Omar Suleiman – Find Clarity in Your Cave

			So now I come around to labor careto hope you all are doing well. Now salatu salam ohana. So doula,
I know you also have human water. So Welcome to Night two
		

			of our reflections.
		

			Let's hope this doesn't go for too long. But at least in the meantime, as I said, Every night I'm
just gonna come on and give you guys a small reflection. It's meant to be informal and just
something to think about. In these moments, as we are praying to Allah to relieve us of this
Coronavirus as soon as possible, and to get us back into our massage it into his massage at his
houses.
		

			So I wanted to share with you all reminder today and I was thinking about this, you know, it's
Friday. And we have the recitation of sort of the calf, the recitation of sorts of calf which talks
about the young people that the young men that went to the cave to escape everything that was
happening around them to escape the fit and the trials and the tribulations. And they took retreat
in this cave, then ultimately a loss of pounds out and put them to sleep for a long duration of
time. And a lot tells us the story of how these young men woke up. And of course, if you search the
history of the sleepers, you'll find a lot about them. And it's very interesting to me that the
		

			Prophet sallallahu wasallam mentioned, that certainly can have, which is a sooner to read on Fridays
in particular, is a protection from the job, the first 10 verses or the last 10 verses as a
protection, particularly from an Missy had the job from the Antichrist. And it's particularly a
surah that we can go to a chapter that we can go to, when we're trying to find clarity in the midst
of confusion. And the last days are the most confusing of days as you have unless you had the job.
And no, he's not exactly like the one on Netflix on that I didn't watch it by the way, but unless he
had the job, who, obviously he is able to delude many people and to get many people to follow in his
		

			tracks and to follow his fitness. And the connection is, you know, is made through many different
ways. One of them is that these men ultimately retreated, these young people in the home theater in
Amman will be dropped them was it now that the only thing we know about them is that they're young
people, these young people retreated to that cave to escape the chaos on the outside. And on, you
know, on before the day of judgment, as we get to those major signs, particularly when mercy had the
job comes out. The instruction from the profit slice of them is to hide. And I know the word
quarantine is going to be used over and over and over again. But this is a form of that right? To
		

			get away from him wherever he is right so to not go and challenge him but instead to flee with your
religion, even if you have to go to the mountains away from everybody else and away from everything
else. Because the most precious commodity that you have is your religion, right is your faith. And
so if you have to get away from that, then get away from that. And there's a connection, a direct
connection that made between US and US Fabrica, half the people of the cave, who escaped the fitna
of their times the trials and tribulation of their times, fleeing with their religion into that
cave, obviously not knowing that a lot, we put them to sleep for a very long time. Fast forward to
		

			the time of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is
also going to a cave to find clarity. He's going to loggerhead on an issue of the Allahu anhu
describes the way that the revelation started with the Prophet slicin. I mean, she says that first
he was having these true dreams, he'd see something from the law and he would sell them and then the
next day, the Prophet sallallahu wasallam would would encounter what he saw in his dream and that
took place for six months. And then Allah bestowed the love of seclusion upon the profit slice on
him. So he was not forced into seclusion. The profits license did not find himself in some form of
		

			involuntary period of deep self reflection, because he was put somewhere the prophets lie Selim, at
the peak of his of his career, in terms of being a merchant with all of the love that he had from
society with everything successful all measures of success being met in his life, found a love of
seclusion that caused him to, to go to this cave vaad head off, where he would sit for days and then
weeks, even an entire month. And the key here is that I showed the law and he says that he would
find no desire to leave that cave, so he would find great clarity. It wasn't a time of punishment
for him, but it was a time where he was able to cut all of the noise of the world out and to just
		

			focus right to focus. We had to had enough and he would, he would worship in an Abrahamic way. Okay,
meaning he would worship one God and he
		

			would focus on the worship of that one God, not knowing the specifics of what he was going to be
called to sallallahu wasallam. So you have the example, which we read about today, of the people of
the cave, and we're called to read every single week, and then particularly to protect ourselves
from the great times of fitna the tribulation of the job. And these were people that fled into
seclusion, to get away from the noise of this world, and to get away from the fits out of this
world. And then us also being told that there would come a time where we'd have to make a choice.
And you know, if that time came, may Allah protect us all and protect us from all of the fears and
		

			the tribulations that you choose your religion, you go into seclusion. If you have to go to the
mountains and tend to sheep, and all you have is your faith, then that's worth it. And then you find
the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. What preceded him, you know, his mission, his his Bertha, has been
set forth as a messenger and a prophet was that love of seclusion? Was that taking to that cave? And
finding great clarity? In those moments? What does this mean for us? Right now, we're being forced
into quarantine, we're being forced into some form of seclusion, some period of seclusion. And
obviously, we have tools at our disposal now that allow us to not really be fully secluded, right,
		

			we could turn on a camera we could get on social media, we could text we could remain connected with
the world, even though it would be in a digital sense. But we could remain connected in some ways.
However, what we also have is a unique opportunity of solitude, a unique opportunity of halwa with a
loss of Hannah Montana seclusion, with a law of solitude, where you can find great clarity moments
where you can clear your mind moments where you can shut off all of the all of all of the dust of
dunya all of the dust of worldly things that you acquire as you walk through this world, all of the
you know the corrupting influences that you naturally come into contact with all the time, you know,
		

			and some handle on. This is a time where the prophets lie, Selim said a model Allah Dini LED, that a
person is on the way of their friends. He also mentioned sallallahu wasallam, the difference between
a good friend and a bad friend, right? A good friend, is like someone who sells perfume, even if you
don't take their inventory, they rub off on you and you smell good. A bad friend is like someone
who's a blacksmith, right? So even if you know, even if you don't take from their product, the smoke
of it still comes on to you. So you know, a more practical example for our times is someone that
smokes cigarettes, a friend of yours that smokes, and you smell like that smoke, even if you
		

			yourself did not smoke. So there are influences around us all the time. But you learn the true
nature of yourself when you're alone. And you have an opportunity for clarity. And what you find is
that when you look at the lives of the son of when you look at the lives of the pious predecessors,
they all had this daily or weekly routine where they completely seclude themselves. And so you'll
find, for example, a great scholar like Ibrahim Adham, Rahim, Allah, who was well known for his
wisdom, how did he find all that wisdom? How did he have such clarity in life, because there was an
hour of the day that you could not find the blinking light on it. That was the that was the
		

			reputation that he had, the great judge should have called the especially you know, so think about
someone that's especially public that deals with the public on an involved or at an involved level
on a continuous basis. And you take from the example of a man who actually has a great judge in
Islamic history. And on the day of Friday, he was known to go to this place he had this home that he
would go to on the day of Friday, and no one could talk to him, right? So he'd go to gym, but no one
could interact with him on that. On that day, Friday was his day to reflect, to gain clarity, to
recharge, and to get to where he needed to be. So that he could continue to fulfill the obligations
		

			of the oma and the brilliant way that he was able to fulfill those obligations. So right now take
this as an opportunity to do well with your cave. You know, some Hello, I was watching. I was
sharing with a close friend that I'd watched that movie, some of you might remember the movie in
pursuit of happiness with Will Smith and watched it with the kids to gain you know, some perspective
obviously on on people that are struggling right now. And how struggles can be compounded in the
system that we live in right now. There's that scene where you know, he and his son,
		

			because he's homeless at night. He has nowhere to go and they go to a bathroom and they imagine that
it's a cave, and they lock that public bathroom and hope to not be or he hopes to not be caught by
the cops as he's in the cave. Right?
		

			And somehow a lot like I'm thinking about it more and more, especially with shorts and calf as we're
reading it.
		

			The blessing of being able to sit at home, turn everything off, and just gain some peace of mind.
Now I know that you know, if you if you've got kids are learning how to homeschool.
		

			You know, spouses might drive each other nuts right now. There's so many different things that can
happen right now. But you still have the ability inshallah, hopefully now more than before, to be
able to cut everything off, shut everything off and gain clarity, gain, clarity, renew intention,
Count your blessings, and recharge. So yes, inshallah, at some point, this is all going to end and
we're all going to go back to our lives, whatever that looks like, whenever that looks like if a lot
gives us life. But you know, treasure the moments that you have right now in your teeth and find
clarity. And by the way, you know, just something I mentioned this in conclusion, the Prophet
		

			sallallahu Sallam he used to go back to him
		

			at times, so he actually went to his law after law, most difficult moments of his life, the Prophet
slicin retreated back to that cave.
		

			And so for us, where we don't maybe have the physical cave, find your quiet spot. Today, Chef
Mohammed, fully beloved friends, dear brother, Chef mindfuck, he had shared a picture of how he made
like a little muscle in his home. And I know that that many people you know, already probably have
sort of a little muscle in their home, like a place to pray in their home a corner that they reflect
in, now's a good time to find that place, if you don't already have it, or to establish yourself
within that place, if you already have it, and to really, really,
		

			you know,
		

			intentionally allot a certain amount of time every single day, inshallah tada to that corner to that
cave, so that you can refresh and regain that clarity. So that's the reflection that feeds today,
sort of kind of, again, the connection of reading about the sleepers, the Cave of the Seven
Sleepers. It's always great when I go to Jordan, my in laws live right next to that cave. They don't
live in a cave, but they live right next to that cave. So we get a chance to go to that cave.
		

			And of course, there, it's disputed, whether that's the actual one, but somehow loves is just a
really beautiful site.
		

			One of the sites that's believed to be potentially whereas hobby care for, and that's our connection
to them. And that's a lesson that we learn every single Juma and especially as we neared the end of
times this idea of a digital coming out. And we would if we had to take to a cave if we had to go to
the mountains, to flee with our faith that we would do so. And the best way to renew our faith and
to gain clarity is to find moments of solitude, and to and to refresh ourselves in Charlottetown.
And when we have those moments, so as much as everyone is going crazy, in quarantine,
		

			turn your quarantine into a cave and sha Allah tala where, you know, turn it into your head off,
inshallah Tada, where you can gain some perspective and some clarity in these difficult times.
Hello, Hayden.
		

			Could you please wait a minute? In the start? Yes, I'll maybe I will wait a minute. And let's start
in Charlottetown. So I'll try to wait a little bit longer to give you guys a chance to catch up. In
the meantime, again, you know, look out every single night and shell lots out at this time.
		

			For just a short reminder, go to Kane institute.org. European Institute, you'll find a page which
has some of the content that we're going to be putting out in Charlottetown that's supposed to that
hopefully will be beneficial to you in these times and let us know what we can do better in
Charlottetown. Let me know if there's something that you would that you'd like me to touch upon.
I'll make sure that I go through the comments to see what what what it is in Charlottetown that
you'd like me to touch upon in the coming nights. I hope I don't have to be doing this for several
months because I might run out of content, I might run out of things to reflect on so there might be
		

			some nights where I just decided to come on and just hang out, like Malala so now I have to lie