Hosai Mojaddidi – 2020 MSA West Conference Embodying the Character of the Prophet
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AI: Transcript ©
All right. Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim assalamu Alikum
so for this talk this is main session number six and it is
entitled embodying the characteristics of our beloved
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Today we have a beautiful guest speaker, masha Allah, her name is
estado Husain Magette Diddy,
and I'm going to give you a little bit of information about her. So
southern Husain Magette Dizzy is a co founder of mental health for
Muslims, a site dedicated to providing mental health related
content tailored for the Muslim community. She has served the
American Muslim community for over 20 years as it's
okay, it's working
as the spiritual adviser, mental health advocate, writer, editor,
mediator, interfaith organizer and public speaker covering a variety
of topics including women's issues, marriage and family, youth
and teen issues education self defense
All right, sorry. Let me continue the list, self development, self
development, interfaith bridge building, mental health,
spirituality and more. So without further ado, I'd love to introduce
our speaker. So the OSI?
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam
ala shrivel MBA mursaleen say, well, Mowlana Where have you been?
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam while he was Saburo salam
to Sleeman, Kathira and salaam Wa alaykum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh.
It is my honor and privilege to be here. I want to thank the MSA
organizers, Sister cosa co set or CO said and sister Alicia. So
yeah, let's give them a hand
and tell everybody all the organizers and volunteers Malika
my hostess for this evening. She has been fantastic all of you.
Yes. Let's give them all a round of applause again, why not?
I'm
gonna ask a quick question. How many of you are MSA presidents?
Raise your hand.
Raise your hand if you're the president of your MSA. Let's give
it up. Give it up for the MSA presidents.
I'm gonna tell you guys, I was MSA president for on three different
campuses. I did junior college, I did a transfer and another
transfer. Every single campus I was on. I was the president of
Hamdulillah. But there is no way I could even fathom putting
something together like this. So really props to all of you, oh my
gosh, this is amazing. Mashallah.
That could be it. There you go. That's what we need to hear. It's
like we're so this is really a full circle moment. For me. I'm
very, again, just honored to be here because MSA was such such a
big part of my college experience. And my growth as a person, I
really had a lot of fun. We did. We did some crazy things. But I'm
gonna let me tell you a couple of stories. Before I get into the
talk. One of the campuses that I went on to when I went on when I
got there.
And I saw Muslims on campus, and I asked them I'm like, So what's up
with the MSA? Like, who do I need to speak to? And they informed me
that actually, it was pretty dead. Like nobody was really doing
anything. So and it was an active the previous president who had
started it, he left and so now there was basically nobody running
it. So Hamdulillah I have that personality where I'm just like,
okay, problem, you know, there's a problem I need to fix it. So I
headed to the administrator's office and I was like, Okay, I
want to re Vamp up the MSA what I need to do, they gave me the
paperwork told me what to do. So I started going around campus,
basically looking at looking for Muslims, anybody who was brown
basically at the time, and I was like, Who are you? What's your
name? All right, I'm putting your name down you're gonna come to the
MSA right and they all of course looked at me like I was crazy
because they don't know me. But you know, I was like, This is how
I have to do it. So one of the sisters this is a story I like to
share she mashallah she's beautiful. First of all, okay,
she's just one of those sisters who's Allah gave her natural
beauty but she's also you know, she she came to school, you know,
glammed up a little bit
So she had her cute outfits on her makeup her hair done. And so it
was Jamal and I wanted to pray. There were like two or three
brothers who were trying their best effort to create like a Juma
prayer. So when I found out that there was going to be a prayer, I
was like, Okay, well, I don't want to be the only girl praying with
two guys. So I was like, I need to go recruit some girls. So I found
her. And I was like, hey, you know, let's go pray Gemma. So she
looked at me and she was like, um, and this is how she spoke. Okay?
But like, I don't have will do. Okay.
So I was like, Okay, there's the bathroom here. Did you know that?
Sounds like Come with me. So she's seriously like, she doesn't you
know, she's intimidated by me. I'm a little taller. It was a little
bigger. She's a little petite fragile person. So she was like,
okay, so she walks with me the bathroom. And she was like, so I'm
supposed to, like make will do right now. I was like, yeah, she's
like, but my makeup. So I was like, Well, let me teach you how
to do like I will do in the circumstances. You know, you don't
have to take a shower right now. And you know, I'm not going to
open the you know, faucet and expect you to just go, but at
least you could, you know, make some effort. So let's try to Pat
do something right, get your face a little wet, and we'll try to
preserve your makeup as best as possible. So again, she's just
looking at me like, I'm crazy. But she's I think I seriously think
she was scared of me because she was like, okay, so she does the
will do. And then she's soaking wet. Her outfits all messed up.
And she's like, um, but I don't have a hijab. So I was like,
that's fine. We'll take care of it. Don't worry, come with me. So
I'm like, kind of, you know, again, I had just met her. Keep in
mind, I do not know her at all. But she's listening to me for
whatever reason. So she comes with me to the prayer room. I take her
in and there were like, those two brothers that I mentioned. One of
them had a jacket on. So I was like, Hey, brother, I need to
borrow that jacket.
And he was like, what, like, you know, who are you? Like, why are
you you know, disrobing, me what's going on? I was like,
I think I'm in a situation here. I need a jacket. So just give it up.
So he gives me his jacket. And she's like, looking at me like
what is happening right now. I went to her and I straight up,
tied a hijab around her makeshift T job. And she was stood there
like it was it was it's comical now because I remember it, you
know, but she, she actually put it on, left it we prayed the HUD gave
the jacket back to the brother, and Hamdulillah this sister who
did that, even though, you know, she didn't know me, she turned out
to be one of my best friends. To this day, we are closest people. I
mean, she's one of the closest people to me in my life. But it
was that MSA experience, and that moment, where two strangers had a
very awkward exchange that, you know, turned into a lifelong
friendship. So MSA is are opportunities like that, where you
can just meet people, especially coming out of high school because,
you know, let's keep it real. In high school. There's all those
weird social politics and you know, you don't talk to people you
don't know. And so it's awkward. But once you enter the MSA, or
college life, I should say, all of that should just wash away you
should just be bold enough to say, Hey, fellow, you know, Muslim
fellow person, you know, even though we don't know each other,
let's connect. And so and I can see clearly you guys are doing
that by just the the numbers in this room. And I'm really, really
proud to see that. Mashallah, so many of you came out for this
event, because in addition to the, you know, the role of president of
MSA on campus, I actually was also involved with MSA West. I was a
secretary at some point. I don't know when, but our meetings were
like, seriously five people. I mean, that's that was it. That's
we didn't really do big, large events. So you've come a long way.
And I feel like you should be applauded for that. And may Allah
continue to give you though fit. Let's Yes.
Hamdulillah.
So with that said, the topic is, we're going to jump into the topic
in just a moment. But before I begin, you know, first of all,
happy New Year. I didn't even say that to any of you. But happy new
year. How many of you had some resolutions? Right? How many
you've already failed? All right, it's okay. Don't worry, we still
have the rest of the year. Don't beat yourself up. You know, it's
an interesting time of the year because not only are we are we
looking at the future, and this year coming ahead, but also, you
see a lot of people looking back at 2019. So recently, I was
reading an article, a lot of news outlets do this. I don't know if
you've seen these, but they'll do like, you know, fun facts of 2019
are interesting things of 2019. So I came across an article by the
New York Times you guys can look it up. And it was a compilation of
different facts that came that were reported by editors or
journalists of the new york times during the year 2019. There was I
think, like 79 of them and every news outlet, you know, they'll
have their own Top 10 Top 100 Whatever, but I liked this one. So
I was scrolling through it and you
There was quite a few different random ones, but a couple of one
couple of them stood out. So I just wanted to share them with you
random facts. It's it's tied into the conversation that we're about
to have. The first one is just for your FYI. Okay. This is just
something that I think everybody should know.
This was from an article, should you take your shoes off at home?
How many people say yes, right now? Raise your hand. Right, good.
100 If anybody is not taking off their shoes at home, I'm about to
change your mind right now. Because this fact was so like, I
just will. All right. The floor the floor in a public restroom has
around how many million bacteria per square inch? Do you think
let's just throw out a number to me? How many 1715 200 million 200
million. So please, I beg of you, if you have your backpacks, or
your purses for the love of God, hang them or have your friend
watch them. Do not take them into your bathroom stall with you on
campus and put it on the ground. That is so revolting.
Now, in contrast to that fact, just think of this a toilet seat.
A toilet seat? No, no, it gets better. That's what's crazy. A
toilet seat has only 50 bacteria per square inch. It has Think
about that for a second next time you go into the bathroom floor
folks. Because you know, I know what happens. You got to carry
your stuff, you got to do stuff, but please be more mindful of
that. And then of course, do not wear your shoes in the house,
please. Now the other interesting facts about 2019 that was reported
and I thought this was again, interesting. There is a genre of
film that was that had the most releases ever in the year 2019.
Who can Who can guess what the genre was?
Come on, brothers. I'm waiting to hear from you guys. You guys
should know the answer.
And the sisters got it. Okay, one, zero. Okay, superheroes.
There were more superhero action films released in the year 2019
than ever before anybody guess how many? If you really know your,
your DC and Marvel, you should know this.
Five. Now very close. 1111. So 11 films were released in the year
2019. So that got me to thinking like what is our obsession with
superhero films? Right. And I started thinking, you know, from
all the ones I've watched, you know, I enjoy a good movie. Why
not? Right? I enjoy them. Watching with my kids. My husband, although
I did not I have not seen the recent. Although it's not a
superhero movie, but no spoilers about Star Wars, because I haven't
seen it yet. They watched it. I have not. So no spoilers on that.
But, you know, like Spider Man, Captain Marvel, all of the
Avengers have seen it. Okay. So but I started thinking like, what
is it about the human connection with superhero films, and I
realized that a lot of them have a very typical sort of storyline,
don't they, like most of the superheroes were raised in very
dysfunctional homes or, you know, abandoned as children or
orphanages, they had a rough life growing up, they were dejected by
their peers or their family somehow, they just saw a lot of
hardships, and then all of a sudden, something incredible
transformational happens. And they you know, realize their true
potential or their mission in life. And they go on to dedicate
their existence to saving humanity from, you know, destruction and
annihilation and enemies foes here and there. But it's a very
similar, you know, storyline that we hear. And so I started
thinking, well, that's, you know, that makes sense. You know, we all
love a good underdog story, right? Someone that comes back from
having hardship, everybody loves that. But how many of us if we're
really thinking, realize that the greatest human being who ever
lived also had a very similar storyline, right? He was he lost
his parents when he was young. Right, he was raised as an orphan,
felt dejected and out of place by the society around him, was
ostracized by his people suffered great loss and betrayal. And then
one day, something incredible happens and his true purpose was
revealed to him. Right. And he goes on to fight evil, right for
the rest of his life.
So it's important to make that connection because stories impact
us we connect with stories right? But when we think
of our identity as Muslims. This is the story that we all should
know by heart, we should know this story because as our great
scholar, Dr. Amato photo said, his is the greatest story ever told.
So when we talk about, you know, the embodying the characteristics
of the prophesy. So this is where we begin with this understanding
that there is no greater story that we should be invested in
telling. And there's no greater story that should awaken that, you
know, excitement in us, the way that the prophesy someone's story,
you know, unfolds, because what we're watching on the screens is
fiction, it's movie magic. It's not real. Right? It's none of it
is real. It's all the imagination of a handful of people, script
writers, you know, authors, whoever that came together to put
those storylines together. But when we talk about the prophesy
centum story, everything that happened to him, it's all 100%
True. And therefore, it should Garner even more awe and
excitement, and love and passion than any other story that we're
told. So let's go ahead and now, you know, talk about some of the
key moments of his life. And because we mentioned superheroes,
and the fact that they have these powers, and you know, they're able
to do, you know, superhuman things, why don't we first talk
about the miracles of the prophesy Saddam, you know, and just kind of
in a summary format, because some of us may not even know some of
these miracles. And again, these are important things that we
should all know, for example, when he was born, there was a light
that actually emanated from the womb of his mother, beloved
mother, Amina, or the law. And it covered the entire horizon, from
east to west and actually lit up the palaces of Syria, this was a
something that was noted in the history, that there was this
incredible light, that people didn't understand where it came
from. Right, that was one of the great miracles from his birth,
then we also know that when he was a young child, and he was taken to
the village to be raised, you know, at that time, that's what
they did, the infants were sent away so that they could learn the
pure Arabic language. So he was sent away, and he was, you know,
given to a wet nurse to take care of, well, his story about what
happened, you know, with with that is just a beautiful exchange,
here's the all of these wet nurses that are coming in, they're
basically selecting, you know, different infants, and this is a
job for them. This is what they do this their employment, so they're
looking for which infant is going to give them the greater return in
terms of, you know, being paid paid payment, when they found out
that he was an orphan, all of them skipped him over, they're like,
ah, you know, we don't want to deal with all that, you know, he
did probably doesn't, we're not going to get much out of an
orphan, right? And so here comes Halima sadiya, who sees him. And
even though she's a little reluctant, she's desperate, she
needs work. So she decides to pick him up. While she in her own
testimony says the moment she took him, things began to change for
her, she used to have a you know, a goat that was, um, excuse me, a
donkey that was very weak and thin and frail. And all of a sudden,
this donkey is suddenly super, you know, it's picked up and it's
speedy, all of a sudden, even her own milk supply suddenly doubled
and tripled as soon as she took him and fed him. There were just
so many miracles that she witnessed for the entire time she
had him in her life, her husband and all of the people that she
became the envy of all the other witnesses, these are all miracles
against documented about the prophesy sudden, we know that he
was able to you know, later on after he received revelation, I
was part that enabled him to do different miracles to as a proof
of who he was for example, when he you know, split the moon in half
right. And we there are many accounts of when he would just by
his blessing, be able to multiply food and drink many beautiful
Hadith if you if you are able to, you know, look into the CETA
you'll read example after example of that happening. Water emanating
from his fingers, the rocks and trees animals would praise him as
he walked by the palm tree that wept for him when he moved his
mimbar so many countless examples and of course you know, so I will
Mirage there's many many different miracles but this is just a quick
summary of again the you know, the or that we should have have are
profitable I said I'm because all of these stories are real, they're
not make believe. It's not fiction, this is actually what
happened.
And so you know, these things, of course, are extraordinary, but
what truly makes the prophesy centum extraordinary is the
content of his character, okay, and said I shatter the law when
his beloved wife said about him, that barely the character of the
province I sent him was what what was it? Who knows?
was the Quran he was the embodiment of the book of Allah
subhanaw taala. So when he walked, it's everything that, you know,
the book of ALLAH SubhanA contained, he was like a vessel
that just that's what emanated from him. So this is just, you
know, again to imagine someone having that type of power, that
everywhere he walked, that's what he was doing. So let's look at
what was said about him and I want you to pay attention. If I asked
you, for example, to describe yourself, okay, let's just do this
a quick internal exercise. Think of the first words that come to
your mind. Okay? Describe yourself or think of how you would describe
yourself if you had to write, you know, a prompt that you were
given, what are your best qualities? Or what are the
qualities that define you? What are the words that come to your
mind, okay, pay attention to your stream of consciousness, pay
attention to your thoughts, okay. Because, when sitting there it was
asked about the prophesies systems qualities, I want you to see what
his initial response was, this is what he had to say about the
prophesy centum. He said, he was always of cheery disposition,
easygoing, and compassionate, he was not boring, ish course,
raucous, vulgar or critical, he did not overpraise or just and he
would ignore that which he disliked. He would not dash the
hopes of anyone who hoped for something from him. And they would
never be disappointed, he withheld from himself three things, debate,
excess, and that which did not concern him, so he minded his own
business. And he withheld from the people three things, he would
never criticize or disparage anyone, he would not seek to shame
anyone. And he would not speak about anything unless he hoped to
be rewarded by Allah subhanaw taala for it. So this is the
description of segnale about the prophesy setup. And when you think
of what are the first words that people say about you, or you think
of yourself, those are usually the things that are the most
prevalent, right, that stand out. So when we look at and he has so
many virtues, so we could go on and on about his virtues, but the
fact that the prophesy sentiment is being described right off the
bat as being cheery of disposition, so should immediately
in our mind, render an image of someone who smiled a lot, right?
Who smiled a lot.
And this is something really important for all of us to take
note of, because smiling has a beautiful effect on the heart, the
one who's smiling, but also the one who receives the smile. That's
why it is a sadhaka to smile. And we've lost that sooner, you know,
we've lost that I was in a class earlier today. And we were talking
about it was a class on on purification of the heart, the
diseases of the heart. And one of the sisters mentioned. You know,
she asked about that, she said, Is it a sign of a of a Darkened Heart
when when people don't smile anymore? Because that was her
experience, you know, coming into them. And she said, specifically
Muslim, she's not talking about the general society. You know,
she's saying Muslims, like you come into the masjid, and you
smile at people, and they're just like,
you know, what's up with that, we have to change that. And also, for
the brothers, I'm going to speak specifically to you guys, the
message of this society is so toxic for men, because it tells
men that the only emotion that you're allowed to express is
bravado and toughness, and, you know, you know, and that's like
how men walk around, they're just walking around acting tough all
the time, or being so trivial and jovial to the point of like, you
know, you're just constantly like joking all the time that you're
not taking seriously. So that's these two extreme messages that
men are given. And a lot of guys have a hard time trying to find a
balance. Well, this is why we look to the prophesy centum as our
standard, the standard should not be what you know, so and so's
celebrity or so and so influencer or whoever is doing the standard
is a promise my son and his standard was he smiled on people
and he didn't sit there and you know, look at that as being Ooh,
I'm too I'm too you know, feminine or, or I don't want to, you know,
look too weak know, his sunnah was to smile and to welcome people and
to make people feel good. So look at that and look at yourself and
say, Where am I at with that? Why am I not following his example and
maybe taking the example of someone else, but the lessons of
this particular Hadith or this particular thing of Sonali teach
us that he was a very positive person. So check yourself ask
yourself, How am I compared to that? Am I someone that walks into
a room and we all know people like that? Let's keep it real. You
know, people when they walk in, you're like, Oh, dang. Like
they're energy vampires, right? They just suck the life out of the
room, because they're just like, heavy. And all they do is like, so
miserable. And then they just, like sad and depressed or they're
angry, but they don't think of like how that impacts the people
that they're with. Right? You
You can't walk into rooms and just, you know, unload on people
like that, you have to know that that's, you know, social etiquette
should tell you your problems, you got to take care of them on your
own and find outlets take care of them. But when you enter a space,
you should try to be a little light. And this is what we learned
from the son of the promises and very basic, right. But again, this
is stuff that we need to revisit, because, unfortunately, the
culture around us doesn't reinforce these things. So let's
look at his disposition at home. Right, because this is, you know,
another area that we also need to understand the problems I sent him
was a husband, a father and a grandfather. And they're, you
know, we all, you know, know people in our lives, we obviously
have relatives, that you know, that they might not show the type
of the level of affection that they should to their family
members, because again, they're not following the son of the
prophets, I sent him but let's look at how he was undisciplined
Malik who served the process. And for 10 years, he said, I have
never seen a man who was more compassionate to his family
members, then the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
So he had just constant stream of compassion and mercy. He wasn't,
you know, always trying to prove himself and you know, an angry and
or in that state of anger, his attentiveness to his wives. Right.
So the problems I sent him, we know he had multiple wives, but he
was so good about knowing each of them well, and being you know,
we're going to talk a little bit about emotional intelligence in a
moment, but he was very in tune with his wives and knew what their
likes and dislikes were. And he tailored himself to accommodate
them. And so one of the stories was, you know, Asha and him were
having an exchange. And the Bible says that and one said to Said,
and I said, Sure, he said, I know when you're happy with me, or when
you're angry with me? And she's like, What? How do you know that?
You know, because she thinks like, Oh, I'm always trying to be so
perfect. But you know, sometimes girls, we're not as, we're not as
good in terms of masking our emotions, as we think we are
people can pick up on that, right? So she was kind of surprised,
like, how do you know? And he said, When you are pleased with
me, you will swear and say, by, you know, by the god of Muhammad,
right, like when she's making a swear she'll use his name, but
when you're, you know, you're displeased with me or unhappy with
me, you will say, by the god of Ibrahim.
And so he you know, she said, You are right, I don't mention your
name. So she kind of was like, oh, sheepish she like got caught, you
know, but the fact that he was so in tune with her, you know, your
emotions and expressions to know that, you know, this is how she
was tells you that he was actually paying attention, which we need a
lot more of right? We need, we need to pay attention to one
another. He honored his children and his grandchildren. Right? He
would say about thoughts on Ma. She is a part of me, and he who
upsets her upsets me. And then one time, you know, his two grand
sons, Hassan and Hussein were on his back and said that her mother
came in and he saw them and he was, you know, always, you know,
he was praising the prophesies. Um, so he said, What a beautiful
mount you have. He's talking to the boys like look at you know,
you're on this amazing mount. And the prophesy centum said, what
beautiful writers they are. So he deflected that compliment back
onto his grandsons. But again, always having that spirit of
generosity of love with everybody in his family and showing
affection. He preferred everybody over himself cinammon Abbas said
about him, he said that the prophesied said him and his family
would go to sleep, while hungry for several nights because they
could not find anything to eat for dinner. So, you know, he imposed
that on himself and his family to prefer everybody else before
himself. I mean, that's, again, to show you the extent of his love.
So hungry, let you know, you know, he was great to his family, we
accept that now. What about difficult people? What about
people who are rude, and people who don't have any manners, right?
We all know people like that in our lives. And if you don't,
you're gonna see it, once you leave this place, and you actually
you know, get a job and work you're gonna have to maybe work
with people you don't like or work for people you don't like, or be,
you know, related to people you don't necessarily like, because
they are abrasive or rude or just don't have the manners. So how do
we learn how to deal with them? Because it's not the answer isn't
just to shut people out, right, which is, unfortunately, what a
lot of us have gotten very good at, we just don't even engage
anymore, because it's easy to ignore phone calls. It's easy to
ignore text messages. And we've gotten really good like ninja
level good at ignoring people coming to the door, right? I mean,
if that door knocks and you're not expecting it, or that doorbell
rings, you know, we all do
it, say anything, and everybody's like tippy toeing. We're freaking
out like, oh my god, there's a guest of the door. Then but
that's, you know why? Because we've just
because I'm so used to not engaging people but the point is
again how though should we react if we if we do know difficult
people, let's look at how the Prophet was sent him reacted.
There was once an incident and I want you to again imagine this
scenario.
The prophesy sentences with a group of people and he's, you
know, talking about something and someone in that group says to him,
fear Allah. Oh, Mohamed.
They're telling him to fear Allah.
So how did they been bullied? He, of course is like, I'm not having
this. So he gets up and he's like, do you want me to cut his neck
off? Like, I'm about to like, kill him right now for what he said to
you. And the prophesy sums response? He said, No, maybe he
actually says his prayers. Like maybe he's from amongst those who
pray. And then Khaled is like, not satisfied with that, because he's
still offended. He's like, how could this man come and say that
to the messenger of ALLAH? So he says, he says, Many people pray,
but with their tongues, they say that which is not in their hearts.
Okay, so basically, you know, trying to call out like, maybe
he's not really, you know, real, like, he's clearly, you know, a
hypocrite. That's what he's suggesting, right. But the problem
is, I assume, responds back. And this is again, important to notate
how he what he's thinking. He says, I have not been commanded to
cut open people's hearts, and see what's inside their chests.
This is a lesson for all of us, because questioning people's
intentions is unfortunately, a big problem. Everybody's you know,
Detective, so and so nowadays, you know, watching way too much CSI. I
don't know what it is. But we all think we know everybody, like
we're just like, Yeah, this is why they do what they do. And we just
assume to know, you know, people's intentions and it's wrong. To It's
haram to do that. You don't know people's hearts, you don't know,
if someone you know, whether they practice or not outwardly or
whatever, their level of sincerity to Allah. So you have no right to
call that into question. And that's what the process is
teaching him. Like, that's not what I was supposed to do. We
don't do that. Right. So this is a great lesson just to show you
again, his level of patience, he didn't flare up, he didn't, you
know, you know what I mean? Like, suddenly come up and say, oh,
yeah, is that what you think he was in control of his emotion,
emotions, and he was able to control those around him. So next
time, you're engaged with someone who's difficult, whether it's a
stranger, or a family member, or whoever, think about that, take
pause and say, you know, what, I'm gonna, you know, run into people
like this my whole life, am I always going to, you know, square
up when I meet people like this? Do I have to prove myself to
everybody? Or should I be the bigger person and be like, you
know, what, salam, like, I don't have time for that I have other
more important things to do. So think about them.
What about okay, his
Oh, sorry. He also said the prophesy centum also said, and
this is advice for all of us, that the one who mixes with the people
and bears patiently their hurtful words, is better than the one who
does not mix with people and does not show patients under their
abuse. So sometimes your patients can actually be beneficial to the
other person, you know, where you're kind of like, just by, you
know, not to say to take everybody's abuse, but if you find
yourself in a situation where you can compose yourself, and you're
able to withstand that, you might be able to help the other person
just by looking at your non reaction, they might suddenly
check themselves and be like, oh, sorry, dude, I don't know why I
just lost my cool. Please forgive me, but if you, you know,
retaliate, right back at them, or just blow them off and leave,
you're not helping them and you're not demonstrating the level of
patience that we should try to exercise with one another.
Because, you know, we all have bad days, especially when when we're
talking about close relationships, like your roommates. Your friend's
like, take it easy on people because I know sometimes when
you're in close quarters with people, you know, things happen,
but your response should try to be the bigger person if you're not in
a heightened state. If you see someone who's in a heightened
state, like maybe they stressed out because of bills or their
grades are not good or whatever, they have some stressful
situation. If you can just be composed and be calm, it's better
for you and for them. That's the advice of the prophesy sound
right? So what about really difficult people? Beyond I'm
sorry, difficult people but enemies, right? There's many
different stories, but I'll share one during the Battle of her name.
There was a man by the name of Shaybah and his father and uncle
had been killed by the province lessons uncle Hamza, so he wanted
retaliation. He wanted revenge. So during the battle eliminated what
he did is he crept actually he found a point where the prophesy
son was vulnerable, and he didn't have anyone around him, and he
creeped up and he went and he lifted you know, he was about to
basically, you know, hit the balls or something with his sword he
lifted
had his sword, but suddenly the sword slipped out of his hand. And
of course, you know, that's from Allah subhanaw taala he had a full
opportunity to, you know, take the life of the prophesy centum but it
wasn't decreed. So Allah subhanaw taala you know, made the sword
fall out of his hand, as soon as that happened, shape of course
this thinking oh, no, because I'm about you know, this is now I'm in
trouble. Right. So the prophesize Sadam Subhanallah just look at how
he responded, this is someone who try is trying to kill him who just
literally lifted his sword and was going it was it was an attempted
assassin. But look at how the prophesies, Saddam was able to
again respond, what did he do? He took his hand and he put it on the
chest of Shaybah
in a nonverbal way of saying, Be still, like calm down. Don't trip,
right. And look at what happened. Subhan Allah Shiva said in that
moment, when he did that, nobody became more beloved to me than the
Prophet. So I set him he testified his Shahada. And now, look at
this, he jumps into battle fighting on the side of the
prophesy Saddam. This is the transformative power of a prophesy
Saddam, that without even saying anything, he was able to take
someone who was an enemy about to kill him and transform him into a
believer that he's now fighting for him. And this is you know,
Shaybah is the one who's relaying this hadith. So he's saying it
himself, no one was more beloved to me than him. So you know,
again, how this is, you know, how he dealt with difficult people how
he dealt with enemies, right? What about the world around him? You
know, animals, the creation.
You know, how many animal rights people in here? I want to see all
the hands go up. Y'all need to raise your hands. Everybody needs
to raise your hand. If you're a Muslim, you are an animal rights
activist. I'm gonna say that again. You're an animal rights
activists. That doesn't mean you need to go vegan, you can still
have your burgers on trip. Okay, but you are an animal rights
activist. Okay, what does that mean? It means that you honor the
life of the creations of Allah subhanaw taala. And you do not,
you know, you don't walk by a cat and try to kick it. You don't you
know, look at a dog as if they're the most disgusting despicable
thing ever. No, man, even pigs. I'm sorry, but little cute, like
pigs, like little tiny baby pigs are cute to me. I don't I don't
know if I'm the only one. But baby animals in general are cute. But
you got people who are like, you know, they won't even have a piggy
bank. Because it's like, It's haram. Like, really? It's a
porcelain piggy, like, take it easy. It's not an actual pig. So
yes, animal rights. We are animal rights activists. And I will say
that the prophesy said I'm before we had PETA and all these other
organizations. He was the first least in recorded history that I
know of, to actually advocate for the rights of animals. And I'll
tell you, one, two stories. One. He was once in a caravan. And
there were some of his companions with him. He left for a moment.
And they one of them found a nest, the nest of birds like little
chicks.
Okay, this one of the brothers, right? Also cute little nest of
chicks. So what does he do? He takes it and he puts it into his
little part of the caravan. So the caravan just, you know, is moving.
And when the process on returns, and he's walking alongside the
Companions, all of a sudden, this bird comes above and it's just
flapping its wings, like in a really crazy way. And remember,
the prophets of salaam was able, he was able to communicate with
animals. He had the miracles of the prophets before him. So he
communicated with this bird. And it's the mother of those chicks.
Now look at what he says. He says, who has hurt the feelings of this
mother bird? He is honoring that the bird has feelings, who has
hurt her feelings and taken her chicks? And so that's the happiest
like, oh, sorry.
Return them to her now. He was commanded to return the chicks to
the province I set him so the problem is again displaying to us
honor animals you don't just take you know just you know, pillage
and take whatever you want and plunder just because you can
because you're a human being and you're you know top of the food
chain, honor them. Another great story he was once traveling and he
came into an orchard This is a heartbreaking story because I you
know I like to visualize stories I have that imagination where
actually imagine it happening. He came into an an orchard and he
sees in the corner a camel. That is so frail, thin. It's you know,
can't
Animals are pretty large animals. So he sees this camel and the
camel as the prophesy This is approaching it. The camel begins
to weep, right because he sees the, the, you know Rahmatullah
LME. And that's one of the names of the provinces and the mercy to
the universe is walking towards him. And it's finally like his
chance like, Oh my God, you have come to rescue me. So he starts to
weep.
And the promises and approaches and of course, and again, he's
communicating with this camel, and the camel complains and says, My
owner puts me to work too much and does not feed me.
He's the camel communicates as the stuff proceeds into the promises
and turns around and says, Who is the owner of this camel? It is
complaining to me that you overwork it. You do not take care
of it. Fear Allah.
Again, honoring the right of an animal. So many beautiful stories.
There was one time Subhanallah anybody cat lovers hear from a cat
lover. There we go. Love my Juju. Love my Juju. I miss my Juju. cat
lovers. You know what's up? Okay, let's we'll be fair. Any dog
lovers in the room? I love dogs to what's left, right. Okay. Just be
fair. I'm all about fairness. Look at the prophesy son. What he did,
okay, he is sleeping. Imagine the scene. Imagine you're sleeping.
You're taking a nap. Okay, studying for finals, you're taking
a nap. And you're just zonked out. Okay. And then you wake up and
you're like, oh, what just happened? Okay. Your cat is on
your sleeve.
Right? Your cat is on your sleeve? How many of you are like, get out
man.
Right? All of us. We got we have to go. The prophets. I saw them.
Do you know what he did? To prevent waking the cat up, he tore
his garment.
So as not to disturb the sleep of the cat.
These are beautiful stories that we've been told over centuries.
Why? To solidify in our hearts as this is not an average person.
This is an extraordinary human being the most extraordinary, the
most perfect human being. And from him, we should learn all of these
lessons from him. Right? So he honored and there's just so many
amazing stories SubhanAllah. About
About his his relationship with animals, and His Mercy for
Animals, but also other creations once I mean, it's hard to because
we live in a time where these things aren't common. You know,
you don't have other than watching films you're not you know, really
hearing of miraculous stories or things that are supernatural. Or
if we hear about them, we're so now jaded by a lot of the stuff.
We just think it's all hoaxes. And it's not real. But you know, there
are phenomenon that happened that humans can't explain. Let's just
keep it real. Science doesn't have the answer for everything. And so
there's definitely certain things that happen to people that there's
no explanation for it. But here's a story of where the province was.
Saddam was on a hood, the mountain of a hood, and a hood, the
mountain began to tremble. The actual mountain was feeling the
presence and the weight of the Messenger of Allah, something
wider so I'm on top of it. And so what did the prophesy centum do?
He said become a herd? Like he's again, showing compassion to a
mountain? Okay, showing compassion to a mountain, and he says, become
a HUD. He stroked it with his foot like tapped in with its foot and
he said, There is none on you but a prophet acidic and to martyrs
because he was with aboubaker in an armada. Okay? But the point is,
is he was even showing compassion to an inanimate object like a
mountain, because that's what his nature was right? And then the
other great story that I referenced earlier about the palm
tree, when the, the process on used to give Gemma football next
to a palm tree, and then someone made a member for him. So he moved
to the mimbar when he moved away from the palm tree, this is much
awaited, this is recorded. Everybody heard the wailing of
this tree. The tree was wailing.
So what did the prophesy centum do?
He went over and he embraced the tree. So you want to talk about
tree huggers. Right? Who was the first tree hugger? It was our
Prophet so I said him he literally hugged the tree and said calm
down. So all of these great things that we you know, idolize and
other people, he had them all Subhan Allah, so many other
amazing stories. He was always concerned about us. Okay, he came.
And he one of his famous hadith is that I was sent to perfect good
character, right and
we
You should know that you know, because he was, he was a teacher.
So in every which way he was teaching us. But one of the
beautiful stories that we have is from Sid nyesha, who says that
once.
She said, when
she found the problems, I saw him in a very good mood. So she was
like, so excited. She saw him. And she said, because he was in such a
chipper mood. She said, Oh, Prophet of Allah, will you please
pray for me? So he made the following prayer for her. He said,
Oh, Allah, forgive all of it. She has previous shortcomings, and
future ones, the inward actions and the outer ones. And I share
replied, she was so happy, she said, I smiled, I was so joyful.
And I laughed, to the extent that my head dropped into the prophesy
sevens lab, like she was just like, Oh, my God, like I'm in a
state of absolute ecstasy, because he made this beautiful dog for
her. And look what he says. He said, are you happy because of my
dog for you? And she said, How can I be not happy with that
supplication? Right? And look at his answer. He said, I swear by
Allah, Oh, Aisha, that this is the supplication I make for my OMA my
followers in every single prayer.
So he saw a lot of sort of, he made that dua for not just the
people that were in his OMA around him, when he says his followers,
he's talking about all of us. So we have to appreciate that his
entire life, every part of it was to benefit us, all of the stories
that we just shared went over, it was also that we can learn from
them that we can emulate him that we can embody the beauty of his of
his character, because that is the true definition of success. I'll
tell you, you can read all of the books on how to become successful
that you want to I've read them, I know them all. But if you really
want to understand how to be successful, follow the prophesy
Saddam. And I'll just end with a little commentary on what I
referenced earlier about emotional intelligence. Up until very
recently, maybe about 10 or so years ago, the body of science on
intelligence really focused on IQ, right? Intelligent quotient.
Well, you know, people started researchers, scientists started
realizing like, yes, that's how you measure, you know,
intelligence, generally speaking, but there's another type of
intelligence, it's actually more valuable, more superior. And that
is emotional intelligence. Okay, what is emotional intelligence?
Who knows? Who knows? What are the qualities of emotional
intelligence? Anybody study this? Look it up. The leading one of the
leading authorities is His name is Daniel Goleman. And he talks about
the qualities that if someone really wants to be have the
pinnacle of intelligence, right, the pinnacle, we're not talking
about just having high grades and you know, being smart in a certain
subject. But if you want to be truly intelligent, where you know
how to navigate this world, you know, you can professionally
succeed, relationships are successful at you need to have
emotional intelligence. So he identified five different
qualities. The first one is self awareness. Okay, self awareness.
And this is one of the core principles of Islam is monada,
NAFSA, autofab, the who the one who knows himself will know his
Lord, we have that down. There's an entire, you know, so many
Hadith and so many, you know, areas of study that that talk
about the importance of self awareness and learning about the
self. The four temperaments in Islam, there's so many things that
we could go on and on about the focus on, you should know who you
are, you should know your personality, everybody in here
should have taken, raise your hand if you've taken the MBTI or a
personality test 16 personalities? Enneagram is any of those good? If
you haven't take it you should know at this age in your life,
what your personality type is, are you an introvert, are you an
extrovert you this should be very common language for you. And you
should be able to explain and articulate to people what your
personality type is, right? So that's one of emotional
intelligence, number two, self regulation or managing feelings.
That class I gave today was on Teskey at the knifes purification
of the heart, that is entirely about how to self regulate, it is
teaching you how to control yourself how to not give in to
every impulse, every desire, right? How to actually have
willpower. This is all within Islam, not just that, look at what
we do throughout you know, every year, we're, you know, we go
through the month of Ramadan, but in addition to that every single
day, the prayer is a form of self regulation. We are taught to
prioritize our prayer to make you know, make it something that we do
every single day, because it's a way of training and disciplining,
so we have this down number three motivation, right?
Our entire you know, exists
Since is predicated on an understanding that we are here for
a reason, and we are inspired to act, and to be motivated to become
better. So we're constantly told to work on yourself, and to find
that, you know, to find to be motivated to be better. This is
again, part of our Dean empathy. Who did we not just go over all of
the examples that we just shared, did that not exemplify how the
prophesize center mastered empathy, not only with his
companions, his family, but even animals, even inanimate objects.
So empathy, again, we have a doubt, you know, where you're able
to feel the emotions of the other, not just sympathize with them. And
there's a difference, you have to know the difference between
sympathy and empathy. Sympathy is just feeling with someone empathy
is actually in the emotion with that person, like I am in it with
you. So this was all exemplified in the previous lesson in this
example. And then social skills again, the problem was, he was so
incredibly smart, he could talk to people at their level, when he was
with children, he would, you know, squat down and meet them at eye
level, when he was with elders or states people were people who were
higher level, he would, you know, honor them. When he was with
women, he would honor them. Right? So many amazing examples of how he
had social skills, he would go to different tribes, and you know
what he would do? He would, he would talk in different accents,
he would know how to change his Arabic to accommodate the tribe he
was speaking to. So you know, we should learn how to do that. You
know, when I was a kid, this is Hamdulillah. You know, I am kind
of like anybody here a polyglot. You know, you know what that term
is? How many people like languages raise your hand? Right? How many
people do accents? Who who doesn't accent who do a good British
accent? We're gonna have an accent off. Is that even a thing? Let's
do an accent. Who'd like to do a British accent off with me?
Or country? You know what? When I went to England, I'm not joking. I
would only speak in the British accent. I annoyed my family, but I
don't care. I was like, You know what, I'm gonna connect with these
people. So I was like, when? Where else am I going to use this
talent, right? So I was like, Hello, how are you? How are you?
How's you doing today? Tip Tip, cheerio. I was doing it all very
cliche, but I had a lot of fun. And then when I went to Montreal,
I did the same thing I speak. I took French in college. So I was
doing my first check. So say hello, how are you? I'm so great.
Thank you very much. I was doing that. Go to the south. Well, how
are y'all doing today? You know, get into my Southern, you know,
accent, but we shouldn't do that. It makes me feel really
comfortable. When you are easy like that. And you want to be
approachable.
And you Filipinos in the house? How many people from the
Philippines here? Anybody with a Filipino background to Golic?
Nobody? That's surprising. There's always at least one. I'll tell
you, you should do this just to trip people out. Find that friend
that speaks on language like nobody really speaks. Okay? And
swear, just do it. It's so fun. It's like a party trick. Okay. And
then what you do is you ask them for some phrases like, give me
some random phrases not like hello, how are you? That's like
anybody could go to YouTube video, but like a phrase that nobody
would know, right? Unless they speak the language. And then
memorize that, and wait until you're with that group of people
and then use it on them. Like I have literally done that I have
freaked out so many Filipino people because they'll be talking
into garlic. And I just know two or three phrases. But I'll be
like, Oh, my God, hindi column. And they're like, you speak
Tagalog. You've been you listen on our whole conversation. I'm like,
that's all I know. I know that and I know like Salama. I know mahalo
kita you know, just like little phrases, but it's so much fun do
that. Why not? Because it connects you with the other. But this we
learned from the example of the prophesy Saddam, that's why I do
it. Right? I do it because he taught me that that's something we
should do that we should honor people's differences, and try to
meet them where they're at. So all of these qualities are signs, you
know, qualities of people who are emotionally intelligent, basically
prophetic qualities. So may Allah subhanaw taala increase all of us
in our emotional intelligence, male was found to increase all of
us in the knowledge that we have of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam and make us LOVERS OF HIM. May we study his Sierra, may
we have the same excitement to learn about him as we do when we
hear about the next, you know, movies that her coming up, may we
exceed that actually, inshallah and thank all of you. Thank you
all for being here and for listening to me just talking a
little further. So I'm honored