Wisdoms and Witticisms

Last night Habib Ali spoke about increasing Presence. 

The first thing one should do is to remember that this is an appointment between the lover and the beloved.  Those who truly love Allah should rush to this.  It is the Maraj of the soul.  Also consider this.  If you are invited to the office of a high level official or wealthy person and you had some problems, they will help solve your problems.  Allah is the highest and wealthiest.  Reflect deeply upon this.  Also pray with love and during the times that are most beloved, not the times that are disliked.  Love and dislike should not come together.

Have presence in ritual purification.  Wudu is seeking permission to enter into the divine presence.

Enter the prayer with awe.  You are standing before the divine.  Do not think of the prayer as a debt that needs to be taken care of.  Observe the stories of newly weds and how much they love being with each other.  That is the attitude we should have in prayer.

May Allah allow this wisdom to enter into our hearts so that we may practice it.

Also a note on simple fiqh questions.  Some people during the Q&A began asking very basic fiqh questions.  This is even worse in America.  Someone once held up a lecture asking for the fiqh of praying while traveling.  This is a lesson within itself.  I would say that 90% of all questions asked by American Muslims to really big scholars can be answered if people studied basic fiqh and aqida.  As usual, I recommend www.sunnipath.com.  

There is too much to write down as the Habib speak but here is an especially valuable gem.

There were very few, if any, who worshipped Allah more than Iblis (Lucifer).  No one kept better company than him either for he was in the circle of the Angels.  However, this did not help him when he became arrogant and it got to his head.  Reflect up this. 

It was said of the Nejdi who killed Sayidna Ali that he spent the day fasting and the night in prayer.  It was also said that he would read the whole Quran every-day but this did not benefit him because he was doing it for himself. 

May Allah grant us humility and make our actions only for His sake.

Habib Ali Jifri is currently in Damascus and will be giving a series of lectures over the next two weeks.  Hamdullah I attended last night and insha’Allah Allah will make it easy for my to attend the rest.  I’ll be sure to blog a few gems.

Last night was an introduction.  It was about how we should long for Allah and not for the dunya.  The cause of all problems in this world is a desire for the dunya.  People will never be happy with what they have.  The dunya is like a black hole.  No matter how much goes in, it will want more.  As people want more, they will be willing to take that which does not truly belong to them.  Then thefts, wars, etc. begin to happen.  Happiness comes from knowing Allah. 

The second lecture last night was about the invitiation to Allah.  The invitation comes in three ways: fear, reward, and love.  One might fear Allah and then worship Him.  One might desire a reward and then worship Allah.  The final one is knowing that Allah loves his servants and swooning as a result and then worshipping Allah.  In order to preserve this invitation, one must make thikr, think about Allah, and keep the company of the righteous.  Answering the invitation is done with obedience.

May Allah forgive me for not giving the words of Habib Ali their true right.

“None of you have attained true belief until I am more beloved then your offspring, your parents, and the whole of humanity.” -Hadith related by Imam Muslim

It was uncomfortably hot Summer day.  To add to it, I was stuffed in a tiny Peugeot with five other people.  Despite the hardship, I knew it would be worth it.  We were to attend a mawlid with the illustrious Sheik Muhammed al-Yaqoubi.

When we arrived, we had just caught up with the group praying Maghrib.  Afterwards, we were seated and the nasheed began as we sat under a looming full moon.  Sheik Adib Kallas and Sheik Omar Sabbagh blessed us with their presences.

Sheik Omar gave a short speeh about loving the Prophet and how it was part of the sweetness of Iman.  He also told us of a dream where his father came to him dressed in white and informed him of how he had been forgiven because of his love for the Prophet.

Finally, it was Sheik Muhammed’s turn to speak.  Liked the diamond the Ottoman Sultan fixed into his turban-crown, this would be the most noble part of the evening.  He began talking about how Sufism has been an integral part of Islam throughout the entirety of the latter’s history.  He then described a crucial part of Sufism.  After acknowledging that all of love the Prophet, he told us it is not enough.  We must have a deep yearning for the Prophet.  Many people want to see the Prophet in their dreams.  He told us a story of a student who went to his Sheik asking for such.  The Sheik gave him salty foods until the student became desperately thirsty.  The student was then told to sleep.  After waking up, the Sheik asked the student “what did you see?”  The student replied that he had seen rivers and oceans.  Ponder this deeply.  The way to attain this yearning is to preform the sunnah and remember the Prophet and love for him in doing so.

The night has come to a close.  All good things must come to an end except the hereafter so prioritize, oh seeker of Allah.  We sang some of the qasida burda, read quran, and made a closing dua’.

May Allah increase us in yearning for Allah and his messenger and allow to drink from the silvery waters of the hawd from the Prophet’s noble hand.

I was walking in the Rukneldin district looking for some ink.  I found some nice black-blue.  I tried using it at home and it came out grey.  I looked at the box.  It said “Made in W. Germany.”

I was with my fiqh teacher and we heard the athan for Maghrib.  We we making our way to the masjid but we noticed that the court-yard was being cleaned.  The only way around was through the bathroom.  I had to go through that bathroom once and I hated it.  It reeked and there were flies everywhere.  I held my breath and went through.  But before I knew it, we were out.  The Sheik looked at me and insightfully said that was like going in and out of the dunya. 

’nuff said.

So I was walking to the gym this morning and I saw some sheep break out of their pen and they were wandering on the road.  I herded them back in.  It was very fulfilling.

Our deen is made up of three parts.  We start with aqida, move to fiqh, then perfect ourselves with tasawwuf.  These represent Iman, Islam, and Ihsan; the three essential parts of our deen that in the hadith of Gibril.  The three parts of tasawwuf are to know Allah, attain haqiqah (absorbing what you studied in Aqida into the heart), and attain the manners of Allah.  Part of tasawwuf is attaining good manners but this does not mean the good manners of anyone will do.  We must attain the manners of Allah.  Of course this is not to be taken completely literally.  “There is nothing like him.”  For example, Allah is al-Karim.  In this aspect, we must imitate Allah generosity to the extent that humans are able to.  Our generosity is absolutely unlike like His.  Humans were made to worship Allah and part of this is attaining knowledge of Allah through that which is within ourselves.  I recommend Imam al-Ghazali’s work on Allah’s attributes to attain more understanding of this.  The Sheik told me that whoever embodies one of Allah’s attributes, believes, and prays will not enter the Fire.

One attribute that was emphasized in this talk was al-Ghafour.  al-Ghafour is translated as forgiveness but it is more than that.  It is to cover up the bad and emphasize the good.  Consider the earth which takes filth and turns it into Rehan and Amber.  Once Jesus was walking with his companions and the saw a dead dog that was rotting.  The companions began to talk about how ugly and putrid it was.  Jesus looked at it and exclaimed “look how [beautifully] white its teeth are!”  Now we have the exact opposite of this in our masajid.  We have people condemning each other for how short their beards/hijabs our but they forget the beauty of “la ilaha ila Allah” that is in the heart.  To the Sufis and Salafis I say: overlook the other’s difference and focus on the Iman in the heart.

This is the true meaning of keeping Allah’s names.  It is not just to memorize 99 words, rather one must appropriately embody them.

Other wisdoms I received from the Sheik: ham (worry) and nar (fire) are the end of dirham and dinar.  Reflect upon this oh fuqara!

My cousin who was with me is about to write his marriage contract and here is the advice the Sheik gave to him: the two largest problems in marriage that he has seen come from stinginess and the man’s lack of knowledge of the psychology of women.  The former does not require much thought.  The latter refers to the idea that men cannot treat women like other men.  He must show sensitivity, compassing, and unrelenting attention.  When saying “no,” do so kindly.  A woman’s psychology is much more fragile than a man’s.

Be humble, you are made of dirt.  Don’t see yourself as any more than that.

The Sadiq is second in rank only to Prophets.  The Sadiq is the one who follows the Prophet perfectly for the sake of Allah alone.

True success is attained by merging Aqida, Fiqh, and Tasawwuf.  They are like the wings and tail of a bird.

Follow the scholars and the righteous.

One of the most important things I heard was that everything in this dunya, whether or not it seems to be good or bad, is a test from Allah.  Some people get this, are accepting of what happens, and deal with it in the way of Allah, and some people don’t get this and the disobey Allah in their actions and their heart.

What else did I do in the UAE: snowboarding!  Apparently I am not as good as I was three years ago.

In your heart is a struggle between Allah and everything else. We were not created except to worship Allah both inwardly and outwardly. Your heart’s turning to other than Allah is worshiping other than Allah and it is a form of shirk. Of course, this does not refer to the shirk that takes one out of Islam. Rather, it is a lesser shirk. Furthermore, sins are not the real problem. Rather, they are a manifestation of a greater problem of attachment of the heart to other than Allah. The outward sin is merely a bitter fruit of the terrible root of attachment to the dunya. The solution to this is to weaken the nafs and strengthen the soul.

Weakening the nafs is done by training it. The sufis would often eat lighter foods such as vegetables as opposed to heavier meets. Sleeping too much also strengthens the nafs. “Whoever wants to reach the heights should stay up at nights.” This means that one should wake up earlier and do some worship. Much of bad character also comes from, what is called in America, “sleeping in.” In general, one should simply not indulge in desires. This is especially true for sinful desires. This is best done through gradualism.

As for strengthening the soul, this is done through worship of Allah. However, one should be wary of worship. Worship is the antidote and the poison. If one does worship out of showing off, then this is a form of indulging the lower-self and this will set the traveler on the path back. Sheik Muhammed al-Yaqoubi made a specific example of how someone who cries in front of people and his happy with himself because of that can be really a sinner. What helps is consistency and taking a spiritual guide. And guidance is only from Allah.

By strengthening the soul and weakening the lower-self, the salik can take everything out of his heart except Allah and he will find that everything he desired is in Allah. There is so much more to be said but I can only say so much. Sheik Ahmed Khatib gave me a ride back home and with him was Sheik Maher Hindi. They were discussing the lessons and there was so much insight that came with it. Come to Damascus and drink from the rivers of paradise whose sources are the mouths of our scholars!

Other news: I found a screw in my ice-cream and a bird pooped on me in the Hamadiyya Market.

In my Aqida class, we have done nothing more than study the subtle meanings of bismillah and hamdullah because the author is explaining the introduction.  It’s amazing masha’Allah.  It’s too much to blog.  Everyone should come to Damascus and study at places like Abu Nur and Mahad al-Fit’h!  My classes are just starting so their isn’t much else to say.