Self Care for the Soul

When I started doing this duck funeral, we're not coming over here to work on Valley when I ought to be logging in Cerulean phocoena Come and see the leader via the healer who follow the law. Go me you do for the

other people aren't in Majeed. But the older bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem, yah, yah to hand off to good, my inner, inner gi robic your audio Tamati.

Today I thought I would share with each and every one of us a reminder that applies to everybody.

It's a reminder about the importance of caring for our soul.

See, we live in an age where there's a lot of emphasis on self care. And this is good, right? We are trying to take care of our bodies, take care of our minds, take care of our mental health, have me time you all of these things is good. But there's one element that is often ignored. And that is the most important element of the more to care for our souls. Just as our body and our minds need to be developed, they need to be nourished, they need to be kept strong, our soul is the same. The human soul is not just something that you just leave it to be an NGO NGO grow on its own and it will develop on its own. The human soul requires constant effort to grow into the best version of itself.

So today, inshallah we'll share a brief reminder on the journey of the human soul. And how do we attain the higher levels of the soul?

In the Quran, Allah subhanho wa Taala uses three descriptions for the knifes for the show. And there are two opinions about these descriptions. The first opinion is that they are different levels of the soul. The second opinion is that they are different stages in the journey of the soul. And it is the second opinion that we are going with today because that makes more sense to me and seems to be the more consistent opinion found in both books, commenting on these verses, so Allah subhanaw taala mentions three descriptions, right. So these are three stages in the journey of the human soul. Three different levels that you can be at spiritually, let's put it let's get it like this. A human

being has a spiritual state, just like physically, you can be fired or unfit or you overworked and you you know you're injured or overworking out or you know, whatever it is, you have these different states, you either you know you're overheating or you're not eating enough, or you balanced in the middle just like that the nuts also has states and the person who's working on the mouse is not the same as the person who is ignoring it. So in Surah, Yusuf Surah, Allah Yama, and Surah Al Fajr, Allah subhanho wa Taala mentions three different descriptions of the nafs and the Allah ma have said that these are the three stages in the journey of the human soul. The first one mentioned in surah,

Yusuf is enough to Amara Bisou. A soul that is inclined towards

this is the lowest level of the human being

a human being, whose life is all about sin.

He loves to sell, she loves to sell, the identity has become sell. And you know, we live in a time where not only are people in the state where the narcissist declined to sell, but it has taken over their entire identity. When you meet someone, they don't introduce themselves as a Muslim or a Christian, they don't introduce themselves as African or American, they don't introduce themselves at a lawyer or a doctor, they introduce themselves based on the sin they're committing the most. You know, they'll say, don't use one of those letters, you know, as a part of that community, as if the one thing that defines them is the sin that they are committing over and over again. And that's all

that matters to them, that people must accept him for the sinful activity and must not even consider it to be sinful, as if nothing else matters in this world except fulfilling one's base desires. This is the lowest level and this is the level of someone who has made no effort at all to work on this. So Allah subhanaw taala describes this level of humanity that has been worse than cattle has been worse than the animals. Why worse than the animals because the animals may not be able to take the animals may not be able to philosophize, the animals may not have consciousness, but they obey Allah subhanho wa Taala they submit to their purpose in life, they do only that which Allah has commanded

him to do. And in that way, they are better than those who have given into the enough's and have created entire identities out of disobeying Allah subhanho wa taala. So this is the level that we all have to avoid and inshallah everyone who has avoided this level right?

The next level is mentioned at the beginning of Surah Al Tiama. And this tour Allah subhanho wa Taala begins the surah by taking an ODE on to things and whenever ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala takes an oath on something is something important. So Allah subhanho wa Taala begins to Yama with tools, love oxy boo boo Mila Yama wala, to be nothing the one Allah says, I swear by the Day of Judgment, and I swear by the soul that is in a state of turmoil. So this is the second level of the Soul, a soul that is in a state of inner turmoil, a soul that is conflicted, a soul that has a conscious, a soul that has a mixture of good and bad, and this is the soul of the average user. And this is the state

that our soul remains in for the bulk of our lives. And this is a good state, this is a good state. So what is not Superwoman nothing is a woman means that someone has demand. They believe in Allah subhanho wa Taala and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they are trying to do good deeds. They also slipping up and falling into since they make Toba, they make a stick fall and try again. They commit sins, they feel bad for their sins, but the demand is there. The demand is there. This is number two, the woman is conflicted. He believes in Allah but sometimes he slips up and then he feels bad for stepping up. This is a good state. This is a good state because if you have Imani

ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala and you are trying even if you are slipping up inshallah Allah will forgive you and you will enter into paradise in sha Allah is up to Allah to decide. But this is a good state to be. But this is not the goal. Right? This is the state of the average believer, it's not the goal. What is the goal? The goal when it comes to spiritual development is mentioned in the closing verses of Surah unquenchable. And we are all familiar with these verses because we recite it whenever someone passes away. Allah subhanaw taala says yeah, you do enough to good my inner Guru Ji Isla robic, e ra the Ahmadiyya oh that knifes it has attained inner peace, returned to your Lord in

a state in which he is pleased with you and you are pleased with him. This is the goal. You see the average believer will be number one, we will be in a state where we have sins and we have good deeds we have weaknesses and we have strength we are trying but we sometimes

slip up. But our goal what we should be aiming for in life is not so good Medina to achieve inner peace. What is this inner peace? It is when you are pleased with the power of Allah subhanho wa Taala wherever Allah has distinct for you, you're pleased with it is when you are pleased with the laws of Allah subhanho wa Taala wherever Lord Allah has revealed you love what Allah loves and you hate to Allah hates it is when nothing of this world fazes you. Nothing about this world peace is your focus is Allah your attachment is to Allah you are pleased with Allah, you live for Allah you die for Allah, this is not enough. And this is very difficult to achieve.

It's a lifelong goal, you do not reach the level of absolute my income. Very rarely the summit reached this level in the 20s or the 30s or the 40s. In fact, Mr Magoo to be in his explanation of this verse and he stops here, he says, You only know that you've reached the state of not so good but enough when you die, that's when you know, when you die and you reach Allah in the state that Allah is pleased to do it and you are pleased with him that's when you know okay, I have achieved not so much. Until then, you assume that your nerves is in a state of love, why am I this conflicted and you continue to work on improving himself.

So just as these the are these three states of the soul, one band and two good. Similarly, in Surah Awatea, ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala describes three types of people in the afterlife. The people of Johanna, the people of Jana, and the people of the higher levels of gender, and it correlates to the three levels of the soul. So Allah Subhana Allah talks about the people who received the book of deeds in their left hand. These are those who were not Samarra be su they follow the enough's they follow that NAFSA will decline in them towards sin.

And they live the life of sin and all they cared about what sin and they didn't bother to try and live a life that is pleasing Allah subhanho wa taala. So they sinned in the outweighing the good deeds and they end up in the worst places in the afterlife. And then Allah Subhana Allah describes the people who receive the book of deeds in the right hands, the believers, the people of gender, Allah Subhanallah describes him as believers. He doesn't describe them as perfect, right, they may slip up, they may commit sins, they may make mistakes, but he believed in they try their best and at the end of the day, the scales tipped in your favor. They end up with a book of deeds in the right

hands, they end up in general, but the third category mentioned Surah waqia is the one we aim for. And this is described as a Serbian una saga buen hula equals

that those who are rushing

to do with deeds, those who are at the forefront of doing good deeds, those who are closest to Allah subhanho wa Taala will be listed gardens, similar to me not overly vocally luminous. In the older generations, they were many of them towards the end of time, they'll be very few of them. The very interesting description in Surah Waukee, Allah subhanaw taala when you describe the people of gender Surah waqia, he says Sula terminal over, Nina was full of terminal Afifi. Many of the people of the past and many of the people of the future only when he describes the people of piety, the people who achieved the higher levels of Jannah, he says many of the people of the past and very few towards

the end of time, meaning as time goes on, more and more people will get into general, right, because they'll be more and more Muslims in the world. But less and less people will get to the higher levels of gender, because the number of Muslim Muslims are increasing. But the level of it is not.

We don't have the same number of righteous amongst us today, as they were in the time of the Sahaba of the web. With each generation, the number of Olia gets less, the number of righteous gets less, but the number of believers increases. So we be we are optimistic about getting into gender, because Allah subhanaw taala said that many of the people of the later time to enter into gender, but we are also aiming to be from amongst those few who get to the higher levels of gender. And how do you be amongst the few that get to the higher levels of gender, by working on your nerves, by working on improving the state of your nerves by working on overcoming your sins and increasing your good

deeds, so that we each day, with each day, we get one step closer towards the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa taala. You see, the journey towards gender is not a sprint, it's a marathon. It's not something that in one day you do it. You know, some people think that overnight, I'm going to be pious, it doesn't work like that. It's a long journey. You're going to be walking the straight path for many, many years, you're going to slip you're going to fall you're going to stumble, you get back up and you keep walking that path. It's only when you get to the end of that path. And when the gates of general open, then only you realize our company that we made,

but we have to get them to get them we have to work on our numbers. We live in a time with the Nazis being worshipped.

Where if you don't support people's rights, to fully indulge in their base desires, then you are the one with outcast from society, you are the one who is cancelled, you are the one who is cast aside because the nuts has become the God of the modern world.

But Islam has a solution to this. Islam teaches us how to get out of it how to break away from us. And that is to transcend this level, and to work our way up to

where they are more people in the world who earn the level of national good my income. Then when other people look at them, they will be inspired to become

a work. The greatest Dawa is the existence of righteous muscles. Because the existence of a righteous wisdom in the community is the proof that Islam is the true religion. It is a proof that is clear and obvious. When is the righteous Muslim living in a community that community sees the baraka, they see the news, they see the vertical, they see the answer, do it see the dreams coming through, they see you know that they've actually feel the presence of the angels, they see how Islam has transformed the human being into a righteous individual. And this becomes the biggest proof of Islam and that is why whenever they are righteous people in our community, the number of converts

increases.

So we all need to work on our numbers. Because not given to this modern ideology that what I want is what is right, or what Allah wants is what is right. And we must work on improving our doubts and to what Allah wants is what we want. That is the state that must work towards. So Hannah Robin is at the mercy foon was salam. Selene hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen.

In Hamdulillah,

moody who is known as the Pharaoh mean with our karate Biller, immaturely on pushing up for means the yard Jamar Leda via the love for love or the love for me.

How do we work on the nerves? That's the big question, right? We all try. Every single one of us is trying all of us we experience speed bumps in our life. All of us had the moment in our life. We said I'm going to be pious, I'm going to be righteous, I'm going to be a good Muslim. And we try and we try and we slip and we fail. And we get frustrated with ourselves. Why can't I do it? And some people find it hard to wake up to a job and they get frustrated with themselves. Some people find it hard to pray five times a day and to get frustrated with themselves. Some people have an addiction and it just can't give it up and they're frustrated with themselves. How do I move forward? How do I

reach a higher level of Eman? Well, there are many things we can do. The Quran and the Sunnah are full of it.

ideas of how to improve your naps, how to get closer to Allah subhanho wa taala. We just need to study these and implement some of them. Now, we should also remember, that is not going to be overnight, you're not going to go from a person who commits 1000 sins to a person who commits zeroes and overnight. But you can go from someone who commits 1000 sins to someone who commits. 999 says, you can take gradual step towards Allah, you can have gradual improvement. And over many decades, that builds up, that makes a difference in who you are today is better than who you were yesterday. That's the goal, who you will be tomorrow is better than who you actually that's the goal, that we

have graduate steps. So my first bit of advice to everybody is to be realistic. Be realistic, understand, our goal is to reach the highest levels of demand. But we're not going to get there overnight, set a realistic plan for yourself. Start small, if there are three sinful habits you're trying to get rid of pick one of the pick the worst one, the one that you're most ashamed of, and make a plan a six month to 12 month plan to get rid of that sin from your life. And just focus on that. Make that your task for the next six to 12 months. Make that the way you play by yourself for the next six to 12 months. Make sure that you have something you're focusing on. And that's step

number one of improving yourself is will have

to hold yourself to account to take time if you think to myself, What am I doing wrong? How can I improve? What am I since what good deeds am I not doing? What can I do to get closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala and then to build a plan around it, and to keep reevaluating this every day to make sure that you are on the path and you're moving in the right direction. Remember, if you're not moving in the right direction, moving in the wrong direction, right the way to Jana and Johanna. There's no middle party going either way. There's no third place you're gonna end up. So we have to make sure that we are moving in the right direction, have a plan. Take stock of yourself. Step

number two, it is one good deed that everybody should focus on. It's solar. The solar is number one. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that on the Day of Judgment, the first thing we'll be asked about is our follow up. If that is in order, and everything else will be in order. Our Salah is number one. So if we are not praying five times a day, starting five times a day, if you are praying five times a day, start praying. If you are praying, the sooner you start praying tahajjud if you're paying 200 Increase the number of records

if you are increasing the number of records increase your costs, you increase the length of your Salah, there's always room for improvement.

The nature of us is that our Salah is never perfect, there's always something we can improve, we could recite longer surah you can make longer such that we can pray more. So now we can pray about that field is always something we could do to improve the quality of our salah. But that Salah is number one, it is our connection to Allah subhanho wa Taala one of our big problems today is that we treat Salah like it's a ritual, you know it just something we go up and down and we don't get anything out of it. We need to move away from them. We have to look at Salah as a connection with the Creator, that you are talking to Allah and Allah is talking to you and you need to feel that in

your heart. So Salah is most important for improving our spiritual state. Number three, we must every day of our lives, make instant fun ask Allah for forgiveness. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would make you sick five everyday and he was already sinless. So us the average human beings with all of our sins, we should be asking Allah for forgiveness at least 100 times a day.

Number four, stay in the company of the pious. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that a man follows the way of life of his closest friend. So be very careful whom you choose as your friends. Now we normally go this hadith when we are warning people against bad company, right? But the Hadith applies both ways. You are following the way of life of your closest friend. So yes, if your your closest friend is a bad person, some of these habits are gonna rub off onto you. But also if your closest friend is a righteous person, in some of his righteous happens, will also refer to you. So keep the company of the righteous and you yourself will learn from them, you will develop

the qualities you will learn to be like them, we must ensure that the friendships that we have and the people who are closest to us, the people who have an influence on us are righteous individuals. This is very important. And it's important not just in terms of the effect they have on us. Because if you have a good relationship with the righteous person, they will tell you when you are slipping up. They will tell you listen, you're getting a bit arrogant. Listen, you know, I'm worried about Ria, why did you start to show up with your good deeds? I'm noticing you're not lowering your gaze anymore. And righteous friend will advise the advisor in private and advise you with wisdom. They

provide you with compassion, but they will advise you because they care about you. They care about you get you often and this is the benefit of righteous company.

There are many other things many

Other things we can do to improve the state of our nerves. But I will say you just focus on these five if you don't have anything else to focus on yet. Number one, take time to think about your good deeds and your bad, it's more hassle. Number two, pray Salah and improve on yourself. Number three, ask Allah for forgiveness every single day multiple times a day. Number four, keep the company of the righteous and number five. Number five, find at least one sinful habit from your life to remove and dedicate the next six to 12 months removing the habit, maybe commitment, maybe COVID The I've never committed this sin again. Make a plan to remove the sun from your life and work on them. If we

do these things that inshallah inshallah we will be better people tomorrow than we actually. And this will continue every day until we meet Allah in a state that He is pleased with us and we are pleased with him.

Finally,

just a reminder for all of us on this point, is that even on this journey, when you try to give up a sin or do a good good deed, you are going to slip up. Right maybe you only Allah, Allah blesses someone that truly take the sprint towards the end, those who Allah is truly blessed. they attain piety very quickly. But for the rest of us, there's going to be slip ups. So maybe you choose a sin to give up after four or five months before back into it. Don't let that discourage you make Toba and try again. Make Toba and try again. See what you did wrong, try and figure out maybe it's the company maybe there's a trigger in my community. Maybe there's some cultural influence. Maybe you

know, somebody makes me angry and I finally figure out what causes you to sin and try to get rid of the cause of disease. But keep trying don't ever give up because if you keep trying, then this is what Allah looks at. Allah does not expect perfection from us. He simply expects us to try our best to a class. If you are trying your best sincerely to please Allah subhanho wa Taala then that is enough. So we ask Allah to make us are the people of righteousness to make us the people of piety to forgive us for our sins, and to accept our good deeds in Nagahama like and

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