Nahela Morales – Islam, Iman, Ihsan Climbing the Spiritual Ladder
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I would be like administrate Energien Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Welcome back to another live about Islam. My name is Anna Halal
mirallas. And today we are going to be touching on a very important
topic. And I'm going to try to speak to an audience generally,
but my talk will be geared more towards the new converts the new
Muslims, the new reverts. And so today we will be talking about
Islam, Imam and a Sam, and I got a lot of the information off an
article from the Yaqeen Institute. So Inshallah, that's where you
would be able to follow up because it's very intense, it's very
extensive. And it has a lot of great information, which I'm not
really sure we'll be able to cover in 30 minutes, but I will try to
do my best in sha Allah. And oops, let me just mute this one second.
Okay, so um, let me just share this in a page or two, that way we
can get and give time for others to join us.
Alhamdulillah, I've started my master's degree in divinity. And
so I'm very excited to connect, to connect with you today.
I am based in Dallas, Texas.
And so let's see,
we are about to begin. Okay.
So Insha Allah, many of us, when we think about Islam, we think
about the five pillars of Islam, and we think that it ends there.
hamdulillah as human beings, we were created with an intent a
drive to seek out for a purpose. And Islam actually provides us
that purpose, which is very wonderful. I can tell you as a
convert myself as a revert, it was wonderful to finally find a place
and understand what my purpose in life was. Islam provides that for
us. And Hamdulillah. But even more so Islam is the outer and that's
the way
it's mentioned in this article. It is it is
it is the our lair and Islam we understand that it's submission to
the will of Allah and the people that practice Islam or Muslims.
And so when we think about Islam, we think about like I mentioned
five pillars, what are those five pillars consist of those five
pillars consists of the shahada, the testimony of faith,
that for many of us, it takes some time to get to that pivotal moment
of accepting Islam as our way of life. And what I mean by that is
like, for example, for myself, it took approximately, I would say, a
good four years altogether to finally, say my Shahada, even
though I started practicing prior to that.
And so you build on and for someone that is inquisitive,
someone that is interested, someone that is trying to find
their purpose, and someone that has come across Islam, obviously,
we have a lot of questions. And that's one of the beauties about
Islam, that we are actually encouraged to ask these questions,
we are encouraged to seek the knowledge and so that's one of the
things that I for myself, I did and I know that many of the
rebirths many of the converts that I work with, through embrace a
project of Ignite. It's an organization that I co founded,
many of us did take some time to be prior to taking the shahada,
the first pillar of Islam
after the shahada comes prayer. And so this is the very first
thing that Allah subhanaw taala will be asking about on the Day of
Judgement. So it's very important that you as a new Muslim, even if
you don't know how to pray in Arabic, you've established the
prayer from the day that you embrace Islam. And why do I
mention this because you are very vulnerable.
or, and many things will come your way where you will feel like it
becomes too heavy to even practice. So it's very important
that you allocate a place a quiet place, a nice place a clean place,
and start your slot almost immediately after you embrace
Islam. One of the things that I used to do is I would allocate
that time and I would leave basically just make dua I didn't
know it was due at the time, but I would make dua and I would
supplicate to Allah to keep me guided and keep me on the straight
path. And slowly I started learning the prayer first I
learned it in English.
So I highly encourage everyone to actually learn a V. V prayers in
your native tongue. This way when you transition to the Arabic
language, you understand and you feel what you are saying, when you
are praying, inshallah.
So that's the second pillar. The second pillar is establishing our
prayer.
And our third pillar is Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the
lunar calendar for us Muslims, and it falls approximately 10 days or
so earlier each year. And so during the entire month, we fast
from before sunrise to sunset. And this is something that we all look
forward to as Muslims. And when Ramadan is getting ready to
depart, we feel it because this is a time where it's a different type
of spiritual connection. Inshallah, which we'll talk a
little bit further on. But Ramadan is a very special time for us. I
know upon converting many people question, are you sure you can't
even drink water and now it's a meme. Now everybody asks, you
know, you're fasting, not even water. And that is correct. We
don't, we abstained from food and water. And if you are married,
obviously, from sexual relationships, and during this
time, you are trying to be the best, it's almost like a recharge.
It's an opportunity to renew, and establish new habits, and make
sure that you are feeding your soul and you are changing things
that you don't like personally in order to reach a higher level of E
San, which we'll talk about, in sha Allah. So this talk is about
really, it's about a spiritual mountain, right? So we are going
we're talking right now about Islam, and I'm breaking it down
with the five pillars, we're on pillar number three. So number one
is Shahada. Number two is the
prayer number three is Ramadan, the fasting during the month of
Ramadan, so fasting during the month of Ramadan, number four,
is this a cot, so Succot is 2.5 of your wealth, your annual wealth.
And this is very important to also remember, because as Muslims, we
are not only instructed, or we are, this is one of our pillars,
but it also helps us become more humane and we come in in touch
with our our communities and those around us, whether they're Muslim
or not. And so that's very important to understand the Succot
aspect of it that 2.5 of A B annual that is asked of us. Now,
here's here's the thing, that if you don't have it, obviously,
Allah Subhana Allah knows what we're capable of and what we're
not and therefore you will be on the receiving end. So a lot of
people who are eligible for Succot will go to their local mosque or
their Islamic centers, and what have you, and they will be on the
receiving end. So some of us will be able to give that to God while
others will be receiving that second.
And the fifth pillar of Islam is the Hajj. This is done once in our
lifetime. And
it's, it's really a journey of a lifetime. I was very blessed to
perform the hajj in 2018. And then an Omaha almost two years later,
right before the shutdown of the pandemic Alhamdulillah.
I can say that it changed my life forever, to be able to go to the
places that our beloved Prophet saw some and all of the other
prophets that we read on a day to day basis, whether it's through
books or whether it's in the Koran. It really is life changing
and this is something I have
I really encourage everyone to make that initial intention to
make sure that you know you put it in your in your, in your tongue in
your mind and your heart and you ask Allah subhanaw taala to invite
you, and surely he will invite you when he knows that you are ready,
when he knows that you are ready, because he is not. It's not a
vacation. It's not.
It's hard. It's hard work. But it's very,
it's very uplifting, and very empowering. Because when you
overcome these things, while you're doing this, these rituals,
it really shows you what you're made of right and everything when
you do things for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala. He
facilitates everything for us. So these are the five pillars of
Islam. And I wanted to start with that, because Islam, like I said,
it's an outer right, it's an out word, submission, like you saw all
of them with the exception of one, you can see outside, like when you
go pray, when you say your shahada, you normally say it in
front of people and you, you have witnesses around you. For the most
part. When you pray, obviously you're at a masjid or when you're
outside to people see you, when you give psychiatry well, people
will have a name for you, if you gave a card and they will see you
have to give up your wealth. And then the fifth pillar is hedge.
Now, I didn't mention fasting, because that's the one pillar that
is truly the inner, it's not an outer because we are doing it
everything we do for the sake of Allah, but this one, only you and
your Rob, you and your Lord know that you are actually fasting.
And I learned this very early on. And it was pretty fascinating
because it is so true. We don't know when people are not fasting
or fasting or if they ate behind a closed door. So this is really
beautiful that there is one pillar that it's between you and your
Creator among all of them. But this one, it's not an outer
outward,
that you can actually see this is this is obviously when you will
break your fast people know and notice that you are fasting.
And as my son was growing up, that's one of the things I
explained to him, you know, he started fasting when he was five
in increments. So he would fast till 10am, the next year to 11,
and so on and so forth. By the age of nine, he himself was in a
challenge with one of his friends who had fasted that entire day.
And he put that challenge upon himself and said I can fast so
when we compete for goodness, this is a good thing. And that's
exactly what my son did. And ever since then hamdulillah he's been
fasting for days during Ramadan. And then we do in addition,
sunnah, sunnah fasting, right, so like Mondays and, and Thursdays,
or sometimes we do the white days. And that's additional, right. So
these are all components that extra, the extra prayers that I'm
mentioning, they're all components to this beautiful spiritual
mountain that we want to, we want to always try to reach. And so
when we understand, and we're able to implement these five pillars to
the best of our ability, then we're able to kind of move to the
next thing. But even before I started talking about it, amen,
right, which means faith and Arabic. I want us to to take a
moment to think right, especially us new converts, when you convert
it, you're on cloud nine. I know it was for myself, even though I
went through some challenges which I've mentioned in the past, I got
fired for wearing the headscarf, and I had this boost this, this
amount of I'm not sure if it was a man at the time or faith perhaps.
But there was nothing that was going to take me out of that cloud
nine. And I was just so content and so happy with the fact that I
finally made this decision that I wanted to hold on to that with all
my might. And so when you're going through a rollercoaster of
emotions, a roller coaster of possible test or trials, or I like
to call them lessons.
I don't see tests and trials as something bad. On the contrary, I
see them as potential lessons for life. And so every time I'm going
through something I kind of step back and I kind of asked myself
and you know do a checklist
So what am I doing that I should be doing? And what am I doing that
I shouldn't be doing, and it kind of coincides. And once you start
checking things off, and I'll give you an example.
You know, life is really, really busy life is, is getting back to
normal now things have opened up, at least here in my city. And so
before the we, during the pandemic, we had time, we had time
to pray on time, we had time to really connect with our loved
ones, we were not going anywhere. So again, we were praying on time
you were getting up to pray Ramadan was completely different.
We were not running around from, you know, from home to the masjid
to thought we prayers we had this time. And it was so beautiful to
be honest with with you, I actually really enjoyed Ramadan
during pandemic, because for the first time I was able to solidify,
I was able to concentrate I was really able to submerge myself in
the practice of one of extra prayers of that whole shoe that
concentration that sometimes we lack of when it gets really busy.
And so it gets really busy. And we we tend to put some of the most
important things of our days off, and perhaps not off completely.
But when the Adem comes in, that's an obligation that you have for
yourself. Allah doesn't need our prayers, right? And we all know
that Allah is capable, and he doesn't need anything from us, we
need from him. And so this is what I mean, like, are we putting
everything on hold with the dam goes off and go pray? Or are we
putting it off? And this is something that each and every one
of us needs to work on on bettering ourselves on that
connection, that spiritual connection. And when you're going
through that list, that's one of the things you want to check off.
Am I praying on time? Am I doing my obligation prayers because I've
mentioned this in the past there's individuals there's brothers and
sisters who jump into Sunnah prayer or other prayers with the
prayer or what have you. But they're not doing the obligation
prayers. And so that's why I mentioned towards the beginning
about the, the second pillar of Islam, which is going to be asked
during, during the day of judgment, right Allah subhanaw
taala is going to question us about our salah. Furthermore, we
want to work towards as you're checking off this list, we want to
work on our who shoe, the minute that you say Allahu Akbar, are you
concentrated? Are you focused? Are you submerged to speaking to your
Lord, this is five times a day, that we have the opportunity to
talk to our Lord, to ask him to cry to him, to connect with him,
to get to know Him. And so when you say Allahu Akbar, do you start
thinking about sisters about if you left the stove on? Brothers,
are you thinking Have you paid the bill that was due two days ago?
This is the horseshoe that we are talking about when you're going
through this checklist right? When you say a lot, but when you stand
in front of Allah subhanaw taala, we want to we want to get to the
level on this spiritual mountain of complete distractions are gone,
now is 510 15 minutes, however long it takes you for your salon,
that you're going to focus, you're going to focus and you're going to
put all of your attention to this moment. The prophets of Allah
alayhi salam always, always encouraged for us to pray as if it
were our last prayer. If we actually prayed every salon this
way, then we would gain that tissue that we all are desiring
and all want to achieve in our lifetime. So it's really important
for us to,
to focus on on this pillar, soon after coming into Islam again, our
days or counted. We don't know when our expiration when that day
will come where we will die. And so this is we're gonna have to
break this down in probably three sessions, or possibly even more.
I'm not really sure. But I think this is very important for us to
really talk about each and every one of them to where we
understand, and we get to know who our Creator is and what is truly
our purpose in life, and what truly it means to pray.
actus this beautiful way of life, which is Islam.
So we know that, you know, Islam is very clear. When it comes to
do's and don'ts. It's very clear when when we know that we believe
in Tao heed right like oneness of God. That's it. I always say that
I am a better Catholic as a Muslim, and I'll explain this. Now
that I am a Muslim than when I was a Catholic. So for those of you
that may not know,
the 10 commandments were given to Prophet Moses Musa alayhis salam.
And so in those 10 commandments, the first commandment is to
worship Allah alone without associated any partners. And that
is the one thing that we are instructed as Muslims to never
associate anything or anyone with ALLAH subhanaw taala that is the
one thing that Allah will not forgive shirk. Right, associating
partners associating anything, whether it's your horoscope,
whether it's
the little blue eyes, whether it's, there's so many things that
people put their faith in, we are supposed to abstain from that
we're not we should put all of our trust in Allah subhanaw taala, or
the worker should be solely for Allah. And so as a Muslim, I only
worship Allah subhanaw taala and him alone. So this is why I say
that I'm a better Catholic as a Muslim, because in Catholicism, we
worship everything under the sun, you know, there's saints and
there's, you know, human beings that are turned into saints like
Pope John the second, he, I believe, is now a saint, or is
going through that process. And so
we, we are supposed to not associate anything with a las
Panatela. And that's, that's why I say this.
Now, Subhan Allah, you know, when we talk about Islam, we talk
about, we talk about all the beautiful things that we have been
given. And one of those is like I mentioned the purpose of our
existence, it's very clear. And it's wonderful to not navigate
through this world, not knowing what your purpose is. And so for
us who have embraced Islam, or even those who were born into the
faith, you have a choice every morning when you wake up in the
morning to practice your faith. And so this goes full, full cross,
that every single one of us has a choice, whether you were born into
the faith or whether you converted, you have a choice to
practice your deen you have a choice to to pray your five daily
prayers, you have a choice to abstain from anything that is
harmful to your body, whether it's alcohol, you know, cigarettes and
what have you.
You know, or anything that is going to harm V temples, this body
that has rights over you that Allah has gifted temporarily right
in this life. And so um, you know, the Prophet saw Sam was asked by
Angel Jabril Gabriel, he was asked, Tell me about Islam. And so
in a hadith, Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
Islam is to testify that there is no truly God, but Allah, and that
Muhammad peace be upon him is a messenger of Allah to establish
prayer, to give charity to fast during the month of Ramadan, and
to perform the hudge to the house, if one if one is able to right.
And one can find a way. So basically, if you are healthy, and
you're able to if you have the means and you're able to
otherwise, obviously Allah knows our condition. So in this hadith,
it's everything that I spoke about in terms of what is Islam. And so
it's it's so important that when we think about our faith, we don't
pick and choose Islam doesn't need us, you know, the best way to
defend Islam is to actually practice it.
And so the best way to do that is by learning about your faith,
learning about what what are your obligations, not jumping over what
you don't like and choosing. So that is very important when it
comes to what is Islam.
The other thing about Islam when when we come into the faith, you
know, we are so excited we want to tell everyone we want to I
remember
For the first time I went to Mexico, I was so ready to just
share and convey the message of Islam. But if we don't know what
Islam truly represents, and we don't, we're not practicing the
faith, then how are we able to be the best ambassadors of Islam?
Because essentially, that's what we are. We are all ambassadors of
this beautiful way of life. And we have responsibility upon it upon
each other, and make sure that we are always representing the faith
to the best of our ability. Now, aside from the five, five pillars
of Islam, they are there are six articles of faith. And I'm just
gonna go really quick because I only have a few minutes. Again,
we're going to continue this conversation Inshallah, I hope it
is a benefit. But the six articles of faith again, it's
it's the Shahada. It's believing in all the prophets that came
prior. It's the the books that came down, you know, we know that
the Torah was given to Musa alayhis salam, the Injil to E sila
Islam, and the Quran to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, we
believe in predestination, we believe in the angels. And I
mentioned the shadow and the day of judgment.
So Inshallah, because I'm running out of time, and I just want to
make sure that I see everything that I need to say.
We have to understand that no Muslim can actually advance in
spirituality, until they hear by the basic again, the basic
practices of Islam, right, which is these five pillars and six
articles of faith in sha Allah. And so
we need to make sure that we we do what is obligation before we jump
into anything else. I think I'm gonna go ahead and stop here
simply because there is so much to cover. But I do want to continue
this conversation. I think during our next session, we'll talk about
Eman which is faith and how we can try to maintain our Eman in this
spiritual mountain as high as we can. There are certain things that
we can do in sha Allah to make sure that it doesn't deep all the
way down. You man is like a roller coaster, it will go up and down.
But there are certain techniques and certain tools that we'll talk
about in our next conversation Inshallah, where we will be able
to discuss and hopefully give you these tools. So next time you are
going through some hardship or you're going through a test or a
trial, you're able to remember that there is hope at the end of
the tunnel and that Allah subhanaw taala does not burden us with
anything that we cannot handle. Lastly, before I leave remember
that with hardship with not after but with hardship comes ease.
Until next time, just like a hair I pray that this was beneficial.
Anything I said that was good is from Allah subhanaw taala anything
that I said that it was a mistake, please forgive me and I ask Allah
Subhana Allah to forgive me until next time, take care Salaam
Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh