Khalid Latif – Perfecting Your Prayer Essentials of Salah (Hanafi) #05
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AI: Transcript ©
So we're gonna pick off,
pick up where we left off last time,
with the first chapter
sort of.
How has it been going for people who
have been trying to memorize
or kinda pick it up?
Has anybody been able to memorize the first
few verses?
Yeah. Yeah? No?
Why is your raise your hand? But I
feel like when I try to say it,
it's gonna happen. Yeah?
You did? I think I have it. Yeah.
Yeah? How's it going for you?
So far so good. Really? Amazing. Do You
wanna say it first?
You wanna try it? Yeah. Let's hear.
It's okay.
Well, why don't we do this? Just because
I don't wanna put people on spot.
Maybe we could take a quick minute because
I know everyone doesn't know everyone else. If
you can turn the person next to you,
maybe introduce yourself,
talk about how did your Eid go. I
know for some of you, it was your
first Eid, and
for some, it's
one of many Eids you've experienced.
And
and if you feel up for it, maybe
you can just talk to the person next
to you.
And if you're learning
just kinda say to them, you know, where
you're at on it thus far,
and, you know, if you're comfortable
saying what you've learned so far,
or how that process has been going, and
then we'll come back in, like, a few
minutes and get started.
Yeah. But go ahead.
Okay.
So how was Eid for people?
How did it go?
Yeah.
It was nice.
Yeah. What did you guys do?
Mine is crazy. Yeah. Yeah.
As always. Did I nap on the date?
No. I didn't.
The eat nap is Did you have any
nap on Turkey. I did not.
Yeah. But, you know,
one day soon.
Yeah. Are you squinting at the board?
Luna, are you wearing glasses? You can't see.
I know. I have to talk. Oh, hey.
Ringing. Oh, that's what I'm saying. I wouldn't
have remembered this. Okay. Let's get back. We'll
get started.
So how is Eid for people?
What did what did you all do on
Eid?
Spend time with family.
Spend time with family?
That's nice. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.
I fasted the day before. That's my first
time fasting, like, full fidelity. Nice. And that
was a nice situation.
Yeah? What made it nice?
I guess the efforts are restrained myself certain
things, even now listening to music, I think
the music that makes and
then just came from
impure thoughts to seeing how
those things come in throughout the day, putting
extra vision and mindful of those things,
experience of not eating, waiting it early to
eat. It was just a different mode of
experience.
Mode of experience.
Amazing.
Yeah. And that's one of the ideas. Right?
In the Quran,
we talked about this coming to Ramadan.
And talks about fasting.
It says,
so that perhaps
you might obtain
kinda God consciousness,
But the idea
isn't
that you're just conscious of the thought,
but you're conscious of your ability to be
conscious of something.
Does that make sense? Like you see the
difference in the two things? I'm not just
like aware of what I'm eating or not
eating,
but I'm aware of my capacity to be
aware.
And I can
contrapose
that to
moments where so much is done mindlessly.
I'm just throwing food in my mouth without
thinking about it. I'm just like saying whatever
comes out of my mouth. You know? So
the capacity to be aware of your ability
to be aware
is kinda what the root of that is.
Did anybody else fast the day before?
Yeah. How was that for people?
Yeah. I like when I ask a question
and people just kinda smile and nod,
but it means nothing. Like, you know, like,
it can mean 5,000,000 different things.
I mean, it's like when a baby cries,
like, why is the baby crying? And it's
the same thing as an adult. Just smile
and nod. Yeah. What what it what why
are you smiling and nodding? Yes. I was
proud of myself for making food today. This
is my first,
like, summer fast. Yeah. And I was really
worried about that. I would hope to help
with the task out, but it was actually
not that bad. I
I've
got I couldn't,
go the whole time, but
I had some
Nice.
Nice. Yeah. So yeah. Like I said, the
Wednesday couple of Wednesdays ago, I was gonna
eat the fire for us,
and I did. No. Yeah. I ate it
for us. Fire's cow feet.
That's what he ate for us.
Be grateful that you had someone eat that
for you if you didn't have to eat
it yourself. You're all good.
I thought it was great. It was my
first time ever fasting as well, and I
feel like the mentality, like, I came into
it when I woke up in the morning
was, like, I'm gonna eat, and then it's
like like, I'm gonna do this, but, like,
kind of, like, in, like, building my adrenaline
in a way, like, to make it through
the day. But to be honest, today felt,
like, really calm and, like,
sort of, like, speaking with you said, like,
very aware of different things. So I didn't
listen to music, and I I deleted my
social media for the
Amazing.
And the what we're also doing, right, is
something that we'll talk about as we go
through the remainder of this chapter today. We're
gonna try to get through all of today,
the first chapter. If you miss, like, the
first few weeks,
we have it all recorded.
If I seem a little bit kinda,
like,
gasping, it's I don't know why I'm wheezing,
but I'm wheezing. So forgive me for that
if I'm not talking as fast as I
normally do, which might be a blessing for
some people.
But we're gonna get through the whole thing
and you're gonna see as a theme in
Fatehah
that there's a lot that talks about, like,
us as opposed to just individuals
when you're kinda reciting the chapter.
Anyone else? How did Eid go or how
was if you did fast on the day
before Eid, it's called the day of Adafah.
How was that for you? It can also
be difficult. Right? It doesn't have to be,
like, super easy.
Anybody do anything super fun on EITH? Yeah.
So there are a few people here, that
hung out with, the converts the conversations too.
And I think the conversations are really fruitful.
Oh,
yeah? Yeah. I Where did you guys hang
out? I have at the Solo's apartment. Oh,
you went to Solo's house? Yeah. Yeah. Nice.
It's really great. Solo's here. I'm not really.
He wasn't invited.
Yeah.
Solo gave the shadiest announcement the night before
at Iftar. I was like, Solo, come. Tell
people about the dinner. He's like, we're gonna
meet some place in Astoria
at some person's house. It's like, it's your
house, dude. Why are you talking to the
3rd person by yourself?
Nobody knew what he was discussing. Yeah. It
was good. It was fun. Yeah. It was
really great. And also just
kind of, like, struggles but also,
like, wins, I guess. Nice. It was really
lovely.
So we're gonna start again soon the monthly
brunches at our apartment, my apartment, which is
where that's what a lot of the kind
of tenor is. It's potluck, people come together,
and it's just a space for people who
are exploring Islam
to speak with people who are recent converts
or people who converted a while ago as
well as people who
are kinda
family members,
friends, etcetera of people who are in either
of those categories,
and kinda jump start other programs as well.
Any other thoughts on Eid, Arafa fasting before
we move into what we're gonna discuss tonight?
Yeah. No. Great.
So
we wanted to get through
the remainder of the first chapter just so
people can start to really deepen in the
memorization part to it, and then we can
start getting into
the other aspects of the prayer itself.
So in the Hanafi school, which is the
legal school that we're looking at, the recitation
of Fatehah, the first chapter,
is not
what's an obligation of the prayer. It's a
not a farad. It's a wajib. It's a
necessary act. Right? So for those who are
just
rebuilding relationship with their faith, people who are
new to Islam,
there's also a format and just how you
can learn the prayer itself
and kind of go at a pace that
makes sense. So we wanna try to get
the fatiha down soon.
So if you really put in some time
to memorize it as best as you can,
the pace that makes sense for you. But
over the next few weeks,
we wanna start to get that situated so
that we can start going through the other
parts and memorizing that well.
And like last time, Aviara gave some tips
on what was helpful for her as she
was memorizing and transliterating
in ways that were more conducive to her
own personal
kind of memorization. If you have ideas and
things,
feel free to share that as we kinda
discuss.
So we looked at the first three verses
already.
This doesn't work.
That all speak about, like, God in some
capacity.
So the first one
says,
Does anybody remember what this means?
And what did that mean?
All praise the god. Yep.
Any other thoughts on the rest of the
verse or that word?
Yeah. You did a nice job focusing on
what what what meant. What does it mean?
You were talking about, like, in
our context, like, our western context, most people
would think it means lord. Like, you gave
a medieval times type of reference, but
it you kinda went into a lot of
things. Like,
it means much more than that. Like,
Malek.
Yeah.
So in the interest of time, maybe I'll
do because we haven't met in a couple
of weeks. Right? It's been 2 weeks since
we met.
So
refers to praise and thanks. Right? Because you
can praise something
without being thankful, and you can thank something
without kinda being praised in it in some
capacity. Right? So remember, Giuseppe was here a
few weeks ago. He's sick today. He's got
a cold. So say a little prayer for
him and his healing.
But he was wearing this really vibrant sweater,
and I said, wow. That's a nice sweater.
I'm not thanking him for wearing the nice
sweater. I'm praising the sweater. I was not
like, thank you for wearing nice clothes to
the class. Right?
But you can thank somebody
without praising them and praise somebody without thanking
them. Does that make sense? And this combines
both.
For God,
Rob,
as was mentioned,
you know, is not just Lord, but it
invokes the idea of being a caretaker, a
nurturer,
one that is kinda
in charge but also making decisions,
is in ownership,
is the giver of a gift,
you know, and blessings. There's a lot that
goes into that.
And adamim
essentially is everything that is not rub. Right?
So God uniquely is the one that is
the lord of everything,
and everything
else fits into this category.
And then
verse number 2 said, Al
Rahman, Nir Rahim,
And there's shared roots here. So
Rahman is something that means compassionate or merciful,
but it's got its own nuance
of gentleness,
softness, love, mercy.
It's not mercy like in a kinda supremacist,
anti black system that sees everything in these
kinda
frames of justice and mercy in that way.
Right? Because then you're not thinking about it
in terms of its element of love or
softness or kindness and gentleness.
Rahman fits into form that denotes something that
is emphatic qualitatively.
Right? So if someone said, I'm so exhausted,
like exhaustion is me, then you'd say
Right? If someone said, you know, you're so
lazy. Right? That laziness is you. You'd say,
Right? You can hear the same kinda sound,
rahman, kaslan, ta'aban. Does that make sense?
And it denotes something that's temporary because I
can be super exhausted,
and I can go to sleep, and then
I'm not exhausted anymore.
Raheem
denotes continuity to it. Like, it keeps going.
Right?
And
both are now there
as an introduction.
The way I asked you all to tell
each other, like, who you are, what are
your names, how was Eid for you. You
chose to self select to say this is
me
in your introduction. So this is how in
the Quran,
god introduces
himself
to the reader.
The very first thing he's saying is I'm
a loving, compassionate god
that is watching over you and all of
creation,
and that's like the introduction
that's there.
And then the 3rd verse
said,
Middim,
the master of the day of judgment.
Right? And we talked about these 3
in some detail, so we won't go through
it all.
But these are things that are gonna be
important as we go into the next few
verses
because the chapter in and of itself has
a lot of balance and symmetry to it,
and it
builds off of
the initial verses in the latter part of
it. So the next verse, which is a
new one that we're looking at,
in the 4th verse,
it begins,
And the apostrophe is just to indicate the
letter, which we haven't gotten to. And when
we get to end the class, hopefully, somebody
did something with the letters that we talked
about about a month ago.
And then it says,
nesareen.
Can somebody open the translation and read what
that 4th chapter of the first The 4th
verse of the first chapter says and whatever
translations you have?
Yeah. Go ahead.
Great. Does yours say the same thing?
You alone we worship. Yeah. And what's the
rest of it say?
You alone we worship and you alone we
ask for help.
Yeah.
Great.
So
embedded in this is a couple of different
things.
The
idea here
is not
framed in an imperative.
So when you go through the first three
verses,
you're just talking about who God is.
And if you remember when we talked about
the word Rab,
we said that it's the kind of word
that
it denotes
a relationship.
Like if you're a teacher,
then
by principles of logic, you have students,
right?
Someone says you're a husband,
then you have a spouse.
You're a father, you have children. Does that
make sense? You don't have to say I'm
a father of children
to say that you have children. Like, if
I said to you I'm a father, you're
gonna assume that I have children. Right? So
the
word rub
denotes that if this is
like
the word Lord,
then you are a lord over something. Do
you know what I mean?
And in Arabic,
the
complimentary
word for this is.
It's got the same letters here.
Right?
So when you're saying,
you alone we worship,
everything you need to know about who you're
worshiping
is in those first three verses.
Does that make sense?
And when it's saying,
it's
not grammatically
in an imperative.
The verse doesn't say worship me,
I'm the most merciful and compassionate.
Worship me,
I'm the master of the day of judgment.
It now moves
from describing
who god is
to making an affirmative
that
you alone do we worship,
Meaning that there's a choice
in all of this.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Does that make sense?
That fundamentally,
your ability to now determine
what it is that you are a worshiper,
this is like a big part
of just Islamic doctrine.
It
gives
accountability
to an individual
through the
idea that
you get to choose your choices.
And so the way the language is structured,
it's saying that you alone
do we worship
and you're making it as a statement,
Right?
I am worshiping you.
I worship you,
you who is worthy of all praise and
thanks. I worship
you, you who is the lord of everything.
I worship you, the most compassionate, the most
merciful.
I worship you the master of the day
of judgment.
But I'm choosing to worship you.
You're the only thing that I want to
be an abd of.
I don't want to be an abd
of wealth.
I don't want to be an abd of
anything in creation.
I don't want to be a worshiper
of my physical beauty
or of materialistic
things.
I just wanna be a worshiper
of
everything
that I know you have helped me to
know who you to be. Does that make
sense? You gotta think about this in the
frame of that kind of relationship
on a human level.
If somebody
is in a place where
they have
an individual, an entity, an authoritative
body
that now
determines
how you will be,
most people don't necessarily end up liking those
people. Right?
Do you know what I'm saying?
So it's not always, like, the most amazing
experience that you have with the principal of
a school
or elders
that tell you what to do or not
to do
or engaging in that kind of
relationship
that has now do's and don'ts and rights
and wrongs that are not morally relative.
So there's a deep wisdom in being able
to understand
that when God is introducing himself to you,
he's first telling you, like, hey.
I'm a god that, like, loves you.
And when you're choosing to worship me, don't
just worship me
as the creator because he doesn't say al
Khaliq
in his introduction. He says Ar Rahman.
Like, you can believe that God created everything.
That doesn't mean that you believe God is
the most merciful or the most compassionate.
Does that make sense?
And so when you're making this statement,
whether you're conscious of it or not, but
the idea is to have consciousness,
you're making a statement that says,
I choose to worship you.
I'm not choosing to worship
like something else
and I'm also not choosing to worship
a skewed understanding
of who you are.
I'm worshiping
who it is that you've told me you
are.
And these things in these three verses,
if you don't know anything else about
God from an Islamic doctrinal standpoint,
this is all you need to know.
There's a reason why it is a chapter
that's recited
again and again
because it's giving the fundamental
foundational understandings
that any person
who practices this religion
needs in order to know who their god
is.
Does that make sense?
Any questions on that so far? We're gonna
come back to this verse because it's the
middle verse,
and this chapter
is balanced over 7 verses
and this becomes
like the center verse
that pulls both
of the subsequent
three verses and the previous three verses together.
There's a connection there.
But everything that goes
into Nat budu
is
rooted in
these 3 verses.
This
is who you're worshiping
when you say nahmbudu.
And when you say you alone,
it means
I'm choosing
to worship you actively.
It's my choice.
Any questions on that?
Does that make sense?
Yeah?
Okay.
Then in the latter part of it, you're
gonna have the same words,
wa means and,
only you,
It'll talk about help and aid.
In
Arabic
is a very particular kind of help.
Right? It comes from
the Arabic word, and
it's not help that is something like,
you know,
I don't know, an example. Let me try
to think of an example
that isn't
anything terrible.
Like,
this is a kind of help that assumes
that you're also trying
as you're seeking help.
Does that make sense?
Right? Like, if we came in here,
I was like, guys, can you just stack
up the chairs?
Everyone's like, yeah. And then I just sat
here and ate all the cookies.
Right?
That's not you helping me
in this sense of Isthiana.
That's me being lazy
and not trying anything. Do you get what
I mean?
But if I walked in the room and
I'm putting down all of the chairs and
stacking them up, and then you came and
you're like, hey man, you're old man. Right?
And I was like, you're right. I can't
do this by myself. I just simply
don't have the ability to do it alone.
You know?
Like if I tried to carry this and
you saw me struggling with it, right,
And I turned to you and I said,
can you help me carry this?
And it's not that I'm not trying to
do it,
but I get to a point where I
recognize
I can't do it without you.
That's
Does that make sense?
And it's very different
from other kinds of help.
Language is really important when you're reading the
Quran
even if you're reading the translation
because you wanna think about words that are
there and words that are not there. Right?
If I'm in such a state of desperation
and I'm super run down and I'm just,
like, out of it, and you came and
you were like, oh, what happened to you?
I was like, just help me.
Then you might be able to have consideration
in that state
where it looks like I've been crying a
lot,
you know, I'm,
like, lost a ton of weight, I clearly
haven't been sleeping,
and I was just, like, help.
Then you don't need anything further
to qualify the help. Does that make sense?
But in most instances,
if there is something that I'm asking for
your assistance on,
I'm gonna need to qualify what I'm seeking
your assistance on. Right? So if I was
like, Donish help me. And he was like,
okay. And then we just sat and stared
at each other. I'm like, why aren't you
helping? He's like, because stupid, you didn't tell
me what to help you with. Right?
I can't just say help me and not
say help me with what.
Does that make sense? So you need to
have something
that is what you're seeking help with.
Right?
Here, there's not anything specific
because you're choosing to also understand
that you need God's help with everything.
There's not a matter
that you want to
be without
a recognition
of the assistance of the divine.
So you are the only one that I
choose to worship,
and you're the only one who's gonna help
me get through all of it.
Does it make sense?
It sounds a lot different than what the
translation says. Right?
Do you get what I mean? But it's
all the same words. You just gotta think
about it in that way.
You alone do we worship.
Your help alone do we seek.
The
in Arabic at the beginning of a verb
is denoting
that there's, like, a first person plural,
which also now interjects this idea
that you're not in it alone.
The religion in and of itself is not
meant to be something that's a lonely experience.
And this is something that can be very
difficult for people who convert to Islam.
Not gonna sugarcoat it,
but when you have sociological
tendencies
that communities build themselves off of in groups
and out groups.
We had the program here with Amar Shukri
on whatever day last week. Right? It was
a Tuesday
before Eid on Wednesday. I don't know if
any of you came to that. I had
stepped out in the beginning but someone told
me he asked people to just, like, say
where they came from.
Right? To say how diverse it is. And
he and I were sitting out here
and Sheikh Hamar, I've known him for a
long time and he used to come around
here when he lived in New York City.
It was a different, like, number of people.
It grows every year,
the IC. One of the first things he
said to me was, look how diverse it
is here. And I was like, I know,
man. I work here. Right?
And he was then asking people what I
was told
in the audience, like, where are you from?
And people just kept saying different places they
were from. Right? If this didn't happen,
I don't know. I wasn't there but someone
told me it happened. It did happen. Right?
When you have communities that are more culturally
hegemonic or they are connected based off of
shared race, shared culture, shared class,
it can feel very lonely.
To become Muslim doesn't mean you commit a
cultural apostasy,
But there is a deep understanding
embedded right in the beginning of this
that
you're not one
in this alone
nor
should you forget that there's people they're gonna
be leaning on you too.
So in
the and the
you're saying we
collectively
And that's a big we that you gotta
think about. Even if you look in this
room, right,
some of you are Muslim, some of you
are not, some of you are from certain
parts of the world, some of you from
different parts of the world.
There's a lot of diversity just here as
a microcosm
of what a community of god is supposed
to be.
Because
the paradigm of gatherings that are divine,
they're based off of principles of inclusivity,
not exclusivity.
Right? It's not about keeping people out, it's
about letting them in. When I used to
work at Princeton,
Princeton, for example, wasn't just Princeton because it
had students with a certain SAT score and
extracurriculars
and GPAs,
but Princeton was also Princeton
because
beyond who it let in, also who it
kept out. That's not a lot of human
gatherings function.
Right? How could you invite that person to
your house? How can you do this? How
can you do that? You're gonna let your
kid marry this person? Why are you in
a relationship with this person? Why are you
eating with that person?
Right? That's how our relationships quite often get
kinda determined,
not just about who you let in but
who you keep out.
God's gatherings are different from that, like truly
divine gatherings.
Alright? Meant to be accessible by everyone.
Why?
Because Allah's majesty is not contingent upon who's
present in the gathering.
And if anything, when you can be with
a broader recognition
of a god centric worldview
that centers the divine and removes egocentricity
and then see, like, hey. We're all in
this together.
It's a very unique
kind of perspective
that isn't necessarily echoed in many communal experiences.
So it's all
embedded in this.
I'm choosing to worship you
and I'm choosing
to turn to you for assistance.
Does it make sense?
And then what we're gonna get in the
remaining ones, I'm gonna go through this just
quicker than we normally do because, 1, I
know how to talk a lot. And 2,
we didn't meet for a couple of weeks
and we wanna get through the whole thing.
So here's section 1. Here's something we can
call section 2.
And then you're gonna have
the next verse. It says,
And you can translate
transliterate it however you want.
Here is now the help that you're asking
for.
Help me?
And how is that help?
Can someone read the translation that they have,
the next verse?
Guide us along the straight path. Guide us
along the straight path. Great.
Anything else? Any different translations?
Same things?
Yeah.
So in Arabic,
the word for guidance is and
the word for gift in Arabic is.
Right? It's got the same letters.
Now you think about this because it's
Arabian
desert that these verses are being revealed in.
So have any of you ever been in
a desert before?
Yeah. What's that like?
Terrifying.
Terrifying?
Why? It's dark. It's dark. Oh, great. Good.
And then what happens?
Then there were, like, really bright lights and
like this little small outcove. Yeah. Like the
camel goes there.
Wait. What? I mean, I was in Egypt.
I see. So think about this now.
Can you imagine being in that desert
with no lights?
What would that feel like?
Terrifying.
Right?
Because you don't know where to go.
Do you understand?
So that's why direction in and of itself
is a gift
in that way. Does that make sense?
So the relationship between guidance
and gifts
are embedded in this.
If you ever been in a place where
it just feels like,
I don't know, like, in this kinda endless
body of water in front of me, in
this endly
endless, like,
sea of sand in front of me. Right?
So that sense of guidance
as a gift is something that's there. And,
again, it's guide us.
The word in
Arabic
already refers to a
path, but it doesn't refer to
a path that is, like, tiny.
Right? It's not like this is the path
in terms of
just how wide it is. The is,
like, wide.
Why is that important?
Because
that means that more than one person can
walk on it.
Do do you understand?
It's not like,
you know, if you ever been to the
airport or you ever been I just took
my kids to Universal Studios. I don't know
if anybody's ever been to Universal Studios before.
Right? But the crowds are like you're on
Hajj in Mecca.
Like, literally, we went to
Nintendo World,
and you can download an app
and get an understanding of, like, the wait
times
to get on one of the rides in
Nintendo World. There was a 300
minute wait.
It's crazy.
Right?
And when you go through these lines, if
you've ever been in an amusement park before,
and you're walking through,
like, these kinda
setup corridors
because a line that you stand in
for 5 hours
is gonna have a lot of, like, turns
just to get you to the front of
it. Right?
It's very narrow.
That's not what the is.
It's
expansive. It's wide so that we can all
walk on it together.
Does that make sense?
This is already a path that's also, like,
straight.
So mustaqim
gets translated as straight path,
but it's already a straight straight path then.
Does that make sense?
So when you remember we talked about the
word iqama
when we were talking about prayer and we
said establish
the prayer. And I gave you the example
that in the word iqama for iqama to
salah,
that you're making the prayer upright. Right?
So we use the illustration
of a tree that's kind of a sapling
in New York that if you ever walked
around and it's too fragile to stand on
its own. So what they do is they
take a pole or a stick and they
tie the tree around it so that the
wind or the rain doesn't knock it down.
Right? But the pole is helping the prayer
to the the tree
to be upright.
And that's like what
means. Like, you're making the prayer stand upright.
Right?
And it has the word in it that
means standing, like,
qiam. Right? And Sam was here at that
time, and he was like, oh, like qiamulayl,
like we were doing in Ramadan, the standing
in the night. Mustaqim
has the
same letters
in that. Right? When you stand in prayer,
like, that's the word for it, standing up.
So
this
is not necessarily
about a straight path this way because the
is already straight,
but the idea of it being
is that it's also
like raising you up
and kinda taking you upwards. There's ascension in
it. Does that make sense?
You're not like plateaued, but
you're moving forward,
you know, and upwards.
This doesn't also
denote
that just show it to me.
But the Arabic here
is giving more of a insight
of that gentleness
that stems from these,
like, divine names.
So it's not
just point it out to me,
but it's like walk with me through it.
It's not just bring me to the
initial part of it,
but help me along the way and get
me to the end.
The same way with istiana,
there's not a word that qualifies what you're
seeking help with.
Like, think about what it is
that you ask for directions for when you're
trying to go someplace.
Right?
People are here for the first time. They'll
be like, how do I get to the
bathroom?
You know? Is there any place I can
eat around here?
Where can I park my car?
You're asking for destinations.
Does that make sense?
Here, you're not asking for a destination.
Here, you're asking for the means to the
destination.
So the
is something that is particular
in the sense that once you get on
it, then you're just gonna go exactly where
you need to be.
Does that make sense?
Yeah. Just a quick question.
This, like, this one refers to, like,
like, the straight path. Right? But doesn't,
also,
It could. So the word, like, in in
Arabic for once you go on the day
of judgment
and your actions are judged,
there's a bridge that every person walks across
called the siroth.
And some people are gonna walk across it
with ease, some with a little bit more
trepidation.
Right?
And there's
a multitudes of things that we can kind
of think out here.
But quite often, this is seen also
in terms
of this kind of existence.
Like, bring me to a place
that is gonna be qualified by the next
two verses a little bit more, what this
kind of pathway is. Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Here now in your prayer, you're asking for
this again and again and again.
And so the way that you want to
understand it
is as a source of also replenishment
from the standpoint of, like,
guidance,
not in archaic ways,
but in tangible ways.
The same way you need to have regular
hydration to just be, like, today is
hot. You know what I mean? Can you
imagine if you didn't drink any water,
not today, but for the last 5 days?
What would today feel like?
You need regular sleep.
So what happens when you don't sleep with
regularity
in a sufficient manner? You need food.
So here, you're turning to this
on a regular basis
asking for it
on a cyclical pattern of the sun, right?
Five times a day in your prayer, you're
reciting this in every cycle of prayer
saying that fill me up again with it.
I'm gonna go back into this place
where I don't have to think about so
much what I'm putting into my body. I
don't have to think about consumption.
I just think about feeding my stomach at
a very kind of minute level and everything
is about what is materialistic
and egocentric.
So help me to stay centered.
The same way
I need to have water with regularity,
your spiritual self needs to have Hidaya with
regularity.
You're asking for it again and again and
again.
It's not just information.
A part of it is information,
but it's more than that.
And this is a difficulty that many people
have when they're born into Islam because you're
just given information,
and you just memorize it. And you're told,
here it is black and white, and there's
not then an opportunity
to actually
experience it for what it's intended to be.
And then the words come out, but there's
not presence inwardly.
Does that make sense?
So here,
I am beginning to
act on
what I'm seeking for in this.
And the broader
kind of
frames
is gonna be 2 fold
around knowledge
and action
in the chapter.
And here is where you have knowledge,
and here is now where we're gonna get
into the parts around
action.
Then the next verse says,
Alayhim.
What's the translation that you get for that?
About the doors you have blessed.
Is that what you have written somewhere? The
path? On. Yeah. Yeah? Great. Anybody have a
different translation?
Great.
You have the word
again?
Is a relative pronoun. Right? Those,
for example.
Right?
So the path of those
that
have been
blessed
by you, that you have blessed them.
This is in the past tense, an amta.
So what you're asking for now is
narrowing what this means.
Walk with me through it. See me till
the end. Don't leave me by myself and
just point it out to me. Right? Which
is what a lot of people do. Do
you know what I'm saying? Right? My kids
and I, we are in a place
where the old woman lost
and
where do you need to go? And she
has no idea.
Now we can choose
to direct her by saying that's where you're
supposed to be, or we go out of
our way to walk her to where she
needs to get to so that she ends
up being at the destination.
And my kids say, baba, why did we
walk this person all the way here?
Because you don't wanna just leave people hanging
by themselves.
Right?
And fundamentally because we can.
You know?
And that's what happens quite often. Right? When
you think about it on this individual kind
of level, when you look for assistance,
You're in a place where people pull out
a phone more to take pictures rather than
help you get up when you fell down
on the ground.
Or they might say, here's where you can
go for assistance of some kind without thinking
out, like, how do I play a role
in remedying
this inequity, this injustice? You
are a survivor of abuse, here's a phone
number. You are somebody who doesn't have food,
here's this pantry, here's this, here's that.
But narrowing it down in a place that
says, how do I walk with you through
your struggle? How do I like come to
you? And you're in this place
where you're asking for that assistance,
come
just take me through it all
until I get to where I'm supposed to
be.
That path
of those
who you have
already blessed.
Meaning, like, the people who came before me
that did it right,
I wanna be on that same path as
them.
Those people.
The ones who
had the receipt of your favor, your.
And the idea that it's in the past
tense gives us this understanding
that says that there's already people that I
can learn from.
The people who did it well, like, help
me
to do it the way that they did
it well.
You don't have to, like, start from scratch.
You don't have to be in a place
where I have to make sense of it
all all by myself.
It's not a religion that says, even if
there's a change in your lineage,
because you have now chosen to practice a
different faith than other people in your family,
it doesn't mean you're cut off from your
family members nor does it mean that you
have to do everything on your own.
But there's connections
in an ancestral sense
that doesn't necessitate
us having to think that I'm the starting
point of everything,
and I can draw upon those that came
before me.
I want to be in this category, people.
And we're gonna introduce 3 categories of people
now that
everything in the alamin
are going to be broken down into.
So you're either in this category,
those who
they,
like, did it right.
Liral,
Mel
Dubi,
Allehiim
is the next category,
category number 2.
What's the translation you have in your book
on this?
Yeah.
Not those you are displeased with. Not those
you are displeased with.
Anything else?
Yeah.
Those of
none of those against
who there is anger.
Yeah.
And that translation is a little bit better
because here,
you have an amta,
which is
explicitly mentioning
God's favor.
There's not a word in here that sounds
similar to that.
Right?
So
what is removed from here
is anything that specifically
mentions Allah.
Allah. Like,
not those
who there is anger upon them.
Anger is also not just like divine anger,
but anger from,
like, angels,
from friends, from family members,
anybody who is
looking to you and saying,
why aren't you getting it done the way
that you can get it done?
Why did you choose yourself over the rest
of us?
Why are you not in a place of
consideration
that it's much bigger than just me?
This category
is also distinct
here
because of this link of knowledge and action.
So
people know this
and then they move forward on this act.
So if you
have the information,
the knowledge, and you act upon it,
then you are in this group.
If you have the knowledge
and you don't act upon it,
then you're in this place.
Does that make sense?
Like, I got 2 kids. Right? Some of
you have met my children. They're beautiful. Right?
Marcela.
Yeah.
7 and 10. They're great.
I literally
will say to them certain things.
And I'll be like, Medina baby,
can you make sure that this does not
happen?
And make sure you also tell Kareem that
this should not happen.
And then I leave and I come back,
and the thing that should not have happened
is exactly what's happening.
I'm like,
what? What just happened?
Then Karim
says, I didn't know, Baba. You didn't tell
me.
And I look at Medina.
She's like, oh, Baba. Yeah. I'm sorry. Right?
I'm not gonna get angry at my babies
because I love them,
but
move now away from my beautiful children to
people that you interact with on a daily
basis.
People who work with you, people who are
family members that don't do what they're supposed
to, people who you've said to, please, x,
y, or z, and they still act contrary
to it.
You gave somebody something of yours
to look after. You let them borrow something.
They didn't use it the way you wanted
them to use it.
You have somebody who you expresses
to them that this is not something
that can
happen or this is something that must happen,
and it doesn't happen.
And when they don't do what it is
that you've explicitly asked them to do or
not to do, don't you get angry at
them?
Like, how come you didn't do this? How
come you didn't do that? Why did you
do this? Why did you do that? We
talked about this. What do you mean that
you still went ahead and did it?
They knew it, but they didn't do what
they were supposed to do with it.
Despite knowing,
they still
decided to do something differently.
Does that make sense?
That's what this second group of people is.
And then the last,
says.
What's the translation you have for that?
Yeah.
Number those who are straight.
Okay. Any other translations?
Misguided.
Misguided?
Yeah. The translations aren't so good. Right?
Are just people who are lost.
These are people who act
and don't have knowledge.
Like, they're doing things without knowing, like, what
they're doing. There's no base to it.
And these are, like, bigger questions
that empirically
you can't necessarily
have answers to unless you reflect deeply upon
them. Right? Someone can tell you how
certain things are the way that they are.
They might be able to answer the question
of what. They might even be able to
answer the question of when, but they're not
always gonna be able to answer the question
of why so well.
Does that make sense?
And when you're in this place of trying
to make determinations on some of these things,
if you were to ask yourself,
why do you do most of the things
that you do?
What would be, like, the fundamental reason most
people have for this?
It's just, well, that's how the people around
me do it or that's how the people
that came before me did it.
That's why Islam is not an inherited religion,
and it has a discursive theology
where you have to be able to explain,
like, why you're Muslim.
It's not because my dad was Muslim or
my grandfather was Muslim or my grandmother was
Muslim,
but is
people who essentially
they're just in this place
of kind of they're they're lost.
Right?
They're acting without knowledge.
Does that make sense?
And these three frames here
are what's rooted in this.
Right? So these are people
who they know
that
Allah is
who he tells you he is,
and then they do something with that.
These are people
who they know it,
but they still don't do anything with it.
And then these are people
who they don't know it, and they're in
this place
of still trying to, like, do their best.
And what this chapter is telling us
is
all of this,
alamin,
is going to, on a human level, fit
into one of these 3 groupings of people.
Does that make sense?
And when you're choosing
you're fundamentally
saying,
I want
to be in a place where
I fit into
box number 1.
Right? And it's not easy.
That's why there's a repetitive
kind of nature to it because there's so
many things that are competing
for control of your psyche,
for control of your emotions,
for control of who you are in your
entirety
that you need to buy this, you need
to eat this, you need to do this,
you need to do that.
The beauty of it is in this religion,
when you can understand,
like, god is the most merciful,
the idea isn't that your pursuit is perfection.
The idea is just you're just gonna try
your best.
There's gonna be a lot of things that
people do differently
because
the is
expansive.
So it
means that everybody that's walking on it is
not gonna look exactly the same.
People's struggles are gonna be different. How they
relate to religion is gonna be different.
There's gonna be some people
who
they have challenges with certain things that other
people find ease with. There's gonna be some
people who have ease with certain things that
other people find challenges with. There's gonna be
some things that are gonna be very
just amazing
as an experience.
There's gonna be some things that are gonna
be very hard and some things that fundamentally
are just
beyond comprehension in some capacity.
But you guys just keep going back to
these kind of points.
Right?
And if anybody tells you, well, how do
you know? It was because that's what Allah
says.
He tells you who he exactly is right
in the beginning,
and he helps you to understand that, hey.
There's gonna be something, like, bigger than this
that comes in store.
So don't just be in a place where
this world is the sole pursuit.
Muslims
read this chapter
at a minimum
17 times a day.
And the notion is that you keep coming
back to
it not just rotely
but there's gonna be meaning that stems from
it. It's applicable
as you continue to have your own
growth forward in your life.
Do you see what I mean?
Does that make sense?
Okay.
What I want us to do, because I
know we just did a lot,
is to take a pause. You can turn
to the person next to you. What are
you taking away so far from this?
What's kinda sticking out to you?
And we can kinda talk for a bit,
and then we'll come back and discuss. But
go ahead.
Okay.
So what are some of the things that
are sticking out for people?
What are you taking away
so far?
What sticks out to you?
Yeah.
Yeah. Amazing.
And if you only had to do it
once and then that's sufficed, that's it. But
the idea is that some days it's gonna
be a little harder to hold on to.
Some days, it's gonna be a little easier.
That's okay.
Right?
It's just part of the process, but you're
kinda affirming the idea. That's what you wanna
see it as. As you're reading these words,
you're seeing them in a very affirmative kind
of voice. You know? The way that you're
in this place where
you're if you've ever played sports, it's not
a great analogy,
but
so much of it is a mental exercise.
Right? People who really succeed
are the ones who are not just physically
talented. You need physical talent, but you also
be able to be in a place where
you're mentally,
like, on top of things. Right? And how
does that come into existence? You know, people
build that focus through self talk.
That's why we're doing this in the way
that we're doing it.
This is what I said in the very
first class. Right? Like, if I was talking
to in a language that none of you
spoke,
then,
like, you wouldn't be able to maintain focus.
Right? This is under the category of that
we're talking about. Having, like, presence and focus
in your prayer, you wanna know what it
is. And even if you don't know the
words by word, because you can memorize the
translation,
it doesn't mean that it means something to
you. You know what I mean? Right? So
you wanna, like, think and reflect, like, what
does this mean?
What does it mean
that
I get to choose
what I'm actually a worshiper of? What does
it mean that I'm actually in a place
where I'm choosing what I rely on for
assistance? Do you know?
And on the other end of this is
the paradox to decision making
that when you don't choose, you've still made
a choice.
Like, you're still worshiping something right now, Whether
you wanna admit to it or not, there's
something
that you are a worshiper of,
and there's things that you turn to
for assistance.
Some of those things
might be helpful,
but some of those things also just give
complacency and not contentment.
Do you know what I mean?
What else what else are we taking away
from this? Yeah.
To that point,
we're talking about how I once read these
commentators who talked about
how Al Fatiha is sort of like
the Quran in a nutshell because it gives
you the qualities of God and your relationship
to God and then our role and place
in the world vis a vis the place
of other people. And we were talking about
how
it's so,
grounding
in part
because
you most of us don't have the time
to activate the client every single day. So
when you need that little boost or, you
know, that little foundation to be, like, very
firm for you, having that ability to just,
like, repeat yourself, okay. This is this is
what I'm grounding myself in.
It just gives you that nutshell
that really walks you through everything that really
Islam is in a nutshell. And, like, inshallah,
you also make the time to engage with
the rest of it. Mhmm. But just having
that practice as a sort of, like, that
maintenance,
of your soul, it really gives you sort
of, like, that access point into all the
different parts of Islam.
Yeah. And then when you ask for it,
you gotta be ready for it to be
answered.
Do you know?
So if you're
saying,
like guide me to this,
then not only do you keep your eyes
open and not just your physical eyes, but
your spiritual eyes,
but you're also in a place where
you're conscious of what you're asking for
and then you're ready for when it actually
comes to you in a gradual pace. Right?
Like, I'm saying the words. Do you know
what I mean? And if I'm not present
inwardly, it doesn't mean that I'm still not
asking for something.
You know? And it doesn't have to be,
like,
a constant reiteration
of reading,
like, hundreds of pages of something.
It's all just embodied in
the initial part to it that is purposely
easy to access
as you get the hang of it because
everything you need is just right there.
You know?
Makes sense? You're gonna say something?
We spoke a little bit about the distinction
between 2 levels,
action with knowledge,
knowledge without action, and action without knowledge.
And, it made me think about,
like, what manifests in society where each
different energy level is,
dominant. So society where it's just action without
knowledge,
society where it's knowledge with inaction, and society
when both are present,
and, like, the fruits of the societies,
what war might look like, what, community services
may look like, what social service may look
like. That's what came to mind.
Yeah. If you're a Jomam on Friday
how many of you were here for Jomam
on Friday? Right? We talked about supreme court
rulings and these kinds of things.
The country
is in a place
where it capitalizes
off of people fitting in these two boxes,
like, very purposely.
You know that it's wrong what they're doing,
but you're still not doing anything about it.
Right?
Or you're in a place where you have
become now
submissive to a system
that purposely
creates ignorance within you.
And you're still out there living your life
every day.
It doesn't want you to know
how it is to be a black person
living in the United States. So it erases
entire narrative
and you're still acting on certain things.
Or when it makes it undeniable
in your face.
And you know that that's what's happening,
but you still, like, sit back and do
nothing.
Why wouldn't that be something
that incurs anger?
Why would God be happy
with somebody
not doing something
with the information that they have? Do you
get what I mean? Does that make sense?
And you don't wanna, like, simplify this
to things
that
become,
like arbitrary metrics of religiosity.
Good religion
should bring its practitioner to take on societal
ailments.
And if it doesn't, then what's the point
of religion?
There's a ton of people in a pre
Islamic Mecca in Arabia
who they see all kinds of horrendous things
going on. They still don't do anything about
it.
Right?
Right? It's not in a vacuum,
but it's
I'm gonna stand in front of you on
the day of judgment.
What am I doing with the skills that
you gave to me? What am I doing
with the credentials, the talents?
What am I doing with it? Why is
it important? Because there's gonna be people who
take this beautiful religion
and they're going to reduce it to something
that makes no sense.
And they're gonna have you potentially walking on
eggshells
when you're supposed to walk with empowerment and
strength.
I don't need anybody but you.
It's meant to be like an empowering
statement, not one that has you,
like, paralyzed.
Right?
And you want to think about it in
tangible practical ways because there's a lot of
people
who we know that they take what they
know and they act upon what they know.
And there's a bunch of people who they
know it's wrong,
and they still allow for certain things to
perpetuate.
And then there's a bunch of people
who they just don't know anything.
They've not been privy to certain information.
Erasure of narratives.
Right? The victors are the ones that get
to tell you what history is. Do you
see what I'm saying?
This can't just be about ritual and practice.
It's not just about
memorization of a verse. That's not what knowledge
is. Right? Do you you see what I
mean? Does that make sense?
And so on Friday, that's what we were
talking about. Right? I was talking about the
affirmative action like decision. And what does that
mean?
And what does it mean to us? Right?
And it all fits into this. Do you
get what I'm do you get what I'm
saying? And why would I why would I
want to be
in the group
that decided to do this?
You know? Or why would I want to
be in the group that's heedless of it?
Do you get what I'm saying? Does that
make sense? That's what you're asking for when
you're making this dua, this prayer. Right? Don't
let me be like that. Let me be
like the people who they just did what
was right because it was the right thing
to do. You know?
Does that make sense?
Other takeaways before we pause? Yeah.
Speaking about the last thing you mess
mentioned, something we took away was
the blessing in reciting
for a minimum of 17 times a day
is you get to recite,
make for yourself
5 times I mean, 17 times in a
day. And it's something to always look forward
to, and it's also something that you should
say sincerely because it's for your own it's
for your own say grace, for your own
good. So I think that's just something that's
a blessing that it's it's mandatory for us
to say a dua for ourselves
17 times in a day.
Yeah. Right?
God's telling you it's okay for you to
love yourself.
It's okay for you to pray for yourself.
It's okay for you to pray for others
included within that,
but you can make Dua for you.
Does it make sense?
Right? What are you gonna say?
Oh, I had a technical question. So I
have 3.
Yom Ding.
So Yom Day, the
day of judgment.
But I also thought the religion, or the
thing.
Faith. So is is there, like, a difference
between?
Dean
can mean it's like how words can mean
various things. Right? Like, I could live in
a house
or I could house people.
Right? You know, you can utilize terms in
different ways.
The base of this
is essentially an idea
that is evoking foundational theologies in Islam.
So Meccan society doesn't believe in an afterlife,
and this is one of the theologies that
are distinct
from Islamic doctrine and the Meccan doctrine. And
this is what makes religions different from each
other is the theologies are different.
So it's a very pure monotheism,
Islam,
that says
the only
one worthy of praise and thanks is 1
God
and there's also a day that you're gonna
stand in front of God.
Right? These are 2 things
that then bleed into this idea that I
choose
to worship what I worship
because what you're being an account for is
your choices.
Do you see how it flows?
Right?
So here,
like, you have a word like dean
that doesn't mean religion
in the way that we understand religion to
be, but more like a way of life.
Right? And it's rooted in this idea
because,
like, your lifestyle is essentially a philosophy on
life is what's gonna inform your choices.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Okay.
So why don't we take a pause here?
It's 7:30,
729.
If you haven't, try to memorize
as much as you can.
But aside from memorizing it,
just go home
and, like, read the words
and reflect on them. What does it mean?
Allow for yourself to engage it. You know,
my kids, they memorize some Quran,
but their capacity
is limited
by virtue of their age,
you know.
You have a lot more
innate and experiential
skills
than you might recognize,
and one of those is the capacity to
actually contemplate.
So what do these things mean to me?
What does it mean, like, some of the
things that we're discussing?
And then next week,
we
will start to, like, more in pairs, try
to help each other with memorization.
So for those of you who've already memorized
this chapter, like, great. Be here to help
someone else.
For those of you who are just starting
out, we're gonna, at the end of, like,
the next couple of weeks, have everybody know
all of it,
God willing. And we'll move on to next
week
talking about
some of the actual requirements for the prayer,
what those things are,
and memorizing other parts to it,
based off of, like, what's obligatory,
what's,
like, necessary, and what's recommended. You know? Yeah.
Would it be, like, starting with physical part
next week, you're saying? Or, like Yeah. We'll
get through some of those things. Yeah. Starting
next week. But we wanna simultaneously
start to memorize.
You know? And then if you haven't already,
we did 4 letters.
Right?
Has anybody practiced any of those 4 letters
in the ways I know some of you
did. I saw them. You did? How was
it?
Yeah? Did you find any in the Quran?
Did you look for them in the Quran?
I did. Yeah? And how is that?
I still get, like, some I I think
I get,
new
views with
that.
Yeah. Because they don't
like, they look alike, but I know that
that that does not connect.
But I think it's just I need to
keep seeing it in the song written out
so I can recognize it. Yeah. And that's
why all of the letters are essentially within
all of the letters.
You know? I know those weren't collectors you
said to look for. That's good. No. It's
still good. So next week, we'll start with
that. I'll bring photocopies
of some sheets. I know some of you
have books also.
Bring a pencil if you can.
Otherwise, I'll bring the crayons and colored pencils
we used the other day,
so that we can start going through more
of the letters as well because it'll help
in kinda just your engagement overall with some
of these things.
Okay. Sounds good. So we'll see everybody next
Wednesday.
Thank you.