 Bismillah. We are continuing on the Gulestan of Sa'adi, the Garden of Wisdom, and the week number two of four week program. Last week we talked about the great poem of Sa'adi on the definition of human being and we also did a, from the famous writing a book called Kareemah or Tanjganj. We did the first three poems on Allah and on His messenger and on the nafs. So today we're going to actually start the Gulestan itself. But before we start, one of the thing about Sa'adi that separates him from a lot of the people is that he, his name is Muslehuddin, the son of Mushrifuddin, his father used to work for the Atabak government as a law post, and he was born in Shiraz, the city that he really loved. There's so many poems about Shiraz and his Gulestan that really meant to your heart the amount of love he had for the city and a city of poets, a city of scholars, many of the great scholars such as Hafiz came from Shiraz and other notables. But he leaves Shiraz at age 16, he's about, he's a teenager and he leaves it and he goes on this travel, this journey. And this journey is for him to find himself, to find his Lord and to understand the religion that he is part of. Because one of the great scholars, we asked him, American scholar, he said, why did you become Aalim? Why did you, he said, I just wanted to learn for myself, I just wanted to learn the religion because somebody was saying, oh no, this is haram, somebody's saying this is halal. I said, you know what, I want to learn this myself. So a lot of these people, they didn't go to learn to become a scholar or become Aalim or become famous, they wanted to learn because they had the love for Allah and his messenger and they wanted to know about their deen. So he goes on this journey and one of the amazing thing about the year of his birth, he died, he was born in year six or six of Hijrah, which is the same year that Fakhreddin Arazi died. So as always you would see with the death of a great scholar, you know, the birth of another scholar happened. People are unaware of it because he actually, Saadi emerges, he leaves when he's about 16, he's gone for about 32 years on this travel. He just goes, he goes to Nizamiya, the famous university that Imam Ghazali used to teach there by Nizam al-Mulk in Baghdad and Baghdad is a Persian word, it's a Farsi word, it's not Arabic. Bagh means city and Daud means justice, the city of justice. So he is there and he studies at this, in one narration he studies 17 years there and then not only studies, they become the teacher there and he mentions the beautiful line about Imam Ghazali who was there before him about 120 years before Saadi. So then he keeps traveling, he goes all around the world, he ends up in, you know, he goes to India, he goes to Habishah, ends up in China, he's a world traveler. But during his travel he is, you know, the Quran says, travel and see the author, see what we have created and also see what we brought and what we destroyed. So it's a lesson to see these things, my goodness, look at the Roman Coliseum, at one point they were the rulers, now it's just a bunch of rocks remaining, right. So this is just a learning about life. So he travels and he goes and then he gets, this is the time of crusaders. So he actually become a prisoner of war and they put him in these, they dig tunnels, so they put him in the tunnel and he digs, for seven years he's digging tunnels for the crusaders. And the Muslim government, they actually buy all of the prisoners of war and they give them gold instead of to do a trade-off. And one of the people that gets freed is Saadi from this dungeon that he was in. But what struck me the most and people who have read, I know Sidi Hashman and they all read the Gullistan multiple times, what struck me most about his work, you don't see any sad line in there where he complains, oh these crusaders, they did this to me, I was in the dungeon, he doesn't complain about anything because they believed in Qadar. This is from Allah, who brought the crusader, Allah brought them, who brought the Mongols, Allah brought them. They always looked at themselves and they said, what wrong have we done that we deserve this? If we fix ourselves, then Allah will fix our situation, right? Then Allah will fix our situation, but if we don't, if we keep blaming others, oh is the American, is the Russian, is this, is the Cuban, is that, we are not looking, you know, one of the great Indian poet, Ghalib said, he said, He said, you made this mistake all your life, oh Ghalib, the dirt was on your face and you're wiping the mirror and that's what a lot of the modern people are doing, they're wiping the mirror, they're not looking at themselves and the journey of Sa'adi is a journey of looking at himself, finding himself in order to find Allah because if you are lost, there's a beautiful bumper sticker that says, don't follow me, I'm lost. If you're lost yourself, you can't help anyone and you can't get to any direction, any, the place that you want to go. There's an amazing story in the Gulestan of Sa'adi who was about this man who going to the Hajj. So Sa'adi sees him and he says, where are you going? I'm going to the Kaaba and then he starts, he starts the journey, he just keeps going. In Sa'adi shouts at him, he said, He said, I don't think you will ever make it to the Kaaba because this is going to Turkmenistan. He said, you're going the wrong direction. So the point of his travel was to learn, right? We have not created the jinn and the human except to worship, as Allah says. But how do you worship Allah? Through knowledge. You have to know how to worship him, you have to know how to make wudu, how to pray, how to, there's rules and regulations that you have to learn. So he learned all of that to worship Allah in the most appropriate way and the way that Allah wants him to worship him. So he goes on this journey and when he comes back, right? He said, I went on my feet and I came back on my head. It's a beautiful person proper, you know, in Arabic they say ala rasi, ala aini, you know, on my head, on my eyes. We, the person, the same thing, we say basara chashum, the chashum, you know, on my eyes. I, I, there's many meanings for this line, but I think that what he's saying, I went as a person of the nafs. My feet was in the dunya and the dirt, but I came with a head, an intellect, right? That is connecting me to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? Because intellect is that light, is a light, is a nur. So he, he comes back and so after 32, 33 years of, of just traveling, he comes back and he, he, the king of the time, Sa'ad Zangi. And that's why his name is Sa'adi because his name is not Sa'adi, obviously his name is, is Muslehuddin, but he takes the name Sa'ad because of Sa'ad Zangi, Abu Bakr Sa'ad Zangi. He was the Khalifa of that time, of the, the Atabaks. He loves him and the king loves him and honors him. And this is, it's very important to know these are not like, you know, we have in our modern time, oh, ulema sultan, these are the scholars at the feet of the, the sultans. No, no, no, these are the people who rectify the sultans because if the top is right, the bottom is going to be right. If you have a corrupt leader, then and I don't have to mention anything about any of the, the people in the world, look at the Muslim world, look at the world, but look at the Muslim world, look at the world. I mean, only a couple of countries, you can say, okay, there's a good leader and look at the society's flourishing. Everybody's happy. But if you have a corrupt leader, it trickles down all the way to the corrupt police officer on the street. So they were trying to fix thing from the top bottom because it's much easier to do that if you have access to that. So because they had a lot of love and respect for Sa'adi, he would give him. And so in 1258, 1255 of the Gregorian calendar of the Christian era, he literally liked the bee that gives honey when it's ready. The entire book just came out of, of the post on, like the entire book, it just, but you know, once she told us a story about a Hajji knew the Dean, you know, he has no Hajji knew the calligraphy, right? There's two calligraphy of him right there on the, on the wall. Hajji knew this, this amazing Chinese calligrapher. He does Arabic style Chinese. So somebody went to him and he said, hi, can you, can you write my name on the paper? And he said, yeah. So he went like, what's your name? He told his name and then, so he went like that. Here's your paper. That'd be 30 bucks. And the guy said, that took you like 10 seconds, 30 dollars. He said, yeah, it took 10 seconds, but it took me 30 years to master. It takes time. And a lot of the people, if you look at the history of Islam, they wrote their books at the end of their lives. Nobody wrote books when they were young. Everybody who wrote books when they were young, they regretted it. Like for me, I taught a class, a few classes in Mulan Arrumi and that and like in 2013, 14th. And I wish I could go back and just delete that and redo it. A lot of people said, oh, it's a great class. I said, yeah, but I wish I, what I know now is like, oh, I shouldn't have taught that class. Literally, it could be done much in a much better way. But anyways, so he came and then, so he just gave like birth to this book, the Bostan. Bostan became the most popular book and the Persian literature. So after in the, in the Persian literature, it's the Quran, the most printed book. And then Hafiz Shirazi, the second, the most printed after the Quran in the history of Persian literature. It's, it's the Diwan of Hafiz. And that's because the Persian, the, you know, especially the Iranian, they love that, that book. And then it's the Gulistan and the Bostan of Sa'adi. So it's like the most popular books that you can have. One of the thing about Sa'adi, when he went on this journey, he slowly found himself. And a lot of people, they want to find himself in one day. They want fast food spirituality, fast food feq. Like, hey, I want to become a f**king three months. Is there a course? No. There's no course for three months feq. There's no course for three months. It's a lifetime journey. You go on this and you get it, you know, but Manana Rumi said, he said, once you put your first step on the path, you're already on the last step because he said there's 99 steps to God, right? It's step by step until you get the divine presence. He said, he said, it's just protocol you have to, you have to do. That's all. The rest of it is protocol. But it's the first step, which is the hardest step to get, to turn away from your nafs, your ego, your desires, and turn toward Allah. So on this journey, he meets a lot of the Ulema, including Ibn Josi, not the famous, but his grandson, who was also a great scholar, he studies under him, and he has a beautiful poem which says, Mara sheikh danae murshid chahab, do andar sfermood barrui ab. Yaki anka dar nafs khudbin nabash. Degar anka dar jamb bedbin nabash. He said, this great sheikh, Sheikh Shahabuddin, Sohrabaddi, no, Abul Faraj, he said that he gave me two advice when I was with him. He said, the first advice is never, never see faults in other people. Like when you see other people, don't see faults in them. You know, one of the scholars said, you should treat everyone as a Wali of Allah, as a saint. He said, how do you know they're not going to become saints at the end of their lives? So that idea of looking at people with hosna dan, with good opinion of people, having a good opinion, not su'uzan, not having a bad opinion of a person. And the people who want to know about this in English young people, there's a beautiful talk that John Foster Wallace did, a commencement speech, it's called This is Water. It's on YouTube and it's worth watching because the whole concept is about hosna dan and su'uzan about the world. Like how do you look at the world? So he said that he told me that, okay, don't don't don't don't see faults in other people, but he said also in yourself, don't be pleased with yourself. Don't be a person. It's an age of nafsi, nafsi. It's me, me, me. I'm so amazing. I'm so, everybody's like about themselves and they put all these stuff, a quote from themselves like, oh I'm so amazing. I said this thing and really it's funny. Like a lot of these things are, you don't know whether to laugh out of, because you know, sometimes the worst of stuff makes you laugh. So he comes back, but what does he achieve in this journey? The greatest thing that Sa'adi achieved in this journey is visible, very clearly in in one of his poems, which he says that he finally fell in love with Allah. Love is a, you can't claim love. Those who have been in love, they know. Right? Those who know, they know. Those who don't know, they don't know. Right? This is the, this is what Mawlana Rumi's father, somebody asked him about love. He said, those who know, they know. Those who don't know, I can't explain it. You can't explain love. So he said that when he came back, he said, I fell in love with Allah and all I could think about is my meeting with Him. That's it. And the Hadith Qutzi says, if you make all your anxiety, one anxiety of meeting Allah on the Day of Judgment, Allah will remove all your anxiety in the world. If your concern is all like, I'm going to meet my Lord. What? But his concern was different. It's not about, oh, is he going to forgive me? Is he going to throw me the hellfire? What am I going to, that wasn't the way. He said that he's, there's a beautiful poem about his death. Yeah, I actually, I'm losing my memory because I got only two hours of sleep last night. But anyways, yeah. Okay. So he says, When I give my last breath and I die and I say goodbye to this world and leave the world, I would die with this immense desire in the hope of just seeing you. And I'll give my soul and die because I know I become the dirt of your dominion. I become the dirt that you create. And on that day of reckoning and the day of judgment, when I rise from this grave, I would rise. But my first speech is, where's my Lord? I'm talking to you. And everybody is, in the day of judgment, is nafsi nafsi. They're trying to find something. He said, I'm just trying to find you on that day. I'm in search of you on that day. People are running away that, you know, the children are running from the parents, the parents from children, the mothers from the son and the daughter. Everybody is running away from each other. It's nafsi nafsi day. Is it even on that day that everybody's running away from each other? I'm running to you, y'all. Hadisi rosa nagu yam. Goli behesh nagu yam. I don't care about paradise. I don't care about the roses of paradise in the center of paradise. I'm not even going to smell the roses of. I'm not even going to tell all the stories of paradise. You know, people said that they talk about paradise, all these amazing stories. They said, I'm not going to talk about it. I'm not even going to smell the flowers of paradise. Hadisi rosa nagu yam. Goli behesh nagu yam. I'm not going to do any of those. Because why? Because all I want is to see you. I don't care about these things. All I want is to see you. That's it. Because the vision of God, you know, in Ramadan, there's a beautiful Hadisi, a fasting person that's too joy. The joy of breaking is fast and the joy of meeting his Lord. And the reason fast is not for eating food. People make that mistake. They say, oh, eating food and breaking. No. Completing this act of obedience that you abandon from everything, it's so, the reward of it's so immense that on the day of judgment you will just be in the set of ecstasy. Just realizing how much reward. And then the next one is all seeing Allah on that day, right? I'm not going to drink this pure wine of paradise from these, you know, this main of paradise, the sake he was going to give me the wine. I'm not going to drink that. He said, why would I need wine? When I'm already intoxicated with you, with your remembrance, and there are people who are intoxicated with the remembrance of Allah. Anyways, this poem, I think, summarizes Hadisi's life about what happened to him. He became a lover of Allah, in a servant of Allah. So then he gave these two books in 1255. He gives us the Gulistan in 1256. He gives us the the Bostan 1256. The next year he gave us the Gulistan. Gulistan became the most popular book in in in Persian literature and, you know, we study Gulistan at seven to learn the language, but we study Gulistan at seventy to understand what is he talking about, to learn about our lives. So it's a it's a book for all ages. So the book is, start with a debauchah which is the preface or he has this beautiful, and I just picked a few lines just to go over so people can see what he's talking about. So Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, he said This is called Nasr al-Musajjah. This is a it's not a poem, and this is a prose, but it's a prose that actually it rhymes as you read it, but it's not it's not it's not a poem. And Sa'di is one of the the the one who started this style of writing and everybody copied him. We talked about that last week about the the styles of writing and and in detail. So he said Minnat Khudaira wa Azza wa Jalil. Minnat or minna in Arabic is praise, it also means indebtedness when you're indebted to somebody. In other words, I'm praising Allah and I'm indebted to Allah. Right? Azza wa Jalil is honor, Aziz is short for Aziz Jalil as well, the two names of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. Kitaw'atash, that his ta'a, ta'a again is Arabic word, it means worship, right? Kitaw'atash, his ta'a, his worship Mojib Qorbatas, that it brings you closer to him. So what is he saying here? It is very important for people to understand this concept. He is saying that, phrase me to Allah, that when you worship him, he draws you near to him. You get close, you get this Maqam of Qorbat, you're not going to get any wealth, you're not going to get good health, you're not going to get money, you're not going to get a car, you're not going to get anything of the dunya when you worship Allah. Why is that? Because As-Salatu Noor, the hadith said, prayer is light, worship is immaterial. So the reward, right? Haal jaza wa l-ahsan illa l-ahsan d-Qurasi, isn't the reward of something beautiful, something that is the same? Why do we fast six days of shawwad after Ramadan? To show one of the reasons, to show a gratitude for Allah, thank you Allah for giving us Ramadan. So we're going to fast for six days, the same Jinn's genus, to say thank you Allah for Ramadan, right? So he's saying that Allah is going to give you a qurba, what Allahu nuru s-salman wa ati wa l-ar. Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth. So if Allah gives you well for your worship, or he gives you a nice car, or he gives you a nice house, that is zulm, that's oppression, and Allah is not a valid. Because on the day of judgment you will hold, you will hold God accountable, which you can't, but you will say, I worship you and then I got a car? What is that? Because the qurba of Allah, this closeness that you get is priceless, and that's why worship of Allah is priceless. So this is the reason, so now he's saying wa bashoq al-andarash mazida ni'mat. But if you're grateful, Allah will give you more ni'mat. Allah will give you good health, if you're grateful for your health. Allah will give you more money, if you're grateful for the money. Allah will give you beautiful children, if you're grateful for your beautiful children. La'in shakartum la'azidannakum, the quran is a formula. If you're grateful, it's a conditional sentence. If you're grateful, Allah says, I will increase you in that to be more grateful. Right? So like a lot of people say, how are you doing? I'm sick, I have so much pain, and then you ask him like two years later, how are you doing? Oh, I have even more pain now. Well, you didn't learn the lesson. You complain, Allah will give you more to complain about. But if you're grateful, Allah will give you more to be grateful. And this is why our grandmothers, that generation, they never complained. Shukr alhamdulillah. They were in pain. Shukr alhamdulillah. Like always shukr alhamdulillah. But that's how they got better, because they were in the set of shukr. Now, who are the people who are shakir the most? The Ulema, the scholars. They're on it. They know this. They know this verse. They're always in the set of shukr. So what is the idea of scholars that are poor? Aren't they grateful for the for the food that they get? Aren't they grateful for the clothes that they have? Aren't they grateful for that little hut or room or tent that they have? Why isn't Allah increasing them in that when they're grateful and they're poor Ulema? And I've seen poor Ulema. Well, here's the reason. The first station of gratitude is to look at the ni'mah. Ya Allah, thank you for this shirt. Ya Allah, thank you for the clothing I have. Ya Allah, thank you for the house that I have. Ya Allah, thank you for the that's the first level. I remember Ghazali says it very beautifully. He said, there are people they see the pen. So that pen writes really well. There are people who see the hand. Oh, that hand writes really well. And then there are people who see the artist. Wow, that artist. These scholars, they no longer see the pen or the hand. They see the money, the one who gives the ni'mah. That's what they see. So their shukr as well is giving them qurmatullah. Because they are, what is their shukr for? Allah, it is you that's doing this. Allah has given him more of that that they're grateful for. They don't see the world. It has, it's meaningless to them. Everything that's the world and in it is meaningless. So then he says, Har nafasiki furumi rawad, mu'middah hayat, that's every breath. And I know like the, in our tradition Afghanistan, we have to memorize this when we were like seven years old. I know like people sitting here, they just read it from memory. But every breath that you inhale, it gives you life. It prolongs your life. If you don't breathe in, you can't live. You die. Right? Wachun barmi oyad bufar rahizal. But when it comes out, it actually gives you good health. Now this is one of the karamat of sa'adi. How did he know that? That when we exhale, everything that is not needed in the body, it actually takes it out. So you have a healthy body at every breath. Allah is doing that. Giving you life, keeping you healthy. Giving you life, keeping you healthy. So he's saying that pasdhar har nafasiki duni mad moujoodah. So know my beloved that in every breath, there are two ni'ma. There are two blessings. One for inhaling to get life. One for exhaling to keep it, keep you healthy. So there's two ni'ma and every blessing. Wabar har nafasiki shukri wajib. Isn't it mandatory to be grateful for every ni'ma that Allah has given you? Shouldn't you say, Ya Allah, thank you for this blessing? And he's saying, this is where, you know, in the chess game is checkmate. He, Sa'adi just checkmate all the human being. Literally, he's like, okay, you think you're Abdul Shakur? Let me show you. For every breath, two shukri you have to give. So now, because you have to be grateful to what Allah has given you. So now he says, az dah suzabane kibar aayat kaz uhdei shukrash badar aayat. He says, show me someone who has a tongue in the hand to be grateful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to this degree. Who? And the reason, in the Sharhah of Sudi, in the Gulistan, he said, the reason why he used the hand is hand is not just the hand. He's talking about the jawar, the hand, the feet, the eyes, the ears because they all have their shukr, right? They have to give shukr for every ni'm of the body, right? The kidney is the heart. So he's using one as a representation of your entire body. So he said, who's hand? In other words, who's limbs and whose tongue has the ability, the power to be shakur? اعملوا آل داوودا شقر وقليل من عباد الشقر All family of Dawood the Quran says, be grateful, work and be grateful because Allah says, very few of my servants are grateful. Very few of my servants are grateful. So he says, then he right, it has a poem now. بندهمان بيك is a تقسير خيش اوز بذرقاء خداة عاوار ورنس الزاوار خداة وندي اش كس نتوانا كبجاء عاوارا He said, so here's what I'm going to give you an advice because there's no way you can be as grateful as Allah has given you the blessings, right? He's not telling you not to be grateful. You should be shukr throughout the day. This is a beautiful maqam a maqam that someone is a shaker always. And you can see people who are shakur they're always happy as well because they see everything from Allah. But he's saying it's better that all of those servants who have shortcomings which every one of us, anybody see how many shortcomings they're either insane or they're an angel. Everybody has shortcomings. Kullu ibn Adam khatta'un the professor of salam said every son of Adam will sin will just obey will make mistakes, right? So he's saying so let me give you an advice it's better for all of us who have shortcomings that we just go to Allah with brokenness and just say Ya Allah, forgive us. Forgive us. No one on this planet can be grateful to the amount of blessing that Allah has given them. It's impossible. Nobody can do that, right? So, but gratitude has station as well. It starts with the with that station of seeing the ni'ma and then goes all the way to seeing the one who gives you the blessing. Seeing Allah and everything that everything is in hand of Allah. This is the station of happiness. This is when you're really happy. You won't have any problem. If you build if you have that as a model of your life that everything has it's from Allah. What can I do? You know, like we you know, just a personal story. Our accounts got hacked and somebody like took all our stuff but just I woke up the next day everything was gone. Like everything you had in your whole life it just gone. Like there was nothing in there. Kind of panic. I'm going to account account change, password change. I don't have access to anything. Literally nothing I've access to. So I was sitting there. I was like, you know you get devastated because it's like okay who's going to pay the rent and who's going to pay all these stuff the bills and everything because you have you have zero money literally. And and and all your you know all your investment is just gone. Somebody just anyway this was a few months ago. Be careful. Everybody should have extra security. This is the number one thing now happening in America is fraud on your bank accounts and on cryptos and other stuff. But anyways so I'm sitting with my wife and I and you know you always you never want to break these things down like that to your wife say okay we lost everything because you know it's very difficult for them because they see you as the one who's bringing working and bringing the money and they have that security and tranquility and they can really you can shout at them the whole world and they they get depressed over these things. So so I was breaking that easiest you know this account was one of my account was hacked and this and that. Okay. And then and I thought she was just okay. I said as you know what you have to make really do all because all our accounts was hacked. And then she looked she goes the repairs the card this year properly. I swear to God first thing the repairs the card properly this year you counted everything properly. I said I think so but I can double check. I usually pay more in the card. She said we must have done something wrong. And that was a whole thing and for me it was like a paradigm shift and I was like I've been reading these things but she's living those things like it's different you know the people who have that connection. So and obviously you do what you have to do but you know it took a while about three two three months but Alhamdulillah we were able to recover a lot of stuff. So but anyways the point is that you have to realize everything is from Allah and what wrong have you done that this come to you. Like people always ask about political situation in our country and I just you know it's the best example is Sayyidina Ali when they went to him and said when Sayyidina Abu Bakr and Omar were in charge like look we are like amazing Khilafa no fighting no now ever since you know Othman and you took over like we are fighting and we have all this corruption and all these stuff what's you know what do you say to that he said well when Abu Bakr and Omar were the Khalifa of the allah you know they had people like Othman and me under them now we have people like you under us that's the difference right so it's you know you have to really think about yourself again we go back to that ghalib poem that you know you can't keep wiping the mirror and saying that why why have dirt in my on this no it's not the mirror it's you you have to wipe your face and clean it but people don't want to do that but gratitude has station the greatest station and this is what you could have in in the knowledge you have al-mulaqeen aynul yaqeen wa haqul yaqeen three levels of knowledge right this is al-mulaqeen you're learning something yeah aynul yaqeen is seeing that thing in practice like what the story I told you I saw this in practice I would my wife just practice that I witnessed it but then there's haqul yaqeen living that is that experiential so maulana rumi he said he said if you look at the lovers he said shukrana do di eshqra as tofahahu maulha he said you are so grateful for your beloved you love someone what do you do give them flowers you know give them a Gucci purse give them all these gift of the words because you love them you buy all these stuff and you give them the diamond ring he said that is at the very beginning of gratitude that's at the beginning he said anybody can do that anyone can do that they can buy flowers and they can buy stuff and give it to people hal maulraa khudraa bideh shukrana shahu shukrana shahu he said you want to know the highest level of gratitude why don't you become the gratitude and become the gift that you are the gift and you are the gratitude so when you go home you are the gift she doesn't need a gift because you have become the symbol of gratitude in a gift that the if they ask your wife or your spouse I said what do you want as a gift I want my spouse to come home well what about a Lamborghini I want my spouse what about the next I want so that is the high level right the same thing with a teacher and student when the student said oh my teacher because he is the gift right so he continues one of the things about these lines those who speak Persian Farsi or Dari you would see the perfection in the language there's nothing you can do to make it longer and make it better there's nothing you can do to make it shorter and better you can make it shorter it's not going to be as beautiful as meaningful you can make it longer it's not going to be as beautiful as as meaningful it's perfection of language in Persian literature the reign of his mercy that you innumerable you can't count the reign of the mercy of Allah the reign of his mercy has reached every corner of the world Allah has two names at the beginning of the Naina name Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim right Rahman and Rahim the difference between them both of them are mercy one is universal mercy one is particular mercy the universal mercy goes to everyone whether you believe in him or don't it goes to you whether you're Muslim a kafir a fire worshiper an idol worshiper an atheist an agnostic whatever you are you get the universal mercy you get the food you get the clothing you get the oxygen the air you get the health you get the friends the family all of that universal mercy Allah gives you but then there's a specific mercy that's only for the believer right so he says barana rahma this is the rahma universal the mercy universe has reached every corner of the world is there a place that Allah is you know it's it's you can't see the hand of providence there wakhon and nima to be the khan means you know it's short for the star khan we say in Persian it's the the the cloth that you eat on right the the the table cloth what we call in the table the cloth of the nima of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has reached every household everybody gets their food everybody have food to eat the reason why each and every one of you are here today is because your parents had food from the time of Adam alaihi salam till now if they didn't have food they would have died and you wouldn't be here Allah Allah provided the sustenance for them these are razaq in our aqid ad-do Imam Tahaoui says that we believe that Allah was our razaq before he created people that needed risk so he didn't get the name our razaq because he had to give us risk even before there was a creation Allah was our razaq right pardai namosa bandagon bagunah fahish nadarad this is just again perfection of language parda is a curtain parda is also a veil right the veil that's between you and humanity there's a veil between me and you right now there's a veil between you and I only you know yourself and Allah knows nobody else knows you we know you based on how you tell us who you are and we know you some of us know you based on our view of you our perception of you and this is Maulana Rumi's cry was that everyone became my friend and got to know me based on their opinion of me nobody wanted nobody was interested in hearing what I have to say about myself generally that's the rule that's the case people just they assume about you what they want to assume they don't care to listen to what you say but the only one who knows you is Allah in yourself that then Allah put a veil between you and the humanity right Khuda ghar parda barad sirui kora adam ha razaq pani famous poem that if Allah removes the veil from the work of human being from the actions of the human being he said how many fossil will become mullah instantly and how many mullahs become fossil instantly right that's the reality right the hafiz had this problem with all these preachers because they came with their abaa and the turban and their abaa and all you know they're for this jelwa right right this jelwa that they they put on this show on the member and this is what is on jelwa in mehrab member because they are doing other work they are he said look at the all these all these preachers they come on a member and they put on this jelwa this show it's beautiful right the turban and the abaa and the speech and the eloquence he said but when they're in their private life they do other than what they preach another word sfaaf is saying what a blessing that Allah's veil because otherwise you're not even listen to most of the people right so he says that the this veil of your namus of your privacy of your honor of your dignity of your soul of your of those things that are precious to you that you don't want anyone to know Allah does not rip this curtains so people can see right he does not even if you send disobey him and you fornicate even the fornicator Allah doesn't show him that this is the person who's a fornicator Allah doesn't do that he veils you there's a secret in that and I will talk about it what was he feyruzi b'khatayi munkar naba in this sustenance that allowance of your sustenance because everybody has an allowance right so whatever you get that's your allowance that's why you should be happy whatever you have Allah is already written what are you gonna get you should work you should strive you should you know you know Allah is giving you hands and feet you can't see how it has a beautiful story I was trying to do it but it's a very long poem but it's a beautiful story about about the a rubah a an alliance um um and so this this this this uh fox right or coyote so this fox is crippled his handicap so this man passes by goes subhanAllah how does he eat how does he get his food and then he sees a lion goes and attacks a deer and and hunts it and rips the deer apart and eats it and then he throws away all the extra food that he's for this throws it in the air and it lands right in front of this crippled fox and the fox start eating this me so the next day he goes he said and then incident happened this lion did it and then he throws an accidently or whatever it's just he's like subhanAllah Allah is the Rasul I'm not I'm not gonna do any work I'm gonna sit so he said he just sat down and said I'm gonna give my wrist Allah is feeding the crippled fox he's gonna feed me so he sat for a day two days three days nobody's bringing any food no family no friends nothing and he's starving and he's starving and one thing about spirituality in tasawuf people you know one of the practices of the people of on this path is they don't eat a lot and the reason why I don't eat a lot because when you eat you fill yourself and you can echo when you're empty you echo that is the echo of truth but we don't hear that's what when you go in the valley and there's a mountain on the other side and you say something it echoes you it echoes back to you right so after a few days when he's so his stomach is empty and he's like starving to death he goes what's going on like ya Allah you know you you give the crippled fox and I've been starving and I'm a movement I'm a believer and I do thicker I didn't get any food I'm dying right and then the echo of his own soul says barang sheerat dar randabosh ey dahal mayandos khishro churu bo ishal go become a lion be a roaring lion don't don't sit like a crippled fox right don't sit like Allah didn't create us to be crippled fox He created us to be lion go out and do it but no whatever you get it's from Allah and it's written for you Allah is the one he gave it to mayasha whoever he wants whatever he wants whatever quantity he wants and be grateful and Allah will increase as the poet said at the beginning so this is very important because you see how the atheists and agnostics are super duper rich and I'm believing God so he says Allah will not cut the salary what is you know what is supposed to go to them if they disbelieve in him if they sin and disbelieve in him Allah will not cut their salary they can have it why is that why is that because all of this world in everything that's in it everything in this world everything in the heavens and the earth the galaxies and the star and the moon and the sun and all this now they're saying and Mars and these stones are worth their priceless all of them you combine it one breath in paradise is more expensive than everything in the world in here one breath not the exhale just inhaling because with the first inhale of paradise every pain every suffering every anxiety that you had everything just just washed away and you enter the state of ecstasy and happiness complete joy for eternity so this world they've had any any value Allah wouldn't give those who disbelieve in them a morsel of fruit but it has no value it has nothing and only people who connect with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would know this because through that connection you would come to know so he says gabro tersaw wa zeef akhore daari dostan raa kujakunin mahrum toki ba doshmanin nazar daari they said oh kareem we talked about why they use the the name kareem last week because kareem is the name of Allah that he gives without asking but if you ask through that name how much he would give so he said oh kareem that you have these unseen inexhaustible treasure houses and you're giving to to fire worshipers to disbelievers to atheists and agnostics you're giving them this this is look how you're treating them you're giving them food you're giving them family you're giving them friends you're giving them good house you're giving dostan raa kujakunin mahrum how could you deprive your friends when this is the way you deal with your enemies if this is how you deal with your enemies how would you deal with your friends and allahu wali ladina amanu Allah is the wali of those who believe and a wali is a protector is also a friend Allah says I am your protector Allah is the protector Allah is our wali Allah this is the relationship that Allah has put how could he deprive us from from this if he is doing this generosity is showing to to those who disbelieve in him it's 359 I had a little bit more to go but I don't think I can finish it but I'll just finish this just briefly because I want to respect the time we started a few minutes late so that's I think the reason but generally four o'clock we should wrap up maybe a couple of minutes inshallah so he says hargo yakez bandagona gunahkor gunahkor preishan ruzegar dastan an abad umid ejabad but dargay haq jalla wa ala bar darat izit ita ala darway nazar nakonad he said when a sinful servant who is instead of disobedience and then and then he feels remorse and he goes ya Allah ya Allah please forgive me ya Allah ya Allah give me this ya Allah ya Allah and Allah is not even looking at him because he's just a sinful horrible servant right bas ashba khanad bas ehras karad then again he goes ya Allah ya Allah ya Allah and Allah does not look at him again I don't even want to look at you because it's a sinful disobedient servant then he goes in and this is what we talked about last week is when you go to Allah in a state of brokenness and you just break down and you just cry and you become your own self you're not doing this as a show where it says ya Allah no it's just language you know chandazin ishor ismar o majaz chandazin alfazo ismar o majaz Rumi says how much of this you know the eloquence you're trying to put on your metaphors and your similes and all these he said how much of that Allah says that sus khoham sus ba'un sus salt I want burning that's what I want I want people to come to me when a burning boys cry break down so he goes the next time he goes he keeps going and going and Allah doesn't want to look at him and then he goes and crying to Allah and then this is a hadith khudsi that's in this book again for the a lot of people who are on the path of knowledge especially at the meftah institute this is a poetry class so it's not an aqida or a feq class so just we'll take the poetry part and then if you want the isnad for the ahadith and this and that you can and most you can you know look this up but most of these things are used in order to teach us a lesson so sometimes they use ahadith that are weak but the meaning is sound but they're using some of those in order to teach and drive a point home so this is not a hadith class and then Allah says he said I accepted his prayer and I gave him what he wanted because I feel embarrassed from this sinful servant just keep asking and keep asking so I'll give you a lesson and then Allah says I accepted his prayer and I give him what he wanted because I feel embarrassed from this sinful servant to forgive him so he ends this conversation by saying karam bina lotwe khodawandghar gonaah bandakardas wa'u sha'am saw look at the generosity of Allah the sin is committed by the servant Allah feels embarrassed for what he has done the servant is sinful and says I just feel embarrassed like not answering him even though he's a sinful servant I'm going to answer his prayer so these are the teachings of sahadi rahmatullah alaih and I think that in our time we're living in a very interesting time where people are kind of disconnected from themselves from the reality from Allah and his messenger and you would see in the next session inshallah we'll talk about his connection to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam which is really marvelous you know how much love he had wanted to today showcase his love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his journey on this path but his his and then inshallah we'll do stories from the gulistan where then he teaches the kings he teaches the the citizens he teaches the lovers he teaches the people of adab I mean he just he's a teacher an amazing teacher they follow on the footsteps of our Prophet sallahu alaihi sallam who was the greatest teacher that ever walked on this earth inama bu'aithu al-mu'allima I was sent only as a teacher the Prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam said so it's it's amazing to be on this on this journey with these people I love these these these teachings because it melts the hearts it makes us human being it makes us people that we can actually connect with ourselves connect with Allah and use these in our daily lives these are not things that you can just read and just put it on the shelf but no rather these are things that you can practice and put in your life and I think that to start the day is that we all should start doing gratitude practices and what I think that they have done in the modern science they did people who have depression they they did a study that they do gratitude practice where they every day they would say I'm grateful for this I'm grateful for this they mentioned a list of gratitude some say 10s of the 5 but it actually removes their depression so I think that if you can do that that every day we we pray after after the prayer just just be grateful to Allah for say Allah thank you for good health you know just people you know we think good health it has to be part of our life now Allah can make you sick and once you're sick then you would know the value of good health you don't know something until you lose it so just the just if you do that that's you know for me this is some people might like it some might hate it but if you do a lesson and you don't take anything home to practice you just wasted your time so if we just do that for for this week's where we do a gratitude practice that every day we just show three things a day to say Allah you have good parents the people who have horrible parents and I know converts that you know they had really bad life grown up so if you have good parents who are loving gratitude for parents gratitude for children gratitude for good health if you have a roof over your head because the blessing of Allah you cannot enumerate them so you can just go on for eternity and just thank Allah for all the stuff that he is everything that he's doing and also things that he's going to do in the year after inshaAllah so zaqala khairan if there's any question inshaAllah but if not thank you for the team here at MCC for making this happen the hosting here locally and then thank you for the miftah all the brothers may Allah bless all of you and the team there zaqala khairan inshaAllah we'll hope to see you next next Saturday for the third session inshaAllah zaqala khairan salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh