Sources of Anxiety and how to cope with them was the subject touched on by Sheikh Muiz Bukhary at the Muhiyuddeen Jumu’ah Mosque, Mayura Place, Col 06, Sri Lanka on Friday the 10th of Nov 2017.
Muiz Bukhary – Sources of Anxiety
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss various topics related to anxiety and sadness, including the use of words like "use vajrasattva" and "use vajrasattva" in Egypt to express sadness and grief, the importance of managing one's health and behavior, and the importance of seeking forgiveness and clear records of bad behavior. They stress the need for a thorough evaluation of one's life to attain success and achieve the success that Islam has enjoyed. The speakers also mention the use of various devices to track one's health and behavior, including a mobile phone for tracking one's health and behavior, and the importance of avoiding anxiety and stress in life.
AI: Summary ©
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as always, we begin by praising Allah subhanho wa Taala who is no doubt our Creator sustain and nourish, protect and cure. We asked him the almighty the Lord of all words the exalted to Chava his choices of blessings and salutations upon our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa aalihi wa sallam, his family members, his companions and all those who tread upon his path with utmost sincerity until the day of
you know, generally whenever I have a Friday Sermon
the night before I Friday night,
I tend to lie on the bed
thinking about what I'm supposed to deliver the next day, in terms of the sermon, what am I supposed to preach?
And
I mean, others might do it different. But normally I wait for inspiration from Allah subhanho wa Taala. Because at the end of the day, this platform is not any ordinary platform.
No one can just waltz up and speak whatever they want to speak. Allah chooses people. And it is a noble platform. It is the platform through which our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam spoke from
it is a weekly platform, where we all gather not to come to the masjid than sleep, even though it happens at times because of you know, shutdown.
We are here to rejuvenate ourselves. We are here to recharge our spiritual batteries, myself and all of you all present here.
So it's a platform that needs to be used wisely. I can't just think Oh, you know what, I feel like speaking about this today. So let me go speak no, I can't be influenced by my own thoughts. So I pray to Allah subhanho wa Taala to fill my heart with inspiration and to put words on my time, appropriate words that are relevant to the times that we are in
and normally what happens is that times is after salata raesha a time.
Whilst I'm lying on my bed inspiration strikes me at times I go to sleep. And then the next morning after Salatin fetcher, inspiration strikes me. And sometimes the title first comes to mind. And then I start researching. And I start working on preparing the content. And sometimes the content comes to mind. I work towards the content and the title comes later on. Sometimes even the title comes when I'm on my way to the masjid. And at times when I stand on the pulpit, it varies Subhana lights from Allah subhanho wa Taala nothing from us.
So I pray rubbish roughly. So the way sadly, Emery was too low for that Melissa and
I prayed Rama was the right words, my mouth and upon my tongue today.
I hope to be touching on a few Ayah from Surah to use the ayah that I read that the inception so I use which is the 12 surah. The Noble Quran, I read from Isaiah number 81 to Ayah number 86. I read a few Ayah before because Anyway, I hope to be focusing on Ayah number 86. But I read from 81 to give you all a little bit of context in regard to the incident that is taking place, so that we understand where we are headed in sharp.
So I'm sure most of us are aware of the story of use of an incident with Sam, it's a long story with a ton of lessons to deduce from
a beautiful story. Allah subhanho wa Taala. The Almighty He takes Prophet Joseph use filing his Salatu was Salam through a rollercoaster ride,
from the very beginning, where he is separated from his beloved father, and who does it
and just running through the story, his own siblings, his own blood, they plot and plan against him and they separate him from his father. He's thrown into the bottom of deep and dark Well, he's transferred to another land, the caravan comes about, and it's not a rescue mission. And he's a young boy at that time. He is not a
senior Prophet, a young boy, this caravan, they don't come and they don't rescue him and take him back to his father. But instead, they put him in shackles. They chained him up, throw him to the back of a caravan. And they travel to a foreign land. He was in Palestine, they take him to missile Egypt, and they send him in those lands as a slave to Panama one day, you're a free man and the next day you're a slave. Think about it.
He's working in a house belonging to a minister, the wife of that minister tries to seduce him.
And when she is caught, she turns the tables around and she blames him. He's an adolescent at that time, and she blames him, saying that he was the one who tried to seduce me. Now obviously, to protect
the name and reputation of that family, they decided to put him into prison. unjustly he was innocent was thrown into prison. And Allah says in the Quran in surah Yusuf, he remained in prison for many years.
And then the king of the land witnesses a dream. Yusuf alayhi salatu salam interprets the dream, it's a long story. Finally, he is now appointed as the Minister of Finance, he is released, his innocence is put out is proclaimed. And now he becomes the Minister of Finance of Egypt.
And then what happens the famine, a drought hits the lands, and the brothers of use of valleys not wassalam themselves come to Egypt now seeking help and assistance. Use vajrasattva salaam notices his brothers, they don't know that it is useful, but he knows that it is them. And he also notices his younger brother Binyamin, who was with them, brother who was very close to us valleys that was Santa use valleys. That was Sam. He misses his family so much. He misses his brother so much that he decides to somehow retain his brother back. So he uses a plan he blocks. And he executes his plan in such a way where there was an object or oil object in the sense an object from the palace that was
placed in the possessions in the belongings of that young boy. And as the caravan was leaving, a caller calls out that something has been stolen off the king, we need to check your possessions, they check the possessions and they find the goblet or whatever it may be to be in the bags of Binyamin and that he has to be kept behind SubhanAllah.
And this was the plan of use of our listener to Sam just to be united with his brother. Now he's kept behind me introduces himself to his brother and the brothers the other brothers who had plotted against us valleys that was slammed now they are wringing their hands because they don't know what to go back and tell their father years back
They had to go and lie to their father and tell him that ghouls are eaten use of. And until today because of that jacoba A salat wa salam is in sadness because of the loss of his son. And now to go and tell him about the loss of another son, Benjamin Binyamin.
They're wondering what to do. But nonetheless they go all the way back and they inform their father. The minute they do, yeah, Fulani salatu salam, he cries out,
but when he turns away from them, and he says, and now the ayat come into context, now that you know how the story is flowing. Now I want you to focus on this conversation.
The topic for the sermon is sources of anxiety, sources of anxiety, we're going to go into a few sources, inshallah, we're studying the sources to be able to equip ourselves on dealing with these sources in Sharla. What does he say at that point, when he's informed that his son, his other son, too, has been kept back? He says, color, yeah, SSI uses. Wo LS. Now this is a word in English that is not used these days. But in Arabic, it's used to express sadness, grief, heartache,
and he cries out the name of use of Elisa.
I want you to analyze the discussion for a moment. The brothers use a virus that was missing years ago.
The brothers are now coming to the Father and telling him about the loss of Binyamin.
The father instead of now mourning the loss of Binyamin the father remember his use of he cries out Oh,
how I misuse of
the from this whether we understand that the Father has not gotten over use violence law to set up as of yet so many years have passed, but he still firmly believes that use value interact with Salon is alive and that he will return.
And then the brothers they were also perplexed. They looked at the father and they say you
What do they say in the if they say follow the law, he says the use of a hatter takuna herrada out akuna Minal Halligan, but Allah you will never you will never see his remembering use of you keep on remembering him. And you will remember him until you become weak with old age or until you die. You can never get over this. You keep talking about youth.
Now, this was a warning in the heart of jacobellis that was slammed, and the minute the son said this, he went on to tell them color in school with the Hosni in a law. This is the idea that we will be focusing on shop. He tells them I'm only lamenting, I'm only putting forward my worry, my heart ache in a law unto Allah. Yes, my heart is riddled with worry. Yes, I miss my son's Yes, I miss use. There's a lot of heartache. There's a lot of pain, there's a lot of hurt, but I'm not putting it forth unto you. I'm not putting it forth onto the creation, I'm putting it forth unto the creator of the umbrella. I'm placing my affairs in the trust of my Lord. This is what I'm doing.
And then he goes on to say in the moment, Allah haemagglutinin because at the end of the day, he was a prophet of Allah. He goes on to say, indeed, I know from Allah, that which you do not know.
I have inspiration coming from Allah. I have revelation coming from Allah that you know nothing of. So I am complaining, I am lamenting, I am turning, I'm putting forth all my worry all my distress, all my pain and to Allah.
This is how he managed his anxiety. This is how he managed his worry. This is how he managed his distress. But how are we doing it today?
Firstly, we all have to acknowledge that we live in very trying times, anxiety filled times.
You know why?
as I was preparing the content for the sermon, I was reading a few articles I watched a few videos on anxiety as well. And I gathered some content and I would like to share it with you all because I think it will be it will be beneficial for myself firstly and then all of you all inshallah, if you've been attentive here
An example. Let's say you I'm sure most of us here have been on safaris. Yes, they've been on safari is where you go, you know, perhaps, jungles, forests, you see wild animals out on the loose. You get to witness beautiful and magnificent animals. You see the lions, the leopards, the cheetahs, the Tigers and whatnot.
So think of yourself being on a safari.
And then what do you see? You see a giraffe.
Beautiful animal, slender, long neck. And it's munching and chomping on some leaves. You are in the Safari, you're looking at admiring this beautiful animal. And you're thinking to yourself, wow, how carefree this animal looks, doesn't have a worry in this world. And in all reality, it is the truth. Because
animals, they live in immediate response environments.
They live in immediate response environments.
Let me explain. The giraffe. whenever it's hungry,
it feels hungry, it goes by a tree and it starts chomping on the leaves. Hunger goes away.
when it hears a storm rumbling, it hears thunder, it witnesses lightning, it thinks it's going to rain, I need to find shelter, it goes finds shelter, it's really
when it spots a predator, an animal that's looking to hunt it, it immediately the flight or fight signals, you know fire in its brain, it runs for safety. And once it's safe, it's safe and hamdulillah. So immediate response environments. But we human beings, we live in delayed response environments.
Not immediate, you know, long, long ago prehistoric man he lived in, you know, if you will immediate response environments. But today, we all live in delayed response environments. How so today you're studying, you're not going to see the results immediately. You need to get your degree and you still don't know once you get your degree as to whether you would get a job. And even if you get a job, you don't know as to whether you'd be happy doing that particular job and you don't know as to whether you'll be paid well.
You don't know how life will turn out to be you don't know as to whether you will buy yourself a house, you don't know as to whether you can afford the vehicle that you're running in right now. You don't know as to whether your business will run smoothly in this particular government of the next particular government.
delayed response and therefore the stress factors are chronic. They're not short term.
For the giraffe, it's short term. You see, anxiety is a natural response.
Anxiety is a natural response. Just like depression is a natural thing. You know, if you read about depression, when you're going through certain worries, depression kicks in to numb your feelings. For me it's supposed to be short term, the minute it becomes long term, then that's when it becomes chronic depression when you start feeling like you can't feel anything. You don't feel happiness. You don't feel sadness. Eureka zombie, then becomes problematic.
Likewise, anxiety. Look at the example of a deer, the deer in the jungle. It sees the lion anxiety kicks in and you see the deer boating and running away it startled and it runs away. You might have seen it in bbc documentaries and whatnot. But once the deer moves out of the the radius, the paramita where the lion is going to attack What do you notice the deer doing after that? Do you see the deer all stressed up and sitting in a corner heart beating away dub dub dub dub the lion is going to eat me lion is going to eat me lion is going to eat me know. The deer goes to a corner and starts to graze like normal and it goes on with its life.
It doesn't have you know chronic anxiety where it's constantly on pins and needles. The next time it spots another predator. Again it runs it goes to a safe haven. It goes back to its calm state and this is how we're supposed to be but beyond that. We are constantly filled with anxious thoughts constantly. We are always on pins and needles. And why firstly as we have established the fact that we live in such times. Now let's look at a few other sources and I think you will relate with me in Sharla as I run through each one of them. The first one being
intake.
The first one being intake, intake in the sense what you
Put into yourselves.
You know, those of you who are Mashallah and are focused on healthy,
healthy living,
I'm sure you're focused on clean eating, you're monitoring what goes into your bodies. You know, in other countries, European countries are very careful, they basically, they read the contents of the packaging, they read the calories, they count all of that. And they're very careful in regard to the intake. Here, now it's picking on the trend is picking on a ham, the less you're careful, because why you want to pursue a healthy lifestyle, you don't want to eat junk, you just don't want to eat whatever it is, or put whatever is into your mouth. Because you are what you eat, right? So you're careful. And when you enroll yourself into like a gym or something like that, where you're trying to
pursue a healthy lifestyle, your trainer, your coach would instruct you would tell you, it's best that you have a journal, a log, where you log, what you're eating, why? To be able to know, okay, today, I've eaten this, this, this, this this.
Just imagine if we had a log or a journal for our thoughts.
For what we allow to creep into our minds, for the things that we hear around us for the conversations that we indulge in. This is all intake. It's all coming into you.
And before, you know, like maybe my
I think there were mobile phones when my grandfather was alive, perhaps my great grandfather, they didn't have mobile phones, or you had this huge phones that people used to lug around.
It was a big thing, then, generally people would talk face to face. But now
I'll tell you, what's the best trick in terms of our mobile phones?
mobile phones the best trick?
For those of you who can see it,
any phone? It's a
What do you call it an Android phone or an iOS phone? mistake? It's a new feature. Take it,
press and hold the Power button. And what do you see here, right on top, slide to power off.
We rarely do that.
We rarely disconnect or become so dependent on these devices. So much to the extent that we have information, flooding, unnecessary information, flooding our lives from all parts of the world.
We are involved in scandals that don't even concern us that we have no connection whatsoever someone in some part of the world is going through a difficult time in his or her life is going through a crisis. And you and I here we have an opinion. Why? Because someone forwarded it forwarded it to us on one of the WhatsApp groups. So now we are aware of what's going on in that part of the world. And here we are declaring opinions you know, maybe it was like this and like that, and that person is wrong. This person is right.
Don't you agree? constantly notifications coming through, you've got your WhatsApp, you've got your Instagram, you've got this platform, that platform that you are in your wife, this that the so much of information coming in, was in reality, you don't need all of that it really doesn't matter. If you sit down for a minute and think of all the information that's coming in what really matters. Honestly, it's just like 1%
so many notifications coming through, it disturbs you it you know now there are apps to stop notifications. Because notifications are too much they disturb you they they hamper and render you unproductive, you start to procrastinate you're working at office. And then suddenly tated email comes through TT WhatsApp message comes through. So you you you go from this to that to your Facebook, social media feed this that you end up not doing anything you procrastinate. Students who are studying, they keep switching from social media feeds in the past, like in 2013 or 2014. I think the average user of Facebook would check his or her social media feed. Not on a mobile phone like
maybe on the desktop, perhaps 20 to 25 times per day. Now the number has doubled and tripled.
Sometimes we just so used to the we take our mobile phones or you just check your feed like two minutes ago and then here you are scrolling all over again.
And Facebook doesn't know what to do with all that information. They've actually come up with two feeds now. Now you have a feed for your family and your friends. And now you have another feed the Explore feed for your pages, businesses and whatnot. There's so much of content out there.
So you can just imagine you've been bombarded with all this information.
So it's obviously making us anxious to constantly in a flurry from this to that, we really need to disconnect, to connect, to connect to who not to connect, you know, go to salado, all these mobile providers to connect to Allah.
And then to connect to your family, your loved ones, your relatives, you need to disconnect. take a timeout. I'm not against I am an advocate for using technology. I am on social media. But we need to strengthen our priorities. The message is, firstly, for myself, and then all of you all
we need to have principles in place, we need to have rules in place like Okay, you know what, when we are at the table to eat, no mobile phones, it doesn't matter. Anybody can call, it'll be after the meals. Why is your eating we focus on our food, we focus on family, family time is family time. When you are reading the Quran, no mobile phones. That's the time that you have for Allah.
We need to prioritize. So that's number one. And that helps with the intake. You don't fill yourself with all kinds of information that's coming from everywhere.
You don't do it in the real world, in the in the offline world, you don't do it in the in the online world.
Because remember, don't just think that you know, Viva backbiting is something that's only applicable in the real world in the offline world. I can do whatever it is in the online world. I can commend sarcastic comments. I can say all kinds of hurtful things behind the screen and it's not going to be considered as Riba it is going to be considered as a favor
and Subhana Allah
we have taken Riba very lightly
during the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said that, you know, along the lines of these words that of Riba is akin to consuming the flesh of your dead brother or your dead sister Subhana. Allah, cannibalism.
And scholars like Imam and now we Rahim, Allah and others have gone on to explain that of Riba backbiting is not just only to speak negatively about someone even if you suddenly indicate negatively about someone that is Riba that is backbiting.
And he goes on to say, even if you were to certainly indicate in regard to that person's appearance, if you were to negatively indicate in regard to that person's appearance, in regard to that person's religiosity, in regard to that person's wealth, in regard to that person's business, in regard to that person's assets, in regard to that person's family, in regard to that person's spouse in regard to that person's children, in regard to that person's friends, anything can it is considered a labor, it is considered backbiting
and you are consuming the flesh of that individual.
It is considered a Riba when you speak the truth. If you are lying if you're saying something negative about your brother or sister that does not exist, you don't have any proof whatsoever. Then it is considered NEMA slander, which is worse than Viva.
And do you know how to make Toba for this? You know honestly, why I'm mentioning this is because it's not worth it. Here we are striving so hard to do so many good deeds. You are earning hard earned money
and you're going on Hajj, you're going to Nomura you're giving your sadaqa you're giving out your Zika you're coming to the message for salado Vegeta when the weather is cold, you're coming for Salatu. Juma? Why are you doing all of this?
You're doing it for what? to please Allah and to earn good deeds, yes or no? So don't you think that you have to safeguard those good deeds? What's the point of doing good deeds on one end, and then losing all of it by backbiting about someone it's like filling water in a bucket full of holes. It doesn't make sense.
On the day of karma, you are going to be thinking that you're going to be having mountains of good deeds. And that's the day when Allah will be
dishing out justice.
Every single person you spoke bad about will come to you and take from your good deeds and when you run out of good deeds, you will have to take on the burden of their sins hand a lot.
Think about it.
Mama NaVi Rahim Allah He mentioned in regard to making Toba from backbiting. I mentioned in this to show you all the seriousness of it.
Some scholars even go on to say that backbiting is even worse than Xena. Why? Because this
It's between you and Allah. If Allah forgives you, your record is clear. But backbiting, you have trespassed, firstly, the limits of Allah sococo law. And then secondly hakuho a bad as well. So if you want to make Toba in regard to backbiting, you need to first seek the forgiveness of Allah, you need to lament, you need to cry, you need to weep and in return back to Allah, Allah forgive me, for what I've spoken about this individual, and it doesn't end there. You have to now go to that individual.
Think about it, you need to swallow your pride. And go to that individual and tell him or her I'm sorry,
you know, this generic WhatsApp message is going to I'm going ombre, you know, forgive me if I've done anything wrong, you know, clear my records, this won't work. You need to specifically go to that person and tell him, Look, I'm sorry, I had this wrong impression of you, and have spoken bad about you please forgive me for the sake of Allah.
Whether he forgives you or not, that's between him and Allah, but you have done your thing. And it isn't in there.
The third thing, now you need to put the record straight. Depending on how you back bit that individual. Let's say you were in a whatsapp group with, I don't know 50 members, and you started backbiting and you're the admin of the group, Masha Allah, and you use that group to backbite about this, you know, some people even make groups with headings to back by double or the sub panel, this group is to be to, to to backbite about so and so.
If you influenced all those 50 people, like say, if I were to use this platform as a as a builder to come here, and how many of you here 500,000 of you here. And if I speak bad about someone, Mr. X, I speak bad about him. And I have told you all so and so is bad, so and so is this. Now my Toba, I have to again come to all of you and tell you You know what? I had this wrong impression of Mr. X was all wrong. He's actually a good person. He's like this. He's like this, and I have to mention his good qualities and his good traits.
Do you have the time for all of this? My dear brothers and sisters? Do you have the time? Don't you think that we have better things to be doing? We live in a time and an era where time is running so fast? And in the midst of this? Do you want to accumulate such sins? And this is why I said we need to disconnect at times. Because if not, you're even backbiting about people who live in another part of the world. Say someone some international public figure is going through some problem in his or her in his or her life. Some political leader is going through some problem. Some celebrity is going through something and here we are like a cricketer sportsman or someone and here we are discussing
about their lives, about their marriages about their children. Is it benefiting you in any way? Are you getting any good deeds out of it? Don't you think it'd be better for you to focus on something related to your dunya perhaps your business earning some money spending time with your family, your children or doing something for your after reading the Quran doing some Vicar thinking about a law, furthering your knowledge seeking knowledge reading a hobby, don't you think it's better, more productive? Then gathering sitting drinking coffee and talking bad about others? May Allah save us all?
So intake is very important.
And part of intake is to be careful about your company. There are some people who are like vampires. They suck. You know what vampires do? vampires suck. It's a mythical thing. It's a fable. But the definition of a vampire is that a vampire sucks blood. These vampires they suck the positivity out of your life. They come in and all they know to do is to fill your life with negativity by talking bad about this person talking bad about that person. If you know of such individuals,
you need to keep them at an arm's length. Because your spirituality is going to be at stake if you mingle with such people. At times, you have no other option but you have to move with them then if you do have to move with them move so in a careful way, keep them at an arm's length. Trying to make sure that your company is a company that inspires you to move forward to to towards positivity towards light towards Allah towards the remembrance of Allah towards productivity towards positivity and these good things. Make sure that you choose your company well and your friends well.
Before I run out of time,
source number two is imbalance. Many of us were leading imbalanced lives to the profits that are long, widely read he was alone. He was a moderate and balanced individual balanced in everything and you and I as an oma as a nation as his nation. Allah says in the Quran, waka Delica Jana como Matan wasaga and as we have made you a moderate and balanced nation, we need to be
balanced in our lives, so that
the minute you are balanced the minute you can, you know, the minute you have this your equilibrium in place, you're able to make time for that, for that what's
required for the things that are important.
You're able to use the word No.
You know, these days learning to say no is an art, we tend to say yes for everything.
Thereby losing our focus, getting all of our priorities mixed up. Because at the end of the day, you and I, we're all limited resources. We're not unlimited, we don't have like infinite time with us. We don't have infinite resources, very limited resources that we have with us. So we need to be able to prioritize, we need to be able to balance our lives that we have time for families, we have time for a law time for ourselves, time for our businesses, time for our friends, you shouldn't let things overlap.
This too, if you let that happen, it can be a cause of anxiety. If, for example, in the time that you're supposed to be spending with your family, if you're at work, it's going to be a cause of anxiety. At the time, we're supposed to be at work. If you're with your friends, it's going to be a cause of anxiety.
And you're going to be littered with anxious thoughts. So we need to strike a balance in that sense, and in every sense of our lives. And this, like I said is not easy. We have to first identify the imbalances and then start putting all those things into place. May Allah subhanho wa Taala help us all to do so.
The next source very swiftly is in decisiveness. Many of us today, you find it very difficult to quickly make a decision. And I'm not talking about important decisions. Sometimes you go to a restaurant, and you don't know whether to order order chicken or beef, and it takes you like half an hour to decide. Should I have chicken or beef.
So think about it if you're struggling to make such a simple decision. The word about decisions like buying a house, buying a car, getting married, naming your child choosing a school for your child, your job, your way your work.
You're constantly going to be battling with your decisions, and to be able to train yourself to make decisions placing your trust in Allah. That's the concept of istikhara. These days we have a skewed understanding of is the hora we think is the hora is a concept where we need to hold on to until we see a sign there are many people who have been praying is the hora for years now. He hasn't gotten married for 10 years because he's been praying istikhara for 10 years and he has still not seen the princess the girl in his dream Subhanallah that's not what is the hora is all about. You don't have to see dreams. You don't have to see one big huge neon green sign telling you to go this way is the
harder it is to see goodness The term is the hora itself is to see goodness, you have two options in front of you. Option A option B you praise the foreign in this prayer there's a door that you read in the door you're saying what law whichever choice I'm going to take now. If this is good for me in it then decreed for me. If it is bad for me, then avert it away from me. And once you're done with your esta hora, you may see a dream but that's not the norm. The norm is you need to Bismillah
Allah, place your trust in Allah and then put your foot forward.
If it is good for you, it will be good for you if Allah has decreed that you're going to face tests and challenges and so be it you will face it. It's in the hands of Allah.
You need to come out from this trap of in decisiveness because it's going to be a cause of anxiety, if not your constant there are some people who are like sticks in the mud. They can't make a decision by themselves. They have to ask 10 people and still they're not satisfied they go ask another 10 people. And by the time the entire society, the entire community knows what he's trying to do.
This is definitely a cause of anxiety. So we need to ensure Thawne seizes this opportunity to build in procrastination.
And that's when you start becoming a procrastinator. You start procrastinating, you start putting things off, you can't meet deadlines. Why? Because you can't make decisions. You're scared of making decisions. No, you need to be able to master the concept of tawakkol. That's where this comes in. You place your trust in Allah and you go forward Bismillah
the next source of anxiety, which I feel is very important is lack of integrity.
I want you all to pay and attentively. We're coming to
The end of it now, lack of integrity, if there's a lack of integrity, you're going to constantly be anxious Today, many of us we are struggling to manage multiple versions of ourselves, you see,
if you are an honest person, if you are an upright and straightforward person, you're going to be the same person, wherever you are, you're going to be a person of integrity, whether you be in the country outside of the country, whether you're offline or online. But on the other hand, if you are a mischief maker, here, you are managing three WhatsApp accounts. Why? Because you're managing three versions of yourself, your one version in Sri Lanka and another version in Bangkok.
Now, that's going to be difficult. And you're going to be filled with anxious thoughts, because you're always worried that the wrong version of myself might come out at the wrong place, and I'm going to get caught. And if I get caught, the other versions are all going to fade away. And my true colors are going to come out. You're going to be filled with anxiety. You've got so many secrets to hide. Like I said three WhatsApp accounts Why
me wandering? How can we have three WhatsApp accounts you can these days.
And you always scared
because you're not upright, you're not straightforward. In business, if you're straightforward, you have nothing to worry about.
in your life, if you're straightforward, if you are an honest individual, you have nothing to worry about. Because wherever you go, you're going to speak the truth. You are the same person. Now see, that doesn't mean like me, for example. I'm here delivering a sermon.
Now when I say be the same person, if you meet me somewhere outside, like I don't know, maybe if you meet me at the market or something like that, I won't come to you and start lecturing and you know, you can't tell me Oh, Chef, you're like this on the on the on the pulpit. So you need to be like that outside as well. Yeah. Brother, Fiala tequila, I can't talk to you always like that. Find me if you're sat down, talk to you. Normally, like a friend like a normal individual. The tone can change but the person cannot change.
Likewise, we are all individuals with unique identities.
And if we hold on to integrity, if we hold on to being honest, upright and straightforward, we have nothing to worry about. Because we don't have to worry about what people think about us. We only worried about what Allah thinks of us.
And this was the attitude of the Sahaba and that's why they were known as the ummah. One One word one. Allah was pleased with them and they were pleased with Allah Subhana Allah What else? If Allah is pleased with you, the entire world can be displeased with you. They can talk whatever they want to talk about you. But you know, your record with Allah is straight, you are upright with your relationship with Allah, you have nothing to worry about.
But
if you know deep down that you are a hypocrite,
and that your relationship with Allah is not good. Then at every turn, my dear brother, my dear sister, you're going to be filled with fear and anxiety. Because the feelings of hypocrisy, they're going to haunt you 24 seven, because you're always going to feel like a hypocrite. You're going to feel like a liar. A fraud, a cheat.
May Allah subhanho wa Taala save us.
And the final source, my dear brothers in Islam
is holding on to worry so much to the extent that you start to overthink, even when you look at the story of jacobellis that was slam you note that he has been overthinking but not like how you and I we overthink. Why because he puts forth the disclaimer towards the end and he clarifies things when his children look at him and they say you are overthinking. You're overthinking so much that you're going to become old, overthinking about us and you're going to die thinking about use the what'd he say color in school, but he was me.
My life is continuing as normal. I am lamenting even now when you came and gave me the bad news. I'm not telling you all anything.
I'm not showing the negative side to you. All I'm doing is I'm complaining am lamenting, I am grieving unto Allah.
Worry in and of itself cannot do anything you can sit down. Let's say you if I were to ask for a show of hands, we are all fighting battles. I am fighting battles in my life. This brother is fighting battles this brother, this brother, this brother, we all fighting battles, financial battles, medical battles, all kinds of battles. Now let's say if you were to think about your battles, and see
appear and volley from morning to evening. Just sit here and you're worrying, worrying, worrying, worrying? Will it do anything? It won't do anything. Worry by itself cannot do anything but rather intelligent actions can, you do are can.
So place your trust in Allah know that these tests these challenges that Allah is putting you through. They're all from Allah and Allah knows best. You're just grappling with one tiny pixel or a few pixels from the big picture. Allah has access to the entire 4k or 8k picture. 8k in the sense 8000 odd pixels, you just have eight pixels and you're trying to determine your entire life. You don't have access to the entire timeline. Allah has access to the entire timeline. Can you compare your test your challenges to that with us valleys? ratusan men who threw you into a well, who sold us a slave in a marketplace? Which lady tried to seduce you? When were you thrown into prison for so
many years?
Did your father tried to slaughter you? Like your primary slot? wassalam decrease married or is that was the have we gone through those tests? Did anybody build a huge bonfire and throw you into it like how they threw a Brian malice that was stolen?
No.
Did you lose your father before you were born and then lose your mother lose your grandfather? Lose Your uncle lose your wife lose every child of yours except for a few. Mohammed Salah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Did you have people chase you out of town? Did they boycott you? Did they exile you? Did they banish you? They did all of that to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did a period the people stone you until you bled?
They did all of that for Mohammed Salah la vida University. But did he? Did he lose hope? No. Did he ever question your law? Why is all of this happening to you? To me? I am your Prophet, the most beloved of creation why can they respect me? Why can they honor me? Never.
So we are the followers of Mohammed Salah while you listen, we need to be filled with positivity, courage, and determination. We need to go through the Quran not just gloss over the pages. We need to go through the Quran, study the stories and deduce these lessons. We need to study the lives of the prophets and deduce these lessons we need to study the lives of the companions and deduce these lessons so that we can instill those lessons in our lives and attain the success that they attained in this world as well as the hereafter. With that I conclude I asked Allah subhanho wa Taala to forgive us of our sins, to accept our good deeds, to fill our hearts with positivity and to
eliminate all negative and toxic feelings from our hearts. And just as how united seen this beautiful message may unite us in the gardens of gender with our beloved prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam