Mohammed Faqih – Love, Hope & Fear
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of love and fear in relation to the relationship with the almighty, citing examples of experiences and experiences that demonstrate the concept. They stress the importance of balancing love and fear, highlighting the need for fully submitting to Him and giving up one's freedom to pursue one's dreams. The natural love that is attached to everything is seen as a touch, and it is linked to faith and desire. The importance of finding love in a relationship is emphasized, and the speakers stress the need for voluntary deeds and staying in touch with one's partner to avoid feeling like they are missing out on something.
AI: Summary ©
We have a guest speaker today, which obviously is not a guest for us. But we were very fortunate to have him here today, let's check Mohammed's coffee. He's our senior religious director here at IOC, a little under the weather. So we pray that he's feeling a lot better. And I thank you for taking time out and joining us today. So thank you so much. And number two, we have announcements, which I'll make at the end of class. And number three, we do have childcare every Sunday. So for those of you we do have any children, here, I would highly recommend you and request you, we're going to be going over to the childcare area, babysitting area. So this way, everyone else can kind of take part
in the class and just concentrate as best as possible. And number four, as you know, we are live streaming this. So in case if somebody is running late or they can't make it, the link is on all you have to do is go on YouTube, put in our IOC outreach, search, just search IOC outreach, and the link should be streaming live right now. So without further ado, I'm going to pass it over to Sheikh Mohammed. The topic for today is love, hope and fear. And he'll explain more about that, as we continue.
Salam Alaikum
in
Australia, who was Sophia who was Sadie will be later on dynamische phocoena Marina Maria de la, la la la, la la, la Chateau La ilaha illallah wa de la sharika. Shadow Ando Mohammed Abu rasuluh, wasafi Khomeini hunter Julio, Larissa
word dilemma, no sorry, had the llama
solo to lie was an mo le robot.
Just want to share a few words about the
Some call it tripod, some call it
the central Foundation, some people call it the
the
emotional dimension of worship, you can look at it as the the pillars of this relationship or the elements of this relationship that we have with our Creator of the Almighty. Allah subhanho wa Taala.
So
when we think of our relationship with the laws of hearts, Allah, Allah, the Almighty, he's our servant, he's our master, rather soft. He's our master, he's our Creator. He's our sustainer he's the one that we worship every day as Muslims, we submit to Allah subhanaw taala in Salah. The fact that we worship none but him. And in Salah we say he cannot do what he has to say.
It is you that we worship and
and as your help or assistance or guidance that we seek so we seek you, or we beseech you, or we ask of you a lot, and we worship number you. So when we say worship, worshiping Allah subhanaw taala What do we worship a lot out of in addition to the fact that, well, let's first of all, establish that our belief in a law so when we worship, a law, we we worship out of belief, right? Faith 100% no doubt, we worship, we worship him, you know, we have certainty of his existence of his graciousness of his greatness, of his might have his infinite wisdom, we submit to that. So, so it's our belief. Now,
this belief is founded upon knowledge, in knowledge, we know right? certainty, right? However, what are what drives us, you know, what does this knowledge or faith of ours produce that causes us to, to seek God what is you know, for lack of a better term, in addition, you know, to the, to the, to the intellectual conviction that we have of his existence, what is the driving force, the motive, right, the emotional, spiritual
aspect of our belief that keeps us going. So when the scholars looked at that, and what Allah, the Almighty asks us to worship him out of, we find that when we worship alone, we worship out of three
essential
emotions.
The first one is muhabba
have the means love.
The second one,
not in any particular order, by the way, the second one is hope, or fear.
Some people translated as fear, some people called Russia, just different forms of fear or respect in reference, right. And then the third one is
Raja, and Raja is translated into hope. Right? Now, some people look at them as three different things, three different elements that have to be combined that have to be balanced that have, so it's worship is made of these three components. Right? You have to balance them.
Some look at it as No, actually, it's one thing. And then it branches into two or manifests itself in two ways.
So in essence, is actually love muhabba
And mahalo, just translate itself or manifest itself in two ways. hope and fear. When you love someone,
you fear certain things, whether it's out of them, or you know, you know, being distant from them and all that. And then when you
also have hope, meaning you're going to love someone, I mean, otherwise, it's torture if you don't have hope. And
so whether it's this or that, right?
And some actually look at it, they say, Well, actually, no, there are three different components. But if we were to think that in the old days, they used to give, you know, they use use the bird example. So nowadays list this use the airplane. So in the airplane, you have what the main part, you have the what they call the
fuselage, right, which is like the main body of the, of the plane. And then you have the two wings. And of course, you have the tail and all that, but you know, the main component, so they say, the body
or the engine, the agents of AI, there is love.
That's, you know, and, hopefully friend, Roger, hope and fear are the two wings.
You can't fly with one wing.
Right? Nor can one wing be longer or heavier than the other, they have to be balanced. So some skulls use that they say it's the body of the bird is love, you know, and that two wings are love and fear. And they all agree on the fact that it has to be balanced. Love and fear have to be balanced. So
what is so let's take the first the first component.
Sorry, I'm having a hard time here.
So if we were to define muhabba love What is love?
What is love?
We think we all know love, right? We experienced it, we think we're the experts when it comes to love, nobody knows love like I do. And nobody's capable of loving anyone like I do.
Love is what
is the single most powerful motion? Yeah, it is. It is. They say actually they say everything revolves around love the love of something or someone you know, I kind of touched upon this on Friday. Right? During the
so it is but but what what is it? You know?
It's undescribable feeling.
It's funny you say that because the first definition that I have here, right in my notes is a statement attributed to one of the scholars of Islam from you know, the
eighth century of Islam or ninth, eighth.
And he says that the only thing that describes muhabba or love is love.
So he said this
It's it he says it doesn't have any boundaries, anything that that defines it that is stronger than itself, like the word love itself, right?
However,
they say that they're
their parameters or their elements for for when it comes to love, love is not defined by something because he has other other attempts in scattered in his books. And other scholars have other terms like a mammal as early and others, you know, they have the they have attempts they have they all attempted to describe love. And some of them they come and they say oh, so and so did not actually describe does not actually define love, he actually described it as a description. Right. And some say, Oh, this person, he didn't actually describe love, he just gave us the sign of love, what love looks like or what love, you know, should sound or sound like. So,
though he says ultimate love is that you're
more on your intent. And the intent or the aim of one whom you love, are in alignment, they come together. That's the ultimate love. Very hard to.
to process. Right. Okay, so let's just go with them for the sake of this session.
Let's go with 10 different descriptions that were given
10 different manifestations 10 different
expressions
of love, maybe that will help us understand what we're talking about.
Okay, the first one, he said to be constantly
for the heart to always be
leaning towards and gravitating towards and
the beloved.
Right. So, so the heart is always right in the state of right longing, the heart is always gravitating towards the beloved, that's number one.
So,
number two is
to prefer to give preference to the beloved,
over
over anything else, that exact actually whether they say is effect on my movie, Allah Jamia in Moscow, is it everything in life is really a companion of yours, right?
But there's one that you love, or there should be one that you love. So that one that we love, we give preference to that over anything, all all of our companions, any any companion, whether that companion is a human being, or yourself, or your body, or your wealth, or your house or your possessions, doesn't matter what it is, everything is in this life accompanies you during your journey in this life. But guess what, there will come a time where it will you will leave it behind, or it will leave you behind. And you move on. And then you got your released, right? Because we're in this body. So so he says that you put the one that you love, the old your ultimate love, which
should be Allah, I think we figured it out by now. Right? We should be unless you put him above all of your companions.
companion. And when he says companions, he basically is including what
even
was your body your possessions, your friends, family members, spouse, children, everything.
A third manifestation that he gives is, and I'm about to lose my my notes because batteries,
he says is to be in agreement with the beloved.
In,
in public, and in secret or in private.
Right?
So you are you feel like you're in the presence of the one that you love.
24 seven, so you're always in agreement. Now, that doesn't mean that you're always you know, that means at least in your heart, there isn't a time where a loss pattern is absent. So you're always in agreement.
Right.
So how many did we mentioned so far?
Three, number four.
He says, when the heart
right loves what, oh, when the heart submits to the will of the Beloved.
When the heart submits to the will of the Beloved.
It's not yet you're doing it, you're like, Oh my god, I have to do this, oh my God, I hate it, but I'm gonna do it anyways, because God said, So, no,
that the heart is
the body might be aching might it might be hard on the body, but not on the heart.
The heart embraces it, the body might have to struggle,
you know, little starvation here, maybe a little ahead a little drowsiness, you know, you have to stand, you know, knee might hurt and stuff like that, right? But but the heart is content, the heart is,
is is is in a state of submission. Number five,
to see the magnitude to two.
Wow, I mean, these are just for,
to consider a sin or an offense against the beloved, to be of great magnitude or to, to realize the gravity of an offense, or, or a sin.
And to despise any act of obedience, any good deed. So when you In other words, when you love a law, the way it manifests itself is that whatever you do for him, whatever you do, for him is little like,
no big deal. But whenever you fail, or whenever you like, committed offense, you're like, Oh my god, you know, this is no matter how small it is to you, this is why and they say somehow, they say the intensity, like
the intensity of love determines how remorseful or how painful a sin or an offense is, right.
The more you love someone,
the more you will be hurt by your own offense against that person.
sorry for disappointing you for hurting you for letting you down in
number six.
This, this might again, just hear me out. But he says
so Kotaku had that email called BLM habit and have you he says that this love, right, basically takes over the heart and it pushes every other love out of out of the heart.
So everything else falls apart. That's it.
So, the ultimate love basically comes in over you know, it comes in it overcomes the heart and it overtakes, it overpowers everything else, every other love just disappears every other passion that interferes with it goes out of the window. Number seven,
he says to put
to gravitate towards towards the beloved, but put everything including yourself
after it, right. So you gravitate towards God, you put yourself your your, your life, your worth.
After him, everything is is is you know. So your willingness to sacrifice is
you know, there is no hesitation in that when it comes to that. Yeah. Do I have to sacrifice this for my beloved? Yes. Okay. Let it be. That's why when the companions, we're gonna come and go over them again. And I'll have to ask you to help me because I'm about to lose my notes.
Number eight,
to submit fully surrender
and full state of submission
and to give up your, your freedom, or your freedom becomes in yours, your freedom is in your submission to the beloved. There's full trust you know that when you love a law this level, you know, lots of happy loves you there is no way Allah, Allah subhanaw taala will protect you more than he can protect yourself. He will look out for you more than you can look out for yourself. Right. So when he says when you fully submit to Him, you're you have full trust in Him. Right? So you fully submit you have you have no worries anymore.
Do as you wish.
Do as you see fit. I've fully 100% you know completely submit, I give up like my freedom to you. You gave me my my freedom to begin with it. I give it back to you do as you wish. Right. Number nine.
He says, cell phone undefeatable mobile This is just
one as you listen to him, he said, the heart will always be traveling. The heart is in a constant journey seeking and pursuing the beloved, everywhere. Where can I find God? You're always constantly in search. And your tongue talks about him mentions him. He's always on your mind is always on your tongue. And then number 10.
For for one, to offer himself wholly and fully to the beloved.
And show
humility.
Right. So that means you let down your guards.
You let down your guard, you have no issue showing your vulnerability. And from Yes, I am I need you.
Right. I need you. And I can't do it without you. Just fully. You have no issue with that. There is no issue with you just completely say offering. Oh, Lord, I'm offering myself I belong to you. And I come to realize, by the way, though, someone might say, well, don't we belong to a loss of habitat to begin with? Okay, so. So what's
what's the big deal? Why does God wants us to offer ourselves to Him?
Why?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, he loves us. But what I'm saying is, is,
you know, what I agree with you. I mean, it is, it is a sign of love. Like, when you when you when you have something, or you have someone, I mean, let's say your children, you know, they can't go anywhere, they can't do anything without you, you know, there ain't going anywhere, right. But then, then you tell them, Listen, you're fully free to do whatever you want. You can leave the house, if you want to, you can do whatever you can to
just give them full freedom.
There has to be, you know, a point, right? Maybe when they are a little, and they don't know what's good for them, and all of that, you know, you force them. But there has to be a point where you're like, I can't force you. I can't impose this. Because Allah subhanaw taala is disease. That's the reason he does love us. But Allah doesn't need us.
He doesn't need us. Right? So if we try to if we walk away, right, if we walk away, and we rebel against the law, and we say, No, I understand my freedom to be anything but but having submit to you, he lets us fight.
Right.
That's why he gave us free will.
We can choose to deny his existence, his self evident existence. And just think about this loss of how metallic you know, gives us the ability to deny that or the room, some people do that.
But that won't change the fact that they belong to Allah.
It won't change the font so to Allah doesn't make a difference. But to you, it makes a difference. When you discover your freedom and your submission to have any turn back, you find your way back to him.
Right? And you realize that he facilitated that for you
see how special you are now, see how special you are? all along. Right?
So I was just bringing you back to me. So so it is indeed a sign of love. But it's also a sign of
greatness, independence, a lot doesn't need us a lot is not dependent on us, emotionally or otherwise. You know, so when people say, Why, Lord, why are you doing this to me, he's not doing anything to you.
If you if you truly understand and love God, you'll see that everything that he's doing is for you. But if you choose to see it as it being something done to you, or I guess you be it, what can I do?
You know? coonan fcmb Mikasa Marina law says, Every soul is responsible for what is
chooses that difference. All right. So what are the 10? Again? Let's go over them. Whatever. Yeah.
Okay.
Okay, so let's take the first one. So the heart gravitates towards the beloved. So so the heart is attached emotionally attached and connected to the beloved. Right? And,
you know, many of the scholars they say, you know, I don't know, I don't know about but you know, where I grew up, right?
People always talk about, you know, love. And, but whenever they talked about love, when we were growing up, all these songs that talked about about love, they, they always talk about love as love being like, painful. Right? Love is torture. Love is, you know, tormenting Love is like hard. What would it so I don't know what it what was it like here
is love something? It sounds like here in the West.
Especially pop culture. Love is always talked about as something
cool, right? It's not like Eastern called Eastern cultures. Love is always painful.
Western culture is love is always like, just cool. So I don't know why is that me? Or am I? Yes? No.
No?
What's that?
Yeah.
So
yeah.
Okay, so So the first one is the heart is always attached to the beloved. The heart is always a touch. By the way, there's something there's something that was not mentioned. Right? From the TED, I personally think that love is true love is where the heart finds ultimate
refuge.
Peace and meaning.
Right.
As the heart, the person just finds, they find, like safe refuge. Like they feel safe. They feel empowered. They feel taken, you know, peaceful, they're, they're at peace, like they have, they have no anxiety, no fear nothing. Right. That's, that's the ultimate ultimate love. So,
so, that is the the
that is the main the most essential part of these three components love, hope and fear. The scholars say that there are two types of
love.
Or sorry,
there are two
There are three types of love. Right? Love number one is
the love that comes out of the level of work, you know, the love,
that is the product of worship. Right? So so when you worship someone or something, you love it, you know, automatically so worshiping it in and of itself makes you makes makes you love it, you settle for it, you connected to it. Because somehow you feel it benefits you. It brings me right, or it blesses you or it makes you feel comfortable. And that, by the way, explains, right. Why some some people say
they may worship deities or gods other than a law, other than the one that created them, but they still feel like I still have it. I will do anything for it. Right? But it did not give them that love. Like if we say that our love for love comes from him. I'm sure that an idol or a stone, like something made out of someone does not have the power to give you that love. That love doesn't come from it that, you know came from you from your own need.
So it's in a way it's an illusion.
Right? it's it's a it's a one sided love. It doesn't love you back. So so you see the difference, right? No.
Okay. So basically, you have a neat,
right? And you think someone or something and by the way, also sometimes, you know, hopefully, so you think someone or something has the power to secure you know, the need or to grant you the need or protects you from something you fear. Right. So you start praying to it. You start worshiping
You start giving sacrifices, whatever it is, could be some spirits, it could be whatever you think is the most powerful thing in the universe. So you start praying to it, you start worshiping it, you start, you start submitting to it.
And the more you submit to it, and the more you give it, what happens, the more emotionally you become attached. So that, that whatever your sacrifice or whatever you're doing for it, you know, even if it's a complete, like false deity,
you still have emotional attachment. That explains how, you know, certain, let's say they in some, you know, some story, they say, you know,
I'm trying to be,
I don't want to be controversial. But have you heard of people who worship let's say, a non existent person? Like, for instance, people go to certain places? Right? know, certain places are to have some kind of order? What do they call it? a shrine, you know, there's a shrine, and they believe there's a, there's a, like, there's a story behind this shrine in this particular location. And these stories are like, you know, myths or legends, right. And then when you try to verify it, you find out that there is no truth to it whatsoever. Someone made it up, it's completely made up. But then people accepted it. And people started giving sacrifices, and people started doing things to
it. And whether they realize a blessing in their life or not, whether it's just a placebo effect, or, or not, right, they emotionally get attached. So when they discover that there is no truth, to anything that they have been doing, right? Like, for instance, I was watching a documentary not too long ago, of a place that people used to go pray to, and they used to go pray to a particular person. And then there was a huge fight between those who were the keepers of that place. So the government decided to remove the remains of that saint, and put it and remove it from that out of that town, and put it in another location. So when they dug, they found remains of what?
Of a cow? Like, it wasn't even a person, it wasn't even a human being. Isn't that someone just, you know, so it was all made up?
But did all these people who discovered that there was something false there that didn't exist? Or that wasn't? Did they all of a sudden say, Oh, my God, now I hate it. No, no, they still had emotional attachment.
Still, it felt good. It gave me something, though, it was something do you think, you know, people who have, like, I remember one time I was at an airport, and there was a lady of particular, you know, religious group, and she had her her got one of them. Right. And in a nice, very fancy box. And, you know, the airport security had to examine it. And you should have just seen like her, the way she was like, we don't even treat the core and the way she was like, you know, treating the
you know, it's amazing emotional attachment.
Obviously, didn't come from that from that idol. From that statue, the statue cannot generate, does not have that energy, it can't give you that it's false, it's all coming from you. So, there is love that comes that that is generated from for the second type of love is the love
for
the one that you
you love. Right. So now you left out, you know, again, remember the first love is, is not that that is out of worship. Unfortunately, you know, there are people even when they worship false idols, or false deities, they can experience a level of love, but it can never be compared to the love that you have for a larger because the love that you have, it's a two way love. As a matter of fact, his love for you comes before you love for him.
And if he doesn't love you, He will not allow you to have his love in your heart.
So when you have the love of your heart, you should be very, very, very excited.
You should be you should be really so so you know Joy's if you feel the level of a lot of your heart, you should be you should feel so fortunate that in and of itself a sign that the almighty loves you, right. The second type of love is when you love for the sake of the beloved for the sake of Allah. Right. So you love places or things that Allah loves
that love the Quran because the Word of God you love the Prophet because he taught you about God, you love Mecca, Medina you love a certain place you love the mosque you love you know, because it reminds you of God Almighty.
And then number three is the natural love the very common most common emotion that we all have, which is you know, the love that we have for
For people, or for possessions or for anything, right, so for instance, we love out of pity or out of, you know, we have love for our children we have love for, for the week or the, you know,
we also have love out of reverence or respect, like the love that we should have for our parents or for our elders, or for our scholars or for our, you know, when we have a natural, that's natural, you know, there are some people who, you know, love their, their leaders, even though their leaders are not
worthy of that love. It's just natural people for some reason, you know, have respect for their leaders, even if that leader is just a complete jerk. So sometimes, you know, I, I don't, you know, when people say, Oh, if you voted for him, if you stop loving him and support him, then you're just as bad as he is. And you should question your humanity. And he should question your you know, you know, sometimes I think that's too too harsh. Because sometimes people just love whoever is in office.
There. They can't make you know,
if, if he took that, if we give, then we have to,
again, I'm not I'm not justifying any of the, of the racism and all of that. But, but I'm not also surprised or like, you know, completely I'm not like, Oh, my God, he said that. Oh, yeah.
So, yeah, he's, he's not any less hypocritical than the Democrats. Anyways, okay.
So, and then we have the level of what suits us.
When we love things for ourselves, right? We love food. Who doesn't love food, we love to eat.
You know, I love it. We love food, we love food.
By the way, only if the food is tasty, right? It doesn't matter if it's healthier. But if Stacy, if it makes us feel good, because there is some type of cuisine, you know, I really have a lot of hatred for, you know, when people come and tell me, you know, you don't eat such and such what happened, I was like, I used to love it. I loved it. But I realized that it hated me.
It doesn't love me as much as I love it. So I'm no longer willing to love it anymore. Because of what it does to me afterwards. It's very violent.
And it messes me up. Right? So we love it when it's tasty and when it's alright.
Drink, you know, marriage,
physical pleasure, you know,
fashion, things that we love, because
of, you know, we like things that that make us make us feel good, make us look good, make us sound good. So this is natural love.
In the loss of habitat in the Quran acknowledges that know,
the love of Allah is the only love that gives you all three.
Right?
The love of Allah is the only one that gives you all three types of light.
Right? Not only that, but it's really, you know, sad, when we put the third type of love, before our ultimate love, the love of Allah, when things that we enjoy or we you know, and, and a sign of wisdom and maturity is when you're able to when the first type of love right
dominates your life
and controls every other type of love, right? Even the one that is that is natural that you have for your spouse or for your children. Now, what is it in it for us? When we love a loss of habitat, when a lot becomes our ultimate love, number one, we will
it will be we will be able to actualize or
it's a sign of internalizing belief in God like faith or to hate.
When we when we unify when we finally realize that everything belongs to the loss of Allah to Allah to him we belong there's only one and he just focused on the loss of Allah tala. Right? The manifestation of that is in loving a lot as religion. Right? Sorry, not the manifestation, the, the foundation of it is loving Alaska because if you don't love a lot as origin, you will you will lose it. And that's why when people come and they say, Well, you know,
I'm losing my faith.
Like, you're losing your faith there. So you're falling out of love with Allah. What do you mean? Do you do syllable? Ah,
I guess? No, you can't guess. You have to be certain if you're not certain then.
And if you fall out of love, the last time that if you're not constantly working
On that love, if you're not always, you know committed to that love, then, of course, once you lose your love for Allah, you know, guess what next comes after that you no longer love the things that he loves. So you kind of start, you know, avoiding them, not only do you start avoiding them, but seeing them or being around them is going to store some negative emotions. So he stopped going to the machine.
And he stopped reading. And then he stopped praying,
right, or anything that reminds you of him, whether it's of His commandments or the places, you start avoiding them. Right, and you're just going down the spiral, and then eventually, you fall out of love. Once you lose that love, faith follows the faith goes out. Right. And that's why that's why I learned the Quran says, Oh, you who believe if any one of you decides to turn away from his religion or her religion, that's fine. I was gonna say, then God is going to come down and strike you know. So if you turn away from God, and you lose your faith in Him, then God will bring people he will, he will have when someone else
will bring will bring people whom he loves, and they love him.
So the first thing that he mentioned is that home he loves, and they love him, that tells me that if someone you know loses their their faith, that is a sign of them losing their love, they have lost their love. So therefore, God says, okay, you don't love me anymore. You know, that's fine. I will bring someone that that I love, but they will love me in return.
Right? As opposed to you, I loved you. I gave you everything, you know?
Because he, we don't you know, he doesn't owe us anything. That with children, if your children tell you that they hate you, you still owe them.
Right? That's at least until they're 18. And then after that you'd like to
go, please. Right? That's it out of the door. You don't love me, you don't like me? That's fine. Go. I'll adopt someone else. I'll get a dog.
Right? I will, whatever I'll do. If I'm capable of having another child had I known 18 years ago, I would have had another child it says the back of
people, right? But
so Allah subhanaw taala we don't almost just bring someone else they're always constantly, you know, someone that will be would love a lot and will be worshipping a lot of love. Right? Okay, we'll stop right here, inshallah. And
if you have any questions or comments,
yes.
is a person
actually like?
Somebody?
like another Muslim somewhere in the world?
I'm not sure. But if that if that is true. Okay. So when someone says someone told her that when someone enters Islam, there's someone else at the same time losing their faith and leaving Islam? If that's if that's what happens, then you're not, then that
the number of Muslims will not increase, right. Unless, unless it's only increases by through birth. You know, because we just have higher birth rate.
But, I mean, statistics say that it still is the low, you know, fastest growing religion.
Is it the fastest?
Okay.
Yeah. So,
I don't know if that is true, but I can't recall anything in the ad saying that when someone leaves. Oh, but this might be true, though. When someone leaves someone comes in. Okay, this the other way around, that when someone comes in someone leaves? No.
These are two different things. So so it doesn't mean that when someone comes in, someone automatically leaves no, if someone leaves, someone will come in.
Okay. But one person might leave two people might come in three people might come in 10 people might come in, right. But at least you know, so whenever someone leaves, there will be more people, you know, and somehow I've kind of noticed that, you know, anytime someone comes to me, he's like, Oh, so and so is no longer you know, or they were born, you know, we even have cases of people who were born with them, or they normally identify with Islam, like fine.
So what is but what a loss is like it is a loss indeed. And I feel sorry for that person, but let's pray for them. But at the same time, let's go
Pay attention and celebrate the sister that just took Shahada. What? Someone to say, yes. While there are some people who are losing interest, there are tons of people that are still interested. And there are, there are even more people out there that don't know, have they known in a one guy one time came to a conference came to me. So you guys have no idea. What you have, you have no, you don't have real appreciation of what you have. You're born into it. You're like someone who was born into into the light, you don't know what it's like to be in darkness.
So we have more appreciation. And I said, Indeed, I agree with you. You like your you'd like the companions of the Prophet
who hooks up to Islam, who, you know, they used to come to the prophet and say, we were misguided and God, say this through you. They they realize that more than anyone else, as opposed to someone who was born into it, they take it for granted. But, you know, would ask people who come from places where they have no freedom. Even when you're a citizen, you don't have freedom in your own country. Right? And then, and then you look at their attitude here, when they become citizens, or when they realize they have rights. And the attitude of someone who was born who's like second, or third or fourth generation, you know, they don't appreciate what they have. Because they're used to it, they
don't know what it's like, to have freedom to be able to do what you want to be able to travel to be able to go out of this town into the next town without having to stop at a checkpoint.
You know, some people don't know what that's like.
To be able to, to, you know, to be able to have a child. And same day register them. Right. And you don't have to explain why you have that child.
You know, when the government gave you permission only to have one child now this is your second. You know, so we don't know what it's like. So Pamela, yeah.
Next question.
She wants to go home.
No, no, she can't go home.
No, no. Let her come here. Just just yeah, just you know, sorry. Sorry. She's fine.
She's fine.
Come here. Come here.
What's her name?
rim. Just like wow, we re
right here.
Can you
look Look, look what I have.
I apologize to the people who are watching live.
We have a cute baby here that is irresistible. called real.
wants to go home. Is it is it enough time?
Understand? Yeah. Okay. That's fine.
That's fine. That's fine.
Wow, she's a boss.
Oh, nice.
salary.
Okay.
Wow.
At least he knows what she wants.
All right. Next question or comment?
Yeah,
yes.
Yes.
Yeah, but but even if it doesn't follow a will matter.
Because we have a law.
I mean, you know, so this is asking if we a lot of our laws whether becomes the foundation, right, the level of law becoming foundation of everything that we do in law in life, then does that mean that everything that we desire is going to come? To follow?
Yeah.
Yeah, but no, even if, if he if he doesn't give us something that we're not we're not going to look at it as something that as being deprived
but rather as as being chosen as being
you know, distinguished.
I know you I know you can handle it,
you know, you know, as being trusting, you know, I know, you know better. So I was desperately looking for something.
Right? milanos is not good for me.
But I'm begging him for it.
So
there are multiple possibilities. One, Allah doesn't make it happen. If I truly trust a law, another law, I will say, okay, thank God, it didn't happen, there must have been something bad about it. Or maybe it was good for me, but it was going to be too good. You know, it was going to distract me from him. Or maybe it was, it was good for me. There was nothing wrong with it, nothing would have happened. But he wanted to save it for me
later, do you want to give me something bigger later, be it right? Sometimes we desperately ask Allah for something. And it's not good for us. But Allah knows that we're going to become very impatient. And it will disturb us if we don't have it at the onerous habit.
And then we learned the hard way.
But when we learn the hard way, we're not going to turn and say, why did you make it happen? Why did you not give it you know, give it to me, you should have just not let me have it. You know, but then a person who loves the law will say, Allah wanted me to learn the hard way. Allah wanted me to learn. You know, he wanted me to see that it wasn't good for me. But I was immature, I was not mature enough to realize that it was good for me. So if you want to have it, here, you have it. But it's going to make you realize that, you know, you were better off without it. If that's what it takes for you to learn that lesson, be it? Right, but then it should make you stronger.
Right? You know it because sometimes, you know, we want things and we we want them now. And if they're not good for us, you know, someone came to me one time said, Can I ask God to give me something? And if it's good for me? I said, Yes. Okay. Then they said, Okay, can I ask God to give me something? If it's not good for me? But can I ask him to make it good? And then give it to me?
I said,
You have to trust it's either good for you or it's not. Right. So it's one of two things, either you ask for it, right? And then if it doesn't happen, then you're still content because you love or worship of Allah is not conditional. It's not contingent on you know, God, basically, you worship Him at His terms, not your your own terms. If if you take care of me, I'll worship you. If you give me everything that I want, I'm going to be cool with you. No, that's not how you see it, you know, your love for him transcends that it's not conditional.
Right. So that's why you want to right before you ask a question, I was just reading some notes, you know, and they're talking about how they say, you know,
you know, when you hear you know, and again, you know, this may not be very practical, or it may not be like, you know, something that a common person may be able to relate to, but, you know,
who cares, there are people who experience you know, the level of loss of power at a higher level, where they even see beauty. And in the loss, they see they see grace in a loss. Right, brings him back, even even a sin when they commit a sin a sin doesn't, does it, it hurts, and it's painful, but then it makes him realize, you know, how vulnerable they are. Right? And then it makes them realize how great how great God is and how merciful he is that in spite of that he's willing to take me back.
There's nothing greater than you know, no sin is greater than his mercy.
So, so it all depends on how you process it. You know, and that processor is
is powered by
love. So if love hope and fear continue to power that processor, when you start you're going to be able to see that the most powerful of all is is muhabba inshallah, we have a chance to talk about
hope and fear. You know, shall we?
I look forward to that issue.
I don't know what it is. I had no energy coming here. I'm leaving with lots of energy. I'm telling you. Your story about the love of Allah gives you energy amazing zap. So thank you for the opportunity.
Gemma, yes, anyone has Yes.
I said I wonder. I wonder Yeah, okay, but go ahead. Yeah.
How do you avoid okay? real quick?
Yeah, but here
Oh, I'll go through them 1010
reasons or 10 elements or 10 steps or tips
reading
and pondering upon reflecting, right? And try to.
Okay, so how do we not fall out of love with the law? How do we? How do we maintain the love that we have for Allah? So 1010 points point number what?
read the Quran, there is a reason why Allah sent a message. You know, when you when you have when you love someone right long distance, and you missed it
or you want to remember how great they are? What do you do?
You go look at, look at the notes, the messages, write the letters that they sent you, you start reading the letters,
no matter how many times you read it every time you read it just right. Anytime you have taught this he loved me or does he not? Let's see what he said. You go back to the messages, you go back to the to them that you know, and you reflect you analyze them, you're like, is this what he meant? So you see love. And that's why when you look for the level of a lot and you you know you're looking for this because God loved me. If you're looking for love, not hate you looking for love, not anger, not ref. You're looking for grace, love, and you open the crown. That's what you find. I remember one very famous
author, write one time, he said, You know, he said his brother converted to Islam.
And he's an academic Well, you know, famous, he said, when I wanted to check this examine Islam, my brother gave me a translation of the crap. So he said, I took it. I read through it, I came back to him and I said, Well, this book is full of, you know, anger, like breath. It has a lot of you no punishment, this that. Perhaps because that's what you're looking for.
That's why you are fixated on it. That's because you're if you if you're an alcohol, if you if you drink, if you fortigate if you cheat, if you if you You're okay, how is this religion going to treat me? How is this God going to treat me you're looking for these things.
But if you're looking for forgiveness, for mercy, for hope, for meaning, for positive things, you got to be finding them. So he said, he said, Well, I didn't see it that way. So let me look again. So he goes, goes through the crowd again, looking for mercy. He's like, comes back. He's like, it's full of mercy and grace. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah, Mohammed, His mercy, he accepted his love. You know, so, so reading the Quran, you know, you know, and pondering and remembering. I came to a scholar one time and he said, I committed adultery. He's like, May Allah forgive you, you don't have to come and confess to it to me. You know, you just go
to Allah. He's like, No, but I feel bad. I committed adultery. Adultery is really, you know,
well,
okay, I want to be punished. I want to be punished for it is like no good. God says repent, just repent. You don't need to. He's like, no, I feel bad.
He's like, because every time I open the Quran, I see the punish. You know, what? adultery is horrible. He's like, Yeah, but you know, guess what law says. So he shows him where it says and those who do not follow Kate and then and then it says that except those who repent to Allah, for Allah, God is shows mercy to them, and He replaces their bad deeds with good deeds. Right. So when he showed them that verse, he said, that he gave me more joy than than that verse.
And, and you know, later on, he repented and he memorized the core and he fell in love with the chorale that day, right. He fell in love with the Quran and all that he actually
he actually died in a Masjid
smiling.
After reading, that I he eventually became an email because he memorized so he became he eventually became a person that leaves us alone.
The day he died the morning he recited that verse. And so he just came and when he came across it, he'll remember this is the verse that made him fall in love with the crowd and open the gates of hope for him and repented and made him an amazing family man and all that. So he was crying, he couldn't finish it in prayer.
And he was fasting that day. So he decided to say the message after I also write, and then when his family is, you know, his wife was, look, you know, he's not he didn't come for to break his fast. So she sent His Son to check on him. You know,
Tell him it's time to break the fast or it's almost sunset time. He came back with some came back and said dad is not responding, he's sitting against one of the poles of the mosque. And he's smiling, and he's not responding to me. So his dad just took off, you know, to go and find them to look, you know, to look for him. And he found him sitting there. And he was he was gone.
So, so what I'm trying to say is, is is, it all depends on how you approach it. Right? So, number two,
second, that you do extra deeds, voluntary, these, you don't settle for the bare minimum, you start doing because the more you do, the more you invest, the more attached you become. Right. So you do voluntary days, and the law says that if you continue to do more deeds, mortgages are voluntary deeds, Allah loves you. Right. And if he loves you, he wouldn't he would not let you. And number three is you constantly remember a lot, so suffered loss of hand a lot. hamdulillah May Allah forgive me, Lord, you know, like, you know, pray, you know, when you eat, you know, after you finish eating, right, when you go to bed, you're always constantly remembering him. But if he's not, if
he's not, if you're not, if he because if he's on your mind, you know,
your heart will be connected to him. And if you're mentioning him, then so remembering a loss of habitat, a sense of how long hamdulillah you know, Praise be to Allah, just constantly, number four, to put what he loves ahead or give it more priority and more value than what you what you necessarily are attached to. Number five,
contemplate
the names and attributes of Allah subhanho, wa, taala. Number six,
right? We need to take time off and just sit around and ponder and reflect reflecting, reflecting.
So not only, you know, reflecting around, wow, how much
you know, the greatness of God, just looking around. Looking at number six, and number seven.
to humble oneself.
And humility is key. Humility is key. What I mean by humility is because some of us have this sense of entitlement, like, we become disappointed with God, because he didn't give us something that we really wanted. And we feel like I deserved it, I earned it belongs to me. It's not like that. Right? Number Number eight, he says, to take time off and spend time with alone. Right? Read, you know, at the middle of the night, you know, just take time off, and number without some phone without
social media.
Nowadays, even when we sit at home, like reading plan, we have social media, and we update our status reading plan.
Spending spending, spending personal time with God, why do you need to tell the whole world it's not personal time anymore. Right.
And number 10,
looking, identifying elements that may be getting in the way or interfering? I'm sorry.
Oh, sorry, I skipped that one. Number nine is to be in the company, or hang out with people who love Allah, who have true love for Allah, to be in their presence and in their company, people who will constantly remind you, you know, there are some people when you see them,
you remember God. Just seeing them. You know, being around them reminds me of God. Right?
So hanging out with him.
And I tell you, and I noticed that, you know, with people who drift away, one of the things that happened also somewhere I don't know how early or how late in the process of them falling out of love and, you know, forgetting God, some some somewhere along the way, they start avoiding people that remind them of God.
Right, they stop this and they don't associate with them. They don't want to hang out with them. They tried to avoid them. They blocked
I was blocked multiple times they blocked them.
Or they you know
and the last one is getting rid of anything that distracts you or gets in the way or interferes. You know, sometimes you may have to take strong measure.
You know, so if it means deleting the app,
you delete app.
It means get rid of the device. Get rid of the device, if it means relocating, relocate. You know the Prophet peace be upon the left Mecca Mecca was is a holy city has the holy city because the city
The people of the city were not the city itself, but the people of the city and the circumstances in the city got in the way of him so he had to leave. And he went to yesterday, which was not even his his hometown.
Hope and Allah knows best as I can. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much. A few announcements. So I make sure I don't forget. Number one disruption