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MANBA‘ AL-IMDĀD: A FOUNTAIN OF HELP

A Compendium of the talks of:

AL-HABĪB AHMAD MASH-HŪR BIN TĀHĀ AL-HADDĀD
Rady Allāhu ‘Anhu

Compiled by his grandson:

As-Sayyid Muhammad bin Mustafā Bū Numay
Rahmatullāhi ‘alayh

DARS 7: THE SPIRITUAL PROGRESS OF A HUMAN BEING

In the words of my master, my grandfather, may Allah make people benefit from him, who explained what Allah, The Exalted said (in the Qur’an).

O you tranquil (human) self.
Return to your Lord well-pleased and well-pleasing (to Him).
So enter you among My chosen devotees.
And enter you my Paradise. (89:27-30)

My grandfather, may Allah be pleased with him, explained.

An address by Allah, The Exalted to the tranquil self (an-nafs al-mutma’inna). And what is the tranquil, peaceful self? The tranquil self is the one that acquires tranquility with good deeds, with the belief in the Oneness of Allah, and with the remembrance of Allah.

Those who believe and whose hearts find tranquility in the remembrance of Allah.  Surely, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find peace (and tranquility) (13:28).

The peaceful tranquil self: it is at peace in doing good deeds so these deeds appear to it to be beloved, well-pleasing to it, and it is well-pleased with them. For this reason, Allah, The Glorified and The Exalted, said:

O you tranquil (human) self.
Return to your Lord well-pleased and well-pleasing (to Him). (89:27-28)

Here, it is at peace with its religion, at peace with its Lord, and with its good deeds, and with its prayers and with everything that draws it nearer to Allah, pure and refined. So when it turns its face away from this world, Allah, The Glorified and the Exalted, says to it:

Return to your Lord well-pleased and well-pleasing (to Him). (89:28)

Well-pleased with the condition in which you are when you see the reward from Allah, and how you are drawn nearer to Allah, and the spiritual light that is in front of you. Well-pleasing to Allah, The Glorified and The Exalted. What is its reward?

So enter you among my chosen devotees. (89:29)

Those to whom He has shown mercy and His special devotees are equal. (They are) special devotees of Allah in reality. (They are) not the followers of the devil or the followers of their carnal self. (They are) special devotees of Allah in truth. And that is great nobility, that your servitude to Allah is accepted.

So enter you among my chosen devotees. (89:29)

(They are) those who are well-pleasing (to Him). (They are) from among the pious devotees, from among the Friends of Allah, from among the servants of Allah who are successful.

And enter you my Paradise. (87:30)

This is its reward, entry into Paradise which is as wide as the heavens and the earth.

After that my shaykh explained, may Allah make people benefit from him.

Know that you can never reach the stage of the “tranquil self” until you struggle with your lower self. The lower self primarily incites to evil. Allah, The Exalted relates (in the Qur’an what Nabi Yusuf said):

And I do not absolve myself (of blame). Indeed, the (human) self commands to evil acts. (12:53)

The lower self loves nothing else except evil. It doesn’t love anything else except its own pleasure. It doesn’t love anything else except its own grandeur, superiority and dominance. This is the peculiarity of the lower self (an-nafs al-ammārah bis-sū’). So when a person purifies it, the self-reproaching (an-nafs al-lawwāmah) aspect appears. It is one and the same human self but now it has progressed from one state to another. First it was the lower self prone to evil. Then it was restrained and refined, and feared (to do evil). It appeared to blame you for some things. So it is named “the self that reproaches”. Allah, The Exalted says (in the Qur’an):

I swear by the Day of Resurrection.
And I swear by the self-reproaching (human) self. (75:1-2)

It blames you if you do what is prohibited. It tells you to leave falsehood behind you, to leave the doubtful behind you, and to leave the things that lead you astray behind you.

So you enter the stage of the tranquil self (an-nasf al-mutma’inna) which is at peace like those of the Friends of Allah, and the pious, and the chosen ones, and the pure, and the people of obedience, and those who are near to them, and those who sit with religious scholars and the virtuous. And how many are the followers of Prophet Muhammad (ص) who have acquired a tranquil self? Such a (human) self is at peace and yearns to meet its Lord. So Allah admits it among its special devotees and to Paradise. May Allah give us the good fortune to have such a tranquil self, Inshā Allah.

My shaykh, may Allah make people benefit from him, went on to say:

It has been related in some Narratives:

When Allah created the human “self” and its vulgar nature with the passion in it, He intended to let it know His Power, and to make clear to it the spiritual grades of people and about the following of selfish desires and about the following of passions, and to let it know that the lower self does not yield to truth except by refining it and struggling with it. So Allah created it and its vulgar nature and its selfish worldly attachments and its attachments to passion. When it was in front of Him, He addressed it: “O (human) self”! It kept quiet. Then He said to it: “Turn towards Me”. But it turned its back. Then He said to it: “Turn away”. But it turned towards Him. See its disobedience to its Lord and its Creator the very first time!

So Allah said: By My Might and Majesty, I will punish you so that you will know how powerless you are. So he immersed it in a sea of hunger for many years and when He took it out of that state, and made it stand before Him, He addressed it: “O (human) self!” It replied: “Here I am at Your service, O my Lord!” When Allah said: “Come to Me”, it came in a hurry. (When Allah said) “Turn towards Me”, it turned towards Him in a hurry. Then Allah asked it: “Who am I?” It replied: “You are Allah, there is no other god but You. You are the Creator of everything.” Something similar has been narrated in some of the Narratives.

We understand that it is obligatory on us to struggle with our lower self and we know that it has been founded and built on contradiction. So we have to toil with the wicked lower self. As Allah, The Exalted says in the Qur’an in the story of Nabi Yusuf, the Prophet of Allah:

And I do not absolve myself (of blame). Indeed the (human) self commands to evil acts. (12:53)

For this reason, it is necessary for people not to abandon to control the lower self. Those who are great fear the promptings of this lower self.

Imam al-Haddad has said:

(Here the shaykh quoted 6 verses of a religious poem of Imam ‘AbdAllah bin ‘Alawi al-Haddad (ر) . The first verse of this religious poem is:

Yā Rabbi Yā ‘Ālim al-hāl
O Lord! O The Knower of states and conditions.

These verses will be translated later, Inshā Allah).