Khutbah I delivered on campus last week
- Opening- Each one of us is composed of many components which come together and for the human being. One of these components is the body, the cavity which is the flesh and bone and blood. This is the shell which houses us. Then we have the intellect which allows us to comprehend and understand and allows us to send commands to our shell to carry out what we want from it. We also have a personality which distinguishes us from every other human being that has ever lived.
- We also have a component of our beings known as the nafs, and this nafs is defined in 2 different ways by the Scholars.
o The first definition of nafs is that it is all the powers of anger and lust inside of us. Some people even use the word nafs to mean all the evil attributes of a person.
o The second way Nafs is defined is spirit, the human being in reality, his self and his person. However it is not always the same for each person and is defined differently according to its different states.
§ An Nafs al Ammara bi soo’ (The soul which enjoins evil)
· This soul directs its owner to commit every wrong action possible and can not be fixed without the help if Allah swt.
· Imam Ghazzali says about this kind of soul “it gives up all protest and surrenders itself in total obedience to the call of passions and shaytân”
· This Nafs resides in the world of senses, and is dominated by earthly desires and passions
· This type of soul is the one which the owner has no control over, but this soul controls the person and steers the person to a direction which it decides.
§ An Nafs al Lawwaama (The self accusing soul)
· This is a soul described by Imam Ghazzali as one which “does not achieve calmness, yet sets itself against the love of passions and objects to it”
· This is a nafs which is conscious of its own imperfections, and it rebukes its owner for neglect in worship of its Lord.
· Al Hasan al Basri said “"You always see the believer blaming himself and saying things like 'Did I want this? Why did I do that? Was this better than that?"….
· This soul is a conscious soul which is in between doing good and doing evil, and is not numb to the fact that it needs to stop doing the evil.
· The best example of one who constantly took himself to account is the example of Umar ra who was known to converse with himself saying ‘ya ibnal khattab!’ and constantly rebuking himself for slipping.
§ An Nafs al Mutma’inna (The soul at peace)
· This is the soul which Allah swt calls out to in surah al Fajr inviting it to paradise. “ya ayyatuhan nafsul mutma’inna. Irjee’ee ilaa rabbiki radiatam mardiyyah”. [meaning] “"Oh self! In complete rest and satisfaction! Come back thou to thy Lord,- well pleased and well-pleasing unto Him!”
· This is a soul which Imam Ghazzali describes as one which “assumes calmness under command and has removed from itself the disturbance caused by the onslaught of passion”
· This is a soul which is enslaved by its owner, which is completely the opposite of the soul which commands evil for this soul has enslaved its owner.
- But what is it that we can do to purify our hearts and strengthen our souls to be one which is at peace?
o There are two types of internal speech that we have which stir a person’s desires.
§ Praiseworthy kind called ‘intuition’ (ilhaam)
§ Blameworthy kind called ‘whispering’ (waswasa)
o Imam Ghazzali “The heart is owned mutually by a shaytaan and an angel. The angle stands for a creature which God has created for the overflowing of benefit, the bestowal of knowledge, the unveiling of truth, the promise of reward, and the ordering of the good. The shaytan stands for a creature whose business is to be against all this. Waswasa against ilham, shaytan against angel, success against disappointment.”
§ This statement by this scholar clearly defines to us the war that is being waged by shaytan against us.
§ Shaytaan Allah swt tells us in the Quran is ‘Aduwum mubeen’ A clear enemy. Subhan Allah, since the creation of Adam as Shaytaan has hated us and has been jealous of our creation.
§ When Allah swt created Adam as and he was still in the form of hollow clay, Shaytaan came up to him and knocked on him. Subhan Allah. Shaytaan was that day getting acquainted with our being and learning what it is that weakens us.
§ Muhammed PBUH told us that every single baby that is born with the exception of Mariam as and Esa as, when they are born, are stabbed by shaytaan. Can you imagine the evil of this creature that he would stab every single newborn innocent baby?
o This statement of Imam Ghazzali is grounded in the hadith of the Prophet PBUH who stated “There are two impulses in the soul, one from an angel which calls towards good and confirms truth; whoever finds this let him know it is from God and praise Him. Another impulse comes from the enemy which leads to doubt and denies truth and forbids good; whoever finds this, let him seek refuge in God from the accursed devil.” Then he recited the verse: “Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to fahshâh (immorality)” (2:268)”
Part II
- Opening
- Allah swt says in the Quran “Fa amma man taghaa, wa aatharal hayaatad dunyaa fa innal jaheemahiyal ma’waa.
o Then for such as had transgressed all bounds, And had preferred the life of this world, The abode will be Hell Fire.
§ Brothers and sisters, these are verses which should frighten us. How many of us can say that we truly do not prefer this life over the next?
§ When we are presented with two opportunities, one being temporary satisfaction and pleasure in this life and the other being everlasting pleasure in the hearafter, how many times do we chose this life over the next?
o There has been a trend which I myself have begun to notice and which I have heard with my own ears is brothers and sisters committing sins openly, and then acting as if there is nothing wrong with their committing these sins openly.
§ They have incorrectly defined Hypocrisy to mean someone who commits sins in private, and thus have taken the stance that they are going to commit sins in the open and this is going to make them better than a person who commits them in private.
§ This is absolutely incorrect, and is an incorrect understanding of what hypocrisy is.
§ Because Allah swt has told us that it is a great thing for one to say that which they do not do, does not mean that because you do evil that you then make sure you propagate the fact that you are committing evil, making your private sins become public matters. Where is our shame?
§ How can we possibly claim to believe in Allah and worship Allah and then commit sins in the open, knowing that they are sins, and then we have the audacity to say ‘I am of one who commits great sins”!
§ Muhammed PBUH has said that ‘kullu banee Adama Khatta, wa khayru khatta’een, at tawaaboon’. ‘Every one of the children of Adam make mistakes, and the best of those who make mistakes are the ones who turn to Allah in repentance’.
§ How can we turn to Allah in repentance yet feel no guilt, no shame in our committing of sins that we have no problem with everyone knowing that we are committing these sins?
§ Seeking forgiveness has 3 R’s that must be done
· Remorse
· Regret
· Repentance
§ These things must be done in order to have our repentance accepted.
§ Do we think that we can make istighfaar with our tongues, and intent in our hearts to return to that sin soon after?
o But Allah swt gives us hope. He does not leave us in despair without expressing to us His mercy. He continues in the ayah “Wa amma man khaafa maqaama rabbihee wa nahan nafsa ‘anil hawaa’, fa innal jannatahiyal ma’wa.
§ “And for such who fear standing before their Lord, and had restrained their soul from base desires, Their abode will be the Garden.
o This controlling of our desires will not go unrewarded. Allah swt will not tell us to strive against these strong urges which we have, without rewarding us for our efforts.
o No human being is perfect. None of us can claim perfection. Yet Allah swt tells us in Surah Rahman “hal jazaa ul ihsaani illal ihsaan?” “Is there any reward for perfection other than perfection?
§ What is this perfection that we will be rewarded for if each one of us makes mistakes?
§ The least we can possibly be is the Nafs which rebukes itself, and reminds the person that they are lacking the worship of Allah.
§ Perfection is impossible, but the intention to become as perfect as possible is Human Perfection
- I will close with this final quote of Imam Ghazzali which to me is one of the most beautiful summaries of this constant battle that we are having within ourselves against our desires.
Know that the body is like a town and the intellect of the mature human being is like a king ruling that town. All the forces of the external and internal senses he can muster are like his soldiers and his aides. The soul/self that enjoins evil (nafs ammarah), that is, lust and anger, is like an enemy that challenges him in his kingdom and strives to slaughter his people. The body thus becomes like a garrison-town or sea-outpost, and the soul like its custodian posted in it. If he fights against his enemies and defeats them and compels them to do what he likes, he will be praised when he returns to God’s presence, as God said: “[who strive and fight] in the way of God with their wealth and their lives over those of remained [behind], by degrees. And to all God has promised the best [reward].” (4:95).
posted by Iboo LaL @ 11:25 AM
Comments: 7
