Cure for the Darkened Hearts

My Respected Teacher mentioned that we hear so many speeches and advises from the scholars and at the time we feel inspired but as soon as we leave their company, our "fizz" goes down. Nothing seems to settle in our hearts. Furthermore, in some people's case, nothing penetrates at all. Allah save us!

This is due to a covering that has settled over the heart. This is the veil created by the darkness caused by continued sinning, without repentance (as we learn from the hadith of Sayyiduna Abu Huraira, recorded by Imam Tirmidhi in his Sunan).

It is reported from Sayyiduna Abd 'Allah ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with them), that Allah's Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "Surely, the hearts rust like iron rusts."
It was asked: "What is its cure?"
So, he replied: "(1)The recitation of the Qur'an, and (2) the rememberance of death."

(This hadith has been mentioned by Imam Ghazali in his Ihya' Ulum al-Deen. Hafizh al-Iraqi has said that Imam Baihaqi has recorded this hadith in his collection, Shu'b al-Imaan, with a weak chain of narration).

My Respected Teacher spoke mainly regarding the first cure in this gathering. He said that the Noble Qur'an is owed three rights:

1) We have utmost respect for it in our hearts, and this is portrayed physically.
2) We recite it- with all the rules of Tajweed (i.e. pronounce all letters correctly etc).
3) We act upon its commands (like, perform Salah, do not backbite, do not spy, etc).

Steps to Success

(My Respected Teacher holds an inspiring gathering for the youth after 11.30pm on Friday and Saturday nights, and insha' Allah this gathering will be taking place every night in the last ten nights of Ramadan. So far there have been three gatherings, below is a brief summary of each):

Lesson One: We must attach ourselves to the Qur'an; recite it, make an effort to understand it and act upon its teachings. Along with this, we should make utmost effort to bring the sunna into our lives.

Allah Ta'ala says:

"...And whatever the Messenger gives you, take it, and whatever he forbids you from, abstain from it..." (Qur'an, 59:7)

• Also, we should make a point of supplicating to Allah Ta'ala (Du'a) frequently. We should make it a daily practice to turn to Allah Ta'ala and repent for our sins and beg him for our needs.

It is reported from Sayyiduna Ubada ibn al-Saamit (Allah be pleased with him) that Allah's Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:

"There is no servant on earth who makes a supplication to Allah, except that Allah gives him that [which he asks for], or removes some difficulty from him accordingly; as long as he does not ask for the breaking of ties or a sinful thing..." (Tirmidhi)

Lesson Two: We must be dutiful, obedient and respectful to our parents. In return, not only will Allah grant us success in the Hereafter, He will give us ease and comfort in this life.

It is reported from Sayyiduna Abu Bakra (Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:

"Allah delays [punishment] of all sins until the Day of Resurrection, except disobedience to parents; for Allah hastens [the punishment for it] upon that person in this life, before his death." (Haakim)

It is reported from Sayyiduna Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) that Allah's Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:

"The scent of Paradise can be smelt from the distance of five hundred years (i.e. the distance one could travel in five hundred years), but the one who gives reminders of his [good] works, the one who is undutiful to his parents and the alcoholic will not even smell it [let alone enter Paradise!]." (Tabarani in his al-Mu'jam al-Sageer)

Lesson Three: We must choose good company. The company of the pious will automatically have its positive effect on a person, as will the company of the unrighteous. We should keep those friends who bring us towards Allah Ta'ala; the masjid, the gatherings of Islamic talks, etc. And we should keep friends who will be of benefit to us in the Hereafter. We do not want to regret a friendship we keep in this life and be like the one Allah describes in the Qur'an, who will say:

"Woe to me! Would that I had not taken so-and-so as a friend." (Qur'an, 25:28)

On the other hand, the pious friends we keep will be a source of relief and joy in the Hereafter, Allah Ta'ala says:

"Friends, on that day, will become enemies to one another, except the God-fearing." (Qur'an, 43:67)

Thus, Allah Ta'ala says:

"O you who believe, fear Allah, and be in the company of the truthful." (Qur'an, 9:119)

Blank Cheques

In regards to the month of Ramadhan my respected teacher, Maulana Imran Sahib, mentioned an example which gives us an implication of the value of this month:

The value of Ramadhan is like that of  thirty blank cheques; priceless. The value of this cheque is dependent on the individual who fills the cheque. If the person filling the cheque has any idea as to the value of the cheque then he will surely fill out a great amount.

In the same manner, we have been given a blank cheque which we have been told to fill in on a daily basis. Each day our actions will determine what amount the cheque is to be made of. The greater efforts we make, the greater the amount of the cheque.

May Allah give us all the inclination and ability to reap the benefits of this month and may He give us the strength and will power to refrain from sins. Aameen.

SINS AND ITS EFFECTS

It is important for every Muslim to abstain from all sins.

Every sin has a detrimental effect on the perpetrator.

Sin harms one’s Imaan (faith) and creates weakness in it.

The Holy Qur’an and Ahadith are filled with warnings regarding sins and their injurious and detrimental effects.

Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala states:

“And they disobeyed the messenger of their Lord, so He seized them with an extremely severe seizure.” (Quran, 69:10)

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah Radhiallahu Anhu narrates that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said: "When a Mu'min commits a sin, a black spot forms on his heart. If he repents, the black mark is removed and his heart is purified. If he continues committing sins, the black mark increases. This is the corrosion of the heart spoken of by Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala (in the Holy Qur'an).” (Tirmidhi)

Sayyiduna Mu’adh Radhiallahu Anhu narrates that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said:

“Guard yourselves against sin because the Wrath of Allah descends in the wake of sin." (Ahmad)

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik Radhiallahu Anhu narrates that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said:

"Should I not show you your sickness and its remedy? Your sickness is sinning and your remedy is to seek istighfaar (forgiveness)." (Baihaqi)

Sayyiduna Thawban Radhiallahu Anhu narrates that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said:

“Indeed a person is deprived of livelihood because of a sin he commits.” (Ibn Majah)

It has been narrated in the book Hilyat al-Awliya' that Sayyiduna Muhammad bin Sirin felt so apprehensive because of an old debt, he said: “I know that the cause of this anxiety is a sin which I had committed forty years ago.”

Therefore, it is of utmost importance for every individual to leave and repent from his sins. Whether, it may be a minor or major, inward or outward sin. It is our duty to Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala that we leave all sins.

Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala states:

“Leave outward sin and inward sin. Surely, those who commit sin shall be punished for what they used to commit.” (Quran, 6:120)

Today many people give attention to outward sins and rarely to those sins which are related to the inner self. One must be aware of their existence, of their ailments, and of the deleterious complications and troubles that ensue from them, and recognise that these diseases prevent one from attaining the courtesy of Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala.

Knowledge of the diseases of the heart, their causes and how to remove them is an obligation on every sane adult Muslim.

Importance of Writing Deeni Knowledge

My respected teacher mentioned the importance of writing deeni knowledge:

Always write down what you have heard regarding deeni matters. The reason is because a person's heart is slightly to the left of the body. When a person writes Arabic, he or she will write from right to left, hence the words go straight to the heart. For this reason, whenever something is written down, it is said that the knowledge will go directly into the heart.

When a person does tawaf of the Ka'bah, they do tawaf anti-clockwise, which means the heart is closest to the Ka'bah. Hence when a person hears deeni knowledge, he / she should write it down as soon as possible as it has an effect on the heart.

Spirituality in Islam

The following is the audio and transcript of an online event held on Ad-Deen

Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem,

قَد أَفلَحَ مَن زَكَّٮٰهَا وَقَد خَابَ مَن دَسَّٮٰهَا

[Surah 91: Verse 9-10]

إِنَّ الله يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ المُتَطَهِّرِينَ

[Surah 2: Verse 222]

Before I go on, there are some aadaab (etiquettes) of listening to these talks because it is not a lecture or any odd lesson, or a dunyawi (worldly) lesson where if you don't want to give attention, you don't. This is a deeni lesson. Insha Allaah if you listen carefully, who knows that Allah swt might make that a source of our salvation.Those people who do not respect, they do not gain anything. Respect is so important:

وَمَن يُعَظِّم شَعَـٰٓٮِٕرَ ٱللَّهِ فَإِنَّهَا مِن تَقوَى القُلُوبِ

Those who respect the sha-aa'ir of Allah swt, then that is the piety of the heart.

[Surah 22: verse 32]

Since the talk of respect has come, I will elaborate: a person who takes a joke out of niqab, salah, a sunnah, those things which are connected with Allah swt, with sharee'ah, disrespecting masjids. Disrespecting Ulama - because they are knowledgeable people, because they have knowledge of the Qur'an and Hadeeth, if one disrespects them, disrespects Qur'an, disrespects sunnah, then that person firstly will face the consequence in this world, then the hereafter.

وَمَن أَعرَضَ عَن ذِكرِى فَإِنَّ لَهۥ مَعِيشَةً۬

[Surah 20: Verse 124]

So one should try to respect these sorts of gatherings. If one is sitting and listening for the sake of pleasure, or talking, then that person will never benefit.

So first and foremost, insha Allaah, we make this firm intention that we have logged into this programme, insha Allaah we will first make our intention clear and insha Allah we will ask Allah swt to guide us & we'll ask Allah swt to give us the tawfeeq to respect this sort of programme and insha Allah we will benefit.

The ayah which I recited, Allah swt says:

إِنَّ الله يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ المُتَطَهِّرِين

Indeed Allah swt loves those who seek spiritual purity and loves those who seek physical purity

[Surah 2: Verse 222]

Tawwab means the one who seeks tawbah, who repents to Allah swt for all sins.

Mutatahhirreen are those who seek physical purity.

Spirituality is essential to our deen. It is attached with everything. Even if one reads Salah. If one does without spirituality, he will not gain that much reward and that much benefit out of it. Just take this ayah:

إِنَّ الله يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ المُتَطَهِّرِينَ

[Surah 2: Verse 222]

Spiritual purity i.e. purity from spiritual diseases. Try to make oneself pure from envy, from enmity, jealousy, hatred, arrogance, all those things.

A person who is impure physically, for example, he is in need of ghusl, he is in need of wudhu', he needs water, and if he doesn't, his salah will not be valid. He will not be called a pure person. Similarly, if one is impure spiritually, imagine, how will his salah be valid? If a person is fasting from dawn until dusk, if he doesn't eat and if he does not fulfill all the fiqhi rules of observing sawm, if you ask a Mufti, he will say your fast is done. But if you go and ask a Awliya, a wali of Allah swt who is into spirituality, if you ask him: Whilst committing sins whilst fasting, is my fast valid? He will say: you might have to keep it again because:

من لم يدع قول الزور والعَمَل به فليس لله حاجة أن يدع طعامه وشرابه

This is the Hadeeth regarding Ramadhan where Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says:

"Whoever does not leave falsehood, Allah is not in need of him that he should leave his food and his drink."

Just imagine, a person is keeping a fast but at the end of the day, with that fast he is committing major and minor sins, how will his sowm be valid? Obviously, we are not free from sins, we may commit sins, but with that we need to keep in mind that we need to do tawbah immediately. Allah swt says:

إِنَّ الله يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ

Indeed Allah swt loves those who seek spiritual purity

[Surah 2: Verse 222]

For physical purity one needs water and that water should be pure as well. Similarly, for spiritual purity, he needs water and that water should also be pure and that water is called tears from the eyes. Remorse and regret upon his sins, upon his spiritual diseases. Allah swt will forgive those sins and make him pure from those spiritual diseases. One cannot attain that easily. He has to work hard, and if he does work hard:

وَالَّذِينَ جَـاهَدُوا فِينَا

Whoever strives hard in Our path

[Surah 29: Verse 69]

Allah swt says, We will make it easy for them [with help of Allah swt]. We need to turn towards Allah swt.

So I was saying:

إِنَّ الله يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ المُتَطَهِّرِينَ

[Surah 2: Verse 222]

If a person seeks physical purity, Allah loves him, similarly, Allah loves those who seek spiritual purity.

In salah as well, Ulama say, in Salat al-Shar'ee that we read,there is also Salatut Tareeqah, which means tasawwuf salah (the spiritual salah) which is for the ritual prayer (the salah shar'ee). It has been prescribed by Allah swt. As Allah swt says:

حَـافِظُوا عَلَى الصَّلَوَٲتِ

Be careful to observe the ritual prayers

Then He says:

وَالصَّلَوةِ الوُسطَىٰ

Especially the middle prayer

[Surah 2: Verse 238]

The ritual prayer consists of postures adopted by the outer members of the body. Similarly, the middle prayer. This means the prayer of the heart, prescribed everlasting by the Qur'anic verse. We have to observe the 5 times salah, as well as the prayer of the heart - constant remembrance of Allah swt and that is also a prayer. Likewise, there is ruku', sujood etc., similarly through our heart we have to bow in front of Allah swt. May Allah swt guide us and give us the tawfeeq. As Allah swt says:

إِنَّ الله يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ وَيُحِبُّ المُتَطَهِّرِينَ

Indeed Allah swt loves those who seek spiritual purity

[Surah 2: Verse 222]

Allah swt give us the tawfeeq to seek that spiritual purity. This is the main thing. Today, we listen, we do so much deeni work, we put so much effort into it but at the end of the day, the spirituality is not there. the roohaniyat as we say. The connection, the sincerity (ikhlaas). Insha Allah if we ask from Allah swt, He will give. I am not saying that everyone is like that but we seek that sincerity, we need to find that and we need to ask Allah swt to give us that tawfeeq to have that ikhlaas and to create that spirituality.

There are shuyookh out there who we should do bay'ah to (pledge allegiance) and keep contact with them as Allah swt says:

يَـأَيُّہَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا اتَّقُوا ٱللَّهَ وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّـادِقِينَ

O believers! Fear Allah (swt)

How to fear Allah swt? Allah swt says:

وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّـادِقِينَ

Stay with the saadiqeen.

[Surah 9: Verse 119]

- Meaning ma'iyyat (stay in the company of those who are truthful, with those who are awliya of Allah swt,, those who are close to Allah swt).

Sadiqeen
- Stay with saadiqeen because the Nabis have gone. After nabis are siddeeq, the sadiqeen. And these are the darajaat of awliya e kiram.

May Allah swt give us the tawfeeq to seek purity from all spiritual diseases. For example, pride, arrogance, hatred, jealousy.

Pride
One of the diseases of the heart where Hadhrat Shaykh rahimahullah, he has written a book called Ummul Amraaz. “Mother of all [evil] diseases”. Because through pride, all other diseases come into existence.

Just imagine, Shaytan, regarding him, it has been mentioned that he is from jinn.

كَانَ مِنَ الجِنِّ فَفَسَقَ عَن أَمرِ رَبِّهِ

Shaytan was from jinn. [Allah (swt) says,] he went against His Lord’s hukm (order).

[Surah 19: Verse 50]

When Allah (swt) said that you have to perform sajdah:

أَبَىٰ وَاستَكبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الكَـٰفِرِينَ

He denied. He had takabbur.He was amongst those who denied

[Surah 2: verse 34]

Regarding him it is mentioned that he performed ibaadah in such a way that he did not leave any single place in the whole universe where he did not do sajdah. And because of that, Allah swt gave him the rank that because of his ibaadah, he was counted as amongst the angels.

When we study the Qur’an by ourselves (DIY) – many people study themselves. There is a hadeeth in which Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says:

إِنَّمَا العِلمُ بِالتَّعَلُّم

Knowledge is with ta’alluq

- With being a student. If a person is a student, he is gaining from his teacher but if a person is only gaining knowledge from Mufti google only, or some other sources, he will not get any understanding of deen. Directly he just goes to pick a book up, he just picks up the translation of the Qur'an and he reads, now I ask him this question, that Allah swt says:

وَإِذ قُلنَا لِلمَلَاٮِٕكَةِ اسجُدُوا لِأَدَمَ فَسَجَدُوٓا إِلَّآ إِبلِيسَ

Remember the time when We said to the angels: Do sajdah to Adam (as). They all did but Iblees didn't [do sajdah].

[Surah 19: Verse 50]

So from here we can understand that Allaah swt is saying,

وَإِذ قُلنَا لِلمَلَاٮِٕكَةِ

This means that iblees was from amongst the angels. On the other hand, Allah says in surah kahaf:

كَانَ مِنَ الجِنِّ فَفَسَقَ عَن أَمرِ رَبِّهِ

Iblees was from jinnaat, so now it contradicts! But ulama write, that he did so much ibadah that he had the rank of being counted amongst the angels that’s why Allah said:

وَإِذ قُلنَا لِلمَلَاٮِٕكَةِ اسجُدُوا لِأَدَمَ

Because of his 'ibaadah he was counted amongst the angels and When Allah swt asked all the angels, he was also asked to bow, to prostrate in front of Adam (as). But because he had that takabbur (pride), that arrogance, that how dare Adam (as) overcome me. He was created from soil. Logic says this.

In sharee'ah, the mas'alah says that one should wipe upon his leather socks but the logic says that one should wipe underneath the socks but no, we have to submit in front of of Allah swt. Similarly, Shaytan, in him, this takabbur, it came up and it is said:

أَبَىٰ وَاستَكبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الكَـٰفِرِينَ

He denied and he said

خَلَقتَنِى مِن نَّارٍ۬ وَخَلَقتَهُ ۥ مِن طِينٍ۬

O Allah you created me from fire and you created him from soil, how can I do sajdah?

- Because logically, if you light a fire, its flame goes up and if you throw the soil up, it goes down. I am superior and he is inferior. How can a superior do sajdah in front of an inferior person? Allah swt didn’t like this. Allah swt said:

فَاخرُج

Go away

[Surah 15: verse 34]

Shaytan ruined his life by this.So it is takabbur, he did so much ibaadah but because of one single takabbur, one single moment of this pride came up, Allah swt said, you are away from my presence.

Allah swt says:

Pride is My sheet, whoever tries to snatch it away from Me, I will break his neck.

Here Allah swt is using this word because his head is too high. If his neck is broken, he has nothing to be boasting about. This means that Allah will not literally break his neck. Allah swt says, Allah will make him suffer in such a way that he will have this punishment int his world and int he hereafter. So may Allah swt give us the tawfeeq to seek the purity from all spiritual diseases and give us twfeeq to bring all good spiritual characteristics like shukr, sabr and so forth and may Allah give us tawfeeq to get rid of takabbur (pride), arrogance, envy, enmoty, jeaousy, hatred etc. And may Allah swt give us the understanding of deen. The ayah which I read at the beginning, Allah awt says:

قَد أَفلَحَ مَن زَكَّٮٰهَا 

One should be constant behind purifuing himself.. He should ask himself, I am purified or not? I fnit, he should keep trying util he dies.

May Allah swt give us the tawfeeq.