 So, Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillah wa-salaatu wa-salaam wa-ala ashraf al-anbiya'i wa-al-mursaleen. Sayyidina wa-maulana wa-habibna Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa-salaam. Wa-alaihi wa-sahmi wa-salaam tasliman katira. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Again, dear sisters, thank you for being here and for all who are watching on the live stream. Thank you as well for being here. We got a bit of a late start today just for some technical reasons, but also logistical reasons. So, inshallah, we'll try to be more timely next month where now we have our schedule pretty set. But in the beginning, we do a zikr, just FYI, because the time for the haraqa onsite is at seven o'clock. So, we do, inshallah, want you to come here if you're going to come at seven where we'll do the zikr, a group zikr, the rata bas-shahar famimah al-haddad together. But for those who are watching on the live stream, that will delay us maybe about 15, 20 minutes in terms of the start of the haraqa. So, you can stick around if you want. But we thank you for being with us. And again, I thank all of you for coming here and taking out the time. Welcome, inshallah, more sisters are coming. Alhamdulillah, that's great. So, if you were here last month, you may recall that we kind of were taking a bit of a poll, right, to see like what would interest people. And because of post-COVID, there's just so many more new faces, so many more different, you know, people coming from different parts of the area. Actually, last masha'Allah month, we had people from as far as Sacramento, as far as Stockton, other areas, which was really impressive, masha'Allah, and humbling and amazing. But because of that and the fact that we're not always sure what, in terms of the turnout, it's going to be, I opted this year to do something a little different than previous haraqas if you've attended my haraqas, whether here or at Ta'alif, you may know that we've done a lot of discussion-driven haraqas where I present on different topics related to, you know, just spirituality, self-development, anything that I think is relevant, more contemporary topics. And then each month was kind of different, which works, alhamdulillah, and if there is time, I would be more than happy to facilitate those types of discussions here. But for the purpose of this haraqa, just to bring everybody up to the same, you know, on the same page, we're going to be actually covering a text. And this text is called Purification of the Heart, the Signed Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases. And this was, it's a translation and a commentary by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf based on a classical Arabic poem by Imam al-Mawlud called Matharat al-Qulub, which really addresses spiritual diseases of the heart, which we are all riddled with. We all have different diseases and different degrees of disease, but certainly we all have them. And that's why many of our scholars, including Imam al-Rizadi, considered doing this process of, you know, tending to unspiritual diseases, the tesquia process, one of the farbhain, one of the obligatory compulsory requirements of a believer, because this is really, you know, when we talk about mujahadah nefs, right, what does that mean? Right, to struggle against oneself. It is to overcome spiritual diseases and that is our lifelong struggle. It's not something that anyone graduates from or overcomes just by virtue of practice or by virtue of knowledge. And so this is why it's such an important topic that we have to constantly tend to. I was mentioning earlier at the beginning that, you know, I've been very blessed to, first of all, learn this from Sheikh Hamza directly. Alhamdulillah, many, many years ago, maybe before some of you were even born. I don't know. But Alhamdulillah, it's been a long journey in this community having him. Masha'Allah, may Allah bless him. So he, we were, you know, in attendance when these classes were being given many years ago. And so Alhamdulillah, over the years, of course, you know, benefiting from those classes and his teachings, you know, I sought his, I just want to clarify, you know, I sought his permission. So by his permission, we are teaching and, you know, here. But I certainly am in no way, I could not, you know, in any way fill what he's doing. I would advise everyone actually too, if you haven't listened to the original recordings, what he offers is next level. I'm just like, you know, trying to give whatever we can here. But honestly, I really advise that. And I advise if you don't have the book to have the book because just going back to it, it just, there's so much healing to it. So that's why I wanted to do this book with all of us here, insha'Allah, because I think it'll be a great, you know, opportunity for us to benefit from each other. So we'll kind of just, you know, do a reading and then open it up for discussion. I'd love to hear from all of you. And yes, we're being livestreamed, but I'm the only one that's on camera. So I hope that kind of resolves any maybe issues that people have about speaking up because insha'Allah, the camera's not panning. It's not moving to anybody else. I mean, that's not right. Right? Sorry. Yeah. Because typically it's just one person of the speaker. So I'll take all that. And I don't mind and you guys, but I would love your input and insight in terms of anything that comes up for you as we read along. So what that said, any questions or anything, anything for me that if you're new and you haven't attended, you know, we can do all that now if you want. Yeah. Does anyone have their copy with them? I know Sahara has hers and Mashallah al-Sara too. Alhamdulillah. Anyone else? Okay. Awesome. You guys, yay. Okay. Alhamdulillah. By the way, just before I forget, make sure please to contact Sahara before we leave because she has the list for the WhatsApp group where you can be added to that for updates. Okay. So just keep that in mind in case they stop for prayer because Isha will come in soon. Okay. So Bismillah. Let's go ahead and read. And if you want to read next along, you know, someone next to you, I mean, keep COVID restrictions somewhat in mind, but maybe we can look over. Otherwise, I'll try to read as clearly as possible so that you can, you know, follow along inshallah. So I like to, you know, typically actually if you ask me my earlier self, I would never read a book cover to cover. I'm that person that wants to skip to all the good parts and then fill in the blanks. But with a book like this, you want to start from the very beginning. So we'll go straight to, we can go to the acknowledgments actually or, you know, look at the contents. If you want to look at the contents page, the diseases that we're going to be covering are listed there. Right. So there's a lot of them. I think I counted 27 all together. So Bismillah, Rahman, Raheem, beautiful. Bismillah there right before the acknowledgement. So let's look at the acknowledgments here. Bismillah. On the day of judgment, no one is safe. Save the one who returns to God with a pure heart. This is in the Quran. Surely in the breasts of humanity is a lump of flesh. If sound, then the whole body is sound. And if corrupt, then the whole body is corrupt. Is it not the heart? This is a hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And then blessed are the pure at heart for they shall see God. This is attributed to Isa alayhi sallam. Whoever has not thanked people, has not thanked God, said the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This work is the result of the collaboration of many people. I am honored to have studied the meanings of this poem with my friend and pure hearted teacher, Abdullah Ud Ahmedna. I also asked the Eminence scholar and spiritual master Sheikh Muhammad Hassan Ud Al-Khadim for giving me license to teach and translate the poem and whose outstanding commentary on it was my constant companion during the classes and remains so today. Thank you for your continued love and support and for having the zeal to organize the classes and the small blessed school that would become Zaytuna. More gratitude than can be expressed goes to Dr. Heesham Lalusi who humbly sat on the floor against the window to attend the original classes that would become this text. He saw from the start the importance of this work and through his extraordinary efforts helped realize more than I had hoped to with the Zaytuna Institute and now Zaytuna College. I also thank my sister Nabila who has worked tirelessly throughout Humber Productions now Sandala and Kinza Academy to spread this message. I'm grateful to Heesham Mahmoud for his careful editing of the translation of the poem and to my friend and artist, Abdullah Tif Whiteman for his beautiful design of the cover. I'm also deeply thankful and appreciative to all those who worked diligently on the transcription proofreading and editing of the text. Finally my immense gratitude goes to the mother of my children, Liliana, whose pure heart is fortunate enough not to need the contents of this book. Mashallah, beautiful. Alhamdulillah. So now we go to the note to the reader. So this is for us, right? For us reading this book. I offer this book to you, the reader, in the spirit of gratitude just as I was taught this text years ago by my teacher Abdullah Ud Ahmadna in a similar spirit, gratitude and thankfulness to our Lord. The purpose of this book is not and has never been for commercial gain but to help us all along the path of purification so we can serve humanity and ultimately God in the best of ways. In an age where dignity, nobility and honor have become ideals of the past, it is my sincere hope that works like this may help rekindle the desire for self-improvement and introspection in all of us. Staying true to this principle, the publishers and I have chosen a Creative Commons copyright which allows sharing of this book for non-commercial purposes. Portions or excerpts may be scanned or photocopied for use on internet mediums or written works as long as it is not sold or used for material gains or profit. We at Sandala ask in return that you keep us in your prayers and give appropriate credit for the work wherever you may use it. This credit is only so people can choose to help support more of our publishing initiatives. Proceeds from any sales of this book will be utilized for further educational projects and productions. It is our deepest desire to present our sacred tradition in the most dignified of ways as it deserves while maintaining affordability and accessibility. Anyone who cannot meet the costs may contact the publishing house Sandala and we will be happy and honored to gift them this book or any of our other products. Such is the essence of our tradition. Shukr, gratitude. Just as the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said to Lady Aisha, radi allahu anha, in the midst of his late night prayers, should I not be a thankful servant? So, too, do we hope to always return to the station of gratitude in all of our affairs? If you are thankful, surely I will increase you. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in chapter 14 verse 7. Hamza Yusuf, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, Sandala Inc. Hamdallah. So, that was the beginning, the acknowledgments and the note to the reader for those who are joining us on live stream of purification of the heart. And we are going to do our best to read it again, from beginning to end in this halak and the course of this halak, inshallah, with that intention. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for tawfiq that we're doing this with the purest of intentions to rid ourselves of spiritual diseases and to help our family, our loved ones. Because as we come to understand ourselves better, inshallah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will enable us to also be beneficial to those in our lives, inshallah. Now, we continue with the translator's introduction. So, this is now, Sheikh Hamza, a further message from him speaking to us before we actually delve into the poem. And all of this, of course, is necessary to read, inshallah, which is why we're doing that. So, Bismillah. Almost universally, religious traditions have stressed the importance of the condition of the heart. In the Muslim scripture, the day of judgment is described as a day in which neither wealth nor children shall be of any benefit to anyone, except one who comes to God with a sound heart. That's chapter 26, verse 88 to 89. The sound heart, kalbun salim, is understood to be free of character defects and spiritual blemishes. This heart is actually the spiritual heart and not the physical organ per se. Although in Islamic tradition, the spiritual heart is centered in the physical. One of the extraordinary aspects of the modern era is that we are discovering aspects about the heart unknown in previous times, although there were remarkable insights in ancient traditions. For instance, according to traditional Chinese medicine, the heart houses what is known as shen, which is spirit. The Chinese characters for thinking, thought, love, the intention to listen, and virtue all contain the ideogram for the heart. In nearly every culture in the world, people use metaphors that directly or indirectly allude to the heart. We call certain types of people hard-hearted, usually because they show no mercy and kindness. Likewise, people are set to have cold hearts and others yet who are warm-hearted. We speak of people as wearing their hearts on their sleeves because they do not or cannot conceal their emotions from others. When someone's words or actions penetrate our souls and affect us profoundly, we say that this person touched my heart or touched the core of my being. The Arabic equivalent for the English word core, which originally in Latin meant heart, is known as lub, which also refers to the heart, as well as the intellect and the essence of something. The most ancient Indo-European word for heart means that which leaps, which is consonant with the idea of the beating heart that leaps in the breast of man. People speak of their hearts as leaping for joy. People also say that their heart skipped a beat when they come upon something startling that elicited from them a very strong emotional response. When people fall in love, they speak of stealing one's heart. There are many other metaphors involving the human heart owing to its centrality in life. These phrases, however casually we may utter them today, have roots in ancient concepts. The ancients were aware of spiritual diseases of the heart and this understanding is certainly at the essence of Islamic teachings. The Quran defines three types of people. Al-Mu'minun, believers. Al-kaafirun, scoffers or atheists. And al-munafiqun, hypocrites. The believers are described as people whose hearts are alive and full of light, while the scoffers are in darkness. Is one who was dead and then we revived with faith and made for him a light by which to walk among the people like one who was in darkness from which he cannot exit? The Quran asks in chapter 6 verse 122. According to commentators of the Quran, the one who was dead refers to having a dead heart which God revived with the light of guidance that one may walk straight and honorably among human beings. Also the Prophet Muhammad SAW said, the difference between the one who remembers God and the one who does not is like the difference between the living and the dead. In essence, the believer is one whose heart is alive while the disbeliever is someone whose heart is spiritually dead. The hypocrite, however, is somebody whose heart is diseased. The Quran speaks of certain people with diseased hearts, self-inflicted, we understand. And as a result, they were increased in their disease. This is in Surah Baqara chapter 2 verse 10. The heart is centered slightly to the left of our bodies. Two sacred languages of Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left toward the heart, which as some have noted mirrors the purpose of writing, namely to affect the heart. One should also consider the ritual of circumambulation or circling around the ancient house or Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage. It is performed in a counterclockwise fashion with the left side of the worshiper facing the house with the heart inclined towards it to remind us of God and his presence in the life of humanity. The physical heart which houses the spiritual heart beats about 100,000 times a day. Did anybody know that? Any medical people? Shocking. 100,000 times a day pumping two gallons of blood per minute and over 100 gallons per hour. If one were attempt to carry 100 gallons of water whose density is lighter than blood from one place to another, it would be an exhausting task. Yet the human heart does this every hour of every day for an entire lifetime without respite. Subhanallah. The vascular system transporting life-giving blood is over 60,000 miles long. These are, I mean I've read this book so many times, but every time I read that, isn't that incredible? 60,000 miles? I don't know how to comprehend that, right? It's like you can't wrap your mind around that type of system inside of us, Allahu Akbar, right? More than two times the circumference of the earth. So when we conceive of our blood being pumped throughout our bodies, know that this means that it travels through 60,000 miles of a closed vascular system that connects all the parts of the body, all the vital organs and living tissues to this incredible heart. We now know that the heart starts beating before the brain is fully fashioned. That is without the benefit of a fully formed central nervous system. How many mothers here? What was it like to hear the heartbeat the first time, right? Allahu Akbar. The dominant theory states that the central nervous system is what controls the entire human being with the brain as its center. Yet we also know that the nervous system does not initiate the beat of the heart, but that it is actually self-initiated or, as we would say, initiated by God. We also know that the heart should, all of its connections to the brain be severed as they are during a heart transplant, continues to beat. Many in the West have long proffered that the brain is the center of consciousness, but in traditional Islamic thought, as in other traditions, the heart is viewed as the center of our being. The Quran, for example, speaks of wayward people who have hearts with which they do not understand. That's Chapter 7, Verse 179. Also, the Quran mentions people who mocked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and were entirely insincere in listening to his message, so God placed over their hearts a covering that they may not understand it, and in their ears, he placed acute deafness. This is Chapter 6, Verse 25. Their inability to understand is a deviation from the spiritual function of a sound heart, just as their ears have been afflicted with a spiritual deafness. So we understand from this that the center of the intellect, the center of human consciousness, and conscience is actually the heart and not the brain. Only recently have we discovered that there are 40,000 neurons in the heart. Neurons. In other words, there are cells in the heart that are communicating with the brain. While the brain sends messages to the heart, the heart also sends messages to the brain. Two physiologists in the 1970s, 70s John and Beatrice Lacey, conducted a study and found that the brain sent messages to the heart, but the heart did not automatically obey the messages. Sometimes the heart sped up, while at other times it slowed down, indicating that the heart itself has its own type of intelligence. The brain receives signals from the heart through the brain's amygdala, thalamus, and cortex. The amygdala relates to emotions while the cortex or the neocortex relates to learning and reasoning. Although this interaction is something that is not fully understood from a physiological point of view, we do know that the heart is an extremely sophisticated organ with secrets still veiled from us. Subhanallah. The Prophet of Islam, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, spoke of the heart as a repository of knowledge and a vessel sensitive to the deeds of the body. He said, for example, that wrongdoing irritates the heart. So the heart actually perceives wrong action. So when you think of that for just a moment, think about any time you've sinned, doing not feel a constriction in the chest. We know when we're doing something wrong as human beings. We know it, we feel it. It's that fitra, it's that squeezing of the heart that tells us this is wrong, and that's because we are created. The natural disposition is to be right, worship a lot to be, you know, to have a soundness. So when we veer from that, the heart communicates to us, Subhanallah. In fact, when people do terrible things, the core of their humanity is injured. Fyodor Dostoevsky expresses brilliantly in crime and punishment that the crime itself is the punishment because human beings ultimately have to live with the painful consequences of their deeds. When someone commits a crime, he does so first against his own heart, which then affects the whole human being. The person enters a state of spiritual agitation and often tries to suppress it. The root meaning of the word kufr, disbelief, is to cover something up. As it relates to this discussion, the problems we see in our society come down to covering up or suppressing the symptoms of its troubles. The agents used to do this include alcohol, drugs, sexual experimentation and deviance, power grabs, wealth, arrogance, pursuit of fame and the like. These enable people to submerge themselves into a state of heedlessness concerning their essential nature. People work very hard to cut themselves off from their hearts and the natural feelings found there. The pressures to do this are very strong in our modern culture. One of the major drawbacks of being severed from the heart is that the more one is severed, the sicker the heart becomes for the heart needs nourishment. Heedlessness starves the heart, robs it of its spiritual manna. One enters into a state of unawareness, a debilitating lack of awareness of God and an acute neglect of humanity's ultimate destination, the infinite world of the hereafter. When one peers into the limitless world through remembrance of God and increases in beneficial knowledge, one's concerns become more focused on the infinite world, not the finite one that is disappearing and ephemeral. When people are completely immersed in the material world believing that this world is all that matters and all that exists and that they are not accountable for their actions, they affect a spiritual death of their hearts. Before the heart dies, however, it shows symptoms of affliction. These afflictions are the spiritual diseases of the heart, the center of our being, the topic of this book. Any questions so far? In Islamic tradition, these diseases fall under two categories. The first is known as Shubuhet or obfuscations. These are diseases that relate to impaired or inappropriate understanding. For instance, if somebody is fearful that God will not provide for him or her, this is considered a disease of the heart because a sound heart has knowledge and trust, not doubt and anxiety. The category of Shubuhet alludes to aspects closely connected to the heart, the soul, the ego, Satan's whisperings and instigations, caprice and the ardent love of this ephemeral world. The heart is an organ designed to be in a state of calm which is achieved with the remembrance of God. Most surely in the remembrance of God, do hearts find calm? Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la reminds us in chapter 13 verse 28. This calm is what the heart seeks out and gravitates to. It yearns always to remember God the exalted, but when God is not remembered when human beings forget God, then the heart falls into a state of agitation and turmoil. In this state, it becomes vulnerable to diseases because it is undernourished and cut off. Cells require oxygen, so we breathe. If we stop breathing, we die. The heart also needs to breathe and the breath of the heart is none other than the remembrance of God. Without it, the spiritual heart dies. The very purpose of revelation and of scripture is to remind us that our hearts need to be nourished. We enter the world in the state the Quran calls fitra, our original state, and inherent nature that is disposed to accept faith and prefer morality. But we soon learn anxiety mainly from our parents and then our societies. The heart is created vulnerable to anxiety and agitation. Chapter 70 verse 19. Those who are protected from this state are people of prayer, people who establish prayer and guard its performance with a humble and open heart connected with God, the Lord of all creation. The highest strengths among people are those who do not allow anything to divert them from the remembrance of God. They are the ones who remember God as they are standing, sitting, and reclining on their sides. The second category of diseases concerns the base desires of the self and is called shahawat. This relates to our desires exceeding their natural state as when people live merely to satisfy these urges and are led by them. Islam provides the method by which our hearts can become sound and safe again. This method has been the subject of brilliant and insightful scholarship for centuries in the Islamic tradition. One can say that Islam is, in essence, is a program to restore purity and calm to the heart through the remembrance of God. Subhanallah. Assalamu alaikum, welcome. So again here, you know, that last line, subhanallah, you know how many of us have understood our deen? I mean it's such a simple, concise yet very powerful statement, right? That Islam is a program, right? That's why we don't say Islam is certainly not an ideology or just a religion, right? It is what? A way of life, right? It is a deen. It is a complete, perfect system. And so what is the system for? It's to restore purity and calm to the heart through the remembrance of God because the world is so distracting, right? You and I mean if we look at modern times, I forgot the exact statistic of how many images we're seeing. I think she comes, I may have even mentioned it in this book or an agenda. But the amount of images that we see in a day are more than what previous pre-modern people saw in their whole life. So the amount of just imagery, we're just talking about images, right? So images are distractions. Sounds are distractions. People are distractions, right? Neighbors, coworkers, family members, right? How many times have you felt that your phone was intrusive, right? Have we ever felt that way, right? Like you feel like you're trying to just have a moment of peace, some silence, some time to yourself and there goes the ringer or the notifications, ding, ding, ding. And you know, if you're like me, I don't know why I don't do it but I have my ringer off so my ringer never goes on. I have emergency bypass for like two or three people. That's like, that's it. But what I haven't done and it's my own fault is get rid of the notifications, right? The red, those come up and I see the banners. So even though I've, you know, turned off my ringer hoping that it'll stop me, I have that problem of, oh, did anybody message me? So it doesn't really help because then you're worried, right? Like if I don't hear it, maybe I have to check it. So it really, it's a broken system. I need to do something different. But the point is right that we have lives where the amount of distractions are just too many. And so if you think about the time that we do have left, right? To worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, how does that look, right? When you have, I mean, let's do the calculations. How many minutes does it take to do our prayers? Like average five, 10 minutes, right? If we're, I think if we're being really generous, right? We have a few extra minutes but most of the time, especially when you factor in little kids, right? That are needy or work, like you have a short break and you have to get right back to work and you got to eat something too. So you want to, you know, think about the times that we do allocate for the remembrance of God, even in that time, we're distracted, right? By what we have to do next. So the amount of distractions are so many, they never seem to end. And that's why we have to, you know, we have to understand that this is why we're experiencing all of these problems, right? Because our hearts want what? What do our hearts want to do? That's our eyes, right? Our eyes and our nuffs in our mind. But what does our spiritual heart want to do? What does it design to do? Worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So like, one of the analogies that I found really useful to understand that was a plant. Anybody here, like a green thumb? Yeah, Mashallah, you can, I'm terrible, but good for you. I just can't, that's upon a lie. I really admire people. My mother-in-law, Mashallah, she's like an entire garden. Like, she's really good. But some people who care for plants will tell you, it's actually an incredible thing to observe. Plants are created, of course, they need, what? They need light, right? Water, soil in order to, we know this, we remember from science class, right? Photosynthesis. But one of the things that a flower or plant will do always is seek the light source, right? So no matter where you put it, if you put it into a shaded area and you watch it over time, that plant will turn. You know, if the leaves are faced away from the sunlight or the natural source of light, it will turn to look for the light. It's incredible. I mean, I've done it, tested it on the plants that I have kept and also killed. May God forgive me. But in the time that they were alive, they did it and it was just amazing to see the turn because I'm not turning it, it's turning. So I love that analogy because I feel that that's so true to our hearts, right? That our hearts, no matter which direction. Assalamu alaikum. InshaAllah it's Isha time. Thank you, brother. You can't hear me. That's funny because it sounds like he's talking to me but I don't think he is. He is. I think we can hear you guys loudly, clear to me. No, I'm sorry, brother. I thought this was only going to the live stream. Okay. InshaAllah we will stop. Okay. Thank you. JazakAllah Khedan. JazakAllah Khedan. I thought this was only for you. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Ash-hadu wa la ilaha illa Allah. Ash-hadu wa la ilaha illa Allah. Ash-hadu wa allah Muhammad al-Rasul Allah. Ash-hadu wa allah Muhammad al-Rasul Allah. Ash-hadu wa allah Muhammad al-Rasul Allah. Ash-hadu wa allah Muhammad al-Rasul Allah. Ash-hadu wa la ilaha illa Allah. Okay. When are we going to finish? 12, blue hours. Okay. Let's finish. Good. We have sent him down in the night of greenery, and what do you know about the night of greenery? The night of greenery is better than a thousand months. We have sent him down in the night of greenery, and what do you know about the night of greenery? The night of greenery is better than a thousand months. The angels are sent down in the night of greenery, and what do you know about the night of greenery? Peace is until the dawn. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds. You are not worshiped without worship. You have faith in your religion and in your religion. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. God is the Greatest. Allahumma anta salam wa minka salam wa taba'arikta rabbana wa ta'ala dal jalali wa likadam rabbana atina fit dunya hasnathum wa fil ahirati hasnathum wa khina zabanath Allahumma inia saluka al-afiyah aamin aamin subhana rabbika rabbil azati amma yasifoon wa salaamun alal mursaleen walhamdulillahi rabbil allah As-salamu alaikum Sad news, you know, one of the brothers of our community passed away just seven o'clock today. His name is Javed Yahya. He was mostly, we said, a long time, a long-term resident of Pleasanton. Then he moved to Dublin. He was residing in San Ramon. So, insha'Allah, most probably the janaza will happen tomorrow. And so we will update on the email. His name is Javed Yahya. His wife's name is Negati Yahya. So, he just passed away today, seven o'clock. May Allah grant Janata for those forgiveness to Javed Yahya. May Allah grant patience to his family and friends. May Allah make his life hereafter blissfully safe. Ameen, Ameen, ya rabbil ala Ameen. Al-Bana'atina fi dunya hasnathum fil aakhirati hasnathum. Akhina zabana. Ameen, Ameen subhana rabbika rabbil azati amma yasifoon. As-salamun alal mursaleen walhamdulillahi rabbil allah I wonder, I have like, I don't know how many copies of this. I think one of them is, is, do you have like a date in the inside for when that was? Yeah, which edition do you have? Minus 2012. It is two. So, is your sandala also? Yeah. Yeah, so you need the more, yeah, you have the older one. You need the newer one, inshaAllah. Okay, thanks. I have this too. We should compare signatures. Wait, where'd it go? Yeah, there's... I don't know. Nice. MashAllah, same handwriting, so... I don't know. How are you? Good to see you, MashAllah. I know. Oh, nice, MashAllah. How's baby? Wait, please tell me his name. I'm so sorry. Ahmet. Is he here? I want to see him. How sweet. I want to see him, inshaAllah. Two and a half. Hello. Oh, there we go. Okay, Bismillah. So, we're back. All right. So, alhamdulillah, we left off right before we stopped for prayer. We're just talking about the second paragraph here on page 18, which we're still in the translator's introduction. So, these are still the early pages of the book. But we...this last sentence just, you know, I wanted to comment a little bit on that, on the fact that, you know, Shechemza says here, one can say that Islam is, in essence, is a program to restore purity and calm to the heart through the remembrance of God. And that's just really important for us to keep in mind, that our whole deen, every aspect of our deen, there's a purpose to it. It's to reorient us. Where that, you know, plant, our heart is always, you know, seeking the light. Our heart is always seeking Allah SWT. But we are the ones that move, right, because of our physical needs, our weaknesses, our distractibility. All of those things make us move away. So that's why we have to, again, appreciate that. I just really appreciate that. So now, we'll continue from there. This present text is based on the poem known as Matarat al-Qulub, literally the purification of the heart, or purification of the hearts, which offers the means by which purification can be achieved. It is a treatise on the alchemy of the hearts. Namely, a manual on how to transform the heart. It was written by a great scholar and saint, Sheikh Muhammad Mawlud al-Yakubi al-Mosawi al-Muratani. And as his name indicates, he was from Mauritania in West Africa. He was a master of all the Islamic sciences, including the inward sciences of the heart. He stated that he wrote this poem because he observed the prevalence of a diseased heart. He saw students of religion spending their time learning abstract sciences that people were not really in need of to the neglect of those sciences that pertain to what people are accountable for in the next life, namely the spiritual condition of the heart. In one of his most cited statements, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, actions are based upon intentions. All deeds are thus valued according to the intentions behind them, and intentions emanate from the heart. So every action a person intends or performs is rooted in the heart. Imam Mawlud realized that the weakness of society was a matter of weakness of character in the heart. Imam Mawlud based his text on many previous illustrations, illustrious works, especially Imam al-Ghazali's great Ihiya ul-Muddin, the revivification, the revivification of the sciences of the religion. Each of the 40 books of Ihiya ul-Muddin has the underlying objective of rectifying the human heart. If we examine the trials and tribulations, wars, and other conflicts, every act of injustice all over the earth will find they're rooted in human hearts. Covetousness, the desire to aggress and exploit, the longing to pilfer natural resources, the inordinate love of wealth and position, and other maladies are manifestations of diseases found nowhere but in the heart. Every criminal, miser, abuser, scoffer, embezzler, and hateful person does what he or she does because of a diseased heart. If hearts were sound, these actions would no longer be a reality. So if we want to change our world, we do not begin by rectifying the outward. Instead, we must change the condition of our inward. Everything we see happening outside of us is in reality coming from the unseen world within. It is from the unseen world that the phenomenal world emerges, and it is from the unseen realm of our hearts that all actions spring. The well-known civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. said that in order for people to condemn injustice, they must go through four stages. The first stage is that people must ascertain that indeed injustices are being perpetrated. In his case, it was injustices against African-Americans in the United States. The second stage is to negotiate. That is, approach the oppressor and demand justice. If the oppressor refuses, King said that the third stage is self-purification, which starts with the question, are we ourselves wrongdoers? Are we ourselves oppressors? The fourth stage then is to take action after true self-examination, after removing one's own wrongs before demanding justice from others. We of the modern world are reluctant to ask ourselves when we look at the terrible things that are happening, why do they occur? And if we ask that with all sincerity, the answer will come resoundingly. All of this is from your own selves. In so many ways, we have brought this upon ourselves. This is the only empowering position we can take. The Qur'an implies that if a people oppress others, God will send another people to oppress them. We put some oppressors over other oppressors because of what their own hands have earned. This is chapter 6, verse 129. According to Fahrauddin Ar-Razi, a 12th century scholar of the Qur'an, the verse means that the existence of oppression on earth may be caused by previous oppression. By implication, often the victims of aggression were once aggressors themselves. This, however, is not the case with tribulations, for there are times in which people are indeed tried. But if they respond with patience and perseverance, God will always give them relief and victory. If we examine the life of the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in Mecca, it's clear that he and the community of believers were being harmed and oppressed, but they were patient and God gave them victory. Within 23 years, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was not only free of oppression, but became the leader of the entire Arabian Peninsula. Those people who once oppressed him now sought mercy from him, and he was most gracious and kind in his response. Despite their former brutality toward him, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam forgave them and admitted them into the brotherhood of faith. This is the difference between someone whose heart is purified and sound and one whose heart is impure and corrupt. Impure people oppress, and the pure hearted not only forgive their oppressors, but elevate them in status and character. In order to purify ourselves, we must begin to recognize this truth. This is what this book is all about, a book of self-purification and a manual of liberation. If we work on our hearts, if we actually implement what is suggested here, we'll begin to see changes in our lives, our condition, our society, and even within our own family dynamics. It is a blessing that we have this science of purification, a blessing that this teaching exists in the world today. What remains is for us to take these teachings seriously. So let us go through what is explained here by this great scholar and learn of the diseases of the heart, examine their ideology, their causes, their signs and symptoms, and finally how to treat them. There are two types of treatments, the theoretical treatment, which is understanding the disease itself and the practical treatment, which focuses on the prescriptions we must take in order to restore the heart's natural purity. If we apply the techniques that have been learned and transmitted by the great scholars of the vast tradition of Islam, we will see results. But just like medicinal prescriptions, the physician cannot force you to take it. The knowledgeable scholars of spiritual purification have given us the treatment as they have gleaned it from the teachings of the Qur'an and the exemplary model of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The teachings are available, they are clear, and they work. It is then up to us to learn and apply them to ourselves and share them with others. So that was the translator's introduction. Any comments or any perspective? Anybody want to share what stood out to you from this section? Anything that was memorable or that made an impact from what you read? Yes? Absolutely. No? Judgmentalness and judgment? You mean arrogance, like looking down at other people? Anxiety, I heard? Ego, right? An inflated ego. So did you guys get a chance to look at the diseases that are going to be covered in the book? We kind of skimmed through it, but the contents, just let's look at the list here. For those who don't have the book, these are the diseases that we're going to be covering in the course of this haraqa. But just keep in mind that if you go through this list, what you are observing within yourself first and foremost, because it should... I mean, we haven't yet defined all of them, but still you may recognize some of these names or words. Miserliness is the first one. Wantonness, hatred, iniquity, love of the world, envy, blame-worthy modesty, fantasizing, fear of poverty, ostentation, relying on other than God, displeasure with the divine decree, seeking reputation, false hopes, negative thoughts, vanity, fraud, anger, heedlessness, rancor, boasting and arrogance, displeasure with blame, antipathy toward death, obliviousness to blessings in derision. And then there's other sections too in the book, Masha'Allah, comprehensive treatment for the heart. But again, these are the diseases that we're going to be covering. So just something to think about as we move forward what you observe already about yourself. I don't know how many of you have ever heard me speak before on the topic of emotional intelligence, which is something that, Alhamdulillah, I've done here in this Halaqah as well, and I write about it a lot online. If you're following me on Instagram or Facebook, you may have seen a lot of posts that talk about emotional intelligence. And the reason why that is something that I really try to share is because of the actual framework of emotional intelligence is defined as having five qualities. If you have these five, then you are considered an emotional intelligent person, which the first is self-awareness, then self-regulation, then motivation, empathy, and social skills. And this is based on the works of Daniel Goldman, who is a psychologist in the 1990s. He's still alive, but he basically put this term on the map in a way by writing about it. He wrote a book called Emotional Intelligence Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, and it was an instant, like New York Times bestseller, translated into several different languages, but it was considered a really, as one review is from the Harvard Business Review, they said, this is a paradigm shattering concept, this idea that intelligence is measured by the heart. Because we always think of intelligence as IQ, right? That's how we typically used to measure intelligence. And now, since these studies have been published and these works have started to gain more popularity, people are realizing that the higher form of intelligence is actual emotional intelligence. And what I started studying it, because I have this book, I was like, this is so fascinating, every aspect of his teachings would direct me back to the Prophet SAW. Like all of these five qualities, they're all, they're all describing him, self-awareness, right? There's nobody who's more self-aware than Prophet SAW and every instant, he was very present and he's teaching us to be self-aware too, right? Self-regulation to be able to control yourself, right? His, again, existence is a perfect model for us of someone who had these qualities, these virtues of temperance, right? Which is to hold yourself back to practice regulating your emotions, being under full control of yourself. That's not easy to do. A lot of us are very reactive, right? And this is why it's so important to know your temperament, to know what your disposition is. For some people, they are highly reactive than others. And so in our tradition, alhamdulillah, we're taught these things. If you're learning the deen as you should, this perfect program, right, that Islam is, it's teaching you all of these things. It's teaching you to know your temperament, to know yourself, to be able to recognize your own spiritual diseases. Like we should know when we're reading these lists, we should say, oh, that sounds familiar. You know, I'm pretty, I have that one for sure, like, you know, a little check box. But self-awareness is the first and then, you know, self-regulation. Then you have motivation, you know, to be a motivated person in this day and age, when a lot of people have lost, right, meaning to life. A lot of people out there, they don't really have a belief system that anchors them. And I'm sure you've noticed it too, right, like in my lifetime, I've absolutely noticed it, where people no longer even reference God, religion anymore. And they'll even say, oh, I'm not religious. You know, even conservative people who used to have some, maybe a religious identity, they just don't seem to think of it as an essential need anymore. Like, you know, I'm not religious, I don't need religion. And then, you know, spirituality or whatever other term they may use to define themselves becomes more comfortable for them. But any talk of religion seems very constricting. So they avoid it. So then it's well, what do you believe in? And, you know, a lot of people, like I said, they just they live for, you know, their whatever goals, material goals, objectives are. And then they just think, that's it. That's life. And then you die. And that's it. So they don't have a, like a bigger objective or another belief that that gives them purpose. So that's why you see a lot of, you know, just a lack of concern, nihilism. I mean, we're seeing it. I'm sure you see it online with people. It's just shocking. Like they're almost like there's nothing there. They can watch someone be assaulted right in front of them and nothing compels them to action. You have to wonder what's happening, right? Why are the hearts dead-end, it seems like it's like, how would you watch someone being attacked right in front of you and feel nothing? But if you grow up, you know, in a society that basically, you know, you're not really taught these things and you kind of are taught just mind your own business, you know, I'm just basically living in my own silo and that's not my concern and I'm just going to get to work and, you know, go eat and sleep and that becomes your purpose of existence and there's nothing, right, that would compel you. So this lack of drive, lack of motivation is very, very common, you know, nihilism, all of these things that we're seeing in society is the root of that, right? And then you have empathy, which is another symptom, right? If you can watch people be I mean, all the injustices that we're seeing, right, it's a lot of it has to do with the lack of empathy. Nobody cares about the suffering, or not nobody, but we generally have become less empathic when it comes to the suffering of other people, because we're too consumed with our own selves, right? This hyper focus on the nefs, on ego, on fulfilling our own desires. We saw it at the beginning of COVID, right? When you went to Costco and there was nothing on the shelves because people were hoarding, like how do you do that, right? If you're a person who has some level of concern for your fellow brother or sister in humanity, you would just take your share, but if you're like, ah, whatever, I'm gonna, you know, and then there were people, I don't know if you guys saw those too, I think they were in somewhere in the Midwest who took all of the hand sanitizers, did you see that? They bought them all, I don't know how you do that, like I don't want to save anything for anybody, I'll just take them off, so they can hike the price up and then sell them. That is definitely something going on, right? And from a spiritual perspective, there's something missing there. But this is, I think these news stories aren't even shocking anymore, right? We're just like, oh, you know, what else do you expect? So the lack of empathy is felt and seen. And then social skills, right? How awkward is it to like interact with people now? Like you can't have, you know, conversations, customer service is very weird now, you know, you go anywhere, people don't want to talk, they don't want to make eye contact. It's just a different, strange world, right? So we're losing a lot of these skills and that's why it's so important to again go back to them. But I love that framework, because I feel like it just gives us a nice structure to work with, but essentially it's just describing all of the qualities of the problem-solid syndrome that we need to be mindful of, right? That these are, among all of his virtues, these are some of them, but he certainly has more. But if we could focus on developing these five, you know, within ourselves, then we'll see the benefits of that. So that's why this book is in a way related to that first and second point, right? Self- awareness because it requires honesty, right? If we're going to do this program successful, if we're going to be successful, we have to be honest. Because the nuffs, which is that lower part of ourselves, it will try to delude us. The same way that when someone comes and criticizes us, we immediately defend ourselves, don't we? It's very uncomfortable for most people to be criticized, whether it's your spouse, your parent, your sibling, your child if you have, you know, some of our children are very honest and, you know, it could be anybody, your boss, your co-worker, if someone says something to you. Even if let's say maybe there's some truth to what they're saying, why does it bother us so much to admit that, right? Because our ego, our nuffs, does not like to be criticized. But if we are not even willing to do that within ourselves, we're not willing to hold up the mirror, right, and see our blemishes for what they are, then we're not going to succeed. And that's why we need to really have that willingness to be vulnerable within ourselves. Nobody's asking to expose, this is a very personal exercise, this whole concept of rectifying the heart. It's very personal exercise. It's not something you have to necessarily do with other people. But in order to do it successfully, we have to be vulnerable. And vulnerable means to be open to being accepted. That's what it means. You're actually willing to feel that discomfort of admitting that you have spiritual diseases, of admitting that you are in fact that you have this problem. So when we talk about self-awareness, that's the level of awareness we need to bring to this, right? So you want to think about all the criticisms you've ever received and say even if I don't like it because I've heard them maybe my whole life. And not to say all of them are truths, it depends on the person who's saying them. Some people weaponize words to hurt you, right? But for me the test is is it a common complaint, you know? Like if I have five or six people saying the same thing, maybe it's true, you know? Five people in your life say you're so impatient. Maybe you need to say okay, I can't blame them all, that they were all conspired and said let's go and make this up. No. It likely is true, right? But that level of willingness to admit to what people are saying, what people have said is hard on the nefs. It's very, very hard on the ego but it's great for expanding the heart and making it less hard like so that it's malleable and we can start to work with it, right? So that level of awareness and self-regulation. So those two qualities of emotional intelligence are really essential for this work, because self-regulation is about control, right? It's about you know, once you identify the disease, which is that first step then can you follow through with the treatment? Some of these treatments are going to require work, you know. They're going to require you to go out of your comfort zone to stop doing things that you've habituated to for maybe years and completely change course. Do you have it in you, right? Do you have it in you to do that? And then what's your motivation? So in a way, we could extend it to all five of those qualities, but what is your motivating factor? Why would you even want to do that? If you want that marifa of Allah SWT, right? That closeness, that proximity that we all should yearn for, right? Because what's the ultimate prize in Jannah? What is it called? Or what does it refer to us? Like what's the highest prize that a person could receive? Yeah. What we call the beatific vision, right? This is what all of us should aspire to. That we don't just want Jannah of, you know, of course we want Jannah, but we don't want like, there's levels of Jannah, right? So the Jannah that we read about in the Quran of like of the rivers of milk and honey and food and all those delights that our appetites are like, ooh, you know, that's considered the lower Jannah, right? The higher Jannah is to be with Allah, of course the highest is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the provisionalized, the saints, the awliya, like that's where we want, right? But if you want the highest of the highest reward, which is to see Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to finally have that experience, then you have to think, well, how can I work towards that in this life, right? If that's my goal, right? You've read Stephen Covey's book, The Seven Habits of Highly Rich, right? Isn't that one of the goals or one of the qualities? Have the end in mind, right? So if your end is that, then you want to think how do I get there? And this is it, right? It is it's working on the spiritual heart so that you can become worthy of that prize. But that's the motivating factor, right? That we want knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this life in the form of getting to know Him on a more intimate level, getting to experience openings and really feel expansion in our heart. Because if you look around, it's the fact that people are not even motivated by those things and the spiritual diseases are increasing and growing and they're looking at the dunya and just accumulating wealth and eating and feeding their appetites and every other based desire they have that we're also seeing, you could say causation, correlation, they're both you're seeing every form of spiritual disease, prevalent, right? So when I asked earlier, what do you think are the most common, I would say almost all of them are. You see all of them, they're everywhere. All of these diseases have just spread like wildfire and then on top of that, we don't only have spiritual afflictions, we also see physical diseases increasing. So why? Because as the very first hadith we read, the Prophet's license said that there's a lump of flesh in the heart. If it's sound, right? Then everything else becomes sound. And the opposite is true too. If our spiritual hearts are diseased, then the diseases spread to other aspects of our being and to our communities, our families, our communities, our societies, diseases. So it's that mind, body, heart connection is all very real. And so when we think about ourselves and curing ourselves of spiritual diseases, we also want to think about just promoting overall well-being, a holistic approach, that if I work on my spiritual diseases, I will start to feel better like in my physical body, right? In my mental clarity I will start to have more clarity. Because there's a lot of thoughts. I mean some research says 70,000 thoughts we have a day and 80% of them are 90%, I think are negative thoughts. 80% are repeat thoughts. So we just keep recycling the same thoughts over and over and over again, right? And how can we protect ourselves from that mental chatter if it's all negative, right? That's what spiritual, that's what this offers, is the more focus you work on inwardly you know, healing and cleansing, you will start to feel that residual effect everywhere. And then imagine once you become better at regulating yourself and emotions, guess what? People can't trigger you. Right? You don't get triggered because you're now in control of yourself. So when someone says something to you that upsets you and offends you you're like, okay. You know? And I've witnessed this happening. It's amazing when you are with people who've worked around the path it's amazing to see their level of control. Like you know which reminds me of that wonderful story of said Naissa right? When he was with his disciples and he was walking and then the men cursed at him and he made offer them. And so the man I mean his disciples were like what? They just cursed you. So you want to think about yourself in this situation. You're walking with your BFFs your family your loved ones and then someone who curses at you. Be honest with yourself. How many of us we're like oh really? The rings are coming off. What did you say? Right? Get a little sass in our voice. And I'm speaking from experience. That was literally me in high school and college. But yeah we have that. That's our nafzi reaction. We don't like people to step up to us. And some of us cultures are very hot-blooded. We can't help ourselves or our families. So that might be the response right? Because we haven't worked on this. But what did said Naissa do? He made offer them. And so when the disciples asked he said remember this. It's so beautiful. Vessels only pour out what they contain. So their vessel was filled and that's why they can curse. But he doesn't have filth to pour out. Because he's pure. He's a prophet of God. So he's teaching that even if they're that's what they pour forth. I don't have to match that energy. Why do I have to stoop low? I bring forth what I have. And he had light, he had beauty. So we have to look at our hearts in the same way. That what we pour into it is what is going to come out. So if we're consuming garbage in right? Garbage in, garbage out. That's what's going to come out. But if we're working on cleansing and then taking in the remedies which often do have to do with the remembrance of death right? You'll see a lot of the treatments have to do with these types of practical things that we can all do so that we start to change those thoughts. That negative mental chatter instead of being 80, 90% negative why? Why are we accepting that just because it's statistics and research? Do you think the odia of Allah had 80% to 90% negative thoughts? Or do? No. It's us because we are afflicted with spiritual diseases and we're around people who are afflicted with spiritual diseases and we're consuming the content and the thoughts and ideas of people who are spiritually afflicted right? And so that's why what we consume, what we take in, makes a difference. So inshallah for next time because we have just a few minutes left but I wanted to give you guys an opportunity to talk amongst each other and get to know each other. For next time we'll continue with verses of the poem which are the introduction to purification on page one so we'll formally start the book but you can read ahead and that way inshallah when we come in we can also have a discussion and I'll prepare some discussion questions based on the reading okay? Any questions? I know it's a lot to take in. Yes. Yes. Excellent question. Yeah, from from a roomy bookstore it should be available. I'm pretty certain I mean I would be surprised unless they have any issues with back ordering but I would check with roomy bookstore they're in Fremont they're local and he does have a shop here in Dublin but I don't know if the hours like what the hours are but if you coordinate he can maybe bring some here if you're local are you here in this area? Okay yeah so if you call the Fremont store check with him there and maybe he can bring some copies here because I'm in the Dublin store. Yeah roomy bookstore yeah like the poet yeah yeah it's available on Amazon and I would I because I did some research I found that the best bargain or deal is through Sandala if you just go straight through Sandala because some of the prices on Amazon are hiked up this is a pretty popular book it's in several languages so some of the sellers know that but if you want a good deal just go directly to Sandala you'll pay a little bit for publishing but you're not going to get prime but it actually is less than what you would pay with Amazon Sandala oh it's I'm sorry it's the name of the publishing so it's like the word Sandal with an A Sandala.org I think or calm but yeah So any other questions? Well thank you I want to thank all of you for coming here inshallah this is every the last Thursday of every month and it is you know online but I would love for you guys to join for those of you who are watching too who were here last time come back inshallah no it's a what we'll do is we'll leave some time at the end next time too for more like for you guys to get to know each other because I know that that was a big reason why so many showed up they we need more connection after COVID I know it's been a while so inshallah but feel free to stick around yes yes I actually thank you for reminding me because after we met that meant put the dates together I was like oh no I think I'm gonna have to speak with brother manir maybe we might do that one on the weekend before is that the 21st or the what's the date for the third week oh no I'm sorry the third Thursday not the fourth Thursday what's okay so maybe we'll do the 18th for just November and then resume Christmas falls also yeah the holidays so inshallah I will put it in the newsletter but most likely will not be the last Thursday because again Thanksgiving okay and with that said we'll do a and then please feel free maybe for the next 15 to 15 minutes to stick around and talk to any other if you haven't met everybody and then please it's hard too if we can get the what's up sign up list if you can add more people thank you alright so thank you inshallah I will see you all next Thursday and thanks to all who are watching on the live stream inshallah next time we'll be a little bit more on time I think daylight savings will also be in effect so thank you