wa ta'ala. AlhamduliLlah Allah subhana wa ta'ala is dealing with us with His Names and Attributes which is a favour from Allah subhana wa ta'ala.

Transcription

1 (Winter Special) Day 7: ص يد ال خاطر - Catching Thoughts Monday, December Lecture by Sister Eman al Obaid All praises and thanks are due to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, Allah subhana wa ta'ala revealed the Qur an to Nabi Salla allahu alaihi wa sallam. AlhamduliLlah Allah subhana wa ta'ala is the only One Who can guide us to the straight path, nobody can guide except Allah subhana wa ta'ala. AlhamduliLlah Allah subhana wa ta'ala is dealing with us with His Names and Attributes which is a favour from Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Ibn al Jawzi (ra) had the intelligence to choose this name for his book because the thoughts can disappear quickly so we need to catch them. Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Allah subhana wa ta'ala opens the hikmah for some people, so the more you are giving yourself to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, the more you are giving your time to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, Allah subhana wa ta'ala will open for you the hikmah. The one to whom Allah gives the hikmah, this is a favour from The more you are giving to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, Allah subhana wa ta'ala will open for you what you can t even imagine. 1

2 Today s thought is also an amazing opening from Allah subhana wa ta'ala which is connected to what was mentioned yesterday. We talked about suppressing and defeating the desires (shahawāt) the lawful and the unlawful and the pleasure you get. 12. Be Diplomatic with Yourself When defeating the desires your need to supress them to overcome them so you need to be strong and tough. But you also need to be diplomatic. You will see that when people are too hard on themselves they think they are doing jihad al nafs. Ibn al Jawzi (ra) said I observed about jihad al nafs. This about how you will struggle against your nafs. Ibn al Jawzi (ra) said Then I saw, jihad al nafs is one of the greatest jihad s. This jihad, when you struggle against yourself is one of the most greatest jihad s. But what is the problem? Ibn al Jawzi (ra) said I saw most of the people don t understand the real meaning of jihad al nafs. You will find people think jihad is to stop yourself, to be hard with yourself, that you need to make things difficult for yourself is jihad. But there is something else you need to know about jihad al nafs for which there is so much reward. People don t know the jihad al nafs so what do they do? 2

3 People assume jihad al nafs is to stop and deprive yourself of all desires. For example we are like a small baby you stop giving the baby what it wants and only give the baby what I want, this is being very harsh. But we think this will make the baby grow into someone responsible. But when an opportunity arises to do something bad the child will be very extreme in their badness. You can t be too difficult, you need to be diplomatic, you need to be in a win win situation. People think jihad al nafs is when you don t give yourself anything that you want. Ibn al Jawzi (ra) said this is a mistake in two ways. THE WRONG We fall into a greater sin The lawful desire people deprive themselves of something which is allowed thinking they are strong i.e. going out, buying something. What is the reason for stopping myself? Is it for myself or is it for Allah subhana wa ta'ala? What will happen? This is a very critical and hidden sin. I am stopping myself from something halal and giving myself something more than this. For example I will not buy something and everyone who knows me knows I resisted buying this particular thing and I was praised by the people. So what did I get? I got the praise from the people which is far worse than the desire itself. 3

4 This jihad al nafs is not for Allah subhana wa ta'ala because you are pleased that you got something else. You feel good about yourself because: you are pleased with depriving yourself In return you got the praise. So we continue to deprive ourselves as we are getting something else in return from depriving ourselves Sometimes you can also get something which is even more hidden. I see myself as better than those not depriving themselves al kibr. So therefore you need to be diplomatic, gentle and careful and smart at the same time like a child who wants to get their way. You need to have a win win strategy. This is al wajhal alwal. It is better to do the halal than to go to the haram. Thinking you are better, strong willed is wrong this is something you can t always understand about yourself. This is one phase. We lose control of our nafs Allah SWT is our Creator, He created us, He created our nafs. We have been given the responsibility of taking care of our nafs our nafs is not ours, our nafs is an amanah, our nafs is a trust. Our nafs does not belong to us but we have the responsibility of taking care of our nafs. Our nafs is like a child whom we have to take care of. The means to protect our nafs is to have the desire to incline towards the things we need in order to survive i.e. eating, drinking, talking. But we mustn t go to the extreme. This inclination is to help us to survive, to be reformed and to be established in this life. 4

5 Allah subhana wa ta'ala gave me my nafs and the inclination to survive. So you need to give your nafs whatever it needs to be reformed or feels inclined towards but don t incline towards the haram i.e. talk haram and don t be extreme i.e. not going out of the house. Now you understand why you have to be diplomatic with yourself. You want to make jihad al nafs but this is not depriving yourself totally from the desires as there are two dangers: Falling into another sin i.e. arrogance, pride, looking down on others etc. Your nafs is an amanah so don t deprive yourself as this will lead to extreme behaviour It is very dangerous to stop yourself from the rights of your nafs. What will happen? Ibn al Jawzi (ra) said Maybe I am pushing myself so much (being extreme) that I will totally lose it. I will leave it if I make it too difficult on myself. Or you deprive yourself so much that you find it so difficult and then eventually you over indulge. Your nafs will escape from you you won t have any control over your nafs i.e. when you have too many rules and regulations with your children they will leave the house. This is the nature of the human being. Allah subhana wa ta'ala says in the Qur an There is no compulsion in religion. So why do we make it so difficult for ourselves or for the people? Everything is so clear, we need to choose. When we don t know Allah subhana wa ta'ala we will make it difficult for ourselves and others. When we know Allah subhana wa ta'ala we will be different. Life is full of examples of people who are so extreme, they make something halal haram eventually they leave the religion. There is some misunderstanding about nafs al jihad the nafs is our inner struggle. How can I struggle against myself? With Jihad al nafs I need to be diplomatic with myself. 5

6 You also need use your intellect your akal. But people tend to be angry and always in a bad mood this is a foolish jihad. We have a dislike / discomfort so we try to remove this discomfort i.e. taking a medicine when ill and we don t complain, we don t rebel or be difficult about it. We understand that this is a means to the cure. I will add something sweet to a very bitter medicine so that I can take the medicine and feel better and avoid getting more sick this is being diplomatic with yourself. You will eat from the food which is recommended by the doctor. You cannot stop eating a specific food you need to follow the advice and rely on Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Don t make up your own rules / restrictions. To be continued InshaAllah. 43:67 On that Day, friends will become each other s enemies. Not so the righteous. 6