Maryam Amir – Studying Islam, the power of Quran, Gratitude Interview Lauren Booth and
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Assalamualaikum Rahul beraketa, who welcome to Ramadan reset your
visit to my living room and my beautiful friendship group in this
wonderful uma of Rasulullah. How is your day? How is your fasting?
How are you feeling? Are you tired? I have to say, I took a bit
of a kind of epic nap today on the balconies of panel. I didn't mean
to. I like to stay awake during the days and do little naps. But
you know what, staying awake through the night and sleeping
during the day? I think it's a better way of doing it, if you can
salaam, Alaikum. But mabasha, you are the first person to send
Salam, so I ask Allah to bless you for that, Marshall at balakala. So
without further ado, we've got an amazing, amazing blessing of a
guest with us today, Marshall. She is somebody who I found out just
from Instagram, from looking for positivity, from looking for
people of knowledge in these different areas and different
groups and social platforms. Ustada Mariam Amir is with us
today. If you don't know, you don't know, that's all I'm going
to say, please find out. She holds a bachelor's degree in Islamic
studies through Al Azhar. She studied in Egypt. She is a hafida
of Quran and has researched a variety of religious sciences,
including Islamic jurisprudence, prophetic narrations and
commentary and women's rights within Islamic law. For the past
15 years, ustada Mariam has been an instructor with Al haykma
Institute, and she's an author with virtual mosque and Al Juma
online by the Grace of Allah. Her focus in the fields of spiritual
connection, social justice and Women's Studies have seen her
invited to lecture around the world, including in Jerusalem,
Mecca, Medina, Stockholm, and she holds up to black belt, a second
degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and speaks multiple languages. I'm
so in awe. Assalamu, alaikum. Talahi wa Barakatu waleksana,
thank you so much for having me.
I don't even want to speak right now. I just want to say Subhan
Allah, literally, I hand over to you, that's it. Mm, oh,
subhanAllah,
may Allah bless you. I love, love, love hearing you speak. It's the
way that you speak. Touches my heart, because it comes from such
a genuine place, and you're so incredibly understanding and kind.
May Allah bless you and raise your ranks. I consistently saw the adab
of the best type of believer in my interactions with you. May Allah
bless me with your type of adab. SubhanAllah.
SubhanAllah. What. A beautiful introduction, and only to be
expected of such
a devoted sister in the path of knowledge. Marshall at a barakala,
I want to make sure that everybody on this group benefits from you
today, but I feel we should get to know you first. First of all, how
did you get such barakah of time. Tell us about the path to ill.
Tell us about your journey to memorizing the Quran and studying.
Please. Yes. Subhanallah, this is actually a very long, long
process. I think that so many of us, when we want to study, our
goal is to memorize the Quran in a year, or our goal is to study, and
then, Inshallah, we're going to be done. We're just going to go for a
year. We're going to go for three years, four years, and then we're
finished. And the path to knowledge is literally lifelong,
and you're going to hear that from everyone, but I think a lot of
times when you begin, you feel very hopeful that you are going to
do it. And then as life comes up as as as as global situations
happen, you find yourself more and more stuck, and at times you feel
like it's a reflection on your own self. And the process of of
memorizing the Quran, the process, the process of studying, it comes
with so much
purification, and it doesn't mean that necessarily a person who's
sitting is pure. It means that the process, the journey, purifies So
much of what you might have thought is the right way for you,
and sometimes Allah puts you in a place that you never expected
would be the place that you could connect to him the most, and you
actually might fight the fact that you're right here, but sometimes
he puts you in a place so that you can find the best way to start
them in your circumstance. And that, specifically, as in our
playing, Iraqi Mahala talks about, is that space is really what your
worship is about. Because when he puts priorities into their life,
and you see them, and I hear this from a lot of people, like
mothers, for example, who feel like they don't have time because
they are mothers and they weren't planning to spend so many years
studying, and now they have even more to do, and it's even harder
with kids, or, you know, individuals like.
Who are taking care of their elderly parents for so many
different circumstances, but sometimes Allah puts in front of
your life these things that are called to Allah, which is the
priorities of your time. And so word ultimate worship is what you
have in that time period, what you have in that time to do what Allah
has put in front of your life in that moment that is worth it, and
everything else you try to do within what he has put into your
life. So definitely, it's so it's such a long journey to get to the
goals that you have. For me, for example, I knew that I wanted to
go into memorizing the Quran. When I was a senior in high school, I
wanted to become a scholar. I wanted to memorize the Quran And
subhanAllah. The process of memorizing the Quran took seven
years for me the process of actually studying something that I
went to Egypt, and then I came back. I was supposed to go back,
and then there was the Egyptian revolution, and then there was the
the coup, and there was, there's so many things that just kept
happening in my life, and for me, each part, it was a reset to
relook at my life and think like, Why does Allah tell want me to be
here right now? What is it in this journey that I need to look at and
see? Why do I need these parts of this journey for right now. So
it's certainly a long process, but I will say that over and over,
every time I made istikhara, which is this prayer of asking for
guidance, there were times that I felt like the answer is not,
you know, to stay here. I don't want to do that, but it just this
is the way that Allah set my life, and I have to be accepting of
that, and looking back at those points in my life where I was
trying to make major decisions about my journey of knowledge and
at the same time, my responsibilities of life, I look
and see that every time I felt frustrated with my lack of growth,
Allah had will for something else to open up for me, to put me on a
path where he opened other doors of knowledge for me that were more
important than me at that time. But I couldn't have known that
because I just felt so frustrated with where I wish I could be. So I
think the journey is a very long one, but when you realize that
it's lifelong, and you continually pray to Allah to open those doors
for you, he will sometimes put you in places that are better than the
ones that you imagine being in, even if in the moment it's very
difficult to see. Because I think so many people, all they want to
do is just study in the masjid all day long and go to the countries
and just stay there for years and years and years. And that is such
an honor and a gift, if that's possible for so many people, but
it's not the reality for so so so many people because of their
personal circumstances or just global circumstances. So looking
at what has Allah placed in your particular particular life, and
how can you use what He has given you to draw close to Him?
Mashallah, I'm sure we're going to get lots of questions and brothers
and sisters I'm going to be although sister ustada Mariam has
got a wonderful presentation to give us, which we'll be sharing in
the next 30 minutes. In Charlotte about gratitude. Please do feel
free as well to ask questions about that journey to ilm, even if
you're starting out. I mean, for example, I'm kind of easily
defeated on learning Arabic. There's something in me that is
relating Arabic to language, and I got an F in my French because,
yeah, at a level, it's kind of traumatized me for languages. But
is it? Is it, is there a mindset of treating this completely
differently when you sit down? Does that help? Yes, so I'm not
Arab. I totally understand. I didn't grow up knowing Arabic, and
when I tried to study Arabic here in California, I kept taking
classes, and of course, you know, I'm in California, I'm taking
like, a one hour class a week. It's extremely slow. I'm trying to
memorize vocabulary throughout the week, in the middle of all the
things I'm trying to do. And it was just very difficult because,
you know, you open the Quran and you're like, oh, I can point out
one word. And I don't know what that one word means, but I will
tell you that what I would do is specifically look at language.
People ask me about wanting to know Arabic for the sake of the
Quran. They just want to be able to understand the Quran, and
absolutely knowing Arabic fluently will impact your understanding of
the Quran to a level that is way beyond just the English
translation. But I will also tell you that I spent maybe
about five years before I moved to Egypt to study Arabic, just
reading the translation of the Quran. So I would spend
every day reading five pages a day of English and Arabic, and then I
would listen to the Arabic while reading the translation. And then
I would also memorize three words that kept coming up.
Wow over time. By the time I moved to Egypt, I didn't know you could
speak to me, and I knew me,
and sometimes maybe, like that's
about
anything else, I knew what you know.
Okay, I'm at that level. That's me, absolutely. When I tested in
the Arabic program, they actually put me
into the third level. So I wasn't a beginner. I was like an
intermediate beginner. And then when I actually started my
classes, my teacher looked at me and she said, How did you place
into a level three? You should be in a level zero. You have no
seeking skills. You have you know you, you, you have nothing. Why do
things at this level? And I remember that was the first
conversation we had. And over time, she realized that all my
vocab comes from the Quran. I couldn't understand anything else.
Yeah, from the Quran. And so the process of simply reading the
translation every day, listening and reading the translation and
memorizing keywords have gotten me to a point where you know, with
every year that I did this, over a period of five years, I couldn't
tell you that that lamb meant that some you know this particular
thing, or that in meant that you know this, this, this, this, the
person who Alessandra child is quoting is emphasizing what
they're seeing. What I do understand is the general message,
and I understand the general meaning of how it applied to me.
So what I would recommend for any person who feels like I just can't
learn language, I can't learn Arabic. I want to know all of it.
Your goal doesn't need to be, I need to know Arabic in and out
right now. Your goal needs to be, I just want to be able to connect
with the Quran. And you can do that by listening to the Arabic,
reading the translation, and then also being able to memorize the
key words, because there are so many words that are repetitive in
the Quran and Allah has made it so easy for us to keep finding those
repetitive words so that we can really connect to his words when
we don't even know the language. So being able to memorize those
keywords helps us process what the words are to us even when we don't
speak Arabic. And it's a mercy for him, because he knows that his
book came down in a language that is going to be spoken until the
end of time for us, sometimes we feel like, oh, it's not good
enough if I'm not reading the Arabic of the Quran. I get this
question a lot in Ramadan, you know, I want to finish reading the
Quran one entire time, all of them and I, and I hear about people
from Frida just a day, and they don't understand anything that
they're reading, which is still beautiful. The Quran itself is
barakah looking at the most half just looking at it, no, just
looking at it with love. That is worship. It is worship to simply
ease at the Mustafa with love. It's worship to hug the must have
out of your love for it. And subhanAllah, the Quran itself,
brings healing. It brings blessings into your life without
you even understanding it, your recitation of it. There are angels
that roam the Earth, just looking for people who are reading the
Quran. When you read the Quran, angels come into your home. They
come into your life, and with them comes blessings and mercy on the
answer of God. So there is every blessing possible when you read
the Quran when you don't understand it. And in addition to
that, imagine how much more when you do understand what you're
reading in a translation, Quran was revealed in Arabic to Arabs.
It wasn't revealed in Parsi to Arabs. It wasn't revealed in
Japanese to Arabs. It wasn't revealed in Spanish to Arabs. It
was revealed in Arabic or Arabs. And so the point is that Allah
used the language that they know so intimately, and it challenged
them, because the eloquence of the Quran is really it's a miracle. Of
course, the Quran has scientific miracles. Of course, the Quran has
miracles in so many different ways, but once you do know the
Arabic and the linguistic miracles, you can do nothing. And
I'm sure that you yourself have read the Quran and found yourself
meeting or read the Quran and Trevor's. You know your body just
Allah's talking to you like, how did you know that you're this and
you open the must happen all of a sudden, it's not you. So that's
really that is such a real experience, because Allah truly
watches us, and he appreciates our connection with his book in any
language. But then imagine if you're witnessing the revelation
and the words that the Quran are using are the words that you use
in your daily life. You can never even attempt the eloquence and the
power of those words. So thus knowing that language is so
powerful for your deeper connection, your understanding,
your ability to look at the tapasir and Arabic and understand
what they mean. But Subhanallah, that journey just begins with the
language that you speak, and in terms of if you do embark on a
full blown journey to.
Memorize to learn Arabic, so that you could, like, fully understand
and access all of these texts. Because unfortunately, so much of
our history is written in I mean, it's it's not unfortunate. It's
wonderful to in Arabic. It's unfortunate it's not translated,
so we don't have as much closely to work as we do in Arabic before
being able to access all of that is just very exciting. But
I remember when I went to Egypt, for me, I really was thinking with
people, and it seems like you do too. It seems like that's
something that you enjoy. And I tried to make every opportunity of
being outside in Egypt itself an opportunity to practice my
language. And I knew that people have to understand it, and I knew
I was going to make a pool of myself. But that's okay, because
my goal is to learn the whole thing. And so what I would do is I
would try to flag a taxi. And I remember once I was trying to move
apartments, and I had a suitcase, and I didn't know where to
suitcase, and so I went and was like, tiny, shitty. And I was
like, I have this thing, and it's like a square, and you put, you
know, from one place to another, and then, oh yeah, good luck.
And I'm like, Okay, the
next taxi comes, and it's just, it's this process where you don't
look at how it's, you know, this over, you know, this
unsurmountable language, you look at this connection with a lot,
it's this connection with the book, it's this connection with
the people. So when you focus on what drives you, you seem like
you're someone who is driven by a connection with people. Some
people don't have that. Some people are. They do not enjoy
speaking with random people on the street. That's okay. So now you
find what drives you. What is it that drives you? Is it writing? Is
it reading? Find what drives you, and then use that point of that
driving point as a point of access into being able to look at
language. Because one of the things when you're studying
Arabic, I remember, and I was still here before I would love to
go to Egypt, I had a very incredible friend of mine. She's a
chef, and her husband is a chef. They studied in they had gone a
year before me, and so I remember once, I was speaking with her mom,
and she was like, it's just so hard, and it's, it's not, you
know, our iman is not feeling strong and and I'm here, like in
my room in California, they're living my dream, and I'm like,
you're like, everyone right now, somehow. But then I got here and I
realized that you're not studying the Quran all day. You're running.
You're running this. This man used to go to the bank, and then he
goes to the hotel, and it's like, what does Yusuf have anything to
do with the Quran? But then as you study those very dry basic words,
you start recognizing the vocabulary, the syntax, the
grammar,
the rhetoric, all of that goes back to what you're really going
for, and that is so it's a very long journey. Being patient is
definitely important, making a lot of Shala and always reminding
yourself, like, why you're doing what, going back to your access
point for yourself, to motivate you Inshallah, that process will
slowly help you get there inshallah. And it's okay, if it
takes many years, that's okay. It is okay. Yes, yes, mashallah, and
it's not a linear journey, as you're saying. Everybody who's
here, salaam alaikum. We are honored, deeply, deeply honored to
have I help someone who's going to be become a friend and a mentor to
me, because I feel so blessed to know you. Stada, Mariam Amir, and
we are discussing gratitude today, and we've kind of linked it to to
baby steps towards the court and as well. But what I'd like to do
now is everybody who's to hear this is a beneficial gathering on
a social media platform where things don't always have to be
beneficial. So be of nela to Allah press, share right now. Share the
hair from your chair. Okay?
And then anything good that comes from it, you're just reaping the
benefits. So all you have to do is go below and press the share
button, stream it on your page, bring many more people to this
beneficial moment in Ramadan with an ustada talking about gratitude
to Allah. And also, I want to just give us all a blessed reminder,
Inshallah, to Allah, that we are here for our Syrian brothers and
sisters, that watan.org.uk
have kindly given me this platform to expend extend invitations to
people that I've known and friends and people that I've wanted to
know, and introduce to you with ILM, with knowledge, with
different areas of expertise, and We've been able to do that this
month, but all of our friends and colleagues here have given their
time because we are trying to donate to very important charity
who's doing work for Syrian refugees, specifically brothers
and sisters. 100 families. Our aim is 100 families to be.
And everything they need in 10 days. That's the aim of the last
10 days show that ustada is here to do right now, and if possible.
Inshallah, we'll go to a little video now, and we'll see the work
of watan.org.uk and when we get back, ustada Mariam will take your
questions and talk to you about the blessings of gratitude in
Islam. Brother Hamza, have you got A video for US? Inshallah, You
You
so welcome to Ramadan reset with Myself, Lauren booth, and ustada,
Mariam Amir. And this is all about covering the covering the work of
watan.org.uk
we are sponsoring 100 families right now in a particular camp,
a displacement center. I think camp has different, you know,
connotations. These people are in between tents. Okay? So you know,
when we talk about getting on the property ladder Ustad, we're
talking about getting a bigger place. Does it have an extra
shower room? Is the view? Okay? What we're talking about for the
people of Idlib, muarrat and misreme, located in the north of
Syria, they've had to flee their homes, okay, what we're talking
about for them is getting out of a shared tent with other families
Allahu Akbar. So we are helping 100 families with education needs,
food and water, specifically through watan.org.uk
100 families. 10 days, you can donate now inshallah to Allah, if
Allah wills give your zakat now watan, UK below, or if you can't
give 100 pounds, 100 pounds per family, by the way, guarantees
their food and water and hygiene needs for a month. We're talking
nappies, we're talking sanitary products. We're talking bars of
soap. Allahu, Akbar, okay, and the money also goes towards medication
and education. So you can donate 100 pounds straight away to what
am below, or go to my just giving, give whatever you can for the sake
of love. So welcome back. We have an amazing astada Here.
You know, almost a black belt of Taekwondo. I guess that's a
journey for you as well. So panel at Adim and but we wanted to, we
want to hear your words about about gratitude
and Ramadan, especially, I hear a lot about how they
people who haven't felt emotionally connected to Allah and
this month so struggling with feeling.
Like the sweetness of faith, those tears falling from your eyes. And
that's a very common feeling that sometimes leads people to feel
like they haven't been successful. This Ramadan, this Ramadan, wasn't
good enough. They didn't do good enough. And almost anytime I hear
this, I ask, what is going on in your life? Because the way that
you are feeling from an emotional level, the stresses you have in
your life, whatever is going on with your family or your job or
your depression or whatever it is, sometimes we take those things and
we think this, all of this difficulty, and the fact that I
don't feel an emotional connection with Allah is a sign that I am not
close to him, or I am not accepted by him, when in reality, those are
our own insecurities. Those are our own things that we are
processing in our tests. And then what we do is we start projecting
them onto Allah. So we struggle with our own selves. We feel like
we're not good enough. We struggle with our own religious
insecurities, and then we project that all into Allah. And then we
think, if this is the way I feel about myself, if I am struggling
with feeling apathetic to me of myself or self loathing, or any
type of struggle internally, then that must mean that that's how
Allah views me, and we can never say that the way that Allah used
us is the way that we see ourselves. Instead. What we should
know is that Allah is the Most Merciful, the Most Loving that he
sees all of the pain that we're going through, or the confusion
that we're going through, the stresses that we're going through,
the loss that we're facing. He sees all of that. And this is why
the Prophet, full of taught us that even the prick of a foreign
as a means of our forgiveness is a means of our drawing closer to
him, because all of these types of of trials in our lives, they all
are in form of our own closeness to him in this life and when it
really matters for eternity in the next. So whenever we are going
through a very difficult space and start to view ourselves in a
deficit, it's important to reevaluate the we believe, the way
that we are looking at ourselves, and start thinking about ourselves
from a place of gratitude of what we have, and we see in our almost
such an emphasis on this in our global conversation, when we talk
about, for example, people with disabilities, even the term itself
is a disability, it's someone who doesn't have the ability of
someone else, but really, which is, of course, a totally,
perfectly fine term. I'm not trying to think of that if someone
this, this is a term that someone who disabled identifies with. That
is amazing.
Another way that we can look at that is that, you know, those who
have a disability also have varied abilities, because they can do
things in ways that those who are typically able, like someone who
doesn't have a struggle with maybe eyesight or hearing or arms or
whatever it is, they can do things in ways that other people can't.
So their abilities are varied, and one of the things that we
continuously see in our religion is that there isn't a highlight on
people who don't have the same necessarily, necessarily abilities
as those who have typical who are typically able, but they are still
critical for the community, are in and are in a place of gratitude.
So I'll give you an example. For example, I'll give you an example
of who is known as a blind man of the Prophet. So, you know we
today, you know we know someone who is blind, or we hear someone
who's blind, and sometimes people think, oh, you know, that's so sad
that they don't have eyesight. And of course, not having eyesight. I
mean, eyesight is an enormous blessing. Of course,
you can't say thank you enough for that blessing. But that doesn't
mean that they don't have other blessings, and just like we might
not have the same thing that they do. And when we see in the in the
community, the Prophet sallallahu, he had an imam who, you know as a
famous Imam, do you have a name in mind? Whether you hear the Adhan
of, excuse me, the mud and someone who makes the event, our
listeners, when you hear someone who makes the event, who do you
think of the person who may be Adan at the time of the Prophet
salallahu, alayhi
wa sallam, ala nabino habili na Muhammad, for three seconds, Allah
musalliva No habi Muhammad, Allah nabiu Habib na Muhammad, masha
Allah, the informing is just too many people. So
normally people say,
and he is an incredible mother. And the second weapon of the
Prophet sallallahu, alayhi, Salam was abuela.
And what's incredible about this put him in a position.
Where people are not only being called to the Salah, which is the
most you know, important daily action of a Muslim, but not only
is is he in a visible position, but people coming into the
community who don't know the Muslim community, people who are
coming in and wondering about this religion are seeing a blind man as
a representative for the most important aspect of a daily
ritual. So what we see is that the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa and
the way that he set up the policies of his community, he's
reminding every believer that no matter what your circumstances
are, you are not just welcome into the community. You're not just
here in the community. You are critical. You're integral for the
way that our community functions, and that is a place that
recognition, that I have a purpose, that is a is the
beginning of where we start to feel a sense of gratitude. Because
when we look at our life, when we feel like we have a reason for our
day to day, that in and of itself, is enough to fill our hearts with
this feeling of humility, because so many people have so much time
and have absolutely no idea what to do with this.
People have every single blessing, but they don't know where to go,
and that is really difficult. It's really to
not have any idea what to do with yourself in that circumstance. So
many of you might be in that circumstance where you know you
you know you do pray and you do all these things, but you don't
know what your major goals are. You might not feel happy with
where you are in your life. That's okay. That's a process. But if you
still know that in the end of the day, in the middle vignette, with
your intention, everything can become an act of worship. Then you
can turn that, you know, hours of time to figure out you who are on
your laptop into a form of worship, because you're trying to
find out how you best preserve all those times where you feel like
you don't know how the day has passed between cooking and, you
know, clinging and but all of that was for a purpose. You have
something that grounds you. And Imam dahi, he's a scholar of our
past who have a narration of a man named Abdullah who was walking on
a hill and he came across a tent where someone was living. And he
approached the tent, he asked answer,
paralyzed. He's blind, and he doesn't have his arms, and so he
calls out to him because he hears from his tent. Alhamdulillah.
Thank you, Allah, to the one who had given me so many blessings
over so many other people. And Abdullah is listening to this old
man, and he's thinking, This man is paralyzed, he's blind, and he
doesn't have arms, and he's saying, Alhamdulillah, I have so
much. And so the men, Abdullah asked this older man, how are you
saying Alhamdulillah? Why are you saying I have more than so many
people. And he said, Am I not the full mind?
And Abdullah said, Yes. And he said, How many people don't have
the time? How many people are not able to think for themselves? Do I
not have the ability to hear? Abu Asmaa, how many people don't have
the people don't have the ability to hear. I mean, this man isn't
focusing on what Abdullah, which is everything he doesn't have. He
is focusing on what Allah has given him and how to use what
Allah has given him. And I'll tell you, once I was in the grocery
store with my two kids, and at the time, my friend was about maybe
three, and my baby was maybe, like a year, and they're, you know,
they're very little, like curious or as complex without filtering.
So we're checking out, and there is a cashier who's loading up our
country, and he has a very visible disability, very visible varied
ability. I noticed him immediately, and that's okay. I
think that we notice each other's differences, and we celebrate
them, and we recognize them, and we recognize that even with our
differences, all of us are using the skills that Allah has given us
in those different ways. And we we are, we are just in awe of Allah's
power through them, and my son, my freedom over time he he was
speaking to me. He said, Mommy, why he's like that. And so I know
that the man heard why he's like that, and the way I interpreted
this is okay. Now he's recognizing very visibly that this man has a
disability. And how am I going to explain this to my son and all
okay, I'm going to tell him that this man is so, you know,
incredible, because this is how eliminate him. This man has so
much tenacity, because regardless of his circumstances, he is doing
so much that I couldn't do in the way that he's doing it. And I
tried to think of all these things, and then I was like, You
know what I want to allow for my son?
To be able to ask this man if he himself feels comfortable
explaining this part of his identity. And I didn't know if
that company would feel I just felt like maybe this would be
something that I could ask so that he himself could feel like he
could own the voice to explain who he is. And so I asked, I asked my
son, Baby, what do you mean? Why he's like that? And the grocer, he
was helping us,
listening, and my son said, why he's putting all those things in
our cart?
Subhanallah, he was just wondering why this man is putting things in
our court, and I was looking at this question in so many different
ways, when all my son was looking for was the action. And so the man
told us, oh, I work here. That's our job. And then we
said,
but I think the point of what I'm doing from this was that Allah
looks better action, just like that three year old who doesn't
know what we look into things as we just see it, Allah sees our
action, or he sees beyond that. He also sees our intention. He also
grants everything that we process. And sometimes, when we look at who
Allah is, we struggle because we think, Oh, I'm not good enough. We
shouldn't look at how low we feel, or how we don't feel like we
measure up to Allah. Don't look at your smallness. Look at Allah's
greatness. He is Abu latibha Is the observant one Imam Allah talks
about Abu latib being the one who is so aware you. You know you
might be aware of where your profile is because you need it.
You might be aware of where your kids are. You're aware of what you
need, what you love. Oh, well, he is watchful over his servants. He
knows what they're doing and what they need. So instead of feeling
like I can't connect to him because of my smallness, because
of my sins, because of my mistakes, I can't have this
emotional connection. Look at some look at when Allah SWT tells us I
am as my servant thinks I am. Think, hi everyone. I used to make
a DUA, and the whole time I was thinking, Allah's not going to
answer this dua. The whole time I was making that dua, I was
thinking, Allah's going to give me the opposite of what I'm asking
for, because he wants to test me. Why would Allah? And all you're
thinking of is the worst things about Allah, may Allah, forgive
me. So many of us are trained thinking Allah in that way, and
some of that comes from our own trauma of our own selves. Healing
self is a process, but that process helps you heal in your
relationship with Allah. So instead, look, look at your
relationship with Allah. I started changing, and I realized, wait a
second, I am as my servant thinks I am. I'm going to make God and
I'm going to have certainty in that draw as a Prophet,
sallAllahu, alayhi was going to unfold us make quy to Allah, and
you are affirming your beliefs. So you make a Jaya to Allah, knowing
that Allah will answer you, and that answer might come in
different ways, but He will answer you. Maybe you don't see the exact
answer, but he will come in a different way. And so I started
making dua to Allah from the time I'm like that, with the certainty
of who he is, Abu rahib, who's watching me, who will answer? And
Allah answers that dua. And sometimes for me, in those das
that I made, they would take two years, seven years, 10 years until
they're not okay. It's the journey that's part of the process of that
yes a question on gratitude, we should focus on people who are,
who are or and ourselves when we're not doing well. We the
question is this, we seem to know how to ask Allah, but regarding
gratitude, do we know how to thank him? Because sometimes the
distance comes when the prayer has been answered and you're like, I'm
okay now, and we slip into a dangerous, disconnected zone. I
wonder, with the little time we have left with you could touch on
that? Yes, thank you. That's a perfect segue to the next portion,
which is how to inculcate that. So we hear about people who have
gratitude, like the ones I mentioned. We look at who Allah
is. That's where gratitude stems from a he is the one who's so
watchful that he loves you and He cares for you so so much, so that
when your die is not answered. Last week, two years, I've been
praying for something. I thought that day it was going to be
answered. I was supposed to get information about whether or not
it was going to be answered. I was so hopeful, and it wasn't
answered, and I was devastated. But of course, I trusted that
Allah has the best plan, and then later on in that day, I just
really wanted these cookies that my friend bakes And subhanAllah
out of nowhere, she called me and she said, I'm dropping these
particular cookies off. Why did that happen? Allah knows your
circumstance. When he doesn't answer the big. He still gives you
the comfort of the small because he knows the big is at a better
time, but that small, out of his love for you, he continues to
still give you so to inculcate this gratitude, stop looking at
the big. You don't have. Start looking at the small you do. Take
a moment every day say college is safe.
That for 21 days, if you would just write down three things at
the end of your day, and you're grateful for from that day.
Alhamdulillah, I found a person spot today. Alhamdulillah, I have
a key brush to brush my teeth. Alhamdulillah, I was able to sleep
without rain falling upon me. Oh, my God, so many people don't have
these blessings, but they might have different so we think about
those three things a day that Allah has blessed us with for 21
days. If you write this down in the journal, your attitude will
psychologically, your neurons will start shifting to look at things
from a place, a place of gratitude, a attitude of
gratitude, and for an emotional connection in these days, what I
recommend is you take some quiet time to just sit and just say
and with every single one that you say, you think about a blessing.
Take time for yourself every day, even if it's just five minutes,
and just focus on giving thanks to Allah. And in that moment, think
of what you're giving thanks for. It can be as huge as a fact that
you are able to close your eyes at night, because some people do not
have what is needed for their eyes to close, so they have to keep it
shut. Or it could be as small as
I'm so blessed that I have a place to sit, which is still not so
small. Really, there's no small blessing. So you sit and you think
of Alhamdulillah that I have nails to cover the the painful area
underneath it. Alhamdulillah that I can, I can see the sky. Then if
you can't see the sky, Alhamdulillah, then I can bring
you whatever that blessing is. You just say Alhamdulillah for each
blessing over and over and over. And instead of approaching from
this deficit, Oh Allah, need this
is a form of worship. When coming to Allah, begging him is a form of
worship. You're need. Asking him is a form of worship. You also
merge that with the gratitude of what you have. Oh Allah, thank you
for the blessings you have given. Me send your son.
Oh Allah, as you have given me this in the past, as you have
given me this in the past, please answer me again and give me this.
Oh Allah, you are degenerate. We can ask. You can ask every single
person who's listening can ask, Oh world can ask. And Allah should
give every single one of us what we need, and it's nothing more
than dipping the needle into the ocean, and how the needle comes
out is practically dry. That's all that took away from Allah.
So when we ask, we ask big and we ask small, but when we come asking
for what we don't have, we recognize that it's not from a
place of deficit, because I don't,
and that's okay to feel like I'm in a deficit. But the difference
is, I'm coming to Allah knowing that it's not what I'm asking for,
it's who I'm asking. Allah is the most generous, even when we don't
deserve the demo last month. He is the Most Merciful, even we, we
don't deserve the mercy. It doesn't matter what you are asking
for, because you're never going to be getting up. But he it's not
about whether or not you're getting up. It's about who he is.
He just is. Ramadan is a time of blessing. The Ramadan you're going
to
pray next week outside of but
Subhanallah, it's the same action, but the timing is the vodka of it.
So the same, the same thing that you're asking for, the smallness
of it is not small to him. And I get this question all the time,
like I feel bad a lot. I want to ask him that I'm not worthy of
asking again. When you ask, he loves to listen. He loves to
listen to the sound of your voice. So when you sit in that hymn and
humble in that after that time, when your heart is full of
gratitude, when you recognize that it doesn't matter your mistakes,
he still has continually given you in that moment you look at him,
Mother, what a baby into a basket. Her baby was taken straight to the
palace of her Pharaoh. Anywhere else he was trying to protect him
from hero. Where does her baby go? Straight to the palace of her
Pharaoh, and what happens in the end she has her baby come back?
What happens in the end she has state protection to have her son
and for the rest of humanity, she had to be put in that place to
create the legacy of the freedom of the Benoist and the
establishment of this worship of Olaf, which I told his name, has
made an impact for the entire world. So sometimes you're in a
place and you feel stuck. You're taken to the palace of the
Pharaoh, and you don't know why. Remember, he knows your hereafter.
He knows your full time story, and those tears that you meet when you
are begging him in the circle.
Maybe those tears are the ones that will fertilize the earth in
which a tree, which has flowers bloom, and while you will be in
your grave 300 years from now, birds and butterflies and bees are
Pinky from the fruit of your tears, and you're still getting
the reward that you planted from your sadness in that moment. So
recognize that even moments where we are broken, you're fertilizing.
You might not see more light, but maybe what comes after it is fruit
that you are being rewarded for when you have nothing but your
this tiny space in the earth, instead of being on top of it,
coming from a gratitude Oswald has told us that when you're grateful,
I will increase you so being grateful to him, and Inshallah, he
will increase you in the blessings
that you give. Allah, Masha, Allah, we we've all benefited.
Usta. Thank you so much for your time. And that's I just think
brothers and sisters to to wind up with sister. And then I'm going to
stay on a little bit longer,
return to gratitude doing well. Can distance ourselves from Allah
to Allah, but spend time being grateful this. Ramadan, we know
how to ask, but we know do we know how to thank? I'm really going to
take that away and And ustada said, you know, wisely, Marshall,
I'd get away from a deficit mindset, because Allah, to Allah,
is Al mukibi, Sir man. He is his overall things beneficent and in
control and and get with that program. Inshallah to Allah and
watch the increase.
Yes, yes. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the honor of being
with you, and thank you so much for your kindness. Bless you,
sister. We'll speak again. Inshallah to Allah. I know you
have other things to do, so we'll let you go and please everybody
make dua for Sister, Mariam, her family and for her work to
continue. Inshallah to
Allah. Well, I feel really quite emotional about that. I know what
I'm going to be doing this evening. Inshallah, to Allah,
maybe you'll be doing the same. We can, you know, get away from a
deficit mindset. Sit somewhere in just five minutes. Alhamdulillah
for my eyes. Alhamdulillah for my husband, Alhamdulillah for my
children. Alhamdulillah for whatever big and small that we
have, Allahu, Akbar, and take that time to thank Allah. So a holy
month as well, we focus a lot on asking, and that's great. This is
the months when, when the when the hours are answered, when our
fasting, may it be accepted. You know, where it was beloved to
Allah, to Allah, but also to sit there and acknowledge what, what
Allah has given and to really be happy with that, because, you
know, if we are grateful, he will increase us. Subhan Allah, this
whole program, which has been put together by the Grace of Allah,
has been sponsored by watan.org uk to bring you great content on
social media platforms and also to alert us to the needs of our
brothers and sisters in Syria, subhanAllah Adim, they haven't
gone away. No solution has been found. These 10s of millions of
people haven't gone back to their homes. These children are not
safely back in their beds. These mothers are not able to wash their
children in their own bathrooms. They don't have their own fridges
to go back to. They're not sitting next to their grandmothers in
their gardens with their fruit growing as they used to, but by
the grace of Allah, these brothers and sisters are thanking Allah
just to have a center where they can be together if they made it
from the war, and that if they have their next meal funded. They
know it's banaka from Allah to Allah. And our job, our job, is to
be a part of that slipstream of goodness that is Allah to Allah's
world that is Islam. So brothers and sisters, these families fled
their homes Southern, northern Idlib and Hama, and they've lost
everything. And what anne.org.uk,
I've got a just giving page with them this whole of Ramadan, and in
the last 10 days, we want to sponsor the 100 families who are
right now in their special displacement center. Right now you
can find out about this in watan.org.uk I'm going to play a
very short video, Please, brother Hamza, the one about the actual
camp itself so we can see them. We'll watch that now and then come
back inshallah.
I'm now talking to you emergency response manager in Watson
Foundation, talking to you from Marathon masary in town in
Idlib province. We are here in our reception center. As you see, it's
a collective center to receive IDPs who fled recently the
hostilities in southern Idlib and western Aleppo.
This center have been found for around last.
Two weeks, and we have recently launched this project. In
collaboration with the different donors, we receive around 100
families, around 400 to 500 members, and we're planning to
extend the the center to get more capacity of the IDPs. As you see,
we have prepared. There's a heating shelter place, and it's a
collective center that families come women and men live
separately. And we have, like, four big tents here. And now we
are extending as well as we provide the water sanitation
services. So latrines drinking water and as well, we provide each
day to meals for all the families who are living in here. As you
know, over the the last month, around 900,000
IDPs have fled from their homes and were displaced. According to
the United Nation, we invite all the parties to take
responsibility, seize the the hostilities, to exert more efforts
to get more funds to respond to to the crisis. I would thank you
again, all the ones who donated, all the donors who cooperated with
us to provide these assistance, with your cooperation and you,
with our coordination, we, Inshallah, reach more IDPs, which
more beneficiaries, and provide a decent livings for the people.
Thank you so much.
Alhamdulillah. So you're we are all here tonight, gathered by the
Grace of Allah with a chance of doing some great work. We browse
too much on social media, which is wasteful but, but thanks to us
Father Mariam Amir, we've really had some good learning tonight.
And now it's time to to to show Allah Our love for his Deen. And
how many of the ayat of the Holy Quran link love for Allah and
prayer with charitable giving. So this 100 pounds for 100 fat for a
year, 100 families will provide these items, food, water, hygiene,
medical care and education. So 100 pounds to many of us, we have the
Zakat, and we like to give to different places. So give a
section of your zakat today to our brothers and sisters whom Allah,
to Allah at the end of the day has raised their case to you right now
I'm sitting here because alata Allah has chosen me to sit here in
the month of Ramadan, to be talking about our brothers and
sisters, to present their case to you. Just think about that. And
you're sitting where you are, at home, on a bus, on a train, in
your garden, in lockdown, free to move so that you can hear about
the case of the specific family who's waiting for you to help
them. Allow ekboro, it's written for you. So 100 pounds will
provide food, water, hygiene, medical care and education and
keep these families going in this camp. Uh Subhanallah Adim. So you
can go to one of the links below, brother Harris Khan is here. You
can go to watan.org.uk,
check out which area you want to give it in. Although we're we're
raising specifically for food and hygiene, and you can give less on
my just giving page. And Allah knows best what we do. I hope you
benefited from this. So brothers and sisters and I ask for Allah,
to Allah to put blessing in all of our good deeds, to accept our to
ours, to give us increase, to allow us to be grateful to him
that he may increase us even more, and to accept all our fasting and
good deeds this holy month. Inshallah, to Allah via the letter
Allah, and may Allah bless sister, Mariam, ustala, Mariam, and all
your families. I'll see you again tomorrow. Inshallah, salaam,
Alaikum, Rahul talahi, wabarakatuh.