Why People Hurt their Own Souls - Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Everything has capacity and ability. So, if you look at the creation, we have the ability to carry things, but an ant can carry much more of its weight than we can. An ant can carry It would be like a human being picking up a piano or a truck and carrying it.

[00:00:16]The The elephant can carry far more than we can carry. And then he said that eating, there are animals that can eat far more than we can eat. Running, the cheetah can run much faster than we can run.

[00:00:28]Or the deer.

[00:00:30]And all these different things that humans can do, animals can do them better. He said even the bird, in terms of its sexual appetite, far outstrips the human being. But he said, "But the one thing that the man can do that none of these animals can do is think." The The main way that we oppress ourselves is by not It's It's by allowing the shahwa and the ghadab to take over.

[00:00:58]Because Allah gave us uh a hakim.

[00:01:03]And the hakim is our higher self.

[00:01:06]And if we allow our lower self to take charge, if we allow the horse to become the rider, we've oppressed ourselves.

[00:01:13]Because he gave us the ability to do that. And I once asked Maruf al-Karkhi, when I was reading a a poem with him, So, I'm reading this with him, and he said about that uh that verse, he said, You know, so he said that you have to fight yourself.

[00:01:59]And and overcome it until it it's in obedience with Allah. It's in conformity with Allah. And I said, "When can it the alimah?"

[00:02:08]It's what I asked him. I said, "What do what do we do when the alimah just is getting the better of it?" He said, "He had heart."

[00:02:14]He said, "This is the war." What did the prophet when when when they asked Abu when they asked Abu Sufyan about the war between him and the prophet, he said, "I have to see John."

[00:02:25]It's a war of attrition. One day they win, one day we win.

[00:02:30]The war with the alimah is see John.

[00:02:32]It's a war of attrition.

[00:02:34]You have to keep and and so what he said is that you can look at Allah he wouldn't give us the ticket if we couldn't do it.

[00:02:46]What in Allah will Allah have a baby?

[00:02:49]Allah is with the the people of Sabah.

[00:02:53]Because it's it's Sabah. What's Sabah?

[00:02:55]What's Sabah? Sabah what's Sabah in the alimah? It's to be patient in the state of obedience and to be patient in avoidance of disobedience.

[00:03:06]And and that's what you had that and that's the one is where most of us should be.

[00:03:12]We should at least be in the fight. But too many of us aren't even in the fight.

[00:03:17]We're not alimah.

[00:03:20]And so and another thing I you know I I benefited greatly from a statement that Sheikh Abdullah bin Bay once said. We were we were in an airport in Kuwait.

[00:03:32]And this this Jordanian he was an athlete.

[00:03:36]Um very physically fit. He was with a soccer team I think. And they were coming to play in Kuwait.

[00:03:43]And he saw the Sheikh was sitting there.

[00:03:44]He was Sheikh Abdullah. He he always just recites Quran. Like if you're with him I've been with him you know, days on end and he's just if if if you're not asking him a question, if he's not reading or doing ibadah, he's yet to do kitab Allah. And sometimes he does his subha, but generally it's it's Quran.

[00:04:06]And so he saw him and you know, mashallah Sheikh Abdullah, if you see him, you know, he has an effect on you.

[00:04:12]So he walked over to him and said, "Sheikh, can I ask you a question?"

[00:04:15]He said, "Tafaddal."

[00:04:17]He said, "You know, astaghfirullah.

[00:04:21]I I'm I'm I'm trying to be a good Muslim, but I just find myself doing ma'asiya.

[00:04:26]Uh and I just feel bad and uh just can you give me some advice?" He And Sheikh Abdullah just said, "Istimirr, akhi. Istimirr."

[00:04:38]Just keep on.

[00:04:41]That's you're on the path.

[00:04:43]>> [laughter] >> You know?

[00:04:45]He feels bad. That's a good sign. It's the problem is when they don't feel bad.

[00:04:51]So that's that's the real zulm.

[00:04:54]And and too many of us are in that state. Now, obviously, you know, I one of one of the philosophers that really troubled me was Nietzsche when I read him because Nietzsche makes a really interesting point about one of the things that religion does is is is is that, that it puts it on it blames the victim. You see? But the reality of that is that the opposite of it is a demonic view. And that's where Iblis is cuz Iblis blames everybody but himself.

[00:05:28]He blames God. Why'd you choose Adam over me?

[00:05:31]You know, he blames man. He's he's he never will take responsibility. But Adam and Hawa, the first thing they did when they made the mistake, I I I wronged myself.

[00:05:43]Yunus, the first thing he did, right?

[00:05:49]Inni kuntu min al-zalimin. He said it.

[00:05:52]He wasn't a zalim. How was he zalim?

[00:05:56]Right? So, that's really important for us to remember. That's the prophetic minhaj is to blame the self. The demonic minhaj is to blame everybody else. That doesn't mean that we don't take sides in these things. But, I'm looking at it from a metaphysical perspective because too many of us are looking at it from a political perspective. The political perspective is valid.

[00:06:21]Undeniably, it is a valid perspective and I'm not denying that perspective. It is it's true and it's real. There are wrongdoers. A woman in a house is being punished by you know, beaten by her husband.

[00:06:34]Her husband is a zalim.

[00:06:37]But, what does she do about the situation?

[00:06:40]That's where Islam is very empowering.

[00:06:44]Because if she doesn't She should have recourse to a judge who will resolve the situation. But, if she doesn't or an asabah, her male relatives that can But, if she doesn't, what does she do? She does what Asiya did.

[00:06:58]Who called on Allah about Firaun? She was in Firaun's house. She couldn't do anything and she just said Wabni li baytan fil jannah, you know.

[00:07:07]Give me a house in jannah. Cuz this house isn't working out.

[00:07:12]That is a different perspective, you know.

[00:07:15]So, let me just finish this then then we'll end.

[00:07:18]He mentions here a siyasat istislah al-khalq wa irshaduhum ila al-tariq al-mustaqim al-munji fi al-dunya wa al-akhirah ala arba'i maratib. And he took this from Raghib al-Isfahani. And this to me was one of the most interesting sections in al-Dhari'ah, which was a book that affected him heavily.

[00:07:35]Um Imam al-Ghazali. So, al-Raghib in al-Dhari'ah says that there are basically four types of leadership. There's four types of siyasah.

[00:07:51]The first and the highest is the siyasah of the prophets. And in Sahih Bukhari, it says that the prophets of Bani Isra'il used to yasusuhum. They used to They They were the the leaders, the prophets. Till they asked for the king, and then Sama'il Samwell uh asked for them to be given a king.

[00:08:14]Their ruling, the power of the anbiya is on the elite and the common people.

[00:08:20]The elect and the vulgar. It's on everybody, inwardly and outwardly. So, they rule the outward and the inward of humanity. That's why we're supposed to obey them outwardly and inwardly.

[00:08:35]The second are the the the caliphs, the kings, the sultans, the presidents.

[00:08:46]Their ruling is on everybody, the elect and the common, but only on their outward.

[00:08:55]They control the outward of these people.

[00:09:02]In in uh in Raghib calls them the hukama, the wise ones, which would have been synonymous for philosopher at that time. He calls them the ulama billah, the the people that know God, the scholars that know God, and know his religion.

[00:09:22]Their ruling is on the internal states of the elect.

[00:09:32]Because common people can't really benefit from them.

[00:09:36]They're They're They're They're their their understanding is is too rarified for the common people. They don't benefit from them.

[00:09:50]And they don't have the ability to force people to follow them like the salatin do.

[00:09:56]The rulers. What Raghib says and this is the this Raghib says these are the most dangerous. Al wa'al.

[00:10:04]The preachers. And we would include in this category today all these news editorial people, you know, giving their opinions, people like Bill O'Reilly, these type people.

[00:10:15]They go under this category.

[00:10:17]And and Glenn Beck, you know, what's that woman, terrible blonde-haired lady?

[00:10:24]Yeah, Ann Coulter, people like that, you know.

[00:10:29]The these these these people what he says about them, they affect the emotions of the common people.

[00:10:39]You see cuz they're they're demagogues.

[00:10:41]And so and and and preachers are like that, whether they're Muslim, Christian, Jewish, whatever they are in those churches and things like that in the mosques where they're riling people up, getting them angry.

[00:10:53]What Raghib says is that they need to have the the wa'al have to be regulated by the the the ulama billah.

[00:11:08]They have to have guides from amongst these ulama billah to control them.

[00:11:15]To give them hikma, to help them.

[00:11:18]Alhamdulillah.

[00:11:19]So,