in the prophecy of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and then does the soul submit or not? That's the movement of the soul for iman. So we have a unique conception of iman and kufr in our tradition. We're not going to go through the details of Imam Nahlawi's discussion on kufr because that would be an entire aqi the course, which inshallah, perhaps we can do in the future. But suffice it to say that he starts there because this is the most important thing in virtue ethics. And we can take from this that it behooves everyone to learn their aqi the. So it's an obligation on everyone to find a qualified teacher and to study the sunni creed and to learn not simply the basic attributes, but the reasons why we believe in these attributes and the rationality behind them, as we said, it's rooted in rationality. And so a person is grounded in their iman, okay? And to know, because they're very important, like in the life of the believer, there's a lot of important, all of it is an extension of aqi the. Every experience of the believer is an extension of aqi the. Like Tawakul, for example, is an extension of one's iman in Allah's kudrah, in Allah's power, one's faith in Allah's will, one's faith in the qadah and the qadr. The qadah and the qadr is very real in the life of the believer. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam walks into the house once and Anas, Allah be pleased with him, broke something like a dish or something. And some of the Ahlul Bayt, some of the family were getting upset at Sayyidina Anas that he broke something. They didn't have a lot of material possessions. And so one of the few is broken and the best of creation, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, walks inside and he simply smiles and he says, Qudiyah, he says it was decreed, pre- eternally decreed. And so the qadah and the qadr is manifesting and even the simplest of actions in the lives of people of Allah, right? So it's very important that we, and not even if we've studied aqi the once or twice to have a constant review of our aqi the. At least once a year, a person should review their aqi the, ideally with the teacher because one really needs to be grounded. All of what our teachers taught is all of one's relationship with Allah emerges out of our creed. All of the entire journey of drawing near to Allah is an extension of one's aqi the. The aqi the unfolds in one's life in devotion to Allah. The second one is jahl, so ignorance. Ignorance is a vice, it's a very dangerous crime in Islam or vice in Islam. And he defines it, he says that it's, it's, adumul ilm amman min shatnihi an yakun alima. So he says it's not simply the lack of knowledge but it's the lack of knowledge from someone who can know. So he excludes, for example, animals and inanimate objects. We wouldn't say that the table is ignorant. We wouldn't say that the water is ignorant. We wouldn't say that the cow is ignorant. We say that the human or the jinn is ignorant. So the, what in English is called a privation, not a negation. A privation is when something has the potential to do it but it's not actualized as opposed to a negation where it just doesn't have the potential. So ignorance pertains to human beings and the jinn. And what's really important is that there's two types of ignorance and everyone should know this. There's two types of ignorance. There's jahal basit and jahal murakkab. So there's simple ignorance, jahal basit and murakkab compounded ignorance, compounded ignorance. What's the difference? Simple ignorance is one does not know something and they know that they don't know it. So for example, I think we would all agree that we have simple ignorance of, is anyone here a quantum physicist? Okay, alhamdulillah. So we all have simple ignorance of quantum physics, quantum indeterminacy, the particles apparently coming out of nowhere, although what's really cool about the quantum world is it just shows that Allah is the creator of everything because it shows that the normal laws of physics are not necessary laws. They break down in the quantum world. So what the theologians called the hukam adi, just the normal patterns of Allah's creation with the laws of physics and what are called laws of nature. They're not fixed absolute laws. In our akida we study this, the quantum world showed it to the physicists because everything breaks down in the quantum world. So in any case, we have simple ignorance of quantum mechanics and quantum physics. What's the point though? Why is it called simple ignorance? Because we fully admit without any pretensions, without any misgivings that we are ignorant of this. That's something I don't know, no problem. No one must say this type of ignorance is very easy to treat when the person is willing to learn. If it's a knowledge that they need, especially this knowledge or any worldly knowledge that one needs, then it's simply a matter of facilitating the means of education. So simple ignorance is very easy to treat.  Because A, the person doesn't know the thing, but it's compounded with their thought that they know it. So they think they know it or they don't realize that they're ignorant of it. So this is the case with many Muslims with respect to the religion and many non-Muslims. Many people around the globe today have a deep, dangerous, compounded ignorance of our religion is that they don't know its reality and they think they know a lot about it. And so this is very difficult to treat. This is very, which is why we started with introspection. We said the very beginning of this journey is introspection. So one must ask themselves, like we talked about Aqidah, that everyone needs to do introspection and ask themselves, do I know my Aqidah? Have I studied the Aqidah, the Sunni creed with the teacher from A to Z? It's not like a long, several hundred page dissertation that you have to do. You can cover small texts in our tradition, but have I gone through our Aqidah with a qualified teacher? Am I reviewing it regularly? So I'm grounded in my Aqidah. So compounded ignorance is, so we need to ask ourselves, do we have compounded ignorance? Are we unaware of our lack of knowledge of something? And obviously this is difficult to treat because most people do not have introspection. Most people are not honest with themselves, which is why it's related that Hazrat Isa, Prophet Jesus, he said that he says that by the power of Allah, I was able to cure the leper. And by the power of Allah, I was able to heal the blind. And by the power of Allah, I was even able to raise the dead into life again, raise the living from the dead. He says, but as for Jahan Murakab, as for compounded ignorance, I'm at a complete loss how to treat it. I have no idea how to treat it. This is related to Hazrat Isa, he can do all those other wonders by Allah's permission, but this is really, really difficult to treat. And we see the catastrophes that are unfolding in the ummah is because of the root of it. What's the root of this? It's people thinking that they're acting on the behalf of Islam and they're really representing shaitan. That's what's happening. These are the people that are using violence as a way of expressing their Islam.  At the end of time that these people emerge, the like the khawarij, the nir al-khawarij, they're kilabunnar according to the hadith. These are the dogs of the fire. They're the dogs of the fire. There's hadith that foretold that these people would come and just indiscriminate violence and terrorism. This is all haram and it's actually from shaitan. And these are the awliya of shaitan. We have to be very clear. The people that do this are the friends of the devil. They're not the friends of Allah at all. But what's the root problem? The root problem is compounded ignorance. Because in their minds they think that they're implementing the sunnah or the seerah, right? They have no sunnah. They have never studied with teachers back to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. They've never studied with people who are warathatul anbiya, the heirs of the prophets.  They're completely divorced from this tradition. But they cut and paste from the Quran or the sunnah and then they think that they're serving the religion.  Like we can appreciate why Imam Nahlawi put this right after kufr. We can appreciate why Imam Nahlawi listed this right after kufr, ignorance as a vice, especially compounded ignorance. There's a statement here in which he says that, Inna l-jahl, one of the masters says, Inna l-jahl aqarabu ilal kufr min biyaad al-ain ila sawadiha. You know, verily ignorance, especially compounded is closer, it's closer to disbelief than the white of the eye to the pupil. It's closer to disbelief than the white of the eye to the pupil. It's just one step, one step away. So, and what's happening without going into the tangent of these terrorist groups and that they, it's not only one step away it's not only one step away from kufr for themselves but it's causing kufr in the world. It's causing kufr in the world. So people see that they associate it with Islam falsely and then it reinforces either their disbelief or people of faith are questioning their own belief. And so look how jahl leads to disbelief. We ask Allah for afya for ourselves and this blessed ummah.  So that's the second one. And there's a lot of beautiful narrations about the virtue of seeking knowledge and we'll just share one narration that it's related that Abu Na'im relates in his Helyat al-Awliya that the companion Mu'ad ibn Jabal Allah be pleased with him. And he is the Imam of Halal and Haram in our ummah. Mu'ad ibn Jabal, Imam of Halal and Haram. He's the master of lawful and prohibited in our ummah. So it's fitting that Allah is allowing us to learn from him in this meeting. He says, Learn sacred knowledge. Because learning it for the sake of Allah is a' of Allah. Learning it for the sake of Allah is a' of Allah, it's kashya. And this is what the reality of ilm is. In our tradition, the reality of ilm makes a person humbled and awed in front of Allah. And it's not something that if one finds that the ego is growing because of knowledge, then it's not knowledge. It's information and it's a trick of the devil. So knowledge should humble the person. Knowledge should make the person feel weak vis-a-vis the rights of Allah swt. Or humbled. Fa inna ta'alumahu lillahi ta'ala kashya wa talabuhu ibadah and seeking knowledge is worship. Seeking knowledge is worship. If a person seeks knowledge, whether attending a gathering, whether studying at home, this is better than praying extra rakahs. It's better than extra nawafil and all the other types of nawafil. Especially now, what's really interesting, this is Imam, this is Hazrat Mu'ad ibn Jabal saying it in the beginning of Islam. This is most applicable today when the fundamental crisis of the ummah is jahl. When the fundamental crisis of the ummah is lack of knowledge, then this is certainly in our times the best ibadah. Seeking knowledge is the best ibadah. Facilitating institutions of knowledge is the best charity. Anything that goes back to knowledge in our times is the best way to Allah. This is really important. Besides one's obligations and personal devotion, this is the best extra way to seek Allah swt because it's the kifayah right now. This is the communal obligation right now. And in fact, one of our teachers said that he was reading from a classical text in which the sheikh from two centuries ago was telling his students that if you are pursuing outward knowledge of the religion and you find that your intention is not right and that you're enjoying the... They didn't have microphones back then, but microphone fever and being in the spotlight and just the fame that comes with knowledge. He was telling his students if you find yourself he says then leave it completely. Leave knowledge completely and go and disassociate from it so you can fix your soul before pursuing that. And our teacher that was reading this text, he pauses and he says that the Imam was talking for his time. He says the Imam was talking for his time and that was true in his time. He says in our time because of the mass ignorance in the ummah, if a person has learned knowledge and they're qualified to teach and they start teaching and they still find some fault in their intention, they're not fully there, they should still teach despite what they're finding. And he says because the fard kifaya, the communal global obligation of teaching people that are ignorant takes precedence over one's own challenges, internal difficulties that they're facing, struggles of the ego. And that because if they stick with it for the sake of Allah to cure this global disease of ignorance, then with that intention, the barakah of that will insha'Allah fix their personal thing over time. That they keep on doing it despite, not to belittle ones, one should still work on themselves diligently, one should be very concerned with that but the point is not to quit in our time. It's not the time everyone needs to be doing their part even if they're struggling in their heart. And so we ask Allah for afiyah. So lalabuhur ibadah, seeking knowledge is itself worship. Wa mudhaqara tuhu tasbih, reviewing knowledge is saying SubhanAllah. When the student reviews with fellow students like study groups and reviewing it whether on one's own or with one's fellow students to make sure they understood filling in the gaps and one's understanding, revising it, trying to memorize it. This is all SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah wa Alhamdulillah. It's all dhikrullah. This is all dhikrullah. This is Hazret Mu'ad ibn Jabal. Wa al-ba'th anhu jihad and then researching knowledge is combat for Allah. It's jihad, it's that struggle. Wa taalimuhu liman la ya'lam sadaqa and teaching it to someone that doesn't have that knowledge is charity. Teaching it to someone that doesn't have that knowledge is charity. Wa badluhu li ahlihi qurba and spending it on its possessors is drawing near to Allah. Spending it on its possessors is drawing near to Allah lianna hu ma'alimu al halal wa l-haram because it contains the sign posts of the lawful and prohibited. Wa manar ahli l-jannah and it is the lighthouse for the people of Paradise. Wa al-unsuf al-wahsha it is the intimate companion when one is alone. Wa sahib fil-gurba it is one's companion when one is estranged. Wa al-muhaddith fil-khalwa it is one speaking partner when one is alone. Wa dhalil al-as-sarraa wa dharraa and it is, it clarifies the causes of joy and the causes of misfortune. Wa silah al-al-adha it is the defense against enemies. Wa dheen ainda al-ajillah it is one's religion when amongst masters. Wa zayn ainda al-akhillah it is one's adornment amongst friends. Yarfa'Allah ta'ala bihi aqwama Allah raises people, peoples because of knowledge. Wa yaj'aluhum fil-khayri qaada and Allah makes them leaders of ethics. Wa imma wa imma and imams. Taqtabis aatharuhum Wa yuqtada bi fa'alihim taqtabis aatharuhum their footsteps are followed, are sought out. And their actions are emulated. Wa yuntaha ila raihim and their opinion is sought out. Targabul malaikatu fi khillatihim angels seek their company. Wa bi'ajnihatiha tamsehuhum and angels anoint them with their wings. Angels anoint the people of knowledge with their wings. Yustaghfar lahum kullu ratubin wa yabis every living wet vegetation and dried vegetation asks forgiveness for the people of knowledge. Hatta al-haytan fil-bahar even the whales in the seas the fish in the sea wa hawamuhu and its creatures wa siba'u al-tayr and predatory birds wa an'amuhu and all sorts of birds on the ground. They all seek forgiveness. Hayatul-kulub minal jahli because knowledge is the life of hearts from ignorance. Wa misbahu al-absar minal zunum and it is the lamp of eyes, insights. It is the lamp of insights from tyranny. Yablug bil-ilm manazil al-akhiar wa darajat al-aulia fit dunya wa al-akhira by knowledge one can reach the highest stations of the elect and the highest ranks in this world and the next. Reflecting on knowledge is like fasting wa mudarasatuhu bil-qiyam and studying with someone is like a night prayer bihi tusalu al-arham because of knowledge families can be united wa yu'rafu al-halalu minal haram and the lawful can be distinguished from the prohibited. Imam al-ummal, it is the Imam of the people who do actions wa l'amal tabi'uhu and action follows knowledge. Yulhamuhu al-suaadaa wa yuhramuhu al-ashqiya the people of paradise are inspired with knowledge and the people destined to the hell are forbidden knowledge. So a sign that Allah wants their destiny to be that Allah has destined them for paradise is Allah inspires them to love knowledge and even if a person, obviously not everyone can become a student of knowledge full-time or a scholar but to just love knowledge and to always be connected with knowledge and to serve the people of knowledge and to support the institutions of knowledge. Everyone in our own capacity has to find a way to connect with what the Prophet has left us, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. The third one is hubb al-ryasa. The third sin of the heart is love of prestige. Love of prestige. hubb al-jah al-ryasa ad-dunyaweah love of prestige, love of authority, love of fame, love of reputation. And it's interesting of course why he would put this after jahal because if a person starts treating their jahal they can fall into this. The moment you start learning knowledge and you start thinking that you deserve prestige or you might get prestige and then that's the, Imam Ghazali says that ridding the heart from this is the last stage before a person is a siddique. Riding the heart of this disease of love of prestige is the final stage before a person becomes a siddique, the highest level of the awliya of Allah swt. And this disease, hubb al-ryasa, love of fame, it applies in everyone's domain where Allah has put them.  That's one of the most difficult things on the ego is to not have influence, is to want to assert yourself and no one really cares.  Actual experience of rudeness can be more easier on the nafs, on the ego, than just indifference. Indifference is the most difficult thing for the ego. And so this is the disease of not wanting that people are indifferent to you, to want to be influential. The Prophet says, As related by Tirmidhi, This is a very, very powerful and frightening statement of our Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He says that two wolves, two ravenous wolves, two ravenous wolves that are extremely hungry and ready to eat, if they're released amongst sheep, if they're released amongst sheep, the harm that they cause those sheep is not worse than a person's love of wealth and prestige, what that does to his heart. If this is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam saying, if two ravenous wolves were released amongst sheep, then the harm that they would do to the sheep is not worse, it's not more harmful than what the avidness of a person for wealth and the avidness for a person for prestige does, often not to the heart, to his religion, what it does to his deen, how it destroys his religion, because of what it does to the heart. So that's sufficient for us to take it seriously. Imam Nahlawi mentions three causes, three causes of this disease. The first one he says, and he calls it, and this is taken from Ghazali, he calls it Malikul Qulub, it's the king of hearts. Hubeel Jah is the king of hearts because it dominates the hearts. So nothing can dominate the heart, i.e. the ego, like love of prestige. Its causes are three. The first is Attawasul Biljah and the second is Mahurima from the Mujtahayat al-Nafs and Muradatihah and this is Haram. So the first cause or the first type, you could say, the first type of love of prestige is when prestige is used as a means to satisfy illicit pleasures and desires of the lower self. This is unlawful. So if one seeks prestige and influence so that they can do something Haram, then that makes that love Haram. Okay, loving to be famous, loving to be influential so that they can do something unlawful is itself an unlawful love of prestige. The second type is, I'll just read the English, in sha Allah, for time's sake. The second type is using prestige as a means to either secure a right to attain something recommended or permissible, to combat oppression or to remove distractions from worship to free oneself of worship as a means to fulfill a duty, as a means of strengthening the religion, as a means of rectifying people by commanding the good, forbidding the evil. So IE, situations where one loves to be influential for something, the goal of which in and of itself is either it's good, it's a positive thing or to ward off an evil thing. So for example, a person wants to gain influence so that they can raise money to build an institution that will serve society, serve humanity, do something good for a good cause or to secure a right. So a person, someone is withholding a right from you so you seek prestige and influence so that you can get your right back. So to do anything either to fulfill one's own right, fulfill someone else's right or to strengthen the religion. What's the ruling for this type of love of prestige? This love of prestige is permissible. That love of gaining influence to do something good or to ward off a bad is permissible with conditions. The conditions are what? There's no prohibition associated with it, such as riyat, ostentation or talbis, deception. So there's no deception involved when you're trying to garner support and increase your prestige, you're honest. In other condition, there's no riyat, you're not showing off in that. So even though the cause might be good, and so the fukhah are saying that your love of prestige is therefore permissible, but if it's coupled with showing off to others that you're the one and you want others to know how you're doing this good, you want others to know, in your heart, that's the motive. So it's not sincerely for Allah, the motive is ostentation to show off this good project that you're working on, then it's not permissible. This love of prestige is not permissible. But if it's free from ostentation, if it's free from deception, and it does not entail omitting something mandatory or an emphasized sunnah of the religion, so you're not sacrificing your own religious practice for the sake of it, then it's permissible or perhaps recommended. It could even be recommended. So there's situations when love of prestige is actually recommended. It's free of other diseases of the heart.  And the ultimate telos, the ultimate aim for which you're trying to gain popularity is something that's good or wording off a bad, okay? Then it can be, what are some of the examples or proofs that this type of wanting to be influential is a positive thing, that the dua in the Quran, that Surat al-Furqan, Rabbana hablana min azwajina wa diriyatina qurata'ayun wa jaalna l-muttaqina imama. Okay, O Allah, gift to us from your, for that, that our spouses and our children are the coolness of our eyes. And then the end of the dua wa jaalna l-muttaqina imama and make us leaders, make us leaders of the righteous. Make us leaders of the righteous. Wa jaalna l-muttaqina imama. That Imam Zaid relates that he, one of the Westerners came to Sham, may Allah heal Sham, and wanted to study. And so they wanted, they didn't know Arabic yet, but they wanted to meet Sheikh Abdul Rahman Shaghuri, Rahimullah. And so Imam Zaid took the student to meet the Sheikh. And so Imam Zaid was translating, and the student says that, I came here to learn my deen, but I'm not trying to become a scholar or anything. I just want to learn my Farda'een, the basic obligations of religion, just, and that's it.  Why don't you want to be a scholar? And then he cites this ayah, he says, Allah says, Wa jaalna l-muttaqina imama. Allah says that make us leaders of the righteous. This is a dua that we should say. So that shows that's an example of the second type of loving influence. If you want to be influential for the sake of Allah, the ultimate aim is not just your ego to get bigger, but it's something good that you're trying to do, or some harm that you're trying to stop. And in the process, you don't have any of these other diseases, deception, ostentation, then it can be a good thing, and it is a good thing. And we should seek influence for that sake. Again, now contextualize it in our times. Dealing with the Fard Ki Faya, dealing with the crisis of ignorance that we have, everyone should be influential. Everyone should, this is highly recommended for all of us. We should all seek influence through social media, through whatever avenues we can, through writing, the pen. Many shiuch would tell their students, the pen, this is the great tool of knowledge, everyone should be active writing.  Don't wait for a scholar to come and everyone should, if you go to that website, you find a website, just put a little paragraph in just to clarify the religion to defend the honor of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The people who really are scholars, they don't have the time or the, they're doing very, very big projects, they can't, the rest of us, that if we're spending 45 minutes just surfing the net anyways, maybe spend three minutes doing something for Allah and then do 42 minutes for the nafs. At least do three minutes for Allah swt. But yeah, no, influence, so use whatever avenues that you have to defend our religion in this global crisis of ignorance. So this is a positive type of love of prestige, love of influence, love of fame. Try to be famous for the sake of Islam. Suleiman al-Islam made the dua, my Lord grant me a kingdom that is unfit for anyone after me. So he wanted this huge kingdom, that's a lot of prestige, but again, he has perfect intention, it's for the sake of Allah swt. Another example, Prophet Yusuf al-Islam, when he's asked by the ruler of Egypt, you know, what can you do and he says, Like place me in charge of the treasure stores of the earth, right? He explains, why should I get this, why should you put me in this position? Because I am qualified, hafeed, I can do a good job, I can guard it, alim, I have an expertise, I have knowledge and like your resume, this is like the resume, right? And so you can have an awesome resume if it's for a positive job and you're doing it for the sake of Allah and Bismillah. So the third type of love of prestige is just when you enjoy prestige in and of itself. When you enjoy prestige in and of itself and you think it's a good thing, just like if someone loves wealth to attain pleasurable things. So this he says, Imam Nahlawi says, As long as there's no prohibitions involved, then it's technically not haram, but it's blameworthy. Okay, so if a person likes prestige or likes wealth in and of itself, but it's not for any haram. They don't like prestige for to do something haram. They don't like wealth to do something haram. It's just they enjoy. It's something of the dunya that they enjoy. Then it's, they're not in sin, but it's very blameworthy. And so, and of course it's a slippery slope. We can just add that, that it's a very slippery slope. So one should combat that, but it becomes haram when it's used for something haram. And Allah knows best. The cure he says is to realize that prestige is by no means a virtue because it's so temporary and its reality is so dismal. The most potent method for overcoming the desire for prestige is seclusion from people to a place of obscurity. So the medicine, if a person finds this disease in their heart, the medicine is to seek a place where they're not famous, a place where they're, or a context where they're not popular, where they're not special. If there are certain settings where you're very special, then the cure for whatever it's happening in the heart is to go to settings where you're not special. And this is, again, this is very difficult for the ego. This is why Ibn al-Tahla, what does he say? He says, He says, Bear your entire existence in the ground and the soil of obscurity. Because that which grows without having been buried will not give complete fruit.  Whereas if you plant it deep and you cultivate it, then you get this big tree and fruits and blossoming. So similarly with obscurity, and this is why the hadith, look at the hadith of our Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, that Allahumma salli alayhi wa sallam, hakim relates in his mustadrak and it's a sahih hadith, authentic hadith that the Prophet says, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, al-Yasiru min al-rya'i shirk, al-Yasiru min al-rya'i shirk. Even a little bit of ostentation is like idolatry. Even a little bit of showing off with one's religion is a little bit of showing off with one's religion. Even a little bit of showing off with one's religion is like idolatry. And the ulamma clarify it's not actual kufr, but it's like it because one has made a partner seeking the pleasure of someone else instead of only Allah's pleasure. But it's a sin of the heart, it's not actual kufr.  And whoever shows animosity to the people that Allah loves, the awliya of Allah, then they have laid down the gauntlet and challenged Allah to combat. There's only two sins in Islam that Allah says He wages war against them. One is consuming riba, the other is offending or harming a waliya of Allah. And we don't know who the awliya are, so we should never harm anyone. We should never harm any Muslim. We should never harm anyone. We should never harm anyone. We should never harm anyone. We should never harm any Muslim because that Muslim could be a great waliya of Allah. We should never harm a non-Muslim because that person could become a waliya of Allah. We don't know their end. And even in their state, they have rights. Every fellow human has rights, so it's haram, it's prohibited to harm one's fellow man. But a question is look at that hadith. Why are the two related? Why did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam mention the animosity to the awliya right after saying the slightest bit of riyat is like idolatry? And one of the reasons is that and Allah knows best is that the awliya are the ones that have no riyat. The slightest bit of riyat is like idolatry. So what becomes of a person who has no riyat? They're at a level that whoever offends them, they've challenged a lot of fighting. That's the fruit of being someone who does not have riyat. And the hadith continues, which is relevant, pertinent to our discussion now, that and verily Allah loves the righteous, the people of Bir, the people of Taqwa, the people who do good and who refrain from evil. Bir is to do good, Taqwa to refrain from evil. And in Allah, and the people who are obscure, the Prophet says, Allah loves the people who are obscure. How does he describe them? The hadith continues, sallallahu alayhi sallam. He says that when they attend a gathering, they're not noticed. When they attend a gathering, there are nobodies in the gathering. وَإِذَا غَابُواْ لَمْ يُفْتَقَدُواْ And when they're not in the gathering, they're not missed. They're not noticed if they're absent. The Prophet is commenting the people that Allah loves, sallallahu alayhi sallam. And he says He says their hearts are lamps of guidance. Their hearts are lamps of guidance, the nobodies of the community. And he says, sallallahu alayhi sallam They get out of every dark wasteland. They get out of every dark wasteland. Meaning what? Meaning every trial that afflicts the people, Allah gives them a way out where they're unharmed. Allah gives them a way out where they're unharmed. And so the people who are not in the spotlight are in the divine light. And so this is the cure. It's like, why should I love prestige? I'd rather be with Allah. That's the point. We should rather be with Allah swt under his light. So Imam Nahlawi concludes the section saying after the cure being going to a place of obscurity, he says, having said that prestige in and of itself is not blame worthy. This is really important. What's the disease? Love of prestige. The love of prestige is a disease, right? And it's either blame worthy or unlawful or recommended, depending, as we said, the three types. But he's saying prestige in and of itself. If Allah gives someone prestige, there's nothing wrong with that. Prestige and fame in and of itself. A lot of people make this mistake. How could he be a sheikh? He has a thousand likes on Facebook. Which is not even that much, I think. How could he be a sheikh? He has a Facebook. No, a sheikh can have a Facebook. He has a hundred thousand likes. He has a million likes. Allah can give prestige. Prestige, there's nothing wrong with prestige. And look what he says. Having said that prestige in and of itself is not blame worthy. As long as one is not avid for it. As long as one is not avid for it. He says, look at his proof. For what prestige is greater than that of prophets? Who has more prestige than the prophets? And of course the best of creation are prophets. Who has more prestige than the rightly guided caliphs? What happens to the heart when you hear the name Abu Bakr? What happens to the heart when you hear the name? We still say, Prophet Yusuf, Just imagine, being in the presence of a prophet, being in the presence of a rightly guided. Sayyidina Rasulillah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is cosmic prestige. It's like, Allah and the angels are sending blessings upon the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. What more prestige? There's not a hand span in the heavens, in the seven heavens except there's an angel worshipping Allah, meaning an angel also sending salawat. They're sending salawat on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Allah himself, what more prestige do you need? Allah himself sending salawat on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So, the prestige in and of itself, fame in and of itself is not a negative thing. And he says that indeed their fame was the greatest of fame, their glory the greatest of glory, their position amongst people, the greatest positioning amongst people. Yet, and here's the point for us, it was without any love or zeal to attain it for the sake of this world. There's no love of it for the sake of worldly enjoyment, just enjoying the prestige in and of itself. Now, these were of course people closest to Allah swt. Rather, it served only to assist them in spreading the call to Allah, supporting the religion and protecting Islam. So, that's his discussion of love of prestige. The fourth and the fifth are related. The fourth and the fifth are related. The fourth is khawf ad-dham wa ta'ir, fear of blame or criticism. So, this is a vice in Islam to fear, blame or criticism. And what's related, the fifth one is love being praised, love of praise. So, the two go hand in hand to feel uncomfortable or to have fear when you're criticized. And then, to love when you're praised and recognized. So, the great masters of our tradition, they did not fear being criticized. It's related to Hassan al-Basri, the great Imam of the Tabi'een and student of Hazrat Ali, Karam Allah Waj. He was told, so-and-so spoke ill of you. How did he respond, Imam Hassan al-Basri? He sends him a platter of sweets and he writes, it has reached me that you gave me some of your good works so I wanted to compensate you. It has reached me that you gave me some of your good deeds so I wanted to compensate you. Similarly, Imam Abu Hanifa Rahimullah, Imam al-Adham, he was once told that someone spoke badly of him so he sent him some gold coins. Gold, as always, is very valuable. Silver is not as valuable. Gold is perennially valuable. It's innately valuable. So he sends him some gold coins, not just silver. And he says, what does he say with them? He says, if someone gives us from their good works we shall increasingly give them from our worldly possessions. If someone gifts us from their good deeds then we shall give them even more increase them more in our worldly possessions. In another narration, he sent ripe dates. He sent ripe dates to the person and he wrote to him, listen to this, Imam al-Adham, Abu Hanifa Rahimullah, he hears someone speaks ill of him. He sends him ripe dates, he sent him, he writes to him, it has reached me that you gave me some of your good deeds so I wanted to reimburse you for that but please pardon me for not being able to reimburse you in full. Because what comparison do dates or gold coins have to actual good deeds that are baqi at the saliha at immortal good deeds? So he says, not only does he say this is in recompense, but he says forgive me al-afu, pardon me, it's nothing compared to what he gifted me. There's another narration that Imam al-Baghani was traveling away from the town in Kufa where he lived and in the caravan was just him and like a jokester and they were coming back home and so the whole time in the caravan the jokester was making fun of him. He was mocking him the whole time and the whole time Imam al-Baghani if I was laughing with him he's like that's a good one that's so true and just having just going along with it and sort of and then as they reach his hometown where he's Imam al-Baghani he gets serious at that and he says okay up until now you've been joking and I'm joking with you but we're about to get back home and back home everyone knows me as an Imam, a scholar and he says if you make fun of me then I'll have you arrested if you make fun of me why? it wasn't because it wasn't for his nafs this is the point when it's him alone and it's his nafs he's slapped my ego all you want but now there's a greater maksad the greater point which is if a scholar is mocked or made fun of or belittled then something of the religion is being belittled and so for the sake of Allah he's saying now no more and if you do it out you'll be in trouble so this shows the people of Allah it's never personal it's never personal their concern is Allah and the word of Allah Karimutullah Heololia so fear of blame and love of being praised these go together and there's a beautiful statement that teaches us what's the root of this because Ibn Al-Jalla Ibn Al-Jalla was a early master of Damascus third or fourth century early master of Damascus and very very profound Imam if you get a chance to read his biography and what happened to him as a child it's very interesting but time doesn't allow so Ibn Al-Jalla he once says that which means whoever it's the same to them whether they're praised by others or criticized by others whoever for them the two are equivalent that is the zahid that's the person detached from the dunya that's the person detached from the dunya meaning zuhid this ethic of being indifferent to this world and detached from this world it's not simply with material possessions the zahid is not simply who who wears inexpensive clothes the zahid is not someone who necessarily has who lives in poverty the zahid is not someone necessarily who has less material possessions the true zahid the true person who is detached from this dunya is the person who whether they're praised or blamed it's equivalent they're detached from people's impression of them this is real zuhid and so this is a true measure for us because a person of Allah can have many material possessions Suleiman alaihi salam was one of the richest ever if not the richest ever but he was a zahid a lot of people that are not interested in this world because his richness was for the sake of Allah and like we talked about love of prestige, love of wealth is similar love of wealth if you gather wealth, you accumulate wealth for the sake of Allah to do something good to plant seeds for the sake of Allah to do good with that wealth and there's no deception there's no ostentation there's no other diseases of the heart then it's recommended at this time as we said it's actually very recommended we need very wealthy people in our community to do a lot of good so zuhid attachment from this dunya is not necessarily to have little in your hand it's to have little in your heart with respect to this world and the pinnacle the pinnacle litmus test for us because a person might say yeah I don't care if I have this material possession and I don't care if I have that material possession do we care whether we're praised or blamed? this is the litmus test of zuhid do we care whether we're praised or blamed? another litmus test of zuhid is how attached are we to the way we are how attached are we to the way we are because if we're not struggling to improve ourselves then we are connected we're attached to our own personalities and the way we are and our own vices it's from the world to be detached from your own faults the way to actually hate your faults and to remove them so there's different litmus tests for zuhid but ibn jallaah he says whoever it's the same for him whoever it's the same for him whether he's praised or blamed by others that's the true zahid and he continues to continue the maxim he says whoever fulfills religious obligations in the very first of their times that is the true devotee whoever fulfills obligations in the first of their times that's the abid so when the prayer time comes in are we hanging back or are we saying labbaik this is something that people of Allah as soon as the time comes in when you're sure the time comes in because there's some issues with some of the calendars when you're sure that the time comes in then to rush to fulfill the obligation this is the abid and in the third statement he says whoever sees all events and all actions in the world as Allah's actions that's the monotheist whoever sees all actions in the world and all actions of fellow man as actions of Allah there's no one such a person that only sees one because Allah is the one acting in every event so put this in this context that last part put it in this context when your friend or your family member or someone in the community criticizes you and it hurts who's the real actor who's acting in reality who created that person who created their speech who created their thoughts who put the notion in their mind to criticize you who put their words together to come out in a sentence who created the muscle movements of the tongue for the speech to come out who created all the action potentials and the sodium and potential in their minds that person can't help it that person can't help it in a way like one of the things that our masters teach us when we're dealing with fellow man we should almost be as if they have no free will we affirm free will this is not this is a spiritual ethic it's not a theological conversation in theology every human has free will they're a granted choice and Allah will take them to account for it but in terms of me dealing with fellow man I should I should perceive it as if they don't have a choice so I should there's two levels of reality there's the surface level of sharia and there's the deeper level of haqqa okay there's two levels of reality the surface level of sharia which is we're all human beings with choice and are accountable for our choices and our actions there's a deeper level of haqqa which is nothing happens except that Allah decreed it and is creating it right now there's nothing happens in the world except Allah decreed it in eternity and is creating it right now so when I look at myself I should focus on the surface level of am I doing enough for Allah or am I falling short, am I being lazy or am I working hard I look at the surface level, Allah gave me this choice am I using it or am I hanging back when I deal with other people I should do the deeper level that whatever even the bad that they're doing I should realize that they're decreed to do it so I shouldn't judge them whatever criticism they're giving me they were decreed to give that criticism I shouldn't judge them it's coming from Allah and the same when you're praised by someone if you're praised by someone it's not Allah see it from Allah and be humbled be humbled this is the way so dealing with criticism and also part of this the Prophet said the believer is a mirror for his fellow believer the believer is a mirror for his fellow believer so when I'm dealing with my fellow believer if any fault that they point out in me it's like looking in the mirror part of the discussion saying the first people of Allah they want to see their faults so they can work on themselves this is actually a great blessing from Allah because if it weren't for people criticizing me I would never know my faults and I could never improve so the fact that so and so has criticized me is an opportunity to draw near to Allah so if the criticism is true say Alhamdulillah and work on it and the next one is Bid'ah in Aqidah number six is Bid'ah in Aqidah it's a very lengthy involved discussion that we won't explore fully right now it would take it its own two day course but we'll just mention that just to remind ourselves of what we started with to learn the creed of Ahlul Sunnah a belief that contravenes the Sunni Aqidah is considered a Bid'ah and classically in our tradition the word Bid'ah firstly meant creed a lot of times today it's used for actions and it has an application with actions but the term in our classical tradition meant mostly primarily a creed opposition and so one should make sure they learn the Aqidah of Ahlul Sunnah we're going to have to skip a little bit and we'll discuss inshallah number 11 the 11th one is Tama'a so what is Tama'a mean? Tama'a is covetousness covetousness and he defines it he says covetousness he says he says covetousness is to desire that which is enjoyable yet unlawful to desire something enjoyable and haram or to desire something dangerous what does he mean by dangerous something that in and of itself is good but it leads to the haram so for example a person could have Tama'a for doing community work but their ultimate aim is to be known as someone that does community work or they could have Tama'a for donating but their ultimate aim is to be known as a philanthropist so that's Tama'a it's coveting so that's still problematic coveting either something unlawful or something that's lawful or even good but it leads to something unlawful or permissible things coveting permissible things why is that dangerous? because it leads to forgetting the akhirah too much of this dunya leads to forgetting the akhirah he says covetousness of the unlawful is unlawful obviously to desire to do haram and to covet it is unlawful, lusting after the haram coveting something dangerous is not unlawful but very blame worthy because it could very well lead to the unlawful so that's the distinction the fifth distinction to covet something haram is haram to covet something blame worthy excuse me, covet something dangerous is blame worthy but not haram the most vile type of covetousness the most vile type of Tama'a is with respect to what others possess this is the most vile and most evil and most disgusting type of Tama'a is with respect to what others possess it is a disgraceful trait that arises out of worldly greed spiritual idleness and ignorance of the wisdom of Allah in creating the need for mutual assistance this is a type of ignorance of Allah's wisdom because Allah has created the world in mutual assistance so we need each other there are certain things that you have that fulfill my needs and there are certain things that I have that fulfill your needs and together this is from the wisdom of Allah that he has diversified his gifts in creation so to have covet to covet what someone else has is a jahl it's a type of ignorance which is how we began the conversation one of the scholars pointed out that there is a ishara in the very word Tama'a because each of its letters ba, mem, a'in are empty hollow vacuous letters there is a big fat emptiness in the middle the ta, the mem and the a'in so it's just because Tama'a is emptiness when you covet something other than Allah in His good pleasure you're coveting something that's empty you're coveting something that's empty so our desire should be Allah's pleasure Allah's presence inshallah Assalamu alaikum Alhamdulillah so the opposite of covetousness what's the opposite? the opposite is tafweed tafweed which is translated as consigning ones affair to Allah and this is similar to tawakul relying on Allah but some ulamas said tawakul is the fruit of tafweed tafweed is the foundation which is to hand it over to Allah and when you hand it over to Allah then you rely because he's now disposing of the affair so tawakul presupposes tafweed giving it to Allah swt so Imam Na'la says the opposite of Tama'a is a tafweed consignment wahuwa which is defined as iradatu an yahfad Allahu alayk masalihak is for your desire that Allah preserves all of your affairs it's your desire not for anything in the world but your desire that Allah your desire for Allah's disposing of your affairs protection of your affairs whether dunyawi or ukhrawi whether worldly or otherworldly even spiritually or on yourself to rid yourself of any of these diseases consign it to Allah Allah will give me tawfeef inshaAllah have a good opinion of Allah An'a'inda dhani abdi b Allah says in the hadith qudsi Imam Muslim relates I am in the opinion of my servant of me Allah ta'ala says I am in the opinion of my servant if we think man this path is just impossible there's just no way and look at me I'm a rut and I give up there's no you start falling to despair don't think of yourself and your weakness think of Allah's power Allah took many criminals and made them olia Allah took people like highway brigands in our past and made them olia Allah took people like people that were so involved in evil and made them the greatest and even many of the companions read all the biographies the biographies of the companions many of them were steeped in jahiliya before their Islam so Allah can do it Allah can fix us and rectify us so tawfeef this whether worldly concern or other worldly concern to hand it over to Allah so if there is a prayer in it may Allah bless you if the matter entails benefit Allah will facilitate it otherwise He will withhold it the trust of Allah Allah is the creator of outcomes this is really important in our aqida there's no necessary outcome for things in the world okay so there's just habitual norms of Allah's creation so Allah can give something despite the lack of the means and Allah can withhold something despite possessing the means there's no necessary connection between wealth and happiness there's no necessary connection between family and happiness there's no necessary connection between popularity and happiness and ultimately all of these things go to happiness all of these things that people seek it's ultimately for happiness Allah can give happiness to someone that lacks all these things they have zero means and Allah can create so much happiness in the heart so trust Allah as the creator of outcomes and He cites quoting the believer of the folk of Pharaoh look at the conjoining the believer amongst the people of Pharaoh says I can sign my affair to Allah verily Allah is ever watchful of His servants immediately Allah Ta'ala says so right away without delay Allah protected him from the evil of their plight and Allah protected him from the evil of their plight and Allah protected him from the evil of their plotting like tafweed is conjoined with wikaya the man says I can sign my affair to Allah Allah Ta'ala responds says immediately immediately thereafter Allah protected safeguarded him shielded him from the evil of their scheming He says reflect how Allah put immediately protection after consignment this is a noble station both reason and revelation indicate how noble this is how noble this is and we'll just conclude inshaAllah before there's any questions to read from so ibn at-ta'ala says rahimullah ma basaqat aghsanu dhul illa ala badri tam'a ma basaqat aghsanu dhul illa ala badri tam'a the branches of disgrace never sprung forth except from the seeds of covetousness the branches of dishonor only spring forth from the seeds of tam'a the seeds of covetousness this is the source of the branches and the fruits of dishonor and ibn abbad the great and the lusian scholar comments rahimullah at-ta'ma'a min a'zam a'fatin nufus wa'u'yubiha al-qadihah fil'obudiyatihah he says that covetousness is of the greatest evils of the soul and it's faults that contradicts one's servitude to Allah balhua aslu jamia al-afaat in fact, tam'a covetousness is the foundation of all harms covetousness is the foundation of all spiritual harms liyannahu mahdu ta'alluk bin nas because it is the essence of being connected to people it is nothing but it is essentially being connected to people wal tijaa ilayhim and seeking protection in them wa'atimad alayhim and relying on them wa'obudiyatah lahum and ultimately being devoted to them wa fidhalika minal madhalla wal mahana maala mazid alayy and what that entails of dishonor and abasement has no match and it's not permissible for the believer to abase himself based on the hadith that the believer does not humiliate himself so in this context one should not it's prohibited for the believer to have tam'a because that's the source of all humiliation wa tama'a madad li haqiqat il-iman and covetousness is the opposite it's the contrary of the essence of iman the reality of iman because iman is that which entails honor and dignity wal izzah allati ittasafa bihaal mu'minoon inna ma takoon bi raf'ihimamihim ila maulahum and the dignity and honor that believers are ascribed with is only only takes place only takes only occurs by raising their aspirations to their master Allah SWT that's the only door for izzah look at the umma today look how much humiliation we have look how much abasement we have we're like the laughing stock of the world other ummas can find dignity from other than Allah other ummas can find dignity from other than Allah because they don't have Allah they don't have the book of Allah they don't have the sunnah of the Prophet SAW and so those doors are open for them they can find dignity through these other isms all the isms of the world political ideology our umma we fell into political ideology and we're the laughing stock of the world we're a disgrace of the world what's the only way for not only individuals izzah it's only with Allah it's only with Allah and so to go back to these realities like what we're trying to just get a taste of right now this is what the umma has abandoned the tradition of virtue ethics the tradition of metaphysics the tradition of cultivating the soul so that the person is rooted the person is connected with Allah so the person has taqwa of Allah so the person won't cross the bounds that other political ideologies because the ends justify the means they fall into violence they fall into terrorism they fall into all these pernicious demonic means because they think that the aim justifies it and that's all Marxist, foreign, alien unislamic thought that infiltrated it infiltrated the muslim world they abandoned our metaphysics they pursued political ideology as the foundation and they became look at the mess that we're in and the only way out is to return to our tradition is to return to the tradition of izzah metaphysics, virtue ethics and then from that stems prophetic politics from that will come prophetic politics that reflects the love of the other which is the way of our futuwa our politics is futuwa politics it's a politics of altruism it's a politics of loving the other it's a politics of empathy for the other it's a politics of joining hands with the other for the common good it's not hatred of the other it's rooted in the haqika that we talked about that none of this none of the things that even the enemies of Islam are doing except that Allah decreed it and so to see the haqika in the events so this is the only way of izzah for the mu'mineen is to raise their aspirations to their master and creator and for the hearts to be comfortable with Allah and for the hearts to be confident and rely on Allah besides anyone else this is true dignity which is that Allah has gifted the mu'mineen that Allah has gifted his believing servant true dignity is for God, for his messenger and for the real believers and just like dignity is of the traits of believers humiliation and basement is of the people who reject Allah and the hypocrites Allah states those people that have animosity or fight Allah and his messenger those are the abased the metaphysician Allah be pleased with them says we will end with this note one of the metaphysicians of our tradition Abu Bakr Al-Warraq he says if Tam'a if covetousness were asked who is your father who is your father i.e. what gives birth to Tam'a what's the cause of Tam'a Tam'a would say doubting what Allah has decreed doubting what Allah has decreed this gives birth to Tam'a to coveting what other people have and if Tam'a were interviewed and asked what's your occupation what's your profession he would say my profession is to earn and acquire a basement and humiliation and dishonor to earn dishonor and if Tam'a were asked what's your goal with your endeavor he would say al-Herman to be blocked from Allah to be disbarred and disconnected from Allah we ask Allah ta'ala for afya and to protect us from such horrible ends my question drunk Bismillah the question is what you mentioned that Allah ta'ala is the one acting in all actions going through a difficult situation and they realize that this is from Allah is it wrong to assume that Allah is upset with one so the first step if a person has a difficulty is to ask themselves is to look internally to see if they're consistently doing something that's displeasing to Allah if they're consistently engaged in something that's displeasing to Allah we all have our faults and we inshallah make our regular toba from those but if one is consistently they're habitually engaged in something that's displeasing to Allah then that could very well be the cause of calamity if they don't find anything and one should learn enough to be able to diagnose oneself or one should consult a faqih consult the person of knowledge if they have a question about something if they don't find anything then they should have a good opinion of Allah they shouldn't think that Allah is upset with them they should have a good opinion of Allah and hope that this is a elevation because the believer, the test of the believer is an elevation for the believer and one of the one of the litmus tests that it's actually in Imam Nahlawi sites Sidi Abdul Qadir Al Jailani in the same chapter he says that one of the ways to tell if your test is a punishment versus an elevation from Allah is to look at your state during the test if your state during the test is objecting to Allah and feeling frustrated at Allah and complaining to others complaining to people that can't help you not like a physician if you're sick but just complaining to people that can't even advise you to take off steam or what not then that's a sign that it could be a punishment from Allah swt that you're being lowered your own state during the trial but if your state during the trial is one of contentment with Allah's decree one of holding on to suburb holding on to patience one of trusting Allah and having a good opinion even if it hurts it doesn't mean that you can't experience pain it does not contradict contentment contentment is to object to Allah and to be frustrated but experiencing pain is human so besides the pain as long as one is content and not frustrated and objecting at Allah then it's a sign that they're being elevated by Allah swt and so to trust Allah and to have a good opinion of him and that's the second question as well what advice can you give someone who suffers from sadness or depression with Allah I think it's the same answer it's a test from Allah so be content with Allah's testing you with it don't object or don't be frustrated at Allah for this test and inshallah it's an elevation and Allah gives Allah Ta'ala tries people that he loves with anxieties and states of sadness this is something that happens one of the masters of Abu Bakr he said he says that Allah's raising his servants is commensurate to their anxiety Allah's raising of servants is commensurate to their anxiety sometimes anxiety it's a test from Allah and it's a way that Allah elevates people that are close to him if you find a lot of anxiety don't stress about the stress just give it to Allah swt trust Allah swt obviously seek the means to lessen it we're not negating always seek the means to lessen it whether medical, whether psychological whether social, whatever means that's from the sunnah to rectify one's state but don't despair about the very test of anxiety or depression because it's an elevation inshallah as long as we're not consistently in haram things we should make sure that we're focused ourselves inshallah so any other questions I don't know Bismillah at the beginning of the discussion we mentioned that the Muslims should not be happy with themselves they should have a habit of checking themselves and we did mention that not being happy with yourself can be a good thing how would you differentiate the nafs al-amarab nafs al-amarab okay so the question about not being pleased with the way one is that we started the discussion with vis-a-vis differentiating the types of nafs the nafs al-amarab the nafs al-amarab the nafs that always commands to evil the nafs al-amarab the nafs that is at peace with Allah so that's a good question my very elementary understanding is that even the people who have the nafs al-amarab who are contented with Allah because they have proximity to Allah they're still not pleased with themselves if they look at themselves they still say that there's no good in themselves and they need to improve they're always looking to improve they're always seeking the Prophet s.a.w himself sought Allah's forgiveness 70 or 100 times a day and there's no improvement with the Prophet he's impeccable and infallible s.a.w yet Allah is raising him in degree at every moment and so at every moment as he's raised to a new degree as Ali's explanation of that hadith as the Prophet s.a.w is raised to a new degree in every moment if he considers the prior moment and the degree he was at he feels a sense of shame in front of Allah that he makes istilfar because he was a lower state lower station or degree because his rank is perpetually increasing but it doesn't mean he does anything wrong s.a.w so the people of Allah who are not prophets who are fallible however close they are to Allah they see room for improvement and they are and then also whatever good they see as so whatever blessing you have is from Allah so they don't attribute it to themselves you know there's different stages of this journey but I think for most people there's always room for improvement Allah knows best that's a good question anything else is there a good thamma like in the ayat of the jathraj kulfam what would it mean there is there a good competition the positive thamma that's mentioned in the Quran is different from what we're talking about the positive thamma is raja it's used for raja, hope in Allah so the positive quote on quote it's not covetousness but the positive it's hope thamma can be used for hope as well hope in Allah raja and raja is to have a good opinion of Allah while taking the means of serving Allah it's coupled with the means in the ayah that was cited there doing that worship out of hope it's not that they're not worshiping but having hope so to have raja Allah knows best anything else I have a question have you ever talked about the quid and the wakul the both of them are the same and how different are they the tough quid and the wakul many ulama consider them sort of the same thing intertwined so the wakul is to rely on Allah tough quid is to consign your affair to Allah some of them there's some discussion like I think Imam Beqa'i one of the great mufasters of our tradition he said that tough wakul stems from tough quid so that tough quid is the foundation of giving the affair to Allah tough wakul then is to rely that Allah will take care of that affair appropriately or for the best for one's affairs so they're intertwined no no I'm seeing when you mentioned the quid and the wakul the being afraid of being blamed you mentioned the khadid but you can see that it was the connection between that khadid and the quid when we talked about fear of blame or criticism vis-a-vis the hadith the believer is the mirror of the believer meaning that when my fellow believer criticizes me the hadith is saying that that person is my mirror you go to the mirror you go to the mirror for a reason you want to make sure there's no defect your buttons aren't lopsided the topi isn't if you were a topi you want to fix yourself up because you want to be presentable so so too spiritually when you're with the believer it's a chance to fix yourself up so you're presentable to Allah and they say hey by the way I noticed you did this so you can make yourself that's like the topi being lopsided you can fix things and then you're presentable to your lord so it's actually so how do we see the mirror are we upset at the mirror it's like how dare you never show my topi lopsided again how dare you now it's like alhamdulillah thank God for the mirror can fix myself up the buttons are all I can fix myself up so in the end it's just nuffs the problem is the nuffs in the end we want one principle to summarize everything that was said the bottom line problem is the ego and the ego is really really nasty may Allah forgive the ego for all of its the prophet SAW in an authentic hadith al-mujahid manjahada nafsahu lillahi azzawajal al-mujahid manjahada nafsahu lillahi azzawajal the hadith about the we return from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad that's a weak hadith it's cited a lot but it's not as weak but this hadith is strong it's an authentic hadith that I think in Ibn Hibban Sahih Ibn Hibban that the true struggler for Allah manjahada nafsahu the one that struggles against combats his very ego lillahi azzawajal for the sake of God mighty and majestic for the sake of God mighty and majestic and so that's the bottom line principle just try to sublimate the nuffs a little and appreciate whatever Allah is doing to us inshaAllah any other questions, concerns criticisms will be open to your criticism inshaAllah may Allah protect us, forgive us grant us tawfiq with all of these meanings and rectify the state of the ummah the blessed ummah of our beloved prophet salallahu alayhi salam grant us to tawfiq to be a part of the rectification and revival and recognition of what's sacred and holy and to make us people that are pleasing to our Lord despite our shortcomings wa salallahu alayhi salam wa alayhi salam wa alayhi salam Bismillahir rahmanir raheem wa alayhi salam wa salallahu alayhi salam wa alayhi salam wa alayhi salam so leaving off or resuming where we left off we're on the 12th vise or sin of the heart and we mentioned that we skipped over a few because those discussions would be lengthy but the 12th one is al-kibr al-kibr which is arrogance it's with a Sukun in the middle, kibr if you say kibar with the fatah it means to be larger than right physically larger so that's a different word but kibr with the Sukun is arrogance and he follows this one with a couple sins later he mentions al-awjab the 14th is al-awjab so al-awjab can be translated as narcissism narcissism al-kibr arrogance what's the difference? al-awjab is merely internal it's irrespective of other people when one thinks themselves are special thinks of himself or herself as deserving merit whereas al-kibr is externally oriented it's vis-a-vis another person or vis-a-vis the truth so we'll discuss that and so kibr is a manifestation of al-awjab kibr is when al-awjab manifests externally if it remains internal it's al-awjab so al-kibr he defines that he says istirwahu warrukunu ila ru'iyat al-nafs fawq al-mutakabbar alayh fala buddha minhu bi-khilaf al-awjab fa-innahu la yahtaju ila man ya'ajub alayh hatta yusamma awjban he says kibr arrogance is to find satisfaction istirwahu is to find raha you find comfort you find satisfaction you find a type of repose warrukunu ila so you are you rely on so it's to find comfort solace and to rely on ru'iyat al-nafs fawq al-mutakabbar alayh seeing yourself as superior to the one that you're arrogant towards so it is to be comfortable with to find solace in and to rely on the notion of seeing yourself as superior this is kibr and so he makes the distinction between awjab he says so therefore for kibr to take effect there must be another person that you see yourself superior to as opposed to awjab narcissism because a person alone can be narcissistic it doesn't need a fellow person he says kibr is unlawful kibr is unlawful it is a sinful disease of the heart it's not merely blame worthy last week we mentioned a few that were blame worthy like tamat for example coveting something of the dunya we said as long as that thing that you're coveting is not haram then the tamat is not haram it's very blame worthy it's a type of disease but it's not sinful in and of itself kibr in and of itself is haram so there's actually sin incurred when a person sees himself as better than another and has these emotional component these psychological components which are istirwah and rukun to find solace in it and to rely on it he says it's a radhila azeema min al-aibad it's really a horrific enormity it's a disgusting enormity of servants it is the sunnah of the accursed devil okay so this word sunnah we use it normally for our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam which is the sunnah that we aim to emulate but every every character has their sunnah every person or agent or entity has their sunnah the way a person is and so iblis his sunnah is what it's kibr so when Allah swt commands him to prostrate to hazret al-adama alayhi sallam right amongst the angels he says no he refuses to he refuses wa staqbar and he has kibr Allah ta'ala describes wa staqbar he has kibr he's arrogant and what does he say he says anakhayru min the definition so he's finding solace and he's relying on seeing himself as superior to another anakhayru min wa i'm better than him khalaqtani min naar wa khalaqtuh min you created me from fire you created him from clay which also shows that iblis responds with logic it's faulty logic but he attempts it's a syllogism right i'm made of fire he's made of clay fire innately is better than clay therefore i'm better than him it's a syllogism which is why when Allah's hukm comes we make sajda we put the head down on the ground we don't try to rationalize with Allah's hukm but we submit and literally he was supposed to put his head on the ground he was supposed to submit to that hukm but he tried to rationalize his way out which is why our tradition without going too much into a tangent the way of ahlasunna is revelation first and then reason revelation first and then reason so revelation comes the prophet comes and the people around him seek him they seek sohbah to receive revelation revelation and then as they go through life as they teach as the next generation takes from them receives revelation from them needs emerge in the community that require reason so explaining the meanings assuring the community there's no contradictions in our theology responding to criticisms whether other theologians or converts from other traditions come with their intellectual baggage or luggage however you look at it so then reason is deployed to preserve and undergird or support revelation to justify if you will in the minds of people revelation but it does not start with reason in the sense that the sahaba did not hear the Quran learn it and then go off in the world as philosophers to simply reason their way and make analogies on their own it's not reason first and then revelation it's revelation first and then reason and this is the unique paradigm of Ahlus Sunnah if you look at all the different sects of Islam who are still Muslim but they are they are outside of the Sunni paradigm most if not all put reason first they put reason first and they departed from these chains of narration which is preservation of revelation Islam is ultimately a connection to revelation first the in Islam in the physical worship the intellectual understandings and the experiential element of the religion revelation first through sahaba chains of narration to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam but then in the different circumstances the community finds itself in reason is deployed for its use so Iblis rationalized before receiving revelation so this is the way of Iblis kibir and this is of the worst of blame worthy traits wa sahibuhu munaazi'un lillahi ta'ala fi kibriyaihi wa adhamatihi okay why is this so disgusting one of the main reasons why kibir arrogance is so disgusting is because such a person is competing with God such a person is competing with Allah ta'ala in Allah's kibriya so Allah has kibriya the human when they are arrogant they have kibir but when a person has kibir then they're trying to co-share in Allah's kibriya kibriya is Allah's you know unending majesty His supreme majesty His supreme glory so Allah can say Allah is greater Allah is superior one of the names of Allah is when this word is used for human beings it's a disease when it's used for Allah it's a praiseworthy name one of the beautiful names of Allah because he has the right to say I am better than my creation for he is indeed better than his creation so when a person tries to have when they're arrogant towards others when they're competing with God in his kibriya wa adama in his glory and majesty and then he goes into terminology he says if this is manifested in behavior it's called taqabbur if this is manifested in behavior it's called taqabbur the way you talk to someone the way you deal with someone that's called taqabbur if it stays internal it's simply that internal solace of feeling superior then it's kibir which is why taqabbur can be seen in the world you can see taqabbur in the world when one person is arrogant towards another whereas kibir in and of itself is in the heart of a person and both are haram and he's going to talk about how to deal with them taqabbur a little bit when Mus'ud relates Allah be pleased with him that the Prophet said this is one of the most central hadith that has both ethics and metaphysics and muslim relates this the Prophet said a person who in his heart an atom's weight of arrogance shall not enter paradise this is very frightening someone who has an atom's weight the darrah is the smallest particle so the string or the electron whatever is the smallest that much of kibir in their heart shall not enter paradise he says that of course in our aqidah every muslim eventually goes to paradise so how do we understand the statement that the Prophet says shall not enter paradise a person that has an atom's weight of kibir in their heart that now he says with respect to a muslim that has kibir it could mean that they will not be amongst the first wave of muslims that enter paradise i.e. there is a great delay in their time or there is a temporary punishment that they have to go through in the hell before being taken out we ask Allah to protect us from that so the hadith continues Ameen asked oh Allah's messenger a person loves that his garments and his sandals look beautiful a person loves for his garments and sandals to be beautiful and he says so so the Prophet responds really Allah is beautiful and loves beauty so our desire to look nice to be presentable in the way we dress in the way we carry ourselves this is not arrogance and he said how does the Prophet explain it Allah is beautiful and he loves beauty this is adorning yourself that reflects a divine attribute rather what is kibir, what is arrogance it's obstinacy to the truth and demeaning other people obstinacy rejection an arrogant rejection of truth and looking down and belittling fellow man so there's two ways kibir manifests we said it has to be vis-a-vis the other can either be truth or a person it's not only towards people belittling a person that's kibir but when truth is presented to a person and when it's made clear and shown that it's true then how does the heart respond if it rejects it abahadiness if it doesn't submit to truth that's kibir towards the truth now so what is kibir or belittling fellow man this is the hadith and what's the ethics is obvious of being humble the metaphysics is from the statement in Allah jameelun yuhibul jamaat verily Allah is beautiful and he loves beauty in the sense that all of beauty in the world every time we see beauty every time we recognize beauty we are in reality recognizing something of the divine beauty it's mirroring an attribute of God and if you notice beauty is one of the three reasons why people fall in love right the three reasons that people fall in love the ulama say jamaal, kamal and ihsan there's three reasons why people fall in love jamaal when they see beauty kamal when they see perfection or mastery and ihsan when people are good to them when people act beautifully towards them ihsan also from the root hussan which is beauty it all goes back to beauty in the world when we see jamaal when we see beauty and we are the heart there's something that happens to the heart something that happens to the soul that's inexplicable what is it that touches the soul it's Allah touching the soul when the heart sees kamal perfection any perfection you see a master pianist a master musician a master sports athlete a master any time we perceive kamal in the world it's reflecting Allah's kamal Allah is the one giving the ability to reach mastery and it touches the soul in a way that mundane things don't touch the soul something of Allah's perfection when we see ihsan any time people around us are good to us the goodwill and love that we experience the generosity that we experience from our families from our friends from our communities from the stranger that smiles all of these the big and the little the great and the small these are reflecting Allah's ihsan it's really Allah swt working through his creation or with his creation people are simply asbab they're simply means Allah is the ultimate agent and so we are experiencing the divine ihsan the divine excellent action or beautiful action so our love when it's directed towards creation we don't realize we're actually loving Allah when we're loving something in creation in reality we're loving something of Allah's action that's touching us or something of Allah's attribute that's touching us and so the people of Allah they realize this everyone when they love they're loving something of Allah Allah is the one creating the situation that makes us fall in love with whatever it is but the people of Allah recognize they realize that it's Allah doing it the people who are distant from Allah they're heedless of Allah swt so kibir then this is the great crime in Islam the basis of kibir in reality the ultimate root of kibir is ignorance ignorance it's not realizing that your fellow man and yourself are both creations of Allah and so there's no basis of you feeling superior than the other whatever gifts you have that make you think you're superior are gifts from Allah and as he created it the first place he can simply take it away so if you're arrogant towards someone because of your good looks Allah is the one making you good looking and Allah God forbid could take it away if you're arrogant because of your wealth just look at the 2008 financial crisis and how quickly multi-millionaires and billionaires can fall to wealth is fanny it's going away it's always perishing and so Allah could take that away if the reason you feel special is because of your intelligence Allah could take that away Allah is the one giving you that tawfiq and it doesn't have to be something dramatic sometimes Allah swt can put the intelligent person in a context where they make a fool of themselves and they realize man I'm not as intelligent as I thought it was so Allah swt is the Mu'affiq whatever character trait in yourself that you are enamored by that makes you feel superior you're enamored by tawfiq of Allah you're enamored by Allah's enabling grace Allah's creative fiat he is making you great and so see the action of Allah before you see the whatever of yourself that you're impressed with it's cure treatment is to remove the cause to treat the ignorance that underlies it nam and then he mentions that which we said is when you manifest behavior of belittling someone else acting arrogantly hotly when it manifests in behavior he says take this next sentence with a big grain of salt but I'll just mention it what takabur haram is unlawful except towards someone who is also hadi because it has come in some narrations that that's a type of charity so what is he saying someone who's very arrogant and he's manifesting that sometimes in certain contexts if a person puts them in their place a little bit they act a little arrogant towards them just to help them be subdued a bit then it's not haram in those contexts as long as your intention is sound and it doesn't lead to more fitna which is why take it with a grain of salt to navigate these situations without causing more problems but there are certain contexts where if a person does that sometimes a teacher for example with a student the student is acting arrogant towards fellow students so the teacher in the context can act a little bit towards him put them back in their place that is not haram there are certain contexts as long as it will lead to more fitna and basically it's for the sake of protecting someone from harming themselves with the sin to humble them a bit that's a type of sadhaka that's a type of charity but don't get into the habit of that like we said it's a slippery slope nah I think when you're navigating things in the world and you come upon that if someone's really arrogant towards the situation you can't get your you can't take care of business if you're trying to take care of business for the sake of God and somebody's been too arrogant you have to be strong back otherwise you won't gain any ground even for the sake of God you can't even handle your business you can't even get a word in there are certain contexts where this is appropriate where you have to sort of stand up be strong maybe put others in their place not out of a real sense of arrogance but for an ultimate benefit or to ward off a worse harm right and so this comes with hikmah this is where hikmah comes in which is really a gift from Allah that people of wisdom they know how to deploy these things for the sake of God and you know we ask Allah for hikmah so nah I wanted to read a little bit from the Ahiaan al Medin so back to the default so that's the exceptional situation but back to the default which is to and even in that exceptional case the heart is still humbled before Allah the person is doing it for the sake of Allah to mitigate a situation but they're not genuinely arrogant internally they're not genuinely they don't believe that they're superior to that person that they're doing it because they realize Allah is the one testing him with that kibir and if they don't have kibir in their heart Allah is the one safeguarding them so they realize they see Allah's act in these manifestations but so always even in those exceptional cases the heart has the opposite of kibir the heart has the opposite of kibir which is what? is to be lower is to see yourself as lower than fellow man it's translated as humility meaning what to see yourself as lower than fellow man okay the prophet said what these are golden or far more valuable than gold spiritual gold and these are you can empirically test these the prophet is saying no one lowered himself again no one lowered himself no one was humble for the sake of God except that God elevated him no that connects with giving preference to others too giving preference because they're similar when you're humble if you see somebody want something that you're using or something you can say oh you take that first if there's one bed you have the bed so it's a form of giving preference to others which is shivalry absolutely foetua, shivalry and ithar preferring others you can't prefer someone else unless you are you genuinely elevate them in your mind compared to yourself so the prophet is teaching us no one ever lowers himself except that Allah elevates him no one ever lowers himself for the sake of Allah except that Allah elevates him and Imam Jureti the student of Imam Junaid Imam Jureti was the one when Imam Junaid passed away he took the kursi like he took his position in Baghdad as a spiritual mentor of their students and he Imam Jureti there was there was a a calamity that affected the town and when when they went in afterwards and many many people had died from this calamity they found him his some months later they found his body still intact and he was in this position with the finger up he had died in that state while the fitna was unfolding he died in the state with tawheed and Allah preserved his body for several months as a sign for people this is Imam Jureti Imam Jureti he made a statement that reflects this hadith of the prophet he says it's a beautiful statement Jureti says whoever is content with being less than his real value whoever is content with being seen by others as less than his real value Allah will elevate him beyond his limit Allah will elevate him beyond his limit and you might have a certain genuine value that's true you might have certain qualifications you might have certain background you might have certain talents and those are genuine gifts from Allah that you recognize and maybe other people don't recognize that and that's a test of tawado are you going to be humble or are you going to feel arrogant in responding to that lack of recognition and Imam Jureti says whoever is content fully content with being seen and their true value Allah will elevate them beyond their limit whatever limit you could imagine for yourself I couldn't imagine getting more than that getting higher than that in whatever arena or field I would like to do or pursue Allah will give more so these are spiritual secrets that our masters mentioned our mother Aisha Allah be pleased with her she would tell her students and she was a teacher of scholars our mother Aisha was a teacher of scholars she would tell her students she would say to them verily you all are completely oblivious of the best form of worship tawado you all are oblivious you're heedless, you're not paying attention to the very best form of worship which is tawado to humble yourself Yusuf ibn Asbaat one of the great of the salaf he says yajzi qalilu tawado min kathir al-ijtihad and this is particularly apt in our latter days with our lazy ways he says yajzi qalilu tawado min kathir al-ijtihad he says that just a little bit of humility will suffice a whole lot of spiritual exertion you know to get to very high ranks with Allah people have to put in a lot of ijtihad a lot of spiritual exertion of pushing oneself in spiritual rigors and spiritual devotions you can bypass all of that just a little bit of tawado just a little bit of humility and you'll reach the ranks of people of much spiritual works Hz. AS he's reported to have said that Allah Ta'ala revealed to him Allah Ta'ala it's reported that Allah Ta'ala revealed to Prophet Jesus peace be upon him when I bless you with a blessing when I grant you a blessing then receive it with humbleness istikana it's similar to tawado but it's literally to be broken istikana is when you're broken and subdued by Allah's gift istikana he says the narration says Allah told Prophet Jesus peace be upon him when I give you a blessing then receive it with a state of istikana with humbled in front of Allah's gift if you do that I will fulfill that blessing I will complete that blessing for you Malik ibn Dinar the great Tabiri Imam Malik ibn Dinar he used to teach in the masjid his students and he said once if a man outside the masjid door made an announcement let the worst of you come out let the worst of you come out he said no one would beat me to the door except someone physically stronger or faster Malik ibn Dinar he said if someone outside said let the worst of you come out no one would beat me to the door except someone physically stronger or physically faster when Abdullah ibn Mubarak the other great master of their generation heard that Malik ibn Dinar he said that he said that's why he became a Malik his name Malik is master he said because of that he became a master he realized his name Musa ibn Qasim says so again these masters of the early Salaf Musa ibn Qasim relates that in their town there was once a violent earthquake and earthquake and violent winds earthquake and violent winds natural disaster so he rushed to Muhammad ibn Muqatil another imam at the time and he says ya'aba Abdullah you're our imam you're our sheikh so make dua for us to Allah so Muhammad ibn Muqatil starts weeping and he says he said that if only I weren't the very reason why Allah sending this calamity I would make dua but if only I weren't the very reason that Allah is sending this calamity qaal the man who went to him, Musa ibn Qasim he says that night I saw the Prophet in a dream and the Prophet says why was he a person that his dua was immediately accepted and to such an extent that the Prophet gives the good news to his companion in the dream because he literally saw himself as the very reason that Allah's punishment was coming so this is the humility of the early masters and we'll mention one last statement from the Ihya that Abu Suleiman Ad-Darani another early master fourth century I believe of Syria Abu Suleiman Ad-Darani says this is the sublime levels these people had reached internally this is internal worship that they had he says if all of creation gathered to humble and lower me the way I have to the extent that I've already lowered myself internally they would prove incapable of that if the entire creation joined forces to make me humbled to subdue my ego the way I've already done so they wouldn't be able to these are the people that Alhamdulillah so Imam Nahlawi he gives some some symptoms to look out for if we have arrogance he has some symptoms to look out for he says that arrogance is often hidden from the one that has it so he thinks that he's without arrogance so it's necessary to present some of the characteristics of the arrogant so that everyone can inspect himself in comparison whereby the despicable is distinguished from the wholesome amongst the signs of arrogance are the following like for people to stand for him or in front of him out of respect if you like for people to stand for you or in front of you out of respect that you that one does not walk except with someone behind him if you prefer that others walk behind you that if you avoid visiting others out of pride if you avoid visiting others out of pride to dislike for others to sit close to him for one to dislike that others sit close to him that one avoid keeping the company of people with illness or defects out of haughtiness and pride to avoid keeping the company of people with illness or defects out of haughtiness and pride the same applies to avoiding excuse me avoiding the company of the poor this is a big one to avoid the company of people who have in material poverty this is a big sign of kibir, of arrogance and on this note Suleiman a.s. the great prophet Solomon peace be upon him who was of the wealthiest ever when he would leave his home every morning he would examine the faces of the people sitting they used to sit in circles outside of his house and he would look at their faces and as he was walking he could tell how if people were wealthy or not whenever he saw the wealthy he would pass by them he would keep on walking until he found the poor and he would sit amongst them he would survey people and keep on walking until he found the poor and when he would sit with the poor he would put his head down and he would say a poor man amongst poor men so this is the way of prophets is to love the poor to want to be around the poor and the Prophet s.a.w. himself he advised Abu Dhar al-Rifadi and others with wasiyah with specific counsel to love the poor and to actually be to have proximity with them to have proximity with the poor this is something that the Prophet s.a.w. another sign is that one disliked to respond to the invitation of the poor yet responds to the invitation of the wealthy and sophisticated when you're invited by upper class people you happily attend if you're invited by lower class people you're hesitant that one does not undertake domestic chores with his own hands Yalla Tief so the domestic chores of the house to not do that is the sign of Qibr so one should be part of the team at home to take care of the chores Allahumma s.a.w. and this is our Prophet s.a.w. the hadith says our mother I should describe in the authentic hadith in the authentic hadith he was always in the service of his family he was always in the service of his family what's interesting about this hadith and Allah knows best if you actually look at the other narrations in the Shama'il about the prophetic chores in the home what the Prophet s.a.w. it was his own chores they would describe in other hadith he would mend his own clothes he would mend his own shoes for his own personal objects the chores relating to his own things at home he would do those and it's interesting if this could be the interpretation of that hadith he was always in the service of his family in the sense that if the husband can at least do his own work he's serving the family my wife tells me that all the time just take care of your stuff you've served as my books pile up my books they tend to take over the house they have a life of their own so I have to contain them that one does not carry his own groceries home from the store that one does not carry and obviously one should try to serve the chores of others in the home too but it's a big thing for a lot of men especially to do their own home work in home and if they can do that, that is a service for the family but the more the better that one not carry his own groceries home from the store that one does not carry their own groceries home from the store that one disliked to fulfill the needs of his relatives or friends especially buying especially buying inexpensive things that one dislikes to fulfill the needs of his relatives or friends especially with buying inexpensive things and so to always be magnanimous in your persona in your comportment in your behavior that one find it hard for his colleagues to walk ahead of him or sit in front of him and Imam al-Ghazali talks about with Kibir and Hasid with arrogance and envy these manifest most commonly with one's colleagues you know, so the butcher the local butcher he normally doesn't get jealous with the local shoemaker or the local but the fellow butchers who are competing that's where these diseases manifest more it's with the same the same colleagues of a profession or endeavor and so one should be very vigilant when around one's colleagues to see the state of their heart and so he gives a very simple example that you don't want them to walk ahead of you or to sit in front of you but extend that to our circumstances now so basically to not want them to have a superior position in the eyes of others relative to yourself and then probably possibly most important the last sign he gives that one does not accept the truth when debating one's colleagues nor does nor admitting to one's mistake nor showing gratitude for being shown one's mistake nor reflecting on what the other is saying during the debate not for the other person or out of obstinacy and seeking to outdo him this is huge I'll repeat it a major sign of kibir that one does not accept the truth when debating one's colleagues if you're having a discussion or a debate especially with colleagues people that these diseases manifest a lot with if the truth is manifest how did the Prophet define kibir so it doesn't matter who the truth comes from whether you're your competitor at work whether a child a 7 year old if the truth comes from them whether an ignorant person uneducated, illiterate, someone without a college education no matter who it comes from the truth is the truth and so when it manifests to humble yourself otherwise it's kibir so he says when not accepting the truth when debating one's colleagues not admitting to one's mistake or your reasoning is incorrect to be slow or hesitant to admit that you made a mistake this is out of kibir this is out of arrogance the person of humility it's not about me so you're right I made a mistake this was an error on my part nor showing gratitude for being shown one's mistakes so some people I'll accept the truth in a debate and I'll even admit to my mistake I'll feel a type of agitation or annoyance at the person who pointed out my mistake there's still kibir in the person the person without kibir when they're shown their mistake they actually respond with gratitude thank you for pointing out my mistake sublime levels nor reflecting on what the other is saying during the debate so you just want to one up them rather than seek the truth so in debates and these things it should be about the truth if the truth is paramount then it's more of a mutual journey to discover what is right a prophetic debate a prophetic debate would be a mutual journey to discover what is right it's not about me putting them down so long as it's about me putting the other down there's doors for kibir but if it's about a mutual journey let's seek the truth together and here's what I think and here's why I think you're maybe mistaken oh okay you brought this perspective I didn't realize that thank you for that you're helping me get to the goal of the truth which is why Imam al-Shafi'i he said I never debated someone except that I made dua that Allah manifests the truth on his tongue because it's not about Muhammad bin Idris al-Shafi'i it's about Allah with Imam Shafi'i it wasn't about him it was about Allah the next device which we won't spend too much time on but it's worth just quickly mentioning so we said kibir is arrogance to the truth or to fellow man it's opposite is humility to internally deem yourself as less than all others humility is to internally deem yourself as less than all others tawadur when in terms of behaving with others though there's always a balance so this has to be balanced with an opposite vice on the other end of the spectrum which is tada lul which is self abasement self abasement so when you're humble with your fellow man or fellow believer you do so in a balanced way if it's excessive as it's manifested and we're making a distinction between the state of the heart and the behavior towards others the state of the heart should be tada lul the state of the heart should be very very like as low as one can go vis-a-vis the other as we said abu-salaman ad-darani rahimullah he said if all people gather to lower me the way I've already done so inside they wouldn't be able to so his internal state is at zero but the way we interact with others should not be we should not be we should not abase ourselves as an expression of that so we should be humble have humility but with the dignity of a believer the dignity of a fellow brother and that's the balance so this is important so that is blame worthy it's not haram but it's blame worthy because al-mu'min la yudilu nafsad the prophet said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the believer does not abase himself so there's the balance between we're never arrogant towards others we are moderate in our humility with each other balanced with the dignity of the believer and we do not abase ourselves with other people but internally there is a deep self abasement if you will there are a few exceptions though that in our tradition one exception is when you're seeking sacred knowledge if someone is seeking knowledge of this religion then there is a type of flattery one should have with one's teachers with one's teachers and even with one's co-students even with one's co-students this would not be blame worthy if one manifested a type of tada lul where you completely lower yourself why? because it allows for more benefit the teacher clearly the more one is the more one lowers oneself vis-a-vis the teacher that allows the opportunity to gain more of their wisdom and even fellow students because that type of benefit is there but again without being excessive without being excessive the next vice 14 is ujjab ujjab we said is narcissism so again narcissism was purely internal and it has nothing to do with other people it's defined as the benefit narcissism ujjab is for someone to deem his blessing as tremendous to deem one's blessing as tremendous and to rely on it while forgetting to attribute it to its giver, namely Allah swt indeed being preoccupied by blessing from its giver is blame worthy narcissism so to be impressed with the gift and forget Allah this is ujjab ujjab is to be impressed with the gift of Allah while forgetting the giver Allah so your good looks your athletic ability your genius your ability to write your ability to dress your ability to drive your ability to drive others mad whatever it is you're so impressed with that talent and you're not thinking of Allah at all this is ujjab that itself is ujjab so to notice your gifts without noticing Allah is a blame worthy disease of the heart notice it's very it's very nuanced to notice any gift without noticing Allah is a blame worthy disease of the heart it's not haram but it's blame worthy we said kibir is haram when that seed grows so much to where you think you're better than others then it's haram even if you don't act on it just thinking yourself is better than others is haram thinking yourself internally not submitting to the truth is haram right? anyone that has even an atom's weight of that won't enter paradise immediately but narcissism is the seed of that is just to notice your blessing without noticing Allah look at the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam every time there's a blessing he praises Allah look at all just read like any of the book of du'as of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the book of athqar imam nawi and this should be the believer should be connected with that book and even if it's once every three months learn a new du'a we should always be increasing in the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam okay we should always be learning a new du'a like one really really amazing they're all amazing a du'a that maybe we could learn together that when the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would get a new garment when the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam okay now here a lot of us might get the new garment and not think of Allah and be like look at this that I have and that's ojib so look how the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam his very hal, his state removes the ojib by referring to Allah what does he say when he gets the new garment he says first thing O Allah for you is praise ajeeb, the most mundane thing we don't even think about doing it as tajalli of Allah Allah is manifesting himself to me Allahumma lakal hamd O Allah for you is all praise Anta kasawtanihi you donned me in it you donned me in this garment asaluka khayrahu wa khayra ma suni ala I ask you for the good of it and the good for which it was manufactured whoever made it whatever good intention they have I seek that and I seek refuge in you from its evil and whatever evil intention the manufacturer might have had when making it especially in our time when these brand names of god knows which corporations and what demonic actions they're doing and how they're disenfranchising the third world we should really make this dua seeking refuge from the evil of whatever intention was behind we don't want any of that baggage we just want to value the gift that Allah has given us O Allah for you is praise you donned me in this garment I ask you if it's good and the good for which it was made I seek refuge in you from the evil and the evil for which it was made and one of the beautiful ishadas that we learned from our teachers is that this is also a beautiful dua if Allah dons a new spiritual garment on you so one of the things we were taught is that if Allah gives you the tawfiq to do a new good deed that you hadn't been doing before it's as if Allah gave you a new garment a spiritual garment for your ruh and so you should say this dua with the new tawfiq that you have a new good deed that you weren't doing before Allahumma lakal hamd O Allah for you alone is the praise You donned me in this good deed You sent this good deed You sent this good deed and draped me in it I ask you for it's good and the good for which it was created and I seek refuge in you from the evil and the evil for which it was created so again if you go through the athqad of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam you'll notice he's always seeking the giver whenever the gift is manifest he's not rejecting gifts but he wants the giver of the gift sallallahu alayhi sallam this is the sunnah we should seek so what's the opposite of ujjab it's called zikr ul minna zikr ul minna is to remember the gift it's to recollect Allah's favor zikr ul minna the one that gives the favor and has the right to proclaim to remind of the favor you know man this root man in human beings it's haram in human beings it's haram it's like you remember that time I did that for you come on what's up remember the time I did that and the time I did that this is called man and Allah ta'ala says in the Quran when you give sadaqah don't follow it with man or adha if you give charity don't follow that charity up with reminding them of the charity or harming or hurting their feelings in that process it's prohibited in the sikr of Allah to do that so we should never remind someone of the why because Allah is alman naan he can give the gift and he can remind us didn't I give that to you Allah is alman naan the main reminder of his gifts Subhanahu ta'ala the one that gives favor and has the right to remind us and so dhikr ul minna is the cure for ojab to recollect Allah's favor with the gift to recollect that the gift only exists by the tawfiq of Allah and because Allah has honored the person and Allah has magnified the person with that gift haadad dhikr fardun to do this to recollect the favor of God is a religious obligation when one finds themselves prone to those things that pull one into ojab when the things that pull one into narcissism are inciting one to feel special because of one's talents or gifts then it's obligatory to recollect Allah's favor and if you think about it, it's really amazing everything in our religion is rooted in tawheed everything in our religion is rooted in tawheed it's recognizing the oneness of Allah like this disease it's because of forgetting Allah's oneness and you think that these talents are just coming it's like the atheist although the person of ojab is still Muslim but it's like the atheist who thinks the whole universe came from nothing you think your gifts came from nothing they just sprung into existence without a creator so the same way the atheist or the cosmologist who thinks the big bang just happened and there's no explanation and the scientist seeks out the cause of everything in the world except the whole world it's a bit prejudiced the scientist seeks out every single thing that happens they want to know what caused that when they find out the world at the beginning and they call it the big bang they ask what caused it it's a bit biased and prejudiced so the whole world they say it just came out of nothing it just spontaneously something from nothing the person of ojab is co-sharing in that disease because these talents just came out of nothing no, it's the tawheed our religion is the religion of radical tawheed the only thing radical in our religion is our recognition of Allah's oneness the only thing radical in our religion the monotheism in the heart of the believer realizing Allah's oneness so the gift of the garment the gift of the food the gift of the talent seeing Allah swt's act in that gift recognizing the tawheed of Allah in that gift the prophet said anis relates Allah be pleased with him the prophet said there are three things there are three things that are destructive there are three things that are utterly destructive shuhrun muta' wa hawan muttaba wa e'a'ih-a'jaab ual mar'ib i nafsihi shuhrun muta' stinginess that is obeyed stinginess in the soul that a person succumbs to wa hawan muttaba stubborn whims that a person follows. This is particularly with intellectual whims. Hawa in our tradition is used particularly for intellectual whims. When a person is stubborn with their opinions, whether the person is stubborn with their opinions and it's used often for those opinions that are against our creed, those opinions that are against our creed and against the way of traditional Sunnism. So what could be called often do-it-yourselfism. The opposite of Sunnism is do-it-yourselfism. When you think you can just give me the Kitab and I learn enough Arabic and I can read certain books now and I can figure out the religion. If you think about it, this is the root cause of the entire spectrum of the Umma's problems right now.  Everything in between. What's the common denominator? The root of all of this is do-it-yourselfism is that I have access to the book. I have access to a certain corpus, hadith or what not or commentaries. I know enough Arabic to read the modern newspaper or what not. It's not even classical Arabic. It's just modern and now on my own I can navigate this tradition. I can figure this tradition out. And we mentioned earlier Sunnism is about revelation and Suhba first before reason. This paradigm is using your own reason first without Suhba, without any chain of narration, without any Murabbi, without any Sheikh, Murshid, guide, teacher, scholar that you're learning from. And this is the recipe of the whole spectrum of diseases. It emerges from this do-it-yourselfism. What's the opposite of do-it-yourselfism? Traditional Sunnism, traditional Sunnism, really. And so the Prophet is saying of the three things that are destructive. The second, howan muttaba, howan is your intellectual whim that you're so stubbornly holding on to that's contrary to the way of the sunnah. This is what howan means. And so howan, do-it-yourselfism, muttaba, that's enacted, that's followed in the world, this destroys. We can see how it's destroying the fabric of society, not simply the soul of the human being, but the fabric of society now. What is an intellectual whim? An intellectual whim, it's like an opinion, particularly about the religion, that contravenes the way of our traditional ulama. But, and so it's, and a person is stubbornly holding on to it, stubbornly holding on to it. So all of these notions, these are intellectual whims, these are whims of the mind that the people do not let go of, you know. The third thing, in the hadith salath al-Muhliqat, the third thing that destroys, e'ajab al-mar'ibi nafsihi, which is in the context of our discussion, when a man is impressed with himself. When a person is impressed with himself, it destroys the person, it destroys the very fabric of society, and it's related to the second part of the hadith, the whims that are followed. Because when you follow your whim, and then you're impressed with your own opinion, it's a recipe for disaster. Allah ta'ala says in Surah Fathir verse 8 or the one whose wretched act is adorned in his mind. His wretched, horrible action is adorned for him. This is the state of the ummah. Horrible actions that are beautified in the diseased minds of people who have no connection to our tradition, and then they think this is the right thing to do. They think this is the right thing to do. You know, SubhanAllah, look at the miracle of the Qur'an. One, two, three, four, five, seven, eight words in this, the beginning of this ayah, Surah Fathir verse 8, Allah ta'ala has He gives us the diagnosis of the whole spectrum of the problems of the ummah. That's it right there. That's it. That's the power of the Qur'an, Allah's speech. Eternal speech. It's applicable right now, currently. Allah's speaking. Or the one whose disgusting, horrific, wretched action is adorned and decorated in his diseased mind so much that he actually thinks it's good. He thinks it's good. And then look at, SubhanAllah, how Imam Nahlawi concludes the section. He says, So the treatment of this Urjab, which is when you're impressed specifically with your intellectual whims and your opinions, he says it's the most difficult to treat. Because the possessor of it thinks that it's actual knowledge and not ignorance. And he thinks it's a blessing from God, not a punishment from God. He thinks he's healthy and not diseased. So he's not going to seek treatment in the first place. Look at this. And such a person will not seek out the treatment of the spiritual doctors. And they are the righteous scholars of Sunni orthodoxy and consensus. They are the righteous scholars of the Sunni tradition. He makes dua, may Allah give victory to their words until the final hour. The 15th one is Hasad, Hasad, Imam Nahlawi defines, Hasad or Envy. Envy is to desire the removal of a blessing of Allah from a person. Envy is to desire the removal of a blessing of Allah from a person. When that blessing entails religious benefit or worldly benefit for that person, yet no religious harm. This is very nuanced. These definitions are very important. Envy is to desire the removal of a blessing of Allah from a person. When that blessing entails either religious or worldly benefit, either religious benefit or worldly benefit for that person, yet no religious harm, yet no religious harm. So you see a blessing in someone else, you see someone else that has a blessing from Allah and that blessing is beneficial for them, whether they're deen or they're dunya, whether they're deen or they're dunya. They're positioned to serve the religion. They have the talents to serve the religion in a particular capacity. They're a good speaker, they're a good writer, they're knowledgeable, they're a servant, they're positioned in a certain organization to work for the religion. They're a qadi, they're a philanthropist. Whatever avenue they have of serving the religion, they have of allowing for religious benefit or worldly benefit, you see a blessing in someone that enables them to succeed in their work, that enables them to have a better education, that enables their children to have better education, that enables their loved one to succeed in something worldly. It's not even religious, it has nothing to do with religion. Allows for worldly benefit. Okay, and coupled with that is it does not entail religious harm. So it's not going to entail them doing something sinful, it's not going to entail them going in a path that would make them far from Allah. Then in that case, if you desire that Allah takes away that blessing, you wish they didn't have that blessing, that's hasad. If you wish they did not have that blessing, that's hasad. Why did he add that last part? Because if you see