Tazkiyya wa Tarbiyya

Auto-generated transcript: Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi rukil alameen. Wasalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil nubiyyil wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullahﷺ sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira wa ma'adu. Alhamdulillah we have a series of questions today. Let's see how many of them we can deal with. If we leave anything behind then we do it. So the first question is the concept of Taskiyatul Nafs. What is Taskiyatul Nafs and how do we achieve it? Allahﷻ when he mentioned Rasulullahﷺ he called him, he mentioned him and he honoured him by calling him his ni'mah. He said the Rasulullahﷺ is by ni'mah on the believers. Allahﷻ says Laqad manna Allahu ala al-mu'mineena Ith ba'asa feehim Rasulam min anfusihim Yatlu alayhim ayatihi wa yudhuwa Yuzakkihim uliya'allimuhum al-gitaab wa wal-hikmah Wa in kaanu min qablu lafihi qalalim mubeen Which means verily and truly we have bestowed upon the believers our blessing, our ni'mah by raising from among them our Rasul, our messenger. What does he do? Yatlu alayhim ayatihi He recites for them and before them the ayat which have been revealed to him. Wa yuzakkihim and he purifies them internally and externally. Wa yu'allimuhum al-gitaab and he teaches them the book wal-hikmah and he teaches them the book. He teaches them wisdom. And truly before that they had been misguided. Clearly misguided. So the question of tazkiyah to nafs starts from the Quran itself. Tazkiyah means to purify. Allahﷻ said, Qad aflah man tazakka They have succeeded those who purified themselves. And in many other places Allah has mentioned the importance of purification and the importance of tazkiyah. And Allah as I mentioned in the ayat before, Allah mentioned tazkiyah as the purification. So tazkiyah is one of the primary responsibilities of Rasulullah . So purification in short means purification. So when you say tazkiyah to nafs, you mean purify our nafs. The question is purify the nafs from what? Number one. Number two, what is the state of purity? How do I know if my nafs is pure? Nafs means breath. Nafs means the self. Our understanding of our self. Nafs also is taken in the meaning of kalb, which is the heart. So when we say nafs, depending on the sentence and so on, it can also mean kalb. So tazkiyah to nafs is tazkiyah to kalb also. Nafs also means roh. So it's also tazkiyah to roh. Now without going into too many complications with this, the best way to understand nafs is it's your intellect and your emotions. In terms of your intellect and your emotions. So the heart and the brain, the human being, these two are not clearly separated. They're not two compartments. They are interlinked, interconnected. To the extent that we know today from scientific research, that the heart and the spine, they have neurons. So there is some part of the brain which is actually the brain. It's actually physically present in the heart and the veins. And then the heart also performs brain-like functions of directing the body to do various things and so on and so forth. So there is a physical connection between the two. But looking at it from the non-physical aspect, looking at it from the aspect of the intellect and the emotion, these are connected. They're mixed. There's no separate intellect, separate emotion. Allahﷻ mentioned it also as Qalb-un-Saleem. And I think I did hear a series of lectures, three or four lectures in this masjid on Qalb-un-Saleem. They are recorded somewhere. Allah said, on the Day of Judgement, everyone will be at a loss, except the one who comes with a Qalb-un-Saleem. The Qalb, which is pure and complete and not corrupted and not impure and filthy. Tazkiyah is to purify. Now the purification, what is the state of purification? The state of purification is where the Qalb is filled only and only with the greatness and glory and magnificence of Allahﷻ. The Noor of Allah. So the Qalb must be purified. The Qalb must be pure and must be cleaned from anything other than Allah. In every aspect. So when we say adhaat in Allah, Allah as the one we worship. Allah as the one we fear in terms of anything bad happening. Allah as in terms of the one we seek help from. Allah as the one we seek guidance from. And so on. So only and only Allahﷻ. Tawheed is to purify your heart and remove everything other than Allahﷻ from this. So all hopes and aspirations which are linked to anyone other than Allah, ghairullah. Whether this ghairullah is physically present in your life or whether ghairullah is some person or celestial body or God knows what, right? People have faith and belief on all kinds of things. So all of this to purify and to remove all this from your heart. This is the purification. It also means to remove from our hearts, our nafoos, all forms of disobedience of Allah. So all desire to disobey Allahﷻ. Anything. I don't want to make a long list of that, right? Anything which amounts to disobedience of Allahﷻ must not be, the desire for that should not be in the heart. Now you might say this is pushing it because desire comes. We don 't ask for it. But the two ways to avoid it. One is to stay away, stay in an environment which has the least inputs for the disobedience of Allahﷻ. Right? So if you are not in that environment, then the temptation is also less because the fewer people after you to do this and do that which Allah does not like. And the second way to keep your heart desire free is when you get a thought, which amounts to the disobedience of Allahﷻ, you immediately negate it. You immediately say Astaghfirullah. You immediately say La khawla la quwwata illa billah. You immediately seek the protection of Allahﷻ. Taskiyah also means to free and purify the heart from all negative thoughts and emotions. Free the heart from fear of anything other than Allah. From the fear of Allah. From depression. From despair. From anger. From hasad. From jealousy. Right? From greed. From envy. All of these. I mean whatever else you can think of. I mean I am not making an exhaustive list. But all of these kinds of things which are net negative. There is nothing positive about any of them. Free the heart from all of these. Again, same rule. Which is, as soon as any of these surface, as soon as you feel jealous about something, about somebody, about someone, as soon as you see something which someone has, and you feel envious, oh, I wish I had that. And envy is not only I wish I had this. Like. But, you are also wishing for something bad will happen to that person. That's why it's such a nasty thing. It's not just to say I wish I had this. So as soon as any of these suffers immediately make it suffer and say Masha Allah for that other person say Masha Allah Alhamdulillah may Allah increase him in his in whatever blessing Allah has given him make this specific Dua for that person usually our envy is all related to material things you see somebody's house you see somebody's car you see something like this right how many people feel envious that somebody is a habit of the Quran how many people feel envious that somebody's life is so pure and simple how many people feel envious that you know that somebody is has such beautiful manners we don't think that for granted that doesn't exist you get envious only about material stuff so anytime any negative thing comes in remove it don't wait don't wait for you know any time immediately remove it even if it grows because the soil is not conducive the irrigation is not conducive maybe the pH value the acid alkaline level of the soil is not conducive maybe the soil is full of pathogens maybe it doesn't have enough carbon content and so on so on and many things the seed will even if it germinates it will not grow to its old age actual possibility, right? It won't be as beautiful as it could have been. So, the first thing you do is you prepare the soil. You clean the soil, you purify the soil, you see if the soil is conducive to the kind of thing that you're planting in it. Yeah, I spent 10 years as a tea planter. We know that tea grows best when in a soil pH value over 4.5 percent. pH value of 4.5. So, if it is too much, meaning if it is too acidic, you put lime, you make it alkaline. If it's too alkaline, then you put some fertilizers, nitrates and something you put in so it gets more acidic. So, basically you balance it, get it down to 4.5 pH value. Then you see if there is enough organic matter coming in, if there is not, then you manure it and so on and so forth. Right? You prepare the soil. First thing, taskiyah is the preparation of the soil. And that soil is the heart. To receive the kalam of Allah, to receive the word of Allah, to receive Islam, you purify the soil. That is what taskiyah is. Now, taskiyah is also connected with tarbiyatul akhlaaq. So, taskiyah tul nafs wa tarbiyatul akhlaaq. Tarbiyatul akhlaaq is purification of our actions. Taskiyah is purification inside, purification of the heart. And tarbiyatul akhlaaq is purification of our actions, our manners, how we talk, what we talk, our manners, how we greet people, how we are with people and so on and so on and so on. All that has to do with that, which is the tarbiyatul akhlaaq. So, these two are connected. I think if I'm not mistaken, there are, I did here in this masjid, 50 khateras, five zero. Twenty five on tarbiyatul nafs and twenty five on tarbiyatul akhlaaq. That's all. Other or somebody will send you, ask them to send you the list. Listen to all of them. There are fifty of them. So, inshaAllah this will give you some more. The point is not just to collect knowledge, but to actually practice it. So, from now, right now, think about this and say, each one of you and myself included, what do I need to change in myself for taskiyah tul nafs and for tarbiyatul akhlaaq? What do I need to change in myself to purify my heart and what do I need to change in myself to purify my manners, my akhlaaq? May Allah grant you and fill your hearts with His know.