AbdelRahman Murphy – Heartwork Guided Steps To The Path Of Allah #18
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AI: Transcript ©
As-salamu alaykum.
Bismillah.
Bismillah wa alhamdulillah wa salatu wassalamu ala rasoolillahi
wa ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma'in.
As-salamu alaykum everybody, welcome home.
Alhamdulillah, it's good to have everybody here.
If it's your first time, then welcome for
the first time.
If it's something that you do regularly or
it's your second time or you come here,
inshallah, welcome back.
We're happy to have everybody here, alhamdulillah.
Before we get started tonight, I obviously wanted
to just take a moment to just reflect
a little bit on the year that has
passed.
I know that it's not something that needs
to be reminded of in the sense that
nobody has forgotten because it's something that we
still are living through and seeing our brothers
and sisters in Gaza being bombed and killed
and having their lives changed in deeply existential
ways.
And everybody I think today is just kind
of, I mean it's already Monday which is
bad enough, but then I think on top
of that everybody is kind of processing and
thinking about what a year feels like.
If you're like me, you tend to look
at bad situations and then think to yourself,
there's no way that this could keep going
forever.
And so you give yourself like the idea,
the hope, the optimistic thought of, well hopefully
inshallah things get resolved or hopefully victory is
given and you kind of give yourself this
finish line in your head and you're not
sure exactly when it is, but you think
to yourself a year is too long and
there's no way that it could possibly go
on that long.
And here we are.
So it is one of those situations subhanallah
where as you look at it, there's really
no realization that you can have besides that
everything is in the control of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Even the recitation at Maghrib from Hafez Abdul
Rahman, he read the ayat in which Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says that don't ever
say that those who are killed or that
those who lose their lives in the way
of Allah don't say that they are dead.
Rather they are alive and they are with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala being provided for,
being taken care of.
And so the only thing, as we continuously
see new layers and new depths of war
crimes being perpetrated against a completely innocent people
that have been oppressed, the only thing that
can give me any comfort and I want
to share this with you because I'm sure
it will resonate, is that we believe that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when those children
and those women and those men are killed
or are affected, that Allah ta'ala provides
for them something and gives them something much
better.
And tonight actually interestingly is the part where
Imam Muhasabi is going to talk about the
worthlessness of the dunya.
And I didn't plan this, like I didn't
look out for, oh let me do this
on October 7th, it just so happened.
Last week we talked a lot about death
and then this week the reading is literally
he talks about when it comes to this
material world, the key remedy or the key
solution is to realize just how worthless this
place is in comparison with the afterlife.
So when we put all of that together
as we witness these crimes happening, it's the
only therapeutic mechanism that we have in a
world that is defined by its injustice to
be able to process these things.
At the same time since we are in
a position of privilege and I say that
not like condescendingly or disparagingly, we are in
a position where Allah has not tested us
in that way, we're having different tests.
Our job is simply not just to feel
something, right?
Feeling is the beginning, it's a sign that
your heart is not dead.
When you feel something it's a sign that
you're alive, but the feelings have to translate
into something else.
And the three things that have constantly been
on the tongues of my teachers have been
first and foremost you have to make dua.
And I don't mean make dua but like
when you scroll past you feel bad, that's
not a dua.
A dua is a conscious effort, it's an
action in which you disengage from everything else
that you're doing, and you sit and you
focus and you direct that in that moment.
It doesn't have to be extensive, but it
has to be intentional.
And you direct that supplication to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala in that moment.
So while many of us are witnessing and
seeing things, a follow-up question is what
is your response?
Is it to take time to actually make
dua even if it's for just one minute,
60 seconds where you call upon Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And one thing that I do personally that
my wife actually kind of shared with me
is that she's like I make dua specifically
for the people, the person in that video
that I saw, to draw that human connection.
Because there is a desensitization that occurs with
technology and information, it's part of the design.
So you shouldn't feel bad if you find
yourself being emotionally in a state of exhaustion
because this device is actually not meant to
be a device that connects people.
When you have a conversation with somebody in
person, it's way different than over the phone.
And so when you find yourself feeling that
way, you have to combat that.
You have to repel that feeling by actually
doing something human, not technological.
You have to sit there and you have
to pray human to human, heart to heart.
No matter what the mileage is between you,
your hearts connect.
And your duas are heard by Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, number one.
Number two, you have to donate.
You have to donate.
One of my good friends, his name is
Sheikh Osman Qamar, he's from Toronto, he said,
Comfort has a zakat on it.
Like comfort, privilege has a tax.
If you're able to be in a position
where you're living comfortably and you're going out
for food, that's part of the challenge, but
the solution for that challenge is that you
have to figure out a percentage, a way
in which you can contribute to whatever it
is that you know demands that you need
to be a part of it.
So you may not be able to contribute
in the same way that others are.
We have physicians and healthcare professionals that are
actually going and giving their time, donating and
volunteering their time to operate and serve those
who are affected.
But these donations that you give, they actually
have a huge contribution.
And tonight I know we have HDF, which
is like our local partner that we work
with for Gaza.
Brother Humayun is here, mashallah, he's a familiar
face around here, and he works with them.
And just so you know, every $45,000
that we raise sends in an entire semi
-truck full of supplies.
And this isn't something that I'm saying as
like a pitch, this is just a fact.
This is the amount of money that it
costs to send in a truck full of
food, medicine, shelter, healthcare, hygiene kits, feminine products,
whatever is necessary.
And these trucks are getting in, they are.
The media kind of wants to present it
as if like nothing you do will help,
so just give up.
That's what they want.
They effectively want the ummah to give up.
In fact, when I went to Quds, when
I went to Aqsa for like, alhamdulillah, four
years in a row, we would go every
November.
May Allah ta'ala open it up so
we can all go, inshallah.
I remember what they would say when I
would speak to the locals there in Jerusalem,
and I would just ask them like, you
know, how has it been?
Because I remember seeing the numbers of people
visiting getting bigger over the years.
In the beginning, it was just like, can
you imagine Masjid al-Aqsa for Fajr was
like one line?
In the first time that we went in
2016, it was one line.
And then Subhanallah, or 2015, and then year
after year, it kept growing until it got
to like 25, 30 lines of people.
And I remember in the first year, we
were just speaking with one of the ammus
who was there, and we asked him, and
he said, we feel like the orphans of
the ummah.
Like we know that we have a family
connection, but that connection feels like it's gone.
Everyone goes to Mecca, everyone goes to Medina,
nobody comes here.
So he said, he would actually tell me,
go back and tell all of your, you
know, community members that add Jerusalem to your
plans.
Don't just stop with Mecca and Medina, but
come here too.
We're part of the ummah as well.
So part of the strategy of the people
who have taken the Muslims as their enemy
is to try to get the ummah to
forget about each other.
And they want that to be like not
just a physical, I mean military victory, they
want an emotional conquering.
They want the ummah to look at the
other part of the ummah and say like
they don't remember us.
So our way of contributing, we have the
spiritual personal which is dua, but then we
also have the financial.
And then lastly, we have the advocacy.
We have to continue making this something that
is a daily conversation.
However small or large, however significant you can
make it to remember them.
Even amongst family and friends.
You know, if you have social gatherings, maybe
at the end of your social gatherings, you
just like come together and commit to making
dua for two minutes together.
We've done much more useless things.
We've shown each other like dumb YouTube videos
that everyone forgot about.
What benefit, what beauty would there be, subhanallah,
if every gathering of Muslims finished their majlis,
their gathering.
You had nice some tea at arwah or
something.
They didn't pay me, but I'm just...
You went, you hung out, you had dinner.
And at the end of it, as you're
sitting there thanking Allah for your blessings, you
say, let's not forget our brothers and sisters.
And then even better, you make dua and
you say, guys, just donate something tonight.
You know, we paid $15 for this plate
of food, you paid $10 for this latte.
Not here by the way, we don't do
$10 lattes here.
You paid $10 for this latte, you do
whatever.
Let's all give something and just push each
other.
Just give each other a nudge.
No one's gonna say no.
It's just the person that has to have
the consciousness.
It's not uncomfortable, it's not pushy, it's not
weird.
It's actually totally normal.
And I guarantee you, everyone around you will
just thank you for that.
They'll just say, my humanity caused me to
forget, but I'm happy you reminded me.
Right?
This is where we're at.
And the pain that you feel is part
of the proof that you're a believer.
If we don't feel pain, then our belief
is in question.
We should feel the pain.
But that pain also has to drive us
to make dua to donate and to advocate.
We ask Allah to give our brothers and
sisters victory.
We ask Allah to make us a cause
of relief for them.
We ask Allah to make their example not
be in vain.
We ask Allah to give Jannat al-Firdaws
al-'Aala to those individuals whose lives were taken,
brutally stolen.
We ask Allah to give sakinah and relief
to those whose lives were affected, whether through
injury, physical or mental.
We ask Allah to make it easy for
those who are still there.
We ask Allah to make us able to
see the resolution to this conflict.
And that Allah gives Palestine back to the
Palestinians and allows all the believers and all
the Muslims and everybody who wishes to go
visit al-Aqsa, to go see the beautiful,
incredible, enchanting, charming Masjid al-Aqsa so that
we can go there together and pray on
a land that is victoriously taken back.
Ameen, Ya Rabb al-'Alamin.
Okay.
So, last week, Imam Muhasibi, he introduces to
us this idea of reflecting about death.
And he talked about how if a person
can commit to reflecting on the fact that
their life will not go on in perpetuity,
that they will one day pass away, the
effect that that should have on them.
And the Prophet, peace be upon him, he
used to say, remember often, remember often the
taker away or the destroyer of pleasures.
So the Prophet, peace be upon him, he
and his advice was that people should be
frequent in remembering the fact that they're not
going to live forever.
But that should not be translated as that
a person needs to be negative or not
enjoy the company of their loved ones, right?
No.
What this effectively means, the Prophet, peace be
upon him, is saying is that remember the
fact that death is real so that you
can live your life better.
Because if you forget that death is coming,
you're going to make a lot of mistakes
in life.
And this is why when people pass away,
people who are close to us, you know,
family or friends, it's like a shock.
There's a jolt.
It wakes you up.
And you start to text people and you
start to communicate.
And it's like a deeper level.
It's not like your standard stuff.
You know, you might reach out to somebody
that you haven't talked to in a while
and try to reconcile.
Or you might reach out to a person
that normally you have a very unserious relationship
with and you might try to like do
that weird thing and be serious with them.
And say, hey, I really appreciate you, you
know, and I want to let you know
that I love you for the sake of
Allah.
And the person is like, is everything okay?
And then you have to like sit there
and say, yeah, because I realize that this
is not going to be forever.
Like one day, think about this.
If you have a friend, you guys have
friends?
Inshallah.
If you don't, you have a community.
We'll be friends, inshallah, here.
If you have friends, just realize, and this
isn't meant to be negative.
It's meant to be just perspective giving.
Like one day, you're going to be burying
them or they'll be burying you.
You're going to be attending their janazah or
they'll be attending yours.
It's just a reality.
And so, don't forget that so that you
don't overlook the value of that relationship while
you have it now.
And the friends that make the most of
that time together, that are reminded of that,
they're the ones that on the day of
judgment Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us
in the Qur'an that they will be
giving each other like basically in jannah, they'll
be giving each other so much congratulations.
They'll be like embracing and hugging one another.
Like the equivalent of like high-fiving and
dapping each other up.
Because they'll tell each other like you reminded
me and I reminded you.
And on the contrary, there will be those
friends that reminded of the opposite and Allah
ta'ala tells us in the Qur'an
that there's a moment where they are looking,
the people of jannah are looking down actually
into the pit of the hellfire.
And they see somebody that they were very
close to.
Like in this life, it could have been
a classmate they saw everyday or a co
-worker or a colleague.
May Allah protect us.
May Allah protect us from being that person
or even having to see this.
And they'll look down and they'll see that
person and they'll actually say to them, the
Qur'an says this, in summary it says,
you almost took me there with you.
Like you almost got me.
And had it not been that Allah ta
'ala protected me and guided me, I would
have been there right there with you.
That's the ultimate betrayal.
The ultimate betrayal of friendship is that a
person doesn't think about your akhira.
If a person cares for you, they care
for you in this life and the next.
Not just this life.
And you see how this all connects?
What was the previous chapter on?
Advice, nasiha.
Because a person who gives you nasiha, even
as tough as it might be, they clearly
care for you.
They want to see the best for you.
So Imam Muhasibi, he goes through this journey
now.
And he quotes now Abu Dharr r.a.
And I'll read to you some of this
quickly and then we'll go to the next
section.
Abu Dharr, he says, mentioned that how can
you be a person that practically remembers death?
He says, well, you have to balance yourself.
If you remember death all the time and
you do it in a way that gives
you pause, then you can actually be difficult
to be around.
And the Prophet ﷺ was not like that.
If somebody came up to the Prophet ﷺ
and said something positive or optimistic, he wouldn't
be like, that's good, remember death.
Let's go talk about this in the cemetery.
He didn't do that.
He wouldn't deflate people's positivity.
And there's no piety in doing that.
بَشِّرُوا وَلَا تُنَفِّرُوا يَسِّرُوا وَلَا تُعَصِّرُوا It's a
command.
The Prophet ﷺ is saying, what?
Give good news and don't be a negative
person.
يَسِّرُوا وَلَا تُعَصِّرُوا Make things easy for people.
Don't make them difficult.
Right?
So the Prophet ﷺ was a positive person.
But every time and place has what it
needs.
It's okay to be positive in positive situations.
But there are times where things are serious.
And in those moments, that's where the reflection
has to happen.
The janazah.
When somebody is sick.
When you hear about a tragic loss.
When you're driving on the highway and you
see an accident.
When you happen to pass by what looks
like a very, very serious collision.
In that moment, what do you think about?
Some people mock.
I guarantee you they were on their phone.
Or they'll say something really disparaging.
That's not what the believer...
The believer doesn't have those realizations.
The believer is the one who says, لَا
إِلَهَ لَا اللَّهِ إِنَّ لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّ لِلَّهِ رَجِعُونَ
May Allah Ta'ala protect us.
Right?
That's what the believer says.
So he says, Imam al-Hasibi now quotes
Abu Dharr.
He says, Abu Dharr said, live your life
in two ways.
Number one, work as if you see Allah.
Like do good deeds as if you're gonna
report to Allah at the end of the
day.
You know how you like work at work?
You work at work knowing that you're gonna
have to turn in like...
Or like share with your manager like what
you did.
Okay?
You do something knowing that there's some kind
of accountability, right?
Like there is.
So he's basically saying like live your day
as if at the end of the day
you're gonna have to turn it into Allah's
promise to Allah.
That's how you stay focused.
How you stay focused?
You have a deadline.
When?
Every single night.
Every single night at Isha before you go
to sleep, that's your deadline.
That's when you're gonna present your deeds for
the day to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And that's when a person needs to go
over what they did that day.
It's called muhasaba.
Go through your deeds.
Think about what you did.
After you're done praying Isha for the night,
or if you prayed here and you wanna
go home, go home and just...
You know, you can do what you gotta
do.
You can eat, you can snack, you can
have your nightly bowl of cereal.
Anyone else?
Just me?
You can have your nightly bowl of cereal,
right?
Just a little, just a little, you know.
Milk's good for you, right?
Is it?
So, you can...
And then you can do your thing, you
know, like text people, checking on the group
chats, all of that.
It's fine, no issue.
But don't make the last thing you do
something pointless.
Like, make the last thing you do something
meaningful.
We do a bunch of pointless stuff in
between, right?
Make the final thing of your night something
meaningful.
What is that?
It's called muhasaba.
Take hesab of your day.
Count everything.
Wallahi, this is a very practical way to
get close to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Is that you just sit.
And in my house, we have an area
where we pray.
Like we have a prayer rug.
And that's typically where like, I'll do this.
I'll sit on the prayer rug and do
this.
I'll sit and I'll just go through my
day.
Takes like five minutes.
It's just thinking.
Okay, what did I do when I wake
up?
Did I pray fajr this morning?
Okay, good.
Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
I want to do that again.
You know, what did I do?
Did I call my mom today?
Yes.
Okay, good, good, good.
Good move.
Did I give some sadaqa today?
Ah, I didn't.
Come on.
You can either do it now or if
you missed it and it's not something you
can fix.
Like if you didn't pray.
Okay, tomorrow I have to do that.
I have to do that.
What am I going to change?
A lot of us want to get better
spiritually but we don't want to make any
plans.
Like, it's like an athlete that wants to
win the championship but doesn't want to do
any work.
You know?
Like the cowboys.
Although I know they had a good one
last night.
All right?
It was unfortunate.
I was definitely cheering against them.
But anyways, okay?
So, you sit there and you go through
your day and you see what you did
right.
You see what you did wrong.
When I say celebrate, I don't mean arrogantly.
You appreciate and you thank Allah for the
wins.
And then for the things that you took
L's on, for the things that you struggled
with, you got to make adjustments.
You got to make adjustments for that.
So, he says, number one, work as if.
Do good deeds here.
Work doesn't mean physical work like corporate work.
He's saying live and do as if you're
going to meet Allah.
And he said the second part.
In English, we have this phrase that's probably
the better translation of this.
He says in Arabic, consider yourself dead.
Which sounds like a threat from your mom.
But what he's trying to say is, what
he's saying is, you know, in English we
have a phrase basically like one foot in
the grave.
Or they have a phrase, you know, dead
man walking, right?
All of these are dealing with the tension
between somebody who knows they're alive but knows
that their life is not forever.
So, if a person says like, I'm just
living like I have one foot in the
grave, that person is living cognizant of the
fact that what?
Their life is not forever.
That's what he's saying here.
He says, live every day with the end
of it in mind.
That you're going to turn your deeds into
Allah.
And then secondarily, live every day reminding yourself
that I'm basically one foot in.
I'm basically one foot in.
And I have to be prepared for that
reality.
Okay?
Then he continues.
And he says something very beautiful.
Because life can become overwhelming.
When you start to think about the end
of your life and you start to try
to process that, you can try to make
up for lost time in a hurry.
And you can try to do like really
big things.
Because you realize, man, when I was in
high school, when I was in college, or
when I was in my 20s or whatever,
like I wasted a lot of time.
And so, you give yourself a lot to
do, right?
You basically try to take big bites of
life.
But he says that's not the way.
He says, no, understand that a brief act,
something quick, something very light, that actually enriches
you is better than a great act that
can become a source of oppression.
This is a little bit tough to understand
on its face.
But if I give you one layer of
understanding, you'll all get it.
Number one, the Prophet peace be upon him,
he said, Never ever ever, لَا تَحْقِرَنَّ مِنَ
الْمَعْرُوفِ شَيْئًا Never ever diminish or undervalue any
good deed at all.
مِنَ الْمَعْرُوفِ مِن here in Arabic is a
special تبعيد.
It's like a little tool that even gives
a greater connotation of how small this could
be.
Because he could have just said, don't ever
diminish good deeds.
He could have said that.
But he said, don't ever diminish any bit
from your good deed, which means like even
a fraction.
So all of us have aspirations, right?
Ramadan is in five months.
May Allah Ta'ala give us Ramadan.
All of us have aspirations, right?
The Ramadan aspiration for a lot of us,
I want to finish reading the Qur'an.
I want to finish reading the Mus'haf.
We have that aspiration or that goal.
Even outside of Ramadan, I want to pray
five times a day.
I want to do this.
Let's say, for example, like you've never prayed
in your life or you missed a lot
of years of prayer.
And you're thinking to yourself like, I want
to get started, but I got to start
with five.
And then you try and you find yourself
failing because it's a big transition.
What we learned from our teachers and from,
of course, their training from the Qur'an
and from the hadith is that it's better
for a person to pray anything than it
is for a person to give up altogether.
It's better for a person to give anything.
Like you're going to walk outside and see
this table for ghazla, and you're going to
say to yourself like, I need, you know,
one more week till I get paid.
Let me just give it then.
No, give whatever you can now.
Don't ever diminish any good that you did.
Don't ever take away any impact because Imam
Hasbi says, a small good deed that elevates
you is really what you need to succeed.
You need a lot of small good deeds.
You can't make major changes overnight.
That's not how life works.
We've all done it.
We've all like overeaten an Eid, and then
the next day we did like an extra
long workout.
That's not how that stuff works, right?
If you want to increase, if you want
to get better, the sunnah of Allah is
that He made change happen over time.
Except for some rare traumatic concessions, like really,
really rare, change happens over time.
Everybody who wants something different has to be
prepared to run the marathon, not the sprint.
I don't know why you run it all.
But then he says, doing those small good
deeds, doing something small is actually better for
you than aiming to do a big good
deed.
And he said that big good deed can
actually become a source of oppression.
So what does he mean by that?
Well, when you do something small, you rarely
want to like publicize it or celebrate it.
Like nobody's going to donate tonight $10 for
ghaza and then be like, feeling particularly generous
today, guys.
I gave $10 tonight, right?
You know what?
Try to be like me if you can.
Like you did that, sincerity is much easier
to find in the small good deeds.
But the big good deeds, if you're like,
you know what?
I'm going to give a lot tonight.
Then that one might be a little bit
tougher for you to keep to yourself.
You might want to share that more, right?
So it's actually better for a person, if
they're trying to get close to Allah, to
try to get the small victories.
I was reading something about productivity one time
and they said that if you're struggling, I
don't know if you guys are procrastinators.
Anyone here a procrastinator?
Yeah.
Some of you are so bad, you plan
on raising your hand later.
You're like, it's dad joke.
You realize dad joke rhymes with bad joke.
Okay.
So procrastinator.
And so there was actually a lot like
I read, there were studies that showed that
people who focused on doing like productive deeds,
productive actions that were very quick, but they
could start and finish them.
They could complete them.
That entire action, 30 seconds, 60 seconds.
The example they gave was like making your
bed or like washing your bowl after you
ate it or after you ate like whatever
was in it, like after you ate the
cereal.
They said those actions, actually if you stack
them up, and let's say they each took
30 seconds and you did 10 of them.
So it's like five minutes, right?
They said that that had a dramatic effect
on the person's productivity day by day, eventually
week by week, month by month.
And they were able to like accomplish things
they never thought possible.
It all started with the small, the small
good deeds, the small actions.
So people are like really, really, they're like
super particular, almost like borderline religious about when
I wake up, I make my bed.
Have you ever met those people, those weirdos?
I'm one of them now.
I make my bed right away.
I do this.
I don't leave that till tomorrow.
I do it right now.
And sometimes in order to negotiate with yourself,
you have to think to yourself like, how
long will this take me really?
What am I avoiding?
You know, the trash, I got to take
it out.
It's going to take 60 seconds.
Why am I avoiding it?
Let me just go do it.
You do it and then afterwards you're like,
feel the anxiety.
It's the same with spirituality.
Why am I avoiding salah?
It's just going to take me a few
minutes.
It's just going to take a little bit
of time.
There's no reason for me to avoid it.
Why am I avoiding calling my parents?
Why am I avoiding apologizing?
Why?
We push off these things because why?
We deem it as insignificant.
But he's saying, if you understood the real
value of the accumulation of all of these
small things, wallahi, you would never see it
as insignificant.
You would chase these deeds.
And the extra benefit is that because they're
so small, you'll never risk showing them off,
suffering from riya and losing all the reward.
Because you'll actually find ikhlas in those deeds.
Because they're not big enough to show off,
but they mean a lot to Allah.
We're weird.
Human beings, we only like the big stuff.
But Allah Ta'ala appreciates.
أحب العمال لله أدوامه إن قلة Aisha, she
said, the Prophet Aisha s.a.w. said,
the most beloved deeds to Allah are those
which are done consistently even if they're small.
So my teacher said, giving one dollar a
day is more beloved to Allah than giving
one thousand dollars one day.
Even though one dollar a day for a
year is just 365 dollars.
So it's significantly less.
It's a third of a thousand.
But he said, because you're doing it consistently,
it's the consistency that Allah loves.
Allah is not impressed by a person who
gives more necessarily.
That's not the only metric that the deed
registers with.
But if a person gives a significant amount,
and then that person feels arrogant, or they
feel like they are special, like the people
are benefit, then that person has to watch
themselves.
But a person who commits to giving regularly,
so much so that even they...
Imam Ghazali says something beautiful.
He said, give or do good deeds that
are so secret that even you forgot you
did them.
Like you forget about it.
He doesn't mean that you don't have presence.
He's saying, you're not celebrating it.
There's nothing for you to memorialize.
So Imam Al-Muhasibi is saying, understand that.
And then he says, subhanAllah, this is his
line.
He's quoting from the hadith of the Prophet
ﷺ.
Beware of the prayer of those who are
oppressed.
And he ties this together beautifully.
Because sincerity is the key to all deeds.
A person can pray all night.
They can stand for hours.
But if they were trying to show off,
it doesn't register at all for their good
deeds.
In fact, it's the opposite.
And a person can pray for three minutes,
two rak'ah nafl.
And if they were praying, and they were
sincere with Allah, that could actually mean more
to Allah than a person who did much,
much more.
So what makes a deed valuable or invaluable
is the sincerity that the person has.
And this is for everything.
When you eat, are you eating just for
yourself or are you eating to thank Allah?
When you are socializing, are you present in
that moment, presently thanking Allah that He gave
you the comfort to socialize?
Or is it just like I'm hanging out
because this is what we do?
When you exercise, when you drive your car,
all of these things have a layer.
They have an element of sincerity in them.
And subhanAllah, he quotes this hadith of the
Prophet ﷺ about beware of the prayer of
the oppressed.
Because two reasons.
Number one, is that nobody experiences sincerity like
those who are oppressed.
You know when you see the videos from
Gaza of our brothers and sisters and they're
sitting in tents.
Many of them have lost family members.
Many of them have lost everything.
And they're sitting and they're like praying.
They're memorizing Quran.
They're doing all of these things that subhanAllah,
we have so many excuses as to why
we don't do them.
If anyone has an excuse to not sit
and memorize Quran, to me it would be
the people of Gaza right now.
Meaning if they said, guys, we're a little
bit, it's tough for us right now, then
I think the entire world would understand.
Yeah?
But where there's a will, there's a way.
And where the will is unbreakable, so is
the way, subhanAllah.
The oppressed people have a strength that is
only found with them.
And that strength is in part connected to
their sincerity.
When you live in a life of comfort
and privilege and you've never ever been transgressed
upon, one of the things that is always,
you're always kind of balancing it, is your
sincerity.
When you get oppressed, you actually have to
ask yourself, am I doing this for Allah
or not?
And so he says here, beware of the
prayer of the oppressed.
The second reason why is because when you
try to do these grand deeds, sometimes along
the way you oppress people.
Right?
When you become obsessed with like showing off
and letting people know what you've done, along
the way there's an oppressive culture to that.
Right?
Whether it's silencing somebody, taking somebody's right, transgressing
their haq or whatever it might be, that's
there.
So he says when you live your life,
beware never ever to oppress or transgress anybody.
Whether it's micro, like something just day to
day.
You know, you took someone's time, you took
their path, you took their way, you made
them feel, right, negative.
Imagine the people, subhanAllah, that we say things
about.
They're bullied, they're picked on.
Their du'as are much closer to Allah.
The prophet said this, ayatul salam, he said
what?
Between those who are oppressed and Allah, the
du'as, there's no hijab, there's no veil.
There's nothing.
It's like a direct line.
You know, somebody wants to impress you, they
say what?
I have weekly meetings with the CEO.
I have a direct line.
I have a one-on-one with the
head of the company.
The oppressed have a one-on-one with
Allah every time they raise their hands.
So he says beware of this.
And then he says, on your life, in
your life, make sure you take abundant provision.
Make sure you pack accordingly.
And the Quran says, what he's referring to
here is taqwa, God consciousness.
I want to move on to this last
point that I think is really really important.
The greatest effect or the greatest change on
behavior is a remembrance of the afterlife.
It's a remembrance of the afterlife.
When a person remembers Jannah and they say,
you know what?
I'm gonna do this for Allah, for Jannah.
It can make the most unbearable thing completely
bearable.
And when a person thinks of the hellfire,
it can make the most desirable thing, torture.
Because they're thinking about it with the right
frame.
So he says here, and this is a
hadith of the Prophet, he's quoting but I'll
summarize it.
He says, know that whoever makes the dunya,
sorry, whoever makes the afterlife, the akhirah, their
ultimate goal, Allah will take care of their
entire dunya.
Allah will take care of it.
The commentary, let me just read it to
you and then we'll conclude inshaAllah.
By the way, the Q&A is open
if you have, oh, there's already 62 questions.
Okay, never mind.
Q&A is closed.
Alright?
Because Maghrib is at 8.30 tonight inshaAllah,
or Isha is at 8.30 tonight inshaAllah.
He said, the commentator here says, and I
think this is amazing.
He says, so remember he's talking about the
akhirah is your ultimate goal.
He says, this is one of the reasons
that the companions of the Prophet peace be
upon him, gained ascendancy in this world.
Okay, if you know any history about Muslims,
what you know, probably from the time of
the Prophet peace be upon him, is that
it was not easy.
It was very difficult, especially in the beginning.
Very, very difficult.
Lots of loss, lots of battles, lots of
challenges.
And not for one month or two months.
We're talking like decades.
Okay?
So, we just experienced, from an ummah perspective,
we experienced major loss for one year.
I want you to think now about what
it must have been like to be a
companion.
To see this for a decade.
So the fact that people experienced this kind
of loss for 10 years and still maintained
that faith, that's what sincerity looks like.
So he says, the companions, may Allah be
pleased with all of them, they gained elevated
status.
We name our children after them.
You know, Safiya, Aisha, Khadija, Omar, Abu Bakr,
Ali.
We name our children after these people because
why?
Because they were real.
They stuck through.
They desired Allah in the hereafter, he says,
and Allah gave them success in this world
and the next.
After the passing of the Prophet ﷺ, the
growth of the Khilafah, the growth of the
Muslim ummah was like catching, like it was
so contagious, subhanAllah.
It was spreading throughout the world.
I mean Muslims were present in Spain, in
Europe.
Muslims were present in Spain before they were
present in Pakistan and India.
Can you believe that?
Less than one century after the death of
the Prophet ﷺ, the masjid in Qurtuba was
built, the foundations.
Can you believe that?
Like Muslims were present in Spain.
It blows my mind.
We see Europe now collectively as an ummah.
We're like, oh, Europe is like predominantly marked
by its Christianity, its Catholicism, etc.
But there was a time when it was
synonymous with Muslims.
And when you go visit these places and
you're able to learn these things and see
them, you're like, wow, subhanAllah.
Right?
And you make dua that Allah Ta'ala
returns that.
So listen.
So he says, if you choose to chase
the world, he says, no.
If you choose to chase the world, Allah
will take it away from you.
Ali رضي الله عنه said, the dunya is
like a shadow.
The more you walk towards it, the more
it goes away from you.
But the more you walk away from it,
the more it follows you.
Your shadow follows you, right?
But when you turn around and try to
go towards the shadow, you can never catch
it.
Ali said, that's the dunya.
KaramAllahu wajha, he said that.
If you choose to chase the world, know
that Allah will take it from you.
It's slippery.
It's not meant to be caught.
You know, anyone here have a cat?
What's the best way to attract a cat?
Ignore that thing.
Act like you don't even see it.
Just be like, I don't even want a
cat anymore.
The cat's like...
But the minute you try to go towards
it, the cat's like, oh, no, I don't
need you.
Clean my litter, you know.
I'm having some issues at home.
Listen to this now.
Raise your hand if you had this question.
Some people will ask, how is it then
that so many wrongdoers are so prosperous in
this world?
Raise your hand if you ever felt that.
So many evil people or just wrongdoers are
prosperous.
Raise your hand.
You haven't had this question?
You haven't seen what's been happening the past
year and wondering why?
You haven't thought like, why is Allah not
just destroying the Zionist project right now?
Just completely just collapse it into an earthquake
and just...
So listen to this.
This is gonna actually shake you.
It shook me, wallah.
He said, if you ask the question, how
is it that so many wrongdoers are so
prosperous?
This inquiry is answered in several ways.
First, the world means nothing to Allah, so
He gives it to whoever He wants.
It means nothing to Him.
You know when something doesn't mean anything to
you and somebody comes and asks for it?
You're not even there.
You're like, oh, yeah.
Can I have that?
Yeah, yeah, whatever you want.
This world means everything to us, and so
this situation seems like a major philosophical problem.
How could Allah not give the Muslims wealth?
That's because we're in love with wealth and
Allah is not.
Allah created wealth for us to use for
certain things, but it's a test.
And the more that we love these things,
the more that these things are gonna become
the metric by which we measure Allah's love.
Don't let the things you love become the
metric by which you measure Allah's love.
Because that's not what it is.
Just because somebody, just because Elon or Jeff
Bezos, I had this question as a kid
and Musa just asked me actually.
You know, every time he...
Musa's at that age where he asks, are
they Muslim?
It's funny until it's in public at a
store.
Is she Muslim?
He saw a lady at Target who had
something covering her hair.
It wasn't a hijab, but it was like
just, you know, something to cover the hair.
And he goes, is she Muslim?
But he didn't whisper.
He goes, is she Muslim?
And she looked and I was just like,
and I don't...
what do I say?
She might be, I don't know.
I was like...
I looked at her and I was like,
I'm gonna let you answer this one.
You know?
So you see these prosperous people and you're
like, they don't even believe in Allah.
They say horrible things about Allah.
Why would Allah give them this?
Well, you've confused what success looks like.
Listen to the second part.
He says, first of all, the world means
nothing to God, so He gives it freely
to whomever so He chooses.
However, He only gives religion to those He
loves.
How much have we devalued this deen?
We have iman, but we don't have millions
and we're upset.
We have salah, and because we have bills,
we're like frustrated.
But if you have millions and you didn't
have iman, what would you have?
Nothing.
You'd have nothing.
Secondly, He says, the world is a source
of their long-term detriment and is leading
them to their ruin.
There's actually a narration.
The Qur'an speaks about this as well,
but there's a hadith in which the Prophet
peace be upon him, he elaborates.
And he says that the dunya is given
as a trial that looks very beautiful and
this is one of the punishments of Allah
for those people that have evil hearts is
that the dunya becomes a ladder towards Jahannam
for them.
Look at what Israel is doing.
I never, I'm 36.
I feel really old because the other day,
someone goes, how long since you've been 16?
I was like 20 years.
And I instantly felt like pain, knee pain,
back pain, everything.
20 years since I was 16.
I remember, I remember, wallah al-halim, I
remember when anything Palestine related was like 37
people, 100 people max.
If we had 100 people at a protest
for Palestine in Chicago, at a major conference,
if we had 100 people, we were like,
this is it.
We're gonna go open the gates.
We were like, 100.
Now, I was in New York this summer,
traveling back, and I didn't even know.
I just walked out of my hotel and
I see this long line.
And they're all carrying the Palestinian flag.
They're all chanting.
And I look, and it's literally going blocks,
blocks, not like one block, like 10, 15,
20.
It didn't stop.
I walked with them.
It was like the law, if I joined
in, you know, like came in there for
a little bit, went out, got my coffee,
came back, joined them.
I had no clue.
My kids were sleeping in the hotel.
My wife was upset.
I was like, I texted her.
I was like, look out the window.
She sees, she's like, wow.
And she took a picture.
It was like super long.
Guys, I'm telling you, wallah al-azim, 20
years ago, this is not normal.
To see now, the self-inflicted destruction.
This is from Allah.
Istidraj, it's called.
This is a path.
This is a plan.
The land of no return.
No pun intended, by the way.
The land of our return, inshallah, but the
land of no return for them.
They're going, they're actually destroying their reputation and
their image in this world.
Beyond repair.
It's all being documented, uploaded.
It's there.
There's no way to come back from this.
Every exit, every exit ramp off of this
is destroyed by them.
So he says here that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala sometimes gives the dunya.
He gives billions of dollars worth of arms
and military aid to evil people so that
they can use it and show everyone how
evil they are.
Finally, he says, it's not a source of
true enjoyment.
It only blinds and deludes the people and
allows them to have their sensory time in
this life, but holds them back from enjoyment
in the next life.
Based on this meaning, he says, Allah taking
the world away from you is a sign
of his pleasure and his joy with you.
Isn't that incredible?
When I read this, I literally had goosebumps
because I thought to myself, how can a
heart negotiate the destruction and pain that we're
seeing?
And then the author here says, it's just
the sign that Allah loves them.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala love us
as well.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not test
us with our material possessions.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make our
love for this world be insignificant compared to
the love of the akhira.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us
strength and give us the ability to be
strength for others.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us
a relief for our brothers and sisters and
give them victory.
Ameen.
As well as, there are many, many, many
other situations as well.
Sudan right now, subhanAllah, is dire.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
give them victory as well.
The Burmese in Rohingya, we ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to give them victory as
well.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the
Uyghur brothers and sisters that have their plight
that is being hidden and stifled.
Anywhere that there is oppression, we ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala to uplift them, ya
Rabb, and make us a means of helping
them, ya Allah.
Sister Afia Siddiqui, Dr. Afia Siddiqui, who is
in Fort Worth being held and detained in
this criminal, criminal justice system.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give her
relief and release her, ya Rabb al-Amin.
And all those that we know and don't
know.
BarakAllahu feekum, inshaAllah.
Let's do some Q&A, and then we'll
break just a couple minutes of Q&A,
and then we'll break for Salah, inshaAllah.
Of course, the first one is about marriage.
Alright.
How do you fully focus on yourself and
not romanticize marriage?
Good question.
I would say it'd be good to fully
focus on yourself and not romanticize marriage.
That's how I would do that.
No, in all honesty, look.
I would say this.
Marriage is a blessing from Allah, but it's
not the only blessing from Allah.
And you need to focus on what Allah
has given you, and you need to focus
less on maybe what you don't have yet,
and work on the things that He has
given you.
InshaAllah, be prepared and get yourself ready for
when those next blessings come.
One of them may be marriage, inshaAllah.
So, really just be present, live in the
moment.
Ask Allah Ta'ala to give you good
perspective, okay?
Urgent.
My son continuously asks me about extraterrestrial life
and then alien emoji.
What is Islam's perspective on life away from
earth?
I actually have no idea.
It's not something that I've ever thought of
or wondered.
So, Allah knows best.
I'm sure there is good content out there.
Not for me though.
Is a
Muslim space invader possible?
Abbas, you are.
You can do it.
I'm sure I'm okay.
How can you get over feeling an immense
amount of fear about the afterlife and day
of judgment?
Okay, this is good.
So, there's a hadith of Aisha radiallahu anha
where she says that the Prophet peace be
upon him says, whoever loves to meet Allah,
Allah loves to meet them.
And whoever hates to meet Allah, Allah hates
to meet them.
So, if we look at this hadith, there's
a couple of interpretations scholars have given.
Number one is that the scholars say this
is actually talking about prayer.
So, if you know prayer is obviously the
liqat with Allah.
It's the meeting with Allah Ta'ala.
Every day you meet with him five times
a day.
So, if you love to meet Allah at
the prayer, then Allah loves to meet you
at the prayer.
And if you hate that, then it's reciprocated.
And some scholars say, no, this is talking
about the akhira.
This is talking about your eventual judgment.
And then some scholars say, well, one is
indicative of the other.
One is an indication for the other.
Meaning if you live your life loving to
meet Allah at salah, then guess what?
You're probably going to end up loving to
meet Allah on the day of judgment.
And the opposite is likely true.
So, what we learn from the hadith is
that the best way to get over your
fear of the day of judgment is just
remind yourself that you're going to meet Allah
who is Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim.
And he is the one who is the
most merciful.
Remind yourself of this.
Okay?
The day of judgment is intense.
It's intimidating.
It's overwhelming.
But Allah is in control.
And as long as you aspire to meet
Allah in a good state, then Allah would
love to meet you in that state.
There are some that even as intimidating as
the day of judgment is, Allah Ta'ala
makes it facilitated for them.
The crossing of the Sirat, he gives them
shade, right?
All of these are signs that the general
experience is that it's going to be challenging.
But there are some that if they're committed
to Allah in this life, Allah will give
them ease, moments of ease.
Right?
فَأَمَّا مَنْ أُوتِيَ كِتَابَهُ بِيَمِينِ For those people,
in the beginning they get their book in
their right hand, it's like good news.
It's like going to check into your flight
and you're upgraded.
You're not in the seat yet.
You're not in the upgraded seat yet, but
you feel good, huh?
You're like looking, you're like, yeah, yeah, this
is right, you know, this is me.
I knew that they would recognize my status
one day, right?
You feel good about it.
So on the day of judgment, the beginning
it starts by handing you, you get your
book in the right hand, you get to
upgrade.
Oh, subhanallah, alhamdulillah.
And you feel that.
And every step along the way, there's something
good.
You cross the Sirat easily, quickly.
You're under the shade of Allah's throne.
The Prophet ﷺ meets you at the Haud.
All of these are signs.
And it's like the entire process, as intimidating
as it is, it's like you had this
amazing treatment on the entire way.
So just pray for those things, inshaAllah, that
Allah ﷻ will facilitate for us.
Sheikh Travis Kelsey looks like you.
There's a lot to unpack here.
What I will say is I appreciate you
saying he looks like me and not that
I look like him.
Also, our wives are completely...
Well, my wife, sorry, he's not legitimate.
But my wife is way cooler than his
partner, okay?
So, I just hate myself right now.
Okay.
Oh, my God, there's so many.
Okay, let's go ahead and pause.
Okay, a Sheikh once said, never remind someone
of their past.
Can you elaborate on that?
Well, the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ says
that whoever hides the mistake of their brother
or their sister, then Allah will hide their
mistake on the Day of Judgment.
So, if there's a mistake that is specific,
that is individualized, that is private, it's a
personal mistake.
It's not like a public thing that affects
everybody.
It's a private mistake, okay?
Then hiding that mistake will be a means
by which Allah will hide your mistakes as
well in this life and on the Day
of Judgment.
We should never ever remind someone of their
past in the idea or in the effect
that we don't want people to feel bitter
or sour, especially if they are trying to
make changes.
Okay.
So, generally, the rule is don't bring up
people's past.
It's not a good thing.
Now, if you have a relationship with somebody
and it's something different, the Sahaba sometimes would
get around and talk about jahidiyah.
But they would speak about it like almost
like laughing about it.
Like, how far have we come?
Alhamdulillah.
Allah has guided us.
Alhamdulillah.
So, it wasn't like they were reminiscing.
It wasn't like they were trying to make
each other feel bad.
They were actually sort of like almost just
in complete wonder, like just amazement that Allah
has taken them from there to here.
So, generally speaking though, if somebody has moved
on from something, we should also move on
from it, inshallah.
Wallahu ana.
Okay, barakallahu feekum, everybody.
Isha prayer is in three minutes, inshallah.
So, if you want to head to the
masalah.
Anyone who's sitting on a chair, if you
could help us by stacking it on the
dollies.
And those of you who are sitting on
the backjacks, if you could help line these
up, inshallah.
I'm gonna head over to the masalah as
well.
So, I'll say salam to people on the
way there.
We won't be able to have Q&A
lines tonight because I want to make my
isha prayer.
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Peace be upon you.
Yes, yes.
Let me...