Burda Class 3

"There's much in Inshaad.
There's Ilm. There's meaning.
And it lifts the spirit and takes it to more than its normal everyday life.
...More than most people know!"
- Shaykh Jihad

(Ayywa, I missed the write up of the notes of chapter 2. This now makes this kinda disjointed as class 3 was a continuation of chapter 2, but ahh, the class was filled with many stand alone pearls too!... so here are some stand alone pearls...)


Don't say "I'm everything" and don't say "I'm nothing" as they are both about the I. Say Allah.

What we want is 'Arifeen. We want enlightened knowing. And knowing is different from knowledge as knowing is a state of being.

"Actions are like lifeless forms. And the life is the sincerity within them. This is the secret within them" - Ibn Attaillah

It is the responsibility of believers to protect their friends from their nafs.

If your friends are not telling you when you are stepping over the line, then they are not friends.

Muraqabah is not glamourous. It's not going to get you on TV. It will keep you off TV. But it's what keeps a believer real.

Were a person not to cry except over the moments lost in not worshipping Allah, this would be enough for one.

Don't be self satisfied. but know that the feeling of remorse is a blessing and a lot of people don't have it. You have been blessed with the Nafs-alawwamah! But don't stay there! Work at it!

Remorse is repentance. You should be crying over your situation and where you've got to. If you think about it deeply, it will be hard not to cry.

We are either in a moment of ibaadah or of tawbah. And the tawbah becomes the ibaadah of the moment. This doesn't mean we sin and reassure ourselves that we will settle for making tawbah. As we are not promised any next moments. And the last thing we want is for our last moments to make us lose.

Your job is to park yourself and wait on the doorstep. The Muslims' hanging on the door of the Kaabah is symbolic of Allah opening the door to the slave. And whether He Opens the door or doesn't, tell Him you don't care- you'll be there waiting.

Takleef is following something in which there is difficulty in it. A person can get to a point where they go head over heel for their beloved. They will do anything for them. One can get to that level in their ibaadah. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's difficult. And there's beauty in it when it's difficult. Because it's for Allah.

"Contradicting the ego is the foremost level of ibaadah".

Look at what shaytaan did to Adam and he told Adam he was his friend. Yet the Shaytan has told you openly that he will deceive you! Shaytaan is the open enemy and the nafs is the enemy within.

Increase the 'Aql which you may need to go to. Learn and attend classes so when the ego striked, there is soundness in your 'Aql. Exposure to good gets us to that point.

Alhamdulilah for the following which answers thoughts that had recently been playing in my head for a while, namely about the Muslim living in the West and how we can stay balanced when seeking to be professionals and seeking to sell ourselves in an atmosphere where you had to be full of it (hey, I'm going into the legal sector afterall!)- alhamdulilah Shaykh Jihad discussed it with such clarity!!:
The non Muslim world is telling us to be confident in our own selves- in the nufus. The believer can still engage on these terms as their confidence is not in themselves but in Allah and their belief in the Rasool.
Rise to the challenge and do your best- if you are put in a situation which you did not solicit per se (e.g someone asking you to do something like teach a class etc), Allah has opened a door for you. So ask Allah for tawfeeq. And that is how a muslims can engage in a world which tell him to be confiden about himself. Remember, don't say "I'm everything" and don't say "I'm nothing", say "Allah!"