Heartwork – Surah Kahf #05

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so are you

salatu salam ala Rasulillah are that Eddie he was your train welcome everybody. Good to see you come to LA

I need everyone to say Mashallah. It is like surprisingly cool in here

given the fact that it's 300 degrees outside so now that we said that the air conditioning is going to break but no mashallah, that's good. That's good stuff hamdulillah so we you know, when we raise funds, you know, to replace the unit's this building, I think has eight air conditioner units and they each weigh about, I think six tonnes so they have to, you know, purchase them and ship them and then they have to actually rent a crane to lift them up to the ceiling to install them. And they're like, I think each one was like 39,000 or something crazy like that or like 50,000 I forget so all that all that fundraising if you have you guys been in here when it's hot Yeah, so like that

fundraising like just that's what it did mashallah see money solves problems.

It also causes a lot of problems. So just FYI, right? These are the little details of how you know generosity can make and this is where you know, the the Southern jatiya of charity, you know, the ongoing charity of just giving and donating and now anyone who sits in here who feels comfortable during a class or a lesson or prayer in the masjid you know, if you whatever you give or whatever you've given me a lot to either make it in your skill I mean

I mean Allah Allah give you a couple of reasons I'm not because of Inshallah, okay. So we are continuing now with our discussion and study and reading of sorts of cat if and we are in the first section or in the first passage, the individuals within the chapter

known as Hobbit guy, those people who are known as the companions of the people of the cave, what did we talk about last week who can who can remember or remind everybody remember and remind anyone have any of the any things that they remember from last week?

What seems that we kind of talked about in our conversation

doesn't have to be an order the next be accurate you can just make something up

yeah.

Good, good. Yeah. Very good. Masha, Allah. So we talked about fitna and how fitna, you know the trials tests or you know, troublemaking, right. And community can be something that can destroy, you know, families and friends and communities and all that. And we talked about how argumentation is one of the signs of fitna right that people start arguing. It's really interesting, actually, because fitna is something that has like a magnetic pole. Whenever there's drama people become very interested. Like, my, uh huh, right. Yeah, no, it's real. I mean, I mean, literally, you know, if I if, if we ask people like, hey, who can who can help, you know, clean up? After hard work, we might

get a few hands. But if I was like, Do I have a story for you guys, right? Everyone stays right. People start showing up out of nowhere, because there's something in our lives it actually says he says that slandering, backbiting, Ilieva all that there's like an appetite that the neffs has specifically for those things. And so ultimately, fitna is something that can draw people in and the Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet SAW Selim, they advise us to stay away and in this in this

Part of the surah the one of the interesting moments is that in a time of fitna when these young men are trying to escape right the difficulties of their community and stay away from the stuff that they're being, you know, almost forced to partake in. A Las Palmas are one of the interesting methods that Allah Tala uses to save them is that he causes them to fall asleep. And so when you look at the Tafseer of the sutra, you know, the question that the monsoon they asked is like, Why sleep you know, He, Allah Tala could have taken them to another place he could have, there's a multitude infinite ways in which Allah could have protected them or, you know, saved them from this

fitna. And one of the lessons that one of the great scholars brings specifically is that he says that sometimes when you are surrounded by trouble, right communal trouble fitna drama, sometimes the best thing you can do is just withdrawn, be quiet, if you don't always have to have an opinion on everything. And so the sleep is like a forced state of getting out of the situation. When Allah Tala caused them to fall asleep. He caused them to be in a state where they weren't going to be able to go back and forth and themselves into further trouble. So we talked about this. The other things how to love that was mentioned about the sleep, which we didn't have time to talk about last week, was

that sleep is a time of rest. How many of you guys liked sleep? Right? You look forward to some sleep mashallah, okay. You know, when you sleep, the goal is that you feel recovered right after you sleep, you wake up and you feel rested. That's the goal. I know that depending on when you sleep and what's going on in your life. Not all of your sleep might be like that. But the idea is that Allah Tada created sleep as a means of recovery for the human body. So it's interesting Subhanallah that Allah to other uses the elements of sleep to remove these people away from fitna, and at the same time, we know that sleep is like a peaceful, it's a peaceful endeavor. It's not like chaotic, you

know, it's not like running away or it's not like trying to hide, when you sleep, your body is at rest, it should be when your heart rates the lowest, right? It should be when you're the most relaxed, all those things. So part of avoiding wrongdoing, is that what Allah is, that will give you a state of Sakina. Like when you avoid doing something wrong, you achieve a state of tranquility that cannot be achieved. If you're involved in the wrong if these guys just said you know what it is what it is, it's a matter of numbers, we're out number, everyone in the community is doing it. Everyone's doing it. We're the only people here were the outliers. Let's just go ahead and go to the

festival. Let's go ahead and worship whatever, then these guys would have in their concession, they would have maybe achieved what we call like fitting in, right they would have given up maybe like the what's the what's the word, they would have given up like the

you know, they would have embraced the comfort of not sticking out but they lost the tranquility of choosing what was right. And Allah subhanaw taala tells us that when you choose what's right, you will achieve a state of Sakina and that's the kina cannot be replicated. So interesting points brought up anyone else what are we talking about last week?

Anyone?

Yeah

Good, very good. Excellent. Mashallah. So when they make dua to Allah, what did they ask Allah for?

They needed something specifically, what did they need?

They needed? What do they need?

What not specifically what do they need? Protection, like they needed safety like they were running away, right. And they needed all kinds of things, you know, provisions and food and Sanctuary they could have made dua for a numerous you know, a lot of things it could have had a whole list. And instead of specifically mentioning everything, they said, Oh Allah, give us your mercy, Grant us your mercy. Oh Allah subhanaw taala allow us to have your mercy rubbing it in me let them Kurama 10 Well, then I'm in Emelina, Russia that that grant us your mercy and oh, a lot as a result of your mercy. One of the manifestations of Allah's Mercy is what good choices, good decisions that Allah

will guide you, you know, when you are when a person is engaged in behavior that removes them from Allah's mercy, okay, because Allah's Mercy is there for everybody. This is a very important point. Allah subhanaw taala His mercy is available for everybody. It is not that Allah takes his mercy away more so than it is that what people remove themselves from the eligibility of that okay, so somebody for example, you know, if it's if it's, if it's sunny outside, and people try to go and run away they run into a building right because they don't want to take on the sun. Allah's Mercy is it touches everything, but had a lot what

We remove ourselves from the Mercy of Allah subhanaw taala. Number one, we don't get the benefit of His mercy, which is can be a variety of things. And one of those things that he mentions here is that we make mistakes, time and time again. So one of the ideas is that when you get Allah's mercy, you almost start to start making the right choices over and over and over again, like your path is sort of being carved out for you. So these people, instead of trying to give themselves the autonomy and the authority to say, You know what, Oh Allah, this is what we need, right? Submitting a list, please give us these things. They said, Oh, Allah, you know, what we need more than we even know. We

could imagine that we could try to like you know, hypothesize, but in reality, well, Allah, you're the one that knows more. So I'm just going to ask you for mercy. Because in that ask, I'm gonna get everything that you know, I need, right. And elements of trust and making draw is necessary. Otherwise the draw, it becomes more of like a request list, then actually seeking and supplicating to Allah subhanaw taala. And those good decisions come from that. So we asked Allah to Allah to give us that. Okay. Anyone else? Yeah, we had a couple more. Yeah.

Yeah, fit? Yeah, we call them youth. Right. Excellent. Very good point. The idea that being a young person does not excuse you from your relationship with Allah. Right. Like, sometimes we think that being young, it's almost like, how many of you get your blood work done annually?

Like 14 people right in this room? Okay. And just for those who are watching online, there's not 15 people. Okay. So there's a small percentage of people, right? But then there's going to be a stage of your life, there's going to be a stage of your life when you hit a certain year in your years where you're gonna get your bloodwork done maybe once, maybe even twice a year. All right. Why do we technically feel that we don't have to do it? Why what what is the great delusion that we live in? Youth? Exactly. Young people think they're healthy. How many of you guys have great plans for 20 years from now for yourself? You guys have things you want to accomplish in life? Right? Have you

ever thought that you might not make it? Is that like a comfortable thought to have it's not very comfortable? Because it contradicts what the heart wants, which is what I'm young. Right? So young people, we tend to prioritize our what? When I say our, by the way, I mean, like, you know, generally, okay, young people tend to prioritize their desires over what they need. Right? So like, what I want over what I need, these individuals, these young men, they have the SOFIA, from Allah to prioritize what they needed over what they wanted. They prioritize Allah in that moment over anything else. And it was a difficult decision. It wasn't easy. Sometimes we think that if we

prioritize Allah, Allah should make it easy for us, right? But oh, Allah, Allah, I'm praying, like, why don't you make it easy for me to do? But the reality is, you read the stories in the Quran, you find that people who prioritize Allah, it was never made easy initially. And sometimes never really easy in the grand scheme of things. But Allah gave them some interesting strength from out of nowhere, that allowed them to be able to traverse and to be able to transcend whatever difficulty they were experiencing. So relative to their strength, it was easy, but from the outside, look at it, we're like, Oh, my goodness. Right. So I mean, look at you look at uCertify setup. Look at his

life. I mean, use have lived a life that if, if you had to, like document it ready to make a movie out of it? I think there is. I wouldn't want but anyways, if you had to, like it would be like a tragedy. You know what I mean? I mean, I know tragedy, not technically because it ends happy. Spoiler alert, but it's it's horrific. What he went through. I mean, he starts off, there's an assassination attempt from his brothers. I know some of you guys think that your siblings don't get along, but like, not that bad. None of them like drove you out to like, I don't know, Denton.

And like left you there, right. Might be worse than a well, I don't know. SubhanAllah. Right. You're like you just throw me in a well in Dallas. Like don't take it. Okay.

They left them. They take him leave him in a well. And then as he gets saved event saved right by these people. He thinks that, oh, I'm saved like they're gonna save me and I'm free now. They sell him into slavery. And then eventually he has to move into the palace. Oh, fine. I'm living in the palace. But then he ends up as the servant of the palace, right he ends up being punished for a crime he never committed. In fact, he gets accused as the victim of a crime he gets accused of being the oppressor right and has to go to prison. Even our best says for nine years, someone was Oh used to put the prison couple hours and then he was bailed out. You know, his dad called I'm probably

Yakut know he was imprisoned for 12 years if not best is between nine and 12 years. Nine to 12 years guys What age are you right now add 12 years to that that's what he lives through and prisons back then not like prisons now. Right prisons now horrific places right that the industrial prison complex in this country right prisons for profit all this stuff is horrific. But I want you to understand that like a prison, in, in, in Egypt, in the biblical Arabian times is like, you know, gangrene and like, you know that you know those those images and movies were like the skeletons up against the wall and it still has the shotgun. It's like, it's a skeleton, but it's still in prison.

Like even the death of an human and it's and its bones being there. They're not like I take the shackle off right now we're like, saying when we said life We Met Life, us in prison. And subhanAllah goes through over and over and over again. And but you still see he never despairs in a lot. He never gives up. What Why? Because although his tests never went away, Allah gave him the strength to endure. And that's sometimes what we need to think about. Right? When we make dua to Allah. As a young person, Allah Tala may not take away your tests, but he might give you something if you commit to him. So it's like, Okay, let's go ahead and keep moving forward. sha Allah so we

were on I think Agha number Yeah, 11 and 12. So Allah Tala caused them to fall asleep. And he says here in a cave for many years, for many years, then he says some of us now whom you Nana used his beanie Asada, email me through Amudha. That then we raised them so that we may show which of the two groups would make a better guests or estimation of the length of their state. Okay, so Allah here is summarizing now the entire story kind of right. We're gonna dive into details after this. But he makes a very interesting point here last night, I thought it brings us very interesting moment. He said that we caused them to sleep. And it was for number of years, we later find out exactly how

many years Allah for the moment is just saying, Don't focus on that focus on this focus on the fact that these young people were caused to fall asleep. And then they were made to wake up. And then after they were made to wake up, they went, and they went and engaged with the people of the town, same people. Because what happened was these young men became like a legend. Right? I want you to imagine like a group of people that you see every day, they live in your town, they live in your city, all of a sudden, they disappear. No one knows where they went, you know that they didn't die because nobody had, you know, funeral and burial. So they just kind of disappeared, they will become

in a way like a myth less, you know, like the legend of so and so just disappeared. One day, these people became that, as hobbled kept for like a legend amongst their tribe, their people their town. So let's all that caused them to raise back up to become awake again and go back to their people and going to be 309 years later. So I want you to imagine like the people that we read about in history books from the 1700s Imagine being one of them today. And not only that, but they have like evidence that they were actually that they are that they are that person Majan meeting someone from 300 years ago and they have like currency Allah Tada, allows them to take with them their silver coins, their

currency to show that this is who we are, this is who we are 300 years later. So the people in the town they begin to like, oh my god, it's them, right? There's like a huge drama. There's like a huge commotion about these individuals. Now, why is it interesting that less points out or does this? What Why is it something that a lot of that brings up here what is so unique about this specific moment, Allah Tada says that we caused them to sleep for a long time, and then we woke them up, we let them go meet their people so that we could show them who these people really were. What do you take from that verse? Let's learn how to read the Quran together. You read that verse and you're

like, Okay, what do you take from that? Every verse has something?

Let's do some to the fourth system reflection.

Give me something Yes. What do you do good.

Like house? Wow. That's really powerful. I had never even thought of that. It's panel. The men who left at the time, they were making a very unpopular decision. But then later, they became like legendary. Right? They stood up to do what was right. They were the minority, extreme minority. But they did what was right according to their hearts and according to Allah, and at the time, everyone around them said, failure mistake. But then over time, when things became apparent about the truth of worshipping Allah alone, these guys were legends they became like celebrated, right so the point

Masha, Allah, you make this beautiful this is exactly what the Quran is supposed to do. It's what's called you. Wow. So So Allah is teaching me that, if I make the right choice, even though now it feels like I'm alone, there will come a time when I won't be alone. Right? I won't be alone. When history looks back on me, you know that they always say, which side of history do you want to be on? When they have these major moments in society and are like, don't be on the wrong side of history? In 100 years, kids are going to be reading in history books about the decisions that you made. Are you going to be the villain? Are you going to be the the victor or like the protagonist? Those are

the same ideas. I'll let others telling us here. You're going to follow your neffs and your desires to the point where when people read about your history, you're the one that made those bad choices. Like you really want to be Ebola.

Like, oh, I have at the time, never thought that he was going to be somebody that was disgraced. And now, if you meet someone, right, and you ask them what their name is Abu Lahab, you're like I wasn't Biller, or you would like lose it.

Right. I hope that never happens if there's a chance because we just named people anything from the Quran. Tibet. Yeah, that'd be lesbian, whatever. There's a I'm not joking. There's a person I know. Okay, I can't say it. Because they're probably watching.

None, I can't ruin it.

Okay, I'll do it. Okay, so

there's a surah in the Quran named Arya.

Chef, what is a potty? I mean?

What is it referring to? Yeah.

Judgment. This is somebody's name. It's a name for the judgment. But what's your name? My name is Emma.

Right? Oh, my goodness, right.

I'm just waiting for Trayvon. No, no, I'm just joking. Charlotte doesn't.

Look, we laugh. But we will cry one day. So the point being is that at the time, Abu Lahab did not think that he was in the wrong.

Right. He did not think that and what caused him to think that he was right, was not the reality of his decision. But it was the, the numbers, people around him, right. He took a lot of comfort in what in what society was telling him that this is correct. But as believers, we've never ever been beholden to what society tells us. If what Islam teaches us, if what society is what popular in society is lines up with what our faith teaches us, that's great. You know, I mean, like, Islam teaches us to be of good character. And in most social situations, if you're a nice person, like, that's a great thing to do. You're leaving the grocery store, and there's somebody behind us elderly

and they need some help, and you hold the door open for them. And then they you know, you help them put their groceries into their car. And then they drive away and you're like, oh, man, and everyone, you know, people who see that they're like, Oh, this is that was a great, no one's gonna be like, boo. Like, what are you doing? You're nice person. No, you're gonna be celebrated. If somebody sees that they might even say like, things that was really nice of you. And then you say what? You can say that. Yeah. You're welcome. Yeah. You see, you're welcome. Right. Are you doing my mom does so my mom was really interesting. Allah bless our parents. My mom was interesting. My mom, she, she

works. She worked at a hospital as a nutritionist, dietician. And so she would always, you know, she would obviously like do her thing. And she won like seven years in a row. She won like the, the son like MVP award for her character. She was voted on by her peers as like the best employee. She beat out like doctors, like physicians were like saving people's lives. My mom was growing up like this, she was an adult on it to the patient's room, and she wins, right somehow. So what my mom did, she's tell me this, I remember, she said, If anyone ever compliments you, right? Try your best. Don't make it awkward. But try your best not to let them leave unless they know why you are the way you are.

Right? So for example, right? I have this thing my mom taught me and again, I tried to make it awkward. And usually if you just smile is awkward, where if someone asked me for money, let's say that I'm walking like a charitable cause and like you please donate, right Salvation Army or something. And I give some money, you know what I say? I'm giving the money as I'm like, putting the cash in the thing. I don't let go and I'm like, I just want to tell you that I'm Muslim and in my religion, like we're taught to be charitable.

Right? Because if I'm going to donate I deserve 10 seconds of your time. To give you doubt, right, like that's, that's just the reality, right? And sometimes, like the person's hand is also on the dollar bill. So we're like holding it

just staring and I'm like I said, Do you know like, I'm just gonna let you know like, I just have to let you know. Right? Because I don't look, especially for me right being the

occasion that I am. I don't always dress like this. I'm not just gonna give a walk in there like, Oh, Kevin. So nice. No, like, my name is, man. And I want to tell you that I'm Muslim. And the reason I'm doing this is not because like, I don't want a tax receipt, I don't want you to think I'm a cool guy. I want you to know that my messenger Muhammad said, I'm telling you to do this. That's what I want, you know, and you know what, like, have a good day God bless. So my mom taught me this, right. And it's these moments that when again, when what society appreciates is in line with what Islam has already taught us, we're good. But when what we know Islam is teaching us

is standing and is being engaged and bumped into by what we know, is not correct. Right. That's something that the Prophet saw something taught us that we don't profess what we know to be true for something that is

a trend anyways. Right? So this is something that these young men they displayed. They stood for what was timeless, they were principle. And eventually time proven correct. Time proven, right. Okay, what else? What else do we

take from this? Why don't Allah Tada? Bring this up? Well, yeah.

Example? Okay, good. They became an example, an example, like people were talking about them was all speculation. And they were they were like the, again, the legends like they were examples for these people exemplars of what to do in this situation? One thing that's mentioned kind of a combination of both, you said, one thing that's mentioned in the Tafseer specifically, was that Allah Tala will always bring forth the truth. In any situation, the truth will become clearer, even if it's a little bit later than you thought or that you hoped. But it will always arrived when it's meant to arrive. It will be there on time. Okay, not your time, but God's time. So here, there's a dispute about

whether or not these people even exist, right? People are like, Oh, no, they're not real. It's just a folktale. And then oh, you know, if they could never have been there for 300 years, they couldn't, all these disputes about who these people were. Right? But then Allah Tada is telling us what that when you stick to your principles, you don't have to lie, the truth will become clear and manifest, even if you have to remain silent. Look at the story of many of my setup, Mariam and again, I don't think we can appreciate this really, because it's very difficult. Okay, Maryam comes from the family that she comes from the family of prophethood. And she shows back up to her people with a child and

she's not married.

Okay, so the assumption that people make about her is that she committed adultery that she fornicated and they say they call her and they say yes to how do

why would you do this? You come from a good family, right calling her out. Allah didn't tell her to respond even though she was very eloquent. Right on Instagram.

She Allah Tala did not tell her to to engage in any rhetoric. In fact, Allah told me the opposite, be quiet. Don't say a single word. And just point at the child. Right? Now, when you point at the child, you're taking a big risk. Because I don't know if you guys know this, but children, babies don't talk. Right? So she's pointing at this child. And there's a there's kind of this like moment. And then race is asymptomatic him. He says, What is the circle Allah? You know, some of the tafsir about that moment, they say that the truth was so powerful that some of the people present in that gathering just walked away. At that moment, like they couldn't handle it. They were so convinced of

what they saw with Betty and bring a child in that when he spoke, they like it was almost like they thought they were they were dreaming, they left and they just sat there in a daze like, are you serious? The truth that Allah will bring will always always bring what is right to light. You don't have to worry and stress over whether or not people believe you if you know that you're being true. You don't have to, there will come a time when all of that will be settled. And if as long as you know what's right. And you know that you're following that. You don't have to prove yourself to anybody. Now at the same time, you don't say that okay, we know I'm gonna allow people to imagine

these things. I know they're false. In this scenario the Prophet SAW Saddam did teach us about setting your reputation straight. We know that. Right? So we don't we don't walk around and let people think what you want, right? No, no, that's not that's also the opposite extreme. One extreme is being hyper concerned about people think about us all the time, trying to like meticulously arrange our perception people have of us. The other side is I don't care. The process of someone taught us that you do what you can but then you don't lose sleep over it.

You do what you can but then you don't lose sleep. Okay, so Allah Tada says, What? Some of us now whom the anatomy has been actually Melibea to amoda. National and of course your Alec and other human health in northern fit yet one and then we'll be rubbing him. Was it inevitable that Allah, Allah says We relate to you? Oh Prophet, so this is now lost profits all sudden, why are we telling you this story? Why are we telling you the story? We're telling you the story why? Number one because it's the truth. And we want you to know that this is part of your history. This is your heritage, you need to know the story number two, is that these young people, they taught everybody

who's going to read the story, we now learn an important methodology and being guided Who here wants to have guidance, Who here wants to be good with Allah? Who here wants to make the right decision? With their faith? Everybody? Right. Thank you for those who raise their hands. I know everybody does, right? Even though we're looking at there's only one Yep. Okay. We all do. That's why we're here like you want to live right? As a Muslim. You just want to live right? And honestly, even people who are not willing, everyone's wants to live right. Okay. Eventually, at some point, Allah Tada here is showing us now he's giving us an equation. And if you read it too fast, you miss it. He

says, What? These were young people who believed in their Lord and we increase them and guidance. Did you guys catch it?

Or did you say

after what?

It's interesting,

because the other has a condition for your guidance. Yes, there's a condition. The condition is you have to show that you believe you have to I was actually just explained this to Musa today. This is crazy. Musa goes is like a lot of tests us. Precisely. You know what I mean by that? Like, you're not gonna get someone else's test. Right? So I teach aqidah theology and Musa my son is my test

I'm, I am so not joking.

That they keep laughing is insulting, right? I know a lot you will I kid you up make dua because his mind is so inquisitive.

His mind is so inquisitive, that he asked these questions. And he asks that it's unfair. It's actually unfair, okay. It's unfair, because he asked questions in a language. And then I tried to match it my answer, and he's like, that doesn't make sense. I'm like, you just asked it in that language. He goes, Baba, why does Allah not let us see him?

I was like, Are you

kidding me?

How am I supposed to explain to a five year old? Why we can't see a lot?

Where do I even start? So then there's like the classical answer, right? A lot less technically che and he's been on perception.

But then there's like Moses gonna be like, Okay, right. And

and then there's the idea that in Jannah, we will end with a lush Protagoras, which and shall we will engage with him. Okay. So I had to delicately This is literally at 540 Yes, you want to look so tired right now because I literally had to like, it was like, you know, Musa was just and he's staring at me, waiting for me to flinch waiting for me to make a mistake. So he can write because he's a logical he's like a grandmaster of chess already. And I go Musa, you know, with Allah subhanaw taala. I said,

He's different than us, you know. And I said, it's like, he he I literally was stumbling like this. And I said, He's different than us. Like, you can see me you can see your system you can see a lot you have an agenda we'll be able to talk to Allah will be able to be with him and he tells us that we'll be able to see him in a way he goes, but why? So then I was trying to think and I'm like racking my brain. And I said, Okay, Musa has this thing where he hates it when you doubt.

If he tells you he did something,

if you like for a second have any doubt, he gets really offended. Okay, so like for example, brushing his teeth at night. We're trying to teach like dudes on bedtime routine. And I'm sorry for the one guy who eight stores won't mess up. Okay, so

he

said we're gonna have you're probably from Denton, so he so

so so Musa, he hates that, okay, so like at night for example, we're like mostly go get your pajamas on whenever he goes upstairs gets changed. And then we're like, you know, Did you brush your teeth? And he's like, yes.

And he will he will look at you to see that you believe in the you acknowledge it. So if you say like, if you even so much to say if me and Marian if my wife and I say like, Are you sure? He's like yes, he gets so upset. Like he wants you to accept him first first statement, okay, and to be fair, mashallah usually

Nine times out of 10. He actually did. But I use this example. I said, Musa, do you know how when you tell me you brush your teeth, and you want me to believe you? You want me to trust you?

Right? He goes, Yeah, I said, Did I see you brush your teeth?

And he has no I did in the room. I said, Don't you want me to steal to believe you though? Do you get upset when I say are you sure? I said if I went upstairs and looked at every bristle on your toothbrush, would you be upset? He was Yeah, Baba, you should believe me. I said that's what Allah wants from us.

Allah wants a certain level of fate. That's the test. That is the test, the nebula will come at you from accent or amarilla. Right? That's why the only time in which a person's statement of faith will not be accepted is when

is when the Day of Judgment begins because all of the speculation becomes definite. Right? When the sun rises from the West,

no more sure how those are accepted.

It's scary. Because why? No more because at that point, it's like, Oh, my God, it's actually coming true. Right? We all thought, dot dot dot question mark. But now it's exclamation point. And we're like, oh my goodness. So trying to Allah Tada here is explained to us the process. When you treat Allah like a transaction, guidance is never ever going to be your profit. You're never going to get that from Allah. Many of us we would flip it, we would say what Allah guided them. And so they believed. That's what sounds more logical. If we if we were to write this sentence, we would say these people believe because Allah guided them. Yes. Sounds like a logical statement. Thank you,

brother. Mashallah. Okay. But Allah is telling us that if you want guidance, to make sense, you first have to have the foundation of belief makes sense. If you want to plant something beautiful, the soil has to be nice.

How can I expect to be able to even understand the book of Allah and the teachings of the Prophet, if I don't even think that they're true to begin with. This is why you have individuals who are masters of the texts that we read,

they would sit here and look at everything we're reading, and they can understand it grammatically, historically. You know, in touch, see it everything, they can understand it better than anybody here in this room, but they are obstinate, rejecters, of the faith that these texts belong to? What's the difference between a person who has that a person doesn't, one of those people has already submitted and the other hasn't. And if you don't submit, nothing you see will ever make sense to you in anything, but if you already have your mind made up, the best argument can be presented in front of you. And you're gonna say no. Right? So Allah Tada here is saying, these young people, what made

them remarkable was that before they expected Allah to give them guidance, to allow them the benefit and the privilege of making the right choice of doing the right thing. They first had to say, oh, Allah, I meant to be like, we believe in you. We believe in you, right? Belief is not something that requires a lot of knowledge. It doesn't require a lot of math. Belief is something that a person arrives at when they ponder and reflect about the world in themselves. Like, why am I here? Many of the stories that you read people who accept this not and people who come to Islam, they will tell you that Islam is a confirmation of what they've already felt. This is a common, everybody, but a

common idea. My father being one of them, right? He he says, when people ask, like, tell us your congress story, he's like, Well, I was Muslim for a long time, probably. I always believed in this idea, this general idea, it was just when I came upon the Quran, it confirmed it. Right. The belief was present. And so the guidance came. This is what Allah Tala is teaching us, many of us we ask guidance, but we don't actually strengthen that belief. We don't think about it we don't ponder reflect. The prayer is not there. The thoughts are not there, the ticket is not there. And so the guidance is being held back. Right? We asked lots of Allah to give us insha Allah strength and our

belief, okay. So when he says what about on our other Caribbean is called Musa hollow, or buena rhombus, somehow it will out. Lana, Durga, Minh Dooney Isla, la casa, Pune, Puna, Eastern Chautauqua that he says we strengthen their hearts, we strengthen their hearts and they stood up and they declared, our Lord is the heavens, the Lord of the heavens and the earth. We will never ever join you in calling upon any other God besides him. Otherwise we would be committing an incredible lie. Okay, these young people, this is Allah Tada. Now going back a little bit, he's rewinding the tape and he's showing us a moment of declaration of proclamation

that this is the moment that they declared what they actually believed in. So they they stood and they, they gathered and they protected themselves in secrecy for a long while. And then eventually they proclaimed what their belief actually was. And this is something that again, many of us were in the situation like, how many of us would feel uncomfortable standing up and claiming our belief, not necessarily like this, but in a way that was very definite? Anybody? Anyone here ever had like a moment of doubt about being honest about what you believe?

Anybody? Nobody?

Show that you're a lot better than me. Absolutely. When people ask, like, how do you feel about something? Sometimes you have to be like, Well, I first need to know how you feel about it before I tell you how I feel about it. Because if I tell you how I feel about it, you don't feel that way. It's gonna be conflict. Exactly. Right? Right, it's gonna at least be awkward, okay? Or something worse than that. So I,

there's many times where you actually have to, like, assess your own belief level before you feel comfortable, kind of like, right and someone else's. But you see, subhanAllah, this, this level of dedication in these young people, you see this example. Their belief was so rock solid, that when they did, right, they didn't have any doubt, to say what they had to say.

No compromises here. And some of the compromises that we make, might be I don't even want to call them compromises. They are maybe even built into the *ty out there concessions that Allah has given us for the sake of our quality of life. What's an example of one of those?

What's an example of something that it's not a compromise, but it's, it's a concession that Allah has given you to make your life a little bit easier.

Your thoughts will do on your socks. Good. By the way, love the fact that that's your first one. It's clear that that's like a deep one for you. Mashallah, any wearing socks? Okay, so, right. Yeah, exactly, exactly. For example, at work, okay, you're standing there trying to make we'll do you could just go ahead and rip the socks off and go full altos on deck. Right, like deep scrub, right? You know what I mean? Josh walks in, you're like, Stop, leave me alone, right? Make them a little.

What are you doing? You're like, I'm watching the sins off my feet.

You could do that. That's fine. Right? You may he may not want to, he may request a cubicle move right or like a department.

But Allah initially Ah, okay, part of Islamic law is that if a person has will do, and they're wearing a sock, that is it fits the requirements. Okay, this isn't like, I don't want people putting like a bandaid on their toe and

thickness size, etc. Can difference in them with that. But anyways, point being ask your local, you know, I'm not your lovely mom, asker Lovina.

Then you can wipe over yourself. Now, this isn't a compromise. It's not a person compromising their principles, because they're still following what Islam says is okay. Right. This is part of a quality of life. Okay? So those things are okay. Okay. There's also the, you know, when you're traveling, for example, like when I'm traveling, and it's time to pray, and I'm in an airport, I have to see where I am in the United States. And be honest with you. If I'm in Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Texas,

you know, anywhere that was south of the Mason Dixon, I'm probably going to wait and come out when I land in the north, you know what I mean? Like, but if I'm in Chicago, and New Jersey, New York, Seattle, like I mean, these places, I'm calling the event, you know what I mean?

Again, this isn't compromised. This is me being because I have been.

What's the word? I have been not scarred, I have been pulled aside and had an extra meeting with security and all that, after praying in the gate. Right? It's happened a few times, but only in a specific part of the United States. So again, this is part of what Islam allows for us. So these are not compromises. I don't want us to think for a moment like oh, like compromises, or when a person

purposely, knowingly, intentionally erases a part of the identity that makes them who they are as a Muslim.

To fit in,

right. And it's a really, really thin lot. Sometimes, it's really difficult.

I'll give one example and I'm not picking on anybody here. I promise you I'm not. But this is something that it's really really important. And I think that we don't give it enough credit.

Your name is very powerful.

Your name is very powerful.

Allah Tada that the first thing he taught as my son was the names of things.

because it's how you identify them.

If anyone, like how many of you have met somebody that you didn't assume was a Muslim until you heard their name, you're like, Whoa,

like, what's your name? They're like, 19. You're like

I'm like, go like, you know, excuse me, like I was coughing, right?

You're like, Excuse me, it actually happened at the airport. The other day, I was flying with my kids. My daughter's name is email. And I see this girl, she's checking the, you know, my license and everything. And she asked, so part of they have to ask the kids like, what's your name? They don't ask us. Like, that's okay. Like, what's your name? She's like, eemaan. And the lady's like, that's my name.

And then I was like, are you most? Are you muslim? She goes, my dad is. And it like, connected. And I didn't, I didn't dig further, in part, because I also had to leave, but also because it's kind of a sensitive Subhanallah like your name, like, you should have seen the look in her. I mean, it was like emotional for her. Who knows what she saw? Like, who knows? What, where she was brought back to seeing a father and a daughter traveling. And then like, when I was like, oh, what's your name? Are you are you muslim? She was my dad is and I didn't dig any further. But I want you to understand the power of a name.

Now, I want you to think about all the times that you may be and hopefully not, but maybe felt ashamed, or shy or embarrassed

to fully represent your name in a moment because you felt like it would make us too much of an other.

Right?

This is sensitive for me because this is like elementary school for me. Right? Until this day, and I'll share with you something very, very honestly, like middle school in high school. I was Murphy.

And then I was like, No, I'm not like I'm the one that there's a hadith where the Prophet SAW Selim says that there are two names that Allah loves more than every other name on the line, Abdul Rahman

sorry guys.

Suffer, you have to look right. And I

and I want you to think about that. I felt like I was committing spiritual treason

by going around the name that Allah loved the most. Right.

Muhammad Timo

very common.

Sod to Sam. All these why? Why? Right, I want you to ask yourself,

why do I feel like I can represent that name that might give a person an indication of who I really am. Instead of trying to just fly off the radar, and let them be comfortable with who they want me to be?

You see this level of faith and it's admirable. It is admirable, right? I mean, to be honest, there's levels to this stuff, right? Like when I travel, I'm flying tomorrow in Sharla. When I travel like I try to be very very incognito in terms of my dress. If the company is full soap and turban

multi commodities, like always going to hedge man, now he's doing the touch base, like, you know, he's flying to New Orleans, bake Allah.

He has zero reservations. No, seriously.

I picked him up from the airport once he was wearing a full time job and a goofy and he had ever and I pull up and I'm like getting the car quick.

I'm like, aren't you afraid? He's like, no, like, okay, clearly you don't get pulled to the side or I do.

When I read when I read, I act like this in the Quran, where you see these people, right, the wife of fit around,

you know, these as hobble calf. These people that just stand up for who they are, and they proclaim without any apology. It makes me think about my own decisions. And again, we're not trying to cause problems. No one's trying to say, you know, like, I always sometimes it gets too aggressive. You know, someone might pronounce your name wrong, and you're like, How dare you know, if they're trying, that's okay. Right, be human. What we're talking about here is not the mistakes that people make, the mistakes that we make for people, right? So Allah Tada gave them that strength. Where did he give them that strength? What was the previous verse about belief and guidance? If you want to be

strong and your faith strong enough to say that this is who I am strong enough to be a certain way to live a certain way to pray a certain way to dress a certain way to if you want to have that strength because it all comes from strength of faith. Then it comes from belief in God

right that's why we say oh Allah guide us. Oh Allah guide us. Oh Allah never let our hearts go astray after you've put that zulubet I bow to it had Atana never let our hearts ever deviate after you've given us guidance because I could not imagine Oh ALLAH being a perfect looks back on the pictures on my phone two years ago and seeing someone who's closer to you then than he is now. That would break my heart. So Allah don't let my heart deviate after I was guided. Allow me to not go down but up in my guidance and if I'm going down I have to ask myself some very, very serious questions.

Right, we ask Allah Tala to give us this okay. And then

they are speaking to one another and they say, Then they said to what Allah Tala tells us they said to one another, these people are taken God's besides him, why do they not use a clear proof of them? Who then does more wrong than those who fabricate lies against Allah the next verse since you have distance yourselves from them and what they worship besides Allah take refuge in the cave your Lord will extend His mercy to you and accommodate you in your affairs or in the moment that you have. So Allah Tada here now is giving us again the playbook of what happened. Now this next verse is very interesting I in number 17, Allah Tada says, and you would have seen the sun as it rose and climbing

away from the cave to the right as it set, declining away from them to the left while they lay in its open space. That is one of the signs of Allah, whoever Allah guides is truly guided, but whoever he leaves a stray, you will never find them to have anyone to guide them. Allah here is describing kind of those kind of numbers I'm gonna give you the TLDR of this, okay? Allah is describing an explanation scientifically, of what was occurring with them for these 300 years that Allah Tada is describing by the directionality of the sun that as it were sleeping for these 300 years, he was causing their bodies to turn over and over they were like, basically living in a cycle. Okay, some

of the scholars actually wrote about this they said, Why is this important? Why is this something that is

of worth mention? Right? What do you guys think? Why don't Allah Tala bring this up? Yeah.

Yeah, actually, one of the scholars brought that up. They said literally, because they might develop wounds. Right? Very good, like bed sores. Okay? That's like the very, very, like, it kind of escapes your mind. Okay? But go deeper. Why would Allah even bring this up in the first place? I mean, it's a miracle in of itself, right? Sleeping for 300 years. Although I've seen some people give it a run for its money, right. Okay. And the most tragic sleep story I've ever heard you guys want to hear it? Most tragic Ramadan

person was taking a nap

after Oslo

and they slept until fetcher.

Given given these guys money I mean that's so they were like can I break my fast and I was like nope, and I laughed right

so what do you mean I said if you if you're about to faint you can but I said unfortunately your nap was pretty good.

So tragic sleep story. Okay, but why would Allah have to explain it's a miracle like it's a miracle Why is about giving us a scientific explanation to it? Yeah

Yeah, very good. Allah is present in the details of your life not just the big picture stuff. Like we think that a lot of data like when you when you talk to somebody who's very important what's the first thing you say when they're very important? First thing people say is like I'm so sorry for bothering you. If you have time. I once heard someone may do I was so cute to online Oh, you're busy

all I know you're busy. They weren't completely serious. This was not a skinner job. I was it was all about us and they're busy. I'm like, it's actually a problematic thought to have but it's so horrible because because it's not you know, it's follow up. And by the way, when someone makes a mistake of sincerity, because the prophets on promises have said that one of the happiest moments Allah. Allah has is when a servant was wandering the desert with his rotting animals camel and the camel escapes. And the person looks and looks and looks can't find their camel. They sit in the desert. They say you know what, it's been hours. This is it. I'm dead like this is just it. I'm

gonna die here now in the desert. I have accepted my fate and death and the person has

They sit and they lay and they close their eyes and they feel like they're breathing. Their last also may open their eyes, there's a camera looking at their face. It's their candle, right? And the person jumps up and they're so excited and so elated that they make this statement. Oh Allah, you are my servants and on your Lord.

It's in the Hadith. Right? But the Hadith says they say this mistakenly out of what? Out of excitement, like they're just so there's, they're in such an adrenaline rush that they're like, right? And Allah loves that statement. Because the words themselves are obviously really bad. Yeah, they're backwards. But the heart didn't mean it that way. The heart meant what Oh Allah, You are my Lord and on your servant. I like admitting defeat. And all of a sudden, I got this beautiful candle staring on my face. Right? So look at what Subhanallah look at this moment. Sometimes we think to ourselves that Allah Tada is too busy for us. He's got everyone to take care of. How was he going to

hear my prayer? Allah is present in the end the mortar of your life. You know, the brick is like the big chunks, right? But the mortar is the stuff that keeps it together. Allah wants to hear about the intimate details. Look at how detailed Allah is in the preservation of these young men. If you do right by Allah, you will find even the smallest details present. I mean, the story they let you definitely heard stuff like this, I guarantee you've heard stuff like this before, go talk to people whose drawers were answered. We should, by the way, have an entire session where we just pause and talk about drawers being answered. It's one of the greatest experiences. I've had people tell me,

they're not here so I can share this story. Okay. There's my last story and we'll wrap up.

There is an individual that I know individuals, okay, that I know

that when they were single, right, spoiler they're married.

When they were single,

they were from two very different parts of the country. They had no relationship with each other. In fact, one of them was not born into Islam. The other one was, but one was not. So fast forward now. Okay, these two people live their own individual lives. They're just kind of like you know, doing your thing. One person's here one's there. And all of a sudden the isn't a conference comes around, which is

not the lobby, okay.

The it's the conference comes around. The brother in this particular scenario, was the one who was not born into Islam. Now, he does a lot of reading a lot of research, he has Muslim friends, and he decides he wants to accept Islam. Okay.

BABY BLUES in the back there loves it, right?

No, I'm just I love it. I love it. I mean, it was I can't wait for the end. He decides to accept Islam, he decides to take shahada and accept Islam. So he does. So at one of the sessions with the Imam with the che, after the session is done. He you know, they say there's a brother who wants to set the slot. He goes up in that, okay, it happens a

few years later, my brother continues their studies that brother continued his studies and becomes mashallah your scholarly and

incredibly, incredibly talented in Arabic and Arabic grammar to the point where he, right. You know, non Arab is teaching at an Arabic Institute in Jordan, teaching students how to

read write, speak Arabic. He's teaching Arabs how to speak. Right? And he was not Arab. When he was born. I just want you to understand this. Okay. He mastered it right.

Now, this institute in Georgia is popular, and a lot of American students go there.

So all of a sudden, one day,

he's teaching class. And there's a classroom full of students in his class. And one of them happens to be the sister.

And the sister is in the class and they get to know each other and she says, You know, I like you and they talk to each other parents and mashallah, they end up getting their engagement and they end up you know, a year later, so getting married.

As they're sitting in the marriage festivities, the conversation comes up about the brother's life. Tell us about your story. When did you come to accept Islam?

He goes, Oh, it's crazy. I was at an Islamic conference at this session. And that's where I took my Shahada. It was the Imams aide.

And the girl at that moment says, I saw that

I was there.

You that was you because again, he looked very different. That was you.

And she said the exact date exact time the room number. That's my Shahada. You were present in my Shahada, and now like eight years later, we're getting married.

All right, I want you to understand the level of detail with which Allah is involved in our lives. You the stories and you're like, and everyone here is like, okay, so I gotta go to Jordan now.

My husband, right, like in front of my wife,

all the guys like I gotta teach Arabic

like that

side of my class

I want you to understand appreciate the level of detail with which Allah Tada is there in every person's life. This story again, off the dome, I was just thinking about it, they're good friends of ours.

This is compared to the amount of detail that Allah Tada is available and present. And if you're honest about it, if you are truly honest about it, you will be able to even chart your own life and see that presence there. It's not that it's not there, it's that we're not observant enough to just find it to get it. So this verse is one of those things. The other thing that the scholars say, and I'll close off with this, is that Allah subhanaw taala will accomplish his goal, sometimes by means that are inexplicable, and sometimes by means that are explicable that you can't explain, and sometimes a combination of both. So in this first example, it's not possible to explain science

either scientifically, or how they how they live in slumber for 300 years. That is purely a miracle that is beyond human conception. But it's interesting because Allah has promised to introduce is layers to the explanation that teach us that there were explanations for certain elements of it. Right? And the reason why these explanations exist is because we are naturally skeptical people. Like when you hear about 300 years, you're like, okay, but then in verse like this comes in and starts to explain how it was done and you're like, Oh, interesting. Subhan Allah like, that's right. And you guys may have heard of these things. They're called like the scientific miracles of the

Quran.

It's not that they're the scientific miracles of the Quran, they are miracles that Allah has produced and parts of them are in fact explained by science. Okay, parts of them but we don't necessarily say that the Quran is a book of science we just say that what Allah Tada explains his murder his miraculous you know, decree sometimes in ways that are completely and totally inexplicable. But he gives us like these nuggets of satisfying intellectual explanations so that we our hearts become like softened and like oh, wow, there is something's kind of a very strong there. Yeah, exactly. Mashallah. Okay, so we'll conclude here at sha Allah, we ask Allah to Allah to give

us the guidance of everything we read from today's passage. We ask Allah to Allah to give us that confidence in our face, we ask Allah to Allah to allow us to have that strength and our belief in Him we asked last comments Allah to make us people that use our young part of our life for His sake, as a precursor to the later years were asked less time is added to allow us to be cognizant of all the details and all the miracles that he presents in our life, whether they are small, whether they are large, we asked Well, it's hard to grant us the ability to witness them to recognize them to thank him for them. I mean, I mean, I mean Subhanak long, Eli going to Lake

said I'm like him, I'm leaving tomorrow inshallah for three weeks so

we're gonna have inshallah better teachers next Monday, and the Monday after, and then the third Monday, July 4, so go enjoy that time off on a Monday with your family and your friends. But the next two weeks in sha Allah, we are having artwork, so if you see my instagram or something and there's pictures of me in Turkey, don't just not show up, it's still happening. Okay.

And then inshallah we're also going to be adding this summer online sessions, only sessions that are online only so that you can join them from wherever you are, whether you're here obviously for the locals who are in Dallas, you're able to join in person anyways, but for those who are watching online, we're doing a lot more sessions online so that there can be more benefit in Charlotte. Okay, make dua hopefully by the time I get back, we will no longer be sitting in this part of the building. Wink wink if you want any. Okay, take care. So then why