Rania Awaad – Lessons from Taif

Rania Awaad
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The speaker discusses the difficulty of understanding people and their emotions during difficult situations. They also talk about the Prophet's message about staying in thought for a little bit longer and the importance of not turning back. The speaker emphasizes the need for people to be self-sufficient and not feel like they need to do things on their own.

AI: Summary ©

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			When we talk about difficulty, people think, well
		
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			how is ease with difficulty?
		
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			Because it's not after difficulty comes ease, it's
		
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			literally what?
		
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			Ma'a.
		
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			It's with.
		
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			Literally tucked into the difficulty is your ease.
		
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			But sometimes you can't see it right away.
		
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			And sometimes that ease isn't the thing itself,
		
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			but rather circumstances around it.
		
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			People, individuals, resources.
		
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			Just the ability to deal with something heavy
		
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			emotionally.
		
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			All of these are forms of yusra.
		
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			Right?
		
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			And so look at the Prophet ﷺ in
		
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			this year of prolonged sadness and difficulty.
		
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			What happens after the death of the uncle
		
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			and in the backdrop of this economic boycott,
		
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			the Prophet ﷺ says, well, I have distant
		
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			family that's in Ta'if.
		
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			I no longer have protection of Quraish.
		
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			And they're not going to be listening to
		
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			me.
		
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			The people that are, you know, the important
		
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			people of Quraish are no longer listening to
		
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			me.
		
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			So why don't I try another set of
		
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			distant family members and another tribe altogether?
		
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			Maybe they'll listen.
		
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			So he literally walks.
		
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			And here you have the Prophet ﷺ head
		
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			over there and he starts his da'wah.
		
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			He starts to call people to Islam.
		
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			He's got very specific, the heads of the
		
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			tribe that he wants to reach one by
		
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			one.
		
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			And he goes to them one by one.
		
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			You know what they say to him?
		
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			One person says to him, what?
		
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			Your Allah couldn't find someone better than you
		
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			to send us?
		
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			Someone else says, if you really are the
		
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			Prophet, then I'll be cursed.
		
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			Right?
		
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			The next person says, don't even try to
		
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			talk to me.
		
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			Basically, each one of them kicks him out.
		
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			Each one of them in turn kicks him
		
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			out.
		
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			And so he decides, despite all of this
		
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			pain, right?
		
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			Of people being very humiliating him.
		
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			He decides to stay in thought for a
		
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			little bit longer.
		
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			Why?
		
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			He says, well, let me give the da
		
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			'wah to the common people.
		
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			Right?
		
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			Their leaders don't want to listen.
		
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			Maybe the commoners will listen.
		
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			And then they started to actually be interested
		
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			in what is this message of Islam?
		
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			Do you know what happens next?
		
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			The leaders get wind of the fact that
		
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			the people are getting interested in Islam.
		
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			So what do they do?
		
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			They literally drive him out of thought.
		
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			And they literally pick up stones and pelt
		
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			him with this so much so that literally
		
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			he starts to bleed.
		
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			It said that his heels were so *
		
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			from this incident of so many stones hitting
		
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			him that his foot is sticking into his
		
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			sandal because of the blood.
		
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			And you know, when you're when you're targeted
		
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			like this, you're so humiliated like this.
		
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			He said, I lost track of where I
		
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			was.
		
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			Can you imagine?
		
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			You're being driven out and being pelted and
		
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			pelted with stones and you're bleeding and you're
		
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			kind of a little bit confused where you
		
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			are.
		
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			He said, I did not even know where
		
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			I was until he got to a specific
		
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			orchard.
		
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			SubhanAllah, where is the yusra tucked into the
		
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			usr here?
		
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			He's sitting in an orchard and the orchard
		
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			belongs to people who are technically enemies, right?
		
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			But he's sitting there and the people see
		
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			him and he's bleeding.
		
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			And so they said they sent their servant
		
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			to him and they said, give him some
		
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			grapes from the orchard.
		
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			I never told you orchards, right?
		
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			So when he's offered these grapes, he says,
		
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			bismillah.
		
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			And the servant who listens to this, he
		
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			says, who taught you to say this?
		
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			And he says, I'm a prophet of God.
		
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			I'm taught this the way Allah has taught
		
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			the prophets.
		
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			And so he says, the servant says, I
		
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			haven't heard anyone in these words.
		
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			And he said, I too, I'm a descendant
		
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			of Sayyidina Yunus and I'm a prophet just
		
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			like the prophet Yunus and we are both
		
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			given a message from the same God.
		
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			Do you know that that servant right there
		
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			took his shahada and became a Muslim?
		
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			People don't know some of the little finer
		
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			details, but that was, he hoped for Ta
		
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			'if to become Muslim, but he had this
		
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			one person and he said with this one
		
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			person, it was the weight of that entire
		
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			current city.
		
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			And you think about had that whole city
		
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			been annihilated, there wouldn't have been those believers
		
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			today.
		
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			But let's go back to our story.
		
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			Here's the prophet.
		
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			He's had what?
		
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			Multiple losses, one after another.
		
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			Why do I share this?
		
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			Because when you think about the discussion on
		
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			mental health and you think about person's well
		
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			-being and mental wellness, we turn first to
		
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			the prophet.
		
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			What is it that we don't see?
		
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			We don't see somebody turning after some difficulty,
		
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			turning against Allah.
		
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			We don't see somebody saying, why me?
		
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			We don't see somebody saying, I can do
		
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			this completely on my own.
		
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			That last point is very important.
		
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			And he had his community and he went
		
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			and tried to seek out support from the
		
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			leaders who wouldn't listen to him, but he
		
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			was trying because he knew that you don't
		
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			do this alone.
		
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			See, today we have a little bit of
		
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			a trouble with this.
		
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			A lot of us believe that we can
		
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			do things completely on our own.
		
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			We think that we need to be self
		
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			-sufficient.
		
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			We need to be able to wipe away
		
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			our own tears.
		
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			And in fact, we maybe shouldn't even have
		
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			tears in the first place.
		
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			And that's just simply not the message of
		
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			our prophet or the prophets of the Quran.