Hosai Mojaddidi – Foundations of the Spiritual Path (Monthly Sisterhood Halaqa Part 4)
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The spiritual Path is a series of exercises and crucial for achieving spiritual success, while also a critical work for achieving spiritual success. The speakers emphasize the importance of facing one's limitations and avoiding shadow, as well as attending sister events and virtual events, including virtual events happening on Sundays. They also emphasize the need for regular engagement in the community and signing up for events.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome back, sisters, Hunter Haim and hamdulillah salat wa salam ala
shrivel MBA while more studying, say that our Mona Anna, what have
you been on Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam while he was
Savio 70 Sleeman? Kathira Hamdulillah. So this halacha is on
the foundations of the spiritual path, which is a PDF, how many of
you have the access to the PDF?
Okay, so some of you do not have it, I'm going to ask Mary, my, my
tech support here inshallah she if you can, if you have an iPhone,
easiest thing to do is to turn on your air, AirDrop, so that she can
quickly just send it to whoever. And then hopefully you guys can
share amongst each other. But if you want to also look it up, you
can do that as well just do a quick Google for foundations of
the spiritual path and then put in the word son dolla, and you're
gonna get the second although website, and then it's the second
or third article in that list. But it's a really just, I think, such
a critical work that all of us can benefit from, and you can keep
reviewing it. I've read it countless times I've benefited
every single time because we evolve, we change life changes,
you know, there's things that happen in our lives. So we might
find ourselves in a different place than we were even a month
ago, right or, you know, a year ago or whatever. So every time you
review it, you'll find maybe new realizations. So, but this is a
text that I think especially now that we're in Rajab, inshallah
Ramadan is around the corner. I think it's really important to
review the other day, just for my own curiosity, I put up a post on
Instagram, asking people ahead of Ramadan, what are they most
worried about? You know, what are the things that we're most
concerned about? In the Options, we're getting our prayers on time,
reconnecting with the book of Allah, for the sisters making up
our missed fasts?
And then there are a couple more options. But I was trying to just
assess where are people you know, most worried, what are they
thinking about the most, and I know it's been obviously a very,
very difficult time for our Ummah, the hearts are broken, and you can
tell you know, I'm sure when you go out, you don't feel the same. I
feel that I sense it. Our hearts are heavy, we're feeling the
weight of uncertainty, the weight of grief, you know, trauma, maybe
you feel like a zombie, you know, walking around, you know, at work
at school shopping, you just don't feel that you're in a good place.
And I think that's a collective.
Certainly a collective sentiment that we're all feeling. But we
need to move on as as we're always reminded that we have to still
live we have to still continue. So Ramadan is as I said, around the
corner. And that means we have to start planting the seeds right and
the job is the month of planting and then you know the springs
inshallah of Shaban will come and then we harvest Inshallah, in the
month of Ramadan. That's our hope, right. So that means good habit
formation. Right now, that means if your prayers, you know, aren't,
you're not doing your five prayers on time or doing them at all, this
is the time right now to take it really seriously. And if there's
ever a time that we should be really, really
focused on on perfecting our prayers, it's right now because,
you know, if not for ourselves, you know, this is the interesting
thing about the human being. And I think a lot of us who are in the,
in some capacity serving, right, whether you're a daughter, or your
son for maybe those who are watching online, or you're a
husband or a wife, or you know, a spouse or a mother, a father, you
were serving. And so when you're serving, you tend to not really
think of yourself because that's the nature of service. So you're,
you're not a priority, and even spiritually, that can be true.
There are people I guarantee you, who are very good at service in
the community, I can guarantee you there are people who are active in
their masjid, they may be teaching in their masjid, they may be doing
good works, you know, the people but for themselves for their own
spiritual well being. They're not, they're not taking care of
themselves. So that means potentially missing their prayers.
You know, and you can you can have that. I mean, it's, it sounds kind
of odd, right? Because you thinking would not be a priority.
But
the neffs is very interesting. You know, the neffs can delude you
into doing things thinking that you're getting, you're getting all
this reward, not realizing that you're neglecting something far
more important. And then of course, Shavon is also part of
that process. That's his whole objective is to thwart us to deter
us from doing good work. Bye
preoccupying us with lesser work. And that's actually something that
most people don't think about like bliss.
Bliss is not just one to incite us or entice us to evil, he will do
that for sure when the opportunity presents itself, but he also
derails are a good works, right. So that's what that is, it's like
getting you to do a lesser a deed of lesser value, so that you don't
do a deed of greater value. So if you're serving anybody, and you're
doing it for the FISA beat Allah, but you're neglecting your own
soul, than this is absolutely the time to wake up and say, What am I
doing, I have to prioritize myself. Because just like we enter
the world alone, we're going to leave the world alone, and be
buried alone, most of us will be buried alone. And we will be
raised to stand before Allah subhanaw taala alone. So we can't
depend on others, to save us if we're not even invested in our own
salvation. So what does investing in your own salvation means it
means getting your own house in order spiritual house in order.
And this is the beauty of the blessing of being able to witness
the ushering of these months that come before Ramadan is that it
gives you time to do that. So this document, which I hope all of you
have by now. And those of you who are watching on YouTube, by the
way, if you go into the description of the link, the PDF
is there. So you can just grab the PDF from the description. But you
know, the, this is the fourth session that we've had. And
because of some interruptions with the schedule, I kind of spend a
little bit of time reviewing what we've already covered, so that
nobody feels kind of lost. So I'm going to try as quickly as I can
to review what we've covered in the first three sessions, and then
bring us back to where we are for today's session. So if you look at
the document, first of all, what is this it's called the
foundations of the spiritual path. And this is by CDF Metzia. Ruocco
is a 15th century or ninth century Hijiri scholar, he's considered on
the agenda of his time, he is referred to as my festival earlier
will Alama or Allah will earlier which is the regulator of the
scholars in the saints. So he has a very, I mean, vast, vast,
Michelle knowledge in many different areas. But he gave us
this incredible, you know, knowledge in this in this document
called the foundations where he basically gives you a roadmap for
you to be on a spiritual path what you need, right? What does it
need? What are the criteria, what are the points that you need to
focus on in order for you to really invest in yourself. So he
starts us off by saying that the foundations of the path are five.
The first is that you have Taqwa of Allah subhana wa Tada. And he
clarifies it, you know what that means. And by saying that it's
mindfulness of Allah, which we know. But it's also consistency
with that. So both in private and in public, that you are a person
that really thinks of your Lord, that You try your hardest to think
of him, that He's not someone you run from, or that you don't want
to think about, right, because people who are engrossed in sin,
the last one they want to think about is ALLAH SubhanA, WA, tada.
They, you know, just like when you're, you know, doing things you
shouldn't be doing as a child, you don't want to think about your
parents or teachers or adults, you want to get away with it. So we
try to remove the thought of Allah when we're immersed in sin. But
the opposite is true for people who want to be close to a spa,
that you're always looking to try to bring him into your mind. And
that means making connections. You know, and I've mentioned this
before, but it is a deliberate exercise. If you're doing
something that you think is mundane, why? Why are you wasting
your time doing something mundane? Why not have a reframe, of
whatever it is you're doing, and make it inactive, have a bad day.
Right? If you are frustrated, because you feel like all day
long, I waste my time. Well, maybe that's because you haven't found a
creative way to convert what you're doing into something
beneficial. So a lot of us especially as women, when we're
staying home with our children, we may feel that way. You know, when
we feel like we're not being productive because we're comparing
our lives to people outside the home and thinking oh, we're just
you know, living these mundane, boring lives at home taking, you
know, doing housework or the drudgery of housework. That's all
Wes wasa. It's all a way of shape on to steal from you. And what
does he steal? He's the ultimate thief. What does he steal? He
steals our time, right? Because now instead of being in a state of
how can I take this action
And or this deed that I'm doing, maybe I'm doing a chore, I'm
washing dishes, I'm folding laundry, I'm dusting, I'm doing
something that is maybe not the most exciting thing to do or fun
thing to do. But I'm going to convert it into an opportunity to
bring baraka and light into my home. Right? To bring Barack and
light into my being. Because with every word of vicar that we do, we
are inshallah washing our bodies, cleansing our bodies, from the
filth of the sins that we've accumulated, our good deeds are
increasing, right? The spots that we know, you know, according to
the Hadith, of sins that have accumulated on the heart due to
excessive sins, right? The spots, excuse me that are accumulating on
the heart, that those are being, you know, removed, polished away,
with thicker, right? So it's a, it's a matter of just having that
that frame of mind that says, I refuse to let opportunities slip
me by. And I recently watched, I watched a video someone was
mentioning, I don't know who she was, but it was just one of these,
you know, reels or whatever it was. And she was saying, there's
something called I think it's called the red car phenomenon. And
so she she was explained that, if I asked you, any of you right now,
how many red cars did you see?
today? Coming here? Right? Does anybody does anybody drive a red
car? Maybe you have a red car? So one person, okay, but the rest of
you do? Could you count right now how many red cars you saw? It was
also dark, right? But let's just say today, right?
There are things that until you're thinking of them, you're not going
to recognize them or realize them right. So her point was now if I
told you that for every red car you see you're gonna get like a
certain reward $50 or $100 Trust me, you're gonna look you are
going to look for red cars everywhere you go because now
we've attached a reward system to the to the process, right? So
opportunities the point of the video was opportunities are like
red cars that if you don't pay attention to them, you don't
notice them. But once you pay attention, then you will notice
and and take advantage of them. So time anytime you have that you're
not actually doing something that really takes your concentration is
an opportunity for the kid and remembrance of Allah subhanaw
taala driving a vehicle is a great time to maximize your thicket of
Allah like it's not it shouldn't I mean you're you were in a kind of
a hypnotic state anyway we're in a hot one we're in a car but this is
a great opportunity to not just do they could have a lot but also to
do when a jet right which is what when you converse with Allah
subhanaw taala talking to all of us are those real? Like you we
should be talking to Allah and it's so it's a it's not a one way
conversation even though it's one directional in the activity of it
right? But it is absolutely in your mind it should be a two way
conversation in the Alaska here's everything. And he he says that
those who call on me, I will respond right? So when we call on
Him He will respond in his time. But to take those times to just be
like y'all law, I'm so sorry. You know, I'm sorry for being this
person who keeps failing. I'm sorry for not doing what I should
be doing. You know, whatever you feel like you need to purge or
just you know, appreciating His bounties. You know, y'all Allah
Thank you, I don't deserve or, you know, we should we should feel
undeserving because we are we sin, we're forgetful, but he is so
generous. So bringing that all of that out is a beautiful time to do
that. When you're home alone, when you're in the car. So when we say
Taqwa mindfulness of Allah, it shouldn't look like something
that's difficult to do, but something you look forward to, you
know, like, I want to, I want to bring a loss of Honda into my my
mind, because what better thing is there to think about there's
nothing better, like there's really nothing better everything
you think about
compared to thinking of your Lord will not yield in anything, you
know, positive as much as obviously they get so, you know,
just trying that as a practice and then he goes on to say, so that's
the first foundation of the path. Then adherence to the Sunnah and
word indeed. So being people that really take the practice of the
prophesies of them seriously, you know, you know I have I didn't
bring the book with me but we're going to be doing in sha Allah.
Next week I'll be in challenge LFL all works I'll be in Texas, where
we're going to be doing with celebrate mercy the Content of
Character. This is an incredible text you know, Sheikh Hamza,
Mashallah. He's given us quite a few
works that are really important the purification of the heart
agenda, which has the foundations in it by the way, and the content
of character, and the content of characters is a Hadith book
collection all on care.
Ready for development, how to be more like the prophesy centum. And
it's incredible. I mean, it's a over 100, maybe close to 120 130
Hadith. It's very, you know, random, but it's, it's something
that if you read and you start to put into practice, you're gonna
see yourself evolve into a better human being. So sometimes we need
to take these practices, you know, to that level, we can't just, you
know, hear a hadith here and there and appreciate them and maybe know
them, but application is really what we're talking about here. So
adherence to the sun. And word indeed, is knowing the sun of the
prophesy set up, and putting it into practice consistently, and
then indifference to whether others accept or reject one, this
is a really important again, point because true faith is, is
something that's going to be tested in many ways, right? And
when you're living in a time of, of, of God, godlessness, there are
a lot of people that are just not religious, they don't feel
religion is a value at all, you are a minority in the world,
right? We are, although, you know, you can look at,
you know, the population, and there's all these, you know, polls
that are done, and people reveal their religious beliefs. But
really, when you look at practice of faith, unfortunately, we are
living in a really just dark time, where a lot of people are just not
taking their faith or faith at all, seriously. So we're going to
have to deal with that. And how do we do that? Well, the best way is
to not really care. That, you know, the President told us that
Islam started as something strange, and it's going to end is
something strange. So, you know, you have to kind of accept that
you are going to not always fit in, and people are going to find
you to be whether it's in your family or outside of your family,
right. Some of us may have may deal with that in our own
families, right that people find us to be, you know, different. And
they treat us differently, because we are committed to our faith. But
that's okay. Because when you're seeking, all US partners pleasure,
it doesn't matter if people accept you, or reject you, you truly
don't care because you are accepted by the only one that
matters. So it's just a whole mindset of, of not feeling like
you need to acquiesce or fit into other people's little boxes, but
rather, you know, practice your faith freely and be content with
the fact that almost Father is pleased with you. So whatever
others think of you just doesn't matter. And then contended with
Allah in times of both hardship and ease. This is just sort of the
the, you know, everything is from Allah, our tests, our trials, as
well as our blessings. So you just kind of have to come to accept
that life is going exactly as it's meant to go. Wherever you are,
you're meant to be there, I am meant to be here, we may have come
from a different place, we may be going in a different direction, in
five years, maybe we'll be living somewhere else, and we have a
whole other life. But wherever you are,
you know, whether again, you're in blessing or an Atma, whatever the
case, I mean a tribulation, whatever the case is, you have to
really come to that place that says Allah subhanaw taala is,
nothing is done in vain. Everything has purpose and
meaning. And I have to believe and trust that almost the only ones
good for me. So even during the challenges and the difficulties,
these are opportunities, where I'm supposed to grow and evolve and
become a better version of myself, I can't start to turn away from
from Allah, you know, just to mention it because I recently
spoke to a sister who it was hard to hear, you know, sometimes
people go through different tests and a bliss. spiritual attacks are
real, you know, if you if you ever are going through a difficulty in
life, and all of a sudden, you find your mind riddled with these
thoughts and ideas about, you know, Allah being angry with you,
and you know, that you're cursed. And people do struggle with those
types of thoughts. Because tribulations come and they can be
so severe, that you're trying to make sense of it. And sometimes
the bliss is right there to interject, you know, in his way to
take you to the worst and darkest conclusion, which is your her
horrible person, you deserve this. Because you're a cursed person.
And so then the mind, you know, he believes will just keep repeating
those thoughts. And so people really struggle with with those
ideas and so you have to, you know, bring some perspective. So,
anyway, I spoke to the sister and she had gone through a major loss.
And she was unfortunately convinced and Iblees Of course,
did this it was it was his, you know, thoughts that she was cursed
and she she kept saying certain things she said in what a few
times she said that I believe you know, all the bla like Allah is my
enemy.
When she said that,
it's very hard to hear a Muslim, she's a believer. But she had been
under such a spiritual attack that she concluded that, you know that
he is on that he's, he's torturing me or he's, he's, he's angry with
me. And therefore, I feel like he's my enemy. So anyway, we had
to help her through that. But just to hear someone say that, you
realize it's because we don't have context. We don't always have
explanations for things. And it's hard, right? Because we live in a
world where most of the time if I mean, at least those of us who are
privileged to be in situations where we can have,
you know, answer questions, answer answered, right. For example, you
get sick, you go to the hospital, you go to the doctor, and he, they
can likely give you some idea of what's going on. So we're used to
getting answers to questions. But when a big calamity happens, and
you don't have any idea why, then your mind starts to create those
ideas. And that's why it's very important to zoom out and say, No,
we're not meant to have the answers to all those questions,
almost father literally, has limited our understanding, in this
lifetime, but he has promised that in the next life, Inshallah,
whatever questions you have, they will be answered, just be patient.
And know that this isn't personal. Because if it was personal, then
or if there was, you know, if this had something to do with your
value, then how do you explain again, the prophets in the saints,
and all the previous people have who were very close to Allah spawn
a very,
I mean, they worshipped him, you know, beautifully and perfectly in
many ways. How do you explain that they were also tested, you know,
because it's just the nature of dunya, to be tested. So you have
to, you know, combat those, those negative ideas with that type of
perspective. But in general, the way that you do that it's just a
practice this, riddled with a lot that no matter what's happening,
I'm always content with all my accept that everything is coming
from him, and that there's good in it, and I just have to be patient,
and then turning to Allah and prosperity and adversity, this is
more proactivity, right? Like, you have to be the one that knows what
to do. So when things are going well, Hamdulillah, you're in a
state of gratitude, and Viken you're on top of your prayers.
That's not a reason to suddenly forget Allah, because sometimes
again, we fall into those terrible habits where we look, we turn to
Allah only in adversity, but we're supposed to be just constantly
turning, right. That's just the, you know, the why worship is
around the clock. I mean, from morning until night, we have our
prayers, and then we have dogs in between. And we should we're
encouraged to wake up even from our sleep to worship. And so
there's really no cessation of worship, it should be a constant
thing. And there's different forms of worship, right? There's ritual
worship, and then there's also acts like Vicodin that you can do
outside of those ties specific times. So turning to Allah is just
a way of the believer. So those are the five foundations. And then
he goes on. And again, it's kind of this interesting structure that
he has of giving you kind of the building blocks of each of the
sets that he's describing. So the five that we just covered, he says
that the foundations of those are five as well. So exalted
aspirations, maintaining Allah's reverence, expending oneself in
excellent service of others, fulfilling one's resolves and
magnifying one's blessings. So if we want to get to that level of
being, you know, on top of those first five foundations, these are
the things we have to do. And then he goes further and says that in
order to get to this second level, right, where you're actually able
to even work towards those initial five foundations, you have to have
right conduct. And so the right conduct, he then helps us to, to
know how to get there. So he says, You got to seek sacred knowledge,
right, in order to fulfill Allah's commands, you can't have right
conduct if you don't know what you're doing. Very simple. It's
pretty logical, right? You have to keep company with spiritual guides
and fraternity and the fraternity of aspirants to gain insight. So
you need to surround yourself with people who are going to reflect
the good that you want, as well as reflect in you things that maybe
you need to work on, right because if you have, you know, good
companionship, they should be able to tell you, you know what, you're
going down the wrong path there. Don't do that. Don't make that
mistake that's not in your best interest. That's real good
company. If you have company that all they do is you know, shower
you with compliments and, and make you feel amazing all the time
without actually setting you right when you're going down the wrong
path. They're good, they're good, but they're not as good as they
could be true. Companions want your salvation. They don't want
you to just like them and love them. They want you to excel and
they want you your salvation. They want you to be a
I saved in from this, you know, I mean in the next life as well. So
those are the types of people you want to look for. And of course
the the prophecies are told us that at the moment, I'll morale
moment so the believers supposed to be a mirror for each other. So
we're supposed to reflect light but also truth. So look for that
type of company and then for going dispensations and interpretations
concerning injunctions for one's own protection. So this is just a
matter of taking your faith practice seriously and not looking
for loopholes and trying to shortcut your faith, you know,
sometimes the neffs because it's lazy, it's the quality of the
nature of the neffs. Right? When you should study the three degrees
of the knifes, right we have nefs NAFSA a matter Bisou, which is the
the weakest of the new force, it's the bottom tier, it's the neffs
that's just immersed in sinfulness, it's given up
basically it doesn't do what it should be doing and it is, it is
derelict in every which way the Nephilim matter be. So it's
forgetful of all lots heedless, it's sinful. So that's the lowest
knifes then when you start to build a conscience and you've have
taqwa, and you start to feel guilt and remorse for your sinfulness,
you know people have generally and then they come out of Giulia and
they want to get closer to Allah subhanaw taala they want to do
better is every day people like this exist, you know, they drink,
they go clubbing, they're promiscuous, and then all of a
sudden, they have an awakening, and I want to Allah. So then they
enter the next phase, which is what we call the Neff, Salah wema.
And this is the NFL a woman is enough that's struggling against
itself. It's going back and forth and back and forth. So between,
you know, righteousness and sinfulness because it's weak, it's
finding its you know, balance, it's hard when you're leaving bad
habits, right, especially if you've, you know, if they've
developed over years or decades, to suddenly overnight, turn a new
leaf is not I mean, some people can do it, Mashallah. Some people
have, they've definitely done it, even people who have alcohol, you
know, addictions or drug addictions or are smoking, they
there are those people cold turkey, they leave it hulless
Allah can give people like that Tofik and with ALLAH SubhanA
anything is possible. Because sometimes we think like, How could
that happen, but if a person is truly sincere, and they turn to
Allah Subhana Allah, He can absolutely turn their heart, you
know, he's unbelievable, you know, he changes the person's heart, and
then their actions follow. So that happens, but for the majority of
people, they're going to struggle, right, because the, the knifes is
still, it's habituated to all that sinfulness, and then the bliss is
calling us, right? The bliss, that's what he does, he tempts us.
And sometimes those memories that are hard to, you know, get rid of,
are, are the ones that beckoned us the most, right? Because we recall
a time where things seemed easier, I can just go drink my problems
away, I could just go, you know, escape into this or that. So you
find yourself, you know, drawn back to that. And then of course,
the conscience wakes up again, and you feel horrible. So this kind of
repeat cycle is the, the state that a lot of us are stuck in. And
this can also be in with prayers, you know, there are people who get
that boost of Eman and all of a sudden they're doing everything
right, and then you check in on them.
You know, maybe a couple weeks later, and all of a sudden,
they're back in a slump. This is normal. And as long as you're
continuously moving toward Allah subhanaw taala, you're in a good
state. So don't let shaytaan make you feel like you're this
perpetual failure, right? Because that's the kind of ideas that
people develop, like, I'm, I'm such a loser, I keep failing, but
keep moving forward. And inshallah Allah will eventually hopefully
get all of us to the highest state, which is the Nuff said, I'm
with my inner. And this is the neffs that is stripped of all of
those attachments. Like you're done, you're done with the dunya
you've had the feast, right. And this is why as you see people in
their older age, because they've sold their sow their wild oats,
they've tasted the buffet of all the the things that dunya has to
offer. They're done. And they call us. I don't want it anymore. I've
done it all. I've there's nothing exciting, there's nothing enticing
anymore. And now that I've overcome all of that, I want
something better, and I'm starting to see, you know, the door of the
other world is open for me. You know, this is why aging is also a
big blessing. If you really think about I mean, I know and
hamdulillah I'm in my 40s I am so grateful to be in this decade of
my life. Because the insecurity the doubts the constant, you know,
just not feeling ever settled of your 20s or teens 20s 30s. It just
starts to kind of all go away and work itself out. By the time you
hit that beautiful age of 49 Then it's like you're coasting because
you just start to see life very differently. You know, you start
to see
See the value of things and you're like, Yeah, well, oh my god, the
time I wasted, obsessing over this, that or the other, I don't
have that worry anymore. Now it's just a law, that's all I seek. So
that's, you know, the nevsun McMahon is the novices that's just
stripped away of all that it actually seeks. Allah subhana
actively, a person who enters the state is, is free of those sinful
behaviors. I mean, they may make mistakes, obviously, we're human,
but for the most part, they are, you know, really they found their
rhythm and they're, they're mashallah, you know, doing well,
and they're, they're really just working on bettering themselves.
So this is an important part of our faith that we should
understand. And when you're trying to discipline the knifes, it will
bring you into a lazy state where it's looking for those shortcuts.
So you want to be more disciplined in the stage of, you know, forming
good habits. be hard on yourself, that's how you, you, you develop
good habits. But if you start to get you know, slack off and start
to, you know, take it easy, too easy, then it's easier to slip.
So, you know, that's the third point. And then he says,
organizing one's time with the remembrance of Allah, to maintain
presence of art. So we talked about that the importance of
really reframing your mind so that you're not wasting your time, or
treating your time as though it could be wasted. Why is your time
being wasted? What is it that you're doing? First of all, that
is the waste of time, or maybe you need to be, again, you know,
choosing how to make the best use of your time. So it's in our
hands, in other words, and that's why trying to organize your time,
inshallah is, is also mentioned here, in terms of getting to that
place where we want to be. And then the last part, he says, is,
suspecting the selfish soul, the neffs in everything, in order to
free oneself from its whimsical desires and to be safe. From
destructive circumstances. This is very, very important. The internal
dialogue that we have, because it's familiar to us,
it's hard to feel like suspicion towards it. It's all we know,
think about your mind, think about your thoughts. It doesn't occur to
you to suddenly,
you know, question yourself, that sounds odd, right? But if you
accept that there is a part of you, your knifes, your ego, that
actually is your greatest enemy.
If you accept that, then any thought that comes to you that is
incongruent. Right? It's in congruent with your faith, it's in
congruent with what you know, would be most pleasing to Allah
subhanaw taala, you should suspect it, like where did it come from?
Because the source of our thoughts matters, you know, and I kind of
was trying to imagine, like an analogy for the mind. And in terms
of the stream of thoughts we get, and what came to me was, like, a
grid, you know, you know, like in math, you have grids, right? So
just imagine,
like, even graph paper, right? If you look at graph paper, there's
all these lines, it's a little tiny squares, right? So or like a
traffic grid, a traffic grid would probably be the more better,
better analogy. But like your our minds work like that. There's
thoughts that are coming in from all directions. Right? And some
thoughts flow and they're, they're fine, because they're good
thoughts, you know, memories, vivid, obviously, anything. That's
a positive thought, when you have Huston a vision of a person, you
know, when you think of well of a person, you make dua for them.
Those are all beautiful thoughts, right? But then sometimes you get
these crazy thoughts that come out of nowhere. And you're like, what
is that? You know,
those thoughts you have to suspect like, Where'd that come from?
Especially if it is,
you know, a negative thought, a thought that is inappropriate, all
of those thoughts. They have sources, where are the sources of
those thoughts? It's not always the bliss.
Right, bliss is responsible for some of those bad thoughts that we
get, but you can't blame a bliss for everything. Some of those
thoughts emanate from you. And that's your ego. Your enough's,
again, is your greatest enemy. So if you start to examine your
thoughts more, you may find that there is a bit of a dialogue
happening, and that's okay. It's okay to be like, wait a second,
why am I thinking that? Right? I'm reading a book right now. And in
the book, the character.
He's he talks to himself,
you know, and if you see people muttering to themselves, we
immediately assume that they have a mental problem, right? Like you
just see. I mean, obviously, nowadays with air pods.
As you know, it's it's not as difficult to see someone talking
in the air and just conclude that they might have, you know, they
might be on the phone. But if you just see someone without any
devices, and they're just pacing back and forth, but they're
talking to themself,
many of us would conclude, oh, that person's got a problem.
There's something wrong with him.
So, my point is that, you know, some people, they, they can't help
but do that maybe externally, you know, they're, they're voicing
this dialogue outside. But you could, we could certainly do that
internally as well. Which is, again, you get a thought you get
an idea to do something, or even you think about someone, or maybe
there's an opportunity, like if you're
upset with someone, right? And there's an impulse in your mind
that says, Okay, I don't, you know, I need to go apologize,
right? Or no, and then you get a thought this is no, they should
apologize.
What do you think that thought came from? You had an inspiration
to do something good, right. Maybe you felt motivated to get up and
go, you know, reconcile and to try to bring harmony back into the
relationship. But immediately you're met with a thought that
counters that thought? What do you think that that comes from? It's
not always bliss.
It's your neffs because your enough's feels entitled, right? We
feel entitled, like, Well, why should I have to go apologize? I'm
always the one doing it. And so then the NEF starts to feed feed,
you feed you and you become emboldened. And now you're even
more angrier than you were before.
A lot of that is internal dialogue. It's not external. So
how do you discipline yourself? Or how do you have this? Where he's
telling us to suspect the selfish soul? How do you do this?
Practically speaking, you stop and you examine these two independent
thoughts. You say, subhanAllah, I was just about to do something
good. That I know. Allah subhanaw taala may be very pleased with me,
right? When you break the ice, when you are the bigger person to
apologize, even if you're the one wronged. I don't think we realize
the amount of reward that that comes with. Because what you're
saying, if you go back to the five spiritual, I mean, the five
foundations, indifference to weathers others accept or reject,
that's really what it comes down to, when you're willing to
overcome yourself. Right? For the sake of Allah subhana, WA, tada,
it's because you freed yourself of the need to first of all be right.
Right? Because you don't care to be right in front of other people,
or it doesn't matter. None of that all that becomes trivial to you.
Because what you are really looking at is what will gain me
the greatest reward with Allah, I'm not in this for this personal,
you know, benefit with this person, it's not a power play. I
don't, it didn't none of that matters, what is going to garner
the most reward from my Creator. And if that means me stepping on
my ego, because we both are angry, we're both upset, the whole house
is disrupted by this, but I can just stomp on my knifes go over
there and say, Hey, let's just work this out. I apologize. I know
that there that comes with such immense reward from Allah. And I'm
doing that for the sake of Allah. So that's the kind of dialogue
that you can have with your head, if you were to just examine what
is happening, what's actually occurring. So kind of zoom out and
say, Here I am, in a situation, I'm not happy, this person's not
happy. We're both in this negative state. And I had the desire
momentarily to do something about it. But then immediately, I had,
you know, another negative thought that rewarded me from that.
So now I have two choices before me, the path is mind to take, what
am I going to do? This is how you suspect the selfish soul. And if
we could apply that imagine to every situation and I know, it's a
lot of work. It's not like we have all the free time to sit there and
think about every thought. But when it comes to our
relationships, this is important practice. Because all the problems
that come to us many of the problems that come to us
are the that we're we find ourselves in our because of the
knifes battling it out in relationships with other people,
right? It could be your in laws, it could be your siblings, it
could be your spouse, it could be your children, but there's some
again, knifes battle happening, and we're not taking advantage of
these opportunities to really fight within ourselves and do that
Majah and from that Majah if you do it
enough, you will find ease, you will find a lot of hard data,
making relationships actually much easier for you. Because you're
preferring him that like your actions are saying, y'all, I don't
really care. As long as you're happy with me, I'll stomp on my
ego, I'll take it, I'll be wrong, I'll you know, I won't have the
last word. But I'm doing that for your sake that's rising, that's
rising above enough. So all of that. And then he goes on, again,
back to the document, he says that the pitfall of seeking knowledge.
So now he's, he's kind of just breaking this down for us in terms
of really looking at all of these actions that he's encouraging us
to do, but also reminding us that that comes with some risk, right.
So the pitfall of seeking knowledge is the company of
sophomore people, whether due to their age, intellectual deficient
religious practice. So you know, when you're becoming a seeker of
knowledge, you want to be careful, there are a lot of people out
there that don't have the best of intentions, they may misguide you,
they may tell you, things that are not true. So you have to be aware
that there's a responsibility on you to vet the people that you're
learning from making, making sure that you know that they have
credentials, what citations are they sourcing from like, do that
work, don't just be like, Oh, I'm, I'm gonna go, you know, hang out
with with this group of people or that group of people just because
they're religious doesn't mean necessarily, that they are going
to benefit you. There is still, you know, some responsibility on
you to, to do that work. So then he says the pitfall of keeping
company with the spiritual guides, and the fraternity is elitism. So
if you're going to start to hang out with certain people, and this
is the danger to have
a certain spiritual circles is that once you become a member,
right, of that elite group of that special Halacha, that meets
hidden, and there's like a membership required, all of a
sudden, you feel like you're better than everybody else, right?
And this is very dangerous. So if you're a part of any effort, you
get invited to certain you know, people have private events, and
you get invited and doors are open for you and you get treated
differently, that you don't fill your heart with a sense of
superiority because that's not the the benefit or that's not the
purpose of having access to spiritual guides is not to be like
Oh, I'm in the in crowd Right? Or I'm in the popular crowd or I'm in
the cool crowd. that's those are, that's not the purpose, it's to
benefit from their company is to be in their orbit. It's to watch
them and observe them and absorb their knowledge and their wisdom
and to model your behavior not to just be part of a club, right? So
elitism is a unfortunately, a real issue. Then he says the pitfall of
forgoing dispensations and interpretations concerning
injunctions is self pity due to hardships. So you have to be aware
that the knifes will fill you with ideas when you go the harder route
that Oh you poor thing, right, you poor thing, it's this is such a
struggle for you. So anticipate that as you are more in a more
sort of rigorous and disciplined path that you will start to also
feel you know, low in times because this is the nature of the
neffs right? It doesn't like discipline the neffs doesn't want
to wake up for the 100 You know, it's gonna make you feel like all
but you worked so hard than I before Allah will understand or
you start to you know, don't do your Sunnah prayers, it's okay,
you can skip out all of those if you really push back, especially
with our with our Sunnah prayers. I mean, I'm just speaking maybe
from from experience, but I know because of martial law, these
types of works, that anytime you start to pity yourself, and then
you, you, you know, you take off some of the practices that you've
acquired as a means of, like lessening your burden.
That's enough. Like if you if you've gotten to a really good
habit, let's say for example, you know, you're, again, praying all
your prayers on time and doing sunnah and waking up for the
hygiene but then all of a sudden it occurs to you that you know
what, my sleep is off, I'm not feeling too great and next thing
you know, you're starting to cut out certain things because you
think like, I need, you know, I need to take a break the answer or
the way to kind of assess whether or not that that's really what's
going on or if it's just your knifes using an opportunity to
take away you know, certain things that you're habituated to, is to
see where else your time is spent. Because if you're out shopping all
day and you're doing a lot of other leaves
Really things and your body is being, you know, put to a test,
people go to the gym, and they will happily spend hours hiking,
going to the gym, spending a lot of time on Beautification and all
that.
And that doesn't seem to be a factor when it comes to their
fatigue, right? Because they've mentally accepted Well, that's for
my health benefit. So then that it's like, okay, well, what can I
cut down with other things. And so if the first thought that comes to
you is cut out your hedges, that's a problem. What's more valuable in
the grand scheme of things, hiking with your friends, so that you can
feel good that you got 10,000 steps in, or waking up for the
hedges, where your prayers are accepted, it's a beautiful time to
connect with all US Pantera it opens this portal of this
proximity, this closeness to him and then everything just brings so
much ease and baraka to your day. What in the grand scheme of things
is more important, but this is how the knifes will trick you will
delude you. So the pitfall of you know being disciplined is that
you're going to start to see these,
these arguments that your your mind will make for not doing
certain things. But if you have a habit, hold on to that habit. If
you're reading Quran every day, no matter what, look at it like this,
I will never let this go. Because the moment you start to say, maybe
I should do it every other day. Guess what? You're going to
start doing it every other day. And then after that, it's going to
be maybe I should do it once a week and then check in a couple
months later. And are you even reading Quran? Nope. What
happened? This is the hotel out of shaytaan. But also the neffs is
way of taking in small doses things away from us. So that's a
really important pitfall. And then he says the last one here, the
pitfall of sorry, the pitfall of organizing one's time with
devotional works is ostentatious practice, and ritualized
perfunctory devotion. So this is also important too, because if you
start to organize your time, then you may fall into the disease of
the heart, where you want to do things for show. ostentation is
real, right. So you want people to see you doing things because now
it's like, ooh, if I have a choice between doing my prayers at home,
or going to the masjid and doing them so that everybody can see me
doing them not to say obviously, praying at the masjid is
beautiful, but it's more paying attention to what's going on in
terms of your mind, why are you prioritizing certain actions over
others? Is it really for the benefit of it? Or is it that
you're trying to again, get more attention for certain things. And
then the last one, he says, here's the pitfall of constantly
suspecting the selfish soul is inclining towards its upright
states and godliness. And this is where I'm most proud of says, In
the Quran, chapter six, verse 70, we're here to offer every kind of
compensation it would not be accepted from him. And then
there's more on that. He says, Moreover, the noble son of the
noble one use of the son of Cobis be upon him both say in the Quran,
I do not say the selfish soul was free from blame. The Selfish soul
indeed commands to evil acts except for those on whom my Lord
has mercy. So, you know, again, if you start to become completely,
you know, where your, your, your thinking of everything, you know,
blaming everything on the neffs, then you may start to feel like
you're, you know, somehow, again, you've overcome it. And now
you're, you're, you're this person who's just always on top of your
nerves. No, you're novices. Even if you think that way, you're
enough is deluding you so it's something we have to it's a
Mujahid, it's something we're going to have to struggle with,
for until we leave this earth. So just kind of accepting that these
are the, the states of the human being that we have these different
sources of evil that make our lives difficult, but we have Allah
subhanaw taala and if we have him, we can overcome them. It's just a
matter of practice. And really, that's what Islam is. Islam is all
about.
Helping human beings become the best version of themselves through
practice. Our deen is not just a belief, it's a way of life and
every aspect of our lives are are covered when you really look at
our worship, right? We have the physical, wear it with our
prayers, it's a very physical act. You have to get up wash yourself.
I mean, I was thinking about,
you know, we'll do and paella just it's if you really think about how
perfect Islam is. It's like Subhan, Allah, Allah. He really
does. Obviously, he knows us but everything that he's, you know,
asked us to do or we're commanded to do is really, it's so much to
our benefit.
right will do is such a beautiful process because it's so unique to
worship. Where else are you forced to cleanse yourself? You know, I
mean, people believe it or not will go to like weddings, job
interviews, places where maybe they're mixing and mingling with,
like, you know, elite people they're human beings are, you
know, we can, we can become quite low. And there are I'm sure people
who are in the most foul states who will attend those things, you
know. But this is a requirement Allah has of us that if you're
going to worship me, and you want to converse with me, you need to
be record, you're required to be cleansed. So I think it's just
perfect, it's beautiful. And then obviously, the benefits that we
get of the will do itself. So the prayer is very physical. And then
the mental preoccupation that gets a lot of people stuck into
negative states, we're taught how to liberate ourselves with which
is to be mindful, to practice with a kid to read Quran, so we spend
our money, our time when we're not, you know, doing work or other
things, engaging the mind and beneficial things so that he
doesn't have time to take us into, you know, these dark pathways that
a lot of people find themselves in paths of, you know, either stuck
on something from the past, anxiety over the future, these are
the things that take us away from the remembrance of Allah. But if
we just, you know, again, put our faith into practice, we find that
spot Allah, all of the things that troubled the human being, that
make existence difficult for us, almost PanDa has given us a way to
overcome those things through our worship. So truly, truly
Alhamdulillah now within Islam, I mean, the amount of gratitude that
we should feel, it should just overfill our hearts right for
being Muslim. And in this day and age, especially where we see so
much
misguidance and a lot of darkness and Hamdulillah, we have the light
of Islam, So alhamdulillah there's a lot more and you know, again,
we'll continue in sha Allah with the next section, which are the
foundations of what will cure the sicknesses of the soul. So that's
really important to again, the document is written in this way
where each section builds upon the one before it. So this is the next
section is really how to overcome the neffs. Since the last point
there was about suspecting the soul, we need to learn better how
to do that. So inshallah we'll continue with that next month. But
any questions before we break?
I mean, I mean, no, it is difficult to reach. It is
difficult to remain steadfast. But I think in my experience, one of
the best ways to do it is to surround yourself with really good
people who are also who have the same goal. Because doing it on
your own is difficult. Islam was not It's not meant to do on your
own. It's it were Deen, you know, it's a dean of Gemma. And we're
social creatures, Allah knows that. This way if you look Subhan
Allah what a gift that we pray together, we fast together, we
hatched together, we all put it together, we do they get it, we're
supposed to do the get together. I mean, it's beautiful. So I agree.
It's difficult if you're on your own, but if you find a good Gemma
Inshallah, that keeps you accountable. It's much easier. So
that would be you know, and just to mention it because hamdulillah
on the 10th of February, we're going to be doing a sister social
here at MCC, for the purpose of trying to help the sisters meet
each other for this, you know, same intention. We you know, we
have harlequins here Thursday and then on Saturday, I have a VIP kid
and Dr. Eddie, of course is a Friday night, mashallah programs
here. But a lot of times, what I'm hearing from sisters in the
community is that you're being talked at which, obviously, we're
doing here too. It's a class but we also need time to just meet and
connect, and share and build forge really strong relationships. And
the masjid historically was always a hub. It was a hub for people to
come together to do that. So I invite all of you to sign up for
that. That's going to be on February 10. It'll be a Saturday
evening inshallah. And hopefully you'll meet more sisters. Yes, I
don't want to go how are you?
Yeah, you're very well.
So sweet.
I noticed that people told me that you're not there
before
you mean these sessions. Oh.
Oh.
I'm
not with you and then
the Halacha became less and less and less and less
you
know, I'm sorry
all I am so sorry if that's how it seems. First of all, thank you for
your very sweet words. I I feel like maybe because of holiday and
travel, I don't know there were some gaps but Wallahi this
community is my top priority. I really mean that and if there's no
I don't want anybody to think like I'm just flying all over the
world. I'm not. Inshallah mela your Nia is obviously very pure
mellow soprano data help you? It's a jihad. I know many sisters. I
hear this from many people, for between Asia and Fajr. That's very
difficult for them for Schedule reasons. So sometimes it's
logistics sister, like you have to maybe look at when are you
sleeping? Are you getting enough sleep? Do you have good alarm
system in your house? Like do you if you know they have clocks now
that have the other and you can blast it? And sometimes you might
just need to order something like that where it's right there by
your bed? You can't ignore it, you know? So if you find out is it a
logistic issue? Because it seems to me mashallah you want it you
want it and you're asking for it but logistically, you haven't
figured out your what you what works for you. So I think, you
know, I had a sister, I forgot the name of it, but there are these
add on clocks. She's very sweet. She, she gave it to me as a gift.
I love it. It's every prayer, Mashallah. You can hear it
throughout the house. So they're good systems, and maybe inshallah
we can try to find that for you. When you can order it, and it's,
it's set it up to all the times, Inshallah, that can be a game
changer for you, and continue to offer you, of course,
medical FAQ. Yeah, yeah, sleep cycles. As a sister, my brother
was saying, sometimes it's, you know, depends on how much sleep
we're getting. So the research says that we had REM, which is
that deep sleep within one and a half hours. So if you're sleeping
within those, you know, cycles, it's like you're getting, you
know, maybe 2341 and a half hour cycles, and you wake up, when a
cycle is over, you'll be refreshed. But if you're not
sleeping enough, first of all, and the event is going on, or the
clock if you have an alarm clock, but it's coming in that one and a
half hour time slot, you're in such a deep slumber, that it's
difficult to wake up from that. So you have to kind of go back and
say, I need to set my alarm clock to a time where I am getting
enough sleep, but also that I'm not interrupting a REM cycle, if
that makes sense, you know?
Yeah, if you can do Yeah, if six hours, you know, as or seven and a
half hours, but somewhere where it's like, the alarm clock that
you've set is is coming at the end of a one and a half hour cycle,
not in the middle of it. Right? Because yeah, that's where I think
a lot of people don't realize it's because I've I've had it to where
you're like, How can I sleep through that? You know, it's so
loud, but you can be in such a deep sleep Subhanallah that, you
know, is you're not hearing it?
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Sometimes. Yeah, you're dreaming
of the alarm, but you're still not waking up.
A lot of water for you asleep. Yeah. Get up to the restroom.
That's true. That's the other trick too. The only issue with
that trick is that you're disrupting your, your sleep. So it
becomes where you become very groggy, but I have definitely
tried that as well, where you drink. This is your thing to drink
water. And that kind of forces you to keep getting up. But I think
you know, the alarm clock would probably be beneficial to you.
Because I'm assuming you can correct me Were you raised hearing
the event? Like, well, yeah, right. Yeah, so see, Oh ALLAH that
would be so heartbreaking because if you were raised imagine like
you're you know, you were raised in a country or an environment
where you were hearing that that was your alarm clock, and then
you're taken out of that it's like so painful for the heart, but 100
Our technology, we can try our best inshallah one day I lost
Prada enables us to hear the other that'd be amazing. So we'll make a
lot of off for you. But thank you for your lovely comments. I just
want to clarify that into the HELOC was that I do hear our once
a month, twice. Two of them though. We have the the Thursday
night one here for you know, sisters who are working and
they're busy, and maybe they need to feed their families and then
they can come and then I have the Saturday morning for also sisters
who can't come at night for whatever reason, but they just
really need to just go out of the house and
have some time for themselves. That's happening this Saturday. So
I try to do them close to each other, just for, you know, ease
from for me honestly for my schedule, but you know, if there's
other we do have some some other things in the works for Ramadan
and afterwards so inshallah you'll see more programming but come to
become pleased to the sister social that I think will be really
good. And I just want to clarify too that the events that we have
here, it's so important that we see what I see here like I love
the multi generational like multi generations that I see this makes
me very happy. Because one of the problems that I think that we've
really hurt as a community is where we feel like some programs
are only for this demographic, you know, like a moms of children only
or women who are married only, or women who are, you know, under
this age or older. I don't agree with that. That's not Islam, we
have to have an open door where all generations all experiences
feel welcome. I don't it doesn't matter to me if you're married, if
you're single, if you're divorced. If you have never had kids, I
don't care if you're a believer, and you're a sister. You're always
welcome. So please let people know that because I feel like sometimes
there are sisters who feel deterred like oh, I don't want to
come and bother. You know, that group that they're there mostly
this age range. know, if you're, you know, a sister in this
community, you're always welcome. So, when we do the sister social,
it sounds like Oh, it's this fun party kind of environment. But
that's just a it's just a title. What it really is, is a gathering
of the hearts and it's for everybody. So bring your mother's
bring your you know, bring everybody bring your if your
daughters who are 14 and older and bring people who are not in the
masjid, you know, Sister mom was not here. But Leila, you were
here. When she told us about. You know, the reason why we even
started that is because she said that she knows she told us 15
sisters in the San Ramon area who don't come to the masjid. Because
they feel like there's no programming for them. And then she
said, which broke my heart, it really did. She said that five of
them, they started going to excuse me church services, because they
felt like they were lonely. They're isolated, they don't have
community. So we're just gonna start attending churches for
services. And I was like, what is happening? And then she said that
five of them actually left Islam. So this is devastating to me that
like we are, I don't know what we're doing. But like if we don't
draw people back to our msgid and remind everyone that this is
yours. This space is every one of ours, nobody should feel like it
only belongs to this group or that group. You're a believer, it's a
house of Allah is for you. So I want that message to be heard loud
and clear. For everyone that you're always welcome in sha Allah
for the women. And even if you don't wear hijab, I didn't I don't
like that there was a sister who came anyway, but she she was
worried that she wasn't going to be allowed and she was a non
Muslim, because she wasn't wearing hijab I was like, it's not for the
law. What are we doing? So we have to really make sure that we're
sending the right message to people which is you know, come the
masjid is for everybody who wants to be here and our programs
inshallah are, are there to serve so I hope you come and also sister
Roya mashallah, who's here? She did a program here at the MCC
she'll be attending and hopefully leading an activity so we're
trying to come up with a nice event for people to really get to
know each other but I do hope you'll sign up and Chava Okay, and
Oh, that's right. And thank you for the reminder everybody you're
so sweet. So Sunday we have the also the remastered event with
Imam Muhammad Deeb and his father chef Abdullah div and then I think
there may be other panelists that were added but this was last
week's event that got rescheduled so all of these things are
happening and shall you'll see me here on Saturday morning we won't
be in this room because they have the Boy Scouts event so there's
another room over there we're gonna be in so if you come on
Saturday it's actually on the other side where you go up the
banquet 10 o'clock to 11 and it's it's just for we'll read a quote
and we do the good we have a support circle so that's available
for all of you as well and Shaw Yeah, we do yes seen we do VIP kid
and then we just talk make the offer each other inshallah try to
be efficient
so that you have your Saturday with your families inshallah. And
then Sunday, okay. hamdulillah so just like I'm located and thank
you everybody. We're gonna inshallah finish with Dawn Smith
out of matter here Rahim while the officer in Santa Fe hawser il
Alladhina amanu wa middle slowly Heidi with OSA will happy with the
rest of the Southern Subhanak Alohomora. We have the Khashoggi
one day
heyland in a software company to wake Allahumma said he was setting
more Baddeck i Let's say that our Mowlana What have you been on
Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam while he was happy with
sort of the Sleeman Kathira Subhana Allah be Kerberized at Mr.
Yusuf one was salam ala mursaleen what? hamdulillahi rabbil aalameen
Zachman Lafayette and thank you again everyone in Sharla medical
lovely commercial