Hosai Mojaddidi – An Agenda to Change Our Condition (Session 13)
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam o
Allah actually Bill MBA even more studying, say that one more
learner Where have you been on Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam? Well, it was Sofia salam for Sleeman Kathira as Salaam
Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Dear brothers and sisters, and
welcome Hamdulillah I believe this is session maybe 12 or 13 of
agenda to change our condition. So alhamdulillah we're going to
continue with chapter three from where we left off last time. If
you are new to this class, I invite you to check out MCs
Facebook page and their YouTube page. They have all their past
videos on there. And you can see what we've been doing here with
this class. But just again, we are covering a text called agenda to
change our condition by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imams a check it
here it is, I encourage you to get the text Inshallah, but I do have
some accompanying slides that I use just to guide the discussion.
So we're going to go ahead, and Sharla and screenshare right now.
So I'll go ahead and do that. Bismillah give me one moment.
There we go.
And
Bismillah. So the last time that we spoke, we were still covering
chapter three. And the section that are the topic that we're
covering in chapter three is called practical steps to change
our condition. And so this is now really, you know, a lot of times
when we talk about wanting to better ourselves, you know, I
speak to people all the time who really want to deep connection
with Allah subhana wa Tada. And of course, we know the basics. We
know we have to pray more we know we have to do, the more the good.
We know that we have to increase our general you know, Ibadah in
our consciousness of Allah subhanaw taala a remembrance of
Him. But sometimes there's other things that are much more
practical day to day, things that we can do. So this chapter is
actually talking about those day to day things, it's giving each
person an opportunity to really test the sincerity of their
desires. Because you know, it's easy to say I want to be close to
Allah smart that I want to be better Muslim, I want to do these
things, it's on the tongue, we can all profess these things. But when
it comes to action, this is where we really show our sincerity. So
here is an entire chapter devoted to giving us practical ways where
we can really do that where we can really change our state our
condition, our connection to Allah subhanaw taala.
Our
anyway, again, does an incredible service by compiling this book,
which has so many profound reminders, and just, it's just
full of gems and Hamdulillah. We have covered so far up until now.
Anyway, so many wonderful things. And there's much more to come. But
just to quickly recap, here's chapter three, the practical
steps, right. So we covered for example, and this is the first
page that I have here, covers, sorry, there's a bit of a lag
sometimes so it's not coming up, but just bear with me here. Let's
go back, then it goes really fast. Okay, so here are the topics that
are covered in chapter three. So they talk first about the five
pillars and really coming to understand them and implementing
them and making sure that we do them correctly, active outreach
that will how do we do that? Well as Muslims, what is our approach,
of course, every faith group, or every political group, or every
you know, group has their own way of outreach. But we are humble as
Muslims have a very unique and beautiful form of outreach, which
we call Tao, or invitation, we invite people to learn about our
deen instead of, you know, going out and doing missionary type work
or proselytizing to people we we invite them to learn, right, so
learning how to do that, in the best way possible. Focus, you know
how to establish focus in general on what you want, you know, in
your faith in your practice, cooperation, learning to be
someone who is a team player, a group, you know, who thinks about
the collective, who thinks about the benefit to everybody and all
of your actions, how to have good character. So all of these things
are kind of like kinship families we've covered so far in the
previous sessions. So today, we pick up on charity. So I'm going
to go to that slide here. So here again, we did active outreach, we
did focus, right.
Cooperation, good character, and kinship families talked about the
importance of keeping family ties right all of these things are very
important as for us to remember because in order to really
cultivate and and get as close to the prophetic example as possible,
we have to take his all of these these messages very seriously and
implement them it's it's not enough just to pray and just
To say that you're a Muslim action matters. So these are all again,
ways that we can do that. So, for the next topic of charity, here's
the content of that section, we should all commit to donating some
portion of our wealth, in addition to this cat that we pay, commit to
some Islamic cause financially and supported on a regular basis, also
tried to support any bonafide organization that solicits help.
Regular spending in charity diminishes the value of the world
in our hearts. This is one of the greatest means to prepare us to
meet our Lord, the proposal is that I'm said, wealth is not
diminished by charity. So I love if, again, you're paying attention
to the phrasing here, you know, our understanding sometimes as
human beings is that when we give away our wealth that we are
losing, right, we are losing somehow. Because, you know, it's
kind of it's normal, we live in a time and place where we're doing
transactions all the time. And then we go and we get a bill later
on, if we're using our credit card, or we see a statement, you
know, maybe in our checking account, but there's something
that suggests that we are at a deficit, that we've lost our
funds, because we paid for something. So our brain kind of
wires is wired to think of giving money as a loss. But the beautiful
thing about Zika and about South Africa, is that it is never at a
loss. And that's why when the rules are said Ms telling us in
very clear terms, wealth is not diminished by charity, we have to
believe that with absolute certainty, that every time we give
for the sake of Allah subhanho data, it's actually going to be
returned to us in ways that we cannot comprehend. And we should
never think of it as a loss. That like we do in other cases, right?
That is actually the opposite. The benefit of giving for the sake of
Allah subhanaw taala, again, is that if you're doing it for that
pure intention, and you know, it's pleasing to your Lord, then you
should just feel the sense of calm this trust, and the CFP and the
certainty, that inshallah Allah subhanaw taala will repay you, at
some point. And I personally have actually witnessed really
incredible things that I can't explain other than to say, Subhan,
Allah, Allahu Akbar, this is a divine act, because I have
witnessed things that are just again, inexplicable, for example,
giving someone a payment of a very particular dollar amount. And
then, you know, being in a position where I need money, and
the same day, just a few hours later, the exact dollar amount
that I had given away is returned to me. And when I mean exact
dollar amount, and I'm not talking about, you know,
you know, multiples of five, you know, like $50, or $500, or $200,
you know, things you can easily round up. I'm talking about
dollars and cents here, very specific amounts that are just
kind of mind boggling, you know, that how Subhanallah did it happen
that almost to the exact cent, someone pays you something for
something totally unrelated to what you just gave to someone
else. This has happened to me personally, and I'm sure these
things have happened to other people as well. So there are
examples like this, where I was proud that is showing us of
course, he's capable of everything, and anything that he
wishes, and in our mind is always, you know, it's amazing, and it's
incredible. And we should be in awe of him when these things
happen. But the point is, that this is confirmed for us in so
many ways, if we're paying attention to the signs. And again,
so many examples. So then I'll actually I'll tell you one
example. That just came to my mind, I once worked at an
organization and they gave me a payment amount. And
they gave me a check. And I didn't look at the check. You know, I
left the the organization and I got into the car, and I wasn't
actually expecting anything from them at that time. So it kind of
came to me as a surprise that they were paying me and I was very
gracious of them. So I took it from the law. I got in the car.
And as I'm about to or I opened it and I saw the amount and then I
decided to you know, I'm on my way home. So I called my husband to
ask him, you know, how he was doing and how the kids were just
kind of checking in with him and letting him know I was on my way
home. And then I asked him what he was doing and he said he was
actually making payments for our annual you know, sadaqa and just
different things that you know, we he liked to do at certain periods
of the year. And that's what his task was that day while I was out
and I didn't know that. So then he just started listing off like some
of the Oregon
positions locally Alhamdulillah that we, we support. And, you
know, just kind of giving you an update of how much he was giving
to each. And I was, again, amazed, because he mentioned, the
organization that I had just stepped out of a few minutes
before. And I asked him, he mentioned that what he gave, and I
and I said, Wait, say that again. And again, it was, it was a, you
know, it was a, it was a number that was very random, he didn't,
you know, he just kind of chose to give that amount. But it was the
exact amount that I just received from them, you know, it was like
SubhanAllah. Within minutes, all of this happened. And he said that
he had just made that payment. So again, these types of things
should indicate or should prove to us that when we give for the sake
of Allah, we're not losing, you know, he's at home making a
donation. And then I'll also point out that it is giving me the exact
amount back in return as a payment for my service. So it's just these
types of things, we have to stop and think about the timing of
these things. And really the great wisdom of why these things happen,
but also appreciate these words of our Prophet sallallahu wasallam,
who reminds us that wealth is not diminished. But what is
diminished, right? What is diminished by giving charity, what
is well, he tells us right here or this that our scholars tell us
here, regular spending in charity diminishes the value of the world
in our hearts. That's important. Because the dunya, the more we
attach our hearts to the dunya, the worse off we are, this is why
people have problems in this world, because Hubbard Dunya is a
disease of the heart it afflicts many of us, and we have to purge
it from our hearts because when we attach our hearts to the world, we
have a difficult time dealing with the reality of the world. You
know, people who have Virginia have a difficult time when they're
afflicted with different trials and tests or calamities, because
they have attached themselves to the wrong thing. They don't want
to leave this place. And so anything that threatens that
becomes very difficult for them health matters for you
get a diagnosis that you don't want, nobody wants, you know, a
diagnosis from the doctor that we know, you know, is likely to end
either really, you know, I mean a terminal for example, diagnosis or
something that just know that we know that our health is in
jeopardy, nobody wants to hear that. But a person who, who who is
attached to the dunya and and is afraid of death and is afraid of
their meeting with Allah subhanho data will have a much harder time
coping with the reality of their impending mortality. And this is
why we have to stay away from things that attach our hearts to
the dunya. So by purging or by giving our wealth away we are
inshallah preventing our hearts from attaching to this dunya you
know, and mashallah, there are so many amazing examples. Just this
past Friday, for example, I tuned into a broadcast on celebrate
mercy, which is a wonderful organization dedicated to teaching
about the Prophet sallallahu sallam, but they do these programs
on Friday called Friday gems and they have different speakers and
they had a speaker named Imam. So Hazeltine, and he's from the
Princeton community on the East Coast. He's a chaplain at
Princeton University. But if I'm so Hey, and I ask everybody to
please make the offer him and his family, he gave possibly one of
the most moving talks I've ever heard, he, this past May, he
received a, a diagnosis of cancer, stage four cancer. And you know,
the doctors, of course, Allah knows everything. And he is the
only one who can say when it's someone's time to go, but they
gave him a prognosis of two years that he had, I think, one to two
years. Anyhow, subhanAllah Imam Sahib gave this wonderful, just,
it was so moving to see someone facing their own mortality with
such grace and such dignity. And mashallah, who are speaking so
eloquently and beautifully with so much faith, about death. And you
know, this is someone clearly who has made peace with the decree of
Allah subhanaw taala. Now, if you're attached to the dunya,
again, it's going to be very difficult to do that. So this is
why we have to take the practice of charity setup as a category
seriously because there's wisdom in it beyond just giving wealth
and helping people who need it. Of course, that's also one of the
main reasons why we give we people have, you know, rights over us and
so we give to fulfill those rights but it really is
Part of the other byproduct of giving often and frequently is
that you are helping your heart disconnect, and you're seeing the
reality of this world for what it is, which is just a place that we
travel through, we are not resident permanent residents on
Earth, right? That's not what we want, we were just travelers
inshallah. And so you kind of just lose that love for it. But this is
one of the wonderful benefits of giving charity often. So I
encourage you to please, you know, make the offer him so him and his
family, but watch that talk and, or send it to people, it should be
on the YouTube page of celebrate mercy or Facebook, send it to
anybody that you know, who is currently struggling with a
diagnosis or some other serious grave health issue, and they are
having a hard time or even grief. You know, grief is something that
a lot of people grapple with. And I know because I, I do grief
counseling or spiritual grief counseling with people. So I know
that it's very difficult for a lot of people who are going through
loss, whether it's the loss of a parent or a spouse, or a child,
God forbid, or any family member, to sometimes really cope with
those things. But it's important to hear messages like Imam Sahibs,
because this is someone again, who has a different perspective that
we need to hear more often, you know, death is something
unfortunately, that has been erased in our society so much. And
people are so uncomfortable talking about anything related to
death. And the reason that is is because we are stricken with a
world that is so attached, or, you know, it's just a time where
people are so attached to this dunya that the thought of death,
it just, you know, repel so many people and they run from it. But
this is not our way the believer remembers death, or we should
remember that we should think about these things. And we should
talk about it comfortably because we don't see death as an end, we
see death as a transition as part of the souls journey. And it's
actually a one step closer to our Lord. So we should welcome it.
Because again, if we are, if we are happy to return to Allah
subhana wa Tada and be you and reunited with him, he is also
happy to meet with us, right, so we should we should yearn for
that, of course, you know, we should prepare for it. And it's
something very serious, but not to look at it as you know, this end
and then fall into despair, which so many people do. So really
important again, to take charity and the benefits of charity beyond
just you know, money and transactions, but looking at all
of these other incredible benefits that just getting in the practice
of being a more giving person will will have on your heart inshallah.
So it's a really important point. Now the next section is also
something so Subhanallah important, and for us to talk
about and I wish I had I have my shots and really wonderful friends
one in particular comes to mind she is a half of the of Quran and
she's a lover of the Quran May Allah bless her, but she's the
type of person that whatever the Quran has mentioned, you can see
this light just shine upon her because she is so moved by by the
book of Allah Subhan Allah that is really something that is her life
passion, she Masha Allah, may Allah increase her, but this
chapter, I mean, I wish she was here because I think you would
have a much more fruitful discussion hearing from someone
like her to, to really explain this chapter but I'll try to do my
best I am. You know, I used to teach Quran back, you know, when I
when I was teaching at the Islamic schools here locally in the Bay
Area, and it was one of my absolute favorite times of my life
because at that time I started my every single day I have to deliver
sugary law, teaching Quran and to who to the young children. So it
married the two things that I love. So much in there so dear to
me the book of Oz, Papa and children. So this chapter is
certainly a spoke to my heart. But let's you know, let's look at what
our teachers said here. They said that we read the Quran in its
entirety at least twice a year, at least once in Ramadan, and once
during the rest of the year.
Try to read it with contemplation at least once a year. We should
make it a habit to read those chapters the prophesy centum
encouraged us to read every day at their appropriate times. He has
seen a mark and Anwar prayer should be a part of a daily
spiritual practice. If one is able one should see complete. One
should excuse me complete the Quran every 40 days, every month
or every week, as was the profound practice of our earlier
communities. So let's just talk about that
for a moment, you know, reading the Quran
and
Masha Allah you know at least once in Ramadan you know we have
Ramadan is coming up, right it's it's just a couple of months shy
right of Ramadan. And so this is the time now where we have to
really start to prepare our hearts for the regular recitation of the
Quran. And so, you know, sometimes though, again, because of our own
knifes and the neffs is remember lazy, it doesn't usually work with
us, it works against us, we might just think of the book of Allah
subhanaw taala as only being for the month of Ramadan because it's
the month of the Quran. And so inshallah there's you know, we
recited and we engage with the Quran during that month. But as
this advice is very clear, that should be like a given, you know,
it is the month of the of the Quran, we should just kind of give
that it to do you know, just like, we fast, and we give us a cat and
we're more charitable, and we feed people and we do all those
beautiful works, we should just understand that it's a given of
Ramadan, that we're going to read the book of ALLAH SubhanA.
Inshallah do, right. So that's, you know, let's put that aside.
Now, the other part of the advice is that we should be doing it the
rest of the year as well. So this is where all of us have to, again,
go back and really hold ourselves accountable. If you've ever said
that you really want, for example, who sure right, so many people,
I've heard this over the years, say, I wish I had wushu and my
prayers, right? I wish I had more connection, more feelings,
sometimes I just, I don't feel it. And they're always talking about
their feelings and our feelings and our feelings. And there's this
idea which we should reject. The idea is that, in order to
establish a regular practice, I have to first feel something,
right, I have to have this epic, you know, sort of, you know,
spiritual awakening, or experience this high. And then that will
motivate me into doing regular practice, there's some people who
have that idea, and they're waiting for that. And it's kind of
like, well, until I feel that, you know, bolt of inspiration or jolt
of inspiration into my heart, I'm just kind of gonna, you know, do
and whatnot. And
they kind of, you know, just have that understanding that something
has to happen, and then they, they'll, they'll suddenly, you
know, change. Whereas, when we understand this entire text, what
what it's really saying to us is, no, you have to do the work, you
can't expect the fruits, right, if you're not going to till the soil
and get in there and, and harvest and plant your seeds and water and
do all that you can't expect fruits, that's the byproduct of
your diligence, your persistence, your sincerity. So if you've ever
wanted a deeper connection with Allah subhanaw taala, you want to
be more solid in your, in your deen, then you have to look at
your practice. And one of the areas that I that I believe and I
and this is also what our teachers have have have mentioned as well
is that there's been a disconnection or a disconnect from
the book of Allah subhanaw taala. And so we have to hold ourselves
accountable and ask ourselves, How often do I really engage with the
book of Allah. And I know, we've, I'm sure all of us have heard the
HUD was in the lectures that talk about, oh, the parents are
collecting dust on the bookshelves. Well, that might not
be as relevant anymore, because now everybody's kind of moved to
digital, you know, mediums and it's, we have apps and we have all
this other stuff. So let's talk about that. Do you have you know,
if all last part that has made it so simple for us now, right? We
don't have to go to the bookshelf, to go and read the Quran. I mean,
obviously, if you ask any a Quran teacher, they would tell you
that's preferable to use the actual physical must have. But
beyond that, if all of us have that now has made it easy for us
to access his book, through the phone through our devices, which
are, in many cases, sometimes super glued to our hands, right. I
mean, that's what it sounds like, because we don't put it down.
But if that's the reality, that we have such an easy access to the
book, almost Papa, and, you know, we're not still reading it, then
the problem is with us, right? It's not that we don't have enough
time. It's not that we're, you know, too busy doing this one or
the other. It's that we lack Initiative, or we lack that
desire, and that should cause concern. Why, you know, think
about the entire world. You know, people spend hours I always marvel
and you know, I'm not this is just a general observation, right? I
think if you if if you spend time reading fiction, and getting
involved in all of these different genres and books and self help
books, it could be, you know, nonfiction, science fiction,
whatever it is that you're into
But if you make time to read those things, you have Kindle, you have
all these other apps, you have all this other access to different
books, and you make time for that. Just think about your choices,
right? It's kind of, it's definitely a downgrade, right? If
you're going to spend hours doing that, but then you say, or you
claim or you, maybe you maybe you don't even think of these things,
but the reality is that you're not making time for the best book on
Earth in existence, which is the book of Allah subhanaw taala. The
stories within the book, The treasures, the the messages, the
profound, heart wrenching, sometimes verses and heart, you
know, flooding the heart with with inspiration, verses are so much
that the Quran offers. And every time you read it, it'll offer you
something new. Why? Because we are always evolving, we're always in
different phases of our life. So 10 years ago, we may have been in
a different stage in our life than we are now. We've evolved in
shallow we've gained wisdom, we see things with a different eye.
So when you go and you open the book, of course, not that you
could read the Tafseer, or the verses, and maybe a chapter that
you memorized when you were 10 years old, suddenly it has this
profound effect on you now that you're reading it at 30 or 40. But
if you don't even bother to do that, then you have to again, hold
yourself accountable. Why? Why is it that I am making time to escape
into all these fantasy lands, when the book of Allah's brothers
describes, for me, the greatest thing that my mind can't even
fathom? You know, when you read the verses of gender, and you read
these incredible stories that have happened, that are real, we should
be in awe of, you know, of ALLAH SubhanA data and his creation and
of the prophets and all of the extraordinary things that are to
come. That's what the book of Ozma does does is it prepares the heart
for truth, where instead of just falling into, you know, a fantasy
land of fiction written by human beings, so you know, just call
yourself out, like, what is it that I don't want to read the book
of Allah, but I'll read other things, it's likely again, your
enough's, shaytani, Anisha, Dawn is this is how he works. He likes
to distract and, you know, get us all swept away with whatever
trends are happening. And it the reason why is because we won't
make time when we should for the most important things if we're too
distracted. So you have to pay attention and ask yourself, How
have I changed over the course of 5678? Just go back as far as you
can, even one year, ask yourself from last year to now How have I
changed in terms of my relationship with the book of
Allah? Have I memorize more? Have I read more? Have I committed to
reading more? Do I, you know, am I looking forward to to Ramadan and
actually engaging with it? Or am I kind of dragging my feet and
thinking about it that way, all of those things are important
internal conversations to have, because I'll let you know where
you are spiritually. But the bottom line is, is as this advice
tells us, we should be making a concerted effort throughout the
year to read as much as possible every day. And for some people
that might be a few verses, some people that might be a page I know
people mashallah who do far more than that, who can do more than
one just, you know, masha Allah, and they read very frequently,
because that's their commitment. So every one of us have a choice
to make about how we use our time when it comes to the book balls,
Papa. But the most important thing is to remember that it's not just
for the month of Ramadan, this is a book that we have access to 24/7
every single day. And if we are truly sincere about wanting to be
close to Allah subhanaw taala, then the least we can do is read
His words, right? I mean, that's, that's to show you whether or not
your claim or your desire is sincere. If you're not willing to
do that, then you're it's just lip service at that point. It's just
words that you say, but the heart has to be moved to action. So and
then, of course, the wisdoms here about reading the certain, you
know, chapters that will that there's a great benefit to right
sort of the monk of course, we know every night this was the
practice of the prophesy said I'm to read it before sleep, sort of
Milwaukee, how many of the scholars say that if someone is
struggling with risk, right, they they want to increase their
sustenance to reach all the way up here frequently, so that they are
seen in general, this is a healing it's the heart as they say, the
heart of the Quran. You can read it for Shiva, you can read it for
many, many different benefits, but just making the practice of
reading the sutras as often as possible in sha Allah until you
memorize and it's incredible the book of a law that how without
sometimes even any intention or preparation, you you just by
listening to verses frequently and often, you find that you've
memorized them that's such a gift from a lot, right that just
listening
to His words, that they not only, you know, they penetrate the
heart, but inshallah they also sear into the into the mind and we
memorize them. So that's those are all gifts from Allah, but we have
to do the work right? So you know, and if one is able wants you to
complete the Quran every 40 days, every month every week, again,
that might not be where you're at right now, which is okay, but work
towards that. And I'll tell you from my own personal experience,
I'd have to do that for more than maybe 1015 I don't know how many
years now I really don't have the count, but it's been certainly
more than 1015 years, I haven't completed the you know, the Quran
once a year in the month of Ramadan, that's just been my
commitment and hamdulillah Allah has given me tofield every year
inshallah me that continue, I mean, but this year, and actually,
well, in the past few years, I started to realize, like, I need
to do more than one hit them instead of just, you know, doing
what I just said, which is only doing it for the Milan, that was
because, you know, typical excuses, we all make
motherhood, all work, all the stuff would get in the way. So I
never would really be able to finish an entire hut that I would
get close, but not really. So this year Alhamdulillah, I'm just
giving this an A see how because it might work for you. I'm very
blessed to have a group of beautiful sisters, softball
matters, the people that you interact with on a regular basis,
they should inspire you. And if you don't have that, you know,
companionship, may Allah give you good friends, good sisters, good
brothers. But this group of friends I'm very blessed to have
because what we did is after Ramadan, we decided that we were
going to commit to doing a HUD them together. So every month, we
have this rotation where we assign, you know, certain judges
or chapters of the Quran to each other. And then we rotate. So
after, you know, every month, it's the next set of, of chapters that
we read. And the intention was that by the end of the year, we
would have inshallah finished an entire hit them collectively,
because we're all reading from different parts. And so now
collectively, we do a HUD them every month. But by the end of the
year individually, we've all finished another entire them.
And we do it actually, just today, I spoke to two of the sisters that
are in the group. And we were speaking about actually
accelerating and increasing our reading for this particular month
because the Ramadan is coming. And we want to do more. So this is the
benefit of doing these things with group with a group because when
we're left to our own devices, again, the ego is strong, and he
believes can distract us. So we might not get very far. But when
you do things like that, where you commit to reading with your
friends, instead of book clubs, Oprah's book club or whatever
other book club you have, where you get together and you discuss,
you know, books that have really very little benefit to you. I
mean, I'm not I don't want to discount book clubs, okay, that's
not what I mean. But I'm saying if you had a choice, if you have very
limited time, and you can only do one book club, please do a do a
Quran club, you know, get together with your friends, and say, You
know what, I want to start doing classrooms, let's do this
together, it's very simple idea. You just rotate, you know, five,
six chapters per month, per person, and inshallah you do them
every month. So anyway, you know, do that do that instead of getting
together just talking about random books that you'll forget about as
you move on to the next one. Whereas with the book of Allah
subhanaw taala, it does imprint, it will impact your soul and more
importantly, most importantly, it strengthens your connection to
him, right. So the advice at the bottom here it follows in the next
paragraph is that we should also commit to memorizing some portion
of the Quran every year and couple that with memorizing the 40 Hadith
of Imam unknowingly. So this is also another objective we should
all have, you know, hamdulillah back 20 Plus, maybe 15 plus years
ago, in the group that I was involved with, and studied with,
we did this we actually had this kind of like a competition, I
guess you could say, of memorizing the 40, Hadith, And Alhamdulillah.
I remember, you know, getting getting into it and the first
maybe two or three Hadith i 100 committed to memory. And then you
know, life happened and I know the Hadith, but I don't have them all
memorized. But anyway, those first three Hadith that I memorize
Hamdulillah you know, the brain is an amazing thing. You know, we all
know this, if you've committed anything to memory, that even if
you don't visit something for a long time that you made, it's
still there, right? So there's been times where I'll come across
one of those Hadith that I memorized many, many years ago.
And I always marveled at the fact that I can still recall
I still remember what comes next. And it's like, wow, it's behind a
lot. This isn't something that I engage with every single day, like
the plan or the plan is different. We memorize the shorter verses,
for example of just I'm gonna because then we go and recite them
in our prayers. But with the heavy, that's not always the case
that you're going to be reciting them all the time. But it's still
incredible to me that after so many years of not engaging with
those headaches, they're still imprinted in my memory and I can
recall from the level of sugar so the benefit of memorization for
the sake of almost probably is that that the gift keeps on giving
in that you're not you know it Allah will give you the gift of
just being able to hold on to his words or the words of the prophesy
centum inshallah again, if we're sincere, so there's more that I
wasn't able to type in some of these sections are a bit longer so
I can't fit everything on the slides, but I'll read from the
text. So after they mentioned the 40 Hadith of Imam unknowing, the
our teachers also say also reading the gardens of the righteous at
least once a year is a cogent way of reminding ourselves of daily
sunnah practices, we should all strive to retain what we have
memorized from the Quran, even hedger al hates me and others
considered it a major sin to forget what one has memorized of
the Quran. So that's also really important. If you've committed to
memorizing parts of the Quran, or you already have, then your task,
the task at hand is to renew your memorization and to make sure you
review and you're always you know, reciting those verses and to not
forget. And so that can happen in many different ways. Again,
reading them in your prayers or just reading the verses, or
listening to them listen to a potty, you know, and making sure
that you can recite along. It is prohibited to derive rulings from
either the Quran or the Hadith, unless one has fulfilled the
prerequisites of an independent jurist which the head or has
studied what what the rightly guided scholars have said about a
particular verse or Hadith. So this is now just a general, you
know, warning against, you know, taking your reading of the Quran
to a different level that is not appropriate for you, just because
you are reading the book, the Quran or the seed or the meanings
does not mean that now you are able to interpret those verses or
use certain verses to establish rulings and to, you know, go out
and start distributing fatwa to random people, we should know that
that is completely unacceptable and wrong, because that's not the
role of every person. We have a scholars who have done the
training and they've gone through, they have the requisite knowledge
to do that. So that's not our place. But we can certainly read
about the opinions of again scholars and the rightly guided,
you know, scholars that of the past or the present who have
arrived at certain decisions or conclusions and we can share those
but not to take it into our own hands. We are commanded to remain
humble in the presence of the book and the Hadith and maintain in our
hearts the following three Quranic injunctions. So first seeking
refuge in a lot from Shavon, before we read anything from the
Quran, so I will the villa administrate honor regime, right,
taking that very seriously because you don't want to open the book of
all this data and then just start reciting without saying that and
your thoughts go all over the place and it just ends up not
being beneficial to you for that reason, right? Do not be forward
with our own understanding in the Presence of Allah, his book and
his messenger solomani was send them the Sunnah. And ask the
people of remembrance, remembrance of the Quran if we do not know. So
do not be forward again, not to assume that we understand
everything because there are some verses that we we would need
further analysis or the analysis of a scholar or an interpretation
of a scholar to truly understand, sometimes we can get a little too
confident. And that's what that's speaking to, to not be
overconfident. To be humble. To accept that language off. Most of
us, I would say the majority of us are very limited in our knowledge
with the book of Allah subhanaw taala. In English translations or
other language translations do not equate with actually understanding
the Arabic and knowing the different routes and all of the
meanings and there's so many so much nuance, we cannot compare
ourselves to the level of scholars who dedicated their entire lives
to studying the book of Allah and even they themselves will tell you
that it's it's an ocean and that they're there, you know, they
don't have all the answers. So who are we to presume our
understanding, right? And then the to ask, right? So if there are
certain verses that we don't quite understand, to do that due
diligence to get the answers that we seek instead of, you know,
assuming things, taking our own interpretations or letting those
those thoughts
You know, kind of turned into doubts and then it affecting our
faith in general but doing the the necessary, you know, work to find
answers inshallah and Hamdulillah, for our deen, that doesn't shy
away from that, you know, people are not told not to ask questions,
we are actually told the opposite to seek to learn to go out and
ask, of course, in the best way in the best context, but in other
traditions, they're not even allowed to ask, so we should say
Hamdulillah that that's not our our faith, right? So that was a
section on the Quran. And of course, there's so much more to
say about the book of Allah's Prophet, but they're keeping it
pretty concise here as general advice on how to change one's
condition when it comes to these practical day to day things that
all of us can be doing. So taking up again, a regular practice of
the reading of the Quran is something all of us should be
doing every single day, at least one page or verses is something
but you can't completely disconnect and unplug from the
book of Allah and then expect to see all these openings it's just
not that's just not going to happen. Now the next section, or
that's not likely to happen, I should say. The next section is
the remembrance of Allah. Okay, so this is again at the bottom of
page 33 If you do have the text, we're
let me see the time actually here okay, we're still okay on time. So
in the remembrance of Allah this section, we must be committed to a
serious practice of the remembrance of I was proud of the
good and the actively engaged in purifying and preparing our
hearts. For the inevitable meeting with our Lord Vic it has a
profound effect on the heart and should not be underestimated. It
must be done regularly, even in small amounts. A little that is
constant is better than a lot without consistency. The minimum
vicar should also include a portion of the Quran every day and
the prayers and orations that the prophesy said I'm was known to
recite in the mornings and in the evenings and this is something we
also have to be immensely grateful for that the prophesy centum left
us with so many daily to our from the moment we wake up, when we you
know, go to the restroom, we leave the restroom we put on our
clothes, we go to sit down and eat we finish eating, we leave them I
mean each other and we should do our best to memorize those laws to
teach those to our children. Because what that is doing is
putting them in a state of constant remembrance of Allah
subhanaw taala if we just did the five prayers there's so many hours
through the day
Hello, Santa Monica them.
So they sort of matter. Are you there?
I have no idea what happened. I think somehow I got disconnected
from the broadcast, but I hope we're still broadcasting I
actually don't know we are, but let's see.
Okay, so inshallah we're still broadcasting. I apologize. I don't
know if my internet got disconnected or what happened, but
something did happen. So let me bring the screen back up.
Inshallah, we'll just quickly resume from where we are. I
apologize for that little inconvenience there.
Okay.
So we were talking about the remembrance of Allah. So um, let's
see here. I don't remember what I was saying. But I'll go back and
read here. It says the minimum tickets should include a portion
of the Quran everyday Oh, yes, I was talking about the daily. So as
of the prophesy Saddam and the fact that
the fact that the prophesies sort of left us with so many beautiful
doors to fill in those gaps, right between all of the five prayers,
and it's to put us in the state of constant remembrance because in
the absence of that, in the absence of the remembrance of
Allah Ponta our knifes will start to fill the void with other
things, like I said, with music you see people, you know,
watching, you know, just spending hours and hours scrolling on
Tiktok videos or Instagram, snap whatever social media they're on,
or they're just absorbing toxic news from cable news or, you know,
watching Netflix and all these other stuff.
naming services. Why? Because they're not preoccupied with
something better. So we have to think about how we use our time.
And that's why the remembrance of Allah's Prophet is so important
because it puts you and I love the way they phrased it, you know, the
fact that we do it because it will prepare our hearts for the
inevitable meeting with our Lord Subhan Allah, that's really it, we
need to be prepared because it is going to happen. And if we've
learned anything this year, during COVID, we should, we should have
learned about the fragility of life, the fact that at any moment
someone can be taken, and it's really in Allah's hands, and
nobody has any idea of when our time comes, and that awareness,
and it's quite, I mean, subhanAllah, it just speaks to how
much we need to, we need a loss of power, and how much we are
desperate for His mercy and His forgiveness. Because the very fact
that he's told us that death is indiscriminate, and that we have
no idea when we will go, that that doesn't put us in a state of fear
and all and just wanting to, you know, do our best is is a clear
sign of how forgetful we are, how we can fall into heedlessness so
easily, and how we really are at the mercy of Allah. Because if you
really think logically about it, it's like, you know, in many ways,
you know, for example, when you when you hear of someone with a
terminal diagnosis, like this brother that I mentioned earlier,
Imam Sahib, sometimes you may imagine, like, wow, how does it
feel to know that you have a sentence already, you know, that
someone has given you a clear indication that you will not live
past this age, right? Like to know that your mortality is not only
imminent, but it's almost written in a on a date or a timeframe that
is tangible, that you can, you know, understand, we may just sit
there and think, oh, my gosh, how, you know, that's, that sounds so
terrifying. But if you really think about it, aren't we all in
the same position, in the sense that we are all terminal, we all
will die. And the fact that we don't have, the answer should make
us even more nervous, because at least the person who has some
idea, they have time, they have time to get their order, you know,
affairs in order to have time to, you know, fix situations that
needs to be fixed and prepare their family and prepare their
hearts and to really work on their relationship with Allah. So in
many ways, it can be a blessing in disguise. But those of us who
don't have that, you know, prognosis or haven't been given
that, shouldn't we operate on a more, you know, kind of, you know,
nervous or not fearful, but you know, just there shouldn't be more
urgency. Shouldn't there be a sense of, Wow, I really need to
get myself together, because I don't know it could be tomorrow,
right? Because death is veiled from us, we have no idea when our
time is. But if we really remember death, often and we remember the
last part that often, then what that would do is it would as Imam
Sahib beautifully said, on Friday, it would help us to live better.
You know, that's the beauty of the remembrance of death. That's the
beauty of the remembrance of the last part that is that you are
remembering not to get caught up in the sad dark space of death and
more morbid thoughts. No, it's to say, you know, Allah, you've given
me this precious life, gift of life. And I want to, you know,
live it to its fullest and take care of my family and my
relationships with my loved ones, and just be a good person. That's
what the remembrance of Allah remembers of death should do,
which is why it's so important. Now, if you did that every day, if
you read the book of Oz pop every day, if you did remembrance of
almost every day, then when death comes down, will you be in that
panic state? I'm certain millions, if not billions of people have
found themselves over the course of history, because they weren't
prepared. May Allah protect us from that we should ask us partner
for you know, has some hot them have the best ending, that we are
protected from that type of an end, that we're caught completely
by surprise, and we're not prepared? And we're, yeah, the
biller even doing something worse, which is engaging in sin. May God
protect us and that's our time. And you see these you know,
there's, I was just telling some friends earlier today, on Amazon
Prime, there is a show I think it's only available until the end
of this month, but it is about people who've had near death
experiences and I really recommend you to watch it. It's just really
profound to hear people and you know, we have to have, you know,
just a belief that these people are not fabricating their stories.
They seem that I mean, they have you know, these are real true
accounts of people who've had accidents really horrific,
horrific, near death experiences.
but they are speaking openly, you know, years maybe sometimes after
their trauma, their traumatic experience about what happened to
them the moment that they, you know, died in many cases, they
their hearts flatlined, they lost consciousness completely for some,
in some cases, 20 minutes imagine Subhan Allah, nothing, no brain
activity, no heartbeat, nothing, but they are describing the scenes
that are just out of this world. Subhanallah literally, and it's
really moving to hear their accounts, but it just reminds you
that Subhanallah this is, you know, death, it's going to come in
at any time for all of us and we have to be prepared for it. And
this is why the remembrance of Allah is so important. And so they
go on to talk about me, I'm sorry, let me see the time we have that
little disruption. Oh, Subhan Allah. Okay, we're right at nine
o'clock. So I'm going to actually, I'll stop here there is more to
share on the section that I don't want to just quickly summarize, I
think we could just pause and we'll return inshallah in a couple
of weeks continuing the section on the remembrance of Allah and then
continuing with with the next section. So I'm going to stop here
so that I can see if there are any questions
and Bismillah you just give me one moment, I can pull
up the screen
okay, this minute
so I'm going to go to Facebook and sorry, trying to coordinate here
there's too many tabs open I have to open up actually a Facebook
tab.
So in brother Solomon if there are any questions on YouTube, please
let me know I have a hard time coordinating between the two but
let me check
okay, masha Allah so I don't see any questions in the Facebook
page. But let me go to YouTube.
And I'll try there and then if there aren't any questions hide
inshallah
we can just end and then we'll resume Inshallah, I have a hard
time coordinating between the two sorry, my volume came on Okay, so
I'm that I'm on YouTube and I also don't see any questions here but I
thank you all for tuning in.
With the with the section on the remembrance of Allah subhanaw
taala in two weeks time, and I invite you again if you don't have
the text to get the text and to read ahead, you're more than
welcome to read ahead. We're still on chapter three, and that way
you'll be ready for inshallah the next session, but thank you again
for your time and almost father protect and preserve all of you
and your families Inshallah, we will end in the
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim will answer in Al Insana, la Piazza De
La Nina mo Salah hottie with OSA will be with us over the summer,
sabbatical or homo VMDK shadow under Illa Elantra Sakurako wanted
to booty Lake Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik ala say that our
Mowlana will have you been on Hamid sallallahu alayhi salam, wa
ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam to Sleeman Kathira Alhamdulillah,
Giacomo Han and everyone in sha Allah