[NEW]The Road to Allah مدارج السالكين

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Practicing The way of the travelers (Madarej Assalekeen)

Introduction

Many times, we get into heedlessness of the hereafter. Many times, Allah will wake us up from this heedlessness to be conscious of the remaining time and work hard towards the goal of winning paradise. However, since we do not have a guide, a map, or what we need to do to stay moving forward, our enemies of devils, desires, and distractions always win over us and bring us back to heedlessness, again and get us busy with this life. Ibn ElQayeem realized this struggle and he wrote a book that will take the travelers to Allah step by step through over sixty steps starting from the step of Consciousness. I went through those steps multiple times, but I could not find a real practical application for it that is appropriate to the 20th century. The unfortunate events of the year 2020 of Covid-19, Fires in California, Layoffs, the stock market going down, and all the panic and chaeos were one of the reasons to wake me up, again, to look into my life and get back, again on the road to Allah following the travelers steps as a guide. While, I have multiple audio sessions, before on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNT8BTFvQYHLmHSeXABFEYS-hZ9IwGdWI ) and https://MyIslam.net, I received the feedback of a need for a written format. Also, another feedback was the length of the Madarej. Therefore, I decided to summarize it to the action and keep references to the long audio explanations. The new series in shaa Allah will be posted to https://myislam.net/The_Road_to_Allah/ and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNT8BTFvQYHJ9RBJR54wk1j_O4DaQt-Zq

The step of Consciousness:

We get into the consciousness state many times. It could be triggered by an event, such as a calamity, a bounty, a supplication that is accepted, a lecture, Ramadan, or a death for a close person. When we are in this state, we need to keep it. Imam Ibn ElQayeem said that we need to take an action. The Consciousness will lead to realizing that we are behind in preparing for the real life. It will lead to looking into sins and understanding the danger in it. Then plan to make up for the shortcomings. This will lead to the following state, The Idea. What are the pillars of vigilance/Consciousness? أركان اليقظة 1-مطالعة الجناية Consciousness of bounties of Allah. The heart will notice the grace of Allah. 2-لحظ القلب إلى النعمة Consciousness of your Sins 3-معرفة الزيادة و النقصان من الأيام. Consciousness of time. Realizing the increase and decrease of days. More details can be found at https://youtu.be/gLzpcem5wpA The step of The Idea The step of The Idea is about the vision and deciding on our goal. Our goal should be the hear after and winning Paradise. We have one Goal is “to please Allah, alone.”

The state of Commitment

The state of Commitment is the state that we should commit to travel to Allah in spite of all the challenges. Ibn ElQayeem is comparing this trip to the physical trip to a physical destination. First you need to wake up, decide your destination, get the map and GPS, and commit to travel. The step of Self Evaluation: O you who have believed, fear Allah . And let every soul look to what it has put forth for tomorrow – and fear Allah . Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do. Omar ben Elkhatab said “Examine yourself, today, before you get examined. Weight your deeds, today, before it is weighed. It is easier today to examine yourself and prepare for the presentation day.” And recited the verse that can be translated as: “That Day(The day of judgement) , you will be exhibited [for judgment]; not hidden among you is anything concealed. “ This is the most important step. The moment you stop self-evaluation, you go back to heedlessness. Again, Ibn ElQayeem gives an example from the real life. If you are traveling, you need to check how much fuel you have and git rid of excess weight. When we travel by air, we make sure we have the correct weight. I used to have 3 different scales to make sure I will not be charged for extra weight. The same when we travel to Allah, we get rid of things that are not relevant to our goal. You need to do question the act before, in the middle, and after. Is it going to help you in your travel to Allah, or get you away. You are always comparing the bounties of Allah versus your sins. You are conscious of the time and its value. What are the signs of reaching this state: 1. You are always checking the act you are going to do against your goal and asking yourself, “Will this help me to get closer to Allah.” 2. During the act, you keep asking your self are you still doing this only for the sake of Allah? 3. Finally, after the act you ask yourself What are the shortcomings I had and how can I be better. Always, keeping track of sins so that you can treat them as sicknesses. How to Practice? Some scholars said write the bounties of Allah in one side and your sins on the other. Others said take a time of the day to question yourself. Allah said: "وَبِالْأَسْحَارِ هُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ " “And in the hours before dawn they would ask forgiveness” (51:18). Some said to use technology and record to their phone. Ancestors had other approaches. One of the ancestors used to simulate the grave and put himself in a box and question himself similar to the day of judgment and ask to get back to life. Then he opens the chest and praise Allah that he still has the time. Try different things and see what works for you, the most important thing is to keep doing it. I try my best to present every act to the goal I defined during the state of Idea “Pleasing Allah, ” before, during, and after, as much as I can. It varies according to the level of my consciousness and the state of my heart. Right now you do not need to react, just ask yourself “Will/did this get me to my goal?” During Ramadan, I used one of the daily tracker sheets that I used to put on the fridge and I mark the items at the end of the day. Currently, I have a list on my phone that I scan before I sleep, to see if I forgot something through the day. Actually, I found myself doing the same with my diet. I used to follow a balanced diet and count calories, before, each meal and at the end of the day. I used to have a tracking sheet for my weightlifting exercises to make sure I am progressing well and to pick up the right weight. At work, I do self-evaluation for myself and my team every 3 months, twice a year, and every week during our one on one meetings. Also, in software development we use Scrum. Which is basically about continuous evaluation and adjusting to make sure we are on the right path. We usually go through the goals and evaluate our performance against it. Self-Critical is one of the most important competencies at work. We use it every day in our daily life. Why can’t we use it for hereafter? It is very hard to question and evaluate yourself, but it is important to measure your performance towards your goal and to see if you are on the right track. After a while, it will become a habit to question your actions without papers. This is the state that Ibn ElQayeen said you will have the internal voice that evaluates you (your internal conscious). The most important thing is to start slowly. Do not assume that you will change 100% in one day. Just keep tracking your progress to make sure you are progressing and not heedless. It is one of the famous tricks of the devil is to get us into so many change which are more than we can take and of course we give up quickly. I like one of the Body building approaches where the author suggests keeping track of the daily progress to make sure you are progressing. It is recommended to start slowly with weights so that you do not get injured and stop practicing. Here is a snapshot of the daily progress sheet As you can se he suggests a plan and report the actual progress. In addition, he has notes at the end for his feelings. I had a friend who has been following a similar approach in religion. He is improving every while. For example, he used to stay after Fajr for few minutes until he was able to stay until Shorooq and is still doing that for the past 15 years. Also, he started to go to Eetekaf and stay in Mekah inside the mosque the last 5 days. Today, he stays the entire month of Ramadan for 2 years. Originally, he started to do the Eetekaf in the close mosque in his city, first. He has been always going up in his relation with Allah. I have seen others they get awake because of an event and they stay in the mosque all day and they spend the night in Qiam. However, after few weeks the just stop. The prophet told us that the best of the worship is the continuous, even if it is little. That is why I advise to go slowly and I hope that we get the reward with the intention that we have to keep walking to Allah and keep improving. So, if someone had just started praying the 5 daily prayers, it does not make sense to add all sunnan and Qiam all night … Add extras over obligatory as you progress forward. The same as adding weights. If you started by lifting 200 LBs for the first time in your life, it is a guarantee that you will not lift again for a few years. Let’s say we have a plan similar to the following for a person who has not been able to pray Fajr on time for a while: Date Plan Actual Notes 9/20/2020 Pray Fajr before Shorooq I missed by few minutes I need to setup another way to wake me up. I will ask a friend to call me. 9/21/2020 Pray Fajr before Shorooq I was able to wake up but I went back to sleep I will ask my friend to stay with me on the phone until I make Wudu 9/25/2020 Pray Fajr before Shorooq I was able to pray Fajr on time but it was very close to SHorooq I will try to wake up 15 minutes earlier, tomorrow 8/12/2021 Pray Fajr in congregation Prayed Fajr in congregation Missed First Rakaa. Tomorrow I will wake up earlier Self is like a wormhole do not try to open and clean. Ibn ElQayeem said it is like a mountain of obstacles so start walking and whenever you face an obstacle, treat it. So just start walking on the road and face challenges as the face you. The final goal ice to switch yourself from “النفس الامارة بالسوء” the Evil Self to the Blaming self “النفس اللوامة” that Allah swore by it in the Quran. That you keep blaming yourself of shortcomings. When we get to the stage of repentance we will try to cleanse and change, but for now we need to move from heedlessness of time and our main goal to be conscious of Sins, bounties, and time. If I spent an hour watching Netflix, movie, game, or even just surfing on YouTube, I should feel some guilt. If you feel guilty this is Consciousness. If you feel this is normal, this is heedlessness. I gave and example of things that are not obvious haram, but if you feel normal to watch adultery sites without guilt, then this is deep sleep in heedlessness that is waiting for the event of Consciousness. Keep listening to lectures that talk about the hereafter. There are some good questions for self-evaluation in the following site? https://en.islamway.net/article/12165/a-detailed-self-evaluation-guide 1. Please, listen to https://youtu.be/myGZ0EgvCfU 2. Try to look for other lectures about self-evaluation (محاسبة النفس) a. https://muqith.wordpress.com/you-can-write/ b. https://en.islamway.net/article/12165/a-detailed-self-evaluation-guide 3. Try to find a way for self-evaluation. a. Daily: Her is an example of daily self-evaluation https://MyIslam.net/static/daily-deeds-management-list.pdf b. Monthly/Yearly: https://en.islamway.net/article/12165/a-detailed-self-evaluation-guide REFERENCES: • [English - YouTube PlayList] Practicing Madarej Assalekeen - تطبيق كتاب مدارج السالكين – retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNT8BTFvQYHLmHSeXABFEYS-hZ9IwGdWI • [English] Purifying our Hearts اصلاح القلوب retrieved from https://myislam.net/hearts/ • [English] Book of Madarij Assalekeen - كتاب مدارج السالكين retrieved from https://iloveallah.net/static/Madarij-as-Salikeen-Imam-Ibn-Qayim-Al-Jawziyah-ENG.pdf • [Arabic] Book of Madarij Assalekeen - كتاب مدارج السالكين ابن قيم الجوزية – Retrieved from https://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AC_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%86 • [English] Book of Al-Wabil al-Sayyib [Ibn al Qaiem] - الوابل الصيب من الكلم الطيب retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Qayyim-al-Jawziyya-Invocation-God/dp/B00NPO7BSC • [Arabic] الوابل الصيب من الكلم الطيب ابن قيم الجوزية retrieved from https://ar.wikisource.org/wiki/%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%84_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%8A%D8%A8 • [Arabic] كتاب مدارج السالكين ابن قيم الجوزية retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/%E2%80%AB%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AC-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%84-%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%86-Arabic-ebook/dp/B07771R9B5 • [Arabic Only - Audio] Madarej Assalekeen - شرح كتاب مدارج السالكين - محمد حسين يعقوب - طريق الإسلام retrieved from https://ar.islamway.net/collection/1807/%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%AD-%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D9%85%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AC-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%86 • https://sunnah.com/ • https://www.dorar.net/hadith • Quran SmartSearch https://www.islamicity.org/quransearch/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1