 Cloud are thinking so that our conclusions are skewed by what it is that we have residing in our hearts. And this is why the question really is, is that can a human being really be objective? This whole idea that there is objective knowledge and it is a sole property of western man, especially in a university setting, is completely ridiculous. Is that human beings cannot be objective. There is no complete objectivity when it comes to human beings. Is that we will all have the frames that we think in. And then this gets down to the different types of frames. And that this is a topic in and of itself. But what is meant here also is that a law will seal and the idea of a heart being sealed is it will affect our perception. Is that it will affect how we're impacted by certain things. A person that is what the kebbar, that is prideful, is that it's going to be very hard for them to show empathy towards people that are weak. Why? Because their hearts are sealed. They are in a state of where they disregard people to begin with. Oftentimes they are contemptful or have many of the other previously mentioned traits. How could they show empathy? And if you don't have empathy, why would you care? And if you don't care, why would you do anything about it? And so that hearts being sealed are not only in terms of perception, but also in terms of things that we should do in certain circumstances. And so there's consequences, if you will, of having these traits of heart. And then we have the verse in the Allah that you have in Mustakb-e-Din. Indeed that Allah does not love those who are prideful. And there are a number of other verses that deal with pride and that other closely related attributes of them. And then we have this severe warning of the Prophet Muhammad SAW. And keep in mind all of the warnings of the Prophet are really warnings that are embedded and doesn't want her child to get sick. And so the warnings of the Prophet, even though they're in one sense Jalal, they're majestic, in another sense it's mercy. Because good and evil, what's right and what's wrong was crystal clear to the Rasul. And he conveyed what it is was good and what it is was bad. What is right, what is wrong. And so him warning us really is out of mercy. Because he doesn't want us to do anything that would harm us in this world or in the next. And so he says, is that no one that has a mustard grain seed of pride, of kibbeh in their heart, were enter into Paradise. But then in this narration that's in Muslim, he juxtaposes that with an opposite. And that no one will enter into the fire that has a mustard grain seed of faith in their heart. And so it's interesting here, why is he juxtaposing iman to kibbeh? It's very interesting. Because that kibbeh is one of the greatest things that again prevents people from seeing the signs of Allah and thus believing in them. And the worst form of kibbeh is to have kibbeh get in the way of you knowing your Lord. The second worst form of kibbeh of pride is it for it to come between you and your belief in the Messenger of Allah. If you would just look at how many people that, let's just look at Islam, how many people that their view of prophets in general or specifically how they view Muslims makes it virtually impossible for them unless they can overcome that from ever accepting the faith. If your view of Muslims is that they're terrorists, they're inferior. Or if you know a little bit about Islam in the United States, why would I want to join a religion that so many black people have joined? I'm totally serious. Why would I want to join an Arab religion? These people live in a desert climate. And these ridiculous, people have these notions. How would you ever accept a faith that that's how you view it? It comes in the way of all these things you hear about the Prophet. Now, the question of how we deal with people who are afflicted with this, that's a whole other topic. How we can go about teaching people the true nature of the Prophet Muhammad. Teaching them the true nature of how Muslims are and their way they should be and the diversity of Muslims across. That's all other issues, but that in and of itself. Even if we say, oh, that's all they're exposed to. Let's not conflate issues. We recognize wrong is wrong. Our mercy for someone in terms of what they've been conditioned with in their society is something else. So we have to do two things. Recognize wrong is wrong. And then how we go about dealing with that is a whole separate issue. But let's put everything in its proper place. And that is not a good thing. If someone's that view of something is preventing them from really objectively looking at what's the reality of this thing that is before me. In this case, we're talking about Ar-Din. You can see how it would prevent someone. And so it's very interesting to note this juxtaposition of Iman, of Kibir on one hand, pride to Iman. Because it is one of the greatest things that prevent people from believing is their own arrogance. Where they don't even feel like they're in need. They feel like they have everything. Some people are like this. And this is surely not the only thing. There's a long list of things. But this is one of the greatest. And so you have a number of a hadith of the Rasul Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that relate to this. And that this is why that when you look at what our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said about the good percentage, if not the majority of the people of Paradise. Who did he describe them as? The Duafa, which are literally the weak. The Suqat, those that are not nobles in society. That people that no one really cares about. And the Ajazatuhum. And the Enable. That these tend to be, if you look over human history, the vast majority of people that have responded to prophetic truth are people of these categories. Which is precisely in most societies, including our society, what the type of people that no one wants to be like. It's just really interesting if you think about that. And how should your conception being as a Muslim, wherever you are, if you're living in the United States of America, you have to recognize you're not living in a neutral society. And what I mean by that is, is that just by virtue of you stepping foot in this land, there is a history here. And that history is not just gone because you don't see some of its manifestations before your eyes anymore. We have to be more intelligent than that. But much of the negative side of our history, and there's definitely a good side to, but much of the negative side is now just taken on new forms. And we are required as being conscientious human beings, let alone believers, who are supposed to combine that intelligence with religiosity, and intelligence is a part of religiosity, but let's just speak of them as separate, to do what is right in any given society. And if there is imbalances in any direction, we are required to understand. We are in the United States of America. If we're living in Canada, we have to understand Canadian society. If we're living in Venezuela, we have to understand Venezuelan society. If we're living in Papua New Guinea, we have to understand the society in which we are living. And then do what's right in relation to that. And we can't just let the normal way that people do things dictate what it is that we do. Because you will, that unintentionally, that you will unintentionally support that oppressive, that things without you even realizing. If you don't make the right decision and go against the grain in relation to those things. And it becomes more difficult when that these forms of oppression become more subtle. It becomes more difficult, but this is very important that we be aware of this. But if we think about this, this is a classic example, is that we have to be people that care for all people, not just the people that society cares for. And we oftentimes, all of us, most of us, have double standards in terms of converts that we incline towards or disincline towards, in terms of people who we welcome into the community or don't welcome into the community, in terms of where we give our money to and where we don't give our money to. Most of us have double standards. And let's just at first realize that we've fallen short so we can treat that. And it takes courage to do this, to really question a way that has been ingrained into you for so long. It's not necessarily evil all times. Sometimes it's just blatantly evil, but it's not always evil. And we have to have the courage to question a lot of these things and to learn to do the right thing. And some of these conversations are very uncomfortable. But if we're going to be successful in terms of what is to me the most important thing that we need to be doing in these lands in the upcoming decades and over the next 100 to 200 years, we have to get this right. If we get this wrong, is that our religion will have a shelf life in the United States of America. If we get it right, that we can position ourselves to have a very powerful positive impact upon society. And this is the way that we should be thinking. We want to be contributing to society that based upon our own unique conception of what is right and what is wrong. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, this is what this society in which we live is supposed to be in principle about, and oftentimes falls short. But we have to have principle engagement at every single level where we make unique contributions based upon the beauty of our Dean and that we should that unabashedly contribute based upon our own principles. And if anyone tries to set up a frame that doesn't allow for that, you speak to them in their own language. Nothing is more un-American than that. I'm not talking about the way that we would necessarily... I'm talking about the way that it's conceived of in this country. Nothing is more un-American than that. And so this whole idea that you have to just uphold the status quo and not make a fuss about certain things, that's not being a true American. What I understand a true American to be in one of the many manifestations is that if you believe in something, you stand by that thing. And if you have to go against something, you go against it based upon your principles. And people's principles are defined by different things. For us, our principles are rooted in Eman, Islam, and Ersan. Those are our principles. When we ground ourselves in those principles and that we are able to get beyond our inferiority complex, is that we realize there's a responsibility on our shoulders to make principled contributions, contributions based upon our own principles, wherever it is that we might be living. And they're going to take a different form in a different place, but we live here. And so it is important for us to have a portion of our knowledge-seeking beat to understand some of the nuances of the society in which we live so that we know we can make sure that we do the right thing. Now, and then we have this narration that also indicates the severity of this horrible trait and how that what is a trait of character, a vice, manifests in the day of judgment. So in the world, is that a trait of character is not going to take on a form other than the things that we actually do. But in the afterlife from the grave until Yom Kiyama, is that traits of character take on outer forms. And one of the examples of this has come in a hadith. Our prophet said, is that the Mutakeb Birun, the people of pride, will be raised on the day of judgment like ants. Human beings, they'll be like the size of ants. Ya'luhum kullushayin minas sarar. And that they will be humiliated obviously in terms of their size and how they're trampled by the other people that are around them. So that great trait where they thought they were, because kibir comes from the word kabir. Kabir is to be large or to be great. And that could be actually in terms of size or it could be in terms of like station or someone thinks of station that they have. Is that it will actually be reflected in their physical size on Yom Kiyama. And then we have the Al-Far, which are the statements of the companions and those that come after them from the early generations. And Sena Bakr Siddique is known to have said, la taqiranna ahadin minin muslimin. Do not look down upon any Muslim. Do not look down upon any Muslim. Do not belittle them. Do not ridicule them. Do not look down on any Muslim. La taqiranna ahadin muslimin. Because these insignificant Muslims are great with Allah, because of their Iman. And look at this advice. This is the way, and this is the beautiful thing about the A'thar. This is the way the companions who heard the verses of the Quran, they heard the statements of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, They internalize those meanings and then they have utterances of wisdom that have been informed by their knowledge of the Quran and of the Sunnah of our Prophet ﷺ. So what you tend to find is that they get a little bit more detailed and they're detailed examples how we implement the meanings that we learn in the Quran and in the Sunnah of our Prophet ﷺ. There's others. So what Hassan al-Basri, who's from the Taba'een, the generation after the Sahaba, I'm amazed at the son of Adam, the children of Adam. He wipes himself after relieving himself once or twice a day. And then he's going to act pridefully and in a sense vie with the compeler of the heavens and the earth. Does that make sense? Is that this is one of the more humbling experiences, the very fact that we have to use the restroom. And these are times that if you're not going to remind yourself outside of those times, one of the etiquettes actually is that when you're using the restroom, a chroma cum Allah, you remind yourselves of your humility before Allah ﷺ. I am a humble servant of Allah ﷺ and that one of them was asked, oh excuse me, first that Sayyid al-Muhammad bin al-Hussain, that he said, is he said that no arrogance, nothing of arrogance literally will enter into the heart of a man and except that it will diminish from his intellect to the degree that it entered in smaller lesser degrees. In other words, is that the greater the degree of Qibab, is that the more that it will diminish someone's akhal, their intellect. And then Salman al-Farisi was asked, is there a Sayyid, is there a bad deed that can't ultimately be helped by a good deed and he says al-Qibar and that shows the danger of Qibar. Now it's not an unforgivable disease, of course not. But the point is that it's serious, meaning that the traits of the heart that even if we're doing a lot outwardly, the righteous always focus more on the state of their hearts because they realized a small amount of deeds with a sound heart was much greater than a lot of things you're doing outwardly with a neglected heart. This is the way that they always have viewed this, the Sahaba to this day, the true people of Allah to understand Deen, this is how they understand things because they view it like a bucket and that a trait like Qibar is like a bucket that has gaping holes in it. You're putting water in by all the things you're doing outwardly but a lot of it is just going right out. So it's not that it doesn't benefit in some way but it's just not going to be retained. Then he goes into a discussion of a specific manifestation of Qibar and I'm going to mention a couple of these narrations because it's so prevalent in our time with what he calls Al-Ikhtiyaal and Al-Ikhtiyaal is a way of walking or carrying yourself outwardly based upon this trait of Qibar that is in your heart. It's similar to the word Tabakhtur and Tabakhtara in Arabic is to strut so that you walk a certain way and this is something that we see. There are certain people that walk in a certain way, they strut around and what does the Prophet have to say about this? He says is that Some of these narrations are serious and we don't tend to like to hear the narrations that relate to things like the fire but it's important that we warn ourselves of it. It's so that when we see a certain type of behavior we're not drawn into that type of behavior because sometimes there's a lure to it. You see people walking a certain way, oftentimes a lot of athletes do this, a lot of celebrities do this, a lot of people that carry themselves in certain ways that other people want to be like in school on TV, walk a certain way, carry themselves in a certain way and we have to have that clarity like that's demonic and I'm not going to be lured into that and it's these narrations that's going to give you the strength at the level of the heart to see it for what it is and so he said is that there was a man walking with the Prophet ﷺ that was wearing that certain garments and he was clearly impressed with himself and he says is that he is going to be punished as a result of how it is that he was walking and that another narration is that that Sayyidina Umar ibn Abdu Aziz before he became the Khalifa is that one of the Taba'een Tawus is that he saw him walking with a strut Sayyidina Umar Abdu Aziz and as he passed by him Tawus pokes him like this and he says to him this is not the way someone who carries excrement in his stomach should walk right and then Sayyidina Umar ibn Abdu Aziz we know he was a very pious man he says Ya'am he says he says is that they used to force me to walk like this from the time that I was young and would beat me if I didn't and so I become accustomed to it and so this was something he had overcome and there was a certain way that they trained royalty to walk and they would actually be beat if they didn't walk a certain way and other the point is people learn these in different ways but then that we have this other really beautiful story is that that one of the one of the righteous by the name of Muttara bin Abdullah ibn Shikhir he saw an individual by the name of Muhallab and he was strutting as he walked down the street with the beautiful garment and he said to him Ya Abdullah that this is a way of walking that is detested by Allah and his messenger and then in Muhallab said to him I don't know me he says do you not know me right this is like in street lingo someone saying to someone you better recognize like do you not know me do you not know who I am do you know who you're talking to how many times have we seen this in movies on television how many times have we seen this and most case scenarios it's glorified where it becomes a character trait that people take on who do you think you're talking to do you not know who I am as if that's part of manhood to act like that I was a bill this is not the way a believer thinks this is not how we speak this is not how we think these are terrible in reprehensible traits this is a classic example of a trait that is detested by Allah and his messenger if we have to see it as such if we don't know this we're not going to be able to withstand the lure Muslims don't strut around we don't walk around arrogantly however that strut is whether it's the strut of someone high up in office or whether it's the strut of someone on the street or anywhere in between it doesn't just happen on the street don't just imagine that this is happening on the street there are businessmen who walk like this in airports there are they're very wealthy people that walk like this right as when they walk around there are people that just because they're in business class is that they see these other people like cattle it's it's really like I surround a lot you would be so surprised I not too long ago and like I was just like amazed I wish there was a way I could have I don't tend to take out my phone and take pictures but I wish I would have gotten videos of this because it was just amazing so I was flying out of Newark it was a late it was a late flight and when I fly out of Newark I usually fly United so you have economy you have economy plus and then you have like what's beyond that where it's like 1k you know we've flown over 100 thousand miles a year and special services and then you have the um that uh anyhow you have different lines so it was late and they'd closed all the lines of security except one so everyone had to go in together so radish and you're in line and so forth and then I was right there in the beginning you see people coming up so the people that like economy plus would come up and like where's economy plus line and these poor people that were just telling people that the lines are closed it's not them who made that decision they're just telling people what lines to go in people start freaking out where's economy plus line but the worst was when like the first class or global services people came the reactions were different according to like their ranks in terms of like flight status the people like global services like you want me to stand in line with these heathens they obviously didn't say heathens but like it was like they were so distraught and like walking back and forth the line pacing back and forth and you know how like people who work inside can go to the front of the line so if they saw someone get to go to the front of the line because they could actually go through they were just going crazy and yelling at people and talking on their phone and they're all calling into united and I'm global services and I have that it's just like wow subhan Allah right it's you see what happens very easy these things it's triggered right off the bat let alone someone that has a private jet that has to fly on a plane with other people people I like this and you have to be very very very careful and that you just when your airports are amazing places for understanding the psychology of people and just look at the way that people that are flying business class treat the flight attendants the the majority I've seen there's like a whole persona that goes along how you have to be and many of them just to be frank are very rude these poor flight attendants they're just rude and that the weird thing is is that sometimes actually the flight attendants give better service to people that are rude because they become conditioned oh that if someone's not like that then I don't have to give them as good enough service so sometimes it's internalized and then reciprocated which is really odd and then just basic humanity just goes well you can't even even longer be nice to someone because people will see that as a weakness and now I'm going to be a wolf so what do you do in light of all this well we definitely know what you don't do we can rule that out and then there's a range of acceptable things that you can do okay but anyhow it gets back to an understanding of this so this person says do not know who I am okay so he's walking arrogantly he's strutting very nice clothing and mutarraf calls him out he says this you're the way you're walking is not is is detestable to Allah and his messenger do you not know who I am and then he says balaa adif adifuka this is one of my favorite stories you've probably all heard me tell this he says yes I know you very well he says I know you very well he says you're beginning was that you were a sticky fluid in your end well you will be a putrid corpse in between these two states your noble origin is a sticky fluid and your end does a putrid corpse you carry excrement between your two sides you use the bathroom like anyone else you don't have some special function where your excrement in your urine just vanishes in the air excuse me for being so frank you do the same thing everyone else does that on a daily basis so kefiani like how could you possibly be arrogant then if this is indeed your state this is where i remember that he goes into the trait of humility and we're going to come back to that business like tada a little bit later on but now i want to look a little bit at the chapter that he titles bayanu haqiqat al-kibri wa'afati and this translates as an exposition of the true nature of kibir and that in in and why it's a fault so he starts by saying ilam no and the kebra yan qasimu ilal dahiran wa'afatinan there is both an external and internal reality to this trait of kibir if al-ba'afatinu hua khuluqun finnafs so this chapter he wants to define exactly what it is that we're talking about so the internal reality of kibir is that it is a khuluq it is a trait of character and traits of character can be good or they could be bad they could be praiseworthy they could be blame worthy and then there's an outward reality to kibir which stems from this trait of heart and leads one's limbs to do certain things so he says this word kibir it's better that we use that word to describe the trait that's inside the heart as for the outward things that we do they're only in a sense fruits of that trait of heart in other words is that they follow the trait of heart and so the source of these things that one does that one does outwardly is this trait of heart and so the outward acts that one does that's what's called te kebor so you have kibir and kibir is a muster it's a verbal noun and te kebor is also a verbal noun but the te kebor is everything that you do outwardly and the kebor is the trait of heart and so it's important that we understand what that trait of heart is and then we understand many examples of how that manifests on the limbs and then we look at our own selves do we do things similar to that now the list of things that could be done outwardly are many and he actually will go through that many of them may a lot to be pleased with him Yama Ghazali but it's not an exhaustive list there could be other manifestations of it but we have to first understand that you have kibir which is the trait of the heart and you have to kibir which are the various things that you could do outwardly now and so he says if we're going to define the trait that is kibir it says it follows okay and is it's the state of heart where you find contentment in seeing yourself as better than the object of your kibir so simply you see yourself as better than other people in the kibir is that this trait of kibir requires is that there being an object of pride the one that you are showing that kibir too a cause of pride and this is how we differentiate kibir from ujjab how we differentiate pride from conceit or self-admiration so there's a muta kabbar and alay there's an object of pride that is who we show that kibir to and there is a muta kabbar and b there is a cause of pride and so there's certain things that the more we have them in our heart is that it will lead us to show more kibir and he repeats here what we've already said now is that whereas ujjab does not require that another person to be involved it just something that relates to your own self he says where the human being to be the only person that has ever been created is that you could see that person as conceivably that self being afflicted with self-admiration whereas that you can't show kibir that unless there's someone else involved okay now he goes on further to say that it's not sufficient for him just to be impressed with his own self to be considered to be a person who's muta kabbar because someone could see himself as being special but he sees someone else as being uh greater than him and it's not sufficient for him just to that see someone else as lesser because it's conceivable that he also sees himself as less that it's a combination of the two is that he sees himself as something great or in a higher station and he's seeing other people as less than him this is the essence of what this is and that this is why our prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is that he sought refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala min nafkat al-kibriya awwala I seek refuge in you from the nafkat al-kibriya which is like this this this wind of thinking you're that better that a nafkah is is to blow and so you like this wind and what could happen is you go through a moment of your life where someone praises you it's very easy when someone elevates you then oh see and you take that out on someone else you get a brand new car and then all of a sudden you got to protect your heart how or you when you drive by someone else that's driving a car that's not like yours a brand new house a brand new garment a brand new job that these things these these could be nafkah of kibriya could happen at any time where you get this wind of the sense of I'm better than so-and-so and the prophet sought refuge in that and so it could come at sometimes more than others just as if you're outside in the environment and all of a sudden that a gust of wind comes through we get these gusts if you will of that of kibriya may Allah to out of protect us so then he says here again there's these outward dimensions of things that we do based upon this trait he says this is called the kabbur so he's getting us down to really the psychology and walking us through what happens is that when we have these things that fuel or cause kibir and it leads us to do these things outwardly he says that as long as we think that we have a higher rank than someone else that we are better than someone else is that necessarily is that we will then be little other people we will disregard them we will look down upon them and we will distance them from ourselves we won't want to sit with them we won't want to that eat with them for instance you don't want to be near them in this case that i just mentioned you don't want to be in the same line with them you don't want to stand next to them you want to be distant you want to be in your nice gated community and you only want anyone else to come in now there's obvious reasons some people have gated communities but the point is is that you have to be careful you have to be careful and you know the the amazing thing is that in most traditional societies is that very wealthy people lived right next door to very poor people in a traditional city the poor and the wealthy were living amongst each other if you look at Medina Munawwar are taking it way back is that there were the Prophet was listening reliving right next to Ahl-e-Sufa right next to Ahl-e-Sufa and we just took a hadith last week about one of the principles of fatua is to prefer people to prefer some of the people that are close to you over at certain times even family members and offering services to people and sometimes withholding from that if there's indeed a choice that has to be made from your own family members with the obvious prerequisite that your family is on board otherwise you can't do it that's why it's such a lofty maqam station and there's multiple narrations but in one of them is that Sayyid al-Fatima came to ask the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam for a servant when he was given when he had a lot of wealth come to him sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that he was in to distribute and one of the narration states is that she was expecting and when she was baking bread because she was expecting her stomach was getting burnt by baking the bread and Sayyid al-Adi was someone who used to that draw water out of a well and so she comes to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and in one narration she asked him directly in another narration she and adi agreed that she was going to go and then she was embarrassed when the Prophet asked her you know what she came for and she just said i came to send salams to you and then in that narration the Prophet comes back to visit them and we get details of what the household of Sayyid al-Adi and Sayyid al-Fatima was like when they got married the Prophet gifted them a blanket he gifted them a water skin he gifted them two mils a leather pillow that had palm fibers as the cushion inside of it and two mils to grind grain that was pretty much the extent of their possessions and let's say adi had something else that was the extent of their possessions for their wedding and this is the daughter of the best of creation the best of creation sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and that in this narration Sayyid al-Fatima was using the mils so much she had sores on her hands so she comes to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam she's embarrassed the Prophet comes to them and then that eventually the Prophet says to them how can i give you a servant when i have ahlu sofa to take care of and their stomachs are in pain from hunger he says how can i how can i give you a servant he says on the contrary that i need to that get money so that i could take care of them he says should i not indicate to you something that's better than what you're asking me for and this shows is that the Prophet always wanted his close family members to only rely upon Allah place no reliance whatsoever in the outward in something raised to the dunya and this is what the Prophet gifts Sayyid al-Fatima and Sayyid al-Ali saying subhanallah 33 times before you go to bed Alhamdulillah 33 times and Allahu Akbar 34 times in other words is that that servant that you wanted to help you in your day-to-day duties if you say this it will help you much more than that servant at your meaning reliance completely upon Allah but it indicates here too that this this great trait of fatua but you can only do this if your family is on board with you you anyhow um i forget where we we're going with that but um so that not wanting to sit with people not wanting to eat with people and then what are in the hawk and you call math in in baniyadeh is the shtad kibro where there are some people who just think that you know these people just need to remain and stand there waiting for my command some people go to that extent and again this is where we get into all these modern forms of this what is entitlement why do some people feel so much more entitlement than other people do why do some people think they own the road this is their space this is their society this is their country where does that come from it all comes from this it all comes from this if you are raised from the time that you're young this is the best country in the world this is the best country in the history of humankind i'm not saying that we don't notice good accomplishments of the united states of america but to reach the point where you don't care about your neighbors let alone other people in the world because you almost feel like you're the only place on earth that is a serious problem that is a problem and if we can't recognize that in the public discourse how are we going to do what needs to be done in the world to really achieve the goals that we speak about that we want to happen in the world really or is it just all jargon or is it just all used to get elected and never really matters and it's not just politicians who are speaking like this or do we really care do we really care really care about other people in the world do we as individuals we must recognize this this is not a healthy discourse and yes i'm not saying we don't notice good that has happened but we have to recognize what we've been what has been instilled in us from the time that we're young and this is why that hajj is such an important experience such an important experience if you are mutakeba you're going to really struggle on hajj you're going to re even if you get that $12,000 VIP package where you're separate and almost like your gated community in minna that you know now if that's just where you're at and you need ease okay fine but if you that are bothered by being around people that are missing toenails and are their feet are rugged or don't smell like you or their bags have broken wheels or whatever else there's a serious problem in your e-man a serious problem we should love being with poor people we should find consolation in being with poor people as an ideal now how that plays out in our day today we need to work on that you should find intimacy in praying next to someone that lives on less than a dollar a day in the same message of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam we shouldn't be bothered by that we should love being with the muslims in all the different shades and all the different cultures they come from you should love that experience and for some people it's actually a test of their faith like this is the faith that i've joined all of these people right not just this famous singer who became muslim now i feel good that this singer affected that accepted my faith we should be happy that anyone who becomes muslim anyone who becomes muslim we should be happy and yes from the standpoint that maybe they can affect other people so they become muslim okay we'll give you a little bit of a license there but you should be happy with the person down the street who was a crack baby and had a very difficult life that no one cares about you should be just as happy that they became muslim too otherwise that where are priorities what are we really right so he's getting down to what really is the essence of what this is is that if you are mutakeba you can't serve other people you can't pick up after other people you expect to be served you expect other people to send salams to you you expect people to make way for you when you're walking you have to be given preference in a gathering all of these different types of things and he goes into a lot of other details here is that you don't take admonition you can't accept criticism accepting criticism is one of the main ways to determine are you do you have this trait of kibbutt or not if you realize who you are and you realize how short you fall all the time we should be open to accepting criticism and when you advise other people if there's te kibbutt you'll advise one person more harshly than another double standards someone that's like this you're very gentle with someone that no one cares about in society come down hard on them you would be surprised i don't want to say watch carefully because the whole point of this is to fix ourselves not other people but once you know this you will be so surprised i travel way too much i'd notice these things day in and day out just on the plane that was just on preferential treatment preferential treatment that so-and-so that fits such and such description can go use the bathroom in that business class and no one says anything right someone else that has a very different profile no you can't go in there why didn't you say that to them but you said that to them these things are reinforced on a daily basis and how would you feel if you were the victim of that every day of your life multiple times how would you feel and how would you then protect your own heart because if we level the playing field this is about everyone drawing near to a lot from lashing out and returning other ways to the people of kibbutt so this is very deep this is why how could this not be relevant this is as relevant as relevant could be to our everyday lives because imam was that he is talking about deep set human psychology that transcends time and place this is deep stuff that gets down into the depths of the way that we think and that things that happen that as a result of traits that we have and so forth and so on and hastening to anger all of these other types of things that indicate to us that certain this trait of kibbutt and there are many more i think inshallah you never get through everything that you want to but i think that we will go ahead and stop there and if there's any quick questions do we have a time for a few minutes of questions asaba just a few minutes of questions if there's any questions and then we can take a break and come back after inshallah yes please yes so answer your question with it with an analogy of a different reprehensible trait like a ria ostentation so um ria when you show off in your worship okay it's it's only sinful when it relates to worship okay so technically like if you're a good player of some sport to show off a little bit on the football field on the baswah court is not sinful in religion it doesn't mean that it's something good but the problem is even though it's not necessarily sinful when you do that is it who you are is who you are if you do that on the baswah court what's preventing you from doing off the baswah court or whatever sport it is that you are playing so this is really the problem with some of these things even if we're going to say it's not necessarily sinful that when you're actually doing it but it is definitely not something that is good right getting yourself accustomed to certain behavioral patterns will inevitably spill over into other aspects of your life um and um i so i think that this is these are classic examples of you know things that we need to warn people of and that to temper people that okay maybe we're it's not a solution to get everyone off of fortnight but maybe we can at least remind people that hey you know this is what you have to consider and um you know there's the general advice and then there's the way that you're dealing with you know your own children because it there's such a pull to these things and it's so pervasive at one level there's nothing you can do other than try to mitigate even if you don't have a tv even if your kids don't have devices it still gets to them all it takes is one other child that has a device and shares it with everyone else all it takes for them is to find someone on the bus that sits next to them and they're doing the same thing it's almost impossible to keep your kids from these things and the so the way forward realistically is to spread awareness and remind people that hey you know you need to be aware of a b and c but there's no doubt in my mind that these are not necessarily good thing they're not good things because you develop behavioral patterns it spills over into the other things that you then do and um so it's it's it's a problem yeah thank you for mentioning that what was that sorry oh yeah yeah it's okay yeah um and you know to me um this is a whole other topic but i think we need to scrutinize every word that we appropriate i.e use okay and be very clear on what we mean by that and i'm not saying what you're just saying i'm saying in general so words like self-confidence self-esteem self-respect a many of these words that we hear used in modern psychological lingo we have to understand exactly what we mean by them and understand them in our own unique frame okay and so um i don't want to go too much into detail about that i'll just kind of keep it general because there's certain aspects of self-confidence that we would validate as being important for the human being but then there's certain aspects of it in modern psychology that we would probably reject right or at least understand it slightly differently so i think that the main thing that we're taught is that we go into public is that we carry ourselves with two traits sakina and wakar those are the two main traits when you're in public how you carry yourself with sakina and wakar and those are roughly translated as tranquility and that's not really a good translation because sakina is so much more than that sakina comes from succune stillness calmness or also words that that might even be better translations and wakar and wakar is roughly translated as dignity but dignity is understood culturally in different ways and our society is the inside but what that means is is that there's a certain way you carry yourself in public okay you don't humiliate yourself as a believer okay nor do you show arrogance so it's that balance between humiliating yourself and between that dealing arrogantly with people there's a big difference between just kind of walking and just very like oh my god i'm along these people and you know like that in between strutting right as if there's a difference between those two and so you're supposed to carry yourself let's just use this word broadly confidently and what we mean by confidence is is that you believe what you've been given is the greatest blessing of all believe in la ilaha la muhammad allah your confidence is rooted in your trust in allah not in your own ability your confidence is rooted in that i don't care what people think about me i'm going to carry myself as i need to carry myself your confidence is rooted in hope not in a society that has privileged certain temperaments or has defined success in a specific way your confidence is in that even if i'm failed miserably in the conception of society i could still be a success with a law so we have a very different understanding what confidence is and all of this is in your heart when you walk out into public with a deep knowledge of what is right what is wrong what is your purpose as a human being what is the purpose of me interacting with everyone that is around me and then when you walk out like that and you have this other trait of sakina which comes from my heart that is filled with the light of the cutter that is filled with someone who's sent a lot of subtle out upon the prophesizer that sees things very differently realizes there are stranger here in this earth they're not going to be here long that is someone that can control their temper is it someone upsets them that they maintain their principles someone's rude to them they kill them with kindness that someone is short of money they give them money someone who needs help they give them help sakina includes all of these things it's that stillness of your being because you have submitted to a law you walk by something that's haram you lower your gaze that there's an opportunity to do something good you help someone's garbage can't tiptoe where you stopped your car and you lift it up for them all of these things stem from sakina and wakar and there's a lot more that could be said this is how we are in public and that you don't unnecessarily put yourself in a situation where you're going to be taken advantage of so sakina and wakar does not mean that you're a pushover being nice is not always equivalent with good character being firm is sometimes just as important as being nice because when you go to work you're going to be exposed to wolves and good characters to not let a wolf devour you if people are firm you show a firm side you're not going to do that to me you're not going to treat me like that you show your firmness when people start to laugh or joke about how you are your religion or something you can't do or something like that that you know how to carry yourself and then there's all these other traits that come in when you're doing that and I think this is one common misconception when you encourage people to have good character you think that always means just to be nice and be a pushover no right good character at many times means that you stand firm that making sure that you or no one else gets bullied is the epitome of good character we should ingrain in our children if you ever see someone getting bullied you stand up for that person I don't care who that person is what people are going to say about you and you do that once or twice and for the most part people aren't going to mess with you or other people if you know you're around and even if you're smaller right I personally think that our young people men and women alike should train not only in self-defense but in some type of martial art so they have confidence that they could defend themselves if need be so good character does not mean that you're a pushover and all of this is but you have that true warrior spirit I know that's dangerous to say in our time but a true warrior spirit is one of is that you're a peacemaker you don't want to fight anyway but you will defend yourself and you will defend other people if the boundaries are transgressed against and this is in line with American and Christian values too and for us any different anything else to be expected from us is ridiculous and so all of these meanings are included in Sakina and Wakar so you're not strutting but you're not just like you know walking around in a way that people are going to pick on you you're carrying yourself with dignity and recognizing your dignity is not in what other people think about you it's that your dignity is that you are an abd of Allah your dignity is you are someone that is aligned with the will of Allah in terms of your belief in terms of your practice and in terms of your character now all of that sounds great but the key is to live up to it it's not easy because we forget all of the time we're going to be in a car maybe when we go home something happens oh bite your tongue right so so up until now that we've tried to set the frame for our discussion of kibir and ujab and that why it is so important for us to study this and relating it to much of what we're experiencing in the world today and we spoke last session about a definition and most of us have probably known that definition but I do think that it was a very important distinction hajjat islam imam al azali made in relation to the difference between kibir and tkabur and it's important for us to know that there's a reality of this trait in the heart and then there is a myriad of ways that that manifests on our limbs certain things that we say ways that we look at other people various things that we do ways that we treat people and so forth and so on and so there's a lot of details and again I always want to reiterate is that we are just starting the process of how we have to approach this and it is for this reason that the scholars have reminded us is that a good percentage of our time learning should be exploring these topics because there's so much to explore in them it takes a long time it's not something that can be done easily in that a few hour session is that it takes time and then you have to come back to them and remind yourself of them and again that this knowledge is a knowledge that is like staple food it is something that you need every single day of your life it is not like just putting a little bit of salt that on your main dish this is something you need day in and day out day in and day out there's a there's foods that you could go without that you could still survive if you do not eat them and then there's foods that you need to let nourish yourself and to stay alive and this science which is broadly from the science of Ersan is that science we need to be doing this daily it's very easy to learn basic creed what it is that you believe in it's fairly easy to learn the ahkam of the sharia the legal rulings of the sacred law that you need on a day-to-day basis that does not take that much time to do but this science requires a long-term investment little by little that you learn the concepts at a basic level and then you spend time reflecting upon them and again you understand how those things manifest in your particular time and you specifically think about how it relates to you as an individual and over time it will become more and more clear more and more clear and then once you spend the time doing it it will be like that person at first when they try to recite the Quran they thought they were citing it correctly but you sit before a master and you realize my god I can't even pronounce the Fatiha properly and this is the way that you will view your religious practice like my god it's been stained with these reprehensible traits for years and it starts with that knowledge and it's followed up by an intention and then hard work that is put in over time so let's continue on in our study and now that we are going to look at the objects of kibir and this is what he refers to as the muta kabbar alayh so the muta kabbir is the one who shows kibir the muta kabbar alayh that is the one who is the recipient of that kibir and there's three degrees that he speaks of the worst is the kibir that someone shows to Allah jalla jalal to our creator and so that this is the very worst thing that a human being can possibly do when the worst manifestation in history of that is that of the pharaoh who said that I am your lord most high we and this exists archetypally and we keep using this word because it's an important word this exists as an archetype potentially in every human being every human being has the potential to rise to the a'la ilyin or fall to the asphalosaphiline every human being has the potential to also say anarabukum al ala either explicitly or their state of saying this or that they could be a servant of Allah to add in all of their different states like Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam so this is the human potential and in the end there's only two ways there's the way of guidance and then there's the way of misguidance in the end and there's the way of nur and then there is the plural ways of luna mat all of which in reality are one that they're all manifestations of darkness you have darkness and you have light and you will see this manifest time and time again day in and day out and this is what we ultimately are choosing that on on a regular basis which category do we actually fall into and that many of and this is this is a costly example of how you have to bring this principle into conversation with the modern world and yet we don't have time to do this because you could spend the whole afternoon simply speaking about this first category as an object of tekebor of pride how it relates to disbelief in our time and that you could very easily show how the many different types of atheism this atheism is not a monolith there is a book by John Gray titled the seven types of atheism where he details that the many different types in ways that people that disbelieved and or that branded themselves or were branded as atheists and there's different types of atheism and that some of them are more severe than the others so it's not a monolith and that especially with certain types of atheism this is one of the fundamental causes kebor it comes in the way of them in belief and one of the worst types of these various people who that disbelieve in Allah are those who look out at Allah that is creation do not see it as wondrous and actually that find many faults in it and actually think that through modern technology they can do better than Allah and there's actually people that are like that and there's probably a disproportionate amount of those people in this valley where we are and they're all over the world and in the throughout the United States but you'd be surprised is that it's almost like a religion for people and that some of these people when you hear them speak it's just sheer arrogance sheer arrogance and unfortunately that these people are affecting that larger numbers of people and that the challenge is is that with their technology they can sometimes work like what seems to be miracles so it's confusing to people because it seems like they can almost back up their claim with a magic like form of technology that seems to actually that cure or to that be able to that change something that they thought was that unable to be altered and so this is a real fitna and this all is undoubtedly a precursor to the greatest fitna of all which is the messiah dajjal and whenever we have discussions like this we also have to tie them into these broader trends the details of which are so many there's so many details that we've been introduced to this especially those of us that have been privileged to learn from Sheikh Hamza Yusuf from early days that to a very good general knowledge that of this and that what we need to do is follow up with that where we understand the principles of what to do with it and how we can mitigate the harm of the time in which we live that knowing that we are experiencing tendencies that are that precursors to the dajjal now when is the dajjal going to come that's not really important what's important is is that we protect ourselves that from the evil that precedes him and there are principles there are ways that through inductive reasoning you can look at all of the different narrations and then you can develop that a very practical approach to certain things and there are authors who have done this one of the greatest is Habib al-Bukar al-Adni and Mashor who has several texts that teach us about what he calls fiqh ta hawalat and which is another name essentially for the signs of the end of time and he refers to as a type of fiqh a type of understanding and there are many principles in this understanding that you can very easily bring into your life and for instance that he noticed that in many of the narrations that relate to times of fitna he said that he noticed there was constantly a mentioning of shedding of blood and movement of the tongue throughout the narrations so he says that one of the great ways to know who are the people of truth in any fitna who are the people that are blowing on the fire of fitna with words and who are the people involved in the shedding of blood and who are the people that are withholding this is one of the great ways to know who are the people of truth any time that there is fitna is that you'll find the true people of a law are extremely cautious about what it is that they say and what is that they don't say what it is that they choose to clarify and what it is that they realize would they attempt to do so it's going to potentially bring about greater confusion and so sometimes when the water is murky the only solution is to let it to refrain from doing anything about it until that murkiness naturally dissolves and then you can reach in and grab your keys or whatever is that you dropped whereas if you when it's murky put your hand in the water it's going to make it worse and knowing when to do what this requires fiqh in the deen not necessary in terms of halal and haram this is mokrut the broader meaning of fiqh this requires understanding of the deen and it is absolutely essential and there are so many people that neglect this in very few that even when they don't neglect it have a methodology on how they approach these things there is a clearly outlined prophetic methodology for times of fitna when you start to understand that that you will start to see who it is that you should be following in these times and who it is is that you want to that distance yourself from and this is just an example and there's many other principles of this as well so this is the very worst type of kibir is a kibir that gets in the way of your belief of allata barakutada and that again that there are many different manifestations of this but this is the worst because who are you who are you to put into question the divine will and sometimes certain positions that we take on certain things are nothing other than the result of this reprehensible trait in the heart it's not a matter really of rational thinking and then secondly is at the kabbar araroso this is the second division which is pride towards the messengers where that you start to put into question why you've been commanded to follow another human being he's just a human being like i'm a human being why would i follow another human being and multiple verses in the Quran point to this type of psychology are we going to believe in two human beings like us you are only a human being like us if you follow a human being like you you're going to be in loss l'ola unzu l'alene l'malaika unara rabbana and then gua l'ola unzu l'alene l'malaika whether or not to be an angel that sent down upon him in so forth and so on what is with this messenger he eats food and he walks in the marketplace And if you really think about that, Rasulullah, there are people who had Qibur and their Qibur blinded them from believing in the Messenger of Allah. That's hard for us to believe, knowing what we know about the Messenger of Allah. But precisely because of the reprehensible nature of this trait, it should be hard for us to believe if you don't have that trait. But if you do, you're not going to see things as clear as day the way other people see things. You'll be blinded and that you will be prevented from belief, oftentimes from that. And so there are another category of people, and I would probably say more in our time, that the bigger problem for people is belief in God. And maybe it's because they're so preoccupied with that, that there is less attacks on prophets. This is just my hunch, I could be wrong. And maybe if that was a given, maybe this would arise more in terms of the Qibur that is shown in relation to the messengers. But this will come in the way. Then there are subtle ways that this is done as well. And when people start to put into question the universal nature of the prophet's message, and that they think that this was someone who lived in the Arabian Peninsula 1400 years ago, you really want me to seek guidance from someone who lived before the age of information and the age of rockets and that technology where we can go into space? You really want me to believe in someone that's that far back? And if you look at the way that the vast majority of people look at the past, look at the difference between the average Muslim and the average non-Muslim and how they view the past. We are reading a book, do you realize how old this book is? We are reading a book that is about 950 years old, 950 years old. You couldn't even understand English that was written 950 years ago, like 950 years old. And those trained in classical Arabic will understand this better than understand a modern Arab newspaper. This language is very clear, and we know exactly what Imam al-Zad is saying, for the most part. You know, we're not claiming that we understand the genius of how he crafted his work, but his language is very clear, very clear. We know what these words mean. There are very few expressions in the entire Ahlul Medin where there is some degree of ambiguity. There are a few, but very few. 950 years old. Now, what work are people really reading? Now I'm not talking about the Bible, let's put the Bible aside. That what works are people, maybe the Catholics have more of a sense of this, where they'll read the books of St. Augustine and so forth. But the vast majority of people, something written 50 years ago, seemed so far off a long time ago. We are reading a book that's very old. And there is this sense in the modern world where we've been duped by plastic words like progress, where we think that as time goes on, that we're looking forward. And one part of the upshot in terms of perspective that is, is that we belittle and look down upon the past. So we don't think about this, is that when you look at black and white videos, it's almost that we think their world didn't have color, because that's how we see it. It looks so outdated, but it was just in black and white. They would have had just as much almost color as we would have had, so as if the sun didn't ever shine. But you can't see if it's black and white. So even visually that we connect to the past, it creates this sense of almost like denigration, looking down upon the past. Tradition is not a positive word according to most people in English. People associate it with culture, or he's just hanging on to tradition. In some senses it still retains a positive sense, but nothing like the way of the past. So my point is that there are people that because of their view of the past, that is almost like a type of kibber that's very subtle, that they look down upon the past and find it far-fetched, that they can find guidance in a messenger that came over 1400 years ago, and what is in their mind a geographically insignificant place in the middle of the desert to an almost Bedouin-like people? How could I ever get guidance from someone like that? Whereas that exact same thing for a Muslim could actually be the proof of them, which is amazing. It was one of the miracles of the Prophet that he lived in the minds of people, geographically insignificant place. Mecca is not geographically insignificant. We call it the Umm Al-Qura, the mother of all cities, or a more idiomatic translation would be the Imbrianic city. It's the center of the world. Is that the Bayt al-Ma'mur, the populous house which is in the seventh heaven, 70,000 angels enter and they go in and they worship Allah and they go out in a new 70,000, which indicates a multitude that can't be known, not actually 70,000. But we have narrations that indicate where a rock to be dropped from the populous house, it would fall upon the Ka'bah. The Ka'bah is the center of the spiritual world. And that was the Prophet honored to be born in Mecca because of the Ka'bah, or was the Ka'bah honored because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam, it was determined that in pre-eternity that the Prophet would be born there. The latter of course, and there's a Quranic proof. When Allah Ta'ala says, لا اقسموا بهذا البلد و أنت هلون بهذا البلد. Allah swears by this blessed land and you, O messenger of Allah, are a resident of this land, is that Allah Ta'ala caused the whole protection of the Ka'bah, the story that we all read, is one of the Irhasaat, the pre-prophetic miracles of the Rasul. And there's again, there's an Isharah in the Quran. ألم ترى كيف فعل ربكة. Allah could have said, ألم ترى كيف فعل الله. Have you not seen how Allah, he says ربكة is the Rasul. Have you not seen how your, O messenger of Allah, Lord, that did you not see what he did with the Ashab Al-Fee'l, with the companions of the elephant. This is the true perspective. And that, you know, there's no doubt that the Ka'bah is that one of the greatest that Sha'ar of Allah Ta'ala court out of all. And in the discussion of whether Mecca is better than Medina or Medina is superior to Mecca. One of those conversations is that always they set aside the Ka'bah itself and the Rasul. Because even those that say that Mecca and Muqarrama is better, there is no place better than that busted place where the Prophet is buried, unconditionally. And even those that say that Medina and Mu'nawara is better than Mecca and Muqarrama is that they make as an exception of that Ka'bah itself. And they mean by that what's around it. And so anyhow, is that this is how we have to view the Messenger of Allah, As-Salamu Alaikum. And so, it's a miracle that Islam came in this geographically pure region where language could be preserved, where the unultitated teachings of the Prophet could be preserved. And it's a sign just as him being unlettered outwardly, was a sign that Allah is the one that taught him likewise the geographical miracle of the Arabian Peninsula was in that it was impenetrable. People didn't come from outside there. So where did he come with this? And there were small exceptions to that, but it wasn't at the crossroads of a trading post like Jerusalem, for instance, or in another place in the world. So anyhow, or in the pre-modern world, a place like Alexandria or whatever, anyhow, is that for us what makes other people believe proves to us what we believe about him. Is that he received revelation. But again, keep in mind, we are in a society that very few people, even if they believe in God, don't really believe in revelation, or they have a very convoluted understanding of what revelation is, because that we are, that have received a society that has placed the human intellect over revelation for the most part. There's a few religious people hanging on, but for the most part, people have placed the intellect over revelation, and that there are serious consequences of that. Whereas for us, is that we have a very different view of the past. We are taught to honor the past. In fact, our problem is really one of, okay, let's not live in the past and just speak so highly about the past that it blinds us of what we have to do in the present. And it, let's not forget that we have to connect to them, understand their principle, but actually part of the idea of tradition, the major part is to do what they did in their time in our time. The reason we connect ourself to it is because we have to have clarity of the principles that they had. But then we have to do in our time what they did in their time. Otherwise, you can't really call that a tradition. We are required to do in our time what they did in their time. And again, that you could say, oh, they're a lot better than us. Yes, even if they're better, even if we, that are always, in a sense, dwelling upon how horrible the times are, they did this from the time of Namo Luzari and even before. You see statements like this from the earliest period where even statements of the Companions say, is that you say things now that we used to consider hypocrisy in the time of the Prophet's life sentence. Is that saying things like, is that were the people that I sought to see you, they would say there is no, you have no portion in the hereafter. And these are taboos. So those will always remain and they serve their purpose. But it doesn't mean that we don't somehow find inspiration in the past for what we need to do in the present. We absolutely have to do that. So anyhow, I've probably gone into a little bit too much detail. But there's much more that could be brought out here. This is just an example. And the way that someone's kivir could come in the way of their belief in the Rasul. But I'm not just talking about people that are not Muslims. Muslims fall into this. That tend to be on more of the spectrum that you could call modernist and maybe even secular. Is that they tend to be more on the spectrum and they want to preserve their belief in Allah and the Messenger. But they reconcile their being lured into a dominant perspective in the modern world of progress. And somehow this is somehow great for humanity in every respect. I'm not saying there's not some good in it. But somehow that this is what history has been waiting for. And if this is what history has been waiting for, subhanallah, I don't know what it is that you are seeing. Because once you tap into true meaning and the way that human beings should be living, you will put much of this into question. How is it really helping us? How is it really helping us? It can potentially. But when you, this to me was one of the greatest blessings of going to the remnants of a pre-modern society in Mauritania, where your worldview just completely flipped upside down. People's conception of Mauritania and the way that they would view this country, which was then the second poorest country in the world. And the stereotypes amongst Muslims, I'm not talking about non-Muslims, Muslims themselves. And then you go there and you experience things from these people, who's civilized and who's not civilized? I'm not talking about the small things like maybe cleaning their mouth on their robe or something like that, which is a minor thing. Overlook all of that in some of the things that relate to cleanliness and so forth. They're better than people. But I personally don't know of people that's more civilized, depending upon how you define that word, than these people. All of the traits of heart that they have, how in touch they were with nature, how close they were to the fitra, their relationships, and how beautiful they were. And I don't want to over exaggerate, because they have problems too. But the point is that it's nothing like what people thought. And when you start to see this beauty, which is unexpected to a certain degree, then your whole perspective starts to shift. Like what do we really need? We used to be, we had a water ration. 20, some people had 30 gallon bay dunes, which is basically like a container of water, 20 liters for about two or three days of water. And so that's just basically a plastic container about that big. And that's all of your water, for drinking, for washing, for everything. And they would go and get it in the morning. And that's it. If you run out, you have to borrow your neighbors. But you realize how much water we waste. We go through that in one shower. How much water we waste. And what do you really need as a human being? When I first moved there, we literally went down, cut down trees, and built a tent. And yes, it was hard. You're not living in luxury. There's no electricity, no running water. But you're surviving. I mean, what is the whole purpose of having a house? To save you, to protect you from the elements, to provide that privacy. What else do you need? What else do you really need? So our whole understanding of what we need and what we don't need is totally skewed. And many of these technologies that we absolutely rely on, we would be much better. And it's proven much healthier without. Much healthier without. Psychologically and physically. But still, we've bought into this myth that this is how it's somehow better than us. And this is a major factor, even with Muslims. And the best of these categories that I mentioned, well, those that were reconciled, because they don't want to lose their belief in the prophet, that was for his society, but now things have changed. And so that, OK, we have to change the dean to fit into the time in which we live. And that seems to be like a minor thing, but it has major implications. Because what do you mean by change the dean? If you mean by extending the unchanging principles into the present and interpreting the modern world vis-a-vis those principles, I'm with you. But if you mean by that that you have to change some of those unchanging principles, which by definition can't change, into modify them for the modern world, I'm not with you. Because every Muslim, every human being should think like this, I would put forth, is that the modern world as a marker of success is simply not a starting point for me. It's not a starting point. Whereas for the vast majority of people on earth, it is. It's a starting point. Things are so great. Look how horrible things were in the past. Whereas it's not a starting point for us is we have a very different conception of history. Anyhow, there's a lot more details that could be said about that. But this is the second that object of Qibah, which is pride that is shown towards the messengers. And then the third is pride that is shown towards Allah's servants. And what Imam Ghazadi, radi allahu anhu, that he says here is that this is a very severe thing for two reasons. One of them we've already spoken about. And this is because this trait solely belongs to Allah, we can have no share in it unless we have this trait and apply it in a very different sense. So if you look at the books that explain the 99 names of Allah, one of the 99 names is Al-Mu'taqabr. And in many of these books, they mention after defining what it means for Allah to have that trait, what is our quote-unquote share in that trait? And sometimes we have a direct share. What I mean by that is certain traits of Allah like Al-Qalim, the generous. We can be generous. Al-Rahman al-Raheem, we can be merciful people in a very limited and relative way. But in some of the other traits that we really don't have directly a part in, they apply in a different way. And this is one of them. And so for instance, Imam Ghazadi, who has a comment here on the 99 names, he says, is that our quote-unquote share in the name of Allah and Mu'taqabr is the taqabr that we have in relation to the dunya and its desires. In other words, is that we see this as too lowly to be a place of focus. And you just disregard it. So not in relation to people, but in relation to dunya, in all of its manifestations, specifically the desires, taqabr aleha, is that you don't see that as worthy of your attention. That's how we manifest this name of Allah and Mu'taqabr, which is really a very beautiful meaning. Because it's not associated with people. It's associated with the pole towards the things of this world that lies deep within the nafs. And then the second reason is here is that pride leads to opposing Allah, jalla jalalu, which is one of the worst things you could possibly do, is to oppose Allah. And sometimes that relates to disbelief, and other times that relates to that falling into sin. And one of the classic examples that is a Quranic example is that, and when it is said to him, that it taqillah haf taqwabala akhadatul izdatub al-itham, is that his pride that causes him to persist in sin. Whereas if someone tells you it taqillah, what are you doing? That should shake you. Absolutely. I need to think about this. But for other people, you say that, what? You tell me what? It makes people have an uncontrollable response on top of that. And so this is why you've got to be careful. If you're ever getting, if the moment's heated, you've got to be careful about what you say. And you have to speak in a way that's going to diffuse the situation. You do not want to make it worse. And so that's very hard. And sometimes in the moment, we don't make the right decision, but we have to do the very best that we can. So then there are a lot of details that relate to this. But ultimately, we have to recognize is that this is the essence of the demonic archetype, kibir. And scholars differ, what was the first sin committed? Was it invir, or was it kibir, or was it pride? Anyhow, this is the demonic archetype. What did he say to Adam when he was created? Anakheirun minhu. I am better than him. So the whole foundation of racism, judging someone solely because of the color of the skin and all of the other things that relate to that, and that stem from it, it is 100% demonic. Anakheirun minhu. It was She'aqan who said that. Ana. And that the word for narcissism in Arabic is ananiya. Ay. Focusing on me. Ay. And some of them have brought out a lotifah, even in English, on why in English do we never have eye lower case when it's alone? It's always capitalized. Because there's only supposed to be one eye. And in relation to our own selves, is that we should never assert the eye, that the only true eye is la ilaha illa ana. There is no God but I. So She'aqan uses this word ana. I am better than him. And then he rationalized it. Khalaqtani minnar wa khalaqtuh minteen. You created me from fire, and you created him from clay. And when it comes to elements, fire is superior to clay. So he rationalized it. This sounds so familiar. And so much of the history of the past three to 400 years that we are living in. Rationalization. And when you study this at the academic level, and that you look at what exactly happens, there's always rationalizations. Because people are human beings. If you can rationalize the killing of people, then it's easier for you to bear. It weighs less on your conscience. But it's a demonic thing to do. That is a demonic archetype. That's exactly what She'aqan did. And that this is not that true, that intellect. True intellect is that which is subjugated to wahi to revelation. That if it was merely about the elements, even though clay is an inferior element to fire, Allah chose to bless Adam through the divine choice. And the divine choice is ultimately what dictates what is best, nothing else. It's a very important principle. What indicates As-Daliya, what is best? The divine choice. Allah wants to make a specific place. Mubarak and blessed? Why? Allah made that place Mubarak and blessed. Period. Allah gave the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam what he gave him, made him the best of creation, made him the measure of all greatness, even in terms of how we experience the bliss of paradise is only in accordance to how we relate to the Rasul Sallalliah. Our Prophet is the measure whereby which all other greatness is determined. And to the degree of closest to him is to the degree of greatness, period. And so this is why, and I've said this before I think in California, but it proves this point. When we talk about the best water in existence, what do the scholars say it is? The best water in existence. Most people would say Zamzam. People would say, you probably heard me, you're cheating on me, you know that. That some, a lot of people say like the Ka'uthor. And those are very true, those are very great types of water. But of the l-mia'i ma'un qad naba'a, bayna asaabin nabi'in muttaba'a. The very best water is the water that flowed by way of miracle from the blessed hand of the Rasul. And why? Because it was connected to his essence. His hand is connected to his heart, which is connected to his essence. And then, which is better? The water of Ka'uthor or the water of Zamzam? Zamzam, again, you've heard me say this. Zamzam is better because this was the water that was chosen. When the blessed heart of the Prophet ﷺ was cleansed, what was used? Not water from Ka'uthor, it could have been the Ka'uthor. Allah has called that out of khudi shayt. Jannah and Nahr are created now. Allah could have brought water from the Ka'uthor. But he brought Zamzam. And so because it was closer to the Rasul and used in those moments that was about honoring the messenger, if there would have been a better water, that water would have been used. So what's the second best? And then the Ka'uthor. And then we have narrations that indicate the Nile of Egypt, Thumma Bakr and Huri, and then other that rivers are all the same at that point. So he is the criterion whereby which all greatness is measured. It's from him ﷺ. Anyhow, so this is a very important principle. Allah made Adam better. But Sheytan refused to submit to that. And then on top of that, rationalized it. Think about the implications of this. How much that is pulled over people's eyes and our time because, oh, that actually makes sense. Yeah, you're right. But there's something that underlies that. And there's a lack of willingness to submit, which is the essence of what faith is as opposed to disbelief. And then once you've flattened the plane, and it's just merely about intellect, and no longer is there something that's super rational or something that has to guide the intellect if it operates in its own space, it's going to make all different types of mistakes. There's no doubt about that. And so from this perspective, even when we talk about certain legal rulings of the Sharia that other people are uncomfortable with and think are illogical or irrational or horrible, is that when you understand our own, if you will, call it philosophy of law, it makes perfect sense. And it's totally rational and totally logical from our perspective. They just don't believe in some of our own underlying assumptions. But you can't say it's irrational or illogical or even bad. If you look at our perspective and how we explain things, it not only makes sense, it's very convincing. So really the issue is not with this, it's with what underlies it. And this is very, very important. The vast majority of issues that people have in terms of social manifestations of things Muslims do or legal things that they have problems with actually point to much deeper conversations that are really where the problems lie. And it trickles down into these things. And this is very important that we treat it at its root. So this is the demonic archetype. And that it shows you how that when you have this trait of heart is that you will fall into all of these manifestations of t'qabbur in relation to people. And this is why he follows up this topic. And we'll try to cover this in the last part of the class in the next 10 to 12 minutes and then open it up for Q&A. Where now he discussed bayanu ma bihi t'qabbur. And that these are the main causes of qibbur. What are the main causes? What are the main reasons people that fall into qibbur? And like always, he wants us to understand the broader context. And he says, ʿiʿrnim, no. ʿanuhu la yat'qabburu illa man ʿistaʿlam ʿafsah. Is that you don't ever act pridefully towards someone else or show arrogance toward them unless you first think yourself is great. ʿulayas taʿdimu ha illa huyataqala ʿsifatan min sifat al-kamal. And you're not going to think yourself is great unless that you believe you have in yourself one of the traits of perfection. And again, this is all, like if you look at what he says, this is just as relevant today as it ever was. Just as relevant. We just don't think about it in these terms. And we get confused because of the way that it manifests. And quite frankly, many of us that see things the way that they're being portrayed in the modern world. This is how we see things. And we're trapped. But this is a blessing for us to attempt to get out. And so he says, ʿmumajāmi ʿudhārika yajur ʿilakamārin ʿdiniyin o dunyawiyin. And he says, is that this all gets back to various types of religious and worldly perfections. Excuse me. And he says, religious perfection essentially is in two things. ʿilm and ʿamal. Knowledge and an action. And an action includes a lot of different things. Worship and then anything that is that we do outwardly. So ʿilm and ʿamal. And then the worldly aspect of perfection is in related to someone's lineage, their physical beauty, their strength, their wealth, and their associates. So all these total of seven things. So knowledge, your knowledge, your religious needs, your lineage, your physical beauty, your strength, your wealth, and your associates. Literally, kathletut and sār. You roll deep. You have a lot of people on your side. So the people you associate with, who is going to help you? These seven things are the main causes of kibir. And so what he does is he goes through each one of these. And he analyzes it. And he shows in great detail how knowledge causes us to potentially have kibir, how our religious deeds cause us to potentially have kibir. And the other ones are so obvious, we don't even really need an in-depth explanation of them. All you have to do is just really think about them in a very basic way. Is that we know that because of someone's descent, that someone of noble lineage, and this is maybe decreasing to a certain extent in our time, that even if you rewind 50 years, even in this country, is that the family someone is from is oftentimes a cause of their mistreating other people. They're not from that same family. And many of us are from geographical locations where this is definitely the case. And it is sometimes slightly nuanced to be a little bit fair, because you do have a conception in the Shafi school, which is controversial, because it's not in other schools of katha'a, which is a suitable match, which to a certain degree recognizes sometimes social norms. But we have to understand what that is placed there for. It's actually placed there to protect potential relationships for going sour because of human limitations, as opposed to what is the very best place to be. Ideally, is that to have that different people that enter into relationships from very different social backgrounds is a beautiful thing. Why? Because it's a sign of Allah. It's a beautiful thing. Now, our Dean is ultimately practical. So while we encourage the best thing, there also has to be rules that regulate people that can't live up to what is best. So insofar as those rules are used there to regulate, recognizing is that this is kind of a base level and there's a better way to be, is that then there's no problem. But even when those rules are there to regulate, there are certain limits. Never can you ever think, even if you are from a more prominent family, you are from a good lineage, is that somehow you are inherently better than someone else. This is a serious problem because you don't know. These things are hidden to you. It could be someone that is from the worst possible lineage. Worse possible lineage. That reaches the highest degree of closest to Allah Jalla Jalla and that is highly possible. Anyone, every single human being, no matter what their circumstances and how they were brought into this world, has the same potential as every other human being. The Adamic potential is the same for every human being to attain Ma'rifah and knowledge of Allah. That is what true success is. Not what your salary is or the college that you go to or the degree that you have or how prominent you are in society. None of that matters in reality. And I'm not saying there's not a way that we deal with that. Albert, did we put everything in this proper place? I'm not saying you don't send your kids to college or encourage them to have good jobs. I'm not saying that. But while you do all those things you have to recognize, they don't matter. What matters is your state of heart. What matters is if you come to know Allah. If you have Allah, you have everything. If you know Allah, you have everything. If you know the Prophet, you have everything. You will be the richest person in existence. If you know Allah. Al-Ghina, Ghina Al-Qalb. True wealth is wealth of the heart. We all know this, but we have to be reminded. And so that lineage and descent and then wealth, this is obvious as well. That wealth obviously is a means to make people that more arrogant is that once that wealth comes and all the privilege that comes along with it, the people that have less privilege, you become more and more exclusive. And these things are all intertwined. Once you're accepted into these exclusive clubs and all of a sudden other people are not, is that this becomes a disease of elitism. Where that anyone that's not going to bump up your status, you have nothing to do with. You don't want to look at them, you completely disregard them. Unless all of a sudden comes across, oh, that person can bump me up a notch. And now I'm going to turn towards this person. This is disgusting. It is completely disgusting. And that we don't think there's elitism in our day and age. Oh my God, that this world in which we live is rampant with this, rampant. And it's a disease and once it overcomes you, it's like someone seeking fame. You'll do anything to achieve it at that point. Do anything. And again, what we're specifically talking about here is kibbor, is that it will lead you to think yourself as better than others and the plebeians who are on the outside is that you don't want to have anything to do with them. So this is a fitna, the more wealth it comes, the more susceptible we are to kibbor. The thing thing is with our physical beauty is that if someone is beautiful, is that they have to be careful. This is a gift that Allah gave them. But what do they do with that gift? How do they view other people that don't look like them? How do they, when they get a lot of attention and people get less attention, how do they do with that? Is this going to be available for us or not? We have to be very careful. The more physical beauty that someone has is that the more susceptible we are as well. And sometimes these factors combine. Good descent, physical beauty and wealth and it becomes even greater fitna. Sometimes intelligence combines with these things and so forth and so on and it becomes that there's different degrees. And all of these things, if you don't think these things are prevalent in our society, I don't know which society you think we're living in. Our world is rampant with these things. And much of what you see taking place out there, this is that this is what underlies it. And then we have strength, physical strength. And this is also, there's clear examples of this. People that like to work out in the gym. And again, I'm not saying that you don't work out in the gym. I'm not saying that you don't maintain a level of physical fitness. But what I'm saying is that this is that a fitna, if someone becomes physically strong, is that there's a whole way of being that goes along with it. There's a whole way of being that oftentimes these people carry themselves out in public in the way that they look at other people, the way they act about other people, the way that they walk. And it's shown by the subhandle of the people that work out, like the show people that how they like to work out. And all of a sudden the short sleeve shirts that come out and letting those bulging muscles show. And again, that what is really happening here. That there's, these people are more susceptible that to this than others. And then finally, that what you could call power. And this relates to the people you know. And that this is also here. It's rampant in traditional Muslim countries as well. Who you know and what is it you can do. And whether you are immune to some of the laws that other people are bound to. But it's also here in the United States and in other places. That the people that are with you, how well connected you are. Is that generally speaking, and sometimes it's teachers with other teachers in terms of numbers of students. And this again plays out in like things like Facebook likes, where people actually look like, how many Facebook likes this. People actually do this. People, it's actually a criterion for some people going to conferences. They actually check the likes. I couldn't believe this when I heard this. But this is actually that some people's criterion on who they invite to the conference. This is our state that we're in. We're going right down the lizard hole. Right down the same lizard hole. And sometime it's in relation to that family. And this is kind of in a more traditional sense. Someone that has three or four sons as opposed to someone that only has a couple children. This is less so I would say in the United States but you see this traditionally. And in general, who you know. Right, and again, this is where, oh, do you not know who I am? Do you not know who you're messing with? This is all kibber. It's very much this sense. And again, all of these seven causes, knowledge, action and worship, lineage and descent, beauty, wealth, strength, power. All of these things potentially that make the human being more susceptible to kibber. And to have this trait of the heart strengthen. And the more that the trait of the heart strengthens is that the more manifestations that it has upon your tongue and upon your limbs. And he has another chapter that he mentions other things that are more of an internal nature. And these are things like conceit, hatred, envy and ostentation. And this is where it's a discussion of how all of the diseases of the heart are interrelated. And one provokes the other. So these are other things. We're going to skip over this because I think there's, he treats it very briefly. And there's more important things that we have to get to. But the greater your conceit, the more likely you are to show kibber. Is that Hitler having hatred in your heart towards someone or you despise them. And there's ways that that happens. You became angry. You couldn't release your anger. So it relies dormant and it develops into hatred. It's much easier to show kibber towards someone. If that's in the heart, then if it's not there, it agitates it and provokes it. Envy, same thing. If you're envious of someone, it again could provoke you to kibber. And likewise, if you're someone who really wants to have a high place in people's heart, ostentation is that that could also provoke it as well. I think this is actually a good stopping point. If there's any quick questions, I think this last break will take a shorter break because we want to get in a full session. What time is Asupra? No, what time is Asupra? Five. Five, okay, good, so. Is there any quick questions on this material? Okay, so let's take a, you have a question for the, that's knowledge. So that's, yeah, yeah, because that goes hand in hand with knowledge. So, the stronger the intellect, generally speaking, the more knowledge, I think it goes hand in hand with that. And he includes it as a religious blessing, kind of in the context of the Muslim community, but I think you would extend it even beyond that. Where in general, the more intelligent someone has, is that if someone's very smart, if you're around highly intelligent people, oftentimes they get really frustrated with people that are not as smart as they are. And very easily, we'll lash out at them when they aren't as quick and witty as they are. Any other quick questions? How do we need to have a principle that understands and allows us to see a specific sample of how that might apply to people in terms of, right? How does our principle negate that society's behavior? Yeah, so that's a very long discussion. I'll try to be as brief as possible. I've thought a lot about how to frame Muslims' existence in non-Muslim majority countries, especially oftentimes in situations where many people feel like they have their back up against the wall and they're constantly under the microscope and on the radar of other people. And I really believe is that what we need to encourage is principled engagement. I've heard other phrases used. Some of them I didn't feel as comfortable with as this. And what is meant by principled is simply rooted in our iman, islam and ihsan, our belief, practice, and that spirituality. In other words, is that our belief has to inform everything that is that we do. In belief, not just in terms of our creed, but extending from belief our perspective on life that comes from our belief. That's why there's a lot of details. What I mean by islam practice is that primarily, but not exclusively, that the sharia is that we are committed to law, right? Yes, we follow the laws of the land, but we're committed to a sacred law. And that there are certain things we can't do. And if we're going to engage, there will be limits. But those limits are actually opportunities for creativity that they're not inhibitions. That's a whole other topic. I'll leave you to think about that. But there are limits. There's certain things we can't do. And then the third dimension, which is ihsan, this is where character comes in. This is where ethics, morality, sticking to our principles comes in. Good character, things of this nature. So when we talk about principal engagement, that really it's a spectrum from grassroots work to political involvement. It could be someone starting their own business. It could be doing someone serving some type of humanitarian cause. It could be someone who works for someone else. It could be someone who's a school teacher. It could be someone who that, there's a whole broad spectrum of things. And whatever it is that we are doing, whether we are a doctor or a lawyer, the ones that are commonly mentioned or whether we're an employee or whether we open our own business or we're their teacher, is that we approach our work with principles and that we make our contributions in that realm and in other aspects of our life based upon our own principles. Okay, so it's very distasteful for me when I see people, for instance, making economic suggestions with no knowledge of what Ihsan says about that. Now, to be fair, it's not readily available because some of these issues require a lot of thought and require committees of very intelligent people. So I'll make excuses for people, but what really is our solution? We need to get more creative. It needs to be in line with our principles. We can't just parrot out things that we hear in the media and try to Islamize them with fancy language. We have to create the right frame. And this has to be done at all different levels from the political, all the way down to the grassroots and everything in between. When we talk about education for like a totally practical example, do we have to buy into this whole theory of education that places overemphasis on a certain type of intelligence and that is all revolves around test scores? Is that the type of teacher that we should be? You could be a high school teacher in a public school, but be different. And your contribution in your school that you teach at is based upon your own principles, based upon your own theory of education that is defined by what we know about education from an Islamic perspective. You could actually care about the students. You could actually that inculcate wisdom into them in a very different way as opposed to just, okay, check the boxes and get the day done. This is just a very small example, but there's a huge, there's a long list of things there that could be discussed, but that's the gist of it. And I think the big one there is to bridge that gap between our creed and our perspective, because your perspective is, it's informed as well by the legal aspect and the ethical aspect, but most importantly by what is that we believe. And that relates to things like what we believe about human beings, what we believe about the purpose of life, and then how we view things in creation. And the more and more that we get involved at the higher echelons of society, the more and more that we have to have detailed knowledge. And just the only example that comes to the top of my mind is, do we believe for instance in a philosophy or a perspective of limited resources? Do we believe in limited resources that everyone is so worried about? Do we believe in population control? Do we believe that we have to actually, like that cut back on the number of people in the world to live sustainably? Or is there a whole other way that we could approach that topic? There's a whole other way that we could approach that topic for sure. That doesn't negate the practical dimension but it will be rooted in terms of how we view people, how we view family, how we view having children and all those other type of things. And so these are just small examples and this is a huge, huge door. And my point is is not to, I don't have all the answers, no one has all the answers. This is, it's gonna take 50 to 100 years to even start scratching the surface. This is where we first have to be convinced this is the way we need to go. And then slowly move in the right direction. And as we progress as a community, you will find more and more specialization. The first few decades of this affair has been characterized by one man armies doing a hundred jobs at once. And that's why we have to be very careful to criticize the people who came before us because they're doing the very best they can. And that they are forced to be in positions that require teams of specialists in any given area and they're in like 20, 30, 40, 50, maybe up to 100 different areas. So it's foolish to over the criticize them. And it's imprudent to think that we're not supposed to take it to the next level in the next generation. We have to make our contribution. And there's going to be more people that are doing that. And then the people that come after us are gonna find many faults in the perspectives that we had or limitations. And then they have to further the process. And this is the way that it works. This is, this is, this is how it works. But we should also, in general, the principle is that there's fadila and sabqa. The people who came at the beginning, it's very hard to ever be like they were. The sahaba, if you look at the detailed knowledge of the tab'in, there's no comparison. The tab'in had much more knowledge of the sahaba of the detailed knowledge. Not true knowledge, il mil khasha. There was no comparison between them and the sahaba. But there was more detailed knowledge in the time of the tab'in. But does that mean that they're more knowledgeable than the companions? If they wouldn't have done what they did, the tab'in wouldn't have been able to do what they did. And so forth and so on. I think we have to see that the spawning of Islam in these lands is the same. And we absolutely have to preserve a deep love and respect and loyal commitment to the people that opened up the doors for us. Otherwise we've missed one of the most important parts of our deen. And, anyhow, should we take it on back to the chat? Okay, Bismillah wa s-salatu wa s-salam ala Rasulillah wa la alihi wa sahbihi wa man wa la. Bismillah wa s-salatu wa s-salam ala Rasulillah. I want to shift gears now because we've talked quite a bit about Kiber and Urjab. And look at in the beginning of this session what Harjit al-Islam Imam al-Azadi says about its cure, which is what we all want to be cured from this reprehensible vice. And transition after that into very briefly looking at some of the character traits of the people of humility, which keep in mind is really the cure, is that we embody humility in all of our different states and that is the cure in and of itself for this trait of Kiber. So that he says here, and he introduces a chapter which is titled Bayanat Tariq, Fee Mu'alajat al-Kibri, an exposition of the way to cure oneself from Kiber, waktisabat tawalder, and how to gain this trait of humility. And he starts by saying, know that Kiber is from the destructive vices. Wala yakhru ahadumana kharq an shay'in minhu, is that all people have traces of it. Okay, so it's going to be in almost all people. The key is to figure out what is the cause of that which exists within you so that you can overcome it. And all of those different reasons for which people have Kiber or the causes or the provocations is that we need to sit down and think about our own selves. You might struggle with one or two of them, but you're all right with the others. We need to think about where we are in relation to those things. But he says, wa izalatuhu fardu a'in, but to cure yourself, to remove that which exists within you, is an individual obligation. And look what he says. These statements are so powerful. Wa la yuzulubimu jadudatamenni. It is not going to be removed with wishful thinking. It's not just about, oh, that sounds great. I need to cure myself of it. Ah, hope one day it goes. That's not how it works. Right, just as that you could say, you see someone very successful and be like, oh, imagine to myself as successful as they are. And you're going to wake up in the morning and expect your bank account to look like theirs. That's not how it works. It's not, the temenni, you have what is called temenni and rajah. Temenni is like wishful thinking. And rajah is true hope. And the difference between the two is that temenni is what you would like to be like but you don't act towards it. Rajah, hope is what you would like to be like but you're actively trying to get there. So there's a difference between the two. And so he says, bel bil mu'alajati wasta'mal al-adviyaatil qamiatillah. How your situation is going to change if you that subjugate yourself to the treatment and you use the cures that are going to remove it. And then he says, is that wafi mu'alajati maqamein? There are, if you will, two types of cures. There is the istasal aslihi min sinkhih. There is the complete removal of it from the heart where kibir is uprooted from your heart. And so he says, it's like pulling that tree out from its roots. And so all of the roots of kibir are gone from your heart. And he said, then the second degree is defaar adid. Is repelling the symptom minhu bil asbab al-khasati of the various causes of it in relation to how we show pride towards other people. So in other words, is that if you have this trait of kibir in the heart, it's going to lead to tekebo. We've talked about that multiple times now. And so that when you have that thought or it comes to do that particular thing, is that even if it's still rooted in your heart, is that you can still refrain from doing that thing. But what you're doing is you're treating the symptom. You are not treating the underlying that cause. And so it's like anything else. It's like medicine that treats symptoms as opposed to that really that getting into the root cause where you have to make major lifestyle changes and change the way that you eat, change the way that you sleep, change the way that you take care of yourself and so forth and so on. If you're really going to be cured. So the same thing applies in relation to the spiritual heart. And he says as for completely uprooting this trait of kibir, he says it's treatment as it's always going to be with all of the other diseases of the heart is with el men with amal, with knowledge and action. And one is not sufficient. You have to combine both. And he begins and he goes into great detail about the knowledge component. And essentially it relates to knowledge of your own self and going through a longed, a long, a prolonged reflection exercise and how you relate to your Lord, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And in general, to the extent that we know the greatness of Allah until we know the loneliness of our own selves is that we're never going to do what is needed in relation to the knowledge portion. So it's summed up in that. And so what Imam al-Azari does is he actually gives us an aid to reflect on this. So if you purchase the book, which I highly recommend, you can look in the section and this is something that you might want to read for the next month. Read it every night, over and over again, over and over again, over and over again. This is what these books require. Again, this is just the first step of starting the process while we're in this particular hall. The real work begins at home. And it's no different than that getting a diet prescribed to you by a dietician, the real work begins when you actually put that into practice. And so we can't have ta-men-ni. We don't want just ta-men-ni. Anyhow, that he goes into great detail reminding us of our origins, which is summarized in that statement that we mentioned earlier. We know how we began. We know how we're going to end. And we know what our state is right now. This should be enough. How could we be arrogant when we know the true reality of our state? And all of these things that we see cause people arrogance. They go. They're ephemeral. They're here for a period of time and they go. Physical beauty, how long does that last? Wealth, how long does that last? Lineage, how long does that last? All of these other things. How long do they last? They go. And when you go to the grave, you take none of that with you. This is obvious. We all know that. So the knowledge portion is not some that unknown knowledge that you've never heard of. It's just the process of reflecting upon it where it's going to have its impact in terms of uprooting this trait from the heart. He said, and then in relation to the practical aspect of the treatment, and this is all about uprooting this trait, it's found in true humility and consistently putting into practice the traits of the humble, which we're going to come back to and we'll mention some of them. So everything that we're going to come back to, you put those into practice day in and day out. Day in and day out. Day in and day out. And so when you do that, eventually you will reach a place where it's been uprooted from your heart. It no longer has a grip on you. And then no matter what it is that you have or don't have, you will not be susceptible to this disease anymore. That even if you didn't have wealth and you get wealth or you didn't have one of those things and you get it, you'll be protected because it's gone from your heart. It's been uprooted, which is the goal. Now generally speaking, that takes a long time. So again, when we talk about this, we have to recognize this is why this science is really about our approach to the religion. It's not something that you just kind of check in and then check out. It's your approach to religion. Every prayer that you pray with concentration, every vicar that you make with concentration, everything that you do religiously is helping you in general towards the state, everything that you do. If you do it with right intentions and that you have concentration while you're doing it, it will all that, all of these things collectively will help you in this regard. Purify your heart and to return to Allah Ta'ala with a sound heart. So it's to persist in that the traits of the humble. And then what he does after this is he goes through each one of these traits where that he reminds us of lineage. And if there's anything that someone has caught up on in relation to that lineage, he treats it. So that when in that moment that we are potentially looking down upon someone because of their descent is that we can stop ourselves. And he does the same thing in relation to physical beauty. He does the same thing in relation to all of these other traits. And this is not really the place to go into this detail. This requires time. And if we were teaching this in a weekly class that we might do one or two of these every single week and to go through it actually very slowly. And that these books are not the type of books that you write a syllabus for even covering like 10 lectures. Although sometimes you have to do that. Generally speaking, these are books is that you take a little bit every day of your life because they're books of implementation. They're not books of just reading and then putting them down at that point. So I don't want to go into too many of those details but one very helpful thing that he does include here and after that the individual cures to each individual cause as that he gives us five ways of testing our self to see if this trait of Kiba has been uprooted from our hearts or not. And the first is, and this tends to be for the scholar or the academic or someone who has something to do with knowledge. And what he says is, is that put yourself in a position and I'm using a bit of poetic license here where you're arguing with someone about some point of knowledge. You have a perspective and they have a perspective. And a law brings about the truth and you realize it on the tongue of that other person and you realize it. Is it easy for you to accept or not? Or is it difficult? So sometimes this happens even in very minor things with your spouse where you realize, oh wait, they're actually right. Do we have the humility to be like, oh yeah, you're right. Or do we keep arguing our point knowing that they're actually right because we're stubborn and we don't want to admit that we were wrong and they're right. So this could also be with a colleague and this is especially with people like we're debating. There's not too many debates anymore but oftentimes that you will see people that arguing over something which is really not even that big of a deal but people are going back and forth and they stubbornly refuse to accept what the other person is saying. So if indeed that it comes to the surface that actually what they said is the truth and you find it difficult for you to accept, it's heavy on you and you don't want to submit to that is that this is a sign that there is remnants of kibber in the heart. He said the second thing is is that you imagine that you are gathering together with people that are like you in a public place. And that you imagine that the people that are at your saying rank are given preference over you. They're brought to the front, you're not brought to the front. They're treated nicer, you're not treated like that. They're welcome more, you're not welcomed as much. Is that heavy on your heart? In reality, why do we care about these things? Now I'm not talking about where I'm not saying these things are right. But in general, there is potentially a way of being that no matter who treats you and which way you always do the right thing. And I'm not talking about solving these problems society. So we're speaking of something very specific here. And these are people that are roughly the same and some people get preferential treatment and others don't. Do we respond to that? And if that's heavy on us, okay, then that could be a sign that there's traces of kibler in our hearts. And Shepan might find other ways for us to try to bring up other reasons potentially that that happened. And some of those reasons could be valid and maybe they were the case. Maybe there's reasons why those other people gave that preferential treatment. And that's not really what we're talking about right here because it could be wrong and it could need to be treated. But we're talking about the individual right now in terms of how they respond to that. Why did they feel that they deserve that preferential treatment in the beginning? More so than others or at least at the same level. Signs of a trace of kibler. He said the third test is to imagine yourself being invited to the house of a simple person or literally a poor person. Someone who does not live in that gated community. Someone who is not gonna serve you a nice delicious meal. Someone whose house is not comfortable to be in. But how do we respond? Is that naturally that we like being in places that are very nice and we don't like being in places that are very simple. How do we respond? If that it's heavy upon us, responding to the invitation of the poor person, it's a sign that there's traces of kibler in the heart. And these tests you don't actually have to be in that position to test yourself with them. You can actually imagine yourself. You can actually literally sit down and imagine yourself having these things happen. Imagine yourself going in and what would your response be? Imagine the house that you would be going to. Is that, what's your heart like? And this is where we start to preempt the diseases of the heart. And the more that we do this is that the more we'll uproot all the diseases. Right, so for instance in terms of envy. Is that there's people naturally that you tend to like more than others. So you imagine like your arch enemy if you have one. A person you don't really care for too much. Attains just what you really want to attain. Whatever that thing is. A particular job, whatever else it is. You imagine that person that you don't care for too much, attaining it. And is that hard on you? You feel like a fire like feeling inside. Is it heavy? Or is it no big deal? Then what you do is you keep imagining that. And you actually make dua for people to attain those things. And if you preempt this enough, your natural state will be as it's supposed to be. Is it any blessing that you hear about anyone attaining the first reaction is happy. But that should be our only reaction. Anything else is a disease. Right? Not only should you be, you should be any blessing that any Muslim receives. And a blessing is mayut alad dhubiha. Anything that's pleasant to the human being. Even if it's worldly. You hear about something, you should be happy. That is the natural state to be in. As opposed to like just not wanting that to happen. You gotta work on yourself. But the point is, if you do that enough in halwa, your first reaction is going to be a genuine smile and happiness. But again, it takes work. And the same thing with kibir. And that he says is that, the next way to test yourself, and this is probably more so in the pre-model world. Maybe less so in our time because there tends to be more equal roles in this. He says, is that you imagine yourself that going to the marketplace yourself, buying food for your family and buying food for your friends in the marketplace and taking it back. Right? As if you're the one who's a servant in the help of other people. Is that something that bothers you? Do you see yourself as too high to do these types of things? Do you see, and you could extend this also by that doing work around the house. Do you see yourself as above any work around the house? If you work for an organization, do you see yourself as above any type of work in that organization? And in turn in organizations, this happens all the time. People see themselves like, I'm not gonna do that. Right? I'm so much more qualified than that. If anyone thinks that they're above cleaning bathrooms there's traces of kipper still in the heart. If there really is an organization that is doing something good for the umma, it's serving a good cause, we should see ourselves not even deserving to clean bathrooms. That's the natural state to be in of a truly religious state where you actually genuinely feel honored to clean a bathroom. I know that sounds strange, but it's very real. And imagine if the people that were working with you, that's how they thought. That's how they thought. And one of the things that our teacher used to do regularly was he would move people around in the organization all of the time. Someone would move from where they're like the executive director, and he would move them way down if you will in the hierarchy, but they didn't see it as down. And he would move someone here to here, someone here to here, someone here to here. Obviously within areas that they still had skills and had competency in, but he would move people around all of the time so that no one felt like this is my area and I'm not gonna do anything else all the time. And if people were bothered by that because the whole purpose of this this is a type of suruk, it's a type of spiritual wayfaring. But the problem lies if you don't see this as part of the spiritual path. That has to be the broader frame on why you're serving to begin with. And you come even if you're highly qualified, is that you should be willing to have a quote unquote inferior role. But the whole point there isn't that superior and inferior roles, they're just different roles. Everyone is a piece in the puzzle. And sometimes for people that they're very well trained in certain areas, it's hard for them to fit in a role that they might think is inferior. And again, this should be if we think that cleaning bathrooms is above us. No, we have to work on our heart. We don't deserve anything. We are in need of the service. The service is not in need of us. We are in need of the Dean. The Dean is not in need of us. A law will bring other people. If it's not us, we'll go. And a law will bring other people. It is an honor for us to serve in any capacity, unconditionally, whatever that is. It is our honor to serve. And we realize is that we are in absolute need of the service. And this is why you see here these great examples of people who actually used to do that. They actually liked to do this, is to clean bathrooms. Because it's humbling. And there's stories of the famous Sheikasharawi, where one time his son found him cleaning the public bathrooms on the streets of Egypt. He was taking a little bit long in the bathroom and his son was worried about him and he went in and he found his father cleaning the bathrooms, public bathrooms. And he said that he was doing this too, suppressed something that he felt came into his heart. And there's minor ways that we could do this all the time. That we could clean the bathroom in our own house without anyone knowing. No one knows. We clean it subtly and we do it to break ourselves. And we make the intention that we're serving our family. Even if they're messing things up, that we clean it. Not get out of the bathroom, why didn't you, how many times did I do it? You clean it. It's a great spiritual exercise. If in general the secret to marriage, the secret to marriage is approaching it as a way of traveling the spiritual path. That is the secret of marriage. That Allah ta'ala, unless that, it reaches the point where there's abuse. That's where we draw the line and that needs to be dealt with. You never have to succumb to abuse of any type, where it's physical, verbal, emotional, anything else. So it's putting that aside. If it crosses a red line, it crosses a red line. Inside of that red line, is that if both parties approach the relationship as a means of self-transformation, as a means of attaining in achieving the highest degrees of the spiritual path, you'll have a great marriage. It's not necessarily gonna be easy. It's not supposed to be easy. It is not supposed to be easy because there's things that you will learn that you can only learn in that situation. And if you approach it like that and that's your standard, when things get difficult, you'll have something to come back to. And you'll remind, no matter how many times you fall short, you remain introspective and you go back to square one and you try to do better. If you can commit it to that, there's nothing that you can't overcome. So this is the next test. And then the fifth is, and this might not be the best thing to do. He says, is for you to dress in a way that you wouldn't normally dress. And he literally says for you to wear shabby clothing out in public. And if that it's hard for you to dress other than the way that you normally dress and you don't want to go into public like that, it's a sign that there's remnants of kibber. That one we might want to be a little bit careful with. But some of these treatments are there that things you wouldn't normally do to balance the scale. And again, these are ways that we can come to this conclusion whether or not it is, there's remnants of this left in the heart or not. I want to go back now to humility in this remaining few minutes because it's really, as Imam al-Zaddi said, that the stronger that our knowledge becomes about who we are and who Allah is. And then the more that we take on the traits of the humble, the more that this trait will be completely uprooted from our heart. And there are a number of statements of our Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, that indicate to us that the importance of humility, that many of them we've heard before. And one of them is, is that Allah to add a says, our Prophet says, ma azad Allahu abdan bi afwan illa izzah. As that Allah will only increase a servant who pardons others in honor. Sometimes we think, if I keep accepting his apology or her apology, they're gonna keep getting over on me. And in extreme situations that might be true, but in most situations it's not true. And then, Allah will raise them. And that no one will humble themselves before Allah except that Allah will raise them. So if you think that by being humble, that somehow you are positioning yourself to, that not achieve certain things or receive certain things, is that what our Prophet is teaching us is that this is a misconception. Is that humility only brings about what is good. And this is not a quality that is, that high on the list of, that desired commodities in the modern world. Most people will see humility as weakness. And partially that stems from their misconception of what true humility really is. True humility is a trait of heart. And again, it doesn't that negate the idea of carrying ourselves with Sikina and Muqar with tranquility and dignity outside. You could be a person that is very influential, but is the most humble of people. The primary way that we're humble is that a humility that at the heart level, and this is why it's only till you move to the higher degrees of Ma'rifah and knowledge of Allah is that will you truly that being humble in the true meaning of the word. Okay, so there's some very beneficial Athar say to Aisha said, is that indeed that you are heedless of the very best form of worship, which is humility. She considered it, the best of worship, which is humility. And there are ways of worship in your law. Worship is not just standing in prayer. Is that constantly being in a state of humility is worship consistently. It's worship of Allah. Every trait that you're supposed to have at the heart level is worship of Allah to Allah. That Fulim and Ayyad was asked about what humility is. He says, it's for you to accept the truth, even if you hear it from a child, that you accept it from them. Even if you hear it from the most ignorant of people. So even the people that you think that you're above you're willing to accept truth from them. And Qatada said, anyone who's given wealth or physical beauty or clothes or knowledge and then they're not humble in relation to those gifts, it will be against them on the day of judgment. So these are all tests. All those seven things we mentioned and some of the others that are mentioned here that relate to them, they're tests. And so we absolutely have to remain humble in relation to those things. And then that one of them said, is that after asked about what humility is, he said, it's to leave your home and not to meet a single person except that you see them as better than your own self. Any one of those that he gives us practical ways and other books on how to do this and that to protect yourself from kibir. If you see an older person, you think that they've been Muslim much longer than I have. If you see a younger person, you think that, oh, they don't have as much sins as I have. If you see a more knowledgeable person, they have more knowledge than me. If you see a less knowledgeable person, is that I might know more than them, but I've got myself a more trouble because I send knowingly and so forth and so on. There's not a single person that you can think of except that you find a way to convince yourself that they're better than you are. And then eventually it is that you won't have to have this internal conversation. It will be intuitive to you. All right, let's just quickly go through. He mentions a whole bunch. I'll just highlight a few. This is his whole chapter on the exposition of the traits of the humble and that these are the various ways of being. He said that it's a sign of humility to not want people to stand for you. He says it's a sign of humility to not want people to walk behind you, rather to walk beside you. He says it is a sign of humility to that willingly go visit other people as opposed to say, no, they have to come visit me. He says it is a that sign of humility to that sit with all different types of people and to feel comfortable despite that person's social standing, who's sitting next to you. And he says it's a sign of the humility to feel comfortable sitting with people of all different types of illnesses and disabilities, which is amazing. Is that there are some people who just don't want to be around people like that. And it's from humility to feel very comfortable sitting behind people that have some type of medical complications or that disabilities are the sort. And he says it's a sign of humility to feel very comfortable doing household duties and not saying yourself above them. And he says it's a sign of humility as well to happily buy the needs of your household needs and to bring them home. And he says it's a sign of humility to wear simple clothing, even when you have the ability to wear that more expensive clothing. And it's a sign of humility is that when you are criticized that you're able to remain that humble, when you're criticized is that you don't become angry. You're gonna become angry, but you could probably say you can control your anger. If you just lash out, it's a rah, right? It's a sign we need to work on our humility. And again, it doesn't mean that we humiliate ourselves. But part of Sakina and Waqar is is that when people criticize you, is that you have a measured response and you respond in the very best of ways. And then Femma Jamia Hussn Al-Akhraq Wa Ta'wal Du'a Siratu Rasool Allahi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam we could have just started by this and it would have been a lot easier. As he says, is that all good character traits and all manifestations of humility are found in the life of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He says, this is what whom we need to follow and this is what it is that we need to learn. In other words, is that if you read the life of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and this is what we should be doing, we should be spending time reflecting upon the Prophet's life. He is the greatest sign of Allah Ta'ala of all. We should read his great character traits. We should have a weird, in fact, a litany, a regular litany of reading. The Shamail, the great traits of character of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and all traits of character, not just humility, that you will be adorned with them that if we do this, and this is why it's so important that we connect to our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that the greater the attachment of the heart is that the more channels because the attachment acts like a conduit of good that comes to you from the Messenger. The more love and attachment and a connection, the more of who he is, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and all of the traits that he has, the more that it comes to you and that this is why we have to begin this discussion and end this discussion with the great traits of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that we didn't really get into Ujjah but as we began is that the cure for many of the causes of Ujjah are the same just as many of the cures for Ujjah are the same as they are for Qibar. And so we will leave that to you to read about that in more detail. Hopefully you have enough keys at this point to read through this very good translation of Dr. Rusim and that so that we can continue the study of this and to take this very seriously. And again, these are books of practice. These are books of action that we need to, that strive day in and day out to make them that a reality within us. And insha'Allah Allah Ta'ba Ta'ba will bless us and to open up the doors of all good. And shall we never shall forget insha'Allah the whole purpose of why we do this. This is to polish our heart. Imam al-Azadi says, is that every good character trait that you that adorn yourself with, it is a door that opens up between you and Allah. Every vice that is lodged in your heart is a veil between you and Allah. And ultimately between the highest degree of connection to the Prophet's high said them and the lowest degree, there are 147,000 veils. And what we want to do is is to start chipping away those veils. Day after day, gathering after gathering, prayer after prayer, zikr after zikr, everything that we want to do, chip away, chip away, chip away. And remove those veils that ultimately leads into the highest degree of connection to the Rasul in which there is spiritual realization, in which there is that a living of this deen as it was meant to live and in it as well is the Sa'adah to derain felicity in this world and the next may Allah Ta'ba Ta'ba give us Taufiq and bless us in all of our affairs. I think we have just a few minutes if there's any quick questions. I apologize for not leaving more time but we had a lot of material to get through. I hope this has been at least a little bit helpful. If there's any quick questions before we stand up to pray also, I know a Sa'adah. If you know the other Sa'adah. That is an excellent question. So did everyone hear their question, the sister's question over here? Okay, so is it possible to truly be humble and to also and to simultaneously be the way that I understand the question is, is that almost where you're like insecure about yourself and that focus too much upon your faults? And there's two things here always when we deal with questions like this. One is having first the correct conception and secondly, doing what it is that we're supposed to do. So I would answer your question by saying if we have the correct conception, I would say yes. I'd say no, it is not impossible and it is absolutely possible to join both at the same time. And because is that far from having our own human frailty and our faults lead to a heightened degree of insecurity where we in a sense, the way that it's used in the modern world lose our confidence and it affects our social interactions is that this stems from that not having the correct conception. And we have to embrace our human frailty. We have to embrace our faults and our mistakes. And what I mean by embrace is recognize is that we are human being and it's expected that we're going to have faults. Figure out which ones that we do have and learn to work with them. Much of the problem lies in how we relate our faults to other people's perception. And if we can get intellectual clarity on that that in terms of that this is who I am, I know what I'm dealing with. And if we need to divorce from the get go in terms of our conception is that weird feeling in our heart that where we're always desiring to be validated by other people and worry about what it is that they think of us. This complicates things. So if we have that correct conception, yes. In fact then being acutely aware of your faults will help you actually be humble. Because you realize is it how short did you tend to fall? Now there's a big difference between recognizing your faults in between falling into despair as a result of your faults. Again this gets back to conception. And that this is where you realize is that Allah ta'ala has created every human being and every human being has faults. This is part of the wisdom in how he created his creations, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And when you come to understand his mercy and his clemency and you understand the whole purpose of the religious life is that you won't panic as you start to come to terms with your own human frailty and all of your faults. And again that you will understand is that how you're going to be judged is not other people's perception of you. It's how that you succeed in relation to the test that Allah ta'ala has given you who knows that perfectly everything that is that you're going through. And so a lot of this is complicated again by that us being worried about what people think about us. And we have to be very clear at that level and that this is in general and then there are certain conditions where it requires certain techniques where you walk people through certain things because there's so much damage from a situation that they've been in. And that's a different story and sometimes it requires even professional help in certain cases. But these are the general principles and how we view this. Is that kind of what you're asking or not 100% okay. The name of the translation? Yeah so it's just the, it's a purple book. It's published by the Islamic tech society and it just says on al-ghazadi on condemnation of pride and self-admiration it's translated by Muhammad Rustam. Rustam, R-U-S-T-O-M, yeah. Certain things are traits and then the certain things you can practice. I guess you can say certain things are a result of practice or you have like, like Japanese or no other goal. Are these, like how do we separate out what would be because I'm worried you can practice familiar to, how do we separate out like what you actually do and what's the result of practice or doing something. I'm doing that. It's a very complex effort. You guys have great questions. I wish we had more time. This is, we really should be leaving like two hours of discussion because discussion where this all really comes out. It's a great question, right? Because every trait that you have there'll be ways that you practice that trait. I.e. there'll be ways that if you have that trait you'll reinforce it or if you're still working to acquire it by doing it, it will help establish it. Okay, so let's just say, you mentioned humility. Let's just say generosity. So every time that you are generous, it reinforces that trait of generosity. Let's say you're not a generous person but you know you need to be. By doing an act of generosity, even starting with something small and then doing something larger and larger, it helps you establish that trait in you. So it's the same thing with humility, all of these different traits. Mercy is that, in fact, that is the way that you go about achieving these good character. Is that one by one, you go through these traits and it might not happen in a linear way. You might do different things at different times or you might focus on one trait at a certain time. That would be great if someone said, hey look, this next month I'm gonna focus on mercy. This next month I'm gonna focus on this. This next month I'm gonna focus on this. That's a great way of doing it. And this is where you get into this other dimension of the spiritual path where you have teachers who help you do that and sometimes give you specific lessons to focus on at specific times. Or you could do this yourself. The door's open to do this. And as long as you're doing it in a balanced way. So yes. Any more quick questions? Sharia? It's like the entire goal is to try to be one of the great things. Do you have any internal practical things that you can do to help train yourself? Yeah, I think that was in the lunch conversation. But yeah, I mean, our entire Dean is based on submission. That's what we tend to forget. Everything. All Iman Islam is based upon submission. The fact that it is rational just means that Allah Ta'ada has given us a Dean of Fitrah. And part of the Fitrah is proper thinking, rational thinking. So our Dean is a rational Dean in that we can understand it. It's intelligible. That our creed makes sense. Our law, if you understand what underlies it, it makes sense. Our ethical theory makes sense. But so the whole point here is is that it's all ultimately based upon submission. And that every manifestation of Iman and Islam and Ihsan is essentially a manifestation of your submission to Allah. You submit at the level of belief. You submit at the level of practice. You submit at the level of character. It's all ultimately about submission. And why submission? Again, you want to talk about an unpopular word in the modern world. I mean, that's one of them. And we have a lot of very unpopular words in our Dean, very popular words in our Dean that are very unpopular. But this is, yes, of course. Again, the modern world is not our starting point for success. That it's all about submission. Why? Because we're servants of Allah. Our reality is that we're passive. Every single human being is passive before Allah. And the more we submit, the more we'll see the Divine Mercy. The whole essence of our Dean, it's all about submission from beginning to the end. And why? Because the whole goal of the religion is to de-emphasize the Self and emphasize Allah. So in the end, all that remains, we tend to forget, what is the highest station? Fanat, annihilation. You've forgotten yourself. You've forgotten you exist. And you're just perpetually in the state of your remembrance of Allah. And then the only station that's higher is higher than fanat. It's fanat of fanat. That's stuff of Allah for speaking about these things. You get myself in trouble from our teachers. But I'm speaking strictly from an intellectual perspective. It's where you are annihilated in your annihilation. And then you have a station of Baqa, where now it's subsistence. Now you can be with people, but you're completely, you're not there with the people. You're just there to help people. And the point of it is, is that submission is unpopular in people's minds. But our whole Dean is based upon submission. And in order for you to really, that realize the religion, you have to realize the highest degree of submission in all of its aspects. Because the greatest pleasure of all is the pleasure of the remembrance of Allah and knowing Him. And the greatest pleasure and paradise of all is gazing upon His noble countenance. And all of these sayings, the whole point is, where's the Self? It's gone. It has to go. Yourself is by consensus of the scholars of the inner science the greatest veil between you and Allah. So just think about the challenge of our time that is literally just like blowing, like just blowing powerfully into ourself. There was one, we didn't mention it, but there was a man who came to Sayyidina Omar and he asked Sayyidina Omar's permission to teach publicly. And Sayyidina Omar, who's very wise, he saw this individual had an ego problem. And he said, is that, no, I'm not going to allow you to do that. I'm afraid, is that, is it, you know, you're going to be blown up such that you reach the stars. And people's egos, if you look at it, is that people have inflated egos and some of them are really, really, really big. And there's degrees of it. And the greater the ego, degree of the ego, the more veiled you'll be from Allah, period. And we all know this. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. We all know this. It's just a matter of committing collectively to build the environments that we need to help each other. Whereas Qari'a Omar, when you need him. Qari'a Omar. We all have to pray also. We all have to make the du'ala. Na'ib and al-Wa'id. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillah. Wa sallallahu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa al-Alihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa ajma'in. We ask Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, to direct our hearts to him. May Allah, Almighty, cure us completely and comprehensively. Until that, nothing remains in our heart, except pure submission to him, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, and pure desire to draw near to him. May Allah, ta'ala, fill our hearts with all good, to fill our hearts with light, to fill our hearts with blessing, and blesses to be people who dedicate ourselves to him night and day. Allahumma blesses with complete following of Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi. Take care of all of our needs inwardly and outwardly, and grant us relief and relief to the ummah of our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi. May we all have long productive lives and to give us knowledge of this teen truth and this teen Arabic, I mean, and to give us openings like you give the elect of the Odian, the Saniheen. May Allah, ta'ala, bless this time that we spent together and allow it to be of long lasting benefit, whereby which is that as we transition from this world into the next, that it is meaningful and it is a means for the greatest good. May Allah, ta'ala, make us firm upon this path and may we have the last thing that we say. When we exit this dunya, we realize its meanings inwardly and outwardly. Wa sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi wa sahbihi.