Hosai Mojaddidi – An Agenda to Change Our Condition (Session 14)
AI: Summary ©
The speakers stress the importance of empathy, compassion, and commitment to religion in achieving joy in life. They stress the need for regular practice, not being nosy, and renewing commitment to religion. The speakers also discuss the negative impacts of social media on mental health and self-esteem, and encourage viewers to research and find research that supports their beliefs.
AI: Summary ©
Okay, so um, the left for those, again who have been tuning in, we
stopped last week, we're still in chapter three. But Inshallah, my
aim is to finish chapter three today. So there are a few sections
that we want to talk about. So let's see here last week we ended
on or two weeks ago, I should say, we ended on the section on
commanding good and forbidding evil. And so today we are picking
up on empathy. So this is a particularly important topic for
me, because so much of the work that I do actually, is revolves
around this word empathy. You know, a lot of the talks that I've
given and just my, a lot of the work that I've done over however
many years I've been teaching, and in the community, I feel like I've
centered on this prophetic quality of really just trying to put
yourself in the shoes of another, to feel the pain or the
experiences of another so that you become more compassionate towards
them. And that's really, essentially, what empathy is.
Oftentimes, it's a term that's confused with sympathy, but they
are quite different. Empathy means to be in the feeling with someone,
or in excuse me, in feeling with someone and then sympathy means to
be with them in feeling. So what that means is, you know, when
you're observing someone, for example, you know, they're
grieving, let's say, or they just went through a difficult hardship,
if you have sympathy, you're observing them, you're with them,
you're watching them, and you feel bad, you feel pity. But it was
empathy. It's beyond pity or just sympathy, it's actually feeling
the same emotions that they're feeling, grieving the loss with
them really feeling it as if it's your own pain, there are some
people who are so empathic that they can actually even with
physical pain, they someone may describe, for example, oh, I have
an ache in my tooth or a back, you know, ache or some sort of pain.
And if the empath is really, you know, just very cute into that
person, they can feel the pain or sensation in the same area. And of
course, you know, people are, are empathic in different degrees, but
there are certainly people who have that. And so, this is a
prophetic quality. And if you've ever heard me talk about emotional
intelligence, this is one of the qualities of emotional
intelligence, right? There's five key qualities self awareness, self
regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. And so we go
into really deep or a long explanation of what empathy is,
but let's look at what our scholars have to say here as it is
in the book. So the most beneficial spiritual practice for
our hearts is to avoid judging and criticizing people and to
cultivate empathy and compassion in our hearts for the creation of
Allah. To do this, it helps to remember the narration of Prophet
Isa de salaam, which was found in the month of Imam Malik. So here
this is Malik relates that related to me and this is yeah have been
yeah, here speaking that he heard that is I've been Maryam said, who
used to say, Do not sit in a gathering without the mention of
Allah, for you will harden your hearts. A hard heart is far from
Allah, but you do not know. Do not look at the wrong actions of
people as if you were lords, but rather look at your own wrong
actions as if you were slaves. Some people are afflicted by wrong
actions, and others are protected from them, have mercy on those who
are afflicted, and show gratitude for his protection. I mean,
martial art says it all right, it's such a balanced view of life
of the world of circumstance of the fact that there are people who
are tested in different ways. And if you are not tested in a
particular hardship or sin, or you know shortcoming, then just be
grateful, but don't, you know, look upon people with that
critical eye, that judgmental eye where you think yourself above
them, just rather, you know, be merciful towards them be
compassionate and know that they're being tested. And it was
something that hamdulillah Allah is protecting you from because,
you know, maybe by your arrogance towards them, you will be tested
with the same or worse so it's it's in your own benefit to not be
judgmental, but also to practice empathy is to not is to see people
again for where they're at and to not see yourself as better than
them but rather that we're all sinners, we all make mistakes. We
all sin in different ways and and are tested in different ways. And
so just to have compassion that when you see someone you
They're being afflicted with something or are falling into some
sin. That of course, I mean, if they're close to you, you can
counsel them, and then give them the see how but you certainly
shouldn't look down upon them or speak ill of them spread, you
know, spread rumors, because this means that you see yourself above.
And that's really the core. I mean, there's a central issue of
people who are judgmental, right, judgmental, and critical. People
do see themselves as above other people. And so this quality of
empathy is just recognizing your own humanity, your own ability to
make mistakes, and then not being critical of other people and
having that humility and that total awareness, that whatever
guidance you have, is entirely from Allah subhanaw taala. It's
not because you're necessarily better or you some people, you
know, they think that because of their own deeds, that they are
superior, morally, you know, they're superior, or maybe because
of lineage, a lot of people think well, their family, their
upbringing, their education, their wealth or status, affords them,
you know, this rank above other people or protection from doing
certain things. But that is really flawed view, all of the good that
we have is from Allah subhanaw taala, all of the guidance we have
is from Allah subhanho wa taala. It's not from our own deeds, and
this is what humility and what following the prophesy Saddam's
example teaches you is that you don't ever attribute any good to
yourself, you're always attributing the good to Allah
subhanaw taala. And you attribute your own flaws, of course to
yourself, but you see people, you humanize people and you don't look
at them, again with this judgmental eye. So this is the
topic of empathy. And again, so important, so I love this quote of
ESA peace be upon him because it's so comprehensive, you know, he's
giving us clear direction, to how to protect our hearts from getting
hard. First, he's tells us right, don't sit with people who don't
mention a law. And that's actually really important because
judgmental people, you know, birds of a feather, they flock together,
you usually learn those behaviors because of a company that you
keep, and right now, for example, you look at social media, and you
look at so much of our culture is legitimizes or, you know, allows
and even encourages, gossip and encourages, you know, just the
tabloid culture that we have of following people and looking at
what they're doing. And then just talking about people, you know,
all of these things that are not part of our faith, we are taught
to mind our own business, to not be nosy and pry into people's
private lives, or be concerned about what other people are doing.
But when you have a society, that not only, you know, make it this
is so widespread, but actually encourages it, believe it or not,
earlier last week, actually, for a post that I was writing, I was
just doing some research and I found articles in pretty, you
know, prominent publications that were advising people, or even the
titles of the articles were, you know, the benefits of gossip, like
gossiping could actually be good for you. I was like oh, the
biller, and then you know, I did another post on cursing, and how
we should you know, this is just a tangent, but you know, I'm cursing
and how we should avoid foul language and someone sent me my
brother actually, he sent me an article that had just been
published the same day that my or the next day after my post, that
said, you know, a sign science proves that intelligent people
curse that is a sign of intelligence. So unfortunately,
there are people in our society who glorify these behaviors that
are not part of our faith are not acceptable according to our faith.
We have to protect our hearts from that. And so if you normalize
certain behaviors, or you're hanging around people who
normalize those behaviors, you will adopt the same behaviors and
that's certainly the case for cursing as well as gossip as well
as a lot of the flaws character you know, just the wrong actions
and character flaws that people adopt because of the company they
keep. So it's so important to heed this advice don't sit with people
who don't remind you of Allah who don't mention all this Partha
because you know, if you carry on with those types of groups, then
the consequences that you will be distant from ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada
because your hard hearts will start to harden, right? And then
you know, so it's just really beautiful the way the phrasing of
this is because it's really like it's it's so comprehensive and
then to prevent you know, not only from your heart from hardening, he
addresses arrogance and looking down on people and then he
encourages empathy. So these are all really beautiful qualities,
prophetic qualities that we should adopt inshallah. So this was the
first or the
The section that we left off last time. So let's go on to the next.
And then we're still on chapter three. For those who have the
book, we're on page 35. Now, so you can follow along. And some of
these sections are a little longer than others. So I wasn't able to
type out the entire section, but I do have, you know, most of the
content that we need to cover, and I'll just read whatever is left.
So, this will, the next section here is on supplication. So which
of course we know is law. And here
it says that supplication is another profound practice, pray
every day for our afflicted brothers and sisters throughout
the world, especially defenseless women and children. May Allah give
us from His presence, a protector who is victorious, the state of
the community of Muslims is at a low ebb in history. But we believe
in the promises of our province of Ontario, Saddam, concerning its
rectification in the latter days, and we should hope and pray for
the day when the community's prosperity returns. And the
believers are united and protected. I mean, so, you know,
this is a advice, it's an Asiya. All of this is entire chapters on
practical steps to change our conditions. So this being you
know, almost towards the end of the chapter, it certainly is
important for us to do this every day. And that's why right off the
bat, it's it's a, it's a command, right, we should be making dua
every day for our brothers and sisters throughout the world. And
sometimes we can get short sighted with our dua. And sometimes we can
skip it all together. I know my personally, personally, I've
definitely struggled with that just jumping from one thing to the
other prayers, you know, I have to do my prayers. But then I don't
sometimes I forget to sit down and just have moments of pause after
my prayer, we're actually remember to make dua, you know, not just
the ones that we learned to do after the prayer.
But actually to remember people to remember, you know, people that
have lost, for example, loved ones, or people that I know right
now are going through hardships. So what's helped me in the past is
to some time, I mean, I've made dua lists. So if you have a list,
sometimes that's really helpful to keep in your pocket, or to keep on
hand. So that right after prayer, you can just take it out, because
if we are being honest, our memories fail us all the time. You
know, I was just telling someone yesterday that that's a big part
of human you know, our frailty as human beings is that we're very
forgetful. And even if we want to do something, earnestly and
sincerely, sometimes it's our memory lapse that can prevent us,
right. It's not will or desire or sincerity, but it's just the fact
that we're, we're forgetful. And so it does help to have reminders,
visuals, something that will trigger the memory for us. So
prayer lists are certainly helpful. But you know, this is
advice about the importance of remembering that we should make it
off for everybody, not collective laws, right? Not just, you know,
ourselves, but also all of the people who are oppressed and, and
suffering throughout the world. And then to not lose hope, you
know, because that's one of the
tactics of shaitan is to bring people down by saying, well look
at the Muslim world, and people are in such a terrible situation.
And he'll just try to, you know, just kind of chip away at our, our
conviction and our faith, and we have to know better and say, No,
everything is written unless partisan control. And we just have
to do our part, you know, just ever, if all of us do our part,
Inshallah, we'll see the benefit. And this is the whole book, the
whole book is about really focusing on every individual
focusing on their own power and their own potential, and really
just working on restoring what needs to be restored within
themselves. And then the ripple effect that that has, because it
does it has a ripple effect. If we all were doing Toba, for example,
if we all were, you know, doing good works collectively, we would
see the benefit of that. But the problem is, of course, there's so
much of alpha heedlessness in our community in our world now, and
forgetfulness. And so there are people who are certainly doing
their best. And then we have people who who are who have just
forgotten and they're going astray. So we need to get on the
same page basically. So this idea of, of remembering the importance
of God is very important. So I'll have the lattice was also part of,
again, the list of things, actionable items, that all of us
can do individually to practically begin to change our condition.
Now, the next section, also very important, here, let me get the
slide up.
Excuse me
it's a bit of a delay Okay, so this is on a physical health 100
So here we go let's just go ahead and read and this is I've divided
this slide into or section into two slides because he first they
first address
physical health and then hygiene so we should all make it a
practice to take care of our physical health and hygiene The
problem is I said I'm said Surely your body has a right over you. So
this is now we should exercise regularly remove harmful foods
from our diets. And then you know, we're called to be witnesses over
humanity and all things The problem is that instead of strong
believers better and more beloved to Allah than a weak believer in
each there's good and then you know, other suggestions, which are
all part of the Sunnah martial arts are wrestling we know of
course, the puzzles and wrestled, right, and self defense archery.
These are all ancient prophetic practices and effective ways of
keeping fit and sharp, playing sports, you know, is useful, it
teaches people to work together and cooperate in addition to
providing healthy competition tempered by good sportsmanship.
And we know the process that um, you know, he loves to have
competition with his wives with the Sahaba even sometimes with
children, he raised on foot on horse on camel, so he was very
active, right. And so certainly important that we all you know,
take note of our health and make sure that we're doing the best
that we can and you know, if you have health issues, other things
that prevent you from doing things then be gentle with yourself and
do follow you know, whatever instructions your your doctors or
medical team has in place for you and be gentle. But these are just
in terms of what you can control like our diets and what we're
eating we can certainly control and make sure that we're eating
Helen are eating good, wholesome foods, right organic foods, clean
foods, making sure that we're not contributing to the the the mass
food, you know, the food industry that just, you know, mass produces
without really much care of what the ingredients are the
preservatives, the dyes, the toxins, all those chemicals that
are in a lot of our foods. So if you're conscientious of these
things, and try our best to eat the good foods and eat of the
halal of course foods, Inshallah, this is really a big step and then
to do as much as we can in terms of physical exercise. So the next
section is connected to this, but it's, again, about hygiene, which
is the other the other part of this, let me go to that slide.
Just one moment, while this catches up, I went a little
forward.
Sorry. Okay. So cleanliness, of course, we know the Hadith, right?
That cleanliness is half of our face. So it's a characteristic of
Islam. And this is both internal and external cleanliness, right,
there are aspects of the Prophetic practice. So external hygiene,
this is, you know, certainly taking a bath grooming, wearing
clean clothes, we should be vigilant, to say keep ourselves
clean from impurities, one of the practices that I certainly, you
know, I speak about and I, I really think is very important
that we teach our children even from a young age, is always trying
to maintain their will do and to be in the practice of, you know,
where if they need to use the restroom, always just having that
rule of thumb to just make, you know, be always in a state of
purity and attract those, you know, angelic, you know, the
angelic beings to you and repel the, the demonic beings, we don't
want them close to us, we want the angels close to us, right and they
are drawn to the people and will do so being in those clean states.
And then maintaining our homes and other possessions, cars, vehicles,
whatever we have places that we have, if you have an office, you
know, if I was blessed you with multiple homes, but just trying to
be
a person who embodies this quality of cleanliness so that when we go
out, people are not put off by body odor. I mean software, this
is a complaint. You know, we've heard so many times about just
going to the masjid even and praying next to people who smell
like food or who have body odor, you know, this is really we have
to be very careful stuff while about offending people because
honestly, there are people who may have a bad experience one time and
that's enough for them to not want to go back and you don't want to
be the cause. For for someone being so repelled, that they don't
are repulsed or they don't want to come back to the masjid you know,
because you didn't fulfill your obligation and making sure you're
you're clean that you smell well you know and of course now we're
in quarantine so this doesn't directly apply at the moment but
inshallah when the doors of the masjid open again or just in
general you go out anywhere you
You go to someone's home, you go to the store, public places, just
being mindful of your self, like when's the last time you washed
you cleaned? Do you, I mean, I did this with my boys, I have two
growing boys one is a 12 year old, the other is a nine year old. And
you know, we all know the smell right? When they go outside to
play.
I'm sure girls get it too, but it's just that smell of outside,
you know, especially boys who running around and doing God knows
what outside, you know, they're playing basketball and, and sports
and all these other things that they're doing riding their bikes,
but they'll come sometimes with that smell and I just a rule for
us, you know, you have that smell in the shower, or, you know, make
sure you you're freshening up, make will do wash your face, get
everything off clean, you know, clean your feet, so we have to get
boys in the habit of cleaning their feet. And this is just basic
knowledge of, you know, physiology and growth and development, that
teens, they're going to go through those growth spurts, and they're
going to have odors, and we need to teach them from a very early
age, that they have to be responsible for themselves, but if
they get in habits early on, then inshallah it'll help them to
adjust to the life of a Muslim, which is, you know, making will do
throughout the day praying our prayers, Inshallah, on time,
always being in a state of purity. But if you don't habituate your
kids early, and then expect them to learn all this, you know, late,
it's very hard. So I'm very much a proponent of getting our kids in
these habits early and making sure that they are always mindful of
themselves checking their, their smells, you have them because I
know as a teacher, and as someone who does, coming of age talks to
teens, teen girls, I have actually had to address this particular
issue multiple times, you know, with, with, with teens, because
their teachers or staff or other students have sometimes,
unfortunately had issues with some of them being completely unaware
that they have body odor, and that they're physiologically you know,
they're changing, and they're there. They're there.
Things are changing, and they need to basically be aware of those
things. They're just not aware. And it's not their fault. We don't
fault that. But I've had that discussion several times. So I
think we should protect our kids. From those embarrassing
situations, awkward conversations with classmates or teachers and
just in our own homes, teach them early on, get them kits, you know,
get them. For example, deodorant kits, if you're, you know, if you
have teenagers, and they are beginning to grow hair, teaching
them how to remove hair, this is important. These are things that
they should learn. And then making sure that even with young
children, you know, I know some Muslims just because it's
convenient. They don't they don't teach them, you know, isn't jet
early, because it's like, oh, it's just a little kid. It's just a
toddler. It's okay, I'll wipe them clean. And that's it. No, get them
used to the concept of a Sinjar that we wash, we clean impurities
off. You know, get them in those habits. Don't wait until they're
school age or older. If they if you start them young with that and
Shahla those habits will just be very natural and it'll feel very
comfortable or comfortable for them. So all of those things are
really important. But here the the rest of this section, the prophesy
centum said clean your yards. Right and then one of the greatest
benefits of cleanliness is that invites us to the love to love to
the love of online. Right because Allah Subhana Allah says in
chapter two surah baqarah Verily, Allah loves those who turn to him
constantly. And he loves those who keep themselves clean, so
beautiful. Now this quote at the bottom is also really important
this is from Evelyn Claremont, Josie, Josie if
he said that I type the whole thing I'm just checking Okay, so
he Yeah, I typed most of it. He said that what we eat affects our
behavior and almost part of that is prohibited the flesh of
predators and omnivores so that we do not become like we should avoid
to the best of our ability processed foods feed our families
wholesome so handed up so a lot of the stuff that I had mentioned
earlier about just eating good foods because you know, you're
what you eat. We've all heard of that. We believe this we do
actually believe in that so trying to eat the best so that inshallah
we embody the best qualities. So this is the section on health or
and hygiene so now we're gonna move on I'm gonna like I said, try
to finish chapter three and Charlotte today so that next time
we come, we'll start on chapter four. So wait for this next slide
to load
sorry, again for the delay. There's always a lag it seems.
Yep, and it went ahead. Okay. So the next one is the section on
commitment. And then
Again, I love this. It's just a small paragraph but powerful,
powerful message here, we should renew our commitment to the
religion of Allah and His messenger. So how do you seven
every day of our lives, our sole purpose in living should be for
Allah sake, renewing this pledge of one's life to a lot and then to
His messengers. So a lot of setup is an important daily reminder of
why we are here and how we should act. The only way we can truly be
witnesses to humanity is to live our truth. This takes great
effort, but its rewards are nothing less than guidance and
success in this world and then forgiveness and trying for the
next. I love this because it really resonates with me, you
know, the idea of just remembering what am I doing here? Why am I
here? Why did Allah create me having those really deep internal
dialogues with yourself and realizing the power of existence,
the message
behind our existence, the fact that Allah created us is really
profound, right? That he, he could have not created us, right, he
could have created us into something else, an animal, an
inanimate object, but he gave us life and he gave us this honor of
being potentially you know, even greater than the angels if we so
choose to act that way. And to be in the OMA of the best of
creation, so a lot and he was said, um, so, so much of that is
really profound if you think deeply on it, but also resonates
because I remember when I first wore hijab 20 plus years ago, a
long long time ago, one of the
one of the one of the reasons why hijab was so powerful for me, and
I'm sure it is for Inshallah, all sisters who wear a hijab when all
brothers who, within with the same intention grow their beard and
wear their Koofi is that when you step outside the house, and people
look at you, and they recognize you, whether they're Muslim or
not, you they are doing you an incredible favor. You know,
because we're so forgetful, right. Like I said earlier, we it's one
of our frail frailties, we're just we're weak, we have a lot of
weaknesses. One of them is our memories. So the fact that
complete strangers with with no maybe awareness of what they're
doing for you, they're actually reminding you that you're Muslim,
you know, behave. Remember, remember who you are, remember why
you're here, remember that you are responsible, and you're
accountable before God, because you know, Zen from the hadith of
Gibreel, we know is, is to, to worship all those patterns. So you
see him even though you can't see him, but you're aware that he sees
you that awareness is the goal, right? It's we should all strive
to be that aware of our Lord, to be so aware of his existence and
his his watchfulness over us, that in every moment, we are mindful of
what we're doing that we're keeping away from the Haram
certainly, Inshallah, but we're also doing good works, we have
good intentions, we have good thoughts, right? Our actions and
our, our inward reality are, are matching, right? So the fact that
I can go to the store, and, or just sit in my car and drive away
and I see a neighbor, and they wave at me. And I'm reminded, you
know, you're, you're in hijab, that neighbor, that person in the
street, or the car next to you, or at the gas station, or the grocery
store, when they look back at you, when they do a double take, or
when they stare at you and maybe hold that gaze a little long.
Remember, why are they doing that? It's hard because you're
radiating, you know, some, you know, you're just so captivating
to look at, you know, maybe emotional there are certainly
beautiful people who have that power. I do not count myself among
those people. There are people mashallah, yes, who will get those
double, triple looks because they do have that, that exceptional
radiance or beauty. But if you don't have that 100 of that you
have something else that is, you know, like a neon sign, and it's
getting you those looks, but it's also a reminder for you, that
Allah is watching, you're a Muslim, you're accountable for
yourself. So I always thought it was a great privilege. Because I'm
so forgetful normally that by wearing my hijab, it's helping me
to stay accountable. Right? It's helping me to remember when I'm on
the road and someone cuts me off like I used to when I was younger,
I had maybe some choice words and other gestures because stuff a lot
you know,
This is what we're what we're taught in this society, you know,
teenagers, especially, we're very reactive when we're teens, right?
So anyway, you're taught to react and you're taught to get
aggressive and you're taught all those things. But Islam, you know,
humbler, teaches you know, that. let people go. If someone's
cutting you off on the road, don't personalize everything. Why do you
have to personalize it, that person doesn't know you. Maybe
they're rushing because they have to go somewhere. And maybe there's
an emergency, maybe there's something going on that you have
no idea about, maybe they're about to lose their job, because they're
running late for work, and they have bills to pay. So if we
humanize people, and we just start letting go of the need to
personalize everything, and also remember that we are accountable
before God, then inshallah we regulate that self regulation, you
start to change your behavior, right. So but the hijab certainly
helped me because I would remember, Oh, I can't do those
things. I can't do what I used to do. I mean, I'm talking like,
right when I transitioned right, when I first started wearing
hijab, it was a big adjustment. But I thought it was such a so
cool. It was it was really like, amazing to me, that just by
wearing something on my head, I had hypervigilance, all of a
sudden of who I was, visa vie my my relationship with Allah, and
the people were helping me and that's one of the main reasons I
mean, obviously also because it's farther than I believe in it. But
one of the reasons why I've always loved my hijab and in sha Allah, I
pray that I always wear it. And I always keep an eye on because of
that. It's such a great reminder on how to do that. So you know,
this, this whole section is on that on having that awareness and
renewing our faith and remembering our purpose that Allah created us
to worship Him. And being really committed, and our our purpose
that we have, you know, there's a limited time that we all have, and
that we're going to do our best to use our time in the service of
Allah subhanaw taala. And really, truly, sincerely, because we're so
indebted, we feel so indebted and feel so grateful for the blessing
of existence. That that is what compels us that that is why we
choose to to wake up every day and at the crack of dawn or before and
why we're always in pursuit of our Lord inshallah. So, that's a
section on commitment. So we'll go to the next section. I hope that
Allah, we're moving forward again, I apologize for those who
were here and waiting for me, Inshallah, we're going to still
get through this. Okay, so let's see here.
The next section here is time. So this minute um,
and it's it's pretty serendipitous, as I was just
excusing myself for being here late. But let's look at the
section and that this was a longer section which I did not get to
type out the whole thing, but I'll read. So we should all be
committed to usually utilizing our time as wisely and productively as
possible to squander time or allow the theft of this precious gift of
time is a sin, the reality of which will only be clearer in the
next life. Each moment is priceless, and once gone, can
never be replaced. Wasting time is a perennial problem. The first
century stoic Seneca said that the problem is not that we have such a
short space of time, but that we waste so much of it. Life is long
enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to
allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things, if the whole
of it is well invested. But modern life is a concerted conspiracy to
deprive us of our precious time. The tragedies that most of us are
willful conspirators Subhanallah, that's really a lot to
digest and think about. But really, if we're being honest with
ourselves, holding ourselves accountable, it's true. We do
waste a lot of time.
And our modern conveniences have only made that so much more of a
reality for all of us. We don't even have to move. Some days.
There's people who can spend their entire day in their bed, because
they have everything coming to them. Right. So there was a time
where we had to get up, get up, we're forced to get up and leave
and get things but now with our phones and apps and all of these
other services, just a click of a button food comes to us our you
know whatever other important things that we need groceries and
necessities they can come to us. We want to shop we don't have to
go to the store anymore. You know stores are shutting down malls are
shutting down because people don't need to go outside anymore. They
don't choose to and they'd rather shop online. So so many of these
Things are now redirected and coming to us, we're not moving
anymore. But what are we doing in with all that conveniences that we
are a lot of us anyway are just indulging. And that's really the
big
problem of our time. So there's so much indulgence of the knifes and
the knifes is lazy, it is indulgent in and of itself. So
it's like we're feeding our little knifes monsters that we all have
in there, and gorged and they're really just out of control. And
that's why you're seeing so much
just hedonistic behavior and all throughout the world and through
society. Because we've enabled our egos to control us, we've done
that, just by not really appreciating the value of our time
not being aware of things.
You know, even if you think about leisure time, for example, that's
something that is such a blessing. And it's one of the Hadith to you
know, there's a hadith to take advantage of five before you lose
five, one of them is free time, right? So the concept of free time
is also something pretty, it's a modern reality, right? Because
back in the days, like I said, if you go way before modern life,
people had to use all the time that they could, especially if
you're talking about daylight hours, this was the time of you
know, making income and food and whatever else you needed to do to
make sure that you survived, so you didn't have time to waste. And
then at night, you had to rest you had to recuperate yet to recover.
And of course, there was worship. And so there was just a very
regimented schedule. But now I think we just have very open
schedules. And we can kind of do as we like, and we're all you
know, guilty of this, of course, a varying degrees, but we all do
certainly wastes time. So we have to take ourselves into account and
say, how much of my time is being wasted on things that are not
beneficial, and they're just indulging, you know, whatever it
is that I like to do, and how much of it is benefiting? Me, my
family, other people, I mean, if you're doing service works or
doing good works, mashallah that aren't necessarily ritual worship
or related to worship, you can make those things, acts of
worship, because you're doing good deeds, right for the sake of Allah
subhanaw taala. So always, you know, understand, when we're
talking about time here, it's not, you know, worship and and all the
ritual acts on one side and everything else on the other. No,
it's about, is it beneficial, what you're doing isn't benefiting
anybody? Is it good work? Is it something that Allah subhanaw
taala will be pleased with? Or is it
blameworthy? First of all, because there's a lot of things that we
could be doing that are wrong, that are just not right. You know,
and, and we have to take ourselves into account or is it harmful, you
know, gossiping with consuming, that, you know, things that are
not good to take in if you're watching things, listening to
things that are haram or have filth and foulness? Those are
things that are blameworthy. So it's really understanding what
we're talking about, which is beneficial actions, good deeds,
worship all those things? Or is that what you're engaged in? Or is
it that you're just living, you know, to your own comfort and
whims and desires, and you're not really thinking about mortality.
And that's why the remembrance of death is so important because when
you remember death, it is you know, the, the destroyer of
desires, right. That's one of the the terms for the remembrance of
death that will destroy our desires, because you're, you can't
really think about
indulging when you're faced with your own mortality, and you're in
you're facing it regularly or often. So now, this section is a
bit longer, so I'll read what I didn't get to type.
We fill our lives with distractions and time consuming
trivialities, like mindless entertainment, and countless other
activities that produce little or no benefit. Perhaps the greatest
thieves of time in our age are the television and the internet. So
now, I mean, Marshall, they're getting direct. This is, you know,
these are our teachers and they're telling us what we need to hear
trivial conversations on phones and social media, our modern form
of vain talk, right the Quran says the believers are those who avoid
vain talk more over the problems I said, have informed us that Allah
loathes the he said she said part of Akela right, or kala kala
conversations where you're just kind of talking about oh, did you
hear about so and so? Oh, no, tell me more and then it's just gossip
basically, in your, you know, in the grapevine, as they say, this
is all blame
More the end and the fact that Allah spa that loads that imagine
how much of us engage in that every day.
Our lives are akin to an hourglass and each grain of time that passes
takes one instant closer to our inevitable meaning with online.
Reflection on deaths is a serious and constant way. I'm sorry,
reflection on death in a serious and constant way is one of the
greatest catalysts for change. When terminally ill people realize
they're dying, they undergo a profound transformation and make
peace with many of the people they had hurt and had bad feelings
toward when they were well, we are all terminally ill, and prisoners
on times death row, it is only a matter of time before the
execution of the angel of death makes his call, we should reflect
on the sound Hadith consider yourselves already people of the
grave.
Well, while a governor's pardon is rare in this world, Allah's pardon
is very much a possibility in the next hope of a divine partner is
reason enough for good behavior. While in prison, as reprieves are
generally given to model prisoners. The problems was that
instead, this world is a prison for the believer and a false
paradise. For the unbeliever. He also said, there are two
blessings. Most people are cheated out of good health and free time,
are very souls of the greatest thieves robbing us of our good
health and free time. So really powerful reminders on the value of
time the importance of making sure that we are mindful of how we use
our time and that we are mindful of our own inevitable demise.
Because, again, just to close this section, when we remember death,
often, as someone so beautifully said recently, and I'm so hailed
from from Yale, he, the chaplain at Yale, he recently gave a talk
and he said, that when we remember death, often it's the purpose of
that is that we, we are better at living, we will live better,
right? It's not to get caught up and be morbid and sad and
depressed, but it's actually to beat to live better. So inshallah
that's the purpose of the value of time and remembrance of death. The
next section, we're going to, again, try to finish this up until
and I'll leave some time for questions. If you're still with
me, I hope you are I again, I hope you guys are here but if not,
Inshallah, you will get to watch the recording. Oops, I went way
ahead. Okay, attitude. So this is the next section. And then we have
one more this month. We were created to know love and serve our
Lord and to honor our parents and our faith is not complete, until
we want for humanity, what we want for ourselves, let us aspire to
the people whom our Prophet sallallahu Sallam will be proud of
them they have on the day he has given the banner of praise. The
one hand, we should never settle for anything less than excellence
in our lives. And for this religion, sn virtuous excellence
in everything is the acme of our faith we should set out to perfect
to the best of our ability, our knowledge of Allah our love of
Allah and His Prophet sallallahu Sallam in our services precious
gift to his precious gift to us Islam. The prophesy to them, also
said surely Allah has prescribed excellence in all things. Well, in
Allah, Allah ma, Mercy Nene, Allah is with the people of excellence.
This is Chapter 2969. So Subhanallah you know, this is just
your general attitude, you know, having a really positive attitude
and always looking for beauty, you know, sn excellence, but just
doing things with beauty during things with that love doing things
with sincerity. This has to do with the attitude that one brings
to anything, you know, if you have a project for work or school, and
you don't really care much for it. And you're not you don't care
about impressing your teachers or your parents, you just want to get
it done. You're gonna do it maybe because you don't want to fail,
but it might not be your best work, right? And we've all worked
on groups where there's there are those go getters who mashallah
really put in a lot of work. And then there's those who don't do
anything, but they want all the credit. So I think those dynamics
really do teach us a lot about our nature. And you have to ask
yourself, how do I,
you know, how am I in those situations? Do I come in hoping
someone else is just going to do it all? And I'll just kind of
slide in with the bare minimum, or do I actually put in a good
effort? And you know, we're all sometimes just because of life, we
might,
you know, we might vacillate between these different states.
Maybe sometimes we're really into something sometimes we're not. But
I think in general, when it comes to being Muslims, we should have a
very clear understanding of our purpose. The fact that again,
we're here to serve Allah, and we should know who he is. We should
feel inclined to get
close to him, to love him to increase our love for Him to
always, always always have the best opinion of Allah to never
question him and to never think for even a moment to let your
heart betray you.
And to think all the biller in any way where you question a lot,
because he is not one to be questioned, we are the ones that
are questioned. So to really strive for that type of
relationship with us pilot, of course, the problem was and to
know him to know his Sierra, to, to just really love him and to
appreciate him for all that he has done for us and all that he will
do for us Inshallah, because of course, it's his Shiva that
inshallah we all are, we all need and we we are going to be
desperately and SICA are seeking on the Day of Judgment. So, you
know, just being really clear that we should feel this, this positive
yearning for Allah and His prophesy centum, but also that we
understand our purpose, and we do things well, we do things with a
good attitude, and a state of gratitude and Shama. So this is
the section on attitude. And then the last section for chapter
three, inshallah is on devotion, we'll wait for the slide to come
up.
Here we are. So it's kind of, you know, leading is a good segue
into, into this because it's connected, we should commit to
realizing Kappa, within our lifetimes, actively and
consciously and devote ourselves more to it than others devote to
mastering the many trivialities that in this life offers among
humanity are those who take idols besides a lot. They love them with
the same love, one should have for Allah, but those who believe Allah
believe, love Allah even more. So Subhanallah, you know, just to
prioritize, to make sure that we understand that again, we have a
great purpose here. And if we're going to, you know, have like
slack off and really not do our obligations to Allah. But then
we're so committed in our work and in our relationships, you see
people who are so committed in their material pursuits, worldly
pursuits, but they'll make a lot of excuses when it comes to
worship. This is a person who's got their priorities completely
upside down, right? So we have to have that template to know what is
expected of us and to really be always aware of our Lord. And then
they go on to say, realizing that quote, during our lives is
possible. There is no injunction in the Quran that cannot be
achieved by those it is incumbent upon the purpose of all the
wondrous signs that Allah has placed in us life, ability will
speech sight, hearing and knowing will be realized. And here almost
Pamela says, In the Quran, Wolfie and Percy come after Allah to the
zeroing in yourselves, do you not see chapter 5121. So somehow Iowa,
you know, just really powerful reminders about accountability,
right? There's a lot of actions throughout chapter three practical
steps, right to changing your conditions. We started off with
the five pillars, active outreach, right focus cooperation, and we
can actually I do have that slide, just to kind of have a summary of
everything we talked about in chapter three. I'll go back to
that slide.
In a minute here while it catches up. So we went all the way through
all of this somehow on chapter three, but here's the slide. So we
talked about the five pillars active outreach, focus,
cooperation, good character, kinship, families, charity, poor
and remembrance of Allah commanded good and evil and forbidding evil.
And And today the last sections here on empathy supplication
physical health, commitment, time, attitude and devotion. Subhan
Allah may Allah bless our teachers with a comprehensive
list of things that we can all work on no matter where you are in
your spiritual journey you can find something on this list to
work on or multiple things I'm sure that you can help to advance
your your state you know in your journey. So and have them Allah
bless them and protect them for just putting all this together for
us. We have a chapter for inshallah for next time where we
are going to talk about exercises for attaining Taqwa. So we ended
ended on devotion which talked about the importance of, of Taqwa.
And now we're going to talk about exercises for actually how do we,
how do we attain that goal. So I look forward to that discussion
with all of you. And I'm going to stop here so that we can see if
there's any questions again, thank you so much for sticking on. If
you are still with me, and I apologize for the late arrival,
but Hamdulillah we made it. So let me stop share.
And then see if there are any questions here.
Okay, sorry, I have to go through a few different screens. So
hopefully I'll find
something here
someone's asking somebody can will this be saved? Yes, SR manera, it
will be saved. All of the talks that we do at MCC are handled are
recorded and we save them. There'll be here on Facebook, in
the video section on MCC East Bay page as well as on YouTube. So you
can see all of the talks. And this is I think, Gosh, I want to say
session number 12 or 13. I can't remember. We're we've been working
on this text for a while. So and Hamdulillah. We have quite a few
sessions for this class already recorded and available, but you
should be able to see this as well. The icy breeze grateful Oh,
Santa Monica waikem. Salam, thank you for your greeting. I
appreciate it. I don't know if there's any more questions. Let me
refresh here on Facebook.
I don't see any more questions there. But let me go to YouTube.
And we'll see if we have any more comments here.
Okay, I appreciate it. I don't know. Sorry. Alright. So I have a
question here. Michelle. Sounds like I'm sister OSI. How does one
convincingly show loved ones up that films music and media outlets
pollute the spiritual heart that the malevolent agenda is to
promote destructive vices? What a great question is like Lafayette
and sisters a Fiat, mashallah, for that? Great question. You know,
it's, it is hard when we are speaking from emotion, and I've
always found, just in my own experience with my family, if
you're on, you know, people are on different wavelengths, or pages,
whatever. And so when you speak from a motion, you're gonna get a
mixed bag of reactions, because people are just a different
states. But one of the best things that I think just does make for a
stronger case, when you're trying to convince someone is doing the
research and actually presenting with facts, whether it's, there's
an I'm sure there are, you know, I don't, I can't think of anything
off the top of my head, but I'm certain that there are either
articles that are written about just the negative effects of a lot
of the modern, you know, entertainment that we have, I
mean, spiritually, but also just, emotionally, mentally, if you look
at the themes of a lot of the film, and, you know, just the
shows are just really dark. They're very, very dark and
demonic. And you see people, I mean, I don't know, I just think
it's not a coincidence that you see all of these anxiety disorders
and suicidal ideation and a lot of depressive disorders increasing.
And if you're looking at what people are spending their time on,
you know, what are they doing? Who are they engaging with the most,
you know, if you're spending it on social media all day, and just
browsing and there's research that already confirms that, you know,
you're looking at social media, most people do feel depressed
after browsing through Instagram, or Facebook or whatever, and
looking at other people's lives, they just feel like they're
missing out. So it contributes to a lot of problems, you know, with
with self image and just seeing oneself differently because you're
comparing and contrasting. So social media, for sure, there's
research but television and film, certainly to because so much of it
has to do with promoting things, at least for Muslims anyway, that
are very much against our faith. I mean, even our own Muslim actors
and people who are in Hollywood, unfortunately, are also falling
into the same traps, right, where they're taking on, you know,
characters, and not all of them, but some of them certainly are
filling roles that are just they're doing things that are
completely haram and then on public, you know, on a screen for
millions and billions of people to watch all over the world. You have
to think about the factor I mean, how you sinning or when we sin
privately, it's between us and Allah. But when we publish our
sins we know from the Hadith This is really very dangerous, all the
blood and so many people now are publishing their sins. So a lot of
that has to do with you know, yes, actors are doing that. But even
now on for example, tick tock or other social media, you see a lot
of Muslims just falling into the traps, you know, of shaitan by
mimicking and doing what everybody else is doing, not really thinking
about. There's negative impacts to these behaviors. There's spiritual
negative impacts emotional mental. So think relationship, you know
how many marriages have fallen apart because of, for example,
* addiction. This is a very real problem in our community.
There are people who are addicted to *, because they, you
know, started just allowing
or you know themselves to, to get caught up and things and not
really guarding themselves. And so we have to take seriously, lower
your gaze, you know, you open the door to a lot of these things, the
floodgates will open upon you. And if you're weak spiritually, you're
not praying you're not in a state of well do. You know you, it's
like you're really making it hard for yourself and Mujahid is even
harder. And so many of our youth especially are really caught up in
this. So if you're you want to convince your family, I would
certainly say try to look for research that supports what you
are concerned about. There are conservative websites, even they
don't have to be Muslim per se, you know, there's conservative
Christian groups and other groups that are very concerned about
media, in this country or in this world. And they're trying to
provide alternatives, but they do oftentimes take, you know, do the
research and report for you. So that you can make a pretty
convincing argument that look, you know, by watching the shows, or
listening to the type of music or playing these types of video
games, this is what you're subjecting yourself or your
children to, please take it seriously. And inshallah just ask
for a lot of Da but be gentle because you know, people are at
different stages and you want to never come across self righteous,
that's, I think one of the biggest hardships that people have when
they're giving this Yeah, is when you're correcting another person,
even though that's not your intention, because they're not
where you are. And you know, it could be shaitan it could be their
own nafs they just want to kind of shut down what you're saying, even
if it's true, they'll interpret your words to be as though you're
judging them. So you have to be very careful in your delivery. You
know, that's why making sure you're not emotional is really
important because as soon as emotions get in the picture, it
sounds like there's some ulterior you know, motive or, or or just it
can go in so many different ways. But if you're like listen, I love
you, I care about you. What do you know, here let's talk about this
let's have a discussion and and have an open dialogue. Very
different than just coming in and going, Hey, stop doing this, this
is wrong and you know, kind of like you've already figured it
out, you're just going to tell them what to do. I like to have
dialogue I like to just kind of bring things up but you got to
know your stuff, you got to research you got to have numbers
and stuff on hand. So do the work first and you will be more
convincing. Inshallah so I hope that answers your question long
answer for your question.
And so are there any other questions here because I don't see
them but I will
go back to
okay, I don't see any more on Facebook any more here on YouTube
or not? Then we can close up and I want to thank you guys again for
sticking it out with me.
And I apologize for being late. Inshallah. Okay, so I don't see
any other questions but I do want to return this in terms of some of
you here Mashallah. Man when I want to say Issa, Hi, I'm from
Bengal mashallah Nora Sufi. Wow, we have people tuned in from
different parts of the world. That's, that's lovely. Thank you.
Thank you for giving us your time tonight in sha Allah. Alright, you
guys. So I'm gonna go ahead and end inshallah and we will be this
was it to hold on, let me check the date February in two weeks. So
two weeks from today, inshallah this will have a vanilla. We will
meet in two weeks from today and we will start Chapter four so you
can read ahead of you on the book. And I'll see you then. Thank you
again. We'll end in the Miss Mullah Hoffman Rahim. Well, acid
inside of your coastal Illa Lilina. I'm going to I'm going to
study Haiti with us and we'll help you with the rest of the Southern
Subhanak Alohomora we have the can shadow and that Allah is gonna to
go EDIC just like Kamala Ferran have a wonderful remainder of your
evening and thank you