HAVE YOU EVER HAD A GLIMPSE OF JANNAH?

 It would be presumptuous of me to say that this morning I had a glimpse of jannah but………..

It is Friday and I decide to do my adhkaars on the river. I walk out and it has freshly rained. As I turn on to the path, the dense green with every nuance of its color beckons me into its mysterious depths. The green is intense and the water dripping from the leaves renders them pristine and pure.

Below runs the clear water of the river……and for a fleeting moment I am propelled into thinking of Jannah and I want time to freeze. Peace seeps into me, the air is still, fresh, and odorless. The denseness of the green beckons wordlessly. The water below flows with serenity. All edges of reality are shrouded in mist with no beginning and no end……

 Doesn’t He Subhanawataala say that the righteous will be admitted to the Gardens where Streams/ Rivers will flow below them? I pray that you and I are one of those!

Well I had a fleeting glimpse of what Jannah could be like at my level of existence………..

Have you ever been shown a glimpse of Jannah?

Below the water flows……..

The seamless edges of the water flowing below…..

MY THOUGHTS AND WORDS: MAHER’S VOICE…………

WHAT DOES THE HEART OF THE LISTENER DETERMINE? Surah Zumar 39:18

 Surah Zumar: 39:18

الَّذِينَ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقَوْلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحْسَنَهُ ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ هَدَاهُمُ اللَّـهُ ۖ وَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمْ أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ ﴿١٨﴾

 [39:18] Yusuf Ali

Those who listen to the Word, and follow the best (meaning) in it: those are the ones whom Allah has guided, and those are the ones endued with understanding.

For the Background and explanation of this ayah Click here…….

For rewards of the focused listener click here………

APPLIED TAZKIYAH TUN NAFS CONCERNING THIS AYAH

An important prerequisite to understand, discern and select what is good from a conversation and discard and ignore what is bad is an action of the heart.

If the heart has been hardened by constant exposure to the disobediences of Allah, then it is unable to discern what is good, or bad and definitely is cannot differentiate ehsan or the rest.

We know from the authentic Hadith that with each act of disobedience of Allah a black dot is placed on the heart.

If the acts of disobedience multiply so do the black dots eventually blinding the heart from the light of understanding, guidance and discernment. The heart is thus unable to see and follow the path of light, of knowledge and of the ultimate reality of Allah.

Thus such a heart that is “blinded” due to the disobediences has two choices:

1. Remain blind and thus misinterpret what is good and what is bad because of the covering of the black dots and shutting out “The Light”
2. Perform Tazkiyah tun Nafs and slowly lift the heavy veils of disobedience to let “The Light” in to show the straight path.

APPLIED TAZKIYAH

The focused listener can be subdivided into three:

1. One who has a “blind” heart due to the disobedience of the owner of the heart as well as ”desensitization” to what is good or evil by continuous or repeated exposure to the disobediences of Allah.
2.  A heart that is in the process of being cleansed by Tazkiyah and Light is being let in.
3. A heart that is cleansed such that “when the light shines into it, it emanates unchanged illuminating the truth as truth and Batil (untruth) as batil.

A potent dua on Jumma asks Allah to give us such a heart: CLICK HERE TO RECITE

The heart interprets what the ear of the focused listener hears as follows:

1. The one with the blind heart will choose the good and bad from what he or she has heard, as there is no light to discern what is good or evil? (A blinded heart is unable to determine by feeling only if the smooth longitudinal circular thing is a stick or a snake?)
2. The one with the heart that is in the process of performing Tazkiyah (cleansing) will discern what is good, and what is bad in the conversation
3. The heart that is constantly in a state of Tazkiyah will not only discern what is good or bad but also will also recognize what is ehsan (extreme good) and latch on to it and get the Hidaya from Allah to follow it inshallah!

 Respectfully presented with duas fro my teachers who taught me Tazkiyah and continue to do so as I am a slow learner. Please keep in your duas.

WHAT IS THE REWARD OF THE DISCERNING LISTENER?

 Surah Zumar: 39:18

الَّذِينَ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقَوْلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحْسَنَهُ ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ هَدَاهُمُ اللَّـهُ ۖ وَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمْ أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ ﴿١٨﴾

 [39:18] Yusuf Ali

Those who listen to the Word, and follow the best (meaning) in it: those are the ones whom Allah has guided, and those are the ones endued with understanding.

For Explanation of the Qualities of the listener in this ayah CLICK HERE…….

WHAT IS THE REWARD FROM ALLAH FOR THE FOCUSED & DISCERNING LISTENER? 39:18

What is the definition of a discerning listener? To read CLICK HERE

TAFSEER BY DR. FARHAT HASHMI (as I understand it)

Who so ever has a higher level of goodness in his or her action the reward from Allah will also qualitatively and quantitatively become higher

HOW DOES ONE SIFT (DISCERN) THE CONTENTS OF WHAT ONE HEARS?

In every day life one can interpret a conversation with varying meanings One can also interpret things in the Quran in different ways. Those people who have a perverted thinking or intention, they take a negative meaning of an ayah of the Quran and quote it out of context.

They (because of their steady state of hard hearts) do not take the meaning that is being presented but modulate it according to the fixed opinion that they already have decided upon. Thus modulating the ayah and meaning to fit what they have already decided.

(It is like writing a medical review paper but it is actually an opinion paper in which the author first writes the paper and then fits the references in that agree with his or her opinion)

Listening is an art.

The focused attentive listener understands it at the same level that the speaker is presenting it.

The poor listener is one who misinterprets what the speaker is saying.

Allah gives credence to:

Those who listen to things without personal distortion and then extract and follow the best of it.

WHO HAS A GOOD END: FOCUSED DISCERNING LISTENER

Those who take the ehsan aspect of what they hear they reward is: that Allah gives Hidaya to them: They are given hidaya tawfiq those who can listen, understand, extract what is good and ehsan and their hearts open and they can go on the straight path and end up at a good destination.

WHO HAS A BAD END: POOR UN FOCUSED, NON-DISCERNING LISTENER

Those who did not end up well the primary reason is that they began incorrectly because they did not listen well and thus could not extract what is beneficial from what is useless.

REASONS WHY ONE CANNOT FOCUS ON LISTENING

1. Not interested: They have other interests
2. Ignorance (Ghafala) unaware of its significance, interest, attention and heart is involved elsewhere
3. Inattentive
   1. Tired, (late nights, poor sleep hygiene poor diet)
   2. Sleepy (excessive eating or eating non halal and tayyab)
   3. More interested in the actions and words of “people” irrespective of what Allah says in the Quran
4. Distractions

HOW DOES ALLAH SUBHANAWATAALA REWARD THE DISCERNING LISTENER?

The discerning listener is one who listens with complete attention to what the speaker says, sifts the message for what is best, acts on it with extreme grace and discards what is less than good.

When the listener who is focused and does the above and understands and is able to give focused and full attention to Allah’s message, Allah then shows them His Subhanawataala’s appreciation by giving them HIDAYA.

HIDAYA: He energizes their hearts with tawfiq (ability to do something by Allah’s grace). He Subhanawataala directs them to the straight path, and gives them the ability and energy to walk on it to a good end. Thus when they read the Quran they follow the essence with the best of actions.

End Tafseer

WHAT TYPE OF LISTENER DOES ALLAH REWARD? Surah Zumar: 39:18

 

A muslim sister listens to the knowledge of Deen with full attention.

الَّذِينَ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقَوْلَ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ أَحْسَنَهُ ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ هَدَاهُمُ اللَّـهُ ۖ وَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمْ أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ ﴿١٨﴾

[39:18] Yusuf Ali

Those who listen to the Word, and follow the best (meaning) in it: those are the ones whom Allah has guided, and those are the ones endued with understanding.

Tafseer by Dr. Farhat Hashmi (my understanding of it)

WHO DOES ALLAH ADDRESS AS “MINE”?

Allah calls these folks HIS PEOPLE:

1. Those who listen carefully to the words.
2. Those who listen carefully and with extreme attention, the words: which may be of many types, good, very good, bad, very bad, and or obscene.

Why is it important to listen with full attention? Focused listening tells us the significance of the content of the words. Thus the first Step to learn to change ones actions is the act of focused listening

GRAPH OF WHAT ONE LISTENS TO USUALLY

If we make a graph of all the things that we hear in a day, We can assess the percentage of each type of content by sifting through after attentive listening with discernment: good words, ahsan (extremely good), hasan (good), saiye  (mistakes and bordering on bad) aswaa (? Urdu readers please help translate this), lagv. (Obscene, useless)

We hear according to whatever company we keep, this may be human company or a one transmission of words via TV, radio, phone, Internet, other electronics etc.

3. Those who listen with focused attention they keep what is ehsan and trash and ignore what is not ehsan.

4. When they hear about the Deen they take what is the highest or ehsan of the Deen. To translate the words into action they take what is the most ehsan (extreme good, which is greater than our basic right).

One example of an ehsan action:  is that if one gives a loan and one realizes that the other person is in extreme difficulty and it is obvious that he or she cannot pay it back at the appointed time:

i)                    One level of hasan is if the other cannot pay, the loaner gives the loanee more time to pay back .

ii)                  The highest level of ehsaan is that the loaner fully understanding the situation of the loanee forgives the loan as a sadaqa.

Actions also have levels:

1. Fard,
2. Sunnah
3.  Mustahab
4.  Haram
5.  Halal
6.  Mubah

Those folks also even leave the mubah thus practice extreme ehsaan.

For them Allah Subhanawataala has promised a house in the middle of Jannah. These are those people who give up their rights even when they know they are right only to end a heated argument for the sake of Allah.

Allah Subhanawataala says further into Surah Zumar:

Zumar 55

وَاتَّبِعُوا أَحْسَنَ مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُم مِّن رَّبِّكُم مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَكُمُ الْعَذَابُ بَغْتَةً وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ ﴿٥٥﴾

[39:55] Yusuf Ali

“And follow the best of (the courses) revealed to you from your Lord, before the Penalty comes on you – of a sudden while ye perceive not!-

And in Surah AL Araaf Allah Subhanawataala says to Moses AS:

وَكَتَبْنَا لَهُ فِي الْأَلْوَاحِ مِن كُلِّ شَيْءٍ مَّوْعِظَةً وَتَفْصِيلًا لِّكُلِّ شَيْءٍ فَخُذْهَا بِقُوَّةٍ وَأْمُرْ قَوْمَكَ يَأْخُذُوا بِأَحْسَنِهَا ۚ سَأُرِيكُمْ دَارَ الْفَاسِقِينَ ﴿١٤٥﴾

[7:145] Yusuf Ali

And We ordained laws for him in the tablets in all matters, both commanding and explaining all things, (and said): “Take and hold these with firmness, and enjoin thy people to hold fast by the best in the precepts: soon shall I show you the homes of the wicked,- (How they lie desolate).”

And in Surah Nahl Allah Subhanawataala reminds us:

مَنْ عَمِلَ صَالِحًا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُ حَيَاةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُم بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٩٧﴾

[16:97] Yusuf Ali

Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has Faith, verily, to him will We give a new Life, a life that is good and pure and We will bestow on such their reward according to the best of their actions.

 

Summary: ALLAH DEFINES THE DISCERNING LISTENER AS “MINE”

WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF A DISCERNING LISTENER?

The discerning listener is one who listens with complete attention to what the speaker says, sifts the message for what is best, acts on it with extreme grace and discards what is less than good.

Continued inshallah tomorrow……….

ALLAH KNOWS BEST : Inshallah continued in tomorrows post.