First of all, I want to apologize for not putting this up sooner this week.
We will be discussing saying # 2 from Nahjul Balagha.
قَالَ(عليه السلام): أَزْرَى بِنَفْسِهِ مَنِ اسْتَشْعَرَالطَّمَعَ، وَرَضِيَ بِالذُّلِّ مَنْ
كَشَفَضُرَّهُ، وَهَانَتْ عَلَيْهِ نَفْسُهُ مَنْ أَمَّرَ عَلَيْهَا لِسَانَهُ
“Whoever covers (clothes) one’s self
with greed, has degraded oneself; and one who discloses one’s difficulties, is
satisfied with abasement and one who grants one’s tongue authority over
oneself, has devalued oneself”
"He who is greedy is disgraced; he who discloses his hardship will always be humiliated; he who has no control over his tongue will often have to face discomfort."We will focus on the first part of the saying that talks about greed.
Format of the session and future sessions will be as follows:
1. Discuss implementation of last week's saying in our day to day lives on a personal basis.
2. Discussion of this week's sermon/saying.
3. Discuss how to implement it on a personal level and plans/strategies to put it into practice in the coming week and thereafter.
The idea is that whatever we learn from the sessions, we do not restrict ourselves to those 2 hours but make it a permanent part of our lives. And iA with the guidance of Allah, we can continue to stay on Serat-al-Mustakeem.
Think about the following areas to discuss for today's discussion:
1. What is greed? Can it be a good thing? Is is always necessarily a bad thing?
2. Who are you greedy from? Who are you asking for whatever you desire?
3. How do you get rid of greed? Is there anything you can do that your desires and your greed is reduced?
IA will see you all tonight.
Jazakallah Khair,
Imran.
Here is the commentary on the above discussion sent to us by Maulana Sekaleshfar. I have to split it because blogger does not allow me to post a comment more than 4096 characters.
ReplyDelete---- START COMMENTARY ----
Greed per se (opposite of contentment) is viewed as good or bad depending on its underlying intention and consequences. Greed per se is when one over-focuses on a given matter. Whether it is of the good or bad genre – virtuous or vicious type – depends on one criterion i.e. ‘is Allah in one’s equation of action?’ One may exhibit virtuous patterns of greed as was displayed by the Holy Prophet. In 9:128, we read:
“...he is greedy/grasping (ḥarīṣ) over you (non-believers); and is most compassionate and merciful to the believers”
The Holy Prophet had deep concerns and a grasping and ‘greedy’ desire in relation to the guidance of the non-believers. Being greedy in this regard annihilates all forms of prejudices and therefore irrespective of who one is – atheist, hypocrite or other – the Holy Prophet desired and coveted their guidance. After all, he is a mercy for all worlds (21:107).
Here though, Amir al-Mu’minīn is referring to the Allah-less, and therefore bad and vicious, form of greed because he is saying that whenever a soul incorporates greed within itself, it is in fact degrading oneself. Why should such a trait subsequently lead to one’s degradation? Bahrānī (b. 679 AH) believes it is because coveting or over-wanting x thing from a person entails you acting as needy before the person (which may lead to self-humiliation) and thus lowering your status before him/her as a result (hence degradation). This statement must be opened up however; two parameters must be carefully analysed here: (i) how much Allah-ness or divinity (divine intentions) is colouring your intentions? and (ii) from whom are you over-requesting something.
----continued----
Assuming one’s intention, for any given action, is for other than Allah – i.e. being for the sake of the dunya (lid-dunya) – rather than being lillāh (for Allah’s sake), one is in effect treading upon a path that is in total contradiction with that which one was assigned to tread. The aim of creation was to worship Him (51:55) which according to the traditions of the Ahl al-Bayt means to know Him, which means to be mukhlaṣ. Travelling lid-dunya entails travelling on a par with the dunya which is lowly (dunya literally meaning ‘more inferior’). Hence, vicious greed entails degradation and lowliness because one is lowering oneself, by means of leading a greedy life, to the level of the reproached dunya. You reap what you sow; you sowed a lowly and worldly product as a result of your intentions. After all, you are your intentions!
ReplyDeleteBecoming mukhlaṣ means becoming Allah’s slave i.e. abdullāh which means submitting to His instructions 100% (here, in contrast to the mukhliṣ, the ‘I’ is made sincere). Being subservient to Allah and expressing utmost humility to Him makes one never to submit to other than Allah; in effect, one will never be subservient to other than Allah and thus never be degraded. Degradation is when you become humble and abased before other than Allah. Hence, if greed becomes second nature to you (...clothes oneself with greed...), this will lead to you following your base desires rather than detaching from the worldly life and following Allah. Greed prevents one from detaching from the worldly life. In 7:176, it states: “...but he clung to the earth and followed his desires. So his parable is that of the dog...”
On the reason as to why clothing oneself with greed leads to one’s degradation, Maghniyyah writes:
“whoever adopts greed as their ‘aqīdah and custom (‘ādat) thus not being abiding in relation to anything as a result of one’s personal benefits, has in reality degraded oneself. After all, Man will be judged in accordance with one’s objectives and goals”
In other words, you are on a par with what you strive for (53:39); don’t let greed obstruct your assigned divine objective!
Inshallah we shall continue with the next clause of the maxim next week.
----END COMMENTARY----
Let's continue our discussion on the saying in the comments section of this post iA.