26 July 2014 Fenton Zawiya, Michigan
A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani 'r-rajeem. Bismillaahi 'r-Rahmaani 'r-Raheem.
Nawaytu 'l-arba`een, nawaytu 'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu 'l-khalwah, nawaytu 'l-`uzlah, nawaytu 'r-riyaada, nawaytu 's-salook, nawayn as-siyaam, lillahi ta'ala al-`Azheem fee hadha 'l-masjid.
Alhamdulillahil-ladhee hadaana li ’l-Islami wa maa kunna li-nahtadiya law laa an hadaana ’Llah, alhamdulillahi `alaa kulli haal.
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.
We thank Ummah TV, which from the beginning of Ramadan has been broadcasting this series about Tasawwuf, what scholars said about this matter, and how the masters of most 7th and 8th century scholars with different aqeedah agreed Tasawwuf is part of Islam and the core of Maqaam al-Ihsaan, Moral Excellence. This includes Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Qayyim Jawziyya, Ibn Katheer and many others. For sure, Ahlu ’s-Sunnah wa ’l-Jama`ah accepted that and proceeded with it because it is a washing machine for bad manners that polished people and brings out good manners and good character, which is why Prophet (s) said:
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
Innamaa bu`ithtu li utammimu makaarim al-akhlaaq.
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character).
He is the one that Allah has perfected and gave permission to perfect the Ummah! “I was not sent but to perfect the characters of people.” This series is important and informative for many people for people who accept Tasawwuf and those who don’t and it makes them to see that yes, Tasawwuf , as Imam Malik (r) said, “You have to study Tasawwuf and study Shari`ah and then you reach Reality.” So we continue from where we left off yesterday, discussing these 7 limbs and organs which all of us have and from which human beings are formed and which are necessary for everyone.
The Seven Limbs and Organs (continued)
Firstly, these limbs and organs might do wrong things and might do good things. We have mentioned the wrong things and we have mentioned half of the good things. I will mention quickly what these are: the tongue, the ears, the eyes, the mouth, the hands, the feet, the stomach and genitals. So these are the main limbs and organs that lead us to do either what is on the right side or what is on the wrong side. Yesterday we mentioned some of the wrong things and half of the right things. Now we will come back to the hands.
We mentioned yesterday about the tongue, lisaan, to keep your tongue always smooth and not talking as Sayyidina `Ali (r) said to keep it silent, “zip” your mouth because through the tongue comes everything or most of sins come through the tongue. And also the ear can hear many bad things and the eyes can watch many bad things and that the hands can touch many bad things and we explained that, as can feet, the stomach and private parts. On the other hand, they might be in ta`at, “obedience” as the ears, sim`a al-Qur’an, “to listen to the Holy Qur'an” and the tongue if it is used to read the Holy Qur'an, Hadith and tafseer, and to recite dhikr. And vision is to look at something good, look at Ka`bah, to look at Holy Qur'an and to look at your pious ancestors, pious parents and pious servants, to seek them and take advice from them and we explained that.
Obedience of the Hands
And now we come to wa min taa`at ‘l-yadayn, “the obedience of hands”. The first obedience is when you see a brother who is Muslim, you shake hands, even non-Muslims, you shake hands. Why is that recommended, shaking hands? And for ladies, men cannot hold their hands but they can hold hands of each other, and men can hold hands of each other. Why holding hands? There must be a reason or the Prophet (s) will not say it. One of the interpretational meanings of ‘holding hands’ is to identify yourself to his self through your identity. Your identity is in your thumb. So when you shake hands you are pressing your thumb on his hand and vice versa, so passing information.
Awliyaullah can detect that information that goes in between. Like the Prophet (s) gave baya` to the Sahaabah (r) and in doing so he touched their hands, and for ladies he raised his hands. For the men the raising also is the same, you can direct your identity to them and they can direct their identity through raising hands. So passing that identity awliyaullah can detect what is in your heart; when you give baya` all that is in your ID passes to them and they see if there is anything wrong they clean it for you. So the ayah in Holy Qur’an says:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُبَايِعُونَكَ إِنَّمَا يُبَايِعُونَ اللَّهَ يَدُ اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ فَمَن نَّكَثَ فَإِنَّمَا يَنكُثُ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ وَمَنْ أَوْفَى بِمَا عَاهَدَ عَلَيْهُ اللَّهَ فَسَيُؤْتِيهِ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
Verily, those who swear allegiance to you (Muhammad) swear allegiance only to Allah. The Hand of Allah is above their hands, so whoever breaks his oath does so only to his soul's injury, while whoever keeps his covenant with Allah, on him will He bestow immense reward. (Surat al-Fath, 48:10)
“Those who are giving baya` to you, yaa Rasoolullah,” it means ‘holding your hand’, they call it qabda, fist, “their baya` is to Allah (swt), not to you.” Those who are giving you baya` are, in reality, for sure giving that baya` to Allah (swt), not to you. Why is there someone in between? To clean you, to present you perfect in the presence of Allah. Not everyone took baya`, kuffaar did not take baya`. So Allah wanted to perfect the Sahaabah (r) to be on the Divine Presence, and wanted to perfect us by way of the lessons the Prophet (s) did for Sahaabah. That way, when presented to the Divine Presence, we are clean. That is why Allah gave the Prophet (s) permission to observe the `amal of human beings in his grave.
حياتي خير لكم تحدثون ويحدث لكم ، فإذا أنا مت كانت وفاتي خيرا لكم ، تعرض علي أعمالكم فان رأيت خيرا حمدت الله تعالى وإن رأيت شرا استغفرت لكم
I observe the `amal of my Ummah. If I find good I thank Allah, and if I see other than that, bad, I ask forgiveness for them. (al-Bazzaar in his Musnad)
“All the deeds of my Ummah are displayed to me in my grave and if I see good I praise Allah and if I see other than that I ask forgiveness for them.” So that reality of holding hands is to show the sincerity that you are coming up to your brother to build a relationship. If two people are fighting and they want to reconcile, what do they do? They shake hands. If two people are making and deal together, what do they do? They shake hands. So the act of shaking hands takes you to the obedience of Allah (swt).
Through your hands, the Prophet (s) said, “Whoever of you see something wrong try to change it through your hand.” Meaning, be sincere with that person, extend your hand, when that person trusts you, extend your hand and build trust with them then they will accept you. Without trust, they will never come and accept your advice. Such as converts, you build trust up between them and you then at some point they accept you and become Muslim.
فوالله لأن يهدي الله بك رجلا واحدا خير من حمر النعم
Then, as the Prophet (s) said: By Allah, for Allah to guide one man by you is better for you than (possessing a herd of) red camels.
(Narrated by `Ali ibn Abi Talib; Bukhari, Muslim)
To guide one person to Islam is better than the wealth of this dunya. Everyone is running after the wealth of this dunya. Anyone who says “no” is not telling the truth. So you can build trust through hands. You also give sadaqa, eat, and open the Holy Qur’an with your hands. That is why it came first. So anyone who sees something wrong, try to change it through your hands. If you cannot, then change it by tongue bi lisaanihi, that is one of the seven limbs/organs. And if not then through your heart, by making du`a. Say, “Yaa Rabbee, I was not successful, You are the One Who can change them,” that is du`a, to make du`a through your hands and say, “Yaa Rabbee, I was not successful, You are the One Who can change that.” So you pray for him and that is recommended by the Prophet (s).
Why do Ahl at-Tasawwuf and scholars of the Ummah, people who studied Tasawwuf, take that Hadith of the Prophet (s) so much in consideration that: you don't come against your ruler, or your sultan or president? If you come against them you create fitna. Look in the Middle East what kind of fitna, is going on today? There is bloodshed everywhere because they are trying to change the ruler and when they change the ruler he might be worse.
So what do we have to do? Our way is to make du`a asking Allah muqalliba al-quloob, the Changer of Hearts, to change their hearts, it is in Allah’s Hands, not mine nor yours. So all this is through hand, to make change through your hands, as when you make du`a you raise your hands. In du`a, why do we raise the palms of our hands up, not palms down? Because raising hands like that is not only receiving manifestations but also you are asking Allah through Allah's Beautiful Names and Attributes, on the left hand is written 81 (Arabic numeral) and on the right hand is 18, which equals 99, for Allah's Ninety-nine Beautiful Names and Attributes, and that is why it came in our wudu to rub hands first, so when we make wudu, very perfectly, we rub these palms together. And so when we make du`a we raise our palms to the sky, and the upper part of the hand is exposed to dunya (facing downwards) and the inside, which is for Akhirah, is raised upward. Look at your palms, what is written there? Did you see 18 and 81, anyone did not see that? So follow the goodness of the hands, not the badness.
Obedience of the Feet
From the obedience of the legs/feet if you don't have feet how are you going to walk ? When he (s) said “the feet” it means where you can walk. So with feet where do you walk ? Either to good things or to bad things, is it not? Either to good things, where Allah said in Holy Qur'an;
هُوَ الَّذِي بَعَثَ فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا مِن قَبْلُ لَفِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ
It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom, although they were before in clear error.
(Surat al-Jumu`ah, 62:2)
“Allah has sent to humanity which they were in ignorance a Messenger from within you.” it doesn’t read and doesn't write, ‘ummiyy’. This is what Holy Qur'an said. “But he came to you,” Allah sent him to teach us how to struggle against our ego, “he recites for them the Holy Qur'an, wa yuzakkeehim, and he purifies them, cleans them and raises them to higher level of perfection.” Tazkiyya is purification but in the highest mean, raising high enough to be seen. So tazkiyya is important in our life that is why we say about the mujahadat an-nafs the “jihad/to struggle against the self”, not to destroy the self, you didn’t reach that maqaam/level yet, as first you have to purify yourself; Ahl at-Tasawwuf emphasize not to kill oneself but ‘to turn the wild personality to domestic personality’. Like you turn the wild animal to a domestic animal; you turn the lion (inside you) who is the king of the jungle and everyone is afraid from it, to a domestic one.
That ego in us is like a lion or tiger: it creates every bad character in human beings because it wants everything for itself. So they said, “Wait a minute, let us fix it. If we kill that wild animal in you, you will be finished and become naive. We will work with you, training it to become domestic by dropping bad manners and adapting good manners.” That is tazkiyyah, which we mentioned before. So in this verse Allah is saying that He sent the Prophet (s) to recite the ayaat in the Book, to purify them and to teach them `ilm, wa yu`allihumu ‘l-kitaab and wisdom. So from here we can see that this ayah, that we mentioned here, where can we find the example of it, the outcome of it? In masaajid or in Islamic schools or with a teacher that teaches you spirituality and tazkiyya. Where can you find that? You have to walk to find that place. You cannot get it by sitting. Even if you say, “I will find it through a computer,” you cannot. The computer will tell you where it is, but physically you did not find it yet. There is a big difference.
So from ‘obedience of the feet’ are deeds such as walking to masaajid and to majaalis al-`ilm, the associations and Circles of Knowledge. You walk and with every step you take, Allah gives ten hasanaat and one sayyiaat will go away, but Allah (swt) multiplies everything good by 10 up to 700 times, as mentioned in the Hadith. Walking to places that benefit you to perfect your manners is needed to move you from bad manners to good manners. Today there are psychologists or psychiatrists who listen to you all day and at the end say, “Okay, here is a tablet.” Psychiatrists prescribe medicine and psychologists prescribe ideas. Whether it works or not is not important, but they spend time with the patient until they build a trust. So how can you find the trust? Today if you go on the Internet, you find stars (ratings) and to find a good doctor you see their reviews. Also, psychologists have to fix themselves first; they may have psychological problems and yet counsel patients on their problems. He might be fighting with his wife at home day and night, and couples are coming to him to solve their marital problem. How is that going to work? It is not going to work!
So find the true masters of spirituality, not Freud and others who put theories about psychology. Islam teaches you how to perfect yourself in simple ways, by polishing yourself. Like the `alim who came to his teacher and said, “I spent 27 years with you and did not see anything, unlike others who come and right away get dreams, inspirations and visions.” The shaykh is testing him. He came to his teacher and complained like that.
His teacher said, “You have a tongue to talk also. Alright, if you want to become like them, go to the center of the city, buy a basket and fill it with walnuts. Go to the main mosque and sit at the door. Say to anyone who comes to the door, ‘Take my shoes and hit me on my head one time, I will give you one walnut. If you hit me two times, I will give you two walnuts.’ Come to me after you have finished all the walnuts.”
The student said, “I will never do that!”
And his teacher said, “Okay, then there is no `ilm here.” And that was to teach him humbleness. He was trying to bring him down, as humbleness is the highest level of good character, its key and the mother of good manners. Allah cursed Iblees because he was arrogant. Allah forgave Adam (s) because of his humbleness, and who is most humble? The Prophet (s) is the most humble in all of Creation! Allah (swt) said to him:
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَى إِلَيَّ
Say, "I am but a man like yourselves, (but) revelation has come to me.” (Surat al-Kahf, 18:110)
Yaa Rasoolullah, how you are like us, or then we would be flying to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa like him, but we cannot. Look at his humbleness in saying, “I am nothing, I am only a human being like you.” Can a human being go through this world and through Paradises, stopping at each Paradise to be dressed from the tajalli of each Paradise, and to reach farther to Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa? Can that be achieved by someone like us? Is that a normal human being?
محمد بشر وليس كالبشر بل هو ياقوتة والناس كالحجر
Muhammad is a human being, but not a human being like us, Muhammad is a gem and mankind are like stones. (Shaykh Muhammad al-Busayri, Burdat ash-Shareef)
“Muhammad is a human being, but not like human beings: he is a jewel and humans are pebbles.” So look at the difference, can you imagine it? Pebbles compared to jewellery.
So your feet are important, because they take you where you should be going, to a place to purify you and to teach you. Look at how the ayah came: first Allah said, “To purify you,” to teach you to be perfect as much as you can. When you become perfect then you are going to study Shari`ah, “wa yu`allimuhumu ‘l-kitaab,” it is coming after, “and then teach them the Holy Qur’an.” It means teach you the ahkaam of Islam--Fiqh and Tafsir and Hadith--which is the constitution of Islam. So the feet take you to where you find that, in Islamic schools and masaajid. In masaajid what do you do? You pray, read Holy Qur'an and do dhikrullah.
الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا اطِلاً
Those who remember Allah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and contemplating the creation of the Heavens and the Earth, (saying), "Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose! Glory to You! Give us salvation from the torment of the Fire.”
(Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:190-191)
Those Who are Completely Preoccupied with Love of Allah
Making dhikrullah and standing, sitting and lying down covers the whole 24 hours. One day Prophet (s) passed by a mountain called Jumdhaan. He said to the Sahaabah (r), “Go quickly forward as this mountain is sabaqahu al-mufarridoon.” They said, “Yaa Rasoolullah, what is mufarridoon?” He (s) said, “Al-musta`taroon.” He was revealing the meaning to them piece by piece to keep them anxious to know more, saying it was preceded by al-mufarridoon and al-musta`taroon. They asked, “What is al-musta`taroon?” He said, “Those whom their day and their night, their work and their mind, their heart and every limb and all their organs of their body are rejoicing in Allah’s dhikrullah!”
Al-mufarridoon are those who are so much in love of dhikrullah, they never stop their tongue from dhikrullah. He (s) said, “The mountain preceded them.” That means the mountain is also doing dhikrullah: it preceded them, every pebble in it is making dhikrullah. And he was ahead of the Saahabah (r). Yada`u dhikruhum athqaalahum wa yaja`aluhum yawm al-qiyamah akhfaafa, that dhikr they are doing will remove their burdens in dunya and on Judgment Day they will come with their Scales very light, their sins will have been waived. So how to find that? And they were passing by that mountain and how did they go there? By their feet.
Walking on Your Feet to Help Others
So moving with your feet gets you a lot of perfection, like visiting patients in hospitals, to look after them, to help them and to smile in their faces. Today, even before they enter medical school, doctors are trained how to smile to their patients and to not be so serious. And islaahu bayn an-naas, to make peace between people. How do you make peace? They are flying east and west to make peace. How do they do that? Through their feet, they have to walk to the plane or boat or car. They cannot go only by car but must be walking to it. So each step you take you are dropping one sin/sayyi`at and you are raised one level, which is multiplied from 10 up to 700 especially in studying Shari`ah and `ilm and Maqaam al-Ihsaan.
We leave the other two for the next session tomorrow, inshaa-Allah, but now but we ask one question: is there a difference between `ilmu ‘s-sahha wa haalatu ’s-sahha, knowledge of good health and state of good health, or they are the same? they teach `Ilm as-sahha, Knowledge of Healthcare, but they are not practicing it. Haalat as-sahha is having knowledge about that, but still the situation is worse, you are not trying to perfect it. So there is big difference between `aalim as-sahha and `ilm as-sahha. Similarly there is a big difference between `ilm at-tazkiyya wa haalatu ’t-tazkiyya, Knowledge of Purification of the Self” tazkiyya, and the actual purification that is applied to you or not: you know about it but you don't practice it, you are not experiencing it, you are not taking care. As you study Psychology you meet a patient and give him some theories, but in reality you are not giving him anything unless you connect yourself to a master of Tasawwuf, then you can give from the knowledge of sahat, you are turning from ‘knowledge’ to a ‘state’ of purification, which is where you can fix him or her or your own mind. The Knowledge of Psychology, `Ilm an-Nafs, is very important to know: the good and bad, to correct yourself and then try to implement on others.
May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us and we say, “As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.”
Inshaa-Allah, as in many countries, `Eid will be on Monday; in any case we follow the moon. May Allah bless all those viewing us and we thank Ummah Channel again for broadcasting this series.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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