Rania Awaad – Friday Reflections Cognitive Dissonance wCelebrate Mercy

			always wonderful to be with celebrate mercy la Patek faecal Masha Allah the whole entire team may
Allah bless your efforts. I'm so glad that you're continuing these Friday gem series and humbled and
it's really an honor to be here Smilla Rahmanir Rahim was a mala Mala say that Muhammad Ali he was
abused at image nine. Inshallah, we're going to focus today our attention on some of the verses of
solitary calf that you've read again and again multiple times. But sometimes it's good to kind of
take a deep dive, and to look in to some of the verses more closely. And I'm going to introduce a
concept today called cognitive dissonance, which is found in our field of psychology and psychiatry.
		

			And I'm going to slightly tweak that into explaining what it would mean from an Islamic psychology
perspective in sha Allah. Now, the verses I'm going to cover from South Africa start from 103. And
they really speak to this concept that I'm going to share with you in more detail. So let's start
with the first verse at sha Allah and go through the tough cedar explanation and the background
explanation of the verses and then explain what this concept means and we'll do so in more detail.
Now and again, at the break and sha Allah. So we'll start by our the bIllahi min ash shaytani R
rajim.
		

			Sadaqa ramen Rahim Allah subhanaw taala says
		

			Well, * no Nabil can sadena Allah,
		

			O Prophet, shall we inform you have those who will lose the most deeds? Subhan Allah. Take a moment
and look at this for closely with me. Allah subhanaw taala is speaking to the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam, and asking him and saying, shall we tell you about those people who go ahead and
put effort they actually make efforts. But it turns out that their efforts may not actually match
up. And so therefore, they lose deeds that they are expecting actually they put forward and they
should be deeds that they are there should be there waiting for them, for example, on the day of
judgment, but they were not accepted by Allah subhanaw taala.
		

			And here the concept of a sadena armella are those who are the greatest losers in respect to their
deeds, the deeds that they attempted to put forward. The next verse, says Olivia, no one less Are
you home Phil hired dunya Those whose efforts were wasted in this life, meaning they put the efforts
forward but they didn't actually count deeds that were put forward. And let's just take a pause and
think about our day today. Friday human Jamara together, masha Allah, think about everything you've
done so far today. You woke up, I hope the first words on your mouth, right? Is sugar and hemato
Allah subhanaw taala Alhamdulillah he led the Ariana
		

			bow them Atlanta or LA Hain assured Alhamdulillah for the one who brought us back after the smaller
death, right sleep.
		

			And then maybe you went about your day to get ready, maybe ready for work or maybe you have
children, you got them ready for school or maybe you're getting to have elders to take care of or
other business that you need to take care of. And you went about your day rush, rush, rush, rush
different things that we put forward. And whether you are in the service of your family, of the
people in your company or institution, if you work, those who are in your community if you do
community service, we were putting deeds actions forward all day long.
		

			But this verse makes us pause and think about what kind of deeds are actually accepted by Allah
Subhana Allah to Allah and which are not they were deeds put forward. Yes, but were they accepted?
And Levine Albula said Are you hopeful higher the dunya these people are people who put deeds
forward but they did not count they were not in accordance with the way Allah subhanaw taala does
prescribed our actions should be they were not acceptable these actions were not acceptable to Allah
as a bludgeon and you're thinking well they're these are pretty everyday actions right? I get up I
take care of my family I go to school I go to work. What is it that I possibly not doing?
		

			Look at the next verse.
		

			Well homea Cebu Anna and Nahum. Your see no now sunnah.
		

			You're putting these deeds forwards, thinking that you're acquiring good deeds.
		

			Deeds, love accepted by hospitals, Allah Elena. But it turns out that some of these intentions and
some of these actions are not actually accepted by God.
		

			Well, who
		

			Where are these people? And you might be asking yourself, am I what am I one of them? Like why?
Wait, what's going on here? The next verse answers that question. Who can lay the neck fo? B is the
rugby him Molly all
		

			these are the people who deny the eye out of their Lord, the signs of their Lord.
		

			They denied the signs of a law in the world around them. The proofs that he established his oneness,
the truth of the messengers, and they denied the hereafter.
		

			That take a moment with me. And think about, again, your day today. And everything you've done so
far up until today, up until this moment,
		

			all around you reverses our signs Ayat of Allah subhanaw taala
		

			signs of his existence and signs of His Oneness and signs of his dominance and dominion over
everything.
		

			As I was driving today, earlier, on the highway, we live here in the San Francisco Bay Area in
California. It's a beautiful place, Mashallah.
		

			It's a cloudy day today. And we have mountains, in the backdrop of where I live.
		

			The mountains today, the very peaks of the mountains had these beautiful cloud cover today. And the
clouds were like these marshmallows, right? Just just barely touching the tips of the mountaintops.
And it was beautiful. And the sunlight was coming through and between the clouds in the mountains.
And it just sort of took your breath away and you say subpanel, la la la more.
		

			Jen La Jolla, la La Ilaha, Yahoo, y la sharika. It's amazing, that kind of feeling of realizing
seeing literally the signs of Allah subhanaw taala around you to take a moment, just a moment, and
to acknowledge that
		

			to Say Subhan Allah,
		

			to say Alhamdulillah Glory be to God. And thanks be to God, when you kind of take for a moment
		

			and acknowledge that it solidifies that you truly understand and see God's signs and the world
around you the proofs of his existence that nobody could do that nobody can make that beautiful
scenery happen as much as they tried. And I was thinking to myself, all the cars that were driving
through on highway and I thought to myself, how Blessed are we to be people who can actually see the
reality of what's actually in front of us. But how many are so concentrated in their driving, or
I've got to get to work I've got to get to this deadline. Or it may be that they're kind of tuned
into something completely, taking them far away from Allah subhanaw taala maybe a podcast or
		

			listening to or music or whatever it may be that just turns them and turns their heart away from
God. Or simply enough law. Like as though there you ask somebody later maybe both of you drove the
same path and you both park and you both get out of the car and you say Did you see that beautiful
		

			beautiful imagery of that mountain in the clouds what what mountain what clouds come Leffler
completely not even seeing it?
		

			I give this example because it happens so often.
		

			And to be a person who literally remembers Allah subhanaw taala in the small and the big, so that
the other verses of the Quran that talk about that people don't turn to God until they're in some
sort of pain or tribulation or troubles of some sort. And then they're constantly constantly
praying, praying, praying, and when Allah gives them what they need, it's as though nothing
happened. They don't even remember him again.
		

			When you think about these verses on what they're telling us about people who not only don't see the
signs of Allah or they're in a state of heedlessness or overflow, here are people who are denying
the signs of God's existence of saying no, no, no.
		

			The clouds formed because it was, you know, hot yesterday and that was going to rain and I'm gonna
give you the scientific intellectualizing kind of explanation.
		

			And here's a little asila Jen,
		

			telling us, that the people who deny the signs deny his existence Jalla Jalla, who deny the
messengers and deny
		

			the fact and reality and truth that they will meet a law in the day of judgment on the day of
judgment and that they will be judged for their actions, the denying of this,
		

			but denying of this causes so much else of what you do even the mundane
		

			to not have Qubool or acceptance
		

			Think about this for a moment. We read these verses and sort of sick every Friday. We read them off
and but sometimes it takes a moment to really pause and really think about what do they mean? What
is the law telling us here and reminding us, right? Outta it Kalinina kefir will be it rock the
model call, that we don't want to be the people who deny the signs of a law around us and deny the
reality of actually meeting him.
		

			And here, Allah says, kind of in totality, or in summary, of the last four verses, he kind of brings
them together.
		

			And he says Fernando de Mola, homeodomain a PM, it was not right, that on the Day of Resurrection,
on the Day of Judgment, we're not going to assign them or give them or heed them any weights, which
means their balances, right? On the Day of Judgment, that will those balances are not going to be
heavy.
		

			In fact, they may be empty, even though people those people thought that they were coming with all
these good deeds and charity and taking care of others and helping. But some of these things may not
actually have counted if it was done with the denying of Allah subhanaw taala his existence, I think
about this, often, I think about things like philanthropy, you know, being generous in donations,
how many people have donated, but with what intention, if you've donated for a name, or a plaque, or
a building to be named after you. The final year I was in medical school, they renamed the medical
school, some fancy name of a donor. And all of us are like, what? Why would the name of our chain of
		

			our school change? You know, and a wealthy person donated, I don't know that person's intentions,
all I mean, to say, you know, a fancy name on a building, if the point was to do that, as opposed to
a greater good, a greater cause
		

			of being in the service in the worship of Allah subhanaw taala. Than did that actually amount to
anything other than applause in the dunya. And people going congrats, Wow, wonderful, right.
		

			And we remind ourselves that the recognition of a law
		

			outweighs any recognition in the dunya.
		

			And so here SubhanAllah. And taking all these verses, in totality, I'll kind of summarize and pick
up again, on this concept of cognitive dissonance, because these verses remind me heavily of that
concept. What is cognitive dissonance in brief, and then we'll talk about it a little more.
		

			A little more in detail, soon here after the break, inshallah. But it really means that this person
who has a thoughts or behaviors or actions that don't actually align, right, they don't actually
align with
		

			their how it is that they're viewing the world, their worldview around them. So if our worldview as
Muslims is a God centered worldview, our worldview is one in which we understand that Allah created
us and to Him as our his to Him is our return. Then everything we do, including the drive on the
highway, or the taking care of our kids, and getting him ready for school or getting ourselves ready
at work are motivated to do our work and meet our deadlines. All of that has to be in alignment with
the worship of Allah as a witch and and if it's not, if other intentions start to seep in and become
much bigger than the intention of worshiping God for the sake of worshiping God. Then now we live
		

			literally in a dissonance, right? Not just cognitively but also spiritually. So I want to kind of
introduce this concept to you show you how these verses speak very clearly about that. And then we
need to talk about what this means for the believer. Because even us as Muslims, believers, we
sometimes say you ask you say Do you believe when of course I believe that you'd have a long hammer
that awesome hammer.
		

			You know, do you believe in Africa, of course, I believe in the Day of Judgment, right. These are
the signs of Eman, right those of a believer, but then the actions and the behaviors that the person
is exhibiting don't match that belief system. There is a dissonance a discord between them. There is
a discord between somebody who actually is much more dunya oriented, right? And one who is alQaeda
oriented?