Hosai Mojaddidi – An Agenda to Change Our Condition (Session 3)
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
So when it comes to math, let our human hands that allow us to slam
on MBA will mursaleen say that our Mowlana were happy with Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam while he was happy to sell him for
Sleeman, Kathira, Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. Dear
brothers and sisters
hamdulillah today is the first of Muharram. As we all know, this new
year,
I woke up this morning with some relief, just crushing soul
crushing news SubhanAllah. You know, sometimes you hear things
that are just beyond your imagination. So all day today,
I've been consumed with this news. And I wanted to just mention it
here, because it's so important. And it is in a way relevant to our
discussion, as we've been focusing on agenda to change our condition
this this amazing text. We've been reading from it if you've been
with me for the past few weeks.
But the new story that came out this morning was that Netflix was
sort of pre viewing some of the programs that are to come. And I
believe in September, they're going to release a movie, it's
made in France. It's a French production that won a Sundance
Film Award.
And so it's called cuties. And in this film, it shows a story of a
young Muslim girl who her family is practicing Muslim, and she
struggles with her
with her family over the issue of her wanting to be a part of a
dance troupe, where they specifically do a specific type of
dance called twerking. And if you're not familiar with this
dance, it's very provocative, very sexualized, it's highly
inappropriate. So this film is basically showing
*, it's showcasing and encouraging *, because
it's showing the sexualization of young girls. It's just very
disturbing. And in addition to that, to add insult to injury,
it's also attacking Islam and Muslim culture, some of the clips
or the audio. The dialogue in the in the trailer are clearly trying
to portray Islam and Muslim culture as being, you know, old
fashioned antiquated, snot progressive, you could just pick
up on all of these on the subtext of the film, just watching that
clip that that short trailer, even the description of the film is an
attack on Islam and Muslims. They referred to her family as being
dysfunctional. And of course, this is a family that I'm sure just
watching the trailer Anyhow, it's clear are not happy with her
choice of wanting to be a part of this dance group. Anyhow, very
upsetting news. And I posted about it on Facebook, on Twitter, on
Instagram. As soon as I found out about I just my blood just was I
was very upset. I've been upset pretty much all day watching the
news about this waiting, hoping that not just our community, but
Americans, people who have also, you know, heard about this film.
Just we had an outcry. And it was a it was national everybody. I saw
a lot of people from different backgrounds protesting this film,
angry, if you go to the Netflix Instagram account, a lot of people
are very upset leaving messages. They're basically blasting them.
And of course, you know,
their response was what we should expect from such a large entity.
They addressed, they focused on one thing, which is the poster
that they released was very different than the one that was
really some friends. That poster was actually horrible. I mean, it
was atrocious on every level highly inappropriate. So the
apology that they issued only dealt with the poster. And it's
amazing to me that all of the other complaints that they're
receiving, they're just not even addressing those things. And you
know, this is where we're at I'm still monitoring situation when
there's a petition on change.org and you can follow my facebook
post about this film and you'll find some some action items there.
One of them is to petition to sign the petition. Another is to leave
really low ratings on the IMDB page and anywhere else just this
is how we get the attention of these people. This is serious and
attack on children suffered a lot. I mean, we have to you know when
we again say gender to change our condition this is this is a
perfect opportunity. We cannot expect our world to you know to
improve or the state of our world to improve if we continue to turn
Blind Eye or just become apathetic to things like this. This is a
very big deal when you start to promote something as depraved, as
* and gloss it over and make it, you know, like, Oh, it's
just this cute little movie about dancing and teen girls and coming
into their own and, and struggling with their sexuality. I mean, why
does an 1112 13 year old girl, why do we have to, again, exploit
children? It just it's mind boggling that this is happening in
our world. Subhanallah and that, that, you know, as we remarked
through this through the day, about the fact that it's not the
fault of one person, right, we can't blame, necessarily the
director or the producer, or the person who put this story
together. There are hundreds of people involved in the making of a
film, the cast, the crew, the writers, the directors, the
producers, every single person is complicit in this story, being
shown to billions of people to global market, right with film.
And so it can fall into many different markets and audiences.
But the point is, is what's the message, the message is that young
girls,
you know that to to look at them with this, you know, again, in
this horrible way, in this inappropriate way to exploit them.
So we have to as Muslims, when we say things like this,
have the right response, I really wanted to start off my
conversation today with all of you about this, because it's just been
weighing on my soul, that this is happening so openly, you know,
there was a time where pedophiles and people who promoted this were
hidden, they were the you know, they were, they were they knew
better. They, you know, they did whatever they did, but in, in
darkness, and God, I mean, we pray that there weren't many of them.
But Allah really is the only one who knows. But they at least
didn't feel bold, to, to act out their their depravity in public,
but now we see films being made. And nobody's blinking an eye, this
is really inappropriate to see girls doing these to address in
the way that they're dressed in a film, you'll see them and just
giving off this, these are sending these messages that are so
dangerous for them. What are we teaching our children, boys and
girls, men and women when we allow this to happen? And then you know,
so we have to turn to ourselves and all of us, we really have some
decisions to make. There are people who are calling for a
boycott of Netflix, if they don't remove this. And we know I mean,
if you if you're paying attention to any of the programming, this
isn't, you know, an outlier situation. There's many programs
on Netflix that are completely against our faith. And so we have
to reconsider, where what we're going to do moving forward, when
it comes to these type of scenarios that we find ourselves
in, are we going to just, you know, turn again, and all of us
have to have this internal conversation, we all have to think
about the choices we make, whether it's subscribing to a streaming
service, like Netflix, or whatever, if we are promoting, are
we are we somehow complicit in what they're doing? By supporting
them by giving them our monthly subscriptions? By in any way, you
know, supporting them? Or is this going to be? Are we going to be
held accountable, so May Allah forgive us and guide us? It's a
difficult conversation to have. But I think all of us have to
become aware of my niece. Just a few minutes before this broadcast
started. She messaged me, she saw my post, she's off to college
soon, but she was so upset herself, being a young Muslim girl
seeing this trailer, that she became activated by my post and
decided to address it. But she was also asking, what more can we do
other than sign this petition? And you know, try to affect the
ratings and the reviews? So my
response to her was, I think the best thing right now to do is to
just become aware and to share this with people because the more
people are upset and outraged, then that's how we get these
people to pay attention, right? If this just becomes a small little
group in our own corner, and we're just you know, screaming to the
top of our lungs, we're likely not gonna get much traction, because
it's, you know, for them. It's all about money. It's all about what
are we risking people canceling subscriptions, is that worth it?
Or are we risking losing potential multimillion dollar you know, film
the contractor agreement? I don't know about it. We don't obviously
know the terms of, of these things. But clearly, money is what
talks and so sometimes, the best thing to do is to you know, just
try to mobilize and
Make sure that our voices are heard, so that they take us
seriously. So I would say, please share this information with your
family, your friends, tell them about the petition for now. It's
probably already past 200,000 signatures since this morning. But
we can do better. I mean, there's, you know, how many million people
and just the US alone, but Muslims globally, we're looking at 2
billion Muslims. And if we started to wake up to the details, and the
ramifications of of a story like this being normalized, and that's
really the danger is that this is just the beginning, you know, you
start with, and we've seen it already, look, in the past five
years, just look at the programs, look what's happening to cartoons,
to television, to film to social media, everything music, it's just
it's, it's getting worse and worse. And part of that problem is
that we're not pushing back strong enough. So I think people of
conscience people of faith, we need to stand up to these people
and tell them, you've crossed the line by normalizing this,
especially when so much attention has been brought about human
trafficking and the trafficking of children, and the exploitation of
children already just this year alone, we've seen so much with the
Epstein case. And it's just mind boggling that they would think
that this was
an acceptable choice to promote this film. But I think that's
really telling of where we're at. But many of these people, this is
normal in their world, and they don't see anything wrong with it.
And may Allah Allah, Allah, just anybody who engages in this
behavior, or, you know, even because, you know, they hide, many
of them hide behind their, their, their wealth, their power, their
status, we have to get out of that idea that people who do this,
these things are, you know, just hidden in their CD in their, in
their, in their own like corners of the world. It's actually much
bigger. There's people in very high positions, people with a lot
of power, who, who engage in this, but may Allah, again, protect our
children, protect our families, let us make better choices in shot
law. So I just wanted to put that out there. Because it's weighing
on my soul. Like I said, Man, I want to just get the word out.
Now, let's change gears and shot loves to him. So
for the past couple of weeks, we have
been reading from this amazing text called agenda to change our
condition by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir. And if you
have not been following along, I invite you to go to the MCC
Facebook page or YouTube page to look at the previous sessions.
This book, mashallah is amazing, it's life changing, it's
transforming, and I think everybody should have it and
should read it.
And we should especially be teaching this type of content to
our youth, they need to be taught skills and, and given the tools to
navigate this world. And this is the type of content that will do
that for them. So I encourage everybody to get it. But the area
that I've been focusing on in the past couple of books, is actually
at the end of the book. So we're doing things a little differently.
And the reason why is because it's just so profound. What's in the
appendix. I mean, the whole book is, as I said, transforming
transformative, but this section in the back the Appendix A, there
is a advice here from cvf matzah, Roque,
and he is a noble scholar of his time.
But he wrote here foundations of the spiritual path. So with each
session we've been going over this long list of really isn't counsel,
it's messy half, but the way that he structured it is that he lists
what are the foundations of a spiritual path. So if you decide
to commit to a spiritual path, what would you need? Right? How do
you what what are your your goals? What are you trying to what are
the objectives, so he puts that out there and then from there, he
proceeds to sort of give you the or deconstruct it to tell you what
steps you would need to get, you know, the prerequisites before the
steps that he's listing. So we're kind of again, going in a very
interesting way, but that's why this is such a fascinating piece.
So we covered quite a few different things already. But
where we stopped last week, actually, we had just shared
because in the in the middle of his advice here, he actually
inserts advice from another scholar abolhassan machete. So he
we covered that last week, the advice that was shattered he gave,
and then from there he goes back. So now we're back to sit down and
Cedric's Council, and I'm going to pull up a screen share so you guys
can follow along.
do with the with the content that I'll be reading. So let me go
ahead and do that. And Shawn, just give me a minute to pull
everything up
on
screen share.
So this
to present, and oh, sorry, that happened too fast, share and then
present.
Okay. So after, as I said he shared a rehearsal of Saturday's
Naseeha, which I'll let me actually show you that. So the
last thing that we covered last week was this, which again, is not
from Cydia, Hamid zoo, but from this other scholar. And so he
talked about different people in our lives, right, and what they
will direct us to, and whether or not they're beneficial, or they're
harmful. So he, again, you can watch the previous broadcast to
get more content here, but let's go ahead and move on to see if it
settles. So now, let's look at his wording here. He says, I say
complacency, persistent sin and negligence of Allah in solitude,
are the roots of all calamities, pitfalls and faults, they in turn
engender five afflictions. So these, you know, just the way that
he's written this complacency, and then persistent sin. So every one
of us as we're reading this text, the best way really, I think, to
do this, is to constantly do that internal check at every point and
ask yourself, Where do you fall? You know, in this spectrum, are
you in a place of complacency where you're just kind of, you
know, not really doing much, and you've gotten very comfortable
with whatever you are doing? And you're not really motivated? To do
more? Are you in a place of sinning and falling into the same
sins over and over again? And again, not changing? Are you
totally negligent of Allah? And remember all of these things, he
qualifies them in solitude. And I think that's really important as
well, because as you as you study, or as we haven't covered on this,
in this program, but I have in previous
discussions talked about the 25 diseases of the heart that Sheikh
Hamza has outlined in purification of the heart, which is another
book that's highly highly, I highly encourage you to get. But
you know, we talked about the importance of or distinguishing
whether or not you are doing things for Shell, right? Yeah, Ria
is ostentatious. This is a disease of the heart, where you're, you
basically perform, it's performative, your spirituality is
all for show. So in public, you have one persona, and then in
private, you're a totally different person. So we want to,
again, look at how we are in private, not how we present
ourselves in public, because that really shows us where we're at
with Allah. Anybody can perform the Manasa teen they performed,
you know, they were they did everything they, they would pray
in the masjid. They would, you know, fast or pretend to fast,
they would say the Shahada. So they were, you know, outwardly,
they look like everybody else, and they behaved like everybody else.
But the true believer, our reality is reflected in how we behave in
solitude. So again, as we're going through this, always do that
internal check, ask yourself, Where do I fall in this spectrum?
Where am I with this? Because he's telling us right there that these
behaviors, right that when we become complacent, we persistently
sin and then we become negligent, completely laferla heedless right?
of Allah subhanaw taala This is the root of all of the calamities,
pitfalls and faults, so all the stuff that we're seeing in
personally, right in our own lives, but also look at our world
right now. I mean, for those of us we're in the state of California.
It's, you know, it looks like the apocalypse outside it's, I'm
getting pictures and videos from people in different parts of the
state. There's a haze that is so strong. It's just It looks like
one of my cousin's she sent a picture she said it looks like the
the sepia filter, right, which is an old name of a filter, but it
has that yellow tint. And this was, you know, broad daylight, but
there's just really gloomy and dark and quite just,
it's unsettling, to be honest, but this is, you know, subhanAllah one
of so many things we've seen already in the year 2020. Right.
And of course, the last part that is in full control and he does as
he wills but we have to take these things seriously.
See, you know, it's not just like, oh, a difficult weather pattern. I
mean, that's, of course, the scientific or material, you know,
world, the lens of the science and of the material world. But for us,
we don't take these things lightly, you know, 100 out, we
had, for example, a mom Taha, may Allah protect and preserve him.
But earlier today, he was encouraging, and he actually did
lead a prayer for rain, you know, because when you see these things
happen around you, we can't just whine and, you know, be upset and
angry about it, we have to remember to turn to the one who's
putting in, you know, putting us in these predicaments and call on
him for relief. So, you know, pray, praying for rain and for
asking us whether for relief because, you know, people are have
been evacuated, a lot of people are suffering, I know, people who
have asthma, and, you know, it's really difficult to breathe, you
know, and I was just thinking Subhanallah with COVID, and, you
know, the pollution of this world, everything that we've just, you
know, we've just caused so much destruction, with all of, you
know, the chemicals and just everything that we've done to the,
to the climate, and to our world. And then COVID, and it's attack on
the lungs, and then you have these fires, it's like, subhanAllah,
there's this, you know, it's like, there's a, you know, I'm just
imagining that the earth is suffering, you know, so much is
this deep constriction of its of its airways, and we've, we have a
hand in that, you know, we all have done something or not done
something, to contribute to that. So, when we find ourselves in this
situation, we have to ask off about that, again, for relief from
that and so Hamdulillah we do have our amazing scholars and teachers
leading the way and those efforts so you know, just follow follow
their lead, we have to restore the balance, you know, our teachers,
may Allah bless them do so much for us. And so we have to make the
offer them remember them and follow their lead inshallah. But
it's so important, again, like I said, to, to go back to yourself.
And so here, these, these qualities, right, that we just
discussed, that he just outlined, or defined for us, they engender
five affliction. So they'll actually, you know, these five
other spiritual diseases are related to them. So let's look
here. Number one, he lists preferring ignorance over
knowledge. So again, there are some people who, you know, they
have the fight or flight response to stress, which is normal, right?
But if you find yourself always running from the problem, or just
in denial, not really wanting to hear it, you know, you this is,
you know, as I say, remaining blissfully ignorant. This is
blameworthy, right, we can't just turn away from things that are
right in front of us for our own convenience, or because there's a
discomfort that we feel around it, or we would just rather not know
because we're too busy enjoying life.
So our state of mind as Muslims as believers is that we always want
the truth, we always prefer knowledge. And in sometimes it's
not going to be easy. You know, I certainly know people who I get
it, they have a hard time coping, or maybe they get triggered. And
so in those cases, those are exceptional cases, people with
trauma, you know, I'm not speaking to that, because those are we have
to be sensitive, everybody's different. But there are amongst
us, those who, they just really don't want to be inconvenienced
with the truth. Right. So they would rather not know. So if you
find, you know, that this is something, you just, it's a burden
to know, things you want to redress, you know, address that,
because then who else, you know, if every, if there's only a few
people who have to carry the burden, and then they you know,
and the rest just get off and don't have to worry about it? Is
that fair, right. But if everybody is aware, and that we're all
trying to do something about the problems that we that we see that
inshallah likely will get solutions faster, but also, it's
just, it's a more fair response. Right. So I think we just have to
all internally, like I said, their own conscience, ask ourselves
where we're again, you know, do we fall here? Are we the type that
runs from responsibility? Really, that's really what it is
essentially, right? Because knowledge is power. And when
you're ignorant, you can just be just, you know, ignorant, and you
don't have to worry about things. So
think about that. Now, the next one being duped by every spiritual
charlatan. So this is certainly a reality.
You know, there are many people who fall for those who, you know,
just are eloquent, they have the right words, they may promise
things that, you know, they really can't promise, they profit off of
whatever, you know, they're they're selling or they're,
they're, you know, promises are making or whatever claims they're,
they're attesting to, that they can profit off of that. So it's if
you're not aware of yourself, or you're not really doing the
necessary work to become aware of who you should follow or not, you
likely will fall for those people. And I've seen it many times in our
community, you know, or heard stories I should say about, about
people, especially back home, and some of our countries who they
make money off of the innocence, but also the ignorance of other
people, right? If you've never read, you know, the Quran or never
engaged with the book of Allah or engaged with the center of the
process and, or know, you know, the Know Your Akita, well, then
sure, you may believe someone who has, again claimed who makes
certain claims, and you may fall for it, especially if you think
about people who are in desperate situations, right? It's like, they
want something so desperate from, from this world, that they may
turn and pay, you know, a pretty penny for, oh, this person will
make the offer you or they'll give you this or they'll give you that
and, you know, people who are humble are not ignorant, or
they've actually pursued knowledge, which is, you know, the
first point here, they don't prefer to stay in that state of
ignorance, they know not to fall for everybody, and they know that,
you know, the true LM or the true person of knowledge doesn't, you
know, they're, they're not like sorcerers or wizards, you know,
they don't have magical powers. They have strong European, and
they can certainly, you know, if Allah wills, they can, maybe
their, their daughters or their, you know, certain things, but if
those aren't, they don't, they themselves would never make a
claim about it. They may just out of their grace and generosity
offer to make the, or maybe offer you some, you know, formulaic
prayer or with but they themselves know that everything is in the
hands of Allah, so they don't speak definitively about things,
you know, I go do this, for sure this will happen to you, nobody
can predict those things, it's all in the hands of Allah. So, you
know, again, knowledge would, would protect you from from
falling for those types of people. Neglecting one's duty and
important matters. So obviously, you know, you become just,
too, you know, relaxed about, about things, and we're seeing
this, you know, more and more in our society and in and certainly
in our community where there's a watering down. And you see other
faith communities have as have gone through that as well. Where
the true the core tenants or, or practices of their belief, are
taken seriously, by, by people in certain, you know, roles, but but
then the majority don't really follow through, you know, you can
see this and other faith communities and that's the danger
that of not taking your your faith seriously is that we may see that
happen. May God protect us from you know, from that we're only a
handful of of strong Muslims remain where they pray their
father, they they don't question, you know, the, what the flora and
are they don't try to, you know, have a different interpretation of
a reverse or Hadith and apply their own whims and desires. They
don't do that. They just, you know, this is what Allah said,
It's in his book, this is the prophesy system. So now I'm gonna
follow it. That type of just devotion.
You know, may Allah protect us from from being from that reality
we're only handful people have full of people are doing that, or,
you know, the numbers are just dwindling. Because we're, we're
taking our faith, not as seriously and we start to neglect the
important things that we shouldn't be doing. So that's the
unfortunate result though. If you start to again, you're complacent
and you persistently sin. You'll just be neglectful
exalting in the spiritual path. So this is when you are you know, and
you can see this it's, it's interesting because, you know,
people are at different levels, right. And so you will see people
who may not really be doing a lot in terms of their prayer, and
their own personal practice getting swept away or emotionally
swept away with with
with, you know, the, with the path or certain aspects of the path, I
should say. So it's like their lens is really off because, you
know, there's we have work to do, you know, we're here to worship of
us. And there's work that's required of that, you know, you
can't just sit back and, and
just want it all to be about your feelings, you know, and that's an
experiences. And so that's all that you care about is you just
want to get that spiritual high, but then when it comes to actually
working for it, you're not doing as much and that's what, you know,
point number five also is about when you're hastening, like you
want certain things, for example, I've heard people say this, you
know, and it's again, just not having a clear understanding, like
Hoshido is something that is a byproduct of effort, right? It's a
byproduct of effort, you have to be working hard to be in the
remembrance of Allah Subhanallah, to purify your heart sincerely,
try your hardest to have presence in mindfulness and acts of worship
that you do. But you can't expect pusher to enter your heart without
effort. And I've heard people, that's one of the reasons that
they don't pray, for example, you know, that I don't feel it. I've
heard people actually say that, well, when I pray, I feel
disconnected. You know, they're just words that I don't quite
understand if you know if it's a non Arabic speaker. And so they'll
find all these justifications to essentially say, I don't feel a
spiritual high in my prayer. So sometimes it's like, Ah, why
bother? That's a total Westeros that's complete, you know, stuff a
lot. Because, you know, those are gifts from Allah, you know, to
have a spiritually spiritual opening is not something that you
should feel entitled to, without any effort, you should. I mean, if
you get that, that's incredible, and you should be in a state of
absolute gratitude. But this idea that is a prerequisite to you
worshiping just shows an entitlement that you should really
deal with and say stuff Allah, you know, why do I feel that I'm
entitled to that, you know, like people who, who get upset and
angry and then demand that God reveal himself somehow, you know,
sometimes people get in, it's, you know, these are just when you
study al Qaeda, with with the teacher properly and you
understand it, you'll know that, that behavior, it's just that's
not from from the, from the believer, we shouldn't do things
like that, where we expect anything from Allah subhanaw
taala, we are completely at his mercy. And no matter how much we
do, and how well we think we do it, at the end of the day, as
Sherlock Holmes always says, you know,
that we should all always ask all those patata for His mercy, not
assuming that any of us have done enough to warrant some reward from
him, because we have it. And that's why, you know, the famous
Hadith about the man who who worshipped for 500 years, and then
he shows up on the day of judgment. And the I mean, it's a
lengthy story, but just quickly, you know, he, he's told to enter
Jannah, by, you know, by the mercy of Allah. And when he hears that,
he's kind of taken aback because he worshiped perfectly for 500
years. So there's this transaction that happens between him and the
angels. And then
when the angels, you know,
recounted the story or or, you know, relayed the story back to a
lot, of course, Alana already knows. But but still in the story,
it's stated this way, Allah tells them to reply that okay, all of
that worship of 500 years was for just the blessing of eyesight. And
so when the man heard that, then he said, Okay, by His mercy, I'll
enter like, you realize, it was foolish to think that, you know,
even though he was devoted, and he did, all that he did for that much
time, Allah gave him that much time, that it wasn't, it didn't
warrant, the reward agenda, and that the only way we enter Jannah
is through the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala. And there's many
other Hadith and support that even the prophesy said, he was asked
about that for the sahaba. And he said, even himself, it's all by
the mercy of Allah that He will even enter. So we have to get out
of this mindset that we're entitled to things, you know, but
this idea again of wanting some big opening or some your dwelling
to be answered, you know, I made us the heart of I didn't get
answered and I, you know, I've dealt with people who have been
through a lot
So, in no way, trying to trivialize or diminish people
states, everybody has to find out again where they are in this, but
there are people who have been through a lot and so shaitan
attacks those people with these types of ideas, you know, so we
have to remember, all this places, a place of tribulation is a place
of difficulty. We have been told that from the very beginning, you
know, it's throughout the Quran, throughout the Hadith, where these
reminders are there that this is we're only here to be tested. So,
you know, we're here to work, and we're here to, to show ALLAH
SubhanA wa, tada that we take our covenant seriously, you know, when
we testified, that he's our Lord, we took we take it seriously, it's
not just lip service, you know, it's not just, we're not nominally
Muslim, you know, we actually mean it and the way that you prove that
assert your actions, and so you know, just keeping that in mind
that we're not owed anything and that we have to strive and work
hard for it. So these this is the advice that he shared here. Now,
the next slide.
So these five so yeah, so just to be clear,
when you are complacent, persistent and sin and negligent
of Allah, then it engenders it causes this to happen. Now these
five are then then cause five more so let me go ahead and move to the
next slide here. But there's of course a delay.
Okay, went too far.
This month.
Okay, here we go. So, these foster five other afflictions, first
preferring innovations to the center. So you know, if you again,
notice the prompts, I sort of did things a certain way, but you'd
rather do it your own way. This is where you have to be very careful.
Because a whole lot, I mean, nobody's way is better than the
balls, I said, no matter how good it might be, or logical or, you
know, sometimes people make things appear to make more sense. But
this isn't, you know, we don't look to logic, or we don't look at
to convenience or efficiency, necessarily, we look really to how
did he do it, you know, if he prayed a certain way, all of the
obviously the different acts of worship, but we he's our example.
And that's it. But if you find that you would rather listen to,
you know, someone else's.
And there are there are these people who come up with their own
ideas, you know, this,
and we're living in a time so for our, these ideas aren't just
they're spreading, because we're, you know, we have we have the
internet and we have access to,
to think that by the you know, just a click of a button, you can
access someone else's ideas, you know, you don't have to wait to
meet with them or hear from them or wait for them to do anything
public, you can just, it's within seconds, someone just has an idea,
and you can go follow them on some social media platform, and you'll,
you'll suddenly be aware of their idea. So there's a lot of people
who have ideas, and you have to be careful not to fall for that trap
that because they're smart, you know, they have that degree. They,
you know, they, they, they're accomplished, they're successful,
they're wealthy, they're in a position of power.
That because they speak a certain way that maybe their idea is
refreshing, you know, it's new, it's progressive, all these words
that are used to make it sound shiny, and and possibly better, if
it's against the center of the bullseye. So it's nothing, right,
that's how you have to be and you have to
have to keep that in mind. Right? that nothing is better than the
sum of the prophesy set him. And again, like I said, you're gonna
see a lot of people who make claims, but you have to be careful
not to in any way,
you know, fall fall for those claims. Because when they it's
arrogance, I mean, if you think that you have some, your knowledge
or you've, you know, a more, again, you're you're more profound
in your insight about something out of the brown and the problems
of sudden you're diluted and you're, you know, all the biller
that's just straight up arrogant, so be careful following people
like that, and also following messages like that.
Next is imitating vacuous people instead of those of substance you
know, so that gives for people who are just not smart, you know,
ignorant people.
For, again, you know, there are a lot of ignorant people who claim
to other people who don't, for example, who don't even know,
Arabic, but then they will
claim that they have some nuanced ideas about certain verses in the
Quran or certain Hadith. I mean, come on, you have to know that
that right, then they're just credits that move if you don't
even know the language of the text that you are attempting to
analyze, and, you know, and, and comment on, then you are clearly
deluded. But unfortunately, again, a lot of people they speak well,
or they have a platform and have some status, and then, you know,
people fall for that. So make sure that you can distinguish between
the two, because again, all of those material or worldly things
are not what make a person, you know, give, give credit, don't
give credibility to someone when it comes to religion, or religious
understanding or insight. It's really their character, you know,
and people have of the path are, they're just you can tell, you can
tell when you meet them, they're humble, they remind you have the
prophetic example. And they, their actions follow their words, you
know, so they don't have that duality. Or sometimes you know,
and we see a lot of that too. We see a lot of duality in our world
today. But people of Allah are very consistent people because the
Apostle said it was consistent and they're on his path. So you don't
find you know, duplicitous Ness, you don't find, you know, one way
with with this group and then I present myself differently here.
It's just you're consistent so that people of substance are
consistent. And of course, they feel alone. They have taqwa and
knowledge and all of those virtues.
Bianca capriciously in both trivial and weighty matters. So
you know, when you constantly follow your whims and desires, you
your ego, your enough's, who's in control that said, if you don't
take life seriously, this is the kind of person you end up being
someone who's just always, you know, making light of really heavy
matters. And even maybe a mockery out of out of things. Just because
you're, you know, you're kind of in that place of, you know,
nothing really matters. What's the point? Everything's a joke. You
see a lot of that. In our world today. There's so much cynicism.
People don't really take things seriously, everything's a joke.
You know, it's a lot, it's very dangerous, because the world is
very serious, we're in a very serious place here. And if you're
not aware of that, or you're so deluded, and distracted by all the
entertainment and just, you know, knifes just giving into your whims
and desires and catering to your base desires, then sure if that's
all you do all day, play video games or watch movies and listen
to music and eat and go out and laugh and have fun and shop and,
you know, it's just constant distractions from then you're not
going to see the seriousness of this world because you are
medicating or kind of putting yourself in that stupor, right?
That that sleep state, although you're waking, your wakeful you,
because you're in denial of reality, which is,
this is a place again, if tribulation of grief of loss of
pain, you're going to suffer suffering, it's suffering is
everywhere. You know, there's innocent people who are suffering,
every second of every minute of every day, innocent people who
don't deserve, you know, as we, as people say, right, they don't
deserve what they're getting. Suffering is just part of dunya,
right? It's here, but
it's a very serious place and we should take our life seriously. I
mean, that's not to say, don't enjoy aspects of dunya No, as a
prophet, I sent him you know, he enjoyed aspects of this dunya and
this is again, following his sunnah. But it's in balance. It's
not that you live, to play all day, and you live to entertain all
day. You we live to worship Allah subhanaw taala. And that's why the
believer that's your priority every single day when you wake up,
you should be thinking about, you know, where, what your objectives
are for for that day, in terms of your worship of Allah. Number one
most important, of course, is your prayers. You know, there's people
who don't take their prayer seriously.
And that's a very weighty issue. It's a first thing Subhan Allah
that we're going to be asked about, on the Day of Judgment is
our prayers. So if you
You don't take your prayer seriously, then sure, you're
likely not gonna
take other things seriously as well. But being be very careful,
because this is what that behavior leads to when you're negligent of
Allah, you're just persisting in sin, you're complacent, right? All
the things that we talked about in the previous slide, all those
things happen. And then this is what further happens. It's like a
even more spiritual, you know, disease entering the heart that
that is manifest with this type of behavior, preferring fantasies
over realities. You know, this is one of the diseases of the heart,
living in,
like having false hope, and just living, you know, fantasizing and
getting lost in your thoughts. And not really, again, you're not
really present. Because if you're present, then you're aware of what
your own mortality, right, you're aware of it, it's like right in
your face, you can't deny it. But if you're not really present in
the day, because you're, you know, again, getting lost in dreams and
hopes. And again, it's not to say we shouldn't have goals and hopes
and dreams. It's about what do you how you preoccupy your time, if
you, you know, are doing things where you're always in a dreamland
situation.
And not, you're likely not going to fulfill the obligations that
are right in front of you. You know, and there's people who, I
mean, just think about this, for example, there are people who read
a lot of books, okay, like nonfiction, they just like
stories. And so they, they're in book clubs, and they have their
Kindles, and they're always reading, reading, reading other
books, right, just regular, any subject books,
but they'll get so caught up in those books that they will forget
to pray or that they don't prioritize prayer. Same with
television, you know, movies, social media, if those things
because again, you're lost in the fantasy of what those things, the
worlds that are open up to you through those mediums, you know,
which is really what it is, if you think about it, social media,
film, television, music, books, literature, all of these things
are like portals to other worlds, right to escape our own reality.
And so if you get lost in those other worlds, then what happens to
your reality? You know, obviously, it's gonna go to the wayside. And
that's exactly what we're seeing every single day in this world,
but it's not, you know, when we zoom out, we don't have to always
focus on on just spiritual matters. But reality in general,
there are people who get so lost or obsessed with their addictions,
whatever they are, because again, they're escaping their own
reality, that they neglect their children, they neglect their
spouses, they neglect their parents, they go into debt, they
don't take their finances seriously, they, you know, lose
their employment, all because they have gotten into this
habit, destructive habit of just escaping whatever reality they
they're in, with the vise of their choice, right? And what does that
do, it ends up eventually destroying them. So we have to
accept that people who are successful spiritually and
worldly, don't do that. And there are there are people who are
already successful, they're not, you know, for example, you know,
there's people I just, I forgot who it was, but I was just
recently watching something and someone was saying that how they,
you know, they've never, they're not Muslim, but they were saying
they never drink alcohol, never drink it. Because they don't,
their their mind is focused, they you know, they know what they
want, they're very clear about their goals and objectives. And
they don't want to compromise that, right. So they don't engage
in that type of behavior where, you know, I want to buzz and I
just want to escape reality. So a lot of people who are successful
in the world also don't, they don't, they don't fall into that
behavior. They don't do drugs, they don't do alcohol. They just
stay away from it. And of course, there's certainly people who do
that stuff, a lot of people, but it's interesting, right to see
that, you know, they could write, it's not that, like they
necessarily have something that prevents them other than the fact
that they, you know, made that choice that I don't want to
compromise myself or put myself in that situation. So I'm not going
to do that. But again, you know, spiritually successful people,
worldly successful people, they're not always trying to run away. So
we have to look at our behavior and find out you know, or figure
out where our particular escapes are and whether or not
they're affecting our spiritual health, you know? And because it
could seem benign, oh, what's the harm? I'm just playing, you know,
Tetris. Okay, or watching sports? Sure, you know, those could be
totally innocent, you know, leisurely activities or fun games
that you're engaged in. But again, if you are defaulting or or or
shirking your other responsibilities,
right, you're not fulfilling your, your obligations to Allah, first
and foremost, you're not growing, you know, because there's the
ritual acts that we do, but there's also a simultaneous
growth, you should that you should, inshallah we should all
see growth, right, like from where we were, last year, the year
before the year before, our hope is that we're growing
and our understanding in our practice, that we're incrementally
getting better. So if we're not seeing that, but then we're
escaping, and we're giving time to these other things. This is
clearly a problem. And unfortunately, I think because
again, the world that we're in, these are so ubiquitous, it's
everywhere, you really, it's very hard to escape from, you know,
because it's just, everybody's doing it a lot of these things.
And it's just so normal, it's so normal, normalized in our culture.
But when you're assessing your spiritual path, which is what this
text is all about, right, just trying to figure out where you are
on the path, you do need to take inventory, about what you're
engaging in, where your time is being used, what you're not doing
enough of, we all have to do that. That's, that's massive, but it's
literally taking inventory taking account. And you can do this daily
every day, you know, you can mentally just kind of check in
Where did you mess up that day, but also, in general, trying to
see where you, you know, were from maybe, as I said, a couple of, you
know, months ago, like in Ramadan of this year to now, what has
changed for the better or worse, so you can do those regular check
ins, and then do the larger check in where you see like, man, you
know, last year at this time, where it was I, you know, Did I do
anything? Have I done anything big or made any strides in a
particular area, you know, and that's what, what we should be
doing regularly declaring insincere claims. You know, some
people suffer again, they will just, it's delusion, you know,
they'll make claims of and it could be many things, many
examples what, like, you know, dreams, for example, a lot of
times, we have to be very careful about our dreams, you know, like
sharing them, but also
sort of exaggerating them to maybe
convince ourselves or other people about where we are. I know there's
Yeah, it's shaitan could easily delude someone to think of
themselves as being what they're not through these types of tricks,
you know, where you start to make claims that are just not true,
whether it's about yourself or other people, or you have there's
insincerity, right, you, you don't really mean what you're saying,
You're you might, you know,
you might again, for the sake of your own reputation, maybe claim
that you will do something that you're not going to do sometimes
just the sincerity is missing. So it could be either trying to
exaggerate things and make yourself appear a certain way or
to again, protect yourself from maybe some consequence or just to
be liked maybe by other people that you will make insincere
claims but these are all again, they should all trouble us and may
Allah protect us from from having these types of qualities.
How much time do we have here? Oh, we have just a few minutes
Subhanallah Time goes so quickly. It's interesting because it's like
I always think it's an hour I hope there's enough content but then
mashallah, we start talking and I just end so fast. So let me stop
the screenshare because there's, there's there's more advice to
come. More comments, but I want to see if there are any questions or
anything like that. So I'm going to check the facebook page.
See what we have here in Sharla. And if you do have any
questions, please let me know now.
Let's see
this
Okay.
So I don't see anything on the on the Facebook page, but let me
check the YouTube because I know sometimes there are questions
there
Okay,
so I don't see anything here.
Yeah. Does anyone have any questions? Before we end?
I'll keep all of these open. I have a lot of windows open right
now, just so that I can see the thread. But no questions
or any questions
you know, it's a, like I said,
it's a really transformative text. And there's a lot of food for
thought with the text like this, that sometimes questions or
realizations may come after the fact.
So, I'm happy you know, I don't know.
Well, you guys should all know where to find me. But I am on
social media. So you can always message me on Facebook or
Instagram. And let me know if you have any questions.
But for now, I don't see anything. So I have a few minutes left. I
didn't want to start the next section because it's five more
points. And so I stopped beforehand, but for next week,
we'll continue with the same
text or the same section of this text of agenda to change our
condition the appendix A will continue and see
what more insights are to come that's really again, fascinating.
So not a lot so thank you again, I didn't see any questions I hope
they don't pop up like last time after I hang up or after I end the
call hang up
after I am the zoom, but inshallah if you have any questions, please
feel free to message me privately. In the meantime, okay. All right.
Thank you all let's go ahead and inshallah and in Doha
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim, Allah Azza ena in Santa Fe for Serena
Latina Ave. Y Mina Swanee Danny Hattie, with us have been happy
with us for the summer sabbatical a homo VMDK shadow under ilaha
illa Antara stockbroker wanted to eat eek Aloha masala was nothing
more about and honestly that I will know learn a lot from even
from that Salama who it was? Well that he was talking to someone who
seemed like 100 letters like more fit and inshallah we will see you
guys in two weeks where we will continue with a gentleman change
our condition and I'll see you guys then. Alright so now I want
to come around to it. Oh but I can't do