Hosai Mojaddidi – An Agenda to Change Our Condition (Session 5)
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
I'm sorry for the schedule change on Thursday. That was entirely my
fault. I had a conflict and something come up came up. So
that's why I had to reschedule this session. But nonetheless, MCC
was so gracious to allow me to do it this Sunday so that there's not
too much time that passes before our next scheduled session.
Inshallah. So, with that said, for those who are maybe tuning in for
the first time, you know, it's a new night, I don't know, there
might be people who haven't followed all these weeks. But for
those who who are new welcome, thank you for being here. So what
I've been doing since we established these bi weekly HELOC
has is going over a text that some of you may be familiar with. Some
of you may have never heard of it before. But it's a very amazing
text, in my opinion, and the opinion of many people, but I'll
go ahead and show it to you. It's called agenda to change our
condition. And this was written by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid,
Shekar, Alhamdulillah. So, as I've explained in previous sessions,
I'm kind of doing a different take on this reading, because in the
back of the book, there are these gems, these advices these councils
that Hamdulillah, they incorporated in the text, and I
felt that these councils are so just there's so much value to
looking at them and really getting a good grounding about the
importance of studying and learning and committing to the
study of our deen. And so the first appendix that we covered, we
talked about it at length for the past, maybe three or four sessions
was Appendix A, at the foundations of the spiritual path by CD 100
Zero. So we've covered he gave, you know, brilliant, just advice,
really, but in a very interesting way. And so we did that already.
And in the last session, I said that we would continue with the
next appendix, which is what we're going to do today. So I invite you
to go to the MCC YouTube page and check out the previous videos if
you want to catch up and kind of see, you know, what we've been
doing all this time. But even if you're just new today in sha
Allah, what we were starting something new, so hopefully you'll
you'll be able to follow along with ease. So with that said, I'm
going to share a screen because I want you to be able to follow
along as I go through this council. And this council
Subhanallah I'll show you it's quite amazing. It's just this one
page. That's it. But as we go through it, I hope you'll realize
or see why it's I find it so beneficial or clearly it's
beneficial. It's in this book, but why I felt we should dedicate some
time to it so let me go ahead and screenshare inshallah you give me
just a minute
if I can have a brother so man, if you can please enable my host my
screen sharing that would be great. So I forgot to ask you to
do that. I'm sorry.
But if I can get that then I can screenshare
brother, sir, man, are you with us? I don't know if you stepped
away, which I
wouldn't blame you. If you had something to do. I know it's late.
But if you are there, or maybe I can text you bear with me
everyone.
Mashallah, we have an awesome team. But I forgot to ask him to
do this for me. So let's see. Oh, okay. 100 He did. Thank you for
this. You are quick to respond. Hamdulillah. Um, excuse me. So one
second, let me go ahead and screenshare Bismillah. And we will
get the screen up here.
Okay.
I'm going to present. So,
again, this is the text that we've been covering agenda to change
your condition. And so Appendix B, this is what we're going to be
talking about today. This is the counsel of a man and no movie.
Okay. And this is from his text and mocassin and it's the section
concerning arrival to the knowledge of Allah. So again, it's
one page but there's just so much incredible information packed in
here. So let's talk about this. Here we go. This Mullah arriving
arrival to the knowledge of Allah is achieved by and he says right
away repenting from all things unlawful or offensive. So you
know, all of us inshallah we all want to hopefully we all want to,
you know, have
a nearness to Allah subhanaw taala. We want to establish that
connection to us that we're on the path. We are, you know, we testify
to the truth of this dean. And we believe in shallow our actions
reflect that our heart isn't solid committed. But there are things
that we have to do sort of like a purging in order to really sit in
a solid
To find that intention. And so this is this would be the purging
process where we really look at whatever we're doing or have been
doing whatever we've habituated to, that would in any way fall
under the unlawful or the offensive, the Haram or the mcru.
And we would really, you know, be serious about purifying our
intentions, because, you know, many people say things and they
make claims, but really action is where, you know, is the proof of
your claim. So that's where we want to see, are you truthfully on
this path with true intention, then purge, purge the things that
you know, would displease Allah subhanaw taala. And really just
step away from those things, and everybody's gonna, it's, you know,
it's subjective. So everybody's going to have a different list of
things to purge, but that process is necessary, it's necessary to
evaluate yourself, to look at what things in your life are
potentially harming you, or potentially derailing you in terms
of your spiritual growth, and start to remove things, remove bad
habits, you know, if you're watching things, for example, we
know that the eyes and the ears and the mouth I mean, we speak
things we shouldn't say we look at things we shouldn't look at, we
listen to things we shouldn't look at. So that would be you know,
somewhere to start. What am I taking in? What am I consuming? Is
it food? Is it drink? Is it gossip? Is it foul? You know,
television or film? Lyrics? What am I taking in? That is haram and
I know it's wrong, and I should just stop it and stop making
excuses. And, and start getting rid of those habits. And then even
what's my crew, what would be disliked or offensive, you want to
look at those things that, you know, you're maybe again, just
taking the easy route with certain things and, and see, well, if I'm
really serious about trying to get close to a lost part that I should
be able to sacrifice, these vices, these bad habits, these things
that I've, you know, over time, just again, habituated to. So
that's the starting point purge, then we have, you know, seeking
sacred knowledge in accordance in accordance with one's needs. And
100 I love the phrasing of this, because it's, you can interpret it
a couple of different ways. But I think I looked at it, like, you
know, you we have to pace ourselves, but also, you know,
remember that being too ambitious, and you know, and kind of
putting,
you know, putting your your pursuit of knowledge before other
obligations before family obligations before taking care of
the, you know, the people that have rights over you could be your
parents, it could be your spouse, it could be your children, this
would not be the right course, right, there has to be moderation
that has to be balanced. And so where you are just pace yourself,
because I've over the years, I've had to work with individuals who
have either, you know, been in situations where someone in their
family was, you know, taking their, their spiritual path to
that extreme, you know, this is I have to go here, I have to travel
to this place, I have to do this. And they were in some time, in
some cases, they were shirking other responsibilities, because
they went to this extreme. So I think what I get from this advice
is to just be balanced, you know, where you are at, we're all in
different, you know, places, and levels, in our, in our growth in
our spiritual understanding a path or an understanding, and so you
just, you know, grow organically and naturally, but keep that
intention always, instead of going into extremes because people burn
out, you know, that's and that's what che THON wants, He wants us
to get really zealous and, and committed and just throw ourselves
into it. But then, if we don't have balance, we will burn out
eventually. And then we may never want to pick up a book again, we
may never want to attend a class again or the biller, or take on a
serious study of a subject again, because it just, you know, it
didn't resonate well with us, and it was may have caused further
problems for us. So you create this negative association with
something so beautiful, and then you abandon it, and this has
happened to people. So we are at the end of moderation of the
middle way. So you want to take it easy, and just pace yourself
inshallah. And then maintaining ritual purity. This is also
something that happens a lot that, you know, when I understood it,
and started implementing it, I noticed an immediate change in not
only my state, but also the ease of practice, because you know,
there's sometimes steps right to our practice, we have to do
certain things. There are prerequisites before we can do
certain things, right, for example we make will do before we pray,
right? And so, in that example, I found that for for a long time,
and this is again, when you're not aware of things you're not paying
attention to what are the things that hinder you? For a long time
it was that income
reunions quote unquote, other believers should never, of course,
look at any act of worship as an inconvenience, but this is the
neffs. You know, we have to know that our knifes will always prefer
comfort and, you know, try to make worship difficult and burdening
all the beloved, but it's anything bad, right? So anyhow, you know,
we, we make these associations with certain things that, that we,
you know, that stand in our way or that we prevent ourselves from,
from actually growing because they become, as I say, they make a
mountain out of a molehill. So something like we'll do if you
really think about Lulu, it's not difficult at all, is it? I mean,
really think about it, what is it, it's getting parts of your, you
know, your limbs and parts of you know, your, your face and your
body wet for a few minutes. And then you're in a ritual state of
purity, and Subhanallah, that facilitates you to read the book
of Allah to pray your prayers, you know, to be in a state of purity
and to repel, you know, evil energies and to attract good
energy. So there's so much benefit to it. But the actual act itself
is not, it doesn't require much effort. However, when you're not
in a state of will do and prayer enters. And you think about
prayer, sometimes, the thought of having to do will do is what makes
you procrastinate, right. So it's like, oh, man, you know, I, it's
cold, let's say it's in the winter months, you know, and I know I get
it, it's difficult for some people, they don't like to be
cold. So the idea of having to go get wet, you know, Fajr, or Isha,
or, you know, times where the temperatures can drop, it just
seems like such a hardship, right? So one of the ways that this can,
you know, resolve that is that you try to always maintain a state of
purity, so that you're more efficient in your worship, right.
So even with my children, well, at least with my oldest one, because
he's McAuliffe, and he's now you know, praying his prayers, he's
using that age, or he's learning that but he, I even tell him, you
should always be in a state of flow. So you know, when you use
the restroom, just make it and get in the habit of doing although as
part of your routine, with using the restroom, so that you leave
that state in a purified state, and then in sha Allah, you
maintain that likely for your next prayer window, right? And you can
immediately when the thought of prayer comes to you, you don't
have that additional step, you're already in a clean, purified
state. And so boom, you can, you know, get to the prayer rug,
Inshallah, and complete your prayers and then go back to our
activities. So it's working, you know, around all of these
barriers, that, that your naps and shaitan, of course, tries to
create, so that it makes worship hard, right, it's working around
it. So being in a state of ritual purity, and of course, as I said
earlier, there's other benefits too, you attract good, you know,
the angelic realm is attracted to you and the the jinn are repelled
by you the shotgun or repelled or you repel them, you know, they
they they can't come they don't come near you because you're in
this beautiful state. So there's you know, that and, and just as I
said, it facilitates worship, so inshallah trying to always
maintain that. And when you step outside the house, that's another
thing you know, we have to consider, you know, if you have to
go run errands, and you leave without will do and then you, you
know, something happens to your car, let's say, God forbid, or,
you know, you end up having to do more things than you thought and
time is running out. And now we'll do prayer has entered and you
don't have will do and all of a sudden, what do I do? If you're,
you know, not really on top of your prayers, you likely will make
that excuse for yourself, Oh, well, I don't have will do I guess
I'll do it when I get home. And so you've just now Mr. Prayer delayed
your prayer, all because you're not thinking proactively. So being
in a state of virtual purity is proactively operating and working
to facilitate your your faith practice in sha Allah, and to
really make it not such a you know, burden where you look at
steps that are really quite beneficial to you as being
something other biller that you don't want to do but rather
something you look forward to doing and something that is quite
easy when you really think about it. So in sha Allah, that's one of
his advices then we have performing the obligatory prayers
in the first of their time and in congregation as well as the oh
that's a typo sorry, should be sunnah with an H, Sunnah prayers
that correspond to each of the obligatory prayers. So this is
also really important and as I was just, you know, you know, alluding
to that, once you are in that ritual state of purity, it makes
your prayers easy. Well, that's the next goal. The next goal is to
not procrastinate your prayers because you know, Inshallah, all
of us now anyway, we're in this court.
routine or home most of the time, we really don't have any reason
other than our own bad habits possibly, or just not taking the,
the time of prayer entering as seriously as we should, that we
delay and we procrastinate, you know, we might get caught up in a
project, or we're really doing something that we think is really
important. And I'm sure everybody has important things to do. But if
you habituate yourself to again, thinking that I need to have
really good habits, so I want to be in a state of will do and I
need to start establishing or,
you know, doing the prayers when they come in, when the time
enters, like, it's just a goal and you start working towards that
goal, it becomes something you prioritize, then you you know, set
your alarms, we all have these devices. And you know, I've seen
people mashallah some friends who have like, you know, a long list
of alarm set for everything and anything. So you know, we're just
in that age of too much information, too much, too many
responsibilities, too much juggling. So we need those
reminders, and I have the law, we, you know, we can benefit from
these devices in that way, by setting those alarms that you
know, correspond to the prayer times, so that you're reminded,
prejudice entered. And even though I'm doing this thing that I
really, really want to finish it, it's better for me to stop this be
and do my prayer in its earlier time than to let my neffs convince
me in a few minutes in a few minutes. And then we forget, we're
forgetful, right? It's part of our nature, we forget, and then an
hour lapses, two hours lapse, and then you're scrambling because oh
my god also is about to come in, and I didn't do they'll have this
is how many times has it happened to all of us, right. And that's
unfortunately, you know, one of the tricks of Iblees is he likes
to push us to procrastinate for that reason, so that we we don't
fulfill our obligations in their time. So making it a goal to
perform your prayers in their time. And then also in
congregation This is another really important Naseeha you
again, with all of us who are home, if if like in my family, I
have the law, both my husband and I are working from home, we've
been working from home for months now under quarantine. And so
Hamdulillah, our sugar lab, to all the prayers are done in
congregation. It's just we've established that early on, and we
have even before COVID that whenever he was home, he would
lead in his absence when he was working full time, and I was with
the kids, we always pray in congregation and I've said this in
previous parenting sessions as well. You know, the family that
prays together stays together, you know, there's all these little,
you know, sayings. But in all seriousness, it's such an
important thing to do with your family, with your children to
model for your children. How seriously you take your prayer,
you know how important it is that prayer is entered, we pray
together, and to have that memory that 100 Allah, all your prayers
when they were younger, in sha Allah, you know, they, they all
have those memories, as they as your children get older, that they
prayed with, with Mama and Baba, and we prayed as a family. And you
know, it was a beautiful experience. It wasn't because now
a days, oftentimes, when we're so all in our little silos, you know,
operating, you're in your room, someone is in their room, and
someone's in another room, and the whole family sort of divided
because we're all either going to school, or we're working or we're
doing other things. We're all separated. But sometimes what can
happen is that other things also start to be separated food, you
know, people are now eating separate meals. And then Where's
where's the unit? Where's the family unit, where's that
cohesiveness that we all want that together, there's that bonding
time. And then, you know, let's add in a bunch of other problems
with the, you know, devices that are in our hands pretty much all
day, we have really a lot of just disconnection happening in our
homes throughout. And so this is one way to stop and say, No one,
no matter what's going on, this is a rule for this family. If it's
prayer time we pray together so that you're not sitting in your
room and just calling out, you know, across the hall, to your
children, if you're the mom or the father, you know, did you pray,
and you've seen a lot of this yelling in the house about prayer.
Because everybody's, you know, trying to hopefully be reminding
each other at least. But wouldn't it be better instead of doing that
to just have someone in charge of either calling the event or
playing the event? Or even if you can schedule automatic events, if
you have those clocks or apps, that it's just the whole family
knows what to do, you know, this is our this is our family rule.
When we hear that event, or we hear someone calling the event or
calling us to prayer, no excuses and imagine in sha Allah, you
know, the ideal scenario everybody's in a state of well do
you know all the the father, the mother, the children, because
we've all gotten into
He's really good habits of doing that. So that when prayer time
comes, we, it's just this nice, you know, subhanAllah organized
process and everybody gets in line and they complete their prayer and
inshallah The hearts are in sync. And you, you know, do your dogs
together, I've had hamdulillah many opportunities after prayer,
where I feel, you know, they're just golden opportunities to teach
a lesson to my children to, you know, make the offer for someone
in need to give them really good habits so that they have those
memories, but also, again, build those habits for them that when
you're prayer, praying, it shouldn't be rushed, you know,
don't fall into it. So many of us in our youth and in our ignorance
may have fallen into which is thinking that the world is, you
know, our role in the world is so important that we have to rush
through the prayer in order to get back to how important we are. And
this is again, the delusion of the neffs. Because there's nothing
more important than praying to Allah subhanaw taala he is, that's
the reason why we were created. There's no other reason, right?
Everything else is just his His grace and His mercy and His
generosity to us. But the purpose of our existence is to worship
Him. So we have to plan our lives around the prayer, not the
opposite. And this is how you get that embedded into your children
that says, you know, no matter what's going on, whether you're
playing with your toys, or doing your school homework, if even if
it's a really important test, you have to study for you know, Baba
has a meeting it you know, that he has to prepare for I have a
presentation I have to do whatever it is, we as a family understand
prayers come in, we take our prayer seriously, we do our
prayers. Subhanallah and again, what is it, it's, you know, five,
maybe maximum six 710 minutes if you're doing a lengthier but I
mean, Surah is, but most of the time, even that while while, you
know, we don't we don't do right, there's certain suitors that I
think are, are definitely repeated more often than others because of
the nature of our, of our world and just the rat race that we're
all in. But the point is, is you know, it's not a big chunk of time
to pray. So making it a priority for the family shouldn't feel like
it's such a hard thing to do, you should do it as, again, a show of,
of your commitment and your seriousness so that it translates
and inshallah when you're not around anymore, because let's be
real, you know, this, that's the way the world works, that our
children will have had all of this time and experience with us so
that they create those really great habits to carry forth
inshallah so, you know, doing the prayers together and of course,
during the Sunnah prayers, forgive me again, this is a typo should be
su nn ah, Sunnah prayers. Also committing to that, you know,
hamdulillah my kids same thing after our prayers, when they are
there are Sunnah prayers, they know it's time to do your sunnah.
And I also have a rule about no talking between the father and the
son now, where we just you know, get up, you know, do your car or
your TSP, but don't break the that moment, you know, it's a sacred
time, it's a time of focus, it's a time of remembrance. And so if you
start to play around or goof off or get silly or start to, you
know, talk about other things, it kind of breaks that. So have those
established rules as well. You know, get up do it. Let's do our
sunnah. And then after the Sunnah prayers finished, and we've talked
and we've had maybe an exchange of some type, then inshallah we can
go back to just normal talk, but letting them know that where we
pray, it's a space of, of, again, remembrance of God. So we wanted
to respect that space and be mindful of all of these, you know,
terms that we now hear so often, that's the time to put it into
practice is in those congregational prayer moments.
Inshallah, with the family, really important and so relevant this
misiak Because we need it right. Performing the late night prayer
tahajjud and fulfilling What's it.
You know, I've heard much all over the years, many people talk about,
you know, the importance of this and even when telling stories
about great, you know, saints or scholars of the past, and they
would share their, you know, their biographies and share the
different, you know, things that they would do and it would always
you would Marvel right at Subhanallah how committed they
were, how many prayers they would pray and how much how many
hundreds of the Quran they were doing, it would just seem
Subhanallah How will I ever reach that state? It's right and
inshallah we all hope to wish to reach even a fraction of the state
that some of these incredible people had. But you know, when you
think of it that way that it seems so unreachable, then that's your
naps, right telling you you're, you know, you're not there yet, so
the 100 might seem to you like something that only the saints do,
or only the ODI do or only, I mean
You know, the people who are really, really super religious and
just committed, like, you might have that, you know, idea or that
notion that only certain people do that. But you know, somehow a lot
of the people of the hygiene of the people who know the value of
that should you know, the ones who understand that this is such a
sacred time and a time of darkness, the job, a time of
silence, you know, in our world where there's so much distraction,
and chaos all around us. And we see it, you know, with everything
that's happening right now, in our country, in our world, there's a
lot of just turmoil and instability and lack of certainty,
anxiety, fear, all of these things are, are, everybody's experiencing
it to some degree or another. So we need places of refuge, we need
places where we can just get away from it all. And what better place
then when everybody is, you know, the world is asleep. And it's it's
just pin drop silence in your house and shot law, you're living
in a place where you can have that experience, but that it's that
quiet time and the night, where you can actually retreat into a
space somewhere in your home, and just connect with a lot and, and
purge and unburden your soul and really show and reflect your love
of Him, and your devotion to Him. And also your gratitude, you know,
because it's easy to fall into despair and sadness and get really
worried, you know, worn down by everything that's happening and
just be in that negative state. But the opposite reaction is
what's what, what we're expected of which is to be patient, but
also to be grateful to start to count your blessings. And so
that's a great display of, of that of gratitude to Allah, like, you
know, that you're, you appreciate everything he's given you, your
health, your family, your home, you know, the conveniences of the
lives that we all live, especially for those of us in the West, we
have to be honest with ourselves, we are living lives of immense
luxury, you know, many of us, you know, and we may not think that
because maybe we're paycheck to paycheck, and we struggle, but if
you compare our lives in the way that we live, the clean water
running water, the fact that we have so much convenience all
around us, you know, we don't have to drive or walk,
you know, on bare feet, without shoes to get sustenance. For
example, there's people throughout the world, they don't have access
to drinking water or food with ease, they actually have to really
physically go out of their way. And it's, it's an immense hardship
for them, to just get the bare necessities every day, this is not
a you know, once a week thing, or once a month, or once a lifetime,
which I can every day that's their, that's their, that's their
reality, and they have mouths to feed, they have children they have
maybe parents or, you know, it's just if you really compare what we
have Subhanallah we can, with a click of a button, we don't have
to go anywhere, but food comes to us, you know, water comes to us,
everything come to us, we don't really have to even leave our
homes. So that we have to understand our privilege and, and
then be grateful for that privilege. And show our gratitude.
So when you wake up for tahajjud you're waking up as a seeking from
Allah subhanaw taala right, we're inshallah seeking His forgiveness,
his guidance, or seeking from him and only him Inshallah, but we
should also do it with that feeling of this is, you know, I
could never truly show my my gratitude to
the way to the amount or to the degree that Allah is deserving of,
but at least this is, you know, an effort, it's something it shows
something. And show of course, Allah is the most generous and the
most forgiving, and, and so he'll accept it from us. That's the art
on hope. But taking that as something that is tangible, it is
something you can do, you just have to make the intention. And
the way I like to present it is, you know, to also not make it seem
so, so hard that the way that you may have always thought of it is
okay, I have to sleep let's say 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, I fall asleep
and then I have to wake up at three, four in the morning, and I
have to pray for hours. And then stay up and stay up and then pray
Fletcher, that if you make it the 100, that type of an experience,
you know it's going to, you'll definitely never want to do it.
But if you say that what is the budget it's praying in that last
third part of the night right? Or anytime you've you sleep and you
wake up in that night, during the night. It would count as the hedge
Write that you want to make it a process that's easy to do on a
regular basis, and it doesn't disrupt routine does, it doesn't
disrupt your sleep doesn't complicate your life. But it's
actually something again, easy to manage, easy to do. So waking up,
you know, 1520 30 minutes, just do it incrementally start off by, you
know, just trying to wake up a little bit before Fajr enters. And
so that you start to see the sweetness of it, and you
experience the sweetness of it, and then you increase and you can
do it as much as you need. If you have a very early start to your
day. And it's hard for you then just wake up, you know, a little
bit before Fajr but if you can afford longer time to do more than
just pray extra cat, or, you know, if you want to read Quran at that
time, or do they can have some type, and you have more time, then
wake up a little bit longer before Fajr enter so that way, it's just
an easy transition, when you can pray or tahajud you can prayer
with it. And you can pray fudge it and this would be something that
is manageable, and many people do that because they've committed to
it, they know the seriousness of it. But you know, this is again an
advice for from a family to tell us this is how we, you know, gain
our knowledge of Allah and also just make solidify our, our, our
sincerity when it comes to wanting to be close to Allah. The next is
fasting on Mondays and Thursdays and the three white days. This is
something I I can't personally speak of, I pray Inshallah, that I
can get to this level. I know people who do this regularly. And
it's always been a personal goal of mine in sha Allah to do it on a
consistent basis. And I know people who again will say once you
start it's always like exercise like anything, right? It's always
hard in the beginning because you're not used to it. But once
you get in the habit of it, you'll find it's it's just part of your
your routine and it's so easy like anything else you do. So inshallah
but this is recommended and we know this is from the Sun that
right to to fast on those days, and the recommended days of the
year to fast and now we know within intermittent fasting, I
tried to do that and I know friends of mine as well who are
also really mashallah
you know, committed to or disciplined when it comes to
intermittent fasting. But these are all wisdoms of our tradition
that now that we've known for centuries that when you give your
body that break, to heal itself to repair, and to restore, it can
have immense blessings. I know that even during Ramadan, I spoke
about this, but I absolutely feel the difference. When when fasting.
So in sha Allah, may Allah give us all strength and hemma to do that
as a regular practice. But this is all this Yeah, we all need to see
how right so Inshallah, that's something we can commit to as
well.
Then we have reciting the Quran, with the hearts presence, coupled
with reflection upon its meanings. I really loved again, the phrasing
here because, you know, when I was younger, and we were learning to
memorize pot, and children in many schools, Mother SS masajid homes,
even across the world, are taught to memorize, and because
hamdulillah their brains are like sponges and they can absorb it
easily. And mashallah Allah makes it easy for them. So we get very
focused on the memorization part of it. But we don't realize that
if we don't trance transition out of that, and into a more mindful
state, and to really pay attention to what we're saying how we're
saying it, and then of course, the meanings of what we're saying,
then we there will be a disconnect. So you have a lot of
people who don't read the meanings of what they're saying, don't look
into the Book of Allah and try to really understand the message. But
they'll know many sources, you know, and or they may have a lot
of sorrows memorized, but they never went through formal study of
Tajweed which is also you know, it's it's sad because when you
study to read and the way to properly recite the book of Allah,
it connects you even more to the book of Allah. So not having that,
but having all these suitors memorized is, in my opinion,
tragic, you know, and I know I was that was me for many years up
until, you know, my mid 20s or so when Al Hamdulillah I had the
opportunity to, to study the tweed with with the with the with a
teacher and so, when that happened, and I started to learn,
you know, why we recite the way we do, why we stretch certain sounds
why we you know, make certain you know,
But repetitions and certain parts, what are the what is the reason
for that, and this incredible science of Tajweed started to make
sense of so much of what I was doing for years, my, throughout my
childhood, my teen years, I hadn't sort of memorize, but I didn't
never understood the purpose behind those rules are those, you
know, the way I was reciting, but studying it, and realizing the
immense amount of
you know, I mean, it's obviously a sacred science, but just to see
how our scholars codified it, and simply, you know, made it easy to
learn, and the way that the script is written Subhanallah, you know,
many of our must have, when you learn touch with, your teacher
will teach you that the way that the script is written, is also to
facilitate the reading of it with Tajweed. And there's little marks
that you know, are made to differentiate different rules, as
you're saying them. So suddenly, the Quran starts to, you know,
it's, it's unveiling all these hidden treasures within it, just
by the mere knowledge of the science and knowing how to
recognize the symbols as they come. So there's this connection
that you make that way. And then of course, when you start to look
at it, of see it, and look at the meanings and the interpretations
and the difference, you know, different interpretations of
different scholars had of the meanings, and the context of those
meanings. It's just incredible. And it makes you your relationship
with the book of Allah, so much richer than just, you know,
memorizing and knowing suitors for prayer, because that's the reason
why you memorize, so let's write, it's because you needed to know
them for prayer. And that's, you know, your relationship with with
the book of Allah. And unfortunately, that is the case
for many people in our community. I know many people in in the older
generation, they weren't taught to read, for example, you know, from,
you know, my family. And I've heard that for many people that,
you know, they never really learned how to read. And so they
don't have that relationship. But for us, for those of us who have
that capability, who are of the age and of course, now with the
internet, there are so many teachers, so many places that you
could learn that if you don't have, or if you've never studied
Tajweed, I would highly recommend making that a priority. And it's
fun. I mean, first of all, it's one of the obligatory acts that
all of us should be doing.
So that in and of itself is enough reason. But it's also for, you
know, our Eman our faith, we need to hold on to the book of Allah
that these are really dark times, and there's so much solace that
can be found just by turning to the book of Allah when there's all
this madness around you. But also for those of us who are parents,
and we want our children to have a connection with the book of Allah,
it's very hard to do that if we don't show them what that looks
like, you know, if we don't prioritize, and so reciting with
with beauty, for example, you know, it's so important to show
them that that's how we recite Quran, we don't rush through
sutras, you know, and I used to teach Quran, you know, at Islamic
schools, and I've taught children and adults, but that was always
one of the points I tried to make to the students and to their
parents that, you know, we have to honor the book of Allah with with
beautifying our voice and our voice will naturally obviously be
beautified. What because of the book of Allah, so it's, you know,
two way thing, but we have to make that effort. And so you want to
teach your kids not to haphazardly recite the Quran, and I've seen
this before, unfortunately, you know, where they will rush through
saurez or just be kind of careless with the way that they are saying
Suarez and you know, and parents don't, don't take a moment to
correct them maybe because of their age, maybe because they're
just happy that they know the surah but once you start taking
that more seriously, then you want them to have a son when they when
they recite the book of Allah and really take that seriously bring
the adverb of the Quran that they should have with with with
reciting and reflecting and being quiet knowing not to speak over
the Quran. So if someone is reciting or you know, even if it's
a video you're watching or on you know, your phone, your listening
to something that they know that there are, there's edit when we
shouldn't be listening or excuse me, we shouldn't be talking over
the book of Allah, we should be listening we should be quiet. So
making the all of these things priority in your family, but it
has to start with you. You have to show that you have to model it in
order for your children to take it seriously. So I encourage anybody
who's watching again if you've never done thought of taking pitch
when are you always into
mandated, maybe you're embarrassed, I've had people tell
me I'm embarrassed, you know, my kids go to Sunday school, they
know more Quran than me, I never learned, but they let that
embarrassment prevent them, you know, this is one of the diseases
of the heart, you know, blameworthy modesty when you
prevent yourself from doing the right thing, the right thing is to
learn the book of Allah Inshallah, and to not let the embarrassment
or the way that other people may, you know, react and at the end of
the day doesn't matter, really, you know, we shouldn't care so
much about what other people think about us, the most important thing
is that we do things for the sake of Allah. So, don't be a barrier
that stands in front of your, you know, in your own way, but rather,
prioritize and inshallah make that a commitment that you do
seriously, maybe, you know, put a put a deadline for yourself that
by next year, today, I want to have, you know, I completed my
studies in February. And I want to be able to really read the book of
Allah the proper way, so that I can recite with beauty and
enjoyment and fulfillment, and then teach my children to do the
same, make that intention in sha Allah, and Allah will give you
tofield.
And just on a final note on that, you know, when I was studying
Quran, I wanted really to memorize and to read and to learn how to
read. And I had a I had a difficulty I was, in a way
dyslexic. When it came to Arabic, I don't know what it was, I had a
very serious challenge. Making the letters connect, it was always
difficult for me to read.
But I hamdulillah memorized, you know, I was different teachers, by
ear, just auditory, listening and repeating watching their mouths,
you know, repeating after them. But it wasn't very difficult for
me to read. And I remember,
you know, going through several teachers, and it was just a time
in my life where I felt that there was something blocking me and I
didn't know what it was. But I found that out a lot gave me an
opportunity to learn with a teacher for the first time, the
actual science of the dweet, I had always learned, you know, the
spider and just basic, but, you know, the teacher, this teacher
really broke down the rules, and in a way that just made sense. So
sometimes it's just having the right teacher, and I went from
years, having hardship reading to Subhanallah, one month of
instruction in that class, I was able to read fluently and I credit
of course, the teachers Baraka, but also 100 that Allah is
promises true, when we work hard, and we put that Majah forward and
we try and try, he will give us Sophia, so I feel like I can
really speak on that I live that experience of having a challenge
and inshallah his reward is, is with those who struggle harder and
surely we know that right that we get more reward. So if that's my
hope is that all those years that I was struggling in a shallow I
still get the reward for that but hamdulillah within one month, as I
said, I just went from having a really difficult time to suddenly
being able to read so it can happen in sha Allah. Okay, so
Bismillah The next one is frequently asking forgiveness of
Allah subhanaw taala. This is also really important.
I think sometimes we're not aware of because there are so many
things that are normal in our society and in our world, and even
in our own families, that we may not be aware of that, how sinful
they are, and that they are actually harming our states. So
that aware that lack of awareness, and forgetfulness, which we are
very much inclined to is also part of the reason why we should be in
the habit of asking for forgiveness every single day. And
we know even the prophesy son did this and he was, you know,
perfect. He didn't sin but yet he was practicing this for us. He was
showing us that this is something that we should be doing. You know,
throughout the day, you can do it in you know, just any time you
have. But to have this idea always in your mind and this reality,
it's a humility that you are a sinful person. And not necessarily
by intention. Of course, there's those people who outwardly do
things that are sinful and May Allah guide them and forgive them.
They should certainly seek forgiveness. But for those who may
not intentionally or as I said, be aware of their sin. Just being in
the practice of daily stuffer will inshallah help you to hopefully
clear you know, the slate every day and to clear the heart, polish
the heart, because again, there are things we might see we might
do. We might look at something we might hear something or, you know,
laugh at something. These are all things that we have to be aware
of. That's why when we
Study the diseases of the heart. Some things are. So as I said,
normal in our culture that we don't associate it as being wrong.
But in fact, it is wrong. It's haram, you know, like, as I said,
like, you know, laughing at something, we have to be very,
very careful what we find, you know, as is humor, because a lot
of the humor that we have around us is actually quite,
it's foul, it's horrible, you know, making fun of people mocking
people. So much of comedy is actually derision. It which is a
disease of the heart, right? Where you are mocking people, so much of
comedy is mockery, which is in the Quran, it's completely haram. But
again, if you're, if you've seen that your whole life, all the
shows you've ever watched every movie you ever watch, it's like
slapstick comedy and someone's falling and someone's, you know,
being called out and made fun of, or, you know, there's impressions
that people do when they're making fun of entire communities and
races and languages or what have you, you might think that's
normal, right? And so you don't think of it as Oh, it's harmless.
It's just a joke. And so you know, you fall into that behavior as
well. Or like now, nowadays, we're in a meme culture, where there are
people exchanging on every social media platform all day long,
Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, you see memes and memes
and videos, so many videos, my God, it's shocking sometimes how
much people take time, to mock other people, it's really actually
disturbing that you have with this gift of life, and that you would
spend hours videotaping yourself, mocking people or doing something,
a prank on someone. And I've seen these videos are really harmful,
especially for the youth. You know, that that what they call
that Jackass humor, that became very popular in the 90s and early
2000s, with, you know, shows, on MTV, and some of these other
shows, that they just wouldn't go around, you know, and really, you
know, just foul, wrong circumstances. I mean, there's so
many too many examples. But the point is, is a lot of the jokes
were just not what we shouldn't anyway, be a part of, but if you,
you know, in our watching certain things, or doing certain things,
and those things, enter your mind, your heart, and you get a little
chuckle out of it.
You know, just, it enters your heart in this in the way that it
does other people. Even if you without intention, you know,
someone sends you a meme and you think it's funny. Catch yourself,
you know, I've done that many times. In the moment. It's like,
Oh, that's funny. Because, you know, it looks like there's
something of value or some comedic, you know, association or
thing that you may attribute with to it. But when you actually think
about it, in what what's actually happening in the scene, or in the
video, or in the meme, or whatever it is, or the joke,
then you think, softer. Why, you know, this is not funny, it's not
funny at all. I remember, I don't know when it was, but there was
actually about a month ago, right before school was starting, you
know, on Tik Tok, and now reels on Instagram, if you're not familiar
with these two, good for you, but they're basically platforms where
people post videos, but it was a very popular trend to have.
Because of online distance learning. All these parents were
doing it, it was so sad. They would find pictures of drug users,
you know, sometimes you have mug shots of people who are heroin
addicts or alcoholics online, and you can access them, or people out
of the Buddha with, you know, some form of disability or something.
And they basically would take pictures of those people and
create a little image of them on the phone that looks like it's an
incoming call, like on FaceTime, you know, on FaceTime that has
that little image at the top of your phone, if you're an iPhone
user, that's just something that they that's the you know, the the
way that it looks right, so that what they would do is they would
take that image and then take it over to their children who are
innocent, you know, children are pure hearted. And just to capture
the shock and awe of their child while they told them Oh, this is
your new teacher say hi. And it was just so so despicable.
Honestly, it was horrible, because the parents are laughing at the
expense of this innocent human being on the other end, who has no
clue that their pictures being used in this awful way, but
they're also teaching their children that this is okay to do.
And at one point, they use the image of someone who was on Tik
Tok actually, and that person they were, you know, they had some,
they were disabled in some way.
A person with disability and so
They, they made a video, you know, really just saying please stop
using it was I think it was a person's child actually it wasn't
her herself. But she was saying that's my child's video or picture
that you guys are using for your fun and that's not funny. It
wasn't funny, it was horrible. But this is the kind of humor that
people, you know, fall into the biller and they think it's not a
big deal. But if you really analyze what you're laughing at, I
can I bet you nine times out of 10 is at the expense of another human
being. And you want to think about that for a moment like how would
the prophesy said I've received you if he saw you laughing at
someone like that, right? So these are the kinds of, you know, things
we have to take ourselves into account for and then when we do
that, we realize you'll realize quickly Wow, I'm sending likely
all day every day throughout the day all the biller May Allah
forgive me so then it's just becomes necessary at that point
like all the biller please Allah forgive me so to just get into
that habit, but being humble enough to hold yourself
accountable, you know, on everything you do on every moment,
every interaction you have every thought you have and catching
yourself Self relation I thought that about that person I shouldn't
have said that that kind of self accountability.
Maintaining prayers and blessings upon the prophesy said, um, this
is again very important part about faith, you know, to not abandon
the satellite on the prophesy seven to do it as often as
possible. Certain times and days we know that it's even more
reward. The night of Gemma the day of Joma, there's even more reward
but Subhan Allah just to be in that habit, this is from the
Quran, we know that we, we say satellite proposals serve as a
commandment from Allah. So getting in that habit, it also helps to
connect your heart with him in sha Allah, and so not just, you know,
doing the silhouette part, but also I would add to that, reading
his Sierra reading the Shama and just being really connected to the
prophesy seven because, you know, he's the one who's we're going to,
I mean, we he's our, you know, intercessor we need his mother's
we need his support. And so, we should, we should remember that,
that we need that connection with him, you know, we want him to be
proud of us when he sees us on the Day of Judgment in shot law and
that him to recognize us right because we know that he'll
recognize inshallah his OMA by the marks of will do so. You know, we
want that connection that he the that we
gather, we make him inshallah proud and not disappointed with
us. But how can we do that if we don't know who he is? We don't
study his Sita, we don't follow his sunnah. We don't, you know,
say salawat on him, how can we expect that so this is part of it
is that we have these habits and that we do it as an act of love as
an act of devotion to Him and in sha Allah. So may Allah increase
us in that but doing it as often as possible, and remembering, when
you have free time, and I, whenever you're doing something,
it doesn't necessarily have to be on the prayer mat, you know, when
you're driving, in the car, if you have a counter, you know,
sometimes people use counters, sometimes we'll use plus b, but
you can, you know, just do your silhouette, if you're, you know,
sleeping and you're having a hard time in bed, you know, rest your
restless, just, you know, instead of daydreaming about, you know,
things, we're thinking about the problems of the next day, just you
know, do your Salawat in the polls, less than anything, washing
dishes, there can be so many chores, you know, as long as
you're in a, you know, a good place, there shouldn't be a
problem with you, using that time to do a car or you know, any type
of
remembrance of Allah or of the process and but just getting in
those habits of finding moments like that, and then adhering to
the Meritorious indications of the morning in the evening that have
been transmitted to us from the sun. So this would be the width or
the Elrod right and, you know, he has one I'm trying to see if I
have it here. I don't have his but I had an awareness.
The man had dads, you know, what are the Latif and wrath of Russia
had there's two of them that he has you can access them if you
don't know what those are. They are a weird is a litany of
prayers. It's like a formulaic prayers, all based on the the
solar prophesized that um, but our many of our scholars of the past
would have their own formulas of different prayers that they would
do from the morning to the night. And so the main ones that we know
of that our teachers recommended to us are the word of the new mom,
Noemi, who's this is his advice, but also your mom and her dad.
He has two of them and you can look up where they are which is
you know, wi rd very
Easy word. And then you can look up their names with Imam nawawi or
with UML had that and you will see PDF files or YouTube videos where
people have uploaded the, the files as well, it takes, you know,
like the one of the Latif, we do have that on my family and I we've
been doing it for years I talk about this often.
And Showhomes actually use of, he did a brilliant talk on the
benefits of the wettability if you can find that also on YouTube. But
he, you know, he, many of our scholars taught us that, when you
do that as a regular, you should do that everyday, regularly in the
morning in the night. So 100 up and for us, we just in the morning
when we wake up, it's part of our everyday routine, during breakfast
time, we'll play it and we have the bluetooth speaker. So it's you
know, throughout the whole house and hamdulillah children are now
there's just they know it, they know what to do they go play it.
And we just have that quiet time while we're listening to it takes
about 18 minutes and it's all seeking protection that all the
doors that you want to start your day off with. It's like creating a
force field you know of positive energy a shield of you know,
against harm around yourself and your family and your loved ones in
sha Allah and you you know, you do that every day just gives you a
nice start. And then at night after a while you can also do the
same there's prayers that are for night and morning. But even once a
day is good, so I saw those are the
the advices so I think we are almost out of time or we might be
Oh, wow, I went all the way to the end of the hour spent a lot of
time just sometimes used to go quickly. So it's about a 37 but
this was the last Yeah, so that was the end of the moment always
advice and as I said it was one paragraph you saw it Subhan Allah
but so much was impact in in that so and Hamdulillah I don't know if
there are any questions. This happens to me
every session so I'm going to try to go on the Facebook page and see
if there's anything
where there are there any questions, and inshallah if there
are I will answer those questions if I'm able to.
So just give me a moment here while I click on this
I don't think that is the correct one. You know, Facebook changed
their whole interface. I'm not a fan of it. I don't like abrupt
changes. So
anyhow, I can't see.
Yeah, I don't see it. I don't see the video here. Okay, let me try
the YouTube page. I'm sorry. I feel like every single week I do
the same thing where I'm like, hold on, but I can't see anything.
Maybe it's under the videos tab. I'll try one more thing. Oh, there
are comments. Okay. Hamdulillah.
Masha, Allah.
Thank you. You guys are so sweet. I see some lovely messages just
Alcoa Hayden. You guys are so sweet. Thank you. I really
appreciate your your kind words there so I'm all equal to so we
had to Laura to Somalia to Edelen mashallah so beautiful to see all
these new sisters here. Thank you for being here.
I don't see any questions there. So I'm gonna go to the YouTube
page quickly.
And see if there's anything here in Shama. But yeah, feel free, you
know that. If you have a question that may not necessarily be
related to the text, if I'm able to answer it, I will try I will
certainly try for more. So let's see
hamdulillah Hanifa Somani come and Pfizer Mashallah. So sweet. I'm
always with Thai rapid hygiene. I feel like I'm just going through
the motions. I don't feel the closest, you know, so far, lots of
great question and ephah.
You know, clearly the time, you know, if you're waking up, and
it's hard for you because you're not getting enough rest or sleep,
then this might require some tweaking of your sleep schedule a
little bit. But honestly, the fact that you're getting up, you have
to really hold on to that, that that is an invitation for you,
that Allah is proud that it is, you know, it's because of his, you
know, favor upon you that you're waking up, you know, sometimes we
we forget that it's not really our efforts. It's really a last point
that he wants you to be drawing close to him in that hour. So the
fact that you're responding to that call and you're getting up
and you're trying, even though it's hard for you is an amazing
thing, but you also may want to look at the circumstance like if
the room is dark and you
You know, they recommend some of our teachers recommended, for
example, using cold water when you're making your will blow.
Because if it's like on warm tap, you know, or hot water if you're
like, if you're like things are hot, then you you're just
continuing the state of comfort and sleepiness and drowsiness. But
that cold water is intended to really wake you up and to kind of
get you out of that slumbered state. So you might need to do
that you might need to drink some water, you might need to just make
subtle tweaks so that you have more presence of mind turning on a
little light for me, I have a light, I pray close to my bed. But
I have a light that I started turning on because I realized the
same I wanted to have more presence. And so you know, I would
do that. And also you can break up, you know, sometimes people get
into the numbers with the 100. So it's like, they just want to do
blocks and blocks of prayer. And that can be physically exhausting.
But if you do even to rabcat of really present mindful prayers,
and you just sit and you are totally, they're totally mindful
and making law for all of your loved ones and asking, you know,
making stuff fit and all of the things that you really want from
Allah, those two prayers are a treasure, you know, and don't
underscore or undervalue that for, because you think I need numbers,
you know, it's not about quantity, it's about quality. So if that's
what you can do, and still stay awake, and still stay, you know,
engaged, then Hamdulillah. Try that. And then make little other
tweaks. Like I said, try the cold water splashing, try some drinking
some water, turning on a light or moving the space, sometimes
leaving your bedroom into another space also helps you because the
bed of the bedroom is too inviting, and you just can't wait
to get back into the bed because you're tired, you might feel more
inclined to you know, rush through or not rush through. But you know,
you're just, you're kind of going through the motions. So try
disrupting, you know, your, what your or the system, you have a
little bit you know, change it here and there and see if there's
an opening for you. And of course, don't ask Allah to give you more
rest, maybe you're not getting enough rest when you sleep. So
that when you're waking up, and I've talked about this actually in
previous podcasts, but you can look up, you know, the sleep
cycles, when you study and understand sleep cycles, it's also
really helpful, because you'll know how to wake up, you know,
during the time where you're not disrupting a really important
sleep cycle, you know, so there's cycles that we need, it's about, I
believe, one and a half hours, where we hit that deep sleep, and
when you hit the deep sleep, that's when you're going to feel
rested. So if you wake up after completing that cycle, you'll feel
more rested. But if you wake up in the middle of the cycle, this is
usually what a lot of people do, because they're not aware. So you
wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle, then you don't get the
restful sleep that you need. And therefore, you wake up groggy, you
know, you're just you're out of it, right. And that's likely
because you didn't complete that cycle. So you go through, I don't
know, three, four or five cycles, I think depending on how many
hours of sleep you get each night. So you always want to set your
alarm or just you know, get you'll get into certain habits where you
your body will know from myself for example, after I had children,
you know, I started having some back issues and other health
issues so I just by nature, wake up every two, three hours, I'm
always awake, you know, there's nothing I can do about it. I will
always wake up and see that it's I've only been asleep you know
about an hour and a half or two hours and then I you know I saw
just hamdulillah I'm grateful for it because I'm not in that slumber
where it's really hard to wake up out of, I don't remember ever
having slept like that for years I mean I can't eat I honestly can't
remember when I slept that way where I was just knocked out for
more than two to three hours. So sometimes age and certain life
circumstances like health issue might facilitate it for you. So
for me Alhamdulillah I have that advantage is that I'm always
waking up just by my own internal clock, but I know that there is a
way to train yourself to do that as well. So sleep training just
like you know they do for children, adults can also sleep
train, so you can start to become less dependent on hours of sleep
and really look for getting the best quality of sleep in the time
that you need. And this is you know, you study the way of
the prophets and of the OVA they didn't sleep a lot at night you
know they did the recovery sleep payloader we knows the process and
so now but they did recovery sleep during the day but the night was
for worship. So it's very possible to not be asleep dependent person.
But you want to do your math, you know to see how much
You need for functionality and health and make sure you're
definitely getting you're asleep in some way, covered throughout
the day. So, you know, just maybe need to do some research and see
what works for you. But I hope that helps you in sha Allah, may
Allah reward you for your beautiful intention 100 Enough.
I'm sorry, FISA, you were asking is this page 66 in the text? That
was a long time ago that you asked that question. But that's where we
started with sigma 06. We were read from page 73. So today's
session was from page 73. That's Appendix B. So I don't think there
are any other questions.
I hope, Inshallah, I didn't miss anything. But thank you so much
for all of you for tuning in. And let me know actually, if you
wouldn't mind because I haven't told anybody at MCC. But I am
considering maybe doing a time change or day change for the
sessions. And I'm trying to figure out if Sunday would work better
for some of you because, you know, middle of the week, I know with
work commitments in school and you know, with children dinner, it
might be hard, but weekends tend to be a little bit more flexible.
So if you like this time,
from eight to nine, Sunday evenings, can you let us know in
the comment section on MCC, just let us know if you prefer Thursday
evenings or Sunday, eight to nine. And let's see what happens. I'm
not sure if MCC what they'll say. But at least we can explore maybe
some options. But thank you so much again for tuning in. I will
see you guys in Sharla in two weeks at our different next
session. And we'll continue with more from agenda to change our
condition. So thank you again just like well can and will end in the
similar manner he will answer in an incentive Luffy Heusser Illa La
Nina avenue by Minnesota headquarters so we'll help you
with that. So the southern Subhana Arabica mobilicity MEC, Fonasa
lamina, almost
100 in stock market and again, have a wonderful evening inshallah
and we'll see you in a couple of weeks. Alright, so I want to come