Healing through repentance

by me, I'm

I'm also for Kathy and others who came. Who didn't come in the beginning when I was seeking permission to leave a bit early, because I have another zoom meeting, beginning at midday. So my most grateful for your permission to leave early as well.

I think what I brought here

links very nicely with what the two that we heard just now, which is Eve and Katie's. And I don't know, I think in the, in the in the collective unconscious, this is also how what I call congruence happens. It's not designed because obviously we none of us knew what we're going to say. But this is, you know, call it what you want. But

I've seen this happening. I mean, I am in my day job leadership trainer. So when I design a course, when I see it going really well, my meter for that is that somebody asked me a question, which is automatically answered by what I'm about to say immediately thereafter. So it's either on a slide or something which I have made. And the question links to that slide. The person asking the question, didn't know that this slide I had, and I didn't know he was going to ask that question. And this is not a mark of spiritual development or anything of anything of the sort. It's just that it happens and when everything, you know, gels, and I think this is what I hope this is what is happening here,

as we all gathered with one

with one single thing in mind, and that is how to connect to our Creator. And that's why I particularly like this theme, which is healing through devotion and healing through introspection. I know I got that exact title wrong. Katie, but you know,

you know, Allah subhanaw taala, the glorious and magnificent began his book with his own introduction. And the way he introduced himself and nobody can introduce him better than he introduced himself. And the way he introduced himself was, he said, I was willing to humanize shaytani r rajim Bismillah Ar Rahman AR Rahim, Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen Ar Rahman AR Rahim. It means he said I begin in the name of the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. All praise and thanks to the creator and the Sustainer and the maintainer and the protector and the provider, of all the universe, all the worlds and who is that are Rahmani Raheem

the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

He said about himself. In another place in the Quran. kata bara bukem, Allah enough, see here.

He said, your Lord, Your rub has written for himself mercy.

Now, I remind myself and you that nobody can compel God to do this or that that's the whole point of being God that nobody can compel you. And in this case, this is what he's saying about himself. He says, I have within quotes compared myself if I can use that term without disrespect. I have written for myself, that my mercy overcomes my anger, My Mercy overcomes everything else. I have written mercy and in the Arabic language in the grammar.

Allah subhanaw taala could have said Qatar Abu al amin, Allah nasty Rama, the creator and Sustainer of the universe has written for himself mercy. But he didn't say that. He said, Katara bokun. He said your rub. So there is he just by saying, You're your Creator, your sustainer your maintainer. He is establishing our relationship with him and he's telling us, I am telling you who I am and how I relate to you and how you relate to me now will you recognize that and and that wreck that that relationship is a relationship of love. It's a relationship of a mercy. I remind myself, I knew that mercy comes into play only when something has gone wrong. Right? I can't say I'm merciful to someone

who's always good to me. I am merciful to someone who has done something wrong, and I am merciful when I am actually in a position to retaliate. But I choose not to retaliate because my love for that person who did something wrong, overcomes my anger about what they did what they did.

Wrong. So I think this is so beautiful in the way it is phrased. And then he said in another place, Kalia arriba de la dee da sort of

foresee him la de condado Mira Mati

in Allah will Pharaohs oh no by Jamie. In who will Oh Rahim, Allah subhanaw taala said say and this is addressed to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Peace and blessings beyond him. Allah saying, say Oh, Mohammed to people, too. And he says, who has a say to them what Say what? He says, Oh, you who have all my people own my bonds, people, all my slaves, all my creatures. I say my creatures, my bad, my slaves, my bonds people. He says, Yeah, buddy, Allah, Xena savall unforeseen, who are these people, those who have transgressed against themselves. Now, when we commit sin, when we commit harm, when we do things to each other, we are having ourselves. Today we are talking about

all these protests happening in the United States and everywhere else in the world, against discrimination. In this particular case, it is specific racial discrimination based on color. But I expand this to all kinds of discrimination. Because if you look at discrimination, the discrimination that was happening against the Jews in 1930s, those Jews were not black people, they were white people, and people discriminating against them were also other other white people. So it did and what makes that the I mean, the the Jewish Holocaust is really has to go down in history has been very sad to say that the Jewish Holocaust is not new. Many Holocaust took place before that,

and very sadly, others happen after but that one goes but goes down, in my opinion as one of the

most blatant and the and one of the most.

You know, what's the what's the word for it says something which is so stark, which is that it was legal.

The people who were who were murdering innocent men, women and children were following the law of the land of the time. Now this is what makes it so heinous, it makes it so absolutely incredibly horrible, that a law is passed, which is against everything, which is which is good. And yet it is the law. And that's the reason why when we talk about protesting, we are not talking about protesting against laws, we are talking about protect protesting against the basic, intrinsic, good, that is there. And we are saying we stand up against evil, even if that evil is wearing the garb of law, even if the evil is wearing the garb of authority. Sorry, we don't accept that God, we look

through that garb to that evil, and we say we stand against you and I and somebody said to me, you know, what's the use of iron The only one I said, you know, if you are the only one then there is even more reason for you to stand because you are the only one. There is nobody else. If you don't stand then there is no one else to stand and that's the reason why it is even more important to stand and so therefore here Allah subhanaw taala is saying to the people who are transgressing that look, you are the evil that you are doing is not harming me. I am God. The point of being God is nothing harms you. Nothing benefits you from the creatures, but you are harming yourself. But even

though you are harming yourself, you are still mine. Hey, buddy, I don't reject you. I don't throw you away. I don't say go into hellfire. No, I said you are my people. Even though you are wrong, you are mine. And he says to the Prophet sallallahu sallam, he says to the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He says say to them, all my people, meaning the people of Allah, La Cana Toma Rahmatullah. Do not lose hope in the mercy of Allah. Do not despair of the mercy of Allah in Allah Hyeok Pharaoh de Nova Jamia, Verily Allah is the one who forgives all sins in the whole world are for Rahim Verily, He is the one who is the most forgiving and the Most Merciful. Now the condition of

forgiveness is repentance. Only when we acknowledge that we have been wrong, that we have overstepped the boundary and that we are not rebellious, rebellious, but we are contract we are ashamed and we are repentant. Then Allah subhanaw taala promises to forgive us and the noir Hadees Rasulullah sallallahu. The Prophet Mohammed Salah Sallam said to us, he said, Allah says that if my slave comes to me with sins that filled a space between the heavens and the earth, I will meet him with forgiveness, which is greater than that. Now in this Ramadan, Allah subhanaw taala gave

was the opportunity to particularly reflect on us on our own lives, and to change our direction, away from our desires and our absolutely mad chasing behind wealth and power and authority and all kinds of stuff. And to turn it to towards himself, he removed all distractions from our lives during Ramadan, not only the socializing, which we enjoyed so much, but also congregational worship. Now that sounds like a bit of a paradox. But if you think about that, even congregational worship is a distraction of one kind or the other, because you're going together, you're greeting meeting people, and so on, and so on, and so forth, especially people who are running the massage the people in the

administration and so on. I mean, they are running ragged, to make sure that everything is functioning. And I don't know how much time they really get to mean, I know, because I don't imagine, myself, mercifully, I have, I have a fabulous team. So I dump it on them. But the point is that I know that, you know, the how much time they get for personal devotion is anybody's guess. But this time, we were forced to stay home, to face ourselves, to face our lifestyles, to face our attitudes to face our to face ourselves as we are, and decide what we need to do to repair our relationship with him with our Creator, because to him is our return. And this he did in a way,

which reminds us about our return, which the COVID-19 did for us, COVID-19 suddenly made us aware, at least he made me aware that I am mortal. It made me aware that the cemetery is not always for somebody else. And that there is one piece of real estate, which has my name on it. And I don't know where it is in which part of the world but it's got it's got my my name tag on it. And I better get prepared when I take ownership of that piece of real estate. Now, the point is that, what do I need to do with my life, and that's what I need to, I now have the opportunity and all of us had the opportunity. And we still have the opportunity in some ways to look at it, instead of running behind

and saying how can we get back to normal? Because we have been forced to look at that normal, which is the reason why we got into this mess and say, let us see what part of that normal Do we really need to work to get back to and what of that normal was must be stay far away from discrimination has always been normal. Discrimination is normal as we speak. But discrimination is something which is created all of the misery that we are seeing all around us. And that's why the the wife of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam Ayesha delana, she asked, the prophets are certain about Ramadan and about the Night of Decree Laila to Qatar. And she said to him jasola if I find lighter to cover,

because then the professor Sallam told us it is one of the last 10 nights and he said Allah has hidden it. We don't know exactly which one he said it's one of the odd nights. So we don't know exactly which one even though we know people have all sorts of theories, but the point is the absolute statement we don't know. So she said if I find it What must I do? What must I ask Allah for because the the drive this application, which are made in delicado, are accepted by those who handle that. So what did the teacher he said, asked this make this door here and what is the dua he said Allah hum in a full one to have been awful far for me. Now this is a bit of a you know, sort of

tongue twister, but the the English translation of that, he said, Oh Allah, you are forgiving, and you love forgiveness. So forgive me. Now. See, the beauty of this, that it focuses is Oh Allah, you like to forgive. So forgive me, don't forgive me because I deserve forgiveness. Forgive me because you would like to do that. Forgive me because please yourself, forgive me because you'd like to do that. That is also beneficial for me. I'm not saying I deserve forgiveness. No, no, no, I really deserve punishment, perhaps because of all the stuff that I have done, but you know, please, you are most forgiving. So please forgive me, you like to forgive, please forgive me. I mean, this is why I

have such humility. That you know, whenever I whenever I make this device, it's one last mountain and made this so beautiful for us, which is something that that you know, we can we can take solace from and say that this is

the opportunity that we have healing through this because healing again you know, we are living in such a materialistic world that was the moment we say healing within hospital, but healing is not only not are not only is healing, not only hospital, but if you do the right things and if you are spiritually in a healed situation, you

Need hospitals? A lot of illness you know, and I know a lot of illness has nothing to do with the body. It has to do with the soul. It has to do with the heart, it has to do with the mind it has to do with our spiritual part, which we have become so accustomed to ignoring that the moment with something happens, we immediately think of hospital. Yes, of course hospitals, but how about living a life where hospital probably will not be required.

required for us at least not required as often as we, as we seek it. And I think that is the the beauty of healing through prayer and so on. Thank you very much. Once again, I'm most appreciated. I greatly appreciate being here. And as I said before, at some point in time, I'm going to seek without seeking permission, I don't want to interrupt anybody, but if I disappear, it's not a sign of disrespect. I'm most grateful to to be invited. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Catherine, would you like to.

I just wanted to build this a little bit because I think it's second