Notes: Thursday Halaqa
Dana Jarrar
May 13, 2016
Ramadan and Taqwa, Part 1
* In preparing for Ramadan, the first step is to write where you are now and what you want to do. You need to look and see what diseases you have in our heart and write what you need to do. Then you make a schedule to work on these. If we don't do this, Ramadan will start and end we will still be in the same place.
* "O you who believe, fasting written on us as it was written on those that came before you." All the religions have fasting. Why do we fast? Allah told us in the Quran- In order for you to attain Taqwa. In the first Juz of the Qur'an, Taqwa is mentioned in so many ayahs, that's how important it is.
* In Hadith Jibreel he first asked about the five pillars of Islam, then pillars of Eman, then about ihsan. Notice the order. What about Taqwa- whatever Allah told us to do we do, whatever He told us not to do, we don't do. And that us why everyday we need to ask ourselves, what are the fruits of my efforts? Am I pleasing Allah or not?
* Taqwa has two parts: prevent and protect from sins, and strength. How to put them together? It is a tool that needs strength and willpower. And these come from knowledge. "Those who believe AND do good deeds..." There is a tie between Eman and good deeds, they come from each other.
* When you have Taqwa from avoiding haram, our strength increases. It exercises the muscles of the heart, the spiritual heart, qalb al rawhani.
* So I need to know what Allah told me to do, and what He told me not to do. But which one is more important? If someone is coming to throw a rock at you and another person is bringing me an apple, which is more important? Of course to stop the person with the rock. So we start with knowing what Allah told us not to do and leaving it.
* Taqwa is a feeling of so much love of Allah that you fear displeasing Him. It is between hope and fear. If your fear of His punishment becomes too much and takes you farther away from Allah, then you have to go back and look at the beautiful names of Allah. Allah is The Merciful, The Generous, The Most Kind. The right level is the Fear that comes from love.
* Steps to Taqwa
1 - Avoid the haram. The first step is to take out everything from your life that is haram.
2- Avoid doubtful matters. Second, to remove from your life all doubtful things in order to stay on the safe side and not fall into haram. There is a fear here of falling into haram.
3- Avoiding some halal things, because they are things that could easily distract and might lead to a doubtful matter, which might be haram. For example, going to the mall everyday, it is halal, but doing it so often increases the chance that you might miss a prayer, waste time, waste money. The people of Taqwa are a high level. If you want to increase your Taqwa, look at how Allah blesses and facilitates for the one who has Taqwa, then you will want to put that effort and even do more.
* But how to strengthen these spiritual heart muscles? One way is by Fasting. Eating is halal! Sleeping and drinking are halal. But now we have to stop it for some hours. In Ramadan, Allah wants us to taste and experience how it is when you avoid a halal thing. How it raises you, the beautiful effect on your spirituality and moral strength, the strength you feel in accomplishing this amazing feat.
* Allah gave us blessings not just to enjoy, but to get closer to Allah. I don't cook just to enjoy my food, I cook to give my body and my family strength to worship Allah.
* When you post a Selfie or food pic or any post on social media, is it for people to say ma sha Allah, or to inspire others? Just check your intention. Check the audience. Some avoid these because they are trying to get to a higher level.
* "A man will not get to the top of Taqwa until you take out what is in your heart on a plate and everyone can see it and he is not ashamed of any of it." They asked Abu Huraira what is Taqwa, he said if you enter a land with thorns that is dunya. And when you walk you look where to put your foot, that caution is Taqwa. Caution of doing what is good and avoiding bad. It's like walking with a basket on you're head and the road goes up and down but you are trying to keep the basket balanced on your head.
* If we look at our heart, we need to see some fruits of Taqwa. You have to build this strength. With every step, this strength will protect you and motivate you.
Dana Jarrar
May 13, 2016
Ramadan and Taqwa, Part 1
* In preparing for Ramadan, the first step is to write where you are now and what you want to do. You need to look and see what diseases you have in our heart and write what you need to do. Then you make a schedule to work on these. If we don't do this, Ramadan will start and end we will still be in the same place.
* "O you who believe, fasting written on us as it was written on those that came before you." All the religions have fasting. Why do we fast? Allah told us in the Quran- In order for you to attain Taqwa. In the first Juz of the Qur'an, Taqwa is mentioned in so many ayahs, that's how important it is.
* In Hadith Jibreel he first asked about the five pillars of Islam, then pillars of Eman, then about ihsan. Notice the order. What about Taqwa- whatever Allah told us to do we do, whatever He told us not to do, we don't do. And that us why everyday we need to ask ourselves, what are the fruits of my efforts? Am I pleasing Allah or not?
* Taqwa has two parts: prevent and protect from sins, and strength. How to put them together? It is a tool that needs strength and willpower. And these come from knowledge. "Those who believe AND do good deeds..." There is a tie between Eman and good deeds, they come from each other.
* When you have Taqwa from avoiding haram, our strength increases. It exercises the muscles of the heart, the spiritual heart, qalb al rawhani.
* So I need to know what Allah told me to do, and what He told me not to do. But which one is more important? If someone is coming to throw a rock at you and another person is bringing me an apple, which is more important? Of course to stop the person with the rock. So we start with knowing what Allah told us not to do and leaving it.
* Taqwa is a feeling of so much love of Allah that you fear displeasing Him. It is between hope and fear. If your fear of His punishment becomes too much and takes you farther away from Allah, then you have to go back and look at the beautiful names of Allah. Allah is The Merciful, The Generous, The Most Kind. The right level is the Fear that comes from love.
* Steps to Taqwa
1 - Avoid the haram. The first step is to take out everything from your life that is haram.
2- Avoid doubtful matters. Second, to remove from your life all doubtful things in order to stay on the safe side and not fall into haram. There is a fear here of falling into haram.
3- Avoiding some halal things, because they are things that could easily distract and might lead to a doubtful matter, which might be haram. For example, going to the mall everyday, it is halal, but doing it so often increases the chance that you might miss a prayer, waste time, waste money. The people of Taqwa are a high level. If you want to increase your Taqwa, look at how Allah blesses and facilitates for the one who has Taqwa, then you will want to put that effort and even do more.
* But how to strengthen these spiritual heart muscles? One way is by Fasting. Eating is halal! Sleeping and drinking are halal. But now we have to stop it for some hours. In Ramadan, Allah wants us to taste and experience how it is when you avoid a halal thing. How it raises you, the beautiful effect on your spirituality and moral strength, the strength you feel in accomplishing this amazing feat.
* Allah gave us blessings not just to enjoy, but to get closer to Allah. I don't cook just to enjoy my food, I cook to give my body and my family strength to worship Allah.
* When you post a Selfie or food pic or any post on social media, is it for people to say ma sha Allah, or to inspire others? Just check your intention. Check the audience. Some avoid these because they are trying to get to a higher level.
* "A man will not get to the top of Taqwa until you take out what is in your heart on a plate and everyone can see it and he is not ashamed of any of it." They asked Abu Huraira what is Taqwa, he said if you enter a land with thorns that is dunya. And when you walk you look where to put your foot, that caution is Taqwa. Caution of doing what is good and avoiding bad. It's like walking with a basket on you're head and the road goes up and down but you are trying to keep the basket balanced on your head.
* If we look at our heart, we need to see some fruits of Taqwa. You have to build this strength. With every step, this strength will protect you and motivate you.
* A Human consists of 5 things: Body, Desires, Soul, Mind, and Heart. These all need to be checked and take care of.
1. Jasad- The Body, you are responsible for taking care of it.
2. Nafs - Desires, what I want and what I feel like, me, I.
* The desire for acknowledgement and attention from others is normal. But more importantly we should want to be acknowledged by the Angels and by Allah. When you pray Qiyam at night it creates a light that the Angels can see.
* When ruh comes to the body the nafs born. When death comes, the ruh exits.
* The goal of the Nafs is to work with Shaytan to get you to hellfire. The Nafs wants to control you. And it uses the Shaytan and bad friends to do it. Our job is to work against this.
* The Nafs has a good part and a bad part. "The one who purifies it is the successful"(Quran).
* In Ramadan the Nafs shows clearly now because Shaytan is chained. Allah opened doors of jannah, chained Shaytan, took away our food and distractions that is drowning us. Now we can work in this month to tame our nafs.
3. Ruh - The Soul.
* The Ruh is from Allah and its goal is to connect you to Allah. Ibn Qayyim said it is an entity which differs from the physical, tangible body. It is a higher type of luminous being, alive and moving, and it penetrates the limbs, circulating through them as water circulates throughout the petals of a rose, as oil circulates throughout the olive.
* We have to feed it and take care of it by connecting it to Allah. The more you connect it to Allah the more you will be happy. People who pray Qiyam the night prayer have an outer glow, this is the Noor of the soul. Now the scientists have found that the air in the time before dawn has Endorphins. Endorphins are the feel good hormones of happiness.
* The Ruh needs a higher purpose. It gives an intention to deeds. Actions by intentions.
4. Aql - mind.
* The mind has creativity and knowledge. We need to think how much are we feeding our minds?
* Screens (tv, computer, cell phone) stops the body from moving, stops the mind, and stops the soul. We are no longer used to thinking.
* Feeding the mind is about increasing the connections in your brain by always learning, thinking, reflecting, being creative. A great way is Quran Memorization, then learning tafseer.
* Creativity is the basis of our religion, it is a life skill. 1/3 of the Quran are Ayahs asking you to reflect.
* Thinking about our blessings is important so that we can connect them to Allah, this will build our mind and soul. Think: this is a blessing and I need to thank Allah.
* Note here on Self esteem. If you cook and your daughter came and ate and left, don't think that will be helping her. Self Esteem comes from showing love and giving responsibility. If you only give love, then they will be spoiled. If you only give responsibility then will come out very hard and lack empathy or emotions. So don't just do things for your kids, but involve them in it and give them some responsibilities to feel good about themselves and build their confidence.
5. Qalb - the Heart.
* This is what you call Emotional intelligence. There are cells for it separate from thinking.
* There are two kinds of heart: the spiritual heart and the physical heart.
* Which is more important to take care of? "Allah does not look at your bodies but looks at our hearts." We need to put priority to our spiritual heart. The true one you need to feed and fix is the spiritual. Physical heart can get sick while spiritual one can stay strong. We are putting more effort to our physical. But we can't neglect physical, it's still important. If you neglect the physical heart the spiritual heart will also get weak. But when Allah evaluates us He will look at our spiritual heart. So our work needs to be focused on spiritual.
* How to strengthen the spiritual heart? By doing good deeds. Fasting strengthens the heart.
* When we put so much time in food, clothes, hair etc. and focused on yourself and people, that is because we are not seeing Allah, just myself and people. We will only live for 60 or 70 years... Should we waste our life on all these outward things? That is why Allah told us to wear hijab, so that we focus on the inner rather than the outer.
* The Sahaba used to compete in doing good deeds. When the Prophet (SAW) asked for sadaqa, they would compete in giving all they had, because they want the ajr and the higher level.
May Allah make us from the Muttaqin.
1. Jasad- The Body, you are responsible for taking care of it.
2. Nafs - Desires, what I want and what I feel like, me, I.
* The desire for acknowledgement and attention from others is normal. But more importantly we should want to be acknowledged by the Angels and by Allah. When you pray Qiyam at night it creates a light that the Angels can see.
* When ruh comes to the body the nafs born. When death comes, the ruh exits.
* The goal of the Nafs is to work with Shaytan to get you to hellfire. The Nafs wants to control you. And it uses the Shaytan and bad friends to do it. Our job is to work against this.
* The Nafs has a good part and a bad part. "The one who purifies it is the successful"(Quran).
* In Ramadan the Nafs shows clearly now because Shaytan is chained. Allah opened doors of jannah, chained Shaytan, took away our food and distractions that is drowning us. Now we can work in this month to tame our nafs.
3. Ruh - The Soul.
* The Ruh is from Allah and its goal is to connect you to Allah. Ibn Qayyim said it is an entity which differs from the physical, tangible body. It is a higher type of luminous being, alive and moving, and it penetrates the limbs, circulating through them as water circulates throughout the petals of a rose, as oil circulates throughout the olive.
* We have to feed it and take care of it by connecting it to Allah. The more you connect it to Allah the more you will be happy. People who pray Qiyam the night prayer have an outer glow, this is the Noor of the soul. Now the scientists have found that the air in the time before dawn has Endorphins. Endorphins are the feel good hormones of happiness.
* The Ruh needs a higher purpose. It gives an intention to deeds. Actions by intentions.
4. Aql - mind.
* The mind has creativity and knowledge. We need to think how much are we feeding our minds?
* Screens (tv, computer, cell phone) stops the body from moving, stops the mind, and stops the soul. We are no longer used to thinking.
* Feeding the mind is about increasing the connections in your brain by always learning, thinking, reflecting, being creative. A great way is Quran Memorization, then learning tafseer.
* Creativity is the basis of our religion, it is a life skill. 1/3 of the Quran are Ayahs asking you to reflect.
* Thinking about our blessings is important so that we can connect them to Allah, this will build our mind and soul. Think: this is a blessing and I need to thank Allah.
* Note here on Self esteem. If you cook and your daughter came and ate and left, don't think that will be helping her. Self Esteem comes from showing love and giving responsibility. If you only give love, then they will be spoiled. If you only give responsibility then will come out very hard and lack empathy or emotions. So don't just do things for your kids, but involve them in it and give them some responsibilities to feel good about themselves and build their confidence.
5. Qalb - the Heart.
* This is what you call Emotional intelligence. There are cells for it separate from thinking.
* There are two kinds of heart: the spiritual heart and the physical heart.
* Which is more important to take care of? "Allah does not look at your bodies but looks at our hearts." We need to put priority to our spiritual heart. The true one you need to feed and fix is the spiritual. Physical heart can get sick while spiritual one can stay strong. We are putting more effort to our physical. But we can't neglect physical, it's still important. If you neglect the physical heart the spiritual heart will also get weak. But when Allah evaluates us He will look at our spiritual heart. So our work needs to be focused on spiritual.
* How to strengthen the spiritual heart? By doing good deeds. Fasting strengthens the heart.
* When we put so much time in food, clothes, hair etc. and focused on yourself and people, that is because we are not seeing Allah, just myself and people. We will only live for 60 or 70 years... Should we waste our life on all these outward things? That is why Allah told us to wear hijab, so that we focus on the inner rather than the outer.
* The Sahaba used to compete in doing good deeds. When the Prophet (SAW) asked for sadaqa, they would compete in giving all they had, because they want the ajr and the higher level.
May Allah make us from the Muttaqin.
Love it ... :) Jazakallaho khairun katheerah for all your efforts. May Allah reward you abundantly Ameen
ReplyDeleteit was a refresher and reminder of so many lessons I have done with my kids and in some halaqah. Alhamdolillah
ReplyDelete