I thought I would share with those unable to attend. Any errors are my own and not that of the Shaykh:
The function of the human heart is to love. Every heart of a human loves somebody or something, otherwise they would not be human. Allah has given us one heart and therefore that heart can only be in love with one thing; the analogy being it is light or dark, it cannot be both. True love entails love of Allah.
Allah cannot be contained in the vastness of the heavens and the earth, but he can be contained in the heart of a mu'min.
Allah has purchased our lives and maal in exchange for Jannah. He did not mention the heart because the heart is already waqf for Allah and therefore cannot be purchased; hence he mentions the remainder, which is our bodies and wealth. Allah's purchasing is not like our purchasing. We transact due to need or profit.
In any relationship of this world, there is always a degree of self-interest, be it parent-child, shaykh-mureed etc.*
For example, the mureed's self interest is islah and the Shaykh's self interest is that if my mureed attains success, it will be a source of salavation for me. It is only Allah's love which has no self-interest, i.e. it's pure/undiluted. How do we know this? Because he doesn't need us, (gani) yet still loves us.
The extent of this love is unfathomable. In the Qur'an Allah states: 'Allahoo Walliyooludhinu Aamunoo,' i.e. he loves the believers. You will note from the portion of this verse that there is not even the pre-condition of good deeds in order for Allah to love the believer. Only iman is mentioned. *Is it then not befitting that the highest level of the heart's attachment should be exclusively for Allah?
The beauty of Allah is such that when a mu'mina meets Allah in the aakhirah, the reflection of that beauty will be such that after the meeting the hoors of Jannah will stare at her for 70000 years.
Further examples of his love for us include:
1. Creation of jannah for the believers.*
How do we understand this as a manifestation of love?*
For example, when we invite a special guest that we love, we make special preparation for them, but that preparation and hosting is not eternal and/or to the same extent as it was on the first few days, but the jannah of Allah has been prepared pre-eternity with eternal blessings for us to reside in for eternity.*
In addition, we must remember that the prime objective of jannah is not to obtain its blessings, but to obtain the host.
2. Provision of rizq - Allah loves us so much that he has taken personal responsibility to provide us with rizq.
The dog has such ihsan for his master upon being fed a few scraps daily that he hands himself over in totality to his master. Allah's nemats upon us are unaccountable, as stated in the Qur'an, and so the question arises, why have we not handed ourselves over to Allah?
3. Health - Allah loves us so much he has endowed us with good health and this health is not only important for our physical body, it is more important for our iman, because some people are tested by virtue of their health the result being they end up complaining about Allah, which is tantamount to kufr. So, the preservation of health is a preservation of iman.
Even when we are sick, we should ponder over all those illnesses that Allah saved us from. If we have a flu, we should contemplate that Allah has saved us from cancer, heart disease etc.*
Just the fact that a near miss remained a near miss and did not become an accident is sufficient for us to become the slave of that Being that saved us from an accident.
4. Wealth
5. Family - Allah loves us so much that he gave us the gift of family and therefore we should appreciate them. Ask those that are not married, how they would value a spouse or those that don't have children. Ask them what it's like not to have children. Ask those that have boys, but do not have girls and vice versa.*
Unfortunately, some parents say or curse their masoom child in anger, yet Allah is so kind, he gives them another child. (The fact that a child is naughty does not mean he is not masoom. If Allah declares that a child is masoom, the child is masoom).
6. Now we move on to those attributes of Allah that demonstrate his love for us:
(i) He is Al Haleem, i.e. He is that being that does not punish us, even though we are deserving of being punished AND he is capable of punishing us.*
NB: there are two aspects here, our deserving of being punished and His ability to do so.
He knows us more intimately then our family and friends. He sees us blatantly violate his commands openly and secretly, yet he is still Haleem to us. Why? Because this bandah of his may ask for forgiveness and no sooner he does this, Allah oos ko sine ke saath laga leta hein.
(ii) He is As Sattar, i.e. he loves us so much, he is all concealing. He conceals our sins from others. Therefore when someone praises us for our good qualities, they are, in fact, praising Allah's attribute of being As Sattar, because if our true being was laid bare, nobody would want to associate with us. Even our wives and children don't know about the things we have done wrong and the schemes and plots we have. Allah loves us so much, he conceals this from them.
(iii) He is Al Hannan There will be ups and downs in the loves of this world, yet Allah's attribute is that he is always trying to win us over.*
He even addresses the kuffar when he says: "Ya ayyuhul insanoo ma gurruku bi rabbikul kareem." Oh insaan, what has put you in doubt about your lord who is kareem.
(iv) He is Al Mannan, i.e. he pays attention to us when we don't pay attention to him. Is there any such lover in our worldly lives?
7. Even the truest lover of this world will either neglect or forget you at some point. Allah is that being that neither forgets nor neglects the believer.
8. Linked to point 7 is separation. At some point you will be separated from the people of the world that you love. If you are true to Allah, he will never be separated from you.
9. Sometimes you have to travel to see those that you love, yet Allah is always with you no matter where you are. In fact Allah says in the Qur'an to the nearest meaning that he is closer to us than our own selves/jugular vein. There is no distance with Allah. He is aqrab to us (Wu nuhnoo aqruboo min hublil wureed)
10. There is no special airs or personality type in order to be with Allah. The Sahabah had differing personalities, yet Allah was happy with them. *All that Allah requires is iman and taqwa.
11. At the time of need, lovers of this world may not be there, yet Allah hears and answers every caller (dua).
12. The people in this world that love you will forgive you a limited number of times, yet Allah's forgiveness is unlimited. If you sin a 1000 times, Allah will forgive you a 1000 times. After all, you are His. Never think your sins can outrun the mercy of Allah. Allah loves us so much that in the Qur'an he addresses the perpetual sinner: "Ya Ibadi."
Shaykh Bayazid Boostami Rahmatullah Alayh says that there are 3 occasions when even the angels are amazed by Allah's love for us:
(a) When they see the rewards we obtain for good deeds
(b) Malikul Maut has hayat when he is removing the soul of a friend of Allah. He makes himself remove the soul as he feels ashamed and,*
(c) Munkar and Nakeer when they question a friend of Allah. They recognise that this is the friend of Allah and therefore questioning is undertaken with awe and respect for the friends of Allah.
Finally, some sayings of the pious:
1. Death is the bridge which unites the lover with his beloved.
2. Shaykh Zulfiqar (damat barakatuhum) mentioned that: "We have not been sent in to this world to live a good life but to die a good death."
3. Doodh doodh wala se milta hein. Sabzi sabzi wala se milta hein. Wese hee, Allah Allah walo se milta hein.*
The moral being some of the love that Allah has for them and some of the love they have for Allah will transfer to our hearts.
If we don't associate ourselves with them or have a derogatory state of mind about them, we endanger ourselves.
Furthermore if we make enmity with the friends of Allah, Allah will become our enemy.
The function of the human heart is to love. Every heart of a human loves somebody or something, otherwise they would not be human. Allah has given us one heart and therefore that heart can only be in love with one thing; the analogy being it is light or dark, it cannot be both. True love entails love of Allah.
Allah cannot be contained in the vastness of the heavens and the earth, but he can be contained in the heart of a mu'min.
Allah has purchased our lives and maal in exchange for Jannah. He did not mention the heart because the heart is already waqf for Allah and therefore cannot be purchased; hence he mentions the remainder, which is our bodies and wealth. Allah's purchasing is not like our purchasing. We transact due to need or profit.
In any relationship of this world, there is always a degree of self-interest, be it parent-child, shaykh-mureed etc.*
For example, the mureed's self interest is islah and the Shaykh's self interest is that if my mureed attains success, it will be a source of salavation for me. It is only Allah's love which has no self-interest, i.e. it's pure/undiluted. How do we know this? Because he doesn't need us, (gani) yet still loves us.
The extent of this love is unfathomable. In the Qur'an Allah states: 'Allahoo Walliyooludhinu Aamunoo,' i.e. he loves the believers. You will note from the portion of this verse that there is not even the pre-condition of good deeds in order for Allah to love the believer. Only iman is mentioned. *Is it then not befitting that the highest level of the heart's attachment should be exclusively for Allah?
The beauty of Allah is such that when a mu'mina meets Allah in the aakhirah, the reflection of that beauty will be such that after the meeting the hoors of Jannah will stare at her for 70000 years.
Further examples of his love for us include:
1. Creation of jannah for the believers.*
How do we understand this as a manifestation of love?*
For example, when we invite a special guest that we love, we make special preparation for them, but that preparation and hosting is not eternal and/or to the same extent as it was on the first few days, but the jannah of Allah has been prepared pre-eternity with eternal blessings for us to reside in for eternity.*
In addition, we must remember that the prime objective of jannah is not to obtain its blessings, but to obtain the host.
2. Provision of rizq - Allah loves us so much that he has taken personal responsibility to provide us with rizq.
The dog has such ihsan for his master upon being fed a few scraps daily that he hands himself over in totality to his master. Allah's nemats upon us are unaccountable, as stated in the Qur'an, and so the question arises, why have we not handed ourselves over to Allah?
3. Health - Allah loves us so much he has endowed us with good health and this health is not only important for our physical body, it is more important for our iman, because some people are tested by virtue of their health the result being they end up complaining about Allah, which is tantamount to kufr. So, the preservation of health is a preservation of iman.
Even when we are sick, we should ponder over all those illnesses that Allah saved us from. If we have a flu, we should contemplate that Allah has saved us from cancer, heart disease etc.*
Just the fact that a near miss remained a near miss and did not become an accident is sufficient for us to become the slave of that Being that saved us from an accident.
4. Wealth
5. Family - Allah loves us so much that he gave us the gift of family and therefore we should appreciate them. Ask those that are not married, how they would value a spouse or those that don't have children. Ask them what it's like not to have children. Ask those that have boys, but do not have girls and vice versa.*
Unfortunately, some parents say or curse their masoom child in anger, yet Allah is so kind, he gives them another child. (The fact that a child is naughty does not mean he is not masoom. If Allah declares that a child is masoom, the child is masoom).
6. Now we move on to those attributes of Allah that demonstrate his love for us:
(i) He is Al Haleem, i.e. He is that being that does not punish us, even though we are deserving of being punished AND he is capable of punishing us.*
NB: there are two aspects here, our deserving of being punished and His ability to do so.
He knows us more intimately then our family and friends. He sees us blatantly violate his commands openly and secretly, yet he is still Haleem to us. Why? Because this bandah of his may ask for forgiveness and no sooner he does this, Allah oos ko sine ke saath laga leta hein.
(ii) He is As Sattar, i.e. he loves us so much, he is all concealing. He conceals our sins from others. Therefore when someone praises us for our good qualities, they are, in fact, praising Allah's attribute of being As Sattar, because if our true being was laid bare, nobody would want to associate with us. Even our wives and children don't know about the things we have done wrong and the schemes and plots we have. Allah loves us so much, he conceals this from them.
(iii) He is Al Hannan There will be ups and downs in the loves of this world, yet Allah's attribute is that he is always trying to win us over.*
He even addresses the kuffar when he says: "Ya ayyuhul insanoo ma gurruku bi rabbikul kareem." Oh insaan, what has put you in doubt about your lord who is kareem.
(iv) He is Al Mannan, i.e. he pays attention to us when we don't pay attention to him. Is there any such lover in our worldly lives?
7. Even the truest lover of this world will either neglect or forget you at some point. Allah is that being that neither forgets nor neglects the believer.
8. Linked to point 7 is separation. At some point you will be separated from the people of the world that you love. If you are true to Allah, he will never be separated from you.
9. Sometimes you have to travel to see those that you love, yet Allah is always with you no matter where you are. In fact Allah says in the Qur'an to the nearest meaning that he is closer to us than our own selves/jugular vein. There is no distance with Allah. He is aqrab to us (Wu nuhnoo aqruboo min hublil wureed)
10. There is no special airs or personality type in order to be with Allah. The Sahabah had differing personalities, yet Allah was happy with them. *All that Allah requires is iman and taqwa.
11. At the time of need, lovers of this world may not be there, yet Allah hears and answers every caller (dua).
12. The people in this world that love you will forgive you a limited number of times, yet Allah's forgiveness is unlimited. If you sin a 1000 times, Allah will forgive you a 1000 times. After all, you are His. Never think your sins can outrun the mercy of Allah. Allah loves us so much that in the Qur'an he addresses the perpetual sinner: "Ya Ibadi."
Shaykh Bayazid Boostami Rahmatullah Alayh says that there are 3 occasions when even the angels are amazed by Allah's love for us:
(a) When they see the rewards we obtain for good deeds
(b) Malikul Maut has hayat when he is removing the soul of a friend of Allah. He makes himself remove the soul as he feels ashamed and,*
(c) Munkar and Nakeer when they question a friend of Allah. They recognise that this is the friend of Allah and therefore questioning is undertaken with awe and respect for the friends of Allah.
Finally, some sayings of the pious:
1. Death is the bridge which unites the lover with his beloved.
2. Shaykh Zulfiqar (damat barakatuhum) mentioned that: "We have not been sent in to this world to live a good life but to die a good death."
3. Doodh doodh wala se milta hein. Sabzi sabzi wala se milta hein. Wese hee, Allah Allah walo se milta hein.*
The moral being some of the love that Allah has for them and some of the love they have for Allah will transfer to our hearts.
If we don't associate ourselves with them or have a derogatory state of mind about them, we endanger ourselves.
Furthermore if we make enmity with the friends of Allah, Allah will become our enemy.