Omar Suleiman – Ramadan 2017 – Late Night Reflections
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the book Whath You K owed, which focuses on spirituality and the benefits of not doing a book this year. They stress the dangerous of false predictions, the use of false teaching in media, and the potential for false prophets. They emphasize the importance of seeking help for sinful behavior, avoiding advertisements, and showing one's weaknesses and successes. They stress the need for individuals to have their own values and live according to their culture, acknowledging and embracing their limitations, and listening to their limitations and successes.
AI: Summary ©
Haman hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah Karim Allah Annie or Samuel salam to Seaman cathedra.
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. And I 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 Tulsa. Manhattan concert 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 Charlotte to Atlanta and one of my favorite books of all time, is actually not it's just a bunch of disconnected thoughts. By an imam Abdullah claim, Rahim Allah Tada and it's called it fell out. So I've never claimed 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 fly, 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 saying from Lebanon claim and I'll reflect on a saint for a minute I am. Maybe I'll jump to Tijuana Shafi, the poetry of the mama Shafi Rahim Allah just take a poem, 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 Charlotte's 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 no, I am Rahim Allah to Allah
says that I heard my teacher say Does anyone know who had no claims teacher was
held on students
whose most famous teacher even Tamia Rahim, Allah Taj syphilis Ahmed Samia Rahim Allah so He said that Carla summer to shuttle Islam and Tamia Rahim Allah code, karma and the higher on NAS al Ambia. The in the short run NAS mentorship the hubby him be him mineral kava Bean. 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 prophet hood, 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 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 Salam Jesus peace be upon him, right, who speaks for Jesus after a Saudi his Salam. Okay, so who takes the mantle and gets to be the voice of Christ after a Saudi has Salam is raised by Allah subhanho wa taala. In you know, in what we know, Allah subhanaw taala but Allah Allah, Allah, Allah saving him from the persecution of his enemies who gets to speak for Christ, in the case of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam. While he was still alive, he received a letter from a very prominent false prophet. And this false prophet really had the the potential to read
Really corrupt Islam for us. So anyone who that is
a man by the name of mill Salem will say nama Alka Maceda muda liar musei Lama had his own Quran. I mean he was really ready to go he had his own Quran 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, NAMA has a lot going for him just in terms of prominence and position. He wasn't very good at authoring his Quran. His Quran was always about food. All right, seriously. Everything he used to author in his Quran was food with some stuff, 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 prophets of Allah Islam, he sends a letter to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, from Musella, mad the Messenger of Allah to Muhammad 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 and 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 zakaah 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 Abu Bakr Radi Allahu anhu, and had it not been for Abu Bakar. Seriously, Abu Bakar not just supporting the prophets lie some in his life, but maintaining the position of the prophets lie some in his death, had it not been for Abu Bakr, taking a very stern stance against the Muslim ummah fighting was Satan crushing the revolt of Muslimah when even Omdurman Cotabato, the Allahu taala, and 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 influence and all those
types of things and abdicated the law and 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 the father of Quran that were killed in the battle with machinima. That the that the idea came to actually compile the Quran, and so one must have because all of the people that had memorized it, or so many of them were dying, right? So it's a dangerous false prophet. So that's 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 is 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 that are tangents. But you guys can remember this right? After Hurricane Katrina. One of we took care of a pastor and some 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? I
said, he's a prophet. And he actually gave me shahada to Nagoya, he gave me a certificate that said, from Prophet Elijah, to Prophet almost dilemma, and 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 unabIe. And I'm not claiming to be a prophet in any connotation. We're talking about a Nabhi. And the prophets I said, I mentioned that there would be several false prophets that would come after when we see the havoc that that caused in the Ummah even till today false prophets that arise that start cults and that really wreak havoc on the the
profit sighs I'm setting another Hadith by the way. He said that the worst of people are those that either killed a prophet Katana and RB o Putana, who Nabhi it's an authentic hadith very interesting. The worst person is the one who kills his prophet 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 prophets nice and um, he only killed one man, who was that
a man by the name of obey of no caliph,
obey have been Honnef who who swore that he would kill the prophets lie some came out the prophets lie some in battle, spit up the Prophet slice I'm a fierce enemy of the Prophet sighs Allah and the messenger Allah His Salatu was Salam. When he swore that he would kill the prophets lie. Some of the prophets lie some swore that he would instead be killed by his hand, and the messenger either his sloth was not in the battle. He threw a spear at him as he was charging
And the prophesy son was already badly wounded and the spear just caught his neck from the side.
And he started to scream and said patella knee Mohammed Catellani Mohammed Catellani Mohammed Mohammed killed me Mohammed killed me Muhammad killed me and they were saying son, 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. Patel any Muhammad the Prophet slice and them killed me. And that's when the prophets lie. Some said the worst of people are those that kill a prophet or are killed by their prophet, Musa alayhis salam is sent to a people and they attempt to kill him or he kills them. Okay, or ISA Ali salah, who tried to kill her isa it has set up 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 missing that's the worst person that you're killed by your prophet, or you kill your prophets. Okay. So, anyway, what's the point of this message again? He says come on the Hydra NASS al MBR. He said, just like the best of human beings are the prophets. He served fitnah shuttle and NAS mentorship the hubby him mineral cat minicabee. He said the worst of people are those who would imitate or pretend to be prophets from the liars. He says what they're under home in home while a summoned 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 NASCI BARDA home he said the best of people after the prophets are Allah Ma was shahada was said the corn when murkily soon and the Rila MA The scholars was shahada, the martyrs was the gone, those who are truthful, truthful both in word and deed. Well, mostly soon and people who are sincere. So again, the best of people after the prophets are Allah ma, shahada, a Sadiq Khan, and hopefully soon, he said, we're in the shop where Nancy Manta shut by hubby him.
And he said, and the worst people are those who imitate them.
Well, who are they summon him, but he is not truly amongst them. Okay, so he claims there are no minimum while ASAM in whom 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 prophets, the worst of people are those who claim to be prophets and are not actually prophets. 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 have sincerity that covers everybody, right? And in the sense that this is
something that is capable, that that everyone is capable of attaining, either loss or sip, 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 is shahada martyrs uncertain situations are an amount people study and 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 alayhi wa sallam says in a hadith from a snap into a bucket all the Allahu Taala Anna call a limiter shall be Urbina, la mujer Allah Tala busy Thal basil Animoto Shapiro be Nullam Europa, Kala busy fo basil, 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 falsehood. Okay, so let's talk about this and what this means for us for a moment. And sha Allah, Allah, Allah, and what we can take from this. If you look at the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and what he dealt with, and what the Prophet salallahu Salam warned of most, the messenger it his salatu 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
of things, but I have enough of a sincerity with Allah subhanho wa taala. 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,
the Sahaba start to hit him with shoes and curse 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 shape on 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. And 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 Allah and 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 size, some about his habit, by the way, so it's not like he's trying to hide it. And, you know, I'm 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 haram. 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 lie. Selim 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 Mushrikeen fighting off these enemies, this brave warrior amongst the Muslim 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 Abu Bakr and Omar on Earth, man and Annie are looking at them and they say, that guy is a guy in Jannah.
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 Allah and His Messenger doesn't say about that man that, you know, he is a good man, but you know, go reminds him of Allah. You know what he says? But who a phenom says that man is going to *.
Allah conclusively that man is a man from hellfire.
How does this make sense? The drunk so Javi
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 Allah and His messenger. And the prophets lie some saying 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 the bed that when they when they are counting the casualties, they saw that at some point in the battle, he suffered a wounds 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 Subhanallah we actually have no idea what his name is none of the narrations as the other 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 most active 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.
Liquid 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 lie some so these people would never suffer twice. They would see their place in Jannah at the first hit, when they are struck for the right away they see their place in Jannah when tassa vana Ladino cootie roofie sobre la Mata, but 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 on, what a great person and this and this, if you're not even around to hear it,
think about that, 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, subhanAllah think about them, the alum the rhythm, ah,
the scholars,
what are thoughts will MBR the inheritors of the prophets, those people that don't just know narrations about Allah, they know Allah.
They're not just aalim be Alchemilla knowledgeable in the rulings of Allah. They are knowledgeable about Allah. They don't just quote the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they live the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Relena what efforts will MBR 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 subhanahu Tirana, but so that you could gain some sort of station from the people of the love and Massoud or the Allahu taala. And who narrates and this hadith is metaphor to the prophets like 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 Lastly, for delay, he will join us to turn the heads of the people towards them to turn people's faces towards them.
The second one the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, to shame the ignorant, some people like to shame the ignorant. They love to be able to talk down with people in a room. Tell someone that they don't know what they're talking about. to shame an ignorant person. Number three, the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentions that a person likes to argue with the scholars.
So this person seeks
out of RIA and G dal and kibble 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 Muhammad Rahim Allah Allah He narrated, he was asked about visited half year old the Allahu Taala annual bisher happy Rahim Allah was someone that was knowledgeable but he wasn't as knowledgeable as the great Imams and Imam Muhammad 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. Imam Muhammad 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 in the mind Yaksha Allah him and everybody Hiller Elena, those who truly have all of Allah are people of knowledge. So he prays, 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 than 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 going to seek your enemy you need to seek it for Allah subhanho wa Taala seek it for Allah. The goal of knowledge is to become knowledgeable of Allah not to be called One who is knowledgeable about Allah subhanaw taala the goal of Allah is to become knowledgeable about Allah subhanaw taala
so Shepherd is summoned 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 on the martyrs. 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 Ramadan and one of the hottest 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 aren't doing it for Allah 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, Subhan Allah one of the things that the scholar has mentioned, Caleb is he fell basil, and watershed
there will be Madame Jana Titus, the prophets, like some said, someone who poses
or proclaim something or portray 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 early Emraan, you have born 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, and 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. All 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 over selling 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 so juicy, he's praying in the masjid and 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 his Salah he goes and I'm fasting too. All right. So
that's a little bit No, that didn't happen in Valley Ranch mess with not that I know of at least okay.
But what happens when you oversell yourself and Dean How do you you know some how about the extent that the Sahaba if you look at the Companions there's a narration site so I hate Muslim where I was sorry, the lottery or the Allah and was talking to some of the companions and he's asking them he 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
stead that that people might think because he said that, that he was praying with 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 as he was talking to his friends that they thought when he said that, that he was praying the AMOLED the implication is that well, 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, do 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 that, 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 bloom, I need to work on these shortcomings.
And ask Allah to forgive me and trust in Allah's 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. So to Halakha for dunya 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 Allah's 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
haram. That's actually, you know, subhanAllah 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 Subhanallah 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 Allah subhanaw taala when you've tried to fight something on your own, and you haven't been able to overcome it, and you want Allah's 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 visa beat Allah said how sincere is that person in the sight of Allah and I was like, somehow 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 Allah 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 floss. 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 your fellow and they love to be praised, even for things they don't do.
You want people to make incorrect assumptions about yourself.
With 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 the reality. Yeah, 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 Hadith and in these narrations, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam 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
Do 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 berates you and you smile and you put your head down and you you're so sunnah about it. You know, you just show such grace as that person is insulting you. But 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 on, 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 Sunnah. 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 you were better at controlling your temper. That's not sincerity. That's not sunnah. 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, um, 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 subpoena, 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 you're 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 Allah subhanaw taala 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 masjid, all of a sudden, you started sitting in all the Hala cos. 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 subhanaw taala you want to pursue it for the right reasons. That's good. That's practice. That's aspirational. That's something that Allah subhanaw taala looks at with pleasure. You start volunteering around the masjid all the time and you're doing great things around the masjid for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala and someone sees you and thinks, wow, what a what a lightning rod Masha Allah Tabata, Allah 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 Allah Subhana Allah Tala.
So on a practical level, you know, and again, what we'll do in these in these nights is just reflect on one of these sayings from a firewall or from the Diwan of a Shafi 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.
In it's but not have it in the dunya but not have the dunya
to where Subhanallah you are with yourself. You are with Allah subhanaw taala your heart is with Allah subhanaw taala 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 shouldn't
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 subhanaw taala. And that's a really, really filthy trick.
Don't pursue knowledge. Why? Because you're going to 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 Allah subhanaw taala 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 shape on 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. And, you know, somehow I just think the sincerity of some of these are enough 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 bad.
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 Sheree, he'll call the shura 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 Sheree on Joomla on the day of Friday, except at the Salah, 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 Imam Al Ghazali Rahim Allah when he takes years away from his dalla years away from scholarship, no one, no one told him to do that.
He knew his he knew his limits, he knew that he had reached a particular place. We need to know our own limits. The Prophet Seisen said Rahim Allah Imran anima Cotulla Tennessee may Allah have mercy on a man who knows his limits are 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 their beautiful thought but all the Allahu Anhu and he has the Khalifa he wants goes and he calls he tells he tells them what to call the Athan. Gather 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 masjid because almost all the law and as I call everybody to the masjid, so they all gather in the masjid and all model they allow Tada annual stands up. And he says Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. My name is Omar. I used to be called the romaine, which means little Omar and I was a barefoot bedwin. They used to tend to people sheep in the streets of Mecca. Wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah.
That was his hotspot.
He gathered everybody together to tell them that
an ideal the Allahu Anhu looks at him and is like, what did you just do?
Did you really just bring everybody in the Missouri to make that announcement? So if you guys get a VRSC, notification, urgent hold up like 4pm on a Saturday,
and I stand up and do something like that and don't beat me up. Alright, don't don't be upset. It's like, what did you do? And you know what, I'm literally alone who said, so said that the treasures of the OMA were coming to me, meaning they were, you know, collecting the car and the charity and Bates Wood Man in the time of ometer the Treasury grew and I mean, it was a very successful Khilafah. So he said I saw all the ambassadors coming and just how far his laughter had had extended.
And he said that my knifes myself started to tell me look at you, Obama. You're a king.
Look at 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 on what are the Allahu Anhu said so I wanted to teach my neffs 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 know Subhanallah if you look at Amata before Islam, Muhammad 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 yourself humble.
But out of
that, I know that this is getting out of hand. I need to calm this down. If you saw our model the Allahu Anhu you would never know that that internal strife was happening you would just see this beautiful or iba this beautiful worship and you would think who's better than honorable footballer, but amount of saw and 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 our 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 subhanaw taala never allow our hearts to deviate. May Allah Subhana Allah to Allah keep a sincere and allow us to die as sincere believers May Allah Subhana Allah 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 Amin questions
only go ahead
right
I don't really want to get to that
how do we
number one, constantly seek refuge in Allah.
When you start feeling that, look, Allah doesn't want us to be depressed people. It's not the goal of the religion. Allah 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. And I'm a lot 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? Allah subhanaw taala doesn't want that from us. Allah just want you to be aware. Awareness, self awareness goes a long way in the sight of Allah
subhanaw taala. Right. It really does. Allah 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 floss, it's your sincerity.
When a person still feels genuinely unworthy and they seek refuge in Allah from what the people don't know of them,
right that Allah subhanaw taala would protect them from that that Allah's parents, I would forgive them for the shortcomings that people don't know.
Allah azza wa jal will 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 higher like think about it this way.
You know, back in the day, again, you didn't have the avenues of video of showing off that you have today. There was no social media. Okay. So it wasn't like you know, the unsalted the MaHA Jadine. Were going on face
Looking trying to outdo each other,
different, okay?
Back then think about the event giving the event could be react.
Especially in that context giving the Adan could be react, I've got a beautiful voice, I'll give you them and people will hear this beautiful voice of mine that can be a form of reality. Okay, but what did the prophets lie some prophets lie some of them actually encourage some level of a 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 slice and taught us to really fight over a buffalo to fight over the first row, not physically but like to really push yourself forward to go, go get it. opportunities
of sadaqa and charity, Earth man or the Allah and who this man the angels felt shy of him.
Or if man made it a point, like, that's mine.
When Prophet slice announced any avenue of good, I got it. Okay, because he knew that Allah presented him an opportunity opened the door for him, I've got it. But it was modeled the allowed time and what kept him what's his personal self awareness?
And they're a bother the worship he did to compensate for that.
You know, actually, this isn't 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 Hallock I ever gave on Earth man will be it was on earth model on the lawn on the first half of my life was actually on Earth model the I was so fascinated by his 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 mercy of wells, can you imagine how many wells and caravans and things that Earthman 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 for those private acts of devotion, because they were always self aware. They had that self awareness, a 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 Amara had that self awareness Earth man had that self awareness it had that self awareness. I mean, no one got praised like a bucket bubble bucket all the alignment 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 and Allah 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 and Allah subhanaw taala
Alana, Uncle brother sister, brother sister any sisters
Yeah.
So the the narration from Ben Masaru I mean, I mean, on the fact it alarm went off, when a half a holy law movement 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 that except for a believer.
What does that mean to fear hypocrisy.
Fearing hypocrisy, the Sahaba did not have a paralyzing paranoia of hypocrisy.
Like 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 shaitan 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 that I made Toba in my life. I arrived. I pray. I do what I'm supposed to do. I'm a 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 prey on you. Because he catches 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 too
taken away from them or taken away from them. They're always afraid of the discrepancy. luckiness panel I'll give you guys a very a scenario that many of you probably find yourself in. In Ramadan in particular, you go to someone's house for a thought. You don't usually pray the Sunnah of McRib.
But everyone kind of looks around and everybody else is doing this in mclubbe.
So do you just sit there and say, I'm not going to pray this another marketer because I don't always pray this in no matter what. And this would be hypocrisy. No, you pray this enough markup, 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 hamdulillah I've arrived and you don't have a self awareness of your faults anymore. And you think you 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 sins that that person does. And at least I 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 is vigilance against hypocrisy alone. All right.
Now, 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 to Milena like what do you
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. Subhanallah it's so easy to lie, don't lie. Don't pursue anything dishonestly. 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, then 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 it 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 to go ahead and sell that as much as you want. Alright, but just don't lie.
If you do lie, then it's you. I mean, that's sinful.
Will that make your earnings haram? Allah Allah? It depends. Allah will judge how much of the earnings came as a result of the lying and what position you got because of that allowed him
alright sisters and sisters.
If not, I'm actually going to come to you
yeah,
around the world now.
Our first, Khalifa was not violent, like Becca was not violent, just war like he fought a guy that was mutilating people. So I will buy cattle the Allahu Anhu 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 and the charge of violence. It's an awesome awesome paper Mashallah. And I didn't write it. Alright, so just so you guys know, I don't want to falsify credentials. That was written by Dr. Nasir Han ham 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 fiends website go to forever on trial and paper called forever on trial.
It solves your problem easy. And the sisters Yeah.
Oh, two garments of falsehood, their elements, you know, what they mentioned was that it's falsehood on the inside, and it's falsehood on the outside. So like, if it's the app, then you could be disguising something that is totally soon unhackable about what you're doing something good, but you clothe it with falsehood, and that your your pursuit of dunya is falsehood.
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 falsehood. So the prophets lie. Some said, it's Double Falsehood, like it's double
the crime of React, 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, so when I got?
Okay, is it ever good to share the good that you're doing? It really is, in some situations, like it really is.
So particularly when there was doubt 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, right? 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 downline good for the team, then, then by all means, do so. Internally, now the dynamics get a little bit more muddied. Okay. Because Shavon 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, than do so this is Manson Neff, Islami, Sunette and hasna.
The prophets 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 of 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 a sunnah that needs to be revived. There's so much height and reviving us in
you know.
Subhanallah one of the things we talked about recently here, for example, was adoption, foster care, it's a sunnah 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 Alright, this is a 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 Iftar party so NAFTA Mark,
if people don't know about it, would 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 Bismillah
All right, last question.
Okay, I'll go sister and then back to match the last two questions yeah
can you raise your voices
oh
I should have done this helicopter the fundraiser shouldn't I? I just thought about that. You just you just put me on the spot.
Forget everything you heard tonight. And remember a Saturday All right.
When Allah subhanaw taala meant
Since 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 while the Allahu Anhu. I hope Allah gives me the opportunity to go up to him and Jana and to say, so what else did you do? I actually want to have a conversation with Earth, Manuel Delano, may Allah grant us their story about their companionship, but like so what else was, what other great things did 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, Nam, 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 viic gimmick here flad did not just tell me to say that all right, but um, you know, subhanAllah you'll be it's beautiful to see that sometimes when the forms 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 shipping asset if 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 chef yes is Mr. will make the art for his health may Allah's parents I'd give him she thought and allow him to be with us inshallah Tada tomorrow and beyond for the rest of Ramadan. I know it pains shift Yasser to not be with us in Naira decaf. So please do keep him in your sometime tonight you're special. And may Allah subhanaw taala accept this night from us and all of the last 10 nights and all of our Ramadan rpm and RSCM and should this be later to the cutter may las Panatela write it down for us fully. And if it is not May Allah subhanaw taala allow us to observe it and may Allah
subhanaw taala