Body, Mind & Soul: An Islamic Perspective - Shaykh Yayha Ibrahim

Body, Mind & Soul: An Islamic Perspective

I seek forgiveness and guidance from Allah. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, none can misguide him. Whom He misguides, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. Alone, there is no partner for Him. I bear witness that Muhammad is the servant of Allah and His Messenger. May Allah send peace and blessings upon him and his family and companions.

Always we begin with the praise of Allah. We send our choicest blessings and salutations upon our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ. We testify with firmness and conviction that none is worthy of worship but Allah and that our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ is His worshipping slave and final messenger. I continue to command you and remind myself and you of taqwa Allah عَزَّ وَجَلَّ.

I pray that Allah instils in myself and you a consciousness and an awakening — that which profits us in our privacy more so than what we seek to show each other publicly. I pray that Allah increases our love for Allah and our fear of our Maker the Almighty. And that we have greater and greater hope in His mercy in this life and as we proceed to our return to Him.

Who Are You? The Three Dimensions of the Human Being

Of the greatest knowledge is the knowledge of the self. مَنْ أَنْتَ؟ Who are you? And in answering that question, you come to understand what is required of you. Today, insha'Allah, in this blessed day of Jumu'ah, in this blessed hour of khutbatul Jumu'ah, I wish to bring together some of the bits of information that we have been given as an inheritance from our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ — but to sew them together with the threads of light of the words of Allah from the Qur'an. That they become something that makes sense within our heart, logically easy to understand and facilitate and be able to pass on and teach through our mind and rationale. But more importantly, that it increases our levels of ihsan — of seeking to worship Allah as if He is present before us, witnessed by our own eyes. And we know that although we cannot see our Lord in this dunya, that He is always aware and seeing of us, hearing of us, subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Today I wish to speak a little bit about the Hadith of Jibril — the hadith of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyallahu anhu. And I know all of us have understood this hadith, where Jibril in the form of a man came and asked the Prophet ﷺ important questions that were so important that at the end of it the Prophet ﷺ wanted them to know that the one who came to teach you your religion was sent by Allah in this capacity as a human being — because everything in this hadith is the nature and the purpose of your life.

The youngest of us, if asked: What is Islam? What is iman? And what is ihsan? They recall the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ — this Hadith of Jibril — that Jibril asked the Prophet ﷺ these three questions and the Prophet ﷺ answered with the answers you and I know. But I wish to step back once and ask you that question at the beginning: Who are you? And more importantly, what are you?

The First Dimension: The Badan (Physical Body)

As you sit before me and as I stand in the flesh before you, the first component of who I am is: I am a badan — I'm a physical being. Without a soul, without rationale before you, I am elements of this earth. In a hadith recorded by Al-Imam At-Tirmidhi, the Prophet ﷺ witnessed that there was a man from Habesha who came to Al-Madinah. And this man traveled all this distance and died in the city of the Prophet ﷺ.

May Allah make us neighbors to our Nabi ﷺ in life and after death and in Jannah. Allahumma ameen. To the Prophet ﷺ, when he heard of the man's death — this Ethiopian man — he said: اللهُ أَكْبَرُ. He came from there to be buried in the dust he was created from. اللهُ أَكْبَرُ. The earth that will house your body is the same element that you originated from.

When I speak about the depth of the earth — Adam ﷺ is referred to as Adam because he comes from أَدِيمِ الْأَرْضِ — he's from the surface of the earth. That's where we get the name Adam. The very molecules and elements that you and I are made of, we will return to them.

According to our aqeedah — Aqeedah Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah — Al-Qadi Iyad in Kitab al-Shifa said that there is no more important, blessed, tahir, cleansed, pure, mubarak earth than the earth that touches the skin of the Prophet ﷺ in his qabr — even more important in its barakah than the earth that the Ka'bah sits upon. Sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And therefore you see that the closest to an-Nabi ﷺ from his companions is the closest to him where? In his dust. Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu is from similar makeup, similar dust to our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ. And who is closer to Abu Bakr? His neighbor Umar radiyallahu anhu. And there is this level of attachment to be from the earth of Medina.

So the Prophet ﷺ said: This man came from there to be buried here. You and I are badan — physical. The elements that make me up are the same elements similar to the wood, to the trees, to the earth. Everything created by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has a badan in its origin, has a physicality in its origin, has a resonance in its origin, and all of us are attached to each other in one way or another.

That's why you as a believer don't find it strange to hear of inanimate, unliving objects reacting in a living capacity to our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ. When our Nabi ﷺ stood on the mountain of Uhud, it began to shake. And he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3675; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2417)

Be still! The Prophet of God has ascended you ﷺ. You don't find it strange in the hadith of Al-Imam Muslim:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 918; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1415)

That the tree — as you see a tree near our minbar here — it began to weep audibly. Sound, the sahaba could hear it. Sound is movement; it makes waves that people could hear. The tree audibly made a sound of crying at the loss of the Prophet ﷺ being near it, when he began to stand on his minbar for khutbah al-jumu'ah. And he descended from the minbar:

He hugged the tree ﷺ, and he began to whisper to it ﷺ, until he said something to it that silenced its crying. Later, in other riwayat, some of the sahaba said: What did you say? He said to it: If you be quiet, I will ask Allah رَبُّ الْعِزَّةِ to make you my nakhla in Jannah. So it was quiet. And had he not quieted it down, it would have wept until قِيَامُ السَّاعَةِ — the arrival of the Day of Judgment.

Your body is sacred. And therefore you hear the words of the Prophet ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1975)

Your badan, your physical being — leave your soul for now, we're going to come to your soul, we're going to come to your mind — لِبَدَنِكَ عَلَيْكَ حَقٌّ: you must eat right, exercise right, dress right, act right, fulfill the haq of your body. The badan is given to you by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It is an amanah from Allah. And you would find that our Nabi ﷺ was very particular with his state of body — particular with his health, with his food intake, with when he ate, what he ate, how he ate, who he ate with. He would even say to you ﷺ, as is in Sahih Muslim:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 3764)

Don't share your food regularly, habitually, with people who lack piety — because the blessing of it is derived away. He would say this so that you can enjoy it and find the health and the vigor that Allah has blessed in it.

You are a badan. But this badan genetically is shared with other things that walk and crawl and are unlike us as a human species. Those of you who are old enough to remember — before they could do heart transplants, they used to try to fix a human heart. Sometimes there is a congenital heart failure, a congenital disease where a valve in the heart begins to seep blood. Instead of keeping the blood out, it loosens and blood flows back in — you're going to die. So what did they do? They said: We need to find an animal that is close enough genetically to a human being to take the valve, place it in a human heart, so that this man, this woman can live. So they went to one of the closest things to you and I genetically. The first most successful usage was from a pig, from the swine. They took its valve and put it in a human being's heart, sewed it up and gave it a cocktail of drugs so it doesn't reject it, and the people would live. Because you are not just a badan — your badan is like many other things, even things that don't stand as you and I stand. So you're something else.

The Second Dimension: The 'Aql (Intellect & Reason)

The second part of you is that you've been given 'aql — discernment, rationale, understanding, an ability to think. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, of the greatest of miracles:

Bayan exceeds the 'aql. Bayan isn't just that you think — see, other animals they speak, but they don't have bayan. They don't have the ability to elucidate, to give greater meaning. They are not able to perform poetry, to understand right from wrong in greater capacities than just "this is good and bad," but to be able to explain why.

Go home today, sit with your cat and tell your cat: Have sabr. Wait — I will feed you in three hours. Try to teach your cat time. Try to tell your cat "tomorrow." Try to give it consequence instead of "no, no, no — be patient." Try to speak to your eight-month-old baby. As a mother, say to your son: No, I'm not going to feed you now, wait half an hour. Does it understand half an hour? Does it understand a delay of time? No. Does it understand the ability to convince people of waiting for time — which is the duty of the anbiya'? What is the duty of the anbiya'? لِتُنذِرَ — to give warning. There's a Day of Qiyamah.

This is the 'aql that you and I have been given. That I can sit with you and rationalize with you and say, يَا أَخِي اصْبِرْ. Animals don't have this concept of sabr. There is no اصْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا وَرَابِطُوا for them. It is: I'm going to eat here and now — and I won't go beyond what my badan can take. SubhanAllah.

When Allah gives the example of those who go as human beings into the realm of animals, He says:

Some human beings have 'aql, they have a badan, they use their badan and leave their 'aql. So they are like these animals. بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ — in fact, they're worse. Why worse? Because your body wants to eat whatever it wants, but it doesn't have what animals have — which is to say: I don't need to eat, so I will wait till I'm hungry. A lion doesn't walk into its forest and kill 15 zebras unnecessarily. It will kill one or two to eat and then leave the rest. Watch those National Geographic documentaries with your children. The lion will run after one. Once it catches it, all the other zebras that were running — they stop and go around eating again. Why did the zebras stop? Because they know that the lion is an animal that will only fulfill the badan. It doesn't want more. It doesn't يَطْغَى — go to excess. So when you and I go to excess, we sink below the actions of the animals.

The third aspect — that exceeds now not just the animals, because animals think and talk, not as much as we do. Allah says:

The ant spoke. Enter into your homes — Sulayman is coming, his troops are coming. Al-Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim speaks about 15 different adab al-lughah for an ant — 15 different word usages that an ant uses, conversational skills. It knows who you are. It knows your name. It knows the job and the function you are. It doesn't say "Sulayman and people" — it says وَجُنُودُهُ — his soldiers. It knows who we are, what we are, what we do.

(A saying attributed to Al-Imam Al-Shafi'i)

The Prophet ﷺ said — and when we use the word ulama, we use it in the context of Al-Imam Al-Shafi'i: الْعَالِمُ مَنْ عَمِلَ بِمَا يَعْلَمُ — one of discernment is the one who practices what they know. Allahumma aj'alna minhum. When you and I — when the great ulama walk by the ocean — the Prophet ﷺ said: تَقُولُ الْحِيتَانُ — the fish say: اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لَهُ — O Allah, give him forgiveness. In another riwayah: مُعَلِّمِ النَّاسِ الْخَيْرِ — the one who teaches people good things. Allahumma aj'alna minhum. That the ant, فِي جُحْرِهَا — in its hole — it looks up at this person, man or woman, and says: اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لَهُ. Allahumma aj'alna minhum. They know us, even if we don't know them.

The Third Dimension: The Ruh (Soul)

The third aspect that you and I have been blessed with — we have a badan, a physical being; we have an 'aql; and we have a ruh. We have a ruh, which nobody else has but us. And Allah created the ruh, destined it for Bani Adam, for you and I — that we will be those who are accountable.

You are accountable for how much tazkiyah you have for your soul — how much you're going to purify yourself, get yourself ready for the day you've been told is coming. An animal doesn't understand, it doesn't know tomorrow is coming — but you know الْغَدُ is coming. You know something better is waiting for you.

Have you ever thought about what the word al-akhirah means? If I say جَزَاكَ اللهُ خَيْرًا — akhirah and khayrah come from the same word. What does it mean? If I was late coming, and subhanAllah somebody had the barakah and the rizq of speaking to you instead of me, I would say: SubhanAllah, تَأَخَّرْتُ — I came late. It's not that I came late; Allah gave me khair for not being here. Whenever you are late, it's not late — it's that you've been given good because you were late. The concept, the belief of a believer is that whatever you don't have is always khair. It's not "I'm late for the meeting" — Allah prevented me from the meeting. Allah gave me good by not being in the meeting. تَأَخَّرْتُ — khair has happened to me. SubhanAllah.

Islam, Iman & Ihsan: Meeting the Three Dimensions

So how does the Hadith of Jibril fit in this? I want you to understand: these are the three parts of every human being. You are physical, intellectual, and spiritual. So Islam came, Iman came, and Ihsan came — to meet the needs of each one of those three parts of you.

So when you look at مَا الْإِسْلَامُ — what is Islam? It's all physical. Shahadah — say it. Salah — move. Sawm — hunger, feel it. Zakah — give it — it has to be something given. Hajj — you can't watch TV and perform Hajj. You have to walk the walk, dress the clothes, make the ihram. Every aspect of Islam is physical — to subdue your physical essence as a human being.

Iman is all intellectual. يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللهِ — I haven't seen Allah. But yet you say أَشْهَدُ — I witness. But you haven't witnessed. If there's an accident behind me outside on the road and the police come and say, "Did you witness the accident?" — I say, "I heard it, somebody told me about it, I didn't witness it." Witness means رَأَيَ الْعَيْنُ — seen by the eye. So what do you see of Allah? Al-Iman. That my heart, I close it to the fact that there is something other than Allah. لَا إِلَهَ — negation. Nothing. إِلَّا اللهُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى. And وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَالْقَدَرِ — all of these are things that take an immense amount of faith — to dispense with what others would tell you is illogical. Because your mind must come towards the naql. And the people of Sunnah have always held this belief: that we put what has been revealed before what we think about what has been revealed. Allahumma aj'alna min Ahlus Sunnah ya Arham al-Rahimin.

The third aspect is that you have been given Ihsan — that you are ordered to worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you cannot see Him, you know that He sees you. This is the soul — mushahadah al-nafs. That your soul feels the presence of Allah in the good and the bad, in all things.

The Levels of Islam, Iman & Ihsan in Practice

Now let me take it one step further. When the Prophet ﷺ is asked, "Who is a Muslim?" — he does not say: A Muslim is the one who prays five times a day, fasts the month of Ramadan, gives zakah, does Hajj and says أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ. He says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 10; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 41)

A Muslim — a submitter to Allah — is the one who other Muslims are free from the harm of his tongue and hand. If we have a visitor amongst us today, a non-Muslim visitor, he will say: "See, I knew it — these Muslims, they only look after each other." The Prophet ﷺ is telling them: Hand and tongue don't hurt other Muslims. That's the weakest level of Islam. That's the bare minimum. That's where you haven't yet ascended with your rationale, ascended with your soul.

The second level — when he's asked, "Who's a believer?" — he says:

(Sunan Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2627; Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 3944)

A believer is the one who all humanity — not just Muslims, all humanity — find in them security. They find security for their properties, their wealth, and their person, their life. Once upon a time, when Islam and Iman was practiced as we seek it to return — Allahumma aj'alna min Ahlil Islam wal Iman ya Arham al-Rahimin — we used to be the safeguard of the world.

Before the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition came against the Muslim community of Cordoba, of Espana and Al-Andalus — before Al-Andalus was lost to the Muslims — the Catholic Inquisition began with the Jewish people. So the sultan and the khalifa at the time sent an armada of ships to Spain from Al-Maghreb and said to the Jewish rabbis, to the Jewish people: Put all your property, put all your books, put all your livestock, put all your clothes, put all your men and women and children — and come and live in our lands. The largest number of Jewish diaspora in the world was in Al-Maghreb until now — the Moroccan quarter, the Jewish quarter. Where did they come from? Because we saved their lives from the tyranny of those who sought to bring an end to it.

So what is the third level? What is Ihsan? The Prophet ﷺ says:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1955)

Look at the word Ihsan. Show Ihsan to the animal ﷺ. Do you know what this means, ya akhi? It means that we don't just care for other Muslims alone — but as our Iman grows, we care for every human being. And as your Iman increases to Ihsan and you know Allah — that you cannot see Him, Rabbul Izzah, in this life, but you know He is witness to you and sees you — so even with an animal you are gentle.

The Prophet ﷺ saw some young men practicing to shoot, and they had set a live bird — a pigeon — as a target. He said: Are you going to eat it? Are you hunting? They said: No, we're just practicing. He said: Don't ever do this ﷺ. He saw a bird that was squeaking because some of the sahaba in hunger went to its nest and took its eggs ﷺ, and he said: Return it to the mother.

When our Nabi ﷺ — as Al-Imam Muslim narrates — exited his masjid, he saw a camel that was overburdened — too much on its back. And as soon as it saw him, شَهَقَتْ — it let out a whimper and began to tear in the eye. The Prophet ﷺ walked to it, made it sit, and took off its burden, and said:

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 2549; referenced in Sahih Muslim traditions on animal welfare)

You can't be one of us if you do this to your own animal ﷺ. Islam, Iman, and Ihsan were sent to fix every aspect of your humanness. يَا بَنِي آدَمَ — your physicality is subdued.

So I want you now to begin to understand those hadith of the Prophet ﷺ in greater capacity. You young man who's sitting in front of me unable to get married — you young sister unable to get married — you find that there's ضِيقٌ and difficulty. So they would come to the Prophet ﷺ and he would say: Fast ﷺ.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5066; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1400)

It will help you restrain your gaze. It will weaken your body a little bit in that lustful pursuit. Islam heals your physical needs. Iman heals your intellectual incapacities. Ihsan raises up your regard and your soul to that which is pleasing Allah.

I leave you with this blessed hadith of our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 13; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 45)

You can never achieve completeness of faith until you love for your fellow man — and I use that translation accurately — what you love for yourself. Al-Imam al-Nawawi, in explaining this hadith in his Sharh Sahih Muslim, says: أُخُوَّةُ الْإِنْسَانِيَّةِ — it's the brotherhood of man, not the brotherhood of Islam. You cannot be a believer until you love for your fellow man what you love for yourself. And of the greatest love you and I should have for ourselves — if our Islam and Iman and Ihsan is of worth — is that we love for other people to achieve it. And therefore the ulama are the most generous amongst people. The Prophets of Allah are the ones who've given that inheritance to the ulama. They're the ones who dispense it, who share it with us.

May Allah attach us to the ulama so that they can help us overcome our physical badan, our 'aql and rationale, and the limitations and lacking of our Ihsan.

أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ الْعَظِيمَ لِي وَلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Second Khutbah: Ascending the Stages of Worship

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَحْدَهُ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى مَنْ لَا نَبِيَّ بَعْدَهُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ

In conclusion, my dear brothers and sisters — as a part of my development and your development — is to begin to ascend the stages of our worship in Allah. There is a difference between praying with your body, and praying with your body and mind. And there is a difference between praying with your body and your mind, and praying with your body and your mind and your soul.

The difference is as simple as knowing the meaning of the surahs you read most often. Wallahi, ya akhi, ya ukhti — if you come after a long day at work and you've had a boss who's been excessive, harsh, critical, and you sit with yourself and come to pray Salatul Asr, the same surah you might read — all of us, we read:

You come for Asr — it's easy, it's short, I don't know the meaning of the others, so what difference does it make? The shorter the better. But now change it — not just what you say with your tongue, but let your mind get involved. إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ — learn what is behind what you read. "I have given you an abundance" ﷺ. O Ummah of Muhammad — I've given you an abundance of good. Whatever harshness, difficulty, hardship in your life — look to the good.

فَصَلِّ — so maintain your devotion. وَانْحَرْ — and share in the sacrifice towards others. Give others, feed others. It's a constitution of life. I've had this hardship — subhanAllah, I've had 10 good for every one hardship. Al-Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim says:

Every door that Allah closes in your face — مِنْ رَحْمَتِهِ — from His mercy — يَفْتَحُ لَكَ سَبْعِينَ بَابًا مِنْ حِكْمَتِهِ — He will open for you 70 doors from His hikmah and rahmah. SubhanAllah.

إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ — I've given you an excessive abundance of good. فَصَلِّ — humble yourself to me, worship me. وَانْحَرْ. إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَرُ — if you can accomplish these things, the one who seeks to overwhelm you, you will be superior to them. The one who seeks to obliterate you, you will ascend beyond them. The one who seeks to wipe you clean, you will have victory over them. And as our Nabi ﷺ remained patient, looking towards the next day — let us look towards it ourselves. Allahumma ameen.

Du'a & Closing Supplications

I pray that Allah protects the jama'ah of Green Lane Masjid and the masajid of my dear brothers and sisters in the United Kingdom. I pray that Allah sends His rahmah upon the people of the United Kingdom and opens our hearts with love for each other. I pray that Allah forgives our sins, accepts from us our tawbah, and returns us to Him before we return to Him. I pray that Allah protects our elders and our seniors, and that Allah makes those who are in leadership amongst us the best of us — and those who are under them from those who are willing to cooperate upon truth.

I pray that Allah joins us with our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ in Jannatul Firdaus. I pray that Allah sends healing upon the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ — healing upon those who are in our jama'ah today and those who are absent. I pray that Allah in particular sends His rahmah and His shifa' to my dear brother Muhammad Khan, an elder of your community. May Allah give him ease and give ease to his family — Allahumma ameen — in this difficult hour.

I pray that Allah raises us upon the sunnah of our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ as we walk this earth, and as we are entombed in it, and as we are returned to Him on the Day of Judgment.