Heartwork – Surah Kahf #12

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

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

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

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

This is allowed hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah who are other early he was having mine Welcome home, everybody. It's good to see how's everything under laughing? Okay. hamdulillah Hamdulillah. I

was recently with somebody. And you know, mashallah, they had a beautiful trait that I loved. You know, they, I was visiting them, because they had been through some tough times, like with health and career and stuff like that. And every time

every time they finish talking about one test, they finished with Hamdulillah. So he said, like, you know, yeah, I got diagnosed with this.

And then as a result, my insurance wouldn't cover it Hamblen, I had to leave my job. Hamdulillah he just kept saying hamdulillah from the law that was like his, sort of the way he tied up everything with a beautiful bow. And I thought to myself, like what an incredible heart this person has, that, you know, this is the Hadith of the Prophet saw some come to light, I demand the eminent movement. The prophets also have said, how amazing how wonderous is the the life and the affair of a believer, right that if something good happens, they're thankful, and if something bad happens, what their patient. So remember that you can always say to him that for every situation, and without trying to

sound too dismissive, because a lot of times we don't like to be dismissed. But in the right context, this advice, it makes a lot of sense. If you're not emotionally charged, and really upset, the advice makes sense, which is, it could always be worse. That's the advice that in the moment, it's not the wisest thing to say to somebody, you know, someone gets into a car accident, their cars totally like if at all, if you're worse, you can be totally right.

Maybe at that time is not the best thing to say, but the advice is still true. Right? So Hamdulillah we asked about how it's always make us grateful.

Okay, so we are hamdulillah going through sources. You know, I hope Inshallah, that as we're going through this, all the lessons and all the little reflections that we're sharing, I hope it's becoming like abundantly apparent why this chapter is recommended to be read every week. Not every surah in the Quran has a recommendation. Of course, you should be reading the Quran as much as you can. But there's not a whole lot of chapters where it's weekly regiment, right? There's not a lot.

You know, there's some that are they have different virtues to them. But this is being prescribed like every seven days, you should not let a week go by except that you read this chapter. And really, if you start from the beginning, the introduction, the first story, the intermission, the second story, now this, the lessons become so abundantly apparent that it's like it is timeless advice, universal advice, no one no matter how old you are, where you live, what situation you're in, is going to find this stuff irrelevant. And that's true today with today's passage as I was going through some of the Tafseer and reviewing it, I thought to myself how, how real is

Is this Subhan Allah? So if you remember, we just finished talking about the passage of the men, right one of them with the two gardens, okay. And it was a Jeeva, who was one of the great explainers of the Quran. And one of the great extractors of the lesson from the Quran, he actually said something really amazing. He said in this chapter and sort of kind of, he said, every time you finish one of the stories and it wraps up, whatever comes after that is going to be like a commentary on that story as well as the next transition to the next part. So whatever Allah subhanaw taala is revealing now these next few I add, it's important to tie it back to the story that we

read. Okay, so as I'm explaining today, I'm gonna make references so try to tie it together with me inshallah. So last week because of the weather we did I did it online anyone you guys able to catch that live? Anybody? Okay, not a lot. Let's do a brief lightning round of what we talked about in the last time. So Allah Tada he addressed the example of this life and he said that think about the example the parable this life in which what Allah Tada sends down rain, that rain causes vegetation to grow. And then after that, vegetation grows, everything scatters you guys remember this, things come to life, and then they

will die and then scattered, right? Yeah, things come to life. And then they die. Right? I'm not trying to this isn't like, that's a great clip just for Instagram, things come to light and then they die come to roots. Okay?

But no, it's the nature a lot, tada in his summary of the existence of things, things come to life, they flourish, and then they die. And then after they die, they become non existent, like they disappear. And Allah Tada here is demonstrating by this example, His perfect ability, his ability to cause things grow. And then the inability of every

time the inability of something to sustain itself without Allah, he mentioned, wealth and children. And he says that these are the two things that are the most beautiful aspects of life that a person acquires wealth, they work hard, they get what they want, right? They're looking for a job and they get the offer, they accept it. They, you know, start a family, they have children after trying and they finally are blessed with a child or two, or however many, these are the things that people really invest. And they really dig deep in their hearts for these things. And I love to audit he says that, yes, they are from the beautiful aspects of this life. However, they are fleeting, they

are temporary, the wealth you had, can go the children that you raised will leave you this is the nature of this life and Allah Tada says, What will stay with you are the about the Apple Saudi hats, those good deeds, those rights actions that are everlasting, then Allah Tada says, that on the Day of Judgment, those mountains that you see, not in Dallas, but when you travel somewhere that's picturesque. And you see mountains, you have this idea that that mountain is firm is stable, it doesn't move. And it's not light. And it's not, you know, it has substance. A mountain is something I mean, even in English, we say the phrase what a person can move what mountain when we talk about

someone's like effort, their ability to dig deep, and to really make change, we say what it's like moving mountains, this person can move mountains. So we understand even from the English language, American culture, that a mountain is something that is stable, it's permanent. So Allah to Allah says here that on that day, the day of judgment, you're going to see the mountains floating in the sky, and you say you don't do badly, they're going to be moving, they're going to be like a caravan. You know, if you guys are walking across like a long, long distance, and you see like a caravan going across the desert, it looks you can't even see the footsteps you just see motion, right. So

the mountains will be floating across the sky. And you will see the Earth Allah Tada says what it will be laid out bare, there will be no hills and valleys, nowhere to hide. People hide behind mountains, they hide in the crevices of the earth, everything will be flat and exposed. Every single thing. And he says that we will be gathering people on that day people will be gathered, and not a single person will be left behind. This is all on describing the Day of Judgment. In this life, when things are getting real. When things when accountability starts to come down and you get that email from your boss saying I need to meet you on Monday at 8am. Right? There's there's elements of okay,

well, how can I deflect How can I run away? How can I hide from this? Or even if I have to attend this meeting? Like how can I you know, distribute the blame to somebody else? Okay, if I'm on a team, it's like, alright, if I'm going down, everyone's going down with me. But Subhan Allah, Allah mentions on the Day of Judgment, this idea of loneliness, on the Day of Judgment, you will be isolated. There will be no one there to blame. Not even Shavon not even Satan, in all of his blame and all of his accountability with Allah. Even he will not be somebody that all of us can look to and say he did it. He's the one who distracted me. He's

The one who tempted me and gave me these No, because every person has their own responsibility to make the best decisions for themselves. So Allah continuously throughout the Quran mentioned this idea of being alone on the Day of Judgment, even those people that we love you only a federal multiple mn fe, well, what Mihaela V will saw he met up with any Allah to Allah says on that day people will be separated from their siblings, their brothers, their sisters, their parents, their children, their best friends, no one you won't have the ability to rely on anyone. Doesn't matter if you're nervous or scared or anything, no one will have the ability to rely on anyone may Allah to

Allah keep us company on that day. So then he says and people will be gathered in rows, people will be stepped up in rows. So it's not going to be chaotic. It's not going to be a day where no one knows what's going on. No, Allah will know exactly what's going on and out of reverence and fear. Everybody's gonna be lining up. Okay? I mean, if you got if you guys ever gone to like KFC and like Mecca,

or like gone to get fast food somewhere overseas, okay, who gets food?

The strongest first?

It's like a it's like an evolutionary it's like a biological evolutionary like experiment. Who can keep eating to keep themselves alive the strongest, loudest person Okay, so in the in the in the world in the dunya people are chaotic, and people climb ahead of one another you know sometimes in America we had this facade of like a work orderly were people that have order, wait till the red lights stop working. You see I see them blinking everyone's on their own they have to send the police person out here to like, you know, wave people through the nature of human beings is that naturally we are people that are we take what we can get, okay, might is right, on the Day of

Judgment. On a day when it's clear who's in charge, there will be no chaos. There will be no people rushing ahead doesn't know Allah to Allah says what? That people will be lined up before Allah in arose. And Allah to Allah will say to those people, that you have come back to me at this time, just like you came to me the first time. We've been through this before. But you tried to ignore that this happened. You tried to ignore that there was a day, the day of the meetup when Allah Tala gathered all the souls, every soul that existed is existing and will exist Allah gathered all the souls that have you tells us and he said, What LSVT have become, am I left last year Lord,

everybody, and everyone responded saying what? But absolutely. So the Fitts Law, the internal admission that every person has that we are a created creature, and that we have a sustainer whether or not we know all the Nonya names or the Quran or the every human being has the internal fits rather compass, the spiritual compass that Allah exists. And that is a that's a remnant of that day, the day where we all took that oath, the pre existing day of the promise was Allah subhanaw taala. And then Allah says in this is number 48. This is for those who just walked in, we're doing a little lightning round of what we covered last week online. Hola todos says that this is an appointment

that you tried to deny. You lived your whole life denying the appointment. Whether this is Allah taught us how to login, He created us didn't. We literally push off accountability in every facet? Whether it's like getting your passport renewed? Whether it's going to the dentist, right? I apologize if you're a dentist here. No one wants to go see you. Right. Okay. Whether it's getting a checkup getting your blood work done. I mean, how many times how many times have you guys rescheduled appointments? Yes or No? Is it a thing? And when do you when do you end up forcing yourself to bite the bullet and go

when you have no choice? Very good. So you know, my passports expired. I'm not traveling, and then all sudden you get this deal? $89 to Mexico, on spirit, right? You weigh it all out. You're like, listen,

it's might be a it's gonna be the last trip that I take, you know what I mean? Right? And you start in the oh, I have to get my passport renewed, and you rush, rush, rush, and then you got to, they tell you, you have to get an appointment and all this. And you're literally I mean, like Subhanallah people who have their life together, like Teach us how, because there is nothing more stressful than denying the inevitability. Think about the stress. On the Day of Judgment, that's going to be the greatest form of stress. How do you reduce that stress on the Day of Judgment, you begin to acknowledge it here, you acknowledge it here you acknowledge that there is going to come a time when

I have to meet Allah and I got to act accordingly. If I choose to continue to ignore that, then on the Day of Judgment, Allah is gonna say, you lived your life constantly telling yourself that this wasn't going to happen and now look where we are. One day you wake up and there it is. It's the day of judgment right? And so Allah Tada said, You promised you swore that there would never be an appointment, but here it is. And what's going to happen on that day well, will the Al Kitab fentanyl merge

The main aim of CCleaner min Mefi Allah Tada says everyone's books are going to be late open every book will be late open and the person the magician the it's you know means criminal right

they'll be struck with fear all of their record of deeds you know these two guys the angels on your shoulders that are writing everything and shall have the right one is busier than the left. Alright inshallah so everything will be laid open and what are we going to say you have to do and I have a letter you have a letter now, Mary had Quito the person is gonna be in shock. What is

this book went I've never seen this before. Maddie handle kita lay you audio Selena? tawag commutator Illa I saw her I have never seen someone like that personally staring at the pages and everything's here. Everything there are deep that even I forgot about that are here that are in this right now. There's nothing missing. So here's what that could be rotten. There's nothing small or large. That's you know, I didn't I didn't get lucky and in that Asada, except that it's present. Well what to do, man. I mean, it'll hardly at all. And I see every single thing that I did is here. Every single thing that I did is here, whether you have a limo, Rob Booker, I had that. And this is

the ultimate question, right? Realize that in this moment, Allah is not oppressive to anybody. Nobody is going to be able to say, oh, Allah, you mistakenly wrote this down or this.

Everything is going to be laid clear, right?

I used to wonder when I was younger, like how, you know, you have these questions like how's it possible? How's it gonna pop? And then Facebook memories came out?

Right? Like Snapchat and like all these like, Oh, this is what you did last year. This is what you did literally today. Well, lucky. I got one. This is what you were 10 years ago. And I forgot that that moment even happened. I forgot that I ate at that restaurant. How many deeds have we done and we accomplished that We completely forgot about now? The good deeds? That's good because it's a sign of your sincerity you do the good deed you move on. You know, you don't live your life waking up every day like oh, man, remember that one time? 15 years ago, I prayed. What a baller write your good deeds when you forget them? It's a sign of sincerity. Right? bad deeds when you forget them.

It's a sign of hypocrisy.

I beloved MOBOTIX he said that the person when they become lazy with their bad deeds, like they're still fun, it's one of the greatest signs of hypocrisy. That hypocrites meaning what it means that they don't actually live the faith that they claim to have. They don't actually live that face file may Allah protect us. So on that day, it's going to be basically as they say, it's going to get real and everything is going to be laid out in front of us and if you want to know more about that day, Wednesday night was shooting to fail and travel right is covering with the journey it's amazing material my wife gets to go I don't get to go because she has to go and we have children is not

responsible to leave a five year old at home, even played over dinner, but I hear I watch online and also my wife says it's remarkable so please, please make time to go Wednesday night to Charla just if you have to just listen to the summary of this and go in person to that inshallah. Okay, the next verse and number 50 This is all new. Now we haven't done this before. Allah Allah makes mention of a specific moment in time

where it was the little pop quiz. Where was the moment in which chiffon made his grave mistake in bliss made his great mistake? What moment in time was that?

Who knows?

When he didn't want when he didn't bow to Adam, okay, so Allah commanded who to bow to Adam. I believe we talked about this. He didn't commanded please, by the way at least was included Who do you command? Angels Very good. Okay. So he commanded you must trick me. He commanded the angels and Allah Tada says, with COVID-19 Mala it Katie wish to do the other Mufasa do it bliss can amelogenin for faster for an unbeliever btw, that and when it was commanded to the angels to bow, they all bowed except for in bliss. Now, clarification for everybody here. Those who know those who may not know it bliss was not an angel is not an angel. Okay, we don't have that in our theology. We don't

have the idea of a fallen angel. What do we know about Iblees? Allah says Cameleon Jin, he was from the jinn, who are the jinn

right next to you very good no who are the jinn

were the jinn I'm sorry, if you live alone. I'm sorry, I didn't have to be explicit about that. I'd be fine.

Who are the jinn

they're made of iron. Okay. Jen are made a fire. They're just another creation. You know, one of my teachers we were all like

She didn't tell us about the gin. He's like, they're just another creation. And we're like, that's not exciting. He's like, that is what it is like you made it more exciting in your head. There's no creation. The only thing about them like animals insects, right? Think about this, okay? The Jinn the thing that makes them so like, wow is that they're unseen, right? But like before microscopes and like electron like weren't like so many living bacteria like also unseen there's a lot of different organisms that are unseen to the naked eye and they're just from amongst them. So don't there's no reason to live your life in constant fear of jinn. Okay, remember Allah to Allah created

them just like He created you. And there are good Jinn as well right Jen are designed just like human beings they have freewill, they have the ability to choose to worship or to deny Allah and that's all we need to know again all let's dive into some that and Baba The reality is, these are things Allah never asked us to do. Allah did not ask us to write a dissertation on the jinn. So don't do it. And many of the things that you read about Jen if it's not coming directly from the Quran, or from the hadith is all speculation anyways, so many Oh, Jen, do this Jen do that. The reality is these a lot of them not all of them. Some of them are traditionally sourced, but a lot of

them are cultural. Like folktales. Okay, there's a lot so just make sure you check things up and remember, Allah Tada is more powerful than the jinn he created. Okay, remember, so I don't want anyone staring at the bedroom door tonight. Okay, just close your eyes and be okay.

So he was from the jinn. So what does this mean? Well, Allah is here clearly designating he was not an angel. What's the dream scene jen an angel.

Angels don't have the same freewill that we do and that Jinn do, okay, angels worship Allah, one of my shields. He says, When your use of angels when they worship Allah get the same feeling that you get when you eat delicious food.

And the nominal Rosati said, right when you hear that you're like, man I saw, right? angels worship along, they love it. angels worship Allah is delicious. It's sweet to them. It's easy for a person to kind of get down on themselves, you know, was it said no, no. He said, you actually have the potential to be better than the angels. And he said, Hear me out. He's a he's a logical masters that Hear me out. He said, Because angels don't have a choice. This is what they were created to do. You have a choice. If you choose to worship Allah, you have transcended, you have become better than the angels if you choose to worship Allah, because angels don't have a choice. In fact, angels are so

shocked by your existence that you choose. That what Allah to Allah was in this story when Allah was created creating Adam, the first human being, what did the angels say? They said, Are you going to create a creation? That's going to spill blood? And it's going to cause corruption on the earth? Are you going to like they weren't they weren't challenging a lot, but they were curious like, you have us when National Assembly will be handy going on Monday. Sula, we worship you, we praise you we do everything right. And they'll let someone in the outlet momella Tell him I know that what you don't know that in the heart of this person is human being as they struggle all day to do the right things

and make the right choices when they conquer their neffs and do something correct when they pray in that stairwell. And their coworker Josh says What are you looking for?

When that massage and if Josh when that moment happens, when that moment happens? You have shown what Allah one of the things that Allah was referring to, in the level Meloetta realize that when you make a good choice, you're proving in that moment what the angels didn't know that you have the ability to be close to Allah without being created for that without any help without having any will. So he says that for festa con m&e, Robbie, this is the moment of departure. Now again, it's easy for us to sit here and say, well, Shavon What a loser, right? Shaitan here is disobeying Allah. He's going against Allah's command. But Allah then asks a very important question. He says, if it's

a toughy view, effort to totally Luna who will reenter who will? Yeah, I mean, Dooney Are you going to take him triathlon? And his progeny? Don't worry about Sean's wife. That's not what we're talking about here. Right? How does he have progeny?

All you know, some of the scholars they said that this referencing of chiffons children is like, not literal in that sense, but there's all the different Shayateen so Allah is saying, Are you going to take him and his gang his progeny, as what Elia as close dear friends Minh Dooney as opposed to Allah to Allah.

Allah is asking us a very powerful question here. Because how many of you here can think to yourself yeah, I want to take shape on as a close friend

is shaped on like someone that is on your close friends list on Instagram? Does he see the green circle? No, no one here like no one who knows who shaitan is wants to be close to Trayvon? Yes. But does that mean that we're not?

No.

So there's a really interesting challenge here as Paola.

There's a really interesting challenge. Even no claim talks about this. And he says that when it comes to people who are close to ShaVonne, there's generally like two camps. Okay? There's one where the people that

may Allah protect us they actually want to, they actually embrace it. They're like, we know that this is wrong, we know it's immoral. We know that stealing is bad. We know lying is bad. We know that Backbiting is bad. But we don't care. We want to be doing this, okay, we want to be doing this. And if not, I am says, you know, this is it is what it is, you know, how are you supposed to? How can a person rectify somebody else when this is the situation? So that person is kind of like almost they've written their own destiny, that they've chosen this path. But he says, The second category, which is way more common, that one's a little rare, way more common. The second one, and way more

challenging? Are the people who make claims against shape on but then do exactly what shape on once. You guys want to talk about?

Because

people are like, I hate drama. But I got some tea.

Right? Oh my gosh, right. I hate liars. But then when it comes to you, you start to lie.

This is the second category. Right? The person who talks about modesty, modesty, modesty, and then they look at pornography.

What kind of what kind of heart is that? Right? What kind of believing person can manipulate it's someone that's they're like tricking their own cells. This is why when Allah Todd ever talks about this person, he says you've oppressed yourself, you know, these are valid May Allah guide also says you played yourself. This is like the ultimate version of playing yourself. The ultimate version? Can you imagine being somebody on the Day of Judgment, that you thought for a fact that you were following this like narrative of piety? And then when you look back at your deeds, what will the archetype it's open in front of you, you see everything. And it goes exactly opposite of everything

you thought you stood for.

This is the second category. So when Allah is asking this question is not being super literal. Yes, good question.

Good question. What if someone's doing it unconsciously? There's a difference of understanding about what unconscious means, right? So there's two levels of unconscious when, when when someone is not doing something consciously, right or subconsciously? Number one is that it truly is, and always has been, it has evaded their awareness. Okay. So an example that I'll use is like when you teach children what lying is they don't know what lying is. You just say you brush your teeth. Oh, yes.

Right. And you're like, You're lying. going with that. So that is genuine, innocent. Like, mistake. That's a genuine, innocent mistake. And you won't ever hear like Miss A prayer genuinely. Like you thought you had more time. And then you're like, Yeah, we have one.

Right? Of course, it happens. Anyone here like set your alarm for Federer drank a ton of water, slept on the floor, turn the AC off. You did all the steps and you wake up and it's like,

it happens. Look, it happened. And this is why the prophets awesome said what about this action. He said, If a person genuinely makes the intention takes the means for something and they're not able to do it. They're still rewarded. And they're not held to account. Okay. But there's another level of subconscious, which is it's so frequent, that at one point, it was novel, and now it's lost its novelty. Now, it's a part of who I am. These are not forgotten. So I the first time that I lied, I got nervous. Right, sweating, right? I was my eyes were dilated, my heart was beating, right, all the normal reactions, by the way. And then I got away with it, or I was able to divert my punishment

by consequence in that in that in that worldly situation. So then what do I do? Well, if I win, I'm going to keep lying, right? Because I learned that you know what, I can lie, and I can get what I want my life. I don't actually have to do something, I don't have to go through the difficulty of doing something, I'm going to just lie. So that I lie again, and again, and again and again and again. Eventually, what's going to come out of my mouth without me realizing our lies. This happened to fit down for now on in order to convince people that He was God, he would take their sick cow this is an getting confused with that. Let me know when they had, he says he would take their sick

cows. He would take them he would say I'm going to cure them on God. And I'll put them on Isla. And he would take them in and his court of like these, you know, scholars slash whatever, like magicians, they would take the cow back, they would look in the fields that they have the stock and they would find the cow that looks similar, and they were replaced and cured. Right? This is actually a narration and B that went ahead. So eventually what happened was, he did this like all year long. They got to a point

where they ran out of cows because eventually you're gonna have all these sick cows Machado, right in the back was poor sick cows like coughing, and then you're gonna have all your healthy cows gone. So these people came, they announced, come come to the quarter for an hour and bring your sick animals we will, we will cure them as soon as they repair, we will cure them. And then eventually his scholarly board said to him, Hey, don't do this. We ran out of cows. We don't have cattle with us. What do you mean, we don't have cows? What do I care that

none of this is actually I care them and they looked at each other like, Oh, no. Like he's become so steeped in His own and His own dead heart that he actually believes his own life. So when that happens, the person cannot say Well, I'm not aware. No, no, no, you're not aware because you made this your new normal. There's a difference between making something a new normal, and something genuinely being outside of the realm. If I keep missing prayer, because I skip it. That's my new normal that's on me. But if I genuinely didn't know what time or whatever, that's its own experience. May Allah Tada. Give us Sofia Charla. Okay. So, these people, right, where was I going

with that? Before the question, I forgot everything themselves. Yeah, they're playing themselves very good. DJ Khaled. Elijah de mer Jimmy entre trial. Okay. So I pray all the time, pray when I walked in here. Okay.

So,

so yes. So the interesting part is the second group, the one who says, You know what, I truly, truly believe this is wrong, but then my actions don't line up with that. What is Allah saying a lot of saying that if you fall into that category, without realizing it, you're actually taking chiffon as your guide, like shaitan is teaching you, and everything you're learning is that this is a description of human beings. What happens with us when we do these things, is that we start to sort of trick ourselves, when we start to tell ourselves and we give ourselves a lot of excuses. We give ourselves a lot of loopholes, and we say, You know what, it's okay for me. We shouldn't lie. But my

situation is different. Right? We shouldn't do this before marriage, but my situation is different. Right? Everyone's got a different circumstance. The minute we start to rationalize, why are situations different, who are we imitating?

That's what he did. Allah said, do something. And he said, Wait, hold on. Let's talk about this. I have some different thoughts. Okay. When the command is given to bow to prostrate, there is no room for Stefan to say, is this, you know, Can I can I offer my suggestions? And how many of us when Allah tells us like, do this great bath, do this? There's a lot of conversation even internally about okay, well, what can I do for this or that? Right? Be careful where you run your risk from? Right, you got a job offer from Anheuser Busch.

I'm happy no one here knows what that is. Okay, I'll probably can

you get a job you think, you know, well, technically, I worked in the Outreach Department. And we're like, you know, we make non alcoholic stuff and we go to schools and ways and he's trying to find loopholes and loopholes to find your way now don't get me wrong. There are some situations that do need consultation with scholars to figure out genuinely what the situation is. But man there's a lot that are pretty open shut. There's a lot that are pretty much there. And you know, in your heart the prophets also said whatever rattles your heart is a sign that it's not the right choice. Right but not the sick heart because a sick heart never gets rattled.

Only the heart of the person that wants to come close to Allah feels the irritation feels that shaking We ask Allah to Allah, he was helping us okay. So he says what he says that you take them as your as your partner, okay?

What whom let them do one. And he is actually your enemy. Like you took him as your you guys ever watched a movie before where there's a plot twist at the end. That guy who you thought was like on the on the good side ended up being like the cause of all of the destruction. That Shavon Shavon is gone. We talked about Barcelona two weeks ago. shaytans goal is to do the ultimate plot twist on everybody. Shaitan his goal is to make everybody feel comfortable with him. And then at the very end is to ruin your existence, not ruin your life. ruin your afterlife. Shot I thought doesn't want to ruin your life. He wants you to have a great life. But in exchange for that great life, he wants you

to completely forget about your afterlife, which is the real life okay. Bitsa live Valentina motherland. Allah says men so unfortunate, what a horrible exchange that is what a horrible deal that is. It's like buying something and realizing you know those people on eBay who used to sell back in the day like PS fours you guys ever heard about this before? This a ps4 new box

and they were charged $500 How many you guys would buy that? You know what they forgot to write new inbox. So the first one spent 500 bucks them getting a new console. And they would get the box would come to like this is really light.

They will open it and it was a new box.

and some dude just made 500 bucks. And he's like, I'm doing that right because he's probably millstone around God.

Forgive us

but you don't talk about imagine how fast your heart would sink imagine how fast your heart would think you guys saw those tic TOCs or someone's I found a great deal got duped right in that lady's voice the automated robot voice never doing this again right? And you think to yourself, Man, how horrible would that feeling be imagine the danger of not showing up and shake hands like got you the whole time I got you. You thought you were doing the right thing you thought you were this you thought you were in that I had you the whole time I had you on string was dragging you along? Okay.

Allah Tala addresses now in the next verse number 51. When he talks about those people that denied the existence of Allah, he asked a really amazing question. If you have the audacity to deny the existence of God and this whole paradigm, he says, I did not you weren't there to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth. He says, Man, I had to one click because somehow it will out. You were not there to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth, what I felt and foresee him nor even your own creation. Okay. And he said that I would never have taken any of the Miss guiders any of those people who are misguided as assistants, the Tafseer of this something really beautiful.

Allah Tada uses this as an example why? Why do you think Allah Tala is talking to those who deny him and he's saying you weren't there, the thing you're denying you weren't there.

Because these people this Christ will say, You know what, Allah did not create us. Allah did not create the world, He did not create us to worship Him. So Allah saying, wait a minute, were you there?

You were there when you were afraid? So if I didn't create you, you know who did? Why would ALLAH ask this question?

And the ideas and your reflections on this

to show your own lack of awareness on something so critical to you, like you don't even know where you came from? Or how you came to be? You just know the existence.

And, and you had what? All the while

you have confidence. Very good, excellent. Masha. Allah See, this is by the way. Are you like, are you scholarships here? Yeah. This is an example of what reflection does. If you open up the floor, and you really reflect, like, no one's asking you to pull rulings, right? We're not doing that to us. Right. Come to my house. That was Friday night. This is just reflection. Allah is challenging the person you so confidently, you so blatantly had such strong opinions about something and you weren't even there. How's that restaurant? Oh, horrible. When do you know never been?

What? Why are you so why are you so like aggressive than about your opinions? Well, I just have aggressive opinions.

When the people deny Allah, He says, Hold on, show me when you were there, show me that you were there. And then we can have a conversation. He said, You don't even qualify to have a conversation about the creation of the heavens and the earth. Right? You don't qualify? Were you there? No, you weren't there. Okay. So your lack of existence is proof that you are subordinate to something. Because when people want to do what they want, this is a very, very important conversation to have. Many people struggle with belief in God yes or no?

Okay, statistically, right. The there are Islamic, you know, think tanks, Islamic ones that do research and surveys about why people reject Allah, it's, it's, it's a common thing that people experience. Many, I would say four out of five, or five out of six, high percentage, they reject a lot because of some experience they had, whether it's family or religious, okay, and it leaves them to resent the entire religion as a whole. And they say, You know what, I don't know if I want to be a part of this. Okay, this is a one category. There's a much smaller category, but it still exists, of people that genuinely genuinely, they didn't have a negative experience, per se. But they are so

hyper skeptical of the entire picture that they say, You know what, I don't know if I can accept this. I don't know if I can submit to this because why? Because I don't have sufficient enough proof to make me feel comfortable with it. You guys are gone. What's the difference? The first group is what they have bad experience. The second group actually has like deep, deep hyper skeptical thoughts about Islam. Both of them exist right? Now, I'm not here to call out anybody I'm just saying from the surveys that have been given all right.

What's interesting is that when people have issues believing in God, what are some of the main proofs that bring up anybody? Let's do a lightning round.

This is Casio. Very good can't see him. Right? What else?

stop suffering. Okay, what else?

Those two. Why did bad things happen to good? Okay, what about things happening to people suffering kind of Yeah. And well,

Big Bang. Is that that drinkin hildren?

No big bang, right science, right? Yes.

So religions, how do we how many? How do we know if my religion is correct? Okay. Anyone else?

creation of God, freewill. Very good. Okay. Hmm. Religion is evil. It's meant to control people this and that. Okay? Not capitalism, religion. So what SubhanAllah? What is the common thread between all of these doubts in these in these contentions? I should say contentions against religion or against scripture is there are many elements of knowledge that are that we don't have that we are, we don't know, how can I submit to something that I'm not certain about? And when I talk to people like this, by the way, genuinely a lot of a very sincere. So you know what I'm willing to submit? I just need to be convinced. I need to be convinced. So I say okay, that's fine. When you get on a plane, do you

say that you have to meet the pilot and see their credentials?

I'm willing to fly, but I got to see your credentials. When you guys came into the building tonight, you checked for the certificate of occupancy?

No, anyone here make sure that the plumber was licensed, who installed all the time is running above your head right now? Do you have? Right? Could you imagine if they weren't anyone here check to make sure the electrician was actually bonded before they installed this stuff. Anybody? When you bought your car? Did you go to the plant to make sure it was it was assembled properly? No. So we have no problem accepting things that we can't see. Right? True or False? Okay, what's the issue?

We don't like being told what's right and wrong.

That's the issue.

The car company doesn't tell us what we can and can't do. The pilot doesn't say that this is haram and halal.

That everything steps away from morality. The minute we are told that this is something allowed for you and not allowed for you. That's when we say whoa, hold up. Show me that your God.

You want to be in charge of me show me that you're God. And then I will listen to you. So Allah Tada says, you weren't there.

You don't have the credentials to even question this and you have no problem questioning anything else you just want to do what you want to do. The real problem is everybody wants to do what they want to do. And no one wants to change their behavior for anybody. When Allah Tada here makes clear in the Surah, and all the others that you know what this path that I've laid down for you.

It's not to make your life difficult. No, in fact, it's to make your life easy. I'm teaching you to be a righteous person to make your life easy to make your life better to give you a higher quality of life and its subsequent afterlife. We'll pray in a few minutes in sha Allah just me wrap up this passage. Okay. And then he says, On that day, he will call he will call it to everybody you only have blue Allah title will say to everybody what call all of your partners who you claim to have with me, call them whoever you put in front of me call them now a lot of modern contemporary Muslims we feel safe when we talk about idols. We're like how I'm dilla I'm not that dumb, right? I'm not

like Polish worshipping stones of Horus and this and that. I those are different. Idols may not be made of stone now but they exist. Right? We even have a TV show where a bunch of horrible singers get on TV and and embarrass themselves right American Idol. My mom, by the way, we were kids was like, stop and Allah is the right. option for what is this disgusting thing? She's an idol. Idol. Right.

Now my mom knows English words like that *.

Right. And again, it's interesting, right? So I don't know. It's in some ways I'll never forget, man. I used to think that was a little over the top. And then I met people, you know, like who saw like,

like, they got something signed by like a celebrity. There's one kid that I met. He was a huge, huge Michael Jordan fan. And he got something signed. My mind was blown. He was He's my idol. And he kissed it. And he put it on his forehead. And I'm only see people do that with him.

I was like, dang, she was right. Like, my mom's legit called that 20 years ago, she was like, No, don't use that word. The idea is that we have different things. Idolatry just means that you devote yourself to something.

So on that day, Allah will say, Hey, I'm gonna go ahead and call everything else that you skipped Salah for. Call that and see if that thing can give you genuine go ahead and just call whatever it is. Was it work? was a family was it movies was a game? What was it? What was it that caused you to skip stop? Call it bring it here and ask it for agenda.

And then on the dam. Oh Allah like I

was speechless. Like there's nothing I can't that's not how I look. Exactly. Exactly. So he just called

all the partners we would have claimed and invoke them but Allah says what they want to respond for let Mr. De boo they'll be sitting there silent. And Allah titles they as a result of that they will be put into the value of destruction a lot out of hope of all the idols that people had everything that they devoted before him they'll be putting they'll be destroyed in the valley of destruction. What meant a lot to us is what I'm going through the majority Munna and now all of those criminals all those people that disobeyed Allah that did not repent May Allah Tada stages from this group I don't want to be here I don't want to see this many people want to see it like it I don't want to

see anything one of the drives my teacher used to make was all adult let me see the fire don't let me hear the fire don't let me smell the fire don't even know the fire exists on the data. Take me away from everything that has to do with fire. What are we going to remove and now that on that day the magician the criminal will see the knob right and he will what and he will be certain that

diminishes he says well I thought so rough enough. He had a plan didn't ask him in cooling method for can in several extra shade in general. A lot houses this man has an example. And there's so many different examples within this Quran that every single person in this room can open up the most half can read the translation and can say man that really hits that's really striking a chord Did you guys have had that experience? You listen to like some lecture where you read the most and you're like, This is speaking oddly to me. This is like connecting with me in such a real way right now. Allah Tada says this is the nature this is the result of the Quran. It's so beautifully diverse,

that no matter what stage of your journey you're at, man today, I was getting my hair cut by a brother that's not Muslim yet.

Okay, US has been working on it for a minute, right? So I'm talking to him. And we're talking about like, you know, we're talking about kids and all this kind of stuff. And you know, he's not Muslim, so he drinks a little bit, right? He's like, What does your religion say about alcohol?

I was like, you know, it's wrong. I was like, well, let's talk about God being one again.

Now when we talked about some things, man, we were talking about just like the idea of taking care of the poor that was a big thing for him. Because he was like, you know, what is your religion say about charity? And I was like, you know, the Quran constantly mentioned taking care of the poor the orphan the widow those who don't have food, those who need well, those who need help. I was like, it's one of the pillars of belief you can't be a Muslim if you don't take care of people. But he was like man is so dope but he and then we kept going and going and going and I'm thinking to myself, Man, this guy I'm not even it's not me I'm just telling him verses I'm just translating verses for

him right

clean my hair he

will lay the other Wallahi you see the right use word

right, and he will let you sign up. Okay, so we taught and I said to myself as I was leaving

like, I was like, he definitely cut my beard a little too short, but

change my thoughts apparently over over the afternoon. I said I said myself Paola, how relevant is the Quran to every living being.

Like you don't even have to be Muslim. To open the Quran and be like, This is amazing.

He's not Muslim, this guy's not yet.

And he just kind of Tafseer less than an hour long hair cut, you got to see your lesson. And he's like, maybe he's a better person as a result of hearing the plan. This is all his problems. Allah says you want to find what you need in the Quran. Don't ever discount yourself oh I'm too new oh I don't know Arabic well I can't understand or know the Quran Imam so UT and others they say it has like hundreds of layers just because you don't can't access to see and this and that and then you can you can dive right in. Now again, rulings all that maybe not but reflections a shot up, reminders, everybody, everybody can go into that. But then Allah said the only person that will

resist there's one kind of person that will resist. He says what kind of insanity epithet Akshay engender, the person who has in their view?

airy bones and argumentative DNA, everything that is said to them but But what about what about right? He says in order for you to benefit from this book

just read, read, reflect, think apply don't fight back.

You know Allah gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason listen and be quiet. If you're constantly pushing back on everything how will you give your heart time to let the message sink in? Right let the water like you put your water your plant let the water sink into the soil.

Okay, let that happen. We ask God to allow us to be from those people. That when we read the Quran we let it sit in. We asked Allah to Allah to allow us to benefit from these examples we ask Allah to Allah to save us from the hellfire. We ask Allah to Allah to make us people that never see never hear never experience never feel never smelled anything that to do with the hellfire. Oh Allah many of us have sins that we are ashamed of. Oh Allah forgive us for those mistakes. Well Allah many of us have mistakes that we commit that we forgot Oh Allah please forgive us for those mistakes. Oh Allah many of us have good deeds that we have bankrupt because we sought reputation Allah forgive us

for that mistake. Oh Allah many of us struggle with doing the right thing oh Allah give us the courage and strength to always do the right thing all along the day where everyone is running from each other allow the Prophet saw somebody to take us by the hand. Oh Allah allow us to reach the highest levels of paradise and to be with the Prophet SAW Selim with him in those levels. Yeah, blah. Oh, well. Oh Allah allow us to be able to transcend all of the difficulties that we have in this life. Oh Allah, please untie all of the difficulties we experienced in this life. A lot anyone is sick of them she thought, Oh Allah if anyone is scared give them courage or Allah if anyone is

overwhelmed give them ease or Allah if anyone is anxious give them relief. Oh love anyone is sad give them happiness. Or love anyone who's lonely give them company all off anyone who's hungry getting them food got a bit odd I mean, and for everyone that we've forgotten our dogs because we are deficient. Oh Allah, you know, surely who needs your help? Oh, Lord Grantham, your assistance. I mean, I mean, I mean, Subhan Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah and myself are going to relate to that. Okay, and everybody will see you in sha Allah. So I'm like workflow cats.