MUHARRAM 1446 / 2024 DAY 2: Seeing Beauty Through Gratitude

14 Bekeken· 24/07/12

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[0:00]We Begin by thanking Allah subhana wa ta'ala for Gathering us here

[0:06]and giving us the to again to participate in the maalis that

[0:09]have been organized for the commemoration of the mom of IM Hussein

[0:14]and his family and his companions yesterday I began by discussing the

[0:21]school of Naf or I talked about the school of Naf and

[0:27]I explained that in that school one of the key aspects or

[0:29]one of the key strategies that they give us for self-improvement is

[0:36]to reflect and of course reflection is something that has different subject

[0:40]matters reflection is something that has different levels you can get into

[0:46]deeper levels of reflection you can think about something on the surface

[0:49]and then you can go beyond that surface and go deeper and

[0:52]deeper into that issue for many many layers but there's one thing

[0:59]there's one topic that the Holy Quran stresses upon and the rest

[1:05]of our scriptural literature as well drawing on the Holy Quran focuses

[1:08]on and that is to think about the blessings and the bounties

[1:14]of Allah subhana wa ta'ala and the reason for this is that

[1:21]it is something that is very tangible for us there is a

[1:24]level of reflection on the bounties of Allah subhana wa taala that

[1:27]is possible for all ages whether you're young or whether you're older

[1:33]depending on where you find yourself in life there's always something to

[1:39]think about there's always a further level of refinement of that thought

[1:43]to go into as you all know Allah subhana waala tells us

[1:48]in the Holy Quran if you were to count and to enumerate

[1:54]the bounties of Allah subhana wa ta'ala you would not be able

[1:59]to do that now usually when when we have a statement like

[2:02]that it is demotivational if I said to you no matter how

[2:06]hard you try you will never pass that test so okay then

[2:11]then I'll stop trying there's no point in doing that but I

[2:13]say to you no matter how much you practice you will never

[2:17]be a professional football player that will make some people think well

[2:21]in that case I'll sit down and do something else but why

[2:26]does Allah subhana wa ta'ala Express this to us in this way

[2:31]if it's noted to supposed to be demotivational because Allah subhana wa

[2:35]ta'ala doesn't want us to stop IE he is telling us that

[2:44]the the potential for thinking about the ab bounties of Allah subhana

[2:47]wa ta'ala is so vast that you don't need to fear that

[2:51]you will run out of things to think about it is a

[2:55]practice that we are supposed to have inculcated in our lives to

[3:01]to such an extent that it is something that we do daily

[3:04]something that we do maybe perhaps more than daily more than in

[3:09]one day to think about the bounties of Allah subhana wa ta'ala

[3:14]upon us and to think about the way he has blessed this

[3:20]world and graced this world with Bounty upon Bounty and that in

[3:26]itself is a pathway towards gratitude the key benefit of thinking about

[3:32]the bounties of Allah subhana wa ta'ala is to become grateful for

[3:35]them now sometimes you'll hear people say Islam is the religion of

[3:41]Peace sometimes you'll hear them say Islam is the religion of submission

[3:47]in honest truth you can add another type of phrase you can

[3:52]say that Islam is the religion of gratitude and why do I

[3:56]say that because Allah subhana wa ta'ala himself when he talks about

[4:00]the p in life for the human being he distinguishes the path

[4:07]as two types he says in the Holy Quran meaning that indeed

[4:18]we have guided him the way guided the human being along the

[4:21]way that either they are grateful or they are ungrateful so you

[4:29]can see here the whole path moving towards our Perfection is the

[4:35]path of gratefulness and the path that is away from that Perfection

[4:40]is to do something called kuf kufr in its linguistic meaning means

[4:46]to cover over just like for example when someone does something but

[4:51]we don't want to recognize what they've done we act in a

[4:55]in a in in an ungrateful manner even though we may be

[5:00]aware of the B that someone has given us okay so you'll

[5:04]see that people that are ungrateful it's not like you know they

[5:08]don't have anything to be grateful for but they fail to recognize

[5:12]what they should be grateful for or they even if they recognize

[5:18]their benefactor they're ungrateful towards their benefactor they cover over the fact

[5:22]that they should be grateful in another verse in the Holy Quran

[5:26]in again illustrating the point that the whole path towards Perfection the

[5:33]whole path towards self-improvement is through gratitude is this verse Allah subhana

[5:39]wa tala says in the Holy Quran which means that an Allah

[5:54]has extracted you from the wombs of your mothers not knowing anything

[5:58]and he made made for you hearing and vision and intellect that

[6:03]perhaps you would be grateful okay or so that you would be

[6:07]grateful so you can see here again Allah subhana wa tala explaining

[6:14]the creation of the human being how the human being comes out

[6:18]of their mother's womb and they come into a world where everything

[6:22]is new they have to learn everything from scratch they have to

[6:28]learn about you know the different uh you know habits that people

[6:32]have in society they have to learn what different things are they

[6:35]don't know anything but Allah subhana wa tala gives them the means

[6:40]he gives them the means he gives them hearing he gives them

[6:44]vision and he gives them that intellect with which they are able

[6:48]then to get a grasp of the world and they get a

[6:53]grasp of the world and live in the world and as they

[6:57]live in the world it becomes upon them to start reflecting on

[7:00]the things that they have and to ask themselves truly when have

[7:04]they ever received a benefit that hasn't come from somewhere when has

[7:11]a benefit just appeared from nowhere children usually in the beginning at

[7:14]least are not very grateful why are they not grateful because for

[7:21]them benefits are just there they just come even people who become

[7:25]spoiled they become spoiled because they're just used to having lots of

[7:29]benefits and good things okay but when the human being lives in

[7:33]the world and as they grow up and as they go into

[7:37]their adulthood they realize they have to fight for every single benefit

[7:41]there's nothing that comes free in this world right and as they

[7:44]realize that and they look back and they think about all of

[7:49]the benefits that happen in their lives or for example they themselves

[7:53]become parents and they realize that there is not one benefit that

[7:57]the child has that the parent doesn't struggle for if it's a

[7:59]good night sleep the mother's awake yeah if it's a comfortable house

[8:06]the father's been out all day and so on and so forth

[8:07]we realize that benefits don't just come from anywhere so gratitude is

[8:13]fundamental to the path of to the path of perfection and it

[8:19]will not surprise you also then that gratitude has been considered something

[8:23]that is within our natural disposition it has been considered to be

[8:28]F in the Islamic intellectual tradition when they talk about things that

[8:35]are shared amongst all human beings okay something that is part of

[8:40]the natural disposition of the human being they say is one of

[8:46]the principles means being thankful to the one who has blessed or

[8:50]who has given you or has benefact you okay that is something

[8:56]natural and you find that very easily and obviously in society as

[9:01]well especially when the need is more so for example if you've

[9:05]been on a long run okay and you come home and there's

[9:13]no drinks in the fridge yeah and there's someone who has a

[9:16]bottle of water there they give you a bottle of water you

[9:20]feel the thankfulness there you're late to pick your kids up from

[9:23]school no parking spaces someone waves at you and says you can

[9:26]take this one you feel the thankfulness within and in fact the

[9:29]thankfulness that principle is so deep within us that sometimes we even

[9:37]run away from the obligation that results from thankfulness we run away

[9:40]from so if I say please come over to my house you

[9:44]might say no no no inshallah because you know then what do

[9:47]you have to do you have to invite me over to your

[9:48]house as well right because the is so deeply ingrained that even

[9:56]we will try and avoid we will try and avoid it in

[9:59]certain circumstances as well okay so now when we look at this

[10:07]and we understand the F the F of course the verse of

[10:09]the f is 3030 it's one of those easy verses to remember

[10:14]and Allah subhana wa T says so this translates as so uh

[10:33]pay attention to religion what is religion religion is the natural disposition

[10:43]the natural disposition that Allah has uh created man upon there is

[10:49]no change in this F so that issue of thanking the is

[10:57]something that doesn't change okay that is the straight religion the thing

[11:06]is that most people seem to not know this okay so while

[11:13]it is within our very nature to thank Allah subhana wa ta'ala

[11:17]and to recognize Allah subhana wa ta'ala for those bounties and to

[11:23]feel obligated to Allah because if he's the one benefiting you then

[11:27]the natural part of that is to do is to do thankfulness

[11:31]and gratitude to that but also to have a sense that there

[11:33]is something that you need to repay there is there is a

[11:37]way in which you have to Mo you have to mobilize yourself

[11:39]in order to repay all of these bounties that Allah subhana wa

[11:43]tala has given but the thing is that most people don't know

[11:47]and in a very uh interesting uh introduction to the Hadith of

[11:57]written by who is one of the key mystical students St of

[12:01]he explains the reason why he thinks most people are unaware he

[12:07]says that most people are unaware because of material veils okay what

[12:15]are material veils what is a veil firstly a veil is something

[12:19]that covers something else up so that such that you can't see

[12:24]behind that okay so for example if I put my hand in

[12:29]front of my eyes it becomes a veil you can't see my

[12:31]eyes from behind the hand but a veil has got two aspects

[12:36]to it one is that it hides something but the other aspect

[12:40]of it is that it's very clear to the person who's looking

[12:42]at it so if you look at a curtain for example while

[12:46]the curtain hides what's behind it you can see the curtain very

[12:49]clearly it almost puts itself forward and manifests itself so that you

[12:55]can't see what's behind it and the world of matter is like

[13:02]that the world of matter hides the metaphysical the physical world and

[13:07]everything in it so all the things that you see all the

[13:11]things that you hear yeah all the things that your mind become

[13:14]occupied with this these things are very clear for you you see

[13:21]them straight away okay but with their Clarity they also hide something

[13:26]that's behind them and that is of course Allah subhana wa tala's

[13:29]hand in everything this is what I was speaking about yesterday that

[13:34]sometimes what happens as we build our cognitive framework for the world

[13:38]we start to see that world without the real forces that are

[13:45]behind it and so this is why The Message of Islam has

[13:47]come to show us what is what is behind that so the

[13:54]F and thanking and being grateful is part of the is is

[14:00]is is part of one thing so the religion of Islam and

[14:03]the movement towards Perfection is gratitude and gratitude is part of the

[14:12]F and the f is the dean okay now the other part

[14:14]is is that we cannot be thankful and we cannot have gratitude

[14:22]without recognition recognition is at the core of gratitude and this is

[14:26]why we have something very interesting in our Hadith in Hadith I

[14:31]believe it's from he says the first step in religion is the

[14:40]knowledge of God now usually we think of as like the end

[14:47]of the path right it's true the knowledge of Allah or knowing

[14:50]Allah subhana wa tala has got stages stations and depth but for

[14:57]somebody to have even a part of religion they need to have

[15:01]a recognition of Allah subhana wa tala and the quickest path to

[15:07]that recognition is through reflecting over his bounties and the reason for

[15:12]that is is that as we reflect into the intricacies of his

[15:16]bounty we start to see that the universe is filled with wisdom

[15:22]as we look more into those bounties we see that this world

[15:29]cannot be created in vain we have in the Holy Quran a

[15:31]group of people they think of Allah while they're lying down while

[15:33]they're sitting up while they're standing and they say to themselves you

[15:42]haven't created this in in vain and as you realize that things

[15:50]are not in vain you realize there must be a lord there

[15:54]must be someone who was intelligent someone who was wise who created

[15:59]all of these interrelated structures you take any single part of your

[16:04]body and think about all of the bones and tissues that go

[16:10]together for you to make the simplest movement yeah you will see

[16:15]that that complexity is not something that pops out of nowhere I

[16:20]sometimes give this example imagine I had all the parts of this

[16:23]iPad yeah I take it take this iPad apart and I keep

[16:28]it in parts then I put it all in a box and

[16:32]I shake the Box really really hard okay how many of you

[16:37]feel I will be able to pull an iPad out after that

[16:41]shaking I shake it really hard what if I shake it for

[16:43]a really long time yeah shake that around all the chips and

[16:49]the you know you know screen and everything like that am I

[16:53]going to get IAD out of that okay so when we talk

[16:59]about the world when we talk about the most basic proteins that

[17:02]make up life those are way more complicated than this iPad and

[17:08]the particles that we're talking about in the universe they're not in

[17:12]a small box they're all over the place all over the universe

[17:16]so the thesis that things come from nothing is a very unlikely

[17:24]thesis it's the kind of thesis that actually makes no sense to

[17:28]us if you walk into a room and you find a mess

[17:32]on the floor yeah you don't say oh that's probably come from

[17:35]nowhere yeah you look around and you see who made the mess

[17:40]right so to think of things as coming from nowhere is something

[17:46]that is counterintuitive for us it doesn't make sense to us so

[17:52]as we think more and more about the complexity more and more

[17:56]into the depths of the bounties of Allah subhana wa ta'ala we

[18:01]see with further and further depth his wisdom and of course one

[18:08]of the beautiful things in Du of IM Hussein is the intense

[18:13]detail in which he explains the bounties of Allah subhana wa ta'ala

[18:20]if you look at that Dua from the beginning it is talking

[18:23]about the bounties of Allah he talks about bounties that usually we

[18:27]wouldn't think of so he said says for example that Allah subhana

[18:33]wa ta'ala kept us safe through all the trials and tribulations of

[18:36]the previous generations by keeping us in the loins of our parents

[18:40]we simply were protected from going out into the world where people

[18:44]went through very very different and harsh circumstances at times we missed

[18:49]all of the periods where whole peoples were destroyed by Allah subhana

[18:52]waala for their Disobedience and we came out at a time where

[18:57]look at the time we live in material benefits are so easy

[19:02]we all have clothes we all have food and so on and

[19:06]so forth and each and every person it doesn't matter whenever you're

[19:08]born you always find this reflection to be such a pertinent one

[19:12]he talks about how Allah subhana wa tala pays intense detail to

[19:20]each and every one of us he Fashions us knowing us knowing

[19:23]the way we will be yeah and he fashion us all individually

[19:28]he he doesn't put that burden on us so he doesn't give

[19:33]us the paintbrush and say fashion yourself he does it for us

[19:39]that itself is a bounty these kind of this kind of bounty

[19:42]and this kind of recognition of of of of these issues shows

[19:48]a very deep reflection into the bounties of Allah subhana wa tala

[19:52]he also talks about how then Allah subhana wa ta'ala increases us

[19:58]year upon year and through that increase through the unfolding of life

[20:03]he makes clear his presence he makes clear his proof upon us

[20:07]he makes clear his wisdom and then makes worship incumbent upon us

[20:14]because after showing us his Bounty it is Allah who takes the

[20:19]first step after showing us his Bounty then when we recognize that

[20:23]then it becomes incumbent upon us you know there's a story again

[20:27]this one is from the holy prophet sallallahu alaihi Ali wasallam that

[20:31]he would pray so much in the night time until his feet

[20:38]became swollen so one day one of his wives asks him they

[20:41]say you know you are forg forgiven Allah has said that he's

[20:44]forgiven your you know what has come before and what comes after

[20:49]so why do you put yourself through this this trouble it's it's

[20:52]a lot to pray so much that your feet are swollen and

[20:57]the holy prophet responds by saying should I not be a grateful

[21:01]servant should I not be a grateful servant so that gratitude involves

[21:10]a reaction so Imam Hussein makes clear that then uh the worship

[21:14]of Allah subh is made incumbent uh and that Allah is not

[21:19]satisfied in just giving us some bounties he gives us one Bounty

[21:24]and another Bounty and another Bounty despite our own ignorance inertia and

[21:27]ingratitude I'm going to read you just one part of this Dua

[21:32]so again you can you can remind yourself CU du you know

[21:36]duaa I know many of you will have read it during uh

[21:42]the Hajj day uh Hajj days and Y let me read you

[21:43]this passage here he says and I bear witness oh my God

[21:48]with my true belief and the fortitude of the determination of my

[21:52]conviction and the purity of my open belief in your Oneness and

[21:58]the essence of The Secret of my conscience and the ties of

[22:01]the canels of the light of my sight the lines on my

[22:05]forehead and the Hallows and courses of my breath and the nasal

[22:08]cavities of my nose and the courses of the meus of my

[22:14]hearing and whatever my two lips hide and cover up and the

[22:17]Motions of my vocalization of my tongue and the socket of the

[22:23]pallet of my mouth and jaw and the matrices of my dents

[22:25]and the tasting of my food and my drink the carrier of

[22:30]my skull and the tube of the tissues in my neck and

[22:36]what is included by the cloak of my chest and the carriers

[22:38]of my cord and my a and he continues enumerating these intricate

[22:46]and detailed Reflections until he comes to the point that he says

[22:51]that even if I was to use all of these I bear

[22:56]witness that I would not be able to thank you for uh

[23:01]I would not be able to thank you properly for the favors

[23:04]that you have granted me and this again is another aspect of

[23:08]gratitude that we are never able to fully thank Allah subhana wa

[23:14]taala because each and every instance of gratitude involves another instance of

[23:18]gratitude because it is Allah subhana wa ta'ala who has given us

[23:26]that that benefit in the Holy Quran gratitude is considered to be

[23:29]wisdom if you look at this verse in the Holy Quran and

[23:44]we gave what was the be grateful to Allah subhana wa ta'ala

[23:48]now how does this tie into the topic that we're talking about

[23:52]how does the practice of gratitude tie in to seeing nothing but

[24:02]Beauty well the answer is almost obvious if everywhere you look you

[24:06]see the bounties of Allah subhana wa ta'ala how can you see

[24:09]anything else but Beauty in the whole of creation and in the

[24:15]whole of the universe like I said to you before yes the

[24:18]actions of human beings may be ugly but when it comes to

[24:23]the actions of Allah subhana wa ta'ala there is nothing but Beauty

[24:26]and as we realize each and every Bounty that Allah has given

[24:33]us but not only us so many people we can be grateful

[24:36]for the food other people eat we can be grateful for the

[24:42]comfort and relaxation other people feel yeah we can be thankful for

[24:45]the bounties that are given to animals we can be thankful for

[24:47]the lives that are given to Insects we can be thankful for

[24:52]things that we don't know about because there are many things we

[24:55]know about and many things we don't know about we can be

[24:59]thankful for the things that happen and we can be thankful for

[25:03]the things that don't happen Allah subhana wa ta'ala has made this

[25:07]beautiful universe and he has encouraged us to reflect and reflect and

[25:13]reflect on it he has told us there is no boundary to

[25:17]that reflection is an encouragement if you count the bounties you can't

[25:25]stop that is an encouragement for those people who keep want to

[25:28]go deeper and deeper and deeper because the pleasure that comes out

[25:33]of that is a direct connection with Allah and Allah subhana wa

[25:40]ta'ala chooses to show himself to us in this way many times

[25:43]people ask why are there no proofs for the existence of Allah

[25:46]philosophical proofs in the Holy Quran you know why doesn't Allah subhana

[25:53]wa tala say that he's the first cause and every effect needs

[25:55]a cause the cosmological argument or something like that why does he

[26:00]focus on these kind of arguments the reason he focuses on these

[26:04]kind of arguments is number one his intimately connected to our F

[26:09]number two it is an argument and an understanding of him that

[26:13]everybody can come to but perhaps most importantly it is it is

[26:20]a reflection on him such that results in immediate connection when we

[26:25]think about the bounties we have to immediately recognize the benefactor so

[26:30]there is a lot to say about gratitude and it is one

[26:36]of the topics that for me certainly NE is never boring it

[26:39]is always fresh because in reminding ourselves to become to to to

[26:46]spend more time thinking about what we should be grateful for it

[26:51]reminds me the most to think about those things to be grateful

[26:53]for as well like I said to you anytime you're bored anytime

[26:58]you have nothing to do to do anytime you're waiting on the

[27:01]train anytime you've got a spare moment think about something to do

[27:04]with the bounties of Allah and it can be anything look at

[27:10]yourself look at your body look at uh the world and inculcate

[27:14]this practice because it is the one of the more tangible ones

[27:19]if you think about how to improve yourself what should I do

[27:21]to improve this is one question I get asked many many times

[27:24]what should I do to improve this is one of the clear

[27:30]ones this is the one of the ones that if it is

[27:31]a program that you keep in your life it is a program

[27:36]that doesn't end so inshallah we pray to Allah subhana wa ta'ala

[27:39]that we can become of those people that have gratitude gratitude is

[27:44]a vocalization but in fact true gratitude is a way of life

[27:50]it is when we respond like we said here with the obedience

[27:53]to Allah subhana wa taala is when we fashion our entire lives

[27:58]in the Gratitude of subh wa tala so we pray to Allah

[28:00]subhana wa tala for that we always always remember the oppressed and

[28:04]the people that are going through difficulties and troubles and especially the

[28:09]people of [Music]

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