The difference between Posing and Aspiring
2017-06-16 – Ramadan 2017
Omar Suleiman – Late Night Reflections
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of animal symbols and their use as symbols of behavior. They emphasize the need for a healthy balance between professionalism and community in publicity, and the importance of finding a culture of cooperation and cooperation in public policy. Balancing these values is crucial for healthy publicity.
AI: Transcript ©
Haman hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam O Allah, Karim Allah and he also had to sell emphysema and kathira.
So you know what we did last year with these late night reflections? Does anyone even remember what we did? So I can gauge how effective it was?
What did we do last year?
Wow, went through a book. Yeah, we went through a book. I don't remember what book it was or what we spoke about.
Two different things. What did I talk about?
The Book of patience. Kitab, a suburb from
Manhattan accosted in America makes me feel a lot better about not doing a book this year since you guys don't even remember the book I talked about last year. This year, I was trying to think of some ideas as to what we would do in Atlanta. And one of my favorite books of all time, is actually not it's just a bunch of disconnected thoughts. by an amount of metal playing Rahim, Allah tala, and it's called the filat. So even it'll tell you in Rahim, Allah, the great 13th century scholar, wrote about a bunch of I mean, it's basically a bunch of lines, small, short poems, and sometimes not so poetic, just quotes and reflections on life, reflections on the Hereafter, reflections on
spirituality. It's a very powerful book. And just each paragraph, and each line is so loaded that if we wanted to do a series on it, it could literally take us 10 years just to finish it, because every single line is a lecture. So it's a powerful book. So what I'm going to do in Charlottetown, I'll jump from a scene from Lebanon claim and I'll reflect on a saint for a minute I am maybe I'll jump to do you want to share the poetry of the mama Shafi Rahim Allah just take upon a reflection and reflect based upon that. And it'll be random selection, but just some things that are beneficial and useful to us and shine lots on one very important thing about this lecture. And it's not a lecture,
it's more of a reflection session. And I really don't have notes, I just have the same. And that's it. And I'll just reflect on it is that I don't want you to think about anybody else when I'm talking. One of the problems with lectures on spirituality, especially when you talk about spiritual diseases, is that your mind will wander to people that you feel like fit the profile
instead of yourself. So I want you to try to think about yourself with every single thing that I say when we talk about any spiritual disease or we talk about anything that's a benefit. Think about yourself and your self only try to internalize it in a way that's personally beneficial to you. So the same today is actually a saying that I am Rahim Allah tala
says that I heard my teacher say Does anyone know who I am as teacher was
held on students?
This is famous teacher. Even Samia Rahim Allah Tasha was summoned to me or him Allah. So he said that Carlos America shiftless Naaman, Samia Himalaya.
Come out and hire a nurse an MBR that in a short one nurse mentorship, hubby him, be him, man, I'll cut that beam. He said, just like the best of all of God's creation are the prophets. The worst people in the world are those that were false prophets. Those that portrayed themselves as being prophets falsely. Now, if you think about it, when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was still alive, you had a bunch of false prophets that rose up traditionally, in the history of studying Prophethood. After every prophet comes, you have some other false prophets that tried to take advantage of either their lack of authority, meaning that profit not being able to gain any
authority to prevent them, or try to take advantage of people's emotions after they're gone or the natural confusion. Because if you think about it, you know, when it comes to the prophets of Allah, there's so much that depends on them.
Right? So you think about and the most prominent of them all in this sense is a Saudi Islam Jesus peace be upon him, right who speaks for Jesus after he saw his Salah. Okay, so who takes the mantle and gets to be the voice of Christ after he Sati his Salaam is raised by a loss of Hannah Montana, in you know, in what we know, last penance Abdullah firehall La La Jolla, saving him from the persecution of his enemies who gets to speak for Christ. In the case of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. While he was still alive, he received a letter from a very prominent false prophet, and this false prophet really had the potential to reach
corrupt Islam for us. Does anyone know who that is?
A man by the name of masala Hussain al Qaeda maceda mother liar. masala had his own pour on. I mean, he was really ready to go. He had his own Koran that he was making up. He was he was from a powerful tribe, one of the tribes that really rejected the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam bento hanifa will say number has a lot going for him just in terms of prominence and position. He wasn't very good at offering his foot on his foot on was always about food. All right, seriously. Everything he used to offer in his problem was food was some something poetic about food. And the people used to actually make fun of them. And they used to say, does the angel come to your heart or to your
stomach? Alright, because of all of the verses about food that he would author but you know what he belonged to a prominent tribe. It's a deeply tribalistic society. And he rose up in the time of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, he sends a letter to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, from will say, Lama, the Messenger of Allah to Mohammed, the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So even has the audacity to address the prophets lie some that way. When the Prophet slicin passes away, and you have this rise of false prophets, he is by far the most dangerous of the false prophets. This man has the ability to remove his account. This man has the ability I mean to to
change many of the foundational elements of the religion and he has quite a following to the point that when I will Becquerel, the law unknown had it not been for aboubaker seriously aboubaker not just supporting the profit slice I'm in his life, but maintaining the position of the profits license in his death, had it not been for apobec taking a very stern stance against the masala fighting was sediment crushing the revolt of Mozilla, when even Ahmed will hop orbital the allow Thailand who thought you know what, maybe it's not a good idea to fight this guy, because he's very powerful. And he's brutal. He mutilates people, right? He has power, he has influenced all types of
things. And I will battle the law on who fights him and make sure that he stops this, this false prophet from ruining everything of the prophets lies on established for 23 years. It's because of the amount of a father that were killed in the battle with machinima. That the point that the idea came to actually compile the Koran and so one must have because all of the people that had memorized it, or so many of them were dying, right? This is a dangerous false prophet. So this is not the point. These are tangents and there will be a lot of tangents here. But the fact of the matter is that the best of people are the prophets. There's no doubt about that. The worst of people are the
false prophets. I'll tell you guys a story. By the way, this is, this is just late night.
It's not reflections or tangents. But you guys can remember this right? After Hurricane Katrina, one of we took care of a pastor and some of his congregation, and we put them in apartments in New Orleans when there were no places to go. And then two years later, I went in there and they gave us an award and the pastor as he was introducing me, he goes, brother, Omar is a prophet.
And I was like, What are you doing? He
said, he's a prophet. And he actually gave me Shahada to number one, he gave me a certificate that said, from Prophet Elijah, to Prophet almost to a man, I was like, if I don't burn this thing, and get rid of it, then very bad things are probably going to happen to me. So prophet obviously has different connotations. We're talking about an abbey and I'm not claiming to be a prophet in any connotation. We're talking about a Nabhi. And the prophets lie sort of mentioned that there would be several false prophets that would come after when we see the havoc that that caused in the oma even till today, false prophets that arise that start cults, and that really wreak havoc on the on the
profits license center, another Hadeeth. By the way, he said that the worst of people are those that either killed a profit, cotton and a B o putana. Who maybe it's not authentic, it is very interesting. The worst person is the one who kills his profit or is killed by his prophet. Like how bad do you have to be that Allah sends you guidance, he sends you a prophet, he sends you a messenger and you kill the Prophet that was sent to you or you are killed by that Prophet, the one who's bringing you guidance in the entire lifetime of the Prophet slicin um, he only killed one men, who was
a man by the name of obey,
obey even honnef who swore that he would kill the Prophet slicin came out the prophets license in Babel, spit out the Prophet slice I'm a fierce enemy of the Prophet slice Allah and the messenger Allah His Salatu was Salam when he swore that he would kill the profit slice on the profit slice on sport that he would instead be killed by his hand and the messenger it his slot was not in the battle. He threw a spear at him as he was charging
The Prophet slicin was already badly wounded and the spear just caught his neck from the side.
And he started to scream and suck patella named Mohammed catellani. Mohammed catellani Mohammed Mohammed killed me, Mohammed killed me, Mohammed killed me and they were saying so what are you talking about? It's okay, you're gonna recover from this. It's not that big of a deal. And he said, No, he swore he would kill me. This is death. patella named Mohammed the Prophet slicin him killed me. And that's when the Prophet slicin said, the worst of people are those that kill a prophet or are killed by their Prophet Musa alayhis salaam is sent to a people and they attempt to kill him or he kills them. Okay, as it is Allah who tried to kill her Isa It is his own people tried to kill
him. Benny is not even tried to have him killed. Right, they took him to punches, you know, and said that they wanted him to be killed. So the Prophet sighs I'm just saying that's the worst person that you're killed by your profit or you kill your profits. Okay. So, anyway, what's the point of this message again? He says, Come on the Hieronymus MBR he said just like the best of human beings are the profits. He served in the shuttle and NASA mentorship the hubby him mineral CAD minicabee he said the worst of people are those who would imitate or pretend to be profits from the liars. He says what they're under home in home while a some in home and he claims to be amongst them and he is
not amongst them. But then he goes on. He says that in the Hydra nasty Baraka home. He said the best of people after the prophets are a literal Amma was Shahada was the diccon when mcculley Swan and the Redeemer the scholars was Shahada. The martyrs was the acorn, those who are truthful, truthful both in word and deed. Well, hopefully soon and people who are sincere. So again, the best of people after the prophets are a little Mr. Shahada, a Cydia cone and Mohali soon, he said what in sharp rinascimento shall be happy him?
And he said, and the worst people are those who imitate them?
Well, who are they some in home, but he is not truly amongst them. Okay. So he claims that are under home and home while a sum in home, he claims to be amongst those people. And he is not really amongst those people. So you can see a connection here that he's making, just like the best of people are the profits, the worst of people are those who claim to be profits and are not actually profits. Those are the worst people in the sight of God. But then he says you have just like by that logic, if you then move on to the next layer, the scholars, the martyrs, the truthful ones, and people who are sincere people of sincerity that covers everybody, right in the sense that this is
something that is capable that that everyone is capable of attaining. Either floss or sip at, you know, you don't need any position to attain a class sincerity or sip or truthfulness. These are stations that are available to the masses that are available to anybody and of course, you know, in certain situations as Shahada martyrs on certain situations are not people studying they become scholars. But he said that just like those are the best people after the prophets. The worst people are those who claim to fall into one of these categories and they are not really amongst them.
Okay.
The Prophet sallallahu wasallam says in the Hadith from a snap into the bucket all the love of Santa Ana con la muchacha de Urbina mural, la tele bc fel Bay zoo, and watershed bureau be mme Europa, Calabasas Kobe zoo. The one who portrays something of themselves that is not truthful is like a person who wears two garments of falsehood. And I'm gonna go into the details of what that means the one who portrays something of themselves. That's not truthful is like someone who wears two garments of faucet. Okay, so let's talk about this and what this means for us for a moment and shout Allah to Allah, and what we can take from this. If you look at the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. And what he
dealt with, and what the Prophet salallahu Islam warned of most, the messenger it is Salatu was Salam warned of hypocrisy. hypocrisy is far worse than sinfulness. hypocrisy is far worse than sinfulness. A sinner recognizes that they're sending a sinner knows that they're distant from Allah and a sinner is humbled or in some cases even humiliated by their distance from Allah. Okay.
And they have ambitions to change. I might be going through horrible things in my life. Horrible
things, but I have enough of a sincerity with a loss of Hannah Montana, to say, you know what I want to change, I want to get better. So I'm going to give you guys two examples from the Sierra and you tell me how this makes sense. Okay? A man who gets so drunk
that the Sahaba start to hit him with shoes and cursed him.
Okay, because of how often he gets drunk.
And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Don't curse him, don't support his shavon against him. And what did the prophets lie? Some say? He loves Allah and His messenger.
Can you imagine like the prophets lie, some saw beyond the drunkard and the drunkenness
or him being drunk in those moments, the prophets lie Some said, You know what? He's going through a rough time right now. He's messing up. But that man loves a love his messenger, do not curse him. He knows he's messed up, he feels low. And this was a person that used to complain to the Prophet sly some about his habit, by the way. So it's not like he's trying to hide it. And you know, and not trying to hide it in the sense that
you know, when it comes to sins, hiding sins, out of shame is what we should do. Okay? But getting help for sins is not impermissible. In fact, we should do that if we're unable to solve our problems ourselves. Like if we find that we're struggling with a sin, a particular sin, and we're not able to fix it ourselves. We should seek help for them. But boasting about sins is what's hot on. So he was someone that would complain about his addiction, about his habit, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam sees the way the companions are belittling him. And the prophets Isom says he loves Allah and His messenger. Don't curse him. He loves Allah and His messenger. Compare that
to this man in the Battle of bed, they're going around fighting the enemy. So bravely
fighting off the machine fighting off these enemies, this brave warrior amongst the Muslims saying Allahu Akbar, saying La ilaha illAllah, charging forward, seeking Shahada seeking martyrdom as he's fighting against these persecutors, this brave warrior, you know, from the epic tales that you see from the battles of the prophets.
And he's going around the battlefield, and he's chanting out the name of Allah. And he's professing his love for Allah. And he's actually, you know, diving into the middle of the battlefield. He's fighting off the enemy, he manages to take out seven of the enemy. And the Sahaba are looking at him the likes of abubaker. And Omar on Earth, man and Ali are looking at him and they say, that guy is a guy in general.
You want to see a man in paradise? That's him. And the prophets lie Selim, in the chaos of better, doesn't say about that man. He loves a lot. His Messenger doesn't say about that man that, you know, he is a good man, but you know, go reminds him of a lot. You know what he says? But who says that man is going to help?
conclusively that man is a man from hellfire.
How does this make sense? The drunk Sahabi
and the brave warriors, the hobby and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam contradicting the companions in this case and saying, You know what? This guy loves a lot His Messenger and the prophets licencing about this guy in the battlefield. This person is a man from *, even as the companions profess that this man is a man from Paradise.
And the Sahaba looked for him. And they found him at the end of the battle of Bedford when they when they were counting the casualties. They saw that at some point in the battle, he suffered a wound he put his sword into the ground, and then he fell on top of his sword and committed suicide.
That man's name is unknown tapanuli we actually have no idea what his name is none of the narrations of the of the companions, by the way, that they would not mention the names of people like this, so we don't even know his name. But that man, presumably to the Sahaba was Hamza right was Musab in Romania was on the st was of the same caliber as some of those great martyrs that we know of today. But because the prophets lie, some said conclusively that's a man from hellfire.
Look what came out of that. Why? Because he was a poser.
And the prophets lie, some knew it.
He was posing, and the prophets lie Selim knew it. The Shahada are the most honored of people.
People that put their lives on the line for noble causes. People that fought persecution people that people that died in such noble ways, put their lives on the line.
They are noble people, what noble people and the prophets license so these people would never suffer twice, they would see their place in Gemini at the first hit. When they are struck for the right away, they see their place in gentlemen. Without taxes then that iniquity roofie severely lacking and water, but I don't think of those people that they're dead rather, they're alive. All these, these beautiful things said about them these noble people,
but the most humiliated person would be someone that would pose as a martyr, and SubhanAllah. This shows how much a person could crave appearance could crave praise, that they would lose their lives to be praised, even though they're not around to enjoy it anymore.
Like what's the benefit of dying in this brave way and people saying Mashallah, Shaheed so and so and what a great person and this and this not if you're not even around to hear it,
think about them, but we would be willings in our craving for that praise sometimes to even do that, that there are some people that would throw themselves into that,
to get that type of praise. You know, some had a lot think about them, the atom they're in among
the scholars,
one of the two MBR the inheritors of the prophets, those people that don't just know narrations about Allah, they know Allah.
They're not just alum, be economic law, knowledgeable in the rulings of Allah. They are knowledgeable about Allah. They don't just quote the Prophet sallallahu wasallam they live the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
rula What efforts will NBR the scholars that are the inheritors of the prophets, family of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the prophets that came before and that they carry the mission of the prophets. The worst thing that you could possibly do is to seek that knowledge not so that you could gain that noble station from Allah subhana wa Tada. But so that you could gain some sort of station from the people of the love and Mr. Little the allowance Allah and who narrates and this hadith is metaphor to the prophets lie some in some narrations, meaning that the prophets lie some himself says this, that there are three people
who as they seek knowledge, they only increase in their path to help, meaning they only delude themselves into punishment. Three people number one, a person seeks knowledge Lee asleep, he will do enough to turn the heads of the people towards them to turn people's faces towards them.
The second one, the Prophet sallallahu wasallam said to shame the ignorance. Some people like to shame the ignorant. They love to be able to talk down the people in a room tell someone that they don't know what they're talking about, to shame an ignorant person. Number three, the messengers of Allah. Allah mentions that a person likes to argue with the scholars.
So this person seeks
out of Ria and G Dan, and kibin are showing off and being an argumentative person and putting people down. So their spiritual diseases which are supposed to be rectified by the pursuit of knowledge, are actually what are driving them to pursue knowledge in such a superficial way. Such a superficial way. Imam Ahmed Rahim Allah Allah, He narrated, he was asked about bichette and half year old the Allahu taala. And we'll be sure happy Rahim Allah was someone that was knowledgeable, but he wasn't as knowledgeable as the great Imams and Mr. Mohammed Rahim Allah used to encourage people to listen to him and to take from him and he used to praise him. And they said, he's not really that
knowledgeable of a person, Mr. Mohammed said, but he's realized the fruit of it. He already has the fruits of knowledge, he's gained the fruits of knowledge which is Russia, to have that deep all of Allah subhanaw taala into my yaksha law seminary by the healer, Elena, those who truly have all of Allah are people of knowledge. So he praised Bishop and Bishop Bishop has a narration which is very powerful. He said that I would rather a person seeks this dunya seeks this world through singing, than scholarship.
Because at least a person and singing by the way is not referring to anything in the realms of within the bounds of permissibility. In this context, he means like a person becomes a rock star, whatever a rock star looks like in the seventh century or the eighth century, okay? But a person pursues the dunya through that then pursues it through something so sacred like our tradition.
And he said, because a corrupt ending should only be sought through a corrupt means. A noble ending should be sought through noble means
So how can a person seek something that is noble with corrupt intentions? And in that situation, you know, corrupt means. They said, Listen, you're gonna seek your enemy you need to seek it for a loss of Hannah Montana. Seek it for Allah. The goal of knowledge is to become knowledgeable of alarm not to be called One who is knowledgeable about the last panel. It's the goal of all in is to become knowledgeable about Allah subhanaw taala.
So shiftless summon Samia Rahim Allah to Allah is saying here, that the best of people are these people. The worst of people are those who pretend to be these people so that they could get the benefit of it. But not actually the sacrifice of it. Okay. Now, some of you might be thinking to yourself, Well, why does this apply to me? Because he didn't just mention the scholars and the murders. What did he mentioned people have sincerity.
People who are truthful people that are known to be good people. And you know what happens? And I spoke about this early on, and I'm alone and one of the hospitals that there's a precursor to the there's a precursor to seeking praise, which is that you start seeking validation before praise. You always need to have your deeds validated by somebody else. Did I do a good job? Am I doing okay? And you are doing it for a lot, but you also want to be validated the entire time and then eventually you crave that validation to where it ruins your intentions in the first place. now in this situation, I've had a lot one of the things that the scholar has mentioned Caleb is he fell basil,
and went to shove the beam out of neonatology, the prophet SAW some some, someone who poses
or proclaims something or portrays something about themselves, that's not true. This is not just a person who does a good deed and then gets praised for it. This is a person that will even falsify good deeds and good qualities so that they can be praised for it. Allah mentions it in sort of earlier, Emraan, you have bought a new model we met on your phone, like people love to be praised for things they didn't even do in the first place. And if you think about how dangerous that is, in our world, in particular, how easy it is to falsify your image.
You could falsify credentials in this world, you could say all types of things about you know, in verifies anything anymore.
You could post things online, you could, you could say whatever you want. And we live in a culture where you sell yourself all the time to elevate yourself in the worldly sense,
right? You keep beefing up your credentials, beefing up your resume, beef up your CV, and in the professional realm, that's okay. Do what you have to do.
Keep building it and you keep on trying to sell yourself and you write your resume. And be honest with yourself, those of you that have written a resume, you know, when you read that resume, that doesn't sound like you.
You read that resume and you're like,
Okay, hopefully they'll believe it.
They'll buy it. And every resume is great leader, great communication skills. You know, very friendly and loves to work with a team and all that great stuff. Right? Everybody has the same like description just reworded and repackaged in certain ways and then you try to oversell yourself constantly. You think we oversell ourselves in our careers? Right? And it's necessary because it's part of the competition. You have to constantly oversell yourself. But what happens when you start overselling your Dini image? That's dangerous. That's very dangerous. How do you oversell your Dini image? All right. Now there are old sayings about there even there's a joke about Ria about showing
off that there was a guy that was
praying
in the masjid and, you know, lengthening his record and lengthening his sujood and the people were saying, Mashallah, look at him lengthening his record length is to do it. So he's praying in the messenger that he's bowing for such a long time and prostrating for such a long time. They're saying, Mashallah, look at this brother, and the middle of the Salah, he goes, and I'm fasting too. Alright. So
that's a little bit. That didn't happen in Valley Ranch method. Not that I know of at least okay.
But what happens when you oversell yourself? Indeed, how do you you know some How about the extent of the Sahaba? If you look at the companions, there's a narration site, so he's Muslim, where obviously the notary or the Alon was talking to some of the companions and he's asking them he's saying, Who amongst you saw the star last night? I'll coke up and like he was talking about like a shooting star, something that was interesting in the skies last night, who amongst you saw that?
And he recognized when he said
that that that people might think because he said that that he was praying for the omelette
so he before even saying anything like you know when you try to imply something I didn't lie. I saw the star last night if they want to think I prayed the envelope that's fine. Okay. He just noticed that he was talking to his friends that they thought when he said that that he was praying the amulet the implication is that will you were up last night and we weren't up. So he quickly says isn't Sahih Muslim. He says By the way, I wasn't praying last night he said I got stung by something. And I woke up live. So something stung me on my foot. So I woke up. So that's why I noticed the star last night. Like he made it a point to crush that image somehow, so that people
would not think of him something that was untrue. Now he didn't say, you know, he didn't lie and say he was committing a sin.
We're not told or we're not taught in our Deen to broadcast our evil and broadcast our sin as a means of humility, your shortcomings, keep them to yourself not out of shame from the people but out of shame from Allah subhanaw taala. But you know, I have shortcomings. I'm trying to work on myself. And everyone has those sins. Everyone has those shortcomings. As long as those shortcomings do not involve the wrongdoing of other people. They don't involve volume, I need to work on these shortcomings.
And ask a lot to forgive me and trust and allows mercy on the day of judgment that he'll bring me close. In a najwa the secret conversation that the prophets lie some cause they called it and would say that I protected you. In this world sets out to Holocaust denier, I made sure that no one heard of this in this world in the dunya. And I'm forgiving it for you in the hereafter. That's a lot of mercy. Right. Personal shortcomings are one thing, you don't broadcast personal shortcomings. You don't. As long as those shortcomings are you and you alone. Don't broadcast them, work on them, fight them as much as you can. And if you need to get help for them get help for them. That's not
how long that's actually, you know, somehow I heard something so beautiful from one of my teachers. And this is one of the first teachers that taught me Kitab matoba
Shahada, she, Shani, I loved what he said, I really, really, Allah I adored this man for the statement. He He said that, you know, there is nothing more humiliating than admitting your shortcomings to somebody. Like that's really, really humiliating. What a testimony of your sincerity to a loss of Hannah Montana, when you've tried to fight something on your own, and you haven't been able to overcome it, and you want a lot of pleasure so much that you're going to go to another human being and tell them about your shortcomings because you want them to help you be Sabina said, how sincere is that person in the sight of Allah, I was like, I never thought of it that way. Like
you're willing to humble yourself and say, I need help. Talk to your friend, you talk to a counselor, you talk to whatever it is,
I need help.
And you're willing to admit that shortcoming because you don't want to meet along with that shortcoming. So Allah was covering you, and you're not boasting about this, and you're not proud of it. You just need help. That is a huge testimony of sincere that's a testament of sincerity. I'm not worried about my image, I want help. I want someone to help me and I want to meet Allah subhanaw taala free from this particular shortcoming free from this particular sin.
Right, that's sincere, that's actually a class. So a person might not even be actively falsifying credentials about themselves, but they're giving off an impression you're born and you're gonna do the math on the fly. And they love to be praised, even for things they don't do.
You want people to make incorrect assumptions about yourself,
that people can say great things about you. Very, very dangerous to have that type of deception. And of course, the worst thing here is when you're even willing to lie about things that you don't do. I mean, you're taking it beyond that, yeah, react, you're showing off something you actually did. Your you're actually doing a good deed, but you're doing it to seek approval, or you're telling people about your good deed to get approval. in this situation. This extreme. You're telling people about something you didn't even do or creating an impression about yourself. That's not that has no semblance of reality, just so people can praise you. That's when a person really becomes a praise
addict. So you can see the spectrum that we find in these ahadeeth. And in these narrations, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is mentioning to us now how do we bring this back home? Now? What's the difference? And this is actually what I what I want us to resolve By the way, what's the difference between being a poser
and being someone who's aspirational, meaning what? I really want to be this person
I really want to aspire to be this better version of myself.
And in that process, I'm practicing qualities that perhaps I haven't mastered just yet. I'll give you an example. You get in an argument, or someone borates you and you smile, and you put your head down, and you You're so certain about it. You know, you just show such grace, as that person is insulting you, when that person insults you, and you show that grace, you're not showing that grace because it brings you closer to the center of the Prophet slice them, you're showing that grace so that people can say, What a crazy man that was. And look how good that brother or sister was Mashallah, you did it to make the other person look like a fool. You actually didn't do it out of
sincerity you did it to make the other guy look like a fool or the other sister look like a fool. And so that you could come out looking like the one who took the higher ground. So it wasn't out of your love for the sooner it still was out of seeking a person's or seeking people's approval or to make the other person look bad. Or to win the argument and you just had a you were better at controlling your temper. That's not sincerity. That's not sooner. But let's say that I really, really have a bad temper.
And when I'm having this argument,
I mean, what's happening on the inside, is I'm having all these images of spitting at this person and hitting this person and doing very violent things. And I don't want to say anything further, but like, I'm you know, and I don't have those types of thoughts when I'm having an argument with anybody here, by the way, just so you guys know, I don't think about killing anybody, right? But I'm thinking, you know, if my mind goes to these places, like I'm inside, I'm really, really struggling and people are looking at me and people are saying, Mashallah, he's so calm.
She's so calm, and you're anything but calm on the inside.
Like, you seem to have tranquility Sakina, but you really don't have tranquility, you're suppressing that monster inside of you. Because you really want to be that person that has that stickiness, you want to have that actual tranquility to where this stuff isn't even going to bother you anymore.
It's not even, like the next time you get into the situation where you're suppressing your anger, it's a lot easier, because it's actually coming more natural. Now, it's actually a quality that you are mastering. Okay, that's your learning, that's aspirational. That's your, you're trying to be that person, not because of anything that other people will say. And maybe you're not yet that person. But that's what you're trying to be. Let's say that you're someone that
you know, just a loss of hundreds out of blest to make Toba and you're coming to the masjid a lot all of a sudden, and people just assume that you're a knowledgeable person. Just because you're so frequent in the Muslim, all of a sudden, you started sitting in all the Holocaust. So people just naturally start to assume those things about you. That's not that you you know, that doesn't mean that you're a bad person, or that you falsified an impression. That just means you're doing a good job now. And people are making those types of assumptions for themselves. And it might not be true about you yet. Maybe you're really not a knowledgeable person at all. But you know what, you're
making the effort because you want to be a knowledgeable person for the sake of Allah subhana wa, tada, you want to pursue it for the right reasons. That's good. That's practice. That's aspirational. That's something that a lost contact looks at With pleasure. You start volunteering around the mustard all the time, and you're doing great things around the mustard for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala. And someone sees you and thinks, wow, what a what a lightning rod Mattia, lots of adekola thinks all these great things about you, you didn't create that impression, you really want to be that person, not for them, but for a loss of Hannah Montana.
So on a practical level, you know, and again, what I will do in these in these nights is just reflect on one of these sayings from from the Diwan of a showery on a practical level.
As much as you can remove people's sights from you, if you really think about what we're trying to do in this dunya what we're trying to do in this world is we're trying to be what about strangers and there are people that are horrible, that are strangers in this world, even as they're surrounded by people all the time.
And it's but not have it in the dunya but not have the dunya.
To Wear Subhan Allah you are with yourself. You are with a loss of habitat of your heart is with the loss of habitat, even as you're surrounded by people.
You know, you're you're constantly maintaining that connection, so that you don't become diverted from that goal.
And you don't portray something of yourself. That's not true. And one thing as well that I'd say, Do not ever let the shape on, convince you that you should abandon a good deed or you should
Abandon something good that you're doing because you don't feel like you live up to it.
Okay, I'll be very blunt a lot of sisters say I don't want to wear hijab, for example, why? because people think something of me that's not true. You don't, you know, our brother would say, you know, people see me in the messages all the time and I don't want people to think that that's, that's who I am. It's not true. I feel like a hypocrites. I don't want to do these good things because I feel like a hypocrite because people will think of me something that's not true. That is nothing but shavon shavon wants to disconnect you from Allah subhana wa Tada. And that's a really, really filthy trick.
don't pursue knowledge. Why? Because you're gonna become arrogant.
No, pursue knowledge and fight your intentions. Don't go to the masjid don't do these things, because you know that they're not for a loss of Hannah Montana. The only time when a person actually abandons a good deed is number one, when it's not an obligation, you never have excuse to abandon an obligation ever, ever. You never, ever let shavon convince you to abandon an obligation. Or secondly, if you are pursuing something that is voluntarily good, and you know you're doing it for for other than Allah, and you are pursuing it with evil, nefarious aims, and you're not even trying to rectify your intention.
Like you're settled in your hypocrisy, that's when you need to take a break. You know, somehow, I just think the sincerity of some of these are the amount that they knew. They knew when to take their break, they knew one a person, how much time you need to a lot for yourself very bada.
And just give you a few examples, you know, and some of these names might be familiar to you. Some of them might not but you know, the great judge, and he's a really fascinating character. His name is Shree Shree, he'll call the show right I was from the tambourine, so the second generation of Muslims. But he was such a brilliant judge that he used to do judgment amongst the Sahaba. So the companions would call him to judge between them, should I discipline himself to say, every Friday, leave me alone?
I need to be with myself. You could not find surely on Jumeirah on the day of Friday, except at the salon, and then he would disappear and he would do his own thing on Friday. And remember Allah subhanaw taala and contemplate and so on so forth, who held him accountable, he held himself accountable. He knew to put that limit on himself. And he does it a whole lot when he takes years away from his dallah years away from scholarship, no one. No one told him to do that.
He knew his he knew his limits, he knew that he reached a particular place. We need to know our own limits. The prophets license at Rahim, Allah emiliana Makoto Ratan FC may Allah have mercy on a man who knows his limits or a woman that knows her limits, you know your you know yourself. I'll give you guys this last story. It's a really interesting one on our bill, how barbital the Allah on when he is the halifa he wants goes and he calls he tells he tells them what to call the
gathered the people in the masjid and what does it usually mean when you're gathering the people in the masjid outside of the time of prayer? With that urgency? What does it mean in that historical context? It means war. All right, someone's attacking, or there's something really urgent, we've got to do something so that the anxiety is high. Everyone's gathering in the messages because almost all the alarms that call everybody to the messages. So they all gather in the Muslim and all metal they allow to and who stands up, he says Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. My name is Omar. I used to be called the Romanian means little Ahmed and I was a barefoot bedwin. They used
to tend to people sheep in the streets of Mecca,
or Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah.
That was his.
He gathered everybody together to tell them that
and I needed the Allah and who looks at him and is like, what did you just do?
Did you really just bring everybody in the messages to make that announcement? So if you guys get a VRC, notification, urgent hold, like 4pm on a Saturday.
And I stand up and do something like that and Don't beat me up all right, don't don't be upset. It's like what did you do? You know what I'm literally alone who said something that the treasures of the oma were coming to me, meaning they were called, you know, collecting this account and the charity and Bates would not in the time of vomit of the Treasury grew and I mean, it was a very successful khilafah. So they said I saw all the ambassadors coming in just how far his Alaska had had extended.
And he said that my knifes myself started to tell me, look at you, Obama. You're a king.
Get You
Started having an internal conversation myself said to me look at you Masha Allah, all these people all this this Treasury this great khilafah so all the law animals that so I wanted to teach my knifes a lesson I
wanted to teach myself a lesson. So it was a declaration of war on his own ego. I wanted to humble myself and that's not easy for you to spell. If you look at our model before Islam, Rama was a proud man. He was a really really really proud man. So that was not easy for him to do. It wasn't funny back then to do something like that. That was that was a big move from him to belittle himself in the eyes of the people, not out of Mashallah You're so humble.
But out of
I know that this is getting out of hand. I need to calm this down. If you saw our model the alarm you would never know that that internal strife was happening. You would just see this beautiful or a Banda this beautiful worship and you would think who's better than almond and hip hop, but Amada saw in himself that and he wanted to cure it. What despite whatever people were seeing, so fight your battles, even if people are not noticing. And sometimes we wait for people to notice their spiritual diseases for us to start taking them on. We should take them on before they reach that level to where they would even become that egregious that people would see them. May Allah subhanaw taala
cure us of Ria of the love of the site of people curious of pride. Never allow us to be swayed by hypocrisy or to be swayed by disobedience. May Allah subhana wa tada never allow our hearts to deviate. Allah subhanho wa Taala keep a sincere and allow us to die as sincere believers may have lost contact make the best of our deeds, the last of them and May Allah make us amongst those who truly love Him and His Messenger, not just those about whom it is said they love Allah and the messenger but those who truly love Allah and His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Lama Ameen questions
already? Go ahead.
All right.
Number one, constantly seek refuge in Allah.
When you start feeling that, look a lot doesn't want us to be depressed people. It's not the goal of the religion a lot doesn't want us to be always in despair, like I can't do right. I can't do you know? It's, I'm in trouble. If I do, I'm in trouble if I don't. I mean, you know, I'm trying to think of the right way to do this normally, right? But you know, whatever I do, I'm in trouble. If I do. If I do good, then I'm doing bad. I'm really doing bad. If I do bad, then I'm doing bad. So what's the point of even striving at this point, unless God doesn't want that from us? A lot. Just want you to be aware. awareness, self awareness goes a long way in the sight of a loss proton.
Right? It really does a lot of sees you with that self awareness and you're constantly trying.
You have a Rob Lord, that is so merciful. So just never let the self awareness go. Like when you stop being uncomfortable with people pushing you forward, that's a problem.
When you're still feeling unworthy, that's a good thing. Because there's a level of self awareness that self awareness is your sip. It's your truthfulness with yourself. It is your loss. It's your sincerity.
When a person still feels genuinely unworthy, and they seek refuge in a law from what the people don't know of them, right, that'll last, I would protect them from that, that lost parents, I would forgive them for the shortcomings that people don't know.
Allies are just a little reward that you have a Lord that is merciful. So practically speaking, if you are called to duty to do something good, you should do it. If the people found you worthy of some goodness, then do it. Thank Allah subhanaw taala for opening the avenue of hype, like think about it this way.
You know, back in the day, again, you didn't have the avenues of of showing off that you have today. There was no social media. Okay. So it wasn't like you know, the unsought and the mohabbatein. Were going on face
Look and try to outdo each other.
Different, okay?
Back then think about the event giving the event could be real.
Especially in that context giving the non Commedia got a beautiful voice. I'll give them and people will hear this beautiful voice of mine, that can be a form of it. Okay, but what are the profits licenses and profits, I'm actually encouraged some level the healthy competition. So it's hip, it's hypocrisy to for example, in that time, to try to make yourselves from those who are in a soften over the first row as a means of showing that, you know, I'm always in the first round, but the Prophet slicin taught us to really fight over a sofinnova to fight over the first row, not physically, but like to really push yourself forward to go, go get it. opportunities of subaqua and
charity, Earth man or the law and who this man the angels felt shy of him.
Or if man made it a point, like, That's mine.
And profit slices announced any avenue of good, I got it. Okay, because he knew that a lot presented him an opportunity opened the door firm, I've got it. But it was not all the allowance and what kept him was his personal self awareness.
And that a bother the worship he did to compensate for that.
You know, actually, this is something so I mentioned this. I think I get I mean, I'm really sorry if you guys hear me over the years say the same thing like 1012 times, and still the same stories, but I've said this before that the first halleck I ever gave on earth man will be it was on earth model nilanjana the first half of my life was actually on earth model d i was so fascinated by this man. And I was thinking to myself, I was like, Can you imagine how much secret charity Earth man gave that we never heard about?
Like the charity we know about is so amazing. Financing entire caravans, the expansion of the Moses wells. Can you imagine how many wells and caravans and things that Earth man did that no one ever heard about?
That only Allah knows about, I can't even begin to fathom that.
Like, we don't know what the height of that Earth man actually did. It'll be a lot of time. I know. We know what was made public to us. That's it. But do you really think a man like that did not have like some super amazing secret charity that people never found out about?
So they govern themselves with those good deeds with those private acts of worship with those private acts of devotion, because they were always self aware. They had that self awareness, a little bucket had a self awareness to where when everybody in the world tells him something about himself. He still views himself as being in the danger zone or might have had that self awareness earthman have that self awareness How do you have that self awareness? I mean, no one got praise like a bucket. But I will bucket all the alarm on who was still doing so much and was still so cautious with himself and worried about himself.
So it's good that you're uncomfortable. When you are called to do good do good. ask Allah for sincerity. Seek refuge in the law for what people don't know about you and try to compensate as well with secret good deeds that they also don't know about you they don't know your sins. They also should not know all of your good deeds. There should also be some things that are just between you in the last part of town
law on uncle brother sister brother sister any sisters
yeah
so the the the narration map from a business roadmap, I mean, man, I mean, on the fact it alarm went off, when a half a whole lot more than that no one fears it. Except for I'm sorry, Matt. Yeah, no one feels safe from hypocrisy except for a hypocrite and no one fears it except for a believer.
What does that mean to fear hypocrisy.
Fearing hypocrisy, the Sahaba did not have a paralyzing paranoia of hypocrisy.
They were still able to go out and do these great things and amazing things because their fear of hypocrisy did not render them paralyzed. It didn't stop them from doing height.
But they were always afraid that they would fall off.
And shavonne really gets you when you're heedless. And you can become heatless by virtue of complacency, like, Okay, I'm doing good. Now. I did it. I'm done. I made Toba in my life. I arrived. I prayed. I do what I'm supposed to do. I'm good Muslim. Everyone seems to be okay with me. I don't do horrible things. I think I'm alright. That's where shavon would pray on you. Because he touches you in complacency, you become heedless in your complacency. So, what this narration is talking about is that the believer is always vigilant
and always afraid of that relationship with a lot being taken.
taken away from them and taken away from them. They're always afraid of the discrepancy. Look, you know, spell I'll give you guys a very a scenario that many of you probably find yourself in Ramadan in particular, you go to someone's house for a thought, you don't usually pray the sin of mclubbe.
But everyone kind of looks around everybody else is doing this. And
so do you just sit there and say, I'm not gonna pray this mother? Because I don't always pray this in them. This would be hypocrisy. No, you pray this enough. And then you tell yourself, you know, I really should do this on my own time now.
Like, I'm uncomfortable with the fact that what drove me in this thought party was the fact that everybody else got up and prayed this enough. That made me uncomfortable, I should really start making an effort to be more regular with it in my own time. So that hypocrisy of discrepancy like, why did I only feel driven? In that context? Why wasn't I driven in my alone time? And how do I start to drive myself in my alone time, feeling safe from hypocrisy is when you say, I'm good. I'm the law. I've arrived and you don't have a self awareness of your faults anymore. And you think you are the you know, that you are everything that you are the model Muslim,
and you start to feel pride in what you do. And when when you're confronted with your sins, you console yourself with your good deeds. You say, Well, at least I don't do the sense that that person does. And at least they do these good deeds that those people don't. So you start to console yourself with those things. So the believer is not paranoid, but the believer has vigilance against hypocrisy. alone. All right.
No, as long as you didn't lie.
Okay, so overselling yourself in the dunya. Like, trying to have a really good resume. Like do not write a resume to a job like I'm a horrible person. I don't pray Pamela,
who is this person, I don't pray at night. And I'm horrible with you know, I'm trying to get better. But like, you would never do that. And you don't have to do that. Just don't lie.
It's so easy to lie. It's apparently it's so easy to lie, Don't lie. don't pursue anything dishonest. It's as simple as that don't lie. Because that that if that quality gets you then it's it'll destroy everything. Where you get comfortable with that with falsifying credentials lying, and that's where it becomes problematic. But sell sell your degree like nobody's business. All right. So this degree is from the greatest university in the world, you know, UTD, or SMU or whatever is better than Harvard.
You know, whatever my GPA is, whatever the title that comes with that, and I was great at this. And I took that, go ahead and sell that as much as you want. All right, but just don't lie.
If you do live, and it's you, I mean, that's sinful.
Will that make your earnings hot on a law item? It depends. A level judge. How much of the earnings came as a result of the lying and what position you got because of that alone?
Alright, sisters, and the sisters.
If not, I'm actually going to come to you.
Yeah.
round the world.
Our first halifa was not violent. Like, well, Becca was not violent, just war. Like he fought a guy that was mutilating people. So we'll buy cattle, the Alon who is a model of ethics and battle, but battles were fought. So yeah, there's no comparison to
go to clean institute.org and click a paper forever on trial. Religion in the charge of violence. It's an awesome awesome paper Michelle. And I didn't write it. All right. So just think guys, I don't want to falsify credentials. That was written by Dr. Nasir Khan him that was reviewed by counterterrorism experts and things of that sort. It's a really, really good
breakdown
of, of the Association of Islam with violence. So again, you go to your teens website go to forever on trial paper called forever on trial
solves your problem. Easy. And the sisters, yeah.
Oh, two garments of falsehood. Their intimate you know, what they mentioned was that it's false hood on the inside and it's false it on the outside. So like if it's the app then you could be disguising something that is telling me sooner hack will bother you you're doing something good, but you close it with falsehood and that your your pursuit of dunya is false.
But if there's nothing under the garment and the garment is fake, the garment is fake and what's under the garment is fake, then it's like wearing two coats of false hood. So the province license that it's a double falsehood, like it's double
the crime of reality, because you didn't even do it in the first place. So you're lying about what you didn't do. So you're getting praised for something you didn't do? So it's that's what he meant by that.
All right.
Who had their hand up first? Which one of you guys alright?
Okay, is it ever good to share your the good that you're doing? It really is, in some situations, like it really is.
So particularly when there is data involved,
like if, you know, if non Muslims want to cover something good that you're doing, then do it, you know, by all means that we could use the positive coverage for our community. Alright, so if you started something good, and you received, you know, you sort of push that and you got recognition and that recognition translates into good for the Dow and good for the demon, then by all means do so. Internally, now the dynamics get a little bit more muddied. Okay? Because a pond can easily convince you that you're doing this to encourage other people, but you know, you're not doing it to encourage other people, you're doing it so that other people can say things about you. And that can
become deeply problematic.
So how do you find a healthy balance? Number one, again, it's self awareness. Like, if you know that I'm doing this so that people can say things about me,
then don't do it. Do the good deed, but don't publicize it. If you feel comfortable enough that you would have done the good deed, whether or not people knew about it, and you really feel like this is something you want to push people towards, then do so this is men semifinished, Nami, pseudoknot, and hasna.
The profit slice I mentioned, whoever starts a good tradition, meaning they get they get the ball rolling, they do something good. And as a result of that, other people start doing that good, then he has the edge over those people as well. So that is not a bad thing, especially when you see something that's dead, amongst the people that needs to be like revived. Like, as soon as that needs to be revived, there's so much hate and reviving us. And,
you know,
somehow one of the things we talked about recently here, for example, is adoption, foster care, it's as soon as that's dead, that needs to be revived. Like I want Muslim families to do it and Muslim families to say we're doing it as a means of telling the community right, this is, uh, this is something we need to pick up as a community and do
the core question becomes the balances. If people don't know about it, will I still do it?
So think the if third parties and Aftermath
if people don't know about it, what I still have done it? If no one ever finds out about it, will I still do it?
If you're not sure about that answer, you don't need to be putting it out there. So you got to have your share of secret deeds and when it comes to those deeds that you're doing to encourage others, you have to ask yourself critically if people would never find out about it, would I still do it for Allah? And if the answer is yes, then dismiss
all right, last question.
Okay, I'll go sister and then back to much the last two questions. Yeah.
You raise your voices
I should have done this helicopter the fundraiser shouldn't I? I just thought about that. You just he just put me on the spot.
Forget everything you heard tonight. I don't remember a Saturday All right.
When Allah subhanaw taala mentioned
means to do charity publicly and privately? Why? Yes, public charity is good to encourage others to give. But your charity should not be exclusively public.
All right, your charity should not be exclusively public. So think of the earth man example, if mom bought the Ola, Juan, I hope a lot gives me the opportunity to go up to them and Jenna and to say, so what else did you do? I actually want to have a conversation with earth model. Delano May Allah grant us they're sorry about their companionship, but like so what else was what other great things that you do that we never heard about? Right? So your charity should have a public element to it, but it should not be exclusively public. So tomorrow,
for the fundraiser,
when you raise your hand and you pledge to get everyone going on, I'm actually being very serious about this for any fundraiser for any good in charity. Let's say you raise your hand for 1000 or you raise your hand for 50,000 or you rate whatever it is that you're going to raise your hand for. add something in on the form
Okay, even if it's $1 I'm serious. This is not a vrsc gimmick here. Flat did not just tell me to say that all right, but um, you know, had a lot you'll be it's beautiful to see that sometimes on the forums come in and like the guy who wrote raises him for 5000 actually wrote 6000 you know, so even if you're going to do the public charity and encourage others even if you put $1 more $5 more $10 just add something to it that you didn't for example, encourage the people publicly with that amount in Charlottetown or just send in your entire amount anonymously, but send it in early so we can announce it and encourage people despite them All right, we're gonna go ahead and and inshallah
please make that for shifting acid shift. Yes, if you're watching, we miss you.
So please make that even though the The office is very comfy for me right now tonight. But cepheus is missed. So make the offers help me lost contact, give him shifa and allow him to be with us in Charlottetown tomorrow and beyond for the rest of Ramadan. I know it pains shift Yasser to not be with us in decaf. So please do keep him in your sometime tonight and you're special. And may Allah subhanaw taala accept this night from us and all over the last 10 nights and all of our Ramadan rpm and rscm and should this be later to the cotterman lost parents how to write it down for us fully? And if it is not May Allah subhanaw taala allow us to observe it And may Allah subhana wa tada