Ingrid Mattson – 30 Days, 30 Deeds Day 27 Shukr Not Kufr
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of learning and learning for young families, particularly in achieving joyful and rewarding life. They stress the importance of gratitude and the need to act positively, as well as the importance of fasting, respecting guidance from the Bible, and marketing to create a sense of purpose and joy. They also discuss the negative impact of technology on people's lives and the importance of gratitude and the desire to be in a state of joy.
AI: Summary ©
Every night of Ramadan is special, but each
night brings its own,
specialness.
So I know so many of you were
with us last night as we marked and
celebrated the 27th night of Ramadan.
For all of those of you who are
able to come,
jazakAllah khayr, and it was such an honor
and privilege to spend the, to spend the
evening with you.
Our apologies for any of our shortcomings,
but
at least from from my point of view,
it was a it was a it was
a really,
it was, it was a beautiful night,
and, it was, it was a it was
a night of, I think, poignancy
and community. And I think, both of those
things were were really, really important.
Tonight,
we have our community of Thar.
So we have our volunteers,
setting up. So,
one of our beloved brothers in the in
the hub community
has, has sponsored tonight's tonight's of thar. May
Allah bless him, and,
grant him every every goodness and the blessing
of breaking so many
so many people's fasts.
And then,
tonight is also special because it's this the
second and final night that doctor Ingrid Madsen
is gonna be is gonna be with us.
And as I mentioned, la last night's event,
we were,
to use an to use an English phrase,
decidedly chuffed
when,
when doctor Mattson agreed
to,
to our invitation to come and join us
here at the hub and to join us
for the 27th night program.
And, tonight, we have the privilege again of
of benefiting from her reflections and and from
her from her teaching.
So tonight,
we we we kind of revert back to
our to our usual order of things, which
is that in the next 35 minutes that
we have or so before, the breaking of
the fast,
we come back to the good deeds,
the 30 days, 30 deeds theme that we've
been looking at the entire month of Ramadan.
And,
encouraging ourselves to take on
or to make these deeds a part of
our life. Not only because they have value
and have impact for other people, but they're
transformative for us.
That by doing these things, we ourselves will
be transformed,
by them, and our hearts will be transformed
by them. And then before Isha Salah tonight,
we're gonna have a very special
discourse by doctor Matson,
reflecting on the Quran and drawing from her
from her published work and her reflections
on studying the Quran. And we'll we'll introduce
that a little bit later. But to move
on to today's deed,
today's deed, we've entitled expansive
thankfulness.
Expansive thankfulness.
And the the the call to us tonight,
the call to action to us tonight
is to
recognize,
our blessings
and, stop complaining.
So without any further ado, I'm gonna I'm
gonna hand it over to to doctor Mattson.
Doctor Mattson, we usually take right up until
about about 9 o'clock, and then we make
we make blah.
And then, around 903
is is, is the is the breaking of
the fast. Sounds good. Thank you. So I'll
I'll I'll I'll leave us in in doctor
Matson's very, very good hands.
I realized I put this in my book
to give to you
for when you check
out. Okay. Alright. Okay.
Assalamu alaikum.
Assalamu alaikum. Am I on? Yeah. I think
you're on. Okay.
Such a pleasure to be here at Seeker's
Hub for the first time. Beautiful
space.
So well done
and filled with things made by hand by
Muslim artisans. And,
it's just lovely, SubhanAllah, and it reflects
the the inner beauty that I find in
this community.
Had just such a nice time with you
last night.
Love the kids. The fact that
our
hyper
energetic Muslim kids,
outlasted
the,
the people having the party next door in
the banquet hall. So, 4 year olds having
pillow fights at 3 in the morning while
everyone else had gone home. That was excellent.
It's beautiful to see young families coming together
for knowledge.
So important.
And,
I I I really commend all of you.
I know that when you have a young
family, when you have
children and teenagers,
life is very busy. There's never enough time,
but it's so important to take this time
for you to learn so that you can
be the one to whom your kids turn
to to understand what's going on in the
world and what to make of the news
and how they're supposed to live in this
world because otherwise,
and I know this because I get the
kids when they get to university.
They've been doing a lot of research on
their own in places where their the answers
aren't the correct answers.
So,
may Allah bless you and continue
to expand this,
the circle of knowledge and learning
and and bless all of these families.
I was so happy to hear that the
topic tonight is gratitude,
because
I would say that gratitude
is one of the most important themes of
the Quran.
In fact, there was a great scholar of
the Quran,
a Japanese scholar of the Quran named,
Toshihiko
Isutsu
who wrote a,
very influential
book called, that was translated as Ethical religious
concepts in the Quran.
And he,
what he does is a semantic analysis of
major,
ethical and moral principles in the Quran.
And he shows quite clearly, I believe, that
that shukr
is so intimately tied with faith in the
Quran
that it really is another word for faith.
True gratitude
is another word for faith.
And and shukur, the opposite of shukur,
in fact, is kufr.
Because kufr is, in its semantic meaning, is
ingratitude.
I think probably many of you know the
literal meaning of
means to to hide or conceal something good.
And so the example that's given,
by the linguist
is like an like a small animal, like
a a chipmunk, for example, that would dig
a hole and hide a a seed in
the ground, right, and then cover it up.
So this is something good that it's covering
up. Now, of course, the the animal's doing
it to get it later, although they've got
very short memories, so they never remember where
where they've hidden them. They run away. Maybe
that's why is important. Right? You've got you've
got to remember. The squirrels need more to
remember
where they hid those, those nuts.
But for us,
when Allah
is talking to us about about kufr and
shukr,
Kufr is
is ingratitude
in that we are denying
all of the goodness
that Allah has created and given us.
To start with, the goodness of being itself,
the fact that we have come into being
because that's not necessary. We are not necessary
beings. Only Allah
is the necessary being.
So to be created,
to have that
chance, that opportunity to
come into being and to experience all of
what comes after
is the first act of
of and the most ultimate act of of
ingratitude,
which is kufr. So these two things
are are are on opposite sides of the
spectrum. So if kufa is
concealing something that is good,
then shukkot is demonstrating
something that is good,
is presenting something that is good.
So when we say, oh,
my life's horrible.
Nothing's good. Everything's bad.
I remember,
something that,
with a young person I I know that
really set him off and turned him off
from from the masjid in,
you know, until now, pretty much a permanent
way was listening to a Khutba that
the theme was that Muslims are horrible,
We're not doing anything good in the world.
And here are all the bad things that
are going on in the world,
all the bad things, and and what's anyone
doing about it? No one's doing anything about
it. Muslims are suffering here. Muslims are suffering
there.
They're being oppressed here and there. No. Literally,
this is what the Khatib was saying. No
one's doing everything about it.
And this boy came out and he said
he said,
he lied.
That's not true that no one's doing
anything.
I know people that are doing things, but
the the the mood, everyone left that place
feeling completely dispirited.
It was as if the Khatib was projecting
his own depression
and frustration
on the jamaah.
And
that is that is a a pattern that
we find in our community quite frequently,
and we have to make sure that we
stop
that
pattern.
It is I hear it again and again
and again in the Masajid, and the problem
is that we have, you know, many people
who are trying to do their best, but
a lot of, people who are given chutbas
who haven't been trained or there's no feedback,
there's no correction so that people don't even
see what they're doing. They think they're they
think that by expressing concern for the community,
right,
by showing how upset they are, by seeing
injustice,
that they're showing Rahma, that they're showing mercy,
that they're showing compassion. But in fact,
what is happening is it's it's a projection
of their own emotional state of their sadness,
and they're concealing everything
good that's going on at the same time
and making everyone feel unmotivated.
So complaining, there's nothing like complaining to bring
people down.
And certainly, I mean, if any of you
have been in an organization or a group
or it's very common in the workplace
where there's one coworker
who will just be the complainer all the
time and
it just sucks the energy out of any
project, any initiative, anything that you are going
to do.
So
we have to be careful and
excessively
complaining can be a sign of depression.
It can be a sign I mean, if
you find yourself constantly only seeing things negatively,
it can be a sign of a of
a actual mental health problem.
And, I mean, we're human beings. Our our
our,
our mental health is is part of our
overall all health and it's not to be
ashamed of that. If you find, you know,
if one finds themself in that situation where
they can only think negatively,
where what predominantly
comes out
of, you know,
in our statements are negative
and really saying about only how bad this
or that is, the Muslim Ummah or this
mosque or this community or the Muslim world
or people or this or that, if that's
it, it is time to really think,
why have I gotten into this pattern? Can
I get out of this?
Is this the world
or is this how I feel? That's what
projection is, right? It's like
your inner state you're projecting
out onto the world.
So what is shukar? Gratitude. Gratitude is the
opposite where
you come to realize
the
the reality,
which is that
it is all good in Allah's creation,
that
the believer is the one who is
happy.
This is why,
Allah
in the Quran talks so much about,
almuflihon,
those who are happy, who are joyous.
The joy that comes from the believer then
can be projected out in the world,
and that's where we see all of and
recognize and acknowledge all of the good things
that are around us. Now you may say
isn't this just Pollyannaish?
Isn't this just some people see the world
the glass half empty
and some people see the world
the glass half full
and, you know, I'm just the half empty
kind of person or I'm the realist, I'm
the one who sees the problems and the
other people are just walking around in a
daze.
The reality is that
we should be able to maintain both states
at the same time.
At the same time, we should be able
to see very clearly,
the the places where
people are in need.
We should be able to deeply feel
the, suffering of others.
We should be deeply motivated
to act towards that and at the same
time
be absolutely joyful
with the Qaldir of Allah,
with our creation. And after all, the 6th
article of faith, which is I think the
most neglected article of faith in Islam which
is called it is to accept
is to accept what will come, what is
happening,
the good of it and the bad of
it. Right? So there is I mean,
there there's a there's a clear assessment that
some things in the world are evil, are
unjust, are bad. But accepting
the of Allah means we also accept the
hikmah of Allah, that we know that that
in the end, this is this is all
of Allah's creation.
It's it's his wisdom
that underlies all things
and that we trust that,
everything in the end will come out right.
And that even in hardship for us, there's
an opportunity
for us to learn.
And learning
learning
means that we're coming closer to Allah because
when we learn,
we are knowing something more about Allah's creation.
And as we know more, then we become,
more joyful
because we understand the
a, article published in The Guardian newspaper of
the UK last night. I just wanna read
you the first paragraph because I think it
goes very well with our topic today.
And
the,
let me just pull it up. It was
there. There we go.
And,
this author,
whose name is Oliver Burkeman,
wrote an article called how to stay happy
when the sky is falling in. And I
think he does very well in the first
paragraph,
kind of giving us some perspective
on all of the troubles that we see
around ourselves today. So he says this,
seen from a certain perspective
the last few months on planet Earth have
been pretty unreservedly
amazing.
No one died from smallpox,
almost nobody contracted polio,
hospital operating theatres were not generally filled with
the screams of patients undergoing
surgery without anesthetic.
No war claimed anything like the single day
death toll on the first hours of the
Battle of the Somme a 100 years ago
this week.
Britain decided the question of European
Union membership
via a democratic vote not armed conflict
and women were entitled to participate in that
vote.
Oh, and working people on both sides of
the Atlantic enjoyed unprecedented
quantities of leisure.
Even if you don't believe in the inevitability
of human progress, maybe things really will get
worse again in the future. It's hard to
deny that we're having a really good run.
And then he goes on and shows perspective.
So
things are bad compared to what?
Right?
Things are bad compared to what?
Human beings become,
we become used to,
something, a change for the good
very quickly. That's why we call it the
new normal. Right?
So things used to be,
for example, when I was a graduate student,
if I wanted to look up a journal,
I had to
first go and find out where the journal's
in the library. I had to actually walk
over to the library.
I had to go and had to find
where the journals were. I had to find
where
with the journal there was some manual index
for the last few volumes,
look through there, try to find the topic,
then when I did that try to figure
out where in the library the journal was,
then when I found it I had to
go find a copy
machine, see if I had any change. I
probably didn't,
which meant another
an hour trip getting changed, going photo standing
there at the photocopy machine copying my 20
page,
journal. Right? So
to to just,
look up a few journal articles was a
whole day in the library was a whole
day in the library. Now I can do
all of that
within 15 minutes at my computer without leaving
my office.
Is that and then, you know, is that
progress or not progress? So when I then
get frustrated because the copy machine is not
working, it's like, oh, so frustrating. I can't
get my my work done because the copy
machine is not working to print out these
articles that I've downloaded.
Really, I mean, can I compare it with
what I we used to have to do
to get that level of knowledge?
But we become
so
accustomed. As soon as something gets good, we
get accustomed to it, and we expect that.
We expect to stay at that level all
the time now. And if something inter
impeded with that, then we become so frustrated.
I mean,
you know probably many of you have relatives
even if you're if you're young. You probably
have some relatives or friends or maybe you've
visited countries
where some people still
find it very difficult to access knowledge,
where they still have to wash their clothes
in the river,
like we did in the summertime at our
cottage in Northern Ontario
because my mother believed that the summertime was
the time to get back to the old
days, so we would be grateful
when we would come back to our home
and, have all of the benefits of technology.
So in the summers, we didn't have indoor
plumbing,
We didn't have running water.
We didn't have a,
washing machine.
We had to do everything manually,
for 2 months. And my father was a
very successful,
lawyer,
so should they could have, you know, purchased
these technologies if they wanted. But her philosophy
was
don't give the kids everything.
Let them
experience
hardship
for a time so that they will be
grateful for what they don't have.
And
with with us, with our children, it is
so easy for us to feel that if
we just give them things, then they'll be
happy.
We see them sad because
they
someone was mean at school,
or we're afraid that they're gonna feel overwhelmed
by all of the
the news that they hear. As they get
older, they start to hear more news
about what's going on in the world and
we're afraid that they're gonna feel overwhelmed.
And we think the solution to that
is
to make their lives really easy, to make
them
happy
with things.
I was speaking with Sheikh Faraz about that
to actually distract them from the hardship.
And that is not
the key. That is not a solution.
That's just that's just distraction.
Distraction from a problem does not solve the
problem, and it doesn't make you happy.
You know, having a little fun
for a while,
does is not the same as having true
happiness.
True happiness that comes out of a deep
feeling of gratitude.
So we need to separate,
these things.
It is a really good time for us
to talk about gratitude because
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the Quran in
fact
talks about
the fasting of Ramadan
really as being a means towards being grateful,
towards being grateful. So Allah
says,
at the beginning of of the ayah Sur
Al Baqarah, it was a month of Ramadan
when the Quran was revealed to guide people
as a proof of guidance and as the
moral standard.
So whoever of you witnesses this month should
fast
while those who are sick
or traveling should fast on other days. Right?
So we know this is this is this
is the
fast and that we know Allah
says we fast for the sake of Allah
in order to have taqwa, to be close
to Allah.
But then Allah
says
Allah wants ease for you. Right? Ease does
not want hardship
which shows that
we shouldn't be in a state of
feeling so constricted
and that things are so tough, that Islam
is so tough, that religion is so tough,
that being merciful and compassionate is so tough
because we're feeling so bad from these things.
And this is why we're we have this
bad mood that then comes out in complaining.
So it's it's this question of perspective. So
then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, but Allah
wants us to complete the days,
these days of fasting and to glorify God
for having guided you and perhaps
you will be grateful.
Teshquran.
And so you will be grateful.
So think about this. Is there any time
I mean, I know for my self, there's
no time when I feel more grateful than
during Ramadan.
There's no time when I feel more grateful.
Why does this denial
lead to gratitude?
Because when we are hungry,
when we become hungry,
we say, oh, I'm hungry. I'm starving. Then
we say stuff for Allah.
I'm not starving.
I'm not starving, but there are people are
starving. A few facts,
795,000,000
people
in the world do not have enough food
to live a healthy lifestyle,
healthy active lifestyle, meaning that some of them
may have enough food,
many of those may have enough food to
sustain them, to keep them alive,
but they have no energy.
They can't
go and do what needs to be done
to get ahead.
Those are kids who are sitting there who
may be sent to school if they have
a school, but they're sitting there falling asleep
because
they haven't eaten
and they can't focus.
I mean, I had great ambitions to finish
a research article this
month. I have not finished that research article
because every time I sit down to write,
I either fall asleep
or
my mind is just so
foggy that I'm not able to focus on
my topic.
So how can you imagine how many millions
of people because they're not nourished,
have the same thing? We want the poor
to lift up themselves up by their bootstraps,
but they they don't have the energy to
do that, subhanallah,
when we're so thirsty.
And that thirst makes us not have the
physical strength to be able to climb those
stairs so we take the elevator
or whatever it is.
750,000,000
people
in the world do not have access to
clean water.
750,000,000.
That's over 20 times the population of Canada.
So think of all of the people in
Canada
times 20,
and that many people don't have access to
clean water.
And what does it mean when you don't
have access to clean water?
It means you have a lot of problems.
You have a lot of stomach problems.
In Ramadan, some people have stomach problems because
of the way they're eating and fasting.
2,500,000,000
people
don't have adequate
sanitation.
I mean, when we have our stomach problem,
we're so grateful. We have a nice, you
know, clean,
bathroom at home and privacy and everything.
2,500,000,000
people don't even have access to that. They
have to find some there's there's go behind
a building or there's lots of people. What
how does this impact your life? How does
it impact your capacity,
to do anything?
So I certainly feel during Ramadan, and I
know so many other people,
just feel during this month is such a
month of absolute gratitude.
And we hope that that sense of gratitude
will continue during the year where we will
always
you know, whenever we get into that position
where we start to grumble,
we're able to say,
what do I have?
Not only in adequate food, not just adequate,
but we have delicious,
savory,
sweet,
all of the flavors. I love sushi, umami.
We have all of the flavors and palates
that you can possibly want,
you know, food that you could possibly have.
Not just clean water,
but, you know, guaranteed, easily accessible,
sanitation,
safety, security,
education,
health care,
labor laws. Do you know how many people
fall off how many Bengali and Filipino workers
I mean I mean, people can work here
and
you have a right to be safe
in this country. So
subhanAllah.
I mean, there's so many things to be
grateful for, but as Allah says,
very few among my servants are grateful.
So few of my servants
of us are grateful.
And, really, it is such a habit to
fall into grumbling, to grumble about our children,
about our families, about our spouses,
how quickly we grumble about our spouses.
We'll talk a little bit,
later tonight before, Tara, we have prayer about
about marriage and gratitude, and that's gonna be
part of our
the the story that we'll,
talk about the Qur'anic stories,
when we talk about the Quran tonight.
But the question is, alright. Here you are,
you know,
telling
I'm telling you about
how difficult it is for so many people
in the world. Why shouldn't we
just feel sad about that? Why shouldn't we
complain? Why shouldn't we just say,
look at what's
how horrible it is?
There's a few things
that we need to think of.
First of all,
we
if we focus completely on the external, we
will never
have take that opportunity to be grateful and
thankful for what we have,
and all of this is by the cauldron
of the law. We do not deserve it.
It's not that we deserve to eat and
other people in the world do not deserve
to eat. It's not that we deserve to
be safe and other people do not deserve
it. We're not better than other people. That's
not why we have this.
Poverty is a test. Wealth is a test.
War is a test. Peace is a test.
Abundance
is a test as lack,
of
what you have for sufficiency is a test.
Each of those,
deficiency,
not having enough, is a test of patience.
Having a lot is a test of gratitude.
So we have to be grateful, 1st and
foremost, to be grateful for what we have.
When we are grateful to for what we
have then, at the same time, we hold
in our heart
that we love for our brother what we
love for our for ourselves.
If we feel
grateful for these things, if we enjoy the
benefits, then we want it for other people.
That is true faith, that is true belief,
our beloved messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
taught us that.
So
now we want it for others and here
is the motivation
factor
that we are motivated
to do something
about
those who don't have so that
so that now because we are grateful for
what we have and we want for others
to have those things, now we will be
motivated to act.
We can't solve all those problems as individuals.
Even a community together can't solve all of
them, but we all have both individual
and collective obligations
to work towards alleviating suffering.
And as we so that rather than putting
energy into complaining,
which allows us to and brings us
an a state of dismotivation
and and and demotivates the people around us,
makes them feel feel demoralized and lacking in
energy.
Instead, we will be energized to do something,
to
try to feed the poor, to try to
improve,
the laws so that,
other people will have what all of the
things that we have.
The and this in itself
creates motivation. Anyone who does this work knows
that
it it provides as you work towards this,
it also provides you with energy. It's like
exercise.
You know, when you don't exercise for a
while, you feel so lazy, you have no
physical energy, you're all like I can't do
that. And then you start enter you start
exercising
and
even though you've you're using energy to exercise,
now you're in a a better more fit
state so you have physical energy to get
up and do other things. Right? So this
is spiritual energy. Gratitude
creates spiritual energy.
It creates that spiritual energy that will then
motivate us to go on and do other
things.
And SubhanAllah,
one of the things that you find is
that, you know,
it's very interesting because the biggest complainers really
are the people who have the most.
If you go
and spend time with people who have very
little, you will find them to be the
most grateful.
What a bizarre paradox.
But any of you who have spent time
with people who are really in need will
find them constantly in a state of gratitude
for what the little they have. When they
get something, they are so grateful. They are
so thankful.
This is why I feel so blessed that
Allah
allowed me to spend some time,
with refugees because
what I saw there every day were people
who were kicked out of their country, homeless,
not having enough to eat, in in places
of severe hardship,
in a constant state of saying Alhamdulillah
and gratitude for every small thing they had
because relatively
if they got something that improved their situation,
it was it was so enormous. And so
they were in such a state of shukar.
Whereas for us, we're so blase. We have
so much. We get another, oh, another present,
another gift, another meal. I'm bored of this
food. We become bored of it, subhanAllah, like
Benny Israel.
You know, we we we we think that's
only for Bani Israel, but we are in
the we
every people in the Quran
reflects a state that we can be in
at some point in our life,
and we certainly
and I will be the first one
to, you know, to confess that I'm I'm
like those people that we who live in
affluent societies
reflect that state of Banu Israel who even
though they're given manna and salwa
from heaven
still are complaining, well, you know, we'd like
we want it to taste better so we'd
like some onions or this or that.
We we say that.
So let's try to use this opportunity in
Ramadan,
this time when we feel
deeply the sense of,
you know, we get a little taste of
what it what it feels like to not
have something that we want.
Let's
use that to create the spiritual energy of
shukr that when we say, Alhamdulillah, I don't
like Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
We should be people who are in this,
this state of joy.
And the the
in to the to end because then we're
gonna break our fast soon, I would say
that
the
for me in my life, the
the most powerful reminder
is the statement of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam
when he said,
when you see someone who has more, look
to someone who has less
because this really is the the kind of
double movement that needs to happen.
We live in this society, and there's lots
of, you know, studies,
and and and you could read about the
marketing techniques that are all about creating a
sense of need, that we techniques that are
all about creating a sense of need, that
we need something. Right?
Marketing is all about
make convincing you that you are not going
to
be healthy, beautiful,
successful,
whatever without this product.
So we live in the society
that that
is a a capitalist consumer society that's constantly
creating within us the sense
of want, of lacking,
that other people have more than we have.
This is the one of the biggest fitness
of our of our time and has leads
to consumerism that's destroying the whole world
and greed and,
a a complete
lack of disregard for the needs of any,
of other people's,
needs other than our own our own wants.
So prophet Muhammad says Sam said when you
see someone who has more,
look to someone who has less,
and that really is the key. Whenever you
see in yourself, oh
oh, this person, they have a nicer car.
Oh, this person, they have a nicer house.
They have more money. Oh, I really like
their kitchen.
It also can be, look at this person.
They're so healthy.
Look at this person. Why do I have
sickness?
Look at this person. Oh, there there's a
beautiful,
their husband's beautiful or their wife's beautiful.
Or look at that family. They're so happy.
Why haven't I been able to find someone
to marry?
Or this couple,
and they have so many beautiful children. Why
haven't I been able to have children?
Right? So there are so many things where
we feel people have more
or they have night they have children that
respect them. My children don't respect me.
That so it's not just about things. It's
also about human relationships
and the things that we truly deeply want
within ourselves and we we turn away from
them. But sometimes,
you know, sometimes these
states of where we feel deprived, this is
where we have to say because
every deprivation is an opportunity from Allah
And the one who may not have children,
for example,
is like, you know, when I when a
woman comes to me and says, well, we
can't have children, I say, Masha'Allah,
you are in the station of Aisha
SubhanAllah,
Allah chose that state for her of childlessness
so that she could provide
so much to the whole world that we
benefit from till today.
So this is what Shukr is. We thank
Allah
for our state. Whatever it is, even if
we assess it to be negative, even we
assess it to be less than others
because then it is an opportunity.
And when we have this, this, state of
shukr,
then we will see that opportunity
and be among the moflihon, the the people
who are happy and joyful. And I ask
Allah
to give you that that joy, to to
open our eyes to see all of
all of the blessings that he has, to
make us reminders for each other and good
role models for each other, and to allow
us to to be those people who have
spiritual energy to lift up all of those
who are in need in the world.
Doctor Matson.
We're just on the cusp of, opening our
opening our fast, and
we wanna express our gratitude to you
for
sharing gratitude with us.
I'm gonna ask, though, one of our brothers
to, call the, Adhanu Mohan.