Ammar Alshukry – Friday Night Lights – Shukr & Giving Thanks With Sh Kamal El-Meki, Eissa Ibn Matta &
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the benefits of showing gratitude, avoiding distraction, and creating a positive environment. They also emphasize the importance of shaping one's behavior and setting boundaries, as well as the benefits of showing gratitude and embracing one's own limitations. The use of machine and machine making food and drink makes it more accessible and rewarding.
AI: Summary ©
defeater Greta
and myself and Charlotte Arusha, what do you do? We'll be back joining us next week as well. So, on the topic of
giving thanks,
giving thanks today and Charlotte out of the conversation is going to revolve around sugar. And sugar is, it's half of faith, it's half of iman. And it is,
you know, the province of a lie they said to them describes the affair of the believers to be amazing, as long as they're between gratitude, which is sugar, as well as endurance, perseverance, patience, which is similar. And this station is such an incredibly high station. And I just want to dump on the what the word itself means Shaka
linguistically comes from the, the concept of increase. So the Arabs they would say, a an animal, if it was fed little vegetation and it would become very fat, they would call that animal shockula It's something that gives more output than the input. And so that's going to have a lot of beautiful manifestation when we talk about the names of Allah subhana data being a shapcott initial code and things of that nature, but chocolates. Today we're not just going to be talking about gratitude towards Allah subhana data but gratitude towards individuals but I want to just open up the floor inshallah to begin with our beloved who started ASAP no matter if you have any preliminary thoughts
that you want to share on this topic.
Smell level hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah God, it's an honor to be back at click you know, I'm saying click is lit, man, I love it. We're all y'all. May Allah bless you all. Thanks for having me back. I guess we didn't do too bad. On the mimbar we didn't get any shoes tossed at us on the way great
to our brothers and sisters of all the places to be, this is the place to be so while everybody else is getting the discounts, you know for the dunya sha Allah you get in the increase in the payback in the hereafter. So may Allah reward you all love me. And we're calling tonight Black Friday Night Lights? Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine why.
But just preliminary thoughts on on Shakur as a concept and theme as check out mod, he put it very, very eloquently to put a little bit in and to get so much back. You know, our dean is a dean of shockcord. And shockcord is something that is good for the heart, good for the mind and good for the soul is good for your yourself in your relationship with Allah. But it's also beneficial in your relationships with others, it creates a complete person. So I look forward to diving deep into that conversation with you all today in sha Allah.
I actually forgot that it's Black Friday today. Of I've never been to Black Friday were cared much for it, really. But one year we went and, and we saw this, you know, it's not a place. I know the event, I need the idea of did you go to Walmart, where did you go? We went to Walmart and saw this huge line, you have to wait in line. Because the fire code, they can only let this many people in the building. Like I can't imagine a world where I would wait in that line. I don't care what's for how much I just cannot. I'm not like everybody's different. So you know, if you've never camped out for a new iPad, Oh, my I couldn't care less. I don't understand. But we will camp out for to be the
first ones to watch a movie or camp out to go to a sport. I don't understand that. But I don't know. I just thought it's just funny that people go fighting over the discounts. I don't know, everyone's different if you guys love that, if somebody loves it, there's nothing Islamically wrong with that stuff. But I just can't find myself fighting over people and pushing people out of the way because there's a discount on something. They're just making little or a ticket for the dunya you know, it's just low low camp, you know, saying different different type of Earth decaf. So, you know, let me tell you something.
So I always say that I lived around the world. And then so Europe, Asia, Africa, and then came to North America. And when I first came here, I would be offended when someone who told me something is for free. Like I'd be very offended. Like you want a t shirt for free. Just stare out front of them. No, thank you. Because it's like we have money. I don't need your freebies. I don't need your handout.
So discount no discount free like I couldn't care less. I've never stood in line for anything like that have never stood in line for anything free. I don't care what's for free, free cars. I'm not going to stand in line. GMan. Meanwhile we're over here saying if it's free, give me three.
So the concept of shellcode
a lot of times
famously, people
they think of the verse named Sheikh Abdullah as either no come if you show gratitude to Allah subhanaw taala. Or if you show gratitude to me, I will increase you. So just, I'm just gonna, one of the greatest benefits of sugar, just off the top is that it solves one of the problems that people stress the most about, which is headset, another nozzle. Because headset is defined as Temen NIZO add a NEMA. It is to desire for a person's blessing to be removed, and people are so worried about that. But if Allah subhanaw taala, he promises and he says that if you show gratitude, I will increase you. And so sugarcoat it becomes this fortress, this impenetrable fortress from has it and
so a way for you to protect the blessing that you have is to show gratitude to Allah subhanaw taala for that blessing, the question then becomes how do you show gratitude for a blessing? Like how do you show gratitude for
wealth? How do you show gratitude for health? How do you show gratitude for whatever it is that a person has?
Maybe even a little before that there's this issue of
recognizing the blessings of Allah, like if I you know, if we go around the room and say, Okay, what are you thankful for, and people will say, good health, a home, a family, being able to eat and you know, have whatever number of meals per day, then eyesight and sometimes we go to the hospital, you see someone you know, missing an arm or leg, thank Allah for being complete. But there are so many blessings that are in our life that we just take for granted. And we never even recognize them or categorize them as blessings. And due to that, we never thanked Allah azza wa jal for them. You know, like always give examples. And you've probably heard me say them too many times now, but like
for example, having good teeth, like how many people actually thanked Allah for their teeth. So not just nice, straight, clean teeth, shiny teeth. thank Allah for that, but just the fact that you have teeth and I always say when one of them gives you a toothache, you know what that feels like? Right? Someone stuck a knife in your head. You rush to the dentist and you pay him money and he yanks it out of your head and throws it in the trash can and you thank him. But how about all the times they never cause you any pain and you're grinding lamb beef, chicken kabobs and just destroying night and day and they never cause you any pain but who stops and thank thanks Allah Israel for having good
teeth, or good hair or full head of hair or good skin or for the AC in your car or for the heat heater in your car. If you're in a cold climate, you just get in you start to turn AC on colors. Whoever stopped in thank Allah azza wa jal for the AC there's so many things around this they're actually great blessings and we never categorize them as bussing. So we might spend our entire life and not once thank Allah azza wa jal for and that's what Allah He painful and that's shameful that there's so many blessings. Number one, we couldn't count them what internal diameter hola hola Tosa and two if we start counting there, things will never count. If doctors in here can tell you.
There's so many things that are happening inside your body that are great blessings. I'll just give you one example. Your kidneys. They they reabsorb liquid from the blood. They said if your kidneys didn't do this reabsorption, you would have to drink a bathtub of water every single day. Yes. Can you imagine what size water coolers would be like what size cups and just all day your bathtub all day? So how can I ever What if I never knew this information? I'll just go through life with my good kidneys and never once think Allah as of yet for that. So that's why the truth is you can never think Allah azza wa jal enough, never thank him enough. And then of course, one other category
that's impossible to count would be all the potential bad things that could have happened to you. How many possible car accidents could you have gotten into? How many possible you know when you slip? But you never you almost fall but you don't. And sometimes you fall but you don't break a bone and it's just how can I thank Allah for all the don't even get started on your kids? How many times they were protected a fall, right? And you're like, Oh, the kid gets up. So absolutely. That's the first thing is like, how can we thank Allah subhanaw taala enough and you know, go into shock armadas question like you know, the question of how does the person show shocker, it's, it's not
disobey Allah subhanaw taala with the blessings that he's given you, and many of us
kind of struggle with this like, the same way you could go in as many directions as humanly possible, showing gratitude to Allah with the blessings that he's given you like your body, for example, or even these little devices made out of glass and plastic. Think of all the good things you could do in a day with a smartphone.
Similarly, you can go a million other directions and
million ways in the opposite direction, showing gratitude to Allah with this little black hole of evil, you know, this little, this little smartphone. And so, gratitude is interesting because we as human beings, we have the infinite possibilities of the ever present moment right now I could stand up, I could stay seated, I could flip my phone, I could drink the water, I could pour it on. Well, I wouldn't Of course, yeah. But you can do anything right now. So every time you take a moment to show gratitude, that's a choice that you make, right? But inversely, every time you take a moment to not be grateful, it's also a choice that you make. And that is kind of the dichotomy of the believer,
right? Being patient in the face of adversity and saying that hamdulillah but then, of course, whenever you can recognize those blessings in your life, saying, humbly line showing that show could as well.
I had a friend of mine who taught me basically, that lesson of gratitude when we were like
17 years old. He was the first kid in the group to get a car.
And so he automatically became the coolest kid in the group. And he started driving, he might have been 18. He started driving and picking up kids to take them to fidget. So if I did that, for 30, he would pick up other high school kids and he would take him to fidget. And this was his first time in his life, that he was actually praying if I did in the midst of such a big deal for him, that he was praying for it in the masjid. Or that he prayed for it in the midst of that one day, that Friday morning, and we had a youth headlock on Friday night. And so he was just sharing, and he was telling us about the effect that praying faded in the mustard had in him, he was so thankful. And he said,
you know, for the rest of the day, like he would get into the car and he started listening to music. And then he turned it off and be like, I prayed for you in the mystery that can't be listening to music. And then he'd be talking to a kid and they start cursing and
then he would stop cursing, and he would be like, I can't be cursed. And I prayed for him in the masjid. And so that fed you had had such a like he showed such gratitude to Allah subhanaw taala for that spiritual gift, because a lot of times we don't pay attention to spiritual blessings. Even then we're still talking about material blessings, but you being able to pray Aisha, just now in Gemma is a blessing a person being able to memorize a sword, a person learning something new a person being able to do something, these are all spiritual blessings that if you show gratitude, Allah subhanaw taala will increase you. And so he then Allah says it metal IRA that will the chakra Allah says oh
family of doubt, do gratitude. Do gratitude. And that's, that's the lesson that I learned as far as how gratitude is to be done.
You know, when you were saying that, you know, so Allah bless them with this car, and then you sit there and listen to music, right? So what's what the scholars said about how they said whenever you disobey Allah azza wa jal, you're actually using a blessing that he has given you to disobey Him. Yes. And it's just always that way, like anytime you disobey Allah azza wa jal, you're using a blessing he gave you to disobey Him. But it shows you there are many lessons one of them also is how merciful Allah subhanaw taala is, if you were giving someone money every month, and they use all that money to put an ad in the paper against you and your business, for example, would you keep
giving him but you know, someone who will sin against Allah azza wa jal, and he doesn't wake up blind in the morning. He doesn't his house doesn't burn overnight, his businesses don't collapse overnight. Allah subhanaw taala so merciful, that we keep sinning against him with blessings that He gave us. And that's why the scholar said, Have you ever seen a blind man looking at something haram or a deaf person that's eavesdropping on folks? Or someone whose mute backbiting or telling lies it's only the one who has these great blessings and these blessings in particular you couldn't put a price on but yet you use them to disobey Allah subhanaw taala you know, brothers and sisters, I've
come It's my second time on Friday Night Lights. I noticed nobody nobody writes writes anything down. Can I encourage you just just for a moment because you're going to hear a lot of gems inshallah. Typically, when you sit and you listen to a talk and you hear some stuff, maybe you remember it, maybe you don't, but I want to give you something in sha Allah so that you show a little bit of sugar with this little piece of glass and plastic that distracts us for most of the day in sha Allah. If you have a notepad just taking note of a few I had some of which are, Michelle actually mentioned? The first is is Surah T Ali Imran chapter three verse 145. Allah subhanaw taala
promises to reward the people who show sugar to him. Isaiah JELA chapter three verse number.
Zack love Hey guys, see you in the back with Allah. Okay, then we have the verse in Surah T. Nisa chapter four verse 147. Or, and this is after talking to them on Nafa Kanan describing their attributes and things like this. Allah says that he has to punish you if you're grateful to him and if you believe in him Subhanallah
The terracotta. So the benefits of belief in Allah, it has to come with Shakur. I mean, what need does Allah have to punish you and look at you can't you cannot even disobey Allah unless you use something that he gave you as a means of disobeying him, right?
I have a story with that verse, no chapter. I don't know what verse number seven. I'll tell you that it's the last verse on the last page of the fifth juice. Okay.
That's the bottom of 101. But I remember being in taraweeh.
And so it's sort of a nice, and the chef was reciting, and a master for reciter and he was just taking us through these emotional heartstrings. Surah Nisa has some of the most vivid descriptions of the Hellfire, Allah says Kula mana, Lita, julio de hombre de nom Judah Leila Hadiya goupil adopted every time their skin is roasted, we replaced them with new skin that the taste the punishment in them were not filthy and if it did kill us very mean and now that the health of the hypocrites are in the lowest portion of the fire and I remember thinking to myself like in the Salah, this is intense, right? And it gets more intense when your thoughts are responded to in the
Salah itself. And so as I'm having that conversation with myself in the Salah, the last verse of that night.
My if Allah Allahu Allah become in Chicago,
what does Allah subhanaw taala what will Allah do with your
with punishing you, if you showed gratitude, and if you like, what kind of Allah who Shackelton Idema and Allah subhanho wa Taala himself is Shakir.
I don't want to translate it as grateful. But Allah subhana data increases Allah subhanaw taala response to your actions. And he's, this pairing is so beautiful that he is shocked at and he's ID these get paired together because there are a lot of people who are shocking, but they're not alien. And there are a lot of people who are I mean, they're not shocking. So there are a lot of people who are knowledgeable, like they'll notice everything that you do, they'll walk in, and they'll scan the room. And they'll notice that you put in so much effort in whatever it is that you put together. And they won't compliment you for it. They won't thank you for it, they won't.
Now, of course, the famous example of that as the husband, right, he walks in, and he gets the dreaded question, notice anything different.
He's looking and He's scanning the room and he's just kind of
a shot in the dark at the attorney says, you know, you change the curtains and she's like, No, I changed my hair. Right? She
was like, Well, what color was it before?
Like something like that? I then you have some people who are, are shacket they're there. They're they're Eileen, they will notice everything but they don't show appreciation. And so when Allah subhanaw taala combines both. It communicates to us because this is one of the really beautiful things that that name of allah shack it inspires, is that don't belittle any good deed that you can do. A lot of times what we do is unnoticed most of the time what we do is unnoticed, go and interview any parent teacher and they'll tell you that there's no way that their kids could ever, ever, ever even the most aware of them. There's no way that they could know what they've put in for
them. But Allah Subhana Allah knows, Allah is shocking and ALLAH SubhanA thought is I knew
you know?
So the scholar said that if someone is thankful to Allah azza wa jal, they will have a number of characteristics and they all make sense. So they said the first thing if you recognize that or if you realize all the blessings come to you from Allah subhanaw taala The first thing is you will naturally submit to Allah azza wa jal. So this this is not a foreign concept to us, like you, let's say you're at work and your boss says, we're going to do this and you don't agree. So you show you know your disagreement, you show your opinion, but he insisted so this is what we're gonna do. I'm the boss, what do you do? You do it? Why do you submit to this person? Part of it like if we get all
you know, very basic here, part of is that you recognize your that your salary and your provision at least is part of it is linked to this individual. And because he's the boss and he provides you gives you money, you submit to him what he learned methyl Allah, we don't compare a lot to his creation. But when you are aware of the fact that everything you have in your life comes to you from Allah subhanaw taala. And then Allah azza wa jal asks you to do something, naturally, if you're aware of that you submit immediately. So they said submission to Allah subhanaw taala. Then they said, when you're aware that a blessing comes to you from Allah and every good you have comes from
Allah, you naturally love Allah azza wa jal. Like if you had a friend like that, once said, If you had a friend every time they turned to you, they gave you $100 Even if they turn twice to give you 200 You're gonna start coming in front of their way right? And you're gonna naturally love this person a lot. So they said naturally, you will love Allah azza wa jal and then they said, if you will
Allah subhanaw taala you will make the case of Allah. And that's just, if we look at those who love real estate, talk about houses in real estate, those who love cars, those were vegan. Those were what do they talk about? Green Grass, not meat, leaves and stuff. Those who love you know, sometimes, you know, you know, have different interests. I sit with people who love cryptocurrency and they're talking about Bitcoin and Dogecoin. And and just whatever, right? Or sports can stand sports when people talk about this running back and this quarterback, I don't even know what that means. And but when you love something, you talk about it. Right? So they said, if you love Allah
azza wa jal, you will constantly make a decree of Allah subhanaw taala you're constantly making mention of Allah. Then they said number four, that you recognize that the blessing comes to you from Allah subhanaw taala there's some people, no, this is my hard work, or this is my effort or this as my this or that my ingenuity might know. It's actually Allah subhanaw taala because he could just remove you, and another person could have been that person who did what you have done and what have you. So and then they said, so submission, and then they said, using the blessing in obedience of Allah. Yes. That's someone who's grateful. Allah gives you wealth, you use that wealth in obedience
of Allah, Allah gives you health use that health and obedience of Allah azza wa jal. And then the last thing, some scholars added the sixth one, and they said, If a blessing comes to you, by way of another human being, then you should show gratitude to that human being. And that's just the basic o'clock right? And you were mentioning this hadith a couple of times in the hotbar today, and that's when the porcelain said my name, use your score and NAS, let me ask Allah, the One who does not show gratitude to people does not show gratitude to Allah. So how do I show gratitude to someone? I mean, obviously, there is the basic Thank you just appreciating and thanking them no matter what it is.
And then of course button the higher part the problem said monsoon in LA Hema roof, whoever has someone do some does something good to you for call Khalifa Le he desert Allahu hyaluron. For a block of Athena, when you say Jazak, Allah will fit onto someone. This is not an Islamic flavor that was sprinkled because I can look at exactly when you say that, that you have given them their due praise and full praise. So those are those those six shall have a seventh one.
A person will reach a level of gratitude where when they see somebody else do something amazing. They show gratitude to Allah for it. So I have a friend who, every time he posts something amazing online, just a random video could be some crazy dunk or just you know, just anything amazing. His caption is always Allah is amazing. And you might look and be like, Well, what does like okay, this guy is doing a crazy dunk, but he's showing this level of gratitude where a person begins to see through everyone and everything and see behind them. Allah subhanaw taala says they see in that incredible athlete, they're not impressed by the athlete. They see that that is a reflection of
Allah subhanaw taala this power. So in Surah number one today, man it is Salaam has the throne of the Queen of Sheba brought to him in a moment in the blink of an eye. 98 99% of us would be amazed at that guy be like, dude, how'd you do that? What does Sudan when it said, I'm sorry. He says Hi, them in the lobby, the abalone Ashura. McFaul says this is from the bounty of my Lord.
To test me am I going to show gratitude or am I going to show in gratitude? I'm in Chicago for in America Romina Siegelman cafe neurobion Yun, Kareem. And so whoever shows gratitude and it only benefits themselves that it's for themselves, but he sees behind this incredible feat. The power of the Lord who gave that man the ability you know this
this this concept of gratitude is something that goes really really deep even on a psychological level.
Everybody who takes like General Psychology, one of the first things you learn is Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right? And as you get to the top of the pyramid, who knows what's at the top of the pyramid?
self actualization. So yeah, I didn't get the system patch where they added one more thing on top of the thing right there. Self transcendence now. So self actualization where, okay, I have my job, I have my life, I've achieved my goals, I've reached my dreams, I've actualized and maximized myself. But then what goes above that, in terms of just your hierarchy of needs, what you need to do after you become your ideal self is then to transcend that. And that comes in the form of acknowledging something greater than yourself, whether it be religious values, belief in the afterlife, things like this. So everything in our deen is always pointing us to look at something more than that even
you know whenever our
Chuck Ahmad was mentioning earlier how fearful people are of hustle and grind and another you know, all of these different things and Subhanallah what's an immediate cure? Just be grateful for the things that you have that show could becomes a protection against someone else wishing that you did not have it. Right. Or even just thinking about a kidney. I never think about my kidneys like that shake Are you gonna lie? Like,
which side is it on?
Yeah. Oh, to allow Aqua Lola
and not med school is it? That's what that looks like. Right. So. So Hala, it's just a it's just really amazing. I'm gonna go back to smartphones again, right? Because there's so many things that we look at in a day that kind of makes us turn our brain off to just being present. And without being present. You can't really show gratitude to anything. You're looking at these things on your phone or you even see people like mashallah, mashallah with your eye in full field mashallah you just looking at everything mashallah and not seeing that some people hit with both eyes Oh, yeah. Oh the double the double eyed mashallah, mashallah Watson
can around here earliest check kid was like
I had a skid mark on the top of us like men, that thing came out so fast, Nick the top of issues.
And so some sugar, the stain is still there. But so. So, when it comes to the these, these distractions, right, we have to acknowledge that being distracted makes it hard for us to be grateful for the things that are present in our lives. You know, we really cannot enforce enough how important it is to take something like this $700 or $1,000 device or you iPhone, mashallah we're gonna get down to later. But whatever, whatever your persuasion is, by way of handheld technology, you have to be willing to acknowledge that between the top talks and tick ticks on tick tock, it's easy to just be so consumed with everything else, you're not looking at the only things that you
have in your life, the endless scrolling through everyone else's happiness, and being critical of all the things that you have reason to not be happy for someone else's beauty, someone else's perfect wedding, someone else's perfect children, someone else's Perfect, perfect, right? The perception of it being perfect. And then looking at everything, you have your lens of criticality, it feels the ingratitude that takes away from the spirit of gratitude, and it really does dead in the heart and ungrateful heart is most certainly a hard one and a dead one, we ask Allah to give our hearts alive. The province of Elijah Sydenham said, Muslim, he says, envelope 11 Who is farming?
Come look at those who have less than you and don't look at those who have more than you. Because it'll be make you more inclined that lettuce, that only amatola idea that you don't reject the favors of God upon you. Yes. And so if you're always looking at those, those very, very, very, very few who have more than you and you don't look at those billions of people, literally billions of people who have less, then it becomes a lot easier to be ungrateful, but not only that, she'll come. I'd mentioned AC at the beginning. So if you were to take it beyond just everybody who's living in 2021, and then you look back at everybody who's ever lived, if you were to go back in time to be
Cleopatra, or Caesar or Mansa Musa or whatever, it would be a downgrade to your lifestyle. Yes.
Because there'd be no AC there'd be no Netflix there'd be no cars, there'd be no Wi Fi there'd be right.
It might be an upgrade action. Mansa Musa
Mansa Musa All right, look, let's go back to the title, you know, it's called, I have nothing to wear. One thing that I'm very grateful for in my life is actually living in different parts of the world. I'm very grateful for that. And that's why I can go to any part in the world. And I can view the culture and behavior as an outsider, which is very important because when you're just in it, you don't kind of see what's wrong. Look, everywhere. I've been in the world and I've been to 60 countries or more, more than 60 countries, all right. We would see your clothes, there'll be in a cupboard you open the door, and you have shelves and they are your clothes. I had never seen a walk
in closet before I come to came to America. Like you have this thing, you open it and your whole body fits inside and you're just surrounded with hanging clothes. And then you look at all of them.
I've got nothing to wear.
You know?
Look, you know clothes are cheap here. So we just get used to I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna accuse all of us of not valuing things, but I know I had a friend. He said he when he was in college he had a mountain of of socks like this in his room from the ground.
He said I never washed socks. I didn't have time. It's three bucks for 12 socks. I would always buy new socks and just throw them. And after a while Carla's trash Oh, am I gonna watch socks? That's a weird flex. That is a weird flex. What is flex?
will give the tip we'll have this later. It's a way to show off. Oh, okay, okay. Oh, God, God, I'm asking for those uncle's in the audience. So they know.
Well, like Yeah. You know, look,
I'm you know we're supposed to be look, I mean, I don't know, let me just just bear with me. Okay. And just don't be too sensitive about this. Okay, but we're just so picky. We're so spoiled, that we don't even notice it. Like we want to complain about everything, everything, especially food, restaurant food, oh, there's this in it and that the corner is brown a little bit. When you call the manager out of the sticky. We want to rate everything. I know I said this in one of the Friday Night Lights. And I'll say it again. The Kaaba has a lower rating on Yelp. Because somebody felt that they gave the cowboy four stars out of five. And they complained in the bottom they said this place is
crowded there are too many people where
we are like that, you know Suharto, this, this is inside if
there was a very big conference Muslim conference in India. I'm not gonna give any clues. Peace.
Okay. And the speakers came from North America. And at the end, the guy who is in charge of the conference, doctrines of Hanoi. He said,
Okay, what's the feedback? Here's the feedback from North America. Mashallah, if there was too much traffic, I was just talking to Cory the whole time. He said you came to India, what did you expect? What did you expect that it's India, it's crowded. It's the kava, it's crowded. But we're just so spoiled now. We throw away like crazy, we buy so much we throw away our food, there was a really nice book called 10 years. And the melting pot is this is Chinese guy who came to to study in America. And he's talking about, he's viewing it through the lens of Chinese culture. And he's just talking about how wasteful people are in China. You buy the food for that day. And we cook it and we
eat it. Like we don't have a fridge where we store extra, extra then then after a few a few months, you clean it up you find green cheese and moldy this and chicken dried up. And we're just so used to the wastefulness like some of you are listening to me, you're like, No, I don't think we're wasteful, because you're so used to it. But most of you're agreeing with me write
you know,
there is an analogy, like on, on how something that should be a source of like, blessing in your life that you can appreciate, and look to and say, Alhamdulillah for this, with just the wrong mindset, and just the misuse of it can immediately become like a source of anxiety, for example, I have nothing to wear, you know, most people statistically only wear about 30% of their wardrobe. Right? You could downsize most of your wardrobe and, and still have things that you may never ever wear regularly, right.
But so now this source of blessing becomes a source of stress, because your mom comes in your room and finds that you're living out of a pile of clothes on the floor. You know, and so now this thing that there are a lot of people in the world that don't have the luxury of changing their clothes, wearing different things, every day, every other day, whatever. And so now laundry, it's like so many first world problems, you know, essentially, and these types of self manufactured stressors is essentially like taking a cup of water and an analogy we gave earlier. And taking a sip and saying humbly love for a cup of water.
This cup is so heavy. The handle isn't very comfortable. It's like you eventually the blessing that you have in your hand if you hold it long enough. You're like, can someone hold this like you began to complain about this very same thing. I appreciate that you're doing the white accent by the way.
Racial appropriation. Yes. Black Friday, I just want to
extend the conversation to
thanking people, showing gratitude to people. So this verse or Allah subhana data says if you show gratitude, then I will increase you.
I found that it applies 100% perfectly with people as well. That if you show gratitude to people, they will increase you in whatever it is that you showed gratitude to them for. So back to high school. I come home one day and I know my mom's
I know her menu like I know what she makes on what she doesn't make.
And so one day I find a plate of stuffed vegetables we call it Mashi.
And it's just amazing, right? It's just an amazing plate. And so I asked my mom I said who made this and she says, you know your auntie so and so? Hot dog food Anna, so I go, okay, cool. Call right now.
Call right now for what just call her. So then I call her.
And she's like, a model wants to talk to you. So now I call Monty. I just wanted to let you know that this Mashie that you made is unbelievable.
And you know what an auntie is gonna say before he even tasted it? No, I ate it already destroyed it. But she's like, she's like, you know, the auntie, of course you call her and say it was unbelievable. Like all that. I just made that like last minute. Next time. I'll make you real money. That's what she said to me. But I took like two minutes to thank this lady for a dish. What have I now secured for myself? Massey for a year, at least.
At least until today. Until today, if you find out that I'm in town, she'd be like, how long are you staying? I'm going to make you that much you that you love. Right? If you show it just it's just about showing gratitude to people. And so what I've learned in customer service, if I go like, you know, to HEB or whatever, even I was just in Shipley's donuts wasn't Shipley's. It was. It's the anyway. So one of these guys, and the guy was really friendly, really friendly, like amazing. So I just took a moment to say, you know, what you're, you're, I really appreciate how you handle customers, and how welcome you are and things like that. And then you will find them doing all sorts
of extra stuff for you. Yeah, they just love it. Because it's, it's just human nature. If you show gratitude, they'll increase you.
You know, I learned this from a professor of mine, he was wasn't even Muslim. But he was talking about praising people and showing gratitude. He said that he was at a grocery store, and there was this little child who wanted to eat something. And then the mother handled her in a very good way, you know, and the way she controlled the child and told her how, you know, they'll get something else, whatever, later. So he said, I just took a moment. And I said, You know what it was really, I really liked how you handled that child. That's excellent parenting, he just made her day by praising her like that. And
we used to have this guy who used to live in this apartment building. And this brother, he loves tea. But man, he gives massages.
Greater give him massages. So we we prepare the T and we'd call them like, Hey, we got t when he comes up, we're on my roommate, and I err on the ground. Like, start here first. My other roommate would tell him, how come you give command longer massages, and you give me and there was a there was a little secret, like my room. It just stays quiet. And this guy massages him. But when he's doing me, I'm like, unbelievable. Where did you learn this? I can't believe this. Yes. Do you have magical fingers? Yeah, yeah. He's like, then when they told me, you know, I keep doing no more for you, because you make me feel good. So it's not mushy. It's a mushy theory, you know, Subhan Allah, you
know, for those of you who are taking notes, and it is even like, gratitude in the smallest form is mentioned in the hadith of Jabba de la Ron collected by a nobleman sore at daily me and his most net, that if you're not grateful for Allah in the little things, then you won't be grateful in the bigger thing. So even something as simple as going to a store, being able to pay for something and the whole process of getting there safely, going back safely. Like we're not telling you to have infallible intellect and to play 90 chess with every single moment, no person is perfectly capable of doing that 100% of the time, and Allah knows this. And shacket extra cord is even grateful for
the little bit that you do in those moments. But think about it. You have these amazing human resources. And then I just came here from Dallas this morning, just chillin, I'm dilla. But they're sitting here and they're sharing you with you all of these things. A little bit of sugar goes a long way you show gratitude in this moment to be able to learn something, just write it down. I'll go back, I'll reflect on this. I'll share this with some with someone else. The dividends that pays out from that moment, it really does go very, very far. So you know, Sheikh Ahmad, he keeps making reference to the verses to the to the Ebrahim chapter 14, verse number seven, keep that in your
front pocket, go look at it, sometimes he'll see the dividends of it on the Day of Judgment. It's a form of showing Shakur even in the absence of a person saying exactly well credit for that reminder later, or even the verse in the same sort of chapter 14, verse number 34, you tried to count the single Namur of Allah, even the one of your kidneys in sha Allah, all three of them as 2302 of them in sha Allah, you'll never be able to count the single natm Just go on and on and on with that and thinking the human resources that you have access to all the time. If I may go on to live just a little bit. It's a little bit every time we travel somewhere, everyone is always you know, unless
you give like horrible hotbar a
You read in different Kabbalah and people think that you've messed up you know things like this in the Salah everyone is always very very happy to see you even I'm sure the brothers you know who traveled with us in row but the shout out to y'all may Allah reward just located you know the everyone is always happy to see oh Masha Allah said
these people here all the time if only you gave them that little bit of extra you know whatever you see them to to show them that you're just as happy sometimes people they go out of your way out of their way to ask you a question you walked by these people who know the answer better than even the one you're asking just a little bit of sugar with the human resources you have in your life go a long way in the amount of benefit that you can take from them as well. Your beautiful facility in the in the amazing people that you have inside of it. That sugar it goes a long way both in the masjid both with the etiquettes of the people of knowledge, but also with your family. You know,
many of the brothers I'm gonna shout I'm going a little bit about the brothers mashallah the brothers all want to get married. May Allah give us righteous pious spouses a love man may make it easy. I mean, as soon as I mean y'all drop me
the door. I know that means okay, I mean for me just Sokoloff in it now. So So saying that to say like, but you don't treat your mom well.
But you'll be happy to have someone who does. He's waiting for his wife bro to wake them up for Fudger Yes, it is mom, man she gets on my nerves man. There's just you know, a
little bit of sugar for the woman that you already have in your life will make room will increase you for the one that you're looking for in sha Allah. A lot to be said about that. Right Abdullah?
So
we're talking about thanking Allah azza wa jal and what happens when you thank Allah right? A lot has been said in the Quran dinero boom, that inshallah cartoon net as either Naco Well, I think of Otto Inada Villa Shetty. So Allah azza wa jal says, Your Lord has decreed that if you are thankful, I will increase you. Well in convert them here convert to means if you're ungrateful, My punishment is most severe. So we see from the verse that when you think Allah azza wa jal, the blessing increases, that and the blessing remains with you. Because they said, the scholar said, if you don't think Allah azza wa jal, you put yourself at risk of losing the blessing. And if you use it in his
disobedience, you put yourself at risk of losing the blessing. So if I thank Allah azza wa jal, he keeps it firm. And if I think Allah is real, He increases it. That means thanking Allah, something that increases your blessing and keeps your blessing that means thanking Allah is itself a blessing. That's why there is another statement from the Prophet though darlin, Salah, he said, Robbie, he said, Oh my Lord, how can I thank you enough, when thanking you is itself a blessing? He's saying, How can I thank you enough for your blessings, when I thank you, thanking you itself is a blessing that is deserving of thanks. So you thank Allah for your blessing, but that's a blessing. So thank
Allah for that blessing. And then you have to thank Allah for that. So how can we ever think Allah subhanaw taala enough? It's a really powerful thought, you know, the only way you can do that is by Allah's assistance. And so you ask Allah after the Salah, say Allahumma Kenyatta, Rica, we're sure Kritika was never that IC. O Allah assist me, assist me that's the key to remember you, which leads to showing gratitude to you and then if you show gratitude to Allah subhana data he will increase you which will lead you to be to have that momentum of worshipping Allah subhanaw taala beautifully, like it pushes you off and then the momentum carries you in trouble. Omar Abdulaziz Rahim Allah has
to say by you Do you do any tie down keep firm? Now I'm Allah, the blessings of Allah be sure Cranleigh. You want to tie down a blessing so it doesn't leave you thank Allah that's how you tie it down, you know, and Alibaba told him had something similar like that. And he says, following a limousine man, Allah Hatha and Katya a chakra, that Allah will not stop increasing you until you stop thanking him.
So, what are practical ways to increase gratitude? So this is all great, but how do i You mentioned disconnecting, removing yourself from distracting a distraction? Is there like any particular practices that you would encourage? You know, fasting is one of the greatest ways to to really be appreciative to Allah for all of the things that you willfully choose to abstain from for the sake of Allah. You know, the concept of cm in and of itself is is abstention some is abstention it's to leave something willfully. And when you take that first sip of water, and when you eat that day to you break your fast and you have your if taught Subhanallah food, it just hits different like it
just on a completely different level. Now fasting obviously this
Just a way of fasting, you know, from sunrise to sunset has its place and it's something that we should all do. We're prescribed to do it twice a week. And you know, people say, oh, you know, we fast in Ramadan to remember the poor will, like, the poor don't have a choice whenever they get to eat, you know, so we're not really being like people the poor have to fast to Whoa, I mean, they have to now I'm Ramadan, right? Best we can break our fast outside, like at our leisure with what we want, you know, we have more luxury than that firstworldproblems again, right. But beyond that type of fasting, right? The shutter a fasting, I would say that like fasting from your phone fasting from
TV, fasting from all of these things that distract you like, and even fasting from your room, we, you know, mashallah have many influences, communities, 3000 square foot 4000 square foot homes, and you still live in a little cell, you have all the square footage, but you're still in a little cell, how about leave your room and just sit in the space with your family, just out of gratitude.
You can hear me now, okay, just out of a little bit of gratitude, you know, fasting from isolation, and just taking that time, or even going out of your way to just this off, and leave it alone for a little bit and just reflect on on other than whatever is being forced in your feed job. You know, I was in Bahrain. And this, this older gentleman, he was telling me something about what his children do. It just got me thinking in a different way. He said, You know, my sons, they will turn the AC really low, make it really cold in the room. And then they would get under a thick blanket and cover themselves up
with oil do that. But it just got me thinking like, so why am I making the room so cold if I'm going to be under a really thick blanket. And I've seen people that have the room really hot in the winter. And then they turn the fan on because it's too hot.
You know, but it's just part of, there are many things that are just related to, you know, the ease of life and wealth and resources, where if you were in a place with with few resources, you would never do something wasteful like that. Turn the AC on full blast and go under two blankets. But how about this, turn the AC off. And just no blanket heavy. That's when you're poor. That's how you think. But now here is everything's easy. So we don't think about that and wastefulness comes with just becomes a part of our life. You know, we don't want to waste food. So it's different. You don't want to waste food. So you finish everything on your plate. I remember one time sharing with with a
mineral himolla. And he was they asked him sometimes you eat and there's a little bit left that you kind of fold. You could really stuff yourself with that little bit or throw it away. And the chef was it was he sounded like this was the most serious thing ever said never ever fill your stomach. Don't ever do that. Even if you throw it in the trash. Don't ever feel your stomach because we have Hadith against that. But we don't have a hadith against you know, if you can't finish the food, you put it aside that goes back. We don't have a hadith on that. And I remember I said that one time and this brother got upset with me. It was Ramadan reminder. He got upset. He's like, Why throw it away?
You know? So I mean, anyways, I don't want to get into different categories. You take it home. And then what? Some people like me when you take home food home from the restaurant, next morning, you wake up happy. You're like, Oh, I got that leftover steak and I go hate it. I eat it for breakfast. Yeah. And some people they don't want to throw it away because they're not wasteful people. They take it put it in the fridge, put in the back of the fridge. And then two months later guess what they do with it? Throw it away. All they did is just delay throwing it away. You know? But you know the even adding to this
answering was sure Hamada had mentioned about okay, what are the ways we shook her so abstention kind of like a deficit of the void of something and then it can increase your your appreciation, right? Like fasting from food and drink and everything that comes with CME makes you appreciate when you finally get to break your fast right and Ramadan and outside of it. But also understanding with the names and attributes of Allah subhanaw taala as Shaq it is your cool, you can never do enough shoot. So you should always do more. You can never truly do enough so you should always do more. Nothing you're going to do in this dunya and this temporary space is ever going to be worth a single
anything and Jana, Yet Allah will take the smallest thing you do the smallest remembrance and trees will be planted for you and Jenna mansions will be built for you in Jannah. All of this real estate in the hereafter is being laid for you for things that will light the value is not equivalent. So because you can never do enough, why not look for excuses to do more? I mean, why not download the Koran app, why not set up a timer on your phone for five minutes and just listen to some
Where and why not take the moment to just say, Mom, I really appreciate everything you've done for me, Dad, I know you work a lot. And I really appreciate every life that you've helped provide for us. Your siblings get on your nerves, maybe quite a bit, but there's moments in Sharla moments where they don't so thank you for not not don't say thank you for not getting on my nerves but just appreciating appreciating and knowing that I can never show enough gratitude to you to Allah. So let me just do a little bit more.
The more a person is making their audience Allah, the more concerned they become, the less concerned they become about the audience of people. Yes. And so Allah Subhana Allah describes it's a it's a breathtaking passage and sort of that insan where Allah subhana wa Tada describes the believers or group from the believers and he says they basically they they do what they do have good deeds, and they say learn to read and contessa and well I should Cora, we don't want from you two things we don't want from you reward. And we don't want from you. Gratitude. Obviously, it'd be great if people show gratitude, but I'm not necessarily hung up on it. People say thank you, great. If I hold
the door open for somebody and they just walk through, it's not going to hurt me for the rest of the day that this person didn't even say thank you, I held the door open, not doing it for them, right my audience's ALLAH SubhanA data, and people don't have the ability to repay you anyway, they'd never be able to repay you. Even the most celebrated people don't feel like they got what they deserved. Michael Jordan was the most celebrated athlete of any athlete, and the guy's while alive, he's being eaten alive by these LeBron comparisons and all of that type of stuff. But that's human beings don't have the ability to perfectly appreciate anybody or anything. And so ALLAH SubhanA data
then describes a beautifully vivid description of paradise. And these people are sitting on couches, and they're wearing us out, they're wearing bracelets and finery and they're drinking, and they're being served by youth of servants of eternal youth and all of that. And then Allah subhana data concludes the passage by saying in the how that kind of look from Jessa and what kind of sad mascara, they didn't want * up in the dunya and they didn't want shellcode but ALLAH SubhanA data says this is for you your reward, and your journey was appreciated. It was appreciated by who was appreciated by Allah subhanaw taala add that one to the list of yet that's chapter 76 Verse number
nine, add that one to the list. So
there's also verse three of the same right?
In Nadina history in Morocco and Morocco photo Yeah. So that we showed them the way they will either be thankful Shakira, oh, or they will be Shakira, the capoeira one. So we have Shachar and Shako. And that's a shocker is a higher level. That's why in certain extra is that 17 Yes, verse three.
Allah so autolysis Doria de reinterment. Haven't NEMA I know in the hookah and Avintia Cora, this so Allah Swatara described no Haile Salam as being Shaku higher level not just a Shaka which is a lower level. The Shaka is constantly thinking Allah subhanaw taala whether they're in a good or a bad situation, they're thanking Allah for thing as well for things beyond what ordinary people they recognize different blessings, they're thankful to Allah, whether it's good whether it's bad. So Allah subhanaw taala and sortal in son, he said, we showed them the way either you will be shocked because most people will be at the lower level of thankfulness. But then, when he mentioned being
ungrateful, he mentioned the higher level of being ungrateful, not cafetera. But go for the higher level because most people and wallah it's sad again, it puts us to shame. Most people are at the higher level of being ungrateful to Allah, their basic in their gratitude and exceptional in their ingratitude. Yes, and that's sad. You know, and I wanted to say that sometimes Allah subhanaw taala test you by taking blessings away. This is what we see people in Syria who no blankets freezing to death overnight, Allah azza wa jal removes blessings from them and that's their test. And a lot of artists in North America are having a lot of the blessings or all the blessings festival and then
the test is that test of abundance the test is to see whether we will thank Allah azza wa jal enough and the test is whether to see we're going to be using them in his obedience or not.
To go back to that versus sort of to Brahim
ALLAH SubhanA. Allah says will attack them and coulomb us as to what introduce amatola Hila dasa insana lava lumen kuffaar. So, I mean, these attributes are really powerful. Allah says He gave you from everything that you asked from everything that you asked. So part of showing gratitude is to recognize that your state right now
is many times the result of something that you asked Allah subhanaw taala for before so if you're in a program that you hate, there was a time where you were begging Allah Subhana Allah
but to be accepted into that program, that spouse that gets on your last nerve, there was a time when you were making camo live to get married to that person with your children who are driving you crazy. There was a time when you were begging Allah subhanaw taala for children. And so ALLAH SubhanA data says and he gave you from everything that you asked, and if you were to count the favors of Allah, like just because you forgot doesn't mean that it didn't happen. And if you were to count the favors of Allah, you would not be able to do so. And then Allah says in that in Santa lumen cafardo verily human beings are, loom their excessive in their oppression, and kuffaar. That's
a that's a far which indicates repetition, so consistent in their ingratitude. But that verse repeats also, which I don't know what verse number that is. But Allah subhana data says, we're in dunya, not Allahu La sua in Allah. Allah Fordham, Rahim Salam, I don't know the number. Yeah, so Allah Subhana Allah says, and if you were to count the favours of Allah, you would not be able to do so. But the verses exactly the same. But whereas one verse ends, speaking about the nature of human beings, oppressive, consistent in their ingratitude, the second verse And speaking about Allah Subhana Allah, your Lord is forgiving and merciful, as if to say the only one who could possibly
deal with a species that is so consistently ungrateful is a Lord who is so perfectly forgiving and merciful.
And, you know,
just don't ever end up on the wrong side of why, for yourselves or for anyone else don't ever end up on the wrong side of Revelation. Allah subhanaw taala is describing has attributes in the Koran like we mentioned, from Surah t le Imran chapter three verse 145, Allah will reward the people who are grateful right? chapter four verse 147, Allah does not it's not in need of your punishment if you're grateful and if you believe in him SubhanaHu wa Tada. We're talking about the verse soldier to Ibrahim for verse number seven verse number 34. But shaytaan incidental our off, told Allah that you're going to find most of your slaves to be ungrateful. You got his plan? That's his whole thing.
become distracted with Black Friday. Oh, that that iPhone 12 When you had it, it was great, right? Well, guess what? 13 It's not enough anymore. Oh, your toy? Oh, you, you you just speed run Minecraft. I was talking with a kid somewhere else is like, Yeah, high speed. Minecraft. I was like, Okay, that's great. He's like, Yeah, but I need to get a better record. I'm like, Subhan Allah speed runs Minecraft. But it still isn't good enough. Like, you just got to be better at it. There's no end, you gave the child of Adam, one valley of golden today want to follow it up. Another one stomachs besides dirt, you go on and on with the lack of satisfaction and shaytaan he amplifies that
part of our nature by putting everything in front of you. And and well, I don't know if there's.
I mean, we can't speak for all of history. We hate to overgeneralize because exaggeration is its own form of lying. But has there ever been a time where the community was so interconnected, where we could literally marveled at the wealth, beauty and status of people so openly all the time. unendingly and then look at our own lives and just put it down constantly. Thumbs down on our lives and thumbs up for PewDiePie and everyone else on Markiplier and everyone else online, where influencers influence you by just being better than you and having more than you that we just successful and you're not and buy my new book, and this is how you can get it to fake Instagram
gurus putting all of this stuff out for what for you to be like them prosperity, doctrine and Christianity. You want to be rich except Jesus as your Lord and Savior and be sure to buy my book to hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah for the truth of Islam, where we can see through the route of this dunya we can see to the deception of this world and we know that this life as the prophets I said them said Hadith and Sunnah Timothy, if Allah cared about this dunya he would not allow for the disbeliever to drink water equivalent to the weight of the mosquitoes wings, there's nothing in this world that really means anything to Allah. If it did, then Allah would have saved it for us, but
rather what Allah has for us as much more because you can never do enough you should always do more. And look for those opportunities brothers and sisters in any facet of your life in your day to just seek out a way to just show a little bit of sugar because that little bits every every forest, it starts with a single seed. So inshallah you start there and you'll you'll reap the results in this life and the next
cycle head I don't know that was like really poetic at the same time. It was kind of like are these just phrases that you're throwing in what's called a Friday Night Lights? I want to call it Friday night bars. It's just a straight bar.
Crazy Hello barsha Hello, we flexed we threw bars, you know.
We played some video game that we don't know what it was as critical. I love it. So we have a follow up program in sha Allah Allah so I want to request everybody to stay for that as well. It's already 30 Time flies. Yeah, so
Um, for the purpose of this recording is like he said in the meta command inshallah Tada we're going to have the Be inspired series is that here, right here, okay, so inshallah to take like a five minute break or start or just do a straight reading, so we'll take a five minute break inshallah to Allah and then we'll continue inshallah Tada with a sad day such as luck