About Book of wisdom:
“Muslim religious life not only consists of belief in orthodox tenets of faith and a determined effort to follow the Sacred Law, it also requires one to scale the heights of the spiritual path. The Kitab al-Hikam of Shaykh Ibn Ata illah al-Iskandari is the inspiring explanation of the soul s journey through this life, as determined through the Qur an and Sunna. Along with his treatises and intimate discourses (munajat), the substantive feature of the work is the author s 264 spiritual aphorisms (hikam) concise, comprehensive and sublime sayings on self purification (tazkiya), and guidelines to help strengthen the relationship between humans and their Lord. These aphorisms, which have never failed to inspire, are presented in this edition according to the systematic arrangement of the great Indian scholar Shaykh Ali Muttaqi (d. 975/1567), together with the indispensable commentary of the twentieth-century sage Shaykh Abdullah Gangohi.” – From Amazon
start from wisdom number 94. as a culmination of several of the previous ones what ibn’s is saying is “Deprivation hurts you only because of the lack of your understanding of Allah in it when you’re deprived of something when you’ve been prevented from something when you have no longer access to something or when you’ve not been able to attain something in the first place you’ve been deprived it hurts you it’s a normal human feeling”
You would expect that people get hurt when they’re deprived of something but what he’s saying here is that deprive deprivation only hurts you because of the lack of your understanding of Allah in it. That’s a really interesting idea.
It only hurts you because of a lack of your understanding in Allah but for some people it will continue to hurt them.
So let us try to understand what this is saying especially in light of several of the other ones that we read before for example.
This one is wisdom number 94 before this was 93 in which it was it said when he gives he shows you his kindness, when he deprives he shows you his power and in all of that he is making himself known to you and coming to you with his gentleness so his gentleness is in all of that though it’s difficult for us to understand and maybe able to come to terms with that if it can life will become extremely easy so what it means by when he says it’s due to your lack of understanding of Allah, lack of recognition of Allah, lack of understanding who he is and how he works because if somebody understands Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that would mean that you know him you know the way Allah is in different situations if you reckon you know.
Someone or somebody comes to you and says you know I’m having this little issue with this person or whatever but don’t worry about it he’ll be sorted in two days he’ll be fine after two days he may be angry right now but he’ll be fine in two days.
you know him you know that person so you can give some assurance to someone sometimes that look that’s the way they do things.
Oh yesterday I was walking and he just completely ignored me. No brother that’s just sometimes, he’s just so occupied or something he doesn’t notice you it’s not as bad as you think otherwise if you fail to acknowledge somebody it could just cause such a huge rift.
if you’re a distracted kind of person who’s constantly on your phone or thinking about something else or busy or just occupied with some.
you know personal issues it’s possible that you may just ignore somebody people just uh think that you’ve been ignoring them.
purposely once somebody you know masjid when we were in america one of my friends he said that there’s such a brother he reckons that you always ignore him i said that’s really interesting i mean i never never knew i was ignoring him i had no such intention never actively done so what happens with imams is that when you leave the masjid everybody kind of wants to ask you a question or meet you so generally the pushy guys they get through.
you know the guys who are more bold or whatever they’re the ones who get through and even if you’re speaking to somebody’s pushy guy sometimes they come in and they just do their bit even though you’re speaking to somebody they don’t stand on the side and wait for you to finish they sometimes come and do that sometimes i can maybe understand if somebody’s just taking extra time and they’ve got to go or something maybe it’s understandable and then there’s some people who are maybe overly polite or maybe just polite whatever the circumstance it just depends right and they just don’t ever get to talk to you or whatever and maybe they’ve got an important issue so it taught me a lesson that when you go out while you may be engaged and for good reason you may be engaged with somebody but don’t you know do look around and see if there’s somebody else waiting at least acknowledge them and say i’ll be with you shortly this way this person will also know there’s somebody else waiting.
you learn you don’t i mean nobody really takes your arm tears let’s go outside the masjid as an imam and let me teach you how to do this
i don’t think that was ever taught to me like that because i don’t know do these things get taught i don’t know but anyway i’m too i’m doing it now i’m sharing my experience so sometimes people just get really upset with things so anyway here says you need to know Allah
because when you know Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that would make you aware of the way he works now knowing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
there’s lots of muslims who know Allah subhana wa ta’ala when his good times i’m talking about believers who are somewhat conscious of Allah when his good things are going on we recognize thank you Allah jazakAllah alhamdulillah look all of this good is happening i’m getting this and i’m getting that and i got this deal and i got masha’Allah my children have done this and masha’Allah i was able to do all of this in ramadan and and so on and so forth. so when he’s in his jamaal when he’s in his giving when he is in his beauty his elegance when he’s showing you his beauty and all of that most people will recognize him at least religious mind mindful people will recognize that but to really know Allah means you need to know him in all of his states now with somebody else there’s so many cases we’ve had where you’ve got a really good friend and they’re upset with you but you think they’re being overly sensitive or overly reactive or they’re being overly harsh and over the top even though you love them you love these people but you think they’re just being overly harsh for no reason or overly sensitive for no reason right so you could have that kind of a complaint about even somebody you love.
in this world somebody who you know looks out for you but humans can be off balance humans can be offered because there’s just so many factors that influence us in different ways while normally we’re balanced there could be one issue that just upsets us to such a degree that we become imbalanced about it seeing good good people becoming balanced imbalanced like Allah subhanahu wa Allah does not become balanced whenever he’s doing anything even if it sounds the harshest thing right now.
as long as you think you’re doing the right thing and you’ve consulted about it then he’s got some other idea there and sometimes your best friend can be an oppressor because he’s become imbalanced he could become oppressive that could be tantamount to like proper vuln where maybe in hindsight they will realize their mistake.
but with Allah he doesn’t make mistakes he never does anything oh no i should have done it differently so now let’s change it.
he never does that he knows well in advance he just knows everything anyway what the outcome is going to be so he doesn’t need there’s no concept of mistakes that is even conceivable with Allah that’s the difference between so but the thing is that because we’re so used to human beings we treat Allah sometimes in the same way when something goes wrong or he must be upset with me.
because generally that’s what your friend will do, he’s upset that’s why he’s going to act weirdly that’s why he’s not going to come to your house anymore that’s why he’s not going to pick up your calls anymore that’s why you’re not going to get a gift from him.
because they’re upset for whatever reason to children that’s probably a good example to train them too much of it is bad for you that’s why we’re not giving you you can’t say that the parent is being oppressive or unkind or stingy well sometimes they ask they could be stingy they could get began not getting for stingy reasons but a lot of the time it’s for tabia reasons line that way and the only way to recognize who Allah is is by reading the quran and seeing how he deals with people and what he promises even in moments of huge anger recognizing Allah and knowing Allah must be hath both of those states of beauty and wrath beauty and majesty
Subhanahu wa ta’ala is got a reason when he gives you and when he prevents something from you well kabhi will burst and when there’s an expansion you’re feeling or when you’re feeling restricted contracted as though the world has become a very small place.
despite its vastness now if a person only knows Allah in states of prosperity and goodness and bounties then this generally is the iman and the knowledge and the awareness of Allah of the normal layperson not the person who’s trying to be serious with Allah this is they are trying to be serious but on a very basic level they are primarily abido and fusihim
They are slaves of themselves because when good things happen then they thank Allah because it’s benefiting them.
it’s not putting them in any difficulty right now at least so they’re slaves to themselves but they believe in Allah and they know a bit about Allah bestowing something uh something is bestowed upon them they’re very satisfied.
something when a person has true understanding of Allah which we’re trying to do in these classes we’re really just trying to understand what lies this literally these aphorisms they’re a book of tawheed and marifa of just trying to understand who Allah is and trying to take away all other ideas of equating with Allah anything else refine our understanding.
So some of the other fruits of knowing Allah is absolute satisfaction and even happiness with whatever the decree brings, not an easy thing to do. We’ve been discussing this and you can look at the previous lectures for that.
when a person recognizes Allah there’s no way he can not love him more than anything else the more recognition the greater the love will grow and part of the fruits of the love of Allah subhana wa ta’ala is a sabre in the shadow is being patient when the difficulties surmount you when the going gets tough when the things are not as rosy as they were.
because Allah has never promised it to be rosy all the time anyway Allah emphatically said over and over in the quran that we will be there will be tests that will come to you of Allah subhanahu wa as though translating on behalf of Allah
saying you claim to be on the school of the lovers you claim to be of the lovers and then you complain where is your where are your claims in comparison to your love tell me where are they had we found you steadfast to our desires to what we wanted had we found you steadfast and persevering in that we would have given you everything you had desired you desire what’s interesting is that when you say everything it is i’m going to do this.
why did the prophet saw awesome fast so much why do other people fast so much why do why did the prophet saws not want swami because there’s a certain pleasure in not having which we cannot understand when you have it’s very difficult to understand that so there are mawahib
there are asura Allah opens up things the secrets of things are revealed realities become clear upon a person and lights engulf this person life there’s effulgences that overcome this person a person becomes more new
when he does when he has less because there’s less of the world to worry about but you must be satisfied in that if you’re not satisfied that can become kufur it’s a very double-edged sword it is it’s a very difficult state it can be to give up things can be a huge relief but only for a few people i think so most people have and those who don’t the majority of people who don’t have.
today it’s because it’s not it’s not voluntary is it it’s because that’s they can’t get more but this is talking about voluntarily giving up things for the sake of others and there’s huge benefits in that but how do i even explain that because
you are now essentially separated from many distractions as long as not having is not a distraction for you if that’s a bigger distraction then you’d rather have and not have right it’s a bit complicated it’s when you don’t have you know they’ve done
a number of studies on this where they’ve taken a person and put him into a place into like a retreat without their phone for a month six weeks for two months and subhanAllah the benefit that they receive from not having access to the phone.
just one thing just one is huge when you go into a lot of these health spas in kerala they don’t you know what you’re supposed to do is you’re supposed to live according to their regime they give you a bit of food very specially you know cooked food certain vegetables whatever it is and that’s all because they want you to just cut off from everything so the body can become better they said that a lot of the dietarians will tell you that a lot of the physical ailments like allergies and a number of other issues actually related to a problem in the gut in the stomach i’ve got somebody who’s studying this right now actually she had a problem with allergies or with something i can’t remember what it was went on a diet for about i think six weeks or two months very you know like none of these normal things and lots of probiotics that that kind of food and alhamdulillah it sorted out a number of issues because it’s all related to the gut right healthy eating is very important likewise healthy eating for our heart and our soul is also very important it’s all interconnected right acceptance and for Allah’s attention may Allah make this easy for us there’s quite a few points today but going back to what he
said he says deprivation hurts you only because of the lack of your understanding of Allah in it so sheikh abdullah gangohi
in his commentary the grief and annoyance of your heart when Allah most high afflicts you with difficulties and hardships are the products of your lack of intelligence on account of your ignorance you are unable to fathom the divine mercy wisdom and grace underlying your adverse circumstances i completely put my hand down this is not easy to do
when i’ve had issues sometimes and you know you naturally think and then you remember this i mean i’m teaching this stuff so
it has to come and it helps me um but i think there’s a long way to go to make this perfect right but it really helps i mean it’s
it’s helped me it helps me manage things sometimes i wish it can be better you know in and we can become proper knows of Allah but just reading these benefits if you had not been he says on account of your ignorance you are then unable to fathom the divine mercy wisdom and grace underlying your adverse circumstance if you had not been ignorant your state of adversity would have been just as pleasurable to you as your state of prosperity can you imagine it
you’ve just got a new car you’re going to be going around in it and the excitement you feel there you’re supposed to feel that excitement
when you don’t have anything when something’s been taken away from you because remember deprivations are going to come to all of us we all lose
something or the other one day or the other right so if we can feel the same benefit isn’t that something to look out for not for that purpose that’s another distraction actually the main thing is for Allah that’s just something he gives but we can’t lose sight of Allah subhanahu wa and the next aphorism which we’ll do next time we’ll explain that in more detail
so he says if you had not been ignorant in your state of adversity would have been just as pleasurable to you in your state of prosperity in fact your pleasure will be greater wow at the time of deprivation because poverty and hardship are the share of gifts reserved for the special servants of Allah for the special servants of Allah then i have too much
sometimes he opens the doors of obedience for you but not the doors of acceptance sometimes he condemns you to sin and it turns out to be a cause of arriving to Allah insha’Allah with your mercy o Allah remove your anger from the ummah
o Allah shower us with your grace this month of ramadan has passed allow us to extend the blessings of this ramadan for the next 11 months till the next ramadan allow us to reach the next ramadan o Allah grant us complete acceptance despite our shortcomings of Allah whatever we were able to do this in this month of ramadan we ask that you accept it o Allah that
you accept it fully just the way when it’s a 29 day month you still give the full benefits of ramadan to people for the third for for the 30 days oh Allah like that oh Allah we did what we could Allah grant us the tawfiq to do even more but of Allah even what we did was from you if we if you had not allowed us to do it and not facilitated
for us to it had not created the circumstances for us then we would not have been able to do so everything goes back to you
Allah oh Allah make us of those who understand you who recognize you who who glorify you who are thankful to you oh Allah who are steadfast
i know Allah in whatever state we stay strong and we stay steadfast o Allah we ask you for arafat of Allah we ask you for well-being we ask you for safety oh Allah we ask you to give us a long life on iman and atheist and safety fulfill our permissible needs our Allah remove the oppression from our brothers and sisters who are being bombarded who are facing major oppression and subjugation our Allah grant them freedom our Allah grant them emancipation Allah grant them Allah grant them
your divine assistance our Allah grant them recovery grant them removal from their problems and escape from it
oh Allah grant them victory oh Allah grant them highness and elevation Allah bless us all with the quran our Allah allows us to do what is important for us to do allow us to be keys for goodness in this world our and not to be forces of evil allow us to leave a legacy allow us to be accepted for some kind of service to your deen oh Allah we may we are insignificant oh Allah we are insignificant the only
one who is significant in your sight is the one who you deem so oh Allah we ask you to accept us we ask you to love us
oh Allah we ask that you allow us to love you and you make your obedience easy and beloved for us and you make your disobedience hated and difficult for us to do oh Allah oh Allah we ask that you allow us to protect your messenger muhammad sallAllahu alaihi wasallam’s respect and honor and the quran and islam and allow us to elevate the karim and
share this with others in the most effective means in the most effective ways possible oh Allah there are many people who are suffering in different ways oh Allah some people have children issues some people have spousal issues some people have business issues some people have money issues some people have health issues of Allah these are all part and parcel of the world but our Allah grant us the ability to deal with these issues to keep them away from us and to deal with us so Allah we are very weak oh Allah we are very weak it’s difficult for us to handle these Allah grant us recovery from them grant us recovery and fulfill our permissible needs Allah fulfill our permissible needs Allah accept our dua’s
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