 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلات والسلام على سيد المرسلين وعلى آله وصحبية جميعين اللهم إني عود بكم من الحمي والهزن وعود بكم من العزي ولكسل وعود بكم من الجوبن والبخل وعود بكم من قلبت الديني وقهر الرجال بصلى الله تعالى ولا سيدنا محمدٍ وعلى آله وصحبية جميعٍ برحمة الكارحم الرحمن لأ قاموا بذكرهم مع بعض ذيوين these blessed days of the month of Ramadan نحن نعرف على بعض المساعدة من one of the great sages of the 5th century عبدالللانساري اعلم شيخ الاسلام who told us about the ten characteristics or ten habits of the people of success in the dunya and in the akhara that you will have success in the world and you will have success also in the hereafter if you take these characteristics on last time we talked about the first one which was be truthful with God have a truthful relationship with your Creator and we talked about Sayyidina Abu Bakr as being the Siddique that having the highest he has the highest honor in our religion because he was a Siddique because of his truthfulness and he got that title from the night of Isra'an Miraj when the Prophet ﷺ traveled to the 7th heaven and he came back and he told the story many of the people didn't believe him even Umhany said please don't say it please don't tell this to anyone this keep it to yourself and the Prophet ﷺ said no I will tell exactly what I saw and what I witnessed and about this night journey so he told everyone some of the people left the religion but Abu Jahl found this an opportunity to dismantle the religion so he went to Abu Bakr Siddique because he was the most noble of the companions and he said if I can get Abu Bakr I'll get everybody because everybody will follow him he is the leader he is the greatest of the Sahaba so he went to Abu Bakr Siddique's door he knocked on the door and he said Abu Bakr came out and said what do you want he said do you know what your friend is saying today he said what is he saying he said he is saying that he went to Jerusalem last night and came back a journey that takes months he said he did it overnight do you believe him and the response of say that Abu Bakr was absolutely brilliant he said if he said it I believe him if he said it I believe him in other words what you are saying is way out there but if he said it I believe him and this is how we got the title Siddique the truthful and this is a very high مقام so the first thing the relationship with Allah SWT then it has to be a truthful relationship based on Siddique on this path of salvation in the world and in the hereafter the second thing he said he said بو نافس بقهر with your nafs be a dictator with your nafs don't deal with your nafs with gentleness with beauty and احسان because the nafs you have to be disciplinary you have to be authoritative with your nafs the nafs is the lower part of the human self we have the higher self and we have the lower self the higher self is the روح what we call the spirit of the human being and the قلب the heart the spiritual heart of the human being and also the we have the سر what we call the mysteries of the human being these are what they call from عالم الامر شيخ احمد سرهيندي رحم الله he mentions this in his Magtubat very clearly about the عالم الامر وعالم الخلق that this is the عالم الامر this is from the from the uncreated these are from the heavenly reality what is from the heavenly reality your heart your soul and your mysteries your سر and then what is from the earthly creation it is the nafs right your nafs you have the human being have a nafs that is not heavenly it's earthly and what it desires your nafs your هوا your passion right your desire in the dunya all of them they want the dunya and shaytan is obviously is a corporate alliance of the three so you have nafs how are dunya and shaytan these four are your enemies and they're trying to get you down but what the secret of defeating the dunya shaytan and هوا is the nafs because nafs is the internal thief nafs is the one that knows all your secrets and mysteries knows your nafs every day does a SWAT analysis of you sees your strength and your weaknesses to see what so he can leak the news to shaytan into the dunya right so they can they can present themselves in a way that you are attracted towards them so for example how does shaytan know that you like gambling over alcohol or I like you know this over that how does he know how does shaytan know that he does a specific shaytan's دعوة is not one size fits all it's a specific to every individual so he figures out what is the weakness of this person so for the one who likes fornication they would see all these billboards of fornications everywhere the one who likes gambling they see billboards of gambling the one whatever it is that we desire the one who likes alcohol and wine and drugs they would see commercials and they would see opportunities for those things that they have desires because this is what this is the nafs is like the wiki leak of the body to shaytan into the dunya so will give you all your secrets out and this is why we must have control over our nafs because if we don't control our nafs صاعد تبريزي he said صاعد تبريزي another beautiful amazing poet from تبريزي he said دل جغافل شو زيحق فرمان بزيري تن شوه he said when your heart is instead of غفلة from Allah it start obeying the body the heart will obey the body if you are instead of غفلة مي برد هرسوك خاحت خاولو درال it is the same way that a horse will take a sleepy rider any direction it wants the horse is supposed to be in your control the nafs is like the horse we have to control it and use it to get to our destination the nafs we need the nafs in order to get to our destination and on the spiritual path you need the nafs in order to get to your destination but you have to use it as a horse in order to get there now the nafs always has desires for the dunya but how do you get rid of those desires of the dunya and the shahwad from the nafs there are two ways according to Imam Abu-Hamid al-Ghazali that you can do that one you have to you have to make the nafs suffer by not giving it what it wants for example if the nafs wants a certain brand of car or a certain brand of clothing you said you know what I just need clothing I don't need to get you that certain brand if the nafs desires something oh I'm crazy about this thing I want to buy this no I need to get something I need to get a thope I need to get a shirt I need to get a koofi but I need to get the one that I'm crazy about right whatever it is the things of the dunya all of the things oh I have to get this house because it's on this street it's a famous street no I need to get a house in a safe area I don't need to be on that street because that's where the nafs wants it right because it has a name it has a brand attached to it that's one way by not giving it what it desired what it wants the second way is to over put weight on this horse until it collapses so some all of my they say the nafs is like a donkey some like the horse some like Molana Rumia actually has 13 different animals that he talks about as for the nafs is including the snake and the scorpion and talks about and but he said the the most dangerous nafs is the rabbit nafs and the rabbit is the one that in the in the story of the rabbit in the lion that he he is the one that that that destroys the jungle because of his because of his intelligence so there's different nafs people think the nafs is stupid no if it's stupid why is it that majority of the people on this planet they're all following the nafs it's not stupid if there is a stupid aspect to the nafs towards itself because but it has intelligence because it has the the corporate alliance of Shaytan telling it what to do the dunya and how all of them are helping the nafs so you have to control your nafs you have to be an authoritative on the nafs you cannot the Prophet ﷺ said if you give your nafs something it will not stop so you know what that's enough it would want more you give them more it want more nafs is the similitude of the nafs is like a person who's thirsty and they get to an ocean but the ocean is salt water it's not sweet water and they drink this water that is salty and keep drinking it and keep drinking it to satiate their thirst but they get thirstier as they drink until that water kills them this is what the aim and the goal of the nafs is that it gets you hooked on salt water and you keep drinking it until it destroys you so you have to the second way that you destroy and you control your nafs is by doing extra act of worship you would do extra عبادة you would give extra charity nafal prayer reading Quran you know saying a beautiful word you know it's a form of charity smile is a form of charity not everything has to have has to do with monetary value but doing extra nafal prayer reading a little bit of Quran and helping someone with their load removing a hazardous material from the road is a form of charity all of this action will be like wait on this donkey or on this horse until it collapses but it is a struggle every day you can there are people who are authoritative on their nafs and they are a dictator with their nafs for a day or for a week or for a month no that's not enough it has to be every day you have to rise and you have to fight the nafs because the nafs is not there to make truths with you the nafs would never make truths with the human being the nafs wants to destroy the human being and it wants to destroy the human heart the human fitra the purity that Allah has put in us so we have to control our nafs and this is why Abdul Ansaari said that on the 10 characteristics of people of paradise those who are the people of success in the junior and the last number one is to have سطق بصديق with Allah سبحانه وتعالى be truthful with God and number two is to deal with your nafs with authority and with anger you have to deal with it you cannot be a gentle father to your nafs you have to be angry and you have to discipline it may Allah give us the توفيق during this month to discipline our nafs and it's much much easier in Ramadan to discipline the nafs than other months and may Allah give us توفيق to continue this that this tradition of Ramadan the discipline that we give our nafs in Ramadan throughout the next 11 months جزاك الله خير السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته