Maryam Amir – Heart Warmer
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Last point, Alhamdulillah in the same room, but Subhanallah having
an amazing, amazing bio, and I can't be more proud to sort of
introduce sumara And Amir as our keynote speaker.
Salaam Alaihi Mohamed was a lot of salaamu, alay Asmaa Ketu. It's
such an honor and such a blessing to be here. Alhamdulillah. Thank
you so much for having me. It's It's so awesome. Masha Allah, to
speak with young you all, hamdullah, we're working so hard
for the sake of Allah on a Saturday. Let's talk about
Ramadan. So many times when people speak with me with regards to
Ramadan, it is about how they don't feel an emotional
connection. They talk about how they can't really feel this month,
they don't they don't know how to get their hearts to feel
connected. And I remember when I was in hajj, there was a woman who
was in my tent, and on the day of Arafa, we had been in the tent of
Arafat all day, and then later on, we go to Mina, and she was so
talkative before, and at this point, she's just down. She looks
so down. And I asked her, what's wrong? And she said, I didn't feel
anything. I didn't cry a single time in Arafat. And in Arafat, we
kept hearing if you don't cry today, your heart is as hard as a
rock if you don't cry today,
you have no hope. So she thought she had no hope for her hedge
because she didn't cry. But what's so powerful about Allah and the
way that he focuses on our connection to Ramadan is he
doesn't focus on feelings we can't control. He focuses on a feeling
we can develop and the actions that we can take to get there. So
he says, All the beta him, SHA Ramadan, a lady on zila fee Hill,
Quran. The month of Ramadan is when the Quran who Dan Li nesiwa,
beggin neti, Mina Huda, well for con so this Quran is a means of
guidance. Feminine Shahid, Amin como shaliasom, forever for any
for those who witness this month, fast woman. Can a Mariel Don awala
setarian, if the
for those who are sick or traveling fast on other days, you
read Allah, who become all yours Walla. You read to be como la otra
while he took me, Lola Iza, Allah wants ease for you. You read Allah
who become audio swalla. You read it with Kumaras. He wants ease,
not hardship. Well, he took me, Lola Izza, Wali to kibirolla, Ala
mahadeko wala, Allah come teshu. Can praise Allah and be grateful.
So Allah starts by talking about this month of Ramadan, ending with
so you can be grateful. The verses before this talk about developing
Taqwa with fasting. That's what we often hear about. We fast so we
can develop God consciousness. But this verse that actually talks
about the month of Ramadan, it ends with, so you can develop
gratitude, so you can be of the people of gratitude. Gratitude is
an emotion you can actually work on developing. It isn't like, oh,
I can't force myself to cry. I don't feel the sweetness in my
heart. I don't feel the emotional connection of taraweya. Allah is
not asking or requiring us to experience any of that. He's
asking us to focus on the action in this month, in this verse, He
brings in the Quran, he brings in fasting. He talks about life,
traveling, getting sick. That's part of life. He talks about ease
for you, and then why? So that you can be other people who are
grateful. Psychologists today talk about gratitude being an emotion
that you feel towards someone else, or that you express to
someone else because of something that they've done for you that you
don't even deserve you didn't even ask for, but they gave it to you
anyway. And in the Quran, Allah says Latin, Shaka to na Azi
dennekom, if you are grateful, I will surely increase you in that
gratitude. Ima, show Kenny, excuse me, I surely increase you in those
blessings. Imam ashokani and so many other scholars of
our history have talked about this verse, meaning, if you are
grateful for one thing, health, if you are grateful for like, Okay,
what hamda is grateful for is going to be different from what
Huda is grateful for. What Bilal is grateful for is going to be
different from what hadith is grateful for. So each one of you
has something specific that you're grateful for. So for that thing,
maybe, when we're talking about your life, obada, maybe you don't
need the same thing that So Hank needs. So what are you grateful in
that specific thing about that is.
What Allah tell is going to increase you in and how do you
actually develop that concept of gratitude? Through Ramadan,
beginning with the Quran, this is how we begin. This month is the
month of fasting, of course, but so many people can't fast. They
can't fast because of a medical condition. They can't fast because
of a specific reason. And so many people talk to me about this,
maybe they're pregnant, and they're in a high risk pregnancy,
and they can't fast. Maybe they have diabetes, and for their their
specific situation with diabetes, they can't fast. People who are
struggling with specific eating disorders, specific eating
disorders and with fasting, can actually become life threatening.
And so their doctor has told them, If you fast, you can actually
really harm your body. There are situations of people who wish they
could fast, but they can't, and because of that, they feel like
they can't experience Ramadan. But Allah starts describing Ramadan
with the Quran, which means that anyone can access Ramadan and feel
connected to Ramadan by connecting to the Quran. This is the month
that has blessed us with opening our hearts to a book in a way that
can shift our lives. Inshallah, when we look at people in our
history, great scholars, we sometimes think, wow, subhanAllah,
they were these amazing people. How do I become one of those
amazing people? They didn't always start as a super righteous people
who are born memorize the Quran and then spent their whole life
doing that. Many of them had a history which they made Toba from.
They repented from and then from that repentance, they came back to
Allah, and because of their repentance, as Ibn Al Taw Allah
mentions that sometimes a sin will bring you closer to Allah, because
your humility and your regret for that sin will bring you to
obedience. So these are scholars from the past who repented and
came back to Allah because of a sin, or because of sins they
committed, and then they had a moment with the Quran
SubhanAllah. This moment with the Quran was them walking into a
masjid or about to to to rob a burglar, as a burglar about to rob
someone's home, or hearing this ayah when they're asleep, after
falling asleep because they drunk themselves to sleep like Maliki
bendinar, he drank himself to sleep because he lost his
daughter. And in that drunken steak, he had a dream, and in that
state, he heard an ayah, and that ayah custom to make Toba, and then
he walked into that masjid, and that same ayah was being recited.
And then he became a great scholar of our history. This the Quran
changes your life when you make the intention of how you're going
to approach it. So many times when we talk about completing the Quran
in Ramadan, we have this focus. I'm going to read all of the Quran
in one month. I'm going to read all of it in one month. But many
of us don't understand the Quran. Many of us don't speak Arabic.
Even if you come from an Arab family, it doesn't mean that
you're able to speak Arabic the way that the Quran does. It
doesn't mean you're going to be able to understand it in the same
way. So the people who are transformed by this book, they
were transformed by this book, The pagans who became Muslim, who used
to bury their daughters alive. Amara Lee Allahu, an who, he said,
We didn't used to think about women as anything. We didn't think
of them as anything until Allah revealed what he revealed about
them, the book that took men who would bury their daughters alive
and inherit woman like property by the end of the life of Ahmed Aldi
Allahu anhu, who was a ruler of a huge Muslim empire, woman were
correcting him, and he would say, this woman corrected Amma. He was
the one who was acknowledging woman's voices and women's rights
as someone who had gone from someone who said, We didn't used
to think a woman is anything that type of shift in just such a short
time period of generations SubhanAllah. How did that happen?
It happened because they took the Quran with understanding. So when
you are thinking about your own experience with Ramadan, how often
are you thinking about understanding the Quran versus
completing it in Arabic as quickly as you can, which, in and of
itself, is worship. In and of itself, that is such a gift.
Looking at the must have is a bad that. That is worship, just
holding the must have, if you can't read it, if you're going
through something emotionally, maybe you've experienced spiritual
trauma with the Quran P.
Will tell me that they have physically been hurt, like,
actually, like, abused, because someone is, like, memorize the
Quran, and it just becomes so painful to them as children that
they can't open it as an adult. How do you move forward from that
and create your own narrative with the Quran that you own your
relationship with the Quran on your terms, not the terms that
someone else has physically imposed upon you and caused you to
feel this pain with it. A, therapy, definitely go to therapy.
But B, it's through creating new experiences with the Quran. It's
through taking the Quran, hugging it physically to your heart and
going out for a walk and taking one verse and reading that verse
over and over and over, and that form of worship that tadaboh that
thinking about, how does this verse relate to my life while
you're sitting on the tram, while you're walking through the crazy
streets of London, whatever you are experiencing right now, you
going through that with the Quran and seeing how those verses apply
to your life. The ayah that I mentioned, if you are grateful
that in shaky Tom let azi den neck,
the verse before it talks about Musa alayhi salam telling his
people remember how Allah saved you from the alifier own that he
was killing your children. He was killing your boys.
He's reminding them of the extreme trial they went through, and what
the next ayah talks about gratitude. Why? Researchers today
say that when you are going through extreme hardship and you
focus on what you can be grateful for, despite the hardship, it
actually changes the neurons in your brain, and it allows you to
live your life and approach the different facets of your life with
a completely different perspective that will open doors for you that
you didn't expect. Because you're looking for them, you're in a
mindset where you can look for them.
So when we're talking about gratitude and the Quran, it's
looking like making the Quran your safe space, so that when you're
approaching Ramadan with the Quran, yes, you read as much of it
as you can in Arabic, but you also take it in the lens of your own
language that you understand and how to understand that verse in
your life.
For example,
Asmaa royal manha, she used to recite one verse over and over and
over. I'd like you to take a second and think of someone that
you love so much, who is one person in your life that you just
love,
and that person might have already passed away. May Allah have mercy
on them and all of your loved ones and all of our loved ones.
I'd like you to close your eyes
and imagine standing in paradise.
In front of you is a river of honey.
On the side you see an enormous palace made out of a pearl bigger
than anything you've ever seen before.
And then you turn and you see a flower, and you start to smell
that flower, and the scent of that flower,
you just can't even describe, and you're surrounded by this beauty.
And then you feel someone cover your eyes.
Someone is covering your eyes with their hands.
You feel those hands
and then you pull them off, you turn around.
Who is that face that you're looking at?
Is that someone who's already passed away for you that you miss
so much? Is it someone who you love right now, who's with you
that you can't imagine ever being without,
imagine
living life, being in the grave, going through the Day of Judgment,
coming into Paradise, and
then seeing that person that you are going to be with for eternity.
Inshallah, that joy, that shock, that gratitude.
Asmaa radiAllahu anha would repeat the ayah over and over again.
Wawa ko na ayabha Samu. Wawa ko na ayab A Samu, she was so grateful
repeating this verse over and over that he protected us from the
punishment.
That she was living in this verse, taking the Quran as your safe
space is living the verses in in Ramadan, taking an ayah and living
it, repeating it over and over, tasting it.
That experience inshallah will help bring a different perspective
of Ramadan. And you can listen for especially for sisters, on my
Instagram, igtv, at me at the Miriam Amir and I have these on
YouTube as well on Miriam Amir, women from all over the world,
reciting the Quran all over the world. Quran reciters from Quran
competitions, and hearing their stories on how they came to the
Quran will move you to tears, because each person has such a
different path. And yet this connection, this language of
connection, there are times that Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, I'm
very blessed that hamdullah, I was able to do the interviews in
Spanish and in Arabic, so so many different languages. But being
able to have that connection of the Quran transcends. We had a
woman from Indonesia who didn't really speak English, and I don't
speak Indonesian And subhanAllah, just hearing the Quran was the
connection. This is the language of God. The Quran is the language
of God. So how can you build that connection with him? Take a
portion you're going to read every single day in a translation, and
be consistent with that, that's the Quran. The second part that
we're going to focus on inshallah is fasting.
Allah says that his servant comes closer to him through the
obligations and then the voluntary He's not asking you if you are
working taking care of your loved ones, taking care of a parent, a
child, a sibling, you're exhausted, and you wish that you
could stand for tadawiya and Liam all night long, but you physically
don't have the time or the ability or the energy to do everything you
have to do. So what are you asked to do you are asked for the
obligation, and that is what will bring you closer to Allah. And
fasting also impacts your actions, your character. That is what will
that is, what the point? How is it going to impact your character?
And there was a scholar who passed away, and his son had a dream
about him, Sulaiman Ibn Mansoor, he had a dream about him. And in
this dream, he saw this scholar in paradise. And this is a scholar
who was teaching Islam, 24/7 studying 24/7 worshiping 24/7
what was the act that got him into paradise? It was teaching
illiterate elderly women Surah Al Fatiha, elderly woman who didn't
know how to read. He taught them, excuse me, he taught them Surah Al
Fatiha.
And because of that action,
this is what Allah entered him into paradise, because of you
don't know, and Inshallah, all those other actions as well as
well, but that is the one action that
raised his status. You don't know what one good deed that you do for
someone else,
what kindness that you do for someone else is going to raise
your rank. So when you fast, focus on that. Everyone is going to be
inshallah reading Quran. Everyone inshallah is fasting. But what is
something that no one else is doing, that you can do that's
small but consistent, that will raise your ranks in Ramadan, and
maybe that looks like if your masajid are open, if your Masjid
is open and you have, like the little water can lotus, maybe that
looks like filling that up. For other people, you don't know what
action will take you into paradise. So focus on the small
things you can do. And then Allah santala talks about life,
traveling, getting sick, part of life in Ramadan. Of course, if we
spent all Ramadan in Mecca, Medina and meshville, acasa, how do you
think your iman is gonna be
Allahu? Akbar is gonna be incredible? But that's not our
reality. Why is that not your reality? Because you have
responsibilities, you have to go to school. You have to take care
of your your family members. You have to work, whatever it is that
you have going on. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was
once with the Companions who saw a strong young man walking by. They
said it would have been better for him to go and be out for the sake
of Allah, to fight for the sake of Allah. The Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam told them that if this man was working to take care
of young children that is working for the sake of Allah, that is
striving for the sake of Allah, if this man is working to financially
support his parents that is taking.
Working striving for the sake of Allah. If this man is working to
protect himself from falling into poverty, so that he himself can
take care of himself, that is striving for the sake of Allah. If
we're talking about, how do we become the people who strive for
the sake of Allah? What you're doing with the intention is
striving for the sake of Allah. And I remember when I really
struggled with shifting my responsibilities. All I wanted to
do was worship, but I couldn't. I just didn't have the time to sit
and read the Quran all day and all night and fast and then do
taraweeh all day and all night. It's just not realistic for our
schedules most of the time,
but I spoke to one of my teachers, and he said, listen,
Ibn Al Taylor says that if you want to do other things,
you wish you could get out of your responsibilities so you could do
other things. That is from your own hella. It is not from Allah
that He places these responsibilities on your plate,
taking care of kids, working, going to school, whatever you're
doing, you have these responsibilities on your plate,
and you wish that you could cast them all aside and do nothing but
worship. Why? Because they are the worship Allah has put in your
hands. This is the worship that Allah has put in your life, and
with the worship that he has put in your life, you make the
intention that whatever you're doing in the Ahmadu bin yet
whatever you're doing is for the sake of
Allah and watts, Ibn Khali mentions, you have priorities in
your time. So how can you with what you already have, which are
all forms of worship, as long as you make the intention also make
extra time for your heart with God.
How can you make vikir While you are taking care of your
responsibilities more sending Salawat on the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa salam. Did you know that in a tawbari, arthma, who asked
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, how many angels we have?
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam described all these
angels that are with us. The angels are a form of bringing
mercy and blessings and protection into your life when you make dua,
and they say Amin, that dua is accepted, but there are two angels
on your lips waiting for you to send Salawat on the Prophet Allah.
Amen, you're sending Salawat on the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa
sallam raises your ranks in paradise and in in this life, it
is a means of your forgiveness, and it's a means of receiving
greater reward. You can do that no matter what you're doing, no
matter where you are, sending Salawat on the Prophet sallallahu,
alayhi wa sallam as a form of perfecting your fast, because it
brings you closer to the one who lost everything
in the moments of declaring his faith, through intense hardship,
kept on to his faith. And in this month in which the Quran was
revealed, it brings you closer to the one who recited those words on
his lips from Angel Jibreel, alaihi salam, the same words that
you're reciting,
and that is ease. You read, Allahu, bekumar Yo swallah, you
read, we call us. That is ease. He wants ease. For you.
How do we look at ease in this month? I want to focus on just one
thing, especially because we're running out of time, and so I'm
going to close up really fast. How do we do ease in this month? I
want you to think about dua. The biggest question I get about
Ramadan and feelings is dua. I don't think my dua is being
accepted. I've been praying for something for 10 years. It hasn't
happened yet.
If Allah has inspired your tongue to make dua, he wants to answer
it. That is what the scholars of our past have said your tongue,
making that in and of itself, is a sign that he wants to have replied
to you.
He says,
Pray to Me, I will answer you. He promises He will answer. So when
you are thinking about your sins and
you're thinking about I've asked for forgiveness, but he hasn't
forgiven me. I want to, I want to be forgiven, and I'm making do. I
have to be forgiven, but I don't feel like I've been forgiven, even
though you've left your sins and you're trying.
He wants ease for you when you hold on to your hatred for
yourself, your self loathing.
There was a man who walked into the masjid of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam overwhelmed, distressed, looking
so down the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam asked him what was
happening.
And he was saying, my sins, my sins. So the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam responded with something to say, Allahumma, my
Lord, Your forgiveness is greater than my sins, and my hope and your
mercy is more than the hope i place in my own actions. The
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told him to say this one
time, two times, three times. And then he said, Stand up. You've
been forgiven. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't
tell him, Okay, now for the next five years, feel terrible about
what you've done, and just keep thinking about what a terrible
person you are because of what you've done.
He told him, stand up, you've been forgiven. You are promised by
Allah that when you ask, when you make dua for forgiveness, He
promises you forgiveness as long as you're also trying to change,
and even if you're struggling with being able to change, keep asking
for forgiveness and ask him to help you change, but he promises
to the one who repents that he will accept their repentance and
that he will forgive them. Subhanhu taala, I just
realized that we're completely out of time, so I'm going to end right
now. Inshallah, I'm so sorry, but I'll end with saying, start a
gratitude journal everyday. Ramadan, write three things that
you're grateful for in that day. And look at the Quran with that
work on one thing in terms of your character that you could do that's
like a secret deed. And with all of that, remember, life is
worship, and the Allah wants ease for you. He's there for you. He
listens to you. He is the generous because he is the generous, not
because of something you've done. So whether or not you feel
deserving of his generosity, know that he gives it anyway, because
that's simply who he is.
Subhanhof, thank
you so much. We have a few minutes for what so called some Q and A if
you have the time. Yes, go ahead. Inshallah, one question that has
come through in the chat is, what if you can read the Quran but you
don't understand the words that you're reading because you don't
know Arabic? Yeah, I really recommend just reading the
translation. Start with the translation. I this is how I
started. I didn't know any Arabic until I studied Arabic, and so I
started with the translation. And the translation changed my life.
Reading the translation every single day changed my life. It set
my my life course completely from a different path than I had ever
imagined. So don't underestimate the importance of just a
translation. And if you go to quran.com quran.com has a bunch of
different translations you can try out and see which one you feel
like you can understand best, and then you can purchase that
particular translation, and you can just focus on that
translation.
Inshallah. Inshallah, are there any other questions from our
attendees?
Inshallah, Shaban, how do we prepare? Is one question that
we've just come through.
So I would focus on three things, and they're really based on your
personal goals. But we just talked about gratitude. And I would focus
on, how do I develop my gratitude from now so that, Inshallah, I can
be prepared for Ramadan. So a gratitude journal, doing Tada with
Quran, taking one verse a day, and just sitting and thinking about
how it reflects, how does it impact your life? The second thing
is knowing Allah's Panama, taala. So many of us think we know Allah,
but what we do is we project our own insecurities onto Allah, and
we feel like he thinks about us the way we think about ourselves,
but he says, I am as my servant thinks I am. So if you're gonna be
making dua, and you're like, oh, Allah, please bless me with this
thing, and in your head, you're just like, I know he's not gonna
give it to me. I know he just wants to test me. Why would he
give it to me when he knows I want it so badly? Why would you think
about Allah like that. Why would you put him, Allah in this
terrible, horrible way? You wouldn't want someone else
thinking about you like that. So how about Allah? I would recommend
purchasing the book reflecting on the names of Allah. You can also
read this online on virtualmas.com by Jina and Yusuf. Jina and Yusuf
has a collection Jina and Yusuf has a collection of articles on
virtualmax.com called the names of Allah series, but she's written a
more comprehensive book that comes with a journal that has audio that
you can listen to scholars talking about how they personally interact
with the names of Allah. And it has a journal where you can write
your goals with the names of Allah. How do you connect with the
names of Allah? And really, this is where it starts, when you get
to know who Allah is, this is what changes your life, so that you
don't focus on the the why, though, the why. Why is this
happening to me? Why didn't that happen to me? Why didn't this get
answered the way I wanted to and instead, you can focus on the who,
because.
I know he's al Hakim, and he has something better for me. You can
focus on the who instead of the why, and that is just so
transformational, so reflecting on the names of Allah, and that is by
Gina Youssef. You can get on Amazon, and they have the journal
that comes with it. It's two separate books. And then finally,
the last thing is, really, istilk fa just sitting and asking for the
forgiveness of Allah spantala. And I don't want you to feel like this
is, I don't mean this in as an as an oppressive way. I mean this in
like, How can I ask for Allah's blessings? Because making is still
for asking for lost mentality. Forgiveness as a forms of BLESS is
a form of blessings coming into your life. Noah, Prophet Noah
alaihi salam, he talks about the PO rob a com, I
ask for the forgiveness for your from your Lord. And then why he
the verses keep going and say he will send blessings upon Blessings
to you. So it's just sitting and taking time to just sit and say
for Allah stalk, for Allah. And with that, the more you ask you,
the more you say for Allah, the more it will increase you in
gratitude for all you've been given despite the fact you don't
deserve it. So then you say Alhamdulillah, because you're not
focused on you anymore. You're focused on the one who gives
regardless.
I'm on mute. JazakAllah. Thank you so much. We'll have we have time
for one more question. So the final question that we have that's
come through is, do you recommend a certain Quran translation, or
are any Quran translations? Do? My personal favorite right now is
Mustafa kulb. I really like his translation, but you can read any
translation on quran.com
just Q, u, r, a n.com. They have a list of translators, and just read
the translations and see which one you feel like you connect with
most.
And where can people find you on your socials or YouTube. Yes, if
you have any questions. Inshallah, you can contact me on Instagram.
It's at the Miriam Amir, T H, E, M, A R, Y, a m, a m, I R, and also
on YouTube, has a bunch of lectures from the past, of woman,
resale, of Quran, etc. Inshallah, but Instagram is the best way for
contacting me. I'm also on tick tock, which is at the Miriam Amir.
Zakalay, thank you so much. That's all the time that we have for
questions. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having a
shadow like suzak. Thank you so much honor. It was an honor. Thank
you so
much for having me.