An Itchy Heart – Temptations Addictions

Bismillah hirahara him and hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah. Meanwhile, he was happy I am about but first of all, I would like to express how happy I am to be in beautiful Sri Lanka. I'm very happy to be here with my brothers and sisters. And I'm also very happy to see how diverse it is here in Sri Lanka, that Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, living together, all of them respecting one another. Likewise, I was very impressed by too high.

I was very impressed by how Muslims here had a very respectful attitude towards non Muslims of all my travels, and I've been to almost 50 countries around the world, I have never met a Muslim population that is so mindful and respectful of the feelings of others. So May Allah reward you for that and inshallah Keep up the good work.

So on to our topic, we're talking about addictions, and we're talking about temptations. Now, I would like to begin by asking you a question.

What if you attended a lecture about addictions and temptations of the heart, and the speaker began to comment about how you can solve and cure addictions, if you have a relationship with Allah subhanaw taala. If you fill your heart with love of Allah azza wa jal, and if you connect to Allah, with Salah, and you can solve your problems and your addictions, with Salah.

Mostly, most likely, a lot of people in the audience, if the speaker were to say that a lot of people in the audience would think, well, this man does not understand the workings of the human mind. And he doesn't understand psychology. And he's just a very simple minded person, he does not accept or understand the complexities of the addiction, and how it works. He's not a therapist, and he's just a simple minded person thinking that through prayer, Salah, you can fix things as complex as addiction that actually need therapists and therapy to solve.

So the question is, where does our knowledge of how addiction works? Where does it come from? A lot of what we know today about addiction comes from experiments that were conducted in the early 20th century. And these experiments involved rats. So they had a rat put a rat in a cage. And they give this rat two bottles of water in his cage, one contained pure water, and the other contained water laced with heroin, and sometimes laced with cocaine. And so they started to observe what the rat would do. And the rat would go to the water that had the drug in it. And then the rat would continuously go back to it, until the rat became obsessed with it, and kept drinking so much of it

that it overdosed, and it would kill itself. And this was repeated a number of times, and the rug kept repeating, going back and overdosed and kill itself. And so the same thing they tell you, if you were to, to inject heroin into your system, for 20 days, by the 21st, day, you will be addicted to heroin, and you'll be craving it. And they say, because of something known as chemical hooks, that would cause your body and your brain to crave this drug. So in the 21st day, you'd be hooked and addicted to this. And this goes back to the rat experiment where they're starting to learn this these behaviors of the rat. So that's where for the most part, our theories on addiction came from

everyone with me? Okay.

In the 1970s,

a researcher and scientist by the name of Bruce Alexander, he looked at the rat experiment again, and he noticed something that might be wrong with it. He noticed that the experiment was conducted with a lone rat in a cage by itself, one rat, lonely, bored in a cage by itself, and that's why it kept going to the drug to drug induced water and just kept getting itself high until it overdosed and killed itself.

So he said, he started thinking, What if the experiment wasn't a lonely rat, and he created something called rat Park, which is a really fancy cage, where he put rats in. They had colorful balls that they could play with. They had food they had other rats that they could marry and play with and all kinds of things

tunnels that they could go into. And then they put in rat Park, the two bottles again, one laced with the heroin, and the other, just regular water.

And they noticed that no rats became addicted to the heroin, no route kept going back to that water at all. And no rat became obsessed with it until the point of overdose, not a single rat died. And all of them for the most part, all of them just drank from the regular water.

So this started now to put a shift in the theory behind addiction.

And he said, then maybe this phenomenon just applies to rats. How can we test this with humans? It has been done. They went and examined American soldiers during the Vietnam War. American soldiers and 1000s were stationed in Vietnam. But of the 1000s that were stationed in Vietnam, 20% of them were heroin users and used heroin on a regular basis. And the news started coming back to America saying our soldiers 20% of them are heavy heroin users. So the population started to worry, because they started to think that 1000s of people are going to come back as junkies and heroin addicts and cause problems and crimes. But the interesting thing is that when these soldiers returned back to

the United States, they 95% of them gave up heroin, without going to rehab without going to clinics without any help. They give up the drug, which is really interesting.

So

that said, that, what they discovered, now, they started to shift the theory and the way they understood addiction, and they start to see that human beings, we need to bond with something, our hearts need to connect with something. So these soldiers came back, see the difference between them using it. In Vietnam, they were lonely in the in the forest, or in the jungles, expecting death at any moment, they didn't have the social network that they needed. So they abused this drug. But when they came home, they were back with their loved ones, they bonded with other people and everything. And that's why it was so easy for them. They were not addicts, and they gave it up. Even though we

believe that after 20 days, the chemical hooks make you dependent on the drug. But now we see evidence indicating that it's not really about the chemical hooks. It's about your heart and bonding. And so your heart and its attachment. You have loved ones, you have a network of social a social network around you, you can give it up easily. You don't even need rehab 95% we said, gave it up without rehab. Everyone see where we're going with this? Yeah.

So they said that, when you have nothing to bond with, you bond with chemicals, you bond with pornography, you bond with video games, you bond with gambling, you find somewhere and something to fill your heart with.

Now, this is a new shift in understanding addiction. This is something new. So they found that the way out of addiction is to form a healthy bond. This material this information is kind of new now. And it's starting to change how scientists are looking at addiction.

The truth is, we knew this since 1400 years ago,

Allah Subhana Allah says, In the Quran, Allah Zina Amano. Those who believe will talk to my inner kulu, whom by decree law and their hearts, find content with the remembrance of Allah and be decree law, he talks to my internal kolu isn't it through an only through the remembrance of Allah? Do hearts find content? Hard that content doesn't go after drugs, stimulation through chemicals or bond with anything besides Allah azza wa jal. Now, let's go back to that speaker who gave the lecture on addiction. And he said you can fix it by heart, attaching your heart to Allah and you can fix it through salah and having a relationship with Allah azza wa jal. Now after this new information about

addiction, was that simple minded shift right? Or was he wrong?

He was 100% right. We call them a simpleton. We said he doesn't understand the workings of the human mind. He doesn't understand psychology, but it turns out that he is right. And he's right, because Allah said it in the Quran. And Allah is always right in the Quran.

So now let's look at how you deal with temptations, and how you deal with addiction and addictions in your heart, in light of the Koran, meaning when you have an attachment with a loss upon what

Other,

the scholars given analogy to your heart, they see your heart is a vessel, just like this bottle of water.

It is filled with water right now. And if I were to open it and empty out the water, immediately as the water leaves, something else will replace the water and there is air correct. And if it's completely empty, full of air, and I start to add water, as the water comes in, it immediately replaces the air. So one comes in the other leaves and vice versa. But there is never a moment where I empty the bottle, and no air comes in and it's just a vacuum. And it stays a vacuum for a day or two. And then slowly air starts to come in. No, it's instant as air comes in water leaves or as water comes in, air leaves instantly. And if you were to be a vacuum, what happened to this bottle,

it would crash it would crush it would collapse. And your heart is the same way. It is always filled with the love of something or another.

If your heart is not filled with the love of Allah azza wa jal, it would be filled with the love of something else, real estate, cars, politics, whatever it is, from the treasures and from the things of this dunya that will occupy your heart. And

there is no way that your heart will be empty of everything. And then slowly you introduce the love of Allah. If you want to get your heart rate of the love of anything in this dunya fill it with the love of Allah xojo and it will push out whatever else is occupying your heart.

And if you understand this, you will avoid common mistakes that many parents make. where for example, they have a child who's in love with something, it could be a sport could be music, it could be an instrument. And so the parents want him to stop that. And they want his heart to be filled with love of Allah. So what technique do they use a very bad technique, they come and sit down with him. And they keep telling him

how bad this is, and how long this is and how you should leave it thinking they can just yank it out of his heart. And then when his heart is empty, then two three days later, they come and introduce him to the ledger. That doesn't work like that. The best technique would be to start to introduce this person to Allah azza wa jal while they're doing whatever they're doing, and as their relationship with Allah subhanaw taala improves, and as their love of Allah subhanaw taala increases in the heart, they will find it easy to move on and to give up whatever it is that used to be occupying their heart.

So love of Allah subhanaw taala and it is something that is very powerful. The scholars of Islam say that love of Allah azzawajal is stronger and better than the taqwa fear of Allah xojo love loving the loss of how to Allah is more effective than if you fear Allah subhanaw taala Why is that? The scholars say, if you fear Allah subhanaw taala what's the effect of that fear? The effect of having fear of Allah subhanaw taala is that you will not do the Haram you will stay away from things that are Haram. That's, for the most part, the effect of having fear of Allah azza wa jal. What is the effect of loving Allah subhanaw taala? What's the effect of love? The scholars say the effect of

love is far greater than the effect of fear. Because when you love Allah subhanaw taala you go above and beyond the person who fears Allah will pray five times a day, do what Allah commands and stay away from the harem. Because if there's a lot, but the one who loves them loves to Allah does all the above. And on top of that, because he loves the law, or she loves a lot. They will do extra good deeds, and wake up and pray extra rock hard rock out of them, and fast extra days. And because they love of Allah subhanaw taala they will find it easier to give up whatever bad deed. Here's an example.

You've seen smokers and you know how smokers quit. They tell you I quit. And three minutes later you find them outside smoking. What's wrong stress, that we're all stressed. All right, you're not the only one. But smokers are always quitting and going back to smoking, quitting going back to smoking. But then this friend of yours who has been trying to quit smoking for three or four or five years, one day you see him and he's quit smoking. He asked him what happened. How did you quit Suddenly, he says Well, my fiance said, if you want to marry me, you have to give up smoking. And I gave it up instantly. SubhanAllah

You know why? He gave it up instantly. Because he's in love. Because he loves her so much. He gave up smoking instantly.

When you love you find it easy to give up things for the sake of the one that you love. And we don't compare a lot to his creations.

But if this person loved the LA zoo, he would have quit four years ago. Instead of every time you tell him why don't you quit make, make a dog like there's $1 of cigarette smoking. You said this dog helaas it's over.

But now that is in love, he quit it like this, this the power of love. That's why the scholar said, Love is more effective than fear. And we have a loving God and Allah Subhana Allah is Allah do the loving. And we have this section and scholars wrote about loving a lot of xojo and many Hadith. And Hadith puts puts the Hadith about how Allah will love you and so on. But we've forgotten that part. And we think the God of love you think of other religions, you know, we have Taqwa tequila, that's as far as it goes. But we have love. And when you love a lot of zodion, you find it so easy to give up things for his sake. So many people struggling with things. They're supposed to give up for the

for this religion. They're supposed to give up for Allah subhanaw taala. But what does that really say about how much they love allows origin, this man who couldn't quit smoking for four years, and he quit like this because of the girl because he loved her. What does it say about his love of Allah subhanaw taala. And if you truly love the origin, how easy would it have been for him to give up smoking a long time ago?

Loving Allah azzawajal Nothing is more powerful than that.

Even Sina Rahim Allah, he was traveling with his servant. His servants name was Abdullah. And he was travelling in the distant part of hora sun. And it was very cold, very cold time. And it was a very cold night. And he needed something he was up doing some work and he needed his servant to do something for him. His servant, Abdullah loved him very much. And I always like to try to help him and please him and serve him. But that night, it was so cold. even seen a cold Abdullah who is under his blanket. In this cold night, he didn't want to get out of bed. So he said Abdullah, Abdullah ignored him. Abdullah ignored him. And he kept ignoring him.

It was he knew that he heard him.

But he knew that he preferred his comfort over his he preferred his own comfort over the comfort of urban center. And he thought to himself, That's strange. My servant I'm the law always wants to help me and always wants to serve me and make me happy. But tonight, it's so cold, he preferred his comfort, over my comfort, he doesn't care what I need, he wants to be comfortable. He said he was thinking like that. And a little while later, he hears them. And back then they didn't have microphones. So the one who makes the call for prayer would climb all the way up this minute. And the cold wind would be blowing, and it's a cold morning, and he made the oven. He said when I heard

them, then I thought to myself, This man now this chorus on a man gets up and he leaves his bed in the comfort of his warm bed. And he goes all the way up the mineral in the cold morning in the cold morning and he with the cold air hitting him and he makes the oven. He said at that moment I realized that true love results in obedience and full complete obedience of Allah subhanaw taala meaning the love that this man is more than had for Allah subhanaw taala is far greater than the love my servant had for me. And he chose obeying a lot over his own comfort, while this servant chose his own comfort over obeying me and my comfort, loving a loss of how to odd makes you do

things that are just unbelievable. I'll tell you an interesting story though, just came to my mind. Of course, we all know the dedication of the tableta Jamaat True or false? I mean, you cannot deny the dedication. When I was living in Pakistan, there was a Sudanese student at the University at the university and then Paxton and he the Tbilisi Jamaat came to him or they met him in the masjid and you know, their technique of convincing they convinced him to give up for days courage, disability law, right? He says, Okay, let's go. He did. They didn't tell him where they're going. And he said these men started taking me so high up the mountains and it was freezing cold and snowing and I

wasn't prepared with jackets or thick blanket with what I had this thin blanket and we're in the top of this freezing cold mountain. He said they would wake me up for fudger and like I don't want to get up for the water even It's so cold. He said they would make these men get up and the they're moving around for Virginia and everything making will do said they'd wake me up and I don't want to get up. It's so cold wind is blowing and I have this thin blanket and they will give me a bowl

and this bowl has water for a while.

But it's so cold that it's iced over. And he said I have to punch through the ice and then use the freezing cold water to make Waldo in the freezing cold, windy atmosphere.

But really without overpraising those men in the sight of Allah, look at that dedication. What would make you go in the freezing cold and make Waldo with freezing cold water? If it's not the love of Allah subhanaw taala Love is a strong force and it's a driving force can love make you give up addiction? What do you think the research said? Didn't the research suggest that when your heart bonds with something else, you can give up chemical addictions? Not only that, these saw that the you know, we're talking about heroin addiction, right, which is a very strong drug. When someone goes to the hospital, and they have like a major injury or like they break their hip, they give them

a drug known as diamorphine. Die. morphine is basically a very pure form of heroin,

a pure form because the heroines that the drug dealer mixes it with other things and it becomes diluted that becomes impure. But diamorphine is a pure form of heroin, and someone would break their hip and they would give them diamorphine for over 20 days. We said, if you take heroin for 20 days by the 21st day, you're you're addicted because of the chemical. But if they give you diamorphine, which is stronger than regular heroin for more than 20 days, and then they take you out of the hospital, you don't become addicted. So what does that mean? And that's when they start to realize the old theory of addiction is wrong. And it's all about the heart. And if the heart bond with

something else, it can easily remove the drugs, the chemicals, and not be attached to it. So does not tell us if our heart is attached to Allah subhanaw taala it would be easier to push away temptation, it would be easier to push away addiction. And it's not oversimplifying it. Love is something very powerful. And nothing is like loving Allah subhanaw taala true love of Allah azza wa jal that fills the heart. So let's look

at

other examples here. What does loving Allah subhanaw taala do? And how does that affect your worship? And how does that affect your heart? You know, one of the great scholars was asked by someone, he said, why is it that people hate death? He didn't say why do people fear death? It's natural for people to fear death. But he said, Why do people hate death? And the scholar answered him in a very, very wise way. He said, If someone spent his entire life preparing for his life in one area, and then suddenly you uproot him, and put him in another area where he never made any preparations for would they look forward to going there?

No. So he's saying, people spend their whole life building for their life on Earth, and very little effort for building their life in the next life. What would they be looking forward to it? Let's take, let's take this hypothetical here.

And let's make it a man from Sri Lanka. A man from Sri Lanka goes to America. And let's say also, He forgive me for this. He's illegal in America. All right, he's illegal. He doesn't have papers. But he's working three jobs and he's working really hard. And every time he gets some money, he sends it back home to Sri Lanka. Then he bought a plot of land and he keeps working. Then he built a really nice house on that plot of land, and it keeps working and sending money. Then they bought a car for him. His family bought the car with the money, he sent us a nice car, and he kept it parked. Now, instead of this in front of this nice house. Then he keeps working and he sends money and puts it in

a bank account in Sri Lanka. And then his mother finds him a beautiful Sarah Lankan girl

is going to marry her. And he's just building for this life somewhere else. And then one day he is going to work. Immigration comes in, they seize him. He said, Come here.

You're illegal. Yes, I'm illegal. We're going to deport you. We're going to send you on a plane back to Sri Lanka. What does he say? He said, You know what? I'm sick and tired of delivering pizza. Anyways, I've got a mansion, a beautiful wife waiting for me and a brand new car. And now you're gonna send me for free, because when they deport you, they send you for free. You're gonna save me some money. I am very looking forward to this adventure. True or false? So why is he looking forward to being sent there? Because he built houses there and he has things that he's eagerly awaiting and expecting to go to over there. But what if it's, they caught him and they said, we're going to send

you to Bangladesh. You have no friends there no relatives, no house, nothing and from the just go from the airport and into the streets and mela help you is you're going to look forward to them. Yes, I want to go to Bangladesh.

No, I'm from Sri Lanka, no Bangladesh, right? So this is what the scholar is saying. He's saying people don't build for the for the hereafter for the next life. Why would they look forward to it? All day long. I'm working towards my net mansion here, my house here. My effort is all here. And then the Angel of Death comes to you and says, excuse me, sir. Let's go there. So no, no, no, no, I want to stay here. I didn't even get to enjoy the house. Man. We have to go there. Nobody looks forward to that. Imagine you lived your life preparing for their imagine you live your life preparing for the next life. Meaning you know from the Hadith, whoever prays 12 hours outside of the

five daily prayers 12 obligatory 12 additional volunteers are caught between the day and night in the day and night alone will build a house for them in paradise. So today, you completed your 12 rock art, and in your mind, you're counting. I have one magnificent house now in paradise. Tomorrow, you do it again. I've got another house now in paradise. And now you're counting. I've got 15 houses in paradise. But now I need to build the gardens around them. The prophets, Allah Salam when he ascended to the heavens, Ibrahim Alayhi. Salam told him to give our his oma us a Salaam, the only prophet who said tell you Oh, my Santa Monica. And then he says, tell your oma that the land of

Elgin is very fertile, and the use and to plant something in agenda. You say sapan Allah, when hamdu Lillah Allahu Akbar, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, saying these four, every time you say one of them, a tree is planted for you one of the trees is planted for you near that palace that you built now because of the 12 o'clock. And so you say today, 5000 times Subhan Allah hamdulillah lojack por la la la la, tomorrow you say 7000 times and every time you say it, you in your mind, imagine this tree sprouting, and that's your tree. And now you've got this house with big trees, this other house with 7000 trees, this house with 10,000 trees, and now you're building towards this next life. And you're

looking forward to it. That's how it works.

The Prophet sallallahu Sallam said, Man, 100 balaka Allah, a habibollah Holika. Whoever loves to meet Allah, Allah will love to meet them.

Think of this right now as you're sitting here and only you can answer this question to yourself. Right now. If death came to us, would we be pleased or not? wouldn't we be looking forward to it or not? Or would we be completely turned off by the idea of dying right now? Today? Oh, I'm not ready. I didn't make hogenom. I didn't make this Toba that I wanted. I didn't pray the way I wanted to pray before I meet Allah Georgia. So what if you're sitting right now? And you hate the idea of meeting Allah subhanaw taala?

If that's the case, then right now, as you're sitting here, Allah subhanaw taala in his magnificence upon his throne,

hates to meet you.

And how heartbreaking is that idea that Allah subhanaw taala hates to see you. Only because you hate to see him.

If you examine the life of the early Muslims, they were so aware of this, and they were so aware of and so badly wanted to see Allah subhanaw taala

belaga on when he was on his deathbed, his wife started saying words of you know, any sadness and so on. And he says, Don't say that. He says, tomorrow, we meet our Beloved Muhammad and his companions. Can you imagine someone on their deathbed, and they're excited about meeting the Prophet sallallahu sallam, and the rest of the companions? Who were his friends. That's what he was looking forward to. He didn't hate the ideas. I'm gonna see the prophets are seldom and the companions,

one of the early Muslims was on his deathbed. And his he started to cry. So his family and his friends thought he's crying because he's going to miss them and he's going to miss his children. So I said, That's not why I'm crying, and listened to why he was crying.

He said, I'm crying because I'm going to miss the arm will leave.

I'm going to miss speaking to Allah subhanaw taala in the depth of the night, I'm going to be in my grave for 1000s of years no more drama, no more crying to Allah. No more speaking to a large surgeon. And that is what is making me cry right now. Can you imagine someone who loves worshipping Allah subhanaw taala so much that when they're on their deathbed, that's what they're going to miss. That's what they're going to miss. They're not worried about anything else.

These are people who love to meet a lot.

Upon Tod, one of the early Muslims with was on his deathbed he was ill. And then he heard the other. So he told his children to carry him he told his sons to carry him to the masjid. And they said, Oh Father, you're ill and the ill person is exempt from going to the masjid. You don't have to go. He said, Subhana Allah. for 40 years, I've been making dua to Allah azza wa jal that I die in my sujood. Now I'm sick, and I'm almost about to die and you want me to pray at home. And that goes against the I've been making for years, I've been asking to die in the masjid making sujood now when I'm sick and I'm about to die, you told me pray here, you don't have to go. And he insisted, and

they carried him to the masjid. And in the last semester of the last traka, Allah subhanaw taala took away his soul, just as he is to make people preparing and planning for the day when they meet Allah subhana wa Tada.

And there is not one story like this, but it's multiple stories from the early Muslims. And that's how they wanted to meet Allah subhanaw taala and they plan for it. And that's why these two love the worship of Allah is origin these two love worshipping Allah subhanaw taala. So if you're an affiliate, I'ma holla, a contemporary of Imam Abu hanifa. He goes into sujood after Muslim prayer, he goes into frustration, and he kept his head down, and the eyewitness said he did not lift up his head until he heard the other than for a shot.

This is one long such. Why wasn't it boring? Why wasn't it difficult? Why did they pray so many long hours at night and not get bored?

Let me ask you a question.

Does anyone get tired of sleeping?

And it does anyone like sleep and then wake up and like, my body is hurting? I hate sleeping is so difficult for me. And it makes me more tired. It's like a joke about a very lazy man. They said what do you do if you sleep for a long time? Like for 14 straight hours? What's the first thing you do? He said 14 straight hours. That's a long time. First thing I woke up I rest a little bit.

So nobody gets tired of sleeping. You know why? Because sleeping is relaxing. It relaxes you. It makes you feel better. It brings you comfort. And that's why no one's gets tired of sleeping. How can you get tired of something that makes you not tired? How can you get tired of something that makes you comfortable? So we don't get tired of sleeping because of these descriptions. The early Muslims didn't get tired of salah and tm at night and reciting the Quran. Because of these same descriptions. It made them comfortable. It made them feel better. It made them relaxed. Why would you get tired of something like that? That's exactly how it works. And that's why you hear about

their worship. And sometimes you hear how these to worship Allah azza wa jal and the shaitaan might come to you and say, You know what, that's not possible. That's probably an exaggeration. It's gonna say something very interesting. They said, the further you are away from something, the more impossible it seems to you, meaning young man is trying to memorize for and he's stuck on sort Albania for two months, he can't move past to the banner 11 verses he can't move past Albania, Albania. And you tell him by the way, there's some people who memorize the entire book. How, how unbelievable does that look to him?

Because he's far from it. It looks impossible. How can they memorize the whole book I don't understand. Now imagine you tell a young man who memorize 27 years of the Quran 27 parts of the Quran. And you tell him there are people who memorize a whole 30 parts of the Quran? Is he going to be amazed? Because he's closer to it. And so what do you think I'm doing? I have three more. Not a problem. But when you far away from something that seems impossible. This is a true story that happened in our lifetime. And the chef who told me the story, heard it directly from the man dismantles him. He says, I went to shift so and so one of the shoe that's still living today. And I

asked him the following question, I said, how is it that we hear these narrations of early Muslims who used to complete the entire Quran in one night and with might have not been completed the entire Quran in one locker? He said, How are they able to do that? The chef said Do you know where my houses he said yes. He said prayer Anisha and come to me immediately after he said I want after Isha immediately to the chef's house, knock on the door the door just said do you have Volvo said yes. He said stand next to me. Allahu Akbar. And he said the chef start reciting the entire Koran. And when it was almost vegetal right after Isha, when it was almost time he completed the whole must have and

he said a Solomonic masala saramonic Rasul Allah

There is your answer to your question. Have Any more questions? No, no sure.

But what did they find it so easy? Because they enjoyed the worship of Allah subhanaw taala they enjoyed it. And they focused and it became easier, and they love the laws of oil, and they were planning for their departure and they love to meet Allah subhanaw taala the scholar says the only way you would love to meet Allah azza wa jal is if you've prepared adequately, you did your Askari that is too far you did mention of Allah Subhana Allah and you're praying extra prayers and you're doing the best. You're doing the best of your putting the best of your abilities into active worship. These are the people who are okay with the idea of meeting Allah somehow Donna, but if your

deeds are horrible, and you're ashamed of them, and they're loaded with sins, and you're falling short, when it comes to the obligatory deeds, you don't want to meet Allah subhanaw taala with deeds like this. It's only people who put effort in their deeds, we ask Allah subhanaw taala to make us from that group.

That's the effect of loving Allah azza wa jal. It's such a powerful effect on your heart. You can give up temptation, because you love allows religion, you can overcome a lot of addictions and we will still admit that there are probably certain personality types, certain types of addictions that you need to go to therapy for. And there's nothing shameful or wrong about getting therapy or help from a doctor or believing brother or sister. There's nothing wrong with that.

But how much more Would it help you with your therapy if you build your relationship with Allah subhanaw taala.

You know, look at how our time is spent in this dunya if our life is time, isn't it, our life is time, how is our life spent How is our time spent? They tell you, one third of your life is spent sleeping. So all of us one third of our life is gone just asleep. Then they give you other things. For example, you will spend 11 years of your whole life 11 years will be at work working 11 years at work. You will spend three years in your car. Or for sir Lanka for Colombo, maybe four years with traffic.

You spent three and a half years eating

you will spend six months waiting in line for things waiting in line to pay waiting in line at the airport waiting six months of your life will be spent waiting in line you will spend five months of your life complaining about anything just complaining and complaining complaining maybe for a woman seven months I don't know the saying complain too much just about the husband.

You spent 20 weeks of your life on hold you call a company they put you on hold and you just waiting.

You will spend three years of your life on the toilet scuse me and brushing your teeth. Not at the same time of course. But maybe we should do it at the same time to save some time.

You will spend a year out of your whole life looking at women. One study showed that men spend about 43 minutes a day looking at women. And I don't mean accidental looking, I mean this kind of looking.

And women spend 23 minutes a day looking at men that comes to a year looking at women a year of your life spent looking you have to explain to a lot of soldiers a year of this one full year and six months for a woman looking at men. This is how our time is going. You will spend two years of your life at meetings in meetings at work. Two years in meetings. If you watch television, estimates are anywhere from nine to 11 years of your life will be spent in front of the television.

So what's left now, what's left, how much time is left of all the time left. That's time for anything else you have reading the newspaper, your hobbies and spending time with your children. If you have a full time job, you only see your children four months out of the year. Because if you work eight hours, that's four months. If you sleep eight hours a day, that's another four months, what do you have left four months to see your children and do all the other things and see your friends and have coffee and tea with them and all the other stuff. So what's left? How much time how much of our life is spent in obligatory Salawat. The five daily prayers, not thoroughly an extra

prayers, just the five delivers how many years of our life do we spend in Salah who can take a guess?

Three years

to one. If you say three years that means you're assuming that you spend the same time in the five developers that you spend on a lunch at lunch or a dinner table. Because that's three years. The estimate is that it's about one year

Your life spent on the five daily prayers

isn't ashamed that we're going to meet Allah Subhana Allah, with one year of salah and three years of toilet and brushing teeth.

Wallah isn't it a shame?

So our life is passing by.

I only know of one technique to take back your life. And if you know another technique, share it with me.

The only way I know to take back your life is with and through Vicar of Allah azzawajal

through dhikr of Allah subhanaw taala.

What wherever you are, your tongue is constantly making remembrance of Allah azza wa jal, the only way to take your life back. You're standing in line make Vicar of Allah azza wa jal, you're in your car make the crivellaro soldier we know I know brother in our area who memorized the entire for an in his car inside his car, the whole book in his car. Because our area which is the Washington DC area, we have some of the worst traffic in America the top 10 worst when he learned this fact, he took advantage of it. So he would make a photocopy of one page of the Quran, clip it to the dashboard of his car, he's stuck in traffic, he reads a verse and keeps repeating it. He stops with

traffic light reads, a verse keeps repeating it there's an accident, he'll read a verse keep repeating it, him and then he would change to the next page and so on memorize the entire book of Elon his car, he took advantage of his time. What if I make a deal with myself? Every time I'm on hold and we said you will be on hold for 20 weeks of your life. Every time I'm on hold, I'm going to say Subhan Allah will be handed.

The Prophet sallallahu Sallam said if you say Subhana Allah will be handy 100 times there will be nobody on the Day of Judgment who has done something better than you. Except for the one who said it more. You said 100 times no one's better than you or has done something better than you on the Day of Judgment, except the one who said it 120 times or 1000 times I said this in a lecture one time and an uncle came up to me he said My father used to say 10,000 times every single day.

So how long does it take to say Subhan Allah will be handy at regular speed. We're talking about regular speed Vicar. We're not talking about that the speed that superspeed people finished a lot under like spawn, spawn, spawn, spawn, spawn, spawn, spawn, hamba hamba hamba hamba hamba luck Karma Karma Karma Karma was this luck but who is humla.

And this is a true story. There was a woman she was seized upon law once and counted twice. Mashallah, just to finish, and I'm happy she doesn't use her feet also.

But we're talking about saying hello behind the slowly 100 times how long does it take to say that? We timed it? It takes two minutes, 15 seconds or two minutes, 30 seconds to say somehow lo behandling. Somehow law will be handy. at regular speed, two minutes, 15 seconds, you would say 100 times? What if I decide every time I'm on hold, which is going to be 20 weeks of my life. Every time I'm on hold, I'm constantly going to be saying stuff Hello behind. My friend says can you hold Wait a minute.

They come back I finish. All right. If I do that, for the 20 weeks in my life that I'm on hold, I would have said so panelo byham de 1,064,000 times.

That's the deed that you come with on the Day of Judgment. So I'm convinced and if you have another technique, share it with me. The only way to take back your life is through the color of a loss of Hano Todd, the early Muslims were very aware of this fact. And they were even very aware of how, how the time was being spent. One of the scholars, he used to break the bread first and crumble it into bits and pieces before eating it. And they said, Why do you do that? He said, I noticed the difference between eating and whole and crushing it first is that I can make the granola three times per chew. This is how some people used to calculate their time and their worship. And the sad thing

is brothers and sisters, we're going to be resurrected with the same people on the same plane. We don't have another day of resurrection, who will be with them? How far behind Are we going to be? Or how much are we going to push ourselves so the gap is not big. One of my favorite stories is one of the early Muslims. He was praying at night and he's a human being like anyone else. He felt the pain and the fatigue and the difficulty. So he sat down between the Turo cart and he took a stick and he hid his legs because they're his legs were tired and they were painful. So he was like almost like as a symbol of getting angry with them hit his legs and he said do the companions of the Prophet SAW

Selim think they're going to surpass us by far? He said well law he then as a human know whom Allah Yani it's true. The Companions have a big

gap away from us. They're far from us. But we're going to do our best and push ourselves to make that gap a little bit smaller. They worked hard for laws again, we're going to work hard and push ourselves also. And that's what's required of us right now. So if we pushed ourselves if we enjoyed, enjoined the worship of Allah Subhana Allah, how much would the love of a large beard fill our hearts and that love? What would it push away of lusts, desires, temptations addictions, it is not far fetched. It is not over simplifying. It is what Allah subhanaw taala told us 1400 years ago,

this is how the hearts find content.

You want to worship Allah subhanaw taala and be successful in your worship? Like a successful prayer. Allah subhanaw taala begins with a million in this way. A lot of it says Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim God, men on the believers have prospered. Then Allah subhanaw taala gives you the first reason why, and levina homefree sala de him, her Sharon, those who are focused, humbled in their prayers they have for sure. They're focusing in their prayers. So they're successful, because they focus in their prayers. So let's go on to say how do you gain focus in prayer. And there are about 30 or so different techniques of how to gain more for sure, and you're solid, but we're not going to

go into any of them, except for one that you rarely will find in the books, of course, sure. And rarely will find this as one of the tips of having kosher. One of the scholars said,

when you come to a king, the same the old days, you're going to come to a king, and you need to ask something from this king, something for your village or some money for you or something like that. How will the king judge you? The King doesn't know you. So you enter upon him, and how will the king judge and evaluate you, as a person, He will judge you based on how you dress.

He will judge you based on how you speak and how you present yourself. And no doubt he is going to judge you by how you are that moment in front of him. And he will use how you are that moment to decide if he will give you something or not if he will be successful in this visit or not. But he said he for sure cannot judge you based on what you really think of him in here because he doesn't know how you think of him inside. He's not going to judge you based on your actions last week, or just a few hours before he got dressed and came to visit the king. He doesn't know how to judge you on any of that because he doesn't know all that. The scholar then said the difference between the

way you stand in front of a large surgeon and you stand in front of this king is that when you stand in front of Allah Subhan Allah, Allah azza wa jal knows you and he knows your history. And he knows what you did just before coming and he knows what you did yesterday and what you did last week. So Allah subhanaw taala will either give you success in this Salah or not, not based on now when you stand in the masjid, but based on how you are the entire time, unlike the king, Does everyone understand how valuable this information is? You understand? So that means then, in order for us to get success in our Salah in order for us to enjoy our acts of worship, it doesn't start when I just

enter the message as if I'm Firstly, the first time being introduced to a larger, you know, it starts outside the Salah. It starts with our daily life, it starts with our behavior with our conduct. It starts with how much we worship Allah subhanaw taala it starts with how much we worship Allah and it also in secret, not the worship that we do to show off to people but when you worship a lot in the confines of your own home and nobody knows that you're doing that. That's a secret between you on a large budget. When you're fasting, no one on earth knows that you're fasting. It's a secret between you and the laws of origin. But now we're obsessed with showing off someone's

fasting. He can't wait to show people in an indirect way that he's fasting. Can't wait. Someone got up for the arm. He can't wait to show people that I got up for a pm. He's trying to show that he's tired every five minutes

nobody noticed that okay, he does it again after five minutes.

Until someone says What are you tired of what happened? So yeah, you know I woke up for a pm.

Pretend is humble.

Just want to show it off. Success in worship of Allah subhanaw taala it begins before you come and stand in front of a large surgeon.

Every one of us knows what we can do to improve our relationship with a large we did a little bit what we can give up for his sake, how we can increase his love in our hearts. We just have to put effort. Our time is flying. And it's being taken and spent on things. Many of them won't benefit perhaps some of them are essential like going to work and like eating you. There's no way around those, but it's just slipping by and the only way to take care

Back is again through having a relationship with Allah making Vicar of Allah subhanaw taala talk about overcoming temptations. So we talked about your heart being filled with the love of Allah azza wa jal, this bond with a large region or also with people, and that how it helps get rid of addictions, let me give you an interesting way of getting rid of temptations or not acting upon temptations. This is a true story. This is a share an Arabic chef that I happened upon for the color of Allah and he made me so I can share it with people. And he this shift solves every problem you present him with tomorrow can't ever every problem you present him he solves it with two rockets. So

and I heard him explaining this. He says, a guy came to me said Yeah, sure. I look at women a lot. No one of those guys

you know, he's always speaking at women. I call those brothers at their peak performance. Yeah.

So he's peeking all the time and everything he says just helped me I look at women too much. Let's just set this really simple. But you have to commit to this every time you look at a woman and I don't mean accidental look or like you know you just business dealing look where there's no desire involved, but like Look, look, is it every time you look at a woman

pray two rakaat any time of the day you look at a woman the way that improper go Prieto to look at see what's happening now. What's the formula? Why does this work? What is the bigger deal for for a police? There's a police love that you look at a woman more so than he hates that you pray to God to Allah.

He hates that you pray to God to a lot more than his love that you obey disobey by looking at a woman true. So he said, Every time we pray to look at me, you look at a woman pray to God. The guy said, I'm a kind of a receptionist a lot of woman is just pray to God. The guy said the first day I prayed like, five times the only 10 o'clock.

The next day, I prayed a trocar after that six o'clock art, then four, then two. Then he said after that, before I even look if I hear a woman coming like I hear her voice she's on the phone or I hear her high heels buck like that. The shaitaan will tell me Don't look.

If you look, you have to pray to God and just don't look. And he called the chef, the chef. I don't look at all now.

Chef said another guy came with the same with a similar problem. I suggest I smoke. And you know the smokers make the

the of cigarettes right? They make the chef said let me tell you something. Every time you smoke a cigarette, make sure to even if you have to make fresh Waldo and pray to God, the guy said, should I smoke two packs a day? We should make first of all do and pray two rakaat. And you know how smokers quit right? This guy said the first day I prayed 10 workouts. That means he smoked five cigarettes, he went from two packs to five cigarettes in the first day, make first will do and pray to a God. He said then the second day notice second day only. I prayed four times an apricot. And then the third day three, the fourth day to the fifth day. Just one one cigarette smoke. He prayed to God. He said

after that every time I want to smoke a cigarette and I think maybe I should smoke a cigarette shaitaan will come to me and say if you smoke now you have to make we'll do all over again and get wet and pray took his leave the cigarettes.

So the chef then wrote about the $2 CAD solution in his book. He said then a young man read the book and he called me. He said Jeff, I read about your total CAD solution. And I used to miss ledger and it would make me so angry to Miss verger he said one day

at night, I sat up in my bed just alone. There's nobody in my room just like a madman I set up in my bed. And I said out loud while law Hill. If I miss Fletcher Tomorrow, I will pray 100 rock art and he'll pray 50 times extrasolar he said federal came no alarm clock nothing. He said get up Get up quickly.

He said for one year I never missed.

And I would show up before them wasn't even at the masjid. And then they realized that and they gave me the keys to the masjid. And now I'm the one who opens up the mustard for future.

And I really love this idea of the tour because the only way it will work though is if you commit to it. And I want to share it with you because you might use it for whatever maybe one of us in here has an anger problem. Every time I lose my temper I'm going to make first of all do and pray to look at and the President said when you lose your temper. The shaitaan moves you around wherever he wants to take you just like the process

likened it to how you move a donkey around. Just take the reins, and you steer the donkey anywhere, the donkey just goes with you. The shaitaan will make you do things you would never do when you're angry. And when you're angry, he makes you do things you would never do. Otherwise, he steers you like that. So maybe now I want to break this hold of the ship on on me. And every time I lose my temper, I make Hold on, I pray to God, after that the shaitaan would not want you to lose your temper. You're about to get upset, he'll totally Calm down, brother calm down. No need for two rakaats right now.

Maybe every one of us has something different, some different temptation we want to pull away from be dedicated and try the total CAD system. Give it a shot, give it a try. But you have to be dedicated to it. Because the chatons with you the whole time. And if he sees that sometimes you do it, and then you're just bluffing the other time. Okay, this guy's not serious. But if you're serious, he doesn't want you to make two more record. And he'll stop trying to entice you.

Yes, it is true. I can fight temptations with a large soldier. I can't fight it with to God. And I'm not going to allow anyone to come to me and say you're unrealistic. And you need a therapist. Well, some people need a therapist, some things can be solved. These are actual examples of people who fix things in their life. And you can't tell me that before therapy was invented. How did humanity fix their problems? How did the believers know how to fix their problems? How did the believers find comfort through Allah subhanaw taala.

It needs some dedication, it needs some effort on our part, and you make effort and a lot of diligence is a shocker and a shocker he appreciates your effort allows you to appreciate and that is such an important quality for us to understand. And if Allah subhanaw taala did not appreciate the minute you would start an act of worship, the shaitaan will be able to trick you and you would say Allah doesn't need this act of worship. And a larger deal is worshipped by the angels, better quality, better quantity, and I'm never focusing in my Salah. So I might as well give up. No, Allah appreciates what you do. And if Allah wasn't appreciative, subhanaw taala he wouldn't take the one

little deed that you did, and multiply it by 10 and then multiply that by seven and then multiply that by 100. And on top of that will law who you learn from Asia and Allah keeps multiplying for whomever He wills. If Allah was not appreciative of what you did, when he multiplied like that, just the fact that we have this formula is proof that Allah appreciates what you do. So all we have to do is we have to put some effort towards Allah azza wa jal fill our hearts with the love of Allah azza wa jal fight our temptations through a relationship with a religion, whether it's a Torah God, whether it's constant Toba whether it's rushing back to Allah azza wa jal in repentance in worship,

just some effort from our part.

So I think I'll conclude and I'll stop here, I've probably even gone over the time allotted. I would like to, in the end, encourage and advise and remind you to take care of your brothers and sisters in humanity here in Sri Lanka, your brother and sisters in humanity, from the Hindus, from the Buddhist from the Christians, be gentle with them, Be kind, be merciful towards them. That has always been our history as Muslims, it has always been our history as Muslims to take care of minorities, it has always been our history as Muslims, to take care of people of other beliefs and to allow them to have their religious freedom. And this is known and it's documented historically.

And it's known historically that whenever the Jews were murdered and persecuted in Europe, they immediately moved to the Muslim lands, because they knew they could go to their synagogues, and no one would bother them. No one would injure them. Even people who worship other things that we don't worship, or we don't necessarily agree, agreeing and living together peacefully, are two completely unrelated things. I don't have to agree with you to live with you peacefully. I just have to understand you. So make sure you understand your brothers and sisters in humanity, from the Hindus from the Buddhists from the Christians that live amongst you. And also make sure that they

understand you and the only way to make sure that they understand you is if you want to live out and practice your religion without any shame or fear of that and to share your beliefs with people meaning just to get them to understand it. You have a beautiful country. You have a beautiful situation here you have a beautiful opportunity. And thank you so much for allowing me to take a look at that beautiful opportunity. And thank you so much for coming tonight. sallallahu abakada Mohammed

was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

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