Hosai Mojaddidi – An Agenda to Change Our Condition (Session 17)
AI: Summary ©
The importance of protecting hearing and hearing in the context of backbiting is emphasized, as it is a way to increase the likelihood of hearing loss. People should avoid giving inaccurate information and avoid distraction from advertisements and television, as it is a way to increase the likelihood of hearing loss. People should be cautious about certain activities and avoid touching their body, but it is emphasized that advice should be given to someone facing a problem and being an adviser. It is also emphasized that protecting one's heart and not overpaying for one's religion should be the first things.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala
Shiva MBA your mursaleen say that our Molano have even met sal
Allahu alayhi wa sallam while he was trying to set up this demon
Kathira Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatu. To your
brothers and sisters, thank you so much for being here on this Sunday
evening. The last I believe night of Raja, if I'm not mistaken in
sha Allah and soon to be the first day of Shaban. So may Allah
Subhana Allah bless our Shaban for us in sha Allah. And let us
witness of course, the beautiful month of Ramadan Alhamdulillah
It's always an honor to be with all of you. We are going to pick
up where we left off last time, which is again, we're doing agenda
to change our condition. We're on chapter four. So I'm gonna go
ahead and screenshare Inshallah, and we'll get things going.
So this minute, everything should be up. So we left off last time
on, if you remember, we talked about the eight different inroads
to the spiritual heart. And so we covered
I think five or four, perhaps we covered the prayer we covered. I'm
just gonna go over them real quickly. We covered I know, we
covered the eyes, we covered the tongue guarding the tongue, we
covered guarding the eyes. So today we're going to pick up on
the fourth, so we only did three. So we're going to pick up on the
fourth inroad here, which is guarding the ears. So here, here's
the verse in the Quran in chapter 17, verse 36, in the semi will
Dasara. Well, well, well, the cooloola can I move? Missoula,
right, so surely the hearing the sight, and the heart all of those
men is responsible for? Okay, so I'll also have those reminding us
here about the fact that we have to take into account and protect
our hearing our sight and our heart. And then when they hear
empty talk, they turn away from it. This is Chapter 2855. Right?
One and so again, these are clear, you know, direction is clear
direction from last point about the responsibility we have, we
have to take action to protect these inroads, and then also to
know what to do when we're in situations where things are
happening where we know, we shouldn't be participating. It's
our job, it's the onus is on us to turn away from those situations,
whether it's looking down, right, when we talked about the eyes,
we're supposed to divert our eyes, right, or avert our eyes. And then
with yours as well, right? We're supposed to remove ourselves from
those situations. If people are, for example, speaking, gossiping,
or spreading, you know, rumors, there could be so many things that
you know, people are engaging in around you, but you have the
choice to get up and move or somehow change the topic. And
we'll talk more specifically about what to do in those situations. So
let's look more at this guarding the IRS and what it entails. So
here
we are. This hadith is mentioned right away. The listener is one of
the back biters. So again, this is really important to remember
because Backbiting is always seen as an activity of the tongue,
which of course it is. But the one who is listening to the Backbiting
is enabling the back biter, therefore they're also complicit,
right? You're also part of that activity. Therefore, just because
you're not doing any of the talking doesn't mean you're not
also held accountable, you are listening, you are giving ear to
it, you are giving life, to the backbiting to the rumors, and the
person who's you know, doing or engaging in that, you know, in the
Backbiting is emboldened or, you know, empowered, enabled by you
because you're giving them an audience, right? So this is really
important to know. And then they say here, that the ears unlike the
eyes are more difficult to guard. Because there is no natural plug
right? For the eyes. We have our eyelids, we can, you know, like we
said, turn our eyes and look away. But for the ears, it's difficult
because you actually have to put your fingers in your ears. It's
not always convenient. It's not a subtle, right? It's subtle to
close your eyes and look away. But you would be very obvious if you
were to put your fingers in your ears, right. So that's, you know,
it's made a little bit more challenging to actually remove
ourselves from those situations. But here are a mimetic This is a
quote, said Do not give your ear to someone whose heart is deviant
because you do not know what will become attached to it. The ear is
a direct inroad to the heart and through it meanings enter into the
understanding so that quote from a romantic about becoming attached,
right, you want to be very careful
Don't you if you know someone that has a low character or just you
know, doesn't have, you know, speaks very loosely about people
maybe speaks foul things, then you know, don't give them an audience
that he's really telling us that because you also don't want to,
you know, get your, your self embroiled in that because, you
know, some sometimes it's people enjoy, you know, to listen to
gossip, it makes them feel better. And then now you've become, again,
you're increasing the disease for yourself, you know, it's, it's
gonna lead to other problems for you. So don't even give them the
audience in the first place. If you know, that's their habit, if
you know that they've already, they're the type of people that
talk about people, and they kind of like to do that. Then protect
yourself, protect your heart so that you don't habituate to the
same problem, right. And then here, the ear is a direct inroad
to the heart and throat meanings enter into the understanding. So
that's again, very important to know that, you may, just because
of what you've heard about someone, it may affect your heart,
it may affect your belief about something, it may affect many
things. So because you know, you're you're trying to process
the meaning of what you heard. So it just could cause a lot of
problems. So there's just sound advice there. And then they go
into the how to fix this habit, right? So breaking this bad habit,
here's the Naseeha you want to guard your ears, this is what you
need to do. So as we said, before you turn away from vain talk idle
talk, any talk that's not of benefit, as it is an attribute
right to put on mentions that those who have no faith, we don't
have to talk well who are not conscious of Allah subhanaw taala
are the type that engage in this type of behavior. So turn away
from it, don't engage in it. Do not listen to now specifically,
we're talking about exactly what you should make sure that you're
not listening to slander lot lies, slander, calumny, backbiting,
mockery, or any other prohibited deed of the tongue. So anything
where you know, a person's character is being in any way
disparaged my line mocked anything that is clearly outright
fabricated, because sometimes people tell, you know, they
embellish things, they add a little bit of, you know, spices,
we say, you know, to the story, then it's not a truthful story. So
it's it's complete slander, right, and you have to be very careful
from participating in anything like that.
And then change the subject this is so this is also a practical
way, where if you're with family, or in a situation, maybe you're at
work or, you know, in a community environment where you don't want
to outright cause a scene be disruptive, or you know, just in
any way,
make make it a spectacle, that you can easily just change the
subject, right? So how do we do that? You know, someone, I've had
people ask me about this with regards to family members. So I
always say, if you know that you are entering a space or you're
invited to someone's home, or these things occur, then all of
that experience should help you to prepare for those situations
instead of going into those situations, and then not knowing
what to do. So what do I mean by preparing? Well, you could easily
you know, come up with like a plan of action, you know, so if so and
so said, that says this, I'm going to try to change the subject to
this. Or you could also go in to these events with sort of an
intention. That's that, where you where you decide that you're going
to try to navigate the conversations, and you're going to
try to open discussions, instead of waiting to be invited to
discussions by those people. You know, we have to be more proactive
sometimes. So in that case, be the teacher be the guide, be the one
who's speaking about interesting facts, or opening up
conversations, asking people questions about topics that don't
have to do with this type of behavior, or that could lead into
this type of behavior. So when you're proactive, and your social
skills are strong, and you're really taking those measures, then
you won't be a victim of circumstance, you can't you know,
you won't be like, Oh, I didn't, you know, I was dragged into it,
or I couldn't say anything. No, because you took the measure and
you had the intention, knowing who you're dealing with, that you're
going to try to have more control of the conversation. So another
thing I like to suggest is, you know, interesting facts are always
good start conversation starters. So just look up some interesting
facts, you know, maybe that relate to the, the line of work that
people in that gathering do, or just something that you learned,
you know, recently that you could share with with the group because
people like to share or know, facts that are not really well
known. You know, it's kind of like trivia in a way. Some people
really like that and so you could easily start a conversation
like that, but that requires, again, planning requires being
proactive and requires some strategy before you find yourself
in that situation. So here again, change the subject if people begin
to speak ill of someone if they really, if they refuse and, you
know, you keep finding yourself trying to bring the conversation
away from the topic of gossip, you know, again, depending on the
circumstance, you can easily just say, you know, I don't I don't
think we should talk about people when they're not present. It was
just a very general simple thing. Don't go into a lecture, don't go
into shaming individual people. You can even take you know the
onus on yourself and say, I feel really bad, I don't think we
should be saying this, or I feel bad for saying this. That way,
people are just, you know, you're mirroring for, hopefully for them
a sense of shame that they would also feel, and then the
conversation can hopefully organically turn into something
else.
And then the last comment they have here is avoided most
television programming, which often exposes believers or people
to forbidden speech and images. Most broadcasts of broadcast
television should be avoided educational, visual media or
halal. Recreational media should be purposeful and viewed within
reasonable time limits. Visual Media involves both the eyes and
ears and one should keep in mind both are immense, sacred trusts
given to humanity to protect from harm and utilize for benefit. And
so it's really important, I've been having conversations actually
interesting on this topic of television and can consumption and
how much we consume through media, how much we take in, you know, the
images that we're bombarded with, on a daily basis, I was just
reading research yesterday or the day before, that said that the
average human being, you know, based on all of the different, you
know, things that we're engaging devices that we're on, whether
it's computers, or phones, tablets, television, radio, even
billboards, magazines, ads, through the mail, if you just take
it all together, we are exposed to upwards of 10,000 advertisements a
day. And if you really think about, you know, the how much the
AI is taking in, and the impact that those images have on the AI,
especially when we live in such a hyper sexualized society where so
much of marketing does focus on on those types of salacious, you
know, images, things that will get people to look twice, you have to
guard your heart, you can't be naive and think that, you know,
it's, it's Oh, it's just, it's just, you know, fashion magazine,
those fashion magazines are littered with * images.
As far as I'm concerned, they're highly inappropriate, we shouldn't
be looking at them. But we've become so desensitized to these
things, because it's normal, quote, unquote, in our society,
you know, to normal to find, you know, you go to the doctor's
office, you go to so many different places, and they have
these, you know, magazines out there, even the covers, even at
the supermarket, the grocery store, you'll find really just
terrible headlines right at eye level for everybody to see. But
because we see it so much, we don't realize that that's an
impact, those images have an impact, they leave an impact on
your heart. So the eyes, which we already covered, are certainly
important to guard but also the years you know, if you're
listening to foul things, if you're listening to, you know,
conversations that are inappropriate or lyrics and songs,
and you know, just things that are not right, and they have a message
that is harmful, because it's it conflicts with our faith and our
values, that's going to affect your heart, you know, and this is
part of also the, the programming the conditioning of the society,
right, it's just to keep, you know, sending certain messages out
there, that people will eventually just adopt even subconsciously.
And so the IRS can certainly, you know, be dangerous for that
reason, as well as that you may be you know, affected that way that
there's conditioning happening or things that are not you know, in
line with our faith or being so normalized and being so you know,
forced basically upon us that you find yourself kind of changing
your attitude about it because you think you don't want to be the
minority you think everybody else thinks that's normal, I don't want
to be the one standing out. And so now your values your views are
changed all because of listening to certain people or you know,
podcasters advertise there's so many things that people don't
realize can impact you and you have to be very selective from
what you're consuming so that here you know, this is general advice,
but they're giving us this
reminder to put limitations to not just act like it's no big deal
that's the attitude that is really dangerous to make everything kind
of blase and and you know, you just very dismissive, dismissive
attitude towards these things. That's when the dangers really can
take effect. So then, to the remainder of the second
Shouldn't they just talk about the same advice about doing this for
40 days? Right. And then if you fail, you got to start back at day
one. And then this is just also general illness he has on page 51.
If you have the text towards the end, they say in all of these
exercises, we should always work on eliminating the prohibited
first, the Haram and foremost, discouraged matters. mcru are
matters on which the sacred law is a neutral MOBA can be worked on
later, no punishment is threatened for actions that are discouraged
or merely permitted. Once we have successfully eliminated the
prohibited, we can work on removing discouraged things from
our lives. For those with high spiritual aspirations work on
eliminating purposeless activity from from this life, that's also
really important to remember. So you know, you want to go in
degrees, you know, make sure that you're not watching or listening
to things that are clearly head on first. And you know, it's like a
detox, you want to take things slow. And once you've gotten to a
really good place where you're like, Okay, I don't watch this
thing, or I don't listen to this anymore, because there's too much
haram in it, then you can move to starting to slowly eliminate those
other things. And then once you reach that level, where you truly
do want to grow, then you take it to that point of really looking at
how you're using your time in general, right, anything that
would be excessive, that would be unnecessary. That's kind of like
there's really no great benefit to it. It's just maybe leisure, ly or
recreational. And not to say that we can have leisure and
recreation, but it's more about making sure that your life doesn't
center around, always looking for fun, because fun is a huge, you
know, distraction. And it's it's it's especially from our purpose
as, as we know, our purpose is to worship all those products.
Remember, I was profitable, we're always looking for fun for the
next exciting adventure for the high, then we likely will start to
get really sloppy and messy and irresponsible when it comes to our
spiritual
activities and rituals and things that we should be doing. So you
want to be very balanced there. And then this there's a whole
other paragraph on something very specific that I think we should
talk about because it is so prolific now it's everywhere.
Widespread, the scholars consider profane music impermissible and
differ concerning other types. Our culture again, is filled with
music, and it permeates virtually every aspect of life, we should
use as much of our free time as possible for beneficial
activities, especially performing
especially performing or listening to Quran recitation, as well as
educational lectures. For recreation, we should limit
ourselves to permissible activities, which include poetry
and song, we should try to avoid doubtful and clearly prohibited
environments, if unavoidable and do not count, then do not count
that as a breach of your commitment, absolute necessities.
And excuse me absolute necessity, temporarily legitimize the
unlawful, okay, so again, this is just a general guideline about
music and making sure that you're really selective about what you're
listening to, and to, you know, use your, this what they refer to
as a sacred trust, right, your eyes or ears are sacred trusts
from a loss of power data. So you want to make sure that what you're
doing with them, is beneficial to you and first and foremost to for
your spiritual heart, right, that it's beneficial. And, and that
would include, of course, listening to the Quran, or you
know, initiate or, you know, something a lecture, as opposed to
just putting in your air pods, or headset and Spotify, and you have
Apple Music, and all these other iTunes, I mean, and all this
other, you know, platforms that allow you to listen to just random
songs, and, you know, you can use a shuffle feature, and now it's
like, you don't even know what song is playing. And it's just,
you know, for you to, you know, you pass your time, you're, you're
listening to all of that when it really doesn't benefit you.
Whereas if you played the Quran, or at least listen to a lecture or
a talk by someone that you really benefit from that can help
alleviate a lot of your stresses, it can put you in a good positive
state. And just any remembrance of Allah subhanaw taala is better
than all of that. So just really good reminders for all of us to
think about when we think about the, the necessity of guarding our
ears, which is right up there, right as the fourth inroad to the
spiritual heart. So let's look at the next one, guarding the stump
stomach. This the they say here in the text, that is the most
important of the exercises and that most of us I mean, whoever is
starting this journey of trying to change themselves should actually
begin with this one, okay? Especially those who are eating
foods that are clearly prohibited such as those produced or
purchased with unlawful income. So you know,
Anytime, if you if your income isn't halal and you're you know
taking in money that you shouldn't be the food that you eat with that
income is also impermissible to so they're just reminding us that you
know, what we consume is going to make it very difficult right to to
do this successfully. So you start with this as a you know, an
exercise that you commit to to remove those harmful foods or
unlawful foods inshallah. And then here it's an obligation according
to the Quran and Sunnah and scholarly consensus to guard what
goes into our stomach so I was proud that it does remind us and
many verses in the Quran are you believe you from the earth and
what is permissible and pure Are you believe eat from pure things
that we provided for you? Oh, messengers, eat from pure things
and do righteous deeds. So again, verse after verse where I was part
of is reminding us of the importance of eating from the pure
from what's Hidin from what blade right? And then they say here that
the commentators say that there is a direct relation between doing
righteous works and eating pure foods in this context. Purity
means that both the food itself and its source are pure. So just
as we said earlier, when you are eating impermissible foods that
could be actual foods that are haram but also if the source of
income is haram. So in the same, I mean, the flipside is true that a
halal permissible food would include, of course, would that
which is permissible to eat by Sharia, but also what is provided
through Halal income. And then here's a quote from Ibn Abbas,
that Allah and who said, Allah has commanded the believers to do the
same thing that He has commanded the messengers, right, which is
there in that verse, chapter 2351. He commanded them to perform
righteous deeds, after commanding them to eat pure foods, as a
reminder that one does not derive benefit from actions until one has
rectified one's livelihood and provision. That's a very powerful
reminder, which is also likely why they're suggesting start with this
first because if you want your actions to follow and to be
beneficial, you have to first and foremost, you know, clear out
whatever harm you're causing yourself, which would be to remove
the, the, the impermissible food right that we're consuming. And
then another quote here, we'll go to this is from Cydia Hamza Roop,
and he said that eat what you will, but know that you will act
accordingly. So we have a very popular phrase, right? That we all
know which is you are what you eat. So that's pretty much what
he's saying, right? That how what you eat will impact your behavior.
So be very selective of what you consume.
Another Hadith states flesh that has been nourished with the
prohibited is more worthy of the fire out of Allah right? Nobody
wants to even think about the fire, right? But here we're told
that what the fire wants is,
you know, the, the bodies of those who are eating the haram. So may
Allah protect us from from being in that category of people. And so
the advice they go on to say is during this exercise once you
focus on removing any prohibited food substances or sources, so if
you know, clearly something has for example, alcohol in it,
gelatin, we know that there's certain food labels that we should
know how to read porcine, right, that we should know what it means
and that there's likely an animal byproduct and then do our due
diligence to figure out whether or not it's what sources they're
from, and go from there. Right. And then now they're going to
specify about the meat of the people of the book because this is
a, you know, an issue that there's many differences of opinion on. So
they stayed here that as for meat of the People of the Book, it is
permissible by consensus. However, there are many questionable
aspects and serious health concerns associated with modern
day meat production. Most store bought meat and even some meat
advertised as Halal comes from animals that are genetically
engineered fed byproducts of other animals injected with growth
hormones and antibiotics and confined to cages and cramped
pens, inside feedlots, and inhumane factories quote, unquote,
indeed, one should avoid many of the sources of meat today. So this
is, again, their advice. You know, the scholars here that we should
be very, very careful about the meat that we consume, and make
sure that we're buying from heaven, you know, from from stores
or, or, or places where we know that the certifications are made
available that these things are very clear and openly, you know,
available for people to verify and to just do our again, research and
make sure that we're, we're aware of the sources of where they're
getting their meat, what kind of conditions the animal
are in just so that we our consciences are clear, but also as
this quote, so, you know, it just says it all right, eat what you
want, you will but no, you will act accordingly. And, you know, we
there is research that suggests that animals who are induced with
all of those stress hormones from being in those horrific
conditions, we by eating those, the meat of those animals, we also
are, are affected right hormonally were affected by that by consuming
that. So we have to be very careful about taking in that type
of meat, then they go on to say that eating less is also an
important part of this exercise. So begin by avoiding excess on a
regular basis as Allah subhanaw taala commands, our children of
Adam take your adornment to every mosque, eat and drink but not to
excess. Surely Allah loves not the excessive. So it you know, again,
when you're reading the works of either Imam Al Ghazali, or even
city of Zurich and other scholars, you'll see this repeated so many
times about really holding, you know, restraining the stomach and
how it's so important not to eat more than your share or more than
what you need, because it will affect your spiritual work, it
will actually make you more and we know this, you know, look at after
you've had a heavy meal, how you feel right, if you feel really
lethargic and slow, it's likely because you took on too much. And
then that can impact your prayers later on. When it's time for Isha.
Or even waking up for Fudger people have a really hard time
because their bodies are weighted down with excess food. So eating
in moderation and being not preoccupied with food. You know,
there's, I think it was Socrates who said, you know, you live to
eat I or you live to eat, and I eat to live? So it's like an
attitude. What's part of that coin? Are you Are you someone who
is just preoccupied and obsessed with food, and then you love to
think about food, and you're always planning around your meals,
or are you just someone who eats whatever and doesn't really, you
know, it's not focused on on that, that you're just trying to get by,
and you kind of have, I'll eat whatever I can, you know,
attitude, into instead of just being so so focused on food. So
that's also an important reminder there. And then they go on to say
learning to control the appetite is one of the most powerful means
of controlling the self and achieving taqwa, which is why I
was part of the says about fasting. So you know, Ramadan is,
as we know, coming up in just a month in sha Allah. And here's the
verse that reminds us of the virtue of fasting or you who
believe fasting has been prescribed for you, as it was
prescribed for those before you in order to achieve that, but so
there's a direct correlation between showing restraint and
depriving ourselves, you know, again, if you really look at the
timeframe that when we fast, it's not as difficult as some may
perceive there's people who in other traditions or disciplines,
they'll fast for very long periods of time longer than what we do as
muslims, ours is just sunrise to sunset, whereas you have people
who can go days for without eating anything, and I've witnessed, you
know, documentaries, and seen people share their stories about
how they do this, that seems very difficult, but Hamdulillah we are
at the end of moderation. So, you know, the idea of just depriving
yourself for a few hours to really feel the benefit of that, we have
to be honest, I mean, I know for myself, Ramadan is probably the
time where I have the most mental clarity and I love it, I feel like
I'm just so much more able to produce more mentally speaking,
you know, I can write more I'm able to read more Quran than
normal. And of course, we all know there is immense facilitation and
ease and all this kinda gives, you know, the one the ones who are
fasting so, we certainly benefit from the bulk of the month, but
there is that component that your mind is clear of all that fog, you
know, of, of just being in the cycle of consuming and then
breaking down and digesting all that energy goes to that process
right. So just taking a break from that allows you to actually think
clearly. And so, when you think clearly then of course, you can
produce more you can be more present, you can be more mindful.
So in your thicket and your recitation and your Salah and
Sharla you feel more present, because your mind is clear and
then inshallah from that we are increasing in our Taqwa. Right. So
this is a part of how it all works. And then they go on to say
that fasting is an excellent discipline and fasting at least
three days per month from dawn to sunset, when the moon is full, is
a prophetic
Practice fasting on Mondays and Thursdays is also a Prophetic
practice right so important reminders for those you know, if
you want to fast or make up fast, those are good days to do them on
just to get the double reward right you're making up your fast
but also inshallah you're trying to match the prophetic example.
Finally, the greatest rule here is the one provided by the Messenger
of Allah so Allah Himself who said, Leave what gives you doubt
for what does not give you out apply this principle and the other
exercise as well. So whatever you're doubtful about just leave
it and you know, when it comes to food or
ingredients sources, just if you're not sure, it's better to
leave it.
And then they have a little note here that says there's no special
time consideration for the stomach in terms of guarding it from the
prohibited the skin also must be protected by wearing only what is
permissible and pure. Okay, so
special time.
Okay, so that is just a general advice, you know, of doing it. For
as long as you can, you know, guarding the stomach is something
that we should always be doing as part of our just regular regiment
of trying to increase our Taqwa inshallah. So the next
one here is let me go ahead and get to exercise six, and then we
have seven and eight. So inshallah we'll try to get through the rest,
let me see the time, okay, we can we can move forward. So this one
is guarding the private parts. Now, here, the verse in the Quran
that they shared is to protect the private their private parts,
except with their spouses. So this is speaking about people, a group
of people, right, or who do this who are, who are, who are guarding
their private parts. And they know their boundaries or boundaries are
very clear that they're only intimate with their spouses. So
they mentioned here, guarding the private parts simply entails
avoiding places of temptation, and possible harm. One should never,
under any circumstances, be alone with someone of the opposite *,
who is not directly a legal relation, such as one spouse or a
direct relative, a mother, father, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent
and other so pretty much anybody who's not a maharam, right, a
relative, a close blood relative who you cannot marry with, there's
no rules about any relationship with them, you should certainly
not be alone with them. And this is for single people as well as
married people, right? Just because you're married doesn't
mean that you are the rules are suddenly different. No, it's It's
for both for all for all, adult Muslims, we should guard ourselves
from this. And I would say, in today's day and age, we should
also be very careful with, you know, people even of the same
gender to make sure that you are, you know, that if you know if
you're if, for example, if they're not Muslim, or you know, you're
not quite sure about what their background is because now we do
have an issue in our society where these things, these conversations
are so open about sexuality and fluidity and gender fluidity and
sexual fluidity. So there's a lot of people who are very open with
their attitudes about these things. And so I would say, be
very careful about who, for women, for example, let's say you know,
you are, you know, where you wear the hijab, I would be, I would
say, in this day and age, you should be a little bit more
cautious about who you show your hair to, or who you undress in
front of, for example, if you go to a gym, or go to a place where
you think, Oh, they're all women, it's okay. I would say, Let's be
careful, because we just don't know anymore and really to guard
ourselves as much as possible. So find those fitting rooms where
you're completely private, or the bathrooms, but don't have that
blind spot that says, Oh, it's just a woman, it's not a big deal.
Women, I can show my hair in front of women, society has changed a
lot. And we have to just be realistic about that. Right?
And then they go on to say,
for the believer, this should be the easiest of the exercises, if
he or she follows a simple rule of never being alone with someone of
the opposite * who is not directly related to him or her the
prophesy centum said and this is, you know, a hadith whoever guards
for me his tongue and private parts, I guarantee him a place in
the garden. And if there's another Hadith that in a way complements
this that says that the two reasons why most people are in
hellfire are because of the tongue and their private parts that they
didn't have any they weren't able to regulate themselves in either
situation. And so that's why so many people end up in the
hellfire. So may Allah protect us from that right now they go into
specifically about this issue that I brought up about same *
attraction right regarding homosexual acts. So we're talking
about the actual act
So let me see if I have another slide for this. Yes, here's the
slide. So,
regarding homosexual acts, these are condemned by sacred law, and
are considered enormities that require repentance. If Muslims are
tried with such impulses, they are obliged to struggle with
themselves, and avoid being in situations that can lead to
temptation or compromise. So if you are someone who has these
thoughts and ideas, then you have to know where not to, you know,
basically not to gather in places where your temptations can come
up, and you have to, you know, have those boundaries for yourself
and knowing that you're weak to something, and that you, you may
fall into temptation to impose that on yourself, and struggle.
And that's, you know, part of the great reward of, of this life is
that all of us have our own individual struggles, and we have
to persevere and really just for the sake of Allah sacrifice, and
it's going to look different to every person. So this could just
very well be your struggle that you have to withhold this
temptation to act, and there's no, and you get rewarded for that, you
know, acting on these impulses is where it's forbidden, but having
the impulses and then also showing restraint and having taqwa and
fear of Allah, there's immense reward in that Allah is Aware and
witness of how much you're, you're struggling for his sake. So you're
actually inshallah going to be spiritually elevated in the next
life and in this world in sha Allah.
Then they talk about here, another very important topic, especially
for those who have young, you know, teenagers who are emerging
into this role of adulthood, and really, you know, there's so much
going on physiologically physically, and they're changing
rapidly. So it's really important to know the Islamic position on
this issue of self pleasure or *, it is prohibited in
some schools and permissible by other scholars, and but all of
them are in agreement of one thing, which is, it's not
something that we should be open about and make permissible as
though it's not a big deal, you know, it's not considered a
dignified practice. So we are encouraged to show restraint. And
if someone does feel that they are just overcome by their desires,
that of course, we encourage them to marry first, instead of just
allowing this habit to take form because there are consequences to
this. And there's, you know, this is research that people who have
bitchu, eight to these things can actually suffer in the long run,
when they do eventually get married, it can maybe affect their
relationship, and their their performance and their ability to,
to really, you know, have a healthy sexual life with their
partner. So you want to be very careful about making this
something that is not seen as, you know, the, because in this
society, it's not really seen as a big deal. And they almost
encourage it, they do encourage it, actually. So this is not the
position in Islam, it's something we should not encourage people.
But if the again, a person is not able to marry, that would be the
first, you know, suggestion for them, if they have strong desires,
is to marry but if they're not able to, and they fear that they
will act on their desires, and four indicate that in that case,
it will be permissible. So those criteria have to be in place that
there's this strong impulse, but then also this fear that they
cannot overcome the temptation, and they may give in and do
something worse, which would be to form a cake.
So important to mention all of that, so that we are clear about
the positions in Islam.
They also go on to say that one should guard one's nakedness, and
avoid any display of what is prohibited for others to see.
This means Muslim women should make a strong commitment to
covering themselves accordingly. And men should also dress
modestly, both men and women should avoid wearing tight fitting
or revealing clothing. So as I said earlier, you know, there's
sort of an attitude sometimes when, especially for women who
wear hijab, that when they're in a company of other women, that they
can be a little bit more liberal in their dress, but we want to be
very careful not to cross a line, you know, just because, you know,
they're not men, and that, you know, that that that is not the
consumer, you're, you're mindful that they're not men. So you know,
you want to dress how you you like, you also have to remember as
we said that nowadays, you know, the lines have been really blurred
and there's a lot of confusion that's going on. So guard
yourself, don't, you know, dress in a sexually provocative way just
because you're in a company of other women and you know, and that
could be for you
employ at parties or weddings where women tend to like to get
dressed up. And, you know, just in the name of having fun and kind of
being free spirited, they allow themselves, you know, to, to kind
of, you know, cross some some lines, I guess you could say with
in terms of dress, but also behavior dances can be very
provocative. So we want to be very careful to maintain our modesty.
And not to reveal too much. Because this will all this is all
part of this of guarding the private parts, it's part of
maintaining that level of HYAH and Taqwa. And if we begin to copy or
imitate other people, and will eventually take on the same
attitudes, you know, which is what happened in, in many societies
now, or the attitudes became really liberal at first and then,
you know, there was always that segment that didn't quite, you
know, fall into it, but then eventually, because of so
normalized, normalized, everybody started doing it. So we have to
know not to fall into the same patterns. And so that's
very important to see how they're about guarding one's nakedness.
And then they go on to say, again, do this exercise like the others,
I maintain vigilance. sexual appetite is one of shea thorns
greatest weapons. So if someone has, and then if someone has
committed a grave wrong, he or she needs to make sincere repentance
and commit to never doing it again.
And then if that wrong involves compromising the right of another
person, he or she should restore the right if possible. So that's
general you know, whenever we do anything that's impermissible. We
always take ourselves into account first make Toba with a loss per
se, but then if we've wronged other people, and redressing that
wrong wouldn't cause a greater harm, then we should redress it
with that individual. Otherwise, we can make Toba, you know, to all
of us have had that even when we've harmed other people because,
you know, addressing it or redressing it would cause a
further problem. So you want to not cause further problems, right.
So that's the general advice for for making Toba. Now, I think
that's the Yeah, that's the end of this section.
So let's go to
the exercise seven, which is guarding the hands. So here are
the prophesy centum said that the Muslim is one from whose tongue
and hands other Muslims are safe. This is really important. Hadith.
And you know, the fact that he's mentioning both.
We've already covered the dangers of the tongue, right, guarding the
tongue. So this other part of it is also really important, right?
This means, you know, guarding the hands against stealing or
physically harming right, how many people have been physically harmed
by another person, this can even certainly occur in families, right
and close situations, close bonds, marriages, between parents and
children, and now even children against their parents or the
biller, we're seeing a lot of this type of violence, you know, just
occur and more and more homes are we're seeing this behavior.
According to the Quran, the hands will actually bear witness against
the children of Adam hands are one of the greatest gifts of a lot and
distinguishes us from other animals, because we not only have
an opposable thumb,
but dexterous hands that enable us to manufacture things literally
make with our hands. So it was part that has given us this great
gift of being able to write, to create with our hands right to
make things hold things that other animals can't do. So we should
make sure not to use that this gift in in a harmful way that
causes any type of harm.
We should never raise our hands to anyone, Muslim or non Muslim,
unless it's in self defense are a legitimate struggle for the
defense of a country for example, right if living in a Muslim
country with one may fight only when as you had is declared by
legitimate state authority, and does not involve any vigilantism,
which is prohibited by consensus. So just kind of taking matters
into your own hands trying to, you know, write, to in the name of
justice, thinking that you can go and act out some sort of revenge,
we have to be very careful from ever doing things like that that's
prohibited. Even in war, Muslims are prohibited from assaulting or
killing women, children, old people are non combatants.
Furthermore, we should certainly not use our hands to so any
corruption in the earth. So those are just general principles, you
know, that you in war wars between combatants, it's not between, you
know, one group of party and then anybody else on the other side,
because it's this is not permissible. So we have
boundaries, we have restrictions, we have rules of engagement when
it comes to these types of things, and we have to know what those
are. And then of course, sowing any type of corruption on earth
with our
hands. So if you're, you know, for example,
I mean, literally, so encryption, to me immediately comes to mind,
like, if you are growing illegal drugs, you know, and you are then
not only growing them, but selling them, there's no that is beyond me
so many levels of haram that right but that is certainly something
that you're going to be held accountable because you are
contributing to so much harm. And just by by planting, selling and
doing all of that, it has a ripple effect in you might think, Oh, I'm
just, you know, making money or It's medicinal people come up with
a lot of excuses. But you have to be very clear about you know, the
benefit of what you're doing or the harm of what you're doing and
realize that, you know, families are destroyed by this type of
stuff, societies are destroyed, entire nations can be destroyed.
So you certainly don't want that on your scales.
And then they go on to mention shaking hands, which is another
topic issue that a lot of people find themselves confused about.
Shaking hands with someone of the opposite * is generally regarded
as prohibited based upon the verse which commands us to lower the
gaze, as touch is more arousing than sight. And certain sound
Hadith warned specifically against shaking hands with members of the
opposite *. Some scholars, however, interpreted those to mean
when attraction is present. But these are weak opinions. It is a
problem in western lands as Muslim men are often seen as
misogynistic. And their refusal to shake a woman's hand innocently
offered in friendship or in a professional capacity can
strengthen this perception. Orthodox Jews are also prohibited
from shaking hands with members of the opposite * and adhere
strictly to that practice, even in the US. If one resolves not to
shake hands, it is important to explain the reason to those
present who might misconstrue the act as an insult. This is a
problem, even some of the greatest scholars of this time grapple
with. So this is an important issue, because, you know, a lot of
people in professional settings may find themselves, you know,
confronted in a situation where they, you know, someone is
extending a hand out to them. And so you can certainly take that
position, if that's what you're comfortable with to, you know, put
your hand on your chest is a way of showing respect. And then in
that moment, you know, educating the person, you know, thank you so
much, you know, we're Muslim, and we do not shake hands, it's not
part of our, our custom or something to that effect, or I
know people who have come up with a lot of other creative ways, like
they always have their hands, you know, occupied somehow, and then
just do about maybe they're carrying books are carrying
something in their hands. So it shows that it's not convenient for
them to shake hands. So if you're, if you know, like, you're going to
have a meeting, or you know, a conference or something where
you're likely going to meet a lot of people, you can come up with
different ways of avoiding it. But I think education is always the
most easiest route to just educate people. And most people are very
respectful of people's beliefs, but it's just when you don't say
anything. And you leave the person kind of hanging and awkward, and
it's weird. That's when it's, it's, you know, we can handle
those situations better.
Okay, so this is the section on guarding the hands. And then
hamdulillah looks like we're gonna end right around the end here. Or
before we end actually, we'll close out with this chapter
Bismillah. So the last
section here is on guarding the feet,
the feet are treated the same as the hands, our feet are our means
of mobility. And therefore we should consider driving or
traveling by any means as actions of the feet, we should apply the
standard to all endeavors that we undertake undertake, most deeds
are permissible, little is prohibited, we were obliged to
learn whatever is prohibited and then avoid those actions. So when
we set out to a place we should recite the prayer of the Prophet
sallallahu sallam, who said, Well, I seek refuge in you that I should
go astray or lead others astray, that I should trip or trip of
others that I should oppressor, be oppressed, or that I should show
ignorance or be the brunt of ignorance. So this is a general
the art of leaving when you leave the home. To protect yourself, you
can say this to ah, and then the verse here that we have is also
important. Do not walk on the earth in a haughty style, right,
you can either tear the earth apart, nor can you match the
mountains in height. So the way that we walk the gate that we have
the way we hold our heads up high, all of this we're going to be held
accountable. And so making sure that we're not walking in a manner
that shows that we think of ourselves as something right.
Stomping or just you know, there's people who kind of and you see
this like in celebrities, you know, on the red carpet, for
example, when they show the red car
opposite of award shows, you'll see the way that a lot of these
people will, will walk right and they're trained to do that they're
trained to walk a certain way that shows their superiority and how
elegant and refined and cultured and wealthy they are. And so we
want to be very careful from all the without ever walking with that
type of demeanor and showing ourselves off as though we are
above other people. Right, this is a world it's Kibera. It's it's
dangerous are diseases of the heart. So that's an important idea
to also reflect on. And then we should always ask ourselves, why
we are going somewhere and remember that the prophetic
tradition teaches us to avoid places that can cast doubt upon
one character. So you know, make sure you're if you're going
somewhere, that is, you know, there's going to be things that
you shouldn't be a part of party to or witness to,
you know, remember your feet will hold you accountable on the day of
judgment. And so ask yourself, What's the benefit? Is there more
harm, a lot of people have been in the wrong place wrong time, and
they've suffered the consequences, whether that means, you know,
going to prison, or getting embroiled in a really heated
altercation and finding themselves like, just Whoa, how did I find
myself here? Well, it's probably because you had a decision to
make, and you made the wrong decision. So making choices about
these things, and really, weighing everything and having
intentionality is so important, because it could mean the
difference between life and death, your safety or otherwise. And
nowadays, this would be, you know, a warning that I would give just
in general, but like, I have two sons, and I always think about,
you know, as they grow older, I have to teach them to be very
careful about the situations they put themselves in visa vie other
people, right, because we live in a time where a lot of things can
just come down to he said she said or she said he said or whatever.
And so you want to be so careful to not put yourself in a situation
where someone could accuse you of something that you didn't do. So
one thing that I always think about which insha Allah as they
get older, and they're you know, they're more independent that I
would absolutely teach them about is never going anywhere, alone
with someone that they're that we don't know very well, you know,
whether it's a classmate or someone from work, sometimes we
just think, oh, it's no big deal with become very innocent. But
those things could always really lead you down, is I mean, lead you
down to trouble, you know, some trouble or to some troubles, you
want to be very careful. But also even something as simple as
stepping into an elevator, when there's just one other person in
there. I think we should teach people to be very cautious about
being in confined spaces or places where, no, there's no witnesses,
because so many people again, have suffered accusations that they
don't know how to really, you know, defend themselves with or if
you're in a position of leadership or power, and someone wants to
meet with you never meet with them in private or enclosed quarters,
always be very clear about you know, how to, like where the
meeting space is going to be and have the doors open or windows
open somehow where people can see exactly what's going on. This is
all the wisdom of our Dean because it's a preventative, you know,
these are preventative measures to prevent harm. But again, when you
are so are immersed in a society where a lot of these things
between genders are so liberal, then you have blind spots, and
you're not aware of what could happen. But our Dean Shediac is it
you know, this is from almost harder, he knows us better than we
know ourselves. So we should trust it. And trust that everything
we're told to do or not to do is truly for our betterment. And we
can see the proof of that if people took you know these
teachings seriously and practice them they would likely prevent a
lot of harm upon themselves. So this is just again, further proof
of humbler how much gratitude we should have for for being Muslim
100 and having such you know, so many things clearly elucidated for
us so that we don't fall into trouble from the leadership of the
law. Now, the end of this chapter is just a quick summary, which
I'll read and then inshallah I'm going to try to see if there's any
questions or comments, but I'm here the summary says, if our
prayer and the eight Affer mentioned inroads to wrong actions
are guarded, we are actually guarding our hearts as the heart
is a city and these are its borders, light and dark forces
wage war for our hearts and just as night turns into day, and day
turns into night, our war with our enemies is one with alternating
success. We must not despair when we lapse and show weakness
faltering keeps us humble before our peers and our Lord. Do not
give up the struggle as there is no other as worthy of our efforts.
Take this seriously and remember
The Taqwa is the key to every good in this life and the next and it
is a reality within our reach. Finally, some of our scholars have
said that all of Islam revolves around the following four Hadith.
God willing if we take them seriously and practice them, we
will be people of Taqwa. So these four Hadith and I'm sorry, I
didn't make a slide for this, but inshallah you can watch this again
if you need to, to get the Hadith. The permissible is clear and the
prohibited is clear. And between them are gray areas. Not many
people know their rulings. So for so whoever protects himself from
them has kept his religion sound and free of blemish. However,
whoever falls into them has fallen into the prohibited. His likeness
is that of a shepherd who takes his flock to graze near kings
Chase sanctuary, and due to his proximity to it, he inevitably
falls into it. Surely every king has a sanctuary and surely the
sanctuary of Allah on His earth lies in avoiding those things he
has prohibited. Surely there is a lump of flesh in the body, if it
is sound, the whole body is sound, and if it is corrupt, the whole
body is corrupt. Is it not the heart, okay, that's the first
Hadith. The second is abandon the world and Allah will love you and
abandon what people have and people will love you.
The third from the excellence of a person's Islam is that he leaves
What does not concern him. And the fourth surely actions are judged
by intentions and everyone has what he has intended. So
Subhanallah again, they say if we take these four Hadith to heart
and base our lives upon them, we will have our success. May Allah
forgive us for word or words without deeds and not make our
religion a proof against us on the Day of recommends When did spall
do I mean? Yeah, Robben Island even hamdulillah Shangri La. So
that is the conclusion of chapter four and handed it out. We have, I
think, possibly just one more chapter and then the appendix Yep,
we have just one more chapter chapter five. Inshallah, which we
will try to get through next time. But humbly that we're moving along
with this text and quote, you know, coming to a close soon,
right before it'll move on likely 100 languages that will fit into
all of you for tuning in every other Sunday. And being a part of
these conversations, I'm going to quickly see if there are any
questions in shot law. I don't know if there are, but let's
check. And we'll try to get to them.
All Thank you, I see some hearts. You guys are always so gracious.
And um, let me go to the YouTube page. I don't know if brother
Solomon is there. Sometimes he gives me a heads up if there are
any
questions, but let me check on the YouTube
the real point. Oh, sorry. Okay.
The real point is we should have backlighting or paying attention
if someone is Yes. Yep. That's exactly right. So there's someone
who was just talking about backbiting and the dangers
backbiting, oh, I just realized that you guys are all able to see
my screen. So
there we go. I just let me actually stop share. I forgot to
stop share there. So yeah, I didn't see any questions of
Hamdulillah. And we closed right at the time. Oh,
comes in. I do see a comment here for Backbiting is not like was
sent out, my dear. For back when someone comes to you for advice
about a competent?
100? That's a very good question. So if if you're in a position of
being an advisor to someone who has advice, and they are, you
know, trying to give you the context of the situation, you can
always you know, put a disclaimer before they speak to just give you
the details that are necessary. And not to go beyond that right to
not disparage further because sometimes when someone is
resentful towards someone or they're feeling negative emotions,
they may want to say other things add extra, you know, things that
are not really have nothing to do with the context of their problem.
So you can always give guidelines to people, if that's the role that
you have in someone's life, like, listen, just tell me the bare
minimum, like get to the gist of what the issue is, without going
into any comments or extra information that you know, are
disparaging or revealing too much, or exposing that person. So you
can do that. And then, you know, as far as the intention, your
intention is clear, you're trying to help them. So inshallah it's
not to backbite. But, you know, make sure that that person is
someone who, you know, isn't just a serial, you know, they're just
like, they do this with many, many people. You know, they're those
people who vent to, like 10 people, and it's like, are you
really looking for advice? Or am I just one of the people on your
list that you want to use, you know, under the guise of seeking
advice, just to kind of vent and again, it's there's another
ulterior motive here, which is let me tell you really what I think of
someone. So make sure that that's clear and you know, follow up. Are
you are you taking the advice on
Giving you are you gonna take this seriously just gotta call them
out. If you feel like you're always put in a position of trying
to give advice to someone, and you're not quite sure if their
intention truly is to seek advice, but it would not be considered a
lead, but if that's your intention, right, that you're just
there to help them and, you know, whatever context they give you is
related to the problem at hand. And by putting those guidelines in
the beginning, inshallah it should take care of that inshallah. But,
you know, we didn't see how we should, it's one of the rights of
believers on on one another, that if they seek counsel that we do
offer counsel if we're able to, but as long as our Nia is pure,
and we do not ever intend to share whatever is disclosed to us, we
should be very, very clear about that, you know, it's completely
forbidden to take, you know, what someone is divulging to you in
confidence, and then use that in another way, you know, sharing it
with other people. It makes make sure very, that you're very clear
about your Nia that I will never share this with anybody. And I
have to say this because I hear this a lot. With some people, they
make exceptions to certain people that it's like, oh, you know, I've
never shared with anybody else, but you know, my spouse is okay.
That's wrong. No, nobody's personal business is the right of
anybody else's who they didn't confide in, right, even if that
person is close to you, they didn't confide in them, they
didn't confide in your spouse. So be very clear that what someone
tells you in confidence remains with you and them and Allah
Subhana Allah and your intention is purely just to help if you can,
and if you can't provide them, you know, resources with people who
can potentially help them Inshallah, but I hope that
answered your question. I'm happy to see you here. Just like your
welfare and Russia, mashallah for the question. hamdulillah so, I
think we are at the end here, because I don't see any other
questions. So I'm going to thank all of you again, does that go
ahead and for being a part of the sessions Alhamdulillah
You're so sweet. Thank you, Asha. May Allah reward all of you for
spending your evenings with us here at MCC. So I will see you in
two weeks and then hopefully either next time or the following
time, right before I move on in sha Allah to Allah Our intention
will be to finish this book. So that we can look to starting the
month off on you know, with all of this guidance inshallah to benefit
us and and look to other programs for the month of Ramadan Baden
Allah. So with that said, I'll go ahead and end in the
manner hemolysin Enderlin sandal of your hustle Isla La Nina Avenue
I'm the Saudi hottie with the vessel been happy with the vessel
the Saba Subhana Allah homovanillic A shadow and that
ilaha illa Anthonis off the corner to the lake along the center of a
cinema Radek honestly that I want to know from you when I'm from
Italy, what you said and what it was like Is this even cathedra
just like a little Ferran. Have a wonderful rest of your night
inshallah and Shaban Mubarak. Inshallah it's I believe, the
night of the first of Shabbat and So may Allah bless all of you in
this beautiful month. And we will see you in two weeks. All right,
just like well hidden was Santa Monica or Rahmatullahi. We're
gonna get