Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Practical Steps to Increase Your Iman
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Bismillah AR Rahman AR Rahim Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Hamden
cathedra on by even Mubarak in feed Mubarak and RT
gamma your Hebron buena Jalla Jalla, who are in the novel was
Salah to A salaam or either say you will be will Mustafa
SallAllahu taala. Either you are on the he or satrapy or Baracoa,
seldom at the Sleeman Cathedral on Isla yami Deen America.
Today we want to speak about a very simple thing, something which
we are all experiencing on a day to day basis.
I will never level of iman, this is something I'm sure every one of
us can relate to. Is our Eman high, is it low? Is it strong? Is
it weak?
For example, if you remember, if any one of us went for Hajj or
Umrah and we come back, we feel that we have a strong strength in
our faith.
It's easier for us to look away from the haram. It's at other
times it may be difficult if we see something that we should not
be looking at to turn our face away it's very difficult. But if
we have high level of iman then it's very easy that we can look
away like in Ramadan for example. This is the fluctuation in Eman
let me mention a few Hadith to you, which gives us an
understanding.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said this is a second
generation liason is Zanni Well Who is Allah is this zani Hina is
Neva Whitman.
Wala Yasha will hum Hina Shan Wahoo men?
Well Ah Yes, sir. Hina yesterday, well, who wrote me?
A person who's fornicating does not phony Kate, while he is still
a believer.
A person who is drinking wine does not drink wine. While he is a
believer.
A person who is stealing cannot steal while he is a believer.
This tells us that we have many people who are Muslim.
Unfortunately, sometimes Zina is committed. They do drink. Some of
them do steel.
So how is it possible that they're still Muslim, they still Bachman
and they do these things. There's another version of this narration
which
I think it's in Sahih Muslim, which mentions that when a person
does any of these deeds, any of these bad deeds then the emaan is
called Bula. It goes above the head and it is out of the body.
What I want to mention here is that this hadith tells us that
sometimes the Iman can be removed from a person
as soon as the sin is finished and it comes back. One of the more
handy thing he mentioned that when a person has when it when a person
is doing something wrong and the Iman comes out. One of the reason
it comes out is because it is protecting him from punishment.
Another narration the prophets of Allah Islam says Allah You know, I
had to come into your head barely agree Hema you're humble enough.
See?
None of you
is a true believer.
In fact, it says none of you is a believer. Until you love for your
brother what you love for yourself.
Again, does it mean that you don't have belief?
According to the majority of the Sinhala Jamar, all of the
Elsinore, Gemma, they say that this is not literal.
You don't lose your faith. But
your faith is weak. It's incomplete. It's not common.
There is a narration in Lucena, the Ahmed was in a dilemma,
which numerous Mohabbatein have considered to be Sahidic
Shirahama, the Sherkin and others related from Abdullah him nama
* Allah who caught our pseudo Allah He said Allahu alayhi wa
sallam, when the the Natsu Mohammed in Beardy in a method of
movement
camera 30 nulla
a Kelapa uban
well what are the human
well what cart for them? Texan?
Very interesting narration
Abdullah Ahmed are the essays that Rasulullah sallallahu sallam said
by the one
in whose
hand is the soul of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam. The
example and the parable of a believer is like that of a
honeybee. The believer is like a honeybee.
It eats the pure, which means it eats the nectar. It consumes the
nectar. Well, what are the human and it also gives out, it
discharges something which is very excellent which is honey.
What What card for them txiv.
It comes on to the flower on to this very precious, very delicate
petals of the flowers. It lands on there, but it doesn't break them.
This is the ability of the honeybee. When it takes what it
wants. It does it in a very subtle way, in a way that it doesn't harm
anything in the process. And then what it produces is also excellent
and beautiful.
So now
this is very different from the fly.
We see the fly as just an irritant. It irritates you. So you
flick it away.
And if a bee comes, then we either try to kill it, or we run away
from it. However, what's very interesting is that the bee is
much more valuable than the fly. Because if you see flies, what do
they sit on? They like to go and sit on the dirt.
If you go and you see it and they go and they want to sit on the
dirt, blood and pus if they find this they've made you've made
their day for them.
So
believers, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam is saying you should be
like the honeybee. Don't be like the fly. Don't be like the pig.
There's a garden or orchard
and a nightingale which is a bird. If the nightingale goes in a bull
booty bull bull, right in Arabic. So to Sofitel Bali.
If Nightingale goes into our orchard, it will look for the
beautiful flowers, it will sit there and it will sink. When a pig
goes into an garden or an orchard, what does it look for?
It looks for the dirtiest place Where's all the dirt? Let me go
there.
Basically, the idea is that don't be like a pig. Don't be like a
fly. Don't irritate people. Don't go and look for the dirt of
people. All you see is the defect of people. You're constantly
criticizing people be like the bee. If you're going to take
something from someone take the good
and then produce good.
Don't break in the process. falam toxin don't break in the process.
Don't be like a fly that is always going looking for the worst
things.
However, when you look at all of these things,
it tells us that be in good places. Don't be found in the bad
places. Don't be found in the clubs in the pubs and the bars, be
found in the massages in helping people in helping
those who are in need.
That's how Muslims should be. Don't be found in hot haram places
be found in Halal places. The Imam that we all have is extremely
valuable. And the more Iman you have, the more you will value it.
It's very strange. The more Iman you have, the more you will value
it. For example, I'm sure most of you have heard of Sofia Anna
authority Rahima hula great, mahadi
Great.
Once he was crying
and somebody asked him, Why are you crying for what is the
problem?
He picked up a very small grain of wheat, small grain of wheat. And
he said that I have not disobeyed Allah even this much.
Now Subhanallah I have not disobeyed Allah even that much we
cut even compared to this. So why are you still crying them?
He said I am the problem I have is that I'm unsure
if my Iman will remain until death
he's only frightened that he may lose his Iman
that's what he's frightened about.
That's why Allah subhanaw taala in the Quran has a dog Rob Benalla to
lubaina back there it had eaten our heartland and we let them
Karana in the counter.
Oh Allah Oh my Lord.
Do not cause our hearts
to deviate, to turn away
after you have given us guidance,
and grant us mercy from yourself,
because you are the greatest of give us
the way I see the way I look at Iman is, you probably won't
understand this example in Denmark, or in the UK. But if
you've been to a third world country, you'll understand it. I
studied in India for a year.
And I had my own place I rented a place because I was with my
family.
And we bought a fridge.
Now here, you just buy a fridge you plug it in, there's no
problem. Right there's a constant stream of electricity. There's
never a hike in the electricity that will destroy your fridge. But
if you go to third world countries in India, I had to also buy a
regulator. You can't just buy a fridge you have to buy a
regulator, the regulator stops a hike in the current from
destroying your fridge.
So
what happens there is that that electricity is not constant.
There's a problem sometimes it goes very low the light becomes
dim, something's very high and then it blows the bulbs it's very
volatile. Our Iman is like this. It's not constant unfortunately,
because not enough work has been done on it. The only people whose
Iman is constant are the only of Allah
The people who are very close to Allah Who are very focused who are
very much the team, they Imam stays focused.
Our Iman is Subhan Allah today we feel like doing lots of lots of
salads tomorrow we don't feel like doing anything it's a constant
problem we have so what I want to do is I want to speak about the
signs of low Iman because if our iman is like this it's better than
if it's
like this I know it's like this in Ramadan mashallah and then on eat
day came a bit down the next day became more down and then he went
down below the the level right. So how do we keep it straight? Well
first, let us understand what the signs of low emotion is. What are
the signs of low emotion
so help me out with this. First and foremost, one of the biggest
signs of low EMA because sometimes we don't know we don't have a
regulator we don't have like a meter we can put it in check
where's our iman is it up or down in electricity you can do this.
Right it tells you exactly how much amps how many amps are coming
through. But with our iman we only we can tell
one of the one of the first signs of low Iman is sinning with no
guilt.
We can sin we don't feel bad about it.
We can miss press. We don't feel bad. We can look at the Haram we
don't feel bad. We can be eating haram maybe we don't feel bad. We
commit sins and no longer do we feel that it is wrong anymore.
We just don't feel bad anymore. This is one of the signs of low
Iman. The second sign is a hard heart.
The heart is hard, no desire to read the Quran. We read the Quran,
but we don't get anything out of it. We open the Quran we read
maybe one page and we just want to put it away, no pleasure
whatsoever.
Whereas the Quran is supposed to be Gela or Zerlina nor upside in
Nura Colombina and this is supposed to be the effects of the
Quran doc our heart is too hard to be able to benefit from it.
So a hard heart
number three, feeling lazy to do good deeds. We don't feel like
praying.
We don't feel like going to the masjid
as a somebody's mentioned in Quran and Sunnah but no no effects. We
just feel lazy.
Number four, no value for the Sunnah.
No value for the Sunnah
we don't care if it's the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used
to do something if this is the Sunnah way of doing something. No
problem. Doesn't make a difference to us.
Number The next point number five, no talk.
No Reliance
On Allah subhanho wa Taala
how you get upset, small, small things upset you.
A small thing upsets you because you have no Tawakkol and Allah,
everything depresses you.
You didn't get a certain promotion at work and Subhanallah you just
feel like the whole world is finished.
You didn't get a certain job. Maybe you didn't get the marks,
grades and exam that you wanted. Maybe you lost a deal or
something, whatever it may be even small, small issues. And you get
so depressed as though the world is over.
When a person has to work cool, he will say in the law he were in LA
he Raggio If this has happened today, if the water has spilt
tomorrow, I'm gonna go myself to Allah subhanaw taala.
So reliance on Allah Tawakkol when you have no Tawakoni we'll get
more depressed. If you want to remove depression in your life,
increase your reliance in Allah subhana wa Tada. Increase your
trust in Allah subhanaw taala
because this will, things will happen that will upset us. This is
not Jelena. That's why you know, husband, if a person gets married,
the husband and wife, if they are looking for a perfect
relationship, then they're going to be surprised. No relationship
is absolutely perfect. There's always going to be some issues.
But if they feel that it has to be 100% Perfect, they're going to be
extremely sad.
They have no token and Allah they have too much confidence in
themselves.
Number six,
being mean and stingy.
To not like to part with your wealth.
That is also a sign of low Iman. Some of you may be saying How is
that a sign of low ima that's just the
that's just the natural human trait sometimes that they are
stingy. The reason is that when you have Iman then you realize
that Allah says we're unfit only madrasa Minako spend of that which
we have given you.
So we have to spend for Allah Now what is booking stingy This is
called booking right? What is boom? What is the definition of
boom, buckle? According to Allah, Allah who is a great cerium
scholar, he said buckle is two things. One is that you do not
spend when it is
religiously correct or obligatory to spend, where is it religiously
obligatory to spend, what kind of spending Zakat and where is it
religiously recommended to spend? So the cause that's one thing so
where it's religiously obligatory or recommended, number two, where
it is socially accepted socially recommended to spend where what
they call the
the, the common decency say is that you should be spending here
give you an example.
You go out with your friends to eat Do you have any good
restaurants here?
You have good restaurants you go out to eat right?
So there's one brother who goes out to eat with his friends, but
every time it comes to the end when the bill comes, he goes to
wash his hands
on he goes to the toilet. I just need to go to the toilet. You know
some people they say
let me pay let me pay let me pay so is it no no. Okay, you pray.
But this man he doesn't even pull his wallet out. He just goes to
the toilet.
And he comes back everything paid hamdulillah Bismillah the second
time you go same thing. He doesn't want to pay
the progress of the Lord's himself up to a matar.
You know the famous hadith of Abdullah was salam ala the Allah
one, that when the Prophet 1000 came to Madina, Munawwara one of
the things he said is officious Salah spread Salam as again very
generous to spread Salam, it shows you have no pride that you say
salam to everybody after Salah then we're also able to
feed people Allah loves when you feed others
Allah loves it when you feed others what else
and then what's the next part in the hottie
was signal or harm let's not forget that one. Be good with your
relatives your blood relatives your kin Scylla to rotten.
And so Lubin lady when naturalium which is pray at night when other
people are sleeping, the total genuine atavism.
You will enter into paradise with Salam so anxious Salam
Do we do enough of it? Some people do get salam to feed people.
Be good with your relatives. So Unity and number four pray at
night for Allah subhanaw taala. You will enter into the house
finish. How difficult is that? Easy way.
So no debacle
being mean and stingy hates parting with his wealth. Very
difficult for him to take money out.
People are dying in Syria is a fundraising going on?
He cannot pay. He can pay maybe 10 Cronus 20 Cronus bus colors finish
and he thinks he's doing enough.
Somebody else extreme color snowfall 100 Cronus 1000 Cronus
10,000 No problem.
And we can only pay 20 or 30.
This means that we find it very difficult we have helped the roof.
Be Our roof is 20 Kronus. That's it. Now if you want to raise the
kronor if you want to raise the roof, then one day take 50 Kroners
and just give it close your eyes and give it
and you will notice that nothing will be missing.
Allah subhanaw taala says in the Quran
Allah says what a Medina so are you fulfilled Jannetty Holly de
Nephi her Masha Allah
what now
Madame Medusa to allow 11 sha Allah. At the end it says our call
and hero magic booth, our call hero magic booth. This is a
continuous giving
in Jannah, those people who are sorry, do those people who are
fortunate when they go into Jannah.
How did he interfere forever, they will be receiving gifts from Allah
subhanaw taala, a gift our PA the higher homage dues that will never
end.
Some of them are first seen in look at this verse and they say
the way you can get this
is by giving in the world, the more giving you do in the world,
the more you will be given in the Hereafter.
And you should give continuously. And when we say giving, giving is
not just with money. But giving is with every limb of your body as
the Hadith mentions. That famous Hadith which is in the vein of you
know we as well is that every time we wake up in the morning, every
limb of our body owes a sadaqa.
And sadaqa is meeting somebody with a good face is sadaqa.
Removing something from the past, something harmful is a sadaqa
all of these things are sadaqa. So the more charitable a person is in
the world.
That is how his Eman will increase and in the Hereafter. This is the
reward that he will get.
There's a very interesting
study that was done in Vancouver in one of the universities, they
took $10 notes $10 put in an envelope. And they had two groups
of people, one group, they told them that you must go and spend
this on yourself today.
So buy an extra cup of coffee, you know, by $10, whatever. The other
group, they said you must spend this $10 on someone else, not on
your own self.
So both groups they went they one group spent on themselves the
other group spent on someone else. And then they were told to report
back how they felt at the end of the day. And you know, all the
people who had spent on others felt much happier than the people
who had spent on themselves much more happier.
So the people who are conducting the study, they felt that maybe
this is a very progressive country, very wealthy country. So
that's why it's happening here because people have lots of money
if you give them $10 Extra what's the big deal? If you have, you
know, maybe 1015 Extra kronas? What difference does it make how
much richer you're gonna become so you're not gonna get more happy.
So they tried this in many, many countries, including some third
world countries, and constantly the risk response was the same.
You are more happier when you spent on others.
This is just how Allah has made ourselves, us. The Prophet
salallahu Salam adjuvant he was the most generous will admire
comfy Ramadan
and the most generous he was was in Ramadan
Abdullah
are busted young releases Hadith isn't the Shemitah telling me that
the Prophet Solomon was so generous, so generous that he was
more generous than the wind. Now you know how the wind gets
everywhere you need a small crack it gets in the generous person
will spend wherever he can, knowingly and unknowingly.
And he used to be more generous in Ramadan, especially when he used
to have these meetings with Jabril on Instagram.
And the province of Assam said,
in nama Anna Qasim Wallah who you're at, I am just a
distributor, I just do the Taksim I just
I just give it out to people. Allah subhanaw taala is the real
giver of it. Now I'm not doing a fundraiser for this Masjid. I'm
just mentioning these points as Iman. Next point.
Another sign of low Iman is when we rejoice at other people's
calamities. If something bad happens to somebody else, and we
get happy about it, that is also a sign of low faith. Because we are
not supposed to rejoice at other people's calamities because
tomorrow it could come on us.
This is very harmful.
In some families, they rejoice that their brothers calamities
their sisters calamities, sister in law's calamities, it creates a
very bad environment. This is all sign of low Iman This is wrong.
Next point number eight saying the halal is haram having no concern
for anything in between
saying halal or haram having no concern in between what that means
is you know there's a lot of people they say Brother telling me
is this halal or not?
Is it haram? If it's not haram then why are you telling me I
can't do this brother but the prophets of Allah Edison said and
hallowed obey Him will haram obey, obey the Homer or moral muster the
heart
that Halal is clear, Haram is clear. But between there are
doubtful matters and one must avoid them. If you don't avoid
them. It's likely you could fall into the Haram
people say no if it's not haram then you can't tell me anything.
Further this is doubtful. This is bad for you. Look, it's not haram
I can do this sign of low Iman.
Another point number nine. Making fun of the Sunnah. The first one
was that we don't value the Sunnah. This one is making fun of
the Sunnah.
Somebody is observing soon, whatever suddenly, it may be,
maybe the person started keeping a beard because the sooner you start
making fun of him, that looks at the man, take that hair off your
body. While you're doing this, you look 10 years older.
You don't look young anymore.
What's the problem with you? He's making fun of the sooner. Okay, if
you can't keep a beard, no problem, understandable, that's
your problem with Allah. But if you make fun of somebody else,
that becomes problematic.
woman wants to wear hijab, which is actually not just Sunni, it's
actually obligatory, and somebody goes and makes fun of that.
Nobody's gonna marry you. This is what they say. Some parents say
this, nobody will marry you.
Who's gonna marry you? You know, he jolly women don't ever get
married. Are they all sitting in orphanages? You know, nobody gets
married or they will without husbands? Yes, the parents are
right. The people they want them to get married to will not marry.
Parents have an idea, right? They want their children to get married
to somebody of their level of their idea of Islam. So if they're
right, nobody will marry you, according to the people that we
want you to get married to.
And unfortunately, it is really sad that we have certain cultures
where they fix their son or daughter up for marriage from a
young age today, brothers or sisters, daughter or son.
And then when this person this child grows up, they forced them
to marry somebody in Pakistan or whichever country it may be. They
forced them into this marriage.
And do you know how harmful This is? is not an arranged marriage.
It's a forced marriage. This child does not want to because the
mother will say if you don't marry her, then I'm not your mother
anymore. I'm not going to eat anymore. This is all blackmail
lady.
I know one woman who was married to a non Muslim. She called me for
some reason. So I asked her how you're married to a non Muslim.
And subhanAllah she said that when I was much younger, my parents
forced me to marry my cousin.
I couldn't get along with him. They told me it was Islam to do
this. This was Islam
I'm not Islam. So then she lost the faith then she just went and
got away from this man and then she went and married a non Muslim.
Lots of harm come from this when we tell when we tell people that
culture is Islam
so making fun of the Sunnah number 10 No concern for the situation of
the Muslims around the world. People are being killed in Syria,
Palestine other places and for us because we are safe right now. We
think it's not a problem.
They deserve it. Why did they do this? Why did they do this? No
concern we don't spend money we don't help them. We don't do
anything. This is very problematic sign of low Iman when you have no
concern for your many brothers and sisters of the world.
Number 11 obsessive concern about how we look?
Upset obsessive concern about how we look.
So we're constantly just worried about how we look and we love
ourself.
In English, we call this narcissism. Were you just always
proud of the way you look you're not care about anything else is
just constantly about me, I am this
what is the cure for low? Iman what are the cures for low faith?
First and foremost knowledge reading, understanding what Allah
wants from us in the Quran, I read the Hadith to get a better
understanding of what Iman is
many of the books of Hadith we look at them and say Kitab al
Iman, and it mentions all of the acts of iman, when a person is
ignorant of this, then people will say this is Iman, this is the man
this is the man that have no idea. So to know more about what it
means to be men, what Allah wants from us to be a moment number two.
Another very effective way of increasing our iman is to sit in
gatherings of liquor and spirituality. Or have a discussion
or talk which speaks about loving Allah, because that helps us to
boost us human beings they
are effected by anybody they sit with.
If you constantly sit with people who are talking about the dunya
and so on so forth, then you will become like that. If you sit with
people who are into buying property, then you will also get
interested in buying property. There's nothing wrong with that as
long as you do it properly. If you sit with people that are speaking
about Allah subhana wa Tada, you will get interested, you will feel
guilty, it will increase your iman, so sitting in gatherings of
spirituality and Allah subhanho wa Taala loves the gatherings of the
vicar. The professor Lawson says in a second generation
that this is a group Lashkar Jellison
what does that mean?
The hadith mentioned is that if a person
there was a gathering of liquor,
and somebody else came in, and you had their keys,
so he came in to pick up his keys from your brother, I just need my
keys. The angels will tell Allah that all of these people were in
the gathering. And there was also this person who came to pick up
his keys, Allah will say forgive him as well. Why? Because this is
such a valuable group, that anybody who even comes and sits
with them, they are also
fortunate people lie Ashkelon, Jellison lie Ashkelon, Jainism, so
finding a vicar gathering is very beneficial to boost your email.
That's why you should try to do it once a week at least because we
lose our we lose our our interest in our in our faith sometimes.
The next one
and number three is increasing in good deeds. By doing more good
deeds than our iman will increase. Of course, we need to understand
what kind of good deeds we need by reading the Hadith about it and so
on. Number four,
concern for evil ending
concern for an evil ending. What does that mean? We are
always concerned that how will I end my life?
Where will my life end? It's in a good state or a bad state. How
many times have you heard that the person was doing something wrong
when they died? They suddenly died and they couldn't make Toba
to be concerned that I'm gonna have a good personal Khartoum.
A good ceiling states. When you have that concern, then we will
just today we were discussing that there are a few actions that
deprive a person from the Kalama on their deathbed.
Right, what are the actions? Number one,
not praying those first one, missing your prayers, being lazy
with your prayers, this because a Salah to Amer the deen salah is
the main pillar of Islam. So what that will do is it will prevent
the Kalama. Number two was whining, drinking, drinking is
very dangerous, stops a person from the Kalama. Number three was
disobedience to parents.
Number four, who remembers,
right, inflicting oppressing others being oppressing others,
that was another one. So let's just keep it at least for these,
you know, unless somebody remembers the other ones. But
these are some very, very bad things which influence a person
drinking, you know, many of us who work in professional environments,
sometimes we have to go out and we're working with non Muslims all
the time and they drink and they you know that their religion is
fine for them to drink, right? Sometimes we feel that we also
have to drink to fit in.
So we think what's the problem one drink? What's the problem?
No harm. But Subhanallah there's a lot of harm in this. There's a lot
of hungriness. So one must be very careful.
So increasing good deeds concern for a bad ceiling state. So avoid
all of these things, this will inshallah increase our iman,
number five, having a regimen of liquor.
You see,
this something which the Allah mentions, if you do this for even
three weeks, I guarantee you that you will feel closer to Allah and
your iman will increase is no doubt about it. Very simple.
Number one, to 100 is still far in the morning and evening. doesn't
take too long.
A staff that Allah has not been in Buddhism, we want to be 100 in the
morning, 100 in the evening. What is the benefit of this? The
benefit is that when I do it in the morning, all the sins that
I've done since last night are forgiven.
Then I do 100 In the evening, so all my day sins are forgiven. So
I'm constantly purifying myself. It's like having two showers a
day. It's like taking your phone and cleaning it out from all the
garbage messages. And you're gonna have a clean system. This is the
benefit. So firstly, we purify ourselves. 100 is too far in the
morning. 100 is too far in the evening. Number two. Now we want
some blessing. And the one of the best ways to get blessing is by
doing salawat and Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam 100 Salawat in
the morning 100 In the evening,
believing the promise of awesome said whoever sends one blessing on
me Allah says 10 blessings on them Allahumma Salli ala Sayidina
Muhammad where are the early say you dinner Mohammed or daddy
Gosselin 100 in the morning 100 In the evening. So now we are
purified and we have also adorned ourself beautified ourselves with
the Salawat on Rasulullah sallallahu says number three
reading a bit of Quran every day.
Even if it's just one page, even if it's just one page. Quran is
our lifeline. It will purify our sight it will illuminate our sight
it will remove the sadness in our hearts, wonderful, wonderful
benefit of the Quran. Even if it's one page a day, even if it's half
a page a day, if that's all you can do just to have a page
that's number three. If you're commuting to work, you know you
can build this into your system you can build this into your daily
routine.
Number four.
Number four is that we need some private time with Allah.
Because we are so distracted we have no time for Allah. Even when
we do this be Subhan Allah Subhan Allah so our mind is somewhere
else. But when we finish the test, we we think we've done something
from the relevant still better than nothing, as if no other Allah
says that they can with no concentration is better than no
liquor at all. And it is very possible that you will move from
liquor with no concentration to vicar with concentration and then
you will move from liquor with concentration to liquor with
Presence.
May Allah subhanaw taala Grantchester.
But the main thing is that we need some private time with Allah.
How are we going to do this?
The reason why I'm saying this is that you know if you have your
phone
i'll give you a practical example about this. Who uses WhatsApp
here? Oh, who doesn't use WhatsApp?
Who doesn't use WhatsApp?
Okay, one, two class two people. Mashallah, you guys are
either the lucky ones or the depraved ones, I don't know.
Right. Now, WhatsApp, how many messages do you get a minute?
Do you know what I mean? If you're on few groups, you get a message
every second. Firstly, notifications,
take them out, go into it and say I don't want any notifications,
disable the notifications of WhatsApp, because it's a waste of
time anyway. Because you know, there's going to be a message
there, why do you need the notification? Do you understand,
just go into your whatsapp and check, you know, there's going to
be a message that I guarantee if I opened now I'll find the message.
So delay the remove the message.
Keep your data off. Only when you need to check them put everything
on and then check.
Today we're making salads, we finished product. And our phone is
blinking.
Because the light tells us that you got a message. So even though
you want to sit down you want to do some test B is let me just
check this. So I checked my whatsapp, And subhanAllah I've got
all of these messages on one group. I've got 1319 messages and
behind. Sorry about this behind.
We check our WhatsApp and then we get Twitter notification. So we
check that, then Facebook, we check that and you have Viber and
you have amo and all of these different ones, we check all of
them. By that time we have, we can't do a summer anymore. Can you
see the district? This is very addictive. It's very addictive.
I'm telling you myself, it's very addictive. That's why it is
we need to be able to benefit from our liquor.
So how do you do this, all you have to do is between five to 10
minutes a day. Find the time of the day when nothing will distract
you keep the phone away somewhere so there's no lights or anything.
And some phones have such a high. You know, they have such a bright
light that you can even see from the pocket that he's got a
notification, right? So anyway, have everything away and just
spend five to 10 minutes with Allah.
Any kind of maraca you want any kind of meditation, anything.
You can just think about your death. You can just think about
how much Allah has given us. All the you know, everyone sitting
here is wearing clothes, I assume that they want to wear you get the
food you like to eat. In fact, our wives in the morning they ask what
should we cook today and you don't even know what to tell them to
cook because we're spoilt for choice. hamdulillah Allah has
blessed us abundantly. So just think about this thing. One of the
things I find very effective is that you sit down and you just
imagine that Allah's Mercy is coming into your heart and your
heart just says Allah, Allah, Allah, just what good is Smarthub
big? ALLAH says, take the name of your Lord.
Take the name of your Lord. So you're just sitting there just
Allah, Allah, you're just calling out to Allah, Allah, you know,
that's all you're doing.
This is so difficult to do that if we did a trial right now for 30
seconds. If I told you just take the name of Allah for 30 seconds,
without thinking of anything else, I guarantee you, it'd be very
difficult.
Should we try?
Okay, I give you 30 seconds. All you have to do is just imagine
that your heart is saying Hola. Hola. Hola. That's it, nothing
else Don't think of anything else. I'll tell you when to start.
Okay 123 Start now.
Stop the ilaha illallah
How many of you thought of nothing else except Allah.
Come on at least one person
you know the first disk or Mashallah. Mashallah, you're good
at it. The first thing was the somebody spoke, somebody's voice
came. So immediately your mind is going to go there. Then what else
did you think about?
Maybe, I don't know. What else did you think about?
The cat? Or how many? How many seconds?
Allahu Akbar. I just did this just to get us an understanding that we
are so distracted. You know, there's studies that have taken
place that you know, multitasking is bad for your brain in it. When
you're doing some work and suddenly pop up email, you check
your work, and then you come back production time. You've lost a lot
of time. This is our generation right now. Very, very detrimental.
We're not as print
activist people were before
so this is what it is. Now you know if you take a test VNC
Subhanallah Subhanallah you know the electronic test be 123 You
feel like you're doing something but your mind is somewhere else.
That's why if you just focus and do this meditation just thinking
about Allah
right?
You cannot trick yourself you know whether you did this right or
wrong. And in sha Allah if you develop concentration, about just
thinking about Allah for 510 minutes, your Salah will become
better because when you do Salah again our mind goes away.
We don't think about a lighthouse or a TV sada they literally
established a lot for my remembrance, we established a lot
but no remembrance. May Allah subhanaw taala help us. So that
was 100 is defined in the morning and evening 100 Salawat in the
morning and evening.
Some Quran number four, some meditation 510 is the best time
for this is before after fajr When you have no distractions, or
before you go to sleep.
And number five, is try to join,
find a vicar gathering. Or a gathering which reminds you of
Allah, not a Deus on FIQ they're beneficial, but not for this
reason. Something a hundreds of Hadith or something that reminds
you of Allah or a liquor gathering, if you can find this.
And if you can't find this around, then listen to something that
reminds you of Allah subhanaw taala. And I guarantee you if you
do this for three weeks, you will feel closer to Allah subhanaw
taala you may still do wrong things and everything, but at
least you will feel contentment in the heart, your heart will be
stronger in sha Allah. May Allah subhanaw taala grant us the Tofik.
Okay.
Number six and seven very simple.
Firstly, do not ever abandon the basic things that you may be
doing. Even if you think that I am a sinful person, I don't do too
much. If there's just basic something you're doing, for
example, you are going for Joomla you are maybe making one salad in
the masjid or even just one salad a day. carry on doing that it is
very, very useful. Don't think that because I can't do all of
these other things that I must abandon this as well, because
shaytaan or make you think that the way to improve cure our low
faith is to at least continue that and inshallah Allah will help us.
And above all the last point.
Don't ever justify your sins.
Don't ever justify yourself, for example.
And this is just an example, say somebody wants to keep a beard,
but they can't.
Why? Because their work environment. You know, they won't
get job or whatever, whatever the cases.
So they tell themselves because I live in this country. I don't have
to keep a beard.
That's the wrong approach because you're justifying
what you must say to yourself is Look, I can't do it now. But I'll
do it tomorrow. Tomorrow mean soon.
If a woman can, okay better example, a woman cannot wear
hijab.
She mustn't think Oh, because I'm in the West, and there's problems
and so on and so forth. That's why I cannot justify it's Hello for me
because there's a fatwa from a queen of some country or whatever,
you know, there's some fatwas about this. So I don't have to
wear hijab.
If you do that, you will never improve your iman will go down
because you have no justify to yourself. If a person can't keep a
beard today, because his wife complains that it irritates my
skin or something like this, right? Then inshallah you will
keep it tomorrow. But don't justify. The worst point is when
you justify the new finish. If you don't justify that in sha Allah,
you have an option of doing something tomorrow. That is the
most important thing.
Know that we're doing wrong. For example, there's somebody who said
that he was in a job where he was, he didn't like to, but he had to
shake hands with the opposite gender. It's difficult for some
people to so he doesn't know how to deal with the situation. Now if
you start thinking that because I'm in this field that I must do
it, right? That means it's hard for me to do it. Finish. Rather he
should think I feel really bad about doing this. He does this
stuff.
Then inshallah one day Allah will give him the trophy
to deal with it.
So these are all of these issues. I will just tell you one story
before we finish
it's a very interesting story that I found to be very mashallah
impactful for me.
There was a one of the big caliphs of the Romanians, his name was
Suleiman ignore Abdul Malik. He is one of the sons of Abdul Malik in
number one.
So Salima diviner, Abdul Malik, he in his palace, he had a personal
event.
modeling for the palace, as a young man is to give a banner.
And so they want the Nordic also had this really beautiful girl,
servant, slave girl, whatever it was working inside the palace. One
day he catches this young man looking at this girl.
Right? I mean, you will say what's new about that. But, you know, he
caught and he got very angry. He's very jealous. So he wanted to
do something to this.
So he called the slave girl over and he said to her, I want you to
dress up, beautify yourself, adorn yourself and go and present
yourself to this husband.
So he can make an excuse to you know, if he does anything, then he
can go and kill him for that. So she did what she did. She went up
to them
all nicely done.
And then
more than he says,
he says, Come back tomorrow.
Imagine what we would have done. He said, Come back tomorrow. So
she came back.
And so they might have not done Malik was very frustrated. He
wants to finish this off quickly. He said no, go back and say this
is the only time we have to commit haram.
After there'll be no time, the Khalifa is not here or whatever.
This is the best time. So she went back. And she's also frightened
now.
When she got there
the more than he said, Look,
I want you now to never come back.
I'm not interested.
So she goes back and she's crying now as well because you know, it's
a strange scene. So he won't even Abdulmalik is now very astonished
that he saw him looking at her. Then she went and the first time
he said, Come back tomorrow. Now, he is saying, don't ever come back
and not interested, what's going on here. And he felt a strange
affection for this model than that, you know, he must be a very
special person for him to do this.
So what he did was,
he then sent one of his,
his ministers or whoever it was with a bag full of money.
And the woman, the slave girl, and he said, Now go and give him the
slave girl for him for his ownership.
So this minister went
and he gave the girl to him and he said this is all yours now. The
more than said, Now, I mean what we must think now is that before
it was haram, I abstain now mashallah, Allah is rewarding me
for my extension. So Subhan Allah Bismillah Quran, you know, has,
you know, do you know what the,
the Muslim said
that I cannot have you anymore.
Even though he wants to give her to give you to me, I cannot have
you any more. Because when the second time you came, I made a
promise to Allah that I will never do this. So now I can never come
close to you anymore.
That's what you call email. We can make mistakes. But Iman means that
we can rectify our mistakes.
Why did he tell her the first time to not come back?
I used to think about this because as a PhD you have to think about
these things. You know, you think about are you curious? My
understanding is that
you know if there is a sin that comes in front of you, is very
difficult to say no.
So that second best thing you can do is put a buffer between you put
a distance, I'll do it later.
That gives you time to think it gives time for the heat of the
passion the shower, to come down and for you to be sensibly looking
at it. Then you can make a decision. Always keep a distance
between us and haram. Then in sha Allah will be able to control
ourselves. Unfortunately, the challenge today is that Haram is
in in our face, a few clicks and you can reach whatever haram you
want. Makes it difficult, but put some boundaries.
Put some boundaries that will allow the passion to
Hold down the you know the heat to cool down and inshallah we can May
Allah subhanaw taala grant us all protection. May Allah reward you
all for sitting here and on this Saturday night when you could have
been doing so many other things. May Allah grant us Baraka in our
lives. And may Allah subhanaw taala grant us the taqwa and the
Iman that is required for us, wherever we are. The answer is not
simple that just leave and go here and there another May Allah grant
us strength wherever we are, and accept us for that one can show