Omar Suleiman – Before Our Hearts Were Hardened

			Your brothers and sisters. Have you ever seen the moment where someone takes Shahada, someone says
La ilaha illAllah Muhammadan rasul Allah for the very first time, and the emotion that they display
you look at that, and you say, I wish I had that, you know, Subhanallah I remember there was once a
young sister that was becoming Muslim that was saying that he loved Mohammed little civil law. And
she, she struggled to get through it. And there was a an elder Muslim sister that had been Muslim
her entire life that started to cry very heavily as well. And she said that I'm crying because I've
been saying that, you know, Allah, Mohammed level civil law for over 60 years, and I never cried,
		

			that I love Mohammed, little civil law never brought me to tears. And this person is saying it for
the very first time, and it's bringing them to tears. And you wonder, and you say, some kind of
love, where is that excitement? Or perhaps you are a convert to Islam. And you remember those
moments and you go back and you think, well, I want to feel that way again. Or you had moments in
Ramadan, or moments in your life, where you really feel like you peaked in terms of your faith,
every single one of us in here can, at some point, look back and feel like there was a time that
they felt closest to Allah subhana wa tan, either it was in the midst of a tragedy, or a loss of
		

			habitat to help all of those that are in the midst of that tragedy right now a lot, I mean, or it
was during a heightened faith awareness, human awareness because of what you were reading or
listening to or the season of hiatus that you were in of good that you were in, perhaps or Umrah or
Hajj, perhaps.
		

			But there's a time when you felt like your faith peaked, like I was really where I wanted to be, I
felt my heart was soft, I felt that it was easier for me to connect to Allah Subhana Hood's ad, and
sometimes you want it back and to want it back is a good sign to be okay, with not feeling like you
are at your full potential in terms of your hearts connection to Allah subhanho wa Taala is a bad
sign to be like, well, that's alright, I've already relegated faith to a certain part of my life.
And I don't care about that part. But to say, you know, I really wish I could feel that way again.
And I really wish I could connect that way again. I was thinking about really this incredible
		

			narration about Rebecca Sadiq or the low tide animal. And I want to preface the narration with
reminding all of us about who I will beckylyn will the Allahu anhu is I will Becca is the man will
the low side and who who would read or an and would not just be moved so much with his own heart
that he had a difficult time reading the floor and without crying, but he would force everyone else
to cry as well. Two incidents that are very famous, in fact, one of them is when aboubaker was on
his way out to Abyssinia to make his law and a man stopped him a non Muslim chief and said, a person
like you can't be turned out, I will protect you. You should not be treated this way. You're a good
		

			man, you do so much good for us. You should not be done this be dealt with this way. And the elders
of today said fine, he can stay. But please let him stop reading the Koran publicly. It's a problem
when he reads hold on publicly, because he just moves people's hearts too much. So back at all the
law on his side find only read it in my house. Then he turned half of his house in Mecca into an
open courtyard. And he would read it. And there you can't stop him from praying in his own courtyard
right. And what would happen is the spouses of those same tribal chiefs and their children would go
out and listen to doubleback had read the poor animal, the low tide animal and listen to his crying
		

			and they would start to cry to some hamdullah. That's how beautiful his recitation was and how
connected he was to his recitation a second time, when the prophets lie Selim was passing away, and
the prophets lie some order that will back in on the law and who would lead the prayer and some of
the the spouses of the wives of the Prophet slice of them, they said, well, let's instead have
almost all the law and reread the prayer, lead the prayer. Why? Because abeka has too soft of a
heart and he breaks down in his recitation, he won't be able to reach the people in terms of his
volume, the way Ahmad would. And the Prophet Simon was upset with that, right that he commanded obec
		

			it'll be a low angle would lead the prayer because there was something more to it than that. So
those are two incidents to preface the incident I'll share with you imagine later on and his Qaeda
have elected us to do what they allow to and who is watching the delegations come from around the
world to embrace Islam. And this delegation comes from Yemen. And the first thing they would do is
they'd read the Quran to the delegations that would come to visit the semi encore and so they heard
the Quran generally Yep. Cool.
		

			And they all started to cry, and Abubakar all the allow on who stared at that for a moment. And he
said hacker the quina sama Casa telco loop. I remember when we used to be like that. But then our
hearts became heart. We got used to it. We got used to the Quran, we got used to all of these
reminders and all of this this, this beauty that comes with this faith we got used to it. And
somehow I wanted to capture that for a moment. Now, first and foremost,
		

			is there any doubt in anyone's mind that I will back it'll be a lot tighter and who still used to
cry when he would read the whole ad, of course, I will record all the time who would still cry, of
course, I will record at his lowest point is better than all of our best points. There's no doubt
about that. And people have high standards hold themselves to higher standards than anyone else. So
he's holding himself to a standard. But that sentiments of I really want to get to that place again.
And feel that connection with Allah subhanho wa Taala. And you think about relationships outside of
the relationship with a loss of Hannah mozzarella, how do people get back to where they want to be?
		

			They remember their original purpose, and they root out the distractions, they go somewhere
together, they spend some time together, they talk very openly, they allocate some time to try to
peel back to the original place that brought their hearts together. This is with two people. Like
let's get back remember when we first met. Remember when we first talked remember that time remember
that time? Let's think together let's talk together. Let's go back to what created the initial
connection and try to revive that connection. And the Prophet slicin taught us that right to do
touch of our Eman to constantly revive our faith by getting it back trying to get it back trying to
		

			get it back and not just get back to its peak. But push it beyond that to its full potential as much
as you can get beyond where you felt the last time. How do we do that. And you know what's so
beautiful about our team. It's not rocket science. It's reminding ourselves this Juma is a reminder,
it's not some you know, fancy medicine, or some type of recitation or some type of formula that you
have to figure out. It comes back to the nature of who you are as a person. And the closer you are
to who you are as a person, the closer you'll be to your love, the closer you'll be to your Lord.
And so you find the Hadith of the prophets, I send them in that regard. I'd be Hodeidah totally
		

			alone. Tyler and Roger and shakeela Sula, he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam have passed what's up
Pallavi Heath upon Allah who is about to tell you in a callback for authoring and miskeen websites
of your team prophets, I send them man comes to him and says, My heart, his heart, he said, Look, if
you want to soften your heart, feed the poor. And Pat the hare caressed the head of an orphan, feed
the poor and caress the head of an orphan put yourself in proximity of those that are suffering. You
know, we what do we do when we feel overwhelmed by hardship that's out there, we shut it off.
Because we have the ability to do so I'm going to watch other things. I don't want to watch this
		

			stuff. I don't want to see this stuff. I don't want to know what's going on in the world. I want to
enjoy my peace. And this disrupts my peace of mind. It also disrupts the potential of your faith
		

			and the state of your heart. That doesn't mean overload and watching bad news. That means play a
productive role in being part of the solution. If you can't find ways to volunteer Subhanallah
everything that's happening right now, do you know how much hunger there is out there? Do you know
what the state of our refugee brothers and sisters are out there right now? Do you know how many
people are out there struggling? And do you know that all of these agencies are looking for
volunteers, where your mask, if you have your vaccine, you don't you can't you know and shout out to
have it, you're even in a better state. Go out there volunteer to serve the people be in proximity
		

			of that. And it will put your heart in a softer place. it'll remind you of original purpose, it'll
take you back to it. It's not sufficient to just think about it as some faraway thing. So that's one
thing the prophets I send them
		

			taught us about action in putting ourselves close to it. Spending time close to it is important. But
I want to get to another part of this another element of this. Before a heart becomes diseased or
dead it becomes distracted. Before a heart becomes diseased or dead. It becomes distracted. I went
back in on the low on who is not talking about this is how it used to be then we started to gossip a
lot. Then we started to back by then we started to spend time in these groups and we started to send
more
		

			He's talking about distraction. law here in Colorado, right? We're allies. And of course, that's far
away from the Sahaba of the prophets lie Selim, but a warning, distracted hearts, distracted hearts,
diseased hearts, or when you're actively putting poison, spiritual poison into your hearts.
Distracted hearts are those that don't spend enough time focusing on what truly gives life to the
hearts. But if you're not spending enough time, if you have a distracted heart, then you're bound
for a diseased heart. And if you let the disease persist, then you risk death of the heart. And this
is something that's really important because somehow a lot in these times we go back to these Hadith
		

			of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said la took
theater and calama the lady the karela there in the capital kilometer at the karela Paswan little
called what in the other other nasty mean Allah Allah Colville kasi
		

			prophets like Selim said, Don't speak too much without remembering Allah subhanho wa Taala. Because
to speak too much without remembering him is to risk the harsh the hardness of the hearts and the
furthest of people away from Allah or those who have the hardest hearts.
		

			I want you to think about very objectively. It's been a year, a year right? Since things really
shifted the way that they shifted for the most part, it's been a it's almost been an entire year.
How much time objectively are you spending in your groups now? How much time objectively are you
spending on your social media? How much time are you spending talking to people through devices or
whatever it may be? And do you see that there is a healthy proportion of how much you're talking
about a loss of habitat or talking about beneficial things.
		

			And I'm not even talking about wasting away and gossip. I mean, had a lot to sin, and to do harm in
times where we should be reminded of a loss of habitat an extra level, that's a bad place to be, may
Allah protect us all. Talking about wasting a lot of time wasting a lot of discussion, having long
conversations that are of no benefit whatsoever. proportionally, proportionally, how do I shift that
now? And Subhanallah we know that Allah subhanho wa Taala is best reminder that the best viken the
best remembrance of Allah subhana wa tada is what?
		

			It is the Quran itself. Ramadan is right around the corner, it will hit us quicker than we know. So
Pamela it is right around the corner Allah hum about living out on Milan, a lot of them have been
living out of Milan, a llama been living out of a band, of course, another janaza to date danez
almost every week, who knows if we make it may Allah subhanho wa Taala allow us to make it and
you're talking about the poor and how much time you're spending with the poor. And it's not rocket
science. They are brothers and sisters, that if you want to know the state of the softness of your
hearts spend time reading alone reflecting on the poor and part of middle pay him or him a whole lot
		

			to untangle MMR and deca and Aveda memberhub the Tila fundador habitat and habitat for animals.
		

			If you want to know where you are, in regards to your connection with Allah and others are in
regards to their love of Allah have the Tila, the love of Allah, then look at the love that your
heart has for the end Abubakar of the law and who held themselves to a standard. So what he saw
there? Does anyone really think that those people that he saw love the Koran more than him? Or did
he see a freshness? Did he see a connection? I said, I want to be that way. I want to have that I
want to always capture that fresh feeling of
		

			that fresh feeling of the Quran. Are you reading more and more than you were before? Are you
spending more time with the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala reflecting on the vicar because I
guarantee you and I guarantee myself, because the lies are guaranteed all of us that if we were to
reduce the time that we spent in pointless conversation, may Allah protect us from hearts that are
distracted, diseased or dead alone. I mean, if we were to spend less time in that, and more time
with that recitation, hearts will be alive. Our hearts will be alive. And you know, they talk about
social media addiction. Right? people wake up in the morning and May Allah protect us all without a
		

			better NFC Right. I mean, like we all have problems. I don't want to project on you. I have a
problem right sometimes, you start checking in
		

			Like we're addicted to these devices. Let me check see what's going on. See this is
		

			what about an addiction?
		

			What about a hearts addiction to the program
		

			to where you wake up and it's five, six o'clock. And I feel really uncomfortable because I haven't
opened the port. And yet today, that app on my phone hasn't opened yet today. That book didn't open
yet today. And you feel uneasy, uneasy because your hearts alive, fully alive, connected. Now there
are brothers and sisters, I'm not projecting here. We all need to get there. I need to get there.
And it's something that takes constant work, but to feel disturbed and uneasy because I need to read
the Quran I need to remember last time I need to read what's beneficial I need to reflect in the
same way that when you see pain, poverty and hardship, I'm uneasy not actively doing something about
		

			this. I need to go and do it tomorrow and miskeen I need to go feed the poor I need to go out there
and help the orphans I need to do something productive about this. I can't just ignore it. These are
the two streams to the heart that the prophets lie some is talking about like no I can't ignore
this. I feel uncomfortable. So set higher standards. set higher standards for yourself objectively.
How much more on are you reading with two double interfaculty with contemplation now than you were
before? carve out a time of the day? be super uncomfortable? If the clock hits a certain hour of the
day and you haven't started your recitation, may Allah subhanaw taala revive our hearts constantly.
		

			And may Allah Let our hearts be in the best state when we die. May Allah subhanho wa Taala yarmulke
liberal colusa with Kuru benalmadena Oh Allah, lot of Turner of hearts, make our hearts firm on your
deen and let the best state of our heart be on the last day of our lives. May Allah subhanho wa
Taala connect our hearts to his words and to the deeds that are pleasing to Him Allah I mean, there
was stuff about us when we started listening for stuff you know for him hamdulillah hearable alameen
wa Salatu was Salam O Allah Sudha Karim Allah Allah He was such a big Marine, Allah. Nina will not
when listening you know when I'm listening that even when I'm not in the SME or Caribbean would you
		

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ending him starting in about a lot in the La Jolla sun with them quarterback well young heroine in
		

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