Fake Religion

Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Welcome brothers and sisters, everybody, to tonight's Facebook Live Alhamdulillah and we're going to be talking about fake religion, fake religion. So we've all heard about fake news. Tonight we're going to be talking about fake religion. So first of all, please share this sharing is caring. And it's gonna be a really a hopefully very, very interesting Facebook live tonight. And also, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. You can watch this live on YouTube as well in sha Allah. And the link is in my facebook page on the last post, you can see it. So fake religion, and I mentioned in my Facebook post that there is actually a link

between news and religion. And what is that link? Let me start let's start by that inshallah. So I want to start talking about how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam first publicly announced the hit the call to Islam. So the prophets a lot. And that's very interesting that the pagan Arabs had a vehicle to announce news and they had a system in place to make sure that the news wouldn't be fake. And you see, that is amazing that even the pagan Arabs realize the importance and the danger of fake news. And it's enshrined in Legend. You know, in the story of cry wolf, the story of cry wolf really is, you know, Aesop's fable the famous fable of the boy, the boy who was looking after the sheep,

and you know, he wanted to amuse himself. So he said, Wolf, Wolf Wolf, and all the villagers came running.

And there was no wolf and he was just laughing. And he did this three times. And then the fourth time the wolf actually came, and he was screaming Wolf, Wolf Wolf, and no one came because they said, Oh, it's that silly little boy just playing a joke again.

And that isn't actually a really, really ancient tale that warns us about the danger of fake news. And that is why even pagan Arabian society realized that they needed to do something in order to precaution against that type of thing. So what they had is a tradition, that if Mecca was being attacked, someone would have to go to the top of Mount suffer, and they would have to strip naked. And the reason obviously, they would have to strip naked was to show that they were really, really serious about what they were saying. And then they would make their announcement, you know, the city's being attacked. So anyway, when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he received the

order from Allah, to convey the message publicly about Islam. The Prophet Muhammad went to the top of Mount suffer, but he and he called all the people he called the people. And he said, Oh, my people, if I was to tell you, that there is an army about to invade us from behind this hill, would you believe me? And so this is very important, because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is is if you saying to them, Look, I want to give you some news, I'm telling you some news. But I'm not following the custom that we have put in place or that has been put in place by our ancestors to make sure that it's not fake. And they responded by saying, Mohammed, of course, we believe you. We

never heard anything but truth from you. And so this is the really, really important thing. Truth. The Prophet Muhammad was known even before by his people, he was given the nickname of Al Amin, which means the truthful the trustworthy, they trusted him, he was known for his truthfulness and his trustworthiness. Let says, the Prophet Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon him.

So what he was saying is, look, he and the people responded, they said, Yes, Mohamed, we never heard anything but truth from you. You're reliable, we can trust you. If you're going to give us some news. We believe that that news is real. And so the Prophet Muhammad said, Well, I have come to warn you of a terrible punishment from your Lord. And he said that I can't help you against God. It doesn't matter if you're from my tribe. Even if you're my daughter, the prophet movements, Muhammad said, even Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, I can't help you against Allah. The only thing you can do is, is have Taqwa of Allah and obey Him. So this is the news that the Prophet Muhammad came with

real this is real news, right?

Do news that there is something that's going to happen to us when we die, we're going to be confronted by something truly momentous, truly terrifying, truly or inspiring a Day of Judgment a day when every single one of us, we're going to be accounted for our deeds. And there is a paradise and there is a hellfire. If we don't, if we don't obey God, and we don't follow His guidance, that's where we're gonna go. So this is what this is news news very often, even these days is used to warn people it's used. That's why most news is bad news, because it's really there as a type of warning. And there's a reason for that. So this is the link you see between fake news and religion. And that

could be true religion, of course, and it could be false religion. So I wanted to bring that from the very, very beginning because the whole issue of trustworthiness is very, very important. And what I'm going to be talking about today. Now, the reason I wanted so much to talk about this topic of fake religion, is because there is a lot of fake religion around now, you see, when I say fake religion, I don't mean I'm not really talking about false religion. This is two different things. Fake and false are two different things. It may seem very subtle, you may not get it, you say, well, what's the difference? Let me explain to you. Okay, false religion is, what is religion? Anyway,

let's start by discussing what is religion, this is a big subject. And I'm not going to use my whole talk, because I could use the whole Facebook Live and YouTube Live to talk about this one topic, what is religion? But so for the purpose of this discussion, what I mean by religion is guidance that has been revealed by the Creator by God. That's what I mean by religion. So false religion is a religion that claims to be guidance from God, and it's not. Or it could be religion, some of it is guidance from God, and some of it is not. Now I know, there's a lot of people out there, maybe some of you are listening, who think every religion is fake religion itself is fake. There is no

religion. This is a big topic. This is a very big subject. And I would argue that, that's self defeating. I believe human beings are religious creatures. That's what we are. Religion is fundamental to our humanity. But I'm not going to get into that discussion. That's a whole separate discussion and a very worthwhile discussion. And it's worthwhile having it but I don't want to talk about it today. Because what I really want to talk about is fake religion. So I'm not talking about false religion, because now this may seem strange, a person could be following a false religion, but they're not fake.

So a person could be following false religion. So they could be following a religion that claims to be from God. And that's not, or they could be following a religion that has some things that is from God in it. And some things that's not and I would say, anyway, this is the case with every religion.

And I would not I say this very cautiously for everybody listening. I would even say that about the Muslims today. I don't say that about Islam. Islam, I believe, is a true religion. I believe it's there. We can find out what Islam is the true Islam, the pure Islam, the Islam that was taught by the Prophet Muhammad, because the Quran is with us. It's substantially it will, it hasn't. It's the same book we have today, that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad 1400 years ago, not only that the Arabic language is living, so we can understand what did those words mean? In that time, we have explanation of the Quran, which is in the life example of the Prophet Muhammad. But when we look at

the Muslims, so when we look at Islam today, when we look at the civilization of Islam, when we look at what people call the religion of Islam today, so these are two different things that Islam as it was in the time of the Prophet, and we can find out on research that and we can get to it, but what people call Islam today, there's plenty of fake religion, plenty of fake religion, maybe I'm sorry to say this amongst Muslims, there is more fake religion than anywhere else.

That's a big statement to make. Well, maybe because there's more of us than anywhere else, but it doesn't matter whether it's Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Rastafarians, whatever, whatever it is, that there are people who may be following a false religion.

As I would define it a false religion, but they're not fake. They're not fake people, they're sincere people. That's what I mean. There's a sincerity about them. And they are extracting what is really worthwhile from any religion and practicing that. Now I have some Quranic proof to really support this approach, because if we look to the way the Quran talks about the people of the book, you'll find that the Quran talks about, for example, the Christians that the closest in love to God, or those who call themselves Christians, it talks about and the reason why, why does the Quran say that, because there are amongst them priests and monks, monks, there are people who have renounced

this world, and given their life to worshiping God. And because they are humble, they have humility. You see, this gives us a clue as to what real religion is what religion really is supposed to do to you. It's supposed to give you a quality of humility. Now, humility here, doesn't mean that you know, you walk around with wooden clothes with your head bowed. And you know, and whenever anyone

says something to you never answer back, or, you know, you talk in a very calm way like this the whole time. You know, you could say that the way I'm talking now is not humble at all. It's very I'm humble, right? No, but this is again, this is fake humility, to be like, that is fake humility, humility, humility. Here in the Quran, when the Quran when Allah talks about humility, it's the opposite of Kippur is the opposite of pride. And what is pride. Pride is defined by the prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to reject the truth when it comes to you to reject the truth when it comes to you and to look down upon people. So these are the two things that we should be

very, very aware of. We should be aware of arrogance, we should be aware of having resistance to truth. And this is what I talked about. In my facebook live two weeks ago, if you haven't hear it, heard it, check it out, listen to it. It's about why are we in such a mess? Why are we so lost? That was my topic. So I was talking about that, why are we so lost. And it's the same theme repeating itself here, the importance of honesty, the importance of humility, the importance of truthfulness, these are the very, very essential qualities of what religion is supposed to do, and not to look down upon people. You see, right. This is unfortunately, a lot of religious people have this rule

when I say religious, fake religion, right? Fake religion makes you can make a person very arrogant, look down upon people think that they are so holy, and they are so pious, and they are so much better than everybody else. And everybody's a bunch of scum, and everyone's just some dirty sinner. And this and that. It may I mean, it may be true about everybody. But the point being, is that really a person who understands truth, and understands the religious truths, they will be so busy and so occupied, worrying about their own sins, that they won't really have that much time to be looking at the sins of everybody else. But you see, that's the difference. True Religion makes you

turn inwardly to yourself, you look at yourself, you worry about yourself, you worry about the state of your own heart, you look at your own sins, and you are just so worried that you will be destroyed by them. And then when you really look at other people, you probably think that everyone is better than you, even the worst person you probably think is better than you. Because that's how you look at your own sins. And I'm not saying it means that you look at people's sins, and you look at the bad things that people are doing, and you think nothing of it. No, because there's a difference between looking at what people do and making judgments about those people. There's a difference

between that, you see, and again, that's the difference between true religion and fake religion. True Religion makes a person humble makes a person self reflective makes a person look at themselves in their own sins, fake religion in really what we want a person who has fake religion or when we have that fake religiosity. We love to be looking at everybody else's bad, bad thing, you know, and what we do ourselves, we don't even notice it. We don't even notice how we backed by. We don't even notice how we sin. We don't even notice our own acts of this

obedience and rebellion, we don't notice it because you know what we're so busy looking at how bad everybody else's. And this is a big disease and I know it's a lot of us brothers and sisters, we have this disease, and you find this disease manifests itself in a lot of talk about Muslim rulers right now, I am not saying here by the way that the Muslim rulers are, you know, are wonderful, and they're so lovely. And, you know, they're all you know, I'm not saying that don't get me wrong, right. But there is this thing that people love to talk about, oh, the Muslim rule is this the mullahs that that the the ayatollahs this, the priests that the, you know, rabbis this, so people

love to pick up these religious leaders and, and also the, the, the secular leaders are the leaders of the country that this the that, but in reality, when you look at these people who are going on and on and on and on about how bad the rulers are, and about how these religious figures are so corrupt, they themselves, look at them, really, you'll see that actually, they're spending so much time talking and blaming everything upon everybody else. What are they doing themselves. And this is what I really believe I really believe that we need to work on ourselves. We need to change ourselves. And I remember years and years and years ago, 3027 years ago was something when I first

became Muslim. There was a brother I used to sit with and I used to learn from him. And one of the things that he used to tell me, and this used to tell me this about Egypt, he said, you know, the Rahim he said, people, you know, people blame the Egyptian government, and they say this and they say that and I'm not saying I'm not saying that these this government and this was 27 years ago, right. So I guess that was the time of Sudan or maybe after Sadat. No, it was the time of

Hosni Mubarak. Okay, and, and he said, But listen up Rahim. No one forces people to throw rubbish on the street. No one forces people the government doesn't come and tell you throw rubbish on the streets. No one forces people to make the place look dirty and filthy. This is the point. So at the end of the day, people blame the government, the government isn't the government that but look how we're behaving ourselves. The government doesn't force you to do these things. So but we love to blame everybody else. We don't want to take responsibility for ourselves. This is this is really a good example of fake religion, fake religion. And you know, this is a very important topic because

Ramadan is coming up. Ramadan is what five weeks, six weeks away now.

And you know, Ramadan is, is one of those times in the Muslim life, the life of a Muslim, that is supposed to be transformative. Allah tells us in the Quran, and I want all of you brothers and sisters to let's all of us, you and me together. Let's make this the most amazing, transformative Ramadan ever. Let's start preparing ourselves for Ramadan. Now, that's what we need to do. That's what we need to do right now. So

the month the month of Shaban is coming up and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he used to fast this month he used to fast like the whole of it, he would fast really almost like two consecutive months shut down and the Ramadan. Okay. Shabbat is it shut down or Sha Sha abandon Ramadan? So he would fast these two consecutive months okay. So, because why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he's preparing for Ramadan and like I said, Ramadan is supposed to be transformative. Law a locum. Yeah, you handle Edina Armano katiba llegamos CMO, Kumar katiba Allah Allah Dinniman publikum la la cuenta con are you who believe fasting has been prescribed for you as

it was prescribed for those who became before you law I look on taco and so that you may acquire taco taco taco the most important thing mindfulness of Allah fear of Allah protecting yourself from Allah's punishment. The most important provision on our journey to Allah is Taqwa. And Ramadan is a time when we supposed to acquire it, and that so Ramadan transforms us but what did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say? He said that some people get nothing from their fasting except they get hungry, and they get thirsty. And some people get nothing from their night prayers except they get tired.

This is very important. Because that gives us this clue about this topic. We have fake religion. How is it a person false every day, but all they do

All they really get from it as they get hungry and thirsty, doesn't it doesn't transform them. That's like fake religion. It's fake. Because if it's not transforming you don't what's it doing? It's just empty. It's hollow. It's useless. What is it if you go on Hajj and Umrah and it doesn't change you what is it that you pray? Your your you pray you stand in front of Allah and you pray and that prayer doesn't transform you because that's the reality. prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, charity. These things are supposed to be transformative. They're supposed to change you know, I want to read this Subhanallah amazing few

I add of Quran. Okay, so Salton Nisa certainly said this, there's two things that

two things two verses of Quran that I really wanted to ask you to think about one is in surah, Al Baqarah. One is in surah baqarah. So check this out. Righteousness. Yeah.

Okay, lace up the euro. It is not righteousness, that you turn your faces towards the east or the west.

But righteousness is one who has a man in Allah who truly trusts and has true faith and commitment to Allah to God, the last day, the angels, the book, and the prophets, and and if you listen to my Facebook Live, last week, if you didn't go back, and the Facebook, go back and listen to it, it's about charity. The connection between charity and true faith is mentioned again and again and again in the Quran. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said charities are proven if you listen to my Facebook Live from last week, it will explain totally why the connection between charity and giving charity and real Imam and it is no coincidence that our Ramadan is a time of a special time of

charity. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to give so much in Ramadan. So Albert laser, it's not righteousness, that you turn your face towards the east or the west. But true righteousness is the one who believes in Allah the last day the angels the book and the prophets and gives wealth in spite of their love for it in spite of their love for it. So you can love the dunya you can love your wealth, you can love it. But you know what it's about overcoming your knifes overcoming your desires, overcoming your animal inclinations. It's the application of what I keep on going on about brothers and sisters the application of willpower Self Mastery, overcoming your knifes and

overcoming your desires and overcoming your selfish habits because you have a long term goal. You have something you want to reach you want to reach Jana, you want to reach paradise, you want to see Allah.

Yeah, that's what you want.

The most beautiful thing. So in spite of the love for it, they give charity in to do they give charity, their relatives to orphans, the needy, the traveller, those who ask and for freeing slaves, and they established the prayer and they give us a car and they keep their promises when they make a promise. And they are patient in poverty and hardship during battle. Those are the ones who have been true. And they are the ones who mourn and Matakohe. The they are the ones who have Taqwa they are the righteous ones. So let's go back. It's not righteousness that you turn your face to east or west. When was this revealed? This was revealed when Allah ordered the Muslims to turn towards Mecca

and face that as the direction of prayer. And the Jews and the Christians were making a big hullabaloo about this of course the the Christians face

thing the Christians faced East and the Jews faced west so they face two different directions in prayer. So they made a big thing about this but Allah is pointing out the real righteousness is not facing this way or that way.

And again, you see this thing brothers and sisters I know Ramadan is going to come up and people are going to be having fights about whether it's eight raka or 20 raka until now people are fighting about do I point my finger wiggle my finger do I lift it up or not? Do I make it a fire Dean or not? Okay, these things all have a place for discussion, in the sense that what is righteousness or righteous

This is obeying Allah. That is what is important. That's true righteousness. It's that spirit of surrendering yourself to your Lord in your Creator from so from that point of view, yes, what God has ordered, we should do it. But these things at the end of the day, real righteousness is not these rites and these rituals, okay? The rites and rituals are there. So the same thing when Allah says, it's not, it's not the meat that reaches Allah when you make a sacrifice when you sacrifice at Hajj or any other time when you sacrifice an animal. It's not the meat that reaches Allah, Allah doesn't need to eat meat, Allah is free from back. It's your righteousness because you're obeying

Allah because Allah told you to do something and you're doing it. That's what is really, really important. And this is the thing brothers and sisters, we've turned our religion into these movements. And these, you know, we make these movements, we go through the motions, we go on Hajj, we go on pilgrimage, but does it really change us? And the reason I wanted to give this story, right, I'll tell you some, some background, okay, is that I know some bits I know something from my own, you know, close personal life, where I know some people who went on Hajj, they went on Hajj, or they went on Umrah, Hajj or Umrah, and they came back. And they came back. And these people or one

of these people, was involved in helping a Muslim boy

run away from his parents. And this was a good Muslim family. And all this boy wanted to do mostly what he wanted to do. He had a lot of excuses, but mostly wanted to do was haram stuff. He wanted to run away. And this person who'd come back from Hajj, what did he do to him? I have to think like, how is this person? What does he think religion is? What does he think religion is? And this is this is what made me think about fake religion. You know, people will wear this topi where this job, go to the mosque, they'll pray they'll fast. Okay.

But it, it doesn't do anything to them. The way they behave is not right.

You see, and this is what you find the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saying the person, some people get nothing, nothing from their fasting except that they get hungry and thirsty. And they get nothing from their prayers except they get tired.

So, so this is bigger brothers and sisters, this is righteousness. Okay, so let's go again. Let's go then to this beautiful, another beautiful IRA. Okay, this is actually quite a few. So I'm going to read this. Indeed, Allah does not forgive, that people should make partners with him. But he forgives what is less than that for whom He wills and whoever associates others with Allah has certainly gone far astray. So this is key. The fact that we know Allah, the fact that we know God, the Creator, nothing is equal to God, nothing is CO equal with God nothing shares in God's worship, His Majesty has power his command, this is key. This is key to really what religion is about.

Okay.

And he goes on to mention,

they call upon instead of him, numbered deities, female deity or deities, and they actually call upon Satan. So there are these people who and I'm not going to go into this in detail, but they're just worshiping other than Allah. They're worshipping idols, they're worshipping Satan's. And, and they're worshipping shaytaan, whom Allah has cursed for * for he has said, I will surely take from among Your servants, a specific portion. So Allah is mentioning, you're worshipping Satan shaytaan you're worshipping Satan, you're worshipping Satan. All he wants to do is take you with him to the hellfire and I will mislead them in a rattles within them desires and I will command them. So

they will slit the NIT This is the here again, okay, fake religion, false religion, fake religion, and I will mislead them. And I will arouse within them sinful desires and I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so that they will change the creation of Allah. And whoever takes Satan as an ally sheet Dawn as an ally instead of Allah has certainly sustained a clear loss and shaytaan promises them. The devil promises them and arouses desire in them but Satan does not promised them except delusion. Brothers and sisters. Again, this is why I am going on I am going on and on and I'm not apologizing. This is why in my mastery classes I am trying

to get

The Message Across how important it is to have control of your desires to have control of your passions to master your willpower for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala. This is very similar to talk about because your desires, what is it that shaytaan misleads you with except your knifes. And so what is really important here is that look at the connection between following your desires and fake religion, false religion, fake religion, right? Because when you begin to follow your desires, then what happens as well, then you'll follow your desires in religion, you'll invent for yourself what you think, or what shaytan puts in your head is pleasing to Allah. This is a perfect example. And

this is what the pagan Arabs did. They invented stuff that shaytaan had put in their minds, they slit the ears of camel, and if they slit this camel, and they would you know, they, they would leave certain camels to wander in the desert. And they would say, Oh, these are sacred camels, these are for Allah, sacred animals, sacred cows, sacred camels like they're blessed by God, or there's some some holy thing. This is just the delusion of shaytaan. This is just made up just like the in India with the Hindus with the holy cows, like, Where is this from? Where is this that this, this animal is holy, and you can't eat it? Where's this from? From? What? Is this from God? Is this from the

Creator? really prove it? Bring your proof. Bring your evidence that this is something that God has taught? Or is this just something either your mind has imagined? Or shaytaan? The devil has put in your head and confused you. So this is the thing people imagine these things. This is what religion is about these type of things. No. And then here's the amazing thing. A person thinks that cow is so sacred, that they'll go and murder another a human being, they will murder a human being, because this human being has killed a cow. How does that work out? How does that make any sense? This is this is just the tricks of shaytaan. So this is this is what shaytaan promises them and arouses

desires in them. But Satan shaytaan does not promise them except delusion, the refuge of those will be hell, and they will find no escape from it. But those who believe and do righteous deeds, we will admit them to gardens beneath which rivers flow and they will stay with in there forever. And the Promise of Allah is truth and who is more truthful than Allah in his statement. Okay, so it goes on a very important and whoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, while being a believer, those will enter paradise and they will not be wronged, even to the speck of a deep date seed, and who is better than one who submits himself to God, while being a doer of good and follows the

religion of Abraham inclining towards truth and Allah took Ibrahim Abraham as an intimate friend. You see, Ibrahim, for me,

Ibrahim is he is this

most amazed maybe after the Prophet salallahu alayhi salam i You can't I mean, you can't say who is the greatest prophet and this and that, of course, the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,

because he's the last messenger. And because of what we know, but in terms you see Ibrahim was extraordinary he was that he was the only person who believed in Allah who had true Iman and Allah, it's that's what they said on the whole earth, for what for a time he was the only person. And his story is so amazing history is so remarkable. His commitment, his belief, his faith, his trust in God.

Can you imagine how Allah tells him to sacrifice his son Subhanallah to leave his wife and his only son in the desert in the desert in the middle of nowhere?

And when Hotjar when Hotjar, his wife says to him, oh, Ibrahim, is this from you? Or is this from Allah? He says, this is from Allah, this is what Allah has commanded me.

And she says, if that's if Allah has ordered you, Allah will not abandon us. Not only does Ibrahim have this amazing faith, his wife Hajah amazing. This is trust. This is a man this is faith. This is real religion, right? This is real commitment. This is real sincerity. This is real humility. Right? This is when you are ready, truly, to commit yourself.

Okay.

So that's the reality of what religion is true religion, sincere religion.

So I think you may be you can understand, what I'm saying is that people may follow a false religion, but they're, they're committed, they're sincere, they extract what I'm sure that every religion has something in it, they all have kernels of truth, like every religion, every organized religion, because one of the biggest fake things like there are people who call themself I'm spiritual, but I don't believe in organized religion. That's the biggest fake religion. If you want to know the biggest fake religion of all, and that's just totally fake, is this whole, I don't believe in organized religion, because that's the whole point of religion, the whole point of it, is

to discipline you to discipline your desires. And that is what every religion has in common. If you go down and you look, the good thing that every religion has in common Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, to anything, if you look at those religions, the one thing that unites every religion is it is a system of controlling your impulses and your desires. It is a system that helps you to build your willpower to enhance your human thinking, cognitive, rational part of your self, and to constrain your desires. This is what every religion you'll see, if you study and I studied, I've studied, you know, I was a Buddhist, before I

became a Muslim, I was a Buddhist for a couple of years. The same thing, if you look in the Hindu tradition, the same thing. If you look in Judaism, if you look in Christianity, not modern day Christian, it's very, it'd be very hard pressed these days, to find Christians who are not fake, and who don't follow fake religion. Before in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, and before the time of the Prophet Muhammad when ALLAH is talking about that they have amongst them, ascetics, monks, these are people who literally would live their whole lives, 20 3040 years, they'd live in a cave, they would live the most simple life, they would eat insects, they would eat just minimum things, they

would live a very, very simple existence, maybe just studying scripture, praying, they totally dedicated their lives to escaping from, you know, the, what they saw as the corruption of the world and giving themselves in this very humble way to God. So you find that you know, and then you have you had these monasteries, but then even monasticism it became corrupted, because they became centers of wealth, and then they became themselves wealthy. And then monasticism itself became a huge source of corruption, but its original root, had it this idea of asceticism and piety and a community of people worshipping God, that's what it was all about. It's very, very, you find very

few like that there are some of course, there are some people until today, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, people who are really committed to a life of, of not being

engrossed in this world not being servants and worshippers of their desires. So this is the common thread that you find this is the common kernel of something that is right. In nearly every religion. And so if you if you want to know what fake religion is, if it doesn't have that, in it, it's fake. And the biggest fake one of all is those people who love all the outward manifestations of spirituality, you know, they get all these, you know, Indian dream catcher things with feathers, and you know, like they have these anklets and bracelets and crystals and smoke a lot of weed and like, you know, do all of this, you know, hippie, hippie stuff, right? And they think it's all spiritual

and religion, they have no discipline, they have no, it's not about controlling your desires. It's about just indulging in them. In reality, that's the fakeness of fake religion, totally fake.

So when you hear a person saying, I'm spiritual, but I don't believe in organized religion, they're not they don't even they don't even understand the words they're saying. They don't even understand what the word religion means. I don't even think they fought about really what religion is supposed to be and what it's supposed to. The whole point of religion is it's supposed to be organized, it's discipline. It's a discipline organized systemized way of controlling your which is what you need. And every one of you who's done my

you know, who's done my course the Seven Pillars of willpower, you know, that that you'll know how what it's, you know,

that the discipline that you have to implement even the exercises I give you things I tell you to practice every day Alhamdulillah to help you to control your impulses and control your desires. It takes discipline, it takes commitment, that's what it is, is no instant pill here, there is no pill that you can take, there's no sort of, you know, quick route to this and that, okay? There are some strategies you can implement that you understand, yes, but you still have to, it's like getting fit.

It's like getting fit, okay, someone can certainly show you a better way of doing push ups and press ups and a more effective way of doing situps. And, you know, this exercise is more effective than that. True, maybe. But at the end of the day, you still have to get off your bottom, and you have to go and you have to exercise, you have to do it. You have to go and exercise if you want to get fit. It's the same thing. If you want to develop yourself spiritually, you want to control your desires and your impulses. Even if you don't want to, you're a fool. If you don't want to you just an animal, then that's all you're going to be just an animal ruled by your passions taken over by your

impulses every time. You know, you feel like something you do it, how's your life going to be? That's why the world is crazy. So fake news.

You see, the thing is we go back to fake news news is important. We all need news. And you know, like some people, even me, I guess that I've I've sort of went through many stages where I almost totally disconnected myself from any mainstream news or any mainstream media. Why? Because I don't trust it. I don't trust them. Because it's full of fake stuff itself. And they have, they have become tools they have that the whole purpose of the media is supposed to hold power to accounts. That's the purpose of the media. That's what news, but they haven't they've just become now. Vehicles of propaganda. That's all they are. They become vehicles of propaganda. And so they'd

compromise themselves. This is the problem. Now people don't believe the mainstream media anymore. They don't people don't know what to believe. Where is the trust, we now know who to trust. We don't know what to trust. So now people, this is the problem. So you know, but Donald Trump, when he talks about fake news, he just means anything that doesn't agree with him. That's what he means. That's, you know, so this has become just and he's got it, he's got away with it because people don't trust the media anymore. And unfortunately, religions become the same. People don't trust religion anymore. People don't trust religious figures anymore. For the same reasons. Unfortunately, religion

has been used for various nefarious purposes. People religion has been used for power for control the for just for power and control and exploitation and misguiding people.

And I'm sorry to say Muslims are not free of blame in this regard at all, every This is applies to every religion. It's happening ever look in Burma, let us see Buddhism. If you study Buddhism, it's the most I mean, if you really study the teachings of Buddha, it really is the most peaceful religion in the sense that a true Buddhists are supposed to remove themselves from the world. And when you study Buddhism, you're supposed to retire to a monastery and you know, basically, literally spend your time seeking enlightenment. But now you find that these Buddhist monks are calling some of these Buddhist monks are calling their people in Burma, calling other Buddhists to kill and

slaughter and murder Muslims is incredible. How could Where did these people get to the stage that Buddha could ever have? Ever, you know, endorsed something like that Christianity, oh, my god, Christianity is replete. And I was just talking about it with an uncle. today. We were talking about Spain, and the Spanish Inquisition. And there is he was talking about a courtyard in Spain in one of the cities. It's called Plaza de Morris or something like that. And he said that actually, this whole place was set up after the conquest of Spain from the Muslims. And every whatever it was Sunday, they would bring Moors and Jews, Muslims and Jews that they had discovered secret muscles

because they were banned from following the religion. And they were burned them in, in the square for everybody to see in the name of Jesus. That's what has been done in the name of Jesus. Look at the stuff that's been this is and this is not just, you know, a few years this is hundreds of years of slaughter and killing and murdering and maiming and torturing in the name of Jesus in the name of Christianity. How? And now we see what is happening in the name of Islam.

The same thing terrorism, ISIS, these terrible things happening in the name of our beautiful religion. So people don't trust religion anymore. This is the problem. People don't trust religion, just in the same way they don't trust the news because unfortunately, people have used it for their own ends and their own purposes.

This is the problem. May Allah protect us May Allah help us to be sincere. May Allah help us to be humble. May Allah help us to be truthful. May Allah help us to follow Deen follow religion the way is supposed to be followed.

That's what I'm hoping to do. Brothers and sisters, I'm hoping you'll join me on my journey. Join with me in mastery classes join me on these Facebook Lives. Join with me let's go on a journey together to master ourselves to develop Taqwa. I'm sorry, I haven't produced the videos on to tell you. Here's the truth brothers and sisters. I was I thought it'd be easy. I thought I'd get down I thought I just do a little bit of reading. And you know, just, you know, knock out a few videos on taqwa and how to get talked about but the problem is once I start getting reading, I just get a little bit lost. And then I went from okay, this is actually a massive subject. So I really need to

get into that. So I've just got into the subject of Taqwa more and more. So Inshallah, hopefully, I don't even know when I'm going to do it. I keep thinking this week, this week, it's going to happen. I am reading stuff right now, I want to get you these a bit especially before Ramadan, I might actually do a few few videos. And I'm almost definitely probably going to have to do a course on it a full course where, you know, we can actually go and we can practice like I do in my seven pillars of willpower, but with Taqwa things, we can practice things we can do. Anyway, this is my idea in sha Allah, there will of course be some free stuff for everybody. Alhamdulillah as well. So I want

to make that there for for everybody. And for those who want to take it further, you can, brothers and sisters, it's been a pleasure. This is a massive subject. When I started thinking about it, there are so many other things I wanted to talk about to be honest, it's such a massive subject. At the end of the day, brothers and sisters, think deeply about it really what it needs, what we need to do is to think deeply about what Allah really wants from you. What does Allah want from you?

Don't you see a lot of us we we are this is the problem brothers and sisters. You know, Allah tells us in the Quran that the biggest losers on the day of judgment are that people are going to think they think they're earning good. They think they're doing good stuff. And we're going to find when they meet Allah, nothing.

This because their religion was fake. Wow, that's self deception on the biggest scale. So we need to really think so carefully about what is it that Allah really wants from us. We spend so much of our time I think I spend a lot of Muslims, they spend a lot of their time talking about things that is not going to benefit them.

Either in this life or the next. Doing things involving themselves in practices and rituals and things that are not even, we can't eat. We don't even pray sincerely, we don't even follow sincerely let alone all the innovations and the things that we do. I've seen it I've seen myself you've probably seen it in your country people, you know, people visiting the graves of saints and making Tawaf round their graves. And they don't even go and pray Salah

what is that?

That's fake religion. And we're immersed in it brothers and sisters.

Y'all Allah May Allah help us. If if this one little thing brothers and sisters can get a few of us thinking a few of us moving towards being sincere. The main thing brothers, sisters, be humble. Develop humility. Don't be arrogant. Love truth. Look for truth. It takes a lot of self discipline, a lot of self mastery, but you have to there's no choice for us except to do that brothers and sisters be truthful, be honest, be humble, be sincere, don't look down upon other people. Look at yourself. And that doesn't mean we excuse the sins or we ignore the evil that's going on around us. But make a difference between the evil that's taking place and the people. Because maybe those

people who are doing evil, maybe they're better than you. Maybe that's what you see from them. Maybe Allah will guide them and maybe you will be misguided by shaitan. Who knows. So this is why we need to be humble brothers and sisters. We need to prepare for the day of judgment we need to prepare for our meeting with a loss partner who knows when it's going to be anyway I think that's enough for me from today. Thank you desert May Allah bless you for staying with me listening to you.

What I have to say I hope it's been valuable please share this video please share please like the Facebook page as well please share this video who knows maybe guided from it please subscribe to my YouTube channel as well and if you look on my Facebook page I think the page that is at the moment pinned to the top of my Facebook page has the link to my YouTube channel so you can subscribe there and don't forget to please check out www dot mastery mastery classes.com mastery classes.com I'm not sure what the price of the course is at the moment it will be going up again unfortunately. So if you want to grab a you know grab it for a good price is the time to get it. Brothers and sisters I

you know, it's not my main purpose to go on about that but I'll have a look it will benefit you in sha Allah greatly. Again, you can read further back I posted a post recently and it had some you know reviews of some of the people I've just looked at some of the reviews that people have made of that course I just mentioned a few things you know, like this has really changed some people's lives and hamdulillah and there was a sister just completed the course Alhamdulillah she you know, masha Allah, you know, commenting all the way and it's really helped her many people to change. So brothers and sisters May Allah bless you May Allah guide you. Please pick up the Quran regularly

read the book of Allah, re it is the most amazing

it's so sad, so sad that we do not read the book of Allah, that we don't read it and think about it and contemplate upon it.

We must do that brothers and sisters. Anyway, thank you for joining me until next week. I don't know my subject for next week yet.

But next week 9pm In sha Allah I will see you then if not before actually this Saturday.

Sunday this Sunday II at six o'clock British time GMT. I'm going to be giving a talk on on data, the importance of data, going to the data center in Nottingham, and I will try to stream that live in Sharla for you brothers and sisters for the sake of Allah of course. And it's always very important to be reminded to remind myself and you about the importance of our annual have gone on way too long. May Allah bless you. I will do my best to get back to your comments. If you have any suggestions for another Facebook Live some topics you'd like me to discuss, please leave a comment in the comment section. I do my best although sometimes I have like 1000s of comments, but I do my

best to get back to them. Dakka Dakka salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah.