It is easy to achieve a rapport with Allah سبحانه وتعالى. but it is difficult to maintain especially for a person who has pride in his heart. One of the consequences of pride is that it leads to friction with others. A proud person will expect respect, love, attention and affection from others but when he does not receive them (despite thinking he deserves them) it will inevitably lead to friction and conflict.
Never expect respect, love, affection or anything else which boosts your ego and leads to pride. You should not even expect respect from your wife or husband and immediate family members. If you can be like this then even if you do not get what you want you will not feel indignant. If someone offends you, you will not be offended.
Learn to be truly humble; in front of your parents, teachers, Shaykh and fellow Muslims. This humbleness and piety should be natural and consistent; not that you are pious in front of one person and haughty in front of another.
Pride in one’s heart is akin to weeds in a rose garden. Roses will not bloom, flourish or last very long in a garden of weeds. If your heart is full of pride, you will not bloom spiritually because of these weeds of pride.
[This excerpt is based on a brothers’ majlis (gathering for spiritual training) held by Shaykh Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq on 19th and also on 26th March 1997].
as-wr-wb- hhmm this piece needs a little to repond to effectively. Have been sitting here reading it over again and each time i find something new to relate to it. So I guess ur gonna have to wait for a comprehensive comment, ws-wr-wb.
Shaykh’s words are always so profound subhanAllah. They are like seeds of goodness that are planted in our hearts. If we take care of these seeds and pay great attention to them then inshaAllah they will grow into something beautiful.
May Allah SWT reward our Shaykh and all who are involved in this project – aameen.
MashaAllah, just to respond to Sr Umm Ibrahim, these seeds will not only grow into something beautiful, but something very strong (in humility), as a huge tree { we have a greater than 300 feet tall redwood trees here in Northern Caliornia, and some are older than 2000 years, before the time of Prophet (SAS), and still standing strong. In fact, one of the big parks here called Big Basin (can google), has all the milestone dates on it carved (by the Park people), and one of the milestone dates it has is of the birth of Prophet (SAS, and some milestone dates before that }
May Allah (SWT) make our rapport strong with Him, and bless Shaikh Abu Riyadh with the best in both the worlds. Aameen.
JazakAllah khair Abdul Baseer, subhanAllah what wise words you have said.
May Allah SWT help us all to be strong and consistent – aameen.
as-wr-wb-
Related to not getting offended by others actions/speech, it is difficult sometimes to brush these aside immediately, especially when knowing that you have not done anything to attract this hatred or resentment from others !
“WHAT FLOWS FROM THE HEART GOES TO THE HEART”
Thats my way of looking at what life brings my way.
If there is a recording available of the above I would be grateful if you could forward details of it, would love to listen to the whole talk if possible, jazakalla-khairun, ws-wr-wb.
ps respect, love, affection – if only people realised it is not a ‘ONE WAY TRACK’.
Walaikum Salaam wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
Sister Ameena – it is indeed difficult not to be offended by the behaviour of others especially if they are close to you and do not act or behave as they should. These things related to the nafs do require a lot of effort and striving and will insha’Allah develop over time in our characters allowing us to deal with such situations and people.
With regard to a recording, unfortunately we have no recordings of these majalis held back in 1997, only notes. This topic is addressed by Shaykh in a lecture called ‘Pride and Arrogance’ which was given by Shaykh in 2000 and the talk is available:
http://www.alkawtharacademy.com/store/viewProduct.php?product=AKATG-MP3-0027
very true, Mashallah
a.s subhanallah sach gret wads..dey hav realy tachd ma heart..may Allah reward da sheikh fo his gret wads..w.s
Thanks for sharing. It is really great to see too many websites on Islamic knowledge sharing valuable information about Religion Islam. Keep it up!!