Behind the Scenes_Madinatayn Notes

Qabeelat Madinatayn | Student Notes May 2012

Qabeelat Madinatayn | Student Notes Behind the Scenes May 2012 Shaykh Omar Suleiman

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Table of Contents Unit 1 | A Journey Of Introspection: The Process of Purification ..................................................... 5

Chapter 1 | Understanding Your Role ............................................................................................... 5 What is Tazkiyah? ................................................................................................................................ 5 What is Fitnah? .................................................................................................................................... 7 What is Ikhl? ..................................................................................................................................... 8 What is Tarbiyah? ................................................................................................................................ 9

Chapter 2 | Understanding Your Enemy ......................................................................................... 10 The Enemy Within: The Nafs .......................................................................................................... 10 al-Shayn ........................................................................................................................................... 10

Chapter 3 | Understanding Change .................................................................................................. 12 Can I change? .................................................................................................................................... 12 Guidance is from Allh .................................................................................................................... 12 Excuses for Not Correcting Oneself ............................................................................................... 14 The Hows and Whens of Change .................................................................................................. 16

Chapter 4 | Understanding Yourself ................................................................................................ 17 Your l vs. Your Maqm ................................................................................................................. 17 How far away are you? .................................................................................................................... 17 The Three Types of Nufs ................................................................................................................ 18 Baar vs. Barah ................................................................................................................................. 19 The Himmah Never Dies ................................................................................................................... 19

Chapter 5 | Experiencing Change ..................................................................................................... 20 A Deep Look at the Tazkiyah of Umar b. al-Khab (rayAllhu anhu) ................................... 20 The Concept of True Ladhdhah (Pleasure) .................................................................................... 21 Faqhl-Nafs ......................................................................................................................................... 22

Unit 2 | Making the Change .................................................................................................................. 23 Chapter 1 | Knowledge ....................................................................................................................... 23

The Importance of Seeking Knowledge ........................................................................................ 24 The Intention behind Seeking Knowledge ................................................................................... 24 The Effort of Seeking Knowledge .................................................................................................. 25 Being Purified by Knowledge ......................................................................................................... 28 The Pursuit that Never Ends: What is the greatest difficulty of knowledge? ........................ 35

Chapter 2 | Minding Your Own Business ........................................................................................ 41 For your own good ........................................................................................................................... 41 For the good of your brother .......................................................................................................... 41 Giving the benefit of the doubt ...................................................................................................... 42

Chapter 3 | Treating Destructive Flaws ........................................................................................... 43 Curing Bad Character ...................................................................................................................... 43


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Backbiting / al-Ghbah ...................................................................................................................... 47 Slander / al-Nammah (Tale-Carrying) .......................................................................................... 51 Lying / al-Kadhib ............................................................................................................................... 53 Mockery ............................................................................................................................................. 54 Two-Faced Speech ............................................................................................................................ 55 Revealing Secrets ............................................................................................................................. 56 Breaking Promises ............................................................................................................................ 56 Impermissible Joking ....................................................................................................................... 57 Disciplining Ourselves ..................................................................................................................... 58 Pride / al-Kibr .................................................................................................................................... 59 Love of Prestige/ ubbl-Jh ............................................................................................................ 62 Showing off / al-Riy ....................................................................................................................... 64 Self-Deceit / al-Ghurr ..................................................................................................................... 67 Envy / al-asad ................................................................................................................................. 72 Anger / al-Ghaab ............................................................................................................................. 77 Learning Forbearance ...................................................................................................................... 78 Greed and Miserliness ..................................................................................................................... 82 Curbing the Desire for Food and Sex ............................................................................................. 85 The Wandering Gaze ........................................................................................................................ 87 Breaking the Habit of Sin ................................................................................................................ 88

Chapter 4 | Istiqmah .......................................................................................................................... 93 The Hardest Task .............................................................................................................................. 93 The Most Praiseworthy Task .......................................................................................................... 95 Consistency ....................................................................................................................................... 96 Discipline in ALL areas ..................................................................................................................... 96

Chapter 5 | Moderation: Dont Go to Extremes (Ifr and Tafr) ................................................. 97 Balance ............................................................................................................................................... 97 What is True Zuhd (Asceticism)? .................................................................................................... 98

Chapter 6 | Get Your Wird On .......................................................................................................... 100 The Purpose of the Pillars ............................................................................................................. 100 Understand your complexity! ...................................................................................................... 101 Act with a Sense of Purpose .......................................................................................................... 102 The P90x Wird ................................................................................................................................. 102 The superstar: Abu Bakr (rayAllhu anhu) .............................................................................. 102

Chapter 7 | The Daily Wird: A Share of Contemplation & Remembrance ............................... 104 Which is preferable: seclusion or keeping company? ........................................................................ 106 A Share of Meaningful Obligatory Prayers ................................................................................. 107 Meaningful Prayer ......................................................................................................................... 108 A Share of Voluntary Prayers ....................................................................................................... 111 A Share of Qiym ............................................................................................................................. 112


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A Share of Recitation and Memorization of the Qurn ........................................................... 113

Chapter 8 | The Weekly Wird ........................................................................................................... 117 Components of a Fruitful Jumuah Experience ........................................................................... 117 Sratl-Kahf ....................................................................................................................................... 117 Fasting Mondays and Thursdays ................................................................................................. 117

Chapter 9 | The Monthly Wird ......................................................................................................... 118 Recognize what month you are in! .............................................................................................. 118

Chapter 10 | The Yearly Wird .......................................................................................................... 119 Raman ........................................................................................................................................... 119 The 6 days of Shawwl .................................................................................................................... 120 The fasting of Araft, shr ...................................................................................................... 120 Zakh ................................................................................................................................................. 121 The 10 Days of Dhul-ijjah ............................................................................................................ 121

Chapter 11 | Once In A Lifetime (ajj) ........................................................................................... 123 Before You Go ................................................................................................................................. 123 Inner Meanings of the Mansik .................................................................................................... 123 Qualities of the ajji ....................................................................................................................... 124

Final Note: Overwhelmed? .................................................................................................................... 125

Disclaimer: The following are student notes, which are not endorsed by the instructor or AlMaghrib Institute.


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Unit 1 | A Journey Of Introspection: The Process of Purification This class will be like no other class you have ever taken. This class requires lots of self-exploration, quietness, self-introspection and quietness. If you are here with the intention of learning and purifying yourself with the ilm, this class will transform you. At the end of this class, inshAllh you will feel a complete change in your life. You will not feel like the same person who came here today. The material that will be covered is transformative as long as you pay attention and try. The hypocrites witnessed the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) and still didnt change because they werent trying to change. Focus and renew your intention from now. We will introduce the process of change. Many times we talk about losing hope in Allh (subnahu wa tala). Do not despair from the Mercy of Allh. When we talk about this, almost every khubah and lesson derived from this yah says: do not lose hope in Allh forgiving you. If you consistently hear that message, then its a message of failure because it means you have lost hope in yourself. Part of having hope in Allh is having hope in the ability to change yourself. Otherwise, it falls into another category. When you lose hope in yourself then you have s al-an in Allh because Allh is the One who created you and enabled you with the agents of change. You cannot lose hope in yourself.

Chapter 1 | Understanding Your Role

What is Tazkiyah? What does tazkiyah mean? The root word is zakawa, which has two meanings: to purify and growth / increase. Zakh in terms of money means you purify and you grow. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Money does not decrease by charity. The more charity you give, the more your wealth grows. This makes zakh a comprehensive word when talking about money. By removing the impurities, you allow it to grow. When something has potential but is clogged up on the inside, then things are stopping it from growing. Tazkiyatl-qulb: the heart is made to naturally love Allh and long for Allh, but sins stop it from recognizing that potential. Someone may ask: Why cant I benefit from Qurn? Why cant I wake up for fajr? Why is everyone else in the masjid crying except me? It is because of your sins. Your sins stop you from doing that. With zakh, you remove the impurity and it realizes its natural growth. When we talk about the soul and tazkiyah, tazkiyah is the responsibility of yourself. Allh (subnahu wa tala) says, And by the soul, which He proportioned. So He inspired with it the discernment of wickedness and good.


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And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness, He has succeeded who purifies it, And he has failed who instills it [with corruption]. (al-Shams: 7 10) There is a severe misunderstanding with yah 8. People think that Allh placed within it its evil and its good means that Allh naturally created you with some evil, but this yah means the ability to recognize evil (the firah). Allh inspired it to understand what is going out of bounds and what is good. Then Allh says, He has succeeded who has purified. Allh praises the one who engages himself in tazkiyah. Allh (subnahu wa tala) says, He has failed who instills it with corruption. Allh has never made oaths as He has in Sratl-Shams. Whenever Allh makes multiple oaths, it means that what He is about to say is extremely important. There is no other yah in the Qurn preceded by so many oaths. Dassha means to cover something up in dirt. Allh creates you pure pure soul and pure heart and you cover it up with dirt. Allh also says in Sratl-Ala: He has succeeded who has purified Himself. Allh is swearing that the person who purifies himself is successful. The effort comes from the person. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) was asked by the abah what tazkiyah is. He (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, It is that he knows that Allh is with him wherever he may be. (al-Bayhaqi) This sounds like isn. In the adth of Jibrl, when Jibrl said to the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam), Tell me about isn. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, To worship Allh as if you can see Him and if you cannot see Him then know that He sees you. The goal of tazkiyah is isn. Whenever you reach isn, you reach the level of al-nafsl-mumainnah (a soul that is at peace with its Lord). In tazkiyah, you consistently engage in purifying yourself, fighting yourself, battling yourself, and try to root out the destructive flaws. You are doing that as if Allh is going to call you into account today. You are worshipping Allh as if you can see him, so you work hard. You put the extra effort when you know you are being watched. The amount of effort you are engaged in is in accordance with how active you are in observing Allhs observance of you. Will anybody successfully be able to purify himself 100%? No. Lets face it: no matter what you do, you will have your share of sins. Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, All of the sons of dam are in sin, and the best of those who commit sins are those who are consistent in


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tawbah. Tawbah means turning to Allh (subnahu wa tala). If you commit the mistake, you go back to Allh (subnahu wa tala). You do this over and over again. You will always slip and on the Day of Judgment, you cannot come to Allh (subnahu wa tala) pure and without sin because the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Whenever the believer stands on the Day of Judgment, 99 scrolls of sins will be laid in front of him and each one reaches the end of his eyesight. Allh will tell him to read, and he will read until he starts to change colors thinking that it is over for him. Then Allh will stop him and say, O my servant, did you ask for My forgiveness? He says, Yes. The bad deeds start turning into good deeds until the person will say, O Allh, the angel forgot to write the sins down! (Bukhri and Muslim) Everyone needs mercy. On the Day of Judgment, you either meet His Justice or His Mercy. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Whoever faces accountability will be punished. ishah (rayAllhu anha) said, Ya Raslullh, doesnt Allh say in the Qurn that the one who receives his book in his right hand will have an easy accountability? The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, No, that is just the presentation of the deeds. Whoever starts getting asked will be punished. There is no way you can win 100% through tazkiyah. You will not be able to repay Allh (subnahu wa tala) for what He gave you. Then whats the point of doing good deeds? If your child was to bring home to you a heart made of red construction paper with letters saying I love you Mom pasted on them, how would you feel? The mother will hug the child and frame the paper. What made her value it? Was it the twenty-five cents that went into making it? No, it was the thought and the heart of your son. You felt that it was done out of love for you, so you extoll it. We do our part and Allh makes us feel like we got there because of our deeds. When you accomplish something, people encourage you and tell you that you should be proud of yourself. On the Day of Judgment, Allh consistently has it said, This is a reward for what you used to do. In Jannah, you are being told that you did this. At the end of the day, it wasnt your deeds, but you were engaged and trying to purify yourself.

What is Fitnah? Fitnah is the ever companion to mankind. What does Allh (subnahu wa tala) do to make things easier for us in dunya? Fitnah. Fitnah is a gift to the human being and the believer. There are different types of fitnah. There are fitan caused by human beings, but we are talking about tests and trials that come to you in your life. For example: you are put through a test in regards to your health or wealth or a sin is presented to you. Allh gives us fitnah to make things easy for us.


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The linguistic meaning of the word fitnah is to burn. It is the procedure of making precious metals. To make any precious metal, you burn it until the impurities are removed. Sad b. al-Jubayr said, Allh tests us. We dont test Him. We are trying the tazkiyah, and Allh (subnahu wa tala) sends us hardship and trial to complete the purification process. At the end of fitnah, if a person is patient, Allh elevates them so much that Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) says, On the Day of Judgment, the people who were not tested will see the reward of those who were tested and will wish they had scissors to cut their skins. (Authentic in Sunan of al-Tirmidhi) Aa said, Had it not been for tragedies in our lives, we would have shown up on the Day of Judgment completely bankrupt. Allh purifies us through hardship and death of a loved one and financial hardship. A woman came to the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) and was telling him that she had seizures and would sometimes be exposed. She asked that he make du that Allh cures her from the epilepsy. He said, I can make du and you will be the same as everyone else, or be patient and you will have Jannah. She chose Jannah, and she asked him (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) to make du so that she would not be exposed when she had a seizure. Through the hardship, Allh was guaranteeing her Jannah. She was concerned about her dn. In Abu Dwd: A man lost his son, and the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) offered to make a du for his son to come back to life if the man wanted. He said, Be patient and you will have Jannah or I can make du and you will be like everyone else. The man chose Jannah. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) would seek refuge in Allh from sudden death. Many people say they want to die in their sleep. The lin liked to go through fever and a period of sickness before dying because it was a form of purification. When they got sick, they were happy because they felt it was a form of purification. Abdullh b. al-Masd when he was passing away was asked by someone, Should I go and bring you a doctor? He said, The doctor is the one who made me sick in the first place (meaning Allh). We need hardship in our life because it is Allh purifying us. Burn the precious metal until it comes out pure and the person is beloved to Allh. Imm ibn al-Qayyim said, Sins need to be burned either with the pain of regret in this world or the fire of Hell in the hereafter. Think about this. Some people will go to Hellfire before going to Jannah. We ask Allh not to enter us into Hellfire for a single moment. mn. Some people will have to pay their dues and be purified before entering Jannah. Allh (subnahu wa tala) purifies us in other ways.

What is Ikhl? What is purity? Ikhl. You go through tazkiyah and fitnah to attain ikhl. Ikhl literally means purity and when something is raw. The Arabs used this word to describe dough that


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hasnt been made into anything. When metal first comes out of the process of being burned, it has the quality of ikhl. To achieve purity, you have to get rid of the impurities. In Sratl-Ikhl, the word ikhl is not mentioned. Imm al-Qushayri said the three srahs before Sratl-Ikhl are introductions to Sratl-Ikhl. Sratl-Kfirn: relinquishing yourself of the impurity of shirk completely. I refuse to worship what you worship. I will stick to tawd. The beginning of la ilha illa Allh is relinquishing yourself. Then is Sratl-Nar, which means victory for those who purify themselves and Sratl-Masad is the humiliation of those who decided to keep themselves filthy. Abu Lahab refused to purify himself from shirk, so he will stay in Hellfire. Then in Sratl-Ikhl, Allh tells about the pure worship of Allh. Sahl b. Abdullh al-Tustari was asked what the most difficult station for the soul to attain is, and he said ikhl because the self gets nothing out of it. Ikhl is doing things purely for the sake of Allh (subnahu wa tala). adth qudsi: Allh (subnahu wa tala) says, I am the most worthy to have anyone associated with me [in shirk]. Whoever does something and mixes the intention, I abandon him and his shirk. Ikhl is pure love, worship, and sincerity for Allh. It is what happens tazkiyah and fitnah. It is the station we are trying to reach.

What is Tarbiyah? Whenever you purify the gold, you then have to shape it. This is tarbiyah. This is the science we will be studying in this class. Tarbiyatl-nafs. Disciplining the soul and raising the soul and cultivating al-nafsl-mumainnah, a soul that is at peace and tranquil. In Iya Ulml-Dn, the section is called riyatl-nafs, meaning the discipline / exercise / sports of the soul. Your soul needs a regimen.


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Chapter 2 | Understanding Your Enemy

The Enemy Within: The Nafs Imm Junayd said, The nafs is the most severe battleground of any human being. If you defeat your nafs, then you will be victorious over anything else. The hardest thing about the nafs is that we dont realize that the nafs is an enemy. It is called jihdl-nafs, meaning to struggle against your own soul. It is the greater struggle. Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Verily a person will be engaged in a state of struggle and has not once been struck with a sword. Scholars say the greatest struggle is the struggle against yourself. Many times we like to blame Shayn. Leave Shayn alone and blame yourself. Seek refuge in Allh from him, but when you mess up, own up to your own faults. How will you spiritually progress if any time something bad happens you blame the Shayn? The nafs can become an enemy for you and fight you. The Shayn whispers to the nafs, and the soul is the doer. Shayn is the talker, and you are the doer. Recognize the nafs first. In Srah Ya Sn, Allh says that on the Day of Judgment your hands and legs come and testify against you. The khirah is make-up time. The hereafter is when you make up your time. If you fight yourself now and recognize yourself, your lowly desires, and when yourself is trying to push you to something bad and then you can fight it.

al-Shayn The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Shayn places obstacles in every way the son of dam undertakes to obey Allh. (Amad) Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) is telling us the way Shayn works on you. First he obstructs his way to Islam by saying, Will you adopt Islam and abandon the religion of your family and what you were raised upon? He tells Shayn to go away and disobeys Shayn and becomes Muslim. Then the Shayn hinders his path for hijrah (emigrating for the sake of Allh to Madnah). Shayn comes to the man and says, Will you emigrate and abandon your land and everything that you have and your wealth and your shops? A person will come and take everything that you had. [What Shayn said was coming true because they looted the stores in Makkah.] The man says, Go away and disobeys him and still emigrates for the sake of Allh. [When the man is going to engage in battle, they are outnumbered.] Shayn comes to the person and says, Are you going to sacrifice your life and someone else will share a bed with your spouse? Your wealth will be distributed amongst your inheritors and no one will care for you. The man disobeys him and continues in the path. Allh has made it a right upon Himself to admit that person to Paradise whether he drowns, is cast off of a mountain, dies of a stomach disease, is hit by a dabbah (moving saddle). Allh has made him a martyr. Why? He was engaged in a greater battle: the battle with Shayn and himself. Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said everyone has their own Shayn, and he flows in your veins like the blood. ishah (rayAllhu anha) said, Even you? He said, Even me, but my


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Shayn aslam. The scholars say either he became Muslim or submitted / gave up. Everyone has to deal with their own devil. Some people have a Shayn that is very active. Is it possible to exhaust our Shayn to the point where he starts despairing? Yes, but the battle never ends. When Imm Amad was dying, he was between consciousness and being awake. His son Abdullh was sitting with him and telling him to say la ilha illa Allh. Imm Amad says, No! Not yet! No! Not yet! Abdullh later asks him, What happened to you? He said, I saw my Shayn in a dream, and he appeared humiliated and in raggedy clothes and broken and said, O Amad, you have escaped me. Imm Amad was telling him, No, not yet. Imm al-asan al-Bari said, If Shayn saw you consistently obeying Allh, he will seek you time and time again. If he sees your consistency, he grows hopeless of you and rejects you. If he sees you losing it, then he has hope. The Shayn perceives weakness, but if a person is consistently engaged in pursuing Allh, then he loses hope. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, It has reached me that an angel goes out holding his flag with the first person to the masjid and stays holding his flag until he returns and enters his home with it. Shayn goes out holding his flag with the first person to go to the marketplace and stays holding the flag until he puts in his home. At that time, the sq (marketplace) was the place where evil would take place. It was an environment where you could sin most.

Shayn can lose hope in you or keep on fighting with you.


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Chapter 3 | Understanding Change

Can I change?

Am I capable of changing? Imm al-asan al-Bari said, The nafs is like a strong horse. The goal is not to kill it but to tame it. You want to keep yourself in control. It is good to have a strong and powerful horse as long as you are in control of it and it is not in control of you. Allh does tell us in the Qurn those who swallow their anger and not those who do not have anger. Allh does not expect you to eliminate and suppress your desires and natural things inside you but to keep them tamed. Jealousy can be good or bad if uncontrolled. Sometimes anger can be good. Imm al-Ghazli said, If a person has no anger whatsoever, how can he defend himself against someone who is trying to kill him? It is good to have certain thing in their proper doses. Imm al-Ghazli said, Human beings claim that they cannot change. A bear can be taken from its savagery to becoming a companion. A dog would naturally attack you but can become your guide. He mentions a falcon and other types of animals. No human being can claim that he cannot change. Animals can change, which is a proof that the human being can change. Everyone is able to change and has that capability. Allh gave you these examples so that you can focus on yourself. You have to be willing to take the medicine. That is the problem: the unwillingness to commit to changing yourself. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Allh has given for every disease its cure. This includes spiritual diseases and problems, but you have to be willing to go through the pain of it.

Guidance is from Allh

Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, The hearts are between two fingers of the fingers of the Most Merciful. If Allh wills, He guides it or turns it away. If something is in between the fingers, you can turn it one of two ways. The reason why this is so important is not to say that you should be hopeless and wait for the guidance of Allh. Allh tells us in the Qurn that those who seek guidance will be guided. Those who strive in Our way, We guide them to the various paths of good. Guidance comes from Allh. You may be trying and striving to do something over and over again. You may be trying to get khush in your alh and keep trying and all of a sudden it is a 360 degree turn in your life and you are unrecognizable even to yourself. There are so many incidents in the biography of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam). There is a sister from Canada. Sr. Julie became Muslim while in her second year of law school and in 365 days she memorized the entire Qurn. The anniversary of her shahdah she took ijzah in hif.


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When Allh guides you, things happen. We are trying to make ourselves worthy of guidance from Allh (subnahu wa tala). If you go to the grocery store and your child takes a bag of chips and eats the entire bag, you will hand the cashier the bag and pay for it. The point we are trying to make is that the cashier is not going to be surprised or call security because it was cheap. If you take a $300 box of chocolates or something valuable and open it up, security will come and get you because it is valuable. Allh (subnahu wa tala) says in the Qurn: God has purchased from you your wealth and souls so that you can get Jannah. This means you pay first and then you get it. It is kind of shirk-y if someone is doing something wrong and tells someone else to make du for Allh to guide them. You have to do something yourself and get out of it. The Jabariyyah think that Allh makes us do everything. They said Firawn was as beloved to Allh as Msa was because he did what Allh created him to do. Everybody looks for someone else to blame except for themselves. When Ibls messed up and did what he did, who did he blame? Ibls blamed Allh. He said, O my Lord, You led me astray, so I will lead all of them astray. dam confessed and said, O Allh, we did this to ourselves. You have to seek guidance from Allh and struggle so that He will guide your heart. Guidance is not something that just comes to you. At the same time, people say it isnt fair that one person is guided and another person is not. What is the point then of living through this life? Compulsion in Islam relieves you of this responsibility. You arent charged if you sleep through the alh but you are charged if you waste time through the alh. Ammr b. Ysir was tortured by the disbelievers and cursed the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) because they told him to. He was upset and the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) asked him what was wrong and he said, Ya Raslullh, when they were torturing me, they told me to curse you and I cursed you. He said, Did you say it from your heart or tongue? He said, My tongue. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, If they do it to you again, then you curse me again. Allh says in the Qurn: When they turned away, Allh turned their hearts away. They became unworthy of guidance. The first one to turn away was not Allh. When it comes to tawbah, Allh (subnahu wa tala) says, Allh turned to them so that they could turn to Allh. Allh starts off this process. Allh doesnt force us into misguidance.

And [some] among their fathers and their descendants and their brothers - and We chose them and We guided them to a straight path. (al-Anm: 87)


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And Allh invites to the Home of Peace and guides whom He wills to a straight path (Ynus: 25)

And so those who were given knowledge may know that it is the truth from your Lord and [therefore] believe in it, and their hearts humbly submit to it. And indeed is Allh the Guide of those who have believed to a straight path. (al-ajj: 54)

By which Allh guides those who pursue His pleasure to the ways of peace and brings them out from darknesses into the light, by His permission, and guides them to a straight path. (al-Midah: 16)

Excuses for Not Correcting Oneself The scholars say the person who makes excuses reaches a state of inactivity. The person blames Allh and says that the deeds committed are Allhs fault. Imm Ibn Qudmah says, To say my evil deed is not my fault but Allhs fault because Allh created me is like a person having a baby out of adultery and then saying that they are not going to pay for the child because Allh created the child. Is that justifiable? No. You took the steps, so you cant blame Allh.

Other excuses: I was born this way, I am not from a Muslim family. Ibn al-Qayyim said in his book al-Fawid, Abu lib drowned in the seas of misguidance why Salmn the Persian was safe on the coast. Al-Wald b. al-Mughrah, the honor of the Arabs, preceded all in straying away from Allh while Suhayb, the Roman, excelled above all Arabs. Al-Njashi was in Abyssinia called labbayk allhumma labbayk. Bill, the slave, called out, alh is better than sleep. Abul-akam (Abu Jahl) fell deaf and became the father of ignorance. Another believed in Allh despite never seeing Raslullh. Abdullh b. Ubayy al-Sall prayed behind the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) for years and still died a disbeliever. There are no excuses whatsoever. It is not about where you are from or who your parents are.


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Bill heard his master Umayyah cursing the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) and learned that the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) was calling for tawd. He became Muslim, was tortured, and was on the point of death. Umar asked Bill much later in the golden age, Our master who was freed by our master (Abu Bakr), why when you were being tortured were you only saying aadun aad? Bill said, Wallhi, if I had known anything other than One, I would have said it. He didnt know any other Names of Allh. When your heart turns towards Allh, Allh will guide you. In 1996, in Makki masjid in New York, a man walked in at altl-maghrib with his shoes and said, I want to become Muslim. He looked like he was panicking. They asked him if he knew anything about Islam, and he said he didnt but he knew it was the truth. The imm gave him shahdah. The man became so happy, he broke into tears and became soft-spoken and said, Thank God. He hugged everyone and they gave him the Why Islam literature. He walked outside of the masjid and was saying salm and a car came and hit him and he died. His heart wanted Allh, and he wanted to change now. Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) told us about a man who lived in Madnah. He showed up at the Battle of Badr as started fighting so they asked if he was fighting for Allh or for nationalism. He said he was there for Allh and took shahdah. He died. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) would quiz the people and ask, Who was the man who died a martyr and entered Paradise without praying a single prayer, without making a single wu, and without fasting a single day? He didnt make any excuses and wanted to be a Muslim. The first excuse: We are born this way. Al-Ghazli said the excuse is my khuluq is like my khalq. We make a prayer: O Allh as you have beautified exterior (khalq), beautify my character. Khuluq is your interior and character and inner beauty. Al-Ghazli said, Some people will say they are born with a hot temper and raised in this environment. They will make the excuse that changing the khuluq is like changing the khalq. If you try to change it, then you will end up in a worse situation than before. The second excuse: Self-pity We feel too sorry for ourselves and say it is too hard to be Muslim and do things. Im going to lose my friends. People will look at me funny. I cant pray in public; I need to pray in my car. We feel sorry for ourselves. We talk as if we live in the worst situation. Then we start feeling sorry for ourselves that we are not going to change. A quotation from Elizabeth Elliott: Self-pity is a death that has no resurrection. A sink-hole from which no rescuing hand can grab you because you have chosen to sink. When you have decided to sink is when you cannot get out of it. The third excuse: Blaming the religion for the flaws of religious people. All shaykhs are liars. Those people come out of the masjid and do this and that. How many times do you see people make an excuse for their own failure by looking at other people?


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The Hows and Whens of Change 1. Things that cannot be changed. The sun, the moon. There are constants in the universe. No human being has a spiritual condition that cannot be changed. 2. Things that have potential but, if not nourished properly, will go to waste. When you hear mshAllh she does this and that but then you know there is wasted potential. Al-Ghazli gave the example that you cant plant a date seed and expect to grow apples and you cant plant an apple seed and expect to grow dates. Everyone has unique qualities, and the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) could extract them from people. He channeled someones anger the right way. If a person had leadership qualities, he put them where they would be the most effective. Mudh was sent to Madnah to teach the people. Jfar was eloquent and only 21 years old but was sent to abashah. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, People are like precious stones. The best of you in ignorance are the best of you in Islam if they understand / comprehend. 3. Things that are harmful but can be destroyed with effort ranging from very little to great. Sometimes you attain certain qualities, especially the longer you have been in it, but it can be changed and worked on. 4. Things that can go both ways For example: Facebook. If you are using to post pictures of yourself in the mirror or to send messages to the opposite gender, then it is arm. If you use it for dawah, it can be good.

Imm al-Dhahabi narrates in his biography of the notables (the companions) a story of a man named Jadan who used to be a singer. One day, Abdullh b. Masd was passing by and heard him singing and said, If only he would use that voice to recite Qurn. Jadan heard and started to cry and ran after Abdullh b. Masd. He became pious and Abdullh b. Masds student.

Anger is good with things that are displeasing to Allh. Jealousy is good if you try to act productive so no one surpasses you in religion. Generosity is good as long as the giver doesnt put himself in debt or neglect his family. Courage is good as long as it doesnt make you arrogant. Humility is good as long as it doesnt become disgrace.

Make your desires conform to the Sunnah. Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, No one of you truly believes until his desires conform with what I have brought. You start to desire good.


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Chapter 4 | Understanding Yourself

Your l vs. Your Maqm l and maqm both translate into state or situation, but they mean very different things in Arabic. Your l is the situation you are in right now but you dont necessarily reach maqm until it becomes a pattern of behavior. Can a liar tell the truth? Yes, but it doesnt make him a truthful person the first time he tells a truth. Maqm is the station. For example: the station of truthfulness, the station of generosity, the station of forbearance. When Allh (subnahu wa tala) says, al-birn wal-birt and all these lofty positions, these are people who have reached a pattern of behavior so that they are called by that name. Doing something one time doesnt mean that quality is attributed to you. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Verily a person will tell the truth continuously until he is written with Allh as iddq. A person will lie until Allh writes him down as a liar. Just because you give a lot of money does not make you a generous person. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) mentioned a person who gives $100K versus $1 and said that the $1 surpassed the $100K because the one who gave the $1 only owned $2. The one who gave $100K had a million dollars. The one who gave $1 is more generous than the other. We have characteristic traits but cannot exercise them more because of our circumstances. Ibn Qudmah mentioned that on the way to udaybiyyah, the camel of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) refused to move, and they said the camel was being disobedient. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, The camel did not become disobedient and that is not the character of Qaswah. The only thing that held it back was what held back the elephant. This doesnt mean because of one incident you can assign a trait to a human being.

How far away are you? There are four situations that you could be in when you are far away from Allh. 1. Simple ignorance (jahl bas). Some people are good and want to come to Allh but dont

have any knowledge. When you give them dawah, they become better Muslims than anyone else.

2. Compounded ignorance. A person who is ignorant because they are a follower by nature. They are weak and go with the flow. The ignorance is being fed to them. In the Qurn, Allh divides people into two categories: the leaders and the followers. In Hellfire are the weak people and those who filled themselves with pride. Some people just go with the flow. This person is harder to convince than those in the first category.

3. The innovator (al-mubtadi). The Shayn comes to the person with innovation after shirk. If Shayn cant get you to do shirk, then he would rather get you with innovation than major sin. Shayn would rather you commit bidah than commit adultery and interest. When you commit innovation, you decorate something that is evil and make it look good.


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Imm al-Sufyn al-Thawri said, A person with innovation never makes repentance because he thinks it is good. They do acts that are not from Allh and not from the Sunnah and think that it is a way of coming closer to Allh. Ibn Masd found people in the masjid sitting in a circle and saying tasb with stones. He threw the stones at them and asked them why they were doing this. They said, All we want to do is good. Ibn Masd said, How many people desire good and never reach it? If you dont desist in this, then you will be the enemies of Allh. The narrator said that those people were the first to join the Khawrij. Make sure that what you are doing is proper.

4. Someone who has Satanic characteristics: he is doing wrong and he likes it. He never stops. This person is in the worst situation.

The Three Types of Nufs

1. Nafsl-baheemah: the animal-like self. The one who pursues his desires freely without any form of conscience. Allh (subnahu wa tala) says they are just like the dog with its tongue always out and panting whether you put something in front of it or not.

2. Nafsl-lawwmah: the soul that chastises and blames itself. It tries to do good but falls sometimes. This person holds himself accountable and makes istighfr and comes back to Allh. When this soul is presented with good and evil at the same time is more likely to fall into evil. Allh forgives this type.

3. Nafsl-mumainnah. The soul that is at peace. Imm ibn al-Qayyim said, Whoever is busy with himself is distracted from others. Whoever is busy with Allh is distracted from himself. He is so caught up in pleasing Allh that he forgets his own desires. When Ysuf was in the situation with the wife of al-Azz, Allh says, she wanted him and he wanted her had he not seen the proof of his Lord. Ysuf said, I would rather be imprisoned than do this. He loved Allh that much. When you love Allh, you start to hate things that your soul naturally desires. The soul at peace wants to please Allh and is tranquil. Allh says in the Qurn, O soul at peace, come back to your Lord riyatan mariyyah. Allh is pleased with this soul. A tabii said, To pray two rakahs is more beloved to me than Paradise. His companions said, Why? He said, The two rakahs please Allh and Paradise pleases me and I would rather please Allh. The soul that is at peace become distracted from itself and favors Allh. Imm al-Ghazli said, The greatest punishment in the Hellfire is the chance that was missed to truly know Allh.


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Baar vs. Barah Both mean sight. The scholar Ibn Qudmah said, The body is seen by the baar (eyesight) and the soul is seen by barah (insight). How often do you look at yourself? How often is your introspection? The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Fear the sight (firsah) of a believer. A righteous person can diagnose things so well. One time Imm al-Shfii and Imm Mlik were sitting and someone walked by. Imm Mlik says, He is a shepherd. Imm al-Shfii said, I think he is a carpenter. Someone went to him and asked him his profession and he said, I used to be a shepherd but now Im a carpenter. A person with barah has vision and can look at himself. You naturally feel uncomfortable around certain people. This is the firah.

The Himmah Never Dies Himmah means ambition. If you truly want to change yourself, leave the things that are prohibited and in the red and grey areas. Leave the doubtful matters. We live in an age when we want the easy fatwa. We just want to know how to make something all. We are not willing to commit ourselves and dont really want to change. We just want the easy way out. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, What is permissible has been made clear and what is arm has been made clear and between them are doubtful matters. Whoever grazes around the doubtful matters will fall into it. This is why a believer has war (caution). One of the abah said, We left half of the all things out of fear that we would fall into the arm. There is an axiom in fiqh to always stay away from difference of opinion and stay on the side of caution, and you will be rewarded.

Imm Qdir al-Jilni said, The asant (good deeds) of normal people are the sayyit (bad deeds) of righteous people. For example, you show up for fajr after a long time and caught the second rakah. Another person is always in the first row and never comes later than 30 minutes before alh and if one day he catches just the first takbr and is upset.

A man came to Maymn b. Mahrn (a tabii) for his daughters hand in marriage, and he said that he doesnt approve of her for him because she loved clothes and jewelry too much. The man said he loves those things too, so he then said that he didnt approve of him for her.


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Chapter 5 | Experiencing Change

A Deep Look at the Tazkiyah of Umar b. al-Khab (rayAllhu anhu) He made a complete 360 change in his life. Before Islam, he was someone who used to say that he would beat on his slaves until he tired. He did all of the terrible things everyone else did. He was a drunk. After Islam, in his khilfah a woman stood up and told him that he didnt have the right to restrict the dowry because Allh didnt allow it. Umar said he was once in the house with his wife and she hurt his feelings. He got up and went to sit with the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam). When he got to the door of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam), he heard his daughter afah raising her voice at him, and he became upset and chastised her.

How did Umar change himself? The way he disciplined himself is incredible. One time he was walking in the streets. He used to be the reflection of the Quraysh and was the most arrogant and prideful man. When he was khalfah, he wanted to humble himself. A woman came and said he used to be a little child so he should fear Allh. People went to her and asked her why she made him cry, and he told them to leave her alone because she was the woman who pleaded to Allh (al-mujdilah) and Allh answered her.

When Umar would walk on the street, the kids would run away scared. One time Abdullh b. Zubayr stood there and Umar said, Shouldnt you run away like all the other kids? He said, I dont think the path is too small for both of us. Umar picked him up and laughed and said, This is the son of his father. Uthmn said Umar was perfect as khalfah and what they didnt know of him was even better than what they knew of him.

He used to beat down on slaves, and he later said, How can you enslave a man who was born free? He became a man of justice, and his khilfah was marked with justice. Umar was very unique. He used his traits.

Once the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) was giving a alaqah with women. One time Umar was walking by the alaqah and heard the women raising their voices. He walked in and all of the women ran and hid behind the curtains. Umar said, You enemies of Allh! Come out! You are not ashamed in front of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) and you are ashamed in front of me? The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) was laughing. The women said to Umar, You are harsher and harder. Allh said to the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam), If you were rough and harsh-hearted, they would have run away from you even if you had the revelation. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, You are harsh, but I have seen that when you take a path, the Shayn takes another path. He used his toughness in the right ways and because of that, Allh honored those qualities in him.

He forced himself to cry. He would never cry in jhiliyyah. After Islam, he had two black lines under his eyes because of how much he used to cry. He once walked in on the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) and Abu Bakr after Badr while they were crying and asked them why they were crying so that he could cry too.


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Did Umar cry from reading the verses of Paradise or Hellfire? Some people are different. Some of us cry when we hear Sratl-Ramn. Umar used to always read the verses of punishment because he was a rough man and needed to have fear. He treated himself with the right treatment and read the verses that made him fear Allh.

One time Umar was sitting and the money from the ummah was coming to him. He saw that and got up and told the muadhdhin to call everyone to the masjid. In those days, when the dhn was made and it wasnt a prayer time, it meant war. They all came to the masjid, and Umar said, Bismillh alamdulillh, my name is Umar b. al-Khab, and I used to be a barefoot shepherd in Makkah. Then he stepped down. Umar said, I was sitting and the zakh was coming from all over the world, and my nafs started telling me that I am the king of the world, so I wanted to teach my nafs a lesson.

Umar used to be careless and then would say that he feared an animal in Iraq would complain on the Day of Judgment because its owner overburdened him. He would cry and then laugh and cry and then laugh, and he said he was laughing because he remembered one time during the days of ignorance when they would bring their idols to Makkah, he took dates to make an idol and when he became hungry, he ate his idol.

He remembered his past and consistently humbled himself. He never thought highly of himself. He wanted to be like Abu Bakr in everything and would compete with him. One day he said he was going to beat Abu Bakr and took half of his money to give in charity, and Abu Bakr, not knowing that Umar did this, brought all of his money for charity.

One day during the khalfah of Abu Bakr, Umar went to the outskirts of Madnah to serve the old women who were there and when he knocked on the first house, the woman said that someone had already come. Umar asked who it was and she said she could not tell him, so he waited behind the house and saw Abu Bakr. He said, O Abu Bakr, I have never traveled a path of good except that you have already traveled it. You have exhausted everyone who comes after you. He looked at a higher standard and wanted to be more.

Now that in national interest, the responsibility for leading the Muslims has come to vest in me, I assure you that I will not run away from my post and will make an earnest effort to discharge the onerous duties of the office to the best of my capacity in accordance with the injunction of Islam. Allh has examined me from you and you from me. In the performance of my duties, I will seek guidance from the Holy Book and will follow the examples set by the Holy Prophet and Abu Bakr. In this task I seek your assistance. If I follow the right path, follow me. If I deviate from the right path, correct me so that we are not led astray. - From Amrl-muminn, Umar b. Al-Khabs Inaugural Address

The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, There were people who were muadithn in the nations before me and if there is going to be a muadith in my ummah, it would be Umar.

The Concept of True Ladhdhah (Pleasure)

Allh says the alh is heavy and something that naturally tires you out. The average basketball player in a game will run 9 miles. When you start to enjoy and find pleasure and find your worship as a retreat and an escape from the rest of the world, then not only will it


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become easy but Raslullh would say, Calm us down, O Bill. You will start to desire the prayer and want it because you will know it is the best thing in the world for you.

Faq hl-Nafs This is a concept that is misused. It means the scholar of the soul. How do you start to understand your soul the most and become a scholar of your own soul? This is something very powerful. Imm al-Ghazli gives the example of a calligrapher. Before he can do his own calligraphy, he copies the same calligraphy over and over and over again. Before you can reach any science, you have to sit and copy someone else over and over again. Then you start to recognize what is needed for your soul. This doesnt mean you can leave the Sunnah of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam). It means you become more aware of your weaknesses and how to treat them. You start to diagnose your soul. No two people are exactly the same.

Allh says Isq (alayhil-salm) was a young, knowledgeable man (alm) and Isml (alayhil-salm) was a forbearing man (alm). Weigh yourself against the qualities in the Quran and start to see what can you do and where do you fall in this? Diagnose your own weaknesses and start to figure it out.

If you start to love your good deeds, after this weekend something will change in your life even if it is just one thing. Something will change and you will feel the love in Allh and acts of worship become easy. When you love Allh, it becomes your source of pleasure.

YouTube Video : A Turkish old man praying the whole qiam prayer standing on one leg in Mecca


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Unit 2 | Making the Change

Chapter 1 | Knowledge In the books of tazkiyah, they start talking about knowledge before anything else. People come to classes looking for knowledge and information, but the intention is to learn something entertaining or a cool fact. They want to sound smarter. The books of tazkiyah start with knowledge because it is the purpose of learning.

Allh (subnahu wa tala) says:

Say, Are those who know equal to those who do not know? Only they will remember [who are] people of understanding. (al-Zumar: 9)

Allh is preferring the people of knowledge. Allh also says:

Allh will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge, by degrees. (al-Mujdilah:11)

Allh has elevated the people of belief amongst mankind, and amongst the people of belief, Allh has elevated the people of knowledge degrees.

We have misused the terms shaykh, mufti, and lim. You become a shaykh in two years and mufti in four years. When people who dont like those titles for themselves say they are not a shaykh, the response of the people is that they are just trying to be humble, but they are not to that standard of the people of knowledge.

For someone to claim that they are lim and mufti with just a few years or weekends of study is a disrespectful to our tradition. Shaykh Abdul Musin, a major scholar in Madnah, said at an awards ceremony, Wallhi, I am not even a uwaylibl-ilm (a baby student of knowledge). The more you know, the more you feel ignorant.


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The beauty of our tradition is that it is so fast. If you open a book on the fiqh of worship, there are 80 pages on which water is pure and which water is impure and which water is in between. These 80 pages talking about the purity of water you wont find a scholar in another religion who can write about the foundations of his faith and creed.

There is the term of one who is knowledgeable. Ulem means one who has studied and has ilm or one who has the title of lim. When you hear aadth about ulem, they are talking about one who is more learned than his peers.

Raslullh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, The virtue of a learned person (lim) over the worshipper (bid) is like my virtue over the lowest one of the ummah. This is the difference between the two.

Some people have made knowledge something exclusive and something that can only be gained by a select few while the remaining people should be ignorant. Shaykh Omar and Shaykh Hatem are translating a book The History of Legislation and the author talks about how the ummah went through stages of development when everyone wanted to be a scholar and then a period of imitation where everyone was a follower. There was no longer a process of ijtihd and the doors of knowledge were closed. People were so satisfied with imitation and essential points were being lost.

Imm al-Shabi said, The only people who used to seek this knowledge were those who combined two characteristics: intelligence and worship. If a person was intelligent but not devout, it would be said that only worshippers can attain the knowledge, so he would not seek it. If a person was devout but not intelligent, it would be said that only the intelligent can seek the knowledge, so he would not try to seek it. The worshipper would say that the knowledge belongs to a certain group of people and he cant attain that level. Imm al-Shabi is condemning his generation and said, I fear that one day people who are neither intelligent nor devout will be the ones who claim knowledge because the intelligent will abandon it and the devout will abandon it.

The Importance of Seeking Knowledge Abul-Dard (rayAllhu anhu) reported that the Messenger of Allh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, He who follows a path in quest of knowledge, Allh will make the path of Jannah easy to him. The angels lower their wings over the seeker of knowledge, being pleased with what he does. The inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, and even the fish in the depth of the oceans, seek forgiveness for him. The superiority of the learned man over the devout worshipper is like that of the full moon to the rest of the stars (i.e., in brightness). The learned are the heirs of the Prophets who bequeath neither dnr nor dirham but only that of knowledge; and he who acquires it, has in fact acquired an abundant portion. (Abu Dwd & al-Tirmidhi).

The Intention behind Seeking Knowledge Al-Ghazli said, We started off seeking knowledge for other than Allh, but knowledge refused


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to give itself except for Allh. He belonged to a tradition of scholars and said that when he started off, he was doing it for something else, but he found the knowledge was not being retained and was refusing to come to him. Al-Ghazli went through phases and had an extreme phase where he said things that were compliant with the Sunnah. Imm al-Jawzi summarized the Iya in the book Minhjl-Qidn and included the authentic aadth. Ibn Qudmah wrote Muqtaar Minhjl-Qidn.

Al-Ghazli tells a story: One time I was walking and had all my books. A thief came and stole all of my money and all of my books. I called out to the thief and asked, Can I have my books back? You will not use them anyway. The man said to him, Is your knowledge in these books? I said, Yes. The thief then said, How will you claim to have any knowledge then? The thief shamed him, and he spent some time purifying his intention. Bidyatl-Hidyah is a book on his journey finding Allh and purifying his intentions.

Make sure that you are seeking knowledge from the right reasons, otherwise from the very start, your pursuit will not be blessed, and Allh will humiliate you. Abdullh b. Masd once told a man, If you are going to seek knowledge for one of three reasons, then dont seek it. The first one is if you want to seek knowledge so that you can shame the ignorant Many times people will take one class and go home and tell their parents that everything they have been doing is bidah and arm. All of a sudden they are shaming their parents, which is not the intention of the classes. The problem is not with the knowledge but with the intention of the person seeking the knowledge. Or if you like arguing with the people of knowledge. Or if you are doing it so that you can draw attention to yourself. Sometimes people say, Shaykh, I want to go to Madnah or go study because I want to be a big speaker like x or y. The life of a speaker is not as glamorous as you think it is. It is not fun to be away from your family so many days of the week. Also, if that is why you are starting to seek knowledge, then there is something wrong. If you want to be a big-shot speaker, then it is wrong. Ibn Masd said, If you are doing it for one of those three reasons, then dont do it.

The amount of intention and sincerity will show in its efforts. When someone has sincerity, they will continuously work and show enthusiasm. If a person has sincerity in the masjid, then it doesnt matter what transitions the board goes through but he will keep on working the same way because he wasnt doing it for them in the first place. Enthusiasm and effort come from sincerity.

Abu Hurayrah (rayAllhu anhu) reported that the Messenger of Allh (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, He who does not acquire knowledge with the sole intention of seeking the Pleasure of Allh but for worldly gain will not smell the fragrance of Jannah on the Day of Resurrection. (Abu Dwd).

The Effort of Seeking Knowledge Abdullh narrated on the authority of his father Yaya: Knowledge cannot be acquired with sloth. When you read the name Abdullh by itself in books of tafsr or fiqh, it refers to Ibn Masd. When you read al-asan refers to al-asan al-Bari.


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Abdullh (this is Abdullh b. Yaya b. Man) said on the authority of his father Yaya, Knowledge cannot be acquired by laziness. Al-Qi Abu Ysuf is the greatest scholar in the anafi madh-hab (if not the second greatest). He said, Al-ilm (knowledge) will not give you part of it unless you give it all of you. You will not attain even a little bit of knowledge unless you give it your all. Imm Amad was the most famous scholar in the world towards the end of his life. He wanted to study from different scholars who were inferior to him. He was attending the circles of his students and would wrap his face and act like someone else. Imm Siraaj Wahaj said, One of the problems we see with Western scholars and imms is that none of them attend each others lectures. Compare that to the scholars of the past who would sit in the lectures of their students. Imm Amad really wanted to learn from a scholar in Yemen of the name Abdul-Razzq al-Sinni who was a famous scholar of adth. Abdul-Razzq wanted to study with Imm Amad, but Imm Amad beat him to it. Imm Amad said he was going to go to ajj and ask him to study with him, but he was too poor to go to ajj, so he took a job carrying peoples luggage. On the way to ajj, he was carrying peoples luggage. He reached ajj. At that time, it was a journey requiring months of time. He gets to ajj and sees Imm Abdul-Razzq, and Imm Abdul-Razzq says, May Allh forgive you. I would have come to you. What questions do you have? He said, I have to come to you in your home and learn from you there. Imm Amad in ajj took a job to carry peoples luggage to Yemen to follow Imm Abdul-Razzq to sit with him and ask him five questions. The people in the past traveled from city to city and took a journey of months to learn one adth. Now we have the internet, scholars who come to you and scholars in your own locality and people still dont go. The effort comes from the sincerity a person has. In those days, the scholars would only take you as a student if you were sincere. Al-Amash wanted people to work hard for the knowledge. He had a dog in front of his house and said that if anyone wanted to learn aadth, they had to get past the dog. When the dog died, he was sad and said, This dog died fisabilillh. If you really want it, you have to struggle for it. Abdullh b. Abbs became the scholar of this ummah at the age of 13. He spent less than 3 years with the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam). He was 10 years old when he started with the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam), but he was so keen on following his every move and observing him and learning from him. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) made du for him: O Allh, give him an understanding of this religion. When the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) died, Abdullh b. Abbs told his friend, Today all of the abah are here, so lets go start seeking knowledge from them. His habit became to sleep in front of the doors of the abah until they came out. They would ask him, Why are you doing this? You are the cousin of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam). He said, Knowledge has to be pursued. The abah would start checking their doors before sleeping to make sure he was not sleeping there. This is why he became the great person he became. People who start off with a bad intention get paid back and Allh exposes them. He has a beautiful statement: I humiliated and humbled myself as a student, so I was honored as a


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teacher. He went through the trials and hardship of knowledge and did not stop and was not arrogant with his teachers. He was not pursuing it for the wrong reasons. The students of those students of knowledge who start attacking other scholars and arguing with other people end up doing the same thing to them and they are exposed the same away. The reason why you make effort is because the believer cannot stand to not know about his Lord. What does this mean? Imm Ibn Uthaymn was asked about blind following and said, Blind following is permissible, but it is like going to the bathroom. You know you have to do it, but you dont want to live in the bathroom your entire life. This means that the believer wants to know everything about his Lord and his dn. adth: The believer is never satisfied. His thirst is never quenched from good that he would hear. As much as the students immersed themselves in knowledge,e they were afraid of saying that they knew everything, and they would easily say, I dont know. Allah knows best. (Shaykh Amad Shkir classified it as authentic, Imm al-Ghazli classified it as weak) They were afraid to speak about knowledge because they realized, once they immersed themselves in it, how extensive it really is. Imm al-Shabi, the teacher of Imm Abu anfah, was asked a question and said, I dont know. The man said, What kind of a scholar are you then? He said, Even the angels said we dont know, so if they can say this then who am I? In Sratl-Baqarah, the angels said they dont know. A person immerses himself with the efforts and doesnt do it to argue with people or to shame anyone and he doesnt do it to claim that he has all knowledge, and he is not ashamed to say, I dont know, when he doesnt know, and he actually likes saying I dont know because it is the safer answer. Ibn Abbs (rayAllhu anhu) narrated something about Umar b. Al-Khab (rayAllhu anhu). Bonds based on knowledge are beautiful. Umar says, I used to have a neighbor from the anr who would live in the area of Bani Ummayyah, and we used to take turns with the alaqah of the Messenger (allallhu alayhi wa sallam). My neighbor would attend one day and I would attend the other day, and we would teach each other what we learned. You cant make it to every class, but you want others to tell you what they learned. You want to try to gather as much as you can. Imm al-Dhahabi said that from time of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) his time to his time, he documented 10,000 women scholars of adth. When people ask the question why arent women imms? Tell them that we settled that a long time ago. A scholar of adth has a much higher status than an imm. It is obviously not because of her status that a woman should not be an imm because otherwise she wouldnt be a scholar of adth. Imm al-Dhahabi said, There has never been a weak female narrator of adth. In ilml-rijl, there has never been a weak female narrator of adth. There is an idea outside and inside of the community that women should not learn. People dont think I want my daughter to be a scholar or lim. Unfortunately we dont think that way and we have devalued the concept of women seeking knowledge in our dn. ishah (rayAllhu anha) said, The best women are the women of the anr because they didnt allow


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their sense of modesty to stop them from seeking knowledge. Imm Ibn Hajar described how the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) forbade the men from forbidding the women from going to the masjid and said, One of the reasons for that is their insistence on seeking knowledge. The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) gave them a separate day to teach them, and they still wanted to attend the alaqaht. The adth of the punishment of the grave is narrated by Asm bint Abi Bakr, and she said, I was trying to hear what he (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) was saying, but the men were crying so loudly I couldnt hear. When people were leaving, I started to ask what was making everyone cry. They said, The Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, Verily in the grave there is a trial that is more severe than the trial of al-Dajjl. She was there and wanted to know. Look at the lives of the wives of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam). The books of aadth would be incomplete with the aadth of the ishah (rayAllhu anha). Some scholars said that some of the wisdom behind Allh commanding the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) to marry her while she was young was that so she could live longer to teach us about the Sunnah of the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam). She narrated over 1,600 aadth and gives us the inner look of how he was inside of his house. Urwah b. Zubayr said, I have heard the speeches of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthmn, Ali, and Abu Ubaydah b. Jurrah and none were as eloquent as ishah. This shows that they did not look at her scholarship as a threat or as something that was wrong. Ibn Taymiyyah said, 48% of the fatwa from the companions came from Umm Salamah. She was a great scholar and advised the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) in udaybiyyah. Abu Msa al-Ashari said, We, the companions of Allhs Messenger, never had difficulty in understanding aadth except that when we asked ishah, she knew everything about it. ishah was asked by the senior companions about inheritance laws. Women should step up their game and become scholars and fill the void that we have in the ummah today.

Being Purified by Knowledge

The Distinction between Ban Isr l and the Ummah of Muammad (allal lhu alayhi wa sal lam)

Allh (subnahu wa tala) has commanded us to be purified by the knowledge and internalize it first. In the Qurn in Sratl-Baqarah, Ibrhm (alayhil-salm) makes a du to Allh and says, O Allh, send amongst them a prophet who will teach them the book and the wisdom and purify them. Imm al-Shfii said in the Qurn, ikmah means Sunnah. Allh answered the du thousands of years later. In Sratl-Jumuah, Allh says, He is the one sent amongst the illiterate. A messenger from amongst them who would recite upon them his verses and purify them thereby and teach them the application of it (ikmah). Allh put tazkiyah before application. Allh perfected the du of Ibrhm (alayhil-salm). After this, Allh describes how the scholars of the children of Isrl were. They were like donkeys stacking books on top of their backs. They had much knowledge and understanding, but it was never internalized,


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so they used the law for inappropriate reasons. The knowledge did not penetrate the heart and it became a disease for them. The most important function of knowledge is to allow your heart to be enlightened by it. Imm Mlik said, Knowledge is not memorizing numerous narrations but is instead a light that Allh places in the heart of the believer. The reason why we pursue knowledge is for tazkiyah and not to learn interesting facts. Imm al-Shabi was asked the name of Iblss wife, and he said, I dont know because I wasnt invited to the wedding! Everyone will get from knowledge what he wants. The greatest indication that your pursuit of knowledge is not for a sincere intention is when you only want to learn something interesting or cool. One of the first things people start to delve into is the fitnah and the battle between Ali and Muwiyah and determining who was right. Imm Abu anfah was asked, What do you think about what happened between Ali and Muwiyah? He said, I seriously doubt that on the Day of Judgment that Allh will ask me about Ali and Muwiyah. Allh is going to ask me about Numn (his name). We should try to stay away from knowledge that is not beneficial. There is a famous story: Sufyn b. Uyaynah, a great scholar of adth, once had a student with him who was following him around and attending his lectures. Sufyn wanted to know what he is learning and asked him to share the knowledge. He said, I learned three aadth. I learned the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) loves sweets and honey. I learned the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, If ish prayer and food coincide, eat first. I learned that the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said, The reward has gone to the people who have not fasted. (referring to when people are on a journey). What are you looking for? You will get what you are looking for. Sometimes someone sits in a alaqah and the Prophet (allallhu alayhi wa sallam) said in an authentic adth, It may be that the listener of good comprehends it better than the speaker. Sometimes the person who is listening will catch something that the speaker never understood or thought about from the adth. Because of the purity of your heart and the purity of your intellect and what you are looking for, you will turn it into something purifying for you and understand it and comprehend it even more than the speaker. Umar b. Abdul-Azz said, Whoever makes his religion the object of argumentation will frequently change it. Dont make your religion a religion of argumentation. You can give naah, but then move on and dont be a frequent arguer. Du of Abul-Dard:

I ask Allh for mn that never wears out, for certainty that is truthful, and for knowledge that is beneficial.


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Choosing the Right Scholar Many times people say, How do I know whether or not I should be learning from this person? How do we figure it out? Many people think that scholars are insignificant in our religion and there is no need for them. In the US, there is an academic trend and people think that the knowledge belongs to everyone so anyone can say what he wants. We need to address the no scholar mentality. The ulem have protected the knowledge and tradition of this religion for centuries, so we cannot say that anyone can do it and that we dont need scholars. The concept of ijm (consensus of the scholars) has protected the religio

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