Abdul Nasir Jangda – Iant Youth Presents An Attitude Of Gratitude With
AI: Summary ©
The importance of intentions and actions in building relationships with Allah is discussed, as well as the importance of having good hair and eyesight for one's success in business. They stress the need for individuals to be grateful to Allah and protecting themselves from negative influences and learning to be grateful to protect themselves from future similar charges. The rise in cost of credit card debt and the need for people to be conscious of their spending is also discussed. The importance of being aware of negative consequences of COVID 19 and practicing social distancing is emphasized, along with the benefits of working from home and having a sense of purpose and purposeless work.
AI: Summary ©
Oh,
shame on you.
But we're here in a machete we're in the house of Allah. And we're here to talk about our relationship with Allah, we're here to talk about how to better our relationship with a lion. That's a, that's a real huge blessing of Allah subhanaw taala. And you know, these types of moments are reminders and of, you know, the the hope that is always there, and how people sincerely truly want to better themselves want to improve themselves and Allah subhanaw taala, as long as there's a group of sincere people, one of my teachers always used to tell us that his teacher told him, and it was kind of like a piece of wisdom that was passed on from generation to generation. They said, whenever
a group of Muslims whenever a group of people who believe in Allah, and sincerely want good for themselves, for the community, for the oma for humanity, Allah will facilitate it. There's a beautiful Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam that says Nia to mean hydro minimally, the intention of a believer is better than his action. Think about that. Now. The in that the intention of a believer is better than his or her action. And we're used to quite the opposite, right? Like it's it's action that matters, doing something good is what matters. You can have good intentions all day long. But the profits a lot. He said, I'm saying that the intention is better than the
action, what he means as he that the intention a lot of times can be more powerful than the actions of a believer. Because I can be sitting here. Hey, guys, am I okay to start? Okay. All right. So they just kind of walked off, going to get free hot chocolate. So, but I can be sitting here doing what's in my capacity. I am a singular human being, you know, maybe we're what, 100 150 people in a room, in a city in America, in the world? I mean, how much could we really accomplish. But if we had good, sincere, strong intentions, our intentions could be global, for the local work that we're doing and Allah subhanaw taala by means of that sincerity of that intention, could make a lot more
possible than we would be able to accomplish at our own small little level that we work at. So Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salam ala rasulillah, while Allah He was married, so the topic of the program is about gratitude, having an attitude of gratitude. I wanted to start by telling a story that the Prophet of Allah sallallahu Sallam told us this story is mentioned in Bukhari and Muslim. It's narrated by Abu Zubaydah or the Allahu anhu. He says that I heard the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam telling us a story. He said, in a philosophy, Bani Israel in that there were three people in Israel, he, one person was inflicted with
a skin disorder or a skin disease, to the point where that person had rashes and blemishes all over their skin. The word specifically a lot of times is used for the pigmentation issue people can have, but it's a little more severe than that. So maybe along with like the pigmentation issue where the skin is, you know, loses its color in a lot of places. And on top of that, generally speaking, the person must have had dryness and rashes and things like that. So the person had really bad skin.
The second person is described as being not just simply bald, because there's nothing wrong with being bald right, Ollie? All right, but
I had to do something comes up here and makes this terrible jokes. But uh, so but it's LLP show where a person just cannot grow hair.
A person physically does not grow any hair at all, not on their face, not on their head, not on their body, no nothing. So we're not talking about no eyebrows, no nothing. And so that can sometimes be a very odd appearance, and can make a person feel very self conscious of who they are, and what their condition is, and the third person was blind.
And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam uses these very specific examples, because there's so much wisdom in this that we'll talk about it we'll explore the wisdom of this in just a minute. So there are these these three people first person's got bad skin, second person doesn't grow any hair. And the third person is blind Amma, the third person is blind for our other level and you have to and you have to do whom Allah subhanaw taala intended to test these people. Allah wanted to test these people. So he sent an angel to them. So this angel
First comes to the person with the really bad skin and says, ha in the clinic, what would you like? What What would you want the most in this entire world? What is the most beloved thing to you in this entire world? So the person obviously, Lee said Loenen has an agenda and hasn't, I want to have good color, like, like, I want to be properly, like, have a decent color to my skin, and I want to have decent, healthy skin. I have rashes and boils and things like that. And it makes me very despised by people. People turn me away. And he says, Well, you have to have won me Allah de patata. Rania and NASA. And he says that that thing that has made me so disgusting to so many people would
be taken away from everybody calm down, saying, Oh, my niece just walked in. She's like, Mahmoud Mahmoud. She's really excited. So, um, so getting back to the story about the guy with terrible skin. So the the man, the angel says, what, what do you want in this world, and he said, I just want to have good, decent, healthy skin, so that I'm not, people are not disgusted by me. People don't hate me and despise me.
So the angel reaches out, and basically, he just puts his hand on him. The angel reaches out and puts his hand on the man, forget that.
We're all alone and has an agenda and hasn't. And the man's disease, whatever the problem was, was gone. And all of a sudden, you had healthy, even toned skin.
He looked great. He had exactly what he wanted. So then the angel asks him for a humanity. Now this talks about another reality. Well, because of maybe that person not being very appealing in their in that person's look, and having the skin issues and the skin problems that he had, that must have led to a little bit of a problem since people hated him. Were disgusted by him. People had shunned him. And so because of that, he was also bored. He didn't have a lot of money is very, very poor.
So then he asks him, he goes, what type of money would you love the most? Like, what type of wealth Would you like to have? He said, I want camels.
I want camels. camels are a very valuable commodity. I would love to have a bunch of camels. So then the man, the angel gives him a camel, and it was actually a pregnancy camel. And then he tells him barakallahu li ha, may God give you a lot of blessing in this camel.
Now the angel moves on to the second person, he approaches the man who doesn't grow any hair.
And he asked him the same question. He goes, What do you want? And he says, Sharon Hudson, I want a nice head of hair. Like I want to be able to grow hair, I want to look normal. I'm a young man. And I don't even have eyebrows. Like I want to have hair I want to look normal. I don't want to look, you know, odd and strange amongst the people. So similarly, the angel reaches out and touches this gentleman.
And he's blessed with beautiful, great hair. He's normal now. And then similarly, he asks him He goes, what type of wealth would you like he goes, I'm into cattle livestock. I've always thought that would be a great business, but I've been too poor. I don't have any livestock. I don't have any camel. Cows like cattle, I can't afford it. So then the man the angel gives the man with now the hair he gives him a pregnant
cow, a cow that is expecting and he same same thing. He says barakallahu *. May God put a lot of blessing in this for you.
Then he goes on to the blind man. And he asked the blind man, what would you like more than anything else in this world? And he said, I just want to be able to see,
I want the gift of eyesight, so that I can look at people's faces, I can appreciate the beauty and the magnificence of Allah's creation. I can be more independent and live my life in a meaningful, dignified manner. I want to be able to see, so the angel reaches out and touches this man and other men can see. And then he asks him, he goes, what type of money what type of wealth business would you like? And he says, I would like to have goats.
I'd like to go into the business of goats, raising goats and milking them and selling them and, you know, providing me to audit all that kind of stuff. So I'd like to be in the business of goats. So he goes similarly, he gives him a goat. That is that was expecting.
And he says, My God put blessing for you in this wealth in this business.
And the story goes on to say that
Fantasia
honey, we're willing to Heather polyphor Kennedy has a word to mean even when he heard that word a minute back when he had the middle ohana. And some time went by. And before you knew it, the man the first man who had the skin problem now he owned an entire valley full of camels.
A whole valley full of camels which basically means he owned like imagine like a big old just a camel ranch a camel farm, hundreds and hundreds of camels. I mean think about how wealthy somebody would be.
Hey, y'all
Hi.
All right.
So shala salata, Asia, they're telling me is that eight o'clock inshallah, so we still got some time, so there doesn't need to be any panic inshallah. So as I was saying, after some time passed, now, the this first gentleman has hundreds and hundreds of camels, so you can imagine how wealthy he is. This somebody who's very, very wealthy, extremely rich. The second guy has a whole valley full of livestock, you know, a whole valley full of cattle. So you can imagine, again, how wealthy this person is, the third guy has a whole valley full of goats and sheep. So extremely wealthy. Now, so now all three of them are perfectly good, you know, the, whether it be the skin or the hair or the
eyesight, and on top of that, they're wealthy and they're rich. Now, after some time, the angel returns back to
the first person.
And
he comes back to the first person who had a skin problem
previously, in the shape and form of someone who also has a similar skin problem.
He comes back to him as somebody who has similar skin problem like his skin is just really bad shape. And on top of that, he comes in torn, tattered clothes.
And he seems like he's very poor. And he comes to him and he says Rajan miskeen
for the Inka Tod v lg belfie safaree. For la palabra de Leon in La Bella he sama big as alucabond lady are talking lonehill Hassan welgevonden Hassan well, man, Baron de Bella Hua Li fi Safari. He says, Look, I'm a very poor man. I'm on a journey. These mountains have come in the way of my journey. And it's very difficult for me to cross through these mountains. And I don't have anything else. And I have no way to reach back to where I have no way to reach where I'm going. My destination other than a lot and then you dear sir,
you're the after Allah it is you that I'm turning to. So is it possible for
You I asked you, for the sake of the one who has given you this beautiful skin, this beautiful handsome color that you have. I'm asking you based on the one who has made you so wealthy and rich, that you have a whole valley full of camels. Do you think maybe you'd be able to spare one small little camel that I could use as transportation be able to reach where I have to go?
The man says aloo kathira. which literally means I got a lot of bills to pay brother.
Allahu kathira literally means I got a lot of bills to pay.
The rent is too high. Right? I got a lot of bills to pay. And he says I there's nothing that I can really spare for you.
So the man says gun, the Audi fuka. He goes, You know what, sir? The poor man the angel, undercover Angel. He says, sir, you look familiar. Have I ever met you before? He says Didn't you used to also have really bad skin? And people used to hate you and despise you and push you away because of this.
And you used to be poor. But then Allah gave you all of this wealth that I see here today? He says no, no, no, no, no, you must be thinking about somebody else in NEMA. What is to have a mother, cabinet and cabinet in. He goes, I inherited this wealth. I come from a very rich, prestigious family. I inherited this wealth. So you must be thinking about somebody else. He says in Kentucky, even for seguro que la la quinta, the angel says that if you are lying, sir, if you are lying, then may god return you back to the way that you used to be.
He moves on to that person who had no hair before. And he comes to him similarly with you know, same thing, no hair. Very, very poor.
And same thing he says to him, I'm a poor guy. I'm on my way mountains. I can't make it through. It's really difficult. Do you think maybe you'd be able to help me out here? And I asked you based on the one who gave you everything that you have this this beautiful hair that you have all this money that you have, that maybe you'd be able to kind of help me out here a little bit and help me go on my way. Same thing, the man says, You know, I got a lot of bills to pay. Same thing he says he goes on to look familiar. You didn't use have any hair used to be really poor people used to treat you like an outcast. People had outcasted you used to treat you like a freak. It wasn't that you? He
goes, No, no, you must be thinking about somebody else. I've always been this good looking.
I've always had this fabulous hair. Right? I inherited all this money from my family. You're thinking about somebody else, sir. And same thing, he says that if you're lying, may God return you back to the way he used to be.
The third scenario, he finally goes to the third individual.
And he says, you know, he goes to him as a blind man, a poor blind man. And same thing. He says, you know, I'm very poor. I'm on a long journey. I don't have anything that can get me there. Do you think maybe you'd be able to spare some money, some milk from one of your goats? Maybe kind of helped me out here a little bit. And I asked you, based on the one who gave you this wonderful eyesight gave you your physical health gave you all this, all this? All this livestock, all these animals, you made yourself such a successful businessman.
Demand tells him that the formerly blind man tells him by the country, Mr. Faraj de la liga, sorry. He says, Yeah, sure, absolutely. Come on. Come here. Let me help you out. He goes, You know what, let me tell you something. I used to be blind to
and then Allah gave me my eyesight back.
And he says, I used to be poor. But Allah gave me everything that I have.
And then he goes on to tell him for hood mashita. Without mashita He goes, you see all of this wealth, everything that I have here, you tell me what you want. You can have whatever you would like.
You can have as much of my wealth as you would like and leave for me whatever you want to leave for logging.
And Yamanashi and tahu Mila he, he says, because I swear to God, I will not fight you, I will not oppose you. I will not take it wrongly, no matter how much you take from me, because everything belongs to Allah. Allah gave me everything that I have. I have no reason to keep it to myself. Just like I was blessed. It's my turn to pass that on, pass that forward and help somebody else. The angel tells him He says, I'm sick. Malik says you keep all your money to yourself for in America.
Alito, because you were tested for the rue de Anca, you have been approved, have you have passed your test? allies pleased with you? Well, who associated Asahi bake, but the other two people, they failed their test.
Now, the reason why I wanted to mention the story and start with this story, is because it tells us a lot about gratitude, and the reality of gratitude. You see, gratitude has nothing to do with what we have and what we don't have. That is irrelevant.
There is this notion, this idea
that, oh, if I just had this much, or obviously if I'm struggling, then that's why I'm a little ungrateful, or I'm a little frustrated. Well, because I'm suffering, of course, I have a right to be frustrated, I'm sick, I'm unhealthy, I don't have money, I can't make my rent. I am not blessed with children. My pet, you know, maybe I had a family member that passed away, maybe my family is a little difficult with me. We always tried to justify our gratitude by attributing it to our circumstances, this story lays out for us something very profound, very profound, that's in gratitude or in gratitude has nothing to do with our situations. It is irrelevant. The situation
that we're in, we saw, we saw two individuals who are blessed with physical and financial health. These people were rich now, they were physically gifted and blessed, they had absolutely nothing to be ungrateful for. But you see that in gratitude is something that manifests itself within a person in different forms, regardless of the person's circumstances, that the form of the in gratitude, the outcome of the gratitude changes before when that person had bad skin or could not grow hair. And they were poor. They there in gratitude was them complaining about their situation, when stare skin problem was gone. And that person could grow great, beautiful hair, and they were both very, very
wealthy. Now, they in gratitude still surfaced, it surfaced in the form of them just hoarding everything, not wanting to share with anyone not willing to not not even remembering where they came from, you know, when those people say that, no, no, I was born this way. I inherited all this wealth. The scary thing is whether they actually believe that or not.
The scary thing is did they were they lying? Or weren't they really that delusional?
I mean, that's something to consider. But you see, regardless their ingratitude manifests itself in them not wanting to share not being willing to share or give anything at all. But you see, the third person
was a grateful human being. So when that person was blind, and poor, and outcast by society, that person was still grateful to Allah. And when that person had his eyesight, and was now a rich, wealthy, popular, famous person, that person still was grateful to Allah.
And that's something that we have to understand and realize, and by the way, the wisdom of the prophets, a lot of the time is so deep. They give us three examples to people who had, I mean, I'm not trying to belittle somebody, but maybe with the skin problem.
But at the end of the day, the first two people, their problem was more in terms of their appearances. If anybody had grounds to really complain, nobody has any grounds to complain. But just if we're talking outside of the Islamic paradigm, you would say that if somebody could complain, it would be a blind person.
But that person turns out to be the most grateful. And the two people that are worried and obsessed about their appearances. Those two people turned out to be the least grateful to Allah. That's not a coincidence. That is part of the wisdom of the prophets a lot he silom that he explains to us here that he lays out for us here, and that's something I'm going to come back and touch on in just a little bit. In the Quran, Allah subhanho wa Taala and the ayat are endless. The eye outs are endless. But in the Quran, Allah tells us, gratitude, being grateful, is a great quality of great people.
It's a great quality of great people. Ibrahim Alayhi Salam when Allah introduces us to Ibrahim Ali Salaam, in Surah Surah number 16. He says in the Ibrahima kana Oh, mutton carnita mila hanifin that Ibrahim was a leader.
He was a leader of his people, and he was very submissive before Allah. And he was very focused and devoted and dedicated to Allah. Well, I'm your communal machine again. He didn't he never associated partners to Allah. Shakira Lee unami. Ibrahim was always grateful, constantly grateful, continuously grateful for the black
of his Lord. And because of that instabug Gwadar who illustrata Mr. Karim. Allah selected him and chose him and guided him to the straight path where atina dunya Hashanah were in the roofing Akira de la mina Salim and Allah gave him my most excellent life in the life of this world. And in the life of the hereafter Allah made him amongst the most pious and righteous people who will stand before God on the Day of Judgment. So gratitude gratefulness is the quality of Ibrahim Elise and I'm, like I said, a great quality of great people. Well, what about in gratitude, where does in gratitude come from? Who is in gratitude the quality of in gratitude is described as a quality of
shavon. shavon is an ingrate. He is ungrateful to Allah. And in fact, shavon strives to inspire in gratitude he strives to uncover in gratitude within people. That's his effort. That's his game plan. When we talk about shape on trying to mess with people shape on trying to distract people misguide people, what is shakedowns? gameplan
instead of till are off Allah subhanaw taala when he had a conversation with shavon, when she refused to do sujood before Allah when he refused to bow down and prostrate in front of Adam, out of obedience to Allah, and he rebelled against Allah. At that time shavon said to Allah, Allah it and the human being at him. Woman holvi Imani Imani haemangioma,
Arthur shackling,
he said I will attack these people, I will come at these people from all angles all sides from in front of them from behind them from the right of them from the left of them, and you will find you will not find the majority of them to be grateful, the majority of them will not be grateful watch, because that's shaytans game plan to make us ungrateful. Shaytan is one who is ungrateful, and he tries to make us ungrateful to Allah subhanho wa Taala as well, gratitude, and this is the part that is really profound and really amazing and really beautiful, actually,
Allah subhanaw taala has told us himself in the Quran, about some of his qualities and his attributes.
Allah himself in the Quran, in his column in his book has told us about himself. And one of the ways that our last fedwatch Allah tells us about himself is by mentioning attributes, qualities that he embodies, that are attributes of Allah
and he is the beacon of these qualities.
And one of those qualities of Allah subhanaw taala that he describes himself as is the quality of Shaku
it is the name of Allah subhanaw taala as Shaku All right.
In the Quran, Allah subhanho wa Taala not one, but multiple times. He describes himself in narrowband Allah foon Shaku in Allaha Fudan Shaku, Shaku and haleem.
He described himself as Shaku, what does your code mean? It comes from the word sugar. Sugar means gratitude to express gratitude. But now you think about that sugar is the one who is constantly linguistically speaking, I'm not talking about a law right now, linguistically speaking, the word shokudo would be the one who was constantly grateful.
But then what does that mean?
Allah is not grateful to anyone.
Of course, you have to understand that when a superior, someone who is independent and superior,
when they want to acknowledge and appreciate something done by somebody who is inferior.
Somebody that is a subject of their somebody that is inferior, somebody that is dependent upon them, then it's not necessarily gratitude. It is appreciation, and acknowledgement. But think about the benevolence of Allah. Think about how important his quality is. And think about the benevolence and the kindness and the beauty of Allah, that Allah expressed that appreciation that acknowledgments that when we pray to Him, when we worship Him, He is Shaku that he acknowledges us. And he acknowledges the fact that we have prayed to him, and he appreciates that and he used the word which comes from the word which means to be grateful.
That is, how benevolence, how appreciative how acknowledging Allah subhanaw taala is
and that should make us really think and reflect what an admirable quality This is that Allah subhanaw taala attributed this quality to himself.
He attributed this quality to his prophets and his messengers. He attributed this quality to good righteous people was another shocking he was again just in love with Sha Karim, Allah will reward. And then one place he says we, I personally Allah says will reward those people who are constantly grateful to Allah.
It is such an amazing remarkable quality, something that we have to strive for. And we have to really, really be conscious and careful. Because Allah subhanaw taala has warned us. This is a gift from Allah, Allah has warned us he told us what kalila mean, Daddy ushiku
very few people from my slave will be constantly grateful.
Very few from my slaves will be constantly grateful, Allah says, and that means we have to make an effort. It's not something that will just happen naturally come naturally. The neffs is there. shavon is there, the elements around us are there. But we're going to have to overcome this. And we're going to have to fight through this and work to be grateful. So now what are some of the factors that make us ungrateful? And how can we work towards gratitude? How can we become more grateful to Allah subhanaw taala let's talk about this. First thing that makes us ungrateful is realize that Allah has tested us. And there's a certain element within us, we have our fitrah the
good, natural, inherent nature that we have built into us, that helps us recognize a lot, but we also have the knifes warm out, but it won't fit in an episode that America can be sued. We all have desires built within us. And those desires many times will make us ungrateful.
And the way to overcome that is to remind oneself, to bring perspective, basically, to create perspective, and we'll have to remind ourselves,
we'll have to catch ourselves and keep reminding ourselves of how blessed we truly are, every single moment, our mind, our heart, our knifes our desires, make us feel deprived, make us feel,
you know, make us feel deprived make us feel as if we don't have something we need or we want. And therefore in gratitude begins to rise to the surface, we have to catch ourselves. And we have to create perspective for ourselves. And we have to remind ourselves of how blessed we truly are. One very simple basic exercise.
Every single time you feel about you feel like complaining about something,
every single time you feel like complaining about something, whether that be verbally, or that be you know, typed out, written down, verbally expressed, or even if it that, just simply be in your heart or in your mind.
Every single time you feel ungrateful for something to towards Allah subhanho wa Taala remind yourself of three blessings.
count three blessings that you have.
And let me explain what I mean by three blessings. Not the newest three pairs of shoes that you have. That's not what I'm talking about.
That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about luxuries. I'm talking about blessings of Allah needs and necessities that are provided for us by Allah.
If you have the ability to see, you have eyesight you can see, that's a huge blessing of Allah. You can hear that is an enormous blessing of Allah.
You have family,
you have a roof over your head, maybe you're complaining because you have to share a room with your brother. Or you have to share a room with your sister. God, I hate it. I don't have any privacy. I don't have anything. Everybody else has their own room. Why can I have my own room? Why does my life suck so much? That's it, I need to go to Facebook and tell the entire world about how terrible My life is.
And hopefully some child who doesn't even have bread to eat somewhere else in another part of the world is also there living through his life. But here I'm complaining because I don't have my own 300 square feet to myself.
How dare anybody do this to me? God, why do you hate me so much? Why have you done this to me? Anytime you feel like that? Just remember the fact you have a roof over your head.
It is today's world and again, this lecture is more spiritually motivated. But we gotta say like it is. We live in the world. If you've remotely even, you know, at some level been following the news over the last few weeks, the last few months.
Then you're well aware of what's going on in other parts of the world.
There are people in Syria today right now as we're having this program here. There are people in Syria that have not left their homes in six months.
For eight months, they have not
stepped out of their homes. Why? Because they know that the second they step outside of their homes, they barricaded themselves within their own homes, they're trapped. And by the way, those people are not part of the official statistics coming out of Syria. When you hear about the refugees, the hundreds and 1000s of refugees, those are the people that got out of the country, they estimate that there are 10 times that many more people barricaded within their own homes.
They can't even dare set foot outside. Because if they do, they'll die. Death is waiting outside.
That's the word that there are human beings living in those conditions. There are hundreds of 1000s of people in Burma.
Who at any moment, who are hiding out who are trying to escape waiting at the borders of countries, please let us in.
Not to get a job, not to you know, buy something. But please let us in so that we're not exterminated, like insects.
So somebody doesn't come through here and just kill us off. Like rodents.
There are people living in those conditions. There are people in the last couple of weeks in the in the last week or so, in Gaza in Philistine
it has been raining down bombs from the sky upon them that is a part of their morning and evening. We can't even imagine what that's like. Again, I don't mean to assume everything on your behalf. But if if you have any type of a personal history, like my own, I was born and raised in Arlington, Texas.
I have no idea what that would be like.
The closest I've gotten is I don't know how many other people saw it. Even Anderson Cooper, I saw that YouTube clip where he's doing a report from Gaza and the bomb explodes behind him. And he's freaked out.
I mean, just just imagine that morning and evening. I personally can't stomach it. I mean, I can't take it. It just, I can't sleep at night. So I don't look at a lot of the I don't click on I don't look at a lot of this, the images that come out from these places, because I just personally can't handle it. It's too much to bear.
But I saw the picture that the family that there was a lot of news coverage about who had four kids and their home, a bomb was dropped on their home. And they had a picture where there was a table laid out. And there were four babies.
for babies.
an eight year old, a 10 year old, a six year old, a four year old for these. These are babies. There were four babies, dead babies on that table.
This is a world that we live in. And again, I don't mean to bring everyone down. But a little bit of perspective is very healthy folks.
What do I have to complain about?
What am I complaining about?
while this is going on in the world, Do I really have anything to complain about? Because I don't have Madden 2013 yet,
because I didn't get Halo four.
Because I don't have this particular pair of shoes.
Because I still don't have a car even though I'm 17 years old God the injustice.
Like we have to remind ourselves so the first factor behind in gratitude is a person's own desires, the knifes that lives inside us and what we have to do, we basically got to, we have to punch in our knifes in the face.
We have to punch our knifes in the head. And the way you do that is you count your blessings. And not a whole lot just three.
Every single time you feel ungrateful you feel like complaining. count three blessings. And you'll be back to normal. You'll have nothing to complain about. The second place that in gratitude comes from his from shape on sheet on coming whispers Hey, look at him. He got an iPhone five.
God forbid you're still using an iPhone four. s
right. How unjustice this world that you live in? Why do your parents hate you so much? Why do they insist on humiliating you amongst your friends?
That shape on whispering the solution is very simple rule do Billahi min ash shaytani r Rajim
our older Billahi min ash shaytani r rajim.
ask Allah to remove shape one from you. But there's a second part of this equation not just that takes shape on away and become closer to Allah. remember Allah subhanaw taala at that time, make dua to Allah subhanaw taala at that time, make the vicar of Allah say Alhamdulillah everybody say Alhamdulillah
that's it. The ultimate praise is for Allah. I have no reason to complain. I only have reason to praise and thank Allah and the
Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It's mentioned in the Hadith in the narration, that the Prophet of Allah salallahu alayhi wa sallam used to say,
Al hamdu lillahi Allah Callaghan.
Alhamdulillah. He actually held that the Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to say to Allah subhana wa Tada. It's mentioned in the Muslim world of human Muhammad, it's actually a little bit longer. But whenever it says about the prophets a lot, he said that whenever he would sit down, whenever he would go home, whenever he would sit down whenever he would lie down in bed, he would always say Alhamdulillah, Isla de cavani.
The ultimate praises for Allah The one who is enough for me, wow, honey, and who gave me a place to live without our money, and who gave me food to eat so I don't starve to death, what sacani and who gave me water to drink so I don't die from thirst, wonder the Magna aleja wife Donna and the one who has blessed me so much, and given me so much to be grateful for what are the Tawny edges on and the one who has given me everything and therefore I am grateful to him Alhamdulillah he Allah Cooley Hall. I am grateful to Allah the ultimate praises for Allah in every condition. In every situation. I'm good. I'm straight. I'm sad. I'm legit. I'm okay. Alhamdulillah
Alhamdulillah at all times in all situations, Allah Morocco cliche, woman one Malika coalition. Illa, Konishi, Wanaka, kulu, Shay are also becoming an hour and then he goes on to say Oh Allah, you are the lord of everything. You are the king of everything, the owner of everything, you are the God and the master of everything, and everything belongs to you. So a lot I just asked you to save me from the fire of *. But to keep it simple to keep it short, say our author Billahi min ash shaytani, r Rajim and then say Alhamdulillah and everything will be good, everything will be okay. At the same time for those who should we should invest some time into learning more about our Deen
and learning more that we can remember Allah subhanaw taala by means of there's another beautiful Hadith that is mentioned in the sunon of Buddhahood, in which the Prophet of Allah salatu salam says that whoever says the following words in the morning, then that person has
shukra yummy, he, then that person has thanked Allah for that day. What that means is not this that has that person done their duty for that day. But that also means that Allah will give that person the ability to be grateful for the rest of the day. And then whoever says the following words at night, Allah will give that person the ability to be grateful to Allah throughout the rest of the night. What are those words Allahumma ma spa hubby mania, Motrin ob, I had him in Hala Tikka for minca de la sharika luck, follicle hamdulillah Alhamdulillah cashew crew, Allah Dalek
that we say Oh Allah, all your love Your all of your blessings that I have woken up this morning to all of your blessings that I have woken up this morning to and all the rest of your creation have woken up to all of the blessings that you have provided for them, they all come from you and only from you, Oh Allah, they all belong to you. And therefore for you alone is the ultimate praise. And for you alone is the ultimate gratitude for everything that I have. And then say the same thing in the evening, Oh Allah, all of your blessings that I am beginning this evening, looking at, and all the rest of your creation are enjoying your blessings in this evening, then they all belong to you.
And they only come from you therefore the ultimate praises for you. And I am grateful to you for everything you've given me Oh Allah. So we have to repel shavon by saying I'm going to cheat on the regime. And then second hamdulillah and if you don't know the Arabic yet, just say it in your own words or law I got so much to be grateful for. Thank you Allah for hooking up brother.
Thank you all Allah for setting me up better than I could ever imagine. I have so much to be grateful for.
And the last thing the third and final factor that influences us and makes us ungrateful is the environment around us consider that multiple things, the world that we live in the culture that we're a part of the social media that we engage in, that the television or the movies, the entertainment that we watch, or that we listen to the people that we talk to and interact with
the constant commercialism that is shoved in our faces.
All of this also sometimes can have a very negative impact on someone and make a person ungrateful
and we have to wake up. We just have to wake up and get smarter about that.
We have to realize what's at stake, my email and my relationship with the law. My psychological, emotional and spiritual and even physical well being is all dependent upon whether I can remove these negative elements from my life or not.
The culture that we live in today will constantly remind us of how terrible our life is. Because we still have the hyper dunk ones, even though the hyper dunk twos came out.
Because I still play Madden 12 so unlike some type of miskeen like I still play Madden 2012 can I receive Zakat?
Right? Well, Bob, I mean, I got an upgrade 2013 Oh,
you know, I mean, this, we live in this type of environment and culture today. And we have to be able to step away from that and get smarter about that. The people that we interact with, look, I have talked about it here from this same podium, how bad spiritual elite ism is, we don't want to think we're better than anyone else, not even spiritually speaking, especially not spiritually speaking. But at the same time, you have to understand the negative influences the negative influence.
And if you can't positively improve
your immediate surroundings, and maybe you need to change them.
But if you associate with a certain culture, a certain group, a certain click, that constantly makes you ungrateful because it is so focused and obsessed about what we don't have, what I don't have what you don't have, then you need to step away from that.
If you are part of a culture or clinic or a scene that will mock and ridicule somebody for not having something very specific, the latest greatest newest type of thing, whatever it may be, that maybe I need to change my my scene.
Because that's making me ungrateful for what I already have.
In social media. I mean, this is this kind of seems like a joke. But really, you know, it's a it's a it's representative of what is in people's hearts. What comes out of my mouth, what comes out of my, what will come what I'm thinking, what would I type down what I how what I say,
is or is representative of what's in my heart. Today, it is far too commonplace. online to see people talking about my life sucks. FML.
Right. I mean, people constantly complaining about things they don't have, how terrible their life really is. And that's something you just have to distance yourself from, I can't be dealing with that.
Even regulate the the amount of you know, entertainment you're taking in, be cautious and careful about that. You know, it's not a coincidence, every single time you sit down to watch a TV show, or a game or whatever it may be, even something as harmless as the news. Forget about all that you're watching The Weather Channel.
You're watching, there's nothing more lame, and harmless than watching The Weather Channel.
All right.
And maybe you have some other type of life choices to evaluate if you're watching The Weather Channel. But anyways, if you're watching The Weather Channel, they still have commercials on the weather channel.
They're constantly trying to sell you stuff.
Stuff You don't need. You can't afford
for some bizarre, strange reason that somehow it's supposed to improve your life and the quality of your life. I've talked about this a couple of places. I was blown away by this just because a lot of times I don't get as much time, you know, to maybe watch just regular television or listen to the radio as much as I used to get to. So I was shocked that this is the level of marketing and advertising that's going on out there. I heard a car I heard a radio commercial for BMW.
Alright BMWs are nice cars. They're nice cars. They're a little pricey and they're very very nice cars. Mashallah. Anybody who has one Mashallah Sonic not hating on you, okay.
But the commercial, the guy, the voice in the commercial sound like a dude who hadn't hit puberty yet? All right. My point is that it definitely wasn't Ali, right. So because of the voice it wasn't like this, right? It was like it was somebody who sounded like, like Justin Bieber, right? So it was a dude who hadn't even hit puberty yet. His voice hadn't even dropped yet. So as a very young sounding person, his dude sounded like he was 15 years old, like a 14 year old kid doing a BMW commercial. What was he talking about in the commercial, he was talking about how cool BMWs are and how awesome they are. He hasn't told you anything about the car yet by the way. It is a very
impressive vehicle. He drives really nice and handles grade got a lot of horses.
got all this great stuff, plenty of reasons to buy one. But he's talking about how cool and awesome it is, how fantastic it is, how much swag it has a talking about this car, and then he gives you some of the features of the vehicle. So I'm expecting Okay, now he's gonna talk about how many how much horsepower this car has. Right? No, no, no, no, he tells you that your iPhone can plug into the car.
I was like what? Like, seriously, I'm supposed to go buy a 40,000 45,000 $50,000 car because I can plug my iPhone into it. Like, are you stupid, right, and he goes on to talk about this car. And then comes the worst part of the pitch.
He says Oh, and if you can afford it, don't worry about it.
Because they have financing units coming here, you don't need to have any money down. And they'll sign you up and you'll drive out of here with your car
without and that's it. Just come by it. Even if you can't afford it, don't worry, we'll find a way. We'll figure something out. But you just got to come by this.
And that's something we have to reevaluate we have to think about. This is an epidemic. By the way, in America right now. credit card debt in general, but specifically credit card debt is an epidemic in the United States, it is probably the worst statistics that you will find anywhere in the world.
In America,
in America, the average credit card debt per household is 50 over $15,000. These are 2012 statistics
over the air every single home, like if they took credit card debt and spread it out, divided it by the number of households in America, every home has 15,000 over $15,000 of credit card debt. It is it is over $5,000 per person, per American, per American average credit card debt is $5,000. And the interest rates are in the teens and into the 20s. I mean, that number is quickly multiplying multiplying faster than you can pay it off, take care of it. And then mortgage loan and student loans. And it goes on and on and on. Currently today. Currently today listen to this number. Currently today in America, there is over $850 billion dollars of credit card debt.
In the United States of America, there's over $850 billion of credit card debt. That is people not living within their means that is people who are not grateful for what they have. We are in a habit of buying things and worrying about how we're going to pay for them later.
I still laugh and actually physically like audibly like I lol, right every single every single time I go to a register to pay for something. I was at the mall today. Not not to spend a lot of money, but I was at the mall because a very dear friend of mine was just blessed with a child saw. I went to go get a gift for their baby. But I was at the mall today and I go up to the counter and I'm pulling out my money to pay for what because I can afford what I'm buying. Because I'm buying something that I can afford. And do you want to open a credit card? A store critical with you 5% off?
Now think about that. What now you could argue with me Brother Why you wasting 5%
All right, so if I bought like $35 worth of stuff 5% of that, you know, whatever it comes out to be like a buck and a half.
Brother Why you wasting $1 50 huh? Aren't you grateful for what LEDs are giving you?
What's wrong with you got to come here and talk to me about like being grateful and spending properly. You just left $1 50 on the table.
Shame on you stuff for the love for you. All right.
But by opening that credit account,
you also have to be conscious of what that's going to lead to down the road. Now the next time I go in that store, and I can only afford to spend 20 bucks
and I see something I really liked for 30 bucks.
But I only got a 20 in my pocket. But that thing cost 30 bucks. And I want it I don't need it. I want it.
Well, no worries. I have a store credit card.
And I just spent money I couldn't afford
and that's part of the problem that we got going on. I don't mean to be a party pooper. Okay.
But tomorrow night is what everybody
Black Friday
right midnight. The the lady at the register is I don't blame her. It's not her fault, but she's like she's like, oh, by the way. We're gonna be open at midnight tomorrow. I was like and I'll be sleeping right crazy lady.
Crazy sales lady I will be sleeping
Insha Allah, she's like, Who? I don't think so. But
I mean, think about what happens on Black Friday.
You know,
people are gonna stand in line, fight with people go and buy a bunch of stuff just because it's on sale?
Do I need a new monitor? Or not? Do I need? Do I need a new tablet? Or not? Do I need a new pair of shoes? Or not? Do I need to buy new furniture? Nor do I need? I mean, those are questions we have to ask ourselves. But we're gonna stand in line and go spend a lot of money we don't we don't have on things we don't need.
And what is that gonna end up resulting in? That's gonna result in debt. And all of that. How does that relate to this lecture? Like, look at this guy, he just went off topic, how does that relate to all this? This all stems from in gratitude. Learn to be grateful for what you have, and protect yourself from ingratitude. Don't go to the mall on Black Friday, if you can control yourself, you know, some people who go to the mall and they just can't help but spend money. They can't stop themselves. You know what you do? Don't go to the mall.
Really, honestly, don't go to the mall, unless you have to buy something. Don't. If you if you have a credit card, take your credit card and cut your credit cards up. Oh, he's one of those extremist people. Right? No, I'm talking about if you have a problem, cut your credit cards up. Or if you need to keep at least one, leave it at home. Don't keep it in your pocket. You can control yourself, put a limited amount of cash in your wallet. And that's all you have. So you can spend more than that. Otherwise, you'll be washing dishes.
But you get my point. We have to learn to be on grid we have to learn to be grateful and protect ourselves from ingratitude. That means change your environment change the people are associated with change the people that change what you say how you interact online, how much you know how many commercials and advertisements you watch. You know what's really, really bizarre and fascinating. Some of the some of the most watched videos on YouTube won't even actually be news or entertainment or comedy. At least that would have a purpose to it. You're watching it for that purpose. Sometimes, the trailer of a movie is the most watched thing on YouTube.
Advertisements commercials have hundreds of millions of views on YouTube 10s of millions of views on YouTube, and advertisement for a new laptop or a new tablet we'll have 10,000 views 100,000 views a million views, right just because people are sitting there watching it salivating, drooling all over their computer while they watch it. And then thinking about how terrible their life is that they have to watch this on a computer that was made six months before the one that they're watching the commercial of
that how terrible their life is how much your life sucks. So it's really something we have to focus on.
And finally, I'll end with this.
The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he gave us a code to live by.
He gave us a code to live by. The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us
the Umbrella Movement,
polyamory movement, how remarkable and amazing is the affair of the belief
in an ombre, hula, hula hoop
in the Umrah, hula hoop,
there his affairs, the situation of the believer is is always good.
A believer is always good. Why? When he says I luckily I had in a learning moment and the Prophet Alayhi Salam says, This is only for a true believer. Why in asaba to Surah Shaka, if something good happens to a believer, he says Alhamdulillah sakana hieronder who and that's good for him, he gets rewarded for that. Ye na sobre todo rah. And if something bad happens to
a believer, Subbu he's patient. He says Alhamdulillah and he's patient for kind of hate on the who and this is good for him as well.
And so we really have to realize how blessed we are by Allah subhanaw taala.
And I mean, one of the things I didn't touch on I talked about the financial things and materialism that plagues us today, the consumerism that plagues us another part of this gratitude or in gratitude to a lot that I talked about from that Hadith was also in terms of a lot of times of appearances.
Well, I mean, we right now we're witnessing true depravity of human beings right now. People are so depraved today
that people will actually spend 10s and 1000s of dollars undergo very physical, very painful, torturous,
dangerous procedures just to change the shape of their nose.
Just to change a certain physical feature,
because they're ungrateful for the way Allah created them. And that happens, why because they're watching something. They're listening to something that tells them that they're not okay that they have a deficiency that they should be ungrateful for what they have. They interact with people who are reminding them of how,
you know, cursed or how deprived they are. You have to change your element. Abdullah bin Massoud Abdullah bin Massoud when the companions of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam had, and I don't condone the usage of this, this type of like terminal terms for people. Like I don't I don't say this is okay, but I'm trying to explain it to you. He had what like people would call chicken legs
like very, very thin legs. Like he had chicken legs. And because a lot of times especially I've delivered Mr. Trudeau, the loved one who was not a wealthy man, he was kind of poor, and he was always doing work and things like that. So he'd be wearing like kind of like long shorts. So his legs would show and people used to point and make fun of his legs and laugh at him and poke fun at him.
And he used to feel bad about it.
He's to feel really ashamed and embarrassed and he would feel bad about he's a human being.
The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told him on the Day of Judgment.
On the day of judgment, one of your legs
will be weighed here in the scale of good deeds.
Then the seven heavens and the seven Earth
it'll be weighed here in the scale of deeds, your one leg, these legs that may be your self conscious of that these people make fun of Don't be ungrateful to Allah, you will walk with these legs in paradise.
So it's a matter of perspective. So let's learn to be grateful. Focus on our blessings. Put positive things around us remember Allah subhanaw taala Think of your blessings, Count your blessings and put yourself in a positive environment and let's learn to be grateful to Allah subhanho wa Taala because we have a lot to be grateful for. May Allah subhanaw taala give us all the ability to practice everything that we said and heard and May Allah subhanaw taala allow us the ability to truly be grateful to Allah subhanaw taala just like malacanang Samadhi Curatola