# Ep. 20: Staying Balanced on The Straight Path | Guidebook to God

**Author:** Yahya Ibrahim
**Series:** Guidebook to God
**Published:** 2021-01-20
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/ph9c56r1aSA
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/guidebook-to-god/ep-20-staying-balanced-on-the-straight-path-guidebook-to-god
**Topics:** Allah, Faith

## Description
How do you remain planted on the straight path of Allah? Learn about the three kinds of spiritual balance in Islam.

## Transcript
**[0:00]** Seeking balance in life, SubhanAllah. To be upright, to be mustaqeem, to establishing istiqama.

**[0:16]** The word I like to use for that is balance. SubhanAllah, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala commands us in the Qur'an, the very first du'a that we make the Qur'an, we say, ihdina as-sirata al-mustaqeem. Oh Allah, guide us to the balance straight path. Why do I like the word balance?

**[0:32]** Well that's entirely what the meaning of istiqama, mustaqeem is. If you deliberate on it, you will see that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala wants you and I not to go to extreme. Ifratun wa tafreet. Not to go increasing too much or decreasing too much. Not to go too far to

**[0:52]** the right or to the left. If you notice, much of the imagery of the Qur'an is that we are balanced on a straight path where we don't take a meandering, wa laa tattabi'oo khutuwati al-shaytaan. Do not follow the footsteps of the shaytaan that takes you off the straight

**[1:08]** path. That gives you an instability in life. When you think about balance, it's actually thinking of three things. I want you to kind of consider it. The first type of balance that you and I try to have is to remain upright. That what we're standing on, if it was to

**[1:24]** shake and quiver, that what is standing on top of it doesn't fall down. So if you think of Jenga blocks or if you made a tower out of your playing card, if the table is firm, if nobody pushes it, if it doesn't shake beneath you or get moved, then everything kind of

**[1:41]** stays upright. But if the ground beneath us shakes, if there's an earthquake in our life, in our spiritual life, then at times if we are not balanced, we can fall over. And that's why you hear the dua of the prophets of Allah. Allah records it often in the Quran, but most

**[1:57]** prominently in the dua of Prophet Dawud and those who were about to face Goliath. They said when they saw the insurmountable odds, when they knew that the ground beneath them would shake, when they knew that they were set on a big mission and big difficulty in

**[2:12]** their life, they said, Rabbana thabbit aqdamana. Oh Allah, make our feet firmly planted. Keep us firmly established. Don't make us from those who fall and sway with the difficulties that we're about to experience. Don't let the earth that we're treading upon, standing

**[2:32]** upon firmly, that if it turns from us, shakes beneath us, that we fall down and collapse to it. And we make this dua as well. The second type of balance is the balance of somebody who is crossing a tight rope wire. And if you've ever seen those kind of videos where

**[2:50]** somebody's holding that big stick and they're crossing a tight rope wire, they have this concept of a counterbalance. Why do they hold that long staff? Well, if they begin to go a little bit too far to the right, they throw weight or they move the stick to the left.

**[3:06]** So it counterbalances them and uprights them. And that becomes a very important Quranic concept that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la sent us the Quran liyaquman naas al-mizan, sent al-mizan, sent for us the balance of life so that we don't go one side over the

**[3:22]** next and we know how to counterbalance ourselves. So if I indulge too much in this way, I know the good deeds that can bring me back. Innal hasanat yudhibna al-sayyi'at. If I filled my scales with sinful deeds, I have the opportunity of filling them with good deeds and they will

**[3:38]** cancel out, counterweight my mistakes. The third type of balance is crediting and debiting. SubhanAllah. And this happens a lot with our emotions, right? If you're a taker, if you're taking more than you're giving, if you're not investing and increasing the amount of

**[3:58]** your spiritual capital, emotional capital, if you're always taking, taking, taking, and if you're not increasing and crediting and crediting, eventually you become bankrupt. Eventually you have nothing else to pull out because you initially did not put in. You

**[4:15]** did not put in the effort. You did not put in the work. You did not put in the time and the energy and the love that you were supposed to get and put in so as to earn a return in return. And that becomes a really important concept for you and I, that you and I, we

**[4:31]** seek to have balance in life in each of those three occasions. You want to assure yourself that you plant your feet firm in the ground. How do you remain planted upon as-sirat al-mustaqeem, the straight path of Allah? How do you keep your feet firm? Well, you increase your knowledge

**[4:47]** about Allah. You become aware of what Allah has written, what Allah has asked of you, what Allah has sent to His Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. You become sure of the message that was delivered to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam by investigating and asking it and memorizing and writing it and questioning it and finding answers for that which has increased you in

**[5:05]** doubt. You become a person who has firmly established themselves because the people in your life are also established and seeking the same path. You're all on the same road, seeking the same outcome, the pleasure of Allah, assistance to humanity and being a good person in this life, leading you to happiness in the next. You don't take a path

**[5:25]** wa yaabtaghi khayra sabeelil mu'mineen, that you walk on a road that is other than the road of the righteous. You don't seek to take a path that is opposite and moving in the opposite direction to the path that leads to Jannah. You don't want to meander and follow the footsteps of the shaytan, but you would rather remain firmly planted on the

**[5:44]** footsteps that lead towards ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. You want to be a person who learns how to counterbalance, that the people in your life are the ones who will pull you back from falling over the edge. Wa kuntum ala shafa hufratin min an-nar, Allah describes, you're almost over to fall over into the punishment of hellfire, into the inequity of your sin and immorality

**[6:04]** of ways, but I pulled you back, I sent you a Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I sent you callers and imams and scholars and people to lead you back to the truth. And therefore the place that you find this comfort is the masjid, the place of worship and the place of ibadah, the place of instruction. It is through your study of the Qur'an and the

**[6:22]** teachings it becomes the counterbalance that you throw your way to right you and to bring you about from the perils of this dunya, from the cravings of haram and from the lustful leanings of sin. And number three, always endeavor to invest. Invest yourself completely

**[6:39]** in your good deeds, in your worship, in your behavior with other people. Always look forward to investing yourself completely in your righteous conduct and in your moral standing with others. Always be a person who is willing to give more than to take, to be a person who shares more than debits and takes from others, to be a person who is sincere in their

**[6:59]** advice, and sincere in their counsel, hopeful in their words, encouraging with optimism those who may have wronged their own selves, that you are a builder, not one who tears down, that you are a giver of hope and inspiration of knowledge towards others. And that is predicated

**[7:16]** on you possessing something. And we have a saying in the Arab, the one who has nothing has nothing to give. And therefore the best way for you and I to establish balance is to seek to find equilibrium in ourself through the dua and through the means that were sent

**[7:34]** to us in the Qur'an. Oh Allah, grant us from a gift from you the ability to thank you and be appreciative of everything that you have sent us, oh Allah, that you make us from those who are following the practice of the truth, that we become people who are imams to the

**[7:51]** believers in righteousness. رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا Oh Allah, make us imams for the believers, that people walk the path we walked because we are led in the way of the prophets of Allah. Make us from those who follow the example of

**[8:07]** Abraham and Musa and Isa and Jesus and Muhammad. صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم Oh Allah, turn us away from the path of arrogance of Abu Jahl, the path of rebellion of Fir'aun, the path of sinfulness of Utbah ibn Abi Mu'ayth. Take us off the path of those who are drunks and alcoholics.

**[8:27]** Take us off the path of those who seek to medicate themselves with sinfulness in this life. Take us off the path of those who have been treacherous to their own ideals and their own teachings that have been sent to us in our tradition and culture and way of life. Oh Allah, increase our faith and firmness in You and make us from those who are humble

**[8:47]** in seeking a balanced approach in life. وصلِّ اللَّهُمَّ وَسَلِّمْ وَزِدْ وَبَارِكَ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا وَحَبِيبِنَا وَنَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمْ Your brother Yahya Ibrahim, والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.

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