Lauren Booth – Heart Soul – Episode 05

			Welcome to heart and soul with me, Lauren booth, your place to reflect. When we want something
really badly that job good health, urgent help. This is the moment we turn in prayer to the divine.
Why do we do this? And who are we asking my guests today to continue to explore the Islamic
viewpoint on prayer is Chef Sajid Ouma is now pursuing his PhD, and enjoys continued participation
as a lecturer and senior advisor, and is one of the Muslim world's most prolific speakers. Welcome,
Chef. Thank you very much. May God Almighty bless you and bless all the listeners mean, number one,
an act of worship. So whether you get what you're asking for or not, you worship God, all right, you
		

			worship God Almighty, you rewarded rewarded you paradise becomes bigger. That's what we're here to
do. We're here to build the real estate of the perpetual, right, of perpetual bliss, which is
pirating. Number one, it's worship. Number two, it is a conversation, that you picking up the phone,
and calling your friend and, you know, just removing the burden of your heart. And so to your
friends, this is a bad day I had it this is what happens. Sometimes people just need to speak to get
it out of the system. Right? And and do our gives us an opportunity just to speak, have a
conversation with God Almighty, use a funnel Eva, that's number two. And number three, certification
		

			is a chance for us to ask our ask our needs. And, you know, the Prophet peace and blessings be upon
him also to test another generation, that's for me,
		

			you know,
		

			allows me to understand what a happy life entails. And that teaching is in the form of him saying
peace and blessings be upon him, that God Almighty always on our page, if it's in the house, the
question is, how does he answer? But in terms of answering them, he absolutely does. And for me very
happy that it happened for me to know that, you know, he always answers my certification, then I'm
happy, I'm happy. Because he knows what I don't know. You know, I might have strikes, but I don't
know if deception because God Almighty has left me with a pixel. But the complete pictures of God
Almighty, right. And, you know, if I, if anyone showed us a picture and told us to guess the picture
		

			10 times out of 10 we make a mistake. Right? So we only have a pixel How do we know really what's
good for us? And, and what isn't good for us. And that's what when we started this particular
program, we spoke about, you know,
		

			the, you know, the EQ the heart, and the st the soul, and how, how can the EQ and the Sq derive the
speed, and even the IQ, which is the mind and the pq, which is the body all together, you derive
this piece by knowing that look, at the end of the day, my ability to know what's good for me or bad
for me is limited. I only have a picture. I can only guess in scope of this pixel and make decisions
in within the sea of the pixel that I have,
		

			which is today,
		

			which is tiny. You're right. Of course you're right. And I remember I've given a critical hook
example. When I go to a little break. I have had a kitten. kittens are everywhere here in Qatar, and
often, the expats especially we'd like to rescue them into our houses. This little ginger kitten, it
was half blind, and I put it on a counter and I had three other rescue cats. And these cats were
wanting to attack it. But this kitten who I'd put food on the on the high counter, I just was saying
to the kitten just stay here and have this food, and I'm going to turn away Do not go on the floor.
It kept trying to throw itself onto the floor. But I knew that on the floor was a disaster with
		

			these cats that were going to grab it but the kitten just knew it wanted to get down. It didn't know
what was down. It didn't even know why it wanted to go down. It didn't know it was better if it
stayed in that place. Because I had the bigger view of that kitchen. And really our situation is
that we are a pixel in a grand, a grand panoramic photograph, only one pixel and we do not have the
full jigsaw to look at. So we're gonna take a little break on that thought. And we'll be back after
this Nasheed by Omar, Isa
		

			Prophet Muhammad, peace be on he taught us to love and to care for each other. That is, the sooner
		

			The Chosen One for you. To love for yourself
		

			is nothing more
		

			than praying for each other.
		

			For us is just
		

			pray for
		

			us pray for us is this
		

			scheme for
		

			so let's Be the Change
		

			equal. Let's come together and make a stand for your brother's love for yourself is so true
		

			there's nothing more or
		

			praying for each other
		

			scrape
		

			scrape.
		

			Let's help them.
		

			Let's pray for
		

			nurses. This
		

			is great.
		

			Let's help.
		

			Let's pray for this. Pray for
		

			us. Pray for us.
		

			Pray for us is this
		

			straightforward?
		

			You're listening to heart and soul on Qatar foundation radio with me Lauren booth. Sharing gems of
knowledge with us today is Chef Sajid, Omar, the learned chef and keen golfer and Liverpool
supporter. Welcome back. Thank you very much. Just
		

			really honored to be here. And
		

			I pray the listeners are well and excited listening to the podcast as well. God willing, we will all
take a lot away from this. I really want to
		

			ask you chef if someone has never prayed before. And maybe they're listening to this and they're
right at that moment of, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm doing right now. They're
saying to themselves, and I don't know how to actually ask, do I say oh my god, hi, how you doing?
Can you perhaps recite something for us, and then explain its meaning and some of the etiquette some
of the and when I say etiquettes God is not distance from us in any way. Anybody who makes a
heartfelt plea will be heard, this is a guarantee in the Holy Quran. God is open to us He is closer
than our juggler vain. But I think some of the similes that are given are if you have
		

			a good workman and bad materials, something's not going to be as good as it could be. Or if you have
you know that we have to get the two things right. So if the etiquettes are followed, it's like an
arrow going to the bullseye rather than slightly to the left. All right. So perhaps you have either
an IRA or a beautiful daughter share with a chef, please. That's excellent, excellent question. And
by the way, just before the break your analogy with the cat in the kitchen, that was amazing. I
think it was very telling.
		

			You know,
		

			God Almighty mentioned many applications in the Quran, in the final testament, as applications of
praise wealthy people, the applications of these prophets, applications of these messages, they are
beautiful, they're beautiful. And in terms of, you know, asking God Almighty is and ask God Almighty
as you would respect to the Ask any person of a higher authority that you know, right, you wouldn't
be rude. You know, when you need something from somebody, you know, you sort of exercise certain
etiquettes you don't just jump in there and say, Hey, boy, you know, just give me something you
don't do that.
		

			You know, if you need something so amazing, you'll actually try and wean your way in, you know, try
and find out what the person likes. If he likes ice cream, what type of ice cream maybe I can take
him out for the ice cream. You know, use advocacy usual Trump. So once you got it, you know when you
when you have a conversation with God Almighty, that's basically what's required to to, you know,
firstly give it a chance and like you said, for those who haven't really done it, why should they
give it a chance? What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?
		

			You know, turning to the divine, and even in your doubt thing, you know that I'm giving this a
chance and give me a sign? What do you have to lose? Right, have that conversation. And, you know,
perhaps God Almighty will bless you with what signs that will be a means of guidance and a greater
journey in engaging God Almighty. Before we go into the episodes, you shed that analogy, you know,
earlier I said, that God Almighty, it occurred to us asking him because he always asked the issue is
how, right, and the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him photos that God Almighty, and that was
applications in one of three ways. The either gives us what we're asking for, right? So you want
		

			that vehicle, you know, you know, what's putting me at ease with all the features. And you ask God
Almighty for it, and he gives you that you want your dream job, you get it, right, you want to pass
your exam, it happened. That's, that's one way. The other way is that God Almighty answers your
prayers and supplications, but not by giving you what you asked.
		

			But by removing a greater calamity that we're set to have.
		

			So there was a calamity destiny, we have a major illness. And God Almighty use this application to
lessen the impact of the illness or remove the culture. And you wouldn't even know that this is the
case, you wouldn't even know that you know what it is that the application will help them. That's
why we should always have good hope. And God Almighty Allah am asking, and he's not giving because
he has given you but you don't even know that he's given an idea, we said that God Almighty is over
all the affairs of his creation. So this is the second way that harm is reduced, maybe you are set
to fail an exam. And because you paid God Almighty to, for example, you know,
		

			you know, grant your entrance into the university, you might have got an entrance into the
university, but you pass two exams.
		

			Right. So that's the second way. The third way is that God Almighty packages your prayer into a
nice, you know, gift bag wrapped up very nicely. And he preserves it for you, till the day you meet
him on the Day of Judgment.
		

			Because then on the Day of Judgment, there's no way for us to do the work we want. We might want it
now. We want something now. But we want something now. But God Almighty wants to give us what is
better for us, we might not, we might think this is better for me now. But God Almighty knows it's
better for us later. You know, you might want the vehicle now and get the vehicle.
		

			And you might stand in front of God Almighty on the Day of Judgment, and D, one, D, two D, three d
shorter five a day. Imagine you've got Almighty then presented to you your prayer. And did you know
you wanted that car when you used to live? I didn't give it to them. But I saved that prayer for you
now to give you priority, what would you have wanted a kind of Paradise, which will last forever,
you can have as many cars as you want in it. It's a no brainer. You know, and that is why in some
variations is stated that when the believer when this person kind of follow my feet,
		

			he has that God Almighty has saved all these applications that he or she made, and is presenting
this application. Now in the hereafter This person will say, you know, oh god, I wish he never gave
me anything as far as those are like,
		

			this is a level of elation that this person will reach and this is natural. This is natural. And we
can use, you know, we can, you know, it happens that sometimes, even in our job, we asked for
something, we don't get it. But because we didn't get it we acquire certain skills. And because of
that we receive, you know, two or three levels of emotion. And then if you sat with that person and
said, Look, look, in hindsight, it's always good times. And that's what we do. I mean, hindsight, we
say, okay, in hindsight, would you have accepted? You know, would you have taken the opportunity,
then? Or would you have remained upon your old job that, that allows you to get the skills for you
		

			to get the three levels of promotion. Now, while in hindsight, I would have thought, This is what I
would have done, you know, I would have remained in the job and not taken the new job. Right. So,
you know, human beings, they act we act in haste is just who we are, you know, and then, and it's
based, that keeps us in check. It's basically it keeps us in check. Now, coming to the etiquettes,
in many accidents, cited by the messenger peace and blessings be upon him in terms of how to, you
know, put up put up a respectful request. And in fact, when you're going for a job interview, you
trying to make sure your presentation is the best, because the HR department is going to look at
		

			accept best presentation. And that's the presentation that's going to go in the front of the queue.
Right. So the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him in the same way. He taught us elements to
assist the hours of education, you know, being answered, and to exacerbate the process of being
answered, unable to write the answer in the good way. So he taught us you know, to,
		

			to raise our hand. He told us he taught us to pray for other people, when we pray for the things we
want.
		

			So if you if you ask me for a car, I've got a lady to give other people a car as well. Wow, that is
beautiful. That's something we miss out on. Don't just ask for yourself. Is that what you're saying,
chef?
		

			Yes. Because if Lance is all about being selfless, not selfish, and the Prophet peace, invest in
peace of peace and blessings be upon him, he taught us that if you pray for something for somebody
else, God Almighty will assign you an angel, a pure of being that will make that interpretation for
you.
		

			So, you only know we ration asking God Almighty to give other people goodness as well. And that is
why you can't be jealous of what other people have.
		

			Because other people have what God Almighty gave them. And it is your love for God Almighty, that
should prevent you from being jealous for other people have instead it should, it should push you
towards raising your hands and asking God arises that Oh God, as you visit with me, and effectively
better, and you always know what's best for me, you give me what's best.
		

			And this is his pitch to you. This is what things pitch to you. And we find that you asked for
example, from the Quran, you know of supplication. These are from these applications in the Quran.
You know, we always send it to God Almighty God Almighty says, you know, the best of human beings
intend to go right into the O our Lord, O our Lord, O our Lord, O our Lord. And
		

			you know, from the etiquettes of asking, is to pray twice as much for your hereafter when you pray
for your life in this one. And this is a very important point. Because, you know, we're talking
about blind suffocation and asking for God Almighty. And we spoke about three elements that
reputation do for us, it helps us with conversation. It helps us worship it helps us in terms of
putting through our requests. But it also helps us that perspective. It helps it stops us from you
know, thinking that
		

			all our life is just about living on earth is till the grave. If we engage God Almighty suffocation
in the right way, it will be a training exercise for us to always remember that you know what,
there's more to life than just the life of this world. There's the life of the soul. There's there's
the life that we lived in the homes of our brothers, there's the life that we will live on top of
the Earth is the life that we will live in the grave which is mdbs. And then there's a life of the
hereafter which will be when they have resurrection and recompense happens. supplication. I've used
as a training mechanism for us to be made upon, quote, unquote, perspective. When you fabricate the
		

			bottom line. It will always teach you where you are, where you came from, where you are, why you're
here, where you're going, and how to get this access. Thank you, Chef. You're listening to heart and
soul on Qf radio with me Lauren booth, sharing gems of knowledge today about how to ask for divine
assistance. is Chef Sajid, Ouma, Chef. Finally, I've been hinting at it for a while, I would really
love our listeners to have a small draw from you to hear how it sounds, and then talk about how we
do this in English, we can't all access a beautiful language like Arabic And Allah subhanaw taala,
God created all the languages of the earth. So let's just have a practical if we can a practical
		

			lesson in in the format, how we are how we begin by praising how we ask and how we wrap we wrap up
our asking, Can you do that for us, please? Yes, yes, yes. So
		

			Oh, Lord, indeed, you are the one upon are able
		

			to stay eligible, and you are totally independent, and we are totally dependent on you. And we love
your messengers, and we ask you to send patients agitations upon the final messenger, 100 different
vessels be upon him, and our Lord.
		

			Our Lord, I asked you, I asked you from from the depths of my heart with such love
		

			and belief in you, asked you to bless me, bless the Lord, and bless everyone at the radio station,
and bless all our listeners. And I asked you to grant us better than we dream, both in this world
and the next indeed you are evil, and peace and sanitation. And the final message Mashallah that is
beautiful and asking for others. It has been said that if you finish a prayer, and you don't pray
for your family, and you don't pray for those you love and your best friend is having struggles and
you don't ask the divine presence to help that person. How can you actually acknowledge that you
love them? You know, if you knew somebody, if your friend is running a company and you know your
		

			friend, or your best friend has skills, you put the CV on the desk, don't you?
		

			If you've got a place in a university and you think that would be great to you, you make those
connections. We do that in everyday life. We'll let
		

			Let's not forget to make those connections for those we love and care about with the divine and ask
on their behalf. Is that correct? Absolutely correct. on the spot I love Allah bless you. You've
been listening to heart and soul made peace and understanding descend upon the soul. May Allah bless
the chef and keep us radiant in Allah's in mortal light until tomorrow. The producer for this series
is a have a chef you've been listening to heart and soul until tomorrow Assalamu alaikum