Saad Tasleem – Fiqh Of Chilling Free Friday 2 2
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The speakers emphasize the importance of finding the right balance and finding the right way in life, emphasizing the use of the "by the way" concept for finding the right balance. They stress the upcoming class and attendants' attendees, encouraging attendees to register and pay for scholarships and attend.
AI: Summary ©
Brothers we're gonna ask you to sit down please we're gonna start right now. Brothers at the door, guys, please we're gonna start right now.
Under La Plata Mino salado stromer Auto ship, an MBA one listening, who will say, you know Mohammed while earlier he was happy to send everything that he omega we had the heat Iommi. Dean, before we begin this session, I want to ask you guys a question.
And that question is,
what is the purpose of your life? Now I don't I don't want that like the traditional answer the purpose of life is to worship Allah and make it to paradise. I want you to think about this question and ask yourselves, what is the purpose of my life? Why do I do the things that I do? When I get up in the morning? What drives me? Why do I wake up in the morning and go to school? Or whatever I do? What really is the purpose of my life? Right? What drives me on a daily basis? I don't want you to answer this. I don't want you to give me the answers. I just want you to think about this. In childhood out what drives you in life, what is the purpose of your life,
there's a story of a model the LA salon, where Omar went to go see the Prophet salallahu Allah, he was setting them.
And I'm going to come back from some journeys, some travels. And he goes into one of the apartments of the wives of the Prophet, so I send them and when I say apartment, by the way, I know like, we tend to think of apartment as like a one or two bedroom, living room, kitchen, two bathrooms or bathroom. what they meant by apartments back then, and they some narrators mentioned that the apartment or I shall be allowed to Lana was about four feet by six feet. Right like that. That's how big one of the apartments was. And this is why if you if you ever come in where the seller got up during half the night to pray, and every time he would go into such though he would tap the feet of
it shall be allotted on him, they would know why you would tap her feet.
They would know why sisters.
You know, you know why?
Yeah, go ahead.
Right. So because there wasn't enough room, like I said, like the average apartment, one of the wise much of the foster center was about four feet by six feet, because he would need to make sense though, and there wasn't enough room, he would tap the feet of Ayesha and she would pull her feet in. So he would be able to make sense that sister were here, ready.
Okay, so
it's one of those apartments that are modeled the LA Times. That's what he walked into. So he walks into the apartment, and he sees the Prophet sallallahu. I send them laying on a straw mat, and he looks around and there's not much in the room. And then the Prophet sal Allahu Allah seldom gets up. And there are Marcy's marks on the back of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, from sleeping on the straw mat. And then the aroma, he begins to cry. And then the Prophet sallallahu wasallam says to him up, he says, Yeah, Mo Ma, you peek. He says, Omar, what is making you cry? And he says, Oh messenger of Allah. He says, I have come from people like kisaan eisah, the rulers of the Persian
Empire and the Roman Empire. And he said, they have what they have from the dunya. Meaning they have so much from the luxuries of this light. And he says, well, until I saw the law, it says, then you are the Messenger of Allah, meaning if there's anyone who does who deserves the luxuries of this life, it is you. And then the Prophet sallallahu. And you send them says his famous words, to me on the left that I he says Yama, I'm not talking about and Allahumma dunya wa Hara, he says, Omar, aren't you pleased that the dunya is for them. And the US Hara is for us? Right. And the reason why I mentioned this narration is because if you actually look at consumerism or materialism, you'll
notice that the scholars in the past have actually addressed this issue. They've talked about this issue, but they talk about it, under what is known as Herbert dunya, or love of the worldly life. Right. And they've actually they've talked about these things, and they, they've mentioned how it's not it's not a new phenomenon. It's just that now it's become more part of our society, but in reality, people have always desired things from this life.
jadwin Abdullah
he narrates an incident. And I believe this is mentioned in Sahih Muslim, where he says that we are walking with the prophets of Allah who send them. And we came across a dead goat lying on the ground. And he said, this goat it had its ears cut, right. And a goat that has ears cut back in that time, it was it was considered not of much value. Because there were there was an A, there's something wrong with the goat. So people really wouldn't want to buy that goat, right? So he says, we come across this goat its ears or cut, or its ears are short, and it's long on the ground dead. And the Prophet sallallahu sent him says to us, he says, Who of you, which one of you would like to
buy this dead goat? And the companions are surprised and they say they say to them, they say at the outset of law, they said even if this goat was alive, we wouldn't pay anything for it like we wouldn't buy it. And then the Prophet said we'll learn how to sell them says that. He says I swear by Allah, that for Allah, this dunya is worth less than this goat for you guys meaning as you see the value of this goat which is absolutely nothing. This is for Allah azza wa jal, that is the value of this dunya and this is why Allah azza wa jal separated people into two categories. So if you're looking to put on this iron without him on verse 152, Allah azza wa jal says men, Khomeini, the
dunya, woman command you read after that amongst you are those who desire the dunya, the worldly life, and amongst you are those who desire the asset. And what we're talking about here is truly, truly desire. What we're talking about here is making that the purpose of your existence, making that the purpose of why you live, meaning amongst the creation, there are people that deep down in their hearts, the reason why they do the things that they do, right there, their utmost desire is to just have more from this dunya is to try to fulfill their pleasures in this life. And on the other hand, there are people who, yeah, they live in this life, and they may buy things or whatever, but
their end goal, their purpose in life, their heart tells them that in the end, they desire the outcome, they desire the Hereafter, and they will only take from this dunya when it can benefit their asset, all right, the only benefit take from this dunya when in actuality their mind and their heart is attached to the setup.
I wanted to mention to you some of the reasons why we tend to love the dunya. And the reason why I'm mentioning this, is because a lot of times people will think that they'll hear something like this, about loving the dunya or about consumerism. And they'll think that, you know, there's something wrong with them because they desire the dunya in reality, to love the dunya or to desire things from the dunya is absolutely normal, right? we as human beings, we it's normal to desire things within you. So we see that, number one, Allah has created things, things in the dunya to test us, right, it's normal that we feel attracted to these things. It's normal that we desire things from this
life. And this is why Allah azza wa jal says, Do you not unless you have a shot that Allah has beautified for people, the love of their desires, right. So it's normal for a person to want like a nice car, a nice house and things like that. However, somebody who truly desires the ATA min command unit after they understand that this is a test from allies, so again, that when you see all the things around you, you can either devote your life to just wanting those things. Or you can take things in perspective, right? have things in context, where you're like, Okay, I know these things are there for me, right. But in the end of the day, my goal is the AHA. Secondly, what is known as
instant gratification. And that is the fact that us as human beings, we desire things that are in front of us more so than things that are that things that we may get in the future or things that we will get in the future. So if there's something in front of us, we can have it now. We'd rather have that than wait for something later, even if we know that it is a lot better. Right? There was a psychologist, a group of psychologists, they did this test back in the day, I think it was done in the 80s where they
it's called the marshmallow test. They basically tested some, they went to a college campus and they got some college students. They brought them into a room. And they told them, they didn't tell them what they're doing. They said, Listen, here's a marshmallow. You can have this marshmallow now. Or you can wait and they didn't tell them how long they have to wait. They said or you can wait. And if you wait, we'll give you two marshmallows. Okay, and what they found is that most of the people were like, you know what, I don't want to wait for two marshmallows. I don't know when I'm going to get it. Right. I'll just have this one marshmallow. And then later on, somebody did the same
thing with kids and cookies, and they recorded it, and they put it on YouTube. And we have that video inshallah.
By the way, before I play this video, I know this background music channel, we'll discuss the whole issue of music and background music and all that tomorrow, before you send up any questions.
Here's the deal, you're gonna help me with a little experiment. Okay? Okay.
It's your cookie. You can eat it now if you want. But
I come back.
Give you another cookie.
Did you eat it? That's all you get. Okay. Okay, your choice.
I come back.
All right.
Did you wait?
You did it, you got to cookies.
Okay, so that basically is what instant gratification is, right? Where I think all of us I believe everyone in the room is Muslim. So we all understand that paradise, and the pleasures of the setup are far greater or infinitely greater than any single pleasure in this life. However, we tend to give in at times to this done near the pleasures of this life, we tend to make that our goal because it's right in front of us because we have it and it's there. And we're like, Okay, let me just let me just enjoy it because it's in front of me. Right? And this is why part of being in a consumeristic society is having access to things all like right away. So the reality is that us as
reality is that we don't live in a third world country we live in where most of us are fairly, I would say probably middle class or middle upper class or even, you know, we live in come from families and households where if we want something, right if you want to eat something, for example, we don't have to go
out and work for it, we basically have to like, take three steps to the to the refrigerator, open the fridge and take some food out. Right? That's the most work most of us have to do. If we're in our car, we just stopped by.
You guys know 711 here, right? What's an equivalent? What is it? What is it called?
Okay, I'm not going to try to pronounce that.
Hold on
Cousteau. You guys know what that is? Okay. It's like convenience store. Yeah. Okay. So basically, you stopped by there and you buy whatever you need to buy, and you move on, right? Or you stop by Starbucks, or whatever it is. And that is basically that's, that's the type of that's the type of society we live in, where if we want something, we desire something, we buy it right away. Number three,
always wanting more. Right? This consumeristic society where we never feel like we have enough. And this is why Eliza tells us that. So do you do not have the dunya will tell you that you desire the wealth of this world just sort of unfold, verse 87, I believe 67 were alive. So it just says that you desire the things of this life. And Allah desires for you, the author of many, Allah wants for you to have the era that you keep wanting more from this light, right? And that is the test that we are living in. So basically, when you look at these reasons, you realize that it's not abnormal to desire things from this life. However,
it's how you deal with that, right? And that's part of being a Muslim, it's part of struggling with your knifes and your desires. Part of that is that we don't give in to every single desire that we have. Right? Okay, so what are some of the ill effects of loving the dunya? Why is it such a big issue? If we are consumed by the dunya? Why is it such a problem if we have fallen in love with the dunya, and we've made that the purpose of our life, number one, it causes us to fall into sins. Now, the reality is that if we have made the dunya our sole purpose of existence, or that takes priority over everything else, it will also take priority over the obedience of Allah azza wa jal, and that's
why it's dangerous to make that the most important thing in your life. And we're going to talk about how you know, and you'll see, in the end, we're gonna talk about, are you supposed to give up the dunya? altogether, we're not saying you have to give up the dunya. Altogether, what we're talking about is, if you make that your top priority for existing, right, just to have more things, you know, sometimes people will say things like, well, I just want to live a comfortable life. And what they mean by I want to live a comfortable life is I want to be able to afford anything I want. Whenever, right? So if you're if you made the things of this life, buying things, your top priority,
it can become, can become a priority over the obedience of Allah azza wa jal, and that mindset, if a person lives in that mindset, sins become small in their mind, right? They're like, okay, what's the big deal? If I disobey Allah? What's the big deal? If I commit this sin? It's not it's not a big deal. Secondly, is that it can cause a flow, it can cause heat listeners, and that is a point where a person becomes so engrossed into the dunya, that they become oblivious to their real purpose of life. And this is why I asked you in the beginning of this session, to ask yourself, what really is the purpose of your life? Why do you do the things that you do what drives you in life? Right? And
if we're living a type of lifestyle, where we either don't know what the purpose of our life is, or we don't care, that is what is known as hospitalar that's heedlessness? Well, we just everyday day to day, we keep doing the same things. We don't know why we're doing what we do. We just want to make more money to buy more things to think that that is somehow going to satisfy us and that's going to somehow even spiritually, satisfy us. Number three.
One of the problems in becoming engrossed by the dunya is that one will not truly enjoy the remembrance of Allah azza wa jal. There's an ayah in the Quran, this happens to be one of my favorite is and I believe for a lot of people, this is a favorite Ayah for them, where Allah has his origin says, Allah be the karela he of my kulu that it is by the remembrance of Allah, that hearts are going to find rest. Now I once had a brother come up to me, and he was complaining about their his low Eamonn. And he said to me, he said, You know, I'm very ashamed to even ask you this question, but I feel like I need help. I need to talk to somebody about this. I said, Go ahead,
Don't feel shy, ask me whatever you need to ask me. He said, You know, I know a lot. So john tells us in the Quran that by remembering a lot, our hearts are going to find the rest. He said, But when I recite the Koran, when I remember a lot, I don't find that rest. Right. He said, I you know, I read the Koran. He's like I grew up in a household where, you know, I was taught on a young age, he said, I do recite the Quran every once in a while, right? He's like, but I don't find that rust. That llama Nina that that that contentment that a lot.
So we're just talking about, and one of the things that I said to him is in order for you to truly benefit from the Quran, in order for you to truly get rest and contentment from the, from the words of Allah azza wa jal from remembering Allah from making the cup is for your heart to be present when you're making that because that is what is known as for sure, or the presence of your heart, meaning your heart has to be conscious about the remembrance of a lie soldier, you can sit off your saw, say, some handler on the no lock button, like get it out the way and it won't do much for you. Right. And you may think to yourself, Well, I thought a law said that by the remembrance of Allah
will the hearts find rest, if you are conscious of a law, and if your heart is present, and you're thinking about Allah, in that case, you will see that the type of contentment that the words of Allah azzawajal brings you is unmatched. Nothing else will serve that same purpose. And if we are consumed by the dunya, and the dunya, is our purpose of existence, and that's why we do the things that we do, then our heart will not be present in the way that a person who truly understands that they're aiming for the setup, it's a very different experience of making the cup, a person who makes the cup with that state of offer that I was talking about. Their experience is very different than a
person who understands that they're going to go to the opera, and that their goal in life really at the end of the day is to make it a paradise, right and to lead a balanced life that leads you to paradise. And this is why we say one of the problems of being engrossed by the dunya or being in love with a junior where that becomes the purpose of your existence is that even when you're doing a bother, even when you're worshiping Allah, you won't find that contentment and that peace. Number four, the worries and sorrows of this world can consume a person's life. Now a person who only lives for the dunya right a person
Okay, I have a rule my class by the way, I don't mind you having your phones on. It's no problem. If you want to text tweet or whatever, no problem. Actually, I encourage you to tweet.
If you have any gems in the class, just hashtag pick up chillin. However, I don't want to hear your phone. Right. So if I hear your presence of warning ahead of time, I hear your phone class. I'm not responsible for what happens with your phone.
All right. Okay.
What was I saying? What was the last thing I said?
Now? Number four, okay, so if a person if they are if they're if they if their purpose of existence? If is this dunya. And that's what they desire more than anything else. Then when something happens to this dunya it will destroy them. So let's say a person, their goal in life is to own an Audi R eight was useless. No, I'm not saying it's him. We were having
the Audi RA, he asked me what one of my favorite cars was. And I told him was Audi RA, one of my favorite cars. So if a person if that is their purpose of existence, right? And they're like, that's the thing they desire more than anything else in this world, right? They say to themselves, like, Listen, I want that car. So they go, they go to they go to high school, and they go to university and whatever. And they're like, you know, I need to make lots of money. So I can afford that Audi Ra. Finally, when they're like 55, or 60 years old, they're able to buy that Audi or eight or Porsche or whatever car they desire. And then they go to the dealership, they put down the money,
they get the car, they're on their way home, and they get into an accident, right, and it's their fault insurance will cover it, whatever. Now this, this, this incident right here may actually destroy this person, because their whole life was devoted to having this worldly thing. And when Allah azza wa jal tests them in that worldly thing, it can absolutely destroy them. Right? And I know, you know, sometimes we can think of worldly things. And you may you may think yourself, Well, I don't know, I may not be destroyed, this can actually even apply to the people around us. Right? A person who desires or they think that perfect happiness, right, or perfection, we attain in this
life, they look at the people around them, and they make that part of their happy experience. And if something happens to that person, you know, let's say somebody loses a parent, or a sibling, or an uncle or, or a child, right. And to them, it's part of their dunya. They live for this dunya it can destroy,
right? Because that's, that's that they feel like they've lost something, which is a huge part of them, compared to a person who understands that there's an error, right, that in the end of the day, this was this thing that I had whatever thing I spent all this money on, or this person in my life that I love dearly. In the end of the day, this person was a gift from a lot to me, and a lot can take this person away from me at any moment. Right? That's a very different type of lifestyle. These people have two very different outlooks on life and this is why we say person who was engrossed into the dunya, where they're when they're dunya, when there's something happens to their dunya it can
really affect them can really have a really a very bad effect on them. Number five, one
Doesn't get rewarded for the deeds they do. Because the intention is missing. People often don't talk about the intention, oftentimes we we emphasize the physical aspects of obedience to Allah. So we talk about, you know, we'll tell our kids like, Listen, you have to pray, you have to pass, you have to do this, this is this, we often neglect the issue of intentions. And our intentions are almost half of our act of worship. So in order for a lot to accept our a bad our act of worship, we have to do the physical act, but also our intention has to be present. So if we're praying, but we're not praying for the sake of Allah, Allah won't accept this prayer from us, right?
A person who is consumed by the dunya, and they're just praying for the sake of praying, or they're just praying, because, you know, that's just what you do. And as a Muslim that you're supposed to pray. And I guess that's all it is. And you're so consumed by dunya, that you just rush through your prayers, or you rush through whatever option would be the answer that could or whatever you're doing, this is a very unfortunate state to be in, because this person has actually taken the time out to do this act of worship.
And even then they may not get the reward of a law, because their heart was not conscious of a law, they were not doing it for the sake of Allah, they're just doing it for the sake of doing it. Right. And this is one of the I would say this is one of the biggest issues of being consumed by the dunya. Mini for our dunya is our only concern. If that's why we live our life, then we can rush through our ibadah not thinking about why we're praying, who we're praying for, what this means for our adonia what it means for Africa. And at a time like that. We can lose the actual reward of this of this.
And sometimes you see in Ramadan, for example, almost everyone comes out of nowhere, right? Whether you're a religious Muslim or not, people come up with that idea. And they pray. And it's, it's very sad if a person comes to thought, Oh, yeah, they pray like 234 hours or whatever. And you know, they're, they're struggling and their knees are hurting, and they did this.
But they're not doing it for the sake of worship. They're just doing it because it's just what you do. Right? This is a very, very sad state to be in. And this is why it's so important to be conscious of a lot. This is why it's so important not to get consumed by the dunya. Number six oppressing and wronging others becomes easy. If our main purpose in life is just to have more things. If someone comes in our way, and we have to oppress them, then it won't matter. It's not a big deal, right? Do you guys know who?
Let's name the guy, Donald Trump. You guys know Donald Trump is? Yeah, okay. Donald Trump. There was recently like the scandal, I think, was about maybe five, six months ago, where he opened up some factories, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, it was in Africa, if I'm not mistaken. And there's this huge scandal because he kicked some people out of their houses out of their homes. And like he destroyed some villages, because he wanted to build his factory there. Right. And this huge scandal because he's supposed to be like a philanthropist. And they're like, you know, what are you doing cetera, cetera. And then you think to yourself, that if somebody desires, the dunya, and that's
their main concern in life, if somebody comes in their way, they'll have no problem stepping over them, they'll have no problem, oppressing them or wronging them because they're not thinking about the consequences of their actions, the real consequences, which is the opposite, all right, in this life, you may get away with wrong, someone, you may get away with oppressing someone, you may get away with lying to someone, you may get away with cheating someone, you may get away with even harming someone, right, but a person who is conscious of a law, and they're thinking beyond this life beyond the pleasures of this dunya they understand that they their actions have consequences in
the market, that nothing will be left unchecked, right was when they harm somebody, they're gonna have to account for this in the market. Right. And that type of lifestyle, like I said, is very different than somebody consumed by the dunya. If the dunya is your only concern, then it won't matter. It'll be easy to wrong or oppress other people. Number seven, it causes one to not hesitate to sell their religion or to sell their Deen. Now I know the term selling your dream may be like a controversial issue or whatever or controversial statement. But it is true. It does happen. So I example of this would be let's say there's a there's a sister who graduated from college that
Himachal luck. And she goes, she wants to get a job. She wears hijab, she goes, she goes to job market and she realizes that because she wears hijab, it's harder for her to get a job. Right? And because she's like, you know, I really need this job and how this job whatever she says, You decide that I'm gonna take off my job. This is what we're talking about. We say selling your day, meaning you give up a portion of your deen for the sake of your dunya because you want something from this dunya you're willing to give up some of your deen right sides can happen to a brother as well. For example, say brother has a beard and he says to himself, listen, if I shave my beard, right then
I've more chance I better chances of getting a job right?
This is what we're talking about. It says selling your deen if your concern is this dunya is just having more from this dunya having the best job you can have or being able to afford the best things, being able to afford whatever you want. At this point like we said, your religion takes a backseat. And that is that transaction can occur where you where you sell your dunya or you sell your aka for the sake of this dunya number eight it causes one not to hesitate when speaking about Islam without knowledge. A lot of times when people speak about Islam without knowledge, it's it's it can it can become an issue of like their ego. They want to tell someone they know what they're
talking about. And they're not thinking about the consequences of their words in the aka Imam Malik him Allah Allah. He was the Imam of Medina in his time, a man came to visit Imam Malik all the way from Sham, which is the Jordan Palestine area. He came all the way to Medina, there were no cars and buses and trains and stuff like that. So it was a very long journey. him all the way from Xiaomi came to him and he said, I have a question for you. And I need you to answer for him. Is this not a question? And in my mind, he asked him a question. And my mother said, Listen, I don't know the answer to this. However, I will consult the scholars of my area and see if we can come to some type
of answers, come to some kind of conclusion and give an answer come back to me tomorrow. This man comes back to Imam Malik the next day. And Mr. Malik says to him, he says listen, I don't know the answer to that I asked the people, the scholars in our area, and we don't have an answer for you. And this man would come from Sham he says the mathematic he says yeah, it was he couldn't remember. He says yeah, about the license. I have come all the way from shall. He says I've come from a people who told me that you are the most knowledgeable person on earth, meaning there's no one more knowledgeable than you on the face of this planet. What do I go tell them? And my mother got upset.
And he says to me says Go and tell them that Imam Malik said I don't know. Right? And this man says to a mathematic says yeah, ma'am, it's not such a big issue. Right? Just give me an answer. Like it's not a big deal. It's a very light matter. Any my magic system he says this is not a light matter. How did you hurt a loss or didn't say to the Prophet sallallahu. I send them in Sanofi alayka olan tequila, that we are set down upon you a heavy weighty word, meaning it's not a light matter to speak about Islam. This is why my medic would say that when I answer a question regarding Islam, and has been narrowed in on a couple different amounts, you said that I would I would see
myself as standing between heaven and *, right? That's how seriously I took speaking about Islam. And somehow a lot you see the exact opposite of that in our times when a common occurrence is, like let's say there's a gathering of
uncles or, by the way, I use the word uncle's a once in a in a particular place that I want to say where and some uncles came up to me. And they're like, you know, you shouldn't say uncles that's generalizing not all, not all uncle's are the same. And I was like, You know what, you're right. I should have generalized uncles. It's not always uncles, but it can be I will say, elderly gentleman, how about that.
So there's a group of elderly gentleman, right? They're having a gap. They're sitting wherever they're sitting for Chai, or whatever, shy, whatever. And they're in this gathering, there's, there's a lawyer, there's a doctor, there's an engineer, there's an architect, etc. And somebody in this gathering, they say, Listen, I have a medical question. My doctor told me that I need back surgery. What do you guys think? Do you think I really need back surgery? And you'll see that in this gathering, nobody will say anything. None of the elderly gentlemen will say anything. Even the doctor in the gathering won't give us advice, because he's afraid that he might give him the wrong
advice. And if you're in America, he's afraid that you might get sued. Right? So even the doctor will stay quiet. And somebody the doctor, may you actually know the answer. Whenever like, Listen, talk to your doctor, like don't ask me, right? And then somebody in the same gathering, somebody says, I'm thinking about making an addition to my house, should I put a beam here or not? And the architect and engineer, they'll both stay solid, no one will say anything. And then somebody has like a law question. There's a lawyer in in this gathering, and nobody will speak even the lawyer will stay quiet. However, in this same gathering, as soon as somebody says, brings the as soon as
somebody brings up an Islamic issue, right? Somebody needs a fifth opinion, you'll see that the lawyer, the doctor, the engineer, every single person now has an opinion. Right? Why? Why is this discrepancy what it was? What's the reason for this discrepancy? Is because those elderly gentlemen, they value their dunya knowledge more than the aka to them. It's without knowledge when it comes to the dunya. When it comes to Islam. It's like, yeah, I have an opinion here. This is what I've heard. And a lot of times these opinions, they're not even based off of any type of scholarly education. It's just something that they heard or something grew up hearing. Right. And based off of that,
they're giving their answers. And the issue here is that they're taking the deen, very lightly
And one of the things I don't know if you remember, but I think it was a couple months ago, you guys remember when they made that video about the process lm? Remember that whole incident. At that time, one of the reactions, some of the reactions from the Muslims were like they were terrible reaction, they went out, they burned like embassies and they rioted and stuff like that, which is not the way to react to something like that. And a lot of people spoke out against it, saying that that's not how a Muslim is supposed to act. And, and that was great.
during that whole time, I got multiple messages from people. And they said to me, they said, Chuck said, How come you're not saying anything? They're like, shifts, so and so and so and so and so and so they've all spoken out against it. But you haven't said anything? Right? You haven't posted anything? Right? And me, I did that on purpose. And the reason why I did that was because I always tell my students, that it's not necessary to always have an opinion regarding every single thing happening in the world that a Muslim is involved in, right, that it's okay to say I don't know, right. And a lot of times we feel pressured to speak out. And on top of that, there were so many
other people speaking out that there was no really need for me to come out and speak out as well. Right? And this is why I was like, Listen, I need my because I teach that to my students. I want to practice that. And a lot of times we feel pressured to always have an opinion. Well, since you're Muslim, what do you say about this? Since you're Muslim? What do you say about this one Muslim? And this one country somewhere who like abused their spouse? Right? Do you have an opinion regarding that? Or do you have an opinion? And we feel pressured to always speak out? Right, it's okay to say, Listen, I don't know. Like, I don't know what the facts are. I don't know where it is. Just don't
bother me. Right. And this is why a lot of the scholars would say that half of your half of knowledge is saying I don't know, half of your knowledge is knowing when to say I just don't know, right? It's absolutely okay to say I don't know, why do we feel pressured to speak out in defense or for every single thing that happens around the world. And that is that is an issue. That's why I thought it's important to mention here that if we only value like the dunya, we only want to save face, we want to like make sure people know we know what we're talking about and things like that, we won't, we won't think about the author. And really, it's an issue of being a being heedless to
the author and the and the implications of our actions, or implications of speaking out about things and not thinking about how it can affect us, in the US at all.
Okay, also number eight, or number nine, it causes one to love people for the sake of their wealth. Now, this is something that I spoke about a little bit before, but it deals with the issue of how we assign value to people. So like I said before, like, you know, the butler story, I said that we may look at somebody who's rich, or somebody who has money. And just because they have money, we think that they they are they're valuable, right, or you want to be friends with them, or you want to be in their company, etc, etc. In reality, that's not it's not. That's not how we assign value to people. And a person who understands that the person who understands that the aka is more important,
they assign value to people based off of what
their taqwa their piety, right, so you look at somebody and because it probably doesn't matter how cool they are, like how they dress, or it doesn't matter how much money they have, doesn't matter what car they have, doesn't matter how many houses they have. That's not important, right? To us, we look at a person who is pious or somebody who can benefit our Ask somebody who can make us a better person, a better Muslim, we assign value to them in that way. So how do we go about curing the love of the dunya? One of the first things that we can do is to internalize the realities of this life.
What are some of the realities of this life? Number one, the first reality of this life is understanding that this life is temporary, that nothing lasts forever. Right? And this is something that we all understand, but we don't really think about it too much, right? So if you think about the things around you, and if you think about the things that you desire, and the things that you want, if you were to understand that this life is not forever, that your life could end, today, tomorrow, a year from now, 10 years from now, your love for these dunya things will go down, right? And even even like, let's say you are you desire something a lot like you like taking example of the
car, the rate, for example, the Audi RA, if you really desire it, and if you realize that this dunya is short, that you may be on this linear for a long while and how long, maybe another day, maybe five years or 10 years, then you realize that it's not that important to you, right? Sometimes we make we put goals in our minds, we think like that something is really, really important to us. So a person may tell themselves, what's really important to me in life is to get married, have five kids, etc, etc. And they make that like the priority in their life forgetting, right that they may never even be able to own that house in the first place. Right. So that's your goal in life to own a house
and there are people like that where their goal is like this is all I want in life is to have my own house right?
Like the American dream, and you realize if you think to yourself, listen, I don't know how long my life is going to be, your priorities begin to shift at that point, and you realize that your heart becomes less attached to the dunya. The second reality of life is that this dunya is not perfect. No matter how much we try to convince ourselves that this dunya is perfect. It's not perfect. Where's the brother? Who wanted the Galaxy Note? Did you buy it? You bought it right? Is it perfect? Is it like the most perfect phone ever? No, your glasses? Are they absolutely perfect? There's nothing wrong with them.
I mean, are they are they the most perfect thing? That's what you desired in life. And that's the end of it. There's nothing more?
No, that's, that's the reality of anything that that you have in this life. You think about? Sometimes, you know, you hear like foodies talking about food and stuff like that. And they say like, this is the perfect meal ever. If you think of the most perfect meal imaginable, even that meal will not be perfect. Right? If you have it enough times, what's going to happen to it?
You'll get sick of it, right? If you eat a lot of it in one sitting, what's gonna happen?
You're gonna get sick, you're gonna throw up, right? And you're like, No, no, this is not perfect, right? The reality is that things in this life are not perfect. And we tend to get convinced that whatever this thing is that we desire is perfect, until we actually own it. And then we realize it's not perfect, and we start looking for something else, something else that can fill that void in our life. Number three, the third reality of this life is that everything in the end of the day belongs to a law. And on top of that a law can take it away from us at any moment, right. And if you if you understand that fact, then you will be less attached to this dunya you'll be less attached to the
things around you. Even like, like I said, this applies to the material things. It can it can even apply to people, right? So a person who loses somebody, right, somebody in their family dies, and they're very hurt. If they understand that in the end of the day, this person, they belong to a law in not in law, right? Well, in a in a larger own, that Allah, we're returning to Allah and Allah can take this person away from me at any moment, right? And that type of intense love only belongs to our Creator and our Lord, right? Yes, we're supposed to love our parents, and our siblings and our children and our spouses, etc, etc. However, above all of that, we put the love of who,
Allah and one way to attain that love. One way to put your priorities in line is to understand that everything that you own or everything, every person that you have, even the person who you love, immensely, are deeply right person may love their spouse, Ms are deeply that person was given to you by a law, that person was a gift from Allah azza wa jal to you. Secondly, being content with less. And this is something that is the exact opposite of love of the dunya. Right, where we tend to want more and more and more being content with less is being content with the things you have in front of you. Like I said, a lot of us
we tend to live this life, this imaginary life in our heads. So a person may think to themselves that they may have this, this image in the head with like, a one day, I'm gonna live my perfect life. So brother may tell himself, one day, I'm going to be married to this supermodel hijabi sister, and I'm going to have a big house, and I'm going to have a Range Rover and an Audi Ra. And I'm gonna have two and a half kids. And
so it's like this perfect life they have in their head, it's not something that that's in front of them, right? It's this perfect life that they're that they're they spend their their days and their nights living for that perfect life, something that doesn't exist. And the reality is that if this person were be, if you would be able to attain that, like, let's say he finally did marry that gorgeous sister, and he got that house, and he got those cars, and he got the two and a half children. What would happen to that? What would happen to that picture in his in his mind? What would happen?
There would be a new picture, right? At that point, you're like, No, actually, and it'd be something else, right. And that's what happens when we start living for things that we don't have. Right? If you live for the things that are in front of you, you start becoming content with less, you become content immediately, instead of being content with like you tell yourself like once I attain that, and once I own that, once I have that, that's when I'll really be content. And that is that is not true at all. That's not going to happen. If you keep living your life in that dream. You're never going to be content because even when you attain that dream, you're going to want something more,
right? True contentment lies in being content with what's in front of you right now. Number three, realizing that there's no way to completely satisfy your desires, right? This goes back to the issue of perfection. There is no way to completely fulfill your desires. There will
come a time in your life, no matter how much money you've made, no matter how much you have in this dunya that you'll be like, okay, now I have everything that I need. I'm done, right? I don't need to make another set. That's why the Prophet sallallahu Sallam told us that if the children of Adam, the son of Adam, if he was given a valley full of gold, what would he do? He would ask for a second one. And if he was given two valleys full of gold, what would he do? He'd asked for a third one. And I know some of you may be thinking at this point, well, a valley full of gold.
I think I'd be okay with it Valley full of gold. Right. I know, the first time I came across it, I was like, you know, a valley full of gold is a lot of money. That's a lot of gold. I think at that point, I'd be okay. I'd be like, you know what I'm done. Right out of Valley full of gold. The reality is that the prophecies send them is truthful in his speech. The reality is that there are people today who have as much money as a valuable of gold. Is that true or not? Are there people out there who have as much money as a valuable goat? What are they doing with their life right now? making more money, right? They didn't attain that all that money. They're like, Okay, I'm done.
They're chillin at home, they're out there continually making more money, right, like the super rich that are out there that have attained that valuable gold they're make, they're trying to get more, right, because you can never fully fully fulfill those desires, right? If you understand that, that will help you detach yourself from this dunya number four, realizing that in reality, when you're sitting on your deathbed, this dunya will be worth zero to you, you won't care for the things that you attain in this life. When you're sitting on your deathbed, and you're looking back at the life that you lead, and you're looking back at the cars that you own, or the things that you bought, or
wherever you had, you're going to be like all that was worthless means absolutely nothing. There's a scholar by the name of assembla out of the a lot that I'm now he or him Allah to Allah.
He, I would say this, this guy, he was a straight up G. Right? He would not care. He would tell people how it is. He walked into the gathering of the honey for at his time, how old are Rashid? He walked into his gathering. And he saw how to another machine. He walked into the house, he had a cup of water in his hand. And the halifa, the leader of the Muslim that time he was about to drink, this cup is about to take a sip of water. And
he says to him, he says if you allow me, can I say something to you? before you take this sip of water? Right? He says, Okay, I'll allow you go ahead. Ask me what you need to ask me. He says to him, he says, Okay. He says, If right now, you became incapable of taking the sip of water. And I always tell the story, by the way.
After not drinking for about five or 10 minutes, right when I'm speaking, because I'm very thirsty right now. So he says that he says, Listen, if you are not able to take a sip of water, how much money would you give, to be able to take that sip of water? Like how much of your wealth what would you do? What would you give to drink that sip of water? And how to little sheet now he's holding the cup of water. It's like a mole here right now. He says that he says I'll give half of my wealth to be able to drink that sip of water. Right? And then he says, okay, he takes a sip of water.
And he's about to put his cup down. And he says, Yeah, I mean, what meaning he says Oh, leader of unbelievers. He says before you put that cup down, I want to ask you another question. He says to him, if now you became incapable
of releasing that water for your body became incapable of urinating?
What would you give to be able to release that water from your body? And the halifa he says to him, he said I would give all of my wealth for that ability. And then it was a mark after the 35th puts his cup down. How do I know she puts his cup down? He says Kabila he says I asked you about a lot of everything you own right now. And he was using it for he was very rich. He had a lot of wealth. He said as if everything you own right now is worth a single sip of water and the ability to release that from your body. Then why would we chase after this? dunya right. And they say that the honey for her? No, she, at this point started crying his beard became wet with tears. Right? And one of
the was he is of the halifa he's one of those people which is like, how can brown nose person was like, trying to look trying to suck up to the halifa his name was Paul. But he says he's like, hold on, hold on, hold on, because he sees that this statement has had an effect on the halifa. He says he said he says to administer Mac. He says Hold on, hold on. He says isn't the halifa more deserving of isn't a deserving that we think well of him that Allah will forgive all his sins. Right? Because he's so because he's, he's very generous with as well and he's he's a he's a he's a he's a
His adjust leader and so on. So he starts praising the honeypot. And impressum Mark Rahim Allah Tada. Like I said he was in G right? He says the turn he ignores ignores Fallbrook, right, he turns to the halifa. And he says Yamuna remote meaning he says, Remember that when you are in your grave, this man is not going to be there to defend you. Right? He says in your grave, all you're going to have is your deeds. Right? That's all you're going to have. And then he turns to probably says aspirin, you have other. He said, it is the right of the halifa upon you that you'd be amongst his good deeds, and not amongst his bad deeds. Right. And that's why I said, it was some muck behind
mahalo, Tara was what a G a straight up G or Hey, mahalo Tada. And in the end of the day, when we're sitting on our deathbed, you know, psychologists call that moment, when you look back, you're sitting on your deathbed, and you look back at things you did in life, and what you spent your life doing it what you spent your life doing. And they call that the moment the big oops, right? where you're sitting there or whatever, 40 5080 what, however old you are you sitting on your deathbed, you're about to die, and you're like, why did I spend my whole life just trying to buy a house? or Why did I spend my whole life just trying to be more comfortable? Like what was my life all about?
What was the purpose of my life? Right? And that is the reality of this dunya that is the true worth of our dunya number five, putting forward the love of Allah before everything else. That is how you care, the love of the dunya. Right. And this is something which doesn't happen overnight. And this is not the impression I'm trying to give to you. Everything that we've mentioned today is the issue of struggling with yourself. Right? It's not an issue of either you're one of those people who is in love with the dunya or not, right? Our life as a Muslim, we believe that our life is a test for us, and that we constantly struggle. And in that struggle, we are being obedient to Allah and we are in
worship of Allah azza wa jal, right, so when we say something like, Listen, put the love of Allah as ga above everything else, this is something that takes work. This is part of our email. And we have to struggle with that on a daily basis. Number six, thinking about the pleasures of the afra, as a prophet sallallahu Sallam would say, Allahu Allah, Asia, in the Asian era, that there is no true pleasure, except the pleasure of the asker. And a lot of times, you know, we fall under that category that that I that I mentioned to Jeb, it'll be a lot that
you brought up hieratic madonia, that you have exhausted all your pleasures in this life, meaning, we think that it's it's in this life, that we're going to be able to get all our pleasures, and we stopped thinking about the setup. And we stopped thinking about the fact that true pleasure lies in the Acela right that perfection lies in the chakra, that we are truly, truly going to have everything that we desire, we're truly going to be content with with things only in the era, and not in this life number not number seven,
pushing oneself to be patient over the love of the dunya. Right, that is what it requires from us. And that's, that's, that's why I put this at the end. Meaning it's something that we have to be patient with something we have to struggle with on a daily basis, the moment we stop being conscious, that's when it's problematic. The moment we're like, Yeah, I know, whatever we just get, like I said that that work, watch and spend treadmill, once we find ourselves in that treadmill, and we stopped thinking about life, we stopped thinking about that purpose. And I'm actually curious to hear when was the last time you actually thought about that fat? Right? I know, as a Muslim, we
understand our purposes to worship a lot and make it to the alpha and make it a paradise. But when was the last time you sat down, actually contemplate and ponder that question of what really is the purpose of my life? Why do I think why do I do the things that I do? And this is why number seven, pushing yourself to be patient over the love of the dunya. Now, before I end, today's session, inshallah Tada. One of the things that I mentioned for, and I think I mentioned at the when the world changed event was that, for me, this class is not a class that I prepared in like a month, or it wasn't a cost that I just prepared immediately. This is a topic that I've been thinking about,
and working on, since the very first day that I started practicing Islam, or I would say, since the very first day that actually accepted Islam. For those of you who don't know, I wasn't I was born in a Muslim household. And my parents were Muslim, but I was I wasn't really a practicing Muslim. I would pray sometimes I would say maybe God, maybe eight sometimes on the I didn't really pray. And if you were to ask me, so people ask me, like, did you believe in God back then? My answer is, I don't really know. Because I never really asked myself. And that's the that's the state of hoffler that I was talking about him he listeners. So if I think back to that time, my life I don't even
really consider myself was right, because there was nothing there was like a cultural as part of my culture to be listed. And it's when I accepted Islam. It's I started my journey of finding that balance. And people often asked me, like, what was that one moment where you made that change in your life? We actually accepted Islam.
Or what made you change from living the life that you lived in to actually becoming a practicing Muslim or submitting to a lie zone. And I tell people that wasn't it wasn't one thing that caused me to change. However, there was one moment where I made that decision that I need to, I need to, I need to fill the spiritual void, right that I can't cover up the spiritual void simply by trying to have fun or simply by just like buying more things or have more fun Zinnia that's not going to cut it. Right and that there was a single moment. And that moment was actually it was a time in my life. I actually went to a concert with some of my friends. And at that concert, something happened which
changed my life, and inshallah Tada. Tomorrow. I'm going to tell you exactly what that was in sha Allah Tada. So I look forward to inshallah, seeing all of you
for I look forward to seeing all of you inshallah, tada the rest of the weekend. Like I said, this is a journey that we're gonna take.
We're gonna inshallah tada have spiritual highs in this class, we're gonna take this journey where we do find that balance. We talked about love the dunya. Today, we talked about consumerism and materialism. That's one extreme. There's another extreme, which is people who say that, listen, you have to abandon the dunya altogether. Basically, you have to live like a monk, you have to, you know, not buy anything and just isolate yourself and live a lifestyle where you're completely detached from the dunya. Right. And that's the other extreme. That's why that's what we're going to discuss tomorrow is are you supposed to abandon the dunya altogether? Alright, we find that balance
will lead to see you all tomorrow morning. 10am.
Okay, so once again, guys all starts Judo stay seated.
And please remain quiet for two more minutes. registrations are open. Now for those once again, who didn't pay or are not interested to pay and join the class. You could go see them also, we're gonna have registration tomorrow morning. Some brothers were asking if you have to pay now the answer is no. As long as you go register, just so we could get our numbers right. Go register and you could pay it tomorrow morning when you come inshallah. So that's it for registration tomorrow. Also the location, it's not going to be at Concordia University. It's in some of the classes going to be hosted by MSA Dawson. We're gonna have it at Dawson college.
The location will the address is mezzaluna across wood. And for those who are going to come by metro stop at Atwater. That's the green line.
We want to end with just saying something like that. I must say Concordia, for us, right? Yeah, the room The room is five v 16.
Five v 16. I repeat so that's metal nerd and wood. The parking lot is there. It's $5 for the whole day on weekends. And there's another one on Alex's neon. So I want to thank MSA Concordia for hosting the free Friday's look I'm looking at him Allah reward you. Also guys, please do not be late tomorrow and tomorrow we're planning to start at 10 Exactly. So if you guys could show up like for those who are going to come show up before 10 that would be appreciated. which Allah we're going to pray a shot right now like in two minutes, inshallah we're going to pray and also anyone who would like to donate for scholarships, go see registrations and
and yeah, for the class inshallah. Come and find out what trench chef's adds life tomorrow. We're I don't think we're gonna have class in the next two years. So for those who are here right now, did not register, come and learn from that class. It's gonna benefit you. There's not a lot of theory in it, but there's a lot of practical
Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of practicality. So inshallah it's going to help us change and find the balance in our life. Zakouma locked out. Don't forget tomorrow. Dawson is up. We're lucky