The Essence of Time

Oh

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa Manuela proficiently Saturday while you're silly Emery wa fluid according to melissani of Congo cote Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatu. I hope that you all are doing well are staying safe and healthy in sha Allah. On behalf of young Muslims. I'd like to welcome you all to our online symposium titled alone with Allah subhanaw taala. My name is Rosie Amir and I will be serving as your moderator for tonight. I am a young Muslims member from the new Hyde Park chapter in New York. I'm currently in my second year of optometry school. I've been involved in YM for about seven years and currently help

in the national expansion team. And I am very excited for everyone to join us for our first session tonight. Before we start, I want to give a brief introduction about young Muslims. young Muslims is a division of ignor. We are a national youth organization chapters all across the country from the east coast from the west into the West Coast. Our goal as an organization is to create a safe and supportive environment for our youth. Every year some of our members work together to hold an annual young Muslims conference in conjunction with the Ignite convention. Although we weren't able to physically meet due to our current health situation, Allah subhanaw taala has allowed us to continue

to spread the knowledge and then been through this online medium.

Indeed, you know, we plan but less pantile is the best of all planners and Hamdulillah we are still able to benefit through this platform.

So I want to give a little quick note on how the format of this session is going to be at the end of each talk. We will be having a small q&a with each speaker. So please feel free to type in your questions in the q&a section or the live comment section. And inshallah we'll keep an eye out for your questions and have the speaker address them. So with that, we will be moving on to our next session which is titled The essence of time. In this session, we will be talking about how to utilize and organize the extra time that we have efficiently. Our speaker for this talk is shift of this agenda. Shake up the Nasir is the founder and director of Kalam Institute he has taught Arabic

at the University of Texas in Arlington from 2005 to 2007. He has served as an instructor and curriculum adviser to various Islamic schools and Islamic Studies programs. He served as the Imam at the Colleyville Masjid in the Dallas area for about three years. He is the founding member and chairman of Mansfield Islamic center. While teaching at the kalam seminary, he travels around the country teaching classes seminars and giving lectures. So with that I'd like to invite shake up their Nasir Junga to present his talk.

So no more alikoum Rahmatullahi warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah, who ala alihi wa sahbihi edge moraine.

It is a pleasure to be on here with you today. Al Hamdulillah you know, just real quickly

to kind of share my own personal sentiments being here with you all, as a part of this broadcast and as a part of the Ignite National Symposium here today. This is of course the weekend we were all eagerly looking forward to congregating together

in you know in DC 10s of 10s of 1000s of Muslims from all around the country sometimes you know, I run into people at the convention who have come from even other countries just to attend the convention. So it definitely there is a sense of

To be very frank and honest there is a sense of sadness.

Sadness in and of itself is not a bad thing. The Prophet of Allah salAllahu alayhi wa Salam on a much more

in a much more serious situation. very famously in the authentic narration of Makati, the prophets a lot he said, he said in a local Bella zone, when his son passed away when his baby passed away, the prophets a lot he said on said that the heart feels sadness, grief and sorrow. So there is a sense of sadness, that we were not able to get together and that we were not able to be in each other's company and that we were not able to all have a rejuvenating a spiritually rejuvenating experience, all of us there together. But at the end of the day, as the prophets Allah Dixon said in that very famous Hadith and narration, that Willa noccalula you to the Robina, that we will not say anything

that could ever dare bring any kind of displeasure to our Lord, we will only say those things that are pleasing to our Lord. And what that means is that at the end of the day, we always have faith. We always have trust. We always know that Allah subhanaw taala has a plan, and we always trust Allah subhanaw taala for whatever Allah's plan is, and so the hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah

I personally am very, very grateful to the entire team at Akena. From the leadership to the regional workers to the volunteers, I'm very grateful to all of them that they did not to basically just, you know,

quote unquote, take the weekend off. But rather what they did was that they all came together. And they right away started reaching out to everyone everywhere. And they put this program together so that folks like yourself and myself, people like my family and your family, everyone watching at home that all of us would be able to spend a little time together, and all of us would be able to, you know, hopefully have a spiritually rejuvenating experience a little bit differently than maybe we initially hoped for and planned for. But that's okay. Again, because we have faith and trust in Allah subhanaw taala and his plan, and so we'll make the best of the situation and hamdulillah we're

here. I was able to log on just a few minutes before I was set to go on and I got to hear Imam Surat speaking and that, you know, made my day and made my evening getting to hear some words of wisdom from Imam Suraj brighten my day, so unharmed enough and welcome to Allah. So my topic here today is time and the essence of time.

One of the most fascinating things in the entire Quran, right? The Quran of course, Kalam Allah had died Esma aka la mala. Right. So the Quran is the speech of God Himself. These are the words of the almighty himself. So the Quran is the most amazing thing that humanity has ever witnessed has ever interacted with because these are the words of Allah Himself. And Allah subhanaw taala tells us in the Quran, and Sunnah huddle Quran Allah javelin, la Atia who Hershey I'm Mutasa, the unmanifest Shatila that if we would have sent down this Quran upon a mountain, you would have seen it just completely humbled and obliterated,

you would have seen it completely humbled and obliterated because of the magnitude and the majesty and the magnificence of the Quran. So the Quran is so powerful, it's the word of Allah subhana wa Tada.

So that means every single word in the Quran is the speech of Allah Himself. So it's really important for us to pay attention to it, it's really important for us to really study it carefully, every word, every letter, every little thing, we need to pay attention to it. And within the Quran, there are many different kinds of what we can call kinds of speech. There are many different

you know, elements of speech that are presented within the Quran. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is styles of speech. Assume there are many aside leave within the Quran, there are many styles of speech within the Quran. And again, to even more, elaborate even more what that means is some places in the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala commands us to do certain things and forbids us from doing certain things. That is called imperative speech. It is a directive, it is imperative. It is very, very straightforward. Do this, don't do this, do this. Don't do this. So the Quran has that kind of speech in it, number one.

Number two. A second type of speech that we see within the Quran is Allah subhanaw. Taala tells us stories of this us. Allah tells us stories and teaches us lessons and gives us guidance through the mechanism of stories. That's another style of speech. So that's in the Quran as well. Another kind of speech is sometimes Allah subhanaw taala presents to us. Conversations dialogue, within the Quran, the people of paradise are saying this to the people of hell and the people of El are saying this to the people of paradise, so on and so forth. So there's dialogue. That is another way. That is another style of speech. Sometimes Allah subhanaw taala He gives us examples and parables.

Imagine if like when Allah gives us the example of

backbiting, right? I wanted to use a little bit of a lighter example but that's the first one that came to my mind, because I was recently reading something similar to her gerat But Allah subhanaw taala gives us the example of backbiting. So when Allah subhanaw taala gives us the example of backbiting. He says, imagine

someone whose sibling just died and after their sibling has died, the corpse the dead body of theirs

Everything is right there, that they then go and start to rip the flesh. They like take the arm, invite into it and rip out a part of the flesh and eat it. Like how bizarre how gross how unfathomable how disgusting would that be to witness that?

Let alone do it. And then Allah subhanaw taala says that's the example of backbiting. So that's another kind of speech in the Quran. And in this way I can go on and on. There's question answer. Allah subhanaw taala asks us rhetorical questions in the Quran. That's another kind of speech. So another kind of speech, that Allah subhanaw taala presents to us in the Quran, is what's called Oxfam, a cousin axon, which means oaths. Allah subhanaw taala presents oaths, he takes an oath, he swears by something, he swears by something. All right.

I will start with one example. Allah subhanaw taala tells us in the Quran

and the flower mean raw or leaf lamb raw till well kita ha mean well, Kitabi movie that's what I was looking for high meme or Yacine. Well, Quran in hacking. There's one everyone knows, yeah, seeing one Quran hacking. So Allah says he has seen and then he says that he swears by the wise Quran, the Quran that is full of wisdom. So that's an oath presented in the Quran, where Allah swears by the wisdom of the Quran. Okay, so we have a lot of oaths presented throughout the Quran, when Allah subhanaw taala is making a very emphatic, powerful point. He's giving us a take home point something we need to write down something we need to take home something we need to think about something we

need to ponder upon. Then Allah subhanaw taala takes an oath there. All right. And what is absolutely fascinating, is one of the most frequent things that Allah subhanaw taala takes an oath or based on what he takes an oath upon within the Quran is time. Allah subhanaw taala throughout the Quran takes oaths upon time. So many examples of this. All right, some of the most common verses and common Ayat Surahs that we know they have this well Fajr Allah swears by Al fajr What is Fajr for Julius time, the morning time, early morning the break of dawn

Allah subhanaw taala swears by well lately

when lately either Yaksha he swears by night, one Nahata either agenda in daytime.

What is night and what is that? It is talking

now nighttime and daytime.

All right, Allah subhanaw taala was shown she will do ha ha talks about the rising of the sun and then the incline of the Sun the mid morning late morning will come on either Tada nighttime when the moon can be seen

when the hottie Evangelia daytime, Will lelee either Yasha nighttime, what do ha mid morning, he's swearing by time.

So one of the most common things that Allah subhanaw taala swears by in the Quran is time. And one of the things that the scholars have seen the Mufasa rune that they teach us that they tell us is that one of the wisdoms

and one of the lessons that we take from the oaths that are in the Quran, is that when Allah subhanaw taala swears by something, he is elevating that

he is highlighting its significance, its value,

its beauty.

And in many cases, even its sacredness that it's a sacred thing.

It's a very, very sacred thing.

And one of the oaths in the Quran, and I talked about this all the oath said Allah takes based on time, one of those oaths based on time, that Allah subhanaw taala takes within the Quran. That is very powerful.

And it's not just the oath but then what Allah subhanaw taala says after that, basically is our topic here.

Allah subhanaw taala says well, acid he swears by and now also we know it as the evening time, because that's when we prayed

answer prayer. And it can allude to that it does allude to that. However, more linguistically, the word awesome refers to a time that very easily or very quickly slips away.

It's a time that very easily and very quickly slips away. And that's actually why one of the wisdoms behind why us sort of prayer is called the ASA.

Because awesome prayer is actually one of the prayers that is easiest to miss.

And it's not just you know, it was at that time it's, this is a thing that has always been very common throughout the world. Societies, different cultures, different eras, different situations. The answer prayer very quickly, very easily can slip through your fingers.

And that's why the prophets Allah, He said, I'm in a very famous Hadith the Prophet sallallaahu Salam says an authentic narration of body says when sullen Bourdain, duckula, Jana,

whoever can find a way to be very, very punctual and regular about to prayers will make it to paradise. Now, obviously, that doesn't mean that they are only going to pray two prayers every day and skip three prayers. No, the point is, there are two prayers, that if you can lock down these two prayers, all the other three prayers are going to fall into place. And then once all the other three prayers fall into place, all your five daily prayers are in place. Everything else in your life will start to fall into place. Like the Hadith of the prophets, Allah He suddenly says, Oh, well, now you have some who are waking up to Yokoyama to a Salah, the very first thing that the slave will be

reckoned for and accounted for on the day of judgment on the Day of Resurrection is the prayer for in Salou hut, Salah Hassan II normally he, when it is correct, all the rest of his deeds will start to fall into place what infested that, but if that is corrupted, his prayer is not correct and good, then all the rest of his deeds will also be negatively affected by that.

So, once again, what I was saying was also prayer, very, very delicate situation. It can slip away very quickly, very easily. And that's why the Prophet sallallahu sallam said locked down to prayers, and all the other prayers will fall into place.

What are those two prayers, He said it is Fajr And Asa. If you can lock down your fajr prayer, if you can lock down your awesome prayer, all your other prayers will start to fall into place. Once all your other prayers start to fall into place, then everything else in your life starts to come into place. So in going back, and there are so many other references in the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala says happy to Allah Salawat take care of all your prayers was selected. We'll start in the middle of prayer. And there's an authentic narration of the prophets. Allah the psalm that tells us that the middle prayer that he's referring to is actually the answer prayer. The answer prayer. So

also prayer. So going back to the pseudo will awesome. Allah swears by time, not just any time, but I was explaining that linguistically, the word also refers to time as it is getting away time that very quickly slips away time that very easily you can lose track of.

So Allah subhanaw taala says time is running out. You're losing track of it. And then what does he say next? In Al Insana, Luffy hustlin. And here's the problem. Okay, let me give a little analogy. And

I'll apologize in advance. I have a personal problem. And that is most of my analogies that I give are sports analogies. It's a personal problem. can't help myself, to you right there. There we go. I always have trouble doing that. So you see right there. So most of my analogies tend to be sports analogies, so it's just a weakness I have so allow me to explain.

If some if a team has a lead, if a team has, you know, let's say in basketball teams got you know what 30 point lead and there's four minutes left in the game and they say time is running out. The team that's gonna 30 point lead with four minutes left in the game. They're not bothered by time running out time running out is great. That's fantastic.

I when, if time runs out, in football, if a team's got like a three touchdown lead to touchdown lead, and there's two minutes left in the game and

They say, Oh, it's a two minute warning Time's running out to touchdown lead. The team who's got the lead. They're not worried. They're like, this is great, fantastic. Awesome. Right? I know shopping is a big struggle for people right now. Right? You go to Costco. Okay. And you got your whole cart full of everything. All right. And you are at the register. And that's when you hear the PA, the public announcement, right, that basically says that,

you know, we're closing down. We're closing down.

Time's running out. Hurry up, we're closing down. I already got an honoree found all my stuff, and I'm at the register. I'm not bothered, bothered by time running out at all. Okay. But now let me flip it around. What if

you parked your car you're walking in, you haven't actually gotten in there. And that's when you hear the announcement. We're closing.

It is now closed.

That's really bad news for you. That's really, really bad news for you. Because I didn't get my stuff yet. Right? In those sports analogies, if you're in the team that's down by 30 points in his four minutes left in the game. That's really bad news for you. You're down by two touchdowns. And two minute warning. That's terrible news for you. So here, Allah subhanaw taala swore by time, its value it's preciousness, how it's getting away. And then Allah subhanaw taala says in Santa Fe.

Here's the problem. You don't have a lead. You're not winning this game.

You didn't already find all your stuff. You're not already waiting at the register. Allah says in them in SAML, if you hosted in

human beings, you're losing. Literally HOSA Hassan, it literally means to lose. Human beings are ruined. You're losing big time. You're way behind. In Time is running out.

That's when the when the alarm goes off, that's when the sirens go off.

This is code read. This is an emergency situation. What are we going to do?

How are we going to make it how are we going to survive? So Allah subhanaw taala because Allah subhanaw taala is Rahman and Rahim. What do then cutting? Allah subhanaw taala is Merciful. Allah is loving Allah is kind Allah is generous. So what does Allah subhanaw taala say, in the loving

it Illa except for the following people, the following people are not going to lose. And time is going to run out time is actually going to start to slip away faster and faster and faster. Not slower. None of them not slower. That's the interesting thing. All right. Take it from somebody who obviously, right Father Time is definitely winning the battle with me. All right. So take it from me

when you're young, and it feels like man, time is running out. Like Time is moving quickly.

It feels like Time moves quickly. And you look at old people and you're like man,

that must really feel like a drag, like time has really be dragging.

One of the most surprising things about getting older is that you realize that time slips more and more and more quickly, not slower. It feels like Time moves even faster.

When you're 30 you're like, man, Time moves even faster than when I was 20. When you're 40 you're like, wow, Time moves faster than when I was 30 and so on and so forth.

And so that's the thing about time.

And so Allah subhanaw taala says except for the people who are the people who are not going to lose, they're not going to lose. All right. The following. They have the following things taken care of they're doing the following things for them. They're gonna when the buzzer is gonna go off, and they're actually going to have a parade. Who are those people? Number one in the Latina manual, first of all belief. They believe they believe in Allah they believe in the prophets a lot. He said them and this issue of faith and belief is not so simple as like I said the words I believe in Allah I believe in the messenger done. No, no, it's not just that simple. Allah subhanaw taala says in the

Quran, yeah, you Halina Amanu meaning you will Adina Amanu amino, Oh you who believe? Oh, those who have believed believe deepened further, your faith in your

eemaan solidify it believe harder believe better rise grow in your faith in your iman.

Now, how do you do that? Somebody might say, how do you do that? Well, the first part of that, a big part of that

is you have to get to know a lot better. And you have to get to know the prophets a lot better. Those are the two things that you have to do. Okay. And this kind of works into the practicality of my topic here today. Because obviously, there's a big issue about how do we utilize our time wisely in the current situation that we're in? How do we utilize our time wisely? So I'm going to work it into my topic here. So we gotta get to know a little better and we got to get to know the profits a lobby some better. That's number one. How do you get to know Allah better? Read the Quran, you got to read the Quran, and not just recite, read, comprehend to understand, read the Quran and read the

translation of the Quran alongside of it. Listen to the explanation of the Quran by scholars read the explanation of the Quran by highly qualified scholars, but you must better and deepen your understanding of the Quran. And that's how you get to know Allah better. Number two, get to know the prophets a lot. He said that that's the second part of it. How do you get to know the prophets a lot isn't better read the life, the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Whatever people always ask, Well, what book? What do you recommend? Anything you can find, even if it'd be super easy and simple, sealed nectar, something like that, find a basic simple book, read, start somewhere. And

then also listen to explanation of the life of the prophets a lot. They said, I'm from scholars, right at column. If you go to the column podcast, there's not one, there are three separate series on the life of the prophets a lot easier. And they're all like various sizes and various angles. There's one series 23 sessions, a quick overview of the life of the prophet and Larissa is another series that's done more so for younger people. And it's a little bit more extensive.

And then there is a series of very lengthy in depth detailed series 200 episodes,

and all those series are there. So wherever you go, but my point is, you have to start learning, you have to start reading, you have to start listening, you have to start increasing your knowledge and your familiarity with the life of the prophets, Allah the sum, because when you know more about his life, you know him better. So know Allah and His messenger. That's how you increase your faith.

All right. Number two, well, I mean, a solid heart, you have to do good deeds. You have to do good deeds. Okay, that's the second part. If you don't want to lose when time runs out, when the buzzer goes off, you don't want to lose, then you got to do more good. How do you do more good. And this, again, is working into the practicality of how do we use our time wisely, especially in this situation? Once again, pay attention this next point, do good deeds. What's an example of good deeds that we can do in the situation? We're in? Number one, five times daily prayer? I know somebody might say, Well, duh, obviously that's mandatory. You have to do it. That's fine. If you already are

there, martial law, good for you. Congratulations. I'm very happy for you. And I mean that sincerely. I'm not being sarcastic. That's very, very good. But a lot of people aren't there yet. And so I'm talking to all my brothers and sisters who might not be there yet. Let's lock down those five daily prayers. Let's lock it down. Let's nail it down. Let's make sure we are we got that down.

And, and I have a couple of recommendations about those five daily prayers, especially with the self isolating situation if you're not a, you know, health care worker, you're not an essential services worker. If you are from those categories. May Allah bless you may Allah protect you. May Allah keep you safe and lucky for your family saved May Allah reward you abundantly. You know, people of this dunya will never appreciate anyone, as they should be appreciated.

And a lot of times, looking for gratitude and appreciation from people unfortunately will make you disappointed most of the time. But know that there are people that do appreciate you know that there are people making dua for you, and know that your Lord Allah subhanaw taala greatly appreciates you. Allah subhanaw taala one of his attributes is a shackle, a shackled Allah subhanaw taala acknowledges the good that people do. So you are going through a lot of sacrifice. You're doing a lot of good and you're working very hard and your Lord acknowledges you. So going back to what I was saying, for a lot of people who are in the Isolate isolation situation

You're most you're at home, then in that situation, I have a couple of things. Not only are you going to nail down your five daily prayers, but try to find a little corner, it can just be a little corner of the room where you put down a prayer rug and that little corner you pray in that corner. Like have a designated place where you pray. All right, that's number one. Number two is not only nail down the prayer, but also try to be punctual. Punctuality nothing is more beloved to Allah when people are punctual about their prayer the process and was asked what's the best deed he said a select while I walked into the punctual with prayer. So have a little alarm system or you know your

your prayer timing app or whatever it is, but follow with that. And the second it goes off, you pray.

So get those times nailed down, get that place designated. That's a really important thing you can do in terms of doing good deeds. All right. The next thing it within good deeds that I need to mention is very important. I already talked about reading Quran. So again, I want to bring it up here again, Quran is one of the best good deeds that you can do. All right, but along with that make time every single day for Doha. We're all struggling, we're all stressed. There's a lot of people who are suffering a lot more than we are. We need lots of to the whole Ummah together right now needs to be making dua. supplicating, praying to Allah, you gotta have fixed time to make dua.

The third point Allah makes is what they'll also will Huck. You have to enjoin good, if they're enjoying good, you have to put some good out there into the world. So be a part of something good right now, if you can actually volunteer, like it's no relief volunteers, may Allah bless them, may Allah reward them.

They're amazing, amazing in cities all over this country. They are going to neighborhoods, they are going to different places. And they are providing essential food and items, essential items to people who can't afford them. Even in this situation, I've seen the I've seen the videos, I've seen the pictures. I've seen the social media updates, they're all wearing the green and yellow shirts. All right. They all have their masks on, they got the gloves on and Subhan Allah, masha Allah, may Allah bless him, may Allah reward them, they're out there helping people, they're putting good out into the world, even in this situation. And if somebody cannot do that, if somebody cannot do that,

then help out many other ways that you can donate money, contribute, whatever you can give, we'll do a lot of good. We'll do a lot of good. Spread the word, spread some claim, spread some goods spread some knowledge.

All right. So what though, so Bill happy, what it was of the summer, and then you have to remind each other to be patient, we got to keep each other strong. We got to keep each other strong. How do we keep each other strong? Die, this is this is very, very important. Okay? It doesn't need to be something super grand. You don't need to be some influencer quote unquote, who's got like a million people on Instagram and you do some, you know, video or Instagram Live that makes everyone be like, Hey, I hope everyone's doing okay. That's really nice for the people that do it. I'm not criticizing them. But I'm saying a lot of times, we got this twisted mentality that that's the only way that I

can, you know, provide some comfort to people out there. No, no, no, no, not at all. Not at all.

I'll give you an example. And I don't want to share this because it's my own deed and my own action. But I'll share it

just as an example of hopefully you can maybe inspire you, but I'll ask you to pray that Allah, you know, like steps from me and Allah forgives me.

I have a very good friend.

And his daughter is very, very sick.

I have a very, very dear friend and his little girl, very, very small child six years old. She is very, very sick. Like very sick. I'm not talking about she's got like a little cold or something like that. No, severely ill, and she's She's a kid with cancer.

And she's going through chemotherapy as a baby as a child.

And it's obviously very, very tough. And then this whole situation happens while that's going on.

And I call my friend

and just say hey, how's

Going up, you're doing okay, hang in there, buddy. Everything be alright. Can I help you with anything? And then he talks to me. And then he tells me about his day. And I just sit and I just listen.

And I just lend in my ear.

And maybe that hopefully made his day a little bit easier for him.

And I told him, hang in there, be tough, be strong. And that's just up to Nasr.

That's just me as up to Nasir.

Just reaching out to a friend. At all of us, we have the ability that we can all call somebody out. We can all reach out to somebody and make sure that they're doing okay, and check on them and give them a little time with wasabi luckily what was on the subject. So this is time, the value of time. The vaginal hula Sofitel masala is something when someone's time is up Allah subhanaw. Taala says, You don't, Allah will not give you a second less. But Allah will also not give you a second more. Time is time. It's very, very valuable. It's very precious. And it's one of the most it is the most precious commodity that we've been given.

So Allah subhanaw taala tells us time is running out. And we could lose, we could be standing there empty handed when everything is said and done. How do we make sure that doesn't happen? strengthen your faith, get to know God better get to know the prophets a lot, even better. Read the Quran, learn this era. That's something we can do in the situation that we're in right now. Number two, do good deeds, pray, and give charity, pray and give charity, pray and give charity. That's good deeds that we can do right now. We're capable of doing your right now. Number three, put some good out there into the world. Once again, give charity and share opportunities. Tell people about how they

can do good. You know, text your friends, text your family, and then put you know, help provide some strength and encouragement for patients to other people. Encourage one another, give strength to one another. By just picking up the phone and calling somebody FaceTiming somebody reaching out to somebody and making sure they're doing okay.

And lastly, and finally,

as I conclude my topic here today, I wanted to specifically ask everyone who is watching who is listening who benefited, and will continue to benefit from this program, and anyone who has ever benefited from it. You know, in the past, please be very generous and contribute and donate to Akena today.

There are tireless people working all around this country, doing so much good work. So pleased insha Allah support the good work that Akena does and we hope and we pray in sha Allah in sha Allah, Allah, that Allah subhanaw taala brings us out of this situation sooner rather than later, safe and sound. And then in sha Allah, very, very soon, by the will and permission of Allah, we are able to congregate and have a convention and we're able to spend some beautiful time together rejuvenating our iman does not from a located on Article off ego was Somalia going after Labor cattle.

Thank you so much for that really practical explanation of Soto philosophy. This now brings us into our q&a. So if anyone has any questions, please type them in the comment section and we will try to get your questions answered. So the first question that I have from the Nasir is, what do you recommend in terms of dividing up our night to make it the most productive, especially for students or professionals that will be studying or working from home and Ramadan? Do you have any tips that you can provide? Yes, one particular tip that I hope is beneficial and useful. I've been thinking about this myself a lot. Obviously, like I said, trying to create a schedule and kind of keep

yourself on task is very, very helpful, number one, but number two, I personally am also realizing because we're all learning on the fly, I've never quote unquote, worked from home before. So you know, a lot of folks, a lot of IT folks and things like that are in the work from home kind of situation, even under normal circumstances. I never experienced it. So I'm trying to learn a lot of it myself. But one of the things I'm learning about is

space and kind of what you have in front of you also makes a profound difference. So if somebody doesn't have like a lot of room where they can kind of get up and move to a different room and do one thing over there and do another thing over here. This desk for instance, I have this computer open and this computer usually open when I'm doing some kind of work. I'm teaching my

classes at the at the kalam seminary, I'm participating in the economic symposium, I'm doing something that is more kind of task oriented Dowell we're teaching work, I'm doing it in front of this computer, when I am sitting at the same computer however, from my own recitation of the Quran or something like that, what I do is I actually close the computer and I actually put it away, I just move it off the desk we go visit, it's open, there's just something about that concentration focus, that is very hard to achieve Alhamdulillah. The other thing that we've been able to do is our living room, we just kind of carved out a corner of it. And we just have prayer rugs down there. And

that's where we pray. That's where we were on myself and the family, the kids and whatnot. And that also kind of provides a little bit of focus. So I've kind of noticed the benefit of what's in front of you and just kind of carving out a little bit of space goes a long way to helping somebody focus because I think everyone understands that we got to make time for everything. But then the focus and the concentration is really, really hard to achieve. But that's something that has helped me

is that I really like that point of designating a place. And you mentioned that in your talk too, about designating a place for prayer and being punctual. Since Allah is one of the most important meetings in our day that we have

to do it five times a day, it's really important to Yeah, and before I forget, I wanted to share with everyone because I don't want it to sound like it's just kind of like a recommendation from me. We actually see this in the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu sallam. So the prophets a lot, he said, um, he had like a bedspread that would be put down in his private quarters. And that's what he would sleep on. But when he would pray, you would actually kind of roll it up a little bit, move it off to the side. And right there, he kind of changed the setting, he ended up changing the setting. And that's that he's teaching us through his example. It's just a deed or the Allahu taala. And her the

Mother of the Believers, she later on in her life, because the prophets, Allah with him, of course, was laid to rest in what used to be her apartment. So then she had another residence and other apartment. So the apartment that she had, there was like an inside portion. And then there was kind of like an open air kind of like area, like a little courtyard. So what she would do is she would actually pray if it wasn't raining or anything, she would pray outside in the courtyard, because inside was where she lived. So she'd pray outside in the courtyard area. If she you know, she would go to the machine for the prayers, but her own personal rebounder, she would do in that little kind

of open air kind of courtyard area. And that also kind of helped to separate between kind of mentally the focus of here's my living quarters. And this is where I come to pray.

Great advice. So the next question we have is, now that we have more time that we're spending at home shaytan can get to us and then we tend to like browse the web may be looking at things that are I should not be looking at. So can you give any tips on how to maybe limit this apprentice? Oh, yeah, absolutely.

You know, I'm gonna repeat something that, you know, parents are going to be very familiar with. And that is one of the first things when you become a parent, and you start figuring out how to manage devices and the internet, and things like that, for the sake of your kids. One of the first things that you read about that you're told is that the internet can only be used, the computers only stay in the tablets only remain in the public areas of the home into public areas of the house, the living room, or the dining table, or like if that's where they do their homework and things like that, you know, but that's the only places where it stays. And I think that regardless of who you

are, teenager and adult, whoever you are, especially where there's this kind of cabin fever, and there's this restlessness and there's this angst, and it feels like you are kind of getting hammered by shaytaan a lot. And you're already kind of vulnerable and already, you know, just kind of edgy, and shake on just kind of needs to come and just kind of flick you and you just go flying off the ledge. So in that kind of a situation. My sincere sincere advice to everyone is take your computer, take your tablet, and basically just keep it in the living room, and you're only going to use it in the public area of the home.

Don't take it to your bedroom. I for especially for everyone. That's very important advice. teenagers, young adults.

I know that that probably sounds really lame. And that probably sounds like really annoying. That what every single time I want to like you know, use my phone or my iPad, or sorry, my laptop or my iPad, I gotta go out to the living room. I sincerely recommend it and you will be better for it.

Thank you for that advice. Um, something that I would also just like to add one of my teachers taught me was that, like, sometimes, you know, we waste our time on browsing between things. And you know, so one, one, something that you can do is actually she told us like, you can have a cutout that says, Allah is watching, or Allah is all seeing, and just having that constant reminder on your devices. Obviously, it does go through, but then that's a good thing, because it prevents. That's great. That's amazing.

Like a timeout on my laptop, or just in my room, it's making me think, you know, because these days, you know, all the hipster kids always got like stickers on their devices, right? So everyone's got little stickers and things like that on their devices. So that what sister just said is amazing. Just kind of right, Ally's watching, you just tape it right there to decide on your laptop. And I mean, every time you're on your computer, you see that telling you Allah is watching. That's awesome.

So we'll have two more questions in sha Allah. So another one is, how do we handle the discouragement of discouragement of trying to have prayed for years and still not being on top of it? So sort of coming to terms with your shortcoming of knowing that you're not really on top of your prayers? Okay, I'm going to answer this question by sharing the story with you, and it's gonna seem kind of like a curveball. It's going to seem like I'm not directly answering your question, but I am. All right. And whoever the questioner was, and when you went out when I when I get to the end, hopefully you'll realize how I was answering your question. So Khalid bin Walid, Radi Allahu Taala I

know we all know his name. We've all heard the name Khalid bin Walid he was called Saint for law, the sort of God All right, as the prophets a lot. He said, I'm saying, you know,

the prophets a lot. He's got a lot of confidence in common to defend his song. So Khalid bin Walid are the Allahu Taala and who was from Makkah.

He knew the prophets Allah, he said on his own life. And Khalid bin Walid became Muslim. 20 years after the message of Islam came. He didn't become he did not become Muslim for 20 years.

He became Muslim in the seventh year of Hijra three years, we've heard the process and passed away 20 years, he did not accept the song. Not only that, during this 20 years, he not only was not Muslim, he actually fought against the prophets, a lot of them he opposed the Prophet peace be upon him.

Okay. 20 years later, he finally becomes Muslim.

He comes in he sits down in front of the prophets a loving some texts up to song, the process and says repeat after me and he gives him the Shahada. All right.

Khalid is then looking down. He won't look at the profits a lot. He's on the profits. 100 right here, look at me. And he said, No, I feel I feel embarrassed. I feel terrible. I'm a terrible person. I fought you I killed Muslims. I just just I'm embarrassed, I'm ashamed of myself.

And said there's nothing to be ashamed of. He said in an Islamic Juma kind of level. Yeah, Dima, can you became Muslim today you reconciled with Allah today. Everything that happened before this moment is gone. Ancient history. It's over. And then he said, Pray for me that Allah forgives me. He says you don't need it. You are forgiven. He said God then just pray for him. Yeah, and once your prayers, and he said oh alive, Mercy uncommon.

And he said, I feel better now.

And you got to understand that every single second every single minute of your life, every single prayer is an opportunity to fix your relationship with Allah. And that moment when you reconnect with Allah and you fix your relationship with Allah. Everything that came before that is gone is wiped away is ancient history. It don't exist no more. So it will get you but the Lula who say to him has nothing not only that, but everything wrong you did. Allah will convert it to good. All the prayers that you prayed, like you said, you missed a bunch of prayers. You didn't do them properly. You weren't focused on them. They'll all be converted to perfect prayers. Somebody's like, how does

that work? That doesn't make any it absolutely works. It's called the Mercy of Allah. In the Rama T was Kula che Allah says My Mercy encompasses everything in the Rama de Sabha cutter rather be My Mercy supersedes out does my wrath and my anger. So that's what I would tell somebody who feels down who feels a little terrible, who feels a little demoralized that I haven't been on my prayer. I haven't been on top of my prayers until today. Don't worry right now is the opportunity right now, when secessions done, you're gonna go make will do, you're gonna pre selected a SHA and that right there.

He's gonna fix everything that happened before. And it's gonna be a fresh new beginning going forward. Insha Allah, Allah, thank you for those nice beautiful words. So Hamdulillah that, that's all the time that we have for your questions. I apologize if we weren't able to answer all your questions. But thank you so much should have the announcer For your time for speaking and really sharing some practical tips that we can implement now and continue into Ramadan. Shake up the answer you have worked a lot with YMF hamdulillah we've tremendously benefited from your talks years and and years and conferences and even at a local and regional levels. I just wanted to ask you, how has

your experience with why and then why am has been something Why am for me has been absolutely mind blowing. What I mean by that, and I don't want to just seem like I'm giving like just like an empty kind of like, you know, pat on the back. I want to talk about in a very real sense. What is astounding to me about why I am is that it is young people serving young people. That's amazing. It is young people taking care of the other young people in the Omega like the neighbor nets are the most beautiful thing where you got Why am I alone? You know putting this structure together who are now taking in all these new kids that are coming in and talking to them and mentoring them and

coaching them right like the Big Brother Big Sisters system. Everyone's like, oh, you know what we really need in the Muslim community. We need like a Big Brother Big Sister kind of thing. Yeah, it's called who I am. That's literally what it's called. And it's absolutely beautiful. There are 1000s 10s of 1000s of young people all around this country who mashallah found their deen and now some of them are not even so young anymore. A lot of them look like me now, right? Where they found their Deen they found their eemaan they found brothers, they found sisters for the for themselves. They found company, good company, a community, their theme their Islam, they found their confidence

or self esteem by being a part of why am mashallah it's a beautiful, beautiful effort. It's been a remarkable thing. And that's why, whenever, you know why am folks they text me, I text them back, they call me I call them back. They asked me to just come hang out for a little while, which they don't ask as much anymore, because they probably don't want us to scare all the kids by inviting an uncle over. But whenever they do ask me, I always make time because I value the work that they do. It's a beautiful effort. May Allah subhanaw taala preserve it, and may Allah protect it. Thank you so much. And we really value the time and commitment you have given towards YM and really helped our

cause a MILA pantalla bless you reward you. May Allah Subhana Allah allow your family to stay safe and healthy during this time. So with that, do you have any last words before we conclude or ever want to say salam to everybody and I want to tell my brothers and sisters who are out there, please, please, please hang in there.

Keep having hope. Keep having faith. At any point, you start to feel really like you're struggling.

Physically, of course, please get help.

And but even emotionally and spiritually and psychologically, please do not go it alone. That that there's no strength in that we are in Omaha, we're in Omaha we are together. That's our strength is that we're no muss. So reach out, talk to somebody call somebody get some help. And one little word if I may. And this is me advising myself and anyone else who can benefit from it. Those of us who whom Allah subhanaw taala has provided at least a roof over our head and some food on our table. And we're okay and safe. There's a lot of people that aren't

please help, please help somebody decrease a little bit off your plate even if that's what it takes. And put a put a morsel of food in somebody else's mouth who's hungry. There's a lot of folks who are struggling out there.

It keeps me up at night. It's it's, it's there's a lot of people who are struggling. So please, do whatever you can. It's a little encouragement for myself and for anyone else who have Allah subhanaw taala has given the ability to be of good enough service to other people. That's all I would want to say.

Thank you so much, once again, for taking your time out and coming to join us and presenting on your topic which was very beneficial. I have my notes I've been constantly writing as I was moderating this session. So with that said, this brings us to a close May Allah, we ask Allah Subhana Allah to practice and protect us, our families and to grant us strength during these difficult times. May Allah Subhana Allah reward all the organizers and the wonderful speakers who took so much time out of their busy schedules, to plan and for the speakers to come and share and speak and spread the knowledge of the theme. May Allah

Hunter Allah allow us all to, you know, implement what we have learned because there is no benefit in learning if you're not actually implement implementing it in your life and making it a part of your life. So we ask Allah Subhana Allah to give us the karma to be able to do that. May Allah Subhana Allah grant those that are sick from you know, COVID-19 a speedy and you know, complete recovery and all those that are not, you know, sick mela Peninsula, prevent them from being sick and keep them healthy. And all those health care workers that are working long, arduous hours to protect and to those that are sick may last pantalla reward them and grant them the best in this world than

the next. So with that said, I just wanted to say that this was a this whole program was from YM, organized by young people. And so please, you know, if you've benefited from anything, we would greatly appreciate your donations and nothing is too small. So please donate whatever you can, if you can't donate then at least spread the word. And with with your donations, we will we will be able to continue to provide beneficial programming. So check it out, check YM out, look at our social media platforms are shared. You can no go on any of them or visit our website. Also you can look at econo and economic relief, which is doing amazing work for during this time. So with that

said, please stay safe, stay healthy, and most importantly, stay indoors. And I'd like to conclude Subhanak Allahumma behenic Nash Pedway La ilaha illa and when I still Furukawa to waiting for them or any other line with regard to I go I hope you all have a good night. Take care