"It is He who creates our actions" - Shaykh Yusuf Bakhour

Shaykh Yusuf Bakhour Al-Hassani & Shaykh Dr. Saad Ghawish Al-Hussaini
1 October 2011

Bismillah.

Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah, we were indeed delighted and grateful for the opportunity to sit before As-Shaykh Yusuf Bakhour Al-Hassani and  Shaykh Dr. Saad Ghawish Al-Hussaini at KL Ba'alawi tonight. It's amazing to see one Al-Hassani and one Al-Hussaini sitting next to each other and to see one showing much respect and humility toward the other, and one praising the other with much love. MashaAllah what a wonderful display of praiseworthy akhlaq and affection between them. Shaykh Yusuf was the first to speak. In his opening remarks he said:

"I am not worthy to speak in front of my elder, a great ulama, my guru, one who loves people of knowledge, the one before whom I grew up. Therefore, I must mention his special attributes both in his presence and absence. I shall not speak except that he ordered me to, so I speak out of adab.

Let me begin by reminding us all of the importance of having taqwa for Allah. We speak with the language of love and not just mere oratory. Muslims now busy themselves with making an eloquent speech (lafaz) yet ignoring the meanings (makna). They occupy themselves with the outer aspect of speech but their hearts are shut toward its beautiful meanings.

We know that people have aqal (intelligence). [To have] aqal actually means to obey Allah's orders. That is what it really means in terms of sharaq. But people nowadays have defined it differently. In today's world, one who has aqal is one who is clever at amassing wealth, who cheats, who robs other people's rights for the sake of obtaining worldly pleasures. We see how a person who is a hypocrite, who speaks lies is thought to be 'clever'. In contrast, one who is honest and sincere is considered as 'stupid'. If we were to ask people, 'Why did you cheat?' He will say, 'Oh it's a business trick.'

In today's world, one who busies himself with the love of Allah and ibadah is considered insane. He is thought to be losing and backward as far as dunya is concerned. While I was traveling from Penang to KL, I realized that I am 'crazy' and I love friends who are also 'crazy'. If I wanted myself to be considered as having aqal, I must lie. Suffice that we know Allah even if people labeled us crazy.

I say the love for Allah is a kind of 'craziness'. It is like one losing his aqal when he is faced with the one he loves. I do not mind that people think I am 'crazy' rather than have aqal but one is distant from Allah. But surely we interact with Allah using aqal. Yet if you were to ask for rewards of heavens then you are not speaking the language of love. Let me ask you, are we servant or are we God? Of course, you will say servant. Indeed we are a servant of Allah in every state (hal). Leave everything to Him. This is majlis aqidah. And I seek help from my Shaykh (madad), that we are talking about af'al [His actions]. He is the one who creates our actions. It is He who causes effects to take place. We don't do anything, we are merely the medium through which He takes actions.

Do you really think people create their own actions? No, it is Allah who creates our actions. If one were to create his own actions, then he might as well prostrate to himself! Allah knows since time immemorial and beyond (since azali) that our aqal is incompetent so He creates our actions. If you understood the verb (fi'il) of the Arabic language you would know the difference between 'to do' and 'to get done'. In ilm haqiqah, the one who does is Allah. His sifat is that of maf'ul.

Love is, in fact, junun (insanity). In today's world, people define cleverness as one who involves crime and all sorts of immoralities. We need to redefine this. We have to admit that we are crazy or else we would be committing crimes like those who are 'clever'. People have lost their way of finding the correct definition. One who is clever at cheating is smart. So can we say one who is trustworthy is smart too?  How can we build a civilization with such a misconception?

We are different from you. In these times when the values of akhlaq are being traded with materialistic judgment, we insist that we are different from you. If we defined having a relationship with Allah as crazy, then I want to be crazy.

The basis of aqal is that one does something with understanding. Let me then ask you, do you know Allah? Know that knowledge ('ilm) is the way/medium (wasilah). And the aim is Allah. Your deeds are wasilah and your destination is Allah.

Imam as-Shadzili once reminded Ibn Abbas that Adam was sent down from Heaven so that he would become complete/perfect and not to trouble him. No doubt heaven is a perfect place but dunya is a place for responsibility and only with responsibility can Adam become complete.

O you lovers, whom I love, know that the door to Allah is being honest with Him. Allah does not interact with us except that He loves us. He loves us before we could even begin to love him. And our love for Him only serves to prove His love for us. How can we claim to love Him first, when it was Him who created us? O friend, when do you reckon He created love? He created love before He created anything else. Allah has created us out of pure bounty. There is a difference between creating something for a purpose and creating something like a bounty. Our ruh were roaming freely before. That which was manifest became hidden. We are now searching for that beauty we had experienced in the realm of spirits (alam arwah). If love is within us, then our physique will follow Love.

Once a sahabi confessed his love to Rasulullah s.a.w, to which the Prophet grimaced. He then said to his companion, 'if that be the case, have a special jubbah to face calamities.' So know that to love something/someone has a price. If the ibadah you make for Allah is merely for the sake of obtaining rewards, then know that it is shirk khafi (hidden polytheism). Allah wants us to worship Him out of pure servitude, we as servants while He is the Lord.

Before I end my speech, I wish to remind everyone that this world is a place for test and not a place to collect wealth. We will be leaving this dunya for a place of eternal happiness. We will work towards that with ibadah and by knowing Allah, and that is the ultimate happiness of this world. Allah mentions in the Qur'an that akhira is the everlasting place. Lastly, I pray that you will be protected by Allah and that Allah will help us dunya wal akhirah." 

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Wallahu a'lam. May I be forgiven for any errors or omissions.
The tazkirah by Shaykh Dr. Saad Ghawish will be posted separately InshaAllah.

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