Nadim Ali – Spiritual Illness
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Indeed, our praise belongs to Allah, the most
high. We thank him, and we seek his
aid, and we seek his forgiveness, and we
seek refuge with him from the evil of
ourselves and from our bad actions.
Whoever Allah guides, then there's no one who
can mislead him, and whoever Allah calls us
to go astray, then there's no one to
guide him.
And I bear witness that there is no
deity except Allah who is unique and with
our partners,
and I bear witness that Muhammad is his
worshiper and his messenger. May the peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him and his
family and his companions and those who follow
them with good intentions
until the day of judgment.
Oh, you who believe, fear Allah as he
should be feared and don't die
except his Muslims. Again, all you who believe,
fear Allah as he should be feared and
don't die
except his Muslims.
Oh, mankind, be careful of your duty to
your ab who created you from a single
soul, and from it, he created its mate,
and from the 2 of them, he spread
forth many men and women.
Be careful of your duty to Allah whom
you demand your mutual rights and be careful
of your duty to the wounds that bore
you. Indeed,
Allah is now with Akib over you.
And all you who believe, fear Allah and
always speak the truth. He will cause your
deeds to be beneficial and he will forgive
for you your sins,
and whoever obeys Allah and his messenger, then
he has truly achieved a tremendous accomplishment. For
indeed,
the best speech is the book of Allah,
and the best guidance is the guidance of
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
and the most evil of all affairs are
newly invented matters, which has no precedence in
Islam. And indeed, all innovations are astray, and
each astray is in the hellfire.
Oh, Allah, save us from it. Oh, Allah,
accept our door.
If anyone kills a person,
it would it would be as if he
killed the whole the whole people.
And if anyone saved a life,
it would be as if he saved the
life of a whole people.
It's from Quran
into 532.
And Abu Huwareda said
that the prophet
said,
by the one in whose hand is my
soul,
a time will surely come upon the people
in which the killer does not know why
he has killed and the one killed does
not know
why he was killed.
And when we look at some of the
events that have been happening
over the past few months in regards to
the
just indiscriminate
murders
in this society,
and
when we look at the fact that the
prophet, peace be upon him, he talked about
the how we can get sick spiritually.
We can have spiritual illness.
And, again, spiritual illnesses, and then what's coined
in in the Deen is the the diseases
of the heart.
You know, spiritual disease of the heart, again,
are those
sins which are committed by the heart, in
many instances, cannot be seen.
They have an impact on our our actions
because
they are often the cause of other sins,
and that's from,
and then Imam Ghazali, he he he stated,
other sins, again, are like the mosquitoes hatched
in a swampland,
and the sins of the heart
are like the swampland itself.
Unless the swampland, the sins of the heart,
is is not eradicated,
it would not be possible to get rid
of the mosquitoes,
getting rid of all of the the causes
of the sins.
And some of the diseases of the hearts,
hypocrisy,
following unlawful desires,
arrogance,
envy,
showing off,
and having bad opinion about others.
And when we look at when we look
at the news media and all the social
media,
many of the people try to blame
the problems in the society on the mentally
ill, on the mentally ill.
You know, they only look at all the
other
problems in the society, the easy access to
weaponry
and the monies that's being put out by
the gun industry. They say that in this
country,
there are more guns than people. There are
more guns than people in this country. We
have over 300,000,000
people in this country,
close to 400,000,000
weapons.
And so we have to look at,
you know, if it was just a mental
illness problem,
then there would be more violence, there would
be more problems in the society.
And what I do for a living, I'm
a practitioner in the mental health field.
And I recognize
that many people who are mentally ill, they,
in many instances, harm themselves more than they
will harm another person. Most people who are
mental illness problems, they don't engage in violence.
That's that's one of the points that we
have to look at.
You know, but the politicals or the the
people who are trying to make the 1,000,000,000
of dollars on the gun industry, what they
tend to do is they'll try to look
for every
opportunity to blame something else other than the
easy access to weapons.
And because other people
are getting killed now, there's talk
about,
you know, trying to do something about it.
You know, I grew up in Chester and
spent my early youth in West Philadelphia,
and there were mass shootings all the time,
even before they had AKs,
but there was no legislation put in place.
They were just oh, even the police, they
would if you if you if you if
you were part of 1 corner, if they
wanted some information, they'll drop you off way
deep into your your your opposing corner's turf
and say, make your way home,
knowing that you would get killed.
But, again,
these were black folks killing black folks for
the most part. But now you get you
know, the murder is just indiscriminate.
So, again
but as Muslims now,
we have to be the healers of the
society.
If the if the society is spiritually sick,
we have the medicine in the Quran.
We have the medicine in the prophet's example,
peace be upon him.
We have all of the information, but in
many instances, we treat the deen like a
private club.
You know, like,
you know, the the the lodge,
masonry,
you know, secret society.
Our job is to spread
the the the word about our deen.
Our job is to give the message of
Islam.
We have to give the message to our
family, give the message to our neighbors,
because the hadith says that our neighbors are
anybody, 40 houses in any direction.
So if if the Muslims are several million
in this society,
everybody is our neighbor.
How many times have you given dower? You
know, look for dower moments. People ask you,
you know, why you dressed this way? Why
do you have the beard? A dower moment.
You don't necessarily have to go around, you
know, like, you know, some of the other
religious knocking on people's doors and all of
that. There's so many times that we have
downward moments.
Why do why you not getting out? Why
don't you get high? You know, you used
to have the biggest head in the neighborhood,
and now you start getting high. A downward
moment.
You used to sell the drugs on the
corner.
Well, you know, I fear a lot now.
I don't sell drugs no more.
A Dawah moment.
So we have to look for opportunities to
give Dawah, you know, again, to our family,
to our neighbors.
As the prophet, peace be upon him, says
that a Muslim
should not touch a thing unless he seeks
to improve it. So if we're touching the
society,
we should seek to improve the overall society.
And if we're gonna be here, we need
to be here. You know, brothers and sisters
talking about making hijra. So where you gonna
go?
I've worked in Saudi Arabia for 2 years
working with heroin addicts, had some, you know,
stronger heroin habits than the people I grew
up with.
Where are you gonna go?
We have to establish the Islam in this
society. Allah has put us here for a
reason, specifically those of us who are descendants
of slaves,
because many of the people who were taken
into captivity,
again, they were scholars, they were doctors, they
were healers, philosophers,
mathematicians.
They weren't slaves.
So they were enslaved people.
And so Allah has given us the deen
in this part of the world for a
reason so that we can continue to spread
this news.
And Philadelphia is known as a Muslim city
for the most part. Philadelphia is known as
one of the prime the premier Muslim cities
in the country.
And so we have to basically
show not just be Muslim, but be practitioners
of Islam.
Because, again,
you know, we can be Muslim,
you know, who was the brother he was
telling me about, you know, the brother was
on Hajj,
and he got stuck up. He
walked down the alleyway,
dude, put a rusty shotgun in his back
and said, give me your money. He said,
man,
we on we're Mecca.
You know,
you know, we're on Hajj. I'm Muslim. He
said, yeah. There are 2 types of Muslim,
good Muslims and bad Muslims.
You you a good Muslim. Me, I'm a
bad Muslim. Give me give me your money.
Give me so again, you can be a
Muslim, but not a practitioner of Islam. You
could be a robber. You can be a
dope dealer. You can do all that stuff,
and you still you you all your deeds
will be placed on that scale.
And so we have to get away from
the ignorance
in the society
to be practitioners of Islam
or actualizers of Islam, not just practicing. It's
just like you you're faking it. Be actualizers
of Islam.
You know, when when you basically show that
you do not have the
the the spiritual illness
that the society gives us in this in
this day and time, we have to be,
again, those who getting rid of the hypocrisy,
getting rid of the desires. One scholar said
that our desires is like a mountain, a
big mountain between us and Allah,
and we have to climb over our desires
to get to Allah
Our desires is a big mountain.
And so some of us have maybe a
hill. Some of us, you know, have, you
know, basically not only a big mountain, but
also,
you know, a deep valley too. So we
have to, each and every day,
whether we are Muslims who have have come
to Islam through reversion
or was born into a Muslim family, the
shaitan,
again, would attack us each and every day.
We have to be of those who are
overcoming our unlawful desires and be of those
who are
trying to be the best, again, actualizers of
Islam.
You know, we have to recognize that the
super rich in this country,
you know, they basically program
people
to basically get their needs met. They wanna
keep the taxes low for them and keep
the workforce available for them, the super rich,
and what they'll do is they'll manipulate
the media. They will basically do things
that will keep people, you know, strung out
on, you know, a false sense of religion
and all of that,
the super rich. And so
we are so rich with Dean
that, you know, we don't feel as though
we can compete with them or war against
them. And so once we start to spread
the message, and Allah has given us so
many different ways of spreading the message
of the social media. You know, social media
itself is not negative or evil. It's any
tool. It can be your hammer. It can
be used to hit somebody upside the head
or to build something,
and so we have to use the media
to build the dua'u Islam, build the the
house of Islam in this society.
Again, if we're gonna be here, we're gonna
be here, because, again, you can go to
any other country, and they have, you know,
all sorts of things going on there, but
we're familiar with with this society. We're familiar
with this oppressor.
And so we have to work to dismantle
the machinations
that they have, you know, in mind for
the overall society.
And the deen spreading the Islam
is one way
of curing the spiritual illnesses that's in this
overall society,
because a lot of the people who have
wealth, you know, they worship their wealth.
They worship their wealth, but you know, all
we take to the grave is, you know,
the deeds and the prayers of our offspring.
That's all we take to the grave. So,
you know, again, whether you are a billionaire,
like
Warren Buffett or whoever, or a homeless person,
You know, when you stand before Allah,
if that billionaire has not basically used that
money to help change the condition of people,
then they they can be in deep trouble.
And many of the the prophets, peace be
upon him, they died penniless.
Even when the prophet, peace be upon him,
was on his deathbed, he asked, was there
any,
any
funds or anything left, in the household? And
Aisha Redelihuahuang
said that, you know, there was, you know,
some a piece of gold. He said, give
it away. I don't wanna meet my lord,
you know, with any type of of wealth.
Go and go and give it away to
somebody.
And so
with those of us who are just just
addicted to the dunya, you can't take it
with you.
What are you selling forth? Your spiritual 401
k, what are you putting forth? You know,
we we can retire in this plane, but
the true retirement is when they put that
dirt off, when they shroud you and wash
your body. That's the true retirement.
What are you preparing? How are you preparing
for your true retirement?
And so
even if you don't have money, you can
do deeds.
If you see something that needs to be
done, you know, in the masjid, to be
able to, you know, help out, sweeping the
floor, cleaning up,
you know,
sneakily paying a bill,
you know, doing something for the imam.
You know, so these are some of the
things we have to look at. We have
to change our character, because the prophet
said that he only came to change character.
Some of the people who were his Sahaba,
they were some of the worst people on
the planet prior to Islam,
but in one generation, they became some of
the best people on the planet.
Why? Because, again, they followed his example. They
believed him.
They believed him. They had
a measure of success with the prophet, sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
And I was talking to my wife
a while, a few months ago, and she
said something like, you know, people say they
believe in Allah,
but do they believe him?
They believe in Allah because you you see
a Muslim selling liquor,
selling pork, got pig feet floating around with
the with the Quranic ayat on the wall.
And you tell them they're not a Muslim,
you know, they they you got you got
a fight on your hands.
But are we believing
what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has given
us? Are we believing what the Quran says?
And so you can again have a basic
understanding,
but we have to start
implementing the practices that Allah has prescribed for
us because, again, just like when you go
to the doctor and Allah is al Shafi,
he is the ultimate healer,
when you go to the doctor, if you
have an infection, they're gonna give you some
antibiotics.
Our antibiotic is the Quran. Our antibiotic
is to
follow the example of the prophet, peace be
upon him. That's how we heal ourselves, but
then, we have to heal the overall society.
Just like in the past couple of years,
we've been going through the whole COVID, the
epidemic and pandemic,
and they were busy at work trying to
find a solution
to
the infection.
But we have the solution
to the spiritual infection in the Quran.
How often are we
visiting the Quran? How often are we taking
the medicine?
How often are we getting up, shaking off
to sleep to make fajr? In congregation for
the brothers.
How often are we basically just, you know,
again, fasting, not just Ramadan,
but outside of Ramadan? And and and and
and these are some of the things that
we have to look at doing to get
rid of the spiritual illnesses that that that
we are suffering from in this society.
Allah says,
so as for those who do not believe
in the hereafter,
their hearts are ignorant, and they are proud,
and they are proud.
And so we don't want to be like
these type of people. We want to be
of those who are practicing the kushur. We
want to be of those who are humble.
You know, Allah asked us to practice in
humility in all the things that we do.
You know, we have to be of those
who
recognize that being humble is not being weak.
Being humble is not not being shy. Being
humble is basically recognizing
that we are deferential to Allah
that we are serving Allah
We are the slave servants of Allah
And as such, we when when our master
gives us instruction, we need to be following
it, and the instructions are given in the
Quran. The instructions are given to us, you
know, by the prophet's example.
Allah also says, the day
when there will be will not benefit anyone,
the wealth or or children,
but only the one who comes to Allah
with a sound heart.
Coming to Allah with a sound heart.
And as the prophet
said that everything will rust,
everything that will rust,
and even the heart will rust, but that
which removes the rust from the heart is
the remembrance of Allah
The remembrance of Allah
So how are we doing that? Are we
just basically,
you know, just what we used to call
the PTMs, part time Muslim?
You know, are we when we eat, do
we we say bismalah? When we get in
the car and about ready to journey, do
we we make a dua?
You know, when we look in the mirror,
do we make a dua? You know, it's
just that, you know, all
the the things that we need to be
doing, we have to be thankful for Allah
You know, see people, when when you see
Muslims, they will see Muslims, you know, going
to the mosque and then coming back from
the mosque, and they might be on the
corner talking to somebody,
and then they look at us, and they'll
say, oh, they pray all the time.
But
is the person that they're talking to in
that corner more important to the conversation that
we're having with Allah in our salat?
And so we don't want to walk around
arrogantly and being proud, but we want to
recognize,
be an example of humility.
You know, even though we're praying, we're still
we get more done before 9 or 10
o'clock than most people get done,
the whole day. You know, we make make
fajr. We make we exercise, we may read,
we may do do this and do that.
We do so much work,
you know, before 9 o'clock
than most people get all day. They might
be sitting in that corner the whole day,
not doing anything.
So we have to strive
to
share this dean.
You know, many people specifically when we were
young men, you know, we basically we would
we'd go out and we would talk to
people about the the din. You know, one
of the things that we did is is
we had radio stations here, radio shows, you
know, best before the Internet,
but we would broadcast the din. We would
go over and and and and and and
make sure that we got into a position
where we could spread the the word
about Islam to the people.
What are you doing? How are you handling
Dawah moments?
Allah has, again,
created so many opportunities for us to communicate
with one another. You know, we didn't have
cell phones, but we were able to basically
present the image of Islam in a positive
way. So Allah has given us so many
forms of technology,
and the technology will bear witness for us
or against us.
What we're saying on the phones, what we're
doing with this this technology, what we're doing
on the Internet, it will bear witness. It
will have a voice.
What you're doing with your money will have
a voice.
Everything,
every place that where you pray will have
a voice.
We have to basically have a paradigm shift,
brothers and sisters. We have to be of
those who are, again, healing ourselves
only to heal others as well.
We have to be of those who are
striving to do be the best Muslims that
we can possibly be. If I've said anything
that's inconsistent with what Allah has given us
and the prophet has taught us, I take
responsibility for that. And if I've said anything
in which you have gained some insight, as
always, all praise belongs to Allah.
Again, if we're going to be here,
we need to be here.
And, again, what I mean by that, we
have to be involved in all aspects of
the society.
You know, America has
what they call a pluralistic society,
whereas you have people
who are trying to,
recreate what they had in the 1800. You
know, one politician even said that they would
like to take America back to 1950
prior to the civil rights movement.
And so
if
we're gonna be there, we can't just, you
know, be like the proverbial ostrich putting their
head in the sand.
We have to be involved in the overall
society
on a physical level, economically,
politically,
emotionally, spiritually.
Again,
the Dawa is one part, but also establishing
institutions. We
we have,
you know, hundreds of massages throughout the country.
We have to start building institutions. I was
just in, Houston,
and there's a group called the Ibn Sina
Foundation,
and they have
7 clinics
in
in the Houston area
where they give free to low cap cost
health care
to the people, mental health and physical health.
And most of their clientele
are not Muslim.
And so the days of plant pamphleteering
are over.
That's Dawah.
That is Dawah.
Went to one of my studio. They have
a food pantry.
And he said that he each week, he
feeds 400 families.
They have
a a list of families that they bring
the food to, and they they come to
get the food. That's Dawood.
So what we used to do in the
seventies, in the sixties seventies,
may not be as effective
as,
what is needed to give Dawah today.
You know, so as Muslims, we we not
only have to have the masajids,
but we also have to start developing institutions
to help heal the people.
Health clinics you look at health care.
Health care is expensive. Anybody has been to
the doctor lately.
So they raised money and they were able
to offer free health care.
They raised money and they're able to feed
people.
Because, again,
you know, people, they need they need food,
clothing, and shelter.
And so we have to look at what
institutions
are we able to to be able to
put forward.
What institutions are we able to develop so
that the again, the people we can give
the people the message of Islam, but also,
you know, help them in their daily needs.
Because if you look at in the Christian
community, you look at the we we just
take for granted Saint Luke's or or Saint
this or Saint that or or the Jewish
this and the Jewish that in regards to
the health center? Where are the the the
Muslim centers?
Where are the Ibn Sina Foundation,
organizations, similar organizations
in in in this city and in Atlanta
and in other places?
So, again,
the Masjid is just the starting place.
And so from that, we need to start
to develop
necessary,
societal,
needs and programs for the youth, programs for
the elderly. We're all getting old. You know,
when I first came to Islam on 52nd
Street, you know, I ain't have a great
spot in this beer.
You know, now I can't find black hair.
You know, so I'm just saying is that
so weird, and I'm visiting Muslims in some
of the the elderly centers in
in Atlanta.
And so we want to be able to
fulfill the needs of the people from the
cradle all the way to the grave
and in between, establishing the schools, establishing the
the youth centers, you know, establishing the hospitals
and medical clinics.
These are some of the things that we
have to do, but if we don't know,
we don't know.
If, you know, we have to read, we
have to study,
we have to be, you know, become knowledgeable.
You know, brothers offer classes,
and
it might be a handful of people come
to the classes. And so if you want
to increase your knowledge, because you get brothers,
might be and sisters, 10, 20 years in
their deen, and they don't know,
too much of past Latija,
might know Iqwas.
And so we have to increase our religious
knowledge, but also
study the history of Deen.
Even the people when Jerusalem
was being
overran or ran by the Muslims, and then
the Muslims were defeated.
And they say that
the people who defeated them, they were so
oppressive to the people, they asked the Muslims
to come back, and these were not Muslims.
And so, you know, we have to basically
have that type of mindset.
So we have to increase the knowledge. We
have to no matter how old we are,
we have to study.
We have to participate in the classes that
are being being put out. And again,
the law has made the earth so small
that, you know, we can be in in
at home and and and get classes.
We wanna learn the Arabic. We yeah. You
can tap I was studying with a,
a Pakistani
scholar
in the mountains of Pakistan
from my porch.
And so we don't have an excuse
to not to get the knowledge, of not
to learn the language of the Quran.
We don't have an excuse
of of not being able to start to
establish the things that
that that will benefit the overall people.
Allah has taken away all of the excuses.
So what are we going to do? What
do how are we going to change?
What does Allah says? He does not change
the condition of a people until they change
what is in their hearts.
So if we have a heart full of
dunya,
it's gonna be very difficult to fill it
with deen, because in science, they say 2
entities cannot occupy the same space at the
same time.
So we have to empty out the dunya
so that we can
implement the din.
Empty out the dunya so we can implement
the din.
You know, we have the solutions to the
problems.
We have to you know, again, I've been
through,
last month, either either about 4 to 5
cities, and when I would go for fajah,
there would only be a couple of people
in the different masajahs.
And that's there's a sickness going to the
point that Muslims don't think
they need to come to to salat, to
the mosque.
We have to increase that.
There's a story that comes out of Morocco,
where the person who was working,
you know, for a,
a yahoo, the Muslim worker for yahoo, the
Jewish person.
And,
you know, when
he would,
come come back to work, and he said,
well, you know, how many people were at,
your morning prayer that that morning? And he
could say, oh, that that many. And then
he did it a couple of times, did
more times. And then he said, wait a
minute. Why is it that all the time
when you asked me about how many people
were,
you know, in in the prayer,
at the morning prayer?
He said,
well, my people, the Jewish people,
have been around your people since the beginning.
And we've learned that we don't worry about
y'all until there's more people at Faja than
there are at Juma.
We don't worry about y'all.
And so that was their gauge.
And so we have to increase the ranks
at Faja. What are you doing,
you know, 5 o'clock in the morning? You're
snoring and slobbering?
What are you doing that's so important that
you can't come to the mosque?
Even if you can't come to this mosque,
if you live across there,
mosque is all over the city. We have
to start increasing
the ranks, increasing the worship, my brothers and
sisters. We have to start doing this.
You know, we're so busy,
you know, being busy.
You know? And,
you know, and and shaytan will keep you
busy, keep your hands busy.
And so we have to basically increase
the knowledge, increase our pursuit of knowledge, again,
as I mentioned earlier, increase the fasting, increase
the charity,
if we're going to make a difference in
this overall society.
You know, some of the, again, the the
basics
that helps to overall to change the society,
We have to look at, for instance, homelessness.
We're getting used to people setting up tents
on corners.
We're getting desensitized to that.
You know, we have to help the homelessness
problem.
You know, we have to, again, help the
addiction problem. We have to help the violent
problem in this society.
As Muslims, we're put here for a reason.
You know, some of the cures that, you
know, again, even in dealing with the diseases
of the heart.
It says, again, taking accountability for yourself.
Be you know, again, because we don't
do something and and not and not take
responsibility.
Lie about it.
You know, and again, you as as as
I said that you have to be a
witness even against yourself.
You have to be a witness even against
yourself
and take the consequences.
Seeking forgiveness and repentance is a means of
of curing the heart, the diseases of the
heart,
diseases of spiritual sickness.
Seeking we're seeking forgiveness and repentance,
and, of course, du'a, the supplication,
asking Allah for this, asking Allah for that.
Because if it's for you and if it's
good for you, he'll give it to you.
If but you have to ask,
if it's not good for me, keep it
away. Whether it's a mate or whether it's
a job or or or some type of
major move in your life, you have to
petition the law, and then you'll get certain
signs as to whether you need to move
to or fro.
And that means turning it over. When I
learned the words, Insha'Allah,
Masha'Allah, it took a lot of weight off
of me. Oh, okay.
You know, you know, if Allah wants me
to have it, you know, give it to
me. If he doesn't,
you don't want me to have it, he
won't, because that's why we have we have
to use that. We we can't say we're
gonna do something later until we say Insha'Allah.
And it's not scapegoating Allah.
It's about, again, being deferential to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Because as we basically
start to heal from the spiritual sickness,
then what happens is you'll start to recognize,
you know, there's this love that you have
in your heart,
you know, that you have this, what they
call the inner smile, the inner glow, and
then what will happen is that the nur
will basically be exuding from your face.
People
can look at you, and and you might
not have a kufi on or a keema
on or any type of what's dress that's
associated with being a Muslim, and people will
be able to see that light.
But the outer light
is based on what's going on intrinsically, what's
going on inside.
Because if you're getting up, you know, 2
or 3 o'clock in the morning praying, nobody
sees that but Allah
If you're fasting,
unless you announce to the world or you're
walking around with a sign that I'm fasting,
nobody sees that.
And what does he say?
That the prophet
said to give charity so quietly that one
hand doesn't know what the other hand is
doing. Nobody sees that.
So we have to basically
have intrinsic change, brothers and sisters, and, again,
specifically, our younger brothers and sisters.
Our generation, we're closer to the grave than
we are to the cradle.
And so our younger brothers and sisters, we
have to start stepping up, and I'm seeing
it all over the country,
that the young people are recognizing
that the institutions and what we had because
we didn't have a whole lot coming up,
but we made sure our children had the
basics of this deed.
And so
and it's not about,
you know, what's the what the man says.
He said, you don't pass your torch. You
light the next person's torch.
And so we didn't have us,
and so at least y'all have us for
a few minutes.
You know, if Allah gives us 70, 80
years on the planet,
you can consult with us. And so we're
asking
our young brothers and sisters to step up.
And and as old time as we need
to be able to step back, you know,
just like
a a a man who got cataracts on
his eyes and and and and and and
memories is all demitted. He trying to drive
long distance. He won't give the wheel up
to the car. You know? And so we
have to be willing to give it up.
But a lot of us, we don't wanna
give it up if we don't feel as
though the the next generation
has been trained or capable.
And so you have to demonstrate, brothers and
sisters,
that you are capable,
that and you you've gone off to schools
and you've learned things, and you bring it
to back to the to the Masjid.
Bring it back to the Masjid and say,
okay. This is what I think we should
be doing.
This is how we should be doing this.
This is you know, we we can establish
this type of school. We can establish this
type of institution,
and we have to be willing because most
of us, we have relationships
that go 40 to 50 years throughout
this country.
And so if our young people bring good
ideas to us,
then we tap into the people who got
the resources
and say, okay. This is what we wanna
do,
and this is this is the plan. This
is the game plan.
So if you're going off to college or
some other
skill that you've acquired, bring it back home.
Bring it back home so that, again, we
can start to establish the the the the
21st
century Dawah program, which is Muslim Institutions.
Because
people died just establishing masaas
throughout this country.
People died
just to be able to establish
a small mosque
all throughout the country. So now we have
the mosque.
Let's start to build upon that, establish the
neighborhoods,
establish again all of the institutions as needed.
You know, again,
other cures that we have,
increase in acts of obedience,
you know, again, remembering Allah,
and above all, lowering the gaze
lowering the gaze.
Because, again,
as the the prophet, peace be upon him,
says that, you know, that that that, you
know, that was in the in the story
about the shaitan. It says that
when, when he went through
Adam, when he was laying in state, and
he said,
he's hollow,
and anything that's hollow is weak,
and I will attack him through the hollow
parts.
And so and that's what the prophet, peace
be upon him, said, to guard that which
lies
again between the thighs and that which lies
between
the eyes. You'll guard the you know, guard
the the mouth and the private parts, you
you know, that which lies between the jaws
and that which lies between the thighs. You
guard those hollow parts, guard the vision, lowering
the gaze,
and again, you'll be able to climb over
the your mountainous desires.
Climb over the mountainous desires to get to
a really good relationship with Allah.
That's how we are able to heal the
spiritual sickness,
And make sure that you're involved in the
classes.
If you've gone and studied,
offer to teach some classes. You know, we
can teach classes and Dean, if you've learned
different other types of skills,
offer
to to to become a practitioner.
Become a practitioner when you talk about the
keys to knowledge.
You know, first, you know, first step is
just listening.
No. No. Before that, even being quiet.
Because a lot of times, we don't listen.
My my wife will attest to that,
you know, because we don't get quiet.
And so a lot of times, we I
have a saying that instead of listening, I
look I can look at a person's eyes
specifically when I'm in a session, and I'll
tell them, you're not listening. You're waiting to
talk.
Because, again, going back to that science axiom,
2 entities cannot occupy the same space at
the same time.
And so you have to listen first.
Be quiet, listen,
learn. And then practice,
and then teach.
Those are the steps to knowledge.
And a lot of times,
people cannot
get past
the first step, learn to listen.
If I've said anything that's, again, inconsistent with
what Allah has given us, I take full
responsibility for that. And if I've said anything
in which you have gained some news insight
and knowledge, as always, our praise belongs to
Allah. And, again,
may Allah allow us to work to be
the healers in this society.
Our lord, take us not to task if
we forget or fall into error. Our lord,
lay not on us a burden such as
you did lay on those who have gone
before us.
Our lord, lay not on us a burden
which we do not have the power to
bear
and overlook our faults, and forgive us,
and have mercy on us. You are our
protector,
and grant us the victory over the disbelieving
people. Be calm and be