What Ruins a Student of Knowledge | #12 Ta'iyyah Abu Ishaq al-Ilbiri | Sheikh Muhammad Tim Humble

When a fitna comes, the people of knowledge they see the fitna for what it is. As for the people who are junior in knowledge, they see the fitna come as the shape of a beautiful woman. One of the biggest ever brought is a to make you doubt that your scholars are sincere because once you don't trust your scholars, you cut the person from Allah completely. So you have to be doubly strict with yourself and you never take the knowledge that you have as a means to improve your standing in this world. That's not what we sought knowledge for. We're now going to move on inshallah to the next uh Bahala and here the author starts a new topic and that is that the author speaks about the things which get in the way of you seeking knowledge. and what gets in the way of what are the things that are the overall that are the big obstacles to successfully seeking knowledge. He said, he said, "And you are not preoccupied from seeking knowledge by desire that you obeyed, nor would this world with its adornments have been a temptation." So he speaks about two things. The first thing he speaks about and there there's more. There's a collection of abiat here on the same topic. There's a collection of of of poetry on the things that get in the way of seeking knowledge. The first one that gets in the way of seeking knowledge is your desires. and controlling your desires is absolutely key to the that is required to successfully seek knowledge. If you just think about the statement of Allahel, as for the one who fears standing in front of his Lord, he fears standing in front of his Lord. Or he fears the status of his lord. And he fears standing in front of his lord or he fears the status any the names and the attributes of his lord and he prohibits his soul from its desires. Jenna will be his destination. So, we're told that to get to Jenna, you have to be able to stop your soul from things that it wants to do that are getting in the way of Jenna. Those things don't have to necessarily be haram, although many are, but they are something that is getting in the way of your path to Jenna. And you w your soul wants to do it because remember there are two types of soul and some of the said three types of soul. The the correct view is there's two types of soul and we've spoken about this already in some of the lessons in the masid. The first is the soul that is constantly inclined towards evil. The soul is constantly telling you and commanding you and pushing you in the direction of that which is bad. It's like driving a car and you find your car, you know, it's not the wheel is not balanced. So, it's constantly going in a direction that's the wrong direction. You're trying to put the rope straight on the but it keeps taking you off and you have to wrench it back, pull it back and again it goes off. The second type of soul is all soul that is contented. All contented soul return to your lord pleased with him and him pleased with you. And that is the soul that has overcome its desires that were preventing it from taking the path to Jenna. The third soul which is mentioned the stronger view is that it applies to both of them and that is the soul that blames itself and the some of them say it's a third soul like in the stronger view is that it applies to both because the good soul blame blames itself for missing out on good and the evil soul blames itself for missing out on evil. So every soul is he has an amazing statement about overcoming your desires. I've read it before but I really like it. I I read it a lot this statement and I really feel like he captured a real difficulty when people ask you how do I overcome this desire that is I am now obeying it. How am I How am I not from the people we mentioned the hadith? The intelligent one is the one who takes himself to account and works for what will come after death. And the one who is helpless is the one who allows himself to follow his desires. So what is it that can stop a person? has an amazing statement. He said, He said most of the people when they have something in front of them that is incredibly beneficial. We could be talking about Jenna. We can even be talking about what something is in front of you that you know you have a a goal that is beneficial that is good for you that is beloved to you. you know it and you have this goal in front of your eyes. So right in front of your eyes right now you have a goal that you know is good for you and you want to achieve it. You have this dream of achieving it but what happens is something is going to get in the way. The first thing is the first thing is that you don't really know what the goal is or you don't really have a good idea of it or a good definition of it. So you have a goal maybe but it's very vague. You don't have a good you don't have a good picture or a good image and a good understanding of what your goal is. That's your first problem. The second one is is you don't know how to get there. So this person says some people either they don't have a goal or their idea about the goal is very vague and fuzzy and not very well defined. And he said, for example, sometimes people might say, well, my goal is to be from the people of Jenna. And that's a good thing, of course, but sometimes a bit vague and fuzzy, you know, like how okay, what what are like what do you need to do to be from the people of Jenna? You what does that entail in your life? What sacrifices do you need to make? But the person is a bit a bit vague about it. Or the person might have a very clearly defined goal. I want to be a person of knowledge but the person doesn't know how to get there. This is a big problem for a lot of they have this goal in front of their eyes. They want to they they want to have knowledge and they they've seen the they've seen the people of knowledge the only people who truly fear Allah among his servants or the scholars and they've got the idea there but they have no idea how to get there. For them it's just a vague idea. I'm going to sit in some durus and I'm going to read some books and eventually one day I'll get the title. The person doesn't know how to get there. That's not the problem. Those problems can be solved easily with knowledge. A person can get knowledge. Okay, what should your goals be in this life and how do you achieve those goals? So now let's pretend all of us for the purpose of this quote of all of us are on the same page when it comes to the goals. We've got we know what we need to do and we know how to get there. But now we have the problem which the poet mentions. He said The person might know what they're aiming for and they might know how to get it, but in their heart there are whims and desires that come between them and their goal. and they can't take the path because their desires and their whims and their feelings are getting in the way. Every time the person takes that path that he knows he needs to take, these desires come in the way of him taking the path that he needs to take. So what is the way to get out of them? Here is why gives you gold to be honest with you. He gives you gold. He's going to tell you now, right? You know your goal. You know how to get there, but you find your desires are in the way. I'm going to tell you how to get out of it. He said, you need two things. Either you need a love which you are attached to it. Y your heart is attached to a a love that overcomes it or in your heart there is a fear that prevents you from it. And then he explains what he means. He said He said, "Let's talk about the love, the love of Allah and the love of the messenger sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam and the love of the and the love of Jenna and the love of the rewards that's a very good benefit by the way and it's a reputation of some of the and the who said that we don't ja loving Jenna isn't part of our and we don't care about loving Jenna we just we just we just love Allah now you love Allah and you love the rasool and you love the reward that Allah has promised for you more than you love that desire Why? Because you know that you can't bring them together. Doesn't say you don't love it. You love that thing that is wrong for you. For example, let's say but he loves to sleep and he he really likes to sleep. You know, he really enjoys that nice deep restful comfortable sleep. But he knows that he can't have that ill and that sleep and they can't come together. So he has to pick one or the other. He knows. So the one he loves more is the one he'll pick. Or now he goes to the other one, the fear. He says, "A person knows the consequences of putting his desires first, the punishments, the pain that are far more painful than missing out on that desire and last much longer." So now what does he do? He says, "Okay, yeah, I am scared of missing out on what my friends are doing, but I'm more scared of the pain that will happen to me if I do it." So he gives precedence to the pain that he fears the most and he puts that pain ahead of his desires. Then he finishes and he says, "If this person can put these two types of knowledge in his heart firmly, they will result in him giving precedence to what pleases Allah and putting it first ahead of everything else." Notice how even though the issue of is an issue of it's an issue of actions, right? Look howb brings it back to the issue of and you feel that when you read his works that his the emphasis upon the danger of the problems of of the and the issues connected to knowledge and how that affects even your is the issues of action and the issues of desires. If you can have in your heart enough love of Allah and theool wasallam and the and Jenna and the pleasures of Jenna and enough fear of Allah and fear of the punishment and fear of the fire and the punishment of the grave, the more you can put of that in your heart, the more likely it is that you're going to choose the thing you love the most and you're going to choose to be away from the thing that you fear the most. And I just think that quote is a profound quote. If you really think about it, how does a person overcome their desires? So it comes back to that knowledge that you act upon when you know who Allah is. Even the ayah if you look in the some of them said standing in front of Allah others said no the here goes back to it goes back to the issue of you you know Allah and you're so scared of who Allah is and what Allah does and so fearful and so much veneration that you prohibit your soul from what it desires. So a person needs to understand that it's normal to like and enjoy some things and some of those things are and some of them are and some of them are human beings have that problem inside of them. But the more you attach yourself to the Sharia and the more that you purify yourself through the Quran and the Sunnah, the more a person is able to give precedence to what they should over what they shouldn't. The duny is a fitna and it's a trial. The prophet sallallah.aii Wasam. He said in an authentic this is sweet and green. This is something which is alluring. It's something beautiful. And it's something that is very sweet and very alluring. Allah has placed you on this earth as successors and he will see what you will do and in order to see for the sake of seeing what you will do. So shield yourself from this. shield yourself from it and shield yourself from the fitna of women. For indeed the first of the trials of ban is they were tried with regard to women. hadith, the hadith of in Muslim and elsewhere. But for a person to think about the fitna of the dunya, how easy it is to be drawn into this world until it becomes your goal. And we've said many times distinguish between having the dy and wanting the fitna. Yes, it can be in having it if it's being misused. But more than anything, for a lot of people, the fna in reality is in craving it and wanting it and chasing it and desiring it more than in having it. Having it any what Allah gives you, you use it for good. But it's easy to be fooled. And that is why Allahawel said, You become busy. You became busy with having more competing with each other to have more more of anything. More money, more children, more wealth, more followers, more as as more of anything you can compete. And the issue is here doesn't have to be money by itself. In anything, you just want to have more and more and more. And you want to compete that you have more than him and he has more than you until what? Until you visit i.e. until you are buried in the grave. When you're buried among the graves, when you're buried in the se in in the cemetery, then a person realizes the reality of this world and the greenery of this world and the beauty of this world and the beauty of the wealth in it. And I say to you, especially here where there are so many wealthy people you see and you see people living a very very luxurious, very very happy, very seemingly happy existence and people make videos and show you just how much luxury and how much you know wealth. It's very easy for this to become a fitna in the sense that you start to crave it. And even if you don't fall into haram by taking wealth by a means that is haram, you become attached to this world. And so you don't give precedence to the hereafter. And instead the hereafter comes second. How many people is it that the hereafter for them is something? Yeah, I mean I want to be from the people of Jenna, right? But I've got a job and I've got also my kids to think about and their education. It's like Jenna comes like fourth, fifth, sixth on the list after all the other stuff. So to put this forward, to have this ear and this and this hard work, you have to be aware of the reality of what this world is. And remember what he said in the beginning of the poem when he spoke about the woman. I see that you are in love with a veiled bride. She's veiled and her face is covered. But the intelligent people have already divorced her three times. And he's a dun. The intelligent person knew that this is a fitna. That's why some of them said when a fitna comes the people of knowledge they see the fitna for what it is. As for the people who are junior in knowledge and less in knowledge maybe they see the fitna come as the shape of a beautiful woman and leave in the shape of an you know an an old woman who is any nobody would want. Meaning when she was coming it looked like something beautiful but when she was leaving everybody knew the reality of what it was. So it's a it becomes a trial for a person and the reality is everything in this world is a trial. We test you with evil and good as a fitna as a trial. But here to become a person who falls into that you can fall into a fitna because of the good you're given just like you can fall into a fitna because of the bad that you do. Both of them have a potential to fall into a fitna. We test you with evil and good as a trial. Now, so the person can be tried which means they can fail with evil and they can be tried and that means they can fail with good. In good especially the the decoration of this world and the adornment of this world that the person becomes attached to it and a person becomes preoccupied by it. And we'll finish one more line and then we'll stop there. And you would not have been preoccupied by the beauty of gardens nor a veiled woman with her adornment any would you have burdened yourself for. So you won't become busy with the greenery of this world. We said the hadith this this bait reminds you of that hadith in. So what are the two fit? What are the two fit in the in the in the fitness? The fitna of the and the fitna of women. the fitna of the dunya, the beauty of the gardens, the beauty of the greenery, the getting caught up in this world and not realizing that this world is not beloved to allahel and so becoming caught up in something and if this world was worth the wing of a nat a mosquito Allah would not have given a kafir water to drink. So how can a person be in love with this world if they see that this world this world is cursed and everything in it is cursed except the remembrance of Allah and that which is connected to it. This world is cursed and everything in it is cursed except for the remembrance of Allah and what is connected to it or a scholar or a learner and or a student everything else it takes you away from what is it's to be far from the mercy of Allah to be cast away from the mercy of Allah if it's not the remembrance of Allah and it's not worship it's not and it's not beloved to Allah it's not going to it's not bringing you this world the more you follow it and run after it the further it takes you from the mercy of allahel so you're not preoccupied by the beauty of garment of the gardens and then it comes to the second fitnet that is mentioned in the hadith and that you a veiled woman with her adornment he has made you preoccupied it's tied you up and there is no doubt that there are so many ways in this or so many issues in this that we have to uh think about as for the bait that mentions I mean there's a there's a difference you some of you have one text and some of you have the other uh it is a and he he's here the poet is comparing a beautiful woman to uh and he's comparing uh a beautiful woman to like like the beautiful animal. And this is normal in poetry, right? They they talk about um they talk about a beautiful woman and in poetry often they compare her to the gazelle or the adex. Here here and it's referring to the the adax or the white antelope and the person has become and he he's given the example like he's become attracted by a beautiful and there's a beautiful animal in front of him a beautiful gazelle or an antelope or an adex and he's become mesmerized by it and how many people is this their fitna the first for it was the issue of women and Allah subhana t has made for you that which is halal and that's sufficient for you that's why the virtue is there of al the idea of a person being happy with what is halal for you but just like the dy is alluring likewise the men find and Allah has from his f and he has placed that allurement or that alluring nature that the man is amazed and mesmerized and he feels like whatever he has what he sees is more beautiful when in reality it's not like that it's another fitna it's another mirage it's another a mirage and it's something that you think is true like in the reality is it isn't true and so people either become preoccup occupied. They become worried about so if they're not married and they're looking to get married, they become preoccupied with what the issue of what she's going to want from me money. She's going to want from me a good life. She's going to want from me a good job. Maybe this, you know, leave it on the side. You know, I need to go do some I need to go and put myself into this world so that I can get this woman. or the person becomes worse than that which is that they become into a fitna with regard to that which allahel made haram and here I'm going to finish my advice with a few words to some of the seekers of knowledge the students of knowledge and advice to myself and advice to others and I've given this advice many times can I think it's appropriate here that a person is very very careful especially when they seek acknowledge and people have a trust in them that maybe they shouldn't have. And people sometimes approach them uh you know they sometimes deal with questions that come from the from you know sisters or marriage proposals or second marriage proposals or third marriage proposals or whatever it might be. And the person falls into one of two really big problems. One is that they lose the state of being a student of knowledge. They lose the the respect and the position of the seeker of knowledge because they're just running from person to person. Maybe it's not haram in the sense the marriage is a marriage but there's you know it's a marriage divorce and marriage and there's a lot of stuff going on and there's a lot of and or I there's a lot of like things where the person puts themselves at risk because they're chasing after this the second problem is the the worst of them all which is the falling into falling into the haram and no doubt every son of Adam Every single person has been given a portion of zena they will commit. No one can escape it. Any meaning the eye, the ear, the you know and so on. Like in a person really has to be very very very careful because shaitan doesn't leave you. And when shaitan sees you commit yourself to knowledge and books and studying he doesn't leave you. And perhaps the woman that you chased when you were not a seeker of knowledge and she ran away from you and maybe Shayan puts her into your path again or another or another or someone messages or someone needs this or someone needs that and before long and it's you ruin yourself your position with Allah subhana ta and your honor in sight of the people. It's very very important because ultimately we have to be able to trust the people of knowledge. If we can't have you not seen that in reality one of the biggest that ever brought is a to make you doubt that your scholars are sincere. This was one of the great shouhat they brought because once you don't trust your scholars, you don't trust the people of knowledge. You you cut the person from Allah completely and the thing is that sometimes that is the fault of like I said it's and sometimes actually the sometimes doesn't help himself. So you have to be doubly strict with yourself and you never take the knowledge that you have as a means to you know improve your standing in this world or a means to improve your standing in terms of marriage or whatever. It's not that that's not what we sought knowledge for and that's not what we're here for. So a person has to be careful to maintain always the the presence the of the person of knowledge and never ever to let themselves get caught up in things that the other people get caught up in. Yeah. People will come and say I did this, I did that. Um you know I want to marry this person. I met her in this place then she wants to marry me but her and that's for people come to you with those issues. You don't come to people with those issues. A person if they suffice themselves with what allahel made permissible for them Allah they will find it is enough for them inshallahala like in this is a big big hole that it's so easy to fall into and it's very easy to ruin your reputation in a way that people don't take your knowledge. Now sometimes people we talked about the issue of and the issue of a person could say why would I care about surely I should only care about and I should care about what Allah thinks of me not what the people think. The problem with what the people think is if you lose your honor in the sight of the people, your da will stop. Because the basic fra people have in dawa is they want to take it from people that they consider to be people that they have a respect for, people that have a position in their eyes rightly or wrongly. And if a person and like the poet said He said that if people knew the evil of what was in me, they wouldn't give salam to me when they met me and they would have turned away from me and given up on my companionship and I would have been disgraced after I was honored. But if you lose that in the sight of the people, you lose your da'wah. Yahweh. Now you tell people to do to do good and you tell people to keep away from evil. But people say, "How will you tell me to keep away from evil and you don't keep away from evil? How will you tell me to do good and you don't do good? How will you tell me you don't fear Allah?" Can't be like this. A person really has to think about it for the of the the etiquets and the behaviors. No doubt your only concern is what is with Allah subhana tala. But no doubt if you lose the confidence of the community your dawa will be very very hard for people to accept. That's why they always the prophets were the best of the people. And that's why when you hear the Israeli the news of the Jews and Christians where they talk about the prophets doing the like and they talk about the prophets doing the we know this is clear lie because the prophets were the best of the people and the prophets never fell into these and these you know things that would make people doubt them and they say about that he killed a man so he could run off with his wife and all these is that they say that they are fabricated stories you realize that the prophets were the best of the people and the highest standard of character You are upon the highest standard of character and likewise the seeker of knowledge has to have that high standard of character and has to be concerned that my da'wah is accepted by the people that I convey that dawa to. So don't allow yourself to be caught up in the duny like for example and is it wrong for a to for example let's say pull up outside the masid in really expensive sports car I don't know Lamborghini Ferrari whatever pull up outside the masid and just take the keys out go and lead the salah nothing wrong with it he bought it with halal money do you think it's possible that something could be in the heart of the person like you know something could be a little bit something could go into the person's heart I'm not it's nothing wrong like he didn't do anything wrong he brought something permissible for him to buy and he you know enjoyed it and he came to the masjid to lead the salah again isn't it possible that the person might have something in his heart and feel [sighs] I don't know like but you have to think about those things and maybe everyone's like that. Everyone's got these flashy cars. No problem. Like you you have to think about the way that your dawa is received by people and what it does to you and and and the way that you convey it. So these issues may not fall into issues of prohibition like that like and you have to think about it. So with that inshallah we're going to conclude our discussion. Uh after that we are going to talk about where the issue of and where does real sustenance of the soul come from and we'll take that inshallah next lesson. Muhammad.