Abdurraheem Green – CROSSING THE THRESHOLD E-Reminders

			Our brothers and sisters slowly calm welcome back to another stage in the episode of the episodes,
another episode in the stages of the hero's journey. And today we're going to be talking about
crossing the threshold. So what is crossing the threshold? This is the moment that our hero, which
is you.
		

			We're all on a journey brothers and sisters, we all should be on this hero's journey because the
hero's journey is a monomyth. Really, it should be about all of us. Not all of us take that journey.
Not all of us make that effort. Not all of us agree to go. And life is a test. Allah is going to
throw tests and trials or tribulations and difficulties and hardships at us whether we accept it, or
we don't. Whether we like it, or we don't whether we want it, we don't want it. It's coming brothers
and sisters is going to happen. So we need to embrace it. What is the point in resisting it? No it
isn't it better to embrace it, isn't it better to realize that this is what is going to happen in
		

			life, and that you need to find your way through it in the best way and you come out of the whole
thing, a better, greater, improved person. Inshallah. That's what we want to try and do. So the
hero's journey anyway, we may go through all of us are going to go through bits of it, some of it,
maybe some people will stop right here, because today is about crossing the threshold. What's the
threshold? It's very interesting.
		

			What is the threshold? Well, a threshold means the limit of something. But actually, the actual
literal threshold is a piece of wood that is at the front door. Well, it could be any door, in fact,
but generally, it's like a piece of wood that's at the front door. And you know, the threshold is
there it stops the breeze coming in. But in a sense, it marks the entrance to the house. Why is it
called thresh hold? Well, it's probably something to do with threshing of corn. So back in the days
before they had machines, people would have a big platform. And it's interesting that where my mom
lives in Portugal on her land, there is a corn threshing platform, and you can see them dotted
		

			around very, when I first went out to the Algarve, 30 years ago, they were still riding around on
Donkey carts Subhanallah not that long ago.
		

			And so there was still have a lot of this traditional, very traditional form of agriculture. Now,
this is really, really traditional, this is really back in the day, like pre Industrial Revolution
stuff, and they would, you know, put the corn out and that were wait for a windy day, and they would
this is to separate the chaff from the wheat, the chaff is the sort of, you know, the basically the
dry plant that surrounds them, the bit that we want, the bit that we eat, the bit that we use for
our bread, the bit that we grind to make our bread, which is the actual grain itself to sort of
separate the the grain from the chaff, you know, you basically throw it and thrash it down to this
		

			threshold, this Thresh this threshing area, and the wind blows away the chaff and what is left is
the wheat, the actual grain that you need.
		

			And you know, this actually Subhanallah this is actually in and of itself a really strong metaphor
for what we need to do in our life, why we are put through tests and trials and tribulations and
Allah subhanaw taala. he alludes to something similar in the Quran,
		

			about the purification of metal how when there is a flood, it carries down the rubbish you know, the
flood is carried away by the rubbish that when you purify metal or is separated from the metal that
you need, and similarly, we have this expression, separating the chaff from the wheat, getting rid
of that which we don't really need, which is useless, and what we're left with something that we,
you know, there's something that's really beneficial for us. And that's what that's in a sense,
that's what our life should be about. That's why we go through these tests. That's in the same way
that metal is heated in the same way that a flood in many ways can cause lots of devastation. And
		

			yes, the same the wind and the throwing and the
		

			threshing and the smashing of the separating the chaff from the wheat. All of this all of this is to
separate what is useful from what is not useful from what we really need from what we don't. To
separate truth from falsehood to separate the hypocrites from the believers to separate the people
who truly have faith from those who do not. This is what Allah Spano Tala tells us life is about
when the Halacha eternal heartworm or Haluk to multiwell Hayata Leah blue accom Are you calm, nice
and warm Allah, well as Israel, for the Allah, He made the death and the life to make known to
manifest to so it can be seen.
		

			Right who is best in conduct, and he is the mighty and he is the forgiving. So this is really what
it is about. So you see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam he, of course, is our mentor. And
last week, we talked about meeting the mentor, and the mentor comes up again and again in the
journey of the hero. And sometimes the mentor is with you the whole time. Sometimes he's not, but
who is our mentor? First of all, of course, ALLAH SubhanA, Allah, Allah, and Allah chose the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa salam to be an example for us to be a, like a living, physical example of a
human being, living this, you know, traveling on this journey going through these trials and
		

			tribulations and you can see what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam went through, you see the
trials and tribulations, the difficulties, the hardships, that Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam went to, and if he hadn't gone through those things, you know, we we wouldn't have. We
wouldn't have Islam. But of course, ultimately, all of this is for the Prophet Sall Allahu alayhi wa
sallam himself as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said that he hasn't come except to
perfect good character. So this is what it's all about. It's about the perfection of good character.
And in another narration, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said that temptation will be
		

			presented to the hearts one after the other. This is what is going to happen. Allah is going to
present fitten, temptations, trials, difficulties, they're going to come to us, that will be
presented to us and the heart that repels them, this heart will be pure, and they keep this heart
that keeps on repelling these temptations keeps on resisting falling into them. Ultimately, this
heart becomes strong, this heart becomes pure, and it will endure upon this as long as the heavens
and the earth exists. This heart will remain strong and firm and pure. But the one who gives in the
one who succumbs to the temptations, then darkness begins to fall on form on their heart. And they
		

			reach a terrible state, a terrible state where they don't even recognize what is halal or haram
animals. They don't they don't even have the ability to recognize halal and haram. Literally all
they are doing is following their impulses. And again, this is what this is all about brothers and
sisters. It is about impulse control. It is about learning to resist temptations, it is about
learning self control, self discipline, mastering yourself. That's what it's all about. You need to
be in charge of yourself, not your knifes in charge of you, you need you need to be the one that is
leading your knifes not your knifes leading you and not shake on misleading you. How are you going
		

			to achieve that brothers and sisters? The way that you achieve that is by embarking on this journey
and going through these trials and tests and tribulations like I said, You are not going to be able
to avoid it. You can't get away from it. So just accept it. This is what is going to happen. This is
what is going to happen to everybody. The ones who succeed are the ones who follow Allah's guidance,
who embrace this journey. And who realized that's what life is about life is a struggle. Life is a
struggle, life is a test. That's what it is. And the greatest struggle is that struggle, that
struggle against yourself brothers and sisters. Okay, so Subhanallah so crossing the threshold back
		

			to this idea of the threshold now in England, right. And in many Western countries, there is a
tradition that when
		

			you know, when someone gets married, the groom carries the bride over the threshold. Notice that's
very interesting is that the groom carries the bride over the threshold. And again, you can actually
see this whole idea of this threshold is this point of transition, this point of change. And
obviously in the case of marriage, it's a massive change. This girl is leaving her mother's parents
house and she is going to live in the house of
		

			Some strange man, and it's going to be a very strange and different life, many things, and there's
going to be lots of experiences that both he and she have never encountered before. And again,
symbolically, I mean, this hero's journey happens on many different levels, brothers and sisters, so
we said it before, it could be physical, it could be emotional, it could be spiritual, it could be
in reality, all of these three things come together, you can't really separate them. Every
		

			every heroic physical journey is also a mental and spiritual one.
		

			And every spiritual, really heroic spiritual journey is going to be also mental and physical, and so
on, and so forth. And that's because it's, you can't really separate these facts and these realities
about the human, you know, we compartmentalize them, we put them into these different boxes and
categories, but in reality, the mind, body, and spirit, they all come together, that's all part of
what makes you who you are I who I am, us who we are, that's all part of it, it all comes together.
But sometimes you can clearly see that, you know, one person's journey is the emphasis is going to
be more spiritual, the emphasis is going to be more physical, right. So you know, a person who, you
		

			know, goes to a cave to meditate, you know, that journey is clearly more spiritual than someone who
wants to climb a mountain.
		

			Right? I mean, it's clear, so you can see the emphasis of it, you know, the journey may be
different. And, of course, brothers and sisters, we may have many, many of these journeys in our
life. And in fact, the interesting thing is, you could also have many of them going on
simultaneously, right? You could be on one journey in one realm, and, you know, be starting another
journey in another realm. This is, you know, obviously, this is all just to simplify it, but it's
good to know, right, that you can either identifiable parts of this journey, right? And it's nice to
know, in the sense that it's identifiable, because it's sort of like, oh, yeah, I know where I am.
		

			Now, I know what this is about. So this crossing the threshold, this is when we really leave part
one, you know that what we began with was what the mundane world do you remember that the mundane
world, the ordinary world, our ordinary life? Yeah. So we've talked about that already. crossing the
threshold is that is when you, you move. You now you take that step into a different world, you move
into a different realm,
		

			you are going to experience things really differently. And sometimes it can be really, really
different.
		

			And sometimes the difference is subtle. Sometimes the difference is the difference is really, really
extreme. But the reality is, this is all part of it. Because once you take that step, once you step
over that threshold, you've entered into a different realm, right? Just like the bride and the
groom. When they step over the threshold of the house, now they're married and they enter into that
house. Everything is going to be different for both of them. Everything is going to be different.
And yeah, it's a big, huge challenge. Marriage is a big, huge that's a journey that's in a sense, a
heroic journey, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he called it half of our, you know, half of
		

			our deen Subhan Allah ha half the deen marriage. And you can see because marriage is full of tests
and trials and difficulties and tribulations. And obviously, lots of great nice and amazing things
as well. And all things that help, which, you know, help you become a fuller, better, more complete
human being.
		

			And like I said, previously,
		

			in last week's episode, I was talking about us, that the hero's journey, and I remind you again,
brothers and sisters, it's not an egotistical, narcissistic type of thing, right? It's not really
about you, of course, it's about you, and your transformation. But the essence of what is truly
heroic, is your compassion, your empathy, your care and concern for others. And, you know, really in
reality, that's what marriage should be about. Marriage should be about really, you are helping
another person on their journey. And both the husband needs to look at his wife in that way. Is
that, you know, he should not be thinking about what can she do for me, and what does she new need
		

			to do for me, and she needs to do that for me and she needs to do this for me now.
		

			All real men, a man who himself has gone on the journey of the true hero, who has managed to
separate himself from his passions from his ego, a person who has really gone through the whole
heroic journey and really has come back, the other side, transformed, ready to
		

			enlighten, and help and build and grow other human beings, because that's what it ultimately, that's
the full circle. That's where it comes to all at the end, as we'll see. Right? So he, if he's a real
man, then that's it. That's what is in his mind, how is he going to help this, this creature, this,
you know, this, this woman, about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you know, warned us to be
to fear Allah concerning women.
		

			And so that's what he's going to think is like, what can I do? How can I help her to be heroic in
her own way? And of course, she's there's going to be many, many tests, difficulties and trials.
		

			And similarly, similarly,
		

			that the woman should be thinking the same thing, she should be thinking the same thing, how can I
help my husband on his journey, so this is how it should be. Everyone is helping everyone, the
believers, that's how we are the believers are like bricks of a building in the way that they
support each other. And that is what marriage should be about. Because
		

			both the man and the woman have left their family to start a new family. Really, in many ways, this
is as this is almost as heroic as you can get.
		

			And, and for many people, that's what it will be. Their hero's journey will be marriage. It could be
many things, of course, many, many different things. But anyway, this is the crossing of the
threshold. When you cross the threshold, you enter into this new world, where hopefully, you have
been helped by the mentor, you are going to have some guidelines, you're going to have some idea of
what to do. And you know, if you get stuck, hopefully in sha Allah, if Allah blesses you, you always
have the mentor. Certainly you have the Quran to go back to you have the sunnah to go back to you
have the example of our scholars and the pious people. And hopefully, even on top of that, you will
		

			have people who really care about you, who really understand you, and who are going to be able to
advise and help you on the way. So
		

			this, this crossing the threshold, this is yours. As I said, this is the step into the new world.
The new reality.
		

			It really is. Now, I want to talk about I want to talk about, you can see this with the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And we talked last week about how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, when he has this first encounter with Gibreel. And what happens when the prophets now before
the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam things did happen that were really strange. For example, he
would hear, you know, like, he would hear and see things, but nothing on the level of seeing Gibreel
feel the horizon. I mean, and this is the thing, brothers and sisters is that that's an example of
crossing into a totally different world, where suddenly it's the same world, the mountain is the
		

			same, the city is the same, the trees are the same, the people are the same. But suddenly, you see
it all through a totally different lens. It's almost as if it is totally new. I remember myself that
I this is something I experienced myself when I, when I started to practice Islam when I, when I
what I would say really became Muslim, in the sense that I started to pray five times a day, and I
really began to commit myself to being a Muslim in I would say, in a really deep, profound and
spiritual way.
		

			I had
		

			a lot of very, very deep experiences. And it's very hard to describe because, yeah, you know, I was
looking at the trees, they were the same trees, but they looked, they didn't look different, but
they were different. And it's very, very hard to explain it. If you haven't seen it,
		

			but
		

			You know, I suppose the differences this right before you, the tree was just there almost as just an
object that just existed. But when you see the world, through the eyes of eemaan,
		

			then the tree is this creation of Allah.
		

			And this thing is a sign
		

			that is going to lead you to know more about Allah, to be able to contemplate more deeply on his
beautiful names and lofty attributes. It is something itself that is in a state of worship and
submission to Allah. So when when, when you understand that, everything, everything looks refer to
animals, the trees to see the sun, the moon, the stars.
		

			It was there before you were seeing it before but it's, it's almost like this veil has been lifted.
And you also you, you know, you, as you go deeper and deeper into this world, as you exist in this
world, more and more, more and more veils are lifted, and you begin to see things in,
		

			I guess, in a much more clear way.
		

			So yeah, I had some, you know, like, I had some very, and I still do, I guess they're, they're not
profound and shocking anymore. In the sense, they're not new for me.
		

			Like, now it's familiar. Now, it's the normal world, it wasn't then it wasn't 36 years ago, normal
for me, that it was an adventure, it was crossing a threshold, there was definitely a threshold
there, there was definitely stepping into this completely different reality.
		

			Or there's different I suppose there's different perception of reality. And you know, a lot of
people will experience this when they get married, a lot of people experienced this when they have
kids, they will also experience something similar. You know, when you have kids, just like when you
get married, it just changes your perception, when you have kids, it really changes your perception,
suddenly, the world is very different. Suddenly, what is important to you, suddenly, your
priorities, suddenly, the Threats and Dangers that you take note of are very, very different to the
ones that you thought of before, if you thought of any.
		

			And again, travel does this, you know, travel in the sense that it broadens people's horizons, it
awakens them to other people and other ways that people live and other ways that people look at the
world and treat the world and interact with the world and interact with each other. This, again, can
be, you know, a hugely enlightening experience that just makes you perceive and appreciate the world
people have near death experiences. And I'm not necessarily it's not necessarily that they you know,
have to see a tunnel and there's a light at the end of it. And you know, they think they they enter
into paradise. No, I mean, just having a very, very close brush with death, just realizing the
		

			fragility of your life, all of these things can have that very, it's almost like it, you know, in
that sense. So it's not like you step over that threshold, sometimes you are pushed. And that's what
happens not not everybody.
		

			Not everybody crosses the threshold of their own accord. Some people are pushed, some people
stumble, some people will trip and fall, some people just find themselves that almost almost you
could say almost because nothing's by accident, but almost by accident.
		

			But whatever it is, brothers and sisters, what we're talking about now, and what we're going to be
talking about,
		

			really, in a few of the episodes to come is about this new world that once you've crossed the
threshold, what is going to happen, this is the realm where you are now you know, yes, with it comes
you know, with it comes this. How can you say it is a very amazing, generally positive,
		

			enlightening experience, but it's also scary, because part of that whole experience inevitably are
all sorts of uncertainties, all sorts of tres tests and trials and tribulations and difficulties.
		

			And for many people, you know, there is there is a very, very deep, profound moment almost where you
sort of reached the you know,
		

			The depths of despair and difficulty, and then you come out of that. So this is all part of that,
which we'll talk about in Sharla. In upcoming episodes, but again, I mean, what I'm asking you to do
rather than sisters, thinking about crossing the threshold, why don't you think about? How has that
happened to you in your life? Has it happened to you in your life? Do you feel that you crossed
thresholds? Did you step over those things knowingly? Did you embark upon a journey purposefully
knowing what you're getting into?
		

			Or did you stumble through where you pushed?
		

			Do you find yourself you know, you just experiencing the world in a different way.
		

			And again, brothers and sisters, please, I'm, you know, I am here emphasizing the fact that we're
talking about things that are going to transform us in a positive way. Now, maybe it may be that
things happen to you. And you didn't react to those things positively. I mean, I give you an
example. So recently, I got a message from someone
		

			who had an operation,
		

			who is this person had some problems, you know, problems with their back, they had an operation,
they were thinking, This operation was going to make everything fantastic, it was going to make
everything great, you know, full confidence in the doctors, etc, etc. And the operation went wrong.
And now this person
		

			is in constant chronic pain. And so this brother is really fine. It was finding it hard to process
what you know, what is happening?
		

			And what was going on. So again, I, you know, I thought, Okay, this is interesting, because this is,
you see, for this brother, this, this is his journey, I realized this, this is the beginning of his
heroic journey, he has been presented with this challenge, his normal world has now changed, and
it's been changed by pain. How is he going to cope with this? How is he going to deal with it? And
that's his question. That's what he was asking.
		

			And so
		

			I gave him, you know, quite not a huge list, because I didn't want to overburden something, but I
know there's some things you can work on making dua turning to Allah
		

			being grateful, one of the things that we, you know, we can often miss in a moment like that. And
this is something that is so important in our journey is gratitude. That whatever
		

			you feel the loss of whatever has been taken away, what you have, is much, much more than that. And
absolutely 100% For sure that, you know, what I thought is, you know, there are people in the world
who would gladly take this brothers pain, they would have that pain
		

			just to be able to see, for example, there may be a person who is blind. And you say, well, you can
see but you're going to have to have chronic pain, they will see Give it to me to be able to see I
will have it
		

			or you know, just to have hands or feet.
		

			Or, you know, to be able to eat and drink food.
		

			I don't know so many things, so many different difficulties, so many problems that people go
through. And sometimes we forget that we have so many bounties so many blessings, so many things
that are lots of hand Allah to Allah has blessed us with and has given us we don't even we can't
even count them. We can't even count Allah's blessings to us. Yet we just focus on the negative, we
just focus on this one thing like our world is shattered, and actually really is not at all. Okay?
And actually these things can very often. No, absolutely not very often, they can always always if
we take the right approach, bring us closer to Allah. They can always improve us, make us better as
		

			people, and this is what we have to do. So brothers and sisters, I want you to look through your
life. This is what I want you to do between now and next week. And think why don't why don't leave
leave a comment. Why not? Talk to us in the comment section about
		

			the journey, or the journeys that you've been on? What threshold have you crossed recently or in the
past that? Well, you found yourself in a totally new world? What are your experiences? Do you feel
that you're failing or passing the test? Obviously I'm here if I can help you in any way brothers
and sisters have can't be a mentor and everything
		

			But there's lots of things too many things I have no knowledge about, I don't know much about so if
you're struggling with exams in nuclear physics, I'm not the guy to help you.
		

			You have to find another mentor.
		

			So but but it's just you know,
		

			you know, tips and tricks on how to study better, maybe I can help you on that. Alright brothers and
sisters, it's been a pleasure. I hope you benefited from this. I hope it benefits you in your life
and in your journey to Allah subhanaw taala until next week, where we will be continuing the journey
of the true hero.
		

			Last month, Allah protect you May Allah guide you. May Allah put you on the right path Allahumma
Salli ala Muhammad meanwhile, earlier Sathya Salam, Salam Alikum