Category: Personal Matters

Sunday 29 April 2018

Lesson 13: Jealousy, excesses in worldly matters, and curing the contamination of the heart 

• Recap of lesson 12
  • Goodness, generosity and Bravery are inseparable, why is this?
  • Likewise stinginess and cowardliness are also inseparable
  • The example which the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) gave regarding the generous vs the miserly
  • Ibnul Qayyim mentions a principle: Bliss and relaxation in life will convert in the grave and in the afterlife into the same. In a similar fashion, the one whose heart is tight due to him not obeying Allah, then this will turn into torment and punishment in the grave and the afterlife.
• At times you may find a person whose heart is usually relaxed, you may find him temporarily afflicted with a tight chest on the odd occasion and likewise a person who has a tight chest and has not been granted a relaxed chest may temporarily have a relaxed chest. Ibnul Qayyim says no consideration is given to these temporary factors. What matters is the constant, ongoing characteristic of a person.
  • g. a person who is usually a coward or a miser and on one occasion does something generous or brave, then this does not change his main characteristic
• List of means of relaxing the chest so far:
  • Tawhid (Islamic monotheism)
  • Huda (guidance)
  • Noor of eemaan (Light of Belief)
  • Inaaba (turning towards Allah in repentance)
  • Ilm (knowledge)
  • Loving Allah
  • Dhikr (remembrance) of Allah
  • Ihsan, kindness and generosity
  • Bravery
• From the greatest means of bringing about the relaxation of the chest is to remove the blameworthy characteristics or contaminations of the heart
  • Shaikh Muhammad Amaan Al-Jaami says these blameworthy characteristic are in reference to envy, jealousy, hatred, having great desire for the world, and being lazy with repentance.
  • Example of water, no matter how pure it was originally, if it becomes contaminated
• Shaikh Muhammad Amaan Al-Jaami says the one who has been afflicted with jealousy, when he sees another person enjoying a blessing he wishes that blessing to be taken away from that person or delivered to him.
  • His soul does not rest, his jealousy torments him
  • He becomes agitated
  • In reality, the one who is jealous, then his condition speaks for himself. It is as though he is saying “O my Lord why did you give so and so such and such blessing”.
  • This automatically will lead to harm, backbiting and slander.
  • Will such a person ever have a relaxed chest?
• The jealous one is afflicted with long hopes, “Later on in life I will change this and that”
• All of the effort of the jealous person will be wasted due to his heart being contaminated
• Shaikh Muhammad Amaan Al-Jaami says a short thobe and a thick beard, even though they have been commanded, if behind these things there are contaminations of the heart, then these things will not benefit a person. Rather, these external matters should stem from an inner pure heart.
• Ibn qayyim says if a person adopts means of alleviating his chest without cleansing his heart from contaminations then the alleviation of the chest will not come about.
• From among the means of alleviating the chest, is to leave off excessive worldly matters:
  • These matters bring about pain and sadness in the heart of as person
  • Excess looking in matters which Allah has prohibited, even just for tourism, then this will prevent you from looking at what Allah loves such as the Qur’an, Sunnah, learning.
  • Excessive speech, i.e. backbiting, gossiping and idle talk. People who do this see time as cheap, whereas the Muslim should see time as more precious than wealth as it is irreplaceable and your only true asset
  • Excessive listening, g. to music, songs and worthless speech, then this type of behavior will mean such a person will not spend his/her time listening to the Qur’an and learning his/her religion.
  • Excess Socialising, Especially in our time: Nowadays socializing will bring about evil and will take you away from attending classes, learning and sticking to those who will benefit you. One should not become a hermit, however if you cannot find any type of beneficial gathering then being secluded is better than socializing in vain.
  • Excessive eating:e. gluttony
  • Excessive sleeping: This will. NOTE these days a person may set his alarm 07:30 Am for work, but will not set his time/alarm for the Fajr prayer, this is a great sin and some scholars say this type of person is a disbeliever as he has abandoning the prayer.
  • NOTE: if you wasted your time in these excessive matters, then one day you will be old and will be struck with regret that you have lost your time and youth and will never get that time back.
  • However, if it is the case that your heart has remorse due to the guilt of having wasted this time, then how blessed a grief this is
• Ibn Qayyim says how constrained bitter is the life of a person who has engaged in all of the above, and how blissful is the life of the one who has taken part in all of the means of alleviating his heart
• The point of all of these lessons is that Allah’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was the most perfect of creation in respect to relaxation of the chest, real happiness, elevation of rank and pardoning of sins
• How much relaxation of the heart and bliss in this life you attain is proportionate to how closely you follow the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
• When one says “I love the Messenger of Allah”, then this should not be based solely on his personality, indeed his uncle Abu Talib loved him for this reason and this did not benefit him. What is needed is the love that comes from Eemaan (belief).
• How much Allah will support you and protect you is proportionate on how closely you follow the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
• Whoever finds goodness (in this world and the next), then let him praise Allah, and whoever finds other than that then let him not blame anyone except his own self