AbdelRahman Murphy – Heartwork Guided Steps To The Path Of Allah #17
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AI: Transcript ©
Ready?
Okay.
As-salamu alaykum.
Bismillah.
Bismillah walhamdulillah wa salatu wassalamu ala rasulillah.
Wa ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma'in.
Welcome home everybody.
It's good to see you.
Alhamdulillah.
Welcome back.
For those of you who are regulars, welcome
back.
For those of you it's your first time,
welcome, welcome.
Alhamdulillah.
Including this chair that I'm sitting on.
First time.
Alhamdulillah.
Just praying it's not going to break, inshallah.
Alhamdulillah.
We are...
So tonight's session is, I would say, a
little bit more heavy than some of the
other sessions.
They've all been obviously very substantial and substantive.
But tonight he's going to be speaking about
topics that are a little bit more heavy.
One of that being death.
And I think a lot of times when
we frame the conversations around death, we frame
them in a way that's maybe demoralizing or
maybe it can be heavy without any sort
of purpose.
But this is heavy in the same way
that a person lifts weights.
And the heaviness of lifting weights ultimately has
benefit, has tangible benefit.
And so he's going to provide us this
conversation, inshallah.
I'm just letting you know now, just so
everyone can prepare themselves.
I know that maybe some people in here
are experiencing in their own life the loss
of a loved one or the loss of
loved ones maybe more closely than others.
And so just wanted to prepare you for
that, inshallah.
But it's going to be, inshallah, a good
conversation.
It's a motivational conversation.
And when you look at the conversations about
death, you find that in the Qur'an
and the hadith and the words of the
scholars, they always frame it in a motivational
way.
Meaning to use the reminder of death in
order to remind somebody to do what they
can, inshallah, to make the most of their
life.
But before we get there, we're going to
continue, inshallah, with this section that we ended
on.
So we concluded last week with this section
on how he was giving the imperative of
being a thankful person.
Yeah.
What's up?
Okay.
Do you have the license plate?
Yeah.
Do you have the license plate number or
no?
Yeah.
No, this is important.
This is a big deal for us.
Prius 6225B50.
We've officially become a Muslim organization.
I'm just so proud and honored that we
had a parking lot announcement.
I feel like we just reached Islamic organization
puberty.
Like we just have a major milestone, right?
We're now an adult Islamic organization.
So that's your Prius.
She's just looking out for you so that
you don't drain your battery, inshallah.
So if that's yours, get up.
Not now because then we'll know it's you.
Wait for 30 seconds.
Look at the coffee shop.
Walk over there.
Walk back.
And then when you leave, we'll know that,
you know, maybe it wasn't you.
Okay?
All right.
Jazakallah khairan, Iman.
Appreciate it.
So we ended last week reading the section
on the importance of giving thanks and how
it's easy for a person to be thankful.
Well, I take that back.
Let's reframe this whole conversation.
We have times where it's easier for us
to be thankful and we have times where
it's challenging for us to be thankful.
It's not always easy to be thankful when
times are good.
Sometimes when Allah Ta'ala provides us with
moments of blessing, we become forgetful.
So it is easy to be thankful in
times of good, but it's also easy for
a person to neglect that gratitude and that
thankfulness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So I don't want to assume that it's
just easy for all of us because I
know that it's challenging.
But at the same time, it's also difficult
to be thankful in some moments that are
challenging, that are difficult.
It's hard to find the silver lining and
to be somebody that can identify, you know,
the good in the bad, right?
The good in the moments of difficulty.
And so he began this section by saying,
the Arabic verb is wa'idhim, wa'idhim
shukraka, that be consistent and be constant in
your gratitude.
And this is not to say by any
stretch or any means that you don't have
any moments in your life that are difficult.
In fact, if a person didn't have any
difficult moments, then gratitude would be a lot
more challenging.
It's the difficult moments that makes gratitude more
meaningful, more sweet.
When a person is grateful for the things
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given
them, they're constantly referring back to the times
that they were challenged and tested.
When Allah relieves somebody from a difficulty, right?
When somebody is thirsty and they have a
sip of water, when someone's hungry and they
have a bite of food, right?
All of these are moments in which Allah
has relieved the distress of somebody.
And in that relief, you find gratitude, okay?
So he says, wa'idhim shukraka, be a
person that is consistent in your gratitude.
This is one of the paths of spirituality.
A lot of times we think spirituality is
limited to certain things, but if we look
at it holistically, we find that if we
make these small shifts in our worldview, how
we see things, and now you'll find on
Instagram, right, the influencer culture, they're talking about
mindfulness and gratitude and being present.
And I have to say it in this
voice.
This is my mocking voice, right?
And the reality is that the Prophet, peace
be upon him, taught us this 1,400
years ago.
The scholars mentioned this as being a necessary
practice for a healthy heart over 1,000
years ago.
And right now is when the Western world
is discovering the importance of mindfulness and the
importance of gratitude, you know, and the importance
of being a person with a positive mindset,
a growth mindset.
These are all things.
You know what growth mindset is in Islam?
We've been saying it since we were kids,
inshallah.
Inshallah is growth mindset.
Inshallah is the idea that I hope to,
I aspire to do this if Allah gives
me the ability, right?
And you're removing all of the onus and
all the responsibility from yourself, you know.
And, you know, on Monday, last Monday, my
son was having a lot of trouble memorizing
Quran.
And he kept talking, you know, calling himself
like really, you know, I'm dumb, I'm this,
I'm that.
He's being really harsh to himself.
So my wife, when I actually was right
before heart work, so I was trying to
like calm him down.
And he's a big kid.
He's actually as tall as my wife.
It's not a joke.
He's seven.
And he's as tall as my wife who's
35.
Actually, can I tell you a funny story?
So I bought him shoes, and I wanted
to buy all of us the same pair
of shoes as a family.
I know I'm adorable.
And I wanted to buy all of us
the same pair of shoes.
So I got myself, my daughter Iman, my
son Musa.
And then I couldn't find my wife's size.
So then I was like, oh, hold up.
My wife and my son wear the same
size shoes.
Like maybe half a size off.
So then I just went, and Alhamdulillah, it
was like half off than the adult version,
right?
So if I were to find like the
women's version of this basketball, it's a basketball
shoe.
If I were to find the women's version
of this, I'm paying crazy money.
But now for the rest of her life,
Mehreen's going to have to buy children's shoes.
Because I just unlocked this crazy savings, right?
Alhamdulillah.
But so he was having a tough time,
and he was basically being down on himself.
So my wife, Mashallah, she's a genius.
She was like, look, let's talk about this
growth mindset.
And she discussed this with him.
And part of growth mindset, which really unlocked
a lot of his anxiety, and it really
took away a lot of his self-deprecation,
that a lot of us might feel, was
gratitude.
Being grateful for what you have.
And being grateful for even the things that
you don't have.
Because for one thing you don't have, Allah
has given you millions of other things.
And how callous is it?
How hurtful?
How rude?
Imagine that you made an entire dinner for
somebody.
And you spent all day cooking it, preparing
it.
And you made so many different things.
And you're so excited, and they come and
they say, Oh, you don't have soup?
And they pointed out the one thing that
you didn't make.
Like how offensive would that be?
And now translate that example, وَلِلَّهِ الْمَثَلُ عَلَىٰ
Allah's example is infinitely great.
Think about how we do that with Allah.
Allah gives us A through Z.
And we show up and we're like, where's
the apostrophe?
We get upset about the smallest thing.
Instead of realizing that we are overwhelmed with
blessings.
So being grateful is one of the keys
of this success.
Now, what's one of the things that makes
gratitude easier?
This is the next section that he goes
into.
There's a practice that is very, very helpful
and very healthy.
Optimism.
The practice of being optimistic.
In Arabic sometimes they call it like, حُسْنَ
ذَنْبِاللَّهِ Or رَجَاء, hope.
Or having good expectations from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
This is actually, by the way, a good,
good thing to be.
A good person has optimism.
But optimism has a really, really ugly cousin.
Don't think about your ugly cousin right now.
It's not nice.
Optimism has a very ugly cousin.
And that ugly cousin is called طول الأمل
طول الأمل, in Arabic the translation is unrealistic
or lofty, lofty expectations.
Like the person effectively is what?
Is hoping for, hope is not bad.
But hoping for and expecting things without the
preconditions that are required.
Which is first and foremost, of course, believing,
having good intention, believing that everything is from
Allah.
That's number one.
Number two, putting forth the effort yourself.
Many of us have aspirations or hopes, but
we don't put forth the effort.
And then when we don't realize the hopes
that we have, we get upset.
But who's to blame?
Who's to blame if we hope for something
and then don't put any work in?
It's not Allah.
And this is something that I want to
be very, very intentional about saying tonight.
Many of our generation, okay, you know, mid
-twenties, early thirties, and so we have this
really, really horrific habit of blaming Allah for
our problems.
Like, oh, Allah didn't give me this.
It's like you woke up at 11 a
.m. What do you mean He didn't give
you this, right?
The reality is that Allah gave you all
of the toolbox that you needed to accomplish
something, but then that's not enough.
You know, it's the equivalent of us opening
the fridge and saying there's nothing to eat.
What do you mean?
There's all the ingredients necessary, just put it
together.
But when we say there's nothing to eat,
what we're actually saying is I'm too lazy
to put together all these things to eat
something, right?
So tul al-amal is when a person
has those expectations, they project it onto Allah,
they don't put forth the effort themselves, and
then they come to a point of desperation
or a point of disappointment in realizing or
in feeling this distance and saying, you know
what, Allah didn't give me this.
That's called tul al-amal.
Now, if a person struggles with lofty expectations,
it's almost impossible for them to be grateful.
So that's why He puts these two things
together.
He said, be grateful as much as you
can.
Force yourself into a state of gratitude.
Find the lemonade amongst the lemons.
Be that person that will always...
And again, you know, you have to be
smart about this.
You don't want to necessarily even...
This isn't about you being the positive person
in the group.
Because sometimes your timeline and other people's timelines
are not the same.
If somebody is going through it and processing,
that's not the time for you to be
like, well, I went to this lecture, and
I know that you're sad, but you need
to find positivity right now.
That person is like, leave me alone, you
know.
It's not about putting it on other people,
it's about what?
Being grateful yourself.
You can only control yourself.
So He couples that conversation, that topic, that
subject in His text He couples it with,
you can only be grateful if you don't
have unrealistic and lofty expectations that you do
not work hard for.
Okay?
So He says, and He continues here, one
of the expectations that we have, and this
is an important one, He says, do not
expect to live a long time.
Everyone in this room right now has visions
of their future.
They have ideas and hopes and dreams of
what they want to become.
What they want to accomplish.
When it comes to their personal aspirations, their
family, their professional aspirations, the religious aspirations, all
of these things.
Now, what happens is, when we become too
accustomed to this, we actually start to give
ourselves an uncomfortable concession of time.
We say, you know what?
I can always do it later.
I can always do it at this point.
I can always finish it when the time
comes.
But the scholars always say what?
That don't ever put off until tomorrow what
you can do today.
Don't ever put off what you have the
ability to accomplish right now.
Don't put it off till later because you're
not sure that Allah will ever give you
the ability to do that thing.
And many of us ask the question, why
do bad things happen?
Why do we get sick?
Why do we get injured?
Why do these tests happen?
And one of my teachers, he said to
me, this is actually right after I tore
my ACL the first time.
I tore my left ACL like 10 years
ago.
He said to me, and this is probably,
you remember I talked about not being too
quick with it?
He was too quick with it for sure.
So when you tear your ACL, when you
have a knee injury or a back injury,
one of the things that you can't do
is you can't pray normally.
You have to pray in a chair, okay?
And for anyone here who's ever done that,
after being able to pray normally for the
majority of your life, it's a really, really
weird feeling.
You almost feel like, you're like, this isn't
really hitting me as hard as it is.
And subhanAllah, it was during the month of
Ramadan.
And so, you know, during Taraweeh, I'm sitting
there and it's like all of these healthy
people with two ACLs.
You just see the world in ACLs at
some point.
You're like, wow.
MashaAllah.
May Allah protect them.
And I'm looking at this audience, this jama
'a, this congregation, and then it's just me
in a chair with like four uncles who
are asleep.
And I'm sitting here and I'm like, man.
And subhanAllah, there actually came a moment.
I'm not even exaggerating.
I'm just being open and vulnerable.
There was a moment where I was crying
because I missed sajda.
Like it just felt so weird finishing prayer
and being like, assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
And your head didn't touch the ground.
You know, it's my favorite place to make
du'a.
Whenever I feel like my du'a can't
focus, I just go into sajda.
I take away all the distractions, my face
is on the ground.
Hadith says it's when you're closest to Allah.
So I put myself, and for a year
I couldn't do that.
Well, I could, but then I wouldn't be
able to get back up without like a
lot of people helping me.
And that's not practical, right?
So in that moment, I remember making du
'a to Allah.
I remember being like, oh Allah, please just
give me back my sajda.
I don't even want to play basketball anymore.
I don't want to do anything that...
I have no aspirations for anything that is
the cause of my injury.
I just want to go back to praying.
You know, then you fast forward.
And I remember that du'a was very
sincere by the way.
I wasn't making it like in public.
It was just I was really really sad.
And my teacher said that sometimes Allah does
these things, He takes away certain abilities so
that you can miss them.
And in missing them, you realize how valuable
they are.
And that was true.
But we're human, so what happens?
You do the rehab, you do the physical
therapy, you get back, you're praying normally, and
then you start to miss your prayers.
And the very same behavior that you were
like really heartbroken about, you went from longing
for it, like you long for like a
sweet dessert, and now you see it as,
because what?
Your life got busy again, you see it
as a burden.
And this is the nature again of human
beings.
Now, why do we see these things turn
into like burdens and difficult moments?
It's because we have lofty expectations.
I think that I'm gonna be able to
make it.
I think that I'm gonna pray later.
But this is why when the Prophet shallallahu
alaihi wasallam would stand up and lead the
jama'ah, he would actually say what?
He would say, pray this prayer as if
it's your last one.
And I know that it sounds like a
cliche thing.
You know, pray this prayer as if it's
your last.
And some guys like, come on man, don't
be so dramatic.
But subhanallah, for some people like, when they
pray that was their last prayer.
They didn't know when it was.
And it's not about you imagining during that
salah your untimely death.
That's not what it's about.
It's about you understanding that if I give
this prayer my focus, I'm not gonna have
any regrets when I finish it.
I'm not gonna forget which rakah I'm in.
Do I have wudu or not?
You know, some of us spend the first
three rakahs trying to remember if we have
wudu.
And then we spend the fourth rakah trying
to figure out which rakah we're in.
And then we finish the prayer, we're like,
praying is not so hard, right?
You know, subhanallah.
That's not the kind of prayer that I
wanna finish with.
Can you imagine that's your last prayer?
That's not what I wanna finish with.
So he says, don't have lofty expectations.
Don't expect to live a long time.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, only lived
till 63.
When someone passes at 63, we now in
the era of like modern medicine, we say
things like, wow, young.
But that's how long he lived.
There was a doctor in Knoxville, Tennessee where
I used to live and he said, he
was 65.
And he said, you know, people wished him
a happy birthday on his 65th birthday.
And he said, I don't care anymore.
63 was all I expected.
Everything after that is a bonus.
That was his mindset.
You know, our Prophet lived till this number,
peace be upon him.
I don't expect anything more than that.
It's not about being sadistic and dark.
Someone says happy birthday and you're like, birthdays
are haram.
That's not, they're not by the way.
But that's not the point.
Wallahu alam, but they're not.
The point is that if you understand every
moment as being valuable, you will live that
moment and have minimal regrets.
He says, do not expect to live a
long time.
He says, on that basis, if you live
thinking that you have forever, you're gonna be
very bad at getting things done.
You're gonna procrastinate.
And he says, for example, I'll go to
hajj when I'm 50 years old.
I'll go to hajj later.
You know, somebody might say, oh, I'll do
this, I'll start praying later.
I'll start dressing a certain way later.
I'll get married, I'll date for a little
bit now, but I'll get married later, right,
when I'm serious.
All of those laters are manifestation of this
disease.
Right, don't put off till tomorrow what you
have the ability to do today.
And so he says, no one is promised
anything, and a person who believes that they
have this promised is delusional.
They are delusional.
So then, he says, cut short all of
your expectations in this world.
That will instantly make your relationships better.
You know, how many times have you experienced
the loss of a loved one, a friend
or a family member, and you instantly try
to think of the last time you talked
to them?
And you realize that you didn't speak to
them as regularly as you should have.
And you have this immense regret.
I should have.
I should have called them more.
I should have texted them more.
Now, there's an element of that that's just
reality.
You can't constantly be on the phone with
somebody.
But on the other side of the spectrum,
there's also an element of this which is
solved by a person not thinking that they
have forever.
I saw the most heartbreaking but very true,
subhanAllah, realization.
You know, a lot of us, especially as
you get older, and I don't know how
old with the average age in here, but
I'm 36, so you can measure yourself based
off me, I guess.
When you get to my age, you start
to see the signs of weakness in your
parents.
You know, the Qur'an describes as when
you were born, you were weak, and then
you became strong, and then you returned back
to weakness.
And that's the timeline Allah gives people in
the Qur'an.
Weak, strong, weak again.
So you start to see like, you know,
my mom is Egyptian, so Egyptian women, you
guys saw that, you know, Obama, Egyptian women,
you guys saw that?
We are Egyptian women.
So my mom is an Egyptian woman.
Very strong, very strong everything.
Strong opinions, strong voice, strong hands.
Sorry, CPS, right?
Okay, so I say that I turned out
okay, but did I?
Okay, so anyways, my mom used to, subhanAllah,
when she wanted us to like stop playing
video games, there's a very easy solution when
we're kids.
But my mom was not the most, like
technologically, like she, you know, these things are
all new, right?
She's incredibly smart, mashAllah.
But like the mechanics of a Sony PlayStation
to her are not the same as what
she knew, what she studied.
So there's a very easy way for a
person when they're leaving the house to like
make sure their kids don't play video games.
You take the controllers, right?
Or you take like the power cables or
the games, take the games, the discs.
My mom would take the TV.
My mom would unplug.
And for all of us, for those of
us who are under 30 maybe, a TV
in your life has always been like what
you see on the walls here, like this
really thin, like 16 pounds.
No, we're talking about, speaking of Egyptian, these
things were like pyramids.
They were tubes that had a deep, they
were like three feet long, right?
They were massive.
I mean, it was like your couch was
smaller than the television, okay?
And she would literally pick it up if
she worked on the weekends because she was
a nutritionist at a hospital.
If she worked on Friday or on Saturdays
and Sundays, she would literally take it in
her car and she would put it in
her trunk.
And my brother and I were like both
devastated but just honestly impressed.
You know, you have to give props where
props are due, right?
So you need to imagine my framework when
I think of my mom.
My mom was the woman who, before Fudger,
would lift up a television and put it
in the trunk of her minivan and then
go to work.
And she went to work at seven so
we'd wake up with like heartbreak.
And then, you know, you fast forward, right?
So that was like high school and then
college and then like you get a job
and you go and you're like chasing life,
right?
So you're like in your 20s and you're
like, it's all about me.
You know, I got to find a job.
I got to do this, do this, this,
this.
And then, you know, I move and my
mom is like, yeah, move.
Like, you know, she's happy.
Not like, yeah, move.
She's like, no, no, please.
Like, you know, be successful.
Like, I'm making dua for you, habibi, et
cetera, et cetera.
Like hiding her own pain, right?
So then you plan your visits and you
go back and visit your parents and you
try to see them and you try to
like as much as you can and you
pick up on these things.
You know, the same woman that could lift
this television.
I saw her struggling to carry a gallon
of milk, right?
And so you realize like in your eyes,
those 15 years flew by from high school,
college, you know, master's degree, et cetera.
They were like so fast.
But the degradation of strength was hidden from
you and then bam, it just hits you,
right?
So I saw this post that I thought
was really crazy, which is that when your
parents get older, you start to think about
like, oh, I have 20 years left with
them.
You know, you do the math.
You're guessing like, oh, they're 40, they're 50.
Hopefully, you have 20 years left.
But then if you only visit them like
once a year, twice a year, three times
a year, you actually don't have 20 years
left with them.
You only have 20 visits.
And then you go and visit them.
And this was a post that was for
the general public, you know, where like most
people see their parents on Thanksgiving and that's
it.
When I say people, I don't mean from
the ummah, hopefully.
But we are a product of our environment.
And so even if you see your parents
four times a year, like you only have
80 more meals with them, 80 more visits.
And you start to count and realize like,
I went recently with my kids and I
did the math and I thought, subhanAllah, if
my mom has this many years left and
I see her this many times a year,
I only have this many visits.
And it hit me so heavily.
So, tur al amal, it affects you across
even yourself, subhanAllah.
And you have to realize like, I don't
have this much time with this person.
I don't have this much time with these
people.
I don't have this much time, etc.
Even with myself.
And then ultimately when your soul leaves your
body, that's when the realest of realizations happens.
You know, I was planning on praying, like
imagine this, when the angel of death comes
and takes your soul, may Allah make it
a good taking for us.
Will you have prayed the prayer that was
in the waqt?
Will you have performed the salah that was
in that time?
Or as a result of delaying the prayers,
will you have been taken in a moment
where you didn't pray?
Let's say your death was written for dhuhr,
or for night time after isha.
Let's say your death was written for that
time.
Will you have performed isha before?
Or do you have this habit of putting
things off when it comes to Allah to
the last minute?
And so when the angel comes, is your
request gonna be, no, no, no, please give
me five minutes.
I'm just gonna pray and then you can
take me.
Or is the thought going to be, alhamdulillah
that I prayed.
And I'm meeting Allah in a state where
I completed the last prayer that was upon
me, I completed it.
So dhuhr al-amal is a very, very
sophisticated and a very subtle disease of the
heart.
And he says if you want to be
grateful to Allah and be purposeful with Him,
you conquer this.
This is why the dua that we recite
when we wake up in the morning is
what?
الحمد لله الذي أحيانا بعدما أماتنا وإليه مشهور.
That dua translates to, all praise and thanks
be to the one who gave us life
after He caused us to die and to
Him is our return.
You realize when you wake up that that
was the rehearsal of death.
When you sleep at night, there's no guarantee
that you will wake up the next morning.
As dramatic as that sounds, there isn't.
Sleep is the ultimate trust exercise with Allah.
You have no clue.
And when you wake up, the dua from
the sunnah of the Prophet peace be upon
him is, to thank Allah for restoring.
The hadith actually says, this is crazy.
Not crazy in a derogatory way but this
is incredible.
When a person falls asleep, their soul actually
is lifted from their body temporarily.
And it hovers.
And then when it's time for them to
come back, their soul is put back into
their body.
Right?
And there's a conversation about that's where dreams
come from because the arwah, the souls have
a different experience than the bodies do.
But anyways, the point being is, every night
when you fall asleep, remember that.
That this is just a dress rehearsal for
the eventual end.
And so when you go to sleep at
night, if you haven't prayed isha yet, remember
that.
If you haven't communicated with your loved ones,
at least a simple text message.
I love you.
Right?
I hope to see you soon.
If you haven't squashed all your grudges, all
of your petty fights and arguments that you
have, think, go through your head.
This is spirituality.
Spirituality is when your head hits the pillow,
you have nothing heavy in your heart.
That's a spiritual person.
They have completed their responsibilities.
They've remembered Allah and they've put Allah first.
Not themselves, Allah.
I'm not gonna have this dumb fight with
this person that's hanging over me like a
rain cloud.
I'm not gonna die in this state because
I don't wanna take this to the Day
of Judgment.
I wanna just finish it here.
I wanna resolve this here.
May Allah Ta'ala give us a good
ending.
And as a result of this, He says,
the next line, is that one of the
things that a person should do and it's
recommended to do from the Prophet ﷺ, is
actually visit, make it a habit to visit
the graveyards or the resting places of the
departed beloved people that we have.
To go and visit the graves of people.
Now, I know that there's some like, there's
some superstition for sure.
Right?
There's some question even in Sharia about like
women visiting graves.
So I'm gonna clear this up one time.
Okay?
The practice of visiting graves, without a doubt,
is a sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.
Without a doubt.
In fact, he would do it on Fridays
of all days.
You know, Jumu'ah is like a happy
day, right?
Jumu'ah, you're like, Oh, Jumu'ah, then
go get some lunch.
And then, you know, it's kind of like
the end of a week for us.
So, but he would go in the morning
on Fridays and he would go to Baqiyah,
which is the grave in Medina.
It was right close to his house, like
300 yards away.
And he would visit and he would go
and make du'a for those who had
passed away.
And the du'a when you visit the
grave is actually even more amazing.
You know, you greet them as if they're
still alive because you understand that in that
moment they can actually perceive what you're saying.
As-salamu alaykum, Ya Ahlul Diyar.
Peace be upon you, Oh, inhabitants of this
abode.
Right?
Antumus sabiqoon, wa nahnu nahiqoon.
You were the ones who went ahead and
we're just coming after you.
Like we're right behind you.
Nas'al Allah al-Azeem al-'afiyah.
Like we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
for his pardon.
So when a person visits the grave, listen
to this, the du'a is the exact
mindset that we should have, not only in
that moment but in life.
Number one, is that the people in the
grave are not so different from you.
The only difference is that your body is
still working.
But their soul and your soul is the
same.
It's the same substance.
I told my son this.
He's like, what happens when you die?
And I was panicking because I'm like, oh
my God, you're five.
But that's what happens when you take a
kid to Turkey.
All they see is gravestones everywhere.
Doner kebab and graves, right?
And so we're walking and he sees this
cemetery in front of the masjid.
He goes, what's that?
And my wife looks at me and I'm
like, do we lie?
I'm like, I got a few good deeds,
you know, that I can...
And she goes, no, it's just, it's time
to explain.
I said, you know, this is a grave.
This is where people who die are buried.
And then he thinks of the oldest person
and he goes, are they going to die?
He said, it's his grandma.
He's like, is she going to die?
And I'm like, no.
I mean, eventually we're all going to die.
But I was like, she's not going to
die.
And then he goes, what happens when someone
dies?
And I said, I was panicking and I
came up with this subhanallah explanation only from
Allah.
Because in a panic, I didn't know what
to say.
I said, well, when you die, Allah made
you as a person, you are two things.
You are a body and a soul.
When you die, your body stops working, but
your soul keeps living.
And I said, so he goes, okay, so
when you die, that's when your body stops.
I said, yes, exactly.
Right?
But the soul keeps going.
And that soul goes to be with Allah
and be in Jannah, inshallah.
Right?
But when you go to the graves and
you're wishing upon them peace and blessings and
greetings, you're admitting something, which is what?
We're not so far off.
And then you even say, in terms of
sequence, you say to them, you were ahead
of us, sure.
But we're right behind you.
I'm not going to guarantee myself.
There's not a big gap between us.
Even if it's years, even if you look
at the tombstone, you see, oh, wow, this
person passed away 20, 50, 60 years ago.
On the grand scale of humanity and time,
it's going to be a blip.
When they look at you dying and someone
else who died 50 years before you, 100
years before you, even 1,000 years.
And then you say, after admitting that you're
coming soon, you say, we ask Allah for
his aafiyah.
We ask Allah for his pardon, his gentle
pardoning.
That's what we need.
All of us.
So he says, visit the graves.
Go when you can.
Make it a habit.
If you don't go at all, which most
people don't, then make it maybe a once
a month thing.
You don't have to go at night.
Everyone in this room is like October 31st.
No, wrong.
Right?
Don't cross culture like that.
Go on Friday.
Go during the daytime.
If you can't go inside of one, maybe
drive by one with that intention that this
is the, I'm making ziyarah, now I'm going
to visit.
I'm making dua for any Muslims who are
here.
I'm praying for them, I'm praying for their
forgiveness, etc.
But he says, go with the focus of
reminding you of death.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, would do
this every single week.
The commentator says, visiting the graves is one
of the most incredible cures for so many
diseases.
It softens your heart.
It disconnects you from all of the things
that frustrate you and anger you.
Remembering death is one of the most incredible
cures.
If you're a person who has anger issues,
if you get into fights with people, if
you have like a lot of grudges or
a lot of like beef between you and
somebody else, just start visiting graves.
And you'll realize very quickly that none of
it matters.
None of it.
If you're really worried about your life, if
you're really worried about getting married or making
money or being successful or all that stuff,
just go visit the grave.
It doesn't mean that stuff's not important.
But whenever you compare something to infinity, that
other thing becomes zero.
So when you are staring at your eventual
end, six feet under, and that your soul,
the thing that is gifted by Allah inside
of you, that is the only thing that
will continue after your body dies.
When you realize and have that realization in
that moment, all of your concerns and worries,
they take a backseat.
And you get this really beautiful thing called
perspective.
And you start to realize, you know, all
those arguments, all of those anxieties, all of
those stressors, all of those things that frustrate
me, that make me into an angry person,
a bitter person, a cold person, a sad
person.
All of them are completely and totally useless
in the face of remembering death.
Not only that, I'll share with you some
narration, subhanAllah.
Let me read to you one or two
narrations and then we'll go to Q&A.
If you have any questions, by the way,
slido.com, you can go to heartwork, inshaAllah.
This is not only displayed when a person
visits the grave, but also this should be
what we reflect on when we see death.
And it goes without saying that for the
past year, we've witnessed more than likely for
anyone in this room, more death visually and
with information and pictures, more than we've ever
anticipated seeing in ways we've never imagined.
May Allah Ta'ala accept them all as
martyrs and give them all Jannah with no
hisab.
But even when somebody passes away and you
attend their janazah, even if somebody passes away
and you knew them but you weren't able
to, it should have some effect on you
even if it's momentarily.
Meaning, it's spiritually concerning if we hear about
death and then we go to Doordash and
order lunch.
It's concerning.
It's concerning if we go to a janazah
and we're making plans at the janazah to
go to a coffee house.
It's concerning.
It's concerning.
Because in that environment, the heaviness and the
weight of the undeniable truth of death should
be so felt that you no longer feel
hungry.
You're no longer planning what to do after
that.
Maybe you have plans later but now is
not the time.
So there's some narrations that were shared about
the people before us, the companions of the
Prophet ﷺ.
One of them, he says that there was
a person that there was, he was attending
a janazah of one of his good friends.
His really good friend passed away.
And everybody came up to him and they
saw him and they said salamu alaykum to
him.
And they all commented that he looked absent
-minded or rude.
Like he was ignoring them.
And then so after the janazah, a few
days later they went to him and they
said like, hey, did we upset you?
Like why didn't you respond to our salam?
Like we were giving you salam and you
just shook our hand and left.
And he said, I don't remember anything.
I don't even remember.
I was in such a reflective state, like
I can't even remember you guys being there.
I was just in a different place.
And so they said that he would just
greet and turn away.
He was preoccupied.
Another narration said that when the earlier generations
would attend a funeral, it was noticeable on
their behavior for at least a couple days.
Like maybe, you know, if you're used to
having like a big dinner or big breakfast
or whatever, these people after seeing a body
be buried into the ground, they just were
no longer interested in that.
Maybe it would take them a couple days
to recover.
Now again, this isn't a performative thing like,
oh, go to a janazah and then don't
eat.
That's not what I'm talking about.
And for some people it might affect you
in different ways.
You know, for some of us, you might
be shopping and then you go to a
janazah and then you leave and you're like,
I'm going to empty the cart.
I'm going to donate this instead.
For some of us, we haven't talked to
our relatives or our siblings in a long
time.
We go to a janazah and then as
we're leaving the parking lot, we stop and
we text them, we call them.
So everybody's reaction or response is different.
I'm not trying to prescribe one response.
But if there's no response, when something doesn't
respond, in medicine we call that death.
If something doesn't respond, they're trying to shock
the heart back into life and there's no
response, that's when they call it.
So if a person experiences the greatest shock
which is literally praying in front of a
body of a person that was alive a
few hours ago, and then if they go
to the burial ground and see that person's
body being lowered into the earth and nothing
happens here, that's a sign of a heart
that is very close to dying.
And so we ask Allah to give us
a heart that is soft and a heart
that feels.
And we don't just scroll past death.
We don't just quickly stop by and make
dua and then go back to life.
No, we want to make sure that whenever
we experience death, which is reality, which is
a reality, you cannot avoid it.
But we want to make sure that that
experience gives us a better life.
It brings us closer to Allah.
Now especially for those of you who have
lost dear loved ones, people that are close
to you, there is something really, really important.
He mentions here, he says, when you think
of death, take a journey with your heart
to the place of resurrection.
One thing I'd like to share, raise your
hand if you have someone that you loved
who has passed away.
Okay, everybody here.
Let me share with you a narration from
Ibn Al-Qayyim.
And then we'll go to Q&A.
This is my favorite narration.
He shares in one of his books, which
is, there's a chapter on it called the
Book of Death.
And he explains some of the narrations about
what happens.
And one of the reasons why death is
so scary for us is because it is
the end of one thing but the beginning
of something.
It's the end of what we know and
the beginning of what we don't know.
Okay, so it's just a transition stage.
But the difference is we just don't know
what follows.
None of us can come and say, I've
experienced that.
So we have this very, very fearful curiosity
about it.
But we know from the hadith and from
the Quran, of course, what to expect in
most cases, right?
Ibn Al-Qayyim says that when a person
passes away, and the hadith tells us this
and then he shares some others, that there's
two scenarios that occur.
The first scenario is that this person was
a very pious person.
And in that moment, when the angel of
death arrives into their vicinity, into their environment,
this person was very pious.
The angel of death does not show up
with the, you know, the black Moroccan soap
and the giant sickle.
No, the angel of death shows up like
a handsome, beautiful, just soothing, pleasant individual.
And the hadith says that the room smells
like musk.
And the person who's actually on their deathbed
in their last moments, they actually, while their
face might not be able to, the hadith
says that they actually smile.
They experience this joy, this pleasantness.
And then, subhanAllah, when the angel of death
arrives, the angel of death says, Oh, you
noble, wonderful person.
It is time for us to go.
Allah is calling you.
And the soul, again, that you would think
is like, wants to stay here, the soul
is like, Yes, this place is not it.
And they basically, the hadith says that the
soul is removed from the body.
And the example that is given is like
when you pour water out of a glass,
how smooth that is.
And the angel of death is taking the
soul by the hand.
And then, the angel of death shows, you
know, this is the first time now that
the soul has seen the body, or out
of body experience, right?
The soul is looking at the body, the
lifeless body.
And then, the angel starts to ascend the
heavens.
And you start going above even the base
sky that we see as the highest, right?
And you go throughout the heavens.
And the hadith says that on the way
up, there are crowds and like, just immense
crowds of mala'ika, angels.
And for the righteous soul, for the good
soul, the angels are like fangirling over you.
Oh my God, is that him?
I heard, I saw him last Ramadan.
He usually prays two rakah, he prayed four.
Right?
He said he was going to finish the
moshaf.
Miskeen, he barely started, right?
But he tried.
And they're like singing your praises the entire
way up.
And all you hear are like people like
celebrating your life.
Like celebrities, like a person who watched your
top 10.
And then, the angel of death takes you
all the way.
And Allah Ta'ala gives permission for you
to enter into the veranda, the balcony of
what will then give you a view into
paradise.
And Allah gives you in that moment, the
righteous soul, special permission to look at your
reward in paradise, your abode, your home, what
you spent your whole life building.
That's your moment.
And you get to see your neighbors, and
you get to see everything.
And the soul looks in disbelief and says,
is that mine?
And the angel of death says, what?
And much more.
That's just one picture.
And then the angel of death takes the
soul very gently down into the resting place,
into the barzakh.
And the soul is put in rest in
that place.
But here's the interesting thing.
There's a life there that is not like
the life here.
The hadith tells us that the soul will
be able to interact with other souls of
people that have passed away.
So if somebody, for example, lost their spouse,
and then they passed away, they're reunited.
They get to have dinner again.
And this time nobody has to cook.
Or if you miss your mom or your
grandmother and you pass away, now you're reunited.
Or if you lost a child, now you
get to raise that child in the akhirah.
And the souls get to spend time together.
And it's basically the best waiting room you
could ever imagine.
Now the hadith goes on and explains the
opposite.
And we don't have a lot of time,
so I'm not going to go through each
detail.
But for the wretched soul, for the one
that never sought repentance from Allah, for the
one that never remembered Allah, that soul, when
the angel of death shows, he's not handsome.
He's intimidating.
He's scary.
And the soul doesn't come out easy.
The soul is screaming for more chances.
But it's pulled out.
The hadith says like sheep's wool is pulled
out of a steel comb.
Doesn't want to come out.
And then the soul is roughly carried.
And the angels that are aligning the sides,
they're not celebrating.
They're saying, Oh man, I remember that guy.
He was horrible to his family.
He never prayed.
He was so dishonest.
He used to backbite.
So instead of hearing all the good things
you did, which is interesting because the good
people also sinned by the way.
But they just made tawbah.
But this person didn't make tawbah.
And they hear all of these things and
then they see their position in the hellfire.
And the person asks the angel, Is that
it?
And the angel says, No, no, much more.
And then that person is flung down to
the earth.
Not gently carried, flung down until their body,
their soul, sorry, roughly hits their resting place.
And they experience the opposite.
Instead of the pleasures, the preview of the
pleasures of paradise, they get the preview of
the torment.
May Allah ta'ala protect us.
When you spend some time reflecting about the
inevitability of our destination, there is no choice.
There's no choice but to feel some change.
Now, let me share with you one thing.
This is the last part of that narration
that I think is beautiful.
For those of you who have lost somebody
but you're still here.
You feel like there's nothing that you can
do.
But Ibn Qayyim shares a narration.
And he says, When a person does a
good deed, donates, reads Quran, does something good,
and intends it for somebody who has passed
away.
We call that like sadaqa jariyya.
So makes dua, reads Quran, gives charity, does
something.
The angels show up with this massive feast.
And they present it in front of the
soul.
All of their favorite foods.
So if you imagine like what the person
that you're thinking about what they used to
love eating.
What was their favorite dish?
Biryani, maqluba.
Like what was it, right?
A good burger.
And when you do something that's good in
this life for them or a good deed
in general as carrying on their lineage, their
legacy, the angels come, they present this meal.
And the soul asks like, What is this?
Where did this come from?
And the angel says, This is because your
daughter, your son, your granddaughter, your grandson, your
sibling, your parent, whoever.
They're doing good deeds and they're dedicating them
for you.
And so we're bringing you a preview of
that reward here.
Enjoy this feast.
And they are given updates on everything that
you do.
So you know how in like the Judeo
-Christian culture they say things like they're watching
down on us from above.
Not quite true.
But we do believe in Islam that the
angels deliver the updates and the good news
about what those who have left us about
what the good things that their beloved family
and friends are still doing.
If you lost somebody and you worry about
impressing them and you worry that you didn't
have a chance to show them how good
you could be in this life, don't worry.
The angels are going to carry all of
the good that you carry and they will
give them that news.
You're going to not be having to tell
them much in Jannah because they will have
been told.
May Allah Ta'ala give us a good
ending.
May Allah Ta'ala reunite us with our
loved ones in paradise.
May Allah Ta'ala make us those who
see the value of time and don't waste
it.
May Allah Ta'ala give us the ability
to take advantage of all of the opportunities
and not to take them for granted.
May Allah Ta'ala protect us from thinking
that we have a longer time than we
do.
Ameen, Ameen, Ya Rabbil Alameen.
Okay.
We'll do a couple of questions InshaAllah and
then we'll head for prayer because prayer is
at 8.45, correct?
Yeah, okay.
Alright.
Bismillah, Bismillah.
Okay.
I know someone.
First question.
I know someone who has a lot of
faith, does not engage in haram and strives
in all aspects to be a good Muslim
but struggles with prayer.
Any advice?
Okay.
So, this is actually not as uncommon as
one would think because the hadith of the
Prophet ﷺ actually explains this.
It's actually a lot easier for a person
to hold themselves back from something than it
is to produce something.
Like, it's harder for a person to do
something good than it is just to not
do something.
That's bad.
Right?
The Prophet ﷺ explained this.
So, it's not completely like crazy to think
of a person that really does well when
it comes to staying away from the things
that are bad but they really, really struggle
with prayer.
It's not an uncommon thing to imagine or
to see.
So, my advice.
There's a lot of things that could be
said about this.
My advice to this person is make prayer,
make salah, the way in which you thank
Allah.
Make salah God's love language.
If you are grateful for anything that you
have, imagine that the only time you can
share that thanks is in prayer.
Just imagine that.
Now, we know that Allah will, you know,
if you say Alhamdulillah at any time, you're
given a reward.
But imagine in your head, the only time
that I can truly thank Allah for what
He's given me or truly ask Allah for
support for difficulty or truly ask Allah for
relief for tough, tough times that I'm going
through, the only time is through prayer.
If you say that I only have five
chances a day to really directly communicate with
Allah without a doubt, maybe not all five,
but without a doubt, you'll start to see
the value of those windows of time.
You'll see the value, okay?
It's a mindset shift.
We have to get away from prayer being
a burden and prayer being a responsibility and
we have to start seeing prayer as an
opportunity.
We have to.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, he described
prayer as an opportunity.
He called it sweetness.
He said it was relaxation.
You know, I'm always stunned by the amount
of people who do yoga but struggle to
pray or who started meditating but struggle to
pray or do morning affirmations or who try
to manifest but struggle to pray.
All of these things that we're seeking in
these other modalities are found in prayer.
They're found there, right?
So try to make that a way to
commit yourself to salah.
Okay, can women go to graves?
Oh, graves.
I didn't answer that question.
Okay, so there's a hadith in which the
Prophet, peace be upon him, he said, لعنة
الله على زائرات القبور القبور أو كما قال
He said, the curse of Allah is upon
the women who visit the graves.
Okay?
And this is the quote that many people
will quote.
But it's only half of the narration which
is actually low-key, really, really bad thing.
You should never quote half of a hadith.
So then the Prophet, peace be upon him,
continued.
And actually I have a funny story.
One time we were doing a tour of
the grave in Medina, Baqiya.
And we had the sisters.
And this man shouts out the first half
of the hadith.
He says, Allah's curse is upon those women
who visit graves.
It was like a drive-by.
And I was with Mufti Kamani.
And Mufti Kamani, he goes, and he quotes
the other half.
And the other half is, those who make
the cemetery a place of worship.
So he screams it back at the guy.
And the guy is like, you know, like...
So, the prohibition is not for women to
not go to graves.
The prohibition is for women to go to
graves if they do this.
Now, it's kind of random.
Why would the Prophet, peace be upon him,
just specifically call out women?
Because that was a cultural practice of the
time.
It was culturally a practice where people would
actually hire whalers to go and to make
the grave a place of some kind of
sanctimonious practice where they would beat their faces
as a way to display honor and grief
for the deceased.
It's like a performance.
And this was pre-Islam.
This was Jahiliyyah.
So then the Prophet, peace be upon him,
he forbade this.
And he cursed anyone who does this.
But the hadith begins with the general and
then it continues with the specific.
But you can't stop halfway.
Right?
You can't stop halfway.
So that's why a lot of people, they
prohibit.
Or I'm sorry, not a lot of people.
That's why some people, they think that the
prohibition is there.
But it is not there unless you're going
to go wail.
If you're going to go wail, don't go.
If you're going to go wail and perform
and make it a place of worship, then
don't go.
Allah knows.
Okay?
But if you're going there to reflect and
to remind yourself of the temporary nature of
this life, then everybody should go.
Is it okay to move out of an
abusive home even though my parents are totally
against it?
I feel anxious and conflicted.
I need this test to end.
So on its face, on its face, the
answer to the question is yes, of course.
If a person is being abused, your primary
responsibility is to seek safety.
But it's important for you to go and
seek a professional opinion about the situation within
your realm of possibility, right?
So go and speak to a licensed clinician.
Explain the situation.
Give them the chance to, what's the word?
Ratify and verify and affirm that yes, in
fact, this is absolutely abuse.
I'm not talking about physical abuse.
Physical abuse, you don't have to ask anybody.
Hey, is this actual abuse?
No.
If it's physical abuse, no, absolutely not.
Get out.
Get out.
Okay?
I'm talking more so about if there is
trouble in the home, right?
What we deem as like toxic behavior, verbal
abuse, emotional abuse, etc.
Not always from spouses, by the way.
It could be from siblings.
It could be from in-laws.
It could be from parents.
May Allah protect us all.
You need to go and confirm that this
is actually what you're seeing is what you're
seeing.
Right?
This is very, very important.
Because a person in an anxious state can
sometimes underplay but sometimes also overplay.
And so you just have to go.
It's just one day, one meeting, going and
talking to somebody who's trained and speaking to
them and seeking that.
If that person does objectively say yes, this
is actually an abusive environment, then without a
doubt, Islam gives the right for a person
to seek self-preservation, without a doubt, right?
Without a doubt.
But my only, outside of physical abuse, which
is its own category, my only request is
that if you feel like you are in
a home that is toxic and or abusive,
etc., just take 50 minutes to go and
speak to a counselor and see and make
sure that what you're seeing is in fact
what you're seeing, inshallah.
The next one.
With 22 upvotes, we see the fresh cut
and the drip.
You and everyone else, how are you?
No, I'm joking.
Allah bless.
Okay.
Salaam, Mustafa.
I'm wondering what the rules are for interactions
with the opposite gender regarding getting to know
them for marriage.
There we go.
Is there any flexibility?
I mean, flexibility is a weird thing to
ask about.
It's not that things are flexible or inflexible.
There's just a way to do it.
The sharia gives us a way to do
it.
Now, according to like your cultural expectations, yes,
it might seem as, it might seem flexible
or according to your cultural expectations, it might
seem conservative.
Like that's irrelevant, right?
It is what it is.
So the best rule that I can give
when it comes to people trying to speak
to somebody for the purpose of marriage is
make sure that every interaction that you have,
first of all, there has to be, of
course, consent, right?
It has to be that it can't be
one-sided.
If it's one-sided, that's called stalking.
So stop.
Do not do that.
Seriously, do not do that.
Make sure that the way that you feel
is the way that they feel, okay?
That's a good starting point.
If you have confirmation that, in fact, the
way you feel is the way they feel,
then make sure that your conversations are PPL,
okay?
Public, purposeful, and limited.
Public here means there has to be knowledge
amongst especially the wali of the girl, but
really it should be the family, that this
conversation's happening, number one.
Also, it should not be like a private
dating thing.
It should definitely be, you don't have to
announce, hey, I'm talking to somebody, but you
also should not go to lengths to hide
it, right?
Because that could be a sign of something.
Purposeful is that the communication should not be,
the way that I explain this is it
should not be like a constant thread all
day, like just an iMessage thread that never
ends, from 8 a.m. till midnight, we're
just constantly texting.
No, if you're in the stage where you're
getting to know each other, just schedule some
phone calls, or give yourself a window of
time where texting is okay.
Not late at night.
I know that I'm big uncle-ing right
now, big time uncle-ing right now, but
don't do it.
Late at night is not good.
It's not good, all right?
That's when all the premature I love you's
come out.
Just stop.
Daytime is safe time.
Nighttime is sleep time.
Go to sleep.
Wake up.
If you want to say something at night,
draft it, wake up at Fajr and see
if it still makes sense.
If it doesn't make sense, Allah saved you.
Okay?
Purposeful.
Make sure your communication is purposeful.
And limited, which means what?
Which means that this should not go on
forever.
I believe that two people should know if
they should get married within 90 days.
Anything shorter can be doable, but it has
to...
Anything longer is like, I don't know.
If it looks like a duck and quacks,
it's a duck.
If it doesn't, you're not going to make
a duck out of it.
Just read it.
Three months.
Three months!
Three months is a lot.
Relax, everybody.
See, people are shocked here.
Your parents didn't even talk once before they
got married, right?
They met on their wedding.
They're like, hey, it's not like them.
And you're here, and they're still together.
Okay.
Well, some cases.
That's a different story.
Okay.
We'll do one last one.
Oh, this is a good question to end
on.
Okay.
Okay.
Why do we see our loved ones perhaps
dying or distressed in our dreams?
What is the best way to deal with
it?
Could it be from Shaytan, or is it
a sign from Allah?
Okay.
Dreams.
I'm going to explain this again, one time.
Dreams in Islam can come from a couple
different categories.
Two different categories, really.
One is meaningless, which means it does not
have a meaning.
Okay.
It could be from an overactive subconscious.
It could be that you had something, like
too much milk.
Who knows?
That's one side.
The other side is a dream that has
meaning.
In these, the meaning is not to be
interpreted literally.
There is actually a science behind it.
So it's not always what you're seeing is
what the dream is.
There are symbols.
There are ways in which people can understand
dreams that are absolutely not literally read line
by line.
So if you see something in a dream,
you never ever carry that visual or that
interpretation as literal.
Ever.
Okay.
The only time the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
said that if you see this in a
dream it's literal is when he said, if
you see me, then you saw me.
And that's it.
Everything else.
So if you see a dream and it's
distressing, the visual may have been distressing, but
that visual does not necessarily correlate with a
meaning.
For example, and we have to go pray,
so we're going to head out after this.
There was once a person that came to
me and said, I saw a dream of
this.
It was like a really, really traumatic childbirth,
basically.
And they were like, does this mean bad
things?
And the Sheikh said, no, this means that
there's a rebirth in your life, like a
restart.
It was a really traumatic visual, but it
was a really good meaning.
Right?
And again, I'm not trained in this, so
don't ask me, please.
But just know that.
Carry that as a thing.
Okay?
It's not literal.
It's symbolic.
May Allah Ta'ala make it easy, and
may Allah Ta'ala give us all goodness
from these gatherings.
Let's go ahead and head to the prayer
area.
If you can just stack the chairs on
your way out and line up the backjacks.
We're going to skip questions tonight because I
want to go make isha, inshallah.
As-salamu alaykum.