Heartwork – Surah Kahf #04

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah everybody and welcome home. For the past few years we've always started our programs with this statement and we mean it. Because community is a place that we all should call home. A place that gives us peace, a place that gives us tranquility, and a place that we know is going to be there. When Allah Spano Tala describes faith in the Quran, he mentioned stability as being a requirement for faith to grow, a slow, healthy habit will follow or half a summit, that its roots are firm, and its branches grow to the sky. If we don't have stability, if we don't have permanence, if we don't know that something is going to be there for us, then our faith won't be

able to grow. This is why when the Prophet SAW Selim came to Medina and made the migration, the Hijra with his companions, at that moment, when they arrived at their new permanent home, he said, the beautiful phrase of Shiv Sena spread peace, why, because peace can be attained now that we have a place that we can call home. For the past five years roots has been able to be a part of so many people's lives and hamdulillah by the Grace of Allah. And we're so honored to have that be a part of our legacy. But we've been doing it in temporary spaces. We've been doing it in hotel banquet halls and measured side rooms, in people's living rooms at home. And then temporary lease spaces were when

we were signing the lease, we knew that this was not going to be there forever. But that can change. By the favor of Allah with our foundational organization column, we've been able to find this beautiful property here in Carrollton, Texas, that will be the permanent location and facility for the roots community space, a place where everybody can feel that tranquility, and have that growth of faith that Allah Tada tells us about, we need your help. To close on this property. We need you to generously donate and contribute whatever you can, adding your name to this list of people that will help build and construct a permanent home for us to build the model community following the

example the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salman Medina, help us make this dream a reality visit routes dfw.org/home.

To us Hi, Ryan. Welcome Hello, everybody. I'm sorry for the delay. Costco was packed. So that's not a joke. It was very crowded in my FOMO. So

welcome back.

You know, I know we took a break last week for the holiday weekend.

I was able to go home with my kids hadn't seen my parents since March 2020. So we were able to, you know, go see my mom and dad and my sisters, and their kids and stuff like that. So it was just really important that we took that time. And also, you know, it's, it's a holiday. So take your full day off and shaman enjoy it. But we'll be back in Sharla now for this week. And then next week, I'll be back as well. And then the following week, I have a little bit of travel that I'm doing but we will inshallah have special guests,

leading the session shot a lot. So we won't, things won't stop, things will keep going. Just a couple of housekeeping announcements. As you guys can see much more things are getting done around the campus. We had our seminary graduation this weekend, this whole, this isn't a result, like new design, like secret rooms around the pillars and like

this is we had our graduation from the seminary, which is upstairs, we have a full time Islamic Studies program. Many of the attendees here and our like our students are in trouble will be students.

And so just you know, that's why that's there on the line. And you probably have seen like the paint with the caution tape indicating not to walk through it that you might have walked through. So please don't do that shot law. You know, try your best to I know that it's a construction zone and there's just things are constantly shifting, just try your best to shop loves to, you know, do your best to sort of be observant of what maybe flows of traffic change and whatnot.

As far as the roofspace back there, it should be done in Charlotte by the end of June. And we're looking at having a grand opening and Charlotte in July. So you'll have more details on that. The floor is going to be done by this week. The different decorations and the I can't want to give up too much, but it's all gonna be done in sha Allah. And then we have the coffee shop builds out which is the last part. So once we get everything done, the coffee shop group comes in, they construct it takes 10 days for them to build out the bar and everything. And you know, we should be good to go in sha Allah. So we're only a few more times sitting in this on this, you know, nondescript green

carpet

before we move over into the other space in sha Allah. Okay. And lastly, I know much I love people, it's the robot spirit people bring. Were we DMS or contact us to get some just, you know, just to touch base on that I want to say get approval but we want to make sure that we

Know the ingredients and stuff because somebody's allergic, something that we don't want to serve it without them knowing and have some sort of problem. Okay, so thank you so much for your generosity, just let's communicate on it in sha Allah and that way people can enjoy it. And knowing what's what's going on. Okay, so we are continuing with our discussion of sorts of death sort of kind of is the 18th chapter, the whole, and it's a chapter in which we are guided by the prophets also wanted to read frequently, at least once a week trying to engage with the topics they're in. So it's got has, has, like I said, four major themes, four major categories of lessons that Allah, Allah has

included in the in the passage itself, or the chapter itself. We are in the first of those four, which talks about the people that inhabited the cave, after which the suit was named, because Hollywood get. So these people, we kind of went over it a couple weeks ago, but I'll do a brief recap. There was a, an ancient civilization or an ancient society in which there were many, you know,

many beliefs and practices that went against ultimately what we would now know as the sun, right, so it's not has always been practiced to some degree, in its theological form, exactly. Meaning belief in Allah belief in the prophets, belief in the Day of Judgment, things like that. So there was a society or civilization, where many of the people in that society and civilization, almost all of them, had fallen away from the belief of monotheism, of believing in a lot and leaving the things that, you know, kind of are attached to that belief in God. There were a few, however, young people that they had this their candle, so to speak, their flame of belief had not been extinguished. They

had this belief in Allah, and they did their best to try to navigate and avoid any of the different things in society that sort of contradicted their belief in Allah. And there was a festival that would take place or a, you know, ceremony of idolatry and worshiping idols that they did their best to avoid. And we talked about this last week we talked or last time, we talked about how the story sort of developed how to develop who remembers

the story of these young men? And the city? The ceremony? Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, very good. So very good. Mashallah. Yeah, you remember, so the story goes that the ceremony or the festival was taking place, and it's something that everybody goes to, it's a, it's sort of a national holiday, so to speak, and everybody's there. And this one guy, one of this, these, these young men that has this firm belief in Allah and not wanting to really do anything that goes against that, he decides that he wants to just kind of stay far away, he wants to separate himself from this practice. And so he goes, and he sits by himself. And he separates from what's going on in the, in the town.

Later, another person sees him. And that person also shares this belief and a lot and wanting to stay away from the things that are against that. And he goes and sits by that person. And they can't really proclaim this because again, it's a very serious social violation, right? This is like the state religion, right? Like idolatry at this point is what everyone's doing is what the king is doing. It's what the palace, everyone's doing this. So you can't just get up and say, I don't believe in this, it doesn't make sense, because this is the religion of the state. So they're just trying to sort of quietly remove themselves from the environment. Because even though they can't get

up and proclaim necessarily what they believe, they also don't want to, you know, be a part of it. So they got to figure out how they can preserve their faith. So one by one, they go, and there's a group of these young men finally, that all realize that they are all part of the same sort of belief that they all understand a lot in the same way. And they believe that this idolatry of this practice of the society is not correct. So that's what I believe we ended off there. So this is a big starting point and a big lesson. Right, right off the bat. This isn't necessarily mentioned here, but it's mentioned in the Tafseer, the story of how they sort of trickled away from society. And the

lesson that we took for a couple of weeks ago was that it took that first person, it took that first individual to demonstrate the courage to want to be able to step away from what he right or in our case he or she knew was not good for them. Because the reality is ultimately the environment that we are in it affects us whether or not we want to admit it. You might have a belief or a certain you

No strength of belief internally. And that actually might be there. I don't, I don't discount that whatsoever. But everybody, every single person, no matter how strong their belief is, and no matter how shaky it might be, is impacted negatively and also positively and also positively by the environment that they put themselves in. And so these young men, they saw that this is an opportunity for them to go and save themselves. And so this is something that we also have to learn from, there will be times whether it's at work, or whether it's in social gatherings, where you are going to have the alarm in your chest going off, you guys want to talk about right? Where you are in

a position, you're in a place you're with people or you're with, you know, in a gathering, and in your chest, your heart is there's like a siren that's blaring at you internally, like you need to get out of here. This is not where you belong, this is not wait where you shouldn't be. And it's our duty at that moment to try to listen to that siren. Because what happens is, if we don't listen at that moment, the sirens volume decreases as a consequence of us ignoring it. And eventually, over time, if we ignore the siren enough, it becomes almost like background noise. Whenever it goes off. It's just like the ticking of a clock in a room, when you first are in a room where the clock is

ticking you and hear it constantly. But eventually you get used to it, and it doesn't bother you so much. So if I continue to put myself in a situation or an environment where I know that this is not what I was for as long as happy with the absence of my alarm is not a sign that everything's okay. Quite the opposite. It's a sign that things are seriously wrong. Right? This is one of the ways in which the neffs kind of adapts and copes with the way that we choose to live. And if we put ourselves in an environment that is good, right, then we become even more sensitive and even more aware and even more observant, right about the things that we know are not healthy for our hearts.

There are some times you'll be with people as Powell Allah has given them like this foresight this ability to see that this is not a good situation, right? Or these people are not good for you. If you guys ever had a friend that advised you maybe to like kind of distance yourself from other people or other situations and you couldn't see it he doesn't I'm talking about you guys, your parents ever told you something like don't hang out with these people.

Okay, maybe you were that person? No, it's not alright.

But if you keep leaving me

to store that with me anyways, but

it's one of those things if your friend tells you you know what, ever since you've been working here like your your personality has been changing, or ever since you've been in this program ever since you've been doing this like things have you've been changing. It's don't chalk that up to just like jealousy, or like this person is envious or whatever, no, this person may actually have some sort of foresight to be able to see what you can't see and is advising you accordingly. Okay, so they were able to pull themselves away, now in order to to protect themselves because they were sort of being found out obviously, the only group of people that's not partaking in the ceremony, they went and

they sought refuge in a cave. And this is where the story or the name of the pseudo comes from. They went and they sought refuge in a cave. Allah is found to either in the SUTA if you go to er en.com/eighteen That's the pseudo you can scroll down to a number nine, verse number nine, that's what we're going to start in sha Allah. So Allah is common Tada. He introduces now this narrative to the prophets all sudden, he says, I'm hesitant to end us how to get the word Athenian can Omen a attina, Java, he says, Do you think that the people of the cave and the inscription abroad team means like a tablet that has written writing on I'll explain in a second, were one of our wonderous

science. Do you think oh Prophet, he's speaking to the Prophet SAW Allah, that the people of the cave of how death and that tablet that had their names written in it, were from what i attina i Java, then we're from our amazing wondrous signs. This verse is an introduction to the Prophet SAW Selim. It's an invitation for him to do what to look back at the history of different people. The prophets of Allah is encouraging the Prophet saw some of them to learn more about those who came before him. Okay, how many of you enjoyed history in school?

Why did you enjoy it?

Yeah, why did I enjoy? Like history? I just like looking in the past and gain more knowledge about what happened before. Can I help?

Yes, very good. I like looking in the past get more knowledgeable than before so I can have more informed decisions in the future. Okay. Anyone else? Yeah.

history tends to repeat itself. Sounds like a tweet. Okay. It's true, isn't it? Okay. Why does history repeat itself?

Some

people like making the same mistakes, or that can be true, or

why does history repeat itself?

Because they don't learn it, right? History repeats itself. The conclusion of that statement is because why? Because they don't know history. So it repeats itself because if they knew history, they wouldn't do what people did in the past. Okay? This principle of learning history so that you don't repeat the same mistakes is actually a spiritual principle. The Quran is filled with stories about people from the past, it's filled with them, you learn about the good stories, and you'll learn about the ones that aren't so good. And the reason why Allah subhanaw taala is engaging the Prophet SAW salah, and is is you know, encouraging the Prophet saw some of them to think and to

learn and to know when to reflect about these people who came before. And he's even calling these people a sign of God, Allah Yaquina Raja there is an incredible sign is because in the verses of the Quran, the eye as we learn about Allah, but also in the signs that Allah spreads throughout the earth, we also learn about the luck. Allah calls the the creation of the mountains and the trees and the sun in the sky and the everything. He says these are from our signs, right, but the word for sign in Arabic is an ai, ai A means a sign. They're all indications that point back to what to the fact that a lot is the one he is the creator of the heavens and the earth, and that our life somehow

revolves around Allah, whether or not we realize it as a Muslim, or whether a person is searching, their life is directed back to Allah subhanaw taala. So history plays a very important role. Now, it's difficult. People don't enjoy right history, and people tend to judge historically, we look back and we judge the decisions that people make yes or no, we look at what they did. And we're like, oh, my gosh, right. And there tends to come with this observation of history, a little bit of a of entitlement, a little bit of judgment. Why? Because we tend to believe and this is I'm framing this as a, you know, not you but we as people tend to believe that the newer something is the more

modern, the more contemporary and more futuristic, we tend to believe that it is inherently better, smarter, more efficient, and ultimately, it is the right way, yes or no. Right. So when people look back at the heritage of their parents, the culture of their parents, right, whether it be overseas, local, wherever, and their parents tend to have traditional ways of doing things, and they're kind of old school. As you're growing up. You look at those ways, and you're like, these are so backwards, and some of them are right. Some of them truly are backwards. But as you get older, sometimes those very same things that you thought were so old school, so outdated and pointless and

dumb. You realize that that is in fact, without a doubt the best way to do exactly what your parents were saying to do. Yesterday. Anyone ever had a moment? Can you share?

You open up and be humble? Yeah, eating carrots, eating carrots. Okay. You're like, why don't we just drink Soylent? Like, here in Silicon Valley? They change nutrition, this is it.

Right? I don't need and then you're like, nevermind, right? I need carrots. I need them because and not just in the form of Godrich. A whole like, I need them as a vegetable. Not a dessert. There's a dessert that likes on these bases make where they just cook carrots down with sugar.

Vegetables, no, not bad. That's not the vegetables anymore, right? If there's more sugar than vegetables, no. All

right. So, indeed, let's go back. Maybe

parents might encourage you to eat something and you're like, No, no, like it's gaining season, you know, 240 grams of protein kind of this and this and this. And then you're and then you actually talk to a nutritionist, you talk to someone who's trained, you talk to somebody who understands the body and they're like, no, no, you actually do need these other things that your parents have been telling you to eat like you need your adult child like you need it. Right? You need your lentils, Niger rice. No, no, no, that's not what you know, they told me you're like, it is what it is like, I'm sorry, this is the way the body works. Right? So there's a lot of that with your regards to

food, some of it in regards to like saving money, man Subhanallah I give I'm 34 now I give I'm just like an old guy with all these teenage kids that I mean, so Sofia teaches the youth program here and I need all these teenage kids and they all get jobs Mashallah. They don't have any bills, of course, right? Oh, I just made I have to go to work. And I'm like, oh, and spend it on yourself. How horrible like, we have to pay electricity bills. But what's that? I'm like, you don't even know like, the electricity at my dad's Tesla. Yes. Like your dad stuff like yesterday.

Okay. And I give advice to these kids and I don't like call them over like, Hey, kids, come here, right? But when they when they ask you they're like, you know, what should I do with

What should I do with like, you know, my money this I always tell him to look, don't send everything then don't just like go and eat your mom is right, like just eat at home. You know, you don't want to go spend $15 on the sandwich to impress people that you're not even going to like and to yours like just eat your mom's food and meet up afterwards. Okay? Bring the bring the Tupperware, it's embarrassing. I know, but you're gonna be rich, don't worry, right. And I tell them that your money is better spent on things like a car, like you could actually get a car, you don't have to borrow your parents prime or you could actually afford a car payment. You know what your car payment is? Or

like how much money you can get them? Oh, you can't get a car anymore. But back in the day, you still get on for a few $100 Come on, and you can get used to your own car. But no way. And when Yeah, so a little bit of financial literacy. And these are the things that I had to learn myself because as my mom stands there and tells me, I couldn't Why are you going to eat with your friends? And I'm like, Taco Bell is the best, you know, that tension actually never said that, by the way. Because it's not I don't like

that tension of having to negotiate between what my parents what the tradition was telling me about saving being responsible, right? What's another one go to sleep on time? Like no right? People were the ability to stay up late like a badge like it's some sort of like, like a purple heart in the military. Like I can stay up late. And then you realize that lack of sleep it messes with your body in a serious way. Your body needs it circadian rhythm, right in order. Allah taught even said with John Delaney bassa, he made the night cover so that people can rest and recover with John in the autumn Asha and he made the day a time for people to get up and work. So being able to stay up all

night and crush through these you know, Stranger Things series season four, and be like, Yeah, I can go to work tomorrow. Well, you might be able to do that. But your body's not going to thank you the next day you may have actually over time, right lack of sleep, perpetual sleep deprivation is something that can seriously on people's mental health. And we thought that we just could force ourselves to do it all that all those days that Dobie or dates or whatever told us just sleep, right? Those little like traditional adages we look at them, almost like they're cute. Oh, it's so cute. Look at you born in 1930 telling you to sleep. Right? We have melatonin Don't you know?

Some sometimes as they say Old is gold. And the older you get, the more you realize Subhanallah some things are just classically true. They don't change, like they are just essentially facts. Okay? And no matter what generation what time, who I am, one knot, whatever that thing will remain true. Despite any situation you place that information into remains true. This is what Allah found out is teaching us look back, look back and don't look back at history with the eye of judgment, the eye of arrogance, the eye of oh, they didn't know, you know, look at history and try to extract the wisdom and the wisdom of those people who were saved individuals from our history from our past and realize

something

with advancement comes benefit. With technological advancement comes benefit. Okay. How many of you have a phone?

Okay, how many of you can remember your life before you got a phone?

But when you were a kid, okay. Do you guys remember the phone numbers that you needed to know as a kid before you had a phone?

Okay, do you remember anyone's number? No.

No, it's actually pretty embarrassing. Sometimes. There's even people they want to hear like not know, siblings phone number. You just have them stored. Yeah. A lot of people, right? I'm not going to ask the parents one. That's just too embarrassing.

All right, let's bring it in and our monthly

or even my own phone number.

AirDrop my contact everybody.

The reality is that technological advancement helped. It helped. Connecting This is awesome. You know, FaceTime is great. It connects grandparents and grandchildren, it connects husbands and wives. Everybody can talk now. Right? But what did we lose? Remember this? Every time we gain something, we lose something? Because we are finite. We're not infinite, and we just don't have endless amounts of space. So what did we gain? We gained some technological advancement, we gained the ability to communicate, we gained the ability to share information at faster than the you know, I don't know speed of whatever. We can learn things so quickly. Within seconds of them happening. There can be a

picture on our timeline showing us exactly what's happening. But you know, when we lost, we lost the ability to focus. We lost the ability to memorize. We lost the ability to memorize to the point where we read stories, sometimes in the tradition of people's memory and we think that the tradition is lying. We're like no way. Remember chapter eight, you still

Look at the page. And he used to have to cover the other half of the page. So you wouldn't accidentally memorize it. That's a lie. No, that's true. You know what you want to know why that's true. Because in my lifetime, I've met somebody like that, that he read a page once he can memorize it after reading it once. Okay, why? Because he grew up in the desert. And he didn't have he wasn't inundated with the distractions that we are inundated with as children screentime, iPads, TVs, all kinds of stuff, right? Some of us grew up at a time where that, you know, there's this this phrase that they're using now called, like, deep thought, there are children in schools that have never had

to look out the window and just stare, right, you know, your kid, you're staring out the window, and you're just you don't even know what you're thinking about. That is actually some of the most creatively beneficial time a young person can have. Because it's almost like they're discovering and exploring their own creativity, their own mind. Remember, when you were a kid, you looked at the cloud, and you saw things. Right. Now kids don't even know I spoke with a child who didn't know that beef came from cows.

I referenced that I when we were talking about burgers, because like, do you like chicken or beef? I was like, I tend to like cow more than chicken. He's like, No, I didn't ask you that.

And I was like,

the disconnect is so real. The ability to deep thing has been limited by what by advancements, we're losing things that we once had. Because we're so advanced. So Allah's reminding us look back at the history of people, because there are lessons that lie within those stories that you might not have access to anymore. And you need these lessons, they are universally effectively true. Okay, just because something's old does not mean it loses value. New things might offer some comfort or change, but they cannot answer every question. They cannot always answer every question. So he introduces this to the Prophet so sudden, that he gives the story of these young men is when fits yet to elf.

When those young people went and they took refuge in the cape, fondue Ravenna Chinami Lydon keramat. And well hey, lemon and Marina Rocha. And they said in a DUA, O our Lord, O our Lord, grant us from Your Mercy, grant us from the mercy that you possess, and guide us through our situation through this for deal. Give us guidance as we handle this moment. Remember, they're on the run, they're like fugitives in their own community. So they're asking Allah Oh, Allah, have mercy on us and help us guide us through this moment that we are struggling with.

Interesting point when Allah Tada mentions a description of these people. What is the description centered around? What part of them is it talking about?

Young people very good their age. A lot could have mentioned other things. You could mention what gender they were, he could have mentioned what ethnicity they were, he could have mentioned their spiritual devotion level. There's a ton of adjectives descriptions that Allah Tala could have used, but he used their age. Why did Allah tell us that they were young? What guidance is there in that for us?

What do you think of in the Quran, when you read a story about young people taking refuge for the sake of protecting their faith? What does that show you?

Yeah.

Associated with elders,

they can invest that time.

When you're young, like you still have, like that

was

very interesting. I felt very good, right? Young, being young youth is oftentimes not associated with religiosity, if someone is committed, and I don't want to use religiosity, because if someone is devoted to a lot at a young age, it's almost seen as like a strange thing. Right? Like, are you a nun? Like why are you so religious? Like why are you acting like this? You're young, right? I remember I was once talking to a grandmother. And she was advising her grandchildren who were of marriageable age, to go and have fun.

And then when you get old, you can get married. That's just kind of the way that society wants to write. It wants to sort of mold people that youth is about exploration and having a good time. And then there's something called Hajj that you can do.

And then you start fresh at 50 Right.

We laugh because of how absurd the my presentation of it was. But some of us may have very much even thought this even until right now, but yes, like I thought it was something I do when I'm older, because then I'll be able to reset hit the reset button.

I will have lived and enjoyed everything I wanted to enjoy. And then from there, I'll ask like, it's almost like it's like, it's like getting out of debt, right like late like, okay, I can just live what I want charged up charged up on the card and then do how to do that. I'm good, right, Jana, why don't we take it. But the reality is that there are experiences and there are moments of dedication to Allah as a young person, that if you don't experience them as a young person, you don't know what you're missing. When you turn when you get old. Think about it. The later you start your journey on anything, the less time you have to benefit from what that thing is giving you. If a person decides

to start changing their life earlier, they have more. It's actually I know there's some news about hedge today, but when you go to hedge, it's actually really really interesting because

elderly people to the point where they were just being dropped off at the airport by their children. I remember this, I remember being at JFK Airport, and I remember.

Selecting elderly people, from their children, we're dropping them off. And they're like, Yeah, that's fine. Me. Alright, go to make guacamole, please, right. And then they drove away to go enjoy like Time Square Manhattan, while their mom is sitting in the auto following begging for a while to help her son or help her daughter. Right. And then over time, something really interesting happened.

As the years went by, that aid started to shift lower and lower. And what we noticed was that there were people who were like 3040, and 30, eventually in their 20s, until the last year that we did had as a group that was 2019. And we met, and we have five or six people that they did have with us, and they had just graduated college, it was literally the first thing they were doing after graduating. They wanted to catch, like bulging and like 20 years old. I mean, if you don't have any sins, what are you doing? You're just getting out of college? So

America, so I think you know, it's good. Yeah.

But the interesting thing was, what perspective on life? Do you think that now 23 year old pass? How do you think they see the world, they see the world so differently, and their choices are reflective about? So when Allah found out I mentioned one characteristic that is special about these people, he mentioned their age. He tells us here, kind of imaging the lines, that the earlier you decide to turn to me, the more I will help you everything that you need. The earlier that you come to Allah, the more that Allah will be there in those times. And just because you're young doesn't mean life's not tough. There are moments where you desperately need a lot. I mean, really, every moment you need

a lot, but there are moments when you come to realize you need a lot. And as a young person, turning to Allah sometimes feels embarrassing, because it's almost like a stranger. We do what we want for however long we want to and then something tragic happens. And it's like, oh, I have to go and call that person that I only call them things are bad. Right? But if a person already has an existing relationship with Allah because they've already committed to Him, then when they turn back to Allah, it's like turning to an old friend that they speak to on the daily like every single day we're talking. Do you have any embarrassment? Do you have any hesitation or any doubt that your friend

that you talk to everyday will be able to help you? No, of course not. You talk to them every day, you get a ride for you to borrow some money, be someone to take you there to pick you up, you have a flat tire, come this year, the hospital, whatever, if you need something, the person you speak to every day, that's the one you're gonna depend on. But the one you haven't talked to you since last year, the one you haven't called some follow up on,

like the anxiety of waiting for them to pick up the phone, and then having to stumble your way through the request. Many of us wonder why the drawers we make are not fluid, they're not smooth. Because our hands are dusty. Like we haven't dusted these off for so long. We only ask Allah when we need something.

Right? There's something really powerful about being a young person and being close to Allah, or wanting to be close to Allah. So these young people went and in their dua they called out to Allah Oh Allah grant us your mercy. Why are they asking for mercy? Don't they need protection?

Are they going to be persecuted? Isn't that their whole fear? Why are they hiding? How is mercy the solution to the persecuted? What are they asking for?

You guys read this. What do you think?

If you need something

From a lot don't you got to ask more specifically if you need a job are you like all locked up mercy

No You asked for the job right? Oh Allah give me this job with this gift free right? You want to get married Are you gonna love me Rafa let's raindrop man

brothers okay?

No you don't owe a lot I want to get married right? So why are they asking for mercy

because you don't know like what wait Allah can help you. Wow very good mashallah, mashallah

these guys are teaching us a dua masterclass, but they're just like pros at it.

You know, right when you open your hands to Allah, that everything he gives you is a form of His mercy. Every single thing and sometimes the human being in our confidence, we seek from Allah confident that we know exactly what it is that we need. I need this Oh Allah give me this. Right the joke about you know, making draw to get married and then you saw a person may ask Allah give me what's best. And then the person is already in love. So they're like,

Okay, ask Allah to make them whose best for me? Like, you know, why is why is that? Why is that problematic? Well, because there's sort of an assertion there, that all Mala, I know that you technically are the one that knows everything, but I really like this person, right? And I know that will be perfect for each other. And Allah I know that you might not be perfect for each other. But you're so insistent on it, right? Oh, Allah give me the end. You don't tie up that dry with? If they're good for me, right? If they're good for me, or if the job is good for me. If this house is good for me, if he doesn't remain that you're on you kind of pause at that moment. You're making us

an audio Allah, give me this house if it's good, right? Because you want it to be good for you, but you don't use it you know, right. The more that you trust Allah, the easier it is for you to utter those words. Because if I trust a lot more than myself, Oh Allah, I don't even want to listen to this euro. Oh, Allah. Lanza can Ilana see Do not make me in charge of myself? Be totally into AMI, even the blink of an eye this is the job I'm gonna use today. Don't let me be in charge of myself. For the blink of an eye. I want you to know Allah, you are better at managing everything in my life than I am. Right? If you were to make me in charge of something, Oh Allah, I'm gonna fail because I

oversleep. I over eat. I'm lazy. I have these desires. I'm I'm petty, right? But all of you're in charge of my life. I'm good. I don't have to worry about anything.

That level of trust. It manifests in these beautiful drives. So what are they saying? Oh Allah, grant me Your mercy. Allah, I need your mercy. Every single person is in more need of Allah's mercy than that person is in need of what? Air? There's a verse in the Quran, where Allah subhanaw taala mentions the story of the image of a person who's drowning, and they call out to a lot. And they say, oh, save me, save me Allah. If you save me, I'll become better. Like, I'll become the Muslim that I know I can be. Right. I don't know how they can do this while they're driving. But anyways, they're drowning, you're drowning? Like, it's not it's not that it's not that, you know, like, last

winter, I made an ultimatum for myself, but I needed long winded. Although save me I'll change. Right?

Right. So they're drowning. Or like, you're in turbulence, right? You're like, oh, Allah.

Not this way. You know, like, I have to die. But please, don't even have phones on this plane anymore. I can't even do that thing where I charge a credit card and call somebody. This is it. But please don't yell. I'll change. I promise I'll be better. And then the first thing I looked at, it says what they what Allah saves them, their feet hit dry land, they're no longer drowning. And they go about their way and they forget about the promise they made.

They forget about the promise. And then you wonder what's crazy. In the tafsir. This idea gets me every time. One of the great scholars that have seated, he said something really deep. He said, You know what's crazy? If I were to ask you, when was this person more in need of a lot? You would have said when they were drowning,

right? Because they're not allowed to die. He said, This person was more in need of a law when they were safe on land. And then when they were drowning, because when they were drowning, they had what they had modified. everything clicked, right when the plane drops, and the wings are shaking. Right? And everyone's Jaws oh my god, right? And we'll do like sit down, bump your seat belts. As much as you're afraid in that moment. You have 100% clarity of Allah as much as humanly possible, because you're like, I get this now. This is real.

If I didn't believe in Allah and afterlife if I didn't, I wouldn't call out to him this moment your level of love. Right? I know that if I heard somewhere the other man that you know John White, you'd said the past in this classroom part that I would have done right?

And so you're uttering as much as you can because you believe in it right? But then when the plane lands

and you're like safe, so you almost forgot about that turtles existed. You get off you go to your place you checking your hotel, your phone says it's time to pray, you're like, I'll pray later.

What are you talking about? Pray later.

You just engage in like the most sincere draw you've ever made an hour ago and you're playing was shaking and now that you're laying on the bed. You're like, I don't need it anymore.

All right. So uh, let's talk about it here is teaching us that we need to seek out the Mercy of Allah the Mercy of Allah is like the facilitation for whatever it is that you need. This is why when you make dua for somebody to have a lot of Mercy you're not actually making dua for them to be forgiven you're asking for all those mercy to descend upon that person so that everything in their life just goes as smoothly as possible. And that Allah gives them the ability to deal with and to handle whatever it is that is thrown their way. Well hey, you don't have an MBA out of MIT me that Russia law or law and grant us grant us success and guidance in all of our affairs. When a person

commits a sin what happens when a person does something wrong what happens they accrue a sin and what does that sin do? What is the sin due to the to the existence of a human being

it weighs them down okay, well

it created the head he says to put up a blemish on their heart a dark spot on their heart Okay, what else

comes easier to send? It becomes easier to send like sins open up areas.

What do you say?

It can mentally destroy a person Yeah, eventually, right? It can it can chip away at a person's even their own spiritual state, their mental state. When a person says you know what happens, as the mean mentioned here are Shala

Oh student my thoughts on it.

When a person sins the Prophet SAW, Selim says what the doing the right thing becomes more difficult. doing the wrong thing becomes easier. Right? When a person sins, doing more of the sin becomes easier, because now you've like broken through. And staying firm on the right thing becomes harder, because now a person has experienced right what that sin does. So why do we need mercy because mercy is the thing that clears away all of the effects of sin, and so to speak, versus like the windshield wipers that clean off so you can see clearly when I can't see clearly because I'm so blemished by mistakes that I make. I don't know which way to go. I can't make the right decision. So

where do i is twofold? Oh, Allah grant us mercy. And from that mercy, let us make the right choices and everything that we do. Some of us it doesn't seem you know, it seems to be the case that there are moments in our life where we hit like, bad decision after bad decision after bad decision, yes or no. You're like, I just can't get a win. You know, I can't. I keep making choices. It seems like I just keep choosing the wrong path.

You know, like, I'm fighting with my parents. I got drama with my friends. I got this happening. My job is not too good. All of these things are bad, bad bad by taking l after l after l. Okay.

Allah subhanaw taala here is telling us that you need the Mercy of Allah Tada to clear up the blemishes that are causing you to make these mistakes. Because good decisions and good choices put you on the path to success and all the decisions that you make.

Okay, follow over now other than even Phil Kaffee. See Nina Arteta. So interesting. So in that moment, when they ask Allah for mercy, what are they asking for? Their asking for a lot to save them from the persecution of the city, they're afraid they're going to die. So like, oh, Allah, don't let us get killed. These people are going to come kill us. They're gonna find us in the cave. And they're gonna kill us because we're running away from our, the religion, the tradition of the state. So Allah says, you want to know how he answered their door? Are you ready? So we covered their ears, right? We caused their ears to be covered. And that caused them to fall into a deep sleep in the

cave for many years.

They fell asleep in the cave for many years. Allah is gonna cause them to sleep. And do you know what? Yeah, well, I know that situation. I've just taken out to like, I like a Starbucks. Right? Okay. It's interesting. There's two points that I found very, very interesting about this verse. No

Number one is that there are so many instances in the Quran where righteous people like prophets, or just righteous people in the Quran will make you offer something. And what you think is going to happen doesn't happen.

Like, the person is begging the law for something and you're like, okay, the obvious solution here would be what? The obvious solution here would be like money, armor, weapons, like whatever, you know, they're, they're not to engage in battle. The problem is also I was begging Allah Tada for help during Mecca. When they were persecuting him, they were torturing and harassing and killing anyone who was Muslim. He's begging Allah for help, what is the lesson? So to use it, you're like, wait a minute, but that story contained the resilience and the strength of the profits also needed to keep going, meaning what he already had the physical goods, he just needed the spiritual

reinforcement. But you're like, that's not what I would have imagined. I wouldn't have imagined the answer to my dua being sleep.

But Allah Tada, he withdrew them. And he caused them to stay away from this environment from this fitna. And he the method he used for that was sleep. You know, what's interesting about this parallel, one of the scholars of this year, and he wrote on this, and he said, many times, young people, when they see something they don't like, what do they do? When you see something you disagree with? What are you do?

You want someone to

take action? You speak up? Can young people be quiet about what they believe? No, right? We can't. It's just a reality. And I can say weeks, I'm still coming in, but I'm transitioning.

I swear to God, I swear to God, in my 20s If I saw something on the internet that I disagree with,

like, if you read my Twitter account from my 20s, it's like a diary of just my stupid moments.

someone's like, I like cheese pizza, like you're an idiot. You need to know this. Yeah, just like why? Why? Why engage in this because I was young and young people are hard headed. And young people think they know everything. Young people think my opinion is so important. If I don't say my truth, what I believe how the earth continue spinning.

Right? I need to share this with my 17 followers, otherwise.

What are they going to do? Right?

Okay.

But then as you get older, and this is where I'm sort of like hitting that point, I'm,

you see something, I'll be scrolling. I see something that's like, blatantly wrong. Okay. Like I see something that's like really wrong, even like religiously.

Clothes are a fabulous, right. And really, I love that transition is an indication of maturity. Because not everything that you see that you have a thought on it you have an opinion on

needs to be shared. Right? Your opinion might have been forming yet, if you don't even know it's okay. Some of the what do you think about this? Okay, if you say, I don't,

I don't know. Someone asked me. What do you think about this person? I said, I don't think about this person.

So they're not very candid about that. No, I genuinely don't. They said, What do you mean, I was like, when you look at my daughter's poopy diaper, and then we'll talk. Oh, wait. That's why I don't have time to think about this person. What do you want with this politician said, I don't care. Right? I'm too busy trying to come to Harvard on Monday and spend time with my community. Like, I don't really care what he or she or they set, right. This is a sign Allah frowns on and this is why, I mean, personally, this landmark. Prop is also upset from the perfection of the person's Islam to perfection like me, like, the beauty, the beauty, the beautiful completion of his what?

Me that they just they give up and abandon things that have nothing to do with them.

Right? It's a sign of a person's perfection of faith, that they can look at something and say like, you know, I don't like that I disagree with it, but I really don't care. Like it's not really that important for me to talk about it. Right? But now is the era of oversharing.

of

you know, posting whatever comes across my mind free association. We use Twitter like a journal like a therapist. We say whatever we feel right. And I'm telling you will lock you like emails or annuity wrote about this. And he said argumentation, he said it does three things. Number one, he says is it distances you from knowledge? When you argue you can already come smarter? Why?

I mean, goes on there's too much All right.

Technically, yeah, because when you are you think you know everything, like the person who wants to learn doesn't argue do it. A person who wants to learn doesn't argue because the person's argument is like, I'm right, you're wrong person wants to learn is like, Okay, I'm interested in hearing what you have to say. So he comes in he says, number one, when you argue, you actually push yourself like, like a like, you're repelling yourself away from what from knowledge. Number two, he says, You waste your time. You guys ever got into an argument with somebody over text messages? And you look at your, your your clock, or you look at the time you're like, I just burned through three hours of

talking about whether or not a hot dog was a sandwich or not

a deep philosophical question. And you were like this, this was the biggest waste of my time and you're like, I don't have time to do things you do. You just need to stop argument. He says, number one, you just drove an hour or two, he says that you actually started more than three things or five things. He said that you eventually waste your time. Number three, he says what you leave for Russia. He says you start to develop this, this.

This loneliness, the solitude, no one wants to talk to you. No one spends time with you. You're constantly engaging in debate and argumentation. And people are like, dude, just call us when you're done with this. We don't want to have anything to do with you. And sometimes we will say yes, you know what this is? This is what happens to the people who speak the truth. They're lonely, right? It's okay. I'll be lonely. As long as I'm right.

We'll know what the purpose was.

He wasn't lonely. He was not. He had companions. He had friends, even people who disagree with them perspective. Think about this. The problem is

he never ever lost an argument because of how he spoke to people. They disagree with him about what he said. Okay, I would Jilin they like what he said, but they do not have a single narration, a single moment in history, where they criticize the way he spoke.

Isn't that amazing? We don't have a single person in the history of the Prophet saw something like well, this is you know what? I can, I can, I can see where he's coming from, but I just don't like the guy.

Know,

people, in fact, quite the opposite. We have narrations where people say,

I don't agree with him, but man do I love him. But there's something about him.

This is prophetic. So being alone is not a sign of being correct. Being alone is a sign that people don't like you.

Okay, the next one, he says is that you start to develop animosity towards everybody.

You start to develop hatred towards people. Everyone you see, you're just like they're wrong. This all comes from argumentation. And argumentation is one of the the big diseases of the heart for young people to protect us. Okay. So why is it important now in the context of what we learned, Allah fronds Ana causes these people to withdraw from the fitna and then he puts them to sleep. Sometimes the best thing you can do when there is when there's like a big drama in your life, is just be quiet. Think about it when Maddie and I just

did the impossible when she gave birth to her son ASA. Without the agency, Allah has been around. What did Allah subhanaw taala tell her to do?

Don't talk.

You're gonna go. And people are going to think the worst of you. They're going to save the worst about you. You're going to people are going to be like, What have you done? You're from a pious family and you had child and you're not married. I mean, this is imagine imagine if this happened, man. There's somebody in your community your family shows up with a kid. And you know they're not married. What do people start saying

this? Right?

That's what they saw. They said yeah, how soon that literally translates as what Sister Erin but what they're saying is your family. This isn't happening people like you. And Allah to Allah told her to do what?

Just be quiet. And if they asked you just pointed the baby

once the baby so she points to the baby fat shot off eBay

or any of the other baby seats. On they asked like, where does it come from? He says I can't.

They're like a talking baby. And then he gives this entire monologue. This is Lisa

and he gives his beautiful monologue about how this is a miraculous birth not just any other child.

When she needed it most. She remained silent. She trusted Allah and Allah deliver these guys one of the cave they need a lot.

Robin it that the little grommet and where are you that I'm in?

Have you know Allah help us, give us your mercy. Allah causes them to sleep.

Why? Because sometimes in the moment of fitna, the best thing you can do is withdraw. Don't engage, don't push back, don't yell, Don't scream, don't fight. Right in the Battle of the water versus the rock, the water always wins. The water will always win. But it takes three things. Number one,

in order for you to succeed in this, you have to do the right thing. You cannot do a wrong thing. And I did. You can't punch somebody you're out on pasture this now like you can't do that. You have to make the right choice. Someone says something, you want to punch them. You say no,

I'm not gonna fight. I'm not gonna fight.

You can't fight them and say I don't want to fight. Right? You know, number two, is that you have to trust that Allah is prone to audit that thereby withdraw yourself from this fitna, you're doing the right thing.

You can't, you can't be half in half out you have to trust the plan.

And number three is you have to be patient. You have to have patience. In trusting Allah, we can't rush, the miracle. The miracle will happen. It will be there. But we need to be patient and we need to be observant so that we can witness it as Allah Tala delivers.

Make the right choice. Trust the plant and be patient. And you'll see the things that you need most appear we asked what pharmacology was Sophia was brought about allows to benefit from these lessons of the beautiful chapter. And to make us people that characterize or have the character of these beautiful moments that these young people became or teaching us we asked was promised to give us a load of Quran and to make the Quran a spring of our chest and the light of our eyes. We asked what's Allah to take away our anxieties and our depressions by the means of mass welfare and how does it give us relief and to give us hope through the enemy