Human Nature and the Divine Law – Sohail Hanif

cambridge muslim college training the next generation of Muslim thinkers as noir alaikum WA Rahmatullah miss malotte rahmani raheem alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa sallahu wa sallim ala sayyidina muhammad while early he was so happy he was seldom Allah mullerian Molina Lamar alum Tina in the current El Alamo Hakeem Aloha our Linda marine fauna wannabe mato Ala Moana was written amazonica Inman ouattara Lehman in naquadah kulla shay'in qadir rabona a tina militant karishma tanna mean ambreena rosa de charlotte allah we have a very large topic which we want to talk about today and i can tell you right now it's actually impossible to talk about in any you know to do justice to it at least neither in an hour nor in probably several hours and the reason for that is it touches on two mysteries the mystery of the human soul and the mystery of the divine law and so in speaking of mysteries the most we can hope to do is speak on the level of illusion and indication and hope to increase our understanding so that we can begin to perfect ourselves and begin to better explore how this topic relates to us so the topic is entitled human nature and divine law and I'd like us to think of this as a contemplative session in the theme of the program in which I'll be presenting largely Quranic verses and prophetic Hadees to talk about this topic and to you know bring out of it some matters hopefully a very deep personal interest to each of us before beginning just want to talk about some terms I plan to be using today before we start I'll be talking about human nature or the human soul in Arabic that the term that will be coming in our verses or hadeeths are typically the terms nerves and the term fitrah the term nafs you know mistakes use it typically for the very negative you know part of the human soul your ego your lower self and so on your propensity for evil but the Quranic usage is much broader than that and typically it refers to simply that precious human soul which is in each of us which we have a duty to nurture as we're going to be seeing the other word is the word fitrah much has obviously been said about this word also but again it's enough for us to know that in arabic it simply means that original form the original creation the uncorrupted original way that people were or that a human comes into the world the pure human nature if you like the other term I'm going to be using today of course is divine law and but by divine law I'm not talking about courts or police or jail or judges or all of these things that we when we think about law I mean simply that which is between ourselves and Allah Subhanahu WA Ta'ala I have I have heard the Oxford English Dictionary definition if you're interested the body of Commandments which express the will of God with regard to the conduct of his intelligent creatures sober pup so basically when I speak of the law today I mean simply actions which have consequence in the next life I'll be speaking later on about two other words which is which are HT had and tallied HT had in Arabic is about X is a word that means extreme exertion exhausting yourself to arrive at something you're seeking in the Muslim scholarly tradition this is what this word is used to describe the activity of expert scholars who have to exhaust themselves with the primary sources of the Quran and the Sunnah to arrive at an understanding of the divine law this word is often contrasted with the word the clean which is for those who are unable to undertake such an activity which expert scholars do then they follow the conclusions of these expert scholars and this process is often referred to as the clean and what I hope to be stating today or suggesting the cleat itself requires the exertion of effort from each of us otherwise we are falling short in our responsibilities and so to clean itself is a form of EHD head or effort as we're going to be seeing there are not the two words I will not be using them today but they're at the backdrop of what we're going to be talking about in Arabic the terms are buttery and vani but they're a means decisive and the only means probabilistic some of the statements of the days of the divine law are decisive we have no doubt that Muslims pray five times a day that they fast in Ramadan that they can't drink wine and so on these items are these points of the law are not subject to extreme exertion on the part of a scholar because everyone just knows them but most of the indicators of the law allah subhanaw taala has chosen to make them probabilistic meaning it's not decisive an extreme effort is required to understand the divine law through them why did allah subhanaw taala oblige us to live according to this law while making the majority of its indicators probabilistic we'll reflect on that briefly also later on the last two terms before we start our little contemplative exercise our two words are I might use which is the words tech leaf and MOOC Elif tech leaf is the word I'll be used or I'll be translating as moral responsibility which is the duty upon each of us to be responsible for our actions that allah subhanaw taala will ask us about on judgement day which are for those who are saying an adult a person who is responsible for his actions before allah in arabic we call that person mock Elif so here are just some terms I might be using in our exploration the hypothesis or what I'm going to be trying to show in this again contemplation if you like of these verses together is that first of all a human nature has been created made for the purpose of living this law and so there is a harmony between nature that our nature and this law that we are to uphold and to by exploring this harmony leads to a particular understanding of the role of sacred law in our lives or sacred learning and so then I want to talk about what this understanding reveals to us of the importance the manner and and the manner of seeking sacred law and living by it or sacred knowledge and lastly that what I hope all of this is going to show is that every morally responsible person has to do their utmost to understand what the law of God is and to live it so my statements here might seem completely obvious but my hope is that we'll find the exploration of the verses and the statements of scholars will be seeing enriching and it will give us a better insight into some of these topics so first of all on the topic of human nature I'll start with a the surah 13 which you would all know where allah subhana wa ta'ala swears a number of oaths I swear and I swear and I swear to say what to say surely we have made man in the best of forms and then we sent him back the lowest of the low except for those who believed and worked excellent deeds for them as a wage an ending what does it mean for man to be made in the best of forms scholars have said a number of things about this but it's enough for us to know that the queen' min arabic means straightening something out there's no knots it's not crooked it's just nice just perfect what is a human being made perfect for for what he has to do what does he have to do well in this surah it talks about belief and talked about excellent actions and so the human being was made perfect for this role that he has to perform now mystics have spoken much about the connection of the human soul and Eman the first of these two acts of how the human soul naturally has an intuition and a yearning to know about God about how after exploring and seeking for God how this soul finds peace in his remembrance and how after a journey in his remembrance the soul finds presence and a closeness that's not quite describable with God himself to know Allah this relationship of the soul with faith is not our topic right now for our presentation rather it's the second relation between the soul and righteous action between the soul and good conduct and what we want to be seeing here today is that the soul also has a natural inclination to figure out right conduct from wrong conduct that when it starts on a journey of living the divine law it finds a fulfilment and a nurturing of its capacities until it ends up being one's light and one's guide in one's connection to allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala how important is it for a person to nurture his soul with good action along this journey that I just hinted at well the importance of this can be found in another surah also from the end of the Quran which you would all know as well su Ritesh shemp's where allah subhanaw taala swears the 11 times it's quite a fair bit I swear when I swear and I swear and I swear and I swear and I swear he speaks of the Sun and the moon and the day in the night and the earth and the sky to say what or rather the tenth of day of these oaths he says I swear by the Neffs but that precious human soul and the extraordinary being that created it again so where he leveled that perfect smooth nothing is crooked therein to do what for an Hama her food you or her what the khawaja and he inspired it with its god-fearing nurse and with its wickedness in understanding that something is called good conduct and something is called destructive conduct and what does this all have to do with this knowledge then comes the end of these oaths I swear and I swear and I swear 11 times to say what but a flaw Hammond's occur her work at the harbour man death Sara he has surely succeeded the one who nurtures it Tezz Kia is about purification but it's also about growth so maybe the best word for us now is nurturing - careful allow it to grow it's healthy growth that person has succeeded Raqqa the harbor Minh dasarha and he is truly ruined and wretched who buries this thing under Ted SIA is a word used in the Quran to describe the practice of the pre-islamic Arabs when they didn't you know when they had a daughter they would bury her alive and it's there and the same word is used here he has been ruined who buries his soul and conceals it utterly and he has succeeded who's nurtured it and let it grow it's healthy beautiful growth how is this growth and how is this destruction is through what came before it is through seeking out the path of taqwa that the soul has been given an understanding of and by staying away from the path of food or or wickedness that the part soul also has a knowledge of so this understanding of taking your soul on a journey through seeking out and then living the divine law is not really an option but it's the only way you secure your soul and you secure your salvation and turning away from that is turning away from yourself and turning away from your own success which is rather important finally what comes at the end of this journey of living the law of experiencing the law of nurturing your soul is that your soul is your kind it speaks to you about God's law even in matters you've never heard about before and this is the Imam I know who is 27th Hadi in his 40 hadith collection which he combines two heads together the first is by is the hadith of and no worse even some an ally allahu anhu who asked the prophet sallallahu aleyhi was seldom about Albert while 'litham about righteousness and about sin and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said a big professional who look righteousness is good conduct well if mo maha caffeine of sake were kureta and your pal ard heinous sin is that thing which leaves an impact on your soul i it disturbs you and you hate that people should see you doing it so it's a simple answer how do you spot sin within your soul it's you ask yourself does it does it disturb you the thought of doing it and is it something that if you do it you want no one else to see you doing it if that's the case the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is telling this man that's Ethan that's sin I a statement of divine law it's sin and you should stay away from it the following had deed that Noah mentions mentions a higher level so in this hadith saying is that thing which everyone knows is wrong but the next hadith mentions something slightly more subtle it's the hadith of another companion Carabas sahib in marburg radi allahu anhu came to the prophet sallallaahu name was Edna and the version of Imam Muhammad he said I wanted I came to the prophets or a large gathering and I really wanted to ask but everything about righteousness and sin and the Prophet SAW bobis and he said to him Oh Donald come come close and he said to RB sir should I tell you why you've come away or are you gonna tell me why you've come and what was that said no you tell me and the Prophet said sort of the harness and you've come to ask me about righteousness and sin no obvious I said yes and in this hadith he said the prophets are larger I'm took his three fingers and started knocking robbers his chest and he said you are yeah Bob Lazar is tough to kullaberg a wobbler consult your heart or rather sorry is stuffed in a buck consult your soul seek the photo of your soul a lift mahatma unmet aleyhi never saw what man alayhim called sorry I'll be rude but my own little a enough so what my annihilation righteousness is that thing in which your soul finds tranquility and your heart finds tranquility well if Mumma hack F enough sick and sin is that thing which leaves a disturbance in your soul what herd edifice solder and goes back and forth back and forth back and forth when earth tack and NASA worth toke even if people give you foot words upon foot words to say that it's okay so he's a bit different than the last one last one said you don't want people to see it because people think it's wrong I just want to say no they're giving you fat words it's halal it's halal it's Helen what the prophets are allowed so I was telling this companion even if you give you the fat words if it has this impact on your heart and a statement of divine law here and he's telling him to leave it and these feelings have been felt by all of us and there's nothing hidden in what I've said that there are there are things you've chosen to do and you feel so good you feel so cool and i don't mean cool cool cool i mean the cool of it is feels right and there are things you've chosen to do in your life and you felt a wretched feeling we all have and so the Prophet sort of our psalmist is saying be attuned to that be attuned to that the problem is though people feel those feelings often in very very conflicting areas if I were to fill this room up one side with what we might call liberals and once I don't want might call conservatives and you mentioned the whole spectrum of issues that they debate in their politics and you know same-sex marriage and right to abortion and whatever people are talking about you'd find these feelings in each of them at least people who are conscientious on both sides they'd find physical pain when they think about these issues it's a moral pain that many of them are feeling and so what we see is that human beings have been created intrinsically you know to be moral creatures but these pains and these feelings in these inclinations need to be instructed in the will of God in the law of God so that they might guide you to the will of God and that's why sacred knowledge is not actually an option for anyone who takes what we've been saying seriously and takes their soul seriously seeking sacred knowledge is not actually an option it's what you need to discipline your soul so that your soul will guide you in the very difficult choices you have to make all the time and that's why Allah subhana WA Ta'ala says in the Quran yeah you had ladina a me know at we are ilaha well at world rasullah sorry yeah you alladhina amanu study buddhadharma zuly e that the outcome DeMeo he come oh you who believe answer the call of a lioness messenger when they called you to that which gives you life and so there's no actual option here there's the choice between death and life of your own soul and Ally saying why would you choose death when I'm calling here to life so come there's a Christian writer from the mid 19th century at a very nice quotation about this topic about her conscience is so important but it needs to be trained and I've put it in your notes but I'll read it out to you as well he says suppose you wish to determine his name is harvey new camp suppose you wish to determine whether anything is straight you lay a rule upon it like a ruler that you supposed to be straight and if they agree that settles the matter you're i comparing the object with the rule determines whether it is straight or not but if the rule applied is crooked your eye is deceived and you misjudge the conscience is the eye of the soul that compares an action with the whole the conscience then must be well instructed you must learn the rule of right from the Word of God and then conscience will always decide right but if you take a bit but if you adopt false notions of right and wrong your very conscience will lead you astray the prophets are ilaria Selim said about this also he said Kalume elude annular Dwolla al-fatah every newborn is born upon this pure uncorrupted unsullied human nature and then it's the parents that give it an identity that make into a Jew or a Christian or a Magian or anything else or any other form of identity in this handy the prophets are Larsen didn't say then the parents make it into a Muslim implying that Islam is the complete nurturing of this human nature Islam is what it means to nurture your human uncorrupted soul so you can be a true human a true son of Adam on this earth a true vice-regent of God jalandhar and so the beginning then of this journey if you like in the divine law in the nurturing of the soul through seeking out correct practice the beginning of it is opening up your heart completely and utterly to what you know has been transmitted from Allah and His Messenger completely and utterly in the beginning it might be painful because of whatever experiences you've had and that's where the beginning of the struggle comes it comes with prayer and then opening up your heart as much as you can and allowing your soul to be corrected and to come back in line and you'll find in this actually that there's something peaceful in it because part of this Petra is the surrender to God it is the feeling that you are aligned with the will of god allah allah allah subhanaw taala says o my can only move meaning will that minute in da-da-da-da-da who was all who am Ron an akuna who will hear to me under him it is not for any belief a man or female or female if God and His Messenger have judged the matter that they should retain any choice of their own remains allaha wa rasuluh hundred honorable allenbury de volalle and Mabini sorry whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger he has strayed far of the path analysis follow Arabic Allah you mean una had to hack a MOOC a FEMA Federal Boehner home from a ug doofy and forcing him hard Jemima probate away you sell EMU Taslima by your Lord they haven't believed until they make you the arbitrator in their disputes and then when you've judged they have no constriction regarding that in their hearts and they surrendered to you completely and so the beginning of this journey is opening up your heart as much as you can to what you know has come from Alana's messenger and following it completely and a most extreme case in the need for this in the need for sacred knowledge in one's life is an incident narrated by Abu Dawood where some companions went on a journey and one of them had a severe head wound and unfortunately he also had a wet dream that night and he needed to perform a ritual bath for his prayer and he asked his friends do you think there's some dispensation I could just do take a moment and his friend said no no there's no dispensation here you have to have that bath so on the insistence of his companions he took that both and his wound opened and he led to death when the prophet sallallaahu our new salaam heard of this incident he was very angry and he said some incredibly you know he said some very harsh words and those harsh words are for all of us to understand he said to them quite literally - translated but but but i loo who Katella whom Allah literally to translate that they killed him may Allah kill them why these harsh words actually it's for all of us to understand the danger of speaking about the religion of God in such a careless fashion and the consequence is this this has on other people and so the importance of sacred knowledge and seeking it out is drawn out by the need to first of all open up our souls to what a line is messenger have taught how is this knowledge to be sought what is the manner in which is knowledge has been sought within the confines of what we've been discussing there are some two very very basic clues here that do you find transmitted from the early community again I'm talking about knowledge for everyone I'm not talking about expert scholarship or any vocational interest but it's a simple interest delivers a believer so the first of it is seeking out sacred knowledge for the sake of practice not for the sake of again the the vocational part that might come along with it to do this there's an art that the early companions you know emphasized a great deal and that art is listening Allah subhana WA Ta'ala says yeah you already nominal East ajeeb lladhina amanu or aloha to your rasul allah wa latter well the one who one took thus Marilyn or you who believed obey Allah and obey the messenger and do not turn away from him are you listening well at acuña Calladine Accardo samira now whom do i guess my own and don't be of those who say we've heard but they heard not in the Shaad Randhawa behind the law has some old book melody in a lie appeal oon the worst of creatures with Allah are the Deaf and the dumb who do not think wellö Alim Allah who feel Myron last Marham and Allah noon there was good in them he would have allowed them to listen and so listening is the beginning of this journey listening with an open heart listening for the sake of practice and the prophets are sort of trained his companions in the manner of listening when he said to them in the ninth hadith of know who is 40 he said man I hate to come on Hoover just any boohoo what i forbade you to do to stay away from it when my mother took khumba he to mean who must at autumn what i've told you to do do it to the best of your ability in the Malik alladhina minimum become kafir to Masseria him those before you were only destroyed by the plenitude of their questions worked inner for whom Allah and beer in him and they're disagreeing with their prophets and so the prophets are Salaam his policy with the believers in Medina was that they don't ask him questions and many of the Companions narrated there's like NS and others that we were told not to ask questions what he wanted them to do instead was to listen and he said what I've told you not to do just leave it nothing too complicated here what I've told you to do do it to the best of your ability think about what it means and do it to the best that you can part of the reason for this is the prophets are alarmed anyone Islam to become complicated with lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of answers of all kinds of things that people they try and have to deal with he wanted the teachings to be clear for you to listen to understand and to transform through implementing them but also it was to train these people in in the manner of seeking knowledge it was an approach or an attitude to listening and thinking and reflecting on what the practical implications of whatever you might know and even on were taught again the Companions told this to the next generation even where a man came to him from Yemen I'm delivering on morality Aloha Noma and the man asked about kissing the blackstone you know what's what what's the deal with this and I'm a normal said oh I saw the prophets or Aloha anyway Selim greeted and kiss it and the man said yeah but have you considered what if there's a crowd and have you considered what if I'm overcome and even almost simple reply was take have you can sitted and leave it in Yemen I'm telling you I saw the prophet sallallaahu artisan greet and kiss the stone now even Alma's interest is not that you should punch people around and make it to the stone that's not what they were he's saying what he's saying when you seek knowledge don't make your first impulse the the many reasons why not to do something take a second for it to sink in the implications of what I'm saying and if you approach knowledge in such a fashion you know not to punch people and kick people you will understand but if all you have is all the reasons not to do something that's not how we were taught the Companions of the messenger of allah sallallahu taala entirely he was in them and so the seeking of knowledge that pertains to all believers and not the vocational if you like seeking of knowledge is that whatever little you have the ability to learn listen to it and think about it and think about what it means to implement it in your life and that's the way of the early amounts seeking knowledge for its impact in your life the second important thing that you find that we hopes to every believer again is not about again the expert scholar is of course prayer it's not a coincidence that the only prayer that Allah expects expects us in a blind is upon us to ask him throughout the day every day is just one prayer which is what please guide us in this route to fatiha of our prayers why is that because allah subhanaw taala wants us to feel this meaning this almost panic this deep interest that I really need to live my life and - according to the will of Allah subhana WA Ta'ala and I need to find what it is that although wants me to do it's this need to identify if you like correct practice which Allah spent Allah wants to fill our hearts up with the need to be a sensitive moral creature following in the footsteps of the so Lehane and so the regular turning to Allah to guide you in your decisions and your choices and whatever little you've learned to think about it that applies to all of us and we can all we can do is seek an increase in this to whatever we are able to do what are the implications of living this knowledge whatever knowledge you might have in the light of what we're saying here there's an important principle again for all of us that's in the 40 hadith it comes in to hadith the hadith of Dharma you ibaka Elam Ella UD Booker very simple leave what gives you doubt for that which does not give you doubt or the hadith comes again or the meaning comes again in a different hadith where the Prophet said sort of a harem that which is lawful is clear that which is unlawful is clear but between them are matters that many people don't know he's saying many because some people do know and those are the expert scholars but most of us are not expert scholars and we won't have them on on our telephone to ask in all of our decisions in our life and so we will have to make decisions based on what we do know and so the prophets are are some is guiding us how do you live according to what you do know so that it's fear increases in your life is practice what you know and if something gives you a doubt try to find something which does not give you doubt it's very very simple at the end of the second hadith the prophets are our ISM directly connected as practice to your heart by saying verily in the heart is a morsel of flesh if it is sound the body is sound and that this is the heart directly showing how the striving for correct practice that's what illumines and rectifies the heart and as the heart is illumined you are guided to the correct practice and so why is this I'm calling a principle for living knowledge because if you really live by this you are pushed hard to think about what you do know am I sure about this or am I not sure it pushes you to consider your learning and by doing so it expands its sphere of what you understand from it within your own heart and the prophets aural are saddened by his own example he taught us what it means to strive to identify the law of God in your own life based on what you already know by his own example because he said to us so Allah reset him sometimes I go back to my home and I find the datum on the bed on V Faraj where he lies down it's his home there's a date on on the bed he goes and sometimes I lift it to eat it and then I fear that it might be a date of sadaqa of zakat which the Prophet Cyril our salaam has been forbidden to eat and so I cast it aside striving to thinking all the things in your life where does it fit with is it a matter of doubt or not when another related incident his wife once saw him turning turning at nights restless Restless restless and she asked him why you so Restless and he said I found a date under my side again it was on the Faraj and so I ate it and then I remembered that there were some zakat dates that passed through the home and then I was afraid it might be one of those dates and so I can't sleep so I can't sleep the prophets are some teaching us by his own example of what it means to live according to this knowledge and according to this one principle and as we do that as we listen as we come to the hadith of the Prophet SAW our Solomon the words of the or Lama and we pray Allah to guide us to what I'm simply calling correct action and we try to think of the spheres of how they interplay with our lives and we avoid that which we aren't sure about the sphere of that knowledge increases and what we understand from it increases and you find this from the early community again you find people who heard sort Roselle's Allah whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it in an atom's weight of bad will see it and say this is enough for me how is this enough you have many hadees like this a live simple statement is enough how is it enough because you start living it and its fear increases as you understand its various various implications in your life this is part of disciplining the soul say the Aisha again a beggar came to the house all she found was a date to give to the beggar and someone's criticized and said well what's a date a grape and so on said oh what's one grade for this person and a simple response was well how many how many atoms are there in it because if you're going to see an atom there's quite a few atoms or some say Dora is a minut ant or a speck of dust they've different well Dora what it meant to the early Arabs the point is how many specks are there in this date quite a few this is what it means to follow sacred knowledge he don't have to be an expert scholar for this you have to venerate this learning and see how it fits into your life and it grows that's why I'm a manic again a scholar of the generation of the turbine what did he say Bharata being he said he said dislike people writing the photos of scholars and people said to me well what should we do then and he said to them dr. doone whatever moon had a destiny rock blue bucum so mulatto ajuna alecky tab he said memorize and reflect and understand until your hearts are illumined and so this was a path that all of those people trod it's a part that all of us can tread and have to tread and it's not about a vocation or a specialization whatever you know learn it understand it and ask Allah to illumine your hearts with it from what we've explored them to conclude from this what is a person morally responsible to do what I'm suggesting is that every single human being is morally responsible to expend his utmost to arrive at the law of God what do I mean to understand what all those brown teller wants from him or her in that moment or in that life of this and this obligation is equal upon everyone whether you're an expert scholar or you're a normal person everyone has to do their best to arrive at what allah subhanaw taala wants from them what does it mean to do your best what it means is you try to identify the path of least probability of error and the greatest probability of accuracy with what's available to you if you've done that and you feel you've done that then you've done your best what does that mean well it's a difference right from person to person if you're what I've been calling today an expert scholar that would probably mean recourse to the Quran to the Sunnah to the voluminous debates of scholars because that for you is the least probability of and the greatest probability of what you feel is arriving at the law of God and if you're not an expert scholar well what would that entail it wouldn't tell like I've been suggesting today learning the the basic meanings of the Quran and the Sunnah but as we've also seen today it means to be asking scholars but that's not an easy task it takes effort there because you have to figure out who to ask who to trust who is a scholar if you pass by this question lazily then who's responsible it's you because you didn't take it seriously you didn't do your best you've fallen short in your duty to your own soul and its own journey and if you and if you do approach this topic lazily and like I said the burden is yours and most likely you will fall into errors and mistakes how many people open up a website or a fatwa who's this man I don't know what's he like I don't know what's he learnt I don't know but it sounds really good to me who's to blame for that did the person do their best honestly and genuinely and if not they have fallen short and what I'm trying to suggest here today we can't afford to fall short because there's nothing we've been obliged to do actually accept this or at least I should say rather this is the core of what we've been obliged to do you've identified this excellent scholar and you've asked a lot to guide you and he's told you something who has to think about how to implement this it's you it's not the expert scholar for example you go to a scholar you say oh my wife has started wearing makeup and man goes oh this is Haram and you say Oh what should I do and he says oh you have to discipline honey goes oh how do I discipline and something like that who has to decide the consequences of this we can discipline in quotation marks you have to decide you're the one that knows what your family is like you're the one that has to think about the consequences the old one has to figure out and if you don't get this right and if if you purge this topic lazily and your life breaks apart and your wife gets further away from the religion then who's to blame it's you why is it you because you fell short in your duty to Allah subhana WA Ta'ala and you duty to your own soul and you duty to all the souls that are in touch with you because you didn't do your best and that's why I'm saying in reality each D hat is not an option then the exertion of effort we all have to do to identify the path of the least probability of error and the highest probability of success and that's why the fact they are so important right the Fertitta is the prayer it's it's our companion every day every day is to remind us are you being lazy or I trying your best if you do your best there are fruits I promise you there's wonderful fruits of doing your best it's not effort for nothing allah subhanaw taala mentions great fruits for those who again nurture their soul in the water of this divine revelation among the fruits are what we've been speaking about the expansion of the breasts and again these are real things we've all felt them you've all felt a moment when you felt at peace in your vicar and you felt like the air just feels so easy it comes in you feel so expansive and we've all felt the moment of constriction when maybe it wasn't all right and we all know how beautiful the expansion is well this is the way to a beautiful life Allah spent Allah contrasted to a salmon Shura hala who sewed Rahul in Islam is the one whom Allah has expanded his breast to Islam No and the other converse is the one whose breast all that makes it constricted and all those foreign thought I said everyone sure know for all I know what I'm a row behind sorry the first verse was for it from I knew it de'longhi he didn't get started the hole in Islam whoever Allah wishes to God he expands his breast to Islam and when you read and you build a huge house under Hoda yakkin harada whoever he wishes to leave astray he makes his chest constricted among the benefits of this exerting yourself to do your best is of course light and knowledge is often contrasted with light and what is light it dispels darkness it dispels confusion it gives clarity and clarity is the quest truly of every soul lost want Allah gives you a choice a woman can a mate and finally now who is that one he was dead and we brought him to life well John Allah who knew her name she behaved in nests and we made for him a light with which he walks amongst people can ma'am Ethel who feel vana mati like the one who's just in darkness leisa be hard him in her he can't get out of it and all those plant Allah says also if you fear Allah and believe in the messenger he will give you two portions of his mercy and a light within which you can walk of the fruits of this effort is of course guidance and Allah subhana WA Ta'ala says if you have the taqwa of Allah he will make for you a fork on a criterion that will guide you and to something that was understood but by the earlier anima again the early community understood these ideas Imam Muhammad was asked by somebody who should be follow after you're gone and he told him o followed this gentleman after were her bell were rock and they said but he hasn't got vast knowledge you know many narrations like some of us have then he said yes but he said in the horizontal sorry he is a righteous man me through who you were the sorbitol Huck he's the kind of person that is guided to the truth so listen to him this is the life that allah subhanaw taala describes as hyatt and pi Hiba and most wholesome and beautiful life this is wisdom imam malik says it occurs to me that wisdom is alpha fede nila it is true understanding of the religion of God which is what all of this is about this is the bush-era that allah spirit allah also speaks about those who have the taqwa of allah they have great good news in this life before the next and ultimately this is the door of the mahadeva to allah subhana wa ta'ala which is your close personal relationship with allah and so every good is in this driving but striving there must be a question that occurs though is well this all sounds very personal it all sounds very individualistic what about these great institutions of law and the mother hubs so to talk about that first of all we can comment that as the Islamic legal enterprise project if you like started it grew very organically in the earliest community people just shown as expert scholars people naturally consulted them they were free to consult whoever they wanted they tried their best to live a righteous life and the next generation came but the situation became very frustrating when we entered the world of Empire some of these Persian viziers of the Abbasid caliphs found this incredibly frustrating because you hire one judge he that his best he judges based on what he thinks is right okay you get the next judge and he goes no no no no well I believe that's right and so I said we got a sort of organize all of this before we get to the organization I would like us to reflect that I believe this is a very beautiful thing because it shows us a living community a community that is united in its understanding that we have to do our best to serve the law of God and to arrive at a tent and to live it and it's a living ongoing project in every generation to learn from the wisdom of the Ancients and apply it and so when what seems like chaos chaos there is there is something beautiful in it but as time went on and the need came for a more organized idea of law and as the discipline became highly highly specialized it was only natural that you'd find scholars organizing themselves into schools and guilds are very clearly laid out principles and teachings that developed over thousands of years and these math hubs what are they then for the common man they are what I would suggest as the path of least probability of error if you have to identify how it is to live the law of God you have over millennia of expert scholarship and you have yourself if you believe you have a less probability of error then you probably have a good reason for thinking that I hope otherwise the answer seems you know for most of us it seems pretty clear but the mud hub is not somewhere where you go into autopilot and you say oh I have the mud hub and have all the answers for me and I don't have to do anything else it isn't like that the mother but the mother does it very easily lays out for you a very clearly organized set of principles what are the things you look for in prayer or purity your marriage or divorce or business and so on but who has to implement all of this it's you and the mother understands that you still have a sphere to play of your own effort it is this is very obvious in ritual law for example the mother will tell you you have to face the Qibla when you pray and will also tell you what you have to do if you're in a place which is settled you ask your local if you have some knowledge of the stars or a compass you consult that but if you're camping and it's cloudy and you have nothing you just have to do your best now what if two people do their best and they arrive at different conclusions what the scholars tell us is you can't follow each other because I don't believe that to be the Crippler how can I pray behind someone I don't believe that to be the Tipler and this context all I can do is follow what I believe to be right that other person might be Abu Hanifa but he believed that to be the table I believe that be the table abu hanifa would be the first one to tell me your prayers not valid if you follow me and the scholars are pretty clear about this on issues of all kinds of things in ritual purity for example I believe this cloth is pure you believe it's not I can wear it in my prayer and you and this number of questions will take a second number of questions that are very clear about this furthermore as shorter be mentioned in the Morpher card you have for example a commoner he learns that Oh much action invalidates the prayer little action did not invalidate the prayer who has to make that judgment call when they're praying it's this person and shot to be called as if she had in the very legal sense the application of the legal principle or take for example marriage what's the ruling of marriage in Islam we're probably going to say Sunnah that's only in the most general sense because actually depends upon you and the scholars say for a person who has extreme lust and he's going to fall into zina actually marriage becomes obligatory who knows that the person in question and the scholars also say if a person knows that he will only wronged a woman an oppressor if he marries her for this person marriage is Haram they say even if he has lost and everything else and so you still have to do your best but the mother hub has facilitated for you and the arriving at the core principles of what it means to live by the law of God and some scholars actually took this personal responsibility to quite an extent and among them are actually abu hanifa himself abu hanifa differed from his students in an interesting principle that they says Abu Hanif is unique principle which is that a person is only responsible for what he or she is only but by themselves able to do they don't have to ask anybody else for any help so he says for example if you're sick you're weak and you can't move to face the Qibla but you have someone right there who can help you you know move your bed or something you have no obligation to ask them because he says you're only responsible between you and I love what you can do not want anybody what somebody else can do or he said for example if you're blind and you can't go to Jamaa by yourself but you have somebody able body to take you he says you know what obliged to go and according to him it's because what you're obliged for is what's between you and Allah not what other people can do for you and again scholars have differed on this but what I'm trying to get at is the mother has guided you a great deal and a person would have to have a really good argument to why they can arrive at the law at what I'm calling a less probability of error but the mother doesn't take away from you your responsibility to do your best to live the law of God in your own life in addition to of course finding the right teacher and we've talked about some of the efforts of this in addition to the many things a mother be silent on which are recommended acts for example which of these are good for you which of these if you do too much of them they might distract you from an obligation you have to make these judgment calls you have to learn I have to ask a lot to guide you so to return back to where we started and then we will we can conclude from this I started with two verses from or two series rather surah 13 and surah temps through 13 it started actually with three oats which I didn't mention a las montañas swears by the fig and the olive and by the Mount Sinai and by this sacred or this secure or trustworthy city many scholars say this is an oath actually by the places of Revelation and by the prophets I the places of prophecy because they say the fig in the olive are the lands of sham which are the lands of Abraham alehissalaam and many of the profits from his progeny the last of whom was Jesus early his salat wa sallam and amounts ionized the place of moosa and haroon and Mecca is the city of our prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam before him his father is Milan and so these three places are the places of the injeel and the toraat and the Quran and Allah swears by these to say man was made in the best of forms and then he was sent to the lowest of the low except for those who believed in work righteous deeds connecting human nature with Revelation I swear by the places of Revelation man has a great destiny man has a great possibility I swear by these prophets who represent what humans can really be and how do you reach that it's by following them and that's what surah 13 is saying that's what we've explored together here today finally we had sort of shemp's suta chumps had eleven oh that's where and I swear and I swear and I swear as well and I swear 11 times he who nurtures the soul has succeeded he who buries it under is ruined but then the surah ghost is very old story odd in that it doesn't seem connected Allah says talked with the people of the mood who asked their prophet for a sign for a camel to come out of a mountain and a camel came out and that camel became a test for them they were told to care for it to give it its right to drink and if they heard that they were going to be finished this very short snippet in swerte shams is interesting it says cancer but the mood Obito who are her the mood rejected by their transgression in in bharata ash caja when the most wretched of them went forth for called Elohim Rasulullah Hina but Allah he was clear her The Messenger of God said to them the camel of God let her drink the cat the boohoo but they called him an ayah surah karu ha and the hamstrung her and killed her for dumb Damali him not born with them bohemes was aware her and so they load encompassed them in his punishment and he levelled it well I am hopeful cover her and if he is not the consequences of that there's no one left they're all gone what's the connection between this brief story and we were talking about who came before it of the human soul one of the exegetes Al Bukhari he says in his stuff see if the connection is the camel just as these people were told this camel is the camel of God nurture it let it drink respect it honor it and you'll be ok kill it and you're dead quite literally that is the situation of the human soul that's between our two flanks our whole responsibility to Allah is there's something very very special incredibly special the angels bow to Adam after the soul was breathed into him and what the surah is saying is you have to honor it you have to nurture it you have to water it with the teachings of Revelation allow it to grow and you will grow because obviously that soul is you and if you bury it you ignore it you don't exert the effort of what we've been speaking and you kill it if you kill it you only killed yourself so ask Allah subhana WA Ta'ala to inspire us to righteous actions and to facilitate for us a path of learning which pleases him and to inspire us to always turn to him in our choices and to forgive us for our mistakes and to allow us to tread the paths of those early luminaries in orlimar with whom he is pleased also Allah our Allah Sayyidina Muhammad who are the early wasabi was a number him didn't either blood moons of Minorca cambridge muslim college training the next generation of Muslim thinkers

Channel: Cambridge Muslim College

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Id: libOGiR_Tk0

Length: 52min 51sec (3171 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020