Sakeenah, Design Your Day to be Full of Tranquility

Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah the sisters Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatu.

This is your sister Fatima Baraka tala. And I'm here to speak to you about designing your day to be filled with Sakina. And, you know, I want to tell you that actually, the the name of the word Sakina has actually a special place in my heart because my mom actually named me Sakina when I was born.

And it was only later that she wrote my name down as Fatima. So,

at Hamdulillah, the word Sakina has a special place in my heart.

So, designing your day to be filled with Sakina, when I was looking into this topic, and you know what ideas I could share with you, on this topic, one of the beautiful things that I found was

an extract from

you know, the, the great scholar, Immanuel highams book,

in which he talks about,

you know, the levels and the stations that the human soul can reach, right?

The different levels of Islamic spirituality that a person can reach. He talks about a station of Sakina, right, in his book, and what he says is something really beautiful, he shared something really beautiful with us, he says that, his own chair, his teacher, even taymiyah

whenever he had some kind of difficulty, or he had some kind of turbulence,

or as he says, whenever matters became intense, shall Islam even Tamia Rahim Allah would recite the verses of tranquility that I have a Sakina

from the Quran, okay. And these are six verses, six verses in which, or six is in which a lot of Allah mentioned Sakina. Even Tamia used to recite them, and even will claim says, I once heard him say concerning a serious incident that afflicted him during an illness of his, that when the matter became acute, I said to my relatives, and those around me, recite the verses of tranquility, the verses of Sakina, I would then be relieved from this condition, and my heart would be freed of its troubles. So Pamela, and bill came, talks about himself and says, I also experienced this on reading these verses. When my heart became disturbed over something that troubled it, I experienced their

tremendous effect in terms of the calm and peace they brought to it.

So Pamela, and he describes Sakina as being Bluemont Nina, which is that, that sense of peace and stillness, right? And walk our composure, that feeling of complete, you know, serenity and composure,

that Allah Subhana, Allah causes to descend upon the heart of his servant in times of disquieting troubles. So Pamela sisters, this life, you know, if you live long enough, at some point, you're going to have disquiet and troubles, you know, there's not none of us are free from times that really shake our hearts or cause us to have some Inner Turbulence in our lives. And we yearn and we wish that a las panatela would return our hearts to a state of Sakina and peace, right? You know, whether you're a billionaire, or you're the poorest person, whether you've lived a life of luxury, or you live in utter, you know, difficulty. So Pamela, every human being

cares about the way they feel they want to be happy. They want to have peace of mind. And being extremely wealthy, or being extremely poor does not guarantee a person's happiness or sadness. You know, there's a famous book called affluenza.

And in it, it talks about how the person who wrote it, he researched people in the east and the west and people from rich backgrounds and poor backgrounds. And he actually found that the people in some of the poorest places, okay, or poorer places had a higher level of happiness and

Peace of Mind than those sometimes from wealthy places, right? So what that tells you is that, you know, this state of the heart, the state of the heart is not something that is necessarily attached to,

you know, the your material situation, right. In fact, that's why I've been okay. And when he describes,

you know, Sakina, he says, Sakina is not something that you acquire through spiritual works, right and exertion. So it's not your hard work and your efforts that cause you to have Sakina, to have tranquility and peace of mind. He says, actually, Sakina is something that is gifted to you directly by Allah, through his unmitigated grace. So Pamela, it cannot be earned through spiritual works. So in other words, if you want Sakina, you have to seek it from Allah, you have to seek it from Allah, and how many times have we been in situations when,

you know, our heart is feeling so turbulent, or it's we were in a state of flux, and we look around us for help, we look to the people around us, or we look to other things to comfort us. And in the end, we realize actually, you know, I need to talk to our law, allies, the only one you can actually give me peace in this situation.

So Subhan, Allah, this is,

this is how

I am described.

You know, Sakina is something that is bestowed upon us, by Allah? And what is the sense of ease that we want? I mean, in which areas of life does this sense of ease, or Sakina? You know, where is it constituted?

Well,

the Sakina that we seek is Sakina

that calms us when we are in a state of fear, right, frees us from state from a state of anxiety, fear, you know, anxiety about the past, the future, and the present, right.

But also, it's what gives us a sense of peace.

When fitten, or, you know, when we're exposed to fit, and when we're exposed to temptations, when we're exposed to doubt, or, you know, things that could test that could increase it also that could decrease out your mind, right? So, what Sakina does, it gives us a sense, a strong and firm human antiochene during those turbulent times, that's why we really want to seek it. So what are the ayat of sekian I thought I should start by actually, you know, reading the verses of sakeena to you so that you will know where they are in the Quran, so that you could perhaps look them up.

So here are the six verses of sakeena The first is in search of Baccarat. I am number 248, where Allah Subhana Allah says, we'll call Allah home near bu home, in the area Tamaki and yet to como booth fee Sakina tomura become right. So the Prophet said to them, the sign of his kingship is, that there shall come to you that Ark or the boots, were in his tranquility from your Lord. So this is obviously Bunny, it's like you

almost panatela is talking to

the Prophet was Allah is relating to us that the Prophet that their Prophet told them about the taboo right.

And then

in the Quran, surah number nine, iron number 26 Allah Subhana Allah says from Angela low sec iannetta who Allah Rasool e Ll momineen. When a loss and down his sakeena on his profit and the believers, okay. And then in iron, and in the same surah an ayah number 40 last time that Allah says, if your holy sahibi healer has an in law hamana for anzahl Allahu sechi netta who la he was a year the Who did you know the lambda Roja when he said to his companion, of course, this is about Abu Bakr Siddiq and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when they were in the cave during the digital right

When he said to him,

Do not despair in Allah and Allah is with us. And then God caused his sakeena to descend upon them. So it's upon Allah they were in such a state of fear. You know, Bucher was so afraid for the Prophet sallallahu Sallam safety. And the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said to him, don't don't fear lies with us and Allah cause them to feel a sense of calm and tranquility and Sakina

and supported them with invisible forces Subhana Allah, invisible forces

and then the next I have Sakina is in Surah number 48 i a number four who Alevi and zealous psyche and at a few kulu below me, Nina, Leah's dad, Eamon ma Imani him, when he law he you know to semi wet he will old what can Allahu alleman hakima

He it is Who sent down tranquility Sakina into the hearts of the believers so that they would have more faith added to the present faith.

Gods are the hosts to God belong the hosts of heaven and the earth and allies all knowing all wise.

Okay.

The hosts Well, I don't know if that's a good translation it should be

you know the forces and the armies of the heavens and the earth you know belong to Allah and allies all knowing wise. And then the next I have Sakina the fifth ayah is in

chapter 48 I am number 18 again,

lock other audio loveline. In me Nina is you by your own Aqa data shader for alima. Matthew kulu be him fans Allah Sakina de la masaba, whom fat hunka Reba, God was well pleased with the believers allows well pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree, and he knew

what was in their hearts. Thus he sent down tranquility on them and rewarded them with a near victory.

And then the last ayah Allah Subhana Allah tells us in chapter 48 iron number 26

if Jalla levena Kapha roofie kulu Be humble Hermia to Hamid selja helia Tifa anzahl Allahu sakeena de O, Allah Rasool E, LL, meaning that when the disbelievers had set up in their hearts

here, it's translated as show chauvinism, the chauvinism of the age of ignorance, then, Allah sent down his tranquility on his messenger and the believers. Right, he sent down a Sakina. So these six iots Okay, all I have Sakina in the Quran that even taymiyah recommended his student even it'll take him and both of them attest to the blessing that they received from reciting these verses in attaining Sakina for their own hearts, right.

The length of the of time that we have for this talk, does not permit me to go into each of these verses and the you know, the reasons for the revelation etc. But I would really encourage you the assistance to go to go to the books of Tafseer. And just look up these six verses, you know, just take a bit of time, look up these six verses, and the context in which they were revealed. Because what these six verses are about our situations in which the believers were, you know, perturbed, the believers hearts were shaking, there was some thing, causing them harm or trouble. And Allah subhanaw taala revealed his Sakina and bestowed his Sakina upon them, right.

And so, just as a Lost Planet, Allah gave these verses to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and he would, you know, he would tell him the stories from the Quran, why in order to to give him peace of mind, we also must turn to the Quran, the sisters in order to attain that sense of Sakina you know, during difficult times in life because even the prophets of Salaam needed that, right.

So, our Deen, as you know, encourages us to set intentions. And so when I'm looking at the topic of,

you know,

designing your day to be filled with Sakina The key thing that I'm thinking about

Apart from, you know, reciting these verses, and asking Allah Subhana, Allah for that sense of Sakina is, you know, how can we have a day that is designed to be as on turbulent as possible, right? To be as peaceful, and help us with our sense of serenity, as much as possible, I would say the first thing is to set our intentions for the day, right? set our intentions, you know, when you decide to yourself that you're going to be a happy person, right? When you decide for yourself that you're going to bring joy into your life and the lives of your family, when you decide for yourself that you want a calm, and you know, a serene day,

then you can bring that energy into that day, you know, we are very much able to control the energy of our day. And even if there are people around us who cause us, you know, harm or they kind of spoil that sense of serenity that we feel, once we decide that we're going to be the ones who bring the serenity to our own lives, and were the ones who are going to bring that energy, that positive energy, then, you know, we stopped being reactive, we stopped going into reactive mode, and behaving or reacting to situations, difficult situations in the worst ways, right? In the worst versions of ourselves outside. Instead, we find within ourselves the ability to muster up, you know, the best

version of ourselves, the best version of ourselves. Now, many situations have you seen, right, especially in the you know, when you have, when you go big family and crazy things are happening, and how many situations have you been in where, you know, when you mustered up the courage, and you had the strength and you had the will, the sheer will, to bring a sense of calm and peace to a potentially turbulent situation, you manage to bring that sense of calm and peace, even though initially it didn't look like it was possible, right? It just takes one person, sometimes, you know, to have the will to, to cause and to bring peace to a situation in order to actually, you know, make

it a reality. So this is the first thing we must do is to set our intentions, right? What are the How would you describe the way you want to present and the way you want to experience your day, that's the first thing I would, I would encourage you to do. And one of the practices that I do that really helps me is in my,

my phone,

right, I actually put reminders two or three times a day, which,

you know, remind me of certain words, right? That will help me to remind myself to be in that kind of mode, right? So if you can think of three words that would sum up how you want to experience the day in terms of having a peaceful and Sakina fill the day,

I would encourage you to put those three words, as a reminder for yourself on your phone. So it could be words like calm, patient, passionate, right? It just reminds you when those words come up on your screen, that, you know, you ask yourself, Am I coming? Am I being in the world in that way? Right, and it really helps you. So I would encourage you to do something like that.

So planning, planning your day, can also bring a lot of peace to your day, right? So either planning the night before,

or Platt taking 20 minutes out every morning, to literally plan your day on paper, right? And just have a plan for the way you the day is going to pan out. Because I think some some of us, you know, we walk into the day without intentions and just completely going with the flow. Right. And I know that's sometimes necessary. But if that's the way you're going into your day, every single day, then, you know, is it any wonder that you have chaos in your life, right? Is any wonder that things don't go according to the kind of mental plans that you made. You know, it's really important to sometimes write these things down rather than just thinking them or hoping for the best right? It's

important to set the intention and to

To attach a time to it, right?

Because we only have a limited number of hours every day. So that's my next tip, you know, planning your day, either the night before, or first thing in the morning, you know,

being very deliberate, you know about the way you design your day, so that you're not constantly in firefighting mode. I think a lot of us, especially as moms, you know, we can be in firefighting mode all the time constantly, you know, having to battle away or deal with difficult situations and things that suddenly spring up. And I'm not saying those things will never spring up. But the more deliberate, we are about planning our day, and hopefully we can minimize some of those disruptions, right.

So

why is this important? Why is it important for us to have Sakina? Anyway, as you know, I think some of us might be thinking that, you know, why is it important for us to seek Sakina in our day? Well, I would say that, you know, especially as the mothers and you know, the heads of the female head of the house, right?

our well being affects the rest of the household, doesn't it? Right? How many times have you noticed that when you're in a good mood, right, and when you're positive, and when you're feeling really light and happy, the rest of the household seems to be very light and happy as well. And when you're miserable, for some reason, that energy kind of rubs off on your husband and him the other members of your family. There's something about us women, that makes us very special, you know, we bring, we bring an energy to the home. And so it's really important, we take care of our well being in our state of mind, right?

Otherwise, you know, the default. If we don't do this deliberately, it tends to be chaos, right. So what are some of the things what other things can we do apart from planning and, you know, setting intentions for our day?

Here are some of the ideas that I'd like to share with you.

Making Vicar making Vickery such a powerful way to bring Sakina to your day. Anytime you're feeling a little bit stressed anytime you think you're facing a difficult situation, the whole Lola quwata illa Billah Hola, Lakota La Villa has to be a law and it

has to be alone am I lucky? Keep repeating you know these car. keep remembering Allah Subhana Allah He will be handy here sapan ally lobby or keep making it still far even stuffing a lot of stuff will last for the law. Or if you're in a really difficult situation, La Ilaha Illa and the super Anika in econ to Mina Bali mean la lanta subhanak. I Nick on two minute volume in the door of Eunice la Salaam, right. So all of these are cards that have been given to us. So Pamela we should use them because Allah tells us in the Quran that it is only through the vicar of Allah that

the hearts feel tranquil, right, the heights, the hearts find tranquility. So that is one of the most powerful ways that we have. And people don't even need to realize that we're trying to seek a sense of peace, you know, because we can make Vicar without people realizing it is our secret way of accessing Allah Subhana dial as you know, peace from Allah subhanaw taala. So make sure you use that, you know, make sure you keep your tongue

moist with the vicar of Allah.

We also we already mentioned the Quran,

turning to the Quran, reading a portion of Quran every day, and especially the verses of Sakina if you if you in particular feeling you know that you need sense of Sakina.

But even turning to the stories of the prophets, you know, when you read the story of use of la Santa, it just gives you that sense that it's a panel lie, you know, the success is for the believers in the end, right? No matter what a believer goes through in life. When you look at the story of use of an exam, it gives you so much hope that in the end things that seem like you know, the negatives that seem like actually the things that are harmful could it can end up being your strength, right.

So let's seek solace and hope from from those wonderful stories that last one of Allah has told us in

the next and this is one of the most important ways of seeking peace and Sakina is

Through the Salah. Right? Whenever the Prophet salallahu alaihe salam was in a situation of difficulty whenever he felt stress,

difficult situations, whether it was, you know, the threat of war or any any kind of situation, he would go and pray, pray extra prayers, right, the coolness of his eyes was in the Salah, he said,

Allah made the coolness of his eyes in the Salah. So we too, should seek, you know, coolness, through Salah, through turning to Allah Who is the only one who really can change and affect

any kind of change in our lives.

So turn to Salah,

I would also say, you know, have a spot in your home, for Sakina a place in your home where you can retreat to sometimes you know, and things are getting a bit mad.

somewhere you can retreat to and just get your moments of peace, you know, maybe you can use that time to make, make some liquor, or even to meditate, you know, have a few moments of meditation, where you literally Close your eyes, and you just

become silent, become silent and have a little bit of silence in your life. Right? That's also important.

You can make you feel very refreshed afterwards.

There's this concept of self care, right taking care of yourself, have a list on your phone, in your notes of these all these types of things, you know, things that you could do whenever you're feeling a little bit turbulent, and you're feeling that things are difficult, or that they're fitting are all around you and you have your list, you'll go to list of things,

good things, wholesome things that you could do,

that will feed you in a positive way and bring you Sakina some of those things can be self care things right? Apart from of God and salah and all of the spiritual things, they can be things like taking a break, taking a coffee break, you know,

calling a mentor of yours, have a phone call with a mentor of yours, reaching out to a friend

doing something for somebody else. You know, sometimes we're so stuck in our own heads. And in our own problems that we forget that there's a world out there of people who need us and need our support.

Sometimes when we get out of ourselves and start serving and start doing things for other people, it brings us immense, an immense sense of tranquility, right? Because it gets us out of our kind of over an analysis mode, right, which we can, especially as women, sometimes we can we can go into right?

Take a nap subpanel How many of us are just walking around, like really tired. And that's the real reason for our sense of lack of Sakina, right? Take a nap.

Take a shower, you know, have your little go to list of self care things that you can do that you know that after you do them, you're going to feel that little bit better, you know.

And lastly, I would like to share with you, you know,

that it's really important that we get enough sleep, you know, we live in a time when we start our day, often in the wrong way, which is by checking email or checking the news or, you know, basically feeding our minds in the wrong way first thing in the morning, right. And that by the way, that's like the worst thing you can start your day with checking your phone, because it just gets you into reactive mode. And you probably read something that will kind of spoil your mood for the rest of the day and bleed into the next things that you're going to do. So I would really stay away from the phone. First thing in the morning and last thing at night.

But also making sure that you get enough sleep. You know many of us our sleep pattern is upside down.

And a lot of times I made the night for sleep, and he made the date for being awake. And the we don't realize the effect that daylight has on our eyes, right? daylight actually triggers in us a sense of being awake and night triggers in us the need to sleep. But sometimes we as human beings, we keep trying to override that. And it has negative consequences right not only on our mood, but also on our energy levels. And actually can cause all sorts of health problems also

sorts of health problems. So I would really encourage you there's a great book, actually called the circadian code, really encourage you to read that book, or listen to it as an audiobook, because it really brings home, why it's important for us to have for our life to be kind of to rotate around the natural order, that last one that I created in terms of the day and the night, right.

And it's why it's important for us to get enough sleep.

So in Sharla, by being deliberate in this way, we can get out of firefighting mode, and we can start crafting our day in a way that's more conducive for us having sakeena. Right.

So dear sisters, I hope that that's been helpful, I've just shared with you, the six out of Sakina, which you must recite, and which you must look up in sha Allah, in order to be bestowed with Sakina, I've shared with you some of the things that the prophets are allowed to send and would use, you know,

the Salah of God, or an

I could add to that as well. You know, things like getting some fresh air going out.

Taking care of yourself and having some things in the day that we could, we could refer to as you know, self care aspects, try to do at least three things a day that you would recall, regard to be self care, things that you enjoy doing, or things that bring you a sense of serenity and calm.

And,

and ask Allah Subhana Allah to give you a sense of Sakina ask Allah Subhana Allah to Allah because as even Liam said, Sakina is not something that you strive to get, or, you know, it's not something you can just get through, you know, doing a certain formula of things, right. It's something that Allah subhanaw taala literally bestows upon you.

My dear sisters, I hope that you can, you know, you've benefited from this. And I've given you some ideas about how to, you know, incorporate a sense of tranquility and serenity into your day. I pray that Allah, Allah makes it easy for you.

One of the last things I'll share with you is, you know, it's really important for us when we're planning our day, to make sure the members of our family on board as well, right. Because when we're not in this world alone, we need the cooperation of people around us and especially our family members, right? So it's really important that we craft our day in such a way that is as stress free as possible, right. So if there are things that are musts, that we must get done things like cooking, for example, or shopping, you know, dealing with homework or certain important tasks that need doing early on in the day, we should get those done early on in the day rather than leaving

them late and then panicking, right, get those musts done early in the day, and then you'll have a lot more peace of mind for the rest of the day.

And I also would like to emphasize the benefit of waking up early, but obviously for that you have to go to sleep early as well. The benefits of getting up early, and the serenity that that brings you you know beginning your day with the Quran, beginning your day with a walk or some kind of exercise, these types of things, you know, really important to open up your mind, open up your body, open up your you know, your sense of well being and your sense of serenity and connection with a loss of one of the other. I pray that Allah Subhana Allah grants you all sakeena and grants me Sakina mean from me. And I pray that Allah Subhana Allah blesses you always in everything that you

do, my dear sisters, I know that you're always work hard, you know, sisters out there doing a really good, great job, doing a very difficult job.

In often circumstances that are not conducive, and sometimes, you know, in a society that kind of, is not very positive about us, right. But you know, if we make pleasing Allah subhanaw taala, our priority then in sha Allah, Allah will put the love of people the love of our society and in the hearts of you know, people around us.

With that in sha Allah, I will leave you so panic alone mobilehome the shadow Allah Allah Allah and as

salaam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh