Omar Suleiman – Neglected Blessings and Unique Opportunities of the Coronavirus

			So now when he goes into labor cuts everyone I hope you're all doing well know him the mouse or
someone else would allow me he was like the woman welder. So I just walked back from the masjid from
the Valley Ranch Islamic Center, and pretty surreal to see the parking lot empty on Jamal, handler
it's amazing how these things change so quickly for us, right and this idea of
		

			the quick sudden change of fortune, you know the prophets I seldom used to seek refuge in Allah
subhanaw taala and anxiety negativity from the sudden turn of events, the sudden turn of fortunes
and blessings. And it's very humbling for us to be in this situation. We ask Allah subhana wa tada
to protect everyone. We ask Allah subhanaw taala to accept the intention for the good deeds that we
had planned to do. We ask Allah subhana wa to write them down for us fully. We ask Allah that this
Juma prayer that we had hoped to fulfill today, that Allah subhanho wa Taala write it down for us
without any deficiency whatsoever. In its reward, we ask Allah subhanaw taala to forgive us for our
		

			inability. We ask Allah that everyone that had planned to do on that Allah accepts a full nominal
from them. We asked the last panel to honor that everyone that wishes to be able to have a
successful Ramadan that allows parents Allah grant them that when they say Allah been living out on
the lawn of Allah allow us to see more land, we ask the last parameter to grant the Neo Hajj for
everyone from now that intends to do it, we ask a lot to give them the full name of hedge the full
intention of hedge rewarded to them. We asked the last pentatonic to have mercy on any of our
brothers and sisters that pass away anywhere that allows parents to grant them Shahada, we ask a
		

			loss hunter to protect our elderly, we ask Allah subhanaw taala to use us in the service of those
who are already vulnerable, but now be more vulnerable. As a result of this, we ask a loss parents
to replace the losses of everybody financially, emotionally, whatever it may be with something
greater in this life and the next 11. I mean, with that being said, and I'll probably make this. In
the end, what I wanted to do was,
		

			you know, allow for us an opportunity to at least go through some of the perspective and Subhanallah
the title of the event that I have, is actually the one that I was intending to give, which was the
things we took for granted. And I had imagined giving this hotel but in the messages write about how
this might be our last time being able to do Juma here for some time, right? Or what if a loss
penalty doesn't allow us to have total week prayer here.
		

			And here I am doing this in my home office right now. So
		

			I want to connect a few things for us, inshallah Tada. And just to note from now, and I'll repeat
this again, this is not a replacement for Juma, so please pray your prayer for it is complete. Okay.
This is just sharing what I had hoped to share with the multiple inshallah and to give that
spiritual reminder, that test can show all the time that we were looking for,
		

			perhaps in German, as a reminder, and jomar supposed to be reminder. So I want to start with this
point, a loss of kind of what to add up, has all of these things that are destined for us that
essentially flatten all sorts of difference in terms of status, in terms of health, in terms of
wealth, in terms of whatever it may be the ultimate, the ultimate equalizer is death, right? Because
when we die, it doesn't matter what we had in this world, it doesn't matter what's put on top of our
graves. Ultimately, we all reside inside of our graves, and our status is taken away from us. Our
wealth is taken away from us, the praise of people is taken away from us, all of that is taken away
		

			from us. So it's the great equalizer, right? And that it puts us all in the exact same situation.
before death, there are all sorts of disproportionality that exists. And people have blessings that
are readily available to them that they take for granted. So for example, you know, I talked about
this last year so Pamela and a lot of people have probably forgotten with everything going on. We
are exactly one year away from the Christchurch massacre, the massacre of our brothers and sisters
in Christ Church. And I remember that being one of the heaviest Jumanji that I've given here. And
then of course, I was on a plane that same next day, to Christchurch to New Zealand.
		

			And I remember the Hulk but from last year, which was that why did the Christchurch massacre shake
us up so much man was trying to grant all of them Shahada and melanosomes uncomfort their families.
Why did that? Why did that shake us so much? It shook us for many reasons. One of them was that a
lot of us who live in relatively safe
		

			countries who live in easy circumstances and situations, you know, we've we've never had the thought
in our minds of a bunch of people being killed in the masjid or having to fear
		

			Their lives going to the masses. However, there are a lot of people that have gone out to their
massage or their attempted to go out to massages in Syria and the verses are in India right now
right at the time last year this wasn't the situation sees how how things have changed the Oilers,
so many different people who did not have the opportunity to go out to Jamaat and safety already
that would have to worry about bombs falling on them. You hear about, you know, a bombing and a
mess, and nothing is done so frequently, right are in Iraq, and these places that have been
forgotten Syria, it live, you look at the massage of the destroyed, you know, pulpits
		

			and the minarets, where people are calling out to a loss penalty. These were things that were very
usual for them, right where it was hard for them to go to the masjid and then Christ Church happened
last year. And there was this element of this isn't supposed to happen in New Zealand. This isn't
supposed to happen in a safe country. This isn't supposed to happen in a Western nation. And a lot
of us started to feel like,
		

			you know, we were left out, right, we were left out. And Subhanallah you know, that happened.
Christchurch happened and suddenly an element of safety was taken away from us. And now you have to
worry about this in the master, our worst nightmare had come true.
		

			So what did that do it equalize things to an extent we're still not getting anywhere in the West,
we're still not because anywhere in the West, we're still not what's happening in India, or weavers
anywhere here, right. But the that that vulnerability, a new vulnerability had been added to us and
taken and took away something from us that before we had taken for granted, right, which was that we
could go to our mosques in peace, we could go to our massages in peace. Those of you that are from
other faith communities, you could go to your places of worship and peace, right, like and then all
of these different things happened. Right. And suddenly, we don't have that anymore. Safety was
		

			taken away from us, or at least the the peace of mind of assured safety, right? hamdulillah we were
still so much safer than different people, but the peace of mind of assured safety was taken away
from us.
		

			The idea of going to Oman or Hajj. So you you go to the next thing, right, if you live in a country
and you have the means and your country is not restricted by quota, you don't have to worry about
being at a certain age to be able to go to Andhra Hajj planning Hajin Allah is a scheduling thing
for you, right? saving some money and scheduling, right? But you don't imagine not being able to get
a visa, especially if you have, you know, the right passport, or you have the right economic status.
And so how long now that's being taken away. You know, the, the thing that doesn't necessarily have
to have a, you know,
		

			you know, a particular type of status, but it was just something we used to do all the time, being
able to go to the masjid, being able to say soleimani come to one another, being able to smile at
one another, being able to, to pray with one another.
		

			Title, we have prayer, right, who would have thought we have prayer right would be taken away from
us. And so the point is, dear brothers and sisters, that these are things that we used to take for
granted. And Ramadan is meant to be able to give us an appreciation for blessings that we often take
for granted, right? When Ramadan comes. It's, it causes us to deprive ourselves of blessings that we
regularly consume on a daily basis, right, so that we can have a greater appreciation for those
blessings. So it's a lesson for us in the midst of having some of this taken away from us to think
about those blessings and to say and have the love for them. So that hopefully, you know in the
		

			nighttime as soon as possible when we get back to our ways of life, when we get back to our worship
our congregations, our communal activities, that we can appreciate them once again, right that we
can we can really revel in them. Like think about how much now we're thinking about today. Right?
And so in a previous normal blonde, maybe I would have got lazy I would have said well, it's that
Ramadan dip right now.
		

			You know, I wasn't able to go to total week or I just didn't feel like you're dragging my feet to
the masjid. Now, now, I have something right. If I get to do Tada, we may Allah allow us to have as
normal of an online as possible. Right? If I get it, we're gonna value that total. We're so much
more now. Maybe if I used to drag my feet to john, right and how you know, for how I had a man at
four years old, really broke my heart. He said that I hadn't missed the gym on 60 years not for
travel or sickness. Can you imagine that? 60 years you do the math of how many Jumana is that is
right? 60 years, he's never missed the jumar and he just doesn't know how to come to terms with
		

			being at home right now. Because it's just so unheard of. And you know, it's so inconceivable for
him those people that would get there before the end to make sure that the angels registered them.
Right because the profits license I mentioned the angels roll book that closes when the man says
cinematical. How are we going to be the next time
		

			jamara opens up to us in Charlottetown. And we're able to go back to our joumana salon a loss
parents are allowed that to be sooner rather than later. I mean, a lot allow us to take that now
with with with a greater degree of reverence, right, the ability to go and the ability to do these
things with ease. How many people that wanted to go to aroma or hygiene or people that have their
heads in limbo? Now, what if a loss of Hannah Montana opens that up for you, right, so
		

			increase your near right now, increase your intention right now be grateful to Allah subhanaw taala
for all that he allowed us to do, that we took for granted that other parts of the Muslim Ummah did
not have available to them in terms of just a Bada, that now we're having to come to terms with and
use that to propel you, and Chatelet Tada, not just through this to look forward to when that gets
restored back to normalcy, but they're not atana. But use that to give you a greater appreciation
for when it comes. So that's the first thing. Second thing is that obviously when equalizers come,
it gives us an opportunity to develop empathy. And empathy is all about developing empathy is an act
		

			of worship. And anytime you have an opportunity to feel what other people are feeling,
		

			it's a chance to not just appreciate the blessing that you had, but to activate you towards making
sure that others have that blessing on a normal basis as well. So the increase of empathy is special
in these moments, right? How do we increase our empathy, thinking about our brothers and sisters
that that, you know, have have lived through devastating circumstances you're at home praying
germana or you know, not praying, Jim, I gotta keep on clarifying. You're at home praying.
		

			I'm at home praying today, I don't have to worry about a bomb falling on my house right now. Right?
And I pray that that doesn't become the case. So that shouldn't just make me go home to the law, I
don't have to worry about things that other people have to worry about. It should make me think, you
know, how do I how do I work make your app for and work for those people that do have to worry about
those types of things. Right? So the increase of empathy is, is very bad in and of itself. It's an
act of worship, in and of itself. So there is the equalizer, there is the empathy and developing
that empathy. And then the next two things that come after that naturally sugar, it is gratitude.
		

			Allah subhana wa tada says, well, in Shackleton, let as the Dominican if you are grateful, I will
increase you. Right now, people, you know, some people are going to be focused on thinking about the
things that they've lost out on, right? Oh, I can't do this anymore. I can't do that anymore. You
know, I'm not going to be able to go to this gathering, or I had this special plan, right? Spring
Break plans, I had the plan to be with this amount of family, you know, instead of thinking about
those things that you don't have, or that you've lost out on, saying hamdulillah See, and
hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah, all praises and thanks and glory or to Allah for what we still have,
		

			right? The privileges that we still have, if you know the Hadith of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam, and ossabaw whoever wakes up with a roof over their heads laugh and he just at the end,
and with with no major health issues, and a meal for the day, then that person is like a person who
has the entire world. I mean, you're like a king at that point, or a queen, right? It's like you
have everything in the world that you need, say hamdulillah be grateful to Allah Subhana time, now's
the time to intensely focus on those blessings, not to not to think about the things that we're
missing out on. Think about those blessings. Let that gratitude increase and let that gratitude give
		

			you the perspective that's going to be needed in sha Allah, tada to power you through these moments.
So equals the equalizer of sickness. Right. And somehow a lot you see now heads of state, right,
that are not spared from sickness, sickness makes no distinction, just like death makes no
distinction. Empathy, right? The growth of empathy, the growth of gratitude. The fourth one, the
growth of service, the people that are already vulnerable have just been made more vulnerable,
right. So the homeless that already had to worry about not having a roof top over their heads, now
have to worry about getting this disease and no one even knowing about it, no one coming to their
		

			aid, not even knowing how to get tested. People that never had to worry about homelessness, because
they were making their check, right? They were getting their hourly wages, they were able to make it
day by day, are now thinking about what it would be like to be homeless, our elderly population have
to think about things that they did not have to think about before. Those of us that care for them
have to think about things that that we might not have thought about before. Sugar is not just meant
to make you gratitude is not just meant to make you say and come to delight it's meant to activate
you towards works of hand works of gratitude as a double the work of family of David acts of
		

			gratitude. So right now we should be thinking about what are some things we can do especially as
this you know,
		

			draws out. What are some unique service oriented projects that we can develop in Charlottetown in
our communities, in our, you know, in our places of worship, through our organizations, through our
through our groups, and Chatelet, to Ana to where we're taking care of those that are really, really
going to suffer even more in these moments? And for those of you that are in that category, may
Allah subhanaw taala help you and may Allah Subhana, to allow us to be of help to you. Right, I know
that there are probably some of you that are watching this right now. That are those people that are
having to worry about if you can make rent if you can, do you know your basic things. Next month,
		

			May Allah help you and may last panel to allow us to come to your aid, and activate those of us who
don't have the dire situation that you might have to be able to be in your service, but in the
nighttime, so let's think about service in Charlottetown and how we activate ourselves towards
service. And then the last thing the spiritual opportunities that we now have in front of us that we
did not necessarily have before, you know, anyone who's taken a class I taught this class on
mussulman has a class have been learning Mandarin Kodama, Rahim, Allah to Allah, which is a book of
spirituality summarizes a summary of the deen by the Members, I owe him a lot of time. And it's
		

			really interesting because I was reflecting on the breakdown of, of how they broke down the idea of
the worship that comes the unique opportunities of worship that come with being around people, and
the unique opportunities of worship that come with solitude. And they talked about the unique sins
that come with being around people, and the unique sins that can happen in solitude. Right. So they
actually broke down the idea of mixing with the people and the idea of
		

			spiritual solitude, right? And what happens in those two. So let's start with the sins right?
		

			Typically, people that spend a lot of time alone, right shavon can can offer some sense to you,
right, that you could do you know, when you're when you're all by yourself, and that's what the
prophets lie Selim said, when he was asked him, How do you fulfill them about surf homeland, I also
like to explain or to describe them and ethopian to describe the hypocrites, and they are the people
that either huddled Manhattan in LA when they're alone with the prohibitions, right? The harm, that
they consume those forms of *. So be very, very smart about how you, you you conduct yourself
very, very careful about not letting shape on take advantage of your idle time, right, take
		

			advantage of your alone time. The second thing, in terms of the sense of being alone,
		

			you know, is that when we're alone, now, we're not really alone.
		

			Because we still have these, right, so so Pamela, I mean, you could engage in so many sins right
now, in terms of in terms of social media, just sitting around, you could waste your time watching
things, you could waste your time, you know, going through all of this stuff, and you could waste
your time getting involved in our ever, you know, our ever never ending community fitten and drama,
that all happened in the sphere of online, right? Don't do things that are going to be against you.
And this time now that you have alone and you're sitting on your phone and whatever it is, and you
can you can engage in so much how I'm watching how I'm engaging, how I'm typing how I'm
		

			following up, just try to make sure that you don't use this time for yourself inshallah on it to be
sinful, right. And the unique element of this social media part of this is that it gives us access
to since and it gives us access to good so think about the other side of this inshallah, how can I
listen to more lectures now? How can I How can I grow my grow my knowledge,
		

			you know, my knowledge base now that I have some time in Charlottetown? How can I engage some of the
helpful things that are online and shall have time, right, so using that as well? The potential for
reading an amount of capital and every single day? What is your width? How much are you going to
read every day? You know, we're about to get into the that Run, run up to that till Ramadan, where
we start talking about you know, don't wait until Ramadan to start reading Hold on, right? Get used
to the poor and inshallah Well, now you have a lot more time to read more. And so think about how
you can develop your width develop your daily recitation from now, how much Salawat are you doing?
		

			On the Prophet sallallahu wasallam it's the day of nine Friday. How much are you increasing Salawat
reading sweated calf just because you're not going to Juma doesn't mean that the sooner reading in
calf is gone. reached with a calf today. Make sure that you don't let this Friday go without you
finishing sorted calf. Right. do those things. Now. The Union
		

			opportunities of individually bother that you have and avoid the individual. The sins that have now
been more easily accessible to you, you've got a lot more time on your hands now you could go
through these things online with these devices and things of that sort. Spend more time on the
opportunities that you have a victory of remembrance of recitation, less time on the more
opportunity now you have to kill time by killing your heart with more sins that you would not do if
you were busy out there, and doing other things. And, you know, adding to that, if you're with your
family now, so Pamela, and those of you that, that are going to have to go through this quarantine
		

			for the most part, without many people around you may Allah subhanaw taala help you realize, oh,
john, fill your, your your alone time with, with great spiritual and emotional fulfillment. Those of
us who have families around us, our spouses, our children, our parents, those types of things, you
know, people around us that we typically don't give enough attention to, that we don't give enough
time to the Prophet sallallahu wasallam taught us that in every moment that we spend with our
families, whether it's a moment of intimacy between spouses, or a moment of eating together, or a
moment of playing with our children, or a moment of serving our parents, which is actually number
		

			one, right? Every one of those moments is a unique opportunity very about that as a unique
opportunity of worship. And we spend so much time in the hustle and bustle of life that we we
neglect people in our lives, right? This is an opportunity to reconnect and shall let's honor to
reconnect strongly with the people that are around us that were never well that are supposed to be
around us. But you know, we don't spend enough time with so use that as a unique opportunity in sha
Allah Tada. And the last thing that I'll say here
		

			is what the prophet sallallahu wasallam said as you're thinking about prayer, prayer, prayer,
prayer, right, and the congregational prayer, you know, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said, Don't
turn your homes into graveyards. Don't turn your homes into graveyards, leave some of your prayer
for your homes. What that means is that typically speaking, even though we pray, felled and maktabah
that which is written upon us in the messages, the prophets lie, some encouraged us to pray our sin
as at home to prayer pm at home to pray as much as we can at home. Okay.
		

			Why so that we could have that proper balance to where our sincerity is not compromised in the
process of our public acts of good and the prophets Isom warned us not to turn our homes into
graveyards to leave some of our prayers for the home. If there was any time where we could get
regular with our son is now regular with our regular with our 200 regular with our prayers regular
with it all inshallah time, and find a way to do this at home now. without someone watching us
without someone said, just just to find a way to pray in solitude to find a way to pray with our
families or by ourselves and to enjoy the sweetness of that prayer. Whether it's at night or during
		

			the day, just in our homes. What a great reward that would be. And if you look at the prophets lie,
Selim, you know, I know that a lot of people are thinking about how we were not just thinking about
Ramadan, we're not just think about jomar we're thinking about selling we I know Tada, we have on
our minds. If you think about total we write in particular, remember that the prophets myself only
prayed total, we have prayer in Jamaica in Congregation for the first few nights of Ramadan, and
then the Prophet slice and I'm starting to pray at home. Because the prophets lie some was worried
that people would tack it on to the obligations of the religion. And so it totally is literally just
		

			another word for pm for the night prayer in Ramadan. And the US have the default of all night prayer
is that it's better at home. Instead of in congregation today. We're being the exception because of
the idea accordingly, even some of the schools of thought even in Ramadan, praying Tada, we had home
is more affordable. But the idea of keeping the mustards full and the idea of how we push each other
more when we're praying in total, we're right, we're likely to pray longer. When we're in gym, or
when we're in congregation, we're likely to finish the poll. And when we're in congregation, we're
just more likely to hit our goals in terms of length. And so you know, if someone was to say what's
		

			the reward or the benefit of praying at home, versus praying in the masjid that night in Ramadan,
the breaker the tiebreaker between those two You know, when you remove Phillip from the equation to
get the technical answer is, well, if you were going to spend 15 minutes praying totally at home,
and an hour praying in the masjid, then the hour wins every time. You know what, switch it up,
switch it up. Right now, we have a chance to establish a regimen of night prayer at home. And, you
know, maybe some people I know you guys are gonna miss the fundraisers and Ramadan. Don't worry, we
will still
		

			fundraising and we'll just bring that online and shall let's add, but you're not going to have
people pestering you at night. Maybe if we don't have the typical regimen with people that are
standing up at night and asking you for salsa, who's who's removing the opportunity for salsa from
you a normal blonde who's taking that away from you that opportunity for charity? Right? Of course,
you can still do charity if in fact it makes it more sincere. So we have to recognize that as
difficult as the concept of isolation can be. Isolation was what the Imam Hassan Busey Rahim, Allah
said, was was was the tranquility of the pious predecessors on Earth. It's what the pious actually
		

			looked for they longed for solitude, they longed for long moments of solitude, where they could stay
in that form of they could stay in that form of remembrance, stay in the form of excelling and
exceeding the next goals that they set for themselves in terms of their personal rainbow dots in
terms of their personal acts of worship. You know, and making sure that that's only for Allah
because no one else was around as they were taking that next step, and that next step, and that next
step, so you have opportunities for that you have opportunities for worship, that are, you know,
very, very specific to the time and, you know, with the, with the way that we're kind of, you know,
		

			life is pausing on the outside, or eba that should increase our acts of worship should increase
inshallah, use that time wisely, inshallah, tada, use that time alone, to do special things to
connect to the one who never leaves you whether you're quarantined, or whether you are in the
mustard or whether you're at work, use that time to really connect deeply with the loss of Hannah
Montana. And, and and immerse yourself in that time, enjoy that unique spiritual opportunity that
you have right now. inshallah, tada, it's a special time for you, you know, flip it in terms of
perspective. So we asked Allah subhanaw taala, to allow us to increase our closeness to him in these
		

			moments. Again, I just want to emphasize that those of you that are struggling even further, may
Allah subhanaw taala be at your aid medalist, to help you activate us to be with you may allow us to
increase us and empathy and gratitude and service and worship and spirituality and perspective and
unite our hearts. May Allah subhanaw taala allow this to be a moment where we can all come together
as a community with this equalizer of sickness and illness, may Allah subhanho wa Taala allow us to
see each other in a different light not just to connect to him in a different way, but to see each
other in a different light inshallah Tada, so your graduates your your your difficulties, remove
		

			those inshallah Tada, anything that reminds us of death. You know, remember, when Kobe Bryant died,
a lot of people were not happy that Why are there so why is there so much emphasis on death and
somehow my opinion done beyond just all of the elements of that anything that helps us remember, the
equalizer of death, more is a good thing for us if we're productive with it, right? Because it helps
us live our lives better and it helps us long for the hereafter more. So all of that is good in
Charlottetown if it makes us think more and it makes us do more inshallah Tada. So use this as an
opportunity to be reminded, inshallah tada tomorrow we're going to be if you follow yaqeen Institute
		

			for Islamic research if you if you like the page, you'll see some information on a webinar that
we'll be hosting tomorrow inshallah Tada, sister Satoshi salon Sr najwa our than myself to talk
about specifically spirituality anxiety and practicality in these times in Charlottetown. So it will
be at 1pm Central tomorrow in Charlotte, Tana and you can look out for the information that we'll
put here as well as on those pages. And again, you know, I pray that Eliza Joe, purify us of our
sins through these moments and lost parents or allow us to achieve the next level in our spiritual
potential. inshallah Todd will be regularly doing different activities, events are not events,
		

			activities, so you got to change the terminology and activities, webinars, lectures, whatever
whatever we can do in Charlottetown to stay connected in this time and to stay reminding each other
with beneficial reminders inshallah we'll try our best to to move forward over the next period I
don't want to say weeks or months
		

			because Allah knows how long this is going to be but we'll try our best to be with you all inshallah
Tata and try to connect and try to give us that spiritual thrust necessary with the month of Ramadan
ahead of us. A lot of them have been living out on Milan alone with a living animal bone, a lot of
other living animal and they lost out allow us to all see Ramadan, and to be forgiven through
Ramadan and to elevate ourselves and this is all done more than any normal dog before a loss of
hands out, protect our elderly, a loss of support our vulnerable May Allah subhanaw taala use us for
them May Allah subhana wa Taala replace all of our losses with things that are better in this life
		

			and the next May Allah subhana wa tada allow us to increase and rebound in our halwa and our moments
of alone time, more so more so even than when we do so in our social gatherings. May Allah subhanaw
taala protect our massages may Eliza return us to
		

			His houses as soon as possible, a loss of Hannah Montana allowed this virus to subside as quickly as
possible, protect everyone from its harm a loss of hundreds and allow our brothers and sisters
wherever they may be, who passed away due to this debt to be counted amongst the Shahada and the
loss of parents I'd be pleased with the Shahadat from Christ Church that we lost a year ago and
comfort their families in this difficult time as the one year comes around. And may Allah subhanho
wa Taala allow us to develop perspective and to act in accordance with that perspective. In these
times a lot, I mean, again, a reminder pray for records this was not clipped with the joumana this
		

			was the reminder that I plan to share for clip with the Juma zachman little heightened to all of you
for tuning in, I hope inshallah to have to see you next week at Juma itself in Charlottetown. So now
when I come when I come to LA, he will go to council