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1 Below is the first part of notes from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lecture series entitled “The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance.” The lecture series is named after a book written by ninth century Moroccan scholar Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. Shaykh Hamza translates and gives commentary on this book in this series of 16 CDs. Tasawwuf is not tareeqah. Tasawwuf is a science; it’s been taught within tareeqah and without it. This has always been taught and has chains of transmission. This is just one of the sciences of Islam; you don’t have to be in a tareeqah to benefit.

Don’t let the knowledge that you’re not practicing something you know stop you from teaching it because hopefully the shame of teaching it without practicing it will cause you to start practicing it.

“If you claim something you don’t have, Allah will expose you to people.” -saying of Sidi Ahmad Zarruq

This book is about the human heart – English word comes from a Sanskrit word that means something which leaps, also core (similar to the Arabic lub). Heart is also used as a metaphor for courage amongst the Arabs – when they say ma `induhi qalb, they mean to say he has no courage.

The heart is a 4-chambered organ, has 2 functions, that it expands and contracts (qabd wal bast), similar to the names of Allah al-Qabid and al-Basit. Every breath has 4 beats, the faster your heart beats, the faster you will breath. Ruh in Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese (shen), Greek means breath. Nafs in Arabic is the ruh, while nafas is breath.

They now know that there are over 40,000 neurons in the heart, brain cells are found in the heart!

The heart is an autogenic organ, it beats on its own. Your brain doesn’t have to tell your heart to beat. Even before your CNS is developed in the womb, your heart starts beating.

The Muslims have always believed that the intellect is centered in the heart, not in the head. Cardiac hormones are released in the heart that are sent to the brain. The thinking of the heart is not the same as the thinking of the brain. The intellect of the heart is rooted in the light of the human being. A heart that can think is one that is in harmony with Allah swt’s intentions.

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“Did you come to ask about birr (righteousness)? Ask your heart. Birr is what the hearts/soul/nafs feels tranquil with. The wrong action is what troubles the soul, and the heart wavers.” -hadith of Rasoolullah saws

There is wavering in the breast when there is a wrong action, even when people are telling you to do a particular thing. Your heart has the potential to guide human beings.

A heart that’s sound is one without sickness, one that is saleem. There are diseased hearts and dead hearts. Somebody’s heart can be dead, and Allah can bring it back to life with iman. The difference between one who remembers Allah and one who doesn’t remember Allah is like the difference between the living and the dead.

One of the mysteries of the heart in Western medicine is that it can be diseased, and there are no symptoms. The arteries could be clogged, but they can look like they are perfectly fine, but they suddenly drop down dead from a heart attack. Someone can look like they are in perfect health but be diseased. This is regarding the physical heart, but the same goes for the spiritual heart. There are signs and there are symptoms in medicine – the signs are what the physician can see himself, but the symptoms come from the patient, they have to tell you what it is. The spiritual heart has signs and symptoms as well, and some people can recognize they’re sick while others cannot.

Bad adab – a student tells his teacher that he heard a line of poetry from them last year.

A believer never tires of khayr.

Adeeb – having perfect adab

A believer is the mirror of the believer. In Macbeth, he says that God made it such that we can only see our reflections in a mirror. We can’t see our own face without a mirror. A believer is a reflection of a believer because you see your faults in him. A mutakabbir has so much pride that he gets angry.

Imam Shafi’i was asked why he had such impeccable adab. He said “I always listened to my detractors, I listened to what they said, and then I worked to remove their criticisms.” Another scholar was asked how he learned everything he knows, and he said, “I took every person I ever met as a teacher. Either he was better than me, and I learned things to improve myself, or he was worse than me, and I learned things to avoid.” So everybody can teach you something.

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When you hear a rude person, you should remember that the way you feel is how others feel when you are rude to them.

Buddhists have 4 vows that they say every single day. One vow is that today I am going to overcome myself. Another is that today I am going to give up/overcome my desire. Another is that today I am going to master the sacred law. The last is that today I am going to help other creatures.

Once you realize that the only thing that benefits you on Yawm al-Qiyamah is the sound heart, then we should immediately get started on working on the heart. Everything that is wrong with the world today has to do with the human heart. Every foul act, of backbiting, of hypocrisy, theft, stealing, killing stems from corrupted hearts. If a heart is pure, the actions are pure. If a heart is corrupt, the actions are corrupt. The problem with the world is not pollution. Pollution is a symptom as is war. If you work on the symptoms without going to the root causes, you won’t get rid of the disease. That person will just get reinfected. You have to change the conditions that are creating the disease, and all this stems from the heart. That is why the Prophet saws said that his mission was to perfect noble character because character emanates from a sound heart. The Prophet saws’s heart was cleaned 3 times, and his heart was pure. Thus, the people around him were also purified because they were around him. When you’re around righteous, pure people, your heart becomes purified. For example, in the prison system, the prisoners might be trying to get better, are trying to change and really changing, but then they are thrown back into the same environment that destroyed them.

Sidi Ahmad Zarruq says, “Never trust the nafs. If you’ve fallen into disobedience in a place, never feel strong about going back to it.” You go and feel that you’ll be strong enough to handle it this time, but then you just fall back into it. The cycle starts over again. That’s why you have to be in company.

A monk said that every morning they get up in the morning at 3 AM and start their chanting. Someone asked him, isn’t that hard? He said, if I were by myself, it would be extremely hard, but because everyone is here, it’s easy. It’s easy to pray in the jama`a because everyone’s going to the jama`a. This is the strength of the jama`a. InnAllah ma` al-jama`a.

Mauritania – everyone is smiling all the time. But in America, one shaykh noted that no one really smiles that much. Smiling is a part of fitra; the Prophet saws was always smiling. It’s actually part of fitra to smile when you see somebody. The shaykh noted that the reason why people don’t smile as much in America is because they are always doing things alone. They have shayateen with them,

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they get depressed because Shaytan rides alone. One person who rides alone has Shaytan with them, 2 people alone is 2 shaytans, but 3 is company. Shaykh Khadri said the strangest thing he saw was that he saw a car go and turn around, roll down its window, talk to a metal box, saw some hands come out with a white box, and he didn’t talk to the person. It was a fast food restaurant. We grew up thinking this is normal, but this is not normal. When one person eats alone, Shaytan eats with him. If you don’t do dhikr when you eat, Shaytan eats with you and he gets fat. But if you say bismilLah when you eat your food or enter your house, then Shaytan gets weak. He doesn’t get any strength. The shayateen are getting bigger and bigger, and now people can actually come out and say that they are shayateen. Rock bands declare that they worship Satan.

The book discusses 3 stages/maqaam of elevating your spirit: -takhliyya -ta7liyya -tajliyya The maqaam of the past is tawbah. The maqaam of the present is istiqamah. The maqaam of the future is ta7qeeq. You have yesterday, today, and tomorrow. For yesterday, you say astaghfirulLah. It’s already in the past, and you wasted the opportunity. Today, maqaam, don’t waste the opportunity, so have istiqamah. For tomorrow, you hope for realization.

Zarruq starts the book with praising Allah and His messenger, sal Allahu `alayhi wa sallam. As for what’s before, after, and there throughout, fa laysa al-haqeeqa illa Allah. Any fraction of infiniti is zero… so any existence in comparison to Allah’s existence is nothing. Thus, He is the only reality. There is no real existence other than Allah. Everything else’s reality is contingent reality; it’s not a permanenet reality but it’s not an illusion. Our existence is only sustained by Allah’s qayumiyyah, and if Allah withdraws His sustaining support, it’s just gone. It came from nothing and it goes back to nothing. There is nothing to protect you from the command of Allah unless He’s had mercy on you, and there’s no guidance except through Shariah.

“Whoever learns shariah without working on his inner reality becomes a fasiq because he’s not sincere; he may be learning for riyaa’. Whoever learns about realities without learning about shariah, he becomes like a heretic (zindiq). Whoever joins the two, that’s the real one who’s realized.” -saying of Imam Malik

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After you have removed every foul thing and every grotesque thing, preferring soundness and safety in his path, with a sound presence of mind, with a heart constantly turning to Allah and is witnessing Allah’s presence, he places everything in its place [and that is the definition of ̀ adl (an oppressor puts things in places where they don’t belong, which is thulm). So for example, if you take your book and burn it, that’s muba7. If you take someone else’s book and burn it, that is thulm. Allah can do whatever He wants to His servants, though, because they are His property. You can’t question that. Tragedy is that the tragic hero never realizes that they brought it on them themselves; they’ll never admit that they’re wrong], he realizes knowledge and action according to the foundation, and this is especially difficult in certain places and days, but the gift of Allah is not specific to a certain time or place, nor is it prevented because of the difficult things in any place, and trust in your Lord as someone who will take care of you and take Him as your protector, for He will never forsake the one who seeks Him, and He will never neglect the one who seeks refuge in Him and depends on Him, and all the keys of good are in seeking refuge in Him constantly, and the foundation of all matters is in the existence of depending on Him, and whoever trusts in Allah, Allah is enough for Him. Allah will be enough to protect Him and give victory to Him. Doesn’t Allah respond to the one who is in need of Him and removes him from harm? Whoever trusts in Allah is guided to a Straight Path. If you ask Allah, then magnify your request. Ask Allah for big things, and have high himmah. Allahu akthar, if you do a lot of du`a, Allah will do more for you, i.e. a lot of answering. Whoever is given du`a, he will not be deprived of its answering.

Why are they feeding a cow, an herbivore, dead animals? Why are the human beings making them an omnivore? A pig is an omnivore; they’ll eat anything. Allah made omnivores haram to eat, but He made it halal to eat herbivores because that way we won’t be harmed.

Why do people do things when they know it’s bad for them? They’ve all run amok; they’re all stupid because even animals don’t do that. Animals do what they’re supposed to do, but if a human knows something is wrong and then continues to do it, they are worse than animals.

“Allah gave me the power to bring the dead back to life but He did not give me the power to cure stupidity.” -a saying of `Isa (as)

Mawlana Rumi was saying he saw a man making du`a, and he was saying Ya Allah. A cynic passed by and asked him, how long have you been asking? The man replied that he had been asking for many many years. So the cynic asked if he had received a response yet, and the man said no. Then the cynic asked, so

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why are you asking? Then the man fell into a confused sleep because that cynic put doubt in his heart. So the man saw a dream, and in it al-Khidr asked him why he stopped his supplication. He said because I’ve been doing it all the years and I never got the answer. Then al-Khidr told him that don’t you realize that the supplication was the answer. If Allah put you at the door, what greater gift do you want, what greater gift that you’re occupied with what you’re created to be occupied with while everyone else is busy with other things? That’s the answer, so why do you expect things when the greatest thing is to be remembering Allah swt. Ibn Ata’Allah says the point of du`a is to realize your `uboodiyya to Allah because Allah knows what you need, and that’s why there’s a hadith that says the one who remembers Allah and is so preoccupied with this that he forgets to ask that he’ll get even more reward than someone who asks from Allah, and whoever was provided with istighfar will not be deprived of forgiveness. If Allah has given you the gift of remembering to say astaghfirulLah, then you will not be deprived of being forgiven.

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Below is the second part of notes from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lecture series entitled “The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance.” The lecture series is named after a book written by ninth century Moroccan scholar Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. Shaykh Hamza translates and gives commentary on this book in this series of 16 CDs.

Sidi Ahmad Zarruq says that the heart is the foundation of every good and evil, and its life and its death are the keys to either benefit or harm, so that which has no life has no way of protecting itself from evil and facilitating for itself good, and every heart that life enters into, by necessity, will call itself to good when reminded.

He said that there are 3 types of hearts:

1. qalbun fi hayatihi saheehun, a heart whose life is sound and its expression is clear, eloquent, and its companion when he speaks, speaks with wisdom, and he rises to every necessary occasion, and when difficulty arrives, he responds appropriately. “A man’s heart lies hidden under his toungue”-saying of Ali RA, when someone loves something you’ll hear him mentioning it a lot, so if he has Allah in his heart, that’s what he’s going to

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talk about. If his heart is filled with wealth, anger, rage, that’s what he’s going to talk about. So a person whose heart is sound, you’ll find that his expression is sound too. = QALBUN SALEEM

2. qalbun la hayata fihi, a heart in which there is no life, it neither accepts admonition or a reminder nor does it accept anyone caling it to attention and far from it to follow the truth, or that it should have any courtesy or consideration for Allah’s creation

3. a heart that is afflicted with sicknesses, and in its various states and circumstances, its accompanied with objections and symptoms, so the symptoms that follow follow. And this type of heart is the type of heart that actually experiences pain when it hears of its sicknesses. So when you hear of someone speaking of kibr, hasad, `ujb, riyaa, etc., you actually feel pain, which is a sign of life. And this is a heart, when we speak about treating or process of getting better with a struggle or a cure, this is the heart we’re talking about, hoping that it will come back to life and its life will be renewed or at least the disease will cease so that it doesn’t lead to its death. If the heart remains untreated, it’ll lead to its death.

3 aspects/types of sick hearts: 1. there’s more life than illness; the primary state is the soundness and the

disease is secondary. For example, someone with asthma tends to be more healthy than sick, as opposed to someone with cancer where they’re still alive but with terminal illness. This is much easier to treat.

2. the sickness is preponderant and the life is very weak and diminished. This is a terminal case, and it should be given serious concern.

3. the sickness and the health are about the same, but it’s possible to strengthen one over the other. It’s like the second one, though, and is still very serious because it’s possible the sickness may overtake the soundness. This is a chronic case which is seriously interfering with the life. For example, someone with weak kidneys may easily go into kidney failure if they’re not careful. This is still very dangerous.

The Sickness and Its Diagnoses

The sickness manifests in one of 3 ways so we’ll know whether it’s hidden or manifest

1. a symptom that manifests, is clear, we can see it, and in order to measure it, to do some diagnostic tests, is the actions of one’s limbs. For example, when someone is backbiting, there’s a symptom right there of a diseased heart. That person is revealing a symptom to you of the fact that he has a diseased heart. Or for example, they’re stealing. Where does that come

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from? Tama`a (covetousness). The trunks of humiliation come from covetousness. Fornication is a symptom.

2. the ideology, and its diagnostic measurements is the movements of the hearts. This diagnosis takes someone of more knowledge and intellect. The ideology is the original cause. For example, Iblis was commanded to make sajdah of honoring Adam, and the reason he refused is because he felt Adam was unworthy of his sajdah because he said he was higher than Adam because he was created from air and fire (light elements that rise up) rather than earth and water (heavier elements). That’s what he said, but what’s really going on, what’s moving in the heart? Hasad. That’s the movement of the heart. The ideology was hasad. Some say kibr precedes hasad, and others say hasad precedes kibr, but it’s a khilaaf between `ulamaa’ al-quloob. “People will admit to fallonious crimes before they will admit to envy.” -Melville

3. the matters that move someone to do something, and the diagnostic measure for that is what it inclines to by choice. For example, if someone has the decision to gamble or do something useful, which will it incline to? So you’re looking at the inclinations of the self, whether you’d rather go to the cinema than to the masjid, whether you’d rather backbite or go study something useful.

Shaykh/Rabbani Sidi Abu Hassan ash-Shaadhiri:

Blinding the inner sights occurs from three things. You have basar and you have baseera. Basar is the outward sight. Baseera is the inward sight. This is my way, I call to it with baseera (proof, inner sight). So the baseera is to the heart what the basar is to the body. It’s the inward sight, and just like the outward sight can be blinded or can get cataracts where you can’t see but can be removed, so can the inward sight.

You should enable/allow your limbs to enter into a state of disobedience with Allah swt, to pretend/to be artificial in displays of obedience to Allah swt = NIFAQ. “Hypocrisy is the hommage that vice pays to virtue.” -French moralist, and this is why the Muslims actually prefer a state of hypocrisy to a state of outward disillusion (when the soul has no shame because this is a worse state than a soul that pretends to be obedient when people are around and is disobedient when others are around). Some people will say I don’t want to be a munafiq because I don’t drink openly, but the person who drinks openly is more shameless than the one who drinks privately; the one who drinks privately has more potential than the one who is shameless. Even though it’s a blameworthy and wretched state to be in, it’s a better state than the one who lacks all shame.

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In a virtuous society, even the scoundrels will pretend to be virtuous in front of others, but in a shameless society, people lose their shame, and that’s a worse sign.

Having any desire for what the creation has = TAMA`A. This means to yearn for what others have, and all the letters in the word tama`a are mujawwaf, have hollow centers because that’s the nature of tama`a, it’s insatiable, you just want more and more. So anyone who claims to have inner sight and they have one of these three, he’s either a liar or his knowledge is lacking, he doesn’t have the correct understanding. And this is the essence of reality.

When sickness enters into a naïve heart, a heart of someone who is really not diseased, it’s easy to treat. A heart that has been healthy, once it gets sick, it’s much easier to treat than a heart which was sick then it got healthy, and then it has a relapse.

This is the problem of making tawbah and then returning back to the sin. The more wrong actions, the more the heart gets encrusted. Because he has become intimate, he has come to enjoy the disobedience, he feels comfortable with and that’s why he returns to it, then that’s why when he becomes well, the reality comes into it. But if it gets sick after that by a relapse because of that deficiency it’s experiencing in the heart, the opposite is true, the reality won’t really enter it, and it’ll be hard for that heart to be firm, even though it’s easy to go back.

If those things that are calling to good and evil, if there’s a strong impetus in the heart and the constitution supports that, and when someone does things, it feels pain, then that’s a good sign, and one should not despair. But never feel safe with yourself in any situation, and don’t become heedless about protecting what you have of goodness once you have it.

In other words, just because alhamdulilLah you’ve been doing your wyrd, don’t be comfortable with that, be vigilant because Shaytan is vigilant in trying to get you out of that. And always renew your returning to Allah and your tawbah in order to protect the soundness of that returning to Allah. And treat your diseases with those things that you see are beneficial for it, that have a curative effect, and do that with those things that will incur with the self what ornaments and benefits the self and what removes from the self the destructive tendencies.

Be concerned with those things that will bring zeenah to the heart. The more you do something, the more you start inclining toward it. For example, someone who exercises or showers every day, they don’t feel well when they don’t do

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those things. So guard those things that will benefit your soul and avoid those things that will bring your soul into destruction, and this tawfeeq is by Allah swt.

The treatment of a heart that has a preference for its desires, that heart that is turning away from its Lord. If your heart has life in it, and you actually feel the pain when you do something wrong because there are some people that do wrong things and they no longer feel the pain (some people punch hot sand until they kill all the nerves and tissue until they don’t feel the pain anymore), this is a good sign. In order to treat that heart that still is inclining to wrong actions and is turning away from its Lord, but it’s still alive and feels pain, and it still feels good when it does good actions, there are 3 ways that are keys to closing the doors of disobedience.

1. the first is that you have himyah, which is a regime. In other words, you have a diet for your body, and if you’re eating a lot, it strengthens the nafs. You should eat to the point that it’s not affecting neither your intellect nor your physical well-being, which is reflected in your sleep (either you’re always tired because you’re sleeping too much or you can’t sleep out of hunger because you’re not eating enough). So you need to find a balance, and you don’t go beyond that, you discipline your soul to not exceed those limits

2. the second is inhaling the fragrances of sincerity by keeping the company of the people of sincerity. Be with the people of sidq because when you’re in their presence, you’re breathing in their fragrances. There is a spiritual fragrance of purity, and you inhale that when you’re in their company, and that inhaling affects your soul. The fragrances of his remembrance diffuse.There’s a reality in the company of actions. There’s a phenomena in physics called entrainment. A man put a bunch of grandfather clocks into a room, and he set them at different times, but when he came back, they were swinging/ringing in sync. A man discovered that this is because the biggest clock, the biggest pendulum pulled the others with its force, so the others synchronized with that force because of the strength of that force. So one phenomena with humans is that when they enter a room together, their hearts entrain. This is a physical phenomena, they’ve done it with electrocardio things. Women’s periods, people walking together entrain naturally. People’s breathing entrains. You entrain with the most powerful heart, and there are two hearts that are powerful, the hearts of the awliyaa’ and the hearts of the shayateen, white hearts and black hearts metaphorically speaking. So these hearts pull others into their force.

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For example, with the Columbine shooters, one of the boys didn’t have much of a personality and the other had a very strong one, and the former was under the complete influence of the second. Look at Hitler, Fir`aun, Abu Jahl (when someone almost became Muslim, he pulled him back in) – these are the heads of kufr. Shaytan has awliyaa’. There are awliyaa’ ar-Rahman and awliyaa’ of Shaytan, but both heads are strong and they can pull people into their force. People get pulled between the two forces.

The sick heart wavers, and the most important thing for a sick heart is good company. Shaykh Abdullah says, “The most corrupting influence on children is other children.” If you’re teaching children, and there’s one bad seed, but that child can pull people with him. The hearts will waver between one or the other.

If you don’t have a living person to be in their company, then find out about the righteous people of your area and read their history. For example, if you live in Fez, read the stories of these people. If you read about them and visit the places they went, there’s a benefit in that.

The other is to use a powerful medicine, and by being reminded of the places of destruction and the places that obstruct you in your path, that a servant should reflect on his nature, one of them is to know that he’s a stranger to this world, even from his own self, because the self does things that you know you shouldn’t do. So the fact that you do things that you know you shouldn’t be doing causes you to be alienated from yourself, you are alienated from your own ego. Your higher self is alienated from your lower self.

The second is to remember the struggle of moment of death, sakkarat al-mawt, even the best of people experience the struggles of death, and you will be alone in your qabr. Think and reflect on that.

3. The third is to remember that you will one day be standing in front of the Ruler of the heavens and the earth, and you will be exposed to all of creation on the day that all of your actions are shown. Think and reflect on that. A human being’s life will be shown to him moment by moment on the Day of Judgement, and you will have to explain it. Cinema is a sign from Allah. You can watch people who are dead now, and you can watch a piece of their life because it’s been recorded on a magnetic strip. You think you can do that, and Allah can’t do that? Some people’s whole life is on the internet now.

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Below is the third part of notes from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lecture series entitled “The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance.” The lecture series is named after a book written by ninth century Moroccan scholar Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. Shaykh Hamza translates and gives commentary on this book in this series of 16 CDs.

There are 3 types of heart:

1. saheehun (sound)

2. mayyitun (dead)

3. mareedun (diseased)

From the diseased heart, there are 3 types:

1. soundness greater than the disease

2. disease greater than the soundness

3. soundness and disease are about equal

(the latter two are in dangerous conditions)

How to know whether the heart is healthy or diseased:

1. by knowing the signs and symptoms

2. by knowing the ideology

3. by knowing the desires and the aversions

(outward medicine looks at the very same things)

3 ways to treat the heart: 1. himyat al-badan, which is some type of regime or diet and hunger (not to

the point where you harm yourself)

2. inshaaq as-sidq, which is su7bah, keeping the company of good people so you inhale their fragrance

3. isti’maal ad-dawaa’, which is actually using medicine, and the medicine is tadhakkur

Why these 3 are important, and what to remember:

1. remember that you are a stranger in the dunya, alienation of the soul even from itself

2. struggle of the soul at the time of death

3. stand in the presence of Allah swt

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By diminishing your appetites, your heart becomes pure and more lucid, and by keeping company with the people of good, your innermost core actually begins to gain yearning. For instance, people who spend a lot of time with musicians will desire to take up an instrument, and the people who are around rich people will desire to make money. The people you keep company with, you’ll desire to do what they do if they are good at it. This is the nature of company. So if you’re in the company of awliyaa’, you actually begin to desire to achieve the states that they achieve, and there’s a desire to get close to Allah. And through the remembrance of Allah, Allah will actually help you because Allah helps the servant in accordance with his intention, so the greater the intention, the greater the help. And Allah will give you spiritual opening and intellectual opening based on your himmah.

In a book on the patience that scholars had in gaining knowledge, it’s mentioned that Ibn Sina read Aristotle’s book of metaphysics 50 times before he had his opening in it. And the point is it’s himmah. If you have himmah in anything, the opening you’ll get will be in accordance with it. For athletes, there is natural talent and there’s work, and there will be people who will have natural talent who don’t do the work. So sometimes people will see a master pianist and think it’s just a musical gift, but they don’t see the 8 hours that person puts in 6-7 days a week. And the mediocre musician is practicing maybe 2 hours a day. Even in the dunya, the openings come from the himmah of the person. What the servant has to do is take the means to the openings, but leave the openings to Allah.

If the nafs has aversion to being reminded or you see that the heart is neglectful about these means about bringing about inner sight, like dhikr of Allah, then you have to force yourself to do those means that will remind you and then intend to do those things that strengthen you and strengthen your reflection. If you find difficulty, and your nafs is not inclining to the 3 things above, here’s another 3 things you could do:

1. wujood al-khalwa, which is to go into a leisurely retreat (doesn’t mean wasting your time) which means that you don’t have anything to do, you are not occupied with the world, you have time to study, and do this even if you’re not doing dhikr. Literally be in a state of khalwa because you’re forced to look at your nafs.

2. visiting the graveyards alone, even if you’re not reflecting, because even just being in the graveyards will have an effect on you. These will remind you of the akhirah (at-Takathur).

3. istighfar wa salat `ala an-nabi, do istighfar and salat on Muhammad saws. Why do we say istighfar right after you pray salah? Because of the

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deficiency of your prayer. When the nafs is in this state of deficiency, then saying a lot of istighfar is beneficial for the nafs, even if you’re just staying it on your tongue, it’s a good thing to do. For the prayer on the Prophet saws – it has many benefits. One of them is that the path on the sirat is made easy (from a hadith). It draws you closer to the Prophet saws, and love will enter into your heart for him just by saying the prayer. It purifies the heart; it’s considered a shaykh when there is no shaykh. Do this in all matters. The Prophet saws would visit the graveyards at least once a week. Visit a Muslim graveyard in your area if you have one, and make du`a for them and give them your salam.

A hadith says, “Whoever is continuous in his istighfar, Allah will make for every anxiety that he has some release of it, and for every constraint/difficulty that he has He’ll give him some outlet, and He will provide for him from where he’s not expecting.”

Another hadith related by Abu Bakr RA (rarely relates hadith) says, “Prayer upon me is noor in the heart, noor in the grave, noor on the sirat, and it is greater in its extinguishing wrong actions than cold water is to fire.”

Now Sidi Zarruq relates that if you’re having problems with the other 3 things listed above, and your nafs is refusing to follow that pathway, either because it’s too weighty for the nafs (doesn’t want to think about its wrong actions or think about death) or because you’re too preoccupied with the dunya, then this is a sign of stupidity and forsakenness, a sign that you are in khidhlaan (the opposite of tawfeeq, which is your wanting what Allah wants for you), which is that you want something that’s bad and Allah leaves you to it. You’re in deep trouble. This is a proof in the weakness of your certainty and your faith.

As for being preoccupied with the world, that is due to the fact that your own desires have overcome you. Allah has taken care of your dunya (he’s not insinuating that you shouldn’t work), so don’t continue to worry about it and to be obsessed with it. As for the former (too weighty for the nafs), there are two treatments for it:

1. you force yourself to do it even though you may not want to do. You have to force yourself in spite of yourself to do it, and then preoccupy the self in those things that are mashkoora (things that Allah encourages us to do and tells us we will be rewarded for it), and don’t concern yourself with the benefit. Just think of it as khalas, I have to do it. Just do it as an exercise, as if you know you have to run every day or floss every day. And don’t look at whether you’re doing it in the best way or not; concern yourself simply

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with doing it. Don’t be obsessed with you’re not doing it right or that you’re not doing enough; just do it and be consistent in it. For example, when you’re driving in your car, just force yourself to do 100 salat an-nabi. Why? Because this activity will force the nafs to come to its senses whether it likes it or not, and it will preoccupy the nafs from what it has been accustommed and grown up doing (which is your ghaflah).

2. you have to repeat this stuff over and over without the proofs, without all of the commentary, and study these meanings and just simply reciting them, until they’re completely fixed in you so you know. Get to know this material, your deen really well. Get to know what we’re taught about reality really well. When something goes wrong, you don’t get upset (one sign of someone with weak iman is that they become upset when something goes wrong) by it because who made everything go wrong? Allah did. Why did He make it go wrong? One of 2 reasons: because you were doing things wrong and He pulls the carpet out from under you so you can stop in your tracks and ask yourself what you were doing that would make Allah do this to you OR because He’s elevating you in degrees. He’s either calling attention to your stupidity so you can stay astaghfirulLah, or He’s giving you tribulation in order to raise you up and elevate you, so why are you getting upset? Both scenarios are good. One brings you back to the right track, and the other ensures that you’re on the right track and are improving. So when trials come, you should say subhan’Allah, alhamdulilLah. In knowing all these things, your strengths are going to become energized and lively, and reality is going to protect you from your hawaa and desires. Because for every human being, even if he is a weak human being, there is a way of breaking things down to where his certainty will increase and this is through repetition because through repetition, meanings become confirmed and the substance of that meaning becomes manifest. Through repetition, even a weak human being by nature will get stronger in the understanding of the meanings. All little children start with 1+2 = 3, etc. The only way the children progress is through repetition.

As for your preoccupation and your lack of leisure, this is an excuse that is unacceptable and unpalatable because either you’re preoccupied with something that has some element of the truth in it, like seeking knowledge which has a danger of arrogance, elitism, vanity, egoism, OR what by its nature necessitates sincerity and it either has some immediate benefit or some later benefit, and none of that should negate the ability to reflect and to be reminded. No matter who you are, you have time. Don’t tell me you’re too busy because you were drinking coffee, watching movies, playing ping pong, etc. Quit fooling

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yourself; you have time, but you’ve chosen not to utilize your time. Don’t delude yourself. Whenever people say “I don’t have time,” it’s always a lie.

One thing that Marcus Aurelius said he learned from one of his teachers was, “Never use the excuse of preoccupation in an avoidance of responsibility.” Don’t ever say you’re too preoccupied to do what you’re supposed to be doing. Don’t do anything that isn’t a necessity, even if it’s a mandub because if you’re doing a mandub instead of doing a necessity, then you’re doing something wrong. That’s the same with anything; you learn to prioritize things. Where you put Allah and His Messenger saws on your list will show how sincere you are. Some people’s tops of the lists with either be dunya, family, leisure time (sculpting your body and ignoring your inner character, which is funny because your body will decline but your morals should get better and you can develop your virtue as you get older but the physical things are just downhill). If indeed you did spend all your time in this preoccupied state, then you’re taking your reality to what you’re preoccupied in, and therefore the Haqq cannot be firmly established because of what you’re negating by it (what you’re leaving by not prioritizing these things).

And now there are 3 treatments:

1. take some portion of your day and night, one sa`ah (any portion of time), where you’re alone with yourself and you look at what you did today and what you did yesterday. What did I do for my deen, my heart, my family, my parents? And then reflect on death preparation for you. Death is preparing to attack you, lurking somewhere. Prepare for your death, my brother, and don’t extend your hopes because your heart will become hard (don’t think you have a lot of time), and be constant in your reflection on the seriousness of death, and quickly hasten to action because your life is dissipating. Even the Buddhists say that the best meditation to take your life into account is the meditation on death. That will cause you to take action. The strangest thing about human beings is that they see death all around them and no one thinks it’s coming to them (a Hindu tradition).

2. if you’re not capable of doing the first thing because of the previous exhaustion and you’re preoccupied with the world, then at least steal a day out of all these days in the week, just one day or two days out of the week, or three days out of the month, and make it like a debt you have to pay. These are all different spiritual exercises that you can do; you can put these on your calendar. It’s encouraged to fast 3 days a month, so you can fast on 3 days and then sit and reflect on those days. Think about where you are going (fa ayna tadhhabbun).

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3. if you’re not able to do that because you’re so overwhelmed, then make the day of `Arafah, once a year, a day to reflect.

Death is a powerful thing, and you can actually experience your mortality in a meditation of death, which causes you to assess what you’re going to do with your life. Nobody on their death bed wants to do anything other than right actions; no one thinks that they wish they spent more time at the office or that they would have watched more TV. People will always say that they wish they went to the masjid more, prayed more, read more, etc.

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4

Below is the fourth part of notes from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lecture series entitled “The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance.” The lecture series is named after a book written by ninth century Moroccan scholar Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. Shaykh Hamza translates and gives commentary on this book in this series of 16 CDs.

We should do this every day, or every month, or every year. Beyond that there’s no hope.

Jumu`ah is a good day because on that day we are encouraged to remind ourselves on that day, speak less, incur our salawat on the Prophet saws, and we are also encouraged to fast one or two days of the week. And we are encouraged to desire to do these things, even if we are not doing them. So that’s also part of this deen too, desiring for improvement.

One should also not make the day they fast like the day they don’t fast, so therefore the things that draw you near to Allah, you should be in a better state than the days you’re not doing that. If the only change that occurs during Ramadan is that you’re not eating and drinking, then something is wrong. Also the Prophet saws encourages us to fast 3 days a month (particularly the ayaam al-beedh but any 3 days will work). If you fast 3 days per month, it’s as if you fast a whole year. And if you fast the 6 days in Shawwal, you also get the reward of fasting for a whole year.

The sunnah of making iti’khaf is that you should be fasting when doing it.

In reality, himmah (spiritual aspiration) can be high (`aaliya) and low (daniya). These can also be further broken down. So if you have himmah `aaliya, it’s for things of the akhirah, but even within that himmah, you can have a low himmah meaning, for ex, that you want hour al-`ayn. The high himmah of the akhirah is that you want to be in the presence of Allah swt; you want to be in Jannat al-Firdaus al-`Ala. The high himmah is to want the highest station in Jannah. So even with the himmah in regards to akhirah, you can have high and low himmah. And then in regards to dunya, you can also have high and low himmah. Like Mawlana Rumi once said, “If you’re going to fornicate, find a princess. If you’re going to steal, steal a pearl. ” This basically means that if you’re going to do something wrong and fornicate, don’t go to a prostitute. If you’re going to have himmah in the dunya, have high dunya himmah. Don’t go to hell for something cheap. A Turkish proverb says that if they’re going to hang you from the tree, demand that they hang you from the highest one. One time Imam al-Junaid was

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walking by and saw a man that was going to be hung for brigandary, and he stopped by the man and said salams to him. He said, do you show a brigand like that any respect? He said I’m impressed with any man willing to give his life for what he desires. His point was that, he’s willing to give his life for dunya, and we’re not willing to give our lives for the akhirah? So basically, we should use our himmah to get what we desire. Even if we only have himmah to do 10 minutes of dhikr in the morning and evening, that’s himmah, so utilize it, even if you only have a little bit, don’t waste it. Just the same way, the person with leisure time uses it to seek what he desires. For example, the person that gets upset sitting in the office, they should always have something with them and should never get upset with waiting. It’s `ibaadah to wait in the masjid for salah so they can utilize any of their free time for something useful!

So if he’s really going to take these asbaab, these means, that he’ll remember what has been mentioned and take these means to arrive at it. If you’re serious about this, you’re going to use these means to achieve what you desire to achieve. So if you’re a mutasabbib (somebody in the world), then you’re going to use what has been mentioned, despite the fact that you’re preoccupied with the world, you’re still going to use what has been given to you in accordance to your capability. So for ex, if a student of knowledge is not concerned about anything because they don’t have to work or worry about food, that person is going to make this work the source of their livelihood. The people who Allah has freed of worrying about dunya obligations, they will earn their livelihood with Allah by being people in the dhikr of Allah swt; they won’t waste their time because if Allah has relinquished those concerns from you, even if it’s only for a period of time, whereas people who Allah has given the responsibility of working in the dunya like family or children, those people have an excuse because they genuinely are preoccupied, but people who are not preoccupied like a prisoner in prison who made tawbah, those people have no excuse, so don’t waste your time.

If he’s a seeker of knowledge, he’ll put it in his list of activities because seeking knowledge is not going to preoccupy all of your time. So if you have dars to study, you study your dars but you can’t do that all the time, so you work it out so that you can do this work to change your condition.

The foundation of all good, the source of all the gatherings of righteousness and blessings is only found in 3 things (and if you use these 3 things, it will enable you to do other things):

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1. that you have to seek the help of Allah and seek the succor of Allah, and you have to do it on the carpetspread of poverty, of complete divestment, and of humiliation, in other words, you go into a dhaleel (a low state). In front of Allah, you are in a low state. Don’t put yourself before Allah and His Messenger saws; when Allah and His Messenger saws say something, you say sami`na wa ata`na, we hear and we obey. So you have to have isti`aana with Allah (when you seek help, seek help from Allah) and istighaatha with Allah swt (seek istighaatha with Allah because He is al-Ghawth, so He is the one who helps), and you do this through poverty, divestment, and humbleness, even if this is for a moment in the day and night. Just one moment of your day, have faqr before Allah; even if it’s one moment, do it, don’t let a day pass by where you don’t ask Allah for His help because Allah will answer the mu’Tarr (someone who is in a state of daroorah, and that’s how you have to look at your life because the reality is that if that’s the day that nothing will help you but a sound heart, you are in absolute, desperate need to rectify your heart. Traditionally some of the Sufis would wear rags and beg in the streets, which is not encouraged by sunnah, but the point is that those people would do that because those people wanted to break kibr from their hearts completely. A rich minister realized he was arrogant and then he would sit on a garbage heap outside of the city of Fez and people said he went crazy, but that’s not to say we should do that) and that is the type of state where Allah will answer your prayers, when you are a mu’Tarr. Sidi Abdullah Hadi bin `Aashar says that there’s no cure for the nafs except to go with it’tiraar to Allah (to go in a state of daroorah). Many converts will often come to Islam/guidance came when they reach a point where they really felt that they needed help, and they felt a total state of helplessness, and when you ask Allah in that state, the guidance will come because Allah is ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. So the first thing is isti`aana wal istighaatha bilLah.

2. renewing your sincere effort in overcoming those blemishes that are preventing you from arriving to your goal and by singling out your spiritual aspirations without hesitation, without a moment’s neglect. So when you have `azeema (self-discipline), you have to renew your `azeema, and that’s why `azeema is a gift from Allah. And `azeema is either for something high or something low, similar to himmah. So the second thing is to renew your sincere desire to reach your goal and fight those things that are preventing you from getting there.

3. the third thing is that you have hazm in your initiations to reach at what you’re getting once you realize what you need to do. Once you realize what to do, have that discipline, because the way the nafs works is that if you

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pray `isha at the masjid, you say that you’ll pray shafa`a and witr when you go home, but then you end up talking, and you end up procrastinating. The nafs will always try to get you to procrastinate. For ex, someone who is trying to give up chocolates and someone brings them a box of chocolate, he says I’ll just have one, then he has two, and the nafs will consistently do this whenever it happens. Although it’s very difficult to memorize the Qur’an when in adulthood, a shaykh memorized it when in his 20s because he dedicated the time between maghrib and `isha to memorization, and he would not let anything get in the way of that, nothing. Because what if someone invites you and you want to respond because it’s sunnah, and then you’ve broken your pattern. Turn your back on your studies for a day, and it turns its back on you for a week. Turn your back on your studies for a week, and it turns its back on you for a month. Muslims used to work 7 days a week and 6 hours a day. But in the West, you end up working 8 hours a day, maybe 12 hours to commute, then only 4 more hours of wakefulness. The 2 days of weekend allow you to sleep in, be lazy, etc. and it breaks the pattern when the best things are those that are continuous even if they are small. So have hazm in what you do, even if it’s a little bit. It’s better to do 2 sunnah rakaat every day than 8 rakaat here and there.

These things will all be aided by tawfeeq by Allah, but what will prevent them is being too preoccupied with the details because the nature of tawfeeq, which is from sincerity, is that it’s something which prevents diversification because it’s concerned with al-Haqq, and Haqq is one, Allah swt. You can’t see the forest because of the trees. The nature of the nafs is that it will obsess with the details, and you lose sight what the goal of this is, and the goal of this is Allah swt, and Allah swt can give you the openings, and the most important thing about tawfeeq is ikhlaas, don’t forget that. So more important than all the details he gives is the sincerity behind it. And the reality of every person is always with the consideration of his state. It’s one thing that’s going to manifest in what he knows and what he does. If you remember your wrong actions, don’t ignore some over the others, really look at what’s going on in your life so you can make tawbah. But beware in looking at them in great detail that you become preoccupied in really fixing them in yourself; in other words, your preoccupation with your wrong actions can actually strengthen the wrong actions in yourself. One of the greatest things that Shaytan will make you do to make you feel digusted with yourself so that you go into a state of despair; he’s concerned with ya’as, his name is Iblis. Iblis means ablasa, he despaired. And that state he loves more than any other state to engender in the hearts of the children of Adam (as), so what he will do is he will try to get you to become preoccupied with your past wrongs, especially if they’re things which you are habituated to. So many

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people have some wrong actions that they have a hard time getting rid of, whatever they are, and what Shaytan will do is that he’ll remind you and whisper that you’re a worthless case, you’re unworthy of being `abd Allah, of being in the presence of Allah, you should just give up. So don’t let this preoccupation and despair happen in order that you are able to remove them. If you do otherwise, you won’t be able to get rid of them. BUT at the same time, don’t just admit that you are a wrongdoer and not look at the individual actions you are committing. When you are doing your muhaasaba, don’t just say astaghfirulLah for every dhunoob. No, look at what you’re actually doing, because this is the way that by making tawbah of these wrong actions, this is how Allah will forgive them and it’s also the way you get them removed. And know that the reminder of the soul is based on what it’s engaged in. So, for ex, a nafs that is very interested in knowledge, hikmah, and wisdom, you won’t be able to be exhorted or reminded with other than those things. The nature of your nafs will determine what affects you when you hear reminders. Some things may even distance you if you hear them, and it can become a nikmah because you end up becoming arrogant. But every nafs that is really ignorant and knows it’s ignorant, any exhortation will get it going. So if that nafs hears any preacher, he’ll say subhan’Allah and then be ready to follow it. But every nafs that has argumentation rooted in it, these types of simple strategies won’t be easy to exhort it. They will want to argue that a hadith is sahih or da’eef, etc. So those types of strategies won’t work for that type of person.

“Call to your Lord with hikmah/yad`oo ila sabilih bil hikmah (for people of intellect), and give maw`idah hassanah to people (for other people you have to present something in a very logical way and why they should be doing something), and jadilahu billati bi ihsan” – so Allah gives different strategies of calling different types of people. Then Allah says that as for the one who takes his caprice as his god, who will guide him after Allah swt, meaning this type of person that’s following his hawaa, these types of strategies won’t benefit him because he’s lost in his passions. No people learns how to argue except that they’re prevented from action, and you have argumentative actions that watch other people how to pray so they can go pick on them and say that certain things aren’t sunnah. These are sicknesses in people’s hearts, you’re dealing with psychological diseases. And that’s why it’s just pathologies, and when you see them, you realize that this person is just sick. Because the people of Allah, they don’t argue, they don’t go to expose people’s faults. There’s two things, if you’re going to `amr bil ma`ruf wa nahya `an-il munkar (enjoining the good and forbidding the wrong), you have to know about khilaaf. You cannot go enjoin the good and forbid the wrong unless you know ijma` and khilaaf, and you also have to have a broad base of knowledge because if you see someone praying

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with their arms on their sides, you have to know that that’s permissible in a certain madhhab, and thus it would be haram to make inkar of them, you can’t make inkar of that because that is a dominant opinion of one of the rightly guided schools of Islam, and the `ulama have never made inkar of that. There are `ulama that have preferred the other opinion, and that’s what they have written in their books, but the `ulama have never said you can’t do this, they’ve said that it’s better you do the other because the daleel is stronger, but you can’t say that you can’t do this and that it’s not from the sunnah. The imam and school have their adillah. So you have to know the khilafaat, and you have to have a broad base of knowledge. And then also you have to have compassion for the ummah, in otherwise the reason you’re going is because you want to elevate them, you don’t want to debase, humiliate, or argue with them. First of all, you should try to win them over, smile at them, inquire abou them, and start a conversation with them. You don’t just go over there and say ya akhi, haram alayk. The Prophet saws, when the man came and urinated in the masjid, he actually had the Sahaba RA veil him. When someone sneezed in the prayer, and one brother said yarhamakulLah, and all the Muslims were looking at him, and he’s thinking what are you all looking at, what did I do, and then when the prayer was over, the Prophet saws called him over and smiled at him, he said this prayer is a prayer for tasbeeh, tahmeed, it’s for remembering Allah, there’s no speaking during the prayer. The man said wallahi I never saw a teacher before him or after him more sweet to his students than him. This is the sunnah! That’s sunnah, to be nice to your Muslim brother, that’s sunnah. For example, in Egypt, after the prayer the people shake hands and say to one another “haraman” meaning maybe we’ll pray in the Haram or “taqabbal Allah.” So an Egyptian man stuck his hand out and said this to a man next to him, who happened to be from another country, and he responded “hadhehi bid`ah,” to which the Egyptian responded, “Is having bad manners sunnah?” If you really want to educate another person, you should be kind, say thank you that you want to make du`a for me, but you know there is khilaaf, and here is my daleel, etc. But if you just want to insult the person, don’t make it all self-righteous, just say that I’m sick in my heart and I like to be mean to people so get out of my face.

And he means by this, egotistical argumentation (not argumentation in which you want the truth to manifest but rather argumentation in which you want your self to manifest) – and this is why Imam Shafi`i said that I never entered into a debate unless I asked Allah to make the truth manifest on my opponent’s tongue and not on mine so that I could submit to it, and this is a wali of God. Imam al-Ghazali said if you want to say something about the truth, look inside and ask yourself if you want to say this because you want your ego to manifest or

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because you indeed really want the truth to manifest. What’s the impetus behind your action?

And it gets to the point where he doesn’t benefit neither from his knowledge nor from his actions because he’s got this ostentatiousness, riyaa’, entering into his actions. And this becomes so essential to this person’s reality that he’s not even aware of it because it’s overcome him completely, and if you pointed this out to the person and said you know it seems like this is just your ego, he’ll never accept that and will say no, I want the truth and that’s why I’m doing it, but that’s not really the reason. It’s a psychological sickness, and it’s so deeply rooted in this person that he doesn’t see it like that because the nature of caprice, if it firmly roots itself in the soul, it brings to fruition knowledge that’s in accordance with it. So when your hawaa becomes so firmly rooted, you’ll even end up justifying and your knowledge will be in accordance. So for example, you’ll only study the hadith that are with your opinion, you won’t look at the hadith that are against your opinion. And this definitely happens with people because there are hadith sahih that refute their opinion, but they won’t look at them. They won’t look what the `ulama said about them because it’s not in concordance with their hawaa, and they’ve completely submitted to their hawaa, and they’re convinced that they did this for the sake of Allah, and this is the diseases of the heart, this is the self.

This strategy becomes so great in this person that it’s to the degree that it’s even been said that to dig and carve mountains with your fingernails is easier than removing caprice from the soul, if it’s become firmly rooted. And this quality will end up forcing the wayfarer on this path, it will regress him and pull him back, and it will reduce him to the lowest of the low. And it will actually put the scholar into the company of those heedless ones. And my belief about this is that the majority of creation did not regress after arrival except because they were unaware of this most important principle, so reflect on the words of the hikam when he said, from the ignorance of a seeker of this path is that he does something with bad adab and there’s no punishment that comes from it immediately (in other words it’s delayed or deferred), and then he says if this really was bad adab, Allah would have stopped his imdaal, i.e. he would have removed his help from me and would have distanced me from the state that I’m in because He can remove His maddad (help) from this person from where he’s not even aware of. For example, you can lose all your actions, and you will not even be aware of it. Shaykh al-Hatimi said that if you talk during the adhan, you’ll lose all your good actions and you won’t even be aware of it because Allah said don’t raise your voice over Allah and His Messenger, and the nidaa’ to prayer is from Allah. Allah’s calling us to the prayer. And he could be in a place of distance

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from Allah and he’s not even aware of it, even to the degree that the only thing He does is that He leaves you in what you desire, in other words, that’s enough to consider yourself distant from Allah is that you’re doing all these things and you’re thinking that they’re all right with Allah.

The khatimah – Now you know, my brother, the path of tawbah and the way to return after you’ve regressed. So if you stand before its door and it is having remorse of the past, realize its existence in your actions in that they’re in accordance with in with consistency, knowing that tawbah from you to Him is tawbah from Him to you. In other words, recognize that your tawbah to Allah is in fact His returning to you, so you should see that; the fact that you’re making tawbah, He opened that door for you, and that in itself is a blessing from Allah swt. So he says, if after you’re firm, you lose it again (you fall back into it), then know that it’s because of something you did (it’s your own fault), but if the tawbah is maintained and consistent, know that it is His generosity to you because your action, this tawbah that you did, is presenting yourself in the presence of the fragrances of His mercy. What you’re doing is you’re exposing yourself to the fragrances of His mercy, so it’s like when you go buy a rose bush, and you stop and you breathe in the fragrance of that rose, what he’s saying is that your tawbah is breathing in the fragrances of His mercy, you’re stopping to inhale the fragrance of His mercy. And your firmness on this is as a result of His gifts, and for this reason, you must return to tawbah whenever you return to your wrong action, keep coming back. There’s a beautiful poem by Mawlana that says, “Come back, come back, whoever you are. Thief, robber, sinner, keep coming back, even if you broke your vows a thousand times, come back. Ours is not a caravan of despair.” This is not a caravan of despair, that’s Iblis’s path. He did something wrong, and then he despaired, he said there’s no hope for me. The children of Adam, they keep doing wrong and they keep coming back. And Allah says that if you keep coming back, He’ll keep coming back to you. So don’t ever despair of the mercy of Allah, no matter how much you do wrong, keep coming back, keep coming back, keep coming back, and insha’Allah the wrong actions will start to become more and more subtle. You have to keep coming back until the day that you die, just keep making tawbah. If they get more and more subtle, that’s the hope. If you’re in kaba’ir, then you start to work on your saghaa’ir.

Because no matter how much of the qualities and the descriptive nature of the servant, they in no way can diminish the character of your Lord. So your wrong actions, no matter how much or how great they are, they don’t diminish the character of His Rahma. So don’t think anything you do has any effect on your Lord. Your Lord stays the same. He’s at-Tawwaab, ar-Rahman, ar-Raheem. And

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He has promised to show His bounty and His mercy just as He has promised to show His justice, so you have to have hope with fear. You don’t just think that oh, He’s ar-Rahman, I don’t have to worry. No, this is why you have to be concerned, and that’s why you have to make tawbah. If you didn’t have to worry, you wouldn’t have to worry about your wrong actions. No, you should worry about your wrong actions, but don’t let your wrong actions take you to a place of despair. You can’t say one of them is over the other except that Allah swt has decreed that His mercy is over His justice, but don’t put one over the other as long as you’re in this world. Right before you die, you should hope only for the rahma, but in this world you should have them on equal foot. To flee from it is a wrong, and to hasten toward it is guidance in itself, and success from Him is His providence over you, that He is actually taking care of you. And if your shortcomings and your going back to your wrong actions is a great thing, know that returning to His generosity is greater than any great thing that you’ve done. So know that your tawbah is greater than your wrong actions. Be aware of that. Your tawbah is greater than your wrong actions, no matter what you did wrong. No one is considered to be continuous in their wrong actions if they ask forgiveness, even if they return to that action 70 times a day. And Allah swt loves every person that does wrongs continues to turn back and make tawbah – katheera dhamb, katheera tawbah. He has a lot of wrong actions and he has a lot of tawbah, Allah loves that servant. Someone said to Hasan al-Basri that a man will do wrong then he asks forgiveness, he does wrong then he asks forgiveness, at which point does he stop doing that? He responded I consider this nothing other than the character of the believers. And in the hikam, he says never allow any wrong action that you do to cause you to despair from gaining istiqaamah in the future with your Lord, from gaining uprightness with your Lord, because it could be that’s the last wrong action that you do, that’s ever decreed for you, and whoever does not believe that Allah, or considers it very unusual that Allah will save him from his appetites and remove him from the condition of his heedlessness, has done nothing other than considered the Divine Power to be weak. In other words, if you think that Allah can’t take you right now, in the state you’re in, with all your wrong and all your ghaflah, and change you right now and make you upright and make you a wali of God, then you’ve incapacitated Divine Power. Allah is qadir `ala kulli shay. So understand, oh my brother, and really consider this, reflect on it, ponder it, ponder your return to having a good opinion of Allah, and reflect on your `ibaaqiqah (an abiq is a slave that runs away from its Master), reflect on your running away from your Master and your turning away from Him and feeling independent of Him. Innal insana la yatgha, ar-ra’ahus taghna – Man has transgressed his Lord when he deems himself independent of His Lord. You’re completely dependent on

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Him, so this should cause you to feel inhiyash ilayhi, i.e. you should feel this alienation that you want to remove no matter what your condition, wassalam.

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Below is the fifth part of notes from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lecture series entitled “The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance.” The lecture series is named after a book written by ninth century Moroccan scholar Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. Shaykh Hamza translates and gives commentary on this book in this series of 16 CDs. 3 types of hearts 3 types of sick hearts 3 reasons we can come to understand why a heart is sick 3 ways of treating a sick heart – regime, good company, using the treatment (which involves 3 reminders = the alienation of the world, the moment of death, the fact that you will one day face your Lord) When he spoke about the ̀ azeema (self-discipline), he was talking about the fact that it’s necessary to have resolution, to be resolute in this endeavor. The way to realize resolution in your actions and also to utilize the means by which you realize your goal is done through 3 mawaaqif, the first of which is the rank of taqwa and the last of which is the carpetspread of the revealings of knowledge.

Al mawqif al awwal – the rank of taqwa -to realize tawbah through realization, and this revolves around 3 axes, and it’s like the pole holding up and the doors into it.

1. the realization of the intention with absolute resolution to never return to what you’re leaving behind, in its totality at the outset. At the outset of your tawbah, you make a tawbah from the past. When you’re beginning your sulook to Allah swt, you make a tawbah from the past because usually before this you were in ghaflah and now you realize that to Allah is your end. And the realization is the definition of intelligence; idiotic people are those who waste their lives in idiotic endeavors.The world is dar ul fanaa, you’re here for a short moment of time, and once you realize that your life can be taken from you at any moment, then if you’re intelligent you’ll start preparing for infinity, instead of always preparing for what is finite and what is, really, intangible/an illusion. The world is not an illusion, the

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`aalam, like if you look at the mountains, people 800 years ago looked at those same mountains. The mountain is still there, but all those people are gone. The mountain is `aalam, but hayat ad-dunya is our experience of the world. The world stays here until Yawm al-Qiyaamah, but we pass through for a brief time. Now this would be like if you decided you wanted a house, and a real estate agent tells you that he has 2 types of houses: one that looks nice and can be sold now for a cheap price, but the problem with this house is that it can disappear at any moment and there’s no guarantee that even right after the contract that it’ll still be there, but it could stick around for 50-60 years, and the other house is very expensive but there’s a guarantee that this is a permanent house, built on sand, and it will be with you for infinity. So anyone with intellect will choose the second house, and that’s why the Prophet saws said that the dunya is an abode for the one who’s homeless and the one who gathers for it has no intellect. You have intellect if you’re wasting your time on dunya, you’re ah7muk, and that’s why the Prophet saws said that the man of intelligence is the one who disciplines his soul and works for what comes after death. The incapacitated one is the one who lets his nafs follow its caprice and he has vain hopes about Allah swt. Once you realize this in a deep deep way, you make tawbah in which you say that you’re turning away from the path of dunya, and you’re setting foot onto the path of akhirah. And this is a choice that the intelligent person will make once in their life. This is a path, the path to Allah swt. If you decide to path that choice, then at its outset, the first thing that you do is that you make tawbah for the past, jumlatan, in its totality. You don’t have to go through every single thing you did because that would be too difficult, you were in ghaflah for a long long time, and it would be too difficult to do that, so you just make tawbah for the past. But thereafter, you have to make muhaasabah because setting out on this path now means you have to rectify your soul for Allah swt and therefore you have to discipline your soul (idaanat an-nafs).

So you have to discipline the soul, so after you make this tawbah, you begin to actually take this soul into account. So you look into all of them with tafaseel. Those things that engender this firm resolution and this steadfastness (in your resolution) are 3 things (dawa`i – impetuses, call you to what you do) – i.e. these are the 3 things that will keep you resolute in your tawbah:

1) flee from that place that you fear going back into your wrong action, so if your wrong action was a kaba’ir and you had relations with the opposite

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sex (whether its zinah or what comes before zinah) then you must avoid the places where those things occurred, or if it’s alcohol then you avoid the company in which you drank and don’t spend any time with them, don’t go anywhere near where that tempation occurred, and this can get more and more subtle like if you’re trying to relinquish backbiting and you know there are certain people who you tend to backbite with, then you can either make a contract with that person that you’re not going to backbite anymore or you can avoid them altogether if they’re not capable of doing that,

2) to suspect the soul/ego/self that remnants of its inclinations toward that thing that you’re trying to remove is still there in order that you can maintain your vigilance against it. So you’ve made tawbah for the thing you’re trying to avoid, changing yourself, and you look at yourself and figure out what are the things you want to remove from yourself. Although you feel contempt for those things, they’re appetites, and that’s the nature of wrong actions, they’re appetites or we wouldn’t keep doing them, so suspect yourself. Even though you’ve made tawbah, still consider yourself that it has inclinations toward these things so don’t trust the self, suspect the self. Or else the same thing is gonna happen and you won’t even be prepared for it, you won’t even be aware of it because you’ve gone back into your heedlessness,

3) to preoccupy yourself from those things you want to remove. If it’s a sensory thing you want to remove, then preoccupy yourself with other sensory things; if it’s a meaningful thing, then do it with other meaningful things. And this should be without doing this in stages or steps because the means by which you get out of something, in order to get out of it, this precedes what you’re getting out of – in other words, that thing you’re trying to get out of, once you’re out of it, that’s the most important thing, to be completely out of it, that should be your priority, and for that reason, it’s an obligation that every time you remember your wrong action to renew your remorse about it.

The reasons you fall back into wrong actions are three:

1) that you forget your remorse, go into a heedlessness about your remorse, or you forget to recollect it, and because of that, the picture/form of that wrong action will become fixed in the self and then it will sneak in through heedlessness because of its deeply rooted nature in the heart, because of the heart’s preoccupation with it. A lot of the wrongs we do are rooted in the self like envy, `ujb, kibr, gheebah, lust – all these things are

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very common in human beings and are part of human nature. Because of the fixed nature of these things in yourself, if you’re not resolute about this, it creeps back in and we’re not even aware of it,

2) that you allow your eye to go back to that thing, either the place, the reason, or the time that that wrong action occurred, there’s a revisitation, even if it’s just a moment, and even if it’s just thinking about it for taking some lesson from it. Unless you repeat the remorse and you have contempt for it and look down on it (more than remorse because you belittle the wrong action) because if you don’t have that contempt for it then you might actually remember the wrong action with some sweetness and pleasure if it was an experience that was pleasureable at the time, especially if it’s in the same place where it occurred and the same action,

3) that you trust the soul in its resolution to not go back to wrong actions and also to have a good opinion of the soul in the state that you’re in now. So you’ve made tawbah and now you’re feeling good about yourself because you’re in a better state than you were in before, and also going back to the same place that caused the wrong action as a way to test the self. So you say to yourself that you can handle this now, you feel secure and strong and no longer weak. Even if it’s just to bring it back to your attention without really contemplate it and you have a reoccurrence of thought about it because it’s likeness is like the likeness of a light water that is sprinkling over a fire that’s diminished, and although the fire is low and there’s just coal, when you put light water on it, it actually increases and the fire starts crackling and coming back to life again because the ego, the soul is like a hidden fire when the truth manifests over it so he should never feel safe with it, unless he is an idiot. And no one is vigilant is guarding himself from it except a man of intellect. Never incline towards your self even if your self is always in a state of obediance to your Lord. Don’t ever incline towards your self. Protect yourself from your nafs, and never feel safe from its machinations because the nafs is more foul than 70 shaytans. Your tawbah might not have included all your wrong actions, so the ruling of it is in accordance with those things that it covered. So there could be some mixing if you do some wrongs that weren’t included. Tawbah is really supposed to be for specific actions. So your initial tawbah was jumlah, and then after that it was tafseel. So if there’s a mixing of that, then the hukm follows that that follows, meaning that if it’s for the same wrong, then you

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make tawbah for the same wrong, and if it’s a wrong that you didn’t include in your initial tawbah, then that necessitates another tawbah as well.

And also, it’s necessary to be more vigilant now than before, and it’s also necessary to look into how you fell back into your wrong action. Look at how this occurred in order so that you can seal this in road and can stop this from happening again because the ideology of the wrong shouldn’t be concealed to you anymore after you’ve fallen into it again unless it’s a type of hawaa (passionate caprice) that is firmly rooted in the soul, and in the language of modern psychology, it’s been established with rationalization, that you’re rationalizing your wrongs because once you go into rationalization of wrongs, then it’s difficult for you to see the reasons because you’ve rationalized them, it’s what they call cognitive dissonance, people will actually begin to justify their wrongs.

So if Shaytan objects and says to you that what’s the benefit of a tawbah that’s followed by your returning to the same wrong that you just made tawbah from, cause this is what Shaytan will do, he’ll try to make the nafs feel that I can’t do this, I keep going back and Shaytan will say that just give up because you’re hopeless, this is what the salik will hear when he’s trying to remove these vices from his soul, then say to him just like we took the wrong action as our profession/occupation, we take our tawbah as our occupation. And perhaps the death comes and you’re in a good situation, when you’re in a state of tawbah and not at a time when you’re in a state of a wrong action. So if he (Shaytan) uses the excuse that your resolution is too weak, he’s refuted by saying that what is sought after us is the manifestation of these devotional forms, not what’s impossible for human beings to perform. In other words, this tawbah is a devotional act, and all of us will make mistakes, and the best of those that make mistakes are those that make tawbah to Allah. So if he tells you that you’re weak, you respond by saying that what is sought after me is that I’m in this state of devotion to Allah swt, not what’s not within my capacity which is to free myself completely from wrongs. And if he says to you that no, you’re just making excuses for yourself, then leave him and turn away from that type of talk because you have to act and this type of internal conversation with the self, it just takes somebody to despair, and you have the ability to act! Leaving wrong actions is easier than returning to tawbah, so just keep leaving your wrong actions, wa Allahu `alam.

The heart is the place of human weakness, and there’s nothing more helpful to the heart than continuously seeking refuge in Allah swt in its

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purification. Allah is Mutahhir al-Quloob, and the heart is the place of human weakness, so seek refuge in Allah swt in first the purifying of it, and then in the steadfastness of it towards the end of the affair, once you’ve gone through the takhliyya (the removal of the negative aspects of the self) and entered into the ta7liyya (ornamentation of the self), that’s when you have steadfastness.

So in the beginning, you’re purifying, and once you reach a stage of purification, then you maintain the purity. And for that reason, the Prophet saws used to make much mention that Ya Muqallib al-Quloob, thabbit qalbi `ala deeniKa (O Turner over of the Hearts/Revolver of the Hearts, make steadfast my heart on your deen). Allah is Muqallib al-Quloob, so we’re asking Him to help us in being steadfast in our hearts. And this first kuTub that he’s talking about, this is the dhikr of this stage in your path of sulook, to make this above du`a often, as well as la ilaha illa Ant, subhanaKa inni kuntu min ath-thalimeen. Do this in an odd number of times after every sajdah and also when you make istighfar with Allah. This is dawa`, this is medicine, and that’s to seek help in Allah (isti`aana bilLah) and the dhikr of this stage is the above du`as. With Allah is tawfeeq, and with Him is the best of help

2. Returning those things that you wronged others with and also redressing what was lost in the first place, and this is an obligation in order to realize your resolution and also in order to repel this defeat of the self (so you stop the losing battle with the self). And the recourse in this is reflection in those things that you were lax in, by reflecting on those things where there was resolution and steadfastness in and those things where there wasn’t.So know that what occurs from the wrongs revolves around 3 aspects/milestones:

1) wrongs as a result of things that we caused to be lost and also wrongs done, and there’s no expiation of this except in this resoluteness, only in being absolutely resolute and having remorse about what’s past because everything in the past could have been used for something beneficial and we lost those opportunities and the darknesses that follow for all of that, and there’s no expiation except to have resolution, go back to this, be firm in what we’re trying to repeal for this as opposed to the neglect of the past. This is what we’re replacing it with, what we neglected in the past of changing our conditions, now we’re replacing it with this hazm (firmness).

The signs of one’s sincerity in this is 3 things, and these are 3 things they know in those who have living hearts:

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1) the experience of the sweetness of leaving those things rather than the enjoyment of reflecting on them. So what happens here is that the people who do wrong actions, when they remember them, they remember them as a way of trying to bring back the enjoyment of their wrongs, but if the heart’s alive when you do wrong, the effect afterwards is the opposite and you feel terrible because at the time you did wrong, you were in a state of heedlessness and then when you go back, when you think about it, you feel terrible that your nafs overcame you, and the opposite is true is that you feel a sweetness when you do good actions, you feel imbisaat, you feel alhamdulilLah, feel good about that. With wrongs, you feel inqibaat – only if your heart is alive,

2) forgetting creation because of that wrong action and also their subjugation as a reminder of the blessings of the Lord, and

3) actions in accordance with those things that engender steadfastness in this path, and also being vigilant about regressing from all these different directions, and the signs of these remnants in the self is three.

The reason you fall back (regression) is three:

1) you gain some intimate joy with remembering, even if it’s for the sake of blaming and tanfeer,

2) uncomfortable state with the stations of the self and their result as a way of procrastinating, putting off what you’re supposed to be doing in realizing ta`ah to Allah, even if it’s just being a little bit forgiving in allowing a thought about a wrong to reoccur or a haajis (a kind of hadith an-nafs, stronger than a khatir which is just a fleeting thought but less than a hadith an-nafs), and

3) seeking out those who have the same tribulation even if it’s to feel compassion to them because if you seek out people who have the same tribulation in this sickness, you’re going to feel more comfortable with it, and this engenders more compassion to the self, and also when you need to reflect on these things, you don’t reflect on these things, you don’t continue.

The inheritance of leaving these wrongs is 3 things, and all of them are good during your life and after your death. So there are basically 3 reasons as to why you should leave wrong actions,

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1) because of the delights of the devotion to Allah swt, the Prophet saws talked about the sweetness of iman, of munajat (the intimate discourse with Allah), and in tilawah. All these things – `ibaadah has a halawah, and if you’re deprived of it because sometimes your eye rejects the light of the sun because of alphalmia, i.e. sometimes your mouth rejects the sweetness of water because it’s sick. So by leaving wrong actions, Allah will allow you to taste that halawah, and that halawah is not just in this world but also in the next, and the Prophet saws said whoever lowers his eyes for the sake of Allah swt, Allah will provide him with a devotion and he will taste its delight,

2) also the realization of will and this is the carpetspread of mercy and of benefit from Allah swt, this is what the mureed is, the mureed is someone who has irada, you desire Allah swt, and so your realizing irada, by leaving wrong actions you are becoming a mureed, this is what human beings are, we have the ability to move mountains, look at what humans can do, they can build bridges that span oceans, can climb moutains, build skyscrapers, and it’s extraordinary what the human being can do when he puts his mind to it. The human being has massive power. Allah has given him great ability, and one of these attributes is irada, which Allah himself is described with, and He says to use this irada for His sake, and this is how you get rahma from Allah, and Allah will benefit you by these things, that if the souls believe this leaving of wrongs, then the souls will explore the malakoot, and they will return to the saahib of the nafs with wonders of wisdom, that wasn’t a knowledge that was taught, this is something that Allah swt gives because if you act according to what you know, Allah swt gives you knowledge that you didn’t know, and this is one of the wonders, and

3) the existence of salvation that is accompanied by a good life, because whoever has taqwa of Allah, Allah will give him a way out and will provide him from a way in which he didn’t expect. So basically if you do this, you’re going to have a good life – you’re going to have salvation in the next life, and you’re going to have a good life in this world, and that’s the inheritance of leaving wrongs and doing rights.

And there are 3 inheritances of wrong actions,

1) humiliation of the soul, the soul will live in humiliation, and that’s why some said to remove them from the humiliation of disobedience to the dignity and exaltedness of obedience,

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2) that you’ll be exposed and your regression to these wrongs will be seen by others. There was a man that Omar RA saw doing a wrong action, and the man went to the Omar and said, Amir al-Mu’mineen this is the first time I ever did this, and Omar RA said you’re a liar because Allah is more merciful than that he would expose someone the first time they ever did a wrong action. In other words, Omar RA knew that wrong had been done before by that man, and Allah will only expose you after you’ve done that wrong thing more than once. The first time Allah will veil you, and

3) you’ll have a small portion of good, and Allah swt said that wrongdoers will never succeed. Khalas. So you won’t have success, and whoever doesn’t make tawbah, those are the wrongdoers, and turn to Allah all of you believers in order to have success, and Ali RA said whoever wants riches without wealth and dignity/strength without a clan, then let him change from the humiliation of wrong actions to the dignity of obedience.

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Below is the sixth part of notes from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lecture series entitled “The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance.” The lecture series is named after a book written by ninth century Moroccan scholar Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. Shaykh Hamza translates and gives commentary on this book in this series of 16 CDs.

After we look at what wrong actions do, which are three things, now he wants to stress something. This is that the vast majority of wrong actions that occur between a servant and his Master Allah swt, they result from appetites that prevent someone from being near to his Lord (shahawaat mani`a), and when these appetites are firmly rooted in the soul, this necessitates one’s inclinations toward them without any doubt.

So if these come, occur to the mind, one should reject them, turn away from them, without meeting them face to face. In other words, you don’t concern yourself with them because by meeting these thoughts, by attempting to refute them, by preoccupying yourself with them, this will actually make them more firmly rooted without you succeeding in you actually stopping them.

A famous qawaa`idah of a Mauritanian scholar is that which Shaytan whispers in the heart and the heart rejects it, that is iman. When you have thoughts that come to your heart that really trouble you, that’s iman. And one of the people came to the Prophet saws and said there are things that occur to my mind that

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disgust me, and the Prophet saws said that’s clear iman, the fact that you’re disgusted by thoughts that come to your heart that are foul, that is iman. If you didn’t have iman, you would actually enjoy them.

So don’t argue with Shaytan, don’t try to dispute him, don’t preoccupy yourself with these things. It will actually only increase him. And occupy your time with the opposite. And for that reason, we were commanded to do dhikr when Shaytan comes, when the waswaas comes. Fasta`idh bilLah. Because he said, la bil fikr, in other words don’t try to argue or rationalize, don’t do fikr, do dhikr. Because it’s come that Shaytan is sitting on the heart of Adam, so if he remembers Allah, he flees, but if he is heedless, he whispers.

The difference between Shaytan and the nafs, because there’s 4 types of thoughts, there’s 1) khaatir shaytani (Satanic thoughts), 2) khaatir nafsani (egoistic thoughts), 3) khaatir malakaani, and 4) khaatir Rabbani.

The difference between the Satanic thoughts and those of the nafs is that the nafs’s thoughts are compulsive, in other words it’s the same thing, it won’t let you go. So addictions are often nafs, they’re nafs, and that’s why people that are addicted to things it’ll just keep coming to them, go on just do it, do whatever it is that you’re addicted to; that’s nafs, not Shaytan, unfortunately. It’s easy to blame things on Shaytan. Shaytan comes with one thing, and if it doesn’t work, he comes with another thing. So that’s how you tell the difference between a thought from your soul and a thought from Shaytan. Shaytan comes, and if it doesn’t work, he tries something else, whereas the nafs is pretty pathetic, it’s not as clever. Although Shaytan isn’t very clever either, he’s more clever than the nafs.

And then the malakaani is a thought that come from the angels, it’s really from Allah in reality but it’s coming from the angels, and it’s an elhaam. They’re the ones that will encourage you to do good like why don’t you give charity, why don’t you fast tomorrow, and those are angelic, why don’t you read some Qur’an, pray some nafl… those are khawaatir malakaani.

And then a khaatir Rabbani is very powerful, it’s something you feel it so strong that you find it difficult to turn away. Now unfortunately there is a Rabbani thought that can come as a punishment for doing something, so you can actually have a Rabbani thought that can have negative result, but it’s a result of a clear disobedience or a serious breach of adab especially with the awliyaa’ (those who are close to Allah), and the worst thing you can do is have a breach of adab with the awliyaa’. It’s bad enough to have a breach with normal people, but with the

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awliyaa’ it’s even worse. And obviously the worst is the prophets, to have breaches of adab with the prophets. And that’s why, the Prophet saws once told a man to eat with his right hand and he said he couldn’t do it, and after that he couldn’t eat and just had a shaking. He could have done it, but it was just an `inaad, and that’s why he refused, and that’s not something the Prophet saws wishes on somebody, it’s an `uqubah from Allah swt. Another man made fun of the way the Prophet saws walked because he had an unusual way of walking, he walked slightly inclined and he walked fast, and that was not the norm. The Quraysh, the aristocrats, they mosied, very slow, an arrogant way of walking. The Prophet saws walked with intent. So somebody was imitating him, and the Prophet saws could see from his back, and he turned around and said “be like that,” and after that when that man walked he made all these funny movements, and people laughed at that. Reality is reality, and it doesn’t matter whether you believe in it or not. There are two angels writing down what you do, whether you believe it or not. If a mad man in a rain storm says it’s not raining, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s raining just because his view of reality is not congruent with reality.

So if you respond to the things that occur to your heart in this way, then you will reach reality by it. And if you do it more, then it will become stronger in you. In other words, if you do it more and more you will become stronger in this practice to the point where you will actually prevent thoughts from coming into your heart that you don’t want. And there are people who if they don’t want a thought to come to their heart, they literally stop it, and this is not unique to the Muslim tradition (people do this in Zen as well), but what we would say is that the fruits of it are going to be different.

If you leave an appetite 7 times, then the ibtilaa’ of it will be removed from you, in other words if you can leave it 7 times (and this is a saying that the people of this science say), and Allah is more generous that He should punish a person for an appetite that he should abandon for Allah’s sake. So if you left something for Allah’s sake, Allah won’t punish you for it for the times you did it in the past, but the danger is to keep doing it, and that’s why Sidi Zarruq wrote this book. This is not theory to Sidi Ahmed Zarruq; this is a man who completed his sulook, whose karamaat were confirmed, and who is well known in the ummah, he reached a maqaam that is well known, so know this because it’s true what I’m telling you, it’s mujarrab and it’s wonderous. This has been experienced by many people, and it’s `ajeeb, and Allah speaks the truth and He guides to the Straight Path.

That’s the first milestone. There were 3 ma`aalim, and we were still in the first kutub.

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So the second milestone is redressing rights that have been bypassed, that you’ve missed, and doing them in sound and confirmed ways.

This matter has 3 aspects, and each one of them has a hukm/a ruling and a direction.

1. The first one is that these rights that you have failed to perform are known in their number and their order in terms of your responsibility toward them. In other words, if you have prayers that you’ve missed, the prayers have a specific number, and you know their number, and you know their order. The same is true of fasting and many other huqooq, and doing this is an obligation and is of the greatest importance. So this is a way that you should have no doubts about it, and a means that has no shortcomings in it. So take the highest number and then be moderate in that, even if there might be more preferable ways of doing it, do it moderately because the capital of a merchant is that he completes his transaction.

So if you’ve got a stock of goods and they never sell, there’s no benefit in it and anything that falls short of that, that’s just not acceptable. So be moderate, do what you can do, don’t be deficient but don’t go to extreme, for instance if you owe prayers, don’t try to do 100 prayers every day, be reasonable because you want to get it done and you want to keep your himmah up.

Now if you have a lot of prayers – like Shaykh `Abdullah ibn Bayyah who is from the school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal gives a fatwa that if you have a lot of prayers, you make tawbah and you start new. The other imams say no, you have to make them all up, even if it’s 20 years. But if you do owe a lot of prayers, Imam ibn Ahdari says that if you do 5 at each prayer for a total of 25 a day, then that’s not deficient, but if you do less than 5, then that’s deficient. That means at dhuhr time, you make up 5 dhuhrs.

2. The second is that you know what the ruling is but you don’t know what the number is. In this case, you take the safest of the two numbers, in other words if you have a lesser and higher number, take the higher one because that is a more rewarded condition, but don’t go to an extreme in your cautiousness right from the start. Rather do some of it, and then look because resolution in going to an extreme will wear the self out, and you’ll become exhausted and won’t be able to complete. And using some strategy to get the nafs to do what you want it to do is more appropriate, better for you, than trying to return after leaving it, going back to it.

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3. The third is that you have doubt about the ruling and the number. So there’s a certain number of possibilities, and one of them is that the one doubting should have some principle that should be considered that he can rely upon or he doesn’t and he has to use his own judgement.

So the first is something that in what you’re attempting to fulfill, you should consider that, for example in gheebah you tend to know who you usually backbite unless you’re chronic backbiters and just backbite anyone, and the point is that there’s a principle in backbiting and that is to make du`a for those people, make tawbah for the backbiting, and then make du`a, so there’s an asl. You just do your best, and you make du`a for that person for at least 5 prayers.

The Prophet saws said my life is good for you because you do things and then you get ahkaam, and my death is good for you. Why? Because if he stayed with us continously, we would keep doing things and we would get more and more rulings from Allah until nobody could follow this deen. So his leaving us was a rahma. And then he said that the actions of my ummah are shown to me in my grave (hadith sahih), and if he sees good he says alhamdulilLah, and if he sees bad he says astaghfirulLah li ummati, he asks forgiveness for his ummah. So the people that are closest to the Prophet saws are the awliyaa’ and they’re not normal people, they’re not prophets, but they have a maqaam with Allah swt.

A hikmah from a shaykh in Fez: Allah hid 3 things in 3 things – 1) He hid his contentment in His obedience so don’t show any contempt for any act of devotion (means that you can give a million dollars in sadaqah and Allah might not accept it, but you can give a thirsty pilgrim in Mecca a drink from your water and Allah accepts that, maybe that’s what He accepts from you.. for example, a big shaykh, an `aalim was saved because he used to teach the fatihah to a group of old women in his village), and 2) He hid His anger in His disobedience (means that someone can fornicate, drink alcohol and Allah overlooks that, but he can do something cruel to another person and that’s where they get the wrath of Allah, you don’t know), and 3) He hid His beloveds amongst His creation (means that there might be a yahudi or a nasarani who’s a wali of Allah because Imam al-Qurtubi said that Omar ibn al-Khattab RA was beloved to Allah and he was prostrating to idols in Mecca because this is tawheed, where is sa`aadah… your felicitousness to Allah is in the womb of your mother… so you might treat some Christian woman with contempt and that Christian is going to become a Muslim later and she’s a wali of

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God, so don’t treat Allah’s creation with contempt. A man came and said I saw a Jew today and I knocked him off the road, and he was told that go knock your nafs off the road, leave the Jew alone, he’s just being who he is. All these animals got together and made a court, told humans to stop calling each other animal names because they’re just being who they are, but the humans are not being how Allah created us). So you don’t know who the wali of God is. There are some people we know and have belief about that they were the awliyaa’ of Allah and there are others that there is a consensus about, such as Imam al-Ghazali. But you can’t do jazam. With people, you judge according to the outward, and they have states etc.

To leave what you have to do is a type of treachery (khiyaana) so at this level, it is not appropriate for a beginner to attempt scrupulousness at this stage until he has removed, moved beyond, transgressed the level of wrong actions and he’s in a state of avoidance in order that he’s not one of those people that goes too deeply into things because the Prophet saws said, “Enter into this deen softly because no one will go to an extreme in this deen except he’s overwhelmed.” Extreme however… if you were to see a murabbi or a great scholar, to you his `ibaadah would seem extreme but for him it is not. The beginner should not try to do that, they should go slowly and not try to take it all on all at once.

Prioritize and root out things, first remove all the kabaa’ir from your live, and then start to work on the most important of the saghaa’ir and diminish it like that. First, work on doing all of your faraa’id, then work on doing all the mustahabbaat (the sunan, the nawafil). If you’re not praying all of your prayers on time, then that should be a priority over everything, and if your prayers are established, then you focus on perfecting your naafilah. Take this slowly and appropriately because what will happen is that the affair will end up causing you to actually leave the people of guidance. Rasoolullah saws said, “The best of the deen is the easiest of it.” Now obviously for the awliyaa’, it’s easy for them to do what they’re doing, so what he’s saying is that do what is easy for you. Now obviously, because you’re struggling with yourself, that doesn’t mean that you are like oh it’s hard to get up for fajr, but do what you’re capable of doing, and take on what you’re capable of doing. You’re still doing mujahadah, there’s still some difficulty, but do struggle that you can continue, you can keep it up.

Tanbihaat, i.e. some warnings:

The one who does the least amount of what he’s able to do will enter the path of reaching the furthest of what he’s able to reach. So what he’s saying is that if

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you begin by just doing the least amount of what you’re able to do, cause you might be able to do a lot cause right now you’re a shaab so you might feel like you can do the fast of Dawud but what’s the least you can do? 3 days a month. You can fast 3 days a month, so take that as a practice because you can do that the rest of your life.

One of the Sahaba RA said, “Ya Rasoolullah I want to fast every day.” The Prophet saws said, “No, fast three times a month.” The man said, “I can do more than that.” The Prophet saws said, “Then fast Mondays and Thursdays.” The man said, “I can do more than that.” The Prophet saws said, “Then fast the fast of Dawud, it’s the best fast, every other day.” So he did that, and when he got old, he said, I wish I would have listened to the Messenger of Allah swt and only done the 3 days because now it’s become hard for me. Now that’s a proof that the Sahaba RA took no extra acts that they maintained them for the rest of their life. So if you’re going to take on an act, then be consistent in it because Allah loves consistency. It’s better not to start it than to start it and stop it. So that’s what he’s saying that if you want to start on this path, take what you can handle, and take the least amount. Don’t try to be superhero.

The Prophet saws said, “The one who goes to an extreme (the one who breaks the back of the beast), you don’t traverse any of the land nor do you leave.” You destroy your beast of burden, so you don’t get to where you’re going. You wear yourself out, and you wear your camel out, meaning your nafs, your beast, your riding beast, and you never get to where you’re going. You’re spinning wheels.

And the diversity of states is commenced with the diversity of rulings. It is not appropriate that you become deluded by what is mentioned of the resolution of those men and women of great determination in being able to do the qadaa, what’s owed of many months, in one day. Nor should you simply limit yourself what would really be considered frivolity and would be blameworthy.

So don’t do nothing, or don’t do so little so that it’s of no weight or consideration, and don’t try to do what you read books of the awliyaa’, and then you start trying to be like these people, and it’s not your maqaam. Start where you are. Everybody should start wherever they are. What you should do is look at the least amount of what seems moderate. In a continuum, you’ve got some middle area; it’s not too little, it’s not too much. On that continuum, look at the least of moderation. Fi haqqeeqah, at your level, understand where you are – like if you just started praying, focus on getting your fard established, and if you’ve been praying for a long time, do other things – take things where you are. You have to know where you are, at which point you’re at. And look and

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consider the words of the `ulama in these matter because they are our pinpoint in this matter.

So as for what’s been realized of your responsibilities or one thinks one’s realized them, or there may be some doubt because theres’s some signs that maybe it hasn’t been fulfilled, then there’s no relinquishment from this responsibility until you complete what you need to complete by obligation in the first two. So if the first two are done, they’re not done until what you’ve completed with them. And as for that concerning the end, it’s out of waraa that you do that, when there’s some doubt because of some sign or something.

And whoever puts before him the extreme of what he wants, he rarely reaches what he desires. So set microgoals. Our goal is Allah swt, the highest goal, and we want to stand before Him with qalb saleem. We want to bring in front of Him something that is worthy of divine presence, and it’s a long journey. So you have to take it step by step, don’t try to get there today. But always leave open the possibility that Allah can open it up for you, in a moment, it’s possible.

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Below is the seventh part of notes from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lecture series entitled “The Poor Man’s Book of Assistance.” The lecture series is named after a book written by ninth century Moroccan scholar Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. Shaykh Hamza translates and gives commentary on this book in this series of 16 CDs

We were talking about having a far-sighted goal without having microgoals, and he said that anyone who does that will usually not achieve his goal. So he said, for example, you’ll hear stories about people who repeated all of their prayers. They prayed 40 years in the masjid, and every day he was in the front line, and one day, the first day in 40 years he was late for the prayer and he was ashamed to go in because of what the people would think, and then he realized that he had the riyaa’ about his prayers so he repeated all 40 years of prayer. And that’s called salaat al-`umar, and there’s no daleel for that. So he said that some of the scholars told us that it’s mentioned in the kheerah of one of the great `usooli scholars of the Maliki madhhab that that’s actually not permissible to do that.

So then the third one, he’s talking about rights that you’ve trangressed – rights of Allah and rights of the creation of Allah. He was talking more about the huqooq al-badaniyya like prayer and `ibaadaat, hajj. Then he says the rights

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relating to those things that involve money are similar to the rights relating to those things that are rights of your body. Indeed they are even greater.

So the obligation of zakaat and also expiating that is not only an obligation, but to fervently seek that out is more important than being vigilant about those things that relate to your badaniyyaat, like prayer, etc. Why? Because zakaat not only affects you but it affects others. So not only have you deprived yourself but you’ve also deprived others. There’s mathaloomeen. So that’s why you should be more concerned with your zakaat because if you neglect it, there’s poor people that are entitled to it that you’ve oppressed. So that’s what he means.

They shouldn’t be put in a scale, but your concern for zakaat should not be light, it should actually be greater than for your badaniyyaat, but that doesn’t diminish the concern you have for your badaniyyaat. And the reason for this is that the nafs by its nature finds it easy to do the first but is more lazy about the second. And for that reason, the salaf were more scrupulous about matters concerning wealth, perhaps more than in wudu’. And that’s well known.

The Sahaba RA were more concerned about where they got their money than they were about night prayers, etc. because if your money’s haram, then the food you eat is haram, and if your food is haram, then you’re not going to be able to do anything with any continuity in your `ibaadah.

Then he says it’s not permissible that you free a slave when you have debt, so you can’t do things with your wealth when it has obligations on it. Allah doesn’t accept naafilah if there’s obligatory acts that are binding on you. So in a sense, you are wasting your time if you’re doing extra acts when there are other things you need to do that are binding on you. For that reason, the most important of your affairs are fulfilling those rights which are an obligation on you before going on to any extra acts. And for that reason, that anyone who deems a superagatory act more important than his obligatory acts, then he’s deceived, deluded, been tricked by Shaytan or his nafs and hawaa.

And it’s been said the destruction of human beings and creation is in 2 things: 1) by being preoccupied with extra acts to the neglect of your obligatory acts (like someone is doing night prayers but they don’t get up for fajr… if you do that, then your night prayers are a waste of time. It’s better you sleep the whole night and wake up for fajr, rather than stay awake for naafilah and then fall asleep right before fajr), and 2) the heart is not in sync with the limbs, so there’s no intention behind your actions, you’re just doing the outward action. So there’s people that pray, but it’s just the outward form, the heart’s not present, it’s just

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haaDir. So he’s saying those 2 things destroy people. And he said, in the hikam of ibn Ata’illah, that from the signs of following the hawaa’/caprice is to hasten to the extra acts of good and to be lazy about implementing the obligatory rights that are upon you. So that’s a sign of ibtibaa’ and hawaa.

And this is a disease that is impossible to remove, a very serious disease. For ex, there’s people that they pray every taraweeh prayer during Ramadan, but they didn’t pray any obligatory prayer outside of Ramadan. So they have faraa’id prayers that they should have been praying, but they go for the naafilah.

The fifth one is also that you know the number in terms of qadaa. When you’re redressing some haqq, some right of Allah swt or His creation, it’s an obligatory to know the number because the nature of the selfhas a natural inclination to things that come to an end.

For ex, if you’re working and there’s no end in sight, you get overwhelmed, whereas when you really can see that a job has an end in sight, it gives you himmah, it gives you more energy to do that thing. You have to know what you owe so you don’t just say or feel that you’ll never get this done. By making what you do, by doing it in only one way, it will lead to boredom. So he says here is that you should vary when you’re trying to fulfill something, for ex, you do the least amount necessary, then you increase it to a middle, then you increase to its highest number. And this is in order for the nafs to benefit from it, and it gets some repose from this, from these changes and increases, and also it gains a strength in being able to perfect and to embellish what it’s doing, in other words the devotional practices.

The sixth one is that if you have a weak incentive (ba’ith) – for ex, most people work because they get a paycheck, and the paycheck is their ba’ith, it’s what’s making them do something and if you want the forgiveness, that’s a powerful ba’ith, to seek the forgiveness of Allah. So he says that the weakness of the incentive will end up engendering in you a laziness in doing what you need to do, and also it will result in your relinquishing or diminishing the continuation or steadfastness in it.

If you find that and you don’t find any help in changing that, then remind the self and give wa`ad to the self. The Sahaba RA used to exhort themselves, Sayyidna Abu Bakr RA used to actually give wa`ad to his tongue.

One of the things that his teacher would do is that he would give wa`ad to himself with prayers and with poetry – he would actually say these things to himself like o nafs, wake up, have some fear, be fearful of sudden death, all the

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pleasures of dunya, don’t preoccupy yourself with them, especially the pleasure of sleep before dawn. You have to give wa`ad to your nafs, and then really rise up the way somebody angry gets up. If you’re angry, you get up and are like, I’m going to do something about this. So he’s saying to get angry at yourself, remind yourself, don’t let your life slip away, it’s too impotant, you don’t have much time left, so do something with it. Remind yourself and then get up.

If you do that, you’ll find that energy, that zealousness to do what you need to do. And if the matter is between giving up the qadaa or some extra acts, always leave the extra act. So for instance, if you have prayers to do, and people are praying taraweeh, make up your qadaa, make up the faraa’id that you owe.

BUT if the nafs calls to doing the naafilah or it will just end up leaving everything because maybe it’s tired or something like that, then his shaykh al-Qawari used to give fatwa that some evil is less than other evil, in other words it’s better that you do naafilah than you don’t do anything at all. So he’s saying, do that. Wallahu `alam.

The nafs can sometimes be overwhelmed and bewildered by how many huqooq there are – a saying says that the rights and the obligations are greater than the actual time we’ve been allotted in life. So because it feels the weakness that the self has, it gets overwhelmed. The nafs will get overwhelmed by all that it has to do, and so instead it will seek out laziness instead of doing things.

This is one of the things that people in management skills is that one thing that you have to do is that you have to delegate, because if you don’t delegate you get overwhelmed, and if you get overwhelmed you actually get depressed, you become lazy, you procrastinate because you’re overwhelmed by it. And that’s what he’s saying, he’s saying don’t let these things overwhelm you because it’s going to result in your self actually not doing anything. And then he says that the whole reason you’ve done this in the first place is because of your tawbah, and then you end up falling back to where you came from because the tawbah was to start over. You’re gonna go back to square one, so don’t get overwhelmed at that.

The cure for this, if there’s something that is going to lead to taraffuq (a gentleness and ease on the self) without resulting in a sin, and also you’re not changing the hukum/legal ruling, and this occurs with more than anything with expiation. For ex, a man came to the Prophet saws and told him that he had relations with his wife in Ramadan, and the Prophet saws told him to fast for 2 consecutive months, and he said he couldn’t do that, he couldn’t even fast Ramadan. And then the Prophet saws said so free a slave, but he couldn’t do

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that because he was poor. And then the Prophet saws said to feed 60 people. This is kaffara. So he’s making it easier on the man.

This is what he’s talking about – if you have a dispensation to make something easier, then take that dispensation if you can’t do the first one, if you’re going to get overwhelmed. So then the man asked, what do I give sadaqah with, I don’t have anything? So then the Prophet saws gave him some dates to feed the people. He asked who do I feed? No one is poorer than my tribe. So the Prophet saws said go feed your tribe. So that’s what he’s saying.

If you have to make something easy on yourself, without doing something wrong, without changing the hukum, and this occurs more often in expiation, and either it comes out of ignorance of what you’re supposed to do or some extreme in the ruling, so don’t be too constricting on yourself out of fear that the self takes advantage of it, but also don’t make it too easy out of fear that the soul will take command of you. So what he’s saying is that there’s a balance. Wa bilLahi at-tawfeeq (the success of doing this is from Allah swt).

The benefits of acting according to the aforementioned are three things, for the one who really reflects:

1. this will make your uprightness easier in the future, so if you do this, you’re not going to repeat the mistakes of the past, it’s going to get easier for you,

2. the second is that the heart itself is freed and emptied of being preoccupied with other than the truth, and

3. the third is that one is firmly stationed in the place of sincerity, and this is the place where the heart and the body become illuminated. So this is the place where the heart, the body is illuminated, your himmah/aspiration becomes high, your evil is prevented, and facilitation of affairs occurs. Wa Allahu `alam.

The results of neglecting this is:

1. the shortcomings of the heart in reaching perfection,

2. your body returns to the original condition – the neglect, the laziness, the overeating, and

3. you lose sincerity and the taste of the sweetness of actions that are obedient to Allah.

The keys to losing these and falling short in these are three:

1. the inclination to dispensations that are connected to these legal rulings, so if you neglect this, you’ll always be looking for the easiest way, and he’s

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meaning going to ta’wilaat, etc. and in normal situations, not in qadaa, the `azeema (self discipline) is better than the dispensations,

2. that it’s going to be very difficult for him to be steadfast in the best way, in other words in what he’s trying to prioritize and organize in his life, and

3. doing too much and doing it too hastily and that leads to laziness and nullifying your acts all together.

The way to do it is by taking those things that help you and keep you to getting to that place, which is like the second one (tashdeed), having resolution, being moderate, and also have steadfastness/firmness that you don’t allow loose interpretations to come in, so you don’t find excuses constantly, nor do you allow the other to occur which is that you get so overwhelmed that you get to this state of petrification and can’t move. And seeking the help of Allah swt, this is the greatest foundation, and this is the absolutely firm edifice. Wa Allahu `alam.

The third milestone is the milestone in returning those things that you have wronged to the slaves of Allah. So we have huqooq Allah wa huqooq al-`ibaad. This relates to the rights of others and how to get them back in the best way. So you have to return them. Oppression is multiplied darknesses on the Day of Judgement, so when you oppress someone, it becomes multiplied darknesses for you on the Day of Judgement. And the Prophet saws said whoever has some wrong in regards to a brother of his, let him rectify that before he has no dinars and dirhams. In other words, when you have the ability to rectify your wrongs when you have wealth, then do it while you have wealth before you lose it.

One of the saliheen said, there are 3 types of wrongs:

1. a wrong that Allah will never forgive and that is shirk,

2. a wrong that Allah will never leave and that is the oppressions done to other people, and

3. a wrong that Allah has no concern with and that is the rest of wrong actions.

That doesn’t mean that they don’t matter, but that just means that if you make a sincere tawbah, it’s very easy to make a sincere tawbah from wrongs that are between you and Allah swt, but wrongs that are between you and the creatures, Allah will not leave those until you rectify them with His creation. What that means, Allah will forgive whoever asks Him for forgiveness or anyone else in the mashee’ah.

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People are three in your relation to your wrongs toward them and it’s incumbent upon you to return your wrongs to them, based upon your knowledge of that:

1. somebody who you have oppressed himself by killing or wounds. If you’ve done this, what you have to do is to fulfill the qisas, which means your life or the blood money if they’ll accept that. So if the soul is too precious, and by the nature it’s not a cheap thing, or if there’s a person that doesn’t have the blood money in his hand, then the storehouses of Allah’s generosity are great, and seek refuge with Allah swt by attempting to do your best to please Him in all of the aspects of one’s capability, especially by trying to gain those things that bring the love and also by exposing the soul to those things that will destroy it such as jihad,

2. oppression/wronging someone when dealing with money. There are about 9 different ways you can do this, and a few are mentioned here.

a) One is ghasb. A ghaasib is one who usurps someone’s wealth. This is someone who, for example, may just see your purse or watch and will just grab it, he doesn’t have a weapon. A ghaasib has to give back what he took, but his hand is not cut off. He’s not like a thief, and worse than a thief is someone who takes things with a weapon.

b) Stealing is when you take someone from someone’s place which is recognized to be private, like someone’s room, even if it was unlocked. That’s sarikah. If somebody left it out on the street, that’s not sarikah, but you’re not supposed to take it unless it was to take it to some authority.

c) Then there’s khiyaana. For example, when someone leaves you money and you just use it for something else that they didn’t give you permission for, or someone gives you luggage and you don’t take care of it. When you trust someone, they’re supposed to be trustworthy. What you owe is to return them the likes of what you took and also returning to Allah, make tawbah. And if you don’t have the ability to return to them what you took, then make tawbah. And then that person, you should attempt to make them pleased by serving them, showing them respect. But if you’re not able to do that because they died or it wasn’t an obligation for you do that, like serve them or something, then you should give in sadaqah what you took from that person, in that person’s name. Just say you are giving that for this person. And being cautious about the amount is very important, and to take the more cautious position is better,

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3. the third is a man you’ve oppressed in his honor by causing something that leads to detraction to him/his good name (`ird) or contempt, i.e. you show contempt to him.

So the thing that you did, that has emanated from you will be one of 3 things:

1. something that causes harm to come to him, like see`aayah/mukhabaraat, which is the intelligence. This is people that spy on others and then go tell on them.

Namimah, a nammam is someone that disassembles, they’ll go and tell you that did you hear what so and so did, and all they want is that you hate this person, and this type of person will not enter Paradise, he won’t enter amongst the first people that enter Paradise cause this is kabeerah. And also, testifying against him in some foul way.

So it becomes an obligation that you go to that person and tell him that I lied to you, it’s not true what I told you about that person, he didn’t say that about you, I lied. If you bore false testimony, you have to go and tell them that you bore false testimony. If it was indeed false testimony, then this is a kabeerah, it’s a lie because this shameful thing, this blameworthy quality, even if it’s true of him, it’s worse of you, and there’s no room for forgiveness for you for what has emanated from you, for what you did.

There’s no place to say oh I forgive you because these are serious things, these affect societies. And this is also after you’ve asked for forgiveness from that person, and also that you have brought forth this display that you no longer believe in what you said or transmitted to anybody else,

2. in a person where you have fornicated with their wife, even if it was one time. This is a great tribulation, and really you should be making excuses to Allah swt, and your obligation is to rectify and free yourself completely from this act.

If you tell people, then this is qaf in the one you fornicated with because you need 4 witnesses, etc. So you can’t tell anybody. And also it’s a faDiha (total dishonoring to the soul), and this is also exposing yourself to serious harm from this person if he was silent.

You tell him, and he might not do anything, but he’s planning to get revenge, or he destroys you, he kills you if he becomes so jealous and enraged that he’s not able to hold himself back. And all of that is haram. And it will destroy society. Because there’s a khilaaf in zinah – is it a haqq of Allah or a haqq of the `ibaad? Does it relate to the rights of Allah or the

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rights of creation, because obviously there’s more than one person involved. So there’s a khilaaf amongst the `ulama, and that’s why it’s a real problem because you can’t go to the husband and ask him to forgive you because you fornicated with his wife.

So you’ve oppressed a man by seducing his wife, and this is a serious problem. One way of dealing with this last one is to free a slave, even though there’s no kaffara for this, because there’s a hadith that says whoever frees a soul, Allah will free for him every member of his body from the fire, and

3. if there’s gheebah involved or you’ve mentioned something about him that detracts from him or doubtful matters, you have to free yourself from him, it’s an obligation, unless there’s something that will come from him that will necessitate otherwise.

If there is, if you know that if you went to this person and told them and they’re going to get really angry, then instead of going to them and telling them, what you do is that you have to praise him, make thanaa’, and also al-istighfaar wal khidma (asking forgiveness for him and doing something of service to him). And some people have even said that to ask forgiveness from this person is actually not allowed because of the problems that will arise from it, but this is weak. And some said that it’s permissible to do it but not an obligation, if it necessitates that.

If he mentioned it by transmitting it for bhu’taan… Think of gheebah as saying something behind their back, and bhu’taan is saying it to their face, where they’re shocked, and it’s also usually a lie. So bhu’taan can also be saying to their face and it’s a lie. But that is contingent upon you expressly mentioning that person’s name. If you didn’t mention the name but everyone is going to know who is it, like if you said the president of Libya, then there’s khilaafah about that. But if everyone is going to know it, then that’s gheebah. If, however, you said oh I was in Makkah and such-and-such happened, nobody is going to know who it is. And if you’re using it to teach a lesson, that’s not gheebah. Even if there’s no benefit in it, it’s still not gheebah, just kalaam.

So renew your contact, make sound this resolution you have, start over again, do more istighfar, and guard yourself to the best of your ability. You should be making excuses to Allah because He’s more worthy of making excuses to than His creation, and He’s the one who can really fix and take care of everything.

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