Hamza Yusuf – President on the Mindful Messenger
AI: Summary ©
The recent gathering for a Christian community was organized by a church called the Avalon, which wanted to be there, but were in a church. The community's representatives explain that the gathering was organized by a group of people who wanted to be there, and that it was a group of Muslims. They emphasize the importance of celebrating the birth of Muslims and praying for the tenth century, setting aside for other activities, and learning to be mindful of one's actions and events. The transcript touches on the spirituality of Islam, avoiding false teaching, setting aside for other activities, and reading the Quran and setting aside for other activities.
AI: Summary ©
Hola hamdulillah
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This Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. First of all, what a joy to be back in these gatherings, which we were really deprived of, and now, increasingly,
people saying that
there was just a lot of madness during that time, but unprecedent unprecedented time. So we thank Allah subhana wa, Donna, for the gathering. And mashallah, I know a lot of people wanted to be here. But because it was so overwhelmingly
just
desirable that so many of you came out early, and so inshallah people that are online, that weren't able to be here in person, we thank you for just your patience, and Inshallah, one day we'll have a
much larger place to gather. But this is a blessed place. It's a sanctified place, it was built for God, at the height of the Depression. And it was given to us by Christians, for us to worship our Lord, as we understand him Alhamdulillah. So mindfulness is a very interesting term, it's become very popular as Dr. Aisha said, one of the things about mindfulness is it's actually a relatively recent word, it goes back to the 16th century, but it was almost entirely neglected until about
1965. And from then on, you see this, right? So if you look online, you can see usage, and you see this line, it just goes nothing. And then suddenly, around the 1960s, it starts to creep up. And by 2019, it's it's gone way up. And there's so many things about mindfulness online, everybody now has had some experience if you live in America, especially in California with this idea of mindfulness. So you have now they have corporations that have mindfulness. So they have people come and they tell you how to be more mindful. But what's really unusual to me is,
what is your mind full of
it? Because one of the most interesting things about the modern concept of mindfulness, it's actually what we would call the Quran, knifes.
Like you're doing remembrance of yourself. So where does this term come from? Good. I got interested in just where did this all comes from? Well, it came from Buddhism.
Because the Buddha, who I actually wrote an article in a book on Buddhism and Islam, a lot of people don't know this, but the Avalon is we're actually great Buddhist. And Afghanistan was one of the major Buddhist centers in the pre modern world, and they became Muslim very quickly.
In fact, the great shrine keepers, who are known as the barmac kids barmac was not a family. It was actually a clan that kept the Buddhist shrine in Afghanistan. So the Buddha, but amico were actually Buddhists that converted to Islam, and then they actually helped bring all of their administrative knowledge into the Bassett empire. So I think it's very interesting that so many Buddhists became Muslim.
And I was struck by the fact that one of the great heresy ologists and chatty scholars, in a book I was reading, he actually had the Buddhists as a section in *,
what they call Milla Nell,
which is religions and sects. So he had the section
On Buddha, and he said, If what the Buddhists say is true about this man, he must be ill Hildur which really struck me. And so then I started researching all of what Muslims have said about Heather and the parallels between Heather and Buddha's Buddha are amazing. So I wrote this article called Buddha in the Quran, question mark. And it was actually translated into Arabic by the Ministry of our coffee in Morocco, because the minister was very struck by the argument, because,
according to our tradition, was actually a prince who escapes from the palace, and goes on this journey in search of knowledge, and then has an element of Dooney. It's not revelation. It's a type of enlightenment. That happens. So the Buddha talked about
mindfulness, and he actually has a very famous in the it's called Sati Putana, which is a lecture that he gave on mindfulness.
So then I want you to know well, what was the word that they translated from mindfulness? And it's a Pali word, which is the original language of Buddha. And in fact, Dr. Cleary argues that in the earliest Buddhist manuscripts was called the Dhammapada. That the Buddha actually predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad's a lot he said, I'm so it's very interesting that the word is called sati.
So I looked up Sati Pali what what did it originally mean? I want to know what it originally meant. And it meant remembrance of the sacred scriptures. So it actually literally means remembrance. So it's Vica.
So mindfulness that's been translated into English from Sati is really vicar. So then it becomes what are you doing vicar of?
That's the question. Now, we live in an age of immense distractions. Arguably, this is the most distracted age in human history. Now, what does distraction mean? Well, according to the dictionary,
it means a state of being distracted. This is what drove people like Derrida crazy.
But the second meaning is mental distress, or derangement,
mental distress, or derangement? Thank you that helps mental distress or derangement. Now, isn't it interesting that we're living in one of the most mentally deranged times in human history where people no longer even know what they are?
They forgotten God. They think that this is all meaningless.
And they're completely distracted. So what are they distracted from and who's distracting them? One of the problems with distraction is,
if you're looking for it, there's plenty of people that will help you find it.
And so there are all these merchants out there that are trying to advert turn your attention toward, that's what advert means to turn towards. So an advertisement is to entice you, and to get your attention now, social media was designed to keep you on it. They don't call it surfing the web for nothing. First of all, a web. What do you do with a web? A spider knows what you do with a web. You capture flies, you liquidate their innards, and then you suck the life out of them. And then there's just a shell lying there on the web.
Right? What's a net? Like internet? What's a net for a nets for catching things? Right. So now as somebody who actually served in my younger days, one of the really interesting things about surfing is you're just trying to stay on the wave has you
you're not controlling the wave, the wave is controlling you, you're just trying to stay afloat.
And so surfing the web, you're just moving and it's taken you so distraction
creates mental distress.
The third meaning in the dictionary is that which divides attention.
The word in in English decide to decide something is comes from a word which means to cut off desideri
Why would decide mean to cut off because what you decide cuts off everything else. Once you've made your decision, you're cutting off other things, and you've made your decision. And so
People have to make decisions like where do you spend your time? What do you give your time to? Now the word in Arabic for distraction is il Ha,
il her own,
which means to pull somebody intellectual,
to bring them into entertainment, which in the dictionary is the pleasurable occupation of the mind. So, who's who's occupying your mind? Now, what you give your attention to, will determine your reality.
What you give your attention to will determine your reality.
What does that mean? It means that if you're always watching
news about crime,
you're going to think that crime is far more prevalent than it actually is. And you will be scared, you'll be walking around thinking
like Chicken Little that the sky is falling.
So what you give your attention to is going to determine your reality. And what God is asking us is to give our attention to God. Now what is the in Arabic intention? What is attention? Well, in English, it has a lot of really interesting meanings. One of them is courtesy.
Like you say, he was very attentive. To me.
attentions are what a lover gives their beloved, attention is also a word for devotion.
So your attention is your devotion. It's what you're attending to. It's what you're giving your time to. So in Arabic, one of the words for it is t mom.
It's what you're concerned with. It's your hum, it's what preoccupies your mind. It's what your mind is full of. And so the prophets Allah is set em said, Man, Jana humo, Mohammed wa hidden cuff Allahu Allahu Sarel, whom whoever makes his concerns, in other words, gives his attention to one thing, Allah will take care of all of his other concerns.
What's that? hemel Ankara?
It's hemel Ankara. So we're living in a time
where people's concerns are completely fragmented. And so there's all this mental derangement because people are so distracted now Imam Ali or I'll be London who said
and it's often attributed to the Prophet size M and they may very well may be metaphor, because it is often said with Allah rasool Allah a Nason Iam for either Magill and teboho. He didn't say a state pedal. If they die, they wake up No, they come to attention. In T BA, is is Nabhi is somebody who's who's smart, intelligent, because he's focused he's giving his attention to what's important. And so in T BA, is what happens when people died. The prophets Allah Islam said in one iteration, move to covenant to move to die before you die. In other words come to attention before you're brought to attention.
And in Sahih Muslim it's Urdu and Fusco. menos habra, COBOL consider yourselves already dead it has the same meaning. In other words, wake up now. And this is what mindfulness is really about. It's vicar, it's coming to one of the words for attention in Arabic is also Yehovah.
It's to be awake and aware. You're attentive, you're aware, your mind is present.
So already by the 1880s, Nietzsche noted one thinks with one's watch in one's hand, he complained.
Even as one eats one's midday meal while reading the latest news of the stock market. This is distraction.
Everything is done with the clock. One of the most interesting things about time. And one of my favorite writers Lewis Mumford said
that when the modern mindset came to dominate, this is what he wrote, eternity ceased gradually to serve as the measure and focus of human actions.
In its place came the dictatorship of the clock.
I mean, is that interesting?
People used to think about eternity, their lives were actually
determined by their understanding of eternity and one of the most common things about pre modern peoples is they mentioned death a lot. And one of the most notable qualities of modern people and postmodern people is they never talked about death.
Why did the pre modern people talk about death? When I was in the throne room of the former Queen Elizabeth now the throne room of King Charles,
I was taken there by Baroness Houdini, she's a Muslim in the House of Lords. So they took me into the throne room, I was getting a tour of the Parliament, and they have so they have this throne room. And there was this massive clock, given by the French king to the British monarch that had the Grim Reaper on top of it.
That's what the clock had it had the Grim Reaper. In other words, the angel of death was on top of it with his scythe, that that takes the souls in all of if you look and Dr. Yusuf knows this because he's been working with sundials in all of the pre modern sundials it will say things like Carpe Diem, and many Latin phrases things like in one of these hours you'll be seized.
People saw time as a reminder of their fight finitude as the reminder that they were finite beings in temporality. Modern people think they're going to live forever. They don't think about death. And one of the main reasons for this desire for distractibility is because
it preoccupies people from thinking about what is inevitable that they will die. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, ACTA Roman dickory had the mullah that do much remembrance of the destroyer of delights, death, not in a morbid sense, this is being unto death. This is embracing our mortality. Being aware of it models that hajj every night did death meditation.
He would recite poems about death
Schiffman al Habib and his Do you want to Zoho Do you know, be prepared for death they know who knows, you know when it's coming.
And they used to sing this on a on a on a regular basis to think about death.
The prophets Allah Allah it is Saddam was completely aware
of the presence of death. The Quran, death permeates the Quran, there's not a page that doesn't have the perfume of death, scented on it in the Quran. And this is not morbidity. This is not some kind of morbid or more badness. It's not more badness, it's actually to make you aware of the preciousness of the time that you have been given. This is the preciousness of life itself.
It's a great gift from Allah subhanho wa taala. And we wasted away with all of this insignificant concern.
There's one of the interesting things about the ancient Greeks is they were actually very concerned about distraction.
But what they saw was that it was an inner failure to use one's time on what one claim to value the most. The reason for treating distraction so seriously was straightforward. And it's the reason we ought to do so to what you pay attention will define you.
It will define you what you pay attention to will define you.
Seneca wrote a famous short book called the shortness of life. He was he's a great Roman philosopher,
and one of the notables from Rome.
And he talks about, you know, his fellow Romans pursuing political careers, they didn't really care about holding elaborate banquets, they didn't really enjoy baking their bodies in the sun. He literally says that sunbathing something Europeans tend to do other people's don't need to
do and to be honest, I suspect he probably was right. But the crucial point isn't that it's wrong to choose to spend your time relaxing, whether at the beach or on Buzzfeed. It's that the distracted person isn't really choosing at all. I mean, that's the key. You're not choosing it's quite the opposite. The word in Arabic is one of my favorite Arabic words, Torah. It literally means if you look at it, Kaya it comes from Kaya. So Tara
is a form in Arabic, which is it's to internalize something. So you're choosing the good, that's what MTR is, but it's either a real or an apparent good. That's the difference. And so distracted people are not choosing, they're not choosing a real or even an apparent good, they're surfing.
Everything will pull their attention. It's called the noonday devil in the old scholastic tradition, sloth, spiritual laziness, people that don't want to, to think about the inevitable.
One of the amazing things in this what I wanted to really talk about
is
one of our most important books, and it really is, it had an immense impact on Imam Al Ghazali is a book known as the reseller of Imam or koshary.
This was a foundational book in tasawwuf. And tell so Wolf is part and parcel with the religion of Islam. You cannot take the soul out of the religion of Islam without deracinated it without uprooting it.
There are many different types of Sufis. There are many Sufis that went astray, just like their folk AHA that went astray. There's moto Kalamoon that went astray, every science has its problems. But the idea somehow that tasawwuf like that mentioned in the result of Imam Dr. Shetty wasn't from Islam, nobody would have accepted that including even Tamia and even Abdul Wahab.
So,
in the result of Imamura machete, he has a chapter called El waqt.
Time.
And he says hotkey Petrovac the and that had a topic. How do you feel Matoba Harmon
Zulu, Allah had it in moto Hochberg,
that time for the people who have had realization. These are the verifiers that people that have penetrated the reality of this religion, and they have confirmed that it is true, and that if you practice it, you will get the results. In other words, it's falsifiable. This is poppers argument for a true science is that it can be replicated. So the Mohawk cone are the people that replicate again and again, the truth that we're told in our tradition, they falsify the religion, they show you that over and over again, we do these things, and we get the same results. Therefore it is a science. It's not one, it's not an illusion. So he says that with the people of topic,
it is something that is Matoba ham. It's not something tangible, it's something like illusory time.
But it's associated with something that is actually substantial. What he means by that, is that for us, we don't know if we're going to have the next minute. So I can make my plans for tomorrow. Tomorrow will come for a lot of people, but it's not going to come for everybody. That's the quality that it's motorhome. And this is why Sahil was asked Mehta yesterday Helene Sanne, when will the human being finally be still and he says, lemme yesterday for an laser o l walk the lady who were feeling
he will never be still until he knows that the only time he has is the moment that he is in.
And this is why Allah says about the Olia Allah in that Olia la joven Allah him. In other words, they have no fear of the future. What a home yes is unknown, and they don't grieve. They have no grief about the past, because they are able to work D. They're here, they're present. They're mindful, they're fully aware. This is the difference between them and everybody else. They are present. So that is what he's telling us.
So he says,
A man will say it got us a shot. I'll come at the beginning of next month. For the General Motor, wham. He doesn't really know that.
He only hopes you'll will see him what not so Shadia had his own with a haircut. But then the beginning of that next month will come. It will come but you might not come with it. And that is the nature of time. And then he says
I heard of it at the COP one of the great body things say Rahim Walla and work to man to be in contact with dunya. For work to her dunya we encounter biller aucuba for works to color AKBA were encountered the soror for work to casserole. Were in countable Husni for work to collision. You read to be harder and unworked mechanical Hardy Ballard incent that's exactly what I was saying earlier. What you give your attention to is your reality. This is exactly what a wily a duck said Rahim Allah the time the moment because walk can be moment it can be time tick them Washington, you know like it can you know this the Arabic language. Time is what you are in. If you are in the dunya your time as
the dunya if you're in the afterlife, your time is the afterlife. If you are enjoy your time as joy and if you're in grief, your time is grief. And then he says he means by this that time is essentially what overwhelms the human being. It's your experience. That's what time is its human experience. And this is what the clock has taken away from us. The clock is quite this quantifiable thing. Time is not quantifiable in reality time. Allah is time. Allah is the scholastics and I think they took it from us. The Scholastic's called it nook Stan's God is the eternal now.
If you look at
in a tidy fat's in the majority Johnny says a dot who will enter that him it is the eternal Now it's the now that stands still God is time let us know but Darfur in an adulthood via the lead one how do not curse time because I am time. I am time. Some of the Ummah interpreted as Bottineau Balti, Noosa man, it's that it's what does the man is to the outward time is to the inward.
Anyway, he goes on, it's a stunning thing. He talks about you know, Imam Shafi, he said, I learned two things from the Sophie's at work to cause saving them to be here cut back time is a sword if you don't cut with it. In other words, if you're not attentive, it will cut you down. We don't kill time, time kills us. Whenever you hear somebody say I'm gonna go kill some time. That is a person incomplete a hafla. Whenever you hear somebody, you know, if an author ILA, he said the fool gets up in the morning and says, What am I going to do today? And the wise man gets up and says, What is God going to do with me today?
So, he said and then he said when now sue in them Tisha, Aloha Bill Haley Shankara tubeshark. Your ego is such that if you do not preoccupy it,
focus it on the good it will focus you on on the on the harmful on the evil on the bad.
Again, Awatea dakak said at work to me brands is Haqiqa What am halka
time is a file. It just wears you down, doesn't obliterate you, it wears you down till there's nothing left. And this is why time is so important. He ends this by saying
Kulu yum and Maru yet holdover the urethral Alba Hazara tanto Yummly, every day passes, it takes a part of me
and it's urethral curl Bahasa Ratan AMD it gives remorse to my heart in other words for the time I wasted
and then it continues on, it continues on.
And then he says, I had a naughty is not legit. julu Don't worry that the Shaka Lohan julu It's like the people of the Fire whose skin is reborn and it's from the Quran. It says every time the skin gets burnt Allah recreates it I mean this is we know about these proprioceptive not receptive all the skin has these receptors that's why burn people that get burnt really deeply they don't feel it once they've gone through the skin. So the skin according to the Quran is recreated it's recreated so that the the receptors experience it. And then he says lay some and Mata for starhub we made an enamel made to me to hear
the dead one is not the one who
dies and then finds repose. Rather the dead is the dead among the living. What can you sue mechanic you helped me walk to he the intelligent one
is the one who's mindful of his time. He's giving the time it's due.
In Canada Octo Saho for PMO Sharia, when can I walk to home now that I've actually come on happier? So he's either in the happier, or in the Sharia depending on what time it is. So, these are very high meanings. And Imam CDIAC mazaraki says
that don't
he says people you thought it will Allah hospital had, they should be looked at according to their station. So what is asked of the
the people who are content with being common people we should all aspire to, to rise up to be higher than our position and common people is not the street sweeper. The street sweeper might be a knower of God. So common people in the Western understanding are people that don't have degrees and haven't gone to college and haven't gotten PhDs and things like that. Very often. Those are the most common people.
They're the most common people. So the
I wanted to now just talk a little bit about why we celebrate.
Really, we should celebrate every day,
the birth of our Prophet size, and the fact that he came into the world, we should be joyful. And one of the things about Muslims
is that wherever you go, it's a hallmark of the Muslims that they loved our prophets, Allied Islam. This is a quality that you find all over the world, even people bad Muslims, often love the Prophet sighs to them.
And I'll give you one example, when I was in England that was a Kuwaiti man. I shouldn't have said Kuwaiti. But anyway, I said it so
may God veil us all.
Anyway, there was a man from the Gulf, who was he was in a bar, and he was drinking. And, and then men asked him where he's from. He said, Kuwaitis it and it's Muslim, isn't it? He said, Yeah. He said, Then he said something about the prophesy, Sam. Well, this, Kuwaiti man broke his bottle and jab this man. Right? And obviously, you shouldn't do that. And really, I mean, but but the impulse is real. The impulse is real. There's people in you know, somebody said to me, all Muslims are always killing people over religion. I said, Well, I was in England at the time, I said, You guys kill people over football matches.
You know, I mean, in fact, there used to be a billboard that said, if your religion football worship was Skype, sky sky, it was like a football channel.
Because there are people that that's their religion, that's their attention is given to that. They watch all the games, they know all the names. They have all the stats, they know who can Bend It Like Beckham. Right? I mean, it's very interesting. This is people giving their time. And that's all we have is our time. This is what God has given us. This is a great gift that He's given us participation in being. So the prophets Elijah is sent him.
He
he was the most mindful of human beings. And that's really what I after, you know, thinking about mindfulness, and thinking about just how
how
so many people in the West are looking at these religions,
like Buddhism, and they've never considered Islam. It's just fascinates me. Because our profits analyze him is so extraordinary. And one of the most extraordinary things about our profit slice and him is his name. Because all over the world right now right now here we are in California. We advocate for Harvey unfair to decree he have a Sharpie, I lean on to Alpha military.
Right now. There's people all over the world doing Allahumma Salli, ala sayyidina, Muhammad wa ala Allahumma Salli, ala sayyidina, Muhammad
Allahumma, Salli, ala sayyidina, Muhammad,
all over the world. They're praising our prophets a light incident, and his name is Mohammed. That's not a name he got later the his mother named him Mohammed. And it was an unknown name to the Arabs, but she was commanded to name him Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam so just in his name is a proof of who he is because he is the most praised human being on the planet. And the second eye arguably is Mary.
I mean, married people all over the millions, hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
Praise Mary.
But I've never met any Christians that sit there saying, you know, oh God praise Jesus, you know, blessed Jesus. I've never seen that. And I've actually in Genesis it says, God will bless the nation that blesses Abraham. I asked the evangelical friend of mine, have you ever blessed Abraham? And he said, I can't think that I have. And I said, we bless him every day at least five times a day.
And so by your own book, it says, we're a blessed nation.
Because we bless Abraham, and of all people, the Prophet in a sahih Hadith said that he was he was shown all all of these prophets and he said, who they look like he actually told them which tribe they look like Benny Shin, who are Moses looked like the people from Benicia who are Gibreel look like Dahiya he said, what what they look like and then he said,
What are you to Brahim? What a caribou, Shaban Sahiba, calm. The one that looked most like Abraham is your companion. What a beautiful not your teacher, not your share, not your your companion saw hippo calm, just meant to other Lila firewalla. Our Prophet was the most humble of human beings. He loved people. He cared about people.
He was he was moderate in every single thing, that it's amazing. This is another proof of the prophesy centum his moderation he said, My way is the middle way meaning the moderate way, John now come on mutton wasa. We made you a moderate nation of people in the middle, even geographically, the bulk of Muslims are in the middle of the earth. They're not at the extremes. They're in the middle of the earth. Everything about him is moderation. The Prophet SAW I sent him they said about him.
And us huddled and I said can interview roboton mineral palm
lays us here, whatever the thought will bear and he he was of middle stature. He was neither too tall. Nor was he short. But let me allow will who hadn't nobody ever appeared taller than him. But he wasn't tall or short. He was middle. He said, US ha laserable Adam will appeal the lamb Huck, he was of a moderate color inclining toward a reddish light brown. He wasn't he was neither dark. Nor was he a pasty white um, Huck, like the Europeans, you know, the Northern Europeans, the Italians are closer to that color. It's the most beautiful of colors as hot alone. I want to ask more of the Hajj. When they describe the prophet like the full moon did they mean the Harvest Moon on the
horizon with that, that beautiful coloring that it has, or the real brilliant white? And and he turned to the
differences on the students he said on the Rila se that are wrong. Like look at the questions of the Romans.
For him, Rome was that bundle bundle as far You know, so
he said it was like the moon on the horizon.
And that's somebody who's an eyewitness
and then he said Roger had a shower. He had wavy hair. It was neither straight nor was it kinky. It was middle everything about him was middle Salah it was Saddam
the prophets, Allah it is Saddam. The other
aspect about him. And I want to because we were
we were talking about
there's a from the, the Buddhist tradition.
There's a book on challenged Buddhism was very interesting stories from the masters. And
one of the the,
the students asked the teacher, do inanimate things teach and he said inanimate inanimate things teach. He said, why can I hear it? He's because you can't hear.
And then he said,
Who hears it? And he said, the Saints hear it. And then he said, do you hear it? He said no if I heard that you wouldn't hear my teaching.
And then he said,
Can the common people ever hear? And he said, if they could they
wouldn't be common anymore.
And so, and inanimate things, how is it that all the Sahaba mutawatir Hadith heard the tree trunk mon
because they were all saints
if they hadn't been saints they couldn't have heard it when the palm when the pebbles in his palm praised Allah. Not everybody heard it
but Abu Bakr and Omar heard it
these are McCombs
so he SallAllahu Sallam heard things he heard trees greet him, he heard mountains greet him. He said, a huge heaven on your ship when he worship hood. I heard there's a mountain that loves me and I love him. The Dow is say sages love mountains and mountains love sages.
These are these are teachings that are throughout, because these, these truths have been given to all people. But we are the last inheritors. And this is the gift of our prophets I send to us that we are from the last ummah of mindfulness in an age of utter distraction.
This is his gift to us, a path to becoming awakened, not woke to bad grammar, awakened
the path to becoming awakened.
And grammar is letters Matthew Halabja in the Quran. In general, you don't hear bad grammar
that's one of the meanings of Latvia.
It also means anything just empty you don't hear empty speech. That's the primary meaning that you Shara is no bad grammar. The province of Assam loved beautiful language. He enjoyed hearing the poet's come to him. And they would say things and he would tell in fact, when his son had been with habit when he was he said, Do what a year there could be others. He said, your your your invective, is harder on these, these kofod than then our spears. He said, in fact, and may the Holy Spirit give you aid in doing that.
One of the Sahaba who was known for
just his humor. One day was making all of the Sahaba laugh. And the Prophet was there and he poked him in his side like it's enough. And the prophet had a beautiful sense of humor, but humor should be like salt, it shouldn't be the whole meal.
And so he poked him and he said, Oh, Jack Tunney that hurt.
And the Prophet said to us,
then take your take your vengeance. And he said, you have a shirt under and I don't. So the Prophet lifted up his shirt and expose his Haas era, like the hip. And he grabbed it and he kissed him. He said, That's all I wanted.
He was the most attentive to his guest. And this is a hallmark of all the solid in every virtuous human that I've visited. Always the guest man can a human will be liable. You fell you couldn't buy BIFA
let him honor his guest if you believe in Allah, and the Last Day, let him honors guests. So
this is our prophets all it is to them.
Now
how do we, how do we become mindful? This is the question.
And one of the most important ways Allah says yeah, you have the innominate ood called Allah decurrent cathedra. Allah subhana wa Tada says, well, they care for inadequate temper and Momineen remind them, in other words, call their mind to attentiveness to attention. Remind them because reminders benefit the believers. In other words, they will become mindful by being reminded by being brought back to reality.
And so the Prophet SAW I said, one of His Names is unmovic, you're the one who reminds who brings you back to your mindfulness, to your remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala. So, my I had a teacher, he was a beautiful teacher. He was a Sudanese, I'm a chef, I'm a bed we Bible asthma, and I read with him to Malta. He was a student of Muhammad Habibollah with me Abbott so I had a direct connection to one of the greatest minds at the end of the 20th century. He was a moody Italian brilliant, more Italian scholar.
But when he went to Alaska, and he wanted to teach in the masjid, so all the US Hadees wanted to test him. So when they came in
they he said, Let's do to our roof. And so the first ones that I'm sure so and so he said, even man, he said so and so he said, even man, he said so and so he said he'd been money said, So and so he said, even money said as far as I go back, each one gave their whole all their lineage. And He began by giving his lineage. So when he finished, he said Salam Alikum philanthropy and philanthropy and philanthropy Salam Alikum, Fernando been philanthropy flat, Salam Alikum Philando. And he went through all of them and when it came to him, he said, manna, Anna, and none of them could repeat his his lineage. So they say you can teach Hadith.
So he studied with him, he was a he was a Mufti in the in the UAE in the court when I was a student there, but he wrote a little book, which he designed it so that if you did these, you would be from the Daiquiri and Allah decurrent kathira.
And when I told Sheikh Abdullah bin baya that we had translated this book, Dr. Assad and I, that
He said his father used to say whoever does these vicars the they're called
the Manasa, about the occasional supplications. He said, whoever does them on a regular basis will be written from the vacuity and Allah the Quran kathira.
So, this is a beautiful way to become mindful is to try to remember and to habituate ourselves to these things, but also to do them
with intention, in other words, not formulaic and not perfunctory. Not in some way in which you go on to automatic pilot, where you actually stop, and you you supplicate Allah Subhana Allah to Allah. So ohm selama said the Prophet saw him said, never left the house, except he said Allahumma inni RubyCon Avila o de la or Zillow, Zillow or other remote with Rama, oh, hello, huge hallelujah. This is a perfect prayer. And I know of no other religion that has these prayers. I don't know any other religion that has these prayers. It's to me one of the proofs of our Prophet size Saddam is that all of these prayers are so stunningly beautiful, they're very difficult to translate because they're so
comprehensive, he said with tea to join him and Callum I was given the comprehensive words he he says so much with so few words. So when he went out he said, Oh Allah I seek refuge that I should trip or be tripped
that I should go astray or be led astray that I should oppress anyone or be oppressed or wrong anyone will be wronged that I should become angry or foolish or somebody should display their anger or foolishness on me against me
that's a protective do as you go out when he went into the when he went to relieve himself he said allow me now hopefully what haha because these are foul things like emptying yourself even though nothing foul came from the Prophets Eliza them
and the earth swallowed up
the prophets I send when he came out he said the whole Veronica you know your forgiveness.
And then he said Alhamdulillah Allah de rasa pani led to what coffee or what what have any other what a perfect Doha
praise me to the one who provided me the delight of the food retained in me the the energy of the food and removed from me the harm of the food. This These are perfect prayers
perfect prayers. So all of these things that the prophesy ism when he went to bed bespeak Allahumma motiva in another rewire, which is motiva con la he actually says that Islam to ice lake I have surrendered myself to you will fall to Omri lake I have given my whole affair to you well Jatoba hurry like and put my back to you. In other words for protection.
Rock bottom what I have to attend the lake, and then he says I believe in in you I believe in your profit and n n the prophesy centum said that whoever says these things and then dies has died on Fifth era. This is the real human being this is the fifth era. So
we'll die to Giambi will be called a pharaoh who phenom six then of Sefa Rama when our center Fafa he said go to sleep and not expect to get up in the morning cellulitis and this is attentiveness to time. People die in their sleep.
We don't know we're living in a place the earthquakes happen. The house could collapse under allah Salam o Kamala Jamia
when waking from sleep. This model I slept in the tent of Murata Hodge for
the first few months that I was with him
then I actually asked because it was it was very intense
he did this all the time. He did that in his sleep and I've only seen a few people that do that during their sleep there there was one man see the alley in in mechanist who I was with him and and he was sleeping and snoring and doing prayer on the prophets alight incident and he was fast asleep.
So I mean, I saw that with my own eyes but more often has used to say like the halo not the Prophet said,
I need to now more calcula now my eye sees my heart doesn't sleep.
So there's people that do liquor so much that they're even in their sleep, they're doing liquor.
In fact, Sahaba used to have to put rocks when they went to the bathroom, they would put rocks in their mouth to remind themselves not to say the name of Allah.
So every time the the moderator had got up, the very first thing he would do at hamdulillah anybody who were in a short but then he would recite from Ali Imran which is in the Hadith, he would recite the last from interview Harper similar to the level de rana har he will look up at the sky that stars the Prophet used to know that the new zoom and he will recite those verses or Bernama. halacha Baltierra Subhana CAFA Pineda Banagher that's coming into consciousness
when making wudu eyeshadow hola ilaha illallah wa to la sharika our shawanna Muhammad Abdul Hora su
Wu is an activity bandha that many people are deprived of. Because they do it only for the prayer
to privatize him used to do will do as an activity batter when you see when we first saw the people in Twain wrote the way they did with the monitor has did wudu it was just amazing. How he did will do and and he would always
when he completed a shadow, you know Hey Lola why to who does Shigella Why should wonder Muhammad Abdul rasool Allah Madani minutter webydo Danny minimal tapa hidden Subhanak along the kosher don't stop Foucault to predict this was the DUA on the completion of will do alone will fully then be what will certainly be daddy robotically theories P I was a beautiful da
and that's what certainly feed data your you know, a man can be in a cell like Tobias Tubbs could be in a cell. And he's, he's, he's in an expensive place. Another person could be in a mansion and he's in a cell
because it's subjective. It's all how you perceive reality.
This is one of my favorite guys. It's just such a beautiful dua. And then when he got on a camera which is taken from the Quran also at hamdulillah the salah Hama cannula. Omokri Nene when Ihlara minimum always the era because time for for pre modern people was always related to eternity.
This is why when you eat Alhamdulillah the
apartment it was the annual r1 It was ALLAH Nieminen Muslimeen The NEMA barre PA is always mentioned with the NEMA Fannia food is a
blessing that dissipates. But submission to Allah is a blessing that goes on forever.
This is also when leaving the home Aloha Minnesota This is Hypermotard we'll head on Maharaj Bismillah whether it's now this is when you come into the house Bismillah Mirage Now Adam Robinette Robina can familia salamander Ali coming into the home when heading to the masjid one of my favorite also Elijah and I'll be Nora over the sandy Nora which anti submarine aura which anti bustling aura which are unhealthy Nora woman or murmee Nora were jaaneman 14 aura women tatty Nora Allahumma Athenian aura and inner rewet Allama Janeen aura and he had no shadow even as your says he had no shadow. This is something that the self said he was always shaded by clouds. But he had no shadow
celluloid is
one of the proofs of his hairs. Or if you cast a light on them they don't they don't show shadow.
Aloma Janee Nora make me light.
God please light in my heart light on my tongue.
Light in my hearing light in my sight place light behind the light before me placed light above me light below me. Oh God makes me light grant me light. When entering the masjid, along with Talia Webb erotica and then mindfulness he entered with his right foot first and made this dua.
When leaving the masjid left foot, Allah
Romania Serbia Cameroon for the record because the Rama is in the masjid, the fatherless in the world, the bounty of the world
when hearing the anon either Samaritan NIDA, Otto Mittermeier Buddha and then
and then when when you finish it Allah humara Berhad hit Tao with a term authority or PA, to say that Mohammed and we know say yes, the prophets Allah Islam is our say yet. Some, most of these rewires have without the say it, but it's been the life of the Muslims to say save our province, I've just out of the to him. I mean, there's a position and this is a position that's a totally valid position, that it's also the adept to, to do it, just as it came down. And there are people that do that, so both are correct. But
I've always found it difficult not to say say that Mohamed Salah him, Allah says, Don't call him like you call other people. You know, one of the tragedies of the modern time is first name. Everybody is on a first name basis. And I hate these people. They call you up. Hello, Hamza. I'm like, It's Colonel Hamza to you. Yeah. You know, I mean, what like, why, why? Why do people assume that they can just call you by your first name. People use take a long time before you gave them your first name. If you look at the Old English, like Jane Austen, they called people by their last name, like Willoughby. That's not his name. His name was John Willoughby. But they called him
Willoughby. Because he was called by his last name. And if it was an elder, then they would call them sir or Mr. We say Abu Yahia you know, Abu Mohammed Salah Assam, you give the Konya that's how the Arabs do it. One of the things that I realized was because I went to a Catholic school, in high school, and they always called you by your last name, this was, you know, early 70s. So it hadn't changed yet. To the degree, they always called you by your last name. So, you know, if you raise your hand, they say, Mr. Hansen, that's how they called you. And my father went to the same school. And what I realized later, is that the whole purpose of that is that you don't just represent
yourself you represent a family you have a family name, that you shouldn't dishonor your family name. So we're in a time when it's just everybody's an individual, they no longer have any sense of being part of a family or a community.
So it's it's one of the tragedies I think of this all this familiarity.
And then Aloha Maha acabado Lady COVID bout on Chanukkah wa sua to do Attica fulfill the Forgive me you know this Oh God now is the arrival is your night that departure of your day in the sound of your collar so forgive me. Emo multiple hottie. This may Allah de la la who went on dress to go to the bath or or sleep Bismillah Allahu wa Jin diminishes upon agenda Bishop ah, Jenny Bishop Barnum rose up Tana, you know In the Name of Allah the prophesy Sam said you the ARA and ulemas are Hello. If you're going to be intimate then this is something to say. To protect the child
to be Kadima today Tom Martino how to be he was already bad the woman hammers out to shelter anyone Yeah, hold on.
Very. If you wake up from a fright you say this in sleep. There are many many of these. I mean, we have beautiful books him on the show, Kenny wrote a fantastic book taffeta, they're getting your mama no, he's great book allowed car swag is one of the finest books in our tradition. There are many and many, many scholars have written small books like this one that my teacher wrote.
They want the baraka of teaching these things to people. So it's why people write Tajweed books. I used to really bother me to read books. I see all these Tajweed books, they're all the same. They say the exact same thing. They're all little books, and they say the exact same thing. And I was like, why do people keep writing Tajweed books? Like aren't there enough Tajweed books and then I realized it's actually a brilliant thing to do. Because anybody that learns how to read the Quran from that book, the author of that book gets the reward of all their recitation, so it's this is why she always made their own Elrod. That's I realized that because I wouldn't like why they keep making
new Elrod because they want the reward of the people doing the thicker that they put together is one of the blessings of our religion, so I totally have no problem anymore with it because I get it. I want to do it. Like I'm gonna write a book on Tajweed inshallah.
Oh, Hola. Hola. Hola. Li them be cool. Oh, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Alania who was sorrow? Oh ALLAH forgive my sin. This is in frustration.
Forgive my sins entirely the lesser and the greater the first and the last the revealed and the concealed. He also said, you know, there are many many beautiful iteration Allah homophily Warhammer Dini was born new. I think he was only one of the things of the Afia one of the meanings of it, according to my medical shady, was to be focused on God. In other words, not to be distracted,
I thought was really interesting.
Khomeini Ilana to NFC illumine cathedra you know, this is between the
shahada and the salaam, again, between the two shut down Saddam and these are the what are called the bochetto Saudi had my recommendation to all of you do the bulk pay off the Saudi had this is one of the most important things that you do after your prayer is the bulk cathelicidin these are the things that you say after the prayer they're different iterations but they're they're very beautiful and they're extremely important.
There's a whole bunch of them so these are in we're actually going to this is going to be published this month and given to all the 12,000 strong people and then just made available there are good books like this. There's a beautiful one that white thread Press Did the the precious pearls,
reflections from the precious pearls, it's a beautiful book that really fine share from England did so there are many good books and the higher of Allah's, without
limits. Allow me now to document a juvenile bocalee where we come in and what are the era Artel This is a very important Hadith given dementia, Alzheimer's, all these things are so prevalent, well, they become an fitna to dunya what are their recovery? So all aware that I seek refuge in You from timidity and stinginess. So fear juban is like fear. What are the views in a book the book is related to fear because you're afraid to give out your money.
And in one it's minute, I just see what cousin so the edge is is the one who wants to do something but they can't because Ceylon is the one who is able to do it but doesn't want to do it. So he sought refuge from both
these are really stunning in their meaning. So
these are and then the DUA from anxiety alarmingly adequate but not applicable. Malik analyse antibiotic Amal and FIAC mocha. I don't feel about hookah as Erica be policemen who are like us are made to be enough to go and sell to Vicky Tabitha or alum to Adam and Federica. Always thought to be the element of Arabia and antigen. Khurana Rob Khurana. LVNV Robbie kelbyone ora Saturday wa jalla wa Jalla Arabic kita Houma there's slight difference but essentially the same meaning what Jenna or Jayla who's near where they have a honey welcome me. So again, a beautiful comprehensive dua to make the Quran that will be of your heart. And one of the best ways that you can honor your prophesy Sam
is to to read the Quran. The Prophet said the best a bad of my ummah is Quran, in prayer, and then Quran outside of prayer. This is the best that you can do. If you're if you're not doing a juice of Quran a day, then, and you're doing other things, I would set aside those other things and focus on doing a juice a day. Every Muslim should do a hum of Quran every month. I mean, this is baseline.
And if you if you it'd take about half an hour, you could do 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the evening, once you get accustomed to reading it at a relative pace. It's what do you say?
Got it. Oh Ma.
Yeah, yeah. How fast can you do with Heather?
How
about 20? Yeah, so if you do harder, you can do it in 20 minutes. So 10 minutes in the morning 10 minutes. This is not a lot of your time.
It's you know, and the book it's it's so neglected and the Prophet complaint of its neglect. The Doha Khurana come in a political opponent Majora, My people have have abandoned this Quran. And one of the great blessings of Morocco and one of the things I love about that country is every Masjid 250,000 Hutton every year every month in that's what the Minister of Oh cough has determined based on all the his
Panama, so this is a beautiful do and then st Hara is very important. He used to teach us to Hara for everything. And this is something I'll tell you a true story. Sheikh Abdullah bin baya was in Jordan, and they were on their way. It was very late at night, and they were on their way to the airport and the driver fell asleep and crashed into a towel
Logan Paul, he died.
The Sheikh Abdullah broke his nose and there was blood everywhere. And his son is a true story. His son told me this, he was in the car. And he his son started screaming. Because he was worried his dad was seriously injured. He was actually it wasn't that bad of an injury. But because there was so much blood, he thought it was really serious. He screamed, and he said, his, his father took his arm, squeezed it and said love as a staccato law.
Don't worry, I did his Tahara before this trip.
That's, that's the power of this. That's the power of the prophetic teaching, is that you, you, you, you are in the hub, you're in that place where you're not perturbed by the world. And things are going to get very serious on this planet. We're entering into a new phase. And people need to have strong Eman. And they need to be connected to Allah subhana wa, tada. They need to be connected. I mean, one of the things about Edith Stein that was so amazing, she actually when, when she fled to,
when she fled to after crystal NIFT when they were persecuting the Jews, she fled to, they took her to Belgium.
And she was in a monastery there. And
she used to go out into the cold like she was preparing for something. And this is I witnessed people that saw this. She was taken to Auschwitz when the Nazis invaded. And they took even the converts to Catholicism because she had converted out of Judaism to Catholicism. But she took her to a house, which there were eyewitness accounts that she was comforting people in that situation. And she only was there for one week that she was killed right away. But the point is, is that people of eemaan can deal with this, when they people don't notice but in Turkey in, in Korea, when they captured the Americans, they captured Turks with them. So they were actually imprisoned together.
And when they studied, the Americans all fell apart and actually started doing recordings for the Korea for the Koreans like Communist propaganda. And they were very worried about this, because they felt they were brainwashed. It was all from the interrogation. But the Turks didn't. They didn't succumb to the interrogation. And they wanted to understand why. And what they found out was two things that the Turks did one, they laughed a lot, because they saw the ridiculousness of what they were trying to do in the brainwashing. So they just would watch these people telling him these things, and they thought it was funny. And I know that that's from a type of eemaan, where you kind
of recognize the hilarity of this dunya and the stupidity of human beings. And I know it had to do with their upbringing as Muslims. The other thing that they did, they always appointed because they would take away the officers, and the morale would break down with the Americans. The Turks always appointed an Emir.
So they always even when if it was a private, they would appoint somebody over them, and he would keep them all together.
So these are really really important things to remember. We need to be connected to Allah subhana wa Tada. So there's so many things we could talk about, who are we to talk about the Messenger of Allah, one of my favorite poems is from the Great,
the great poet, the great fucky
images ala Kelby, who is to me one of the most extraordinary scholars that are produced, he wrote a beautiful tafseer of Quran he was one of those polymaths that just seemed to know everything. One of the beauties of his books and one of my teachers chef Mohammed Moqtada Shin, Priti was the son of the great manifester. He was the one that really first introduced me to even today in Medina. Now when I was very young, but one of the things that really he said was why his books were so powerful is because he wrote them for his son.
He wrote them for his son, so he wanted his son to learn from these books. And this is one of the reasons why the Sunnah, if your parent dies, the Sunnah is for the son to pray over the parent not for the share, or the Imam. Why? Because nobody will pray with the fervor that a son will pray for his his parent. So that's one of the secrets of our FIP.
So he said, I'll do more into that Mustafa Euro Dhoni, I attempt to praise the chosen one, but I'm thwarted for your Rodinia cosori and Iraqi Terkel, Menaka be I can't get to that that station, that exalted height of praising him
prophesizing and then he says well mainly be hospital body with Barrows, Iran, who can measure the ocean and the ocean is vast woman li B SR al Hassan Karachi and who can enumerate the stones and the stars?
What else have I heard that Al Sunan either llama Bella, that's Phil madhe bottom Araby even if my whole body became tongues, even then I wouldn't be able to give the praise that I desired.
What oh and Jimmy and Al Amin a to Allah for Allah MIT he LEM yellowblue, Bardo IGP if all of creation got together to praise the prophets, Elijah sent him they would not achieve that do they would not achieve that do
for M sector.
And who he button with a dooba so I have refrained out of all and adab
well, how often were alarming the artifact up and out of fear
and magnifying that exalted station.
What what Oba waterbus quote and Kana fi but outta tune with Aruba, Kurama and v here on the ITB and sometimes silence is the best eloquence and sometimes speech gives faults for the fault finders. So, having said that, and knowing my own limitations,
I wrote a poem
for the province.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammad
Bismillah R Rahman Rahim wa salam ala Sayidina Muhammad Allahumma Salli ala Sayidina Muhammad salah, Tintin Gina becoming Allah worry what I've heard we're talking to Ilana Have you heard Jimmy alhaja to toto Hironobu humming Jimmy I say yet what are
we to Bella whenever you have sort of a an image image?
The sun solemnly stated how can my light compared to his and the moon laughed, be like me, content to reveal another's light. The North Star declared what guidance can I provide next to his and all the stars exclaimed, be like us, who revolve around you and show no envy. The sea shouted What secrets Can I contain when compared to his wonders? The clouds pleaded be like us, exalted in the sky because we humbly draw our water from another and pour forth in gratitude and service. The Rose ruefully remarked, what beauty do I have next to his? The mirror said, be like me, who can only reflect another's beauty? Reason exclaimed. What wisdom can I reveal next to his revelation? The
Tang replied, be still and let me quote him. Gold complained What words do I have next to his copper cried what ingratitude. Your purity was his from the start. Be happy to be compared to him. The dog barked. He mentioned me. The cat me out. He patted me. The donkey braid. He rode on me. The horse Nate. He called me an ocean. The camel grunted. I took him to safety. The frog wrote, I was his favorite. The spider stood tall on eight legs and stately stated, I protected him once. The cloud boasted I shaded him. The tree declared he called me and I bowed to him. The palm trunk said, Well, he hugged me. The date gloated, I was sweet for him milk exalted I nourished him, water, crowed, I
quench his thirst, the Kaaba shout and he circled me. The Yemeni corner replied, He touched me. The Blackstone laughed and said, He kissed me. The pebbles yelled, we praise God in his poem. The mountains of Mecca called out he loved us. Medina demurely whispered he chose me
and humanity cried knifes enough see me me. And God said be
Like Ahmed
and Ahmed said, almighty Almighty, my community, my community, and God replied, We will grant you until you are content