Intellectual Seerah #6 Torture, Trauma & The Gaza Experience

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah what I cancel How're you guys doing? Welcome to the sixth session here. In this very important critical Ciara, intellectual Ciara that we're going through, and today we're gonna go we're going through something very important and very topical, very relevant, very pertinent, something which relates to what's happening today in Gaza. And one of the things which I think, has most significant so what's happening in Gaza, vis a vie this year of the Prophet Muhammad, Salah Salem, which is the torture

of the Prophet Muhammad wa, salam, and of the companions at the time of Mecca. And really, I would say there's two things that really can we can we can think about in terms of the Sierra which relate most, in my estimation, my opinion to what's happening in Gaza today in Palestine, one of them is this. One of them is this the Palestinian issue, the the early Meccan period of torture that happened with that. And the other one is, in fact, the Battle of Zab, or hunt duck, which we're going to be going through as well going to be speaking about that as well, in later episodes, but this is the first one. And before we get started, let's just take a look at the lineage of the

Prophet Muhammad wa salam in the first slide, because this is something we've tried to memorize. But memorization is useless unless you try and look over and over again, at the same material. So this is at least try memorize who said, the first five names of the Prophet SAW Sam's lineage.

So just maybe quickly, take a look at that pause the screen if you're, if you're watching at home. Now, moving on the objectives of this particular lesson, is the following number one, we're going to be looking at some of the background information relating to aid the overt dour and dour bit jar as is mentioned in the title of Syrah, the over Tao of the Prophet Muhammad Salah Salem, that we're going to quickly touch upon some of the important aspects of the relationship with the prophet has some and we'll call him. And then we're going to analyze the events of the torch and the Meccan period, what we're going to be doing, which is different. And this is why that's the critical part,

if you aren't the criticality that we're going to employ just particular talking point is a, we're going to be looking at the spiritual benefits of trauma. Now this word trauma is a word which many people use now has become a buzzword, especially in the age of mental health, too. And this may be an overgeneralization, but crude as it may be,

to mention the inconveniences of their life was like trauma, words like narcissist, words like toxic. This is these are the words that we're hearing nowadays in modern day psychological parlance. Now, I don't mean this word trauma. In that context, when we use the word trauma, we're talking about an actual tragedy that takes place, which is of a significant level. And what I want to do is want to look at what's going on in terms of the trauma, the trauma, the real trauma, the true trauma,

with the purple house of some of the companions.

And then we want to see what the benefits of such trauma could be. And you could, you could kind of analogize onto that, any kind of difficulty that may happen in your life.

And the same principle for the most part will apply.

The second thing is I want to look at the psychological series.

And in particular, we're gonna look at resilience. Now, the word Sabra in the Arabic language, is loosely translated into patients. But another translation, another possible translation, which I think nowadays we can look at, in terms of translating this word Sobor is resilience really, because a suburb and resilience as we're going to talk about, especially in the psychological context, is the ability to cope with a tragic event, the ability to cope with a tragic event. And to get to the pre

tragedy, status, we'll see some of the definitions of the word resilience, trauma and all these kinds of things, and we'll connect them and see where the similarities and differences are between the Islamic approaches to psychology and the secular approaches to psychology. And I think this is the best place to nestle this kind of discussion within the Sierra because there are many approaches in the West which have become famous and have become

most used and they actually

they become methods or prescribed methods by which through which many people live for example,

nowadays, if someone feels bad, what do they do? They go to the doctor right and they they say I have depression, so that the doctor will say to him, Listen, have some antidepressant medicines, you know, for example, and there's another fork in the road, which is you can have your antidepressant medicines. This will help your chemical imbalance by imbalances. This will fix your neurological process. This these are the neurotransmitter

but it will be fixed. Another way of doing it is to say, Well, why don't you do a CBT? Course? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? Why don't you do the talking cool? Why don't you go to a counselor? Now we're not dismissing any of all of those things. We're saying, let's see where the similarities and differences are between the Islamic method of doing things in terms of psychological approach. And the Western, or the secular, psychological method. This is an important discussion. And one I don't think people have on this meta level, and we're listening this in the context of this era. So that's another thing that we want to get done. Here. And of course, as we're going along, we're

going to relate these things to the current events in Gaza and other such life traumas

that may people may have. So the first thing we want to go through is the following the Prophet Muhammad Salah Salam, after we mentioned in the previous session, we mentioned that he how he received revelation we mentioned how he went to the cave, we mentioned how the story of the you know, how he received a vision, then

there was a face and so there was the private revelation, he went to his wife and she said, the Millennium will only cover me cover me and we went through that. After that, Allah subhanaw taala sent down in a year, when did I Shirataki Allah carabin, Western sort of the shara, the 26, sort of the Quran, which is and proclaim to your close family, proclaim the message to your close family, when there are Shirataki Ella carabin. So went from a private matter to now the circle is being expanded to the family.

And in fact, if you look at the story, behind the chakra, or the narrative in that particular chapter, it's talking about Moses actually, and the stages by which and through which Moses took visa vie, Pharaoh. And he started in the same way he started with his family, then his community and then it became a message so he's slowly widening the circle. He's not jumping straight into it, there is a kind of gradualist process that is being taken. And of course,

the Prophet Muhammad wa salam had his uncle Abu Talib, we haven't mentioned yet but he's, his uncle Abu Talib was very beloved to him. And he was very beloved to his uncle. And his uncle Abu Talib really acted as the guarantor of the protector in that particular community. And it's very interesting because actually,

this there is a parallel here between us and the prophets, our solemn situation, I'll tell you what the situation is, especially I was living in the West parallels. The parallel is we are for the most part protected by us citizenships. Let's just call a spade a spade, we will we have a specific mission. And we have a specific opportunity here in the west, to speak freely about certain issues, which many in many parts of the Muslim world. In fact, there's more than 50 Muslim majority countries, we wouldn't be able to have this opportunity. And that's not because of our religion, but it's because of our citizenships to these particular countries.

And in fact, I would postulate that maybe, in places like London, where we live in, it's probably one of the most free places where we can give dower

and Birmingham as well, I know you got to come from Birmingham, and other parts of the UK, but other parts of the West, where you can give doubt in the entire world. So we have a special responsibility, in fact, because we have the protection of these of these things.

And this reminds me of an ayah in the Quran, in solitude, where Allah subhanaw taala narrates what Schreib says to His people are RT as to Aleikum, Minh Allah, is my tribe, more mighty to you, then Allah,

what has to move? What has to move out of the area? The idea is saying that, shall I be saying, I know I'm being protected here because of my tribe. And he's criticizing this fact. Because he's saying that really what you should be doing is fearing Allah. But he didn't. He didn't. I'm pragmatically not used that. Many people will say from the right wing because as you guys are using the freedoms, yes, we are using the freedom why shouldn't we use them? We have a mission and we will use every freedom just like everyone else's society. There's no doesn't go against ethics and morals to proclaim our message in this way. So we're finding ourselves in a similar situation with Abu

Talib, our Abu Talib, who also happens to be a disbeliever is say, for example, the United Kingdom.

But we might not have the same love for him, as the prophet had for his uncle, because obviously he was and this as you may know that the idea came down in Nicola Tatem and habitat. We're lucky in that Allah, you had the May Usher that you're not going to guide whoever you want, but Allah guides whomever he wants. So

I will tell him as we know, even though he was there for the Prophet, Muhammad, wa salam, and so on, he died upon Cofer and disbelief, which shows you that once again, going back to the principles we talked about in the very first session, this is not meant to be some kind of rosy and romantic picture of everything that happens in the Sierra. These are real events. Unfortunately, Allah guides him he wants and he was guided to me once. And this whole event shows you that, you know, the prophets are solemn, there is one da.

And this might sound controversial to many of you, that might might not be accepted by the prophet, which is the diet of guidance. If Allah does not intend guidance for somebody, because if that diet was accepted, and Allah the Prophet Muhammad died for everyone to be guided, and that didn't happen, that means Allah that prophecy Salam has exactly the same power as Allah.

So there was this is the only kind of dot the supplication that you can imagine with and you can imagine the process Allah made surely made right for his uncle. Yes.

Also, when apostle Sanatana mistaken when you make the war against certain people, Allah sent away seeing that again. It's not I don't know who it was for? Yes. I don't have the company's name. But he made a dog and send another reminder.

Yeah, I mean, the A is clear in Nicoletta head, you're gonna have to, you're not going to guide whoever you want. Well, I can Allah, you had you mentioned, Allah is taking sovereignty of the situation here. This, the issue of guidance goes back to Allah at the end of the day, the issue of guidance, because if you pardon, even punishment, yes, punishment, for someone going into heaven going into hell, this is the sovereignty of Allah like. So that's one thing I would say. So I will tell him, it's interesting that he actually was pressured so much by his community that he came to the Prophet. And there are different hadith of this. And so I just want to tell you, you know, this,

there's one particular hadith of Shiva to put the sun in my right hand and the moon on my left. I don't know if that's Sahai, I think that's a weak one. But very similar. One has been aerated, which is the following, which is Sai, which is

the number of dharma.

We're on the fourth slide here. Full slide, I will tell you his involvement. So when the full slide, he says in the in the fourth slide, as you can see here, I will title it says, Do you see the process? I'm saying double time? Do you see the sun? Is what he's saying. So do you see the sun over there? said yes. And it wasn't just a hotel, it was that it was a crowd of people. He said, I cannot. Yeah, stop

proclaiming what I'm proclaiming as much as I can take a flame from this particular sun. In other words, just I have as much ability

to control whether or not I'm going to proclaim this magic message, as I have management of the sun, the celestial sphere, which is so far away from us. So in other words, he was not going to accept any of the

he's not gonna accept any of the offers. And so it's true that a lot of them came to him with offers and these are narrated

authentically, like with money and prestige and status and stuff, and he rejected that alias for the cause and for the message.

And there was a very interesting, and you can see this in slide number five, a very interesting

interaction between Waleed Mahira.

And the Prophet Muhammad Sasa Walid mohila is the father of whom Han Walid and he came to the Prophet Muhammad salah. And

actually, in fact, they decided, look, let's get one of our best guys, our best speakers to speak to the Prophet. Yeah. So this is Walid

because you can imagine that halogen Walid is like, you know, the best. They say, even the non Muslims. I mean, this is the best military general of all time last season, they never lost him. It is the best military general of all time. There's actually an interesting Harvard lecture that's online. This guy was speaking about 100 knowledge for an hour. What's his name? Dr. Roy Kassar, thank you very much for that excellent input there. And he makes the point makes the argument I think he says is one of the top three of all time just to be clear. A lot of them season we're talking about you can imagine what kind of family he comes from because he comes from the family of

Walid and he was a very self prideful man. But for him, it wasn't necessarily the military prowess. It was his eloquence that he was very, you know, prideful of. So he went there.

And

he, he says there's no one in this town. That is better than me. In shout, in poetry. And when I heard that I remember this guy is the enemy of Islam. He is the one that as a as of the Quran came down from the woman Holika to Wahida will jump to the hotel and do that will Benina showed on my head to the whole time he that you

These ideas came down about him. Yeah. And he literally is a very, very belligerent man. He said, Look, there's no one that's better at poetry than me. No one's better. And what I heard is not poetry, was talking about the Quran.

He said, What I heard about the Quran that's not poetry. And then he started praising the Quran. He said, They has a softness to it. And that there's nothing better than it.

You know, and everything, everything below is destroyed. Like he was praising it. So they decided, What am I going to say the organism of the Quran? If we're not gonna say it's poetry? What can we say? So he started trying to spin it, the Prophet SAW Salem, and say Is he must be a magician, by the way, by saying He's a magician, you're acknowledging there's something supernatural about what's going on. We can't explain it. Anything inexplicable must be explained through these things, which we can't explain. Magic is a very interesting label. So yes, he was there. And he made that

made that point, I want to actually skip too quickly to slide nine and I'll come back here so goes

slide nine. And there's another very interesting incident. So we've got the best shot the most eloquent guy and then we have the best debater effectively is an Obeah. If not via the so they sent him to the promised us Allah. He was like, you know that the top debater of the place? He was the Muhammad hijab of the place.

Even though I don't want to compare myself with this stuff, Allah this cafe, or in this person, is this this place, right?

But I was gonna say,

so basically, he tried to where is it? Nine? Yeah. This is RBI. So he went to this very interesting. Well, light. This this thing here is, before we get into today's discussion, I think this is a very interesting.

Light. Like in debates, there's three things, there's arguments, there's strategies, and there's tactics, okay? These three and the different. There's arguments, you make your arguments, there's strategies, you make your strategy and your tactics. So this guy, he clearly knew what he was doing. He came to the Prophet. So I Salam. And he said to him, who's better you or Abdullah? Abdullah? Whom?

His father, okay, but it's very interesting, right? Because in Arab culture, if you say I'm better than I'm better than my dad, I mean, the Quran says, First could Allah Kazakh curriculum Abba, Yquem Asha Decra? That, you know, they used to really mention their forefathers and stuff to say that we're better than our forefathers, this was seen as a no go, there's no chance you can't say that. So he said, Who's better your your father?

He said,

so the process Salam didn't respond.

Which shows you the first thing I'll be ah, he knew tactically, the best thing to do in the beginning of the debate is well, ask a question.

And I know you're smiling. Because?

Because I do that, right. Especially with people that you know, gonna ask you questions, you come in, and you ask them the question, first, you throw the first punch. So as soon as he sort of realizes who's better yet he had that in his mind. He wanted to jam him. You want to jam the profit? Because whoever asked the question has got the the initiative, he's got the power? It's like throwing the first punch, you're forcing your opponent to defend? What did the process alum do? He stayed quiet. He didn't answer you answer the question. Now, this is a masterstroke. Because if you think about it, and I've thought about this quite a lot.

Subhanallah you don't need to answer every question. That's the mistake we make. We think we have to answer every question. The process, Allah knows the trap question. And he stayed quiet. And what that does is it portrays an image of this belligerent, this emotional person asking the question, and that he didn't get response. So he goes further he goes, because if you say this than this, and if you say this than this, and the prophet is not responding, he's acting in a stoic manner. He's not, he's not, he's not budging.

He's not taking the bait. Salah Salem will shows you Subhanallah tactically, how the processor must be able to circumnavigate this behavior of an Obeah.

Now, it gets interesting here because

I want to just make one point which is connected to this, there's two ways of dealing with questions that are meant to be paradoxical or meant to trap you, or you can decide not to answer them. But there's something in the Quran is called Atelier cuttle Hakima. You could answer them and give some of the answer. But then take it to a narrative which you like. Let me give you an example. Allah mentioned the Quran Yes. Aluna cannula Hill. And the reason why I'm bringing the Quran to the equation is because the best way to deal with questions and answers which is an integral part of debates and stuff, and eloquence and rhetoric is actually the Quran itself. If you if we believe

that whereas most believe, most rhetorical book in the world, yet we don't want to see how the Quran deals with certain things relating to rhetoric relating to polemics, then how much do we actually believe the Quran is the most rhetorical book on the earth? So they asked him that

answers yes Aluna candelilla they ask you about the new moons, new moons. Now, when they will ask you about the new moons. They weren't and they weren't asking what the Quran answered them. The Quran answered them, called amo a piece with a natural hatch, that the new moons are stages.

For the people have things you can see the times for the people calculations for the people to see the times, and for you to know and hedges.

So what happened is the Quran was taking a question. And he answered it, yes, it didn't answer it. It answered the question, but in a way, which fulfills a narrative, which is to do with guidance. Because all these other things are a waste of time, as somebody would say that distractions, they're distractions. So Allah doesn't entertain their frivolity. He takes what they say and he responds in a manner to bring it back to the narrative of guidance which the Quran does. And this happens, by the way, a lot of is the ability and the rhetorician refer referred to this as a tariqa, Al Hakim, the wise way effectively, of answering questions.

So it's not not answering the question, it's answering the question, but in the way that I want to answer the question, the way that suits my narrative, I'm not going to go down you're silly questions, which, which lead me to a dead end, and me looking like a fool because we know what you're trying to do. Questions are the most dangerous thing and the process of how he dealt with this is phenomenal, because he didn't answer that stayed stoic. And then he recited the Quran.

And in fact, he recited the first you know, three or four areas of sort of facilite

Hamming for so that's chapter 41. You can look at your own time, it's very powerful eight, there'll be our back and he was shocked

and he was scared because it was it was threatening a lot of it was threatening if you look at the as it's like threatening of the of the hellfire and so I then have a punishment of some sorts. So this shows you how to deal with belligerence.

We will go back now to

so these are some of the things that happened before like we will go on to the torture

we're now we're in a PowerPoint slide number six.

So this is the Hadith.

All weapons are better.

Who, to my knowledge was not as a hobby, but he was a tobacco right. He said he asked her bellybutton the hammer, about the worst incident of aggression, hostility that he saw on the part of the Prophet. Now. This doesn't mean it's the worst thing that happened to the Prophet just it's the worst thing that he saw, if that makes sense. So what did you see? That was the worst thing. He said, I saw Akbar,

come to the Prophet SAW Salem. And he put a debt around his neck and tried to choke him basically.

And then after that,

that's a very cowardly move. Like, let's be frank if you want to if you want to fight somebody who comes in face to face but this man because he's a coward. He came behind the processor lamb and he tried to choke him as he was prostrating. Then when a worker came, he pushed him away and said, Would you kill a man just because he said, My Lord is Allah and he's come with clear signs from your Lord. And that became an A I mean, that is an Al Quran. Attacker to Luna Raja and Yahoo Larrabee Allah. So to refer, you know, chapter 14, verse 20.

And it was the rage of that prophesy, Salam said, By Allah, you will not stop until the punishment comes upon you.

After he says comprise Be of good cheer for Allah.

He basically went to

to them and he said, Look, I get to come with them. I have come to you with slaughter. Now this is a controversial point, which means we have to follow it. These guys are torturing not just the Prophet Muhammad salah. As we know Bill Alibaba has tortured. You know, he's tortured very severely. Bill Alibaba, for those who don't know, because he was a slave as a black hat. pacinian slave

who was then freed by workers to do the story is known. But he was tortured the rock. The rock was put on him. He said I hadn't had you know, everyone knows the story. He was tortured and murdered. vinyasa, he saw his mother Somalia tortured. I mean, this is extremely excruciating how she was killed, where she was, you know, the spear was put into her private parts, and you have to see this. And um, yes, it was then pushed and pressured to say words of cover, you know, and disbelief. And the torture was happening throughout the entire city of Mecca with these new convicts, which was new as a small band of people to the point where we're going to talk about in the next session, they had

to actually emigrate to Abyssinia. But this torture was happening or what's happening to all of them. And the Prophet Muhammad wa salam, the incident,

which we just talked about, and other incidents of severe torture and humiliation.

However,

This, when he said to them, like I did to convince them, actually, it was very interesting. First of all, in the 100 colonies, you know, he's one of the great scholars, he said that this is not talking about, because some, for example, orientalists and right wing people, they use this and say, Look, your Prophet said, I've come to you with slaughter, like I did to come up with shows you that, you know, he's the man of violence and so on.

Even though as you said, this is not a general statement. This is a statement that he was saying to those people who were torturing him. And this is what he says it Mahajan says, in fact, her body. As you can see here, the wording I have bought slaughter to you undoubtedly has some meaning. And it should not be because of course confusion in the mind of the question or any other rational person, what is meant by slaughter here applies to a few specific individuals.

Who were the ones who persisted in believing Allah and waging war against Islam and its peoples persecuting those who are weak position, oppressing women and old people among the believers in order to turn them away from their religion. But it's such a powerful thing. Because in fact, I see this is a lot of people have this narrative and other narrative, which is the words of, of strength and violence and of Isaiah and all this kind of stuff, it only came in the medina period. But that's not true when the person was being tortured. He said logic to combat that, I've come to you with slaughter. So this came into the Meccan period when the torture was happening. Because the narrative

that is, is usually brought forward is that actually, you know, the harsh verses and the strong words, were only using the medina period when the polity was formed. But you can find statements like this, which were clearly in the making period, where the processor was showing authority, even though they were putting entrails on him, you know, the story of the entrails of the guts of the of the animal and they put it on the Prophet, Mansa, Solomon, and Fatima was called, and she removed them. And he made that. And he made that for seven people. And all those seven people were killed instantaneously in the Battle of whether they as you as we saw here, the strangulation the track

that attempted murder within seat of the premises and the torture of the people, the killing of Somalia, the torturing of Bilal. And obviously, we can draw parallels are this the first brief, we're going to have for five minutes, what parallels can we draw between what's happened in the past? Or today, for example, in Palestine? And was was the torture that we're describing here? in Makkah, let's have five minutes talking to the person next, and then we'll come back and and see what your contributions are in Sharla.

All right, so let's the question just to remind you, the question we're asking is that so far, from what we have covered? What kind of

areas of similarity Do you reckon that there are between what we've seen by the torture of the Prophet Muhammad, Salah Salem, and the companions in the Meccan? Period? And what we're seeing today, for example, in the fossa?

Yes. So we discussed it in a variety of different aspects, I think the first is to give us the the idea, and to remind us that this world is cruel is unjust. And what we're seeing now is, you could say, a continuation of of the nature of this world.

During the prophets time, as we've been discussing,

torturing of blood, he couldn't do anything about it physically. So we have to provide comfort spiritually. And I think in that instance, as well improved, blah, rhodiola, who and whose environment faith, and obviously, that led to him being one of the greatest companions in our tradition. But yeah, so aside from the kind of looking at it from that perspective, about how it's unjust, it gives us the idea as well about resilience in our faith, we can't be Muslims and have it easy. We all get tested. And I think this period more than any other,

the Muslims are starting to become a bit more united and starting to look at this issue.

And it brings us closer to faith and look at the people in Gaza, look how close they are to their religion, and it puts me personally to shame, given the resources that we have, and how close they are the sufferings that they feel from that perspective. And, yeah, we're just basically touching on on these kinds of points from from a general, if we can go into specifics as well, no, that's good. Thank you very much. Any other contributions?

Single? Yep. So basically, I

reflected on the point of who is winning, in particular to other and Israeli war. So just like an alteration, they thought they're the winning party, and they were fighting and torturing the Muslims. That's a good point. But eventually, the Muslim prevailed. And even though if they would have they lost their life, but technically they did not lose anything they want again, there was no last. So similarly, maybe today, what's happening in Gaza, we might consider the loss of human beings. Yes, it is lost in a technical sense of worldly life. But if you look at it from every perspective, it's not really a lost, beautiful and eventually, the Muslim will win, just like how

they prevailed over the Quraysh, maybe 10 years, maybe 20 years, maybe 50 years. But the

the winning party or actually as a Muslim phenomenon?

Yes, what we was talking about a minute as well. It's actually Trails is that Allah what we don't understand is Allah has a sunnah. So you see, this is like trails of success, because I was talking about this because we come from Eclipse spective, logically, we can see in sorry, we're looking at seeing kids being massacred, etc. And looking from a political perspective, nobody can come and look at it and say that success, you can't, unless you look at from a perspective of the knuckle, which is why lots of parents are sent because it goes back to the truth of who they be, as well. And it's very interesting, because the truth of who they be are the odds, what, like, the cruises that were

made was so against them, enraged, so much the Companions, if you talk about being emotional, the companions were in such a state that the process, a prophet told them ordered them to shave their hair, and none of them, listen to it. This is a this is like Allah subhanaw taala, you know, punished nations. But then Allah says sort of fit. So it's like, hold on a second, and we have given you clear victory. What if we, if the companies were the imaginative, the competitive best people to walk the earth, in that state, they are in a moment of despair, but Allah selling them, we I have granted you clear victory. So it goes back to again, when we look at from a perspective, Allah has a

sunnah. And you see that with what the companies went through from the torture to the death, and what carried on for the 13 years plus, but these were just footsteps of foundations of success. That's right. So what was discussed with them it was that is that Allah subhanaw taala has that plan and the divine plan, like like you said, to us like and also one of the things that makes me think is how majestic and how Allah is because I have to look at from a perspective of I'm a human being, like out of Blanchette energy. It's not that, like if you put yourself

not basically self in the place of Allah subhanaw taala. But to think of hikma, like I would think these children are martyrs. Jana, the prasada Salam said, the one who loses even a child, they will run them, they will enter Jannah. So to me looking from that perspective, it's a win win, like you said, Tell me where the losses is the win or win. So yeah, it's just it's just basically the son of Allah subhanaw taala. And it's a path to victory and we ask that we see in our time, just to know the Sunnah as well. Yeah. I mean, if everything was honey and Bunny, in Islamic sense, then everybody will be Muslim. Exactly. So there has to be difficulty to attain certain status, like

beautiful. And as of last one that can be in that value. If you're really a good boxer, you have to suffer to get there. Of course, so yes, exactly. Like, you know, you look at the Mac, I mentioned this in one video. There was a girl who came to me a couple of years ago in Speaker's Corner, and she was like, I don't believe in God anymore. I said, why? She said I was going she said, specifically what's going on in Palestine? And to me, isn't it amazing? We are in the West, and we have everything. Yeah. But we sit in our comfy sofas and we can find the Shabbat. One Shabbat comes and we're like, our Imam is shaken. You look at these people. And it's very weird. I ironic that

you're in his comfy sofa getting super hot about Islam. These people bombs are dropping on them. And they've got the Imam is increasing.

I think I've mentioned it to you. I'll just show you again, because I find it fascinating when I

know the person that I saw, who was a European citizen. And he was actually in Aza at the time. And he actually even showed me, you know, yeah, he showed me the papers that they've dropped

into the people of Gaza, and even gave me a bit of sand from Gaza because he was there, right? And he's got pictures and videos and stuff of him being asked and I saw them. But basically, he was saying that exactly what you just said. He said, I have not seen one person there. And we had a very long conversation. He said, I've not seen one person to despair, like despair in from the Mercy of Allah despairing. He said no one was despairing. He said they won't even upset like, there wasn't even a blame culture. But they won't blaming anyone. They understood. It's like everyone understood that their mindset now has, as you mentioned, is being expunged. expe is being prepared.

One thing I'll say personally, for my story, there was a time where I remember, I was at home, and my dad's quite hostile towards Islam. So he really used very harsh words towards me, and he really hurt me. And he I think he kicked me out of the house. And I went to the underground and I just just to cool down. I was on the train. Yeah, but I felt this sense of, I don't know what it is. But you know, when in the end, you can't even boy you can't even that's not even a match to what they're going through. But you feel a sense of sweetness of your mind, you know, when you've been persecuted. Yeah, it sounds weird. Do you feel a sense of persecution like it's like, this is for

the sake of Allah. Yeah. And what I went through was what my dad my dad swore at me said some things and kick me out the house and I came back the same day and you let me and compare this is weird. Like, let me say before, Allah has these laws that are in place, as if that when you go through these persecutions, he actually makes you stronger, but it's, it's weird. We cannot put you cannot explain it. And like you said, boys, you know, these are the creme de la creme of the Sahaba

cream, the top notch the hobbies were the ones who actually went through the persecution were the ones who went through the torture were the ones were there from the beginning to the point where Allah says about them in the Quran layer so we mean commend him for coming copulate, Factiva cotton, whether it can have them Wadala, Jetta, Manila, Xena and Stockholm in bad war cartel, Wakulla, Marwaha SNA nonequivalent from you are those who did, who gave in charity before the conquest, and fought before the conquest, that they are higher in degree than the ones who did that afterwards. And Allah has put good and all of them. So that's fantastic, really good contributions, anything

from this side of the room?

A little bit close to those those opinions, I think the outcome of their resilience, yes, that people in Gaza today, the same Sahaba at that time, they were very few people. But still, the resilience made the message to be reached out to billions. So nowadays, I think this caused the fight in Gaza, the battle in Gaza. It caused many people to convert to Islam. So it mean it's, we see the negative side. But Allah subhanaw taala has the wisdom, wisdom to expose, let's say that the positive side, I think it was the Guardian that literally done enough

of Guardian said that it makes young people in American country closer to Islam. And they're opening Quran to read about why those people have this faith and this

coffee man. So other other part, I think it's very good that we understand the Amis Allah will be similar to you. So in today's world, so everybody was misleading, especially in our countries for 20 years, we have been told that we need to impose democracy and human rights and everything and many people were, let's say, dying for it. But today, we understand that what's the level of humanity that those people are applying it for us? So the masks have dropped really everything. And at that time, so the Mushrikeen the elites have the courage, they had the same values like we are cultural people, we are let's say stick to our rules and everything but while they were torturing servants,

for the beliefs for the let's say, converting to Islam, so it means that those people who always say that we are good people. So Allah subhanaw taala will expose them to show the people that they are not good.

In the back, right, the

other one the in the beginning.

homophone the last one

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they corrupt yes, indeed the demographic Korean Yes. Then it's very surprisingly I had to happen an excellent just because I'm Muslim I was stopped somewhere and Wallahi I was feeling the honor like I've been stopped because

I was gonna honor

that in Gaza the thing we feel honored Yeah. And you know, I don't want to connect it explicitly but there's there are but by the way, there's a few Hadith that mentioned the word that has done this either now the week

but Yanni still had these mentioned as Colin you know that city right next to has Ashkelon they call it was called as Colin and they a lot of Hadees mentioned husband asked them together. And they mentioned the people in there, the noble people and all these kind of things. Unfortunately, they had these a week. But there are some so he had these which talk about the thought if among Surah, the saved sect that and by the way, this is interesting, because people also want safe sex, they don't connect all the Hadees together because if they do, they realize actually, the safe sex are connected with beta the the the way they call it Mr. Mr. Luxa.

With MCC, this is connected with the people in the Levant and stuff like that and what's happening in the event that it's going to be on the in the Milan copyright and the end of days and stuff that's going they're going to be there and so on. I don't want to connect it explicitly because we thought we can't do that. But what I'm saying is that there's some things consultors going on here. And it seems to me like it's Tempe This is a preamble it's a

preparation even for some great things to happen, because this is the same thing that happened with the early Muslims and look what these early Muslims ended up doing throughout the histories throughout the history, bro. So I'm gonna read out another Hadith because that was a good really good session that I think that was nice and

Everyone's contributions were fantastic. I just want to make the read this hadith again because I did it in a way, which I think was a little bit ambiguous.

Now this is not on the slides, but I'll read it out anyway. The one that I mentioned but I didn't mention exactly the heavy sauce.

This is one of the things this is one of the areas of the try to humiliate the Prophet they tried to degrade the Prophet when the prophets Allah was in a state of frustration surrounded by a group of people from Quraysh pagans awkward when every minute came to the process, salam, the end he brought the entire signs of a camel and threw them on the back of the Prophet. So he's praying minding his business. So I Salam, and this belligerent thug, this animal came to the process Allah when he tried to put the interest signs on his back, once again a very cowardly move. This man and his associates are extreme cowards because they always do it. When the Prophet is not looking. It's not face to

face confrontation. Either they get from the back and they try and choke him or they his prostrating is engaging in prayer and worship and he's doing disguises people are cowards.

There was a Salam did not raise his head from frustration till Fatima, his daughter, so he's doing this in front of the man's daughter, which is completely ignoble. I mean, this is completely dishonorable behavior came and removed these investments from the back and invoked evil. On whoever had done the evil deed the process will have said, Oh, Allah destroyed the chiefs of Koresh Oh ALLAH destroyed Apple Jellybean, Hashem, Akbar, even the labia shape of an Obeah Akbar ibn Abi might or may Yeah, even the caliph and all of them this is what listened to this was amazing. He said later on, I saw this the roar of the Hadith mentioning this. Yeah.

He said later on, I saw all of them killed during the Battle of better and their bodies were thrown into a well except the body of omega or by because he was a fat person is literally the heavies and when he was pulled to the parts of his body got separated before he was thrown into the well. Subhanallah and this shows you like the Justice comes. And sometimes justice comes agent and sometimes it comes edge it sometimes it comes straight away. And sometimes it comes after a while, by the way the Justice comes.

And another thing which I find fascinating is now we're on slide 10 of the hadith of Habana rot. This is an extremely important Hadith, especially when we're talking about and we're going to speak a little bit more detail about this in the slides that will come the Western methods of psychological treatment. Because look at this right above and reported the following that we clicked we complain to the Prophet Muhammad wa salam. While he was leaning upon his rolled up cloak in the shade of the camera. We said, Will you ask Allah to help us? Will you supplicate to Allah for us. The Prophet SAW Salem stated, among those before you a believer, a believer will be seized, a ditch

would be dug for him and he would be thrown into it, then they would bring a soul that would be put on top of his head and they would split him into two hearts. And his flesh would be torn from the bone with iron combs. Yet all of this did not cause them to abandon their religion by Allah, this religion will prevail until a rider travels from Yemen to Hadramaut for no one but Allah and the Wolf, less it trouble his sheep, rather you are being impatient.

Now

imagine the following imagine you go to a counseling session.

And you go to one of the talk, talking cure therapy people or the CBT people or whoever it may be. And you say listen,

I've had such and such trauma take place in my life, isn't that whatever? Yeah. And then the counselor response. He says, Look, this would happen to that person, this would happen to that person, you're being a bit impatient here.

Now, that would be seen as almost malpractice that will be seen as unthinkable that there's something like this would happen.

Now, by the way, I mean, this would happen in the early 20th century. And I saw some videos of Carl Jung, who was one of the psychoanalysts. His I don't know if I mentioned this before, but he basically his clients would come to him and he would actually trigger them on purpose. On one particular woman, she has a video online of her saying like, he would trigger me on purpose and

because he wanted to get to her psyche and the shadow side and stuff and he wanted to make her angry. And then the guy asked her, Why are you going back to him? She goes because she discovers that she wants to know more about shadow shouldn't say that, but effectively that's what's going on. The point is, is that sometimes it's it's a good psychological practice to compare your situation with those who have a worse life. And the prophet is gonna give us direct instruction of that envelope.

Element who is filming come? Well, I tuned through 11 Ha focus on four agitato enters the room numbers lie Alec

Look at those that Professor Salamis delivers, who are less than you in dunya, who have less than you, and don't look at those who have more than you. Because when you do that, then you can deny the blessings of Allah.

Sometimes it's important to realize that other human beings in history and in the present, have gone through more difficult times. And that's why when we're seeing the situation has most of our problems become trivialized. And sometimes we feel ashamed about like, like, for example. So some of the tribulations I'm going through, and the petty, trivial miniscule things that happen in my life, after you see and the promise I sort of mentioned the baby, a person being caught in to we've seen children been cut into now.

Yes, the thing is that, for example, it was mentioned second point was, like, we look at the Sahaba, and what they went through. So like you said, the Hadith that you talked about, but very interestingly, I don't if this is authentic, but the biller who came to the process Salem and complained, and he said nations before you have the skins, this is the Hadith I've just mentioned. Okay, good. So you see how it was mentioned in the previous nations before them? Yes. So we're using the Sahaba for our situation and be grateful. And at the time of the Sahaba, the process of remind them about a previous nation before them. Yeah, so it's a prophetic way of, you know, reminding each

other the hadith is we just read now, governor, and he said that you will get crumbs of metal and there will be answers, we shall constrain you, we've cut into two.

So I'm not saying there's no benefit in CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy, or psychoanalytic approaches, or anything else, I'm saying that sometimes if you just sit there and talk about your problems for an hour, and a guy's nodding along and pretending to care, without the guidance element, without someone telling you actually, you know, pull up your socks, my friend, people have gone through worse. It makes for weak people and a weak environment.

You know, we're looking at this, it's I think it's very traumatic first, because it's the first time a genocide is happening on TV. So we're seeing that the role of it. But when we look back at the history of Islam, like we can see far worse has happened in terms of shackling. The ummah, Baghdad when the Mongols destroyed it, the Prophet, Sierra when we understood the battles that he was

undertaking battle of Buddha, where if they got defeated, Islam would wouldn't exist, for example. So I think, not to take any pain away from what's happening, because what happened, what is happening is a genocide, quite frankly. But looking back and using this method from a macro lens as well, it works. And may I add, you can look at it from another perspective, which is that the Prophet told us that there will be people in the future that basically will rival this hobbies in terms of the prestige. And I never thought, yeah, I mean, but sometimes these kinds of ratios are used by in the Arabic language is just a matter of hyperbole like 107, year 50. So we have to look

at the shorter half of that. But basically, the point is, is that

that could never be possible, the opportunity for these kinds of posts, and these kinds of stations can never be given. Unless this kind of severe kind of punishment was inflicted. That's the only way you can be raised like that. No, I find interesting.

Is intrapreneurship. You know, you go on the guys in the suit. And it gives like, he tells his life story, like, yeah, you know, 10 years of ice, just toast and beans. And then he talks about his last story. And I lived in the floor, and I slept on the floor. And then people listen, listen, listen. And then he talks about a success story. So it talks about all the stuff that he went through, and then where he is now. And people actually the glorified and they're like, that's amazing. Oh my gosh, this guy came from that they're proud of that. Jackie, welcome. The same happened with Charlton fins, we're going through what cannot be seen as a form of that's actually amazing. But we

do the opposite. We actually think if it's, if you've got an easy, but it's something that's rewarding, you know, in the sense, it makes you who you want all the stories, you'll hear it, I was doing this and I was working in the shop, they will give me one pound 50 an hour, and he's telling all this story and there's a year then I made it. It's it's these things like you know, Allah says in the Quran for animals to use, with hardship comes ease. And I think the problem that we face today in the West, is exactly that. Because I was talking about this because it's with hardship comes ease, the opposite has to be true. With ease comes hardship, we are so immersed in ease, that

we have hardship in the long run. But rather if we went through the hardship now we'll have ease ease on the wrong one. And that's what I believe with this whole psychological, mental, this mental that I believe all stems to DISPRO we have life so easy that when we are touched by a little calamity, our whole life falls apart. And that's what makes it different from the people of Gaza. I think that's a fantastic contribution. And it leads me to the next slide. Slide number two. Yeah, of course you repeat the bit where you said, you're not seeing that psychological methods don't work, but it's very

important to have what? I missed that bit? Yeah, so I'm saying that, like, you know, let me put it another way, and we'll talk about this in the two or three slides from now.

But you have to understand that every psychological school of thought, whether it's behavioral psychology, or psychoanalysis, or whatever it may be, right? It just like in science, it has presuppositions and assumptions.

Every single one, and those assumptions could be true could be false. Let me give you an example. Look at psychoanalysis. It's the most famous, and probably the most respected. School of Psychology in the West, right.

And maybe in the world, actually. And it has front runners we mentioned Carl Jung, but also people like Freud, right. And it has certain assumptions and the assumptions relate to the unconscious mind. It's not the subconscious mind, but it's the unconscious mind.

The psyche or what Jung refers to the psyche that the shadow, the ego, the super ego, there's all these phases that they have psychosexual development, one of them is how you are basically raised as a child. So if you like this, I don't want to generalize. But

if you go and do talking call with some counselor, that's well versed in psychoanalysis. Their assumption is, look, let's go to this guy's youth, most of his problem goes back to his upbringing. And that comes from the fact that they believe that most of your the unconscious drivers and stuff have been formed in your early development through psychosexual development and through unconscious, taking in of information and so on. Now, these assumptions haven't been

I would say they have they have been criticized, but not to a level where we can say, okay, they've been completely rejected. And so we're going with those assumptions. But the truth of the matter is, like, we don't know to what extent these assumptions are actually true. And like Karl Popper said that psychology is a pseudoscience. So it doesn't, it will never reach even a psychological, the scientific level. And the scientific level has problems as well, under determinism and theory relatedness. And, and all these kinds of things that we we've spoken about in the philosophy of science. So imagine if these are the problems of science, imagining the kind of issues that we have

with psychology, which is a pseudoscience effect, according to COPPA. So the point is, is that when we're talking about a school, a school of thought within psychology,

there's layers of speculation here that we have to assume when it comes to the assumptions of the schools. Having said all of that, I'm not saying that someone who does talk therapy or whatever, is unlikely to get any good results.

I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that the Islamic method, if you look at the Hadith, and a lot of things, this has been developed properly, yet, it hasn't, in my estimation, hasn't I've not seen any good Islamic theories that have come out here on psychology? Yeah.

But the Islamic method, if you look at Hadees, like the one of hubbub and rot is clear that it's not in full cooperation with the psycholytic method.

In prescription, especially how it's been done now, with all this

moral relativism effectively, that's being surrounded like

there's a particular show called The Sopranos. Very famous show in the 1980s 89. I don't know 90s or something. Yeah. And the man was sitting down with a psychologist. You know, I used to watch the show when I was a youngster. And then when I became older, I watched again, I'm joking.

But anyway, she was there. And she was talking to him. And he's talking all these kind of things. And I remember, even as a young man, this particular episode, I think, it must have been in the first season or something because I didn't watch the second season.

Where one character said to another character, who's speaking to the woman, the psychology woman, she said to her, because she was she was effectively treating Tony Soprano, the main character, the bad guy. Yeah. And he said that you he's effectively questioning her morality and saying, you're helping a criminal effectively. Like, the more you help him, the more you could kill people. And because of he mentioned more relativism, your profession doesn't allow you to say you're right and you're wrong. It's objectionable to say you're right and you're wrong. In a psychological thing. You they want non judgement Tality

but that's not going to solve their problem.

Non judgement Tality is not going to solve their problem. Sometimes people need to be judged. Maybe someone needs to stand next to Tony Soprano, and tell him my friend, maybe your problems and your guilt and you're this and you're that is because you're killing people. Maybe you just stop killing people. I don't think there's one episode where she said that to him. Why you stop killing people? You're wrong.

Instead, no, but what why are you having these bad dreams? Why are you doing this and why that maybe you have this and all this indirect words. That's not Islamic psychology. That's nonsense.

that's helping the criminals.

And the guy was right in that episode. So these are areas where we disagree with

the more relativistic things, but before you before I come to you, I just want to mention something because a lot of you did allude to this, but I think it's important to mention some of the areas in the Quran that relate to this. So for example, one of them is Elif lamrim. Has he been nessa yo terracotta Jaco Amma no homelife Daniel

and sort of uncover with chapter 29 verses 123 The Elif Lam Meem. Do people think that there will be left alone to say I believe, and that they will not be trialed?

connected to this verse? Is the verse what Allah subhanaw taala says, as I said with some anima halacha Nicoma Abbath and Elena lateral down? That would you think that we have created you aimlessly and that you're not going to come back to us?

And this other verse where Allah subhanaw taala was connected

and possible to enter the whole janitor while a man yeah, let me let her methodology Anna Hello and welcome my settle bitset well Dawa was zero hat Taya Kula rasool Allah Xena M and Omar who I met in hospital like Ella in NASA, like a very important area that

did you think that you are going to go into Jana? And what happened to the people that came before us not going to happen to you that my settlement but certain direct calamity and tribulation afflicted them to the point where even the prophet among them and those who believed said where? When is when is the Nasir of Allah, the help of Allah? And that Allah responds to the question immediately says Allah in the hustle late cleric.

And this very important and interesting, versatile as app

where Allah subhanaw taala states Well, Amara unmute me No, no as AB Carlo had mo Adam Allah, wa rasuluh Wasaga calahorra solo

almost at the home Illa the man and with his Lima, that when they saw and this is as I began to speak about it in more detail in sha Allah 100 Duck, when they saw the people, they said, This is what Allah and the messenger promised us what what did they promise us, if you look at the seal of this is saying that they were promised that they will be tested. They knew that they will be tested. So as soon as I imagine this Subhanallah and we're talking about has, effectively Allah is telling us that these people when the tribulation came, it made them go up and even

that made them become better Muslims when the tribulation came, when they will being surrounded from all sides. It will come in focus when Flm income well it's that little Apsara with Bella to colluvial 100 Euro, what are the Nuna Billahi as buena where they were they were coming from above you and below you and beside you and all this kind of things and your hearts reached your throats. So this is what Allah is saying at this point.

They will increase in Eman at this very point. So one of the HECM one of the wisdoms of torture and trauma

that happens whether it's historically or contemporaneously is the fact that the people increase an LI man and a Tawakkol in a chakra and on the point of chakra, a very famous Hadith which everyone should know very.

Before we get to that, in fact, there is a flip site which the Allah subhanaw taala mentioned so little hajj when a Nassima Yabba Allah Allah have Finn Osama who hide on my nav. When a Sabra to fitness when in kala Bala which he has dunya la casa de Malacca there are some people who worship Allah on the edge let you have means the edge

if so, they're not grounded and they don't have solid email. These people they're worshipping along the edge anything that's going to happen to them any trauma that's it, they're going to leave Islam they're going to their faith is going to drop. But first the Tsavo who highroad mana but if he's if good things happen to him in his life, he's happy with it. He's content with that. When a Saba to fitna, and if bad things happen.

He falls on or who falls back on his heels basically falls off the thing. And he loses the dunya to this world and the hero very interesting, hustler dunya. He doesn't just do the hereafter he loses this dunya as well

as your doula will occur, because the spring has no survival function functionality.

Or can you not mean double? Can you not mean that that person's like you said it was on the edge that you said anything good that happens is it that you might have to be tied to the worldly things? Can it not be because yeah, for example, they lost some money.

You get it? Yes. And the fact that they they Imani shaken and they follow

If it's pertaining to the dunya and Allah saying you use that which you? That's right. Maybe it's a pointless, right. It's like saying that if good things happen, he's happy with it. But all it takes is one calamity. ello LF and Finetti SOHCAHTOA there's one verse in the Quran

that certainly in the fitna, they fell literally yesterday, or was the part that I left with notice that they fell into the fitnah

shadow Jesu Ah,

that's interesting because this is psychological assessment in the in Santa Holika helwan, that certainly the human being has been created in a state of anxiety and panic is our master who shall Rogers who won when evil touches him? Then he becomes panicked. What is that Mr. Hill Hi, Roman Juan il mousseline. And when the good things happened to him, he's preventative. Stingy, doesn't want to give that away, except for the ones who pray and then there's a list of attributes accompanying that. But the Prophet SAW Selim tells us the true believer adjuvant the Umbrella Movement that certainly wonders is the affair of the believer in number of Hula, hula Hiram, that certainly all of

his is a fair as good.

And that's what they say, there. Luckily, I had an illegal moment. And this is not the case for anyone except for the believer in Asaba to survive shakaar If good things happen to him, he's happy, happy with that. And he's thankful with that. Kind of higher, higher and level that was good for him when I saw but who don't rob somebody for Kenna higher on Lau and if bad things happen to him, he's patient resilient, and that was good for him. So the prophets, I saw him keep saying Being resilient being patient is good for you. Effectively.

Yeah, yes. You know, so what we've said so far is like, being tested and going through torture and that booster a man, that's because we're already Muslim, it can do as I said, there's some people that are willing to me, I would love to have some people on the edge and, you know, anything that goes wrong, they're like, you know, maybe Islam is not right, exactly. That's what happens. Yeah. So what about the non believers? Like, what, what about them when they go through tests? Do they look for a being that's greater? Or is it that they hate it more?

Well, look, I mean, they're not one that non Muslims are not one.

Kind of, there's not one size fits all follow them, but we do not know Kurata you do Looby he can see your way dB, he can see Ron Well mejor de Looby himself as a friend that Allah He got he misguides with it, I the Quran itself. And Allah misconstrue the Quran, someone could look at the Quran said this is not for me.

And someone could look at the Quran says yes, this is the guidance.

And he doesn't or may or may be ill physically in and the ones who are misguided from none but the evildoers. So it depends. Where they stand where the how pure the heart is, effectively, that's usually we can agree that it is calamities that draw people to some kind of divine source is always calamitous, you'll hear stories can do really count majority of the time is you'll rarely see people who have blessing when they come close to Allah and I'm talking Muslims or non Muslims. It's usually calamity you speak to many people, this person died. I lost this, I lost my money. It's usually calamities. Well, that's what Allah says, you might hate something which is well, I mean, the thing

is, Allah says in the Quran, you know, or bologna or Bologna, whom Bill has and it was say at John that we have certainly trialed them with good things, and bad things so that they can come back. So it's like to bring everyone in and to give everyone a fair chance. We'll give you provision, we'll give you good health, we'll give you this and that. If that doesn't work, let's give it let's give you a bit of difficulty in your life. That hasn't worked and we've tried everything with you,

calamity to divert a bigger calamity. So this is Steve says that this is talking about the bigger calamities hellfire, the smaller calamities things that Allah says loss of life, yeah. So that you may turn. So all of this is what you're saying is good, because it's showing us that calamities can be used to by Allah subhanaw taala, to bring people closer to his religion, to make people remember Him to strengthen. And there's another issue is which is haste to expunge and to purify the sins of the believers. So there's lots of wisdom, spiritual benefits of calamities, but I want to just touch upon modern psychological theory. So we've kind of touched upon that already. But let's go on to

that. The question of what is resilience and I've mentioned this in the beginning, according to Christine Stevens, she says the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis and to return to pre crisis status quickly, that's how she understands

resilience now there's a difference between resilience and what's referred to as trait resilience. Now, there's five major traits as we know the big five and all that. I'm not sure if you've heard of the Big Five, you've probably heard of that, which is trait openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

is summarized in the acronym ocean? Ocean. Yeah, this is what in modern day psychology, a lot of people use these five measures. But there are other traits as well. So trait resilience is usually juxtaposed with what you call neuroticism. So neurotic person is somebody who, when they're when they're faced with certain difficulties, they always have negative emotions. So they always have pessimistic mindset. If something bad happens to them, they can't handle it, they find it difficult. They're complaining all the time. They're, they always see things in a negative manner. So, juxtaposed to trait.

neuroticism is trait resilience, which is the opposite, you can handle that it's not a problem. And as you mentioned, it is true that people that have haven't faced a lot of difficulty in their life are less likely to be resilient. That is a fair assessment. And so that's why people go to gyms nowadays, and do martial arts and do extreme sports. Because they realize that if they don't put their selves through that, that life will put them through that. And it's better for them to voluntarily do that, in their own on their own terms, than have life do that for them. On terms which are not, there's just, that's effectively how, like Bruce Lee said, you know, I don't pray to

God, to make you to give me a comfortable life or an easy life, I pray to God, to give me the strength to deal with a difficult life. And the same kind of principle applies. So that's the idea of resilience. And interestingly, there is another idea, which is called Aloe stasis. Now Aloe stasis is you might have heard of homeostasis, which is the idea of balance and so on. But Aloe stasis is the idea that when the difficulty increases, that you are always able to keep a balance. So for example, if we were to meet to, on a physiological level, if we were to

measure our heart rates right now, maybe 70 To 80 to 90, whatever it may be, right. But then if I go on a treadmill, if we're all going to treadmill, then our heart rates will increase. But if we got keep going on the treadmill, then even on the treadmill, our heart rates will reduce, as compared to if we didn't go on the treadmill for that long. That makes sense. So it's your ability to moderate yourself effectively. Now, these are very important things that modern people have not been able to do, because as you mentioned, at least like you know, where we can buy the forces around us.

So once again, the only way to, it's a blessing in a sense and other sounds, maybe almost facetious or

insensitive. But calamities can be a blessing. There's benefits that come from calamities, which is that gives you the opportunity to build this, this resilience, the Prophet Muhammad wa sallam told us in our sub sub bar, very interesting Hadith, in the Milan Battalion will help but Hello, or sub sub bar, that certainly, the process of acquiring knowledge is the process of becoming more knowledgeable is through the acquisition of knowledge. And the process of being more forbearing or more in control of your emotions, because helm has two meanings really, is by being put into situations where that needs to be the case. And the process of being more patient and resilient. Is

is being able to practice patience and resilience. So patience, and resilience is not a theoretical exercise. It's like swimming, you don't learn to swim. By being outside of the water, you need to get into the water to learn how to swim. Likewise, you cannot learn to be resilient, and Cybil and shackle and properly patient and thankful unless you're put into the situation.

Say for example, talking about non Muslims, we can hardship can only be good for us if we ask Allah's aid,

because if you look at it the disbeliever is patient patient on what was what you're trying to say. So can you that's a good point. That's a good point because it has to be connected to Allah because the patient it's from that because otherwise, you look at this believer, like a Muslim goes through cancer, this people goes through cancer evolve. We were talking before we started this session about what Viktor Frankl we talked about different Western psychological methods. I think the best one for that I like anyway personally and I think which is closest to Islam is the one of Viktor Frankl now Viktor Frankl site, his own school of thought effectively called logotherapy and logos and he wrote

this book about what's called the meaning of Man's Search for Meaning A Man's Search for Meaning right? It's a very famous book because he was a Holocaust survivor. Yeah, he was a Holocaust survivor because the some Holocaust survivors were exterminate some Holocaust people were 70 some people weren't survived extermination and the liquidation. He was one of those fibers. So he wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning and in that book, he's talking about how religious people, religious Jews effectively because they would have to be I think

were able to find meaning in the pain. And he said that those were the people who were able to survive the onslaught of the situation best. And we're seeing the same thing manifests itself in Palestine. And in the USA, where we're seeing the people who can deal with the situation best are those who have been able to transform their mindset into a mindset of okay, when they die. They're martyrs. And we see this incredible scenes of people dying. And then people celebrating the martyrdom. Yes, of course, they're sad, but in a sense, there's a kind of ambivalence there because they're also Well, congratulations, you're a martyr. So we make this this is the most effective way

in which death and suffering can be transformed something greater. Hence, Victor Frankel's school of thought of logotherapy is probably the closest thing to the Islamic paradigm. Because this is saying this is saying that if you don't have meaning to the pain, the pain is frivolous, as you mentioned, it's not something which is you can never whatever amount of antidepressants you decide to take or therapy sessions, it's never going to be the same as a narrative setting exercise where there's deep and objective meaning given to the pain and the death that you're going through. There's nothing there's nothing the West has to offer. Let me just give it to you from the end, the West has nothing

to offer. And all psychological methods have nothing to offer. In fact, on the issue of antidepressants, when I was looking at the effect factuality of antidepressants, and what they're trying to do is manipulate you in Europe, your neurotransmitters I mean, you have bought six neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin, and so on. And some of them

try and manipulate the serotonin and some of them try and manipulate the dopamine. But effectively, that's what we're dealing with here. The question is, do they work? So I looked at some of the studies, I think the most compelling one in the United Kingdom is one where they took us they gave people a placebo drug and they gave some other people the s Sr. was the was the abbreviation? The serotonin inhibitors?

SSRIs. I can't remember the serotonin something inhibitors, that serotonin antidepressant. Yes.

Yes. Sr.

S or something at the SSRIs SSRIs. There you go. Thank you very much. Perfect. Yeah, so they given the SSRIs. Right. So there's a host of the drugs are SSRI antidepressants. And then they and then they ask them, basically, how do you feel? What's interesting is that 25% of people that took the placebo drug, they actually, they actually reported

feeling better. Now, the people who took the drug

was 50%. So there was as much of Gani there was as much

disparity between the placebo and nothing, then between the antidepressants and the placebo, which shows you that there's a cognitive thing going on, it's a mindset thing going on, it has to be psychological issues is with everything. Like any kind of disease, for that matter, they always implement the placebo effect, anything, it can be an eye condition, it can be whatever they just just to show the human brain causation does they have like, an unless they've seen it many times.

But the point is, is that if we're if, if the antidepressant has decisive effect, then why is this effect equivalent to the placebo effect, which shows you this whole thing is a mindset issue. It's a cognitive issue.

More so than it is in your most of them, it is a chemical issue effectively or your transmitter issue, or serotonin issue or dopamine issue. It's more of a mindset issue. It's more of a narrative setting issue.

And interestingly, we've heard this, this abbreviation PTSD is PTSD. This famous book actually read this book, got one of the, you know, books on this issue that I would cover to cover was very famous, it's called

the body keeps score, very famous book, I mean this by Vander Kolk.

Anyway, he was the guy who just fired up this whole kind of like,

you know, I don't know, laboratories or centers for PTSD, and PTSD. I mean, they really kind of discovered this, this condition in the first world war after the First World War. And then afterwards, they cite all this scientific experimentation with it. And I'm not saying it doesn't exist. Of course it does. But what is interesting is that there's something called PT. G,

which many of you haven't heard of, but it's as good as much noise as much but it certainly has peer reviewed stuff on it. And you can just write PT G. And what does PT G stands for post traumatic growth? You see, it's a very interesting concept.

So PTSD, and PTSD, but it goes back to the idea that we were mentioning when an SE May I would like to have that you can have one event and it can have two or

opposite effects on human beings.

Why is it the case that some people the death of the fire, just say, Allah you were mentioning, for example, this you can have a calamity and it will it lead the disbeliever to Islam? Will it not lead them to Islam? Will it make them think more positively? Will it make them pessimists and nihilists? The answer is, it really depends on the human being. That's the answer. Like you can have 100 people and have, they all have the same calamity. 20% of them have PTG 20% of them have PTSD. And maybe another 20% of them have, like mixed PTSD, PTSD and PTSD symptoms. Like do you know what I mean, even though they're contradictory, but in some areas and times they can have diesen do some areas

and times they can have these, because what is PTG is thinking about things in a positive manner. Now, this is in psychological literature to be contrasted, or at least not, it's not the same thing because I was reading this myself as resilience because someone could confuse and say, well, resilience and PTG is the same thing. You The difference being is that in PTG, there has to be some kind of calamity. And the opposite of calamity, you have a different mindset now because of the calamity, whereas with resilience, it's you're getting stronger because of situations that happen in your life. So there's a slight difference but they're both connected these these things what Islam

is trying to foster and encourage from a psychological perspective established trying to foster encourage all the positive things the process on like, fell he liked the idea of the federal. At the Federal it means optimism, a shout I'm an advocate means pessimism. So Islam is literally a hadith that says he likes optimism, anything to do with positivity, looking at the world in a positive manner, looking in the world, and in a good thing, everything is good. And he why Santa crochet and Jorge on LACOB. You can hate something's good for you, this idea is to be etched in gold from the Islamic perspective.

So that's,

these are these are things we should be focusing on. Like for example, I was looking at an article.

And this is apparently what PTG fosters. It fosters appreciation of life, relationship with others, new possibilities in life, personal strength, spiritual change, dimension, spiritual change ideas. That's how we should react, we should be pushing ourselves and telling other people to if their negative thing happens, like in Gaza or anywhere else, because it's not just the people in Gaza that are being affected by everyone else outside, that we need to look at this in a positive way. That's the best way forward. Psychologically, that's the best way forward, the best way forward is to try and create optimism about this.

Because Because grieving and being sad, and all this kind of things, it has its limitation in the slavery, it does have its limitations. Of course, you're going to have to grieve sometimes and cry and lay out and all those kinds of things. And interestingly, middle place, who was the poet of the hour was this is best part of all time, in fact, and he's talking about his lover that he broke his she broke his heart and stuff, and he was crying about it. And in the beginning of his poem, he says, I don't know if this tear is going to relieve what I have or it's going to make it worse

than have you read that. But I don't know if this tape is being shared here is actually going to relieve relieve me I was going to make things situation worse. And the and the answer to miracle cases that will make things worse if you keep doing it. But if you do it a little bit, it's okay.

So there's a limitation. And that's why when someone dies in Islam is three days of mourning. And then after that, come on, get back into life. Get back on the horse.

We have protocols of how to deal with these situations. Protocols. This person is a Shaheed Yes, we cry, yes, whatever, we have to get back on the horse, because otherwise, if we're gonna get defeated, we're gonna get defeated. If we think oh, how many people are dying and how many things is happening and this and that, we're gonna get defeated. We need to get back into the mindset of if death is not the the worst thing that can happen to you.

And that everything is good in a way. That's the mindset that allows Islam to spread and conquer. And when it's not the ones that have defeatism and sitting there next to a counselor for two hours, and talking about your problems every day. And there's no encouragement or upliftment, yeah, that's okay. You can go to the customer service hotline and go to the counselor. But if that's the only thing you're doing and taking the antidepressants and stuff, because many Muslims are into this kind of thing, I'm saying, Look, that's fine to a certain level. But if that's the only thing you're relying upon, it's not work for them, and it won't work for them. What's going to work is meaning

purpose, narratives, meta narratives.

Sadly, we think that that is abnormal, ultimate question that a man when they're in the situation, they're in the Spirit, you look at and kind of processing them even though you said some of the things were weak in this sense where he wanted to commit suicide, like he wanted to, you know, some sense authentic in that sense, but it's I think it's very powerful even Maryam salaam, where she said, I wish I died. Yeah, okay. You would expect you read the Quran expect her to say, Yeah, hamdulillah no problem. Yeah, like she's saying, I wish I literally died and was long forgotten. So it shows up

so that this is normal even when the process Selim son died. And they said oh, mashallah, and why they said, These things are normal, it's normal, it's normal being pain in doubt, like you mentioned sort of vastly diminished by it clearly said, and the heart rate reached the fraud and they started thinking all sorts of things about Allah. These the there was that you know, we don't know what that means by what do they think about Allah? was the promise we don't know. But the point is what it's natural to have these things to come to your mind to think this stuff. At the end Allah will eat you this is what the thing is, I mean, sometimes this hobbies in the Quran are actually display not

displays, but they're kind of reprimanded. Like whom will call for your home will carry on with in Aqaba? Minimal Eman like and so the LM Ron is like they were closer to coffee that day, then email, like for example. Yeah. So but yeah, but

I would take, I wouldn't take that as a thing to like those particular areas. I wouldn't say that this follows like in terms of human nature, okay. The math is not about follow luck. Because when we say this waving, being careful. The point is this. They were human beings. And these things did happen, of course happened to the prophecy. And you made a good point about Marian because I think that's led me to cover the full embrace and be like, what I'm going through is normal isn't always going to be like that. And I ask Allah eight, but people think the moment people fall into more depression by thinking that then being in depression is a punishment from Allah. Yeah, sure. I mean,

that's that we mentioned before as well. Or my so me and Rohilla Halal home, healthcare for your own. There's no one. And it's very interesting because in a lot of the mental health issues,

people become, there's something called suicide ideation. People become suicidal, somebody will lose hope, completely. And that level of hopelessness is not allowed in Islam, especially if it's hopelessness of the Mercy of Allah. Because this is is way more, no one

completely loses hope in the Mercy of Allah except the disbelievers. So what what is being said here is, I think you're right to mention there's a balance, there's a balance is that, for example, in the magical bethey was Neela, Allah, that certainly I know, right, my best my despair or not my despair, about my sadness, and my husband, my my deep sadness to Allah.

You know, this is Yaqoob, mentioning when he was crying for his son, and all this kind of thing. So certainly, there was expressions of grief and sadness, and that's natural, normal, nobody should be displaced for that. And they sometimes should be allowed to just grieve grieve out effectively. And of course, Grief is a very complex emotion. And there's what he called the stages of grief, the six stages of grief and all kinds of things that have been grief is one of those things, you have to ride it out. However, having said that,

there's a degree of okay, get back on the horse. Let's work now let's do it. Let's do our work. For example, Maryam and Jakob, both of them started operating in society and functioning, they didn't let the feel like the sadness debilitate them. So there was the expression of sadness, like with differences, Solomon, his son, but there was also there was like, you know, let's get back on it and start working again. And that's the kind of balance we're looking for. And once again, I think there needs to be someone who really comes in and brings these things together and sees what fits in with our narrative and what doesn't. Exposure therapy is an interesting one as well, because there's a

lot of people say, Well, the way to get better at something is just to expose yourself to it. That's something which is now has a lot of backing behind it. If you're scared of spiders, then put the spider on the table and touch the spider and these kind of things. But the same thing applies with a lot of things a lot of us are afraid to get involved with things because you're afraid.

And Islam is encouraging you to do this kind of thing.

To really like if you're afraid especially with things which are obligations in Islam, like this might sound controversial, but there's a in the Quran

and I'm gonna be controversial a little bit but this is in the Quran that effectively dispraise and call out believers that are running away from the battlefield, for example, or that they are not they're not interested in fighting for the cause, etc. So for example, Allah subhanaw taala mentions on social and fun says yeah, you're Latina Amma no

either or ETOM

not other one is yeah, you hola Xena Mo

is a lucky to Manila Xena. Kapha Ruzafa and Fela to Allahu Akbar that if you find those disbelievers who are fighting you don't show them your back or may yet oh Allah whom Yama is in dubara Who why you only him Yama is in dubara Who Illa moto hardly friendly Italian I'm with the haze and elaphiti in the back behind them in Allahumma. Well, Jana, that whoever shows them that back

is except if he's doing it because of his tactical thing. All but he's going back to one other

you know

contingent that is out there there's a military contingent then for bad behavior we mean Allah certainly that he's he has earned great anger from Allah or met well who Gehenna he's going to help via a bit send Marcia

and what a horrible outcome that would be. Like for example, in sort of Mohamed Salah Salem where

we're either New Zealand Ayrton Kemet and Mark Hamilton was okiya Rafi Alcatel

right Aladdin if you could be modeled on young Runa la can other Masha ala mode, Allah human and not for all LM that if they see

if an idea comes down and fighting is mentioned inside it, you see the people in whose hearts is a disease. So Allah is just referring to this as a disease of the heart. What is that disease cowardice? Can you imagine? Because what else could it be? It's cowardice

right a lesson if you could be modeled on young Runa II like another Masha Allah human about this coward effective oh, this person with this disease now is looking at your Prophet

looking at you like as if he's gonna die for owl alone. Now is for hola hola. Honda's difference of opinion among the investors, what does it mean? Some say it means that it's better for them to fight. And that's the opinion I taken out on a car. Remember the other opinion that all alone was better for them to fight. Or some say it's connected to the next verse, which is thought and more Kolmogorov. Anyway, there's two opinions on the matter. The point is, Islam expects us to function a certain way, men and women, unfortunately, we as men have a crisis because we don't have the opportunity

to do these things. And so we might not be able to deal with with stuff like that.

And so we need to really expose ourselves as men, if we want to build ourselves in our communities in our societies, to frightful situations, even public speaking, we talked about the Professor Sam, he went on the mountain. And he said, oh, people, if I were to tell you that there was a, there was a people behind me, there's an army behind me, what would you say?

And this is measured from Alec and Kathy, are measured Rob malaika katiba, that we have not found you to be a liar. But him standing in front of the people, more courage coming in front and speaking about these issues.

And on that point, obviously, we're going through a very difficult time now in terms of the Palestine issue. And we do need this moral courage. And the only way to get good at it is to do it. That's the exposure therapy that is required.

And that is, hopefully with this episode we've been able to see we've been able to see how resilience can be built. How this heckum wisdoms how best to remove depression and anxiety from one's life, which is through meaning and purpose and how

everything leads to the victory of the Muslims. With that I will conclude with Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.