Trust, Belief & Hope – 1

Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. My name is Miriam lemo. And I'm sharing with you what I'm calling my lecture series. inshallah, this is going to be the first of two episodes that I'm calling trust, belief and hope. Now, what I have in my hand here is an orange, an orange, a simple orange. And when I Pierce this orange, what's supposed to come out of it?

If I squeeze it, what comes out of an orange? Is it lemon juice? Is it something sour, something bitter? Is it something that tastes awful? Something that is smelly, when life squeezes you, what comes out of you, when you go through trials, what happens to you, it often is our nature that when we go through difficult times, we start to get sour, we start to get bitter, we start to get toxic. Unfortunately, even our behavior starts to change. Now the Prophet sallallahu, wasallam was squeezed a lot. He went through trials that some of us could only imagine, yet he kept his faith, he never give up hope. He lost his dad before he was born. He lost his mother at the age of around six. And

then after the prophethood, he lost his dear uncle, and so many, many more. And then he buried his dear beloved wife, and up to five, buried five of his children. Now imagine going through such trials. And if that wasn't enough, he had to endure so many more trials. And example is maybe when he was praying, some people came and poured intestine guts guts of animals on his back. While he was praying, it was even Fatima that removed it. So he could continue his prayer. Yet, after the conquest of Makkah, where he had the power to punish show justice, an eye for an eye, he chose to forgive. And even after people sent assassins to go and kill him, and he had to migrate, what would

happen during those days, there were no financial institutions. So a lot of the people that are non Muslims, pagans kept their money with him. He decided to ask Sayyidina Ali to stay behind and return their money to them while he left. Can you imagine? Now what would we do in that kind of situations? There was so many, so many more examples I could share with you. Now there's a story of an old man who one day came across a cat that was drowning.

And he realized that if he continues on his way, that cat is definitely going to die. So what did he do? He decided to try and save it. Now another man was watching. Each time this man put his hand in the water, this cat would scratch him, he would see blood and so on on the old man's hand, yet the man continued, he kept putting his hand in the water, and in the well and trying to pull out the cat.

Ladies like so what are you doing? Leave it, it's scratching, you let it drown.

And the old man ignored him.

He continued and making one last effort. He put his hand in the world pulled out the cat, and the cat just trotted away.

Now the old man turned to this other man. And he said, it's in the cat's nature, to scratch and bite. But it's in my nature to be kind and helpful. That man did not let what was happening to him change him, he stuck to who he is his brand. Now, when life squeezes you, are you still the same sweet orange, the Prophet sallallahu wasallam never ever became resentful, bitter, angry or hateful. After going through all those trials, those never changed him. He stayed true to his brand.

It is for us to do the same.

It is for us to look at his example, and try and emulate him. Now one way to achieve this is to tell ourselves that no matter what happens to us, we will have a default mode where we connect with certain things like how would the Prophet behave if he were in this same situation? When you're faced with seeing wrong going on around you? What would you do? When you're faced with temptation and my god, there's a lot of temptation everywhere around us. How would you react? When faced with maybe a life threatening illness? A doctor says you have six months to live and then your life will come to an end. What would your reaction be? If you lose your job? How would you react? If you find

out that your child is taking drugs? What will you do? Now? This is a difficult one. How do you pre program yourself to prepare for the death of a loved one? Could it be a parent, a spouse, a sibling and this that I had to put myself through and it was it

tremely had your children, I actually imagined either one of my two boys lying in front of me lifeless, and having to say goodbye to them.

It was very tough. It was very difficult. But what was the most important part of the exercise was I tried to picture what my reaction would be. How would I react in such a situation? How do I pre programmed myself so that when it happens, if it happens, I handle it the right way. Now, there are many difficulties ahead of us real life situations, we need to always try and make sure we pre programmed but we have a default mode, that when this happens, this is how we will react. Now, don't just pre programmed yourself for just difficult situations. do so for what people will know you for that you will always be known as somebody truthful, honest, that is pre programming yourself. That

is your default mode, that no matter what situation you find yourself in, you always do the right thing. I'll always be punctual. I'll always give 110% excellence in everything I do. That is setting the default mode, pre programming yourself, I'll always be compassionate, comforting. And if I have knowledge, I will share it with humility, that is pre programming yourself. Now it's about setting a certain Code of Conduct as well, that no matter what happens, I will always react in the right manner. It's about what you stand for what you're made of. Now, let's go through a little exercise here.

Now, if you were a box, if you were a box, and someone were to read the label of the box to know what the content is, before opening it, what will they find out? So let's have a scenario that I'm about to open a box. And this box is called jameelah. All right, let's find out who jameelah is. Now. jameelah It says here is punctual. I love that she's very hardworking. jameelah is a great listener.

Fantastic quality. I love it. However, jameelah gossips, and lies occasionally.

This jameelah lady, it says here that jameelah is a selfie queen.

Yep. All right. We know there are quite a lot of those out there. And a social media slave. Hmm. Not sure about that. jameelah is also an ungrateful wife, Subhan Allah, and she likes to show off.

And as I put this box down, it says she's a loving daughter. Well, good for jameelah but I think we'll put this down. Let's try another box and see what we find out. Now this box is called Omar

says Omar is hardworking. He's very friendly. We like Omar. However, oh my goodness. He's a cheating husband.

Okay, I know I should drop the Xbox, but he is generous. I'm not sure about that. He embezzles at work.

He cares for the environment. Well, who cares at this point? He prays five times a day.

And I knew it.

Omar likes to watch pornography occasionally. I think I would rather not open that box if it's okay with everybody. Now, back to you.

If you were a box, and people open to you, what would they find out? What would they find out inside of you? What is guiding you? What is your code of conduct? What is your default mode? Who are you?

Now it is the consciousness of Allah and the remembrance of Allah that gives us the inner strength to always do the right thing and face the right Qibla it helps us handle adversity, the challenges. It helps us also resist temptation, and then it helps us lead a meaningful life. It was the Prophet taqwa that helped him through the trials and guided him through life. inshallah, during the next episode, I will be sharing with you how to develop a strong taqwa. And if you found this useful so far, I asked you please pass it on and looking forward to having you back as salaam alaikum