The Doors of Good Are Beyond Counting (Purifying our Hearts at U of T Session 8)

In our eighth session with Shaykh Faraz at the University of Toronto studying Imam Haddad’s poem of counsel, we had a beautiful evening with so many wonderful gems. Masha’Allah it’s a gift having these classes so accessible for us on campus, and we hope that these notes can be a small complement to those who could not make it. As always, these notes are not complete, but we hope they are of benefit.

Trust in God

…And when someone is conscious of God, God gives him a way out, and will provide for him from where he doesn’t expect. And whoever trusts in God, God suffices him, for God brings about the divine decree. God has given every thing a certain measure.

~Surah 65 (al Talaq) Verses 2-3. (The Quran: A New Translation by Thomas Cleary)

Ponder the Names

“Every single Name is an objective in your life. You will become close by pondering the Names and trying to translate them into your life. (…) There is no Islamic commitment without knowing yourself.”

~Tariq Ramadan, Reviving the Islamic Spirit 2009 (Lecture: Read: A Simple Command of Profound Implications)

We Have Lots of Free Time

When you live in the present moment, you get barakah. You get blessing. And blessing has a timelessness quality to it. If Allah gives you barakah in your time, can do in your time amazing things that other people cannot do. And may Allah bless us with that. So you see someone like Imam Nawawi who teaches how many classes a day? I think 14 at least. And he’s also worshipping. He is also serving the community. He is doing all of these things. But it’s like for him time stands still because of where he is.

When you’re in the present moment, you’re in the moment of God. And then time is filled with blessing. When we turn away from God and we live in the world of our illusions, then time is not very blessed. Then it’s like you never have enough time. And a lot of us actually especially if we compare ourselves to our mothers and fathers and earlier generations, we have lots of free time. We’ve said that we don’t. We’re so busy.  But what about your mother and father? They didn’t work from eight to five. A lot of them worked from sun-up until deep into the night.  And yet they still had time.

(…)

We talk about doing things by God, and doing things for God and when you work by God then you get in the present moment. And then you get great blessings. And then you rely on Allah and insha’Allah He gives you success in what you do. When you rely on yourself and say I can do this, I have all these abilities and I’m so smart, then the barakah is maybe not there. You may succeed but in the end it may not produce the fruit that you want.

~Dr. Umar Abd-Allah On Spiritual Guidance: Commentary on Ibn Ata’illah’s Hikam – 03 Dec 2011, Seekers Hub