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10 Ways Patience is Half of Faith | Late Night Talk
Ibn Al Qayyim (ra) lists 20 techniques to exercise patience. Join Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Yaser Birjas as they go explore the many ways that patience is half of faith, and reflect on other lessons and gems from Ibn Al-Qayyim’s The Excellence of Patience and Gratitude.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. So welcome you all again to the late night khatirahs from Valley Ranch Islamic Center, in which we discuss with Shaykh Omar the book of Imam Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyir, rahimahullah, wa ta'ala adat al-sabirin, wa dakhirat al-shaykireen, The Excellence of Patience and Gratitude. Shaykh Omar. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. I'd like to redeem myself from yesterday. So I'm going to look at Shaykh with no notes. And I'm going to say to you, Allah jonno tomake bahalo bashi. Alright. What about that is wayyak? That was in Bangla, because I failed at Urdu. I've moved on to Bangla. And it means I love you for the sake of Allah. Do you want me to teach you how to say it? No, thank you. Allah jonno, you've got to repeat after me, Shaykh. No, no, no. I don't know what you just said. No, that's Bosnian. Which means, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reward you. How was the Bangla, by the way? There's more than one thumbs up. I have only one thumbs up for the Urdu. To all the Urdu speakers, I promise to redeem myself, inshallah ta'ala. I just need some more practice. I need some more time. Inshallah ta'ala. Since we're talking about redeeming yourself, you need a lot of patience to get there, inshallah ta'ala. So we're going to be discussing the chapter number 19. So for the past few nights, we've been discussing chapter 12. In which Imam Ibn Qayyim rahimahullah ta'ala was giving us 20 different techniques. The only tips by which you would master patience. Like how can you really get to that level where you become comfortable, alhamdulillah, at that level. And again, if you remember, we said it's all what you learned, according to Imam Ibn Qayyim, towards the end, point number 20. This was just information.
This is just information. It doesn't translate into knowledge until you start practicing this. And once you start practicing this, it becomes iman. And with that iman, then you will start having that solid level of patience. Now Imam Ibn Qayyim rahimahullah ta'ala is coming to this chapter to kind of like bring us again back to the basics. He goes, look, al-imanu sabrun wa shukr. The essence of faith, the essence of faith is patience and gratitude. This is it. You want to be a true believer, your life is going to have to keep revolving around these two principles. You, whether you're going to be patient or you're being grateful. Things you have to be patient for or against and other things you're going to have to be grateful for. So he's starting with this by saying, al-imanu nusfun sabrun wa nusfun shukr. He says faith is just two halves. Half is patience. The other half is gratitude. Qala ghayru wahidi min as-salaf as-sabru nusfun iman. And he says many of the salaf rahimahullah ta'ala, the righteous predecessors, they said, as-sabr, the essence of patience, is actually it's half of faith. Wa qala abdullahi bin mas'ud radiyallahu anhu al-imanu nusfun. Nusfun sabrun wa nusfun shukr. And he also quoted Ibn Mas'ud radiyallahu ta'ala, saying almost the exact same thing. That when it comes to faith and iman, half is patience and the other half is gratitude. Walihada jama'allahu subhanahu bayna as-sabri wa as-shukri fee qawlihi inna fee dhalika la'ayatin lakulli sabbarin shakoor. I say that's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala combined these two principles in one single ayah. When he said in surah Ibrahim, inna fee dhalika la'ayatin lakulli sabbarin shakoor. Indeed there are signs therein for every sabbarin shakoor. Those who understand the Arabic language, sabbar and shakoor is not like saying sabr and shakir. Sabr is the one who is patient. Shakir is the one who is grateful. But what about sabbar, means what? What does that mean?
Constantly, excessively patient. Shakoor, the same thing. It's not just being grateful. No, excessively grateful. Which means you're constantly, all the time, no matter what you go through, no matter what hardship you go through, you're always shakoor and you're always patient. And he mentioned multiple ayats in that regard. Just one thing there, subhanAllah. Also the idea here that some of the scholars will mention, sabbar and shakoor would also be someone who makes everyone around them patient and makes everyone around them grateful. So the idea of rubbing off on people around you rather than having everyone rub off on you in that way. Sabbar makes everyone else patient, makes everyone else grateful. And that's the state of the believer, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He brought that spirit to everyone and everything around him. And so when you read the, They enjoy one another in truth and they enjoy one another in patience. There's obviously a disproportionality there. There's someone that's going to be leading the way and enjoining the group in patience. And someone that's going to be leading the way and enjoining the group in truth. Ibn al-Qayyim goes, look, this classification of faith is have patience and have gratitude has meanings. And the ulama, they pointed those classifications based on these principles. So he's going to mention ten principles that prove to you and I that when it comes to being a believer, for the subject of faith, you have to exercise patience and gratitude. So we're going to read through these ten points. So, by the way, if you're reading in the English book, it's chapter 19 and it's not classified the way the Arabic is. So it actually doesn't say 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4.
So you're going to have to mark these yourself. So point one is that iman, faith, consists of word, deed, and intention altogether. Iman consists of word, deed, and intention altogether. And they ultimately revolve around either the performance of a deed or leaving off something. The performance of a deed means acting in accordance with Allah's command. And this is shukr. This is what gratitude is. And the leaving off of a deed is to be patient and leaving off the sinful acts. And he says the whole deen falls within these two things, doing what is commanded and abandoning what is prohibited. There's actually a saying from Ali ibn Abi Talib radiyallahu ta'ala anhu. He said, He said that patience to faith. Patience to faith is what the head is to the body. And he said, No one has faith unless they have patience. So if you think of patience, it's literally the head of the body. So here Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah is building on this concept that the same way that faith consists of word, deed, and intention, sabr also is going to encompass those things. And gratitude usually shows up in the Quran with the performance of what Allah tells you to do. Patience shows up with the abstinence from what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells you to abstain from. Just to clarify also in this point, Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah ta'ala said, When it comes to iman, there are three things. There are statements, actions, and intentions. And these three things also, they also have two things. Whether you do something or you abstain from something. So doing or abstinence. So if you look at that, you talk about six things that you need to observe in your faith and your iman. Things you need to say and things you need to abstain from saying or stay away from saying them.
So the statements could be something good that you need to say or something bad to stay away from it. Similarly with your actions. There are certain actions that you need to do and certain actions you need to stay away from. What about now the intentions? There are certain things you need to bring your heart. Your heart to desire or to intend. And things you need to bring your heart not to intend or stay away from in this case. So you're talking about six things you need to continue to observe in order for your iman to become whole. It's not just three things. It's six things that need to continue to observe all these through statements, actions, and intentions. Shaykh now one more thing, subhanAllah, just a reflection. What did Iblis suffer from? What did the devil suffer from? The lack of what? Patience or gratitude? Gratitude, right? The lack of gratitude. And in fact he said that he's going to drive people away by making them ungrateful. And he says to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you'll find the majority of them are not grateful people. So Iblis suffered from the disease of a lack of gratitude. Adam alayhi salam messed up with a lack of patience. So when the lack of gratitude met the lack of patience, that's when you had the mistake committed. Iblis was not grateful for all that Allah had already given him. Adam alayhi salam was not patient from the one thing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told him to stay away from. And they both come from this connecting yourself to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But when those two things met, that's when you had the mistake that Adam alayhi salam made and our mother Eve made. I think, subhanAllah, this happens a lot in the conversations of our time these days. You have these people who are always whining about what they don't have. And other people are just completely neutral. And then they come to their friends and they start to keep complaining about what they are lacking, which is being grateful for what they have. And unfortunately, as a result, they influence the other person right now to abandon their patience.
Because they're completely oblivious to what you're whining about. But suddenly, right now, they start desiring this and become less patient and become impatient. And they start, subhanAllah, falling into the sin. And that's when it becomes really dangerous when you have conversations with your friends. Be careful. Be careful. Between patience and gratitude, your iman will be, inshaAllah, protected. Number two. This is a very important point. He says that faith is based upon two things then. Iman is based upon two pillars. We're thinking about the structure of iman. So iman has, obviously, intention, word, and deed. But he's saying what holds up iman are two things. Sabr and yaqeen. Patience and certainty. And he says that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ أَئِمَّةً يَهْدُونَ بِأَمْرِنَا لَمَّا صَبَرُوا وَكَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يُوقِنُونَ That we made leaders amongst them when they became patient and they had certainty in our message. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is suggesting. And Ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhumah says, this is actually very profound. It's not in the book. Ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhumah said on this ayah, by the way,
that the two most important qualities for leadership are patience and certainty. You have to know what you're doing, why you're doing it, who you're doing it for, and then you have to be willing to be patient with that. If you lack resolve, it's likely because you lack conviction. So if you have conviction, if you strongly believe in what you believe, that's going to feed you something that is greater than anything else and that's going to give you the energy to be patient. So he's saying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala combined these two things together. So he says through yaqeen, the real essence of commands and prohibition and reward and punishment is understood. So when you have yaqeen, when you have certainty, you understand halal, haram, but you also understand incentive. You understand the idea of consequence. These things are very real to you. They're not out there for you, but they are immediate to you. That everything that you're doing is for a reason and it's connected to something that is legitimate. And he said through patience, a person carries out what he's commanded and refrains from what is made haram for him. And he is unable to be certain that the command and the prohibition come from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that he is the one who reward or punish him except through strong belief. So a lack of certainty is going to come through a lack of belief in this regard. And he's saying he can't remain firm and constant in doing what is commanded and resisting himself from what is forbidden except by patience. So again, conviction feeds the belief. Patience is then the discipline that follows the belief. It follows along with that certainty. And so in that sense he says, sabr, patience, is half of faith and the other half is thankfulness by being able to do the duties that are obligatory and avoid what is prohibited. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala began the beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah, Alif, La, Meem, Dalik, Al-Kitab, La, Rayba, Fi, Hudal, Al-Muttaqeen.
He says this is the book, there is absolutely no doubt in it. What is he trying to affirm over here? Conviction and yaqeen, certainty. Absolutely, to be certain that this is the book that has absolutely no doubt in it. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Hudal al-Muttaqeen, guidance for those who are righteous. Those who are conscious of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And when Allah azzawajal spoke of their qualities, what was the first thing that he talked about? The first quality that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala spoke about for the believers and for Muttaqeen, those who truly believe in the unseen. What does that exactly mean? In order for you to have that yaqeen, you have that absolute strong iman with the ghayb. That al-jannah haqq, jannah is true, jahannam is true, the reward of Allah is true, and the punishment is true. If you have that strong conviction, that certainty, that yaqeen, it becomes easy to abstain and easy to do the things. So sometimes our weakness in front of these temptations comes from where? From our mind becomes foggy in regard to our convictions. Yes, I believe that jannah is true, but in that moment in time, it somehow kind of got blocked a little bit. And as a result, my yaqeen kind of faded out in that moment, kind of became oblivious to it, and that's when my patience started dropping down, my guards fell down, and that's when I became unfortunately more courageous to go do that which is not supposed to happen. So Ibn Qayyim says, look, you want to be strong with your patience, work on your yaqeen. How am I going to work on my yaqeen? By strengthening your iman in all what came in the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. What do I need to strengthen my iman, jama'at? Do you remember? We've been talking about it for all these nights. What do you need to strengthen your iman? To practice. To practice what? Knowledge.
So how much knowledge do I need to make it extensive and make it strong and make it deep? As much as you can. Keep learning and learning and learning, and practice what you learn. Practice what you learn. Strengthen your iman. That will help you build that yaqeen. That will help you, inshallah, build that emotional firewall with patience to stay away from the muharramat. Sheikh, I wanted to comment here, subhanAllah, and say not losing sight of the reward. Not losing sight of the reward. When that reward becomes so real to you, then it really overcomes you in the moment, and it overcomes you in those circumstances. SubhanAllah, I was just thinking about, because the most vivid place from the seerah that you see this is in the battlefield. Right? People in the battlefield. So you had people that literally said, I can smell jannah. I mean, inni la ajdu ra'ihatul jannah. I smell it. I smell jannah. And they're running towards the battlefield rather than away from it. How do you quantify that? How do you quantify Asi alayhi as-salam seeing jannah in the middle of it? Literally Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opening that up. And I remember there's a narration from al-qaqa radiallahu ta'ala anhu, that the sahaba, you know what they'd be doing in the middle of the battle? They'd be reading the Qur'an. You imagine, subhanAllah, on the battlefield, people reciting ayat of the Qur'an? Like this is real to them, so real to them, that the natural reflux for them is to start to read the Qur'an for them, and to recite the Qur'an even when they're literally in the heat of the moment. So they weren't losing sight of the goal. In fact, the goal overwhelmed them to a point that even the most intensive circumstances could not take them away from the goal. And that's something that no one will understand except for the believer. No one will be gifted this except for the believer. And when the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam says, How amazing is the affair of the believer? And only the believer experiences this, right?
Where if something good happens to him, he's grateful, and he says, alhamdulillah. And if something bad happens to him, he says, alhamdulillah, and it's good for him in each of these situations. Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam says, only the believer gets this. So what about how amazing is the affair of the sabiqun? How amazing is the affair of the muhsinun? How amazing is the affair of the forerunners and those who excel? That the unseen reward can overwhelm even the most immediate and intense circumstances in this life in their hearts. And then guide the way that they act. The greatest example that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala probably maybe mentioned to us in the Quran in regard to this subject really, is the example of the magicians of the pharaoh when they came facing Musa alayhi wasalam. We spoke about this in the dua of the Quran after Asr here, and we probably briefly talked about it over here. But this is subhanallah, one of the greatest manifestations of patience and yaqeen in an instant. I mean some of us probably, how long do they need to build that yaqeen, jama'ah? A lifetime. We read and we study and we travel around the world, we come to halaqat, attend lectures and so on and so on. We barely scratch the surface of the level of yaqeen, barely. And then our patience still cannot shake you still. But look at these people. Pharaoh stood in front of Musa alayhi wasalam, Musa showed him his miracles, he panicked. So the pharaoh, he just goes around, what do we do, what do we do? He said, bring all the magicians of Egypt, bring all the sorcerers. And they brought them all up in one very big event. It was like a festivity day. And it was in the mid-morning, so everything is clear and no one doubts what they see. When they brought them, and the magicians right now, they're coming from all over Egypt, what is on their mind and their heart right now? Seeking the pleasure of who, yajma'a? The pharaoh. Qalu, are we going to get reward for this? He goes, absolutely. I'm going to make my entourage, you're going to be my buddies, basically. Just win it. That's what he's telling them.
So they went so proudly to go and stand in front of Musa alayhi wasalam and Harun. And he was talking about thousands of magicians. Some say 80,000. I don't know if that's true or not, that number. If 80,000 just magicians in Egypt, what about the population? I don't know. But the idea is that there were many of them. And all of them were coming to face Musa alayhi wasalam in order for them to win so they can gain the pleasure of the pharaoh. Remember this moment. They had absolutely no belief in Allah azza wa jal. No knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. No knowledge of what Musa and pharaoh are even bringing to the people. They were told they have a great magic. Because they thought the miracle was magic. They have the great magic. You win it. And subhanallah, in an instant, when they threw all their tricks, and as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, It was an optical illusion. They fooled the eyes of the people. And even Musa alayhi wasalam himself was kind of like taken aback from what he saw. He was like, oh, what is that? But then when he threw his staff, and it ate all that magic that they did and removed everything completely and the only thing that remained on the ground, the staff of Musa alayhi wasalam in the form of a stick, and then he just grabbed it back again and put it in his hand. In that moment, all these magicians, what did they do? They dropped down on their faces. They said, we believe. In the Lord of Harun and Musa. Whoever that God, whoever that Lord is calling for, we believe in him. That was a moment of conviction, a moment of absolute yaqeen. Look at the transformation in an instant. In an instant. Because the knowledge they got from what they saw is beyond what the average person at the time in Egypt could even actually believe in. Why? Because they mastered magic. They know what it is.
So they were at the top of their class, at the top of their profession, and then someone bring them something that would transcend beyond what they know. This is not from this world. So their conviction in an instant changed and became a strong iman that they dropped on their faces. They said, we believe in the God and the Lord of Musa and Harun. The Firaun came to them and he says, like, what are you talking about? How dare you do this before you take permission from me? I'm going to kill you. I'm going to crucify you. He says, do whatever you want. We're going to go back to our Lord. Can you imagine that level of patience that required from these people, from being seeking his pleasure and take the prize from Firaun to now willing to go through torture and being killed for somebody just met right now? Somebody just met right now. That manifestation of yaqeen versus sabr, you can't find another example stronger than this in these ayat. How many of us can truly believe in the source, believe in the message and the messenger, just like these magicians transformed themselves from being worshippers of the Firaun in an instant to become worshippers of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to die, crucified for something they don't even know the details of yet? Exactly. Unbelievable. How many of us today, with the presence of the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the clarification of all these beautiful principles of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, how many of us can get their yaqeen to that level that when they are told, do this, they would say, sami'na wa ata'na, we listen and we obey. Yeah, but you're going to have to abandon some of the pleasure of this life. You're going to have to quit some bad habits that you enjoy. You're going to have to wake up at night. You're going to have to do this. You're going to have to do that. Willingly, you would say, absolutely, with pleasure. I'll do it. Why? Because now, suddenly, my yaqeen is at a different level.
So that's one of the beautiful examples that we see in the Qur'an in regard to this principle of yaqeen and patience, how they come hand in hand. If you see that your patience is not where it's supposed to be, where it's strong enough for you, then go back to your yaqeen, to your convictions. How strong is it? And what's the correlation right now with iman? Well, it's all based on what you believe in. And if my belief is not as strong, maybe I need to increase my knowledge and practice what I know. Hopefully, it will increase my iman and my yaqeen and then my patience, inshallah to Allah. Shaykh, now there's one, subhanAllah, one thing that's really amazing about this too. The magicians of Fir'aun had not heard of Jannah yet. Like, talk about becoming patient with, like, they're seeking closeness to Fir'aun and then a reward from Fir'aun. And then suddenly they turn on that because they believe so strongly in the Lord of Musa, they haven't heard of Jannah yet. Think about the Sahaba of the Prophet ﷺ. When Bilal radiAllahu ta'ala anhu was being dragged through Makkah and tortured the way he was being tortured, and the stone placed on him and dehydrated and starved and treated like no human being can bear, Bilal radiAllahu anhu did not know a single ayah about Jannah yet. Think about that. Ahadun ahad, one God, one God. That yaqeen and one God was enough. Now there's something to contemplate on a bit here. The greatest obedience is the obedience of the lovers. The greatest belief is the belief of the lovers of Allah subhanAllah ta'ala. If your yaqeen in Allah is strong enough, then you trust Him with His reward. You trust Him with His compensation. You trust Him with His restoration. You trust Him. If Allah unlocks that belief in Him, that trust in Him, then everything else becomes secondary to that yaqeen billah, that certainty in Allah Himself.
And when Shaykh Yasir is talking about here, look, that's not just something you learn here. That's part of your dua. How often do you talk to Allah? How often do you connect to Allah subhanAllah ta'ala? How often do you develop that relationship to where your trust in Allah subhanAllah ta'ala is so much, that even if He doesn't give you the details of what you're suffering for, or what the wisdom and purpose of your suffering is, or why you should restrict yourself, you have such certainty in Him subhanAllah ta'ala, and you seek qurb, you seek closeness to Him subhanAllah ta'ala, that everything else becomes secondary in the moment, subhanAllah. I want to comment on the story of Bilal radiyAllahu ta'ala wa radha. Some of the ulama of Siyar, they said, look, I mean, it's an interesting observation. I never really thought about it before, but it's really relevant to our time here and our culture here. He said when Bilal was tortured and he was asked to deny Allah subhanAllah ta'ala and renounce his faith in the Prophet ﷺ and Allah azza wa jal, what was he saying exactly? Ahadun ahad. Just one single word. Ahadun ahad. Ahadun ahad. Some ulama, they say, because he didn't know how to say it in Arabic. Like, even his Arabic language wasn't as strong. Instead of saying wahid, which means one and only, he would say ahadun ahad. Because he didn't have that language that would qualify him to speak eloquently in Arabic, but it didn't matter if he knew Arabic or not. The conviction that was already in his heart was manifest in his actions, even if his tongue failed him to pronounce it properly. So that, I hope, gives hope for many brothers and sisters who don't know the Arabic language and they keep saying, you know what, if I knew the Arabic language, I'll be, I don't know, like Imam Abu Hanif or Imam Shafi, probably. You don't have to know so much of the language to be a strong believer. But definitely, with access to proper Arabic language, you'll have treasures in books that you can't really access without that.
Definitely, it will increase the knowledge, inshallah, to barakah wa ta'ala. However, it's not essential for a person to be a strong mu'min, strong iman, and strong yaqeen. That's just a comment on this, inshallah wa ta'ala. Number three. And Moses said to Pharaoh, He said, You know what these people have sent down, except the Lord of the heavens and the earth as witnesses. So these people were given the word of the heart, which is knowledge and knowledge, and they were not believers in that. Likewise, whoever said in his tongue what was not in his heart, he was not a believer in that. Rather, he was one of the hypocrites. Likewise, whoever knew his heart and approached it with his tongue, he was not just a believer in that. So he says, rahim Allah ta'ala, that faith, iman, is a matter of word and deed. And word comes from the heart and tongue, while deed comes from the heart and limbs. So, you know, if you think about your words, they come from the heart or they're required to come from the heart and the tongue. Your actions are also meant to come from the heart, but then the rest of your limbs. And he says that a person might acknowledge Allah in his heart, but he doesn't declare it by his tongue, and that person will not be a mu'min. That person will not be a believer. Some people say maybe they had iman in their heart. That's not sufficient. So he says, Allah says about the people of Firaun, that they rejected the signs ignorantly and arrogantly, even though they were certain in the ayats of Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
They knew that Musa al-Islam was telling the truth. And he said about the people of Ad and Thamud, that their fate is made clear to you by their dwelling places. Shaytan made their deeds pleasing to them and barred them from the right way, even though they knew the truth. And Musa al-Islam said to Firaun, you know very well that it's the Lord of the heavens and the earth that is sending down these proofs. So he's saying all of these people, they had knowledge of Allah in their heart. They knew the truth in their hearts, but they were not considered believers because they didn't do tasdiq bil-lisan. They didn't say what they were supposed to say with their tongues. And he says the same thing applies to a person who declares with his tongue but doesn't believe in his heart. So he says that that person will not be counted as a believer. Instead, that person is a hypocrite. So the opposite is true for the munafiqeen. They would say la ilaha illallah, but they had no la ilaha illallah in their hearts whatsoever. They only said it so that they could move smoothly in society and take advantage of the situation. He said even a person who has belief in his heart and declares it by the tongue will not be considered a believer until he makes his heart willing to love and hate and make a friend of an enemy as required. The believer loves Allah and his messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam. He makes the friends of Allah his friends. He declares those who are the enemies of Allah as his enemies. He surrenders his heart to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and commits himself to follow his messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam and to abide by his shari'a openly and secretly. Sheikh, do you want to read the rest of the chapter? So he said basically he summarized it by saying at the end And if he does that, it is not sufficient for the perfection of his faith until he does what he is commanded. So these four pillars are the pillars of faith on which he built himself. They refer to knowledge and action. And the hand of the soul which is attached to the forbidden enters into action. And both of them can only be achieved by patience.
So faith became two halves. One of them is patience, and the other is derived from knowledge and action. And all of them revolve around knowledge and action. And he said included in action is the control of self, which concerns prohibition. Neither knowledge nor action can be achieved without patience. Therefore, in this situation, faith is consisting of two halves. One being patience, and the other which is produced by it in the form of knowledge and action. So you can see what he's doing. He's saying that one half of your faith is always sabr. One half of your faith is always sabr. And the other half is always some manifestation of performance, which broadly falls within shukr. But he's saying patience is always that anchoring one half of your faith. And essentially, you know, if you think about the way the ulema speak about this, Look, people rejected messengers of Allah because they were impatient with their desires, because they were impatient with their dunya. They wanted to have it all in this life because they were impatient with their power. If Firaun gave up, I mean, just think of it this way. If Firaun, the tyrant, gave up his kingdom for the sake of Allah here, Can you imagine the palace of Firaun in Jannah? You imagine what Allah would have rewarded him with? You know, Musa al-Islam comes to him in that situation, If he would have responded to the call of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, And said, I believe, I know what you're saying is true, And I'm going to give up this oppression and I'm going to forsake all this for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Imagine what Allah showed Asiya alayhi salam. Imagine what Allah would have given Firaun. But he was impatient. He wanted it all here. He wanted to, you know, consolidate and control his power and his destiny here. Therefore, he couldn't get control of himself.
And subhanAllah, when they say that the most powerless people in the world are the ones that have the most power, It's because they're so weak in the sense that they're led by their desire for more and more and more and more power. But there isn't actually any strength, any meaningful strength that is behind that at the end of the day. So opposite to the example of the Pharaoh, you have the example of the Najashi. And Najashi subhanAllah, in Abyssinia, when Islam came to him, And the Prophet sent the Sahaba radiyallahu anhum to go to Abyssinia, And he gave a good description of this man. He says, There's a king who no one can suffer oppression under his rule. So they went there. And they had a debate in front of him, obviously, With Jafar radiyallahu anhum leading that debate. Eventually, he became secretly a believer, as a Muslim. And when he died, he got his reward in the dunya before the akhira. What is the reward that he got in the dunya before the akhira, anyone knows? The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam prayed janazah for him in absentee. Like the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, from such a distance, He testified for his goodness. And he interceded for him in the dunya, and had the Sahaba, all of them subhanAllah, Do that janazah for him. So you can imagine what reward Allah subhanAllah is preparing for Najashi there in Jannah. If you guys want to know what reward he's going to get in Jannah, Be sure to be there inshallah azawajal. I mean, subhanAllah sheikh, and think about it. You can't name, like if you're living in the moment of Najashi, When you go back and you look at the kingdom of Ashamah, You can't name the person before him, the person after him. You can't quantify what they had in terms of wealth. Their palaces are all gone. And so all of the temptations of power have now disappeared. But this man remains a legend in the seerah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And it's not just that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam prayed on him, But you know, we're here right now. It's the 27th night.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept it from us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala surround us with the angels. May Allah azawajal allow Jibreel alayhi salam to descend upon this gathering And to carry our names to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You know when Allah is praising someone in the heavens? How is it when Jibreel comes to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and says, لقد مات اليوم رجل صالح. I want you to know that a righteous man died today. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't learn that through media. He learned that through Jibreel coming to him to tell him, Najashi just died, a righteous man just passed away. Meaning Allah was talking about Najashi in the heavens to the angels. لقد مات اليوم رجل صالح. A righteous man just passed away. And in Medina, they all gather together to pray janazah for a man the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam never even met in this dunya. And imagine meeting them together in al-jannah, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and Najashi together. He gets to be with him. And that's why I say Najashi is the best of the tabi'een. Because he's technically not a sahabi. He never met the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so when you ask who the best of the tabi'een is, He's the best of the tabi'een without any doubt Because he's the person who believed in the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam even though he never met him. And the things that he did for Islam is unlike anything else. And imagine again, subhanAllah, if Najashi refused, he would have been another Kisra. He would have been another Huraqib, right? Caesar refused this message because he was afraid for his kingdom. What a legend Caesar would have been. What a legend Kisra would have been had they embraced this message when it came to them. Allah would have given them far greater in jannah. But they became impatient. They only saw what was immediately in front of them of this power. Number four. Surah Al-Qayyim.
So he's saying now that the soul has two powers. It has two strengths. The willpower, if you will, to do and the willpower to restrain. The willpower to do and the willpower to restrain. Those are the things that Allah has given your nafs. And by the way, this is a very important example. Imam Hassan al-Basri rahimahullah. He says that the greatest soul, the greatest nafs is a strong horse that you're in control of. A strong horse that you're in control of. Why? Because the nafs has to drive you but it has to drive you in a good way. So it's not a dead horse. It's not a slow horse, but it's also not a wild horse that you're not in control of. It's a strong horse that you're in control of. That way you have courage but not arrogance. That way you have strength but not tyranny, right? So you need to be in control of your nafs, but it's a driver. As long as you're the one driving it and controlling it, then it's positive to be strong. So he's saying that the whole deen, the whole deen is between the strength of doing and the strength of holding back. And he says that in this situation, neither of these two can be achieved without patience. Because you need to know the right amount to turn it on and the right amount to turn it off. You need to be so in control of it that you have control of every moment, every craving, every pursuit of the nafs. So you know just how strong to go and just how much to hold back when the time comes. And what do you need in order for you to be able to measure that? Knowledge. You need to know. You need to have the knowledge.
When do I need to do? When do I need to move forward and push forward? And for how much? How long? And when do I need to hold back? All of this requires knowledge, jama'at. Again, the emphasis of knowledge in Islam is unparalleled. That the first revelation of the Qur'an came with the word, iqra', read. Which means read and learn and continue to learn. So it's extremely important that we understand this mas'ala. And if you guys remember we talked about a few nights ago when we saw that a nafs, the soul of Imam Ibn Qayyim, he says, look, your nafs was created from heaven, right? But where was it placed? In a chamber on earth where it's considered dunya. And dunya means the low land, basically. So you're in the low land and your nafs desires to go where? To where it came from, where it originated. So the nafs always tries to escape to go up and high, right? Ascend up. By, of course, practicing that which brings it all the way high to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But what do we do, unfortunately, when we start sinning and committing sins and become impatient with worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? What happens? We put so many ways on our nafs that keep dragging it down. So here's the same thing. You want to have that nafs start gravitating up? Then you're going to have to learn how to do it and push it to do better. Otherwise you're going to keep dragging it actually down to the ground. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us. Number five.
Surah Al-Furqan SubhanAllah, this is a loaded one. He says that the whole religion is hope and fear. The whole religion is hope and fear. I want you to follow the logical flow of Ibn Al-Qayyim's thinking because he's a very structured thinker, by the way. And when you go back and you revisit your notes, you'll see how every point is building on the one that comes before. He says, and the believer constantly is between hope and fear. And he said, as an Imam Al-Bukhari rahimahullah narrates, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam used to say at the time of sleep. And can we all repeat this? Surah Al-Furqan So this du'a, what it translates into is, Oh Allah, I surrender myself to you. I turn my face to you. I entrust my affairs to you.
And I entrust my, I surrender my back to you. Meaning the things that even I cannot see in the metaphorical sense. With hope, with hope and fear in you, and there is no shelter. There's no shelter, no escape from you except to you. And he says the mu'min, you'll never find the mu'min, you'll never find the believer except that he's going to be between these two states. Now, by the way, a note here, the best du'as are the ones where you ask Allah to take control of your affairs. The best du'as are the ones where you ask the enabler to enable, where you ask the protector to protect. So for example, يَا حَيُّ يَا قَيُّمُ بِرَحْمَتِكَ أَسْتَغِيثُ أَصْلِحْ لِي شَأْنِي كُلَّ وَلَا تَكِلْنِي إِلَى نَفْسِي طَرْفَةَ عِينٍ Oh ever living, oh ever sustaining, in your mercy I place my trust, rectify all of my affairs, and do not leave me to myself even for the blink of an eye. يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ Oh turner of hearts, make my heart firm on your path. اللهم أعِنِّي عَلَى ذِكْرِكَ وَشُكْرِكَ وَحُسْنِ عِبَادَتِكَ Oh Allah, enable me to properly thank you, to properly worship you, to properly remember you. These are du'as of enablement. These are du'as where you say, oh Allah, I don't trust myself with myself, I'd rather give it to you. You take it, oh Allah. So these are the best du'as. And then finally he says here, and this is very important, this is the logical thinking of Ibn Al-Qayyim. He says, the only way, الرَّهْبَةُهُ تَحْمِلُهُ عَلَى الصَّبْرِ What's going to keep you patient, what's going to stop you from an unfavorable response to a moment,
whether that's acting upon a desire or acting unfavorably in terms of hardship, is going to be fear. It's going to be fear. There's a reason why hellfire is mentioned in the Qur'an. Some people really, in fact, we all need some proportion of it. We all need fear of consequence. So knowing that there are consequences to my behavior will hold you back in a bad situation. You know, when you find yourself in a bad situation in your marriage or in a situation in your business where you could take advantage of somebody, where you could exploit someone, اتقوا الله, fear Allah. You need to be afraid to transgress the limit of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's going to be fear. You need that fear sometimes. So Adam alayhis salam, right, we have the صبر issue here, right? You need that fear sometimes. And he says what's going to cause you وَرَغْبَتُهُ تَفُونُهُ إِلَى الشُّكْرِ That when a person has رَغْبَ, hope, then that leads them to acts of gratitude. So fear, generally speaking, drives patience. Hope drives acts of gratitude. Now, obviously, there's some hope that drives patience and some fear that drives acts of gratitude. But he's saying generally speaking, the thrust of what's going to keep you from acting upon your desires is a fear of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهِ Right, even the hadith says that about the man who's called by a woman of great beauty and status. فَقَالَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهِ وَلِمَنْ خَافَ مَقَامَ رَبِّهِ جَنَّتًا I'm afraid of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You need to be afraid of God sometimes. But then the acts of gratitude are driven by a hope and a greater reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and a payment that cannot be found in this world. If you have always, if you looked into Imam Ibn Qayyim rahimahullah, a way of thinking and his books as well too,
you might realize that this particular paragraph, he is mentioned here deliberately in order to refute some of the common principles of his time. In his time and the time of Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah wa ta'ala, mystical movements were much stronger. And they were promoting specific philosophical principles and concepts about worship that, in mysticism, considered deviation from the mainstream of the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ on how to worship Allah azza wa jal. So sometimes some extreme Sufism, let's say, or extreme Sufis might be saying, Look, I'm not worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala out of fear or out of hope or maybe greed in His reward. I only worship Allah azza wa jal out of love for Him. This is a very common statement. You've probably even seen it in tweets. You've seen it probably in posts online. And people praise the saints who mention these statements. And so we say, look, mashallah, that's me. I don't want to worship Allah azza wa jal because I'm afraid of the punishment or I'm greedy or want to get reward or jannah for what I'm doing. No, I want to do it out of service for my Lord because He deserves all my service and all my life. So I'm doing it out of love. Thinking that this way of thinking is way higher than having raghba and rahba. No, this is not the path of the salihin, the path of the anbiya, the path of the sahaba and ahlus sunnah. We as believers, we worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala out of absolute love for Allah azza wa jal. But we also worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala out of fear for what could possibly happen if you disobey Allah azza wa jal. And we also worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala out of hope for His mercy and for the reward that He promised for those who worship Him subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I just want to make it clear that if you ever read this statement that says, hey, you should worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by neutralizing fear and hope or greed. Only worship Allah out of love. That's not true. We do worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala out of absolute love for Allah azza wa jal. But we also need to make sure that I remind myself that Allah promised me with a reward that I need to look for. And also try my best to stay away from what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala prohibited me from practicing. That's how we probably would see patience and gratitude inshallah wa tabaraka wa ta'ala. Should we take one more point or do we go with Q&A? Number six inshallah. So he says here that everything that a believer does in this world is either good or beneficial for him in this world or in the hereafter or is harmful to him in both worlds. So basically when it comes to benefit, some things could benefit you either in this world or the next or something is harmful to you in both worlds or it is good in one of them and harmful in the other. So you have a choice that you have to make at times between what's going to be beneficial and harmful to you between the dunya and the akhirah. He says the best option is to always do what will benefit you in the hereafter and abandon what will cause you harm in the hereafter. This is the real essence of the faith. Doing what is beneficial for one in the hereafter is from shukr, is thankfulness, and doing what is and leaving off what is harmful is patience. So again he's building shukr and sabr.
So doing what will benefit you in the hereafter is shukr. Leaving off what will harm you in the hereafter is sabr, is patience. Number seven he says, So he says that a man in this world passes his life in doing what he is commanded, abandoning what he has been ordered to avoid, and submitting to the divine decree, submitting to qadr. And in all of these three conditions he's required to be patient and to be thankful. Doing what is commanded is thankfulness, leaving off what is forbidden, and accepting the decree is patience. So three things, once again, and you might remember we actually had a saying from Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani in Futuh al-Ghaib early. Three things, right? Doing what you're supposed to do, leaving off what you're supposed to leave off, and accepting the qadr of Allah. So in these three, the first one is more of a manifestation of shukr, of patience, I'm sorry, of gratitude. The second two, okay, are more of a manifestation of patience. So patience is what's going to drive you to leave off the haram and to accept the decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to accept the qadr of Allah. Just a quick comment on this matter because some people might be confused. Look, wait a minute, if I'm always required to be doing something where I'm safe from something else, what about when I'm just chilling? Like I'm doing nothing, I just want to sit down, I don't want to commit sin, but at the same time I'm not going to be worshipping or doing anything active, ibadah. So where would that fall, jama'at? Anyone knows? Where would that fall? Like you're sitting doing nothing, you're not in active ibadah, and you're not in active, audhubillah, sin.
So that's why the ulama, in terms of terminology of fiqh, they call it al-mubah, or al-halal, which means the neutral, the neutral of your life. However, as a true believer, there is no such thing as neutrality. What does that mean? If I contemplate, if I think about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, or you know what, if I'm just doing this as a recreational moment, so that it will help me insha'Allah to do better in the next hour, when it comes to the time of ibadah and worship. Just like Mu'adh ibn Jabr, it was reported that he said, He goes, I hope for the reward for me sleeping as much as I hope for the reward for me standing up for tahajjud. Why is that? Because even when I'm sleeping, which is something you're going to have to do anyway, if I'm sleeping, he says, I hope to get reward for me sleeping. How can you get reward for you just for sleeping? If you have an inattention before you go to sleep that this will be to rest, so you can continue to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So similarly, if I'm just sitting there doing nothing, then I'm just losing every moment. And that's what the meaning of the ayah in surat al-asr, Indeed, every insan is a constant state of loss. If you don't use those neutral moments to increase in surat al-ibadah, such as reflection and so on, then you're losing them. And that's why there is no such thing really in the life of a mu'min to be a neutral time. So remind yourself, whatever that you do, whatever that you do, even what you think is neutral, like I'm not doing ibadah, I'm just maybe playing a video game, for instance, or going shopping, or traveling, or just chilling on the beach. Whatever that is that you do, it's not going to escape one of these two things. Whether you're doing something that's beneficial to you in the dunya and the akhira, or otherwise.
So make sure that every breath, every movement, every second that you do in this dunya should add to your record in the akhira. That's what he's trying to say, look, as a believer, even the neutral time should be used for the khair. So that you would gain from it insha'Allah more reward. Number seven, or number eight actually, So he's saying that everyone has two callers in their lives. You have the voice, the caller that calls you to your desires, and to its pleasures, and to the things of this world. And you have the caller that calls you to Allah, and calls you to the hereafter, and what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has prepared for you of its blessings. So he's saying to disobey the caller that calls you to fulfill your lowly desires is patience. And to respond to the caller that calls you to the higher rewards of the hereafter, and the blessings that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has prepared for you there, is gratitude. Number nine, he says, He says, To continue, he says, Subhanallah, this is like untranslatable, so I'm going to try my best. I'm actually not going to look at the translation. Isn't that all what Ibn Qayyim does? Subhanallah, it's unbelievable.
He says that the religion is based upon two things. He says, So al-azm is determination. So it's more of passion, a pull, determination to move forward. Al-thabat is firmness, staying firm. So steadiness. And you think of the hadith, Stabilize and then move forward. Stabilize and move forward. And he's saying that's why the dua of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Let's repeat it together. Allahumma inni as'aluka al-thabata thatha I need to hear some. I worked on my bundle. In order to do, you can work on your Arabic inshallah. al-thabata fil-amr wal-azimata ala-rushd So it means, oh Allah, I ask you for steadfastness in my affairs and determination upon the path of guidance. So he's saying that the origin of thankfulness, of shukr, is that determination. And the origin of patience is that unfailing steadiness. And once the servant is supported by determination and steadiness, then surely he'll attain the help of Allah. What he actually is saying here, subhanallah, this is very important here. Sabr is what's going to keep you when something hits you, when the wind blows hard. It's going to keep you bending but not breaking. All right, like use of Quranic terminology. When the wind blows hard, when the storm comes, sabr is what's going to keep you firmly planted. Shukr, gratitude is what's going to take you to the next step. All right, moving forward and constantly re-energizing. Even think of the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allahumma inni a'udhu bika min al-hammi wal-hazan
Oh Allah, I seek refuge in you from, you know, the anxiety of what is to come and grief over what has passed, al-hazan. So you get paralyzed and you can fall off. And if you constantly get uprooted, then you have to go through the process once again of rooting yourself. But sabr is what gives you thabat. It's what gives you a sense of staying rooted even if you bend but you don't break. Shukr is what drives you to the next step, to the next step, to constantly get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, with your worship and become a better believer. If I may also add to this, Imam Ibn Qayyim was saying here, look, when it comes to patience, patience, the essence of it is negative action. Meaning you don't need to do anything. You need firmness where you are. That's it. Like, for example, drinking. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us from this, ya rabbal alameen. Or going, you know, after drugs or whatever that is. Now, you don't need to do it. You don't need to. There's no drive, at least religiously, drive to that forces you or maybe an incentive for you to go, other than you following your desires. So what needs from you here is actually is firmness. I don't have to go and buy and just stay where you are. You'll be safe. Alhamdulillah wa ba'min. But if you start taking action towards these things, then you're going to fail. Now, shukr, gratitude, requires, of course, now that requires a positive action. That's something extra I need to do. So patience is stay away. Just if you stay away from the bad stuff, there is no positive action on your part to do, other than just stay firm where you are. You'll be safe. But when it comes to being grateful, that requires some effort on your part. So that's very important, you know, that he's mentioned. And the last point that he says,
So once again, and this is in conclusion, he's actually pointing to the various ways that Allah always uses sabr as the balancing act, as half, half, half. So he says that the religion is based upon, in one verse, truth and patience. Al-haq wa al-sabr. Truth and patience. And he said Allah put them together in the Quran, wa tawasaw bil-haq wa tawasaw bil-sabr. They enjoined one another in the pursuit of truth, and they enjoined one another in patience. Now, what he says here, basically, is that since you're required to follow the truth in all of your dealings, you need patience to be able to ground that. And so, it's actually very interesting here, that, you know, just like in the last point, patience is what keeps you firm when the storm comes, and then gratitude is what takes you to the next level. And then gratitude is what takes you to the next level. In the same way here, or rather it's almost the opposite way here, he's saying that the only way that you can remain determined upon those actions of truth and those good deeds, is to have the patience to stay the course. And so this is a different type of patience, the patience to stay the course. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying that the believers need to join one another in truth and in patience as well. Patience is staying the course, and you cannot have faith unless you stay the course. Otherwise, you will lose it.
And I think that's where the group dimension comes in here, by the way, the need for righteous company, the need for, Keep yourself patient with the people of prayer. Subhanallah, Shaykh Ibn Qayyim shows his brilliance as well, once again, in making the last point more like the conclusion and the summary and the wrapping up of all these ten points. Just like in the twenty points from before that we studied together, the last point was the summary of everything. So what he's saying, he's bringing right now Surah Al-Asr as a conclusion of all of this. Ibn Imam Al-Shafi'i says about Surah Al-Asr, If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala just revealed Surah Al-Asr, it would be sufficient for people to understand. What does it mean? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, The word Asr, ulama, they say it's time in general. But if we go deep into the actual word Al-Asr, which is the late afternoon, I want you to think about yourself in the late afternoon. What is the common thing people do in the late afternoon? Nothing. They're toast. They're coming back from school, coming back from work, they're exhausted, they're tired, their brain melted completely. Khalas. What do they need to do? Just sit down and do absolutely nothing. That's why we don't really think about worshipping Allah during that time. I just want to eat and take a nap. That's all. So that's why Allah chose out of all the times that we spend during the day and the night, He goes, I swear to you by Al-Asr, that you're going to always be in a time of peace. Constant state of loss. And one of the most common times that we lose is the late afternoon. Because we didn't transition between the daily activities and the evening activities, so that time gets lost.
And then He said, subhanahu wa ta'ala, except for those who have these four things. Number one, those who have faith. Acted upon this faith and this belief. And they enjoy good among themselves, looking for company. Like he was talking about the other day, that you have to be in jama'ah for your iman to stay strong. And they encourage each other to remain patient. To explain these four. So the first one is iman. And iman is based on what is jama'ah. What do you need to have strong iman? That knowledge, right? That you practice. Knowledge. As Allah says, Have the knowledge that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah. You need to know your faith, your iman. You need to have the knowledge of it. That's number one. Number two, al-amal. They act upon this iman. I always try to make this comparison and say, look, when it comes to for us to feel weak and feel hypocrites. It's the gap between how much you know and how much you practice of how much you know. How many of you can say there is absolutely no gap between what I know and what I practice of what I know? How many of you can claim, says, alhamdulillah, I practice everything I know? Because if you say there is no gap between what you know and what you practice, you're one of two things. Whether your level of knowledge is zero or you're an angel, that you practice everything you know. But as human beings, we always have that gap between what we know and what we practice. So therefore, the bigger the gap, the more hypocritical we start feeling. And the smaller the gap, the stronger we start feeling with our iman. And our life is all about what?
Trying to close that gap. And that's where shukr and sabr comes in. And that's why he says, look, you're going to struggle. So in the process of doing that, what do you need? You need help. Find like-minded people. Those are also struggling and striving in their life to get to that level of iman and practice and be with the jama'at. Don't be on your own. Try to practice that. And they also encourage each other to be patient. Why? Because that path requires what, the jama'at? A lot of patience. It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be an easy task. So it requires a lot of patience. So you have to have the knowledge, the practice, the group that keeps you on track, and also the patient that will keep you, inshallah ta'ala, steadfast. Sheikh, this is my take-home message for 27th night. Look, it's a night of tawbah. It's a night where very high chances that this could be the most important night of the year. Savor that for a moment. There's a very high chance that this is the most important night of the year, and there's a chance that this is the last time in your life you're ever going to get this night. Take that in for a moment. No one likes to believe they are a hypocrite. No one likes to believe they're a hypocrite. But if you go by what Sheikh Yasser just said, you know that there are certain things in your life that you should be doing, and you're not doing them. The more comfortable you are with that, the more comfortable you are with your hypocrisy. It's our job to offend you a bit and to offend ourselves. You know what's halal. You know what's haram. You know what is fard. You know what you're supposed to be doing. You know what you're commanded to do. But you're comfortable with doing 50% of it.
You're comfortable with 30% of it. And you're telling yourself, well it's okay because I read Qur'an, I go to the masjid, I pray, I feel great, I make a lot of dua. Allah will forgive me for that 50-40%. And what does Allah say about Bani Israel? وَقَالُوا لَن تَمَسَّنَ النَّارُ إِلَّا أَيَّامًا مَعْدُودًا They said, you know what, yeah, and even if we go to hell, it'll be for a day or two. قُلْ أَتَّخَذْتُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ عَهْدًا فَنَنْ يُخْلِفَ اللَّهُ عَهْدًا Did you take, did you get that from Allah? Did Allah give you a contract and say you can fail 50% here, so long as you add bonus here, here, here, here. Every single one of us has a discrepancy. The most important thing that you could do tonight with your dua is to make a commitment with your dua. That's the most important thing you could do with your dua. Is to say, Ya Allah, I quit. Ya Allah, I will do. I'm not comfortable with this gap anymore. And someone comes up to you and says, well, you know this is right and you do this much of it. You know this is wrong and you do this much of it. And you say, yeah, but look at all those people. Listen, on Yawm al-Qiyamah, we're not going to be able to point at each other. We're not going to know each other on Yawm al-Qiyamah. InshaAllah, we'll know each other in Jannah. And bismillah ta'ala, we'll testify on behalf of each other. But there's not going to be any, yeah, but they were doing this and they were doing this. No, your gap, you know your gap. And you're asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give you a lifetime of good deeds tonight. You're asking Allah to give you complete amnesty and forgiveness tonight. What are you going to do for Him? What are you committing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? You want Allah to forgive all of your sins and to give you a slate of good deeds that's better than a thousand months. This night that you're in might never come back in your existence.
This might be the last time you ever witnessed the 27th night in your life. Make a commitment in your du'a tonight inshaAllah ta'ala that you're going to try to fill that gap. Do not become complacent with that gap in your life at any point. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help us all to take that next step towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And forgive us all for our hypocrisy. Forgive us all for those discrepancies. Forgive us for our sins and allow us to be committed to ourselves rooting out those sins once and for all from our lives. Sheikh, I'm tempted to add to the beautiful words that you mentioned over here because I don't want us to leave just on this note. I want us to understand that Masha'Allah this new knowledge to many maybe or some. I say like wallahi this is true. I need to work on closing this gap. So my job is to start practicing more of my deen and then stop being lazy and so on. So look you have developed this knowledge in this moment right now that for you it feels this is it. This is the moment of truth. It's conviction. It will never falter, never change. But guess what's going to happen the moment you leave this place? The shaitan is going to come with a counter argument. The shaitan is going to try to alter your knowledge, the new found knowledge and your conviction with something else. And he's going to come and tell you, yeah, but you're still a student. You have to go to sleep. You don't have to wake up for fajr. He says, oh, yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah, but you have so many expenses here and there so you don't have to kind of give up. You know what? That's true. I still need to do these things and so on. Shaitan, that's what he does. He comes to convince you that the new knowledge you gain is not as profound as you thought because of the counter argument. And that's exactly what he did to Adam alayhis salaam. I mean Adam, Adam in Jannah, he spoke directly to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he had access to divine knowledge that has absolutely no doubt in it. Allah says eat from all of this, stay out of that tree. Is there anything, what do you understand more than just stay out of that tree? It's very clear instruction. But then the shaitan comes to Adam and he goes, look, listen. Now he's bringing counter argument, counter knowledge.
He says, God, you have to understand the reason why Allah azawajal told you not to eat from that tree. Why? You will become angels or you're going to become what? Live in eternity. So you're going to become like an angel, have eternal life. That's why you're not supposed to eat from that tree. But still Adam right now is convinced that no, Allah's instruction is clear. I'm not going to do that. Then comes right now that moment where it made Adam alayhis salaam change his mind. Because Iblis did what to Jemaa? What did Iblis do to Adam in this moment? He swore by Allah. I swear to you by God that is true what I'm telling you. Now Adam alayhis salaam before that never experienced anyone invoking Allah's name in vain. He would never doubt someone using the name of Allah azawajal in vain like this. So whoa, he used the name of Allah azawajal. So he must be telling the truth. So he ate from the tree. The shaitan's job is always trying to convince you what you just learned. It's not for you. It's for the one who was sitting next to you. You know, you came here, alhamdulillah, you got that emotional, spiritual high. This is it. You got your thing. Go back now to your old things. Shaitan will always come to you again to change that conviction you just developed in this moment. And that's why every time we come to this gathering, we feel so good. We wish it's not going to come to an end. I wish this continues because I'm happy here. Ramadan was a happy time for all of us. Look at us at masjid at 2 a.m. And we're sitting in this masjid. It's a happy time. And everybody says, I wish this would never come to an end. But the shaitan comes after Ramadan and says, Ramadan is over. Let's go back again to where we were before, right? So please, my dear brothers and sisters, remember this model. What you know and what you practice.
This is how you feel the strength of your iman or the weakness of your iman. If you start feeling yourself, you know, getting weaker and weaker, that means the gap between what you know and what you practice is getting bigger. So what do you need to do? What are you going to do in this moment? Yeah, but I'm too weak. I'm too weak to practice. Okay, then strengthen yourself with practice. You have to try your best, inshallah, and you reach that zone where you are. I cannot say that you're going to close the gap. But at least, alhamdulillah, in a way, in a place where you are strong enough to continue moving forward and never go backward. And ask Allah to help you close that gap. Ask Allah to help you close that gap. So make that your sincere du'a tonight. I really hope, inshallah, that we'll exert ourselves tonight, inshallah, in du'a. And I hope that this isn't just another drop. I really hope this is a moment for all of us. Take some time tonight. Every single one of us has a gap. Ask Allah to help you close the gap and trust in Allah. You know, just as Allah loves to forgive, Allah loves to close the gap. Just as Allah loves to forgive, Allah loves to aid. Just as Allah loves to protect, Allah loves to reward. Allah loves these things for you. Just show Him that you want it from Him, inshallah, ta'ala, and that you actually are willing to take some steps in your life as well. May Allah help us all to take a meaningful step tonight, bid'nahi ta'ala. Ameen. Inshallah, we'll take nine minutes, inshallah, for Q&A, bid'nahi ta'ala. If you look on the screen, the QR code for questions, inshallah. Once again, if anyone is sending a question from out of state or out of town, just let us know where you're sending your question from. For the sisters, make sure that your padlets are colored, so we know it's coming from the sister's side, inshallah, tabaraka wa ta'ala. First question that's came. What does a personalized dua look like?
How do you make it sound personal instead of checking off a list, keeping the adab still there while still making it personal? How do you make that personalized dua, sheikh? So I think we'll wait for the... Should we just answer, sheikh? So if the brothers, as you're leaving, if you can try to keep it down, inshallah, ta'ala, make sure you don't make any noise. The question, sheikh, is how do you keep it personal? How does a personalized dua look like? If I want to make a dua, a general dua, but I want to make this, you know, for me, especially for me. A personalized dua is one that has the praise of Allah. It has prayers upon the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. It has the etiquettes of gratitude and patience and love and it is raw and from the heart. If you don't know any of the duas that we just mentioned, say it in your own language. Oh Allah, help me stay strong. Oh Allah, enable me. Oh Allah, guide me. Make these duas. It's okay. Say them the way that you're going to say them, inshallah, ta'ala. But begin by praising Allah and sending prayers on the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, then just go, go. All right. So tonight, go. If you get a moment, inshallah, ta'ala, you get some time, 10, 15, 30 minutes, whatever it is, and you start in a dua, just go and go and go and go and pour your heart out to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with those duas. Someone asking, says Islam is mainly about having balance, a sister actually. You need to have right balance to have sabr and shukr. Would it be possible to start series on balance? What do you think? Should we start series on balance? Inshallah. Inshallah, ta'ala. By the way, there was a series that I did. It's on Yaqeen's channel. You have to scroll way down. All right, first Ramadan series at Yaqeen was called The Faith Revival. That's before I could like fly and like go to the hereafter and stuff like that, like special effects.
It's literally just a couple of cameras, but it's a series called The Faith Revival. If you go down the YouTube channel, The Faith Revival. The Faith Revival was literally about maintaining faith. How do you revive your faith? And then how do you balance it out and maintain it, inshallah? So a lot of these questions are going to be answered there, inshallah. This is a very serious question, specifically when we talk about fear and hope. Is it possible, it's not. The question says, it's possible that too much fear can push one away from the source of that fear. How can we balance love, hope and fear so that one does not overpower the other ones? Obviously, clearly Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says in the Quran, Don't be desperate of the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala. So that's basically kind of like around that concept. How do you balance between love, hope and fear? Well, love is the body, right? So and I know, you know, some of you might not have been attending all of these sessions. Love of Allah is the greatest driver, right? But the wings of that body are fear and hope. So you want to make sure that you're always flying with the proper balance. Now, flying with balance doesn't always mean that you're flying straight. Because sometimes you need to give one wing a little bit more to get through the particular area of turbulence that you're in. Okay, so you need to privilege hope sometimes a little bit more. You need to privilege fear a little bit more. Now, when do you privilege fear over hope? Generally speaking, the ulema mention, you privilege fear before you commit a sin. Why? Because that fear of Allah will stop you from committing the sin in the first place. When do you privilege hope? After you committed the sin. Why? Because the hope will let you know that Allah will forgive you if you turn back to him. You understand? So more fear before the act, more hope after the act. Now subhanAllah, with good deeds, it's the opposite. With good deeds, before you do the good deed, you have a lot of hope that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala is going to accept that good deed. And that's why you do it. After you do the good deed, you say astaghfirullah. You have a little bit of fear that maybe it wasn't good enough.
So let me add more good deeds. So that's where the flying comes in here. Like you need to use those wings accordingly. At the end of the day, shaitan wants to disconnect you from intention, action, or both. Ideally both. Intention, action, or both. So if shaitan can scare you enough to where you don't even feel like it's worth it anymore, Then he's won. He made you like him. Despairing of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala. And if he can make you prideful with your deeds, then he's made you mutakabbir, like he is, like he was. You know, where he thought he had it all, prideful. I don't need to do anymore. I've already arrived. I've already achieved. So you need to make sure that you constantly utilize the right proportion that drives you towards Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala with your good deeds. And then helps you abstain from the sin. And then helps you repent after the sin and helps you keep driving after the good deed. Some questions that came about specific sins. People are asking, can you give me some tips to help me get rid of this sin and that sin? And so may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala guide your heart, ya rabbal alameen. And give you the strength and the power to stay away from these muharramat. Honestly, I would say go back again to chapter 12 that we've been studying for the past few nights. Have 20 points. Imam Ibn Qayyim, rahim Allah, mentioned. He would help you with that, bidden Allah azawajal. But then another question comes. Is mut'a, marriage, a good way to deal with the temptation of zina before marriage? The answer is absolutely not. Remember, if you want to do something right, you do it according to the Quran and the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. When the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam spoke about, spoke to the young people, what did he say? Oh, young people, if you're capable of getting married, he said, go ahead, do it. And if you're not, what did he say to do? Fast. If astaghfirullah, this kind of behavior is acceptable, would be actually allowed for us in Islam. But it's not allowed in Islam.
Besides, in itself, you know, intimacy in itself is not actually, it's not intended in our deen. What it's intended for, of course, is to establish families and maintain harmony and procreation of man, of course, on earth. For the purpose of worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Unfortunately, in our culture today, they removed that purpose. And now, in itself, just indulging in pleasure has become a goal of its own right. Just for that, for that purpose, that's it. And that's why you see that people, subhanAllah, they have, you know, premarital engagements and indulging in desires and so forth. Because they thought that, you know what, it's a desire, fulfill it. There is no purpose for it other than just being fulfilled. So it's not about that. You need to understand what does marriage mean and qualify yourself for it inshaAllah wa ta'ala. A question here, Shaykh, now, about, we talked about hypocrisy. From one of the sisters, she said, How do we find the middle ground to hold on to our faith and not come off as hypocrites while living in a Western culture that doesn't align with our faith and targets disagreements? So, how many conferences have we done at this point, Shaykh, where you get asked the same questions but we live as a minority, we live as a minority, we live as a minority. I'm going to say this from a place of, like, the more that you keep giving yourself that excuse, the more you're never going to change. You know who lived as a minority? The sahaba lived as a minority. And they lived with a hostile majority. Stop giving yourself that excuse. Stop saying, but everything around me is different. You have people that have converted to Islam that are sitting in this gathering right now that were willing to change their entire social structures and put everything that was comfortable and familiar into the bucket now of unfamiliar and even hostile because they believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. All for ahadun ahad, la ilaha illallah.
You got to have a stronger motive. You have to have a stronger motive. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Islam started off as something strange. It will return to being something strange. So glide tidings to the strangers. The strangers are not people that put unnecessary barriers between them and the people. They're people of urgency. They're people who, They're people who, when they wake up, they don't expect the evening to come. When they go to sleep, they don't expect the morning to come. They're people of urgency. They're people of dedication. They're people of determination. Don't give yourself the excuse of, well, we live in a Western culture. You know what? Look at your brothers and sisters from the Uyghurs. Look at your brothers and sisters in France. You talk about a Western hostile country. Look at your brothers and sisters in India. Look at where, you know, people are really struggling to hold on to their faith. People that hold on to their faith under the worst types of hostility. Hold on to it inshallah ta'ala. Don't give yourselves these excuses. The more you give yourselves these excuses, the more you will not change. You have to get rid of these excuses. And you have to savor that struggle for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, that sacrifice for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala. There is sweetness in the struggle. There's sweetness in the sacrifice when you know who you're doing it for. When you know that you're doing it fi sabeelillah, for the sake of Allah. There's a sweetness in that that is unlike the taste of any desire that this world can give you. May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala make us amongst those people and give us that strength. Ask Allah for istiqamah, ask Allah for strength, ask Allah for azeemah, ask Allah for determination, ask Allah for thabat, ask Allah for steadiness. The prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, ask Allah to give you these qualities. Stop asking Allah. Don't ask Allah to change the circumstances so much. Ask Allah to change you, to change you. Because if you change, then the circumstances become less relevant in that regard.
May Allah help us all. Ameen. Sheikh, we have to take this question because it's coming from a very special place. A sister asking from Myanmar, all of Myanmar, subhanAllah. She's asking, how do we practice sabr with ignorant family members? Example, wanting them to learn something or open up their hearts, but they are very shut off and refuse. How do you do that? SubhanAllah, it's the most difficult struggle. First of all, may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala help our brothers and sisters in Myanmar and give them strength and remove their oppression. Our brothers and sisters in Sudan, our brothers and sisters in Palestine, our brothers and sisters in Yemen, our brothers and sisters in Somalia, wherever they are, may Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala help them. We don't just want to mention their cases and just kind of move on. Keep them in your du'a tonight, inshallah. When it comes to hostile family members, it is the most difficult struggle. And that's why it's the struggle of the prophets. You know, in the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, the most tested people in the world are the prophets of Allah and then the ones that are next in righteousness and the ones that are next in righteousness. The struggle of Ibrahim alayhi salam hearing from his father what he heard is probably more than him falling into a fire. The struggle of Nuh alayhi salam having to leave behind his son is probably greater than the struggle of everybody else drowning. The tears of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam over Abu Talib. I mean, surely those tears were greater than the tears that he would have shed salallahu alayhi wasalam for many many many other people. They all struggled with family. This is a major test that we have in this life. And this is one where you need to find that cure in the prophets inshallah wa'ta'ala and their stories and know bi'idhnillahi ta'ala that there is great beauty and patience with them. Now, sometimes being patient with them will yield inshallah wa'ta'ala what you're seeking. Don't give up on your du'a. You know, because it's a night of du'a, this is the specific answer I'll give without knowing all the specific dynamics of this person.
Abu Huraira radhiyallahu anhu when he came to the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam about his mother. And the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is being told by Abu Huraira radhiyallahu anhu that my mom says things about you that caused me great pain. I mean, think about this. You're in Medina, like he brought his mom to Medina. You know how much we love Medina? Imagine she sees all that and she hates the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And Abu Huraira radhiyallahu anhu comes to the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, Ya Rasulullah, my mom is saying these things about you and it causes me great pain. The prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam did not say bring her to me and then crucify her and let's make an example out of her. The prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam made du'a for her, sincere du'a for her. Abu Huraira radhiyallahu anhu gets home and before he enters the house, he hears the water running and his mom says, wait, wait, wait. And then she comes out and she just made ghusl. She said, ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah. And she moved, she became a neighbor to the masjid of Abu Huraira radhiyallahu anhu. And Abu Huraira every day when he was coming out to walk to the masjid, you could hear the conversation between him and his mother. His mother making du'a for him and him making du'a for his mother. Don't give up on your du'a tonight inshallah. Make du'a for your family members. Make du'a for your loved ones tonight inshallah. Tonight's a night of du'a. Tonight is a night of du'a. Exert yourself in du'a tonight, bid'ah. May Allah guide your family members and help us all upon that path that he's pleased with. Ameen. I want to conclude with just a message that came here from a sister from Brazil. It's not a question really, but she's saying here, Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. I just want to thank you for being part of my journey back to Islam for the past year. I'm blessed to spend Ramadan with all this knowledge, mashallah. May Allah bless you all. And you guys are part of this journey as well inshallah. May Allah bless you all. Subhanallah, we're getting a lot of requests from brothers and sisters from around the world.
So from the Philippines, from India, from Brazil, from different places, subhanallah, all over the world. Well, Canada is not actually out of state for us, so it's okay. But mashallah, there's so many of this, alhamdulillah, so much khair happening. And I want you, as you make your du'a, please remember them all in your du'a as well too. Remember all our brothers and sisters around the world, and not just because there are troubles happening somewhere in a Muslim country or somewhere else, but simply ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the khair for everybody in this dunya and the akhirah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make this a blessed night to all of us. We'll see you inshallah tomorrow. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. you
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