Ghaflah/Heedlessness
Date:
Channel: Nouman Ali Khan
File Size: 13.59MB
Episode Notes
Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan delves on the topic of heedlessness or Ghaflah which is the attitude of doing something without realizing what you’re doing, not really thinking about what you’re involved in, not really thinking or caring about how you’re time is spent, or what comes out of your mouth, or what actions you perform, or how your actions impact other people, or how they impact your own self, your own personality. This sickness is the sickness of “Ghaflah”.
So how do we prevent this state from overpowering us? It’s inevitable it will come upon us once in a while and how do we consciously attack this state? How do we consciously appreciate how to overcome Ghaflah and instead of being people of Ghaflah we become people of Dhikr?
The recitation of Quran, the listening to Dars of Qur’an should be made into a habit which was actually a legacy of the Sahaba. This is the means by which they don’t let Ghaflah sink in. The longer it’s been since you read Quran and reflected on Quran or learnt something about Quran, the worse off you’ll feel inside your heart. This existence is that of Ghaflah.
We must have an uninterrupted relationship with the Quran and turn it into a habit so that we remain awake throughout our lives.
AI Generated Transcript ©
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reminded multiple times that the month of Ramadan is approaching.
And we can take enough precaution to take most advantage of this one.
It is probably a tragedy in all of our lives that we pass by them on year after year. And we look back and we say I could have done more.
And so it's only appropriate that we take this opportunity and I take this opportunity for myself, to remind myself and all of you of one of the greatest obstacles that comes before a person a Muslim. And taking full advantage of this one for forgiveness, this month of mercy was meant for blessings, this month of starting your life fresh, and the new beginning.
And so that obstacle that lies before us, and this one, that is a personal obstacle is the obstacle of ruffler.
This term of law, commonly translated as heedlessness is something a little bit more. It's the attitude of doing something without realizing what you're doing. Not really thinking about what you're involving, not only thinking or caring about what how your time is spent, or what comes out of your mouth, or what actions you perform, or how your actions impact other people, or how they even impact your own self, your own personality. This sickness is a sickness.
And you know, if you reflect and I reflect on my own life, you will find that sometimes we're making saliva, but we're not really making so
we have no idea what we're doing. Our mind is somewhere else. We are physically impaired, but in our hearts We are often completely headless. And so it happens that we come in the month of Ramadan, and we're fasting. yet we're not conscious of the fact that we're
feeling hungry and thirsty, but at the same time, we're in a state of Rocky. And this last law that allows mentions is something in the hearts of people. When
the messenger is
talking about the disbelievers, the messenger is really not to follow them or to listen to them when not to pay any attention to them. But instead of
saying what
he says in another case, instead of saying
he doesn't say don't
use a specific term for these disbelievers. And he says what
the one whose heart We have made empty or void or made it neglectful.
I mean, how was his own game pathetic, empty desires. So this is the state of it's a very sad state because this is the state.
But sometimes this tragedy occurs to a believer that sometimes the believer becomes
and you know, it's not permanent.
We go in and out of UCLA, you're in the Joomla. I'm engaged in the act of reminding you and myself. So perhaps we can snap out of UCLA. Sometimes somebody gives you advice or you hear if you hear somebody give a talk that touches your heart, and you step out of love, and minutes after the Juma prayer, when we're in our cars, walking out of here, we rocks slip right back into the state.
So then how do we prevent this state from overpowering us? It's inevitable, it will come upon us once in a while, or really, as part of that, how do we consciously attack the state? How do we consciously appreciate how to overcome and instead of being people of color, we become people. And that
speaks about a people that also believe it also had a book that also had a messenger that also claimed to be in the state of submission to Allah.
That often all the time,
and I told you what is rest, where is this disease rest rest inside the heart, and
your hearts became hard after that.
neglect, they're not concerned with the remembrance of Allah. And so in order to take these people that are basically sweeping
out, but they're sleeping, they don't realize what they have.
To wake them up, reminds us what he does. And this passage that I want to share with you, is dedicated to this disease of ruffler. The entire passage deals with
when he took the mountain, he raised the mountain above them and shook it. Like he was a canopy above them, like an umbrella above them. Now imagine if you were not concerned about the halal and haram, you were not concerned about remembering Allah, you lived your life sort of nonchalant, and then decides to raise a mountain above your head and shake it above your head? Would this be a good reminder to wake up? And just snap out of your? Absolutely. I mean, this this to us in more subtle ways, he did this to them in a very profound way. But if you're in a plane, and there's turbulence, you stop listening to your mp3 song and you pull over and you know, you stop.
By right, because in state of emergency, the first one returned to his allies, that was it. And this is so much so that even the copy does this because she's a flood coming in, says, Oh my god, you know, so this, the states in which Allah scares us, or what brings up something that is really mind boggling what it's shocking. Those are opportunities for us to become vacuum and have a login to remember him again. So my reason is this above them, and he shakes this, nothing above them. And then he says to them,
hold on to what we have granted you with great strength, great might hold on to it leading
by proxy is telling us that we like to hold on to his book. And that's appropriate for us to remind ourselves up, because this is the one that's coming up. So now this mountain is raised above them, and they are told to hold on to their book.
And you know what, as I was I will give this oma opportunities, you would think a mountain hovering over your head is a bad thing. You would think this is a punishment from Allah. But if this was a means by which they snapped out of their hustler, and they became those who remember a lot again, this is a gift from Allah.
And so we look around us and we see the oma in tragedy. We see many terrible things happen across the world. And those things, if we just look at them as tragedy then that in itself is a bigger tragedy. Those events that are supposed to shock us that are supposed to sadness and overwhelm us. Those are means by which God is giving us the opportunity to wake up. Just like when he was given the opportunity to wake up. Once you wake up when you do you need a means by which you stay awake. Just like I said, as soon as the goodbyes over what happens to most of us, including myself, we leave here we go back to sleep. So while the mountain is hovering above their head, and they're
awake now, he tells them the prescription of how to stay awake. How do you stay awake, hold on to what we have given you a great strength
and keep remembering what is in it mentioned what is in it mentioned What is it?
So you may attain
not just fear that was actually an awareness. It's an awareness acquire is to be aware of your surroundings, to be aware and be cautious to be careful that is someone who's careful about what they say and what they do.
All right. So now give us the prescription to remain on, remain away from heedlessness. And this
goes forward. And this was one general specific example. But this is a problem, not just a problem of all of mankind.
When all of us were created, in the form of an ally xojo pulled us out from the back.
And he made us all witness over one thing, he made us all aware of one thing, Am I not your Lord? And all of us? Us? They said, whose name it is us, all human beings. They testified before a lot. Of course, why not? Shall we bear witness? And then give us a disclaimer, he made a status that he's on board. But then look at the proposed statement he makes, he said,
I made you do this. So on the Day of Judgment, you don't have room to say under election, in.
Without a doubt, we had no idea we will happen. We were unaware. We were heedless about this promise, you have no room to say this anymore. Because
look at this, this this declaration of the consciousness of the human being.
The human being says you will make other excuses because instead of admitting your fault, when you come before me on the Day of Resurrection, he says,
we're going to see how
they were doing before
they raise their
children after them. It's not our fault. It's my parents fault. Don't blame us, blame them. And then the people will say,
Are you going to destroy us because of what these wrongdoing people with these people who put us in a state of lying in a state of fashion? Are you going to punish us because of that? So people will make excuses. And since Allah was this excuse, what is he telling us directly that she says are useless? The reason he made us testify is
not your Lord. And we all testified after that these two excuses and I had no idea. Either it's not my fault. It was my surroundings. It was my parents it was bringing, that's the reason I messed up. Neither of these excuses are valid anymore. Oh, my invalidates both of them. But then he says
this is how we explain and clarify the miraculous signs the
return, meaning returned from their state of heedlessness returned from their sleep, and then returned to be awake again, to be trivializing the reality
speaks of a person then after this, who is Muslim? First he speaks up,
then he speaks up on Children of Adam, then what are these two lessons for, for who for the Muslims is revealed, and who's reciting the Quran, who is going back to this plan for guidance, it's meant for mankind, but the people who consulted are the Muslims. So my speaks of the case of a Muslim.
He speaks of the case of someone who claims to be in Assam and not just a Muslim, a knowledgeable Muslim. A Muslim just speaks of a person who knows, you know, you might know you might be recused himself or herself, that you know, something is wrong and you still do it. You know, you might know people that know the hell out from the home, they know the right from wrong, they know what to look at and what not to look at, they know what to say and what not to say they still do it. And so neither just speaks of this person and says what why him never nav Athena, who is gonna recite, read on to them, read on to them. The news of someone who we gave our is, Allah says, we give this person
our meaning this person here knowledge,
and Salah honey.
And the waiting is very profound. He says, this person who unlike himself gave him knowledge. He slivers out of those ions, in synapse in Arabic is used when a snake sheds its skin.
And Allah speaks of this, this person was covered in the knowledge of Islam. He's covered in the ayatollah, he knows this stuff. And what does he do? He slithers out of it, despite knowing it, he makes his life different.
And so like gives us this ugly image of a person whose show is that of a knowledgeable person, whose show is that of a person who knows Islam or portrays himself as a Muslim, but that's just a skin that he's already shed. In reality, that's reality.
So he says
When he leaves the Ayat of Allah, what is he left, he has left a lot as his money, he has left allies, his friend and guardian. So then when ally leaves him to them, who's left to follow Him, who's gonna be on his case, following him trying to make him go the wrong way, it will be a fun
out of
this knowledgeable Muslim, this knowledgeable believer, when he decides to go astray, then the shaitaan follows him. And he becomes from those that are confused.
When
Allah says, if we had wanted, we would have elevated him, by that knowledge we gave him because of this person could have had a lot of elevation, in a lot of eyes. And, you know, this elevation in our own eyes, right, somebody has more respect, because they're older or more knowledgeable or scholarly, or whatever else, Allah says we would have elevated him meaning allow would have given him higher status in his in his own estimation, that allow would consider him noble, just because of the IR, Allah Himself gave him. But then he speaks of the tragedy and says, When I can know who,
however, this person, he inclined towards the earth, he was stuck to the earth, He remained directed towards the Earth. His goals were lowly. This is the image being provided his goals were really pathetic. He just went over things that will give him immediate pleasure. That's all he wanted out of life.
And he just continued to follow his empty desires. And just a slight comment about empty desires arise that we can put these desires inside of us as part of our
right, Allah says himself,
these things, the love of women, the desire for women, in men, houses, horses, now horsepower numbers, right? cars, investment strategies, you know, all of this stuff in love with the love of it inside of our hearts. But this person out of that love, what did he choose to abandon? He chose to abandon the villa. And so what gives his example and he says,
His example is like the example of a dog.
Look at how ugly example is, again, this is not a carrier who's talking about a Muslim, who knowingly becomes disobedient, because rocky gives us example, like the example of a dog. And he says,
if you beat this dog, if you put something on this dog gets panting, it's grueling. And if you leave it alone, it's still sticking its tongue out, it's still grueling, meaning this person becomes so pathetic, even as a human being, that whether they're hungry or not, they're thinking about food, whether they have the desire or not, they're looking at shameless things, whether they have to or not, they're using foul language. Meaning, you know, sometimes you do think because you really, you're overwhelmed by desire, and you're you know, you want you you want to do what you say, I was overwhelmed, I was seduced into this Act, or into this statement, right? Or I stole because I was
hungry, but he becomes like a dog, whether he needs to or not, he's pathetic. He just doesn't fulfills his desires, and forces himself to lose his eyes, even if he doesn't feel the need.
This is the example of a nation that deliberately lies against our if they know that the truth is to lie against them.
Clearly, an eloquent fashion make this clear to the people so we can think deeply about their own lives. Think deeply. And we really reverse it, reflecting deeply on your own life, experience, your own thought your own state, when you wake up your own state, when you go to see
a horrible example, a nation,
the nation who was deliberately against
one person,
and even in regards to their own selves, they were unjust, who did the wrong, they didn't run the law. They don't take anything away from the dominion of Allah, when we do something wrong. we abandon an obligation of Allah when we disobey the law or disregard the law or not careful what Allah wants us to do in this life or lose our purpose in life.
Who's
no one else except ourselves?
Says man, yeah, the law Who?
Whoever allow a guy and he is the one who has been guided, we come back to the same point. Allah gave us the prescription to stay awake. He gave us this book in
the without a doubt this hold on it guides and guides that you can Kitagawa a Buffy hotel. guidance. This is what I was saying. So was it
He is the one who has been guided, one has to seek guidance from this book constantly over and over again. It's on for a reason. But I mean, something that over and over again, you can just know I know about cron. I know I've heard the, I've read it cover to cover already when I was little, I know the meanings of these lessons I've already read it. It's not like that the word cron demands that you read it over and over again, you see guidance over and over again, it's not something that you can fulfill your relationship one time.
And wherever he leads them, those are the ones that are the ultimate losers. The heart of this quote by Rumi is this morning against Russia. And the last I want to share with you in this context is probably the most important in this passage on this subject.
So just speaks of people that he has created. And yes, spread around the earth for help. For Johanna, he says,
Hi, we have created and spread about the earth, multitudes, huge volumes of people out of the jinn and the human being in a genuine sense. And then he says, Why? Why are these people going to help you? If you read the first part of the argument, think of what made them so they can go to hell? No, no, no. He did something that made them down towards the hellfire. There's something wrong with them. And he says about them.
Life.
They have hearts, but they don't understand anything.
This itself is a puzzle in and of itself. Because
they have intellects but they don't understand what he said, What did he say?
They have hearts, but they don't understand with them. You know the difference between a person who thinks just with their mind. And the person who thinks with the mind, but has a clean heart is very different. They see two different things. So what is this person who has a heartbeat, it is a person who in whose heart there is no remembrance of a mother's only, roughly, they can see that a believer sees. Now the character is very intelligent. He also has Apple, right, you will have people that are professors and PhD intellectuals, that is believers. And you will have Muslims that are intellectual also, so often is not the problem. But they're not the thinking the thought is composed of two
things it composes what you have in your mind and what you have inside your heart. And just to illustrate this with a simple example before I conclude,
know you have students, young kids, they see their friends smoking outside school,
and they want to smoke with them.
They go to health class and they get a bio class and they learn smoking destroys your lungs. When they buy the pack from the store on the site, what does it say Surgeon General's warning snapper it might lead to cancer. Is there anything missing in the knowledge? Is there anything missing here that this is that? No. But there's a desire to want to be like your friends, there's a desire to look cool, and really desires rest and their hearts. So they have intellect. But what's the problem? The problem isn't here. The problem is in the heart, it's the desire. So what speaks about this and says,
Give us give us
eyes, but
they have eyes, but they don't see. You see the kind of people that hold on to this book with great strength, like when he was told
he become like that, then when we see the world outside, and when we see the creation of Allah, and we see our own life, we see it through the lens of the eye of Allah. It's like your room, the shaves, and everything you see is filtered or tinted in the shades.
And so just to give you an illustration of that,
if you're confused, if you're any doubt about being raised again,
if you are in doubt about being raised again, then reflect or think about the earth.
And he says
the earth shakes in rises a little bit. And it sprouts a plant from all sorts of plants, right?
When you when you see a plant come out, you'll see little tiny pieces of
cake and then the earth will come up just a little bit and then a tiny little blade of grass or plant will come out. Okay, so what draws this image first in the Quran, and he says if you're confused or you're in doubt about being raised again, think about a plant when the earth shakes and it rises and a plant comes out.
Because on the Day of Judgment, the earth will shake. And under the judgment, the earth will rise. And then under the judgment, instead of a plan coming out, we're gonna come out.
So every time a believer looks at a plant and a tree and a blade of grass outside, one of the reminder,
reminded of the Day of Resurrection, they have eyes with which they can see that then there are people who don't have those eyes.
They have eyes, but they don't see what we can see.
And then he similarly he says,
they have ears,
they don't hear from them. They hear somebody talking about the dean, even from a distance, they get annoyed. I don't want to be part of this conversation, turn that stuff off, you know, put a song on or something they have used, the pee can tolerate hearing something that was soft in their heart, this is a sad state for a human being. And after this arises, it says
this is what I will conclude with.
These people are like cattle.
These people are like, cattle. I love it. You say these people are like animals.
Right?
He said,
Why? Because our domesticated animals, animals that human beings trained to not be wild anymore, right? And if you compare, you know cattle, or domesticated farm animals to any other kind of animal, you'll notice one big difference. domesticated animals have slower senses.
You know, a lizard or you know, a rabbit, or a bird, you're always looking around. You're very aware. Compare that with a cow. It's very unaware. What is the passage about?
So he says about these people, they've turned into cattle, they just eat and they see a younger kid here, they eat and they sleep and they play Xbox, and they watch some stuff on YouTube. And they get to see, that's like,
that's it. There's no more to it than that.
And then he says,
No, they're even worse off, they're even worse off. Why because the cattle is still a creation and fitrah
even though it's got those senses, obedience to Allah is still equal to like Amanda.
Amanda Tico, but these people not only do they have senses, which makes them laugh, and then disobedience to Allah, and Hawaiians.
Those are the people that are
there the people that are unaware of humans. So we have to take this prescription seriously, the recitation of put on the listening to us.
If you can find mp3, or CDs or lectures from anybody that gives talks,
right that you can use,
make it a habit of listening to this was actually a legacy of the Sahaba
used to go around different circles and check.
Because this is a means by which Sahaba stay away. This is the means by which they don't let go.
So you will notice in yourself, the longer it's been since you read on and reflected on, or learn something about the Quran, the worse off you will feel inside your heart you can notice in it, this existence of Allah, you can identify for yourself and I can for myself, so we need to go back like oxygen for this one. And this one is a law's great gift to us to turn that into a habit because Allah says
what should you do? You should you should seek refuge from the Shabbat. In this month, Allah has given us the blessing of caging up the Shabbat so we can have an uninterrupted relationship with Brian and build that habit so that when this month is over, we're already in this cycle, that we remain awake, and we don't wait till the next time to wake up again and
again,