Abdurraheem Green – RAMADAN SPECIAL Truffle & Gratitude A Peace of Cake & Abdul Haqq Baker-1
AI: Summary ©
The conversation covers the topic of truffles and healthy eating, with emphasis on the importance of avoiding sugar and salt, avoiding sugar and salt, and learning and rethinking Islam. The speakers emphasize the need for rewarding individuals for their actions, the negative impact of past experiences on one's religion and family, and the importance of gratitude and balancing between pursuing one's priorities and not feeling hungry. They also touch on the "rocky weather" and "rocky weather" moments in the past, as well as the "rocky weather" and "rocky weather" moments in the future. The importance of gratitude and balancing between pursuing one's priorities and not feeling hungry is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah and here we are again. With Rahim again we're trying again second tape with all the glitches in the hitches but welcome back everyone to a piece of cake with our brother abdur-rahim Green over there in the left corner
and over there in the right corner we have the esteemed the His Eminence, his
mother whatever what was that? Yes, eminence I was you know someone was presenting some shakers, His Eminence so anyway we have the Dr.
Rochelle
Baker Mashallah. MashAllah and have done this is obviously a piece of cake brothers and sisters. And Abdullah has come up with a very interesting, very interesting title which is going to go explain truffle and gratitude. What on earth is that all about? Bro? What truffles like? What? What, honestly truffles I felt I felt this title was necessary because as I was reading,
doing this, this blessed month of Ramadan, something struck me that we take for granted. And also it reminded me It showed me how ungrateful one had to be when looking at this truffle. And I'll explain a lot tells us is so Al Baqarah. The 57 is the English rendition. And we gave you the shade of clouds orchids abandoned Israel after they escaped from captivity through our own. And we gave you the shade of clouds and sent down to you manner and quails the deeds of the good things we have provided for you. But they rebelled to us they did no harm, but they harmed their own souls. So we know what clothes are. And then I looked at the heavy that was a company that in the footnotes with
a profit Celulose limb described manner as the truffle and I thought to myself, Oh my gosh, I enjoy going to the restaurant with my wife every Tuesday is a favorite place we go to and they sprinkle cheese and truffles over the fries and and you can get it on pizza. It is such a delicious treat. And then when I look for those who are unaware of what truffles are, truffles are a prized culinary ingredient. They have a musky scent, and an intoxicating singular flavor. They are a commodity that can elevate a fine dining experience or add a touch of refined refinement to even the simplest of foods I think shaved truffles on pasture or french fries drizzled with truffle oil. So absorbing
most thinking. This is Bani Israel we're getting sent by Allah from heaven, alongside quail another delicacy and they were ungrateful for it. They want to remember there's another part in that where they say we are onions and lentils and
lentils. Not we are bored basically with this one type of food.
And I also truffles are more valuable than gold. And they're such a delicacy and the fact that they came from heaven in this instance, I'll sending them down.
This is what made me think, How ungrateful are we and how ungrateful
do we become, despite what we've been given? Yeah, from
is so true, bro. And I you know, I'm to be honest, I find myself firmly in the Ben Israel camp myself. Unfortunately.
Not Not, not not from a good position. Yeah, I'm saying that quality, like but I you know, I totally see myself in them.
I remember. For example, I remember we were
you know, back in the 80s. We made a trip to Afghanistan and we were sitting there
with the Mujahideen at the time. And you know, we were we were literally eating this mush and you know, very nutritious you know, mashed up pumpkins and whatever. No spices no salt with this non right and whatever. I mean, really good, wholesome food. Yeah. All we could do is dream of, you know, all the different foods from back home. I can't wait to eat this. I can't wait to either. And the reality is, you know, we were
You know, we were just in an amazing place, right? But all you're dreaming about was all the nice foods that we can have. Right? And yeah, I totally, I totally understand that, you know, oh, we just sick of one type of food because I mean, like, my, you know, in my house, trying to get the kids to eat something, you know, more than two days or three days in a row is like, Well, I mean, they'll eat it, because they're given it, you know what I mean, but they're not happy, especially if it's, you know, not fresh, you know, like, we're so spoiled, bro. That's the reality. We're so so spoiled.
And yeah, I guess that obviously they came from that, that life in Egypt and I this is the funny thing, isn't it? Even though I think really for me, the ingratitude the real level of ingratitude comes is that
they were in such a state of oppression. They were living in Egypt under this tyrant for our own right, who is mistreating them abusing them and you know, killing they're killing their baby boys, right? And giving them these hard tasks, right? And just generally, treating them like slaves and abusing them. Right? Yeah, all they could think of when they were free, right? And Allah was giving them food fit for a king that even for own probably didn't get to eat everyday, because it was so beautiful, right? And they're just saying, oh, you know, we want some, you want some of that food that we used to have back in Egypt? You know, we could think about was, you know, I guess that's the
ungrateful part, isn't it as well? Is that the fact that are you forgetting? Like, what you just came from you forgetting what Allah rescued you from? Like when Allah feeds you, He feeds you the best food and you just complaining about, oh, we want some of that Egyptian stuff, you know, the lentils and onions? And yeah, and that's
very true. And when you contrast that, when you we read later on when we look reading sort of Mati, that the name after which the surah was given, when How are you asked, Can they be strengthened in their Eman? And they asked
deep to ask for the mighty food feast sent down. And the Allah isa makes that DUA and Allah says He will do it. But if any disbelieves from them after this, you will send down a punishment that Michael which has never been sent to mankind beforehand. But you see, they want that and it strengthens their Eman. But on the other hand, was only Israel, they became an ungrateful and the point here is, what some of us will be grateful for others will be ungrateful if we look at those starving in parts of Asia, or parts of Africa, and we think of a slice of bread or toast that we're having every day for a week. And we become very grateful just with that toasters, that's laden with
melted butter, or jam, or it hasn't, it has a slice of Turkey on it, or whatever, we become bored, very quickly. And ungrateful for that, whereas that will be a delicacy in many parts of the world. So what I think what we're grateful for, will be grateful for I think, what's interesting, bro, is that if you contrast the two situations, like so, in the time of ESA, I'm just going from my knowledge of history and you know, general human, you know, history and circumstances at the time. And generally, you know, from what we know that a lot of the followers of ESA were very poor people, and generally look human, human. Most of human life, most of human history has been a struggle to
get enough calories, right? To keep your energy up. That's actually most human beings. Right? That's, that's why we're literally programmed to, you know, to go after fatty foods and sugary foods, because they're high energy, they give us energy, you know, like, our brain, actually, you know, our body is designed to short circuit the thinking planning part of our brain. Yeah. And just and just cut it straight out and just go for these things. That's why we find it so hard to resist because that's it. Because most of the time it's a struggle for calorie. So I definitely think that that's why Issa, you know, the, the, the unsolved, the whole lot of you and sorry, that they were,
you know, like, that's why they wanted a piece from heaven, because they probably never had a feast, right? Ever. Right? They've probably never had it. And, you know, just the thought of a feast of food, you know, it's just something so amazing for them. Whereas, Benny is sort of,
from online from Allah, but it's just the thought of the food. Yeah. But for the bene Israel, this situation is different. Right. And I think this leads, you know, is going to lead to a very interesting discussion. I think that situation is different, the old
They lived under a lot of tyranny and oppression, right?
They lived in a very fruitful land where, generally, you know, yeah, there were famines and stuff. But generally there was an overflow of projects, right? Like even Veni, Suraiya, even when they were suffering lots of oppression, I'm pretty sure their stomachs were full most of the time, right?
Because it was just a land flowing with excess agricultural produce, right. And the point being is that there's the contrast between the two situations. And it's the reality is that when you live a very luxurious life, even even when you are living under oppression, and I would argue, right, that actually, in many ways, that is the situation of people in the West. Right. Now, you may think what you're talking about abdur-rahim. People in the West are not oppressed. But compare the taxation situation in Dubai, or Saudi Arabia, right. Or most Muslim countries with the Western world, right. There's almost little to no tax. It doesn't exist. Right. Right. Because actually, just a point to
make taxes haram in Islam. It's actually haram. Right. And it can only be levied under very, very strict circumstances. Yeah. Not a lot of people know that. We should know that. Right before our governments start trying to tax us. Yeah. Whereas tax here is 25% 40% 50%. It's crazy, right? And actually, although they call it the free world, in many, many ways, we live under a whole regime of control and oppression. Right. And it's very, it's quite subtle. Right? As in fact, I suspect a lot of for owns control of his people was very subtle. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, the thing is that when you live under that state of oppression, but yet at the same time, your life is quite luxurious. That is
a situation that is conducive to breathing a lot of ingratitude. Right. Yes. I think it's that life of luxury. And that's the reality, bro, people who live luxurious lives tend to be ungrateful. Where do you find atheism? Right, in the comfortable Western world, you don't find atheists in Africa. You don't find atheists in Malawi and Burundi. And like, you don't find that everyone believes in God. Right? Yeah, they're poor. Yeah. And yet, people here in the West, they say, Oh, how can there be a god when there's so much evil in the world? What evil Are you experiencing? Exactly? What's so God about your life? Right? Yeah, people who are suffering this evil that you're talking about? Most of
them actually believe in God. So that's a bit of a conundrum, isn't it? But anyway, that's my thoughts, bro. on that issue of gratitude. I
am grateful. Yeah, no, I think that's very profound. And sticking with Bani Israel, as you said, I think the to emphasize what you said and reinforce what you said, No sooner had they come across the Red Sea, it'd been party for them this miraculous event yet another one for them, that they found individuals, they came across and they started
off, and they started worshipping the calf in Merces absence, when he had gone off to mountain night. And their captivity and what they experienced wasn't that far behind them. But yet they wanted to then go back and emulate what they had been used to, despite the fact that it was subject subjugation as they know it, killing the children how
children daughters live, and yet they want it to go back and emulate so the ingratitude Why do you think that is bro what what do you think the reason for that psychologically, is, why did they feel they needed to imitate? I think, partly conditioning inferiority complex enough, and results in them in themselves. self identity politics, there was an issue there. But what's amazing about that, is that they had to, if not more, if you include you sharp, young, you sharp and beyond amongst most
young. Yeah, so. So you ask yourself, well, what must have been their condition? And we see that today abdur-rahim To an extent from
this external referencing that West is best in that what we have we have to modernize or not simply modernize. We need to revamp Islam, we need to restructure Islam. There's so much wrong with it. It's not actually it's our understanding of application or misapplication and inability to understand the vastness of Islam and contextualize it
In our personal and societal claims, if you like so
with all of that, and
I got to reflect a little bit more on the point they've introduced because my thoughts on that. And honestly, it's a huge lesson for all of us. I believe it's so important for all of us to pay attention to these stories and think about them really deeply because there's so many multiple levels of lessons that we can take. Right. And so when you talk about, I mean, let's, let's again, paint the picture. Right. Youssef brings his dad and his brothers, right. From, you know, a, you know, a starved, you know, Bedouin, basically Bedouin life,
facing extreme hardship and famine, to this land of plenty. And with I mean, an outrageously advanced civilization, right, without doubt, the most advanced civilization in the world at the time, and was for literally Millennium there in Africa. Right.
And, yeah, it was the Egyptian civilization, right? Powerful, advanced, civilized, sophisticated. I mean, people still don't know how they built the permits some love, because they still haven't really figured it out. It's incredible what they did. Yeah. So you can imagine, right, living in that environment is the same as people as Muslims, who aren't the same thing. Mostly what have come from, you know, farms and you know, poor backgrounds, come to live in the West, overawed by the West, in order of the west of this great sophisticated civilization sending rockets to the moon, and now to Mars. Yeah, I mean, nothing that, you know, our people could have, you know, imagined back
home, right? That's the gap. It's so vast, right? And people are in awe of it. People are in all of its glitter. And it's materialism. And it's it's materialistic success there in all of it, as the Bennett is surreal must have been right in all of that materialistic success. And exactly what you said, you end up having an inferiority complex. And here's a mistake that people make, right, they do this a lot. And this is the mistake that some of our rulers are making right now. Yeah.
Even maybe where you're sitting,
is, you know, and I'm not I don't mean this as you know, putting them down or whatever. It's perfectly understandable, right. But sometimes we get confused, we think, Oh, because people write our
advanced materialistically that everything else must also be advanced as well. Right? So we begin to think that their spirituality is advanced, we begin to think that there may be their politics as advanced, we begin to think that and it may not necessarily be the case at all, right. In fact, their social structures may be on the verge of decline of crumbling, which I believe they are in the West, social structures are on the verge of crumbling, right. And although there is this great materialistic success, right behind it, is a very, very sick society. And honestly, our brothers, they need to wake up, they need to wake up and understand this don't, you know, Fine, take the
material things, take the whatever. But please do not imitate those social structures. Please do not imitate their morality, do not make that mistake. You know, the West is basically I call it you know what I bet you when I say it's like they're living on the inheritance of their ancestors, right? It's like you had this rich, rich relative who worked super hard. Yeah, just work night and day, made millions and millions of money and you know, you're his grandson, and you're still living off his wealth. But you're sitting around doing Jack, all right, you're actually sitting around, piddling around twiddling around with this and that and you've forgotten all the values that made
that wealth. But that's basically the West, the West is built on these Victorian actually religious Victorian morals and values, right, which was strong religious values, right? That's, it was all built on that. But now people are just, they don't realize they're living off that inheritance. Right.
And it's, it hasn't come from atheism. It hasn't come from immorality. It hasn't come from, you know, just doing whatever you want and doing whatever you like, no, like everything. It's come from hard work. Right, right, just living off the fruit while also the fruits of invading other countries and robbing riches and pillaging and enslaving and, you know, stealing and, you know, but that's the story of every civilization. Right, you know, but I know we
know what you've said, I think
He's and I agree this conversation is developing in a profound direction. I agree with everything that you're saying there. And when you look at it, when we go back, for example, there was an app on narration where the Muslims conquered, I think it was Cyprus or somewhere,
centuries after, or not centrally. So shortly after the Prophet Muhammad passed away, and one of the Sahaba that they don't he was an elder now, so it would be the tabby and that was when he was when they conquered, he was crying. And the narration when the young
Tabby in asked him, Why are you crying at this point of victory, we've just conquered a land and not land.
And he basically said that, now we're going to be seeing the demise. Because
there's a statement of Walmart as we know, to
be rejoicing. The ayat that came this day affected your religion for you, but this was later on. Because as when I'm talking with my wife, we say our children, genuinely yours might have only known that they have not known struggle at all. They've only known the ease that has been provided for them we've only known the answer that and that's that transcend downwards as that goes generationally inculcated by default upbringing, an element of ingratitude.
worries me a lot. It worries me
about the children and the family. And well, I was just thinking about that yesterday. Exactly this thing what you're saying.
I think we're almost there. And when you see with that ingratitude is accompanied by disrespect of what went before the elders, the grandparents sitting, almost looking at us like we're simpletons. Because the values that we had on no longer considered us now. Okay. And
ingratitude breeds so many other associated ailments if I can call them that social ills that were Western society today now. So again, coming back to the beginning of this this discussion that we're having truffles how many people even know what truffles are? They? How many people know that truffles worth? are more valuable? As valuable as gold? Not much more valuable than gold? Yeah. Yeah. Somebody's gonna wait around for pound Yeah, way more valuable than gold.
Goes up on it, because it's not the instant gratification junk food availability that you've highlighted already. That's that's that's something there as well.
I mean, I think that one
I think so.
Sorry, there's a post visit. There's a courier asking me for help. So what's the what's the name of the what's the address?
What's it say?
Nick Thompson,
and the name of the house
mill house. No, it's not none of these houses. It's none of these houses. I don't know which one it is is no one of these three. All right, bro. Take care, man.
Thank you, Somali.
See, there you go. Piece of cake life. Always happening.
So before Yeah, sorry. Yes. Yes. Go back to your bro. What you're saying gratitude. Yeah. And the family. So the point Yeah.
I think at the end of the day is gratitude to Allah, isn't it? Like, that's what we, I mean, I guess Gratitude has expressed in many ways, like, obviously, we feel the fact as parents that we don't feel our kids appreciate what we've done. I definitely feel that with the kids, you know, not all of them. But, you know, just the easier their life come these their their life is bro. The worse it gets. That's the crazy thing. My first my first group of my first my first group of kids who are the elder ones. Yeah. Were brought with me and my wife in what I would describe as quiet. Not tough by not tough by, you know, like people who really have a tough, but you know, like, I would say like
pre relatively challenging circumstances, you know, living in small houses very packed out, you know, whatever, right? Never never really having enough money, you know?
You know, so it was like, yeah, so they I think they appreciate things but might the second batch of kids you know, it's almost the opposite. It's like life
Same what you're saying, exactly for older three daughters, exactly what you're saying the same. And even though they have comfort, as we get older, and we're able to give more to the other children, it's just it's just breathe. It's just bread doesn't make sense, bro. Does it why you think if you have more, you would be more grateful. And you thank Allah more and you appreciate your parents more. Right? I mean, maybe our viewers can give us some insights because they always come up with something amazing. They always come up with some amazing comments. I was seeing someone was talking about putting some points in the comments.
If Canaan was such a barren place, then why did Ibrahim migrate there? It could be climate change. One of the things that, you know, obviously the climate is changing all the time, like climate change is not a new thing. By the way, it's not new at all. Right. Right. So yeah, that was a big famine and stuff like you know, the story of Youssef. Obviously, that was seven years of, you know, plenty and then seven years of famine. So, yeah, and there's actually archaeological evidence of communities that thrive for 500 years. And they had no It seems they had no defenses. They had no weapons, there was no fighting going on is just, it's a sign of very rich prosperity,
agriculturally. And then me, it's climate change, it changed and then it got dire, you know, so that's why I'm
saying there is a famous quote, and it's so right thank you chatbots and salons that everyone uses here. But like even Khaldoon said as he's recording strong men create Good times. Good times hard times great. Sorry, wrong, weak. Weak men create hard times. And one is hard times create strong men strong men create Good times. Good times create weak men, weak men men create hard times. That is absolutely brilliant. I mean you know Tahoe that's amazing bro
I've got to get that quote man
is just no I haven't I'm gonna post that one because that literally that's the cycle of history isn't it? I mean that's literally it even cold yeah he Well I remember you had it been cold dunes macadam in English. I remember seeing it was
I remember you had it. And I was thinking, oh my god, you know, I think I didn't read all of it. But I was like, let me see how much of this I can read.
That's another thing, bro. Like, you know, talking about gratitude. It's like, you know, back in the days, bro, like the books that we had. We appreciated them so much every single little book, everything. We appreciate it, we read it, we absorbed it, you know, and we worked so hard to get that knowledge and that information. And today everything's accessible. the click of a button you can just search yet people are more ignorant than they ever have been. Exactly. You're
strange, isn't it? Bro? What a screen creature we are creating us.
Back to that, and I'm glad you and Yes, they've been condemned because a rare one to get in English. And as I said, I've still got it. Cut them up. Also known from Allah, the first verses that were revealed with extra read. Yes, yes result. And so when you that as Muslims, and you see how far away we are from that, and Hamdulillah this is the month of the revelation of the Quran was revealed in this past month and everything, and we're reading it, but how many of us are really actually reading it?
Ponder or are we racing through it to say we've completed the Quran? Or are we mumbling through and I want to put it in that? I don't mean to insult them in any way. I'm saying. are we reading with such speed? That it's incoherent? Yeah. What's with regards to the gratitude of the revelation of the Quran? The gratitude that it has been preserved for us that no corruption can come before above, beneath from either from anywhere it's been preserved for us, where is our gratitude, in reading, Andriy at hearings.
You know, this is
discussed from the point of gratitude and as you mentioned, ultimately, gratitude to Allah.
How do we show that, you know, how do we how do we show that we're grateful for everything that we've got around us to navigate through this life?
Law. So yeah, I think you know what, one day it may be our next
piece of cake
and we
We look at that.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I find history fascinate me. We should get Adnan Rashid on our thing because he's the Mr. History. Yeah. Honestly, literally, we could just sit there and what's anything and let him talk? Yeah. Because when he talks about history, it's just like, I could sit and listen to that guy for hours. Honestly, mashallah, he's, you know, he really is memorized that, you know, like, I mean, I know my history, but not like the way He's memorized that, you know, he knows the dates or times and the names and it's like, what?
Yeah, but that will be fascinating, because I think there's a there's a very interesting, I think you should watch it, bro. Look at this guy. Ray Dalio. Yeah.
He there's a video he's done called the changing world order. Yeah. And actually, I recommend everybody has a look at it. Right. And he didn't call it the New World Order, the changing world order. But it's very interesting. He goes through history, right. And he just does this overview of history to show basically how empires rise and fall. And he's saying we're in that epoch of change. Yeah. He said, You always find that one Empire and the Egyptian empire must have been that at a time when, you know, their their currency, for example, was their de facto almost universal currency. Yeah. And it's that whole issue of shifting from the US dollar, which up until now has been a global
current currency, but people are not liking it anymore. And this whole thing with sanctions with Russia, it's it's a disaster because people are saying, wait a minute, you know, I don't do what you like, even if I'm a huge power like Russia, and you sanction me and you confiscate my property and you don't let me trade anymore. I'm sorry, we're gonna find somewhere else somewhere else of doing it.
So I mean, it's a big upheaval, you know, I think it's it's, it's it's inevitable because it's happened over and over and over like to say it's not, it's just ridiculous. And we may be in
that you know, at 13. But you're absolutely bringing that on that hill. You're absolutely right, because we see civilizations rise and fall. And this western as I've mentioned many times before, the Western imperialist civilization of what the last like 556 100 years,
it was preceded by others, we had the software empires and those
Africa so this is the civilization that is going to come to an end at some particular point in time. Because it's unsustainable. As it stands now. It really is unsustainable, but then when we look at that Abdur Rahim and we go back to the Quran and the stories in the Quran, we see what happened to the civilizations of Odin Allah tells us look
what have you
because again, what happened? Complacency
arrogance. So I think consider conceit crept in at that
and the demise of those civilizations or the punishment of those civilizations took place. Yeah. And so has a lot to do with does every of what we have our being every aspect of our being of gratitude, what is the essence of gratitude, do you think what is it we talked about gratitude but what do you think gratitude really is essentially like maybe
good good question.
When you know that that in and I think about it, gratitude is
acknowledgement
Hello,
where are you from? Somali.
Salaam Alaikum. My name is Abdul Rahim. Thanks. Yeah.
Yeah, that's fine. Fantastic, bro. Have a good day. Yeah. Enjoy your Ramadan. Insha Allah
Allah, masha Allah and guys looking like well last here in Shropshire, you know, it's like
your Calabro faces your color around here. You know, like, people are gonna be like, Oh, that's interesting.
What's he doing here? No, it's
Hamdulillah. They're not really like that. Yeah, it's a you know what
I'm doing here. It's just like, oh, there's a bit of color here for
him to give an introduction. You could we could change the show, a Somali in Shropshire as Somalia drugs.
Believe it? I don't think he believed I was Muslim. No, it was like, I don't think he recognized me either. Which is
I was at some Halal butcher in some little local town. And you know, and the guy was saying, you know, oh, I have I you know, if you come here before and this and that. I didn't get what he was saying. I said no.
I can't say I came here like five years, is it? No, we've only been here two years. So it was a some other little hull butcher that had gone to somewhere locally. Yeah. And my wife afterwards said, and my daughter saying, no, no, he was trying to say that he's seen me somewhere before he recognizes me. But he was just being too polite to us, you know, to say anything. I just didn't get it, man. I was just like, no idea. But yeah, what's the essence of gratitude? Bro? What is gratitude? What do you think it really, you know, when we say someone lacks gratitude? Well, what are we talking about? What what is it? And how do we develop it? These are the questions bro. We can go on about it, you
know, everyone being ungrateful but but what is it? How do we develop it? How do we nurture it in ourselves and others? What do you think
are your thoughts unpacking that I'd say gratitude is an acknowledgement
and a humbleness
towards the individual diety that has enabled you
to have, what you have be who you are
aspects of what you have got, and to show gratitude to them, by utilizing what you've been given to the best of your abilities. And also showing
that by utilizing these things, to the best of your abilities, that you are appreciative and humbled by what they've done. So I guess the best of your abilities would mean would be implicit that part of gratitude is using those favors that you have been given in a way that the one who gave you those favors would approve, right? Because that's what it comes down to, isn't it? Like in gratitude, like if you fed your kids and your kids and bought them up and give them education, right? And they behave like some bad boy gangster in the street and disrespecting you? So Well, what did I give you all of this good education for? Right? Why did I kill you in these beautiful clothes? Why did I feed
you and make you struggle to abuse me right? Not to use all of those talents in a bad way, but in to use those talents in a way that is appreciating of what I've done. Right?
And certainly bettering themselves after him, because it's not necessarily that we want No, I'm just saying generally, I'm not saying about you personally, bro, then I know, I know, I'm saying it can be that you want them to become the best of themselves. And you've given them all of the tools to do that. And their gratitude is
themselves in the way that they can. But when they're doing what, as you said, let's bring it the gangster, I'm going to bum around, I'm not going to do anything, then that one day, they're showing gratitude to the source that enabled them to have what they had. They're also showing
in gratitude. I can't think for themselves, but they're not realizing their full potential of whether or oppressing themselves, aren't they really they're doing an injustice to the super on cells. Really? Yes. But gratitude, yeah. Gratitude. What do I think gratitude is? I mean, I pretty much agree with you. I was obviously asking you first so I could get some ideas.
But yeah, I mean, yeah, I think gratitude ultimately, is an appreciation. I think what is the essence of gratitude is a bit of self abasement. It's like, it's not thinking that you're the source of everything in your life. You are, you're not right. And that so much of what you have has got nothing to do with you. Right? And if those other people were not there, if Allah was not there, right, then you would have nothing. Right? What would you have? Obviously, in the case of Allah, you would have absolutely nothing, right? So everything is from Allah. But you know, like, after Allah, who you're going to be grateful to next your mum, right? Who's the next on the list? Right? It's
your mom, right? And you have to think about everything she did for you. Just the fact that she carried you. Right? She carried you for nine months and gave birth to you. Right? She did that for you. Right? She didn't have to, she could have aborted you. She could have whatever, she could have abandoned you. She didn't, she carried you. She did all of that. Even the fact that she carried you and gave birth to you, even if she gave you away after that. She still carried you for nine months and still gave birth to you. Right? And if she hadn't done that, you wouldn't be here. Right. And I guess that's the point is the point, the acknowledgement that so much of what you have is not from
you. Right? That's the first thing is that acknowledgement of, you know, and I think that's that goes back to that whole thing about you know, living a life of luxury is that people who live like that tend to think they're self sufficient. They tend to think that they are the be all and yeah, I like like karoun Yeah, you know, karoun right, who says again, we're going back to the story of Musa you know, there's so much there's a there's an example of a super rich guy. Yeah.
I mean, maybe he was the richest guy in the world at the time? I don't know. Right? Super rich. Yeah. And yet he was so ungrateful. And his claim was, I have this because of some knowledge that I have, because of my knowledge because of what I know. Right? So he forgot that even the fact that you know anything, even if it was true, you only know something, and you only have the ability to filter knowledge and be discerning. And whatever it is, because Allah let you have that, right? That's right, Allah gave you that ability.
And then you go you go further along, you look at the story of Suleiman,
Ali Salam, and Allah what He bestowed upon them. And you saw
you saw the gratitude there. Yeah, even Yes.
Yeah. And even on one occasion, when he he slipped slightly when he spent excessive time with these horses, and you know, destroy everything, because you were the one who recounted so much so that the daytime had passed and night had come the moon. And he realized that he'd been, he'd not been ungrateful if he consumed
been given in the States. And he recommends, he realized very quickly, and he made recompense
over immediately about that, so those who had that wealth, and we're so grateful, we see the Quranic stories of that we see some of the most richest people in the richest people have to have lived Mansa Musa, that when he performed these pilgrimage, and how we build new cities and donate in South Africa on the way to Makkah, so, wealth can harden the hearts unless someone is truly grateful to Allah and appreciative of what they've been given. And their place before Allah that we are nothing in the sight of Allah Subhana Allah to Allah that's really losing again of the heart row you're turning into a robot.
You're freezing on me so Is it me or is it you below? Where's the problem? I'm not quite sure
am I still freezing?
Yeah, you're there abdur-rahim But you're moving very slowly. Yeah.
That's Oscar, back guy below. Are you there?
Can you tell us what's actually happening at the moment? Is it me Abdur Rahim. What's going on with us?
Live?
He's live. I'm not live anymore. I know. We're all live. Oh, good. That's going to say so what's happening? Well, he's disconnected now, but I'm sure he won't be on.
Okay. are continuing to he gets back with us.
Thank you.
So hopefully Abdur Rahim will join us soon, I think, as usual, is a fascinating discussion that has been held between him and myself. And again, when we come back to it, let's look at where we are now in Ramadan. We're about to approach the 16th. Evening it's the 15th day
today, how are we with regards to closing our faster? Iftar? How are we in the mornings when we are having our support? Are we feasting? And making sure as the whole time that we're eating double what we would usually eat in the mornings because we don't want to feel hungry during the day?
If so, is that the spirit of fasting and preparation for fasting?
When we close our fasts, we feast in again, in celebration of having fasted as though we are rewarding ourselves for having fasted, or are we being grateful that we can actually close our fasts.
There are occasions and there are circumstances that others find themselves in at the time of closing, they're fast at the time of if thar
they have nothing to eat.
They still cannot find anything to quench their thirst. So they close their fast with their intention.
So we can check ourselves in these remaining nights. When we're closing our fast we can check ourselves to see
how much we're grateful and what were grateful for. Are we saying the DUA at the time of closing our fast
are we appreciating that there are others who are unable to close their fast
like we are are we wasting food
are we eating to access that we're actually putting on weight
that we're putting on kilos and enjoying the fact that we're some might have to be doing that for health reasons understandably so
how are we with regards to our fast
I'm just sending the message to our brother abdur-rahim
to come back in to the link
empty Sam walaikum salam serves Ramadan Mubarak to you as well serve us. Good to see you all
Abdur Rahim is trying to get back on and Bilal if you can send in the group
to brother after him so he can get back on that will be helpful.
I would say at this particular point in time,
as a reminder to myself, that those of us who have not exerted ourselves this Ramadan,
we still have time.
Those of us who have not maybe started praying the Torah with the extra prayers standing in the evenings, they still time.
Those who feel that they haven't had the best Ramadan,
there's still time for it to become better.
And it's really, really, really important that we consider these aspects.
The exertion and the struggle
should intensify
at this point, until the end.
seeking Allah's forgiveness, crying to him,
asking him
to forgive us our transgressions, asking him to bless us even more than we are already blessed.
Asking for whatever we want,
during these days and nights is especially important.
But we must make sure that this month, our worship
is different
than the other months.
And what we're doing, I'm going to conclude at this particular point because I think Abdur Rahim is unable to get back in. And we have another show on the top of the hour, we started a bit late because of some of the technical glitches that we're seeing now. But I will conclude by
saying,
by requesting that we check how grateful or ungrateful we are for what has been bestowed upon us.
And that's ultimately, with regards to our relationship with Allah subhanho to Allah.
Then we should look at how grateful we are for our spouses, for our parents, for our children, for our lives, for our circumstances.
And at the end of all of that,
we should say we should be imploring a lot and saying Alhamdulillah So, until the next piece of cake, I will conclude at this point. And wishing you all Ramadan mubarak for those who haven't said it to already and previously
and that exert we're halfway through, there's still time. There's still time, so much more worship.
So so much more devotion, so much more time to spend in sha Allah, in worshipping our Lord in this blessed month. Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh