The Four Rivers of Purification Part 1 Good Deeds

You

Samaya

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah he were to Allah wa Barakatu brothers and sisters Mashallah. Welcome to my new slot Facebook Live midday midweek, it's 12 o'clock here in the middle of the day in UK. But I guess it's like early in the morning in over in North America. And it's going to be in the evening in the Indian subcontinent. So for those of you who are joining me, across the Atlantic or across the world, really welcome Alhamdulillah a lot of you've been asking me for a time that's more convenient for you. So I hope this is going to work for you. And even for you brothers and sisters in the UK. I hope you can catch this in your lunch break in sha Allah. So I want to continue with

what I was talking about last week, from the Highlands of Scotland where I had terrible reception. And that is the few the Four Rivers of purification. So for those of you and this is like a really important talk now, especially Alhamdulillah, before the month of Ramadan. Okay, so the Four Rivers of purification. So there are four rivers for mighty rivers through which Allah purifies the believer.

And three of those rivers are in this life, and one of those rivers is in the afternoon in the life to come. So I want to talk about these four rivers of purification in a little bit more detail. I introduced it last week on my Facebook Live. But today I want to start getting into this topic and a little bit more detail. Let's see how far we can get. I might even do another Facebook Live next week. To finish off this topic. Let's see how far we can get. So let's talk about these, these four rivers. So the first river of purification, just to remind ourselves is good deeds, what one of the ways that we can purify ourselves that the one of the ways that Allah purifies us, is through good

deeds, good deeds, wipe out bad deeds as the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us that, that a good deed wipes out a bad deed. So when we do something wrong, when we do something evil, when we do something, there's an act of disobedience to Allah, we should immediately do our best in sha Allah, to try and wipe out that evil deed with a good deed. So there are many, many examples of this that we can find from the Quran and Sunnah Alhamdulillah.

But before I go into that, I want to talk about something that I think is really, really important. And so I'm sort of backtracking a little bit here. So when we talk about purifying ourselves of sins, I want to think a little bit about what is sin? When we talk about sin? What do we mean, quite often, I noticed that we talk about things in Islam, but we don't often think deeply about what those things mean. And I think especially for people today, in a very secular aesthetic, very

religious environment, we say certain words, and we presume that people understand the concept that is attached to those words, but often they don't often people do not understand. And that is why it is so important to reflect and to think deeply about these things so that we can understand them on a deep level. So let's talk a little bit about sin Aki, on a very, very simple level brothers and sisters. A sin is simply something that Allah has forbidden. A sin in Islam is simply something which Allah has forbidden. Now, I know that's very simple, but let's take it another level now. And let's try and think about

Let's dig a bit deeper here. why has Allah forbidden certain things for us? This is the real crux of the matter that I want you to understand. And I need to understand myself we all need to understand, why has Allah subhanaw taala forbidden things from us? Why has he made something haram? And I think that the failure for us to understand this key concepts may be a reason for a lot of people being confused. So, let me just remind myself and yourself of something very, very important, that Allah's knowledge is perfect, Allah subhanaw taala is the one who knows everything, he knows everything, He sees everything, he hears everything, his understanding of everything is complete, and it is

perfect. So when Allah when Allah has forbidden something for us, that is because he knows from his perfect knowledge and understanding that that thing is harmful to us. Now,

another very important thing to realize

is that what does it mean harmful to us? Okay, so there are four ways that I think we can think about harm, right? Number one is maybe the most important that something could harm us spiritually. Now, understanding how something harms you spiritually, is not something that is very easy or, if possible at all, to be able to comprehend through the intellect.

And this is very important to understand and for example, Imam Ghazali, he talks about this in IE and Luma. Dean, I remember reading he is talking about why why do we use water to purify ourselves when we make wudu? For example, why water? When we make what do we wash ourselves? And we take also, why do we use water?

What is wrong with milk? For example, milk is pure milk is clean milk, what you know, you could argue milk moisturizers you like why why is only water allowed in order to make or do why? Why not water may be mixed with a bit of perfume or some scent. Although that is pure, it is not allowed to use that to purify ourselves. So in other words, in order to purify ourselves correctly, in order to make will do correctly in order to take wholesome correctly, the water needs to be pure water, it needs to taste like water smell like water, it needs to be what we call water, not scented water, not milk. Why? We don't know, really, we can guess what we don't really know why. Because there is a

spiritual reason, there is a reason that may be impossible for us to comprehend, or for us to understand through our intellect. So this is something where and there's many, many examples of that. So we have to understand that, that that because the soul is something mysterious, the knowledge that we have of our soul is very, very limited, but Allah has knowledge of it is perfect. And there may be us for sure, there are some reasons why we are simply not able to understand the full complexities of the soul, what it is, how it interacts with us. And these types of things, although books have been written about it, their bottom line is that Allah told us in the Quran,

it's and sort of the kerf the knowledge that you have of it is very, very little.

So

that is the first way something can harm us the first way that something could harm us, it could harm us spiritually. The second way is it can harm us mentally. And in terms of mental health and in terms of our psychology, then that is something that Alhamdulillah we have a little bit more knowledge and insight into. And perhaps in some ways, with, with modern scientific approaches, and more and more research being done, into how the human mind works, we are now able to access a level of understanding of human psychology that is maybe unprecedented. So our ability to be able to understand how things Hamas and how things can damage us psychologically is much deeper. Now one of

the things that may be a lot of you Alhamdulillah especially those of you who have been doing my May Allah bless you, may Allah bless all of you, but those of you who have Alhamdulillah purchased my course mastery classes, The Seven Pillars of willpower, you will understand how I've used a lot of the modern research that has been

done about how the human mind works and combine it with the knowledge of psychology. And it's very powerful, it gives us very deep insights into how we can benefit ourselves and change ourselves. Now one of the great benefits that I personally have found having a good foundation Alhamdulillah in Islamic, you know, Islamic knowledge in aqidah, even in spirituality, the teachings of Islamic spirituality.

Then, on top of that, being able to read psychology, and what I begin to see is the Amazing that how there is this amazing crossover, how many things that are being discovered by psychologists today actually reflect the truths that Allah subhanaw taala has revealed to us. So when I'm reading and studying psychology, I'm thinking, wow, look, Islam teaches us to do that. Islam gives us a solution for that.

So the Hamdulillah, this is part of the wisdom. And many of these things, by the way, perhaps some of them we have only just beginning to realize and understand now. So this is amazing, that we that Allah has given us this opportunity to have those types of insights. And here's the interesting thing is that not everything that is able to rectify us and reform us and changes in a beneficial way. And not all the things that helped keep us away from that those things which are damaging psychologically, they're not always intuitive. It's not always just simple common sense. No, sometimes they discover these things through through hard working and experimentation. And they

realize, oh, okay, so look, we are, this damages us, and this affects us mentally, and this has this negative detrimental effect. But of course, I'm going back to where I started, Allah's knowledge is perfect. When he revealed Islam to us, he understands he is the master psychologist, he created our minds, he knows how they work, he knows the things that damage our psychological our mental well being. And so So when Allah tells us to keep away from something, when Allah tells us something is haram. That's because he knows that it's going to damage us mentally, even if we see, here's the crazy thing. It's not crazy. But it seems like it seems crazy, that there are some things that may

seem to benefit us and have a positive impact. And give you an example, like anyone who drinks alcohol or takes drugs may think that when they smoke marijuana, they drink alcohol, or they, they participate in these things, it may make them feel really good, it may even make them feel amazing. It may seem to them as if it has lots of benefits. And it made me break down barriers for them mental barriers, even deal with physical pain, and may have all of those apparent benefits. But those apparent benefits are often very, very short term. In the long term, the long term consequence of taking drugs and drinking alcohol, even not the long term, sometimes it's immediate, sometimes

it's the same night can be very, very detrimental and very, very damaging. So here's the point. The point is that it's not because something feels good, or it seems right. Or it seems to be working at that time, it doesn't necessarily mean that actually mentally it's healthy for you. So something can have a short term cycle, it can seem to have a short term psychological benefit, but actually on the long term or the medium term, even though it is actually much more detrimental. And so this is why we can't always trust our immediate experiences because our immediate experiences can sometimes be undone over time. But Allah this is the point. And this is what you see this is Imam Imam really

means to trust, trust to your trusting Allah that his knowledge is perfect. But when he says, Don't do this, it's not because He wants your life not to be fun. It's not because he doesn't want you to be happy. It's not the case. He subhanaw taala wants you to be miserable, and he wants to keep you away from all of these fun things in life. No, it's exactly the opposite. Allah subhanaw taala wants you to have the best life, the happiest life the most fulfilled and happy and full life that you possibly can. But what brings happiness and what brings fulfillment is not always what you think it is. Okay, and this is the amazing thing that has been bought out by psychological studies. And it's

something I've been very, very interested in is the psychology of happiness. what makes people happy

I'm and I've done quite a lot of reading around that and here's the interesting thing is that happiness does not come from the things that most people think

happiness

smell

some

Okay, guys, so as I was saying, I don't know why I got cut off there I really really apologize.

By the way brothers and sisters Pete please keep sharing this because sharing is caring. I don't know why I got cut off. I'm sorry about this no idea whatsoever. Wait a minute. Okay, so happiness. So the psychology of happiness is that

it doesn't come from you see a lot of people if you think what ask them what makes them happy. They'll say money. Money makes me happy. Things a nice house a nice car clothes.

Jewelry, you know, being beautiful. Being famous, being rich being powerful.

You know, that's the usual watching movies, listening to music, dancing, singing, you know what I mean? Sex, Drugs, rock and roll, right? This is the sort of stuff that people usually think yeah, if you if you did a survey and say, Okay, what do you think makes you happy? You know, what do you need in your life to make you more happy, those are the boxes, they will tick. But in fact, research has shown that what really makes people happy, is when they are working really hard to achieve something that will improve themselves and improve the world around them. Okay. And as long as this thing is defined, meaning it has defined parameters, it's not endless. It's not without limits. So it's a

specific task, or a specific objective that you want to reach, it has a specific timeframe, it can't be too easy, because if it's not too easy, it won't challenge you. And it can't be too hard. Because if it's too hard, you'll just given and feel despair. But it says there's got to be on the very level. So when are you on the very edge on the very edge of your ability, striving and struggling to improve yourself. And it's something that will also help people in some way, it can be very broad. But when we are involved in that type of activity.

This is when human beings feel the greatest sense of happiness because with it comes a real sense of achievement. You see, that's counterintuitive, brothers and sisters, but Allah knows this, Allah knows this, if you and this is, this is the real meaning of jihad, right? What is jihad? Jihad means to struggle to the very limit of your ability. That's what it means, right? It's happiness. Because that's when people are truly happy when they are struggling. And of course, that spirit, that struggle could be a physical one, it could be a spiritual one, it could be a mental one. So that's what it's all about. Life is a struggle, but that's not a bad thing. Because in that struggle is

happiness in that struggle in embracing that struggle, taking on board that, yes, by embracing that struggle, and realizing that within the struggle is the happiness. This is the most amazing truth in life, right? And so, we knew that we know that from 1400 years ago, every religion actually teaches this in one way, shape, or form. Every religion teaches jihad, by the way, right? You know, when you when you look at it, right? Ultimately, every religion every religion has, when I say every religion, I mean, every religion that has some sort of organized basis. I don't mean just like these days, like people call religion, any type of mishmash they put together, right? But organized

religion, people are always saying, Oh, I'm spiritual, but I'm not I don't believe in organized religion. Well, you know, I don't believe that that's possible. Right? Because in order to be spiritual, you need an because that's what if you understand the psychology of the human being, if you understand how the mind works, we need that discipline. We need that framework in order through which to get that spiritual growth. It has to be there, right? And this is why I believe that we find in the Quran and we find in Islam, that Allah has pinata.

I was given a special status to the people of the book, and to,

of course Jews and Christians, and even and also it's mentioned about Zoroastrians, and many scholars, by the way, by

you know, by extension, they included any religion that has a book any religion that has a clearly a clearly defined system through it through which in morals and spiritual growth can operate has that same status, because ultimately, this is the fabric that holds human society and civilization together. Right. It is so interesting, that Subhanallah today I got an amazingly interesting text message. So I don't know about any of you have heard about this murderer. This guy called Bundy. Okay, he's the Moors murderer. He killed a bunch of kids in the Yorkshire Moors and buried their bodies up with some sick mass murderer. Right? In reality brothers and sisters, I'm excuse me,

because I'm trying to find the

I'm trying to find the link, okay. To what this guy said, right.

So anyway, um, you're going to lose me, I'm going to lose you. So basically, maybe I'll make this a talk for another time because it's so interesting. But basically, he he was an atheist, unrealistic, he, he just basically believed there was no such thing as good and evil. There was no purpose to life. Everything's just a random event. We're just here. What is it? He said, What's the difference between me and what I'm doing killing children and burying them in the Moors, and

soldiers killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan? What's the difference? So from his perspective, from that secular perspective of if there is no God, if there is no creator, if there is no purpose to life, if it's all just meaningless if we are just a random event, and we're just specks in a vast universe, and what we do makes no difference, then, for him, just do whatever turns you on, if it's killing kids,

you know, makes me happy.

Right? What's the difference? If I do it, it brings me satisfaction makes me happy. This is a life without God. This is the life without religion. This is the life without boundaries. This is a life without limitations. This is why and he says, he says that people like me will become more and more common. The more secular society gets, the more common he said, I'm just a prototype of what's to come.

Well, anyway, this is a whole big topic, a whole big topic.

Right? But this is how sick societies become. And this is what happens when you leave God when you leave religion when you leave organized religion, because what happens is the whole process through which human beings are able to train themselves, the whole process through which we fight our inner dragons, we find our inner monsters, right? This is the real hero, the real hero is the one who takes up that struggle, that inner struggle against their own inner demons. But how will you do that? Without guidance, without real spiritual guidance, without discipline without parameters, without guidelines? You can't, it's impossible, right? It's not going to happen. So brothers and

sisters, this is very, very important. So going back to my main point here, is that sins either damages spiritually, or they damage us mentally, or they damage us physically. Now, I want to take an example. Or they can damage us. The other point is they damage us socially and collectively. So these four things,

spiritual damage, mental damage, or psychological damage, physical damage actually damages our body, right, like smoking, or drinking alcohol, or, you know, eating pork, right? A lot of these things actually have very clear physical detrimental effects, there are things that we can do. And I could give lots more examples, that they actually harm us physically. But that's not the only harm. There's mental harm, spiritual harm. And the other very important thing is some things harm us collectively. So some things may not harm us as individuals, or maybe if there's two or three of us doing it, it may not harm us at all. Right actually may benefit us individually. I may benefit

individually from doing something that is haram. But it may harm the whole collective, it may harm society. This is the point there are some things that may benefit you as an individual, but they don't they but they harm society. And this is very important. We are not just individuals, we live together we operate together we work together we exist together as human beings. Society is so important. And this is a this is really a big

struggle. This is the big struggle is going on? Where does that where does the freedom of the individual end in order to protect the collective?

Right? We will recognize that's why we live together in societies. Every household has rules, some type of rules and regulations in my house, we have rules, right? You have to have those rules in the house because it protects everybody. Not everyone in my house can do whatever they like. And if that's you don't like the rules leave the house, you're not welcome here, right? That's the reality. Because in order to live a certain way, we need to have those rules. And if you don't, everyone can get damaged, because that's the nature of human beings. We're influenced by those people around us, we get influenced by what happens around us, even against our best judgment and a best instinct.

That's often how we work as human beings we act, we act collectively. And that act, that way we act collectively can be negative or it can be positive. So some things that Allah has forbidden, he has forbidden it, because the damage it will do to to society is so big, right? Even though it may not harm you that much, even though it may even be beneficial for you, as a human being. So these are very, very important things, right? If you understand these things, they knew you will understand the wisdom of why how alive you go through the list, like why has Allah made this haram any particular given thing right? Now some things may have all of those late, let's take alcohol, right?

Alcohol is a really good example. It's something that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he called it the mother of evils. The mother of evils is so bad, it gives birth to so many evils. And you just need to look at the statistics brothers and sisters of how many people how many lives are damaged by alcohol, it is insane. Any country that permits the consumption of alcohol, it's insanity. What government allows it, right? It doesn't make any sense. I mean, a lot of kids are confused, like, well, what if marijuana is forbidden? And ecstasy is forbidden? Why is alcohol allowed? Where's the logic in it? The only explanation so well, culturally, you know, drinking

alcohol is part of our culture. You know, having a bottle of wine and having a glass of wine, that meal is part of our culture. That's the only reason there's no scientific basis behind it. There's no rational basis basis basis behind it. If you forbidding this, because of that reason, you should also forbid that alcohol is very, very, very damaging. How many families are destroyed, how many lives are destroyed, how many people are killed, killed by drunk drivers, by people who abuse alcohol, how much domestic abuse is caused by alcohol consumption? How many lives are lost, how many sexual assaults happen, how many working hours how much detriment equals us to society, I have seen

video footage of policemen spending their whole Saturday nights picking up drugs from the street so they don't drown in their own sick. That's what our money our tax money is being used for. So police can save these people from drowning in their own puke.

That's ridiculous. If you want to, you know, if you want to stop wasting tax money, do something about that. But this is ridiculous. So that alcohol is a good example. So it's socially damaging, it damages society tremendously. So that's one thing, right? Physically, alcohol is a poison. It physically damages your body, it causes liver damage, very severe limit of liver damage, especially binge drinking, the amount of alcohol people consume. Even 10 years ago, the government here in England was very worried about what's going to happen in 2025 years time. Because so many people are binge drinking, that they know it's going to be a tsunami, a disaster for the NHS for the National

Health Service. There are going to be so many people with damaged livers. It's inevitable. They know it, they want to start preparing for it now. This is the damage that alcohol causes, it damages you it's a poison. It's it damages your body. Right? Mentally, it damages your mind. It damages your mind, it actually damages your brain. It changes the way your brain works. It damages your mind in many, many different ways. It causes dependency, a false dependency, you become addicted to it, and mentally addicted as well as physically addictive. And of course, spiritually it's very damaging. Why is it damaging spiritually? Because alcohol can bring about states feelings and emotions. By

just

Anything alcohol, that really you should be striving, you should be striving to achieve through spiritual exercises like prayer and fasting and meditation and you know, doing good deeds and so on and so forth.

Okay, so

that said brothers and sisters, this is my reflection on sins, okay?

Now, I just want to mention that sins that call that there are some sins that cause harm to others, there are some sins that when you do them, you harm other people. Okay?

And these sins take a special type of repentance. Now we're talking about the Four Rivers of purification, the few the Four Rivers through which Allah purifies the believer of their sins. Now, there is a type of sin, that if you commit it,

it takes a special type of repentance. And actually, unfortunately, these are the types of sins that many many, many people are involved in today. And that is the type of sin that causes harm to another human being. A simple example is stealing. When you steal something from someone, is it enough just to repent to Allah? Is it enough just to make Tober? Is it enough to do good deeds? Well, you can do good deeds, but one of the good deeds you have to do in this case is you have to return the thing you've stolen to the person you stole from. But how about if you backbite? How about if you slander? How about if you go around saying things about people and these things may

even be true, but you are exposing people's faults? You go around saying things about people and exposing them and humiliating them and making them look bad. This is forbidden in Islam. This is called backbiting in Islam. This is the sin of backbiting and backbiting has been given the example. It's as if you are eating the flesh of your dead brother or sister. Imagine that imagine you eat the flesh of a Muslim, a dead Muslim. That is backbiting and what is backbiting? Backbiting is not what people think. No Mima is not what you think people think backbiting means chatting about someone behind their back. No.

And even this happened in the time of the Prophet. They said, O Messenger of Allah, what if it's true? What if the thing I'm saying is true? And the Prophet said, if it is true, it is backbiting.

So backbiting, is saying something true about a person, which they wouldn't like you to say. So if you're saying something about someone, which they wouldn't like, even if you're saying something like they're fat, they eat too much. They,

you know, they're grumpy that, you know, these may seem like small things. Even Aisha once just made a face, she made an expression to the Prophet. She didn't even say anything. She just made an expression about someone and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told her off that even making an expression about somebody, right? That gives an indication something about them. That is backbiting. And by the way, if you are there, when someone is doing that, and you don't leave, or you don't tell them to stop, you're included as the back biter, you're included. So even if you don't do backbiting, you're just sitting among monks back biters, you're a back biter as well. And

this is a major sin. This is not a small sin. This is a major, big, bad, major sin in Islam, you there is a threat of hellfire, there is a special punishment in hellfire. For people who do this, there is a punishment in the grave for people who do this. Right. So we talked about the Four Rivers, right, the Four Rivers of purification, right? So this is one of those things that you will have to suffer with on the Day of Judgment. Right? When you backed by people, if you don't sort your issues out with people in this life, then you have to sort it out on the Day of Judgment.

Okay, and you don't want to do that. So just keep away from it be God yourself, God, this tongue, God, this tongue against backbiting, God, this tongue, and that's backbiting to repeat is saying something true about a person true things that they wouldn't like you to say?

If it's not true, it's even worse. If it's not true, it's slander. And slander is worse than backbiting. So the only way to repent from this is you need to get that person to forgive you. Now, some scholars have said that the problem is if you go up to someone and say, Oh, Brother, forgive me, my back that you and the person said, What did you say? Well, I said that, you know, you're too fat. And that person, like, how dare you say that about me? How dare you go around saying, you know, I hate you. May you rot in hell, you know, whatever. So the point is, is that and this is a problem. You know, we shouldn't hate each other wish.

Love each other, we should forgive each other we should be kind to each other this is, this is the core of Imam. Right You will not believe until you love one another you will not enter paradise till you believe the Prophet said and you will not believe until you love one another. Right? How do we increase this love for one another, give salam say sunlamps. So brothers and sisters, listen, we need to have this tolerant, loving, caring attitude, we need to remove hatred from our hearts. It's very, very important. Okay, because this is what destroys us is what destroyed the nations who came before us hatred and envy and greed, we have to be very careful. So these things we be careful what

you say about other people. Be careful what you say about other people, okay.

So if you do say something bad, okay, you should try and make it good with them, you should try and make out with them. But if you think that if you go and you say something, and you try and make it up with them, they are going to get more offended and more upset and it's going to make the situation worse, then what do you do is you say good things about them, as you said bad things. So remember, the Prophet said, if you do something evil, then wipe it out with something good. If you do something wrong, right? Wipe it out with something good. Okay. So brothers and sisters, that's what you need to do. You need to wipe out the evil with good. So if you say something bad about

someone, say something good about them, as you said bad about them.

Or you can even give charity with the intention of the reward be you know, you can give the charity on their behalf, right? So meaning you give the charity with the intention of this exploiting some of the wrongs that you have done. Whatever you do, brothers and sisters, the most important thing is just to keep yourself away from that stuff. And when you've done something wrong like that, try and make it right. So this is one of the ways that we can expiate our sins, one of the great rivers is good deeds. Now I want to give you an example of the lots of examples so many examples of good deeds, okay. So let us look at this beautiful Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam, fear

Allah, wherever that wherever you are, and follow up an evil deed with a good deed and it will wipe it out and behave well towards people. This is what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, a very, very beautiful Hadith. Be mindful of Allah have Taqwa of Allah, wherever you are. This subject of Taqwa. Go back and listen to my lecture 13 benefits of Taqwa and I still have to do that video and inshallah

I still haven't done it. Can you believe it? On How To Get taco how to build tacos so important? The most important thing that we need to acquire the most important provision on our journey to Allah is the provision of taco. So we need to understand taco we need to make dua to Allah subhanaw taala for Taco, so be mindful of Allah, we need to develop this mindfulness of Allah, how do we do that? Okay, that's a whole different subject. Wherever you are, wherever you are, whatever country you're in whatever place you're in, whether you're alone, or you're together with people be mindful of Allah. Meaning what will Allah say to me, on the Day of Judgment, if I do this, or if I don't do that, and

follow up an evil deed with a good one, and it will wipe it out and behave well towards the people. This quality brothers and sisters of behaving well towards the people of having good manners of having good a HELOC of having good character is one of the greatest and the most beneficial of good deeds that you can do. It is one of the most important characteristics that we need to acquire the characteristics of having good manners and good character. Okay, it's a massive subject, but it is one of the reasons that Allah will enter people into paradise. The good deed of having good character, okay, so we should never belittle any good deed the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

said, save yourself from the hellfire, even if is with a date or half a date. Even just a smile is charity. These are small things but don't belittle these small acts of kindness these small good deeds, right and small good deeds and they have to be an EClass brothers and sisters, we need a class we need sincerity we may need to make sure we're doing it for the sake of Allah. How many people will come in front of Allah having done amazing things, huge things, but they did it to show off they did it for worldly gain. They did it for worldly benefit. Okay, brothers and sisters, right? They did it for fame. They did it because they wanted people to you know, congratulate them

and stuff like that. Okay. So brothers and sisters

you know, brothers and sisters, that is the

that is the importance of it.

Good deeds.

Okay, so

now one of the things I want to warn you about very much very importantly, okay? Is be verb to be very careful about, okay? There are some types of sins that are very, very damaging.

And the sins that are damaging are the ones that you talk about.

The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, all the sins of my followers will be forgiven, except those of

the Mujahideen.

Those are people who commit sins openly

or disclose their sins to people.

Now, these are two things, brothers and sisters, yes, we should be mindful of Allah and feel Allah wherever we are. Yeah, and follow up a good deed with a bad deed. Okay.

But you see, the thing is brothers and sisters, when you do sins openly in front of people, that is a type of shamelessness that is exposing your sins is just being shameless, that you're just disobeying a light in front of people. Or that maybe you do a sin by the night and Allah covers it. Allah's hides it. And then you go and talk about it. And you say to people, Oh, I did this in last night, and I did that sin last night. So that type of sin, Allah will you know, Allah is not going to forgive it, because he covered your sins and you went exposing it. This is the type of an it doesn't mean you shouldn't make Toba. But you should make Toba from that. So all of the sins of my

followers will be forgiven.

Except, so be very careful about doing sins openly, be very, very careful about doing sins openly. Although we should never despair at the mercy of Allah never despair of the mercy of Allah. Allah forgives everything. But this is something you have to be very, very careful about. And part of the reason why it's so damaging brothers and sisters is when you do sins openly. And it goes back to what I was saying about the collective nature, that the collective nature of sins, when people do sins, when people do sins openly, it damages society, it damages everybody, because what are you doing, you are encouraging people to participate in that sin. That's what you're doing. And this is

how human unfortunately, and when you This is how human beings are. This is part of what the things I talk about. For example, in my willpower course, one of the things I talk about is the importance of choosing your friends. Because your friends will influence a lot how you behave. And if you're trying to develop strong willpower, and trying to give up bad habits, and build new better ones, one of the most damaging damaging things to that is having bad company, and you'll find it almost impossible. If your friends are bad, you'll find it almost impossible to be good. Okay. So this is the thing is that when we commit sins openly is called permission giving. This is what they call it

in psychology. Right? When people talk about stuff, it's permission giving, it's like oh, well he's doing it she's doing can't be that bad. This is how we think this is how the human mind operates. We have to be very very careful with that brothers and sisters. Okay.

So that is why doing this another reason why doing open sins is so so dangerous.

Okay, so I'm gonna go through a quick list now right off some amazing good deeds that you can do that wipe out sins.

perfecting your evolution, perfecting your will do Subhan Allah, no worshiper perfects his evolutions, except that his past and future sins are forgiven Subhanallah look how the good deeds wipe out the bad deeds, fasting in Ramadan, fasting, Ramadan is coming up what a great opportunity

to do amazing good deeds that will wipe out our evil deeds, who ever stands in prayer out of Eman and seeking Allah's reward, then his past and future sins will be forgiven. This means whoever stands up in prayer, meaning in the nighttime, in Ramadan,

okay out of Imam and seeking Allah's reward then his past and future sins will be forgiven. Good deeds, wipe out bad deeds, praying on the night of Laila to cuddle.

Praying the night of Lagos the color is better than the worship of 1000 months. Good deeds, wipe out bad deeds. This is why we have to be so vigilant in looking for these amazing rewards this amazing Archer these amazing opportunity. There are times when Allah there are certain times and third certain things where Allah multiplies the reward. Walking to the mosque, every footstep that you take Allah subhanaw taala forgives your sins and gives you a reward when

walking back from the mosque, reading the Quran, every letter you read of the Quran, Allah subhanaw taala gives you a reward. When you memorize the Quran and you act upon it, it will be a witness for you and it will be an intercessor for you on the Day of Judgment. So all of these are great examples of good deeds that will wipe out bad deeds, defending the honor of a Muslim this goes back to what I was saying. Right, the evil of the tongue. You see how many people these days go around defaming and dissing and criticizing and saying bad things about the Muslim Brothers and sisters, sometimes even about the scholars about Allah ma, about pious people who may have made some mistakes, but they go

instead of covering their mistakes like Islam, teachers, they go broadcasting it and talking about it. Subhanallah This is the opposite of what Islam is teaching. Because the Prophet said, Whoever defends the honor of his brother.

Okay.

He will be freed from the fire. Whoever defends the honor of his brother in defense of what he has done right? Will Allah will, will free him from the fire. You see, this is something very important. We need to defend the honor of our brothers and sisters. When people are slandering them and attacking them. We need to stand up for them. This is something imperative. This is something so important. Okay.

Praying to Africa, of Doha. So this is you know, after the sun has risen. So after the sunrise, 10 minutes after the sunrise, if you this is amazing brothers and sisters, if you pray off budget, and you sit in your place, and you don't say any bad thing, you don't say any bad thing. So you sit in your place after your Fajr and you just make vicar or read Quran and you don't move from your place, you stay sitting there, and you wait until 10 minutes or 15 minutes after the sun rises and you pray two rakaat your sins will be forgiven. It's if you made Hajj

it's as if you made Hajj or Hajj and Umrah with the Prophet saw the Dharma exactly, but he will be forgiven your sins like Hajj. And not many people do this. But it's Subhanallah you can get the reward of Hajj just by this thing. But of course not many people do it, who has the time who has the commitment who has the energy, but look at the opportunities that Allah has given us for our

to do good deeds that wipe out bad deeds aamra tomra so when you make an omelet between one ombre and the next aamra Your sins are forgiven. Being consistent in praying is a means for your sins being forgiven. Right? A man came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said I kissed a woman on the outskirts of Medina. The Prophet said, Did you pray? Did you pray or followed salah? The man said yes. He said, What you did experience for what you did. He said is this just for me or for everybody? And the Prophet said this is for everybody. Now this is not to encourage anyone to go and do things like that The point being brothers and sisters is good deeds, wipe out evil deeds. Of

course, if a person is praying and consistently keeps on persisting and doing evil, then it may be that actually that prayer will just increase the distance between them and Allah because prayer, if you pray properly, it will have that effect of changing your behavior. It does there's something wrong with your prayer. But if you're you know this is just a one off mistake right? This is not these doing this every time right? What the point being here shows that good deeds wiper evil deeds and one of those things is Subhanallah the prayer especially if you pray us or or Fajr make sure you pray Arsalan Fajr on time, it has a great benefit of again, wiping out your sins. Okay? Fasting on

the Day of Arafah. If you're not a Haji, if you're fasting on the Day of Arafah, wipes out sins for a year, Jama to JAMA, going to Jama also wipes out sins, freeing believing slaves, wipes out sins having good character, as I mentioned already, nothing is wait here on the scale than good character. Whoever is easy going kind hearted and easy to deal with. Allah will forbid the fire for him.

Let me repeat that brothers and sisters, whoever is easy going

kind hearted and easy to deal with. Allah will forbid the fire for him.

Wow. So it shows the importance of good character and good character means brothers and sisters, to be soft hearted, to be kind to be easygoing, to be loving, to be caring to be gentle. These are the really noble characteristics. Right? And, and it really means to keep on being kind and gentle and loving, even when people are not like that towards you. Because it's the

easy to love people who are being loving towards you. It's easy to be nice to people when they're being nice to you. The real test of good character is like that wish the prophet had some Allahu Allah He was that even when people were mean and nasty to him, he was kind to them. Okay, so brothers and sisters, I think that's enough for now in sha Allah that is one of the great rivers through which Allah purifies the believers of their sins in this life is the river of good deeds. So inshallah next week, I will talk about the river of calamities. Okay, the river of calamities, and maybe I will also talk about

the river of repentance. So those are the two other good those are the two other rivers that Allah purifies the believer with in this life, the other the final one is in the next life that Allah purifies the believers is the fire.

So if Allah shows favor to one of his servants, he purifies them through the three great rivers in this life.

It's unfortunate the one who ends up having to be purified by the fire that's what we want to avoid brothers and sisters. So make sure you tune in inshallah next week.

Until then, brothers and sisters May Allah bless you May Allah guide you don't forget to share this Alhamdulillah so much benefit Alhamdulillah for myself and for your souls in this video today.

You can also catch it on my YouTube channel in sha Allah. Anyway that's it for now brothers and sisters take care fill your life with good deeds inshallah and purify yourself with sins through that sommelier.

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