Our Need in Allah

Salaam Alaikom to All:

Just a reminder to myself and all of us:

Until I does not recognize and does not understand and believe whole-heartedly that without Allah's help I cannot achieve anything, I will not move even one step towards gaining Allah's nearness, which is the one and only purpose of our existence.

One sign of "Kebr" is the lack of such recognition, understanding, and belief, which as Imam Ali (as) says is the source of all of my shortcomings and sins.

amin

Causes of Ojb

Haj Agha Bahraini had a nice series going a while back about Ojb. He said that Ojb (or self satisfaction) is the first step to kebr. Kebr has more of an outward look, you see yourself and others. So this looking at yourself first and being satisfied with yourself, that's ojb. Then when you compare it to others and say you are better that's kebr.

Sheytan saw himself first, then he started looking at others (namely Adam). That was the one action that caused the chain reaction and sent him out of heaven. Here are some of the causes that he mentioned (they are all good things too, so we really need to be careful):

• Knowledge: WHAT?! How can this be, are we not taught to learn all that we can? How does this good thing open the path to destruction for us? One who has studied a lot reaches a ghihg level, at this point he sees himself and none onthers. He thinks he is too ghigh for everyone else. his walk, his talk, actions are all degrading to other people.

• Ma'refat (level of Erfan): Another bummer! Once again you begin to think that you are above everyone else...Ebadat (worship): But we just said in surah Nuh, the first thing that was advised was to worship ALLAH for success. A person that is abed, sometimes gets caugh in ojb and this is one of their biggest problems. The best example, SHEYTAN!!!
• Taqwa, Kamalat (completeness), wara' (level where you begin to show off): These are things that lead to the doors of ojb.
• Bravery: If you are very brave, you see yourself as indestructible, and may soon begin to wander off your limits.
• Sekhavat (one who forgives a lot): One who forgives everything will think to himself/herself, look how nice I am, look how good I am, I hold no grudges. Other are not like this. They just don't let go...
• Nasab o hasab (stature of relatives): If you dad was a vizir or a great lawyer or someone successful, this may make you look at people differently.
• Jamal: Being beautiful, being nice. This also leads to ojb.
• Money, stature, power: All of this brings ojb. A lot of those who are rich when they interact with poor people they belittle them.
• Tasallot (sultanate): Someone who has a throne or sits on a great position, or power, will have the doors of ojb knocking.One who has a lot of friends.Zeerakee (cleverness)

Any thoughts on some of these things. We see it time in and out that things that are so good for us can become the worse things!!!

Summary of Session on 4/11/2009

There exists a differences in opinions in of the definition of a ma'soom. 1) They can make a silly mistake. 2)But other side says not even that.

From this khotbe we realize Sheytan was a malak, therefore a malak can make mistakes. Some of them have free will. A test only makes sense if you have free will. Imam Ali says Allah tested the angels, which means at least one of them had free will. Sheytan failed the test because he said you created this Adam from something that stinks.

If Allah would have wanted he could have made Adam very good and very beautiful. He could have done so much to make the bowing obvious. But he didn't, he kept it constant. But Allah tests his creatures with things that they don't have knowledge in. Things like gheybat we know the analogy of eating the dead brother's meat. we want the bad and good to be separated. the masoom know the essence of it so they are able to stay away from it. We know as well, but our "knowing" is different from there's.

Majority of people do not get this opportunity to turn around once they commit a sin. Probability of u-turning is less as you keep going on. In anything you want to do approach it with caution.

He wants to remove kebr and arrogance away from them. Now you will know you are very vulnerable. There is nothing to stop you, get rid of this self satisfaction, remove the takabbor, Le Ayyel Omoore llayka ashkoo, to which of these actions should i come and give shekayat (complain). I can do so much with nothing stopping me.

People learn from what happened to sheytan. What should we learn? Because all of his efforts and hard work for many thousands of years got destroyed with one second. Just like vice versa works. 6k years of worship and it's not obvious if it was regular years or hereafter years. one day in akherat is like 1k years (this is ayah quran).

Who is safe from this act now. When we sin we mean I don't need you (Allah). At some level we are doing takabbor.

Allah will not allow a human to enter heaven with the same action when another person was exiled because of it. There are signs for Kebr, find them, remove them. And his command on skies and ground is the same. There is no special guidlines, it doesn't matter who you are.
Kebr - think to yourself if you are better than others, that's kebr. stay away from people because you think that you're better than them, that's kebr. Kebr grows as you become more knowledgable.

No single action can be absolutely good or absolutely bad, it all depends on intention. like salat for salat or salat for riya.

The Nature of Allah's Tests

"But Allah, the Glorified, tries His creatures by means of those things whose real nature they do not know in order to distinguish (good and bad) for them through the trial, and to remove vanity from them and keep them and keep them aloof from pride and self-admiration".

Reminder for All of Us

A reminder to me in the first place and then to you all:

Imam Ali Says: It is easier not to sin in the first place than to ask for Allah's forgiveness after committing a sin.

Why do you think this might be the case?

amin

Main Point

Salaamon Alaikom

The main point of what we discussed yesterday is that there are many attributes that are hidden from us and we are not aware of them (Mozmartol Golub) . They have been developed through out our lives, through our action, thoughts, words, and our interactions with our society. These hidden attributes which are even hidden from Angels and only Allah is aware of them (as we read in doa komail) will sometimes show their face when the situation is ripe and the momenet is ready. We need to be aware, so when they show up their face we would realize them and try to resolve them.

Also we constantly need to be careful of our actions, because every act that we perform has an effect on our soul, some of which effect we are aware of and some others we are not. Therefore we need to request Allah (SWT) to remove all the negative things from our hearts and strive harder and harder to perform better and better deads. Through dozing up our souls with Salehat we can reduce or get rid of the Sayye'at of our souls. At the same time we should stay away from Razilat. and through all of these process we need to ask for Allah's help and continous support.

Allah (SWT) says:

1. For sure the Hasanat remove the Sayye'at.
2. Those who strive hard in our path, we will for sure show them our paths, For sure Allah is with the good dooers.
3. Except him who repents and believes and does a good deed; so these are they of whom Allah changes the evil deeds to good ones; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

eltemase doa
khoda hafez

Recap of session 3/28/2009

Salam to all,

As we mentioned, our meeting EVERY TWO WEEKS will be more just to have a small face to face gathering and the bulk of our discussion should be tried to taken forth on line.

We began by starting up khotbe qase'eh, below are the notes I took. Enjoy for now, i'll insha... post more opinions and stuff later in the week, but below just shows all that we talked about this past session:

Qa-se-eh has two meanings:

1) To a camel is eating's gag reflex and IMam Ali was on that type of camel when he gave this khotbe.

2) Something that is belittling or degrading. Imam Ali is making small the jahelee stuff. I enjoy school right now, money, i think these are my everything. cultures, the more lower we go we value things that are more worthless. My dad has such and such position, or i have such and such degree, etc...

Allah is the only one who is Kebriya. This being good depends on what you install it towards. If it's something along the lines of arrogance. Even if you think it's good, it's not a good thing. If you are doing it for the cause of Allah like someone is putting down religion and u have to come front to say who you are. We may think we are better than others, but that's just us.

So we praise the Allah the one that is Great and he has chosen these qualities for himself. He didn't choose it for you to become motakabber, and if you against his will u get in trouble.

This is the line of separation between Him and us. Everyone else can't be motakabber because we depend on Him. How can u be motakabber when u have all these shortcomings. And whosoever wants to gain those things, Allah has CURSED THEM!!!! And so Allah has chosen takabbor to be for himself and no one else, and this is the testing points that he tested the Angels with. Are they going to be motakabber or motawaze'.

mozmaratul quloob - the hidden things (mozmarat), which your qalb/rooh/nafs is also hidden. this is the hidden of the hidden. There exists things that we don't even know they are there. We will realize that they are there when situation is right for them to come out. That shortcoming will be shown once the time is right. In one step we can go fro +inf to -inf. sometimes we develop something unconsciously, and once the moment is right it shows itself. how do u know if u were pres, or even around at time of shemr (he was a commander at time of seffeyn and he almost became SHAHEED) who then turns around and cuts Imam hussein's head. he was given a choice, he wanted a rule, and so

moqaddas aradabeelee - super pious person. what would u do if u were alone w/ young lady. he said i pray that will never happen because this won't happen to me. but it comes around and gets you.

now some use this opportunity to realize what's wrong with them to be more careful. Allah loves his creations, if he did not show you that shortcoming, at time of death it could show there and then u would have no time to fix it. but now through sin He has given u an opportunity to fix yourself, that's why jahannam. nothing is absolutely good or absolutely evil. namaz could be the worse thing for someone if that makes you proud of yourself. nothing in this donya completely good or bad.

so Allah knows what's hidden. so he tests angels with takabbor. so what's the point of test? to help you realize who you are. every sin a person commits are wake up calls. he's not trying to trick u. if u dont want to wake up that's ur choice, many wake up but others don't.

dont we say all angels are good. but that's a misconception. are all malaeke good or are there some who make wrong choice. if they don't have free will, what's the point of test? free will makes test, makes knowledge making, makes rising, understanding, all make sense.

we know iblis was a jinn made of fire. he didn't do sajdeh. iblis was also a malak though (we will come to this). one exception enough to break the stereotype of angels names above.

iblish showed asabiyyat. i'm better than him. he's from a simple dust that everyone steps on. if u have dirt, that dirt has some value. if u put water in it, u can't plant it anymore. if you have mud and then u put that mud in heat, it loses all it's nutrients. physical creation has absolutely no value for Allah. it's only a means to achieve something else. that styrofoam doesn't have any value for chelow kabab. take care of body because we want to fulfill our duties. so he was prejudice (vanity) he had something deep inside his heart. he didn't know of it. point of this was to bring this out of sheytan. but he didn't fix himself. he wasn't cursed immideatly, he chose to become an outcast. Allah's knowledge doesn't take choice away from you. He knows what you will do in next second, but that doesn't take choice away from you.