Lesson 4: The Meaning of 'Dunya'
Taught By: Shaykh Yahya Rhodus
- Showing off
- Envy
- Vanity and Pride
- Love of this world
- __________________
- Taqwah is to preserve the seven limbs.
- The limbs are connected to our heart and it is the heart that is responsible for the action of the limbs.
- “There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoiled, the whole body gets spoiled – and that is the heart." (Hadith)
- Heart acts like a sixth sense.
- Heart in this context refers to the subtle entity within the heart which makes us human and through which we know and attain the knowledge of Allah.
- The internal aspect of the human is expansive.
- There are wonders taking place within the heart and thus it is important to understand the affairs of the heart.
Riyaa (Ostentacious piety)
Hasad
Vanity
On desire -
- Individual caprice is sustenance to the soul.
- We can never rid ourselves of desire but we can purify it.
- Wisdom of desires: People's affairs can be taken care of. i.e if people did not have a desire to make money, how would we be able to buy clothes or food?
These are primary diseases of the heart. If one can overcome these, you will be given tawfeeq to eliminate the others.
1. Riyaa - doing things for the people.
- Seeking other than Allah.
- Opposite of Riyaa is Ikhlaas.
- Intentions : Of all the intentions that come to you when you do something, choose the best of it.
- One must detach one's self from what other people thinks about one.
- Many psychological problem and issues arise from the worry of what others might think and doing things to please people. i.e having a lavish wedding or else, 'what will people think.'
- We are naturally concerned about what people think but we can train ourselves to overcome this.
- Level of acceptance of Islam is not associated with the people but with Allah.
There are different types of Riyaa:
1) Riyaa Al Munafiqeen : Worship if people are presend in order to be seen and praised by the people.
2) Worship if people are present or not but people are around, there is an increased energy that comes about. One must ask themselves why they get this energy when people are around, it should be there when they are not as well.
3) You worship regardless of people being there or not and you don't have increased energy if people around BUT when you do a certain act and people find out about it somehow, you feel happy inside that they found out, be it even a subtle happiness. Why are you happy? Is it because you won a high place in their hearts or that they will think good of you etc? Riyaa is subtle and creepy. It is like a black ant on a dark night on a rock creeping.
4) You worship regardless of people being there or not and you don't have increased energy and you don't like people to find out your good deeds but when such religious people go into the public sphere, they expect people to treat them in a certain way. Even this is a very subtle form of Riyaa!
Other:
In the home: You learn a point of benefit in order to tell the people about it! It's different if you want people to benefit from what you've learned but to learn something in order to put it on FB for likes for example is Riyaa!
The People of Allah however think others are better than the. They are content to sit in the back by the shoes! Some very close people to Allah intentionally go and clean bathrooms or do something extremely menial so as not to let the nafs win.
Important: One should not leave actions because of Riyaa. Reject it and force yourself to be sincere and dislike it. This is why this is Mujahida - struggling. Struggling against the soul is Jihaad Al Akbar (Weak narration) It might take you 50 years to overcome something but you have to keep on struggling!
Allah (SWT) said he loves the Muta-tahireen. He didn't say those who have been purified but those who are seeking to attain purity. So as we long we are struggling to purify ourselves, Allah loves us for it!
GEM: We should strive to achieve the level of Thabbat.
2. Hasad - Envy
-One who indulges in envy will never be content.
- Envy eats your good deeds as the fire eats wood. (Rough) (Hadith)
- Why is envy bad? It questions divine will. Who are you to oppose the divine will?
- Allah hasn't created anything that opposes Him (SWT) except the nafs.
- This puny nafs of nothingness how can it dare to oppose the will of Allah (SWT)?
- First envy was Hasad of Iblees towards Adam (a.s)
- Two types of envy:
1) Hasad - Feel a heaviness in the heart and you wish that blessings to be removed from the person.
2) Gibta - Positive envy. You recognize the blessing in the person's life but wouldn't want it to be removed from their life. You wish you had the same blessing in your life. i.e hifdh of Qur'an.
The one who envies is in a lose- lose situation because:
1) The other person is not going to loose their blessings because of their envy.
2) Your own deeds would be removed because of the hadith mentioned earlier.
3) You are tormenting yourself over it.
The opposite of hasad is Ridaa - contentment- being content with the blessings of Allah (SWT) Take five minutes to reflect upon every blessing Allah has given.
If one feels as though they are becoming envious of another, make dua'a for them and ask them for an increase in that.
When does envy occur?
- Envy usually occurs with people who are on the same level as you.
i.e students in University, students of knowledge.
- Once your recognize this, you have to combat this (if you feel envy)
- The more you purify yourself of this, the more overjoyed you become at the blessings of others.
Vanity - Self Conceit, haughtiness
- Envy requires another person to envy but self conceit requires only yourself.
- It is when you are impressed with your own self because of something you are given.
- However, Allah said to the Sahaba in the battle of Hunayn. Your numbers impressed you and it did not help you. This was a blessing and lesson from Allah because it taught them that numbers and their own selves are not what brings about victory but Allah (SWT).
- It arises when we do not attribute blessings to Allah. We see it as being fro our own self.
How do we combat this?
- Remove this with shukr (gratitude) and Hamd (praise)
- We have to realize that everything is from Allah even the fact that when we are striving, this striving is from Allah.
- Three things are destructive:
1) Avarice/miserliness
2) Desires that are followed
3) One who is impressed with his own opinion.
Consequence of Arrogance
- For those who are arrogant, Allah says, "I will divert my signs from those who shows signs of arrogance." Only Allah is Al Mutakkbir.
- There will be a thick veil between them and the truth because they are in the delusion that only they have the ability to know.
- Racism is a form of arrogance.
-As long as people are seeing Islam as a religion of backwards Brown people from the Arabian Peninsula, there will be a thick veil between them and accepting the truth. They will be returned to Allah (SWT) to be crushed and punished. Who are you to be arrogant?
Epistemicide – They (the individual) have the only way to truly know and no one has the ability to know. Who gave you that right?
-Sometimes you have to show arrogance to an arrogant person to bring them down on their arrogance and this should be part of our khitab to the people here. They need to humble themselves. That western man has oppressed and harmed more people in the history of human kind than anyone else.
-People need to know that it’s not Muslims, it’s their own self. They need to be self-reflective.
-Arrogant people will be raised up as ants and trampled on on Yaum Al Qiyama. We should be humble people and benefit from others.
How to Overcome Arrogance
- By learning humility. Forcing yourself to do things of the actions of the humble and you will start becoming humble yourself.
- Be able to sit with anyone despite the color of their skin, status, wealthy or country and have a relationship with everyone. If not, we need to reflect on our own state.
Causes of Arrogance
- Love of leadership and procrastination. Wanting to be the ‘go to guy’ and to be in charge.
- Procrastination – leaving it for later. Until the hearts becomes hard and sealed.
- Two greatest subdivisions of the love of this world.
- Love of this world and dislike to die is the fountain head of all sin. Greatest thing that we need to learn to uproot and replace it with the love of the Akhirah.
- From these stems all other diseases.
- Point of text is to show that these diseases exist. Someone who doesn’t study the sciences of the heart will die not knowing they committed many wrongs. (envy etc)
- Shaykh Khutri – If you think you are better than a dog, you are still arrogant.
- You might not be able to cross over the traverse but that dog might. We don’t know as of right now.
- You shouldn’t think you are better than the Kafir with tattoos all over and doing every sin in the book. You don’t know how he dies. Maybe he becomes better than you and accepts Islam.
- ‘Compelled to Flee to him’ – ‘Al-it-tirar’ = Greatest quality of the heart. Recognizing that you have nowhere else to turn except Allah and that you are in an absolute in need of him. This is the secret to have your prayers answered. Once you recognize the spiritual path that’s before you, it is overwhelming. How am I going to do this etc? If you are left to yourself, you cannot do it. The only way you can do it is if you turn to Allah. One of the wisdoms why this happens is so you can turn to Allah.
Story: A friend who was in prison in a very small concrete cell. He was literally about to go crazy. He wanted to completely lash out. At that moment, all of his frustrations and everything that was going through his mind ..he kneeled down and directed his energy to God and he prayed to God. A week later, he became Muslim. If Allah loves you, he will put you in a state, where you are completed ringed out to the point you think you are going to expire and in that moment, you direct yourself to Allah, that is more powerful than any nuclear and atomic bomb. This is why we should be doing this daily. Turning to Allah. In Tarim, where I (Ustadh) studied, one of the things they do every single night in the last third of this night is that they would recite 200 times together “Ya Allahu Ya Allah” and the dua Asma ul Husna. While you say Ya Allah, you are to direct all your attention to Allah and you will find wonders. Allah will change your conditions and all your anxieties and difficulties relating to your work, problems (family children) or health problems. You have to take all of that to Allah realizing that you are in absolute need of him.
- Foundation from the foundations of the cure– that we return to Allah (SWT)