AbdelRahman Murphy – Heartwork – Surah Kahf #09
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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 subhanaw taala describes faith in the Quran, he mentioned stability as being a requirement for face to grow a slow, healthy habit, or photo or half a summer 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 epsilon 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 Saddam and Medina help us make this dream a reality visit roots dfw.org/home
Loud handles artists that Mr.
Earley he was hobbies rain. Welcome home everybody. Just one quick request before we get started in sha Allah, if we can just create like a walkway so that people who are coming in because this side usually gets packed up but there's a lot of space over here. So about you know, the sisters there, basically between the wall and the next row. Yeah, just create like a visible pathway that way people can come across in Sharla Okay.
All righty.
So we have tonight's itineraries a little bit different. We didn't serve any food, obviously, because of the day of Ashura.
If you're not fasting, it's okay. It's still a blessed day, the entire month of Muharram is less than a month, the day of Ashuelot first and foremost is a day that, you know commends the salvation of Benyus right yield, and Prophet Musa, the children of Israel, Prophet Musa from the, the tyranny of Freetown.
This was the day on which Allah has promised to save them from that, from that tyranny they were experiencing. And so the Prophet Muhammad SAW southern taught us that this is a day in which the children of Israel which fast and the Prophet SAW send them when he saw this in Medina, he said that, you know, Prophet Musa is our prophet like we have, we have a connection to him as well. It's not just specific to some community. So he said that we should also fast on this day. And then obviously, there the other historical attachment to this day of Ashura, the 10th of Muharram, about 60 years after the hero of the Prophet saw some of them was the brutal killing of his grandson, Al
Hussein radula Han, in Karbala. And so there's there's kind of an interesting mixture of emotions about this day. But it's important to note that first and foremost, there's the important aspect of the Prophet SAW Selim prescribing it as a day of fasting. And then there's also, you know, just a few decades later, the tragedy that should really impact the hearts of everybody. So we'll we'll finish up with a couple of lessons in Sharla. But I wanted to get started. So that's why we're not serving food. Now. We have food we have dinner for everybody. After Margarita challah. We have some pasta and some salad and some Hawaiian rolls, not just any rolls, Hawaiian rolls fresh from Hawaii.
So at least that's what they said.
So we're going to be serving dinner after mode have been shot lunches. Okay, let's get started. So we are just about midway through the second passage in the four passages of this passage is about two individuals. And the Tafseer even tells us that these two people are related that they're either you know, relatives like brothers or that they're very close, like really close friends like basically brothers, and the story that allows parents all that presents us
With er, the narrative that Allah Spano Tata get presents us with is that there are two of them. And one of the even though the two of them are very close in their, you know relationship in terms of like their biology maybe or even in their friendship, they couldn't be more different in their, how they approach the world. So there's two individuals that come from the same family, but they are on diametric opposites of the spectrum of how they think of this dunya. And in that, there's Lesson number one, which we talked about a little bit last time, I'm going to do a little recap, which is that you have these two individuals, and even though they have been given the same opportunity, the
same resource, and in the tough seat, it says the same wealth, even, that these two people, they make different choices. And so you might very well even know or be a part of or have seen that even though there might be one person and they grow up in the bedroom over to the next person, or there could be like a husband and a wife or a father and a son. Just because people are close in proximity or close in biology or however close they might be doesn't mean that they're going to be the same. Right? And the Quran is actually filled with lessons and stories of parents and their children being very different. I mean, look at Prophet Ibrahim Prophet Abraham, like look at his story with his
father. Look at Prophet Yusuf Ali's setup and the story with his brothers. Look at Prophet new Ali Salaam and the story with his son. Look at asiyah May Allah be pleased with her and her husband who was put out I mean, she's literally one of the four archetypal women of Paradise, and she was married to one of the worst individuals ever to exist on the face of the earth. Okay, so proximity in terms of geography like closeness or in terms of relationship, it doesn't determine who you are, for better or for worse. Like, I can't bank on the fact everyone here has like a religious grandma, right? You everyone here has a grandma that prays a lot. And sometimes like we fall into this, the
sleepy sort of misnomer that well, I'm, I have this person who's praying for me. I remember growing up in Chicago, you know, there was a huge culture of enrolling your kid into schools to memorize the Quran, which is an amazing thing. But sometimes the intention for that was a little bit questionable was dubious, right? Obviously, there's a lot of benefit members don't put on a lot of incredible baraka and blessings. But one of them was that oh, well, the person who memorizes the Quran, there is a narration attributed that says that they get to choose 10 people to take with them to Jana like paradise, okay. And so the parents were like, da like, one, two, like, here we go, you know, so
you're gonna go members of Quran and Inshallah, you know, I appreciate it. I've read, you know, pick your next eight, right? It's like picking squats for basketball. Again, like the idea. Sure, it's beautiful, in a sense, but the idea that you know what, I can just go ahead and I can, you know, relax my own spiritual focus. And I can bank on my parents or my children or my spouse, and they're going to carry the weight, they're going to carry the weight. That's, that's a, it's a really, really dangerous path to walk on. Because almost always, it does not come true. Almost always it fails. That idea does not bring about what you think it's going to bring. So these two individuals
very close in many ways, but not close at all, in how their hearts respond. So the Tafseer says under their roof, given some inheritance, and they both decided to spend their inheritance in different ways. How did the first brother the one who has the gardens, how did he spend his money?
You remember from last week?
What did he do? He got money. How did he spend it? The one who owned the gardens? The nice gardens? He was? Yeah, he just kept investing it in what?
In what crypto? Yeah, maybe it's
no, no, no, the garden did well.
That's different than crypto. Okay. Sorry. So what was the one he invested in?
Like everything else besides like good deeds? So he did property, land, you know, his house servants. He just took his money and he basically invested it in worldly things. Okay. And then every time his brother saw him do that, his brother said to himself, well, I don't want to I don't want to do the same. I don't want to buy a house here. I want to buy a house and Jana, like, I don't want to buy property here. I want to buy property in Jeddah. Like, I don't want to have servants here, right? I'm already 30 years old. If I'm lucky, I have 4050 more years. Who knows? Allah can take us anytime like, no, no, I want all of this in the world that never ends. I want all this in
the place that has no ending. So instead of spending money here, the brother would see this and he would say I'm gonna give it in sadaqa. I'm gonna give it in charity. And at the end of this, what ended up happening was this brother who gave it all in southern thought there came a point in time in his
Life where he needed a little bit of help. Right maybe he was short on rent or he needed some sort of food or something. So he approached his brother, the one who had the really, really lush garden and Allah Tala. He describes the garden as number 33. He says that the garden yielded all kinds of fruits, all kinds of harvests, everything that you can imagine, was there and he says, Allah Tada says very pointedly, with federal welfare, Jarrell na Akela feel Allah Houma, la hora, that we are the ones that cause the Nether, the river to come between the two gardens to irrigate, to take care of the moisture there. So the man comes to his brother, and he says to him, Hey, you have this
beautiful garden, this lush property, you have all the wealth that you could imagine? Do you mind helping me out? And so the wealthy brother looks at his brother who was in need? And he said to him, no. He said, Absolutely not. And he said, because look at you, you and I both had the same amount. And I did, I didn't do the right thing I invested and look at all of the things that I created. Look at everything that I made out of nothing, right self made millionaire. And look at what you are looking at what you did, you lost everything. And so he even has the audacity to tell him that if I give you money, you know you're going to do with it, you're probably going to give that away and
charity too. Right? And so we sit here and we very hopefully clearly can identify the rhetoric that is incredibly incorrect. Right? The rhetoric of the brother who is with you know, not giving his brother help not assisting his brother. But we ended last week thinking about how much of that brother the wealthy guy lives inside of us? How much of our prosperity do we take credit for? Do we take credit for? Right? Whether it could be like the degree that you got the accreditation, the situation you find yourself in the networking that you worked hard to do all of these things, can can intoxicated person and can delude their sense of perception, and could allow them to think that
you know what, I'm the reason why I'm successful. I'm the reason why I have all of this, okay. And it's interesting, because even though that perception feels very gratifying to the nuts, or the knifes kind of likes that it likes to be pumped up, you know, everyone needs a hype man. Right? I see it on the Instagram comments, fire emojis, right? Yes. 100 is all of this. Everyone likes me pumped up, right? But the neffs never ever has shame. Like never says no, the next wants to be pumped up constantly. Okay, so this guy, he thinks that he's the reason for all of this to happen. And what are some of the symptoms of this disease? Now, this egotistical arrogance that he's
developed? What are the some of the symptoms? Well, number one, is he is unable to see that he is not the creator of blessings. He's the beneficiary of blessings. He's not the benefactor, he's the beneficiary. How do we know that from the Quran? Well, if you look at the pronouns, right, the grammar of this, Allah says, federal judge said, General Na, we are the ones who created the river to split through the land, we are the ones, not him. So even when Allah is describing this beautiful garden, Allah makes it clear that the responsibility does not fall on the the credit does not go to the guy, the credit goes back to Allah. But the man is blind to this, the man doesn't understand
that. And so he's so pushed away from all of these, recognizing these blessings, that he starts to think that I'm the reason that this happened. So ask yourself this question. It's a very hard question. Right? When you achieve high levels of success, when you have an opportunity that Allah gives you and you're able to achieve, or to maximize on that, what's your first thought? What's the thing that happens right away? Is it I'm so happy that I studied, I'm so happy that I practiced my interviewing. I'm so happy that I did all this, I'm so happy. You know, you look anything that you want to achieve. You want to get a new job, you want to get in shape, you want to save up to buy a
house, whatever it might be, what's the first thought as you're signing that document, your new contract, the closing documents, the financing, whatever it is, is your first thought, Look at me now. Look at me now? Or is your first thought that Hamdulillah?
Are you just steeped in this idea that I don't deserve this? In fact, if if I were to go through all of the different reasons as to why I should not have this, why this shouldn't be mine, that I would be able to come up with a pretty good argument. But despite all of that, despite all the reasons, all the thunder that I've missed, all there's a cat that I was laying
Hang or didn't pay all the sins that I did all the things that my eyes looked at all the words that my tongue uttered all of the feelings that my heart harbored, that were against my face, every single all of that, despite all of that, why? Allah is still so kind.
You know, I tell the story, like every month, but really, it's powerful.
When we don't do the the agreement that we have with Allah, right? When we don't fulfill our end of the conflict, when you don't fulfill your end of the contract, what happens at work? You got a couple of warnings, and then you're gone. If you don't do your job, if you just don't show up to work, right? Are you doing by one of those manual mouse move or things so that it looks like you're working? Right? I just saw a lot of people look at their friends. I'm having no, right. I also have tick tock. Okay. So if you don't do your part of the agreement, the contract is null and void.
And there's no luck coming back. You can't just like go on vacation for a week. Your boss is calling you. They're like, Hey, where are you? Aren't you just don't pick up and you show up next week? You're like, I know that was we? I know, that was messed up. But can I just, you know, stuck for a while? Can I come back? They're gonna be like stuff for who? Like, what are you asking for?
In this life, like you don't get second chances in this amongst each other, like, we don't get second chances.
It's so interesting, because when we know that we behave well. But when we think that way, but then Subhan Allah, Allah gives us not two, not three, not four, not five, he gives us billions, unlimited chances as long as we come back. And the one who gives us chances is the one that we take for granted.
It's a painful irony. The one who doesn't give us chances is the one that we know SubhanAllah. I remember I used to work Customer Service at the Apple Store. And one of my managers was so he was so interesting. He said, for people who complain, who walk up to the Genius Bar, and they scream, and they make a big like, commotion. He said, Never give them anything.
Like there's ways By the way, in every retail outlet, there's ways to get what you want. But this manager was so interesting. He said, we're not going to reward that behavior.
He's said, if a person comes up, and they have something, and they're out of warranty, whatever, if you feel and you can call a manager and get them to write off a replacement, or whatever it might be. He said, if they are behaving like good, like human beings, if they're treating you like with civil like behavior, he said, I don't care if you have to give him a brand new laptop, you give it to him. And this happened, right? What was this manager doing? He was training us to not take for granted those people who did the right thing.
We look at those people who are doing the right thing. And we think that you know what, whatever, they'll always be there. That's how we think of Allah. He will always be there. No matter how many times I miss my prayers, no matter how many times I make mistakes, no matter how many bad choices I make, you'll always be there. Right?
And it's true. But the reality is our desire for him may not always be
he will always be there. But we may have gone so far out like the shore, right? The shore of the ocean will always be there. But sometimes you drift too far that you can't go back.
You're lost. You know, may Allah protect us.
So Allah Tada here is saying that this entire garden was given to him, but he didn't understand that. So number one, what happens when a person has an egotistical arrogant spell? Number one is that they are unable to see how much Allah is operating in their life. Meaning like every micro moment, right, like that breath you just took that was ALLAH. Okay? And if you want to know how much of it was ALLAH, just get a sinus infection.
Just get a cold. My wife was just telling me that one of her friends who had COVID Recently, she recovered from the villa was fine, healthy, and then over the weekend, her oxygen dropped from like 98%, which is I guess normal to like 90, which is I know it sounds good. Everyone's like that's pretty good. It's a minus No, that's when it comes to oxygen. You don't want an A minus, okay?
So her oxygen is probably dropped to 90 they had to rush to the ER like right away like immediately. She couldn't breathe. Okay. And again, like, it's just it's something that we take for granted. When we breathe in, breathe out, right like common sense problem. So
Jahai just sticks sometimes you just can't No matter how much sponge
okay.
Okay, next verse. So then Allah Tala says that
What can Allah Who femoral artery Sahibi, he will tell you how we do and accelero Min km Allah, that he told his friend, right? This is that conversation, you made mistakes I didn't I have more money than you look at my garden, look at this prosperity, look at this amazing thing that I have that belongs to me. Okay? And I am the reason for this and you are the reason that you are poor. So the second symptom of this arrogance is that you start to look at other people. And you start to sign or associate your wealth as having some sort of benefit or some sort of like you have some sort of
grade above others simply because of this wealth. And so he is starting now to attribute that. And he's saying that I am greater than you not because of this, you're poor, I'm rich, which means I'm better than you. Okay, the next symptom
is that you start to enter into the world of delusion. So the next is 35. Well, definitely a janitor who Lolly Molina fct, Allah, Allah says that and this person one day walked into his garden, and he was oppressive of himself. Right, and Vaughn and by the way, volume also shares the same root word as darkness, meaning like the, the absence of visibility, the absence of light, if we turned off all the lights in this room, we wouldn't be able to see all the details. So this person, when they oppressed themselves, they're literally covering themselves. And they're not able to see the world. They're in darkness. Like, it's like walking in a dark room, you can't see everything, this man
thing and even though his eyes are open, he can't see, he can't see the same thing that you and I see. Right? The believer and the one who denies God, they look at the same food and one of them sees provision, and one of them sees something else. Right? So this person is oppressing himself. And he says, ma Ovenu, and to be the heavy evidence, he says, You know what, this is so great. And this is so persistent in my life. And I am so successful. And this is so amazing. I don't think this is ever going to go away. I don't think this is ever going to perish. So symptom number three, is you start to have these like very irrational beliefs about all the things that you have. And there's another
text in which the author writes and says one of the reasons why Allah subhanaw taala gives you injuries, and gives you sickness, and gives you difficulty in life, is to show you that nothing will last forever. Just to demonstrate that temporarily. Because if you leave this for too long, and you start to wander off into the land of like, this is going to be forever. The author says you are so at risk for disbelief, that the better result or solution is that you get tested. Like it's either you leave Islam altogether, you ignore it and deny God altogether. That's the end result of something like this, or you get sick, you miss a flight, you get laid off, you tear your ACL, right,
something happens. And as a result of that you're like in a humbled state in a weakened state. Okay, and when you're in that weakened state, you can't help but ask for help. Only like a foolish person would sit there as I don't need help. Right? You can't help. It's like when I'm carrying in groceries and someone's at the door. Do you need help with the door? I'm like, No, I got it. I don't got it. I don't but there's something inside of every ego that doesn't want to ask for help. So sometimes Allah forces you to ask for help. He pushes you down to the ground so that you have to look and say, Yeah, Allah helped me. Okay.
This is you know, subhanAllah so remarkable. Think of the tests that you go through and never see them as things that are pushing you away from Allah, but rather things that are shaking you shaking that rust off of your heart, getting to realize like, what the reality of your existence is. Okay? So he says, I don't think this is going to perish ever. I think this is going to last forever. And it's funny because even in like our own contemporary history, whenever anyone says this, it gets disproven, like, almost immediately, right? Like, the famous Titanic. One of these is nothing this ship will never sink. It wasn't like its first trip. Subhanallah Man, I hate to be that guy. But
like, come on. Like, you know what I mean? Like if you challenge the reality of Allah like reality is gonna it's gonna be one of the authors wrote a beautiful, beautiful poem, and he talked about food. How many of you guys love food? You guys fasting today? Everyone's like, Yes. He does love food. I want you to think of like the most amazing food you've ever had. Okay? And now think, flavors Majan that bite. Okay, I'm torturing you. We have exactly 30 minutes to muffin. I'm torturing you
I think of the textures. All right, so maybe it's like barbecue or grill. Maybe it's dessert. Maybe it's like fresh non out of it them do or maybe it's like, who knows? Right? I mean, sure. What am I just like slice down, and they're dipping the sandwich in the juice, right? Okay.
Good morning, people are weeping.
Okay, you guys know the flavor I'm talking about. Okay.
That those flavors now Now listen, the author wrote this. The author wrote, I forget the exact like passage. But on test here, he said that the heart that is sick, okay, the heart that is sick.
He said that the tongue that is sick, can't enjoy the flavors that they want. Right? The tongue that is sick, meaning what when you get a cold, when your nose congested, you can't taste all those, you know, it's really frustrating. You'll be biting into like a Pakistani mango.
And you're like, What is this? Where's this from? And they're like, that's Pakistani mango. That was $8. That bite was $8.
And you're like, I can't taste it because my nose and the scholar says when you're sick, you can't enjoy the flavors on your tongue. He says when your heart is sick, you can't enjoy the worship of Allah.
You're doing the same actions. But we're standing and praying. The person next to you is like, all in on that moment. Like that. Maghrib is like there is like it. That's what they need it. And I'm sitting here and I'm like, what rock? Are we even in?
We're having the same dish. We're doing the same action. But one of us is healthy, we can taste it and one of us is not healthy.
This man walks into his garden. And instead of saying
that 100 is that? Well, I'm gonna have to have that about Allah. Oh, Allah didn't create this for no reason. Oh Allah, you're so generous. You're so Oh Allah, I don't deserve this. Instead of that man saying this, what does he say? This is all me it's never gonna disappear.
The world is the same for everybody. But the hearts that interpret that world are very different. And Allah gives us case studies. So we can see which side do we fall on? Which which statements when we read them. While we appear to be shocked on the outside? Internally, we panic. Because we say why this might be me. This might be me. And what's interesting Subhanallah is that the further away we go from submitting to Allah
the more difficult calamity is for us.
Like when little spoiler the garden is definitely not going to last forever. Okay, and a couple IRA, we're gonna find out what happens when tragedy hits. The one who submitted to Allah that entire time, the one who said you know what, this has nothing to do with me, meaning like, I'm just a beneficiary, I do my job, I tie my camel, I water the grass, I do this and that, and Hamdulillah.
That person when the blessing is paused or removed, it stings but doesn't hit nearly as hard. But the one who thinks that they themselves are the reason for everything good they have when they get tested, it's a weight that they can't carry. May Allah Allah protect us, it's a burden that they can't carry. So he walks in and says this. And then the next thing he says when I have a new Assata immotile I don't believe that that hour that you talked about, I don't think he's actually ever going to come. I mean, why this person is already in Jannah. Right? By the way that some scholars even wrote about the fact that the word gender means garden. So when you hear the word gender when
I'm reading it, it means obviously gender like heaven, but then also means gender like garden, it linguistically so Why did Allah use the example of men who owns a garden because he wanted his agenda here, not there.
Because he wanted to hear he got it here. But the problem was getting your agenda here in February. So some people want all of the afterlife blessings here. And Allah will give that like if that's what you want, Allah will give that some people say you don't Allah look at his brother. What do you say? I don't want it here. I want it there. I don't want his job. Now. I want you to Jana. I don't want some garden here. I want the garden there the garden agenda. So he says I don't think the Day of Judgment will ever come. Okay. Well, I included to Eli Robbie.
He then hired on min ha with that and if my Lord does return me back to him, that I will definitely get even better than what he's given me here. One tafsir was very scary. So this person he said, a rugby my Lord. So he's a what?
He's a bully. He has some sense of belief in God. This person is not like an abject atheist. Right?
This person's not like on Reddit all day.
This person actually believes in God. And so it's scary why for us, we're not immune to this. We're not immune. Like between federal and Dumber, we could definitely have these types of thoughts, right? But coming to roots and going back home, but we can definitely have these types of thoughts. So the believer never sees themselves as for some reason, fundamentally immune from the disease of the heart. In fact, the believer is kind of always on the lookout, right now, we don't let it paralyze us. And we don't say okay, I'm not going to leave my house. I'll tell you a funny story. Actually, there was a man who was so afraid of showing off you guys know what React is showing off.
React is when you do a deed that's supposed to be for Allah, but you do for other people. So someone gives sadaqa and instead of giving somebody for Allah, they want everyone to say what? Why? Masha? Allah? Yeah, that's good. But they want everyone to say, look at how generous that guy is. Okay, you're supposed to read the Quran for Allah. But for some people, they really are and they want what a beautiful voice, right? I'm gonna follow this guy on Instagram. What an incredible recitation. Some people they pray very long for a law, you're supposed to do that. But they want people to see look at that person praying. What is the heart? They always have a book with them, right? So yeah,
is when I do good deeds for other people. All right. Now, what's the what's like the extreme opposite of that? We don't want to do that. Okay, because that's a very, very serious problem. So there was a man one time, who he said, You know what, I'm so afraid of doing good. But doing it for the wrong intentions, that I'm never going to do good in public. And so he said, I'm not gonna go pray at the masjid. He's like, jump off for me, like, I'm sorry, Send my regards. I'm never gonna pray in public, he stopped. Because he was so petrified of this disease. And he's like, I'm not going to do this anymore.
He asked a scholar of his time.
What do you think of my solution to this problem of rehab, he said, instead of going out and praying, I pray everything at home. Instead of giving sadaqa I keep it and I don't give it I try my best. But I don't do anything good in public. The scholar said, what you're doing is actually showing off,
what you're doing is showing off, you are so concerned about people looking at you, that you have let that dictate now your entire life, you're concerned on one end, but that concern has bled over into the other end.
The solution to not showing off is stop worrying about what people think about you altogether. Don't worry if they praise you or criticize you do it for the sake of Allah. And don't worry about what people say. Because guess what, you're never going to have 100% of people agreeing with you. And you're never going to have 100% of people that go after you. There's always going to be people from both sides. Okay. So he says to this, and he believes in Allah, He has this issue, but it's a serious disease. That's that's crippling spiritually. And he says that if I am returned to my Lord, if I am, that, I realized that I will have a far better outcome than this. Now, he's saying this to
his friend. What would you guys say?
In this scenario, if you guys ever been given a really bitter advice before, raise your hand if someone's given you really better advice?
Now keep your hand up. Raise your hand. Seriously, no one. All right. Keep your hand up if their advice was right.
No, okay. All right. We have to process through that.
You know how to walk emammal design, he said something really powerful. Man, it was that he said, even the person who struggles with alcohol can tell you not to drink.
Even the one who struggles they're addicted to alcohol, they still can tell you not to drink. What's the first thing we say to somebody when they give us advice, but we don't see that they're necessarily following you. Look at you. Who are you to tell me? Right? Who are you to tell me? Hey, man, you know what you should really get get in shape. Join the Dallas Listen, running club.
I'm like you're part of the Dallas muscle sleeping club brother like
Saturday morning. Who are you to tell me no, you know what, regardless whether that person is sleeping, running, walking, brunching whatever they're doing that advice might be good advice. Right? Right. Yes or no? getting in shape getting healthy regardless of that person is not. Okay. Now there's a different disease of being a person that never does anything right and always tells people to do the right thing. That's that's for them to be worried about. Okay. Now, this is an interesting point. Because we have to get over the bitterness of good advice. We have to get over it. The amount of anxiety wrote look at you Whelan. He said that
at nussey. How to Santa said advice is easy. Everyone can give advice. Everyone can hear advice, right? Someone can tell you like
Hey, do this and you're like, you know what? Thanks high five and you just walk away. Let's see as easy. But he said what? He said that the difficulty the bitterness is an accepting it is an acting upon it. So this guy, his friend now who he thinks he's better than the one who's in need the one who's not doing very well financially, he's gonna offer some advice. I have number 37 Of all the levels are Hibou while he was well, who are you how?
He says to his friend, so his friend now chimes in he's been listening this whole time. Right now he says, I confer electronica. Did you seriously just say what you just said? Did you just disbelieve in the one that created you? How did he ever say that? I don't believe in Allah. By the way. Did he ever say that? I don't believe in Allah. What did he say? That's causing his friend to say man, which you said was really dangerous. And this is a big lesson here for us. By the way. What did he say? What one thing do you think he brought up? Yes.
The Day of Judgment. Okay, good. What else in the back of your head a little?
Yeah.
Very good. Both of you are right together actually. Because he says, I don't think the name does what's going to happen.
And then our youngest student here, mashallah said what? The fact that in his language you can hear that he doesn't believe that Allah created everything. He thinks he's the originator of this stuff. Okay. What is the lesson here? The lesson here is that disbelief and Allah is not always the most obvious thing. It's not always super obvious. Shaitan doesn't just show up to your face and say, Hey,
worship something else. Right? shutdowns. Not like, Hey, we're bound to an idle. No, there are steps to this man's game. Shavon has a method. He has a process. There's a very famous story about a person named BOCES. I don't wanna tell the whole story because it's very long. But this man, basically Sisa is found in the books of Hadith. He's from the pious people from Monday to swat you very pious person. Okay. Now, what about Sisa? Do mercy sad a neighbor, and the neighbor were few brothers and their sister. So these this, they had neighboring homes, few brothers, and they live with their sister. The few brothers went out on an expedition. And as they left, they kind of, you
know, announced that we were leaving, and we're leaving our sister at home. All right, now, but a seesaw was a very pious person. And initially,
when he saw that this woman was at home, he said to himself, like, it's not my business, man. Just don't, don't, don't engage, just leave her. She's fine. She can take care of herself. It is what it is. But then over time, he started having these inclinations and thoughts about well, maybe she's let me just need some food. Let me go drop off some food. There was no DoorDash. Right? So let me go drop it off. I'll be the DoorDash. So he went and dropped off some food, and then eventually grew to like, well, who likes to eat alone? You know, like, let's keep each other company, right. So he said, I'm gonna go and I'll eat with her and talk to her. And then eventually, he's like, it's kind
of it's kind of, you know, not nice to sit and eat outside, we should just go inside her house and sit and eat. And you guys see where this is going. Right? So eventually, all the steps took until when until they committed Zina. And out of that came a child. Now he was so he couldn't even like understand what happened. He was so overtake overtook, by his own guilt, and his aggression, that oppression of this person and the situation, that he actually ended up taking the life of this woman and the child and burying them. Because he was so concerned about his one reputation. How are people going to see me? So eventually, the brothers come back, they're told that your sister died
tragically from an illness and this and that, or whatever. But then the brothers all started to have this dream. And the dream takes them to the burial place of their sister, and the child.
And they go there, and they discover that in fact, it is their sister. So they go and they know that this man lied. They try him in court, he admits that he's guilty. The punishment is execution. Now, this is pretty horrific story, right? As it is yes.
He's standing there. He's sitting there on his knees, about to be executed.
And he's probably thinking like, what have I done to myself? What am I not? So Subhanallah a figure appears. And a figure this person out of nowhere as he's waiting for the, you know, the command and the finger says, My name is Elise.
I'm the one who got you into this. But I can get you out of it.
Do you want me to get you out of it?
So he's like, yes, of course, anything I'll do any
employee says, Okay, do one thing. And I'll save you from this.
And she says, Absolutely. If he says bow to me,
he bows and that's in the humanity, because life is good to see up until that point. He was a horrific sinner that did something really wrong. But he still had Iman.
And then at the end of that journey, Shavon got what he wanted. Shaitan wanted him eventually to leave a lot. But how did he start? He started by saying, just bring some food over to our house. I thought he's not a rookie. He's not a novice. He knows how to operate. So this guy
at the end denies a lot. What a big claim. But it started by saying what I look at how wealthy I am. Look at my garden. Look at my situation, because arrogance is an intoxicant. And when a person is drunk, they say things that don't make sense. But this drunkenness is not like alcohol. Alcohol eventually wears off. Arrogance does not wear off. it deteriorates the person's heart, their Eman, crumbles and falls apart. Right.
So then the, the friend says, almost shockingly to his brother, are you you seriously just uttered that? Imagine hearing someone that you grew up with saying these things? And so you know, I don't know if Allah actually exists? That's his reaction. Are you serious?
He says you're disbelieving in the One who created you mentor Robin Solomon Notes button, Formosa Wacka, Rafaela. You were created from dirt, and then from eventually fluid and then you were fashioned into this, like you were given all these capacities by who? You made yourself, you conceive yourself in the womb of your mother. See, Allah always goes back to the beginning, whenever any of us have that, that like problematic thought, Allah, you're allowed to have that. Let's just go back to the beat. Let's go back to the start. You had something to do with that. Right? I always love when people meet like new children like babies, right? And they'll say things that the parents
had nothing to do with like, mashallah, he's so tall, you guys know much a lot.
Like you do realize how genetics works, right?
Like, they had nothing to do with that people. People compliment my height as if it's an accomplishment.
Wow, good for you, man. Good for you. I'm like good for who? And you know what I mean? And on the airplane, I'm jealous of all the short people's patola I'm sitting there with my knees in the next row.
And then you got my wife who tried to sit in like all comfy like, she's in every every seat has business class for someone like her? Mashallah, right? So this man is asking this person like, you really think that you had something to do with that? No, no, no, you gotta wake up. You have to live your life constantly, in the reality of fact, which is what you are here.
As a result of the combination of so many things that you had nothing, no control over. And somehow you're here. And that's why the, the person who doesn't believe in God says Wow, the person who believes in Allah says hamdulillah
Hamdulillah. Okay. And then he says,
lacking, who Allah who would not be what should could be not be harder. He says II as far as me, he knows Allah will always be my Lord, and I will never ever associate anything with Him. Ever. The tafsir This is amazing. You know, sometimes we think to ourselves, that wealth would solve our problems. You guys agree? You've never had that thought before. Wealth would solve our problems. Like if I had money, I wouldn't have any issues. And there is some truth to that, because the prophets also did say that poverty, like really, really tough poverty can cause a person to struggle with their faith. And that's why Islam has what, two and a half percent every year, what do we have
is the guy you got to take care of people, because of a person can't pay the rent, eat dinner, they might not have the wherewithal to think about believing in Allah. It's just a it's a human reality. So Islam tells us everybody here and Muslims, that if you make above a certain amount, you have to give it away. You have to take care of each other. So the slammed doesn't just say, You know what? Don't worry about well, money's not important. No, right. It's always the millionaires who are saying that right? Money really doesn't make you happy.
Jeff Bezos telling everybody money doesn't make you happy, right? It's not It's not saying that it's never saying, look, there's a certain requirement that everybody has. Everyone needs to be able to eat everyone needs be able to sleep. Everyone needs people to have clothes, education. These are things that Islam tells us we have to maintain as a society as a Muslim community. But
But
there is a danger to living for acquiring more.
And this man says this statement, he says, you might see yourself as better off than me.
But he said, at the end of this day, even though I'm the one asking you for money, you know what, I'm not asking you for guidance. I have that. And I'm never going to lose that. Inshallah. That's what he's saying.
You know, you might be humbled in many ways, allow my humble you with your wealth, with your health with your Suit, personal situation. But if Allah has not tested your faith, you are truly in a wealthy situation. Like truly,
there are people that have massive amounts of wealth, but because there's an absence of purpose, they don't have what's needed to take care of that void. Right. This is how we learned from our Prophet Amazona. He was offered thrones, He was offered kingdoms, he was offered everything. And he slept on a strong mat to the point where when he woke up, he would have indentations on his side, many of us in here, if not all of us, live a much more luxurious life and the Prophet Muhammad has also added himself
3040 days without cooked meals, bread and oil and salt.
days walking around Medina, with his stomach growling you guys faceted you felt that you guys all hit your 5pm nap, anybody? All right, I was talking to some people. They're like, Listen, you got three minutes to talk to me because it's 457. Well know that when I'm fasting, I need sleep. Imagine that's your daily.
Imagine that's what you have to live. Okay, so he says that even though you see me as needy, he goes, I see you as the needy one.
I'm satisfied with a lot. Like the man I met Medina that schooled me. I saw him sitting on a cardboard box. I walked up to him and I said that, you know, do you have any any needs? Can I help you with anything? And he said, Where are you from? I said America, he's of course.
I just said to him, like, just look anything up. I'll go get it for you, whatever you need. And he looked at me, he looked at the green dome, under which the problem kind of sauce was buried.
And he said, You think I'm poor? You're poor?
He goes, I live here. Where do you live across America?
And he said exactly.
He said, Don't see any of us who live here in need. Because this is where we want to be. Even if it's on a cardboard box.
I've never cried harder and a little hurt on a Tuesday in my life. Okay. Some people just have it. What is that? What is that? What is that? So we were like, Whoa, how can he say that? Because he has clarity. He has clarity. I think because I have a wallet with credit cards, that I can help him. He's like you can't help me.
Don't walk up to me. You can help me you're the one that needs help. Don't think that because you can go pick up dinner right now that you're fine.
He's like I get to say sit down to my prophet every day.
I get to go and walk by and sit in front of his resting place and be with him. And when I die I'll be buried in the same graveyard as his family and his companions. Don't ask me if I need help. Do you need help?
Allah gives clarity Some people ask how long okay.
And then he tells his friend well Lola is difficult. Jana taka quilter, masha Allah. here's the here's the bitter piece. He goes my brother. It's not a problem that you have a nice garden. That's not sinful, that's sinful to have a nice garden. It's not sinful to have to work hard and to earn paychecks and to have nice things as our sinful he goes but you didn't even think to say Masha Allah Allah Quwata illa biLlah that this is what Allah wills and there is no strength or power but him Do you guys remember the beginning of the sutra? What was the statement that was forgotten to be said, what are the prophets? Don't forget to say, Inshallah, right. And now we're learning that a person
forgot to say what, masha Allah words matter. Words matter. My mom always used to say this to us. Hello, we walk in the house. What are you supposed to do when you walk in the house by the way? So everyone knows that one because the gin everyone knows that one. Right? Okay. Firstly, if it's been less than a while ago, okay. And I would walk in and be like, my mom's like, say it.
I'm like I said it. She's like, say it. I said in my heart. She's like, that's weird. Say it with your lips. Okay.
And it's interesting Subhanallah because there are studies done there are actual studies done that talk about the
benefit that a person can derive from things like self talk. People can lower their anxiety. People can diminish their worry people can take away their nervousness. We see it all the time demonstrated even in movies and TV shows someone's walking through an interview. What do they do? They look in the mirror and they say you got this? Right. There's an entire culture now people doing affirmations every morning. Right? We do have we have affirmations every morning? You know what they're called? The morning remember it says, I Scott ossabaw. The first thing we say we wake up is what sank All Praise be to the one who woke me up after he took my life.
Right where you lay him to shoot and my eventual return is to him. That's an affirmation. You're thanking Allah for life. You're not giving credit to yourself. You're saying what? You're affirming that Allah gave you that life back. Right? So he says when you walk into your garden when you walk into your house when you step into your car when you get dressed, when you feel nice. Instead of the first thing that you do is take a picture. Take a selfie
you can do that right we might have debate about how normal that is but you can do that. Right you know where you got your foot on the countertop because need to hold fit in the pit all right. But before you do that you have to first not look with your eyes but look with your heart and say Masha,
Masha Allah, Masha, Allah is one of the most beautiful phrases it literally means. This is what Allah wants. This is only by the will of Allah. This has nothing to do with me. You know why? Because you look beautiful, you look handsome, you look great, but you might get bumped into by a person carrying coffee in 30 seconds.
And that ruins now your entire day, your entire fit. The whole wedding that you're sitting at all you're worrying about is looking at googling how to get coffee out with a napkin.
And it ruined your entire vibe and you're like man, you know what saved you from that person caring coffee, that's shallow.
Right, you realize that Allah Tala is the one who will do that for you. And when you accept that La Quwata illa biLlah there's no strength except through Him. When you accept that then whatever follows is easy to accept. Because you reminded yourself at the beginning that I am riding this wave of destiny that Allah Tada as well. Okay.
He goes even though you see me inferior with money and with offspring, so we'll stop here in sha Allah, because we have wanted to make some dua while we're in the state of fasting on this blessed day of haram. So we have a couple of announcements that we want to make before we start in sha Allah number one is that water is going to be available to break your fast for me I was fasting on the way into the masjid for a moment okay, so most of it is in about what?
Three minutes so you can get it there inshallah food is going to be served after Salam. So we're not going to eat before prayer we need after inshallah Be patient. There's obviously mashallah a lot of people here we're so happy. We're honored and humbled to be able to be feeding everybody, just be patient because we have as many staff as we can, that are helping serve food in sha Allah, so just be patient in sha Allah. And you know, you can chat it up with some people while you wait in sha Allah Okay, so we're going to make dua O Allah we asked you Allah to accept from us or Allah we ask you to forgive us of our shortcomings and mistakes or Allah we asked you that whether or not we are
in the state of fasting today, oh Allah that you count this day upon us as a blessed day. Oh Allah, we asked you that everyone who is in this gathering or everyone who is watching online or everyone who's listening afterwards, oh Allah that you help them in their life, that you grant them blessings and openings, or Allah that you take away all the difficulties that you untangle all of the challenges that you give us the strength to be able to transcend anything that we are putting out oh, there are great tragedies that are occurring everyday Allah whether it be in our brothers and sisters in the US or whether it be in our brothers and sisters that are suffering from the drought
in Somalia yalla whether it be here in Dallas Yet Allah there are great tragedies happening all over the world and the solution yeah Allah the comfort and relief is only from you. Oh Allah, we seek it from you. Oh Allah we asked you to grant us that relief and tranquility. Oh Allah we asked you to grant our hearts a sense of contentment. Oh Allah we asked you to give our hearts contentment or Allah we asked you to make us happy with whatever it is that you have given us. Any difficulty that is in our life oh Allah we know that you are the only source of help and aid you know Allah we asked you to make our faith strong. We asked we keep already mountain strong yet Allah keep us on the
straight path Yet Allah Allah was on the day of judgment to be gathered by the Prophet SAW said Allah allow him to take us by the hand and to give us water from his heart of Cofely Allah allows us to be with him and gently Allah with all of our friends and all of our loved ones and everyone that we yearn for to be with the outline this life yeah, Allah allow us to be in paradise together. Yeah, Allah. Oh Allah many of us came here tonight. Either with friends or with family. Oh Allah allows us to be something that brings our homes closer together y'all Allah, Oh Allah allows us to be something that brings our community closer to you.
Oh Allah forgive us of our shortcomings all of our sins, Allah, those that we know of and those that we don't know of y'all know all I never
Let our tongues be dry from the remembrance of you. Never Let our hearts be dry from the remembrance of Allah always allow us to be in a state of vivid of remembering you are thanking you of worshiping you and oh Allah every single thing that we see in our lives that Allah allow us to remember that you are the ultimate source of all good that we have Allah please allow us to have this remembrance of all times you had a bit odd I mean Subhanak the homie who didn't either and stuff
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