The 17 benefits and wisdoms of trials and tribulations #01

So our discussion for tonight is actually a continuation from last week. Last week, we were speaking about mental health in Islam. And one of the coping mechanisms and strategies that I spoke about is understanding our belief system. And when you understand our belief system as Muslims, you will see how it's naturally conducive to reducing stress levels, and increasing optimism in the situation that has arisen. Now, this topic of the 17 benefits of trials and tribulations is actually a small Arabic essay. It's written in about six pages or so by a scholar who is known as soltana allameh soltana odema. He died in your 660 from Egypt. And the reason why he was called soltanto. Lama was

because he had mastered two out of the form of him like he was the official Grand Mufti of two out of the four Medina, and you've heard him so donalda map. For me, one of the greatest, you know, signs of great scholarship is always to see what the scholar has produced, not only in terms of literature, but in terms of the students that they've produced, and to have the greatest students of the Shafi and the Maliki madhhab. To have come out.

And Emanuel qaddafi Rahim omala, both various specialists in their fields were produced at the hands of so Donna Donna Ma. Aziz bin Abdul Salam. So now I'm not going to get too much into his biography, because his biography can take a whole session of itself, but I wanted to know who we are, whose work we are discussing tonight. And then the second thing I mentioned, is that this book actually has been translated and is available for download on the internet, you just look up the benefits and wisdoms behind the trials behind trials and tribulations. The objective behind the book is The Taming of the soul. So the scholars of the past, they always considered the soul to be a wild beast

that needed to be tamed. So whenever they would start off teaching their students, it was essays like this, that they would start to teach, because you teach the student how to control your desire to teach a student how to control their temper, you teach their students how to excel in their morals, and their manners, and in their ethics. So understand that the objective behind today's session is not purely for the sake of, you know, coming together and having a nice social activity as a community. But it's also to take the content that is available, and to try to implement it in our day to day lives, my views are going to be theological points, which hopefully we can ingrained

in our mind. And start, you know, taking that to our heart so that it in fact, impacts our lives as well. And the most successful person leaving tonight is the individual that not only engages with the content, but the one that takes notes down and goes back to it to thereafter. So if you have something to take notes with your phone, your laptop, pen and paper, I would highly encourage that you do that. And then the last introduction that I'll give to this small essay, is that it is in point form. And then the Imam he put, you know, certain is concerned a Hadith, which I haven't included on the PowerPoint, I have that in my notes over here. But just remember that if you forget

something or something goes by, you can either ask and raise your hand, or you can actually go back to the book itself, and you'll find everything in there. So the objective tonight is to engage with the content and to understand that the next time we are tried with something where we perceive something bad has happened in our lives. What is the silver lining in it? What are benefits and wisdoms that we can derive from that situation? So let's begin In the name of Allah subhanho wa Taala.

So the first of them is realizing the greatness of Allah subhanho wa Taala His Lordship and his all encompassing power. When you look at your relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala it starts with understanding who Allah subhanho wa Taala is, and one of the names that we learn of Allah subhanho wa Taala is a God and

that he is the all capable and the all mighty that he can do as he pleases. Now why is that important to understand and why is this the first point that the Imam begins with? He begins with this point by reminding that human nature is to become arrogant and to become proud and to think that you are self sufficient. But if you understand that Allah subhanaw taala is there, an alpha there, then Allah subhanho wa Taala is just as capable of giving as he is as taking back and you'll notice that that is our relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala. Allah subhanho wa Taala will give us things at times, and Allah subhana wa Taala will take things away from us at times. So if you

understand that Allah subhanho wa Taala is all capable, your relationship should be fixated on the giver and the taker and not really what has been given or what has been taken. And you'll notice that people

Go through internal calamity when they get fixated on what has been given and taken, as opposed to who is giving and taking. Now why is that important to understand? If you remember from last week one of the theological points we discussed is that Allah who automobili by the HeMan has he be one of the half, that Allah subhana wa tada is more compassionate, loving and caring towards his slaves than the mother is towards her child. Meaning that everything that Allah subhanho wa Taala does in our lives is a manifestation of that love, compassion, mercy and justice, just like a mother would treat her child. All of it is a manifestation of that. So now when you believe this and internalize

this, you will understand that just because Allah subhanaw taala had given me a job and has now taken it away. It does not mean that Allah subhanho wa Taala loves me more or loves me less. What it means is that there is a wisdom and a benefit behind it, that I need to submit to and Allah subhanho wa Taala is all capable and all knowing and all wise, and I will submit to that, and that is point number one. Point number two, realizing the humility and dejection of servitude, it is to this the saying of Allah Exalted is He He points to where he says in Surah Al Baqarah Allah Dena is our Saba Tomasi Baba Paulo lillahi wa ala theologian, that when you become a servant of Allah subhanho wa

Taala it requires humility. It's not enough not just to be arrogant and proud, but the slave of Allah is meant to have humility. What does humility actually look like? in the way of Allah subhana wa Tada. Humility looks like dependence. So when you need something, just like a baby cries out for its mother's milk, the slave of Allah subhanho wa Taala cries out to Allah that Oh Allah, I need this. I'm desperate of this. This is harming me. So take it away from me. That is how the slave of Allah subhanho wa Taala has mentioned to me now the share he mentioned this idea that when the believers are tested by Allah subhanaw taala, they say in that Lila, he was in the Lake urogen that

indeed to Allah we belong, and to Him we shall return meaning that we are the possession of Allah subhana wa tada We are the property of Allah subhanho wa Taala. He does with us as he pleases. So I want you to think of just how a little children, you know, they play with their toys, putting them here, placing them there, you know, sometimes throwing them across the room, they go through all sorts of situations, we are the property of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And we belong to Allah. Now, Ty to this point directly, is that the life of this world was never meant to be the goal. The life of this world was never meant to be the goal. The life of this world is just a vehicle to the

hereafter. It is a vehicle to the hereafter to see who will be entered into the Hellfire and who will be entered into paradise, and not only who will be entered into paradise, but where in paradise will we eventually end up where in Paradise, will we eventually end up? Now here's a very important point to understand. If you have come to embrace the agenda is your ultimate goal and agenda is your final destination. Then understand that you will only enter agenda through the mercy of Allah subhana wa tada and Allah subhanho wa Taala only gives His mercy to those who are obedient to Him. Now as for the ranks of Jana, then those are contingent upon your deeds. Those are contingent upon

your deeds. The more deeds that you do that are beloved to Allah, the higher your rank will be. And it is with this frame of mind of thinking that in shortline, doing these good deeds to earn the mercy of Allah, but these good deeds will also help me get higher ranks in Jannah.

Keeping that in mind, then everything that happens in your life, you start looking for, how can I incur reward in the situation? How can I incur reward in this situation? And that is the fundamental question you want to like ingrain into your heart, that at any given point in any given time, in any given circumstances situation, how can I earn adjure at this given point, and the more you start to incur that reward, the more you will end up leaving those deeds and those actions that you cannot earn reward from those deeds and those actions that you cannot earn reward from, they will naturally start going away from you and you will know why no longer wants to engage in them.

Which brings us to number three

actualizing sincerity

Allah Exalted is He. This is because there is no way to repress hardship except by reporting to him. And there is no one that can depend on there's no, there is no one that one can depend on to remove it, except Him. And you mentioned a series of ayat, which I will explain shortly. So the importance of, of sincerity, I want you to think of what happens in your moments of extreme hardship and extreme difficulty. What happens to your relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala, when the slaves of Allah subhanho wa Taala are tried and tested, their natural reaction is to turn back to Allah. And in fact, it's not just the slaves of Allah as human beings, you know, there was a joke that you

can even turn an atheist into a believer, if you put him onto a plane that is going down or is turbulent, right, they will naturally call out to a higher power. Now similarly for believers, I want you to look at our own selves. A difficult moment comes in your life, what happens at that time, you naturally wants to pray, you naturally want to make vicco you naturally want to say Hold on, and you will actually go out of your way to give sadaqa and be kind to people because you want this mercy you want this compassion from Allah subhanho wa Taala. And this is what the sheikh is referring to as sincerity over here, that your focus just becomes Allah subhana wa tada your

ultimate goal becomes Allah subhanho wa Taala. And that can only be attained through these calamities and hardships. Because if you look at life at the opposite end of the spectrum, when life is comfortable, and life is good, you have everything that you want. What happens to your relationship with Allah, you will naturally become heedless, you'll naturally stop doing as much you'll naturally decrease in your liquor in your Quran, recitation in your sinner prayers, and all of the other actions. So if these tribulations brought about no other good, other than making a sincere and closer to Allah, that would have been sufficient as a wisdom and a benefit. Then the

shed was on dimension and iron the Koran is shorter land on verse number 17. William says, Allah who be Darwin further cashify Allahu Allahu, that if Allah subhanho wa Taala was allow was to allow a harm to take place to you, then there's no one that can take away that harm, other than Allah subhanho wa Taala. So harm is allowed to happen to you. But why is harm allowed to happen? That's something that we'll come to see in a little while. It is a result of the actions that we do. When we make bad decisions. When we do bad actions. There are bad consequences that happens in our lives. But Allah subhanho wa Taala does not hold us accountable for all of them. Because he goes on to say,

Well, yeah, for one Kathir that Allah subhanaw taala pardons much. So if we were to receive full fledged punishment, for every sin that we commit, none of us would be alive today. But the fact that Allah subhanaw taala sends these trials and tribulations, our way and allows us to live through them, even though there may be some pain affiliated to it, then this is from the mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala that he's poured into a lot of our sin, and it was only holding us accountable

for a little bit. Which brings us to number four, turning to Allah in penance, Exalted is He and directing one's heart to Him. The Arabic word that the chef uses over here is the word Inaba. It is the word Inaba. And we're going to learn a couple of Arabic terms tonight is good to understand what they mean because they repeat themselves in the Quran quite a bit. They refer repeat themselves in the Quran quite a bit. So when we hear the word Inaba, what does that actually mean? If no claim rahimullah, one of the great scholars of the past, he says in ABA is to love Allah, to submit to Allah to turn to Him, and to turn away from everything besides Him. So to love Allah subhanho wa

Taala. So loving Allah subhanho wa Taala is loving Allah for who he is, and loving Allah for the good that he has given us in our lives, and from the harm that he has protected us from then turning in submission to him. His submission to the commands of Allah mean that Allah has commanded us to pray, should we pray five times a day, and it is submission to the decree of Allah subhanho wa Taala not questioning, why did Allah subhanaw taala decree this? And why did this actually have to happen? So you submit to the command, and you submit to the decree, and then you turn away from him and turn away from Turn, turn to him and turn away from everything other than Allah. One of the beautiful

Hadith the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentions is that

The most beloved of deeds to Allah are the obligatory deeds, and then the supererogatory deeds. And when the slave of Allah takes an arm's length to Allah, then Allah subhanho wa Taala comes even closer when the slave of Allah walks, then the literal translation is that Allah subhanho wa Taala comes running with that is in a manner and befitting His Majesty. subhanho wa Taala. And then what is the conclusion of this, that the slave of Allah keeps getting closer and closer to Allah, till he becomes the eyes through which Allah tells you the slave seas, tell Allah subhanho wa Taala becomes the eyes through which he sees, and the years through which he hears, and the feet through which he

walks. Now that isn't understood, literally. But what that means is that as you get closer to Allah subhanho, wa Taala, you will only see good things and Allah will protect you from seeing bad things, you will only go towards good things, and Allah will protect you from bad things. And this is you know, something interesting that if you look at the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, before the Buddha before Prophethood, there is this story where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is a young shepherd boy. And he's on the outskirts of Makkah, and one of his colleagues tells him, Hey, there's this massive celebration and Mecca, you should go check it out. So before prophet

who does this young shepherd boy, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he goes to MCC and he gets there early. So he sits in the shade of the Kaaba, and he ends up falling asleep. And he doesn't wake up till the very next day, and the celebration has finished. So the very next day, he says, You know what, I'll go to the celebration again. And again, he gets there early, sits in the shade of the cobbler, he falls asleep, and again, he ends up missing the celebration. Then he goes back to his shepherding area. And his colleague asked him, you know, what did you think of the celebrations? And he says, I tried going to a twice, but both times I fell asleep. And then what is his colleague,

Shepherd tell him that perhaps you were not created to do such a thing, perhaps you were not created to do such a thing. So that means is with the purity of heart and the submission to Allah subhanho wa Taala, Allah subhanho wa Taala will actually protect you from going into those bad situations. And Allah becomes the eyes through which you see the years through which you hear and the feet through which you walk. And this is what trials and tribulations do that you want to become focused on what Allah subhanho wa Taala loves, and turn away from that which Allah subhanho wa Taala doesn't love. Which brings us to point number five submissiveness and supplication.

submissiveness is something that you can either embrace, or it is forced upon you. You can either embrace that you are a slave of Allah. And there are certain situations that you can't do anything, except embrace the situation that you're in, your car breaks down on the side of the highway, you've tried to do whatever you can. At that point, you just embrace that you know what I need to sit here, stay still, till either someone comes in helps me or I'm able to call ca or I'm able to do something else. So you can either embrace the situation, or you're forced into submission. And what's important to understand that embracing the situation doesn't mean that you don't take action.

Embracing the situation means that there's no reason to panic, or to become frightened, because Allah subhanaw taala is ultimately in control. And Allah subhanaw taala knows what he is doing. And then the second part is supplication to Allah. When you think of supplication to Allah, the most sincere do as we have ever made, is in moments of duress. I want you to think for those parents that have seen their kids on the verge of harm. That when you call out and say oh, Allah protects them or Allah save them. What is the level of sincerity in your heart at that time? What is the level of emotion in your heart at that time, I want you to think about an individual that is on the brink of

giving up. They've been trying to get a job for the last two years, there is family pressure, there's social pressure, and then just internally, you don't feel good about yourself. That just when you're on the brink of giving off, what is the type of emotion that appears in your da at that time, when you supplicate to Allah subhanho wa Taala It is as if Allah subhanho wa Taala unveils the heart from all of the clunk that is surrounding it and it becomes pure and it connects with Allah subhanho wa Taala and then do our becomes the means of the hardship being taken away. Now on this topic of simplification, this is something I've spoken about in quite a bit of detail, but I want to

share just this one thing with you. A lot of times do we get too fixated? You know how or when is my dog going to be answered? How

Why is my dog going to be answered? This question is something that we should not allow to come to the forefront of our mind. I know it is normal human nature, we are very anxious, we want everything instantaneously. But this is not something we should allow to come to the forefront of our mind. Why? Because the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he told his companions, that all of your daughters are answered in one of three ways. Either you get what you want, when you want it, or it is delayed to a time that it is better for you. Or in fact, what you're asking for is not actually good for you. In fact, what you're asking for, is not actually good for you. So when the

companions or the loved one who heard this, they said that oh messenger of Allah, this is the case, then we will only increase in our da and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, will love to Oxford, and Allah subhanho wa Taala has even more to give you. So what we learn from this is that when we make dua to Allah subhanho wa Taala, it isn't on our conditions and rules. It's on the conditions in rules that Allah subhana wa Taala sets. If it is good for you right here right now. He'll give it to you right here right now. If it is good for you at a later time, he'll give it to you at a later time. Or perhaps what you're asking for is not actually good for you. So he keeps it

away from you. But does that mean that he doesn't give you anything in return? No, not at all. In fact, Allah subhanaw taala gives you much, much more, and I'll expand upon that in a little bit. But can we think of examples where we made the art to Allah and Allah subhanho wa Taala didn't give it to us. I've heard multiple stories of men that have wanted to get married to a particular individual. And this particular individual they were purely getting married to them for dunya we reasons purely for worldly reasons. And then after it didn't work out, and he got married to someone else, for the correct reasons for their Deen for their piety for you know, their their ability to

inshallah have a righteous family together, they marry them for that reason. And then they think back that had I married that first person, this person would have ruined my deed, this person would have completely made me into terrible person, because this person did x, y, and Zed since and even till this day, they have not changed. So sometimes what you're desiring is not actually good for you. And that is important to understand. So if you've taken your best step, you may want to align you haven't attained it, then don't despair. Don't think that Allah hates you don't think that the world is conniving against you, but rather embrace it and say, Alhamdulillah perhaps Allah has saved

me from a greater calamity, which ultimately always comes back to your deen there as long as your deen is intact, who cares what happens with the dunya? Now this topic of having your dogs answered, if Nakajima Rahim Allah, he mentions in certain books of his that people will show up on the Day of Judgment, and they will have huge amounts of reward shown to them. So they will say, Oh Allah, I don't recall doing a deed that could have possibly earned me this much reward. And Allah subhanho wa Taala, will tell them that these are the rewards of the dwis that you made that were not answered. These are the rewards of the dwis that you made that were not answered. Now what will the slaves of

Allah respond at that time? They will respond, Oh Allah, we wish none of our daughters were answered. We wish none of our guys were answered, because of the great amount of reward that awaited them in the here after. So now when you're making dua to Allah subhanho wa Taala. And you want Allah's help right here right now, but it is being delayed, then understand that there's a huge amount of reward that comes with it, which is a point that we're going to be mentioning in a little bit. Which brings us to number six,

forbearance. The Arabic word for this is hidden. The Arabic word for this is hidden. I know, Robert is funny. He defines him as it is the ability to control the soul and temperament as the onrush of anger. So meaning I want you to think someone has accidentally hit you, you're walking someone shoulder bumps, you or someone was carrying something and they accidentally hit you. Part of the natural human reaction that Allah has created as a self defense mechanism is that what we get is that we get angry, right? So now at that time, if your ability to control your anger, this is considered head, but in reality, this is just one perspective of hen algea is another one of the

linguists of the Arabic language, and also specialists. He says hell, it is the abandonment of taking revenge in the state of extreme anger, despite the ability to do so. So you have the ability to take revenge you

have the ability to do something wrong, yet you choose not to do it. So that is what is held. You have the ability to harm someone else, because they have harmed you, but you are afraid. Now how does this tie in with Allah subhanho wa Taala as we've seen, we need to learn to submit to Allah subhanho wa Taala. And when you're in that situation, and you've submitted to Allah subhanaw taala, you realize that there is no getting out of this situation, except by the help and permission of Allah subhanho wa Taala. So there's no point getting angry, there is no point to becoming obscene and vulgar. There's no point breaking things. This was something I was mentioning last week, that

this culture of becoming obscene and vulgar and breaking things. It's a distraction, and it doesn't really fix anything, when people swear, does that actually change their situation? Not at all, when people break things, does that actually change their situation? Not at all. So, what is the point of those things, they are just mere distractions from actually solving the issue. So what you want to look at is when calamity strikes, before bearing at that time understanding that when the time is right, I will get out of this situation when the timing is right. I will get out of this situation. And Allah Subhana Allah Ji praises this in the Quran. He says in the Ibrahima, lo han Halim that

indeed, Ibrahim Alayhi. Salam was tender hearted and for bearing. Now what is the clearest example that we can think of this? Ibrahim alayhis salaam, his life? Perhaps the clearest indication of this is when he's thrown into the fire, his people have turned against him and they've thrown him in to the fire. What is Abraham's natural reaction? to call out to Allah, to say has to be Allah one day I'm lucky that Allah subhanaw taala is sufficient for me. And he is the best of interest is no one he said that then when he did that, what happened to the fire? Allah subhanho wa Taala said Cooney Bowden was Salam ala Brahim, that be cool and peace bearing for Ibrahim alayhi salam. So that

forbearing nature of rather panicking and and and you know just losing your your your mental state at that time, be calm and composed and be forbearing. And understand that when you do that, Allah subhanho wa Taala will treat you exactly like he treated Ibrahim alayhis salam, which brings us to number seven, forgiving the human agent who caused the trial.

Certain trials in our life are actually happened by actually having by other people, people spread rumors about us, people will lie about us, people will say derogatory things about us, people will not accept us into their inner circles. People will pretend to be friends, what will be backstabbing enemies, and the list goes on. That is the reality of human nature, accept amongst the righteous accept amongst the righteous. Now, this concept of forgiving people, there are many, many benefits to it. And this can only be done had you been harmed in the first place. If you are not harmed, then you will not receive the reward. And so what I am wrong, and this is the idea that the chef mentions

in verse 134, while laughing and the nurse will law who you have been singing. This is the ending of the idea, the beginning of the idea, Allah subhanho wa Taala he says, and race forward was 30, early lemak Philadelphia Rubicon raced forward to forgiveness from your Lord and a paradise whose expanse is the distance between the heavens and the earth, or a dirty little Mottaki that it has been prepared for those people that are conscious of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Then Allah subhanaw taala goes on to describe who are the people that are conscious of Allah? Allah? Vina Yana acuna fissara Well, Dora will Calvary Mina live while Athena and in us that they are the people who spend in the

way of Allah in times of adversity, and in times of prosperity. They control their anger and they forgive people. And surely Allah subhanho wa Taala loves the righteous doers. Now what do we learn from this, that those two things that we were just speaking about controlling your anger and having held and also about pardoning and forgiving people? You earned the forgiveness of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And you earn a paradise, who is expanse is the distance between the heavens and the earth? And that is what Allah subhanaw taala has prepared for us. And the closer to the earth, or the slandering of eyeshadow the Allah one hour I shall do Allah Juana was falsely accused of being

unchaste What does Allah subhanaw taala tell us in those very verses, for the Warriors for who I like to have

that part in and forgive, do you not love that Allah subhana wa

fellowship, pardon and forgive you. And through these tests and trials that come across through the way of agents such as other people, when you pardon and forgive those people, then Allah subhanaw taala does the same for you. So now I want to stop here just briefly.

someone does something really, really terrible to you. Do you have to forgive them? Do you have to forgive them. And in these sort of situations, I think about the worst case scenarios, where young children were abused by the adults that were meant to be taken care of them, you would be surprised. But approximately two out of five Canadians have dealt with similar circumstances, that they were abused as children, by the adults that were meant to be taking care of them, and looking after them. So how does forgiveness work in such a way where you grew up? traumatized, where you can no longer socially function normally, because of what you have experienced as a child? How does forgiveness

work in such a state. And what I always like to advise people is do not conflate forgiveness, with forgetting, you know, they always tell us forgive and forget, I actually don't think that's good advice, you should forgive. But always keep in mind what happened, so that you don't allow it to happen to yourself, again, to your children, or to anyone else, you should never forget the lessons that you have learned from it. And the concept of trying to forget emotion is next to impossible. Once something has been emotionally ingrained with us in the memory, it's almost next to impossible to forget that memory, memories that have no emotional attachment will forget right away memories

that do have emotional attachment, it's almost impossible to forget them. So how do we implement this. And what I like to tell people is at the end of the day, you can forgive this person in this dunya. And there's a huge amount of reward that Allah subhanaw taala has prepared for you in the hereafter. Or you can wait till the Day of Judgment, where human beings come across their oppressors, people that they have done wrong to one another, they will come and stand in front of another, and then there's going to be an exchange, the oppressor will continue to give all of their good deeds, to the oppressed, till there are no good deeds left. And only since in that individual,

than the one that is oppressed will give their sins to this individual. until Allah subhanaw taala has deemed justice has taken place. Now, when you hear about this, and you think about this, you're like, yeah, that's what I want on the Day of Judgment, I want to hold this person accountable. I want this person humiliated and disgraced on that day.

But what you're forgetting to realize is that if you do not forgive this person in this dunya, you're carrying that burden in your heart till the Day of Judgment. And is that something you really wanted to do? Is that something a burden that you really want to carry, that you're looking forward to this meeting with the person that wronged you, thinking that you know what justice will finally be done? Whereas in reality, Allah subhana wa, tada is not only just in the akhira, he's also just in this dunya, one of his names is Aladdin. Right? So what we understand from that is that if we forgive, in this dunya, not only is there more reward for us, but that justice actually comes

sooner, that justice actually comes sooner, we're not only will we feel better, but they will start to have their accountability in this life before the next. So that is how you understand this topic of forgiving the human agent who caused the trial. Which brings us to point number eight, patience and steadfastness in the face of the affliction. And this leads to Allah's love and an increase in his rewards. Many, many ayat about this wala who had the sabreen in me in my office sobre una original home divided up so these are two different eyes where Allah subhanaw taala mentions that Indeed Allah subhanaw taala loves the patient people. And then number two and the second is shorter

Zuma verse number 10. We actually learned that Allah subhanho wa Taala will reward the people of patients without a sub meaning without actual accounting. Certain deeds have certain rewards to them. An individual that prays is 10 or 12. Sooner prayers, Allah has prepared a house in Paradise, that is a very specific reward. Whereas in this ayah Allah subhanaw taala he tells us that the people have patience, they will have reward without without specific account that the greater the test you are feeling. The more patients you are showing, the more reward Allah Subhana wants to Allah

We'll give you so what does patients actually mean? We go back to Lj his analogy he says, it is to withhold the soul from misery and displeasure. So when something bad happens, you don't feel miserable and displeasure at the circumstance to control the tongue from complaining that you do not complain about the situation and circumstance that you are in. And it is to control the limbs from derangement, meaning from disobeying Allah subhanho wa Taala. And it is to remain a platform upon the laws of Allah in all circumstances, and to face adversity with the best of conduct. That is how he summarizes patients. In summary, it is to refrain from doing everything how long, that if an

individual when they're struck by calamity and their ability to and they have the ability to refrain from doing something wrong, then this is considered to be patience, this is considered to be patients and the more patients you are given, then the greater the gift from Allah subhanho wa Taala, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, No one has been given a gift better and more encompassing, then patients

number nine, experiencing joy at the onset of calamity, because of the many benefits that it contains. And this is based upon the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, by the one in whose hand is my soul, they the righteous people would show joy at the onset of calamity, just as you show joy in times of ease. And then he mentions a further example from abdominal massage, who says the situation is comparable to one who is cured from severe illness after drinking foul medicine after drinking foul medicine. So, I want you to imagine, hypothetically speaking, you go into a jungle. And in this jungle, you see this vicious snake that you are bitten by. And the only

way that you can be saved by the venom of this vicious snake is that someone has to take an injection, and stab you with it as deep as they possibly can, as quickly as they possibly can, and inflicting the most amount of pain that they possibly can. Would you get angry at the person for doing that? If they saved your life? And the answer is, hopefully know that you won't get angry at the person because they just saved your life. Because you got stuck, you got attacked by the snake that had this venom. The scholars of the past give this example of the snake and the biting of the venom when they talk about the dunya that the slaves of Allah when they get too attached to this

dunya and that dunya actually becomes detrimental to their acara it becomes a barrier between their paradise, it becomes a barrier between their obedience to Allah subhanho wa Taala. At that point, some pain needs to be inflicted, to remind them of the greater purpose to remind them of their greater purpose. But the slave of Allah subhanho wa Taala once he understands that this pain that I'm feeling right now, is not a pain of this dunya but it is a pain that will bring me closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala and will increase my reward, they actually start to feel joy. So now imagine you've been bitten you start to panic, that oh my god, I only have three minutes before I completely

die. Is there someone that can help me Is there someone that can save me, those three minutes of panic imagine someone comes within that last 30 seconds and stabs you with the serum that you need to get beat that venom how overjoyed would you feel to meet that doctor to meet that individual that gave you the serum. So this is the example over here that when these tests and calamities come, which are often a result of our over attachment to the dunya the pain that you feel is actually met with joy, because you understand that Allah subhanho wa Taala is not putting you putting you through this to punish you. But he's putting you through this to get you closer to Him and to raise your

ranks in the Acura and that is what the slave of Allah subhanho wa Taala feels joy at the onset of calamity, that joy is experience because you understand that there is a greater wisdom and benefit behind it.

And let us go to number 10 which is not only do you feel joy, but you are grateful to Allah subhanho wa Taala being grateful at the onset of the calamity, because of the many benefits it contains. comparable to this is the case of a sick person, thanking a doctor who has just amputated one of his limbs in order to save his life, even though this would serve to disable him to some extent

Now, I want to test you a little bit. Last week, we said that it was attributed to Ahmed Abdullah Cotabato, the Allahu anhu. That the companions, they were grateful in their times of calamity for three things. They were grateful in their times of calamity for three things, who can remember just one of them? Who can remember just one of them? Our hand in the back? Go ahead.

Excellent, very good. That was point number two, that the test and trial was not as great as it could have been the testing trial, this could always be greater, an individual lost $10 they could have lost $100 so they're thankful to Allah subhanaw taala, that it was not as great as it could have been. Our sister over here, go ahead.

Excellent. That was point number one, that they were grateful to Allah subhanaw taala that Allah subhanho wa Taala did not try them in their faith, that when it came to the dunya, they understood that the dunya came and went, but to be tried in your faith is a very difficult thing. It is not something that is dealt with easily. So as long as their test was not in their faith, then this was something that they thanked Allah subhanho wa Taala for the third one is always the difficult one, you have your hand up Bismillah.

From the embarrassment of the deed, I will accept that answer that is great. And I want to know after the class, you remember that. But the point was the fact that Allah subhanaw taala allowed you to be patient and keep your composure. So if Allah subhanaw taala, in your moment of calamity, allows you to keep your composure and to be patient, then this is something that they were thankful for. Because not only did it save them from the embarrassment in this dunya. But in the Hereafter, Allah subhanho wa Taala has prepared a huge amount of reward for them. So when you understand that these tests and trials, bring forgiveness from Allah subhanaw taala, and bring the love from Allah

subhanho wa Taala and bring your Acura your paradise closer to you, then this is something that the slaves of Allah subhanho wa Taala or grateful for. So these are the first 10 points that the chef discusses. And you can imagine that, you know, we're trying to do this in a matter of a couple of hours. This is something that traditionally students of knowledge would go through over a couple of days, over a couple of weeks, that you would come back every week, and you would learn one point, and your goal was during that week to implement it. Now, for the sake of our study, what I'm hoping for is that after tonight, when you go home, you're going to download the book. And we're going to

recap some of the material that we've taken, and you're going to choose two or three of them, because all of them is going to be impossible that you want to try to implement in your daily life you want to try to implement in your daily life. And just notice that the next time you're struck by calamity, you go back to you know what I committed to implementing gratitude, at times of calamity, what can I be grateful for right now, you start off with the list from Amazon or hotdog, and you try to build upon that in your own life. The point of this knowledge is not for it to be theoretical, but it for it to be transformational. And that's what we want to see that the knowledge that we

receive, it transforms our lives for the better. And this is one of the texts that the students used to start with. And I thought it would tie in perfectly with our session last week as well. So we will conclude with that. Remember, homework, go home, download the book, go through the 10 points, trying to find something to implement. And inshallah Next week, we'll do a quick recap the first 10 points, and then we'll go into the seven remaining points as well. To conclude the book does Akuma Faden once again for attending, and we apologize for the inconvenience. But we hope to see all of you again next week. subhanak Allah home we'll be handing shadowline Island istockphoto kawakubo

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