Calisha Bennett – Keeping Steadfast in Lockdown
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of protecting one's mental health and interests, avoiding distraction and division, and creating a "urance chest" of resilience during lockdown. They stress the need for people to make decisions with confidence and caution, avoid privacy and privacy legislation in shaping one's views on the world, and trust Allah for health and life. The speakers also stress the importance of dressing in the morning, staying active, and sharing information to address stress and create a "urance chest."
AI: Summary ©
In
the bid lamina Shetland regime Smilla Rahmanir Rahim in Al Hamdulillah Hina Madhu, Anna stirring who want to still fiddle. When are all the bIllahi min Shuri and fusina Amin se Dr. Molina Mejia de la who follow Malala Who am I a little fella feller had yellow eyeshadow Allah Allah Allah Allahu Allahu La Cherie Keller wa shadow Ana Mohammed Abdullah who are solo and my bad by now stepwell Hadith Nikita babalawo Hiral heavy, had you Muhammad in sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was Sharon lumu Morimoto to her quilombo the 13th vida por que la vida teen Lola Aquila bola teen V now I'm about barely all praises due to Allah, we praise Him we seek His help and we seek his forgiveness. We seek
refuge with Allah from the evil within ourselves and the evil consequences of our evil actions. Whoever Allah subhanaw taala guides none can be scarred and whoever is led astray, none can guide I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah He is alone and has no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his slave and messenger. The most truthful speech is the book of Allah. And the finest guidance is the guidance of approval Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the most evil of affairs are the newly invented matters in the religion. And every newly invented matter in religion is a bitter and every bidder leads astray and everything is
strays in the hellfire. So my alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh dear sisters, and welcome to our session and our lesson brought to you by essence of life in Wollongong, or known also known as Masjid as salam. We ask Allah subhanaw taala to reward the sisters who helped to organize and put together this online event for sisters sisters to benefit from and they've opened it up kindly open it up to sisters from all around Australia all around the world as well for anyone to benefit from and Hamza May Allah Subhana Allah bless you all, bless your beautiful Islamic center. So we've got the theme and topic in sha Allah, on the topic of keeping steadfast in lockdown, or during lockdown.
Allahu Allah, you know, inshallah the sisters intended it to be about keeping steadfast in our faith, keeping steadfast in our mental, emotional, physical,
spiritual, all these different types of well being. So we hope that whatever we learn and are reminded of in this session, is able to inshallah keep us steadfast in those various aspects and to help us to be as strong and as healthy and as vibrant as possible, despite our external circumstances alone. I mean, so keeping steadfast in lockdown, the topic, probably interest interested you, you might have seen different topics and talks on this online and through various other speakers and presenters, and everyone has a different take on it. And for me, you know, I had a couple of conversations in the week where we discussed some deeper aspects about, you know, the
situations that we're finding ourselves in or that people might be struggling with. So I extracted some points from there, and some different ideas of the Quran that came up that I feel would be relevant and beneficial. So first, I have a question for you all. And I want to ask, how are you? Oh, really? Emphasis on really, really? How are you? And I'm gonna give you
a little moment to have a think about that. And then for whoever's comfortable, you're welcome to Write in the comments box, or jump on the mic and share how you are. So I'm gonna give you one minute to do that while I grab my book.
So have you had to think about it? So write your responses either in the comments or if you want to jump on to the microphone, you're welcome to do that. Let me know how you are. We're on this topic of steadfastness in lockdown. So we need to assess our situation first in order for us to build upon and address ourselves and grow from this. So how are you? So feel free to write or you can jump on the mic. One sister says she's struggling with constant negativity in media and being stuck at home missing the masjid and her dear sisters. That's probably something that others are also feelings, Pamela?
Anyone else?
I like the lamb sister.
I struggle is my illness. Yeah.
But trying to give said cross in my dean. Yep.
Really big struggle. This came out of the hospital last night, after being there for three days. Wow.
I lost one for like if you suffer this style, and I'm sure everyone who's listening right now is also making dua for you for good health and miraculous recovery. And
I returned to your well being Sharla on a care,
big test to be tested with your health. Another sister says she's starting to feel stressed, do I vaccinate or not? Yeah, as we can see, for those living in different parts of the world, different parts of Australia or for those in the Eastern Time. Earlier, there are some
testing times now with the extremity of the lock down and making a decision as to what action to take
in the situation that we're finding ourselves in. So definitely something that many are facing. Another sister says, trying to stay as positive as I can. Please give us tips when we start feeling low about what's going on and how to get out of that state.
Very good point. Yeah, that's inshallah something that we're going to
cover today. And you just reminded me of something in asking that as well.
Because I thought there anyone else? Let's have a look.
Sisters are saying and I mean, you know, when else want to jump on the mic, let us know. How are you really?
Yep, another sister said she's uncertain about the future and the decision I may have to make.
Yep.
I think people are becoming aware of having to take stances on certain things and come to some really tricky decisions according to the times that we're in. I think that's a big source of concern for many.
All right, anyone else? Sister says feeling very disconnected from family, from friends, family. And masjid also mindset feeling an overwhelming sense of worry of the unknown.
And the potential sacrifices
that go with that. Yep. About the decisions, sacrifices with decision sacrifices with being maybe pressured in certain circumstances to do things you normally wouldn't have considered doing. analysis this is struggling with all our family living overseas have gotten used to seeing them. So often, it's been tough not knowing when will next see them. Another big test, again, unknowns, or these open ended questions or these I wonder if what will happen? When will this be? So that is no doubt, very testing.
All right. So in Arabic,
to ask someone, how are you? In Arabic? Many of you might know or be familiar. It's key for Herrlich. Yeah, key for Herrlich. Okay, that's how they say, how are you? But what's beautiful about Kiefer Halleck, is it's actually roughly translated as how is the state of your heart in this breath? Like, how is your state? It's not so much how are you? It's how is your state? Like, how are you deeply right now? What is your state? The state of your heart right now, in this very breath in this moment? You know, and when people ask us, How are you? Generally we answer Yeah, Hamdulillah, I'm good. You said hamdullah. Because you are grateful, you know, for whatever the situation is. And
you say good, because you look at it generally, generally, I'm grateful. It's good. But when we look at the actual feeling within us in that moment, how is your state of heart in this moment in this breath? If people were to ask us that way, if we understood what K for Halleck means? We would really kind of pause in the moment and go How is my heart in this man? That's what I wanted you guys to just share what's in your heart in this moment. And it might be fear, it might be anxiety might be apprehension, it might be worry. And no doubt we're all resonating with each other for various different reasons, feeling similar things within our hearts right now due to life and the test of
life and the struggles of life.
So I'm actually reading this part about kefir. Halleck from a book was called this one wild
In precious life by Sarah Wilson says, obviously it's his general, mainstream non Muslim written book, but it has some different concepts. According to the times that we're living in. Some of you might agree some of you might disagree. But I thought this was a nice point where it talks about key for Herrlich. It's different to saying how are you to someone, generally people answer, not bad. But if we were to actually ask each other, how is your state of heart right now, in this moment in this breath? How is your heart my sister? It's a whole different way of being received SubhanAllah. So for us to be a little bit more, I guess, deeply engaged in asking, How are people's hearts? Are they
aching for more love? Are they needing some reassurance? Are they feeling very fearful? Are they needing comfort? words of comfort? Are they needing inspiration? are they carrying a lot of burdens and load, you know, in their hearts that they need to get out. And again, this is something that you might realize within yourself, I'm carrying way too much and not having outlets for what I'm carrying in my heart. And that might mean you need to turn to Allah subhanaw taala more it might mean, you need to have some deep, meaningful conversations with trusted people or loved ones or friends. Or it might mean that you need to find someone external to that to talk to and share. What
is burdening your mortal soul.
So that's for us to just start with checking in on our state. And we do need to ask yourself this throughout the day, and sometimes numerous times throughout the day. How is my heart and to notice other people notice your children notice your spouse? How is your heart and check in with them and be genuine and sincere intending to what it is that's going on with their heart be of service and offer something?
All right.
Let's push forward. Shala.
So what is our community struggling with right now you shared what you are struggling with right now in your state of heart? Can I ask you guys, what do you think our community as a whole is struggling with when we looked at choosing this topic keeping steadfast during lockdown? Where is the need for this keeping of steadfastness coming from? What is it that is shaking our community right now? Just put your answers in the comments inshallah. And I'll read some out.
So I'm asking you guys to get you thinking number one and reflecting and also to extract some information from you guys, you guys might know more than me about what the community is struggling with, aside from the little pointers that I'm going to share today in this session,
so what is our community struggling with in terms of lock downs or in terms of just general struggles, spiritual struggle, emotional, familial, whatever it might be?
One sister said depression
interesting.
We're getting distracted by the news and pandemic and not focusing much on Islam or some
anyone else?
So depression distraction.
Any other suggestions?
Since this is no one seems to be communicating with anyone.
So feel free to expand on that system? Let us know what do you mean? No one seems to be communicating with him. What do you how do you define communication? Now the sister says overthinking.
Yep, that's a good point.
And we're going to talk about these different struggles and the impact of these struggles on our state, what it does to our state, the agitation that it causes to our state, and then ultimately, the taking away from our spiritual focus and grounding and struggle that these types of taking away
result in for us. Sister says they struggle with faith, faith in government faith in our deen faith in each other. Half don't believe COVID is real half don't want to accept and abide by rules thus affecting the wider community.
Interesting.
Keeping more Islamic talks happening would be better for Eman boosts for the community. True. I'm not sure how active you know the different mosques intent centers. Are they still doing their Tuesday night lectures but doing them online? I don't know. I actually yeah, I don't know. I haven't heard of much apart from a few really proactive sisters.
I haven't heard of many
specific
It's ongoing classes continuing online so this is just make sure your camera's off because we are recording I don't want anyone to get caught out if they didn't want it to be recorded
all right, does that go higher thank you guys so keep any comments or questions coming in throughout this talk I will go back to them and address them as we continue inshallah so as you guys mentioned, things like depression distraction, non communication overthinking
you know, we're getting a lot of input sources
we're not getting enough talks or enough lessons sometimes Yep, Australian Islamic house I've seen there's actually mashallah
there's more division within the community because of differences of opinions that even separate to religion very good points and stuff. So people are turning on each other. It's not even religious basis just, uh, you know, you know, convictions on certain decisions and,
and life choices that people are differing in that then they're allowed to become a difference between them and then we'll send brother or sister
Hamdulillah. That's good. There are things online, good to know. And yeah, definitely good for people to keep connected with each other. So you can find out what there is happening online, I'm sure there are things online. As our community is struggling with a lot of things.
A big part that I wanted to start off with that is causing the struggles particularly in our faith or in a man or that is a source of mental, spiritual, emotional, psychological agitation is information overload. Okay, never before have we human beings been bombarded with so many sources of information and so many different types of unverified information and so many irrelevant sources of information. Never before have our ears and our eyes been bombarded with so much going on. life used to be a different pace. life used to be about totally immersing oneself in the moment. And there was no call to another world or another time or another place. No back when our parents or grandparents
were younger. When it was time to eat, there was nothing else happening except it was time to eat and connecting live with the people around you. When it was time to drive or if they had cars, then it was time to just commute and transport themselves from one place to another. There was no distraction in that process, no messaging and no other conversations happening. And no watching and listening have different things in that process to detract from being there in that, in that time, when it was time to learn whether it was a class or reading a book or reading the newspaper. That's what that moment was dedicated to half an hour, 10 minutes, an hour dedicated to you. I'm going to
read this book right now. Or I'm going to read the newspaper right now, or I'm going to be in class right now. Now we have ourselves spread so thin, that we're doing three, four or five things at one time, right? Even though if I look in front of me, I've got my notes in front of me, I have a slide in front of me, I have to keep an eye on the camera in front of me, I have a book in front of me. And I have my phone in front of me, which I just remembered to put on silent. So it doesn't beat this panel a lot. Look at these different inputs that our brain is trying to focus in manage all at once. That's just as a presenter. So there you go, guys, you guys have a little bit of a behind the
scenes look at how much is happening when you're just an online teacher how much your brain has to try to stay focused on what you're trying to say. And process thoughts on top of the notes in front of you and all of that. See, right? It's crazy. But we are living like this moment to moment for most of our waking hours of the day. Okay, from morning till we sleep. We have different apps open. And we have different moving images and videos and we watch one video on one topic and we switch and flicked before we even finished a story or finished reading a paragraph and we go to the next one, which could be totally different, which could, you know, could have been listening to Quran
recitation and we softened ourselves. We didn't even complete the recitation, which is wrong to do as well. And we cut off it and skip to something with someone else was doing a weird whatever dance video and then we had a laugh. We shifted state so fast. We shifted focus and attention so fast. And our brain is doing that throughout the day on top of managing children houses, chores, phone calls, bills, reading something, studying something cleaning up something all at the same time. Again, we see those funny memes with the mothers you know the kids have asked she says Are the kids have gone to bed and then in her brain, there's like 50 things that start coming up. I'll do the laundry and
all those types of things.
Okay, we can't have a still quiet moment. So what is information overload? Information overload is usually characterized by an over abundance of information. And it's a major concern cause of concern for general information users, researchers and Information Managers. With the advent of new technological innovations, the rate of information production has accelerated rapidly. Consequently, people are suffering from an information glut, which means, which makes it difficult for them to find the required information quickly, and conveniently, from various print electronic and online sources. Okay, so people now we struggle, because there's so many different inputs, you'll be having
a conversation with someone and you will acquire this thing the other day. And you remember the gist of what you heard that you now want to relate to that person that is relevant, but your brain will struggle to remember where you got it from? Whose page which social media platform? Was it an article, a photo or a video? Was it a book or an own something physical that you read? Was it on off your laptop? Was it something someone else said to you? Was it on WhatsApp? Was it a Whatsapp Video? Was it a WhatsApp message, we our brain can't even retain the amount of information coming in, let alone the source of each of those points of information. So we're getting this super diluted
knowledge and information
input into our lives daily. Hey, you look at the picture on the on the slide. Now, that's what our brains feel like, you know, there's words hidden in there too, right? I can see tired. And, you know, there's all sorts of things, but that's our brains. It's just this big jumbled mess. How does our spirituality come forward and rise in all of that noise, and all of that mess, as Muslims, our spiritual connection, our connection with Allah subhanaw taala and with ourselves because we have to know and be connected to ourselves to connect ourselves to Allah subhanaw taala it can only happen when we have stillness and quiet. Which is why when the Quran is recited or played, we have to be
still not doing anything else and just listen. And when we pray, and we do tech Kabira, haram, the word haram, we enter into our prayer, everything becomes forbidden that we normally are allowed to do. You're in prayer, no talking, no reading, no watching, no laughing No looking around. No anything, right, because it's time to focus Hamdulillah we have Islamic traditions which teach us to slow down and to focus and to do one thing at a time and have one source of input at a time. Even in communication, the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, when he was reminded by Allah subhanaw taala, not to frown and turn away from the person or the believer who needed him and instead give attention to
the nonbelievers. He was giving Dawa to, likewise, in our conversations, are we going from conversation to conversation FlipGive, you know, flicking between chatting, you know, on our phones, and then our child is asking us something and trying to tell us something, and I'll be the first say I'm guilty of that. I can't focus on both. I'm in the middle of finishing writing an email or a message. And my child wants to talk to me. And they're going mum, and I have to say it again, because my brain can't be in those two places at once. So we have to have this this clear separation. What state does this information overload put us in? Or? Or will the state and the
results of similar to what you guys said, you know, we're distracted. We aren't having true communication with each other and true connection with each other because it's fleeting. It can affect moods, depression and anxiety. And research is showing very clearly, that increased use of our electronic devices and social media directly correlates with lower moods. Okay, directly color correlates with lower levels of mental health, with off levels of mental health, so on and so forth. And even the information overload, we're learning too much. We don't know how to sort it and what to do with it and what's true from what's not true. And we also start debating and arguing with each
other. And then ultimately, another struggle that you guys share it, it causes division. The information overload causes division and confusion, right? We end up confused, we don't know what to believe. We don't know what's true and false. We don't know who's right or wrong. Yet we are debating in the unknown. So again, information overload can result in lack of conviction in what we do feel we believe in. So information overload is a major cause of us losing out on our spiritual development and growth because the information overload results in distraction from what is truly important and what our priorities for us as a Muslim, right. And it results in disconnect from
ourselves from our important relationships and commitments, and from ultimately from a loss pinata Hola, que waistbelt
A lot of time. So we really have to think about where is all this information coming from an earlier this year, I realized I had too many WhatsApp groups, I left a bunch of those. I just didn't have time to read them. So why was I staying in them and the notifications were bothering me all throughout the day, even though I put my phone on silent. And the notifications are on silent, just seeing visually that I had so many notification. Again, it's a distraction, and had to filter that information overload out. Too many people in my newsfeed too many people messaging me, what do I do? We have to have times when we're offline, we have to have times where we're not contactable at any
time, you know, and then answering it anytime we have to windows of time. I don't answer, you know, inquiries at this time or messages at this time. And they know that when I get up, I haven't, you know, 30 minutes in the morning that I'll get back to them. It's your time. It's your mind. It's your garden, your mind and your heart and your soul is your garden. And you can't allow anyone and everyone to park their car they put that pour pour out their rubbish their,
you know,
put their dishwater of whatnot. All in your garden, your mind your time your life is your garden, and you have to tend to pull out weeds, protect it, put gates around it, not allow anyone to just come in and stomp all over it. And all these sources of information and stimulation. They are ways and means in which your garden, your self, your state, your soul can be damaged and can be stomped on and lifted on. Okay and impacted.
So this overstimulation on top of all these other things that are happening around us in the world, things that are largely beyond our control. A lot of them result in anxiety. Okay, globally, an estimated 284 million people experienced an anxiety disorder in 2017. So it was the most prevalent mental health or neurological neurodevelopmental disorder 63% were female.
And the other percent were males. Okay, so more females were more anxious than males. And in all countries, women are more likely to experience anxiety disorders than men. Okay, so that's interesting, you've got this graph here, which just shows the world versus the US, as you can see, mashallah the US seems to be setting the standard for anxiety, mood, impulse control disorders, and, and somewhat substance disorders. So interesting comparison there, when we compare it globally, like, we have to think as well, where is this influence coming from, and remembering that the sources of information overload as I eat our phones and social media, also directly correlate with
these mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and I think over time, eventually, digital devices, social media, will join gaming, as we know, a type of diagnosed Addiction Disorder. Okay. And it is a substance, I think it's a substance, right, it's all something you expose yourself to. And then you get a neurological reaction secretions in your brain from your use of that device, or from seeing how many likes you have, or from watching something and getting or getting an email or from hearing a notification, these chemicals that are released in your brain to make you feel a certain way and make you want to go back for more. Okay, and we have to realize that it's the type of addiction that
can come into place, and that the addiction and the feeling of wanting to and indulge in your addiction can also give rise to that feeling of anxiety. Can you feel anxious because you need another hit another hit of what of seeing your
checking your email, checking your messages, checking your whatsapp, checking your, your Instagram, whatever it might be. Okay? And Allah protect us. So when we look at anxiety, an interesting thing that I came across also in this book, when we look at anxiety
clinic, which is a residential clinic for anxious teens, this is regarding young people, but I think we need to reflect on it for ourselves as well as adults.
It's a residential clinic for teens who have anxiety issues, they define anxiety as the overestimation of danger, and the underestimation of the ability to cope. So when we say now, like these stats I just showed you, oh my gosh, we've got this huge epidemic of anxiety. And we think, Oh, it's a new you know, or it's a rising or increasing mental disorder, which is creeping into and it's, it's increasing amongst the population as if it's like, a growth, a cancerous growth which is expanding and growing.
But
The point that I really thought was good in this book
is that there is a lot of overdiagnosis about anxiety. And rather than seeing it as an increase in actual anxiety, that anxiety is something which is growing. Anxiety is a byproduct and the increase of anxiety is a byproduct. And think about this within yourself, are you more anxious now than you've ever been? Are you more anxious or people around you more anxious than what you've noticed in the past, it's actually directly tied to, we really have to think about this is tied to a reduction in our levels and skill sets of resilience. So we're not more anxious purely because we are more anxious, we've become more anxious as a byproduct of being less resilient, we are less resilient
than we ever have been protect potentially as human beings. Why are we less resilient, resilience requires certain skill sets and tools. A resilient person is built into their resilience through certain ways of thinking, living, behaving, speaking, reacting, so on and so forth, and what's in their environment, we have lost the ability to become, we've lost our awareness of how to become more resilient. And because of that, because we're less resilient, and we're more afraid, and we're more anxious and we're more all of this, you know, all of these different negative states, and levels of anxiety arising. Okay. And when we're in an anxious state, we have no answers, it's easy
to fall into depression because we feel like there is no hope there is no light for us as Muslims, our hope, our light, our combatants against anxiety and depression,
and other types of spiritual and psychological and emotional disorders and illnesses, we can find answers and cures and remedies in our spiritual growth in our spiritual learning.
And whilst we know it's been very popular and very trending, you know, where people get annoyed when, when someone simply says, your mental health issues or because you have low Iman, you know, like, obviously, that's a blanket statement. That's not the way to say it, and all the way to put it. And you know, people get upset because it disqualifies the acknowledgment of mental illness, which we see that there are some mental illnesses which have been clearly defined. There are different ones being diagnosed and created every day. But we do have to ask ourselves, are mental illnesses becoming more prevalent and overtaking our minds and our psyches because we don't have
anywhere else to fall or anywhere else to tap into, we have to acknowledge that there is truth and reality about in the fact that we can utilize healthy spirituality and spiritual learning and spiritual nurturing and worship of Allah and connection with Allah to remedy the things that bother us in our hearts and in our minds. Okay. Allah subhanaw taala hasn't given anything except as a cure Allah decree law he talks about in non Kolb barely in the remembrance of Allah to the hearts find rest. Where do we feel anxiety? We feel that here in our chest, right, this scared apprehension, fear worry, okay. And I'm not a clinical psychologist, I'm not a psychotherapist. Any of that I'm
not kind of proclaiming to be anywhere. I'm just giving you guys some food for thought, to think about how you feel, and for you to question why you feel how you feel, where it's coming from, and what you can do to equip yourselves to cope better. Okay, so thinking about resilience, you know, I was talking to a sister online this morning, and we were discussing, you know, and I explained to her that, like, we need to have this treasure chest of resilience tools to tap into when we go through difficult times. And I know some days are like roller coasters. Some days, I feel overwhelmed, some days I feel worried, fearful, whatever it might be, I'm human being too, right.
Not free from from any of that.
But when I do feel a certain way, I acknowledge it, I sense it, see where it's coming from. And then I think to myself, how and why am I going to get through this? And I look into my box of resilience tools. And I go, this is why and that is why and this is why and that is why and then I'm like Yeah, I'm good. I got this it's gonna be okay. Okay, and we're going to talk about some of those tools in sha Allah. I'm gonna look through the comments because I saw some coming in. Give me like a thumbs up or a letter Y for yes, to let me know. You guys understand. Am I making sense? I don't want to be
not making sense and you guys are like we're lost you just blubbering. Just let me know inshallah
I'm just gonna read these lack of routine and structure with this destination Yep
Okay, so the sister who was on camera I'm pretty sure you weren't record what was on camera then but I will double check and I won't publish on this I check in make sure that you're not on camera inshallah.
It makes us more distractible and increases physical and mental fatigue, poor sleep quality. The name of the book is this one wild and precious life
by Sarah Wilson. It's nice. It's a light read, and it's sharing her reflection and she went, she would hike a lot and reflect a lot. But it's interesting. It's got some good points. I'm only halfway through it now. But it's got some interesting points and reflections on life and the state of the world that we're in now.
So someone says she feels more anxious because of all the things I have to worry about parents kids schooling online with special needs during her routine, all gone. Vaccination, etc. Yeah, I agree. We're all struggling that way. Okay, so we've got thumbs up, everyone's still alive and kicking and tuned in Hamdulillah. Alright, so let's move on to our next topic. So hopefully you guys just understand anxiety, how prevalent it is, where it's coming from, okay, an important part.
Feelings always come from the way that you're thinking, anything you feel in any given moment, it will come from a thought. So if you can check in with your thoughts and what's going on with your thoughts, and why you're having those thoughts and what those thoughts mean, then you can address the thoughts and then the thoughts will then inshallah positively or negatively impact your feeling. Okay, so this is something that most of us don't learn, or we don't understand the reality of it, or the enormity of it, that if you can keep your thinking in check. Yeah. And you can have good ways of thinking, this is why I explained the resilience, you know, toolkit or treasure chest, if you can
try to tap Wait, tap into ways to shift your thinking, when you do go to a bad place of thinking, whether it is memories of the past or fears of the future, which is often what caused our horrible states.
That Insha Allah, if you can dress your thinking, you can catch it, call it out, and adjust it accordingly. You know, so when you're feeling really, really anxious, and you're feeling so anxious, it's because I'm scared about whether to vaccinate or not. Or I'm feeling overwhelmed because our routine and I'm really like, I need routine, I need routine. And then you say, you know, what? Do I need to think like that about something I can't change? Can I find a place of acceptance, then you start to kind of settle yourself and agree, yeah, I can accept I can be patient, I can do this and you feel better. Your anxiety reduces you feel like you can cope again. Okay. So largely when we
look at our state, our state what's going on here, we have to check in with what our mind is doing to us to create that state. And our mind plays games with us, and our mind magnifies things that shouldn't be magnified. Our mind focuses on things that aren't entire truth and then blocks out other parts of what is reality and truth around it. Things are not always doom and gloom, as much as our mind wants to tell us that it is the future. Yes, we might be fearful because there's so many unknowns. But you know what? It's already been written. We know as Muslims, Allah has decreed what will happen, what could have happened, what should have happened last month, Allah decrees all of
it. And he did that from 50,000 years ago. So Pamela, why are we scared about his plan unfolding? There's no reason to be scared. No reason to be anxious because we can lean into a loss monetarily through it.
So fear Sophia.
This is another struggle we have a last one to Allah says in Surah Al Baqarah verse 155, all the bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim
Bismillah AR Rahman AR Rahim wala neighbor Lu one Nachum de che in Meenal Hovi What is your A one apple slay? Meenal Um, well, you will foresee with some raw, whether she saw beauty in Allah says and we will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and lives and fruits but give good tidings to the patient. Allah says he's promising and we will surely Allah saying I'll surely I'm gonna test you going to test your faith. Test your heart, test your resilience, test your mind test your emotions test you and your family with fear. We're scared right? I was scared about what might happen. He's gonna test us with hunger. We don't have money
won't be running low because we can't have
out jobs or work or struggle, loss of wealth, and lives and fruits, then Allah says give good tidings to the patient.
A lot of the times when we feel fear, and if you check in with your heart right now and you're scared about something, almost always, fear has to do with the future, the possible future, right? We're not scared of the past, because we know what's happened usually past is memories trauma stories we create from the past. And that's what bothers us in our minds. That fear comes from a false or usually an illusionary or false projection or
prediction of the future. We're scared because we're thinking the worst, right? We're thinking doom and gloom, and we're thinking that things will not be okay, we're thinking,
the worst of the worst, right? And then we get scared now, because of this unknown future, which we haven't met yet. We need to ask ourselves, again, you checking your thoughts, you're challenging your thoughts. I'm scared of an unknown future, I'm predicting the worst possible outcome and I'm getting upset, stressed, angry, whatever it might be about it now.
Because of this thing I'm painting in my mind in the future, and I'm ruining my now, because of this false prediction, potentially false prediction of the future. Maybe it's not false. Maybe you're right. Maybe that will be what will happen tomorrow or next week. But what useful benefit does it give you to create and induce that state of fear now? None. Right? What trust? Do you have in a lot? If you're fearing what will happen in the future? Where's your trust in Allah's plan?
Where's your shorty and reliance that I trust Allah will take care of it if you're being scared, here and now about what will happen tomorrow, next week, 10 years, five years for your children. Yes, we feel fear in terms of, we want to be prepared for any negative outcomes in the future. And we use some of that fear, a healthy amount of fear, to drive us to be motivated to prepare for that potential future or prepare our children or prepare the world or educate others or whatnot. We should use these emotions as driving factors and not let them overtake us and then incapacitate us. If you feel fearful about the potential future, and what it might be and what it might mean for you
and your family.
Then you need, you know, obviously, you'd be a fool to just sit in that fear and cry and be angry and rant and rave online and whatnot. Right? That fear should be making you feel like okay, I'm scared about what's coming. What do I need to do? I need to educate myself about the choices about the options we need to look at. What can we do instead, we need to think about alternatives. I need to raise my kids well, so they're prepared for what the world's going to look like you become proactive. If your fear isn't making you proactive, then it's useless, non beneficial fear and it's dangerous and detrimental to imagine, okay, it's bad for your faith, too much fear, because it shows
there's lack of reliance on a lot. And it shows there's a lack of tying your camera and making your efforts as well. You're just allowing it to paralyze you. What good is being fearful of this potential negative future that you're predicting when it hasn't come yet? might not ever happen? It's written anyway. And it's not resulting in you doing anything and it's actually making your faith weaker. Now, you're so scared that you
it's making you so depressed, your fears making you depressed and your depression is making you not pray. How How is that living living a life purposefully? Okay, Muslims as believers, we don't forfeit from the battle. We are in the battlefield every single day whether we like it or not, if we are proclaiming La ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasool Allah, if you say you are Muslim, Allah tells us here you will surely be tested. So we wake up every day and we look around us and we decode life and we say what is my test today? Who is my test today? What is my responsibility that I have to fulfill today as part of that test? What am I not doing are not changing or not learning or not improving in
that I need to do in order to pass this test and that is every day and some days you slack off with that test, some days you lose sight of the test, some days you neglect that test, but overall you have to have in your mind, my life is a test, this is the testing ground, whatever comes I have to face it head on I will not run from this. I will not hide from this. I will push forward I will do what needs to be done even when it's hard to do. Okay, this is the resilience the heart of the believer and we get this from so many different prophetic examples and the examples of the Sahaba and the different righteous people of the past okay.
So fear
how do we process fear we process it through
Stories, okay, whether you realize it or not, what you're seeing unfold around you are stories, what you're receiving in your little WhatsApp messages and your friends and in your social media world, you're getting these little stories that this is the way the world is, this is what the world means. And this is what truth is, and this is what falsehood is. And sometimes, if you're open to different sources of information, you get conflicting stories. And you're trying to decide what is the story for me and my family? Between me and my family and Allah and our journey to Allah? How do I decide what is the story we want to ascribe to what we want to believe as our life path and our life
journey? Because now obviously, as you guys mentioned, there's a lot of conflict and different views, because everyone has a different story about what they believe and why they believe it, and why they're continuing with that process moving forward. We have separate realities. And what people don't realize is that that's okay. We can agree to disagree. The issue that comes up is when one perspective wants to enforce their perspective on another, forcefully, okay, and we know that, you know, something, tradition teaches us that that's not allowed lycra fitting, there's no compulsion in religion, if there was going to be compassionate anything should it not be in religion, should be
in religion, right? God in his rights come first. But if there's no compulsion in religion, tree stands out from falsehood, people have the right to choose with their own freewill whether they will believe in Allah or not, then likewise, should people not have the freewill to decide what they believe in in worldly terms about whether they, you know, will follow certain guidelines and mandates or not, or whether they will vaccinate or not, whatever it might be, whether they will breastfeed or not, or bottle feed, whether they will send their kids to Muslim school or private school, Catholic school, or homeschool, whatever it will be, do people not have the right to choose?
They have the right to choose? And there can be criticisms on each side? Yes, we can criticize each other with basis and reason, with respect as well. We don't have to agree. We don't all have to ascribe to the same perspective on things so long as we do not harm each other through those choices. And I guess that's where again, the conflict is, you know, different parties think that through each other's decision, they're going to potentially harm each other. We have to find the middle ground some ways panel, otherwise, we're going to be living in apartheid. If for every different topic, you know, Allah help us. So we process life and we process our journey towards
finding the truth through different stories and your worldview. Your story about what this world is whether it's a beautiful place of hope, and of potential or it's a dark, ugly place. That depends on the story that you play in your mind, and the stories you have allowed in to your perspective of the world. The prophets in the Quran are some of the most amazing stories that we can learn and take from our stories of inspiration, stories of hardship. You think they didn't have fears and anxieties we know from the spirit of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he had times of intense fear and anxiety. He had sages we thought he was losing his mind waiting for the next revelation.
Yeah, he went through such deep deep grief and loss when he lost her the journey lost his uncle Khalid Radi Allahu anha he lost his uncle Hamza, or the Allahu Anhu he lost his uncle Abu Talib.
So, who are we to not think that we will not experience we it's normal. It's natural to humans to experience these emotions and these experience emotional experiences in states of life. But it's about what we do with it, how we process it, and where we channel it. Okay? Fear can be something which paralyzes us or mobilizes us, okay, I should write that down, paralyze
or mobilize all of your emotions, your anxieties paralyze are mobilized, depending on how you process it. So you need a processing system shallow, which I'll show you shortly, what I feel I've, you know, learned and what I utilize as a processing system, or you guys can even have it as a resilience treasure chest, what do I tap into to remind myself about what to do with this feeling of fear and anxiety?
Okay, so we have a lot of inspiration, where we can learn how to deal with fear and anxieties and different scenarios in life. So think about the story that you create. Remember that your sources of information, your sources of information overload are contributing to the story that you create about the world you live in about yourself about your community, all of your mindsets, whatnot, it's from that information source. If we're spending more time on social media, than we are with the Quran, and Hadith and Islamic books and with Islamic videos and teachers, then we're in trouble.
Trouble, because who is the narrator of the story we are creating largely, it's going to end up being the social media narrative, or our friends, if we're always chatting to them, this becomes a narrative. This is the imprint. This is the essence, the scent of influence that we will take from and start to create
interpretations and stories from these different influences, okay? And I always tell people, because I do it to myself, too, I always check how much time I've spent on the different social media platforms. And I, you know, when it gets to a certain point, I have little reminders that say, That's it, you spent half an hour you spend an hour to remind me that I want to get off and that I should get off. Because that's a source of information have I'd spent that long with a book today? Have I spent that long with God and today, you know, we have to hold ourselves to account for these things or it will just suck us into it. Because you won't even notice time go by and so this is what
shape one wants us to do waste the majority of our life in the useless. So be aware of the stories that you create and the sources of the narrative in your stories.
So here's the recipe to insha Allah help you this beautiful verse of the Quran from Surah Tala verse two and three. Allah subhanaw taala says I will be known when I show up on around June or may yet up in La Jolla. Jarrah, Allah whom Raja we are resuming hate July to see for me at our calla Allah, Allah for who are hasco Okay.
Allah subhanaw taala he says, Whoever fears Allah, He, Allah will make a way for him to get out of every difficulty, and he will provide for him from sources he could never imagine. And whoever puts his trust in Allah, then he will suffice him Verily Allah will accomplish his purpose. Indeed, Allah has set a measure of all things. You have to like burn this verse into your mind, and imprint it into your heart and even maybe print it on paper and put it on your wall. And you need to remind yourself about this, we just looked at fear and anxiety. Right? And we're told Whoever fears Allah, fear Allah first be more scared of Allah, be more conscious of Allah be more concerned and worried
about Allah, and what He has planned for you and us in the world, what he thinks about our state and deems about our state in the dunya and akhira. If we put Allah at the forefront, we feel him number one, my fear my anxiety, my concern is with Allah first before anything of the dunya before anyone anything, any virus, any human, any vaccine, any restriction could do to me before any of that I feel a lot first, if you do that, Allah promises in this first, he will find a way for him to get out of every difficulty. Allah will provide a way out if you remember a lot, I know you've got this, I know you've got me. I trust you with this with this situation that is in front of me that is very
challenging, very difficult, very overwhelming, very confusing, and you're able to have that conversation with Allah. Allah, I fear you above all else, and I trust my affairs to you.
Allah says you'll find a way out for you, what else will he do? He will provide for you from sources you could never imagine. So for some people, they might lose their jobs, they might lose their wealth, they might lose their government benefits, whatever through some decisions that they're making, or someone might
get sick and then not be able to have you know, provision for their family the way they hoped because of their health challenges. Allah will provide from you from where you couldn't imagine. Okay, and remember the story so many stories? How did allotments Allah protect the Kaaba from the purchase of Abraham, birds, birds defeat an army that had elephants and 1000s upon 1000s of soldiers panela and profits fell along or some escaping with Apple bucket and he went into the cave of thought, What did Allah do? Allah provided from him for him from where he couldn't imagine a bird put its nest. And a spider spun a web to block the cave to ensure that the enemies of the righteous
of the believer couldn't see where the Prophet sallallahu Sallam and his companion beloved companion were hiding. And who was scared in that cave at that time, I will Bucha Yeah, and the Prophet SAW Allah I said, I'm reassured him said, Don't worry, Allah is with us. Don't worry. Don't stress. Don't be anxious. Don't be scared. We don't need to be scared when Allah is with us. But we can't have Allah with us until we with us in our reassurance and in that comfort that he provides our state until we
Fear him and have him at the forefront of our minds. Whoever puts his trust in Allah, Allah will suffice him if you trust Allah, you have Tawakkol
in Allah, then Allah will be enough for you. Whatever decision you make, okay, and everyone has different viewpoints on a lot of big issues right now. Either way, whatever decision you make, make it with trusting Allah, make an educated choice, make a sincere, intentional choice, then Allah subhanaw taala will be enough for you, you'll take care of it. Don't worry. Don't be scared, make your decision be strong. Even if you don't even know how you're going to get past or through the consequences of that decision. Trust Allah subhanaw taala nonetheless, okay, Allah and then it says, Verily, Allah will accomplish his purpose. Allah has a purpose for everything, every situation,
every circumstance, every happening, every condition that we're in every every challenge, he's written it and he allowed it to happen, and he has a purpose beyond what we can see even though he's so worried and nervous and angry and distressed, whatever it might be. Allah has a purpose for all. Allah has a set measure for all things. What did you guys come with at the start you scared we don't know how long certain things will go for. We don't know when we'll see our family. Again. We don't know when this will be over. Allah has a set and measure. It's already decreed my sisters it's already written. You just have to be patient a day at a time, a moment at a time. This is nothing of
tests compared to what the people of the past went through. All right, we go on a flight you know 1011 hour flight and we're out Hajj they used to have to say goodbye to their families and disappear. To go for Hajj. We'll take them six months on journeying and their families didn't know if they were going to come back and survive or not look at how the prophets Allah Allah Allah some his father died. You know from in traveling in business like you just wouldn't know when someone would not return. We think and we have such a short span of patience. You know, we get annoyed so quickly. One week locked down in our first one week locked down for all distressed back then. That's
nothing now some of us have just lost camera like Oh, Sydney is like seven weeks. Eight weeks. We're delirious. No, Melbourne was like I couldn't believe Melbourne went through six months of lockdown last year like I wasn't counting stuff. Well I feel bad now I feel bad for my Melburnians wasn't counting how long they were in lockdown for against Allah has a set measure for how things will unfold. Can you cope? Can you be accepting of what is that you is beyond your control? You know, can you find ways through to ensure that you still feel it within your heart within your being a sense of freedom and autonomy, a sense of well being? Can you find that you can don't underestimate your
potential for finding a sense of well being and a sense of, you know, reassurance and resilience. It's all there. So remember this recipe, especially from this verse, and through all of our Islamic teachings. When you have Taqwa of Allah, you're conscious of Allah, he's the one you have fear and all and love and trusting. And then you couple that with Tawakkol, which is just entire leaning on Allah trusting him you got this hola Armco on a scale of anything, anyone, whatever is going to happen, I'm going to make the best decisions. I can research as much as I can. And then I trust you yet Allah. If you can do those two things Taqwa plus Tawakkol. It gives you what hope. It gives you
unlimited hope. And hope allows for optimism, for inspiration for motivation. If you wake up, you trust a lot and you're conscious of him, you know, for a fact. Everything's gonna be okay. I just have to fulfill my day to day responsibilities between me and my Lord, and whoever he has put under my care. I fulfill that do the right thing. Stay away from sin and do as much good deeds and worship as I can. There's all hope. What is this short life anyway? Why are we demanding Jana in this short life? Why not? Now, why not? Now my way it shouldn't be like this, it shouldn't be like that. The world shouldn't be this award should be that we demand our paradise now in this life's Pamela. And
we don't have this this patience that is required to get through life, when we don't have patience, and instead we have resistance to what is then we put ourselves in a state of agitation, we induce the anxiety, we queue it towards depression because we don't have hope and resilience we push ourselves into the depths of darkness of not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The light at the end of the tunnel is knowing that all of this ultimately is a test heading towards our accountability, and then our ultimate eternal destination in the Athleta. We have a huge forward thinking gameplan as believers right. We are the most forward thinking people
Whether there can be, but instead we're getting caught up in what's going on right now in front of us and we're not seeing past it. Everything is like an illusion or a mirage, you have to see past it. What's happening in front of you, that is disturbing and agitating you it's just an exam question. And it's a test to see if you're going to answer right or not, and do what's right or not and cope in the best way or not. Behind it is in shallow, your destination in Africa through enduring and being strong and patient throughout that circumstance or that test.
Does that make sense?
Another source of resilience for you and reminder to help get you through fear anxiety, information overload, it's go back to the Quran, you know, and what came to mind was tsunami on a beautiful Surah which tells allotments ALLAH says who is truly successful, you might feel scared, you might be in difficult situations, wherever you are in the world or in your life circumstances and you feel like never going to be successful. Never gonna get through this right? I'm not good enough. I can't all of this kind of negative self talk or incapacitated self talk. So remote me no one tells us who is successful. How what can we do in order to be of the successful beautiful introductory verses to
this surah Allah Subhana Allah says, got the F lehle movement on successful, successful other believers. Even if you are treated as the loneliest of society, you are the slaves in society. Right? And it appears that those who are the wrongdoers or oppressors or whatnot are in the leadership or in the governance or the rulership of the environment around you or the community around you, whatever it might be. Allah doesn't say that they are successful.
Doesn't say that you are the loser. He says successful all the believers God indeed successful God Ashleigh held me known. And who are these believers now we have to think I want to be successful and okay, I want to be one of these believers. We know how do I be one of these believers? We have to be those who are humble in their prayers. So what can you do SR you want to boost your email you want to work on yourself, humble yourself in your Salah. It's not just established Salah do your Salah it's is Aladdin houfy Salah to him harsh your own. Those who have who assure in Salah where you are able to slow down enough quieten down enough, calm down enough to be really humble and connected
with a lot in your prayer. And that's not easy. Why again that that done? Information overload makes so much noise in your brain that when you pray your brains trying to sort to get stuff out of the way so it can be here in the Salah. Okay, so remember reducing that inflammation.
Exposure is going to calm down your system to be able to be more connected. It's really important. I love this third verse. Who are these successful believers they who avoid nonsense?
What does this mean? You are these people who avoid nonsense. How do you avoid nonsense? I want you to think for yourself. This is the beauty of the Quran and reflecting and reality.
How do we avoid nonsense in our social environments? People who talk nonsense people who share nonsense go look at certain people who send you messages and what did they send you this? Some of them send you nonsense. They don't send meaningful things they send non stop funny videos. Go on to social media. What are we seeing now? A world bombarded with nonsensical content, young people watching hours and hours and hours of wrong and bad influenced nonsense.
Okay, Muslims, believers was trying to claim to be believers and then we spent one to three hours in our feeds or in our chats talking nonsense, not deep, not meaningful, not engaging, learning, not reading, not studying the Quran. So we have to try to avoid as much nonsense as possible. And you sisters, I myself, we need to gauge that. Where are my nonsense sources? And I need to start cutting them out. And it's not not easy. It's not easy because it's so habitual within us. And you need an accountability partner, you need someone to ask you how much time did you spend today, you need to install apps to check how much time you're spending on different things on your digital devices. You
need to look at where you're just kind of floating around throughout the day and not actually being directive in your use of time. Who else are the believers? They work for charity? What do we do for sadaqa? Are we signed up to some automated sadaqa? Do we help whenever there's a cause even if it is just forwarding or emailing out a message? What else is this believer successful believer someone who guards their chastity How do you protect your environment from the opposite gender from inappropriate
interactions with the opposite gender, or from looking at the opposite gender. Right? Some people might send you videos or clips or whatever, and it doesn't show very moral or
types of images or, you know, some people even love Islamic series shows and they send each other photos of the actors in it. Because these characters are Muslims and now it's okay. You know, and they'll say, oh, this warrior, he's so hot. He's this is that and this, this is not chaste. Right? Whether you're married or not, it's not for us to be like looking and gawking and salivating over such types of imagery. That's not our way. So these people got their chastity except from their spouses or their dependents for their free from blame. Whoever seeks beyond that whoever
goes beyond what Allah Subhana Allah has permitted these other transgressors again, anyone who sins and goes beyond these are the transgressors, those who are faithful to their trusts and pledges you make a promise you a part of, you know, you've given a trust, you've been entrusted with something and you're faithful to it. This is a quality of the believer, those who safeguard their praise and look at that from Allah within these nine verses allies mentioned twice. So you want to understand how to be steadfast in Ramadan. Sorry, not in Ramadan in lockdown. See, I don't even want to say pretend we're in lockdown. Let's pretend we're in Ramadan.
You want to be safeguarding yourself or improving yourself or strengthen yourself or being steadfast in lockdown. Your Salah is such an important key, you safeguard it, you do it on time, and you try to find ways to humble yourself and be deeply connected. That's a project and exciting adventure in and of itself. Okay, start talking to Allah about these worries and stresses that you have pulled them out to him. So who are these successful believers? They are the inheritors, what will they inherit? No inherit paradise where they're in they will dwell forever.
You want motivators to be steadfast in lockdown, how much more motivation do we need look at these points if we just take can live a life where we check off these points and do these so that we can be the me known, you know those true believers and then inherit paradise forever. If we can just tick off these things be good, devout, righteous moral believers in Alas, mozzarella, with a good mindset, a good heart set good soul set, right about our religion, about our Lord, and about our difficult circumstances, to teach and train ourselves and discipline ourselves to be okay with our circumstances and accept and say Alhamdulillah Hara Bilal. I mean, this is from Allah, I accept it
wholeheartedly, I submit to what is, I submit to what is that I have no power for myself to change, you know, I can't change this current situation or circumstance, I've got to find a way to navigate it that is aligned with my morals and my principles that I have chosen as a sincere believer or as a family, whatever it might be. And I have to have a good you know, way of thinking about the outcome of how things will turn out and I will lean into trusting Allah subhanaw taala then you have hope
in Allah subhanaw taala that can really power power you through
power you through in life, inshallah.
All right, we're going to stop and finish up. I'm going to give you guys some real quick just practical tips within your house within your day
that will inshallah help you to be steadfast, but also build just habit that's going to lift your mood, so that you can be more proactive as a believer, as a mother as a woman. Get dressed in the morning and make your bed. Get dressed as early as you can get, try not to stay in your pajamas with an unmade bed. It just does something to your energy for the day. Okay, and it's might sound like a little simple thing. What do you mean, but my pajamas are so comfy and they're warm. I know. We all love being in our pajamas, but it won't make you feel like you're going to want to be as productive as you could be making your bed even again, it's like if the beds unmade, it's they're calling you
to like come back crawl in here and just snuggle up it's cold and you're not going anywhere anyway all these types of things which can start that spiral make your bed get up and get dressed as if you had to go out and do something even if you don't and then say okay, beds made I'm tidy rooms tidy What am I going to do now? Okay.
read and reflect lots of reading sisters don't know and not reading online please not reading memes and very short snippets and post read books. Go back to tradition. Always has it been you know as Muslims books, you know the mention of Kitab the mention of Gollum you know the mention of Accra in the Quran Allah once
To read he wants us connected to writing and books, okay? Very very important and to reflect upon our readings as well. Daily Quran and study so every day fill your life with some Baraka that sprinkle of Baraka. Now people say I have to have my coffee in the morning or I'm in the mood for the day, do your Quran in the morning and set that mood for the day, get sunshine as much as you can sit outside in the sun, eat good food, nutritious food and drink water. Okay, so that your your input is very, very important. And that includes the sunshine on your skin being very important as well. Food in moderation, you don't need to eat your fill, you don't need to eat much at all,
really.
So don't be on someone who's inclined towards this whole binge eating thing. And drinking lots of water. So staying active, simple things going for a walk, or you know, doing some resistance exercises in your home, you don't need a lot of space. But stay active is very important for your moods, for your mental health. Limit and filter your sources of influence. As you guys heard, it was a major point in what I mentioned today connected to fear and anxiety and overall overwhelm and our spiritual state is our sources of influence, which are our sources of communication and information. Okay. Your influence is your information and your communication. Who are you talking to? What are
you talking about? What are they sending you? What are you seeing throughout the day, if you're spending, you know, out of your three hours of use on your phone a day two and a half of it is watching, you know, videos, you know, from the news or the opposite of that conspiracy videos, you're watching too much that it's going to impact you. It's not going to call you to your spirituality, it's gonna call you to fear worry, concern, confusion, okay? So be grounded in you know what you expose yourself to when it comes to digital influences. Choose really solid and sound influences Family and Community Connect. It's really important. How can you connect you can make you
know, meals, do something thoughtful write letters, write poems to each other, have a family chat, have a video chat as a family, just try to stay connected, and reach out to community members who don't have family especially do a brainstorm thing who doesn't have family checking in on them, who is alone very, very alone right now. Elderly revert single mothers and just checking on them. And also deep gratitude and optimism. A lot of what I mentioned today largely was mindset stuff, the mindset of a believer, be grateful for what is playing in front of you. And even the fact that the hard things that are in front of you, as believers we also believe that they are higher. You know,
the Prophet sallallahu sallam said, amazing is the affair of the believer. Right? He's tested with hardship, something bad happens to him. And he is grateful and he's patient. When something good happens to the believer, is also just grateful and accepts and is cheerful. So our state should always be cheerful and optimistic. And in a state of acceptance and seeing the wisdom behind it. Everything that happens to you is by the will of Allah, everything that happens to you is for your own good. Everything that happens to you around you is according to Allah's wisdom, everything that happens to you and around you was planned by Allah someone's Allah and decreed by him 50,000 years
before He created the heavens and span Allah, how and why, what useful or be if we live in resistance to what he has decreed. $100 If we are questioning and challenging what he has decreed it's written, fulfill your responsibilities, be patient and keep moving forward.
I would like to open up for question and answers. I hope that this session and things that I've covered have made sense and have connected to each other and you didn't find it this connected or anything. I would love to know your takeaways. If you do have a question, feel free to write it or ask it.
But yeah, we'd love to hear from you guys if you have a little more time and we'd like to ask any questions.
Or if there's anything that I didn't cover, or that didn't make sense that you'd like clarification on let me know inshallah.
So how do we get the recording to share? Well, I've recorded it and I will, maybe I'll upload it onto Instagram and Facebook and I'll just double check and make sure that the sister who came on camera isn't shown in it. I'm pretty sure it doesn't when it records it usually records only the speaker's head and the slides.
So yeah, inshallah I will share it.
And otherwise feel free to send me a message and make sure that I send you the link to once I have shared if you can't find it, so just find me on any platform. You can also email me or you can also join my
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because well I have a WhatsApp group. I don't know if Shan tells it to share the link
but if you guys want to jump on WhatsApp, you're welcome to join us as well. So you can get regular updates on any different sessions and talks that we're doing.
And it's interesting people are still coming in mashallah to the talk,
even though we've just finished but yeah, we will
hopefully share the
the recording of this inshallah. I'm just going to share the link with Shentel and Shin token may be posted in the group here
I want to share the WhatsApp link with you guys so that users can
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