THE INNER STRUGGLE A Peace of Cake Podcast & Abdul Haqq Baker

Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh and welcome back to another week we missed last week. Very busy not with what you think it was. But we've Dawa in abdur-rahim case, Masha, lots of rock and I've had to track you had to travel up north and that I understand. Yeah first time in ages rovers, Bradford

helping a fundraiser for a new center in Leeds which is quite exciting. So remember our days going up north man?

Some of the best times some of the best times is Leeds was one of the best places as well. Leeds University man it was all kicking there. Absolutely. hamdulillah so, welcome back up to him. Good to see you on the other side

to the Gregorian character 20 calendar 2022 Mashallah, rotwild Good to see you, Marcel a lot. So today up there, him and Cara, good to see you again. Curl it as well. So why LeKan salaam to all of you. So today we're looking at Zen Zen while they can Salam Tila, we're looking at the inner struggle, Wellington's Lambro, Mohammed Salafi the inner struggle and Kira Hamdulillah. What we're looking at abdur-rahim, what this means what it looks like, the religious perspective of it. And as it applies to us practically today. Now you've given a lot of lectures on this. Yeah, particularly since COVID, and the lockdown when I was doing the baker broadcast and other shows, and you and I

even as well, our previous shows, we've been discussing this. So give give me and our viewers sort of insight onto the things that you felt needed to be and continue to be addressed. Regarding the inner struggle today.

Yeah, I think, bro, the main thing. And the main, I think, the main thing in terms of actual

What can I say the actual practical application of it. Probably the biggest thing is in respect to intentions, and probably the most important thing of all.

And this is literally what I've been going on about for for two years, since actually, you know, this whole it was Newcastle FM, and now it's called stream Islam. So almost since I began my first few series, we're about dour, but then I just went into this whole discussion about know yourself, right? Knowing yourself and the whole discussion about knowing yourself was built upon one simple premise that if you think about it, if you don't know yourself, how can you ever really make sure that your intentions are purely for Allah? Right? So and it's very simple, right? Because if you're not if you're not going to be brutally honest with yourself, right? And you're not going to be

honest with yourself and you're not going to be real about who you are, why you do what you do, what motivates you, what are your weaknesses, what your strengths right? Because the reality is for most of us, we don't really know ourselves we know the stories, right? know our stories that we've told in order to protect our fragile egos, right? Yeah, well, the stories we tell ourselves oh, why I can't lose weight. Why I can't lose Arabic. Why can't learn learn Arabic? Why I can't do this. Why I can't do that. Why I can't memorize Quran. Yeah. Why I can't stop smoking, drinking the wire. Like these stories we have, right? We have all these stories. Yeah, we know those stories already. Well,

that's the lies that you see. If you're if you're going to just be a liar, right? And you're going to tell yourself stories, how can you even begin to even understand what it means to have a pure intention and to do something purely for the sake of Allah? You can't

because you're always going to be you're always going to be following your stories. Right? Right. So that is why everything has to start when it comes to this whole discussion of the energy had it you would think Abdullah heartbroke it will be the easiest thing you think the easiest thing in the world will be to be honest with yourself. And it's not it's probably the hardest thing right? So that yeah, that's it really Yeah, me what I'd say on what you've said, which I think is brilliant. That's a good premise to start while he can fly Malahide Good to see you here Mashallah. One of the things as well is to understand

particular conditions that we all have, or are in at any given time, while it can slumber either below. And as I mentioned before the show, I remember seeing a lecture by someone, Abdullah Ruffman, in Turkey, a university in Turkey, about the heart psychology and everything. And as I watched him break down the heart, and I was placing it on myself, I was like, Oh, my gosh, looking at these particular areas, some of which you've touched upon, getting familiarity with that from a religious perspective, because we hear these terms you had enough and everything laughs in law, why am I? What do they all mean? So he broke down, how our hearts are conditioned, and the things that we have to

contend with. So as you said, being truthful with yourself, so as long as inclination towards evil, because that's the reality,

the diseases of the heart that affect us, and the opposite. So what what how do we when we've realized that there's our soul is inclining towards evil? Do we know there's another aspect where we have to look towards tranquility? And how to get to that tranquility and make our hearts ease? What is the cure for that? When the Quran we know what Allah says, In the Quran, when there were diseases of the heart? Do we know that there's an opposite, that can help us in the deen to be safe from that disease? And what he did in showing these compartments and everything like that, he showed that this area where there's the tranquility was this a fight and against the diseases of the heart, that

you're closer to your fitrah, you're closer to Allah. And then at the bottom of the we're saying that when you're fighting these diseases, you've got these diseases in your heart, your soul is inclined towards evil, then you're closer to return, and attached to the dunya. So if you don't recognize these particular aspects, hear from the Dean on a basic level, then you cannot start being truthful to yourself, because you don't know this. And I'm not saying you have to be scholastic about it. But we all have these, what what advice do we have, that we're making excuses for?

Do we know the opposite to that, for example, if you and I love forbid, realize we've got cancer, or serious disease, we would the cure immediately, and people's have we seen have spent their life savings, their whole life has changed to be focused on the cure the cure elixir. Yet we all know, we have particular diseases of the heart. So we're not seeking the cure.

Yet we know what you find towards evil. And where that leaves some of us in the privacy of our own homes, some who've gone to the extent of doing them publicly. And yet, we won't look at the remedy to contend with that evil. So these two areas, what you've mentioned and what I mentioned in here,

it's got to be a reality check. Because as you said, in the struggle, abdur-rahim, we How many times have we slipped? Not that we're going to reveal sins? How many times have we slipped through

and have time to some have given up and said, Well, I've gone so far, how's the Lord gonna forgive me now. And that's one of the biggest traps of shaytan of bliss to get you in that state. Because when he gets you in that state, well, I haven't prayed for so long, never gonna make it up. So I'm not going to pray. I've done so much of this evil, that I'm still doing it, there's no way I'm going to be forgiven. So I'm going to keep doing it is that that stage that he blesses that can leave this individual now, because I've got them away from Allah, away from the future, away from

all the care that they can possibly do having that nasally automat in there, that soul is at peace, they're going to forever stay in that turmoil and that inclination towards evil. I can move on to the next person. And as we know, the bliss targets to believers.

Yeah, I mean, it reminds me of the Hadith, what you mentioned that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he mentioned was this was narrated by her differ even earlier man. And he said that the Prophet, you know, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, because they ever had this quality that he would always ask the Prophet about bad things like most people would ask the Prophet so awesome, about good stuff. And he would said, I would always ask the Prophet about bad things, because I was afraid that they would overtake me. And so one of the things that Prophet said to him is that temptations will be presented to the heart, one after the other. So I guess this is the

first thing like we live in this the realm that we live in this world in which we live is the world of test. That's what it is. It's the world of temptation is the world of test. That's why Allah created this whole world. You know, that's what it's for, you know, and that, you know, when my fella

hooked up to a motor Well, hey,

Yeah Talia Blue Welcome Are you come on well I'm hola hola Aziz over for the Allah created the death in the life to know which of you is best and conduct and he's the mighty in the forgiving so this is the first things that temptations will be presented to the heart one after the other so like and the Prophet said So whichever heart absorbs those temptations means gives in to the temptation right

then then that the person will keep on doing that until they're hot so you know like when you when you get into a temptation it forms a black spot in your heart and then ultimately your heart becomes totally rusty right in you know you have this Orion this rust on your heart and it is incapable anymore as the Prophet said that this heart cannot anymore distinguish between what is halal and haram Excel

to is Kalambo Rana Allah Kullu be him Yes.

Yeah. So it's until this heart cannot any it doesn't any more distinguished between halal and haram unless it suits its desires, which is a very interesting point. Yeah, I want to come back to that in just a second. And just to finish the Hadith, and then the prophets and the other will repel this temptation. Yeah. And they will keep on doing it. Until their hearts you know, their hearts become uncorruptible nothing will be able to correct this heart as long as the heavens and the earth enjoy. This is what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, What is really interesting, yeah.

Is that that look, the thing that Prophet said about these corrupt hearts. Yeah, these ones that have given in to all these temptations and keep on doing it until they don't recognize halal and haram unless it suits their desires. Right. So as for example, someone may just not like homosexuality, not because they recognize it is halal or haram, they just don't like it. Yeah. Or, you know, like, it's not because and this is something very important, right, is that as Muslims, we have to understand, is that what we like and what we don't like what we think is the right way to behave, and the wrong way to behave, what we understand to be good and evil, is not based on our

impulses, and our just our feelings and our passions, and our inclinations, it is rooted in the revelation that Allah has given in the Quran that has been explained and exemplified and personified through the life of the prophet Sallallahu, alayhi wasallam. This is what is so important. And so key. Because to go back to what you were saying of the hug, bro, right, even before we get to this position, of being able to make this Jihad bill not so the struggle against our inner self, you have to accept that what is right and what is wrong, is not what you choose, and what you select, and what you pick for yourself, like other nations before us. Yeah, they took what they liked, and they

leave what they didn't like, right? You have to take it wholesale. And if you're not ready to do that, if you see, this is the thing, it's like a catch 22. What I said means what you said, and what you said means what I said, right? And it's like it because it's like I'm listening to you. I'm saying yeah, but you won't even get to the stage where you can do what you're talking about, if you don't if you're not fundamentally true and sincere about yourself. But you also weighed in the sense that you can't really be true and sincere about yourself, unless you're ready to, you know, embrace that dimension that we talked about and understand why it's different type of knifes and resisting

evil. The bottom line is it comes down to this, you have to recognize the standard of evil that Allah has set down, right? Yes, that's where it comes you, you've got to have that beginning of humility. And that's why, you know, there's that famous saying that the beginning of wisdom starts with humility. This is the beginning of wisdom is starting with humility. Yeah. And absolutely, I believe that like, as you said, what we're saying is cyclical is intertwined. So now we're looking at a world where

the structure of particular societies are allowing your heart, your soul, that part to incline towards evil, and then normalizing that evil. You've mentioned homosexuality, we've seen other things, I'm

an ashamedly against LGBTQ, all sorts of things, relationships outside marriage, that that's, that's old school, that's old hat now, society is dictating or facilitating this. And the worrying thing is that it's they've lowered the bar so that it's affecting our children. So our children more so don't even know these conditions. So everyone is towards this. You

inclination towards evil that the souls inclination, Nason Amobi saw the inclination towards evil. There are two other areas where the Muslims we are, we are striving to be and hopefully many of us are in one of those categories. That's the nasty LaWanda to self reproach and soul, the soul that keeps blaming itself. So what you're saying about identifying the truth looking in the mirror and being truthful about yourself is a painful thing. But if we are approaching ourselves and doing that, our last swears by this in the second is ova Surah Yama, wala oximeter, be Nason lawanna. And when Allah swears by something, and I swear by the self reproach in Seoul, the off blaming, and

after here, if you've done it, and I believe you, and I haven't others, when you're blaming yourself, every time you're slipping, and we're not talking about the sheer understanding of self flagellation, or anything like that, we're talking about realizing the deficiency, that we've got the sin, the problem that in the struggle that we've got, and continually challenging ourselves and say, Why, why, but when we're doing that, look into what, as you said, the remedy out of that, which Allah has played, for us throughout this life, and I'll stop at this point. Yeah, hope you're trying to get to that ultimate level, which is how many of us have achieved and achieve the like you said,

the heart that's not harm that nasally my inner that. So peace, as Allah says, in so he says, Those come come to enter my garden into it without your generosity.

Abroad, I'm gonna go back to something you said. Right. So right at the beginning of what you just said, just in this little section, right. And, and something that is really important about this whole subject? Yeah. You said, being honest with yourself is very difficult. And it's more than very light, it's very difficult. Let's just let's just discuss a bit about how difficult that is, and why it's so difficult. So I want to go into this just a little bit. First of all, it's called jihad, Bill knifes, right? Jihad is normally right, like, although the word has a comprehensive meaning in Arabic, as we know, we know it means to struggle to the utmost of your capability. Most often, its

context, like the majority of the time, its context is actual physical fighting. And like anyone who's ever been in a war knows how tough that is. I mean, you're putting, you're literally putting your life on the line. And so brothers and sisters, I am not exaggerating, when I say that when you are when you are going to go to war with yourself, because you have to kill your ego. You have to kill the lies that you're telling yourself. And it's literally a war because your ego will do everything to protect itself image.

And we have to understand this is we have to understand, right? That you actually psychologically, spiritually, psychologically, you react to an attack on your ego, in the same way that you react to an attack on your physical body. That is why people in the street if they feel they are being disrespected, you know, and you know, better than me this whole thing about respect, right? But it's not it's not only restricted, restricted to the street. Yeah, everyone does this right. If people feel that honor is being attacked, if they feel that they self image of themselves is being attacked to a certain level, even though their life is not in danger, they will behave as if their life is in

danger, and they will literally take the physical life than that of another human being. They won't be content with dissing you back. They will take your life they will kill you now why is that? The reason is because an assault on the ego is looked at as an actual assault on your set your being because the person thinks of it as that's who I really am. That's what I really am and you're trying to destroy me. Right? So have a listen. Don't Don't Don't underestimate how difficult this is right? Because if there's people ready to actually kill other human beings over being disrespected, you can understand how difficult it is for you now to actually assassinate yourself because that's what

you're going to have to do. Right and by the way, as you've already said, bro, we have more than one self Yeah, there is no there's like I had this thing with you. There's no authentic you what authentic you and your knifes. Yeah. You said Was it enough?

So, Amara Neph Lewa

Yeah, so at least the Quran mentions, we have three knifes, right? At least three, we, you could probably find that we have more from the Quranic perspective, definitely we can identify.

And most of us fluctuate between those three things. And they exist within a simultaneously. So there's not even one, there's not really one you, right? There's multiple use going on, right? We're all sort of schizophrenic in some way, you know, so

I'm really glad you said, what you how you frame that in the context. I didn't know you was gonna say this, but and it's the first time I've heard the frame like that. And you said, my background, the violence that I was used to what we used to do, what used to be done to us what we existed for? Yeah, it was all around the ego. Yep. All around that. And, as you said, and we're not going to go into details. It was Kill or be killed. We see that amongst a younger, younger generation today.

That's why many of us from the black community, trying to reach out to not only the Muslims, that non Muslims because this nihilism we came from, and it was all around the ego. And I want to share this with others that

when you felt your ego, just to endorse what you've said, up to Rahim,

when you thought your ego had been tested, or someone who called you out as it happened to my gang, if you like,

it festered. It became like a cancer amongst us amongst me as an individual. You lost sleep over it. You couldn't you lost your appetite over it, you changed your interaction with those closest to you until what you had eliminated, yeah, destroyed, humiliated, the source of that challenge. And under the guise of more detail, I think

we get it. And so what you said there, I've never heard that phrase framed in that way with regards to the inner struggle. And we lived to make sure that our ego was never attacked, tarnished. We rather you fear us and stay away from us individually, then you challenge our ego. Yeah, what you've said is very powerful. I want everyone to understand it. And I want individuals to understand what is happening with the youth today. I want us as brothers and sisters to understand what Abdur Rahim has just said there. Why because when we have issues with our spouses, especially brothers, that ego kicks in. And it's so powerful that we will destroy or humiliate our spouse because of how they've

made us feel. With regards to our ego, Saudi Raheem,

powerful perspective that you've bought and the way you've bought it, and it resonates so much with me, because now I've just had an answer to all in a minute. I live my life like this before I came to the deal. I live my life preserving my reputation, my ego, my gang got we shut down on places, we caught a lot of coming here. Because it's your because it's your self image, bro. It Yeah, because it's your it's your self image. So in a really in a very real way. And it is real, right? When you realize that what is going on in your head is sometimes more real than what you're experiencing with your body. Right? It's like, so if you feel that that idea of who you are, is being attacked by

somebody, you're going to defend it like you will. Right and that it's another reason why by the way, we have so much stress so much stress, there's so much stress for us in our everyday lives, right because this is a part of the reason is because our self identity is constantly being you know, is constantly being challenged is constantly under attack.

And there's so many other component you know, parts to that as well. I mean, like what's key and what you've said up dream. So I tend to what was also key, what you've said, explains the inner struggle, those who are having self identity issues, gender dysmorphia, everything like that, because they're about that third stage of the soul with regards to the Emerald Bisou the national ama or be sued in the inclination towards evil, because that's a condensed one of our conditions. And when society

encouraging that or facilitating, that's the point. Yeah. And that's the point I was gonna make this the point. The second point I was going to pick up on is exactly that is this is all compounded by the whole underlying philosophy of the society in which we live, right and I we should not you know,

Look, there's so many great things about living in the West, I'm gonna make it out and painting. Everything is bad, right? It's just, you know, I, you know, but there's no way right there any thinking understanding person who understand the spiritual truths can fail to appreciate the fact that the underlying basic ideas, the underlying Western society at the moment, right, are evil. And I mean it, they are evil because of exactly this conversation, because what are they doing, they are pandering to the very worst, least constructive aspects of human nature, which is to be consumers, right. And obviously, that's not the only things that are there, of course, there are very ennobling

and beautiful and great ideas within Western society. But I would say, Now, the predominance of the predominant narrative, right? Is just being a consumer, and following your desires, right, and

just the whole, just do it, you know, the whole, just do it culture of Nike, and, you know, so on and so forth. Right, it is just that we are being bombarded with it, you know, 24 hours 365 You know, the last remaining vestiges of Christianity, which is not even original Christianity, Christianity was, which is Christmas, yeah, has now been totally taken. Right by right. So there's just almost nothing left, every sacred thing has been turned into some something else to consume, right? Something else to make money out of. And you know, this, like you said, this is this is the whole drive of society, that you just do what you feel like, do what you do. And so the whole idea

of an inner struggle, the whole idea of that there is something that is good, and there is something there's evil, right and wrong. I mean, you do find Western thinkers discussing this, right? You know, you find them discussing this, this whole, this a moral society this aimless, amoral, slop cystic society that has no even fundamental ideas anymore of what is right and wrong. And it's interesting you find even atheists are saying, well, you know, we used to have this when Christianity was the dominant, you know, theme of Western society, at least we have very clear moral values, right. And it's interesting that they're seeing the value of, you know, some sort of divine

guidance, right. However, the divine guidance, when we look again, at the prophetic model, when we look at what actually happened at the time of the prophets of Allah slim.

Makkah, was conquered. Yeah, part of what we're discussing today, is it resolutions, or is it revolution. And when we look at this concept that we're discussing of the heart in the struggle, that the Dean has the comprehensive solution, and he does, we spoke speak about the structure of the heart. fitrah Krafla, which is heedlessness, many of us are in heedlessness, that's where the inclination towards evil is. That's where the diseases of the heart sink in this this concept, which is a spiritual,

but practical concept is revolutionary It was then and it remains so now based on what you were just saying, because society is doing this now. And if we look at the Macan society at the time of the prophets of the last name, when this when he bought all of this, this focus on the self, that the inner struggle that you had an enough's, all of this, understanding your heart, being truthful to yourself about your own reality. It was revolutionary then, and it's revolutionary now. And remember, the focus then, was on the self. First and foremost, today's society is making us externally referenced and seeing what everyone else is doing. So if on social media, our children

are seen, goals, young girls are seen women dress up and look a particular way or particular Botox effects and everything like that. The pressure is on them to become like that to fit in, because for fear of hostile, ostracization, the same thing with men, okay, men going to the gym wanting to look bad, no problem with that. But when they're taking steroids and pumping themselves into a particular weight or size, because they want to fit a particular image, they are losing that in every one of them who are succumbing to that societal drive, or losing with that inner struggle. The focus has to come back to being on yourself first and foremost, in this way.

Yeah, I mean, it's very interesting that you know this, you've probably read this book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People right by, by Stephen Covey.

Right. So like a very well known book I talked about did he did Dr. Belfort has done a nice, you know, highly seven highly effective habits of Muslims. I think it was all believers.

Yeah. So he, in the beginning of this book, he mentioned something that, you know, I think is really, really profound a profound observation. And he said that it's not even that long ago. I mean, that in the recent past, a person's character was what was important. That was what really people looked at what what, what was his character? What was that person's morals? What were their manners? What were the etiquettes, these things were considered really, really important. But now exactly how what you identified? Now, it's, are you a celebrity? How well known, are you? Right? It doesn't matter. You could be a lying dog, right? And you just need to look at the majority of our

politicians, right? The vast majority of them, everybody knows they are pathological liars, most of them, right. Most of them are. And almost without doubt, anyone who is a senior politician gets on TV, they're only there because they they just are very, very good at lying, right? Yes. And they're probably better known for lying than almost anything else. And yet, these are the people that we put in front of the world as our leaders, right? People don't even feel shame anymore. These things that our governments do shamelessly, shamelessly doing you just need to see this pallava that has happened recently, when MPs are supposed to be the most informed and well informed people about you

know, the virus and all the dangers of it and all the terrible things that are supposed to be happening are having parties drinking alcohol, mixing and mingling together with no masks, right? Like in any time before this time, these people would have had to resign from their positions nobody would have tolerated so blatant hypocrisy, but now nobody cares. And they can get away with it and they can do outrageous things because the bar is there is no bar and what you can say the bar is so low there is no bar anymore that when the struggle Abrahim that's no blah it just doesn't matter. Like how what good buffoon you are and what

you know like what sort of flippin act you can put on and How amusing and entertaining you can make it for everybody. Right? I know.

There's no bar but there's also a frowning upon the inner struggle, you don't wipe, don't struggle at all. Ease, don't struggle at all and, and I listened to something from Denzel Washington said something was quite profound. I share that with my, my my children recently, that ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship.

Because you could because of the complacency that comes in easily the greatest prophet said, bro, this is what you told me. Afraid for you. He said, I'm not afraid for you that you're going to make sure to call this all that hardships and difficulties. I'm grateful that Allah will open the doors of the dunya for you. And then you're going to fight each other competing for the world like the others did. This is why exactly.

That is obviously the best phrase Marshall. Yeah. And what was the now for example, we're talking about inner struggle. This is so uncool. In today's Western society, as it is being a virgin, is let's be frank. You know, there was that drive amongst us? Like, are you still a virgin? And they'd be cringing? No, no.

That's a virtue. Yeah. Now, in the struggle, any struggle is frowned upon. And let's look at that. We're talking about the inner struggle. Well, maybe the struggle to get money to get rich and yeah, yeah. Okay. No, but that's a struggle to get rich. But if you see others struggling,

once there are those who are benevolent, benevolent, and most of the community gives a lot of charity and everything like that. Would this be truthful? Now beans be you're talking about truth? And I think this is it's come to each of us I proffer, I offer that it's come to each of us when we seen people clearly struggling. There's an initial empathy for those of us who feel it. But when it becomes sustained, and it continues to be in our face, and or those who are struggling, continue to come to us.

We sometimes want it or often want it to go away. We don't want it in front of us. Yeah, because we want that ease of testing. We see externally struggle. Others come to us and you can see they've got inner struggle.

You and I after him in the 90s, we were given advice up and down the country. And you know, we would finish a talk. We're supposed to come back down to London together. But we'd be up all night, right through to Fajr. And you and I would take it in turns right back down, because we saw there were individuals who will have an inner struggles will come to us and say, I'm having to struggle. I've got this problem.

Suicide, it's been one of the cases as well. And we were so concerned with them not blowing our own trumpet, but we've got what else can we do? Not saying that we were experienced and we had all of the experience in the world, but being there being present and showing Okay, do you know what we're here we're listening, we can only advise. But how many of us now give token catchphrase advice or slogan mystic statements to others who are clearly having inner struggles. Not only do we need to have the inner struggle ourselves, but we need to be sincere when we are aware of others have an inner struggle and really be there for them to hold their hand Metaphorically speaking, instead of

slogan mystic, have patient patients have suburb, it tequila pray these are all good things but they've become slogan mystic and before I hand back over to him so system Nilofer mentioned something and I want to show her She said that she's been waiting to get a good spouse and I was telling her to be patient with her children and everything. And sometimes she wishes she was dead and not alive and all I can say to you sister in law thank you for sharing that sharing this with our son and you every night you cry yourself to sleep watching us dead dead. Eman, fluctuates system, Lofa that's one thing we got to know concerning it in a struggle, okay? And I'm not saying

this is the case with you. But he man, as we were told by the promises, increases with obedience to Allah, it decreases with disobedience to Allah and I'm not saying that you're being disobedient to Allah, what I'm trying to encourage you on in this instance, my sister be alive. Awaken your heart, have that nasty low? Why am I striving to have the reproach and so striving to have that soldiers at peace? Be patient with what Allah has given you? Because that's your struggle at this particular point in time, and inshallah when the time is right, that individual will come to you if Allah decreed that for you. Just like some sisters and brothers who were married Ibrahim, you and I know

they used to come some used to come to study circle.

And they hadn't had children in 1012 1314 years. Yeah. But they embarked on the road of trust in Allah be impatient to scare to NAS, we haven't talked about that yet. purification of the soul, being patient with Allah's decree, knowing that Allah is placing this upon them. And he decreed this 50,000 years before the creation of the heavens and the earth is difficult. But this is the reality when we go back to the beginning of the Rahim, look at the truth of ourselves, about ourselves, and understand our heart, our soul, the challenges that are there, how to remedy those challenges. And when we start doing that, the inner struggle, which we all have to go to, and go through sorry, is

that we're embarking upon it, Allah is aware of that.

And Allah swore again, remember by nacinda Mwamba and if we are blaming ourselves, and we are striving and we're trying, Allah will give us a macro Watch out of the struggle that we're having in sha Allah.

Yeah, bro. I mean, just Sokoloff. I mean, you know, to, again to the sister, and I guess everybody else listening, let's go back to where we started. You know, this is the realm of tests. This is, you know, I think everyone in a way you you've got to, you see, the key to happiness is to stop looking for happiness. It's not the key. Well, why not one of the you know, one of the realities of finding happiness is you don't you can't find it.

And that's the paradox, you can't find happiness by looking for it. And very often, happiness is not ever where you think you're going to find it. And the moment you start looking for it, by definition, you're going to look in the wrong places. And so like, you have to ask yourself, Well, why do you want a husband? I mean, I tell my daughters. Yeah, I don't have what none of my daughters are married. Right?

And it's not that they're not, you know, it just really is the fact that there just doesn't seem to be any suitable guys out there. It's just that simple. Right? There are very, very few men who are really men and who have that, you know, ability to, you know, take risk. We've had these discussions over and over and over again of the heart, right, we on this show, it's probably been our number one biggest theme. But I say, you know, I have seen too much rubbish happening to many marriages, right.

And I say, You know what, look at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself this question. It of course, being married is fantastic. It's half your deen.

It's a beautiful thing I wouldn't want I wouldn't you know, I, of course, I've recommended and advise everyone to get married. But you have to think from the other perspective, right? Sometimes you wish for something so bad. And then when you have it, you realize, wait a minute, this is not what I want. I mean, you know, like, when you say you want to get married, like what, at any cost you someone else comes into your life, you now have to start making all sorts of compromises life changes, right? Things change, you have to be a different sort of person, you have to put on a different mask, you have to be a different you. Right, like we said already, just in this show. It's

it's a battle of egos not You're not only battling with your own ego, now you've got someone else's ego and someone else battling with their ego, right. And you have to navigate your way through that. So I mean, you know, it's not all, you know, marriage is just another test. Marriage is just another test. This is one of the things you know, when, you know, like, whenever I think about polygamy, I think, you know, you know, you obviously think, oh, that will be for a man from perspective, you think that will be fantastic, but I think, Do I have time for that? Do I have the energy for that? Do I have the time and the energy that it takes to invest in another human being to make their life

because that's what you have to that's what I look at marriage, as you know, the two of you are trying to make each other's lives better and improve each other. Right? And to give each other emotional, physical, spiritual support. That takes a lot of effort. I, you know, I struggled to do that for myself and my kids and my existing family, let alone taking on that additional responsibility.

You know, so it's just like, so many times we wish for things people, a lot of people wish for more money, right? But you find the more money you get, the more responsibility you have, the more difficulty it comes with. Right? You know, we underestimate and we don't appreciate the beauty.

You become even more fearful of losing that money.

Well, exactly. What you've said is absolutely true. And I think Octavia came with a very profound statement, which is so true. Happiness is the journey, not the destination. Absolutely. You know, and so when if we cannot be happy within ourselves, as individuals, and as you said, happiness is not the aim. But again, what Octavia has highlighted there.

If we look at everything, let's ponder for a moment in the struggle, we're talking about the inner struggle, but let's put it either way, listen, I have to say something broke. If you want to know what happiness is, it's exactly what Octavio said, is that what journey is it though it is embracing the inner struggle, that is what it is when you embrace the inner struggle, when you seek when you realize that what is truly going to give you a sense of fulfillment and purpose is you realizing that day by day, you have done something to make yourself a better human being you have improved yourself, you have come closer to Allah, you have done something for society, you have helped other

human beings, and you genuinely feel at the end of the day that this is what you have done. This is the real sense of accomplishment and purpose that will really actually make you feel profoundly at peace with yourself. And that's how you get to this. Yeah. Are you at home enough salvato my inner? This Oh, this soul that is at peace with yourself? Because you?

yourself? Right? Right. And

it's the actual battle, that battle that embracing that struggle? Right, that's gonna make you as had you know what?

practical sense. What you said is amazing, because you bought you spoke about the jihad and everything like that. Yeah. When you look back, I think you and I spoke about this not in the show. But when you look at the history of man.

And we look, for example, at those battles of old. Yeah. And you'll see that when conquests had been made, and there was no more war, and there was no more jihad. And you see in these movies, you see that the Warriors become complacent because I missed the battle. I was at my best then at about I was closest to death. And I wasn't the best I was at the peak of my senses of my health of everything. I miss my wife and my family more, and I wasn't the best. And then when they came back from the battle, they became fat. They became slovenly, they became neglectful. So I'm just reinforcing what you've just said there with regards to embracing the struggle and why some might be

saying, oh, isn't that a bit

masochistic, whatever the word is that I'm looking for, no, I'm looking here at the whole structure of the heart, the neffs, that the heedlessness the three stages of the soul, the diseases of the heart, and what can remedy those being in a state of mind yet the actions and kills to be safe from the disease, all of this, embrace all of this. And then abdur-rahim on top of what you were saying, in the evening. If we reflect,

and we resolve to not a new year resolution, but a daily resolution, we resolve to move away from some of the things that we slipped in, or we've done wrong, that we could do better, okay, and we make tolerable for that. We wake up the next day, with a resolve to be grateful to Allah, we go to bed, grateful to Allah because we've seen things he's allowed us to live that day, we wake up the next day, there are dua that we say in the evening or do all that we say in the morning, and we prepare ourselves with what we go to bed with the name of Allah, we wake up with the name of Allah, gratitude to Allah for going being able to survive that day, gratitude for Allah, to Allah for being

able to wake up that day. Let's reflect up the reading. There was I remember the statement and I shared this one thing, if we woke up tomorrow, with all the things that we thanked Allah for the day before,

what would they be? And I remember sharing this with people and

people.

We weren't we weren't if we woke up tomorrow, with everything we thank Allah for today. What would we let me say this up to him? We wouldn't have our site. We wouldn't have our hearing. We wouldn't have. We wouldn't have our faculties, we wouldn't have our limbs, we wouldn't have our partners we wouldn't have, we would have absolutely nothing because we wake up each day, not showing gratitude to Allah just by door and humbled

by the amount of Montana, what you lay here in the show, who's allowed us to wake up, we don't do it. Allah has given us the opportunity to do this every day, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam have taught us to do our even if we don't know that Arabic, we wake up, thank you, yo, Robbie, for me being able to get up to this day, and may it be one that's filled with blessings, just in English. Thank you, Robin, I've reached the evening, and that I've been able to maintain my prayers have food to eat, and I've got a homeless woman and a bed to sleep in that safe and secure. How many of us show that gratitude there, which is the crowning of the inner struggle, the embracing of the inner

struggle. So you've mentioned some, I always learned from you masala tubercle, even after all the years, you mentioned some profound things that can be translated into practical, daily regular

reality realities. And as I've said, resolution or revolution, being a Muslim today. Being upon the Sunnah today is revolutionary.

It's revolutionary abdur-rahim, because we're looking at what is happening globally.

And globally, we are seeing that pull to NASA and NASA Amara be sue the inclination, evil, it's been laid on a plate for us. And we're not being called to a NASA wham. O society saying to you like the age old, we go back in history with England and the church and it's the papacy and its dominance and calling the people back to their soul and reflect and repent and repent. That's gone a long, long time ago. hamdulillah Muslim societies, to an extent, are still focusing on particular aspects. Yes, there are other directional polls that are taking place before our eyes. But society now is not concerned with the higher self with you reach that tranquility of the soul. Because what it's doing

is giving you tranquil quality through barbiturates, opioids, drugs, alcohol, distractions, numbing of the soul numbing of the senses that can make you reach that nasally automatic inner

they're not even saying check yourself question yourself. No, they're saying we will be the ones we will purvey to you. What you should be focusing on your base desires you can go for and we will facilitate.

So being a Muslim I reiterate, being a Muslim today

is revolutionary.

Yeah, for sure, bro.

Well, just I don't know what else to say to add to that.

There's not much

we've been discussing. I think we've covered. Yeah, I mean, obviously, we can the subject, we could talk about a lot, a lot, a lot. But I mean, at the end of the day, it's better to leave people with a few key things to think about. And I think that I think ultimately, I love what you said. And I, to me, I always like like to leave people with something great to think about. And I think that what you said there, bro,

about if you woke up tomorrow, only with the things that you've been grateful

to Allah about today, what would you actually wake up with, because one of the really great ways to start this journey, and it is a journey, it's an inner is the inner journey, right? One of the great ways to start this journey, and you know, and to stay on, you know, it's one of the great things is gratitude, you know, develop an attitude of gratitude. And to reflect very, very deeply upon all the gifts that Allah has given you is one of the very, very great ways to become introspective is one of the great ways to begin to understand yourself to get to grips with yourself, because, yeah, this whole, this whole struggle, this whole inner struggle is a very difficult thing to do. And you need

actually lots of different strategies. Just like in war, you have different weapons, you have shields, you have swords, you have spears, you have bows, and arrows, you have like horses, cavalry, infantry, like you know, whatever, that's ancient warfare, Modern Warfare, unlimited, the same thing, you have so many different tools that you need in order to, but like, you know, this thing that you mentioned, is one of the most basic things it's like, it's like the rifle for the soldier, right? You know, like, it's a basic thing. You know, gratitude is literally probably one of the most basic things that we all need to start with. And like, just a simple exercise that everybody could

do is just sit down by yourself, and just think about all the things that Allah has given you, instead of SR Nilufer. Instead of thinking about the things that Allah hasn't given you and the things that you're missing in your life, instead of crying yourself to sleep, thinking about what you don't have, think about what you do have you have eyes, which you can cry with, right? Yeah, I think the sister has kids, you have kids, like you were saying, how many people are there who don't have kids for years and years and years, right? You have a bed to lie in which you can actually like, you know, like, so spend your time thinking about all the things that you have to be grateful

about thinking, think about more about what you've got, then about what you don't have, that's where you are really good. And remember that the source of all of these things, these gifts, which you can't count them, you can't count them, try counting the gifts is given you right? And don't just think about if you think about your site, right? Don't just think about your site, think about all the things that your site depends upon. Right? So don't just say yeah, I can see. Okay, but what allows me to see what are the things that allow me to have vision Well, it's also to do with the fact that you have a functioning brain what allows you to have a functioning brain Well, a beating

heart, right? What and you can go on and on and on until you realize that the rain that falls with the food that feeds you that you know all of these things all interconnected and these are all Allah's endless uncountable gifts

Wow, we have so much to be grateful to feel bro

Yeah, and I think we've what you've advised system loafing we spoken to her about, I'm not going to add too much to the system, the loafers o'clock here for sharing this with us you come on every you know what now also another blessing to be grateful for. You've seen other brothers and sisters speaking to you with you sharing things, and also the fact that everyone is viewing now life and maybe will view afterwards, if they make a dua for you.

If they make a dua for you, the DUA is the weapon of the believer. If we're making dua for each other, we have been Subhanallah we've been given so much, just on the

virtue of being Muslims. And I will say again, we are revolutionaries, brothers and sisters, in this time holding on to virtue, the inner struggle we are embarking upon, whilst we've got these challenges around us, but yeah, let's conclude on that point I made Now how many of us are going to go to bed thanking Allah for everything that innumerable innumerable blessings that we've got? Because when we wake up tomorrow, and we've acknowledged that tonight, we've got things to thank Allah for every single day.

Yep.

Zack.

Why? Yeah, I've been brilliant as usual. It's been a pleasure. It's been deep. It's been in

bought and and yeah

next time we'll have something else interesting we don't know we don't know what yet but we'll decide after it Yeah, it's good

each and every one for the contributions as always let's continue on in the struggles let's I hope that what we are doing what stream Islam are doing are helping us with that inner struggle. May Allah bless those that organizers of stream Islam because they're doing this tirelessly

Hassan in the background the various hours he has to work the sisters are involved in all of this. So we ask a lot of bless them for helping us.

Ladies to to help us with that in the struggles and we look forward to seeing you next week. This has been

a piece of cake with abdur-rahim and myself after the hack. I look forward to speaking to you next week in sha Allah