The Venom & The Serum #10 Guarding Our Thoughts

hamdulillah Allah has permitted for us to get together here for the 10th and final session in sha Allah in our readings are summarizations of a debt widower or a jailable Cafe, which is an aquarium Rahima Allah's book that was written in response to a desperate plea from someone that felt trapped in a life of chronic sin and addiction to an Islamic practices and major sins. And so he began the book giving him hope, because our deen is always about hope that Allah has never sent down to the disease, even the spiritual except that for it as a cure. And then he went on to explain at great length, all that Allah azza wa jal opened our eyes to regarding the dangers of sins and their

damaging effects in this world and the next. And then he went on to explain the different classifications of sins and how some of them are more apocalyptic, more dooming and faster and their destructive potential than others. And then he went on to spend at length,

what he believed this is my reading what he believed to be the problem of this man that this man was trapped in love in particular,

with another human being. So this 10th and final session will be a segment of that book that was actually mentioned, not at the end, but a little bit earlier. I'm sort of, you know, rearranging a bit, deliberately by design, I believe that this is a good way to review a lot of the remedies he spoke about throughout. And also another way to understand the list style of remedies for those trapped in love that we discussed last Friday. And if we had to pick

a theme or a title for this discussion, it will be guarding the keys or the inlets or the gateways to the heart.

So he discusses, first of all, that, you know, when Allah azza wa jal the same way he said, and we discussed last Friday, well, that's a Carabas. Zina Don't come near fornication, he didn't forbid fornication, he illustrated in a way to show that it's a continuum, that you don't come near because if you come near you will fall in.

He says likewise, there are other places in the Quran that make the same chain link portrayal or picture in our hearts and minds like when Allah said and sort of the nor cordially meaning of doom in absolve him why I follow for Raja whom tell the believing men and I asked her to is believing women to lower their gaze and guard their chastity, their private parts, right? So he mentioned the first link in the chain and then the last link in the chain, in terms of Zina at least. And then Allah said that he get as Kerala home that is the way for them to become more pure, you're not going to become pure. If you don't follow the the prescription, you have to follow it from the beginning,

in the right way.

And then he ends it by saying in Allah Hobbie, rhombi myosin IESNA own Allah is fully acquainted with all you do. So he mentioned for the purity of the heart, lowering the gaze before protecting the private parts, but then he also includes that sense of being watchful of Allah and His perfect knowledge of all things. And then he cites yet another ayah, he says, and elsewhere in the Quran, Allah mentions his knowledge, again, of every glance, every blink that people take or people make.

And also he ties it with the thoughts that are generated by these glances or the thoughts that get you to glands, these ideas, the passing thoughts, these

whispers or insinuations inside you and that's him referring to the IOER Allah says, Yeah, I learned more in Atala unit when my talk was pseudo. Allah knows the treachery of the eyes and what the hearts conceal. What's the treachery of the eyes? The early Muslims say when you're basically a schemer with your eyes, right?

I have a sister in my family. She goes you know those guys that are with a bunch of guys, but they're always stealing glances. Women know who they are. Women think those guys don't know that we notice.

Good.

Social Responsibility is a part of it. Right? It's a good crutch until we fear Allah azza wa jal, but

this is saying whether or not someone catches

As you Allah knows every treachery of the eyes. The early Muslims used to say the treachery of the eye is when a person is lowering their gaze until everyone with them is not paying attention. Then he steals a glance looks like he's not but he is in a treacherous way. He, he steals glances there in here, one that has to do and what the hearts can seal which is what the thoughts and the preoccupations and the fantasizing and the dreaming and the wishing and so on and so forth. So it will claim takes these two iPads and then he says Rahim Allah Allah. This is why the spiritualists the scholars of this gear, we just translated spiritualists the experts in spirituality. They often

insist that safe guarding the heart is impossible, without four things, that there are four things guarding them is the only pathway to guarding your deen and that is guarding your thoughts

and guarding your glances and guarding your utterances the things you say and guarding your steps, being critical of yourself, Where are you going? Where are you not going?

And they say that if you falter in if you get distracted, if you get baited, if you are not on top of your game, right if you falter in being a vigilant gatekeeper on these four, your glances, your thoughts, your third one.

Your utterances and your steps, your enemy who's your enemy shaitan will bring your fortress to the ground, it's inevitable. And then he speaks about each of them at a bit of length. He says As for the glances, they are the ambassador of desires. Some of you may notice there are a few elements here. And he says that most evil evil outcomes evil actions, they are the result of

unrestrained glances that you don't restrain your gaze the same way that most fires occur by underestimating sparks. Most fires are about you downplaying this fire hazard, as we say nowadays, that it can cause sparks where there are sparks and you belittle the spark, what can a spark do? Most fires are because of that. It's just the candle we forgot to put out. It's just a few extra plugs we put in the outlet, right? Most fires are from belittling sparks in the same way Exactly. Most Evil is from unrestrained glances.

He says and that is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in the authentic hadith yeah Ali or Ali or the Allah Ron let it be another atta

and now another two do not allow a second glance. So follow the first don't look twice for in Lac La Ooh, la la se la qlf Hera, because for you is the first one meaning forgivable for you is the first one.

But the second one is not. The second one is not forgivable.

What does it mean? The first one. Don't tell me I haven't blinked yet or anything like that. What's the first one?

The mistaken the accidental the inadvertent glance at anything haram. You will not be held against you. There's actually another narration it's like Muslim, where he said Sal to Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, another article Pooja, I will fetch for Amarante. And also for Vasari, I asked the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi salam about the sudden glands, the accidental glands. It's not that I know something is there and I'm looking, I didn't know something was there. I just my eye fell on something unintentionally and Allah is fully aware of our intentions. And so he commanded me to just immediately divert my gaze just look away immediately. And then another Hadith. He said,

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam er como Juuso. Allah total cart. Beware of sitting on the roadways on the street. Now the street is the online world, right? That's the street. We even call it the information superhighway where we're used to, right, that is the highway, the online highway don't sit there. He forbids us from sitting there. They said Ya rasool Allah Milan, I mean, my jealousy neighborhood is Eros, Allah, we can't give up our gatherings like we have nowhere else to sit. Maybe their homes are tight. Maybe sort of the business can't be spoken about in the masjid, whatever it's going to be. Sometimes we're just going to have to sit here we have no other place. So he said to

them, sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam if you must, not everybody must, if you must, then safeguard the rights of the road. They said there are sort of law what are the rights of the road? When you're on the road? You owe the road something.

They said what is that? And he mentioned in some narrations, six things are in one brief or narration he basically summarized it into three things. He said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, without Bulbasaur

we're careful whether or not to Salem to lower your gaze, you're not sitting in the street, just wandering, or scrolling, right? It doesn't work like this. It's not allowed, even if you do it. So loud, tell yourself, it's not allowed. I gotta stop this. So you lower your gaze, you'll just sit there and just stare at every passerby and everything that's happening. Because something there was bound to be wrong. And that wouldn't be accidental. You're sitting there waiting for it to happen. And careful as and restraining your harm, you're not going to be loud, you're not going to leave trash on the road, you're not going to be sitting in people's way as you're trying to pass, get full

adder restraining your harm. And the third one is Rob to set up, you are obligated to return this alarm to everyone that passes by you and gives you Sam. So once again, he mentioned lower the gates. And he says, and this is the beginning of everything, right? This is the spark, the same way that we know far from the eye far from the heart. This is normal, when you don't know someone is not in front of you. And a relative is not in front of you. You forget to call them sometimes for weeks and months, and hopefully not years, right. It's just the way it works. But sometimes you can use to your advantage. If you don't see it, if you put enough blocks between you and it, it will never

stoke inside you these raging wildfires of desire for it.

And he says, and then he says the glands sketches a thought in the mind, this is the problem, which then generates a desire in the heart, which then continues to strengthen and strengthen until it becomes an intention. If I can, I will, it becomes an intention, then that intention becomes eventually an unwavering determination, I have to have this, no more waiting, I'm going to take initiative, I'm not going to wait for it to fall in my lap anymore, I'm gonna go after it, then it becomes an unwavering determination. And then it becomes an action. That must happen once it's an unwavering determination. You it will happen unless some external factor gets in your way. And you

get no credit for it. In that case. In other books, that little camera camera Allah if I'm not mistaken, he says that it has to become an action. And then the punishment for an evil action is what falling into another one like it. And then an action follows an action becomes a habit pattern, which is a habit and a habit becomes your very personality. And then may Allah forbid it locks you into a trajectory of doom.

And he says also very articulately. He says the wandering gaze is like towing a Cliff's edge. You keep looking it's like you're you're deliberately trying to be nimble on the edge of a cliff. This is not a place where you want to test your agility. This is reckless, he says, but even if you don't fall off the cliff with your gaze, you appease your eye by damaging your spiritual heart like even if you were looking will never wind up in you, for example, committing Zina, there are so many other things that will happen to you guaranteed, because of all we spoke about earlier earlier on in the book.

He says also, in addition to damaging your heart, which is the number one

loss here, there is also the torture that you inflict upon yourself emotionally. Not the spiritual, the religious, but the torture of yourself emotionally. Because when you look at something you cannot have, but the more you look, you feel like you can't live without it puts you in this cycle of just grief and frustration, frustration that you cannot have this, but at the same time, you cannot stay away from it. He says so understanding that helps you realize that you sending your gaze forward you looking and not being you know concerned about this is like you shooting an arrow, your gaze is like an arrow that actually boomerangs and hits only you.

And then because you've been hit by it, you've been poisoned by this poisonous arrow. You try to remedy yourself with what with another arrow. That's what happens to look again, look some more. Look again and look some more. He says identical to the case of the drunkard, the sort of the alcoholic who tries

to drink away the pain, the disorientation, the intoxication with what

let me get another cup, let me get another bottle, whether as a biller.

He says that's where that's the gaze if you don't hold if you don't are not self disciplined regarding your gaze, everything else is going to be harder. And that's when he moves on to number two. And he says, As for your thoughts, guarding your thoughts. This is more difficult because they are the beginnings of good and evil. Meaning when you're when you when you look you start thinking so when you start thinking now

While the project is already underway, the wheel has already started moving, you get it? That's the problem. Why it's harder, he says. And it's the thoughts are from where the intention to the determination sprout, as we said, And so whoever can be vigilant about their thoughts, whoever can turn off their thoughts, what do we call it self interruption, to be able to just distract yourself from your thoughts. He says, this is a person that will have a firm grasp on life strains, like all of a sudden you find yourself thinking about something as Oh, how did he get there, you just you, if you can catch yourself at the second base, that's someone with a lot of restraint. That's an

impressive person, right? They have a lot of self regulation, as we call it, nowadays. And this is going to be the person that's able to interrupt and subdue their desires when necessary, because you don't always have some do it. Right. If you saw a vacation, you want to get vacation, Italian vacation, alright, fine. But you're going to be in control now that I am not going to be driven by these thoughts that are just floating in my head. He says the opposite will bring the opposite whoever is dominated by their thoughts, then their desires will bring them into full surrender. Their desires are gonna make them tap out.

An inevitable doom awaits the feathers swayed by their thoughts. Meaning if you accept for yourself to be that person, to become that person, that is like a feather in the wind. Because you know, your desires. It's beautiful and Arabic, actually, the desires are your hella, it's called hella, right. The word for wind in Arabic is what? Hello? That's like the the air or the wind right there. Yeah, hello. And so the desires are things that are like it's almost like an aroma like what's cooking.

If you are your behavior, Allah forbid, in our day and age, your identity, your entire existence is defined by some temporary thought or feeling, you're finished.

There's no recovering from this without Allah Xeljanz favor on you to give you a second chance to wake you up out of the stupor. But if you are a feather in the wind, that every time a temporary passing thought comes by, it's able to settle and have the steering wheel. He says then this is an inevitable doom Doom awaits such a person. He says, because the thoughts now if they're able to settle, they will pile on. And

it's actually very scary. Because I when I was translating sort of this for you, I'm imagining the metaverse in our time.

The impending Metaverse, may Allah protect us. Anyway, he says the thoughts continue to pile on and present themselves to your heart until they give you a clear image, but a false image like a hallucination. This is gonna be so amazing. Right? You know, when Allah Azza Elgin speaks of the misguided in the Quran, one of the images he gives about them as worth Kisara being BTR it's like a mirage, you know, Mirage.

you hallucinate that you see an oasis of water in the middle of the desert, Khasab like a mirage in a low land somewhere. So you know, why are you hallucinating? Because you're desperate, you're thirsty or parched, you're desperate. So you begin to see what you wish was there. Right? And what happens then?

Obviously, if you're about to die from thirst, and you think you've seen an oasis, what do you do?

You run?

So Allah says, Can Sourabh like this oasis in a low land? Yes, several will them an omega, that the thirsty person thinks his water had either Jaeho and then he expenses all to get to it. Once he gets through it. Let me admit to Shay I find it to be nothing.

The I actually continues to say, Oh, watch it Allah and alpha who said but Allah said it okay sub, and then he finds Allah in front of him and gives him his payment in full.

Allah did not deceive him, he chose to deceive himself. So Allah allowed him to be certain in his belief about what he wanted to believe. This is why you know, you should not be surprised. And you should ask Allah to always spare you. How can someone seem so convinced? Maybe they're not. And maybe they weren't always like this until they've used up all their chances. How can someone be so staunch that they're willing to argue for 10 hours, that could actually be a sign of insecurity, by the way, or willing to put their life on the line for their false belief? It could be a punishment from Allah azza wa jal that they're hallucinating falsehood as truth is, at this point. We're

obviously talking about this on a much lesser level for someone who could already be a believer in sha Allah, and we're trying to protect him from falling out of belief. He's saying on the sin level, not on the disbelief level. A person can imagine the sins to be something so phenomenal when they're not.

He says that he speaks to sort of people that have some self respect, and he says, and the lowliest of souls

are those who prefer to live a fan

To see while knowing it's not true.

Like before you get too deep, you need to tell yourself, Wait a minute. Do I have no dignity? I'm going to sit there and just like imagine, play imaginary games with myself. He says the lowliest of souls are those who prefer to live a fantasy while knowing it's not true. Handing their minds over to a dream, instead of getting up to do something about it. Like just go get married man, go get a job and gets married. Go you know, learn a craft and make some money. Go you know, develop a skill and gain the respect you want it whatever it's gonna be, get up and do something. He says in how can a dignified human being settled for a game that is a mere figment of his imagination. The metaverse.

This is like a hungry person imagining that he is savoring food and drink, any person would self respect and aloft, the spirit gets upset. When such vein things occupy his mind, the person has regard for themselves, you get upset, like how am I even thinking about this, I'm imagining sort of head on relations, I'm imagining, you know, dessert that I'm going to drive out to for two hours. And even that would be sort of getting up and doing something about it lousy as it may be. And then he goes on to give you the opposite. And he spends actually, the lengthiest subset of today's talk on this. He says the sensible person should only think about what benefits them in this life and the

next, or that which rewards or harm in this life and the next. So there's four categories, he's telling you, whatever you're thinking about it better being one of these four categories, benefits you in this world, or Ward's off harm in this world benefits you in the next world, Ward's off harm in the next world. That's it.

He says that if you cannot pursue all of these at once, then the person the sensible person should learn how to differentiate between the greater winds and the lesser losses, so they can optimize their time and optimize their efforts. He says, Well, this requires intelligence. And it requires Islamic knowledge to know what Allah prefers more, you know, why did the Sahaba you know, say jasola? What's the best deed? He'll say, praying on time? Then they'll say, what? What's after that? Why did they say what's after that? Or they're going to skip number one? No.

Because they don't want to guess and then accidentally go to number 11. So he wants to know, clearly, what's number two? In case I can't do number one, I've already done number one. And so he said, it's going to require intelligence, wisdom, he says, gonna require Islamic knowledge, he said, and the third thing it's going to require is experience. Because you know, a lot of this is subjective. There are things you need to know you're not good at. Right? Like nobody's perfect, right? But he says this, this one I'm telling you about you being able to maximize what your mind is preoccupied with, and differentiating between better and worse and all of that. He says, This is

what really separates people.

He says, like, for example, some people develop Ultra mastery, the absolute experts in some matter in this dunya. But they've, they know nothing about the akhirah.

May Allah guide Steph Curry to Islam.

But the man in dunya has refined his craft in a way that has removed him from everyone else. Right.

But in the grander scheme of things, this is a rubber ball with air inside it that you're throwing into a metal ring with some fabric under it. That's what it is right there on how does that compare with the purpose of life and the eternity of afterlife? Right? That's sort of that's what I'm trying to tell you. Some people have developed such a finesse such a specialization in the gains of this world and he doesn't even know like he knows how to think about it. He has mastered it or think of business you don't have celibacy Rahim Allah Allah when he when he was commenting on the idea, and so the room Yeah, Allah Munna Avahi Ramana. hayati dunya

all they know is the outward nature of this world while home Angela Filati home Rafi loon and they are completely unaware of the Hereafter. And has Elvis to give an example about this area he said Who Orajel

yet Giotto Dinara Alfred is a man and give you an example.

He's this is like his version of the stock market expert. Okay. The man who puts the gold coin on his nail and can tell you how much it weighs. That's how good he is. Right? Like Uncle Scrooge you guys know Uncle Scrooge DuckTales you guys don't know DuckTales May Allah give you guidance?

The guy Uncle Scrooge used to kick the chest with the gold in it and know that there was one coin missing

where it made him very

Don't worry, though.

But that's what it has an ulcer is saying, he puts a coin on his nail, and he tells you how much it weighs. It's missing a gram or it's extra gram. Well, your scenario, suddenly he doesn't even know how to pray. He doesn't even know what time the prayer times are.

You This is where people separate themselves now, right? Knowing these categories. But then also, there's something worth saying here, for those that are trying to chase the highest ranks in the Africa. Some people dedicate themselves in ways that limits them in the akhirah. You know why?

Because you may not be built from certain acts of worship, you're better built for another act of worship.

I mean, the Prophet SAW Selim praised Abu Dhabi so extensively, or the Allah one of the senior most Sahaba. And he said to him, also, oh, a Buddha, I love you. And I love for you what I love for me, don't ever accept a position of leadership over to people

and don't accept to supervise or like be responsible for the wealth of any orphans, does not for you. He said in the Araca by Ethan, I see that you have a weakness, that will that was one of the strongest Sahaba but he was weak from another angle, weaken his discretion. So how was the scholar said about this hadith. And so just stay away from leadership, stay away from sort of caretaking of orphans and so on and so forth. His passion would overtake his prudence basically.

And so, you know, Yaqeen Institute actually has a nice, very nice paper on your spiritual personality. Like, are you more an advocate? Or are you more Omar? Or are you more I never was gonna say Amarante Okay, are you more of man? Are you more Allier the Allah and those are actually the four archetypes they put out. And then after the research, they the back end of European created a personality test for your spiritual personality. That's a part of it. There's a part of this it doesn't have to be the personality just Islamic knowledge. I'm just giving examples on why you need to have experience even about yourself subjective experience, but even Islamic knowledge like if you

want to read the Quran and Muirhead Quran is the best thing out there. But then a guest comes and knocks on your door. You're gonna say not on not entertaining my guests. I need to read Quran no, this is Islamic ignorance. Right ignorance of because whenever there's an obligation automatically, the obligation will supersede the voluntary act right now honoring your guests is mandatory. So it will always be better in Allah's eyes, then

the greatest of the voluntary deeds like reading Allah's word, Subhana, Allah to Allah. So that's what he means by knowing how to think about things.

So a person needs to develop discretion in this matter, he says, but obviously it goes without saying that thinking about Allah and the hereafter is the most important thing. And that comes in five forms, occupying your thoughts with Allah and His Messenger comm and five forms, he says, he says, number one, deeply pondering on the ayat, the vs. Signs write, Allah revealed his book,

and to seek to deepen your comprehension of what he meant by those words. There's a big difference in reading, reading and thinking, you understand, reading and confirming you understood, and then reflecting on that confirmation on that confirmed understanding. And he says elsewhere that there is no remedy if we had to shut down all the long talking. There is no remedy for the heart, like deeply pondering on Allah's words, full stop, nothing like it.

Number two, deeply reflecting on Allah's yet that are observable, the signs now, you know, he called his verses I asked, and he called the universe filled with if there are signs because they both direct you to Allah and they are both for that end. He says unto him, What are you supposed to be thinking about? inferring from his universe, His names learning about his names, and his attributes, His great attributes and qualities and recalling how Allah dispraise He condemned he criticized those who thoughtlessly mindlessly wander this earth

you know the ion sort of use of or rod also. Okay, you mean 18 And how many iPads there are out there? Yeah, more Runa la had a pass by it. Well, come on. How are you doing? They're completely oblivious. They completely heedless. There's a treasure under your under your nose. And you're just your your head is elsewhere. So being mindful is sort of inseparable from being Muslim, mindful the right way. Number three of the five he says reminiscing on his countless favors, how he's been good to you now, not just how he points to himself or has been good to how he's been good to you. And to infer from that how vast His mercy is, how vast his patience is, how enormous his forbearance is,

how great his forgiveness must be. Subhana Hautala

number four

Thinking about the flaws of one's inner self and your shortcomings in practice. Because these thoughts are so beneficial, he's saying to the unruly, the stepping out of line tendencies have within us all

the flaws in our salah the flaws in our CM the flaws in our, the slippage of our tongues, right, the way we speak to our parents, our diligence in this, any of this, to look at how the effective these things could be. And they in fact, are number five, and the last one, he says, analyzing the duty of the hour, so that your moments are neither wasted nor used sub optimally or use them better with since these moments will never return.

He goes on to say actually, interestingly, you may find this interesting, every other form of thinking outside of these five categories, like thinking to like in the right way, in like thinking as an act of devotion Wikus, remembering, reflecting right, he's saying everything besides these five is a devilish whisper and a distraction from shaitan. He says that there have been many people on this path, the path of spiritual refinement, passive feschi, and the soul, right? Many people he says even masters of the path, they went astray, by attempting to suspend thinking,

you know, some of them, they speak about, you know, the stations of intoxication, for example, right? The stations of bewilderment, the stations of being sort of lost from thought that I don't recognize anything, because if I recognize that I'm thinking, that means I'm still observing myself, and I'm still not yet observing who Allah, that was sort of their philosophy behind it that was that to recognize yourself is still a sign that you haven't yet arrived. He's saying, and they fell into this major error. You know, the idea of like, sort of even Suning and passing out these things,

and to discussion on the ruling of this at a later time on, but he would the point is, he's saying, they realized one thing that most of the time we're thinking about unworthy things. So they were trying to remedy that by doing what, by suspending all thought. So they say he said, You caught one thing. And then you overlooked so many other things, meaning you solved one problem by creating many more. The objective is not that the heart be void of all thoughts, the heart cannot be void. But rather, you have to fill it with all that pleases the Lord of mind subhanho wa taala, as much as you can fill of those five. And he even brings an example, that until I've heard this example, like

maybe 15 years ago, and I've heard it many times in the last 15 years, and I'm still struggling to fully reconcile it. But it's been reported widely that I'm one of them. But on the Allah Juan,

his mind was so preoccupied with righteous deeds with virtuous thoughts, that and pleasing Allah in as many ways as he could,

that he would have at times, arrange the armies in his head, like I'm gonna send these there and these there and I gotta move this leader back and put someone else in him, he was being a bit reckless last time, he's arranging the armies and the battle strategies in his head, as he would perform Salah.

So even though claim is saying, and this entails that he was performing salah, and Jihad at the same time.

He says, this is called the merger of devotions. Your devotional acts are overlapping now, and that only the genuine pursuer, someone who's really sincere, who is grounded in knowledge, which is probably why I don't understand it, who's grounded in knowledge, and has endless ambitions as a great him to please Allah can ever do these things. And this is really the bounty of Allah azza wa jal that he gives it to whoever he pleases, not randomly, of course, but those who deserve it. So he's just showing you that you want to fill your head with as much height as possible and remove from it, not to leave it in a void but all that would distract from that height, or that would

hinder that play that goodness. And he makes one final disclaimer as I close

on thoughts at least, he says in these passing, let us say that passing thoughts are not to do we're talking about all these evil thoughts and hold onto gatekeeper your thoughts and regulate your thoughts and all of this. He says, we're not talking about passing thoughts, so that Dr. Hyde doesn't beat me up. Okay. This is all hell, psychiatrist approved.

Passing thoughts will not harm you, he says the very beautiful Listen, but eliciting them you conjuring

have the thought and entertaining them will harm you. Right? Like if you sit there and you deliberately engage, and

you know, elaborate the feminization of, you know, whatever you're dreaming about, right? That is what is shameful. And blameworthy, he said, because these thoughts are like a passerby. Imagine someone passing on the street like a salesman passing on the street. What are you supposed to do when you see a salesman on the street,

you don't make eye contact you avoid

because he's not going to let you go until he sells you the coffee machine, that's what's gonna happen and you don't want to go with machine won't even fit. So he says he's like a passerby, so long as you don't call them over, they won't be with you with their deceptive claims. That's the way you treat these thoughts pass bypass by get busy with something else.

He says As for utterances, what you alter your words, your words will have a humongous effect on your actions.

If you are not careful of what you're in conversations about, you will find yourself slipping into actions you never thought you would perform. What is what are your discussions? You know, do the same way that secondhand smoke, you know, will will still destroy your lungs, secondhand evil, disgusting, evil, right? Even how much we joke about even how much we joke about we should be very careful.

And so, the Prophet alayhi salatu salam approved of humor, but within limitations, and those limitations involves being truthful, not being boisterous, not being at the expense of other things, and so on and so forth. And he said to us, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that no person's faith will be correct. Less the team was the man who had tests the female isn't until his tongue I'm sorry, no person's faith will become upright that is the theme of Kalibo until his heart becomes upright and his heart will never become upright until unless his tongue becomes upright. And you know, even though I am here he talks about the fact that this is the true the true measure. Like he puts it I

have no more either him Allah Razia is saying, The hearts are like kettles,

kettles would you cook in and the tongues are like the ladles and the ladle, you get the big scoop or that you get the soup out with right, the tongue is like the ladle. If you want to know for sure what's in the kettle, take a scoop, meaning the same way you taste with your tongue, what's in the kettle,

you will know what's in their hearts from their tongue. That's what he's saying. Essentially, the hearts are kettles and the tongue is the ladle. And so if you want to know someone's reality, wait till they speak.

And he says, and this is true, all throughout history, you find a grave contradiction in people, people that are devout in ritual, or they don't only consume halal meat, or he says this, but they have no idea that it's far worse for them to be consuming the flesh of other people with backbiting. Like someone sees themselves in the world sees them as religious. But if you backbite that's an enormity. It's not a small thing. It's a major sin. So if you're committing this major sin every single day, then how religious Are you? Are you religious? No, you're not like in you know, like, in the meta analysis, you're not religious. That's what he's saying. He's saying, and there are many

men that are known for their hard work and ritual, and in their resisting huge sums of money, and being able to say no to so many temptations, but they're victims of their own tongues. And that is why he said to us, Allah, Allahu Allah said him, whoever can guarantee for me what, what's between their two legs, and between their two jaws, that song of yours, I will guarantee for that person gender. And on the converse, he said, a person may say one word, out of Allah's displeasure with them, because of that one word, they will plumb it in the fire so deeply.

And he said, This is the most difficult part, that it goes both ways. There are people that have mountains of good deeds, their tongues will destroy. And there are people that are going to have mountains of evil deeds that their tongue will destroy. How, by using their tongue for height.

That's why you know, many of them are shy when they want people to get it onto the right path. They busy them with

that, and taking care of the youth and reciting Quran and giving nicely your heart and learning and Vicodin. Because this tongue is like it's so light, you could do so much good and so much damage with it. And so you busy it with the best things

he says and like because he says and there's two pitfalls to the tongue, that whoever avoids one usually doesn't avoid the other. He's saying that's why you want to pay attention. He's sitting there saying the wrong things with your tongue. Whoever can restrain themselves from saying the wrong things with their tongue. They often fall into the opposite extreme which is what

not

Not saying the right things with their tongue, sometimes you got to speak up. Right?

So if you say the wrong things, and you endlessly speaking, you're vulgar, you're indecent, you're a big mouth, all of that. And if you're silent when you shouldn't be speaking, then what?

You're a coward, you're a traitor. You're, you know, you're, you have a huge shortfall. And so being able to know when to use your tongue in the right way, in both of these regards, is is a challenge that requires your undivided attention.

And finally, and I already spoke about this in the hole, but today, so I don't need to address it as much. He has your steps. And I as I, as I said, in the football today, you know, you can't control what your environment does to you. I use the example of friends, you can't control what your friends do to you, they will impact you 100%. So all you can control is what?

Whether you set foot in those environments or not where you go, and whenever we say where you go, you can't tell yourself, I don't go anywhere. I'm just sitting there, doing nothing. You go places virtually. If you put yourself in those environments, you will not be able ever to resist the imprints, you know, the imprint happens very gradually. Like if you are exposed to an environment that commits major sins, you will not commit major sins right away. You'll start at first belittling your minor sins, that's what's gonna happen. I'm not like killing nobody. I'm not committing Zina. I'm not sort of missing jump. That's what that's this is how you move the goalposts as they say, and

even the Kodama gives an example of this I'll use it as a close here in his bookmarklets had an agile cluster lean. He says nobody

interact with those who commit major sins except you always find them becoming complacent with minor sins till they pile up on them.

He doesn't I'll give you some examples even of belittling major sins like that how you get to even later point he says, you notice that people are far more offended This is profound but he's writing this like 700 years ago. More people are not offended when you miss Salah

anymore but they're so offended when you miss without an excuse a day in Ramadan you guys notice is rarely someone hasn't fasted when I was like Allah like booty Shavon like what is it? You're not fasting?

He says why is that? Because if you think about it missing Salah is far worse than missing slim.

So why are people more offended by Miss exam

too much exposure Everyone misses Salah not everyone so many more people miss Salah than Miss Liang that's why see how that desensitization happens that numbing effect happens because you know CM is like someone even though you will find people I don't pray like you know, like let me at least festival but I'm like I'm not like totally out of the loop. I'm gonna at least fasten on my bond like what am I

Kapha

is like well,

so I'll fast but Salah is like a year round commitment day in and day out. So more people are negligent in their salah. Then he gives another example. He says, and if a chef were to walk in on a gathering, and sit down

wearing gold, very flashy, shear, and silk, the people get would get so afraid they would be repulsed by him disgusted, openly sitting like this and throw them out the window. Right?

He said.

But if this shear were to speak from the beginning of the gathering to its end, about people's honor, and slander them and back, bite them, and gossip about them, nobody would bat an eye.

He said why is that? It's not because of the Sharia. Because Backbiting is way worse in Allah's revealed morality than wearing golden silk for a man.

They're both enormities. But this is a way worse enormity and then why? Why is this one get a reaction that one doesn't.

Because this one is not very precedent, it. You don't really see this happening. Golden silk for a man of you know, that represents the dean. Whereas backbiting even among the scholarly class is relatively more prevalent and prominent. So that's exposure, right? Watch where you go.

Don't go there. And if you find yourself there, walk away from there, it will impact you.

And Allah azza wa jal knows best we thank Allah for permitting for us to go through whatever we went through.

I pray was of benefit for some of you take from it what you can and rehearse from it the translation should be printed soon. Inshallah IPH has

hamdulillah my translation of the book and put it out soon

for your you know, pace through review of it in sha Allah and in sha Allah you keep it as a mainstay of your libraries at home may Allah Azza did forgive us for what we have entered regarding him or his messages also lamb or the deen or misrepresented the author in any way.

Also Allah has a lot of kind of Vienna Muhammad on it, he also had to join and looks up from you all.

So what's our next subject? Are there any questions? We might question first I'm more important I have a blue table. What's the next subject? What are you guys want?

I have I have sort of a decision but it is

in my head temporary. I don't mind standing down I'll hear from you guys first. I don't influence your opinions. I know you can't vote you're not from here. You're not a local

really?

Yes, yes.

Okay, like we did with Joseph gaff and so the pressure off and these other sodas All right.

That's Muslims do love the Quran. It's a beautiful thing. Sisters, we want to hear from you. Any subjects you're particularly interested in spending your Friday nights around?

Stories of the Sahaba Jimmy All right.

I heard what was it?

Shameless.

Anybody else so we have Quran sorry, the Saba Yes brother. What's your name of

Osman Mashallah. Please suggest

riba you want a whole course on river I'll be an attendee like you though.

Okay, maybe we can bring in sort of like a guest to speak on Islamic finance again like we did a few years back in sha Allah

anger spreads stress and depression

Yes, sir.

diseases of the heart.

So from what I'm hearing, I'm getting a little bit of confirmation bias on what I wanted to discuss, which was basically the manners of the sahaba.

And the earliest generations of Islam in general, in dealing with people in general, right. And so these are almost like Quran it's like Quranic ethics as lived by the seller of the earlier generations of Islam. So you have in that stories, it's all stories all anecdotal of the Sahaba and it's evergreen so that our sister doesn't slashed my tires and it has lots of Quranic principles in it. And also there are chapters set aside to certain diseases of the heart that manifest in interpersonal relations such as for example has said

such as check doubt envy so on and so forth.

You guys are

fine with this sounds like it was a really good book that I read multiple times and I actually told them this Masjid years back there was like four to four sisters present every like Thursday morning and so we can really study it together and show love without with this wider audience

going once going twice

see

more in depth Ciara.

Let's suppose

yeah, we had actually started seeing, Oh, we got sort of up to the higit I never really followed through those when the message was just coming out of its construction phase and COVID and everything else. So

perhaps we'll we'll make that a subsequent one or an intensive because we do have in this message scheduled for intensives a year, the Saturday morning intensives we already had to, we had demonology and we had Dr. Yesterday mazurka visit us for the mental health one, or no Islam and sexuality one and so we have one or two more left in 2023. Maybe it could be a subject for our intensive

any questions on the subject we studied today or otherwise? Because we do have like 15 minutes OSHA

Yeah,

You are safe

Yeah

so,

I told you I struggle to reconcile this

because

I mean the Prophet alayhi salatu salam did go through experiences that were not Salah related in his salah. Right like when he made St. Jude and Haven Maya then he was shown in medical

famous Hadith sunnah to me the or the Hadith and Makati where he was shown paradise in the Hellfire he reached out for the the bunch of grapes. And he said, Lo I'll have to have a call to Minamata to dunya you would have continued to eat from this bunch of grapes that I've been allowed to bring it back for as long as the near dunya remained until the end of time. So maybe there's some stickiness there, but I truly wish I could find someone to really unpack it for me.

Yeah, and it's always mentioned by the scholars in praise Yan it's

and then they'll claim Rahim Allah is very critical reader He's loving and critical even of the heritage of the sahaba. Right, like he will never sort of unilaterally disagree with so heavy, but he will tell you, these other Sahaba were more correct than these because of x and y and z. So like he's analytical.

And that's the way we shouldn't be once qualified, but I'm not neither qualified nor have I heard something that I can sort of own as my understanding my conviction. Allahu Allah.