Ingrid Mattson – So Many Troubles, What’s There to Be Grateful For

Ingrid Mattson
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The speakers discuss the importance of gratitude and embracing the idea of gratitude to overcome obstacles. They stress that everyone has individual obligations to solve problems, but gratitude is seen as a powerful reminder of one's state of gratitude. They emphasize the need to create a sense of mutuality in one's life and to learn from the experience to achieve goals. They also emphasize the importance of feeling the sense of being in a state of joy when sharing gifts and creating a sense of mutuality in one's life.

AI: Summary ©

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			SubhanAllah.
		
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			I mean, there's so many things to be
		
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			grateful for but as Allah says,
		
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			very few among my servants are grateful.
		
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			So few of my servants
		
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			of us are grateful.
		
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			And really, it is such a habit to
		
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			fall into grumbling, to grumble about our children,
		
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			about our families, about our spouses,
		
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			how quickly we grumble about our spouses.
		
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			And we'll talk a little bit,
		
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			later tonight before, Tara, we have prayer about
		
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			about marriage and gratitude, and that's gonna be
		
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			be part of our the
		
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			the story that we'll,
		
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			talk about the Puranic stories,
		
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			when we talk about the Quran tonight.
		
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			But the question is, alright, here you are,
		
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			you
		
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			know, telling
		
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			I'm telling you about
		
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			how difficult it is for so many people
		
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			in the world. Why shouldn't we
		
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			just feel sad about that? Why shouldn't we
		
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			complain? Why shouldn't we just say,
		
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			look at what's
		
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			how horrible it is?
		
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			There's a few things
		
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			that we need to think of.
		
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			First of all,
		
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			we
		
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			if we focus completely on the external, we
		
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			will never
		
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			have take that opportunity to be grateful and
		
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			thankful for what we have. And all of
		
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			this is by the cauldron of the law.
		
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			We do not deserve it.
		
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			It's not that we deserve to eat and
		
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			other people in the world do not deserve
		
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			to eat. It's not that we deserve to
		
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			be safe and other people do not deserve
		
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			it. We're not better than other people. That's
		
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			not why we have this.
		
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			Poverty is a test. Wealth is a test.
		
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			War is a test. Peace is a test.
		
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			Abundance is a test as lack,
		
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			of what you have for sufficiency is a
		
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			test. Each of those
		
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			deficiency,
		
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			not having enough, is a test of patience.
		
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			Having a lot is a test of gratitude.
		
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			So we have to be grateful, 1st and
		
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			foremost, to be grateful for what we have.
		
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			When we are grateful to for what we
		
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			have then, at the same time, we hold
		
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			in our heart
		
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			that we love for our brother what we
		
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			love for our for ourselves.
		
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			If we feel
		
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			grateful for these things, if we enjoy the
		
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			benefits, then we want it for other people.
		
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			That is true faith, that is true belief,
		
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			our beloved messenger of Allah
		
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			taught us that.
		
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			So
		
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			now we want it for others and here
		
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			is the motivation
		
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			factor
		
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			that we are motivated
		
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			to do something
		
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			about
		
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			those
		
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			who don't have so that
		
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			so that now because we are grateful for
		
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			what we have and we want for others
		
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			to have those things, now we will be
		
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			motivated to act.
		
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			We can't solve all those problems as individuals.
		
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			Even a community together can't solve all of
		
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			them but we all have both individual
		
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			and collective obligations
		
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			to work towards alleviating suffering
		
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			And as we so that rather than putting
		
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			energy into complaining,
		
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			which allows us to and brings us
		
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			an a state of dismotivation
		
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			and and and demotivates
		
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			the people around us, makes them feel demoralized
		
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			and lacking in energy.
		
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			Instead, we will be energized to do something,
		
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			to try to feed the poor, to try
		
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			to improve,
		
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			the laws
		
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			so that,
		
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			other people will have what all of the
		
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			things that we have.
		
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			And this in itself
		
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			creates motivation. Anyone who does this work knows
		
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			that it
		
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			it provides as you work towards this, it
		
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			also provides you with energy. It's like exercise.
		
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			You know, when you don't exercise for a
		
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			while, you feel so lazy, you have no
		
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			physical energy, you're all like I can't do
		
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			that
		
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			and then you start enter you start exercising
		
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			and subhanAllah even though you've you're using energy
		
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			to exercise,
		
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			now you're in a a better, more fit
		
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			state, so you have physical energy to get
		
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			up and do other things. Right? So this
		
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			is spiritual energy. Gratitude
		
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			creates spiritual energy.
		
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			It creates a spiritual energy that will then
		
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			motivate us to go on and do other
		
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			things.
		
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			And SubhanAllah,
		
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			one of the things that you find is
		
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			that, you know,
		
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			it's very interesting because the biggest complainers really
		
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			are the people who have the most.
		
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			If you go
		
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			and spend time with people who have very
		
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			little, you will find them to be the
		
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			most grateful.
		
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			What a bizarre paradox.
		
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			But any of you who have spent time
		
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			with people who are really in need will
		
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			find them constantly in a state of gratitude
		
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			for what the little they have. When they
		
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			get something, they are so grateful. They are
		
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			so thankful.
		
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			This is why I feel so blessed that
		
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			Allah
		
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			allowed me to spend some time,
		
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			with refugees
		
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			because
		
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			what I saw there every day were people
		
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			who were kicked out of their country, homeless,
		
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			not having enough to eat,
		
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			in in places of severe hardship,
		
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			in a constant state of saying Alhamdulillah
		
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			and gratitude for every small thing they had
		
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			because relatively,
		
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			if they got something that improved their situation,
		
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			it was so enormous.
		
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			And so they were in such a state
		
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			of shukr.
		
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			Whereas for us, we're so blase. We have
		
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			so much. We get another, oh, another present,
		
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			another gift, another meal. I'm bored of this
		
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			food. We become bored of it, SubhanAllah, like
		
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			Bani Israel.
		
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			We we think that's only for Bani Israel,
		
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			but we are in the we
		
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			every people in the Quran reflects a state
		
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			that we can be in at some point
		
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			in our life,
		
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			And we certainly
		
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			and I will be the first one to,
		
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			you know, to confess that I'm I'm
		
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			like those people that we who live in
		
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			affluent societies
		
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			reflect that state of Banu Israel who even
		
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			though they're given manna and salwa from heaven
		
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			still are complaining, well, you know, we'd like
		
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			we want it to taste better so we'd
		
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			like some onions or this or that.
		
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			We we say that.
		
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			So let's try to use this opportunity in
		
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			Ramadan,
		
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			this time when we feel deeply the sense
		
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			of,
		
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			you know, we get a little taste of
		
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			what it what it feels like to not
		
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			have something that we want.
		
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			Let's
		
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			use that to create the spiritual energy of
		
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			shukr that when we say Alhamdulillah, I don't
		
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			like Alhamdulillah.
		
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			Alhamdulillah.
		
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			Alhamdulillah.
		
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			We should be people who are in this,
		
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			this state of joy.
		
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			And the the in to the to end
		
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			because then we're going to break our fast
		
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			soon. I would say that
		
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			the
		
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			for me in my life, the the
		
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			most powerful reminder
		
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			is the statement of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
		
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			alaihi wasallam
		
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			when he said
		
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			when you see someone who has more, look
		
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			to someone who has less
		
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			because this really is the the kind of
		
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			double movement that needs to happen.
		
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			We live in this society, and there's lots
		
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			of, you know, studies,
		
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			and and and you could read about the
		
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			marketing techniques that are all about creating a
		
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			sense of need, that we need something. Right?
		
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			Marketing is all about
		
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			make convincing you that you are not going
		
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			to be
		
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			healthy, beautiful,
		
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			successful,
		
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			whatever without this product.
		
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			So we live in the society
		
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			that that
		
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			is a a capitalist consumer society that's constantly
		
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			creating within us the sense
		
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			of want, of lacking,
		
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			that other people have more than we have.
		
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			This is one of the biggest fitness of
		
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			our of our time and has leads to
		
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			consumerism that's destroying the whole world
		
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			and greed and,
		
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			a a complete
		
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			lack of disregard for the needs of any
		
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			of other people's,
		
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			needs other than our own our own wants.
		
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			So prophet Muhammad said when you see someone
		
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			who has more,
		
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			look to someone who has less,
		
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			and that really is the key. Whenever you
		
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			see in yourself,
		
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			oh oh, this person, they have a nicer
		
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			car.
		
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			Oh, this person, they have a nicer house.
		
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			They have more money. Oh, I really like
		
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			their kitchen.
		
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			It also can be, look at this person.
		
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			They're so healthy.
		
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			Look at this person, why do I have
		
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			sickness? Look at this person, oh, that there's
		
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			a beautiful,
		
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			their husband's beautiful or their wife's beautiful.
		
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			Or look at that family. They're so happy.
		
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			Why haven't I been able to find someone
		
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			to marry? Or this couple,
		
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			and they have so many beautiful children. Why
		
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			haven't I been able to have children?
		
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			Right? So there are so many things where
		
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			we feel people have more
		
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			or they have they have children that respect
		
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			them, my children don't respect me.
		
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			That so it's not just about things, it's
		
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			also about human relationships
		
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			and the things that we truly deeply want
		
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			within ourselves and we we turn away from
		
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			them. But sometimes,
		
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			you know, sometimes
		
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			these
		
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			states of where we feel deprived, this is
		
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			where we have to say alhamdulillah because every
		
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			deprivation is an opportunity from Allah
		
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			And the one who may not have children,
		
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			for example,
		
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			is like, you know, when I when a
		
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			woman comes to me and says, well, I
		
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			we can't have children, I say,
		
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			you are in the station of Aisha
		
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			SubhanAllah, Allah chose that state for her of
		
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			childless
		
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			childlessness so that she could provide
		
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			so much to the whole world that we
		
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			benefit from till today. So this is what
		
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			Shukr is. We thank Allah
		
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			for our state, whatever it is, even if
		
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			we assess it to be negative, even we
		
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			assess it to be less than others because
		
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			then it is an opportunity.
		
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			And when we have this, this, state of
		
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			shukr,
		
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			then we will see that opportunity
		
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			and be among the
		
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			the the people who are happy and joyful.
		
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			And I ask Allah
		
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			to give you that joy, to to open
		
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			our eyes, to see all of
		
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			all of the blessings that he has, to
		
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			make us reminders for each other and good
		
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			role models for each other, and to allow
		
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			us to to be those people who have
		
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			spiritual energy to lift up all of those
		
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			who are in need in the world.